Poker Face

Luke dashed across the deadly-silent forest at the peak of its darkness.

The only source of light in this pitch-black landscape was Luke's lantern.

He had a wind blade ready in his right hand, ready to kill any Gleems that he ran into. But so far, he hasn't run into any, as he left the house only minutes ago.

'I haven't seen any Gleems so far. Not that I'm complaining...'

If, by chance, he ran into the huge bird-like creature, he'd be sure to run away as fast as he could.

'Oh, I think I can see one!'

Dashing towards a Gleem, he launched a wind blade at it.

At the same time, the Gleem turned its head towards Luke, noticing the out-of-place light that the lantern emitted.

The wind blade made its way through the pitch-black surroundings, and just as the Gleem was about to let out a screech, the wind blade accurately cut into the Gleem's neck, separating its head from the rest of its body.

'Aaaand… Strike!'

Kneeling down, Luke absorbed the tiny wind elemental that floated above the Gleem's corpse.

'Hunting Gleems is much easier now, as expected.'

Luke reminisced about the pair of silver-robed people.

'Although I can only rest easy once I reach the level of those two…'

Not knowing how long such an endeavor would take, Luke stood up and continued running, secretly hoping that he would run into even more Gleems as he waited for the calamity known as 'Alissia and Mark' to pass.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

As Luke strengthened his wind elemental throughout the night, his speed and perception barely got any better, but he could control the wind with slightly more finesse.

'That should be the 17th one in total.'

He was standing next to a mutilated Gleem corpse and had just finished absorbing its wind elemental. He had successfully hunted down a grand total of 12 Gleems during the past couple of hours.

While lost in thought, he heard a young male voice behind him.

"Hey! Have you seen an old man around here?"

Luke's heart dropped as he slowly turned his head around.

He made eye contact with a pair of dark blue eyes.

Mark, along with Alissia, who stood right behind him, awaited Luke's answer.

Luke's eyes widened for a split second and then went back to normal.

'Son of a… I have to talk my way out of this.'

Choosing the correct words to say would be difficult, but he'd still try.

"Sorry, but I haven't really seen anyone except the two of you."

Tilting his head, Mark replied.

"Is that so? What a shame…"

Mark then glanced at the Gleem corpse.

"Why even bother with those in the middle of the night of all times? Are you doing some target practice?"

Luke glanced at the Gleem corpse before turning his head back around to look at Mark, answering with a straight face.

"I'm killing them as a way of strengthening my wind elemental."

A twinkle appeared in Mark's eyes as he smiled widely.

"No way! You have obtained both the Capturing and the Transfusion artifacts for your private use?!"

Confused by his words, Luke's brow furrowed.

'Artifacts? Private use?'

"Not really, no..."

Narrowing his eyes in suspicion, Mark's smile had disappeared.

"How are you collecting and incorporating the elementals into your soul then? I'm sure that you're well aware that you can't do such a thing without either of those artifacts. Except if…"

'I got a bad feeling about this.'

Mark looked at Alissia; both of them nodded their heads simultaneously.

Dust swirled around Mark as wind surrounded his body.

Following suit, Luke surrounded his legs, up to his knees, with wind.

'If I remember correctly…'

Mark rushed out and tried performing a right jab on Luke, but instead ended up only punching the empty air.

Luke used the memories of the previous loop to his advantage, dodging to his right, and shot out a wind blade aimed at Mark's legs at point blank range.

The wind blade scattered as soon as it made contact with the wind that was surrounding Mark.

'I'd like to say that I didn't expect that, but I'd only be lying to myself…'

Mark rotated his hips and thrust his left elbow directly into Luke's face.

Luke crashed into the dry ground, knocking the air out of his lungs.

"Cough, cough!"

Mark instantly mounted Luke, holding him down and not giving him even the slightest gap to recover.

Mark looked into Luke's dazed eyes.

"Talk. What do you know about the old man?"

Alissia approached the now incapacitated Luke and looked as if she'd pierce right into Luke's soul with only a single glance from her abyss-like black eyes.

Mark continued talking.

"Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. This right now is the easy way. Trust me, you really don't want us to use the hard way."

Luke glared at the pair.

"If you're gonna kill me, just do it already."

Luke knew that there's no way he'd get out of this alive.

Mark turned his head and glanced at Alissia, prompting the woman to heave a sigh.

"I'll take over. Go and wait over there."

Alissia pointed to a relatively nearby tree.

"Yes, Ma'am."

Mark turned his head back and whispered to Luke, smirking.

"Looks like you chose the hard way…"

Mark dismounted Luke, but Luke didn't even try standing up.

'It would be useless to even attempt an escape; I might as well try getting some more information, as I'm basically dead at this point.'

"Look, let's make a deal. I'll tell you everything that I know about the old man, but you'll also give me some information in return. It's a win-win situation."

Alissia raised her eyebrow.

"What makes you think that you're in any position to propose such a deal?"

Alissia stretched her right arm out and moved it in a downward motion.

A strong wind suddenly pushed down on Luke, who was just about to sit up.

'This goddamned woman!'

"The old man. Talk."

Luke glared at Alissia.

"Screw you."

Alissia narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so?"

Alissia lowered her outstretched arm further downward, causing the wind that was pressuring Luke to become three times as strong.

"Last chance. Spill it out."

Luke was struggling to even breathe, his whole body suffering under the immense pressure.

He grinned and barely managed to open his mouth.

"Screw. You."

Alissia snorted and clenched her outstretched hand into a fist.

Luke instantly turned into a bloody splatter, coloring the dry ground scarlet in the dead of the night.

A silver light floated up from the pool of blood, shining out in a bright blue hue.

Alissia's face contorted as she reached her arm out towards Luke.

"Such a thing cannot b-"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke gasped.

"Cough! Cough!"

He brushed his face and looked around him. A loud screech penetrated his eardrums.

Surely enough, a Gleem was already charging at him from behind.

Luke was holding a thick, sharpened stick.

He didn't really have the comfort of calming down after dying, so he instead formed a wind blade and simply threw it at the Gleem.

The Gleem was diagonally split in half, its guts flowing out on the reddish-brown dirt.

Luke threw the stick away and made sure to absorb the tiny wind elemental.

'That's 18.'

Luke once again examined his surroundings.

It was around late afternoon, and judging by the Gleem that was charging at him, he returned to the point in time right before he killed his 2nd Gleem, or technically his 3rd one, after deciding against moving the first Gleem he killed to the small house.

'That feels like such a long time ago…'

A strained smile formed on Luke's lips. He could cope with his deaths in a much better manner now.

'Now I still have plenty of time left to hunt for even more Gleems, so that I can get my wind elemental to an even higher level.'

Another bonus of going back in time over and over again was that he had a seemingly unlimited supply of dry meat and water.

'Nothing lasts forever, though, so I must find a new source of food and water as well.'

He glanced at the Gleem's corpse.

'Food shouldn't be an issue. As for the water, though…'

Luke came up empty-handed with a solution for that particular problem.

Thinking of problems, there was also one of those waiting for him back in the house.

'I should go and take care of the old man's corpse right away, as I'm relatively close to the house.'

Luke remembered how Mark could envelop his whole body in wind and tried replicating it.

'Huh, not yet, I guess. But this is also pretty good.'

The most Luke could do was surround his legs in wind, up to his knees, and also his arms, up to his elbows.

Luke started running in the direction of the house and arrived there in under a minute.

'I'm so much faster now than when I first appeared in this forest. It's incredible.'

Luke opened the door. He pinched his nose as he walked in.

'Come to think of it… I think that I finally have the stomach to endure looting the old man's corpse. He could have something useful on him.'

Luke kneeled down and started patting down the old man's corpse.

Sure enough, the old man indeed had some very useful things on him.

'A pocket watch… I will finally be able to roughly tell how far back in time I can go.'

Next up, Luke picked up a folded piece of paper.

Unfolding it, Luke's eyes greatly widened.

"Hahaha… Someone's gotta be kidding me."

What Luke held in his hands was a map of this forest, along with the regions surrounding it.

The thing he needed the most was right in front of him this whole time.

Luke folded the map back up, and continued patting the old man's corpse.

Luke found one more item, also vital to navigating his way out of this forest.

'A compass… I can't believe that I kept throwing the old man's corpse out over and over again without searching it even once…'

He didn't realize it himself, but Luke's moral compass slowly started shifting.

Luke attached the pocket watch to his belt and put both the compass and the map in his pants' pocket.

"Let's go, old man."

Luke picked the old man's corpse up once again, gathered wind around his legs, and ran out of the house.

He soon found an open plain and laid the old man's corpse down on the ground.

Luke formed the rough shape of a shovelhead using his wind elemental, and started digging.

'After this many loops, I should at least do this much.'

Luke finished digging a hole pretty fast and picked up the old man.

He placed the old man into the newly dug hole and pushed the dirt back into the hole using a wide, flat pane of wind.

He found a big branch nearby and planted it vertically into the dry ground, right next to the now closed-up hole, marking the old man's grave.

"Rest in peace, geezer."

Luke gathered wind around his legs and started running straight into the forest.

'It's hunting time.'