Fight and Die, Die and Fight

Down the fetid, dimly lit alley, with only a sliver of light seen here and there through small cracks in the poorly constructed walls, a dark brown-haired teenager ran as fast as he could.

As the lad stared at his cell phone screen, he felt his lungs drier and emptier than usual.

There, on the electronic device, the boy used the information option regarding news and time, thinking that maybe some online report could help him discover the seriousness of the situation at that point.

But, unfortunately, he was not successful at all.

[No results were found for your search terms…]

''It's only 12:33 yet…'' Ezra uttered, flustered. ''Shit…''

In the face of such chaos, his memories seemed to make him a little dizzy, affecting his ability to reason. What's more, with that new super-weak body and no physical features of note, Ezra felt incredibly powerless.

His knees ached immensely, his mouth was dry and his breathing was more labored than it should have been, so he paused briefly halfway through.

Dismayed, the small brown-haired boy sighed heavily as he used a training exercise to regulate his breathing and rapid heartbeat, calming himself as best he could.

He pressed something on the cell's LED shortly thereafter.

[No results were found for your search terms…] [Do you want to redo the search again?]

"What a waste of time." He said. ''It is unlikely that there will be reports as to the occasion any time soon. Barely 5 minutes have passed since it all started."

Resuming to run once again, the little boy whose figure seemed weaker and poorly trained than the standard for his age, analyzed the violent situation that was unfolding ahead, at the entrance of the alley in which he was temporarily trapped in.

Several people were piled on top of each other, squeezing against the walls like sardines in a dented metal bag — they were futilely trying to take advantage of the small gap they had to escape.

However, showing that their efforts were actions in vain, the huge orange-lava wolf that was vehemently devouring two lifeless corpses on the dirty floor, kept its eyes fixed in the direction of the men and women still alive.

One wrong move and they would no longer be allowed to live.

''A-agh...''

''M-my god…''

''Please… some Epic, arrive… please… I beg…''

The bloodbath had dropped them into a near catatonic state, and most of the adults still there, male or female, dared not even breathe aloud in the presence of such a beast.

Muttering too softly, they prayed to whatever god or person able to get them safely out of that place.

Frankly, for those guys and girls, getting out of there alive would already be a blessing.

For Ezra, however, it didn't matter if they were alive or not, dead or alive, those individuals would not help him in any way in surviving the start of the true apocalypse.

At that moment, there was only one clear objective in his mind: to find a way to reach the Orphanage after overtaking the creature.

'Although I considered using the same method the first time I fled here.' He thought inwardly, without showing on his face what was on his mind. 'But I swore to myself now that I would make this attempt different than the other — I won't be a weak coward who only runs away from trouble and then acts arrogantly.

He clenched the fist that dangled at his side.

'No more running from things that I can take on my own'

''Graaar…''

The infernal wolf growled softly, as if imposing its dominance over the area by noticing Ezra, who was getting closer and closer to where the hostile being was.

''Well, I was going to have to do that sometime, anyway.''

Somehow, there was some pent-up feeling inside Ezra that he was surprisingly unaware of until that present moment — was that discomfort a kind of anger?

Or maybe regret for not getting revenge on the son of a bitch who devoured him over and over again, when he was still only an innocent child?

His piercing, deep crimson eyes looked troubled, but he felt that there was nothing he could have done before to defeat the creature.

He knew better than anyone his own limits.

Although it didn't look like it, the young boy with dark brown hair could easily name every one of his known weaknesses and how to improve himself, to the point where they would became non-existent or nearly ineffective.

However, it was precisely for that reason that he knew there was no method of putting an end to the wolf once and for all.

''But it makes sense that I can't do it.'' Affirming, the little boy began to complete his line of thought.

Firstly, his body didn't have enough physical strength for him to inflict fatal damage on the beast.

Just to clarify, in the first place, he knew he would completely depend on gaining speed and using the force of impact caused by the momentum, in order to attack the wolf proactively.

Second, he wasn't of a decent enough Ether stage to be able to maintain a prolonged fight with the wolf.

If the lad could take a guess from where he was in the Ether Manipulation sequences, Ezra would easily say: ''Stage 1: Corrupt Soul''.

And last but not least, Ezra knew that his trump card, the powerful and quite useful at most of the times, [Eye of Horus], wouldn't last as long as it used to in his past life — as the man now inhabited his old frail body.

''I definitely can't kill him.'' He stated, formulating a plan that would at least get him out of that place. ''But I'm going to inflict as much pain on you as I can, freaking ridiculous d*ckhead.''

Stopping a few steps from the crowd of battered and bloodied people, he spotted stinking garbage piling up in a small mountain of rot as he searched for something specifically.

Cardboard boxes smeared with some black liquid were bent over and could be seen on the floor, and right next to them, several pieces of pipe of what appeared to be PVC material dangled from a now-broken cooling system.

Smiling slightly, Ezra walked over to the pipe and with a few light kicks managed to rip off a piece of the object.

''It's not what I wanted.'' He said, walking once more towards the wolf, increasingly angry. ''But it's worth the expense.''

The hellwolf's meal seemed to be at an end and the beast didn't look the least bit pleased with the situation.

His paws began to take heavy steps forward, leaving blood marks wherever he went.

''What is he doing? He's gonna get himself killed!!''

''Somebody stop that kid, before he does something stupid!''

''Hey kiddo, come here! Don't go in that way…''

A lot of people's desperate voices filled Ezra's drooping ears, but he didn't seem to mind at all.

In fact, his scowling expression as he frowned showed that he was annoyed by the annoying voices of those idiots.

"Shut the damn mouth." With that brusque response, the words seemed to rumble through the region, causing everyone to shut up.

As adults, men women, children, and old geezers watched a certain young man in his early twenties try to take action to stop the teenager from proceeding further, Ezra fired like a bullet towards the monster.

'Eye of Horus' He spoke non-verbally.

For a second, his eyes even glowed a beautiful green hue that contrasted with the usual red — in that instant, people and even the wolf were enchanted by the elegance of Ezra's irises.

[The 'World Memoir: Book of Despair' Special Slot has been opened by the user!]

[The 'Eye of Horus' skill has been activated]

[- For a while, your reflexes and instincts will be sharper and your foe's vital points will become clearer as daylight.

- Your manipulation of the mystical energy 'Ether' will temporarily become more controlled and deft, morever, the user will temporarily be able to see the golden lines of Ether flowing across the planet.]

Reading the message sent by to him by his own innate power, Ezra took a deep breath, gathering enough strength as he took advantage of the gaps given by the wolf — which didn't seem to mind his advance.

'There it is' He thought.

A path formed by thousands of different lines of various colors appeared out of the absolute nothingness in front of him — without blinking, the boy walked forward, still concentrating.

Ezra chose the part of the alley that had the most coloured lines pinned together in mass, so that the Ether penetrated even further into his body.

"Let's see who does best, motherfucker." As Ezra uttered that, he didn't hesitate for a second.

It was surreal how he'd done so much in such a short amount of time.

Even with that terrifying appearance of the monsters, he seemed used to it — putting his left foot forward and his right foot back, the broken pipe in his hand glowed dark blue as he charged, taking the initiative.

The creature looked surprised, as did the others present who were gaping at how things turned out.

With a crackling noise, he swung the sharp, broken part of the metalic pipe vertically and ripped off part of the left ear that hung freely from the wolf.

''GRAARRR!''

Dark blue blood splattered Ezra's face, the rotten smell filling his nose.

From personal experience Ezra could judge the flesh and blood of mutants and monsters to be disgusting and grotesque.

''Ugh...'' The lad groaned with the disgust he felt.

In record time, he took a step back, unnaturally twisting his body to dodge the wolf's violent, instinctive kick — his attack seemed to have been more intent on killing than other times.

''Hup!'' With a leap to the side, he pulled in oxygen in droves and the glow in the pipe he carried crackled like a flame in the wind.

A moment later, when Ezra swung nimbly forward, the object severed a portion of his left front paw with a single attack by the boy.

[The 'Eye of Horus' cannot be held much longer!]

[User's current Ether Manipulation Stage is too low]

[Time remaining: Approximately 16 seconds]

Looking nervously at the holographic windows, Ezra took a step forward knowing that soon the effect of his ability would wear off, dooming him to inevitable death.

Not that he feared death or anything, it was just that it would suck to have to repeat the same process over and over, who knows how many times.

And to make matters worse, he hadn't saved the file after he'd taken the pipe, so there was no way he could spare himself the effort it would have taken to get his ill-prepared body to that point.

At that moment, to be sure, his arms and legs looked ready to disentangle freely from his body at any time, with just those simple movements.

''Some imbecile, get a box and a pipe! Now!''

With Ezra's scream, having demonstrated that he was nowhere near the concept of normal, the group of individuals behind him prepared for what was about to happen.

Rushing to fulfill what Ezra had asked of them, they realized: the battle for life and death had already begun.

'Now it really started' Fixing his pupils against the wolf's, he silently thought.