[2.2] Struggle

"It's been several hours since i started to look for a way out...." Akuma said to himself, reminding himself of how much of a hopeless situation he is in.

He had to pour the remains of the water he had over the glowing horn to keep it from going dark.

"I'll have to find the exit soon... or at least some water. I can't go back either, the way is too difficult to remember." Akuma muttered to himself.

"Either way, i'll have to keep moving forward! That's the only way for me to go." Though he had words filled with determination, his heart was slowly being swallowed by doubt. Doubt that he will live to see another day.

Several minutes later, Akuma is still walking the narrow cave path with only the glow of the severed horn illuminating his surroundings.

As Akuma feared, the light doesn't go unnoticed. From behind him he hears growling that causes him to freeze instantly. After a few moment he musters up all the courage he has and slowly starts to turn around.

The horn's light reflects from the yellow eyes of what seems to be a wolf, just a bit smaller than Akuma himself. As it slowly approaches, more of its body is shown. Dark blue-ish fur with white spots along the paws.

Along with the wolf, the growling gets louder. Each step the wolf takes makes Akuma's heart skip a beat. It's as if his heart wasn't beating anymore. Just the steps of the wolf that get more and more frequent with each second.

Only the Akuma realizes that he has to run. Though, it is far too late for that. As he turns around to run the wolf jumps at him, biting his whole left arm up to his biceps, swallowing the glowing horn in the process and snapping the piece of armor as well.

Akuma screams out in pain as the wolf tries to completely bite off his arm. In panic, he clutches the broken dagger and thrusts it into the wolf's neck. This only aggravates the wolf and its bite becomes stronger, with its fangs reaching down to Akuma's bone.

Akuma pulls out the dagger from the neck of the wolf and strikes again. Again and again and again and again and again. He keeps on stabbing the wolf untill its bite comes loose and Akuma can pull his arm out.

One of Akuma's troubles has turned to another, bigger one. The wolf is now pissed off and Akuma can barely move.

Yet still he clutches the broken dagger in his hand and the wolf jumps at him one more time, now knocking him down to the ground. Akuma barely manages to avoid the fangs that targetted the neck at the cost of his left forearm, which the wolf bites into now.

Akuma sees an opening and wastes no time with thinking. He thrusts the broken dagger sideways into the wolf's throat and cuts the whole thing open. Blood sprays all over his pants and half of his shirt.

The heavy corpse of the wolf falls right on Akuma, nearly knocking his breath out. The pain from the two wounds he suffered starts to set in as the adrenaline fades from his body and he finally catches his breath.

He musters up all the strenght he has and pushes the corpse of the wolf off of him.

He leans onto one of the walls of the cave.

"This....Ain't that bad....It's just...Fucking terrible" He blurts out and starts to take off his shirt. "I've gotta stop the bleeding."

Akuma cuts the shit along the arms and sides, creating a makeshift bandage.

"People have been telling me how i'm supposed to live my whole fucking life" He starts to bandage his upper arm. "And now, they want to tell me how to die as well!?"

He makes a somewhat acceptable knot at the end and proceeds to treat his forearm. "I won't accept this! I refuse to die here!"

Finishing up his makeshift treatment he stands up. He doesn't see the corpse of the wolf due to the dark, but he knows exactly where it is. "And you'll help me with that!"

He proceeds to turn the wolf around and skins it comletley. Then he cuts open the wolf's stomach and pulls out the glowing horn. Not even gagging in the process.

Of he had to do something like this a day ago he would puke at the thought itself. Yet now he was cutting open a beast his own size he killed his own size with an expression full of rage and hatered.

In the end Akuma used the hide of the wolf to make himself a cloak in order not to freeze as he used his shirt to patch up his arm.

Several minutes later, he sat down leaning against a wall of the cave as another problem arose in front of him. "What will i eat?"

His stomach was already growling like crazy and he knew what he had to do. He moves next to the wolf's open belly and starts to rip out pieces of working muscle, eating them in a frenzy.

The meat had nearly no taste except for the blood spilling out of it in his mouth as he chewed. And yet again, he doesn't even gag nor find it disgusting. He is willing to do everything in order to survive. Survive and leave the dungeon alive.

Once he finished eating he wiped the wolf's blood from his mouth and stood up.

"What the fuck have i become." He started lamenting. "I'm god knows where eating raw flesh covered in the hide of the same animal."

The look in his eyes changed once more. He wasn't lamenting but he wasn't sad either. There was a fierce look in his eyes, a flame of determination to survive was burning in the two eyeballs.

Akuma picked up everything he could and continued his path. When the horn was bathing in the wolf's blood, it gained a darker, nearly crimson glow.

Nearly an hour later he found a tiny pond of underground water, which he drank from first. He then washed the horn and his clothes.

Many hours of mental degradation later Akuma arrives into a larve oval room. The room has several enterances and a large stone gate at the opposite end of the room from the enterance he came through.

As he stepped in, torches lit up at the four pillars around the center of the room. The glow of the torches illuminated each part of the room so Akuma hid the glowing horn.

At the right side of the large gate was a stone statue. A tall knight four or even five times bigger than Akuma, wielding a sword appropriate to its size.

At the other side was a statue broken from the waist down. It was much smaller than the first one and it wielded a mace, one even Akuma could lift with some effort.

What however bugged Akuma even more was what's on the other side of the closed gate. Was it an exit? If so, he had to get through that gate. But, how will he open such a large gate. He wondered as he approached ir for inspection.

In the gate was a handprint. Instinctively, Akuma placed his hand on the handprint and pushed as hard as he could. Finally, the stone with the handprint was inside the gate. Yet two keyholes appeared at each side of the gate.

Suddenly, strange sounds have started to emerge at each of Akuma's sides. He turned to look around only to find the two statues moving. The bigger one is bulky and slow to start, but the other quickly finishes rebuilding itself and launches at Akuma with its mace.

He barely dodges and runs to the center of the room to take a better look at the two statues.