Presenting Himself.

You found yourself running in the middle of an unknown forest, you could see the reality before your eyes, but you couldn't perceive it. Nothing was going on in your mind, it was blank, but yet you moved, afraid of something, your instincts were the only things that made you move.

Fighting for survival, for your life, you didn't know why, but something after you, with an intense bloodust. It was a bloodhound after you, a beast. You threw away everything anyone ever taught you about, not only because it was useless against what you were fighting against, but also because you couldn't remember, you could now only rely on your instincts.

You threw away your sword and your armor while running, trying to outrun your predator, because resisting would be useless. Your body was filled with adrenaline, running through your veins. You just couldn't give up, your body won't allow you to be hunted. You, who fought your whole life against your enemies, was running for your life. It wasn't a soldier retreating from a powerful enemy, it was a quarry running from its predator.

The bloodlust and the fervorous eyes of the beast aimed at you didn't decrease, and you couldn't feel it back away, on the contrary, it only got closer and closer. You weren't able to afford time and energy to look back, you could only run. Suddenly, something hit your back, and you fell, facing the ground, quickly trying to get up. Your heart was beating so quick you could feel it through all your body, you felt like you could run more.

The moment you tried to get up, the hound pressed you on the ground again, pulling something out of your back, the same that hit you before and made you fall. His hands held the back of your neck and turned you around. With eyes and the veins through all his body shinning alizarin red, he stared at you, cleaning one of the two axes he wielded, both of them seemingly identical, made with a fine, bright metal that you never saw, it didn't get not even a bit dull after the slaugther they made. Its grip was made with a dark, seemly old, but yet tough, wood that looked like oak, engraved with ancient runes. At the bottom, they had gems that were alizarin red in color.

He stood tall, pressing you down with one his feet. You felt powerless, watching that man pressuring you down. He was covered in blood, which none of it was his. They were your comrades, who accidentaly invaded the beast's territory. He didn't seem normal, with his chest exposed, and only something to cover his genital part. He also didn't feel human, it was like watching a powerful monster. He was terrifying, his long ginger beard and hair, and defined muscles, with scars all over his body. A man who fought and saw many wars.

"Are you awake? Don't just stare at me. I'm not killing a rock here." The bloodhound said, making your shock stagger. A beast talking? Impossible. You felt like he could only do things by instinct. With strength, and being a rational being? Nothing could stop him. He was a demon! A god! Or maybe even... both?

"You ain't talking, then? Right. Unfortunatelly, none of your comrade's alive now, you are the only one who can talk. I'll make you talk later." The last words you heard until being hit by his fist, making you lose consciousness instantly.

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The soldier woke up, tied up in a wooden chair, inside a shack. It was quite clean and neat inside, being, in a certain way, cozy to be in. But this feeling didn't take long to fade away from the soldier's mind. He was tied up, and couldn't remember what happened before he passed out. His squad died and then... It was a blank space. Something happened, but he couldn't grasp it.

Not much time later, he hears steps coming from behind him. He was still confused, and the fear struck him by feeling that man's aura getting closer. Flashes of what occured before he went out appeared in his mind. It was the ferocious man that attacked them! He tried to leave the ropes that surrounded him, but it was useless.

The steps got even more closer over the time, until the man appeared in front of his eyes. His body didn't glow anymore, his axes where on his belt, but he was still scary. The soldier was sweating cold while looking at the man staring at him. He gave a warmful smile and squatted down, looking in the young man's eyes. "It would be better if you didn't move too much, because of the wound on your back, it can just reopen if you move like that." The ginger man said.

"W-Why are you keeping me here?! I-I have nothing important with m-me!! I am just a mere soldier!" The soldier said out loud, fearing for his life and well -being. "I have some questions. I know I may have killed your companions, and they weren't few. Was it, like, 99 of them? And you'd have completed a hundred?" The man said with a carefree expression, like he did it in a daily basis.

"Y-Yeah... W-Wait! Are you just gonna talk about their deaths like that? Who do you think you are?!" The young man screamed, infuriated with the man that killed and demeaned his companions. "Like that how? I just said the amount of them. Isn't it how people glorify heroes? 'He killed hundreds of soldiers from the enemy empire! A hero!'" He said in a mocking, piping voice, while gestivulating his hands like he was cheering up.

The soldier was confused about that mans behavior, what the fuck does he need? He kept looking at the man, still sweating cold, that stared at him with ferocious eyes, although, at first glance, looked normal. "Well, I guess I need to question you to get any answers... Who are you people? I mean, I don't think you needed a force of that magnitude to raid a shack in the middle of a random forest, because, you know, you guys didn't know who I am."

The way the dual-wielding axes man spoke was strange. He said about this things in a trivial manner. Being attacked by a force on a hundred people and then... Just killing them. It came out so natural... "A beast..." It was the only thing that the soldier could thing of now, and he ended up letting it slip out of his tongue, in a pretty disgusted way.

The moment he noticed what he said, his eyes almost popped out of the sockets, and as he was going to try to find an apology, the man in front of him said. "Yeah! You got it! That's my name!" He exclaimed, letting a laugh come out as he put his right hand on the soldier's shoulder.

"N-Name? What? That's not-" As the soldier was going to explain himself, he got interrupted one more time. "No need for excuses to your reading mind abilities... I need to answers for my questions, alright? You can't pull tricks like that to deceive me."

The soldier wasn't trying to pull any trick, and he knew it very well, he just didn't want to make this little chat to go any further, he wanted to understand what was going on, so he may as well pretend to be just a dumb savage who lives in the middle of the trees.

"W-We are part of the force of the Eastern Milord and-" He, once more, got interrupted by the man in front of him. "Milord? So you guys don't serve any king or something like that?" The Beast asked to the soldier. He didn't know? How could be so oblivious of the world? How can a man so strong, who can even understand their language and communicate, don't know what was going on outside the forest. He must've had some kind of contact with society before, right?

"K-King? There are no kings... At least, no strong ones, after the The Great War between the Four Kingdoms. All of them left weakened, so the small lords are trying to get as much territory of each other to rise in power..." The man explained. Now it makes more sense. A force with a hundred men, just to kill am unknown man in the forest? It didn't seem quite right.

"So you guys focus wasn't me. Perhaps I should've asked before." The man squatting down got up, raising one of his axes. "NO!" The soldier screamed in despair, almost crying, he closed his eyes, as the axe swiftly came in his direction. But he didn't die, actually, the ropes around him fell, so he opened one of his eyes, trembling. "You can go now, I'm not going to take more of your time." He said, as he grabbed the soldier's arm and pulled him out of the shack.

"W-What? Aren't you going to kill me?" The soldier asked, confused with what was happening. "Is that what you want? Well, okay, I thought you wanted to go back." He said, grabbing his axes from his belt. "N-No! I am already going!" The soldier exclaimed and started to run to direction of the city he came from. Well, not really running, but he was trying to go as fast as he could because of the injury on his back.

"I am not going to stay here either, if they bring a stronger and bigger force to my shack, I may not be able to resist too much. My body is weaker than normal." He said as he turned to the opposite side from the direction that the soldier ran and started to run in a hastened way. "I may find a city in that direction, perhaps find job as an adventurer. I found some monsters around this forest, it must be a viable job to have for someone like me."