2. You… my dear…will be my lunch

In the middle of nowhere, a portal opened 50 meters (for Americans: 164 feet) above the ground, and a person screaming for his life fell out of it.

The screaming boy feared for his life since what's the point of teleporting away if you die due to fall damage? But his screaming soon came to a halt as he crashed from one treetop to another till he finally came to a halt.

And there he laid, seeing three suns in the sky instead of two, as a searing pain shot through his body while a thought echoed loudly through his head.

'Promise me that you won't use this spell until you are a master magician.'

'Promise me that you won't use this spell until you are a master magician.'

'Promise me that you won't use this spell until you are a master magician.'

'Promise me that you won't use this spell until you are a master magician.'

The endless loop almost drove Luz crazy, and upon breaking it, Luz closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down, as his body got overwhelmed by pain. But it didn't take long for Luz to give up resting. The reason for that was simple. The aching pain, combined with the endless screeches of the animals living inside the forest, made it difficult for him to rest, as he was under full alert. But at least his mana reserves healed partially.

Sluggishly he adjusted his injured body to a more comfortable position while groaning: "That fucking hurt. But at least we survived, right, Gab?"

But the answer he got was an uncomfortable silence with animal cries echoing in the background. Expecting the worst, Luz immediately ripped his eyes open, hastily glancing in every direction in hopes of getting proven wrong.

However, the only thing he saw were gigantic trees that filled the skyline. Calling them enormous was an understatement. These trees were between 80~130m (for Americans: 263~ 426 feet) tall.

Filled with despair, Luz stammered: "No… th-that can-cannot be. M-my spell d-didn't fail. I'm the proof."

Upon failing to spot any of his siblings, Luz shouted in tremble each of his siblings' names, hoping to be wrong.

But the answer he got again was silence, driving him almost mad. Unable to accept that he failed to teleport them all, Luz made the irrational choice to climb down while reassuring himself that his siblings might be waiting for him down there.

And so he jumped from one branch to another, almost falling down from the three a few times. It took him a while till he reached the ground, and the atmosphere down there was gloomy, giving him immediate ghost bumps.

Around him were tall trees that barely provided cover from the sun, and around the trees grew bushes so dense that they could hide a corpse.

His eyes immediately narrowed, and he instinctively grabbed the largest stick lying on the ground before calling out his brother's name.

Even though Luz knew that this might be the wrong choice due to alarming most of the predators near him, he still couldn't give two shits about it. Proving himself wrong was far more important to Luz than the predators living in this place.

Shortly after, Luz immediately heard a rustling coming from the surrounding bushes that excited and scared him at the same time.

Grabbing his stick as tight as possible with both hands, Luz slowly approached the bush while thinking: 'Maybe his siblings were there? But let's better go the safe round.'

Sweat dripped from his brow as he heard the rustling coming from a different direction.

Luz's facial expression immediately turned grim upon realizing that the thing in the bushes was definitely not his brother but a monster. He immediately changed his position, ready to face the creature.

But by now, the source of the rustling changed his place rapidly, coming from all directions. The next moment he heard a roar, and before he knew it, a cheetah-like monster pounced onto his back, pinning him to the ground. Fighting for his life, the enraged Luz immediately rolled his body, hitting the creature with his big stick as strong as possible against its skull.

His blow was strong enough to send the black cheetah, with a magic stone stuck in its head, stumbling. Using his chance, Luz immediately stood up, ready to attack.

But unfortunally, his victory was short-lived as the equally enraged creature recovered within half a second and immediately pounced onto his chest. This time, however, Luz pressed the thick stick using both of his hands against the cheetah's throat.

Furious, the latter roared and tried to maul Luz with its enormous jaws filled with razor-sharp teeth. Even though it couldn't bite Luz, its equally razor-sharp claws made a mess out of Luz's leather chest armor as they bore right into it.

Grinding his teeth, Luz opened his palms before shouting in desperation: "[FIRE]." A giant flame cloud immediately shot out of his palms, burning the creature's face.

The monster immediately jumped from his chest while wailing loudly in pain.

An evil grin formed on Luz's face as he immediately used both of his palms like a flame thrower, burning the cheetah's face as much as possible. He had no plans of letting that creature escape.

Due to his fire, the cheetah turned blind, but Luz wasn't done with it yet. Grinning, Luz continued using his right palm like a flame thrower while pulling out his hunting knife attached to his hip with his free hand.

The knife had a blade length of around 20cm (americano: 7.5 inches), and without any pity for the wailing creature, Luz stabbed right into the neck area, burning his hand slightly in the process.

The cheetah's howls filled the forest as he tried to limp away with his knife still stuck in its neck.

Luz felt no mercy for the creature and immediately grabbed his knife before continuously ramming it into the throat of the cheetah.

Naturally, the cheetah resisted, clawing weakly toward Luz's direction, but in the end, it succumbed to its injuries after getting stabbed 30 times around the throat area.

The adrenalin that was pumping through Luz's body at the moment made him blind to the cheetah's death. Instead of stopping, he continued, pouring his frustration into his stabs. Only after the influence of adrenalin slowly dwindled did he realize that thing was long dead.

Panting, Luz stood up as blood dripped from his clothes and from the tip of his knife. "You… my dear…will be my lunch."