This world is cruel...

Screams can be heard from all over the village. The village is being attacked, houses on fire, people running away from goblins as they chase them with small knives. Corpses already made, lying beside houses and on the road. "Please! Somone help us!!" A woman in need yells out as she crawls for her life. An orc who carries a wooden club follows behind her, smiling as his sharp teeth is covered in human blood. He holds up his club and smashes her head with it. 

My eyes widen as I slowly walk back, away from the window. Instantly I think about my parents and my little sister. I run out of my room and barge into my sister's room. I notice she isn't here. Damn, where could she have gone? I think to myself as I run to my parents' room. Nobody is here as well, what is going on? I ran outside of the house, instantly the air filled with the smell of blood and smoke. Screaming and crying can be heard, I ran and ran looking for my family. I see Mich, he is holding a sword which is covered in blood. His eyes look up at me as they begin to flood with tears. 

"Azrael, you're, ok?! I was heading towards your house. I'm glad." He says as he slowly stumbles. It's obvious he had to fight a couple goblins, he seems exhausted, almost like he hadn't gotten much rest.

"Mich, are you ok? Can you keep going?" I reach and ask him, as I begin to help him up.

"Yeah, I can...but here, we'll need to fight and find Ryan. My parents weren't in town tonight so they're safe. Come to think of it, Where's your family?" He catches his breath as he looks up at me with a sense of worry in his eyes. He hands me a sword he picked up from the training grounds. With the training we've done, we can fight with real swords now.

"We'll find Ryan, but as for my family. I have no clue to where they've gone. They're not home, I was just looking for them too. I know this is too much to ask, but will you aid me in my search?" I say softly as I collect the sword Mich handed me. 

"Of course, We are also family. Let's go find them" Mich says with a smile as his eyes follow behind me. His smile fades he begins to hold his sword in a way you get ready to fight. 

I quickly react and turn around, unsheathing my sword and getting into a stance. Five goblins appear, two with bows and the other three with small knives. They begin to laugh at us before they charge as the two in the back shoot arrows at us. The arrows flew past us as we cross blades, Mich and I dodge and parry most attacks. We manage to kill the three with knives swiftly, moving on with the archers. We stabbed them and ended their lives.

"I just killed someone...I ended a life" I say as I realize, my vision becomes blurry as I look down at my hand holding the sword, covered I blood.

"Azrael!" Mich grips my shoulder as his face fills with seriousness. 

I look up at him, I can't make out his facial features. His face is too blurry, but his voice was clear as he says. "Sometimes, you have to take a life, in order to save a life. For instance, your family. We need to save your family. Snap out of it, and let's get moving." He says as he starts to smile at me.

This gesture was enough to get back up. I look at him as my visions clears. "Yeah, let's go save them." I respond with determination as I grip my swords tighter and my eyes begin to glow red.

Afterward, Mich and I battled many goblins as we make our way to the middle of the village. As we finish off the last few goblins we were fighting, we heard a scream in the area. A woman yells out "Please, run. Run far and don't look back" she painfully screams. 

Damn, we have to hurry before anything bad happens to them. Mich and I look at each other and nodded as we began bolting across the road towards the direction of the scream. We ran quickly towards the alley in-between buildings. As we finally get there, our eyes widened as we look up at the huge orc with the blood covered club. I look down at the person the orc is targeting, I realize it's my mother. She's crawling away as she cannot use her legs, her legs are useless. My mothers' legs have been unquestionably broken from the orc's club.

With this information my anger grew as I grip my sword, the orc hasn't noticed us yet, we have a chance to subjugate it. I turn to look at Mich, who is next to me and to no surprise he is frozen with fear. I clench my teeth, the orc is big and obviously strong, but I have to try and save my mother from certain death. I turn to the orc as I ready my body and sword to launch an attack. The orc is very big, but I'm sure he's slow. I have to rely on my speed for this fight. I focus as I start to run towards the orc. The orc raises his club to get ready for an attack.

"Please, somebody help me..." My mother whispers, as she holds her hand above her. 

I won't make it...I held my pendant close to me. Please God give me...strength. I run as fast as I could to reach the orc.

The orc swings his club downward with a strong force, my mother closes her eyes as tears begin to flow down her cheek.

"Noo!! Don't you fucking dare!" I scream in anger as my eyes begin to fill with tears.

From the corner of my eye, A figure with a sword appears as he dashes towards the orc and clashes with the club, sending the club flying and crashing into a building. My father follows behind the person who just saved my mother, it was Ryan. 

"Azrael...good to know you're alive." Ryan says as he looks up at the orc. Mich joins us from behind, disgusted with himself for freezing up.

"Thank you Ryan, I owe you one." I say as I ready my sword to engage with the orc.

"Father, get mom out of here. Please, we'll buy you guys some time. Find Emma and stay safe outside of the village." I say as I charge towards the orc. Ryan runs towards the right, for another angle to attack from. My father looks at us with a worried expression. 

He thinks to himself "How can a father, leave his kid to fight alone? Why can't I fight alongside of him? I've never trained to be a swordsman, I was always a farmer. Wait, he spent years training under two of the best Knights of the Kyrat kingdom. These kids right here and now, are strong. They can surely defeat it, I have to believe in them and get my wife and daughter to safety." My father quickly acts and picks mom up. 

"No! NO! Don't you dare leave our son to fight that thing! Please Azrael...RUN!" She cries out as they leave the area.

"I'm sorry mother, I might not make it out of this alive but as long as you're safe" I whisper as I slash the orcs right leg. The orc grunts as it struggles to get the club out of the building. Mich follows behind and pierces the orc's back. The sword becomes stuck as Mich tries to take it out. The orc swings his arm to strike Mich, But Ryan aggressively slashes the orcs chest two times before backing away, causing the orc to miss Mich. Mich manages to get the sword free, but the force of the release causes him to lose his balance and stumbles backwards in the process.

The orc on the other hand, manages to free his club and roars loudly at us. 

"Tsk...such a disgusting creature like you, should just fucking die!!" Ryan screams out before he begins to dash towards the orc. I follow to give Ryan support, Mich looks at us as we rush the orc.

"Why? Why am I weak? I couldn't move when she was going to get killed. I just froze and watch my best friend from behind. I'll change that NOW!" Mich thinks to himself as he gets up and rushes the orc from behind. "I WILL BECOME STRONG TOO!!" Mich screams out as he grips his sword to pierce the orc again.

The orc noticed and grins. Why is he grinning? I can feel him plotting, Orcs aren't bright creatures, but he plans to do something, but what?! Ryan and I swing our swords with full force. Our swords clash against the orcs club, but somethings off. The orc didn't block, Ryan and I are sent flying into buildings. He parried us consecutively, the orc quickly turns around and grabs Mich's upper body.

Ryan and I see this, but out bodies fail to get up. The force of the swing the orc gave us was too much to take. "No! I don't want to die like this!" Mich cries out. The orc chuckles as he begins to open his mouth, revealing his bloody teeth. 

"STOP!! stop no, please I don't want to die...why am I so weak?..."Mich says as he looks over at us.

Fuck, my body is sending me signals to run, this orc is too strong. Ryan on the other hand is managing to get up, his dexterity is higher than mine now. I try to get up as well, but my body falls, my body is so weak. Ryan and I look up at Mich, our eyes widened as the orc's mouth opens and is visibly going to eat Mich.

"This world is meant for the strong, the weak always lose. I wanted to become strong like Ryan, and as determined as Azrael. I leave my strength and my will to you, Azrael." He thinks to himself as he smiles and looks at me, Before the orcs mouth reaches Mich. "This world is cruel..." Mich whispers as his smile begins to fade. His head and chest were ripped right off, right in front of me, someone important to me just died. The ominous feeling pierced right through me, but it was stronger than the times I felt it. My eyes widened, my teeth clenched, I gripped my sword and scream in pain. This feeling, it feels like it's ripping away at my chest, my body hurts and it feels like I'm burning up inside. I continue to scream and fall to the ground. Ryan looks at me with a horrified look, he quickly overcomes his fear and grips his sword again. He rushes towards the orc who is busy looking at me, Ryan noticed that the orc looks scared and worried at the sight of what's going on. Ryan begins to turn towards me but is caught up in an explosion or darkness. Ryan and the orc flies back into the wall behind them. In the midst of the darkness, I arose and stood tall. My eyes were dead, my face hollow. I begin walking towards the orc, the orc begins to get up and run away. 

"Azrael...what is going on with u?" Ryan manages to mutter as he collapses onto the ground and faints.

I blitz behind the orc and with a slash, his leg was gone. It fell to the ground but before it can move or turn around. I got into stance and put my sword down to the ground, simultaneously as I dashed forward, I slash his body in half. I let out a sigh before regaining control of my body. After the immense power I possessed for a brief moment, my body feels fatigued. I walk over to Ryan, He regained consciousness while i slayed the orc. His eyes fixated on me, he held his hand out. "You're not going to help me up?" He smiles, it's obvious he's trying to stay composed after what just happened. I helped him up, afterwards we began walking out of the alley. We walked quite long, buildings burning, people still fighting. We avoided everything, I've exerted to much already, I want to find my family. We almost reached outside of the village when, goblins were Infront of three people. "Stay back! I'll kill you!" My father cried out, he held a small knife, swinging it sloppily. My mother visibly bleeding on the floor, and Emma holding mother as she cried on her corpse.

Inevitably, my mother has died. I can't show any emotion right now, but inside it hurts. Why is this happening. Ryan runs towards the goblins, but it was too late. The rushed my father first, but as he cried and fought back, he was slashed and stabbed to death.

"Fuck!! I'll kill you for that!" Ryan screamed out as the goblins noticed Ryan coming at them. They screamed in shock but were too slow to react. After Ryan finished slaying them, I walk towards Emma and embraced her. She cries into my arms and screams in pain. 

"I'm sorry, Azrael. I was too weak to save your parents." Ryan says as he looks down and cries. He breaks down from the number of deaths he's seen today. He finally cries Infront of me, he always tries to act tough, but I know he's a kind soul. 

"I don't blame you, Ryan. It's my fault...I am weak. I couldn't save Mich, let alone my own parents..." I say as I also break down, holding my sister tighter. 

"I should...go look for my parents too. You two escape, we'll meet at the Kyrat kingdom. It's north from here. I'll be seeing you, Azrael" he says as he walks into the village.

Afterward Emma and I collect ourselves after grieving for a while. We began walking outside and into the forest.

"Azrael, do you think we'll survive this?" Emma asks as she looks down.

"We will, we'll live through this." I say softly as we continue to walk. It's been hours since we've left the village. Then suddenly we heard howls, surrounding us were wolves. I grip my sword weakly and stood Infront of Emma. "When I tell you to run, you run ok?" I say as I don't look back. Emma froze as I rush the wolves but was too weak to attack and fell in efforts of doing so. The wolves as desperate as they attacked Emma and me. All I heard were her screams as she gets mauled, the wolves were ripping my meat apart. I scream in pain for a brief moment, not too long after the wolves begin to whimper in pain. They ran away as arrows get shot. 

I open my eyes and see Emma's body. My eyes began to water as tears flow out of my eyes. 

"Azrael, please run and live for me..." Emma mutters as her breath fades.

My eyes widen, before I lose consciousness, I whisper.

"This world is cruel..."

"I found the source of energy, looks like he is with a little girl. He's savable, but the girl looks like she could die at any moment." A man says as they find Azrael and Emma.

"It's fine, he'll do. I just need him...I am certain, he is the one." An old man can be heard.

"He is the one" The old man whispers as he grins.