Tears welled up in Ryuu's eyes, the pain shooting across his entire arm.
Carried by adrenaline, he awkwardly maneuvered his way out from his bindings, slapping onto the ground below, causing the creature to halt, in awe at his prisoner's sudden escape.
It became enraged, taking a weapon out immediately as Ryuu stumbled to his feet.
In his disoriented state, he launched himself forward, perfectly slamming his head into the bridge of this creature's nose, sending it stumbling back in pain. Of course, due to him being powerless, the creature was left intact. It was still painful, but due to his supernatural presence, it resisted.
Ryuu pushed himself back, quickly attempting to find his knife in any pocket he had available. Luckily, the creature didn't bother looking for any weapons on his body.
Grabbing the knife, he quickly slid it across the bindings, keeping his legs together, just in time to bring his arms up to defend himself from the descending club of the ape-like monster before him. In that moment, he had attempted to stand up, quickly brought back into the earth below, sent reeling into the metal pipe as his bones creaked in pain from the impact of this ape's blow.
"Fuck!" Ryuu screamed out as a leg shot out, causing one of its feet to give out from under it, flopping directly onto Ryuu's body.
Ryuu, in a flash of desperation, wrapped his legs around the creature's head, trapping it in a triangle choke. He pressed hard against its body as it attempted to resist.
Ryuu's jaw tightened and the knife drew close to the creatures face, and as it had found itself in this chokehold, it had also found itself at the end of Ryuu's blade as he repeatedly ripped through it's skull, each strike against it's hardened skin causing reverberations to run through Ryuu's body causing his hands to shiver in response. It was almost as if he were striking at stone or metal.
Finally, the creature had gone limp in his grasp.
Ryuu went limp as well, kicking the monster's corpse away from him, causing it to ragdoll into the metal floor below. Suddenly, pain shot through Ryuu's entire body, causing him to whimper and moan, tears in his eyes as he clasped his broken thumb and mangled fingers.
Ryuu began to cry, all his emotions welling into a dribbling mess. In his mind, he begged, begged for any sort of salvation.
Once again, he is met with silence, just as he was met with silence before.
Ryuu broke into a rage, slashing at the walls, slamming his hand against the metal cage he found himself surrounded by. Ryuu suddenly snapped to the other end of the tunnel, seeing a small bit of light peaking through.
Assuming that this was where he came from, he began walking, praying that his handmade backpack remained intact.
Of course, nothing is simple. The bag was completely torn open, the flesh of the beast thrown about haphazardly through the pipe of this estate, bitten into, infected, the meat ruined. Ryuu whimpered slightly at the sight and began to at the very least salvage the pelt of the beast, dragging it alone as he proceeded into the pipe, as it appeared to be his only means of escape for now.
Ryuu dragged what remained of the pelt along with him as he made his way deeper into the underground of the monastery he was in beforehand.
His body was exhausted, shaking from the pain radiating from his injured thumb. Eventually, he couldn't stand the feeling any longer, stopping mid walk, giving a longing stare to his now dislocated finger.
He took a few steady breaths before grabbing the bruised thumb, wincing, arm tensing as he readied himself for the inevitable.
A moment passed, closing his eyes as he tightened the grip around his thumb and then-- POP! Ryuu's body gave out from under him, causing him to stumble into the metal walls that surrounded him. His hand still felt weak, but it was better than the previous situation of his thumb, his breath shaking steadily.
Ryuu sat there for nearly an hour, attempting to recollect his bearings.
He stumbled to his feet, limping the remainder of his way through the tunnels of this underground labyrinth of metal and rust.
***
Ryuu's attention landed on what looked to be some unknown glowing plants growing out from the rusted pipes like some sort of foreign fungi, appearing mostly where the path split. Ryuu felt attracted towards the light, feeling some semblance of safety that he hadn't felt since he had arrived in this world.
He continued down the pipe, following the glowing patches hanging from the walls. Eventually, he reached an alcove, stone, surrounding a pool of water that reflected the crystals and plants that appeared throughout this cave, giving off an iridescent glow.
Ryuu stumbled over to the pool before him, sitting himself beside it, taking off his shoes, feet aching from the constant abuse since he had arrived here. Ryuu swallowed hard, pulling the socks off his feet, flesh peeling away in response, the threads almost completely stained red. He looked at the sores that sat on his skin, caked in red liquids.
Ryuu looked to the water with a doubtful expression, turning away, regret visible on his face.
"What do I even do...?"
Ryuu looked to the cave's ceiling, inhaling in and out, slowly, attempting to squeeze out as much rest as he could during this small moment of respite.
Ryuu began looking around, feeling anxious at the extended silence. He swallowed and sighed, sifting his hand through the pool of water that sat before him. He watched as the liquid rippled against his touch, the glow from beneath caused by the expanding glowing plants deep within its trench.
"I need a pot..." Ryuu stood up, choosing not to put back on his shoes and socks before heading out.
Ryuu knew it would be dangerous, but he felt like he didn't have much of a choice. Setting out, looking for any signs of life, hoping that he might find some metal he could repurpose into a pot or pan. He hoped he'd find one of those apes from before, maybe a camp.
He could at the very least prevent himself from dying against something in front of him, compared to a more insidious parasite that would've grown and harmed him from the inside out.
Time passed, and Ryuu eventually happened upon remnants of a camp, surely a camp of one of those apes he had encountered earlier. He followed what looked to be a trail down the pipes of the underground, stepping carefully across the contorted metal bits—it was inconsistent, smooth metal with rusted edges, sometimes stones poking out from the outside of the pipes themselves, altering the general environment it had created, almost as if the Earth itself was reintegrating the material back into its stoney mass.
The pipes opened up to a massive opening within this ever-connected cave system, a rocky formation structured into a makeshift stairway deeper into the deep black below.
For a time, he sifted through the darkness, moving as slowly as he could to not alert anything in the vicinity, making his way to a light amidst the darkness, reaching toward that ethereal orange glow. Even with his large stature, he still managed to use the shadows to his advantage, the sounds of celebration and conflict amongst these ape-like creatures muffling any noise he could've made from the movements of his clothes, or the labored breathing born from his strenuous, slower movements.
He licked his lips, getting a clearer view of the creatures as they scuffled about, their shadows cast upon the wall, some peaking out from behind cover here and there.
Ryuu got close enough to hug one of the shambled tents they had created, peaking out from behind the corner, watching as two Ape Creatures fought against each other in hand-to-hand combat as the others screeched at the two in a circle. One took a dirty wine flask they'd found, chugging it down before sauntering their way into the outer reaches of the camp, forcing Ryuu to pull his head away from view.
The ape hadn't noticed him, stumbling over the edge of the rock island they were situated on and falling onto their knees, letting out a shrill cackling sound before standing back up.
They straightened their back before relieving themselves onto the rocky face below, letting out a faint clicking sound.
Ryuu scanned his surroundings, realizing that they were situated far enough away from their allies.
Ryuu slipped a knife out from his back pocket and slowly approached, keeping his head down. Technically, these creatures were stronger than he was due to their magical nature-- that didn't change the fact that, in terms of weight, they couldn't even compare to something like a couch or a fridge. So, even if he couldn't deal with them the normal way, he could easily force them into his expertise, into his realm of fighting to give himself an advantage.
They were smaller than he was, at least, weighing no more than 200 pounds each. With one swift motion, he grabbed the ape from behind and threw them down the steps, knocking the wind out of the creature as it violently slapped against the Earth below.
Ryuu ripped off his coat, shoving it into the creature's mouth as he mounted its body, causing an instinctive reaction as it began to slash and fight against its current oppressor. Ryuu managed to slip the entire coat around the creature's head, prompting it to begin attempting to rip at the cloth, preventing its main method of assault.
Ryuu placed his full weight onto the Ape-like creature, taking the knife in his off-hand and digging it into the carotid artery. Bruises meant nothing if he could put these filthy beasts in their place, repeatedly digging into the thick flesh of the creature, causing streams of maroon to paint the cave walls.
Ryuu couldn't familiarize himself with the feeling of killing a living thing, but each time he began to fall into this weakness, he took a deep breath and remembered his sister, left behind in the real world.
Ryuu lifted himself off the ground, hands caked in ever-drying crimson, jaw tightened with a grim expression of determination shown across his face. During the time of his scuffle, the Apes at the camp had begun to disperse, one of them dead on the ground, head concaved by what looked to be a rock of sorts.
Ryuu took his nearly ripped coat from school, wrapping it tightly between both hands, and he approached the makeshift tents once more, keeping a close eye on the creatures, hardly paying attention to their surroundings, immersed in their own celebratory activities.
The large, young man slowly immersed himself in the darkness once more.
Ryuu says to himself by the tunnel that led him here, watching the light flicker away from afar before cupping his mouth with both hands and screaming as loud as he can.
The creatures whipped their heads around at the sudden, sharp sound that echoed throughout the nearly empty cave. They immediately went on alert, grabbing their spears and knives, throwing haphazard wooden gear over their shoulders.
They all slowly marched deeper into the darkness, one of their companions lighting a torch, leading the way amongst the group.
Ryuu, whose eyes had adjusted to the darkness by now, made a wide berth from the group, circling to the very back, watching as they rounded into the pipe, one by one. Ryuu entered their encampment, scanning for anything that he could take that was left behind, a cocked brow all the while, carefully stepping from one chunk of Earth to the other. All he could find was the bare minimum-- trash that he could never utilize to its full effectiveness, the most he could make use of would be maybe the stick of a spear, which he took without hesitation.
After another thorough scanning of the camp before him, his gaze landed on a nearby pot, larger than he would've liked, but it would do.
He wrapped the heated metal with his coat, picking it up and pulling it away from the fire, dumping anything inside off and onto the floor. After everything had been dumped, he used the cloth of his coat as a form of protection, gripping the lid of the pot, dragging it behind him, making another wide berth from the tunnels, hoping to make it back into the glowing alcove from before.
Ryuu sat himself down, about a meter away from the metal pipe, waiting for the Apes' return.
An hour passed as they funneled out from within, heading back to their camp, Ryuu quickly slipping back into the pipe after they had all left, hurrying his way back to safety. Ryuu set the pot down with a sigh and slowly began setting up a fire pit to balance the cooking appliance onto.
Ryuu groaned as he sat himself back down again, resting on a jutting rock on the wall, fiddling with the shoddily crafted spear that sat within his grasp.
Ryuu shook his head, swallowing hard as the shard of what looked to be flint, loosely tied against an exceptionally long stick. His jaw tightened for a moment before breaking out into a long, drawn-out yawn. The stress of today was catching up to him, and the exhaustion was weighing down on his body.
Ryuu cursed under his breath before undoing the makeshift weapon altogether.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a scratching noise invaded him from the left, whipping his head to look at the source of the noise.
An Ape was leaning in from the pipe outside.