All eyes turned towards the depths of the classroom. Distantly, they heard sounds. Heavy thuds, and the groan of metal straining and wood creaking. Crashes and screeches, as if something was rampaging through the classroom with wild abandon.

  And it was getting louder.

  Every hair on Flynn’s body stood on end in warning. His fingers tightened around his bow.

  “That doesn't sound good.” remarked phone-boy as he retreated several steps.

  Flynn heartily agreed. Every muscle in his body was tense with expectation as he warily raised his bow towards the sound.

  He remembered what the tooltip had said. Mana bow. Would stringing it be enough to create the arrow?

  Well, no better time to learn than the present.

  A second later, a bush of paperclips exploded, showering them with little pellets of metal. Flynn shielded himself from the hail. It stung but nothing more, thankfully, and as he recovered, he found his gaze drawn to the figure that’d erupted into their view.

  He swallowed thickly at the sight of it.

  It was... a monster by every definition of the word.

  The creature resembled an aberrant cross between a gorilla and a man with its weight rested forwards on two log-like arms wider than he was, whilst its legs were shorter and stockier. Its back sloped up from its much lower hips to a thick, wide chest below a squat head. Eyes as black as coal sat indented into an eerily human-like face above a small nose and a large, gaping maw lined with shark-like teeth.

  Teeth it seemed happy enough to show off.

  The creature lacked fur, and its skin was the same peachy-white complexion as Flynn. Scraps of a cloth-like material hung loosely over its frame, as if it’d worn actual clothes before time and ill-use had worn it all away into scrap.

  Flynn heard a gasp from phone-boy and a muffled ‘eep’ from one of the girls as the group fully took in its appearance. Eustace was frozen where he stood and for once, he couldn’t blame him. Even the two bullies looked absolutely terrified.

  And Flynn?

  He was fucking afraid, obviously. He’d have to have been insane not to be considering the situation, but more apparent than that was an undercurrent of something else. A bubbling, nervous feeling that tingled as it flooded his limbs.

  It took him a moment to recognize it for what it was.

  Excitement. A monster. A real, living monster. His fingers danced along the bowstring even as a smile slowly wormed across his lips. He... he looked forward to the fight. To the challenge. To the unexpected danger.

  Was he crazy?

  A day ago, the answer would’ve been an annoyed scoff. Now? He couldn’t be so sure.

  Whatever. There were more important things to focus on, like the thing stood before him. It was quiet. Its eyes swept over them slowly, languidly, as if it had all the time in the world to pick the choicest cut from amongst them.

  “What the fuck is that?!” whispered one of the girls harshly.

  “Trouble.” replied Flynn evenly.

  The creature snorted, as if it’d heard him and agreed. It took a heavy step forward, and the group immediately flinched away. It laughed at their fear, a guttural, bestial sound that sent chills crawling up his spine.

  It took another step, and they retreated similarly. It laughed again.

  It was messing with them, he realized. Playing, as if they were toys.

  “Fuck.” swore Corey, the boy’s fists clenched so tight around his brass-knuckles that they were almost bone-white. Flynn scrunched his nose and dared to glance at his surroundings. He was looking for something, anything, that might prove to be a possible way out other than the obvious, but there were none. They were at a corner of the room, and the only escape was towards the creature.

  And it knew it. Its lips stretched wide in a mocking leer.

  A problem that the others seemed to have realized too. “Someone’ll need to distract it.” said Gunner, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

  “What?” whispered one of the girls, her tone cutting.

  “Someone needs to distract it.” repeated the bully evenly. “Keep it busy so that the rest of us can run.”

  “That’s fuckin’ crazy.” said not-phone-boy with gritted teeth. “Who’d wanna face up against that thing?”

  “Someone, or we’re all dead. Ya’ll know it. The only way out is past it.”

  They did, and it was, but no one was insane enough to volunteer themselves for a suicide mission. They were high-schoolers, not soldiers, though as he considered the prospect, Flynn found himself not entirely unwilling to take on the burden. Fuck. He really was crazy.

  Still, he said nothing, and neither did anyone else.

  The silence weighed down on them like a palpable weight on their shoulders, and each passing second felt like hours crawling by.

  Finally, it was Corey who spoke.

  “Fine.” spat the bully. Flynn flashed the boy a look of genuine surprise. Was he stepping up? That would be a surprising amount of character development for a guy he’d assumed was a one-dimensional moron.

  “I volunteer the little bitch.” he snarled, his eyes boring into Eustace’s head. “He’s the biggest pussy here, and the most useless. Might as well let him step up for once in his life, right?”

  Flynn blinked, before he loosed a tired breath. Of course. Of course.

  Why’d he even try and give the idiot the benefit of the doubt?

  The students all gaped at his ruthless logic, except for Flynn and Eustace himself who looked like his legs were barely managing to keep him stood upright.

  “Real noble of you.” remarked Flynn cuttingly.

  “Fuck off. It’s the truth. Unless any of you wanna step up instead?”

  No takers, though phone-boy seemed to have an argument on his lips. A defence of Eustace, maybe? Or an agreement? Whatever it’d been, it was wiped away by the roar that sent a fresh wave of goosebumps crawling down their skin. The monster lunged forward, and the group slammed their backs against the walls to their backs.

  One of the girls hit it so hard she knocked the air from her lungs and almost lost her balance. The monster laughed again, its palms slapping against the tiled floor with mirth.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Phone-boy had no argument after that, and too many eyes turned towards Eustace, fear and self-preservation surmounting decency. The teen himself hadn’t said a word in his own defence. He looked like he was barely able to breathe. Tears freely fled down his face and a patch of darkness trickled down the leg of his jeans.

  “Move it, fucker! We ain’t got any time left!” barked Corey.

  “I-I can’t. I can’t!” cried Eustace. “I’ll die! Flynn tell them! I’ll die!”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” snarled Flynn, his stare icy-cool against Corey’s heat. “I have a better plan.”

  “What?” asked Gunner, his eyes narrowed.

  “We attack it.” he said as softly as he could. “There’s eight of us, and all of you saw your character sheets. Whatever’s going on, it gave us magic. Spells. Weapons. We use them to beat this thing.”

  “Weapons? All I have are brass knuckles! He has a fucking keyboard! You want us to go toe-to-toe with that thing with just that, you crazy fuck?! And even if that spell shit was possible, we don’t know how t-”

  The monster roared again. Maybe it’d grown tired of playing, or maybe it’d overheard the moron’s yelling. Either way, it charged. Spittle flew from its lips and its eyes promised a quick and painful end for anything it caught in its massive hands.

  Flynn drew back the drawstring on the wings of instinct. He didn’t know if it’d work. He didn’t know if it was even truly possible, despite everything he’d seen thus far, but he poured his everything into the motion.

  And something tingled in answer. The slightest flutter of a sensation beyond words bloomed his gut as soon as he’d pulled the drawstring back as far as it could go, and a simple arrow came into being between his fingers. Flynn had no time to gawk at the evidence of magic manifest. He took his aim in the span of a single second, his breath even, and then loosed.

  The arrow flew soundlessly and found purchase on the creature’s shoulder with a meaty thwack. Flynn swore. He’d been aiming for its face, but it’d been too long since he’d last practiced. Still, damage had been dealt. The creature roared with pain, but it was far from crippled, and all the pain did was make it charge even faster.

  Flynn immediately erupted into motion; his hand wrapped around Eustace’s wrist, and he dragged the frozen boy out of the creature’s way. And just in time. He glanced back. The group had all scattered, any idea of resistance lost in the face of its monstrous figure.

  All of them except for one girl, too scared to move.

  Flynn’s eyes widened as he watched the monster bear down on her. Time seemed to slow down in those last few moments before impact, and in the gulf between each second, he could see the fear blooming across her face. Her terror as it wrapped her body in a vice-grip. He could see the realization in her eyes as death neared. His heart lurched.

  The monster crashed into the girl’s body and slammed her into the wall. The sound of the impact resounded across the room. For a moment afterwards, all was still. The group had backed away a good distance, and all of them watched the scene with wide eyes. The monster groaned; its steps staggered as it stumbled back, revealing the gruesome figure of the girl. Or what remained of her.

  Her head was mush, her body mangled beyond recognition, pulped in places and twisted in others. She was... she wasn’t her anymore, whoever she’d been. Just a corpse now. Flynn swallowed thickly. He heard Eustace throw up beside him, and another boy scream in terror.

  Flynn grit his teeth, his blood turned cold. The monster was recovering. It turned to them with his arrow still protruding from its shoulder and blood and viscera from the girl dripping from its chest. Its eyes swept across them all before it finally settled on him, and in those twin black orbs, Flynn saw an animal's bestial hate. It roared with a primal fury before it charged again.

  Flynn turned on his heels and ran, Eustace still dragged behind him. He heard the others leg it too, though he didn’t really have the time to wonder where. The duo tore into the classroom, hurriedly navigating through its strange bends and twists even as the monster’s roars echoed on their heels. The going was tough considering the uneven terrain, and Eustace was only barely able to keep up with its demands. Still, the boy did, somehow.

  That was something.

  They leapt above protruding desk legs, dipped under leathery vine-like tendrils of bound bag-handles and swerved around spiky bushes of pencils.

  All the while his heart thundered in his chest and his blood sang through his veins, but the smallest hint of a smile pulled at his lips. He was in grave danger, he knew. Someone had literally just died, he knew. Nothing made sense anymore, he knew.

  But some part of him, a part that stood above the fear and the panic... was having fun. Flynn couldn't spare the energy to consider why. Instead, he dipped into a recessed crevice into the wall and pulled Eustace inside with him. The creature’s roars were still on their heels, but distant. Strong as it was, they were faster. They could outrun it. Or he could.

  Eustace looked like he was close to death.

  The boy sucked in deep, ragged breaths, his keyboard still gripped in his hand, before he rose to lock eyes with Flynn.

  "You okay, man?”

  His friend didn’t answer. It looked like he hadn’t even really heard him speak. His eyes were frantic, distant. They only widened again when the monster’s roar echoed near them. He flinched. Flynn heard it rumbling into the area. He’d need to lead it away. Eustace was too much of a liability, and he didn’t lool he could tolerate another chase anyway.

  Alone, he could fr-

  Flynn felt a push from behind. He let out a soft grunt as he stumbled into the open, just as the monster stomped into view. Its eyes locked onto him, but Flynn was focused instead onto Eustace’s face. Pale. Full of fear and surprise at what he’d just done before he slunk back into the dark of the crevice.

  The little shit had... thrown him out. Like bait. As if their years long friendship had meant... nothing.

  He...

  Flynn could hardly process what’d just happened.

  And the monster wasn’t considerate enough to give him that time either. It was on the move as soon as it saw him, and Flynn was forced to break into a run.

  The fucking monster was on his tail. He couldn’t think of Eustace. Think of the betrayal. Think of the brimming rage in his gut. Survival mattered more right now. Though if he ever found the fucker again...

  The youth gripped his bow tight as he stopped and turned around and loosed an arrow. He was running again before he’d even confirmed a hit.

  The monster’s enraged shriek was confirmation enough.

  He tore through the alien landscape, the sound of its pursuit growing distant behind him.

  His muscles started to strain with exertion, but not as much as he’d expected. Maybe the core of all those years of body conditioning was still buried somewhere deep inside of him, because he could keep going. Not endlessly, but long enough to deal with the nuisance on his tail.

  Occasionally, Flynn would stop and take pot-shots at the creature, most of which scored hits all around its body. His aim was getting better, with most of the arrows bunched up near the monster’s shoulder. All he needed was a single shot a few inches to the side, and he figured that he could put it down in one.

  Fortunately, the monster seemed determined to give him that opportunity. The damage he’d dealt it had clearly slowed its pace, because it was minutes before it finally lumbered into view again. Red blood trickled freely down its body, mingling with the girl’s remains before it dripped onto the floor.

  It roared as soon as it caught sight of him again, though its voice was softer. Weaker. Flynn smiled and drew back his bow. The monster flinched; its eyes wide with fear as it recognized the danger. Still, maybe it was as too subordinate to his rage, or maybe it was too stupid to act on what its instincts were telling it. Whatever the truth, it didn’t dodge or try to run away. It charged head-first towards him, and right into his arrow. The projectile flew true this time and found its mark on the monster’s cheek. A spurt of blood erupted from its mouth, and its charge was arrested by the pain and shock the injury had dealt.

  The creature stumbled, the momentum of its charge carrying its lower half up into the air until it’d flipped and rolled into a desk with a thunderous clang. A shower of wood shards and broken metal covered the area, though Flynn was clear enough from its radius that he was safe from the rain of debris.

  He pulled back his bow and aimed at the still body of the monster and unleashed another three arrows into its prone form. The first two earned a pained grunt and a quiver that swept across its body, but it was still for the third. He punched four more arrows into it just for good measure before he risked an approach.

  Rounding around it so that he could get a good look at its face, he found its eyes glassy and still. It was dead. He'd won. Flynn exhaled deeply.

  He’d killed the fucking thing, and without a scratch on him. Without even casting a single spell, which he only realized then that he’d not used. Not that he knew how to, though he had his ideas.

  Still, he’d won.

  You have earned a level

  1 >> 2

  And as he eyed the page that’s blinked into being, he thought that he might just well keep winning. Levels! His smile died as quickly as it’d come as Eustace’s face came roaring back into his mind’s eye. He glowered and started to trek back the way he’d come when a new roar swept the area.

  Flynn flinched before he swerved towards the figure of another monster bearing down on him. It was almost identical to the corpse he’d put down except for one noticeable difference. It was leaner, its muscles lithe and taut instead of the bulky mass of the other. It was still huge, and as it locked eyes with him, pitch black against silvery-blue, he saw the same promise of death in its gaze.

  He swore, before he steeled himself.

  Well, if nothing else, it was nice of his next level to show itself so quickly.