Luck blinked, his eyes slowly adjusting to the new, unfamiliar surroundings. He was no longer in his apartment. The worn armchair was gone, replaced by soft, springy grass. Above him, a sky he'd never seen before, painted with hues of purple and orange, stretched endlessly.
Towering trees, their leaves a vibrant, impossible green, reached towards the sky, their branches laden with blossoms that glowed with a soft, internal light. The air was sweet with the scent of unknown flowers, and a gentle breeze, unlike any he had ever felt, rustled through the leaves, carrying with it the faint melody of chimes.
He stood up, disoriented.
A profound realization settled over him, chilling him to the bone. The little boy, the watch, the strange encounter… it had all led to this. He was somewhere else. And he had no idea how to get back.
The gentle breeze shifted, carrying with it a new scent – something acrid and sickly sweet, like decaying fruit and stale blood. A low growl rumbled through the air, vibrating through the soles of his feet. His head snapped up. From the shadows beneath the luminous trees, something shifted.
It was large, hunched, and moved with an unnatural gait. Its skin seemed to ripple, a sickening mosaic of pale, diseased flesh and patches of matted, dark fur. Two vacant, milky eyes gleamed in the dim light, set in a disproportionately small head that jutted forward on a thick, corded neck.
This was an Abberant. It shuffled forward, its long, clawed fingers dragging on the ground, leaving shallow furrows in the soft grass. Though grotesque, it moved with a clumsy, almost starved urgency. Its growl escalated, a rasping cough that seemed to emanate from deep within its chest.
Luck's heart hammered against his ribs. Fear, cold and sharp, pierced through him, but a deeper instinct, a primal need to survive, surged to the forefront.
He wasn't armed. He wasn't strong. But he was here, and this… thing… was coming for him. He scanned his surroundings desperately. A broken branch, thick as his forearm, lay half-buried in the grass a few feet away. It was something. Anything. He still had the gleaming silver pocket watch with a delicate silver chain trailing from it, its cool weight a tangible reminder of the strange meeting.
The Abberant picked up its pace, its empty eyes fixed on him. Luck lunged for the branch, snatching it up.
The wood felt rough and solid in his grip, offering a meager comfort. He braced himself, sweat beading on his forehead, the strange watch still clutched in his other hand. He didn't know what this world was, or how he'd gotten here, but he knew one thing: he wasn't going down without a fight.
The creature lunged, a surprisingly swift burst of motion for its lumbering size. Luck sidestepped, the Abberant's claws tearing through the air where he'd been moments before. The stench of it, a mixture of decay and something metallic, filled his nostrils. He swung the branch awkwardly, a desperate, wild arc, and it connected with the creature's shoulder with a sickening thud. The
Abberant roared, a wet, guttural sound, stumbling back a step.
It recovered quickly, its milky eyes narrowing with what seemed like a primitive rage. It charged again, lower this time, aiming for his legs. Luck jumped, barely clearing its outstretched claws. As it passed beneath him, he brought the branch down again, this time aiming for its head.
The blow was solid, a crack echoing in the strange, silent air of this new world. The Abberant staggered, a whimper escaping its throat, and for a fleeting second, its movements became sluggish.
Luck saw his chance. He wasn't strong enough to overpower it, but perhaps he could outmaneuver it. He kept moving, circling the creature, striking whenever an opening appeared, each blow fueled by a desperate will to survive. The Abberant roared, swiped, and lunged, but Luck, surprisingly agile in his fear, dodged and weaved. He noticed a pattern in its attacks—a brief pause, a slight shift in weight before it struck. He began to anticipate.
He ducked under a wild swing that would have torn him in half, the wind of its passage ruffling his hair. As the Abberant overextended, Luck saw it—a vulnerable spot on its exposed side where the flesh seemed paler, almost translucent. He brought the branch down with all his might, a sharp, precise strike.
A horrifying shriek tore through the air as the Abberant recoiled, a patch of its diseased skin tearing. It stumbled back, its grotesque form trembling, its vacant eyes losing their malevolent gleam. It let out a series of pained, gasping whimpers, then turned, slowly, laboriously, and began to shamble back into the glowing shadows from which it had emerged, its horrifying form disappearing into the impossible green foliage.
Luck stood panting, the adrenaline slowly receding, leaving him weak and trembling. The branch slipped from his grasp, falling to the impossibly vibrant grass with a dull thud. He looked down at his hands, still shaking, and then at the gleaming silver pocket watch still clutched tight in his left hand. Its cool weight was a strange comfort, a tangible link to his old world, now so impossibly distant. He was alive. But he was utterly, terrifyingly alone in this new, beautiful, and dangerous world.
Luck tried to calm himself down after what he had just been through. A futile task. His heart was still beating rapidly as if it was on fire.
'What was that thing?' he thought. Countless questions forming up in his head when he saw something approaching him in the distance.
Luck instantly assumed a fighting stance thinking it was another terrible creature aiming to sink its claws in his flesh but to his surprise and relief, it wasn't an abomination. Instead it was a slender woman with striking black hair that flowed seamlessly on her back and dazzling jade eyes.
She wore a jacket that was made out of a material he didn't recognize and held a long curved sword in her hands.
"You..... are very very lucky boy"
She gave him a playful smile before introducing herself.
"My name is Valderi, an awakened master and I assume you did not want to be here"