In the cloudless night sky, a full moon with a cold glow illuminated a city forgotten in time.
With some tall buildings reaching toward the sky, old in appearance and with dense vegetation growing all over their structures, the place was dominated by a thick forest of pines and cedars that occupied much of the ground.
Alongside these trees, large fallen structures and open areas formed the environment, with some plains of tall grass interrupting the dense vegetation.
In one of these areas, a large group of beasts, more than thirty of them, rested.
Similar to bison due to the fur growing all over their bodies, but of much larger size, they formed a circle with their heads turned toward the woods and buildings surrounding them, creating protection for the younger ones in the center.
However, even in formation, the beasts ruminated with soft breaths and heavy eyelids, resting in the tranquil environment composed of crickets and the swaying of leaves. Meanwhile, in the center of that circle, the younger individuals slept lying on the grass.
But, breaking this peace, a strange silence struck the place, with the insects stopping their singing and the breezes ceasing completely.
The giant bison, noticing this sudden change, opened their eyes and began to scan everything around them, agitated.
Among them, the largest of the group, with a size superior to an African elephant, calmly opened its eyes and snorted strongly.
Something that made the others, as soon as they heard that sound, calm down, though they still remained alert.
With that, the leader began to look around, at the dark woods surrounding them.
While still doing so, snorting again, a strong cold breeze hit the group and the surrounding trees, making them sway. At that moment, in the movement of a branch full of leaves, something white, as if it were snow, illuminated by the moonlight, caught its attention.
Understanding what it was, bellowing with a hoarse and thick grunt that in no way resembled a bison, it informed about the threat.
Responding to the warning, the beasts around it began to prepare, with their large bodies closing the spaces between them and the younger ones in the center standing up.
Shortly after, with slow steps, a slender and white creature emerged from between the trees, entering the plain.
It was thin, with a terrible scar on its face and a body covered in still-recent sunburns, evident on its pale skin. But what most drew attention to it were two characteristics: a poorly developed arm and a mouth from which its teeth protruded.
Stopping in the middle of the tall grass, with a completely black gaze, it observed the group of bison in front of it.
As soon as they received the gaze of this creature, feeling its presence, a strong agitation hit the group, with ears and fur standing up, as well as wide-open eyes fixed on the wanderer.
The alpha, ignoring it momentarily, looked at the surrounding forest, searching for something more among the leaves.
"..."
But, finding nothing, it turned back to the humanoid, which still remained stopped in the same place.
Taking the lead, it took a few heavy steps toward the threat, but without straying far from its group, it stopped a few meters away from them. There, lowering its head, it pointed its horns at the humanoid and began to shake its head while snorting, stamping its hooves on the ground, producing the sound of dry impacts that echoed through the forest.
However, observing that, the humanoid remained calm.
Even though it was tall, with not much difference between the two, it was thin, with long and slender limbs, to the point of seeming that with the slightest impact they would break.
The alpha, after a few minutes demonstrating strength, understanding that the creature would not back away, decided to charge in its direction.
Even being a great mass of muscles and fur, its speed was surprising. Cutting through the air and grass, it approached the creature in a few seconds, but at the last moment, the humanoid dodged its body to the side, spinning it.
Passing straight through, like an out-of-control train, the bison entered the forest and knocked down several trees before finally managing to stop.
The humanoid, after quickly glancing at the animal trapped by some trees, turned back to the group, still in formation in front of it, toward the smaller ones in the center of the circle.
Taking a step forward, it sank its foot into the ground before launching itself toward the group.
In response, quickly and in an organized manner, three other animals emerged from that circle and immediately set off to intercept it.
The first of this group, far ahead of the others, lowered its head to hit the humanoid, which, pulling its arm back, returned with full force, colliding against the beast's skull.
Right at the impact, a loud crack echoed through the forest, as if it were a gunshot, but without stopping, the bison continued advancing. Overpowered, the humanoid was pushed back, leaving marks from its feet in the soil in two small furrows.
Wanting to gain distance, it jumped away, but was soon surrounded by the three, as well as by the Alpha, which had already freed itself from the trees.
Looking at its wounded hand, where dark blood dripped over its white skin, and feeling fatigue weighing on its body, the creature stood still there.
The four, without wasting time, lowering their heads, ran toward the humanoid, trying to crush it.
But, looking ahead, the creature ran toward one of them, pulling its arm back again, preparing an attack, only to bring it forward toward the bison's skull. However, this time, at the last instant, it reduced the arm's speed and grabbed the animal's head, jumping over it.
In the next moment, the four crashed their heads into each other, producing another crack in that forest, but stronger than the previous one.
While they were still dazed from the impact, the humanoid headed toward the group, from which three more emerged.
But these, noticeably smaller than the previous ones, were easily ignored, with the humanoid dodging their charges.
As it approached the circle, which closed with its presence, it jumped over that wall of muscles and horns, landing in the middle of it, where the calves were. Before it could react, one of the calves, which were the size of a young cow, was caught with a bite to its spine, making it bellow.
With the defense broken, the larger bison made space for the other calves to move away, but, taking advantage of that gap, still carrying the small bison, the humanoid used one of those openings to escape from the middle.
Moving away quickly, it ran into the forest, however, already recovered, the alpha pursued it closely.
Not only that, favored by the open field, snorting with rage, it reduced the distance between the two more and more.
Accelerating its pace, Scar managed to enter the midst of the woods, but even so, it had to maintain the same speed, for, devastating everything in front of it, the Alpha bison continued behind it, knocking down the trees in its path.
Something that was made difficult by the creature itself, which sought to pass through the tangles of trees.
Finally, after dozens of them knocked down, the alpha was halted.
With a strong bellow, but which more resembled a roar, the alpha watched the creature flee with one of its calves.
...
Some time later, inside a fallen structure of some building, throwing a rib onto a mountain of bloodied bones, the humanoid ate its prey.
While feeding, with the sound of its teeth tearing the flesh and scraping the bones, it stayed with its back to the mountain of remains. There, its wounds began to release steam and its musculature starting to grow more and more.
***
Inside an ancient sewer system, in some part of the underground in the city center, a thin layer of crystalline water trickled over the stones of the old canal.
There, the sound of the water's gentle movement was punctuated by the screeching of bats hanging from roots invading the place, as well as by the scuttling of cockroaches and the sounds of rats living on the ground. But, breaking through that, the sound of something large moving over the water alerted everyone.
Sensing danger, the rats and cockroaches ran to hide in the cracks and holes in that canal, while the bats, detaching from the ceiling, took flight, forming a dense cloud.
Flying toward the exit, they passed around the source of the noise, enveloping it, only for a humanoid with a Scar on its face to emerge from that cloud a few seconds later.
Unlike before, it had thicker musculature that helped partially hide its bones, which previously outlined over its skin.
However, it still had some wounds, like its sunburns that remained strong on its skin, and just as before, its poorly developed arm was the same, with a size similar to that of a normal human.
Ignoring all those beings, Scar followed in the same direction as the water current, amid complete darkness.
Inside those tunnels, after a short time, upon turning a corner, it reached a section where one of its walls had a failure, with crumbled bricks scattered on the ground. In that space, opening directly onto a gray rock, there was a narrow passage leading to a cave.
As it approached, a strong fetid odor of excrement and rotten blood hit it, and reacting to its approach, a large white hand gripped one of the rock's edges.
Emerging from inside, another humanoid as large as it stopped right at the entrance. It was thin, with a body covered in claw marks and deep wounds.
But it wasn't so different from Scar, for similarly, it had one arm larger than the other, though in different proportions, since one of them dragged on the ground and the other had a normal size.
Seeking the source of the sound that alerted it outside, it quickly noticed the intruder and, aggressively, bared its teeth, which resembled those of a baboon.
But, with steps in a steady rhythm, Scar continued approaching.
With a growl, the humanoid began to clench its fists, preparing to attack, but upon receiving only a gaze, it froze where it stood, while all its spirit vanished.
As Scar stopped in front of it, snapping out of it, it quickly lowered its head and made space to pass, remaining that way until it entered the cave.
Passing through an initially narrow corridor, it gradually widened, making passage easier, but at the same time, large piles of bones and excrement began to appear in the middle of the path.
Moreover, the odor that was at the entrance was nothing compared to what was there, for it mingled with the smell of sweat and urine.
Dodging these piles, it continued until reaching a point where that passage opened into a large crater, dozens of meters in circumference.
There, among skeletons and carcasses, dozens of malnourished humanoids, with their bones perfectly outlined over their skins full of claw wounds, huddled near the walls.
In one of those corners, a group of females surrounded a pile with several dead cubs, among them, at the top of the mountain of bodies, there was one with a poorly developed arm and super-developed dentition.
Gradually noticing its presence, in an awkward manner, producing grunts and growls at the intruder, they huddled near the edges of the cave, pushing one another.
Without caring about that, Scar continued on its way, toward the center of that underground cavity.
There, a large humanoid, larger than any other, ate the rotten and disfigured carcass of some animal.
Even from behind, it was noticeable that, unlike the humanoids around it, it was the one that ate the most, for it had apparent musculature and a body without any wounds.
Upon noticing its approach, it stopped eating while letting out an impatient grunt.
Turning its head, it found Scar standing a few meters away; as soon as it saw it, its eyes widened, but soon a macabre smile appeared on its face.
Dropping the carcass, it supported its hand on the ground to stand up, revealing a body reminiscent of a gorilla, but at the tips of its long fingers, long claws similar to those of a hawk dragged on the ground for a moment as it moved.
Finishing, it began to walk calmly, and a bit awkwardly, toward Scar, but as soon as it felt the completely black gaze coming from it, its steps faltered.
Even being larger than it, and better fed, it knew that gaze well. With fear, by instinct, the gorilla humanoid took a step back.
As soon as that happened, the humanoids observing the two, noticing this weakness, stopped showing aggression toward Scar, turning toward the leader.
With confused and suspicious gazes, some of them beginning to stand up, though still a bit indecisive.
Irritated, the leader roared at those around it, but even so, they continued looking at it. Which made it turn back to its opponent and, puffing out its chest—something that revealed a large scarred cut there—beat on it with its fists, just like a gorilla.
But, before that scene, motionless, Scar observed it with a cold gaze.
Without effect, the Alpha advanced toward the opponent, attacking with its arm in a horizontal movement.
Taking a step back, Scar saw the tips of its claws pass near its eyes while dodging.
Without giving time for a counterattack, the alpha advanced and, with the other fist closed, raised its arm and tried to crush its opponent.
This made it retreat, jumping away, while the fist hit the pure rock, breaking it into hundreds of pieces along with a boom.
Taking advantage of that distancing, the alpha tried to roar again, to demonstrate strength, but Scar advanced before it could begin, closing the distance between the two in a few seconds.
Without much time to defend itself, it raised its two arms and placed them in front of its body, forming a wall of muscles and flesh covering the upper part of its body.
Scar, without caring, clenching its fist, struck that mass and broke through it, destroying one of the edges of the alpha's forearm, to the point of revealing part of the bones.
"ARRRGGGHHHH"
With a scream of pain, it opened its defense and attacked Scar to push it away, with a horizontal attack, something that worked, since it jumped away.
Dazed, falling to its knees, the alpha looked at its wound, where a good amount of blood dripped, but it was possible to see that, at a surprising speed, it was already regenerating.
Raising its gaze to Scar, which remained stopped in the same place, it bared its teeth with rage and charged toward it. With its arms, it tried to attack in every way with broad strikes—horizontal, vertical, and diagonal—but with short steps, it dodged its charges.
Until, in one of its horizontal attacks, preparing to dodge, Scar began to take a step back, but that was when it hit a wall.
Before it could react, with the claws already scraping the rock, the attack arrived.
Quickly raising its arm, Scar stopped the attack, but that was when it felt the Alpha had grabbed it.
With a victor's smile, moving the other arm back, it attacked aiming at its head, but an excruciating pain in its legs stopped it, as well as made it fall to the ground.
Before it could understand, it felt Scar step on its shoulder and, in sequence, rip off one of its arms.
"ARRRGGGHHHH"
Trying to stand, it turned its body and put force into its legs, but they didn't respond.
When it looked at its legs, it realized both were broken. That was when, turning to Scar's shins, it noticed blood on one of them, but it didn't belong to it.
At the moment it attacked with the second arm, it had kicked its legs and broken them.
Desperate, using the remaining arm, it tried to crawl away from there, while bleeding in large quantities, and in a slow but noticeable way by the steam rising from its wounds, it was already regenerating.
It tried to reach the carcass it had left aside in the center of the cave.
While doing so, without noticing, the humanoids that had been so distant before, with slow steps, began to approach.
Scar watched it try to reach it, but remained motionless, watching it act.
However, in its attempt, some humanoids stepped in front of it—not only that, it was completely surrounded by several of them.
Seeing the situation it was in, it tried to roar, but all that came out were desperate grunts before the humanoids attacked it.
With the other alpha dead, Scar passed by it while it was being devoured and by the rotten carcass, kicking it toward the smaller humanoids that were still at the edges of the cave observing the situation.
As soon as the carcass hit them, noticing the food, they attacked it.
Scar, without stopping its movement, went to one of the walls, where there was a small cave connected to the one it was in, but which had been closed with a rusted gate and stones placed to secure it.
Inside there, a being of human appearance, but completely decrepit, covered in wounds and with a worn mantle and clothes, was leaning against one of the walls.
With light breathing, it was still alive, but with a dead gaze, it observed the ceiling of that prison while holding a broken sword.