HA\LF: Dead nor Alive

“You know I can still feel pain, right? Why don’t you just keep quiet and don’t bother me anymore with all this pain that I have been feeling, like forever…” Archie mumbled as he hugged himself in a pitch-black room with no exit.

Archie never knew how long he has been in that condition but it affected the way he think and how he expressed his emotion. He knew that he would be in that condition for eternity which made him hopeless and started to have scary and terrifying thoughts.

Archie’s ears rang and it made him so uncomfortable and this was the first time he felt that. He looked around in a pitch-black room as if he was hoping that he could see at least something.

“It hurts… stop it…” As Archie covered his ears and pressed them with all his strength.

The ringing in his ears won’t stop and he started to scream and shout as he tried to endure the pain, but then the ringing sound disappeared and he heard something faintly. He tried to close his eyes to concentrate to hear it again while he tilted his head, “Io… han…” Archie tilted his head more and started to furrow his forehead, “Iohann…”

Archie furrowed his forehead and looked down to his right as he tried to say what he heard, “Iohann?”

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The projector screen suddenly appeared in front of Archie, it slowly lightened up and he saw a man talking to him. He had no idea who that person is, a muscular guy with red-brown hair wearing a uniform with a sword on his back. Archie stared at him for quite a while and still had no idea who that person is, but then the image changed, this time he saw a hand holding a dog tag with a name carved on it, Iohann AnGust.

The projector screen disappeared and immediately the whole room went bright white, Archie’s pupils shrunk as he remembered everything. Iohann AnGust, Elendra Faye, Flavius AnGust, Aster Falier, Professor Larsen, and other names that he knew. His body was getting sucked out by some kind of force while his chest felt a heavy pressure that he felt like he was about to blow up into pieces.

Archie was out of breath but the pressure on his chest was getting heavier and heavier that he almost passed out. Suddenly he felt a breeze wind coming from around him, he slowly opened his eyes and see the scenery around him. The tall and sharp grasses were surrounding him, he looked around and realized that he was in the middle of the jungle. He remembered the last moment that happened to him and when he tried to clench his fist, something blocked his palm from clenching it.

“Iohann…” Archie looked at the name tag on his palm.

Archie knew that this wasn’t a dream and he finally gained his body back, he fell to his knees while he cried because he remembered everything and how they died. He wiped the endless tears that came out of his eyes as he sobbed hysterically because he was saddened and relieved at the same time.

As he cried out loud he heard roars coming from behind him, Archie immediately frozen solid as he slowly turned his eyes toward the roars that came from. He couldn’t tell what are coming toward him but he knew for sure there are 5 parasites coming toward him.

“I should run away from this place as soon as possible…” As Archie ran away as fast as he could into the trees to avoid encountering the parasites. Every time he pushed his hand onto the tree trunks, it bent, every time he grabbed them, it crushed. He ran faster than those parasites that were chasing him. He didn’t realize that he has now become as strong as the Axis human, his strength alone could handle parasites on his own.

Archie looked back and checked on his surroundings, he didn’t get exhausted or even out of breath after he sprinted for 15 minutes straight.

“Why? Why now?!” As he realized that he made a huge mistake by running to a new area. He knew about this because of years of training with the VST and the knowledge that Iohann told him. As he expected, he just entered a different territory where dozens of parasites lurked around him.

Archie stealthily walked backward to hug the tree but his nape felt a chill and noticed something hid and stared at him waiting for an opening. He glared from the corner of his eyes and see a long and thick tongue wrapped around the tree trunk with the trunk covered with saliva. Archie slowly looked up and see a pair of glowing yellow eyes focused on him.

A long-nosed parasite like a wolf with two pairs of arms and legs leaped at him with its long claws ready to stab his head. Archie rolled over and managed to avoid his death, he ran without looking back because there was no time for him to look at the parasite’s appearance.

Archie’s pupils shrunk as he kept sprinting forward but then suddenly his eyes throbbed and something big appeared in front of his face. He tried to block it with both of his hands but he got thrown away and hit the tree. He fell down and he couldn’t feel his body after that hit, he looked around and saw another parasite walking toward him, a gigantic deformed human being with two left arms, “Ex-Axis Human?! No… it’s just a normal parasite, I can still make it out…”

Before Archie could stand up, something hit him from behind. The tree that he was leaning on got destroyed and he was thrown away again. The gigantic human punched him down to the ground while he was still in the air.

Archie crushed his landing and he couldn’t move this time. He looked at the long-tongue parasite that looked like a werewolf in the fairy tale he read in the famous very old book. He knew that those two parasites weren’t planning on eating him, they were threatened by his presence as if he was a part of them as parasites. Parasites would do a turf war when a parasite went to one or the other territory. He knew but at the same time, he didn’t want to believe that he has become one like them.

Archie tried to move his right arm but realized that his right arm bent to the other side and all his fingers broke. He didn’t know when his right arm and fingers broke, but when he looked at his left arm, it was in the same condition as well, “This must be because I blocked that attack from earlier.” As he felt shocked when he looked at his condition those two parasites already stood next to him and started to tear him apart.

One thing that Archie realized was that he was used to the pain, and on the other hand, his body was strong and sturdy enough to not tear apart from those parasites’ attacks. He pulled both of his arms from those parasites and tried to fix both of his arms and fingers. The tingling feeling that he felt from fixing his bones was quite an experience, then once he thought he fixed them up enough, he started to fight back.

Archie climbed to the human parasite’s back and tried to punch his face with his bare fists. The other parasite pounced at him but Archie jumped off of the human parasite’s back and made those two tackle each other. With that opportunity, Archie ran away into the deep of the jungle while those two parasites fought each other.

When Archie thought he was safe, something cold and wet touched his shoulder. He looked up and saw a parasite hanging down, a gecko looked-like parasite with saliva fell down and stared down at him then tried to pounce on him. He rolled over and dodged the parasite, but when he tried to get up on his feet, the parasite wrapped him with its tongue. The parasite started making a clicking sound, informing the other parasites to come toward it.

As Archie tried to free himself from the parasite, he looked around and see a sword stabbed into the tree trunk. An old rusty sword that might not be able to pierce or cut anything with that condition, but he decided to walk over there to grab it.

The parasite tried to pull Archie toward it but Archie’s lower strength matched or was even stronger than the parasite’s tongue. Unfortunately, the grip was so strong that he couldn’t even move his upper body. He looked down at the rotten tongue and gulped with a disgusted expression, “There’s no other way… right?” Archie then bit the tongue and ripped a small chunk of the tongue, the parasite loosened its grip and he used the chance to free himself from its tongue.

Archie ran toward the sword and pulled it out, “Come here you fuck!” As Archie swung the sword and glared at the parasite in front of him.