Chapter 2

Inside the gate it was significantly darker than it had been outside, there were countless piles of rubble and half destroyed walls that previously would have been mausoleums containing the ruins of golems.

However, due to the golem parts escaping, there was now only one mausoleum left which stood at the very end of the gate. As the nature of gates was to repair themselves to their previous state if they had not been cleared out for a while, this final mausoleum would always be there no matter the destruction that it endured. Not only the landscape, but also the monsters would reappear after a certain amount of time.

This mausoleum contained half of a golem's body, and was the boss of the gate, which would be no problem for the group that Lugis was travelling with as it was still a relatively weak monster due to being the full size of a golem without any of its abilities as it was developing a core.

Lugis and the group walked for a while into the gate for a while, before reaching around a fifth of the way through. This was around where monsters would start appearing in this gate, and to no surprise there were an abundance of parts of golems moving around. These parts were from different types of golems which meant their appearances and abilities would differ, but this did not matter much as they were all broken into individual parts.

If one looked closely, they could see that the parts were attempting to conjoin with each other, but due to their differing natures and original golems they were unable to join with one another.

It was at this point that the leaders of the two guilds started conversing between themselves, before the leader of one of the guilds, known as the Ocean Guild, spoke loudly so everyone could hear, "Welcome everyone, to our monthly hunting game."

The members of both guilds started cheering, while Lugis stood confused at what was happening. The other guild leader, from the Thunder Guild, was next to speak, "As you should all know by now, our game's winner will be decided by whoever can catch and kill the prey. I do believe that you should all remember the main rule of not directly injuring any other participant in the game except the prey. Despite this, traps and blockades are allowed. If this rule is broken, the one who is responsible will be punished accordingly."

The Ocean Guild's leader spoke again, "The game will begin once our prey has finished their ten second head start."

While the guild leaders were speaking, Lugis was thinking to himself, 'What are they talking about? I thought this was meant to be a research mission, so why are they talking about a game involving prey?'

Lugis' thoughts were broken by the Thunder Guild's leader putting his hand on his shoulder and looking dead into his eyes. What he said next was the worst possible outcome in Lugis' mind, "Run, you don't want to waste your ten seconds do you?"

As soon as he heard this, Lugis slipped the bag off of his back without hesitation and started sprinting as fast as he could away from the group. Too many thoughts were running through his head to be able to make sense of them all, but he knew one thing for sure. He had to survive no matter what.

After his ten second head start was up, Lugis kept on running without looking back in fear that it would lose him even a second which would be incredibly precious in his current situation. As this was the case, he had no way of knowing that an attack was already coming his way until an arrow grazed his cheek.

The sharp stinging pain did not slow him down though, in fact it actually made him start running faster as he realised how real the situation was. Surprisingly to Lugis, none of the golem parts were attempting to attack him even when he ran past them even though he could hear the guilds behind him easily swatting them away.

However, this noise was then replaced by the noise of crackling air quickly approaching him, and before he could even react, a lightning ball had blown off half of his left leg. A soul wrenching cry escaped from Lugis' mouth as he struggled to comprehend the pain he was enduring.

Despite this, he tried to keep moving as fast as he could with the hope that he might still be able to survive. This hope was short lived, as he was unable to move anywhere near as fast as he had previously been which caused a dagger to make its way from an Ocean Guild member's hand into the back of his right knee.

As both of his legs had been immobilised, Lugis started to drag himself forward in a desperate attempt to save himself. At this point though, he had given up on any hope of living and was filled with an immense feeling of hatred towards the guilds who were hunting him for their own enjoyment.

Even though all he wanted to do was make money to keep his father alive, people more powerful than him felt that they could do whatever they want and use him as prey for their sick game.

This hatred meant nothing currently though, as he knew that he would die without being able to make his hunters pay for their actions. Lugis' thoughts were confirmed, as he heard the ever growing closer sound of footsteps finally reach him. He looked back to find that it was the Ocean Guild who had reached him first as one of their mages had caused the ground to become swamp like.

The Ocean Guild leader was looming over him with a look of happiness that can only be obtained by winning a game against an opponent, "You didn't last very long did you? I don't know whether you're just weak, or this gate was too easy for us to traverse through, it is our first time doing this here after all. I guess we'll just have to find out next time."

Lugis looked up at him with a look of pure disgust, "Fuck you."

Once he said this, the look of happiness on the guild leader's face disappeared, and it was replaced by annoyance. He unsheathed a sword covered in engravings and, in what seemed to be less than a second, made four precise cuts that severed Lugis' arms and legs from his body entirely.

By this point, the Thunder Guild had reached Lugis as well. They all looked annoyed that they had lost and their leader spoke to the Ocean Guild leader, "Well done, yet again you beat us. We'll win next time though, I'll make sure of that. Are you planning on finishing the prey off, or are you leaving it here to die by itself?"

A smirk appeared on his face as the Ocean Guild leader replied while staring directly at Lugis, "Let's just leave him here to die, it would be fitting for the weakest monsters to get rid of our weakest prey so far instead of us."

After this, both guilds made their way back to the entrance of the gate and left. This was possible, as anyone could leave a gate as long as there was still someone inside of it. It would then remain impossible for anyone on the outside to get in unless the gate was cleared, or the remaining people inside died.

This meant the two guilds could leave Lugis in the gate as he was still somewhat breathing, although weakly, and it would reopen once he died, and the gate repaired itself of all damages.

Despite barely hanging onto his life, Lugis lay unable to move or think coherently on the gate's floor. Although he had previously been left alone by everything in the gate, the golem parts started to all approach him, before crowding around his body.