A Rude Awakening

He woke up to a very unfamiliar ceiling… of a forest canopy.

Lush green trees filtered sunlight through the mass of leaves, conveniently letting some of the late morning light hit directly into his face, a sharp headache piercing and ruining his already less than peaceful awakening.

With a groan, he rustled the bed of grass he laid on with heavy confusion.

Confusion turned immediately into panic as he realized that he was nowhere near his dormitory.

"Alright… what the fuck?" He muttered to himself.

If this was a full blown prank from those 3 idiots(read:roommates), then this was the worst one yet.

There were 3 absolutely wrong things that led that thought to a dead end.

1- He would've woken up before he arrived to wherever 'here' was.

2- His roommates may have been dicks in their own right, but none of them were straight up cruel enough to actually drug, kidnap, and drop him off somewhere like this.

3- If he was right in his assumption, and that he was ditched into the nearest forest, pissed wouldn't even begin to express how much he would want to knock their teeth off… since the nearest one was dozens of miles away.

Another groan escaped his dreadfully frustrated vocal chords, but he stopped to notice the drastic change in his appearance.

He was nowhere this toned, the last time he remembered it.

His physique felt stronger than he could ever imagine, muscles toned into a fit figure that made him apt to be a gymnast.

The different clothing he wore was another thing to note. First thing he noticed was the black fingerless gloves with a metal plate on each of them. His attire consisted of a midnight blue sleeveless shirt that clung tightly to his torso, flexible dark green slacks that left him a lot of breathing room, and admittedly comfortable sneaker-like sandals.

His bangs were also the wrong color. Instead of the slick brown he used to have, he pat his own head to feel a mess of spiked, bouncy, black hair.

Two small pouches hung on each side of his hips, and fishing through both of them, he found a few items of interest.

"Huh, I'm not sure glowing crystals would count as a good sign." He said to himself.

He put the several small crystals of varying colors back into the pouch and examined the foreign device next.

It looked several decades too advanced to be a thin model of a Nintendo switch with a transparent screen, and it resembled an iPad more accurately with the circular button on the middle of one side.

Pressing what he thought to be the home button, the iPad/Switch smartphone lit up to show his… I.D.?

The ultimate convenience of seeing his personal information right upon opening the screen was a bit disturbing though.

[Name: Krow Glades

Age: 17

Address: Maple Stree…]

His jaw dropped at several things at that moment.

He was glad that he didn't have to make up a fake identity and unknowingly give people false information, but this went to another level.

Accounting the things he knew about his new appearance, there was also the addition of the smooth features on his pale skinned face and black eyes.

He could easily pass as a woman with a wig and a dress with a face like that, it wasn't even funny.

And what kind of maniac would name their child something so edgy?

Pocketing the device for a later date, most likely after he finds a way out of this forest, he felt a light shift from his lower back.

Weirdly enough, there was a small sword on his back that he finally noticed.

Curiosity got the better of him as he drew the blade.

The faint shine and slight chipping on the one-sided blade signified that it had seen some use, but how could that be? His knowledge of swords was limited at best, and it looked to be a shorter version of a katana.

Amidst inspecting the weapon, he heard a low snort through the bushes. No, that wasn't right. It sounded more like deep snarl.

More rustling followed, heavy steps echoing in his ears as he waited in more silent panic.

What the hell was he supposed to do? Being ditched into some random forest was one thing, experiencing a wild animal attack was another matter entirely!

Its shape became more apparent as it jogged its bulky body out of the bushes and into his line of sight.

The deep and aggressive skreek that it screamed froze him into place as it saw him.

That thing was definitely NOT a normal boar.

Its size easily outgrew any regular boar. Matted black hide was armoured with bone-like plates on most of its back, and large tusks framed the boney mask with red eyes staring straight at him.

Moments of intense staring passed, and more sweat dropped from his face.

He was more preoccupied with his fight or flight response to register where he saw such a familiar creature… not to mention that it was now charging right at him.

With the fear coursing rapidly through his veins and the intimidating predator about to sick its wrath upon him, he did the one thing that seemed the most sensible in this situation.

Run the fuck away.

Dashing into the woods with no sense of abandon, he went to wherever his legs took him.

The vicious snarls that still trailed behind him was not a good sign, unfortunately.

"Oh shit oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit!" He whisper shouted to no one in particular, though he would like to think that he was just cursing fate at this point.

Fate responded by making him trip on a branch that he didn't spot fast enough.

Seeing the fast approaching figure of a giant black boar was magnifying the cold, crawling feeling on his back further than it ever did before. His heartbeat thumped like a jackhammer in his chest and his eyes flashed with a sudden blur in his vision.

Panic, stress, fear, survival. All those emotions struck a nerve in his brain… and something clicked.

The blur was fading in a moderate pace, and the world changed.

Everything became more detailed. The outline of each leaf on the ground and branches were smoother, colors became more vibrant, and motion seemed to noticeably slow down through his perspective.

Seeing the boar from hell slow down to a jog instead of a sprint in his eyes, he took the time to notice that he had never let go of the tanto in his right hand.

Whatever quicktime event bull crap was happening right now, he was thankful he had enough clarity to make a simple plan of attack.

As time flew slowly through his eyes, so did he. His movements became sluggish, but he managed to judge the distance between doom pig, himself, and the amount of time he would have to move.

Taking a wide stance in front of the thickest tree in his line of sight, he waited for the boar's tackle.

Closer and closer, each second that felt like 5 to him was spent waiting for that counter.

With a great leap to the side, he let nightmare porky crash into the tree.

His eyes were wide as the force of the tackle nearly knocked the tree down, but now that it looked stunned by the recoil he wouldn't let this chance slide.

Another quick leap directly after, he plunged the sword deep into its eye, making it snarl painfully for a second until he twisted the blade.

The dark boar slumped with a dull and heavy thud onto the ground, and he sat down as well.

"Uuuggghhh!" He let out a groan of utter frustration that he didn't know he'd been holding.

That should definitely mark down as the second most life threatening event in his life. It was definitely up there, but it still didn't beat a high school street fight.

An experience like that was still pretty 'wild' though.

Calming himself down with a few breaths, the world lost its 1440p HD quality from before.

'Now,' He thought. 'What in the absolute fuck is happening?'

The remaining scenarios that he could think of lingered in his mind. Since he was damn sure that encountering and killing some kind of chupacabra was probably a once in a lifetime experience in and of itself, he felt pretty good about himself.

Looking at the unmoving corpse of the animal, he noticed that the thing was slowly starting to evaporate into black mist.

'Damn, there goes trying to sell an eldritch horror for some cash… but where have I seen one of these things before?'

The reference sat right at the back of his mind, waiting for him to just figure it out. There was something that started with an 'R', but he came up with an empty blank.

A quick crunching of leaves brought his attention to his rear, and the world turned HD once again, to his amazement.

The enhanced figure of a white haired young man came into sight, and he wasn't sure whether to be relieved, cautious, or ready.

The pale skinned, 16-ish looking boy skidded to a halt several feet in front of him, and he took a good look at the stranger's features.

He had short white hair that fell to his ears, and contrasting black eyes. The only way he could describe the outfit the teenager wore was flexible body armour over the bodysuit with the same black color. The only places that the suit didn't cover were his hands and above his shoulders.

Making eye contact with the stranger, he greeted, "Hi?"

The slightly hostile expression on the teen's face softened to a neutral visage with a raised eyebrow, "You're my partner?"

"…wait, what?"