Zhou Mi swore quietly as he dusted off his pants, he had no idea when and where he had landed. Everything was a panicked and chaotic blur in his memory; he had been too overwhelmed by Loki’s appearance in the control room to process anything that happened after that. He vaguely remembered Loki’s words and the sensation of falling, but that was all. He felt blood slowly trickle down the side of his face; the tacky streak of crimson marred his pale skin and made his hair clump together. The air around him smelled like iron and death; the trees in his immediate surroundings were splattered with blood and gore, echoes of someone’s fateful encounter with a creature within the game. The stench made Zhou Mi feels sick. He glanced around worriedly, only to see entrails hanging from the trees behind him; they hung from the branches limply, swaying with the breeze. The Chinese man felt the bile rise in his throat; it burned with its acidity, making his eyes water. He fought the urge to vomit desperately, he hunched over as he tried to suppress the need to puke; his body was wracked with dry heaves as he struggled to keep his composure.

               After a few more moments of heaving Zhou Mi swallowed dryly; the bile slid back down his throat almost painfully slowly. Carefully he straightened himself and stood up on shaky legs. His head throbbed dully and his vision blurred, terror coursed through him as he did. The trees and blood were more than a hint as to where he was within the game; he found himself in the forest, arguably the worst place to be within the game. It was an area that he had monitored and witnessed the deaths of players often. Cautiously Zhou Mi started walking forward, it was dangerous to be in one place for too long, especially given his current location.

“How the hell did I get myself into this mess?” The Chinese man mumbled.

               A howl interrupted his mumble; Zhou Mi jumped, very clearly startled by the noise. Fear spread through him rapidly, freezing him to the spot; his panicked thoughts sped through his mind a mile a minute. Despite the gravity of his situation he found himself wondering which creature was near him; his fight or flight response kicked in, his heart pounded in his chest. Adrenaline pumped through his veins; he needed to run, now. It took all of his willpower to make his body move, he broke out into a shaky sprint. He teetered almost every other step due to the throbbing of his head. Another howl echoed through the forest. Zhou Mi struggled to try and run faster, his heart caught in his throat as he could hear the creature approaching. The sounds of howls, heavy footsteps and panting rang out behind him. The creature was gaining on him and fast.

               Zhou Mi noticed a low hanging branch up ahead, he sprinkled towards it, trying to reach it before the creature caught up to him. Another howl came from just to the night of him and Zhou Mi let out a rather panicked scream as he ran. Instinctively Zhou Mi dove to his right as the creature lunged for him; the Chinese man rolled down the hill, bouncing off of a boulder as he rolled, it served as a ramp. Without meaning to he found himself in a tree, wrapped around a branch. He scrambled desperately to pull himself up completely as he could hear the creatures running up to the tree; their growls rang out from below. As soon as Zhou Mi had pulled himself up onto the branch he began to climb, he wasn’t going to risk having one of them pounce on him. Zhou Mi climbed as carefully as he could manage under the circumstances and tried to get himself as high as he could. The growls emanating from beneath him motivated Zhou Mi to climb faster; slowly he slowed as he found himself nearing much thinner branches towards the top of the tree. Two pairs of amused, blood red eyes as their prey tried to escape. Zhou Mi wrapped his long arms around the tree trunk to stabilize himself and turned to face the creatures; he peered over the branch he sat on, clutching the trunk to keep his balance. His breath caught in his throat as he took in the sight before him; the creatures were almost identical to the one that had attacked DongHae and SungMin early on in the game.

               The creatures stood on their powerful hind legs, watching him with blood thirsty red eyes. One was distinctly larger than the other; Zhou Mi wondered if it was male. The larger creature let out a growl, its fangs were painted as crimson as its eyes; immediately Zhou Mi knew that these two were responsible for the blood splattered all over the trees. The second one’s tongue flicked out of its mouth splattering acid on the trunk of the tree. Zhou Mi swore. The larger of the creatures threw itself at the trunk of the tree, rattling it. Zhou Mi squeaked in surprise as he almost fell out of the tree; quickly he wrapped his legs around the trunk of the tree as well, he’d be damned if he was going to be killed here and now by falling out of a tree. The smaller creature flicked its tongue at the piece of the trunk the larger one had hit and weakened; the acid bubbled and began to melt through the bark. Zhou Mi gagged, the smell was disgusting.

               The larger creature hurled itself at the weakened trunk and Zhou Mi let out a blood curdling scream as the tree trunk split. The sound of wood cracking rang through the forest as the tree started to fall backwards. Zhou Mi held on for dear life as the tree tipped with him in it. The Chinese man let out a horrified cry as the portion of the tree he was in hit the ground; he found himself tossed around within the sharp branches. Blood flowed freely from his arms, legs and face as he fell through the sharp branches; when he and the tree hit the ground he found himself entangled in the branches and leaves. Zhou Mi flailed about, struggling to try to break free; the two creatures let out howls of approval and began to encircle him.

               The larger one lashed out at him; its claws slashed through his skin easily, blood spilled out and Zhou Mi let out a cry of pain. His arm felt like it was on fire as the blood poured out of it.  The other one howled and flicked its tongue at the Chinese man, Zhou Mi’s screams echoed through the forest as his skin burned, blistered and disintegrated. The other one attacked again, slicing through Zhou Mi’s abdomen, nearly disemboweling him. The smaller one patted a clawed paw across the man’s face, cutting clean through Zhou Mi’s right cheek and blinding his right eye. Zhou Mi screamed in pain as the vision went dark; out of the corner of his left eye he saw the smaller one’s acid covered tongue flick out once again. It backed up slightly as its long tongue slid out of its mouth and Zhou Mi took the opportunity to get out of there.

               Moving through the pain was excruciatingly painful; his whole body felt as if it was melting away, bits of his flesh hung off of the deeper wounds. Flaps of his skin had peeled away from the wound on his face, his jaw could be seen. Zhou Mi tried to run as best he could, however the pain of his wounds and the feeling of his intestines slowly pushing their way out of his abdomen with each step made it difficult. Howls were heard behind him as he stumbled out of there; he knew the creatures were letting him go on purpose, there was no way he would’ve been able to make it out of there if they hadn’t. Loki appeared in between the two creatures, watching as Zhou Mi struggled to run away; the man laughed darkly as he watched the Chinese man clutch at his abdomen and paint the trees he used as support with crimson. The two creatures sat down on their hind legs on either side of Loki and the man patted them on their heads.

“You’ve done well Kris and Kai. I’m proud of you, now go find some more players. You can feel free to eat the next ones.”  He spoke softly, almost lovingly to the two creatures.

               The two creatures practically purred due to the praise from their master and followed their orders. Loki watched as Zhou Mi began to disappear from view, an evil smirk spread across his face.

“Run little piggy, run.” He chuckled as he turned and disappeared to find more players.

               Zhou Mi continued to stumble through the forest; he tripped on a root and landed face down on the ground. A scream tore through his throat as more pain shot through him; he could feel the edge of his intestines beginning to spill out as he accidentally tore at the wound when he landed. Vomit and blood pushed itself out of his esophagus and splattered on the ground next to him. The Chinese man rolled over and let out a strained sob; tears rushed down his blood and vomit stained face. After a few moments of laying in the blood and vomit soaked earth he slowly began to try and move again; he needed to get out of there lest the creatures changed their minds. He cupped the bits of intestines that had begun to spill out as carefully as he could and shakily pushed himself up to a sitting position with the shredded arm.

               His head was swimming due to the blood loss and adrenaline pumping through his veins; he staggered to his feet and began to stumble through the forest again, breathing heavily. Up ahead he could see the clearing of the forest and tears of relief began to rush down his face; he was almost out. He was almost there, almost out; once he was out he could try to find help, maybe he could find Henry to help heal him. A few more steps stood between Zhou Mi and potential salvation; one foot crossed the threshold of the forest and more tears gushed down his face. As he moved to pass over the threshold completely he saw something black rushing towards his abdomen. The black thing passed him and Zhou Mi’s face contorted in agony and sadness; he had almost made it. Zhou Mi’s top half fell face down onto the ground in front of him, the very place that he was trying to reach; technically, he had made it to his goal, he made it out of the forest. His bottom half fell to its knees and collapsed adjacent to his torso. Loki’s laugh echoing out throughout the areas of the game was the last thing Zhou Mi heard as he succumbed to death. 

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Im finally back! I finally managed to do it and get this chapter done. It's been almost a year and I'm really sorry about that. I strggled over htis chapter for a LONG time, I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. But I've finally got my togethre, a concrete plan of action and I am ready to kick this party up into high gear. I love you guys so much and I'm so thankful for your support throughout my sporadic updates and werid hiatuses. I hope youknow that it means a lot to me seeing that you guys still supported me and wanted to read more. I LOVE YOUR FACES. I'm sorry some of you guys might want to kill me for this chapter, sorry! >.< I was really strugglingwith this chapter because I really wanted my (hopefully triumphant) return to be as on point as possible. I don't thnk I quite got there but whatever, I tried. SO there should be more updates coming your way soon, I love you guys <3. 

~Key