"Kishio, now!" a team of four could be seen surrounding a huge orc, in its hands a large metal club. A young man stood to the side. On hearing the order, he suddenly sprinted forward. His brown eyes looked dead and lifeless as his long black hair fluttered about in the wind.
"Avoid the club," the voice said, warning Kishio. The orc seemed to have noticed the figure approaching it as it turned, raising its club to strike.
Kishio immediately leaped forward, a dark aura coating his palms and fingertips, his already dead eyes looking more hollow.
"Wither," Kishio said lightly, his own power seemed to be draining him, using the descending metal club as a platform, he placed one hand on it. A sign of immediate deterioration began to show, he pushed himself forward, his second hand aiming for the orc's head.
The orc immediately felt the impending danger from the figure approaching, it removed one of its hands from the club and threw a punch, as the palm made contact with the orc's head, a low bang sound followed.
–Bang–
"Kishio!" The team shouted out as the orc's fist slammed into Kishio, sending him rocketing back into the cave walls, but it was too late.
The dark smoke-like aura had already connected with the orc's head, the metal club survived immediate deterioration as it was a C-rank item, but the orc was only a D-rank.
Its body slowly decayed, the orc grunted in pain and anger as it dropped the metal club but it could do nothing to stop its death, soon its body burst into a pile of ashes, as the ashes came together a small dark red crystal was formed.
The team paid no attention to their spoils and dashed to where Kishio had been sent flying, "Sasha quick" the team leader called out to the team healer, but she was already a step ahead.
A short red-haired girl stepped forward, a milky glow coated her hands as she knelt beside Kishio placing her hands on him.
Cold sweat bathed their foreheads as they awaited results, a long while later Kishio's eyes flickered, as his eyes slowly opened they heard a weak deep voice ask "The dungeon boss?".
"You killed it," the red-haired healer referred to as Sasha said with a light chuckle lightening up the mood as smiles appeared on each of the teammates' faces.
"Let's leave the dungeon, you all deserve some rest…" a lean tall man said with a proud smile "let's meet tomorrow at the town's inn to split the spoils and we could take a few days off, I'll contact you all on the next dungeon quest", Sasha supported the weak Kishio as they left the dungeon.
********
"Big brother" a tall young man walked through the gates of the compound to an apartment, a young girl sat on the wooden porch to the house, her head resting upon her hands with a bored expression on her face, but as soon as the figure walked in her expression elated, she turned her head a bit to the side the next second, a confused expression in her face, but it only lasted a moment as she stood up and ran towards him.
"You're home now, I'll come pick you up tomorrow so we could leave for the inn tomorrow" Sasha said to Kishio as she left the compound.
"Yue, she's from my team" Kishio leaned down a bit as he parted his little sister's head lovingly before following her inside, "How did this happen again" Kishio suddenly thought of a distant memory and he frowned a bit.
–Two weeks ago–
–Beep, beep–
Low beeping noises could be heard in a white room, a young man laid on a bed, multiple tubes and devices attached to his body as a few doctors tried to save him.
'What's this? Why me? A weak body, a weak parasite, a dreaded life' the young man on the operation bed thought to himself, he could heat the sobs of his mother and sister outside the room, he wished he could stand up and tell them he was going to be alright, their tears and cries hurt him more than death itself, the promise he made to his dying father to take care of the family, tears subconsciously rolled down his eyes.
Ever since the appearance of parasites the world became chaotic, the appearance of dungeons came to be, fantasy became reality, the supernatural became normal.
The beings that called themselves parasite attached themselves to a host granting the host supernatural abilities in return for the energy in the human body, it became a normal as humans needed the parasites to kill the threats in the dungeons while also gaining resources, but with such drastic changes, the view of the world followed.
Power became power as only the strong could flaunt dauntlessly over the rules, the views of the weak contributed very little to the world.
Kishio's father, Kiyome Akatski was a victim, he died trying to rise up above challenges to become strong for his family but alas death was death and he could not escape it, a nemesis calm had orchestrated his downfall.
At that moment Kishio had promised his father to achieve their goals, yet here he was on his deathbed, he was leaving the world because he was too weak, he lacked enough of the basic energy required to supply his parasite and was dying as a result.
Kishio cursed himself for being weak as more tears flowed from his eyes, if only he could survive, stand up and…
–Beeepppp–
A long beep noise resounded around the room from the machines attached to his body as the figures on the machine all dropped to a flat digit zero.
'No, no, no' Kishio screams internally as he could feel himself going into a deep sleep, but could do nothing to stop it…
********
–Grunt–
Under the night skies, a low grunt could be heard as a figure lay on the floor, he grunted as he rolled slowly, but he was still unconscious. The figure seemed to be on the verge of waking up.
–Gasp–
The figure suddenly jerked awake letting out a deep gasp, his breathing slowly calming down.
'Where am I?' Kishio thought to himself.