The Broken System Chose the Antagonist

Drop.

Once he felt the pain in his bowels become relieved, he got up and quickly pulled up his pants. And when he leaned down to pick up his lantern to leave, he found something... off...

Having placed it right next to him in the bush, he leaned down to pick it up. He noticed a strange dark red liquid on one of the leaves... actually, several leaves, in fact.

He leaned in and pinched one of the leaves, staining the tips of his fingers with it. ’Is this... paint?’ Had someone just randomly sprinkled red paint around here?

Damien then leaned in and sniffed it. ’It has a like... metallic smell to it...’

Was this really paint? Or... something else?

As he leaned in to inspect the leaves even further, he caught sight of a strange object in the bush. It had a slender, narrow shape with blunt ends. It was odd...

He reached out and grabbed it, and was met with a springy, solid texture. He brushed his fingers against the surface of the strange object and found that one of its blunt ends was wet with the same paint he found earlier.

Could what he had found be one of those narrow paint brushes?

Curious, Damien pulled it out from the bush. Then, when he held it under the light of his lantern, what was revealed in his hand was...

"... What the fuck?"

A human finger. A severed human finger with a light-blue painted nail.

’This... this is somebody’s finger...’ Damien thought, still processing what he was seeing. ’This is somebody’s finger. This was somebody’s finger! This was somebody’s—...!’

"... Nghnn—urk!"

After throwing the finger away, Damien dropped to the ground in horror. He retched loudly, then bent forward and began to vomit whatever was left in his stomach.

"Puaghk—... urgh..."

’Shit... what the hell’s going on...!?’

He then quickly rolled onto his back before bending forward, looking to where he tossed the severed finger. And when he found it, the creases around his eyes intensified with fear.

"I..."

’I gotta tell everyone about this... I have to!’

Damien, still visibly shaken by the severed finger, tried to push himself onto his feet, but found himself unable to. His legs were trembling so much that it proved impossible without some kind of support.

"Shit, shit, shit...!" He hissed under his breath.

He then crawled to his lantern and grabbed hold of it. If he wasn’t going to be able to walk, then he was going to have to crawl!

When he turned back to Rusty Den, swinging his lantern, he caught something odd in the corner of his eyes. He held his lantern towards that direction and found something standing a few metres away from him in the dark.

It was just over 4 metres tall, with black skin and fur that allowed it to blend into the darkness. A head like that of a bat, with pupil-less black eyes. It even had razor-sharp claws and a muscular lower half.

This strange-looking creature stood in front of him silently, with its knuckles pressed into the ground, like a gorilla.

Damien immediately froze in place. His Heart then suddenly stopped when he came to the realisation of what it was.

It was a Scoundrel... a Predicament!

’What’s it doing all the way out here? Near the sea...!?’

Out of sheer terror and instinct, Damien dropped his lantern and immediately rolled onto his stomach. Then, without wasting time, he began to rapidly dig his fingers into the ground and crawl in the direction of the warehouse.

With his legs still paralysed from fear, this was the best he could do!

Unfortunately, the moment he rolled onto his stomach, that seemed to have acted as a signal for the Scoundrel to move. And it didn’t take long for it to reach Damien.

It grabbed his legs.

Damien’s eyes immediately watered at this, as fear soon took over his Heart. "NOOO—GET AWAY!" He cried out in a shrill and desperate voice.

He dug his nails into the dirt, but against the alarmingly strong pull from the Predicament, his nails soon bent and snapped off his fingers. He immediately yelled in pain.

Just as tears leaked from his eyes, so did blood from his fingers as he tried to fight back — but to no avail.

"HELP ME! SOMEBODY—!" His cry for help soon turned into a tragic cry of agony, for the grip the Predicament had around his legs abruptly tightened.

CRUSH.

At first, Damien wanted to hold in his scream...

But the pain was too much.

"Ngh... AHHH! MY LEGS!"

His throat quickly grew hoarse from screaming. On top of the burns he sustained from his vomit, his throat even began to hurt.

He soon felt weakness in his arms due to the pain. And the moment he stopped crawling, he was suddenly lifted into the air, held right over the Predicament’s gaping maw.

Damien began to weakly shake his head.

"No... no..."

The shaking of his head then grew more frantic and distressed.

"No, I don’t want to die—I DON’T WANT TO DIE! HELP ME PLEASE, SOMEBODY! PLEASE!" Due to the hoarseness of his voice, his cry for help came out dry and deep, with slight gurgles in the mix, like he had a glob of saliva in the back of his throat.

It was a grim cry to hear... and it was even grimmer to watch as he was slowly lowered into the Predicament’s gaping maw. He continued to thrash about, in hopes of breaking free, but that was when he caught a glimpse of the monster’s face.

Unlike before, when he could only see an outline of it due to the dark, he was able to see it much more clearly. He found that its mouth was completely smeared with blood.

He could even make out a long lock of brown hair coming out of its mouth, as if it was trying to escape.

It was a horrifying sight to see and one that didn’t make him feel better about his decision.

CRUNCH.

"AHHHH—!"

The Predicament bit down on his legs, chewing through his tendons and bones. He continued to let out shrill cries for help, but nobody came... he was just too far away from the warehouse for anyone to hear...

Fortunately, the pain managed to clear up his mind a little and allowed him to come up with something.

’Vitality... Vitality!’

He was a Vitalist! He had Vitality! As long as he still had Vitality, he could get away and survive! He read everything inside the guidebook and knew how to circulate his Vitality! Even if he lost his legs, at least he would still be alive!

’I can do this! I can—!’

CRUNCH!

The Predicament took another bite out of his legs.

"AHHHH! Haa...! Haa...!" Damien began to hyperventilate, but did his best to try to circulate his Vitality. But the harder he tried, the more tears leaked out of his eyes.

Why... Why couldn’t he summon his Vitality?!

"PLEASE WORK WITH ME! NOT NOW, PLEASE!" Damien flailed his arms around.

Unbeknownst to him, no matter what he did at this moment, nothing would come to his aid. Not even his Vitality. Because the moment he came face-to-face with death, his Heart had already been corrupted with fear.

Even if he still believed in hope, it was clear that...

CRUNCH.

His heart had already given up hope for survival.

It didn’t take long for Damien to be consumed. And the moment he was, movement stirred within the darkness, followed by a larger one at the very back...

The Predicaments had arrived.