Hunt for Survival

Purpose

Shaurya

We both got out of the water and took the oxygen in a great amount. We had almost faced death when we were trying to swim back to the surface. It is better that everything ended on a correct note.

"That was so close,” I said, and he elbowed me and I looked at him while rubbing my elbow.

“Why would you do that? It hurts.” I asked him and he rolled his eyes.

"In the first place, weren't you the one tempted by the food they had provided you with?” He asked and I gave him a cheeky smile.

“Because I was hungry and I wanted to have some good food, so what is wrong with taking some to fill my stomach and why are you scolding me for that? You have also eaten some and we have safely come over here.” I tried to reason with him and for a good few seconds he didn't reply to me at all.

“What if we couldn’t?” I froze for a moment when he asked that question. I had exactly the same thought in my mind when they had said that they would take away the knife after killing me and we had run away but they pulled us back. I couldn't think of any better choice at that time than running away and that is what I intended to do, but they had caught us and a fight broke out which I had no intention of. The king was powerful enough and gave me quite a hard time defeating him because I didn't have that kind of strength that I needed to defeat him, unlike Prashant, who was able to fight like it wasn't his first time.

“Then our life would have ended over there only, but as you can see, that option has already been eliminated. One thing that is clear to me is that there are going to be more scenes like this because of this weapon. This is quite strong and will put our life in trouble for a while. I don't know what kind of trouble will be coming in the future, but I guess we have to move on and face it despite knowing if there is a chance to win or not." I didn't let my thoughts meddle in my words. I don't know why, but I don't want him to know that I was scared and wanted to run away from the situation, but that wasn't the case.

"That I have already seen and no doubt about that situation, but I want to avoid b****y mess as much as I can." At least he had openly said that he wanted to avoid something.

"But I want to see those. I am quite fond of those messes." I winked in his way as I joked and he rolled his eyes. "By the way, I was quite afraid at first, but after fighting with him, I am not afraid about this anymore. It is as if I can face whatever is coming in my way from now on. Now, even if I encounter this kind of situation once again, then maybe I won't be afraid to face death." I said, remembering what my father had told me one time that there were days when he was scared of death, but when he started to serve India, he was very proud and wasn't afraid of sacrificing his life for his motherland. Unknowingly, I had expressed my thoughts which I wanted to suppress.

I was waiting for his reply but I didn’t hear anything from him. I looked at him and he was looking away. Why is he looking away?

“What is wrong? You didn’t like what I said?” I asked him and he looked at me and he shook his head and for a moment I felt as if he was really an anime character that had come out from the anime, as he was looking like a real life anime and I couldn’t help but burst into laughter and then he looked at me and his face was more funny because it was saying that ‘why the hell are you laughing?’ and that made me laugh more.

“What is there to laugh at?”

“I am sorry, I know that I shouldn’t laugh like that, but by seeing you I am reminded of some anime character and you are looking like one right now.”

“So that is the matter of a laugh for you.” I nodded at him. “Now that you are done with your laugh, then I guess we should leave from here." I agreed with him by nodding again. "I can't understand from which angle am I looking like an anime character to you?" I clicked my tongue in order to stop myself from grabbing more fun from his sentence. I am quite surprised that he knows what an anime is. I had expected that there might be a question about this but there was none.

I held over my sheath. We were already on the shore and my body once again met by the sun, but this time I was feeling good enough as it had become tolerable to handle it.

“I think that it considers you as his owner." He said out of nowhere, which made me look at him. I saw that his gaze was on the knife and then he looked at me.

"Why do you think like that?" I asked him because I felt that he was talking nonsense. Owner? Anybody who can use it is its owner. Even if the person is he, himself.

"When you were drowning , I wanted to save you, so I wanted to take it out in order to help you,but I couldn’t take it out.” Whatever he had said in that sentence, I couldn’t believe it because this was all nonsense to me. Because I could easily pull it out, so how can I believe what he was saying was true?

I guess he had read my confusion and, all of a sudden, held over the back of the knife and tried to pull it out but he couldn’t. I was confused and when I took it in my hand and tried to pull it out, it came out easily. There was a silence between us which was making me uncomfortable for now.

“We should leave this matter over here only and should move further.” I said to him and he nodded and we started to walk away, not before wearing my t-shirt. It was peaceful till we were walking when we saw something and we looked at each other with the same expression and ran towards that thing and our hopes got high when we saw the car over there. It was a bit old, but I guess as long as it works we can leave here.

“How can there be a car like that over here?” I asked, and we looked around and the car and it was looking in quite a proper state. Maybe we could seriously use it. I tried to open the car but we couldn’t open it.

“How are we going to open this?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. I am not seeing a key over here.”

“WELCOME!!!” We both heard a cheerful voice and somewhere my hopes got high because there was actually someone over there. Maybe we can get some help from this person. I looked behind and saw a beggar. His clothes were torn from many parts and was having no shoes, now my hopes got down because the person who doesn’t have a stable self of himself, how can he make us get out of here?

“Excuse us, can you tell us where the car keys are?” Prashant asked him and I wanted to ask him, ‘do you think that he really knows this?’, but I remained silent and let him interrogate.

“I don’t know.” As expected of him.

“Do you know how we can get out of this place?”

“I don’t know.” He was really testing my patience.

“Do you know anything?” I asked him and he looked at him and then his eyes fell over my waist.

“Deity knife.” His expression was unreadable. Finally, he had said something other than those three words.

“I know that this is a deity knife.” I said to him in the same tone which was, 'I am not that interested in talking with you, so hurry up, speak whatever you want to and get away,'

“Can you use it?” He asked me

“I can but he can’t.” I told him,

“Because this knife takes you as his owner.” This is the same line which Prashant told him a few minutes ago.

“Can you explain?” Prashant asked him.

“This knife is said to be a part of the deity’s weapon because it can almost finish everything in his way and this is one of the things which keeps this whole area disturbed, because whosoever has held him has found their worst death. It is said that either it awakes your deepest desire or can make you get killed by those who have the deepest desire which is generated by this, and the giant is the one who has been guarding it for so many years. Child disown this as soon as possible or else someone will surely come after you to kill you and get this knife. Your life is already in danger.” He said to me.

“Can you explain everything? Means everything.” I said to him.

“I don’t know much because....." He scratched his head and it felt that he seemed to have forgotten about this. "I can't remember but it is said that this place is a curse and the people who can save them are yet to come until they arrive. The curse won’t lift itself, which is given to the king here. It is said that at the time when this knife landed on the earth, it was brought to the previous king and he took it from his shed and used it for so many crimes, but someone had killed him and then the deity knife fell into many hands before it landed in the current king's hand. He was good at the start, but soon enough, his deepest desire took him. When the deity asked for the knife back, he refused and challenged the god to war and he succeeded in defeating the God, so the knife which he was holding, before he could finish the god off, sealed itself and put a curse on itself and the whole jungle, and there was a rumor that God had himself, predicted that one day a person will come and finish off the king and that day the curse would be lift and everyone will be free from that king and it is also said that this knife had a small part which no one knows where it is but that can make this knife more powerful but if that is not with it, it doesn't effect the knife powers. And if a person receives that, then it could be possible that the person would be able to access to its power and both of them require an owner."

One of the features that I have heard about this knife is that it has its limits for doing wrong and if it crosses, then it seals itself away and puts the curse on the person. A true warrior who doesn’t have the greed of power can hold this knife and will be protected no matter in which grave situation he is in. I guess my job is done over here. Now I must leave and remember, a person who doesn’t desire power but others' happiness is the one who really deserves all the power and beware of the king. He has his own shades to show and if you want to reach him, then you have to survive and, for that, you have to hunt, because reaching him is not that easy.” After that, he went away and vanished in those woods.

"He was making me feel like a NPC." I mumbled to myself.

“Huh… when we were looking for the key, it didn’t appear, now how does it appear over here?” Prashant exclaimed and I looked at his hand. He was holding the key, I thought for a while before coming to a conclusion.

“Prashant, I got it.”

“What have you got?”

“That even this car can’t lead us to our freedom, we have to find that king and finish him off in order to get out of here. When the curse lifts, then only we can be free. We have to find the king first in order to finish all this thing.”

“That person also said that this knife has a small part which is missing. I guess that thing will also be as powerful as this knife.”

“I also think so, but as we haven’t found that, we have to be safe and we also have to find that king.”

“Should we look for the king in this car?”

“Maybe we should try it.” I said and we both sat in the car, but then I looked at him and he looked at him. “Do you know how to drive?”

“I know, but not much. What about you?’

“I haven’t started yet.”

“So practically none of us know how to drive,” I sighed. I guess we have to come out of here and have to find our way by walking. We were both coming out when the door was locked.

“What is going on? Why are the doors locked?” I said and suddenly someone arrived at the driver's seat, or may I say, appeared in the driver's seat and she smiled in our way. Her body was of a green colour and around her eyes there were pink triangles all around and her hair was a bit a dark shade of her body and that too was like those in anime. I mean that her hair was spiky and in an upward direction.

“Who are you?”

“Spiky Green, and I will be your driver and will drive you to the place where you are supposed to be.” She said and started to drive and we felt a jerk when she started to drive away.

“Congratulations and welcome to the hardest level of this place.”

“What does that supposed to mean?” I asked her.

“Whatever you have experienced till now was just mere people who were at the lower level and by getting the deity knife, they wanted to get to the higher level.”

“This sounds like a game and it is intruding on me.” I said, and I looked at Prashant, who rolled his eyes.

“Those crocodiles were just a test for you and the giant is the guard of this sheath, so he might, again, come back to you, because he can’t trust the king and you with this matter, and the hungry snake is and that mermaid was actually trying to kill you and get that from you, but you have defeated them and get here, so now it my duty to make you skip some of the steps and jump on the real level where adventure is waiting for you.”

“So you are not after this knife?” I asked her out of my curiosity.

“No, I am not, I am just like a giant, we want this jungle to be free from the curse which was put on it because of our king. The powers have blinded him and made him the worst king alive, but I am putting all my faith in you that you can free this jungle from its curse.” I looked at Prashant and we both today come to know why we have been thrown over here. We have to lift the curse off of this place and make every living being over here be free from that curse. Finally, I have a purpose to enjoy this adventure.