Chapter 39：Bad Times

His eyes were heavy, so damn heavy. Stanis rolled in his sleep, the chain clanking against the stone as he rolled. He felt weary with no energy to open his eyes, nevertheless get up. Despite his desire for comfort, the discomfort only grew as he kept rolling, the chain now rattling and clanking a nasty racket.

"URGGH"

His chest began shaking, the air all of a sudden escaping his lungs as he struggled to breath. Tears began flooding his eyes, soon breaking the dam and leaking out. His stomach lurched and rolled, his whole body unable to find the balance. It was the pain, the most intense pain he had felt in his life, his arm raw flesh which stabbed his mind with pain.

"AR- GRaAR-AR"

He wheezily roared, unwilling to lose the battle but losing every fight anyway. After much struggling, Stanis managed to tip himself back onto his chest, his raw arm no longer against the vicious floor. In the following minutes, he calmed down or at least as calm as he could get in such a situation. Eventually, he even brought himself to his knees as he rose to survey the area.

He was in a Cave, the floor made out of chilling stone and the walls made of mudstone. It was pitch black inside and thus Stanis was lucky he had his dark vision. Or maybe not…

Surrounding him were piles of bones, most still with rotting flesh attached. Many of the bones looked far too large or small to have been once part of a Human, but some were the perfect size…

The rancid smell seemed to have always been here, although Stanis just noticed it now. Within seconds he was kneeling with his head down, gagging with nothing to show for it. More time passed before Stanis finally got up again, this time looking around for some exit from this hell-hole. And he found it very easily, a dirty stone door at the other end of the room.

Stanis was just about to crawl to it when he heard footsteps in the distance: whoever was coming not trying in the least to keep down their visit. The footsteps got louder and Stanis found his arm shaking in fear. He knew any sign of weakness would be taken advantage off and so set about to holding his arm in place, only until he saw the wound across his left arm.

The pain had been so high that his mind had willed him to forget it, the arm essentially cut off from his mind as the sensation was numb. Despite the thick, leathery like coating his left arm had, there was a hole the size of a fist within the coating in his forearm. It wasn't a clean hole either, rather a messy, bloody one with strands of dirty flesh hanging off. That would explain why he had felt the tremendous pain earlier. The footsteps were nothing but accompanying music as Stanis became engrossed in his wound, only daring as touch it with his fingertip to assess the damage.

"AARRRGGHH"

He had gritted his teeth in advance but even that failed to hold back the primal roars from within him.

The footsteps had stopped a while back in front of him but Stanis hadn't noticed due to his focus on the pain. Minutes passed but the footsteps seemed more than patient as they made no sound, the owner of the footsteps watching Stanis with interest. Eventually, Stanis came back to his senses and looked up, only to see a Zelt on its hind legs, about as tall as an average girl.

"Why hello", said the Zelt while straightening its whiskers, "What a pleasant surprise to have company here!", chirped the Zelt, as if it was just exchanging pleasantries with an old friend.

"You look to be in a lot of pain little one, why don't you show me that wound of yours?" asked the Zelt in a less questioning and more commanding tone. Stanis, however, was no fool and instead turtled up, hiding his arm from the monster.

"Now that simply will not do" said the Zelt. "Open up" commanded the Zelt: Stanis instantly felt magic at work as his body straightened itself before freezing beyond his control.

The Zelt crept towards his left arm and looked at the wound. "Mmm, nasty wound you have there."

It then knelt a bit closer, a bit too close for Stanis's comfort. "Should I tell you a secret?" asked the Zelt, its tone playful.

"That's my handiwork" whispered the Zelt, its voice almost too quiet for Stanis to hear. It was fair to say that Stanis's eyes popped up as he heard this, all his gloom now all screaming out his doom. The Zelt looked offended at this, "You know I'm proud of my work, no need to be so scared. I know exactly what I'm doing".

It then broke out into a manic laughter, its body now full with sadistic joy. "Well playtime has come to an end, it's time to get to business" sternly announced the Zelt, moving with haste as it brought out a knife from somewhere.

"I told you, don't worry. I wouldn't kill a specimen like you, especially when we could get a nice price for you. I just need to know which Dark race you have aligned yourself with."

Stanis began frantically mumbling and shaking at this, almost as if he was trying to utter the name Zelaro.

"Uh ah ah, that's not how it works. My master always told me to make them show, not tell. So all I'm going to do is make you show me, that ways I won't be lied to."

Stanis should have resigned himself to fate by this point but he still struggled, hoping the monster would listen to reason or sanity.

"That's enough" commanded the Zelt, reinforcing the spell as it spoke, transforming Stanis back into a statue.

The Zelt worked with brutal efficiency as each of its slices slid easily through his thick leathery skin, chunks of his arm being sliced off each minute. One should be able to guess that Stanis did not take well to this, not well at all as tears began to stream out with force, followed by blood. As the spell got weaker, his struggles and screams only got stronger, each slice bringing a worse reaction from Stanis than before.

Close to an hour passed before the Zelt was finished, smiling its fangs at Stanis before leaving.

"I'll be back later to check up how you're doing."

These words echoed through the tunnel, haunting Stanis's broken my mind as he lay face-flat on the cold stone, his arm a terrible half-finished replica of what it was before. The bones were still connected and some chunks of flesh had been left behind as the Zelt had been feeling magnanimous this time.

Perhaps in such a situation, the first thing one thinks of is suicide, after all the rest of his miserable life will be spent being tortured until the cruel Zelt gets bored and finishes with a grand finale. But that was also the catch, one needs to think this before committing to it. Stanis's high constitution meant that his flesh was constantly healing and at a fast rate at that since only one area had been hit with magic.

The pain he had been through in the previous hours had set him in a delirious state, thinking nothing as he simply lay there. Seconds, minutes and hours passed, although Stanis could no longer tell the difference between periods of time. It was at this time that a tier-one Zelt came in. The tier-two Zelt was awfully considerate and knew of how bored Stanis would get while staying here, and he was a good host so he had sent this tier-one Zelt to keep him company, in order to ensure he wouldn't get bored.

And oh boy was the tier-one Zelt good at this, there was not a moment during his stay that Stanis felt bored. The two constantly played games while they were roommates, whether it be whip the bitch, flail the bitch or even slice the bitch...