Just Another Beginning After the End | TBATE

Arc II - The Tower of Infinity: Teaser

—Chack, crack snap

The sounds of crunching leaves and snapping branches echoed in the silent night as a man dashed through the forest.

He was running from something.

"Arhg!"

He yelped as he tripped over a root. But he didn't stop.

He pulled himself forward with his hands, scrambling to his feet to resume running.

"Please, please."

The man begged that he'd be quick enough, that his trip wouldn't kill him.

—Rustle

The man didn't even care to look back at the sound of the rustling leaves. As far as he was concerned, only the jaws of death awaited behind.

Endlessly running, scraping the little bits of mana he had to augment his legs, he eventually saw a flash of moonlight.

'The end of the forest!'

Hope bloomed in his heart.

'If I can cross the border—!'

He threw all the energy he had left into his last spurt, a smile spreading across his face when he saw an open field.

'I-I did it!'

He internally rejoiced as he flung himself through the treeline.

Landing on the ground with a crash, he began laughing.

"Hehe, those shitty elves thought they could take me? I'm the Hunter of the Northern Wind! Hahaha! Those monkeys... couldn't..."

The laughter began to die as hope drained from his face.

This... wasn't Sapin and its prairie fields that the man called home.

No, this was just...

"A-a clearing!?"

The man looked around as despair flooded his mind, his expression of disbelief warping into one of pure terror.

"Th-this can't—"

Then, something caught his eye.

'A boy...?'

Right, a human boy was chilling on a log.

He had his face pointed upward, taking in the starry night.

The man tried to move into a defensive stance, but he no longer had the energy to move.

The adrenaline that he had been running on had finally run out, and now he was unable to get on his feet.

Without any other choice, he unsheathed a knife and pointed it at the boy. He cautiously spoke.

"...W-who ar—"

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

The boy interrupted the man as he lightly kicked his legs back and forward.

"The sky."

The man didn't listen, however, and began pushing himself back, trying to get away. As far as he was concerned, this boy was dangerous. I mean, what kind of kid came to the Elshire Forest to appreciate some damn stars?

Hell, the kid could be a ghost for all he knew.

But instead of sinking back into the forest, the man bumped into something else.

'Thin trees?'

He creaked his head up, and his face immediately filled with dread.

'...Ah.'

A black haired elf looked down at him with cold eyes.

But soon enough, her lips twisted up in a beautiful smile. Not a kind and warm one, but a smile that seemed almost giddy, like a child's smile who just received her Christmas present. But seeing that she was looking at him like he were the present... fear grasped his very soul.

"He's mine, Aya."

Suddenly, a child's clear voice rang out.

The man tore his eyes away from the woman to the location of the sound.

It was the boy he had seen before.

A chill ran up the man's spine.

It was different compared to the woman.

The woman seemed like she was having fun. But this boy... seemed almost ecstatic.

"I've been hunting these losers this whole night."

The elvish woman, Aya, spoke in a huff.

"And I marked him when we began hunting."

The boy fired back.

"...Tsk."

Aya whipped her head away.

"Fine, don't take too long."

"Says you."

"What was that?"

The boy muttered.

"I wasn't the one who spent five hours."

"...That was one time."

The woman spoke increasingly louder as she walked further away.

"It was one time! Plus, it was your fault anyways..."

The white haired boy smiled sadistically as he looked down at the trembling man, his golden eyes glowing as tendrils of golden lightning began to crackle and arc around him.

"...Asher!"

A/N: Welcome to Arc II!

This is a quick teaser, and I hope you enjoyed :D

I'm currently working on a second super short ff with a few people on the TBATE FF Discord server, but I'll be done in about a week or less.

I do have a chapter for this ff that I'm currently working on, so you may actually get a chapter relatively quickly.

On that note, thanks for reading, and I look forward to writing for you guys in this next arc.

Rua

P.S. If you're willing and have time, join the TBATE Fanfiction Discord Server!

You get immediate updates on a lot of the TBATE ff uploads and can chat with other people who read the same fics as you and it's a pretty chill place. If you're a pogger and are already there, hi!

Invite: https://discord.gg/aujs5BuX