The night cloaked the world in its thick mantle, the wind whistling faintly through the windows of the abandoned building, like the moans of spirits trapped within the walls.
Alex stood near the window on the third floor, watching the small, grotesque creatures retreat slowly toward the forest that stretched like a sea of shadows beyond the ruined courtyard. The goblins moved with a strange discipline, exchanging primitive cries as they vanished among the trees, while the silver moonlight reflected off their weapons, stirring a primal sense of danger deep within Alex.
His heart pounded violently, his mind spinning with the images of what he had witnessed over the past hours—a strange world, unknown laws, and creatures he would not have believed existed even in his nightmares. Yet here he was, breathing with difficulty, trying to make sense of it all.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by a faint sound behind him, like the creak of wood or muffled breathing.
He froze.
He moved slowly, turning halfway, but before he could complete the motion, he sensed something was wrong. The air behind him felt heavier, as if the room was no longer empty.
He turned fully, his eyes widening.
There, in a shadowed corner near the door, stood a goblin. It had slipped inside silently, unnoticed, and now stared at Alex with eyes glowing like twin embers of malice.
Alex had no time even to draw a breath.
The goblin screamed suddenly, a sharp, piercing cry that shattered the stillness, and lunged with primitive fury, gripping its spear tightly, moving with the speed of a predator that had finally found its prey.
In less than a second, it was in front of him.
He saw the spear glint, aimed straight for his chest—his very heart.
There was no time to think. Only instinct took over.
Alex shouted an internal command, and the metallic sensors of the armored octopus surrounding him flared to life like a living shield.
But it was too slow to fully save him.
The spear struck his chest with force, sending a wave of sparks and a deafening metallic clang through the room.
Alex stumbled back two steps from the impact, his back colliding with the broken window, the shattered glass groaning beneath his feet.
He lifted his head, gasping, and his eyes locked on the goblin, which now looked stunned.
The spear had not pierced Alex's chest.
No blood flowed.
The octopus armor had absorbed the blow, a surge of metallic sparks radiating around his chest like a mysterious blue flash.
The goblin let out a roar of fury, but Alex had regained his focus.
In an instant, the octopus' sensors lashed out at lightning speed—two wrapping tightly around the goblin's body, the rest poised for attack. They moved like steel serpents, coiling and constricting with crushing force.
The goblin screamed in agony, a shriek that shook the walls, as its bones cracked beneath the tightening grip of the sensors.
Alex watched, eyes wide, half afraid, half enraged.
He realized that without the octopus, he would now be a speared corpse on the cold floor.
That truth awakened something in him—a mix of terror, fury, and an instinct to survive.
He clenched his mental will, and the sensors tightened even more, until the cracking of bones echoed through the room, followed by a brief silence, then the thud of the goblin's lifeless body hitting the floor.
The cries faded gradually, leaving behind an echo of death mingled with Alex's trembling breaths.
But the silence did not last long.
Outside, hundreds of meters away among the trees, the evolved goblin had heard the scream.
It raised its head, its gleaming eyes shining in the dark like a pair of malicious lamps.
It stood silently for a moment, then fixed its gaze on the old building.
Alex remained at the window, catching his breath, when he felt a gaze piercing the darkness toward him.
Something deep within told him the creature saw him, that an invisible connection had formed between them.
He saw the evolved goblin murmur in its strange tongue, sharp, clicking words, then raise its voice into a primal scream that echoed through the forest, followed by dozens of creatures answering in their own cries, running toward the building.
Alex stepped back, peering through the window, and saw what he did not want to see.
The monsters surged from the trees, their muscular bodies moving in wave after wave, spears in hand, led by the evolved goblin—tall, imposing, with human-like features twisted by rage.
It was a living nightmare.
On the third floor, Alex felt the ground shake beneath their pounding feet.
He released his sensors from the dead goblin; its body fell lifelessly, a shattered doll.
He lifted his head, looking at the door and then the window.
He knew that if he stayed, he would be trapped, just as the creature killed by the goblin had been moments ago in the courtyard.
He exhaled deeply, trying to calm himself.
But before he could move, he felt something strange in his body.
An unfamiliar pulse, a surge of energy coursing through his veins like a hot lightning bolt.
Suddenly, flashes of light appeared before him, as if his mind were displaying invisible data.
New information poured into his mind, source unknown.
Echoes of words resonated within him, without sound, yet perfectly understood.
He had changed.
After killing the first and second goblin, something within him had awakened.
His physical strength had slightly increased, his senses sharpened, as if all his faculties had been elevated a degree.
He whispered softly:
"What is happening to me? Am I… evolving? Like them?"
The answer was unclear, but the feeling was real.
Power throbbed within him, as if this strange world rewarded survival with every escape from death.
Time, however, was not on his side.
The approaching goblins, their primitive cries, all closed in fast.
Alex lifted his gaze through the window—seven goblins were running toward him, the evolved one leading with wide, terrifying steps.
Their eyes glowed with fury, their screams tearing through the still night.
Alex stepped back, heart hammering like war drums, mind racing.
No safe place remained.
No weapon but the metallic octopus, which had now transformed from mere armor into a living spiritual combat entity.
He raised his hand, the sensors around him flickering with a faint silver light, responding to his inner rage.
He muttered in a sharp, determined voice:
"I will not let them kill me… not now."
He looked toward the door, then to the staircase leading downward, engulfed in darkness.
The goblins' sounds intensified, as if the walls themselves shivered at their roar.
He knew the moment of the ultimate confrontation was near, that everything since his arrival in this world had been but the beginning of a series of bloody trials awaiting him.
"Come… I will fight you all!"
Alex said, tense and exhilarated.
In that old building, amid the oppressive darkness and his racing breaths, Alex realized one thing:
Survival in this world required not just strength… but ferocity.
From that night onward, he was no longer the same man he had been in his old world.
He lifted his head to the sky through the broken window, the moon illuminating his pale face, then turned toward the door, the metallic sensors spinning around him like a living shield ready to kill.
He was ready.
And despite his fear, a new gleam shone in his eyes…
The gleam of a fighter born in a merciless world.