As Koda hit the wall, blood flowed through his head as he lost consciousness.
He saw himself in a place that was completely stripped of light as he fell slowly into nothingness.
"Am I dying? I knew I couldn't fight that thing, it's way out of my league. I guess this is really the end for me" Koda thought as he gave up every hope of survival as he then closed his eyes accepting his fate.
Suddenly memories of his past started surfacing as he remembered all the promises he made to his family as he thought, "Why, why, why does life keep treating me this way, no matter how hard I try, I can't ever make those I love happy"
"I still have my mom's medical bills to pay, I promised her that nothing was going to happen to her"
"My sister still needs my financial support, plus, I promised to give her money for her education"
"I shouldn't forget about my little bro, I promised to bring back lots of presents from him"
"That's not the only thing that's bothering, I still have outstanding bills to pay, plus, I borrowed lots of money to be able to participate in this exam, if I die now, they won't be able to pay it off. I don't want to make their lives miserable because of me"
As Koda was in deep thoughts, he began hearing someone screaming, "Hey wake up! Can't you hear me, don't you dare die in a place like this. Wake up! What do you think you're doing? Hey I'm talking to you...!"
"Ahhhhh, I guess my family is calling out for me. Wait! That doesn't sound like any of them, am I in another world, maybe I'll be stronger in this life, yeah, I hate who I am right now, I'm just a coward who can't keep his promises, I'm, I'm..." Koda thought as he felt a sharp pain and coughed.
He was surprised to see Laila panting heavily with a worried look on her face, as the young man tried keeping the gorilla busy.
He received a dirty slap as Laila asked, "What do you think you're doing? Aren't you the one who told me you would do anything to see your family smile! So tell me, did you give up already?"
"That's right, I remember telling her something like that when we were walking down the hallway, I wanted to look cool and also make her feel better, I guess that..." Koda thought as the girl dragged him closer and said, "What happened to that guy who would risk it all for his family? How do you think they would feel loosing their loved one? Or is everything you told me just a lie?"
Koda saw the expression on her face as she was first angry but later looked a little sad and disappointed as he felt bad and became angry with himself and thought, "What do I think I'm doing?" And said, "Your right, I would risk anything to see my family happy, I might not be strong but I'll always try my best to put a smile on their face even if it kills me"
The young man was shocked as he saw Koda trying to stand up while saying that.
Koda then looked at Laila and smiled as he said, "Thanks, thanks for reminding me who I am, thanks to you, I don't feel like dieing anymore since I know I can't afford to lose if I want them to smile"
Koda had an intense gaze with the gorilla as he began running towards it.
Of course, the beast was way stronger than him so it hit him aside as he crashed into the wall.
"He's not strong but yet I don't hate him for that, actually I don't know why but I kinda like the kid" the young man thought and smiled as he said, "Don't worry kid, I'll take care of this beast just stay back and watch"
Koda brought himself out as he panted and watched the man fight the beast.
The gorilla began exchanging punches with the man as Koda became amazed by the scene.
"He's pretty amazing, I can't believe he's fighting head on with that beast" Koda thought as Laila became worried, "He's strong but he's badly injured. It's going to be hard for him to keep this up for long, I need to think of a plan before that happens"
As the both where fighting, the man felt a sharp pain in his ribs which slowed him down as he thought, "Damn, this isn't good"
The beast landed a clean heavy hit as the only thing the young man could do was block.
He crashed into the wall and coughed out blood as he began panting while trying to get back up since he knew he was the only one who could defeat it.
The gorilla hit its chest and screamed as it breathe out and began heading towards the young man.
The man raised his head up and saw the beast heading towards him as he thought, "Things can't end like this, I still need to save those kids, but I don't think I can do it in this condition. I'm sorry kiddos but this is the end."
As the man closed his eyes, he heard a loud noise, but he was surprised since he didn't feel anything, he then opened his eyes and saw Koda standing in front of him as the beast launched lots of punches at his shield.
"I can't loose, I have to hang in there" Koda thought as the beast continued hitting his cracked shield as Laila made the man invisible and whispered, "I have a plan"
The man was surprised as the girl then explained her plan to him.
The beast continued hitting Koda shield which made it chatter as it hit Koda aside and then looked around.
The beast didn't see anyone else around except from Koda so it put all its focus on killing him.
The beast then went towards Koda as he moved out from the way making the beast to destroy the wall, as he became scared and began running.
The beast pulled its had out of the wall and went towards him as Koda noticed and stopped since it was catching up.
Koda raised his shield but as the beast punched it, it got destroyed, which made the hit to land as he flew and crash landed on the ground.
Koda tried getting up as he breathe heavily while the beast came closer to him.
Koda noticed a large shadow on the ground as he realized the beast was next to him and turned back immediately.
The beast began throwing punches as Koda was just laying on the ground, trying to keep his shield up so he won't die.
"I can't keep this up for long, someone, anyone, help me, please, I don't want to die, I want to live, I want to live!!!" Koda thought as he continued blocking the attacks.
Koda was surprised as he saw the beast headless while blood spilled on his shield.
"Huh!" Koda thought in disbelief of what just happened as he turned and saw the young man panting as the beast fell down making him to move away from there.
"Nice job kid, you held on long enough for me to channel all my power into that throw. Thanks to you, we defeated that beast, you were really brave back there kid" the man said panting heavily as he then fell, but Laila came just in time to support him.
"This is the first time anyone has ever called me brave" Koda thought as he remembered how people treated him and even when Daiki and Shota called him a pest.
"I don't think he noticed but this word alone means the world to me" Koda thought as he felt some kind of happiness within.
"Come on Koda, come help me carry this old man" Laila said as the young man replied, "I'm not old!"
Both began arguing as Koda smiled and stood up to go support them.
"Sir if you don't mind, may I ask, what's your name?" Koda said while they were moving as the young man replied, "I'm Chiyo, it's nice to meet you Koda and..."
Since Chiyo didn't know Laila's name, he just looked at her weirdly as Koda noticed and said, "Oh she's Laila and it's a pleasure to meet you"
"Hey why did you tell the old man my name" Laila said angrily as Koda replied, "But he introduced himself, it's proper manners to do the same"
"But I didn't give you my permission to tell him, you think I didn't know he wanted to know my name you blaba mouth"
"Hey I was just doing..."
"Don't talk when I'm talking, do you know who I am"
The both continued arguing as Chiyo thought, "They get along pretty well, but right now I should focus on the dangers ahead. We don't know what might come next and this group isn't really strong, plus, I don't have much energy, if we want to finish this exam we need..."
"Mister Chiyo, is everything okay?" Koda asked seeing him in deep thoughts as he replied, "Yeah, it's just a little pain that's all, plus I was just lost in thought"
"Okay but you shouldn't worry that much about the exam, I can handle the traps perfectly, plus, we don't need to fight any beast since Laila can make us invisible" Koda said trying to act like everything was okay as Laila added, "Yeah, plus, just in case we have to fight any beast, we have you and Koda to take care of things"
Chiyo saw how Laila smiled so joyfully and decided not to worry her as he said, "Yeah your right, I shouldn't be too worried"
As she said that Koda became scared as he remembered what happened and tried to destroy that idea she just had as Chiyo thought, "They have a nice plan but there is a problem there. I don't have enough energy to battle any beast, plus, Koda isn't strong enough to hold it on his own, we only won this battle by luck. 'Sigh', I should just forget about it, things might go well for us, who knows we might not have to battle any monsters again.
Meanwhile, Asahu and Mitsuki saw a large fancy door as Mitsuki said, "How many of this doors do we have to pass, this exam is starting to get annoying"
"Yeah but we have to pass through them if we want to pass this exam" Asahu said as he pushes the door open.
As they walked into the place Mitsuki sighed and said, "Here we go again" but was surprised since they didn't see any beast.
The both of them continued moving really cautiously as the where expecting a beast to show up.
As they were moving a magic seal appeared glowing really bright as they looked at each other being confused.
"What's that?" Asahu asked as Mitsuki replied, "I don't know"
"Should we go into the seal?"
"Not yet, let's first check if the other door opens, if it does, we would just continue heading towards the end"
"Okay, but what happens if it doesn't open?"
"Isn't that obvious, we would go into it and if necessary, fight like crazy" Mitsuki said as Asahu smiled and replied, "Alright"