With difficulty, Alex sat against a tree and looked around.
He was in a dense forest. So dense that a normal person wouldn't be able to tell if it was day or night.
But Alex, by no means, was normal.
"It'll be night soon… but where am I? Why didn't I die? And how are all my wounds suddenly gone, like I was never injured? I need to find a cave or something to rest for the night."
Among humans, he was the best in darkness. But if animals were included? He wasn't sure he could get out of the forest unscathed.
After a few minutes, he got up and started walking in a random direction.
As he moved, he could sense presences in the surroundings.
Why am I still alive?
If he had been lying there for some time, the animals should have torn his body to pieces by now.
So many questions—so many mysteries about the recent past that he couldn't wrap his head around.
He could hear howling in the distance. Insect noises all around.
Darkness. Shadows.
That's what he was most familiar with.
At the age of four, his father began his training. It started with physical exercises—postures, stamina building.
If he got bruised and his body ached by the end of the day, he was given a traditional medicinal bath. Usually hot water with some herbs—he never knew which ones—but it helped.
But humans are adaptable creatures. Either the body gets used to it… or it dies.
So he got used to torturing his body. Every day.
Then, at the age of ten, the real torture began.
It wasn't physical anymore. It was mental.
Sure, he never stopped training his body. But now…
His father wanted to make him the best assassin that ever existed.
Assassins have only one purpose—to kill. And the hardest part? To do it without anyone even realizing how.
Shadows were an assassin's greatest ally.
So Alex was trained to treat the shadow as his only friend. The only place where he could truly exist.
Once, he was locked in a pitch-black cave for three months.
There was food inside—but he had to find it himself.
He thought he would go mad. He couldn't see.
So he learned to feel.
He learned to feel the wind… the temperature… the sound.
He was trained to assimilate into shadows.
He learned to know where, in any room, the darkest shadow would be. It became instinct.
As deadly as Alex was, he had never fought an animal before. He never needed to—because in the world he lived in, humans were the only enemy.
As he moved, his eyes and ears stayed alert. He weaved through the shadows of trees to avoid being seen. He was the best hunter in the dark, but in this forest, there were others—maybe even better than him.
His body felt like it hadn't eaten in days, but that wasn't new to him.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a cave-like structure. He approached cautiously. It was a small cave, but hidden perfectly.
Better than nothing, he thought, and stepped inside.