Nile watched the man dying in front of him. The sight hit him like a wave.
His stomach twisted.
Nile turned aside and vomited onto the ground. Only water came out. He had only had water since morning.
His legs shook so hard he almost fell again. His body felt numb except for the pounding heat in his heart.
No matter how much he blinked, the image of the dying man burned behind his eyelids.
Nile covered his mouth with both hands, breathing raggedly.
"I killed him... I really killed him..."
His thoughts spun out of control— he slapped his own cheeks.
Once.
Twice.
And hard.
"Focus," he whispered to himself with clenched teeth. "Focus."
"I thought I had mentally prepared myself—"
He forced himself to look away from the body to calm himself.
He reasoned with himself, because he had to— because breaking down now would only get him killed.
"It's kill or be killed. If I didn't kill him... My fate would have been worse... Even worse than death."
He swallowed hard— it tasted acidic.
Slowly and painfully, Nile straightened his back. His breath steadied into something less frantic.
Nile didn't feel brave, he didn't feel strong, he just knew he had no choice.
Nile took one deep breath, smoothing his ragged breathing.
He walked up to the corpse because there was no time left.
**********
Back at the camp, the boss waited impatiently. He felt uneasy.
30 minutes had passed since Nile and the other bandit left.
Still no sign of them.
Finally, he pointed to one of his underlings and ordered.
"Go."
The chosen bandit clicked his tongue, but he obeyed. He didn't dare to refuse, with only three of them left and one hostage, the pressure was real.
He walked towards the direction Nile and his fellow bandit had gone.
He entered the forest.
The forest was quiet and eerie.
He called out their names in the hope for a response. Even if he was a bandit, all humans fear the unknown.
He called out again.
Nothing.
He heard a rustling in a nearby bush.
His heart jumped. He imagined Nile and his friend had been eaten by a beast. And that same beast came to take his life and feast on him.
He took out his bow and aimed at the rustling bush, ready to shoot at whatever came out. He was scared as hell, and he was ready to run if needed. He cared about his life more.
Then a rabbit hopped out.
He sighed in relief and cursed at the rabbit.
"You f**king scared me. Turns out it's you."
The bandit continued to search. The bandit couldn't go back until he confirmed the situation, because if he went back, the bandit boss would beat him senselessly until he was half dead. That fear was worse than any danger ahead.
"Ahhh! Why does the boss always pick me? The more I think about it, the more it is frustrating."
The bandit laments his frustration as he continues his search.
After some searching, he found a body lying on the ground.
A feeling of dread crept through his heart.
The closer he got, the more he could distinguish the features of the body.
"It's him"
He recognised that the body belonged to his dead friend.
"Damn it."
He rushed over and knelt beside the dead body.
The body lay on the ground, facing down, its chest touching the ground. Both of its hands were clutching its neck. No, it was more like it was covering something, not wanting to let it go.
Blood soaked the fallen leaves around the dead body. There was a small pool of blood around the body.
"Damn it. Damn it. How did this happen?"
He dipped two fingers into the pool of blood and rubbed them together.
"It's still warm."
"It happened not long ago."
The bandit turned left and right, looking for Nile. But Nile was nowhere to be seen.
"Where did that pig go?"
"Tch… He must be dead too."
He didn't want to search for Nile, and he also didn't want to stay any longer.
"Even if he escaped," the bandit thought, "what can that weakling do? He has no strength. He'll die in the wilderness soon enough. The beasts here will tear him apart."
He held the right side of the dead body and rolled it over, making its chest face the sky.
"Now to check how he died." The bandit murmured to himself, and he searched for the wound. He started searching in the most suspicious area. Before he saw both of its hands cover its throat, but when he looked closely, he saw that one of its hands couldn't cover the throat. He examines that hand.
"A wooden, sharp stick pierced his hand from his palm. There should be other wounds."
He removed his dead friend's hands, which covered the throat. The throat was covered with blood. He wiped out the blood with his hands. He saw a wound on his throat.
"A blade wound!"
He quickly glanced down at the dead body's waist. He saw the blade was missing.
"It's missing."
He checked the clothes of the dead body.
"His water bag is also missing. His beef jerky is also missing. Some took his things."
"Fuck... I need to leave fast and report back to boss. He was killed by a beast. Someone clearly killed him and looted his —"
Before he could process the thought, his vision shifted, which was looking at his dead friend, was now looking at his body kneeling on the ground.
His head fell from his body and rolled on the ground.
********
Moments before—
Nile walked up to the corpse and looted the dead bandit.
"Where is it, where is it?"
"Here it is."
He took the water bag and the beef jerky.
He hungrily devoured the food like a beast who was starving for days.
"I am so hungry, even water tastes so good when you are hungry. "
Gulp! Gulp!
"Ahh, so good."
"I better get going. They must be coming."
Nile climbed a tree after killing the first bandit.
'Thinking back, I used to climb trees a lot to pluck fruits. And my mother would beat me at home, she was worried that I might fall down and hurt myself, like breaking my bone or something. I want to go home. First, I need to survive first to get home.'
He hid himself by covering himself with leaves and hiding his breath, waiting for his next prey.
Waiting for the prey to come and deliver itself to him.
He waited, waited for some minutes.
"Here he comes."
Nile saw his prey coming and waited for the bandit to drop his guard.
The second bandit walked up to the corpse and knelt beside him. He examined the body, took some of the blood and rubbed it between his fingers.
Nile patiently waited for the perfect opportunity to kill his prey.
He was like a cunning predator who kept watching his prey and waited for his perfect moment, because that's all he had. He wouldn't have any second chances. He was not allowed to make any mistakes.
The second bandit removed the dead bandit's hands from the throat, and when he discovered the wound, he quickly realized his friend was not killed by a beast but by someone with a blade at his throat. When the sudden realization that the killer could be nearby and the killer lured him out in open.
That quick moment of realization dropped the bandit guard down. It was a quick second, but that's all Nile needed. He wouldn't get a second chance like this.
Nile waited like a cunning predator, and now his golden opportunity had come.
'If I didn't take this opportunity, then I'm a fool and deserve to die. Even if I die after taking this opportunity, then I'll die knowing I gave my best.'
Nile took his blade, which he took from the first bandit. Nile aimed his blade at his prey's neck when his prey was looking at the dead bandit's wound.
Nile aimed and fell from the tree, letting gravity do all the work. The fall turned his arm into an executioner's strike.
Nile's blade sliced the bandit's head, severing it in one strike.
Is it luck or fortune? He didn't know. He was lucky. A novice executioner would need multiple strikes to cut a head. If he didn't cut in one strike, the head would be left hanging on the neck with its skin, or the blade could have been stuck on the collarbone.
There was also a possibility that Nile didn't sever the head. His blade could have been stuck on the bandit's collarbone. The bandit retaliated due to an adrenaline rush and killed Nile.
But he was lucky that he could do it.
The bandit's head rolled, his eyes frozen in shock, staring blankly at his own headless body.
Because of the inertia of falling, Nile hit the ground with his chest.
Thump!
It hit so hard that Nile couldn't breathe for a while. He gasped for air.
It was like a sandbag being dropped from a house roof.
He gasped painfully, he stayed motionless due to the pain.