A crow cawed in the dim lighting of sunrise.

The wind was still. The trees were quiet.

The only sound that could be heard was the cawing of crows.

The cawing of crows and the creaking of an old metal swing.

Adam was on the swing, lazily swaying from front to back.

Pensively, he thought about the outcome of yesterday's duel.

Toshihiro had used all of his strength in that final strike, and had Adam not used Shadow Form at the last possible moment he would have been destroyed in body and mind.

Shadow Form took a decent chunk out of his mana pool, 15 points, but the complete immunity to physical attacks was well worth it.

The problem was that it couldn't defend against attacks of magical nature, and thus he still sustained damage from the golden aura going through his body, shattering his constitution and forcing Adam to cough out blood.

In the future, he would have to avoid frontal confrontations such as this. His strength lay in ambushes and such, not in an open duel.

Lying within his pensive thoughts, Adam was unaware that beside him a little girl had begun swinging on the swing beside him.

The girl looked to be about seven years of age and everything about her was white.

A white dress, white shoes, white socks, white hair, white eyes and pale white skin.

Only the pupils of her eyes was a deep, dark colour. It was a captivating shade of black, a shade in which someone could fall into an eternal reverie from merely gazing at it.

The girl started humming slowly, the tune was joyful in the beginning.

Hearing the song, Adam's pensive thoughts subconsciously turned to his early childhood.

His father heading to work everyday.

His mother preparing his lunch in the morning.

Playing in the kindergarten during the afternoon.

Sitting down beside the canal, enjoying the cool summer breeze and the moist sensation of wet grass.

The little girl beside Adam continued humming happily, until, on a sharp note, she stopped.

She began humming after that, but it wasn't the same joyful tune.

This time she hummed something you would find in a tragedy.

Adam's thoughts similarly turned towards the recent happenings, memories within an office building which seemed estranged to him, almost as if he was but a mere spectator within someone else's body.

He seemed to be some sort of monster, long white tendrils instead of arms and a pale membrane covered him.

He saw someone, then that someone was no more. They were gone, nothing more than a streak of blood on a wall.

He saw someone else, this time in some sort of toilet. They suffered the same fate.

Both times the monster which Adam inhabited used it's white tendrils to enter through the seven apertures of the peoples heads. From where it seemed to consume their darkest fears.

Adam could feel the consumption of nightmares. It felt satisfying, yet also exhilarating. It filled him with the undue joy of an addictive sin.

The adrenalin from doing something inherently evil, the morbid curiosity of looking through the deepest and darkest nightmares of those people as if they were a delectable dish served at a five star restaurant.

However, the mere act of consuming a meal requires one to tear away the packaging and discard it.

Adam found it funny how he simply thought of them as packaging, it seemed his moral compass had gone awry.

Then, Adam saw that another person entered the toilet area. A brunette office worker carrying a small cardboard cup of instant coffee.

...

The little girl beside Adam was humming the tragic tune, the whole time her profoundly dark pupils were glued on Adam.

A pitiful expression seemed to appear on her expression, almost as if she could read Adam's mind right now.

...

Adam was still in his pensive thoughts, however, his sixth sense managed to detect something. It told him that whoever or whatever it was, it was a grave danger to him.

Jumping from the swing in a fluid motion, he landed on a knee and rolled backwards.

He turned to look at the swings, this was because his sixth sense detected that the danger was right next to him.

However, all that he could find were two swings. Two slowly swaying swings, creaking against the sporadic cawing of crows.

...

Adam made his way back home after the unnerving encounter. He still wasn't sure what it quite was that triggered such a reaction from his sixth sense but decided that the safest course of action would be to leave the playground.

It was already dawn, Leo had told him that he would be picked up at midday to go to the military facility.

Adam had originally gone to the playground in order to set his thoughts straight, but he ended up arriving home even more confused than before.

Nevertheless, he decided that his immediate goal should be what was presented before him, and that was completing this eleven week training.

Inside his home, Adam prepared a cup of camomile tea to drink. The furniture inside the house had gathered copious amounts of dust from the months in which it had gone untended.

Abandoned cobwebs could be seen in the corners of rooms. The iced cans of coffee still sat inside the fridge, miraculously not having gone off yet.

His room stayed as he had let it, rumpled sheets stop his bed. A chaotic array of useless papers stacked on his desk. A broken lamp standing uselessly atop said papers.

Had it been a few months prior Adam would have cleaned this place up.

But now, Adam was determined never to come back to this place.

It contained too many painful memories for him, far too many to ever be habitable to Adam again.

Adam took the time in the last hour before being picked up to quietly sip his last cup of tea in this place.

He tilted the cup towards his mouth, only to see the bottom of the cup within the poor lighting of his home. He turned to look at the clock instead.

Ten-to-twelve.

He made his way to the fridge and pocketed a can of iced coffee, he put on his favourite coat and took all the house keys with him along with his phone and charger.

Making his way out of the front door he spotted a sleek black car escorted by a pair of black suited men. They sported aviators and had black earpieces beside their bald heads, giving away the occupation of the two bodyguards.

Making his way to the car, Adam saw the senior of the two men speak into his earpiece, doubtlessly reporting to his superior.

At a conversational distance to the car, the other bodyguard addressed Adam.

"Mr. Freeman?"

Adam looked up into his own reflection within the bodyguards aviators. Adam's attire was casually tidy, however, his expression expressed a certain kind of emotional lethargy.

"That's me." Adam replied in a monotone voice.

The man behind the aviators cracked open a professional smile, one that you would use when meeting a business partner for the first time.

"Mr. Freeman, we would ask you to follow us into the car please."

Adam quietly consented and stepped in through the door which was held open by the bodyguard.

Within a few dozen seconds they had already started the engine and were well on their way to their destination.

The military facility was located in the countryside, a great distance from any train station or airport. Therefore the trip would have to be made by car.

The scenery outside the window of the car quickly gave way from residential housing to industrial factories and warehouses. Long plumes of smoke were constantly being pumped out from the long chimneys of the large factories in the distance.

Further away from the city centre could be seen heavy police and vigilante presence within the streets, a result in the rise of monster attacks and activity from evil factions.

The industrial quarter of the city was quickly passed by and it slowly gave way to agricultural landuse. Most of the farmsteads were abandoned this far out of the city and the livestock was reduced to skeletons within their prairies, their corpses likely picked clean by the voracious nature of monsters.

Adam had known that Monsters had turned human civilisation upside down, however as a city dweller, he was never confronted face to face with the reality of the situation.

He only saw one monster make it's way into the suburban area, and that was his school. He had never seen the situation in areas which were prone to be infested with monsters.

As the car continued to drive along the dirt road, less and less farmsteads could be seen.

One of the houses was even burnt down. Adam didn't want to imagine what kind of monster could burn a house.

Then, Adam saw the corpse of a monster laying by it's side, multiple gunshot wounds had penetrated into it's flesh. So many in fact that the monster couldn't be identified as being of any species.

Adam began seeing more and more monster corpses, and occasionally human corpses.

The majority were soldiers, some where awakened. Adam could tell because they were wearing a special uniform that gave away their faction.

The bodyguard that was beside him opened his mouth to speak for the first time since getting inside the car.

"Mr. Freeman, we are nearing the frontlines now, we may encounter a mishap on the way to the military base. In the case of a scenario in which we get separated happens, I have been ordered to provide you with this radio and a map alongside basic navigation tools so that you can make your own way there."

The bodyguard showed Adam how to use these tools, such as the compass and how to take a bearing from his current position.

Sufficiently satisfied that Adam had learnt enough about navigation, he gave him the small kit to carry around his shoulder and went back to looking out for monsters.

The journey continued uneventfully for another two hours until certain distinctive sounds were heard in the distance.

A series of short, sharp bursts exploded within the nearby woodlands. They resembled gunfire and the shooting continued for a prolonged amount of time, about three minutes.

Adam's bodyguards couldn't hear the sound because it was too far away, however Adam could hear it as a result of his heightened awareness.

Informing the guards of the shooting in the distance, the faces of the two guards fell beneath their expressionless aviators.

The one that was driving immediately accelerated, going well past the speed limit.

The other one turned to Adam to explain.

"It is highly likely that a group of monsters broke through the combat perimeter, thus making it's way here under fire. Any monster that can bypass the frontlines is by no means an ordinary existence. It is in our best interest to leave the vicinity of the encounter."

The car kept accelerating for another ten minutes or so. Adam nervously looked through the windows in the direction that he last heard the gunfire.

Then, more sounds of gunfire broke out. This time the gunfire was much closer than before and the guards could hear it clearly.

However, the gunfire wasn't accompanied by any shouting. The soldiers fighting the monsters were well trained and could operate in the field through the sole use of field signals. However, the incessant gunfire sounds were soon accompanied by the screams of dying men.

Everyone inside the car tensed at this time. The guard in the passenger seat took out a sidearm from his holster and opened the window on his side of the car, preparing to shoot at anything that tore through the woodlands to the side of the car.

Then, the gunfire suddenly stopped. It was silent, everyone inside the car looked at each other hesitantly.

The car continued on in silence, the eucalyptus woodlands around them drawing ever nearer.

Then, some distance behind them, a tree fell.

It was followed by rhythmic thumping on the ground. It sounded similar to that of a galloping horse, however the strength beneath each hoof beat possessed more than enough power to crush a car.

It was slowly growing louder, a sure sign that it was gaining on them.

The rear view window of the car wasn't aligned properly so Adam couldn't see what monster was behind them, however, judging from the terrified expression of the driver it was to Adam's interest not knowing what was behind them.

The second guard leaned out of the window and let loose a few shots, however that proved to be a futile endeavour as the galloping behind them persisted.

Afterwards, the guard leaning outside the window suddenly disappeared.

To the driver, it would have looked like he simply vanished, but to Adam it was a completely different story.

A flash of grey blurred past the window and dragged the guard with it, leaving only a momentary blood cloud in the place where he had been.

Adam was absolutely shocked at the speed of this monster, even his heightened awareness only saw a mere flash of it's movement. It would be absolutely suicidal to fight against it.

The car turned a bend at a critical juncture and before them was a military checkpoint. Multiple soldiers manned the stockade and let loose a barrage of gunfire upon the beast behind them as soon as it was visible. Clearly these men were prepared to encounter the beast here.

Adam had been in dangerous situations in the past year, but this one was by far the most terrifying. Fearing for his life, Adam braced himself against the handles on the side of the car.

This proved to be an action with good foresight as in the very next instant the back wheels of the car gave way. This allowed the monster to immediately reach them.

The first sight of the monster that Adam saw was a giant grey hoof jutting through the roof of the car and into the driver seat, turning the driver into nothing more than a cloud of blood.

It was also the last sight Adam saw as the car toppled sideways and violently collided onto a tree in the side of the road. The great shock thrust Adam into unconsciousness.

He was about to go into his subconscious space when 'Adam' appeared at the last second, he mockingly nodded at Adam before walking behind him, as if he was taking control of their body.

Without 'Adam' in the subconsciousness, there was no substance behind maintaining the nightmarish world, therefore Adam lost all sense of self while unconscious.

In this state 'Adam' could take complete control of their body, but Adam wasn't worried about that. As far as he was aware both he and 'Adam' were one and the same, their nature was the same, if not their appearance.

When Adam came to he was leaning on the trunk of a tree, some distance away from the car, or what used to be a car.

Now it was just a warped and torn chunk of steel, droplets of blood visible on the remains of the drivers seat.

He immediately made it his goal to get to the stockade, only to see it in flames. The flames were dying down by the time Adam got there, the charcoal remains made it apparent that the flames consumed structures and people alike.

Everything was destroyed, the multiple military vehicles were little more than blackened junk and the soldier's rifles were damaged to an inoperable degree.

In the middle of the stockade lay the charred body of the monster. This one couldn't be compared to the one which Adam had seen back at his school, it easily reached a height of two stories and the width of one.

The shape of the monster resembled that of a rhinoceros crossed with a horse. Thick leather plates covered the entirety of the creature's body and a single twisted horn protruded from the forehead. A once glorious silver mane grew from the top of it's head to the nape of the neck, a mane which was now reduced to ashes. The feet were easily the height of a story and jointed backwards at the kneecap to end in tremendous hooves, much in the same way as a horse.

The monster was dead, not from the flames that conflagrated atop it but rather an internal injury. Adam could tell this because copious amounts of blood were pulsing through the seven apertures of the monster's head with every beat of the creature's dying heart.

The monster could barely breathe, it clearly wasn't reduced to such a state from merely fighting the soldiers. It must have been fighting with 'Adam'.

Adam found himself shocked at this scene. What power could 'Adam' possibly hold so as to slay such a beast? From appearances this monster could stomp over a tank, let alone a puny individual of flesh and blood.

It was at this moment that the dying beast gave a long wheeze with it's final breath. A jet of blood sprayed from it's mouth and landed on the matted earth in front of it, painting the soil a dark crimson colour.

With that final breath Adam gained a notification.

*Level Up*

Nightmare Lv9

*Choose one new feat*

*Feat Chosen*

Just as the feat selection appeared a white tendril appeared from Adam's forehead and chose one, this action takes a long time to describe however the actual time this took was a tenth of the time it takes a normal human to blink. The timespan was so small that even with heightened awareness, Adam was unable to make out the feat selections.

Not knowing what to make of this, Adam sighed. At least he now knew what 'Adam's' class was.

A cool sounding name such as nightmare must have a very strong class, a class which could slay a beast such as the one before him.

Not tarrying in the least to mourn the dead, Adam set off on the dirt road.

His destination, Fort Stalwart.