“Haaaa, haaaaaaa...........”, an exasperated sound came

from Sabik. Running from these gangs made his heart

pump with excitement. This intoxication of having a near

death experience is what he lived for. Settling down near a trunk of a torn down tree which

upon closer inspection is shredded with splinters near his

face, he hears less and less of the grass rustling from

being stepped on.

Feeling his heartbeat slowing down to just 100 bpm, he

bolts away from the tree with branches being broken

down creating a reverberating through the forest. This

does not escape from the members of the steel muscle

group which prides themselves for having muscles as

strong as steels which of course includes the ears making

themselves have super hearing. Sabik didn’t get it either

but he hoped they had it.

The steel muscle guards turned their faces in Sabik’s

direction and rushed with no regards to their

surroundings. Their tanned muscles swelled in excitement

and allowed them to jump over trees that are ripped apart

and their subsequent tree trunks covered in moss and

vines.

Sabik smiled again in excitement and his heart energized

with renewed vigor as though it was eating its favorite

meal.

He jumped and cut through the difficult terrain of the

Hadlang forest which made some of the guards trip and

fall into moist grass and soil. Of the 7 that chased him

only 4 remained which Sabik noticed that their muscles

are significantly bigger and more tanned.

‘This must be their mentors. I was unlucky, I thought there

would only be 3 of them. I knew there was something

wrong when I saw all those destroyed trees. That much

protection means greater danger to protect from. There

must be a Limaw nearby.’

Though faced with an unexpected juncture in his plan, he

still maintained a cool and confident composure. He came

up with another plan with an easygoing attitude which

contradicts this dangerous environment he was in. This

was just another day for him and unexpected things

happen all the time. In actuality, he loved unpredictable

events because they have the most thrilling risk on his life.

With the upcoming horizon, the once dark and cold

environment has little bits of sunlight seeping out through

the branches and Sabik knew he was getting near the

cliff.

Racing through the terrain he steps out into flat rock solid

ground and the blaring sun staring at him with a large

contrast to the slippery and unpredictable Hadlang forest.

Dashing through the stone he reached the end of a cliff

with nothing but rocks and crashing waves at the bottom.

In this new horizon he sees a far-reaching and immense

grandiosity that is the Bagu’ han ocean or most

commonly known as the Bagu ocean. It is considered as

the true home of the mighty and brave as well as to those

whose calling is to sail through the turf of the monstrous

Limaws of the ocean.

‘That is where I belong, where I’ll face many dangers and

tribulations.’

His heart beats with excitement with this thought but

quickly calmed down.

‘But not now. It’s not the right time yet.’

Right as he thought this, he hears his hunters spring forth

from the forest with vigor as the thought of their prey

being caught crossed their minds.

“We caught you now. Haaaaa haaaa......” said the

exasperated one of the guard who was wearing nothing

but black shorts with leaves covering his waist. They

didn’t believe in armor, only in their muscles. Contrary to

popular belief, this guy seemed talkative.

“Wait wait, time out. My feet hurts from all that running”

Sabik said as he kneels down and starts taking off his

sandals and putting them in the pocket of his brown

shorts.

“Don’t worry, we’re not gonna hurt you. You just have to

come back with us to our base.”

The other two guards didn’t speak but stayed vigilant of

any sudden movements from Sabik.

‘They’re the ones most experienced.’ Sabik thought

“Hmmm that sounds really tempting but you know, i have

an appointment I have to make and it sounds like that’s

gonna take a while.”

Still with a smile on his face, he seemed like two steps

back would not lead to a sudden fall 100 meters down to

either spiky rocks or strong waves that may lead to death.

“It doesn’t seem like you have a choice”

“Well, we always have a choice, don’t we?” Sabik said as

he takes one step backward which made the guards

flinch in surprise

“Woow woww hold on now. We can talk about this, let’s

not get hasty. Don’t throw your life away it’s very

valuable”

‘My life is very valuable. My bounty would make them

very rich’

“I would like to take my chances with this fall. Care to

make a wager?” Sabik said with a tempting smile.

“You wouldn’t” said the talkative guard with a little but of

disbelief and amusement.

Without any second of thought Sabik jumped backwards

taking the talkative guard by surprise, but as he was

moving the two vigilant guards moved at the same time.

With pebbles and dust flown backwards as they sprinted

to Sabik, they reached their hands out to try and get his

feet before he plunges to his immediate death but as they

were about to reach him, their hands were thrown off

course with sandals.

This caught them off guard as they never expected him to

do this.

‘We underestimated him. I guess this is why nobody has

caught him before’ thought the guard with a sharp and

pointy face with a weirdly big muscle-filled body.

With his hands in a diving position making sure his head

is tucked in his biceps, he plunges downwards into the

abyss of the ocean. With the waves thrashing him around,

he made sure his head and other critical points in his

body protected from being cut by the humongous pointy

rocks littering near the cliff.

With his bruised and bleeding body, he tries to make it to

the shore but before he starts making his way to the open

air, he spots a shiny glowing sphere in the middle of one

of these rocks that would’ve been hidden if not for the

crashing waves that displaced anyone and anything in the

vicinity.

With great curiosity, he picks it up and before he could

even marvel at its luminescence his instincts kick in from

all the near death experiences he had and he instinctively

kicks his feet to swim to the right only to hear a muffled

clack sound.

He turns around and sees a giant blue crab with the same

size as his whole body and its pincers in an open and

attacking position. He noticed that some of its shell is

broken or missing.

‘This guy just came from a fight. No wonder this treasure

was just haphazardly placed here, he hid it while fighting

some other creature’

Still grinning, he taunts the crab with the sphere that he

found and starts waving it left and right to see if it could

follow. Its compound eyes start to follow the treasure 2-3

times until its gaze landed on Sabik. What the crab didn’t

know was Sabik was searching around the seafloor with

his other hand for rocks or pebbles.

As the crab was about to pounce on him, he tosses the

treasure upwards to sea level which made the crab

pounce on the treasure using its legs as a spring.

With the crab distracted, he also swims upwards near the

crab and near its topside and he starts throwing the rocks

at its eyes. With the water pressure at this ocean,

throwing a rock will not gather much force but because he

is in close proximity and the vulnerability of the carb’s

eyes, he hits the compound eyes which makes the eyes

regress back into its shell.

This gave Sabik a chance to grab the treasure as it was

falling down and hurry back to shore with his feet and one

arm pedaling as hard as he could. As he start to feel the

sand in his feet he starts running without looking back

until he was back in a sandy beach. Feeling tired, he runs

into a fissure near a cliff to examine this treasure he

found.

Sitting down, he feels the cold touch of the limestone and

the cool breeze of the ocean but his one hand, touching

the treasure feels warm.

‘Is this what I think it is? Is this an essence of a Limaw?’