"Ever hurt so bad it hurts you physically? To the point where it saps the air from your lungs? Where everyone thinks you're strong and your defenses are high.. but in reality you're lower than you've ever been in your natural born life."

The punches came over and over again, he did his best to block them but being beaten to a pulp
is quite a hard thing to predict, one to the stomach, another, and another. Eventually the attacker stopped his relentless beat down on the 21-year old Reto, laying on the ground in fetal position, covering his head and shivering.
Blood dripped from his lip, his eye swollen and a thick gash on his forehead seeped red. He was bruised, beaten, and ready to die. The man attacking him backed up, brushing his knuckles off, "You're a fucking disgrace of a fighter. Ya' got
no spring in yer' step." He said with a thick accent, which one? Reto couldn't tell no matter how many times he tried. The man sounded drunk out of his mind, the rest of the civilians watched on in horror, bound by rules not to step in or interfere.
This was the black zone. No guards patrolled the area and the cities most wanted thugs hung out here. Not the best spot for a 21 year old who didn't have a shrivel of fighting experience. He felt his eyelids slowly closing, and at this point he didn't
care. He was ready to accept whatever came.

"Wake up! You've been sleeping for almost 2 days now. It can't be that bad. Looks like you've got a broken rib or two but no reason to fall into a coma, boy!" Reto stirred to the voice, confused as all hell, he sat up slowly. A sharp pain
punctured his right side, 'something's definantly out of order down there', he thought to himself. He winced in pain, letting out a sharp stream of air out of his lips as he tried to fight the pain, "Who.. the hell are you?" He looked around, realizing
he was sitting on a crude mattress. He was in the center of what looked to be a living den, a large chair sat by a fireplace, accompanied by a bookshelf filled with old dusty books that seemed to haven't have been touched since the first Ice Age.
On the back wall was a small counter that snaked around the perimeter of the shack that the man lived in.
Several vials full of different colored liquids sat on the counter, almost waiting to be downed. Multiple assortments of tools and nick-nacks crowded the counter. 'This guys gotta be insane, I'll be surprised if I can have another wink of
sleep without this dude bothering me.' That was when he noticed, the man had left. The small shack was completely empty. He stood up off his mattress on shaky legs. Several parts of his body screamed at him to sit back down but he ignored their pleas,
continuing to look around. Another doorway led out of the living den and into another room. Uninterested with the other doorway he lightly wobbled over to the counter, holding his side. It was tender to the touch, and something definantly did not
feel could feel a large bump in his rib cage, it definantly felt like a rib. 'Hell, what else could it be? Stupid.' He thought to picked up a large round vial filled with green fluid, it was stopped with a cork and locked
by a chain. He pulled on the cork to find that it wasn't a lock, but instead a keeping chain. To thread through a leather belt to keep by someone's side at all times. He uncorked the vial and sniffed the mixture, different aromas filled his nostrils,
heavily smelt of sulfur with a hint of cherry and tiger balm. 'What the hell could this be? Is he some kinda herbalist?' He pondered to himself. Reto tilted back his head and put the vial to his lips, the green liquid was syrupy and thick. It slowly
ran down the neck of the vial, irritating him slightly with how goopy it seemed. The mans voice cut through the silent air like a hot knife through butter, "Don't drink that!" He dropped the vial instantly, shaken by the mans shouting. It fell to
the ground and shattered, catching flames and burning a gougein the floor before slowly going out, leaving an oddly shaped charred piece of wood flooring, the edges of the hole glowing a dark green. Reto's eyes widened and he stepped back, "What
was.. What the.. Huh?.." He was dumbfounded, he'd never seen anything like it before.