I ran.

Even when my legs burned, torn by the weight I carried on my back, I still pushed on. Desperation, fear, and even anger coarse through my veins, as the trees of the forest blur around us.

I was not afraid of death, I faced it once. What I was afraid for, what I truly fear, is the tears of my new family and the life of Tonya on my back. I can already feel the tears from her cries of fear stain my shirt.

It was cold, and yet the burning sensation I feel as I continue to run across trees and rocks did more to me than I ever felt.

"Hold on tight," I said, my breath running out as I saw the light in the far distance. "We're nearly there, Tonya. We're nearly there."

The tall stone walls and bright lights in the distant horizon gave me hope. It was home, but that feeling of relief was shattered as I was reminded of our chasers by the chilling howl behind us. It was them, they were close. Too close for comfort, and the home stretch was near, I could already feel the warmth of the town ahead.

But I couldn't risk it.

Those creatures were fantasy beasts, yes. But even fictional wolves were heavily inspired by real counterparts of their design. They were predators of chance and wit. Real wolves in my world could take down a bear from sheer determination and patience.

These fuckers were worse than that. Rifthounds behave like wolves from the real world, dosed up by a thousand with elemental energies that could bypass Zhongli's shield like air.

The monsters were toying with them, and I knew it.

Rifthounds do not chase their prey, they trap them. And as I slowed my sprint as the walls of the town were in sight, I felt my heart pound in my ears. I have to decide, my life or the both of us.

I cannot take the risk if there was a trap ahead. The howling stopped, and so did I. Did they give up? No. Creatures like that has no sentience for losing a chase or prey, and it only means they were waiting for something.

Thinking fast, I settled down a bewildered and scared Tonya down. She was so small. SInce her birth, I have always treated her as Tartaglia's little sister. The same went with the rest of the family. I was never Ajax, I stole his place in the family. Do they know that? No, of course not. Do they care? I have no idea, and they always treated me like I was Ajax.

A lazy kid with no real sense of adventure or ambition, and was more likely to live with his parents in Morepesok for the rest of his life. That was not Tartaglia, that was me. A stranger from another world, now living in a game. Or was it still a game? These people were not faceless NPCs, my new family had feelings, ambitions, dreams, and hopes.

I realized, as I held Tonya's shoulder comfortingly, I was the only one in the family without any of those.

Since my rebirth, I was alive but never living. I was too held up in my old life and its subsequent end, that I realized too late that I was given a second chance.

"Brother?" Tonya called out to me, her eyes wary and confused. "What's wrong? We're home, aren't we? The road is right there." Her little finger pointed to the gates ahead, where not a soul was around.

"Yes, we're at home, Tonya." Home. The faint smell of the bakery, the chimes from the local church for the Cryo Archon, and the soft wind leading up to the hill of our house on the other side. They were so close, so familiar, and so tragic. To think I would last this long.

If there is a speedrun rank for dying in a second life this young, I would be top ten.

"Tonya, listen to me," I said carefully, as I watched the woods around us with a keen eye. "You have to hide in this bush," I continued, ignoring her sudden cries of denial as I covered her in dirt. "Be quiet and hide, and until the wolves are gone, go straight to the town." With this, she'll smell like dirt, look like dirt, and with the adding of mud and leaves, feel like dirt.

I can already spot a red eye on the far bush, wondering why I was taking my sweet time. Meals don't wait to be eaten, and the monsters around us were getting impatient.

"What? No!" Tonya begged, her eyes threatened to water if I said another word. "I can't leave you to those monsters, Ajax! They will eat you! And mom will kill me!"

"I'm glad that you have your priorities straight," I chuckled. Trying to come up with something that Tartaglia would say, I built up the courage and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I am Ajax, the great hero, remember?"

She gave me a bland look like she could not believe what she was seeing. "You have the name of a Hero, but you certainly don't act like it." Ouch, harsh. "And the only heroic thing you've ever done was try to bake the cookies for big sis that you've accidentally eaten." Yeah, cause I feared for my life back then! "So please don't go. Don't leave me alone."

That final sniff was almost enough for me to waver. But I couldn't, not with her life at stake at a gamble I will take.

"Remember baba Brania from the bakery?"

Tonya furrowed her brows, "The nice old lady with the muffins?"

"Yes, the one that gave free muffins." And a retired Fatui agent that terrifies me. "Tell her that I'm being chased by Rifthounds outside. She'll come and help me with the rest of the town."

"But why? Tell them yourself!"

I always adored her stubborn nature, but it will not help her here. "I need to distract the monsters first, then you can go to town and ask for help. Or- or I could get hurt if we both come together." Die potentially, but in front of Tonya? Never in a million years, not in this life or the next. Even Tartaglia would not bring trouble to his family, he would rather die. I would too.

If I was going to die, I would die off-screen as the nerds call it. More tragic that way. And I will not let any of my family witness it.

"You will get hurt?" Tonya's eyes widened, enough to show her fear. "B-but that doesn't make any sense!" Holding her down, inside the small bush, I realized how small she was.

So delicate and fragile.

"It doesn't have to make sense, I just need to run around a bit and distract them until you bring help." Or find my corpse. I smiled again, building up that Ajax courage. "I'll wait for you, I trust you."

It was scummy for me to incur an advanced technique called "lying" to convince my stubborn little sister to listen. At least she was safe with it. And with her safety, I was happy.

"I- I mean," she struggled to say something, but couldn't put into words how. "O-okay. I trust you too."

Good. The fear was gone in my heart as she said those words. In all my second life, I never felt so brave.

Truthfully, I was so apathetic of my second chance, I took my new family for granted for the most years. I took the genuine love from my family for granted, and at this crucial moment did I realize that the fear I had for them loving a stranger and not the Ajax they should have did not exist, as they loved me- not Ajax.

I was the Ajax they grew up with, I was the Ajax my parents raised me, and I was the Ajax that my family loved and cherished. The lazy kid with a smart-mouth and cunning intellect. Not the brave and determined Ajax that I was always sad about.

At this moment, holding my sister for the last time, I too realized something.

I, too, was Ajax the Brave. As the original Ajax may have selfishly ventured into the unknown, I selflessly took the fall for my loved ones. We both were stupid, stupidly brave and determined to prove our love for our family. Whatever reasons he has to prove, I too have something to prove.

"Hide and wait for my signal," I whispered as I stuck a few more herbs to her skin. Hearing the irate growling approaching us, it seems that those monsters were done waiting. I was too. "See ya later, sis. I'll treat you to muffins with Miss Brania later, alright? Be brave."

With one last sniffle, she nodded her head. "I will." Crouching down, looking as small as possible, Tonya was determined to see this through. "I will be brave, as long as you will too. You promised to me, remember? You will never leave us, right? You promised not to leave me."

"A hero keeps his promise."

Without another look back, I sprinted the opposite way from the town, taking the emerging Rifthounds by surprise. Not deterred by their prey taking a leap for it, they took chase. And so did the ones waiting ahead near the town.

"I fucking knew it," I cursed as I dodged another swipe from one of the more bolder wolves.

The howling resumed, this time much louder and more feral as the lights of civilization I left behind faded away. The ones trapping them behind were around five-to-six, and those waiting from the front were three, so I was screwed seven times.

I was terrible at math, but that still means I was dead at the end of this run.

Looking back one last time, I saw a small figure of a child standing up as the last Rifthounds followed my mad dash away. I smiled and kept running.

At least she was safe, that was important.

As I was losing my breath and my sensations, I idly wondered how the absence of one character in the world of the game would drastically change the outcome of the journey of a certain traveler. Would Liyue be still attacked at the request of that old fossil? Could the Harbingers find a suitable candidate to be the Eleventh Harbinger?

Would my family weep for me? That, I was sure of.

I kept running, and running, sprinting madly to one direction and no longer caring for weaving side-to-side. This was far enough, wasn't it? Tonya was safe. The town would know the danger this unexpected threat poses. Dad will probably kick these bastards' asses for me. He's a fisherman, but he certainly knew how to tumble.

And I was free.

No longer would I have to worry if the Harbingers would recruit me in their insane war against the divine. No longer would I have to worry of becoming a bloodthirsty monster, hellbent on being a weapon for a mad goddess. No longer would I have to worry about the Abyss, and the hellish experience I would have experienced. I was not confident to survive that torture haven unlike Tartaglia did, he was crazy.

I get to enjoy life for a second time, and laze around as much as I want. I get to experience the life of having siblings, big and small. Ignoring my older sister, commanding the twins like my minions, and treating my younger siblings like royalty in a fantasy world. I certainly would miss mom's cooking, or dad's fishing hour.

Far better than my old life, that was for sure. Too bad it had to end this way.

I wonder if they got my letter. My older sister, Kyara, was always the perceptive kind. It did not take long for her to always hound me for answers. I made a deal with her, to prove to me that she will be accepted to the Sumeru Academia, and I will tell her the secret. She accepted readily, determined to prove me wrong.

In the end, we grew close thanks to her relentless tutelage at my request. I trusted her the most in the family, enough to trust her with my most cherished item. A letter.

A letter to my family in the event something like this would've happened. I was not too confident to live in this world, and now that I grew to love my new family, I had the courage to write a letter of how much I cherished my time with them and how much I loved them all. I wrote when Teucer was born, and it drove me to a point that I fear the loss and tragedy it would bring to them.

So I wrote them a letter for a goodbye.

It was entrusted to Kyara, in the event I went missing or died. She does not know what that letter holds, but after telling her how important it was to me, she promised not to disappoint me. Kyara will never disappoint me at all.

A letter inside an envelope, locked beneath a false-bottom, inside the drawer next to my bed. The most precious thing in this world that I treasure, only next to the love of my family.

I had hoped I would never get to use it, and I always prayed that Kyara would ever need to open it.

Too bad, the world had to act now.

Ajax was a lucky bitch, only normal wolves to chase him. What I had was the steroid version of a timber wolf.

At least it was the end. My legs started to numb, and I felt myself slow down. I can hear the excited growls behind me. They certainly were hungry.

I ran, I ran, and I ran. Until I plan to stop, too uncaring as to what will happen next. Everything was alright in the world. As I try to look back at the monsters that chased me, I thought this was the end-

"What the- ? FUUUUUCCCKKK-"

My dumbass could not see the gaping hole ahead, and I fell down the deep abyss beneath the hole. Okay, to be eaten in a hole was embarrassing, as I was glorified food-bowl. But why wasn't I stopping?

Oh no.

Oh shit.

The Abyss.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Updates will be more frequent. This will be updated every few days, as I plan to exercise my writing muscles as much as I can.