“Why did you stop?” asked Liz.

“There is a trap,” TT pointed at the mosaic floor tiles, “I saw them many times. If you step on one of them, it will collapse, and you’ll fall. And if you fall, you’ll be down there for the rest of the exam.”

“So, what are we gonna do?”

“I’m thinking.”

Fifteen hours remaining.

“Well, you need to think faster,” Liz reminded. 

“I know, if you stop nagging me, it’ll be much faster.” Despite it being cold, he was sweating, his jaw clenched tightly, and his forehead was scrunched even harder, making the rows of wrinkles not just double, but quadruple. He looked like fingers that were in the water for way too long.

“Are you done thinking?” 

“NO!”

“Wow, I’m just asking. You are the one who is a veteran here.” Liz had no idea what patience was. Everything she ever wanted had to be in front of her the next moment. Living with foster parents in the new environment taught her that this luxury was over, but she still expected things to go her way. Especially now, she was on her own; she didn’t have someone to take care of her anymore. 

“Are you done thinking?”

Knowing Liz for many hours now, he thought better of it and didn’t engage. He was just standing silently, trying to focus on solving the trap problem.

“Did you die?”

TT sighed, “I think I got it.”

“Finally,” said Liz, waiting for him to make a move.

The tiles were wide enough to fit two or maybe three people. TT stepped near the edge of where he thought the trap began, then he changed his pose and prepared to jump. He took a deep breath, turned back, and saw Liz with her hands crossed, impatiently stamping her foot. TT disapprovingly shook his head, fixed his eyes on one of the tiles, and jumped on it.

He took a second to wait, but nothing changed. Once again, he turned back and saw Liz biting her lip, so he gave her a thumbs-up. While TT was searching for the next tile to jump on, Liz jumped at the tile TT stood on, and, unable to stop the momentum, bolted into his back. Scaring the living daylights out of him, he thought the trap had been set, and he was about to fall.

“What are you doing?”

“I don’t trust myself to remember the pattern.”

TT sighed even more heavily than before.

“I’m sorry,” Liz softly murmured.

Slowly but surely, they overcame the trap all the way out of its range. TT took a deep breath and hesitated before each leap, and Liz bumped into him every time she jumped. It made him lose his balance, and once she almost made him fall. He was livid but also relieved it was over.

While TT was sitting on the floor, tired of so much walking and jumping at his advanced age, Liz reached for the torch, carefully fastened in the metal bracket, took it out, and approached the assumed trap. TT was wondering what she was doing, but he quickly found out.

Liz aimed at the spot where they thought the trap was and threw a torch on the ground. Torch hit the floor and bounced back before it finally rested in the middle of the corridor. It was peacefully lying on the floor, making Liz doubt there was any trap. Then all of a sudden, the ground began shaking, almost throwing Liz off balance, and the floor under the torch collapsed. A moment later, the new tiles slid from the sides, looking as if nothing ever happened there. Liz turned to look at TT and saw him grinning at her.

Ten hours remaining.

“It’s boring, let’s talk,” said Liz.

TT didn’t react; he could read her already and was prepared for a barrage of words flying at him. He thought it was his fault; he couldn’t predict that something like that could happen. Next time, he would’t tell strangers much about himself and would try to avoid attracting any attention.

“I’m curious. Why did you want to become a demon hunter in the first place? How come you didn't give up yet after so many rejections?”

TT thought for a second, “I didn’t have a choice.” He groaned, took out his water flask, sipped some, and continued.  “Everyone in my family was in the military, so when they discovered I had powers, it was a no-brainer that I should become a demon hunter.” He sighed, “See, the old generation is romanticizing Norn, and what he did to save humanity, and they wanted me to be like him so badly.”

“So, you don’t want to be a demon hunter, you just keep doing this for their sake?”

“No, after I failed a couple of times, they gave up on me… I guess I’m just keep doing it to prove to myself that I can be a demon hunter.”

“Sometimes I think, why do we even hate them? We are their only source of food. How is it the demos fault that there is nothing in our world they can eat except humans? They have no choice but to hunt and eat us. It’s like being mad at the lions, sharks, or even ourselves. We also kill other animals for food. Mostly the ones that can’t fight back.”

“They just like us, but from another world…”

After hearing all of that, Liz could only see red. She clenched her fists hard, her knuckles became white, and steam was rushing from her nostrils.

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” Liz shouted.

“Demons murdered my mother right in front of me. I saw it with my own eyes how they killed her in cold blood, and then ate her, enjoying every last second of it. So I don’t care if there is no other food for them, I will kill every last one of them.

“These monsters live to kill humans; everything they do is to destroy humanity. They lie through their teeth when they are close to death, so weak humans spare them. When they came to our world, they deceived people into fighting each other and bought humans from corrupted politicians just to eat them. They proudly think they are the highest form of living.”

“They are not like us; they are savage monsters,  wild beasts that won’t stop until they conquer and devour every last one of us.”

“SCREW DEMONS, SCREW DEMON KING, AND SCREW YOU!”