Jin blinked twice.
Once, to make sure he was seeing clearly.
Twice, cause he still didn't believe his eyes after the first time.
"Fuck me..."
The word escaped his lips in a whisper before he even realized it, almost like an involuntary impulse.
For a split second, both of them stood in silence, observing each other with equal bewilderment. Then, the orc raised a finger.
"You!" he bellowed, his eyes widening. "You're alive!"
Jin's first instinct was to run, but when he took a closer look at the orc, he realized it was terror—not anger—written all over the soldier's face.
An idea slipped into his mind. A terrible one.
"Y... Yes, I'm alive," he said, lifting his head high and puffing out his chest. "Of course I'm alive. I cannot be killed by mere mortal weapons."
He swallowed, hoping his trick would work. It was a long shot, but he figured that if orcs existed in this world, there must be some kind of creature impervious to mortal injury.
To his surprise, the orc's gaze softened.
"You're... a demon!"
A what?
The soldier placed both hands behind him, and bowed his head.
Jin froze for a moment, his jaw dropping in disbelief. He had no idea what a demon was like, but they probably looked like him and thankfully, the orcs seemed to hold them in high regard.
The soldier lifted his head once again, and made a quick salute. "How can I serve you, master?" he growled in a deep voice.
Damn, Jin thought, this was going to be easy.
He opened his mouth to ask the one question that could lead him out of this dungeon arena, but before he could utter a sound, a new set of footsteps echoed from behind the first orc soldier.
Two more orcs emerged from the tunnel. One of them, was the second orc, who'd led Jin into the changing room.
"The weakling lives!" he growled, unsheathing a sword.
"Stop!" The first orc commanded. "He's a demon!"
"A demon?!" The second orc scoffed. "He smells nothing like a demon."
"He's immortal!"
"No, he's not. He's human!"
"I watched him rise from the dead."
"It was a trick! To mess with us."
As the orcs bickered amongst themselves, Jin carefully slipped away from the cavern, into one of the dim adjoining tunnels. He had no intention of finding out the end-result of the debate.
"The weakling's gone!" One of the orcs growled behind, "Find him!"
Well, show's over.
Jin took off in a sprint, disappearing right into the middle tunnel. He had no idea where he was headed, but the farther he could get away from the orcs, the better.
"Don't lose him!"
The deep orc voices grumbled behind him, echoing through the caves. Jin ran even faster, his heart drumming in his chest as he summoned every ounce of strength left in his body.
He could hear them... heavy footsteps closing in behind him. His initial fears returned, accompanied by a new feeling of dread. The orcs could catch up to him, and he hated to imagine what would happen if they did.
The tunnel around him began to shrink. At some point, the spaces between the burning torches lengthened, leaving wider gaps of thick darkness.
In one of these gaps, Jin found a smaller opening, and in one sudden move, he jumped in, hoping to catch his breath for a moment.
A few seconds later, heavy footsteps echoed through the tunnel. Jin pushed himself closer to the cave wall, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him.
And it did.
The wall behind Jin gave way, and he fell through, tumbling down a pile of rocks into a smaller cavern, lower than the tunnels.
He quickly picked himself up, hiding behind the rocks as the steps of his pursuers echoed from the tunnel above.
After a while, their footsteps passed, and Jin heaved a long sigh.
How on earth did I end up in this situation? he thought.
Just yesterday, he'd been acting a role on a set in Tokyo. Now, he was hiding from orcs in some kind of fantasy dungeon.
He tugged fiercely at his hair, almost yanking it out as frustration overwhelmed him. He had no idea what kind of world he was in, but he already hated if, and if he ever got out of this dungeon, the first thing he planned to do was find a way to get back home.
With that thought in mind, Jin rose to his feet, determined to find a way out, but suddenly, a deep, cold voice pierced through his skull.
"Come closer..."
Jin spun around, wondering if there was someone in the cave with him, when something in the far end of the cavern caught his attention.
It was a tall crystalline pillar, pulsing with a soft red light which shone all through the cavern. Around the pillar, was a high steel cage, with thick bars stretching from the ground, to the roof of the cavern.
Jin approached the object, curious to know why someone went through the task of building a cage around a crystal. As he stepped closer, he soon realised that something... No, someone, was moving inside the crystal.
It was a large black shadowy figure, shaped like a muscular man, with two horns rising from its forehead. As Jin peered closer into the crystal, a pair of red glowing eyes stared back at him.
"Come closer..." the voice repeated, echoing in his skull.
Jin froze, his eyes widening, wondering how the trapped figure was communicating with him. He took a step back, ready to bolt in the opposite direction.
"Do not be afraid," the figure assured, as if it could hear his thoughts. "I am not your enemy."
The Shadow's words were meant to calm Jin, but his fear only tripled.
"What... what are you?" Jin asked, his voice wavering.
The Shadow ignored his question, and asked him another instead.
"Tell me, human... What is your name?"
Jin hesitated for a moment, reluctant to give his identity to a strange mystical creature. But the shadow was trapped in cage, and that gave him a little confidence.
"My name is Jin," he replied.
"Jin," the shadow repeated, "I have an offer for you."