With all the survivors in disarray, the Lieutenant did nothing but wait for the two groups to begin, not planning on elaborating any further.

  Knowing he couldn’t change the situation, Leo merely observed the first two groups on the stage, seeing what they’d do.

  The group who chose the chain hook were an asian man and woman, both bearing a wary, but confused, look toward the opposing group, seemingly unbothered by the Lieutenant’s announcement.

  Looking closer, the man had a bigger build, much more muscular than the average survivor with a buzzcut. Plastered on his face was a satisfied grin, seemingly enjoying the situation.

  On the other hand, the woman was of a slimmer body, her skin deathly pale. One could probably assume she was a ghost upon seeing her. Her black hair was tied in a pony tail, reaching down to the top of her shoulders. Unlike her partner, she maintained a neutral expression with bags under her eyes. It seemed she was more worried about when she’d be able to sleep rather than the upcoming fight.

  The opposing group chose a shovel, containing a man and woman as well, who appeared distraught, as it seemed as if their legs were about to give out. Holding the shovel with trembling hands, the man shivered as he looked at the opposing group, but just as he looked up, a stinging pain spread from his left eye.

  Stunned, he brought a hand up to see what was wrong. But before he could do so, he was pulled towards the opposing group as the hook was lodged in his left eye.

  With his chest out and a cocky smirk painted on his face, the man holding the hook said “Who in their right mind would just stand there? You think I’ll let you win?”

  He remorselessly stomped on the hook lodged in the man’s left eye, pushing the blade deeper to finish him off.

  With a splat, the man grew limp, a pool of blood quickly forming in the arena.

  Seemingly satisfied with his work, the man lazily looked to the last enemy with a light smile, sighing as if it were a chore.

  The opposing partner shrieked as her legs gave out, staring at her lost groupmate with wide eyes, then to the man who caused it. Growing pale in fear, she seemed to be about to express her desire to forfeit before a shovel slammed into the back of her head.

  The second group member moved in a blur, picking up the shovel of the deceased foe, she blitzed behind the shaking woman, slamming it into the back of her head.

  With a cold, expressionless face, she asked, “You really think you have a choice to back out now? I won’t let you do such a thing. Just quickly die so I can get in the city.” With those final words, she rested the sharp end of the shovel above the unconscious woman’s head. Lifting her foot above the shovel’s kickplate, she slammed down, the sickening crack echoed in the chamber as the shovel pierced her skull. The sound of bone fragments danced across the concrete floor, eventually stopping. Leaving an eerie silence as everybody held their breaths.

  Seeing this, Leo immediately threw up on the spot, as did many in the crowd. ‘What the hell? They did that so easily?’

  Leo couldn’t imagine himself having to commit such brutality. But it wasn’t the fact that it was brutal, no, it was made to be brutal as he noticed the weapons they gave us weren’t actual weapons, but gardening and mining tools.

  ‘It’s like they want a bloody start.’

  It sickened him, how did a paradise exist behind such a bloody entrance?

  Seeing the quick and violent finish, the Lieutenant clapped his hands. “Well done, you two, I like this quick thinking of yours, very nice indeed. Please return the weapons to the guards and you’ll be on your way. Oh, and outside of work, just a personal question. Can I get your names, please?”

  With one foot sitting on the shovel embedded in the woman’s skull, she said, “My name’s Connie.”

  Her groupmate, unhooking from the man’s head, replied, “My name’s Patrick Lin.”

  Satisfied, the Lieutenant smiled. “Ah, what a great start to the day. Once you return the weapons, just wait on the other side of the arena. You’ll be watching the fights for the rest of the day. Oh, and congratulations on the win.”

  Clapping his hands, two pairs of guards came and cleaned up the bodies and took them to a corridor to our right, the doors closing as they entered with the corpses.

  ‘What are those doors for…?’

  Bowing, he walked back in front of the remainder of the trial. “With such a fantastic start, who would like to go next?”

  Silence filled the room, with not one person daring to make a peep. Many around him hung their heads low as they avoided making eye contact with the Lieutenant. Beside him, Leo could see Diego’s pupils shivering as he looked to the floor.

  Thinking, Leo weighed his options. He couldn’t concede as he didn’t want to figure out what reprocessing was. So the only realistic thing to do would be to beat the opponent. With some experience in fighting, they could probably deal with most opponents here. But the other option of fighting the instructor remained.

  ‘Could I beat the Lieutenant…?’

  Looking at him, Leo noticed he had called two more random groups onto the stage, one carrying a trowel while the other carried a hoe. Both were already in combat with the ones armed carefully duking it out while the other two remained on stand-by, ready to acquire a weapon to fight.

  As Leo looked, however, he accidentally made eye-contact with the Lieutenant. Seeing Leo, he gave a small smile. The world seemed to darken around him, as all he could see was the Lieutenant. But instead of a normal person, all he saw was a mountain, a mountain that couldn’t be climbed yet. Unable to stand the pressure, Leo quickly looked away, hoping he didn’t say anything.

  ‘Alright, bad idea. No way I’m choosing that route.’

  All he could do was fight.

  Turning to Anthony, Leo saw he was focused on the current fight.

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  With a shoulder tap, Leo whispered, “What’s the plan?”

  Turning to him, he replied, “Alright, I’ll get the weapon, but instead of you waiting, you will fight the one without a weapon. You’re more specialized in hand-to-hand so it’ll be better for you anyway. I’ll hold on until you beat him, and we’ll take the one with a weapon together, sound good?”

  “Alright, sounds great.”

  “Guess we’ll finally see it.” With a slight smile, Anthony turned back to the arena, where the two groups had finally concluded the fight, with only one left. The stage, covered in blood, was quickly swept of bodies once again. “Well looks like we’re done there! Now, any volunteers?”

  Again, nobody moved.

  “Well, that’s alright, I’ve got a group in mind anyway.” Slowly, he scanned the crowd to finally stop, landing right at him. Lifting a hand, he pointed at them. “You two, up here now.”

  ‘I knew looking was a bad idea…’

  Sighing, the duo got up and walked to the stage, where we were met with a guard holding a set of three tools. A rake, a shear, and a pick axe.

  Looking at Anthony, Leo said, “You choose, my good sir.”

  Hearing that, Anthony approached the guard and chose the rake. Turning, he said, “It’ll be good for defense.”

  With a blank face, Leo said, “Dude, I didn’t ask…”

  A slight frown marked Anthony’s face hearing that. Grumbling to himself, he stretched, getting ready. As if by nature, he began to spin the rake around getting a feel of the weapon.

  Giving himself a good stretch as well, Leo looked to the opposite end of the arena, where two men stood, one unarmed while the other held two shears.

  ‘Why’d they get two shears…’

  Focused on the opponent, Anthony reminded, “Remember the plan, Leo.”

  Nodding, Leo prepared for the Lieutenant’s say to begin.

  His heart beating wildly, Leo took deep breaths to calm himself. ‘I gotta do this, it’s do or die, Leo.’

  The Lieutenant finally raised his hand. “May the loser find peace in the Stars…”

  He brought his hand down. “Begin!”

  Immediately, Anthony moved forward, with Leo trailing behind him. His plan was to act as though he was waiting for another weapon like the groups before them, and strike when the unarmed man least expected it.

  Pushing forward, the opposing group did the same, with the armed man taking the front, and the unarmed waiting, resulting in a duel between Anthony and the armed opponent.

  With the opponents focused on the duel, Leo slowly circled around them, to get closer to the second opponent. Unluckily, the unarmed man saw him get nearer.

  ‘Fuck it.’

  With that thought, Leo ran at him at full speed, seeing the shock in his face as he turned his body towards Leo with his arms raised. He had a somewhat lean build, looking skinnier than him, probably due to malnutrition.

  Fainting a tackle, he quickly stopped right before reaching him and grounded his left foot, performing a low kick to hopefully get him on the ground.

  Caught completely off-guard by this change, his body rotated in a 90 degree turn, unprepared for this low kick. Falling, he hit his head on the concrete floor, screaming from the pain in both his head and his calf.

  Not giving him the time to recover, Leo quickly kicked him in the head. With the man on his stomach, Leo grabbed his left arm and started pulling it upwards and twisting it. He lifted the arm with both hands and pushed it forward toward the man’s shoulder.

  Screaming from the pain, the opponent struggled to get out, weakened from days without food.

  As he had his arms locked, Leo begged, “Concede, say you concede!”

  “Never!” the man spat.

  Hearing this, Leo exhaled and firmly planted his foot. Stomping hard on the man’s arm at the outer elbow. A sharp snapping sound resounded in the arena, only drowned out by the man’s screams.

  He screamed from the pain, grabbing onto his broken arm in an almost fetal-like position. But not wasting any time, Leo let go and moved to grab his other arm before his victim desperately yelled out, “I concede! I concede!”

  ‘Thank god…’

  Leo looked to the Lieutenant, who nodded in acknowledgement to the opponent's plea.

  Seeing the confirmation, he moved to Anthony’s fight where they had remained at a stalemate. Luckily enough, the opponent seemed to be completely focused on Anthony as he hadn’t even acknowledged his presence.

  Taking this opportunity, Leo ran close to the guy from behind and, with a grounded left foot, he raised his right knee toward his chest with both his hands up for balance. Then he kicked forward, hitting him at the center of his back.

  Anthony’s opponent, knocked unbalanced by the kick, swayed forward into Anthony. “What the?!” Momentarily glancing at the surprise behind him.

  Seeing this momentary change in focus, Anthony charged forward, swinging the rake from above, landing onto the man’s head. And with a thud, the rake knocked the man unconscious, falling face-first to the ground.

  Just in case, Leo quickly grabbed the two shears in his hands, rendering him unarmed. Then he glanced over to the Lieutenant. “Is that good now?”

  The Lieutenant, observing, asked, “Did he concede?” His hand waving over the unconscious man.

  Before Leo could get a word out, Anthony flipped over the rake to the handle and began beating the man’s head with the wooden handle. Leo dared not look as he heard the sound of the man’s skull being bashed in and chunks of brain matter connecting with the handle, with blood and some of the brain matter flying onto Anthony. The metallic scent quickly filled the air as the blood enveloped Anthony. Finally, the man went limp under Anthony’s hands.

  Anthony’s chest rose and fell with each heavy breath. “Now are we good?” he asked with a strained voice, blood still dripping from his chin.

  Smiling in satisfaction, the Lieutenant replied with, “Certainly. Though next time, try not to damage the brain to such an extent. However, congratulations! You’ve passed! Go on to your seats and we’ll complete these trials shortly, you’ve done well today. And leave the weapons with the guards on your way out please.”

  Then, he looked at the surviving group member. “As for you, you conceded, did you not? As per the rules, you will be sent to a reprocessing facility where they’ll judge how long you’ll be placed in their care for. I, for one, don’t have any idea how long you’ll be in there but may the Stars favor you.” Clapping his hands, the guards picked up the crying man and dragged him through a set of doors, and with a last tearful plea, the doors closed on them.

  Returning the gardening tools, Leo walked next to Anthony and tried consoling him, “You good? I know that was your first kill on a person, but don’t let it get to you.”

  Picking a piece of brain matter from his hair, Anthony tiredly replied, “I’m fine… just worry about yourself, Leo.”

  ‘Man, no “Thank you, Leo, but I’m okay!” or anything? Just trying to help, sheesh.’

  But Leo easily noticed the changes in Anthony’s behavior as the death of Sophia obviously took a toll on him. He was more irritable and not as social as he was before.

  ‘I hope this isn’t a permanent thing.’

  Regardless of Leo’s thoughts, Anthony’s mind was still replaying the scene of Sophia’s death, with the dogs feasting on her lifeless body. All he could hear in his head was Sophia’s dying breath, calling to him for help. Glancing at his bloody hands, all he could do was curl them into a fist as they shook with frustration.

  What if he had gone to help? What if he were stronger? What if he were bit instead?

  That feeling of helplessness.

  That weakness.

  Never again.