It was night already, but the blanket of darkness was yet to cover the public training ground as lanterns powered by light and fire magic illuminated the darkness.
It was still the early hours of night, and more than a few applicants were still training like hell. Kairo was one of them.
Kairo always knew that getting the 10-slot scholarship to enter Nexus Academy would be hard, but despite how harsh he thought his expectations were already, the brutality that he witnessed today still rocked him to his core.
Almost 7,000 teenagers just like him died today.
If he didn’t want to become one of them, he had to train. He had to develop his special ability more, and that was exactly what he did.
The more his muscles and bones recovered, the more he trained.
And then, like in previous nights here in the public training ground, once it was 10:00pm, the magic-powered lanterns switched off, finally allowing the veil of night to swallow the camp.
At some point while he trained, Mira approached him. She didn’t start a conversation with him, she just smiled and said. "Sleep tight".
Kairo was confused. Was that a warning? He didn’t think too much on it.
Exhausted from training and with his hunger problem taken care of, he finally allowed himself to rest. He didn’t huddle with the others in one of the temporary buildings and tents.
Instead, he slept outside in a corner of the gigantic Academy wall.
If he was lucky, maybe, tomorrow would be the day, the day that he finally takes his big step to build on the foundation that his special ability gave him.
He could not stop thinking of the Major. Major Pain was always depicted as a stern and no-nonsense instructor in the comics. As a kid, Kairo was scared of him, and now, after meeting him face to face, he was still scared of him.
He chuckled at the thought.
He thought of his parents. He thought of his family.
And yet, despite it being a few minutes since the light went off already, Kairo couldn’t sleep. At first, he thought it was just his imagination. Something was off, the camp felt tense.
From where he laid down close to the wall, he could hear whispers though he couldn’t make out what they were whispering.
He remembered Mira’s warning. ’Sleep tight’.
Kairo scowled. ’What did she mean?’
And then, it happened.
A scream erupted from one of the tents far to the eastern direction, piercing the darkness of the night like a blade.
Kairo quickly rolled to his feet, tensed, now fully a wake. That... that was not a scream of pleasure, that was a scream of pain, a scream of a dying man.
Kairo’s eyes narrowed. ’What...?’
From a single scream, it erupted, cascading into a musical note of horror that reverberated around the tent.
Kairo felt his blood run cold.
And then, he saw them.
A flash of light, and then blood sprinkled through the air like rain. Under the pale glow of the moonlight, it felt eerie.
Kairo gritted his teeth. "They’re hunting each other!"
A normal pampered 16 year old would’ve been horrified by what was happening, confused even, but all Kairo felt at this moment was clarity and understanding.
’This is part of the test too huh?’ He thought darkly. ’Major Pain... oh Major Pain, what a bastard you are’.
He wanted to say genius, but no, bastard was just alright.
Having grown up in the slums, Kairo was no stranger to people killing each other in their sleep. Most times, it was not even about the murder itself, but what they killed for. Some killed their neighbor just for a slice of bread.
That was how evil humans could be. When desperation strikes, when pushed to the wall, the evil side of human nature always strikes true.
That was what was happening now.
Kairo understood that Major Pain knew this too. From the little he knew from his first-hand experience with the Major, the stern Hero was good at psychology.
By pushing the applicants to the edge with his speech and intimidation in the afternoon, he essentially pushed them to the wall. In so doing, even the most confident applicants before began doubting if they could do it tomorrow.
And if they couldn’t, why not kill their competitors this night?
At least, that way, they may not even have to fight tomorrow and will automatically get the scholarship spot.
And then, at that moment, Kairo heard footsteps.
Thud... thud... thud...
A trio of opportunists moved towards him in a fan formation. Having watched him train throughout most of the evening, they could tell that he was injured. This was why they targeted him; they thought he was easy prey.
One of them held a sword, and the last two wielded short daggers.
[ALERT: Rest Interrupted. Muscle Recovery delayed!]
Kairo smiled darkly. ’You just had to go disturb my recovery’.
"Hey buddy, nothing personal, we just want to weed down the competition".
With his back straight like a sword, Kairo stared at the three of them. "Likewise, nothing personal". He said, and then, he kicked the ground.
It’s been a long time since Kairo last killed anyone.
As a slumrat, of course, he’d killed before, but back then he had no choice. Did he have a choice now?
It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they wanted to kill him, and Kairo would be a fool if he let them kill him first. And so, he exploded into motion.
[Hypermuscle Creation Activated!]
He moved so fast that despite the little illumination from the pale moonlight, the three applicants didn’t catch his movements at all.
One moment, he was there and the next, he was here.
He targeted the applicant with a sword, rating his threat as the highest. With his left hand, Kairo grabbed his face as abusing his more imposing physique, he pushed, not even giving the poor guy a chance to use his special ability as he lost his balance before smashing his head against the concrete ground.
Kairo fractured his skull in one brutal attack!
The boy twitched, and then became still. Dead.
The two other boys’ eyes widened, but Kairo was already moving. They managed to react, but they already lost the initiative.
Activating Muscle Lock to block a dagger strike, Kairo smashed his knee against his opponent’s abdomen as he reeled over. As he bent, Kairo smashed down with his elbow at the back of his head.
A sickening sound of bone smashing against skull reverberated before the boy passed out, if not dead already.
Staring at the corpse of his two friends, he shrieked in fear before turning to run only for a stray dagger throw to pin him to the Academy wall. Dead.
The screams continued around him, but for now, around Kairo was silence.
He stood up and stared at his bloody fists, the realization finally settling in. ’I just killed 2 humans’.
This was not constructs, this was not defending against gangs.
But Kairo was no hypocrite. He didn’t wallow in regret or hesitation, he knew he didn’t have the luxury. In the world of Demons and Orcs, only power survives.
He accepted it. "Survival over all". He muttered.
He finally moved out of the corner of the public training ground where he initially slept. Outside, the entire camp was already engulfed in chaos.
Dozens of applicants were fighting, shadows dancing by torchlight.
His eyes gleamed with murderous intensity.