Everyone around me starts moving. No one attacks immediately, all waiting for someone else to strike first, but it’s only a matter of time. I, however, am rooted in place.
I had already sensed that there was something off about Ganyu, but until the now-dead man spoke, I couldn’t figure it out. Then, Ganyu released a bit of his ki, and I was stunned. In that moment, I realized that as powerful as I had been in my prime, I was nothing compared to him. I wouldn’t have been able to even get close to him.
Is he one of the ones who reached the top of the tower? If not, I hope that these Administrators are not climbers, because if someone as powerful as him couldn’t reach the top, I’m not sure what hope I have. Though then again, if this first floor has ki this dense, the upper floors might be even better.
“Can I quit?” says a sudden voice from near the front.
I can’t see his face, but from behind, he looks like a relatively ordinary man dressed in business casual. Unlike many of the people here, he doesn’t look at all fearful or defiant. From his posture, he’s actually quite relaxed.
“Quit?” asks Ganyu.
“I’d like to leave the Tower.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not possible. However, if you simply want to return to your home, you can do so when you reach the 27th Floor.”
“I see. Thank you.”
With that information from Ganyu, the tension in the air seems to rise even higher. I can feel the eyes of others looking my direction. A few shuffle in place. Vanessa steps toward me, and I turn with my hands raised, only for her to flinch back.
“B-Bella?” she asks nervously.
Vanessa would make an easy target. She’s small, timid, and weak, and as far as I know, she’s not very athletic. Of all the people here, she’s among the last I would bet on to survive.
But, she’s done nothing to me. She’s been a good neighbor and a good study partner.
I turn away from her just in time to see the first strike be thrown. A thin, thirty-something year old man in an expensive-looking suit kicks the crouching homeless man in the head. After that, all hell breaks loose.
Vanessa and I are left alone at first. Fortunately, everyone around us chose different targets first, evidently deciding that, although we are both relatively small women, fighting the two of us would be more difficult than fighting just one of someone else. The police officer to my left is occupied fending off a feral-looking man with face tattoos. I noticed before that she had backed a step toward us, clearly trying to defend and protect, so I turn away, trusting her to take on anyone from that side, and face the front.
The dark-eyed boy is on the defensive against another boy about his age, but he doesn’t seem to be having much trouble. Based on his footwork, I can tell he’s learned to fight, and the only reason he hasn’t finished off his opponent yet is that he’s hesitating.
The burly, gray-haired man is kneeling on the ground over a short man wearing business casual pounding his face in. A moment later, Ganyu’s voice rings out over the din.
“398 remaining.”
The gray-haired man stands up, his fists covered in blood, looking for his next victim. Everyone around him has retreated back, and even while fighting their own opponents, they are wary of him. He looks all around, sizing up each one until his gaze lands on me. We lock eyes for a moment, then he marches toward us, the others parting to make way for him.
“Shit,” I mutter.
I shouldn’t have watched him for so long. I had hoped to get out of this trial without having to fight, but now I have one of the most dangerous people here after me.
“397 remaining,” calls Ganyu.
I whip my head to the side to see the dark-eyed boy decided to get serious. His opponent is lying on the ground, his neck turned almost all the way around. He glances around briefly, then runs toward where a middle-aged man is pulling a young woman’s hair.
When he moves, he clears the way for me to see the energetic girl from before darting around the battlefield, skirting around the more dangerous-looking people and keeping to herself. She’ll probably survive. She’s quick, and doesn’t look to be putting in too much effort yet.
I turn back to the burly man as he gets within 20 feet of me. While his fists are covered in blood and he’s breathing a bit heavily, his eyes are still calm and analytical. It seems he’s decided that Vanessa and I look the weakest. It looks like my attempts to appear timid and un-noteworthy worked a little too well.
Vanessa takes a step back as he approaches, but I hold my ground. He hesitates for a second, but then steps into my range. The second he does, I plant my foot on his knee as his leg is still coming down, causing him to hyper-extend it slightly. He jumps back a step, hurt, but not hobbled.
He waits a second, then steps forward again. I kick forward again, but he is expecting it, and bends forward to try to catch my leg in his hands. I was expecting that, so I simply aim higher, hitting him in the nose.
He jumps back again, lifts his hand to catch the small drop of blood dripping from his nostril, then turns away. His next target is the scrawny man in the suit, who is still kicking at the turtled-up homeless man. I doubt he’ll try me again, and I won’t be able to take him out without revealing more than I’d like so I leave him be and turn to look behind me.
“358 remaining,” said Ganyu.
There are a few corpses on the ground, but most of the fights are still going on. The firefighter has tears running down his face as he tightens his grip around the neck of another man. The other man claws at his arms, but can’t do anything against the thick, sooty jacket.
The shirtless young man is doing as the energetic girl in front, running around and doing his best to avoid conflict. If I’m not mistaken, he seems to be making his way in my direction as well. I’ll deal with that when he gets here.
In the meantime, there’s another man looking to test his luck, this time against Vanessa. He charges her with his hands outstretched and a disgusting smile on his face. My neighbor gives a small shriek and rapidly backs away, almost running into me. I step aside, letting her pass, and her pursuer decides to shift targets to me.
He dives at me for a takedown, so I lift my leg up and lean forward. His eyes widen, and he tries to pull his hands up to block, but he’s too slow, and with a sickening crunch, his nose goes right into my knee and he falls to the grass, unmoving.
Without hesitating, step down on his shoulder, reach down and grab his chin, and jerk upward, breaking his neck. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“324 remaining.”
I turn back around to see Vanessa pale and shaking.
“Bella?” she asks. “What-? What are you-?”
“Stop panicking,” I say. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“But-”
“Turn around. Stop thinking so much. Just avoid them. They can’t kill you if they can’t touch you.”
Vanessa is still pale and shaking, but she nods and turns around, raising her hands defensively. It’s not a very convincing defensive stance, but with me next to her and the police officer joining us after finishing her opponent, lone aggressors like the last one probably won’t be targeting her anymore.
“319 remaining.”
I don’t say a word to the police officer, but I recognize her type. I know she won’t try anything. The more aggressive people prowl around, trying to pick off stragglers as a couple group like ours form, facing outward in a circle to keep themselves safe. The dark-eyed boy is in one of them, alongside the woman who had been getting her hair pulled earlier. The man who had been doing the hair pulling is lying on the ground, his face beaten and bloody and his throat crushed.
“300 remaining.”
After a minute, the shirtless jogger reaches us, still untouched. I believe he saw me kill the other man, so he approaches hesitantly with his hands up.
“I don’t want to fight,” he says.
I look into his eyes. He’s a coward, through and through, but he looks intimidating enough. He won’t attack unless the situation is dire. I step aside to let him into the circle and nod in affirmation. Neither Vanessa nor the police officer protest.
The burly man has finished off the wealthy businessman, and the homeless man has regained his bearings enough to crawl off to safety. The ki around him is trembling, but he still seems mentally out of it. I kind of hope he survives, just so I can see what’s up with him. In all my years, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. It might just be whatever drugs he’s on causing it, but even then, I’d like to know what kind of drug he could get on the current Earth that would affect ki.
The number of survivors ticks down slowly, and the fighting slows, then grinds to a halt. There are a dozen or so groups like ours, though most have more people. We only have 5, having added the firefighter, tear streaks down his soot-stained face.
The rest of the survivors are the aggressive ones. The ones no one trusted for their groups. The burly man is among them, having killed 3 more stragglers since. There is also a man in a black suit with gloves on, a pleasant smile on his blood-spattered face, and not far from him, A woman with a face covered in blood after she ripped someone’s throat out with her teeth.
The corpses lying around are not pretty. Since all of our weapons were confiscated beforehand, all the kills were done barehanded, many of them inefficiently, as most of the people here aren’t experienced in killing. I’ve seen my fair share of death both on the battlefield and in the clinic, so it doesn’t bother me as much as some of the others, who are vomiting, but I still prefer not to look.
With the fighting stopped, the tension grew. None of the groups were aggressive, and none of the aggressors wanted to attack the groups. Most of them weren’t confident in attacking each other either. The burly man didn’t seem particularly worried, but he had the gloved man on one side, and someone even bigger than him on the other, so even he didn’t make a move. After a minute or so of the impasse, Ganyu spoke again.
“15 minutes left,” he called. “253 people left. You’ve made a good pace so far, don’t give up now. You won’t like what happens if you don’t reach 200 before the time runs out.”
The tension increases, and a few people in the groups start eying each other. None attack yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I make a quick count to confirm that there aren’t enough loners to get us down to 200. Some of the people in the groups will have to die.
If it gets down to a minute, I will have to step in personally to ensure that we reach the quota, but I don’t think that will be necessary. There are enough snakes around to destabilize the larger groups without my help. If I just hold my position, I’ll be able to make it through without any trouble.
“There’s no need to fight so chaotically,” says the burly man suddenly. “No matter who makes the first move, it’s going to turn into a brawl. Let’s just kill the weakest and get it over with.”
His eyes are fixed on Vanessa as he speaks.
“You’re despicable.”
I turn in surprise to see that it’s the jogger who spoke. He looks confident, unlike before, but I notice his hands trembling slightly. Still, it’s admirable. Perhaps I judged him too early.
“I’m pragmatic,” the burly man replies. “This is only the first trial, and we’re supposed to kill or be killed. What do you think the rest will be? Will you keep protecting them the whole time? Even when you yourself have long since surpassed them?”
“It sounds like you’re just a coward,” says the jogger. “You want to kill the weak because you’re scared to fight the strong people.”
“I’m not a coward, I’m pragmatic.”
“You say that, but I saw you earlier. You couldn’t handle a girl half your size and ran to attack a man who wasn’t looking.”
“She is strong. He was not. Her friend is not. Keeping them alive would only prolong their suffering as the trials continue.”
“Don’t act like what you’re doing is mercy. You’re just a sick bastard.”
“A sick bastard who’s going to reach the top of the Tower.”
“If we want to make this fair, why don’t we do rock paper scissors?”
We all turn toward the speaker, the smiling man in the black suit.
“What kind of bullshit is that?” asks the burly man.
“Well clearly, we won’t be agreeing on killing the weak, so how about something completely fair and non-discrimatory. Rock paper scissors seems like a good idea, no? If we do it enough, we’ll thin the numbers out. I’ll even volunteer to go first, if anyone is willing to challenge me.”
It’s not an offer that anyone will accept, and he knows it. It’s an absurd proposal in the first place. How many would actually accept the result of the match? Even if they somehow managed to get everyone agree to this method, it’s impossible that everyone who “agrees” will actually accept their loss. It seems this man has noticed the same thing I have, and is simply stalling for time until someone snaps and the killing can begin again. At the very least, I doubt he has any intention of actually leaving his life up to chance.
“Not a chance,” I say, playing along. “I won’t agree to that.”
“You can go last,” he replies. “We only need 53 more, after all. Less than half of those remaining need to participate. Surely we can find some brave souls willing to test their luck.”
“You’re asking for sacrifices.”
“Perhaps. But sacrifices for the greater good. I, for one, don’t wish to test our friend Ganyu’s patience if we overdo it on time.”
“What about a vote?” says another voice.
This time, it’s the woman with blood in her mouth.
“We all vote, and whoever gets voted against the most will be killed. I vote for the sick bastard.”
She points at the burly man. Some people in the groups start muttering their assent, and soon a few start shouting for the man to die. He takes it all in, stone-faced while his eyes dart around, thinking of possibilities.
“Come and try me,” he says.
The shouting gets louder, but despite all the people calling for his head, no one makes a move. They all saw him killing the others. He may not be a trained fighter, but he’s a born one. Though with all of them together, they could take him easily, no one is willing to be the first to try.
I could take him on easily. Even more so if I used ki. And the more I think about it, is it even worth it to keep hiding my skills? I didn’t want to stand out before I knew what was happening, but if the whole Tower is going to be like this it might be best. At least that way, no one will mess with me.
I step forward out of our small defensive circle and walk calmly toward the burly man. Vanessa calls my name, and the rest of the field goes silent, but no one stops me. The man gets in a defensive stance, clearly wary after our encounter earlier, but he doesn’t run.
When I get within his range, he steps forward, throwing a powerful punch. I step in and turn to the side, watching the fist sail past my nose, missing by a hair, and I reach up to touch his chest. My touch is gentle, but the ki I inject is anything but. As soon as I touch him, he freezes, still midpunch. The look in his eyes changes from wariness to confusion to surprise to fear to despair, and then they go blank. A gentle push causes him to fall backward, landing with a heavy thud where he lies unmoving, his heart ripped to shreds from within.
“252 remaining,” says Ganyu.
When his voice is gone, it’s quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone is looking at me with shock, none with more than Vanessa, who looks like she’s about to pass out. It’s understandable. She’s just found out that her friend is capable of killing with a single touch, and is willing to do so without hesitation. It seems that my friendship with her is over. Oh well. I’ve only known her for five years. And I have more important things to be thinking about right now.
I look around again, letting the silence and tension build for a few seconds longer before I speak.
“Who’s next?”