Round Two Begins...
The bell... sounded like a death knell.
The battlefield had turned into a hell more brutal than the first round. This was no longer a tournament. It was a slaughter. The ruins of the once-great city of Moniyan, now deliberately shattered, had become a field of traps—jagged pits gaping like demonic mouths, pools of blood not yet dried from the previous round turning every step into a squelch through rotting flesh.
The moment the bell rang... the world collapsed.
The remaining contestants—more than half of the original number—erupted like a horde of mindless beasts. They screamed, howled, roared... attacking each other with no plan, no rules. Their eyes were empty, filled only with the primal urge to survive, their sanity already eaten away.
I slipped through the wreckage, my body moving like a shadow, trying to survive this chaos. But a place like this... knew no safety. Here... every corner was a death trap.
Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps thundered behind me.
I spun around—only to be greeted by the shadow of a large man swinging a massive sword at my chest. I rolled, but my knee cracked painfully under the strain.
I could barely stand. But I had to.
"Haaah… haaah…"
Breathless. My knee bled profusely, the pain shooting up to my hip.
The man laughed maniacally, his eyes red like a starving demon. "Little brat! Just die already!"
I didn't answer. I lunged at him—driving my kitchen knife into his side. He screamed—a sound more like a slaughtered pig—but his arm still managed to swing the sword again. I slashed the tendon behind his knee, forcing him to collapse.
Without hesitation… I slit his throat.
His head fell. His body dropped. His blood splashed onto my shoes.
I… no longer felt disgusted. Fear? It died with those I slaughtered in the first round.
I moved again, staggering like a ghost on a cursed battlefield.
Screams.
The sound of flesh tearing.
Mad laughter.
I saw a woman leap from the ruins above, her spear aimed at my back. I turned just in time to parry it with the last of my strength. My body crashed into the cold stone wall. It felt... like being embraced by death.
I gasped, lungs burning, breath ragged. But still, I forced myself to stand.
"Stop... getting in my way..." That voice... I barely recognized it as mine.
Am I... still Rey?
Or just the shadow of a boy too stubborn to die?
The woman laughed at me. Big mistake.
I drove my knee into her chest, plunged my blade beneath her chin. Warm blood sprayed across my face. Her body crumpled like a broken doll.
I no longer knew how many people I had killed. Or how many wounds I had taken. Everything blurred. The pain coursing through my body... was now just background music to this hellish war.
Around me... fire began to rise. Flames consumed the ruins, black smoke engulfed the gray skies of Moniyan. Human screams merged with collapsing stone. The clash of steel sounded like an orchestra of death.
I stood in the middle of an ancient battlefield... Alone. Surrounded by killers... and the ghosts of the dead, watching me from the shadows.
My legs began to tremble. My vision blurred. I had lost too much blood.
"I can't... lose here..." I muttered, like a spell forced from my dry lips.
From the loudspeakers, the voice of the tournament announcer pierced through the chaos. "Red Team... three left. Other teams... even fewer."
I forced my eyes to scan the battlefield.
It was true... Only me... and two other men remained from the Red Team. Rough-looking men with wild eyes, staring at me... or each other like starving wolves.
There was no cooperation. Not here.
Only one would walk out alive.
I closed my eyes briefly... shutting out the pain, the fear, all emotion. What remained... was one word I clung to.
Survive.
I charged—through fire, blood, and the agony stabbing my limbs. The battle became a blur... a red haze of screams and explosions.
I stabbed, slashed, dodged, kicked... until my body was numb.
When I collapsed into a pool of cold blood... Only I... was still breathing.
The announcement echoed, sharp and emotionless.
"Red Team... winner of Round Two."
I stared at the smoke-filled sky of Moniyan, my body drenched in blood... theirs... and mine.
I... was still alive.
But was I still Rey Elaxdor?
Was I still human?
Or just a feral dog... waiting to be put down?
The crowd's cheers... sounded distant... like echoes from a world I no longer understood.
My hands trembled. My head throbbed. I tried to lift myself, but I could only crawl... crawl through blood mixed with mud and shards of bone. The stench... was unbearable. The stench of death.
I reached for my face. Half of it... was caked in blood and dust. I no longer knew if it was mine... or theirs.
Then came the heavy footsteps of the guards. Executioner's steps.
They said nothing. Just grabbed me roughly, dragging my body like a corpse to the edge of the arena.
As they lifted me... I saw the faces of the cheering crowd, laughing, screaming my name...
But in their eyes... I was no longer human.
I was entertainment.
An animal that simply lasted a little longer than the rest.
I wanted to vomit. But my body was too dry for even that.
I... could only close my eyes, letting myself sink into the darkness...
Into a silence more terrifying than the screams of war.
I had won.
But why... did it feel like I had died?
The crowd's cheers slowly faded... Soldiers began clearing the remains—both the dead and half-dead. But I... I just sat there, unable to stand, my mind empty, like a shell stripped of its soul.
Then... light footsteps.
Different from the guards' heavy, cold strides. These were rushed... anxious...
And before I could lift my head, a voice cried out my name.
"Rey!! Rey!!"
I forced my eyes open, heavy as lead, and saw a figure running from the gate of the arena.
Elfea.
She... somehow... had made it in. Maybe she bribed the guards, maybe she forced her way through. I didn't know. But when her eyes found me, her whole face twisted in horror.
"Rey... oh gods... Rey...?" Her voice shook, eyes wide with shock.
I looked at her with no expression. I didn't know... if I was still Rey. Maybe... I had turned into something Elfea could never recognize again.
"Don't... come near me, Elfea..." My voice was hoarse, ragged... like it didn't belong to me.
But she ignored it. She knelt in front of me, her trembling hands reaching out to touch my bloodied, broken face. I slapped them away.
"NO!! DON'T COME NEAR ME!!" I screamed, more like a wounded beast than a human.
Elfea flinched. Her eyes welled up, her body trembling.
"Rey... you're... you're not the Rey I knew..." she whispered, heartbroken, barely audible.
I smiled bitterly, blood leaking from the corner of my lips.
"Yeah... maybe I'm not the Rey you once knew, Elfea..."
I lowered my head, staring at the pool of blood below that reflected my face...
The face of a killer...
Not the village boy who once wanted to save his mother.
"Leave, Elfea... please... just go..."
The words fell like the sobs of a loser who had lost everything.
Elfea stared at me deeply. A tear fell... but she didn't wipe it away. She simply stood, looking down at me... like someone mourning the living.
"You said... you'd survive... for your dream..." she whispered, half pleading.
"Then... if you've lost yourself... what's left, Rey?"
I had no answer.
I simply sat there in silence, as Elfea took a step back, leaving me alone in the arena that had fallen eerily quiet...
But somehow... her departure hurt more than all the wounds on my body.
I closed my eyes. And in that darkness... I knew...
I had gone too far.