"This damn world is out to get me," Alesha whimpered as she lay on the forest floor.
[Wow, such a drama mama! Just because you think the world revolves around you doesn't mean that's the case,] Rogork mocked.
"Just shut up and let me cry," Alesha complained weakly. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Rogork's attitude at the moment.
[I think you've got bigger problems than that, though.]
"Like what?"
[I dunno, like what someone as powerful as that might do if they catch your teammates?]
Eyes shooting open, Alesha gasped, struggling to her hands and knees. Her wound still hadn't fully closed, but at least her heart was functional again. "Shit, shit, shit," she cursed, realizing how on the dot Rogork was. She was lucky enough to be able to regenerate from what should've been a fatal move, but her teammates didn't have Troll's Regeneration.
She looked around frantically. Were there any clues, any at all, as to where her attacker had gone?
A high-pitched scream sounded from a distance, off to her left. She turned her attention that way, picked up her spear, and ran.
Her steps were clumsy. Had there been some sort of poison on the blade? Or was this a side effect from almost dying?
Wait, from a medical perspective, if her heart had been stabbed, didn't that mean she had technically died?
It didn't matter.
More important was finding the source of that scream. It wasn't a guaranteed bet by any means, but on the off chance that was one of her teammates getting assaulted by the same person who'd meant to kill her, Alesha had no intention of letting them get away with it.
----
Hatil bellowed a war cry, clutching a red flag in one hand and a large battleaxe in the other. She swung the axe in a large sweep, severing the man in front of her in two while wincing in pain. Her hands and arms had been feeling sore in unusual ways since yesterday, making it hard to fight; of course, her legs and feet were also in pain, but she had no intention of letting any of that get in the way of her battles.
She would survive, no matter what.
Memories of a conversation she'd overheard during lunch suddenly hit her.
"Have you heard? Participants are going mad!" Some woman had said.
"No way, really?" Another replied.
"It's hard to blame 'em," a guy who was sitting with them said, mouth stuffed half full of food. He had apparently mastered the art of speaking while eating, for his words were surprisingly easy to understand despite his poor manners. Of course, that didn't eliminate the loud smacking of his lips as he chewed and talked simultaneously.
He continued, "Are any of us even sane anymore? I mean, think 'bout it. We're all a bunch o' mass murderers, thanks to that spooky-ass ghost world, and nobody sane kills a bunch o' randos just to survive, yeah?"
A heavy silence had fallen over the table then, before the second woman whispered, "You've got a point there."
A fourth voice, deep yet somehow still feminine had then interrupted, "Shut your traps. People are selfish bastards who'll do whatever it takes to survive. If that means we're crazy, then humanity already went crazy ages ago. That's all there is to it, youngin's. No need to make it any more complicated than that."
The conversation had gone silent after that.
As her feet pounded into the dirt and she evaded a thrown hatchet, Hatil wondered why that conversation had stuck with her. Was there some deeper meaning to it?
Jumping over a fallen log, she dismissed the thought. Even if there was a deeper meaning to the conversation, or some clue to be had, did it matter? All she needed to do was survive.
Right now, that meant fleeing her pursuers with their flag in hand, so they could win this bout of gladiator-style Capture the Flag.
She couldn't see beyond that -- and she didn't need to.
It was best to keep things simple.
----
By the time Alesha reached the point where the scream had come from, the attacker was already gone.
"No!" Alesha said, rushing to her fallen teammate's side.
It was Cid.
"Dammit, dammit, am I too late?" She muttered, observing her fallen companion.
He wasn't breathing enough, and those few breaths he took were shaky and shallow. Blood was spilling from a puncture wound on his chest, as well as pooling beneath him, darkening the dirt on which he lay. He'd clearly been injured in the same way as she had.
"No, no, no!" Alesha repeated, running a hand through her hair. Although she didn't like watching someone die, what troubled her most was neither his death nor the sight of his blood: it was the loss of a teammate. They couldn't recruit anyone new, and they still had an entire fight left after this.
Sure, they had one Advantage Ticket remaining; since one of the deceased team members had used one of his before dying, they had enough for all 4 team fights with Victoria as the leader. But did that Ticket take into account the number of team members remaining when calculating "advantage?"
It wasn't clear.
Any unknown variable could be dangerous, something Alesha had grown to appreciate recently.
Thus, as one of her team's (admittedly relatively weaker) members died in front of her, Alesha was primarily concerned with her decreased odds of survival due to his death rather than the fact that a person was dying at all.
[You've become quite accustomed to the sight of death, I see,] Rogork said smugly.
Seeming distracted, Alesha replied, "...Have I?"
[Hmph. You're no fun when you're like this. At least give me some entertaining reactions, or bemoan your fate for having fallen so far from your original humanity!]
"But I'm not human anymore, now am I?" Alesha asked, with a bit of an edge to her voice. "You made damn well sure of that. I'm just fighting to get a body of flesh and blood back."
[Well, in that case, he's not dead yet, even if he is dying. You could… you know…]
An angry glint in her eyes, Alesha moved to protest, then bit her lip.
"Shit," she cursed, then used the sharp edge of her silvery spear to sever Cid's head. "If he's already dying, then maybe beheading him will kill him quicker. You know, he'll suffer less as he dies."
[Sure,] Rogork agreed. [For his comfort, yes, we both know that's why you did it.]
Shortly after that, a semi-transparent purple screen appeared, announcing:
[Regular Human Killed! +10 XP]
"So it doesn't matter if anyone else killed them, as long as I deal the final blow?" Alesha asked, heart sinking.
She'd been hoping it wouldn't work.
If it hadn't worked, she wouldn't have to do this kind of team-killing again.
Just how far would she stoop in order to pursue her goals?
Once again, the question occurred to her:
… Did she even deserve to look for her family after this?
Before she could regroup and attempt to look for the one who'd stabbed both her and Cid, the announcer's loud voice permeated the arena, carried far by some sort of magical speaker system she didn't understand.
"Aaaaand that's a wrap! Hatil came in clutch for her team, successfully kidnapping the Red Team's flag and bringing it back to Blue Team's base!"
So the game ended without me, Alesha thought numbly.
Figures. It's not like I'm the main character of a manga or something. My luck sucks way too much for that.
Without letting her hear it, Rogork chuckled, finding her self-doubt amusing.