The man who had just taken a life in front of them met Dante's gaze. He had no regret in his eyes, only a cold, predatory light.
With a casual flick, he slung his sword over his shoulder, wiping the fresh blood on his jacket.
"Derek!" Masha's voice was sharp with disbelief and anger. "How could you? They were our classmates! Some of them were your friends! Don't you feel anything?"
A wicked smile spread across Derek's face. "We aren't on Earth anymore, Masha. This isn't college, and you're not the student council president. Your lectures have no power here."
He paused, letting his words hang in the blood-chilled air. "And as for killing," he added, his voice dropping, "we have no choice. It's kill or be killed. That's the only rule."
"That's wrong!" she shot back. "The Goddess told us to fight monsters, to get strong! Killing each other is against the rules!"
Dante stayed silent, letting his team listen. This was the truth of their new world, raw and ugly. He needed them to hear it, to understand it.
Derek let out a short, harsh laugh. "You're a fool, Masha. If it was against the rules, don't you think the Goddess would have stopped us?"
He looked at his crimson-stained sword and licked a drop of blood from the steel. "This is exactly what she wanted. The strongest survive."
He took a step forward, then looked back at his nine teammates, who were spreading out, their faces just as merciless as his.
"Boys," he said, his voice booming with excitement. "Looks like we've got more people to kill. Have fun."
"Wait!" Talia cried out, her hand tightening on her rapier. "Are you really doing this? We're classmates!"
But Derek cut her off, pointing a bloody finger right at Dante. "Your little group was at the top of our kill list," he sneered. "Mostly because of him."
"We knew he was a threat from the start. And look where we are now. What a lucky day." He grinned. "Now, get ready to die."
With a roar, they charged.
Dante's team, still sore and tired from the goblin fight, flinched back in fear. This wasn't a battle against mindless monsters. This was an execution.
He clenched his fists, his own fear turning to ice in his veins. "Guys!" he shouted, his voice ringing with a confidence he didn't feel.
"We can do this! We'll punish them for what they've done! We will get justice for the dead! We will win!"
"We'll show the Goddess that we are the ones who will survive!"
His words hit their mark. The terror in their eyes was replaced by a defiant glare. The fight was coming whether they wanted it or not. As Derek's team closed in, they braced themselves.
The clearing exploded into violence. Derek, a mountain of muscle, crashed into their front line, his massive greatsword swinging.
Jin and Eric met his charge, but Derek was a monster.
He knocked Jin's blade aside in a shower of sparks and slammed Eric's shield with enough force to make him stumble back, his arm screaming in protest.
"Erica, fire on their magic users!" Dante yelled, trying to direct the chaos.
But as Erica prepared to launch a fireball, one of Derek's teammates, a thin boy with empty eyes, pointed a finger at her.
"Curse: Mana Drain," he whispered. Erica cried out as she felt her power being pulled from her body, her forming fireball dying with a weak fizzle.
At the same time, another enemy, a boy with a sly grin, waved his hands. "Phantasms!" he called.
Suddenly, three more Dereks appeared, charging at Masha from different directions.
Masha instinctively threw up an ice wall, but it blocked a harmless illusion, leaving her open to the real attack.
The battlefield became a nightmare. Talia lunged at an opponent, but her movements suddenly became slow and heavy.
"Graviton!" a stocky boy shouted, his hand held out. He was controlling gravity itself, making Talia's rapier feel like it was made of lead.
"Poison in the air!" Rina shrieked, as a sick green mist began to drift from another magic user, a boy with a snake tattoo on his neck. "Toximancy! Everyone, hold your breath!"
Their support was being taken apart.
"Edgar, analysis!" Dante commanded.
"I'm trying!" he yelled back, dodging a punch from a brawler. "The curse user is weak to physical hits! The gravity mage has to keep his hands up to use his spell! The illusionist is the boy in the back!"
Juno, his face pale, was sketching frantically. "Derek is ignoring Jin! He's trying to break Eric's shield arm!"
One of Derek's team, a boy chanting behind a shimmering shield of his own, was protecting their poison user from Erica's weakened fireballs.
They were a perfect team for killing other players, their skills weaving together into a deadly net that was quickly closing around them.
They were outnumbered in every fight. Jin and Eric couldn't handle Derek alone.
Talia was stuck in a confusing struggle against the gravity mage. Erica and Masha were being shut down by curses and illusions.
And Rina was desperately trying to heal Eric's arm while also trying to clean the poison from the air.
The breaking point came with a sickening crunch. The gravity user increased the pressure on Jin, forcing him to one knee. At the same moment, the curse user cast another spell. "Curse of Weakness!"
Jin cried out as he felt his bones grow brittle. Derek, seeing his chance, left his fight with Eric and swung his greatsword in a massive, sideways arc.
"Jin, move!" Dante screamed.
But he was too slow, pinned by gravity and weakened by the curse. The flat of the huge blade slammed into his side, sending him flying into a tree with enough force to splinter the wood.
He collapsed to the ground and didn't move.
They were injured, outsmarted, and completely overpowered. And the fight had only just begun.