Scene 2 - First Kill

In the bag contained the following items with small descriptions for each of them.

-Ten tier 1 potions (each) (heals minor cuts and bruises) slowly

-Three tier 2 potions (each) (heals wounds and big bruises) slowly

-One tier 3 potions (each) (heals heavy wounds) slowly

-Two weeks’ worth of food and water

-One sleeping bag

-Magic Compass (To locate other contestants regardless if they have a compass)

Jao picked up a tier one potion and studied it for a while before nodding his head, “Yup, this is indeed a healing potion. We used these when we didn’t have enough mages on the front lines. These little vials have saved my life countless times!”

They opened the other bags and found similar contents in them as well. After checking the contents of the three bags, they decided to split the supplies of the third bag evenly as a sign of trust. Nena got the other Compass while Jao got the extra sleeping bag.

“Keep the compass on your belt, Nena. We need to use it on the go.”

Nena thought about it and nodded her head, understanding what his words meant; it would be best to keep that information on hand at all times. Making short work of the split, they started to move around the room to investigate their surroundings. They found nothing of value so they moved towards the door where Jao found something interesting at the doorway.

Stopping Nena, he studied the frame in an interesting manner, “I see…”

Nana poked Jao in the shoulder, pouting, “What is it Jao?”

With a small chuckle, Jao pointed to some strange carvings along the doorway, “Listen here Nena, this door has a protective spell that won’t allow animals or low-medium level monsters inside this room. You can say this room is a safe zone. It’ll protect any contestants from monsters and even protect other contestants from killing each other.

We’ll have to be on guard though; it won’t protect us from sleeping gas or something similar. So we have to be careful when we rest or sleep in such a room. Lest we are poisoned with any of those methods; then dragged out and killed for our talismans.”

Nena trembled in fear a bit but kept her face strong and her posture ready to fight at any time. With a laugh Jao rubbed her head and tried to calm her down, seeing how scared she was.

“Haha~ Don’t worry, Nena! I’ll try to protect you the best I can! Partner!”

With a small blush of embarrassment, Nena nodded. Suddenly a loud scream came from outside the doors, from the direction the thief, Sid, had taken. Out of worry and a small sense of guilt, Nena rushed out of the hallway with a compass in hand. It didn’t show the pathways, only the location of a few surrounding dots.

Running for a good few hundred meters, Nena saw a gruesome scene when she turned the corner, almost making her puke.

*Sisss*

A five-foot creature, covered in scales, was currently munching on a corpse. It had four lizard-like hands with razor sharp claws that were currently digging into a body, pulling out guts by the handful. Blood splattered and pooled around the body as the creature went to work in feeding its gut.

At this point, Nena noticed that this body was indeed Sin. Furious that the life she tried to save was just killed in front of her, made her snort coldly. Unsheathing her blade Solitude, she unhesitatingly charged forth, forcing back the urge to puke as an all-consuming rage made her eyesight turn red with anger.

She didn’t really want Sid to die; she just wanted to scare him! A child’s prank, that’s all! She never meant for this to happen! With a roar, she dashed forward in blinding speed, quickly closing a ten-meter distance, killing intent surged around her as she swung her blade into the creature.

The creature’s head turned to show its ugly face with yellow eyes, split into two pupils each; its mouth had two rows of teeth that were three inches long. On closer inspection, bloody guts and flesh were hanging out its mouth.

It wasn’t ready for a surprise attack from Nena. Swinging her blade upwards, she cleaved the creature in half with ease… maybe a little too at ease. A blade of wind and blood came into existence since Nena didn’t control the weight of the blade, as her anger consumed her. With a boom, the blade of wind actually cut deeply into the wall by a few inches!

The pressure blew the two halves of the creature apart, making them fly through the air. Truly, Nena’s blade was powerful with just its shocking weight alone!

A few seconds passed the air became quiet once more and at that moment Nena broke down and cried. She never meant for this youth to be killed! She didn’t know he would be attacked and killed!

Jao came around the corner just then, after hearing Nena’s anger and the shocking boom that followed it. He was a little hesitant in following her since he could have just left on the other path and forget about her.

Still thinking about his sister, he shook his head in disdain over such thoughts. He was a warrior! A warrior never runs from a fight only when he can’t win! That was his warrior's code!

Walking closer, he saw Nena crying and covered in blood from the creature and the body of Sid as well as the giant sword slash that was carved into the wall.

Judging by the scene, Jao could guess what had happened and that terrified him. This little girl caused this much damage! One swing of her blade had cut down the poor lizardman. Even he, an experienced warrior had no hope of blocking such an overpowering slash.

Jao kept on his strong appearance and messed up the blood-soaked girl’s hair again.

Taking a towel out of his ring he held it out for Nena as he thought to himself, ‘Man, habits really are hard to kill.’

He spoke some word of encouragement, yet someone could clearly hear the shakiness in his voice, “It’s not your fault Nena… These things happen all the time on the battlefield… So, the only way to overcome these feelings of powerlessness is to grow stronger! In this world, only strength speaks!”

You couldn’t tell if these words were for him or Nena, as he was shaking in his boots. Surprisingly, Nena recovered rather quickly from blaming herself, after cleaning most of the blood off of her with the towel.

She noticed in front of her a silver and copper talisman floating in the air. With decisiveness, she reached out and grabbed the two, a small flash occurred and, checking her arm, the number read 21 in a brighter silver color.

Standing up tall, she turned to Jao, who had recovered mostly from his shock and awe. He didn’t even ask for half of the talisman, “Let’s get moving Jao… I don’t want to be here anymore...”

“Alright!”

A little while later, the two entered a difficult situation…