Chapter: Kill List

2nd floor -Cruise Ship

Once the situation had finally calmed down, I regrouped with the RisingSun members on the second floor of the ship. We sat on the stairs leading to the third floor, since all the chairs and tables were either ruined or taken by other students. Although everything was over, some students were still a little off edge by the soulless bodies of the fellow students on the ground, it was hard to rest with so many bodies around.

"What a great way to start the exams," Catherine said in a sarcastic tone

"I was totally not expecting such intensity" Koko sighed

"I don't think anyone was," Hanako said, still a little shaken up from all the soulless bodies

"We better keep our guard up for the next test," Said Krow adding into the conversation

"Krow is right, we can't lose our spirits now, we have to stay strong throughout the entire exam," Mira said trying to boost our spirits

"That's right guys, we as the RisingSun dorm members can't lose to this exam, we will pass it!" I said with a smile, also trying to lift our spirits

"Ken, how did you stop the Phantom Nest?" Drew asked

"I had help from Claire, but we figured that the culprit to all of this madness, was caused by the first girl, that was soulless on the ground" I explained "We figured that the girl was just a doll, and she was also the caster of the spell, so we destroyed it and so everything disappeared"

"Amazing job Ken! You did well" Mira said, praising me

"Yes, but right now I'm hungry," Leo said as his stomach rumbled

"I hear you man, I'm also hungry" Drew said agreeing with Leo

"That's great! Eating is always a good way to lift spirits, let's get something into our stomachs" I said, also agreeing with Leo

"In all this mess, I'd be surprised if the kitchen, was still functioning" Catherine sighed

As a group we headed into the kitchen and like everywhere else in the ship it was in a mess, but all the robots were still functional and took our orders. To our surprise, the food was really good, and we all ate our fill. After thirty minutes we finally arrived at a shipping port on a large Island.

Everyone that survived the first test we're told to make their way off of the boat, and onto the many busses that were waiting for us in front of the port, slowly but surely everyone made it off the boat and into the busses, they were instructed onto the same busses numbers as before. After everyone was on board the busses immediately took off.

During the bus ride, everyone on my bus was chatting about who solved the problem, the problem being the Phantom Nest, but I didn't say anything, cause with my reputation at this academy none of them would probably believe me, even tho the RisingSun members we're the only ones that believed me, that was good enough for me.

"I see you two survived," Josh said, looking at Hanako and I, from behind his seat, as he sat directly in front of us

"Oh Jacob, you made it as well," I said looking at him

"Jacob? How many times do I have to tell you! It's Josh!" Josh rebuked

"Oh my bad" I replied with a smirk

"Man that cruise ship task was really intense" Josh sighed

"Say, how did you pass? Obviously, you weren't the one to figure out the cause of the phantom nest" I said bluntly

"Geez, you're as rude as ever, I don't blame you, you were raised on an island" Josh snickered "but to answer your question, A first-year who took the entrance exam, figured it all out, his name is….what was it….oh right Rex. He figured it out straight away, it was actually quite brutal" Josh said remembering back to what happened

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1 Hour Earlier on cruise ship 4

Within the cruise ship, all the students are enjoying the luxurious journey to their exams, but this enjoyment would not last long. Without a warning a loud scream echoed throughout the entire ship, this was the scream of a fellow student. The scream caught everyone's attention, no matter where you were on the giant cruise ship, you would have heard it loud and clear

Soon a large circle of students formed around the soulless body of a dead student, the sight of this had everyone perplexed, it took time for everyone to comprehend what was happening.

"Sh-she can't...b-be...dead, far-right?" I student asked with a cracked voice

"S-someone, get a teacher! Quickly!!" Another student shouted with a horrified look

"Look outside the window...we have emerged in a fog all of a sudden...w-what's going on!" Another student asked in a confused but scared tone

Soon the crowd started to comprehend the situation, as fear crept up in most of them. Students started to scream, and panic, not knowing what to do. As if things couldn't get any worse, phantoms swarmed the ship attacking those with fear, and bringing fear to those without.

"Wh-what the hell is going on! What low life is running this expensive ship!" Josh said in a scared tone as he hid behind a table

Within all the chaos, a boy with short black hair, and an emotionless expression walked up to the soulless girl on the ground, looking down at her, his eyes empty and void of any sympathy for his fellow student.

"Pathetic," The boy said

As the boy stood over the dead body, countless phantoms raced into his body, but it did not affect him, they were unable to steal his soul. The boy raised his right foot aiming it at the girl's stomach, before he brought it down like a hammer, smashing it down into the girl's stomach, without the slightest hesitation. In doing this he crushed the girl's stomach like glass, causing a shock wave of light to be sent throughout the entire cruise ship, ending the phantom best, right before it could get any worse.

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"I know it's a doll….b-but...that's still too cruel...especially if it looked like one of us," Hanako said chiming into the conversation

"Yeah, I 100% agree with you on that," I said looking out the window

After a ten minute drive, the bus finally stopped in the middle of a forest. I looked out the window and there was no other bus around, it seemed like our bus was the only bus here, everyone else on the bus was as confused as me.

"Alright, all of you off the bus," the bus driver said as he walked off the bus

Everyone was even more confused but we all slowly walked off the bus as instructed and stood in front of the driver, waiting for him to say something.

"Now some of you are probably wondering where you are? Or what you're doing here? or where are the other students? Well, this is the second test of the survival camp. Welcome to Zeless! A huge island owned by the Academy" The bus driver said, answering all our questions

"The other busses are parked somewhere else within this forest and are all being told the same thing by the other bus drivers. Throughout this forest, there are steel tags scattered around randomly, and your job is to find at least three tags then head east and you will arrive at a hotel. You have two hours to do so, if you can't collect three tags and make it to the front of the hotel in time, then you will automatically fail and if you collect three tags but don't make it back in time, then you will fail" the Driver explained. Everyone started to talk amongst themselves.

"So when do we start?" One of the students asked

"You now have one hour and fifty-six minutes," the bus driver said before walking back onto the bus and driving off

Everyone stood there in silence with a little confusion before realizing that they only had one hour and forty-six minutes to find three tags. In a rush, everyone ran off scattering into the forest to look for the steel tags.

"finding three tags in a forest this big is sure going to take quite a long time," I said looking around

"Your right...so let's get going" Hanako added on

"We have to find at least three tags within the time limit we are given, it shouldn't be that hard," I said as we walked through the forest

a few minutes had passed maybe about 20 minutes, of me and Hanako just walking through the forest looking for tags but so far we haven't been able to find even one, we've checked almost everywhere, we checked under rocks, piles of leaves, in small rivers that we come across, and near tree stumps, but so far we haven't even found one. This was much harder than I thought it would be.

"This isn't good if we don't hurry...w-we could fail," Hanako said a little worried

"That's true and I can't afford to lose here" I replied

"oww!" Hanako cried out as something fell out off the tree and onto her head

Hanako slowly grabbed whatever fell on her head and looked at it, it took me and her a few seconds to process but it was a steel tag, Hanako's eyes widened and she smiled before cheering and jumping around.

"Good job Hanako you found one," I said with a smile

As Hanako was doing her little celebration, a hand shot out from the trees and grabbed her tag then vanished back into the trees, me and Hanako quickly looked up into the trees and saw a golem holding her tag, before we could say anything the golem ran off through the trees.

Hanako and I quickly ran off after it, trying our best not to lose sight of it in the trees. The golem extended its hands swinging from tree branch to tree branch, like a monkey.

"Come back here with my tag!" Hanako cried out loud

"Someone must be controlling the golem to steal other people's tags!" I said out loud following behind Hanako

"So it's a thief….that's even worse!" Hanako whined

As we were chasing the golem, something silver came flying out of the trees at blinding speed, they were sharp almost like blades but for some reason, they were only aimed at me. I dodged as much as I could while chasing the golem, and when I got a glance at one of the silver things I realized that they were….forks? like kitchen forks.

So I stopped and told Hanako to "keep chasing the golem I'll handle whoever is attacking me".

Hanako nodded and told me to "be careful" before continuing to chase after the golem.

I faced the direction in which the forks were coming from, one of the forks came flying directly at me but luckily I was quick enough to catch it just in time, with only it being a few inches away from my face.

"Show yourself!" I said looking around

"I finally get you to myself, Ken Granfold," a silver-haired woman with deep purple eyes said, before magically appearing up high sitting on a tree branch in front of me

"And who may you be?" I asked, looking up at her

"I'm Alice!" Alice introduced herself

Alice has long silver hair that is neatly kept. Her eyes are a bright purple that almost seemed to be glowing. She had an innocent look on her, but anyone with a good eye that she had some bloodthirst lurking deep within her. Her skin was a creamy colour that went well with her hair and eyes.

"Ever since your entrance speech and your display of mana, I've always wanted to meet you" Alice replied with a smile, as she pointed a meat cleaver at me

"Really? Why do you want to meet me?" I asked curiously

"Well that's simple...to kill you of course" Alice replied with an innocent but creepy smile, as she held the meat cleaver near her face

"Huh?...w-why do you say that so lightly...and why do you want to kill me!" I replied a little crept out

"well you said 'if you can't keep up I'll leave you in the dust, but for those that can see you at graduation' so I won't kill you till graduation, for now, you'll be on my kill list, but till then I want to have a little fun" Alice explained as she spun her knife around in her hand

"That's great but, did you forget that we have to collect the tags and make it back in time if we don't want to fail?" I replied

"Well the whole point of this task was to find tags, but it was also to put us up against each other and try to steal each other's tags" Alice explained. "But, I think I have enough tags" Alice smirked as she pulled out a hand full of tags

"that's impressive, but unfortunately I don't have any, so I don't have time to waste with you" I replied

"Let's make a deal, if you can put up a fight against me, I'll give you three of my tags" Alice replied

"How about you give me five tags instead" I replied with a counteroffer

"That sounds a bit unfair but...sure," Alice said with a grin

"Well let's see what you can do," I said before getting ready

Alice smirked before she jumped down from the tree and ran towards me with her knife held closely in front of her. Once she got in reach of me, she started to swing her knife towards me quickly but swiftly. Her attacks weren't random, they were direct and well-aimed, I can tell she was well trained, and if I wasn't well trained I'd be cut up into pieces by now.

I dodged her attacks being very careful not to slip up once, cause if I did, I would be fighting in a puddle of my own blood. I kept on dodging until I found an opening to step into her space, and push her using my right shoulder and the palm of my left hand, which created space between us and gave me time to land a couple of solid punches on her, before jumping back and keeping my distance

"you were able to find and use an opening in my barrage of attacks, that's quite impressive," Alice said before pulling out multiple forks from a small pouch on her hip

Alice through the forks at me, they were quick like bullets but I was quicker. I created a force field in front of me to block the forks, I then jumped in the air and cast 'exploding flare' straight at her, but before it could reach Alice, she summoned a giant steel spoon, which she used to catch the exploding flare, and throw it right back at me with greater speed than when I casted it. The first explosion hit me but before the second flare could explode, I quickly created a force field around myself to protect me from the other explosions.

"She uses kitchen utensils to fight? I've seen this style of fighting before" I thought to myself

Once the explosions cleared out I cast a spell called "Blazing Longsword" and "Frozen Longsword" which brought forth a longsword made completely out of raging flames, into my right hand and an ice one into my left hand. I dashed towards Alice swinging both my sword towards her, but she was able to block all my attacks with her giant steel spoon.

"Two different elements at the same time?...mmmm now I really want to kill you!" Alice said with a satisfied face as she blocked all my attacks

"You have silver hair and deep purple eyes and you also use cooking utensils for fighting... you're from the Gourmai clan right?" I asked as I continued to attack her

With a cute little giggle, she continued to say "bingooo!"

(Lore) - The Gourmai is a clan that dates far back before the First Era. They are a clan of warrior chefs that once cooked an entire feast for the Divine Palace, as well as for the demons in the chaos realm. They base their fighting techniques and weapons off of kitchen utensils and foods. They are known universally as the best cooks in existence. Their trademark look is silver hair and deep shiny purple eyes that seem to glow.

I imbued both of my longswords with the element of lightning, making them more destructive. I continued to attack her with both swords at the same time, but she was still able to keep up with my speed. While blocking my attacks she grabbed a knife that was strapped to her thigh, which she used to cut straight through my ice and fire sword like it was butter, before smacking me with her steel spoon which sent me flying into a tree.

Before I could even breathe, she dashed towards me and tried to cleave me in half with her knife, but luckily I rolled out of the way. I looked back at the tree and it had been completely cleaved in half by Alice.

"Those are some pretty sharp knives," I said as I stood back up

"Awwww, don't tell me that's all you've got? Cause if it is then I might just leave you in the dust" Alice giggled as she got ready to attack me, once again

"No, I'm just getting warmed up," I smirked. This fight is actually getting interesting.

I ran towards Alice and when I got close she tried to slice me, but I quickly jumped over her landing behind her and immediately kicking her in the back, before casting the spell 'Thunder Strike' which caused lightning to strike from the sky and strike Alice directly, it was a clean hit but Alice didn't seem to be damaged much.

Before she could react, I cast a spell called "Scorching Fist of Fury" which created a magic circle in front of me, from the magic circle a giant fist made completely out of the fire, came out of the magic circle and punched Alice, sending her crashing through multiple trees, before she could crash through anymore trees she summoned a giant wooden spoon, to catch herself in it like a net.

"Yes! Now, this is great, show me more of your magic!" Alice shouted with a satisfied look before launching herself off of her spoon, and straight towards me at high speed

I quickly cast a spell called "Five layers Earth Wall" which created five huge solid thick walls of earth lined up in front of me. Alice came flying, slicing through all five of the walls with one swing of her knife, she would have sliced me in half as well but, luckily I jumped up into the trees, avoiding a fatal strike.

"Just how many elemental releases do you have? Fire, earth, lightning, and ice? You're just full of surprises! Killing you will be so satisfying" Alice said with a blood thirsty look

"Show yourself Ken!" Alice shouted as she threw multiple forks up into the trees, hoping to hit me

"I think it's about time, I put an end to this little swabble" I said. I can tell this fight will only get more interesting the longer it goes on, but I don't have time for that, I need to end this and contain the five coins

I jumped out of a high tree branch and down towards her, Alice smirked and jumped up towards me with her knife held tightly in her right hand.

Next Time: Times Up