Chapter 49

”29:39” spelled the fiery numbers that were conjured above the arena after the first round started, mere seconds ago.

“Uma! Uma! UMA!!”

“Eh!?” Number Fifty finally snapped out of her daze and looked at her teammate that kept shouting her name.

“Uma, what are we supposed to do!?” Number Forty-nine panicked and demanded answers from her leader. A shorter girl than the leader of the team, but with the same white and blue uniform, and same gory hair color (apart from the haircut, which was a bob haircut, instead of the long straight hair of Number Fifty). Both she and Number Fifty now stood on one side of the charred line that separated the team of four into two so-called semifinals. “Me and you? Fight each other? What kind of a joke is this!?”

“When going gets tough the tough get going!” Number Twenty-two, their gory bearded teammate said as he walked to the crossbow their team was handed and picked it off the ground. “At least, that’s what my Pa always used to say.”

“What the fuck does that mean!?” Number Forty-nine screamed. “And why do you get the crossbow!?”

“Aint nothin’ more simple darlin’!” Number Twenty-two said as he loaded the first of the three arrows into the crossbow. “If just one of us gets to see the sunrise in the mornin’, we will do everything it takes to ensure the victory of our clan!”

“So, what? You’re gonna shoot yourself to help Aldrich advance!? Or you going to kill him first and then kill yourself!?”

“Nonsense!” Number Twenty-two shook his head and then look to Number Seven’s team, where “the fridge” just cleaved a jittering hyenakin’s head in half. “Instead of shootin’ each other like mad dogs, we eliminate Uma’s strongest competition! Strike hard and fast, secure the victory before they know that hit ‘em!”

“George...” Number Fifty softly spoke her teammate’s name.

“Have you lost all senses!” Number Forty-nine went from panicked to mad, to outraged. “Didn’t you hear the rules!? You’re not allowed to kill anyone else but Aldrich over here! They’ll probably kill you the moment you attack anyone else!”

“Did ya not wash your ears today?” bearded George asked. “That announcer only said killin’ others than our current opponent is forbidden. She ain’t said shit about maimin’ ‘em! Who needs killin’ when you can rip their pretty little eyeballs out?”

One of the shirtless masked members of the Forge of Champions staff, the one that delivered the crossbow, just stood in place, not moving an inch, and casually listened to the conversation, without objections or remarks.

“AND THEN!?” Number Forty-nine screamed, waiting to hear the answer for the only part that mattered to her.

“It goes without sayin’ that Uma must be the one to advance further,” George shrugged.

“SAID WHO!? We’re supposed to kill ourselves after doing all the hard work to help this little princess win!?”

“What?” Uma was shocked to be called a ‘little princess’ by her teammate. She knew that such an insult flowed around in the clan, but never before did anyone dare to say it out loud in her presence.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be here!” Number Forty-nine continued. “You were the one who said ‘we’re in this together’! Since when are we sacrificial pawns for her benefit!?”

George sighed and replied calmly, “We ain’t got time fo such bickerin’, Ethel!”

Uma tried to calm her teammate down and took her hand, “Ethel, please, I understand how you feel and—”

“You understand!?” Ethel recoiled and pulled her hand away in disgust. “You’re supposed to be our leader! Miss righteous! And yet you’re perfectly happy to just stand there and do nothing while we throw our lives away!?”

George shook his head again. Rather than arguing further, he relocated his desired target, Number Seven, and without letting the giant out of his sight spoke to his other teammate, “Come on, Aldrich! Shootin’ that overgrown’ potato will be easier than hittin’ the side of a barn. But we need to decide on your target before we move in. One chance to take out the strongest competition before they know what’s comin’! Even if Ethel—”

SNAP!

The crossbow fell at George’s feet, followed quickly by George’s lifeless body that collapsed to the ground with a broken neck, snapped from behind by his teammate, Number Eight, Aldrich.

“ALDRICH!?” Uma screamed in horror when she saw one of her trusted teammates betray and snap the neck of her loyal friend.

“Sorry, George, but I agree with Ethel,” Aldrich said as he twirled his handlebar type mustache.

Uma and Ethel both stood frozen in place, processing the irreversible damage that was done to their team by the ruthless action of one of their own.

“No ... Why? George...” Uma muttered.

“Well, you were the one who wanted to die that badly, right!” Ethel shouted at George’s body after recovering first from her shock as she rationalized her new position on the team. “Who gave you the right to command us to our death!? You felt like you had the right to choose in our place who lives and who dies!? Only makes sense then that someone decided for you as well!”

“What have you done, Aldrich?” Uma asked quietly without even looking at Aldrich as she slowly walked with unsteady steps toward her fallen dead teammate.

“Woah there!” Aldrich grabbed the fallen crossbow before Uma was close enough to take it, despite the fact that the distraught leader did not so much as glance at the crossbow even once since George’s death. Aldrich then took aim at Uma’s head and with a smirk from underneath his handlebar mustache said, “George said that it’s fine to attack others without killing, right?”

Uma did not react to the threat in the slightest as she walked toward George’s corpse. Aldrich scoffed, lowered his aim, and shot an arrow through Uma’s left naked thigh.

“Ah!” Uma grimaced and fell to her knees, right at George’s lifeless face. She caressed her loyal teammate’s beard and moved a few locks of his red hair off his face.

“Well, looks like George was right,” Aldrich smirked as he loaded another arrow. “No rains of fire, no lightning bolts to strike me down. Don’t worry, though—I won’t kill you!”

Aldrich pulled the trigger and shot the second arrow through Uma’s other thigh. The arrow went through her right leg and impaled her lower leg that was under it, completely crippling the grieving girl. Uma did not even give Aldrich the satisfaction of a pained scream. And even though tears rolled down her face, those tears were not from the physical pain that the traitor inflicted.

“Hey, Ethel! What are you waiting for?” Aldrich called out to the other girl on his team while he loaded the third and last arrow into his crossbow. “Now’s your chance!”

“So that you can shoot me as soon as I kill Uma!?”

“To be honest, I don’t even need the crossbow to deal with you,” Aldrich chuckled. “I’ll cover you so that Uma doesn’t try anything funny. She’s only good at sword-fighting. With her legs crippled, even you can’t lose!”

“Everyone ... Always ... Underestimating me...” Ethel muttered with shaking fists at her side. “I’ve always been a disposable tool in all your eyes, haven’t I?”

“A tool? Hardly!” Aldrich shrugged. “More like a disposable cum-dumpster!”

“Don’t take me lightly!” Ethel screamed. “I’ll kill you both! First the arrogant bitch and then you! I’ll shove that arrow up your ass before I throw you over the edge!”

“You only ever were good at working your mouth,” Aldrich laughed.

“Work this!” Ethel screamed and dashed at Uma, only to change direction at the last moment and jump at Aldrich.

“AHHH!?”

“WHOAH!?”

Aldrich fired and missed the shot he fired at Ethel’s shoulder at near point-blank range. He screwed up so bad that he nearly shot Ethel right in the face. The arrow just nearly missed, nicking Ethel’s left cheek. But Aldrich did not miss it because he was surprised by Ethel’s sudden attack. He expected it. What neither he nor Ethel expected was for blinding bright light to beam out of Uma’s back, disorienting them both.

Aldrich and Ethel covered their eyes and averted their gaze from Uma who was still on her knees, with arrows embedded into her thighs. But out of a large, pure-white circle on her back, along with the light, a pair of majestic brown feathered wings emerged. A sudden, high-pitched cry followed, and a glorious bald eagle flew out of the light and circled the arena.

“Well, well, well, ladies and gentlemen, it looks like our games have attracted a summoner!” the announcer’s voice echoed through the mines as the eagle made another lap around the arena. “And that birdie does look delicious if I do say so myself! Unfortunately, don’t bother salivating as summoned animals cannot be eaten even if you tried to take a bite out of a live one. That summoner is just a cruel tease!”

“A-a-a summoner!?” Ethel screamed in disbelief as she tried to follow the eagle with her half-blinded eyes. “That’s impossibl—WHAAAAARGLH!!”

When Ethel finally located the bald eagle, it already descended onto her and sunk its claws into her thin neck, snapping it like a twig.

“That was a mercy killing,” Uma said as she finally lifted her head and glared at Aldrich with the eyes of a killer. “Do not expect to be gifted such a quick death!”

“FUCK YOUUUU!” Aldrich swung the crossbow like a bat to kill the immobile summoner while he still had a chance. But the crossbow was easily ripped out of his hands by Uma’s eagle.

“Ghah!” Aldrich fell on the ground from the sheer force of the impact while the eagle flew over the edge of the arena and threw the accursed weapon into the abyss.

Meanwhile, Number Fifty grabbed the arrow that went through her thigh and pierced her lower leg and pulled on it just enough to pull it out of her lower leg. She then slowly rose to her feet, with arrows still in her bleeding thighs. As Uma rose to her feet she looked at Aldrich and declared, “I, Uma Sophia Anderson, do solemnly swear that your unforgivable treachery against one of your own will be repaid tenfold in indescribable agony! Repent and beg for mercy! For you shall receive none!”

“If you think that your little—GRAH!”

The eagle knocked Aldrich back on the ground before he could rise up, sunk its hooked beak into his back, and pulled a piece of muscle, tearing it out with a loud snap.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!” Aldrich screamed in pain, unable to imagine that the true torture had not even begun.

“Oh my!” the announcer gasped theatrically as she and the others watched Uma’s bald eagle rip chunks of flesh out of Aldrich, her former teammate, and clansman, in all the gory detail on the big screen. “Adding to what I said about not being able to eat a summoned creature: you best be careful when you find yourself on the wrong side of a summoned beast, lest you find yourself to be the one on the dinner plate!”

“Yeah, no mercy for traitors!” some cheered in the crowds.

“Traitors!?” someone asked in surprise. “This is a death game! Everyone for themselves!”

“How is he still alive though?”

“He’s still trying to fight back, too!”

Aldrich indeed desperately tried to defend himself from the eagle, rolling on the ground, flailing his limbs, screaming, and kicking. Not that it helped. Between both his hands, Aldrich already lost four fingers. The eagle simply bit the fingers off one at a time. It did not so much toy with its prey as it seemed to methodically torture the man, never landing a lethal strike that would kill or incapacitate him.

But even as the crowds cheered the brutality of Aldrich’s undoing, while the fighting went on across the arena, as minutes passed, each time the big screen returned to show Aldrich, still alive and still mutilated, piece by piece, several spectators looked at each other with signs of unease.

“And we already have our first winner of this round!” Thelicia announced.

A pale-skinned girl in a fancy dark blue outfit, with dark shoulder-length hair and crimson eyes, popped a pink bubble at her lips and looked up when she heard the announcer. Number Forty stood in a puddle of blood, looking over a pile of guts, meat, and limbs that were all smeared across the rocks.