Chapter 2

Rainer couldn’t help but be suspicious. After all, he did just witness her split someone in two. “I was just walking by, I didn’t come here to fight. I wouldn’t put up much of one after seeing what you were able to do.”

She tried to hold back her laughter “I suppose not. Say, how many contestants have you eliminated so far? I have a little over two-hundred myself.”

Shocked by the fact that Arisa was able to have such a large amount of eliminations from only a few days, Rainer began to feel like he was dragging his feet. He clenched his fist behind his back, not because he was angry, but because he was disappointed in his own abilities.

“I haven’t eliminated anyone.” He quietly replied, trying to hold back any signs of his disappointment. Assuming she was going to joke about him and his zero eliminations.

“That’s fine, this is your first tournament after all. Let me guess, you’re having trouble controlling Mana, right?

Rainer was embarrassed to admit it. “Yeah. My planet is in something called a dead zone, so I never really had magic powers before.”

“It isn’t too difficult. Just by looking at you I can tell you have an abundance of talent just waiting to be released. What you need is an opponent whom you can test your abilities on. A real battle forces you to change your thinking, and even your survival instincts will kick in to assist you. Eventually you’ll reach a point where you will be fighting using Mana and Prana like it was a part of you all along.”

It made sense to Rainer that a real battle was the best way to increase his experience in a short amount of time. Bahamut had been telling him the same thing, and the fact that now Arisa had provided him the same advice, it couldn’t be a coincidence.

“You have a good point.” Yet Rainer was still suspicious. “Why are you helping me, Arisa?”

Arisa stared at him with her ruby like eyes and a gentle smile. “As a queen I have acquired the ability to judge a person clearly. Though you do have your flaws, you are not one bit as evil as you consider yourself to be. I have a feeling you will use that kindness that remains to assist me.”

It was comforting to hear someone say he wasn’t evil for once, yet he didn’t seem to believe it. “Thanks I guess.” He nervously replied.

Arisa pointed to the top of the mountain. “Up there, train some more up there. Last I checked my map, there were some contestants climbing to the peak. I was going to personally get rid of them, but this will be more beneficial for you.”

“Do you really think I can be strong enough to stand up on my own two feet?” Rainer asked.

“Well. That's up to you, isn’t it?” Arisa turned towards the forest. “I’ll see you around Rainer. Don’t get eliminated until I have had a chance to come after you.” Before Rainer could reply, she ran off into the forest.

“Well, I guess, I’ll start climbing.” Said Rainer.

As he made his way towards the mountain, the rain had begun to secede.

“You were uncertain.” Said Bahamut

“Uncertain about what?”

“Do you consider yourself to be an evil being?”

Rainer was silent for a moment and then answered. “I killed a lot of people. Innocent and guilty alike. I have never in my life thought of my actions to be that of a hero.” It destroyed him on the inside to admit it, but this is who he was. A mercenary who had killed all his life, to the extent where it meant nothing if another person fell at his feet.

Rainer had reached the base of the mountain after a couple hours of running. He was tired after keeping up the pace for so long but still felt he had to use his stamina completely to gain any progress. The higher he climbed from the base, the harder it was for him to breathe.

The weather pattern was also strange, one moment it was snowing and the next it was all gone. This trend occurred about every ten to fifteen minutes, making It difficult to climb without proper footing. After the sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon, Rainer fell to his knees exhausted. Unfortunately for him, the gentle snow that was falling before had now become a blizzard.

His heavy breathing spawned large puffs of cold air from his lungs. After a few deep breaths, he stabilized his breathing and continued walking. The cold winds from the mountain were starting to affect his health.

“I need. Shelter.” he muttered through the chattering of his teeth. Hugging himself for warmth, he climbed towards the side of the mountain, hoping to find any kind of shelter.

Calmly, he used his newfound fire magic to warm himself at certain intervals to keep from freezing.

“You’re almost out of Mana.” Bahamut warned him.

Rainer wasn’t listening to Bahamut clearly, his focus was on keeping himself from freezing. What bothered him the most was that he had not even reached halfway up the mountain yet.

“Maybe, maybe I should head back down.” He spoke through the chattering of his teeth. “I’m going to die if I don’t.”

“Climbing back down would be dangerous. Now that the sun has set, we won’t last in the freezing cold, at least not without a plan.”

Rainer knew he was right. The temperature was far below freezing, and the climb down would take longer than he would last.

While walking Rainer decided to take an inventory of his situation. “I need to think of a plan. So what do I have with me and what can I do with it? I have two apples in my pocket, a sword on my back, a small amount of Mana to use for fire, and a familiar that can’t help me right now. Climbing down the mountain will kill me, a cave is looking less likely.” It was after repeating this thought multiple times that he recalled why he had climbed here in the first place.

“Arisa said this was the best place to gain experience. Fighting isn’t the only way to get stronger. I’ve been using my Mana for the past few days, and I’ve noticed I’ve been able to use it for an extended amount of time. Well, more than before at least. Maybe the best way to gain experience is to keep using Mana until I find a way out of this; while replenishing my energy with the apples.”

“Are you confident you can hold out ?”

“I thought I told you to get out of my head” He whimpered “This is my only chance.”

Rainer’s mind had started blocking all unnecessary information on its own. The only part of him that was functioning was his body’s instinct to survive using whatever means it could find. This was not unusual for Rainer since when he was young he was trained to be the perfect mercenary. Walking mindlessly to the top of the mountain, his only thought was “Live. Breathe. Heat.” It was being repeated in that order.