Kill, Or Be Killed?

To sit there and say that I was now putting all of my faith into Orion would be an exaggeration... but somebody as cruel as him could only understand that taking human life is a lot easier when they're the ones trying to kill you. It is truly kill, or be killed.

During the war, when I killed his soldiers, it was clear that each one of them were slaves, owning nothing, and harboring the same hatred we all had for Orion. The only difference was, their hatred for Orion was so intense that he used it against them. Their motivation was to kill us, so they could kill Orion, and become their own leaders. Orion had nothing like that anymore... and to my most solidified judgment, he no longer had a reason to play the villain.

Killing wasn't something that annoyed him as it did annoy me. Of course, I would've killed Illya, any member of Quake, and all soldiers Orion ever threw at me, but not for a second would I have killed them unprovoked.

The group of people I interacted with earlier had all suffered fatal injuries. Their organs and ribs were sprawled out and cracked out of their bodies. Their labored breathing invoked a sense of dread deep in my bones, and I felt the need to put them down. Orion shook his head, putting his hand out in front of me as we crossed upon those bodies again.

"Leave them," He told me.

"Why? They're people, just like us. This is inhuman," I explained to Orion, but he wasn't listening to me at all.

"No, they're people just like you. All those wounded people and I are monsters who would've killed people like you without a single care in the world. They would let you bleed out to get information from you, and just to entertain themselves, they would hurt you even more. Kid, do you know why that prison existed?" Orion asked me.

"Not really, I was just brought here because I knew Sky. How would that explain that everybody here is a monster?" I asked Orion once more.

"Sky is the most famous war criminal and villain of the entire Earth. By association, that puts you on the top of that war criminal list as well. That's what this place is. I owned slaves, I destroyed an Isle, and I'm a war criminal. I was thinking about this while I was stuck in the cell, but this Tower houses some very, very bad people in it. Do not treat them like people," He told me.

"What about Solstice... Zenith... Clementine?" I asked him.

"Nobody here is innocent, don't treat them as such," He told me again, walking away from the bodies.

Ah, so that's it.

This place... it's full of monsters that don't deserve their lives. So, what better way than to stuff them in a Tower they can't escape from and let them kill each other... for entertainment? Is that what this Tower is for?

I followed Orion, jumping over upturned logs, elongated roots, and thick bushes until we finally came across more people killing each other with various tools now. I guess since we took too long, they started to make bows and more tools. Staying at a range would be dangerous from here on out.

"Do you remember how many people were left?" He asked me, hiding behind a huge tree trunk.

"Twenty-Eight people, before the five that died... so there are twenty-three people left. Why?" I asked Orion.

"Count how many you can see out there, and decide what the plan is. I'll follow your lead," He told me.

"You're going to pin this on me? I don't have the strategy to handle something like this!" I whispered from the distance between the both of us.

"Your mind can pull off great feats under the pressure of impending doom. Do what you feel is right," He clarified once more.

I was annoyed, but I nodded and peeked my head past to see what was going on.

"I'm counting eleven... if everybody dies here, then that would make it out to be twelve people. In this huge forest, where would they be?" I mumbled to myself.

"Do you want to wait around and see what they would do? Do you want to engage? What's the right plan here?" He asked again, putting his back against the tree trunk again.

"No... I don't think that's a good idea, not yet. We don't know what makes these people criminals. Is it their murdering sprees? Their strategy? We need more information before we walk out there and die," I told Orion.

He smiled and nodded.

"Good answer. I'll keep watching," He said, crouching down and peering into the crowd again.

The fight going on ahead of us wasn't very flashy. There were a lot of swings and misses, and people with bows with terrible aim trying to land a shot. It was embarrassing if I was being honest. I had no idea if this was faked, or if the real fighters were waiting around the fight as well, perfectly still just as Orion and I were.

I could tell there are psychotic people here based on how unprovoked the man from the last group was before he slaughtered everybody he was with. There are mentally unhinged people here as well, almost as far gone as Sky was on the frozen bay.

Orion was even far gone, as his previous status was enough to put him here... but me? I did nothing, I'm guilty by association. I'm just an average man who wants qualities that would make him seem more important, but here I am stuck in the fray, waiting for this epiphany to hit me and make me stronger and smarter than everybody.

But that won't happen, no matter how much I wish for it. I just have to keep trying.

"Orion... let's leave this area. If nobody is moving right now, it's because they see something," I said to him.

He nodded, and we both left our position, walking deeper into the forest, and further away from the fighters in the middle.