Let the games begin! [3]

The skies began to grow dark as the sun decided to end his shift, letting a full moon take its place instead. All of the luscious green around me suddenly felt a lot more menacing, frightening even. Still, there was also a very tangible feeling of serene bliss, being alone under the fragile light of the moon. Even though it was a virtual world, it felt so very alive.

The rest of the day had gone by without anything too exciting happening. Most students had made the decision to spend a large part of the day gathering information, not only about other students but also about the challenges that were part of the event.

What that meant was that I had been pretty bored. I had spent my day just flying around and trying to find something entertaining to watch but, sadly, I did not. Now it was time for both of my bodies to try and regain as much as possible before I fell asleep, as the transformation was continuously sapping a very small amount of mana every second.

'Hopefully, there will be a lot more action tomorrow... If not, I might have to create some...'

=========

My fears had been obsolete, as it hadn't taken more than a couple of hours before another stage was set. The actors this time? Sebastian and Suzan going up against Bellatrix and Adam.

'This might be interesting...'

I wasn't all too interested in seeing the Rue siblings or Suzan fight, as I already knew the characters pretty well from the game. What I truly was interested in was the purple-haired man now holding a spear in his hands.

Sitting comfortably on a tree branch, I had an excellent view of the spectacle that was about to go down.

With all four of them standing in a valley, I was questioning the decision-making of the Rues as it was clearly not smart to use an open area when fighting two close-combat students. While I was pondering why this was the case, I soon got my answer as Bella spouted some haughty words.

"Hohoho, brother, it seems like we have some trash we need to throw out!"

That girl really was the stereotype of a noble, clearly underestimating her opponents just because they got placed in the B-class.

"Shut up, Bella. I've already told you, there is no room for reckless confidence in battle!" Her brother though, seemed a lot more level-headed, probably getting forced into this position because of the impulses of his sister. 'I feel sorry for him...'

On the other side, we had the few-worded Sebastian and an extremely energetic girl with neon yellow hair. "Hey, Sebastian! Are we really going to let her talk like that?! Let's beat her up!"

Seeing Suzan jumping around in excitement, pulling the clothes of the man next to her, it appeared that Adam wasn't the only one to have gotten stuck with someone annoying. For a second I thought I could see the moment when his soul died.

And so, the battle began as Bellatrix pulled the trigger, sending an arrow aimed at the forehead of Suzan.

*Tang!*

A katana had somehow appeared in the hands of Suzan, which she used to skillfully deflect the arrow. Turning her head to Sebastian, he nodded as if to say 'go nuts'. A bright smile appeared on her face as she had gotten permission to fight the blonde girl in front of her.

It didn't take long for Sebastian to move as well, running forward toward the dagger-wielding Adam to make sure he couldn't ambush Suzan. This was also the fight I kept one of my pairs of eyes on.

Just like the spearman must've imagined, Adam was already on his way to stop Suzan from getting in range of his sister but Sebastian had already covered the distance between them. "Shit!" Seeing the spear that was coming down upon him, he crossed his daggers to catch the attack. *Bam!* "You're strong..."

Sebastian kept pouring more strength into his attack, pushing Adam downwards. There was no question about it, the spearman was physically a lot stronger than the assassin. Having no other choice, Adam redirected the attack at the expense of his own balance.

Noticing an opening, the spear quickly went flying back horizontally toward the chest of his enemy, looking very much like it would eliminate him in a matter of a second. Suddenly, the figure of Adam blurred, and he disappeared for a second just to appear a couple of meters back.

Not minding his prey getting out of his attack, Sebastian put the spear at his side and ran forward once again. After all, his mission was to keep him occupied so Suzan could finish off Bellatrix.

*Tang! Tang! Tang!*

A flurry of strikes rained over Adam, who skillfully deflected or dodged all of them. "Tsk!" Sadly, some of the attacks managed to scratch his skin, freeing the blood that was contained beneath. 'I wonder if he has some sort of cooldown on his skill...'

It didn't make sense to me that Adam didn't use his skill again to make space so he could get to his sister, who for the matter was having an incredibly tough time trying to run away from the katana that Suzan swung at her.

Bellatrix didn't appear to have much experience in combat at all, almost as if she was expecting to get to just sit comfortably at range and shoot arrows at her enemies while Adam kept them busy.

Back to the main event, Sebastian and Adam were still busy with their exchanges, the spearman being the one on the offensive while the assassin tried to desperately defend himself. Unfortunately for him, his specialty wasn't head-on battles. He was an assassin after all. So it didn't take long until he was on his knees, his body bleeding all over and his mind exhausted.

Putting the spear next to his enemy's chest, Sebastian opened his mouth for the first time during this whole exchange, "Good match." *Splurt!* The spear made its way into the body of Adam, snuffing out his chances of continuing the event as he got eliminated right there and then.

At the same time, Suzan had finally reached Bella the Bitch. "Please stop! I surrender!" Not wanting to feel the pain of a katana severing her head, the archer forfeited which made her body dematerialize just in time to save her from the incoming sword, much to the dismay of Suzan.

"FUCK! FUCKING BITCH! COME BACK HERE!"

Angry at the fact that she had just spent almost ten minutes dodging arrows and running after Bellatrix, she was repeatedly stomping the ground in an attempt to get rid of her frustrations.

The fight had been pretty impressive, both Sebastian and Adam were adept at using their weapons, and thinking about the fact that they hadn't even mastered weapon enhancement, they would surely get pretty powerful in the future.

However, although the fight had been quite entertaining, I wasn't happy. 'He never used a single skill...' The biggest reason why I wanted to watch the other students was to try and figure out what they were able to do, but Sebastian didn't show me anything other than his proficiency in the spear.

I knew a bit about most of the students but, although I didn't remember them all too clearly, I had no idea how their skills worked in this world. There was a very real possibility that the skills they had didn't act as they did in the game, just like mine didn't. Sebastian was also one of two students that I had no information about at all.

'At least I got to see what Peter's Manual can do...'

As I had gotten to spectate the match between Sophie and Peter, I had been able to conclude that he had the Warlock Manual. It was pretty similar to the Witch Manual that Anna had, but instead of focusing on curses, it used dark powers to summon entities from another world. That was the origin of the hands that grabbed Sophie.

'Can't be helped... I will just have to follow him for the rest of the event and hope that he shows me more in the future...'

****

[Sophie's Pov]

"Arthur, I don't know if I can go on..."

We had gotten into an incredibly difficult situation, and I couldn't see any way out of it. At this point, I had already surrendered myself to my fate, ready to give up on the event and instead focus on the dueling tournament.

He crouched down, getting to the same height as the me who was leaning against a tree in anguish, "Sophie, I understand that you are in pain... But we can't just give up like that!"

Arthur was so sweet, desperately trying to encourage me to continue, but there was nothing that could be done. "I'm sorry Arthur... You must go on without me."

I thought I could see some tears starting to emerge in his eyes as he took my hands in his, "Sophie, I know you are hungry but don't give up!"

...

Yes. The dire straits we were in were all a result of me being extremely hungry, hungry to the point where I thought I could feel my insides eating themselves. Now, it might sound silly but there was a very practical reason as to why this happened.

We had been clearing out one of the mini-dungeons, a goblin cave with a goblin general as the last boss. It had been pretty easy, I was just ravaging through them with my claws and Arthur had been skillfully overpowering them with his sword, as to finally end the life of the general with his sword shining in a golden light.

The problem started afterward. I had completely forgotten that my transformation rapidly depleted my vitality, creating a desperate need for me to eat. And now, I had to pay the price.

Putting my hand on Arthur's cheek, I opened my mouth for the last time in this world, "I surrender..."

"SOPHIE, NOOO!"