Following the ignition of his weapon, a process that wreathed his blade in electrical blue flames, Chunhwa charged towards Endorsi with the greatest speed he could muster. The blue flames allowed him to generate explosive waves of Shinsu, and, when concentrated, into the blade itself, he could cut through most objects. Thus, so long as he could land a single blow on Endorsi, it wouldn’t be him giving up his journey on the 2nd Floor…
Since Chunhwa had shown off his ignition weapon during their training sessions, Endorsi wasn’t all that surprised by its release. She had seen what the sword was capable of, and, due to the man’s limited ability to control Shinsu, it wasn’t the most versatile weapon. As a result, she didn’t even try to evade; charging directly at him as the compression needle in her right hand grew from 8cm to 160cm in an instant. At the same time, the two disks on her chest grew to more than three meters in diameter, acting as a shield that could block the attack of a B-Rank Regular while also providing her a limited form of concealment.
As a Princess of Jahad, Endorsi had a number of treasures to make her journey up the Tower easier than that of a normal Regular. Many of these only worked between the 20th and 100th Floors, but, as a precaution against assassination, she had two defensive treasures that were destined to be the bane of any Regular unfortunate enough to face her. Chunhwa was no exception to this, his blazing blue blade impacting against the surface of the shield, wreathing it in flames but ultimately causing very little damage to the surface.
Taking advantage of the moment when Chunhwa was recovering from his attack, Endorsi promptly shrunk the disks down to a size that could easily fit in the palm of her hand. At the same time, she thrust her needle forward with the finesse of a fencing master, stabbing Chunhwa’s shoulder, bicep, chest, and the area just under his collar bone in a single breath. She held back to avoid causing any permanent damage, but, with her needle being around 2.4cm thick beyond the tip, Chunhwa ended up with a few quarter-sized holes in the muscle groups used to hold his sword.
Though he could have continued swinging his sword with one hand, Chunhwa wasn’t afforded the opportunity to even try. The moment he attempted to restore his balance and swipe upwards with the blade, Endorsi’s disk-like shield came to within a centimeter of his breastplate before expanding to its full size. This completely disoriented him, and, due to being in the middle of a strike, the edge of the shield expanded with enough force to shatter the bones in his arm, forcing the blazing blade from his grasp.
With her opponent effectively crippled, Endorsi released a tired sigh before pointing the tip of her needle at Chunhwa’s neck and saying, “I’m going to borrow your sword until the end of this exam. In exchange, I will let Baam treat your injuries. Though blood loss might be mitigated by the effects of Shinsu, you shouldn’t leave open wounds unattended. Once all of this is all over, I will personally ask Phae to treat your wounds…”
Though he understood Endorsi was trying to show him sympathy, it sounded more like pity within Chunhwa’s ears. This was something he couldn’t accept as a ‘knight’, so, with the closest thing to a condescending smile he could manage due to the pain, he looked up at Endorsi and said, “You had better knock me out if you want to steal my sword…you Ghost-Pepper Hag…”
To punctuate his words, Chunhwa spat at the ground near Endorsi’s feet before showing a bloody smile at her expense. This filled the apologetic Princess with quite a bit of indignation, but, knowing what Chunhwa was trying to do, she managed to maintain a relatively cool expression. Then, in the most inelegant way she could manage, she smacked him on the temple with her needle, knocking the man out in an instant before recovering his now-inert sword.
With the completely one-sided battle over and done with, Endorsi looked back to see Baam with an indignant frown on his face and tears flowing from his eyes. He was clearly very upset, but, perhaps out of consideration for Chunhwa’s previous statement, he continued watching without even trying to interfere. This made Endorsi feel even more guilty, her expression turning sullen as she muttered, “I’m sorry Baam…this is just how the Tower is…
As if to punctuate her statement, both Baam and Endorsi were surprised when one of the Observers Chunhwa tossed out suddenly exclaimed, “What the hell is going on with this stupid test!? Hey, can you guys hear me!? If anyone can hear me, return to the Safety Area as quickly as possible! Hoh has completely lost his mind…!”
—
With what could only be described as a crazed expression on his face, Hoh could be seen holding a strange knife up to Rachel’s neck as he cowered inside the Safety Area. Next to him, lying in a pool of her own blood, Grey could be seen staring into empty space with completely lifeless eyes while, just outside the boundaries of the Safety Area, Quant was glaring at him with literal flames dancing within his eyes.
Since there weren’t any rules prohibiting Regulars from targeting and killing each other, Quant was virtually powerless to do anything about the current situation. The Safety Area was completely off-limits to the Seeker, and, though he wanted nothing more than to string up the traitorous bastard by his neck, he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his own life to do so. The Test Administrator’s were bound by all kinds of rules to ensure they conducted the tests ‘fairly’, so, unless he wanted to be squashed into meat paste by the Floor Guardian, he could only glare at Hoh, promising, “Even if you kill every other Regular on the 2nd Floor, I swear on my pride as a Ranker that you will never step foot on the 3rd…”
Having already gone over the deep end, Hoh just cackled sporadically in response to Quant’s words before shouting, “It isn’t up to you! I haven’t broken any rules! So long as I eliminate this girl, Baam will have no reason to continue climbing up the Tower! With all of the other Wave Controllers out of the picture, I’m guaranteed a free pass to the next Floor! There’s nothing you can do about it at all!”
Even if Hoh’s words were true, that didn’t stop Quant from releasing a powerful aura, not of Shinsu, but bloodlust. His journey up the Tower, like all who had become before and after, was paved with the blood of others. You didn’t become a member of the 1% without getting your hands dirty, so, even without Shinsu, he could easily intimidate those with weaker wills by presence alone. This was especially true when it came to people like Hoh, those who had already completely lost themselves to despair…
Feeling as though Quant had suddenly become a giant, Hoh nearly dropped the knife in his hands as an overwhelming urge to both vomit and soil himself spread through his body. If not for Rachel trying to break free at that exact moment, he was certain he would have passed out then and there, losing his chance to climb the Tower.
With that thought crossing his mind, Hoh completely suppressed the uneasy feeling in his body, an overwhelming feeling of rage replacing it as he shouted, “Where do you think you’re going!?” while grabbing Rachel’s wrist and stabbing forward with the knife. This caused the blade to sink deep into her body, her eyes widening in pained surprise before an agonizing scream escaped her lips.
Hoh was actually a little surprised by how easily the blade pierced through Rachel’s body. Stabbing Grey was like trying to stab through a thick piece of leather with a metal poker. In stark contrast, he felt like Rachel’s body didn’t even exist, almost like he had stabbed empty air. If not for her scream, combined with the tremendous amount of blood flowing from her wound, he would have thought his attack missed completely…
—
With every display going dark halfway through the broadcast, Team A was, understandably, in an uproar. They had wanted to witness Team B’s performance for themselves, not be stuck in a room filled with static displays. Unfortunately, other than informing them that the issue was being looked into, the Test Administrators were completely mum on what was happening.
Though they had the benefit of being in far more comfortable accommodations, Vahn, Phae, Gandr, and Rak were also annoyed by the inactive broadcast. The only person that didn’t seem to care was the man simply referred to as Ghost. He only paused for a very brief moment when the broadcast first went silent before shoveling handfuls of chocolate bars and pastries into his toothy maw.
At this point, Vahn was almost certain that Ghost was actually another Regular, seemingly one that had been specially prepared by Headon to serve as Rachel’s escort. His aura was radically different than any of the Regulars and Rankers he had seen, almost like he was an amalgamation of spiritual energy. Unfortunately, without touching the man directly, Vahn couldn’t determine his true nature due to an invisible veil that covered his body, obscuring any attempts to probe his internal energy and track his presence…
Just as Vahn was thinking about having Gandr try and make contact with the man, the four of them stared wide-eyed as Ghost suddenly tensed up. The food he had been shoveling into his mouth fell back to the plate it came from as a pained grimace appeared on his face. Then, as if he actually was a ghost, the man spontaneously erupted into a pyre of ghostly purple flames before vanishing into thin air…
—
Seeing the volume of blood flowing from Rachel’s body, Hoh was certain she would bleed out after just a few seconds. Still, he wanted to make sure she died, so, after staring at the blood on his knife for several seconds, the crazed smile returned to his face as he revealed, “You know, I didn’t want to have to do this…if you want to blame someone, blame whatever God chooses to give some power while taking everything away from others. I have made more sacrifices than all of you combined…I even lost everything…my family, my friends, my entire tribe…I am not the bad guy here…so, please, die for me…!”
Inspired by his own words, Hoh ignored the shouts of Quant as he raised the dagger high into the sky and began stabbing Rachel over and over. He was connected to the same network of Observers and Lighthouses as everyone else so he had heard the broadcast made to the rest of his team. This meant Baam and the others would be on their way, so, before they could attack him, he needed to kill Rachel and retire from the game. They wouldn’t be able to attack him back on the Suspend Ship without compromising their own chances to climb the Tower so all he needed to do was retreat to the medical ward or seek asylum from the Test Director.
With this thought in his mind, Hoh’s smile became increasingly vicious as he buried the knife into Rachel’s body over and over. He found it strange that there was actual feedback this time around, but, with more and more blood flowing from her wounds, he didn’t really care about anything else. The only thought on his mind was to continue stabbing until she completely stopped moving, tears streaming down his face as the light in her eyes rapidly gave way to an empty, lifeless, darkness…
(A/N: Alternate Titles: ‘Ghost-Pepper Hag’,’Tests in the Tower are so fucked’,’Hoh, Champion of the Comment’s Section’)
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