Nightmare.

  “You fifty... one... survived the first challenge. I'm so proud of you.”

  This is a nightmare.

  “But being a rank one doesn't mean physical strength, it also means to have strategies in place to solve problems.”

  I am living in a nightmare.

  “That is why the next challenge will be! Human hunting! We will send you to a forest, those who capture the most heads of humans will continue...”

  The red-haired man stares directly at me, this room is full of 50 demons all fresh from a fight, willing to kill their own kind just to progress, and all he does is stare specifically at me.

  “The bottom 20 of you with the lowest scores, will die.”

  A black-haired girl with sallow skin puts her hand up, “by heads you mean we can just take their heads off? Or do they need to be alive?”

  The boy next to her elbows her in the ribs, probably annoyed that she is delaying the challenge.

  The red-haired man grins, his lips stretching almost unnaturally, “you may decapitate them.”

  Nightmare.

  The man walks around the circular room, our backs are to the wall as she gives everyone bracelets like he is dealing poker cards, “these will track how many you own, you may store the heads any way you want, you cannot destroy them.”

  He puts his hand around my wrist and fastens the small bracelet, it has a screen on it that says “zero.”

  After everyone has bracelets he walks to the middle of the room, the unsynchronized breaths of every demon throwing me off balance.

  “The text will go green when you are above the bottom 20, red when you are below.”

  I need to find a way to do this without killing anyone and reducing deaths to a minimum. “Hey, if we were to kill each other do we get the points of those we kill?” I ask to gather more information.

  He turns to me, “nope. But those who die stay in the bottom 20. Their scores being set to 0 as the humans in their possession will dissolve. Do you understand?”

  I nod, I need to find a way to kill everyone in the bottom 20 to pass this.

  “Good luck. Bye.” He snaps his fingers out of no where, my eyes adjust to the greenery, sunlight that doesn't feel real hits my skin, we are still inside.

  The floor is mostly full of dirt and leaves, sticks and rocks that the humans here probably desperately collected to save themselves.

  Trees separate the horizon, golden streaks going in between the ridges, making this place feel like a magical forest.

  They didn't think this challenge through, the stronger demons will obviously go after the weaker ones, because getting rid of competition is going to be the goal, the best thing to do in this situation is hide and do nothing.

  Though, anyone weak is going to hide and wait, making them not kill any humans.

  So, if I want to save the most people, I need to take out the people who are killing the other humans.

  My walk speeds into a run as I pick a direction to hopefully find someone, tracking magic would be very beneficial right now.

  My bracelet beeps, above my kill count is a timer that is counting down from 2 hours, 2 hours. That probably means there's a 2-hour amount of space for 50 demons and humans, just picking a random direction won't work here.

  I get to a tree and begin to climb, the golden streak warming my hand slightly, I take the socks off my feet as I climb to get better grip.

  I used to be great at climbing trees, but the mud town didn’t have many to climb so that skill dissolved like everything else in my life. It’s nostalgic, I can almost hear my mom screaming at me to get down like she used to. I wonder how she will react when I finally come back with magical powers.

  I climb past the leaves and see over the horizon, there’s a fire in the north, either a forest fire or just a campfire, both mean there are people.

  I drop harshly on the floor, the leaves doing little to stop the impact of gravity.

  The fire was close by, I sprint as fast as I can, the smell of smoke getting clearer and clearer. I reach an open space with what has to be 8 people sitting around, 2 with spears.

  They look at me, “oh… I’m human… I’m here to save you… so…”

  My bracelet beeps, the text turning red at zero. That means at least 30 humans have been killed, probably more.

  Everyone stands up, “IT HAS A WATCH.” They scream while the front two charge me with a spear.

  I step back, I feel a sense of calm as they try to pierce my body with their makeshift spears, I flow between the slow attacks like I’m water, their attacks seeming slow, I see an opening on the man’s neck, clear and plain as day, if he was a demon he would be dead.

  I step back again, “stop, I’m genuinely here to help you.”

  A person behind me throws a spear, I can’t see them so dodging left or right may be risky.

  I turn on my heel and grab the spear mid flight, it burns my hand a bit as it stops, splinters from the stick they used digging into my hand, “stop.” I implode the spear into a little ball that lands on the ground, swirls of wood and stone.

  The two men who were now behind me charge again, not bothering to even talk, “we can talk, please?”

  What is wrong with them? They get close enough and strike, I grab both of their spears and implode them into small balls, falling out of their hands and onto the floor, “I didn’t want to do that, but I can’t-“

  An arrow hits me in the shoulder, I couldn’t dodge that, it went too fast.

  I try to take it out, looking left and seeing a girl with a makeshift bow, another human who is holding a bag of hunted food, the people by the campfire begin to throw rocks.

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  One rock hit me in the neck as I pull the arrow out, along with a punch to my stomach by one of the men, I step back even further, the damage seeming less intense than it should be, I find myself, hiding behind the tree as the woman prepares another arrow.

  Why aren’t they listening? “IM HERE TO SAVE YOU. PLEASE JUST LISTEN.”

  I hear the sound of water, then gurgling, then a body drop, I look over the tree and see a black-haired man with sallow skin, along with a black-haired girl with sallow skin, twins? The girl has short hair, the same as the man’s.

  I step out, “stop.”

  The man just looks around, “huh? You call dibs?”

  “No. Just.” Why am I even trying to talk to him?

  I prepare my innate magic, beading into a small ball by my fingertip and shooting it directly at his face, it slides off his cheek, leaving a small cut.

  “Oh, you’re the one who… yeah the one who asked if we could kill each other to get points right?”

  This demon is a lot stronger than the person I fought earlier in that white room, I see his bracelet and it’s green, with the number 23 on it. The girl has the number 80 on hers.

  If I need to, I can try to do that bee attack earlier, although it would probably be suicide. “Yeah… I just really like humans.” I need to find a way to get them to leave.

  “Oh, you’re one of those?”

  A man tries to run into the forest, so he shoots a blade of water out of his wrist, severing both of his legs, screams now becoming the backing track of the conversation.

  “Yes. So don’t hurt them.”

  “The one who taught a human magic was similar, fell in love with a human I hear, I’m sure you’ve heard the same things.” He steps towards me and puts his hand around my shoulder like this is a reunion. “I get the appeal, some of the human girls? Mmmhm right?”

  I smile, “yeah.” I hate this guy.

  “Sorry for killing that girl with the bow, I’m sure you had plans huh?” He giggles “although…” he taps my bracelet, “what are you planning to do with this?”

  “Kill the bottom 20…”

  “Oh. I get that. Smart.” He steps away. “You’re weak, very weak, that attack earlier was probably the weakest out of anyone here.” He looks over at what I assume is his sister, who has just been watching the conversation, “we should keep the weak around yes? Keep them to the end so we have less strong opponents.”

  She nods, not replying verbally.

  “Don’t kill any more of these humans please.” I sound pathetic again, I hate this.

  The dismembered legged man’s screams had turned into more of a sob, the girl walks over to him, saying a few words with her lips with no sound coming out. Legs sprout from his stubs, healed perfectly.

  “You owe us one. Alliance?” He holds his hand out, I shake it instantly, this man is at least rank 2 already, there would be zero chance I could beat him in a fight. “I just wanna know how someone as weak as you got a sponsor… sponsors have to be rank 8 and above so... How?”

  I smile, “let me live and I’ll show you when we get out alive.” I need to create intrigue to stay alive with this guy.

  There’s something off about this person, he doesn’t seem that evil in comparison to the others, compassion fills his blue eyes, something that looks more human than the humans I usually meet.

  Or is the compassion just pity? If he pities me, he most definitely pities humans.

  He steps away, back into the woods, every movement making people flinch, “you’ll need to kill at least one of them you know? Pick an ugly one. Help with their evolution.” He waves and leaves with the girl, the head from the archer gets compressed into a ball and placed in his tracksuit pocket.

  I look around the camp, people huddled up near trees, shaking, “Let me...” I crouch down and implode the floor, digging a small hole, then again, then again.

  I use my innate magic to build supports, hardening them to make sure the roof doesnt collapse. I implode again, then again.

  7 people, I make the space big enough for them, flattening the floor with downwards gravity.

  Once done I climb out, “hide in the hole... stay safe okay?”

  The man's whose legs were cut off then healed nods, everyone follows in suite.

  Thats 7 people who should be okay.

  7 people saved.

  I walk over to the pool of blood the man's legs leaked out, I convert it into my innate magic and hide it below my feet like a shadow, it slivers across the ground as I move.

  Any demon who dies gets their score set to zero, which means ill need to kill at least one human. Ill hopefully find someone who was already close to dying, that's the only way to make this seem acceptable.

  The timer on the bracelet says 1 hour and 30 minutes. The text that says ‘0’ being bright red, I'm probably at the lowest of anyone here.

  I walk for 10 minutes without finding anything, I'm guessing people are using tracking magic to make this easier. As I make another meaningless turn in my path I hear the cocking of a gun to my left, before I can turn the sound of gunpowder breaks the sound barrier, my mind subconsciously protects my head with the innate magic pooled by my feet.

  I hear the sound of liquid slushing, steam, and then the clank of a bullet falling to the floor, I finally turn my head and see another human holding a gun, pointing it at me while shaking, she must be around Annes age.

  “Hey... you don't need to shoot... I'm on your side, okay?”

  She speaks, but her words are in a language I don't know, Portuguese?

  She obviously thinks I'm a demon with the look on her face, how else would I had stopped that bullet?

  “Hey, it's just... human, I am human.”

  She shakes her head, pointing straighter, her finger wavering against the trigger.

  I hear the faint sounds of chains at a distance.

  Almost without thought, going on pure instinct my innate magic shoots out, covering the side of her body as a glowing yellow drill connected to a chain attempts to slam into her, the drill spins, trying to break through the liquid shield, spitting the innate magic in the air as it tries to reform, she gets pushed back and hits a tree as the chain retracts into the forest behind some trees.

  There is someone else here.

  I walk slowly to the body and grab the gun, I'm unsure if there are any more bullets in this. “Hello?”

  I walk out into the open, that chain moved kind of slow, slower than the bullet I had just caught. This person must rely on pure power rather than speed.

  I see a tree fall in the distance, then another, then another, getting closer and closer.

  What had to be a huge wrecking ball with spikes attached to it decimates the closest tree towards me.

  It's going too fast to dodge physically so I use the rest of the innate magic in a move I improvised on the spot, wrapping the liquid around my wrist, then to a tree branch and then squeezing the liquid so it contracts, much like how I flung Lilith into the ocean at that dinner party.

  The wrecking ball connected to a tiny chain hits my leg and only my leg as I fling myself towards the tree like a slingshot, I slam into it, bashing my forehead into the rough bark.

  I cough as I hit the ground, my leg feels like it got burnt from that brief contact, the wrecking ball continues to slam into trees on its path before being pulled.

  I look down the path of destroyed trees and see a youngish boy, 16 or 17 with white hair skipping towards us, he gets to the open area, looks around and his eyes settle on the woman who is now trying to crawl away, he holds his hand above him, a chain coiling around his arm, a small basketball shaped object with spikes manifesting in the palm of his hand.

  As he prepares, swinging his arm and unravelling the chains connecting to his arm, I use that same growth magic on the innate magic pool below me, 1, 2, 3, 4.

  A single bee flies out, which is apparently all I can muster as I feel a bang in the side of my jaw.

  Making 20 of those bees before was probably driven purely by adrenaline.

  I control the single bee, it does exactly what I want it to do as I have it fly towards the boy's cheek and sting it.

  The boy yelps and slaps his cheek, “youch! That stung.” He looks around and sees me, “I thought I made you go all splat?”

  His bracelet shows ‘8’, the numbers being red. “No. You missed sorry.” I get to my feet, the damage on my body may be only a little, but it's compounding over and over, I need to be not stupid so I can survive the next hour and a half.

  The bee turns back into the liquid, apparently the lifespan being 30 seconds.

  I step forward, this person doesn't seem as strong at the last person, and if my goal is to save as many people as possible then it would be stupid not to attempt a duel.

  “Let's fight? Okay?” I implode the gun in my hand, holding the little marble between my fingers.

  That same smile I had in that carriage before creeps up again, I shouldn't feel this happy about this, but that number on his wrist tells me all I need to know about him, he is a murderer.