The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 9: Start (Part 1)

Chapter 9: Start

3 months, 5 days after the fall:

"Get away from her!" I screamed and fought against the restraints that bound me. My feet dug into the earth, trying to push but no matter how they scrapped and heaved, I was stuck.

"Get away from her," the women mocked me as she pressed a dagger to Aria's throat.

Aria flinched, tears in her eyes, "Ardy I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Her apologies only spurred my anger as all around us they jeered. I had been careful but not enough. I thought they'd be fine. A diverse group we stumbled upon including women and even children. They had the same goal we did, to reach Crysis and yet, the night after we had met, I found my food drugged and body bound.

"Just let us go!" I pleaded. "You can take our things but please, just let us go."

"Let you go?" the women laughed as her companions howled, revelling in my suffering. "Oh no, you're going to be bait. As for your precious dear sister." She drew in close to Aria's neck sniffing it provocatively, "I'm sure we can find a use for her."

"Why!?" I couldn't understand. "We should be working together."

"Oh, we are, it's just you who's excluded. Get used to the new world idiot!"

"Please! Anyone!" I looked across the group. An old man who huffed. A child swept up in it all closed their eyes. A woman who shied away. Men who looked at Aria with sickening grins. I tried all I could, but my body failed me. Even if I hadn't been drugged, they could have beaten me, as I was now all I had was desperation. I looked to Aria, my heart bleeding, "I'm sorry." I had failed her.

"Ardy...," her eyes became firm. "Let me go!" She screamed and pushed against the knife surprising the women who held her.

"Oi you want to die? Stay still!" she tried to reign Aria back in, but Aria refused.

"I'd rather die! Get off me! Let my brother go!" as the words belted out of her mouth a crack resounding like shattering glass. Her hair began to shine.

"Stop. Stop now or I'll gut you!"

"I said, let me go!" Aria wasn't listening and an instant later, before anyone else could react, we were all bathed in pure white light. The forest camp was bleached and a searing heat past by me. Rampant mana spiralled out in a chaotic mess breaking into the bodies of everyone around. My chest seized from the tremendous surge. If I lost consciousness now, I would die and worse, Aria would blame herself. I could barely believe it, but it was coming from her.

All my energy went to regulating my body as it convulsed and sprang. The seconds passed excruciatingly slowly but by the end I had somehow stayed conscious. Ironically it was due to the drugs slowly the flow of mana in my body that I came out remotely fine. My eyes opened to the camp torn apart. Aria kneeled where she had been held, the body of the women who held her burnt and bleeding. The rest... were similar.

"A-Ardy... what just-," she stared at her hands and shivered, eyes wide as she began to take in our surroundings.

I forced myself to move and covered her sight by enveloping her into a hug, "It's okay. We're leaving. You did nothing wrong." I felt her cry into my chest. Her black hair now stained with white strands.

*

I sat in the waiting room for quite a while. The standard way to beat a Crystal Boar would be to wear out its stamina and as it got slower, work around it, and hit the weak points on its back and sides. There was sure to be a few people who beat it on the same time scale I had, and they'd be those who could overwhelm it with damage. Those few players who had passed level 50 and unlocked the Areithia's next set of skills. They were the ones I had to look out for and with how the preliminaries worked, they were people I'd most likely be pitted against.