Broken

Chapter 12

A weighted silence followed the monster's words, and I was sure that I wasn't the only one with their heart now located in their boots. No one could make a sound in any case, given Misfortune- as he had coined himself- had frozen us all in place. The demon seemed unconcerned.

"This will be my first Selection on your puny world," He said, leaning back in his throne, scalding eyes burning over us all. "But I am sure that you all know the drill by now, given how many Depraved already walk among you. So I will keep the description brief, that way we can get to all the fun, killing, parts."

Bile threatened to come up; but whether my gag reflex was good, or whether Misfortune even froze involuntary bodily functions, I did not know. This was the very worst thing that could have happened. Hell, it made the sealed instance incident seem tame and run-of-the-mill. Selections, whether they be hosted by a Angle or a Demon, always meant that several dozen people would be dead by the end of it. Only one person would be aloud to leave this place alive.

"As of right now, your lives belong to me. I am sure that you've all realized that I've removed your armor and weapons, as well as your skills-"

Wait, he had taken our skills? I hadn't even realized... Then again, mine wasn't an active skill and I had been too shocked to used my random temporary skill to check out the people around me. Not that I would have garnered much information if I had. I suppose that it would be too much to hope that he would just keep Broken after all this? Then again... It was highly unlikely that I would be making it out of this cavern to begin with, so it didn't really matter.

"- This way the competition can be as fair as possible. Having you all punch one another in the face till only one is left standing would be a good time... but I think that I could make it all the more interesting." He said, flashing a creepy grin that had me stoutly believing that I would not like whatever it was that he had planed. "Starting immediately after I release you all from my hold, you will all fight. You will have no weapons or gear... but as an added bonus, for the duration of the selection, I will grant you all a rotating random skill that will change every three minutes or when you achieve a kill! Does that not sound amusing?"

He literally sounded like he expected us to truly be excited and entertained by his clever game plan. Still, I couldn't help but feel the absolute slightest bit of relief; Adapting to randomly changing skills was second nature to me at this point. True, they didn't switch on me every three minutes, but I am sure it still put me ahead of most, if not all, of the other raiders here. Though, only in this single aspect. Just from the few standing around me, I could tell that half could strangle me dead with raw power, without ever needing to use a skill.

"I will be sure to make it so you know what skill you have received, though you will just have to guess its exact effects simply from its name. My deepest apologies..." He neither looked, nor sounded, sorry in the slightest.

I attempted to tense up, to be ready for the blood bath that was likely to start right from the get go. My body being frozen made that impossible, but I knew that I couldn't simply stay put the moment I had freedom. These powerful beings did just scoop up random people from all over the world, after all. From what survivors have told, they hand select people they find amusing, or that they think align with their own way of thinking. 

This meant that a good deal of the people here likely had dark and depraved personalities. Maybe they showed them off openly, or they kept them hidden in every day life; but, whatever the case, we were all locked in a winner takes all struggle for our lives. I didn't trust a single one of these people in the slightest. Especially the three men that had been ecstatic at having found themselves here mere moments ago. I had to get as far from them a possible.