Two days after ‘joining’ the three-digit ranker’s group, Avali found herself spending more of her time in the training halls than anywhere else. Supposedly, all of her own self-directed training had been wrong thus far, as compared to what Zexus was telling her to do, she looked as if she had barely been trying before. On the other hand, she did feel some form of improvement. It was slow, but definitely there.
Sweating like she had just been running a marathon in a desert, not that she had ever been to one, Avali had collapsed on the grass field tracks when a familiar beastkin approached her with a water bottle and towel.
“You doing okay?” The ashen-haired beauty asked with a charming smile.
Summoning what little energy she had for a nod, Avali received the water bottle and gulped the cool liquid down as if she had been parched for weeks.
“Gods…I feel like I’m…losing my legs…” The young girl puffed as a towel was promptly dropped on her face. Pulling the sweet scented cloth away, Avali glared at the chuckling fox.
“You and June have the same reactions.” Lavenna said, offering a hand for the girl to take.
Avali did not reply as she was hoisted up to her feet, stumbling a bit but managing to catch herself. She nodded in thanks at the taller woman who seemed to be giving her a judging look.
“What?” The girl blurted out, sounding a little more defensive than she intended. The beastkin, or rather, Spirit Beast as she had found out from Zexus, had been nothing but nice to her…except for the occasional teasing.
Taking no offense from her tone, or at least not showing it if she did, Lavenna made a circular motion with her finger around Avali’s face. “Are you dirty on purpose? Because the smell your letting off is getting harder and harder to stomach for me.”
“Do you have a sensitive nose?” As soon as she asked that, Avali wanted to smack herself over the head for voicing such a stupid question. It was common knowledge that animals had more sensitive noses than humans, and a Spirit Beast was a creature beyond both organisms.
“...I stay like this on purpose…yes.” The slumrat mumbled, scratching her head in embarrassment. “I didn’t grow up in the best…environment.”
Lavenna smiled. “I’m guessing slums or a remote village?”
“The first one.” Avali clarified. “No parents, just my younger sister.”
“Oh? Is she here too?”
Avali nodded. “I hope she’s doing well but…even if she’s not, there’s not much I can do about it.”
“Well, the rules are pretty lame here. But I guess there are reasons for every one, if you believe what Z says anyway.” Lavenna subtly changed the subject, which Avali gladly went along with. Better to talk about and focus on something useful than uncomfortable.
“It does seem that way to me too.” The girl said, running a hand through her hair as she spotted Zexus on the other side of the room. The man was sitting on the ground and looking through his holobracelet. “What’s he doing, by the way?”
“Who knows?” The Kitsune shrugged. “Probably trying to find anything that would give him a better understanding of the ‘rules’ here. I just bounce ideas with him since I’m really not the studious type.”
Looking up at the clock on the wall, the ashen-haired beauty clicked her fingers. “Ah, that’s right. We should probably go get our beds and move them here before lights out.”
Avali nodded in agreement, following Lavenna out the door but not before taking another sip of her water. The four of them had agreed previously to move themselves into Training Hall 2 since they spent most of their time there anyway.
“Maybe take a bath too?” Lavenna suggested, to which Avali hesitantly nodded her head.
“Fine. I guess there’s no point in doing this here anyway.”
“Just think of it as doing me a favour.” The Kitsune winked as they ascended the steps.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Avali rolled her eyes. As beautiful as the fox was, she felt more like an older sister than anything else. “I’ll do it for myself, thanks.”
“You’re no fun.” Lavenna booed as they came up to the floor of the living quarters.
Passing by a few doors, the two were just about to arrive at their team’s room when Lavenna stopped. Her fox ears flickered, catching something in the air that Avali could not.
“What’s wrong?” The girl asked, confused.
“Shhhh. Come with me.” The Kitsune moved forward, her footfalls silent as they slipped past team K’s quarters and towards an open door a bit further up.
As they inched closer, Avali picked up the whispering of hushed voices in the darkened hallways, specifically around the corner that led to a dead end.
“Hey, what are we going to do?!” One man asked, sounding frightened.
“I don’t know! I don’t even know what happened! Where the hell did Jarza go?” Another replied, equally panicked.
“That’s what I’m saying.” The first said, raising his voice but quickly lowering it once he realised others may pick up what they were saying. “First Chouta, now Jarza. They’ve just up and vanished after…you know.”
“What about the girl?” The second asked. “Anything happened to her?”
“I don’t think so.” A third voice joined in. “I saw her in the cafeteria earlier. She was sticking to some guy in the upper rankings. I couldn’t get a good look but it was definitely somewhere in the four hundreds.”
“Four hundreds or four thousands?”
“I mean…maybe thousands? I didn’t get a good look, okay? The guy scared the shit out of me.” The third man’s confidence was taking a dive. Avali had seen, or rather heard these types of conversations many times before. Usually when a dirty job went wrong, thugs and thieves would gather like this and ‘discuss’ their issues. During this process, many would break down like the man she had just heard.
What they thought they saw and knew would be brought into question, and then warped as they doubted themselves even if they had the truth in the first place. That being the case, it begged the question as to what these men had done.
“Either way, he might be the one who made Chouta and Jarza disappear.” The third man theorised, likely trying to get the spotlight off of himself.
“What, you mean he’s taking them out?” The first man questioned.
“I mean, maybe? As revenge for the girl?” The third man suggested. “We took her points so maybe he’s stealing ours?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t just make the others just go poof.” The second man argued. “Unless he’s really killing them, and if he is doing that, then surely he’ll be punished. That’s pretty much an unspoken rule here. You kill a participant, you lose…I don’t know? Points?”
From that point, the conversation between the men derailed, spiralling into a whirlpool of assumptions and theories of what the ‘rules’ were. Lavenna motioned for Avali to back away then, to which the girl complied. The two of them snuck away with the three being none the wiser.
“Well that was interesting.” The Kitsune remarked, all smiles.
Avali glanced at the older woman, furrowing her brows. “I’m not sure what to make of it. Is there a killer on the loose?”
“I think abduction is more likely if this ‘criminal’ really hasn’t been punished and is walking around freely.” Lavenna shrugged. “Then again, those three were a total mess. Hard to tell what they actually saw from the truth. Probably best we just keep this in mind rather than take it as fact.”
Clapping her hands softly as if to dispel the tense air, the Kitsune led the way back towards team K’s living quarters. Following behind her, Avali could not help but feel ill-at-ease, both by what she heard and the Spirit Beast’s carefreeness. Then again, the older woman was strong. After her stunt of breaking apart one of the Ego training rooms out of anger for her low rank, those behind Black Box had reassigned her the rank of 1001. The Kitsune was still displeased of course, but that spoke volumes of her capabilities.
“I guess there’s nothing to worry about. I better always stick with one of them.” Avali thought to herself as they entered team K’s room.
The team was thirty four strong excluding the four of them who had essentially made Training Hall 2 their home. Beside Magor who had been killed, a man in the middle ranks of the ten thousands remained in the infirmary. That said, the rest of the group were all gathered in the room at that point in time, June included.
At first, Avali had thought it was due to the late time. However, when she glanced at the screen above the stage, she realised that the thirty four K team members were watching a replay of an earlier match.
Stepping around the crowd, the fox and street urchin made their way over to June who sat in the back.
“Why are you guys watching a match?” Lavenna asked, sitting down next to the dark-haired mage who greeted them with a small wave. If Avali had to describe the woman in her thirties in one word, it would have been ‘pleasant’. She was the type of person who was always respectful, but not overly kind to the point where it felt sickening.
“The second match has been announced.” June said, tapping her holobracelet. Most people wore theirs on their left wrist as a nobleman or wealthy merchant would a watch, but the mage wore hers on her right. “We’re going against team D.”
“Oh? How are they?” Lavenna asked, her tails wagging slightly, conveying her curiosity.
“They’re decent. They won their first match one nil.” The older woman said. “Thankfully, they don’t seem to have anyone like ‘Vex’. However, even in their first match, they were quite coordinated.”
June pointed at the screen then, directing their attention to a man with dark skin, short blue hair and sharp brown eyes. He was standing next to the flag of team D with crossed arms, observing the surrounding terrain. Behind him were two other team D members who were busy binding six of the opposing team’s participants with jungle vines.
“That guy’s the brains as far as I can tell, number 2067th. He didn’t actually do anything while defending during the match so I can’t be sure of his abilities.” June explained. “However, what’s clear is that their team’s strategy was to defend first and capture the attackers. Then, with the numbers advantage, they swarmed the enemy flag and captured it before resuming defense.”
Lavenna smirked. “You guys have replayed this quite a few times, huh?”
“Five times already.” The mage chuckled. “Judith’s trying to get everyone to formulate a plan with her.”
Avali raised a brow at that, glancing at the leader of team K who sat at the forefront of the crowd, then at the elf called Halduron located on the left and the Norkosi warrior on the right.
“Our team seems quite divided.” It was an obvious statement, but the young slumrat felt the need to say it. Perhaps it was because everything she was seeing went against what a ‘team’ should be. Her and her sister, Avaren, were and still are a team. They would talk to each other about anything and everything.
Team K, on the other hand, were split into three groups, four if one counted Zexus’.
Avali looked up at the screen, her eyes focusing on the blue-haired man. A Sorkosi, if she had to guess. “Why do I feel like we’ve already lost?”