Yoh's group contains a fair number of 35 people. A mixture of boys and girls painted the color of difference within, and more importantly, they were impatient. Just like the rest of the elevators, the fair large width and the tall height were something quite alarming.
The increasing speed despite the calm sound of the elevator, didn't make Yoh any calmer. His maneuver was far more distressed than usual as he fixated on the elevator's door with his glaring yellow eye. In fact, Yoh had noticed the things that his companions in the other sections---the group leaders---had already noticed about the elevator. This doesn't disclose information such as how the time in the elevator is completely conflicted with the time in reality. The time they find identifiable was nothing more than a mirage; which leaves the question.
"Will I be on time to put the ax in its place despite the fact that the time in this elevator has rapidly increased over time?" Yoh thought as he looked at his cell phone and noticed the exact same thing the others did "Realistically speaking, if this was an exam with the mindset that each individual---in this case--ten---then it would have to be constructed with a competitive mindset. Therefore, this has to be where they draw the line. And if the end goal is to place this somewhere in it then... It would make sense for there to be some sort of obstacle..." Yoh continued in deep thought "Ryousuke Kawahara noted that the exam is not to be underestimated yet what's exactly important to notice, in retrospect is the nature of the place where this exam takes---it's inhumane, unfathomably advanced---which means..." Yoh tightened the grip of his ax with his right hand, pumping his right hand's veins "An adversity will come..." He flashed a wicked grin as the elevator reached its destination.
Velocity's height reached its peak and cooled down entirely; allowing the spiral of blizzard to descend. This blizzard was gentle and lacked strength overall.
An aqueduct amassing over 5 kilometers in height---the end of it completely clouded by steaming white-blueish gas---with over fifty meters in width; its brackets being completely composed of thin ice yet somewhat resistant to the point of allowing stable movement. Unknown length to measure though this didn't stop Yoh's group from moving forward.
Already, there was a very clear destination in mind. The moment they departed from the elevator that disappeared into the gas below, they knew.
"..." Yoh took clear note of the mountain of absurd height, but more importantly, something else along the way too "No way, that's really..." One of the girls in Yoh's group continued to walk through the lengthy bridge while commenting on her surprise on a faraway planet to her right side "...Uranus in all its glory..." Yoh finished that comment and decided to add another one now that everyone's attention was on him---Yoh in the front "Don't be too surprised by all of this... I'll remind the objective..." Meekly yet very clearly, he elevated his ax while turning his posture towards the entire group "...This ax... At all costs, it will be delivered. In that mountain lies a place where it can be put it..." Yoh stated with simplicity.
Though, none of this was new. That's why a boy in Yoh's group, had a problem with how he was wasting time here.
That would be, until Yoh spoke his mind subsequently, no longer being meek and inconsistent with his speech. An abnormal sense of confidence struck the air.
"That's why we will------" Yoh spoke his true mind on the matter for about three minutes "...That can't be right, but... Alright..." A sound agreement was forming "Yeah, sure..." More to come "That's insane, Yoh...!! What kind of suggestion is that...?!" A girl immediately didn't mind speaking her mind in contrast with the many other agreements "Tsukimina, you don't get it." Yoh coldly spoke, not in her direction, but in a forward direction as the fog was starting to lift in the bridge "What kind of exam doesn't have an adversity?" Yoh finished "......!?" She was confused and mildly perplexed.
A partial observation came to light when a boy in the group decided to pull out his phone, which was immediately frozen and a second after, completely melted and decomposed due to the fact that the temperatures are close to -250 degrees Celsius.
What crept the boy out was not what happened to the phone, but how and what exactly was keeping him from not becoming a victim of such weather. His terror lay resonant in the altitude of the distant Uranus as their new destination became clear.
The aqueduct's end gave birth to a new clue. A frozen ground with no way sideways and a gigantic hundred-meter door stood in front of them; surrounded by a mountain-like atmosphere. Heights of barbaric boulders kept falling from the top of what seemed to be an ungraspable tall mountain that soured through the clouds midst of the signed foggy sky.
As Yoh came forth with the rest, a password entry device surfaced, to which Yoh showed no hesitation in putting the password.
"It's "Way", Yoh." One of the girls decided to speak to Yoh in regard to the password "......" Yoh inserted the true correct password "......" The girl felt silent but they were immediately consumed by a greater presential horror.
The door, instead of opening normally sideways, instead fell off to the point of collapsing onwards, despite not breaking the upcoming thin ice bridge. The two sides of the door fell onto the gas below, but that was definitely not the eye-catching part.
"Oh... my fucking... God..." One of them held back their breaths as their shaky eyes couldn't believe the sight in front of them "Are those...?! Yeah, there's no doubt about it... What the fuck is that?!" A breakout began as Yoh witnessed the spirit of his group start to shatter.
Noticeably, when it comes to what they were looking at, it's important to examine the structure of what comes in between the area where the doors were in and what comes after, respectively.
Engraved in shards of red ice, a mountain of human bodies, though not decomposed but very healthy in their shapes, could be seen before the shards of red ice, serving as a border for their containment. Those bodies were not expressing life by any means, but they were all being unified into one singular liquid source shining bright with the color of an orange; going in an unknown direction. These bodies stacked and stacked on each other--from above and below and so on; to the point of no one knowing what they were there for or just how many they are.
"Where is that liquid channeling toward...?" Yoh, curious, and not terrified, unlike the rest, deemed that despite the fact that the ice shards are red, it doesn't add up that there's an orange liquid.
He couldn't figure out what it was for or why it was orange. At that moment, he wished he had gotten an explanation, but alas, he kept going forward.
In contrast to the previous bridge that reigned a seemingly infinite stretching reach, this bridge had a very bold and sincere destination. Despite its small width of five meters, it was far more fragile and slippery, so most of Yoh's group members held onto each other. Yoh calmly approached the dark cave that would combine itself with the mountain.
"...." Yoh, from 350 meters away from what he had spotted, immediately started to slow down---but not to the point of alerting anyone instantly.
Yoh looked at the foggy sky above and toward Uranus, still visible to his right. That beautiful, clouded, cold, implacably pale round planet; unbeknownst to any partiality or causality itself.
With a few scratches to his head on the back, Yoh tossed his ax to one of the people he entrusted, to the back, which caused their entire group to notice that something was going on.
"Forget plan A, we'll go with plan B." Yoh said with the utmost confidence "Axel, Yoshi, Shinsoke, take the left wing." Without saying anything except nodding their heads, the three boys under those names went to the left side of the bridge.
Furthermore, other six individuals, two girls, and four other boys, went to the left side as they joined them.
"Higashima, Kei, Rikuha, take the right wing." Likewise, those three girls led the right side, albeit slightly afraid as they didn't firmly trust Yoh's earlier plan---or rather---what the plan was actually countering in theory "...Yes...!!" By the same standard, six others followed them.
Thus, in each wing, there were nine, eighteen in both. Given that the total of them is thirty-six, the remaining eighteen others started to spread as well. The left wing added an extra wing containing six more members, while the right wing as well added six more. Ergo; the center was now down to six members only, which included Yoh, four boys, and a girl.
With the target in Yoh's sight, he shouted.
"ADVANCE THE FORMATION!! DO NOT ENGAGE, THE OBJECTIVE IS TO GO THROUGH THE CAVE!!" Yoh issued the order as the rest began to unleash a brave war cry as they believed in what Yoh had previously suggested.
Right now, the bridge is about to meet its end and the only way is forward. By going forward, anyone can walk through the rocky entrance that leads to an obscure cave, as there is no other place to go. The sides are completely sheltered by rocks and even the bridge from behind is being intoxicated by the gas-like miasma.
But perhaps the most crucial piece of information is the very fact that there is a great distance of 250 meters in-between the cave's entrance and where they all stand.
From their perspective, there is only a person up ahead and even Yoh thinks so only.
"They already know that there is a person ahead of us... Though the ice is quick to freeze here, the atmosphere becomes too identical to the point where the footsteps become the same. But that's why I instantly knew that someone else was ahead----the sheer scarlet color in those footsteps covered in fresh blood... There was no mistake about it, but..." Yoh thought and thought as he advanced towards the figure at the end, who he thought had a good read on "How on Earth did I miss that?! No, it was behind him all the time?! Shit, I gotta tell everyone before it's too late!!" Yoh stopped thinking and took a deep breath as they approached the cave's entrance pit.
Daniel turned his back on them, and took hold of the one-meter and eighty-centimeter sword containing golden diagonal sharp spikes of a minimum of fifteen centimeters, the sword as well amounting glowing yellow edges midst its base red color with a central golden skull at its top--------as for the spikes; the closer they are to the beginning of the mass, the higher their size whereas the length severely decreases toward the end of the mass.
"EVERYONE, DUCK--------------!!!!!!!!!!!""""" Yoh shouted with all of his might as his anxiety erupted in its truest form.
Swiftly, with a strong step to the left and a long cohesive swing-back, a mixture of intestines flew toward the center as the sword decimated the entire right-wing mercilessly; obliterating its respective fifteen members.
Blood rained down on the remaining members' faces alongside clusters of organs that were partially thrown in their direction.
"Not bad... The plan was to kill you all in one swing, but that whole formation was enough to ruin my plan a little bit..." Stunned, they couldn't react properly to what had just happened as they remained in disbelief, horror, and shock ".....RUN!!! DON'T SCREAM, DON'T QUESTION, JUST RUN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!!!" Yoh opted for the reasonable approach.
Instead of losing time in emotional turmoil, despite the fact that he wasn't feeling well over his comrades being killed in a single shot; Yoh saw that the member that whom he had entrusted the ax was still right next to him---therefore not a victim of the right-wing slaughter---and as such, he judged that advancing was only the correct thing to do.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" They all started to scream but thankfully, they weren't numb from the shock to the point of being incapable of not moving.
Ultimately, they made a run for it to the cave, despite going into unknown territory; leaving their dead comrades; who are now firmly split in half and ones with the snow.
With two swings to the back, Daniel sprayed the blood that was dripping all over the golden spikes to the snow in the cave's entrance.
"That guy..." Daniel placed the sword against his right shoulder despite the oblivious cutting edges from the sword's side spikes as he slowly moved forward "He has "soul" alright." He looked towards the myriads of dead bodies within the fountain from afar amongst the red crystal shard emitting a glowing orange liquid "...But I have to make this quick, the time manipulation is hard to control yet... So..." He struck his sword forward silently as he assumed a far more serious stance this time around.
The entrance to the cave would be marked with a large lengthy layer of fifteen meters in size and seven meters in width. Furthermore, the more one would go down through such length, it would make another layer subsequently appear while connecting to the prior. These layers were covered in a green-glowing light emitting from the mysterious glyphs on their structure.
Though Yoh had taken a few seconds to analyze this as he kept on running, right now, he simply prioritized storming through the path, regardless of where it would lead him.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" A member of Yoh's group shortly reunited with Yoh on the front as the remaining ones cried out in despair "I don't know, but we can't afford to waste time and ponder it! Stick to the plan, we move FORWARD!" Not wanting to waste time, Yoh valued time greatly when it came to making critical decisions.
As of now, they had no time to wonder where the senseless individual was or where he would come from.
Once they had gone through all the respective layers, they had to follow a subsequent set of such layers, to the right side this time around and ultimately to the left downside. This all grandiosely alarmed Yoh because, from his thoughts and perspective, he was under the impression that the layers would start to go up since they were technically inside a mountain.
Furthermore, it didn't help that the luminosity began to strive from solar to completely artificial light driven from the sideway five-metered-sized candles on both sides.
By the time there were no more layers to follow through, it would start to shrink itself into a small dark entrance. As they bypassed that, they encountered a circular area with an ancient archetype texture in its walls among a gigantic open eye in the middle of the floor. Ironically enough, the eye was looking in the direction---or rather, the eyeball was positioned in such direction----where there was the only way forward. That being---to the left side, where a small entrance with a few centimeters of gap would lay in.
This would set a pattern to come as in the upcoming section, there was a circular room with a width of twenty meters and a staggering height of forty meters as the dark top would reflect dim solar light but not enough to be sufficiently reliable.
"These are---ruins...?" Yoh blurted that out loud as they entered the upcoming section; the direction of it being towards the left again as the eye pointed to it.
Despite being in what would seem to be an advanced technological area, it actually resembled more of a site that was greatly affected by some sort of destruction. Not oval or circular this time, this new area introduced a couple of ideas to the table. If examined for its entirety, aside from the eye constructed in a vertical way with its eyeball on the verge of its right side; ultimately saying that the way forward is to continue in that direction----there were multiple layers of rumbled structure laying on the ground as well as broken five-meter bridges on the left side, leading to another section, but since they were all broken, that section was beyond unaccessible.
Underneath those multitudes of rumblings lay down countless cables to which Yoh and the rest had no idea what they could be used for. Some tried to venture a guess in their minds and think that they were for the sole purpose of artificial illumination, but Yoh had different thoughts.
"There is something going on here, without a doubt... This place, should not be known to outsiders, and by that margin..." Yoh looked around at the rest, who were scared out of their wits "We are intruders, and what he just did back then was probably nothing more than..." Yoh questioned the rationality behind Daniel's actions; not their morality "I get it now... We---this was all planned... From the start, most likely... Our existences, coming to this place---it was all---but if that's the case..." Yoh grasped onto what he could only label as a "loophole" as they advanced.
North direction; it envisioned their advancement. Following the eye's guidance and providence, the group followed Yoh, who remained at the very front. Right now, they had to undergo a tunnel underneath some rumbles of rocks. Yoh thought that this was the primal result of an explosion or some sort as the rumble was oddly stacked too much together.
"Guys, I need you all to listen to me as we go forward..." Yoh said, as he kicked a few rocks out of the way so the rest of them could pass through "Our phones have no signal to them, which is contradictory considering how this place is blooming with technological advancement ---but, there is still something we can hope to do." Yoh stopped and stood on top of the path that would start to go up, as he towered his companion that were still climbing as he caught their full attention "Our goal hasn't changed at all, but... If I'm frank, his existence here is no coincidence." Yoh stuck to the facts.
One of the girls spoke her true mind to Yoh in spite of the situation.
"How can you---be so calm...?" Her eyes emitted a certain degree of delirium "......" Yoh kept his silence "That---That thing! It couldn't be human! It killed almost half of us! Nobody told me it would be like this! I want to go home!" She complained and rightfully so, but Yoh spoke to her alone "You're right. I too want to go home, you know? But, I don't think that we should start to prioritize what is currently impossible, so let's prioritize what is currently possible." Yoh took out his phone "Their deaths served as an example---this island is flourishing with unknown technology we had never encountered and most likely... our lives here had no meaning except maybe for one..." Yoh held back his breath "Our existences are factors that haven't been taken into the equation and by that conclusion, we can assume that our lives are something that imposes a danger to him." He was starting to nail his point quite well as his companions were starting to understand.
Yoh didn't waste time and instead decided to move forward at a reasonable physical pace toward the next section where they would encounter a two-way path.
"What are you saying? That, we are a threat to him?! But he could just kill us!" One boy argued to Yoh from his back "To be clear, "we" are not a threat, but rather, what "we" can extract to the outside, is." They were starting to get the picture that Yoh was painting.
To the right side, it would lead to a dead end but toward the left side, it would be the start of a nearly infinite-length downward spiral staircase without any degrees to it. The ceiling's height decreased severely here at the area's base as it stands at about three meters only. In addition to this, they could clearly see the bottom of the dark abyss that lay below yet could not perceive what it exactly offered.
"We expose this place." Yoh declared "But how...? It's not like we can contact the outside... But we can..." They realized "Wait, can't we just start to record this and..." Ideas started to be formed but Yoh corrected them as they moved forward "It's not that simple. Think of him as a guardian of this place---he will make sure that no such thing happens." Yoh's words brought worry to the rest "Wait, then what are you even saying?! That we should just wait and die?! He will come after us! The only reason he hasn't reached us yet is most likely due to the weight of that sword!" One of the girls reasoned such and it was a valid reasoning.
Halting his tracks, Yoh directed himself toward one of the male members of his group still.
"...This?" He said, to which Yoh nodded as the member gave the ax back to Yoh's hands.
However, against what one might have expected, Yoh gave the ax to one of the girls instead of taking it by himself.
"Lulu, take it with you and the rest of the girls, please." Yoh said as the rest of the girls watched him go back to the top of the base area "B-But..." They knew what he was implying and his plan was pretty obvious by now "Make sure to record everything, for the worst-case scenario. We'll drag his time for as long as we can." Yoh laid out the truth.
Simple in theory: the reminder of the boys would stay along with Yoh, armless, against the killer. Their numbers were their greater advantage although such numbers, prior, had been proven to be not sufficient against him. Yoh couldn't keep the ax in order to fight against Daniel, but even so, that wasn't the true aim of the plan.
The girls, albeit reluctant, started to go down the stairway that would further lead to the point of the holy mountain.
To them, Yoh screamed something, after a few seconds.
"THE EYEBALL POINTS TOWARD THE RIGHT DIRECTION!!" His shout echoed throughout the entire area.
With a deep breath and an inhale dripping with anxiety, Yoh face-palmed his entire face and then faced the remaining sixteen boys who had stayed by his side.
The male individual possessing the ax earlier, Vexacus, gave Yoh a path on the back while the others somewhat smiled back at him.
"I would never have expected you to be so courageous, Yoh." He released a short anxious laugh "You'd always be so damn quiet in class that I would never have known..." Vexacus took a seat on one of the rocky boarders toward the right dead-end path ".....I'm not... It's just... You guys know what this means, right?" Yoh looked down on the cold gray-colored spiral path; avoiding the rest of the boys' gazes.
Dim artificial light dripping from unknown corners upward midst of the rumbles allowed some illumination to enhance the ambience. The sixteen of them all stood at the top of the spiral that led down a not-known variant of rows that would descend until it no longer could. Of course, they knew not this, but the female side of their party; now in possession of the component and with the mission to record the entirety of this obscure mysterious place---is most surely to know just how far it goes.
Surely, they could venture their guesses or even go down a bit, but that's not their goal. Yoh knows this too; their goal is to halt his tracks.
"Dude, are we... going to die? I didn't see his face, but what the hell..." Solarka, a boy from the party felt the need to speak up as the anxiety from waiting was piling up "Probably." Yoh spared no sentimentality and as he saw he was getting their full attention, he decided to speak his mind "I will just say this---" Yoh sat down on a small rocky board on the center of the area right before the entrance to the great spiral "He had a sword. A resource that we couldn't prevent or had any way of knowing; in other words, he probably has other lethal weapons to his aid. Our lives are something that he is sure to eliminate." Yoh finished "But wait, what if he doesn't go this way?" Sergey put up that question to which Yoh answered with quickness "He is." Yoh said.
Their eyes were on Yoh as Yoh himself was starting to sweat.
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"Can't you hear them......?" Yoh gulped "Hear what...?" They couldn't understand, so they looked at Yoh with skepticism "...Your heartbeats are too loud, huh... That scared... Hahaha, shit..." Yoh looked at his trembling right hand as the rest of the boys seriously attempted to listen to the noises in the echoes.
Though small, there were certified instances of footsteps' sound but more importantly, aside from the occasional iron clash of his sword with the ground, a humming melody could be heard.
"Holy sh----Guys, he's HERE!" Rayn alerted all of them with a discrete voice "What now, Yoh?! Shouldn't we just all in him?!" Regardless of lack of sight, the sixteen of them looked in a forward direction where a criminal darkness lay dormant as their feared target was approaching "Our mission is to stall... So..." Yoh was not giving up on his idea "Everyone, trust me." Yoh stepped forward and took another step as well "Wh---Yoh?!" Kokoni grew nervous and chaotic as Yoh was leaving the safety area.
A semi-loud voice could be heard, emerging from the darkness.
"....ease don't go, I want you to stay..." Daniel emerges from the shadows with his eyes somewhat open; wearing his usual black sleeveless t-shirt alongside his black pants with his black shoes whilst humming to a song in his head "I'm begging you please, please don't leave here... I don't want you to change---" Daniel kept on walking, now in sight of Yoh "Oh?" Daniel halted his tracks; five meters away from Yoh; his companions on guard "Are you going to kill us too?" Yoh skipped all unnecessary questions and went straight to the core of the matter.
Daniel erupted his spiky sword and relaxed it onto his right shoulder by lifting it with his right hand.
"That's right. I see sixteen of you. A split, therefore." Daniel sighed and pierced his sword onto the ground in front of him; the sword facing sideways to Yoh "?!" A two-meter-sized eye ruptured from the ground and absorbed Daniel's sword; immediately retrieving it all the way to the ground underneath thus leaving Daniel swordless "It doesn't work well in close spaces." Daniel explained and proceeded to take out two guerilla knives heightening over thirty centimeters each "Wait, hold on. I have a proposition for you." Yoh calmly said.
This intrigued Daniel.
Yoh was calm and looked dead calm which was something that Daniel knew Yoh was faking, but because of that, he knew that there was something at store here. If Yoh had acted just like his nervous classmates, Daniel wouldn't have hesitated.
Yet for the sake of entertaining that idea, Daniel allowed Yoh to speak.
"It's clear we are all going to die. I don't think you'll provide us with answers and if you were to give us such answers, then we are surely already dead." Yoh deducted "Clever, aren't you?" Daniel smiled sarcastically as if to say: "Come on, go on." "I propose each and every one of us has a fair shot at you. It's unfair that only you have weapons to your advantage." Yoh argued and continued "Of course, our numbers are greater, that's why I propose a one-to-one fight to the death system. I, the leader, will nominate a fighter from our side, from weakest to strongest." Daniel instantly questioned something "How do we fight?" Yoh answered "Your choice." He allowed Daniel to have the freedom of thought here and so he gave it some thought while the rest grew terrified.
At this point, Daniel was invested in the idea. So he genuinely gave some thought and took a couple of seconds at it; margin from twenty to thirty.
"Knives." He declared as he looked at Yoh once again "Alright. Can you please put the other weapons away though?" Yoh asked Daniel "You have ten seconds to send your fighter against me. Break the one-on-one rule and I will hail you all with bullets." Daniel formed his warning as well as his denial "......" Yoh turned his back and reunited with the rest as Daniel tossed one of the guerrilla knives in their direction "......Jesus Christ..." Mike knew.
Out of all the sixteen of them, there was obviously a skinnier one. Even now, Daniel is looking at Mike from the other side.
The weakest one was to begin first, furthermore, there were only ten seconds left---right now four---so Yoh had to say something to Mike; the weakest out of all of them.
He approached Mike's ear and told him a single order.
"Fuck you......" He cursed Yoh and took a small step forward into the bridge that separated the rest from Daniel, as Daniel himself began to step up as well.
It had begun. Meekly and authentically fearing for his life, Mike's sweat was all over the place. He could barely lift the knife properly and he was upholding it like a kitchen knife with the edge forward; the blade to the back. Furthermore, he was trembling and kept cursing the same words over and over.
On the other hand, Daniel calmly approached him, but didn't draw his knife and instead kept it tucked on the edge of his pants in the back.
"Make it count." Daniel taunted Mike "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Desperately, Mike ran right at Daniel and raised the knife up; aiming to perform a chop; to which Daniel allowed but he dodged it by placing his body to the left side so he would stay off the course of Mike's swing.
From behind, as Mike had lost all balance, Daniel took ahold of his knife from his back; used his left hand to grab Mike's face, and slit his throat with the knife on the right hand.
"Next. Ten seconds." Mike's body was kicked out by Daniel and would soon emerge to the bottom of the area they are currently in "Oh fuck no... No, no, NO!" Despair grew rampant as many suddenly realized that Daniel was not a complete amateur at fighting, especially with knives "Come on, man....!!! You saw that shit, didn't you?!" Vexacus was begging them to stop looking at him as they knew he was the weakest thereafter "........" Yoh whispered to Vexacus' ear a single order "...Alright. If I die... I swear to God, someone, just someone, don't let this piece of shit get near the girls!" Vexacus said his last wish and was sent to the bridge where Daniel started to walk up to Vexacus.
Abiding Yoh's order this time, Vexacus didn't do anything.
He stood still near the entrance of the area where Yoh and the rest were.
"That's no good. Come to the center; that's how we'll fight." Daniel ordered, thus Vexacus, though hesitant, in the end, walked to the center "...." Vexacus's heavy breath and immense sweat from all the anxiety didn't allow him to gain a break, but even so, he tried to look at Daniel by erupting his posture ".....!!!" Fear and horror struck his soul's cords as Daniel mildly placed his two palms on Vexacus' face from both sides; their faces completely close "What the fuck are you waiting for? Don't you have something to accomplish?" Daniel asked.
His brain remembered that one specific order.
Putting his mind to it, Vexacus took a step back and swung his knife on his right hand toward Daniel's left leg.
Upon seeing the true intent of Vexacus and what the vital aim was, Daniel recognized that information and grabbed the swinging knife with his bare left hand by force while simultaneously stabbing Vexacus' abdomen repetitively with his right hand.
"ARGH.... I..........." Vexacus tripped over to the bottomless dark pit below as soon as Daniel was finished with him as well as retrieving the knife.
Once again, Daniel would toss the knife from the loser to Yoh's side.
"Next." Fourteen more to go and Yoh was fairly certain that Daniel had caught up with his idea, but even so, Yoh was sure it was going to work "Hey, guys?" Carlsen grabbed everyone's attention though not Daniel's "Tell Rikuha I love her." Carlsen stepped up after Yoh gave him the order "Oh fuck my life.....!!" Carlsen was up against Daniel next and as such, he squared off to the center.
By now, there were a couple of things that could be learned from Daniel when it came down to his martial expertise. First: unlike the majority of them, if not them all, Daniel had valuable knowledge when it came to fighting, especially with knives; as he has shown twice the necessary capacity to stand his ground in a fight. Second: he has the will to kill and does it so without blinking or feeling any remorse.
These factors and many others were starting to plant a seed of hopelessness and despair to anyone who was unlucky to the point of being vis-a-vis to the foe named Daniel.
Someone, that they knew, if defeated, could save a great deal of trouble. As a matter of fact, to some present, Daniel felt like the one. The one, if torn, dispelled, broken, all solutions would present themselves.
Yet Carlsen, despite knowing this at heart, stood frozen at the very middle of the bridge. He didn't flinch; his eyes and their stare were permanently locked onto the enshrouded darkness in Daniel's black eyes.
A darkness so deep that it felt like Carlsen was swimming in an ocean without a clear destination. In the middle of nowhere, at night, no moonlight, at the mercy of the ocean's depths.
Equally, his neck's blood gave him a firm sensation of an akin feeling as his dead body fell onto the depths below.
"Giving up and staying frozen like him is also an option. But at that point, I have to wonder, is that all?" Daniel tossed the knife back to Yoh's side as they were down three deaths "....." Unable to form a speech and not having to hear Daniel's words, Yoh knew that he had to send someone else to fight.
Yoh decided to make an offer to Daniel.
"You're too strong. It's clear you have martial arts in your system and you know how to use it. We don't, though." He argued "We are all unexperienced, at this rate this will just be a walk in the park, so I propose we elevate this into at least a sport." Yoh stretched out his rolling right hand to Daniel from afar and elevated his two right fingers to him "Two versus one. Can we get another knife?" Daniel heard the proposition ".....Sure." Daniel's answer, though slower than usual, still nonetheless surprised some, even to the point of straight-up angering some as he passed another guerrilla knife from his belly belt to Yoh's side "The fucking nerve!" Axel was fuming and looked decisive this time around.
Turning his back to them, Daniel had accepted the terms that Yoh had come up with.
Not only was this faster for him, but it also meant that Daniel, could, in fact, have a bit more fun this way.
"Shinsoke..." Axel bumped his right hand onto Shinsoke's left shoulder and that was all he needed to say "Yeah, I got it. I have a plan..." Yoh took notice of this and spoke to the two of them "Can you do it?" Yoh coldly asked them, wanting to know whether or not they could be useful to the cause "If it's the two of us, we can, yeah. The motherfucker's going down..." Axel emitted all of his rage onto a single glare as he looked at Daniel from afar whilst gripping the guerrilla knife with brutal strength; his veins popping "Let me see it then." Yoh gave the pass.
Slowly but surely, Axel and Shinsoke made their way to the bridge which was three meters in width and a length of ten meters. This bridge is the one path that allows anyone to walk to the great spiral which leads one to a seemingly endless walk towards the very end of this mountain. Ironically, instead of going up, like a mountain climber does, the venture is only down.
Lackluster rumble and unstable structure were something noticeable midst the platform, but the three of them were all focused on one thing only.
"Go." Shinsoke said to Axel and the two of them went separate ways; Shinsoke to Daniel's left and Axel to his right.
Their strategy was bulletproof in theory; Daniel is only one, so they opted for one of them to be a scapegoat. Regardless of where the attack comes from, at the end of the day, if Daniel strikes back and the two of them are in opposite directions, Daniel has to choose one of them.
By that theory, if one is chosen, the other will execute the finishing blow.
"Now show me... How will you repel this?" Yoh thought as he placed all of his fingers mirroring each other with his two palms erupting in front of his face.
Standing still at the very center, Daniel didn't look at either Shinsoke from his left or Axel from his right.
Precisely speaking, there would be a time when a dual collision would take place. It's a single shot that requires both Daniel's hands to be at the same time at the same place.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" Axel became one with his fury as he sought to avenge his fallen classmates; thus leaping to Daniel---aiming for his neck "AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Likewise, Shinsoke, bloodthirsty---aimed for Daniel's vital side, mainly his heart's side.
After the swings were mutually performed, the moment rose to opportunity to which Daniel didn't waste time, as he let go of his knife on the ground in order to free his right hand----ultimately allowing him to intercept both the guerrilla knives' upper blades with his two palms.
"Ghhhh...!!!" Upholding an abnormal amount of physical strength just to stop the driving momentum of both blades momentarily, Daniel's neck veins as well as his body veins in general, became more visible by the second---his teeth gritting as a demonstration of such struggle; breaking from his usual textbook apathy "What the----" Daniel, once successful in stopping the momentum, let go of the two knives he was holding just now "No fucki----" And rapidly pulled his two heavily damaged palms onto Axel and Shinsoke's heads' backs for the purpose of bashing them together in a mutual skull slam.
Not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times, were the times that Daniel took in slamming their faces together---Daniel using a great portion of his physical force just to execute the task.
Once done, he took ahold of their necks---elevated them into the air, and threw Axel down to the darkness below while doing the same to Shinsoke.
"Impossible... We... We can't win against that! What the fuck was that?! Who is this guy?! Wait... His face..." Something critical dawned Bask, as the remaining nine, Yoh included, had forgotten something so obvious that they felt stupidly dumb upon not recognizing who they were facing right now "Daniel Lead... He's the one with the highest jail sentence... Percy Phoenix made us all worry about Hajime Hyunda, but... Nothing beats the real deal." Yoh stated "Is this all according to the plan?" Yoh elevated his posture and walked to the border, just before entering the bridge, where Daniel stood, as he threw both knives back to Yoh's side "That's right." The apathy resonated "Your deaths are all manufactured future actions and they are my accountability, for that matter also." Daniel laid down the gist of it.
Bloodstained guerrilla knives were in Yoh's hands once again.
Aside from him, eight others remain.
"What if one of us physically overpowers him instead of trying to strike at the same time?" Kokoni proposed that, albeit very silently, in the hope that Daniel wouldn't hear it "If he's wide open, then we have a chance. The problem with our last attempts was that we were trying to land a strike on him while discrediting his nimbleness and overall agility. He either intercepts the attack and then unleashes a fatal strike subsequently, or dodges and does the same. We should try this idea..." Kokoni looked at one of the other eight.
For Kokoni's idea to work, there would have to be someone, physically large and courageous enough, to withstand the pressure of knowing who they are up against.
This isn't to say that the person the eight of them are looking at is the one, but it's the one that fits the criteria the most at least.
"I understand... I was waiting for him to get more tired, honestly, but..." Yoshi revealed his strategy whilst stripping his upper uniform "Daniel Lead... I'm going to show you the Brazilian jiu-jitsu hell experience first class...." Not picking up the knife that Yoh was offering him, instead, Kokoni took both of them in Yoshi's place.
There was no communication between the two at all.
In any other event or circumstance, these two would not talk to each other at all. As a matter of fact, their overall relationship, from a modern human being to another human being is practically zero.
However, in the light of urgency, they decided to put aside the necessity to build a bond and decided to take the obligation of destroying their target.
Moreso, Daniel recognized Yoshi instantly as he went to the center of the bridge.
"...What stance is that...?" Yoh thought to himself as he couldn't figure out Daniel's current fighting stance.
With his right arm elevated at least eighty degrees, Daniel upheld his guerilla knife completely face down. His left arm was completely invisible to the rest as Daniel was only showing the right side of his body to the rest. In other words, they could not see what Daniel was holding with his left hand for that matter.
This mattered not, as Yoshi had already begun with his charge.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!" Producing acceptable speed, Yoshi lowered his running stance and stretched both of his arms to catch Daniel's middle body, meanwhile, Kokoni ran right behind Yoshi---waiting patiently until Daniel was locked down by Yoshi's tackle.
Daniel's upcoming movements were something that Yoshi was calculating.
Yoshi's large body doesn't allow Daniel to gain much freedom if he were to dodge sideways. Running back would ultimately just end up backfiring for Daniel as the velocity that Yoshi is going is authentically high. Therefore, he could try to fight it out.
But that alone already favors Yoshi, so Daniel, instead of fighting it out, decided to jump to his right side.
"?!" Both Yoshi and Kokoni stopped in their tracks as they witnessed an incomprehensible action from Daniel.
Throwing himself onto his right side, Daniel had seemingly made a suicide call but in reality, Daniel put the cable of his knife onto his mouth and with his left hand, while falling, shot an anchor to the gigantic eye symbol beneath the bridge that no one had information about.
Precisely speaking, Daniel aimed at the retina of the eye which was at the very center this time. By connecting with the anchor, a current of power was created.
"He... killed himself...?!" Doubt was created as the eight of them were beyond perplexed by Daniel's action, though Yoh was quick on the catch as he saw movement from below despite the alluming darkness dispelling luminosity "Wait, it's a trap! He's coming back from the other side!!" Yoh alerted Yoshi and Kokoni who both looked back at him but looked to their right side as they saw Daniel's figure swinging on an electric rope; ultimately flying into the air, ten meters at least up from the rest thanks to the balance and momentum created from the swing from beneath the bridge.
At that given moment, Daniel used his right hand to grab the guerilla knife in his mouth while simultaneously aiming the warping anchor booster that would allow him to travel to his desired location in a very rapid manner should the anchor be charged with a specific kind of electricity that only the eyes within this area give.
Therefore, now that the anchor thread had successfully been retrieved, whilst mid-airborne, Daniel aimed specifically at Yoshi's right breast and fired the anchor shot which traveled at astonishing speed---far beyond Yoshi's reaction timing.
"AAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!!" In excruciating pain, Yoshi expelled an abundant amount of saliva from his mouth as the right side of his chest began to bleed profoundly.
However, that would be the least of his worries, because the moment the anchor connected, it would mean that the driver would be pulled right into the destination just like a magnet. The only difference is that, unlike a harmless magnet attracted to a mirroring force, Daniel pierced Yoshi's frontal skull with a finishing strike the moment he was close enough to Yoshi.
Dripping blood from Yoshi's skull emerged fairly quickly.
"A-AHH....!!" Shocked and unable to say coherent sentences or even a small proper conjunction of words, Kokoni abandoned all reason and charged Daniel with his two knives, to which, Daniel was ready to intercept "....?!" Daniel felt a sudden mental attack as he immediately placed both of his hands, including his right hand holding the knife, onto both sides of his head "...Not now, DAMN IT!!" Kokoni launched an attack to which, Daniel had no choice but to get back and start to get on the defense.
Surprisingly fast and accurate, Kokoni was striking Daniel with such potency that Daniel had no choice but to stay on the defensive while dodging both attacks. By dodging them, of course, this meant that Daniel had to retrieve back every time.
In other words, Daniel was at a disadvantage when it came to tempo.
"It's working...? But why...? But, it's working...!" Yoh spoke those words with visible enthusiasm like a lost hope had been reignited "HOLY SHIT, HE'S DOING IT!!" Solarka expressed his enthusiasm even further "KOKONI, KILL THE FUCKER!!" More comments would come as Daniel had lost his tempo and Kokoni was taking advantage of this.
Visible stress could be seen on Daniel's face since he knew that this was caused because it took a valid physical strain to perform that early swing and now, he was paying the price for that. There was, however, another crucial factor at stake here, nevertheless.
Stuck between dodging and looking for an opportunity to strike back, Daniel was forced to retreat way below the middle of the bridge as Kokoni launched an attack with his right and then left; strictly aiming at Daniel's upper body. No such things as sloppy strikes or lackluster grips in both of the blades; Kokoni was the clear winner here.
So, Daniel decided to do the logical thing.
Leaping even further back and creating a two-meter distance between them, Daniel threw his knife on the ground and pulled out a small gun from his belt's right side.
Kokoni's spree came to an end the moment Daniel put a bullet inside his brain.
A loud echo was heard throughout the area.
"Next." Arrogantly, without waiting for the remaining six to say something, Daniel flashed a mocking grin at Yoh's side, which upset them instantly "HEY, WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?! I THOUGHT THIS WAS A KNIFE FIGHT!!" Solarka lashed out at Daniel "You have ten seconds to send your next two fighters." Daniel ignored Solarka's reasonable criticism and turned his back on him.
Noticeably, Solarka wasn't the only one pissed off at what just happened, but to Yoh, who is agitated nevertheless, this came as natural.
"I get it. So that's what he's trying to prove." Yoh said out loud "Trying to prove what?! That he's a dishonorable piece of shit?! Damn it, Kokoni was about to get him!" Solarka argued against Yoh.
Yoh smiled a bit and decided one thing as he was about to speak to the rest. His plan was to acknowledge the hopelessness of the situation.
"It's meaningless. This is a losing battle. Firearms, territorial advantage, experience, lack of remorse, strategy, adaptability, you name it---he has it. His point is evident and clear: regardless of any fluke, he will obtain victory. This is a waste of time. I tried to seek some sort of advantage, but it's beyond evident. Our presence here, from the very start, was put on an expiration date. No matter how you put it, this guy will just get what he wants. I don't know why nor do I honestly care that much about the abundance of technology here, it's just... such a flawed script. It's not even fair..." Yoh looked further at the ground as he continued his negative thoughts spree.
Hopeless and embracing defeat, Yoh decided to step up and stretch his muscles before marching into his own death.
"I guess it's my tur-----" Yoh opened his eyes and looked at Daniel "..................." Instead of questioning what was going on, Yoh decided to simply absorb that one second, where he saw Daniel take a pill whilst breathing extremely nervously.
That alone, made Yoh realize that the earlier incident where Daniel lost tempo against Kokoni, was not the result of physical failure or a strategic misstep.
It was an outside factor that Yoh had no knowledge of. There was, however, a margin for an opportunity here.
Yoh was planning on ending his race, but he decided to bet on a final chance this time around.
He turned to Solarka on his right as well as Elmo.
"Solarka, Elmo. This is very specific, but could you two aim for his legs? We are fighting a losing battle, but our objective is to stall. If his movement is hindered, then our job is done. Abandon the thought of killing him." Yoh placed his two arms on their respective shoulders and gave them his coldest stare yet "We are dead. We are not better than him. But, I don't know why, maybe this is some sort of miracle, but he seems to be struggling with something. Strike while the iron is hot." Yoh pressured the two of them, and with a goal in their sights, they calmly walked to the center where the distraught Daniel awaited.
Contrasting to his early peerless form, Daniel was visibly shaking and was now starting to demonstrate a slightly erratic behavior.
"The FUCK was the hold up for?! Let's fucking fight, I'll kill you ALL, MOTHERFUCKERS!" Daniel was surprisingly aggressive "...Something's very wrong here..." Yoh shared his thoughts with his other remaining three classmates "If that's acting, then that's just too extra, in my opinion. If not, though..." Yoh became invested in watching the fight, so he held his posture high at the border of the bridge.
Unlike the previous times, Daniel was the one who started to sprint and didn't necessarily wait for his two foes to reach the center like the prior times.
Charging straight for Solarka, who was enigmatized by this sudden change of attitude, Daniel lowered his stance, and with his knife, just like performing an uppercut---Daniel slashed Solarka's abdominal cavity, chest, neck, and face, all subsequently.
"AAGHHHH!!" Agonizing in pain, Solarka unleashed a final cry "DO IT NOW-------" Daniel, however, pierced Solarka's frontal skull with his knife by lowering his knife down from the swing that the earlier swing's momentum had produced.
Furthermore, Daniel was quick to pivot Solarka's head as a shield against Elmo's attack onto his left leg. Thus, Elmo's attack was completely absorbed by Solarka's head.
"Oh sh------" Daniel immediately let go of Solarka's head, now that he was dead, took hold of the knife that was pierced onto Solarka's head and used it to cut Elmo's right wrist in an instance "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" By far, the loudest scream emerged within the area as a bloodstream came from Elmo's right wrist---his right hand on the ground now.
Displaying borderline insane behavior---if not---Daniel mounted Elmo's upper body---imprisoning him from physical freedom and started to stab Elmo's right and left eyes rapidly.
"AHHHH!! AHHHH!! HELP ME!!! PLEASE, HELP ME!!!" Elmo, still not dead, begged Yoh and the other three, to come to his aid "HURRY UP AND KILL HIM, DAMN IT!! HIS BACK IS RI---" Daniel started to stab Elmo's heart repetitively to the point where the count was lost.
All it took was to listen to Daniel's ragged breath and just a glance at his deranged lunatic eyes, to know, for a fact, that winning was never an option.
Alreiza, Jyouhara, Bask, and Yoh know this now.
Forcefully, Daniel picked up Solarka and Elmo's knives and threw them at them. But that was not all.
Going into his belt beneath his black shirt, Daniel took out two other small knives---not quite as tall as the guerrilla ones and decided to give them all knives.
Exulted, Daniel smiled and clapped while performing a speech.
"Well done and welcome to the final round! Where you will get a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime chance, to defeat me and hopefully, see daylight once again! You have thirty seconds this time around, to form whatever strategy you can come up with!" Daniel unleashed a demonic laughter and clapped even more as he turned his back on the remaining four.
Seeing that horrifying brutal slaughter that Daniel did to Elmo, utterly shattered all of their hopes and dreams.
To demonstrate, not even Yoh is willing to pick up the knives, despite being granted the opportunity to fight four versus one. A fight, that, in theory, is unwinnable for Daniel, should the weapons be the same.
But after seeing so many displays of skill, alongside a combination of brutality mixed with a bloodthirsty to kill, it was not clear what they were supposed to do.
One thing was for sure though---in the midst of that cold atmosphere, where there is only darkness below and light is barely present---there were thirty seconds remaining.
"What a boring life." Yoh spoke to Alreiza, Jyouhara, and Bask "If I made you think I'm some sort of powerful fighter or a mastermind who has a bulletproof plan to defeat the psychopath who can't stop laughing and stabbing Elmo's dead body---then I'm sorry. Because that person is not me. I am ordinary as they come, and this is a fact. My leadership brought forth defeat and no productive results. I, in addition, have selected individuals who had no chance at all at surviving, but I think that's just the reality here, so if there are complaints, I'll listen to them now." Yoh looked at the three of them.
They were all looking at the ground; not terrified, but just straight-up hopeless.
Thus, no response came forth, which led to Yoh continuing with his speech.
"We have no winning chance. Those are the words a leader should never say yet here I am." Yoh said "Then what's the point?" Jyouhara meekly asked "There is no point. In less than thirty seconds, we are all going to be dead." Yoh didn't spare sentimentality "So that's it...? Man, if I had known, I would have just confessed to Chizuhama and would've tried to have sex no matter what. God, I wanted to fuck her. On God, I swear..." Bask dramatically confessed.
Yoh laughed a bit, with just fifteen seconds left on the clock.
"I had a crush on Zwette. I do think she's a bit average in looks, but I don't know, it's those attractions you don't even know why you are so attracted, get me?" Yoh, decided to leave his shell now that he was sure that they were going to die "I get it." Alreiza confessed "Me too." Jyouhara added "Same." A brief silence hit the scene after a mutual agreement was made by Bask.
With only ten seconds on the clock, Yoh thought back a little.
"Zwette... I don't even have to wonder, but if our group was targeted for simply existing within this island's forbidden section, then surely, you too..." Yoh faced the remaining three and laid out his final words "Our deaths can't be meaningless just because our lives were. That's why we have to fulfill the objective here. So we will..." Yoh addressed the final order and the four of them looked at Daniel "...It might just work... But you will... No, I guess we all will. No, I see." Jyouhara took a deep breath and started crying.
Despair was not lifted neither was hope reignited.
All there was, was a sense of duty.
"Time's up! Are! You! READY?!" Daniel took two different pills this time; different from the single one he took a while ago "Die with dignity and fulfill the objective. Then, our lives couldn't have been totally meaningless. GO!" Yoh launched his order.
Yoh took the front line and Daniel began to sprint right at him. On his right and left side, Bask and Alreiza were running toward Daniel too. Lastly, Jyouhara stood behind the front lines
Naturally, they were all wielding the given knives by Daniel, so there was a legitimate threat to Daniel here.
"AGH!!" Out of nowhere, Jyouhara tripped onto the ground and hit his face on the cold floor "Jyouhara?!" Bask looked behind and noticed that Jyouhara and fallen down "Hey a----" Bask's attention was quickly reversed back to Daniel as Daniel engaged in combat with Yoh.
Performing a right swing to the chest by pulling his knife back and then forth in a singular motion, Daniel forced Yoh to dodge it. By dodging, Yoh attempted to strike Daniel's right leg with his knife.
"I knew it---your aim was my leg." Daniel gave no mercy in piercing Yoh's skull with his knife while simultaneously allowing his left hand to be pierced by Alreiza's knife "....!!!" Swiftly though, Daniel removed the knife from Yoh's skull and stabbed Alreiza's heart whilst driving Alreiza's body in Bask's direction just so he couldn't have a good angle at him.
Now left alone with Bask and Jyouhara who was not showing signs of getting up, Daniel retrieved the knife from Alreiza's body.
Instead of running at Daniel and attacking, however, Bask decided to retreat and run back to where Jyouhara was.
"PLEASE---PLEASE LET ME ESC-----" Crying and horrified, Bask's last moment was short-lived as Daniel took ahold of his face and slit his throat with the knife "And now you." Daniel dropped Bask on the spot and turned to the last remaining body; which was Jyouhara.
However, something wasn't quite right.
"What the hell? He killed himself? That's a bummer." Daniel retrieved the knife in his hand and thought about retrieving the rest "No, I can't. I wasted way too much time. I was beyond convinced that this guy had something up his sleeve... I shouldn't have been so overpowering with my performance. Because, that way, they would still think they had a chance and would've tried harder..." Daniel voiced his regrets as he took one last look at Yoh's dead body "You had some soul alright. Not enough---but, your entirety will be a good addition." Daniel began to walk into the direction of the grand spiral case that would lead to his desired destination.
Passing through Jyouhara's body, Daniel noticed that there was a small pool of blood and that Jyouhara's eyes were lifeless. Furthermore, the guerrilla knife he had, was pierced onto his back's right side.
"So he stabbed himself from the back? Huh." Daniel found it weird but decided to move on.
One step; two steps, and action had to be taken now.
More than that and it would have been too late as Daniel would have gained a window of opportunity to react which was far too big.
"...!!!!" Noticing it too late, Jyouhara had taken out the blade from his back and rapidly engaged in the objective "GET SHIT ON!!" Mercilessly, Jyouhara stabbed Daniel's right calf in the center with the guerrilla knife "AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!!!!" Daniel unleashed a loud agonizing cry and was quick to react to Jyouhara's movement by forcefully twisting his neck as a counterattack which effectively killed Jyouhara in one second.
If the argument would be, whether or not, the winner here was who killed who, then the answer is abundantly clear.
Likewise, if the argument is who fulfilled the objective here, then the answer could be far more ambiguous.
"AHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!" Having not felt such a high level of physical pain in a while, Daniel was struggling to come to terms with the fact that someone had successfully physically injured him; especially in the right calf "DAMN IT!!! HE WASN'T DEAD?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! THIS PIECE OF SHIT....!!!" Daniel looked at Yoh while struggling to remove the knife from Yoh.
Daniel then realized the strategy as he took out the guerrilla knife from his right calf.
On his knees, profoundly sweating while forming a grateful right fist, Daniel hit the ground while surrounded by four dead bodies.
"He knew I was going to focus him so he FUCKING died in order for me to buy that idea and I never saw this clown actually kill himself! DAMN IT, WHY DID I IGNORE THE FACTS?!" Daniel hit the ground consecutively.
Performing a feat of rage, Daniel was beating himself up over the fact that he was strategically outmaneuvered despite having so many tools to his advantage.
"I had it all. It was supposed to be perfect! But now my mission will be.............!!!" Daniel began to despair "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no...!!!" His inhaling got abruptly desperate and his breath ragged "If I don't pass the entry mission, then... Hyunda... Hyunda won't acknowledge me and I can't get into the organization! And if I can't do that then....!!!" Daniel put down his two arms on the cold ground and stopped pumping his fists on the floor "...Yuliaaaaa....." Tears started to erupt from the corners of his eyes "What am I supposed to do...?!" The bleeding from his right calf continued despite Daniel's loud cries.
Perhaps out of despair and in combination with an utter emotional breakout, Daniel relived the past once again.
The day after she died; where it all started.