In my life, I had experienced three times so far when I genuinely feared for my life.

The first was back during the early days of the program. I was able to handle the mental training without much issue right from the start. But I wasn’t as physically fit as some of the others in my group. We learned very early on that failure was not allowed. If you had below average marks, you went without food. Continue to do poorly, and you were never seen from again. I lacked the resolve I had now at first and thought I might end up as one of those who vanished without a trace.

The second time was when the pressure of training became too much for one of the kids in my group. He went into a frenzy during training and attacked anyone nearby, which just so happened to include me. I barely managed to fight him off long enough for those in charge to send in people to subdue him. That kid ended up being one of the ones I never saw again after that day.

And the third was right now in this exam, staring down the man in front of me.

Between the overwhelming stench of blood coming from him, the bloody axes in his hands, and the expression on his face that showed he wasn’t entirely all there, it was clear that his claim of killing eight people in this exam so far very likely was not a bluff. This was someone who was used to killing. Someone who walked on edge with death every day.

Between me and Fifty-six, I was the only one with a weapon currently. And while it gave me the advantage in speed, the two axes this man was wielding gave him an edge in both power and range. On top of that, we had never really fought together so our teamwork was shaky at best.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t one of you going to step forward?” the man asked with a sadistic grin.

Fighting this man was a risky gamble. It would be best for us to avoid it if possible. “There’s already a number of people who have made it to the goal.” I said. “If we waste time fighting here, all three of us could end up failing. It benefits us all to call a truce and keep moving towards the goal for now.”

The man stared at me for a few seconds. Then he started chuckling to himself, which soon broke out into laughter. “Passing the exam? Do you really think I give a shit about passing this exam?”

“What?” Fifty-six questioned. “Then why are you participating?”

“Shouldn’t that be obvious?” he said. “In these exams, world laws don’t apply. We’re allowed to do whatever we want so long as it’s within the rules. And that includes killing.” The man held one of his axes over his shoulder. “Here, I’m allowed to kill all I want, and it’s perfectly legal. What better place is there to practice my craft?”

It seemed our luck was getting worse. This man was a professional killer. He wasn’t here to reach Genesis. He was here simply for training and his own sick pleasure. Nothing more. Negotiating a truce with him was going to be impossible.

I shielded my mouth with my hand as I whispered to Fifty-six. “I’ll try to distract him. Once there’s an opening, try to take at least one of his weapons.”

“Got it.”

I slowly shifted my legs forward. Bit by bit, I closed the distance between me and this killer. I readied my knife as he readied his axes. He seemed to be waiting for me to make the first move, so I decided to take my time slowly closing the distance between us. Closer… Closer…

Now!

Without warning, I sprang forward. My opponent reacted immediately and swung his right axe down at me, but my dash was a feint and I slid to the left. I attempted to go for a slash at his right arm, but he had already anticipated my feint and was in the process of turning his body and swinging his other axe my way. I jumped back and barely avoided the slash.

I tried dashing around him next. Perhaps if I could confuse him with my speed, there would be an opening somewhere. But no matter which direction I went, he seemed to be able to keep his eyes on me without issue. I tried going in for an attack a few times, but each time I did he had a counter ready and I was forced to jump back.

“You’re pretty quick on your feet.” he told me. “You’re a lot more interesting than the others I’ve killed in this exam so far.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

Despite his praise, both of us could see that I was at a big disadvantage here. If I kept dashing about, I was bound to run out of stamina faster than him. And once I did, I’d be helpless against his overwhelming power. I had to do something to create an opening. Anything.

Even if it meant taking a gamble.

I dashed forward to attack. The man countered with his usual vertical slash. But this time, I didn’t dash to the side. I watched as the blade slowly came down at me. Waiting for the last second, I took a small step to the left, just barely avoiding the axe. Now was my chance. I held my knife tightly as I thrusted it forward at his face. However, just as I thought it was about to connect, the man tilted his head away. He let go of his axe and grabbed my arm holding the knife.

“Gotcha.”

Shit! I thought to myself as he swung his other axe at me. I attempted to force him to let go by driving my knee into his gut. It was clear he felt it, but he didn’t stop his swing or let go of my arm. If it hit, I was dead for sure. But I had no way to block.

However, Fifty-six had not let the man’s focus on me go unnoticed. He had been running towards us and grabbed the man’s left arm, locking it with both of his own arms and stopping it before the axe could cut me.

“Not bad.” the man said. However, the confident smirk on his face didn’t fade. “But not good enough!”

Swinging his leg, he kicked me in the stomach just like I had done to him. But he had far more power. He let go of my arm just as the blow came and I was knocked back as the air burst out of my lungs. I tumbled along the ground and saw him use his now free arm to pick up his axe.

I shouted a warning to Fifty-six at the top of my lungs. “Look out!”

Fifty-six didn’t need my warning. He had already seen the attack coming and let go. But he jumped back a second too late and the tip of the axe’s blade slashed him. As he distanced himself, Fifty-six kneeled down and held an arm over the wound. It wasn’t fatal, but It would no doubt leave a scar by the time it healed.

Things were getting progressively worse. Fifty-six was injured and I stood no chance against this man one on one. Should I leave Fifty-six and run? No, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t just take an axe to the back like Fifty-three had. But then what was the alternative? All I had were my knife and my grappling hook.

But maybe that was all I needed.

An idea formulated in my head. Would it work? There was no way to know for sure, but it was worth a try at the very least.

Once again I dashed towards the man, knife at the ready. Just like always, he countered with his vertical slash. But unlike the last time, I dashed far to the side and evaded. As I jumped back, I took my knife and hurled it at him. It was my only weapon and he had seen me holding onto it tightly this entire fight, so with any luck he wouldn’t expect me to throw it at him. However, he saw it coming and tilted his head to the side as the knife flew past him.

Stolen novel; please report.

Just as I had planned.

While he was keeping his focus on the knife, I was already pulling out my grappling hook from my pocket. I took aim at the man and immediately fired. It wasn’t technically a weapon, but at the velocity the claw shot out at, it would be powerful enough to impale him. If it hit, he’d be severely injured and we’d have a chance to win.

Unfortunately, no such luck existed. The man noticed the grappling hook and managed to just barely dodge at the last second. The claw managed to scratch his abdomen as it flew past and embedded itself in the nearby rock, but it wasn’t even close to what I had been hoping for. Especially since I had thrown away my knife to try and pull this gamble off.

Swinging his axe down, the man sliced through the wire of the grappling hook, rendering it useless. “That wasn’t a bad idea, kid. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like it worked.”

Now I was seriously in hot water. I had barely managed to scratch him, my knife was too far for me to reach, and my grappling hook was broken. I was out of options.

But then suddenly, a shadow loomed over the man as we both widened our eyes.

A male teen jumped down from above with his fist reeled back, ready to swing it at the man. As I took a closer look, I realized it was another familiar face. To be more precise, it was Fifty-four, another one of the program graduates.

The man quickly swung his axe up to counter. Just as I thought Fifty-four’s arm was about to be split down the middle, I watched as he managed to block the slash and gripped the blade with his bare hand. No, not bare hand. Upon closer inspection, he was wearing a gauntlet over it. With that on, he didn’t need to fear the axe’s sharp blade.

With the slash blocked, Fifty-four swung a kick to the man’s face, which ended up being a direct hit to the chin. The man stumbled back a bit as Fifty-four landed on the ground.

“Sorry we’re late. It took longer than we thought to get here.”

Just as I was about to ask who “we” was supposed to be, a girl landed next to him. Fifty-five, who completed the last of our roster for the five graduates in the exam.

The man wiped off the blood from his lip. “Just when I thought my fun was about to end, more playmates decided to show up. It seems it’s my lucky day.”

The two new arrivals glanced my way, their expressions asking what his deal was. I simply shrugged in response. “I don’t know. This guy is weird.”

“Now, now. No need to be rude.” he said with a mad grin as he readied his axes once again. “Let’s keep this party going, shall we?”

Not giving us anymore time, he charged forward towards Fifty-four and Fifty-five. The pair dashed in opposite directions as they attempted to flank him. While they kept him busy, I hurried over towards the direction I had thrown my knife earlier. Once I picked it up, I ran over to Fifty-six, who had already started wrapping bandages over his wound.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“I’ll live. But I’ll just reopen the wound if I move around too much. I won’t be able to provide any backup.”

Even with Fifty-six out of commission, we still outnumbered our enemy three to one. With any luck, that would be enough. “Alright. Stay back for now then.”

With that, I took off running towards my two other companions who were busy fighting. Like us, they seemed to be struggling to find a clear opening to strike at. Once I arrived however, we surrounded him in a triangular formation.

The man slowly eyed us, weighing his options as we slowly moved closer. His grin was gone, meaning we were finally starting to put some pressure on him. But this fight was far from won.

Fifty-four took the initiative and dashed in, with myself and Fifty-five following a second later. Not having any escape routes, the man began to twist his body. Fifty-five and Fifty-four saw what was coming and jumped back. Meanwhile, I bent down and threw my body forward, sliding along the ground and under his slash as he spun his body around to attack from a full 360 degree angle.

As I slid past him, I slashed my knife at his leg. A cry of pain escaped him as he quickly kicked me, knocking me near the edge of the ravine. However, the injury to his leg caused him to stumble, which Fifty-four took advantage of and moved in. He threw a series of punches, causing the main to lose his grip on his two axes. Fifty-four finished up with a kick to the gut, knocking the man onto his back with a painful thud.

Fifty-four picked up the two axes. “Something tells me you won’t be so threatening without these.” With a forceful throw, he tossed the two weapons over the edge and let them fall to the river below.

“NO!” the man shouted as his weapons vanished over the edge.

Now that he had been disarmed, our chances of winning looked much better. But he was also cornered. When someone was cornered, they were desperate, and when you were desperate you became a lot more dangerous.

Even though he knew he had lost this fight, the man seemed to be looking to take one of us down with him. And just my luck, his gaze finally landed on me. Not wasting another moment, he lunged forward at me and tackled me to the ground.

“You kids are officially no longer amusing!” he glared. “GO TO HELL!”

I grit my teeth as I glared back. “You first!”

Pooling all of my strength in my legs, I bent them and pushed them against the man’s body. With a forceful shove I threw him over me, tossing him back and throwing him over the edge of the ravine. His voice cried out as he fell, the sound gradually getting quieter. After a few seconds, it was gone and we could hear a faint splash from the bottom of the ravine.

I stayed lying down on my back as I caught my breath. My heart was still racing, the fact that I was out of danger not fully sinking in yet. But after a few seconds, I got back to my feet. I wasn’t sure how, but by some miracle we had won.

Fifty-four looked around at us. “Everyone ok?”

“Yeah. You two arriving when you did saved us.” Fifty-six said. “Thanks.”

Fifty-five glanced over at the two dead bodies nearby. No doubt she recognized one of them. “Is that…”

“Fifty-three, yeah.” I confirmed. “That guy got the jump on us and took her out in an instant.”

“I see.” Fifty-four said. “Well, she only has herself to blame for letting her guard down. We’ll just have to move on without her.”

The rest of us nodded silently. “So, shall we keep moving?” Fifty-six asked.

Fifty-four took out his terminal and opened up the map. “There shouldn’t be much left I imagine. But the number of people who’ve made it to the end is now at seven.”

Fifty-six and Fifty-five looked at fifty-four’s terminal to confirm the information. Seven people. That left five slots open, more than enough for the four of us if we could make it there in time. We could all pass. We could all go to Genesis together. We could meet up with those of us from the program who were already in Genesis and work together with them to defeat the goddess and make our wish. We could complete the mission the organizers of the program had given to us. The mission we had spent ten years training for.

But that wasn’t going to be what happened. I wouldn’t allow it.

I walked up to Fifty-four, who was still looking at his terminal. He had relaxed his guard with all of us here. And considering he was the most capable fighter among us, it only seemed right to deal with him first. I drove my knife into his back, piercing his heart. With a forceful tug, I slash the knife to the side, widening the wound even further. Blood spilled out from his body as he collapsed with a lifeless thud.

Fifty-five and Fifty-six were stunned as their brains tried to process what had just happened. I took advantage of the surprise and attacked Fifty-five next. She managed to react at the last second and grabbed my arm, struggling with me as I tried to stab her.

“Traitor!” she shouted.

Not even bothering to give a response, I let go of the knife. Her eyes followed it perplexingly, but she failed to react as I grabbed it with my other hand and drove it in. Her strength quickly faded and I shoved her back, pulling out the knife in the process. She stumbled a bit but soon fell over the edge.

I turned to Fifty-six, who was still staring at me in disbelief. “You’re the only one left.” I said, my voice cold as ice.

“Why…” he muttered. “Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t worry about that.” I told him. I quickly moved in towards him, and in his injured state he was unable to stop me from getting behind him. “Just die.”

One slash from my knife later, and Fifty-six collapsed as the same lifeless corpse as the others.

I turned away from my now dead companions and sheathed my knife as I began walking away. We had all graduated from the same program. We had all come to take this exam together. We had all fought and killed a professional murderer together. Some would think that meant we shared a bond. Some invisible tie that wouldn’t be broken. But I lost any sense of bonds after graduating from the program. I felt no remorse from killing others, be they friend or foe.

After all, my graduation exam was killing every single one of the kids in my class.