— Lament of an Unknown Warrior —

I am so angry and filled with rage.

I don’t know why anymore. I think I loved them…who? I just can’t remember anymore. It hurts too much. I’ve been fueled by my rage for so long now. I can’t seem to remember anything even if I wanted. I’ve been hunting and slaughtering them all. I think I am heading in the right direction though. I feel like I should be going this way, but I don’t know why. Maybe this is where they are.

My rage has been pushing me for so long. It has burned and cleaned me all out. I’ve become like a burning fire that will suddenly snuff itself out. I will burn until I find where I need to go. Find who I need to kill. Slaughtering all in my path.

I am just so angry. I wish I knew who I lost or why, but my madness seems to have drained that memory from me. It has been so long. I don’t even remember who they even were to me, a son, a daughter, a wife…a husband? Now I can’t remember if I am a man or a woman. I am now just a spirit of anger and hatred. I will wander forever hunting them until my fire burns out.

I’ve grown weary of my rage. Today I forgot my name, but I just keep moving. I don’t know where I am now. Many have come to kill me. I think they just want me to stop, but I’ve killed them. Some were able to run. I let them go as my fire could no longer reach. Those that couldn’t run their screams still burn in my ears. When will my rage subside?

I think I finally died today…. But I am still here. I think I have truly become a spirit. I feel so tired now. I think I’ll sleep. I think I may have found my peace, but will I wake to find my rage still burning? No, I don’t think so. My fury still burns, but now I remember the feeling that fueled that rage for so long. I still do not remember why. I think I may have become a spirit of rage, hatred, and of love.

Tears fell from my face as I wrote my lament, placing my pen down. The war was over but what was left? I took one final look toward the bloody battlefield so far away. A battle I began and ended. I was lost and didn’t know what was next.

— Aster —

“Wake up!!!” Jane abruptly woke us up.

The shout caused me to jump and fall off the bed. “What’s that? I'm up! I'm up!” Noticing I was on the floor I immediately blushed as I looked at Jane. “Why do you always wake us up like that?!”

Jane was laughing at my antics. Getting out of the tangle of blankets my gaze drifted to the girl on the other side of the room. She was sitting up in bed there with a big black mess of hair with a half-empty gaze. I think she fell back asleep.

Jane walked over to her. “Wake up!!” This time she jumped.

She still was trying to figure out what was going on when she asked. “What was that for?!”

“To wake you up.” Jane replied smoothly “Now both of you get up and get ready it's time for day two of combat.”

We were both still half-asleep as we got ready for the fight. The girl fixed her hair and proceeded to tie it back and put it down the back of her shirt.

“Why do you do that?” pointing to the hair down the back of her shirt.

“So it can't be grabbed as easily.” She looked at me like I was an idiot for asking. When I thought about it I agreed that it was a smart move.

Not having any other changes of clothes than the ones we were provided to us. We put on our soft leather-soled shoes and proceeded to the hall where Jane was waiting on us.

“Ready?” Jane asked but without even waiting for a response she proceeded to briskly walk down the hall ahead of us.

I was shoving on my shoes as she said that leaving me behind. “Hey wait for me!” I ran after them and kept only grabbing a glimpse of them as they ran down the hall.

After catching the girls’ faces I realized they were having fun with me. Jane was smiling and giggling while running away. I finally caught up to them when they stopped outside of a big familiar door. It was the door I left through when I went to do my first test. Catching my breath. “How big is this place?” this was the first time I had really thought of the size of the building. After running around for ten minutes I realized the place was a lot bigger than it appeared.

Jane smiled, ignored me, and opened the door.

The girl let a laugh slip out before catching herself.

Of course, the big giant creepy door.’ My heart barely sped up at the sight. Letting out a big sigh we followed Jane. Exiting into the alleyway with a ladder to the roofs. What was for us were two tables each with the weapons we had chosen the day before.

“Please grab your weapons.” We headed towards the tables “Watch your step.”

Carefully we headed towards our respective tables with the weapon types we used the other day. Because we were being careful and slow stepping towards the tables there were no big mishaps but I did almost fall by misjudging the distance, or the length of my legs. My center of balance was off from what my brain was telling me. The whole time I seemed to wobble as I walked across the roof to the table. I let out a low chuckle as this was almost normal for me. I never really had balance before. Why would I have it now? The weapons were different from before, sure they were the same type but they looked different. From a distance, I wasn't able to see the differences but up close it was obvious. The dagger was finely made with a honed steel edge inlaid with gold in the center of the blade with runes etched along with them and an emerald inset in the handle. The beauty of the dagger was comparable to the rest of the weapons. The sword was the twin of the knife with a beautiful emerald green sheen across the steel with four emeralds set along the side. The chakrams were subtle sky blue with a brilliant wave pattern on the sides of the metal, reminding me of Damascus steel. As I observed them I found tiny runes all along the inside of the rings. Then there were the throwing knives. They seemed well made and strong but normal. They all seemed to be very expensive weapons.

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Jane interrupted my observation. “Congratulations! These are your prizes for the ball. Aster as you placed second you get three magic weapons and girl as you place first you get a full set of four magic weapons.” So they were magic.

Looking over the weapons the girl questioned “How do we use them and what do they do?”

“You'll find out later. As far as the both of you are concerned they are normal weapons till the end of training.” Jane turns and gestures towards something in the far distance. A flag with a picture of a cat on it. “See that flag.”

“Yes,” I automatically focused on the flag that was fully in focus. My eyes had gotten insanely good.

“Be the first to bring it to me. Use any methods or any weapons.”

That last part concerned me so I asked. “Do you want us to kill each other?” I noticed the girl's eyes seemed to widen at my question.

Jane only said “It happens. Dying in the guild is hard. Dying out of the guild is a lot easier, but doesn't matter as long as you get the flag.” Equipping myself I turned to look over towards the girl was gone. I turned towards Jane, asking with my eyes.

“You're falling behind.”

I pulled out a throwing knife bolting after the girl. The girl was running hard towards the flag trying to get there first. I was close on her heels but she was faster, so I was falling behind. Then the girl made a mistake, she looked back. She was running too fast not to pay attention to what’s in front of her. She tripped over her own feet rolling down the roof before catching herself, getting back up, and resuming the run. Not missing the opportunity I sped up to catch her. I had closed the distance in the time it took for her to recover. We were about halfway there when I took the opportunity to try to slow her down. Throwing one of my knives towards the girl as hard as I could. It flew end-over-end towards her sliding sickeningly into her calf causing her to fall and roll down the sloping roof. This would have been the moment to have taken the lead if not for one little thing. The throw threw me off balance causing me to trip over my own feet sliding down the slanted roof. I was able to right myself and get to the relative safety of the center of the roof. By this point, the girl had already pulled out her gun continuing to limp towards the target.

As I reached the top of the roof she had stopped to aim her gun and started to shoot. Three shots were fired in rapid succession, the first two missed me completely but the third took me in the shoulder. “AAHHHH” letting out a loud shout from the bullet by quickly healing. The bullet hurt like hell knocking me back almost causing me to fall again. There was a lingering burning sensation in my arm but it was easily ignored as I continued to run. She was still moving faster and looking at her wound it seemed to be slowly closing as her limp faded. She looked back pulling the gun again and unloaded the remaining three shots towards me. All three missed since I saw the gun and I jumped to the side to hide behind a chimney with the bullets hitting right as I landed behind it. As soon as I heard the last shot I popped out of the chimney and ran after towards the flag.

I was losing and needed to do something to pull ahead. I pulled out my other throwing knives. Making sure not to fall this time I threw the remaining three knives at a run causing me to miss with two. The third I had misjudged the distance causing the handle of the knife not the blade to hit. This only caused a small stumble on her end, but that was exactly what I needed to catch her. I unsheathed my dagger. She had taken out her own dagger as well but as she was on her knees I took the advantage of slicing at her Achilles tendon. She dodged out of the way but not fast enough allowing me to cut into her leg. Before she could retaliate I ran towards the flag. I was almost there when I felt something pierce my back and through my chest. I looked down at the new arrow protruding from my chest “OW!” She continued past me, passing by me slicing my arm as she went by. I quickly jumped behind a chimney and used my knife to break the arrowhead off to remove it. It took three hits with a sword to break the shaft. Every hit was pure agony as I felt it through my entire body. Running on adrenaline I was able to pull out the arrows, the wounds closing. The whole process was surreal, it was weird, the pain was there and it was excruciating but I was able to put it to the back of my mind. Almost as if it was happening to someone else.

By the time I had finished pulling the arrow out and was able to move I was sure the girl had the flag. The girl was almost there. Apparently, she had taken the chance to close her wounds and was now moving at almost full speed. She was favoring her right side so I knew the damage was still there.

The damage to my inside was severe. It felt like needles constantly stabbing into my side. I could only move a quarter of my normal running speed. The girl grabbed the flag as I waited. I took a moment to spin the chakrams in before throwing them towards the girl. The chakram struck her back sticking itself deep in her flesh. Stunning her for a few seconds. I threw the other ring and it struck her left calf causing her to fall to one knee. She ripped out the chakrams and threw them away allowing me to catch up once more. Not wanting to lose I pulled my sword and swung at the girl. She was quick and moved to the side and let the sword strike the shingles hard. Before I could do anything else she moved to close range and punched me with her brass knuckles.

My insides were already burning, but with the new blunt trauma, I exploded with pain. “You're not very good with that thing are you?” Now on my knees and in pain. The girl for good measure proceeded to beat me relentlessly till she was sure I was down. She approached Jane “Here.” she said handing Jane a slightly bloody piece of cloth.

Jane smiled looking over the piece of cloth “This isn’t what I asked for.”

“What do you mean? This is the flag!”

Jane handed it back “Take a look.”

She looked at the ‘flag’ and quickly realized it was a piece of cloth in the shape of a flag covered in blood.

“Here's the flag.” Jane looked over to see me bloody, beaten, and broken. I had crawled forward and handed the flag to Jane. As Jane took the flag I collapsed and began to focus on healing myself. I was already in tremendous amounts of pain so the healing was almost as bad as the beating. I put the pain to the back of my mind and focused my energy on mending my body.

The girl stared at me and the flag I gave Jane. She was flabbergasted by what had happened. She couldn't believe it. I had taken the flag while being beaten and was able to beat her in the brutal competition. Although the more I thought about it we were both pretty ruthless.

“Can you climb the ladder?” Jane asked. I thought she was asking me when I heard the girl answer.

“In a second.” She sounded slightly in pain.

“Good.” Jane then grabbed me to bring me down the ladder “Come on.”

It hurt. Every time I was moved the pain intensified and already closed wounds reopened. I knew when we entered the guild as I could feel myself healing much faster, and with almost no effort on my part. It took some time before I was able to walk or before the bruises faded.

After letting us heal Jane announced “I will bring you to your room. Tomorrow is your last day. You will receive a short explanation and hopefully all your questions will be answered. Congratulations!” she said this last part with a smile but seemed to have a solemn tone to it.

We were tired after the race, we were fatigued mentally and physically, healing takes a lot of energy and we had healed a lot. Even though we had only been up for two hours I felt like I could sleep for a week, and without protest, we followed Jane to our room and quickly passed out with our torn and bloody clothing.