Chapter 4.1

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Jack’s eyes widened as he looked at Flame-boy lying still in the mud. The mist of the forest roiled around him but there was no mistaking the slowly pooling liquid beneath him. The damp forest floor was dyed with a red so vivid that it seemed to mute all the other colors around it.

The boys stood frozen over as they saw it coming. The sickle of death that was descending ever so slowly. The dangers of the test were always a distant thing in the boy’s minds. Their ignorance made them unafraid. They had heard about injuries in the test and even deaths, but that was something that happened to other people. It could never happen to them, would it?

These young calves had never beheld a tiger before. Jack was transfixed, mesmerized by all the red. His head was fogged over like he was floating out of his body. There just was so much red.

“Oh no,” whispered Soja horrified. The plump boy’s voice snapped Jack out of his petrified stupor.

“Scheiße!” Cursing up a storm, Jack leapt into action. “Tick nicht ab! Soja, grab a towel! We need to stop the bleeding.”

His brain was firing on all cylinders considering the problem. If they were quick enough they might be able to save him. The redhead had fallen straight down. The audible snap when he hit the ground echoed in his head. Jack felt about the boy’s neck to see if it was broken. Thankfully this wasn't the case. Even though his head was lolling at an awkward angle, it wasn't snapped.

There was a tearing sound and Soja’s hand blocked Jack’s view. The plump boy was holding his torn off sleeve in his hand. Jack took it without saying a word and cleaned up Flame-boy’s back, checking for injuries. The cut had to be large considering how quickly the blood was spreading. Jack was bent over Flame-boy, frantically searching for the open wound but there was just so much red that it was hard to see.

“Scheiße!” No matter how hard he looked he couldn’t find where he was bleeding from. The boy laid still as a corpse despite all the jostling around. There are no visible cuts or lacerations on the back which meant only one thing.

“He is lying on his wound. He must have struck something sharp on his way down.”

Jack scooped his arms around Flame-boy to try and lift him up but he kept slipping away from his grasp. His hands were dyed crimson, slick with the red vital fluid and couldn't get a firm grasp on the redhead. The wet mud got on his clothes as he struggled which made it all the harder to get a steady footing.

Half delirious in his panic Jack tried to regain his grip on Flame-boy as more and more the crimson water wet his hands. A shadow descended by his side and Jack saw Tanner squatting beside him.

Breathing a sigh of relief Jack spoke. “Tanner, help me flip him over.”

The knocked out redhead nearly slipped from his grasp and hit the floor while he was talking.

“Tanner!” Jack called out again. He was waiting for help with the body but that help never came. Tanner was looking perplexed at the still figure in Jack’s arms with a curious expression on his face, all the while the body kept slipping away from Jack's wet hands.

“Tanner!” Jack looked up to see Tanner staring at the scene with narrowed eyes.

“Tanner! Tanner!” growled Jack getting increasingly annoyed trying to get the squatting boy’s attention.

Tanner said nothing. He used one hand to bodily lift Flame-boy up in a vice like grip. Then he used his other hand to fish about in the redhead’s leather jacket. Jack had a scowl on his face as Tanner searched about. Finally finding what he had been searching for Tanner brought out a hip flask with a smirk on his face.

It was the same flask Flame-boy was drinking out of. The silver flask now was half crushed and had a finger sized hole in it, and a red liquid was dripping slowly out of it onto the forest floor, staining the ground scarlet.

Slowly realization dawned on Jack as he watched the dripping flask. He looked down at his hands and saw the red liquid didn't stick to his skin like blood. It was much more diluted and it washed away from his hands leaving a fruity smell in the air.

“Wine?”

Tanner sighed. “Both of you have no idea what a dead body looks like, do you?

Jack let go of Flame-boy with disgust. He fell in the wet mud with a dull splat. The redhead groaned slightly and his chest fell up and down rhythmically with each breath he took.

Looking down, Jack saw his pristine suit pants stained with mud and alcohol. It was typical noble arrogance to wear a suit to a jungle, but unlike a real noble Jack didn't have the money for the castings to protect his clothes from the grime. The camouflage that he had coated himself with was shattered so easily.

Jack advanced on the sleeping boy with his teeth bared. “Son... Of a... Telaren... Whore.”

He kicked the downed redhead with each word. “Deine Mutter pisst im Stehen!”

“Oh Shit!” Soja rushed in to hold Jack back. The plump boy’s head barely reached Jack’s ears as he pulled the raging former noble back.

“Jack you will really kill him if you keep going!”

Jack let himself be pulled away from Flame-boy by Soja and was panting heavily.

“Thank you, Soja. I'm alright.” Jack schooled his face into a neutral expression as though his previous outburst never happened. Letting out a long breath, he adjusted his cuffs and straightened the gold snake pin on his collar. The change was so quick that Soja backed away wearily.

“You sure?”

“Quite sure.”

Tanner snorted after hearing them argue. “Both of you are so gullible.”

He bent over Flame-boy and carefully flipped him over so he was lying on his back. There was a large dark red splotch on his leather coat where he had stashed his flask.

“Might as well put some ketchup on him for added realism. Probably would fall for that too.”

Jack scowled at the putdown. “Well excuse me for worrying about being accessory to murder.”

“Everyone waived their rights to live the moment they signed that contract, but I don't blame you for wanting to help him,” said Tanner. “Offer help when needed even when the downtrodden have daggers hidden in their heart.”

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“Oh, God! He is on sermon mode!” groaned Soja.

“Helping people when they mean to do you harm?” asked Jack. “What if they turn around and betray you?”

“Then you are free to rid the world of evil,” Tanner said grinning. “But you need to be certain of their guilt.”

Jack shook his head hearing Tanner’s idiotic sermons. It was a source of contention among the two boy’s but Jack didn’t let that sour their friendship.

“At least the Idiot is alive. That’s good news,” said Soja, wiping his brow. “And you can still use his powers.”

The moment Soja finished that careless statement he paused as he considered what he had blurted out. Realizing his mistake, Soja’s eyes widened with panic and he covered the round badge on his chest in fright.

Jack seeing the guilty look on Soja's face, waved off his worries. “It's fine.” He tapped the round ID badge on his chest. “They can track us but they can't hear us.”

“Really? Then how do they know when we are knocked out?”

“By our Aura,” said Jack. He brought out a screwdriver from his pockets and fiddled with his badge. “There it is. There is an MGNmeter on the side. Barely visible too. This is some nice architecture.”

He fixed his badge up and hid the screwdriver back in his pocket. “The moment your Mana runs out the badge is triggered and you are out of the competition.”

“Consider this one well and truly triggered,” said Tanner examining Flame-boy’s badge that was displaying the redhead’s ID number. The badge had turned scarlet indicating his elimination.

“Alright, Matchstick! Let’s see what you got.” Tanner clapped his hands and began digging through Flame-boy’s many pockets.

“What are you doing?” asked Soja, frowning.

“Appropriating resources. He doesn't need any of this stuff now that he is out cold, is there?”

Soja looked apprehensive about stealing from a guy that they had just knocked out.

“You were just going on about helping the downtrodden! Anyway, Isn’t it bad luck lifting things from a dead person?”

“Waste not, want not.” Tanner smiled.

“And he is not dead yet, is he?” Jack smirked seeing the old argument coming up again.

Tanner nodded in agreement. “Yes! And we need to uphold the traditions.”

“What traditions?” asked Soja.

“The traditions of finders keepers.”

“How religious of you. This is not very kosher.”

Tanner looked mock wounded. “My chosen path is Tengiri. We are a warlike people. Killing and looting is what we do.”

Soja was still unconvinced. Tanner had a very unique take on the scriptures to justify his actions which most of the priests of Nalwa would have frowned upon. The Nalwa had many gods and goddesses with each having a unique path or calling. At the age of adulthood, one must choose which path that they will walk on for the rest of their lives. Tanner had chosen the path of the warrior whose very flexible scriptures would have given anyone pause. There were passages describing how to loot and be thorough about it. Tanner, who had always been a rebel thrived in the murky nature of the religious texts. Despite the barbaric nature of the path, there was one rule that was untenable which was the cause for a ‘Just War’. The certainty of an enemy’s guilt. This was one rule that Tanner couldn’t bend.

“Nice!” Tanner exclaimed. He was holding a curved hunting knife. Carefully bringing the dagger out of its sheath, the boys saw its edge coated with a purple liquid. Considering the weapon for a while, Tanner returned the knife back into its sheath and offered it to Jack.

“Here. You better use this.”

“Why?” asked Jack perplexed. “I already have a weapon.”

“All you have is that whip. You need something for close quarters.”

Jack shrugged and took up the offered dagger.

“Bad luck,” said Soja, shaking his head. “Redhead is going to curse us when he wakes up.”

“Oh, I’m sure he doesn't mind,” said Jack with a grin. “Oi Matchstick, you cool with this?”

The comatose boy laid unresponsive with his mouth hanging open.

“See?” Jack nodded sagely. “We cool.”

Tanner, sensing the opportunity for a joke, leaned forwards and grabbed Flame-boy’s lower jaw. He puppeteered the boy to speak by moving his jaw up and down.

“Yes, you can take my stuff, you filthy, noble scum. Take all of it. Also bow down to my fiery feet or suffer my wrath! RAAA!”

Soja burst out laughing. Jack felt his lips twitch, trying hard not to laugh. “You see? He really doesn’t mind.”

“Dude, that is so messed up!” Soja chuckled. “Both of you are assholes!”

“RAAA!” Tanner kept puppeteering Flame-boy getting increasingly more obnoxious.

“Okay, That’s enough Tanner!” said Jack clapping his hands. “This is the perfect time to take five and get our bearings right. While Tanner finishes his holy rituals.”

Tanner gave a thumbs up and went back to going through Flame-boy’s pockets, occasionally bringing out some odd trinkets. He threw most of the junk on to a pile separating them into stuff that would be potentially useful.

“So, What’s our plan?” asked Soja, tearing his eyes away from Tanner.

“Plan is to glove up. check our gear. Tanner.” Jack called out.

“Right. Right,” said Tanner distractedly. The junk pile was steadily getting larger. There was a lot of stuff in the pile, but none of the little trinkets looked particularly valuable.

Momentarily stopping his quest for loot Tanner focused in on summoning Soja’s gloves. He brought his right hand in front of him and concentrated. Beads of sweat started forming on his forehead as he focused. Jack frowned. Tanner always had trouble using his powers on gloves for some reason. There were a lot of things about their gifts that were still unknown to them. Risky dabbling like the one that Tanner was doing could potentially prove to be fatal.

Tanner gasped as his hand glowed blue. A pair of dirty, blue gloves appeared above his glowing hand. He was breathing heavily by the time he was done. He shot the gloves resting on his palm a dirty look and threw it at Soja as though he was ridding himself of something filthy.

“Hey! Watch it!” Soja grabbed at the sailing gloves as it passed through the air. Fumbling with the pair, he barely managed to keep them from falling onto the damp forest floor.

“Flame-boy caught us with our pants down,” said Jack surveilling the burnt up clearing they were standing in. The ash had settled into the moist forest mud but the charred up trees remained. “Let’s not let that happen again. He won't be the last enemy we encounter. Check our gear and grab our things. We better go in fully locked and loaded.”

Soja popped the gloves on his hands and started interfacing with the device.

“Should we be that flashy? Weapons are banned in this round.”

Gloves where basic casting assisting devices. They connected to the caster’s mana channels and helped boost the user’s ability to manipulate their aura. The ones which Soja had on were on the lower tier but it was only what they could afford at their current level. The gloves on Soja’s hands started glowing softly. It tightened around his fists and thin glowing lines snaked its way through as it connected to his mana channels.

“Super flashy,” repeated Soja, staring at his glowing pair of hands.

“Weapons are not banned Soja,” said Jack as he familiarized with his gear. He checked his pockets and kept a mental note on where he kept each item in case he needed to grab something in an emergency. A set of screwdrivers appeared out of his sleeves and disappeared just as quickly. Next came a few plastic zip ties which he moved to a hidden compartment in his vest. After that came a bottle of pills. He handled the beast lures carefully and tucked them back in his left breast pocket.

“What are you talking about?” asked Soja perplexed. “Weapons are banned. They checked all our gear. It's only because of Tanner that we can use anything.”

“No,” Jack stated calmly. He tucked the hunting knife he got from Flame-boy securely in his back pocket. “I've checked the rules and nowhere is it clearly stated that you can't have weapons.”

“But they…”

“They confiscated our stuff because they can't monitor us continuously in the forest. But if we do manage to sneak in any then its no sweat off their backs. The test is supposed to be dangerous. There will always be a few casualties.”

“And besides,” said Jack pointing towards Tanner. “Covert powers are powers too.”

“So the other guys can have weapons too?”

“More than likely.”

“Ah, man!” Soja groaned.

Jack patted himself down as he once again confirmed all the placements of his hidden gear. Now that that was taken care of, it was time to check his main weapon. He reached for the belt around his waist and tapped the buckle a few times. There was a soft click and the buckle came loose and Jack pulled at it.