“Oh, this is hilarious, I’m so okay with dying today. This was totally worth it.” Fox met up with us a few moments later and took great pleasure in seeing Wasp covered in Imp scratches and the blood of her friends.

“Oh look over there! What is it? I’ll tell you what it’s not. Her friends.” He giggled to himself. I could tell Wasp was considering killing him, the only reason she hadn’t was because she hadn;t fully decided whether being alone on this night guaranteeing her death was worth killing Fox. It wouldn’t take long at this rate for her to decide it was.

“Fox enough,” I growled. Wasp hand was uncomfortably close to her knife.

“We need to hunt some Seraphim. The plan is Fox and Wasp will stay back with your rifles while I approach, I trust you not to-”

“Wait what?!” Wasp interrupted me. Rude.

“... Not to shoot me? What? I thought that was pretty clear.”

“It was.” Fox nodded much to Wasp’s annoyance.

“Not that you idiots. The hunting. Surely we aren’t going to do that, we’ll die!”

“Love the optimism.”

“Fox,” I glared.

“Sorry.”

“I lost everyone,” Wasp continued the annoyance in her voice being evident. “They were better trained, had more chemistry and strategy. If they couldn’t make it then we clearly can’t. Let’s cut our losses and hide behind a fourth year.”

Fox mimed her talking with his hand as she spoke mocking her. I stifled a laugh but I had to agree. Unlike Fox and I who had to cut practice short, take turns sleeping and skip meals regularly. Her previous team were leaps and bounds ahead of us. She was right but we had our own problems to deal with.

“Well that’s nice and all but we kind of need to get something from this.” Fox pointed out. “If we lose we owe the bitch queen favours, and not to be negative. But, she seems like the kind to be into bdsm. I don’t mean the kinky stuff, I mean borderline torture. I hope it’s not testicular but I just know it is.”

“Not only that but we need the ichor or mods just to get into an Einherjar team,” I added, not that Fox didn’t already summarise it with his rather uncomfortable description.

“Well if you need an Einherjar, you're looking at one. Welcome to the Wasp nest.”

“I hope that’s not what you called yourself. That’s so humiliating.” Fox laughed.

“As eager as we are to join the ‘Wasp Nest.’” I gagged when the words left my mouth.

“Unfortunately, I don’t love your chances of keeping your Einherjar status for longer then a week. We hunt, you are welcome to join us grand Einherjar,” I said. The plan always was to join an Einherjar group, but the ‘Wasp nest’ wouldn’t do. The Einherjar would change after this. Whoever won Initiation would be the new Einherjar, we have no idea how many victors there are but hopefully, most people are cowering or unaware of what’s happening.

“The broody dick is right. Come on Canis my lovely little guard dog, we have some Seraphim to kill.”

Of course, he would take like the leader. I hated him and myself even more for actually following him. My only hope is that he would die at the very end and I get the ichors for myself, that would be the best outcome. Also, despite her constant whining Wasp did follow as well. Though, very vocal about not wanting to.

The three of us moved quickly down the halls, cutting down minor Seraphim down as we went. Surprise was our best bet, as the narrow corridors provided us easy hits with our weapons. The only problem is when we actually meet a big Seraphim we would be killed, hopefully, initiation wouldn’t last so long though.

Fox would stun them with his whip, I could cut through them and Wasp would blow their brains out. Simple yet was working quite well. Whenever we ran into a group of Seraphim that was too numerous we just kept running, often just in the other direction. Speed was the name of the game, the second we stopped we’d die.

Fox’s whip cracked most likely stopping the heart of another one of those human female dog things, it didn’t matter if it did though as my sword beheaded it confirming its death. We were actually getting not terrible at this. We just had to not hit a wall.

There was a wall. Fuck.

“Cassini you’re too close, Hubble your distrating not hiding, and for fuck’s sake Goes hit your shots or move closer!” A man in blue armour commanded.

The wall wasn’t made of metal but rather one made of people. Eight people, weaved between each other shooting at four horrific monsters. They were faceless pale men except that its arms were elongated. Really elongated, to the point it towered over everyone and was using its multijointed arms and legs like a spider.

They were agile moving to the point it’s body could avoid the gun shots and tap danced around the blades. One was even so quick as to grab one of our peers and use it’s long arms like a slingshot flinging him down the corridor.

The three of us sidestepped as he shot past us like a bullet into the wall. Our armour was strong and could absorb some impact but our necks could only bend at so far of an angle. The guy was moving but his neck would be sore tomorrow.

“We got spectators Kepler.” One said, they were the only other one in coloured armour. The person who warned Kepler had orange armour with darker orange highlights. The most pretentious thing on it though was the painted-on-black sun on the back. Ugh, Solaris.

I’d never spoken to Solaris but he reeked out arrogance that you could smell from the other side of Mayrterdom. Even though he was only second-in-command to Kepler, his Einherjar master, he acted like he was in command.

Kepler was one one in pale blue armour. He wasn’t anything special, he didn’t tower over anyone or backstab anyone that I know of. What he was though is an Einherjar which made him powerful. Even not special Einherjar could fight better than anyone else, which he proved as he ducked beneath a whip-like arm and shot one of the beasts in the head putting one of the four down.

“You three. Fuck off or die.” Kepler yelled taking his eyes away from the fight for a second. What he earned was one of his fellow teammates being hurled around like a mace into his back sending him at our feet.

“Well, that looks like karma if ever I’ve seen it.” Fox commented.

I reached down to help him up but Kepler grabbed my wrist using it as levage to pull himself to his feet and bring me close so that his gun was level to my throat. My helmet might handle a bullet at the cost of giving me a concussion but the armour around my throat was thinner and I had no desire to test it.

“Shoot.” Both Fox and Wasp both said with an annoying amount of glee.

“Don’t do that!” I pleaded.

“I really want to.”

“You truly are a paragon of patience.” I quickly said, not wanting Fox or Wasp to say anything else. “But no offence your team seems to be struggling.”

Almost on cue another person was thrown past us skipping against the floor.

“Three more people could help?” I offer only for the gun to be placed harder against my throat.

“Don’t need it. Leave.”

“We know about the rewards dick for brains, you don’t have to be so vile. You aren’t special.” Wasp rolled her eyes with only her voice.

“Wasp? Ha! You seem to be alone.” Kepler teased. “What happened too, what did you call it again? The Wasp nest? Stupid name. Now you got tweedle dead and tweedle deader.”

“Kepler we need you!” One of his teammates begged

“I’m busy, Solaris. Handle it.” The man in sun tattooed armour gave a thumbs up but when Kelper looked away it quickly turned into the middle finger.

“Mate, your team is getting slaughtered.” Fox pointed out. “No offence but in a few minutes it’ll be a three-on-one.”

Kepler actually took a few seconds to consider this. He was breathing heavily, probably been fighting quite some time. Had he been in the right mind he could solve this rather easily.

One, he could use me as blackmail and command Wasp and Fox to fight for him which they would never do. Two, he could just let us go. The rewards are determined by performance. There is no merit to kill stealing, if we were being judged for performance and not kills. Stealing kills would earn no rewards. Third, just shoot us all in the head. Save the Seraphim time.

“You help me and I don’t kill you.” Kelper said considering it himself.

“Or we just run away.” Fox pointed out but was quickly hit in the ribs by Wasp.

“Of course we’ll help.” She was obviously lying, literally zero attempt to sound convincing. Was she even trying to stop me from getting shot. Just as I thought I would be given an ameutur tracheostomy the gun was removed from my throat.

“Go, idiots. I don’t want your blood on my hands, help or not I don’t care.” He shoved me hard towards the three of us. “Enjoy being an Einherjar while you can Wasp.”

Fox gladly took him up on the offer grabbing me quickly and walking down the hallway as Kelper and his group was tossed around by the three long-men monsters.

But Wasp and I stopped.

“We have to save/betray them.” Wasp and I said in unison. Causing the two of us to look at the other in disgust.

“Save?” Wasp raised a brow. “Why? If they keep going they will win.”

“So you think that the ichors are worth killing someone?”

“They kind of our. You met Elara,” The second-year girl. We only found out her name a few days afterwards after we heard she sent someone to the second-year med bay with a large E branded into their chest. “Early ichors guarantees survival, better take someone out of the competition and live to regret it.”

“Of course you would say that.” I hissed at him bringing up the helicopter incident. “I can’t believe you two! How pathetic are you?!”

“We won’t kill them!” Wasp said. “In here murders are killed by our peers. No one wants a murder running around. We will just wait till they are tried and break a leg or something, stop them from continuing to fight.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was beyond disgusting just talking about.

“How are you not embarrassed hearing yourselves? We are Slayers, I know this seems crazy but we are here to protect people not fuck each other over. This isn’t a goddamn competition we should be protecting each other. Getting as many to graduation as possible cause guess fucking what! These people are the people you will be fighting with even after Mayrterdom.”

“Canis,” Fox began but I quickly cut him off.

‘No Fox, I don’t want to hear it. You are a bad person. That’s all there is to it. The reason we haven’t joined a group isn’t cause we have been screwed over by luck or because other people are at fault. It’s because at your best you’re argumentative and at your worst, you try to kill your allies. Now I’m going to go save them because I’ve spent more time yelling at you than it would take to help them.”

I didn’t wait to hear them yell at me as I turned to run igniting my sword. Several of Kelper’s group were nursing their bruised ribs or cracked bones after being slammed around repeatedly and they seemed shocked to see me. Solaris, one of the few still on his feet levelled his solar glaive at me but I simply kept a distance from him as I caught one of the long-men by surprise cutting through one of the agile whip-like legs causing it to collapse.

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Like ants fighting a spider, when it lost its footing we swarmed it stabbing and shooting it till the squirming stopped. Usually, Slayers don’t need to worry about blood getting on their helmets too much. The solar weapons instantly cut and cauterise while most Slayers aren’t point range when throwing explosives or shooting.

But now looking overself as I stood atop the spider-like human Seraphim I looked less like a Slayer and more like a reaper. There was no sense to Seraphim, their organs were there more to make sense for us than for them. Creatures born of our emotions didn’t really need to, so there was no consistency with Seraphim. Some had blue, some had green and some had red. Right now though, my plain dark grey armour that everyone else got was dripping in crimson blood.

“Fucking Christ.”

I didn’t know which one of the nameless faces looked up at me, they all had smidges of blood on them but not quite covered like me. The blood from the dog-like women Seraphim was most of it and had crusted over becoming almost like a layer of paint.

Just as I was about to get off the corpse one of the remaining two Seraphim grabbed me by my leg and threw me against the ceiling. The padding inside cushioned the impact but I had to curl up into a ball so my joints wouldn’t bend at a bad angle. No amount of padding prevents joints from popping when angles get pushed too far.

Up, down, right, left. I lost track soon after that as the walls became the floor and ceiling. They were just hard surfaces that I hit. Eventually I was let go simply because its arm was probably getting sore.

“You okay?” Yellow and black armour picked me back up. Wasp?

“Why are you back? You realise you can’t betray me when I don’t trust you. It’s just you being kind of a bitch.”

“Oh shut up, you pretentious ass. You have let many of our other peers die because it's okay so long as it’s not directly in front of you. You aren’t doing this for them, you are doing this for yourself.”

I scowled at her but she wouldn’t be able to see it cause of my helmet. She didn’t know what she was talking about.

“You are a hypocrite but I’ll save you.” She continued.

“Why?”

“Cause I like you.”

It wasn’t a declaration of love, I doubt she felt any sort of longing towards me. Slayers had sex out of boredom, lust, celebration or as part of a deal. In the preschools I had friends, and I could afford them, but here friendship didn’t exist. New Brisbane wasn’t safe by any means but Seraphim wasn’t something you would have to look under your pillow for.

Now… everything felt political. I couldn’t compliment someone out of fear of them telling someone else and losing more potential allies. That was really it, everyone was either an ally or an enemy. No friends, hell I haven’t even liked anyone since coming here. I suppose that was the point. Make life a competition by giving out rewards for beating each other into the ground and making food a resource to fight for.

I had seen a few of my friends from the preschool here. Most must have been sent to the other academy Sanctum. However, my friends had already gotten into a group or died already. I guess we weren’t that close after all. Fox by all means should be my closest friend, yet, I don’t think I would care if he died. No, I’d feel worried that I lost another meat shield.

“I wonder what that feels like.” I had forgotten how to like people, when I looked at Wasp I didn’t really feel anything. Was I a bad person?

“Come on, Fox is fickle. We stay here any longer and he’ll run. He’s only loyal so long as you keep looking at him.” She wasn’t wrong about that but I was surprised at the fact the Fox was currently fighting with Kepler. His whip crackled with electricity as he fought the two demons.

“So you like me huh?” I teased as she picked me up. “What exactly do you like about me?”

“The fact that you are so gullible that I trick you whenever I want.”

The worst part was that she was right. Anyway, I followed her towards my probable death. Now with Kepler’s team, Wasp and Fox, the two Seraphim weren’t that much of an issue. Fighting with Einherjar was something different. Fox and I were clearly the weak links. Even Wasp was able to keep up.

Thankfully it didn’t take long for one of the Seraphim to fall to Solaris’ gliave. That arrogant bastard was an effective one. Kepler was by far the best, then Solaris, Wasp and finally the rest of Kepler’s gang then finally Fox and I. We needed to get into an Einherjar group, they were just leaps and bounds ahead of training. The final one fell quickly as well. Unable to keep up with the swarm of weapons and bullets.

Unfortunately, the fight wasn’t over, Solaris’ gliave didn’t stop burning and Kepler never put his guns away. I hated all of them, those bastards.

“The two of you can leave.” Kepler pointed to Fox and I. “The girl stays.”

“I’ll give you the Einherjar position next combat class. I promise.” Wasp said, her rifle never left her hands

“I would trust you, except that I don’t and I won’t. I can’t have you by some miracle winning any rewards and building your team back from the reserves of talentless losers that’ll survive tonight. I’m breaking at least one foot.”

“Oh, I’ll give you my foot alright.” Wasp spat with venom.

Wordlessly I appeared at her side, If she was going to be beaten it may as well be with a friend at her side.

“Ready men! Get ready and take thes-”

“Kepler a word.” Solaris cut him off earning the orange-armoured man a backhanded slap.

“What!” I could hear the fury in Kepler’s voice.

Solaris took a few seconds to recover from the slap. His helmet protected him from the pain but it was more the shock and humiliation that made him pause.

“I just think as we are being watched right now, perhaps, rushing them with a whole team would not look so good. If we want the ichors we have to look good, it might be more worth to just fight them three on three.” It made sense. We were just meant to show our skills, there was nothing that said it had to be against Seraphim.

“Fine. Solaris, Cassini with me.”

“That’s okay, you can break her leg!” Fox called out taking a step back. Both Wasp and I growled at him but he merely shrugged. “I don’t care about her, the smart idea is to abandon her and go back to killing Seraphim.”

“Smart. Fine, two on two it is.” Kepler growled. “Rules are anything is allowed, no aiming to kill. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Wasp and I confirmed.

Solaris charged me straight away. No doubt trying to pick out the weakest for himself. He was smart, my sword and knife was obsolete to his glaive which kept me at a distance but if I made a move for my pistol he would close that distance in an instant. It certainly didn’t help that he was noticeably better than me.

The air distorted when we swung our weapons and explosions of heat erupted when they collided.

He aimed a cutting glance at my leg but I quickly jumped back to avoid it. The strike was slow and lacked any real attempt to attack me. He only ever really moved as a response to when I attacked. It was when I went back, despite him having the advantage at a distance, that he eased up. At one point I just stopped to lower my swords and just as I thought he lowered his glaive.

“What are you doing? I thought you wanted to fight.”

“No, I more wanted Kepler to fight and the whole two on two garbage was just to stop us from ganging up on you.”

“Why?”

“Cause we’d beat you without any issue. I need Kepler tired, and injured. Besides, this is a win-win.” Solaris cheered. If it was a plan for me to lower my guard it worked as I joined beside him to watch Wasp and Kepler fight.

“You want Kepler to get hurt?”

“Yeah. He’s a dick.” Fair enough for me.

They were far beyond me, maybe even Solaris though clearly he wasn’t actually trying to fight me. That’s why he wanted to fight me, because he knew he could half-arse it while Kepler fought Wasp. It seemed Kepler had shot her rifle badly enough that the gun couldn’t work as it was thrown away forcing her to rely on just her knife skills.

The two Einherjar exchanged blows. Kepler used his pistol and Wasp her knife, she was quick and agile being sure to keep in his guard able to deflect his shots by slamming her forearms into his.

The two continued this dance as Kepler tried to make enough distance so his gun would be at an advantage but Wasp always kept close cutting away with her blade. We followed them as with Kepler trying to make distance their fight kept moving down the corridor up until we made it to a bridge.

I always tried to avoid these places. Bridges crossed all over Mayrterdom but unlike the corridors, they provided easy access for a flying Seraphim to ambush you and pick you up in its talons as it flew by. It certainly didn’t help that the heavy rain and wind made it difficult to see into the sky where the Seraphim were most likely gleefully waiting.

“Wasp!” I yelled, my speakers on my suit at full blast. “Bring it back! This is too risky!”

“Yeah Wasp, just take a few steps back. I promise not to shoot you in the back.” Kepler teased. Had he planned this? They had crossed the threshold, Wasp only really had two options. Risk death by fighting Kepler out in the open or guarantee being taken out by Kepler when she retreated. She

Fox would have taken the safe bet, I thought Wasp would too but she continued, her blade leaving a trail of steam as it sliced through water droplets. She needed to finish this quick or she’d be killed by the Seraphim.

Kepler still tried to create distance elbowing her in the face then spartan kicking her back. His gun was raising eager to put a bullet through Wasp’s stomach but while he aimed she threw her knife recklessly just lucky enough for the extremely heated blade to cut into Kepler’s shoulder causing him to let out a scream of pain.

“You lost Kepler. Go back to the med bay and accept your losses.”

“Fuck you bitch! Solaris, Cassini, everyone! Get her.” He commanded, but just as his squad was ready to take out Wasp, Solaris held out his hand stopping them and approached Kepler alone.

“What do you think you are doing Solaris?”

“You got lucky with getting the Einherjar position. Cut deals behind my back, and whispered lies about me to our teammates so that you would be nominated for it. Stabbed me in the back. I think it’s only fair I do the same.”

“So this is your plan, wait till I’m weakened then beat me up and take my position. Couple of problems with that. One, it has to be in combat class dumbass. Two, when I heal up I’m going to kick your ass. Three, I’m still the Einherjar. Do you think those people are loyal to you? They are loyal to me, they follow your orders because I tell them to.”

“Put you in med bay?” Solaris tilted his head in confusion. “No, not quite.”

Solaris quickly fired his pistol off his hip into Kepler’s leg. Our armour was tough but these guns were made to pierce Seraphim. Another shot rang through the storm as Kepler went down to his knees clutching his legs.

“Goodbye Kepler. When I tell your noble story to the rest of our peers it will be glorious. About how you begged like a bitch in heat to the Seraphim that shoved its tentacles so far up your ass that we could see it out of your mouth.”

“Go fuck yourse-”

He never got to finish his sentence as Solaris’ glaive pierced his throat where the armour was weakest. Kepler’s screams were muffled by the burning heat, It was a disturbing sound hearing his blood boil and to see him try claw at the solar glaive’s burning edge with his hands which caused the armoured gloves to wield into his hands. The smell of burning flesh was abhorrent.

“Solaris what are you doing!” Cassini yelled. I couldn’t blame him, everyone stood there in shock. It was one thing to let someone die a few meters away from a Seraphim. That was not risking your life for another, but this was straight-up murder. Mayrterdom was a place for the weak to be weeded out by Seraphim not by each other. At the end of the day, we were all still Slayers and our duty was to serve New Brisbane. A soldier killing another was a big issue. The staff wouldn’t do anything but he would be executed by his fellow peers. Even I heard the stories in the preschools about the cruel punishments delivered by the people. Literal torture if mob mentality prevails which it always does.

“What do you mean? It’s just as I said. Kepler, sadly, was killed by a Seraphim while resting after a tough and well-fought initiation. Don’t you agree with your new Einherjar?”

You couldn’t take over an Einherjar unless it was in combat class. A rule that was made to prevent kids from ambushing each other with weapons and numbers. But, there was a caveat with that. What if an Einherjar died to a Seraphim, it was less likely than anyone else but it still happened and in that situation, the rules stated that it was open to anyone. The first to get to combat class and tell the teacher there is an opening.

If no one here told anyone then Solaris would show up early to the next class and make himself the next Einherjar.

“Sorry, Solaris… It was my fault that Kepler died. I must have accidentally fallen asleep while on watch.” Cassini said lowering his head in shame. I couldn’t see Solaris’ face but I knew he was grinning wolfishly under his mask.

The rest of Kepl- Solaris’ gang bowed their heads. Submitting the new position of Einherjar to the murder.

Fuck that.

I swung my gun up and fired. Solaris to his credit was quick and raised his arms when he saw my gun rise and block his head and dived to the left. The bullet caught him in his left forearm and the other into his shoulder and the last chipped his helmet.

I tried to fire at him again but with his superhuman speed, he threw his glaive like a javelin forcing me to lower my aim and dive to the left. I was quick to bring my gun up but Solaris was faster shooting me twice in the chest. Thankfully the Slayer armour was strong and the bullet never pierced me, though my chest was going to be purple as I was literally lifted off my feet. The amount of recoil dislocates bones on regular people, and the amount of force that went into me from the bullet was something that the basic Slayer armour could barely handle. One more shot and I’d be dead.

I tried steading myself, I had lost my breath after being shot but I would only need a second. Solaris’ left side had been quite injured from my shots, I could take him down even with cracked ribs.

If Wasp, Fox and I could take down Solaris then the rest of the group would probably be fine with it. I doubt they want to follow a murder. This was our moment. With a three-on-one, we would easily win. Free Kepler’s group and go back to hunting Seraphim and win the ichors. With the ichors, we could easily become a strong group, build up Wasp’s lost forces with even better people and survive all the way to the fourth year. Our group would become the strongest lead by Fox, Wasp and me. The three of us would rule Mayrterdom, together. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

I charged forward. Expecting Fox and Wasp to be at my side, we would rush Solaris and end this murder once and for all. Someone like this shouldn’t exist in Mayrterdom, he would be a danger to everyone.

I grinned as Solaris raised his head to face me. He was good but not good enough to deal with Wasp, Fox and I. So I swung and he caught my fist with his one good hand. That was fine, his other was wide open for either Fox or Wasp to take advantage of.

Wasp or Fox never did though. I felt a burn go through my chest as Solaris knocked me back picked up his glaive and struck me across the chest. It was only when Solaris threw me off the bridge did I noticed that neither Wasp or Fox moved. Oh… they weren’t ever with me. I knew Fox would always look after himself but I thought even he must have realised that having a person like Solaris exist that he too would suffer.

Wasp though. I thought she liked me. Liked me? What was I thinking? Why would she fight a murder for someone she liked? I was wrong when I said that I didn’t feel anything when I looked at Wasp. I hated her. With all my heart. Fox was a bastard, but Wasp was everything I hated about the world.

I should’ve thought about how dead I was, about my regrets and fears as I plunged into the waters below Seraphim filled with the Seraphim that not even fourth years could fight. Slayers were much worse at fighting in water. But I didn’t, no. Even though my chest burned from where Solaris’ glaive had cut through my armour. I just thought of Wasp. No, I didn’t think of any of that. I thought of how she would scream when I killed her, when her betrayal would be paid for in blood and I would make her watch as I shattered Solaris’ body in front of her.

I swear Wasp. That I will slaughter my way to you.