The water rushed in from the cracks in my armour, the salt water stung my bruised and burnt chest. I was too exhausted to fight allowing me to be an easy target for the pull of the waves to drag me under. This is where I would die, either to the monstrous Seraphim that swam by or by drowning in the water that filled my armour.
As a superhuman, I could hold my breath for much longer than a regular human, perhaps a curse as the Seraphim would tear me apart long before I drowned. It would be quicker if I just opened my lungs. It didn’t matter, the adrenaline in my body along with the shock of being betrayed again numbed my brain. I could barely think beyond the sensation of more and more water filling my armour. It was pleasant. I had avoided showering as much as I could as I was terrified of a Seraphim getting me while I was vulnerable. Now I could enjoy the feeling of submerging myself in water.
It was relaxing in a sick sense.
In my delirious state, I picked up my knife and activated the blade. The glow was so beautiful and so warm. I could look at it for the rest of my life. I probably would be looking at it for the rest of my life, a sad reality as the glow of the blade illuminated the water.
Large black tendrils slowly started to wrap around me. I had never seen a Seraphim so large, just waiting here down in the deep. Most of the Seraphim were actually staying away from me, they were afraid of being caught in the crossfire.
That’s annoying. Something this large shouldn’t be here, the reason Mayrterdom was built here was because it prevented the land Seraphim from swarming the building off the coast forcing them to swim and climb up the pillars. It was also built here to prevent large water Seraphim from wiping out the building.
This monster was just the right size. The absolute maximum it would be so it wouldn’t be able to get shredded apart by the turrets atop the domes of Martyrdom and could hide beneath the waves. So long as it didn’t try to attack Mayterdom itself it would be safe, waiting patiently for any poor souls to fall.
Its large black tentacles started to wrap themselves around me even more, the tentacles were so large that they even had mouths and one gleefully bit into my shoulder and the muscles in the large tentacle were easily able to crack the armour. This is where I would die, I wonder if I would be tortured. Would this beast take its time with me, pulling my limbs apart one by one? Or would it rather pull me down and let me drown in my own armour?
Wasp, why would you let this happen to me? Why couldn’t you just be at my side? We could have won, been together. I hated her but in my last moments, I couldn’t help but think of her smirk, her determination, and that annoying way her face lit up when she caused someone else’s downfall for her own benefit.
Stupid hormones. A last ditched attempt for me to breed before I die. Wouldn’t work anyway, artificially made humans are intentionally made sterile. The government doesn’t want their fighters pregnant and having children outside of their brainwashing. I do regret not leaving her under different circumstances. I wish I had gotten my revenge, and made her bleed on the combat mats in front of everyone.
I wouldn’t though, these tentacles made sure of that as they finally fully wrapped around me. This is where I would die, I only hope that the Seraphim would be merciful. I wonder if anyone would grieve for me. Fox wouldn’t, he would curse me for being so stupid and leaving me alone while Wasp would probably be glad there is less competition.
Fuck them.
Slayer armour was always difficult to take off. It was extremely tight, clinging to my body like the tentacles were to my armour, it wasn’t uncommon to have someone help you out of your armour due to the difficulty. I didn’t have that luxury, but there was a way to take it off. Since armour got damaged quite often the realse button was found on the back of the helmet which could wirelessly connect to any unconnected armour. By holding down this button for five seconds the armour release. Some bubbles release as the amour’s mechanisms activate loosening the material. It was still a job for two people but was now doable by one as I threw my helmet off letting it drift to the bottom of the ocean. Better to lose my armour than lose my life. I struggled to pull my armour as best I could, one good thing was the tentacles acted as a wall of muscle I could use to pull myself out of my armour.
I was left only in my underarmour, which was a tight black jumpsuit. The last piece of defence before the Seraphim pierced our bodies. The jumpsuit was strong and could take a shot from a non-slayer gun but couldn’t hold up against Seraphim. It was more so just to act as a tight piece of clothing to keep all the blood in.
The salt water stung my burns and bruises, my armour did well to stop the glaive from cutting through my chest and I only had burns from my armour becoming superheated. The insulation did its job long enough so that by the time I landed in the water the melted metal didn’t scar me.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the large tentacled monster beneath me didn’t want me to leave. More and more black tendrils slowly raised from the deep. It was as if the darkness itself from the deep was trying to pull me down towards the floor. One of the smaller more agile-mouthed tentacles wrapped around my leg and I stifled a scream biting down as hard as I could as so water wouldn’t rush inside my lungs as one of the mouths ripped a small chunk of my calve off.
With a blind hatred, I swung down with the knife leaving a trail of boiling water burning through flesh. The tentacle still stuck to my leg but seeing that burning stump gave me a sick sense of revenge that I couldn’t help but smile at. My swimming speed had been hamstrung but the surface wasn’t too far and I soon breached taking in a deep breath of air.
Now I could die somewhat closer to Matyerdom. There were no ladders or way up to the school, having it would just invite Seraphim up. I was appriactive when I was several metres above the waves but now being in said waves made me hate it. I wonder how many students fell and died looking up a the school they hated begging to go back to it.
It was tempting to let go. To ignore the fact that the water was now black around me as the large Seraphim tentacles blacked out the water due to the sheer size and amount as it approached. It would be so easy to die, a small part of me begged me to. Why fight it? I wasn’t built to survive this place. This place weeded out the weak, the unlucky and the selfless. New Brisbane wanted vicious weapons that fought with revenge and hatred in their heart. Would I have let Wasp or Fox die if it jeopardized the mission?
Wasp… I will kill her.
I let the knife drop and reached below the waves to forcefully rip off the tentacle stuck to my leg. It was difficult but the burnt end gave me a little to work with as when one side came off with quite a bit of struggle the rest followed. It still stuck to things, that's all that mattered. If it could make a Slayer struggle then hopefully it could hold my weight.
One of the pillars wasn’t too far away. It was covered in algae and barnacles but it would have to do. The tentacle was long enough that I could fit it in both hands I placed one against the pillar and sure enough it stuck, then the next one higher. Thankfully my skin was too tough for barnicles to cut so placing my feet against the pillar I pushed hard ignoring the burning sensation in my leg wound and ripped the lower side off allowing me to place it higher.
Again and again, I repeated the process till I left the water entirely. It was a strain just to remove the tentacle every time but if the alternative was death it would have to be something I would bear. I climbed the pillar at a slow pace despite pushing my body as hard as I could. I wasn’t safe just cause I was out of the water. It seemed the large aquatic Seraphim whose tentacle I stole wasn’t too happy that I took the equivalent of a fingernail from it as the much larger tentacles rose from the water. They dwarfed me as they quickly outpaced my climbing towering over me as black mouth-covered collums of flesh.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
One swipe from them and I would be crushed. I only prayed that It was struggling to see me from beneath the waves where the main body still hid as I continued to climb. I wasn’t really left with much of a choice.
Every inch I crawled I feared that one of the tentacles would break me. I wasn’t even close to halfway as my body was starting to give out. I think I have reached it. The breaking point. The rain caused me to slip and the more I continued the more frequent the slips started to happen. Would I lose my grip and fall, would the tentacles stop sticking or would the tentacles crush me? There were too many ways to die and I couldn’t keep up with it all.
My sight was long gone, obstructed by rain and tears long ago so all I had to guide me was the sense of going up and the slaps of flesh on metal as the monster tried guessing where I was on the pillar.
There was a small chance I could make it up, live. That the thrashing of the monster from below would miss me over and over again. That despite the pain and exhaustion I would be able to pull myself up through sheer determination. There was still a small chance.
Of course, that was too much for the Seraphim. I heard it before it hit me, the loud squeal of a harpie. The skeletal bird-headed monster hit me hard in the side crushing my kidney with its shoulder. The sheer force kept me pinned to the Seraphim as we flew through the air, its thick arms wrapped around me its claws easily tearing through my flesh.
I had gotten caught up in killing the weak Seraphim I forgot what the real deal was like. These were the bastards who were culled by the upper years because they knew that we couldn’t survive them. It could have dropped me into the ocean but why would it? Letting me fall and be torn apart by the ocean Seraphim or it killing me itself was certain death either way.
I couldn’t even scream as the air was knocked out of me when we collided into one of the domes of Seraphim. The harpie stood above me, an angel of death. It seemed that even the storm knew that this monster was death incarnate as lightning crackled behind it giving the monster a glow of malicious.
It wasn’t honourable, It wasn’t brave and it certainly wasn’t attractive as I cried. The snot from my nose dribbled down my face and I pathetically tried crawling away unsuccessfully. My nails hopelessly scratched against the dome leaving only bloody claw marks, a late ditch effort that even the Seraphim sneered at. It brought its claw down on my back leaving large scratch marks that went all the way from my right shoulder to my left hip.
“Please don’t kill me!” I begged. “I’ll do anything! I’ll kill them, I’ll kill them all. I’ll be your slave, I’ll betray them and bring them to you. Please, please, please.”
The next claw ripped apart my hamstring.
“Please, I’ll betray humanity. Aything! ANything for you!”
It brought its beak down crushing my collarbone.
I screamed and wailed whatever muscles that could still move. Like a lover I wrapped my arms and legs around the monster, just needing something to hold onto as my pathetic life flashed before my eyes. I needed something to squeeze for the pain as the beak pieced me over and over again turning my shoulder into an abstract of bone, muscle and blood.
There was no reason or method for the way I howled. With my one arm that wasn’t ruined, I tried pushing the harpy’s face away from me but it easily overpowered me. No armour, no Ichor or weapons my fate was decidedly not in my own hands.
The monster bit off my thumb, sick of me sticking my hand in its face and the blood of the stump dripped down joining the rest of my blood that pooled beneath me.
I screamed and brought my fist back using every ounce of what measly strength I had left to punch the monster in the face with my thumbless fist. My fist thudded weakly against it in a pathetic attempt at defiance.
It reeled itself back lifting its head up into a victory cry but before it could deliver the killing blow I got my legs up and kicked it with both legs. It was a miracle that it lost its footing. A combination of both blood, rain and desperation. It caused the both of us to plummet down now that the harpy wasn’t holding both of us up. It landed softly on a railing using its wings to catch itself while I bounced off the floor of the bridge.
With no time to pity myself, I crawled. We were close to the dome’s entrance and my only hope was that this belonged to either a rather merciful fourth year who would save me. Would they? They didn’t live this long by helping the weak, I wonder if they would watch me be torn apart, and take bets on how long I’d survive.
The room was somewhat of a lobby with a small amount of chairs, some books and one of the few places that was clean. Well, it was before I dragged my body over the floor leaving a red trail behind me.
My vision was starting to blur from blood loss. Not even my enhanced body could keep up, I was going to die on this and if not it was a coin toss of if I’d even make it to the med bay if someone carried me.
If I was being honest I’d say I would have less than five percent of survival. There were just too many things that could go wrong, no one could even be in this room and chances are no one would risk running to med bay during initiation for some kid who might just die in their arms.
I finally made my way to the door opening it. I was on my knees using my arms trying to keep what blood I could inside but failing miserably. This was my last chance.
It wasn’t a fourth-year room, or third or second or even first. It was an office that only belonged to one person who was currently drinking a large bottle of rum by himself. No glass just straight from the bottle.
I couldn’t even speak a word before the gun in his hand shot four times. All the bullets missed me though they were so close I felt the wind as they flew by and a scream was heard behind me.
The harpy who snuck up on me was scraping at its own neck as it now had four holes in it. Two more shots rang and got in beneath the skeletal head of the Seraphim going in under the chin all the way into its head causing it to stop flailing.
The man didn’t put his gun down though instead leveling it on me.
“Every year. A few first-years think that with numbers they can overpower me or sneak in and take the ichor for themselves.” The headmaster took a sip from his bottle. His helmet was on his desk but he had full slayer armor on. It was lavishly decorated with gold and mods. A testament to his achievements.
“They never have.”
“H-h-help.” I let out a small whimper collapsing onto the floor.
He walked over to me closing the door on the dead Seraphim so it was just me and him as he loomed over my broken body.
“A harpy? Was I this weak in my first year?” He scoffed. He looked more annoyed than anything else as if this was beneath him.
“Look you’ve gotten blood all over my floor! This is why I can’t have carpet.”
I tried moving my lips to beg for help but I had lost all feeling in my face. This was it. I was going to die and the last thing I was ever going to hear was ‘This is why I can’t have carpet’. Fuck my life.
“You boy, Einherjar?” He asked.
I shook my head. Which caused him to laugh. He walked over to his table where there were several syringes with green liquid inside of them. They were large and the needle was thick. Big enough to piece superhumans.
“Not an Einherjar and you come to me with barely your balls attached begging for Ichor.” I came for help, not ichor but I couldn’t really tell him that with me blacking in out every five seconds.
“Truthfully I honestly don’t care, Einherjar, skill or determination. None of that matters. The only way to survive Mayterdon is with luck. I only care about the quota, I only have to give out what I’m given as rewards and make sure New Brisbane’s investments payout.”
He placed one syringe in front of me.
“This is Asclepius, high grade. This will fix you right up, and basically puts you in a med tank at all times. I myself have a low grade. Couldn’t go any higher due to all my other ichor.”
“T-thank y-you.” I withered as he lifted the syringe above me.
“I wouldn’t thank me yet. Like I said you are an investment, a gamble. You wanna know why, the Einherjar get these? Cause they literally change your genome. We can’t inject these into you fuckers as kids cause it’s too much for your kiddos and will melt your body. You need a good body to resist the changes. Most stick to low or mid-grade as a safety option. The higher grade and the more you have the higher chance your DNA will break apart. There is always a chance to die with every injection.” He slammed the syringe into me and let the fluid leak into me.
“Let me be the only one to wish you this. Good luck.”
I screamed.