Scarlet.

ⅪⅩ

"Are We The Hunters?"

The clangor of the gong resonates in my ears as darkness persists around me. Stepping off my platform, I find myself surrounded by walls that are at least forty feet tall. The place is somewhat narrow, but I can't see much. I take a few steps forward, listening to the small rocks crunching beneath my feet. That sound blends with the roaring storm looming overhead.

I look back at every step I take, making sure I have no one behind me. I keep walking until I reach a point where the path splits in two. After a couple of seconds, I decide to follow the corridor on my left.

As I keep on walking, the mirrors on the walls seem to get smaller. It looks as though someone smashed them with a hammer and then affixed the shattered fragments to the concrete. There's nothing around me, and I start to worry. The realization that I lack weapons sends my heart racing. My entire body trembles, and breathing becomes a difficult task. A rumble shakes the ground underneath my feet, and I catch a distorted glimpse of my reflection on the wall beside me once again. It's at that moment that the thought occurs to me: glass can be useful.

I find a piece that's moderately large, carefully holding it from both ends and attempting to pull it from the wall, but it seems fused to it. I grip the glass tighter and let out a muffled scream as it pierces my fingers. Blood starts flowing from my hands, but I won't suffer in vain; I let the glass embed even deeper into my flesh and pull it with all my strength until it finally gives way. Barely managing to pry it off, I fall backwards, slamming my head against the wall behind me.

My vision gets blurry, and an annoying buzz appears in my right ear as I crawl towards the shard of glass I had just dropped. With the improvised weapon in my hands, I feel the urgency to lift my body from the floor, but I'm too dizzy to do so. I drag myself along the corridor until I realize my blood has left an almost black trail on the floor. I'm utterly useless.

With great effort, I manage to stand up, feeling a sharp pain behind my eyes, assuming it's from the recent blow to my head. I stagger forward until I reach a new fork in the path, and a silhouette appears by my side. This time, it's not just a shadow. A short woman with black hair stands less than two feet away, and I don't know how I hadn't heard her getting close. She raises a hand to attack, but I'm faster, and before she can realize it, I've sliced her neck with the shard of glass I hold in my hands.

Her body falls to the ground with a dull thud, convulsing over a puddle of her own blood. She extends a hand towards me, as if begging me to just finish the job. And that's exactly what I do, but for the first time in my life, I can't bring myself to look at the scene. I tightly close my eyes as I bury the piece of glass into the side of her neck, feeling it pierce through layers of skin and muscle. The sickening sound of the weapon exiting the woman's body makes me nauseous, and I feel the acid from my stomach rising up my throat until the retching starts, and I vomit everything Nouria had forced me to eat.

The cannon fires. That's new. I see both my hands and my face soaked in blood—thick and warm blood. When I finally decide to look at the woman I just killed, I realize she died with her eyes wide open. This unsettles me in a way I never considered possible. Realizing no one's around, I extend a trembling hand towards her face and close her eyelids; now it looks like she's sleeping. All in all, she had a quick death, and I've spared her a few sufferings.

Adrenaline makes me no longer feel the cold, and hot blood pumps through my body, transforming me into the fighter I truly am. I won't allow myself to be killed so easily; if I lose, it will be on my terms. My senses sharpen, and I feel ready to quicken my pace. I must find my allies somewhere. I walk aimlessly through a corridor that darkens with every centimeter I cover, the only source of light being the beams above my head. Suddenly, I see something shiny in the distance and move forward until I'm standing at what appears to be one of the six different entrances this place has.