Chapter 43 Free For All Part 5

As Jake found his resolve, finding the strength within himself to run after the Mohawk applicant to give Zack some back up, he was quickly halted in his tracks. As another applicant in the exam grabbed his arm, Jake turned around. He got a good look at the guy: he was wearing a tank top with a tattoo of a sun on his right shoulder, that shoulder connected to the arm that was holding Jake back.

"You're not going anywhere," he said, getting his rental weapon ready. "Your armband is mine." He swung the weapon towards Jake. The boy's eyes went wide. He wanted to freeze, to tensed up, but he knew he couldn't. He had to react; he couldn't hesitate. With his free arm, the one holding his katana, Jake brought the katana up, using it to block the incoming strike. The moment the attacker's blade touched Jake's sealed sword; it bounced off like a pebble bouncing off a ball. This threw the applicant off; they weren't prepared for their arm to be sent backwards, but it was.

"What the hell?" he thought.

Without wasting any time, Jake swung the sealed blade, smacking his attacker across the chin. This dazed the applicant, and with that, Jake kneed the guy in the groin. This made the poor guy fall to the ground hard, as if he was a sack of potatoes. Jake jumped back, giving himself room as the guy squirmed on the ground.

"You bastard," he said with his voice high, nearly out of breath. "I'll fucking kill you, bastard."

"I don't think you're going to be doing that anytime soon," Jake said, slightly smirking, watching the downed man. But the small smirk, even from the applicant's new viewpoint, didn't escape him.

"You think you're funny, huh? Don't!" The applicant put one hand on the ground, seemingly attempting to lift himself. "You think you're funny?"

The applicant couldn't get to his feet, but he was shaking. He shook violently because of his anger and his pain.

"No, I'll show you funny, asshole!" He said, with his teeth gritted, his face full of sweat. He screamed, bro, loud enough for all those around to hear. Jake's eyes squinted in confusion, then went wide as dinner plates as he saw a man charging at him. By the look of it, he was exactly the same as the man that Jake had hit in the balls. He dressed the same; their faces were even the same. They were twins, identical twins. The one difference was the tattoo. This guy, like his brother, had a tattoo, but his was on the opposite shoulder, and it was of the moon instead of a sun.

The moon brother ran out of the crowd of fighting applicants, past his downed brother, straight towards Jake. He wielded an axe as his rental weapon, and as he came closer, the more nervous Jake got. When in range, the brother swung his axe. Jake hesitated for a moment and didn't dodge; he didn't know if he should either block or dodge, and in his panic, made him slip up. Jake used the sword to guard at the last possible moment. Because he wasn't ready to receive such a blow, he was sent flying, crashing into other applicants.

Jake was frazzled but had no time to catch his breath because here came the moon brother, hot on his tail. The brother swung his axe again, and Jake managed to jump out of the way to safety, but Jake's action to save his own life endangered others. As the brother brought his axe down, one of the applicants Jake had crashed into screamed in pain; blood went everywhere. The moon brother knew it wasn't intentional; this wasn't his target, but by the look on his face, he didn't seem to care. Before he retrieved his weapon, he took the applicant's armband.

"Damn, only a white one," his face was filled with disappointment, but all the same, he pocketed the armband. Then he pulled his weapon out of the applicant's body, flinging the blood off it, doing his best to clean the weapon.

Jake stared wildly at the moon brother. His vision went from him to the applicant he cut down. No, he didn't just cut them down; they were dead.

"The fuck isn't this against the rules?" he thought, as the axe-wielding brother charged at him once again.

Back in the viewing room, one of the many workers, a young woman, was sitting at her computer like the others around her. She worked furiously, then stopped suddenly.

"Sir," she turned her head quickly to Moon D. "We have another casualty."

The announcer, Moon D, sat back in his chair, kicking his feet up.

"Damn, another one. These applicants this year are quite bloodthirsty."

The young woman's face dropped a little; she was disappointed in the man's lack of care or professionalism for the situation.

"Sir…" She said the words, but her voice quivered for a moment. Then, when she mustered the courage, she spoke. "Sir, shouldn't we take action against the applicants that are killing other applicants?"

"Or you…" "Know at least have a rule that prohibits killing of fellow applicants," after saying the question, her fellow colleagues working out their own computer winced a bit, expecting the worst. Even as the words left her mouth, the young lady already regretted asking.

Moon D sat for a while, saying nothing. The longer he remained silent, the more tense it felt in the room, but eventually, he broke the tension. "If they die, then they die," he let those words hang in the atmosphere before continuing, "The death of applicants only proves they wouldn't cut it as a soldier, and those that commit the killings prove that on a real battlefield, they won't hesitate to do what needs to be done."

Another bout of silence, then Moon D looked at the young worker. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yes…. Yes, sir," she quickly got back to work, like all of the others. Moon D pulled out his watch and looked at the time. 'Almost halfway there,' he thought.

The Moon Brother swung at Jake once again, but the boy dodged it, just barely. Jake was fearful, running for his life, a mixed into the crowd of people, but the brother never stopped. He kept slashing away, hitting each person he came across as he pursued his target. The boldness that Jake had early was gone, vanishing without a trace as he ran away. The opinion she had of him fell lower and lower.

But the boy wasn't afraid for nothing. It felt different, it all felt different. The second phase, the people, everything. Jake kept running, even pushing past applicants just to survive. He knew it wasn't the same. This guy, the Moon Brother, not just him, the others who would have been gunning for him if Zack hadn't taken his original armband, all of them were different from the robot. Even though the robot were destructive, they had no ill intent, only a thing following programming. They even felt different from the beastmen. Angus, even though he had one of the Mystic Blade, even though he was a soldier who had probably seen combat, even though he used his sword's ability, he didn't kill a single applicant, only injure them. He had restraint, but what Jake saw wasn't restraint. He saw people with only a care for themselves, wanting to kill to get to the top.

As Jake ran, each step he took becoming short of breath, he looked around him at all the other fighting. He saw blood everywhere, he felt as if he was in a war zone. Jake took another step, then slipped on spilled blood. He came crashing to the ground. As he tried to get back to his feet, he saw two figures step right in front of him. He didn't look up for what felt like years, but eventually, he did. As he looked up, he saw both brothers towering over him, smiling at him. The smiles weren't warm and inviting, but cold and sadistic. The color drained from Jake's face as his heart raced a mile a minute.

"There you are," the brother with the sun tattoo said.

"No more running, little rabbit," said the other.

As Jake lay there helpless, he thought to himself, 'This is it, the end.'