24 Against the Strongest

Time seemed to freeze as Stanis went through his options. He could admit to having an allegiance and then die. He could lie and feign ignorance, but his actions so far had already given him away. Or he could fight. The chance of survival if he chose to fight? Close to zero. However, that was already better than the other two options, both of which had zero chance of him surviving.

Judging by the fact that Orena was only a few steps behind him, it meant he had small time to turn the tables. Unbeknownst to him, Anatoly had already read his thoughts, the small twitches and darting eyes were as easy for him to read as an open book. He could see the glint in Stanis's eyes, and yet he still stood tall and confident.

Stanis opened his mouth, keeping his eye on Anatoly as he spoke.

"Fuck you"

The second the last syllable rolled out of his lips, his legs shot forward, propelling him towards Anatoly at shocking speeds. Anatoly watched the spear pierce through the air, before lightly nudging it to the side as it was milliseconds away from stabbing him. The spearhead whistled past Anatoly's waist, centimetres away from a fatal strike. Closely following the spear was Stanis, fuelled by the adrenaline.

Anatoly placed one foot forward, before pivoting his hip to the side as he forced his other knee into the sky.

Understanding that the trajectory of the knee would cause it to meet his groin, Stanis instinctively lifted his knees up in defence as he soared towards Anatoly. Despite being countered, Anatoly seemed not to care at all as his knee only continued to rise, effectively switching its target.

*thump*

Stanis felt a piercing pain erupt from his stomach, his mouth gasping for breath as his body recoiled from the attack. He collapsed onto the ground, breath raspy as he clutched his stomach. He then felt a force on the neck of his Cuirass, one that pulled him back to face-level with Anatoly.

<Activate Layman's Rush>

Stanis' mouth struggled out the words as he saw the incoming fist. His face was clobbered moments after mouthing the words. But it no longer mattered, he no longer felt pain or fatigue. He had no longer had any limits...

Stanis's arm shot up like a snake, striking whatever was holding him up. It turned out to be Anatoly's other hand, which felt a burning sting as a fang-like hand bit into it.

In shock, Anatoly stepped back as he tried to create some distance between them. However it wasn't to go his way any longer as he watched Stanis move faster than time itself, in one second falling to the ground, the next second up in his face. He felt an impact across his stomach, spittle spit-firing out of his mouth as he was flung backwards.

However, contrary to his expectations, the now-flying man felt himself stop in mid-air. He had no time to think as another scalding fist upper-cut him, sending him into the sky once more.

Before even having the chance to regain his bearings, the now semi-conscious man saw a leg axing towards him. The leg whipped him back down to Earth, sending his brain into overdrive as the countless sources of pain overwhelmed it.

Stanis was about to whip out his sword when he felt a force across his feet, only to be off the ground within the next second. He may be immune to pain during Layman's Rush, but he sure as hell wasn't immune to being tripped up as he fell face first into the ground. He was about to get back up, only to be stopped by a large pole against his back which forced him down.

Before he even got the chance to react, he felt an overwhelming pain spread through his body. The time was over; he was fucked!

The pain wasn't as unbearable as after previous uses, but it still caused him to be devoid of energy as he lay there, now at the mercy of his assailants.

He then heard a female voice, albeit hoarse, behind him.

"He just asked you a question Stanis. No need to kill him…"

Was it not for the pain he was now writhing in, Stanis would have surely countered Orena's statement by saying that they were clearly here to kill him. But fate would have it that he was in writhing pain, and so was instead forced to listen, finding nothing but sand within his mouth.

In a distance, he could hear a voice shouting towards them.

"Oh shit. What have you guys done 'ere?"

The voice rumbled as it spoke, sending echoes into Stanis's ear. To his surprise, it was knocked-out Anatoly who actually answered.

"Just asking him, ha-ha. Didn't know I would get such an adverse response."

Stanis was finally released from his pathetic pose as the pole left his back, allowing him to get back up. However, before he even managed to stand, he felt another arm grip him by the shoulders, only to help him up.

It was as he came to eye-level that he got a chance to observe all the people currently here: there was Anatoly, who was actually the one who had just helped him up, Orena, who he was sure was the one that had initially tripped him over and then kept him down by forcing the butt of her spear on his back, and the Ginger man that had migrated to the Camp recently, who was also the one that had gone berserk during the battle.

These were only quick, glancing thoughts as a fist streaked through Stanis's vision, before twisting into his face, sending him sprawling to the ground once more. Before he lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was the Ginger man saying,

"Not again!" to which he heard Anatoly respond

"I always pay back my debts".

He was sure the conversation kept going, only he no longer had the chance to hear anymore as the darkness quickly cradled him in open arms.

Minutes, or maybe hours later, Stanis slowly opened his eyes. His breathing was rapid and raspy, and his body was burning up as his mind shot straight into fight or flight mode. His body lay on the side of his cave, and to his front stood the three from before. They all motioned their heads towards him as they heard him wake-up.

Anatoly was the first to speak,

"So, will you now tell us whether you have another allegiance or not?" His pale face had a red fist-shaped mark on it. Stanis edged his hands towards his waist as he tried to get a hold of his sword, only to realise that his weapons had been confiscated…

His head then tilted up, only to see his weapons lying behind the three in front of him. Now fully accepting option 3 had failed, Stanis decided to go with the honest, straight-forward one, hoping that this one wouldn't result in him being smashed across the face. Or worse…

"Yeah"

He swore he could see a smile blossom across Orena's face, whereas Anatoly broke out into a manic chuckle. Stanis flinched his body as he prepared to be struck, only to realise that the three stood their ground.

Understanding that he wasn't to be immediately murdered, Stanis got a good look at the three in front of him.

Orena was as he remembered her, braided hair in a half-ponytail, scars across her body and the signature blood war-paint painted across her face.

Anatoly had the normal Caucasian characteristics: a strong jawline, a slim nose and piercing, grey eyes. His body was strong and athletic, akin to those of professional athletes.

The Ginger man, who he still didn't know the name off, was even larger than Anatoly who was already quite tall. He stood at around 6'4 and had a true bear-like figure with wide arms, wide legs and an even wider chest. He had a large, red beard and brown eyes. He also had long ginger strands across his head which were shaggy, akin to Jayesh's old hairstyle.

Knowing that this very well could be the last scene of his life, Stanis felt an awful chill spread through his body. He felt cold, he was shivering, and he squeezed his body down as his mind went chaotic. It was a completely different feeling to fighting, those too could be the very last moments of his life, and yet he felt so alive with the adrenaline coursing through his veins, each blow revealing new risks. Here he had no power whatsoever, his life was truly under their control.

Before his mind got the chance to further think over the situation, Anatoly finally broke the silence.

"Here's the thing Stanis, let me tell you something you should already know by now. The strong RULE this world. You got that?"

It was like the man had become another person, no longer was he casual and relaxed, instead his eyes were filled with fire and his body larger than ever as his very personality seemed to shift. Stanis weakly nodded, his willpower taking more blows every second he was trapped by these 3 lions.

"Good. Now tell me, are you strong?"

The whole conversation seemed to be made up on the spot as even the two around Anatoly raised their eyebrows, interested to see how Stanis would respond.

The first thing that came to Stanis's mind was straight denial, he had thought himself one of the stronger ones, before being beaten down within seconds. However as he was about to say it, the words became stuck in his throat as he saw the intensity of Anatoly's gaze. Stanis very much felt that his response would determine his life from now on. He took one deep gulp, before finding the strength to look back up, and answer.

"Yes. Yes I am"

"Ha-ha, damn right you're strong, within the Humans anyway… But do you honestly think you are strong in the wider aspect?

Stanis had no chance to answer as Anatoly carried on, his hand-motions now wide and dynamic.

"FUCK NO. WE ARE ALL FUCKING WEAK! Have you not seen the enemies getting stronger every day, which only forces us to push ourselves even further. And yet we are still only barely able to contest them.

" I. AM.SICK.OF.THIS."

The pale man's face was now red, and you could see the veins bulging out of his arms.

"You might now think that the new-world is unfair, we are naturally destined to be at the bottom. To which I tell you the world couldn't be any fairer right now. So tell me, why we are not thriving then?"

Now fully submissive, Stanis instantly shook his head. In response, Anatoly threw his head back, before roaring out in laughter. In contrast to their previously amused expressions, Orena and the Ginger man now stood seriously by him.

"Has your Contractor not told you anything?"

Gahlnym was his contractor, but Stanis was confused as to what Anatoly meant. In addition to this, he was now also feeling scared.

"Think about it like this, the enemies coming down are all monsters who have been living in a dog eat dog world their entire lives. They will all have mountains of corpses underneath their feet, the base requirement for them to have survived this long. This couldn't be any more different from us.

So where are we lacking? Let me tell you where: it's due to the fact that we are still soft in thoughts. The fucking retard currently leading the Camp, Juan, is a weakling, who is a bitch on top of that. He is just as weak as the others in the Camp. Now, this doesn't mean that they don't have their uses though.

Anatoly's grin grew wider as he spoke. And by no stretch was it a pleasant smile.

"Tomorrow we will attack the Goblin's camp. That's the perfect time to utilise their usefulness to its max. Only we will leave the Camp alive. After that, there is a larger settlement East of here which we can go to.

Chen has already died despite being one of the Dead 4, all because he had far too many weaklings surrounding him during the battle. And so the only ones leaving tomorrow's battle alive will be me, Orena, Fedro, you, Ailean and his two.

The reason why you will be coming with us? Simple, you are one of the stronger ones."

Now done with his speech, Anatoly walked up to the shivering Stanis, before lightly slapping him across the face.

"Sleep well mate, you have a long day tomorrow!"

Following that, he, Orena and Ailean walked off, back towards the Camp.

Stanis sat there, still shivering despite the warm breeze. Tomorrow was going to be eventful, to say the least.