Revelation

The trajectory of the sword was determined and unwavering, but Nathan was unrelenting and somewhat desperate, he reached for his force pistol with a fluid motion, as if a habit, his hand moved so fast that the other two, appeared to slow down, and Nathan's hand glitched, though fast, it wasn't enough to compensate the headstart bulky had on him, but before Bulky could cut him, he shot him in the leg.

*Ring

"You died"

*Ring

"Your eliminated the enemy squad captain"

*Ring

"Congratulations! You defeated Nathan of the fast 10 with one blow from a melee weapon, you have gained the achievement,[ 10th Surpasser Slayer]"

Bulky was elated to hear these notifications, -- Nathan, not so much--, the fast 10 were the cadets who were able to move so fast, it caused their characters to glitch, because the system was meant to compute the movements of primitives(non transendents),of course those who were able to approach this speed weren't considered transendents, but they were no longer average human beings.

Although the virtual space used real time physical analysis to determine how much strength and speed participants could exert, it could also add attributes to one's character, allowing them to exert more strength and speed than, their real bodies could.

Gaining the achievement [10th Surpasser Slayer], allowed bulky to be able to move as fast as Nathan's fastest recorded speed, this would give him an edge in future matches to come, but in order to permanently retain this buffer, he needed to win the current match.

Bulky and gunner stood in the dark staircase for a while, but the ever so melodious ring didn't go off, bulky who was very perceptive and shrewd realised,eyes wide and mouth agape,

"Put on your night vision...."

He didn't fully finish the sentence, when gunner was grabbed from behind by the neck in a choke hold, Bulky knew there could be two enemies, he swiftly equipped his night vision gear, and sprinted for the door hoping to take the fight into an open area, he had the [10th Surpasser Slayer] achievement, eliminating the disadvantage Nathan had in the previous altercation, would definitely ensure he victory, to put it in simple terms, gunner was a gonner and bulky was feeling clustered.

But everything didn't go as he Immagined, in fact nothing wen't as planned, when he tried to use the 10th's speed, his injured leg failed him, he came short of the door when David caught up with him, and slashed him multiple times in vital points in a short frame of time.

"How! This is unfair"

"Wow! I never use a dagger, it turns out it was this effective, I will have to Thank Bethany when we come out"

"I told you to take the pistol, what if you weren't able to close in on him!"

"calm down, we still won"

*Ring

"Defenders are victorious"

*Ring

"Your squad was wiped out"

"[10th Surpasser Slayer] title revoked"

"Damn it, damn it, how can they enter after the battle has started, they cheated!"

Bulky was so angered, he wanted to go and complain but he was stopped by sniper,

"The arbiter is indifferent to everyone, if you go and complain, it will be like you are challenging her credibility, leave it be, we are already pretty good now, next season, we can challenge the weaker silver rank squads"

"lay off!, Pacific goody two shoes bastard!, we will sooner or later be eaten up by the others if we act all fluffy and timid"

Bulky storms off but meets their squad guardian at the door.

Meanwhile, at David's,

"How did you guys get in when the fight had already begun?"

"We arrived the second after you guys immersed, we weren't even given time to gear up"

"we were directly spawned in the zone, we almost got done in by the zone border, it had already begun to shrink"

Christopher(grumpy) added, sighing with relief.

"But, why were you two so late?"

...

Nathan didn't receive a verbal answer, but his question was partially answered, when he saw grumpy giving David a nasty side eye.

"What did you do now?"

Grumpy quickly jerked from his seat, as if he was the one being questioned,

"I'll tell you what he did! He was running around to chase swan meat"

...

A momentary silence be fell the room, but it was not long until Nathan broke the silence with loud and unhinged laughter, capitalising on his authority as the squad captain, he commanded, referring to David,

"if you tell me the whole story I will reconsider punishing you for insubordination"

David habitually reaches to scratch the back of his head, coupled with a nervous grin, his embarassment evident.

As a David starts to narrate, we are taken on a flaskback to earlier,

David noticing grumpy's apparent unattentiveness, slips away in search of the girl who always gave him the most beautiful smile, he was determined to take advantage of the 3 month break to make aquaintance with her, their training timetable never seemed to coincide with each other, all he knew about her was that she had the most beautiful smile.

David wandered among the dispersing crowd of cadets getting to know each other, his neck stretched to the brim and eyes wide with curiousity, finally he caught a glimpse of her, although it was but a short glimpse, he quickly recognised her, she was leaving the auditorium.

Oh! No

David doesn't know her name, if she leaves, they might never meet each other until the start of the SOW, David quickly navigated the vast chaos of people and finally reached the exit Bella had used.

If David was a moment later, he wouldn't have seen the pathway, Bella had taken, the facility had a vast array of paths, forks and turns, it was like a maze, if he didn't follow closely he could easily lose track of her.

After another series of turns and almost losing her once, he finally caught up with her, but he wished he hadn't, he saw her run with an even brighter smile, into the arms of another man.

This wasn't just any man, he was first of all, her mate then her squad captain, and one of the 9 quasi transendent with an HIR of S.

A mix of emotions welled up in his heart, he did not know wether to be disappointed, sad, angry or indifferent. The carapace around his heart that been chartered by her smile, left way for emotions to wound his heart.

He felt a lump in his throat, he wanted to cry, no! he was angry, maybe heartbroken or just confused.