13 Choice To Trust

The next 3 days could be described in one word for Cyrus, hell. This Victor character had an unhealthy fixation on him as he continued to pressure him in every way possible.

On the first day, he figured his exemplary performance in dealing with the critical situation yesterday was the reason, bolstering his pride greatly. However gradually, the trainning seemed more malevolent, with the intent to inflict harm, but could still be interpreted as 'pushing his limits'.

Sparring with Don was how it began, but Victor claimed it was much too easy and not bringing out Cyrus's full potential. So the first adjustment was climbing trees with double his body weight in rocks. Then it changed to racing through a difficult obstacle course littered with burning hot charcoal, supposedly to train agility and quick decision making skills. The punishment for not making the set time was added weight while sparring against multiple opponents, no breaks in between.

If Cyrus was only suspicous before, he was now certain after the group appeared in front of him. Tina, the ugly short girl from before, Manny, that beefy kid with a main character vibe but was really a villian, and the most hateful one, Jared the average looking gloomy kid that was somewhat cunning. Obviously this specific group had no postive feelings towards Cyrus and called into question Victors motives behind the arrangement.

Even if that was not enough of a reason, Cyrus would catch a perverted smirk flash across his face while watching him struggle before he quickly hid it.

With the third day rolling around, Cyrus was wrapped in a few bandages from previous injuries stacking up on top of the old ones. He might have a special physique but this kind of abuse was taking a definite toll on him.

"Cyrus, you can't keep taking this kind of abuse man! We need to figure out how to deal with that pale, bug eye, two face, toad looking, never had a girlfriend, piece of shit back for bullying you!"

It seemed that this happy go lucky guy also had a savage side when he gets riled up. Ready to fight anyone, Don looked like a mad bull with steam coming out both his nose and ears. To be angry for his sake honestly touched him deeply, Cyrus swore to cherish this loyal and quirky friend of his. Finding people like him was especially difficult in this dog eat dog world amongst the human slaves, it was a fresh change.

"It's fine, I already have a plan to deal with all of them. Anyways, why did you choose to be friends with me? I mean their are plenty of others, and with our trainner harrassing me, most have distanced themselves." This question had been plaguing Cyrus for the longest time. Because of his loyalty, Don had also been dragged into the 'extra curricular activites' Victor created.

"Heh, do you think of me as some spineless coward?" Noticing the slightly doubtful look on Cyrus's face, he continued in unahppiness "Cheh(scoffing). Those beautiful girls would obviously chase a pretty boy like you, and being the good friend I would slide in and pick up the leftovers. A perfect one, two combination of handsome fellows, right?!?" Don raised his nose so far in the sky he basically forgot he was even talking to someone.

Cyrus legitimately paused for a second staring at Don in pure amazement. "Is this guy an idiot?"

Coming to the realization that Don was already in his own world, Cyrus held the bridge of his nose and lowered his head in dissapointment. "I can't believe I actually thought this guy was reliable. Never again, and...handsome? Whatever, future me can deal with this."

Regathering himself, "Alright Don, lets go. I will probably need your help to flesh out the rest of the details, we can talk on the way."

Pulling Don out of his reverie, they showed up on time once again. Resembling the previous two days, a bunch of injured and tired kids sparred for a few hours before listening to a basic survival-fighting lecture from Victor. Most of the kids by now were acclimated to these intense and long practices. So despite the increased difficult today, everyone was getting by well enough until afteroon rolled around.

Victor not being one to dissapoint left a special parting gift for their mini-graduation. "My young little trainees, I have created a special activity for our last day! Who wants to go first?"

There was an unnatural glint in his eyes when he asked for the first participant. Cyrus started to ponder deep down, "If I go first this might actually help me out....". Peaking in Victors direction, his gaze was once again trainned on Cyrus with absolutely no scruples hiding his intention.

"This weirdo....But seriously if I were to go first I could solidfy my position as group leader. This will definitely be useful for my plan later!" Resloving himself, Cyrus stood out and with determination.

While Victor was a little frustrated from receiving no reaction, just like in previous days he quickly reigned in his emotions. "The more you're like that, the more I want to break you and watch you plead for forgivness. Beg me, shed tears for me, grovel in front of me, then I gently take you into my fold and care for you. Hehehehe, all in due time!"

Cyrus might not know what he was ruminating about, but seeing those eyes and with his natural instincts blaring warning signals, he could guess it was nothing good for him.

Victor came to and spoke again. "It's very simple, I will be testing teamwork and trust amongst you. There are a few choices and rules so listen up!"

After a lenghty explanation Cyrus summed it up into a few main points. They would be battling a total of 300 wolves comparable to the ones from that tragic night. Only there was a huge catch, all of these merciless killers were previously starved. The next rule tasked each person with picking a certain number of wolves to fight, no discussing allowed amongst the group.

Now all 898 kids were put in a very tough spot with no visible way out. The skill level of the entire group might be higher than last time, it would be an arduous challenge for even 4 kids to defeat one wolf, let alone a starved version.

This did not factor in peoples selfish reasons for choosing fewer wolves to fight. considering possible injuries impacting survival chances in the forest, it was hard to trust everyones decision. However, this only applied for the first 10 people. Hidden amongst this group were a few promising canidates that could easily take advantage of this by killing a single wolf, passing the test.

The rest would face the remaining wolves in equally seperated parties. For example, if their was 280 wolves left, it would be about 3 people per party against a wolf. A ratio of 3:1 could lead to a lot of casualties resulting in a bloodcurdling punishment.

"I can't be.....urghhh...this....DUMMY! Phewwwww(deep breath), I won't break that easily, NO CHANCE!" Whether it was for his conciousness or his plans to get some revenge, he would not fail here. Jared and his crew had sneers on their faces, chuckling coldly. Although Cyrus had been on the rough side of things, they clearly did not come out unscathed. It was 'painfully' obvious as they winced after moving their faces a little too much.

"Alright kid. How many are you taking up?" While the majority tried to stay calm, Cyrus thought a herd of animals was running over with how loud their hearts were thumping. Victor also had a vested interest in the decision as well.

A defiant gleam shinned in his eyes as before saying with a cold tone, "50 sir!"

Flabergasted, Victor nodded his head in a stiff manner before arranging the battle stage. He truly believed that the previous betrayal would directly result in Cyrus shirking responsibility. After this succeeded he would follow up with plans to isolate him before crushing his will, then swoop in to slowly influence his weakened sense of self. But suddenly all these glorious machanation went up in a puff of smoke. Saying he was at a loss would be an understatement. I mean the kid was five and seemed more mature than himself.

Cyrus on the other hand, was paying specific attention to the mystical hand signals that Victor was currently performing. He distinctly felt Origin energy congregating and the ground rumbling in tandem, due to the hand signs.

"IS THIS A.....IT HAS TO BE. A magical art, oh my days, its actually a magical art, ahhhhhhh!" Cyrus was basically star struck, unable to form any coherent thought besides 'its a magical art'.

Just as quickly as it came, it dissapeared seconds later with a rocky 7 ft tall, 100ft wide cage being the result. It was truly magical and Cyrus's was enraptured by the complexity, to him, of the Origin energies interaction with symbols. His mind started comphrending everything and went a step further by extrapolating multiple theories of improvement.

This sudden knowledge was like an unquenchable thirst before a grating voice scraped his ears, "Get in kid. 10 minutes to kill all the wolves or it's considered a failure. Good luck, heh!"

That statement was enough to grab his attention because it was basically an impossible requirement. Not being one to back down, Cyrus took confidently strode in with no fear.

As if planned, the moment he walked in the ground opened up and a bunch of beserk wolves with deads walked up. There was no growling or intimidation tatics, only a will to kill their opponent no matter the cost. Cyrus originally thought they were just wild wolves but their current appearence spoke otherwise.

"He probably trained some of them earlier to give the stronger individuals a true test. This actually might be a little interesting!" With a blood boiling battle right in front of him, Cyrus only smirked in response as a will to kill ballooned in his chest.

The previous conflicts and trainning that he went through the past few days helped him discover a few new things about his special physique. A perfect chance to hone these new found abilities on familiar opponents would be hard to come by in the future.

"Let's just hope these animals can last long enough to test out a few things!" Thinking no more, Cyrus dashed into the thick of things as broken bones followed by loud thuds rang in the ring.