CHAPTER 30: TIMES UP! STAND IN THE GREEN BOX

"No, no! Please have mercy," an old woman said, her voice breaking as she crawled toward the man bleeding heavily and coughing profusely. Bloodied dust spiraled in the air as the men dressed in black suits and colorful masks slammed their swords into the hearts and heads of the people trying so hard to flee.

Denis, who was among the three men without mask walked toward a three-year-old girl and watched her, as she cried endlessly while shaking the corpse of her mother, hoping to wake her up. He raised the sharp butcher’s sword from his shoulder, placed it in the band around his waist, and wrapped his hands around the girl’s armpits as he began to raise her. He kept his gaze locked on the girl until she stopped crying and looked back at him.

"You look innocent, but I’m sorry you have to join your mother," he said, slowly placing the girl beside the corpse of her mother, pulled the sword back, and slammed it on her poor, small head. Dust gushed in the air, followed by sprinkle of blood, which splashed on the corpse and himself after the head blasted under the weight of the sword, stopping the girl’s loud crying sound.

He raised the sword, detaching it from the skin and stretching it like a rubber pulled freshly from fire, and swiped his left palm across the flat surface, painting his fingers red, then smiled.

"WTF! Denis, have some mercy," Kang said, running with an angry expression and slamming his fist at Denis’s back, forcing him a step forward.

"Ouch! Damn, were you expecting me to leave some alive?" Denis said, turning with a mixed expression while clutching the area the fist landed.

"At least, you shouldn’t have killed her in that manner. You could have just cut the head off, break her fragile neck, or even killed her in a different way." Kang said, before turning and chasing after the soldier with stone bangles on his wrist.

"I’ve already done it, and there’s no way I can bring her back. Even if there was a way, I would have repeated the same action. Didn’t you see how peacefully her eyes popped out and entered the open mouth of the corpse?" Denis said, pointing and smiling as he turned toward the corpse lying there with an eye in its mouth.

"Hmm, alright, just change the manner in which you kill the kids," Kang said, closing the gap between him and the soldier, and striking the golden sword into the soldier’s chest and swinging it sideways. Kang’s expression changed as the screams from the soldier echoed loudly in his ears. The scream increased when the sword began to emit and splash out yellowish flames, which first burned the skin around before continuing its burning sequence inside the soldier.

The scream stopped when the soldier’s eye color changed and turned into a thick black glow. And after a short while, it turned and rushed toward its own human colleagues and began eating their skin wildly like a forest animal.

Kang stepped back, shocked, but laughed, staring at the sword in his arms. Before enjoying his happy moment, he saw the now wild soldier returning to him in a great speed, and slamming everyone in its path away.

"Watch out, Kang!" Denis said, shouting and drawing Kang’s full attention. The sword, which now glittered with blood, rose, slamming the now-guard in two. Though the guard was split in two, he wasn’t dead; both halves crawled on the ground, grabbing Kang’s leg, and continued scratching their fingers against the thick black suit Kang was wearing until a leg rose and crashed into the head, shattering it completely.

...

In the far distance, dark clouds circled above the barracks, releasing heavy rains that fell and crashed onto the ground like stones.

Chattering sounds echoed in the great hall filled with countless weapons of different sizes that shimmered under the bright artificial bulbs that hung at the ceiling. Footsteps echoed as each soldier both old and new, standing in the hall searching for a weapon of their own, but one remained still around one particular weapon that no one approached.

Kai kept his gaze on the small, curled daggers arranged on a black colored triangular-patterned cloth. He moved his fingers, brushing them along the sharp edges of the daggers that reflected his blue and red eyes so well it looked as if another version of himself were stuck inside the blades.

When he picked up the swords and raised them, all the other soldiers around him began pointing their hands at him and laughing at the top of their voices. For someone who had been mocked by his own external family members and called many names, Kai didn’t reconsider and still clung his palms tightly to the part of the sword that had black silk wrapped around it.

Being trained and used to daggers of the same shape before, he just swung it slightly in the air, unlike the others who kept showing sword stances to impress others.

"Time’s up! Stand in the green box. No one should move out of it; else he dies." Wang said, pointing and guiding them to properly position themselves in the green lines drawn on the floor, and stepping back, he moved out of the hall and stood behind the glass wall that separated a room of ten people, watching them.

"What do you think we are to fight?"

"I don’t know, but whatever comes, I’m well prepared to slay it. Look at the edges of this sword; nothing can escape from my sight."

"Hah... hah... hah... sure. Let’s see who falls to the ground as we fight."

"Guys, look at the small boy standing there with daggers; does he think we’re here to play?"

Laughter stirred as Nich, the boy who showed signs of becoming someone stronger throughout his recruitment training, spoke, not knowing the boy he was talking about was actually the senior recruit who never visited the new recruits during their training.

’Hah...hah...hah... let’s just finish from here so I can at least reply to Lily when her shift ends.’ Kai thought, closing his eyes as he breathes in the new fresh air that began erupting from the ground.

Mechanical grinding sounds erupted, followed by bee-wing sounds that surged toward each and every soldier standing in a green box. Those standing by the wall became vigilant and acted first, seeing the walls opening and sending out one-foot-long electromagnetic bees flying above them with their stings ready to pierce someone.

Chaotic movements stirred in the room as they all began swinging their swords in the air, slamming and destroying the bees, but Kai still didn’t move; he didn’t crack his eyes either; he just stood there, communicating with the shadows within him.