And so, when the villagers were brought to the square in the middle of the night and fed with Skisla, I honestly didn't think any of them would survive. Out of the four only one survived, he was made an example. He was still on the square when the villagers woke up the next morning, the people from Estol, whom I learned later on were the king's guards, had put a warning letter on each of the doors of the village to tell people what the man had done, and what would happen to those who tried to copy him.

As for the three others that were brought to the square, they were never found again, and no one had reportedly seen any of them being brought to the square. I never told anyone who did this, as I wasn't supposed to be awake at that time, I know it may sound stupid, but as a kid I was afraid of what other people would say, since the man who got tortured also went against the orders and got hurt, I assumed it would be the same thing for me.

I don't regret staying silent, it wouldn't have changed anything even if I did tell my parents I saw people getting tortured and killed during the night. Sometimes ignorance is better than knowledge. I know very well they would try to help me get through it but, I also know I didn't think I needed help as I didn't completely realize what I had lived through. It would nevertheless help me in the future if I ever had to see people get murdered or who knows if I must kill someone in self defense.

I don't know how the king's guards slept at night, they had to kill anyone who disobeyed to king during the day, but what about the night? When the faces, the names, the history of those they killed comes back while they are falling in a deep slumber. They may act like they are machines, but everyone has emotions, especially those who try to suppress them. They probably learned to fight in the simulation like we did. Did they valse through the battlefield, the metal of their weapons clinging together creating a deep melody of the blood dripping and the earth rumbling under their feet?

Did they see people get killed while trying to desert the simulation like we did, or did they all stand in the cold waiting for their chance at glory and recognition? They were probably smart enough to think about shifting while faced with the pumpkin like fruit.

As I came back to reality, I realized my body moved naturally across the battlefield, my spear block attacks while I made my opponents fall to the ground one after the other, each bore new golden lines across their armor whether it be in their back or in the front. I could see in the corner of my eyes Jax fighting a girl, she seemed strong, yet she lacked the speed needed to take him down. As if he knew I was looking at him, he finished fighting the girl and advanced towards me. He walked like a panther did when finding a prey, the grace he walked resembled the ways of the aristocrats and the fact that he didn't change forms led me to believe he was indeed one of them. With a delay, I heard him talking:

"How are you doing Ruby?"

For a second, I wasn't sure I had heard properly, he did say Ruby right? He did know it wasn't my name or was he just messing with me?

"You do know my name isn't Ruby right?"

"Yeah, it just sounded cute in my head, I wanted to test it out."

"Still, it not my name... can't you just call me by my true name?"

"Everything about us is fake right now, why don't we add one more thing?"

The fact that he said that with a smile on his face made it even more irritating, I just wanted to take it off his face. I couldn't even think of a response because he was right, nothing was true right now.

We knew no one and no one knew us.

Moving forward, I stilled myself and tried to figure out his weakness, there was his back, but it wasn't truly a weakness as everyone felt pain in that place since the beginning of the simulation. I did however decipher the fact that he tended to use his right arm more that his left to hold his sword, he did hold it with his both hands, but he mostly used his right hand to support the weigh of his weapon. As for his daggers, I doubted he could reach them if he was too concentrated blocking my attacks.

Trying to take him by surprise, I leaped forward, only to find out he had done the same thing, as I moved closer, my spear entered in contact with his sword, I was scared for a second that my weapon would break under the impact, only to be happily surprised when it resisted. I had figured out a few moments ago, that my spear had a sharp side to it, I had used it mostly to make my opponents lose balance and then I would finish them by slashing a golden line across their armor to signal my win and their lost.

Most opponents would have fallen, but he didn't he just swiftly moved aside and tried to attack me from the left, I saw an opportunity and reached to grab one of the daggers he had pending at his side. I was pretty sure he realized what I was doing, but before he could react, I slashed the blade on the side of is arm, but as I was going to mark his arm of a golden line, he leaped aside and murmured in my right ear;

"Not so fast Ruby, our dance isn't finished."

While opening my mouth to answer, I saw the guy I used to fight against during the beginning of the simulation, I hadn't seen him in approximately three months. He was wearing a dark grey armor and was holding a long sword, he had changed from what I remembered, as I was about to wave at him, I realized I was still fighting with Jax and while turning back, I had given him the right opportunity to mark me with a silver line.

Even though I had suspected it, I still wished I could have some sort of maneuver I could use to rectify my error, there wasn't.

Jax seemed to know my vague acquaintance, because the moment I lost the fight was followed by Jax and the other guy talking together. Jax greeted him, I could overhear him pronounce the guy's name. Byhn. To my surprise, I realized that Byhn didn't respond, he just looked at Jax and smiled.

I guess the reason he didn't want to talk during those weeks weren't because he didn't want, but rather because he couldn't. It didn't look like it bothered Jax, he just continued talking to Byhn as if it was normal not to receive any respond, but then I realized Byhn's eyes were following Jax's lips, so that's how he did it, he read lips. They then got into a fighting stance and started moving slowly in a tight yet clear circle. I could understand what Jax meant by our dance, to any outsider, they really look like they were dancing, but when they started fighting, the music of the metal clinking one against the other made it look ten time more elegant and captivating then it should be.

Cutting myself from the trance I had fallen into, I reengaged into another battle with another male, but it wasn't as exciting and challenging as the one I had just fought. After winning yet another battle, I approached Reain and asked him if he wanted to try to beat me, strangely, his fighting style resembled a lot Jax's. Although his was a lot more aggressive and seemed to use more force than necessary. He made a fatal mistake when he tried to play with the fact that we both used spears, he tried to counter-attack using my speed and my longer spear as weaknesses. Needless to say, he failed, just because he had a shorter spear didn't mean he could come closer to attack my vital points, it just meant giving me a better range of attack. 

Clearly, he didn't get that. 

As he approached, I feinted to move to the right and he fell for it, so using that momentary gap, I leaped and pointed my spear to his heart. Since we where on the same team, I couldn't mark him, but I could still enjoy the sweet taste of my victory. He looked surprised for a second, but he still ended up smiling and congratulating me, I wasn't sure I had heard properly, but I was pretty sure he had called me Lya.

The bells rang before I could confirm I had heard properly. The battle was finished for today, the Golden team had lost by a point. I usually religiously ignored the ranking panel at the end of each day, but today I couldn't help but peek. It couldn't be that bad, I hope I had stayed unremarked, I did win most of my duels, but I still managed to lose some of them occasionally, and I knew they would give more points to those who demonstrated the ability to change between forms, or that at least showed the ability to control their wolf form from going on a rampage.

I wasn't very surprised to see Jax at the top of his team, but I was surprised to see Masov being the top of ours. I never saw him fight, but after what happened the first day, I didn't think he would have it in him to fight other people to the point of hurting them and fining his battles.

I guess even the underdog could occasionally win.

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