"This is a test of your dauntlessness and the preys are the weaklings"
"What was that?"
"I don't know either," I answered First. We heard a scream that seems to be from another room.
First immediately ran outside of the music room and I followed him. We saw Ninezen with Seventh.
"What's up?" First asked the two of them.
"The sneaky hologram is in the living!" Ninezen reported with a tense.
I can see the ground floor's living area from the 2nd to the 5th floor because it has an opening and railings like a mezzanine.
"We're about to go to the music room but the living area suddenly released a smoke, and the hologram came out." Seventh added.
"Come on," First called us and went down the stairs altogether.
We also called the others who were asleep. Within five days, it was only now that Author showed up again. All of us were assembled in the living area, yet Author hasn't shown up.
"What kind of trip is this, huh?" irritably said Ninth. He has silver-gray hair with a curly side hair. He is quite arrogant and an upfront person.
"What the?" the girl with dark gray short hair with bangs, named Twelf, who came last in the assembly area.
"Greetings, battle 22, we meet again." My attention was caught by the white screen with a big black letter A appearing in the middle of the living area. "How's life?" naughty question to us by Author.
"How's life? It's awfully awesome, now get the heck out of here!" Thirtwen replied sarcastically. He is the friend of Eleventh and Thirzen who had passed away against the monster, Neinuko. He holds a grudge against Author because it insulted his two friends.
"Really? Now, that's good news. Glad that you enjoyed your luxurious life here."
"Why are you here?" serious question of Fifth, the twin brother of Fourth.
"Well, well, well. You seem to enjoy the life that you forgot that you are only in stage 1." Ah, yes. We might really forget that we only cleared the initial stage, but I was fully aware that at any moment, another challenge might appear.
"To get you to the next level, stage 2 starts…now!"
A what?!
I felt the slowing of time. We were placed to create a big circle and Author was in the middle. The floor we were stepping on glowed neon red. The white screen with the letter A in the middle of the hologram disappeared and it turned into a big arrow hologram. We looked like a giant round clock but with 22 people surrounding each other forming a circle and with one long, big arrow at the center.
"And now, I will spin the arrow. The arrow will choose the most fortunate one." We can still hear Author's voice, but we don't know where it is because the white screen image disappeared.
The arrow is spinning while we were just standing. I struggled but surprisingly I could not move my body. It was as if I was tied with an invisible rope. I tried to speak and so did the others, but no voice came out. I could do nothing but keep quiet because I would only be exhausted if I tried to get out of here. Gradually, the arrow slows down. It looks like we're a human roulette wheel but instead of us, it is the arrow that spins.
What does Author mean by 'the most fortunate one'? What good will someone get if he/she has been chosen by the arrow? The arrow stopped and it landed on… Fortwen.
"Fortwen is the one!"
In an instant, the light that surrounded us disappeared. The arrow in the middle has also disappeared and the iconic hologram of Author is back. Fortwen was immediately out of her place from where she previously stands and was in the middle next to Author.
"W-What are you going to do to me?" she stuttered. All of us don't have a single idea of what's going to happen
Fortwen's feet seemed to be glued together so no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get away from her current position.
"The game is simple"
We were shocked at the next thing we saw. Fortwen became…
two… five… nine… t-twelve? She turned into twelve!
"Fortwen became twelve because of the clones. After a minute of the process, the mind of the genuine Fortwen will become a monster's brain." My eyes are stuck to the real Fortwen standing in the front row. They all look the same, wearing their uniform, and have blue-green braided hair. Her eyes are closed as if she's sleeping while standing. Her 11 clones also did the same.
"Search the original Fortwen among the twelve. Remove the necklace attached to her neck. If you catch and seized the wrong necklace which is from the clone of Fortwen, another clone will be added. To reduce the number of clones, kill them or you will be killed."
We were all stupefied at Author's explanation. I saw that there were necklaces hanging around the neck of Fortwen and her clones. It is a silver necklace with a maroon diamond-shaped, 4 inches length pendant. They look all identical and what's disturbing is that the original Fortwen will also be a brain monster, meaning she has the intent of killing us!
"What if the real Fortwen is the one we killed?" Third asked with a stoic voice. We can now speak but still can't move freely.
Author answered his question. "Then... there's nothing can be done about it."
Does it mean Fortwen would die? She must not die. There is still a way... there are more.
While the twelve were processing and standing asleep, I noted Fortwen's position and followed her with my gaze so that we could immediately grab the necklace around her neck.
"Once you get the necklace on the real Fortwen, the game will be cleared. The only chance for you all to do is fight if you want to live."
"How can we fight when we don't have weapons?"
"This is insane!"
"We can't do this"
It is now a ruckus. Author ignored us and counted. "20 ... 17 ... 14 ..." Perhaps it was counting down in completing the process of Fortwen's brain. We also could not approach her because our feet seemed to be glued still to where we were standing.
"12, 11, 10"
"Hey, we have to fight"
"But how? We're just going to die!"
"I don't buy this!"
"9, 8, 7"
I closed my eyes. I should control my panic. I may not look like it but my heart trembles. Must think. Just be calm. This is the wealth level where our intellectual skills are measured. It means, not pure fighting where strength is needed, but also the brain. If the boys will use their physical strength, then girls will use mental strength
"6, 5, 4,"
We are 21 and will fight against 11 human-looking and 1 real human with a brain of a monster. We have no weapons for defense or offense. Come to think of it, we can't do anything, but...
"3, 2"
We are human and they are just clones!
"One!" I boldly opened my eyes after Author's countdown.
Author went missing. The process has been completed with Fortwen and her clones. I noticed that we are now free to move. The clones are slowly waking up and I don't know which of them is real because they changed position very quickly. They all look identical to one another just like how Fortwen looks like. The only difference is their eyes turned into red rendering them emotionless or rather the eyes of a monster with bloodlust. The women ran away, and the men tried to keep their composure up. I stared at the clones that were coming at us.
"Get out of there! They'll attack you!" shouted a boy behind me. All the boys moved away from the clones while some girls fled.
I learned something recently from what First said. "I waited for everyone to sleep before going here. But someone discovered it." Thanks to him, it brought me an idea.
The monsters, even Fortwen are monsters too. They moan angrily and look gruesome.
"Second!" Aeith shouted.
"Stay away from them, please." Fourth begged.
For some reason, I can't take a single step away from the clones. I was too overwhelmed that kept me from moving my legs and feet. I admit that I am panicking right now but there's a hint of courage that resides within my fear. The monsters are going to run at me. I remained standing still until I feel like there was a heavy object in my right hand. It felt weird and got surprised by what it was.
"Hya!" I defended myself against the two clones approaching me with the weapon I was holding that wasn't present before.
That's right, we all automatically have weapons in our hands. My discernment was correct. This game is not that unfair and unreasonable, so we were also given a weapon. Author was just calm earlier averting our questions and worries on how to fight and survive this stage. How did I find out? It was Neinuko in the first stage. There was a strategy to beat the monster, so I thought that most likely, this one also has. It's not reasonable if we don't have weapons while fighting the clones in a closed area which is the castle. There are no holes nor exits for an escape leaving us with no choice.
I'm not sure whether my weapon is a sword or a dagger. It is short to be a sword but quite long to be a dagger with a length of about 20 inches. It is double-edged with silver metal and a sharp tip. I looked to the others, and we render two different weapons but only one for each. It is either this one that I have which seems to be called more like a dagger or a long slender spear. Most of them have a spear with a long sharp tip while the other 8 also have a dagger-like mine. Guess, we were given random weapons from the two options.
"Whooo! We're going to beat them!" Ninezen shouted with amusement while raising his dagger. How can this guy be amused while we're in the middle of a clone-slash zombie fight?
The boys focused more on attacking while some of the girls volunteered to fight to oversee the defense. We were able to counter their attacks with the help of the weapons that we currently have. There are only five monsters left. I did not expect that we had already knocked down 7 clone monsters, but we forgot an important mission. Wrong, we shouldn't have just focused on the fight. We should have also thought about where the real Fortwen was!
"No!" Third, one of our leaders stopped them from killing the remaining five. "We don't know yet which of them is real!" We were too preoccupied that we concentrated on a minor mission rather than the major one.
They stopped and didn't know what to do, neither did I. If we don't kill them, they will kill us, in case we can kill Fortwen. But what if one of the seven who died earlier was Fortwen? I noticed the remaining 5 clones didn't seem ordinary. They seemed to be twice as strong as the others who had already died making us quicker and stronger than the previous seven.
"Let's hide first then let's find out which of them is real," command our second leader, Firstwen.
That's just the most effective way. As we hide and they search, we will analyze the situation.
"We must proceed first to the 5th floor. The other girls are also there." Firstwen suggested.
I heard someone scoff. It was Sectwen who's behind me. "Tch, how bossy." She murmured then she ran.
We ran away from the clones and went in different directions to scatter and divert them from chasing us.
"Let's go," First grabbed my right hand. I got separated from Aeith and Fourth and they went up using the other stairs from the opposite side of us.
I and First headed straight to the kitchen while observing the noise we heard. We just kept quiet until we could no longer hear any strange noise. I sighed from exhaustion.
"You have a wound," he leaned closer and touched my left arm.
"Yeah," I looked at it and there's a small wound.
He took a small kitchen towel and wrapped it around my arm. "To stop the bleeding"
I smiled. "Thank you"
"Why did you just stand there?" he asked. He might be referring to what happened a while ago where I was glued at my position before the monsters attack us.
"Too shocked, I guess"
He laughed faintly so that the monsters won't hear us. "You really are something else."
I grinned. His dagger that was put aside to treat my wound caught my attention.
"Maybe you're also confused why it was only the 9 of us had this, aren't you?" My eyes widened because he can read my thoughts. "It's okay, I'm wondering too."
"Did you also panic when they started attacking?" I asked him.
"Worried, maybe? Panicked, no. You get nothing in return if you panic." He replied reassuringly
I wonder where the others are right now. I hope they went to 5th floor safely.
"I think we need to go. They might be looking for us," First initiated.
Miraculously we were able to go up to the 5th floor without being caught by the monsters.
"Second!" Aeith and Fourth ran towards and hugged me. Glad to see them safe.
Fourth was in tears when they see us. "You made us worried."
Tenth and Forzen also greeted me. All of us were here on the 5th floor. It can't be called a room because this floor only consists of concrete pillars and concrete floors. No furniture nor fixtures even lights. This is a fully enclosed and dark area. It's like a multipurpose area—completely different from the rest of the floors.
"Proceed with the plan." Our leader, Third, stated as we all got serious. We formed a large circle while standing. "The main problem we have is who among them is Fortwen."
"I have an idea," First interjected. He kept talking about his idea and I admired him for that. "If that's what we're going to do, then we have chance." he ended. His strategy is a good one from which everyone agreed to execute. His expression is quite different now. I can see a perseverance and determination in his eyes.
"Okay, let's do that," the two leaders agreed.
"They're here!" Twelf shouted.
We alerted ourselves after we all heard her.
"Wait, here? It's dark, we'll have a hard time." Forzen's concern.
This question was immediately answered when the ceiling of this floor and roof the castle's roof open spontaneously. I covered my eyes as the strong wind blows to prevent from any dirt getting into my eyes. The surroundings are lit up by the sunlight that shone unto us after several days that it didn't hit us because we're trapped here in the castle with no legit windows and exit. This floor suddenly became a rooftop.
I heard the growl of the monsters straining to open the door and the noise of steel.
"Attack!" the leaders commanded.
The ten boys went in front of the girls trying to protect us. They rushed to the remaining five monsters. I saw that First had thrown a small stone at the wall on his left and we immediately see the movement of the monsters' eyes.
"At the left corner! She's Fortwen!" Firstwen shouted pertaining to the real Fortwen that we've been looking for.
There is something wrong with the monsters. If I noticed it correctly, these monsters wer'e avoiding us. First's said idea was that he would throw a small stone so that it would create noise. Whose eyes were distracted by the noise that the stone made and looked to its right side where First threw the stone, then she is the real Fortwen. Recalling the battle that we had earlier taking down the seven clones, it certainly lacks five senses compared to a human being. One clone lacks at least two of its senses. Its disadvantage became a good advantage to us. The second strategy suggested by First, is that we will cause a slight damage to the clones which also means to stab lightly to see its blood. We observed d that the clones' blood was paler in color red compared to humans.
As we know who's the real one is, the 3 boys charged—Third, Fifth, and Ninezen, and grabbed Fortwen. The girls supported them by backing them up. The 7 boys were able to inflict great damage to the 4 clones. Thankfully, Fortwen is still alive. The 3 clones have also been defeated. Wait, there's another one.
"There's one missing!" I shouted.
"Argh!" we heard a girl groan and were shocked to see that T-Twelf has been strangled and lifted upwards by a monster that we missed. With the blink of an eye, we lost sight of the last clone and now its short nails suddenly grew for about 4-5 inches. It pierced its sharp and long nails into Twelf's neck. He was dying and fading. Some women stab the clone using a spear, but it only breaks their weapons, until Twelf is gasping for breath. No!
First attacked and stabbed the last clone before it might attack others. It died and turned into ashes.
"T-Twelf!"
I still thought no one would die from now on. Why? Why does this have to happen?
Fortwen slowly returned to her consciousness as a human. Her red eyes went normal, and her face became calm. It's good to see that she's finally back.
She coughed. "What happened?" the others helped Fortwen to recover.
We held onto Twelf's body and there were no vital signs that we hoped for. I don't know if I'll be happy or be sad. I'm glad Fortwen is here but Twelf died.
Fifth was about to grab the necklace from Fortwen to finally finish the major mission of the game when we're astounded at what happened next. Upon Twelf's death, Fortwen grabbed the pendant of the necklace from her neck, and she stabbed her neck repeatedly. And because it has a diamond-shaped 4-inch pendant with a pointed tip, it severed her neck badly. Blood is flowing, her eyes turned back into red. The pendant was made of glass that's why it penetrated her skin well. We were all stunned and unable to move. Thirtwen went near her and grabbed her hand to stop her, but she slashed Thirtwen's right arm. She stopped stabbing herself until the pendant was completely shattered into tiny glass shards that were stuck in her neck. She fell to the ground and lose consciousness.
"Fortweeen!" Thirtwen put Fortwen's head on his lap as he seated and cried. Fortwen was his classmate, and they became closer when they arrived on this planet. Three of his friends have already died. The first 2 who was mauled to death by Neinuko, Eleventh and Thirzen, and now it's Fortwen.
Why did the clone suddenly attacked Twelf even though she was doing nothing to them? Twelf was only standing on the side unable to move because she was frightened. The boys who charged in must be the ones the last clone finished. What's even more unpredicted is why Fortwen committed suicide. Did she really commit suicide?
The turn of events went so fast that we didn't stop her earlier from hurting herself. Others wept over the deaths of our friends. Two women died today.
"W-we were stunned when the monster appeared and strangled Twelf."
"I-I didn't notice it either! T'was too fast."
"Damn! I stabbed the monster while it was strangling Twelf but, it wasn't even scratched."
"Why did Fortwen do that?!"
We are full of remorse as we recollect the things that happened before our eyes.
"Game over," a voice whispered. It was Author.
The iconic hologram appeared in the middle of this empty space. It released an image of our pictures. And the picture of Twelf and Fortwen has a big red X mark and a 'game over' stamp below their faces.
"Again, two of your friends died. Stage 2 has been carried out."
No one is glad about Author's news even though Author is quite amused with his announcement.
"The corpse of the two will be dispatched." The bodies of the Twelf and Fortwen disappeared like a bubble in front of us.
"Why did you kill them?" Aeizen bawled at her feet.
"Because... in this game, the weaklings are eliminated."
"Fortwen? Why did she do that to herself?" Thirtwen also asked angrily.
"You again? Maybe you should avoid having friends because they die when you are involved. You might be bad luck." Author mocked him. What is wrong with this hologram? It does not even empathize with us.
"What did you say?!" his fist clenched, and he was about to punch the hologram when Third stopped him. "You're not in any position to treat us like this!"
"What did you do to the two?" I asked Author firmly to stop its madness and to show that it's a no laughing matter.
"First of all, the reason why Fortwen was chosen to be the bait is that she is the weakest of you all. She got scared when the arrow is about to choose the lucky one. That arrow detects your intense heartbeat and how you feel. The more you fear, the more you attract it."
This is totally absurd!
"That explains why some of you were given a dagger, not a spear. The more courage you have, you wield a more powerful weapon."
I look at the nine of us who are holding a dagger. It was I; my classmate, First. Our leader wearing eyeglass, Third. My bubbly friend, Aeith. The arrogant one, Ninth. An introverted girl, Aeizen. The funny guy, Ninezen. Our chubby leader, Firstwen. And the one who has his 3 friends passed away, Thirtwen.
"As for Twelf, she is second to the weakest. She was panicking when some of you attacked the 5 clones. To prevent her from running away, she was killed by the last clone finishing its business. And you were right that the 5 clones are far better than the first 7 you killed. They gain powers when their targets are shrouded in fear. The main target of this game is someone who is feeble. However, some of you are such a nuisance that's why manipulated Fortwen was manipulated to kill herself instead."
"I also got scared! I admit it! But why do I have this sword?" Firstwen asked.
Yes, even me. I don't deserve this sword. I was frightened when the 12 clones are about to attack that my feet were glued to the ground.
"The fear intensity differs. Assumingly, anyone of you surpassed the fear intensity of Twelf and Fortwen, but the thing is, you resisted and fought back. Slight courage can outgrow extreme fear."
So, this is what it's all about, huh.
"In short, this is a test of your dauntlessness. The preys have always been the weaklings." Did it kill Fortwen and Twelf just because of that?
"Is it because of their fear that you're killing them?" Firstwen asked while keeping his composure.
"No other reason. If your fear outgrows you already in the first level of tri-games, then isn't it better that you'll be eradicated so that your friends won't sacrifice themselves just to save the frail?" Author has a point, but it was indeed a harsh quote that cuts through hearts.
"The vigor wins, the feeble loses."
Author disappeared and the roof is slowly closing so it is getting dark. We were left standing trying to absorb what just happened.
"Let's go," a phrase from our leader, Third.
Forth went close to me as we descended back to our rooms. She is dazed and looks traumatized. "It could've been me…" she mumbled.
I pat her back to comfort her. "Don't think about it. What should've happened has already happened." She hugged me and cried. "I won't let anything bad happen to us."