POV -----> Dr Edward Stein
I Yawned widely while keeping my eyes glued to the array of screens before me.
in my breathtaking central observation room which in some cases, became my Bedroom.
It was a particularly royally designed room equipped with all the petty desires of man; Golden window columns, Furniture made with the finest ebony, on the walls were a good line up of various hanging swords and so on.
It had a large bed placed in the middle of it set up with two pillows almost like a married couples matrimonial bed.
Beside that was a nicely developed work space.
At a corner was a small library with quite a large number of books on the numerous shelves.
I was sitting on a large recliner, in front of me was a large work space with a lot of buttons, dials, levers, blinking lights, keyboards with unknown symbols and little screens.
[A/N: Keep in mind, this is not like those immaculate futuristic tech. Think of hex tech, weird and heavy metals, living organism-like movements and stuff.]
Before me was a wide array of various screens showing me the particular area where I expected my subjects to have reached.
"These ones are pretty promising, I hope this manages-"
I had finally realized that there were just two subjects left.
I quickly propelled myself to a particular part of the controls before me where I proceeded to tap furiously.
I managed to locate the corpses of quite a lot of the other subjects that had survived the prior 'Natural Selection'.
"HAHA! Yagi! Hoax! you really need to see this, it's funny as hell."
At my command the two rushed in with worried faces that later grew into horror at seeing what was on the screen.
Hoax was the first to speak in his raspy voice that actually sounded like what one would expect from a humanoid reptilian.
"No one ever died this fast."
"I know, and I haven't even released the challenges. Only these two are left, Azur and the Dragon girl, what was her name? …," I said while snapping my fingers continuously, trying to remember.
Alerting Yagi to speak up as the corpses moved off screen and all the display screens moved to focus on the last two.
"Anastasia, I believe it was her that may have done this and how the hell did that dumb thing survive? I thought Anastasia would kill him first."
"Funny how things work. I may hate The Deity but I have no qualms with Fortune. if that's what you wish to call it. but my close minions you must think, I always tell you this. Anastasia happens to be a truly capable Sorceress but she is bound to the Dragon doctrine which you could say is her strength but could be a grave weakness. Simply, she hunts down and preys on any being that her instincts 'say' would be beneficial to devour."
After I said this I grabbed a cigarette from a packet within a drawer on my workspace and then Kage suddenly appeared in between Yagi and Hoax, who were situated behind the both sides of my recliner.
Then for the first time in a while, I'd see Kage with a facial expression.
His eyes were wide and had a green glint of what seemed to be a swaying flame within them and his mouth had a constant grin that stretched from ear to ear and revealed no teeth.
The face made me remember things I didn't want to. It was like he was still mocking me.
I reached behind him and strained his flesh to seemingly tear out a piece of Kage.
Which immediately reformed.
The piece that was torn off was in between my thumb and middle finger.
I snapped my fingers with the piece of dark flesh in between and it ignited with a slight, yellow and subtle burning flame.
I used this to burn the tip of my cigarette and proceed to smoking while paying steady attention to the screens.
POV -----> Azur
The short female subject I stumbled upon seemed to have no idea where she was going as well.
I just followed her while jogging subtly just to keep the ambiance of the energy movement going.
I tried initiating a conversation a few times but she didn't even reply. Well, she didn't until I said this.
"So, were you always this short or did it happen after the tests?"
I sensed the atmosphere change.
She stopped walking and I was very sure I could hear her growling at my comment.
Initially, I expected her to ignore me and keep going but she turned around and I began to reap the bitter results of me running off at the mouth and regret began to overtake all my thoughts.
"Y-You low life, how dare you refer to me with the word that undermines the ones challenged with Slow development?"
Before I knew it, I felt like my lungs were being pressed down on to the point where they felt like they were about to pop.
The aura that clouded her due to the release of her energy wasn't that menacing because it didn't distort the space around her like mine did, but it felt like it put all my organs in danger.
"Could you just calm down? you were basically underestimating me for the entirety of the time I have been following you and you don't see me trying to crush your organs with my energy."
"You dare speak so leisurely while clasped in the jaws of death?!"
This was a truly horrible situation.
I don't remember gaining my sense of smell but the odor of death was concentrated enough to make me understand my impending doom.
Her hair was rising and standing on end, her flat horns grew a few millimeters and her left eye was now releasing a steady yellow glow.
Eventually, I saw a vast sound wave approaching me.
It reduced the grounds and walls around to rubble.
I immediately sprinted out of its main trajectory but since I was still in range I was caught up in the attack.
As I laid there in the pile of white and gray rubble and dust, I couldn't help but wonder where the hostility warning went off to, but such an attack was still quite unexpected to say the least.
She had released a sound wave from her mouth that was so high pitched that I couldn't even hear it but was lethal enough to reduce what could be blocks of cinder to dust.
It left quite a few bloody scars on my being.
If I hadn't moved out of the way of the main attack I could have actually died.
She wasn't fazed by my energy enhanced sprint.
Maybe it wasn't as amazing as I thought.
She just waited for a while to catch her breath and then I saw her try to attack once more.
She seemed to be able to hide her killing intent and hostility.
When I tried to get on my feet and attempt to dodge the next attack Stein's voice was heard echoing throughout the well-lit corridors we found ourselves in,
-[Well, well. This happened fast. We are down to two successful subjects and I had really hoped you would have fought to fatality and decide this for yourselves without my glorious intervention. But alas, that seems to be something that won't be happening anytime soon so, I must interrupt.]
So, I was indeed correct, there were other subjects that took part in the 'Natural Selection' other than me, it all added up too.
I met another subject while in the Selection but it was the only interaction with a subject I have had so far.
Could it be that I was just lucky?
If there were at least one thousand seven hundred subjects who qualified for the 'Natural selection', then luck didn't even begin to clarify why I've been alive for this long.
-[We are sad to announce that a lot of lives were lost during My Natural Selection, some of which were killed by the two of you present now. We are also sorry to announce that quite a lot have been felled and returned to whence they came by the dragon girl. Kill Count: Azur;1, Anastasia;623. Azur, you need to step up your game if you intend to live the way you desire. But no worries, those kills from before are very meaningless now. If you check the maps you acquired from me then a perfect route to the exit has been plotted, two individual routes with separate placings for the most part of the course. make your way through them and reduce all obstacles to dust. THANK YOU!]
As soon as his voice went quiet two columns opened up revealing two routes.
The fearsome aura emanating from both the routes even made Anastasia who had killed quite a lot to shiver and tremble.
Maybe Stein had finally decided to dispose of us.
It was like Stein was ridiculing everything I had been doing up until now.
I could almost see his smug face chuckling at me while he tried to conceal his glee; I bet that's the expression on that bastard's face right now.
I gathered my confidence and put together my resolve to put it all out for nothing.
I have been groveling and dancing in the palm of Stein for about a week or so now.
I was getting sick of it.
I didn't pay much attention to Anastasia who just stayed there trembling and contemplating [A/N: Probably already pissed herself too] while I took steps to enter my route.
After the first step The Words in my thoughts went crazy repeating the same thing over and over again.
It was just making the feel of this trial more and more scary.
-{HOSTILE INTENTS}
-{HOSTILE INTENTS}
-{HOSTILE INTENTS}
-{HOSTILITY, BACK AWAY}
-{HOSTILITY, BACK AWAY}
-{OVERWHELMING HOSTILITY}
-{OVERWHELMING HOSTILITY}
-{OVERWHELMING HOSTILITY}