"Listen up slaves, it is time for the first trial, and just like I said the rule is that there are no rules. So for the first trial, you all are provided with a puzzle to fill, and you have 60 seconds to fill them, but if after 60 seconds you are not done, you will be eliminated. And if you make a mistake while filling the puzzle, you will also be eliminated. So work fast and steady, I wish you the best of luck. You may start" he yelled as the buzzer sounded indicating for them to start.
Immediately Madison heard the buzzer, she quickly rushed over to the table where the pieces of the puzzle were kept, and she couldn't thank her history teacher enough.
She could still remember when she was still in school, fixing puzzles has always been her history teacher Mr. Adam's favorite punishment for the students that come late to his class or don't do their homework.
And of course, she was one of the regular students to receive that punishment.
But thank God despite how much she swears for him, he still has her do her share of the punishment, and he made sure it was harder every single time.
"Am so, so sorry Mr. Adams for every single insult I laid on you and I promise if I ever make it out here alive, I am gonna forever respect you'" she thanked quietly as she went to work on the puzzle.
"Hurry slaves, you have just 30 more seconds"
Madison was beginning to hate that man.
Can't he see that they are trying so hard not to make mistakes and the screams of girls dying in pain aren't in any way helping.
Hearing him say it was remaining 15 minutes did nothing but agitate her more, especially when a girl in front of her screamed and went down dead.
Madison could no longer hold the tears from falling.
Her body was racked with sobs.
She has never seen someone die in front of her before, not even a normal death, but it's a kind of death where you scream in pain until you die.
5… the timer from God knows where started reading
"God, please help me, please, please" she prayed.
She was never the prayer type…4…
"Please God"… 3…
" I don't want to die"she screamed along with the next girl who went down.
It was too much for her to bear, she could no longer stop the sob from coming out.
Forcing herself to keep calm, she finally put the last piece of the puzzle before the timer went off.
And just fast, there was a scream all around her.
She was so startled that she wasn't aware when her leg gave up on her, and she went down crying out all the pain and anger she felt for all the so-called gods and crying more because then and there she realized she was helpless and that her life is now in the hands of those fucking gods.
"Are you ok?" Rei asked as she went to her side.
All her life, Madison has never been so happy
to see someone the way she was happy to see Rei alive.
"Rei you an ar-r-re a-a-alive" she stammered, still shaken up.
"Yes I'm alive, but you have to put
yourself together. We still have two more trials to go'" she said as she tried to get her up.
Ignoring her, Madison looked around to find so many dead girls on the floor. They were all dead.
Just like that. A feeling of hatred that she had never felt before started growing inside her.
When she looked at the ones that survived, she was surprised to see them all looking like nothing happened, they were looking totally fine like there was no dead body all over the place.
Staring at Rei, she asked,
"Why do you all look ok with these? Why does it feel like I'm the only one feeling not ok with these"? Breathing deeply, viper answered,
"That's because we are not human"
"We as slaves don't feel emotions or pain. Like you humans, you feel hurt, betrayed, and loved, but we as slaves don't feel any of those. We do get hurt, but only by our masters and the highest gods, and we also have loyalty for our masters" no wonder they all have cool expressions on their faces.
As she was still trying to get her messed-up mind in the other, the voice that she had come to hate came from wherever it has been coming from, he said in a Singsong voice,
"An enormous congrats to you champions, you have passed the first trial alive, now is time for the second trial. I will like it if you all will move to the next room" he said as they all moved to the next room that was already opened down for them and there she saw different kinds of weapons that she had never seen in her life before.
She couldn't stop her mouth from going wide because all her life she has never seen such weapons before.
"Ladies, welcome to the second trial. In these trials, you are to choose any weapon of your choice, then when you are done choosing. You step to the other side of the room and wait for my instructions"
Immediately the voice stopped, everybody went to pick up their weapon.
Forcing herself to move, Madison went and chose a dagger.
When they all had chosen, the informant said,
"Now in this trial, you are going to fight with the person who has the same weapon As you, so I did like you to find your partner and when you have found the lucky or unlucky one, you two should stand in the middle of the room"
How on Earth were they supposed to have the same weapon? Unless they did it in a way that two people will have the same weapon.
As she was about to start looking for her partner because it seemed like she didn't have any choice, a slim, tall skinny girl came to stand in front of her.
Seeing the questioning look Madison had on her face, the girl brought out her weapon and seems like fate really liked messing with her because she turned out to be her partner
"Well hello dear, I'm Madison. Let's
have a friendly match ok" she smiled expecting the girl to maybe even though she does not feel it, at least show a sign that she agreed with her.
When she got nothing, even a simple nod from her so-called partner, she decided to keep shut. After what seemed like forever, the instructor finally got back to them.
"Now ladies, you are to fight each other until the buzzer sounds. You can fight dirty… no, you are to fight dirty and the person who will be on the floor when the buzzer sounds, loses, and you know what happens if you lose. The buzzer will start counting when it reaches 10 seconds, until then, fight with everything you have"
Immediately the buzzer sound to
indicated for them to start, Madison's partner jumped at her in full force with her dagger.
Guess she can't talk her way out of this one. It seems like the girl's plan was to injure her badly, but she met the wrong girl.
Even though Madison couldn't fight, she can still defend herself until she sees an opening to take her down.
With that in mind, Madison put all her attention to avoiding all the girl's
attacks, but sporadically she loses focus and ends up getting cut by the girl's blade which was a lot more painful than Madison thought.
But she couldn't give up when she was so
close to taking her down.
And her partner was dumber than she thought, she was only concerned about wounding Madison and getting her weak that she didn't know she was already showing Madison ways she could bring her down.
Breathing heavily, Madison tried to keep herself standing, and just then, the buzzer
started counting… 5.
4… Immediately she saw the chance she needed, Madison held tightly to her dagger and slashed the girl on her neck.
Just as fast, she used all the strength that she had left to kick the girl in the knees which took her down the same time the buzzer buzzed, and just like before there was lots of screaming and crying and Madison knew from then henceforth, she will always be tormented by nightmares.