I stood up, my legs stiff as I'd been sat down too long.
"Hey Ana, we should probably get up. Look at the timer."
[ 1 minute remaining. ]
She nodded, and I held out my hand to help her get up. She took it and I lifted Ana to her feet.
[ 50 seconds remaining. ]
Two people were yelling across the cave in desperation.
"I NEED A PARTNER!!"
"WHERE ARE YOU!?"
I didn't like their chances of survival. The cave was huge, full of 1000 people who had already partnered up, and they had barely any time.
[ 30 seconds left.]
The screaming became more high pitched and urgent as it echoed throughout the cave.
One of them stopped yelling, clearly accepting defeat.
[ 10 seconds remaining. ]
The other continued to push through the crowd.
[ 5 seconds remaining. ]
…
[ 1 second remaining. ]
"PLEASE, WHERE ARE Y-"
[ Time up! ]
BOOM!
The two people blew up simultaneously, blood scattered across the cave and on some unfortunate people's faces.
Me and Ana were nowhere near them, but despite this I covered her eyes.
It felt wrong for a child to witness this.
The timer in the sky disappeared into nothingness and a cluster of pixels came together in the sky. Ahiram appeared once more.
"Uh oh! It appears someone blew up…"
It grinned.
The players just stared at the horrific scene in front of them. The two people weren't as far away from eachother as I had thought….If the one who had given up HADN'T given up, they could have survived.
I swallowed, feeling tense.
All that was left of the poor victims was blood and parts of their corpse.
Ahiram continued to speak,
"How sad…Anyways! Now there is 958 players left, so less competition for you!!"
I was taken aback by how relentless Ahiram was. Maybe I was deceived by it's somewhat humanistic appearance, and I automatically thought it held at least some compassion…
"No need to be upset! Now, the gate to the tower will open. Hope your all as exited as I am!!" It grinned ominously as it flicked it's finger and green magic shot out.
The cave started to tremble and a few people screamed. Small, loose rocks fell off of the walls and the ceiling of the cave.
Dust rained down on us all.
Then the vibrations stopped.
"W-what just happened?" Ana shrieked, grabbing onto my arm.
"I don't kn-"
Then I saw it.
A massive portal.
It had appeared at the wall of the cave. It had a purple outline that glowed slightly, and appeared to lead to…nothing? All we could see was a black swirling entrance…
Then, someone shot through it. The man had black hair, and was dressed in a black, long sleeved shirt.
It was the S rank player, what was his name….? Oh. Yes. He was called Dimitri.
…
"I know he's an S rank but cmon…it's still crazy what's happening…how's he so confident…"
I thought out loud, and Ana gave me a weird look as if to say 'the hell are you talking about.'
Oh, right. She didn't know he was a rank S. All she saw was a crazy guy leaping into an unknown hole.
"Cmon,"
I ushered her through the crowd of people, towards the outside of the portal.
Most of the people had scattered away from it.
The only ones who hadn't was me, Ana and…
… the poor blue haired kid from before who's partner was the crazy rank S.
"It feels as if the portal is tugging me in."
I muttered as I glanced back towards Ana, who was a few steps behind me.
I stood directly outside of it.
"U-Uhm! You shouldn't go in, you don't know where it goes!" Ana called in a high pitched voice.
Despite this I stepped closer to the portal.
Ana began to run towards me.
"No don't!"
It's okay. I'll be fine. If that crazy man did it, I can too….right?
I walked through the portal and blacked out, leaving Ana and the others inside of the cave.