Yoel's eyes shone in excitement as he saw Julia's movements grow limp. He had finally managed to land an attack.
I finally got her!
Not only did he manage to land an attack, but it was also one that would put her out of commission for good.
He stared at her for a couple more seconds, as he slowly watched the dagger dissipate into mist, which slowly swirled around her wound.
His excitement and joy were cut short, however– an intense burning sensation immediately scattered all over his lungs.
I… I can't breathe!
Yoel was clutching at his throat, barely holding himself back from scratching at it.
His heart rate had also increased by an incredible amount, if he knew the exact number, he would question if he was still human or not.
Why isn't the mist doing anything…
He realized that the mist hadn't reacted in any way, still focused on healing Julia's wound.
[Simulation ERROR]
[User is experiencing abnormalities outside the simulation. May or may not be automatically disconnected depending on the situation.]
What?
Did using that technique put his physical body under strain? Maybe he really had used physical muscles to replicate that technique in reality while also doing it in the simulation.
"That was quite a cheap trick, Yoel. I could have never even thought of doing something like that."
She had a smile on her face, that seemed to Yoel as if it was all but a smile. She looked as if she had found her arch nemesis, and she was not going to let him leave alive.
It's not my fault you can't think outside the box, idiot!
"Let's see if the same trick will work twice, shall we?"
What followed after was a cacophony of wind clashing against steel, crackling lightning, and the screams of a young boy who was subjected to horrible torture.
***
This school is filled with crazy people! Insane, the lot of them!
After Yoel's first win, Julia had decided to remove all the brakes and unleashed her full power on Yoel for the remainder of their time in the simulation.
Yoel had had his first taste of horrible, excruciating pain inside the simulation as he was ripped apart, slashed to pieces, and ground to dust as if he was nothing but an insignificant object.
The smile on Julia's face had never left, Yoel could not tell if she was enjoying it or was simply putting up an act, but either choice would only lead to a single outcome.
They're all crazy!
Yoel had been able to steal a couple of glances at the people he knew and he could spot among the many students in the arena.
He hadn't realized it at first, but apparently the second class of the first years had also been in the simulation, fighting one another.
He saw Loki covered in blood, resting on the war axe he wielded that was almost as tall as him, sometimes he would be on the ground, his chest no longer heaving up and down.
He was unsure how his battles were going, other than the fact that he stood heaving heavily on his axe more than he was lying on the ground.
He had also been able to see Cole– he was barely covered in blood, and he always wore a somewhat disturbing smile on his lips. Sometimes, his eyes would dart off of his figure, for whatever reason.
Cole had not lost almost any exchanges, at least whenever Yoel looked at him, he was standing as unbothered as he had been at the start of this.
The feathers were still there, although many of them Yoel could no longer see. He could sense their presence and see their signatures with avon, but he could not see them with the naked eye.
It was a mysterious ability, but Yoel really couldn't afford to think about anything other than being alive for as long as possible in his little skirmishes against Julia.
No matter what he did after that initial win, he could not even get close to Julia. It had almost broken his spirit, but it had also shown him just how weak he is and how much he'd have to train in order to pursue his goals.
I'm really not looking forward to the class on torture basics tomorrow.
Yoel sighed as the voice he heard at the start of his torturous experience in the simulation made itself known once again.
[I suppose its time for all of you to snap back into reality. Ought to take me a couple of minutes, don't kill each other while waiting, it could cause some serious damage.]
An eerie silence settled as the voice did not speak again. For some reason, Yoel really believed that someone would try to attack the person with whom they occupied the area.
Perhaps this was the reason why throughout the entire process, they didn't turn off the forcefields until the last second.
The somewhat domineering presence of the invisible walls disappeared just like the mist had after the message of the "professor", and soon enough he saw many of his classmates fall limp, collapse into dense mist, and then into nothingness.
He too, started to lose control of his body, while he was looking around he had the extreme desire to sit down and rest, and once he did he found himself floating out of his body.
His projection, or rather his mind watched as his body dissipated into mist, and he watched as the world around them was also disappearing.
It was a fascinating sight, despite the amount of torturous things he went through today, he thought himself lucky to experience something like this.
Even though it looked a bit scary, to see the world collapsing into a blank void.
As he kept floating upwards, he passed through the veil of clouds covering the sky and once he did, his vision blurred and faded into blackness.
Once he reopened his eyes, he found himself in the pod he had willingly entered, the mist that had reached occupied the rest of the empty space was now slowly dissipating, being distilled.
'You certainly got your ass beat, huh.'
How would you know?
It took all of Yoel's willpower to appear calm in his mind, as he was really not in the mood for another talk with this devil. Especially not after experiencing death over and over.
'I couldn't speak, but I could still see brat. It's not hard to view things from your mind.'
Ahh, whatever. I feel so exhausted. That was damn terrible.
As Yoel pushed the lid open, he realized most students had already exited theirs, and had also left the building.
Doesn't seem like many of them are eager to speak after that.
He looked around for any traces of the group he was with today, but none of them were present.
I guess this activity really was on a different level. It seems it's got a lot of people just wanting to distance themselves for now. Well, me included.
'You really need to start refining your core, you know? You've got so much work to do, learning basic skills isn't even the end of it.'
Could you please not bombard my brain with stuff I already know? I just got out of a damn torture machine and you're already filling me with all these annoying thoughts.
Even though he hadn't really been injured, the memories were there. Even though he wasn't really moving his body, he was experiencing fatigue.
He slowly walked towards the door, moving as if he had forgotten how to walk, and left behind the few people still preoccupied with processing their experiences from the pods and left.
He took out the cube that he had stuffed in one of the pockets of his uniform and asked to show him the time.
[4:03 PM]
Is it already this late?
Yoel wasn't in any hurry to get anywhere, but he also didn't want to sit idle for too long.
He remembered the park they had been in before the class started, and he went there– simply to clear his thoughts and get back on track as soon as possible.
He had done nothing but read about information he should know as a Blessed. The mental fatigue was slowly getting to him, especially after that hour of suffering he experienced in the simulation.
'You know, job's not going to get itself done while you sit down in some random park.'
I've been working nonstop the past week. And let's not even talk about before the dungeon exam. I just want… a few minutes of rest. My memories can wait just a bit.
Yoel looked at the sky. Well, whatever illusion they had made for the sky looked realistic enough for him.
He watched as the sun which wasn't too bright for his eyes slowly moved over his head, and the clouds that formed various shapes.
When I get stronger, I have a feeling I won't be able to experience this anymore.
So I will do all that I can to make these small moments of respite happen.
Yoel was going to have a long and deep debate with himself; his strength was crucial to his goal– but so was his humanity.