"Quickie!!" One of the boys yelled out in horror; he had initially been overjoyed when his best friend won, but seeing the ice spikes impale Quickie's chest made tears drip down his eyes.
"Now there, he isn't dead is he?" Mr. Muzuki said, pointing to Quickie's chest which was still moving, "But if you do try to help him, then I'll make sure he does die." Mr. Muzuki said, his cold words pierced through the hearts of most people.
Sure, they all had meta abilities and had killed a few zombies but that didn't mean all of them were able to easily tolerate seeing death.
"I... I refuse to die." Quickie said with blood dripping out of his mouth, his eyes were burning with pure willpower.
With a forced grunt, he got back on his feet; he pulled out the ice spikes from his body, leaving his wounds exposed.
"This isn't some anime boy, but if you can manage to stay alive longer than him, then I might just help you," Mr. Muzuki said, his lips curled into a demonic smile.
The death duel had now turned into a battle of who would succumb to their wounds. First; everyone stared in anticipation; each second felt like a minute, but Kenji already knew the answer.
Quickie's wounds rapidly began closing up; in less than ten seconds, his wounds had stopped bleeding, and in the next ten seconds, they had completely vanished, not leaving behind as much as a scar.
"Look at that, his wounds have vanished!!" One of the boys said while pointing at Quickie's chest.
"Woah, his powers are so cool." Another boy said with a smile on his face. To him, superspeed had many applications.
Superspeed was a very versatile superpower, giving a person defensive, transportation, attacking, and even healing abilities.
'Wait till you see what I can do.' Kenji thought to himself that even without superspeed, he already had his healing and regeneration skills.
"Impressive, very impressive." Mr. Muzuki said he turned to Gao, and he could see that he was no longer breathing.
"You have been promoted to the next stage; these men will show you your new home." Mr.Muzuki said and the gang members beside him escorted Quickie out of the field.
'Crap, I also need to get promoted, it seems people with better meta abilities would be there.' Kenji thought to himself he needed to make a move, and he needed to do it as soon as possible.
"I would also like to get promoted," Kenji said boldly causing everyone to turn their heads towards him.
They had seen what Quickie had gone through to get promoted, so then why was Kenji so hell-bent on getting promoted?
"Are you mad Kenji? Are you willing to kill someone just to get promoted?" Zack asked with a disgusted look on his face, he couldn't believe that he was ready to become friends with someone like Kenji.
'Bullshit, he won't make us kill each other again.' Kenji thought to himself, while others were focused on only the fight between Gao and Quickie, Kenji was focused on something else.
He was reading Mr. Muzuki's body language and its changes in response to the actions performed in the fight.
It was clear to Kenji that Mr.Muzuki was supporting Gao, in Muzuki's eyes, Gao was far more valuable than a useless kid like Quickie.
So when Quickie managed to kill Gao, he was highly annoyed, he initially wanted to use the fight as an excuse to text Gao's brutality and power but it had backfired.
There was no way he'd risk putting the life of another talented person in danger like he had done with Quickie.
"If you want to be promoted, you'd have to defeat a zombie." Mr.Muzuki said and a horrified expression appeared on the faces of everyone including Kenji.
Zombies were harder to fight compared to humans, despite them not having any talents whatsoever, their physical prowess and relentless nature was enough to make anyone scared.
Kenji was of course faking his expression, he was jubilating internally, but he didn't want Mr.Muzuki to begin suspecting that he was more powerful than he had demonstrated.
"Go get me a zombie." Mr. Muzuki said to the gang members by his side and they did as instructed.
In a few minutes a level 2 zombie held by tight chains had been brought forward, it seemed Mr.Muzuki had been capturing zombies.
"Are you sure about this kid?" Mr. Muzuki asked and Kenji blatantly ignored him, he walked towards the zombie and got into a fighting stance.
Kenji's mind was working as fast as possible, trying to find a way to defeat this zombie without using any ability.
He wasn't well experienced in martial arts or using his hands to fight, unlike his swords, sure he was fast and strong but what was the use of he couldn't use his powers?
"Now, this is not a death duel of any kind, if you feel like you are unable to defeat the zombie just say it and the fight would be halted immediately." Mr. Muzuki said, he didn't want to lose someone with such a rare talent like Kenji.
Kenji nodded his head in response, he got into a fighting stance like he had seen in animes and comics.
"Don't forget these." Mr. Muzuki said with a smirk on his face, he pulled Kenji's swords out of his robe and threw it towards him.
Kenji caught the swords but didn't show any appreciation of any kind, they were his blades and not Mr. Muzuki's so he didn't owe him any form of acknowledgement.
'I need to at least make this fight look a little difficult, if I just power through it , Mr. Muzuki would suspect.' Kenji thought to himself, he was a hundred percent sure he could kill this thing in a single attack but that would give away his status.
[Quest: Defeat the zombie.]
[Info: How bad do you want this promotion? Prove it.]