Leo huffed, his breath was ragged.
Blood oozed out from his wound and dyed his clothes in scarlet red, his clothing was torn and cuts marred his skin. Even an eyeball of his had been gouged out by his assailants.
From all angles he was surrounded, young men and women from all sides steadily advanced towards him. Their weapons held the collective blood of all his teammates, including his own.
[Spatial Awareness] He thought, sounding the name of his skill in his mind.
His eyes became a darker, deeper hue of blue that was as mystifying as it was entrancing.
Then, he could see it.
Everything in 300 meters from all angles were in his sight, in every direction, including through the obstructions. With this skill active he had a perfect 360o vision, even if it was only with one eye.
'They have me surrounded from all sides.' Leo thought. 'I'm not athletic enough to get past them.'
He was only level 9, all his attackers were at least level 12.
"Your useless skill isn't going to save you." One of this attackers warned him.
Leo coughed out blood, the crimson red liquid dropping onto the rocky surface of the ground.
"I know that." He muttered, though he wasn't sure if any of his assailants heard him.
"Rob, look at this. Isn't he a piece of artistic work? As expected of an idiot who thinks he has a chance of escape."
The guy who had said it, with black hair and red eyes, was staring at him.
'Why am I even trying?' Leo wondered. 'We've already racked up enough deaths to know we've already lost.'
A tear formed at his only eye, rolling down his cheek before dropping on the rocky ground.
"Wait, don't cry yet, we haven't even begun killing you." One of them, a girl, mocked getting into ready to move.
Leo coughed out another mouthful of blood as he got ready to defend himself.
'Maybe its because I don't want to die knowing I didn't give it my all.' He thought, steadying his steps.
The girl darted towards him, her form too fast for his eyes to keep up with. He could only catch a blur moving towards him at incredible speed.
He raised his dagger to block, but that was when it struck him.
He had dropped his dagger awhile back when he was trying to escape.
Before he could move his hand out of the way a spiky mace slammed down into it. It impaled his hand, bruising it beyond help.
Leo wanted to scream, but he couldn't.
That was when it hit him, she had a space ring.
The girl raised her mace high, her eyes gleaming in cruel excitement. She was just moments away from delivering the final blow, and killing him.
Leo knew the outcome, but despite that there was a flicker of defiance in him. With spatial awareness he noticed something, an opening line that would enable his escape.
Every part in him screamed for him to give up, but despite that he was not ready. At least not yet.
The spiky mace swung down, but failed to deliver the blow that it was supposed to.
Instead it hit air, failing to come in contact with his head.
Leo darted forward, his movements faster than he had ever been.
As soon as he moved, his other nine enemies were alerted.
'Its coming.' Leo thought, timing internally.
Then, he rolled on the ground.
A ball of fire sailed over him, just inches away from making contact with him. Instead it harmlessly sailed over him, and rather hit the caster's teammate.
As the fireball made contact with him, the man was blasted onto the ground, his clothes and body on fire.
Leo stumbled onto his feet as he watched this happen, but he didn't stop running.
'Even someone with a fireball as a skill is better than me.' The young man burned, the flames not stopping until they had been put out.
But this gave Leo the chance he needed.
He recovered his speed, still moving towards his goal.
But there was someone in front of him, the goal was not how he had envisioned it. This person had seen him and quickly predicted the route he would take to try to escape, with their teammate on fire, most would be forced to split their attention between their teammate and Leo.
He would be able to escape.
But this woman in front of him wouldn't allow it.
"Stupid." She muttered.
Leo felt his chances of escape getting slimmer with every passing second.
'No, I may be able to get past her.' Leo thought.
The woman in front of him blurred, her figure becoming an afterimage.
'Where did-'
Before he could even questioning it, his question was answered.
There was a dagger embedded in his brain, drawing blood almost immediately and before his mind could comprehend what was happening and before his brain could register the pain.
And his brain didn't register the pain.
"A level 9 thinks he can beat a level 16? Pathetic."
But Leo did not hear those words, he was dead.
…
Leo sat in a extravagant room, his body slumped.
"I can never get used to death." He murmured to himself.
This wasn't the first time he had died.
He had just died, but the realization didn't shock him at all, instead he was worried about the inevitable future.
They weren't in a simulation, it was real life, except when he died he wouldn't die as long as he was in the ring.
But outside of the ring, if he was killed it was over.
Leo raised his head, his eyes coming to the door. From the other side, somebody knocked nervously.
"Come in." His voice sounded weak, that was exactly how he felt.
The door opened, and his friend came in.
"Kyrel, you're here."
"Of course." He responded, it was just that today he didn't seem very bright. "Its just that."
Kyrel sighed.
Even when he stood his body was slumped.
He had black hair, dark eyes and a handsome face to boot. In essence, he was a handsome guy, and better looking than Leo.
But only Leo and he knew how many times a dagger had gone through his face because of girls who despised guys, finding him the perfect target to take by surprise and kill.
Unfortunately, he was handsome yet awakened a rank 4 skill, making him the current weakest of their team.
"It's just that, I feel that they're going to kill me next." Kyrel admitted.
Leo was honestly perplexed by his reasoning. "Why?" He questioned.
Leo felt that if anyone was going to get killed by the team, it was going to be him. In the beginning Leo couldn't give out orders well, even though he could see the field he couldn't give out orders effectively, causing teammates to die needlessly because of misinterpretation.
There were others who hated him in the gut because of their needless deaths caused by his ineffective ability to give commands.
At the stage his team was, after every loss they would be forced to end a teammate of theirs, and collect a teammate of their next victor if they wanted.
"Are you dumb?!" Kyrel questioned, his voice unusually loud yet he sounding timid. "I'm the only one who has a rank 4 skill, its obvious that I'm going to be the first to die, and we've lost two in a row."
Outside the ring, once you died you were dead.
"So, I've been thinking a lot." Kyrel continued, not giving Leo the chance to speak. "How would I survive?"
"You don't sound like yourself." Leo intervened before Kyrel could continue.
"How the hell is someone supposed to sound like themselves when they know people they fought with are going to kill them?!!" Kyrel thundered.
'Something's wrong with him.' Leo thought, subtly getting on the defensive.
"Then it occurred to me." Kyrel was beginning to get a little more bolder. "If I kill you, all my problems will be resolved since you would be dead."
Leo paused.
"Kill me?" He asked for clarification.
"Yes, kill you." Kyrel ascertained.
His hands that were behind him began to glow in a dim blue light, but Leo noticed it.
Kyrel brought his hands from his back. However, they were accompanied by a longsword in his right hand.
"I'm sorry, pal. You were a dear friend of mine." Kyrel held the sword with both hands and prepared to slash down on him, decapitating his body in half.
He swung the sword down as Leo jumped to avoid it, but he was too slow, the sword came down, cutting his feet off.
Leo's body fell hard on the floor of his room on the other side next to the bed.
He did not utter a single word or make any sound of pain.
But still the pain from getting your feet sliced off was there.
'That space ring... are they all in on it?' The pain numbed his senses.
Kyrel was not at the level where he could gain access to the space ring.
'So she's-' Leo put an arm on the wall as he struggled to get up, trying to ignore all the pain he felt.
"It was either you or me." A voice came from in front of him.
The sword went through his heart easily, like hot knife through butter, he could not stop it.
He felt his body go weak, his body functions shutting down as a horrible painful sensation shot through his body.
Leo couldn't move it, no matter how hard he tried.
"Do you have any last words, friend?" Kyrel asked as blood pooled out of him.
Leo managed to raise his head to meet Kyrel's, with his last strength he muttered something.
"I'll kill you, you bloody bastard! I said I'll kill you and everyone you hold dear! I'll murder each one of them!"
"Goodbye, friend."
Kyrel withdrew his weapon, causing Leo's vision to go dark.
'I'm not going out like this.'
'I'm going to murder him.'
[Re-Awakening...]
[Rank ??? x]
[Re-Awakening... God Level Skill - Adaptation]
'Wait, I don't remember anything called a re-awakening.' Those were his last thoughts.