The man who had just murdered someone stood there staring at Dante. No remorse in his eyes. Just the cold gaze of a hunter.
With a casual motion, he rested his sword on his shoulder. He wiped the fresh blood on his jacket.
"Derek!" Masha's voice cracked with disbelief and rage. "How could you? They were our classmates! Some of them were your friends!"
A twisted smile spread across Derek's face.
"We're not on Earth anymore, Masha. This isn't school, and you're not student council president. Your morals mean nothing here."
He paused. Let his words hang in the blood-cold air.
"And as for killing," he continued, his voice dropping lower. "We had no choice. Kill or be killed. That's the only rule that matters."
"That's not true!" she shot back. "The Goddess told us to fight monsters, to get stronger! Killing each other goes against everything she said!"
Dante stayed silent. He let his team hear this. This was the real face of their new world. Ugly and brutal.
He wanted them to hear it. To understand it.
Derek laughed. Short and harsh.
"Wrong, Masha. If it went against her will, don't you think the Goddess would have stopped us?"
He looked at his blood-stained sword. Actually licked a drop of blood from the metal.
"This is exactly what she wants. The strong survive."
He took a step closer. His team spread out behind him, flanking them. Their faces were just as cold and merciless as his.
"Boys," he said, his voice thick with excitement. "Looks like we've got more targets. Have fun."
"Wait!" Talia shouted. Her hand gripped her rapier tight. "You're really going to do this? We went to school together!"
But Derek cut her off. He pointed a bloody finger straight at Dante.
"Your little group was first on our kill list," he said with a cruel grin. "Mostly because of him."
"We knew he was dangerous from the start. And look where we are now. What perfect timing." His smile widened. "Now, prepare to die."
With a roar, they charged.
Dante's team was still wounded and exhausted from the goblin fight. They stumbled back in panic.
This wasn't fighting mindless monsters. This was an execution.
He clenched his fists. His own fear turned cold in his veins.
'They're terrified. I need to give them something to fight for. Even if it's a lie.'
"Everyone!" he yelled. His voice filled with confidence he didn't feel. "We can win this! We'll make them pay for what they did! We'll get justice for the fallen!"
"We'll show the Goddess that we're the ones who will survive!"
His words worked. The fear in their eyes shifted to grim determination.
The fight was here whether they wanted it or not.
As Derek's team closed in, they braced themselves.
The clearing turned into chaos.
Derek was a mountain of muscle. He hit their front line hard. His massive greatsword swung in a deadly arc.
Jin and Eric moved to stop his charge. But Derek fought like a monster.
He deflected Jin's blade with a shower of sparks. He slammed into Eric's shield so hard that Eric slid back three feet. His arm screaming in pain.
CLANG!
"Erica, target their mages!" Dante yelled, trying to coordinate through the chaos.
But as Erica prepared to launch a fireball, one of Derek's team, a thin boy with dead eyes, pointed a finger at her.
"Curse: Mana Drain," he whispered.
Erica cried out as she felt her power being sucked from her body. Her forming fireball flickered and died.
His skill wasn't nullification. It was draining mana directly from their weak, inexperienced bodies.
At the same time, another enemy, a boy with a sharp, cruel smile, waved his hands.
"Phantasms!"
Suddenly, three more Dereks appeared. They charged at Masha from different angles.
Masha threw up an ice wall instinctively. But it blocked a fake one that passed harmlessly through it.
It left her exposed to the real attack.
The battlefield became a nightmare.
Talia lunged at an enemy. But her movements suddenly became slow and heavy.
"Graviton!" a short, muscular boy shouted. His hand extended. He was manipulating gravity itself.
Talia's rapier felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.
"Poison in the air!" Rina screamed. A sickly green mist began spreading from another mage. A boy with a snake tattoo on his neck.
"Toximancy! Everyone, hold your breath!"
Their support was being systematically dismantled.
"Edgar, analyze them!" Dante ordered.
"I'm trying!" he yelled back, dodging a punch from a fighter. "The curse user is weak to physical attacks! The gravity one has to keep his hands up to maintain the spell! The illusion caster is the one in the back!"
Juno's face was pale. He was using his skill.
"Derek isn't focused on Jin! He's aiming to break Eric's shield arm!"
One of Derek's team was chanting behind a shimmering barrier he created. He was protecting their poison user from Erica's weakened fireballs.
They were a coordinated team built for player versus player combat. Their skills synergized like a deadly trap closing around them.
They were outmatched in every aspect.
Jin and Eric couldn't handle Derek alone. Talia was pinned down fighting the gravity user.
Erica and Masha were being countered by curses and illusions.
And Rina was desperately trying to heal Eric's arm while also purging poison from the air.
The breaking point came with a sickening crunch.
The gravity user increased the pressure on Jin. It forced him down on one knee.
At the same time, the curse user cast another spell.
"Curse of Weakness!"
Jin screamed as he felt his bones become brittle. Derek saw his opening.
He disengaged from Eric. He swung his greatsword in a massive horizontal arc.
"Jin, move!" Dante shouted.
But he was too slow. Pinned by gravity and weakened by the curse.
The flat of the massive blade slammed into his side. It sent him flying into a tree so hard the trunk cracked.
CRACK!
He crumpled to the ground and didn't get up.
They were wounded, outmaneuvered, and overpowered.
And the fight had only just begun.