The man who had just stolen a life before our eyes met my gaze. There was no remorse in his, only a cold, predatory light. With a casual flick, he slung his sword over his shoulder, wiping the fresh blood onto his jacket.
"Derek!" Masha's voice was sharp with disbelief and rage. "How could you? Have you forgotten? They were our classmates! Some of them were your friends! Don't you feel anything?"
A devilish smile spread across Derek's face. "We aren't on Earth anymore, Masha. This isn't our college, and you're certainly not the student council president. Your scolding won't have any effect on me here." He paused, letting his words hang in the blood-chilled air. "And as for killing," he added, his voice dropping, "we have no choice. It's kill or be killed. That's the only rule."
"That's wrong!" she shot back. "The Goddess told us to fight the monsters, to get strong! Killing each other is against the rules!"
I remained silent, letting my team absorb this. This was the truth of our new world, raw and unfiltered. I needed them to hear it, to understand it.
Derek let out a short, barking laugh. "You're a fool, Masha. If it was against the rules, don't you think the Goddess would have come down to stop us?" He looked at his sword, now stained crimson, and licked a drop of blood from the steel. "This is exactly what she wanted. The survival of the strongest."
He took a step forward, then looked back at his nine teammates, who were fanning out, their expressions just as merciless as his. "Boys," he said, his voice booming with excitement. "Looks like we've got more people to kill. Enjoy yourselves."
"Wait!" Talia cried out, her hand tightening on her rapier. "Are you really doing this? We're classmates!"
But Derek cut her off, pointing a bloody finger directly at me. "You know, your little group was at the top of our target list," he sneered. "Mostly because of him. We knew he was a threat from the start. And look where we are now. Isn't this a lucky day?" He grinned. "Now, prepare to die."
With a roar, they charged.
My team, still aching and injured from the goblin fight, flinched back in terror. This wasn't a battle against mindless monsters. This was an execution.
I clenched my fists, my own fear turning to ice in my veins. "Guys!" I shouted, my voice ringing with a conviction I didn't feel. "We can do this! We will punish them for their crimes! We will provide justice for the victims! We will reign supreme! We will show the Goddess that we are the ones who will win!"
My words struck a chord. The terror in their eyes was replaced by a defiant glare. The fight was inevitable. As Derek's team closed the distance, we braced for impact.
The clearing exploded into a whirlwind of violence. Derek, a mountain of muscle, crashed into our frontline, his massive greatsword swinging. Jin and Eric met his charge, but Derek was a monster. He parried Jin's blade with a shower of sparks and slammed Eric's shield with enough force to make him stumble back, his arm groaning in protest.
"Erica, fire on their casters!" I yelled, trying to direct the chaos.
But as Erica prepared to launch a fireball, one of Derek's teammates, a thin boy with hollow eyes, pointed a finger at her. "Maleficium: Mana Drain," he whispered. Erica cried out as she felt her power being siphoned away, her forming fireball sputtering into nothing.
At the same time, another enemy, a boy with a sly grin, waved his hands. "Phantasms!" he called. Suddenly, three more Dereks appeared, charging at Masha from different directions. Masha instinctively threw up an ice wall, but it blocked a mere illusion, leaving her open to the real threat.
The battlefield became a nightmare. Talia lunged at an opponent, but her movements suddenly became slow and heavy. "Graviton!" a stocky boy shouted, his hand outstretched. He was manipulating gravity itself, making Talia's rapier feel like it was made of lead.
"Poison in the air!" Rina shrieked, as a sickly green mist began to drift from another caster, a boy with a snake-like tattoo on his neck. "Toximancy! Everyone, hold your breath!"
Our support was being overwhelmed.
"Edgar, analysis!" I commanded.
"I'm trying!" he yelled back, dodging a blow from a brawler. "The curse user is weak to physical attacks! The gravity mage has to keep his hands up to maintain his spell! The illusionist is the boy in the back!"
Juno, his face pale, was sketching frantically. "Derek is ignoring Jin! He's trying to break Eric's shield arm completely!"
One of Derek's team, a boy chanting behind a shimmering barrier of his own Wardcraft, was protecting their poison caster from Erica's weakened fireballs. They were a perfectly balanced team for player-killing, their skills weaving together into a deadly net that was rapidly closing around us.
We were outnumbered in every engagement. Jin and Eric couldn't handle Derek alone. Talia was locked in a disorienting struggle against the gravity mage. Erica and Masha were being neutralized by curses and illusions. And Rina was desperately trying to heal Eric's arm while simultaneously attempting to purge the poison from the air.
The breaking point came with a sickening crunch. The gravity user increased the pressure on Jin, forcing him to one knee. At the same moment, the Maleficium user cast another spell. "Curse of Frailty!"
Jin cried out as he felt his bones weaken. Derek, seeing his chance, abandoned his fight with Eric and swung his greatsword in a massive, horizontal arc.
"Jin, move!" I screamed.
But he was too slow, pinned by gravity and weakened by the curse. The flat of the massive blade slammed into his side, sending him flying into a tree with enough force to splinter the wood. He collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
We were injured, outmaneuvered, and completely overpowered. And the fight had only just begun.