Ghost took a step back. "We split. Now."
Nyx was already turning away.
Echo watched her disappear into the ruins, then looked at Ghost. "You won't survive playing mercifully forever."
Ghost gave a small, humorless smile. "Neither will you, playing honest."
They parted without another word.
Viper stayed frozen for a moment, heart hammering, token warm in her palm.
Echo disappeared into the shadows.
Far above the arena, in a restricted corridor lined with screens, another man moved.
His codename pulsed cold white.
Requiem.
He had already finished.
Blood stained his gloves. Tokens clinked softly in his pocket. Everybody he left behind was silent.
Now he was hunting down anyone on his part while looking for echo.
He scanned the feeds.
Paused.
Zoomed.
There.
Echo could be seen from a far distance.
Seeing how calm she was, he knew she had acquired a blood-mark token.
He turned and started moving fast, purposeful.
In the arena, Echo felt it.
The air shifted.
She looked up.
Far across the ruins, a tall figure broke into a run.
Straight at her.
Her pulse spiked.
Then,
A deafening horn blasted through the arena.
The timer froze.
00:00:00
"TIME EXPIRED."
"ALL PLAYERS WITH BLOOD MARK TOKENS, REPORT TO THE EXTRACTION POINT."
Guards flooded in.
Automatic rifles raised.
Two men still fighting for each other's token were noticed.
Gunfire erupted.
They were killed immediately .
Echo backed into the shadows as armed men stormed past her.
Across the ruins, Requiem stopped.
Their eyes locked from a distance too far to touch but close enough to recognize something dangerous.
Not fear.
Not weakness.
Interest.
The guards closed in.
Echo turned and ran toward extraction.
Behind her, Requiem smiled under his mask.
The hunt wasn't over.
It had just been delayed.
Requiem watched the survivors assemble.
Only 42 contestants were able to survive the first round.
They came out of extraction shaken, blood-stained, quieter than before. The arena had taken something from each of them, whether flesh, innocence, or illusion. Turning many into killers they never planned to be.
Echo stood among them.
Still breathing. Still calm.
Too calm.
Requiem leaned against the glass of the observation corridor, arms folded, eyes fixed on her feed. The job should have been done already.
And yet.
She was still here. "If only I met her earlier," he thought.
The speakers crackled.
"ROUND TWO WILL BEGIN SHORTLY."
The floor beneath the contestants vibrated.
Metal doors rose from the ground, sealing off corridors, dividing players into smaller groups. Red lights blinked above each entrance.
Requiem straightened.
The speakers spoke again.
"THIS ROUND IS CALLED: THE BLOOD OATH."
A low murmur spread through the survivors.
Echo felt it before she heard it, the way the air thickened, the way people stopped standing near one another, she noticed the next round wasn't going to be an easy one.
"YOU WILL BE PLACED INTO ROOMS OF FOUR."
"ONLY THREE MAY LEAVE."
The words sank in slowly.
Requiem's gaze sharpened as the feeds split into grids.
Room assignments flashed.
Then, Echo's screen shifted.
She was locked inside a narrow concrete chamber with three others.
Nyx.
Viper.
Ghost.
Requiem's fingers curled slightly.
Interesting.
The doors slammed shut with a final metallic boom.
Inside the room, fluorescent lights flickered to life.
In the center stood a steel pedestal.
On it layed,
A thin ceremonial blade
A contract bound in black leather
Four shallow bowls carved with symbols
A voice echoed from the walls.
"TO EXIT THIS ROOM, THREE OF YOU MUST SIGN THE BLOOD OATH."
Nyx's jaw tightened.
"THE OATH DECLARES THE ONE PLAYED WITHOUT THE SIGN OF THE BLOOD OATH…. EXPENDABLE."
Viper sucked in a sharp breath.
Ghost said nothing, but his looks were sharp.
Echo stepped closer to the pedestal, eyes scanning the contract without touching it.
"THE EXCLUDED PLAYER WILL BE EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY."
"FAILURE TO SIGN BEFORE TIME EXPIRES WILL RESULT IN ALL FOUR BEING EXECUTED."
A timer appeared above the door.
00:20:00
Twenty minutes.
Requiem leaned forward.
This was where people broke.
Nyx moved first. Of course she did.
"Let's not pretend," she said coolly. "We all want to live."
Viper shook her head violently. "No, I can't, I can't have this conversation right now"
Ghost raised a hand slightly. "Nobody has touched anything yet."
Echo hadn't spoken.
Her eyes were fixed on the blade.
On the blood bowls.
On the word EXPENDABLE carved into the stone.
Requiem frowned.
She should be panicking.
She wasn't.
Minutes passed.
The silence grew heavier.
Nyx exhaled sharply. "We vote. That's how this works."
Viper backed away from the pedestal. "Please. I'll…I'll do anything. I won't slow you down anymore."
Her voice cracked.
Echo turned to her.
"No," she said quietly.
Nyx scoffed. "You don't get to decide."
Echo met her gaze. "Neither do you."
Requiem's eyes narrowed.
She wasn't just calm this time.
She was serious.
Ghost finally spoke. "If we rush this, one of us dies.
Nyx snorted. "Better than not living at all."
The timer ticked.
00:11:42
Viper's breathing became erratic.
"I don't want to die," she whispered.
Requiem watched Echo's hands.
They were steady.
She stepped forward, and picked up the contract.
Nyx's eyes lit briefly.
Then Echo tore it in half.
The room went silent.
"What are you doing?" Nyx snapped.
Echo dropped the pieces on the floor. "Breaking your rules."
Requiem froze.
No one did that.
The speakers crackled, but said nothing.
Ghost stared at her. "That won't stop the system."
"I know," Echo replied. "But it buys time."
She picked up the blade.
Nyx smiled thinly. "Finally."
Echo turned the blade, not toward anyone else.
And pressed it to her own palm.
Requiem's breath caught.
"No," Ghost said sharply.
Echo sliced.
Eyes shut in pain.
Blood welled, bright and real.
She let it drip into one of the bowls.
"I'll be the expendable one," Echo said calmly. "Sign me."
Viper sobbed. "No, please, don't…"
"Then how are we supposed to come up with a way to sacrifice one of us?" Echo replied in a harsh tone.
She wasn't happy with the system, she began to think of the things she could have done with her life as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Nyx stared, unsettled for the first time. "You're insane."
Echo looked at her. "Maybe."
Ghost couldn't watch this. He turned his back facing down and was really sad.
Requiem straightened abruptly.
That wasn't a strategy.
That was…
The system chimed.
"SACRIFICE OFFER DETECTED."
The lights flickered.
The timer paused.
Requiem's heart slammed once, hard.
Then the speakers spoke again, slower now.
"SACRIFICE… REJECTED."
Echo didn't flinch.
"WHAT??" the three of them said, looking shocked.
"SELF-ELIMINATION VIOLATES GAME BALANCE."
Of course it did.
The timer resumed.
00:04:59
Viper collapsed to her knees.
Nyx cursed under her breath.
Ghost looked at Echo like she was something dangerous.
Requiem stared at the screen.
"Why would someone like this need to die?" He started questioning himself why the King's subordinate wanted such an innocent soul to be eliminated under any cost.
He knew the king was a ruthless man who wouldn't hesitate to get you killed. But he only does that for a reason.
"Could it be that the king isn't aware of these game activities!?" he said to himself.
"If self elimination is not allowed then we voluntarily pick her." Nyx shouted to the speaker.
"REJECTED OFFER CANNOT BE ACCEPTED."
Echo wiped her bleeding palm on her sleeve.
She turned to Nyx, "I'm sorry"
Then she turned again.
Not at the system.
At Ghost.
"You still have one token," she said softly. "Right?"
Ghost's eyes widened. "You can't…"
"We don't have much time, sign with blood from the dead," she continued. "Not ours, might be the only way out right now."
Nyx froze.
Viper was confused.
Ghost hesitated, then understood.
He moved.
Fast.
He pressed his blood-marked token to the bowl.
The system scanned it.
A chime.
"TOKEN VERIFIED."
The contract reassembled itself on the pedestal.
One name appeared.
Not Echo's.
Not Viper's.
Not Ghost's.
Nyx's.
Nyx exploded. "You planned this!"
She was about to rush echo when the floor beneath her opened.
She screamed once.
Then she was gone.
The doors unlocked.
Viper collapsed into Echo's arms, shaking violently.
Ghost stared at the empty space where Nyx had been.
Requiem stepped back from the glass where he was watching them.
His pulse was loud in his ears.
She didn't kill willingly.
She didn't betray anyone.
She hadn't panicked.
She had outplayed the game.
And for the first time since receiving the order.
Requiem wondered if killing Echo would be a mistake. Killing such a smart girl would have been a waste.
The speakers echoed again.
"ROUND TWO COMPLETE."
Echo lifted her head.
Somewhere far above her.
She felt it.
Someone was watching.
Not as prey.
But as something else entirely.