Young Writers Society

Author’s note: 

I have read some of the reviews of other’s work on this website, and they were all very useful and thoroughly thought out. I just want to thank you beforehand and tell you how much I appreciate this. I’m still confused as to how this works whether it’s the mods doing the reviews or a special group of volunteers. There are also points for reviewing someone’s work so that’s a possibility, too? Oh! I need points to publish works and I gain more from reviewing other’s works?! That’s awesome. Anyways, I’ll be in your care!

Chapter 1:

POV:

This story doesn’t start with a bright blue sky and some birds peacefully chirping. No, I don’t know what color of the sky you have been accustomed to but a maroon one definitely is not normal.

Did I mention the boss music in the background? You can’t hear it but I will have to leave that to your imagination.

For starters, let me describe to you what you are currently getting yourself into. If my mentioning of the boss music hasn’t made this clear, we are currently fighting the world boss for the 7th stage.

I won’t lie to you, it’s appearance has greatly shook me upon first seeing it. Standing tall with all it’s four legs, you could argue all day it’s a centaur, but this is not a creature I could describe with a mere few descriptive words.

It’s color theme include of silver and gold, it seems to be wearing what appears to be a paladin helmet, a red gleam shone from between the gap of the only opening to which I could only assume to be it’s eyes. The armor, or rather, the armor-like scales completely enveloped it’s colossal body. However, the most distinguishing trait about this monster are probably the dozen spears deeply stabbed into it’s back.

“Hajime! We must help Hajime!”

A loud voice could be heard from just a short distance away.

“We can’t right now! The frontline would crumble if we spare even a single healer.” A female archer next to her called out, her voice couldn’t be more dire.

“Now is not the time to be worrying about some useless guy like him, our lives will be endangered if we go out of formation” Another guy joined in.

“But he’ll die at this point! We have to-“

“We can’t right now.” She was cut by a firm voice. “I’m sorry.” The leader’s voice seem to be gentler this time.

This boss fight was more cruel, more gruesome than the previous boss fights they have had. Not only can they not deal an ounce of damage through armor as hard as steel, the boss was also smart enough to distinguish it’s own weakness and prioritize damage dealers in the backlines.

Those weren’t new to the party though, many of the previous bosses have one if not, both of the same traits as this current one. What was different about this particular boss and why it’s managed to have 400% more mortality rate than the others is...

A spear flung across the leader’s line of sight. He instantly knew where the boss Helkeim aimed it’s spear at: the healers. It was already too late, he had been too distracted trying to calm the desperate archer.

He didn’t want to look back. No matter how many times he had seen it, the death of a teammate is still too much, but he had to. The responsibility he’s been shouldering throughout the past stages urged him onward as he caught a glimpse of the unfortunate victim.

It was a terrific sight. The spear pierced through her right eye socket and out of her skull as blood gush out her unmoving body. There was no movement. It was a quick, painless death.

Having seen the death of yet another comrade, the surrounding healers began to panic as the situation become grimmer by the minute.

“Are we all going to die?”

“Sara, no, please. This can’t be happening.”

“Yamato, what do we do now?”

“We should have never agreed to follow Yamato.”

Everyone was quickly silenced by the shout of Yamato that’s to come after. “NOW’S NOT THE TIME FOR REGRETS! THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION RIGHT HERE AND NOW WOULD BE TO DEFEAT HELKEIM AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND ATTEND TO THE WOUNDED BEFORE IT GETS ANY WORSE. YOU ARE ALL FREE TO BASH ME HOWEVER YOU LIKE. TO DO THAT WE HAVE TO SURVIVE. WE MUST AVENGE OUR COMRADES AND LIVE. DON’T LET THEIR DEATH BE IN VAIN AND FIGHT ON!”

Somewhere in the frontline, the silver, spiky-haired Hayama heard his pal’s battlecry. As he fend off the next attack from the boss, he smiled. “That Yamato...”

He thwarted the next attack and cried at the top of his lungs. “I have full trust in Yamato! He has brought us here since we first stepped into this world without any knowledge. We wouldn’t have made past until this point much less survive, why are we doubting him now?”

The short silence was soon filled with everyone else’s battlecry.

“Fight on!”

“We’ll trust in Yamato!”

“Fuck this horseshit, I’m going home alive!”

“Let’s gooo!”

“Elemental archers, fire!” Yamato commanded. It didn’t take long before the maroon sky filled with burning bright arrows.

Now you must be wondering what must be my part in this exciting adventure? I’m afraid to say I am currently nearing the end of my life. You see, I have been struck by one of Helkeim’s spears prior to the beginning of the story. Luckily, it did not pierce my heart, but the force was so strong it sent my flying along with it.

And thus I have been pinned against the pillar at this point in time. It’s strangely cold despite the flaming arrows everywhere. Breathing has became a difficult task as well.

The only thing preventing me from losing too much blood is this 7 centimeters wide spear blocking off the blood on my wound. I call it a spear, but this horse creature has been using it as a javelin for quite a while now. Speaking of which, you must be wondering what about these bosses, healers and what not.

It all started three months ago.

~~

Any light novels I read concerning the isekai genre would have one reason or another to transport a person to another world. That was not in my case.

“Do you think we’ll make it, Hajime?” Kanna asked me, her voice out of breath.

“With our pace right now, it’s not impossible.” I replied while spending every possible moment to regain my breath.

“It’d be pretty bad if we were to be late on our graduation ceremony.”

“Being in the sweaty mess that we are in right now, I just hope we get some time to cool down before we present ourselves.”

“I can’t wait for summer vacation!” She exclaimed.

I didn’t give a reply this time as we continued jogging, giving us a small moment of silence.

“Say, after graduation, wanna go on a date?”

Kanna’s hair was pure black, her hair wasn’t very long either, about shoulder length. She always have this red rocket hair pin clipped to a specific strand of hair on one side close to her cheeks. It’s pretty cute seeing it bounce around as she jogged. The most distinguishing feature is without a doubt her eyes. Her multicolor eyes, yellow on her left eye and red on her right eye, they gleam with beauty.

Before I knew it, she had already trotted ahead of me. The way she nervously does it to avoid eye contact gives me the impression that she’s blushing, I’ll probably never know unless I catch up and have a good look at her face.

I, on the other hand was considerably calm for my situation. It’s not like I’ve gotten used to confessions. Rather, I’ve only been confessed once before prior to this event.

The remaining moments were spent with me and her both keeping a good pace despite the few feet of distance she’s created. To be honest, the atmosphere is really awkward but I would still be able to converse with her normally. I do not know about her side, though.

We reached the school gate just at the nick of time, 55 seconds before the ceremony begins.

“Ya brats still be running late on your final day? Grow up, already! You’re about to become adults! The real thing!” My gym coach called out as Kanna and I slowly close the distance with our pace.

“Technically we’re still not late.” I fought back.

“Yeah, yeah. Ya would have been if I didn’t close the gate on ya, aye, you little chimp.” Coach Ace has never been the type to accept loss easily.

“Thank you, coach.” Kanna tapped his shoulder playfully as she walked inside. She seems fine. I then followed suit.

Coach Ace proceed to give a fist pump to my chest, “Congratulations, don’t let me down when ya get into the real world, ya hear?” And to that I smiled and replied, “Tha-“

In front of me, where my coach was originally, become filled with waves of other people. Everyone just as confused as I am. Different languages clash together forming very incoherent and loud noises. Where am I?

Besides becoming a confused mess as I was with everyone else in this exact field, I made the small effort to scout the area for any potential dangers as my first action upon experiencing this phenomenon. We are standing on a huge platform made out of giant crystal blocks. These blocks have even more miniscure blocks inside it floating around like planktons in water, or jellyfish, anything that float will work, really.

Upon closer inspection of my surroundings, we are inside a huge open temple, this conclusion was drawn due to the fact of the four ginormous pillars supporting the frame. There were no walls, however. Beyond what lies on the end of this structure appears to be a cliff. No, it’s more accurate to say we are on a floating temple as there was nothing in sight holding this structure afloat.

The “sky” radiate the atmosphere of cosmic stars and blackness, as if we are actually in space. To what lies beyond the end of the structure I could only imagine the same. There was nowhere to go to, everyone here knows that and hence the confusion.

This what still hard to take in, despite someone who always thought it wouldn’t be so bad if he could be reincarnated or be transported to another world, though, I am still unsure if this is the case or it’s just a plot of some massive criminal organization that got us together in one place to perform experiments on or something. It just came so suddenly and unexpectedly.

I pulled my phone out to check for signals. Nothing. The compass app doesn’t appear to work either. This took longer than it should to notice but everyone appears to have some form of symbols written in one finger or another. I made sure everyone truly has it by secretly inspecting everyone in my vicinity while keeping distance from multiple groups of people in an argument.

I have one too, engraved on my right ring finger. I say engraved because it could not be removed, and I am too civilized to have used my spit trying to clean it. In any case, it is safe to conclude these as tattoos, or maybe something worse.

Among the loud background noises came an even louder scream of fear. This caught everyone’s attention, including mine. On the scene lies an old man sitting on a wheelchair, his head hanging on his side which look like it could strain his neck to a dangerous level. Next to her is an older woman crying whilst hugging the man’s chest.

It wouldn’t take a genius to understand something is wrong, a very likely possibility of a heart attack in this surreal situation. The man appears to be greatly disabled due to his two missing arms and a weird dislocated joint peering through the lower end of his pants to which I could only assume to be a twisted feet judging by the wheelchair he’s sitting on.

What caught my attention next was a young man in a business attire pushing through the crowd followed by an elder wearing a lab coat. The young man had neat, spiky hair that I didn’t know would go well together. He also wears glasses, the small square kinds giving him a vibe of an intellectual person. The elder on the other hand was bald, not completely hairless, though. It may appear all his hair went to his chin seeing as he have a distinguishably long goatee extending down to his neck. His posture was bad and he let off this mad scientist vibe.

They carefully pulled the crying woman away and reassured her they’ll find out what happened. The two checked for any signs of pulse then began inspecting the unmoving old man’s eyes, mouth, then heart. The elder with the goatee shook his head. The grieving only grew louder as the woman talk about the good times they’ve been through, telling him to come back.

This was quickly interrupted by a loud thunder. The light was so bright it activated an impulse effect to block the sight with my hand. As the brightness subside, there reveals a strange hooded figure floating, peering down at the people below him. His robe appears torn and old, to where the other end of the sleeves to where an arm is supposed to be was nothing. He had nothing for his lower half, either. His face overshadowed by the hood.

Everyone stared in silence, some frozen, while others’ face filled with disbelief, fear, or agony. The older woman was still crying, showing no thought to what’s happened around her whatsoever. The floating piece of clothe lifted it’s hood somehow to reveal the contents inside. To everyone’s horror, the sight only reaffirmed their fears.

There shows a stitched-up skull to what belongs to a human skeleton. Maggots were wiggling around the stitched areas and some on his eye sockets too. A piece must’ve worn out causing the left section of his jaw to suddenly come loose as it tangles about the air with the sole support of his right side. A terrified little girl close to me let out a gasp as she hugs her mother’s arm.

“T-te-...” Were the sounds that echoed throughout temple, despite the lack of walls. “T... t- test.. ing!” Is the skeleton trying to communicate? People around begun to whisper to one another, sharing their thoughts without interrupting the sinister creature.

“Testing. Mic test. Jokes on you, I don’t need a mic! Haha!” His jaw still dangling.

“Now that my voice is working again, let us get straight to the point, shall we? After all, I dislike boring chatter among all other things. Not just dislike, I DESPISE DESPISE DESPISE IT!” His head bent.

“For starters, I owe everyone here an apology for the abrupt invitation. Second, you shall all be participating in a game. A marvellous game! Six months before it’s released! Such opportunity you won’t find anywhere else!” His voice seem almost enthusiastic if not for his bizarre appearance.

“Stop screwing with me!” A person in the crowd spoke up and another crowd would soon join in, “I still have-“

“SILENCE!” the first man in the crowd was quickly interrupted. “There are always these kinds of people aren’t there? Must one really need to have his situation spelled out for him in order to understand such basic common sense? Ah, How I truly HATE HATE HATE arrogant people like you.” His eyes were dead, but this speech somehow made his eyes even scarier as he stared.

“You know, this hag’s been getting on my nerves this entire time, shall I set an example?” His head flung to the other side with a snap.

No way, is he going to... by the time I set my gaze on the woman, her grievance has already stopped. There she is, suspended in the air her expression as if she’s suffocating, despite that no one tried to help. The scene soon covered with blood, both her arms plucked out by an invisible force, her left ankle twisted and filled the atmosphere with sounds of cracked bones and stretched skin. Her screams of agony didn’t last long before she passed out and fell on the dead man’s body.

“How magnificent! To be able to die the same way as your life long partner, this is truly a beautiful sight!” His sadistic voice echoed throughout the temple as children begun crying and vomiting for the weak-hearted. To which both were forcefully stopped by their parents and their hands.”

“Now thaaaaat’s more like it. It appears you are all ready to listen now. Where was I? Oh yes, I just finished apologizing, didn’t I? Right, the game! Now I may call this a game, but what you are all feeling at this moment in time is very real. Yes, very real indeed~” He noticed a hand raised from among the crowd and glanced at it, “QnAs? Oh, my favorite! What is it that you want to know?”

A young highschooler stood out with his hand raised still. His hair white, and long enough to cover half of his face. Despite his skinny figure, his resonates a very serious yet calm personality. “What happens if we die?” he asked simply.

“You will experience something truly extravagant! If you can’t wait, I could lend a little help right here and now.”

“No thanks.”

“Anyone want to ask anything before I continue? I really don’t want any interruptions here.”

A couple more hands were raised and a dozen more were too scared or debating whether they should take the risk.

“You, the little girl over, what is it that you want to know?”

The girl’s sister quickly snatched her hand away and replied for the girl, “I’m so sorry, mister. She’s still only eleven. Please move on to the other participants. My sincerest apology once again.” You could definitely hear the fear in her voice, her hands are shaking too.

“Very well, what is your question, bunny girl?”

Bunny girl? A what? I glanced around looking for this supposedly bunny girl until my eyes landed on the girl in school uniform. The only bunny aspect about her is the two fluffly ears attached to her hairbands. Other than that, she’s just a normal girl with blonde hair and a cute face. Her eyes are green too. And stockings. On further inspection there’s a small puff of white matter which appear to be attached to her tailbone area.

“When can we get home?”

“Get home? If you clear the final stage, then I suppose.”

“What will happen after six months if we still haven’t completed the game?”

“Oh, that’s a surprise. The game could not be cleared in six months to begin with. You must need at the very least two years.”

“Otay.”

Then questions proceeded for another 5 minutes or so. Common questions were asked by different people and then answered. Some decided to back out when their turn arrives.

“What happened to my family?”

“They are the same however you left them.”

“What game is this?”

“Roleplay fantasy.”

“Are there NPCs? Are there classes? Are there skills?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.”

“Can I go to the bathroom?”

“I’ll slap you. Pee on the spot.”

It seems even the boredom got to him as he got bombarded with uninteresting questions it made him change personality. The question I’ve been meaning to ask was finally asked by someone.

“What are these drawings on our fingers?”

“Drawings? Drawings?! I gave them a beautiful name such as runes and you call them mere drawings?!”

The person who asked the question was taken aback by his sudden outburst. “T-then, what are these runes?”

“Very well, I shall tell you. Runes, you see, think of them as your personal traits, abilities that define you and your style. They can perform miracles, or they can perform miracles! Nothing but miracles! Isn’t that amazing?”

The person asking appears to be confused as he look down on his finger. The crowd exchanged small talks once again.

“Here, having seen it with your eyes is always better to understand then words. You there, reach out your hand to the person next to you and imagine your runes glowing.”

He didn’t quite understand it, but he followed the skeleton’s instructions anyways in fear of angering him. As he did so, the red rune indeed let out a shiny light as he had pictured in his head. Fire. Fire swirled around his wrist like a snake and launched itself to the unlucky man.

“My face! It hurts! Somebody! Somebody!” The man screamed in utter pain and rolled around the ground.

The man with the business suit from earlier reacted quickly by pushing through the crowd to stand near the burning man.

“Please stop moving for a moment, sir! It will be quick!” He faced his palm outwards aiming at the burning man’s head with his other hand supporting his wrist. The rune on his thumb began to glow a bright blue color.

I must say, his decision making and reaction time in situations like these would make him a great leader. Small ice cuticles started forming around his hands. His shocked expression tells me something is not right and this wasn’t what he intended to happen. Without warning, the dozens of small ice cuticles launched at the burning man in quick successive shots, the poor aim only serve to make it a more gruesome and messy death for the burning man.

Everyone was shocked at the scene, but probably not as much as the young man with the business suit. His face screams “What have I done?” and his hands twitched. He only stared at his hand, revealing a nervous smile as he said,

“I killed him.”