Survival of the Fittest
I ran blindly toward the voice.
The center of the Colosseum.
There, a pillar of fire blazed with terrifying intensity.
It was a column of flames so fierce that just looking at it made me feel like my entire body would burn to ashes.
This was a place that hadn't been explained in the blueprint.
Whoosh!
As I instinctively ground to a halt before the overwhelming heat,
"You must go in!" the voice that had guided me shouted once more.
Rumble!
"Aaargh!"
Behind me, the screams of elves being shredded by the spiked saw blades echoed out.
Burn to death versus get shredded to death?
The number of survivors had already been cut in half.
There was no time to think.
Whoosh!
I threw myself into the pillar of fire.
Roar!
The searing flames swallowed me whole.
"...Huh?"
But surprisingly, my body was perfectly fine.
The only thing that had burned away was my combat suit.
Which means...
From now on, I would have to fight without even the most basic armor.
I looked around.
The space inside the pillar of fire was about the size of a basketball court.
And the number of elves who had made it through the flames was around twenty.
Considering the final number of survivors was supposed to be ten, that was already double the limit.
Even so,
Whoosh!
"Pant, pant!"
Elves were still bursting through the pillar of fire.
Twenty-three.
Twenty-five.
Twenty-seven.
Thirty.
It seemed there were those who had known about this fire pillar trick from the very beginning.
Once the count reached thirty,
"..."
"..."
The elves inside the pillar of fire exchanged silent glances.
And then,
Whoosh!
Stab!
The elves already inside the pillar of fire began to stab the elves entering after them.
Squish!
"Aaargh!"
"Aaah!"
The elves collapsed before they could even set foot inside the flames.
Until there were no more elves trying to break through the pillar of fire,
Stab!
Slash!
Squish!
The butchery continued.
"Pant, pant..."
"Huff, puff..."
No more elves entered the pillar of fire.
Which meant,
Now, all that's left is to kill each other.
Tension filled the already sweltering space.
All thirty of us looked like rats cornered in a trap.
Glance.
I scanned the positions of the elves out of the corner of my eye.
Call it an instinctive action to map out the most efficient route to kill them quickly.
Shring.
The elves adjusted their grips on their swords.
Even though their faces were hidden behind masks, I could practically see their expressions.
Skills were sealed.
Items were unusable.
The combat suits they relied on had burned away, and their stamina was far from full.
Naturally, they would be anxious.
On top of that,
They must have entered thinking they were guaranteed to survive...
Yet there were more than double the survivor limit here.
What did that mean?
It means the test isn't over yet.
The swords that the elves had pointed toward the outside of the fire pillar soon began to turn toward one another.
Or, to be more precise...
"...Now that we've made it this far, we must follow the law of the jungle, shouldn't we?" someone muttered with a chuckle.
It was the bastard who had stabbed the most elves trying to jump into the flames.
The law of the jungle?
Why do these bastards always have words like 'law of the jungle' or 'survival of the fittest' glued to their mouths?
Don't they know that the more they say things like that, the weaker they look?
"Everything is for His Imperial Majesty!"
"...For His Imperial Majesty."
"For His Imperial Majesty...!"
The three or four who looked the weakest were driven toward the center.
Of course.
Naturally, I was included.
As a human, I had a smaller build than the average elf.
Besides, the bastards who had entered the pillar of fire early on...
...had no way of knowing.
No way of knowing how I had moved out there.
Making it inside the pillar of fire meant they possessed a baseline level of skill.
Knowing that, they were teaming up to eliminate the weakest first.
Should I count this as the instinct of the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest too?
Flick!
I reversed my grip on my sword.
This was more efficient for killing in one go.
"...!"
One of the elves driven to the center flinched upon seeing me.
But that was only for a moment.
Whoosh!
An elf lunged forward first.
He wasn't cornered, but he didn't look exceptionally strong either.
He had probably moved faster out of fear.
The fear that he might be next.
Slash!
He was quite fast.
On top of that, he was sly enough to aim for my waist instead of my neck.
Even if he couldn't kill me in one blow, he wanted to inflict a critical wound first.
Swish!
I naturally twisted my body to the side, letting the sword slide past.
And then,
Clang!
I lightly tapped his blade, and
Whoosh!
His sword flew away, drawing an arc in the air.
Grab!
I seized his hand, which was frozen awkwardly in midair, and
Crack!
I twisted it.
"Argh!"
The elf staggered from the unexpected pain.
Thud!
I drove my knee up into the staggering bastard's face.
Crack!
The sound of his jawbone shattering echoed out.
"This isn't enough, is it?"
I couldn't let the first guy off easy.
I had to make an example out of the one who dared to attack first.
Smack!
Wrapping one arm around his neck,
Rip!
I tore off his mask.
A pretty face, typical of an elf, was revealed.
I locked eyes with him and smirked.
"I don't have any hard feelings, you know?"
And then, using the hilt of my sword instead of the blade,
Thud!
Crack!
I bashed him between the eyes until his skull fractured.
"Aaaaah!"
The elf's head was quickly covered in blood, but
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
I didn't stop.
"Gurgle... ugh..."
The elf finally foamed at the mouth, his limbs going limp.
Whoosh!
I hoisted his body up and
Slam!
I threw it at another elf who was pointing a sword at me.
"Argh!"
Toward the staggering elf,
Thunk!
I lightly tossed my sword, and it pierced his thigh.
It must have hit the femoral artery perfectly, because
Splurt!
Blood sprayed from his thigh.
Thud!
As he fell to his knees, I kicked him straight in the head.
Crack!
His neck snapped backward as two streams of nosebleed erupted.
He died in a pose that looked like some kind of soccer goal celebration.
Hesitate...
Hesitate...
Perhaps because I had killed the second guy so instantly, the elves who had been pointing their swords at me began to falter and step back.
Meanwhile,
"S-spare me!"
"Please! I'm one of you—ack!"
To the side, the elves who had been cornered like me were stabbed repeatedly by their own kin before collapsing.
Stab!
Squish!
Thunk!
"Pant, pant..."
Drenched in the blood of their own kind, the elves looked toward me.
"We need to kill that guy first," someone muttered, and the remaining elves pointed their swords at me.
"Is that so?"
I didn't know whether to call this good intuition or bad intuition.
Should I thank them for seeking out their own graves?
"Since you bastards made it this far without the skills to back it up..."
I smirked, taking step after step forward.
"...you must be shitting your pants."
Say what you want, but the opponents were elves, the strongest race in this world.
Even if it was by luck, making it this far meant they had some skill.
After all, it meant they had survived both the melee and the Colosseum traps.
So even for me, facing them all at once...
...would be difficult.
But why wasn't I nervous at all?
I felt calm instead.
Even though I couldn't use skills, items, or anything.
Far from feeling like my hands were tied, my body actually felt light.
Whoosh!
A sword narrowly grazed my neck and missed.
A single wrong breath would mean instant death.
Now this feels real.
But why was it so fun?
Slip.
I intentionally slipped between the incoming blades.
Thud!
Squish!
Two swords simultaneously pierced the chests of the elves.
"...!"
"...?!"
Before they could even register the blades sinking into them, I pushed them in deeper.
Crunch!
Just twisting them slightly in that state caused blood to spray like a fountain.
"Hahaha!"
This is a total water park.
Rather than pulling out the swords embedded in their hearts, it was faster to snatch the swords from the limp hands of the dying elves.
Whoosh!
The moment I grabbed a sword, I threw it.
Thunk!
A direct hit.
Seriously, why do you guys attack in a crowd?
I can hit you even if I throw it blindly.
"You bastard...!"
Of course, that wasn't the only problem with the elves.
Clang!
A head-on clash.
Because of their overwhelming difference in skill compared to other races, they insisted on fighting head-on.
Stab!
Blocking an attack with one sword, I happily drove my blade into the flank of the elf who had tried to split my head open in such a straightforward manner.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
"What, is this place not a vital spot?"
"Urgh, cough! Argh!"
"If I stab it, it's a vital spot, you bastard!"
So what if you protect your neck and heart?
Do you not die if you get stabbed elsewhere?
Stab! Slash! Slice! Rip!
Stabbing, slashing, stabbing, slashing—as I swung my sword with glee,
Before I knew it, only ten remained.
"Oh?"
No wonder. Nobody else was attacking.
If there are ten...
It's over.
The bastards knew this too, which was why they weren't attacking anymore.
They were just waiting for the horn to blow, signaling the end of the promotion match.
Wow, these guys are...
Nothing but a bunch of scrubs. It must be a racial trait.
"Survival of the fittest."
As I muttered quietly,
"..."
"..."
The elves gasped in shock at my words.
"You said that was your rule."
Flinch.
As I stepped forward, the elves began to shrink back and retreat.
"Why back out now?"
Gulp.
"I'm just playing by your rules."
Schlick!
I pulled out a sword embedded in the crown of a fallen elf's head.
"S-stop!"
"The promotion match is already over!"
"The ten survivors have been decided!"
"The horn will sound any moment!"
At those words, I raised my head and looked up at the sky.
"..."
"..."
"..."
I could see the ship floating in the air.
I saw the elven inspector preparing to blow the horn to signal the end of the promotion match, and the servants getting ready to set off fireworks.
As the flames of the pillar of fire gradually subsided,
Cheers!
The roar of the elves in the spectator stands also...
But,
Not yet,
The horn hasn't sounded,
The fireworks haven't gone off,
And the pillar of fire is still burning,
And the elves in the stands don't seem to know it's over yet either?
Then it's not really over yet, is it?
Besides, the end notification hasn't even popped up yet?
"Phew..."
Putting on a final spurt of energy made me a bit out of breath.
I tossed aside the blood-drenched sword.
And at that exact moment,
Bang!
Boom!
Tooooooot!
Cheers!
Promotion Match Concluded!
The promotion match was over.