Those Who Live and Die

As both Shina and Toki were injured, they felt the blood slowly drip from the clean wound of the kunai. Toki specifically could feel his side becoming numb from all the blood loss occurring within.

The wound is worsening, and now Shina is acting weird.

His eyes met Shinas's with a worried gaze, her frozen body bleeding from her palm; it wasn't like her.

Hiwo rushes over to their side, seeing the awkward situation.

“We will handle the rest; get Ayuri to treat you.” He steps to Toki's position, his gaze fixated on the spear that lies next to Ona.

Toki shakes his head. “I'm fine, and Shina freezing isn't any better.”

“Just trust us, we can handle ourselves. Your recovery is more important, as we don't know who else is coming,” Hiwo commanded.

Toki let out a sigh. Getting close to Ayuri, she immediately grabs Toki and rushes him towards the camp. They take in the sight of the owl girl’s body lying on the grass completely unmoving for their whole fight.

Dying from your own ability must be rough; it’s not like we wanted to fight you anyway. At least finishing you off isn't a concern, it seems.

His momentary thoughts were replaced by a sigh of relief. Ayuri brings Toki into the tent, putting him down to lie and beginning the treatment procedures.

While they try to close wounds using the camp supplies, Hiwo and Shina begin their assault, circling their prey around in circles, trying to find an angle; their serious expression left nothing to ponder upon.

“Circling me around won’t work.” Ona keeps her gaze fixated towards both of them at the same time, clearly surpassing what was possible for a normal human. The spear within her hands felt light.

The air gets sliced as the spear swings itself around in circles, surrounding every side, preventing any approach by Shina or Hiwo.

“I can’t get a good lock on, Hiwo.” Shina stops her circling procedure, noticing its ineffectiveness.

I consumed the other members of her team, their voices. Keep banging; I must ignore them. I will make use of them instead; that power should be mine.

“You,” Shina’s voice broke the sound of the spear spinning.

Ona takes a glance towards her, making sure however, not to let either of them out of sight. This strategy seemed to force their hand: “I won't forgive you ever; you all deserve to die, not them.”

Shina shakes her head. “Hiwo, just cover me whenever you can.”

With a firm approach, Shina runs at her. Her speed was rather impressive for someone without any powers that amplify it. The grass sways with her movements, supporting her like a cheerleader.

“Naive.” Ona swings her spear towards her at immense speed, trying to split her into two. Shina sees the spear coming in from her left side and immediately waits for the perfect opportunity to counterattack.

Her gaze doesn't leave the spear's blade for a second. Just about the time of contact, she puts her hands up before pressing down the spear. The force of her hit causes the spear to instantaneously shoot into the ground and displace the earth around it, causing it to wedge roughly.

She continues her sprint towards Ona, activating her orb as it manifests within her palm. Her spirit was ablaze, finally having a striking chance to punish her for their invasive attack.

“Impossible,” Ona exclaims as she lets go of the spear, her gut instantly telling her to dodge the impending attack, her eyes darting around for an escape, left or right. Her movements are limited to two directions due to Hiwo's support from behind.

Her legs thrust themselves to the left, away from the spear's direction, narrowly missing Shina's orb.

Despite the missed attack, Shina turns to Hiwo, who instantly recognises what he needs to do. He runs over to the spear stuck in the ground as Shina picks it up from him with ease, using her newfound strength.

“Now we just have to press her until she exhausts.” They turn their eyes back towards her, both of them standing next to each other, facing towards her, ready to finish this once and for all.

They start to run at Ona without a second to spare; having two weapons and considering she must be already exhausted puts them at an advantage. Shina's wound wasn't severe, giving them a non-impactful disadvantage as it was closing up underneath her orb.

 I need to get her power.

A smirk awakens within Ona. Her friends are all being eliminated. Her being pushed back to a corner forced her to either fight to the death or retreat. She hated being the one hunted; her fear of dying nonetheless still outweighed her desire for blood.

Turning around, she sprints towards the left forest, where the trees and foliage would embrace her in darkness. The sun was slowly starting to set at this stage, with only six hours left in the day. This chase would turn dangerous if they continued in a darker environment that they weren't aware of.

“Don’t let her escape,” Shina shouts out, instantly running after Ona. Hiwo is slightly slower due to Spear still trying his best to catch up. They gave chase away from camp for at least over a hundred metres; the camp started to grow smaller, and their stamina did too.

Hiwo looks up at Ona, who was still sprinting at full speed. It turns out it wasn't only her reaction time and senses, but her endurance was at another level.

“Shina, give up; it's over.” He starts searching for air for his lungs, his laziness catching up to him, which was definitely his biggest downside when he entered the games. He looks forward to seeing Shina also give up after a couple more seconds, also wearily down to the max.

A soft sigh escapes her as she walks back to Hiwo. “I want that ability. We must be on guard at all times now; we never know when she will return.”

Giving a nod back to her, he looks ahead, seeing Ona jump into the forest and disappear from their view. They walk back the hundred metres to their camp, slowly making sure not to exhaust themselves further.

They catch sight of the owl girl lying on the ground, twitching. “Perhaps you shou—”

“I know,” she cuts him off as she slowly approaches the owl girl's body. She glares down at the nearly dead person without any remorse. She grabs her by the back, flipping her around to face her upwards.

“Just… kill me.” Her words are shallow, broken and silent. There was both pleading and fear within them. The thought of death scared her and consumed her from the inside. Knowing her friends are almost likely dead, it seemed there was no point in living.

Giving Hiwo a glance to back away, she kneels towards her ear.

“Before your friend died, she said that she was glad to be your friend. She truly cared for you." Her words were mostly lies; she mentioned Fuki, but Shina didn’t know who this was, and she didn’t care for who she was either.

Small tears formed below her eyes; they must have taken all her strength to pour. She was useless for the fight, falling without a recovery within a second of the fight starting, leaving the rest to fend at a major disadvantage. It shattered her heart.

Shina gets out her palm, her orb manifests, and her expression shows no emotion; there was no turmoil about this girl's death. Enemy or not, it was her mission to send her off.

The orb pressed against her stomach, starting to consume her slowly. It was a peaceful way to die. It didn’t hurt, and it gave time to reminisce. Her body was now mostly gone, leaving her upper half only, while the others were particles that got eaten by the orb. Fuki's tears even turned into mere particles for her to consume; nothing was safe.

After a couple of seconds had passed, the body fully disappeared.

Thank you for such a peaceful death.

Shina let out a smile before going towards the tents, her ability being both a blessing and a curse depending on who she takes on.