Cherries

Auclair flattened his palm and stabbed his fingers into the old man's body. Auclair had figured out the old man had a weak body and low stamina overall.

Auclair had been searching for his weaknesses while the old man fought him back in full force.

Due to this, the old man had started to lose steam, especially after getting hit into a wall which knocked the air out of his body and destabilized him. The old man knew his weaknesses but didn't believe Auclair would be able to capitalize on them. He had assumed that Auclair was fighting in full force, much like him.

He had, of course, assumed wrong.

"Ugh!" The old man groaned through gritted teeth. Auclair blindly grabbed onto whatever was in the old man's body without regard for his life and pulled.

Wrenching his hand free, he found it covered in blood and holding some essential parts of a body. He let them fall while the old man gripped his side, desperately clinging to life. His feet wobbled and he buckled over.

From the ground he looked up with dim eyes to find Auclair standing directly over him with an uncaring face.

Gwen spun her daggers around waiting for an opening as the Knight swung his sword at her. She dropped herself to the ground and let the blade pass over her. The Knight saw this and reoriented his attack, stabbing at her from his position above her. She rolled over and let the blade hit the brick ground.

She threw out her blade, cutting into the back of his knee. Finding a sudden lack of support and a searing pain, he fell to the ground in a kneel. Gwen recalled her daggers and spun them around on their chains. She tossed them high into the sky before transforming them into their giant mace form.

She pulled on them and they fell into the ground flattening the knight with a devastating thud. Blood splattered onto the brick and dust flew everywhere into the street lowering everyone's visibility.

Before the dust clouded his vision, the wizard clearly saw the old man fall to Auclair's superior skills. Then he saw the Knight get flattened by Gwen's weapons. His face turned into a grimace and he took the flying broom off of his back.

He hesitated for a moment, but threw it under his legs. Two of his teammates were done for, so he'd take the opportunity to flee. They had managed to run into a strangely competent team for this low of a rank and they were paying the price. Due to his gear and skills, he'd be able to flee and still probably be fine for the rest of the Trial.

He'd just hide away and fail like always. He'd bide his time and head to the next Trial and repeat.

"Wait!"

Through the thick dust he heard a figure calling out to and running frantically towards him. It was Green-Eyes who was running while glancing behind themselves constantly.

"We've got to get out of here, that jester thing is crazy!" He yelled.

"Get on the back of my broom!" The Wizard yelled out.

His companion scrambled forward unsteadily and hopped onto the broom. He hadn't expected his final teammate to survive, but he was glad nonetheless. It would be easier to survive the Trial with his help.

However, before the Wizard could fly off from the ground, Green-Eyes pulled back on his forehead.

"Peak-A-Boo." Green-Eyes said with a smile.

Wizard felt a cold blade stab into his neck. Warm blood rushed out of his mouth and he began choking on it. The cold blade made his nerves go wild and a second after it plunged into his skin, it felt like he was being cooked alive by a thousand burning needles.

He tried to do something, anything, but his arms quickly grew weak and slumped to the side.

His brain fired off one last thought as it caught a glimpse of the man who had stabbed him. Green-Eyes was replaced by Jackson's figure. The same figure of the man he had fought who ran into a building and disappeared.

'An illusion…?' The Wizard thought and then was no more.

Auclair's Jester stood above its prey and held its scythe against the defenseless man. The puppet was ruthlessly ripped apart and the man didn't seem to have any additional threats.

The real Green-Eyes now had a gash across his face from the Jester's sickle. He was holding a deep wound from his chest with stifled grunts and stared at the hollow eyes of the Jester.

The laughter had stopped and now the Jester was staring back at the defeated man whom it considered nothing more than its prey. The creature didn't have much capacity for thought and only followed its master's orders.

That didn't mean that it didn't know the basics of its past. It had hunted down far more fierce combatants and reclaimed their heads. It was weaker now and didn't know why, but it knew it was more than enough for the man before it.

Norman watched the scene with frightful eyes.

'Just who is Auclair?' He couldn't help but think. Auclair knew a lot of things, he had that horrifying creature from before and now this.

Jackson walked towards the Jester with the broom slung over his shoulder. He whistled casually and it wasn't long before Gwen and Auclair found themselves next to him. They all looked towards Green-Eyes.

"You guys kill Hobo and Knight?" Jackson asked.

"Hobo…? Knight…?" Gwen questioned.

"Well, yeah, I need to identify them somehow. Hobo, Knight, I killed Wizard and bam! There's Green-Eyes right in front of us."

"Green-Eyes?" It was Auclair's turn to question Jackson. He instantly knew that Jackson had based the names off of their appearance, only a fool wouldn't notice. Since that was the case, there was a slight problem.

"Yeah."

"And how do you know that?" Green-Eyes was wearing a gas mask and had never taken it off.

"Well it's a guess. I like to give some people random names based off of stuff I can't see. You don't want to know what I called Norman before I learned his name…"

Auclair's eyes narrowed but he didn't bother questioning Jackson further. It was obvious he was hiding something, but weren't they all?

"Anyway, why is he still alive?" Jackson asked as he tapped on Green-Eyes' forehead.

"Because I wanted him to be." Auclair answered as he walked forward. Under his mask, Green-Eyes made a scornful expression but Auclair wouldn't have cared even if he could see it.

"Can you smell it?" Auclair asked the man as well as the others behind him.

"Smell what?" Norman asked.

"Cherries." Auclair replied.

"No."

"Nope."

Gwen slightly shook her head and Green-Eyes didn't answer.

"Alright- then I know what it is."

[Seeker]

[You will passively detect extraordinarily powerful hearts, relics, and creatures. Only works within a medium range.]

Previously, he wasn't sure how it would activate since it was passive, but he was sure that his [Seeker] ability was currently activated. He could smell cherries originating from somewhere near Green-Eyes. Green-Eyes himself wasn't that strong, so it wasn't his heart. There were no creatures either, so it must've been a relic.

"Your gear. You have something that I want, so give it."

Green-Eyes looked at Auclair with contempt.

"You're just going to kill me when I give it to you." Green-Eyes said.

"Correct. But I could also just kill you and take it from your body. Consider these extra few seconds a courtesy."

Green-Eyes scoffed and took off their mask, tossing it to the side. He raised his head and spat at Auclair, who didn't care.

Auclair did however notice that Jackson was right in saying the man had green eyes.

Green-Eyes leaned back and took a deep breath from the 'clean' air. He might as well die outside of that stuffy mask. He cherished the moment and reached into a pocket. He lifted an insanely complex key with strange markings adorning it.

He tossed it nonchalantly and the Jester cut off his head a second later.

Auclair bent over and inspected the key. The markings on it were from a strange language that made one want to go mad just reading them.

'It's from an outer god. So that's what you're doing Erus…' Auclair thought.

There was no chance that contestants in the Hex Trials would be constantly pitted against outer gods. No matter how lawless the universe became after the gods were trapped, there simply weren't enough outer gods to invade, at least to Auclair's knowledge.

Since this was the second time Auclair was pitted against them, he understood Erus' motive. He would pit Auclair against outer gods scaling up in difficulty as he got stronger until Auclair got strong enough to free the gods.

It was clever, Auclair had to admit. It cleaned up the universe and was ultimately a win-win for them both. Auclair tossed the ring in his mouth and stored it in his stomach while the other's recoiled at the sight.

"What are you?" Gwen had to ask what she and Norman both were thinking. In all her time, she had never once seen a race like him in the cosmos. Not in the Hex Trials nor in her and her brother's travels.

"…" Auclair answered with silence as he recollected the markings on the key.

He had never bothered to learn the stupidly large number of outer god languages, so he was unsure of what the scribbles entailed. But he knew the basics of the most common languages and since the languages often borrowed from each other, he could make out the smallest of hints.

"There's multiple keys. If I am understanding correctly, we should collect them. I don't know what for, but I'm sure they're important."

"How many are there?" Norman asked.

"I'm not sure. Regardless of the keys, we all need rest. We also need to find out where everyone went." Auclair said, referring to the eerily empty streets.

They all agreed and started making their way to the agreed upon resting spot; they remembered to keep an eye out once more. This time they were even more alert as Auclair knew he shouldn't rely on the cherry scent again.

Thinking about the cherry smell, he smiled.

'Sybell's favorite fruit.'