Chaos

*KWANG!!*

The door seemed to almost break as the fierce pounding continued, and it issued a harsh metallic protest. No, it was better to describe that the door would break, very soon.

*KWANG, KWANG!!*

Even seeing with naked eyes, it was difficult to believe that this was really happening; the thick metal door was struck only twice, yet it caved in as if it was made up of paper. Several thick metal hinges were hanging dangerously loose, ready to fall at the slightest impact.

"W-we need to block that!!"

Rather than shouting, it was more like everyone fell into a frenzy.

The movements when their lives were under threat were remarkably swift. Kor'vas picking up her chair and running towards the door signaled the beginning; dozens of bodies all rushed to the door. Someone brought along unoccupied chairs, someone climbed up the stage to see if there was anything useful up there, while the rest simply used their bodies to push against the door.

"Kkheuk!"

The noisy, consecutive pounding on the door seemed to contain a certain amount of anger, and the force from the resulting impact managed to knock four, five guys away as if they weighed nothing.

"Move out of the way!"

Just in time, Zevrad and a group had brought down the pulpit from the stage and jammed it against the door. Although that alone wouldn't be enough to completely block the door, it was still better than nothing.

Chairs got piled up alongside the pulpit in the blink of an eye. On top of that, twenty-plus people propped the door up with everything they had. Soon, the door no longer looked like it'd break down. And, someone placed a chair below the door handle like an improvised doorstop, the crowd began sighing out in genuine relief.

"Haa…"

Kor'vas stopped propping the door with her back and squatted down on the floor as if she was feeling dizzy.

Perhaps the sight of a young frail girl fighting desperately looked pitiful to him, as a man spoke to her while wiping the sweat off his brows.

"You're very quick-witted for someone who is so young."

He was speaking about her making the move first. People who acted after she had made hers nodded their heads in agreement. If it weren't for Kor'vas' quick actions, the door might have broken down by now.

Kor'vas didn't know how to respond and shyly lowered her gaze.

"No, it wasn't like that..."

"I froze up from the fear myself. But boy, was I shocked or what watching you react like that. When I realized, heh, I was also moving, you see."

"Everyone did their best to help. I wouldn't have been able to block the doorway by myself."

Kor'vas' embarrassing appearance helped to alleviate some of the tense atmosphere permeating within the auditorium. Her gentle personality really did suit that bright and pretty appearance perfectly. Also, the fact that she was invited, as well as the first person to respond, was enough for the group to develop a favorable impression of her.

Unfortunately, the event that happened just now was far too shocking to instill a warm and cordial atmosphere.

"So, what should we do next, then?"

Someone's resigned sigh-like muttering brought everyone back to reality. Some turned their expectant eyes towards Kor'vas' direction, but even she was at a loss.

Soon, the collective gazes of the contracted were focusing on the invited.

Once the chaos had died down, Zevrad turned his attention back to [Character Window].

"By Belore. It's just the beginning, yet they aren't messing around. Look at the goosebumps on my arms!"

Belath, the Blood Elf who had been identified with an Observer Demon, was busy rubbing his arm, but he seemed to have more than enough leeway as he spoke those words.

"Now that the door is all blocked up, I wonder what we should do next?"

His words and attitude raised hopes in the hearts of the contracted that a quick solution to their problems would be found soon. However...

"Let's go. Let's just poke around here and there, see what's what."

Belath only took his lackeys along with him, prompting those waiting for an answer to be dumbstruck instead.

The Night Elf, the man who praised Kor'vas earlier, hurriedly stepped in front of them.

"E– excuse me."

"Hey, check out the back of the stage. And you should..."

"Excuse me, young man!"

"What, me?"

Belath's reply arrived some breaths later.

The man couldn't be sure if he made a mistake or not, but he felt that Belath did that deliberately.

"What are you all trying to do?"

"Uh... searching around the auditorium"

"Around the auditorium?"

"Yeah. Like those guys."

Belath pointed towards the stage, where Kor'vas and the Night Elf named Loramus, distinguished by his red blindfold and taller build, briefly turned their heads towards their direction when they felt several gazes landed on them. But time was of the essence and so they resumed searching around.

"To find what, exactly?"

"Not really sure. Now that the exit is all blocked up, I guess we gotta find something, right? We don't know what might happen next, anyways."

"Right, right. That's right. Of course."

The man nodded his head quite enthusiastically.

"So, you want us to help as well?"

"Eh?"

Belath frowned slightly.

"Why are you... do what you want, mister. It's not like I'm the boss here or anything."

"That's true. But, you guys, well, how should I say this… hmm. You guys are different from us, isn't that right?"

"Sure, we're different. So, what is it that you want to say?"

The tone of Belath's voice remained curt. He even sounded quite similar to how Kayne was sounding when talking to the contracted. As if he was talking to an ant.

"What I'm trying to say here is, we should help each other out. That's all."

The man ignored the hostile tone and pleaded his case, but all he got back instead was a dismissive chuckle.

"I'll have to politely decline. It'll get very annoying with more people clinging on to us, so I don't want to."

"What do you mean, annoying?"

"Whatever. You take care of your own business, okay? The three of us, we will go our own way."

Belath refused the man's offer without hesitation and turned around to leave. The man shouted out, "Hey, wait a minute, young man!", but Belath didn't bother and kept on walking away.

"What a petty bastard."

Belath's steps came to an abrupt halt. He stared at the ceiling for a moment or two, spat out a long sigh, and turned his head to look at the source of that name-calling. He found a woman sitting with her knees tucked under her staring at him with venomous eyes. It was the Blood Elf, Shin, the bob-cut woman who was reprimanded by Kayne a few minutes ago.

"What did you call me?"

"You're a selfish bastard. You only care about your own neck."

"What the hell... hey, you're wrong about that, though? I care about these two fellas too, you know?"

Belath wrapped his arms around the shoulders of his lackeys as an oily smile formed on his lips. Shin's eyes became even more hostile.

"Yikes. Look at how she glares! You might kill someone with such eyes, lady."

"Hey, isn't she that dumb woman who threw a tantrum just now? You know, asking for a bag of her own?"

Belath's lackeys giggled hoarsely at her expense. They thought of how naive Shin was for thinking that they were responsible for her well-being. She must've been born with a golden spoon since it was common outside of royalty and nobles that the world is survival of the fittest. Only a select few who possess the strength to care for another choose based on bias and profit. This is the natural order of the world that they live in.

"Can't you see these people over here? There are women and those who aren't fully recovered here!"

"I did gouge out my eyes but I can still see just fine, you know."

Shin shouted at him in anger, but Belath just shrugged.

"And, and you three... just want to survive all by yourselves?"

"What do you expect us to do when we're also in a hurry?"

"That's why we said we'd help, didn't we?!"

"God, how can you be this dense? Hey, listen up. We don't need your measly help nor do we want it in the first place. Stop trying to lump us with useless baggage like you."

"Useless baggage?!"

"Yep. You are nothing more than baggage. Even a blind fool can see that you're trying to leech off of us. So, shoo, shoo. Go away."

Shin became flabbergasted and her mouth gradually opened up in disbelief.

"You three... have you no shame?"

"Lady, it's nothing personal. It's practical."

Belath gave a simple yet honest answer yet Shin couldn't hold her anger anymore and stood right up, getting ready to slap him. Belath snorted derisively and retracted his arms from the shoulders of his lackeys and just as the volatile situation was about to blow up, a young girl hurriedly jumped in between the two parties. It was none other than Kor'vas.

"Please, stop! Both of you."

Shin opened her mouth to say something but must have thought that it was unwise because she simply turned her head away instead, and said nothing. But her clenched fists were trembling in rage. Meanwhile, Belath simply shook his head in derision.

"It's barely enough to get through this even when we're working together, yet why are you two fighting like this?"

"Working together, my ass."

Belath shot back with a shout.

"We three, we go way back. Even before we got here, you know? That's why we came here with a plan of our own."

"But!"

"But, but, but. Kiss my butt, instead. Hey, you also were invited, so you should've realized it by now too."

Belath smirked and offered his hand to Allari.

"Let's stop bickering over this, okay? Allari, right? Why don't we form a party as allies? You're friends with Kor'vas, right? She can join us too."

"Why are you willing to let us tag along with your group?"

"That's obvious, isn't it? Unlike them, you two are going to be very helpful for us. We'll have better odds clearing the trials than the others."

"You're a very callous person, aren't you?"

Kor'vas' expression showed how disappointed she was, while her words slowly but powerlessly leaked out of her mouth.

"I thought you were a good person, too..."

Belath shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as he thought to himself.

'I don't have the luxury to be good.'

He raised his hand up high towards a distant person who appeared to be in deep thought.

"Hey, man! What about you?"

The 'you' he was referring to was a certain Night Elf none other than Zevrad.

"Don't you want to clear this trial as efficiently and safely as possible? I'm sure we'll finish up real fast if you join us."

Although the whole situation had turned out into a strange farce, it really didn't matter in the end. Right now, even an idiot could figure out that he was the most useful person around. After all, he was someone, not even the guide Kayne could talk down to. He was, in other words, someone special.

"Please, help us!"

Even Shin pleaded with him.

"Please, help these people! Don't abandon them, please!"

Zevrad couldn't help but feel like he had been struck with a rock in the back of his head, what with him being singled out.

On one side, Belath with the invited group that had the most potential and safest route. On the other, Shin and her contracted group with the moral high ground yet most dangerous route.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, when faced with such a choice, Zevrad instinctively activated his newfound ability. The entirety of the auditorium was bathed in a cacophony of colors.

'What the?'

For a moment there, Zevrad mistakenly thought that he was sinking into a sea of blood.

And no, it turned out that he didn't make a mistake.

The colors of the blocked-up exit had changed from orange to green; instead, it was Belath who was shining in orange now. There was no color shining from Shin at the same time. However, Zevrad couldn't afford to mind these changes in color at this moment.

Why?

Because, the entire floor was dyed in the deep shade of red, that was why. It was as if he was looking at a sea of blood.

'Red meant to retreat, right?'

Just as Zevrad thought this, a loud tremor was felt beneath his feet.

*BOOM!*

The wooden floor of the auditorium quaked upwards. The aged floorboards began tearing up, pieces violently flying off one by one. People had to perform unsteady dances while trying to regain their lost balance as the floor rumbled.

"W-what the...?!"

"An earthquake?"

That line of thought proved to be far too unrealistic for what happened next, as in the blink of an eye, the floor exploded. As if a bomb had gone off and from between the gaps of flying bits of wood, a lengthy and rotting arm shot out. There were six hook-like things attached to the end of this arm.

The arm drew a short but sharp arc in the air and came down to the floor, before grabbing the hair of the totally dazed and stiffly standing Shin, proceeding to drag her down the newly-created hole.

"Kyaaaak!!"

Shin's head slammed into the floorboard with vengeance and bounced up, and like a golf ball rolling towards the flag hole, she got rapidly sucked into the gaping black hole on the wooden floor.

"SHINNNNN!!!"

The man pounced on the upside-down pair of legs kicking helplessly in the air.

"Heeeeelp!!"

That cry sobered up everyone right away, and the crowd rushed in to grab hold of the man, as he too was getting dragged into the hole as well. As the ten-odd pairs of hands tugged and pulled and yanked, shoes flew away, and then, even loose socks came flying.

Amongst the hectic chaos, somehow some people managed to grab Shin's flailing legs and ankles, and from there, a desperate tug of war unfolded.

"Hold on!! Don't let go!"

"Pull up!! I said, pull them up!!!"

The whole place descended into pure, unbridled chaos. Cries and shouts were roared out; no one dared to hold back as they struggled hard.

Even with the combined strength of ten plus people, Shin couldn't be pulled out of the hole. They were being roughly rocked from side to side due to the sheer force pulling down from below, causing many to lose their grips and crash to the floor.

"Hey! Don't let go!"

It was then.

"KYAAAAAAAK!"

The scream was definitely from Shin, yet the horrifying screeching tone made it seemingly impossible for a person to issue such a sound.

*Splash!*

And from the hole, green liquid exploded upwards. It was like seeing a blender stuffed full of tomatoes switching on but with its lid not closed, and then, crushed bits of flesh and juice were flying off everywhere.

The emerald blood rained down like a small fountain.

"Shinn! SHINNN!!"

Her legs that were kicking and twisting until now, suddenly went dead straight and still. All of her ten toes curled up simultaneously; her thighs trembled; and then, just like a puppet with its strings cut, her knees folded. A certain sickening sensation of something being cut was transmitted to the hands of everyone trying to pull her back out.

The pulling force from below was suddenly gone. Everyone fell back hard on their rear ends with loud thuds. Among them, the man who tried his hardest, felt his butt aching from the sudden thud. And while frowning, he took a look at his hands.

He was still holding onto a slender ankle. Below that, a smooth, rather shapely leg. Even further below, a blue skirt soaked in elven blood. Beyond that, he couldn't see any other connecting body parts. All he could see was some remains of crushed intestines and bits of mangled flesh.

"Aaa...!"

He saw the shape of something grotesque slowly rising up from the hole in the floorboards.

"Aaah...!"

Its long, hairy legs seemed to dance around unrestrained, caked with blood and bits of flesh from top to bottom.

"Aaah, ah...!"

Its body was at least four times the size of a grown adult man's head and there was a single giant eye surrounded by four smaller ones, that took up almost half of its head. Its fangs were dripping with elven blood and it hissed at those in front of it as if it was playing with its prey.

It was a demonic spider.

"Ah, ah, ahhhhaaaack!!!"

The man couldn't hold it back any longer and screamed. He got up as quickly as he could and ran for his life. He didn't know where to, but as long as he could get as far away from that creature as humanly possible, he'd be fine with that.

Pure chaos descended on the auditorium once more. There was no other fitting description. People got utterly, completely terrified by the creature's grotesque appearance, and while screaming their heads off, they scattered everywhere.

'….My, my thoughts are….'

When Zevrad regained his own wits, he found himself running towards the blocked-up door.

'Why...?'

It should be normal to hear all that crazy chaos unfolding all around him, yet, the noise got progressively less and less prominent, fading into nothingness. Everything seemed to crawl down to slow motion as well.

Everything, even Belath and his lackeys who were busy pulling and chucking away the chairs blocking the exit; even the nightmarish creature that had fully revealed itself from the hole, extending its long limbs like a spider and starting its assault on the fleeing crowd...

Every one of these little things, they were unfolding in slow motion for him to watch without missing anything.

'Why…?'

He found it very difficult to breathe. Sweat drops falling on his eyes spread out like paint and blurred his vision.

'Why…?'

How many would die here today? The footing was already slippery from the blood. And it had also gotten sticky. His body became heavier and his running speed gradually slowed down. He even had to wonder if he was aimlessly flailing his arms and legs here. Everything was in a total mess.

In the end, Zevrad paused and stood still, even though the exit was only a few steps away. Suddenly, something inside him exploded. He could hear his own escaping breath; the cold wind blowing in from the now-wide open exit caused his own boiling, seething body to relax. His heart continued to pound away in his chest.

Zevrad was well aware of how idiotic and dangerous it was to ignore the warnings of the red aura indicating to retreat. It wasn't too late to run away, even now.

'Why am I so calm?'

The acrid air stung his nose, his body was burning up, and he felt dizzy. And then, the familiar sensation of vertigo assaulting him went away. The dreamy haziness dissipated almost immediately, and the surrounding world became clear again. Zevrad slowly closed his eyes.

The monster was busy feasting on a corpse, but it stopped and abruptly turned its head around. It spun around in a manner akin to the second hand of a clock and found a single man standing near the exit of the hall. It ran towards the man on all eight of its limbs.

"Kheehick?"

Seeing that the man wasn't budging an inch, the spider tilted its head in confusion and craned its neck. And like how a person might appraise a plate of food before eating it, the demon studied Zevrad with great interest.

The foreign, unknown matter brushed by Zevrad's cheeks, and the disgusting odor assaulted his senses. It was a rather familiar and welcoming smell. His senses became incredibly sharp. In front of his nose, a huge black vertical slit of a pupil, with bloodshot whites surrounding it was waiting. And when his gaze met with that eye brimming full with the desire to destroy.

To devour.

"..."

A relaxed smile broke out on Zevrad's lips.

"Keeeick?!"

The monster hurriedly retracted itself.

Zevrad lightly kicked up the broken leg of the chair lying near the exit. Whether to confront it or to show his back to it, he already had his answer.

'̸Y̵o̷u̵ ̴h̷a̸v̸e̸ ̴o̸v̶e̵r̶c̵o̵m̶e̵ ̸g̴r̸e̴a̷t̴e̶r̸ ̶d̴a̴n̷g̸e̸r̴s̸ ̷t̷h̴a̸n̶ ̵t̸h̵i̴s̴,̵ ̵r̵e̷m̵e̷m̶b̸e̴r̸?̶'̷

A voice within him was speaking to Zevrad.

'̶A̴ ̶c̷r̸e̶a̴t̷u̷r̵e̵ ̵l̶i̸k̴e̴ ̶t̴h̶i̷s̶ ̴i̵s̷ ̷n̵o̷t̷h̸i̸n̴g̵ ̵t̶o̴ ̴y̵o̷u̴.̷'̵

Even before becoming a demon hunter, before he had come to Outland, Zevrad felt that he had faced thousands of these demons before. He snatched the leg of the chair spinning it into the air before catching it with one hand. For some reason, a long weapon felt right in his grasp, and even though it was an improvised tool, he still held it like it was a natural thing to him as got into a stance.

Shortly after, both his eyes widened.