“Weren’t they just with us?” Natasha snapped angrily at Joe.

  As Natasha talked, she continued to fight. The waves of beasts would not stop, and even with her frustration, she could not be distracted. Her claws viciously tore through a group of monkeys. Her attacks were not precise. Instead, they were filled with savage fury as she tore her enemies into pieces.

  “I think so,” Joe said. “They must have escaped in the chaos.”

  A large cat pounced towards Joe, and he stabbed forward with his spear in response. Before the cat could reach him, Joe’s spear pierced it in midair. A monkey quickly came up from behind and threw itself into a ball as it jumped towards Joe. Before the spiked ball could reach him, he turned around and sent his hand forward. The air turned white as Joe thrust his hand at the monkey. The monkey’s body turned white as the air chilled it to the bone. Suddenly, the monkey dropped in midair and shattered into pieces.

  “Damn,” Natasha growled. “I shouldn’t have trusted him. He probably wants to see us kill each other and take everything for himself.”

  “I think you might be right,” Joe said flatly. “He has not shown a past of trustworthiness. But what do you think we should do?”

  Natasha did not immediately respond. Instead, her Essence grew wild as she grew angry at the situation. Purple and black smoke crawled across her body wildly. Her entire body transformed into shifting smoke except for her face. As her body shifted, her arms and hands grew disproportionately large.

  Natasha’s new form did not deter the beasts, but maybe it should have. As beasts charged after her, smoke formed into purple blades. The blades extended from her body much like the tendrils of the cats. The beasts’ charge was stopped by her tendrils. The blades moved precisely and cut through the beasts with ease.

  Even with the massive amount of blades, some of the beasts made it through Natasha’s onslaught. Natasha’s onslaught did not stop with her blades as they grew closer. She grabbed the beasts with her massive hands and slammed them into the ground. It did not matter if they made it through; her massive strength and size allowed her to toss them around as if they were nothing.

  As she threw the last beast to the side, Natasha’s smoke shrank and condensed around her. It now looked like something like a bodysuit with wisps of purple smoke trailing off of it. She turned to address Joe while bodies disintegrated into red and purple dust.

  “Brian is at the camp,” Natasha said with venom in her voice. “Our people could be in danger. Mike and Beth may need support. What do you think we should do?”

  Joe sighed as he pressed his index finger against the bridge of his glasses. “This is our last chance to fight Chet before the game is over. It is hard saying. I do know this: Mike and Beth are strong. Many of the people at the camp are strong, too. They just prefer not to fight if they don’t have to.”

  “You’re right,” Natasha nodded. “We should put our faith in them and push forward.”

  “It’s not faith, just logic. This is our overall best bet,” Joe said.

  “I sure hope so. I don’t want to know what will happen if Austin’s son gets harmed,” Natasha said with worry.

  “You aren’t actually afraid of him? I mean, I just saw you rip through those beasts like it was nothing,” Joe’s eyes narrowed in a confused expression.

  “He may not seem like it, but he’s a monster. I knew it from the first day I met him. Somehow, his power is on a different scale than mine.”

  “I don’t even get how that’s possible. You are both Copper. I know there are slight variations in strength, but you should be relatively close in strength. Like the rest of us, Leads are pretty close in strength.”

  “At each level, the variation in strength gets larger. This is because each level takes more time and power to achieve. I don’t know how it’s possible, but when I met him, he was already close to Iron. Either his master had him go through something I didn’t, or he is literally just that scary talented. If it were not for all the help he provided us, he definitely would already be at Iron.”

  “What the hell?” Joe’s eyes grew wide in uncharacteristic shock. “How is that even possible?”

  “I don’t know. Hopefully, James realized it, too.” Natasha’s voice was still filled with worry. She really did not want to see the fallout if James crossed them.

  “Agreed,” Joe nodded before he noticed a pair of gorillas starting to grow closer. “Looks like the bosses are coming to fight.”

  “Maybe they can pose a challenge,” Natasha said as her arms started to grow larger.

  ***

  Sean had fallen to his knees as he saw his friend sacrifice himself. His sword dropped from his hands as he felt the strength in his body leave him. The two had been friends even before the Survival Game. When the Survival Game started, it was Zack who kept Sean going. He had always had a positive attitude, even in the worst situations. Somehow, despite their opposite personalities, they were good friends, but now he was gone. Sean did not know how he could continue without Zack’s positive outlook.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Damn, damn, damn!” Sean yelled in frustration as his fists pounded the ground. He could not keep the tears back as they covered his face.

  A group of monkeys took notice of Sean and identified him as an easy target. They charged Sean, intending to jump on him and pierce him with their spikes. Sean was completely distracted by his grief as they grew closer. He could not think of anything but the loss of Zack. There was no way that he could move out of the way of his pursuers in time.

  Just as the monkeys grew closer, Katie and Zoe moved to stop them. Katie used her two swords to cut through two of the monkeys. At the same time, Zoe charged forward with her shield and caught the rest of the monkeys on it. As she flung them to the ground, Katie quickly followed up by throwing both of her swords as she ran towards them. Two new swords took shape in her hand as she ran. She moved like a gust of wind as she arrived and cut the remaining two of the group in half.

  As the monkeys disintegrated into dust, Katie started to move towards Sean to cheer him up. Before she could arrive, Zoe was already at him. She had dropped her weapons and lifted Sean up by the collar.

  “What are you doing?” Zoe’s eyes were filled with fury as she lifted Sean. “We are in a battle!”

  “Zoe, you don’t need to be-“ Katie tried to calm Zoe down, but was cut off.

  “I do need to knock some sense into him!” Zoe yelled at Katie before turning her attention back on Sean. “Do you think Zack would want you to just die?”

  “But he’s gone,” Sean’s voice was exhausted. “He was my…best friend. And he’s just gone. What am I supposed to do?”

  “You need to keep living,” Katie spoke up this time. “He gave his life for us. He wouldn’t want you to just stop.”

  “I don’t know how to continue, though,” Sean protested. “I only made it this far because of his support.”

  “I’m the same as you,” Zoe sighed as she let Sean go. “Katie has been the reason I’ve been able to push through the Survival Game. But she wouldn’t want me to quit if she were gone.”

  “That’s right. He would want you to continue to be the best you can be,” Katie said with a gentle smile. “For both of you.”

  “I guess you might be right,” Sean relented as he wiped his face with his arm. “It just hurts.”

  “Then let’s make them hurt even more,” Zoe suggested.

  “You’re right,” Sean said with a halfhearted smile. He reached for his sword. “Let’s do this for Zack.”

  “For Zack,” Zoe and Katie repeated with smiles as they entered ready stances.

  ***

  Natasha quickly jumped backward as a colossal fist smashed downward towards her. Natasha swore that she felt the ground shake as the giant gorilla’s fist slammed into the ground. The gorilla quickly ripped its fist out of the ground, leaving a small crater in it. Natasha was shocked that the large creature was so fast. The gorilla already swung its fist at Natasha, forcing her to continue to dodge.

  As the gorilla swung its fists, thick tendrils followed in quick succession. Each swing was followed by a mass of tendrils slamming through the area. Any opening that Natasha could see was quickly closed by the follow-up of the tendrils. She was forced to constantly move without counterattacking. She felt like a fly that avoided being swatted away.

  Natasha started to grow annoyed as she dodged the gorilla’s attacks. She knew that there was no way it had the same amount of power as her. She was a Copper. The problem was it had a lot of raw power, and the tendrils allowed it to constantly keep on the attack. Even with their difference in level, she felt that a successful attack could cause her major damage.

  Despite Natasha’s analysis of the danger of the situation, she felt that she needed to do something. Otherwise, the fight would just continue indefinitely. As she continued to dodge attacks, a strategy formed in her head. Smoke poured from her back and started to take the shape of her tendril-like blades.

  When Natasha’s blades finished forming, she skidded to a stop. The gorilla’s fist came down on her, but she refused to move. Instead, she moved her blades to form a sharp net around her body. Before the gorilla realized her plan, his fist already came down on her. The force of the attack caused its fist to slice into pieces. The pieces fell to the ground as the gorilla was left with nothing but a nub. It reeled back as it grabbed the end of its arm. Its mouth opened wide as it let out an echoing, pained roar.

  Natasha knew this was her chance to fight back. As the gorilla reeled backward, she chased it down. She kicked off the ground to throw herself into the air with a spin, while her tendrils twisted together and started to reshape. Once she made it to the peak of her jump, the tendrils finished forming into one large tendril with an axe-shaped blade at the end. As her body spun around, the blade slashed through the gorilla’s neck with a clean strike. Its eyes grew wide as it realized the attack was coming too late. With a large thud, the gorilla’s head slammed into the ground before its body collapsed.

  Natasha landed with grace as she turned away from her defeated enemy. Her tendril turned into smoke and lifted into the air as the gorilla disintegrated into red and purple dust. With the gorilla done for, she needed to get back to work on the rest of the beasts. She quickly turned her attention to them as she prepared to fight. A newfound confidence filled her as she defeated one of their stronger combatants.

  As Natasha turned to look at the rest of the beasts, she noticed them being killed in waves. A group moved through the beasts and tore through them like an unstoppable force. The group did not seem to slow as they moved through the beasts.

  As the group grew near, Natasha realized who it was. James and his subordinates were tearing through the beasts. They were headed straight to Natasha and Joe. His subordinates seemed to slow as they reached Natasha, but James continued forward towards Joe.

  Natasha watched as James pursued the gorilla. A brilliant white light formed in James’s hand as he ran. Once he grew closer, James threw the white light at the gorilla, and it exploded. As the light exploded, the entire area was filled with a brighter light. Natasha could not even be sure what James was doing.

  As the light faded, James stood over the gorilla’s corpse. It had been completely cut to pieces, body parts scattered across the ground. As the gorilla’s body faded into red and purple dust, the dust started to swirl and coalesce into a stream. The stream flowed towards James, and that was when Natasha realized why James was late. The stream was absorbed by the pitch-black sword in James’s hand. The weapon that they took from Carter and banned from use.