I had seen various injuries, a monster, and had even been awake to see the doctors opening my body up to remove the thorns. It wasn’t the gore that left me stunned and speechless.

  It was the shock.

  I wasn’t even that close with her, but seeing a life snuffed out in the amount of time for someone to blink rattled me to my core.

  On the ground next to me, with a bullet hole in her skull laid No.6. Her last expression was contorted with shock and astonishment, with a hint of pain. There was no peace to be found within her last moments.

  “Aagh…!” No.9 screamed while jumping back and hugging the wall.

  “Hmm…it seems I've gotten rusty, my aim was a bit off.” No.1 said as he began twirling the pistol around on his finger.

  He then stopped and pulled back the hammer on his revolver once more. No.1 slowly brought it up and dropped his warm smile while taking aim at my head.

  “I was aiming for you.” He said coldly, tightening his finger around the trigger.

  I immediately dove out of the way and slid against the ground, the thorns inside my body piercing and shuffling against my bones.

  *CLICK*

  “Kidding. I only brought one bullet. Although that dive must’ve really hurt, considering your…..condition, hm?” He chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

  This bastard….!

  “No.1, what are you doing?! You were supposed to be managing things to make sure nobody dies! But then you killed No.6! I don’t….I don’t understand what’s happening!”

  He put the hand that was holding the gun behind his back and began walking forward.

  “You’re so gullible it’s honestly laughable. You were forced to do it anyway, but you yourself found meaning in following my orders. Enhancing the other numbers' hostility towards Zero and 963, making the facilitators talk about sensitive information out in the open, and even the lax security in the training area. You thought this was all to give you and the other numbers a better future?” He asked, tilting his head forward.

  “That’s what you said would happen! You said that we were all going to be disposed of eventually, and this gives us a chance to–!”

  “Of course I said that.” No.1 spoke loudly, cutting her off. “If I could get you to be motivated, to convince yourself that what you were doing was right, your gift would be far more effective. You didn’t even realize how little sense my plan for the future made. You were only focused on trying to act like the hero.” He continued, twirling his hand around.

  “But…why?! Why even do all this?! Why kill No.6?! It doesn’t even make sense!” No.9 screamed, shivering and holding her head in her hands.

  “Does everything need to make sense? Does there have to be a reason for everything? Will that help one find purpose in their life? Maybe for you, but not for me. Why? Why not? I can do it, so I will. Isn’t that what it means to be free?” He mused, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You’re delusional.” I spat, swatting my arm toward him.

  “Says the Make-a-Wish kid, trying to escape. You touch grass after oh-so-long and then plop dead the next day. Is this really worth it?”

  “Someone’s getting defensive.”

  “Please, do you think any of you are threatening enough to provoke me?

  I sighed after realizing this was getting nowhere. It was obvious he didn’t come here to make peace with us, meaning the only option was to fight.

  “No.9, keep him still with your gift. I’ll blow him to bits.”

  No.9 nodded with rage as she glared at No.1. In response, No.1 held out his free hand as if gesturing us to come forward.

  “You are unable to move!”

  Her voice reverberated and echoed around the room, and No.1 stood there completely still with a smile on his face. I sprinted forward and brandished my sword once more, and right when I motioned to slash his neck, he took a step back and narrowly avoided my slice.

  How?!

  He then shifted his weight from his back foot to his front with lightning speed and pistol-whipped me right across my right temple.

  “Gah!”

  As I held my head and took a step back, I saw him jump in the air and spin. By the time I regained my senses, it was too late; he kicked me clean in the head and sent me flying backwards.

  “Unfortunately for you all, No.9’s gift doesn’t work on me. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the reason.”

  I slammed my sword into the ground and used it to stand up. He had hit me once in the temple and another on my head. I needed to hold onto something, or I would fall to the floor.

  “Y-You cannot–”

  *BANG*

  The familiar sound of a bullet being shot out of its barrel echoed through all of our ears. From the barrel of No.1’s gun, slight wisps of smoke floated up into the air, barely masking his expression.

  “M-MY LEG! AGHHHHHH!”

  No.9 fell to the floor and began holding the leg that was shot.

  “I-I thought! I thought you only brought one bullet!”

  “*Sigh*......When will you learn? I lied. Y’know, everyone always relies on these flashy powers and gets a big ego. They think they’re untouchable. Yet they fail to realize that most of the time, all the opponent needs is one bullet to put them out of commission.”

  He lightly tapped his head with the barrel of his gun before throwing it in our direction.

  “Don’t worry, I’m really out of bullets this time. Besides, I have two far more efficient weapons than a simple revolver. The first of which is….”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He cut himself short and pulled out a remote with a large red button.

  “What is that?”

  “A device that’ll allow you to meet some old friends. It’ll be a fun reunion, I’m sure.”

  He turned around and began walking away, back through the door he came in.

  “You think I’ll just let you go?!”

  I attempted to spring up and chase after him, but a wave of dizziness from his previous attacks prevented me from giving chase.

  “You unfortunately don’t have a choice in the matter. Oh, and No.9? As thanks for helping me so diligently, I prepared a little present for you. You must have felt so hurt that they excluded you from their little adventure in the Forbidden Area, so I decided to give you the first-class experience that they had.”

  “No….you wouldn’t!” I yelled, trying to run forward regardless.

  He pressed the button on the remote and waved us goodbye with his back turned. The doors closed behind him, and the room started shining red while blaring alarms.

  Steam began to let loose from the wall to my left. It was so well-hidden that I didn’t notice it, but a rectangular outline started forming in the shape of a large door along the wall. The newly formed door slowly opened up, coating the entire room with an eerie red mist. The passage that opened was covered in darkness, and no sounds emerged from it.

  Until no more than a couple of seconds later, we heard the eerie sound of metal clanking on the ground, accompanied by large stomps that shook the very floor we stood on.

  We couldn’t even see it, yet the pressure we felt from it almost flattened us to the floor. With each resounding step, all we could do was stay still and look forward. I tightly clenched my katana out of instinct, knowing that if I dropped it I would be too paralyzed to pick it up once more.

  “Z-Z-Z-Zero…..w-w-what is that?”

  “S-S-Shut up!” I whispered.

  No.9 was sitting on the ground, shivering with fear, while blood profusely leaked from her leg wound. But its sheer presence, at least for a brief moment, made the pain subside in her leg. No.9 quickly stood up and held my hand, as if the previous pain was completely overrun by adrenaline and fear.

  Then it appeared. A creature so large it appeared to be bigger than an elephant. Holding it were chained shackles across its four legs. Its maw was massive and had gigantic fangs, and two burgundy horns from each side of its skull. Its body is tinted purple with little squirming faces. Behind it was a long purple tail covered in eyes. But the most horrifying were its small, beady black eyes.

  “ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!”

  The sound vibrated through the air and rattled me to the core. The pure shockwaves felt like No.9’s gift, except amplified by a million screams. Its voice vibrated through the air and rattled my very core, and the pure shockwaves its voice created caused the very room to rumble.

  It looked down on us, its mouth salivating as it took slow, pounding steps in our direction.

  “Aaaaah…..ah!” No.9 whimpered.

  I tried to move, but couldn’t. My legs were stuck to the floor, and all I could do was watch that gigantic creature get closer to us.

  Move! Come on, I need to move!

  The unsettling creature crept closer and closer. Opening its maw wide and gleeful until I could feel its rancid breath on my face.

  MOVE!

  In a desperate attempt, I bit my tongue to feel a spike of pain and get my body out of shock.

  It bent down and attempted to swallow us whole, but I was able to lunge myself over to No.9. We rolled out of its path, with me carrying her in one arm as we made our escape.

  Enraged, it turned to where I was running and began charging toward us. I quickly stopped and dove the other direction, barely avoiding its charge as it lodged its horns into the wall.

  I dropped No.9 on the floor as I clutched my sword.

  While its horns are stuck in the wall, I’ll slash it! One cut is all I need to kill this thing!

  I bent my knees and exploded forward. The eyes on its tail contorted and locked onto me as it began swinging its tail back and forth to deter me. It swept at my head, but I slid under the attack. Once it passed by me, I shifted my weight from my torso to my lower legs and jumped in the air.

  It swung its tail at me again, and I couldn’t dodge it. The beast was too powerful to take head-on, so I deflected the blow and went spiraling off to the right. Midair, I regained my balance and landed on the ground, sliding to a halt, then resumed my assault once more.

  It was still struggling to get its horns out of the wall, and I was now out of reach of its tail. This was the prime chance to slice its body.

  I rubbed some more blood on my blade to refresh its strength and charged forward. I jumped to reach its body, and it was now within my range to slice. I lifted my sword up high, but right as I was about to bring it down, the faces on its body began screaming louder than I could ever imagine. The vibrations were so intense that I wasn’t able to reach its body, and I was blown back, barely holding onto my katana in the process.

  “Gaaaaaa…….aaaaaah!”

  I bounced across the ground like a rock being skipped across the water, with each slam on the ground making the thorns pierce more and more of my body. When I finally came to a halt, that thing had freed itself from the wall. It turned in my direction and charged at me once more with renewed vigor.

  “Uh oh!”

  I quickly got up and ran to the left, in hopes that it would get caught in the wall again. However, it seemed to learn from its mistake as it stopped itself at the last second and swung its head down, trying to ram me with its horns. I wasn’t able to evade in time as one of its horns was on a warpath right for me. I swung my blade to parry it, but there was a reason why I deflected it last time.

  It hit my blade head-on, and that one-second clash was all it took for me to reach my limit. Blood spurted from my eyes and arms as my veins were popping all over my body. Though even that wasn’t enough, as I got flung to the other side of the room. Before I landed, I rammed my sword into the ground and slid to a halt right before my back would have broken on the wall behind me.

  “Grrrrrr! You overgrown garbage heap!”

  . I watched as it locked into position like before, but this time I wasn’t gonna let it make that move again. When it had hit me previously, my blood went flying everywhere, with some of it landing on its charging path.

  It began its attack, and I held out my hand to activate my gift.

  “Charge to your death, you monster!”

  I clenched my fist and all of the spurts of blood detonated along its path. It stopped it’s charge and lifted up its hooves in surprise.

  “GROOOOOOOAH??!!!!”

  As I activated my gift, I could feel the thorns growing across my body until they had finally reached their breaking point.

  “Aaaaa…..AAAAAAAAGH!”

  The thorns pierced through my skin until they were barely visible across my arms and legs. They were ripping through my veins and my muscles, and were a dark shade of green and red.

  I have to ignore the pain! I can’t afford to be sitting still, that monster will recover at any moment!

  I forced myself to get up and began running over to the unrecovered no.9. The beast finished reeling from the detonations and turned its attention to me once more. To keep it confined there, I clenched my fist and detonated more of the blood that fell from earlier. It wasn’t near it this time, but it caused it to be wary of moving after seeing the small firecracker explosions all around it.

  Before I could reach her, I could hear no.9 mumbling something to herself while staring at the ground in a daze.

  “I don’t know what to do…..it hurts…..I don’t know what to do…..it hurts.”

  The bullet wound in her leg was still bleeding, and blood was splattered all over the floor. She seemed to still be in shock.

  “No.9! No.9!”

  She didn’t respond as she muttered the same things while looking at the floor.

  “You stupid…..wake up!”

  I slapped her hard across the right cheek when I finally reached her, and her eyes regained some color as she held her cheek in pain.

  “Ow! Why did you—?!”

  I grabbed her shoulders and stared her dead in the eyes.

  “I need you to wake up and focus! I can’t beat this thing without you! I can’t get close enough to slash it, and one hit from this thing could kill us! I need you to use your ability to put it to sleep or something!”

  “It….won’t work.”

  “What do you mean it won’t work?! Just say it, and it’s done!”

  “My gift is more complicated than that! A bunch of conditions need to be met!”

  “Like what?!”

  “Well–!”

  “ROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAR!” It screamed, beginning to bound over to us.

  I turned to No.9, waiting for her to use her ability, but she returned the same expression, as if she was expecting me to use mine.

  Ah, man. We're so fucked.