Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin's revelation of the rebellion working inside the tower to help them reach the top was a surprise to Alim. However, he seemed uncertain and hesitant about it. He explained that there had been rumors and speculation floating around the city about an underground movement of sorts, but most of his knowledge about that came from Karam and random lip-reading he would do while eating his meals in public.

He held off on choosing whether they should attempt to actually join it or not, but agreed that if the small girl Liraz was indeed an ally and potentially in danger from her own team, that they could offer refuge. At least, what little refuge there was to be found with them in this death game.

Hadia had been next to join them under the covers with Alim actually serving as translator, turning Jin's silent Whisper signs into written letters, and Hadia whispering her half-responses in Jin's ear.

It was a slow process, but Jin wanted to keep a tight lid on their potential secrets. Despite Karam saying the audience outside the tower couldn't pass information to those within, she was more concerned about what would happen to the people helping them from the outside. She also didn't want any of them getting another bounty for inciting trouble.

As Jin had suspected, Hadia was all for joining any rebellion that planned to actually change things instead of just shifting leadership around and keeping the status quo largely intact. However, Hadia was less inclined to take on any outsider into their group, even the ones claiming to be allies helping the rebellion.

Basima was almost the exact opposite of Hadia, wanting to bring in as many allies as they could to overcome the tower and get out alive, but she wanted to return to the life she knew. Her family was waiting and it was all she knew. She was also much more optimistic about things getting better for the Servants as soon as they had their own past Champions to look up to. The ones that finally survived and brought rewards back to their Sect.

Jin was slightly disappointed by that outlook, but didn't want to argue the speculative future. It was just hard to believe after her own brief experiences that things would change drastically for the better by simply surviving to get out. Plus, where would they even go? Salman had made it fairly clear that all of them had been chosen as sacrifices rather than legitimate Champions. He didn't want them as Servants anymore.

Karam's response actually surprised her most of all. Once he returned her mended shirt, and she went through the process of explaining and asking for his opinion on the matter, he just… shrugged.

"I told you on the first day in the prep room that I'm with you, Miss Jin," Kar said with a gentle smile. "I don't have anything waiting for me outside of here. I don't have any other goal now except to help all of us survive. If you think this is the best way to do so, then I'll keep following you."

She nodded solemnly at the weight of responsibility he seemed to unknowingly place upon her. "I know I don't have all the right answers. I'm not infallible or invincible, Kar…"

"Maybe, but that doesn't change my answer." He met her gaze with dark brown eyes and added with a resolve she rarely saw from him, "You're the best hope I have."

It was almost time for them to meet with the Workers again and Jin decided to spend the few remaining minutes to check the latest shop update.

She glared at her point total, being reminded of Alim's incessant breathy laugh this morning when he informed her that his prediction had been correct, and she received the popularity point for the last round. Apparently, the audience enjoyed her outdoor shower… or they liked watching her bartering… she could hope it was the latter.

One of the items in the shop caught her attention, though, and she scanned the forest behind her until she saw Alim peeking out to watch her. Signing to him, she asked, "What's a Crystal Mystery Item? Is that an actual gambling option?"

He glanced at his own bracelet to verify what she was talking about before nodding and signing back, "yeah. You can get something incredibly game-changing worth well over a hundred points, or get the set of Mundane clothes instead. It's usually not a risk Champions take early on."

She nodded in understanding and decided to check the leaderboards too. It had been a while since she bothered to look, not wanting to get depressed by how far she might have fallen in points while keeping herself cooped up in the cabin.

She was surprised at first to see Pax had been on a killing spree of Speakers, but realized a moment later that she really shouldn't have been. It made sense that a rebel would be taking out nobles.

It was only ten minutes later when Darya arrived with the entirety of her group, even the ones Jin hadn't seen before. She couldn't stop the grin from her face when she assumed that meant they'd be forming an alliance in a moment.

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Darya waved at her and called over, "We've agreed to take on the Trial together with your group. I'll transfer five points now for the information, then Liraz here will give the other five points when we arrive. If it all goes well, we also want to invite your group to our base for a knowledge exchange should you be willing."

Jin nodded. "I can't speak for the others on that last part, but I think some of us would like that."

Instead of wading through the water like last time, a smaller group of the Workers carried over a large tree log and made it fall across the creek. Jin tried to secure it and hold it steady on her end as Darya and Liraz walked across first, followed by the rest of them.

When they didn't turn hostile and murder Jin outright, instead making good on their point transfer, the rest of the Servants joined them and began intermingling a bit. Jin explained they'd be walking for another hour partially along the stream before cutting inward toward their section further from the wall.

The woman Darya had mentioned before as their alchemist, Scarlet, had immediately caught Jin's attention with her dark red hair falling to the middle of her back. It immediately reminded her of Phoenix's red curls despite not being nearly as curly and a darker shade that was leaning more toward brown than Phoenix's.

Scarlet had shyly approached Alim, speaking slowly for him as she asked about the gardening supplies they had traded yesterday. Jin watched the pair for a while before finding Darya's gaze and giving a questioning look with a subtle nod towards them. Darya just rolled her eyes and shook her head at the obvious crush, and Jin smirked, glad she wasn't the only obvious one.

Jin felt tense as the white marble doorway came into view. She wasn't entirely positive the Workers wouldn't try to kill them all now that they had learned the location, but she was reassured when Liraz practically bounced over to her to tap their bracelets together and transfer another five points.

The rest of the Workers took a moment to read the challenge inscription on the door before Darya turned to Jin and asked, "you planning to take the lead on this or am I?"

"I don't mind letting you lead—I've never even seen one of these done before—but I usually try to get everyone's opinion if there's time for it. We've got a fairly balanced party for combat, so we can take point on any monsters if you'd rather." She glanced at Liraz before adding, "I'm not sure who all on your team has combat abilities."

Darya nodded and gestured to Liraz. "Mainly her, like you seemed to guess. Carter can do rituals with the Wand Aspect he got, but those take a lot of setup time, and he's more suited for enchanting than fighting."

The priest who had tried to attack her before huffed at the assertion but didn't argue as he simply crossed his arms and refused to look at Jin.

"Well, I guess we'll go in first then in case a monster is waiting," Jin suggested with a shrug. "Can we come back out immediately after entering? Does it count as a loss or whatever?"

"No time limit or attempt limit was listed," Darya pointed out with a shrug. "Unless they've changed things up from the previous Seasons, all of us should be able to back out without punishment. We'd just won't be able to claim the reward till we beat it."

"Well, I guess it's time to go see what's waiting then." Jin conjured her [Silent Spear] and glanced back at her team to see if they were all good to go. With their nods, she pushed on the marble door that easily swung open for her into a shimmering sheet of pearlescent light.

Stepping through the obvious portal, Jin found herself standing in a long rectangular room made of white marble. It must have been the length of an entire football field to the opposite end and was almost as wide. If there had been bleachers on the sides, she would have sworn she was in some sort of indoor arena, especially after noticing the thick black lines interspersed like the five-yard lines of said field.

The rest of her group joined her a few moments later and took in the sight. They hovered nearby and didn't approach the first line at all and seemed to be looking around for something. Basima was the one to notice it and pointed directly behind where they had entered from as the Workers began appearing too.

Above the portal entrance was black lettering that seemed etched into the wall, which Basima read aloud for them all. "The battle of the body shall bring waves of agony upon the challengers. Make haste to reach your goal. Too slow and your breath shall cease. Too fast and you shall drown within the tides. The victory of salvation shall be granted to those who persevere."

"How do we know what's too slow or fast?" Jin asked nobody in particular.

Hadia spoke up. "Let's try to get to the door and find out. I'm guessing we'll need to fight something but I bet things'll change and become clearer once we start. The gods love to make things dramatic."

Nodding in understanding, Jin gripped her spear tighter and began leading the way to the other side of the room, hoping to spare her allies from any potential trap she might trigger. Her only reassurance was Basima's unwavering conviction that they wouldn't be able to die in here.

As soon as her foot crossed over the first black line, the sound of a trumpet echoed through the room, setting everyone else on edge, and at the end of the room three small spots of grey light shone. Jin tried to squint her eyes, trying to make out what she thought she could see in the center of those lights, but it was Basima's gasp and words that explained, "those are Monster Seeds spawning!"

"Look behind us!" one of the workers called out, and Jin looked back to see a bright blue illusion of numbers floating in the air over the engraved words. It was a countdown from nine hundred. They had fifteen minutes to either reach the other side or defeat the monsters. Jin wasn't exactly sure which but assumed she'd eventually find out.

When Jin looked back, the lights seemed to morph into the shape of three Brushwolves before becoming the solid versions. She had never seen a monster actually spawn before, but it was interesting and helped her think of them less as actual animals she would be murdering in a second. The fact that it only took a handful of seconds for them to materialize from nothing was a bit alarming, though, and she worried they could easily be overwhelmed if more kept spawning.

Jin looked between the clock and line beneath her foot and then back at the monsters now running towards them.

Too slow and we die, too fast and we drown in the tide… of monsters, she thought, finishing the unspoken part of the riddle.

"Some for you," a quiet voice said from beside Jin, and she watched as a ball of blue slime arced through the air to splash far in front of the oncoming monsters. Jin couldn't stop the amused smile as Liraz huffed beside her and muttered, "drat."

"Bas, shoot the right," Jin ordered over her other shoulder and lifted her spear. Taking aim at the center one, she took a few steps forward in a practiced cant and tossed the spear just as Basima spoke her incantation and a brilliant blue arrow shot past them all towards the other Brushwolf.

Basima's arrow hit it dead on, but Jin's attack only grazed her target as it dodged.

Liraz spoke and lobbed another ball of slime at the monster on the left as it got closer, jumping over the puddle that had been left by the first. The slime hit its mark that time and the monster's howl of pain joined that of Basima's target.

Jin reconjured her spear and took a few more steps forward, distancing herself from the group but making sure not to cross the next black line on the floor. The Brushwolf snarled at her and instead of lunging to take a bite, surprised Jin by having the tangle of vines on its back whip out to lash at her.

She yelped in surprise, but Hadia appeared from the side to slam her mace into it. It yelped and bit at her. Jin took the opening to use [Piercing Thrust] at its exposed neck which had it give a loud whine before falling to the ground.

Jin refocused on the others to see Basima's also dead on the ground but the other one was howling in pain. She almost felt sorry for the unfortunate monster that was getting slowly eaten by the, apparently, acidic slime coating its body.

Once the last monster finally died, Jin asked Liraz, "want me to loot that for you? You can keep whatever it drops since you killed it."

"But…" The little blue girl hesitantly looked back toward Darya before finishing saying, "it's your loot ability."

Jin shrugged. "I don't mind helping you all out, though. Better than trying to skin something that's half-melted, right?"

"YES, PLEASE!" one of the men shouted from nearby, looking at Jin with almost manic appreciation.

She gave Darya a raised brow and the older woman gave a sigh. "That's Osman. Our leatherworker. He's been complaining non-stop about all the holes."

Jin chuckled and walked over to the corpses, taking the travel time to glance back at the clock still counting down. Three minutes had already passed and her eyes scanned down the room at what must have had at least twenty lines for them to pass.

"Shit. I think we need to go faster," Jin said to the others. "Liraz, grab your loot. Kam, you and Alim grab ours while we're moving," she commanded, quickly triggering the basic version of her looting and generating a small pile at her feet before going to the next.

Hadia seemed to catch on already as she raised her [Mace of Might] and basic hammer she had seemed to grow fond of. Taking the few steps remaining, Hadia triggered the next wave of monster spawns as she crossed the second black line.

This time it was a pair of Ironhorns that appeared. The next was a handful of monsters Jin didn't recognize. They reminded her of some kind of shrew but with ruddy stone-like plates on their back and claws that looked more like pincers. Those were only harder because they were outnumbered with them, but Basima and Liraz's quick attacks seemed to help them keep up.

They had only made it to the tenth line with a minute left to go when a woman from the Worker's group yelled, "I'll go to the goal while you fight!" and proceeded to sprint down the room before anyone could stop her.

Darya yelled, "Miley! Don't! You read the challenge!"

It was too late, though, and more and more lights spawned in as the woman ran. It at least confirmed Jin's suspicion that each line would keep spawning more monsters even if some were already spawned. What she hadn't expected was for Miley to reach the far wall only to start banging a fist against it and yelling for it to let her through.

"The victory of salvation shall be granted to those who persevere," Jin muttered, recalling the final words of the challenge. "We have to kill it all before the door will appear."

There wasn't a chance they would make it.

Miley screamed as the monsters closest to her tore into her flesh. A flash of purple light appeared around her a moment later and she was gone. Jin could only assume and hope that it was the magic of this place ensuring her survival like Basima had promised.

Another minute of frenzied fighting and the screams of their non-combatant allies, and the room began to fill with smoke. The air itself betrayed them all as they gasped for breath, and eventually Jin blacked out with monsters gnawing on her.