"You're not shit. If it wasn't for Vermelha I wouldn't be helping you anyways. You can't shut me up. I could rip your throat out as we speak. There ain't no way I would admit youre cool even if you became the strongest person on this planet."
"Oh yeah?!"
They started to argue now, butting their foreheads together, pushing each other back and forth.
"G-Get out of my face weakling! Enough! We have a task at hand!"
Barghest pushed back. She snarled as she was now furious with Matsumi's antics.
"There's nothing here anyway! Where do we even go?!"
Barghest looked around for a few seconds.
"Look."
She pointed south and there was a few building silhouettes in the distance.
"If buildings are conjuring that must mean others are entering. My psyche will still take precedence on this floor because of my strength but the scenery must be changing."
"Let's go over then. Come on."
He stomped around on the sand before moving directly in the direction of the buildings.
Barghest walked for a few minutes in silence. She stared at the sun beaming down on them as it didn't get any colder. Before she could even see anything else she suddenly dived from her floating position and pounced on Matsumi covering his mouth behind a large cactus that was close by.
"Stop. Someone is watching us."
"Mmm mm mm?"
His words being muffled by her hand, he slowly pulled it down for him to speak.
"Who is?"
"I don't know but theres multiple mana signatures. You're not capable of helping here. So I need you to stay quiet and suppress your energy as much as possible."
"Oh, it must be the other students or something."
"No you idiot. An actual enemy of the tower. I can tell because the mana is different. It's almost digitized."
"Oh, that's what you meant. I still don't see them though."
"Thats because they're hiding. If we walked out in the open for another three seconds they would've attacked both of us."
Matsumi turned his head to the others that Barghest mentioned were entering, he wanted to see if they would be attacked.
Students would walk towards the building, sweating and thanking whatever god they believed in that they found some shelter to regroup and try to find the next floor. They were immediately riddled with bullets, some even getting their heads blown off as their corpse hit the floor. The bullets didnt just hit when they were standing but instead even when they were lying on the ground, essentially destroying the people and incinerating them to dust. Barghest watched silently. Not in horror because she had seen far worse but rather out of an attempt to gain control of the situation and to understand what exactly was going on.
Matsumi wasn't scared by this, Raito had already told him previously that everyone just reappears again at the very entrance. So he just thought this was normal.
"Can't we just run forward? No way their aim is that good to still hit us."
The student from before still floated on the air, having nearly caught up to the two after their little shove match and bickering. He too had sensed the other presences, though he had been a bit further away when the students were gunned down. Leonard watched the two get behind cover, eyes narrowing as his attention turned to the buildings outlines instead.
He descended to the ground and began to walk forward, stopping a bit aways from the other two as he kept a steely gaze ahead.
"Theres someone behind us as well. The person we saw earlier. People in the tower can ambush you to gain advantage in getting to the top first. No we can't just go forward unless you intend on getting riddled with bullets."
Matsumi weirdly enough, smiled.
"It's just like the dodgeball game, right? Just don't get hit."
He laughed silently in almost anticipation.
Leonard seemed to not really be bothered with the two, moving up til he was about side to side with them; still watching the buildings.
"Yeah..but you better dodge every laser they fucking shoot. I can only protect you from where I can see and sense. My reflexes aren't as up to par as they were. It may be time for you to use the flash step."
"Just trust me. I'm feeling a little hyped up."
He gave one last smile to Barghest before running out from their small cover, his smile remaining as he sprinted out in the very open.
Shots fired as Barghest flew across the plain. Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple mana blasts rampaged the area as Barghest swerved and dodged every last one. Her only objective was to make it to the finish line. To cross into territory and finish the floor.
His feet kicking off the sand with each step, the blasts almost coming into contact with him every time. One especially, came very close to his head before he vanished from sight to appear some feet in front. The same thing happened, but this time to the side. Matsumi used the flash step to close the distance between the distant buildings and himself. He looked to Barghest for a second to stick his tongue out at her, laughing as he did so before using the flash step again to get slightly ahead of her. He wasn't only treating this as a game to not get hit, but also a race.
Leonard made his own mad dash after they did, though he closed his eyes and let his concentration take hold, weaving his way by each projectile that tried to hit him. He opened his eyes again and stared ahead, the goal to reach and make it out of this first floor. His eyes kept their mark, still dodging and bobbing around to avoid the hellstorm.
"Tch…I don't want to use it too early but it may be the speed boost I need…"
"You fool..You're lucky this is the first round…"
Barghest floated to safety as the blasts continued. She looked around and spotted the shooters as they gasped when they saw her face. She held her finger out and small beams of Mana started picking off shooters left and right, most of them panicking or fleeing from the scene temporarily in order to garner some form of safety.
"You think so?"
Matsumi kept the pace but without any mana usage this time. The shooters aiming at them giving them some space to move. He aimed his own hand at some of the shooters, forming a finger gun, threatening to also attack back. They didn't know he couldn't, he was just messing with them as he imitated Barghest.
Most of the shooters ran away and escaped the scene, leaving the three to survive and be.
"This floor should be done any moment now then…"
She crossed her arms. She ignored Matsumi's antics for now focusing on the objective at hand.
"Already? I thought there would be more."
"There are one hundred floors. This is only floor one."
"I hope the other ones are a little longer."
He kept up his harmless finger guns still.
"Each one is different right?"
Leonard had already arrived there with them, a slight tinge of a red aura surrounding him but soon fading once he established he had made it to the end, nothing was worse for wear on him so far.
"Every floor is different and more difficult. This was by far the easiest..but for someone like you..You might've got shot if it weren't for my warning."
"Thanks for the assist! Now, where's the exit?"
"It seems to not have spawned yet..there must be something we missed on this floor."
"Like what?"
"Some kind of conditional. Something needs to be done or someone needs to be defeated."
"You think it's in one of those buildings? Maybe you can sense it again."
"I don't sense anyone else besides the guy that keeps appearing. You look inside the buildings."
"Sure, I can take a look."
He headed in said direction, walking along the sand until he reached the base of the building. He didn't hesitate to enter it and start looking around for anything.
Leonard stayed near the end, but once he saw the other leave to start looking in buildings, he soon followed suit, walking over to another as he scanned the outside quickly before entering.
"…Hey. We can use that guy on our team. Why don't you go ask him to join while I find the way up to the second floor."
He turned around to face Yojeshi.
"Hey!"
He screamed out so he could be heard.
"Come over for a sec!"
He stepped out of the building and looked towards Matsumi before walking over. He stopped just a foot or two away.
"Yes?"
"You wanna come with us? It's just us two, but Barghest told me to ask you, so I'm asking you."
He adjusted his things, it could be beneficial to work in tandem.
"Alright sure, I don't see any harm in such"
Matsumi gave him a thumbs up.
"Just so you know, we're going all the way to the top!"
A small wall near Matsumi turned and rotated, revealing a small staircase near him. Barghest floated over to him.
"Hey. You ready to go?"
"Woah! Cool!"
He rushed over to the where she had opened the wall.
"A secret entrance?"
"It's made like that. Run across the shooters and pull the lever. Pretty tame for floor one."
"I'm going up first!"
He rushed up the steps, leaving the others behind.
Barghest shook her head and followed him up the stairs, leading them to the second floor.