Ian didn't weigh the odds. He didn't consider his own life. This was Leia. The girl who was his childhood friend, and the orphan that his family had accepted.
He was the girl he had protected from bullies, the best friend he had spent his entire life beside.
His body moved on instinct.
"Leia, move!" Ian roared.
He lunged forward with everything he had, slamming his shoulder into her chest. The force of the tackle sent Leia flying out of the monster's warpath, tumbling safely across the rough black stone.
But Ian had taken her place.
He twisted his body, trying to dive out of the way, throwing his right arm up to shield his head.
He was a fraction of a second too slow. The force of the beast's charge smashed into his right arm like a speeding train.
Ian heard the sound before he felt the pain. It was the sound of his bone splintering into a dozen pieces, followed by the tearing of muscles.
The impact threw Ian ten feet through the air like a ragdoll. He slammed into the stone, the breath completely knocked out of his lungs.
For a single heartbeat, there was nothing but a ringing silence.
Then, the pain hit.
It was a sharp pain that erupted from his right shoulder and trickled down to his fingertips. Ian screamed, almost tearing his throat apart. He remained on the ground, clutching at his right side with his left hand.
His right arm was still attached, but it was ruined. The bone of his forearm was completely shattered, almost twisted at an unnatural angle.
The muscle was crushed, pouring blood onto the dark stone. He tried to twitch his fingers, tried to make a fist, but there was absolutely nothing.
The limb was dead, hanging devoid of sensation past the blinding pain at the shoulder.
Fortunately, the beast didn't pay attention to him. It moved onto the others, killing everyone in its path. The victims were of course the ones that were frozen and the ones that were slow to run.
Fortunately, the nightmare didn't last for long.
A loud horn suddenly resounded from the sky.
Golden beams of light crashed down from the red clouds, striking the boar that had spawned across the plain, vaporizing it into black ash instantly.
[Initial Culling has been concluded. The weak have been weeded out. The survivors may now proceed to the Appraisal Stones]
Ian's vision was already blurry, and his ears were ringing. But he still saw a distant boar due with a painful groan.
He also heard the announcement from the sky that the so-called culling had ended. He didn't know what to feel at that moment.
He was happy that it had ended, and he had survived. But at the same time, when he looked at his arm, he felt indescribable emotions beyond just pain.
He was trying really hard to not simply pass out from pain.
Soon, the sound of footsteps rushed towards him.
"Ian! Ian, oh my god, Ian!"
Leia slid to her knees beside him, her face pale as a sheet, tears streaming down her dirt-streaked cheeks. She hovered her hands over his mangled, bleeding arm, too terrified to actually touch it.
"You... you pushed me," she mumbled, her whole body shaking. "You saved me. Your arm... oh god, your arm."
Ian gritted his teeth, the world spinning in and out of focus as he stared up at the blood-red sky of the Tutorial. His right arm, his dominant arm, was completely destroyed within the first ten seconds of this hellish new reality.
But as he looked at Leia, alive and unharmed, he forced a weak, agonizing smile.
"I am fine," Ian said through gritted teeth, tasting the blood on his tongue.
"Idiot. You should have moved after pushing me aside. How could you be so slow?"
There was not a single word of thanks from her. Then again, Ian didn't expect it. After all, since childhood, when had she ever thanked him?
What he didn't expect was that she appeared to be blaming him, as if it was his fault that he couldn't protect himself.
In her eyes, he wasn't hurt because he saved her. He was hurt because after saving her, he was slow in dodging. So in the end, it was still his fault.
Ian had thought that she would at least feel bad. He was even trying to think of ways to make her not blame herself, but even he hadn't expected something like this.
He didn't expect her to cry over him, but this reaction was still a little too lukewarm.
"At least you are still alive. Can you move your arm?"
"It is completely broken. But since this is a strange world, there might be things like elixirs that can help me. So you don't have to worry about it."
Ian pushed his body up, especially since it didn't look like Leia was about to help him up.
She was more distracted in her own thoughts, and even looked somewhat worried.
'He is hurt, so I can't rely on him. Can we even survive in this place?' Leia looked at Ian's arm subconsciously.
Her expressions were filled with complications. She had thought that she had a man so she didn't feel as vulnerable as she did now.
Ian could read her face. He didn't know how to react. Even the attempt at a weak chuckle turned into a bloody cough.
The adrenaline was beginning to wear off, and the pain was growing stronger. Fortunately, for some mysterious reason, the bleeding appeared to have stopped.
Around them, the once-bustling crowd of thousands had been thinned out into a scattered mess. Lifeless bodies were littered across the floor.
The people that had run away, were starting to return at the starting point, still looking at their surroundings suspiciously.
At the start, there were over three thousand humans. But now, less than a thousand remained. More than two thirds of them had been killed already.