Chapter 36: Price of Life
After seeing Iwaka brutally murdered by what looked like a living zombie, it took all of Mindaugas's strength to pull himself back to his feet. He muttered to his closest teammate, "Stay together and back away slowly! Don't take your eyes off him for a second. Be ready for another attack."
Unfortunately, the teammate who was furthest away immediately screamed and started trying to crawl away, scrabbling on his hands and knees in a pathetic display of terror.
It was only a few seconds before a rib hissed through the air and slammed into the poor man's head.
Mindaugas tried to ignore how hard his heart was pounding. He felt that he was beginning to understand Alexandre's power. "We don't stand a chance," he muttered to himself. "He's willing to kill us, and all he has to do is land one attack..." Then he raised his voice and called out, "Listen here! The rest of us aren't your enemies like Iwaka was. We just wanted to collect your bounty, he's the one who wanted to kill you! We didn't sign up for this!"
Then he pointed at Iwaka's lifeless body. "Look in his bag. He's got 41 watches ripped off the other candidates. After collecting your quota of watches, each additional one earns you a $1,000 bonus... but only for students. If you let us go, I'll take Iwaka's watches and give you his $41,000 afterward!"
Alexandre's blood-soaked face twisted into a grin. "One. Hundred."
Mindaugas paused for a moment, not entirely sure if he'd heard correctly. "...What?"
Alexandre repeated, "One. Hundred. Watches." Each breath spat and gurgled, like the sound of squeezing an empty condiment bottle. "You'll give me... one hundred... thousand. Or you all die. Right here."
Mindaugas prayed his teammates weren't as stupid as the one who'd tried to run away. If one of them protested or tried to attack the candidate now in anger at this demand, they were all dead. "Alright, fine! $100,000."
Alexandre raised the second rib in his hand and pointed it toward Mindaugas' chest. "Prove it! That you've got them. Before the end. Not going to risk you lying. Then being under... academy's protection!"
Mindaugas felt sweat trickling down his face. began to sweat profusely, then said "Alright, I'll prove it." He walked slowly toward the student who'd tried to crawl away, trying his hardest not to look at the rib pinning the young man's skull to the forest floor. Mindaugas rummaged in the corpse's bag and retrieved 31 watches.