Chapter 61 - Duty
Fighting was an art form that I wasn't quite used to yet. Since the start of the tutorial, I had been in plenty of fights but not enough to get truly comfortable.
Two months could do a lot to change a person and I only realized how much after experiencing it myself. My survival instincts always in overdrive, the constant pressure applied to live to see another day. It was hard not to change.
It reached the height of its crescendo during the waves. The pressure ebbed and flowed from day to day but the waves were its peaks. The time when it all came together to force you to become more. Become better.
It was an ever-increasing training regimen that was designed to kill you. I had no misguided thoughts about that now. For whatever reason, this tutorial was designed to kill us.
Out of the thousand-plus participants pulled in here, over half were most likely dead. Without Austin and me, my family would surely be dead. We held the bulk of the waves off previously and were just now receiving help.
Better late than never.
I knew more would die. I knew that five graves wouldn't be where it ended and it took a long time for me to come to terms with that. Life wasn't fair and we were getting the short end of the stick right now.
There were benefits to the harsh treatment we were receiving. If we were in a safer tutorial, I didn't think I would be as strong as I was now. I wouldn't have the Law that I did and I wouldn't have a Rare class.
Most likely, I wouldn't be in the F-Rank. Necessity was the great motivator after all. Necessity drove every living thing forward and without it, I wouldn't be the same person I was.
Fate, destiny, whatever you wish to call it was a cruel bitch. It didn't care about feelings nor wants. It did what it wanted whether you wanted it to or not.
I spent a long time angry after Granddad's death. I cycled through emotions and anger was the one I frequented the most. It was easy to be angry, to hate the things that you couldn't control, but it also did nothing to change them.
Hate and anger were emotions that were only helpful in moderation. If a mind was filled with hate, it left little room for anything else. It took me a while to understand that.