Chapter 481 - Betrayal (1)

Only one word could have described the scene in the arena, chaos. Arnold had been in his fair share of battles, but the one he was seeing now even took him by surprise. People were being shot down like crazy. None of the attacks was getting wasted thanks to the overwhelming crowd. Even if someone managed to dodge an attack, it only went ahead and killed or hurt someone else. 

On top of that, since no one could predict which direction they will end up getting attacked from, most of them couldn't even defend themselves. Initially, Arnold had been worried about Nicole and Johnny for the same reason as they seemed to have been targeted since the battle royale started. 

It was difficult for them to defend themselves against the horde of Vassals and Paladins. But they had each other's back and with a little help from him, no one could even get their hands on them. Also, it didn't seem like Nicole and Johnny were in the mood of taking anyone else under their wing because even though multiple participants willingly wanted to surrender themselves to them, Nicole and Johnny killed them either way.

This.... was a bit unexpected, even for Arnold. He knew his sister and she would do something like that, but Johnny had always been a bit kind-hearted to the strangers around him. So watching him kill unnecessarily was a bit weird for Arnold and it almost felt as if something had snapped inside of him. 

'It should be fine. His being scary should also keep others away from attacking them without a plan. In the meantime,' Arnold thought before turning his gaze towards Sonya and her crew, 'I should get to work as well.'

Sonya and her team, on the other hand, was not fairing well at all. It seemed like it didn't take long for the others to realise that they were one of the weakest participants there and jumped at the chance to score some quick kills on them. Not working along with their fellow earthlings had come to bite them in the a.ss.

But to their credit, so far they were fending the trouble makers off without taking many injuries. They might have been weak, but they knew exactly how to cover for each other. In fact, Arnold couldn't help commending them for their teamwork.

But things change, and so did the loyalty of Sonya's team members.  While being surrounded by about a dozen contestants, out of which 5 were paladins and the rest were Vassals, Sonya's teammates suddenly betrayed her and surrender to the enemy.

'Oh... this should be interesting.' Arnold smiled after witnessing the sudden shift in the momentum.

"Shall I kill her?" Talos asked Arnold who shook his head.

"I don't need to kill another vassal so leave her be." Arnold replied, "However, we don't need to save her either. Let her reap what she sowed." 

***

Meanwhile, inside the Arena...

"What do you think you are doing?" Sonya yelled  at her teammates- former teammates as they joined the disgusting looking aliens, "I took care of you and helped you find the powers you hold and this is how you repay me?"

"Shut your trap bit.ch" Skya, the witch barked back at Sonya, "I did this, I did that. The only thing you did was to use us and now, we'll use you."

"I shouldn't have expected anything less from the witch who willingly killed her family, for some sickening ritual." Sonya replied, her blade was still in her hand, ready to fight till death if need be, "What about you, Tecla? What kind of lame excuse do you have for betraying me?"

"I don't think I need to answer your stupid questions anymore." Tecla smiled like the evil bit.ch she was, "However, I don't want you to resent me in the afterlife so I'll tell you. There is no reason at all. I just don't want to serve under your command anymore. If I have to serve someone, I'd rather serve someone who is actually strong."

"Don't know why I was expecting more from any of you. You included Rico. I always thought I will have you by my side no matter how bad things got. But I guess, I was the only one intending to keep the promise."

"..."

However, the silent assassin stayed true to his name when Sonya asked her the question. He had no words to say to her. He had to do it, he had to betray her to live on so that the memories of his brother would remain alive with him. He knew if he told Sonya that, she might understand him, but he also knew he would never be able to forgive him for what he had done. 

With that, they didn't have any more words to exchange with each other. Their deepest desires, which they had been keeping in their hearts, had finally come out of their lips. They were finally ready to the deed and get it over with. 

"Fine by me, if I die, I die. But I'm dragging you backstabber to hell with me." Sonya yelled with all her might and charged towards her certain doom.

She was confident in her skill, and that was the reason she knew she wouldn't be able to win against 15 of them all by herself. It wasn't difficult for Sonya to know who was the one who betrayed her.

Tecla only had a couple of brain cells, there was no way in hell she would betray her on her own accord. She simply wasn't capable enough to hatch a plan like this to kill her. As for Rico, well, she had known him even from even before the dungeons started popping up on Earth. Although he was capable enough of planning something like this, she knew he wasn't the one behind it all. His heart was simply too pure to plan something like this. 

That left Skya. Deep down Sonya knew Skya hated her and she was the one who instigated the other two to aid her and not Sonya. And that's why she was the first one on her list.

"If I die, we all die. Remember?" Sonya yelled at the top of her lungs as she saw the 12 aliens from before charging towards her.

However, the next second, help arrived from the most unexpected place as Nicole and Johnny hold the twelve participants back, giving Sonya a shot at retribution.