I’ll Level Up So My Friends Don’t Die

They didn't give us a speech. No instructor. No prep. Just a shove.

A steel door slammed behind me, sealing me in with seven others. The room looked like an arena but one built by someone who hated life. The walls shifted. Blades poked out of the ground at random spots. The lights above flickered like they hadn't been serviced in years. In the center, thick metal pillars rose and lowered without warning, grinding with each movement.

This wasn't training. This was a trap.

Above us, red letters appeared across a giant screen:

"SURVIVE FOR 15 MINUTES. NO RESPAWNS. NO PAUSES."

My stomach dropped. No way out. No reset. You die in here, you stay dead.

The room hissed with a loud burst of steam. Then the lights turned blood red.

Naevia didn't wait. She was gone, melted into the shadows before I could even turn to ask what the hell was happening.

Shane cracked his neck and flicked both wrists. His gloves sparked, igniting into two long tongues of flame. "Now we're talking," he said, grinning like this was a game.

Rael stood just behind me. Void-marked eyes locked on mine. "Don't run too fast," he whispered. "They see movement first."

"What sees movement?" I asked.

Then I heard it. Wet dragging. Nails on metal. And a gurgle that sounded like it came from a throat filled with broken glass.

The first creature dropped from the ceiling.

It was part spider, part something worse. It had too many legs, no face, and a tongue that hung down like it was tasting the air.

I froze.

Screaming broke out. Someone bolted left. Another recruit ran toward the exit, only to be impaled by a spike that shot out from the wall. His body twitched. Then stopped.

Shane roared and lunged at the monster. His gloves lit it up in a flash of flame and smoke. The thing hissed and writhed, but more dropped from the walls three, maybe four.

He didn't look so cocky now.

I turned to run. Bad idea.

Something hit me from behind. I went flying into a pillar, scraping my arms raw.

One of the things had launched at me smaller than the first, but faster. It clicked and crawled toward me, limbs bending the wrong way.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.

Then slash Rael appeared beside me. A dark blade extended from his hand, almost like it grew from his skin. He sliced the crawler's head off without blinking.

"Move," he said. Then he was gone.

My hands shook. I looked around, and found a broken metal pipe on the ground. I gripped it tight. Not a sword. Not a power. Just metal.

Another crawler rushed me. I swung wide. Missed.

It leapt. I screamed. And this time I swung right.

The pipe cracked its skull mid-air. It fell. Twitched. Stopped.

I stared down at it, panting. My heart was slamming so hard I thought it would explode.

But I was alive.

And I'd killed one.

The clock on the wall still read 11:37. That meant only three minutes had passed. Three. Goddamn. Minutes.

I ducked behind a shifting wall as something exploded a few feet away. Screams echoed from the far end of the chamber. One of the recruits was gone. Just like that.

I could barely hear myself think. Every part of me screamed to run. To find a corner and hide. But the system wouldn't let me. My sigil, still glowing on the back of my hand, buzzed and flashed.

"POWER SYNC INCREASED: 53%"

I blinked. "What?"

It pulsed again.

"MINOR TRAIT UNLOCKED: COMBAT INSTINCT"

And then it hit me.

Something shifted inside me like a switch being flipped. I could hear things more clearly. My balance steadied. My grip tightened. And for the first time, I wasn't frozen in fear. I moved. On instinct.

A crawler lunged from the side. I sidestepped it. Slammed the pipe straight into its jaw, then finished it with a strike to the neck. It flailed… and died.

I felt everything. The rhythm. The timing. Like the room had slowed just enough for me to get one step ahead.

I wasn't strong. Not yet. But for the first time I didn't feel like a victim.

I looked up. Another recruit was bleeding out near a spike trap. Shane was still alive, hurling fire at a horde from the upper walkway, yelling like a madman.

Rael was gone again. Naevia too.

That left me.

I gripped the pipe tighter and stood tall.

The system said I had potential. I wasn't sure I believed it.

But I was still breathing. That had to count for something.

LEVEL UP

Current Power Score: 104

New Trait Unlocked: Adaptive Reflex

A new sound rang through the chamber a deep rumble that shook the walls. The screen above flickered.

"LEVEL ONE COMPLETE. PREPARING FOR NEXT WAVE."

"No. No, no, no—" I backed away.

Then the floor split open. From below, a massive shadow rose ten feet tall, eyes like molten steel, claws dragging on the ground.

Whatever that was… I wasn't ready.

Not even close.

The entire chamber trembled.

From above, something massive dropped like a boulder wrapped in muscle and hate. The ground split under its landing. A shockwave knocked several recruits off their feet.

And then, the screaming began.

It wasn't like the other monsters. This thing… it was smarter. Meaner. Taller than two men, with armor-like scales and burning green lines etched across its body. Its arms ended in hooks, and its face was a writhing knot of teeth.

Two recruits tried to run.

They didn't make it five steps.

The beast sliced through one—chest to waist. The other stomped into the ground like rotten fruit.

Shane screamed and launched himself at it, fire blazing from both fists. "I GOT THIS, I GOT—"

He didn't.

One hook drove straight through his chest. His flames flickered once… then died. His body slid off the claw like meat off a skewer.

I froze. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Not again. Not like Eli.

The beast turned toward me. It roared.

Then it lunged.

Its claw closed around my body like a steel trap. I felt my ribs groan. My pipe dropped. My legs kicked helplessly.

"LET—GO—!"

I saw black at the edges of my vision. This was it.

But instinct didn't care. My hand fumbled, found something sharp a twisted piece of metal from the shattered wall and I jammed it into the beast's neck. Sparks. Fluid. A shriek like grinding metal.

It dropped me. I hit the ground hard.

Then a blur of silver eyes, twin daggers flashing. Naevia.

She moved like death with a purpose. Her blades danced up the creature's spine and into its skull. One twist and it crashed down dead.

I lay there gasping. Staring at her. She didn't speak. Just wiped the blood off her knife and walked away.

The chamber was stained red. Smoke drifted from the broken lighting. Limbs. Faces. Blood. So much blood.

I crawled to my knees, then to my feet. My hand shook.

Of the twenty-four who walked in… only eight of us stood.

Naevia.

Rael.

Me.

And five others I barely recognized too shell-shocked to speak.

Then the overhead screen lit up.

Director Sael appeared, arms crossed behind his back. No sympathy. No praise. Just cold, clinical detachment.

"Congratulations. The weak have been removed."

That was it. No ceremony. No medals. Just confirmation that we weren't dead. Yet.

My chest rose and fell in uneven gulps. There was blood on my hands. Some of it mine. Most of it not.

Shane was gone. So was the girl who screamed when the walls closed. The boy who tried to help her. The quiet guy from earlier who never got to show what he could do.

Dead.

I wasn't supposed to be here. I was just a thief. I wasn't—

LEVEL UP

Power Score: 147

SYNC RATE: 63%

TRAIT GAINED: Pain Resistance (Minor)

I clenched my fists. It didn't feel like victory.

Rael stood a few meters away, staring at me again those strange void-marked eyes unblinking.

Then he whispered something.

I couldn't hear it. But I saw his lips move.

"You're changing."

The lights dimmed.

A door slid open at the far end of the arena.

And a voice called out:

"Those who remain step forward. Your real training begins now."

I took a step.

And the doors slammed shut behind us.