The Baby Slayer Candidate

77th Floor

Wolhaiksong

Evan Edrok entered the main building of the Wolhaiksong organization, and the defacto home of the 4th strongest ranker in the tower, Urek Mazino.

"Yo, Evan take a seat." The irregular in questioned called out to the new arrival. He was seated in one of several couches in the room, all facing a massive television on the far wall, which was currently tuned in to an eight way battle.

The workshop battle?" the guide asked, taking off his backpack and plopping down on another of the couches. "Why would you care about a bunch of E-grade regulars?"

"You heard about FUG's baby slayer candidate?" The irregular replied, leaning back in his chair.

"Well yeah." Evan answered. "Why, is he competing?"

"Yeah, he is." Urek said with a nod.

"I still don't understand…" Evan replied. Even if a slayer candidate was competing, the actions of an E grade regular seemed a little too…mundane for such a high ranker to care about.

"You remember when Yuri asked me to look into the flower of Zygeana?"

"Yeah."

"They sent a bunch of rankers after me, trying to keep the whole thing secret." Urek began. "Before too long another group entered, but these weren't rankers, just a bunch of regulars."

"They sent regulars in after Urek Mazino?!" Evan replied.

"Not quite, they didn't know who I was at the time." The irregular answered. "Anyway, that baby slayer was in that group."

"Baby slayer?" a new voice asked.

Recognizing the new arrival, Evan turned back to look at the entrance. Just as he expected, it was his partner. "So Yuri, you find Baek?"

"Yes, but I had to root around in the forest to find him." She turned her attention to Urek. "What were you saying about a slayer?"

"Actually, I'm glad you're here for this." He responded with a smirk. "Take a seat; you'll want to hear this."

"Alright." She took a seat at one of the chairs surrounding the television. "How's the little guy doing?"

"Great, as far as I can tell." Urek got up and walked towards another room. "Ay' Iggy!" There was a loud, high pitched squeak, signaling the arrival of a small, pink animal with a flower growing out of its back. A child of Zygeana, and the origin of the precious gemstones. The pink creature looked around the room before leaping at Yuri with another happy squeak.

The princess squeezed the pink fur ball with delight, her weakness for cute things shining through. "Yeah, he seems just fine."

"Well anyway," Urek continued, once again taking his seat. "When I was inside of Zygeana, I ran into a bunch of regulars. They seemed to be after that little guy as well, but seemed to think twice once they ran into me. The bigger one of the two told his teammate to run, but just when they were about to, that baby slayer showed up. He seemed to get who I was pretty quickly or at least that I was way too strong for them to deal with."

"So if he knew that much, he ran away with the others right?" Evan asked.

"No, he didn't." He turned his gaze to Yuri with a smirk. "You would have liked this kid."

"Why's that." She replied, petting Ziggys' head.

"His teammates told him to get the hell out of there, but he refused. I asked him what was he thinking, I could kill him easily." He leaned forward. "Then he said this. 'I have something that I fear more than death.' He was a little, thin guy, had long hair like a girl; but he had these eyes which screamed 'I don't give a damn who you are, I'm getting that flower.'"

"Then what happened?"

"I was curious, so I set up a game. When Zygeana flipped, we would race to see who could pluck the flower first. If he won, he kept the flower and his life, if not I would get both. He agreed to the terms immediately. To pass time until the flip, I asked about why he was in FUG, and brought up my beliefs about getting out of the tower. I wasn't expected him to answer, but he did. He said that he really didn't care about the Top, or the outside, or even Zahard for that matter. The baby slayer said he didn't need any of it; but if someone close to him was threatened, he would fight."

"Why would he be a slayer candidate if he didn't care about Zahard at all?" Yuri asked. The slayers were purpose built to overthrow the empire; the idea didn't make any sense.

"I don't know." The irregular answered. "It didn't make too much sense to me either."

"Wait, if he's still alive that means…he beat you?"

"I'm getting to that." Urek continued. "Well, about that time Zygeana flipped, to make things more fun I gave the baby a ten second head start. He was pretty quick, but after the time limit expired, I caught up easily. When I reached him, he still wasn't flinching at having to face me. I cocked back my fist for my Emperor's Scorching Fist of Death…

"…what a lame name…and why the hell would you use that on a regular anyway?!"

"All manly moves must have an appropriately manly name!" Urek shouted back. "Anyway, he activated his own punching technique and planned to cancel out my own, but as our fists were closing in, something happened."

"What?"

"One of his teammates had been chasing Ziggy here through some small gaps, at about that time; they appeared right next to us." Urek continued. "I pulled back a bit, but still ended up releasing the technique. When the debris cleared, he was curled up over his teammate, bloody as hell and out like a light."

"So, he quit mid attack to protect his teammate?"

"Yep, did a pretty good job of it too. He took the full force of that punch and the little girl didn't have a scratch on her."

"You mean to tell me an E grade regular on the 20th floor survived an attack from Urek Mazino?"

"Yeah, surprised me too; guy must be tough as nails. He was brave to shield his teammate though, because of that I actually let them keep the other flower they found."

"So that's why you're watching this." Yuri concluded, nodding towards the large television. "He's going to be in it?"

"Well, yes, but I haven't gotten to the best part yet." Urek added. He pointed to his cheek. "Even after he had all but cancelled his attack, his punch managed to scratch my face."

"Are you serious?" Evan said in surprise. "An E-grade regular managed to scratch one of the top 5 rankers?" The guides mind was racing, if this supposed slayer candidate was strong enough to do that on the 20th floor, who know how strong he could get…

"Apparently his name his Jyu Viole Grace." The irregular continued. "His match should be coming up soon." He turned his attention back to the televised battles. "Seems like one of your little sisters if doing well."

Yuri turned her attention to the screen as well, seeing a familiar face. It was Androssi, the new princess she had met back on the 2nd floor. She was throwing around the other competitors like rag dolls, as to be expected from a proper princess. The girls face did not bring any joy to the older princess however; instead it brought only a feeling of regret, and thoughts of a young irregular. She had wanted to help him, but had been convinced otherwise and the boy had died. Or at least, that was what the masses believed. He just wouldn't die like that, something in her gut told him he was still around…somewhere.

"Ah, here it is." Urek said, snapping her out of her daze. The announcer had finished preparing for the match, and with a wave of his hand, it began.

She was able to pick out Viole from Urek's earlier description. Small, thin, looks like a girl, complete with a long black ponytail which might have been longer than her own. He started off in a run, but quickly came to a stop.

"What the hell is this?" Urek almost shouted. "Come on baby, what are you doing hiding behind those chumps?" He was confused; the slayer doing something like this was almost insulting.

"I think he's just as surprised as you are Urek." Evan commented. The other two viewers examined the scene again, and nodded. "From what I've heard, he's pretty famous; these guys might be trying to use him for a free ride."

"Tch…That pisses me off." Urek growled, slamming his fists together. "I'd crush those weaklings for something like tha..." The irregular stopped mid-sentence as Viole proceeded to do just that. Each and every one of the FUG imposters were thrown out of the ring and out of the match, one unlucky soul was even sent flying to the stands.

Urek burst out in laughter as the slayer candidate entered his plug into the socket, winning the match. "Now that's the baby slayer I remember." The broadcast camera zoomed in on Viole's face, the wind blowing his bangs to the side. Those eyes again… "Hey Yuri see what I mean…" He stopped mid-sentence as the princess in question shot by him at immense speed, pulling a shocked Evan along behind her. The irregular sat still in surprise for a few seconds before sighing.

"I thought she might like him…guess I was right."