Chapter 11

     Jade’s body is shivering. She had fallen back to sleep after only a short minute of being awake. Yekaterina shakes her gently, to wake her up.

    "Jade, are you okay?” She asked, to which Jade replied,

     “Yes”. Then her eyes fluttered close, falling asleep again. Yekaterina fixed her blanket to cover her body properly.

     While they were watching over Jade, Blaize remembered something from the game earlier. He looked towards Ahrio’s direction, seeming to think of that incident and figuring it out. But when he couldn’t be sure of what really happened, he decided to just ask him directly.

     “How did you get all those keys, Ahrio?”

     “I scared them a little.” Ahrio responded and shrugged.

      “You sure you only scared them a little?” Blaize pressed him to explain more, remembering the blood on his hands from earlier as he glanced at the visible dried stains on his black sweatshirt which looks very much like dried blood.

     “Stop overthinking it. I did it to save Jade.” Ahrio said, dismissively. Clearly, he doesn’t want to dwell more on the conversation.

     “You didn’t just save Jade but all of us.” Yekaterina tapped his shoulder to compliment him.

     Hours passed by and they didn’t even notice the night has passed. It’s already morning. They heard an announcement from the speakers that they are requested to gather in the middle of the arena for some fun, friendly games which is meant to provide entertainment and relaxation for the players after completing such an exhausting and gruesome game last night.

     They checked on Jade first before heading to the main area where the games will be held. Everyone was already gathered, looking at the already set up relay games. For the first stage of the game, the player will have to do a total of thirty push ups, followed with a swimming challenge using only the butterfly stroke, which is odd why they have to be so specific with that but no one seems to question it. The next will be rock climbing, then the army crawl and lastly will be an archery challenge with a moving target.

     Ahrio saw the beautiful woman from last night walking towards his direction, making him feel a little nervous as he watched her.

     She stopped in front of him and said, "Hey. I just want to say thank you. For helping me last night. I’m Svetlana, by the way.”

     Ahrio just coldly nod his head as a response. The other blonde hair woman from the other group also approached Ahrio.

     “You were that cool guy from last night.” She said to him and smiles flirtatiously. She even blatantly scanned his body and batted her fake, long eyelashes.

     Svetlana watched her obvious flirting and feels awkward with being in this situation. She feels like she’s not supposed to be there, so she turned and walked back to her team without another word, not knowing Ahrio’s eyes were on her all the while.

     “My name is Olga.” The blonde girl said.

     Ahrio glanced at her for a second, not recalling where he saw her at all. Then, a tattooed arm claimed Olga’s shoulder. It was the scary-looking guy from last night as well. He stared at Ahrio with sinister eyes and Ahrio stared back at him nonchalantly.

     “What are staring at? Don’t you love your life? Want me to end it?” Ahrio said coolly, not even an ounce afraid of the scary-looking guy’s evil gaze and sinister smirk.

     “Ahrio!” Zayden called him.

     “Why? Want me to end yours?” He snapped.

     “Draco.” Olga’s voice was laced with annoyance as she removed his arm around her. Her eyes landed on Zayden and she couldn’t hide the amazement that sparkled in her gaze. When she looked next to him, her jaw dropped, seeing another finest male in the face of the earth. Blaize was just standing there, not even noticing his effect to her. Or maybe he’s just became accustomed to it.

     An announcement can be heard again, instructing them to go on their respective positions and choose what part of the relay games each player will be doing.

    “Andrik, you do the army crawl.” Blaize commanded him.

     “I can do the push-ups in less than a minute.” Andrik flexed his bicep muscles, causing Olga who had now caught glimpse of him to almost hyperventilate. She fanned her face with her hand in disbelief.

     “But you crawled really well during the game last night.” Zayden mockingly chimed in. “You even saved Yekaterina like a hero.” he added.

     “Go! I’ll protect you!” Blaize copied his voice tauntingly, referring to what he said to Yekaterina last night during the game.

     “You killed it!” Zayden said as he and Blaize did a high-five and laughed. Even Ahrio can’t help but let out a snicker.

     Yekaterina just rolled her eyes at them. "Shut up! All of you.”

     They have decided on their respective designated task and are already in position. The push-ups will be done by Ahrio, swimming for Blaize, Zayden on rock-climbing, Andrik for the army crawl and lastly, Yekaterina for the archery challenge.

    “Move!” Draco threateningly ordered the player next to Ahrio. The poor guy scampered away like a scared kitten as Draco then glanced at Ahrio with his once again evil smirk. He seems to be posing for a competition with him to prove he’s better, faster and stronger than Ahrio.

     The countdown for the start of the game resonated in the arena through the speakers. After the count of ten and a buzzer signal, all the first in line players started doing the push up quickly.

     Ahrio was doing the push-up fast while Draco was also doing the same but he kept on glancing at him as it to check his progress.  Ahrio stood up when he was done.

     When Ahrio completed the thirty push-ups, a green, check light appeared on his area along with a short ting sound that sounded like hitting a small piece of metal. That’s the cue for the next player to start. 

     Several seconds later, Draco also finished the thirty push ups and he was immediately pissed that he lost on his imaginary competition he set up for himself with Ahrio. He spat on the ground and cursed.

     Ahrio ignored him and left him there looking like he ate something bad, without even giving him a glimpse. Blaize then started swimming right on cue, with his precise butterfly stroke. He reached the other end fast and without any struggle and the same ting sound and green, check light appeared. Zayden then made his way to the top, climbing, holding and stepping unto rocks after rocks efficiently like he’s been doing this even on his sleep.

     However, when it was Andrik’s turn, he sighed heavily and was able to crawl fast at first and then he started slowing down. He wasn’t even half the finish line when he began struggling to move himself.  Yekaterina saw this and is extremely worried for him.

     “Come on, Andrik! Do you need Yekaterina on your back for motivation?” Zayden yelled.

     Andrik’s head tilted upwards in irritation at Zayden’s mocks. The moment he did that, he locked eyes with Yekaterina ahead of him who smiled gently and mouthed “it’s okay”. That simple act of kindness from her made him determined to finished the game despite how much his arm hurt in every move he makes. He can feel the wound he got from the arrow gracing his arm splitting wider and even more painful but he kept going on.

    He groaned as the pain magnifies but he endured it until he finally reached the finish line and the sound and check light indication appeared.

     Yekaterina turned towards the front where the hanging target is. It started moving around in circles and she posed for an aim, pulling the bow while her eyes turned to slits in concentration. It kept on changing directions which makes it extremely difficult to hit it.

     The loud, somewhat like an error sound can be heard repeatedly as other players miss the target and failed the final game. Yekaterina adjusted her aim according to the target’s movement direction and then she finally released the arrow.

     It felt like an eternity as she watched the arrow whipped into the air and hit the target flawlessly.

     With that, the sound of victory resonated as their team were the first group to successfully finished all the relay games.

     “Congratulations! You have won the game and I am pleased to announce that your team will be exempted on the next survival game as your prize.”