The Third Test

She was walking quietly when she heard a sound. Instinctively, she brought out her sword from her spatial storage and held it tightly using all her senses to trace where the sound was coming from.

She heard the sound again, it sounded like a wild animal trying to escape from a trap and it was just a few metres from where she stood. She walked up to it slowly but when she reached it, she got the shock of her life… She saw a half dead Steve groaning softly in pain and as soon as he saw her, he blacked out.

…..

The Next Morning…..

"How is this possible?!" Isabella screamed, Anna sat beside Steve's bed in the infirmary, she was twice as confused as Isabella. "How did all of your wounds manage to heal in one night? Even the broken bones??!!"

"Ah…. Stop yelling" Steve said softly as he sat up on the bed, his hair was disheveled and there were bandages wrapped around his temple, arms, bare torso and legs. "Who brought me here?"

He didn't need a reply as he looked to the side of his bed and saw Anna with a confused look on her face.

"Thanks" He said with a smile as he stood up and began to walk to the door

Anna's cheeks turned red when he smiled at her and she bent her head down and began to fiddle with her fingers on her laps,

'What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? Just one smile…' She thought to herself

"Where do you think you're going?" Isabella said and flew in front of him.

"We have a test today, don't we Anna?"

"Eh…y…ye…yes, we have a test Anna" She stuttered as Steve's question took her by surprise

"You're in no condition to take a test!" Isabella said stubbornly and stomped her foot in the air as she floated.

"I'm perfectly fine!" Steve said and performed some quick body exercises, "See?"

"If he says he's fine, then he is. He isn't a child any more" Anna said to Isabella and left the infirmary room.

….

Outside, dawn had barely broken and the early morning light was barely enough for one to see one's way.

"Hey, hey" Steve said as he caught up to Anna who was quickly walking away.

"What?"

"Thanks for what you did for me last night….. If you hadn't seen me, I'm not sure what would've happened"

"It's nothing….now we're even" She said without even sparing him a glance

"Okay" Steve said with a smile on his face.

"Good morning contestants!!! Head to the cafeteria for your breakfast and gather at the preliminaries ground for the third test!!" The umpire's voice rang out loudly throughout the contestants arena.

'Ah…. It's starting already' Steve said to himself as he headed to the cafeteria.

At the Cafeteria…..

"Where were you yesterday?" Trygve asked Steve fiercely

"We were worried sick about you!" Susan shrieked, her voice laden with worry.

"Chill out….I'm fine I'm fine, I just had a little accident" Steve said with a goofy grin plastered on his face

"Is that why you look like a mummy?" Trygve asked mockingly

Steve laughed over the question and put a spoonful of jollof rice garnished with vegetables and fried ripe plantain into his mouth.

"That black guy told us that you opted out of the contest because you wanted to settle scores with his team members back in the human world" Susan said gently

'His team members? Now that I think about it, where are they? Weren't they supposed to get a strike for attacking me?' Steve thought and turned to look around the cafeteria for Billy and his team but he saw only Billy perched at one corner of one of the tables, wolfing down his breakfast.

"His team members were disqualified too…. The umpire gave them three strikes for assaulting a fellow contestant" 

Trygve said and raised three fingers up to emphasize the number of strikes they were given.

"Wait a minute….. Doesn't it all make sense now?" Susan said as her eyes brightened up

"What?" Trygve asked her, his eyebrows shot up in a quizzical look

"Billy made his team attack Steve so that he would get injured and would drop out and his team would get disqualified for attacking him then he came to tell us that all of you left here to settle scores back at Earth" Susan explained

"Ohhh….. That sly fox" Trygve retorted as the full details of the situation sunk into his head,

Steve wasn't paying any attention to their conversation as him and Billy were busy exchanging deathly stares at each other as they shoved spoonfuls of the delicious jollof rice into their mouths.

…..

Finally, when everyone had finished their breakfasts, they all gathered at the preliminaries arena.

The three grand masters were there as expected, levitating over the contestants.

"Good morning contestants" Williams said,

"Good morning grand masters" They all replied,

"Your third test will be starting in earnest so without further ado, let's head to the test arena" Williams said and began to move away, with the fairies and contestants trailing behind him.

Due to the events of the previous day, Steve missed his training and cultivation so as they were passing by the forest, he dashed in and out immediately with a handful of white sand in his palm which he used to cultivate as they walked to the test arena.

Steve, and all the other contestants were shocked when they arrived at a lagoon of size around 700 square kilometers. The water was brown in color and peaceful on the surface with no waves or tides, it was just still.

"Welcome to the third official test of the blood, sweat and tears contest. In this test, you have to run across this lagoon and get to the other side in…."

The black timer board materialized in the air and the numbers 10:00 were written on it.

"….ten minutes"

"AGH….must there be a time limit??" 

"This is absurd" 

"F*ck the timer"

The contestants murmured softly, they hated racing against time.

Trygve was the most furious of all, this test would not be favorable to him at all given his huge body size and inefficiency in Mana rotation especially to his feet, finishing this test in ten minutes was a near impossible feat for him but he didn't say anything, he just looked on with a scowl on his face.

Steve noticed Trygve's anxiety about the test but he didn't say anything either, he just hoped that nothing would go wrong during the test.

"Readyyyy contestants?!!!!" 

The umpire's voice blared 

"START!!!"

All the contestants jumped on the lagoon surface after enhancing their feet with Mana so as to enable them run on it.

 The quick movements of their feet sent water droplets flying in all directions. Everyone seemed to be moving well, including Trygve.

'Maybe there really wasn't any need to worry' Steve thought and breathed a sigh of relief.

They had barely crossed half of the lagoon when a loud sound could be heard like a huge creature was about to come out from the water. It was deafening!

Lloyd who was in front of all the contestants slowed down immediately as a gigantic serpent burst out of the water, this serpent had two hands and two horns with numerous thick looking black scales all over it's body. In addition, it had fangs with a slim slithery retractable tongue that rattled as it twisted on the water.

"What on Earth is that?" Steve slowed down and turned to check whether Trygve was okay only for him to see Trygve who stood transfixed to the spot staring at the huge serpent that was approaching them, his eyes began to twitch and his body began to tremble, his lips quivered as he began whispering incomprehensible words to himself.

Most of the contestants began to panic as some even turned back and began to run back to the shore. However, Steve didn't panic till he saw a white fin creeping upon Trygve from behind.

"No! Trygve! Behind you!" Steve screamed to Trygve but Trygve didn't move, all his muscles seemed to be frozen as he stood, staring at the huge serpent advancing towards the contestants.

Steve ran with all his strength and pushed Trygve out of the way just in time as the white shark's jaws snapped close loudly where Trygve could have been. Steve didn't even want to think about what could have happened had he not pushed Trygve out of the way.

"Everyone be careful, there are fiends in the water!" His warning came a bit too late as fiendish krakens, sharks, sting rays and other fiendish sea animals unleashed terror upon the contestants.

"….Imoogi…. dangerous…..doomed" 

These were the few whispers that Steve could make out from Trygve's lips as he trembled in his arms.