Chapter 18 : Hide and Seek

Sho immediately grabbed Stacen, put her in a chokehold, and put his knife to her throat, making everyone stop.

Sho had a menacing look in his eyes, saying to everyone, "Back up..or she dies."

Kaiju replied, "Sho Takahashi!"

Kell said, "I'll just go through her!"

Kaiju stepped in front of Kell, "I am deeply sorry, but I cannot allow you to murder my future rival!"

Kell sighed, "Alright then."

Kell swung his sword at Kaiju, and Kaiju leaned back to dodge it, causing the room to rumble hard.

Kaiju smirked, "Haha! I've been itching for some action!"

Kaiju hit the floor, and kicked Kell in the stomach, sending him flying against the wall.

Stacen asked Sho, "Why..?"

Sho responded, "I just saved your damn life…making them hesitate for a moment. Consider this payback for that weird ass suicidal stunt you pulled a few seconds ago."

"If thou have performed thy protection actions against me, then allow me to return the favor 100 folds."

Stacen moved away from Sho, spun around with her cinder block hammer, and blocked an attack that came from Kai in mid air.

Kai's entire arm was a chainsaw blade, spinning fast, and it had a red aura around it.

Stacen's hammer and Kai's chainsaw arm collided, blasting lights and red bolts all over the place, blasting them both back, making them slide on the floor.

Kai said, "You two buddy buddy now? All over a little girl."

Stacen answered, "Thy fool wouldn't know the meaning of grace if it was served to him on a child's plate."

"You're only a class B Fighter, whereas I'm a class A. Do you think you stand a chance against me? I'm a Solo Fighter, I eat prey like you for breakfast."

"Thy speaks with arrogant gestures, for I, Stacen, shall be getting rid of you, no matter what rank you are. When dueling with a warrior like me, that shit does not matter.."

Kai gritted his teeth, and both of his arms turned into spinning chainsaws with a red aura coming out.

Kai started to spin fast like a helicopter blade, circling Stacen.

Kai said, "You like what you're seeing? You see, I was just going to pick all of you off one by one, but now that it's come to this, my plans have taken a detour! I'm not leaving this temple until you are dead! Think I'm just gonna let some random class B bitch try and look down upon me? I'm a Solo Fighter! I'm different from the others!"

Stacen thought, 'If thy man is spinning like the metal on a plane, then he is bound to shoot something out. Thy movements are fast but simple to follow. I can't sit here and wait for him to make a move; as a brave warrior of the northern tribe, I must act!'

Stacen lifted her hammer, and slammed it onto the ground, and suddenly, the cinder from her cinder block hammer started to spread out like sand, forming into snakes made out of stone.

Kai was slicing the snakes all over the place with his chainsaw arms, but more stone snakes kept regenerating.

Stacen thinks, 'Cinder shield. Though these stone snakes do not attack, they protect me from any harm for only one minute, using their quick reflexes to snap at enemy melee attacks, but are useless against magic. I have not accumulated much strength to block magic attacks, but I will soon get there.'

Kai was trying to get close to Stacen, running and spinning all over the place, sliding down snakes with his chainsaw arms.

Kai thought, 'She's really pissing me off now. These stone snakes are blocking my attacks, following my every move. Let's try something else if melee isn't working.'

Kai stepped back to avoid some of the stone snakes, then pointed both chainsaw arms out, "Inside out.."

Suddenly, a chainsaw blade bursted from Stacen's stomach, making her all to her knees, coughing up blood.

Stacen said, "I-Impossible.."

Kai thought, 'Everytime I use that move, it takes the destructive power away from the chainsaw arms, but that move should've deactivated her stone snakes, since she probably was controlling them. I'm going in!'

Kai zipped in towards Stacen, but as soon as he went in, another 7 stone snakes popped up, slithering upward.

Kai dashed towards them, slashing through them as he swung his chainsaw arms around.

Kai was in front of Stacen, about to lop her head off, saying, "It's been amusing! But you asked for this.."

Sho was blasted backwards, and he bumped into Kai, making them both crash into a wall.

Stacen was sitting there on her knees, thinking, 'This can't be..a running blade out of me…is this it? A mighty warrior of the northern tribe defeated by such trickery? I won't allow it!'

Stacen tried to put her hands on the blade, but when she tried it, her hands went right through it like it was an illusion.

'This blade…cannot be touched? Was this..a vivid illusion? I felt the pain, I feel the blood spinning inside of me, but it's not real…? Is it a mind game to trick me into thinking it was over for me? Such tricks I've seen out of many class A Fighters!'

*30 seconds left to kill Sho Takahashi.*

Kai yelled to Sho, "You dare bump into me?! Die!'

Stacen charged in with her stone hammer, yelling, "Foolish Solo Fighter!"

Kai replied, "Hoh? You were crazy enough to see past my chainsaw illusion?"

Suddenly, a red and black wolf erupted from Kai's shoulder, attacked Stacen, tackling her across the floor.

The wolf was trying to bite Stacen in the face, but Stacen was holding her hammer in the wolf's mouth, holding it there.

Kai swung his chainsaw arm at Sho, cutting him across the face, but Sho leaned back to dodge it, but he barely did, and he was cut across the cheek.

Sho thought, 'Dammit!'

Kai smashed his two chainsaw arms together to let them scrape against each other.

Kai then leaped into the air, and over 20 giant spinning chainsaws began to come out of his back as they stood on top of each other, all emitting a red aura into the air.

Kai says, "I will be the one who has taken the life of Sho Takahashi! I'd be the most respected Solo Fighter in this mysterious tower!"

Sho replied, "Not if I have something to say about it."

"That's the point. You don't. Because me and you are on different scales of the strength scale..however the hell you say or call it I don't know. But you know you don't stand a chance against a class A Fighter!"

Sho thought, 'This bastard's right..I have only two weapon skills available, and if I try to fight him head on, I'd easily lose. My toughness stats are pretty high, so I can take some damage, which Is what I'm planning on doing. I spent half of my 4,000 Fighter points that I earned on the prison raid on my weapon defense attributes earlier, while using the other half on my weapon attack attributes. Mostly because I didn't want my knife shattering in the middle of a fight, and there will be times that I have to solely depend on just regular knife attacks instead of growing and extending my blade every five seconds, landing shots is what really matters, until I gain new abilities and skills with my knife as I get stronger..'

Sho's weapon stats:

Attack: 9,000/100,000

Defense: 4,000/100,000

Power: 1,150/100,000

Power Level : 1,090 (Class C)

Stacen looked to the left, and she saw the four random fighters running towards Sho, yelling, "Kill him!"

Stacen thought, 'Thou cannot hold off this fierce dog and four Fighters, I must compromise. I cannot let them gather on Sho. If I want to win, I have to definitely compromise…because I am a warrior of the northern tribe.'

Stacen sat her head up, and she bit the tongue of the red and black wolf that was on top of her. The wolf screeched in pain, and Stacen chomped harder as the wolf was trying to get away from her.

Stacen then grabbed her hammer, leaned it back, and hit the wolf in the face, smashing his head against the wall beside them.

Stacen immediately ran forward, and she went towards the four random Fighters.

Stacen tossed her hammer at them, and as it went towards them, the hammer turned into twelve hammers, smashing two of the Fighters against the walls.

The other two Fighters dodged the hammers, and when they went forward to attack Stacen, both of them were splattered all over the place, due to Kell and Kaiju fighting each other with their weapons.

Kell's katana and Kaiju's battle ax clashed, with black and yellow lights from the powers flying all over the place.

Kell exclaimed, "Why don't you just put a FUCKING sock in it, foolish scum elf!"

Kaiju smirked, "I don't know what that phrase means, but I shall take it as an insult! You are not rival worthy, human! But my blood is getting pumped! But.I'm not excited! Entertain me, puny human!"

"Puny? You're an oaf."

Kell and Kaiju dashed all over the room, with their weapons clanging, dodging and evading each other's attacks.

Kaiju said, "Let me guess, human boy, you were born from a rich family? You're an overprotective brother that believes the world revolves around him? I remember being that foolish when I was a young pup."

"Shut up! You know nothing about me, peasant! But I'm glad you noticed my status, a status above scum like you and everyone else!"

"Looks like I hit the jackpot! Let me guess, you have daddy issues?"

"You didn't hit shit! You don't know anything about me, or what me and my sister had to go through all our lives, what we went through paved the way for us to be where we are today."

"Mind telling me yer backstory? I think we got time!"

*15 seconds to kill Sho Takahashi.*

Kell responded to Kaiju, "No. I'll never tell low class scum anything about me and my sister's life in the past!"

"Hmmm, that means it must be tragic! Haha!"

"Even if it was, is it funny?!"

"I wanna hear your backstory, sounds interesting!"

Kell swept beside Kaiju, whispering, "Sword Veil.."

'Sword Veil, a new move I unlocked with the points from a recent raid, where I perform a consecutive amount of sword dashes, and at this rate, due to the levels of energy, I can only do about 20 dashes.'

Kell dodged two ax attacks from Kaiju, and slid backwards, then dashed forward again, leaving behind black smoke.

Kell started to dash all across Kaiju, his katana cutting Kaiju through his body, splattering blood everywhere.

Kaiju exclaimed, "That's it! That's it!"

Kell thought, 'This bum is encouraging my abilities! I'll cut that smirk right off his face!'

He dashed up to Kaiju's face, but Kaiju dragged his ax on the ground with yellow electricity around it, and he swung forward, thinking, 'Thunder Ax..I'd gather the lingering energy from opponents weapon attacks and make it my own, causing it to merge with my battle ax to make it more destructive.'

Kaiju's axe connected with Kell, but Kell cut Kaiju in the stomach, and they both blasted backwards, hitting the wall.

Kell looked forward, and he was bleeding from his head, face, and body.

Kaiju was bleeding too, with a smirk on his face.

Kell asked, "The hell are you smiling at?"

Kaiju answered, "Nothing."

Kaiju looked to the right, and he gasped slightly.

Kell looked to the right as well, seeing that Sho was stabbed through the back by a few spinning chainsaws.

Kai was right behind Sho, saying, "Shhh..shhh..just let go…you knew this would be the outcome. Just rest…"

Sho was grunting, with blood dripping from his mouth.

Stacen was slowly getting up from the floor, "Sho.."

Sho grinned in pain, "I got you..right where the hell I want you.."

Kai replied, "Huh..?"

Sho has his knife in his hand, and he stabbed himself in the stomach with it, making everyone in the room gasp again.

Stacen exclaimed, "Sho! What are you doing?"

'During the fight, after I was knocked down, Sho turned his back to the enemy seemingly on purpose..was this his plan? To die..?'

Kell tried to stand up, "You crazy fool.."

Kaiju implied, "What-?!"

Kai asked Sho, "What was the point of that? You fool! Trying to kill yourself so you won't..oh shit-!"

Sho exclaimed, "Extend: 20 feet!"

The knife blade inside of Sho extended to 20 feet long, stabbing straight through Kai's neck as well.

Kai choked, "N-No..!"

Sho struggled to say, "Crash: 500,000 pounds!"

The knife split straight down Kai, splitting him in half, and killing him as there was a loud crash on the floor.

The chainsaws started to go away, and Sho was laying on the floor as well, with a pool of blood under him.

Then, Sho made his knife extend back to normal size.

Sho thought, 'It's cold..this is really it..I've taken a dozen chainsaws inside of me..a lot of blood on the floor..why the hell do I feel so weak..? Compared to the others, I'm the weakest one in here right now…even a class B Fighter was able to hold her own against a class A Fighter, whereas all I could do was sacrifice my own body to take the gamble on if I would win or not..it shouldn't have to be like that. Fuck that..fuck everything and everyone else too. I mean..I did kill a Class A Fighter, should I be happy? Even though I risked my own life to win..?'

Sho got a watch notification, saying, *You have slain a class A Fighter. You have earned 9,000 Fighter points.*

Stacen said, "No..Sho.."

Kaiju exclaimed, "Future rival!"

Kell didn't say anything, he just looked.

But then Kell thought, 'Sho used himself as a stepping stool to kill a class A Fighter…and he talked about Stacen having a death wish. Sho is out of his mind..'

Out of nowhere, there were golden words in the air, and the words were readable for everyone, saying, "You have failed to kill Sho Takahashi. Punishment will now be served."

The room began to shake, and the floor immediately opened up, making everyone fall through..

[Somewhere in the temple]

[Snow mountains area inside of temple]

May, Bebop, Raiden, Gideon, and seven other Fighters were sliding down a large snowy mountain, and behind them, were 30 foot tall white bears with scars all over them, and they were running down the hill, eating Fighters along the way.

Bebop was on May's back, and May was holding a red and white bow and arrow with a red and white aura outlining it.

May exclaimed, "You know, MAYBE we wouldn't be going through this if only someone got the patterns right for the riddle in the first room!"

Bebop pointed at Gideon, and Gideon replied, "I'm sorrrryyyy. My hand really really slippped!"

May answered, "Whatever."

Raiden was sliding backwards, throwing small ninja star blades at the bears, and as they flew forward, they grew big, and they killed a few bears.

Raiden said, "I must perform well. Therefore, a report can go back to Sho, and I shall become his disciple."

May responded to Raiden, "Sho is stubborn and pissy. He'll never take you as a disciple, dude."

Bebop said to May, "Hmmm, don't you like Sho?"

"Like?"

"I saw you blushing towards him earlier! And then you talked about him mostly in the room, asking me why Sho is so full of himself."

May's face went red in a flustered and blushing manner, saying, "T-That's because Sho is annoying, and I never wanna talk to him again."

"Sureee. May likes big brother! May likes Sho!"

"S-Stop or I'll put you down, brat."

"Noooooo."

Raiden looked at Bebop, "So adorable. Maybe if I showed Bebop attention, Sho shall take me as his disciple."

Three 30 foot white bears came running to the left of Gideon, and pounced at him.

Gideon laughed and put one hand on the ground, and pushed himself up, flipping over the bears.

Gideon was above the bears, he stuck his hand out to them, created a large magma ball, and he spun around and kicked it.

The magma ball blazed forward, and crushed the bears, killing them instantly.

In mid air, one bear tried to attack Gideon with his sharp claws, but Gideon avoided him by twisting downward in the air, and punched him in the face, making the bear explode, and Gideon was laughing the entire time.

Gideon landed back on the snowy mountain, sliding down with everyone else.

"Oi! Oi! Did you seeee that?! Cool right?!"

Bebop and Raiden gave Gideon a thumbs up, and Gideon grinned some more.

May said to Bebop, "Hold on."

Bebop replied, "Got it!"

May jumped up high, and turned around with her bow and arrow, aiming it at the ferocious bears.

'Devour Arrow. Where my arrow pulls my target inside of it, and detonates. Although I don't spam this broken move, if anyone I'm fighting was to be hit by these things, they would immediately pull it out. Well, some do..and some don't. I've been in a few raids where the target monster or humanoid has ripped out the arrows themselves, it was annoying. But it seems like I'll have no issues if I shoot these arrows into the bears'

A bright light formed around her arrow, and it blasted forward when the string was released.

It headed towards the bears, and the arrow connected with one of them, straight through the face, and once it did, the bear began to get sucked into the arrow from the chest area, and once it fully did, it exploded within, killing the bear and a few other bears around it.

Bebop exclaimed, "Coool! I like your arrows!!"

May responded, "Pretty sick right? Way cooler than Sho's."

"Big brother has cool moves too!"

May was falling down to the ground, and once she saw Gideon, she commanded, "Oi, psycho, give me a lift!"

Gideon chuckled, "Alrighttt!"

Gideon raised his hand in the air, and chucked a magma ball up to May.

May pressed her legs against it, and jumped higher into the air.

She aimed her bow and arrow into the sky, saying, "Scatter Arrow only works if I'm really high.."

As she aimed at the sky, giant arrows engulfed in red and white flames formed all around her, there were at least 11 of them.

May shot them all up, and as they went up, they began to fall down, twisting at the same time, and they started raining down on the incoming bears like rain, exploding as they made contact.

Bebop continued to exclaim, "Awesome!! Awesome!!!"

May started falling back down, and then Raiden slid in, slinging a giant ninja star at her, saying, "I have found the key to winning the honorable position of being Sho's disciple: I must help out his acquaintances."

The giant ninja star caught under May's feet, and it swung around, and came back to Raiden, falling beside her.

May said to Raiden, "Didn't ask for your help, to be honest."

"If I win Sho over with my tactics, I shall do whatever it takes."

Just then, a 50 foot white snow bear with a bunch of scars and swords stuck in him jumped from underground, causing a loud vibration within the ground, crying out with a loud roar.

Gideon exclaimed, "What a disastrous little bearrrr!"

Bebop held on tight to May, saying, "Scary..really scary.."

Raiden leaped into the air with two 5 foot tall and 5 foot wide ninja stars in her hands, "I'll take care of this. Make sure thy humans report my actions of bravery to Sho if I don't survive. He shall know about this."

May thought, 'Is she crazy like these psycho over here beside me? What am I even thinking, that's not even the least of my concern. There are bears behind us, and only a few of us left to deal with them. Back in the room, they told us to kill 100 bears in the span of 10 minutes if we were to fail the puzzle and riddle in the room. I think we've only killed about 50 of them, and since I've been counting in my head…we only have about 30 seconds left, or close to it.'

The 50 foot bear waved his claw at Raiden, but Raiden spun with her ninja stars, shredding the bear's hand and claws.

The bear screeched, then chomped at Raiden. Raiden slung her ninja stars at the bear's mouth, and they collided, sticking inside of his face.

Then, Raiden created another ninja star, and she began to merge with it, phasing inside of it.

She was the ninja star, and she started to fly around slashing the bear all over the place, spilling blood all over the snow.

'Star Collision; allows me to merge with my ninja stars for only 30 seconds. I can't fly with it yet unless I become stronger. I fly alongside the wind around me, gliding like a glider.'

Raiden began to slice upwards on the bear's belly all the way up through his head, and started twisting in the air. Raiden turned back into her normal self, yelling, "Get him!"

Gideon leaped into the air with a massive magma ball, and laughed as he smashed it against the bear's face. They both fell and crashed to the ground, with the bear being completely flattened.

Gideon, Raiden, May, Bebop, and one random Fighter slid down some more, reaching a level ground, and they began to slow down, and then they came to a stop.

All of them looked behind them, seeing the bears arrive.

Bebop said, "Scary bears..are coming.."

Gideon implied, "I'm pretty sureeee we didn't kill enough of themmmm.."

May added, "Shit.."

Raiden went, "Forget about me. I shall destroy these bears so that my strength will be recognized."

"Fine by me. I'm outta here."

Out of nowhere, gold letters began to form in the sky above the Fighters, reading: "You have failed to kill all remaining bears. Punishment will now be served along with another group."

The ground opened up below, and the Fighters fell right through.

…

…

….

[A forest inside of the temple]

The forest had a smoky mist all around it, with a grey sky which could barely be seen due to the mist, and the sounds of frogs and small tussling sounded off silently, along with the sounds of a nearby river stream.

There was a 20 foot tall deer walking around the forest, and his eyes glowed, and there was a glowing X symbol on his head. He was patrolling the area.

Fighters were spread out all through the forest, trying not to make a sound. All the Fighters who failed to complete their tests were sent there.

Kaiju, Kell, Gideon, Bebop, May, Raiden, and Stacen were there as well, hiding.

Everyone was spread out.

Sho was leaning against a tree, covering his mouth, as he heard the footsteps of the deer.

He thought, 'I'm still wounded…I don't know how much longer my toughness ability can hold out. If anything, I need to get patched up fast. And..and that fucking deer..is bad news. I don't know what is going on in this room..but it's definitely trouble. It's definitely troubling for me…considering the state I'm in.'

Two Fighters stood up near Sho, saying, "Dammit! I told you to put the correct pieces in order!"

The other Fighter responded, "Huh? Fuck you! Where are we anyway-?!"

In the blink of an eye, the 20 foot deer snatched them both up, eating and crunching on them, with blood spilling on the ground beside Sho.

Sho gasped, with his eyes shaking, he covered his mouth, still sitting and hiding behind the tree.

The deer kept chomping, and then swallowed. The deer looked left and right, as Sho was slowly sliding over behind the tree some more to not be noticed, he didn't want a single piece of his body or clothing being exposed. Sho's heart pounded, and he was sweating fast; he was genuinely anxious and fearful at the moment.

The deer stood there for a few more seconds, then started walking away, doing some more patrolling.

Sho thought, 'I fucking knew it..that deer..it's like it's hunting us. And the bad thing about it all..is that I can't use my powers in here, and I'm guessing no one else can. Dammit..I knew there would be an obstacle course, but I didn't think it would be this brutal..I had something else in mind..! If I'm this wounded..I could be next! I gained 9,000 Fighter points from killing the class A Fighter in the other room, but it's useless for right now since I can't seem to pull my knife out..'

Suddenly, on everyone's watches, they got a notification.

Sho lifted up his watch, and so did the other Fighters. The notification showed up on the blue holographic screen as usual.

The notification said in red letters: "This is a game of Hide and Seek. You and the other Fighters may work together or play solo, it is up to you as an individual. All Fighters must escape the forest within two hours, you must search and collect certain parts called elixirs to build a gate at the end of the forest, and that gate will lead all to the reward room and end of the event. WARNING: Fighters are prohibited from using their powers, and the deer that is patrolling the area has very sensitive senses; its strongest senses are sight and hearing, in certain noise levels will trigger the deer, and it will come to investigate. The deer will kill you if it spots you; the slightest noise made can possibly trigger the deer. And if an elixir is found, it could possibly alert the deer. Good luck."

Sho put his watch down, thinking, 'Find the elixirs, use them to build a gate, and we're outta this place. I've dealt with a lot of things before..but this is on a whole different level..for the first time in a long time..I actually feel fearful..mostly because….I'm powerless at the moment..and if that deer spots or hears me, it's over. I have to be careful..and move in stealth..I won't die here. There are other Fighters here as well, and I'm guessing Kaiju, Kell, and that Stacen woman is here..what about the others? Fuck it..for right now..all I have time to worry about..is me. Can I actually do this?'