Not Quite, But before the Storm

The fourth day marked the start of the main battle between the remaining people. Team 12 had divided themselves to search and eliminate remaining teams. the first one to spot them approaching were four members in the swampy forest. Their tent being at that height gave them a huge advantage. Sarah sensed movement below them and alerted her team above. Robin immediately went out to act as a decoy for his team.

"Cover me." he told Eve as he merged into the forest view. Eve had her bullets ready and gun following Robin while Sylph protected her.

Sarah packed the tent down and got rid of any evidence that pointed to them staying there. while she stashed the tent away, multiple knives flew past her head and a couple of bullets were fired. She jumped down and spotted injured opponents with knives in their shoulders and knees withering in pain. she tied them up and left in the direction opposite to that Robin went and kept running along the river.

She spotted different opponents, all seriously injured and lying in the swamp, deliberately forced under the tree branches by the people who won the fight. Sarah was equally confused and terrified of the remaining opponents. they had taken more than half of the total time to act, and now they are going through the masses with no rest.

"Authority of Arcana, hide the user from opponents, Deception." Sarah cast a spell and camouflaged into the river as she spied on the people ahead of her.

There was a huge group gathered near an uprooted tree by the river, and Sarah carefully approached the group. They were surrounding a beat-up person who seemed barely conscious. He looked up at one girl who was dressed differently from her team, his eyes filled with rage. He spoke, "What do you want now, Christina? You still haven't taken enough from us yet?"

The leader of the group, who Sarah assumed was Christina, kicked the guy in the face and pulled him back after he fell down. "Don't go dying on me, Gene." she shook him, "I cannot get approval from the Orodad people without your word. WAKE UP!!"

she kept hitting him over and over, with no regard to her surroundings. her team was scared of her actions, it was very clear by their shaking bodies and closed eyes. Christina's hands had blood over them which was concerning as her opponent was someone she regarded as 'important'.

blood seeped into the river and vanished as it dissolved. After several minutes of violently beating Gene, Christina stepped back. she pointed at one of her subordinates, "Heal him up. Make sure he isn't dead, or you will be."

The entire team scurried together, casting spells to heal dying opponents. Sarah didn't stop to see if they succeeded, she had to report the situation to her team. There was no rule that prevented killing on the field, but it was something that everyone was avoiding, even someone as viscous as Christina.

Sarah rushed all the way back into the western fruit forest, trying to stay as far from those eyes as she could. she stopped the moment the camouflage spell wore off. she realized her location was no longer in the swamp and climbed all the way to the top of the trees. she spotted a person waving at her from further west, that person appeared to be from her team, although she couldn't make out who it was. Before she moved a step, Tom appeared in front of her. "Let's get out of here." he said as he glanced behind her.

He held Sarah's hand and pulled her to a retreat point. He cast multiple spells and left enough trap circles as they ran. Jin joined them after a few minutes of running, "I made contact with the rest of your team. we will meet them at the northern border by sunset." he informed Sarah.

all of them arrived at the location that Tom was leading them to, and they were immediately covered by a layer of camouflage of tree branches and vines. Aisha and Seraphina lowered the covering and helped everyone get into the little cave Aisha had dug up.

"We don't have l0ng, two pursuers are after us, though they lack any decent tracking abilities." Tom said.

"Yeah. they have been going randomly for a while." Seraphina added, "They are probably all healers, forced to track us."

"Let's move." Jin suggested, "they are interrogating for now, but once that's over, they all will start looking."

They all moved quickly, running along the edge of the forest to prevent any detection. Tom was in the center, acting as their radar, with Jin and Seraphina at vanguard position while Sarah and Aisha covered the rear. with each passing minute, more people were dispatched to track them down.

It will take them a few more hours before they can rendezvous with others while they are avoiding all the opponents. Let's move to remaining teammates on the other side of the river.

{Day four, between Nursery Swamp and Eastern Fruit forest.}

Ray followed Finley as he proceeded towards the camp of enemies that Cerene had found a few hours ago. After confirming that it was indeed a camp and not just a trap, she signaled to Finley so he can wrap up all her teammates to finish them off.

"How long have they been camping there?" Ray asked.

"This is the second day, they have been gathering their teammates after the eliminated teams were announced." Finley replied, following with a signal to slow down. "They are following us, aren't they?"

"Yeah, for a while." Ray stopped moving. "Signal others, I will take care of these right here."

"I wanted to fight them." Finley made a somewhat annoyed face, "I call dibs on the camp then, you can't attack there."

"Alright." Ray sighed and pulled out a staff from his bag as Finley ran ahead.

The environment got silent as soon as Finley left, with only sounds of forest remaining. Birds chirped and trees rustled in the wind, only that there was no wind. The cover was so bad, it made Ray smile wickedly, but he didn't move to attack. The pursuers surrounded Ray at first, but one tried to go after Finley, which was intercepted by a torrent of water shooting out of Ray's fingertips.

"You don't have to do that." Ray said, "I am taking you there myself once you all are put to sleep. Just make this a little fun for me, will you?"

the opponents didn't speak, not even making any sound in retaliation. They just took their stance and began attacking immediately. Flurry of weapons, elements, weapons imbued with elements approached Ray's position, only to get diverted. Ray had his spell already ready, "Authority of Cosmos, Protect the user."

The spell started a small whirlwind around him, akin to a wind spell, but somewhat weaker. Most attacks didn't even approach him, the ones that did were easy to dodge. the opponents hesitated, waiting for the wind to die down. When the dust settled, the opponents started wailing in pain and fell down one by one. Ray just hoped that no one broke their neck and died there, they all hoped to pass without any opponent dying.

"It will show that Luke is a merciful person." Eve has said so when they discussed their strategy. Ray had a vague idea why they were doing this. Even if they win the competition, the decision of the public is what will make a King. Having a good public impression was as important as getting the position of prince.

Ray finished tying up his opponents together and made sure they were all knocked out but breathing. He drew a large spatial circle that covered all of them and cast a spell upon them. "Authority of Arcana, create a Deception and hide the target."

the opponents blended into the shrubs as if they were never there. Ray left them and followed the hints left by Finley along the trees. When he arrived at the camp, his team had finished wrapping up the opponents. "Where did you even get this much ribbon from?" Ray asked.

"Where is your gift?" Finley asked, "You better not have left them behind."

"I got them right here," ray case a huge circle corresponding to the one that he drew earlier. "Just get my body, will you? I might end up asleep."

All the opponents fell down from the cast circle at once and the camouflage came off as Ray fell face down. no one moved to hold, they were a little preoccupied by the bundle of opponents that appeared out of the sky. they tended to ray after dealing with the opponents.

"Hey Fin, why didn't he just leave the opponents there?" Cerene asked, "Why do all that effort to bring them here?"

"Honestly, I don't have an exact answer, but I do have a haunch." Fin looked at the resting body of Ray. "He probably didn't think about it when he brought them here. He did it because he wanted to."

"Is that all?"

"Ask him when he gets up, because i have no other idea." fin threw the weapons of enemies to one side and melted all of them with high amounts of electricity.

He laid down the campfire opposite to Ray and fell asleep. This was the last night they had to spend in this part of the forest. They were going to rendezvous tomorrow near the huge withering tree south of an Island famous for being the nesting place of dragons.

Issac crawled out of the earth in one clean jump, dusting dirt off his collar as he closed the hole he came from. "When did he get here?" he pointed at ray.

"Quite a while back, he got that bundle together." Cerene answered, lying down to sleep.

Issac followed the suit and went to sleep soon after. all of them slept soundly, knowing that there wasn't any opponent left who would attack them in sleep. all the animals were being kept out through use of fire, and pits that Issac had dug up. Most of the enemies were already dealt with, as well as tied together. They didn't even try to escape even if they woke up, it was not ideal to attack a sleeping enemy, and it would be cowardly if they attacked when their enemies didn't even try to kill them in the first place.

The night passed by quietly, with occasional distant screams coming over from the river.