Cassandra

10: The Cup

Contestants from our Academy went to the Labyrinth Arena together that morning. Before I enter the room that will give us the illusion of a field – the room of illusions, Daniel stopped me. "Are you sure you're doing this?" Daniel always hated the idea that I will compete for the Cup. He said I'm still young in the magic world, you know, I just found out I'm a magician six months ago. "Yes." I answered. "Good luck." Daniel said and kissed me on the forehead.

As soon as I enter the room, I saw Jessie and Franco standing at the corner of the room. I think there are approximately 30 people in the room. There are people in groups just like Jessie and Franco with three other guys that seemed familiar. I remembered the Hunger Games – very similar, I thought. As soon as Jessie and Franco saw me, they ran towards me but unfortunately, the room shifted into a field. After a few seconds, I saw myself standing in a puddle of water. Suddenly, a man who suddenly appeared out of nowhere made the ground break in half. The crack moves towards me so I ran. Girl, you're a magician, do something! I scolded myself for turning my back against him. I turned around and touched the ground; the crack began to fix itself. The man was surprised. He then started throwing knives but not the normal knives. He created them by the use of his magic. A Lost, I thought. Blood lust. I immediately casted a protect spell as soon as he throws me one in order to counter the knives. When one knife escaped from me, there was a searing pain coming from my right arm. It's over. I failed them. The man continued throwing knives. I wasn't dissolve. Suddenly, the man flew away and I saw that Jessie was there behind me. Jessie immediately came to my aid. "I'm sorry." I said. "No! You're not going to dissolve." What?! I was surprised. Whenever a contestant is hurt - even with just a small cut - that person will suddenly dissolve back to the room of illusion and that means the end of the Cup for him. "People are getting hurt and no one's dissolving them back. I think they want us to kill each other." Jessie said. Oh no.

*It's not only Cassandra, Jessie and Franco who were scared that time, even Lisie and Chloe who were watching at the gymnasium of the Academy. Before the game, Jill came in to make an announcement. "The Annual Labyrinth Cup this year is very much special. There was a rule change. The 31 contestants will have to battle to death in order to win the Cup." Jill said and left immediately before the whole gymnasium's roof breaks down. Everyone was angry. A total of 14 students from the Academy joined and apparently they all have friends. On the other hand, 24 students from the Moskovits Institution are happy to kill. All Losts turned on their blood lusts while the magicians hid and did their best to save themselves. Lisie cried on Chloe's shoulder. She can't believe she wanted this for her. She pushed her to her death.

*Daniel was furious. "Why didn't you tell me about this?!" Dante didn't answer. He doesn't care. Daniel wanted to kill them but Octavia dragged him outside the room. Daniel suddenly made his sister flew away from him and this time, Dante cared. "So now you're using your full potential?! Just because of that girl?!" Dante shouted. Daniel wasn't strong, he's only strong whenever his blood lust is on and his entire family knows. Dante didn't want this. Dante taught his children to be different. A normal Losts has two sides: the normal one and the blood lust. But the Nerida doesn't. They have learned to keep their blood lust on without the actual urge to kill and with that, they are able to use their full potential. That's also the reason how they become the rulers of the Labyrinth. Daniel never learned. He has two sides just like the normal Lost. No one spoke.

I went along Jessie who was actually separated from Franco. We did our best to avoid the other contestants and instead of being the offense, we did our best defence. We searched for Franco while being chased by a Lost. We didn't have a hard time determining the Losts from the magicians because of the red eyes and dark aura that surrounds them. It was also my first time seeing worse kinds of Losts; stronger ones, I guess. They have red eyes, sharp fangs, dark aura and a skin that almost show their veins. They are scary, I tell you. A group of Lost attacked us and in return, Jessie used stiff legs and I used poison trap to slow them. We clearly are outnumbered but we know we have to win. 4 hours have passed and we still haven't seen Franco. We also encountered 4 magicians and according to Denzo, Jessie's friend, we – the 6 of us – are the only ones remaining; Franco's one of them so good! We invited Denzo to come with us.