Blessed Combat

32 - Last Minute Decision

Caterpillar smirked lightly as Sabriel commented on this, glad to know that his friends were getting a chance to represent Wind Crest. He didn’t know why, but with those two working together, it was as if no one would be able to beat them. Those two made a great pair by helping each other to take the role of other party’s weakness. That’s when he frowned lightly at the fifth member of Group Pandora came to view.

“Next is...Alois...This one is also difficult to tell Zero. He isn’t exactly a strong player, seeing that he is one of the Children of Misfortune too but he had been able to reach this far, which is amazing since he barely did anything in the Trials” Sabriel spoke warily, frowning once again.

“I agree with you Sabriel. Looking through all the Trials he had been, he had been extremely lucky by narrowly passing one Trial after another. I would say that he is a bit of a troublesome guy, not in a bad way but Alois does seem to be a bit too absentminded for his own good. Not to discriminate him in any way but it still baffles me that one minute he was using his Major, the next he is sleeping while standing up.” Caterpillar’s eyebrows shot skywards, hiding to his hairline. Unable to respond properly, the unfortunate Time Keeper burst out laughing hysterically; partially wondering what’s even funny in this comment.

“Then again, we never saw him fight properly so there might be more than a sixteen year old guy who sleeps while standing up and getting lost too frequently.” Sabriel pointed out lightly, giggling a bit when Zero nodded in agreement animatedly. Then they started discussing about the remaining two Groups, Chaos and Paradox, all of which Caterpillar allowed the words to flow from one ear to another.

“Anyway, it has been already half an hour since the fight for the five last spots started. For those of you who are listening, I am sure you must be itching to know what we have in store for you! Let us save you all the worry and tell you just exactly what your favourite players are facing now. I am sure you all know the game of ‘Hide and Seek’ we used to play back when Earth still kept moving right? Right! So today on the first round, the AI had given three of the Groups as the ‘Seekers’ while the other three as the ‘Hiders’” Nodding to Sabriel, the female host took over.

“The Hiders have to find the Dome in the middle of the game stage they will be playing at without getting caught by the Seekers. The Seekers’ job is to find as many Hiders as they can and prevent them from getting into the Dome, so having a duel between a Seeker and Hider is acceptable if it stops the Hider from getting to the Dome. The only way a Seeker Group would advance in the second round is when they prevent all Hiders in the same group from going to the Dome in only one minute”

“Sounds like a plan yea? Well, we won’t spoil you anymore than that! Only that the Groups will have a ribbon attached to them which signifies which category between Seeker and Hider they were listed in. Black ribbons are the Hiders and the white ribbons are the Seekers. Let’s see the progress of our fellow players now”

 Zero spoke, somehow managing to minimize their announcement screen and revealing a screen where Caterpillar saw the dimension the remaining thirty players were at behind. He was astounded the game stage was none other than a maze, a huge one at that. The walls of the greenery maze were tremendous, stretching up to where it seemed to touch the sky. Caterpillar had only seen Arma jump several times but he knew that if the brunette jumped using his Minor, he would only reach half the height of the wall of the maze, which was just how tall it was. There was also a very eerie looking mist dusking through the maze, making visibility almost impossible.