Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 16

"Sounds good", Sting grinned excitedly.

"We choose our flags and they will be placed in our home bases. Then we try to snatch the enemy's flag and carry it to our own home base. If the flag is dropped, it is allowed to carry back to its place. No magic is allowed inside these runes. If you use magic, you will be trapped inside the runes for ten minutes as a punishment. No weapons are allowed either nor magical tools", he said and he took off his sword.

Another box made out of runes appeared and he placed his sword inside it. Others followed his example and whatever they had that had magic in it, they put them in the box that was then sealed.

"Does everyone agree with these rules?" Freed asked crossing his arms and they nodded. "Good. I would like to add something small."

"But not a rule?" Bickslow asked confused.

"It is more like a warning", Freed said and his turquoise eyes flashed with cold mercilesness when he looked at the members of Sabertooth. "You hurt my little boy and I will rip your intestines out and hang them on the branches for birds to eat", he announced without even a hint of hesitation, making others sweat.

"Warning has been noted", Minerva chuckled amused.

"Of course we know we can't attack Felix and Chester with full power", Rogue smiled understandingly.

"Don't take us lightly", Chester said annoyed. "We can handle this game just as well as you adults."

"Doubt that", Roscoe said. "You just don't know what all these guys can do."

"Can we start already?" Sting asked impatiently.

"We still need to choose our flags", Yukino reminded.

"Fine! This is ours!" Sting said snatching Rufus' hat.

"That is my finest hat!" the memory mage shouted.

"They all look the same!"

"Okay", Laxus said and he looked around. He grabbed the visor Bickslow had on his face and took it off, the seith mage doing nothing to stop him. "This will be ours then. Bickslow can't use his eye magic so it's okay."

"The flags are now chosen", Freed nodded. "Does anyone have any questions?"

"What will happen to the team that loses?" Orga asked curiously.

"I'm sure we can come up with something", Freed chuckled. "Anything else?"

"If something happens and we have to cancel or pause the game, what would be the sign for that?" Rogue asked.

"I already thought about that. If there is such a situation, say "Danger alert" two times out loud and it will nullify all the effects in this trap and warn all of us that something is happening. It won't make the runes disappear, but we can move and use our magic again how we want and the trap won't stop us."

"There is still one more thing", Rufus said. "We have to run or sneak around, but how can we do that when dragon slayers can smell us from far away and hear where we walk?"

"That is a good question", Freed said with a frown.

"Way to go, Rufus, we had an upper hand since we have two dragon slayers and they have only one", Sting grunted and Rufus chuckled.

"We want it to be fair, don't we?" he asked and the young Master of Sabertooth sighed.

"I know, you're right", he said, but he was still disappointed.

"I can add in a rule that all the dragon slayers will hear just the same as an average person would", Freed said. "And what comes to the sense of smell, I will make all of ours smell disappear."

"Hey", Laxus said looking at his mate sharply. "I don't like that idea at all."

"It cannot be helped. It's easier to affect one's hearing by making it lower, than their sense of smell."

"We can deal with that", Sting grinned. "If of course Laxus isn't too scared of it?" he snickered making the lightning dragon slayer jolt. "Don't geel confident anymore to walk around without depending on your nose all the time?"

"The fuck did you just say?" Laxus snarled annoyed and sparks immediately emitted from his hair.

The air around him flashed red and then there were cylinder made out of runes surrounding him, muffling all the sounds from inside and Laxus had a pretty confused and dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Seems like we are going to have some problems from the very start", Freed sighed, as he knew how bad tempered Laxus could still be if you pulled the right ropes. And lightning wasn't exactly the easiest magic you could control since it got lots of its power from the user's feelings.

Felix looked at the runes worried and he grabbed Ever's hand.

"Will dad get out?" he whispered to her.

"Yes, in ten minutes", she smiled. "We will wait until then. Freed", she said looking at the rune mage who turned towards them. "What if Felix and Chester get tired at the middle of the game?"

"We won't!" both boys yelled furiously.

"If you happen to get tired, you just say so", Freed smiled to Felix and Chester. "We will listen and you can wait until you feel like you can play again."

"We won't get tired!" Chester assured.

"We want to catch that stupid hat so Fairy Tail will win!" Felix announced. Then he thought a second for something. "But what if someone gets hurt?" he asked now worried again.

"We promise we won't get too carried away", Yukino smiled. "No one will get hurt."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that", Bickslow whispered to Ever who giggled.

"And no ganging up", Freed said looking at them all. "Felix and Chester are the only ones who are allowed to do that. That is the last rule. You can't tackle the enemy one after another by working together as a group against one person."

"Okay, okay, that's cool so let's start already!" Sting yelled excitedly.

Since there was no more questions, they all parted their ways towards their home bases to place their flags down.