As he spoked those words, he raised his arms: suddenly, the open field we were standing in was surrounded and engulfed with darkness as our eyes were shut by a sudden blindness. The next second, the light reappeared but nota s luminous as before: it was like the dawn arrived. Each one of the contestant started looking around them, a visible confused look painted on the face. “This is the lobby of the arena, participants. We will proceed explaining the rules of this stage.” With a snap of his middle finger, a black surface appeared in front of the crowd, with a chart with numbers: “These are your scores. Of course, we removed the name and faces of everyone: hopefully, you paid attention before. Your task this time is to double the amount of points you received. How? Before that, we placed a bracelet on your wrist: you can use it both to check your points and to see if anyone is around you. Also, you may choose a single team-made: shake hands with him or her right now.” Both Ehrin and Jhun looked towards each other and without esitation, they grabbed their hands. They glanced towards Beryu and smiled seeing him and Sari imitating them. Within a minute or two, the couples were formed.
Dike applaused just once and suddenly everybody disappeared at once. Jhun didn’t let go and the next second both of them had their feet on the soil again. His head was dizzy as if he was put inside a massive ball and thrown down a hill. In the sky, the face of Osyr appeared. “Now that everyone is with his companion, listen carefully: to double your points is very simple. You just have to-“ A second of silence passed and a malicious smile deformed his face “-steal the point from other people. And to steal means to defeat. As soon as the other person is unable to proceed further, you’ll get all of his points. When you obtain the right amount of points, gather at the center of the arena to complete the stage. That's all: you have till the sun sets. Good luck.” And his face vanished with his voice still echoing in the air.
Jhun looked his wrist: a thin, black stripe was encircling his skin with a small white number in the center of it. Next to it, a small blue dot kept blinking: his sister. “So, we just need to defeat some people right? It's about time. But man, I have to gather 76 points, that would be hard.” He spoke without thinking: as soon as the words abandoned his lips, his mind realized and he started hearing his sister growling. A small punch hit him on the head: “That wouldn't be a problem if you listened to me in the first place.” She sighed while Jhun started massaging his head to reduce the pain. “Anyway, where do you think are we?” The two siblings started looking around: at first, with the explanation of rules, they didn't notice; now, at a careful look, the place around them started to resemble something. Behind them, a massive green wall rose from the ground for about three meters, continuing in both sides: “I'm not sure but it seems some kind of labirynth, or something like that.” The sky was darker and with a red nuance , testifying that time passed without a real explanation and the sun was setting. Since they didn't have any clue about how much time they still had, they agreed that it was better to start moving.
The road in front of them seemed to proceed straight for a long distance, apparently without any side road. The surroundings were pretty much the same, with hedges on the left as well as on the right forming a monotonous corridor. Jhun proceeded in front of his sister, his thoughts addressed to his score. Meanwhile, Ehrin was looking nervously at her wrist, hoping to spot an enemy as fast as possible: they needed point, lots of them, and if they couldn't gather them it was game over. She sighed; Jhun heard that and tried to reassure her: “Don't worry, we're going to find someone and we will steal their points. I'm on fire! I want to throw some punches and kick some asses. Where are the enemies?” “It's not that simple, Jhun: I just need to gather 43 points and looking at the number of people who scored in the range of forty, it's not hard. But you showed off and people will assume you're a monster: they probably all know your face and will avoid to cross your path. And, since I'm with you, they'll run also from me. How do you plan to double our points if no one appears?” “We could always separate and try to collect points: that way you could always run into somebody and at least one of us would proceed to the next phase.” “I want both of us to succed though. At least, I can kick your ass at the end.” “Yeah, you wish.” She smiled: all the weight of her thoughts from the morning seemed to have disappeared. She then stopped and returned looking at the wristband: the words left her lips too slow: “JHU-!”.
A deafening bang filled the air and the next moment a bright explosion erupted from the right. Ehrin was sent flying while the light engulfed the body of Jhun. Her body ached from the sharp landing and her ears started to buzz. She tried to stand and looked for her brother but the road was filled only with smoke and the smell of burnt leaves. “JHUN!” She tried to call him but in his place, four shadows pierced the cloud: she recognized wach and everyone of them: they were all contestants. She saw their red dot on the wristband just before they attacked. She throw a glance to her wrist again, smiled and then looked up towards the fog.
“Seems like the girl survived, Reina.” “She's more tenacious than I thought.” The person that just spoke was a young woman with long, golden hair and anonimous brown eyes; she wore some sort of armor, too thin to actually protect her, too revealing to be considered functional: it was probably just for appearance. Ehrin remembered her from the Exhibition: she had the same score of her. At her side appeared three other people, all men: a bald and longer man – Ehrin was sure that his score was around 30 -, a swordsman with red hair gathered in a ponytail – around 20 points – and a massive man, with enormous muscle and a long scar through his face – probably around 40 himself? -. “Now, let's take care of her and go to the center.” “Reina, wait… our points didn't increase.” “Wha-"
Before she could end the phrase, his companion (the bald one) was thrown with immensive force towards Ehrin by some kind of force: the girl knew who did it. The blue dot of his brother was blinking near them but his figure was cloaked by the smoke. The three enemies turned their eyes towards the position of Jhun but before they were able to grip his figure, he was at Erhin's side. “You okay, sis?” his body was untouched by the explosion. Suddenly, the wristband on his arm started to vibrate, asking for his attention: “Oh, sweet: I just got 27 points!” The looked on the enemies' faces were priceless: they awed in a mix of shock and surprise. “What? He defeated Calum in a single blow?! What kind of monster is he?” The woman regained her composure and her arrogant smile: “He took him by surprised. Now we know he survived and we're still three on two. We outmatched them!”
Ehrin called her brother's attention; he got closer to her face while she was standing up. She whispered: “Leave the woman to me, she has the exact amount of points I need and I'm probably her target. It's better to separate them: let’s do a little improvisation!” He nodded and starting to shout: “Okay Ehrin, go, I'll stall them!” as his sister started to run towards the enemies. As soon as they were trying to prepare to stop her, she jumped above them and Jhun used his superior speed to compare at their back, blocking the way to her sister. As expected, the woman's face became red with anger and shouted: “Don't think you can stop me from getting her points!” She ran towards Jhun, as fast as she could, and dribbled him on the left while the other two tried to stop him. Everything went according to their plan: the woman disappeared at the end of the green corridor, leaving Jhun with the other two men.
“You made a mistake separating: she is much stronger than us. Your sister has no chance of winning.” Jhun smiled at that announce: “Oh, really? You don't even know how strong is my sister. She could mop the floor with her and the two of you all together.” As soon as be finished saying that, a big explosion of white light illuminated his back, with what looked like a thunder falling from the sky and erupting in a loud and deafening bang. His smile became even greater: “For your information, that was my sister defeating your boss.” The swordman open his mouth and shouted: “WHAT? Don't be ridiculous: there's no way a 43 scorer could have such power. How dare you looking down on Reina!” and launched himself at the attack. He drew his sword and tried to cut the chest of Jhun with a smooth cleave from the left bottom to the top right. Jhun backed one step and avoided the blow, noticing the other man approaching from his right side. The young man smiled as the run of the scarred face enemy stopped as he was pulled back by something. The air became suddenly colder, with small white cloud appearing when they breathed out. In that moment, Jhun draw his weapon and the black cylinder suddenly became as long as a bo staff. With the surprise on the swordsman’s face, Jhun spin the staff with his entire body and , using the centrifugal force of his momentum, he hit the enemy of the face: the blow was strong enough to send him flying two meters back, falling on his chest and passing out. The vibration of the band confirmed the defeat. “Only 23 points? Hopefully, you have much more!” His enemy's face became red with fury, a vein pulsing on his temple: “I will show you my power, little worm!” The air around him started to crackle as the soil began to shake; small pieces of rocks started rising from the earth, all around him, forming long and sharp rocky drill. Jhun prepared himself and as soon as the man throw those spear towards him, he dodged the attack on the left and approached the man. When less than one meter was between them, he spinned his staff one last time, hitting the enemy with all his strength in the abdomen. He suddenly lost all the air in his lungs and was thrown away, falling to the ground and rolling various time. As soon as he stopped, when he tried to stand up again, Jhun reached him and hit him another time on the back. His collapsed was verified by the vibration of the wrist. Jhun check his score: he had 157 points. He did it. Now, he only needed to rejoin with his sister in the center of the arena.
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