"Shouldn't we be fighting each other for the necklace?"
A few minutes after our win, we saw the gold team gasping and running towards us. Their eyes widened as they saw us standing and sitting on the platform with Third holding the said treasure. Their tracksuits are dirty, and some are torn. There are traces in their eyes of joy, sadness, tiredness, and regret. Shortly after their arrival, the two teams approached and hugged.
"Guys!" I, Fourth, and Aeith were attacked by the embrace of Forzen, and Sixzen.
"What's wrong?" worried and wondering, I asked the two of them when they lost their embrace. Aside from the dirt on their clothes and messy hair, they were both crying. The two of them just kept on sobbing. Their eyes and noses are red. "Hey, what happened? Tell me."
As I consoled the two, I noticed the disappointed faces of the other members of the gold team. I saw Fifzen and Sevenzen talking to Third. When the two finished speaking, Third frowned.
What really happened?
Aeizen and Sectwen talk to Fourth, Sixth, and Aeith. Ninezen and Thirtwen were just sitting on the platform. I'm not especially used to Ninezen who is known for being loud and funny acting like this. Wait, where's Twentieth?
"S-Second," Forzen began to speak. She wiped away her tears then spoke again. "Twentieth is no more."
"Huh?" It didn't sink into my brain what she meant so I turned to Sixzen to clarify the matter.
"She accidentally fell when part of the maze collapsed. She wasn't able to hold on to something. We heard her shout, then... she was gone," Sixzen explained.
This is also what happened to Fifth earlier. He almost fell, but he managed to hold on. That is, Fifth could have really died from that incident. I was saddened by the death of our friend, Twentieth. Forzen and Sixzen are her close friends, so they are the ones greatly affected by it. This is excruciating, but not all the time can we do a thing about it.
The two also told me about their experiences inside the maze. They said they really took a long time with the codes, but thanks to Ninezen and Thirtwen that they answered the codes. Fifzen was bitten by a bee, but it wasn't bad. Sectwen and Aeizen were slightly burned due to the invisible barrier. I also talked about our team's experience, the accidents that happened, how we answered the cards, and got the treasure. After everyone found out the bad news and long stories, Author appeared at the center of the platform.
"Congratulations, silver team. You are the winner for Wealth Level: Stage 3, land category!"
We are just in the land category. There are two more. This is so tiring. I'm not very happy with our victory. Apart from two more categories, we lost a friend, just like what happened in the previous trials. Someone is dying because of this.
"That treasure costs 70 points, which means the silver team got 70 points. For the gold team, there are still two categories. Twentieth, a member of the gold team, died because she fell into one of the traps. Now, you are all fully aware of those circumstances."
If Author were only a human being, I might have criticized it for its rudeness. Twentieth's death was not even honored.
"Be ready. Air category will begin momentarily." And it disappeared again. No one has the energy and mood to ask further questions as we mourn. And what's worse is we don't even have the time to grieve about it.
We were surprised when the maze, its walls, and cubicles collapsed into the ground. Everyone got up from sitting on the platform because it also collapsed. It was as if the earth were swallowing it up. It's not an earthquake, just the sound of crumbling concrete. Seconds later, the entire maze is gone. It is now a landscape. Few trees, plants, dry soil, and rocks.
I thought that's why the game settings look like this, because it's on air. Wait if it's on-air, how? Earlier, it's on land, so we are in the maze. Are we going to fly? On a plane? Hot air balloon? It's funny what I'm thinking. It is not impossible for that to happen because we are not on Earth but on the nth planet. I still hope that we don't fly because I'm bad with heights.
My crumpled and dirty silver tracksuit got clean and uncluttered magically. I saw everyone's clothes, no longer messy as well. The game started maybe about two hours after the land category. We haven't had breakfast yet and must have lunch later. How can we play when we're hungry?
"Players come over," it's Author. Everyone assembled.
"Silver team's leader, bring out the necklace."
Third took the treasure from the pocket of his tracksuit and showed it to Author. In an instant, it turned to sand.
"The necklace from the land category is now gone, but your scores will be recorded. You will now focus on the air category." I sighed. Another game, huh? How stressful this must be. "As you can see, these are the dangerous beasts, called dracodiles."
What? Dracodiles, where-
Everyone looked at the front and saw four monsters. Wait, is this the dracodile? Whoa! So, are they considered animals or monsters?
"This…is…sick!" Ninezen exclaimed. He was in awe to the point that he held his head in disbelief.
"A rare breed combination of dragon and crocodile that can only be seen here on the nth planet only."
I was amazed again. At first, I couldn't believe the so-called dangerous beasts because everyone knows that they have been extinct for a long time and only come true in movies and books but here, they are in front of us now, very real.
The four dracodiles have two different colors. Two gold-colored and two silver-colored. Their skin shines subtly when hit by sunlight. Its head and body are very similar to those of a crocodile but with wings and four short legs with long claws that of a dragon. These dracodiles seem to be asleep because they lie down, their eyes are closed, their wings are folded, and they do not move but breathe.
"The two gold dracodiles for the gold team and two silver dracodiles for the silver team. You will divide your team into two to ride those beasts. You need to tame them to ride and fly. Once you ride it, learn how to control it. It all depends on your strategies."
I gasped at what Author instructed us to do. We're going to ride, then we'll take care of how we tame those monsters. Does that mean we will fly?!
"Those monsters wore a necklace on their perilous foot with long and sharp poisonous nails. The goal is to seize your opponent's necklaces that their monsters are wearing. Each necklace renders 50 points, a total of 100 points for a team."
There is a moving gold dracodile. I saw one of its legs with a gold pendant necklace hanging. That must be it. We should get the gold team's two necklaces hanging on the legs of their dracodiles.
"How can we get the necklace?" Fifzen queried.
"Then what if the monsters went astray, then they attack each other while someone is riding on them? They are monsters, so such incidents cannot be avoided," Sevenzen added.
"As I mentioned earlier, it all depends on your strategies." Author answered. Geez, another vague answer from that hologram. We really get nothing from it. Are we just going to take care of everything? We have no full idea how dangerous those monsters are.
"The first team that can seize the two necklaces from the opponent's beasts wins."
Just like in the maze, there is no time limit stated. Whichever team is the first to complete two necklaces they are the winner.
"Air category will start in 10, 9,"
The game starts right away!
"8, 7, 6,"
I approached my team which also didn't seem to know what to do.
"5, 4, 3,"
"We can do this," Third muttered to us. He takes the monsters seriously and looks very determined. We did not make the mistake of making him the leader before we encountered the first monster, Neinuko. Even now in our current situation, he is reliable and not negligent to his team.
"2, 1, go!"
But no matter how determined we are we still have no idea how to do this one.
Each group runs individually to where the dangerous beasts are. When we got close, we stopped running and just stared at the two silver dracodiles. They were still asleep, and the opening of its large nostrils is evident as it breathed. Their silver skin is conspicuous and looks thick and hard. The wings are glowing. The sharp nails are scary. They are about 4 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, not including whether they will spread their wings. It has a long and heavy-looking crocodile tail.
We were about 3 to 5 meters away from the two dracodiles. I looked back to where the gold team was, about 30 meters away from us. They seem to be struggling as well.
Third talked about what we should do first. "Let us first observe their movements."
As he commanded us, we just stared at it again for 15 minutes. What we observed is that they are sleeping like ordinary animals.
"We should wake 'em up first," Aeith suggested.
*tug*
"What the hell are you doing?!" Aeith asked Seventh in astonishment because of what she saw.
"Huh? Ah, is that it? Just to wake the beast up 'cause it's taking our time up," Seventh replied, grinning while scratching his head. Then I realized that Seventh had thrown a large stone into the eye of a dracodile. The dracodile he stoned blinked slowly and finally woke up.
"What are we going to do? It might get angry!" - Fifth
"You're really crazy!" – Aeith