SURVIVAL 17: LEVEL 1 STAGE 3 - SEA

"Ahhh!" I cried out.

We just fell to the ground again with a depth of about 50 meters. I am inside an elevator made of glass. After a minute and a half, the elevator also stopped and opened on its own. I am here in the vast land, with few trees and a mixture of green and blue colored sea.

***

LOCATION: Seaside TIME: Afternoon

"This is where the water category will take place. The mechanics are simple: Those gold and silver flags standing in front of you will be your starting line...”

There are gold and silver flags stuck in the sand.

"The goal is to find your opponent's base by solving the riddles that will guide your path. Steal their three flags hiding in their bases. The two small flags cost 30 points each, and the big flag costs 70 points.”

The sea became longer and narrower. It looks like a huge swimming pool, but with sand instead of concrete and tiles. There are waves.

"The area of ​​the sea has decreased. The enemy bases are a group of coral reefs with hidden flags. It is not necessary to gather all flags. The team should collect a greater number of flags than the opposing team. You will then swim until you cross the finish line to win.”

"Hey, how can we breathe underwater? We don’t have any swimming equipment with us!" Good question, Aeith.

"Swim so you will know." Author answered.

"This is not fair to us! There are only six of us," Sectwen questioned.

Fifzen stepped forward. “Yeah, we’re at a great disadvantage here.”

"In this game, unfair is not in its vocabulary. Follow your team colors' flags, and several numbers of sea creatures will help you find your opponent's base. No ordinary underwater creatures that will either help you or hinder you.” I’m getting a hunch from this. "Wealth Level: Stage 3, water category will start in 10, 9,”

We needed to jump approximately 10 meters below the ground to plunge into the vast blue sea.

I noticed that it looked like I was the only one who couldn't swim because my team was ready. I bit my lower lip.

"8, 7, 6,"

“Everyone, if you’re not confident in yourselves, better partner up. Guide and support each other, then all together we’ll plunge,” Third instructed us.

Someone grabbed my right shoulder, it was First. "You can ride on my back," he offered while sitting and made a gesture as if to say, he’ll give you a piggyback ride.

I hesitated but I had no options left. "Thank you.”

"5, 4, 3”

Fourth partnered with her twin brother, Fifth. Third is with Seventh, while Sixth, Aeith, and Ninth preferred to jump on their own..

"2, 1”

I took a deep breath so I wouldn't run out of breath right after we jumped.

"go!”

My grip on First's neck tightened as we plunged into the water. He lifted his head, spread both arms and legs to lift us above the water, and breathed. After a few seconds, I panicked.

"Second!"

I opened my eyes. He patted my back.

I-I'm floating. "How?”

"This contains a high level and amount of salt, which means, you can float well even if you're not a swimmer.”

I felt a sense of relief.

"I saw something shiny underneath. If we find our base where our flags hide, that's what Author tells us to follow. Let's not disperse. Don’t touch any sea creatures." Third instructed and reminded us.

A large glass bubble appeared on my face. There is a round transparent glass inserted into our whole head. I breathed freely, and I accidentally opened my mouth—I can speak! Everyone changed from wearing our dirty tracksuits into wearing diving gear. We have a long black sleeve rash guard, gloves, and fins. We can hear each other like there’s a gadget for communication inside this glass.

We dive down to where Third saw something shiny beneath. Soon, we saw a small silver flag. A school of clownfish is swimming that reminded me of Nemo. M-My memories are coming back!

We saw 2 silver flags and something was written on it. Seventh grabbed its end so we can read it properly. The flag has a left arrow sign while the other one has a right turn sign and both of them have printed words. So, we need to choose between the two of these directions.

Left silver flag: sea urchin

Right silver flag: sea anemone

"Sea anemone is the answer. If the sea creatures we encounter have anything to do with it, we have encountered a school of clownfish. And in the 'Finding Nemo' cartoons, Nemo lives in a sea anemone!" Fourth replied cheerfully.

We turned right. While swimming, we once again saw a group of gray fish swimming—it’s a milkfish. We saw two more silver flags with inscriptions on them.

Left silver flag: Philippines

Right silver flag: United Kingdom

A milkfish? That's the fish we encountered earlier. Milkfish is a native fish and the national fish of the Philippines. Sea creatures are the answer, and flags are the directions. We turned left.

"Whaaa!" Fourth shrieks.

There are three stingrays, two small and one large passing in front of us. After they crossed, we also crossed and swam until we saw silver flags again, which are now three of them. This is not a written letter but a silhouette-type photograph.

Left silver flag: silhouette of a fish

Middle silver flag: silhouette of a bird

Right silver flag: silhouette of a dog

"That's fish. Sting ray is a fish, isn't it?” Seventh reckoned.

We swam to the left. We saw three stingrays swimming and approaching us. They swam fast and straightforwardly, coming to us. We dodged to avoid them, but they seem to be following us. They also look like the three stingrays that crossed us a while ago.

"Swim! Hurry!" Third charged.

I swam even faster I was startled when Aeith took my left hand. Fifth and Ninth are struggling against a stingray. They pulled its long tail to prevent the attack. Fifth hugged the stingray's back and held its wings while Ninth twisted its tail with his right hand and pulled it even harder. The stingray became more and more aggressive, and its tail separated from the body. In an instant, the stingray turned into sand that had melted in water. I saw blood floating upwards, dripping into the seawater on Ninth's right hand.

I turned to the front and saw that Third and Seventh were also fighting another stingray. The second stingray also turned into the sand after they pulled its tail. My eyes widened when I immediately saw First. He fights the biggest stingray alone.

He curled twice the length of its tail as the previous two on his left arm, he bound its wings so that it could not move, and with force pulled its clinging tail. In a moment, it turned to sand as well. I saw the bleeding hands of Ninth, Seventh, and First.

"How did you know that stingrays would die that way?" Sixth asked.

"As far as I know, a stingray's tail has spines. And that tail is poisonous, which can harm others." Fifth replied.

"I accidentally pulled its tail and we saw that it couldn't move easily.," Ninth explained.

"Hmp! They're not real stingrays. They didn’t bleed and turned into dust. They were looking-realistic-robot-stingrays because of their eyes, despite having realistic skin and flesh." Seventh defended.

I looked at First's left hand. First’s wound looks like he was cut with a knife several times, theirs looks like they were cut once. Maybe because he took the biggest one on his own.

"Hmm... I was just thinking, why are we being attacked?" Seventh suddenly asked.

"We took the wrong turn." First spoke as well. "Seventh's answer is wrong. It should be the 'bird', the middle flag. Stingray swims under the sea but flies like a bird."

Thanks to Third’s photographic memory, he remembered how we could go back to the three flags to make the right turn. While we were swimming and getting close, I stopped for a moment. I tore the end of my garment and wrapped a cloth around First's bloody left hand.

We took the right turn and encountered octopuses. They look harmless so we proceed. Another surprise was when we saw that the surroundings were getting dark.

"Guys, there's something wrong," Seventh pondered.

"Look, it's because of those creatures.”

We turned our backs on what Ninth had said and saw octopuses approaching us. They were spewing something!

"It's ink! I don't think it's bad, is it?" Seventh approached the octopuses.

“What are you doing, idiot!” Aeith scoffed madly.

In a flash, the glass bubble of Seventh burst. He panicked as he couldn’t breathe underwater freely anymore without that equipment on his head. He immediately swam upwards to catch his breath.

"Stay away, Fifth!” Third warned Fifth when he was about to approach Seventh. “Its ink explodes the bubble!"

We all swam away from the octopuses. When the octopuses were gone, we stopped and hid in a boulder with coral reefs while we waited for Third and Fifth to find Seventh.

I gazed at First. "Our answer is correct, 'bird' not 'dog'. This time, this game is challenging us by making the game levels harder.”

Eventually, the two arrived.

"Ninth, you will guide and bring back Seventh. That hologram didn’t mention finishing this game as a team so we can scatter." Third's commanded. "Let's proceed."

As we swam without Seventh and Ninth, we saw three silver flags.

Left silver flag: 3

Middle silver flag: 12

Right silver flag: 8

And since the octopus had attacked us earlier, we turned right. An octopus with 8 tentacles. We got scared by what we saw...

A hammerhead shark gaping slightly with an overlooking small but sharp tooth.

"Swim!" Third alerted us.

I noticed a while ago that the eyes of that shark were also made of steel, just like the stingrays. I saw First confronted the shark. Using his left thumb, he scratched its neck with his long nails. The shark wandered for a moment and continued to chase us.

Turning to the front, I saw four silver flags, four now.

1st silver flag: J

2nd silver flag: T

3rd silver flag: K

4th silver flag: R

I no longer hesitated to answer. "Second!"

Letter T because that's the shape of the hammerhead shark's head. I saw a shark bite First’s left arm.

"Go, ahead. I-I can take care of this," he told us.

Third thought for a moment and then spoke. "Seventh and Ninth will swim back to where we started since, they didn’t know the route that we’ve taken after answering the riddles we recently encountered. First and I will finish the business with the shark. The three of you go with Fifth and Sixth, go and get those flags then win the game. Is that clear? "

We were still hesitant because we had to split up.

"This is the only way, so get a hold of yourselves if you don't want our sacrifices to be in vain... Now, go!”