Summer Games ( IV )

Rhea, Year 817 of Avia, Day 227; 19:40

Noah zipped from corner to corner, adjusting his position frequently. He figured that if he stayed on the move, it would discourage bombers from coming after him.

If there were only fifty people being eliminated each round, Noah was sure that there’d be at least twelve rounds. If the race yesterday took around an hour and forty minutes, there was no way that the game today would last less than an hour.

Which meant that just like the race, this game would eventually turn into a battle of endurance.

Noah stopped. Flying around when nobody was chasing him was probably a waste of energy, especially since there were still nine hundred and fifty competitors left in the game. Staying in one place and conserving your energy was much smarter.

Noah flew up as high as he could to get a bird eye’s view of the stadium. Just like the first round, there were clusters of people with white jumpsuits scattered around. They probably thought that if a bomber flew towards them, each individual in the group would have a lower chance of being tagged, since they could use other members as meat shields.

Not a bad idea. But also too risky.

Groups would naturally become prime targets, since it was easy to spot and tag them. But they lacked the cooperation and cohesion that a smaller group would have; the moment a bomber ran at them, they all flew in random directions, usually bumping into each other. Amid that chaos, the bomber could easily tag a runner before most of the group dispersed. The new bomber would then tag someone else in the group, and so on and so on.

By the end of the round, the group would be playing an intense game of hot potato with each other.

Noah squinted forward. Icarum flew at full speed towards a group with a glowing red jumpsuit, narrowing his eyes. With his dark feathers and vulture mask, he was easy to recognize among the other competitors.

The moment the group dispersed, Icarum went after three competitors who were trying to push each other away in an attempt to escape. He tagged one’s leg and backed away, smirking as the three started to tag each other frantically.

“BOOM! Another fifty eliminated!” Drakos shouted.

The cheers of the crowd drowned out the screams of the bombers being shocked by a jolt of electricity and falling to the ground.

Ouch, Noah thought. That looks like it hurts.

Guess I’ll just have to make it to the end.

---------------------

20:10

Three hundred and fifty down, Khal thought, biting his tongue.

How much longer until this is over?

With every round, less competitors meant that there was a higher chance of starting as a bomber. It also meant that there were less people to chase. The game was getting progressively harder and harder, and Khal was starting to feel tired.

It didn’t help that he was still fatigued from the day before. His muscles ached, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d last.

A boy with a curved mask flew up to Khal, and he jumped back in surprise.

“Don’t worry,” the boy said, panting heavily. He pointed to his white jumpsuit.

“Connor?”

He nodded. Khal knew the boy’s voice sounded familiar. Even though he had seen Connor’s mask before, the sky was getting darker, making appearances harder to recognize. Within the next thirty minutes, Khal expected that the only thing one could see was the glowing red lights of the bombers.

He glanced around the stadium and stared intently at the giant, electric spotlights that the race yesterday had used. It seemed that Drakos and the others running the game had no intention of turning them on. Additionally, the audience was wearing some sort of night goggles.

“If it’s going to get dark,” Connor said, “Teams will hold the advantage.”

“It’ll be too hard for one person to keep track of what’s going on with impaired vision,” he added.

Khal agreed, but paused for a moment. He wondered if Connor was someone he could trust. “I’m assuming you want to work together?”

“Yes, an-”

“If one of us becomes the bomber, we won’t tag each other. If we’re going to team, that’s the condition you’ll have to accept.”

Connor smiled. “I was about to say the same. But if one of us becomes the bomber, the other will also help with finding another person to pass the bomb to.”

“I’m fine with that.”

If Connor had made it this far by himself, he probably knew what he was doing. Khal doubted that Connor would be too much of a liability, so he was sure that both of them would benefit from their teamwork.

Khal and Connor flew back-to-back, slowly spinning around in a circle.

“I know you probably don’t want to reveal anything too big,” Connor started, “but are you using any magic?”

Khal thought about his answer. Since he was a Pigeon, one of the more common bird-spirits, the little magic he was using probably wouldn’t give too much away anyway.

“By my mask, you must know I’m a Pigeon, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Then you must know that my hearing is very sharp. Even if it gets dark, I should be able to tell if anyone’s twenty meters away from me. Have you been using magic?”

“Not yet,” Connor answered, “but there’s one thing up my sleeve.”

“I’m a Puffin. If things get bad, I can create a defensive wall of water. That should give us enough time to fly away.”

Khal smiled. This could work.

-----------------

20:20

“Mia, on your left!”

A boy with half-brown, half-white wings shot jets of water out of his hands. His jumpsuit was glowing red as he rapidly the distance between himself and Mia.

Carla was flying a few meters ahead, glancing behind her to track the boy’s movements and help Mia escape. The boy’s mask was getting harder to identify after every minute as the stadium descended into darkness.

Carla squinted. Although the water he shot was strong and pressurized as it left his hands, it grew much weaker with every meter that it traveled. Even though he was a mere ten meters away from Mia, none of his attacks were landing on her.

That’s it! The water wasn’t getting weaker; it was solidifying. The reason why it seemed slower the farther it went was because it was freezing into ice and dropping onto the ground.

After seeing his wings, his mask, and his power, Carla pieced the puzzle together. “Mia, he’s a petrel! Fly upwards!”

There was no point in dodging from side to side if his attacks could only travel three to four meters in one direction. Predicting where his attack would land was impossible because of the water’s sudden drop in velocity when it turned into ice.

The only option was to fly above him. If he tried to shoot his water into the sky, it’d just fall back down on top of him.

The petrel flashed an angry look at Carla and backed away, looking for another target to pass his bomb to. Now that they knew his power, he decided that chasing Mia was too risky, especially since he had another minute before the timer ran out.

Mia flew to Carla with a smile on her face.

“Thank yo-” Mia started. Her smile quickly turned into panic as she pointed behind Carla.

Carla knew what Mia’s expression meant. With one strong flap of her wings, she burst forward, taking Mia with her. She felt a brush of wind across her neck.

After creating some distance between herself and the attacker, she turned around to identify them. Mia was out of breath, and it didn’t look like she’d be able to last another minute of running away. If she tried to carry Mia with her, they’d most definitely be tagged in an instant. Carla knew she had to stand her ground.

A boy with pitch-black wings slowly approached her menacingly. He wrapped his wings around his body, concealing the color of his jumpsuit.

“You two are first-years, right?”

Carla and Mia ignored his words.

“The name’s Erik. Might be a little hard to tell from my mask, but I’m a Crow. How about y’all?”

Carla took a deep breath and readied herself for a fight. She could tell that Erik harbored malicious intent. If he wanted to team up, he wouldn’t be trying to hide his jumpsuit.

“It’s rude not to answer, isn’t it?” The boy took great strides through the air, as if to demonstrate his masterful use of his wings.

The boy stretched out his wings and confirmed Carla’s suspicions. His jumpsuit glowed bright red.

Thirty seconds left.

It was do or die. Erik flew forward, reaching out to tag Carla, but she read him like a book. She easily dodged to the side with her hands behind her back.

But the crow had no intention of going after Carla. He prepared to pounce upon Mia, who was still trying to recover from being chased around for so long. Carla rushed forward and kicked him in the ankle. Erik responded with a quick swipe from his left hand.

Not able to fly away in time, Carla blocked Erik’s attack with her elbow. She prevented herself from taking too much damage, but Erik got what he came for. He had passed his bomb to Carla.

“See ya!”

Erik bolted away, sure that they wouldn’t be able to catch up to him. Carla and Mia were both not in a state to chase anyone down.

“Erik, wait!” Mia shouted.

Erik turned around, amused. He was curious to find out what plan they had up their sleeve.

Mia’s wings began to emit a pink glow, and Erik immediately knew that his cockiness had become his undoing.

He couldn’t move his eyes or his body. He was entirely focused on the beauty and mesmerization of Mia’s wings. He found himself caught in a trance, but no matter how strong his will was, he couldn’t break out of it. His eyes slowly drooped down, and he felt his body grow limp.

Carla stared at the frozen Erik, confused about what just happened. She turned her head toward Mia.

“Carla, don’t look at me!” Mia shouted abruptly.

Carla understood. She flew forward and tapped Erik lightly on the shoulder. As she backed away, Erik remained immobile, eyes fixed on Mia’s wings.

After a few seconds, Erik began to return to his senses. He started to feel his arms and legs again while Mia’s glowing pink wings dimmed.

But it was too late.

“Kaboom!” Drakos announced.

Erik fell to the ground with a thud. His Summer Games were over.

-------------------

20:40

Connor’s jumpsuit glowed bright red. He sighed. Although he and Khal expected that one of them would start as a bomber eventually, he had hoped that they’d luck out until the end of the game.

Thankfully, they had spent the past twenty minutes preparing for this exact scenario.

Connor summoned a wall of water around him, concealing his jumpsuit. The sun had already set, leaving the stadium nearly pitch black. The only source of light was the crescent moon, which barely illuminated the masks of every competitor.

Khal carefully flew forward, scouting the area out with his ears. His goal was to locate someone trying to hide and jumping them when they least expected it. The moment Connor tagged them, he’d blast them with water and fly away.

It was a decent idea in theory, but much harder to execute in practice. Connor’s water created a loud, dripping sound that gave away their location. Only those who were extremely confident in their hiding abilities would decide not to flee the moment they heard ominous water coming their way.

Two minutes left

Khal glanced back at Connor, whose entire body was blurred out by thick, dark water. Because his power required so much concentration, he wasn’t able to move very quickly.

There.

The sound of someone’s flapping wings around sixteen meters away. Each wingbeat was incredibly soft and slow, but Khal’s ears picked it up nonetheless. Khal approached the hiding competitor slowly, but they didn’t seem to notice his presence. He rushed forward with all his strength and tackled his prey, holding on so they wouldn’t be able to fly away.

“What the-” a soft, male voice muttered.

“Now!”

Connor removed his wall of water and flew towards Khal with his hand outstretched. At the very last moment, Khal let go of the boy he grabbed, kicking off with his two feet. Connor tagged the boy on his shoulder and flew off in the opposite direction.

It took the boy less than a second to realize what just happened. Before Connor disappeared into the night, he engaged in a hot pursuit, flapping his wings at an incredible speed.

From the speed that the boy travelled, it was obvious that he had a wind affinity. He was probably a robin or a roadrunner. If they were unlucky, he might’ve been a falcon. But there was no time for Khal to think.

“Over here!” he yelled, trying to distract the boy from chasing Connor. But the boy already knew that going after Khal would prove too difficult. He was much farther away, and Connor was already exhausted from using a wall of water for so long.

“Gotcha.”

It only took another minute for the boy to tag Connor back. Out of breath, Connor turned around, wondering where the boy had flown off to.

“Above you!” Khal shouted.

Connor trusted Khal’s words. Since he wasn’t able to see well in the darkness, he relied on Khal’s directions to navigate the stadium.

“Left!”

“Right!”

“Right!”

“Down!”

No matter how accurately Connor followed Khal’s instructions, he didn’t seem to make any progress. The boy they were chasing always stayed a comfortable ten meters away.

Five seconds left.

It was now or never.

“Forward, as fast as you can! He’s right there!”

Connor mustered up all his remaining energy for this final push. He could see the silhouette of the boy in front of him, getting closer and closer.

“You’re right there!”

Connor picked up speed, darting forward like a bullet. The boy tried to speed up in response, but Connor had already closed most of the distance between them.

Three

Two

One

Connor leaped forward, his fingernails grazing the boy’s jumpsuit. But his gloves couldn’t make contact.

“And Boom! Another round over!” Drakos shouted.

Connor felt his body grow limp as he fell to the floor. His jumpsuit’s color turned from red to black.

Khal looked down at Connor’s still body and punched himself in the leg to vent his frustration. A second longer and Connor would’ve made it. If he had been a little more precise with his instructions, if he had chosen a different target, if he had chased the boy himself, things might’ve turned out different.

But Khal figured had no time to whine about his failures. The game wasn’t over yet, and he had no intention of losing.

-------------------------

20:50

Carla and Mia were on the run. A well-built, muscular second-year with sharp talons flew above them, waiting to swoop down and tag them at any moment.

One look at the second-year’s mask, glistening in the moonlight, and Carla knew who their opponent was. The Eagle.

Carla recognized him from the Games she watched last year as a spectator. He was undoubtedly faster and physically stronger than her and Mia combined. Which meant that her only option was to lure him to another target.

“Let’s go to that crowd over there,” she told Mia.

Mia nodded. The crowd they traveled to was much smaller than the ones at the start of the game; they only contained twenty to thirty people compared to the hundreds that clustered together earlier.

But the moment they saw the Eagle coming their way, they all flew into the darkness, dispersing immediately. The Eagle made no effort in concealing that he was a bomber. He flew close to the moonlight, revealing his glowing red jumpsuit to everyone who looked.

Carla bit her tongue.

Twenty seconds left.

The Eagle flew down slowly, coming closer and closer. Carla had to make her move now.

“Take this!” she yelled. She emitted a faint red light from her hands and raised them up to counter the Eagle’s attack, but the Eagle showed no signs of slowing down. He opted into taking the full force of Carla’s power and breaking through it to tag her.

“Eagle, look over here!”

The Eagle didn’t even turn his head. His focus was on Carla and nothing else.

“Mia, fly over to that dark corner and hide. You can still make it to the next round.”

It’s over for me, Carla thought. She closed her eyes, preparing herself for the electric shock that would immobilize her body in five seconds.

“I said look over here!”

Mia tackled the Eagle with a flying kick, pushing him out of the way. His talons created a soft cut on Mia’s cheek, causing a few drops of blood to flow out.

Aware of the little time he had left, the Eagle switched his target. He brushed his hand against Mia’s stomach as he flew away, passing off his bomb to her.

Carla was frozen in place, contemplating her next move.

“Mia, tag me! You still have two seconds!”

It was the least Carla could do -- she’d rather lose the Games than make it through at Mia’s expense.

But Mia just smiled. “I still have another chance in two years. And you’re the one who cares more about this, anyways.”

Mia fell to the floor, leaving Carla on her own.

“I’ll win this for the both of us,” she muttered.

-------

20:55

“Aaaaand we’ve reached the end, folks! Congratulations to the two hundred competitors left!” Drakos hollered, holding his microphone directly next to his face.

“We’ll have one more group game tomorrow, and then it’ll be off to the one-on-one elimination rounds!”

Icarum breathed a sigh of relief. He landed on the grassy ground next to all the eliminated, electrocuted competitors.

Before he could meet up with Khal and the others, Icarum was determined to speak to the girl he had met at the start of the game. He was curious about why she didn’t tag him, and he was dying to ask how she knew his name.

A girl tapped him on the shoulder.

“Looking for me?”

She took off her mask, revealing a bittersweet smile on her face.

Icarum stared at her in disbelief.

“Karine?”