Valkyrie's Lament

Gate #6 - Day 5

The day was unusually quiet and tense. Silver and her group move around every three hours as they take turns watching out for each other’s backs. They knew that staying in one place too long would bring trouble. Sleeping for three hours, moving towards the next location was not a simple feat to do. Time was quickly passing, making everyone feel tired as the day went by.

They continued to wander around the city in the hopes to not get found. Even Silver wished that this game would end, so she could get some well needed rest. It has been close to two days since they wandered around the city finding shelter at every turn.

Throughout the whole day they heard distance fights, shouts, and even the appearance of the giant rat monster that destroyed countless buildings. They stay away from the rampant monster in the hopes to reserve their energy for tomorrow. They knew the final day was going to be possibly even worse than the five days combined.

Silver couldn’t help but scrunch up her eyebrows trying to recall what was special about tomorrow, but no answer seemed to come into her mind. It was frustrating that she couldn’t remember many things that were to happen in the span of ten years. The partial amnesia wasn’t helping it either.

Staying alive and out of sight was everyone's priority. Sam, Briana, Jasper, Rook and Brook were becoming tired as the day went by. None of them had a good sleep, making the bags under their eyes heavy.

Sam and Briana joined in the guild without much complaint, Silver thought that the two would fuss but strangely Sam didn’t say anything. Instead, he coolly took Jasper’s hands and gripped it tightly to the point where each of them were trying to outdo the other. She even got to check their status card.

Name

Brianna Robinson

Gender

Female

Average Level

Z

Guild

Valhalla

Guild Member

No. 5

Race

Human

Body Status

Healthy

Age

16

Health

123

Height

5 ft 6’

Mana

57

Weight

180 Ib

Stamina

110

--------

Strength

15

Agility

12

Vitality

14

Dexterity

10

Intelligence

9

Wisdom

7

Leadership

0

Luck

5

------

Magic

Sound

Abilities

None

Items

Fifty Holding Pouch (Y)

Silver was surprised at the decent status that Brianna had. All her status were above 10, meaning she was above average. Though her magic wasn’t as high as she thought.

Name

Samuel (Sam) Robinson

Gender

Male

Average Level

Z+

Guild

Valhalla

Guild Member

No. 6

Race

Human

Body Status

Healthy

Age

19

Health

170

Height

6 ft 3’

Mana

125

Weight

189 Ib

Stamina

164

--------

Strength

27

Agility

17

Vitality

16

Dexterity

17

Intelligence

19

Wisdom

17

Leadership

1

Luck

3

------

Magic

Water/Wind

Abilities

Danger Sensing

Items

Fifty Holding Pouch (Y)

Silver was shocked. Even when Sam was still in the Z+ range, the majority was already hitting close to 20s, and his strength was over 25, making him ridiculously strong. He rivaled Jasper in the same pretense as they were a type of special type of people with extraordinary growth. She literally hit the jackpot in about five people, giving her guild the slight edge she needed.

Silver and her group move towards the next building located in the center of the city that they were allowed to move around. The barrier had gotten smaller to the point where it was more likely to meet someone they knew.

Even still, they move throughout every three hours without much problem, until night falls. The festive air that was present yesterday was all gone. Instead, the street was strangely quiet with barely any cat people usually walking around at tight.

Silver and her group sneak towards the abandoned building. Jasper picked the door open that was tightly closed. Silver was surprised that Jasper knew how to lock pick, even though she wasn’t good at picking locks and always had trouble with them. She gazed down towards him, wondering where he had learned such skill.

“We’re in.” Jasper pushed open the door and held up his hands. A small light energy ball glowed in his hand, lighting up the room. They were inside a small storage building with large boxes of items lined up neatly in rows. Everyone walked in tiredly, behind him as they scouted out for any possible enemies, but so far they found no one. With relief the six of them settled down to rest.

“I’m going to sleep.” Brook replied. He flopped down onto the ground.

“Same.” Rook replied. With a thud, he too took a seat and leaned on his brother. They were both tired from running around.

“I’ll watch for now. You guys go to sleep.” Silver replied, taking up a post near the door with the windows slightly opened.

The darkness gave them a good cover, but at the same time made it a bit more difficult to see the surroundings. Even still, Silver sat and watched as the majority of them went to sleep.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to sleep?” Jasper quietly asked as he came over and sat across from her. He glanced towards her in worry. He could tell that Silver was getting tired quickly and they had another three hours to go before they had to head out again.

“I’m fine. I’ll sleep when we get to the next spot.”

“You already said that last time, but you didn’t sleep. Silver, you're not superwoman.”

“I’ll be fine.” Silver shrugged off his words, even though she was tired herself, she wanted to stay up a little bit longer.

Jasper gritted his teeth. He wasn’t pleased with Silver’s reply. “Look, I’m okay. I will rest at the next stop.”

The day was long, and Silver knew that she won’t have a full three hours sleep if she skipped this last stop out. She knew that when it hits twelve, the time will be shortened to every one hour, making sleeping ten times more difficult.

Jasper sighed, he glanced around, and walked over towards her. In a low voice, he spoke to her. “I have something to tell you.”

“Yea?”

“There is something that you must know about being ‘it’ player.”

“That is?”

“Don’t steal a tag from another player until you pass the first test.”

“Test?” She wasn’t sure what he was talking about for a moment. His mind felt muddled from a lack of sleep.

“Yea, stealing back your tag.”

“Why are you suddenly telling me this?”

“I promised that I would tell you and my third test has been completed. So now, I can talk about it.” Jasper tugged on her as they went to a bit more private area, allowing the others to sleep.

“I see...so what was the second test?”

“Stealing another opponent’s tag.” Jasper went silent for a moment, he uncomfortably shifted from side-to-side.

“So what I’m understanding, the third and final test for you was to keep silent. Correct?”

“Yeah, but the third test is supposedly different. I don’t know what each ‘it’ player will get.”

Silver wasn’t liking the thought of having a final test. “That could be a problem.”

Jasper nodded his head. “If you fail any three of the tests, you die.”

“I expected as much.” Silver leaned back, thinking about what Jasper had just said. “I wouldn’t even be surprised.”

“They are certain things you should know about being an ‘it’ player.”

“Such as?”

“Each ‘it’ player is given an unique ability. Depending on completing or stealing another person tag your power increases. The similarity between all ‘it players is that you have some kind of sensing ability that helps you find others a bit more easily. When one groups up with the others ‘it’ players it gets stronger.” Jasper's voice was getting a bit more tense. “Especially beware of other ‘it’ players. If you’re not careful you might be rope along with them getting you into trouble...” His voice trailed off.

“Is that a problem?”

“Yea. If you both fail, you both die.”

Silver pondered for a moment. “Is there anything else?”

“No. Nothing else that I know of. I was lucky to be able to get out of trouble quickly.” Jasper stated in a relieved tone.

“So, who stole your tag?”

“Ah….that…” Jasper eyebrows furrowed. “Don’t worry about it. He might be dead now.”

Silver wondered why he didn’t say anything else, but instead of pushing Jasper for answers, she stayed quiet. “I understand.”

“Thanks.” Jasper whispered. He gripped his feet around him and ducked his head into between his knees.

Silver pondered for a moment, and knew that her body could not go on for much longer. It was crying out towards her for her to rest. She sat down and leaned back, crossing her arm in front of her as she closed her eyes.

“Are you really going to sleep sitting up?”

“Why not?” Silver slightly opened up one eye and she closed it back shut. That miniscule effort made her whole body feel heavy.

“That just looks so uncomfortable.”

“I can sleep in any position so don’t mind me.”

Jasper did not completely believe her, but he did not say anything more. He came over and sat next to her as he sighed. Shaking his head he leaned his back next to her as he got comfortable himself. Silver head started to droop as sleep overtook her.

#####

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” A high pierce voice of a child yells, startling everyone.

Silver bolted up onto her feet with her arm resting on her sword. She searched around in high alert for any suspicious movement. The others were stumbling up onto their feet completely lost and alarmed from the sudden rude wake up call.

“What’s going on?” Briana rolled on the floor until she finally got up on her knees.

“Did someone break in?” Rook yawned and smacked his lips.

“Great, who’s the retard that woke me up?” Sam growled under his breath. He rubbed his eyes as if they were nothing wrong.

“Are you guys idiots?” Brook hissed. “All of you guys are making a ruckus!”

“Be quite pea brain.” Sam rolled his eyes, and got up completely. He was finally fully awake and looking around for any intruders.

“Silver, what's going on? Did you yell?” Briana asked, but then was stopped short.

A baby angel emerged out from the darkness and chuckled under his breath. His lips were upturned into a devious smile as he rubbed his belly. “This is too funny. You guys are a riot!”

Silver was annoyed at the sudden realization that it was the baby angel that startled them all awake. She wasn’t pleased with the rude awakening, but also realized that she fell asleep so deeply that she didn’t feel his presence until now.

Sam whipped his head and glared at the baby angel. “So it was you.” He started with seething anger.

“Maybe~”

“Maybe, my ass. Your voice is the only one that sounds like the person who just yelled!”

“How do you know? It could be this guy here.” The baby angel fluttered and flew over towards Jasper’s head. “Come on, we are both children you know.”

Jasper’s eyes became like slits when he was suddenly called a child by a child itself. “I am not a child.” He seethed.

“Me neither.” The angel replied with a giggle.

Jasper’s eye twitched in annoyance at the baby’s reply and felt like he was being made fun of.

Silver calmly put away her sword and stepped up towards the flying baby angel. She pulled in a deep breath to calm her nerves and she asked, “Why did you do that?”

The baby angel stopped and flipped upside down. It gave the cutest face it could muster. “Why did I do it?”

Silver hands started to grip tight from the baby’s words. She wanted to punch the flying baby angel, but knew that if she did she would get repercussions. When she found a way to drag these damnable angels down to the same fighting field, she swore she was going to punch them hard once in their face. “I am asking the question. Please do not retort back with another question.”

“Why are you so stiff?” The baby angel frowned at Silver’s words. “It doesn’t help that you are so tight. You should relax more.” With a giggle, it fluttered over towards her and rested on her shoulder.

Silver stood absolutely still, but the others could feel the rising tension from Silver’s body. Each one of them took a step back from the strange sight that they saw. “Would you mind answering my questions?”

“What was it again?”

Silence followed after. “Why did you yell?”

“Oh, that?” He replied with a grin. “I wanted to do that once. I thought it would be fun, you know?”

“No, I don’t know. You woke us up just because it was fun?”

“Yep, I might do it again.” With a whimsical attitude, he fluttered up onto his wings. He flew a couple times around Silver than around the others. He even hoovered over Jasper’s head.

Jasper flicked his wrist over his head, trying to keep the annoying angel out of his hair. The baby angel was playing around with Jasper, making him annoyed.

“Just get on with the news.” Silver sharply spoke.

“Boo. You’re no fun.”

The others were getting annoyed quickly with the angel’s attitude, making them all want to punch the baby angel square in the face. All the supposed cuteness on its face did not cover up its rude attitude.

“I want to kill that angel.” Sam gritted his teeth, he was already advancing forward to grab it out of the air.

“No.” Briana pulled him backwards before he did something stupid.

“Why not? That thing needs to die!”

“Shhhhhh!” Briana covered up his mouth.

The baby angel turned around towards Sam and frowned. “Do you want to be beaten up instead?”

“Hah?” Pulling Briana’s hand,Sam's voice cracked as he was staring down at the baby angel with a menacing glare. “Did you say something?”

“Sam!”

“What? Let me go.” Sam was pushing her aside, while she was desperately trying to hold him back from doing something stupid.

“Hey. Hey. Hey. It’s not a good idea to provoke an angel.” Rook spoke. He too wanted to throttle the baby angel, but was holding himself back as well.

“What do you know? This piece of shit needs to disappear.”

With a sigh, the baby angel fluttered over towards Sam. It hovered up in his face and gave a creepy smile that did not fit the baby angel’s face. “So you want to kill me huh?”

“Yea, and I'll feed your body to the dogs!”

The baby angel’s eyes glinted dangerously and it suddenly flipped over laughing in midai. “I can’t believe this. There is actually someone who wants to kill me. Hehehehehe.”

“What’s so funny brat?”

“Nothing. Nothing. I’m just glad that there are some spirited people in this game that I can KILL.” The baby angel flicked up his hands and aimed it towards Sam. A lightning flashed outwards from his hands and towards Sam. Sam did not have a chance to react from the baby’s attack.

Bzzzt! Klang!

A spark of electric light was suddenly redirected outwards towards the back.

Kaboom!

Half of the building was destroyed, causing everyone to duck in fear from harm. Everyone was stunned at what just happened in a blink of an eye.

Silver was standing in front of Sam with her blade out in front of her. With a click, the blade went back into its sheath.

“Oh~” The baby angel whistled in excitement. “Wow. Wow. Wow. You actually move so quickly, but that was not even five percent of my strength.”

When everyone heard that it was not even five percent, they froze. They knew that angels were formidable, but to such a powerful existence they had a hard time phantoming the outcome. Sam could’ve died by the attack from the angel, but the angel didn’t react to the thought of death at all. Instead, it whimsically flew around as if nothing happened.

“Well, it doesn't matter. You blocked the attack, so you both have a free pass in living for another day.”

Silver breathed out a sigh of relief. She didn’t want Sam to die so early in the game. She knew that he had so much potential, and death was a waste to his talent. “Our reward?”

“It seems you're not phased by my power. I like you even more.” With a giggle, the baby angel covered its mouth. “Here you go.” With a wave of his hands, everyone got five high level red crystals, floating up in front of them.

Silver quickly picked up the five and ate two. She could feel her energy recuperating, giving her a boost. The sleepiness slowly went away, allowing her to move with more vigor. “Here.” Walking over towards Jasper, she handed him three of her crystals. “Early deposit.”

“Are you sure?” Jasper asked. He did not reach over to take it.

“Go ahead. I don’t know when I’ll have another chance this week.” Silver pushed the crystals in his hands.

“Thanks.”

“I know you can do it.”

Jasper did not say anything and instead watched her. Silver on the other hand crossed her arms in front of her waiting for the baby angel to tell them the rest of the news.

“Also here is the daily report of the death toll.” The baby angel raised up his hands and waved it around nonchalantly.

Six different people’s profiles were present floating up in the middle of the group. So far, they were nobody that Silver knew and once again she was relieved that nothing happened to the other two.

“Well then there are a couple of things that you guys must take note of.”

Everyone was not happy with what the baby angel had got to say.

“First off for the six hours, you will have one hour to stay in one spot. The second six hours the time will be cut down into 30 minutes. The third three hours you will only have 3 minutes before your location is compromised. The final nine hours, your location will constantly be sent towards the ‘it’ players.” A vivid grin was plastered on the angel’s face, pleased with what he had to say.

“What?! That’s not fair!” Briana shouted in disbelief. “Are you trying to kill us by making us walk all day?”

“Yes.” The baby giggled. “It’s not like you guys are going to die from walking right?”

“This game is giving away our location! That’s not fair!”

“Fair? I highly doubt that. The location of the city itself is already big enough, but to make the game more interesting. Every hour the size of the playing field will constantly get smaller. By the final nine hours, the playing field should be about four football fields long.”

Everyone was stunned. Nine hours to run around from the enemy in a smaller playing field. They were all going to be exhausted from being mentally drained.

“One last thing.”

Brook and Rook groaned. “Are you serious?” They chorused in disbelief.

“What? It’s not like it's bad news, you know.”

“But this game is already rigged from the start!”

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” The baby waved its stubby fingers. “It is not. We’re just making the game that much more fun. So with that being said, in the last six hours something interesting and fun will happen. All remaining players will play for keeps and the last standing players will get a delicious reward!” Throwing up his hands, he laughed out loud.

“This baby is crazy I tell you.” One of the twins chirps in disbelief.

“You didn’t know that? Even I knew,” said Sam. He rolled his eyes.

“So what is it?” Briana curiously asked. The others stopped to listen, hoping that they would get some kind of clue.

“You want to know?” The baby replied with a sly smile.

Briana shook her head. The baby angel flew over towards her and faced her directly. “Are you sure?” The baby angel asked again.

“Yes?” Briana wasn’t sure what to say, her words automatically fell out of her lips.

“You’re not going to regret it are you?”

“No. I want to know. Stop teasing and tell me.”

The baby angel frowned and crossed its pudgy arms. “No.”

“Why this stupid bab-” Silver snatched Briana backwards to the point she almost fell. She knew the consequences of hitting an angel wasn’t pretty, especially the one that was picking on them.

“Don’t.” Silver stated in a low voice in her ears. “This is not the time to get killed. We’re not strong enough.”

“Ah…” Briana looks over her shoulder embarrassed to be saved by Silver. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“Well then. I got nothing else to say. Bye. Bye.” With a poof the baby angel disappeared, leaving everyone behind.

“This is complete bullshit.” Sam cursed. He kicked an empty plastic water bottle near his feet. “I swear they're all looking down on us.”

“I agree. Whenever these baby angel’s speak I just want to punch them in the face.” Brook nodded.

“Yea. I’m in on that too.” said the other twin.

“That does not matter. Right now we should move.” Silver replied. She got up and helped Briana up. They started to move out from the abandoned building.

Silver looked over her shoulder one last time, knowing that full well that the temporary safety of the building was long over. The last push was starting and she knew that she couldn’t let down her guard.

“Silver!Look out!” Jasper called out, startling Silver from surprise. At that moment, she heard the sound of something ripping on her sleeves.