"So, here's the game. A simple round of hot potato! Now, please check your phones!"
Valerie, Blair, and Tedros checked their phones, with the other members of their respective groups looking over their shoulders. The game was now open, with a red button underneath the name of every player. Valerie watched as it switched to a green one for a few seconds, and then Ines phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out, and the button on her phone was green, while Valerie's went back to being red.
"Pretty simple game here, folks! Try and kill someone when their phone is green. Also, if you wanna put your phones on vibrate for better focus, that's probably smart. Now, game ends upon a death. Doesn't have to be a green death, but there is a fun little bonus for anyone who lands a kill while it's still on green. Anyway, game starts…now!"
Tedros and Ramon got in front of Ines almost instantly. Elijah ignored them, looking straight at Blair and Sybil. Blair hid behind Sybil, who tried hardening her body. Tedros placed three dots in front of them to create a pillar to cover them, picking up Ines and running away, figuring it best to let Elijah and Sybil kill each other.
Elijah and Sybil kept staring for a while, while their companions watched. Sybil slowly let the crystals overtake her body. Valerie checked her phone, and the block was red. Elijah's phone buzzed, and he was green.
Valerie tried getting a field going, expanding it to make both her and Elijah invisible. She could see Blair look around, summoning a knife from her sketchbook and holding it to her chest.
"Let's just kill Blair." Elijah whispered. "She stabs, I duck, I set her on fire. Easy out."
"You think that'll work?" Valerie asked. She hated the fact Elijah already had a plan in place.
"Yeah. Just wait for her phone to buzz."
The standoff continued. If Elijah were to guess, someone in Tedros group was green. He took a few steps forward, and Valerie followed. He was slowly getting in Blair's range, and Valerie just tried to keep the field up. She noticed that at this size, it seemed to slightly synch up with her breathing. She focused her eyes on a single blade of grass, which slowly went in and out of view. When she held her breath, it stayed in view. Okay, one more thing to keep in mind.
They stayed in range, a small way away in the hopes they don't do anything that could tip the two off. Blair was getting more and more frantic as she looked for any sense of danger.
And then her phone turned green.
She reacted to the buzz with a primal shriek, causing Valerie to breath out too heavy and expand the invisibility field, exposing themselves to Blair and Sybil. Elijah grunted, lunging towards Blair with his flame in hand. Blair quickly lunged forward, knife in hand. But in the panic, Sybil swung her crystal covered fist, batting them both away. Both lay on the ground, coughing and trying to get up. Elijah got up first, but Sybil was able to get in the way. She was slowly getting used to the crystal armour. Slower for sure, she'd have to undo it to make bigger strides, but she was able to block Elijah's hit, watching as his hand bounced off it. He let out a flow of curse words before running back to Valerie, and she made them invisible once again.
"So is the plan just to stay here?" Tedros asked as his phone buzzed in his pocket. The three were staged behind a tree in the hopes it would provide some cover, but it was most likely not going to work. "Because I think we could stage a conflict between two people, okay? Say we get Valerie and Sybil at each other, right? Then, we can team up on Xaawo. Sound like a plan?"
"I mean, what about killing Elijah?" Ramon asked.
"What? Why?" Tedros asked.
"From what I know, he's a gang leader. And probably one of the strongest players left."
"And? Ramon, the Spades are one of the gangs that only fight other gangs when they're bored."
"I mean, we should still be…considering a backup plan, at least?"
Elijah squinted at him, and Ines had another idea. She followed her brother's example, biting her fingernails until one of them drew blood. Then, she quickly smeared the drawn blood on a tree, giving two simple instructions to it.
"Kill Xaawo, and if you can't, kill Elijah."
Ines plan worked, and the tree burst out of the ground.
"Alright!" It yelled out. "Where are the bastards!?"
The tree was loud, extremely so. A woman walking her dog looked towards the source of the noise and immediately picked it up and ran when she saw what made it. Ines didn't expect the tree to be this mad, but she tried keeping up with it.
Xaawo watched the standoff, just waiting in anticipation for something to actually happen. She was hoping the halfway point would only be the most bloodthirsty of players, but apparently not. Maybe she should have killed Blair in the second challenge. It was a spur of the moment thing. Looking back, maybe it was the wrong move? Would that Alison girl have provided more fun? Granted, her killing Terrence was pretty hardcore.
But then a tree appeared behind her.
She turned into a mouse real quick and bolted away from it, watching as a foot tried stomping her down. She morphed a snake hand as she turned back to a human, grabbing Tedros and knocking him downwards. She'd pick him up to toy with him, but she had to avoid Ramon's attempt at an onslaught by throwing Tedros in his direction, letting him absorb any blood. If so, one less person to deal with. The tree tried falling on her, so maybe she's have to kill Ines to try and stop this little annoyance.
She dove for her, and Valerie managed to quickly dive in and save her, turning the space around them invisible in the process. Ines phone buzzed, and Valerie did look at her for a brief second…
…nah, not worth it, even if she tried, someone else would be green by the time she was dead. The aim of the game was now one thing: kill Xaawo.