Se’ky was backed against the wall. His own incompetence and pride made him fall into the enemy's trap. He wanted to beat Franco into a bloody pulp. He was holding back his emotions as a member of the Crimson Caravan. More important than his pride or his life was the reputation of the Crimson Baron.

He already failed once with the whole fiasco about capturing the pix. This was his last chance. He took a deep breath and began to sprint into the distance.

"I won’t let you get anything!" Franco ran behind. He wasn’t as fast as the tolgar, but he was the only one who could keep up. He only had to buy time for a few more minutes until Nathan could make the worm cross the fire ring.

"It looks like Se’ky is running to the west!" David followed them on his mount. The two below were running at full speed.

Franco kept his eyes open, looking for any creature that came close enough to kill it. He looked all around, but he saw only sand. Suddenly a shadow appeared on the ground; it was a bird flying high. Se’ky was running toward the bird.

There's no way he can catch it; I saw his whips' range during the fight, but just in case.

"Look out!" He charged with his fist and threw a hook toward the bird. The impact flew directly at the beast, but Se’ky stopped in his tracks.

The tolgar bent his knees until his legs were almost touching the ground. The muscles were compressed to the maximum, and with a loud sound, he jumped into the air.

The air wave was faster than Se'ky, who was rising from the ground like a rocket. Right as it was about to hit, the bird moved out of the way.

"What?" Franco exclaimed.

The bird's movements were precise and elegant; it changed directions so effortlessly. That was exactly what Se’ky was waiting for; he jumped, taking Franco’s attack into consideration. His trajectory was perfect.

Instead of using the whips, he grabbed his sword and aimed at the beast. His eyes were locked on his target, and the sword pierced the bird on its left wing.

The bird cried out in pain and moved its body, trying to get away, but it was useless. The sword embedded in its flesh was not a simple wound; it had the power to cause sickness in those who got hurt by the sharp blade.

The bird lost his senses and began to fall. It desperately tried to flap its wings, but the sickness caused it to miscalculate the balance, distance to the ground, and direction. It was going straight down to the sand.

Franco ran toward the bird, but he was behind Se'ky, who was also falling back to the ground. He focused his power and threw another hook at the bird. This one was definitely going to destroy it.

A wall of flames erupted in front of him as Se’ky blocked his attack with two fire whips. The bird finally crashed in the sand, and the tolgar was close to touching it.

Franco started to sweat; he had to kill it. He was sure that he could do it with a bit more power, but that could hurt Se'ky, and he would be disqualified. How? How can I do it?

He raked his brain for another way to attack and looked down at the sand. He raised his fist and hit the ground with tremendous might. It was a smaller version of his Void Fist, but it traveled below the sand, right on top of the confused bird.

The sand erupted and dispersed in the wind, but he failed. Se’ky managed to get close enough and use his back to take the hit. The dark armor didn’t have a scratch on it, and the bird was unharmed.

"Se’ky has touched the beast! This means no more attacks against the bird are allowed. Now is back to the competition to see who can make his beast cross the ring first!" David announced it, and Nathan felt the pressure.

"Seriously, it didn’t take him more than five minutes!" The worm started to wake up; it moved his head from side to side, and Nathan called his attention.

"Come on, look at his buddy." He shook a piece of meat in front of it. "You can have it; the only thing you need to do is pass the ring of fire, and then you can be on your way back to the desert."

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He threw the meat at the other side of the hoop and made small movements, indicating that was the direction for the worm to move. The animal dragged its body slowly toward the exit of the barriers. The prospect of escaping back into the sands was more appealing than the food, but the fire made it hesitate a little.

"You can do it; with that big, fat body of yours, it's not going to hurt you at all." It was going to take a little bit more, but he was close to making the worm cross and win.

At the same time, Franco was running back to help since he couldn’t attack the bird anymore. He looked back at the tolgar; he expected to see a mocking smile like before, but Se’ky was focused on the bird.

He took out the sword from the wing, and the bird started to regain consciousness. The bird tried to fly away, but the whip hit it in the head and brought it down again.

"Still!" Se’ky looked down on the bird with cold eyes. The bird attempted to flee once more but was stopped by two whips.

The bird made a bunch of painful noises, but he didn’t care, and with a commanding tone of voice, Se’ky repeated his order. "Still!"

It took about four tries before the bird learned about the pain of being domesticated. It was losing blood, and it was going to die soon if this kept going, but the threat of more pain was the only thing on its mind.

It was fear; in only a minute, the bird determined that being afraid of Se’ky was the priority. His small brain warned him that this red creature could do far worse to him. After standing still with his life on the line, Se’ky uttered his next order as he gave him a fresh rat to eat.

"Move!" he pointed with one of his four arms to the caravan. The bird was still confused, but another whipping made him move.

Its wings were covered in blood, but it had to obey. The only other option would be a lot of pain and then death. As it moved in the correct direction, Se’ky gave him more rats to catch with its mouth.

Every time the bird changed directions away from the ring of fire, he cracked the whip and hit him. "Not left; keep going straight!"

Se’ky picked up the pace and was hitting the whip closer, forcing the bird to fly faster and faster. It didn’t take him long for them to pass Franco.

"How?" He couldn’t believe that the bird was up and obeying in only a few minutes. He was getting left behind; there was nothing more he could do than scream at Nathan. "Hurry Nathan. He’s coming with a bird!" He ran and yelled until his voice cracked, but the tolgar was advancing like a train.

The worm was close; it only needed a little more push. He tilted the barriers along with the shield to make the worm slide across the fire hoop. "Yes!"

Right as his hopes were raised, they crumbled into pieces. The worm shook his body to avoid the fire ring; it was trying to run away.

"Stop, just cross the ring!" Nathan moved his shield and changed the barriers to redirect the worm back to its original position. "Please just cross it! It’s not going to take more than a minute."

He didn’t have a minute. A rat flew across the ring of fire, a sweet, toasted rat that was devoured by the bird that crossed the ring and gave its master the victory.

"The black bird crossed the ring! The first game is over, and the winner is the Master of Beasts and Slaves. Se’ky!

A loud roar echoed in the Crimson Caravan, a cheer for their master and the first victory of the carnival. Among the noise, Se’ky looked at Grimdow, who was clapping with a satisfied expression.

"Good work."

"Thank you, Master." Those words were enough to give him happiness.

"Dammit! It was my fault. I should have killed that bird." Franco kicked the sand in frustration while Nathan bit his lips in anguish.

"Well, it looks like we’re the ones to win this game. According to the bet, I won that collar." Grimdow extended his hand to Silas, who was sitting to his right.

Silas looked at his opponent, trying to hold back his shame and indignation. They exploited a loophole in the ruling and still lost. Nothing left a more bitter taste than losing after making a good plan and having his guildmates follow it.

He took off the necklace and gave it to Grimdow. "A bet is a bet; you won this round, but don’t think this is all we have."

"Hehehe, let’s see, shall we?"

David dropped down from his mount and announced the next game. "Before we can begin the second game, we need to prepare the obstacles. Please wait patiently with food and drinks."

"Don’t you want to see your team for the next game? They're going to use one of our carts; aren't you worried we cheated?"

"No, I got one person over there who can look thoroughly. If you weakened it to destroy it in the middle of the race, she will notice and repair it.."

***

Nadine finished the finishing touches on the cart they were going to use for the race in Dawn's tent. "This should be good enough. I wanted to give it a weapon, but that would make it too heavy for a race."

"Don’t worry; I'll deal with anything. I’m sure they are going to try to pull something under our noses." Emily grabbed the front and pulled it outside.

"Anyway, good luck." Nadine gave her a thumbs up as she went to the starting line.

"For the second game, the obstacle race, we have a team of three ladies. From Dawn, Nora, Emily, and Rebecca!"

"They keep looking at us with bewildered expressions. I assumed they were accustomed to seeing humans; their own announcer is human too."

"I don’t think it's about that, Nora." Rebecca didn’t want to say it, but Emily understood.

"Yeah, a half-plant monster looks like it would belong in their cages."

"S-sorry I didn’t mean to—"

"I can’t wait to see their faces when we win." Emily said it with a proud smile.