Felix and his team kept the momentum going. The round was almost over, and judging by how hard they were hitting, I imagined that if they didn’t confirm an egg, they were going to be knocked out of the tournament.

So Felix wasted no time in getting rid of Bella. He swung his arms in a tornado formation, picking Bella up before she could realize what was going on. Felix was so quick with it that if I’d blinked, I’d miss Bella being scooped by the tornado and flung out the warehouse window like yesterday’s trash.

Gun followed up by summoning a Bison, Gun garnering its speed and strength for Elissa.

“Not a chance!” Elissa cried, clashing her fists together. “This egg is ours!”

We have to secure this egg before time is up, I said to myself, having made a mental note of the seconds left in the round. But if two teams were here, and Reina and Naomi just scored, then what was Team Hawk doing?

Gun and Elissa clashed, which left Mirkov with Ash and Felix. Mirkov made his golem toss me into them, and I landed at my feet. Honestly, I was just grateful that I was finally free. Not out of the fray, but free, nevertheless.

With a sigh of relief, I picked myself up. No sooner did I get on my feet, Felix attacked me with a wind blade.

Instinctively, I raised my arm to absorb the blow. I opened my mouth, about to ask him a stupid question, until I realized that Felix was zoned in. In the Hunter Games, we weren’t roommates. We were opponents, fierce competitors fighting for the same crown.

Forget our camaraderie and the good times. Felix was locked in. That being said, I couldn’t expend too much on this fight. Even though my HP was higher than his, I tried to seal the fight as quickly as I could.

Felix continued to hit me with a barrage of wind blades, leaving a tingling sensation on my skin. I could tell with how fast he was going that he wanted to wrap up our fight as well. Whether it be because of points or stamina, it didn’t matter. Felix tended to falter when his back was against the wall. He’d lean into his stamina more just to get the job done, his patience thinning the longer I dodged and blocked.

Until he finally snapped, bringing the warehouse ceiling down with a full-blown wind explosion. He sent everyone flying away, the roof falling over our heads. This friendly fire wasn’t as strategic as mine, but it got the work done, because while he buried his friends in the rubble, he also buried Mirkov and Elissa there, too.

My physical invulnerability kept my health bar safe. I wish I could say the same for Gun and Ash. I pushed the chunks of wooden beams from my back and peaked through the screen of dust to see Felix. He snatched the Drake egg and made a clean getaway, dashing out of the warehouse leaving Ash and Gun behind.

This was my opportunity to counterattack, but as I got out from the rubble, I stopped myself and checked my H-Tec. My team had two points. Felix’s team had zero. Bram’s team had one point, and Elissa’s had one point, too.

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Team Owl: 2

Team Hawk: 1

Team Lynx: 1

Team Seal: 0

Teaming up with opponents was forbidden in the Hunter Games. But even if I wanted to help Felix, him scoring the egg wouldn’t advance him into the next round. Ties are broken by performance, and judging by how low his team’s HP caps were, he was going to lose regardless.

This was why it was dangerous to feed kills to the opponent. So even if Felix could score this egg, he’d need to team wipe, too.

Could that be why he left Gun and Ash behind? Or was he just being reckless and desperate?

Gun, Mirkov, Elissa, and Ash started to stir up from the rubble. I thought about my options carefully, and ran the opposite way from Felix and toward the other egg.

More important than chasing Felix was reuniting with my team….

I reached a forest area and looked up, the time under two minutes now. As soon as I looked ahead of me, the crowd went wild, Team Seal scoring a point. Great. Now all Felix, Gun, and Ash had to do was claim the other egg on the map and—shit, Bram’s team just nested it!

I stopped dead in my tracks, feeling a harsh breeze slice through me. It had to have been Bella, and she was trying to regroup with her team.

“Count my blessings,” I whispered under my breath, thankful that she didn’t see me. But with Team Hawk nesting an egg, everyone was going to want to get their hands on it.

It was going to be a battle royale….

“Nero? Is that you?” I heard Reina’s voice, but I couldn’t see her. I tapped into my thermo vision for a second, noticing her and Naomi hiding in the base of a tree.

“Naomi? Reina!” I ran to the large stone serving as a door for the opening of the tree, Naomi nearly knocking me out with it as she pried it open with her meta. As soon as I saw them, a smile found my face. I was glad they were all right, and their health bars were full, too.

“We just respawned,” Naomi said as she crawled out after Reina.

“Where have you been?!” Reina barked at me. “We barely made it out of that fight with a point!”

“I heard you two 3rd partied without me?” I chuckled, then reeled both girls in my arms. “I’m so proud of you two! Working together to get the job done!”

“All right,” Naomi said, wiggling free. “Let’s not get carried away. I already had to spend more time than I wanted to cooped up in a tree with her.”

“Like you’re any more pleasant!” Reina clapped back.

“I was being held hostage by Mirkov,” I admitted. “I had to weigh my options, but I'm glad I didn’t burn through my stam. I believed in you girls.”

“I used more items than I wanted to in that skirmish,” Naomi said. “There’s no time for any team to get the other egg on the other side of the map. No one but—”

“Bella,” I finished.

“So, what’s the play?” Reina asked. “We have two points. The other teams have one each.”

“But Bella is going to effortlessly score another point,” I reminded her. “Elissa and Mirkov are probably going to go to the hot egg right now. Worst case scenario, they die, and respawn closer to Bella to confirm their score.”

“Then, it’ll be 2/2, 1/1,” Reina said.

“Unless 3rd or 4th place secures an egg, then it'll be tied three ways,” I reminded them. “At which point, the judges would turn to kill score.”

“Ours isn’t looking too great…” Reina whispered.

“Our problem is stopping Team Hawk from securing a point. So let’s focus on that.”

Naomi turned to me. “A doable distance, but time’s against us.”

“Then let’s go now.

“Wyrm egg, 112 meters away,” Reina said as she checked. And then she turned to Naomi and asked, “We need a lift.”

But before Naomi could fix our ride, I heard a loud crack behind us, the ground sprouting up the Wyrm egg!

Someone must have used a relocator item, infusing its unmovable base in its new spawn point. And now the golden egg and its nest was ripe for the taking!

“Naomi, take it!” Reina cried.

But instead of turning around and touching it, Naomi leaped out of the way and shouted, “Watch out!”