Dinner was amazing. Everyone shared food, laughs, and liquor. I had to push the brakes on Reina’s indulgence, seeing as she was a lightweight when it came to alcohol. While Naomi wasn’t the drinking type, Reina tasted sin, and she got addicted. She was pretty good about restricting herself once I monitored her, and throughout our meal, I continued to praise her for her cooking.

I guess deep down, I was waiting for her to admit that Gun did all of the work…

When she never confessed, I had to give credit where credit was due. Now, if only she could learn how to clean up after herself…

After dinner, we watched a movie. And before we knew it, it was time to head back to the arena again.

Today’s map selection, Downtown Nork City.

Day two in the tournament was brutal. Team Owl had to go against two new year-three teams: Team Tiger and Team Jaguar. The other team, Team Hawk, was in our group yesterday, which meant that Team Tiger and Team Jaguar had taken first and second places in their group round yesterday too.

Team Jaguar was a cakewalk compared to Hawk and Tiger, so we needed to keep them in our radar. At some point, we were stalking Team Jaguar rather than pursuing the egg, but Team Hawk and Team Tiger weren’t having it.

One team would take one egg, and the other team would fetch the other egg.

With Hawk and Tiger splitting up like this, they avoided clashing with each other, which pretty much guaranteed their top two placement in round 2. Everything felt helpless as my team and I continued to lose every time, those two teams not giving us an option to fight Team Jaguar for even a second.

I could only imagine what was going through Team Jaguar’s head right now—if we teamed up, we could take at least one of them down….

Unfortunately, that was considered cheating, and something that could get the both of us disqualified.

Magpie: Ouch! Looks like Team Owl’s Nero has been sent to the White Box again!

Flamingo: That’s right, Magpie! Let’s see if Reina and Naomi could handle it out there on their own!

At first, I liked the idea of being able to spectate in the White Box. Though, after being sent here so many times, I began to hate it. Sitting on the bench, watching the rest of my team fight out there without me…. I felt so damn useless. But I was the tank, my physical invulnerability putting me in the front of the line. My HP didn’t deplete as quickly as theirs did. So I had to play guard for them, which sent me here more times than I wanted to admit.

I could feel my stamina taking a beating. If I drained my life force extension, then we were screwed…

“A little over a minute left until the round is over,” I whispered to myself, then I looked at my sys board and noticed that I had only a couple seconds before I went back into the ring. “We managed to secure one point. Team Jaguar has zero. Team Hawk has two and Team Tiger has one, also.

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Team Hawk: 2

Team Tiger: 1

Team Owl: 1

Team Jaguar: 0

“All we need is to secure this egg, and we’ll advance to round three.” I studied the field through the holographic screen in the White Box carefully. “Reina and Naomi are playing defense in the fight with Team Tiger…. There’s only one fighter left standing in Team Jag. Team Hawk is preoccupying the other egg on the map, giving that one hunter in Team Jag the heat. At this rate, there’s no point in even trying to go for it. Team Hawk is stronger than Team Tiger, anyway. But the problem is… collectively, Team Tiger’s HP is too damn high to compete with….” I curled up my fist. “Reina is hanging in there, but she’s at 20 HP right now. I don’t know if she can hang on much longer.”

The good thing about Reina and Naomi being active was the fact that when I did come back, I’d be closer to them. So as soon as my counter went down, I materialized back on the map and made a hot dash for the nest.

“Why doesn’t this puppy just roll over and play dead already?!” I heard Saruna’s high-pitched voice as I rushed down the street, followed by a loud ass explosion coming from the apartment building to my right. Saruna was a hunter in Team Tiger, and her expertise was spatial manipulation. When she snapped her fingers or clapped her hands, she could distort space, and the objects preoccupying it.

Her powers were dangerous, because depending on how much stamina she used, she could apply that much pressure in a focal point, unleashing powerful blasts in the exact space someone was occupying. Which meant that if she had her eyes on you, you were fucked….

“Come on, stop playing hard to get!” she giggled, and I already knew she was fighting Naomi. Well, more like chasing Naomi. Naomi was stuck on defense, probably maneuvering around the city to find cover. Her telekinetic powers could hold Saruna off for a short while, unlike Reina. The shitty part about this was, if Naomi was fighting Saruna, then that meant that Reina was dealing with Grad and Thiago.

“I’m going to need you to hang tight a little longer, Reina,” I whispered to myself as I continued to run toward Saruna. They were the closest to me, and once I spotted the levitating spatial girl from the third floor stairway window, I leaped.

I climbed the windows like a monkey, aiming for a stealthy approach. By the time I got to the third floor, I could hear Grad, but faintly. I still had time, crawling in from the open window and searching for Saruna. In the unit, I saw her searching for Naomi, and with her back facing me, I tackled her.

Saruna yelped when I brought her down, screaming bloody murder. The first things I reached for were her hands, and with my weight on her on the floor, I stretched them back and pinned them against her tailbone. I balled them up in my fist, Saruna squirming and writhing as she tried to buck me off. “Manhandling me, and you didn’t even bother offering me dinner first!” she hissed, and then her duo personality kicked in, Saruna giggling like a little schoolgirl. “Now, that’s no way to treat a classy lady like me….”

“You spent a lot of Fame Points feeding your stamina, that you didn’t even bother giving your strength any attention.”

She scoffed. “Against you? That’d be a waste, wouldn’t you think?”

“Naomi, where are you?” I called out, and from the east window, she levitated into the apartment.

“It’s about time you showed up.”

“Ohhh, you’re so lucky your tank came in to save your lousy ass!” Saruna hissed at Naomi. “I would have made mincemeat out of your tiny little bones!”

“Please, keep talking,” Naomi said with a straight face. “You’re only fueling my rage…” All of a sudden, Naomi took over, using her powers to control Saruna. I took a step back, Saruna a puppet to Naomi now.

“You bitch!”

Naomi shrugged. “I’ve been called that so many times, that at this point, it’s a term of endearment. But, I’m not done with you, yet.” Her voice deepened. “You chased me all over this block. Now, I’m going to make you chase your friends….”