We waited inside our tent. And we waited. But the night didn't end.

The sun had set yesterday at 7 P.M. Now it was almost 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It had been over 20 hours, but not the slightest crack of dawn had yet breached the pitch-dark sky.

The moon was nowhere to be seen.

Tanin joined Saber and me in our tent.

"How long is it going to last?" Saber asked him.

"Beats me," Tanin said. "Sylvia and them might have an idea. Nights could last a few months, up in polar regions. That's the worst case if we're talking about earth. Here, hard to say."

We grew hungry and ate. We grew cold and kindled a campfire outside our tent. The wind blew cold through our tents. Saber trembled from the cold, and our breaths fogged. Despite the ice magic in my veins, I still felt a noticeable chill. I fetched our bunnies from their enclosure, and gave one each to Tanin and Saber to keep everyone warm.

"We need to meet with the other team," I decided. "This worries me. A lot."

"It could be foul play," Tanin said.

He didn't elaborate, but I knew what he meant.

Sylvia, Brandon, and Reina were all strangers we met weeks ago. And while we had bitten the bullet and put our trust in them, there was always the chance that we had made a mistake. Perhaps this lengthened night was their doing. As much as I wished to believe in them, I had to remain on guard.

"Should we go survey the lanes, then?" I asked. "To make sure they hadn't made a move."

The others agreed. We geared up for battle and left the safety of our base. The three of us went out together, with Tanin leaning upon Saber. I led the way, using the flashlight of my phone to scout. The battery would last us an hour, probably less.

As per our prior agreement with Sylvia's team, we did not approach the lanes. Rather, we came near, stopping by the shore of the river next to the middle lane. The golems fought at the halfway point between the towers, as they were supposed to. We saw no signs of the other team, not even tracks or footprints upon the lane. Both towers were undamaged. We then walked over to near the top lane, then the bottom lane. Likewise,they appeared untouched, as we scouted them from a distance. We stopped by the riverside near the bottom lane.

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Far away, across the river and on the other side of the arena, a column of smoke rose up, barely visible in the darkness. It seemed to come from inside the other team's base.

"Looks like they've also started a fire," I said.

I knelt down and felt the temperature of the river water. It was ice-cold now, after nearly a full day without the sun's warmth. With my cold tolerance, I could probably cross it without much issue, though Saber and Tanin might suffer from hypothermia if they waded through and didn't dry themselves afterwards.

I took a few steps into the river, testing how well I could cross it. When my feet plunged into the icy water, I nonetheless shivered. But it was manageable.

"Don't go," Tanin said. "You could be walking straight into their trap."

I sighed. He was right. The hair on my arms had stood up; I knew danger could be lurking behind any corner.

"We can't just wait around either," I pointed out. "If they wanted to screw us over, we'd just be giving them the first-strike advantage."

"You don't know that," Saber argued. "For all we know, they're just as confused as we are."

"I'm being hypothetical," I said. "Like it or not, we need to assume the worst."

Saber pursed her lips. "Sophia, please. You know nothing will work out if there's no trust between everyone. Is this – a few extra hours of night – all it takes to break our alliance?"

"Kindly, shut up," Tanin said. "If you wanna –"

"You shut up too," I cut him off. "Look. We aren't supposed to touch the lanes. We don't want to cross over to their side of the river." I lowered my voice to a whisper, in case anyone was listening in on us. "We still have the caves with the zombies. We'll farm those. If they want to play the waiting game, we'll just level up in the meantime, get gold and potions. And if they've been innocent all along, no harm done either."

Tanin scanned the surroundings. "If they anticipate that, they'd be waiting at the caves, to strike soon as we get there."

"Unlikely. There are four caves on our side of the arena. They have better things to do than stake out one of them, waiting around."

Tanin shrugged. "Fair."

We began our trek to a zombie cave, the one right to the north of the bottom lane and on our side of the arena. We were careful not to make any sudden movements that might give away our position. The darkness was thick around us, and the only sound was the crunching of our footsteps over the dead leaves carpeting the ground. We kept our eyes peeled for any signs of movement, but all we could see was the dense forest that surrounded us.

Soon, the cave came into view. It was an opening, about the width of a truck, into the bowels of a stony hill. I couldn't see inside since it was dark, and I turned off my phone-flashlight, so the zombies wouldn't be alerted. I readied a Frost Missile. Zombies were usually rather weak, to the point that Saber alone could clear a cave without much trouble.

We carefully surveyed the perimeter of the cave, on guard for any signs of movement. When we confirmed there was no one outside, we charged in through the mouth of the cave, all three of us at the same time. I quickly turned my flashlight back on, scanning from one wall of the cave to the other.

But it was empty. There was not a single zombie to be found.

We only found smoldered dirt on the ground and the stench of burnt flesh.