Chapter 8

Castle Invasion

“What’s taking the gate so long to open?” A red hair women was impatiently tapping her feet in frustration. She was a strikingly beautiful, high class lady that one would see in a popular magazine. Even the green gym clothes that she was wearing matched perfectly with her S line curves. “What does it take to get this game started?” She was itching to move forward.

“Calm down. Rose. Look two more is here.” A man with a scar spoke. He was large, well built with military hair cut. Everything about him screamed a military type of man, the way he held himself, and the way he examined each person was scrutinizing them to the very bones.  He motioned his head towards Silver and Jasper that was coming from the side.

“Finally. I thought I would have to wait all morning or something.” Rose turned towards the giant gate with the number three painted in red. In front of her was a pedestal with a crystal orb with a numerical value of eight, floating inside. When Silver and Jasper walked up towards the pedestal, the number changed to ten.

“Well then, let’s introduce ourselves.” The man with the scar spoke with a grin. He was in a the same gym clothes with muscles bulging out of from both his sleeves that were wrapped up neatly up above his elbows. His slightly tan skin were engraved with tattoos that line up one of his arms, where one might think he was part of the yakuza from the intricate design of his tattoo that he had. “My name is Tyler. Miss grumpy here is Rose.” He pointed towards the red hair lady

“I’m Jasper.” Jasper gave them a cute smile that befitted his appearance. Silver sometimes wonder if Jasper gave that cute smile intentionally, or if it was all unconsciously, because anyone who saw him slightly waver. “This is Silver, my friend.” The word friend was accentuated.

Another man with short hair and lean body spoke from the side. His golden hair glimmered underneath the light creating a soft hue. A handsome European man stood with a wide grin.  “I’m Mike. My partner here is Sarah.” He motioned to the blond hair lady wearing green gym clothes. Both of them look like a perfect picture couple that complimented each other. Not a single blemish appeared on their skin, making them look even more beautiful.

“Cole.” A young teenager who was in the school uniform. His brown hair and freckled face was examining them all nervously. He shrunk back as he rubbed his fingers, glancing back and forth from Rose to Tyler.

“I’m Kathy and my friend here is Abby. We go to the same school as Cole.” Two girls, one lean and the other a bit chubby spoke up. They two were wearing the same school uniform like Sliver.

“I go by Jake.” A middle aged man, who held himself highly, gazed at each one of them.  His cream colored hair, tight lips that was in a frown, he combed his hair backwards with his hands. “I don’t know about you guys, but this is not a walk in the park. Just yesterday we dealt with hell, and, today, I get the feeling we are going through the same thing.” He pulled his collar to loosen it up.

“Well, isn’t that obvious.” Rose rolled her eyes. “We’re all here in the hopes to get more Angel coins. So with that being said, don’t drag me down. I’m not the type to pair up with dead weights like you guys.” She huffed with disdain. She flicked her red hair backwards and all the guys stared at her beautiful neck and face. The two other girls rolled their eyes at her and look away annoyed at her snobbish attitude.

Silver examined the group of people before her, she got the feeling not many of them were fighters. Actually, she took it back, possibly just one, Tyler, because of the way he held himself. He had a subtle air around him that told her that he was pretty well trained. Maybe it was because he went into the army, or possible had a life and death squabble back at home, who knows.

The others, she didn’t put much hope on the, in actuality, she had a feeling that this group of ten would be severely cut down by half. Maybe just Jasper and her, who might lived through this mini-game. She always wondered, why people would take on such difficult challenge in the beginning. She was sure that the twin angels would’ve explained a bit about the levels to each player's. It was their job to inform people, but she assumed it was all because of the reward.

Still, she had to give it to the small group that came to test their luck. This gate wasn’t a simple walk in the park, but to have the courage to tackle on such a difficult task were either complete fools or were seriously brave. Half of them, she got the feeling that they were fools, wasting their lives on a difficult game, when they could go to a more safer route. She didn’t need to name them, she could just tell. Either way, she shook such thought out of her mind, and brought her attention back to the gate.

Rumble. Rumble. Rumble. Creaakkkkk.

The door shook open and gust of hot air erupted outwards. Everyone stepped backwards, trying not to get caught up by the thick smokes. As the smoke cleared up, a clear sky opened up before them. In front of them was also a quiet, serene, metallic looking lake that seem to endlessly go into the distance, creating a mesmerizing scene. Large square platforms about the size of two people to walk on top of them were scattered around like speckled stones. Each one had different numbers written down boldly in black. Far away, floating in the air, a large majestic castle that seem to be covered with fog.

“A castle? What is something like that doing out here?” Sarah was flabbergasted at the sight before them.

“Why are you amazed? Come on after all that happened yesterday, this shouldn’t even bat your eyes.” Tyler gave an uncomfortable laugh. He too was awed at the scene before them, the whole scene look like they were in some kind of fantasy type world straight out of a fairy tale.

Moments later, a large words appeared in the air like a hologram in front of everyone.

Please step on platform number 1.

Everyone walked over with tension. The door behind them rumbled shut, leaving them on the platform on top of the lake. They nervously look back, hoping that the door would open up again, but it didn’t. Instead, cool air from the lake whistled through the air, bringing in a slight chill.

“Anyone wants to go first?” Jake asked half heartedly with a chuckle. He motioned someone to take the first jump towards the next numbered number.

“Why don’t you go in first instead of asking someone to go first, you coward!” Rose ruthlessly kicked him by the shin that propelled him forward.

Jake stumbled, his hand flailing around him to catch his balance. One hand dipped into the water and the other hand on the platform. A sudden sound of splashing could be heard in front of the Jake. Jake’s voice let out a piercing scream of pain that froze everyone in their track.

Everyone except Silver stepped back as they glanced over in horror. What happened next was straight out of a horror movie, Jake was being pulled into the water by something. The water was turning bloody red, giving the water a painted look of oil attempting to mix together. With a loud splash, Jake was roughly pulled in as he completely disappeared into the metallic looking water. In matter of moments, the blood dissipated leaving back a clear view of the sky. Not a single one of them could see through the water, wondering if everything that had transpired was even real to begin with.

“You bitch you just killed a man!” Tyler broke the silence with a roar. He reached over and  yanked Rose by the collar, causing her to scream. Rose stumbled, trying to get out of his grasp.

“Let me go you bastard!” Rose furiously yelled continuously. “How the hell did I know that that would happen!”

“Shut up!” Tyler ruthlessly flung her forward, until she stumbled towards the edge. “You’re going first!”

“What the hell?! If you push me then you become a murder too!”

“True, but at least it would get rid of one scum on this world! Now move, before I kick you just like how you did to Jake!”

Rose glowered towards Tyler. She spat onto the ground in front of him, and started to lean over to see if anything would jump out. With outstretched legs, she leaned towards the next platform. Her face were filled with fear as she prayed in a mumble that whatever was in the water would not jump out and bite her in between her legs. Seconds went by, and nothing happened to her. She was completely, standing on the numbered two platform. She turned towards Tyler with an vicious glare. “I’ll make sure you die next!”

“Heartless woman, is that a threat?” Tyler gave her a scowl and spat to his side. He didn’t take to lightly with being threatened. “Bring it, I’ll break you like a twig if I ever see you coming near me.”

Rose continued to walk forward, hopping over to the next platform written with the number three. She continued to jump onto the next and the next, leaving behind the others at the entrance.

Silver got ready to walk up towards the next, but stopped. She fished for some red crystals from her inventory and turned towards Jasper. Reaching over, she handed him the crystals, knowing full well that this obstacle coarse will be difficult for him. Jasper held up his hand, confused, and when she dropped the crystals in hand, he froze.

"Get stronger. Don't die." She quickly replied. "My investment."

"Silver?" Jasper gaped, looking at her confused. Silver didn't say anything, and quickly walked up to the platform before Jasper could do anything. She jumped onto a numbered stone, different from where Rose went on. She then glanced around, there were multiple number four platforms around her. This time, she picked a different number two stone away from Rose, and she then jumped to the next number.

“Silver!” Jasper called out towards her. He too followed behind her and was ready to jump on the first rock where Silver jumped on, when Sarah and Mike cut him off.

“Sorry boy, we’ll be heading first. It’s best that you watch us adults, so you don’t get harmed.” Sarah winked. She jumped onto the number two platform and then she jumped onto the rock that Silver stepped on. All of a sudden, the platform shuddered and collapsed underneath her as she was swallowed up by the metallic water. Her ear piercing scream caught everyone’s attention, wondering what had happened as she fell foot first.

“Sarah!” Mike desperately reached out to try to grab her, he grabbed onto her hand and pulled with all his might.

Sarah was pulled out of the water with only half of her body, while the lower part was missing. Intestines, bone, and blood were falling out, while an ugly looking demonic piranha fish were chomping onto her skin vigorously eating her alive.

“Sarah!” Mike called out in distraught. He viciously swat away at the Piranha in the attempt to save her, but his attempt was futile. They were eating through her more quickly than he could swat them away.

“M-m-i-k-e...” Blood seeped out of Sarah’s lips, her eyes rolled back, and she flopped to the side falling silent. She was dead in matter of seconds.

Everyone who was still on the platform was stunned at the scene before them. They knew now what had devoured Jake without even letting him surface to the water. Silenced filled the air, the others were uncomfortable in what they had saw. Mike was weeping as he hollered out in pain as his lover died.

“I’m sorry.” Tyler gently pat him on his back. “If you don’t want to go ahead, I suggest you to stay.”

Mike didn’t say anything and continued to weep. His beautiful face was filled deeply with sorrow and guilt that he couldn’t save his lover. The rest of the group was staring at the water and back at Sarah fearing that they would die. Silver watched and understood exactly what was going on. Nobody could step on the same number twice. This was the first rule to this mini-game that they were in.

“Don’t step on the same number that the others just stepped on!” Jasper stopped Kathy who was going to follow Rose.

“W-why?” Kathy’s leg was just about to jump onto the same step that was Rose’s

“Did you not notice? The numbered stone that the other step on disappears?!”

Everyone was silent and understood exactly what Jasper meant.

“We should all go a different route. If not, we’re going to end up like...gulp...Sarah.” When Jasper said her name, Mike glared at Jasper. “Look I’m just trying to help okay? I don’t want to die.”

“This kid got a point. Let’s all separate.” Tyler patted Mike on the shoulder to appease his sorrow, but all it did was annoy Mike even more. Tyler jumped onto an open number two that no one took a step on. Cole, Kathy, Abby, and Jasper all splitted ways, Jasper took the route that was close to Silver and hurriedly followed after her.

It didn’t take long until they all heard something strange. Behind them, a strange bubbling like nose popped around the platform that Mike was in.

Tyler’s eyes became wide, he gaped like a fish. “Mike get off the platform!” Tyler yelled for him to jump.

The platform rocked back and forth as demonic piranhas jumped out from the water, snapping at Mike’s body. Some were able to get a good grasp on Sarah’s dead body and started to chew on it like a bone. They wiggled and flopped around, trying to pull the body back into the water

Mike pushed back startled at the sudden frenzy of fish that jump out to snap at his and Sarah’s body. He quickly scrambled towards a number two rock and jumped onto it without a second thought. After a while, the rock flipped over, pushing the dead body into the water and leaving behind an empty space.

“Sarah!” Mike cried out in desperation. He clenched in heart and wailed.

It was a sorrowful sight even for Silver, but she knew that something like this would happen constantly throughout the game. They were nothing, one could do, but to steel oneself forward and move on. That was her motto right this moment. It was her against the obstacle, nobody else but her own will to survive could continue on this stamina draining task.

All around the stones that each person was on, bubbles emerged around them as the demonic piranha jumped out with a splash, trying to get a bite of their flesh. Silver punched a piranha that jumped at her face as she sent it flying. She quickly hopped over to the next and stopped. Before her was a large rock, impeding her path siting on a number nine. On the other side was the number ten for her to jump on.

“What the hell is this?” Silver heard Rose’s voice cry out in frustration. Rose frowned. “Why is there a rock in the middle of the damn path! What kind of sick joke is this? How am I supposed to jump over that?” She was fuming as she was looking over a way to jump out of the predicament.

“Watch, this is child’s play.” Tyler walk over to the edge of the large square and gave himself a short running burst. He launched himself perfectly over the rock as if it was nothing. Landing without a single scratch, he continued onwards.

Rose frowned, spat at the ground, disgusted at the Tyler who took the lead. “Fine, this is nothing for me either.” She took off her high heels that didn’t match with her gym clothes, pulled up her sleeves and pants. She followed the same example as Tyler and jumped over without any trouble.

Silver followed suit, she scooted back towards the edge of the platform, and ran. With a push of her legs, she flew over the rock and landed perfectly.

Mike on the other hand didn’t move from number two, until, once again, the water bubbled and the piranha snapped at his body trying to eat him alive. He pushed forward out of fear of dying. This was the only motive that kept him going in this wretched game.

The group of eight people continued forward, following the number of steps before them. As they continued forward, they noticed the boulders that were in front of them was also getting bigger and bigger. Even Silver was trying to think of the best ways to jump over without getting caught and hurting herself.

“It’s like i’m playing bloody hop scotch.” Rose cursed. On the inside of her thighs it were getting scratched apart from jumping over the rocks. She wasn’t jumping high enough to pass the rocks that impeded her path. Even Silver had a quite of few of her thighs scraped across the rock, leaving behind bloody scratches. A tinge of pain could be felt, but she chalked it up and ignored it.

“I got the same feeling.” Cole suddenly spoke. He heard what Rose said and understood what she meant. “I’m also not liking where this is going. At this rate, I think the boulders are going to get impossibly large for us to jump over. I’m more afraid of what will happen if we can’t make it over.”

Kathy and Abby both nodded in unison. All of them heard what Cole had stated, especially because they weren’t far away from each other so it was easy to hear.

“Number 50.” Silver frowned. The object in front of her this time wasn’t a boulder, but a giant ring like hoop. The hoop caught on fire, creating a scorching hot warmth that made her bring up her hand in front of her. She could see that number 51 was a very long platform that gave her enough space to do a diving roll.

Rose squealed in a high pitch in complete disbelief. “Are you shitting me? Seriously? What are we? Animals in a circus act? Who in the right mind created something messed up as this?” She was throwing a tantrum, but even still nothing changed. Others ignored her, trying to figure out a way to get across without catching on fire.

“This is not the time to howl bitch. We all got another problem on our hand,” said Tyler as he scoffed at Rose’s tantrum. He was getting a headache from listening to her yells.

“We have, literally, thirty seconds to jump or face death!” Jasper informed. He was counting every second it took for the platform to go under. “Any more than that you’re dead.”

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“Great.” Rose grumbled. “Damn circus act and now possibly getting eaten by demonic piranhas.”

Resting was cut short, pushing everyone forward to the point of exhaustion. They were no time to rest or they would die from falling into the water. Even Silver’s breath became heavy, her lungs were starting to get tight.

“This is crazy!” Rose threw her shoes through the hoop, and nothing happened. Instead, it landed safely on the other side.

“Well, now we know it is safe,” said Tyler who caught of glimpse of Rose throwing her shoe. This reassured him that the obstacle in front of him won’t just suddenly combust when he ran through. He took a running start and dove through the hoop. Not an inch of his body was harmed as he rolled out of his dive.

“This is too easy.” Tyler smirked, he look over his shoulder, egging Rose. “I guess this wasn’t that hard as you made it out to be.”

Rose glowered at him. She took a running start and followed after. As she jumped part of her gym sweater caught on fire. Landing with a thump, she frantically ran around trying to douse the flames.

“Someone! Save me!” Rose floundered around in fear. The fire continued to eat through her clothes.

“Stop, drop, and roll!” Kathy yelled frantically, out of worry, from a good ways across from her. She didn’t want to see another person die.

Rose heard her suggestion and followed her direction. It didn’t take too long before she was able to get the fire under control. “T-thanks.” She weakly replied.

“The bitch knows how to say Thanks.” Tyler clucked his teeth in disappointment.

Rose gave him a furious glare, and Tyler just went ahead without looking back. The rest followed suit and kept on going. Every ten steps were a boulder that impede their path, but every fifty steps the hoop were present. The path got a bit more difficult than before, but it wasn’t an impossible path.

When they reached two hundred, they were all half way across the lake. Silver noticed that Jasper, luckily took an much easier route then the rest of the group. He would've died by now if it wasn't for the crystal and the wise choices that he made. All around them, the bubbles started to boil from the water around each step that everyone was on.

Silver gritted her teeth, and jumped towards the next platform. She hopped that the bubbles weren’t a harbor of bad news, but she knew that wasn’t possible.

Rose was on number step 233. Cole was on 220 while Kathy and Abby was 214. Tyler was on step number 240, while Jasper was on 238. Only Silver was on 240, getting closer towards step number 245. What stood before her was five hoops, one after each step. They were all swinging in different intervals from side-to-side.

Silver was worried at the challenge ahead, she was actually starting to get tired from jumping over rocks and hoops. At the rate that she was going, she knew that it was going to be difficult to make it to the castle. She needed rest to recuperate from the fatigue from hopping from one platform to the other. The goal right now was to conserve every energy she had from each hop by resting for twenty seconds, before jumping.

While waiting for her twenty seconds to be over, the water gurgled and splashed not to far away from her. From the depths of the water, a large building like structure, with the number 250, appeared from the waters. It was an old modern building with broken windows, metal wires jutted out from the sides, while moss and seaweed covered all over its wall.

Twenty three...Silver realized that she over counted. A fish jumped out of the water in attempt to snap on Silver’s leg. The water around her bubbled and more and more piranha jumped out to eat her alive. With a vicious kick, she smacked the piranhas away from biting her. She then took a couple steps back.

Suddenly, Abby screamed as she was bitten by a piranha, jarring Silver to turn towards her. Abby whack at the fish as a chunk of her skin was ripped away, leaving behind a streams of blood that flowed out her arm. More and more, frenzied piranha, jumped out of the water from the lure of freshly scented blood. She ran and jumped in fear, trying to run away from being eaten alive.

Swarms of piranha’s continually snapped at her heels in the hopes to get another bite out of her bleeding arm. Her jumping and dodging was becoming more slow, her breath became short and ragged, but she pushed on.

Then, Abby made it to the five swinging hoops, she jumped ahead picking up her momentum. Each one, she flawlessly jumped through, until the fourth hoop. Instead of jumping through the fire hoop, she jumped onto the number that the hoop was on. From her hiccup, hundreds of piranha jumped out of the waters and bite down savagely into her body. The platform shook, and she fell to her death. Only a chilling scream could be heard as she dyed the water red.

“Abby!” Kathy howled, but she had no time to stay in one spot. She had to jump or she would die. The piranha’s wouldn't let her rest and instead pushed her forward.

Silver momentarily pause was snapped awake from Kathy’s yell.  A piranha jumped out from the waters in attempt to latch on to her leg once again. She pulled back just in time, before she got a piece of her flesh chewed on. Leaning forward, she started to into a sprint, she jumped through each of the moving hoops without stopping. Her feet didn’t stay still, allowing her to jump through the second, third, fourth, and finally the fifth without a single break.

With a thud, she landed and rolled on the wet floor of building 250, safely inside, away from the jumping piranha. Her heart pounded, her breath were short and heavy as she tried to gasp for air. The last spurt of energy from those obstacles made her lose almost all of her stamina. This game truly tested her to the extreme, making her stamina tap out even though it was just the beginning of the game.

A few piranhas that chased after her jumped out and landed onto the wet building floor , flopping around, trying to get back into the water. Turning around, Silver saw the piranha on the floor. She shuffled over slowly, trying to conserve her strength as best as possible.

She pulled out her dagger, her foot stomped over trying to pin the fish by the tail. In one fluid motion, she used the momentum of her body weight as she stabbed into the fish, chopping off its head in one swing. Her hands skillfully cut through the piranha’s gut until she found what she was looking for: a small red crystal the size of a bead. Even though it barely amount into anything, she ate theo eat the crystal. She felt a small trickle of energy that she lost from the whole obstacle course. More piranha’s flew in through the opening, Silver took this chance to kill as many as she could. She needed the extra energy to push through the remaining obstacles.

What else she realized was that these fish were quite ugly. They were about the size of her forearm with crooked teeth, red eyes, and black scales that reminded her of a deep sea creature. She flayed them, fishing out the stones that she needed. Usually, Silver was the type that loved eating fish, but these ugly looking beast made her stomach crawl. The thought of eating their flesh and putting it in her mouth sounded like a very bad idea that would make her sick. She didn’t mind the red crystal’s, but the meat was a whole different story.

Silver killed ten more, and she could feel a slimmer of her strength coming back. She needed more, but so far no more piranha jumped out of the water. She sat down and started to scale the fish as black scales twinkled onto the floor like hard metal. With the scattered dead fish’s meat on the floor, she tossed the remaining pieces into an arch, while left a large pile near the edge of the water. Five more splashed out of the water drawn to the smell of blood and meat.

Her broken memories gave her the knowledge that she needed on how to scale the fish and where the crystals were located. She was glad that she remembered, because she didn’t know what else to do if she didn’t eat the crystals to replenish her energy. Her goal was to get at least to gain back all her stamina. She didn’t know for how long they had to hop around, until they got to the end of the goal.

She did worry a couple of times of Jasper, wondering if he was doing fine. Momentarily stopping what she was doing, she glanced up, searching for his similar silhouette. So far, she couldn’t see much before her, because of the wall that block her view. A bit frustrated, she knew that she couldn’t just walk over towards the edge, the chances of her getting bitten alive was high, and that wasn’t what she wanted to be the next meal.

Still, all she could do was wish him luck, the worries that he had for him was pushed back as she once again focused at her task.

Tyler was next to jumped into the building from a different opening. He was sweating profoundly as he stumbled onto his legs tired and weak.

“I can’t believe this. This wretched fish are like hyenas!” Tyler kicked at the nearest fish that was flopping towards him. “Die you bastards!” He stomped hard and the fish exploded as flesh and guts splayed out. Plopping down, he breathed heavily to catch his breath and energy.

Seconds after Tyler jumped through, Jasper burst through a different opening from the left, away from Silver. He rolled in, his momentum was stopped by a broken wall in front of him. With a heavy groan, he pushed himself up.

“How?” Tyler got up with a bolt and then he realized that Silver was present as well.

Jasper weakly glanced around and saw both Tyler and Silver. Silver didn’t pay much attention to either one of them and she just continued to fish. They were no time for her to babysit any one of them, but to gain back her lost energy as quickly as possible. Who knows when she would need to get out of this building, so every minute counted.

“Silver?” Jasper called out towards her. Shakily getting up, his hair was sticking to his face from sweat, and his breath was heavy. Even though, he took a less difficult route from the wise choices that he made, he still was tired. His small body made the coarse very difficult for him, but his strong will to survive helped him forward. He achingly headed towards her and plopped over with great difficulties.

Tyler was stunned on how relax Silver was. She was sitting down on the floor, scaling the fish as if she was going to eat them. “What in the world are you doing? Are you out of your mind? This is not some fishing trip you know.”

Silver didn’t answer, in actuality, she was pleased that Jasper made it through alive. Even though she wasn’t paying attention to him, her ears perked up from his voice. Who would’ve thought she would get attached to him so quickly. Maybe it was his calm angelic smile that soothed her soul, or his intellectual conversation? Either way, she was pleased in his will to survive.

Her gaze set on the fish at hand as she continued to scale the fish. She separated the piles into their black scales in one side that turn into a little mound, the second were the red pint size crystals, and the rest were the raw meat that were cut into smaller size bits that were flung towards the edge. Multiple piranha’s jumped out of the water, trying to get a bite out of the fish that was either being thrown or laid out at the edge. They flopped onto the ground and tried to hop back into the water, but failed miserably.

Jasper carefully watched what she was doing. He examined her fluid technique in the hopes to learn how she was easily cutting through the thick hide of the piranha. From what he saw, he could tell that the piranha’s scales were difficult to cut through, but Silver was easily cutting them as if they were nothing.

Taking out his dagger, he stabbed downwards at the piranha trying to replicate her moves. His dagger slide to the side, missing the gills entirely, and instead the piranha took a chomp out of his wrist, taking a bit of his flesh. Blood flowed out, and he angrily pierced through the piranha’s gill.

Jasper cursed through his cute lips, catching Silver off guard. She look over to see Jasper, struggling over a fish.

Fresh blood slipped down his wrist, moment later a large group of piranha’s jumped out of the water from the smell of blood. In startlement, Jasper squirmed backwards just in time before he could be overwhelmed. Silver watched with amusement at the struggling Jasper. She couldn’t help but sigh at his attempt and finally gave him a hand. Grabbing one in the air, she slammed the fish down onto the ground. With fluid hands, she cut the Piranha easily with her dagger.

Both Tyler and Jasper was amazed at her skills, especially Tyler who was efficient in using daggers were shocked that they were someone who was better than him. Silver grabbed another fish and placed it in front of her on the floor..

“Come here.” Silver spoke, telling him to come closer towards the fish that she placed on the floor. The evil looking fish eyed them with bug eyes as if it wanted to take a chomp out of her fingers. She raised up her knife and stabbed it into the piranha's gill, making it impossible for it to escape.

Blood freely flowing was dangerous, she knew this by the frenzy nature of these piranha demons that seem to go bat crazy when it enter into the waters. Plus, seeing his nice porcelain skin turning red made her frown, she didn’t have such nice skin and seeing it bitten actual made her a bit annoyed.

“A-are you sure? I might draw in more of them if they smell my blood.” Jasper held his injuried wrist.

“Don’t worry about it.” She took out a roll of white bandages out of her dimensional storage ring. “This should help.”

Jasper scooted over for her, so she could have a better grip on tying the bandage around his wrist. Silver bandaged the bitten wrist, she reached over towards her small stash of red crystal and handed him three pieces. She didn’t mind handing over a little bit of the crystals that she accumulated, her stash was already a small mound that it didn’t do much if she took some out.

“Are you sure? I just brought you trouble more than help.” Jasper frowned as he was not to pleased with being given things for free.

“Actually, you didn’t. You brought me more fish to kill.” Silver smirked. “With this, your wound will be slowly recuperate. I think, another fifteen more and it should close up.”

“Thanks.” Jasper reluctantly took it, even though to him that sounded more like a fake cover up, he ate it.

“Wait! What did you just feed him? Why are you killing the fish? What’s going on?” Tyler asked. He was watching the whole thing from start to finish. Nothing was making sense in what was going on. Everything to him look like some kind of strange dealing that was happening between the two..

Silver didn’t answer and went back to her work. She wasn’t the type to answer ever given question, most of the time, she found the answer by herself or watch people work.“Watch how I cut through the fish. Use your dagger to aim at it’s gill. Then when it dies, cut from the stomach. Grab a hold of its tail and scrap the dagger against the scales and it will easily fall off.” She taught Jasper quickly, so she doesn’t waste to much time in teaching. “Don’t rush yourself. If you're not careful, you're going to get bitten again. Keep the scales for later, you can trade it in.”

Jasper nodded and followed her demonstration. He started with scaling the fish, and when Silver threw in the fish meat more jumped out of the water and landed on the edge. This gave Jasper a chance to learn what Silver had taught him. He pounced forward with his dagger and dragged it towards him with great difficulties. The piranha was the size of his whole arm, compared to Silver, he had to use his whole body weight to stop the piranha from going back into the metallic water.

“Hey! Are you listening to me?” Tyler was getting angry now that both of them were ignoring him. “Are you people insane? You’re killing the fish that just tried to eat us for crying out loud!”

“So?” Jasper spoke and turned towards him. He gave Tyler an expression that told him Tyler should be doing the same thing.

“So? Come on don’t you see there is something wrong with this?”

“No. If I were you, I would carefully watch what Silver does, if you want to live. Other than that, I have no other information to tell you.” Jasper turned back to do what he was doing.

“Pah! You guys are crazy!” Tyler sat back on the floor and ignored them.

Next Kathy and Cole made it to the building bleeding. Swarms of piranha jumped out trying to eat them alive, but they pulled back just in time before any one of them could latch onto them.

Silver stashed away her scales and ate all her crystals. She got up and headed towards the flopping piranha and killed every single one of them. She knew that they weren’t going to take the chance to kill the piranha, so she took this chance to kill them herself. It would’ve been a waste if they went back into the water without being scaled for their materials.

Sitting down, she went back into work, scaling and taking out the red crystals with her back against them. Pushing all the black scales into one mound, she scooped up the rest of the red crystals into her hand that she finished cutting up. With one gulp, she ate the small crystals in one go. She felt a rush of energy throughout her body. Her energy was now getting closer to half full.

Ah~ This just never gets old. She thought.

“What is she doing?” Cole was turned towards Tyler confused. His head was still bleeding from his injury.

“I don’t know. She’s crazy, I tell you.” Tyler replied with a disgruntled grunt. “I believe that she’s trying to kill herself from eating those monster’s heart raw.”

“Really? From my perspective, she might be doing something for a reason. Didn’t you noticed that her breathing is a lot more calmer than ours?” Cole was still panting and having a bit of trouble in breathing. He was glad that he didn’t have to move for awhile and was leaning against the wall. “Not only that she just ate some red rocks.”

“She did.” Tyler saw red crystal the size of bead lying next to him. He reached over to examine what it was and sniffed it. “It has a foul stench.”

“And?” Cole was looking at him waiting for more answers. “Taste?”

Tyler gave him a funny look as if he was nuts.

“Let me eat it then.” Cole pulled out his hands for him to give it to him.

Tyler was hesitant in giving the red crystal that he had in his hands. He had seen Silver eating them by the dozens with one gulp with no after effect at all, but the thought of having it slide down his throat made his stomach turn. Instead, he readily gave it over towards Cole.

Cole took the crystal from Tyler’s hand and carefully examined the crystal. The red sparkle in his hand made him curious, what was so special about it that both Jasper and Silver were eating it without a care in the world. He then followed pursuit and ate it in one gulp.

“Cole are you okay?” Kathy was looking over at him in concern. She saw Cole with his eyes closed, not moving from what he just did, and instead rolling his tongue in his mouth.

“I’m fine.” Cole opened his eyes, he was now smiling, understanding why Silver was eating the red crystals.

“What is it?” Tyler asked curious on what Cole had found out. He was a bit skeptical of Cole’s strange attitude.

“You won’t believe this, but these crystals replenish your energy.”

“That sounds a bit farfetched.”

Cole shook his head. “I’m not stupid. I know what I just felt.” He got up and walked over towards Silver who was cutting up more piranha’s on the floor. “Excuse me, your name is Silver correct?”

Silver stopped and glanced up at him. She knew what he was going to ask, instead of answering, she just waited.

“How do I get more? I mean, is there any way I can help you catch them?”

Silver lips slowly turned into a mischievous smirk. “Why, yes.” She got up and wiped her hands on her skirt.

Cole shivered when he saw her smile. Something about her smile seemed off.

“Just stand here.” Silver pointed in front of her. It was at the edge of the building, she just needed to push him if she wanted him to fall into the water.

“Stand there? That’s all?”

“Yes.”

Cole carefully walked over, wondering what she will do at the same time, fearing that she might push him. When he finally stood in front of her, seven large Piranhas jumped out of the water. Silver quickly took this chance to grab him by the back of his shirt and roughly pulled him backwards out of harm’s way. Her dagger quickly moved and pierced one of the Piranha in the gills onto the wall. The second and third one, she kicked them away from the edge of the water, smacking them behind her. The others floundered around on the ground, trying to weasel its way back in.

“Cole!” Kathy got up and ran towards him. “A-are you alright?”

“Yea.” Cole pushed Kathy’s arm aside. He was stunned that he was just used as bait.

Quickly, pulling the knife out of the wall, Silver gutted the fish with fluid hands. She then moved towards the one that was making its way towards the water and gutted that fish instead. The rest were easily killed, leaving not a single one of them alive. Silver fished out all the crystals. Then she scaled them and stored them away. She handed three small crystals into Cole’s hand and patted him on his head as if he was a child.

“Hey!” Cole yelled. “I put my life on the line and this is it?” He scowled at the mediocre amount of red crystals that he was given.

Silver had the feeling that he would voice his opinions. Instead of saying thank you for not getting him eaten, he resorted to shouting at her to give her more. Yes, she used him as bait, but she knew that he wouldn’t get bitten. Everything was calculated, so he wouldn’t get hurt at all.

“The rest are fee for saving your life. If you want more get them yourself. I killed all of them, and you didn’t.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You used me! I didn’t ask for your help!”

“Fine than. The next time you call out for help, I’m not going to give you a helping hand.”

Silver gave Cole a cold glare, and he went silent from fear. He knew he couldn’t do anything else to retaliate. He felt that Silver was just as dangerous as the fish, even though she look so weak.

Getting up, she got back up with the fish meat in hand and sat next to Jasper. Once again, she started to fish using the same technique. She was glad that the small little interaction with Cole was over with, and she paid attention to what she needed to do. Getting entangled too much with the others were something that she was not used too. Even helping out Jasper with tips were something not like her at all. At this rate, if she wasn’t careful, she could die from helping out too much.

“Why did you risk your life like that?” Kathy was tearing up beside him. “You could’ve died just like Sara and Abbey!”

“I’ll be fine.You’ll understand when you try this.” Cole turned away from Silver. He gave her one piece to her. “Here, this is paying back for what you have given me.” He gave one  to Tyler as well.

Kathy glanced down quizzically at Cole, wondering if what he said was true, while Tyler reluctantly took the initiative to finally eat one himself. His face cringed as his face munched on the crystals, but moments later his eyes brighten, understanding what Cole was talking about.

“Your right!” Tyler was ecstatic about the surge of energy.

Cole already ate all of his. This time, he walked over to Silver. He draw in his breath, calming himself. “I’m sorry, I was rude. I was wondering if you could share us some of the fish meat. I would like to try fishing.”

Silver turned around and threw six dead fish towards the three without either the scales or the crystal. She had plenty of fish meat to go around and using them all was getting a little difficult. Throwing in too many brought out way to large numbers of piranhas, where at least a half of them would escape. She had to delicately balance the ratio of  both Jasper and her could kill without losing a single one.

“Thank you.” Cole scooped them up and hand two to each.

“Are you crazy?” Kathy asked worriedly. “If we are not careful we are going to die.”

“It’s a chance to take. I don’t know how long we will be able to stay here, but my guess is that this building will eventually go under. We need to converse as much energy as possible. Getting the crystals from the fish gives back triple the amount that we normally get by just resting.”

Kathy frowned not liking where this was going. Fishing for dangerous monsters wasn’t something on her to do list. The thought horrified her.

“I agree with Cole. We don’t know when the building will submerge. I’ll going to try this out.” Tyler took out his dagger and took a spot where he entered.

“Let’s go.” Cole urged Kathy.

Kathy hesitantly look at the gross looking fish and picked it up. She gulped and followed after Cole.