Chapter 66: 4 vs 14
Sam and the group turned to look at the direction from which the claps are coming and they froze in their movements at the scene. There is a group of people walking towards them with two people in the lead.
Two of them had weapons in their hands. The group looked haggard and spent. But there is a glow in their eyes as if they are energised just now.
When they are a few feet away, the group stopped. There are 14 people in the group. It seems that two teams are combined.
"See that Drew. Here we are having hard time from two days without any warmth and suffering in the cold, eating wild vegetables and fruits, while these guys are even using the fire to take down prey."
"Yes, Ray. They even have two weapons. We had to sacrifice six members and work together with both our teams to get our hands on these two weapons. Here they are only four members and they are able to do this. I wonder if they are cheating."
"I don't know about that. But these guys seemed to be the remaining members of the team six, we just took care earlier. The four members left must be these four guys."
The two guys in the lead named, Ray and Drew are speaking as if Sam and others are not present all.
Sam looked around and found three middle-aged men in black. Two of them standing side by side while the remaining one who is also the person, Sam is familiar with is standing opposite them.
Sam still felt his arm hurting a bit and is still exhausted from the struggle with the alligator. Jack is the only one who has fighting experience in close combat while both Eve and Shor aren't of much help in this kind of situation. This situation is clearly at their disadvantage.
Sam passed the dagger to Eve, then asked Shor. "Do you want the axe or are you fine with the pike?"
Shor was in a daze for a moment and looked at the axe in Sam's hand. He thought for a moment before rejecting the axe. He knew clearly that the axe or pike wouldn't really make any difference.
Sam nodded and stood beside Jack and looked at the group and mostly at the two people in the lead. He recognised the two men. They are the team members of the Falcon Cliff team and right now they are part of team1 and team 2 respectively.
Even though he is at the disadvantage, he didn't show any weakness, for he knew that it will make the opponents confidence higher.
"Who is responsible for creating the fire?" Ray with the sabre in his hands asked them.
The four of them didn't reply and just stayed silent.
"We will leave the person who can make the fire and only deal with the rest. You can also have points priority." Drew said as he played with the sword in his hands. He is very confident that the other party will agree immediately. But what awaited him was only silence.
"Surround them" Drew ordered as all of the immediately surrounded the group of four. Now, Sam's group has stream behind them while they were surrounded on all the other sides.
Meanwhile, the elders are talking. The two elders who are together are smiling at the situation while the elder responsible for Sam's team was just looking at the team peacefully. [A/N: for convenience sake, I will be referring to the Elder responsible for points noting as Elder-1 Elder-2 Elder-3.. and so on. So, Elder responsible for Sam's team is Elder6 and the Elders from the opposite group are Elder 1 and Elder 2]
"How is it going Elder 6? You must have been frustrated to keep tabs on these people. How did they even get their hands on the two weapons?" Elder-2 asked.
"Yes, they are dumb enough to separate from the group. Compared to them, the groups 1 and 2 are better. They know that the more people will have more chance to survive." Elder 1 said from the side.
Elder-6 didn't say anything. He knew that the two Elders are just trying to get under his skin. Even when they saw how Sam dealt with an alligator alone, they are still making these comments just because they are sure that team-6 will be eliminated.
Meanwhile, Ray and Drew are still threatening Sam and others to know how they got the fire. They are pretty sick of eating the fruits and they aren't daring enough to eat raw meat.
After a few moments, Sam got sick of this and whispered to Jack.
"How many people can you handle?"
"I don't know. I can take down four people by catching the off-guard. The rest will depend on the situation." Jack also answered in a whisper.
"Can you hold them back for five minutes?" Sam asked again.
"I will try." Jack answered after a slight pause. Sam hesitated for a minute and said to the three in a whisper.
"I will make the first move. You guys have to hold on for five minutes. If you think that you can't maintain the deadlock or take them down, try to push them into water."
Ray and Drew didn't think much of the situation and didn't stop them from whispering. They just thought that they were discussing regarding the person who made the fire.
Sam and others stopped the whispering and turned towards Ray and Drew in front of them. They exchanged a glance and nodded. Ray and Drew were smiling as they thought that the things are going as they expected. But suddenly, Sam and Jack moved at the same time.
Sam moved to the right while Jack moved to left. Sam's left hand is still sore and he swung his axe with the right hand as he struck on one of the ribs of one person standing close to him. His blow is really hard as blood spurted from the torso of the person.
Before others could react, he struck another guy and then another guy. By the time the team could come out of daze, three members are already down. Sam was almost spent up. There are only two people left on his side. Before they could react, he immediately jumped inside the water.
On the other side, Jack did a number on them as well. Out of five that stood there he knocked out three completely and fourth one barely stood up, while the fifth one escaped.
His make-shift bamboo sword has a streak of red on one edge. He then huddled together with Eve and Shor as he pointed the sword at Ray and Drew.
Ray and Drew finally came to senses and took out their weapons, as they pointed at Jack. They are fuming with anger. They lost seven members just like that. They only lost six members when they faced to beasts and got their hands on the sword and sabre. But now to take down the four members they lost seven members while the other side lost no one.
"Eve, Shor. Just stay calm and try to dodge as much as possible. Whenever they come near you for two feet, swing the weapon. Don't let them come closer than two feet." Jack whispered. The two of the nodded and took a posture with the dagger and the pike to defend.
"Drew you take down the guy in front. The rest of you will go at the two guys in back. I will be backup." Ray said in a serious tone. He is completely furious and he didn't dare to underestimate the other team.
When the people started to close in to them, Jack along with the other two started walking towards the bank of the stream. Just as they were one step away from the stream, Jack moved and pushed two members in to the stream by catching them off-guard.
This made Drew to grit his teeth in anger. He is furious not because the two members were pushed into the stream, but Jack neglected him.
Jack heaved a sigh as he again face Drew. Now, Eve and Shor only has to deal with three members and he believed they can hold on for a bit.
"Now, we can begin." Jack said as he made his view. He and Drew are now in a dodging game as they swung their weapons at each other.
Ray at this time, is looking at the stream, he is already surprised that Sam didn't come out. But he thought that the other party might have escaped. But now that the two people didn't come out, he felt that something was amiss. Just as he was thinking what might have happened, he saw air bubbles on the surface increase and soon, the two teammates floated unconscious.
Then he saw a glow under the water surface and the two people disappeared along with a moving shadow.
He clearly understood what happened now. Sam is hiding underwater. This scene not only surprised him, but also his remaining teammates. They are now afraid to go near the stream bank.
Meanwhile, under water. Sam is swimming with a small bamboo straw in his hands. This is the reason he dived into the water without thinking. Whenever he is out of breath, he kept the bamboo straw in his mouth and took a breath as he swam and searched at a same time. He is searching for the scrolls or weapons here. But he is mostly hoping that he would have a scroll related to cultivation or attack scroll, since the danger is high with the alligators.
While he is searching on the bed of the stream, his remaining teammates are doing a good job fending for themselves.
Shor and Eve are in a deadlock with the three while Jack is dealing with Drew. He is having a bit disadvantage due to his vulnerable weapon, but it is mainly for the fact that he didn't want to kill his opponent. He is trying to gain some experience by fighting a swordsman. But only elders can understand this.
He is just trying to play with Drew while he still kept an eye on Ray. If the latter made any move or he himself gets exhausted, he will knock Drew out as soon as possible.
But things didn't go as he planned. Ray did make a move, but he attacked, Eve and Shor. When he realised this, he immediately tried to block him by leaving Drew but the latter followed him.
Now, he was struck in a dead lock with two people, both having better weapons than him and both are in a better condition than him. He immediately felt the pressure.
He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. His aura changed and became sharp immediately. He swung the bamboo sword at Drew, who is relatively tired when compared to Ray.
The latter dodged immediately but his robe still tore apart as a slashing sound came. Ray attacked from the side, but Jack was already not in the same spot anymore. Before he could realise that, the bamboo sword came from his behind which he tried to dodge, but was left with a slash on his left hand.
Jack stood there as he looked at his two opponents calmly. He is beyond tired now. The continuous walking, hunting for the rabbits, trapping the alligator and dealing with the guys, took a toll on him. The last two swings almost took all his energy. He is on his last legs.
He is regretting not dealing with Drew when he still had a chance. He thought that Ray will attack him directly, so he would be able to do this. But Ray pulled one over him and played the trick. His only relief is that the five minutes is almost up. He is hoping he would do something.
Ray and Drew also understood from Jack's panting that the other party is almost done. They just had to drag it out. Both of them had a smile on their faces, as they played with Jack who tried his best to evade.
After a few moments, Jack almost fell down, He supported himself with the bamboo sword in his hands as he looked at the two people.
Ray and Drew had smug expressions on their faces, as they looked at Jack. Just when they thought that Jack would beg them to leave, the latter started laughing mockingly which surprised them a lot.
They exchanged a glance as they came to a decision to take down Jack. But just as they took a step forward.
*BOOM* an explosion hit them from behind. They fell forward with their cloths burnt and their backs charred. They painfully looked behind and Sam stood there in his wet clothes, with two scrolls in his one hand and the other hand has a scroll which was open and lost all runes and split into two.
They gritted their teeth in anger and frustration. They were so content in taking care of Jack, they forgot Sam, who is in water. No. More like that they felt that the latter has no threat to them as he was in water. They didn't think that the other party will take another route and sneak an attack on them. They gritted their teeth and broke their tokens as they felt the pain increase.
The three people who are in dead lock with Eve and Shor were distracted by a sudden explosion and gave a chance to Eve and Shor who didn't miss. Just like that, the fourteen people who came to them were taken down and the four of them were still in the game.
Sam also collapsed on the ground as he laid on his back to rest. Eve and Shor also took a seat on the ground to take a break.
On the side. Elder-1 and Elder-2 are dumbstruck with what happened. They didn't expect that the four members who are already exhausted and were also overly outnumbered will come out as winners.
"This is how they got the two weapons and survived until now." Elder-6 said from the side as he walked towards Sam. Elder1 and Elder2 felt their faces burning. They immediately left the spot.
"105 points in total for your team. How do you want me to distribute?" Elder-6 asked Sam who was still laying on the ground.
"Eve 25, Shor 25, Jack 28, Me 27." Sam said in a weak voice.
"Wait." Eve and Shor both shouted in unison. Elder-6 looked at them in askance.
"We didn't really help much. We don't need such high share." Eve said as she timidly looked at her feet.
Sam didn't bother with her and just confirmed his earlier suggestion. Elder-6 nodded and left.
After a half an hour. The four of them are sitting around a camp fire as the alligator meat roasted on the fire.
Sam placed the two scrolls, which are yet to be opened.
"These are the point scrolls I got under water. There are three scrolls in total. One attack scroll and these two point scrolls. Each scroll has 20 points each. How do you guys want to divide them?" Sam asked as he looked at the other three.
"Take a scroll for yourself. We will share the other scroll. Jack will get ten, me and Eve will get five each." Shor was the first one to suggest.
Sam looked at Eve and Jack. Both of them nodded in approval. After all, they knew the efforts they put in capturing the alligators. Sam himself fought with one of them.
They collected the points with their badges. And started eating. The sun is setting as dusk approached while they appreciated the warmth from the flame as they ate the meat after the long struggle.
Right now, there are only two teams left in the forest and the other team is already in dire state. There are only two three people left.
Hawk and Kelly are taking care of the wounds on their body along with another teammate. Yesterday, they fought with other team and eliminated without losing any of their teammates. But today, they lost seven members as they encountered a wolf pack and only three of them were able to escape. But they came out with something.
"Are you sure, you want me to take this?" Hawk asked Kelly and the other guy. He is holding a scroll, which could partially unseal his cultivation. They had paid a price with seven teammates to get their hands on this. The other two nodded as a sign of approval.
Sam and others meanwhile are getting ready to rest. They don't know that there are only two teams left in the forest and they are one of them. They are waiting for tomorrow.
[A/N: Sam and his team took down a team first, the one with Derek. Then they took down two teams today. Making a total of three. Hawk's team took down another team. Now only two teams left.]
{Points Sam: 64
Jack: 53
Eve and Shor: 42}