"This is the only way, so get a hold of yourselves if you don't want our sacrifices to be in vain"
"Ahhh!" I shouted.
I don't know how, but while everyone is standing where we were, we just fell to the ground like what happened to how we got here. Its depth is about 50 meters compared to the previous 150 meters. I am inside an elevator made of glass while screaming at this extreme ride. After a minute and a half, the elevator also stopped. It opened on its own, but unlike before, I did not walk further because I am immediately here in the vast land, with few trees and a mixture of the green and blue colored sea. The glass elevator that everyone rode on disappeared. I composed myself from the thrilling ride.
***
LOCATION: Seaside TIME: Afternoon
Windy, cold, fresh, and quiet.
"Wow..." the cool sea breeze calmed my entire mind and body.
"This is where the water category will take place. The mechanics are simple: Those gold and silver flags standing in front of you will be your starting line..."
I looked to the front because of what the Author said. There are gold and silver flags stuck in the sand. Others also ran near the nailed flags on the ground.
"The goal is to find your opponent's base by solving the riddles that will guide your path. Steal their three flags hiding in their bases. The two small flags cost 30 points each and the big flag costs 70 points."
"Another riddle? Give us a break!" Seventh complained but Author did not mind him.
"With the size of the sea, you must be kidding. How do we know and find their base?" Aeith asked.
"That's why..."
Everyone just stared and waited for Author to continue when the sea became longer and narrow. It looks like a huge swimming pool, but with sand instead of concrete and tiles. There are waves.
"The area of the sea has lessened. The enemy bases are a group of coral reefs with hidden flags. It is not necessary to gather all flags. The team who collected a greater amount that their flags render will then swim until you cross the finish line to win."
Swim? Dive? I do not know how to swim!
"Hey, how can we breathe underwater? We don't have any swimming equipment with us!" Nice one, Aeith. Good question.
"Swim so you will know." What kind of answer is that? Are we supposed to guess every time we play a game?
"This is not fair to us! There are only six of us," Sectwen asked obviously irritated. She has a point.
Fifzen stepped forward. "Yeah, it's not that we're too desperate for it but we're at a great disadvantage here."
"In this game, unfair is not in its vocabulary." What does Author mean? "Follow your team color's flags and several numbers of sea creatures will help you on finding your opponent's base."
Sea creatures? Will we encounter another monster? A monster in the sea?
"What sea creatures?" Sixth asked this time.
"No ordinary underwater creatures that would either help you or hinder you." I'm getting a hunch from this.
"Wealth level stage 3, water category will start in 10, 9,"
Immediately?! The instructions are simple yet vague. We positioned on the right where the silver team is, and on the left is the gold team.
"Let's jump," Seventh said while he warmed up himself.
Then I realized when I bent down, there were about 10 meters below the ground that we were stepping on. Under it is the sea. Mind you, we'll jump and swim, then there will be sea creatures or even monsters. Then we'll find the gold team's base, then we'll take their 3 flags?
I no longer want to be a burden or cause our team's downfall. I blamed myself that because I fell in the air, our necklace was stolen. The face of our leader, Third, shows his determination that we should win this game to make up for our defeat earlier. I don't blame him because our lives are at stake here. I saw that the gold team is ready. They even seem to know how to swim and don't have problems like me. Then I noticed that it looked like I was the only one who couldn't swim because my team is ready. I bit my lower lip. This is bad.
"8, 7, 6,"
"Everyone, if you're not confident of yourselves, better partner up. Guide and support each other then all together we'll plunge," Third instructed us.
Someone grabbed my right shoulder, it was First. He always surprises me. "You can ride on my back." he said while sitting and made a gesture as if to say, 'I'll give you a piggyback ride'.
"H-huh?" I feel embarrassed.
"If you don't want to drown, you can ride."
"How did you know?" how did he come up with an idea that I don't know how to swim.
"I can read your face" Am I that obvious?
I hesitated but I got no options left. "Thank you"
"5, 4, 3"
As embarrassing as it was, I couldn't do anything. I opened my two hands and was ready to hug him. He stood up and since I can only see the back of his head and hair, I don't know what expression he makes. Fourth partnered with her twin brother, Fifth. Third is with Sixth while Seventh, Aeith, and Ninth preferred to jump on their own. They are confident enough of themselves.
"2, 1"
I took a deep breath so I wouldn't run out of breath right after we jumped.
"go!"
My grip on First's neck tightened as we plunged into the water. I close my eyes because of the excessive force of the impact. I opened my eyes and saw the blue water. He lifted his head, spread both arms and legs to lift us above the water, and breathe. After a few seconds, I panicked.
I can no longer hold my breath!
"Second!" I opened my eyes and saw the wet and worried face of First. I coughed and blinked.
He patted my back. He sighed. I can't handle my breath underwater long enough. It took both of us more time to swim above the surface because First swims for two people weighed him down.
I smiled at him. "Let's go?" I first looked around and, "Ah!"
I-I'm floating. To my confusion, I grabbed by First's shoulders because I might drown. He laughed at me. "How?"
"It's okay. This water is not ordinary. It contains a high level and amount of salt which means, you can float well even if you're not a swimmer."
Because of what he said, I felt a sense of relief. We swam towards our team. It feels strange but also good because I feel like I'm a swimmer.
Sixth began to ask, "What are we going to do?"
"Let's dive first. I saw something shiny underneath. If we find our base where our flags hide, that's what Author tells us to follow. Also, let's not disperse. Don't touch any sea creatures you'll encounter. We don't know if they're dangerous or not. Just focus on our goal. " Third instructed and reminded us.
We wasted no more time, and we submerged in water. How can we breathe this long?
My question was answered magically as a large glass bubble appeared on my face. There is a round transparent glass inserted into our whole head. I breathed freely and I accidentally opened my mouth—I can speak! The voice is slightly weak because we are underwater. Everyone changed from wearing our dirty tracksuits, we turned into wearing diving gear. We have a long black sleeve rash guard, gloves, and fins. We can speak underwater because of the glass bubble around our heads. We can hear each other like there's a gadget for communication inside this glass.
We dive down as to where Third saw something shiny beneath. Soon, we saw a small silver flag, meaning this flag is for our team. Author said, we just follow the flags that are the colors of our team. There are fish that surrounds it. Not ordinary gray fish, but a Nemo! A school of clownfish is swimming. I remembered that my favorite movie character is Nemo when I was kid-my memories are coming back! This is good. Gradually, I'm getting a grip on my identity.
We saw a silver flag again, but it was not just one but two, and something was written on it. We went near the flag stuck in the sand. Seventh grabbed its end so we can read it properly. The flag has a left arrow sign while the other one has a right turn sign and both of them has printed word. So, we need to choose among the two of these directions.
Left silver flag: sea urchin
Right silver flag: sea anemone
"Sea anemone is the answer. If the sea creatures we encounter have anything to do with it, we have encountered a school of clownfish. And in the 'Finding Nemo' cartoons, Nemo lives in a sea anemone!" Fourth replied cheerfully.
We nodded because we had no other conceivable answer, so we turned right. While swimming, we once again saw a group of gray fish swimming—it's a milkfish. We saw two more silver flags with inscriptions on them.
Left silver flag: Philippines
Right silver flag: United Kingdom
This must have to do with the school of fish we saw just like what happened in clownfish and sea anemone. A milkfish? That's the fish we encountered earlier so... we turned left. Milkfish is a native fish and national fish in the Philippines. This feels like a quiz game. I seem to know the pattern of this. We will come across a sea creature and 2 flags that point in two opposite directions. Sea creatures are the answer and flags are the directions.
"Whaaa!" Fourth shrieks. Even though there was a glass bubble, and we are underwater, I can still hear them talking.
There are three stingrays, two small and one large passing in front of us. Third almost bump into them. After they crossed, we also crossed and swam until we saw silver flags again, which are now three of them. This is not a written letter but a silhouette-type photograph.
Left silver flag: silhouette of a fish
Middle silver flag: silhouette of a bird
Right silver flag: silhouette of a dog
Everyone was a bit surprised at what the answer was, but everyone considered Seventh's suggestion.
"That's fish. String ray is fish, isn't it?"
"String ray? You're inventing a word? Stingray!" Aeith corrected Seventh.
"Is there space?"
"None"
"You invented it, too. S-T-I-N-G space R-A-Y!"
Even though Seventh was pointing wrong, we swam to the left. We are shocked when we saw three stingrays swimming and approaching us. They swam fast and straightforwardly coming to us. We dodged to avoid them, but they seem to be following us. They also look like the three stingrays that crossed us a while ago.
"Swim! Hurry!" Third charged.
I don't know if those stingrays have something in their minds why they suddenly attacked.
I swam even faster because we'll never know what these stingrays will do to us. I was startled when someone took my left hand, it is Aeith. I saw First looking straight and serious. He also swims fast. I was relieved when the stingrays didn't follow us anymore, but my teammates and I spread out. Fifth and Ninth are struggling against a stingray. They pulled its long tail to prevent the attack. Fifth hugged the stingray's back and hold its wings while Ninth twisted its tail with his right hand and pulled it even harder. The stingray became more and more aggressive, and its tail separated from the body. In an instant, the stingray turned into sand that had melted in water. I saw blood floating upwards dripping into the seawater on Ninth's right hand.
I looked around but saw only Fourth, Aeith and Sixth.
"'There they are," Sixth pointed out what she was referring to.
I turned to the front and saw that Third and Seventh were also fighting another stingray as Fifth and Ninth had done earlier. The second stingray also turned into the sand after they also pulled its tail. My eyes widened when I immediately saw First. He fights the biggest stingray alone.
I'm worried for First. As he curled twice the length of its tail than the previous two on his left arm, he bound its wings so that it could not move and with force pulled its clinging tail. In a moment, it turned to sand as well. We immediately approached them, and I saw the bleeding hands of Ninth, Seventh, and First.
"How did you know that stingrays would die that way?" Sixth asked.
"As far as I know, a stingray's tail has spines. And that tail is poisonous that can harm others." Fifth replied.
"I accidentally pulled its tail and we saw that it can't move easily while torturing it. So, we thought their tail would be their weakness," Ninth explained while squeezing his injured right hand.
"B-But it's sad to kill them," Fourth said sadly.
"Hmp! They're not real stingrays. That's why they turned into dust when they died and didn't even have blood when we cut off their tails. That's why we found out that they were looking-realistic-robot-stingrays because of their eyes despite having realistic skin and flesh. " Seventh defended.
If so, are all the sea creatures here just robots?
"Why are your hands bleeding?" Aeith asked Seventh.
"We didn't think the tails of those stingray robots sting," Seventh answered.
I looked at First's left hand. He had been silent for a while.
I am the one who will ask. "Why was the First's bleeding so bad??"
First's wound looks like he was cut with a knife several times, theirs looks like they were cut once.
"That's because that's the biggest one. He forcefully took it down on his own." Third replied somewhat agitated. Only now did I notice that he was still wearing his glasses even though we were in the water, thanks to our glass bubble.
"Hmm... I was just thinking, why are we being attacked?" Seventh suddenly asked. A question that also formed to me.
"We took the wrong turn." First spoke as well. "Seventh's answer is wrong, it should be the 'bird', the middle flag."
"Huh? Isn't it about the stingray? Why birds?" Fourth wondered. Since we are underwater, the most reliable answers would be related to sea creatures.
"Stingray swims under the sea but flies like a bird." First ended his statement. It makes sense now.
Thanks to Third's photographic memory he remembered how we could go back to the three flags to turn the right turn. While we were swimming and getting close, I stopped for a moment. I tore the end of my garment and wrapped a cloth around First's bloody left hand.
"To control the bleeding," I said.
"Thanks," he said, and we continued to swim. Wrapping his hand would at least prevent the excessive bleeding of his hand.
We took the right turn and encountered octopuses. They look harmless so we proceed. Another surprise was when we saw that the surroundings were getting dark. Maybe we swam too deep that the sun cannot penetrate the depths of water. We were about to ignore it at first because maybe it was getting late without us being aware or maybe our swimming was getting deeper.
"Guys, there's something really wrong," Seventh pondered while scratching his neck.
"Yeah, my eyesight is blurry," Sixth agrees.
We might be too tired or we're just really hungry. Swimming can be the most exhausting thing.\
"Look, it's because of those creatures."
We turned our backs on what Ninth had said and seen octopuses approaching us and they were spewing ink!
"It's ink! I don't think it's bad, is it?" And Seventh actually approached the octopuses.
"What are you doing, idiot!" – Aeith.
In a flash, the glass bubble of Seventh burst like soap bubbles. He panicked as he can't breathe underwater freely anymore without that equipment on his head. He immediately swam upwards to catch his breath. Fifth was about to go with Seventh when Third stopped him.
"Stay away, Fifth! Its ink, it explodes the bubble!" Third warned.
It took me a second to get what Third was talking about. The octopus' ink can damage our glass bubble when got contaminated by it. We all swam away from the octopuses. Did I think someone would just attack us if we took the wrong turn? Just like what happened to the stingray?
When the octopuses were gone, we stopped and hid in a boulder with coral reefs while we waited for Third and Fifth to find Seventh. They would tell Seventh to just swim above the surface of the water while the others were in the middle to signal him the direction. Seventh is nowhere to be seen right now after he swam upwards.
"It's not like that," I gazed at First. "Our answer is correct, 'bird' not 'dog'. This time, this game is challenging us by making the game levels harder."
So even if we turned right, something would still attack?
"Yes," I was shocked by First's answer. He answered it without saying my question. He could read my mind.
Eventually, the two arrived.
"Ninth, you will guide and bring back Seventh. You will swim above like what he did and tool for him. Just swim slightly above so he can see your reflection. That hologram didn't mention to finish this game us a team so we can scatter. We don't have much time to waste, and Seventh's bubble exploded so he couldn't do much for our team. Go with Seventh and just go back." Third's authoritative command. Annoyance and concern were evident in his tone. He was annoyed maybe because Seventh's curiosity turned into a disaster. Ninth followed his order.
"Let's proceed," after Third said that we swam again. As we swam without Seventh and Ninth, we saw three silver flags.
Left silver flag: 3
Middle silver flag: 12
Right silver flag: 8
And since the octopus had attacked us earlier, we turned right. Octopus with 8 tentacles. While swimming, we also get tired. Everyone thought of resting for a while and then swimming again. When we rested, we were surprised and even more scared by what we saw...
A hammerhead shark gaping slightly with an overlooking small but sharp tooth. Dangerous...very dangerous!
"Uh-oh hehe, what are we going to do?" - Aeith.
"M-Mama!" Fourth's weak cry.
Because of that shout, the hammerhead shark closed its mouth and...
"Swim!" Third alerted us.
I noticed a while ago that the eyes of that shark were also made of steel, just like the stingrays. We need to trace its weak part. I was stunned when I realized that First was not with us.
I stopped swimming. Then I saw First confronted the shark. Using his left thumb, he scratched its neck with his long nails. The shark wandered for a moment and continued to chase us.
"Hurry! The flags are here!"
Turning to the front, I saw four silver flags, four now.
1st silver flag: J
2nd silver flag: T
3rd silver flag: K
4th silver flag: R
I no longer hesitated to answer. "Second!" Letter T because that's the shape of the hammerhead shark's head. We were about to swim to where the answer was when I remembered First. I saw a shark bite his left arm. He got out of it even though it was so painful to feel his skin tear.
"Go, ahead. I-I can take care of this," he told us and then forced a smile while squirming. I could see his blood spreading in the water.
"Leader, what's up?" Aeith asked confusedly as Fourth hugged her right arm in terror.
Third thought for a moment and then spoke. "Seventh and Ninth will swim back to where we started since they didn't know the route that we've taken after answering the riddles we recently encountered. First and I will finish the business with the shark. The three of you go with Fifth and Sixth, go and get those flags then win the game. Is that clear? " He replied seriously.
We were still hesitant because we had to split up. This is a hard decision to make but Third is commanding us to comply.
"This is the only way, so get a hold of yourselves if you don't want our sacrifices to be in vain... Now, go!"
We did nothing because this is the necessary thing to do even, we were scared and nervous of what might happen. And... We want their sacrifices to result in something.