If she wasn't a mean girl then he would be the lesser one. There was no way she wasn't mean, especially when she started running with her hand tightly gripped to his hand. She dragged him like a dog on a leash. He felt as if his inside would burst. She wasn't supposed to die. Well, he was confident she wouldn't put herself at risk unless she was confident she wouldn't die. He was more worried about himself. He needed to stick to her but at the same time, be on the lookout for any prank she would pull.
He stumbled upon his own feet and fell face-first to the ground. When Aurora stopped to check on him, the clock ticked again. It was made so that the ticking sound would resound everywhere, causing an annoying echo inside the minds of the contestants. To a point, the contestant would do anything to stop the annoying sound.
In fact, it was a lucky thing he fell on his face. He wanted to get up quickly to dodge a spiked bat pendulum but the spikes handing at the lower part of the wood scratched his back. He expected Aurora to pull him or undo the spell but she just stood there, waiting for him to get out of it on his own. He bit his own curse, swallowed the pain and crawled to safety.
There was a choice of crawling to the end of the first phase. In fact, Stephan found the idea useful and practical. He got on his elbows and knees but to his surprise, the spiked bats' pendulums swung and each bat was closer to the ground. If he crawled, he wouldn't make it. He returned to his initial position on his two legs. There wasn't a choice, to begin with and thinking outside the bow wasn't possible. There was no choice except for running.
His mind worked better under stress. When he used to play sometimes, he was in situations where he was against many players who ganged on him to defeat him and claim his position. In those moments, his mind stayed focused on the object at hand and was always able to win. Why would it be different now? His mind could get him from this situation like always. She told him to protect her but he was sure she wouldn't die. He didn't have to worry about her.
He glanced at her one last time before resuming his running. There wasn't much time left for the quest to end and he didn't intend to lose much time in this stupid bloody race. If he failed the test, he would return immediately to that room and considering how he left bandits chasing after him, returning meant another certain death. No matter how he humoured the head of the bandits, the latter wouldn't let it slide. No man would accept a prisoner who defied him.
He'd got to reach to that side to participate in the second part of the race; an actual race not like the solo one he was doing. He had an actual theory in fact; what if the solo phase was made to make the participants get used to the race in general and the second part would be much more dangerous. The spiked bats were already a huge problem, what if they were actual blades? Would he survive?
Stephan glanced at the pendulums in front of him, full of terror. Aurora followed closely, acting all silly. Sometimes, she faked falling and grabbed him by the legs making him fall as well. And each time of those, he turned his head to insult her but he would realize soon, that he dodged a death flag. There were too many flags and despite acting silly, she didn't let him die.
"After all, if you die, I die as well. I don't want that to happen. Though it would be interesting to see you decapitated or sliced to pieces, you see it would be no fun in you died in the solo phase. Leave it for the second one if you want to die. This way, you will entertain us all," she tilted her head to the right this time slowly. Her eyes were hypnotizing and causing a feeling of dread inside him. She wasn't sane. He was wrong to assume she was a normal woman.
Now, Stephan was stuck in her wonderland.
The second phase of the solo phase was a race over balloons. There were sturdy balloons all over a pool full of acid. As usual, there were iron maidens if he decided to cheat his way to the third part of the solo race. He took a deep breath and checked the balloons with his eyes. They had a smiley faces drawn on them as if to mock the contestants. It was certainly a test of dexterity. It was a way to see if his body listened to his brain. Also, he would learn the limit of his body by it.
He looked around and spotted small holes from both sides. He imagined himself as the organizer. What would be the best way to make the situation of the contestant harder? Sending darts to burst the balloons, the best way to make the confidence they built by successfully getting alive from the pendulums. Therefore, he needed to quickly jump from one to the other.
Pondering about it a little bit, he sighed and then jumped on the first one. As to test his theory, he stood still as the clock ticked. Right when the five minutes finished, he jumped on the other one and a dart was sent by one of the holes, bursting the three balloons that were at the same level.
Aurora followed behind him refreshing the timer and making sure he wouldn't notice he was just a guest to the show made for vampires. A wide grin was on her face as he jumped from one balloon to the other, as he reached the middle part of the pool, she stopped on a balloon next to him at the same level. The balloon wouldn't hold two bodies, it would tilt to the side if another one attempted to ride it.
"You are doing well, dear disciple. You see, everything is enhanced greatly when you are put on the death sentence."