Joe tiptoes past the smaller huts. He had one location in his mind, the shack.
He had had enough of Hunter's leadership and the other sprites' nonchalant behavior toward the missing sprites, he was taking matters into his own hands.
Rescuing Lexa was his main priority but freeing Richard along with the other sprites was an added bonus. After all, Richard's return to the villa would mark the end of Hunter's spell as acting leader of the Sprite Guardians.
He wanted to ask the other sprites for help but he knew it would be in vain; Alice seemed to be corrupted, same with Alex, and the other Metropolitan School of Mysticism students were like puppets dancing to Hunter's tune.
The task fell onto him; he must free the others.
"Don't worry Lexa ... I am coming for you," he whispered to himself. As he extends his hand to push open the door to the shack, someone else grabs him by the wrist and shoves him to the ground. The sprite looked up surprised to find Chef Baci and two of her siblings by both of her sides.
"Hello there ..." Chef Baci smiles. "... Joe."
.
.
.
The aroma from the kitchen was what woke the sprites up from bed. They all rushed down, meeting each other in the hallway, and then racing each other to the kitchen.
"Alice! You're here?" said Alex surprised to see the blonde woman in the kitchen. "Yeah, just helping Hunter out," she said.
"Wait in the dining room, breakfast will be served soon," said the blonde woman.
They moved to the dining room as the gray-eyed woman instructed. Hunter soon appeared and began serving the sprites.
"Where's Joe?" Alice asked placing a plate in front of the yellow-eyed boy.
"No idea," Alex replied. "I checked his room earlier and he wasn't there. I think he's out for a run," Alex replied.
"When has Joe ever gone out for a run?" Alice asked.
There was a short pause as the sprites realized where Joe was. However, before any of them could speak out loud, they heard a knock on the door.
Hunter sighs before making his way to the front door, Alice and the others following closely behind. He opened the door to see Joe with the demon whom Chef Baci had introduced as Fren, the very one that had been creepily watching the Guardians' Villa.
"You again?!" said Petra.
"Hey there, it's Fren here," he said.
"Hi, Fren ... And Joe. What happened?" Hunter asked.
"Your friend here was taking a walk in the woods but got lost, isn't that right?" He said the last part looking at Joe.
"That didn't rhyme!" Petra chipped.
"It didn't? Who would have thought it wouldn't?"
Hunter facepalms and sighs. "Thanks for guiding him back," said Alice.
"No problem! Being evil is kinda lame," said Fren. "Ah," he said hitting the side of his head. "Rana asked me to tell you this: the main ingredient of the second round would be meat."
"I see. What about the first round? What would be the main ingredient in the three matches?" He asked.
"Main ingredients, you say? Those would be revealed on the day," Fren revealed.
"Would you be cooking too?" Hunter asked.
"The competitors on our side would be decided by Baci, but I guess we'll see," he stated.
Hunter shakes his head as the pure demon walks off. The dark-haired boy turned to the brown-eyed man. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"I regret nothing! Lexa and the others might be getting tortured right now!"
"Might be? Are you telling me you didn't even see them?"
"Only because that woman didn't let me see them!" Joe frowned. "How do we even know they are there?"
"Because I was in there with them?" said Alex.
"Can we eat now? Before the food gets too cold?" Yui interjected.
***
The last dinner competition arrived soon after a few days of Hunter trying to teach the other sprites how to make a half-decent meal with varying degrees of success.
The sprite arrived at the location where Chef Baci told him days earlier that the competition would take place, in a small arena.
She had prepared everything; different fruits, foods, and vegetables were arranged on tables and in baskets.
There was also a fridge and several cookers in the arena.
"Glad to see you made it," said Chef Baci as Hunter and the other sprites entered the arena.
"This is all the people I took, as promised," she said.
Hunter looked around to see the arena filled with many people looking on from the stands. "Why do they look out of it?" Hunter asked.
"I'm controlling them. Wouldn't want one of them to charge at us during the competition, would we?" she said.
'She's possessing this many people at a time?'
[That must be taking a lot of energy. You could easily defeat her now if you wanted to.]
"What of the Sprite Guardians?" She pointed to a cage in which she had locked the Guardians.
Joe rushed to the cage almost immediately. "Lexa! Are you okay?" He asked.
"... Yeah?" The yellow-eyed girl replied.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
The brown-eyed man turned to Chef Baci. "Hey! You can't put them in cages, they're not animals, you know!" He stated.
"Sorry for that," Chef Baci said calmly. "But they could overpower me if I did nothing. I hope you understand," she said looking at Hunter.
"I hope you remember our deal, Hunter," said Chef Baci.
"Of course, you get to decide my fate if you win," said the sprite. "But I am not planning to lose today."
"Excellent, let us get started then." She turned and one of her brothers, Yun, presented three identical leaves in a tray. "Have you ever heard of the truth serum, Hunter Heffernan?" She asked.
"It renders a person cooperative and disposed to respond honestly to questions," said Hunter.
She nods. "Did you know that this leaf has similar effects?" She asked.
[She's right]
"I do."
"Awesome. So what do you say we give this to three people: one of your friends, one of my brothers, and one of the people I took and they would be the judges of our competition?"
"Okay."
Yun hands the tray to Rana before taking one of the leaves and throwing it in his mouth.
Hunter turns to the others. "So who's going to volunteer to judge our cooking?" He asked.
"Me!" said Oliver. "I've always wondered what it would feel like if one is injected with a truth serum."
"Looks like we're all set," said Chef Baci. "Just one more thing," she said. "This pot contains cards with different ingredients," she started, presenting the pot she was talking about. "We'll have a coin toss for each match and whoever wins draws a card from the pot. The ingredient on the card would be the main ingredient of the dish to be prepared."
"It's basically how she decided the meat ingredient of the second round," said Yun.
"Okay," Hunter nodded. "Let's go," he said stepping forward.
"You're participating in the first round? That's disappointing," said Chef Baci.
"Huh?"
"You can only participate in one match, I thought I mentioned that," said Rana.
"No, you didn't," Hunter replied.
"Apologies, it must have slipped my mind."
"I'll go first," Alice said to Hunter who nodded in response. She stepped forward for the coin toss while Petra approached Hunter. "How screwed are we?" She whispered to Hunter.
"Not too much. Alice is a good cook and so am I. At worst, we leave here with a draw."
The competition began with Fren and Alice going up against each other. The match ended with the blonde woman beating the demon.
"Congratulations to the Guardians," said Misan. "Too bad that's the only point you'll be getting today, Fren is the worst chef among us."
Misan was not kidding, both he and his brother, Echu went on to defeat the Guardians' Alex and Yui in the next matches.
And then it was time for the final round with the pure demons leading 2-1.
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