Author's Note: Unedited Chapter
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The group checked their map and began making their way northwards as quickly as they could.
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-"We're alive,"
-"Phew that was quite the explosion,"
The individuals with Gustav wiped dust off their body as they stood to their feet. They were on the other side of the mountain, and although a hole was blasted through to help them escape, they had nearly gotten buried in.
Fwwwhiii!
Gustav and Angy pulled out the last individual in their group from the sand coverings who also began clearing the dust from their body.
According to the agreement Gustav had with the others who had joined them, they each owed Gustav an attack from their Iov bracelet.
Gustav had made one of them use an attack from their bracelet to create an opening for then to escape.
Before the participant made use of it, Gustav instructed everyone to hold onto the participant in front of them so it would make it easier to get pulled out if the ones behind got buried since the ceiling of the hole they were trapped in would most likely cave in.
Fortunately things had gone exactly as Gustav predicted and everyone survived but now they needed to get out of here.
"Let's go," Gustav voiced before turning around and running off.
The group followed followed right after him.They hurriedly moved at fast pace which made sinking into the ground avoidable.
-
About twenty minutes later, the group had arrived at the outskirts of the sinking highlands. They were only a mile away from the path that led to the yellow zone they were heading to at this point.
They had managed to avoid a couple more beasts they came across along the way. Fortunately, these beasts didn't notice them and couldn't sense their presence when they hid from sight so they were able to take detours around.
"Are we gonna wait for them?" Matilda questioned as they arrived on sloppy plane.
"It wouldn't be wise to do so, we're practically out in the open so avoiding beasts here would be close to impossible," Gustav responded as they kept making their way forward.
"But what if they need help? Shouldn't we check for them at least. They may still be back there," Angy voiced with a tone of worry.
"We can't. We have to trust that they'll be fine and if they're not, we cannot jeopardise more group members," Gustav shook his head.
His thought process was, even if they got caught by any of the beasts and lost all their life points, they would just get disqualified and teleported out of the sixth disk.
So long as the others from earth group were still safe, they would still be a participating in the challenge. Since it was a survival challenge, a planet group wouldn't be disqualified unless all its twenty participants lost their life points.
Gustav decision to split them was also based on all of these.
"They'll meet us on the charred wasteland then," Falco noted.
The group continued to head forward along this sloppy path. Although visibility in the beast haven was limited, the current location happened to be a wide open space so they watched out for the others.
Soon enough, they spotted a small group ahead of them and Gustav was able to recognise the body features of some of them from behind.
Since the group was trying to maintain quietness so as not to draw any beasts to themselves, they chose not to call out to them.
Gustav could tell that those were the participants that went with Aildris. He had used this to confirm Aildris and the rest safety but he was still unaware about that of Endric's.
The group had already spent over two hours journeying from the heaven piercing rock region to their current location. This meant they had a little over three hours of life points left.
They should have spent only two hours but due to all of the disturbances they faced on the way, they spent longer.
They continued to follow behind as silently as they could, heading down the sloppy path.
"It's finally in sight," Angy announced after a couple of minutes.
In the distance the group could spot a tar like terrain with dense purplish dried up looking trees standing firmly in multiple areas. These trees looked extremely dried up with purplish outer covering, yet they had blood red leaves sprouting from their branches.
The ground of the tar like terrain emitted a faint yellow glow, depicting that this was a yellow zone. They had finally arrived here.
< The Charred Wasteland >
The map displayed its name as they approached it with expressions of relief.
"Gustav," Aildris called from up ahead as the two groups finally reconnected with the exception of Endric's.
"Glad to see that you got here safely," He said with a smile.
"Likewise," Gustav responded as they stepped onto the yellow zone.
The instant the group finally stepped foot on the yellow zone, their Iov bracelets emitted a little glow as numbers appeared on its surface.
< 00017 points > [+1 point]
< 00018 points > [+1 point]
< 00019 points > [+1 point]
< 00020 points > [+1 point]
Every second they spent in the yellow zone increased the life points displayed on their bracelet.
Gustav calculated that they needed around two hundred and forty life points to be safe for the entire duration of the challenge. If they managed to fill up that much and found their way back to a green zone, they would be safe till the timer counted down completely.
"Four minutes... Let's make sure to watch out for beasts," Gustav knew the vicinity was not safe so even a single minute seemed like a stretch.
About one minute in, they spotted a group approaching from up ahead.
"Endric, looks like they're safe," Matilda voiced with a tone of relief.
Endric and the others from his side soon arrived and the whole group of fifty were completely reunited. Some of them recounted their experiences, relaying how dangerous each of their predicaments were.
< 00127 points > [+1 point]
Gustav stared at his Iov bracelet with a calm look but internally he felt impatient. Only two minutes had gone by since they arrived here from the looks of things. It almost seemed like time had slowed down at the one moment he wanted it to be fast.
His eyes suddenly knitted as the sound of loud footsteps drifted into their ears. The group turned around to stare in the direction of the incoming footsteps.
As a group of alien participants appeared in their line of sight, the group emitted a look of relief.
"Looks like we're not the only ones who picked this place to recharge," Fildhor voiced.
"Run!"
The yell from one of the approaching group caused their already calm nerves to rise.
"What do you mean by..."
This was when they noticed that the approaching alien participants, were not walking, instead they were running.
Gustav's forehead scrunched as he set his sights on what laid behind the approaching alien participants.
"Go! Everyone move now!" Gustav yelled as he turned eastwards.
"Oh shit!" E.E yelled as he also spotted the multiple beasts chasing the participants from behind.
The group quickly reacted by turning around and running as fast as their legs could take them.
"Arrrrghhh!" Loud cries were heard behind as it seemed that the beasts had caught up with some of the alien participants.
Thooooooommm!
A mechanical looking ape like creature leapt into the air and suddenly landed in the midst of Gustav and the others. Its red glowing eyes flashed with violence, leaving the participants with no time to react.
Fwwhooomm~
Gustav lowered his body the instant this creature arrived in their midst and the moment he did, a massive metallic fist swung past his head.
Bang!
The fist crashed into Yonda who was directly behind him, causing his body to be forcefully thrown into the air.
[- 100 Life points]
"Bas...tard..." Yonda groaned.
His life points were instantly deducted as his body slammed into another alien participant behind causing them to be forcefully pushed backwards as well.
"How in the hell is this thing considered a beast? Its like an artificial intelligent death robot!" E.E screamed ad he kept running with a look of horror.
"Disperse!" Gustav stated.
The group understood exactly what this meant and quickly ran off in seperate directions.
The beastly robotic figure paused for a bit staring at its targets that were escaping in different directions.
It's violent brimming red eyes flickered as it suddenly spread both of its arms in seperate directions which began increasing in length while holes appeared on differ parts of its body.
Multiple mechanical arms phased out of these holes, increasing in length and speedily shooting in the direction of the escaping participants.
Gustav and a few others managed to dodge as they descended but about six participants were not so lucky. The multiple arms that had extended grabbed hold of them and yanked them towards the mechanical beast.
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