章 9: Kets, Irritating and Cowardly
'What are we going to do with the girl?' one man asked as he tightened the rope around the tree.
Kets sat on the ground with her legs folded, frowning at them all.
'Why did we even bring her with us?' another man asked. 'She's a dead weight. There is no tactical advantage to having her with us at all.'
'Hey, it's not like I want to be here, either. Let me go.' She kicked out her leg at a woman who was close to her.
'Oi, you better watch yourself, girl. You cost us a lot of marks,' the woman snapped.
'It's your fault for getting tricked by something so obvious.'
'Shut up!'
'Idiots! Ya ha ha.' She poked out her tongue at them.
'Hey, you didn't even realise what had happened until we had explained it to you,' a second woman said. 'And besides, I wouldn't call other people idiots when you had the most marks out of anyone else. Your team used you for bait and nothing more.'
'La la la I'm not listening. Let's work together. Take me under your wing. I just don't want to be left tied up here.'
The third man and fifth member of the group stepped up to her and looked down at her. He was the oldest of the group, almost twenty years old. 'Maybe we can use you as bait. Maybe there are some fools out there who'll take it.'
'Bait? You want me to be bait? Sure. I can do that. I can do that right now. You idiots!' Then Kets let out a scream. 'Free marks right here! They're unprepared! They're idiots! Ya ha ha!'
The man swooped down on her. 'What are you doing? Are you trying to screw us over?'
'What? I don't care. I'm not in your team. Ya ha ha.'
A team of five descended on the clearing, and the members of the two teams found themselves in a grueling bout of hand-to-hand combat.
Idiots! Kets knew full well that she was an idiot herself, but there was something that she prided herself in more than anything, and that was trickery. When her foolishness trapped her, her trickery found her freedom. Nut the squirrel poked out its head from underneath the rope as it broke apart and gave way, gnawed through by his teeth.
Moving swiftly through the crowd of combatants, she spun about the storm of fists and kicks, flicking the foreheads of her captors and attackers. Before anyone had realised what had happened, she was sprinting through the forest, Nut running along ahead of her.
'Ya ha ha! We did it! We're amazing! Ya ha ha, suckers – you never would have – OH SHIT!'
Kelth, the man who had had zero marks at the start of the test, and still had zero marks, was charging after her, beside himself with rage. Kets, who never had strong endurance, was already panting from the long stint of running, shifted her focus to the front and Nut the furry squirrel.
'Come back here, girl! Give me those marks.'
'Stay away from me! Ya ha ha ha!' Shit! My lungs want to explode, and I'm useless in combat. I can't stop now! A bird cawed far in the distance, a sound that Kets could not hear over the sound of her beating heart.
Kelth, right behind her, jumped and dived, grabbing her legs and tripping her face forward into the dirt. 'Got you now.' He scrambled up toward her head, hand poised and ready to flick at her forehead, which had fifteen marks.
'Get off me you creep!' she cried, kicking and punching at Kelth, none of which disturbed him.
Kelth flicked at the moment a foot collided with his body, throwing him off to the side before his finger could make contact with Kets. Trys stood over him, her hands curled into fists.
'You had better back off. Run away. Scram.'
Kelth climbed to his feet and lunged wildly at Trys, who ducked to the side and swept his foot, swinging him off balance yet again. He crashed to the floor with a cry of pain.
'Shouldn't have tired yourself out from that chase.' Trys pulled Kets to her feet, and they walked away together as Kets swore at them from the ground. They followed Nuts deeper into the forest.
'Hah, hah. Thank you so much, Trys. I thought I was done for. I thought I was doomed.' She said through deep breaths.
'Don't worry. We were looking out for you. Caw signalled that you were getting close, all I had to do was get there and defeat someone who was already exhausted from all the running he did chasing you.'
'How … far away are we … from the team?'
'We're getting close. Look, do you see that column of trees there? Stocke made those trees to hide us. We're close, don't worry.'
'Are we close?'
'Yes, I just said so.'
'Are you suuure?'
Trys gasped. This wasn't Kets that she was speaking to. She looked to her left and found Kets' eyes were shut, the exhaustion had completely sapped her strength. She spun around, searching for where the voice had come from, but found that the forest was eerily alone. Nut, who had been guiding them back to their base, was missing.
'Who is it? Who's speaking?'
Lightning flashed in front of her, temporarily blinding her. She blinked, and found the red skin of Arla appear, then flick. 'See ya, girls.' Arla shook her hand in a cheery wave. A smile stretched across her face, and more than a hundred marks stretched across her face. 'I think it's just the rest of your group that's left, and then we're done.' She disappeared with another flash of lightning.
Arla jumped through the trees, Nut the squirrel in her hand. Eyeing the clearing where the rest of the group was hiding, she jumped down into it, laughing at the shock and fright that swept over the other three member's faces.
'I would take all of your marks now if I wanted to,' she told them as she stepped up to Rickter, who took a careful step back. 'But I want to see your conviction.' She pulled Nut the squirrel out from behind her back. 'I will let all of you pass. I will give you your forty marks, or more, if you agree to let me kill the squirrel.'
Stocke and Locke gasped from the sideline as Rickter smirked.
'Even if this is a joke and you are bluffing, there is no universe where I can say to do it. There is no mental quandary here. Go and take my marks and hand back my squirrel.'
Arla smiled. 'Excellent.' She handed back the squirrel, who jumped into Rickter's arms, and flicked Rickter's forehead to steal the marks. 'Also, I wouldn't trust in the defence of such weak webs, if I were you.' She waved her finger around the clearing, where strands of Fang's webs draped from the brambles and leaves.
'We didn't know you'd get involved.'
'Eh, happens. Best be prepared for all possibilities. Now, who's next.' Her eyes hovered between Stocke and Locke. 'Stocke, come here. Give me your marks unless you want to get hurt.'
'No! I'm not moving a muscle.' He took a step back and grabbed a fistful of seeds out from his pocket. 'Don't come any closer.'
'Or what.' She stepped forward; her smile had turned maniacal.
Stocke threw the seeds forward, clasped his hands together. Arla's hand swung forward as he uttered the first word, colliding with his gut and sending him flying back against the tree. 'Such slow techniques will never work.' She jumped forward, leg cocked and committed to a kick against his chest.
Locke charged forward, his shoulder crashing against Arla and shoving her to the side. Adrenaline rushed through him, and taking advantage of the inertia, he forced a kick, then a punch, against Arla. 'Yes, this is going to work. I can defeat Arla if I just keep this –'
He never got to finish the thought. Arla's hand came down hard and fast, grabbing him from his skull and forcing him down, face first, into the dirt.
'Are you all done resisting?' She looked around at the clearing, decided that they were either too scared or helpless to move, then flicked Stocke and Locke's forehead. In the distance, a bell sounded from the clearing, marking the end of the test. 'Excellent. We're all done here. Let's head back.'
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