One of the candidates woke up in the middle of the night due to a sudden notification on the watch. The person walked outside in the forest to get some privacy. Strong wind resounded through the forest as the person connected an incoming call on the wristwatch.

"Isn't it against the exam rules to be contacting me by my watch during the exam?"

"I pretty much make the rules myself. And this is to remind you of your secret mission. Got it over with quick."

"Stop acting like a wimp. I know the deadline so that person is gonna be dead on time."

"I hope you don't change your mind later because you will be the one to suffer most out of that."

"I'm not a coward like you so I would never back off. Let me sleep now," the person hung up and let out a drowsy sigh before inhaling the cold breeze. The moonlight and dazzling stars above looked heavenly as they couldn't be seen back in the hustle and bustle of towns.

Day 2.

{Skylar's point of view}

My back hurt. My head hurt. Fuck this. Everything was horrible here. We got one bottle of water which I had to share with that jerk, one sleeping bag, one tent for one person, and a torch light out of the backpack yesterday. That jerk had the guts to play Rock Paper Scissors to choose who is keeping the tent and he won. He didn't even offer me anything and said 'goodnight' leaving me to sleep outside in a fucking sleeping bag on a chilly night and on the uncomfortable ground with mosquitoes. I hope he chokes while drinking that last little amount of water right now just because he reached out for it first.

"Stop glaring at me. Your eyes look hotter that way."

"Why can't you just be a sweet gentleman with that handsome face? Jerk. What's the plan for today? It's already 2 past noon. Can't believe you didn't bother to wake me up earlier."

"We slept late last night after scouting the entire island anyway. We needed rest. Well for now let's move to the farthest North West Point to the dungeon we saw yesterday. I have a good feeling about that one."

"What if this 'good feeling' of you somehow doesn't work out and we end up finding nothing in it? I'll kill you if I die because of you."

"You can't do that if you die."

"I'll turn into a ghost and push you off a cliff."

"I'm good at diving and swimming. I won't die."

"Just shut the fuck up and wipe off that amused smirk from your face before I throttle you."

{End of Skylar's point of view}

"Wow, 25 points for each person. I wouldn't say it's bad considering that it's the second day of the exam," Kathy smiled looking at her and Landon's watch.

"We did well with pinpointing locations of people and killing them. Thanks to that scapegoat who just revealed all information about his subordinates."

"Humans would reveal any secrets when faced with the option between an easy death or torture," Kathy shrugged and looked at him, "We left him to bleed out last night. Can you go check if he is really dead?"

"Sure. Wait a while," Landon walked off to the cabin located just a little far away from where they were standing. Kathy stood on the beach enjoying the breezy evening weather and the beautiful red gradient in the sky. She took out a map of the island from her pocket and began looking at their next destination. Her facial expression suddenly turned disturbed seeing that the map was getting snatched away by a hand from behind her. She turned around and found Skylar looking at the map with an amused expression.

"You indeed are good with assassination skills huh? I didn't even realize when you came behind me. Now give me back my map please."

"Hmm but you see I think they just have something so convenient for me. You used some dirty ways to get it, right? So I'll borrow it for now."

"You see, I don't have good fighting skills but I can still protect what's mine."

"I would like to see you try," Skylar smirked at her and dodged Kathy's high kick swiftly. Kathy shot her with successive kicks on the left side, then right but Skylar dodged all of them with her deft movements. She moved around as if playing around and testing what Kathy is capable of.

After a while, she let out a sigh out of boredom and landed a clean hit on the back of Kathy's neck knocking her out. She was about to leave with the map but a voice made her stop in her tracks.

"Not so fast, sweetheart," Landon approached her with a self-satisfied smile, "I missed you but it's no time to be playing around. I'll say this just once. Give back the map."

"I refuse," she replied nonchalantly putting the map in her back pocket to which Landon just sighed and walked towards her wielding his knife. He swung the knife at her with accurate speed and strength but she blocked it with her knife and kicked him in his abdomen making him step back a little due to the impact. Landon smiled and raised his right hand grabbing the knife and swinging it in a wide arc slicing through the air. He aimed to stab Skylar's abdomen and there was no hesitation in his movement.

His smile grew wider and amused seeing that Skylar wasn't even budging or bothering to defend. She watched his movements attentively and right before the edge of the knife could make contact with her body, she sidestepped and grabbed his wrist bringing his movement to a halt. Her reaction was unpredictable to Landon because of her speed and agility.

Before Landon could react properly to it, she swung her other hand with the knife and stabbed him in his right arm making a gush of vermillion blood spurt out. Landon groaned in pain and she took the chance by snatching the knife from his hand and dropping it on the sand.  

"I'll bet that one hurt~ It will bleed a lot so shouldn't you get going?"

"I won't die from it. You excite me too much to just leave."

Skylar let out a wry chuckle at his words and her sultry lips crept towards his ear, "I'll tell you what. You can never beat me with that orthodox attack style. It's too easy to read and it bores me~"

Landon chuckled annoyedly and looked at her with eyes full of hunger to defeat her. He reached out with an uppercut strike to which she bent her upper body backward in an arc dodging it. Landon attacked her with consecutive attacks and she just deftly avoided all of them with her swift movements as if she could read him like an open book.

It was all too fast for her to stop defending and attack him though. Skylar's every movement seemed in rhythm, perfectly calm and composed but she knew that it was actually her who had her back up against the wall. Landon just had yet to realize it. Landon's speed and accuracy weren't overwhelming to her at all but her shoulders heaving up and down slowly started giving away her composure because her body was reaching its limit.

"Wait. You...," Landon's lips curved up into an amused smile, his eyes full of excitement like he was looking at his prey, "I do have good luck in finding your weaknesses huh."

"Stop bluffing. Just get it over with," Skylar threw a punch and several kicks at him consecutively but she knew that she was slowly getting carried away. She couldn't completely focus on her opponent because of the sharp stinging pain slowing her down.

Landon took advantage of the opening and aimed for a kick to her abdomen making her fall to the ground with a great thud. She immediately raised her upper body but as if waiting for that very moment, she was surprised by a powerful kick to her solar plexus. She crashed back to the ground and let out a shrill scream of pain because of the sharp pain welling up in the middle of her ribs and spreading to her body. Her vision starts warping and distorting from the pain that she was hiding the entire fight. He smiled triumphantly and crouched down looking at her pained expression and giving her a patronizing look.

"Aww, I love seeing that look on your face."

"Fuck off."

"I guess I should make that injury worse so you aren't a threat to me in the future. You are a formidable opponent after all," Landon positioned his clenched fist over her body with a gleam of killing intent in his eyes. His movements come to a halt as a bullet grazes slightly past his ear and hits the sand behind him. He looked back noticing a figure emerge from the blind spot in the trees and walk towards him.

"Oops, I missed," Karma walked towards them putting the gun in his pocket, "Playtime is over. Get away from my girl now."

"Karma, I told you not to waste the bullets. And what the hell took you so long?"

"Sorry, babe. It was just too much fun to watch but you really can't do without my help huh?"

"Stay out of it. I don't need your help," Skylar raised her upper body ignoring the piercing pain in her body. She smiled and moved her lips close to Landon's ear, "You should have taken my advice to go stop the bleeding back then. The knife was poisoned."

Landon's eyes showed a hint of surprise but Skylar ignored him and walked toward Karma. They start walking in the forest together as the surroundings slowly got darker after sunset.

"Why didn't you drill the bullet into his skull? I know you missed on purpose."

"I don't wanna get in trouble with the gang. We don't have time for that," he shrugged and looked at her while walking, "does your body hurt too bad?"

"Will you carry me on your back if I say yes?"

"Nah. I need to save my energy. And you are feisty enough to handle yourself."

"Tch. Jerk. Of course, I can handle myself but you would seriously make a terrible boyfriend."

"Why, are you worried about that? Or do you like fantasizing about me as your-"

"In your dreams. Shut up and keep walking."

Time skip.

"What the fuck do you mean by you lost the map?" Kathy groaned with annoyance in her voice as she cleaned up the wound on Landon's arm. The one-room small cabin was dimly lit by a yellow filament bulb and a chilly breeze coming in from the beach outside.

"It was ruined because that Karma showed up at the last moment, ok? Are you even sure that the anti-dote you made from god knows what herbs gonna work?"

"You are still alive, aren't you? So it works. But you drank it late after the poison entered your body."

"I do feel sort of dizzy. Cut off the wounded part of my flesh. It's all purple so cutting it out is a safe bet."

"It won't do much harm if I do but are you sure? It's gonna hurt like hell."

"Just do it. The only thing you are good at is strategizing and torturing anyway."

A strong wind resounded through the forest as Karma and Skylar kept walking in comfortable silence between them. The sky had a shade of purple and red since it was nearing sunset. Karma walked a little behind Skylar watching her auburn wavy hair glow in the soft red light of sunset. Her sun-kissed complexion radiated a warm and elegant vibe that he liked to admire.

"Did you kiss Landon?"

"What? How do you even- no wait. Why would you ask that?"

"Your lips were just red and looked like you kissed or something when I got there."

"I was just biting my own lips. And I'm still mad at you for not shooting Landon in his skull. Anyway, see this map."

"Don't wanna. Is there anything important there anyway?"

"Don't get cocky. The tunnel we are headed to is marked with a danger sign here. Are you sure we won't die in there? And what if we don't find anything inside?"

"Oh, we are here. Get the torchlights and let's go."

Skylar just gritted her teeth in anger glaring at him and followed him into the dark dungeon which led to god knows what.