In the Center at five am in the morning, when even the sun hasn’t rose, Sophie was tapping her foot impatiently. Her arms were folded over her chest and if one looked closely enough, they would have noticed a single vein throbbing just above her right white eyebrow.

“Where is that foolish brother of mine?” Sophie muttered angrily under her breathe, scanning her eyes through the area of dozens other team mates she has to face in her first trial. She had continuously warned her brother, Caterpillar that their trial was due early in the morning at Friday to which the carefree guy simply waved it off good naturedly, saying that he would be there before she even knew it.

Well for one thing, she knew he wasn’t in the stadium. Maybe she was at fault for coming in too early since even the host, Zero hasn’t arrived. However, seeing that most of the players had attended punctually, Caterpillar was at fault too.

‘What’s taking him so long?’

Just when she was about to yank her long silver hair out in frustration, at the corner of her eye, she saw him. Caterpillar entered the stadium from the front middle door and scanned around, searching for her. A stubborn and childish side of Sophie told her to let him be and struggle to find her on his own. However, sighing and knowing that her patience wouldn’t hold long enough for it was fraying already, Sophie waved at him tremendously.

Caterpillar instantly noticed her and made his way through the crowd with a huge smile. Frowning to herself, Sophie took note of the colour of his eyes. Caterpillar’s eyes had a funny magical thing to it. A ring that was at the edge of his pupil would change colour from grey to blue time to time. The middle of the pupil to the ring would remain dark brown.

As Caterpillar finally made his way up to Sophie, she was able to distinguish the colour of the ring on his pupil.

‘It’s blue, no wonder.’

“Hey” Caterpillar greeted socially while grinning broadly while he placed his hands to his black leather coat pockets. Sophie didn’t buy into his friendly act.

“What took you so long?” Even though Sophie intended it to be hushed so no one else could pick it up, the tone of her voice sounded harsh and cold. She immediately bit her tongue but fortunately, her irritating brother was unperturbed by her brash tone and simply shrugged it off casually.

“So-rry! I was held back by the Boss. He had a message for me.” Sophie rolled her eyes openly. As if she would believe a pathetic excuse like that. Her brother was getting a little too rusty in that department of escaping out of a tight situation.

“Yea right. You really can’t make a better excuse than that huh?” Caterpillar’s eyes widened while his jaw hung ajar. He placed his hand over the left side of his chest, where his heart beat in a regular rhythm to express that he was hurt that she didn’t believe him.

“It’s true! He told me to pass this message to you too since you got out of the rehab three months early.”

As he stated this, Sophie raised one eyebrow at him at interest. However, she did felt herself cringing lightly inwardly. She couldn’t believe that she was fighting a one sided battle with the Rising Star and lost in a humiliating fashion. Her opponent not only embarrassed her and shred her pride to a million of pieces; she left a lot of trauma in her body as well. Even now Sophie could feel her body shivering from the nerves of stepping in the games again.

However, even if she was traumatised, she will have to face her fears full on if she wanted to execute her revenge on the Rising Star. Sophie was the forgiving type but what the Rising Star had done to her was beyond her toleration. She wanted revenge so badly, Sophie had worked extremely hard in rehabilitation so that she could be discharged early and be sent to Blessed Combat again.

“It’s a new task he had given for us. Before that, have you heard about the ‘Lone Wolf’?” Caterpillar asked suddenly which made both of her pale eyebrows to shot up. Sophie blinked blankly while going through her memories to check if she had heard such a name.

To her surprise, she had. Who wouldn’t know him for he was the terrifying beast clawing his way through duels that he was matched up against? She had seen him battling opponents live several times and the aura he had around him was frightening. It was enough for her to cower away in terror or crawl up to one corner and pray for nothing bad to touch her.

“Yea, his player name is Armageddon right? What about him?”

“Turns out the Boss wants us to keep an eye out for him.”

“Stay away from him?” Sophie asked curiously to which Caterpillar shook his head. The silver haired girl tilted her head to a side in an innocent confusion as Caterpillar explained.

“He wants us to... how do I say... Simply put, be his guardian. Prevent any danger and harm from coming his way.”Sophie felt something like a bucket of ice water had just splashed across her face. She stared at her brother with a bewildered look that wondered whether he was spewing out nonsense or not. Caterpillar simply nodded, confirming that what he said was true.

Although, no one could blame Sophie to react that way. Their boss, whom she hasn’t seen for ages hardly sent them request of protecting someone. To be accurate, he had never sent a request like that. Mainly it was to keep distance and collect information about shady looking players. She knew she wouldn’t know the reason to it any time soon and probably never as well, but she also knew that Caterpillar knew the reason well.

For some strange reason, the boss and Caterpillar share a lot of things to which they keep it concealed from the world, even from her. Not that she bothered digging herself deep into it since she knew that it might not be something she would take delight from knowing. The only reason she even followed her brother’s footsteps was that from what the ‘Boss’ and Caterpillar said, they were short in numbers. With her suddenly being in a coma and supposedly nine month rehabilitation, Caterpillar had told her that their progress had slowed down quite a notch.

“I know what you are thinking but remember what we agreed on. Just follow the task with no question asked okay?” Caterpillar stated gently to which Sophie could only nod. She was still in no state to answer with her voice since she felt like it would betray her by showing signs that she was still not quite over the shocking development. To that, Caterpillar then gave a genuine friendly smile which lit up the whole stadium.

“The only people we need to stay away from is Team fourteen. The one with the mind reader and invisibility. Remember them?” Sophie nodded once more as she noted more players entering into the stadium.

“That’s the team that got disqualified along with a Team of three others while using cheating methods last year right?” Caterpillar nodded lightly, happy to know that Sophie had kept her knowledge updated despite being in the most painful situation throughout her lifetime.

“We make sure that Armageddon doesn’t meet them got that? Also, if we got the chance, make an alliance with that ‘Lone Wolf’.” All of a sudden, the ring on Caterpillar’s pupils shifted its colour to deep grey. Caterpillar tensed lightly before doubling over and wheezing somewhat severely. Sophie had seen this several times already but she still couldn’t believe what his eyes could do. Sometimes, it was terrifying.

“Woah, are you alright?” Sophie asked concernedly while patting his back gently. Several wheezing dry coughs later, Caterpillar straightened himself once more and smiled weakly at Sophie to prove he was alright. Sophie doubted it but then, she didn’t press on any further as well. Even if she pointed out that he wasn’t fit to go into the trials, it would have gone to deaf ears. As far as anyone is concerned, Caterpillar was determined to enter Blessed Combat for some important reason Sophie wasn’t aware of yet.

“Anyway, rumour has it that this ‘Lone Wolf’ had gotten himself a female partner and that she was able to tame the wild beast. If that’s true, I wonder how she was able to do that without being frightened of him and why.” Before Sophie had the chance to respond, the overcrowding voices suddenly hushed till it was pin drop silent. An eerie atmosphere was lingering in the air which was uncomfortably heavy. It was the type that gnaws on your heart as if to warn you that you had forgotten something.

Confused with what was going on, Sophie took several steps forward to find the source of all of this when something bumped into her, knocking her glasses off in the process. Without warning, Sophie’s vision instantly blurred to the point that even distinguishing people’s faces were close to impossible. Having no other choice, the silver haired girl immediately squat down and helplessly tried to find her thick rimmed glasses.

She should have brought her contacts! Heck, how was she going to fight when if her eyes depended on her glasses? She would be hopeless if at one point she loses them. Scowling at herself, Sophie patted the floor around gently when she felt something tapping lightly on the back of her left palm, making her gasp in surprise.

“Sorry about that...” A gruffy voice spoke which made Sophie to flinch momentarily. Cautiously, she touched the familiar object that was tapping her left hand and recognised it as her glasses. Without a second thought, Sophie took the glasses from her saviour and wore them on. She sighed in relief when she could see again which turned to a light shriek when she realised who exactly her saviour was.

It was the speak of the devil! The monstrous beast! Armageddon was bent down on one knee and boring his tired grey eyes at the silver haired girl. Sophie instantly recoiled back a few feet away from the tall lad in fear. She knew it was ridiculous but seeing the Lone Wolf right before her eyes sent panic pumping through her veins.

That’s when she noticed something peculiar. Not only was his usual menacing and dangerous aura wasn’t there, he was holding hands with an elementary kid. She looked around the age of ten, or maybe twelve with her black hair windblown and her cat like green eyes staring at her with wonder. In addition to that, unbelievably, the tall lad had two dark circles under his grey eyes that flashed briefly in hurt. At that moment, Sophie felt guilty to backpedal away from him as if he was a curse.

“U-uh sorry! I didn’t see where I was going...” Sophie awkwardly spoke, trying to release the tension that was shared between them. She knew it was a success when the tall lad’s eyes softened a bit. He then gave her some sort of an awkward smile with a nod of acknowledgement before standing upright again. On cue, Caterpillar offered his hand to which Sophie accepted all too eagerly.

“See you...later...” Arma spoke lightly before strolling away with the elementary kid who continued to stare at both of them before turning her attention back on the stadium before them. As both of them disappeared in the crowd of people, with the tall lad still visibly noticeable, both Sophie and Caterpillar were left in mystification.

“Well...guess the rumour is true...” Caterpillar spoke, having nothing else to say. Sophie could only nod, finding herself in a state not to trust her voice again. It was at that point Sophie looked at the tall lad in a different light. Underneath that tough exterior of the second most frightening player in Blessed Combat, was there a soft side of him as well? Had that kid somehow touched his heart where no one else could and tamed him?

She never knew.

Meanwhile, as Sophie and Caterpillar took their time to process what had happened in just those few minutes, Arma yawned loudly. Zessica also did the same only in her case it was much quieter. The reason why the tall lad was holding her hand was to guide her. She was still half asleep and walked straight into a pillar once they got off the bicycle.

“Why did the first trial have to be so early?” Zessica complained while asking this. Arma, having no spare energy to answer back, only did what he could to respond back. He shrugged his shoulders, indicating that his guess was just as good as hers.  Though, he was a bit baffled for both of them to bump into Sophie and Caterpillar when they entered the stadium. Arma hoped that they wouldn’t think of him as a threat and tried to be friendly but he had a high suspicion his awkward smile might have made him look as if he was constipated instead. Before he could mull over it, just then, Zero appeared with a microphone ready at hand.

“Welcome dear participants. As you all know, only five teams can represent themselves as Wind Crest’s nominees to fight in Blessed Combat. It is the AI’s decision to choose who the five representatives will be. To do that, it had created several trials for you to complete. If you fail in these trials, you are disqualified. However don’t be upset just yet. Recently, it seems the AI has other plans...”

Like the night at where Hallway of Horrors began, the bar of the tension raised even higher than ever. Each player glanced from one player to another as if that could help them answer the and equipped with the Exoskeleton. Without a second thought, Arma pressed the window and felt the warm white light spread around his body as well. A few seconds later, Arma admired the suit with awe. It felt light and just like what Zatch had promised him it would be, like second skin. It also didn’t hinder in any slight movements in the least.

“Cool...” Zessica spoke suddenly which brought all his attention on her. She too, was wearing an exoskeleton which fit her frame. Like his suit, Zessica’s Exoskeleton had linings too only they were in neon green instead. It was also drawn right across her torso in a plant-like vine fashion which also travelled at the back of her suit. Zessica’s Exoskeleton also covered her neck as if it was a turtle neck shirt where as Arma had a V cut in his Exoskeleton.

That’s when he saw it, his reflection on Zessica’s shiny Exoskeleton. Another headache settled in and Arma found himself clutching his head again. His vision melted away to nothingness till something else entirely formed again. At that point, he knew it was his Major acting up again, showing the calamities that were going to happen sooner or later in the future.

 Arma stared at the snowy scenery around him. There were dozens of pine trees around what seemed like a frozen lake that was his ground at the moment. However, the frozen lake was broken into flat icebergs, spreading throughout the lake. One slip from one of the icebergs and one would have pummelled to the freezing icy water below.

‘What’s going to happen today?...”

Arma wondered silently when he saw three figures at the corner of his eye. One of them, a small one, was running for his or hers life. Upon closer inspection, he recognised the figure as Zessica with winter clothes on. Two other figures were snickering away as they watch the small girl try her best not to slip and escape from them, and where was he? Arma glanced around, wondering what he could possibly be doing somewhere else while he should have been there with his partner.

“Finish her off...” One of the figures, whom Arma realised as Fog, ordered maliciously. The other guy, Silver grinned evilly as well while cracking his knuckles. He extended one hand as if reaching out and clamped it shut. All of a sudden, Zessica stiffened and squirmed but was unable to run any further. As Silver lifted his extended hand higher, Arma watched in horror as Zessica too was hovering above. Silver was using his Major, Aura Chocking at Zessica. Before Arma could prepare himself, he saw the girl kicking her feet relentlessly in the air before all movements ceased.

Silver opened his hand again, causing the girl to drop limply on the flat iceberg. Arma didn’t need to inspect her closely to know that she was dead. He closed his eyes shut again, letting the future prediction melt away again. Once he was fully sure that he was staring nothing but the darkness under his eyelids, he opened them up again to find Zessica staring at him curiously.

“What happened?” She asked as Arma kneaded his forehead to remove the after effects of his Major. He was able to control his Major much more than before but nothing could stop the headache from going away. He stared at the girl before debating on his answer. He couldn’t possibly say that she died in there and alone too. Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Arma carefully chose the words to what he would say.

“...Nothing...Just...once we get into the game...don’t leave out of my sight okay?” Zessica narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him before closing them and sighing out loud. She nodded as she focused on the host while Arma let out a silent sigh of relief. One of the reason he was happy Zessica was his partner was that no matter how odd his requests were, she wasn’t the type to ask questions and instead, followed them.

“Okay! I see that all of you are suited up. We shall now, commence the first trial of Blessed Combat!” Zero announced lightly as the players cheered in response. Both Arma and Zessica merely clapped along with the others, too lazy and tired to raise their voice. Even if they did, it would have been awkward from the start.

Zero scanned the stadium, nodding to several players before fishing out a remote control device from his jean pocket. Arma saw that there was a single bright red button in that device. Zero punched his thumb on it and the effect was almost instantaneous. Player by player suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving only bright blue sparks in their place. The disappearing players came like in a wave from the right side of the stadium all the way to the left. Soon, Arma and Zessica braced themselves as they got teleported elsewhere.

The journey was a short one. Heck, it didn’t take a minute and must have taken at least five seconds. Arma opened his eyes again when he realised he had closed it shut by instincts. Like his future prediction, he was in snowy scenery but someplace else entirely. Sure there were pine trees but they were everywhere, surrounding them. Instead of the flat icebergs, both of them were safe with the snowy ground under their feet. There were also snow covered bushes and Arma noticed several bunnies hopping about from one place to another. One of them even stopped to glance at Arma, twitching its nose at him before turning its back on him and hopping away.

“So...Cold...” Arma turned to find that both of them were not in their Exoskeleton suits anymore. They were wearing winter clothes. The tall lad had a colourful beanie hat which hid his shaggy brunette hair and a red scarf that was wrapped around his neck. He wore a cream coloured brown coat that reached up to his knees and he noticed that both of his hands were wearing red gloves. The tall lad had black jeans on with dark brown winter boots which made the snow crackle under his feet.

Zessica didn’t have a beanie hat like him but she had a sky blue ear muffs on and wore a pale white winter dress coat that reached just below her knees as well with a black frills underneath the dress as a finishing touch. She didn’t have any jeans or pants on and wore blue ugg boots as well. Zessica’s face was flushed red and she was shivering uncontrollably at the temperature. Arma could also see her breathe condensing every time she exhaled. However, he didn’t understand why he was feeling too warm when his partner seemed like she would be frozen in a few minutes.

Feeling sympathetic at her, Arma removed his beanie hat and gently placed it on Zessica’s head which surprised her since it was evident in her widened eyes. Then he removed the scarf and wrapped it around the girl’s neck as well. When he stepped back to look at his work, he couldn’t hold back a hysterical laughter that spurted out inside of him.

“What’s so funny?” Zessica asked curiously while digging her nose into the cozy scarf.

“Y-you...look like ...ahahah...a snowman...wahahah...” Arma wheezed while doubling over from the cramps that occurred in his stomach from laughing too hard. Sure enough, the girl did seem like an overstuffed snowman with her oversized woollen dress with the scarf that was too big for her. Arma could see there weren’t amusement in her eyes and ended up laughing even harder.

“Within a few seconds, the first stage of your first trial will begin but before you begin it, here is what you must do.” Zero’s voice boomed across the new dimension which halted Arma’s laughter to a stop. Arma would have sworn the silence that lingered in the dimension was not natural. It gave him an eerie feeling. It was the feeling of several other players located elsewhere was listening eagerly for what Zero had to say.

“The first trial is simple but easier said than done. The task is to find a house that will act as your shelter. There will be snow monsters that will prevent you from doing that and pulverise you on the spot. However, if one did find themselves facing against one of those monsters and being beaten to a pulp, they won’t be disqualified yet. Why? Well the only way to be disqualified is this. There are sixteen of you taking part in this trial, but there are only twelve houses to take. Meaning only four of you would be eliminated.”

“That sounds easy...just without the monsters and all...” Arma noted calmly. He suddenly felt enthusiastic to finish the first stage but that was soon short lived when Zessica shook her head. He didn’t know how but he knew that Zessica had a way of guessing what would happen next accurately. He recalled Zatch explaining about her being able to calculate the odds with supreme accuracy to which he may or may not have ignored half heartedly.

“I don’t think his announcement is done yet Arma...”

“I know what you are thinking. ‘It’s just a house right?’ Well you are dead wrong right there. To make this stage even more challenging, the AI had disguised all these houses with a force field. It is completely invisible to the eye but it’s there. Maybe if you luck holds long enough, you might bump into it? Who knows? Happy playing my fellow warriors.”

With that, Zero’s voice ceased to exist while Arma is left stupefied. Finding a house that is invisible to the naked eye? That’s impossible! Plus, only people lucky enough would be able to finish this stage. Arma wasn’t in the lucky border. He had always been the one living in misfortune. As he continued to rampage his mind with negativity, he had forgotten that beside him, was a girl with tons of luck that helped her play the role of the ‘Shadow Player’.

 Zessica scanned her surroundings and then observed each and every single tree that was in her sight while hugging herself. She cringed at the thought that of all sceneries the AI could have picked, it had to be snow. She didn’t tell the tall lad that this may or may not affect her body tremendously so she focused on playing through the trial instead. She then nudged Arma’s elbow, pointing the tallest tree that was close by.

“Let’s climb that tree. I want to check something...” Arma stared at her with a dumbfounded expression before glancing at the tree again.

“Can’t I just pick you and fly high so that you can see whatever you wanted to see?” Zessica shook her head in a collected manner before digging her nose in the scarf again. Her voice was muffled but it had some authority in it to which Arma hesitated to follow.

“No, I doubt you can use you Minor here Arma. This dimension doesn’t fulfil all the conditions for you to activate it.”

“I-is that so?” Arma stuttered lightly while Zessica nodded in response. Still hesitant on climbing a tree, Arma eventually sighed and gave in. Their progress towards the tree was a slow one but climbing it was another story. For one thing, it didn’t help that the snow coated pine tree made it pretty slippery to climb. Most of the time, Arma found himself hugging the tree while Zessica struggled to inch herself up as well. She stopped short to stare at him who was hugging the tree once more. He would have understood if she had smirked right then but she didn’t.

“Tree hugger...” Zessica muttered which was loud enough for him to hear and he knew she had uttered it out on purpose. Arma growled lowly before kicking a chunk of snow that was supposed to hit her but instead, fell limply on the ground below. Seeing that failed, Arma countered back with his own remark.

“Chickpea...” The effect was instantaneous when Zessica activated her Major and caused a small avalanche of snow from the tree to rain down on Arma. The tall lad hugged the tree even more closely than ever, his eyes widened in shock from the numbing cold as his teeth chattered furiously. He knew right then and there he had passed in pissing Zessica off because she always used her Major every time something ticked her off. However, for her to pass in throwing snow at him made his victory seem fruitless.

Once the tall lad made it all the way to the top, he glanced down to find Zessica panting heavily and coughing dryly as well.

“You okay?” Arma asked concernedly. For a while he had noticed that she seemed to be forcing herself to even move a muscle. The air around her seemed tight and tensed as well. Zessica simply nodded but remained a few branches below him. Arma could tell she wouldn’t climb up any higher than that.

“Arma, what can you see up there?”

Arma scanned around only to see nothing but snow everywhere with several dozen of snow hills. That was when he thought he saw one snow hill move. As Arma narrowed his focus on that particular hill, only then he knew it wasn’t a snow hill, it was one of the snow monsters Zero had said there would be. It didn’t have any eyes but had a huge mouth that bore sharp teeth. It also had two gigantic fists that looked as if it could break a boulder. It didn’t have legs but it seemed to move at ease like a snail. When he examined the scenery around him more closely, he was able to pinpoint several dozens of snow monsters lurking about.

“Some very huge snowmen that don’t look friendly...”

“Arma...I need you to locate where there are more of those snowmen together...can you do that?” Arma did what he was told and counted them one group to another. After a minute or so from estimating the number of snow monsters, he found that the most number of those freakishly large beings were at north from them and several hundreds of feet away. They were moving about in a ring but not one of them stepped foot in the middle. How peculiar.

“Done.”

“Okay, that’s where we are heading.” Arma wasn’t sure whether he heard it wrong but upon seeing Zessica already making her way down, he knew that she said the most bizarre thing he ever heard in his life. She was sealing both of their fates and commencing their death sentence.

“Excuse me?” The tall lad almost shrieked which made Zessica to stop at her tracks. She glanced up and bore her emerald green eyes at him, her head cocked to one side in an innocent confusion.

“Remember what Zero said. These huge snow monsters would do anything from getting us to those houses. If you think about it, it’s basically saying they are guarding it instead. So the area with more of those monsters increases the chances of finding the house. Do you catch my drift?” Arma recalled the monsters moving in a ring formation once more. Now that he thought about it, it was as if they were guarding something, in the middle of the ring.

“...Yea...but I aint happy with that...” Arma admitted out loud.

“Well life isn’t fair. Come on” Zessica spoke in a hoarse like voice. Arma glanced down to find her standing upright on one branch. Before he could wonder what she was going to do next, Zessica jumped and surfed through the branches by using the snow as her domain. She surfed to one particular branch that was arced upwards and Arma witnessed in awe as she gracefully flew up. She spun several times in the air and would have looked pretty impressive when she landed on the snow below only to fall flat on her face. The only reason she was able to surf through the branches at ease was the Exoskeleton that was hidden beneath the winter clothes.

‘Well...typical Zessica...’

Arma thought silently while he leisurely slipped down as well. By the time he came down Zessica was patting away the snow that covered the beanie hat, scarf and coat. However, Arma noticed that his partner was growing paler than usual and her bottom lip was turning slightly blue. He would have passed it off as an imagination but this was Zessica. Arma had to check several times whether she took her daily dose of medicine or not.

Her doctor, Tear had told him that Zessica’s body was abnormally weaker than any other player she had ever seen and that it couldn’t adapt to sudden climatic changes which leads it to fail every single time. She had warned him to be wary of Zessica’s condition at all times.

“We got to get you to that house quick.” Arma spoke while grabbing her arm. Zessica, knowing all too well that he had figured out by now that she was slowly weakening, nodded in return. That was when something rumbled under their feet. Arma looked around and saw several small chunks of snow were dancing about. Wondering what could possibly make the ground shake idiotically, he felt Zessica suddenly pulling him.

“Run!” She hissed loudly. Without warning, Arma saw a one huge monster taking down several dozen of trees behind them. The tall lad saw as it halted and sniffed the air like a greedy dog. That’s when Arma realised that despite having no eyes, this monster could sniff their scent. Letting adrenaline to take over, Arma grabbed her tiny wrist and pulled her close to him. He then carried her in a bridal style and started running for his life.

The monster behind them seemed to have realised that there were two players nearby to beat and started moving towards them. As luck would have it, Arma let a small laugh escape to find that even though the huge beast was vicious and dangerous, it was slow. However, his relief was short lived when the monster started throwing broken pine trees at them. When one tree landed several feet away from them, causing him to almost lose his balance, the tall lad knew he was in trouble.

Although after a few minutes of endless running, Arma saw the frozen lake that was soon emerging to his view. It was the same frozen lake he had seen from his vision but unlike the prediction, it was frozen solid, not cracked to several flat ice plates.

“Look out!” Zessica suddenly cried, breaking his chain of thoughts. Arma looked up to find one pine tree was being lunged at them. This one however, seemed determined to crush them. Having no choice and not wanting to lose his head, Arma activated his Minor despite what Zessica had warned him earlier. He should have listened but there were too much at stake. He wasn’t surprised when his foot got caught too deep in the snow, making his lengthy jump too low. This caused him lose Zessica and career through the frozen ice and gradually slide to a stop.

Panicking, Arma lifted his head painfully and roved his eyes around to find the short girl a few feet away from him. He sighed in relief to find her sitting upright and bearing no severe injuries on her. In a matter of minutes, the pine tree crashed to the snow and landed on the edge of the lake, creating a large crack underneath the tree’s weight.

The tall lad saw the monster slowly emerging towards the lake and to his surprise, it didn’t step any further. The big hump of snow sniffed the air again before growling deeply. It then turned its back against them, and crawled away. On another day, Arma would have paused to let his heart slow down a little when he heard something unpleasant, a crackle.

“Arma, we got to go.” Zessica ordered politely but Arma could sense that she feared for the worst. No sooner as she said this, Arma saw the cracks underneath the tree grow and slowly inching its way towards them. The tall lad abruptly stood up, almost slipping and falling again to his face as he sort of skated his way towards Zessica. By the time he helped her up, the cracks were already a few feet away from them.

Heart in his mouth, Arma practically yanked Zessica with him as he comically skated through the lake. When the short girl slipped and lost her balance again, the cracks were already a hair away from them. Having no other choice, Arma pulled the girl up above his head and threw the dazed girl several feet away thanks to his Exoskeleton which gave him a strength boost. As he watched the girl landed safely on the snow, he started running as well, not caring whether he was looking like a fool when he continuously almost lost his balance. From the sides, Arma saw that the cracks had already reached up to him and was almost going to devour him. There was still a lot of distance to the other end of the lake. He wasn’t going to make it.

“JUMP ARMA!” Zessica cried out loud, almost making him slip again. For one, he never heard her scream and two, he never seen her making an expression that she wore right then. She usually had an impassive look on her face and was always collected and composed, but this time, there was fear. Her eyes were almost close to tears as she clutched the snow under her helplessly.

Determined not to give up just yet for the sake of his partner, Arma took a small jump forward. As he landed, he exerted most of his power in his legs and activated his Minor. If Zatch were there he would have told him it was a reckless thing to do with so many risks. Arma could even see the cracks eventually reached him as the ice gave away from his weight. However, it seemed his luck held on as he soared across and landed roughly in the snow beside Zessica. The frozen lake then broke into several dozen of ice plates.

Arma groggily got up stiffly, brushing the snow off his shaggy hair. A shadow overlapped him and he glanced up to find the short girl extending out her hand. Once again, Zessica had a monotonous look on her face. It made Arma wonder whether he had imagined it all. Not in the mood to mull over it for the rest of the day, Arma took her offering hand and pulled himself up. The ground underneath them rumbled momentarily before it ceased.

“We should hurry up and go...” Zessica noted. Arma nodded in response but he couldn’t help but feel that Zessica seemed more reserved than earlier. It was as if she was forcing herself to conceal and lock away her emotions deep within her heart. If that is so, why was that? Arma couldn’t answer that when she coughed lightly, interrupting his thoughts. Turning his focus on the game, Arma grabbed her wrist again and slowly guided her towards where Arma saw the ring formation.

He noted that Zessica’s footsteps had become unsteady and tried to will his heart to a rational rhythm. He wanted to hurry up and get this over with. He wanted her to be in a sheltered place quickly and warm up from the cold that seemed to be slowly killing her. Unfortunately, from past experience, he knew if he went too ahead, he might end up slowing both of them down than intended.

Unbeknownst to them, a certain guy was observing them from a tree, witnessing their slow progress to what he could only assume as their doom.

“Can you see them?” The stranger asked to nothing but air. Soon, a voice answered right inside his mind.

“Yes I do see them Silver. There is no doubt about it. That tall guy is not only an ally to those three idiots who got us disqualified, he is a massive threat to our plan as well.” Silver could sense the smirk forming from Fog’s voice.

“So what should we do?” Silver asked. After a long moment of silence, Fog answered.

“We will separate him from the girl and lure him to a trap. The same goes for that Time Keeper as well from his sister. That way, his sister, Sophie would come searching for her dear beloved brother and we will lure her to a trap too. It would be killing three oblivious but strong birds with one stone. Oh and when you get the chance...” Silver heard his partner chuckle maliciously that was enough to leave excitement shuddering through him. He knew Fog had thought of something really bad, which meant good in both of their dictionaries.

“Find a way to make that girl, Zessica, be invisible...permanently...”

Author's note: I would like to dedicate this a close friend of mine who had been very sweet and friendly to me ever since we both followed each other. I am sorry for not updating at May 8th as promise but I have an excuse. I blame it on my asthma attack. I still have some after effects of it and its difficult to breathe but I dealt with far worse xD Once again I didn't recheck so please point out any mistake at your own free will

Oh and don't forget to vote!

or. If Zatch were there he would have told him it was a reckless thing to do with so many risks. Arma could even see the cracks eventually reached him as the ice gave away from his weight. However, it seemed his luck held on as he soared across and landed roughly in the snow beside Zessica. The frozen lake then broke into several dozen of ice plates.

Arma groggily got up stiffly, brushing the snow off his shaggy hair. A shadow overlapped him and he glanced up to find the short girl extending out her hand. Once again, Zessica had a monotonous look on her face. It made Arma wonder whether he had imagined it all. Not in the mood to mull over it for the rest of the day, Arma took her offering hand and pulled himself up. The ground underneath them rumbled momentarily before it ceased.

“We should hurry up and go...” Zessica noted. Arma nodded in response but he couldn’t help but feel that Zessica seemed more reserved than earlier. It was as if she was forcing herself to conceal and lock away her emotions deep within her heart. If that is so, why was that? Arma couldn’t answer that when she coughed lightly, interrupting his thoughts. Turning his focus on the game, Arma grabbed her wrist again and slowly guided her towards where Arma saw the ring formation.

He noted that Zessica’s footsteps had become unsteady and tried to will his heart to a rational rhythm. He wanted to hurry up and get this over with. He wanted her to be in a sheltered place quickly and warm up from the cold that seemed to be slowly killing her. Unfortunately, from past experience, he knew if he went too ahead, he might end up slowing both of them down than intended.

Unbeknownst to them, a certain guy was observing them from a tree, witnessing their slow progress to what he could only assume as their doom.

“Can you see them?” The stranger asked to nothing but air. Soon, a voice answered right inside his mind.

“Yes I do see them Silver. There is no doubt about it. That tall guy is not only an ally to those three idiots who got us disqualified, he is a massive threat to our plan as well.” Silver could sense the smirk forming from Fog’s voice.

“So what should we do?” Silver asked. After a long moment of silence, Fog answered.

“We will separate him from the girl and lure him to a trap. The same goes for that Time Keeper as well from his sister. That way, his sister, Sophie would come searching for her dear beloved brother and we will lure her to a trap too. It would be killing three oblivious but strong birds with one stone. Oh and when you get the chance...” Silver heard his partner chuckle maliciously that was enough to leave excitement shuddering through him. He knew Fog had thought of something really bad, which meant good in both of their dictionaries.

“Find a way to make that girl, Zessica, be invisible...permanently...”

Author's note: I would like to dedicate this a close friend of mine who had been very sweet and friendly to me ever since we both followed each other. I am sorry for not updating at May 8th as promise but I have an excuse. I blame it on my asthma attack. I still have some after effects of it and its difficult to breathe but I dealt with far worse xD Once again I didn't recheck so please point out any mistake at your own free will

Oh and don't forget to vote!