“So I was technically dead for like twenty minutes?” Arma asked sceptically, finding it very hard to digest that something so bizarre could happen to him, especially more so when both Phoenix and Zatch confessed that this has happened to him a few years ago as well. Everyone in the room nodded lightly as Arma glanced them with astonishment.

Only Zessica, Zatch and Phoenix was present in the infirmary where the others had gone back to their allocated rooms because the doctors sort of kicked them out and told them that it was not good to have too many people present. The infirmary itself was a whole lot bigger than the one in Arma’s school.  There were approximately about fifty beds lined against the wall in an orderly manner and beside him was another player who had went through the same out of body experience as he did, Spyro.

“It didn’t felt that way though. I thought I passed out for just a few seconds.” Spyro spoke while scowling deeply to nothing at particular. However a second later there was a tinge of green in his face and before he could puke then and there, his partner beside him quickly grabbed a nearby bucket and shoved it to him. Arma cringed in pity as Spyro started hurling once more with the other player patting on his back in means to make the uncomfortable nauseous feeling go away.

“Hmm... well the doctors said there is nothing wrong with any of you other than having a pause in heart beat for an elongated period of time. They said that you might feel queasy for a while but I am quite surprised to hear that there is another player who went through this before as well.” Zatch mused while stroking his chin in a thoughtful manner. Spyro only scowled deeply at the wall while pulling back from the bucket. The player beside him however, Seraphim, smiled awkwardly at them while scratching the back of his head.

“We are surprised too. This guy here gave me a heart attack when he pulled this stunt a few years back. Like you, I thought he was dead but like twenty or fifteen minutes later, he woke up as if nothing happened with a bit of memory loss. But I have to say... what a way to start the games eh?” To this, Phoenix frowned at the uncanny accurate description of what Arma went through when he passed out back then. Something was fishy and Phoenix didn’t like it one bit. The fact that this strange phenomenon was not as rare as she had first thought was unsettling. The question though was why did it happen?

“Same here... Arma didn’t remember that he participated the Trials four times after it happened to him. Now that we are on this topic, do you two feel strange? As if you don’t remember anything? Actually what did you feel before you passed out?”

Zatch suddenly interrogated that made both Spyro’s and Arma’s eyebrows to shot up and disappear to their hairlines in surprise. Instinctively, the tall lad turned to Zessica for help but seeing her being very quiet, more silent than usual, he knew that she was too shaken up from the events to offer him any support. So frowning deeply in concentration, he went through all his memories and the events that took place when he was out cold as if he was scanning them, only to come up with nothing too strange in particular.

“Well I don’t feel any different.” Spyro spoke; answering first as he gulped down a nearby water bottle within seconds before continuing.

“But I did feel strange when I passed through the barrier. I felt like my body wasn’t entirely my own and it was failing on me.” Zatch nodded lightly, processing this answer very deeply before turning his attention back to Arma who shrugged and nodded as well, indicating that his answer was the same too. The Human Database knitted his eyebrows together, pursing his lips so tightly that it grew white as he thought intensely for a logical theory that would explain this strange occurrence. However, he didn’t have the chance to do so when Phoenix tugged at his sleeve, breaking his thinking process and forcing him to come back to reality.

“Well we would like to stay and chat but we should better go.” Phoenix suddenly declared, giving Zatch a look that he knew all too well. It was the look that said that he was overworking himself by thinking too far ahead and that she was concerned about that. He didn’t blame her for that though because the black haired lad would admit that he did feel slightly sluggish and tired with the outcomes of the day, but he wasn’t finished questioning them. Then again, he did need to think straight to support their team for the future tasks and elimination rounds and the only way he could do so was to get a good night rest.

“Yea... It is quite late.” Zatch eventually gave in before glancing at Zessica, who was still silent ever since they arrived to the infirmary.

“Do you want to stay or come with us?” He asked her gently, watching her flinch lightly, as if remembering that he was there too before shaking her head negatively, refusing their offer. Something told Zatch that she too, had been thinking something profoundly as well. She wasn’t silent for being shaken up, she was silent for something else but the strange thing though, was that Zatch had a feeling that she was hiding for that very something. He will have to interrogate her about it sooner or later.

“No I’d like to stay for a bit.” The short girl answered, staring deeply at Zatch’s black eyes which didn’t give away anything. However, through some silent telepathic communication, Zatch knew that Zessica was aware that he was suspicious of her about something. Something in her eyes told that she will answer him but in private so the Human Database left it at that. So without further delay, both Arma and Zessica waved their friends goodbye as the mismatched pair disappeared out of the door, leaving them alone with the other two players. For this, Arma took this free time to study the other two’s characteristics as quickly as he could.

Spyro looked Chinese but Arma couldn’t really tell whether he was really from that heritage or from Japan or from Korea. All he knew was that Spyro had an Asian appearance with contrasting gold eyes with one tiny mole under one eye, just above his cheek bones. He wore a black shirt with red edges he looked fairly thin but well built too. His height was about Euphino’s height which was average.

His partner, Seraphim wasn’t as tall as Arma, but he was larger than he was with broad shoulders and a well defined body. However, his eyes were sort of weird. One eye had the colour of emerald while the other had the colour of sapphire. He even had light facial hair and a light tan. His sun bleached hair had this soft yet spiky appearance. Other than that, Arma couldn’t help but feel something odd about Seraphim, but decided not to ponder on it.

“So... you two are partners right?” Seraphim suddenly asked, trying to start a conversation for the sake of breaking the silence and for the first time in for a long while, Zessica started speaking normally again without looking as if she was some soul less doll.

“Yes we are. I take it it’s the same case for you?” As the short girl asked, Seraphim nodded enthusiastically before wrapping one arm around Spyro’s neck, which of course earned a good old jab in the gut to which Seraphim winced but managed to keep his arm still wrapped around Spyro’s neck. He then flashed both Arma and Zessica a smile which was mixed one with pain, obviously from the jab he received earlier.

“Yep! We’ve been best friends for years!” Seraphim explained; his voice very strained that gave Arma enough proof that the jab in the gut from Spyro was not with hesitation. Somehow this made Arma chuckle as he has one precious childhood friend who had a keen tendency to cover him up with burn marks and bruises as well.

He had a haunting suspicion that both Spyro and Phoenix could become fast friends, with Zatch giving death glares to Spyro at the background. It was such a sight to be seen that made Arma to chuckle even more. Eventually, Spyro pushed Seraphim’s arm off of his neck as Seraphim grinned broadly while hugging his sore stomach in means to ease the undeniable agony.  

“So how long have you been partners?” The tanned lad asked with curiosity. Arma felt the gap between his eyebrows furrow as he recalled the day when he asked Zessica to be his partner, only to smile when he remembered it was the day when he discovered that Zessica lived in a shabby house in the middle of the woods where it was robbed three times a month. So many things had happened since then, all good and bad but it was a fun journey nonetheless.

“About a year I think? Less than that right?” Arma answered, quite unsure as he turned to Zessica who only nodded slowly, also quite uncertain herself.

“It wasn’t too long.” Zessica agreed. “Where are you guys from?” She queried in curiosity, interested about their strangers who they were having a decent conversation with thus far. Spyro looked like as if he was going to answer, only for that tinge of green again before reaching out for the bucket, thus giving the opportunity to Seraphim to respond.

“Molten Core. Don’t be fooled by the name because it snows there quite a lot. Like almost every single day. We hardly get summer there at all.” Seraphim mused to which Arma found himself smiling amusedly. It was a bit ironic after all because Molten Core sounded like a very hot place to be. If Seraphim was telling the truth, then the AI either made a mistake in labelling or had a weird sense of humour.

“Well we are from Wind Crest and-

Arma started but he was interrupted when Seraphim cut him off, albeit politely.

“We know. A lot of the servers participating in the games here are people who had played Blessed Combat for a long time. This is our second try in this game actually and rumours had it that all five from Wind Crest would be new players with four solo players and two partners.” Seraphim explained before grinning broadly.

“Many said that Wind Crest would be the weakest link in the games and would be disqualified first because most of you are solo players and are new to this thing, but personally we think you guys must be very special if you managed to pass through the Trials with this less number of people.” Beside him, Spyro nodded in agreement while taking another water bottle to gulp down. Arma and Zessica became quiet, the former because he was surprised that many people had looked down on their region and the latter because she had no words to counter the belief of many players out there.  

“Well at least you are nice to think of us that way.” Arma considered aloud with a smile, happy to know that these players at least had some respect towards their reigon.

True, Arma would admit that during his time in school and before he met Zessica, he would always hear news about the Blessed Combat games where Wind Crest would lose its fire somewhere in the middle. This is mainly because the players from Wind Crest are pretty plain and there was no official training ground to prepare themselves for the upcoming battles in the first place. Those who took part in the Blessed Combat games and somehow managed to get to the top ten was by pure luck really because otherwise, they were all prone to be wiped out as the days goes by.

“I have a question.” Spyro suddenly proclaimed, dumping the two water bottles into a trashcan which was close by. He then craned his neck towards the tall lad and the short girl who blinked simultaneously, waiting for the said question to be articulated.

“Did you see anything when you blacked out and didn’t anyone of you felt something weird when you passed through that barrier?” Spyro spoke, gesturing the second question to rest of them. In that very instant, all three went quiet, pondering to themselves as Arma narrowed his eyes in concentration. He vaguely recalled the white silhouette in the black abyss and shuddered involuntarily when he remembered hearing that voice too. It was filled with malice and danger and just by recalling it was enough to make the adrenaline to pump through his veins again.

“Well I will admit that I also felt strange when I passed through the barrier.” Zessica started, making all three pairs of eyes land on her with astonishment. However, when she gave a slight shrug it occurred to them that this fact might be negligible.

“It didn’t last very long. Just a bit upset in the stomach but that was it.” The short girl finished while scratching the side of her neck awkwardly. Arma noticed that her ivory black hair had significantly grown a few inches below her shoulders, concealing the emerald healing stone at the back of her neck completely.

“Well I didn’t feel anything at all. Just tingling but that’s probably what everyone felt when they passed through.” Seraphim confessed, also shrugging in response. Then Spyro turned his golden eyes and settled them on Arma, who shifted uncomfortably in his infirmary bed. He wasn’t too keen in revealing them about that feeling as if someone was watching him and that voice, but then again did Spyro felt the same thing too? Was he also suffering that to the point as if he was going to lose his mind?

Debating it over lightly, Arma decided not to let that secret out just yet, until he was fully sure that Spyro too, was going through the same thing.

“I couldn’t see much. It was very dark and it felt like I was floating in the middle of nowhere. There was a person there but I couldn’t tell who it was because it was just blackness everywhere” As he mentioned this, a disturbing thought unexpectedly crossed his mind. What if the white silhouette belonged to Oliver?

What if he was the one who was watching him? After all, he did say he was a part of the core and the core was living inside of him was it not? But Zatch did mention that he wasn’t so sure about the fact that the actual core of the AI in Arma was solid or not. Like he said, everything they got so far was simple speculation. Even if the Phantom Dancer sent that letter to him, Arma wasn’t hundred percent sure whether the letter was telling the truth or whether it was a fraud. Maybe it was most likely a fraud because it was Stabs who saw a flaw in it, something about the timing. So Arma might not have the core inside of him yet Oliver manages to contact him anyway right?

Then again, Oliver didn’t have the same dangerous aura as that white silhouette was and instead of just watching him through mirror, Oliver always brought Arma to his world through dreams or just simply dragging him then and there by taking his consciousness. During those times, he would show himself clearly and Arma was sure that his heart most certainly would not stop because of that. He didn’t seem like the type to be so... foreboding. He was a mystery yes, but Arma was positive that he was harmless.

“Really? I thought I saw a girl.” Spyro started, having a very confused look in his eyes to which Arma witnessed Seraphim grinning without warning, as if he saw some opening to some sort of unfinished goal.

“Oooh!~ Spyro was dreaming of a girl! So you do have the hots for a girl and swing that way!” Seraphim declared out loud and the other two watched in nonplus when they saw Spyro’s cheeks flushing immediately before sending a deadly chop on the head to Seraphim’s way.

The other player tried to dodge by leaning back but he somehow on the way; he slipped and ended up having the chop directly on the forehead, currently throwing him out of balance. The chair veered back, stopping at one instant at an impossible position in equilibrium before Arma watched in shock as Seraphim collided backwards on the floor with a loud disconcerting thud.

“Please excuse my stupid, dumb and knuckle head friend of mine. One day he fell from a tree by dancing and singing with a ukulele on a tree branch to impress some girls and hit his head and hasn’t been quite right in the mind since then.”

Spyro calmly testified, still having a light blush on his face  yet not quite regretting what he had done while Seraphim groaned in pain and climb feebly back up again. Arma tried, he really tried but he couldn’t suppress the laughter which bubbled in his throat and finally burst out laughing. These two, he could tell that they got along very well but something about them made their friendship really funny. Also dancing on a tree branch with a ukulele? That was just bizarre.

However, fun times soon came to a screeching halt when both Spyro and Seraphim gave him a particular look that appeared intimidating. At once, Arma tried to shut up but only managed to muffle it as much as he could.

“S-Sorry... C-Couldn’t help myself haha...” Arma spoke, quivering lightly while pressing his lips tightly together to stop the bubble of laughter only for tiny bursts of sounds to escape from his treacherous lips. For a moment, Arma feared that the other two would feel offended but fortunately, Seraphim simply waved his hand good-naturedly as Spyro gave him a hard stare, before shrugging.

“Nah its fine. People say we are pretty much comedy duo anyway.” Spyro spoke nonchalantly before taking another bottle. To this, Arma stopped laughing altogether and raised his eyebrows in stupefaction at the number of water bottles that this guy had drunk so far. He must have been ogling for too long because Spyro suddenly craned his neck at Arma again, frowning.

“What? I am thirsty.” Arma jumped lightly shaking his head negatively to prove that he wasn’t staring while all the while hoping that he would drop the subject altogether. It was at this moment, he noticed that Zessica had been quiet once again. He turned his attention towards his small partner to find her having those observant, slightly wide and unfocused eyes towards the two other players from Molten Core. It was the same look that she often gives to anyone before revealing something about themselves that should be impossible from one look alone.

“Zessica?” Arma eventually called, trying to bring her back to reality which made her jump at first before blinking furiously, as if she jerked awake. She then snapped her neck at Arma before cocking her head to one side, blinking innocently at her worried partner.

“Yes?”

“You okay?” Arma asked cautiously, troubled how she was acting for the time being but sighed in relief when he was rewarded with a convincing nod and a small cheeky smile that spelled mischief.

“I should be asking you the same thing when you technically died twice already.” Zessica spoke with some sense of humour in her tone to lighten up the mood a bit. It worked for the tall lad chuckled as well, mostly because he was still finding it very difficult to accept that fact. That was when she turned her attention back to the other two players again, this time with her poker face on.

“I don’t mean to be rude so forgive me if I am but...” Seraphim perked his head in interest as Spyro continued to drink away his water bottle. However, none of them, even Arma would have been prepared to hear what Zessica’s curious question was going to be.

“Are you guys dating?” Ones the words were already out, Arma felt his eyes widened in alarm when Spyro suddenly choked and spurted out water. It took the tall  lad a good few seconds to even process what she said as he watched in mystification as Spyro started coughing and wheezing, trying to ease down the chocking sensation in his throat while Seraphim sat there frozen and motionless, as if he had become stone while looking into the mythical Medusa’s eyes. Only then when Arma realised what his partner asked, he felt his eyes widening to saucers as he stared at the girl in disbelief. To make matter worst, Zessica continued to speak.

“Oh so you are?” She asked bluntly without any shame whatsoever and by then, Arma was speechless. Not only did Zessica ultimately yet unintentionally murder the good vibe between the newfound friends, but she had rendered everyone speechless as well. It was Seraphim who recovered first and the tall lad feared for the worst again that this burly teenager would be feeling offended with such a question but miraculously, Seraphim found the humour in it and smiled. Yet, it was right this moment Arma discovered that  Zessica isn’t the only one who can create awkward silences too.

“Ah... so we got found out?” Just as he said this, Arma would have sworn he heard cricket noises in the background chirping so loudly it deafened his ears. Without warning and with surgical precision, Spryo suddenly whacked the back of Seraphim’s head with the now empty wattle bottle so hard, the plastic bottle broke into pixels and it sent enough force to Seraphim’s head to snap forward due to the impact.

“Stop making this sound any weirder than it already is you buffoon! Look how shocked that guy is right now!” Spyro yelled while pointing at Arma without any insult whatsoever. The tall lad felt a sweat bead trickle down from his forehead like in those cartoons as he watched the two players banter in bamboozlement.

For one thing, he didn’t know what was going on other than that Zessica’s question had made them suddenly act slightly strange. Then again, he and Zessica, still to this day, head-butted each other’s forehead all the time whenever one provoked the other so he really shouldn’t be all that surprised.

Seraphim winced lightly and rubbed the back of his sore head with a look akin to a puppy being smacked on the nose by a newspaper. Honestly the resemblance was so uncanny that Arma shuddered.

“What was that for? I was just telling the truth!” Seraphim complained and as if following some unwritten script, Arma was not at all flabbergasted to find Spyro blow up like an erupting volcano, impressively mimicking the event of Pompei. It was predictable as it was like watching Zatch annoying Phoenix but in this case, it was two guys from another server. What Arma was surprised though, was that Spryo stood sat up from the bed and started strangling Seraphim with his arms whereas Phoenix would usually leave a knockout punch in the gut to Zatch whenever she blew up.

“Told the truth my foot! You only told half the truth and made the truth itself even more weird numbskull!” Spyro yelled as Seraphim both laughed and anxiously tried to pry Spyro off from his neck. Arma was amazed though that Spyro was at average height but he looks comparatively small with Seraphim around who was tall as Stabs, yet Spyro seemed stronger than him. Just before it looked as if Seraphim was going to faint due to lack of oxygen circulating in his brain, Zessica stepped in again, saving his life.

“Hate to break this little friendship fight of yours but are you or are you not?” The tension between the two odd players deflated like a punctured tyre as the two of them froze on the spot and looked at each other in revelation. Through some telepathic communication through their facial expression alone, which Arma knew because he did the same with Zessica from time to time as well, the two eventually broke off their strangling position and returned to their formal sitting position.

“It’s not what you think.” Spyro started as Seraphim shrugged his shoulders awkwardly. The two of them had their heads slightly hung low, as if they had been caught red handed for doing something they weren’t supposed to do. By now, Arma was very, very confused and puzzled at the same time. Like, what was even going on right now?

“It’s not that both of us aren’t attracted to girls, we are actually.” Spyro continued with a small nervous laugh as Seraphim continued in a meek voice.

“It’s just that we haven’t found anyone in our interest yet. Also we been best friends for years and one day we thought of just trying it out for fun.” Arma was now officially lost in where the conversation was going. He must have made a face because Zessica glanced at him briefly before repeating what they said in another format.

“So basically you are not exactly dating but experimenting it out to see how it goes?” That, Arma understood perfectly and he was slightly astonished to find the two other players nodding in response, thus confirming Zessica’s small suspicion.

“Like we said, don’t get us wrong. We are friends you see and we do like girls but you could say we are just curious and fooling around. I mean we still act like we use to and nothing really changed when we ‘experimented’ it out. We are still like best friends instead of lovers.” Seraphim added with a hint of paranoia in his tone. In Arma’s opinion he really didn’t mind if these guys were dating at all. These two seemed like a good bunch actually. Being attracted to the same gender or not, people were people to Arma and he could tell by the look Zessica was giving that she was thinking the same thing as well.

“Don’t worry; we don’t judge people by that and we won’t tell anyone about it either.” The short girl assured and Arma nodded positively in union which made the other two of them sigh in relief. Although soon, Spyro narrowed his eyes in wariness towards the short girl who only blinked innocently back.

“How did you figure that out though? We’ve been experimenting it out for a few weeks and since we still act the same, none of our other teammates was able to tell the difference.” Now that he mentioned it, even Arma had to agree that he too, was a bit taken aback that Zessica saw through them so easily. It was like they said; they acted like really good friends, a bit violent one at that but still good friends. If Zessica hadn’t asked, Arma would have never suspected these guys being curious about attracting to same gender of each other. As a comeback, Zessica merely jerked her shoulders up and down.

“It was mostly on gut feeling. I wasn’t very sure but I sensed a very faint chemistry between you two. It was almost negligible but I noticed it in nonetheless. That was all.” To this, both Seraphim’s and Spyro’s eyebrows shot up in surprise while Seraphim’s jaw touched the ground in shock.

“And you based your assumption on that alone?” Seraphim asked with incredulity to which Zessica nodded in a nonchalant manner as if to say ‘more or less’. The tall lad who had been acting as the spectator so far chuckled lightly and pointed his thumb at Zessica while glancing at the two shell shocked players.

“Yea she is scarily good at guessing and does that a lot. She pretty much sees through the pit of your very own souls. You will have to just get used to it sooner or later.” Arma stated out, still smiling at the bamboozled two. Their expressions was just too priceless that the tall lad refrained himself from laughing out loud once more.

Then, without warning, Arma choked when out of the blue, a window popped out in front of him, startling him immensely. There was an icon of an envelope in the middle and pretty soon, Spyro got it as well. All four of them stared at each other before tapping it open, only to find out that it was an announcement for the future game events.

Announcement

Congratulations in passing the first and easy test. To this day, there are 72 of you participating in Blessed Combat. We hope you are already aware with the ranking and elimination system and we would like to notify you of your very first battle against the other regions.

The first battle is what we like to call as ‘Birthday Mash’. The AI will specifically pick players from their birthday month and place them in groups from January to December. Once this is done, one group will battle against another group in a random area.

For example, players from January will battle against players from February. Do not worry if think you are going to be fighting someone from your server because you won’t.

To make this clear, each group is NOT a team. These groups are formed to separate players from their servers and fight solo so that the AI will record their skills in battle for the time being. The AI will make sure that not a single player from the same server would fight each other. If the players in a particular group is larger in number than another group, the extra players will face another group instead. Players will win when all of their paired opponents month are defeated.

So here are the lists down the link below.

Arma stared at it blankly, trying to process it as much as he could but Zessica could see that he was struggling. However, just when Zessica was about to explain the announcement in a simpler design, she held back when she noticed the faint glimmer of sudden comprehension in his eyes, something he often does when he finally gets something. So without further ado, he pressed on the link only for several more windows to pop up, circling around the two mismatched partners.

“Woah! This is cool!” Seraphim cried out loud, looking around the windows in awe as like a little boy witnessing fireworks for the first time. Spyro didn’t say anything but he nodded in agreement before skimming through the contents until he stopped at a particular window. Arma skimmed through the contents as well, looking at the headlines until he saw one that had February vs October. Zessica was born on February 29th, yes the leap year and sure enough, Arma saw a tiny photo of her present there.

The window he was on had a diagram of branches. At the bottom set there were all the players from February and October. For February, the picture frame of players was highlighted in blue while in October the picture frame of players were highlighted in orange. Each blue frame was paired up with an orange frame and there were eight players in total. So there were only four battles in the February vs October event.

However, when Arma saw Zessica being paired up with a larger, burlier guy who looked like he was in his thirties, the tall lad grew worried. One thing about Zessica was that she was great supporter and a player who works in the shadows. Fighting against another player directly and alone was her weakest point of all. Even though the match was on the next day afternoon, Arma imagined Zessica facing alone the big burly man, only to be pulverised on the spot. Just that gruesome image sent him panicking when he felt a hand on his. Flinching at the contact, he glanced at Zessica who give him an assuring gaze.

“Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out. Worry about that later and let’s find up who you are up against first.” For a long moment, Arma remained silent, torn and conflicted with the situation but eventually after having a long staring contest between him and Zessica again, he broke off the gaze and nodded before flicking the window away. He kept on skipping windows until his eyes reached his birthday month, August.

This time it was August vs December and it had total of twelve players, meaning there would be six battles. He was able to find his picture which was highlighted in a red frame while the players born on December were highlighted in green. He checked who he was up against when he felt his stomach churn to find it was another guy, slightly younger and around in middle twenties but his opponent leered out a very dangerous aura. He didn’t know it was possible but the guy he was facing against looked more threatening than the guy Zessica was paired up against.

“Well this is going to be fun...” Spyro trailed off, not quite sounding at all happy about it. When the tall lad turned to them, he saw both Seraphim’s and Spyro’s shared not so enthusiastic faces and assumed that they too, didn’t get any all too easy looking opponents. However, the selections had been done and there was nothing they could do about it to change the inevitable.

“Welp, I should go now. The nurse here said you have to stay here for the night so that they can check on you guys since you two literally created a scene today.” Seraphim spoke, slapping both of his thighs before standing up right. Zessica stood up as well, giving Arma a sympathetic look to which the tall lad merely smiled in reassurance, telling her silently that he will be fine. To this, Seraphim observed them, alternating his gaze from one another before flashing a charming smile.

“If it makes your partner feel any better I’ll walk you to your room. How’s that sound?” Seraphim suggested, looking at Arma as if asking permission. The tall lad had to admit, he may trust Zessica in a battle together but he didn’t trust her in getting back without being lost. So without another word spoken, he exhaled out a deeply and nodded furiously with a smile. Both Spyro and Arma watch as the two waved their goodbyes while Seraphim opened the door for Zessica. The short girl stepped outside silently before the other player disappeared as well, leaving the two admitted players in silence yet again.

“Well this sucks. Having to be on some sort of life check when I feel fine. At least I stopped puking my guts now.” Spyro spoke, obviously uncomfortable with the silence just as Arma was. It was as if when both Seraphim and Zessica were gone, the conversation left along with them too. Nevertheless Arma can’t deny that he felt irritated that he had to be admitted to the hospital. It was usually the reverse because Zessica was prone to getting ill very quickly. He supposed karma decided to shake that up a notch.

“Are you sure you couldn’t tell who that person was? Not even that gender?” Spyro suddenly asked, not looking at him but rather boring a hole at the wall before them. It took the tall lad a few moments to realise that they were back to the topic when they were passed out cold, when Arma was shrouded in darkness alongside a white silhouette.

“Y-Yea...” Arma affirmed awkwardly, slightly feeling disturbed that they were back on this subject. He really didn’t want to talk about it any further because for some reason, it upset him greatly. Spyro however, didn’t seem to notice as he simply pressed his lips to a thin line before slumping back on the bed and letting out a deep long sigh of exhaustion.

“I really did see a girl. It isn’t clear but I could tell that she was tall and well tanned as well. She had a weird hair colour too and she said something to me that gave me the creeps and freaked me the heck out.” To this, Arma suddenly sat up, his eyes widened in horror as he too, experience the same thing. Although he may not have seen the figure clearly, he certainly heard a voice.

“What did she say?” Spyro blinked, astonished in Arma’s sudden interest in the voice but answered regardless.

“Something about that she will come soon and will stay permanently.” By the time Spyro finished, he felt his own eyes widening at the look of pure terror in Arma’s grey eyes. He suddenly looked pale as sheet, trembling slightly while looking he might pass out then and there.

“Are you okay? Did that happen to you too?” Arma couldn’t find the heart to form the words for he was now shaken to the core. He bobbed his head furiously to which Spyro took it as a yes, which didn’t convince him at all, not even one single bit. Arma was still trembling when he eventually found his voice as he hugged his arms and tried to look as small as possible.

“Y-Yea... not only that...  I think whoever that person is... have been haunting me for a while now... I th-thought it was just my imagination b-but now I really feel like I am being watched.” Spryo didn’t know what the tall lad meant by this but he had a vague idea what was going on. While he didn’t have any abnormal phenomenal happened to him other than being dead for a few minutes, something told him that what Arma was going through was much worse. He suddenly had the strong urge to comfort this poor guy who was probably more traumatised than he was.

“Hey, don’t worry. It’s probably just a bad dream. You said you didn’t know who that person is while I said that it looked like a girl. For all we know, it could be two different people altogether that happened to say the same thing. I don’t believe it’s real.” Arma took the words to heart, replaying it over and over in his mind till he felt convinced that this was the case. Eventually, the trembling stopped as he calmed down and slumped on the bed as well.

“That’s probably it...” Arma agreed before feeling his eyelids growing heavier and his eyes started to sting. Before he knew it, he yawned deeply to which encouraged Spyro to do the same, causing both of them to stop short and chortle simultaneously. It surprised Arma that this night seemed to have arrived way quickly in Pendle than usual. After all, it felt just like few minutes ago that it was morning and he was at the stadium. Then again, both Spyro and him did go through multiple tests for any abnormalities and had been questioned over and over again.  Time must have flown by along the way.

“Well I am off to sleep. The battles are at tomorrow afternoon anyway. Night.” Spyro announced before rolling over and facing his back to Arma. The tall lad gave a whisper of good night to Spyro as well and he too, rolled over and pulled up the sheets. However, a foreboding sense of fear crept in straight after he let his eyelids drop close, causing them to fly open again. He wondered what kind of dream he would go through then. He didn’t remember too much about it, but he knew that he was another person in his dreams, alternating between a woman and a man. At the same time, his dreams weren’t all too bad really, just quite disturbing and weird which he mostly forget when morning comes along to greet him.

‘Just sleep. It will be over before you know it.’ Arma thought to himself before letting his eyelids drop close once more. Sooner than he could have expected, he dived into the world of dreams once again. Little did he knew, that a certain incident was going to take place once he was out into dreamland from three of his allies.

Author's note: I know, I just updated yesterday but I had too much free time. I should have used that time to study for my final exam but I was too bored. xD I hope you enjoyed this chapter though. Hopefully there will be more action on the next chapter. If not, it will be in the fifth chapter. Anyway there will be mistakes in this so please notify if you see them k? =)

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