Something was bothering Arma, it didn’t take a genius to figure that out. The problem however, Zessica couldn’t pinpoint what the source of this was nor where it came from. It happened quite recently, right after the Blessed Combat Trials in fact, where the short girl quickly realized that Arma was slightly out of it than usual. At first, she didn’t heed it any mind but after seeing him paler and more spooked out than usual, she knew something was up.

She couldn’t dwell on it further when out of the blue, she heard an ear piercing shriek, making her stiffen in shock. Her eyes widened in surprise when she recognized that voice as her partner but before she could have the chance to ask of his well-being, a loud buzzer set off, reminding her that the countdown was up.

“Let the match begin!”

As Valentine’s voice chimed vaguely, Zessica half-heartedly ignored her concern regarding the tall lad and focused on the pixels that started appearing all around her, giving colour and objects in her surroundings.

Within seconds, the black void faded away and was replaced with the scenery of what seemed like an old western area. There were wooden houses stacked in neat rows, tumbleweeds allocated on one spot and the sky painted with faint hues of orange and yellow. Everything was eerily silent but Zessica started moving instantly, paying none of these minuscule details no mind. After all, if she stayed in that place for too long, her opponent would most probably likely to ambush her.

“Hello? Hello? Can you hear us?”

A voice called out, belonging to none other than her cousin Stabs. Zessica continued to move nonetheless, hiding behind houses while scanning and memorising her environment at the same time. Until she was sure she was safe, she lightly touched the earpiece, checking her surroundings cautiously one last time before responding.

“I can hear you Stabs. Was it Arma who shrieked just now?”

“Yea, sorry.”

The familiar voice of the tall lad tiredly spoke in her ear and Zessica let herself silently sigh in relief. At least he was fine, well seemed to be speaking fine if she had to be accurate. She could at least focus on the task at hand much more easily now though.

“Where are you right now?” Zatch questioned as he tried to find the short girl within the map that revealed the arena she was currently present in. Needless to say, Arma kneaded his forehead lightly, trying to ignore the Goosebumps that were forming at the back of his neck while willing his erratic heartbeats down.

Right then, he knew he was not at all fine but his first priority was to get Zessica through this safe and sound. He would just have to endure whatever hell he was going through till then. He would have to forget about the voice that threatened him to die.

 "Even if I tell you where I am, I don’t think you can locate me since the geography of this place almost look the same”

Zessica reported with the sound of running footsteps in the background. To this, Arma saw the corner of Zatch’s lips curl up to a smirk in agreement. It was the kind of smirk that was both calculating and dangerous that made both Stabs and Arma who were beside him to shudder involuntarily.

“Hmm, true.” Zatch droned, smiling broader before zooming out of the map, revealing twelve red dots that were blinking across the whole area. Each red dot had a small icon in them but it was too diminutive to make them out and each of them were scattered in equal distances from each other.

 “Well theoretically speaking, there seems to be these zones and-”

Zatch was about to babble on when all of a sudden, all three of them heard a loud clicking noise. They all went rigid, taking a moment to decipher what that noise was when out of the blue; one of the red dots stopped flashing, leaving only eleven behind. Arma blinked whereas Stabs looked blank. Zatch seemed to be at loss for words as he gawked at the screen in bamboozlement.

“Hmm… sorry to break it to you but I seem to figured that part out.” Zessica mumbled lightly when there was another clicking noise, this time it was clearer than the first. Arma knew from thousand battle matches and bets at homes, he could never mistake that sound to anything else. It was the sound of a gun being prepared to fire. Two minutes hasn’t even passed yet Zessica had already obtained one of the twelve weapons that represented the red dots blinking in the map.

“That was fast.” Arma pointed out stupidly, unable to believe she found one so quickly. Even Zatch seemed baffled for he was speechless. It was Stabs, who recovered quicker, zoomed in to the map with the flick of his finger, eventually locating where the short girl was.

Zessica, in her Exoskeleton, was at one roof of a house that was slightly taller than the rest. How she reached there, Arma had no idea but he had a feeling it was thanks to the upgrades to the three S’s. She was on her stomach, handling a sniper while already seemingly to have adapted to the weapon.

In fact, it seemed like she had used it all her life because the way she was looking through the eyepiece, the way she held her finger at the trigger, it all seemed too natural for her, as if this was a daily thing. Then again, this was Zessica, a pro when it comes to shooting games. This arena seemed to be designed just for her.

“W-Well…” Zatch stuttered, gradually coming out of his shock. “What are you aiming at anyway?”

Zatch inquired as he zoomed in where Zessica seemed to point her newfound sniper at, only for confusion to fill all of the three’s faces when she was merely pointing at a wall. There was no signs of her opponent nearby.

“I am not very sure either but I am going to test something.”

“Test something?” Stabs repeated numbly, completely befuddled as he glanced at Arma who was reflecting the same expression. Surprisingly, even Zatch doesn’t seem to be catching on what Zessica was up to, a rare occurrence.

“I am pretty sure you guys know that for every arena, there is always a catch. It’s pretty obvious when you think about it.” There was another click and this time, it seemed like Zessica was ready to actually fire the gun. The ink haired informant was still not getting the hint and he was starting to get frustrated when the short girl spoke again, mystifying him completely when he realised he missed a very important detail in the arena.

“It’s pretty quiet you don’t you think?” With that said, the short girl finally pulled the trigger. Sparks peppered the air around her as the bullet shot straight out of the nose. Now, usually, when a person fires a gun, the bullet will continue to soar through mid-air until it finally strikes on a surface or just dropped down to the ground due to gravity.

However, since this was not any normal circumstance, the three guys watched as the bullet whizzed out of the nose when out of the blue, it slowed down before freezing in place in mid-air. It was as if someone had hit the pause button in a movie. There was a trail of wind circular wind behind the bullet, leading it to where it was fired. Overall, the three friends stared at the phenomenon in awe with their jaws touching the ground.

“Well, well, well! It seems like we have a natural at games!” Valentine’s voice boomed abruptly, making everyone jump and reel their attention back to the hostess. From the screen, even Zessica looked up; trying to locate something that indicated that Valentine’s voice reached the arena as well. Nevertheless, the tall lad observed everyone’s reaction. Some of them were puzzled while the rest were growing uneasy. Even so, Valentine ignored this as she smiled brightly at everyone.

“In this arena, there are exactly twelve guns scattered everywhere. Each player can only get six guns maximum but fortunately, these guns have a large supply of bullets. Therefore, the guns will not be useless too quickly. These weapons can be put in the inventory as well so the players don’t have to hold all of them at the same time”  She paused momentarily, making sure everyone was listening before moving on.

“However, we didn’t want to make this match too easy by having a showdown. I am sure most of you know by now; time is frozen in this arena but only for a limited time. Pun not intended by the way” To this, a few laughed which only made Valentine to smile brighter.

“In five minutes, each player will have to try to get the most number of bullets shot to the other person before all the bullets that are frozen in time start moving again. During this period, they have to avoid as much bullets as possible. It doesn’t matter whether they get hit by their own bullets or not. The battle finishes when all the bullets are used up. The number of hits they get will determine the winner.”

“This is nothing like the shooting games I have with Zessica” Arma murmured that was loud enough only for the other two to hear. Zatch hummed lightly, lost in thought while Stabs took his time to process what was just announced a while ago. That was when Arma turned his attention back to the screen again, only to find that instead of eleven blinking lights, there were now three.

“Huh?” Arma cried out a little too loud, which caused almost everyone to settle their eyes on him. He cowered lightly before ignoring the sensation of wolfish eyes on him as he nudged his childhood friend to the screen. Unlike the tall lad however, Zatch took in the sight of the three blinking lights that quickly turned into two and merely smirked.

“It seemed like Zessica isn’t the only one who is good with guns then.” The informant mused as one more blinking light quickly faded away. Without a word, he zoomed in to the map again, revealing Ragnork in his Exoskeleton jogging through a slightly muddy path. It was when he turned to a corner; he came to an abrupt halt as Zessica stood several feet before him, holding the last gun in hand.

Arma watch as the two stared deeply at each other; communicating with their eyes alone and Arma could see there was a sense of common agreement passed between the two. Without a word, the shorthaired girl tossed the last gun at the older player who caught it swiftly from mid-air. He clicked it several times, preparing it as Zessica merely stood there, watching.

At this point, Arma was feeling sick to the stomach for he never liked the idea or imagine Zessica to fight alone. Sure, she was much stronger than she appears but quite frankly speaking, even if her physical skills were upgraded, it doesn’t prevent her health from failing. The odds of her health not failing on her during this match were not in her favour.

Regardless, the two opponents continued to stare at each other, threatening from their poses alone when out of the blue, with military precision, the two players finally reacted. Ragnork quickly leaped forward and started firing instantly in ease. At the same time, Zessica took a step back, moving far more quickly than normal and avoided all the bullets easily as all of them kept freezing at one point in another.

She then stopped, eyes sharp on her target and clapped her hands. There was a sound of power surging and six dangerous looking guns hovered before her. Before Ragnork could even have the chance to swear out in disbelief, Zessica started firing as well but instead of one she fired all six. The older player tumbled lightly, almost losing his balance but he quickly managed to avoid being grazed by the bullets.

Using this to her advantage, Zessica returned five of her guns back to her inventory and quickly grabbed the nearest one before charging towards Ragnork, firing as if her life was on the line. Her opponent seemed to have the same idea as he stopped going forth and started dashing towards the girl as well. Arma watched in awe as the two started rapidly pulling the trigger while at the same time, manoeuvring themselves to avoid any bullets that could strike them even if these eventually freeze in time.

About a few more seconds of shooting, there was the sound of a gong being struck and the two halted their actions before striking a pose. Arma was about to question this sudden change of strategy when all the bullets that were fired, the ones that were frozen in time started moving again. The tall lad watched as these dangerous tiny objects started clashing at each other; striking on walls and buildings with sparks peppering everywhere.

After a while however, everything seemed to be frozen in motion again and once more, the two opponents started sending each other bullets for the umpteenth time. Halfway through, Ragnork ran out of bullets and Arma couldn’t help but chuckle hysterically when the older player merely discard it away before taking another gun from his inventory. A short while later Zessica did the same too, pulling out a long rifle. It was an odd mixture as Ragnork fired continuously while Zessica used the rifle in pulses.

Despite this, the two managed to battle without a scratch and charge towards each other again. Arma could tell that everyone in the audience, even the players who are taking part in Blessed Combat were on edge. They were all holding their breaths, unable to tear their gaze away from the magnificent battle displayed before them. Something about a small Child of Misfortune being up to par with someone who seemed like a professional shooter was mesmerising. It was like two people dancing in the middle of a destruction.

Another five minutes passed and for the second time during that battle, the two of them stopped what they are doing and struck a pose where all the bullet trails would just barely pass by them. When the gong rang, Arma watched with great difficulty as almost everything that was present in the match get blown apart to pieces from all the bullets being fired. Houses were being shredded to pieces and buildings were falling apart, yet once time froze again, the two players were at each other’s throat once more.

“I must say, I knew she was good with guns because you kept telling me about it but never in my life had I expected her to be this impressive.” Zatch muttered eventually as Ragnork discarded his second gurn and pulled out a large bazooka like weapon. Stabs nodded wordlessly beside him while transfixed on the screen.

Arma merely laughed tiredly, having no other response to express how humiliated he felt whenever he played a shooting game with Zessica. No matter how good he was, she was the freaking queen in shooting and he knew the short girl was going to make sure no one else other than her takes the throne in that field.

He continued to watch as Zessica leaped back, purposely falling to a large pit that happened to be present in the match as Ragnork followed her down. Even when she was falling, Arma watched in awe as Zessica pulled out a large calibre handgun and kept shooting upwards towards her opponent with little concern about where she was going to land. In fact, Zessica landed on a nearby debris with ease and leapt back as if she knew she wasn’t going to crash.

The two opponents continued to move sideways, using the remaining buildings and houses as stepping-stones while they continued to shoot and avoid at the same time. By then, already fifteen minutes have passed with these nonstop shooting yet the two opponents were still fine without a scratch with both Zessica and Ragnork only three more guns left to spare.

“They read each other too well…”  Stabs pointed out eventually, trying to break the ice because for quite a long while, the whole stadium had been quiet. Even Valentine seemed genuinely surprised with how intense the match was going. None of them had expected the match to be so thrilling and filled with so much suspense at the same time. As Ragnork started dashing towards Zessica again, the short girl simply leaped back, seemingly having eyes at the back of her head as she fired in hopes to get even one bullet grazed on her opponent.

“Well I am starting to think she doesn’t even need us with the fight. It seems she can handle things on her own if this goes her way.” Zatch noted as he hummed lightly. To this, Arma’s head perked up in hope but that said faith was quickly crushed when the informant spoke again.

“However, it’s just as Stabs said; these two people read each other too well. Either Zessica find a way to throw her opponent off guard, this match could end up mostly like a tie. She would have to win if she want to be in a safe spot or otherwise if we go with a tie; it’s going to be very difficult for her not to be eliminated.”

“Oh,” Arma mumbled, feeling slightly demotivated but quickly brushed it aside. He knew Zessica; they all knew her to be crafty and daft. She had this natural ability to control the whole situation of a game and that has been her redeeming feature so far. Therefore, if she needed to give him a bombshell, she could do so but the thing was, Arma had no idea what she could possibly do to throw things a completely three sixty-degree turn. All he could do is wait and hope she had something planned.

The two opponents charged forward to each other again, circling around before eventually shooting straight to their faces. Ragnork whacked her gun away, making it fall before pointing at her head and firing. However, Zessica was quick to dodge and retrieved the gun back before kicking Ragnork’s gun from his hand. She too, pointed at Ragnork’s forehead and fired too but like Zessica, her opponent dodged the attack as well. Eventually, the two of them clashed their guns together like swords colliding in a fight, causing an ear-piercing howl to resonate.

Even after that, the two opponents stubbornly withstood the force and continued to shoot their guns despite how the guns was literally now millimetres away from them. The audience were now unable to sit still in their seats for there is bound for one of them to be struck by a bullet if they were this close. Alas, even then both of these two players still had zero bullets grazed on their bodies. How they managed to maintain it that way was not only questioning but frustrating to think of as well.

For about thirty seconds, both Zessica and Ragnork continued to whack their guns away as well as shooting the other but failing. However, at one point, when Zessica lost her balance, she used the momentum to kick the shotgun Ragnork had away.

Initially it seemed like she planned to leave him partially exposed but to everyone’s disbelief, the gun went flying out of his hand, leaving him completely bare. Even Ragnork was flabbergasted, the expression of horror rooted in his features as the short girl used his shock to her advantage.

In that exact second, Zessica felt her concentration and focus on her opponent come to a maximum as she swiftly pointed her gun at Ragnork. The older male quickly reacted yet he found himself paralysed on the spot when the most unexpected thing happen.

When his eyes met the short girl’s, he was rewarded with the sight of the pupil in her emerald eyes shifting slightly before altering to the shape of a cross hair. This not only dumbfounded him, it left in in a state of frenzy when Zessica fired. Ragnork tried to avoid it but unfortunately, he felt the small object brush past his forehead, rest against it as it get frozen in motion. Then, something warm started trickling down his skin.

Even though one of the players got struck once, Arma almost jumped out of his skin when majority of the people present in the cheered loudly with so much enthusiasm, Arma was wondering whether they were actually rooting for Zessica. They seemed so against a Child of Misfortune to participate in the games earlier.

However, the feeling was short lived when Ragnork quickly gained back to par when she swiftly shot Zessica in the ribs. She too, tried to avoid it but like Ragnork, she couldn’t even barely escape the bullet either. Zatch guffawed loudly when the most of the people started groaning while some of them seemed to cheer as well, rooting for Ragnork.

Before the two of them could battle more, the gong went off again and they quickly took a pose that would avoid them from being shot any further. In the next second, the whole place blew up again like an ugly world war that was occurring. However, this time when everything passed, none of them started moving.

Instead, they stared at each other, no guns pointed but posing a huge threat to the other with their looks alone. The two of them were breathing heavily, Zessica being more laboured than Ragnork as she wheezed. When Zessica’s healing stone started crackling with green electricity, Arma started to grow worried. This was it, Zessica was at her limit. Ragnork doesn’t seem to be in shape either but it doesn’t seem like she could last longer than him.

Before Zessica could move, Ragnork took out his last gun and pointed at her head. Her emerald green eyes, with those black crosshairs for pupils, widened momentarily in shock. The gun was shaking in his grip, as if exhaustion was finally taking over but his expression was one of determination. Arma suck in an anticipated breath as he internally screamed to Zessica to move, completely forgetting he could do so through his earpiece. Finally, Ragnork pulled the trigger.

…And nothing happened.

Zessica let out a shaky sigh of relief at Ragnork’s confused expression. He pulled the trigger repeatedly, crying out loudly when nothing still happened. That’s when Zessica giggled lightly, as if in hysteria to which Ragnork stopped whatever he was doing to glance at her, only to find she was no longer before him. That is, when he turned around to see the forgotten gun that Zessica had kicked away, pointed at his head before she pulled the trigger. Through quick reflexes, Ragnork managed to avoid a direct shot to the head but not the bullet altogether.

Almost immediately after, confetti were blasted everywhere, filling the grey destruction with wild bright colours. The two opponents glanced up to find the word winner appear in gold highlights. A second later, Zessica’s name in gold appeared as well before showing the results of her winning by one point. A nano second later, the whole crowd cheered, elated to find an underdog winning a match.

Arma let out a sigh too before laughing joyously when Stabs howled in triumph. The lanky boy hooked his arm over the tall lad’s shoulder and continued to cheer as Zatch chuckled at his idiotic behaviour. Nevertheless, the three of them were relieved. Even if she had to battle another player, for a short while she was safe.

For a short moment, Ragnork ogled at the short girl in awe, respect gleaming in his eyes before a kind gentle smile split his face. He raised his hand, offering a handshake to which Zessica responded with a tired smile, the crosshairs in her eyes fading. She raised her hand too, about to accept it when all of a sudden, a wave of nausea seemed to crash against her and she stumbled. Ragnork saw it coming and quickly stopped her fall as more green electricity started sparking out from her healing stone again.

In that exact moment, the two of them disappeared in the arena with the surrounding slowly fading to black as well. A while later the two opponents reappeared in the stadium with the whole crowd yelling and cheering. However, it soon fell to a hushed silence when Zessica was limp against Ragnork, wheezing lightly.

Of course, seeing the state she was in Arma quickly ran towards her, concern clouding his judgement as he brushed against the players who parted a way for him. When he reached up to her though, he let out a content sigh to find out that she wasn’t in as crucial state he had thought. The girl smiled weakly at him, exhaustion taking over to which Arma smiled back. He patted her head fondly, congratulating her when the paramedics slowly sent her away to the infirmary to check for any injuries and damage.

“Is that lass your partner?”  A deep gruff voice and Arma couldn’t help but jump. He whirled around sharply, looking quite spooked as the Ragnork himself asked him genuinely. The tall lad gulped, unable to remember how to respond socially so he did what his brain cells could spare him to do, which was nodding furiously. At once, Ragnork smiled.

“You got a good partner there lad. Make sure you don’t lose her.” To this, Arma frowned, having a sense of foreshadow but quickly brushed it aside. This man seemed decent enough, then again, Titania was decent before too. However, Arma brushed it aside again, not too keen to dwell on something by hunch alone. He nodded again and almost flinched when Ragnork patted him in the shoulder and moved back to his group.

Arma too, was about to turn back to his group, ask them what the next match would be when at the corner of his eye, he caught something. A small black figure, akin to a feline. He narrowed his eyes, zooming in to see that there was in fact a black cat standing right at the door where he came through. For a moment, he thought that black feline was Lucky, Zessica’s pet who ultimately burst into pieces with no reason whatsoever.

However, upon closer inspection he realised that this wasn’t Lucky at all. Even if it were, it would be impossible considering that Lucky most probably died. This feline, no matter how similar it was to Lucky, didn’t have turquoise eyes. Instead, it had a familiar shade of purple and Arma couldn’t tear his gaze away from it when it seemed to smirk at him. Before he could contemplate on it further, the feline disappeared, diving into the shadows with no trace behind.

In that moment, Arma couldn’t suppress the feeling as if he just witnessed something important, something that he should remember in the future but he couldn’t be bothered with it. He returned to his friends, not very looking forward to his match that was due the next day. Little did he know, two girls of the same and different feather were feeling the same.

Author's note: Hey guys! Yes I am still alive! I felt bad for not updating last week so here you go. I sort of rushed this and I am so sorry if this chapter seems like a filler. Well I guess it kinda should be when i planned it to be filled with action. Do you think I pulled the action parts well? Let me know in the comments or pm me about it okay? Hopefully the next chapter would shed some light in the mysteries thats going to unfold. Anyway, the Skype thing is still on and I met some wonderful people. Thank you guys so much! Oh and I woke up today to find Blessed Combat hit 12.9 K views, almost 13 K and its 25 votes away from getting 600! Oh my God I am so happy I wish I could hug you all! Also, this chapter is dedicated to ming_ming and she has a very interesting story called Melody of the Clouds. Go check it out! Anyway the next update will be on 79 wishes (i am still so sorry for doing a complete redo of it when it was close to finishing before)

Oh and don't forget to vote! =)