Chapter 10: Bait

"Please, Zera. Do this for me." Zera stared at her father. His expression was indescribable as he went down on his knees while Zera sat on her bed.

She now understood why her father was so adamant that she wear a white dress, one that would represent purity, innocence. It was something her father wanted for people to see.

Zera looked at the crisp clean suit that got crinkled as her father knelt before her. His eyes were apologetic.

While there was an ongoing party downstairs to celebrate her younger brother's birthday, Zera had run to her room when her father introduced her to his friends, proudly claiming that they were looking at his protégé, someone who will follow in his footsteps when the right time comes.

"Get up, dad." Zera replied. He was the governor of Hearth and yet he was in his daughter's room, begging on his knees.

He wanted Zera to accept his hopes and dreams for her and in return she wanted to scream at him: Why me?

But instead of shouting and rebelling against her father, Zera looked at the floor. She didn't want to look her father in the eye.

"Alright. I'll do it. But, you have to do me this one favor too," Zera cleared her throat. This time, she let her gaze fall on her father, staring at him in the eye. "Let me go to the high school I want. Give me this freedom and I'll do everything you ask of me after this phase. That's a promise."

–

Zera remembered her promise to her father. She had no plans of dying inside some game. She was her father's hope. And even when she wished it wasn't the case, her father was desperate.

At her young age, she has yet to understand what real desperation was like. But right now, she could understand how it feels.

Brandishing the sword in her hand, Zera stepped out from the tree she was hiding. She looked at her surroundings.

"Hey! Whoever you guys are, can we at least be civil for a minute?" She let her voice echo, the frost getting to her.

She found it weird listening to the echo of her voice. It reminded her of a time when she recorded herself singing a high tone song after she and Beatrix lost to Astherielle and Jaspreth in a dual game and cringe upon hearing them playing it over and over again.

Raising her hand to show that she meant no harm, Zera was trying her best not to show her fear when in truth, her hands were already trembling.

"You know," she started, buying her friends some time to get into position and locate where the other team was. "We can actually work together to defeat the big boss before fighting each other. Don't you agree?"

Zera knew she just sounded like an idiot. Who would believe what she was saying?

But she wasn't there to convince them. She was just there to stall and have the attention of the enemy on her.

"Umm, I don't want to be the only one talking here. It's free–"

Woosh! Zera had to duck before an arrow could catch her. It missed her by mere inches and she had to glance at it, afraid that it would sail back to her in a matter of minutes.

"Okay! No more noisy Charm! Bye!" She made a dash for the nearest tree, placing a hand over her heart. Narrowing her gaze towards the other side where there was a set of trees too, Zera blew out a determined sigh.

Unsheathing the sword, she dashed towards the next tree. There were no other movements from her friends, either. If she was to be honest, she didn't even know where they had gone.

"Don't panic," Zera muttered. "Don't panic. You have to keep your focus on the task at hand. Okay?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Shouldn't there be some sort of a map?"

[Accessing map…]

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The familiar mechanical voice rang in her ears, having her snapped her eyes open. Surprisingly, it didn't cry in the middle of the ice land, alerting everyone of what she was doing.

To add, instead of the normal enormous screen they would often see, she had a smaller version of it flashing before her eyes.

"Cool." Zera exclaimed. There was a wide platform presented on the mini screen. A lone building stood on the edge and Zera identified it as the tower from before they advanced to stage 2.

A few distances from it, the ice land they were on laid bare. Surrounding the white platform, which was covered in ice, red moving dots could be seen. On each dot, there were names on it.

She now felt dumb for not thinking about using a map.

"Crap. This could have saved us the trouble earlier." But to her dismay, she can only see her friends moving and not the other team.

"Stop complaining Zera. Be grateful." She sighed. At least now she knew where her friends were.

Jaspreth was able to move to the other side. He was being careful. Beatrix and Nayowmi have scouted on opposite sides while Astherielle followed behind Jaspreth.

"Alright. I need to act, too." Zera watched her icy breath as she let out another sigh. The snow was slowly biting through her skin.

Raising her sword, she charged on the other side of the trees and lashed at every bush or tree she thought the other team would be hiding.

Keeping her senses alert, she ducked upon another arrow flying past her side. She smirked upon knowing where it came from.

"Come on, Jay. You got this."

Crossing her fingers behind her back, Zera kept on lashing.

"Scram!" a voice from her left shouted. It was crisp and clear, like the one who gave the command was used to giving such orders. Perhaps someone from the police force or the military.

'Was that possible?' Zera wondered. Was it possible for them to come across people as old as their parents or as young as Jaspreth's youngest sister?

The thought made Zera shiver. She almost got hit by an array of bullets if not for someone pushing her to the ground. They rolled off, shivering at the ice particles that clung to their skin.

Astherielle caught Zera's bewildered gaze.

"Thanks."

"Daydream later, Charm. We are in the middle of chaos."

"I wasn't daydreaming."

"Oh well, think about that later." Astherielle got on her feet, dashing forward with a fixed determination in her eyes.

Zera caught sight of who her target was. But she managed to get a whiff of the black tail end of its cloth before a figure loomed before her.

The first thing she noticed was the scar right above his eyebrow. His shaggy hair was tied with a camouflage band that matched his ripped jacket.

The curve of his lips was formed into a devilish smirk as he pulled Zera to her feet, roughly having her back against his chest. A sharp knife was in his hand. He pointed it dangerously close to Zera's throat.

"Nobody moves, or she says bye-bye."

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