EDIT: The last half part was added + re-written due to changes in future storyline. New chapter will come shortly.

Author's Note:

Huge thanks to everyone who reviewed my prologue! It was very encouraging to me.

Kalvin4444: I'm happy that you liked my prologue! I hope you would also like this chapter, too :D

Guest: Yes, that's how most people in this universe believes so ;)

WARNING: Please watch out for stupid name choices, half-baked battle scenes that aren't entirely accurate to actual hunger games (Couldn't help it, considering this Minecraftia partly follows real-world logic when it comes to situations like this), and unnecessary amount of gore. I'm not kidding here, especially about the gore part... and there may or may not be some no-no words in the middle part... Let me know if this is too much for the rating.

DISCLAIMER: I own neither Minecraft nor Team Crafted.

The cannonfire disturbs the serenity of flourishing jungle.

Four figures appear out of thin air, surrounding the giant water fountain in the center.

Blake observed each survivors with his keen hazel eyes. Four of them, he thought, quite fewer than he first expected. He glanced at his far right side, where a bulky lady stood with a bow on her hand. On his left hand side, a juggernaut of a man is raising his double iron sword in attack position. To any other people, they were enough to pose quite a threat. To Blake, however, they were barely more than a couple of rookies who might have been quite lucky this time. He silently gazes at the chest-adorned fountain in front of his eyes. There should be the last survivor behind it - the one he is prepared to take down - and at the moment, it was the only thing that really had his attention.

The countdown, written in bold red hologram, starts ticking at the top of the fountain.

Death match starts in: 3

The competitors silently awaits for the invisible barrier to be released. Blake keeps his poker-face, never taking his eyes off from each competitors. Just by looking at their expressions, he could already figure out who was going to go after who. It doesn't really matter to him, but he would still have to be cautious. After all, he wouldn't want to waste his strength when it comes to the final moment.

Deathmatch starts in: 2

He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath.

Deathmatch Starts in: 1

He hears his heart pounding wild inside his chest.

Deathmatch Starts in: Now!

Once again, the cannonfire shakes the arena. Just as expected, it seemed that the lady Amazon was straight after his neck. She gave a quick shot at Blake, and he swiftly jumped back to let the arrow swoosh past him. When Blake had regained his posture, he saw that she was already charging right at his face with her brand-new diamond blade (She had been damn lucky this round!). So it's supposed to be a distraction? Clever, but he was way too experienced to fall to such pathetic plan. within a split of a second, an Ender pearl sailed across the air, transferring Blake's body out of the way before the woman could shove her blade into his throat. This time, it was the woman's turn to be perplexed. She quickly glanced around to find her disappeared target, but it was too late to save her. Not so far away from the fountain, a razor-sharp arrowhead was already flying straight towards its prey. It pierces straight through her left eye, and she plunges to the ground with no chance to scream. Her lifeless body crumbles into a puff of white ash clouds, leaving behind miscellaneous loots she had collected from her previous victims.

Such gruesome manhunt was one of the most common occurrence in this arena. This was the infamous "Survival Game", one of Minecraftia's most popular sports. It is the only chance to witness the life-or-death combat without anyone actually getting killed, so many Minecraftians quench their desire for grisly real-time battle by watching 24 tributes butchering each other till their number narrowed down to 4~6. It is something like a legal version of underground boxing match, only it's much more, well, gory. Our young hero, Blake "Bullseye-Benja" Hughes, is considered to be one of the most promising players of this extreme sport. The ones who he just "murdered" so far would probably watching the match through the screen in waiting area, alive and healthy, swallowing bitterness of their defeat while waiting for the remaining pain to melt away. Many hidden cameras within the stadium is currently delivering this fiery battle real-time to the millions of cheering audiences.

Having finished the job quicker than he expected, he turned his head towards the direction where the constant clanging of metal-against-crystal came from. Two figures came into view : one belonged to the juggernaut who had been on his left side, and the other to the gangly, tanned man with blazing diamond axe - Nicolas "A.S.F." Aceti. Blake could always jump into the fight, taking down his biggest rival easily along with the fat noob. But no, such an easy triumph wouldn't be nowhere satisfactory. Instead of intervening, he decided to observe their battle while catching his breath for a short second.

At first glance, it would seem as if the juggernaut is cornering Nicolas with splendorous dance of his duel blade. However, if one was to look at their fight a little closer, it would be evident that it isn't quite so. The man is starting to lose his focus little by little, and his random slashes doesn't really have any stable pattern. On the other hand, Nicolas is swinging heavy diamond axe like a piece of wooden stick, patiently searching for loose spots he could strike on. It took a bit until the juggernaut could realize his strategy was not working as he planned. So, instead of slashing on, he strikes down both of his blade at Nicolas. Irons and Diamond clashed together, and the juggernaut began to push his opponent back with sheer force. Bad choice, it was. Unlike his anticipation, the gangly one firmly stood against him with little to no effort. Then, when two clashing forces reached the equilibrium, Nicolas quickly ducked aside. The juggernaut staggered as soon as the balance broke. Nicolas didn't let the chance to slip away, swiftly tackling him with a swing of his leg. In a second, the man was now fully on the ground. Nicolas raised his cyan axe high, then slammed it right down towards the juggernaut's head. stream of blood shot out from the wound, until it dissolved into thin air with the twitching corpse.

Finally, it's just between the two. Blake threw away his bows, and picked up the diamond blade he earned from his previous kill. Arrows were pretty much useless at this point. Blake knew that, although his nemesis looked nothing like so, he was packed with muscle tissues that were many times denser than that of normal human being's. To take him down only with archery, he'd have to have twice more arrows than what he has. Plus, if he charges at him directly, which is highly likely thing to happen based on his many past experience with him, he would instantly ripped into pieces even before he could pull his bowstring. Same kind of thoughts went for the other end of this rivalry. Nicolas, too, knew painfully well how agile and cunning his opponent could be. How can he possibly forget the last season's match, when he had became a walking pincushion in a split second after he slipped? His lips curls back in snarl, showing inhumanly sharp canines behind it. Why is his nemesis planning to fight him head-on this time, he had no idea. It doesn't matter anyway. Soon, it's going to be his payback time.

The jungle arena fell into utter silence. Hazel eyes glares directly at obsidian ones with bloodthirsty glimmer, sword and axe held tightly on each other's hands.

Then, as if on cue, they charged straight forward with earthshaking roar.

They were both faster than any ordinary humans can ever be, but Nicolas had a significant upper hand when it came to speed. Of course, Blake already counted that into his calculation. Usually, the battle between mediocre fighters consists lots of unnecessary clashes and clangs. However, when it comes to the expert's one, only a single blow would be enough to finish the situation. Timing was all that mattered right now. He would have to duck down when he drew close enough, then strike him directly from below before his brutal opponent got the chance to recover his posture. So far, everything was going according to his scenario. Nicolas is coming in fast, and he would initiate his final move in 3...2...1...

wait, the F-?!

Blake's eyes widened. As if he was mocking his "perfect" plan, Nicolas leaped into the air with his axe held high. No, no nonononono... He couldn't believe that what he though was perfect ended up in irreparable mistake. Time seems to slow down around him as he quickly tried to think of some sort of plan-B, but whatever he chose to do he wouldn't be able to act fast enough to cancel out that deadly chop. He was surely screwed this time, but That doesn't mean he could just stand there and accept his fate like an idiot. He swung his blade hard as his last mean for struggle, more instinctive than thoughtful, and closed his eyes tight.

With a sickening crunch, everything went spiraling down to unconsciousness.

~~~O~~~

Blake stumbled out of the respawn with splitting (quite literally) headache. The cost of the defeat came not only in bitterness of the heart, but also with the massive aftershock of the mortal blow. He couldn't let go of his head due to the nauseating sensation from his virtual head trauma, which he hoped would go away after some minutes of fresh air. When he finally managed to opened his eyes, however, he immediately regretted doing so. On the huge screen hanging on the wall of the player's waiting room, his last moment with Nicolas was being projected over and over in slow-mo. For some reason, the camera guy just had to zoom into the very moment where the axe sliced through his melon, and Blake felt nausea bubbling up to his throat again just by watching one of his brain chunks spatting against the camera lens.

Then, the view changed again, revealing a rather shocking outcome that no one could ever expect. Apparently, his last move wasn't in vain at all. At the very moment when Ol' Nick's axe plummeted down his head, Blake's sword also went straignt through the bacca descendant's chest cavity, directly into his heart. Blake quickly checked the scoreboard at the side of the screen, and realized that game had ended in a tie. Both "Bullseye-Benja" and "A.S.F." has been nominated as the common winners of this match, and this epic scene would be pasted on the cover page of local sports tabloid. However, the thing that bothered him the most was not about his not-so-glorious victory. He had to split the prize money with his rival, and only half-a-stack of diamonds just weren't enough to cover both his overdue rent and living expenses at the same time.

When he was about to leave the area, he suddenly felt chills dripping down his spine.

Someone might have been spying on him. Was it out of malice? he wasn't sure.

Was it Nicolas? He turned his head towards his rival, but he was scowling at the replay screen with his hand firmly grasping his charcoal dress shirt. He looked around the entire lobby to find the mystery watcher, but every other tributes were also seemed too busy doing their own thing. The icy feeling still sat heavily within his stomach. Blake cautiously looked into more remote corner of the area, into the shadows behind thick prismarine pillars.

He finally found his stalker.

There was a boy, aged about 10 to 12 by the looks, standing under the shadow cast by one of the pillars nearby. He seemed to be wearing a loose white t-shirt with single black stripe in the middle, which had sleeves that were too long for his scrawny frame. His grey shorts almost covered up to his knees, and even his purple canvas shoes looked a size too big for him. What intrigued Blake most was his bright green headphones, which should have been taken away before entering the player's area, but then he was obviously too young to be allowed in here to begin with.

Though the child's rich brown locks covered almost all over his eyes, he could surely feel the youngster carefully scanning him from head to toe. He didn't seem to have any bad intention. Rather, it seemed to be more of a curiosity. Still, Blake couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off about this child. Just what is he doing in here? Was he simply lost? then why is he spying on him?

"Hey, buddy! how did you get in here?"

The boy visibly tensed as soon as Blake's eyes locked onto his maroon ones. It was clear that the boy didn't expect to be noticed so soon, but strangely enough he didn't try to hide or run away. The boy kept his spot for a while, but it looks like his courage is running out fast. He might wanted to say something, if he didn't panic right away.

Blake carefully approached him. It felt stranger the more he walked closer towards him, as if the child was something that's not actually there; like a shadow, for example. The boy took a step back, and another, and another.

Blake stopped as soon as he sensed the boy's fear. However, before Blake could ask anything, the boy spun around and ran.

"No, wait! I'm not gonna-"

The boy was more agile than he looked. In a mere seconds, he bolted out of Blake's sight and right behind the two-block wide prismarine pillar. Blake could have simply let the boy run, but somehow his survival gamer instinct took over. Before he could realize, he was already chasing after the child. There shouldn't be any space to hide behind that pillar, so he should be able to catch up to him in any seconds...

... Only that he didn't.

Blake stopped immediately when he was met with a dead end. He thought he might have seen purple particles floating away, before they disintegrated into thin air. He looked around the area in confusion, but the child was no longer there. Not even his hasty footsteps could be heard, as if he simply teleported out of his perimeter. Something was definitely not right. Was the boy really even there to begin with, or was he simply having a bad case of hallucination? Did something went wrong while he was repawning?

Millions of unanswered questions swirled around his aching head, until it was suddenly interrupted by a friendly voice from behind.

"Hey, Blake!"

Blake snapped out of his thought. He turned towards the direction where the familiar voice came, and found his friend, Ravi "RavesterABC" Barn, waving his hand from far side of the lobby. Blake smiled back, and walked out of the shadowy corner to greet his friend. The whole mystery child thing would be better forgotten for now.

"That was quite a stunt you pulled over there, dude." Ravi offered a high-five, and Blake gladly took it with wide grin.

"Could have been better if my head didn't get squashed into pieces." Blake chuckled. "By the way, what happened to you, Ravi? I thought you were one of the remaining six before the deathmatch?"

Ravi shrugged. "Eh, wasn't my lucky day, I guess. Got totally destroyed by some hulk of a lady right before it."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "You mean, the one who was right next to me?"

"Yup, that's the one! Thanks for avenging me, by the way."

"My pleasure, buddy!"

Ravi gave a hearty smile to Blake. "Well then, let's get going, shall we?"

"Sure thing! Man, I really need some cold drink right now..."

Ravi kept on talking as they walked towards the lobby gate. That moment with the mystery child still bothered him a bit, but it slowly slipped out of his concern as he listened to his friend rambling on and on about every single details that happened at the game. It was all just a huge illusion after all. Having one's cranium cracked open would surely have that much side effects, no? Blake decided to conclude today's event as nothing too serious, and went on his way to get something that could ease his headache.

Had he been more watchful to his surroundings, he might have noticed a team of paramedics frantically rushing into respawn area. He would have seen Nicolas, clearly upset for some reason, arguing with security guards over something that wasn't supposed to happen. Or, if he was to pay a little more attention, he might have spotted A tall, muscular woman with golden-rimmed black leather jacket - The one he had shot down at the deathmatch - standing in the middle of the commotion; and more importantly, the mystery child hiding right behind her.

In short, Blake had no clue that something huge was coming towards his way.

Reviews and Feedback are welcomed, especially for today... I might have gone a bit slack in the end part. Sorry about that.
Side character "Ravi" was modeled after Vikkstar123HD.

Cookies and banana milkshakes for people who guessed who the mystery child is.