Survivor - Emperors vs Knights

Chapter 34 - Day 27 Part 2 & Day 28 Part 1

Time to get to the next reward of the season. I'm surprised I didn't have a spa reward last season, but I think now's the perfect time to do it so we'll start off with that first and then we're going to check in with the castaways that stayed behind until we get to the immunity challenge.

Oh, one quick announcement. Another brain member for the season is going to be revealed at the end of the chapter so stay tuned!

Historyfan15: That is certainly a possibility. Of the remaining remembers of Pirate Crew, Knux could be the easy vote because of his attitude. So Foxy might be lucky here depending on how the other alliance wants to vote.

~KF

~KF

Bikutā

Day 27

Knuckles, Greninja, Zelda, Bonnie, Shovel Knight

-/-

Half of the Bikutā tribe unfortunately had no right to join Freddy's party for the reward, unlike Foxy, Luigi, Sheik, and Marth. Although, with an early inference, one would have already been aware of who was ticked most of all.

Thus, Bonnie, Zelda, Greninja, and Shovel Knight from the shelter all eyed Knuckles in the water with the scuba gear, Bonnie shaking his head a grin while Greninja simply folded his arms in reaction as Zelda heaved a long sigh.

"Zelda and Sheik this morning were trying to tell Knuckles that there was basically no point in wasting your energy for fishing since there was of course the possibility of him losing the reward today." Greninja recalled. "In their opinion, which I do agree with, it would have been in his best interest to simply wait and see because if he lost, then at least he wouldn't have had to worry about using any more energy than he had to since he now has the rest of the day to get something. And now look what happened. He lost. And guess what? Now he's right back out there fishing. Most likely he's only this uptight about fishing is because of things not going the way he planned it last night. But for some reason this whole fishing thing on how it turned out it's actually making me laugh, hahaha!"

-/-

A little while later after Knuckles got out of the water, he finally decided to speak with Bonnie Roberts personally.

"Alright..." The bunny actually spoke first as the two were at least safe enough of a distance away from the other three who were still at the shelter. "We gotta do something..."

"Why, thank you Captain Mobius..." He rolled his eyes.

"..."

"...?"

"..."

"...What?"

"..." Roberts began to snicker. "You do realize the expression is, 'Thank you, Captain Obvious', right? I don't live on Mobius."

"...Oh, my bad..." The other anthropomorphic animal facepalmed himself. "Guess I need to go out more, even though I kinda have a bit obligation to do back at home."

"I understand." He nodded.

"But what are we gonna do, though?" Due to his alliance's plan falling to pieces, Knuckles clearly had no plans on giving up so easily. "I mean, I kinda don't understand Freddy's decision when he had to choose people to go with him. Like, even though I messed up, I worked my tail off in that challenge. He should have just picked the rest of us since everyone knows we're aligned anyway. But instead he took not only Luigi and Sheik, but Marth as well. Not only does that fuel Sheik and Luigi up, but also, Sheik has been on every freakin' award so far and here I am kicking my butt out there in the water... I can't believe that Greninja man. He has two toes on each foot and he still did well in the challenge. Is there any challenge that he can't do?"

Ignoring the whole fish thing again, Bonnie was more focused on defending Freddy's choices. "I bet Freddy's just trying to keep his connections in check which I understand. He probably didn't want to alienate everyone who does not have long-term plans with him."

"...Alright I guess I get that... What are we gonna do, man? We're outnumbered 6-4 and Chatan Four didn't even expect to suddenly work with Marth and Zelda in the first place! Freddy for all we know could be the first victim since he's the biggest physical threat... even more than me, I guess..."

"We'll think of something..." Bonnie really wished he had something big in mind of what he would do for his alliance, yet sometimes in Survivor, there was something that was usually called 'bad luck.' "For now, let's hope that we can find an idol or advantage or something... Marth already played one at twelve..."

"I don't know, man..." He slowly shook his head in response hanging it down. "Maybe there is an advantage right under our noses, but I don't know about idols at this point. Two people have them from Chatan and Motobu… You don't have one, do you?"

"I don't, but you can search my bag if you want."

"Nah!" He actually chuckled a little. "As long as you say something like that, then you probably don't have one. Neither of us have went to exile, anyway."

-/-

"Psst! Shovel!"

The knight turned to find Greninja whispering over to him at the camp.

"...Is she asleep?"

Since he was closer to Zelda, Shovel Knight took a glance behind him to find the Hyrulian napping in the hammock. Her head was slightly turned, making it rather difficult for Greninja to tell from his spot on the 'bed'.

With assurance, he bobbed his head up and down, making him smirk lightly.

"Let's talk for a minute. Come on." He said as his fellow former Chatan member quietly and carefully making his over to him hardly making a sound. "Dude... last night..."

"I never realized that we were in trouble. They all did a great job not leaking anything over to us..." Shovel Knight was still just as astonished. "That was very flabbergasting indeed. I mean, we all could have been on the bottom if it weren't for Marth and Zelda. Poor Luigi was one vote away from being sent to the jury..."

"There is no doubt that Zelda and Marth knew about what was gonna happened. Knuckles, Bonnie, Foxy, and Freddy all wanted to do something with Shadow, those five approached Marth and Zelda and then they all of a sudden decided to go against them, which means that those were swing votes and we didn't even know it..."

"Well, first they were at the bottom, and then they found themselves in a position of power. I know that these kind of situations happened before in Survivor." The warrior told him. "Funny how that all plays out at times."

"Can't agree more. But you know what, after what happened, it really gives us a wake up call. Because if anything, I think that this is only gonna make us four stronger than ever."

"You think so?"

"I actually do think so." He nodded confidently. "Clearly when it comes to the game, us four trust each other the most. I'm not saying that it very well could happen, but it'd be nice if we were all at the final four."

"That would be rather pleasing to see. Not gonna lie..."

"We just need to bond with Marth and Zelda more than ever before now. They saved all of us so we're gonna do our best to eliminate those four. ...Who do you think?"

"...I'd say Freddy first... You?"

"I would like to vote Freddy out, especially after that we've learned the truth..." The Pokémon somehow did not seem a hundred percent on board with the plan even though he knew how physical Fazbear was. After all, he literally just won a challenge. Immunity or not. "...I'm just... Do you know about idol paranoia?"

"Hmm?"

"When you have this simple plan on voting someone out yet you're paranoid that the person might have an idol that will mess up everything?"

"Oh..."

"Yeah, I'm gonna keep helping you expand your Survivor vocabulary." He joked with a snicker. "But anyway, I'd really like Freddy to go. However,... okay, last tribal. Luigi even in their eyes was not the biggest threat. It's a low chance that he wins fifty immunity challenges and he doesn't have an idol. They probably thought that me, you, and Sheik were much bigger threats, yet Luigi was targeted instead."

"Why, though?"

"...Because... he was probably their safe vote." Greninja figured. "They wanted to play it safe just in case we actually found out what was gonna happen and pretend that we weren't going to be suspicious to what was going on. They probably figured that he was the least likely to have an idol, and that's what they did. ...Maybe we should do the same thing..."

"Okay..." Shovel seemed to be getting on with it. "So,... who would be our safe vote?"

"...I'd say... maybe Bonnie? ...But then again, those guys are smart. They would easily figure our plan out if someone over there really has an idol. Somebody has it from the Motobu beach and Roy is already out, so that leaves Freddy."

"Oh dear..."

"Oh dear is right..."

"We can't vote Freddy out because he probably is gonna play an idol for the next Tribal Council, but then we can't even vote Bonnie out because they might sniff through our plan and Freddy could play an idol on him..." Greninja knew that he was going to have to work a lot harder to make sure his plan goes through. "See, this is why Survivor is rather difficult to play..."

"Let's just go with the secondary target... Wanna just get Knuckles out of here? I feel like his behavior is gonna get worse, on top of possibly winning challenges..."

"You know, I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to strategizing. That doesn't mean that I plain don't care about it because if I'm going to be the Sole Survivor, you have to strategize at least a little bit, but for me, I'll admit that I don't always think outside the box. However, at least I have close allies and friends that can help me with it in this game. Me, Greninja, Sheik, and Luigi have been successful so far, especially that all four of us are officially in the top ten. ...But then again, Sheik and Greninja have been proven to be the more apparent duo for their strategy versus me and Luigi. Thus, if this alliance is going to get blindsided, since I feel that our opponents are rather focused on the strategic and physical players, hopefully at least I won't be the target for the next tribal. That being said, other than myself, I am most happy with Luigi both for his own game and my game in particular. He's clearly my number one ally. So if there's anyone in this game that I am for sure will make sure he stays for the final three, it is him... even though I still hope to be the Sole Survivor by just... being Shovel Knight basically, hahaha! ...I don't know if anything I said even makes any sort of sense..." He lowered his heads re-thinking of his choice of words.

Day 27

Sheik, Foxy, Luigi, Marth, Freddy

-/-

None of the aforementioned characters were even thinking of fishing back at the camp. Who needed to fish when they all literally had cheeseburgers and french-fries right in front of them? Even if Knuckles the Echidna would have won the challenge, fishing would have still been a wasted effort since he would not have had to worry about the chore for the rest of the day.

Luigi was diving himself into the food, acknowledging the fact that there was someone he needed to give thanks to knowing he never asked to be part of the reward in the first place. "Thank you Freddy for taking me here. My first reward!"

"Well, this is my first reward too, so it was only the right thing to do in my opinion." Fazbear replied to him between bites. "I don't think it's simply right to have you be voted out of the game at this point knowing that you haven't been on one thus far. You had one more chance than Shadow after all."

"Knuckles didn't look the most satisfied when it came to who I picked for the reward. But I mean, Luigi has not been on a single reward so far other than myself. Foxy is my number one ally, I want to rebuild my connection with Marth, and Sheik got picked because I didn't want to alienate the Chatan Four. Sometimes when it comes to jury votes you just gotta please everybody. Last thing you wanna do is to alienate people on the jury just because you're not always on the same page as them. So I grabbed my ally, grabbed someone who hasn't been on a reward yet, someone from my old tribe, and even someone who was never in my alliance. And that just about pleases everybody. Quadruple win, right?"

"Once again, never the food I'm quite used to back in Altea, but at this point, I'm willing to give anything a chance." Marth eyed his burger for a couple seconds before taking a bite.

"Likewise." commented Sheik.

"It's fast food, basically." Freddy shrugged. "Just be careful not too eat so much of it where I come from."

"Though the main consequence of this is now I need to sneak around Sheik and Luigi to have private conversations with Foxy on what we're gonna do, because clearly there's no point in aligning with anyone from Chatan Four. However, me and Marth never had any problems with each other on our old tribe. He and Zelda were the ones thinking that it's still Emperors vs Knights, knights lead 7-4, especially after those two helped to vote off literally another emperor last night. So depending on how Marth thinks, if I can continue push the old Nago narrative out there as if it was really my alliance's intention all along, maybe he can convince himself and Zelda to join my side again... Of course that was never the Hidden Five Alliance's true intention in the first place, but hey, I don't wanna go home, and once again I feel like I'm next on the chopping block... So if this doesn't work, then I guess I have to win immunity at this point..."

But for now for the group, it was time to get a shower and a massage. Once the five of them were done showering, it was straight to the massage tables they all went, where they were all getting back rubs from some of the female locals of the country.

Luigi was certainly not afraid to keep his sighs of relief and relaxation to himself. That was for sure.

"...Okay..." Freddy could not have blamed him as the lady that was working on him was rubbing his upper back. "I'm not gonna lie. This feels nice..."

"Certainly rather be here than camp..." Foxy just had to agree with his head resting in his arms as the women massaging him was working on his feet at the moment.

"Same here." Sheik commented. "I mean you know, we may all be on separate pages now, but at least no matter which one of us is going next time, we all have made the top ten of this game. Literally half the people that started with us are out and seven of them didn't even make the jury. And knowing that it's hard to be on the show alone, I'd say we've just made a major accomplishment here. So, let's just enjoy ourselves out here while it lasts."

Her fellow tribe members unanimously agreed.

"Survivor has continued to surprise me." Marth Lowell could not have been happier. "The reward was absolutely marvelous. I do not know how they feel for certain, but in the back of my mind I assume that it takes a lot out of those women to massage five strangers with the conditions that we are in, including bugs eating us alive half the time, as well as constants cuts and bruises from camp life,... yet they still do it with seemingly no hesitation. ...Were they trained to appear that way or something? But anyway, I am grateful for Freddy Fazbear to take me here, in spite of me ending up working against him last night. ...Maybe it's how this social game works out here..."

After their massages, the five of them were wearing traditional Japanese robes, and Lowell and Fazbear found themselves in a private conversation following the latter pulling the former to the side.

"Alright, so..." Before he could even state three words, he already pulled a hand over his face laughing a little. "I'm sorry, I just feel like we've had this kinda conversation before."

The blue-haired swordsman smirked in reaction. "We have in fact."

"Now, I'm not gonna say much because I don't wanna force my strategy onto you, so the first thing I'd like to say is that the reason to why I brought you on here is that... I haven't forgotten about you and Zelda. Okay?"

He nodded in understanding, still with his smile remaining. "I appreciate you for that. With rewards like these, I am learning many different things. Best to enjoy the full Survivor experience, you know?"

"I agree." He bobbed up and down in agreement. "So as far as strategy goes, I'm only gonna say one thing and one thing only. Those knights have more, we have less. Like, all of the knights are still here. All seven of them... and against three original Nago members now. And even though the odds are low for all three of us to be in the final three at this point, it's not impossible at all for at least one of us to take one of the final three spots. As much as the emperors are used to backstabbing each other, the knights are supposed to be the underdogs here. But guess who are the underdogs now..."

"...I... Okay..." That was when Marth's smile had dropped for a bit. "No meaning to be rude or anything, but two of us are sort of not on the bottom of Bikutā anymore..."

"I understand." Freddy knew that he was going to point that out. "But even though I'm at the bottom, it is just like how you and Zelda can be at the bottom of your new alliance. Don't get me wrong, but I know that almost certainly those Chatan Four didn't ask either of you to do anything, and you two saved their lives. You can go ahead and tell Zelda everything if you want, but just keep that in mind and think about it for a minute."

"Alright, I have no problems with that." Marth sighed in reaction, rotating his head to stare at the water. "No matter what happens your words will not fall on deaf ears..."

"Though Freddy might have some valid points, I feel that he's mostly telling me this just to save himself." He expressed his thoughts on the matter. "This whole Emperors vs Knights thing is slowly becoming more and more irrelevant as each tribal passes. Me, Zelda, Roy, and Shulk all thought that it was still Emperors vs Knights, but then he and Shadow went around and backstabbed Shulk, and then helped vote out Roy. So I do find it to be rather odd that the moment when me and Zelda wrote down one of our own, Freddy tells me that it's still Emperors vs Knights somehow, so this is probably giving me a warning that Freddy is simply fighting for his life because he knows that as far as my new alliance is concerned, that he's the biggest threat. But only for physical reasons. Though, we don't want him winning the rest of the immunity challenges. So unless something is changing at the camp, maybe it's good that Freddy won that reward, because these could be his final days out here on the island. However, just to make sure I secure my new position in the game, it is probably me and Zelda's best interest to interact with the four original Chatan members and bond with them so that we know for sure that we're chosen the right side here."

Day 28

"Come on in, guys!"

The top ten Survivor contestants all made it out to the challenge area with different expressions of anticipation as their master eyed them one by one, standing on the black merged tribe mat facing forward.

"Alright, you guys ready to get to today's immunity challenge? First things first, Marth, give it up."

"Fun while it lasted, I suppose..." Lowell admitted as he made his way over to Master Hand to give up the one thing keeping him a hundred percent safe at Tribal Council.

"Once again, immunity is back up for grabs." The immunity necklace was now back on the post where it belonged. "For today's challenge, each of you have a hundred and fifty wooden tiles. You will use those tiles to build a house of cards ten feet tall. First person that reaches ten feet, wins immunity, guaranteeing a one in nine shot at a million dollars. Losers, Tribal Council where someone will be the eleventh person voted out of Survivor and will become the fourth member of our jury. We'll draw for spots, and we'll get started."

-/-

"Alright, here we go. For immunity and a guaranteed spot at the final nine. Survivors ready? ...GO!"

Good thing there was a marked, ten-foot pole nearby so that the castaways always knew how tall exactly their house of cards were. It was a classic challenge for Survivor that have been part of the show multiple times, even altered for a couple seasons. Yet for Emperors vs Knights, it was simply back to basics. Simply making a ten foot stack of cards twice their size in hopes that it would never collapsed to give the person next to them a chance for the immunity necklace.

"Just keep this in mind: you can build your house of cards in any way you want. You just make sure your strategy works and pay off. Don't worry about the person next to you as if you're taking an exam at school."

Basically, patience was key when it came to the challenge. It was something that some people lacked, though, with Knuckles the Echidna being an obvious example for obvious reasons. If he rushed the last challenge, imagine him performing in a challenge such as stacking cards on top of one another like trying to line up a series of dominoes without messing up.

By the looks of things so far, one knew that he was trying to get it done as fast as he possibly could. He thought that just a couple blocks standing up vertically another tile lying flat on top of them would be enough. However, one of the most important things when it came to the challenge was building a sturdy base to decrease the chances of the stack collapsing. Yet somehow, Knuckles never really caught that.

As a result, in spite of him leading the pack, his stack quickly fell at about two and a half feet.

"Knuckles's stack collapses. That's why sometimes slow and steady wins the race!"

Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Now it's Greninja in the lead followed by Shovel Knight... and Bonnie! Freddy and Marth right behind!"

Literally every other castaway was using some sort of strategy to make sure they had a sturdy base to ensure its safety. Foxy just had a bunch of cards stacked up in the middle lying sideways, followed by cards laid on top. Marth on the other hand seemed to make an entire 'box' of cards at the bottom, having no intention of letting his stack collapse at all.

"Shovel Knight approaching three feet. Greninja and Bonnie are still right on his tail. Freddy and Marth are barely past two feet now. Everybody else trying to stay in it."

Zelda was the one trailing behind. However, perhaps in the end, it could have gave her a massive advantage. She knew very well that slow and steady sometimes won the race. Though short-term things were not exactly working out for her, at the very least, she knew what she was doing.

"Luigi doing a nice job. Zelda not rushing at all. Knuckles quickly becoming desperate. Sheik and Foxy not rushing. Everybody else that is leading has the potential to win, if they can just hope that Shovel Knight and Greninja do something wrong..."

But, nope. Both of them had strategies that were paying off very well. They never rushed, yet at the same time they knew that there could only be one winner for the next Tribal Council.

Bonnie was in third place at the time, yet he suddenly slowed down a little when he realized his stack was wobbling by the time he made it to the five foot mark. Knowing that it obviously meant trouble, he simply just stood on the step stool that was provided for the survivors since it was already a little high, it was rather hard to make adjustments. All the bunny could do was simply hope that the worse never came to worse. Just a couple light touches would have done the trick.

However, Foxy nearby was unable to see danger in his pile, and his four foot stack collapsed at least halfway, the fox immediately cursing under his breath.

"Foxy loses half of his pile. Gotta rebuild."

As a result, that ended up just being enough for Zelda to past.

"Sheik at six feet. Bonnie now at six feet. Shovel Knight nearing eight feet. Greninja at seven and a half feet. Everybody else, you still have a chance if the front runners mess up. ...But both Shovel Knight and Greninja have been doing very well so far and they are almost at the top."

"Oh, no, no, no! …Ugh..."

"Sheik stack collapses... Knuckles's stack collapses for a second time!"

"Aw, come on!"

"Greninja nearing eight and a half feet! Shovel Knight just past nine feet... He just needs a few cards and he'll be done!"

"...Oh man... Now what?"

"Bonnie apparently has ran out of cards... Now he has to go all the way to the bottom of his stacks and use some of those, without letting his entire stack fall to the ground... That's only gonna give Shovel and Greninja just enough room. And Shovel Knight is seconds away from winning this challenge!"

With him deciding to make some sort of 'house' for his last couple of cards, he immediately pulled his hands away as Master Hand counted down just to make sure the stack was never going to wobble.

"3... 2... 1..."

"SHOVEL KNIGHT WINS IMMUNITY!"

"YES!"

Leaping down from the stepping stool, he almost instantly raced over to Master Hand, obviously very excited to get a chance to wear the individual immunity necklace in the game.

Greninja simply shook his head rather gradually as he stepped down, not even bothering to finish his work.

"You really look like you wanted it!"

"Indeed I have!" He grinned. "I'm clearly not the most physical guy out here, so when it comes to challenges like these, I knew that I had a bigger chance and now I can finally wear something that matters most when it comes to this phase of the game. ...Uh..."

He actually took a moment to eye the other nine competitors. "I'm sorry if I sound too... cocky and egotistical..."

Almost everyone around him paid him a laugh.

"Shovel Knight, you never won immunity yet. This is your moment!" Sheik grinned at him. "I've already won a challenge so you have every right to celebrate!"

"Oh, well thanks!"

"Alright, so Shovel Knight has a one in nine shot at winning this game." Master Hand confirmed it officially. "As for the rest of you, after nearly thirty days on the show, somebody has to go and get their torch snuffed tonight. You have the afternoon to figure out who's it gonna be. Shovel, it will not be you. Congrats."

"Thank you, master. I appreciate it." He kindly shook the host's hand.

"I don't even know how exactly we're even more at a disadvantage due to Shovel Knight winning immunity. I just don't want to be on the bottom anymore." Foxy laughed a little. "I mean I know I'm laughing, but when your fate is controlled by other people, it's not the best feeling in the world. Sometimes when people are at the bottom of Survivor, there's not much they can do. ...So I guess I'll just explore the limited options I have and I will do everything within my power to fight for myself and the people around me that I need to stay. I'd rather be voted out by dying trying than being voted out by not trying at all."

Alright, so with Shovel Knight winning immunity (with an idol), on one side of the coin, Chatan Four was able to keep immunity away from the Pirate Crew. Yet on the other, the Pirate Crew now even has less options to work with. And right now, Knuckles seems to be the target. He's a physical player, but even though he flopped at the last two challenges, it seems that to avoid one of Chatan Four getting blindsided, he's the safer option for them. And also, people are generally growing tired of him lol.

...Guess what? Speaking of Sonic characters, Espio the Chameleon is going to be on the brain tribe for Survivor - Mexico! I was originally planning on going with another Sonic character, but Espio as a character is kinda underrated in the Sonic fandom, and I thought he'd fit the tribe well so I'm giving him a shot.

Question:

1. What did you guys think of the spa reward?

2. Which alliance would get their way at the next Tribal Council and what is the percent chance of that?

Vote for your top five characters this season (Shadow and Krystal) are tied for first, and I will see you all next time! I encourage everyone to review!