Thank you all for voting! The official face-off will begin next chapter.
Alicia didn't dare do anything, knew it was the right choice not to. Her fingers inched their way to the hilts of the knives hidden in her jacket, careful not to make any sudden movements and startle the serpent.
The serpent's forked tongue flickered out, slimy and a sickly purple. It made no move to attack whatsoever, but it didn't go away either. Hazard did command it to drag Alicia to Savannah, inflicting as much injury on her as possible without killing her. Said girl then ruined the plan, riding on the serpent like it was a horse, clinging on to its ears. The serpent knew Savannah was there, hiding behind a few of those trees that grew closely together –it could clearly smell her scent. It had successfully delivered Alicia to her, so its work was done, wasn't it?
The stare down went on for a few more seconds, before the slimy creature decided it was none too keen on getting stabbed by one of those knives hidden underneath Alicia's jackets (yes, it can see them) and slithered away.
Alicia let out a shaky breath, and winced –her ribs still hurt a lot. This won't do. If she was to win the fight with Savannah, she was going to need to fix those ribs. Alicia eyed the open white box at the centre of the clearing. Though it was a little over 15 meters away from where she was, her heightened sight allowed her to see a set of huge syringes containing some kind of a green liquid kept in a ziplock bag. A sticker was stuck on the outer surface of the bag, with the words "Treatment for Broken Bones" printed in bold, black ink.
Perfect.
Without a moment's hesitation, she started climbing down, knowing full well that this might be her last few moments on earth.
Savannah, moments before the serpent and Alicia arrived in the clearing
There was some pretty good stuff inside the box. The first thing Savannah did was draining a bottle of water in 5 gulps. She hadn't realized how thirsty she'd been. Next, she started chewing tiny bits of roasted chicken, and a few mouthfuls of apple and bananas. She knew it wasn't wise to chomp down everything at once; it'll just come back out again. Her stomach had shrunk to the size of a nut anyway, and she couldn't handle anything more than that.
Once she was sated, she went ahead and experimented with the other stuffs in the box. She changed her bow to a new one, this time emerald green in colour, with intricate silver designs decorating its upper and lower limbs. Savannah had lost some arrows during her fight with Marvel, so it was a relief to feel the added weight of more arrows in her leather pouch strung to her back. In case of emergencies, she also strapped a short hunting knife to her belt. She had a feeling it would come in handy later on.
Something silver caught Savannah's eye. It was a bead bracelet the colour of the moon, with the addition of several specks of sapphire blue dots on every bead. Strange, why would Hazard send accessories? Fashion can't be that important, especially in a life and death situation. There must be something special about this.
There were no labels or stickers that gave instructions on how to use the bracelet. So, Savannah did the most obvious thing first; she slid the bracelet on her right wrist. Immediately she felt a tingle, followed by a searing pain that caused her to cry out, more to shock than pain. Instinctively, her left hand shot out and she tried pulling the bracelet off, but to her horror, it wouldn't budge. The pain deepened, as if someone was roasting her hand over a flame. Biting her tongue to prevent herself from shrieking, Savannah grabbed hold of a sharp piece of rock and was just about to bring it down on the bracelet when the pain stopped abruptly.
The beads opened up, pieces of gears and metal shooting out of the openings. They connected together to form a flat, disc-shaped object the size of a table. A shield. Savannah actually had to squint to see it, as it might as well be invisible, it being completely transparent and all. 'Alicia would never expect this,' Savannah thought gleefully. She found herself thanking Hazard, the action repulsing her so much she wanted to puke.
A few seconds after that, she heard the hissing sound of the serpent, along with the grunts of the obviously injured Alicia. Grabbing hold of her bow and her quiver of arrows, she sprinted to the trees, and hid.
Savannah, after serpent has left
Alicia didn't come as wounded as Savannah thought she would be –as expected of one of the top Careers. She did notice that the other girl wheezed a little too loudly, and she winced whenever her hand grazed her chest. Savannah guessed that it was a broken rib, but the wound must've not been fatal, or else she would've not been able to walk by now.
She found herself wishing Alicia had a punctured lung, and immediately felt guilty about it. The mere thought of killing someone, even if it's an act of self-defense, haunts her, and she wondered how she would handle the situation. The fight is inevitable, not to mention the death of one of them.
Just as she was thinking this, she noticed Alicia climbing down the tree, painstakingly slow. The rib must be restricting her. Savannah was bewildered; wouldn't hiding in the trees and throwing her knives at her from a distance be safer? What could she possibly be thinking?
It wasn't until Alicia reached the box that Savannah realized what she was doing. Of course! There were the supplies she had gotten from Hazard, and he knew there was something brewed in Daedalus' lab that can be used to treat broken bones. The broken ribs were a big advantage to Savannah, and she was bound to keep it that way.
Without hesitation, she shot off one of her arrows . Alicia noticed however, and dived out of the way before it could hit her. Savannah cursed; the girl's fast. The sudden dive clearly hurt Alicia though, as seen from her deathly pale face. Alicia was up and running again within seconds. Another arrow flew, and this time, it hit Alicia, just as her hand grabbed hold of the ziplock bag. Alicia didn't have time to fully dodge the arrow, but her sudden jerk to the side was enough for her to avoid a fatal wound. Alicia bit down on her lower lips as she pulled the arrow out of her shoulder, blood immediately gushing out.
Alicia had dropped the packet of syringes when she was hit, and now she scrambled along for it. Savannah pulled out one of her poison arrows and released. Alicia dropped to the ground, arrow whizzing past her hair.
Savannah was getting frustrated. She had never missed this many times before; either she was out of practice or Alicia is just really good at dodging. She pulled out an explosive arrow, strung it to her bow and was just about to let it fly when she hesitated. It was a dangerous move, for the explosion caused by the arrow usually covered a 5 mile radius. The last time she shot an explosive one during the Training Years, she got hurt so badly she could only lie down on the uncomfortable clinic bed, groaning for a week. She still had the scars to remind her of it.
Explosive arrows were harder to shoot, for they don't go nearly as far as normal arrows. That's why she would always be in the danger area, if she was to hit the target.
Alicia was only a few steps away from the syringes. Scowling, Savannah let the arrow fly, and immediately turned around and sprinted as far away as possible. Seconds later, she heard a deafening boom, followed by an intense heat that scorched her back. The force of the explosion was so strong it threw her several feet back. Savannah hit the ground hard, and she lay there sprawled in an awkward position for a few moments before a thought hit her. The shield!
She felt the familiar tingle on her wrist and then the shield popped up , providing her with welcomed shelter from the inferno.
Guilt tore at her heart, gnawing at it. What had become of Alicia? Savannah didn't know, didn't dare look back. Not just yet.
Just an update, Savannah currently has more votes than Alicia, but the polls are still open, so it's not final yet.
