It was a few moments now before the Games are to begin. The morning Peeta and Katniss said nothing to one another and went off on their separate ways before their prep teams could arrive. Then they were taken to their arena through a hovercraft with all the other tributes and a tracker was injected in them. Finally they parted ways again to enter their individual capsule rooms whose podium would admit them in their arena.

At the moment Portia was fussing all over Peeta, like an elder sister, from his dress and setting his token locket and bandanna. Finally at the end with tears in her eyes she hugged him hard, "I guess this is where we part ways then Portia?" asked Peeta while still in the hug.

"Not in this life Mellark!" growled Portia though with a hint of sadness. "You have to win it and return so that we can work harder to make Cinna jealous with your crazy ideas. And you still owe me my hair-care kit you promised."

Chuckling Peeta replied, "Yeah if for nothing else, then it must be for that for which I'll ensure to return."

Sighing Portia broke the hug and wiped her eyes dry. "Nervous?"

"My opponents should be," said Peeta cheekily.

"Where from you get that extraordinary self-boost is beyond me. But then I'm glad you aren't hysterical. Do your best out there Peeta. I'm rooting for you," said Portia in a rare moment where she let her emotions get the best of her.

Nodding Peeta hugged her again and then allowed the peacekeeper to lead him to the capsule. He took a last look at a silently crying Portia and then made a funny pose that made her giggle despite the circumstances. He then waved her goodbye as the capsule started moving upwards and she returned the wave while saying something he wasn't able to hear properly.

Soon his vision blackened and he let out a long held sigh of relief over the fact that he had managed to fool the Capitol trackers about the true nature of his bandanna. It was going to be a very important weapon for him out there in the arena. And then his locket that was also acting as his career for transport pills and capsule-doppelgangers also survived the inspection. Now his first mission was to take a stronghold of the cornucopia and retrieve his bag that Rye had already delivered for him.

As soon as the vision blackened Peeta closed his eye-lids and started rolling his eyes so that he could readjust his vision as quick as possible wherever he ended up. Soon enough he heard the legendary announcer, Claudius Templesmith, as his voice booms all around him and he immediately took his stance.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"

Sixty seconds. That's how long they are required to stand on their metal circles before the sound of a gong releases them. Step off before the minute is up, and land mines blow your legs off. Sixty seconds to take in the ring of tributes all equidistant from the Cornucopia, a giant golden horn shaped like a cone with a curved tail, the mouth of which is at least twenty feet high, spilling over with the things that will give them life there in the arena. Food, containers of water, weapons, medicine, garments, fire-starters. Strewn around the Cornucopia are other supplies, their value decreasing the farther they are from the horn. For instance, only a few steps from Katniss's feet lay a three foot square of plastic. Certainly it could be of some use in a downpour. But there in the mouth, Katniss can see a tent pack that would protect from almost any sort of weather. If only she had the guts to go in and fight for it against the other thirty-nine tributes. Which she have rather been instructed not to do.

They are on a flat, open stretch of ground. A plain of hard packed dirt. Behind the tributes across from Katniss, she can see nothing, indicating either a steep downward slope or even cliff. To her right lies a lake. To her left and back, spars piney woods. This is where Haymitch would want her to .

She can already hear his instructions in her head. "Just clear out, put as much distance as you can between yourselves and the others,and find a source of water."

But it's tempting, so tempting, when she sees the bounty waiting there before her. And she knows that if she don't get it, someone else will. That the Career Tributes who would survive the blood bath will divide up most of these life-sustaining spoils. Something then catches her eye. There, resting on a mound of blanket rolls, is a silver sheath of arrows and a bow, already strung, just waiting to be engaged. That's hers, she thinks. It's meant for her.

Around the same time Peeta had already re-adjusted his visions to the comfort of his surroundings and was already halfway through the cornucopia piles after having tracked his package and taken notice of his immediate surroundings and the arena's layout. Patterns and plans were getting woven, reformed and deleted in the mind of the master-strategist.

At about the end of 40 seconds he was done with planning and now took a sprinting stance. He then looked at Katniss and found her eyeing the bow greedily on the Cornucopia. As if on cue her gaze shifted towards him and they locked gaze for moments. Then breaking the gaze Peeta started eyeing the rest of the tributes. Some were eyeing the weapons that Peeta learnt they were masters at wielding from the training session, others were sizing up potential threats, and the rest were planning an easy escape out to the piney woods as soon as possible. Soon the last 5 seconds of the countdown fell on Peeta's ears and he returned his attention to the Cornucopia.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

With the sound of a horn going off, Peeta dashed with an inhuman speed and covered the distance between himself and the Cornucopia in a record time. It unnerved everyone that he reached the Cornucopia before anyone of them could even cover half the distance while many had just staggered down their plates still unsure of laid-out mines.

Quick as he could he put on a coat full of blades and then slung his backpack around him. Unsheathing two very long knives, Peeta jumped at the top of the cornucopia and turned about waiting menacingly for the other tributes who were nearing by now. Quick as he could, he gave a reassuring nod to Katniss and waited patiently.

Though slightly unnerved at Peeta's pace and speed the other tributes remained unfazed as to them he wasn't a potential threat at all. Afterall they had seen him training and saw he got an average point at his skill-display. How very wrong they were.

Tributes from Districts 7 and 9 had formed the second largest alliance after the career pack with an impressive number of 8 allies. Peeta named them 'Giants'. Their alliance was followed in numbers by the one formed the tributes of Districts 8 and 10 having a total of 7 allies which Peeta named "Textstock" after their District's importance. Sybill, the girl tribute from District 8 who Katniss and Peeta had acquainted with during the training sessions had stayed out of the alliance formation that the other fellow tributes from her district were participating in. The smallest alliance yet, which Peeta named as 'Dwarves', was the one formed by the tributes of District 5 and 6 with a total of 5 allies. District 6's 2 tributes made this alliance with District 5's 3 tributes on the last day of the training session and the fox-face girl went solo. But Peeta had a hunch that Foxface may outlast the 5 and maybe even more with the sheer cunning that is reflected in her eyes.

Soon the tributes arrives and secured the weapons they were master at. The bloodbath that began shall be a memorable one in the history of the games. Peeta soon realized that the bow was out of Katniss's reach and she wasn't going to make it. It was when one of the male tributes from District 9 was towering over Katniss with a knife after a fight over an orange back-pack and Peeta was about to jump in to her rescue, that he heard incoming shushing that a blade makes when cutting through the air columns. Hearing it he was able to gauze up its distance and a plan was formed in instants. Just before the blade could make a marvelous contact with his head, in inhuman speed and succession, he tilted it caught the flying midair by its handle, and threw it with twice the speed at the District 9 Tribute's neck.

Peeta didn't even wait to see the face of shock on Clove's eyes and before the boy could even drop dead, Peeta was airborne and directed an assault on the members of Giants. In midair he did a flip and plunged the knife through the neck of a district 8 male upto the hilt and withdrew it before even landing on his feet. No sooner had he landed that his other knife made contact with the neck of a District 8 female, slitting it at the same time when the boy's corpse landed dead. Out of the corner of his eye Peeta saw Katniss and few others making for the woods taking advantage of the distraction he was providing which made him relieved that now he can fully concentrate on the task in hand. As soon the large boy tribute from District 10 was killed with a knife plunged in his stomach, the others came out of their shock and recognized him a threat. Though with the pattern of advancement, he realized that Career Pack will wait out and watch for the while. Meanwhile Clove's knife has already brought down a District 10 female and Cato was winning against the other District 9 male. The other careers were either busy stuffing from or protecting the Cornucopia and watching Peeta in action at the same time.

Now a bit war of him Peeta realized that the alliances of Textstocks and Dwarves are working together to get rid of him. 9-2,7-3,5-3,6-2. All Dwarves and 5 of the 7 Textstocks attacked him in a cornering assault at once. Peeta never retrieved a blade from his jacket but used all the incoming ones he couldn't dodge along with his knives and it was like he was killing them like flies. His weapon wielding and precision was as smooth as butter and he had a grace even when he was killing. He was remorseful of all the deaths he was causing, but he also knew that now wasn't the time. The fight ended as quickly as it began. Soon 7 corpses lay around Peeta. The 4 Giants did the wisest thing meanwhile – they fled with as much resource they collected after watching Peeta fight the others without getting a scratch in the process. By the end of it only 1 male of District 6 of the Dwarves survived while the others perished in Peeta's hands. The Textstocks too suffered serious loss. Out of 3 of their allies from District 7, only 1 male survived while the other was killed by Peeta. The other female bar Sybill was knifed to death by Cato while she was retreating. A male and a female District 9 perished in the fight against Peeta while Cato killed the other male who was as large as Thresh. That left only 2 members of the Textstocks alive. So in a way most of the alliances were crushed.

Job done and with no immediate danger other than the Careers who Peeta had in check, he went back to the Cornucopia to leaf through the other weapons. Soon he found a rather unique set of weapons that comes very rarely and must have evaded the other's gaze for it was buried deep and was tough to be recognized. It was a pair of retractable metallic tiger claw gloves that he read about in the weaponry book once.

No sooner had he put them on than he heard a resounding clap from behind him. But he paid it no mind and started leafing through other supplies – mainly food and medicinal kits that he might lack. 2 retractable bows that in dormant stage appears like metallic clamps of rods caught his eye and he took both of them – one for himself and the other for Katniss later on as he saw earlier that 'flirty' from District 1 had made her claims on that one. A bag of 12 quivers 6 of them containing regular arrows, 3 containing crescent head ones and the last 3 with various explosive ones caught his eye too among random things and he took the entire bag and shoved it deep into his bag which unknown to the Gamekeepers was 4-D in nature. He wouldn't store much in it to arise their suspicions though. 6 canteens made their way to the several carrier pouches he designed his bag with and in the end he stuffed the bad with some medicinal balms, disinfectants and revitalizing liquids. A plastic he took too in case necessary and then covered his bag with the waterproof cover. He tied the 2 sheaths on his back and put on his bag.

The clapping has long died by now when the sound of the bossier of the District 2 males came from behind him, "See you have already learn your place in the pack lover boy? Yeah you got it right, you are carrying our loads."

Turning about Peeta gave the boy, who was half a meter away, a dazzling smile and said, "Sure I have. But I guess I can do some things to make the job easier for myself as well right?"

Falling for the trap, the boy said, "As long as the loads are carried safely I don't give a damn about what or how you do it."

"Thanks for the consideration," and in a blur of speed Peeta threw his right hand forward and with a well leveled motion brought it straight at where he knew the joint is located. A resounding crack and the boy dropped dead on the ground. The shock that took over the careers was recovered from the fastest by the the District 1 male other than Marvel. But he did something foolish. To avenge the death of his fallen comrade, he threw a spear well-aimed at Peeta's head. The careers were shocked to the core for yet again that day when with the amazing reflexes Peeta caught the spear when its head was less than an inch away from connecting with his head. Turning his attention to the shocked boy he only said, "Pathetic," before throwing the spear with 5 times the boy's speed aimed at the boy's heart. The unfortunate victim never had a chance to recover from his shock much less defend himself from his incoming spear, that in less than moments brought his death. "There!" said Peeta now jovially to the still shocked and somewhat horrified Careers. "Now the load is to be carried for two persons less. Isn't that lovely? So anyone else wants me doing some chore?"

Everyone, Cato included, shook their heads in negative, very unnerved of the menacing smile that the Prince-of-Darkness was showing them. They now realized in the back of their mind that Peeta Mellark is the greatest strategist they could ever come across. He is a merciless killer with skills that could give the bravest peacekeeper from District 2 a run for his money. But he hid it all throughout the training regime and they were fools to fall for it. They are lucky that they didn't do something foolish like their fallen comrades. In fact Clove was thanking her stars profusely that Peeta seems to be forgetting her thrown knife at him before the blood-bath.

"Cato you can take the bloody lead of the alliance for I have no wish to do the job, but tonight we will be tracking the leftover 4 tributes from Districts 8 and 10. Yes you heard right at night. Why? Because its how predators do it and everyone needs their sleep. So take a nap and Clove you are carrying the supplies for today during our tracking, as well as watching for incoming danger with me while the others nap," said Peeta and everyone agreed. Though Clove groaned for the unfairness of it alone and thinking that she might have thanked her stars a little too early. Why did she insult him anyway in the 2 weeks of training regime? She was truly regretting her actions now.

(A/N) : Reviews please on the chapter I have spent labourer amounts of time upon...

~Aeigns