The Ranch

Tih & Friends (5)

The ten minute game of tag ends. Any weapon remains and vests are returned and everyone goes back to their seats in the spectators section.

There's not much to clean up in the arena and the points are calculated automatically. The current scoreboard looks like this.

[1. Gladiators           497 points
2. Fallen Angels      464 points
3. Hydra.                 458 points
....                                             ]

Poseidon goes down to ninth place.

Keeping your own color was worth twenty points, coloring another person was two. Gladiator had five of the original ten members keep their colors.

Tih helped give the team an overwhelming advantage this game, but it still wasn't enough. Only Tih and Lucien kept their original colors and compared to the stronger teams, it's a pitiful amount. In total, they only made about [176 points] this game, for a total of [374 points], more than a hundred point difference from first place, Instructor Kane's team.

The next game begins with another large platform. The platform is a four by four grid. Underneath, a net to catch those that will fall. A large screen is propped up on two sides of the square platform.

Before the game even starts, everyone in Tih's team is staring at Kai in anticipation. Everyone stands on the platform, crowded together as the game begins.

Images pop onto the two screens. One shows a question and a timer of thirty seconds.

[What is the symbol for gold?]

The other shows a picture of the grid. On each square, there are letters like [G], [Go], [Co], [Au], [Ga], and a couple more to fill all sixteen squares. All the answers are repeated two or three times, giving soldiers multiple correct squares to choose from.

Tih's group has already decided to link arms beforehand so they won't get separated. At the lead, Kai is pulling the line through a sea of people.

Everyone's shoving and crowding on the squares they think is correct. At the end of the thirty seconds, a loud beep pierces their ears. Some feel weightless at the ground below them has disappeared, and some are safe for a moment.

A few of the people that fell have sharper reflexes and immediately try to hang onto the platform, but the material of it makes their fingers slippery and they fall nonetheless. A few that were on the edge of the remaining squares were also pushed in the ruckus.

The squares that were incorrect had opened up like a door and a lot of people had fallen through. Because it was the first round, some misunderstood what direction the screen was facing, so if they thought the answer was top left, they'd go to bottom right. But a majority just got unlucky and couldn't squeeze into the square they were aiming for.

The open squares close back up and the next round starts with a beep. The question on screen reads as follows: [What is the human body's largest organ?]

This time they're only given twenty-five seconds. Answer options range from lungs, liver, stomach, skin, or bladder.

Looking on screen, Kai memorizes the square of the right answer and correlates it to his current party's position. He turns to the direction of the closest square and starts running, dragging along a tail of other people.

Kai can hear others discussing with their teams, deciding which is the correct answer and wasting precious time they don't have. He reaches a [skin] square and watches the people that got there before them defensively. Luckily, the other people are being defensive too and probably won't try anything with them.

A beep is heard and all but three floors fall through, exiling about half of the people that were remaining.

Looking around, Kai notices that some teams have broken up over what they thought was the correct answer. Since all ten of his teammates are here, theyll have the upper hand if they need to fight another team for a spot.

There's a lot more room on the grid now, but if Sherlock's hypothesis is correct, soon there will only be one square with the correct answer.

[World War I began with the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, of which country?]

They're given twenty seconds to pick an answer and make it to that square. If you're lucky, you might end up being close by. If you're unlucky, the only right answers might be on the opposite side of your location and you won't have enough time to run over even if you know the answer.

Trivia questions can be a hit of miss. You might remember the answer to this random and otherwise useless question, or you might not. This is why staying as a team is a good idea. More brains, more memories, more chance of having that random knowledge and passing it on to your teammates. Whether that memory is correct or not is another story, but if nobody in a team knows the answer, they can only guess, which might lose you all your teammates if you stick together.

This is what makes Tih's team so overpowered, or more specifically, what makes Kai so overpowered in this type of game. But sadly, he's not the only one with this kind of ability. The next couple rounds end in a standstill, with only one or two people falling each round. Then the next question comes.

[Which infinity stone was located on Vormir?]

Ten seconds.

Kai blanks out. They usually start moving almost immediately, so the other member's notice right away.

For the first time, they actually pay attention to the question instead of watching other players.

"Oh I know this one." Victor says nonchalantly, taking the lead. The stop on the only [soul stone] square, along with a couple other people. There's a few people scattered all around for this one.

As the largest remaining team, they're pulling a lot of aggro from the remaining participants. It looks like they can no longer remain pacifists. Unlinking arms, they get into attacking positions, so do the opponents. They remain in a frozen stalemate, waiting for the squares to open.

Someone not in the know: So your leader's Tih?

Theo: PFFFF-
Sherlock, Kai, Victor: *silently chuckling*
Basile: *turns around and walks away so no one can see him laugh*
Abel: *shoulders trembling as he holds back his laughter*
Lucien wearing a inconspicuous and ever-so-slightly warm smile
Pierre, wearing a fox-like grin: yes
Tih: ?
Also Tih: *eating ice cream bought by random man that wanted to take him in as a pupil*