Thinking 'Bout You- SP 3 ✔️

Chaper 57- Survive The Night Pt2

"The task before you is simple. Make it through the woods. Survive the night. You will be tested, each of you. Refuse my tests, or try to escape, and my Gargoyle minion will kill you. May the final quest begin. I'd start running if I were you" the 5 of us run into the woods with our flashlights
"The good news is, if Penelope wanted us dead, we would be" Jug tells us as we are now walking all together
"Or this is her sick game like how some animals play with their food before killing it and eating"
"Wow thanks Rory"
"Arch I really don't feel like sugar coating anything"
"We don't even know where to go" Veronica nervously shouts
"Actually, Enchantress, we might" Jug points his flashlight to a spiral on a tree with an arrow pointing further into the woods
"So these tasks we have to do, they're going to be tailored to each of us?"
"Sounds like it" Archie replies next to me
"Look it's a red paladin card" Jug walks up to a tree and takes the scroll giving it to Archie "Archie this quest is for you"
"The Red Paladin must conquer the Grizzled Beast. He must battle alone in the pit
to save his home"
"What is a grizzled beast?" Veronica asks just as we hear growling
"Oh crap not again"
"A bear?" I ask wide eyed. We walk towards the noise and there stands a man in fur
"Archie, don't do this"
"He has to V or he dies"
"Don't forget I survived a real bear attack. I don't make it, tell my mom and dad I love them" Archie turns to look at me and pulls me into a hug "I love you Rory, and you guys"
"Love you to Arch" he pulls away and the fight begins. I turn away not wanting to look as tears start to fall. All I can hear is groaning and grunting that is until I don't anymore. I look up and see Archie standing over the man he was fighting. I run over and hug him thanking everything that he is ok.

Carrying on into the woods and it's Veronica's turn. She has to chose someone to do this with, they will have to spin a bottle and drink from that chalice it points to. One of the cups contains venom... Betty volunteers to do this challenge with Veronica. V goes first and drinks, she's fine. Then Betty goes and drinks and she's fine. This continues for another two rounds and there's only two cups left. Veronica is fine so she quickly takes the remaining cup and drinks before Betty can
"Why did you do that?"
"Because your my best friend and I love you"
"I love you too, V" suddenly Penelope walks through the woods
"Remarkable, Enchantress. You have completed your challenge and proven your loyalty"
"What?" Betty and Veronica say at the same time
"Of course. It was a character challenge. The Game was testing if you had honor and loyalty. None of the chalices were poisoned"
"On the contrary, all of the chalices were poisoned. It's slow-acting, but the only way to obtain the antidote is to finish the game. And even then, you might not make it. Tick-tock" we quickly run further in the woods looking for the next challenge, my turn
"Siren, your challenge is the dance and survive the gauntlet" Betty reads
"Dance?" Veronica asks confused
"I technically never did the Serpent dance, I did it in front of Pea, Fangs and Toni" I sigh as I follow the arrow. That's when I see a bunch of men (well I'm guessing) dressing as the Gargoyle King sat down in some chairs. I make my way towards a little raised platform where a radio is on the floor "I have to do the dace, what Betty did at FP's retirement party and then I have to let these guys beat the shit out of me" I sigh and close my eyes. I take a deep breath then press play on the radio when music starts. I begin to undress and dance for what seems like ages but can't have been longer than 3 minutes. Then it's time for the gauntlet. The gargoyles line up and I walk through them, getting punched everywhere and anywhere. At the end I'm hit over the head, but I refuse to fall, so I stand at still as I can. I then hear applause from Hale, Penelope and Chic. She hands me some ice for my now split lip
"Excellent, I'm sure everyone enjoyed that, now if you want to save Betty and Veronica you best hurry up" she smiles before walking off
"Are you ok?" Archie asks me
"Yeah, just sore but I'll be fine"
"Sweet Peas gonna go mad when he sees you like this" Jughead says handing me my clothes. I thank him before continuing on.