Running Man Blood in Bandages 2: Survival

Chapter 18: Ensemble the Storm Part 1

As more and more contestants arrived in the second stage of today's game, Liu and Miyo leaped through the portal and landed on one of the floating platforms, same with the rest of the contestants who made it.

They scanned the area they were in, it was rather spacious, no obstacle in the path as a flat arena was beneath them and another floating head-shaped-statue hovering above them.

"This Arena seems less chaotic than the previous one, it's just a flat surface" Says the bug, analyzing the area.

"You're right, this must mean that this is the current gatekeeper's element... We need to be careful"

The first of their teammates they saw was Kuga who seemed to have already made it first.

"Kuga! You're here already?" Liu asked after waving.

"Of course" Kuga smirked. "What did you expect?"

Then a platform elevated above Kuga as another portal appeared where Lonky, Popo and a bunch of other Pululus leaped through.

"Victory will soon be in our reach!" Lonky shouted as if screaming a battle cry.

"Witness us for we have formed a collective!" Popo added right after.

"Now we have thousands of points at our disposal. This match will be over very soon" Says the giraffe with a proud laugh as the Pululus behind them cheered.

Liu and Miyo simply sighed as if they already knew that whatever these two planned will backfire.

Liu proceeded to call the rest of the Running man players and after a short minute, they started arriving.

Another platform elevated next to Liu and Miyo and with it, another portal where Salena and Yuu slowly stepped out. Once they were in the area, and the portal vanished, they were met with everyone's gaze.

"Yuu! Salena! I'm so relieved you made it!" Says the cheerful bug.

"Yeah, sorry we took so long... Something came up" Yuu replied with an exhausted sigh.

"What happened?" Miyo asked.

Just as Miyo asked the question, Yuu and Salena jolted, their body stiffening as they looked at each other in the eyes briefly before looking away.

"... We fought" Salena replied on Yuu's behalf. Blush forming on her cheeks.

"Yeah... We fought each other in one of the Minigames" Yuu followed.

"Why? Our priorities should be the Gatekeeper first" Liu inquired as Yuu gave Salena a look that meant "I told you so" as she gave him a teasing wink and shrug.

As Yuu sighed, he glanced at Popo, ignoring their Pululu army, and called out to him.

"Hey, Popo, toss me one of your electric cards" Yuu said out loud.

The penguin was alarmed but trusting his friend, he did as he asked and tossed him a blue card with sparks of electricity bouncing off of it. The rest watched and waited to see what Yuu was about to do and then he handed it to Salena.

"Here..." Yuu says as she handled it to her. "You need to recharge your energy. We don't know what our next opponent might be"

Salena stared at the card thoughtfully then back to look at him before giving Yuu a determined look and nodded.

"Thank you" is all she says before grabbing the card and absorbing the electricity that had.

"Great thinking Yuu!" Liu complimented.

"Yeah, I wish I could do the same. I still can't use my abilities..." He mumbles before the final portal appears next to an elevated platform above all of them.