Crossroads

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: (I Am Not the Only One in the End)

(Previous Chapter Clarification: Jentai informed his team that he had found three mazes, which was partly true because he did indeed find three mazes. Each member of the Fire Team told him the locations of the mazes they had found, so the total number of mazes Jentai knew about was seven. This left two blocked paths and one path leading to the final gate.)

Jentai rushed forward and crossed two paths he had not entered before.

He entered the third path and found the gate ahead, but as he approached, he stepped on a trap made of strong glue that cut off his last two shoes. He jumped out of the trap barefoot and headed towards the gate. Upon opening the door, he found the path was destroyed in the middle. He ran quickly without hesitation, jumped at the edge, and successfully crossed the broken plates. Students were falling due to pushing and congestion. Jentai jumped over their heads, and upon reaching the end of the path, he found Nami Slawn running. Plates were falling in front of Nami. Jentai jumped over Nami and landed at the finish line, believing he was the sole winner of the joint competition. However, at the edge, someone was holding onto the edge with one hand and reaching up with the other, revealing his head, and it was Nami Slawn. Nami then stood on the floor of the finish line.

Announcer: "The only winners of the joint competition are Jentai Banz and Nami Slawn."

Amidst the shock of the viewers and teachers, one spectator said, "This is impossible; this has never happened before. This is the first time only two have won. How is this possible? There was cheating; the winner count has always been a minimum of 30 students in all past competitions."

One of the teachers said, "How can this be? Is it possible that the director was biased towards one of them? No, this is illogical; his grandson lost too. But this test is designed for at least 10 students to win, and this number has never been recorded before. We will wait for the director's statement."

Amidst the public uproar, suggesting something was amiss or that one of the students had cheated, the director's voice came through the microphone: "The details of how this happened will be explained later. Viewers are advised to stay calm as the testing area is filled with cameras."

The audience fell silent upon hearing the director's announcement.

Director: "Alright, there are no objections. Let's continue with the test. The remaining test is the duel. Since there are only two winners, the duel will be three rounds instead of one."

In a scene, Jentai was holding a wooden sword facing Nami, who was also holding a wooden sword. The other students cheered for Nami from afar.

The referee stood between Jentai and Nami, extending his arms forward, then raised them up to signal the start. Nami quickly attacked Jentai, who blocked the attack, then Nami retreated and attacked again. Jentai skillfully evaded it and attacked Nami instead. Nami spun around and avoided Jentai's strike. Both combatants then retreated. Nami extended his sword to the left, while Jentai extended his sword forward. Jentai jumped up.

Nami swung his sword quickly to the right towards Jentai, but Jentai pushed Nami's hands, which held the sword, backward, then moved his wooden sword downward towards Nami's head. Nami let go of his sword and slid forward from underneath Jentai, positioning himself behind Jentai so that they faced each other's backs. Nami moved away quickly, Jentai laughed, picked up Nami's stick from the ground, and aimed it at him.

Each took a stance, but this time Jentai rushed quickly towards Nami. Nami couldn't react to Jentai's speed, so he tried to swing his stick towards Jentai's head, but Jentai ducked from the attack and placed his stick near Nami's neck.