Tails of Fire; Book 3:

Hide, Seek, or Die

Dan raced through the field of flames and Kasai followed. When they reached the edge Dan stopped.
"What are you doing? We have to keep going!" Kasai yelled as Dan held her back. Dan picked up a rock and said on word, "Watch." He dropped the rock and it fell through the ground as if it were a sheet of paper that repaired itself. He then ran over to a nearby charred tree with fresh vines and took the vines back over to where he was standing. He the tied the vines together and tied one end of the makeshift rope to a sturdy stump and the other to him. He then descended over the invisible cliff wall. Once through the hallucination of solid ground he could see that it was a volcano that had a ledge big enough for two full grown people. On the other side of the ledge was an exit.
"Kasai, there is a ledge down here and I'm going to try and reach it. Only when I say so, start to come down. Ok?" Dan said as he started making his way to the ledge. He created hands holds using his sword. He let go of the rope of vines and continued his way across. Once he was directly above the ledge he hopped down and landed with a soft thud. "Kasai, you can start coming now."
As soon as the words left his mouth Kasai was scaling down the rope and across the rock wall by the hand holds Dan had made earlier. She landed beside him with another soft thud and together they walked through what they now could see was an arch way into a grand underground coliseum. As Dan headed out with Kasai two paces behind, thick heavy bars fell in between the two separating them. Dan was to go alone from that point. He stepped into the light that came from many lanterns. A familiar booming voice came from the other side. "We have gathered here today to host Daniel's second-chance trial. My guards have done a wonderful job of leading him here and keeping him in this realm for so long. They have given the rest of us time to grow steadily larger and become more of a threat and now that has hit the 5 year mark we can sprout wings out of our backs in a few days time. This trial will be to test how far he has come. The games are at random so there's no telling what he'll have to do." There is a slight murmur among the clones about which task Dan will have to complete. "So let's spin the wheel." He continued. He spun the wheel with so much force the task were a blur of black, white and red. Finally it came to a stop and because of the distance Dan still couldn't make out what the task was. "He will have to survive a day in Hide, Seek, or Die." The monstrous fire tail boomed across the stadium. "He will have a choice of weapon and I will choose the type of field that the game will be played on." A weapons rack came out of the wall. He chose a sword and a light sturdy shield. The rack disappeared back into the wall and that same instant a huge city appeared out of nowhere. A ramp fell from the archway to the ground. He walked slowly from top to bottom and wait for another announcement from the lead fire tail.
"He will have to survive in this trial until the number of volunteers to enter after him run out. You can hid in buildings, in anything you can find. You are not only hiding but are seeking too. Once the challenger has died or the volunteers run out, the trial will be over. So let the trial begin!"