Ephurium

Chapter 14

Matthew's Point of View

Who would've thought my idea of Farren casting a chunk of ice for himself at great haste could make a great travelling method? With the addition of my speed ability, I easily manoeuvred the chunk of ice around the pines without any issues by manipulating it over the edges as I followed Stella and Calista.

"We are here," I announced as I heaved upwards and blasted a small explosive spell to knock down an alpha pine by its stump, forcing it to fall over at a diagonal angle – perfect for a mounting slope.

Following Stella's direction, I leaned on the back edge of the ice chunk, causing it to tilt upwards. I immediately blasted flames parallel to the tilting angle, causing Farren and me to fly upwards and slide up the sloped alpha pine before the ice melted from my fire. As us two managed to secure a place onto one of the highest branches, Stella and Calista followed my path and united together on the same branch. Everyone seemed exhausted from the far distance we travelled.

"Who on earth would've thought such colossal pine trees existed!" Calista exclaimed as she admired the view.

"Maybe some mutation happened here," I stated.

Suddenly, the skies crackled, and an ear-piercing pitch of sound travelled past us. A few seconds later, the familiar voice of Professor Zayne began his announcement. Through the past announcements, he only stated how many tributes remained in the deathmatch, meaning he would only be repeating the same thing.

"Good evening my fellow test subjects!" His energetic voice echoed through the forest. "Currently, there are one hundred tributes left in the deathmatch."

It was nothing out of the extraordinary, but still, I was surprised by the hundreds already murdered since the beginning.

"Once there are only one fifty tributes left, all of you will be teleported to a vast floating island with similar geographical features compared to the deathmatch boundaries you all are in." He continued. "Then, you will all fight to the death until there are five remaining, which then the deathmatch will be stopped for good."

I knew it was impossible for me to be one of the last five tributes remaining out of the fifteen hundred tributes. But it was still essential to persist as my life could be used to save another's life.

"Hey guys, do you think anyone of our comrades is still alive?" Stella whispered. "I hope at least one other person is still breathing right now."

Calista, Farren, and I remained silent. I knew that this deathmatch was unpredictable, as any tribute may leap out of nowhere and slice someone's head off or electrify them to ashes. Unless they collaborated, there was no way that they could last as one of the last fifty. Despite that, my hopes were high for Ace as his time manipulation ability should save him from ambushes.

"Yes, let's just hope for the best that at least one of our comrades is still alive," Farren whispered back. "I am too worried about them to sleep."

"Let's just take a rest up here to recover some energy," I suggested. "Let's head towards Drayot mansion at midnight and strike there when tributes least expect it."

"That's one smart idea," Stella answered. "We will eliminate as many tributes as possible to make it as close to fifty left as possible."

"I agree as well," Farren added. "If we destroy Drayot Mansion, we should be able to eliminate quite a large amount of tributes considering it is most likely a hotspot for other tributes."

I immediately began organising my backpack to remove as many useless items as possible to increase my haste. I was surprised by the amount of junk that added onto the weight. Items such as melee weapons, firearms, and ammunition dominated over my storage. Considering future encounters of anti-mana zones, I decided to leave one dagger and one pistol with three magazines whilst passing the same share to everyone else before destroying the extras. As I ate some canned food and drank some water, I realised my wounds began healing, and that my broken foot recovered better than before.