In The Middle (IDENTITY V FF)

4

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Chapter 4:
Ponder

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"Good luck out there," Aesop mumbled beside Eli, who was preparing for the match. Luck wasn't on his side as of today, because he was picked to be one of the players for the first match. Aesop had him on full support, though, so he thought it would be fine. The latter said he'd be in the spectating room to watch Eli, which gave him more motivation to play.

'All players for the first match, proceed to Table 5.'

Eli got up on his feet and cracked his knuckles, glancing at Aesop who had his arms crossed while staring at Eli. "What?" He laughed. "Got something on my face?"

Aesop let out a muffled chuckle. "No... Forget it. You should go now, your teammates are waiting."

Eli raised a brow at Aesop, even though he knew the latter wouldn't even see his curious expression because of the blindfold. "O-kay...?" He backed away slowly, anticipating Aesop to maybe add something. But the masked man didn't speak, so he decided to turn on his heel and head to the table.

Lucky Guy was there, and so was Tracy and Emily. "Hey Clark!" Tracy waved at him, patting the empty seat that situated at the right end of the table. Eli greeted them and sat, waiting for everyone to get ready.

'I wonder who the hunter is...' Eli thought, but it was short-lived when mist started to cloud around them, and flipping pages of a worn out book surrounded their table. When the mist cleared out, they were now in the game.

"Moonlit River Park," Eli looked around, and he seemed to spawn right in the middle of the small bridge connecting the two parts of the map. Beside him stood a rocket chair, and he quickly ran to the nearest cipher which was located by the spawning area of the hunter.

'Aesop must be watching me by now..."

Distracted because of the thought that a certain male was spectating him, he missed a calibration point. "Dammit...!" He silently cursed, but the slight error didn't stop him from finishing the cipher that was halfway finished. Zefer returned to him just as he finished another calibration point.

The hunter was probably off somewhere else chasing another survivor, because even after the post of the cipher Eli was decoding glowed - indicating that the decoding was complete - not a single soul went close to him.

Keep decoding, guys! The hunter's near me!

Emily was being chased by the hunter as of the moment, and Eli did as what she said and went out to look for another post. But something was off. Although his heartbeat wasn't beating rapidly, it still felt weird. He didn't hear a gong sound from any of his teammates, and the atmosphere was silent as ever.

Just then, a red flash appeared a few meters behind him, and a sinister chuckle voiced out from the hunter that teleported close to him.

"H-Hastur...!" Eli gritted his teeth as he stumbled back, but he tried to shake the thought of the hunter at his tail away, running at the opposite direction from the hunter.

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Aesop silently watched the game being flashed in the screen, looking at Eli's every move. Beside him was Emma, who was also spectating Emily across the screen. She murmured profanities when Emily would miss a calibration point, but Aesop would tell her it was because of her nervousness.

He eyed Eli as he ran away from Hastur, and he flinched when the hunter managed to land a blow on him. Due to the hit, the Seer managed to accelerate in terms of speed for a few seconds, and he decided to vault a window. There he bumped into Tracy's robot, who decided to give Eli a hand and started to distract the hunter.

Thank you!

Eli ran off while the robot distracted Hastur, and he luckily found an unfinished cipher he could decode.

Aesop knew this was the last cipher that had to be decoded, and he silently cheered Eli on.

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"Almost... Almost... Done!" Eli beamed when he heard the alarm of the gates ring, and he saw the glowing exits from both sides of the park.

Anyone near the gates yet?

Eli asked from his communication device. He was still running as fast as he could towards the exit gate, which was only a few meters away.

Gong!

"Crap!" Eli cursed under his breath when he saw that Lucky's profile turned from a running figure to a crouching one. He was incapacitated. He failed to let Zefer spectate his fellow survivors, so he decided just open the gate with the password.

After a few beeping noises, it opened.

Help me!

Eli, consumed by his conscience, decided to run to Lucky's location, which wasn't really far from where he stood. Hastur and Lucky's glowing figure of red was behind one of the tents, and Eli's heartbeat quickened as he drew closer to where they was.

After making a turn, there he saw Hastur looming over the poor guy, who was shaking and trembling on his knees. Eli heard Hastur chuckle evilly as he prepared the helium balloons, but he ceased that opportunity.

"HASTUR!!!"

The sudden cry was enough to freeze any action the hunter was planning on doing. He glared at Hastur, who only looked at him with a shocked expression.

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"You okay, Clark?" Aesop worriedly asked the man who was hunched beside him on one of the leather chairs while patting his back. "That was so sudden of you, I didn't expect-"

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Replied the blindfolded man whilst gritting his teeth.

During the game, he managed to rescue Lucky Guy after the distraction he managed to come up with last-minute, but it also brought him a disadvantage. Because of his slightly injured state, running was a major problem. He limped around the carousel as the hunter chased him, and he'd go the other way if the bright red light would seem to be heading towards his direction up front. Aesop could say it was quite funny due to the fact that he could hear Hastur cursing profanities because of the annoying chase that lasted like forever.

Unfortunately, Eli soon got caught, ballooned, chaired, and you-know-what-happens-next.

After the match, Lucky was jumpy enough to thank the man for helping him out of his sticky situation, and the latter just flashed a tight smile.

The fact that Aesop saw his failure to survive the game was bothering him. It was like his pride was being tampered with, and-

'Wait... Why am I so distressed about the fact that Carl saw the whole thing? Why am I so pressured to please him...?'