Acceleration [Book 1]

16: Sacrifices

⊱⋅ ─ 16: SACRIFICES

The cold wind blew harshly, blowing Felix's hood off his head, his hair flowing with the wind as the hood fell off, Chan chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"It's a bit windy tonight," he said, pulling Jeongin along with them, "not too windy, I suppose," he peered over to the six males that walked ahead of them towards the racing grounds.

"It's not going to rain, right?" Felix asked nervously as he looked over at Chan, he really didn't like it when it rains, his shoes, the ones he bought for himself, get slippery whenever wet. Talk about putting up a "slippery floor" sign everywhere on rainy days.

Chan shook his head, "Don't worry about it, you can have my shoes for the race," Chan said suggestively as he kicked one of his feet up in the air.

"I wouldn't have you slip and fall, now," Felix accidentally said in English, covering his mouth with a hand as he flushed for a few moments, gaining a laugh of adoration from Chan.

Chan smirked, the one that used to piss off Felix before, that the younger male somehow grew to like, and maybe later, love, "I wouldn't mind falling if it was for you," Chan replied, sending a flirtatious wink right after.

The two males continued to flirt, completely forgetting about the youngest one's presence, who was now practically third wheeling at the moment, Jeongin pried himself off of Chan's grasp and ran towards Seungmin, wrapping his arms around the spectacled male from behind.

The racers and the audience had to wait for the Gamblers and Dispatchers, but then the rain started to pour, some audiences filed into buildings, but stood close to windows where they'd see the hologram monitor, Felix started to feel anxious, his right leg shook and he absent-mindedly bit his lip, he glanced down at his shoes, praying that they won't be slippery once he stepped on the wet, cemented racing grounds.

Sirens were heard from some sort of speakers, and a man's shriek was heard right after, later on, a chopper was flying right above them, the wind from it caused everyone to stagger in their places. Just like any other race, the Dispatchers were to bring out the five weak links of the previous race, but this time, since the Dispatchers were in a different chopper, they had to lower the five weak links in cages, one by one, and strangely, in different spots of the race tracks.

"Tonight, our beloved Gamblers would love to propose a different type of challenge to the racers," Ten said with a smirk as he held a microphone elegantly with his pinky finger out, "you all will not just be racing against one another, but... you have to save one of the weak links," Ten pointed at the monitor that showed the map of the race track, where there were glowing red dots, that must be where the weak links are, "It's your choice to save them or not, if no one comes to save them, then they will be blown to pieces, blood, muscle tissues and bone fragments everywhere, you get the gist."

The racing venue echoed with murmurs and whispers, something brutal was being actually done in the race, even more brutal than the punishments, will be granted for entertainment, it brought thrills to most of the audience, the teams seemed angered up about it, disgusted that someone would actually want to pull off this type of trick.

"May I remind you that there are explosives on each of the cages, and the timers on each explosive will only stop if, and only if you shed your blood and fill up the vile," Ten added, the murmurs getting louder and the wind howled as the rain became heavier, "there are different sharp objects that are hung up by the outside of the cages, use them to cut your skin and shed your blood, but be quick, once a bomb senses presence from the outside, the timer of the bomb will start with two minutes, so better be quick."