Chapter 51

51 Ambush

I gripped my wand tightly, my body shaking. I couldn’t move, even if I wanted to. Mari was next to me, her hand gripping mine tightly. “It’ll be okay,” she whispered in my ear and then we heard footsteps. The sound made my heart stop and I couldn’t breathe for fear of what would happen next. The noise got louder as the other people started getting closer and finally, they stopped where we were hiding in this abandoned cave.

Silence froze us all for a minute or two and it felt like an eternity before someone said anything else.”

“Is anyone there?” someone called out from outside of the cave’s entranceway, their voice echoing against the rocks that surrounded us on all sides.

Suddenly, a group of men with curly hair showed up and we got our wands ready to fight. “Hey, we found someone!” one of them shouted.

“Take them down!” Tisiah shouted.

We charged towards them, as their faces widened at the speed we chased in. Mari thrusted her leg, knocking the person she was standing next to out of the way, and we all rushed in. I didn’t have a wand, but I tried my best to use my fists to replace the wand. Seeing the man ahead of me distracted from the fight, I quickly swung my fist at his face. He ducked and dodged my punch, but I managed to hit him in the chest and knock him backwards. He got back onto his feet, clearly specifying I didn’t do much damage to him.

Without any sort of warning, he swung at me, and I easily dodged it with a side step. As soon as I did so he threw another punch at me, that I dodged. Barely this time though. I knew going for the face was not a good idea, so I needed to go for the stomach. I quickly gave a blow to his stomach, and he groaned in pain as he fell down to his knees. He was definitely in pain, but it wouldn’t last long.

“Get him!” Tisiah shouted, and everyone went for him all at once, beating him down as I watched from behind them.

He was still struggling when the others started to stab him with their wands and beat him until they were sure he wouldn’t be getting up again.

.....

We all turned around at the sound of footsteps.

Mari and Nikki were running towards us, carrying more wands!

“Nice work!” Tisiah said as they all entered the cave. “They should be out by now.”

“What do they do to the people who are knocked out?” I asked. Tisiah chuckled, as the ground opened from under the guy and brought him down.

“Okay,” I said, getting my answer.

But then, more footsteps began to echo near us and that only meant more trouble. “Okay more people are coming,” Mari said, holding her wand close to her chest and looking out at the forest as the footsteps got louder.

“How many of them are coming?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Mari said nervously. “Probably a lot.”

The footsteps got even louder and everyone inside the cave had their wands out and ready for whatever they were about to come across. “Hey, can I get some?!” I shouted to Mari, who quickly tossed me a wand from her side, giving me some more confidence and strength in me as she did so. “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll take over.” She smiled at me as she got up and stood in front of the entrance of the cave as the footsteps grew closer and closer.

Mari stood there proudly with her wand out in front of her, trying to hold her ground. The footsteps began growing louder and louder until they stopped abruptly.

“You guys better be here somewhere,” a deep voice said from outside the cave.

I gulped when I heard it. I wasn’t sure what to do now; should I run or stay here? “Who’s there?” Tisiah asked from behind me. Suddenly, we saw a whole team, of probably 20 people appearing in front of us. The leader was wearing a black jacket, and he had his arms crossed on his chest as he looked us over slowly, scrutinizing us with his eyes. “I thought you guys left!” he said after a few moments of silence. He laughed, and then turned to his team. “We don’t need them anymore.”

“Need us for what?” I asked.

“While you guys were in here, we continued to make teams to lead them towards you, slowly taking out all the people in the battle royale,” he said. “Clearly we’ve now met with our grinder, so there’s no more point in us staying here anymore.”

“Huh?” I said as I put my hands on my head. I turned around and looked at my other teammates for some help but no one would meet my eyes as if they knew what they were going to do next.

But all of a sudden, more footsteps came from the left, revealing another group led by a girl who was wearing a green jacket and had curly blonde hair. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw me and then she turned to her group and spoke softly into her ear, “They’re here!” she whispered. “They’re here!” she repeated louder than before as the whole team began rushing towards us!

“Oh, no,” Matt muttered. “Run!”

Immediately we booked it our of there, as they began to chase us with rage bellowing from their voices. “They’re fast!” I said, and it felt like we were running at top speed as we tried to avoid their stabbing wands which they used to try and kill us! We ran and ran as they followed us up the hill, trying to get to us. But as we made it out of the forest and onto the grassy plain of the WAC contest, the path for them got smaller and smaller, to where they had to squeeze into a single line.

“Use your wand!” Matt shouted to Mari, but she quickly shook her head.

“Not yet!” she replied.

“Okay,” Tisiah said as he gave her a small smile. She nodded and then threw her wand at one of the people in the line who was about to come at us from behind. She hit him on the shoulder and he stumbled back a little bit before he stood back up, rubbing his head.

“Okay, we need to split up and flank!” Tisiah shouted, and he ran towards the group in front of us while Nikki and Mari went the other way.

“Take them down!”

As we ran away from them, I was scared we weren’t going to make it back in time to where our wands were waiting for us! It was like we were all being chased by a pack of hungry wolves! Fear rushed through my brain, and I felt like I was going to die. I was so scared I couldn’t even think straight. My legs were shaking violently, and I couldn’t focus on anything else except the fact that I was terrified for my life.

I was so afraid I didn’t even notice the grass beneath my feet as I kept running. Quickly, we found ourselves seeing the end of the wall, where we were gonna be trapped. There was no way out now. We were cornered.

We were all going to die.

“Hah, no way to go now!” the man shouted, laughing. His team was surrounding us.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even think. I was frozen in place. All I could do was look at the ground beneath my feet as the world seemed to spin around me. I felt like I was dying right there in that moment. They haven’t even charged at us yet! Then, to make things worse, I saw Malachi emerge from that group, with a smirk on his face.

“Let me make the first hit,” he said with a sinister voice, and I could see his wand in hand.

He raised it above his head and pointed it at me, and I could feel the fear rush through me as I heard the words of death coming from him.

“I’m going to make you pay for everything you’ve thought about me!” he said with a laugh.

Then, he fired his wand at me and I felt it hit my chest. The power felt so intense that I felt like I was actually gonna die. Once I landed, I rolled on the ground, clutching my chest with tears streaming down my face. The pain was too much to bear. It was excruciating.

“Ahh!” I screamed out in agony, as I tried to get back up onto my feet but I couldn’t. I was too weak to stand, and I just laid there on the ground with my eyes closed, unable to actually move.