Game of DIcE

The Return of the Bullies II

She hated how useless she was in this kind of scene unfolding before her. She wanted to stand up, force herself and help, but she felt helpless. Her ankle was swelling and so her wound too, and even if she forced herself, trying to test the water when she once tried to stand up, she was immediately been chided by Shone from afar while busy fighting with her bullies to do not try to stand up and remain to be there. But she still contended, but only to be shut from Xion who straightforwardly told her that she would just become more pain in the neck.

She was struck and hurt a little but she chose to look on the wider side which she acknowledged that Xion was indeed right. If she would go there in that state, she would just burden them knowing that they would protect them since she was the target to be killed in the first place. Just by watching them fight on the side, the two were trying their best not to have any of the bullies go past them and go straight to her with their weapons ready to stab her to death.

They were having a hard time, of course, it was three to one, and one on one. Xion against Sho who was the most experienced in fighting and the one with a pretty good body, while Shone was against the other three who were also as good as Sho combined, or even stronger seeing that he was kind of struggling on fighting them and were receiving much more blows that Xion.

"Ah!" Shone exclaimed in pain when a whip hit his back, his knee fell on the ground the dagger he was holding thrown out of his reach.

"Well, one down?" The man using the whip said, concluding so early with a smug smirk as he walked and picked the dagger up. "I think we'll get minus three opponent tonight."

Shone gritted his teeth, the whip seemed to have small thorns attached around it, he felt like he was acupunctured with an unprofessional acupuncturist who hated his job and so vent it out to his patients. The holes caused by the thorns were shallow but still enough to bleed and hurt him to cry out another loud agonizing scream of pain when the whip hit his back again.

"Shone!" Riley exclaimed, feeling so helpless and frustrated that she couldn't do anything. She tried to stand up and slid down the berdock's back through his wings, but was shocked when Berd forbid her from sliding down instead lifted his wings which made her stumble back on his back. She frowned and crawled at the back of his head, next to his face, and said desperately, "Berd, I need to save my friends."

She stopped, friends, that word somehow rolled over her tongue naturally, and it felt wonderful—to call someone as friends. She looked at the two, those two who were fighting for her, to save her. They were risking their lives just to make her safe. She wondered how these people were easily defending her without any hesitation when they could just shun her away and give her to them so they wouldn't be this bothered, suffering from the mess they shouldn't be experiencing in the first place.

She hated herself for being helpless and useless, for being a burden and trouble-bearer.

Her deep and miserable thoughts were cut by the sudden surge of wind and the movement of the berdock. Her grip on the bird's feather tightened, when she looked at the side to see his head, its usual brown eyes turned into bright gold, like those of with the Ssiss, and she certainly had no idea what that means. She doesn't know if she would be scared at that or not.

The berdock was swinging his wings stronger than how he usually does whenever they fly. At this time, he was just moving his wings, his position was almost vertical, the sound of his wings and the wind was only Riley could hear and she couldn't also open her eyes because of the strong air he was producing.

The men at the side where the strong current of air was darted stopped from their feud closed their eyes and covered with their arms, the air was mixed with dust and they were afraid. The cold wind took off the bonfire that Shone lit up earlier, leaving them with complete darkness with only the light from the moon providing fairly enough light. Shone used the opportunity to disentangle himself from the whip that was still buried on his back, he took another dagger in the pocket of his jacket uniform, and with a slight gap in his eyes, he threw it to the guy who was still holding the whip tightly. The guy hissed and fell down, loosened his grip from the whip which had him the opportunity to escape.

Shone crawled to the side, picking up his dagger on the way and flee from the air that was getting stronger with every minute passing by. He also saw Xion doing the same on the other side. They both looked at the berdock's side, they saw Riley rubbing the bird's head, then after a while, the berdock calmed down and eventually came back to its original position which was sitting with its feet tucked under its body.

There was a deafening silence for a while, the sudden loss of the loud noise from the wings and the wind and the usual silence of the night in the fifth division was back. However, that. was only for a short while as the ear-piercing scream of Sho, followed by the gasps and curses of the other three, echoed in the vicinity. They were holding their eyes, stumbling down the floor, crying out loud, cursing, and freaking out.

"I-I can't see! It's dark! Where am I!? Get me out of here!" The other man shouted, "Sho! Where are you!?"

"I-I can't see either..." The called man uttered, basically crawling on the floor, "Loser! What have you and that, curse that bird, to me!? I swear, I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Riley looked at the four stumbling men with wide eyes, she didn't expect this, didn't even cross her mind. All she thinks was the bird was only making a way for the dight to stop, a distraction to escape, and all she thought this bird only was meant to fly and send them to their destination, she never had the idea that this berdock that she now considered as her own possessed this power of blinding people with his wings and the air is produced, but she certainly wondered how come the two who were with the four, didn't get affected as much?

The four vanished into the woods, still crying, do not know where to go and what path they were taking. They were blind, caused by their blind perception of how the game should go. It was just karma getting back to them. They would realize that they should have thought of their action well—but it's already too late.

"You're both okay, right? You can still see me?" She asked worriedly, waving her hand in front of Xion then to Shone when they went back to her side. "You're not affected, right? You're good?"

"We wouldn't be able to walk until here if we're blind, i***t," Xion answered casually, taking something on his bag and threw it to Shone. "Drink it."

Riley scoffed at how Xion addressed her, this guy really does not even have a touch of subtlety or couldn't even take a joke, he was always straightforward, and talking to him would make you realize that you are stupid, just like how Riley was feeling today because it was true, they wouldn't reach her side if they were blind.

"What's this? This looks awful!" Shone commented with a disgusted face, he was holding the thing that Sean tossed to him—it was a small glass bottle with a cork as its lid, the color of the liquid inside was green, and looked sticky, just by looking at it was enough for Riley to name it as 'vomit-inducing potion'.

"I made it inside my level yesterday, I became a student inside, and the teachers were witches who have long noses, sharper eyes, lengthy teeth, and of course the broom. As soon as we were sent inside, we were made to sit, not allowed to talk nor to speak, and was forced to absorb anything that the witches say, those were about potions, it goes on for hours until they showed a list of potions of what would we do. And one of those was a healing potion."

"You did this without anyone's help? What if this doesn't work instead you made a poison? What should we do?" Riley dubiously asked, staring at the green liquid. Shone nodded, also curious about the answer to Riley's question.

But once again, Xion looked at her like she asked the stupidest question there was. He huffed, causing his hair on his forehead to flew a bit, and moved to the side. "I admit making a poison is far easier than a healing potion."

"Bro!" Shone reacted, tossing back the potion to him.

Xion clicked his tongue, "Once again, I wouldn't be here in the first place if I didn't make the right potions. Can you at least use your minds? How did you even passed the mind levels and question a simple, obvious scenario?"

"Woah, chill out! We're sorry!" Shone chuckled, raising his hands as if surrendering, "Let us see if that's pretty effective."

Xion tossed the bottle back to him. He glanced at Riley, he raised his brow at her when he found her forehead creasing while looking at the potion that he made. He crossed his arms and asked, "Don't tell me you're still doubtful?"

Riley met his eyes, but then she shook her head, "No, I was just wondering..." She truthfully said, then her gaze became deeper, "You already have it earlier, I have a worse wound than Shone, it's just... Do you have a plan on giving me some? I mean-"

"Stupid."

Riley blinked, and so Shone too. They didn't expect that answer, or more like an insult from him, Riley furrowed her brows and pointed herself, "S-stupid? Me?"

The stoic man plopped down beside the berdock and fumbled on his bag, searching for food, "Is it my fault that you slept from the morning until we were occupied by your bullies? Stupid."

"You're too much! I'm not stupid!" Riley argued her brows near on connecting as one. She might be called a loser most of the time but she was not stupid, everyone knows she's intelligent, she always topped the exams, so now that she heard a name that she knew was not true, she couldn't help but sulk, "If I know you're not that smart too."

"I'm not gonna dive into your childish arguments." Xion shut her up, munching to a boiled potato he found in his bag, "Drink a droplet of the potion, Shone, and give that stupid woman two drops so she would shut up."

Riley settled herself with throwing dagger looks at the man and just huffed. She looked at Shone who opened the healing potion, putting it across his mouth, and slowly gulped a drop, he then passed it to Riley who did the same thing but she consumed two drops as instructed.

It was fascinating, to say the least, her eyes widening as she saw her long deep cut getting smaller, like an open zipper slowly closing until fully covered with tissue and her skin back again like there had never been a wound there. She also felt her shallow wounds healing, however, she was feeling sleepy again.

"You'll heal but it's taking up your energy so its side effect is drowsiness." She heard Xion explained, but her eyes were starting to get blurry, and fell back down on the bird's back.

She managed to blink back her sleepiness for a moment, she came eye to eye to the information on the barrier, she managed to see the names of the people who were currently dying at this very hour, and she found the names of Sho and his friends.

"They're dead."