The Wish Game

My Fight

I came out of the room after my eyes adjusted to the bright light. I was standing at the footsteps of a cliff and as soon as I turned back the door disappeared. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was in the southern part of the field.

‘I must get to an advantageous position before it’s too late.’ I thought and began to move through the narrow path. It was extremely vulnerable to ambushes but I was hoping that everyone would be trying to escape this part.

But as it almost looked like I escaped the hellish part, the path became wider and ascended to join two hills; rocks came rolling towards me. “Whoa…!!!” I screamed as I ran backward out of instinct.

“Oh crap! I played right into their hands…” I cursed myself as I sprinted into the narrowed path, the bolder getting closer and closer. I ran faster and faster, going forward seemed the only way out when suddenly, “Huh…Oops!!!” I tripped over the edge and fell down the cliff.

“Did she really fall off?” Asked a boy’s voice. “Yes, I saw it myself. She was down…” A girly voice answered the question. “She’d be okay right?” Asked another boy to whom the first one answered, “It’ll be better if not. But I am pretty sure she’s dead by now, even if she’s alive they’ll need a week before they find her in her pathetic state.”

The girl said timidly, “But we weren’t supposed to kill anyone.” The first one replied, “We can’t kill anyone using our weapons but they sure can die from accidents. Plus, we have one less competitor as well.”

They all laughed, but unbeknownst to them I was alive and hiding in a cavity just below them – overhearing every single word they spoke. The conversation sparked unforeseen hatred in me and I thought, ‘Then let’s remove three competitors.’

I began casting a spell – the smokescreen spell that I learned before my escape attempt. ‘Poof~!!!’ The entire atmosphere became filled with haze and I jumped into action. Climbing up to the path I was greeted by the trio who had counter-measures in place.

“So you did survive… Now I see why you’re the most deserving candidate. But not today.” A boy with the first one's voice said and charged on me. I pulled out my daggers and defended against spear attack before slashing the guy’s shoulder and snatching the spear.

The rest two seemed wizards – one had a magic staff while the other had an elemental spellbook. They were casting their spells when I threw my daggers on them. The daggers hit their weapons and disarmed them.

Before anyone could do anything, I stabbed the leader with his spear right below his heart. I pushed the spear on and on until it hit the rock leaving him standing on the support of the impaled spear. “I’ll give you a suggestion, don’t move,” I said as he began to struggle against the spear.

“Now for you two.” I ran towards the other two teammates who were running away leaving their weapons aside. Pinning them down on the path, I stabbed their palms with four of my spare knives, “You weren’t involved that much in the attempt, so I’ll let you go easy. Stay down here till the competition ends.”

“As for you, what’d you say? You can kill me if in an accident. So what’ll you do now? Keep standing here and exhaust your legs or remove this spear and die due to blood loss?” I said to the leader as I picked the spellbook and staff. I wanted to throw them off the cliff as these were of no use to me but…

“I think I’ll find some other use of this.” I put the staff and the book in my small utility pouch and went on. I came out of the cliff and went towards the north where the forest will be. ‘Now I see why she trained me on my instincts, strategies, and all that. She knew I’ll be targeted and enhanced my survivability first.’

“So this is what the Wish Game is like. I’ll have to kill in order to survive and fight the next bout.” I murmured to myself as I continued moving forward alarmed and alert for any traps or ambushes. I kept walking for a long time, engaging and defeating three enemies in an ambush and seizing their weapons.

The forest land began to start and I noticed vegetation increase. A sound caught my attention and I ran towards it finally sighing in relief as I saw the source, “A River!!!” I sat down by the bank and thought about the events so far.

After drinking water, I pulled out the snatched weapons from the utility pouch. Out came, a bow, an elemental spellbook, a magic staff, a sword, a battle-staff, and a few dozen arrows. “How can I use them?” I was neither an archer nor an elemental wizard, so using bow and arrow and the spellbook was out of the question.

Bow and arrow must be used in some other way, while the spellbook was quite heavy and would be perfect for close-quarters distraction. Suddenly, the bushes in front of me crackled. Alarmed, I pulled an arrow on the bow and aimed towards the bush.

I was not at all skilled in the bow but hoped that the person facing me won’t know that. I kept my silence waited for the enemy to come but he never did. I sighed and pulled back the bow but a thought suddenly came to my mind, “What if it was a scout?”

I saw the competitors’ team up before and as the available competitors showed in the sky, the number of remaining participants was 60. Less than half of what had started and six had fallen at my hands.

I packed up everything as soon as I could and left the area. It was beginning to get dark and stealth was easier for both of us. I stayed low and tried to get as much cover as possible.

After walking for some time, the forest terrain finally began to start. But it was far better than I expected, the trees were very tall and provided a great vantage point. Moreover, they were very close to each other making travel easy.

“All right. Let’s go…” I said to myself and climbed a tree to the highest strong branch. I looked here and there in order to find anything that suggested any ambush nearby. After a few minutes of spotting, I found a hilly area a little west of my position.

“That could be a better place. Plus…” I said to myself as I looked down towards the ground, “It seems that no one would find out about me any soon in this situation.” Jumping from tree to tree, I began moving towards the hill.

Upon reaching there, I again looked around and confirmed that no one was around. I came down from the tree after confirming to look around the ground as well. But as soon as I came on the ground, an arrow brushed past my cheek. I reached out for the spot and found it bleeding.

“From where?” I looked here and there but found no one around. But arrows continued coming, one after other and despite my best efforts at dodging, I was unable to avoid them or detect the archer.

The arrows continued to come from different directions and out of instinct, I immediately climbed another tree. Archers can hit me above but now I had a wider view and can spot at least anything. “She’s on this tree hurry up and burn it.” A voice came from below.

“Such an elaborate trap. The creator of this ambush must be a heck of tactician.” I said to myself but still was unable to spot any of the main attackers. What came next was a complete shock to me. Six fireballs came flying from a distance homing right towards me.

“WHAAAAA!!!!” I screamed as I almost jumped from the height but a voice stopped me. “Ice Restrains!” I was slammed against the tree trunk with an ice block pushing against my torso. It was really cold and my clothes weren’t really suited for that.

I saw a guy jump from another tree and remove his hood. He had a typical wizard-like load out. “What…” I said, my voice was already shivering due to cold. He came close to me and held my chin, “Shhh…Don’t worry, see those gifts. They’ll thaw the ice and the ice will make sure that they’ll not kill you, just incapacitate you.”

I wasn’t able to respond well as the ice was making my body feel quite numb. But he continued, “Are you numb? Can’t react? Don’t worry; I had made sure that you won’t die. After all, after I win the game I’ll marry you.” My body temperature kept falling and due to having no magic proficiency I couldn’t get out.

“Goodbye, sweetie!!!” I gave a tap on my cheek as the fireballs came closer and the ice covered the remaining part of my body. I couldn’t do anything but watch as the fireballs came nearer and nearer and hit the tree I was bound to.

With a grand explosion, the area was covered in fire and the trees broke down. I regained partial control on the ground and tried to move but a sudden pain in my body stopped me in my tracks. “Aah!!!” I cried, the pain was getting way worse as the remaining ice melted.

I pulled my arm and could see the bruises on it caused by the attack. “It’s broken?” I whispered to myself as it felt some solid mass move inside the arms as I pulled them closer. “My legs?” I tried to move them but…

I couldn’t feel them at all. The ice wizard came back, this time carrying an umbrella. “So, you’re still awake? You must have got a greater pain threshold than I expected. I thought that fall would knock you unconscious with those injuries. Though you’re no good now and almost out of…”

He stopped abruptly realizing that I stabbed him in both his calves. “You were saying…something?” He knelt down as I dragged myself to a nearby tree and emptied my utility pouch in front of me. “Yes, I am out of this competition, but not yet.”

I took the elemental spellbook and opened it, albeit painfully. It was an Earth elemental spellbook. ‘I can’t use magic directly but reading the spells directly off a spellbook is worth a shot. I must be able to use some intermediary level spells. I must…’ I thought as I turned the pages and looked at the spells written on them.

“All right, then…” I began chanting an interesting spell from the book. A few minutes later, there were eight monsters made out of rocks. It was labeled as ‘Earth-based creation magic – monster mania. The eight of them each took one of the weapons available.

My daggers, bow and arrows, spear, battle-staff, magic-staff, sword, and the earth elemental spellbook. The eighth one went to the ice wizard and took his magic staff. The eight assembled around me and I gave a generic command, “Keep everyone away from here.”

My vision became more blurry as I continued, “If that one tries to contact his buddies,” I pointed towards the ice wizard, “Throw him down the cliff after knocking him out.” The monsters spread out and one of them lifted me and gently placed me on the top of the hill under a tree.

My last bit of strength drained as I whimpered in pain and saw them take battle formations and stances.