Fight or Flight (8)

With Elliott's injury, it seemed that they had lost the chance to chase after the opponent that had released the arrow just now. While running away from the sniper, Lucas had directed Elliott away from the landing place of the arrow and headed in the northern direction instead, which was in the direction of the enemies' flag mast.

Currently, Elliott was still directing his spiritual energy towards his broken arm. However, without any surgical tools or stem cell serums, there was nothing he could do that can heal the injury. Unfortunately, neithr Elliott nor Lucas had any healing esper abilities.

"So, why did we run towards this direction? Isn't it even more dangerous to run towards the vicinity of the other's home base?" Elliott asked in a low voice. The pain from his arm had prevented him from speaking normally.

"Mhm. I feel it's actually safer to run towards the direction of the opponent's flag pole. From the jamming signal to the sniper finding our location quickly, we can assume that our opponents will take an active role in hunting us down. Therefore, they would likely head towards our side of the arena from the beginning of the match, leaving their own side unguarded. Of course, since the flag itself is on their own body, they had no reason to guard their own flag mast, just like our situation. Therefore, the safest place right now is actually here." Lucas explained.

Elliott simply nodded in acknowledgement.

"We should head towards the randezvous point as quickly as possible. I have an inkling that if we don't meet up and think of a plan of counterattack now, we would not be able to gain the upper hand of this game anymore." Lucas said in a solemn tone. He seemed to look a little nervous, which was quite rare for him. It seemed like the attack just now and Elliott's injury had completely shocked Lucas to the core.

Elliott stood up while massaging his broken arm. Although he did not feel as much pain now, it still affected him physically. He nodded at Lucas and said in a deep tone, "Let's go."

*

Arnold ran towards the randezvous point as quickly as possible. He wanted to make use of Commander Lewis' hint as soon as possible. When the commander insinuated that there was a jamming device located at the center of the arena, he instantly knew that he needed to stop it. The current advantage that he had was the misconception Dominic had that Lewis had already destroyed the signal jammer and their team could re-communicate with each other again.

However, if Dominic were to meet with the others from his own team back at the location of the jamming device, he would instantly know that what Lewis had said was a hoax and return back to hunting him and his teammates down. Therefore, he needed to get to the center of the arena before Dominic.

Luckily, while heading towards the center of the arena, he would pass by the randezvous point that Lucas had pointed out in case that their signals were really jammed. If he were to meet up with the others swiftly and continue heading towards the jamming device without any delay, they might be able to overtake Dominic and destroy the device before he could say anything. Of course, that would be based on the assumption that some of the teammates of Arnold had already arrived at the randezvous point and is already waiting for the others. If Arnold did not find anyone at the designated meeting place, he would need to debate on whether or not to continue with his plan to destroy the signals jammer.

There was also another problem. Initially, before Dominic had attacked him, Arnold was quite sure that he had put quite the distance between them. However, Dominic was still able to camp at a nearby building and ambush him while he was jumping, meaning that he either had inhuman speeds or something had caused him to instantly arrive before Arnold from afar.

Although the latter reason was quite unlikely, the former reason also would not help in this situation. Furthermore, from the deduction of Commander Lewis just now, Arnold knew that Dominic's esper power should be related to sound waves, not speed. Therefore, if he really had used inhuman speeds to arrive before him, it would be with the help of some other teammate. This would cause quite a headache if that teammate were to use speed to his or her advantage again.

*

In order to make it easy for their teammates to memorize the location of the rendezvous point from the map, Elliott and Lucas ensured that the place they had chosen would not only have a convenient location, it must also be a distinct landmark that would be easy to recognize. After all, they could not expect all of their team members to somehow get photographic memory and memorize the entire map of the arena. Therefore, they have designated the meeting point to be on a small hill.

This hill was one of many around the region, so it was in fact quite inconspicuous at first glance. However, the difference between this mound and the next was the fact that at the top of the hill was what looked like a house you would normally see in the suburban areas around a city. The house itself, in order to suit the theme of the arena, was quite run-down, just like the buildings that surrounded it. However, due to the elevation from the hill, the house could actually serve as a vantage point for the team, making it a great place to camp and wait while taking a defensive position. Of course, the prerequisite would be the fact that the opponent's team members will not occupy this house before them.

When Arnold arrived near the vicinity of the house, he did not find any clues that anyone had ever approached this area. This made his heart sank. He thought that if someone had come, they would at least have set up a signal at the bottom of the hill to say it's safe.

After Arnold scouted around the hill and took a look inside the house and saw that there were really nobody within the surrounding areas, he went back outside the house and stood before one of the wooden beams that still held the porch of the house upright. Then, using his military knife, Arnold made two slashes across the wood, one horizontal, one vertical. This was the signal that should be made to the first person who arrived. It signifies that one of them had been here, so even if they had to leave the house for some reason, their allies would still know that their teammate would come back after awhile.

With the signal made on the wood, Arnold headed into the house and sat on the ground, leaning his upper body against the facade of the house. He sat right next to the window of the house that was facing towards the east. The same direction that the front door was facing. This was so Arnold could peek out the window whenever he could to observe his surroundings for his enemies and allies alike.

Fortunately, Arnold did not actually have to wait for long from within the house. After taking a rest for a short moment, he had already found that two people were heading towards the direction of the hill from the north. As Andy used his right eye to zoom in onto the two people that were approaching from far away, Arnold realized that it was his two teammates that he had not seen since the beginning of the match.

Arnold simply sat next to the entrance and waited for his two teammates to arrive at the house. Since, both of them were using spiritual energy to move, they arrived in no time. When Elliott and Lucas saw the mark that was made on the wooden beam, they heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that they would be safer now that another teammate is by their side. When they entered through the front door, they found Arnold already waiting in front of them by the hallway of the house.

Elliott, whose arm was still hanging in a limp fashion, frowned when he saw that Arnold was alone. "Where's Darius?" He asked in a solemn tone. He knew that since Darius was not here, there was a high chance that he did not make it.

Confirming Elliott's suspicions, Arnold shook his head. "I'm sorry. We were attacked by two peopple from the opposite team. One of them is confirmed to be Dominic, while the other seemed to be Jonah."

Lucas' face also turned ugly. With the loss of a member from their team, they were now at a even higher disadvantage. However, it seemed that there were more bad news to come.

"When we realized that our enemies were approaching, we immediately went to find Nick. However, when we arrived at the place where Nick was hiding, we couldn't find him at all. It's as if he had just vanished." Arnold continued to explain the situation, causing his team members to become grim.