Aquania

Alex went back to class in a fit of rage, seething in his tumultuous anger, he was in tunnel vision, stomping to the first class of the day, elemental theory, the history and the theory of using the elements.

He walked into the class only to be told by his teacher that he was late and she wouldn't tolerate it much longer.

He stopped in his tracks and stared at her dead in the eyes, she was slightly taken aback and broke off eye contact.

Alex looked at her and trailed off to the back of the class in a mood for the rest of the lesson.

Alex sat up and walked out the classroom door when the bell rang in a dreary, annoyed state of mind to the lunch hall. While in the corridor dragging his feet to the hall, Marcus came out of nowhere.

"Hey, Ale-"

"Nows not the time," Alex remarked while speeding up

"But, this is serious, were going to Aquania," Marcus said while matching Alex's speed

"What's that?" Alex asked, stopping in his tracks

"How could you not know about it, it is the capital of the underwater kingdom, where lizardmen, sea snakes and multiple different aquatic races reside," Marcus said while stopping next to Alex.

Alex wasn't surprised because of the unknown things since he hasn't even scratched the surface of what was on this strange planet, but he was surprised about the fact that he had to go on an expedition since no one had mentioned it to him before.

"How'd you know, I thought we had the same lessons," Alex asked

"Well, I wasn't knocked out last night, I was watching you guys fighting from the sidelines. While you guys were out cold, I was walking around the school grounds and eavesdropped on a couple of teachers in the lounge from behind a bush outside the building," Marcus answered.

"So what are we going to do there," Alex asked

"We're most likely going to try the Simula, which is a headset that you put on which allows you to enter this virtual hub with people of all races, and you can fight them in battle royales. The number of people in your match depends on your level, which depends on your skill level. To level up, you need to win matches. The highest level is level 100 which is when you're allowed to do a 10, 000 player battle Royale with a total of five rounds. In the first round, it is a 1000 player round, then a 2000 player round, then a 3000 player round, then a 4000 player round and to finish it off with the final, 1000 player game with the best of the best. Got it?" Marcus asked

" Got it," Alex replied.

Alex and Marcus walked to the hall where they sat down, eating the food like ravenous dogs. Once they were finished with that, they left the hall and into the courtyard.

It had a large stone fountain in the middle, marble pavements, a couple of benches and a garden encircling them. It was a magnificent sight that only seeing it, could you comprehend the true beauty of the courtyard. They sat down on one of the benches and continued talking about Aquania all the while getting weird looks from people.

Alex just brushed it off while Marcus hastily stood up and left.

He said that they would talk about it tomorrow and hurried off awkwardly while the entire courtyards eyes were on Alex. Alex got up to leave too until he felt a hand grabbing his shoulder.

***

The "leftovers" as Mr Davies calls them, were wading through the sickly green, ankle-deep swamp water.

The brown-haired kid was holding the snake from earlier's lifeless, burnt husk of a corpse meanwhile the grey-haired boy was lugging a half-eaten lizard over his shoulder with a few spears jutting out of its mouth for safekeeping.

They continued through the dark, humid, sticky and wet swamp, killing countless monsters. They toiled through that for a few days until they reached a river stream.

They sat down and drank the freshwater gratefully while relaxing.

After they had finished taking their break, they sat up and walked down the stream, following it until it wasn't a swamp anymore, rather, it was a normal forest with dry soil and grass. They continued following the stream until they reached the end, the stream went off a cliff and into a waterfall.

The body of water which the stream goes to was rather odd, at specific intervals, little rods would jut out of the water and we're gone as soon as they appeared.

They got a little suspicious and walked around the waterfall, down a mountain to get to the same level as the water. It wasn't an optical illusion, things were sticking out the water in an odd pattern.

They walked closer and ankle-deep into the water but fully armoured sharkmen leapt out of the water armed with what seemed to be guns?!