Second Match

At dawn, Alex and his team headed out to the location where the decision for the site of the second match would be made.

Unaware of the previous night's visit, Alex and the others arrived at the location.

It was decided that the location of the second match would be revealed at the entrance to Scar tribe's camp.

Upon arrival, they could see the nominees, including Snow, and the elders, but Scar hadn't arrived yet, leading Alex to question if something had happened.

"Where's Scar? Hasn't he woken up yet or something?" Alex asked.

Stepping forward, Anibal said, "Regarding that, Chief Scar isn't feeling well, so until he arrives, the elders and I will represent him. He has given us authority to proceed with the second match of this competition, and the location we've chosen is here." Anibal said, pointing to a large map.

Just like Alex, Scar had also made maps with markings of the surrounding areas. With this, Alex could see that the location Anibal pointed out was to the east of where they were now.

Not knowing what might be there, Alex could only agree, but he found something curious: on the map were some markings – a skull to the west, an eye to the north, teeth to the south, claws to the east, and a red hand in the center.

By Alex's deduction, each mark represented a guardian, and the hand represented Scar, but he didn't know which was which.

"Do these marks represent the guardians, like Scar?" Alex asked.

In response to his question, the elder on the right stepped forward to explain Alex's misunderstanding.

"No, the guardians are not the focus of this map. Some guardians don't even stay in the same place all the time. This map indicates places one should not go." said the elder on the right.

"But we're also going east, isn't that marked there too?" Alex asked.

"Of course, but we won't go near there. We're heading to a safer location, so there's nothing to worry about. Of course, you could give up and start the third match right away and end this competition once and for all." replied the elder on the right.

Laughing, Alex responded with humor, "Don't worry, I'll treat him well, after I win." said Alex as he put his hand on the elder's right shoulder.

Irritated, the elder removed Alex's hand from his shoulder. "Enough talk, let's get this started!"

With that, all the participants of each tribe's second match moved to their positions, and when the signal was given to begin, the match started.

Beside Alex were Max, Jason, Luke, Milie, Helio, and Dilan.

"You six will be representing us, just do what we planned." said Alex.

"Yes, boss," said all the participants.

...

Next to Scar's tribe were the nominees Jack, Qin, Quiteria, along with seven more Australopithecus from Scar's tribe.

With this, Alex's group had less advantage since they were four people short.

However, Alex showed no signs of concern whatsoever.

Some from Scar's group even laughed mockingly, already considering this match won.

After everyone was in their proper places, a fire was lit, and when it was extinguished, the smoke signal to signify the start of the second match was given for all to see.