Start Of The Final Round

"How are you feeling?" Delilah asked.

"I'm calm", Malakai replied.

Calm can mean good/alright in UK slang. Malakai has used that word a lot around Delilah, so she understood what he meant when he said that.

"Is your head hurting?"

"Nah, not anymore. I laid down a bit during the last round, and it worked".

"You slept on the floor during the round?" Delilah asked, looking at him.

"I didn't sleep. I just laid down", Malakai corrected her. "This was after Destiny came here. No one else came, so I was good".

Delilah smirked, "David told me you shot her shot her so quickly. You barely gave her a chance".

"You should've heard him. He threatened to shoot her again in the same place", David joined in.

"Really?" Delilah said, looking at Malakai surprised. "You didn't even threaten Dillon like that".

Malakai kept quiet.

"How he said it, too, was so dark. He sounded evil", David added, laughing a little between words.

"What did he say?" Delilah curiously asked.

"Haha", David laughed. "Move, or I will shoot you in the same place, and this time, I'll make sure the bullet goes through your skin and into your stomach", he continued, doing his best Malakai's impression.

Delilah started laughing after hearing David's impression of Malakai. The saying was also funny to her. Hearing it without the correct atmosphere made it sound nerdy and wannabe edgy. It was cringe.

Malakai was cringing after hearing that. He remembered himself saying that. When it happened, it didn't sound cringe, but looking back at it, he found it cringy. He didn't know why he said that. He was locked in when it happened. He didn't say it to try and sound cool. It just rolled off his tongue naturally, which was kinda worrying for Malakai because who thinks of and says cringy dialogues in certain moments so naturally? This was a sign that Malakai watched too much anime.

"Aryt. Aryt. It ain't that funny. At the time, it sounded cold", Malakai said, wanting to stop Delilah and David's laughter and defending himself.

The rest of the class was doing their own thing. Some were listening to what was happening while the rest were talking amongst themselves. Their moods had gotten a little better from the last round. They hadn't forgotten what Malakai did, but they couldn't be sour about it forever. And after hearing that he nearly got taken out of the challenge, they had a little sympathy for him, even though the reason he nearly got taken out was his own doing. He was their representative, after all. They had no choice but to support him despite some not wanting to.

"We've got seventeen plastic balls. That should be a lot of points, innit", Malakai said, changing the subject.

"It should be, but at the same time, it might not be a lot", Delilah replied. "The points inside might be low numbers. Like all of them could have twenty or less".

"But we might have the ball that has five hundred points", Malakai said, planting that possibility in her head.

"I wish", Delilah replied, not believing they did. "You did say we're going to win, so I'm expecting no less".

"Yeah man, don't worry", Malakai said, leaning back in his chair and smiling like he usually does.

Malakai was smiling, but on the inside, he was feeling a little nervous. This was the first challenge where something was expected of him. In the first four challenges, he had fun and somehow succeeded in all of them and ended up in first place. He was having fun in this challenge, but the thought of performing weighed more into his mind than the previous challenges. He couldn't have fun and win in this challenge. Or maybe he could if he wasn't thinking about winning as much. On top of that he made it worse by saying they would win. He added unnecessary pressure to himself. He was confident he could pull through, but the doubt was lurking in the back of his mind. It was all his fault, so he couldn't complain. His mind still thought about the shots he missed at Ryan. He wouldn't be feeling this pressure if he had just landed one. He sacrificed points for the class to hurt Ryan, and he didn't even hurt him. He had to make back what he lost for the class. That was the pressure. Plus, he didn't want to take an L before the winter break.

Screech!

"The fifth and final will start soon".

It was time for the final round.

"Here are the rules for this round. Both students will be allowed out of their safe zones, and all safe zones will be disabled. So you can go into any safe zone you want, and you will not be punished".

That was what everyone was expecting.

"It doesn't stop there, there's more. In the last round, a lot of students struggled to get plastic balls, as nearly all of the rooms had been searched. You've probably noticed that this break was longer than the other breaks you've had. That is because more plastic balls have been placed around the building. The plastic balls were easy to hide, thanks to the mess you've made in the rooms already. Therefore, the rooms are untouched, so you will not be able to figure out which room has a plastic ball and which one doesn't. All of you have an equal chance to find multiple plastic balls. I will remind you that no punching is allowed if you encounter another player. Pushing and shoving is allowed to an extent. I know some of you will want to defend your safe zones, and that is fine. But you cannot assault each other doing so. Finally, this round is thirty minutes long. This is the final round. This is the last chance to get as many points as you can. The round will start shortly".

The speaker turned off.

Malakai and Delilah looked at each other.

"What's the plan?" Malakai asked.

"You're asking me?" Delilah asked back, confused.

"I mean, I don't really know what to do, I can't lie", Malakai replied. "Should I stay and defend our safe zone or run around and get more plastic balls?".

Delilah thought about it for a second.

"That's a good question", she said, touching her chin. "I don't want our safe zone to be vulnerable, but I want to get a lot of points. Having you stay here will protect our points, but we miss out on a lot of points. They've added more balls, too. You could probably find like five or more".

Malakai got up from his seat.

"Play it safe or risky", he said. He knew what he wanted to do. "David, what you saying?"

"Hmm, I don't know", David replied. "This is up to you guys. I don't like the idea of our safe zone getting robbed".

"Me, too", Delilah replied. "Isn't there a way to monitor our safe zone?"

"Nope", Malakai replied, shaking his head and looking at Delilah. "Actually, wait", he had an idea after looking at her. "Why don't one of us take off our camera vest and leave it here. Then, if someone comes in, David can tell us".

Delilah looked down at her camera vest. "Can we do that?" she asked, sceptical if that was allowed.

"I don't know. Can we?" Malakai asked, looking at the camera in the corner of the room to get an answer.

Screech!

"No, that is not allowed", Mr White informed them.

The speaker turned off.

"Damn, that was quick", Malakai said, he thought he had found a loophole. "It's either risk it or play it safe".

Delilah stood still, looking at the floor and contemplating what to do.

"What do you want me to do?"

Delilah looked up at Malakai, surprised.

"Why are you asking that?" she asked.

"With this, I can defend this place easily, so it's up to you, innit", Malakai said, holding up the paintball gun.

"Why me?" Delilah asked. She thought Malakai would've decided himself and then explained his reasoning.

"I can't really choose to defend this place or not. I don't know. It doesn't feel right for me to pick what I should do", Malakai replied. "Normally, I'd do what I want, but I can't decide right now".

"That's a lie", David said in his ear. "You wanna risk it, but you're not trying to be selfish".

Malakai grinned. David knew him too well. He wanted to risk it, but the smart choice was to defend the safe zone. He also still felt guilty for the third round, so he thought it wasn't his place to decide.

Delilah saw his grin. She'd seen this grin many times. She'd only known him for four months, but this grin was seen a lot. And whenever Delilah saw it, it weirdly encouraged her. It was like the grin was saying,

'Don't worry. I've got this'.

That grin was on his face right now.

Play it safe or risk it? Delilah had her answer.

"Malakai, you can do what you want. Just make sure you get a lot of plastic balls".

Malakai smiled with all his teeth showing.

"Aryt, don't worry, innit", Malakai happily replied like he knew that would be the answer.

David kept quiet. He had the option to choose, and he couldn't. He didn't like the idea of the safe zone getting robbed, but he also didn't like the idea of Malakai being stuck in the safe zone when he could run riot. If Malakai was to turn up for a round and perform at his best, it would be the last round.

"You cool with this?" Benjamin asked, thinking it was weird he didn't take charge.

"Delilah decided", David replied, leaning back away from the mic. "If I wanted one option over the other, I would've said so, but I couldn't decide".

"It looks like most of the class wanted Malakai to stay back", Ray said, peeking at the dissatisfied faces around the class.

"I don't blame them. Most people take the safer options in most cases", David replied. "Only an idiot would choose the risky option".

"They can say they wanted the safer option, but deep down, they wanted to see the risky option", Lucas said.

"Well, they're getting what they truly wanted because we're getting the risky option", David replied.

"Everyone's going to watch this idiot risk it for our class".

"Can everyone get ready. The last round will start shortly".

"Aryt".

Malakai walked to the door and stood beside Delilah, who was already there.

"Don't be an idiot. No stupid shit", Delilah told him, turning her head and looking at him.

"Yeah, yeah. I know", Malakai replied like he'd heard that a hundred times. (He probably has).

"We winning this?" Delilah asked, raising her eyebrows

"You already know. We're winning this", Malakai confidently replied, holding out his fist.

Delilah smiled and fist-bumped him. An extra confidence boost for her.

"Aryt, let's go".

BEEEP!

The fifth and final round started.

The round was underway. More plastic balls have been added, so searching rooms that had already been searched was necessary if they wanted a chance to find something. Any room could have a ball. The students had to search the rooms all over again. The searches would be quicker as the rooms were already a mess, so searching a room could take less than 30 seconds. The students could breeze past rooms and go to different floors. But they still had to search properly so as not to miss anything.

Luckily for one team, they didn't have to search that hard. Ryan was running around with a tablet in his hand. Every safe zone had a tablet, but the tablet was useless unless you had specific item cards. For 1-B's case, they had the tracker (UAV). On their tablet, they could type in the code on the card, allowing them to access an app. The app showed all the layouts of each of the floors. Not only that, it showed the locations of plastic balls and players. It didn't show directly where the plastic balls were, but it showed which room they were in. The only thing inside the plastic ball was the point cards, so tracking the ball's exact location was impossible. But a red dot on the tablet appears in the middle of the room a plastic ball is in. It also tracked players. The way it did this was via the camera vests. Inside the camera vests, there was a chip that was connected to the app, which tracked their movement. Like the plastic balls, the players also appeared as a red dot. So Ryan and Akari had arguably one of the best items, if not the best. However, it wasn't that overpowered. It had UAV in brackets for a reason. That was because it was like a UAV in the sense that the red dots would appear for two seconds and then disappear and reappear two seconds later (Like a UAV in Call Of Duty). This wouldn't be an issue tracking where a plastic ball was, as it cannot move on its own, but tracking players was a little tricky. They couldn't rely solely on the tracker to tell them the exact location of someone, and another disadvantage was that if a plastic ball was taken from a room, the red dot would still appear on the tablet. This is because, as mentioned before, the plastic ball does not have a tracking chip inside. A tracking chip was placed in the room of the plastic balls, so unless someone takes the tracking chip out of the room, the red dot will stay in that room until the challenge is over. Ryan and Akari could go into a room with a red dot, but there could be nothing inside as someone had already found the ball in that room. Also, the app was a little tedious. It showed one floor at a time. If Ryan wanted to look at another floor, he would have to swipe the screen and go to that floor.

Nonetheless, It was going well for them. In the opening minutes, they had a clear plan. Their safe zone was on the top floor. The fifteenth floor. The tracker showed one dot on the tablet, so Akari went to retrieve that plastic ball while Ryan went down a floor to get the three plastic balls that were tracked on the tablet. That was four plastic balls already secured for them. Ryan had two balls and was still searching for the third, while Akari went to the thirteenth floor. They were cleaning up. This was a massive problem for the rest of the classes because 1-B had this tracker for the rest of the challenge. The limit for the tracker was one round, and luckily enough, this was the longest round. Nothing could stop them.

"FREEZE!"

A loud announcement rang through the corridors.

"Every player must freeze for three minutes! No player can move! If a player moves, they will receive a punishment!".

Every player was frozen. This was an item.

"Why now?" Ryan frustratedly thought, furrowing his eyebrows and balancing two balls in his left arm while his right hand held the tablet.

"Which moron used this type of item at the start of the round?" Alexander thought. "Whoever used this has no brain".

"This is deeeaaaaad", Malakai said.

"Aww man, this is annoying", Nada said, standing on the stairs.

Yep. This was 1-D's item. This item allowed them to freeze everyone in the challenge for three minutes. The only people allowed to move were Dillon and Kayla. Everyone else had to stay still. If someone moved, they would get punished.

Dillon was rushing up the stairs. He knew where he wanted to go. A place that was guaranteed to have a lot of plastic balls.

The ninth floor.

1-C's safe zone.

He reached the ninth floor and was immediately met with a frozen Delilah. She was near the stairs, but it didn't look like she was about to go down them. She was holding one plastic ball.

Delilah's eyes widened. She knew straight away what Dillon was going to do.

Dillon glanced at her and kept his quick pace when going past her.

"Dillon, wait!" Delilah hastily called out. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Dillon stopped.

"If you go into our safe zone, I'll make sure Malakai hunts you for the rest of the challenge!" Delilah threatened, looking at the back of Dillon's head. "And you'll know he'll do it".

Hearing that was a pain in the ass for Dillon. Having someone with a paintball gun chasing you for like 25 minutes would be annoying, but he wanted points. He got shot already. He could take another bullet or two. It would hurt, but he knew it wouldn't kill him, so he was fine with it hurting. He didn't mind getting shot multiple times. That's how badly he wanted to win.

Dillon started to move.

"I'll tell you where 1-A's safe zone is!" Delilah desperately said, raising her voice.

Dillon quickly turned around and sped towards Delilah.

"Tell me, quick", Dillon hurriedly said, staring at her.

"Sixth floor. When you go down the stairs and reach the floor, take a right, and it's near the end of the corridor on the right-hand side", Delilah quickly replied.

"If you're lying to me. I'm taking every ball from your safe zone", Dillon said as he dashed past her to the stairs.

Delilah helplessly watched as Dillon went down the stairs. Luckily, Dillon didn't take Delilah's plastic ball.

"Shit. Malakai might have to come back and defend the safe zone. It's too early right now. I'll make sure he does it when there's 15 minutes left", Delilah thought, her heart beating fast.

Dillon rushed down the stairs to the sixth floor. He took a right, went down the corridor, and kept his eyes on the right-hand side. No one was in the corridor, so Dillon didn't have to worry about anyone seeing him. His eyes saw opened doors until one door was closed. He found it.

Dillon grabbed the handle, forcefully opened it excitedly, and went inside.

"Are you sure about this?" Sabrina asked.

"You just told me going to 1-C's safe zone was a bad idea. Why are you scared of everyone?" Dillon sourly replied, stepping further inside.

Another reason why Dillon changed his mind earlier was because Sabrina also gave him her opinion. She thought making enemies of 1-C in the final round was a terrible idea and put the idea in his head that Malakai would continue to shoot him until he had no bullet left. If it hadn't been for Delilah telling him where 1-A's safe zone was, he would've still gone into 1-C's safe zone despite Sabrina's opinion.

"I'm not scared of everyone", Sabrina replied defensively. "You've picked the worst two classes to pick on. 1-C has a maniac with a paintball gun, and 1-A is too strong".

"It's too late now. I'm already here", Dillon said, walking further into the room.

Dillon took his backpack off while he got closer to the locker. He opened the locker, and three balls rolled out. The locker was overflowing with plastic balls. It looked like they had like eight more balls than their locker.

Dillon unzipped his bag, wasting no time, and stuffed it with as many plastic balls as he could. The bag only had one pocket and could fit a lot of plastic balls inside. Dillon continued packing plastic balls until he couldn't. The bag could hold eight plastic balls. He promptly zipped the bag up and put the backpack back on his back. Dillon scooped up five more plastic balls with both hands.

As soon as he got out of here, he was going straight back to his safe zone to drop his haul off. Thirteen plastic balls. That was nearly as much as they had in their safe zone. This was the best start to a round they could ask for. He knew using this item at the beginning of the round was a good idea because everyone wouldn't be near their safe zones. So he could steal from someone's safe zone, and they wouldn't know until they came back at the end of the round. Using it at the end of the round was the obvious choice, but Dillon was too impatient. He was desperate to use it. He thought his idea was the best, so he ran with it, and it paid off. Thirteen plastic balls.

Dillon happily turned around, but his happy mood instantly deflated when he saw the sight before him. Someone was standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing?".