Princess Fighter: Search for the Throne

Chapter 79: Day Two (Part 4)

Until now, the four of them managed to scare and seize the equipment of at least four contestants who had been with their partners.

This little con man not only came alone, he even managed to foil their plans. Before they could stop him, he simply disappeared. What her?

In fact, these participants had been bought by 'mysterious benefactors' long before the contest started. All they have to do is make trouble for the other participants and complete the round.

The more levels they complete, the greater the reward they will get.

First of all, one of them deliberately wore spiked boots and lay in that narrow tunnel to the side to make sure he stepped on people's hands and faces.

He remained waiting for the people at a certain bend in the tunnel that gave him a bit of space which gave him some leeway to maneuver in and out of the place to bump into someone and slide away quickly to avoid inventions.

The other girl was the one who was thrown into the water by Abhirath. The remaining two people were their partner who managed to take down many contestants while climbing the hill with 'accidentally' falling on them.

Overall, they had tasted success until they faced this chit. People did not fight or shout when ambushed here until now because they were worried for their safety and also, they did not want to give their location to others.

But Mriga felt the lake was deadlocked and wanted to tell Abhirath about it. This gave him the opportunity to do so without using their code.

He was quite sure that he would recognize his voice. Secondly, even though he was outnumbered by these people, he was not afraid of being caught or injured.

As soon as he started shouting, he moved back quickly, covering his steps with a loud bang and climbing a tree from where he had descended a few seconds ago.

In the darkness, the perpetrators could not figure out what was happening.

Since this direction did not work, Mriga was hesitant about his next move. From the top of the tree, he could see the dim light in various corners of the forest.

Paying attention to each of them, he tried to focus on the light-lit surroundings, in order to know where to go next. He moved back some trees from a dead end.

Suddenly there was a loud gong sound five times indicating that not only was there a new person who managed to find the resources, there were now five contestants who had escaped the thirty contestants.

Mriga came down from the tree confused, taking a step towards his right.

Whooshing sound!!

His right ankle was shackled and pulled upwards with a jolt.

In a split second, his body hung completely upside down. The protruding roots of the tree had a trap placed on it that Mriga had stepped on.

His screams remained trapped at the back of his throat as he struggled with himself to normalize his breathing and find a way out of this. Due to the sudden attack, the khukri fell from his hands and was too far on the ground for him to reach.

"Why do they set traps as part of candidate testing? Doesn't the queen have her army to do this?" the grunts of someone fell into Mriga's ears at that moment.

.

A few hundred meters away

Abhirath had followed a few voices in front of him.

Despite those warnings, people started to create groups to work more efficiently. There were at least three couples in front of them, if not more. And if he was not mistaken, Vindhya's partner who had the quality of a whining voice, could be heard between them.

Their plan was to save each other if there were any sudden challenges and seize resources one after another.

Apparently, one of them managed to get someone out of the arrow cage by finding a nearby lever and pressing it to release the person.

Suddenly, it became quiet. A second ago, a murmur rang out in front but now he could not hear it anymore.

It was as if someone had placed a wall between them and him. Therefore, he had been operating in a state of near-blindness but now the loss of sound added to the confusion.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus but to no avail. Shrugging his shoulders, he stepped diagonally to his left and slipped...

Thankfully, he straightened up very quickly but it was too late!

"What.." he's stuck.

Shit, he fell into a patch of quicksand. Willing himself to remain stable, he took a slow and deep breath to calm his chaotic mind.

He did not want to sink any further but his body was dense and heavy. From his ankles, the floating sand had risen up to his thighs by now.

He knew that his body would not completely sink into it, nor would he die, but he FELL!

He had no choice but to call Mriga for help and that was also when the gong had just sounded which signified that one more person had qualified. Nine spots left!!

Mriga was just wondering whether to talk to the person who seemed to be hanging on the other side of the tree when she heard a call for help from Abhirath.

She's stunned.

When they decide to use these codes, he prepares to use the person seeking help before the others.

In fact, in the last few minutes, Mriga wondered if it was easier to call Abhirath to help him than to struggle relentlessly.

He struggled to get something so he could reach his feet with the help of it.

But now that he had heard her unmistakable voice, a new sense of urgency filled inside, injecting a dose of adrenaline into his body.

Without wasting any time, he began to swing his body from side to side. Fortunately for him, only one leg was entangled and the other was free.

Building momentum slowly, he managed to touch and then push the tree trunk with his free legs.

It made him more excited and he bent down and twisted his body to the side to extend his arm and try to catch one of the lower tree branches.

After several tries, her waist muscles started to protest and she could feel sweat running down her body. But he was almost there, his fingertips had passed through one of the branches in a final attempt.

"Come Mriga, Abhirath needs you," he cheered himself up and swung it once more towards the tree trunk.

The voila!

The branch was finally caught by his slippery and desperate hands and he did not let go. Testing his strength, he continued to hold it with one hand while he searched for a stronger one with the other palm.

He pulled the one next to him with all his might and decided that he should trust his strength and his swift movements.

Pulling himself onto a branch, he sat on it and the world finally became straight. He carried a foot that had a thick rope around it, to his fingers.

It feels like a tight knot and Mriga is frustrated by the lack of light here.

Still, he wanted his racing heart to calm down and move his fingers one by one in the area that was bound. He looked for a small gap where he could insert his finger to open it.

"Damn it, I should have slipped khukri in my kurt instead of holding it in my hand" he scolded himself viciously.

After a few agonizing seconds, his nimble fingers finally managed to find the gap. Pumping a free hand in the air over his victory, he almost lost his balance due to excitement.

Removing the rope from his feet, he jumped down to retrieve his knife before intending to climb back up.

"I won't use the land to travel here. Wait a minute, porcupine, monkey came to save you," he grinned and returned to the tree.

He coaxed his response to Abhirath, looking for his voice once more to understand the direction he was in.

"Hello, is anyone there? Can you help me? I was so stuck and my partner got lost somewhere" a voice stopped Mriga as she was about to move away.

Mriga could not help herself and quickly moved towards the other side of the tree where a girl was stuck in the same position as a few seconds ago.

He must be the one who had muttered before.

Vaishali who was stunned from falling suddenly, stood up and cleared the mud from her head.

By the time Mriga reached Abhirath, four rapid barrages of gongs had sounded. There are only five people left to qualify from this group. But Mriga is not thinking about that for now.

A few meters away, Abhirath could no longer feel his legs. The floating sand had reached his waist now and he focused all his energy trying to remain silent.

Suddenly, he heard a roaring whisper nearby.

"Don't come any closer" he raised his voice.

It doesn't matter whether others hear it or not at this stage, but it's important for Mriga to be aware of the dangers.

"Sst, how noisy are you? Are you playing for my team or something?" his whisper of misery reached him.

He's pretty close now.

"I'm stuck in a puddle of quicksand. Sit on your knees and stretch your hands to feel the edges of the surface. When you touch the wet mud, it's a place where you can't extend yourself. Careful," she snapped instructions at him.

Mriga followed him obediently and told him that he had reached the edge.

"With your knife, cut a long branch quickly and throw it as accurately as possible, towards my voice. Before you throw it, do a countdown" he said.

Mriga's tired arm muscles protested as she tried to pull a branch from a nearby tree.

During this period, his arm had been maximally tested. Despite this, he pushed his limits and finally managed to cut off the branch that he hoped was long enough to reach.

Thankfully, she had both pieces of torn cloth previously used to wrap her hands.

He quickly made an emergency rope with them and tied one end to the tree and the other end at his waist before throwing a branch towards Abhirath.

Now, two more sets of gongs have been rung.

Abhirath was frustrated and part of him wanted to urge Mriga to hurry but he knew that it was he who did the job while he stood in total inaction.

His reminders would not help their current situation. He was very angry at himself for letting them be in this situation.

Big punch! The branch landed right on his face, jerking him to action. He whispered to her urgently to be ready to pull and pull the branch with all his might.

...----------------...

Teeth clenched tightly, Mriga bent forward from the waist, with her feet digging holes into the ground to help add weight to her sides.

After all, Abhirath was a well-built man and the weak Mriga needed all the help he could get.

After a painful moment, he finally came out.

He fell to the ground next to Mriga as his feet tried to ignore the pins and needles inside with blood circulation back in.

Mriga was sitting in a children's pose, with her knees bent and her head touching the floor in front of her. . He tried to catch his breath and let his arm rest.

Two unpleasant gong sounds signify that someone else has made it through. This means only two spots are left for qualification now.

"Wake up" Abhirath slipped his muddy hand under Mriga's shoulder and helped her stand up.

"I'm really lost. I don't know where we are or how far we are from the center of the labyrinth. Before your call for help came, I had just returned from a dead end" he whispered in a tired voice.

"Trust me," he held his fingers tightly in his hand and began to carefully walk towards his right.

While waiting for Mriga all this time, Abhirath turned his mind around by focusing only on the contest.

The fact that he was so close to those people and suddenly their voices disappeared continued to circulate in his head.

That means they have all fallen into danger that should have made at least one of them scream or they have reached their destination.

It means he and Mriga still have a chance. Dragging a branch on the ground as a walking guide, he moved away from the floating sand and stepped in the direction where he had last heard those sounds.

"Push your arm to the side. Look for some kind of curtain or screen," saying so, he extended his free hand to the opposite side.

"Wait, that ..it's like a wall of leaves in my hand. As if ..." Mriga let her voice disappear as Abhirath quickly came to her side and pushed his arm towards her standing.

As soon as his arm passed him, he held back a triumphant shout and pulled Mriga's hand over the cunningly installed barricade.

Without any hesitation, he pushed their bodies past the thick layer of leaves. The light blinded their eyes as soon as they stepped into a completely different part.

It felt as if they were in a completely new place. Gone are the dark woods and the creepy noises. This is a round room with a high ceiling and a glass top. The clouds are clearly visible through the roof.

But none of them paid attention to the aesthetics of the place. Their eyes were fixed on the pulpit that had been placed in the middle of the room. It was a rotating stage and seemed to be moving quietly.

Even though it was a big podium, it was, no more than two people can stand on it at once because a small tree has been placed right in the middle of it which currently has two shiny wrapped packages hanging on it.

Mriga and Abhirath looked at each other in wonder.

Is this him? Last game?

Apparently, all they needed to do was climb it up and pull it out! Before they could reveal who was going to climb, four more people broke through the veil of leaves from different directions.

Oh shit!

Mriga quickly saw Abhirath and started running towards the pulpit which was about 50 meters away from where they were.

Abhirath turned around quickly and attached his back to his back. He raised his knife and tightened his fingers through the knuckle duster.

One of the couples in the room was Vaishali and her teammates, who appeared to be seriously injured.

Signalling for his teammate to stand to the side, Vaishali moved towards Abhirath. He had the rope he was holding in both his hands now.

Abhirath did not recognize the other couple and they were also happy to see these two people start competing, giving them the opportunity to move cautiously towards the tree.

The pulpit that had been spinning casually until now, began to add speed. In fact, as people got closer to him, he started to move faster. At this rate, it would be a challenge to climb it!

Mriga stood in his place and looked around the room. There was nothing there that could be used to approach the tree from the side or top. He bit his lips in frustration and then suddenly a thought flashed through his mind.

"If I can't reach it, I can bring it to me," with a spark in his eyes, he took out the khukri from his scabbard and looked at the opponent pair who were now almost on equal footing with him.

Seeing him pull out his sword, the fighting girl pointed at her partner nervously.

Another girl muttered him to try and climb the spinning podium while he took care of Mriga.

Mriga glanced at Abhirath who was arguing with Vaishali a few meters away. He was not only the same height but also seemed to be of the same caliber as her.

Thankfully his partner was unable to participate in the mess. As the other participants began to shuffle towards the platform, Mriga purposely moved away from the tree and pulled the opponent towards him.

After several tries, the competing girl managed to get one hand at the bottom of the pulpit which was now almost blurry due to her speed.

During this time, Mriga and the girl couple were circling around uneasily with each other.

Mriga could feel Abhirath's frown making a hole in his back, but he didn't have time to give her a reassuring look.