Chapter 474 - 474 First Stage

474 First Stage

The silence and tension in the Sirius Waiting Room were so thick a knife could cut it. Bree and Crysta momentarily lost their composure the moment they set their eyes on the screen. Lina, on the other hand, simply froze and scrunched her eyebrows… ‘I’m not scared,’ she convinced herself.

Noticing her thoughts had gone through the mind link, ‘And neither are the two of you.’

‘Yes, Lina,’ Bree and the delta replied dutifully, keeping their eyes on the screen.

The first frame held a picture of a jolly crimson-eyed alpha with blonde hair that had been cut short. His toothy smirk was playful and warm while also displaying a sense of confidence that was impossible to miss.

It took a while for Lina to recognize who it was, but after squinting her eyes for a bit, she gasped in recognition.

The red-eyed handsome man in the first frame was the beta alpha of the King of Lycaon. It was none other than Jason. Except for his eyes and jolly expression, he looked different.

‘He’s really changed his look.’ the princess thought to herself before moving on to the next frame.

The next image was of a man she couldn’t recognise at first sight, but after reading the name below his image, the colour drained from her face. ‘Beta Alpha Kyle of the Lycaon pack! Kyle… Kyle is a beta alpha! Since when is Kyle a beta alpha? And what’s with that neck and shoulders? He looks like he’s been lifting elephants for a living with all that mass,’ the girl screamed in her head.

Yes, Kyle’s hulking form was impossible to hide even from the half-image they’d taken of him.

.....

There was the matter of his expression as well. Kyle wore a cocky grin on his face as he looked straight into the camera. For some reason, he seemed higher than the rest of the contestants in the other frames… like his oppressive aura had forced everyone to appear small in comparison to him.

His face, along with his hulking form, was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine.

The third frame was of Cole Lycaon who was, by far the calmest of the three members of that team. He didn’t wear a neutral expression like Lina but his slight smile and warm expression were not that pronounced either. His calm features and Jason’s jolliness were enough to even out Kyle’s animosity.

“Are we allowed to panic now?” Bree chuckled loudly after a short pause.

“Not even in your wildest dreams,” Lina returned. Crysta almost said something but stopped at the sight of her alpha. Lina looked… excited.

........

The Lycaon waiting room was a mirror image of the Sirius Waiting room, with only the sigil at the table and the green colours as a difference between the two identical rooms. It was also intuitive that the two rooms were on opposite sides of the Great Arena too.

Cole sat in his chair tapping his finger unconsciously on the table until the screen sparked to life. They watched as the faces of their opponents appeared on the screen. The king gasped at the sight of Lina’s transformed face. It looked like his mate’s, but being Cole, he could tell the difference.

Lina was younger, after all.

The minuscule differences between Katie’s sister and her were all plain as day to the man, however, he couldn’t deny the resemblance. Katie had a tendency to smile when facing strong opponents. Her emotions were always on display even though everyone around knew not to get on her bad side.

Lina, on the other hand… was an awakening of a powerful wolf from Katie’s same lineage. Cole had no doubts the games would be interesting this year. So much so that he didn’t really trust his impervious skin to get him through the games unscathed.

“Hey, Cole, have you noticed we are going up against an all-girls team this year?” Jason asked suddenly.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed… I wonder what they are thinking,” Cole replied.

Kyle raised a brow at his companions, “What does being girls have to do with anything?” Cole and Jason stared between themselves and the rookie beta alpha, trying to discern what they’d said wrong, “Are you already forgetting who your mate is?”

“No… but, well… Katie is Katie. There is a difference,” Cole tried.

“Not by much… Lina is related to Katie if you’ve forgotten. And look at that resemblance! Besides, I’ve seen many females do surprising stuff other than Katie. Samantha, Jackeline, Sandra… all of them were really impressive fighters,” Kyle argued.

“Kyle, we aren’t looking down on them or anything… It’s just that when it comes down to a brawl, it would be easier fighting males than females,” Jason tried his turn.

“Oh!” Kyle thought about it for a moment, “I guess that makes some sort of sense. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Were you really planning on beating them up as you did with Caden?” Jason blanched.

“I grew up in a place where females were just as scary as males. Excuse me if I don’t see their gender as an excuse for holding back,” Kyle huffed, “And delta Bella wouldn’t let me forget that.”

The other two shrugged it off, turning their eyes back to the screen.

The screen then showed their faces on the screen, drowning out the noise of the audience, “Kyle, did you have to look so much like you in front of the camera?” Jason cringed at the man’s cocky image.

“And could you look any more different?” Kyle countered the now-blonde Jason, “It’s like you’re trying to make a statement.”

Jason switched his attention to the current picture of him that he’d worked so hard to change, “Do you think she’ll notice?”

Kyle sighed, “Of course, she will. I’m sure she would notice a new freckle just as much as your hair turning blonde and receiving a thousand piercings.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. The piercings kept healing before I got the chance to even get any ornaments through. It was impossible to get that one. Now I know why werewolf women don’t pierce their ears,” the blonde threw his hands in the air in exasperation.

“Katie had her ears pierced though,” Kyle wondered, “Well, I guess she couldn’t heal so well when her wolf was suppressed. It never occurred to me.”

“Both of you get your head in the game, the Announcer is about to declare the rules of this year’s games,” Cole suddenly intervened.

“Yes, your majesty,” the beta alphas replied in unison, compelled by the power of their leader.

.......

“The Royal games have never been predictable and each year, the games have been different, chosen by a group of werewolves and hunters and the final decision for this exciting event is kept secret until this very moment.

In a few minutes, the first game will be starting. Without wasting any more time, I will explain how this year’s royal games are going to play out.

The Royal games are played in three stages and different games are chosen at each stage and played over the span of a week.

These games will be revealed to the contestants only ten minutes before the start of each stage and they will only have ten minutes to come up with a strategy.”

As soon as the announcer had said this, the lights in the Waiting rooms went dark and the screens floating above the arena suddenly started showing what was inside each room.

Within the Waiting Rooms, the screens showed what was happening in their rooms alone. This way, the royals knew the cameras were rolling, but couldn’t see what was happening in the opponent’s Waiting Room.

The audience, on the other hand, had a view of everything as it happened.

The entrance to the Sirius Waiting room suddenly opened, allowing a short man in a fitting black suit to walk in. Behind him, a timid assistant followed, gripping a yellow envelope that she placed on top of the sigil on the triangular table at the centre.

“Your ten minutes will begin…” the man pulled up his sleeve and stared at a luxurious watch on his wrist. Together with the motion of his thumb, he said, “NOW.”

A mirror representation of this was going on in the Lycaon Waiting room. Lina calmly retrieved the envelope and opened it. As soon as she had looked at the first upper case bold letters at the very top of the missive inside, her eyes widened in shock.

Aloud, she read, “THE BLIND SEARCH!

This contest will happen completely without the help of one’s sense of sight.

Contestants shall be required to make their way through the forest in the grand arena in search of special items set to give off a particular scent and return them to this room. After finding this item, the contestant shall return to the Waiting room and the next shall go out.

Maiming of contestants is absolutely prohibited. However, stealing the other team’s items is allowed. Combat between players is allowed for as long as it is within the limits of safe combat.

For every claimed item, a team will be awarded three points.

For every stolen item, the stealing team will be awarded one point and the other team whose item has been stolen will lose one point.

Only one person per team can be out in the forest at a time.

Removing the head gear covering one’s eyes while on the field will lead to a penalty and the loss of three points. If there is an item in hand at the time of regaining sight, this item will be considered pointless and be removed from the forest.”

Lina stared at the picture at the bottom before placing the paper on the table before them. It was an aerial image of the Great Arena. The arena at the centre of the gargantuan colosseum had been completely converted into a forest, filled with obstacles of all sorts scattered through it.

“Just how big is this damned thing?” Crysta shuddered.

“You were here the last time, weren’t you?” Bree wondered.

“Well, yeah… but… It’s bigger when I’m told I have to get through the games,” the delta replied.

Five minutes had gone since the timer had started. There was a timer on the screen counting down. The red glare from the digits running down felt too ominous to stare at, “They’ve really outdone themselves this year,” Lina giggled, staring at the aerial image before them, “I’m guessing this picture won’t even do us any good since we are going to be blind the whole way.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true… How are we supposed to make our way back if we can’t see either?” Bree asked them.

“You have a point there. It would prove to be too hard. There is a lot we don’t know here. What do these ‘items’ look like, to begin with?” Lina asked, turning to the man standing by the table.

The short man backed away from the princess, “All we can tell you is what is in the envelope,” the man nervously chuckled.

“You look far too happy,” Crysta growled at him.

“Of course, I am. I didn’t know what was in the envelope. Now that you’ve read it out loud, I’m excited. I can’t help but wonder what you’re going to do,” the man replied sincerely.

“Crysta, we don’t have time to waste. Three minutes left. We need a strategy otherwise we won’t be able to finish this. How long will this game last?” Lina asked.

“One hour and a half.”

“That’s not so much time… There is so much we don’t know about this, to begin with,” Lina argued.

“Two minutes, Lina. Who’s going first?” Bree intervened.

“I don’t have trouble going first, but would you want to get us started? You weren’t able to participate in the Trials, so you could start this one,” Lina smiled at her friend.

“Really… Okay, that would be awesome. But… I don’t know how I will return once I’ve found the item,” the amber-eyed girl perked up.

“Don’t worry about that. I just figured it out. You’ll use the mind link…”

A loud siren started to beep through the Waiting Room, forcing the girls to turn to the screen. Nine… Eight… Seven…

The timer was counting down. “How do you plan to go out? On foot or in your wolf form,” the short man asked. In his hand, he held a blue blindfold with an adjustable metal clasp on both ends.

His assistant to his right held a large metal headgear which also bore a blue ribbon at the part where the wolf’s eyes should have been. They could only go out wearing one of these two items, which meant they had to choose which form to spend the search in before retrieving the item.

The colosseum was huge and there were plenty of obstacles.

Six…

There were so many choices that could lead them to victory and so many others that could lead them to defeat… but no sure way of knowing. How were they supposed to go about winning a competition like this in the first place?

Five…

.....

Going out in their wolf forms allowed them the advantage of speed and heightened senses while staying in their human forms allowed them the advantage of manoeuvring the field carefully.

Four…

There was the matter of these items they were supposed to pick up. There was no telling if these items could be easily lifted in their wolf forms. There was no telling if some of these items were stuck somewhere… Their human fingers would be able to pry them from any place they were stuck in… if that happened to be the case. There was a lot they didn’t know.

Three…

There was also the likelihood of meeting someone from the opposing team while they were out. Would it be better to meet them in their human forms or werewolf forms?

Two…

Bree wondered if they were even allowed to face off against each other once they were out there… “Does this mean we get to fight them blind?”

One…

“Yes, Bree, if it comes down to it, you’ll have to fight,” Crysta answered in an ominous tone.