My spirit animal is a F–Rank gecko-Chapter 28: The first special bond exam (14)

(Stacy and Brandon POV)

Stacy whipped the leaves that were blocking their way.

Brandon glanced at his girlfriend. She looked visibly annoyed.

He wished he could just break up with her. But her sadistic personality and nature made Brandon scared of her.

He was quiet throughout their time trying to find Jaster.

"Hey...." Stacy spoke with a deep and low voice, making Brandon jump.

"Uhh.. yeah, sweetheart...?" He asked nervously.

Brandon noticed that Stacy’s whipping was getting more aggressive.

"You don’t actually have any feelings for Kaya, right..."

Brandon immediately flinched at her question.

It was true that Brandon found Kaya more attractive than Stacy, and clearly his girlfriend was suffering from an inferiority complex against her.

But Brandon’s survival instinct kicked in more than his lust.

"Of course not, sweetheart! Why would you even think that!"

He took this chance to act all lovey-dovey with Stacy.

So he hugged her from behind.

Stacy stopped walking. Brandon whispered in her ear.

"Don’t think about things like that, okay? You know I always love you..."

Stacy slowly touched Brandon’s hands, then she rested her head against his hands.

She quickly warmed up to Brandon.

"Thank you so much, my honeyboo. I knew I could always count on you."

The two of them had a passionate kiss while Brandon hugged his sadistic girlfriend.

Meanwhile, someone was watching the couple from far away. The man said something under his breath.

"Another unfortunate soul... I’ll break this lovey-dovey couple."

The man was wearing a traditional Chinese-style shirt with a flower imprint near the collar.

But that’s not what made the man distinct. He was wearing a black blindfold covering his eyes, and he had cat ears on his head and a cat tail on his back.

The blindfolded man drew his katana and took a striking pose.

Brandon and Stacy were lost in their kiss. There was even saliva dripping from their combined mouths.

After finishing their kiss, they both pulled away, huffing out of breath.

"I... love you.." Stacy said while smiling.

Brandon didn’t want to say it back, but if he didn’t, he would definitely get sliced by Stacy’s whip.

"I... love... you... to—"

SHHKKK.

Before Brandon could say it, he heard a loud blade pierce through flesh.

"Stacy?"

He was confused, seeing Stacy’s facial expression remain the same.

Just then, he felt something dripping near them.

He let go of his hug, and his eyes immediately filled with terror.

A katana had pierced through Stacy’s stomach.

Blood covered the katana blade, and her stomach kept spewing out more blood, painting the ground red.

"Stacy....."

Brandon was in a state of shock. Then Stacy’s mouth started gushing blood.

After that, the katana retreated. But it immediately decapitated Stacy’s head, flinging it away.

Her face, which had been smiling at Brandon, remained the same, but her head dropped to the ground.

Brandon stared at his girlfriend’s head and then let out a blood-curdling scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

He looked in front of him and saw the black-haired man with a blindfold toss Stacy’s body like it was nothing.

"Ah... Don’t worry. It was quick and painless.."

Brandon slowly took a step back.

"Who... who are you... AND WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!"

He screamed at the mysterious man. The guy adjusted his blindfold and sighed.

"I’m nothing.... You don’t need to know me anyway, since your life ends here." The guy said with an eerily calming voice.

Brandon immediately started running back, but he couldn’t even take a couple steps before—

SHKKKK.

A sharp pain pierced his back. He looked down to see the katana had easily sliced through the boy.

Before Brandon died, he only thought of one thing: The mysterious guy was right. It was quick and painless.

Then the man retracted the katana and decapitated his head, just like he had done with his girlfriend.

Brandon’s body fell to the ground, and the man’s shirt was stained with blood.

"Hahhh.... The smell of blood. It’s surely delicious, just like what Tina said."

Just then, his cat ears twitched.

He could hear Jade’s hummingbird from miles away.

"I see you..."

To prevent the student council from knowing what just occurred, the man quickly threw his katana.

The katana flew miles through the sky,

and then it met the hummingbird and pierced through its body, killing it instantly.

---

"The fuck?"

Jade noticed one of her bird’s screens blacked out.

"What happened, Jade?"

Marcus asked, surprised by her sudden panic.

"One of my bird’s screens crashed!"

"What does that mean?" Coral asked.

"It could mean that someone accidentally knocked it over, or accidentally killed it...."

Jade thought for a while and gave a loud sigh.

She got up from the couch and grabbed her purple cardigan.

"Where are you going?"

Marcus also got up, concerned by Jade’s behavior.

"One of my hummingbirds got knocked out... I don’t know how, but to be safe, I’m gonna check on the first years!"

Coral was gonna say something, but Jade ignored her and flew out the window, immediately heading towards Silver Mountain.

Marcus watched her fly out.

"Marcus... Should we do something?"

Coral asked Marcus.

He rubbed his head, trying to think.

"Well... Everyone in the student council is currently gone except the three of us. We can’t risk something bad happening."

Marcus grabbed his student council coat.

Once again, Coral wanted to say something, but Marcus ignored her and stormed out of the room.

Leaving the blue-haired girl alone.

"Shit.... What should I do..."

---

(Red Team POV)

Jaster noticed the sun was setting, meaning it was almost the end of the exam.

He looked at his 2 flags. They’d only been able to capture 1 flag throughout the whole time.

"Guys, we have to go. It’s almost night."

Jaster got up and went to the entrance of the cave.

Jay woke up Ivy, who was sleeping beside him.

"What..."

Ivy rubbed her sleepy eyes.

"Jaster said we gotta go capture more flags."

Jay and Ivy were about to go, while Ivy was still sleepy.

But before they left, Karina stopped them.

"Wait, guys, check the leaderboard real quick!"

Jaster, confused by Karina, clicked on the badge on his jacket, and the window appeared.

But his eyes immediately shot up, seeing the leaderboard.

————————————

#1 Black teams: 25 flags

#2 Purple teams: 19 flags

#3 Yellow teams: 19 flags

#4 Pink teams: 18 flags

#5 Orange teams: 17 flags

Your current position:

#45 Red teams: 2 flags

Number of expelled teams:

50

————————————

Jaster couldn’t even form a word. He just stared at the number of expelled teams.

"50.... How?!"

Since each team consisted of 5 people, that meant 250 students had been expelled out of the 480.

This was an abnormal number, having expelled 230 students in one special bond exam.

"Something’s not right..." Jaster said.

"Now that I think about it—" Jay said with a serious voice.

"—we barely met any team throughout the time we spent in the forest. We’ve only met one team so far."

Ivy nodded aggressively.

"Yeah! Even if this whole forest is big with three other mountains in the distance, there’s still 480 people in the whole forest!"

The more they discussed things, the more Jaster felt nervous.

What’s happening? Is this normal? Is someone tampering with the game?

Just then, Ivy pointed at something in the forest.

There was a big smoke surrounding a patch of trees. It was spreading slowly and slowly.

Jaster pinched his nose. The smoke, for some reason, smelled like dead bodies.

"Jaster, what should we do?!"

Jay asked Jaster, but Jaster also didn’t know what to do.

He stared at the smoke that was slowly spreading all over the forest.

"Shit..."