CASTERS

CASTERS (Chapter 9: Tick Tock Town.)

It's upposed to be 3.5k. It's 6k, more words than I bargained for so late post. It's still Wednesday tho... in my country. :D

Recap: With most of the candidates already acquiring the cards they need to continue their course toward district 5, many of them begin to approach and enter the town in between. With the sun already set and a looming threat in the forest before district 5, what dicisions will our candidates make moving forward? Find out in this chapter of "CASTERS".

1815Hrs

(POV). Ricko Tera-Nara.

"If my coordinates are correct, they should be somewhere around here." I followed the signal from their prowatches with my own. After a few seconds more of walking, I spotted a glow in the distance. The closer I walked, the clearer the image became. Lighting up the dark forest are two blue crystals. "Hmm?" Upon closer inspection, I noticed the two crystals piercing into both of my comrades skin.

"Wake up!" I heard a puny voice screaming. I looked beyond my comrades and spotted a tiny monkey jumping on a man's chest. "Come on, Aiden. It's been over an hour."

"No way! A talking monkey?" I asked, walking closer.

"Huh?" It's eyes widened, as I came into the light of the crystals. "St-Stay away! Or I'll-I'll unleash my deadly magic!" Wings appeared out of its back and it hovered up quickly. "Raaaaar!"

"Raaaar?" I laughed. "Are you trying to scare me off? That's cute as fuck." It got scared and flew back down screaming.

"Aiden!!!" It screamed. The guy suddenly pitched up, causing the monkey to fly back into the air.

"I'm going to kill you!" He yelled, thrusting his hand forward. "Seth!" A giant spikey crystal released from the ground and flew toward the monkey. The monkey dodged quickly and the crystal pinned into a tree ahead of the guy.

"Well that escalated quickly." I said. The monkey wore a shocked and frightened face. Is he never not scared? Those crystals released extraordinarily fast. It's not an Unravel 'cause not a Monarian word was said. This guy's the True-Caster from earlier. The one who robbed his cluster of their cards.

"A-Aiden.." The monkey called while hovering right beside the crystal.

"Talvic?!" He jumped to his feet and extended his arm. The monkey flew to him and hugged him. "You tried to forcefully awaken me again, didn't you? I told you that's dangerous. I could have accidentally killed you."

"I know. But you said if I was in danger, I should wake you up."

His eyes widened, "There's danger?!" He looked around and his eyes landed on me.

"Hey," I wave. "What's up?" One of his eyes glowed blue beneath his mask. He looked down at his prowatch for a second then looked up at me.

"Tera-Nara of the 4th district. You have both numbers, so what business do you have here?" He paused then looked at his prowatch and laughed cynically. "Those sneaky little magical worms took my cards. I'm surprised they left me with one." He looked back up at me. "Is that why you're here? For me to claim both of yours?"

"If we clash now, neither of us will pass the examination. We're most likely near equal power so our fight would be quite lasting." I informed.

"I don't mind."

"You should. Several extensive rules were added to the examination while you slept." He looked back down at his watch.

"The town before district 5 is a safe zone. Once you enter the safe zone, you cannot continue the examination until 30 Candidates have entered, or until the time reaches 1900 hours. Only those with two cards can enter the safe zone. The cards inside your projector watches will glow red when you're inside the town. Once they shade to green, the examination continues." He stared at the watch. "This is bullshit. It's already 1817."