Chapter 228: Tag
"IT IS SIMPLE ACTUALLY." The voice said. "THE THIRD PHASE IS A... GAME OF TAG."
A collective sworn wave of surprise passed through both spectators and participants alike.
"A game of tag?" Some murmured. They had been expecting something much more exciting.
"YES, YOU HEARD RIGHT. A GAME OF TAG, BUT NOT JUST ANY TAG. ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN THE RULES.
IN THIS GAME OF TAG, EVERY PARTICIPANT HAS THREE LIVES REPRESENTED BY THE THREE MARKS ON YOUR ARM."
The moment he said that, every youth in the pocket realm looked at their arms, and watched as three bright strokes appeared on their forearm, just after their wrists.
"UPON THE START OF THE GAME, WHICH IS THE FIRST ROUND, AN IMAGE OF THE SPECIFIC TARGET YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO TAG WOULD APPEAR BEFORE YOU.
YOU WOULD HAVE TO TAG THAT TARGET BEFORE THE END OF THE ROUND, WHICH IS TEN MINUTES. IF YOU SUCCESSFULLY TAG YOUR TARGET WITHIN THAT TIMEFRAME, THE TARGET WOULD LOSE ONE OF THEIR THREE LIVES. BUT IF YOU FAIL TO TAG THEM WITHIN THAT TIME FRAME, YOU WOULD BE THE ONE TO LOSE ONE LIFE.
OF COURSE DO NOT FORGET, WHILE YOU ARE TRYING TO TAG YOUR TARGET, YOU WOULD ALSO BE PURSUED BY YOUR TAGGER. THE GAME WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THERE ARE NO LESS AND NO MORE THAN SIXTY FOUR PARTICIPANTS LEFT.
SINCE A ROUND IS ONLY TEN MINUTES, Of COURSE, WE WOULDN’T PUT A TAGGER AND A TARGET MORE THAN THIRTY KILOMETERS APART.
Many smiled at that. They had already began to wonder what would happen if their target was placed out of their reach for the duration of those ten minutes. The pocket realm was far too big after all.
ALSO, TO MAKE THINGS A LITTLE INTERESTING, THE LOCATION OF A TAGGER WILL ALWAYS BE VISIBLE TO A TARGET AT ALL TIMES, BUT ONLY A TARGET’S IMAGE WOULD BE PROVIDED TO A TAGGER, AND ONLY A TAP ON THE SHOULDER COUNTS AS A TAG." The voice finished.
"YOU ARE ALL FREE TO USE WHATEVER MEANS POSSIBLE TO LOCATE YOUR TARGET. NOW, I HEREBY DECLARE THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD PHASE."
As soon as the voice declared the beginning, images began appearing before every single participant across the pocket realm, along with a tracker indicating their tagger, and the image of their target.
"Well this is quite a surprise." Damon muttered, looking at one of the projection suspended before him. On the projection was the image of handsome young merman, with blue hair, and blue tinted fins behind his ears.
"Vael, huh?" Damon muttered with a smile. The boy was one of the talents of the Merfolk race, and someone who would later join Alistair’s faction, later in the novel.
Yes, Alistair had a faction in the novel, one that spanned over all races. It was only natural after, Nymeria, Mayura, and Isolde got smitten with him after he won the convergence.
In the novel, the three became part of Alistair’s harem, and thus, most of their friends, and subordinates, became part of Alistair’s faction.
Of course in this timeline, Damon wasn’t letting that happen. He had already deprived Alistair of Delilah, Sasha, and most importantly, Rose. He was not letting that manwhore anywhere near his sister.
He also wasn’t going to let Alistair get together with the three foreign princesses either. So unlike in the novel, Alistair wouldn’t be supported by powerful people like Kaal, Vael, Namor, and others.
"If I had gotten Kaal, things would have become a little too troublesome." Damon muttered. "But Vael? Meh I’ll tag him before he knows it." He smiled.
Damon finally turned his attention to the other projection, where an image of an unknown girl was shining.
"Who is this one?" He muttered in puzzlement. He had no idea who she was because he had never seen her before. But one thing he knew was that she was never tagging him, that much he was sure of.
With one look at the tracker showing his tagger’s location, Damon closed his eyes and expanded his mirror sight.
Awareness bloomed from every direction. From a small puddle, from the slightest dew on a leaf, from the reflective eyes of bugs, birds in the sky. Damon could see everything from the reflection of every single reflective object in a twenty kilometer radius.
The limit of his mirror sight was twenty- five kilometres, keeping it at twenty meters was something he could handle, taking it to twenty five would be pushing it.
Damon watched everything with clear awareness, everything visible beneath his view. His gaze swept through all the places he could see. Yes, all the places he could see because Damon’s mirror sight wasn’t a full 360° view, it depended on if there was an object of reflection in the area.
Objects like a shiny metal, a glass, a drop of water, and last but not least, through eyes of any kind. Be it, human, animal, or beast, Damon could see through every one of their eyes, because the eyes were also a mirror in a sense, because it reflected the world to the mind.
Immediately, Damon sensed the locations of both Vael, his target, and the unknown girl, his tagger.
A wide grin overtook Damon’s face. He took one step — the fabric around him visibly cracking like glass as he entered the mirror dimension — then vanished in a burst of silver light, heading straight for his target.
Even though he was in the mirror dimension, everything reflected the material world, so while Damon couldn’t be seen, heard, nor sensed while he was in the mirror dimension unless he allowed it, Damon could see, sense, and hear everything in the material world.
In the outside world, it was as if he wasn’t there, but in the mirror dimension, Damon ran extremely fast, the ground beneath his feet shattering like glass, propelling him faster.
However, the closer he came to his destination, the more clearly the sounds of battle echoed.He narrowed his eyes and went faster.
Soon enough, Damon appeared on top of a hill, his eyes immediately falling on an ongoing battle that had reduced the surroundings to annihilated trees and cracked earth.
A merman was locked in battle with an elf. The merman was obviously Vael, and the elf was also someone Damon knew, Aurin was his name, one of the notable ones besides Ivis and Mayura.
Damon also guess that, if Vael was his target, then the elf was most likely Vael’s target. It was either that, or they were just fighting for the sake of it.
However, Damon was soon proven right.
"As of I’d ever allow myself to get tagged by some fishy fish boy." The elf snorted, swinging his sword towards Vael’s neck.
"Do you think I care if you allow yourself to get tagged by me?" Vael smirked mockingly, his short sword parrying the elf’s sword. "It doesn’t matter if you don’t allow yourself or not, I will allow myself to tag you."
The two were completely engrossed in battle, unaware of Damon’s presence.
"Huh, am I really inevitable?" Damon muttered to himself as he prepared to open a mirror gate and tap Vael’s shoulder.
A small invisible ball sized mirror gate appeared a little above Vael’s shoulder who was mid battle. His instincts screamed, his body twisting in a way that betrayed his natural biological functions. But alas, even his new breakthrough into the Zeta-tank couldn’t keep the hand which shot out from the mirror gate from blurring out of his view, and tapping his shoulder.
Tap!
Both Vael and Aurin froze at what just transpired. For a moment, they even forgot about their battle as one of the three stripes on Vael’s hands suddenly blinked and went dark.
"...What the hell?..." Vael muttered in disbelief. He knew he wasn’t the best when it came to sensing, but what happened still took him by surprise.
Vael’s initial ability was mollification. He could manipulate the softness of his body, allowing his bones and flesh to become as soft as water or rubber, thus making him able to move in impossible in impossible angles.
It was also how he had been able to survive the fall with little to no injuries. His Zeta ability however, from his recent breakthrough allowed him to extend his mollification to external application.
That aside, when his instincts flared, Vael had twisted his body in an impossible and unpredictable angle, but that hand still managed to touch his shoulder.
"Apologies, but I have no choice but to tap your shoulder." A young human appeared out of thin air.
"Anyway, I wish you luck." The human smiled mockingly, before disappearing into the thin air from which he had appeared.
Only one thought echoed in Vael and Aurin’s mind after tdamon disappeared.
’Who is this human? And how did he remain unknown?’
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