[Trick's PoV]

WHEN JANG-MI WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE THE MICROPHONE, IMMEDIATELY HE WAS REPLACED BY NONE OTHER THAN JAGER BORG.

It looked like he has something to say about what happened between Dola and Tiberion. Well, mostly Tiberion and his scandalous move.

"Well, our fighters are a little bit uptight, aren't they?" Jager Borg laughed. "Don't worry. The cat will be fine. It'll be back in the next matches. Speaking of matches, can you believe it? We're already halfway on our Level 3! Six matches are down and six matches will occur in the succeeding days."

Oh, so we already had 12 teams, and half of them are already dead, except Dola. Some are still recovering like Uncle Bo and the Merizem soldiers. Some are waiting for the next round, like the rest of the winners.

"Since it's the middle part of the level, I would like to invite you all to a dinner tonight at the great hall for further announcements… and surprises about the upcoming battles," Jager Borg said.

Fei and I looked at each other. I knew he wouldn't trust that man.

"We need to be very careful," uttered Fei.

"Absolutely," I said.

"I know that the matches have been so tense and really extreme, so let's relax a little bit later. We're inviting a live band later for us to have some fun. Don't worry, all songs will be in English and we'll ask them to play the latest songs," Jager Borg even winked.

I almost retched. The old guy, like, tried to flirt and that is so disgusting.

"See you all later at 7:00 p.m.!" And he left the microphone area, then he returned immediately. "Also, tonight, like the cat, to show my generosity, I will announce the next battle, so to those who are in the waiting area, get ready! You might be called later!"

Oh, no. What if it's us?

***

FAST-FORWARD TO THE DINNER.

As expected, the entire hall was decorated with grandiose materials and the food looked really scrumptious. One by one, the participants arrived, including Dola, who was alone. Tiberion walked towards her and they talked for a while. After that, Dola went to her assigned table. We're still at the same table as we used to be in the previous assignments.

"What did the two of you talk about?" Haru asked.

"She's alone because her other sister attends to their sister who was hurt by one of my members," Tiberion explained.

"Oh, I thought you asked for her number," Jia winked.

Tiberion grinned. "She's pretty, all right?"

"Yeah, and you've got that sweet sexual tension on stage earlier today. What a teamwork. It's like you guys have an instant connection," Fei said.

"You can say that, but I still wanna be connected with Trick more," Tiberion joked, until from out of nowhere, a Portuguese man-o'-war appeared and slammed his face. "They're not serving this tonight!"

I looked at Fei and his face was so serious. Of course, I know he did this. We all laughed about it.

After that, the dinner was served, starting with an appetizer that I can only see in Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. The risotto? I don't know the ingredients, but it's really tasty! All of us enjoyed that rice meal.

Then, the main entrees, there are a lot of meat choices and we all picked differently. I picked Beef Wellington, of course, because of Gordon Ramsay's influence.

Lastly, desserts! Oh, gosh! I'm a sucker at this. It's like I wanna taste all of the desserts, but I only picked vanilla ice cream for now, yet watching all of them with different types of sweets, I felt like I wanna ask our server some more.

Until… Jager Borg emerged on the stage and talked.

"Good evening, everyone. Nice meal, right?" Jager Borg even lifted his thumb up. "Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that wonderful service courtesy of our friends from Brussels and Madrid. So… Let's proceed to the highlights of the night. First highlight, which teams will be fighting tomorrow?"

We looked at the big screen and again, all of the remaining teams appeared. My picture and Ellis's are still there, and it stopped with…

"We have the New Orleans team," Jager Borg announced.

Rakisha and her siblings stood up. She looked at me and winked. I believe she's coping up well with the death of her boyfriend, Oakley, which we really missed.

Jager Borg continued, "Against the New Orleans team is…"

Please, not us. Please not us. I kept on praying. Well, I don't wanna fight my dear friend. I love her and it would be really sad because I just can't hurt her. I just can't say that from the bottom of my broken heart, I have no choice but to defeat you. That's just not making any sense.

"The Auckland team!" Jager Borg.

Oh, dear. Not the two teams that are close to me. I don't want them to battle each other. Ugh. This night is already starting to be ruined.

The Auckland team led by Manaia stood up as well. Both teams shook hands and returned to their respective seats. Then, Jager Borg spoke again.

"Well, folks, that's the first highlight. The second highlight is… I'm gonna say the names of the succeeding battles too!" Jager Borg pointed at the screen and there appeared the teams once more. These teams will battle from Monday to Friday next week. Definitely, we will be included there, as there are only ten teams left, so I'm really nervous right now.

"For Monday, it's the Milan team versus… Kathmandu team!" Jager Borg announced.

Both teams walked towards each other and shook hands. At least, both are cordial, even though Benedetta seemed doubtful, as she raised her left eyebrow. There's really a bitch inside her, though.

"Next, Tuesday, the cluster battle is between… St. Petersburg team, our host country, versus… Canada's pride, the Saskatchewan team!"

I felt sad towards the Saskatchewan team. The ladies of St. Petersburg seemed cold. Saskatchewan team tried to reach out to them, but the Russians didn't even bother to bat an eyelash.

"Here comes Wednesday, everyone! The Wednesday match will be between… Seoul team!" After Jager Borg announced that, two guys cheered so loudly. Those are the members of Seoul Team. They looked like K-Pop members, though.

"Against the Seoul team is… the pride of Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur team!"

At least, this time, they cheerfully greeted each other. Right then and there, I felt like these gracious encounters were just a waste of time, since they will have to fight each other and who knows, they may kill each other.

"Yes, Thursday it is! Ladies and gentlemen, we have the Stockholm team!" Jager Borg proudly said. Well, technically, those are his family members. Well, unlike the St. Petersburg team, the Stockholm team waved to everyone, even though they don't smile.

"The Stockholm team will be fighting…"

Please, not us. Please, not us. I did pray again.

"Jakarta team!" said Jager Borg.

I sighed in relief, yet that was just a moment of solace. This only means that the Friday will be…

"And for our last match for this level 3, we have… Queens!"

Ellis and I held hands and we stood up. We smiled and waved at everyone, to at least show that we can be friendly too. Unfortunately, I haven't thought of the last team who will be against us as I am so overwhelmed about what's happening, until Jager announced it.

"And the final team that the Queens team will be facing is… the Dublin team!"

Motherf/ucking shit of it all! The Irish bitches! That was the plot twist of this f/ucking tournament! We're against these horrible sluts?

I looked at Sorcha and Sinead, and they just scoffed. The other one, Searlait, just stared blankly at me and Ellis. Oh, gosh. This is insane.

As I sat down, I felt my limbs started to jiggle. My skin became cold. Good thing Fei held my hand and at least I felt a little bit of warmness.

"All right! We're settled for next week's cluster matches! Did you like that second highlight of the night? Wait, there's more!" Jager Borg excitedly mentioned.

Well, I'm not excited about it. I feel odd right now. Like I'm about to throw up all the Beef Wellington and vanilla ice cream I ate. Oh, the risotto too!

"Hello, wonderful fighters! It's me, your friendly cat, Beketi!" Then, Beketi winked. "As you all know, every battle has those special instructions that spice up the matches. Moving forward… The slot machine will not be used anymore, because I will be the one to choose which instruction I wanna add, how I wanna add it, how many I would add, whatever! Thanks, Mr. Borg! And Tiberion of Merizem, I hate you!" Beketi then disappeared.

Many laughed at Beketi's last statement. It was actually entertaining to see the fish versus the cat. I thought the dog was the cat's enemy.

Jager Borg snickered. "That was a naughty cat. Anyway, we have three highlights as of the moment! On to the fourth highlight, we invited the band Lemon-Lime from the Philippines to sing for us, but… I didn't see any band instruments here. Jang-mi…"

Jang-mi, as always in her traditional K/orean costume, approached the stage and talked to Jager Borg silently. Then, she left afterwards.

"Oh, yeah, unfortunately, Lemon-Lime was not available to take on this gig, so to heat things up, we poisoned your food!" Jager Borg proudly yelled.

That very moment, some of us spewed blood from our mouths. What is happening right now? Why did they poison our delicious food? This is literally the gag of the night!

Fei brought out those paper talismans that he always uses and gave them to all of us. "Chew this. This will counteract the poison."

Haru and Jia were also prepared. They had the same papers and they all chewed them too. I took one and Ellis too. Tiberion also got one. Then suddenly, a purple orb went out of our mouth after we all retched.

"Good. We're safe," Fei said.

We stared at everyone else and they're still spewing different colors of liquid, maybe the ones that they ate earlier. Some looked okay as they might have counteracted the poison with their magic.

It took a while until Jager Borg returned to the stage.

"Good evening again, everyone! As you can see, we are trying to speed up the process of The Krieg. So, we did a special part of this level. Let's say, this is Level 3.5 of the tournament. I'm not being biased here. Look at the Stockholm team…" Jager said, as everyone stared at them.

They're still retching, but they got the poison out. They're breathing heavily and still restless. So are the other teams. Yet, some of the teams were lying down on the floor. Some just passed out on their tables. And, oh… Dola. She didn't make it.

"So, let's have a roll call of the teams. Luckily, the Manila team is not here as they are in the infirmary to attend to one of the members. Manhattan team is still up. Young, handsome boys of Marseilles too. Of course, Edinburgh ladies are still alive. We also have Tiberion of Merizem. Ooh, Beketi won't like this. Then, Amsterdam, good to see you…" Jager walked around with the microphone and checked who is still doing okay, and returned to the stage. "I can still see New Orleans and Auckland, so the fight will commence tomorrow. But… Kathmandu, Saskatchewan, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta… All dead… Which means, Milan, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Seoul… All of you will proceed to the next level of the competition!"

What? Is this for real? That fast?

"That means… Queens and Dublin, you will have your match on Monday!" Jager Borg happily announced.

What the f/ucking f/uck?