After entering, the two were met with a harsh spotlight blinding them as cheering overwhelmed their eardrums. Regaining his sight, Hydra had a look around and to his surprise, he could see the Colosseum for the third time, this time Xaecies was surrounded by spectators and the whole stadium was filled.

Walking to the steel gate that blocked them from entering further, Hydra peered through the gaps into the Colosseum. Albus had a face full of awe with his jaw dropped. It was a spectacular sight, to be honest.

“Woahhh, this is cool, I'm like a rockstar!”

“We will need to work together supposedly so please don’t fuck this up…”

Hydra’s eye cast across to the other side of the Colosseum, there stood a steel gateway that mimics the one he was stood behind, clearly something was waiting, man or beast, the only way to find out was to enter. Cheering roared across the stadium giving a cold uneasy feeling. Albus was excited beyond belief however Hydra had an unreadable stern face.

A loud thunderous boom echoed as the cheery voice of Xaecies spoke again to his second-in-command beside him.

“Ooh, great idea! Your trials have been changed!”

Blinding light struck down lighting up the area, causing a temporarily blind status effect onto the two held in the small cage-like room. They stumbled forward as the gate opened with an extremely loud creak and shudder. Closely placing their steps and covering their eyes with their arms, they started to squint and regain their vision. This time no cheers or shouts from the crowd. The only thing able to be heard was the tweeting of birds and some insects as they crawled around.

Sitting on his throne comfortably in front of a whole array of hologram. The light from the hologram’s highlighted his childish grin, each portraying live video feeds of all the players. A total of eight live screens were showing third-person views on each team. A lot of the players seemed to be bickering and arguing over what to do now, to be honest, no one had even bothered to look around their surroundings yet but everyone seemed to be restless and unprepared for whatever was to come.

The jolly voice echoed out once again as each person on the projected monitors seemed to perk up. “This trial is just a little speed run. Get through the forest to the meeting point, the faster you arrive the more points to get. Simple, no?”

After a couple of short moments, the steel gates started rising simultaneously as a stopwatch appeared on each players UI in the corner of their vision. Each group almost had different approaches as some sat back and took it slowly while others rushed straight forward.

Xaecies enlarged one of the screens pulling up what seems to a group of two large men arguing with each other. The screen zoomed in on a man seemingly above seven foot, some sort of competitor for the world’s biggest bodybuilder and his partner most likely competes against him.

They were both wielding large great weapons, one a polearm, the other an axe. The large man carrying a polearm knocked away a few branches before shouting to his partner “Oi, ya slow bitch hurry up! We ain’t got all day” while pushing forward through the thick long grass and bushes in his path.

Surprisingly the jungle doesn’t seem to mimic the ice cold frozen colosseum from before, on the other hand, it looks to be more of a vibrant tropical jungle. With large trees that tower over the surroundings, trampled vines cluttered the the path.

As the two large men made their way through the clutter, the one with the axe stomped forward, taking the lead after being shouted out, it was a matter of pride. The two alpha males were clearly trying to show dominance. He cleaved the path apart with his huge axe as they continued forward.

Shadows started to dance around their surroundings as the sunlight attempted to find its way onto them through the foliage. Xaecies spoke to himself cheerfully yet again while watching them. “Ouch… seems they can only blame luck.” The pair kept clearing their way through unbeknownst to what Xaecies was thinking. They finally came to an area that wasn’t just greenery, there was a huge giant toppled tree “blocking the way”. It looked like something had snapped the tree to force them to find another path.

“Ugh, Tony which way now?” The large man with an axe grunted. Tony replied “What else would we do other than split up and go around it. Are you dumb Tom? Meet you on the other side”.

Tom questions that call with a sharp voice and nervousness in it as well. “You sure?” getting no words but a nod of the head as a reply. The two men split and went either side of the large fallen tree. Soon their sight was blocked and they could no longer see each other.

The monitor screen split into two, to make sure it could follow each player. Tom continued to swing his axe clearing out the pathway in front of him. the dancing shadows shifted as the area was being opened up by his broad swings. The cutting of the tall grass allowed the light to seep further into his field of view.

A large shadow flashed over one of the split screens and a moment later, a scream that alerted Tony followed. Obviously, Tony started to freak out and was extremely frightened and panicked, changing his direction and running back to the path Tom had cut open.

Unable to make it in time, Tony found himself meeting a large flashing beam of red right particles soaring into the tree trunks as Tom had been mauled to death somehow.

Then a screen notified him as a creature shrouded in the darkness of the shadows stood on all four legs, snarling towards him. Black fur glistened in the spotlight as it walked onto the path that had been cut out by Tom, there was no sign of him though.

The teeth of the Black Jaguar dripped blood as he darted forward, Tony swings his polearm at attempt to strike it, the beast stopped its sprint as it smirks while watching the slow swing hit the ground way in front of it.

Dashing forward, it leapt while clashing its glowing teeth against the bare neck of Tony and large bloody slash appeared while the beat darted past. Blood fiercely slid down his body and Tony fell down to his knees after his throat had nearly been ripped out. His body hit the ground with a shudder, staining the jungle trees roots a bright red colour, the same colour of the flashing red screen on Xaecies’ monitors.

Critical Hit -54 Damage taken

The split screens closed themselves and the other seven enlarged slightly to fill up Xaecies’ field of view.

Xaecies scratched his chin as he pondered which screen to turn to pay attention to next, while skimming through, another screen flickered and turned off. Only six of the eight teams remained. And only 10 minutes had passed.

“Oh ****, I should've warned you! Your being hunted!” echoed through all the player's heads as Xaecies leaned over. Some of the players took a moment to stop and looked around their surroundings while others turned their careful walk into a sprint-like pace.

Xaecies then enlarged a monitor hosting two younger men, one with a dirty blonde ponytail wearing some form of combat glove, the other with a huge shield. They had piqued Xaecies’ interest as they were the slowest group by far even though they had been told that the trial is timed. The same shadowed figure was dancing around the grass and trees, the light flickered through the tree trunks but only lighting their surroundings very briefly for an instant and then the whole plane of grass around the wary couple became engulfed in a shadow. It was time for the prey to be hunted.