Echo Spark’s POV:

We congregate at the doors outside the training centre; Piper doesn’t seem to be here. Day two of training is about to commence and we will have a free day to practice doing whatever we want. I glance at Osmo beside me, he is a part of the group of tributes that don’t know how to fight. Before we came down, I instructed him to spend a small amount of time at the dagger fighting section, and then spend the rest of the day at other stations – such as survival, camouflage, climbing and other things like that.

There is a digital clock with red numbers sitting above the doorway of the training centre and it is slowly counting down the minutes until the doors open. Yesterday training started at twelve, however today it commences two hours earlier. The number ’09:57’ is displayed on the face of the clock, three more minutes.

I think of the other tributes and the stations they will go to, there is only one other bow wielder – Alistair. Although I am quite confident with my skills with a bow, there are also a lot of other tributes that explained their weapons of choice during the interviews that I should watch out for – Brutis will have a sword, Caspian will wield a trident, Gauze will train with a crossbow, Pious a spear, Ravina an axe and Arianna will be using throwing knives.

Among those tributes, there are an awful lot of long ranged weapons. Although I feel that my skills are quite good, I’m sure some of those tributes will prove to be quite lethal with their weapons of choice.

I glance at the clock again, ’09:59’ – one minute left. I catch Osmo’s eye and he smiles at me, I return the smile. Thank God we were paired together! I can’t imagine how hard this would be if we had been separated, how hard it must be for the others that were separated – the twins, Lilly and Caspian...it would be unbearable.

The clock strikes ten and the doors slide open, like children rushing into a toy shop, all twenty four of us scramble through the door together and advance towards the stations we wish to train at first. I am surprised to see most tributes move towards the station for daggers, perhaps this is where all the non-fighters will be going.

I approach the long-ranged fighting station – as does Alistair, Gauze, Ellie, Belle and Arianna.

‘’ Good morning tributes.’’ Beams the instructor at our station. ‘’ So you are all my long-ranged warriors.’’

I smile back at him as he picks up a bow and hands it to me. He then goes through the other tributes and hands them the weapons they stated they would be training with during the interviews – the trainer obviously watched them. He hands Alistair a second bow (identical to mine), he hands Gauze a crossbow, and then hands throwing knives to the three other girls.

‘’ OK, for the first exercise we will practice singly and then we will work as a group. So if you please follow me, I will escort you to your rooms.’’ He smiles and begins to walk to the opposite side of the room with a little jump in his walk.

He takes us to a doorway and steps inside. In the doorway is a long corridor, which stretches off for about twenty five meters in either direction. There are six doors, three on either side of us and he instructs us to step inside them. I approach the door with the number six engraved into it and step inside.

The room is pretty bare, it has grey walls and flooring and not much else apart from a small speaker in the top right hand corner above the doorway. Almost as soon as I notice it, a voice beams from it, the voice of the trainer.

‘’ Tributes, when this exercise begins, you will have to eliminate the foes we send at you. They will be computer generated and cannot kill you, however if they do manage to hit you with their weapons, you will feel an electric shock. Just make sure to stay alert, keep moving and never lose focus. The test will begin in thirty seconds.’’ He explains.

When he finishes speaking, three is a flash of orange light, and a figure made of the orange light appears before me. I cock a confused eyebrow and the figure tosses a throwing knife made of the orange light at me. I just about move out of the way of the knife, which flies past my head and shatters like glass as it hits the opposite wall. As its pieces fall to the floor, they disappear.

The figure of light draws a new dagger and I jump into action. In one fluid movement, I grab an arrow from the quiver on my shoulder, load the arrow into the bow, I take aim and fire. The arrow sails through the air and impales itself into the shoulder of the figure. As it impacts, the figure of light shatters like the dagger did and disappears in shards on the floor.

I smile over my small victory and load up my arrow, waiting for a new foe to appear. This time, two do. I fire immediately and like before the arrow causes the figure to shatter – before it can even load. The second figure is much quicker than the first, it fires a dagger through the air and immediately tosses a second in my direction.

I dodge the first one easily enough however I feel the second brush my hair as it whips past. I load an arrow into my bow and fire, it was going straight for the figures head however the figure dives to the side to dodge it and tosses another dagger at me. This time, it hits me. The dagger of orange light smacks me in the stomach and shatters, giving me an electric shock that causes me to cry out in pain.

‘’ Two lives remaining.’’ Exclaims a female – robotic sounding voice – from the speaker.

I curse and fire an arrow at my attacker, causing it to explode it an array of orange shards that disappear as they hit the floor. No sooner is it gone than four more have taken its place. I load my arrow and fire, it impacts and causes one of them to explode. Three daggers sail through the air, however all seem to be slightly to my right so I jump left and easily avoid them.

I send another arrow out and the target meets a similar fate to his comrade. Two daggers sail towards me, I drop to the floor to avoid them and load my bow whilst on my hunkers. I release and the closest target takes an arrow to the knee and explodes.

One left.

I jump to my feet just as the final figure tosses a dagger. I dive to the side in an attempt to avoid it however the dagger catches my swinging arm and smashes against my skin. I curse again as a much more powerful electric shock tears through my body. I load my bow, take aim and fire. This time, my arrow sails through the air and enters what would be the targets head through the eyeball. The figure bursts into orange shards and disappears.

‘’ Two lives remaining.’’ Details the familiar robotic voice.

‘’ I know, I know.’’ I mutter and load up my bow, ready to attack.

My eyes enlarge as eight of the figures appear around me, I am the centre of the circle.

‘’ Shit.’’ I mutter and fire an arrow at one, causing it to explode out of existence.

As soon as I fire and eliminate one, the seven remaining figures all toss their daggers at me at once. Instinctively, I drop to the floor and begin loading my arrow. The daggers whiz above my head and four of the figures are taken out by their comrades’ weapons.

Three left.

I get to my feet, pivot on my right foot and release my grip on the arrow. It tears through the air and lodges itself into the stomach of one of the figures before it completely explodes.

Two left – one on either side of me.

I load up my arrow as both take aim and toss their weapons. Luckily, I think quick and dive to the side, neither dagger hits anyone. I turn quickly as they are taking aim with more daggers and send an arrow zipping through the air towards one of them. It impales itself right where a person’s heart would be and the figure erupts into an explosion of orange light.

One left.

As I turn to the final figure, a dagger whizzes towards my face. I drop to the floor to dodge the dagger. As I hit the floor, the figure is already taking aim with a second dagger. He tosses it at me; I roll to the side and the dagger of light shatters against the floor beside me. Whilst on the ground, I use my bow as a club and smash it at the shins of the figure. It makes no noise, but it drops to one knee and this gives me the chance to get to my feet.

I load the bow, take aim and fire before the figure has a chance to right itself. The arrow tears through the air just as the figure removes another dagger and begins to take aim. Before it can do much else, the arrow impales itself in the figures’ forehead and the figure shatters into orange light just as its comrades did.

‘’ Congratulations.’’ Begins the voice of the male trainer through the speakers. ‘’ Out of the six of you, three of you beat all three stages. All six of you made it to the final stage, but only half of that could survive all eight figures. Good job Echo, Belle and Alistair!’’

Brutis Glaze’s POV:

‘’ OK, so here’s how this is going to work.’’ Begins the trainer at the sword fighting station. ‘’ There are four of you so each of you will enter the station. You will enter a room which you will have to yourself and the test will begin with you having to fight each other. Don’t worry though, you won’t be fighting each other face to face. You will be facing holograms of one another. So you will be fighting, you just won’t get killed. Does everyone understand?’’

I glance at the three other tributes beside me; Margo, Min and Stitch. We all nod.

‘’ OK then, please step inside the room. You will find a weapon waiting for you inside.’’ Instructs the trainer and we step inside on her command.

There is a sword sitting in waiting – as she promised – just inside the door. I take it in my hand and prepare for the test to begin. This will be easy. I’ve been training for years with a sword, I will destroy the competition.

‘’ Testing beginning in thirty seconds.’’ Says a robotic female voice.

I wonder who I will be paired against first out of the other tributes, hopefully Margo so I can actually have a fight. Fighting Stitch or Min would be boring because I would be done with them so quickly and easily.

‘’ Fifteen seconds.’’

I wonder how this will work. Hopefully I will get a good tribute that can actually fight. I want to get some practice here. I won’t improve if I am fighting people that are nowhere near as skilled as me.

‘’ Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One.’’

After about five seconds, a figure appears in the room. This figure is a green colour. I realise immediately who it is from the detail in its body and face. It is Stitch.

Much to my surprise, it is he who reacts first. Stitch’s holographic body sprints towards me with his sword in hand and swings it frantically at me. It is clear from the way he holds the sword and the way he moves with it that he has never before wielded one. He moves awkwardly with it and I block his feeble attempts easily.

I smirk at him and slash my sword through the air towards him. As opposed to blocking my shot with his sword – like I did – he jumps backwards away from me. He then begins to circle the room, I follow. This is good, he is in defensive mode. I have the upper hand now.

‘’ Come on Stitch. Don’t be shy.’’ I tease, not even sure if he can hear me.

‘’ Piss off.’’ He responds and I smirk – apparently he can.

I laugh and run at him with my sword swinging. Again he moves away from me as opposed to meeting me with his sword. Chicken.

‘’ Fight me!’’ I roar and sprint towards him.

He dives out of the way and I follow after him as he runs about in the room, fleeing my attacks.

‘’ Stop running and fight!’’ I scream.

He continues to back away from me as I stalk after him, but suddenly he dives forwards and jabs his sword towards me. It narrowly misses me, however I react faster than he could ever have hoped for. I smirk and bring my sword down on him, the hologram shatters into nothing and disappears.

‘’ Congratulations tributes, two of you have made it to the next stage where you will fight each other. Good luck!’’ Says the voice of our trainer.

An red figure wielding a sword appears after a quick flash of orange light. Without warning, it runs towards me with its sword waving. It swings at me however I bring my weapon up to meet its sword and they clash off each other. As opposed to the usual sound of metal against metal, there is just a shattering sound, almost like glass and there is a shower of orange sparks – the sword remains intact however. It is Min.

The figure pirouettes and swings the sword around him, aiming for my side. Again I block with mine, however there is a lot of force in the blow and I fight hard to keep my foe from pushing its sword closer to me. This time I make the first move; I swing my sword around and aim for the orange figure’s head. The figure ducks and jabs its sword through the air in a fencing movement.

I jump back to avoid the blade of his sword and I bring my sword down hard on the orange figure’s weapon. There is another shower of orange sparks and this time the sword is knocked from the figure’s grasp. It bends down to pick up the sword, and I smirk as I raise my sword.

Unexpectedly, the figure dives forwards as opposed to retrieving its sword and it spear tackles me through the air and this causes me to lose the grip I had on my own sword. My back smacks the floor hard and I let out a cry of pain as the figure dives on top of me. I grab it around the throat and kick my legs upwards, sending the figure flying over me – it crashes hard into the wall.

I dive forwards and grab my sword – along with my foe’s weapon. I toss its sword away and run at it with mine. It attempts to side step my blow, but the sword smashes into the figure’s side in an explosion of orange sparks. It falls to its knees and I raise my sword above it, I then bring it down in one quick swipe and it completely erupts into orange light, shattering like glass and disappearing.

‘’ Congratulations Brutis, you are the winner. Hard luck to the others, you fought well. Especially you Min, that was very close so well done.’’

I smirk. That was too easy.

Gauze Weaver’s POV:

‘’ OK tributes, the next part of the long ranged fighting section has to do with all of you being tested at once. So once you step inside this room, aim for as much as possible because the person with the highest score at the end wins.’’ Explains our trainer as we step into a room with a hallway in it.

The room resembles a firing range, there are separate sub-rooms within the main room with our names on them and when we step inside them, we are locked in by the trainer. There is a crossbow and a seemingly endless supply of crossbow darts waiting for me. I glance in front of me, a room about fifty meters long stretches out before me. How is this going to work?

‘’ Tributes, aim for the red figures, avoid the blue. You gain one point for every red figure you successfully hit, but lose two points for every blue one. The first to one hundred wins. The test will begin in three...two...one...go!’’ Instructs the trainer and the room comes alive.

Apparently out of nowhere, about fifty figures appear – the majority of which are blue, the ones we are not supposed to hit. I do a quick sweep of the room. I’d say there are about thirty blue figures and just twenty red, this is going to be a challenge.

On the wall beside me, a control panel comes alive. It has a picture of the six of our faces along with ‘0’ beside our names. I presume that this will rise – or fall – as the test commences.

I raise my crossbow and take the first shot into the crowd of holograms. I watch as my dart whips across the room and causes a red figure to explode. I glance across at the control panel. My score is now one. I notice that in the place of the red figure I eliminated, two more figures replaced it – one of either colour.

I reload the crossbow and fire again. The dart finds its way to another red target which explodes like the first. Again, two more figures are created because of this. Ten minutes later, Arianna is in the lead with thirty points. I am following second with twenty six. Alistair is third with twenty four. I don’t really pay much attention to those after him.

I continue to load and fire, load and fire – sending dart after dart zipping through the air and finding a place in a red target. After another ten minutes, our trainer makes an announcement.

‘’ There is a new figure being added to the game, it is a small, green hologram that is worth twenty points to you. Good luck!’’

As she finishes talking, three green holograms that resemble children appear, however the blue figures rush to them and form a protective ring around them – leaving most of the red figures in open range.

I ignore the green figures and send dart after dart out, not even bothering to aim and I watch as my score increases by ten in no more than three minutes. I then watch the control panel, Arianna’s score is slowly reducing because in her attempts to hit the green figure, she is eliminating the blue ones. I smile as I am pushed into first position momentarily although Alistair takes my place as he hits a green hologram and steals first place with six more points than me.

I cuss and send more and more darts flying through the air. I cry out in pain as an unexpected wave of electricity passes through me – I obviously hit a blue figure and this is an additional penalty to accompany my two point decrease. I curse my idiocy and ignore the green figures, going back to just aiming for the red.

I watch as my points increase by another ten points in a few minutes, although I am still in second place. According to the score board, Alistair is coming first, with eighty six points, Arianna second with eight four and I am coming in third out of six with eighty points. I can still do this.

I come up with a strategy as I watch a few blue figures explode as the other tributes attempt to hit the green figure. I aim my crossbow at the green figure, however two or three blue stand in my way. I keep my crossbow steady and take aim patiently. I must wait for the perfect opportunity.

I watch as two of the blue surrounding the green explode and I release my grip on the crossbow. A dart flies across the room and passes through the empty gap they left behind. Just as my dart passes through the gap, new blue figures form to take their places, but it is too late. My dart passes through the skull of the green hologram and it shatters. Then, in unison, the rest of the figures in the room shatter.

‘’ Congratulations to Gauze, the first tributes to reach one hundred points! Well done!’’

We are led outside the room and back into the centre of the training centre. All the others tributes and trainers are here too.

‘’ Well done tributes today, you all performed well. We will now break for dinner, anyone that wishes to return afterwards is welcome to.’’ Instructs the head trainer and we exit the centre.