With Noah right behind me, I took out my sword and prepared for the raid that Noah said was happening in the base. 
The dim light of sunrise peeked between the trees, sending most of the monsters back to where they came from. 
A few brave or idiotic zombies or skeletons would stay and try to attack us, but my attention wasn't on them right now. 

I hoped Matthew, Ethan, and Theo would be alright. Three against six- that isn't fair. 

I could hear them before I could see them, the rings of swords rang through the air and a crash of TNT exploding. 
I knew killing wasn't allowed, but I didn't want my teammates getting hurt. 

I got there before Noah did, and ran to help Ethan who was struggling to go one on two. 

Fear passed through the two's eyes, and they directed their attention to me. 

"Ethan go help, someone! I got it!" I told him, dimly aware of Noah who had also joined the fray.

"Amethyst! Hit the floor!" Matthew's voice rang out. 

Without a question, I ducked and TNT sailed over my head, landing and exploding a few blocks away from me. Thankfully, I was away from the blast's range and sent the two people I was against flying. 

Just as that happened, another shout came from the other side of the river. I looked up, ringing still present in my ears, and cursed out loud. 

Jayden's group came running over the bridge and crashed into our group. They were armed with only stone swords, but now they had even more people to kick our butts with.

They backed us up to our base, creating a ring around us. 

"When did you guys team up?" I demanded to know. 

"After you guys raided their team," Jayden said with a smirk. "Now, if you guys want to continue the task unharmed, I'd suggest handing over everything you have."

Ethan and Noah exchanged glances, but then Noah started to laugh. 

The smirk on Jayden's face disappeared rather quickly, replaced by confusion and annoyance. "What's so funny?"

"That's some big talk you've got there!" Noah said between breaths of laugher "Got any action to back it up or nah?"

"New kid. You're outnumbered with three useless fighters on your side. I wanna see how long you can stay laughing."

I agreed with Jayden... about the whole outnumbered part. I knew Ethan, Matthew and Theo were capable fighters, but I doubted they can take two people at once. 

"Dude! You've gotta stop underestimating us! For one, have you realized that one of our members is gone?" Ethan suddenly spoke up with a huge grin on his face.

"Kisha. But she can't fight worth dirt."

"Hah!" Noah grinned "You don't give her enough credit! You've known her longer than I have, you should know how good her skill with the bow is."

"What's' a bow going to do in a swordfight?" Jayden laughed "What is she going to do? Hit me with an arrow? Hit me with her bow?"

"You have no idea how much being hit with a bow is." Ethan groaned, and I could tell that there was some truth to his words. "I bet Kisha could indulge you." 

I immediately understood just about what Ethan and Noah was planning. Kisha said that she'll arrive at sunrise, and so he's stalling for time so Kisha can ambush them from behind. 

I looked at Noah and he looked back at me, but something else glinted in his dark eyes. He had another plan. 

Without breaking my stare at Noah, I grinned. "True. Kisha! If you're here and I'm sure you are, don't do anything yet.  If we injure them here, they wouldn't be able to win and it'll give us an unfair advantage because we're clearly too good at this game to the point they have to double team us." 

Jayden spun around as if he was trying to spot Kisha hiding among the trees, but Noah ran at him. 

Noah moved so quickly I almost couldn't follow him. Within a second, he had managed to disarm Jayden and press his to the floor, his sword under his throat. "Ah, I forgot I can't fatally injure people here... whoops."

Jayden's teammates and the other group stared at him in shock. 

"But that doesn't mean I can't break his legs or something so he'll be useless for the rest of the challenge." Noah's dark eyes looked maniacal in the pale light of the sun, his smile wide and made him look more insane than he is. 

Jayden's teammates and the other group stepped back when he said that, scared of what Noah was going to do.

Me? 
I was just impressed. 
The fact that Noah can bluff his way through this situation was amazing.

Jayden struggled underneath Noah's weight "Get off me!"

"uh, how about no."

The new guy in Jayden's team rose his sword and did the same thing that Noah did, but instead of going after one of us, he ran right at Noah. 

Noah had to release Jayden to avoid getting hit by a sword, and the other teammates stepped forward to assist him if he needed any help against Noah. 

Noah was smart and stepped backward in his original position on where he was before he ran on top of Jayden.

"Alright, now you have run out of things to lie about." Jayden grinned. "Kisha isn't here or anywhere near here, so be smart and hand over all your items."

But we had stalled for long enough. I can see the boat Kisha had used to get downstream. It was all the way back where the trees were. She must have used the time when the other teams were distracted to get off. 

an arrow landed right next to Jayden's feet. 

From the corner of my eye, I can see Ethan smile. "Three... two... one..."

Another arrow sprouted on Jayden's leg when they all turned around to try and spot where Kisha was now hiding. 

"Now!" I shouted and tackled the boy who had charged at Noah before. 

I can see the precisely aimed arrows fired at Kisha to purposely miss the enemy team but close enough to terrify them. 

Soon enough, the only people left was the boy I still had underneath my grip and one other girl from the other team. 

Kisha jumped down from the tree she was on and smiled. "I hope I wasn't late, was I? How long did you guys even stall for?!"

"Long enough!" Ethan smiled "But Noah and I kinda stalled? The others are useless as heck."

Matthew sat down on the grass and sighed. "I thought you guys were just bluffing so you can get under their guard. I didn't add in because what you two said was already enough to get them mad."

"That was my plan but eh whatever!" Noah grinned, and then spun around to stare at the boy I still had underneath me. "But then this dude decided to come and ruin it! Oh well, what should we do with him?"

Ethan grinned "We could demand Jayden's group to pay for him. you know, ransom."

Noah winked and pointed two finger guns at him. "I love that idea. but where do we keep him?"

"We could leave him outside," Theo suggested. 

"We aren't savages." I rolled my eyes and got off him. I held him by his hands and helped lift him up. "I guess we just keep him here, one of us stays here and guards him if Jayden comes back and picks this dude up."

Kisha frowned "Amythyst, you can be way too nice sometimes, but yeah, I agree."

"Any news from the town? How are we doing so far?" Theo asked. 

"We're second, but not too far behind. That other group does continuous trips because they're closer to the town, but we can give a bigger load at once." Kisha shrugged "And if Jayden's group wants to pay the ransom, even better!"

"And we have extra loot from the hunt we just did." Theo pointed it out. "So we should be in the lead."

Noah grinned "At this rate, we'll be able to secure our victory here, and after one more round, we should be able to move onto the capital!"

I smiled along with them, but for an entirely different reason.
At the capital, I would be an even more effective spy for my father, my small task from just finding more about those strange mobs to something like this... 

A/N

YAY

AFTER A MONTH I'VE FINALLY GOTTEN THIS DONE
YAYYYYY

I've been focusing on other works since one of my other books exploded over the summer and the demand for publishing weekly is taking its toll ahahahaha