Second looked around but saw only Fourth, Aeith, and Sixth.
"There they are," Sixth pointed out what she was referring to.
She turned to the front and saw that Third and Seventh were also fighting another stingray, as Fifth and Ninth had done earlier. The second stingray also turned into sand after they pulled its tail. Her eyes widened when she immediately saw First. He was fighting the biggest stingray alone.
She was worried for First. As he curled twice the length of its tail compared to the previous two on his left arm, he bound its wings so that it could not move, and with force pulled its clinging tail. In a moment, it turned to sand as well. They abruptly approached them, and she saw the bleeding hands of Ninth, Seventh, and First.
"How did you know that stingrays would die that way?" Sixth queried.
"As far as I know, a stingray's tail has spines. And that tail is poisonous, which can harm others," Fifth replied.
"I accidentally pulled its tail, and we saw that it couldn't move easily while torturing it. So, we thought their tail would be their weakness," Ninth explained while squeezing his injured right hand.
"B-But it's sad to kill them," Fourth muttered.
"Hmp! They're not real stingrays. That's why they turned into dust when they died and didn't even have blood when we cut off their tails. That's why we found out that they were looking-realistic-robot-stingrays because of their eyes, despite having realistic skin and flesh," Seventh defended.
If so, were all the sea creatures here just robots?
"Why are your hands bleeding?" Aeith posed Seventh.
"We didn't think the tails of those stingray robots sting," Seventh answered.
Second gazed at First's left hand. He had been silent for a while.
She was the one who would ask. "Why was First's bleeding so bad??"
First's wound looked like he was cut with a knife several times; theirs looked like they were cut once.
"That's because that's the biggest one. He forcefully took it down on his own," Third replied, somewhat agitated.
Only now did she notice that he was still wearing his glasses even though they were in the water, thanks to their glass bubble.
"Hmm... I was just thinking, why are we being attacked?" Seventh suddenly asked. A question that also formed in her mind.
"We took the wrong turn," First spoke as well. "Seventh's answer is wrong. It should be the 'bird', the middle flag."
"Huh? Isn't it about the stingray? Why birds?" Fourth wondered.
Since they were underwater, the most reliable answers would be related to sea creatures.
"Stingray swims under the sea but flies like a bird," First ended his statement. It made sense now.
Thanks to Third's photographic memory, he remembered how they could go back to the three flags to make the right turn. While they were swimming and getting close, she stopped for a moment. She tore the end of her garment and wrapped a cloth around First's bloody left hand.
"To control the bleeding," she whispered.
"Thanks," he said, and they continued to swim. Wrapping his hand would at least prevent the excessive bleeding of his hand.
They took the right turn and encountered octopuses. They seemed harmless, so they proceeded. Another surprise was when they saw that the surroundings were getting dark. Maybe they swam too deep that the sun could not penetrate the depths of the water. They were about to ignore it at first because maybe it was getting late without them being aware, or maybe their swimming was getting deeper.
"Guys, there's something wrong," Seventh pondered while scratching his neck.
"Yeah, my eyesight is blurry," Sixth agreed.
They might be too tired or were just really hungry. Swimming is an exhausting thing to do.
"Look, it's because of those creatures."
They turned their backs on what Ninth had declared and saw octopuses approaching them. They were spewing something!
"It's ink! I don't think it's bad, is it?" Seventh approached the octopuses.
"What are you doing, idiot!" Aeith scoffed madly.
In a flash, the glass bubble of Seventh burst like soap bubbles. He panicked as he couldn't breathe underwater freely anymore without that equipment on his head. He immediately swam upwards to catch his breath. Fifth was about to go with Seventh when Third stopped him.
"Stay away, Fifth! Its ink explodes the bubble!" Third warned.
It took her a second to get what Third was talking about. The octopus's ink could damage their glass bubble when contaminated by it. They all swam away from the octopuses. Did she think someone would just attack them if they took the wrong turn? Just like what happened to the stingray.
When the octopuses were gone, they stopped and hid in a boulder with coral reefs while they waited for Third and Fifth to find Seventh. They would tell Seventh to just swim above the surface of the water while the others were in the middle to signal him the direction. Seventh was nowhere to be seen right now after he swam upwards.
"It's not like that," she gazed at First. "Our answer is correct, 'bird' not 'dog'. This time, this game is challenging us by making the game levels harder."
So even if we turned right, something would still attack?
"Yes," she was shocked by First's answer. He answered it without answering her question. He could read her mind.
Eventually, the two arrived.
"Ninth, you will guide and bring back Seventh. You will swim above like what he did and be a tool for him. Just swim slightly above so he can see your reflection. hat hologram didn't mention finishing this game as a team, so we can scatter. We don't have much time to waste, and Seventh's bubble exploded, so he couldn't do much for our team. Go with Seventh and just go back." Third's authoritative command. Annoyance and concern were evident in his tone.
He was annoyed, maybe because Seventh's curiosity turned into a disaster. Ninth followed his order.
"Let's proceed," Third instructed as they swam again.
As they swam without Seventh and Ninth, they saw three silver flags.
Left silver flag: 3
Middle silver flag: 12
Right silver flag: 8
And since the octopus had attacked them earlier, they turned right. Octopus with 8 tentacles. While swimming, they also got tired. Everyone thought of resting for a while and then swimming again. When they rested, they were startled and even more scared by what they saw...
A hammerhead shark is gaping slightly with an overlying small but sharp tooth. Dangerous... very dangerous!
"Uh-oh, hehe, what are we going to do?" Aeith waits.
"M-Mama!" Fourth's weak cry.
Because of that shout, the hammerhead shark closed its mouth and...
"Swim!" Third alerted them.
Second noticed a while ago that the eyes of that shark were also made of steel, just like the stingrays. They needed to trace its weak part. She was stunned when she realized that First was not with them.
She stopped swimming. Then she saw First confront the shark. Using his left thumb, he scratched its neck with his long nails. The shark wandered for a moment and continued to chase them.
"Hurry! The flags are here!"
Turning to the front, she saw four silver flags, four now.
1st silver flag: J
2nd silver flag: T
3rd silver flag: K
4th silver flag: R
She no longer hesitated to answer. "Second!"
Letter T because that's the shape of the hammerhead shark's head. They were about to swim to where the answer was when she remembered First. She saw a shark bite its left arm. He got out of it even though it was so painful to feel his skin tear.
"Go ahead. I-I can take care of this," he told them and then forced a smile while squirming.
She could see his blood spreading in the water.
"Leader, what's up?" Aeith asked confusedly as Fourth hugged her right arm in terror.
Third thought for a moment and then spoke. "Seventh and Ninth will swim back to where we started since they didn't know the route that we've taken after answering the riddles we recently encountered. First, I will finish the business with the shark. The three of you go with Fifth and Sixth, go and get those flags, then win the game. Is that clear? " He replied seriously.
They were still hesitant because they had to split up. This was a hard decision to make, but Third was commanding them to comply.
"This is the only way, so get a hold of yourselves if you don't want our sacrifices to be in vain... Now, go!"
They did nothing because this was the necessary thing to do, even though they were scared and troubled about what might happen. And... They wanted their sacrifices to result in something.