Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Even though they had reached halfway, no one had dared to play a trick on them despite Mriga being worried about it. What she didn't know was that while her eyes were fixed on what rock to step on next, Abhirath had been busy glaring at all the people who were around them, whether in the swamp or on surrounding rocks.     

His aura was so frightening that nobody dared come near them. Unaware of his hard work, she was quietly breathing a sigh of relief at nearly completing the task. Right at that moment, Mriga felt a vicious sting on her hand. Despite the cold weather, everyone was sweaty now due to the exertion, nervousness and running around. Mriga was no different and she realized that the algae layer had slipped off her hands and the wounds which she had received in the tunnel were exposed attracting the attention of the 'little buzzers'.     

Without wasting a single second, she held onto Abhirath's forearm and asked him to stand still on the rock where they had just reached. They stood with their legs apart for balance as the bees started surrounding them. Abhirath glared at them viciously but unfortunately his lethal gaze was ineffective on these organisms. In the meanwhile, Mriga quickly untied the ripped piece of kurta from her waist and then from his as well.     

The she looked up at Abhirath, "Tie it around my hands quickly, cover the entire hand properly."     

"But I need to first remove the…" he started speaking, looking at the group of the greedy suckers sticking to her palm already.     

"Don't waste time. The more my wounds are exposed, the more they would come to them. And the layer of algae on you is also not enough to hold on for long. Whichever are sticking to my hand, let them get squashed under the cloth," she said in a savage tone, urgently.     

Her face was pale but both of them had seen enough contestants in the past ten minutes who were swollen beyond measure already and were screaming in pain. Hardening his heart, Abhirath bandaged her hand tightly. To her credit, all Mriga did was hiss sharply and close her eyes momentarily.     

By the time he finished with both hands, she was back in control and said, "Now, let's run for our lives."     

She was busy holding her pain in and didn't pay attention to Abhirath's grim face. He had just secretly vowed to himself that before the end of the competition, he would find out the person who caused these wounds on her hands and get even! There was no way that these were a result of crawling in the tunnel. Someone had been malicious and stamped on people's body parts deliberately.     

They looked at one another and did a mental count in perfect sync. For the past two weeks, in order to improve her stamina, Abhirath had been doing the workout with her, where they started together on the same breath, going from her pace to his.     

Feet in perfect coordination right now, their bodies jumped lightly from one stone to another till they made it to the other side.     

FINALLY!     

They had managed to survive stage one. As soon as both of them burst out of the enclosure, there was absolute silence on the other side. Neither of them looked back at the enclosure which lay covered with the thick flap. The landscape in front of them had completely changed. They stood on a flat ground which was about 200 meters away from a thick forest. Mriga and Abhirath looked at each other and smiled.     

Homeground?!!     

A sentry at the exit gate of the enclosure asked them to show their identical badges. As they handed over their bands for inspection, they took in their surroundings. Surprisingly, no one was around. They had no clue as to how many people had already entered the forest by now. Busy surviving, they had lost count of the contestants and inside had been such a chaos that estimating the number of people was extremely low on priority.     

"Go to your right. You will meet the person who will explain the rules of the next level," the expressionless man said to them.     

Mriga made a move towards where he had indicated but Abhirath stopped her.     

"Let's remove the wraps from your hands first," he said with a slight tremble in his voice.     

Today had been a day of revelation for him. The girl whom he believed to be childish, immature and delicate had bowled him over with her intelligence, determination and perseverance. Having fallen for her so long ago, he felt that it was the same feeling all over again, this time for absolutely different reasons.     

"Let's do it as we listen to the man's instructions. We won't waste time that way. The pain is tolerable right now. I guess they all died after drinking my blood which had a tinge of the algae in it," she said with a malicious smirk.     

Shaking his head at his little extremist's false bravado, he followed her and reached the small booth where a man stood guarding the place.     

"Congratulations. You have cleared the first round successfully. Please listen to the rules carefully for the next stage.     

1) Between the two of you, you can choose two weapons in total from the ones which are kept here.     

2) At the center of the labyrinth, there is a big tree with few things hanging from it. All you need to do is find the tree and pick one item and then find your way out.     

3) If you reach the tree and there are no more goods there, it means that you have lost the round.     

4) Both of you have to exit the maze together with the item. Only then will the round be considered as completed by you.     

5) You are not allowed to combine forces with any other pair, else both the contestants would be considered disqualified.     

Best of luck," he told them without any inflection in his voice.