Chapter 28: I Lie...I Cheat...I Win

"Raffy? Where are we?"

"I don't know, I can't see a thing. Here."

Raffy snapped his fingers and like a lighter, fire appeared on his thumb.

"What is this place? It is like the opposite of the void. This place is all black."

"So, do you like the dream world? The place you visit every so often. The place where everything can happen to your will?"

"Where are you? Show yourself you coward!"

Then, a piece of candle was lit on the right side of where they were looking. Then another was lit on the left side. After which, several candles were lit quickly heading towards where Raffy and Cassandra are. The lights revealed a majestic room filled with piles of sand. The sand sparkles as if it was gold dust. The room was almost half the size of a football field.

"Where are you?"

"Looking for me?"

Raffy and Cassandra turned around and saw a masked figure sitting atop a chair embedded with feathers and sparkles like gold.

"Do you like my place? I designed it myself."

"You. What have you done to my friends?"

"You mean these three?"

Somnus slowly raised his hands, followed by an earthquake. Beside him rose three giant hourglasses with people inside them.

"Addison! Jessie! Ramch! Let them go now!"

Raffy attempted to attack but he was stopped by Somnus.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You see, these hourglasses not only tell the time, but also the life of your friends. Now, I will let them go if and only if you beat me.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“Raffy, don’t do something rash. Somnus is a trickster. He will do all kinds of tricks to win.”

“Oh, what have we here. One of the infamous daughters of King Triton. Since you’re not Frella and definitely not Quirella, I presume you’re Cassandra.”

“Leave her out of this.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will.”

Somnus again raised his hands and sand began to encircle Cassandra.

“Cassandra!”

The sand encircled her faster and faster. After the sand stopped, she was now trapped inside a transparent crystal-like orb.

“Raffy help me!”

“Isn’t that fun? Now she cannot help you. As an added bonus for me, I captured Cassandra, which means that I will be praised by Queen Quirella. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Wonderful for you maybe. Now let them go!”

“Now, now, let’s not be hasty. How about we play a game?”

“All right. If I win, you let them go!”

“But if you lose, I get to keep Cassandra and your life.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Oh, it is but unfair to me. If you win, you will get three prizes, but as for me, I only get two. Now which one is unfair?”

“Fine. What games have you in mind?”

“Ooohh, this will be fun. We will play three games, best two out of three. Of course, I will decide which games those are. The first game will determine which one of us is faster and more accurate.”

Somnus snapped his fingers and a sandstorm occurred inside the room.

“Wha…what is this?”

As soon as the sandstorm subsided, they found themselves in a different place. It looked like a modified firing range. Raffy and Somnus were on other sides of the range.

“Where are they?”

“Who’re they?”

“You know who I meant. Now tell me where they are!”

“Hey, relax. I am keeping them away for them not to disturb our game. Don’t worry; I won’t hurt them…yet.”

“Why you!”

“All right. I will explain the game. First, there will be no powers allowed. It would be unfair for me since I can only control dreams and you have “fire” power. Is that okay with you?”

“As if I have another choice.”

“Good. In front of us, there will be people walking then as the time goes on, they will be running. You will only be shooting the ones who glow with a yellow light. If you hit one, you will gain a point. However, if you hit the ones with a red glow, a point will be deducted from you. Understood?”

“Clear as water.”

“Okay. Now, instead of powers, we will be using these.”

Somnus waved his hand and a crossbow appeared in front of both of them.

“These crossbows never run out of arrows. Therefore, we can hit the targets as much as we can. Are you ready?”

“Let’s do this.”

“Oh, one more thing. There will be no trial or practice session. Once we begin, there will be two minutes for us to hit as many as we can. Now let’s begin.”

A loud buzzer sounded and people started walking from the left and from the right of the range. Raffy and Somnus started shooting the people. Unfortunately, for Raffy, he shot the red glowing person first. Nevertheless, this did not stop him from trying his best.

Raffy finally got the hang of playing the game when he saw an arrow flying towards him and quickly dodged it.

“Hey! What was that all about?”

“I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you that you could hit any target you want. Even your enemies. Once you’re dead, I will be the winner.”

“You cheater!”

“So? What’s new?”

Raffy answered back with a shot but instead of hitting Somnus, a red glowing person walked right in front of the arrow and got hit.

“Don’t forget, this is a game of speed and accuracy.”

There were only thirty seconds left and Somnus was leading by ten points. Raffy tried to catch up while dodging Somnus’ cheating attacks but there was just no time left and Somnus was better than he was. The buzzer sounded again and the game was over. Somnus won the game by fifteen points.

“Well that was fun isn’t it?”

“You won this round. I’ll win the next one for sure.”

“Well you should, or else they die.”

Raffy can see that Somnus smile at him. Somnus once again waved his hands and another sandstorm occurred, bringing them to another place.

After the sandstorm subsided and Raffy can clearly see, he saw that it was a room with holes of different sizes on the walls. The room is divided by a line on the floor.

“Now, the second game will be a game of strength and endurance. As you can see, there is a line dividing this room and neither you nor I can cross that line or he looses. Rocks will fly out of the holes on the walls. Depending on how you want to do it, you may smash the rocks, dodge it, or just receive the blows they will be bringing you. Those rocks will fly out in no certain order from those holes and it may vary in speed now and then. As our game approaches its end, many rocks will fly out of these holes simultaneously so it is quite impossible to dodge them. Rather, you should just endure the blows you receive.”

“Is that all?”

“The goal of the game is to smash as many rocks as possible within five minutes. Let me just remind you that some rocks of the rocks are heavy. And when I win this game, you and your friends will die. So, do you have any questions?”

“No. Let’s get this over with so I can defeat you.”

“You sure seem to be confident. Let’s see where that confidence of yours will take you.”

“He might use some tricks so I should be careful. I must save them so I must win or else they will die. He should have a taste of his own medicine.”

“Let the game begin!”

The buzzer sounded and rocks of different sizes and speeds flew out of the holes and towards Raffy and Somnus. Raffy, thinking before of cheating Somnus, spotted a fast rock that seemed heavy approaching him and redirected it towards Somnus. He did not expect that Raffy would do something like that so he was not able to dodge it. Even though it was Somnus who got the point for the rock, Raffy knows that he was able to weaken him somehow.

“I was not expecting you to do something like that.”

“I know, that’s why I did it.”

“You’re new to this cheating game, let me show you how it is done.”

Somnus caught a rock and threw it against another rock.

“Is that what you call cheating? I’d rather ask a teacher how to cheat.”

“I’d look carefully if I were you.”

The rock Somnus threw caused a reaction with the other rocks. The rock that he hit flew in another direction and again hit another rock. This went for quite some time while Somnus and Raffy are still smashing and dodging rocks. After a few seconds, the rocks that were hit by Somnus’ rock seem to be flying towards Raffy. He didn’t know what to do so he had no other choice but to endure it.

He did acquire many points for enduring the blow of the rocks, however, he was weakened by Somnus.

“And that is how cheating is done.”

“You…”

Knowing that there are only a few seconds left, Raffy quickly redirected a couple of rocks towards Somnus but he was able to dodge both of them.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Raffy quickly drew a large fireball and threw it at Somnus’ mask. He was not able to dodge it in surprise and it destroyed his mask.

“He he he…”

“What are you laughing about?”

“That was one cheap trick…and I like it.”

The buzzer sounded, which means that the game is over.

“Congratulations, you win this round.”

“It’s all thanks to what you’ve done. Now show me your face!”

Somnus slowly brought his head up and looked at Raffy.

“J…Ji…Jiggy?”

“I don’t know who this ‘Jiggy’ person is but this is my face. It’s beautiful isn’t it? Now…for the last game. I’ll make sure that you lose this time.”

For the last time, Somnus waved his hands and a sandstorm came that will bring them to yet another place of battle.