Time - (Identity V-Elisop)

Chapter 22

After 15 minutes had passed, the seer came downstairs again, now he had on his usual robes and his owl was on his shoulder. He had his blindfold on as well, much too Aesop's dismay.

"Your eyes are beautiful, how come you cover them all the time?" Aesop asked as he handed Eli a plate of toast and a cup of tea.

"You know I'm a seer," Eli laughed as he sat down next to Aesop,"And I can see through Brooke"

"Oh yeah," Aesop agreed, "I kinda forgot that," He giggled.

The two ate their toast and drank their tea, having small conversations to pass the time.

"Do you think we'll be in the 2v8 match this weekend?" Aesop spoke up as he awkwardly fidgeted with his hands, "I think it'll be against Mary and Jack," he continued.

"Hopefully we will, I like being with you in matches," Eli smiled warmly, "Even though you're more quiet and distance yourself it's still nice to be around you".

"I'm sorry about that, I just-" Aesop apologised before he got cut off.

"No, it's alright, I know you don't really like being around others and that's fine," Eli said as he put his hand on Aesop's.

"I'll take the dishes," Aesop said as he suddenly stood up, he took the two empty mugs and plates in his hands and went to the kitchen to set them down in the sink.

"No, it's alright" Eli said as he took Aesop's arm, "I could have taken them"

"It's fine," Aesop said as he sat back down next to his lover.

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Eli was on his way to the waiting room, the time was 7:45 AM but matches tended to start a few minutes early every time. He was about to go down the last flight of stairs before he heard someone behind him say his name.

"Eli,"

The seer turned around and saw someone he didn't really expect. He stopped walking and awkwardly looked at the person while they looked at him back. It wasn't neccersarily eye contact, since Eli had his blindfold on, but the two were looking eachother in the eyes.

"Hi Naib..we've not spoken in a while, huh?" Eli said as he tried to start some small conversation, he had at least 5 minutes before the match would begin so he could spare at least two.

"Yeah...but I just came to say good luck on your match," The mercenary said as he looked towards the ground, "We can talk some later, you need to go,". By now he had gone the opposite way, back towards the staircase on the other side, leading to the 3rd floor.

Eli made his way to the waiting room in silence, it was true. Him and Naib hadn't directly spoken since he had confessed his feelings, Eli had rejected him, but he wouldn't let it stay on his mind. He was the last one to arrive to the match, usually the hunters arrived last, he must have lost more time than he thought when he was speaking with Naib.

"Hey, sorry I'm late, I just got caught up with something" Eli said as he rushed in, taking a seat next to Victor.

"Nah, you're not late just yet," The mechanic laughed as she messed around with the controller, "Sit down, the match is starting in less than a minute" the girl added.

The time went down and in what seemed like a split second, the 4 people were all in different places on the map, with the hunter out for them.

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Eli was on the relatively new map, the one called Chinatown. Tracy was dead excited to play in it, apparently there was some shop she was interested in, although it was old and abandoned.

Eli didn't waste much time thinking about it, although the map was new, he managed to locate a cipher in a few minutes. He started decoding and made sure to check around to see if the hunter was by him at any time. Everyone else was decoding, Victor was kiting Ann so that she wouldn't target anybody who was decoding.

Eli was past half-way through decoding progress with the cipher when he heard footsteps behind him, hurried footsteps with sharp breaths. He turned around to see the postman stumbling towards him, hardly managing to dodge the hits the nun was trying on him. The seer left his cipher alone and right as the hunter was about to try a heavier hit, Eli ran in to bodyblock the hit.

It hurt like utter hell, and definitely must have drawn blood, it wasn't anything he wasn't used to already. As the hunter stood where she was to recover from her attack, Victor and Eli ran as far as they could. They kept running until they were sure they ran at least half the map. Taking the risk and caution, the two went behind a corner, they could hardly walk straight, let alone run.

"Come here, I'll heal you," The seer said as he looked around the corner again.

Victor nodded and kneeled down carefully, he had a few open wounds on his back and he didn't want to cause himself further pain. Eli took some bandages in hand and Victor took his jacket off, there was quite a bit of blood staining his skin and shirt.

"I don't think it's that deep, she hit you quite a few times though," The seer said with concern, "I'll help you get to Emily after this match".

Whilst healing his friend, Eli could hear Tracy pop the second-to-last cipher machine. Emma had taken over kiting for the meanwhile. Before long, Emma had taken a hit, before that she had managed to stun Ann with a pallet so it wasn't a surprise that she was mad at the gardener.

Right as Eli finished healing Victor, Emma took another hit. But right as she collapsed, Tracy popped the last cipher with her bot. Tracy herself was standing by the far exit gate, and by the time Victor ran over, the gate was open.

Emma was still running from the hunter, the bad thing was that Ann had detention. Her eyes glowed a fiery red as she chased the gardener out of the exit, then she noticed something. The seer hadn't escaped yet.

She noticed movement behind her, whipping her head around she threw a hit at Eli, The hit had knocked him forward, he was only a few feet away from the barrier, he could still get out if he tried.

He stumbled forward, Ann was still recovering from her attack, and right as she started to move towards him to pick him up and chair him, he passed the barrier, he was out.

His robes were sticky and covered in his blood, his head hurt like hell. Eli could feel his teammates clamouring around him, rushing to heal him enough so that he could walk back to the manor with them and get the medical help from Emily they all needed.