CHAPTER 5

She almost tumbled at the wood plank bridge, as it dangerously sway,  luckily her feet didn’t give her away and soon all of them reached the dull grey wall. The red shirts booed and jeered at the side, getting louder every minute. Henry and Seulgi stood on each side and place their right palm open on their left palm, signalling for Baekhyun to step on it.

Seulgi was a bit worried of the weight that will be heaving on her palm, wondering if her hands suddenly turned jelly or whatsoever, but the moment Baekhyun put his right leg on Seulgi’s palm, she and Henry both firm their stand and—Seulgi doesn’t know when, but she knows Baekhyun must have did something with the shoes he wore, as he slightly hover while Joy covers him up from behind.

Baekhyun sat on the wall with no difficulty, pulling Joy next, whom—she too, float along. Next, stepped in Yeri, who isn’t wearing any magical shoes, therefore, Seulgi and Henry bit their lips  and push Yeri up with all their might. After Yeri landed on the other side of the wall, Joy told them to jump up quickly. Thanks to Seulgi long legs, she didn’t have any problems in climbing, so does Henry and both of them jumped simultaneously and landed with a thud.

All of them dash uphill to the next obstacle, the flying rope. A thick, braided white rope hung in the middle of two steel poles. Yeri went first, grabbing the rope tight—although she almost slipped, thank gods she didn’t. All of them went with the flying rope without a worry and proceed with—the stinky bar.

Boy, that stinky bar smells like . Like literally pure . Seulgi just had to curse at this. The murky, black-brownish water looks uninterestingly vague. And the smell—you can smell it even from a mile away, no kidding. Crossing the bar on the other hand needs a pair of strong arm and with all the archery practice she did, Seulgi have to say she have quite confidence in her arms.

She managed to swing her arms, grabbing the bar firmly and reached the end—with much difficulty in breathing. But a yelp from behind surprised her as Seulgi spun behind to see Yeri, dangling with one hand while her legs are dangerously close to the dim water.

“C’mon Yeri! You can do it!” encouraged Joy as she jump up and down, cheering for their little maknae.

“You can do it Yeri ! Two bars left !” Seulgi cheered.

Yeri shut her eyes, took a deep breath—and scream. Her dangling right hand suddenly hoists up and grabbed the remaining bar. Her legs move side to side as she swing and reached the last bar and hop to the ground.

“Good job !” Baekhyun yelled before scurrying to their last obstacle, the wire crawl. The ground was filthy with mud and dead leaves and at the end stood the cold, bored looking girl Seulgi has met before, Krystal. Henry slightly touched the iron wire, to see if there’s any tricks upon it. Confirming there was nothing, he crouched down and crawl first, head low, followed by Amber, Joy, Henry, Yeri and lastly her, Seulgi.

Seulgi was halfway through when one of the twisted wire poked her head and got entangled in her now messy hair. Ouch she cried in pain and Seulgi tried to untangle it off when her hand got scratch with another sharp wire—resulting a cut and her, struggling.

“Can you please move faster?” Krystal said with a bored and disgruntled tone, as she stood with the other members whom were cheering for her.

With a piss off groan, she somehow finally managed to unhook her hair from the wire and crawl her way through. And with that, Krystal pressed the timer stop and put on a not-bad expression before moving away.

“Sorry guys,” Seulgi apologized as she removes some dead leaves sticking on her muddy white shirt but her right hand was soon grabbed by Joy and Seulgi winced, “You have so many cuts! We need to go to the infirmary.”

Seulgi stared at her hands and palm, which somehow were red, with cuts and slight scorch here and there. She didn’t realize it was stinging until Joy mentioned it. Baekhyun congratulate and thanked them for their awesome teamwork as they walk back to the main ground. Amber expressed that she wish Seulgi and Yeri were one of their’s but Henry mentioned they can’t be, since apparently Seulgi is blonde (?) and have a different vibe whilst Yeri is too cute to be a Hermes child.

As they arrived back at the main ground, the Ares clan once again greeted them with their blaring boos and boastful smirk and the chosen headed up to the slump to get ready. The cold looking guy with his chin looking like he’d be able to cut someone walk past her. Some sort of strong aura he has that Seulgi somehow feel an unexplainable urge to punch his face. And after the whole red shirts passed her, the aura was so strong and Seulgi felt her insides burning—in anger. Her fist clamped shut and she felt the urge to raise it—

“Chill,” Joy touched her shoulder, “you’ll get used to it once you’re around them more.”

Seulgi gave Joy a puzzled look and Joy sniggered before pushing her to a couple of pale blue shirts sitting on the corner under a shady tree, reading, with their medical aid box on one side.

“Seohyun unnie,” Joy call out to a girl who has her head buried in a book of medieval architecture, “Can you wrapped her up with a tonic or something?”

The girl, Seohyun, took a few seconds to process what Joy said before nodding and patted the ground for Seulgi to sit while Joy went away leaving her. Seulgi sat and suddenly felt her legs cramping and she groaned.

“Eat this,” Seohyun softly spoke as she gave her a small square cube.

“What’s this?” Seulgi asked as she accepts it, playing it on her wounded palm. She slightly winced as the searing pain on her palms got her after a few seconds.

“Ambrosia,” Seohyun explains, “it heals your injuries. We usually eat this, or drink the nectar if we’re injured—but nectar is for heavy injuries.”

Seulgi nodded and immediately plonk it into —chomping it and somehow, somehow, it tasted like her favourite food in the world—pringles.

“Is it okay if I can have another one of this?” Seulgi asked as she is now hooked on this supposing medicine’s taste. Seohyun giggled cutely and said, “You can’t silly. You’ll get hyper if you eat this too much, or—you’ll burn away.”

“Seriously?!”

“Yeah, if you’re not a demigod, you’ll seriously burn to dust.” Seohyun attempt to sound horrific, which quite work as Seulgi stare horridly at the bunch of square cubes in the aid box.

Suddenly Yuri’s voice boomed once again as she countdown to 3. The spectators stood and cheered—the Ares clan of course, while the Hermes lot repay them back with thumbs down and a more ear-splitting booing.

The whistle blew and in the name of Gods—the pack was fast. Like seriously. Seulgi have never seen anyone throttling down the hill with such urge and speed while their eyes burn for victory. Needless to say, Seulgi thought their team was done. You do you red shirts, you do you.

“They’re fast aren’t they?” a familiar smooth voice came from Seulgi’s right.

Seulgi stray her eyes away from the red shirts, who have already springe themselves over the wall, and was met with those heart fluttering brown eyes. Irene came and immediately plopped down beside her and scans her from top to bottom, making Seulgi’s cheek burn.

“Did you hurt yourself?” Irene asked while her hands pluck the grass randomly, eyes averting.

“Uh…not really,” Seulgi stare at her palms, and wow—the previous cuts she has were all gone. What was left were just some red marks, similar to what she usually have if she did archery without her bracer.

“Omo !” both Irene and Seulgi got startled as the ground shook a little, to see the red shirts stomping their way back.

“What? They’re done??” Seulgi gaped and stood up, ignoring her legs which still felt a little jelly-like, not fully recovering although she ate the ambrosia.

“It’s normal. They’re Ares’s children, what do you expect?” Irene slightly scoffed before walking away towards Yuri.

Seulgi then joined her group members and all of them agreed not to feel dis