I sighed at the sight of people making a fuss over who should have say over what others do. I held Baekho's arm and started walking forward. An L-shaped path shone before us and everyone fell silent.

 

"What are you doing, Minhyun?" Baekho asked in surprise. 

 

"We have to attack the Bishop before it gets to us," I replied. "If we play by the rules, we should be able to... Defeat the Bishop just by entering its box." 

 

Technically the pawn could get rid of it but judging from the player's behavior, they didn't know how to play. I stepped into the bishop's box and Baekho gulped, stumbling in behind me. The statue turned to look at us and we both flinched. It's arm moved its hand that held a staff and slammed it on the ground. As if on command, a large cage enclosed around us with the Bishop. Some screamed in shock while we both froze in fear. 

 

"Minhyun! Baekho!" Several voices called our names. The Bishop swung its staff towards us and fire shot out in our direction. 

 

"Fuc-" We both ran as it exploded on the ground, searing it as tiny flecks of flames continued the ground. 

 

"We have to beat it?! How is this even fair?!" Baekho yelped. 

 

"There has to be a way that tilts in our advantage! Like the other statue game," I responded as we both tried to run behind it but it spun on its pedestal almost smoothly to face us. It shot more fire towards us and we continued dodging as much as we could, avoiding the burning patches on the limited space we had. It was becoming warmer and gradually hot as well in the iron cage itself. 

 

"Well, I don't see anything!" 

 

"Your inventory!" Jonghyun yelled. "You must've had gotten something from Prism before! Use it!" 

 

"The katana," I reminded Baekho as he clicked on his cuff and opened his backpack. 

 

"How do I take it out?!" 

 

"Wah!" I pulled him back as flames erupted in front of us instead. We both fell and panted. He clicked on the sword symbol and its handle came out from the menu. He grabbed it and pulled it out all the way. He gasped softly and turned it to give it a better look. "No time to admire it!" 

 

I pulled him up in a hurry as another fireball was hurled towards us. We barely managed to get by unscathed as we both leaned against the bars before jumping away from it as they were hot. Baekho held the katana out and we both gulped. 

 

"Can a sword even cut through stone?" I asked. 

 

"You're asking me?!" Baekho squeaked. "We have to try or we will be barbecued to death first!" 

 

Read the movements. Study and process it. This was unconventional chess. A knight wouldn't stand a chance to go against a bishop in our current situation but in chess, anything could defeat anything as long as it entered their enemy's box first. 

 

"We don't have enough information," I muttered to myself. 

 

"Huh? What's that?" 

 

"Let's attack it."

 

Baekho charged forward and I followed as quickly as I can, ducking low as fire flew past our head. He swung his sword and it connected to the statue's body. He pulled his sword and to both our shock, it sliced into the statue as if it was tough jelly but that didn't stop it from turning and firing more shots at us. I yelped in pain as it scorched my shoulder. Baekho hurriedly patted the little flickers before it grew any larger.

 

"We can defeat it," he said and gritted his teeth, adjusting his grip on the katana. "Stay close to me, Minhyun."

 

"You don't have to say that twice." I could feel my shoulder sting but now wasn't the time for it. I would already consider myself lucky if I get by with just a slightly burnt shoulder. We started to charge in together again, landing as many cuts as we could.

 

"It's tipping!" I gasped as it started to creak and tilt. "One more cut!"

 

Baekho swung as hard and swift as he could, managing to slice through the statue cleanly. It toppled and crashed onto the ground, breaking into bits and chunks. We both gasped as the cage lifted off us and the fire diminished, leaving only charred marks on the ground. We looked at the others and they looked at us too before everyone started to cheer. I smiled slightly but caught Baekho's serious look.

 

"This is just the first match... Doesn't chess only end when we beat the king?" he asked and I pursed my lips.

 

"Yes... But if this encourages them..."

 

We looked out at the enemy and even though we just defeated their bishop, they only seemed to look more menacing. I felt myself quiver slightly as its knight slid out from its spot. If a Bishop could use fire magic, what could a Knight do? What about castle? And even the Queen and King? There was no saying what was going to happen going forward in this but it was definitely risky.

 

"Hey, what do we do now?" someone asked and we both exchanged glances.

 

"We should work together to find the best move possible... Who here has weapons?" Baekho asked. "If we can somehow gain some kind of advantage over the enemy pieces, we could win this without losing anyone."

 

I kept quiet since it was pretty clear that it would be hard to make everyone cooperate. Plus Baekho and I weren't the most well versed in chess. There was a show of hands and weapons.

 

"Okay... Lets just hope that wasn't a lucky first duel we had," Baekho gulped. I looked at my shoulder and didn't say anything, not wanting to worry Baekho right now since it seemed like people were looking up to him. He started to coordinate the moves to the best of his abilities, avoiding confrontation forever was impossible and there were limited people with weapons and also fighting prowess a few pawns with small weapons and a couple others with guns and swords. Our Bishop managed to take out a few of their pawns with their assault rifle. The two in possession of it seemed to know how to use it too which bode well for us. The enemy pawns weren't magic wielders like the Bishops but they were rather quick on their feet with daggers. We tried to avoid the bigger pieces but their knights and other bishop were also moving forward in the playing field. 

 

"Doesn't this mean we can just tackle the King straight on without check or checkmate?"

 

"That seems to be the case," Baekho replied as we moved forward. To my confusion, it almost seemed as if the enemy team wasn't attacking us vigorously either. They were advancing but none were attacking us directly. Was it a trick? Or was Baekho really just this good at the game? That couldn't be it or he would have said something earlier. Something felt wrong but I couldn't tell what it was even as we got closer to the King piece.

 

"Hey, you. Let's attack the King. We don't have too many bullets to spare but we should be able to take him out if he's just as easy as these little s."

 

"Don't be too rash. Their queen hasn't moved at all," Baekho said and the one who spoke clicked his tongue.

 

"Don't be such a . We already got this far ahead and we got a whole arsenal still behind us. We can finish this just you, your partner and us," he said. Baekho glanced at me and I blinked.

 

"What? You got us this far, you're not going to be asking me what we should do, are you?" I chuckled and he sighed.

 

"It just feels like a trap... I didn't think they would let us get into their defences this fast..."

 

"Huh... I know. I feel that too. It could all just be misleading us but if we kill the king first, everyone else wouldn't have to put themselves into danger, right?" I said softly. Baekho looked at the others and nodded.

 

"You're right. We should go on."

 

"Great. We will go first," the gunner spoke and they started to move but the board suddenly started flowing red and we all jumped. The king moved and the castle slid past, stopping right where the king was.

 

"Castling on our turn? That's ing cheating!" the gunner snapped.

 

"Let's kill the castle then. What can the king even do to us?" his partner said.

 

"Wait, stop!" Baekho gasped. We were in the advantage since the beginning but this wasn't going to go well for us. Even I could tell and the rest too. They didn't listen and Baekho couldn't take another step out of the box as they started to move, cancelling our action. Invisible walls shot up, blocking Baekho from trying to physically stop them. "No! We can't lose you guys!"

 

"Hah. Chicken. Let them attack us then."

 

"Wait!"

 

It was too late. They entered the castle's box and red light shone out from the edges, barricading them inside with the castle who was a rather buff looking statue with a large shield and a flag behind it.

 

"They're going to die," Baekho said worriedly but the thought of something happening to us if we stepped out of our box kept us there. Who knows what might happen to us. Get blown into bits? The two started unloading their bullets at the castle who had his shield up. The bullets bounced off almost harmlessly. "Don't aim for the shield! You have to get around it!" 

 

"You think that's easy?!" They tried to run up to its side but it swivelled just as easily in either directions that they ran towards. 

 

"They're not a good match up against that," I muttered. Baekho gritted his teeth and looked at the edge of the tile. "Baekho, don't. We don't know what would happen." 

 

"So we should just let them die?" Baekho groaned and curled up his fist.

 

"Maybe they can win, just trust them."

 

"But the castle..."

 

The shielded statue started to move forward at an alarming speed, ramming straight against the wall mercilessly as if to show its speed. Both males gasped as they almost stumbled from its sheer speed.

 

"It can do that?!"

 

"!"

 

The statue turned towards them and rammed ahead again. The two managed to get out of its way before they were crushed but they weren't so lucky the next round as they had tried dodging separate ways, forgetting the existence of the cuff that held them together temporarily at the sight of the large statue coming up to them.

 

"Crap!"

 

"Run!"

 

The statue slammed right into the chain and started to drag the two back. The rest could only watch in horror as squishing and crunching noises echoed as if to tell us what would happen even if we tried. This was the reality of this game. Death. The statue turned around, shield smeared with blood as it moved back to the middle of its tile. 

 

"It cheated... And it won," Baekho said in a low voice, shutting his eyes tightly as if cursing himself for being unable to do anything. 

 

"Now isn't the time to get sad or angry. We already warned them, Baekho." 

 

I noticed among their mushed up bodies were their guns, left untouched surprisingly. 

 

"Baekho, I know you probably don't want to hear this now but I think we can get their guns if we attack the castle now." 

 

"Isn't it their turn?" 

 

"We will move as soon as they make theirs." 

 

"But we have to go up against the shield guy..." 

 

I nodded. Unless it moved out of the box which seemed pretty impossible. The enemy statue started to move and it stopped right in front of us. Both of us looked at the tall threatening Queen that stood before us, completely forgetting that the castle was the main threat in the first place. 

 

"Now what?" 

 

~~~

 

The Queen has made a move. And yours will be? 

 

> Run

 

> Attack the castle 

 

> Move another piece