48 CHAPTER 47: PRETENDERS

"Hey Victoria, can you come here for a moment?" Gideon called Victoria with furrowed browns as he looked at the grass covered floor in confusion.

"Yeah what is it?" Victoria came over and asked Gideon as she stared at what he was looking at.

There was a white rabbit on the ground and it looked alright, just that it had a small cut on one of its hind legs.

"Why is this here?" Gideon asked again as he scratched his head.

"Huh, well I'm not sure what it's about but it's none of our business." Victoria said as an unnoticeable glint flashed in her eyes.

"I mean yeah, but still, it's kinda odd. Do you want to check it out?" Gideon asked as his eyes glinted strangely as well.

"No not really, but why can't you check it out? I mean, you're the one that found it." Victoria asked as she tilted her head while Gideon shook his.

"I'm not good at handling small animals." Gideon replied.

Victoria: "But isn't it dead?"

Gideon: "You can't be too sure."

Victoria: "What if it's a trap?"

Gideon: "I have confidence in your strength."

Victoria: " I'm flattered, but no."

Victoria said with a faint smile and Gideon's eyes furrowed ever so slightly, though Victoria noticed it.

"Ugh, fine." Gideon groaned and went to pick up the rabbit.

"Huh, seems like it really is just here." Gideon said as he showed Victoria the rabbit corpse and she just smile.

"Well then in that case. I'll get back to what I was doing." Victoria said with a slightly victorious smile.

"Alright, go on. Oh yeah I forgot." Gideon said as if he remembered something and Victoria looked at his with a frown.

"What is it?" She asked cautiously.

"Nothing much, just watch your feet." Gideon said with a faint smile and Victoria's instincts kicked in and she was about to jump, but she was a second to slow.

Green threads that perfectly blended in with the grass suddenly shot up at amazing speeds and in an instant, they wrapped around Victoria's body rendering her immobile.

"Damnit!" Victoria cursed with a frustrated expression.

"That's 5 to 3, are you sure you won't give up?" Gideon said with a smirk.

Draven had told them that if one of them could successfully fool the other 6 times, then they would get to move to the next training stage. And Gideon was ahead by 2.

"Ugh, Gideon your threads are too tight!" Victoria said with struggle as a pained expression made it's way to her face.

"Hmph, you can't fool me that easily." Gideon said with a snort.

But a few seconds passed, and Victoria started making sounds of pain as she squirmed.

"G- Gideon, please." Victoria said in a pleading voice as two crystalline tears formed at the corner of her eyes, and it was at that moment that Gideon's face turned to shock, and then panic.

'Shit.' Gideon cancelled the poison threads and appeared at Victoria's side and caught her just before she hit the ground.

'Did I use torture poison by accident. Fuck, I'm such an idiot.' Gideon gritted his teeth as he looked at the unconscious Victoria in his arms.

"Hehe, I'm happy that you care about me that much brother." Victoria suddenly laughed and Gideon suddenly had an ominous feeling. He wanted to let go of Victoria and move, but he was too late.

Purple aquafire surged from Victoria's body and before he could react.

*BOOM*

An explosion of purple energy rang out causing the earth to rumble slightly and the trees shook.

The dust cleared revealing two figures. Oddly, Gideon and Victoria were in the exact same position as before, just that the ground below them had caved in and was scorched with remnants of purple aquafire dancing around.

"Hah! Now it's 5 to 4." Victoria said with a smug expression, but Gideon didn't respond.

"G- Gideon?" Victoria said a bit fearfully as Gideon was silent and his face was unreadable.

'Should I have not played with his feelings like that?' Victoria began to wonder whether she has taken it too far.

"Hmm, that was indeed some impressive acting, but I'm not particularly happy with having my feelings toyed with like that. So you'll be punished accordingly." Gideon said with an emotionless voice and before she could react, green poison chains appeared and bound her.

"G- Gideon, h- hold on!" Victoria said with fear and Gideon approached her.

He first made her inhale some poison that she didn't know of it's effects and started moving his hands towards her.

She closed her eyes waiting to get beat, but the beating never came. Instead, it was something else.

"Pffft hahahaha!" Victoria started laughing loudly as Gideon began to tickle her fiercely. Her reaction seemed a bit exaggerated, but unknowingly to her, Gideon made her inhale his torture poison which not only increased pain, but other bodily sensations, and tickling was one one them.

"Gideon please, I'm- stop. Can't take- more!" Victoria struggled to form proper words as she ran out of breath repeatedly due to Gideon's tickling.

"You think you can trick me like that without any consequences? Let me put you in your place." Gideon said with contempt before he continued to tickle Victoria without any signs of stopping. He only stopped when she started coughing violently.

"Seriously, don't these two know that the fate of their whole world and possibly ours in in their hands?" Draven who was in his house watching through the window muttered as he felt his mouth twitching.

If anyone told him before that these two would have to bear such a heavy responsibility, then he would probably laugh in their faces and then slit their throat.

"Well, at least Gideon is in high spirits again." Draven thought as he looked at Gideon who was currently making sure that Victoria was alright after her coughing fit.

"Meh, whatever." Draven just shrugged uninterested before taking a sip from his tea cup. But immediately after, he looked at the tea in shock before turning to look outside.

Gideon seemed to notice something and turned towards Draven and smiled at him. But Draven felt even more shocked and even felt a tinge of fear.

That was because Gideon, poisoned his tea.