Before Ryan’s hasty attack, the players had positioned themselves like this, cautiously eyeing at everybody else:

Jennifer               Jeric Cristina               Joriz


                        Ryan


Mabel                 Vincent Joshua           Shaira

    Jeric quickly discerns Ryan’s plan, but since he’s enclosed in a glass cylinder like the other players, he’s forced to create interlocking gigantic cactuses that immediately surround him and Cristina. He then creates a .45 caliber gun at Cristina’s feet.

    Cristina faces Jeric, sweat beading her pale forehead. “Help me!”

    “Defend yourself!” Jeric shouts to Cristina, but his cage effectively muffles his voice. “GET THE GUN AND FIGHT! DON’T LET HIM GET YOU!” Jeric wants to create a shotgun, but his prison is too small for him to do it. The sight of Cristina, trembling and panting, infuriates him so intensely that he punches his cage several times. “DAMN IT! LET ME OUT, GLASS FREAK!”

    Upon seeing the thorny barricade, Ryan stops running, steps back, thinks for several seconds, creates a number of glass nails hovering in front of him, and sends them flying like darts toward his target’s defense. Those hit immediately turn to smoke, revealing Cristina, shuddering behind Jeric’s cage. Ryan repeats his attack to annihilate the remaining cactuses, scaring Cristina even more. Other players can only watch as Ryan thinks of his next move to mark her target. At a corner, Mabel carefully unzips the backpack she’s been hugging and checks the blue tumbler she took from the open field. Mabel’s hope fires up as she looks at the water she took from below the cliff near the giant wall.

    “JUST GET THE GUN!” Jeric growls at Cristina who is tearfully hiding like a cornered squirrel. He then glares at Ryan and curses him repeatedly. Desperate, he creates hundreds of oversized cobras above Ryan, and let them rain onto his target. Upon noticing the threat, Ryan encloses himself in a glass cube just in time before the snakes can pounce on him. The snakes start to slither in all directions, completely discouraging other players to escape their prisons.

    "They won’t go near you,” Jeric tells Cristina coupled with hand gestures.

    Cristina understands Jeric’s message and tries to calm down. “But you can’t kill anyone! You can’t kill Ryan!” Cristina shouts at Jeric. “If he dies, YOU DIE!”

    “I don’t care!” Jeric snarls. He can’t hear Cristina clearly, but he understands her somehow. “He forgets I can create snakes INSIDE his stupid box!”

    “STOP! PLEASE!” Cristina beats Jeric’s cage with her clenched fist. “We only have to mark our targets. If you die, I won’t survive this place! Stop!”

    Cristina’s frantic pleading gets Jeric like a spell, leaving him boiling and gnashing his teeth in silence. Meanwhile, Ryan just scoffs at the snakes. He swiftly creates hundreds of glass nails hovering near the ceiling, each about five inches long, and showers them to his slithering enemies until none remain. Satisfied, he turns his glass protection and nails into dust and prepares for another attempt to mark Cristina. Suddenly, a past scene with his seven-year-old daughter knifes deep into his mind and cleaves his concentration….

    “Daddy! Thank you for the cotton candy.”

    “You like it?”

    “Yeeees! It’s so sweet. It melts in my mouth.”

    “Did you see the lion right there?”

    “Yes. And tiger. And… snakes. I’m scared of snakes. I saw many snakes over there. They’re in glass cages.”

    “Don’t worry. They can’t bite you.”

    “Do you think they like it in there? What do they eat?”

    “I don’t know. Somebody takes care of them….”

    “Daddy?”

    “What, baby?”

    “Thank you for taking care of me.”

    Ryan snaps out of his memory, stares at Cristina’s guard, and mutters, “Just give up, okay?”

    Jeric stares back and says, “Don’t be so cocky, glass freak.”

    Meanwhile, Shaira can’t take her situation any longer. “LET US OUT!” Shaira screams, beating the glass enclosing her with her palms. “I can’t breathe in here. Ryan, let me out! You can’t just treat us like sardines! HEEY!” Shaira checks the other trapped players, desperately trying to free themselves. But she knows that escape is almost impossible, remembering how strong Ryan’s glass is. In a snap, she also remembers how she controlled Mabel’s and Cristina’s bodies in the open field, and this gives her an idea. “I’m sorry, but you forget that I can fight from here.” Shaira fixes her gaze at Ryan, controls his clothes, and sends him flying toward Jennifer, finally banging on the glass wall near one of the corners. The impact instantly knocks out Ryan, and with him unconscious, all the glass cylinders he created shatter. “Oh my God! Did I overdo it?” Shaira checks her watch and lets out a sigh of relief when Ryan’s name remains excluded on the list.

    Straight away, Jennifer takes advantage of the situation. She removes the lid of her marker and quickly draws a line on Ryan’s face. “You’re not my target, but I need to do this. Now I need to mark two more.”

    Meanwhile, the best friends finally move a little closer to Mabel. “Careful! Don’t step on those shards,” Joshua tells Vincent.

    “I know. I’m barefoot, but I’m not stupid. Don’t treat me like a baby,” Vincent says. He picks up a shard of glass that almost looks like a kitchen knife. “Pick up yours, too. This is not going to be easy.”

    “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

    “Just do it!”

    Shaira realizes that Ryan will quickly lose the game if three more players manage to mark him. She remembers how Ryan helped her and other players back then, and she can’t afford to lose him just like that. “If someone must lose,” Shaira thinks, “that would be Jeric or Cristina. Maybe I should have just let him attack them. I’m so sorry.” Upon seeing that Jeric is approaching Ryan, Shaira quickly controls Ryan’s body, making it move like a flying corpse until it slowly lands near her. “Thank God, everyone wears clothes. Hey, Ryan, wake up!” Shaira repeatedly shakes Ryan’s body and notices that Ryan’s head is bleeding….

    Shaira’s trick to snatch Ryan infuriates Jeric even more. He glowers at Shaira with a burning desire to punish her. “You little bitch! You don’t want to mess with me.” Jeric starts to bolt toward Shaira, but Jennifer shoots him with a red light orb, freezing him instantly in a running position. Jennifer cautiously approaches Jeric, but a gunshot almost hits his right leg, terrifying her at once.

    “I’m not good at shooting, but I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger,” Cristina threatens Jennifer, her voice cracking and stern. “It means I might hit your heart… or head. Step back. NOW!”

    The sight of the smoking barrel pointed at her frightens Jennifer so intensely that she starts to quiver. “Okay…. Don’t shoot. I’ll step back.”

    “Don’t you DARE point your hands at me! My bullets can hurt you, but you can’t hurt me with your… light balls or whatever you call them. So don’t do anything stupid and STEP BACK!”

    Jennifer raises her arms and slowly steps back toward Mabel while still eyeing at the gun. “Okay, okay. I understand.”

    “Move faster!” Cristina’s desperation and fear make her forget that she can force Jennifer to undo her power and make Jeric able to move again.

    “Okay. I’m stepping back. You see….”

    Meanwhile, Mabel just remains silent at a corner, shrouded in fear. Her left hand is gripping her marker; the other hand, her tumbler. She wishes to be hidden in the dark, but the torch above her makes her stay noticeable. Her attention anxiously shifts from player to player, and the fact that Jennifer is approaching her intensifies her paranoia. Like flitting pages of a book, her past memories with her mother rapidly play in her mind and suddenly slow down on a specific scene….

    “Don’t forget your food.”

    “Thanks, Mom! You’re the best.”

    “And before I forget…. I bought something for you.”

    “Really?”

    “Here. A tumbler. A blue one. Your favorite color.”

    “Oh.”

    “Stop buying bottled water in school, okay? Our tap water is still the best. And cheap.”

     Mabel wipes her teary eyes and with her left arm, concentrates on guarding herself, and utters, “I will see you again, Mom.”

     Meanwhile, about seven meters on Mabel’s right, Vincent is persuading Joshua to mark him….

    “Are you nuts?” Joshua says, confused.

    “Mabel is my target,” Vincent says. “I think I can mark her easily. At least mark me before I mark her. I think you can’t mark Jeric, so just target three other players.”

    “Are you sure about this?”

    “Come on! Do it!”

    “But—”

    “JUST DO IT!”

    Joshua finally does Vincent’s command, marking him in the neck with a small dot. “Mabel is defenseless. Go!”

    “No.”

    “What?”

    “I want you to be out of here first. If I mark Mabel, I’ll be sent out and I can’t help you anymore.”

    “But—”

    “I have an idea.”

    Meanwhile, Joriz scans the players and thinks of a strategy to survive. “Cristina is guarding Jeric’s frozen body. Jennifer and Mabel are too far. Shaira and Ryan are near, but attacking Shaira is risky. Vincent is with Joshua, obviously guarding each other. Everyone is ignoring me, so I might land an attack against Joshua and survive this.” Joriz finally points one of his palms at Joshua, thinking of shooting him with a huge ball of slime.  

    “YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO THAT! DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH THOSE TWO!” Shaira growls at Joriz. “You want to fly? If you want to survive, come here. I will help you.”

    Joriz clashes his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

    “I will let you mark my skin. But I’ll mark yours, too. But don’t touch Ryan, okay? Let’s team up and defeat Jeric. You hate him, right?”

    Joriz thinks for several seconds. “Okay. Let’s do that.”

    Meanwhile, Vincent throws the glass shard he picked up, stealthily runs toward Jennifer, and touches her shoulder. “One kilogram.” At once, he lifts Jennifer with his arms. “Don’t try to freeze me, or you’ll stay light until the day you die. Don’t take this personally, okay?” The sight of Jennifer under Vincent’s power gives Cristina a tinge of delight, so she does not interfere.

    “What are you doing?” Jennifer screams. “Let me go!”

    “If I’m your target and you mark me, you’ll be out and that’s good. But good luck with the wind outside. One hundred grams. You feel like a feather now?”

    “NOOOO! Turn me back to normal!”

    Vincent carries Jennifer toward Joshua, careful not to step on any glass shard. “Mark her. Now!”

    Joshua quickly dots Jennifers neck. “Okay. Done.”

Vincent supinely lays Jennifer on the ground and draws a line on her right cheek. He then touches her shoulder and says, “Five hundred kilograms.”

“Hey, that’s too much!” Joshua says, his eyes bulging in disbelief. “You might kill her!”

    “No. It won’t kill her. It will just stop her from getting up. Dude, one more target and you’ll be out of here.”

    “AAAARGH!” Jennifer screams. Her new mass does not let her lift even a single finger. “HEY!”

    “Later, okay?” Vincent stands up and faces Mabel. “Wait, what?”

    While the best friends were marking Jennifer, Mabel was busy disassembling her marker. She shakily squeezed the polyester marker reservoir and managed to make a little amount of ink drip into her tumbler. Unsatisfied, she placed the marker reservoir into the tumbler and shook the mixture until the water turned black. She then controls the mixture until she was surrounded by thousands of hovering tiny black droplets.

    “STAY AWAY FROM ME!” Mabel screams. Her eyes are now sapphire blue, glaring at Vincent. Her arms are wide open as if they were holding the droplets in position. This gets everyone’s attention.  

    “Hey! Okay, I won’t attack you,” Vincent says, totally surprised. He raises his arms in surrender and moves several steps back. “You’re scaring me.”

    Terrified of what might happen, Cristina unsteadily points her gun at Mabel’s feet and pulls the trigger.

    She misses.

    “AAARGH!” Mabel screams. “I SAID STAY AWAY!” At once, Mabel sends her droplets flying in all directions with controlled force to avoid killing everyone. Black droplets easily hit Cristina, Jeric, Jennifer, Vincent and Joshua. Fortunately, Shaira manages to create a makeshift shield out of Joriz’s red polo shirt, effectively protecting herself, Joriz and Ryan from the black shower. Immediately, Mabel vanishes in thin air, reappears outside the enclosure near the entrance to the square battlefield, slumps to the ground, hits the grass, and falls asleep. Mabel’s marker vanishes, but her backpack and tumbler remain inside the enclosure.

    “There goes my target,” Vincent mumbles.

    “That sly girl!” Cristina says. “Aaaaargh!”

    “ONE IS OUT! THAT WAS ENTERTAINING!” Victor yells like an annoying commentator. “I LOVE THIS BATCH!”

    “That was allowed?” Joshua asks while wiping the black droplets off his face with his hand.

    “Of course! She used her ink to mark you, didn’t she? Okay, bye!”

    Meanwhile, Shaira thanks Joriz and gives back his polo shirt in its original form. “We were not hit, thanks God!”

    “Thank you for saving me,” Joriz says, his heart beating fast. “Now what should we do?”

    “Oh, this is bad.”

    “Huh?”

    “Jeric can move now. And he’s really pissed off. Use your power to stop him.” Shaira kneels beside Ryan and frantically shakes Ryan’s body. “Ryan, wake up! We need you. Hey! Wake up!”

    “But you can fight against Jeric, right?”

    Shaira faces Joriz with her exasperate face. “YOU DON’T KNOW THAT MONSTER! HE WON’T CARE IF HE KILLS SOMEONE! JUST DO YOU PART!”

    “Okay.”

    Shaira faces Vincent and shouts, “Don’t let Jennifer escape! She’s my target!”

    Vincent hears Shaira and replies, “But she’s been marked three times already. If you mark her, she will die!”

    Shiara inaudibly utters several curses. “Things are getting worse.” She then shifts her attention to Jeric and blinks several times in disbelief. “What is happening?”

    Seeing Jeric able to move again forces Vincent to turn Jennifer’s mass back to normal. Jennifer itches to retaliate, but noticing Jeric’s new trick silences her at once.

    “You’re not hallucinating,” Joshua tells Jennifer. “This is happening.”

    “How is this possible?” Jennifer asks.

    Meanwhile, Joriz faces Shaira, confused and terrified. “So which one should I attack?”

    Shaira can’t speak. She just stares at two Jeric’s bodies standing near Cristina. Her attention darts to Cristina who is moving several steps back, staggered and confused. Then, within seconds, Jeric's body multiplies even more.

"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty...," Joshua mutters. "I'm losing count."

Without warning, several copies of Jeric's body dash toward the rest of the players while a number of them remain standing near Cristina, protecting her like a queen....