44 MAROONING MIS (1/2)
As most of the contestants tussled near the center of the ice dumpster, the sudden reckless move of Brown Hill threw them into a disorder which also hindered Burton and Sariyu's plan of facing the four brothers together with other contestants.
As if that wasn't enough, the moisture of the air above the ice dumpster boosted in a matter of seconds as sheets of fog took shape in midair followed by jets of mist that spurted out of the water and hastily covered all the ice dumpster before spreading to the nearby audience stands, seemingly swallowing everyone in sight. The mist's momentum alone played with people's hair, twisting and turning their strands in weird manners. The lightning of the space all around the ice dumpster paled apace, despoiling all the clime. Men turned mad with the whelming thrill and tumult. Most hearts missed a beat or two.
All the contestants, who were visible just a few seconds ago, now got secreted from audiences' eyes, especially the ones present near the center of the ice dumpster.
This unsought for occurrence perplexed the audiences. Blinded by the burgeoning mist, their hands no longer clapped and mouths no longer cheered.
”W-What's going on?” Hundred freaked out from being unable to locate Lirzod or even Sariyu and Burton much more than he did by the enveloping mist. ”How did this much mist form?”
”Kah-haha, so they've decided to use the mist this time,” Tarkan chortled, fingers gently sliding past the hair even though not a strand had swayed. ”Everyone's hidden. It's about time the alphas exposed themselves through hunting and surviving in this mist.”
”Where the heck did this mist come from?” some other audiences were in utter confusion, but those who have been on the eleventh deck long enough weren't taken out of the blue by the sudden appearance of the mist.
777 frowned a bit as he loosened his folded arms. ”Che… If I had caught even a glimpse of Hardy Brothers before Sariyu entered the launching ground, I wouldn't have let her in. Now, she's bound to lose.” His shoulders slumped.
The entire hall fell silent. The referee watched with full attention, trying to see at least something in the mist. Even the men doing their things in the other parts of the hall had their attention shifted toward the ice dumpster, for they were now able to see a cloud of mist taking shape in its overlying air. Some had their feet move in while some had the opposite done to them.
Meanwhile, somewhere hidden in the mist, Lirzod kept looking around, verbalizing thoughts without hesitation. ”Wow, this fog is cool. I like it!” The mist's concentration around him was much higher, and the water of the ice dumpster which was cool before was now hot. The fog was so thick that Lirzod was only able to see a little over a meter in every direction. As he was admiring the fog, a man came flying out of nowhere and settled in the waters before him. He took a step away from the man but stopped after realizing that the fog whirled and flowed in different directions. His brows furrowed a bit. After a second thought, he changed his mind, ”This fog isn't that cool. I don't like it!” Even though he spoke aloud, his voice didn't reach the audience, for it lessened into nothing as it traversed through the fog. At the same time, Lirzod couldn't hear any voices in the neighborhood, so he imagined that the entire hall was being silent. ”Mm?” he looked down at the man lying by his feet, and a thought dawned upon him. He grabbed the man's collar and commanded, ”Listen, Bushy Brows, if you want to go back to your grandma in one piece, howl out my name, as loud as you can!”
The bushy-browed man, however, seemed too beaten to respond. Realizing that, Lirzod let go of him, but he wasn't demotivated by it at all. He discreetly took a few steps in one direction, making sure to memorize the path he moved in, including the number of steps, and to his luck, he came across another beaten man who wasn't as heavily hammered as the last one. Seeing Lirzod, that man tried getting back to his feet, but Lirzod kicked his chest, forcing his whole body back into the water. Lirzod pulled the man's head out by the hair.
”Take it easy, I'm not here to hurt you,” Lirzod said in a low voice.
”Stop pulling my hair, you little rat!” the man rebuked.
”Oh, my bad,” Lirzod let go of the hair and grabbed the shirt collar instead and spoke in a careful tone. ”If you don't want me to bother you anymore, howl out my name, as clear and as loud as you can!”
The man uttered not a word but just bore his teeth.
Lirzod gave him a blank look before dipping his head back into the water for a few seconds.
After pulling the head out, Lirzod asked again, his voice containing a source of urgency this time around, ”Howl my name and I will leave right away.”
”Bwuh,” the man spilled out more than a mouthful of water. ”Stop!”
”Howl my name, and I will.”
”Your name?” The man made a crying face. ”I would if I could.” He wanted to punch Lirzod in the face but was took weak at the moment to do that; he also was in a disadvantageous position.
Lirzod's eyes broadened from hearing that. Only now, he realized that he never revealed his name to neither the contestants nor the audience, yet he expected the contestants to howl his name and the audience to recognize it. It almost made Lirzod want to pull his hair out. ”Ugh... I'm a fool!”
”You are right,” the man responded.
”Shut up,” Lirzod ripped out a few tens of strands from that man's head, making him shriek sharply in pain. As the man shrieked, Lirzod's ear flickered. He noticed that the moving fog warped the shriek and made it sound a bit different as every instant passed. It felt quite abnormal from before. He couldn't tell the difference when speaking normal words, but a shriek lasted much longer, so his ears caught the gradual difference the voice went through. He let go of the man and inspected his surroundings with a bit more attention than before. ”The water of the entire pool seems to have warmed up which makes it comfortable to stay in, but this fog… Something's strange about it. What should I do now? I think I know the direction I should run in, but with this fog trying to push me around… I'm not sure if it'll be a good idea.”
Boksa, meanwhile, rose out of the water and ground his teeth, with nobody around in his vicinity. ”Those shitty brothers… They had to use this ugly ass technique now of all times.” He clenched his fists, trying to control his rage, for he had to stop his attack 'Mountain Roll' in the middle, all thanks to the marooning mist. ”They seem to think they can do whatever they want when I'm around. Then I should show them how wrong they are.” His mouth began to suck all the mist around him strongly. ”Mountain Drain!”
All the fog within the distance of almost thirty meters to Boksa got sucked into his mouth—a seemingly bottomless, unplumbed pit, thereby revealing a few faces to him. Many audiences who sat at higher positions in the audience stands also were ultimately able to see the contestants in that spot.
”Oh, there he is!” the referee, who jumped up to be able to see, articulated excitedly through the mic as the audience were still able to hear it. ”'Brown Hill' Boksa is talking in all the mist as if it's booze. Is mist perhaps like booze to a mountain?”
Hundred was also able to see Boksa. ”That guy… he's capable of sucking that much of the mist into his stomach. Does he have a matrix?”
”Probably,” Tarkan said, narrowing his eyes to be able to see even the faintest silhouettes forming in the fog, ”but what he's taking in isn't mist but fog, and it's turning more and more silvery by the second.”
”Mm?” Hundred was puzzled for a moment before his eyes enlarged. ”So it's much denser in the ice dumpster than it's here. Still, we can see that not just the mist around us but even that fog in the ice dumpster is moving around at a good speed. I can't tell, but it's probably moving faster there than here.” His shoulders tightened a bit. ”To think that Hardy Brothers were capable of doing this, they surely must be itching to prove a point.” His heart pumped blood at an increased pace. (I hope the brothers won't catch him in that mist, or they'll feast on him.)
After sucking in so much of fog in one breath, Boksa eventually stopped and seemed disappointed with what he achieved. ”Just this much?” He expected to suck in all the fog present in the ice dumpster, but he only managed to clear out the mist for about forty meters from him in every direction. Probably, the abnormally high density of the fog gave him the impression that he absorbed a lot more than he rightfully did, at least volume wise.
However, what surprised Boksa more was that the water level of the ice dumpster which should have lowered by at least a foot had in truth increased a bit, which in turn made him knit his brows.