By this time, Dahlia’s red stiletto heels had been ripped from her feet.

The red shoes went tumbling and swirling around, clattering against the glass cylinder. They quickly got pulled up into the bright blue sky and disappeared from sight.

The only reason why Dahlia had not flown away was because she was clutching onto Candi’s arm with both hands in a death grip, her legs flailing upward as her body began to be sucked skyward.

In any normal circumstance, Candi would have most likely been dragged along with Dahlia up the wind tunnel because Candi was physically much smaller than Dahlia.

The Avgo gemstone however, was far stronger than any wind of this nature. It kept her anchored on the platform and protected her from the wind.

Meanwhile, Dahlia was crying desperately. Her clutch was so strong that Candi could not pull her arm away even if she wanted to.

“Help me!!! Please!!!” Dahlia’s eyes were desperate and tearful.

Candi looked at Dahlia. She turned to Lorem Ipsum who stood there with a smirk on his lips. He was unaffected by the wind.

She stared at him, aghast. He was trapped within the same cylinder as she was but why did it not affect him?

Even his perfect silvery white goatee, which was curled and gelled to perfection lay untouched on his chest.

Candi looked around.

Aside from all the wind noise and the women around her squeaking and squawking as they tried to deal with their own hair and clothing and wing disturbances, it was strangely anomalous.

Obviously, the wind was fake!

Once Candi saw that the wind was fake, she could not unsee it.

“Avgo. Shut down the wind!” She called out.

Instantly, the wind stopped.

CLUNK!!!

Dahlia dropped like dead weight beside her, crying and sobbing and clutching onto Candi’s ankles for fear of being lifted by the whirlwind again.

Candi scowled at Lorem Ipsum as she clutched at her aching arm. He no longer seemed as nice and friendly as he did when she was standing on the stage next to him.

This was all his doing.

He could have simply asked for all the women to produce the Avgo gemstone in their possession and the ones who had it would have it. The one who didn’t could simply be disqualified.

What he did instead, had damaged their hair, their clothing, their fragile wings and scales, and turned them into clowns for the public to gawk at. It had certainly destroyed any sense of pride that Dahlia had.

She scowled, looking down at her arm.

Damn that hurt! Underneath her long sleeves were most likely bruises that would match Dahlia’s red-tipped claws.

Those would most definitely not be fake!

She sighed.

Slate was going to be super mad about the bruises!

Lorem Ipsum raised his arms up into the air.

With a wave of his hand, he called out a loud command and the items that had been taken from the women fell back down from the sky, clattering onto the stage like so much glitter debris.

Even Dahlia’s red shoes had dropped onto the stage with a clatter, breaking off one of the stiletto points.

Dahlia stared at her broken red shoes lying among the heap of loose jewelry, black and red feathers, and broken butterfly wings. Her face was streaked with black tears as her eye makeup ran down her cheeks.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope that was as entertaining as it was enlightening. We now have the real seven contestants and the stage will be adjusted accordingly.”

He waved another hand and two people approached the platforms. They made their brisk way to Dahlia who was still on the floor, clinging onto Candi’s ankles.

Without a word, they extricated her grasping fingers from Candi’s legs, picked her up and carried her off the stage, kicking and screaming.

Everything happened so fast, Candi did not even have a chance to think about an appropriate response. All she could think of was her bleeding ankles.

Dahlia had dug her fingernails into her legs, not wanting to leave the stage and had gashed her up pretty good.

As she stood there on the stage, bleeding on the platform, the people screamed and cheered and the perfectly and beautifully coiffed goat man stood in front of seven disheveled, torn, bleeding women and played up the crowd.

Candi closed her eyes.

This was going to be a rough and bloody pageant, from what she could already see. She was starting to really hate that old goat.

As the crowd went wild, the dais lowered into the floor, leaving behind the noise and lights of the coliseum. Once the dais had sunk down to the floor below, the ceiling closed and they were inside a chamber that only had one exit.

The women stepped off their tiny platforms and began streaming out through the opening. Not knowing what to expect next, Candi followed all the women towards the exit point.

Immediately beyond the chamber, she found Slate, back in human form and leaning against a support column waiting for her.

He took one look at her and his eyes grew hard and cruel.

Candi was about to give some off-handed excuse for looking so bad when he strode to her side.

“What happened to you? Why are you all bloodied???”

Candi sighed. He looked really mad.

“The old goat set up a whirlwind inside that glass cylinder and blew everyone around.”

He crouched down and began gently taking off her shoes. Then he touched her ankles with healing power.

“I saw the Avgo test.” He growled. “I’m talking about your bloody ankles. Didn’t I tell you that your body had to be perfect for the physical?”

Candi grimaced.

“That Earth woman got sucked upward by the whirlwind and she grabbed onto me. What was I supposed to do?”

“You could have kicked her off instead of letting her damage you like this.” He looked up, brilliant blue eyes fierce with rage.

Candi sighed.

“She is huge Slate! The woman is six feet tall, and she had her long claw fingers dug into my skin. She was gripping me so hard, I would have bled no matter what I did.”

He stood up.

“I’m taller than that. If I ever hurt you like this, kick me. Hard!”

Candi shook her head.

“It was not on purpose. The woman was afraid for her life and was just clinging onto me.”

If I had been under water and she was dragging me under, I would kick her,” she grimaced. “But in this case, I wasn’t really in any danger. I just got a little bruised and bloody is all.”

“Bruised?” Slate turned to me, anger once again flaring in his eyes. “Where are you bruised???”