Candi knew they were already dead.

Without the rest of their bodies to support their brains, it would only be a matter of hours before their brains starved for lack of oxygen.

However, until then, they were still alive!

She had to quickly put an end to their suffering.

Candi pulled out four star shurikens and threw them at the snakes, impaling their heads with the sharp spikes. She had been saving these for the King Cobra, but at this moment, she needed to survive these snakes.

As the shurikens left her fingers, she jumped onto the limb of a near by tree and watched as they writhed on the ground.

The shurikens themselves didn’t have to do much damage. They had been dipped in poison and it would not take long for the poison to affect the snakes’ neurons.

As Candi watched the snake heads slowly die, she began to notice the small animals around her go quiet. Something large was coming this way.

It squawked and flew up into the sky, casting a large shadow on the ground.

Candi’s eyes widened.

All of her vibrating activities had brought the worms and the snakes to the surface. It had also brought the Andean condor whose favorite food was squirming about on the ground.

The condor’s appearance brought the colossal King Cobra out of hiding. It slithered its massive body out to the center of the clearing, throwing a challenge at the condor.

SQUAAAWWWKKK!!!

The condor screeched and dove into the clearing.

GROOOOOOOWLL!!!

The cobra hissed and growled, sounding like a mad dog. It raised one-third of its body up to meet the descending condor.

As the bird swooped in with talons outstretched, the cobra struck at its belly with fangs exposed.

The two animals entwined. Bits of feather and blood flew everywhere!

The bird had been bitten. The cobra had injected its venom into the bird’s body. Unfortunately, its head had been caught within the unyielding grasp of the condor’s claws.

THUMMPH!!!

They both dropped to the ground, writhing and .

From a distance, the raven Valeria Marakesh was flying towards the condor. She hovered in midair, watching the condor and the cobra fighting to the death.

Raising a hand, she acknowledged Candi’s presence and continued to watch the fight without interruption. She and Candi had the same idea.

If these two predators could kill themselves, it would save either of them from having to expend too much effort.

The visual pods hovered between Valeria and Candi, not sure which of them to focus on. They zeroed in on both the women’s faces, keeping them in sharp focus while other pods monitored the condor/cobra fight.

The condor flew up with its long sharp talons still digging into the cobra’s neck area.

The cobra pulled back and attacked. It sank its fangs into the bird’s feet. The condor squawked again and rose directly into the sky.

As it flew, the condor ripped the cobra’s head from its body, flinging it to the ground.

The cobra’s body, hooked within the condor’s talons, flailed about like a limp spaghetti noodle. It looked as if the condor had won the fight, but looks were deceiving.

The condor was starting to succumb.

The venom had finally worked its way to the condor’s heart and seized it. It fell to the ground, still clutching onto the cobra’s body.

WHUUUUUMPPP!!!

Valeria Marakesh flew to the ground.

“Good job. Thanks for killing it for me.” She grinned as she quickly cut the condor’s head off.

“See you at the platform. You’d better hurry though. I think the glass girl and the cat has already found their beasts and are finishing up.”

Candi smiled and waved her hand, not bothering to tell Valeria that there was no need to run towards the platform. There were only five of them left.

As the raven girl flew away with her bloody prize clutched in her arms, she surveyed the blood mess all around her.

The cobra’s head was still on the ground, its eyes tracking her every move. She knew it was still alive and could still kill her if she got too close to its head.

Reaching into her shuriken stash, she withdrew one more and threw it directly at its eyes.

The shuriken flew from her fingertips and embedded itself deep within the cobra’s eyes. It flailed and spasmed for a bit and then was motionless.

After a few minutes of stillness, she jumped down from the tree trunk that she had been sitting on and went to inspect it.

Then she pulled out a kerchief and bound it around the head, giving enough room to carry it, and she began making her way towards the platform.

According to the aerial views projected into her mask, she was an isolated tiny pulsating green point within the central region of the forest. Everyone else had exited the forest.

It would take her another fifteen minutes of hard running to get to the endpoint which was beyond the sprawling forest.

Candi picked up her pace and headed towards the platform.

As she got closer, it became more and more obvious to her that something was not quite right.

The raven Valeria Marakesh was fifteen minutes ahead of her, having picked up the condor’s head and flown off even before she had made it to the ground.

She was expecting Valeria to be on the platform along with at least a few of the other women who had made quick work of their kill.

Interestingly enough, the only two points of lights on the platform that she could see from her mask were the blue and orange colored points of Jenna Natoli and Anaïse Paroles.

As she got closer, Candi saw Jenna’s spotted golden body standing on the first dais. It seemed as if she had quickly claimed first position, having subdued her boar.

Her foot was on its head as she stood in the stance of the triumphant victor.

Second place had been claimed by the industrious silicon Anaïse. Her blue body glistened like a glass bottle under the bright noon sun.

The large grizzly bear head beside her pooled congealed blood like a prized trophy around her feet.

There was no one else on the glass platform.