Dan

The team gradually made their way towards the nearest weapons cache. The gunfire around them had died down, though an occasional burst here and there still kept Dan on high alert. The entire journey to cover the remaining two hundred meters was slow and methodical, as all three were on constant look out for any enemy teams who could ambush them.

“Just another few dozen meters left,” Dan said. He squinted and could see a small open area through the dense grouping of trees where crates and various weapons laid strewn on the ground.

Dan’s hope and relief were stopped cold when Dan stopped in front of bushes with the body of an agent sprawled on it. The agent had his torso penetrated by rounds that had punched through his armor. The bullet holes still leaked blood that dripped down onto the shrubs and ground. Li extended his arm in front of him. “I see a team at our one o’clock. Stay out of sight.”

All three separated into their own hiding spots. Li pressed his back against a tree while Dan dropped down to his stomach and instinctively grabbed Angie who was beside him. Both agents hid behind the bushes with the dead agent still laying lifelessly in the wildlife.

Dan laid on the ground behind the bushes. Through the cracks in the branches, Dan could faintly make out two agents in silver long coats, most likely Hellhounds, shooting at another team he could see. Both Hellhounds used the various crates at the cache as cover against the incoming fire.

“Let the firefight play out,” Li said. “Those Hellhounds are holding up well.”

The Hellhounds fired in short controlled bursts with their rifles against other agents out of view. The other shooters gradually dwindled and a Hellhound fired one last burst before complete silence fell over the weapons cache.

The other Hellhound lifted his head over one of the crates and stood up fully. For now, they had repelled their enemies.

“We need to get closer,” Dan said over the private channel. “They just one an intense gunfight. Their guard will be down.”

“Good thinking,” Li responded.

Dan glanced to his right and tapped Angie on the shoulder. “Stay close behind us, but keep your distance. Li and I will approach the weapons cache and deal with those Hellhounds.”

“Okay,” Angie said.

Li broke cover first with Dan following about a dozen paces behind the stealth specialist. Dan felt gusts of wind blowing in his face. He smiled beneath his mask knowing that he and Li had the upper hand in this scenario. The pair of Hellhounds still had their backs turned to them and the wind was blowing in their direction, meaning the enemy team wouldn’t be able to detect them through scent.

Li raised a close fist in the air, signalling Dan to stop. Both of them found the nearest tree and crouched down. Dan leaned out and judged that he was roughly fifteen meters away from the weapons cache and the pair of Hellhound agents, close enough to hear a conversation between the two.

“That was too messy,” one said. The Hellhound was noticeably shorter than his teammate. “Grab whatever you can and I’ll go back and grab our boy out of the bushes.”

Dan assumed that the bullet-ridden agent back in the shrubbery was a member of this Hellhound team.

“With wounds like those, I doubt he’s still alive. If he is dead, then he would want us to progress,” the other Hellhound said.

“Still, I don’t feel comfortable leaving him there.”

“If you’re thinking that one of us is going to carry him the rest of the Combat Games, you’re not thinking straight. Leave him,” the taller agent said. “Your efforts will be better spent helping me take more gear from these crates.”

Dan opened up a private channel with Li.

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“Any suggestions on how to play this?”

“They’re both wielding seventy-seven rifles,” Li said. “If we’re not careful, they will gun us down pretty fast. I have an idea.”

“I’m listening,” Dan said.

“You take one, I’ll take the other. I’ll go into cloak mode and knock out the one on the left. You take the one on the right. But it has to be quick. Their recent gunfight made a lot of noise. If we’re here, then I can only assume other teams won’t be too far behind. We take out these two and take whatever we can from the crates. We have to be fast.”

Dan knew that if he wanted to end an opponent quickly, then his berserk form was the only guarantee. Even if he transformed for a brief period and just to take down one opponent, he still didn’t know how much strain it would put on his body.

“Alright then,” Dan said. “I’ll make sure I’m quick. How about a race to see who takes down their guy the fastest?”

Li narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t do anything brash. These Hellhounds just held off another team while at a numbers disadvantage. These two aren’t pushovers.”

The stealth specialist leaned out from the tree and activated his cloak, turning nearly invisible leaving only a slight distorted outline in the air. Soon, Dan lost sight of his teammate and began preparing himself to activate his trump card.

The red static formed around him and the sudden rush of energy and tightening of his armor from his muscles bulking up almost knocked Dan off balance.

Berserk mode activated.

He grabbed the side of the tree and his fingers burrowed into the bark. His legs were wobbly and the aches in his legs and joints flared up. He had to do this quick.

Dan sprung into action as he lept out into the open in a angle bound. Before the Hellhounds could turn around, Dan charged the right-most Hellhound and grabbed the agent by the neck. His forward momentum brought down the agent and Dan grabbed the agent’s head with both hand and slammed the Hellhound’s face down into the dirt. The agent was out cold in one attack.

“What the hell?”

Dan shot a glance at the other Hellhound and before he raised his rifle at him, an invisible force grabbed him from behind and put him in a chokehold. The invisible form of Li abruptly released the Hellhound and Dan panicked, not knowing what Li had just done.

The Hellhound didn’t fight back as his body went limp and he collapsed to the ground without putting up any resistance.

Li reappeared behind the Hellhound with a small knife in his hand. He glanced at Dan and simply said, “A throwing knife with paralyzing neurotoxin.”

Dan felt a sharp spasm in his back and he powered down from his berserk mode.

You have eliminated an enemy team!

You have found and took control of a weapons cache!

You earned 5 points.

Bonus 5 points stolen from Hellhound team.

Total points: 10.

After receiving the message, he contacted Angie briefly to tell her the coast was clear.

“Alright then, let’s get some ammo,” Dan said, catching his breath.

He turned back to the crate closest to him and grabbed the lid, pushing it off. He peered into the contents inside and saw numerous rifles along with containers holding grenades.

Dan took two contact grenades and one smoke, placing each inside the pouches wintin his coat. He found a new and pristine ZK-77T and swapped out. He gathered more magazines for his seventy-seven.

“Hey Dan,” Li said. He looked up and saw the stealth specialist hold two magazines in his hand. “Catch.”

Dan caught the first magazine but the pain in his back caused him to miss his catch for the second. He slowly crouched down and picked up the mag, realizing they were for his PX300 pistol.

“Thanks Li,” he said. “My damn back is killing me from using the berserk mode again.”

The stealth specialist looked at him and simply said, “That’s rough.”

Angie appeared out of the forest and her eyes lit up as if she was going shopping.

“Fucking finally,” she said. “Let me go look for some mags.”

Dan scanned the ground where the various weapons were. He mostly saw more seventy-seven rifles but his eyes rested on one gun he recognized as a CMA-40 rifle, an assault rifle used by Kodak agents.

“Don’t choose that one,” Li said. “That Kodak piece of junk is inferior to the seventy-seven in every way possible.

“That’s harsh,” Dan replied. “A weapon is a weapon after all.”

“A weapon is a tool and a tool needs to be optimal for the job,” Li lectured. “Two weapons can both serve the same role, but if one is clearly the superior firearm, there’s no reason not to equip it. Why go for the worst open between the two?”

“Wow, you really suck the fun out of everything,” Angie chimed in. “How do you make guns sound boring?”

“You need to hurry up and finish gathering supplies,” Li responded. “It won’t take long for this cache to get swarmed by other teams. I don’t feel like getting pinned down with our pants down…”

Li was about to elaborate further, but the stealth specialist stumbled then leaned against one of the crates. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Woah, are you alright?” Dan asked.

Li looked up at him and said, “Nothing. It’s just a minor headache.”