“Looks like that agent has it out for you,” Li said. “I’d say go for it and humiliate her.”
“I don’t even know what this shit is. What the hell is a rival bounty?” Dan said, scratching his head.
Another spinning icon transitioned into a few short paragraphs of floating text in front of Dan’s eyes, elaborating on this new development.
During a tournament such as the Combat Games, a competing agent is allowed to place a rival bounty on another competing agent. Within the round, the agent placing the bounty agrees that they or their team has made the designated rival agent their top priority to eliminate from the competition. The agent must place a wager on how much money they will put on the rival’s head.
The rival agent must consent to the bounty for it to be validated by the Combat Games. While an agent can refuse, it is discouraged as it is seen as cowardly conduct. All agents are encouraged to face their challenges, even unexpected ones, head-on.
If an agent or their team fails to eliminate their rival within the round, they forfeit their wager to the rival agent.
Dan narrowed his eyes at the text, already reading it three times over in the span of six seconds.
“Did you guys receive that message?” Dan asked.
“A rival bounty huh?” Angie said. “Wow, that bitch really hates your guts.”
“Well Dan, I would advise that you crush her and make regret ever meeting you. And to piss her off even more, take the ten thousand credits and put it in your pocket.”
Another popup on his HUD appeared.
Note: By accepting this rival bounty, you must remain as a combatant in the second round of the deathmatch.
“Looks like if I accept this, I have to stay for round two. That means you’re up Angie,” Dan said.
Li looked at Dan incredulously. “You took a beating last round. Are you in good condition?”
“I’ll manage. Plus, if they’re as vengeful as I think they are, they might completely ignore Angie and just go for me. We could repeat the same strategy again where I take a beating while Angie is the one to finish them off.”
The strawberry blond grinned. “I won’t let you down. It’s always a pleasure to spite your enemy.”
“Then I guess it’s settled.” Dan pulled up his HUD and saw the rival bounty message.
Accept? Yes/No.
You have accepted Alice Throne’s bounty. 10000 credits is now on the line.
Good luck!
Dan walked over to the terminal and swapped out Li’s name with Angie’s, updating the team for the second round of the deathmatch.
He looked over to his teammate. “Angie, let’s crush these Talons.”
Angie smirked and loaded a magazine into her Aero. “Fuck yeah.”
The newly formed duo walked through the opened door back into the simulated arena. Angie glanced left and right, taking in the environment of the battleground.
“My nose is picking some shit up in the air. Some kind of dust.”
“Watch out for the pools of acid. My seventy-seven jammed because it was exposed to the fumes coming out of them,” Dan replied.
“You sure it wasn’t all this dust in the air. Something about it doesn’t seem right. It’s triggering my nose.”
“What’s so special about your nose in particular?”
“I could feel my sinuses crying at this shit. After my initial enhancements during my recruitment, my allergies stopped completely. I’ve breathed in toxic fumes and smog and my lungs were able to better counteract the toxic effects of inhaling that crap.”
“Noted,” Dan said. “Then we should wrap this up quick. For all we know, this dust could be secretly handicapping us in some way.”
Dan remembered Li’s assessment after their victory in the first round. He squinted and watched as the duo of Genesis Talons emerged out of their respective door and into the arena. He spotted the same female Talon, Alice. Even from this distance and the dimming lighting in the environment, her glare towards him was obvious.
Round 2:
Dan Orion and Angie Bloodliner (Alpha Corp)
- - - VS - - -
Alice Throne and Kyle Hunter (Genesis Talons)
“I already how they’ll open up,” Dan said. “Alice is going to make me her top priority. As for the other guy, he’ll either back up Alice, or take you on spending on how Alice feels.”
The countdown for their second match up had begun.
“So if that chick is pulling all the stops to beat you into the ground, she’ll have her mate gang up on you first then move onto me. Or, she’ll tell him to fuck off and she can handle you all by herself. Got it.”
Dan kept his eyes on the pair of Talon across the arena. Both of them revved up their jet packs and other propulsion systems built into their armor. The occasional flashes of burning flame belched out of their armor, almost an outward manifestation of their anger and humiliation bleeding over from the first round.
Fight!
The Talons immediately rushed head-on. This time, they both took the initiative. Alice switched up her style of attack. Instead of flying upwards, she remained low to the ground, merely using her jet pack to hover above the ground, just enough to fly over the various pieces of cover, bypassing such obstacles entirely.
The extra booster on her legs belched more exhaust and flame, dramatically increasing her speed towards Dan and Dan alone. He raised his rifle at the Talon and fired a burst. Alice swerved out of the path of fire and was already up close with Dan.
She let out a kick that knocked the seventy-seven out of Dan’s hands. The Talon’s next move was the last thing Dan expected. She wrapped her arms around Dan and tightened her grip. Her jet pack and boosters revved up and they both flew upward rapidly. In only two seconds, the pair has already flown up at least thirty meters high into the air.
Dan had enough time to glance down at the arena. From up here, the arena appeared almost like a playground with the exception of a few agents playing with guns. He glanced at Angie and her glowing pink SMG firing enhanted bullets at the approaching second Talon, also hovering toward her.
“You have other things to worry about, you little punk,” Alice seethed.
Dan refocused his attention on the Talon who took up out for a plane ride. Up close, Alice was a young brunette with a thin straight scar running through her left brow. Her defined cheekbones and serious gaze vaguely reminded him of Jane Sunheiser.
The two stared at each other with only a few centimeters separating them. Whatever Alice had planned for him in the skies, he wouldn’t let her execute it. Dan leaned his head back and then slammed his forehead into Alice’s nose. The two wobbled in the air for a moment, but Alice regained her balance, a testament to her skill in flying.
Dan raised his head from the attack and saw that Alice was seemingly unaffected by his headbutt, aside from the blooding leaking from her nostrils and running down her mouth.
“You’ll have to do better than that. Fortunately, I certainly can,” she said, grinning.
If a headbutt wouldn’t work, then Dan had to try something else to break free. He attempted to wrestle his way out of the Talon’s grip. He did not succeed. To her credit, Alice kept her grip firm and tight around Dan. No matter the effort, Dan was locked by Alice’s arms. Then he recalled the info from before the match that every single one of these Genesis Talon was higher ranked than him, and likely his physical superiors in raw strength.
“There’a move I’m going to show you. And you have a front row seat,” Alice said, barely containing her excitement. “We’re going for a high speed dive. And I’m going to finally let go. I can’t help you with the landing though. That’s your problem.”
From her explanation, her move resembled a piledriver, the wrestling technique. Except in this case, her version was going to hurt exponentially more. Her being in the air and using gravity to her advantage, a piledirver while descending down from dozens of meters in the air meant that no one victim of hers would be walking away.
Their balance shifted as Alice swerved to the side then inverted them both upside down. As Alice promised, her jet pack roared as the Talon pushed her armor to the limit, diving directly down toward the ground and dragging Dan along for the ride.
Dan still couldn’t break Alice’s grip and get free. And even if he did, being this high up in the air combined with their rapid descent meant that Dan had no guarantee of remaining in the fight if he screwed up the landing.
No choice, he thought.
Dan glanced upward, which in reality was down at the rapidly upcoming ground. He willed it in his mind and he felt the immediately rush of adrenaline and other cocktailed on unknown substances run through his veins as his berserk transformation took over his body. He opened his eyes and saw the red static envelope him and the Talon.
Alice looked around with confusion on her face. Dan didn’t give her time for it all to sink in. Dan merely forced his elbows apart from his body and broke Alice’s grip with just one burst of effort. In the split second the two still faced each other as they descended down from the simulated skies, Dan delivered a quick but decisive punch right to the Talon’s gut, denting the armor plating and knocking her entire body away from him.
As he continued is fall, the ground rapidly approached him, Before his impact, Dan caught a brief glimpse of Alice’s harsh landing. His punch sent the Talon flying towards a concrete pillar. Her shoulder clipped the side of the pillar and she tumbled into a green glowing acid pit, splashing the corrosive substance in various directions. She tumbled across the dirt as small showers of acid rained around her and the surrounding environment.
She stayed on the ground, unmoving.
Oh that’s gotta hurt—
Dan’s thought was cut off when he made his own harsh landing onto the ground. The air forced itself out of his lungs as his back impacted the top of a car and his body crumpled the frame so hard that he became recessed into the car itself.
After a few coughs, his berserk mode compensated for the pain from the impact. Surprisingly, his HUD didn’t spit out any injury diagnostics. Either his stealth suit protected him or his berserk mode also increased his resistance to damage.
Either way, he was still in the fight.
A new message on his HUD popped up.
You have incapacitated Alice Throne.
One down, one more Talon to go, Dan thought.
Dan’s ears picked up the sounds of a struggle. Numerous rounds from a sidearm going off and the strained grunts from both Angie and the second Talon.
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Dan spun on his heel and rushed to the other side of the arena following the sounds of the fight. He hopped over a wheelless van and saw Angie and Kyle deadlocked. Angie had her sidearm in her hand while Kyle had grabbed her arms and wrestled with her.
Kyle’s jet pack coughed out dark smoke and whirrs that suggested damage. “I’m going to make you pay for what you did tyo my jet pack you bitch.”
Dan assumed that Angie’s curved bullets had found their mark and took out Kyle’s main mobility advantage. But while she was holding her won against the Talon, Dan knew that against a Talon of Kyle’s rank, she would ultimately lose if this struggle dragged on any longer.
Dan had lost his seventy-seven rifle, so her grabbed the PX300 from the side of his coat and fired two rounds at the Talon before his sidearm clicked, refusing to fire.
“Fucking great,” Dan muttered.
The two rounds impacted the Talon, one at the shoulder and one underneath his arm. The rounds didn’t kill him, but they were enough to stun him and give Angie a brief respite. She showed no mercy as she immediately aimed her sidearm at the Talon’s helmet and unloaded a few rounds into her opponent.
Dan didn’t see the round penetrate but the Talon fell back. A message popped up in his HUD.
Angie Bloodliner has incapacitated Kyle Hunter.
The winner of round 2: Dan Orion and Angie Bloodliner.
The winner of the deathmatch is Dan and his team.
Congratulations!
Dan powered down from his berserk mode and his body finally relaxed. The aches and pains throughout his body weren’t as debilitating as before. Whatever toll the berserk form had on his physique felt like he had gotten back up from a tumble down the stairs. Dan remained standing, satisfied at his team’s victory.
“Good shit, Angie,” Dan said in a raspy tone.
Angie gave him a big smile along with extending her index and middle finger. “Thanks. You almost gave me a heart attack when I saw that bitch take you up to the skies. Was she planning on just flying as high up as possible and dropping you?”
“Something like that. But it didn’t happen. I had to use my berserk mode to break free from her iron grip and then punched her ass. She landed into an acid pit.”
Angie stared at him and inhaled through her teeth. “Fuck, that’s brutal.” But then she smiled. “I like it.”
Congratulations. You have survived the deathmatch round of the Combat Games and your team will progress to the next round.
Constriction reward: Carbon fiber skins unlocked for all weapons.
Bonus experience rewarded for completing round.
“Carbon fiber skins huh?” Dan said.
“Overrated,” Angie shrugged. “I’ve seen them before on other agents’ guns and I don’t get the appeal.”
Dan and Angie walked back together to their side of the arena. Dan trailed behind, feeling a strange warmth throughout his body that eased the aches and stress from the berserk ability. Angie reached the door first, then Dan entered. Immediately, Li greeted him and he placed his hand on Dan’s shoulder.
“You somehow took even more of a brutal beating this round,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“I’ll live. I had to use my berserk to break free in the air.”
“Well, you’re in far better shape than that Talon. I watch the video feed and she landed into an acid pit and splashed that shit everywhere. For her sake, I hope she rethinks her decision to forego a helmet next time.”
Dan didn’t like the idea that he might have indirectly inflicted an acid attack on another agent who was technically on the same side in the grand scheme. But he knew that in this particular tournament, Alice wasn’t going to show him any mercy.
Another message popped up on his HUD.
Alice Throne’s rival bounty has been overturned.
You have won 10000 credits.
Bonus experience rewarded for overturning bounty.
Congratulations!
You have reached Tier 1 | Level 20.
You have earned 5 stat points.
Dan smiled and began laughing out loud. “I got the payout. My ten thousand has arrived.”
Angie whistled. “Damn, you gave that girl an acid bath and stole her credits? She’s walking away with more than one loss today.”
The door at the hallway slid open and Dan saw an attendant wearing all black standing at the other side. The attendant stood just as tall as Li and looked at all three of them with a serious expression. The frown and hard lines etched into his forehead and eyes made Dan wonder if his face was sculped from rock.
“Dan Orion, your presence is requested by the Combat Games’ staff. Please follow me,” he said. The attendant’s voice was firm enough to let Dan know that it was more of an order than a request. He exchanged glances with how two teammates before reluctantly following the man through the hall.
The attendant led him down another hallway before stopping near a door. The man entered a code into a small keypad and the door slid open. “Get inside.”
Dan obliged and followed the attendant inside, only to see what appeared to be an empty room, save for the table where four individuals sat, staring at him. An empty chair was positioned around two meters away in front of the desk. All four of their facial expressions were so similar to the attendant’s that he wondered if all of them were wearing a molded face mask.
“Dan,” one of them said. “Take a seat.”
As Dan walked over to the only free chair in the room, he watched the four ominous individuals at the table, all of whom kept their eyes on him, following his every move. The only possibility that entered Dan’s mind as to the roles of these four were judges who were observing the performance of all the agents who entered the Combat Games.
The same individual who order him to sit was a man in the third seat to the left. The man appeared to be in his mid-thirties, wearing an all black, tight-fitting jumpsuit that showed off his lean physique. But the volume and tone of his voice reminded Dan of Michael Cynosa, a powerful and commanding figure. Dan was immediately put on guard once the man locked eyes on him.
“Alright then, we will get straight to the matter at hand. We will be replaying highlights from your deathmatch round and we need to ask you some questions. And you will answer honestly. If we suspect any deception or twisting of the truth, you and your teammate Angie Bloodliner will be disqualified on the spot. Even if you answer truthfully, we still reserve the judgement of whether to allow you to continue through the Combat Games. Is that understood?”
Somehow, Dan was being accused of some misconduct during his deathmatch. What Angie had to do with his actions was anyone’s guess. But he didn’t feel appreciated being accused. He won against his competition, even if it was brutal.
Dan could only assume the tournament staff had an issue with him employing his berserk mode and Angie’s use of her enchanted weapons, powers granted to them by the arctic serum.
Dan had one response to these tournament staff having an issue with him and his perceived unfair advantage.
“I understand, you’ll get nothing but the truth, no matter how blunt,” Dan said, smirking beneath his mask.
Dan’s entire right view became dominated by a large rectangular projection of the match, specifically the second round of the deathmatch. The staff replayed the entire fight, from Dan getting snatched up by Alice Throne, the struggle that took place in the air, and the Genesis Talon’s attempted ariel piledriver that failed. The entire fight was caught from angles Dan never knew even existed. Though it was conceivable that the tournament staff would be able to find various areas to install their camera feeds to get goot action shots for the viewers’ enjoyment.
“Alright then Dan, can you give a summary in your own words your actions during your struggle against your opponent?” the same man asked.
“I’ll keep it brief since there’s not much to say,” Dan said. “She grabbed me with an iron grip, took me to the skies and tried to piledrive me, which would have knocked out or even killed me if I didn’t do something. I tried—”
“Can you explain the red energies that your body emitted during the descent?” one of the female members asked.
“I’m getting to that, as I was saying—”
“Just answer the question, boy,” the man in the third seat ordered.
Dan narrowed his eyes towards the man and said, “No, you listen here. You asked me to give a summary in my own words and that’s what I’m trying to do. I don’t need you to keep interjecting and jumbling my side of the story.”
The panel of staff did a good job of maintaining their stoic composures. But even Dan could see the subtle shifting in their seats and eye twitches that they weren’t expecting any backtalk.
Dan specifically zeroed in on the man in the third seat and pointed his finger at him. “And second, I’m not a boy. I’m a motherfucking Alpha agent trained by the best. I stuck my neck out for Michael Cynosa in my previous mission and survived, so don’t give me this bullshit about me being a ‘boy’ unless you want a problem. I don’t think you assholes would be talking to me like this if Jane Sunheiser were here.”
The entire panel glared at him, and Dan straightened his back and matched each of their gazes, one by one. The man in the third seat held his hand up.
“Alright, let’s all cool our heads. We’re simply trying to get to the truth. Because what we saw in the video you used some strange ability that no other Alpha agent in history ever possessed. And we need to get to the bottom of this.”
“If that ability was kicking ass and winning the round for my team, I’m sure you’ve seen it before. Do you guys have a problem with me just because Alice landed into an acid pit? Regardless of the tournament setting, it was a combat situation. I didn’t think I needed to tape pillows to my hands when fighting her. She’s the one who placed a rival bounty on me. She wanted that fight and I participated. End of story.”
“It’s not ‘end of story’, Dan Orion,” the man shot back. “You overpowered her using strength that no Alpha agent of your rank should possess. And since we’re being blunt here, I suspect you’re illegally using boosters to artificially increase your strength. That is the only logical conclusion I have for how you physically overpowered a Genesis Talon who was two level higher than you. I’m sure you are already aware that performance enhancing substances are banned from the Combat Games.”
The man accusing him of using performing enhancing substances while knowing that all agents were given their enhanced strength through a serum injection was laughable. Dan didn’t bother holding back his chuckle.
“No shit?” Dan said. “Do I look like an idiot to you?”
“Your conduct for an Alpha agent has not impressed any of us, so anything is possible,” the man shot back.
Dan thought this meeting might go easier if he just told them he has a special variant of the enhancement serum flowing through him. But he also wasn’t aware if knowledge of the arctic serum was widespread or even if it was supposed to be known by anyone else outside the Alpha Corp. He didn’t think it would make any sense for the tournament staff to be entitled to that sort of info.
If he leaked the existence of the Alpha Corp’s next generation serum to people who weren’t privy to that knowledge, he could be causing headaches for people higher up than him and that would get his ass into trouble. By that point, being disqualified from the Combat Games would be the least of his concerns.
The door behind him slid open and Dan saw the immediate shift in the facial expression across the whole table.
“Ma’am, you’re not supposed to be in here,” the attendant behind him said.
“Neither is Dan Orion, so you’re out of luck,” a familiar and domineering female voice said. Dan looked back and saw none other than Jane Sunheiser.
She didn’t even face the direction of the attendant and walked past him until she stood directly beside Dan. “It appears you have a problem with one of my agents. Care to explain yourselves?”
Dan had to give them credit, all four of the individuals at the table held their gazes on Jane. The female one piped up and said, “Ms. Sunheiser with all due respect, your presence here is completely inappropriate. This is a confidential meeting between the Combat Games staff and Dan Orion.”
“And with all due respect to you honey, I think you pulling Dan out of the Combat Games in inappropriate. Dan won his fights in the deathmatch with his own abilities and those alone. You really think one of my own would stoop so low as to illegally boost themselves? Dan here would have been killed by my hand if I found out.”
“Ma’am, we don’t need a mother hen trying to save face for Dan,” the third seat piped up once again.
Dan was about to let a stream of words out of his mouth, but Jane held her hand in front of him, already predicting what he was about to say.
Dan received a call from Jane through the private channel.
“I got this, I’ll set them straight,” Jane instructed him. She severed the link and refocused her attention on the table.
Dan didn’t know exactly how much time had passed, but there was only silence and glares between Jane and the individuals at the table. He looked at Jane, then at the four assholes at the table. Dan could only assume that Jane had taken this meeting into the private channels with these four.
After another ten seconds of awkward silence, the man in the third seat let out a sigh and buried his face into his interlocked hands. He looked up and and finally said, “After some consideration, we will allow Dan to continue through the Combat Games. The matter is adjourned.”
Dan could see the gritted teeth of the man and he smiled beneath his mask. Jane put her hand on his shoulder.
“Let’s get going,” Jane said.
“Right,” he said. Dan stood up from the chair and gave each of the assholes at the table side eye. Just before leaving through the door he came from, he turned around and made eye contact with the man in the third seat one last time. “That’s Dan one, fools at the table zero.”
“I said move it,” Jane ordered.
He turned back around and followed Jane out the room and back into the hallway. The door slid shut behind him.
“Hey thanks Jane. That was some bullshit in that meeting,” Dan said.
“No worries,” she said. “That was a bit petty of you back there. Try to limit that going forward.”
“It put a smile on my face, what can I say?”
Jane looked at him and gave an upward curl of her lip. “Understandable.”
“What did you say to them to get them off my back?” Dan asked.
“As a well-renowned tier three and the Alpha Corp’s marketing machine, I could have easily pulled rank on them, but during the call I had to share a memo submitted by Michael Cynosa to all staff of the Combat Games.”
The two of them began walking down the hall.
“And what did it say?”
“Without directly revealing the existence of the arctic serum, Michael basically advised all combat tournaments that agents displaying a list of bizarre and unconventional powers are still allowed participation. Your berserk ability is one of them.”
“Oh I see,” Dan said. “Somehow, Michael keeps coming through for me.”
The two continued walking as Jane escorted Dan through the layout of the Combat Games building.
“By the way, I watched your deathmatch against the Genesis Talons, both rounds,” Jane said.
“Oh, so you saw how I got my ass kicked in the first round.”
“No,” Jane said. “Everyone got the opportunity to flex their strengths. The Talons are not to be taken lightly and you and Angie were outmatched in stats, though only in theory. You overturned the odds and you won. You have come a long way and I want you to know that.”
Jane’s words gave him renewed hope after the depressing meeting with the tournament staff.
“Let’s get you back to the team. I have a few words I need to say to all of you before I let you off,” she said.