Jane had led Dan into a general lounge where agents who had won their deathmatches rested and watched the remaining matches play out on the live feeds. When the two entered the room, the interior was spacious with leather couches, tables and even vending machines. Dan spotted his two teammates across the room.
Angie had numerous agents huddled around her asking questions ranging from her victory in the deathmatch to her relationship status. Knowing her, she was bragging about her badass performance in the deathmatch while also keeping her options open to potential dates.
Li stood on his own looking up at a hanging display and viewing another deathmatch in progress. Knowing him, Dan already assumed the stealth specialist was analyzing the competition and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the other agents.
“The praise extends to your two new friends as well,” Jane said. “Though Angie’s attitude needs an adjustment.”
“I’m sure you’ll help her work on it,” Dan said. Jane gave him a sideways glance before walking towards the two.
Both of them walked through the lounge with an increasing number of eyes focusing on them. Li turned around and Angie’s face lit up once she saw them both. She shoved another agent and made her way towards them.
“Holy shit, are you alright Dan?”
“He’s fine,” Jane answered for him. “I settled whatever problems the staff had with his performance. And switch to the private channel. All of you.”
Li stepp away from the display and joined them as they stood in a nearly perfect square formation facing each other.
“Listen up,” Jane said through the channel. “Dan was pulled to the side by tournament staff and was question for his use of the berserk mode during his fight.”
“Wait, so our new powers are illegal?” Angie said.
“Not the word I would use, but taboo. The existence of the new arctic serum isn’t widespread,” Jane said. “So any strange new powers you try to use in the Combat Games will be scrutinzed and questioned, as with what happened to Dan.”
“If that means we’ll have to limit our capabilities to just physical, then I can manage,” Li said.
“A memo was sent from higher up to the Combat Games staff that a certain variety of strange powered were allowed. But Angie, you curving bullets isn’t one of them. I recommend you limit your use of that for the rest of the tournament,” Jane ordered.
“Alright then,” Angie said, clearly bummed at the news.
“As for you Dan, the same goes for your ability to set things on fire,” Jane said. “Be mindful about the use of your ‘other’ abilities. And good luck. The Combat Games only gets tougher from this point.”
“Thanks Jane,” Dan said.
“We’re going to kick ass,” Angie replied.
Li simply gave Jane a polite nod.
Jane spun on her heel and walked away. The other agents in the lounge still oogled at her even as she left the room.
“Well, I guess until the next round starts, we can watch the deathmatches still going on,” Angie said. Her head jerked in the direction of one of the displays showcasing an ongoing deathmatch. “Holy shit, let’s watch that one!”
“What’s so special about that one?” Li asked. “When I asked you to watch the other matches to study the competition, you brushed me aside in favor of bragging to your peers.”
“Well if you must now, that match is Miles’ team. Don’t you guys wanna watch and cheer for him?”
Li shook his head. “He can’t hear us anyways, but I’ll oblige.”
Dan remembered Miles and his team from the zombie apocalypse round. The agent went out of his way to help Dan and his team, even when he didn’t have to.
“I’ll watch too,” Dan said. “Let’s see what Miles and his boys bring to the table.”
The trio walked over to the display that hung over a grouping of leather couches. Li was the first to sit followed by Dan. Angie took the spot next to him.
Dan looked up at the display and saw the info of the combatants scrolling on the side. The first round had already ended with Miles’ team losing.
“Well, they’re not off to a good start,” Dan said.
“That’s not all,” Li said. He pointed to the info on the side of the video feed. “Miles is up against Hellhound agents.”
The display began replaying highlights from the first round during the intermission in choosing the next set of duo combatants for each team. A clip played showing a member on Miles’ team walking past a pillar, only to get smacked out of nowhere by an unknown force. Dan squinted and recognized the slight distortion in the space beside the piller. Then a figure decloaked revealed himself as an agent.
“See anyone you know?” Dan asked.
“No one in particular from the Hellhounds team,” Li responded. “But I do know this, they got the same idea as me. The Hellhounds have cloaked themselves and just allowed Miles’ team to make the moves while they sit back and observe. They found their opportunity to strike and they seized it, taking round one.”
“Don’t tell me you’re rooting for the other side,” Angie said, shooting him a nasty glare.
“I’m not. I’m simply making an observation. Alpha agents in general, being the all-rounders, are by default more aggressive than the Hellhounds and that is being used against them. Miles is going to need to change tactics if he wants to overcome the situation.”
The highlights ended and the video feed captures the new teams emerging from their respective sides of the arena. Miles had replaced one of his team members and was now in the fight.
“Looks like we’ll get to see how Miles himself will approach this,” Dan said. The countdown to the start of round two began. Dan watched the team leader with great interest. Not just as someone who helped him out, but as a potential rival.
The countdown reached zero and Miles and his teammate opened fire on the Hellhounds across the arena. Miles tossed a grenade, though not toward the hellhounds. In a move that perplexed Dan and the rest of his team, the grenade landed in the center of the arena and detonated. Miles had tossed a smoke grenade and now the space between the two teams became obscured with smoke.
“That’s an odd move,” Li said.
Miles didn’t strike Dan as an inept agent. Tossing a smoke grenade right in the middle of the arena would give the Hellhounds plenty of time to cloak and relocate. Dan observed Miles’ team. One of his teammates, the tall agent, didn’t venture far and simply found a spot behind a destroyed van. Miles headed in a different direction toward the edge of the arena past all the concrete and ruined vehicles.
The smoke still lingered on the battlefield and Miles’s teammate poked his head from the side of the van and opened fire blindly into the smoke-covered space. He swapped to his shotgun slung across his back and began firing into the smoke.
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As if he wasn’t aggressive enough, the big agent tossed a grenade blindly into the smoke. The grenade exploded at the other side, blasting chunks and debris that impacted the van. Dan couldn’t see where is targets were, but it attracted the attention of the Hellhounds.
A cloaked Hellhound attempted to sneak around the van and wrapped his arm around the neck of the tall agent. The Alpha agent simply backpedaled and slammed the Hellhound into the van, decloaking him. The Hellhound slumped down the the ground and a popup on the display indicated the incapacitation.
The agent soon staggered and collapsed from rounds coming from an unknown source. By the time Miles’ teammate collapsed, the second Hellhound decloaked and revealed himself. The agent had been eliminated.
The Hellhound looked around checking his surroundings before reactivating his cloak.
Then it happened.
During the transition into cloaking, Miles fired semi-automatic shots at the Hellhound, disrupting his cloak and eliminating him.
“Oh shit,” Dan said.
“Oh I see now,” Li said. “That was what he was going for.”
“Can you explain Li?”
“Of course. Miles tossed that smoke grenade to mask his actions when he moved away from the action. He probably ordered his teammate to take up a position near the middle and just attract the attention of the Hellhounds. And it worked. Since his teammate was making all the noise, the Hellhounds aimed to swiftly end this round by ganging up on the big guy. They didn’t notice that Miles had repositioned himself to get a good sight line on his teammate’s position. By the time the Hellhounds eliminated one of the opponents, they had no clue where the other one went. And Miles took that opportunity to eliminate them from a distance.”
“But wait a minute, why did that Hellhound decloak after eliminating Miles’ pal? Wouldn’t it be in their best interests to remained cloaked all the time? If that Hellhound hadn’t decloaked at that moment, Miles would have never spotted and dealt with him.”
“Every technology has its operating limits,” Li stated. “Depending on your actions, the cloaking tech that Alpha uses only lasts for one to two minutes. Sometime even less if an agent is doing a lot of acrobatic stunts. The rapid movement in a short time span drains the cloak module’s energy source quicker. In the scenario you’re asking about, that Hellhound probably had to decloak since his battery was getting low. The device can ambiently recharge but that takes time.”
“So Miles factored that in and banked on waiting for the Hellhounds to decloak to conserve power?”
“Probably. That’s why he immeaitely opened fire on them. He had to force them into cloak early on to avoid taking damage. His smoke grenade right into the center of the arena also made them wary and they were overly cautious in their approach. Notice how it took them so long to approach Miles’ teammate? Then he depended on his teammate to run distraction and make the Hellhounds drain even more of their power.”
“That’s pretty damn good,” Dan said.
“Miles has always been awesome,” Angie said proudly. “Watch, he’ll crush them.”
“It’s still too early. Now the score is tied and they’ll have to end it in the third round,” Li said skeptically. The stealth specialist leaned back into the couch with his arms crossed.
During the brief intermission, Miles subbed out his teammate for another and the Hellhound team did the same, though the video also captured one of the hellhounds dragging away the other unconscious one.
Dan didn’t notice anything abnormal during this slowdown in the action and neither did Li. It was Angie’s reaction that puzzled him.
He glanced over at his female teammate and saw her stare intently at the display above. He scrutinized her eyes and facial expression and saw that this match was more than just excitement and her rooting for old teammates.
Angie’s beautiful pink irises glistened but he spotted the translucent layer build up in her eyes, which could only mean a build up of tears. The flat line that was her mouth and the tightness of her brow conveyed a feeling of longing, almost mourning over something lost.
“Angie, are you alright?” Dan whispered.
She blinked rapidly, obviously lost in her own thoughts. Angie turned to him. “I’m fine,” she said quickly.
Dan knew something was there, but decided not to press the matter.
The display transitioned to a stylized and overly colorful graphic depicting the start of round three.
“This branding is obnoxious,” Li sighed. “They’re not hiding the fact that they want kids to be part of their audience.”
Miles and a female teammate named Zara had already set foot onto the arena. Then the feed switched over to the duo of Hellhounds. The countdown began for round three of the deathmatch. When the feed swapped back to Miles and his teammate, Dan spotted the peculiar rifle in the hands of the female agent.
The rifle in Zara’s hands was a model Dan hadn’t seen before. It didn’t resemble the ZK-77 or the CMA-40 rifle from Kodak-Cresh. It didn’t bear any resemblance to Li’s designated marksman rifle either. The key features he saw on the weapon were a scope and an elongated barrel, almost like a mini sniper.
Dan wondered how that agent would make use of such a seemingly long range weapon in such a small arena. The countdown reached zero and Dan immediately got his answer.
Miles’ fired the first shot yet again and approached the round with hyper aggressiveness. The agent was on the move, firing as he rapidly closed the distance between him and the bewildered duo of Hellhounds.
One of the Hellhounds immediately cloaked and disappeared to the naked eye. The other dived out of the way and hit the dirt. The Hellhound laid flat on his stomach to keep himself out of the path of Miles’ gunfire.
The camera swapped back to Miles and he reached into his inner coat and pulled out another grenade. Miles hopped on top of a mangled car in the center of the arena and tossed the grenade at the general direction of the Hellhound still on the ground.
When Miles pulled his arm back to throw the grenade, the Hellhound quickly stood back up and tried activating his cloak. The transition from being exposed to invisible wasn’t quick enough as the grenade already soard through the air and the Hellhound’s speed proved inadequate.
The grenade impacted the invisible form of the Hellhound and exploded on impact. The Hellhound flew back, his body decloaking and roiling with static as he smashed into the dirt behind him.
The Hellhound had been eliminated from the match, leaving one more to be dealt with.
“Sometimes a direct approach is all you need,” Li said. “The Hellhounds primarily specialize in stealth and covert operations. They’re used to operating in the shadows and striking first against an enemy who is unaware. But when it’s a matter of taking on opponents in a direct confrontation, the struggle.”
“That’s rough,” Dan said.
“Nothing rough about it. Miles finally realized the only way to counter the Hellhounds and their stealth tactics is to simply overwhelm them before they even get the chance to cloak and bank on their stealth tactics. Simple and crude, but effective.”
The camera transitioned to multiple angles throughout the arena, yet couldn’t pick up the exact location of the cloaked Hellhound. The camera finally rested on an angle overlooking Miles’ female teammate. She found herself a cozy corner of the arena, lying in a prone position on top of a ruined jeep.
Zara squeezed the trigger on her strange rifle and the round hit its mark. Dan watched as the bullet impacted something he couldn’t see. Then he saw the armored body of a Hellhound materialize into reality as the bullet impact knocked the agent out of his cloak. A follow up shot to the chest brought the Hellhound down, securing victory for Miles and his team.
“Mind your shadow,” the female agent said smugly.
The display exploded with colors and obnoxious animations celebrating the victory. Li cringed at the branding but nodded in response to the results.
“Once again, Miles has proven to have successfully adapted the the Hellhounds this match.”
Dan glanced at the stealth specialist and asked, “How did that chick know where to shoot? How could she see the cloaked Hellhound from that distance when he was basically invisible to the cameras?”
Li met Dan’s glance. “A bit of luck favored Miles and this match. The general layout of these arenas seem to be the same across all matches. An abandoned site located in an urban environment filled with concrete barriers, pillars and wrecked vehicles. The only thing that differs with the environment of each match are the constrictions in place and the time of day. For this match, it took place in broad daylight.”
“Huh, you’re right. Our match took place at dawn when the sun was going down,” Dan said.
“While the camera was making those rapid transitions trying to find the cloaked Hellhound, one of the angles depicted a seemingly empty section of the arena. But that Hellhound was right there.”
Dan gave Li a confused look. He tried his best to spot the cloaked Hellhound during the numerous changes in camera angle and didn’t see anything that stuck out to him, not even a shimmering outline.
“One of the shots showed a section of dirt. To the naked eye and watching on a screen, you wouldn’t think anything was there. But I saw the shadow of the Hellhound’s body in that shot. Even while cloaked, he still produced a shadow. Miles’ companion must have saw it and determined the cloaked Hellhound was there. Then it was all over.”
“Damn. I guess Miles would have had a tougher time if the arena decided to simulate dawn like ours did,” Dan said.
“That’s for sure,” Li replied. “That female agent is a decent shot as well. Not bad. Looks like we might some more competition to be wary of other than those Prime Swords.”
Angie abruptly stood up from the leather couch, catching the attention of both Dan and Li. Dan looked up and still saw the strange look on Angie’s face for a split second before she began smiling.
“Hey guys, let’s go see Miles and congratulate him,” she said eagerly.