Dan and his team waited until the updated waypoints showed them the next available cash boxes. Out of the three credit boxes, the highest amount was fifty thousand credits. Dan knew that particular box had to be their top priority, even if it meant fighting the other teams to grab it.
“I think I can speak for all of us that we need to go for that fifty thousand credit box,” he said.
“Agreed,” Li said. “Those Hellhounds will catch up to us if we sit around and do nothing. Rachel’s team is another threat entirely. We need to go big or go broke for the next box.”
Angie performed a basic weapons check for her Aero SMG then her handgun. Then she flashed a grin at Dan. “If that means coming face to face with Rachel, I’m ready. Time to show that bitch who’s actually hot shit around here.”
The waypoint for the fifty thousand credit box displayed a distance of four hundred meters and Dan’s team laser focused their efforts to getting to that box as quickly as possible. If they weren’t the first to arrive and have to fight another team who snatched it first, the round would quickly become even more uphill for Dan.
Dan and the others pushed their bodies to their limits, all three easily pushing just under forty kilometers an hour in running speed. Dan knew he could either use his berserk or his boosters to gain more speed. But it was risky.
The berserk ability still taxed his body too much to justify using it just for a run towards the credit box. And his boosters only lasted for two minutes tops. These were precious tools that Dan could not use without thinking.
The twists and turns the team took and the shortcuts through alleys and running through open areas, presented much risk. Somehow, Dan and his team hadn’t been ambushed yet. But that also meant that the other two remaining teams were gunning for the highest credit box.
Dan ran past an alley and then rapid footsteps slammed into the pavement behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw a mutated tiger in all black fur with indigo strips chasing after him and his teammates.
“We don’t have time for this Dan,” Li said.
“You’re right,” he replied. Dan took the seventy-seven off his back and aimed the rifle with one hand at the incoming tiger quickly gaining ground on them. Dan squeezed the trigger and the tiger stopped dead in its tracks as tungsten rounds pierced its head.
The team eventually followed the waypoint to an abandoned mall. Only sixty-three meters left to the credit box.
“We’re in for a headache,” Li warned. “If we’re heading into a shopping mall, there’s various different shops and elevated levels for an enemy team to dig into and take up positions against people like us.”
All three members pressed their backs against the walls.
“Then we’ll have to practice some discretion before we head inside,” Dan said. “Once we can see the credit box, we’ll to the same trick again. Angie will send out a hologram and that will lure out any enemy teams lying in wait for us.”
Li narrowed his eyes. “I’m unsure about that tactic. The Hellhounds might not fall for the same trick a second time. And who knows of someone as competent as those Prime Sword will take the bait.”
“I don’t have anything else to work with,” Dan said. “If shit hits the fan, then we’ll have to lean on our supernatural abilities to see us through this.”
Li blinked slowly then said, “I don’t like this, but we have no other choice.” The stealth specialist reached out and grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open.
One by one Dan’s team entered the mall and the place barely looked any better than some of the interiors in the other buildings. Mud and other debris littered the floor and many shops were either empty with looted merchandise or boarded up and locked down.
Dan’s team moved methodically through the giant mall. Dan stayed in the middle focusing on the front while Li checked his left side and Angie focused on the right. He finally saw the credit box sitting on the floor underneath a skylight, shining dim overcast lighting on the box. The team split and took up positions where they could remain hidden. There wasn’t good cover in the mall. At best, they found concealment such as giant potted plants or giant signs or benches.
Angie spawned a hologram of herself and the perfect copy of her ran towards the credit box. The hologram stopped short of the credit box and a few seconds passed without any activity.
Dan, hidden behind a bench, exchanged glances with Li who stood behind a giant sign. Li gave him a nod, signalling Dan to go ahead first while the other two stayed behind. Another team could easily still be around and held back on firing on the hologram.
He stood up from behind the bench and slowly and methodically walked his way over to the credit box. He tightened his grip on his seventy-seven rifle and continuously looked from side to side, keeping an eye on his general surroundings. Now in front of the credit box, Angie’s hologram faded away and Dan crouched down to pick up their prize.
A sudden crash above and the raining of glass caused Dan’s instincts to kick and as he quickly backpedaled away from the credit box. He looked up and saw three armored figures descent down from the skylight in the mall’s ceiling.
All three landed at the other end of the credit box and Dan confirmed the team that stood across from him. The grey armor and gold marking and the visored helmets that stared emotionless at him. In that moment, neither team made a move and an eerie quiet permeated throughout the mall.
“So,” Dan began. “You guys had the same idea going for the highest credit box, huh?”
The Prime Sword who stood in the middle of the trio pointed a finger toward her helmet and said, “As they say, great minds think alike.”
Rachel Cutter was as confident as ever. She had smashed the competition during her deathmatch in the second round and Dan had just witnessed her take on an entire team of Genesis Talons on her own.
“Now Dan, I won’t lie, I did say I came all this way to fight powerful opponents such as yourself. I hope you won’t disappoint me,” Rachel said.
“Oh I don’t think I will,” Dan responded coldly. He opened a private channel with his two teammates and issued a simple order:
“Open fire on her and let’s get this done,” he said.
Before Dan heard any gunfire, Rachel’s other two companions already sprung into action, with Li’s sniper fire missing its mark on one of the Prime Swords.
Angie fired a stream of SMG rounds and Dan watched her bullets curve in real time, tracking the other Prime Sword rushing toward concealment in the form of a kiosk in the middle of the mall.
Dan barely raised his seventy-seven before Rachel was right in front of him. He didn’t have time to ponder how she managed to closed the distance between the two in such a such period. Rachel grabbed hold of his rifle and yanked the weapon out of his hands with such force that he wondered of the voice’s warning regarding the Prime Swords.
Dan reacted fast enough to slap the assault rifle out of the Prime Sword’s hands. Against a fully armored agent, Dan opened up with a punch straight to Rachel’s neck, an attack that didn’t land. Rachel swerved her head to the side and grabbed hold of Dan’s stretched arm, using it to move herself behind Dan and wrapped her arm around his neck.
The force of her chokehold overwhelmed Dan. How was she this strong?
Dan had no other choice but to use the energy he had left to reach into his inner coat pocket and grab another booster stim. Rachel had his entire neck covered and so Dan had to resort to jabbing the stim through his armor, specifically somewhere around his stomach region.
The immediate burning sensation in his stomach region and the surge of strength and power throughout his body was what he needed to wrestle his way out of Rachel’s grip. He shoved his elbow into the Prime Sword and broke free.
While his teammates engaged in a shootout with the other Prime Swords, Dan focused his attention on Rachel Cutter, his supposed biggest fan. Dan wasn’t inclined to kill another agent over a tournament, but Rachel and her team was his biggest threat. Dan rushed the Prime Sword and attempted the same chokehold she had put him earlier. The increased strength and speed he gained from the booster should allow him to exceed Rachel in stats, at least temporarily.
Rachel ducked underneath Dan’s attempt at grabbing her and she lept away from him with surprising speed. Dan sprinted toward her, ignoring all the bullets flying around them, focusing squarely on Rachel. The Prime Sword saw him coming and threw a punch his way. Dan didn’t have time to dodge and just managed to raise his arms and grab her fist.
This team surprised him yet again when Rachel grabbed one of his wrists with her other hand and she pushed him, causing Dan to lose ground as his boots grinding against the mall floor. Her strength somehow matched, even exceeded his while the booster was active.
“You’ll have to try harder than that,” Rachel said. Dan didn’t hear any strain in her voice. Somehow, she was pushing him back without much issue.
Rachel forced Dan’s arms apart and smashed her helmet into Dan’s forehead, staggering him. The Prime Sword followed up with a fast punch right to the gut, forcing the air out of his lungs and crumpling him to the ground.
What the hell? How is she this strong? Dan thought.
He knew that Rachel and her team were borderline tier twos in rank, but he never expected the strength gap to be this great with difference of just a few levels.
Dan received a private call from Li.
“I’m running low on sniper ammo, Dan. We can’t keep this up for long. Forget about Rachel and grab the credit box!”
Dan looked to his left and was reminded that the credit box still sat on the floor a few meters away from him. Before he could turn, Rachel kicked him in the ankle and tripped him. Before he even hit the ground, the Prime Sword smashed her boot into his back and pinned him to the floor.
“You’re not going anywhere,” she taunted. “I came all this way to face you and this is all you got?”
Dan’s opponent was stronger than he was and he had his own suspicions on who this girl really was. Her strength at her level didn’t seem normal. The warning from the strange voice from the vision was also bizarre. But Dan didn’t have to find any answers. Not while pinned to the ground while his team counted on him.
He had another ability in his back pocket that would decided this match.
Dan clenched both of his fists and he saw red static run along his arms. He had no clue how dangerous this would be to his body. He assumed that stacking the berserk mode on top of the booster was something no other Alpha agent had ever done in combat. He could feel the warm blood leaking out of his eyes and the corners of his vision became stained with red.
Berserk mode activated.
Dan pushed himself off the ground against Rachel’s boot, easily forcing the Prime Sword off of him. He quickly stood back up and raced toward the credit box.
“Adriana!” Rachel shouted.
Dan quickly snatched the box off the ground, but another Prime Sword jumped upward and quickly descend down toward him. Glancing upwards, Dan stepped to the side and lept up as well. He forced his elbow into the abdomen of who he presumed to be Adriana Skill and knocked her away, slamming her into a bench.
“Guys, we’re pulling out! Now!” Dan shouted. His HUD updated him with the waypoint to the nearest vault to deposit the credit box.
As he ran, Rachel jumped into his path. Dan simply smiled and brought his arm across his chest. He sidestepped the Prime Sword and backhanded Rachel in the head, knocking her out of his way. Dan crouched down and scooped up his seventy-seven rifle and placed the gun on his back. He raced past Angie and Li who were still peppering the Prime Sword with gunfire. Dan didn’t run for very long before he saw the third team of Hellhounds emerged out of their hiding places. The agents raised their guns at Dan and he dived next to a cashier counter at one of the shops, narrowly avoiding taking a three round burst to the head. He crawled along the floor and rolled himself into the empty shop as the gunfire from the Hellhounds continued raining on his position.
Li and Angie weren’t far behind as they too opened fire on the Hellhounds and briefly drew their fire before they too took up positions of cover. The two managed to rush through the same shop where Dan hid himself.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“There’s too many of them,” Li said. “There’s one Hellhound on the second level. We’re boxed in between the two teams.”
Hearing this news, Dan powered down from his berserk state, knowing that his ability would be useless. It didn’t matter how strong he was if the moment he stepped out of the shop, he would be taking bullets from all directions.
The team focused their attention outside as the Hellhounds no longer shot at their position. Instead, Dan assumed that Rachel and her team gave chase and also ran into the Hellhounds. Dan watched as he saw a Hellhound agent slide next to a trash bin and took pot shots at the direction Li and Angie just came from.
“Angie, check if this shop has an emergency exit,” Dan said.
“Right,” she replied.
The space in front of the shop devolved into a criss cross of tracers between both teams. The Hellhound behind the trash bin took a burst to the neck and he collapsed into a bloody mess on the ground. On top of the staccatos of gunfire, Dan’s ear picked up glass shattering. Tracers coming from the Hellhound’s side decreased as inhuman screeches and roars filled the mall.
“Oh great what now?” Dan muttered.
Angie ran back to him and tapped Dan on the shoulder. “No luck Dan. The mall is out only exit.”
“We’re going to have to run through a zoo to get out of this mall,” Dan said bitterly. A mutated tiger rushed past the shop and towards the Prime Swords.
“Li, do you have any more smoke grenades? We need to obscure cover our escape out of this mall,” Dan said.
“Unfortunately not,” the stealth specialist said. “I had to use my last one to keep the Hellhounds at bay when you and Angie ran to the first vault.”
Dan’s heart sank, but he still had to find another way to escape this mess. Another Hellhound agent ran past all the incoming gunfire and crouched beside the trash bin where his wounded teammate still laid unmoving. Before he could even check on his teammate’s condition, a black eagle swopped down at surprising speed and the Hellhound narrowly avoided getting his eyes clawed out by the eagle’s sharp feet.
The eagle flew past the Hellhound and soon Dan’s eyes spotted the eagle as it came into view for another pass. This time, a wad of fluids hit the trash bin as the Hellhound dived out of the way. The trash bin began steaming and Dan saw the side of the bin partially melt in just the span of a few seconds. The air began filling with a sharp scent that stung his nose even from this distance.
“Acid spitting birds,” Dan muttered. “That’s just awful.”
“Any ideas Dan?” Angie said behind him.
Dan glanced back at his teammate and crawled slowly toward the edge of the shop before the mall. He darted his eyes back and forth keep an eye on the chaos all around him. To his right, the Prime Sword were pinned by gunfire from the second level of the mall and one agent on the ground grappling with a black tiger. Up this close, this tiger appeared much larger than the typical ones he had seen in magazines and other science books.
The eagle that spat the wad of acid still flew in sweeping arcs around the mall with one Prime Sword trying to track and shot it down. Dan glanced up and saw the Hellhound agent on the second level focusing his fire on the Prime Swords. His eyes then rested on one of the few sources of color in this mall outside of the grey and stained walls and the mud caked floors. A red fire extinguisher in seemingly good condition rested a few meteres away from the unconscious Hellhound agent across from the shop.
Dan responded to Angie’s inquiry. “I have two that come to mind, Angie.”
“Well let’s hear it,” she said. “I wanna get this shit over with.”
“Well I could either use my berserk and try to bulldoze through the back of the shop and hope that would get us out of here, or I could make that fire extinguisher burst and hopefully cause enough of a distraction on top of the zoo out there and we make a break for it.”
Neither of his teammates gave him an immediate response. That was how he knew that both such plans were shit.
“Not going to lie to you Dan, neither of those suggestions sound ideal,” Li admitted. “But I think the second one is our best chance. The added chaos on top of the battle should be enough of a smokescreen for our escape to the vault.”
“Alright then, when you see that fire extinguisher blow up, that’s your signal to book it,” Dan said.
Both his teammates nodded and Dan stood up and stared intently at the fire extinguisher. He conjured up whatever fear, anger and hate he had in his being. He added more fuel to the fire by reminding himself of the unwanted reunion with the traitor Kate Razer during the heist.
Dan’s vision became clouded and muddied with a deep shade of red as his eyes bled from the use of his glare ability. This otherworldly power set fire on the extinguisher and after another few seconds, it exploded into a sizeable cloud of mist and pieces of shrapnel knocked back a nearby Hellhound.
Dan scooped up the credit box off the floor and made a break for it, sprinting out of the shop and running through the chaos-filled mall. He briefly glanced over his shoulder and saw his two teammates follow behind him. Tracers of gunfire still rained down from the second level toward the Prime Swords. The fight between one Prime Sword and the mutated black tiger still raged on as the Prime Sword had the tiger pinned, reversing the positions. The other two were either returning fire against the Hellhound on the second level or trying to shoot down the flying animals, which Dan counted an additional three large birds flying at high speed around the mall.
He continued his sprint and bulldozed his way through the glass door of the mall’s entrance, barely breaking stride. Once outside, Dan’s mind was laser focused on reaching the next vault at one hundred fifty meters away. He and his teammates rushed through the empty parking lot and crossed another street before the waypoint led them into was appeared to be a business building.
Dan stopped at the entrance and pulled on the door handle, but it didn’t budge. His no so subtle solution to the locked door was taking his ZK-77 off his back and blasting the handle and the rest of the door with tungsten hollow points. He put his assault rifle on his back and pulled on the mangled door handle, finally opening it.
Angie’s chuckle behind him didn’t go unnoticed. “Wow, what a skilled locksmith you are.”
Dan gave his female teammate a sideways glance but rushed inside the corporate building. He sped past the lobby and and followed his waypoint to the stairs. The next vault was about three floors above ground level.
The trip up the stairs, while a cakewalk compared to what the team had endured so far, aggravated Dan. His impatience at being so close to the vault and having to climb stairs pissed him off.
“Okay, I gotta speed this shit up,” Dan said. He clenched his teeth and he could feel more blood pooling in his eyes as his body once again prepared itself for the berserk transformation. The sudden surge in power throughout his body and the red static coursing around his armor was familiar, if a little straining.
Berserk mode activated.
Dan tore up the stairs and his foot even smashed through the floor tiles on one of the steps. He became so fast in such cramped interiors that he couldn’t properly turn to climb the next flight of stairs. His body smashed and bounced off the walls to keep on track. Dan raced up one last flight of stairs before he saw the waypoint on his HUD level with him, indicating the vault was on the same floor. He kicked a metal door off its hinges and barged through the hallway.
He rushed through the halls until the waypoint settled on an office room and Dan kicked open the door and spotted the vault beside a cubicle near the center of the room. He slowed his pace to a walk and powered down from the berserk mode.
Dan held up the credit box in front of the ATM. After the liberal use of his berserk mode, he was breathing hard and he could feel the strain and waves of aces throughout his body.
Scan complete. Please wait 60 seconds for the credits to be earned and added to your team’s score.
The rapid footsteps down the hall put Dan on high alert and he took the seventy-seven off his back and aimed his rifle at the doorway. He loosened his trigger finger when he spotted Li and Angie enter the office.
“The credit box is in,” Dan said. “Now we just have to sit back and wait for out credits to be deposited and finish the round.”
“Good, we have exactly one minute left on our timer,” Li said. “If nothing else happens, we’ll redeem those credits and win first place in this round.”
As if fate decided to intervene, a window shattered behind Dan. The concern he experienced at the horrified facial expression on his teammates told him one answer on who it was. He turned around and saw Rachel Cutter. Somehow, she had escaped the chaos within the mall and had just caught up to them.
Berserk mode activated.
There was no way Dan’s team would be this close to cashing out the credit box only to have Rachel steal it from them at the last moment. Rachel charged in at blinding speed and Dan’s muscles screamed as he too met and intercepted Rachel’s charge toward the vault.
Rachel caught Dan by the wrists and the two were deadlocked in place. Yet another surprise was that the Prime Sword appeared seemingly just as strong as him even in the berserk state. Dan put all his might to pushing Rachel back but she didn’t budge. He also tried yanking his arms away from Rachel’s grip and still failed.
How Rachel was this powerful as a tier one was beyond him. But now his goal wasn’t to beat rachel in this fight. He simply had to defend the vault from being accessed by the enemy.
“You’re as strong as they come, Dan Orion,” Rachel said. “You truly live up to your reputation as the rookie to beat in this tournament.”
Dan didn’t respond and simply stared into the Rachel’s reflective helmet visor. All he saw were his bleeding eyes and his lack of pupils or irises while in his transformed state. Combined that with the red energies spilling out of his body, he wasn’t too far from looking like a demon.
“Whether it’s now or in later rounds, you will fall one step short against me Dan,” she bragged.
“You think so?” Dan strained. “I wish you would look me in the eye and say that.”
Rachel still held firm like a statue against Dan’s relentless attempt to push against her. The iron grip of the Prime Sword agent reminded him of the strength he witnessed fighting against the higher ranked Kodak agents during the last two missions.
Once this tournament was over, he reminded himself to do more research on Rachel Cutter, as her strength was abnormal for her rank.
Cash out complete. Your team has been awarded fifty thousand credits and is now 1nd place!
“Damn you,” Rachel seethed.
“What were you saying just now about falling one step short?” Dan retorted, throwing her taunt back at her.
“Your team may be safe for now, but I you will taste defeat by my hand you little—”
Rachel was cut off when Dan saw a message pop up in his vision.
Round over. All contestants must cease hostilities.
1st place: Alpha team at 115000 credits.
2nd place: Prime Sword team at 75000 credits.
Eliminated: Hellhounds and Genesis Talons.
The winners are the Alpha and Prime Sword teams. You will progress to the fourth round of the Combat Games.
Rachel grunted and released her grip on Dan’s arms. She glanced past him and said, “That’s enough, disengage.”
Dan looked back and was shocked to see Rachel’s two teammates engaged in their own fights against Li and Angie.
Li and another Prime Sword had both their barrels trained on each other’s faces. The other Prime Sword had Angie pinned on the ground with a pistol to her head. On Rachel’s order, the intense standoff between both teams broke up as the Prime Swords slowly backed away from Li and Angie. The Prime Sword on top of Angie took their foot off while the other agent pointing a rifle at Li’s face backed off as well.
Rachel turned her back on Dan, but glanced over her shoulder at him. “We’ll be seeing each other again soon.”
Dan’s gave the Prime Sword a sharp gaze, staring intently at her reflective helmet visor. He stared her down so intensely even as she walked to the shattered window and jumped that he barely noticed the notification on his HUD.
Congratulations. You have survived the cash grab round of the Combat Games and your team will progress to the next round.
Constriction reward: 2000 credits for each agent.
Bonus experience rewarded for completing round.
Congratulations!
You have reached Tier 1 | Level 21.
You have earned 5 stat points.
Dan finally exhaled and took in his team’s victory of this round. He turned and walked a few steps before leaning against an office cubicle. He exchanged glances with both his teammates, who were also just as drained as he was.
“That… was tough,” he said while breathing heavily.
***
Kate
Kate and Adam both walked out of the office building together, concluding the third round to this ridiculous tournament. The two were just about ready to demolish Dan’s teammates and completely isolate him so that Dan could be kidnapped and the mission would come to a close.
Why Judith ordered them to disengage still clung to Kate’s mind. It was incomprehensible. Kate quickened her pace until she caught up with her superior.
“Do you mind telling me why this mission is dragging on for this long? We just missed a potential window to take Dan Orion and get out,” she said. “We would have blown the heads off his two friends if you had ordered it.”
“If I had ordered, but I didn’t. So it’s a moot point,” Judith responded coldly.
Adam caught up and chimed in. “Not going to lie boss, having to hold back for this long hasn’t been easy. It’s so much easier to punch off an enemy’s head without using kid gloves.”
“Ah yes, I forget who I’m working with. Kodak isn’t exactly known for subterfuge. But there’s a process we need to follow, and you two are under my command.” Judith stopped and turned on her heel two face them both. “It might seem that we’re out in the middle of nowhere, but the perimeters of these combat arenas are guarded by sentry turrets and a mix of tier one and two Alpha agents armed with respectable firepower. Plus, our ride would have to swoop in and pick us up in air space that is more guarded than even the main building. You fools might not have noticed, but there are anti-aircraft launchers installed in these seemingly abandoned areas.”
Kate and Adam exchanged glances, wondering how the Alpha Corp could justify such expenses and overkill defenses for a mere combat tournament for a bunch of weaklings.
“As expected, neither of you could hack it if I wasn’t leading this,” Judith sighed. “I review the info I have already while also keeping my eyes and ears open on the field, observing any new developments or inaccuracies in the data I already reviewed. To answer your question Kate, kidnapping Dan, or any agent right in this stage of the Combat Games would be too risky. I’ll ask you this, how has the Alpha Corp responded to VIP kidnappings in the past?”
Kate pondered on the answer and recalled a few attempted kidnappings of executive level people within the Alpha Corp, whether by rival shards or small gangs trying to make it big. Regardless of how such kidnappings went, the worse case scenario for the Alpha Corp has always been making sure their captives died before they revealed anything important to an enemy. The shard would rather have its own people die before the leak or theft of their darkest secrets.
“Well, if you know even vaguely of the Alpha Corp’s previous history with such matters, if a rescue attempt failed, the shard would make sure their stolen assets were destroyed, including its people if necessary. If we went through the trouble of infiltrating this tournament and kidnapping a particular individual, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out our intentions. If they fail to intercept us and take Dan back, they could just kill him and deny us what we came here for.”
While Judith’s logic made sense, Kate still gritted her teeth beneath her helmet.
“Are you not concerned with how powerful Dan is becoming? His berserk ability allows him to punch far above his level,” she said.
“And what makes you think I would be worried?” Judith responded calmly. “You think if I didn’t have to hold back that he could even touch me? You’re correct that Dan is more dangerous than any tier one here. But he’s still far too weak to take us on directly. It might have appeared that I struggled, but I merely matched his level of strength to keep up the charade. Trust me, he’s beatable at his current level. Something you couldn’t manage last time.”
Judith picked up the pace and walked ahead. Kate cursed under her breath at Judith’s verbal jab at the end. She felt a hand touch her shoulder and lifted her head.
“Relax,” Adam said. “Kodak high-tiers like her are always, well you know.”
“Unfortunately, I do,” Kate said somberly. “All of this shit better be worth it. I want my brother back.”