Chapter 13—Team Simulation
Raptor felt a buzz in his veins as he sat in the lobby, waiting for the simulation to start. The tech that connected him had long become weightless, leaving him in a void of shapes not yet formed. It was the waiting period, and while he normally preferred to be thrown into the action, this time, he appreciated the chance to think over the plan.
It was him, Magician, and numbers 398 and 367. On a good day, neither one of them was someone he’d normally put on his team, but he didn’t go back on his word and this arrangement actually worked out.
Magician was going to join either way. He couldn’t afford to miss any simulations today, and the other two couldn’t afford to let Magician win. If he won, his combat score would jump up a lot. That'd easily drop 398 below 400, and 367 wouldn't allow that. Even if neither were going into the grading grounds, dropping ranks so close to the big event would embarrass them. Furthermore, with them on his team, he had perfect bait.
If Magician won, his combat score would go up a lot, yeah. But if Raptor led a disadvantaged group to victory, his leadership score would make a jump too. Signing his team up might as well have been a signal flare, and sure enough, it had immediately caught the attention of four Numbers he had long wanted to beat. That made this simulation more profitable than he had imagined.
With so much on the table, the waiting period was more than necessary. If he was immediately thrown in, he might go wild. Still, he didn’t miss it as the shapes around him took form.
Huge blocks came together, forming tall skyscrapers and winding streets. Billboards rose as if to watch the spectacle from above, and Raptor found himself dangling, waiting for the system to let him drop.
“Attention Participants,” A feminine voice chirped. “This is a Team Death Match Simulation. There are four participants to each team, and victory will be decided when the members of one team is defeated. Each participant will begin at a random location and be unaware of the condition of their allies. There is no time limit. Are you ready?”
He was, but he wondered if 398 and 367 were too. He told them the plan in the meeting room before they started, but would they actually follow it…?
“If you two graduated tomorrow, what names would you choose?”
“What? Graduation is so far off, even if we went into the grading grounds. Why would I be thinking about that?” 367 answered first.
“Start thinking about it, loser. Each simulation might as well be the real deal, and you aren’t going to get anywhere if you aren’t thinking about who you’ll be by the end of it.” He did not mention that he hadn’t thought up his name much himself. He was not trying to be their ally beyond what needed to be done.
“Scott,” said 398, lamely. “It’s a good normal name. When I graduate, I’m done with being a number.” ‘Scott’ was older than them, nearly thirty, turned into a number by necessity rather than choice. Maybe Scott was his old name. Maybe he took this chance to choose a new one.
“Whatever, call me Logan.” 367 rolled his eyes, and Scott gave him a look. “What? Let’s be real, you chose that name for a reason, right?”
Raptor didn’t care about whatever clandestine conversation led to these names. “Good, if you have names then you understand precisely what I’m about to say. When you get in there, amplify your luminance and use it to meet up.”
“What? That’ll make us clear targets!” Scott objected.
“Which is the point. If we do this right they’ll take it as a rookie mistake and collapse on you. If you link up though, you can turn the odds in your favor.”
“Why wouldn’t they descend on us two at a time?”
“Because it does nothing for their combat score to share the fight with an ally. They’ll look better taking us out one by one.”
The two didn’t object further, but he still wasn’t sure that meant they properly understood. And that was fine. Even if they did get jumped, he only needed them to keep as many people busy as possible. If they managed to take someone out on top of that it was a bonus, but as far as he was concerned, there was only one person that needed to survive till the end.
The same person it always was.
"Ready," he confirmed and was left to plummet to the world below.
He hit the ground with a roll, and let the umbra change his shape. Skin turned to scales and muscle became animalistically strong. His sense of smell ramped up too, etching the streets with the scent of the other Numbers, letting him see that Logan and Scott were in fact following the plan.
His eyes would have let him see that too, as their distinct luminance splashed light up to the sky. With his nose though, he could see one of the opponents drawing in and immediately headed for his proper destination.
He had a plan all for himself. Let those two fight, take one out alone, link up with Magician, and take out the other two. The plan demanded he move fast though, with no time for second guesses.
He went fast through the street, moving with all the ferocious speed of a beast, adrenaline rushing from the thrill of the hunt. He knew with full certainty where all his targets were, and he grinned as he drew toward them, knowing they were none the wiser. Streets and buildings melted behind him, little different than foliage or the stony caverns of a cave. Distance was cut like cake, and in minutes he was where he needed to be, the scent of his target strong like a smoke in the air.
But he was nowhere in sight.
Raptor tried to follow his nose and got a warning as something heavy crashed down.
The pavement came up in chunks, but he watched a few feet back as a Hammer was lifted onto a shoulder.
Number 199. No, he’d call him Hammer instead. The man stood there with a strong thick body, his armor sitting on him like a protective shell. He hoisted his hammer onto his shoulder and gestured for Raptor to draw closer, the look on his face telling him all he needed to hear.
“You’re excited aren’t you, jackass?” Raptor barked.
“I sure am! Who’d have guessed you poke your head out. I thought you’d just hide until the grading grounds are done, hoping either I’d graduate or you’d somehow graduated yourself. One way or another, you’d end up safe.”
Raptor cackled, “Oh man, you’re bold too. But I guess you gotta be, with 214 dead you don’t got anyway to prove you’re not just a meatheaded piece of shit. All that muscle and all you got to show for it is that big ass hammer. Hard to prove you have any combat skill when most people can’t do anything about it, huh?”
Hammer sneered, “That’s why I always had a problem with you. Of all you weird orphans, you’re the one who tries the hardest to be normal.”
“What the fuck is being normal? You think the way we talk makes us who we are.”
Hammer shifted his weapon from his shoulder to his palm. "Nah. But you talking like that somehow pisses me the hell off." He made his stance firmer. "Luminance Amplify. A wine-colored light filled his armor as if it flowed through veins.
Raptor had never seen a Luminance like this before, and his mind wasn’t ready for what it meant.
Hammer closed in, weapon hoisted above his head as he made twenty feet look like two steps. It crashed down again, but Raptor threw himself back, dodging the blow that turned stone to dust.
Hammer stepped back in and swung up for his body.
Raptor threw his arms down, trying to stop the blow, only to go flying through a nearby wall. He picked himself up and rolled as the Hammer came down. He sprung in the air as it chased him like a golf club, kicking out to strike its wielder in the face.
Hammer shook it off though, grabbed him by the neck, and slammed him into the floor again. He was dragged after that, stone coming up as he was launched into the wall. Hammer came back in with a jump, weapon coming down, and Raptor rolled again, just barely dodging as the wall came down too.
Hammer’s luminance remained active all the while, and Raptor realized he hadn’t heard it beep a time limit.
“What the hell?”
“Between all of you orphans, you lightless ones bothered me the most. How the hell are any of you above 400? How the hell are you anything when Luminance matters so much.” Hammer turned, striding forward with the confidence of giants.
“Because we don’t give a fuck!” Raptor barked. “We aren’t weak people like you, needing nightlights to sleep in the dark.” He made sure he stood tall too.
“There’s something all together wrong with you four. No…it’s only three of you now, huh? Guess beating up on a bunch of people in here didn’t make 214 good enough to survive out there.”
“Sounds to me like you should take that as a lesson. You can knock smaller people around, but you can’t do anything about a horde of grays.” As if Grays took Assassin down. Not that Raptor would tell this guy the truth, but he wanted him to know he wasn't really impressive.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Yap, yap, yap. How are you running your mouth when I got you running like a bitch.”
"Running!? Come on big man, I'm not running anywhere." In fact, it was time to stop running altogether. "Come at me, let's see if you measure up to half that muscle." He raised his hand, beckoning the brute.
Hammer sneered and answered, charging again with his hammer swinging around.
Raptor backflipped as the heavy weapon tore a chunk out of the wall. He bounced back as it crashed down, and ducked low as Hammer swung around again. As he tried to regain his balance Raptor struck, a swift blow blasting his jaw; another hitting his chin.
Luminance be damned, the man was dazed.
Raptor kept coming, springing in, blow for blow flying straight for the man’s face. When Hammer regained himself enough to block, Raptor struck his body instead, sharp hooks swinging into the armor, cracking it beneath cracked knuckles.
Hammer swung and shoved his head through the floor.
Raptor kicked up and felt bone buckle on impact. The brute toppled back and he kept at it, strong haymakers making his head spin. For a second, his luminance faded and Raptor leaped, pulling the man’s head into a flying knee.
Blood spurted from nose and mouth and Raptor held on, bringing him down like an anchor to the floor.
They crashed and he rose, body electrified by the assault.
“Back on your feet, big man!” He roared. “We just got started!” He danced around him, but Hammer was out, better at brutalizing than he ever was at taking any blows. “Pathetic. All that muscle and you can’t take a few hits?” Raptor spat, though considering the cracks in the man’s armor, he supposed those hits came stronger than any had before.
Either way, Hammer was down, and he had a hunger for more blood.
He shook himself out, never fully used to how the simulation made each blow feel real. The feeling of debris under his feet was real too, as was the clog of dust in the air. Despite it all, he continued through it. Moving out of the dust and blowing hard through his nose.
He took a deep breath when it was cleared and found that Scott and Logan’s scents were much stronger. If their opponent was using Luminance like Hammer did, they either had to learn fast or accept the end of their fight. Elsewhere, he smelled something alarming and made his way to it fast.
This time, the streets felt too big. Maybe it was because the scent was coming from another part of town, but it still felt like it was taking all too long, forcing him to push himself in ways that'd make him too tired for the coming fight. Still, he ran, faster, not hunting this time, but trying to steal prey that had already been wounded. Prey that should have stayed hidden. Prey he should have been able to reach first.
He arrived at last and arrived too late, watching as a claymore came down and ran Magician through. As his body hit the ground hard a woman landed atop the claymore, making sure it ran deep. Beside her stood a man with a falchion lowered to his hips, looking upon the fallen Number with a clear air of disappointment.
The woman flipped off the claymore and yanked it from Magician’s body.
“Did we guess right?” She looked over at Raptor, surprising her ally as he looked over too.
“Stupid meatheaded idiots. The whole butcher shop, huh!” He barked at them. They weren’t as built as Hammer was but if there was a score for hitting the gym, the two would be pretty high up.
“Oh yeah, we were right.” She looked at Falchion. “If he’s dead your scores not going up as much as you want, is it? You look a little rough though, so maybe 199 or 205 found you? Did you run, or did you somehow manage to win?”
“205 is being handled by my other teammates. 199 though? Not as strong as he thought he was.”
“Lame,” came Falchion. “He demanded we leave you to him and he couldn’t even finish you off. This is why this ranking system is jacked. To be fair, you’re stronger than him, I’ll admit that. But there’s no way you can break 200 if I can’t.” He was 201, Claymore was 203. “Well, let’s clean this mess up already.” He twirled his sword. “We’ll take you out and finish off the rest of your team.”
“You’ll die trying.”
Claymore shrugged and Falchion sighed.
"Luminance Amplify," they said together, and their luminance moved the same way as Hammer's.
So…Raptor wasn't surprised when they came in, blades already soaring, coming for neck and chest. Instead, he kicked himself to the side, dodging the claymore's long sting and twisting low away from the falchion's sweep. Claymore's feet ground gravel as she turned her sword after him, carrying Falchion as she launched him too.
Raptor got away from the swing all too fast but did not expect her to fling Falchion after him.
His sword came down and opened Raptor’s shoulder up. There was barely time to grit his teeth against the pain as it swung around to open his stomach next. He stopped it with a raised leg, roared, and pushed against the blade, pushing Falchion back. On that leg though, he couldn’t come fast, missing an easy jab that might have turned the fight in his favor.
Claymore dropped down with a nasty swing and almost cleaved him in two as Falchion fell back. He gave up the chase, dodging instead, regretting the flight as the distance between them grew. She swung and spun, cleaving for his body as Falchion circled, waiting for an opening.
She kept Raptor on the run, until she rushed him, blade dragging behind her as she came in too close to get in a good swing. He knew what was coming next and yet had no counterattack for it.
“Auxiliary weapon,” The claymore popped out of existence and a khopesh filled her hands, coming around with all the force that was meant to move the claymore.
It felt like fire as the sword sliced his stomach, and felt like lightning as Falchion tore his back. The two kept at him, long swords swinging, opening scars around his body as he ducked and dodged, trying to regain his momentum.
They kept coming and all he could do was watch their blades, trying to move just fast enough, just shallowly enough to dodge one and the one that followed. He dodged and cursed as one dodge proved to be a feint, the claymore coming back as the woman spun herself around.
It bit into him and flung him against a wall. She laughed and Falchion laughed too, swinging his blade to clean the blood from it.
“It’s nasty work, isn’t it? But it’s a team death match, you know. These simulations are all trials. You gotta be able to work together if you want to make it out there.” He kept spinning the blade. “Which is always your problem, 234. You’re too determined to do this all by yourself. At least get a good leader that knows how to aim you in the right direction.”
“Fuck you,” Raptor barked through several huffs. “Why do all you jackasses with high leadership scores have big ass egos! Congratulations, you’re tag teaming one guy and still not winning.”
Claymore laughed, “God I want to break you so bad. I bet you can tank a lot, can’t you?”
"I can, but you'd never be able to handle me alone."
She grinned, “Shame really, I don’t normally like to share.”
“Then take me by yourself.”
“Want a lil one on one time with me, huh?”
“You’re the one who offered, should I feel bad for taking you up on it?”
Falchion sighed, “Are you two done yet? I’m not trying to be here all day.”
“I’m not done till I’m dead, jackass!” Raptor clenched his fist.
Claymore switched to her khopesh again. “Let a girl enjoy a man with stamina, 201.”
Falchion rolled his eyes, “You can enjoy him when I’m not stuck nearby watching.”
They raised their arms and spread out. Raptor watched them, wishing he didn't have to turn his head to keep them in sight. Hammer had wasted what they were using skillfully, perfecting what was a temporary buff in other people into a constant one in themselves. How did he make sense of that? Drawing on their power instead of using all of it at once? Circuitry in their refraction suits that made their luminance a battery instead of an adrenaline shot? Or did he say something about the spirit and how they were using theirs effectively?
Whatever he chose to think, he wasn’t going to win this fight as he was. He was only playing at being more than human, but as far as he knew from what he learned so far, they had left their humanity behind. They were one step closer to the lightbearers at that cerulean place, which was several miles away from where he currently was. He couldn’t win this fight by boosting his strength. He had to do something else.
Then came the question, no more comprehensible than it was before, no more understandable despite Fang telling them what it was, “” If anything, it felt like a taunt.
“Screw you,” He said back, refusing to even search for clarity against these two. He’d be damned before he did that, and even were he damned, he’d still find another route.
“Let’s talk afterwards,” said Claymore as she charged, and Falchion flanked him from the other side.
Seconds, then…
He had seconds to figure everything out. He had seconds to become something that could not just dodge this attack but strike her and him at the same time. He had seconds to be more than human because humanity wasn’t the peak, it was the limit. Seizing the umbra that morphed his flesh he pushed against that limit, uprooting every bit of his human identity.
He needed to be a hunter, standing above the peak. There he'd see humanity, their weapons, and their tactics and he'd laugh, because nothing would make them better than him. The umbra pushed against his human limits and in seconds, he was human no more, but a reptilian thing with four eyes on a distantly human face. A long tail lashed out behind him, and the two Numbers slowed as his fearsome form filled their eyes. They redoubled the assault a second later but it was already too late!
He sprung, striking Claymore’s chest hard with a spiked hand and his tail swung down, planting Falchion’s head in the cement.
Claymore went rolling but managed to catch herself as he leaped after her, calling out her namesake again as he came down. His tail swooped around the sword and let him spin into a raking slash. He went for her neck, but his claws came up short as a chain looped around his arm and yanked it back.
No, a chain whip.
He peaked back and saw Falchion holding on to it tight. Claymore rose with her sword above her head, her eyes burning with rage.
“Cute trick!” She swung.
Falchion shrieked long before she found purchase, however, his chain going limp as Raptor caught her coming blade. They both peeked back and found the man bent over. Raptor grinned, but horror filled Claymore’s eyes.
“We killed you!” She roared.
Magician stood over Falchion with a hand held out.
“No,” He shook his head. “All you did was fall for my trap…”
[Chapter 13 ends…]