CHAPTER 1
TEAM GoblinZ HAS BEEN ELIMINATED
ROUND 3 OF THE TOURNAMENT WILL NOW COMMENCE
ALL TEAMS ARE ADVISED TO TAKE THEIR POSITIONS
Dae grinned, fireballs spinning around his fists, the thrill of the fight was getting to him.
“Dae, pay attention.” His friend Taug said, panting. Their enemies were regrouping. The fight had not gone either side’s way. A long drawn out fight was in no one's interest, neither team wanted to go into their next fight completely worn out.
“We have to end this!” Dae shouted back as he ran off into the terrain. The arena they had chosen for the fight was a techno-punk cityscape. With steam pipes choking the building like so many vines and clunky machinery scattered throughout the streets, it was a crowded place for a fight. D knew they had to use this to their advantage. Activating their private voice comms, he called out to their third and final teammate, Pira.
“Push up, use a flash to limit their vision. I’m looking for a flank.” With that abrupt command, D shut off all his comms and broadcasting equipment. Now was the time for stealth. He dashed in and out of the alleyways, trying his best to avoid the badly rendered NPC’s loitering on the streets. Eventually, he found what he had been looking for. A fire escape. Blessing his foresight in equipping leaping boots, he pushed himself off the ground, easily clearing the 15 feet of empty air. He landed heavily on his ankles, cursing loudly. Dae hurriedly limped his way up the stairs. Time was of the essence. He quickly opened his inventory. Blinking as the light blue screen materialised out of thin air to float in front of him. The light was blinding on the dark roof and Dae quickly lowered the brightness, thanking his luck that no one could see the screen he had summoned. It took him a while to scroll through the assortment of equipment, clothes and tools that seemed to test the very limits of how much he could carry. He couldn’t waste a health potion on something as small as a twisted ankle but he was all out of smaller healing charms and foods. The fight had forced him to use most of his consumables. Dae swore and closed his inventory. He would just have to fight through the pain.
He slowed down as he reached the roof. He switched his clunky boots out for a pair of ninja tabis, finally closing his inventory. Sighing with relief at the feel of the soft material, Dae moved onwards. Slowly creeping along the edge of the roof while he swept the area for any sign of his enemies. It wasn’t long before he found the enemy sniper. An archer sitting on the edge of the building, using an ac unit as partial cover. Dae stepped into the shadows near him, he quickly pulled up his UI, scrolling through his skills list. It wasn’t long before he found what he had been looking for. Dae grinned.
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Pira slowly stalked down the worryingly silent street. He adjusted his shield. It was getting harder and harder to hold it up. Pira looked over towards where Taug was muttering over a spellbook.
“What do you think?” He asked.
“Hmm?” Taug replied, distracted.
“Where do you think he went?”
Taug adjusted his glasses thoughtfully. They continued to carefully walk down the street, watching out for their opponents.
“He knows what he’s doing.” Taug finally replied.
Quietly, he whispered a spell into his book and a small sprite materialised. The small creature whizzed around his head before coming to rest on his shoulder. They whispered to each other as Pira futuly crouched behind a floating car, trying his best to look threatening and ignoring his painfully exposed legs. Taug’s sprite came quizzing back, emitting high pitched screeching. Pira stared at his grim friend.
“What is it?”
“They’re close.” Came the quiet reply.
Pira cursed, drawing his blade. He looked towards the roof that their manic leader had taken.
“Where is he when you need him.”
Taug was too busy reciting spells to reply. With his already heavily depleted mana power, Pira doubted he could do much to help. He grimaced, changing his grip on his sword. It would be down to him. Drawing his sleeve up, he steadied his blade. Holding his sleeve up with his teeth, he swiftly made a cut. The splashing blood drew Taug out of his thoughts. He looked up in alarm.
“P what the f- are you doing?”
Pira ignored him, moving his hands in swift strokes he drew a symbol on his arm. Taug hurriedly closed his book.
“Dude please” He continued. “The cost is too high.”
Pira glared at him.
“Do you want to lose? Are you ready to return to the outskirts? I’m not!”
Tramping footfalls interrupted their talking. Taug’s sprite shrieked louder, in apparent panic.
“They’re here” Taug didn’t break eye contact. “You sure you want to do this? there's no shame in losing.”
Pira silently turned his back to his friend as he finished his drawing. Taug adjusted his glasses. Sadness clouded his face, but he knew they had work to do. The tournament was far from done.
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Dae slowly walked across the cluttered roof, hoping that the moon wouldn’t glint off of his grin. The tabi had provided to be perfect for walking quietly on the bits and pieces that had littered ground.
Thankfully his subject seemed too focussed on his own targets. As Dae neared the crouching sniper, he could hear him talking to his teammates. Cursing his whispering enemy, he pulled a transcriber from his inventory. A small custom piece of code he had whipped up to provide subtitles for when he had to spend a month with a pair of broken headphones. A small popup blinked up into Dae’s UI, straight on top of his minimap. He cursed, stopping to quickly drag it out of the way, by the time he finished, small blinking text was starting to fill the box.
Archer: I see them, crouching behind the car *laugh* idiots.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Teammate 1: Archie, do you have a clean shot?
Dae stifled his laugh, what an ironic name
Archie: Yeah but they might get away, we should flank them while they’re still unaware.
Teammate 2: I’m moving in.
Archie: My Ultimate is still on cooldown, but I can give you guys cover fire.
T1: *Laugh* I don’t think we’ll need it *Laugh*.
Dae cursed for the umpteenth time, why were they standing still? He had to get to the archer. He looked back at the roof, the distance was too great to cross quickly and quietly. Thankfully the shadows came in handy. A scroll through his skill list found what he needed, shadow jump. He stepped into the shadow quickly, but his foot didn't meet the ground, it simply sank through. Before he could help it, he fell into the floor, his body engulfed in shadows. Crying out in alarm he flailed his arms as he continued to fall, but not down, up. He fell up and out of the shadow near the now alarmed archer.
“What the f-” The man swung around, hitting himself with his bow in his rush. Dae lay on the ground, groaning.
Why do I keep doing this?
Breathing shallowly as he tried his best to come his feet, Dae held out his hands.
“Hey … Hey. “ He gasped “wait, … wait”
Archie laughed as he crouched next to him.
“What kind of ninja cant shadow walk?”
Dae managed to lift himself onto all fours, still heaving as he tried to breathe. Archie laughed again, letting him struggle some more before he kicked him in the stomach. Dae collapsed, banging his nose on the concrete floor. He cried out as his assailant kicked him onto his side. Dae’s textbox pinged him again, barely visible through his blood-tinged sight..
T1: Dude where the f- are you?
Archie grew serious, he turned away and put his hand to his ear.
Archie: What?
T2: *Grunt* It’s bad down here, we need you. *Roaring*
Roaring? Dae thought to himself.
Archie ran to the edge of the rooftop, temporarily forgetting his victim.
Archie: Jesus, I thought these guys were new?
T1: *grunting* JUST GET DOWN HERE
T2: *Unintelligible*
Dae watched as the man leapt off the side of the building, wings sprouting from his body. Dae turned onto his side to cough out the blood and phlegm that was clogging his throat. Heaving out more blood and gore, he finally managed to hoist himself onto his side. Stumbling over to watch the chaos below, his bloody teeth widened in a gory portrait of a smile.
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Taug cursed as his now 12 foot tall swung his street light sized sword. Pira’s spell had created a tower avatar of energy. He now floated in the middle of the avatar, each movement mirroring that of his avatar. But he didn't have time to admire the powerful figure, he had to move.
The enemy team had come at them guns blasting, literally.
The constant shower of bullets from their gunner was making movement hard. All he could do was crouch behind some rubble from the destruction Pira had caused and summon and cast minor healing spells. Taug peaked from behind his cover to watch Pira fight the enemy brawler. Whizzing bullets made him duck, he would have to move, the gunner had found him. Taug scrambled on all fours, staying low to avoid the incoming fire. Before he could make it 10 steps, an arrow found his knee and he fell to the ground, screaming. A winged shadow covered his writhing body.
“Where are you going?” Archie sneered.
Another arrow pinned his hand to the ground before he could reach for his spellbook. Taug grunted with pain, his posse of sprites whizzed around him, screeching in terror.
“I was already out of mana, but how are you going to stop him?” Taug tried his best to sit up with his hand still pinned. With his sprites taking care of his pain, he knew he would be fine soon. First, he would have to distract this new opponent before he could finish the job.
Archie turned to look as Pira sent the brawler flying with a single swipe of his oversized blade.
“Yeah, he might be a problem.” Archie grinned. “Luckily, I got a little something for him.”
Without a backward look, he strode towards the giant figure, loading and firing arrows at a blinding speed. The arrows and bullets from the enemy gunner combined for an exploding storm of missiles. Taug winced as Pira disappeared under a cloud of smoke and fire. Slowly both enemies advanced, maintaining an unending barrage of fire. Taug grunted as he wrenched the arrow out of hand and came to his feet. There wasn't much he could do. He was completely out of mana. He drew a short sword out of his inventory, he was far from a warrior, but he could still do damage before he went down. He watched as Archie slowly raised his hands to heavens, reciting an incantation.
This is bad
Before he could move another explosion blinded him. Taug fell to his knees, the force of the shockwave almost too much for his weakened. Once the ringing from his cleared and his dizziness faded, he was finally able to look at the aftermath. Where Pira’s dominating avatar had once stood, there was only a crater. Alarmed, he looked around for his friend, wincing as the movement caused sharp pains to stab into his skull.
“Don’t worry, he’s fine.”
Taug spun around and broke into a worried grin.
“You bastard, you had me worried.”
Dae smiled back at him.
“I told you we would be fine.”
A rumbling sound interrupted their conversation. The two teammates turned to watch a pile of rubble shift as a figure climbed out. It was Archie.
“How …” Archie grunted, staggering as he climbed out of the debris. “How did you do that.”
“Do what?” Dae’s mischievous smile was perhaps a little too condescending.
“That was a gunner blast; you’re a ninja.”
“Am I?” Dae replied innocently.
“You shadow walked, I saw you!” Archie shouted, frustrated at having victory taken from his grasp.
“Could’ve been anyone, really.”
“I saw your face.”
“Circumstantial evidence at best.”
“Die!” Archie snarled, raising his hand and muttering.
“Dae, do something!” Taug shouted, backing up as fast as he could.
“Um, he’s a bit far away, T.”
Taug glared at his friend, after all he had put them through, were they going to die here? Dae watched as a shadowy figure rose behind Archie.
“This is bad Dae.”
The figure raised and swung his blade.
Dae and Taug winced, trying their best to curl up in a ball.
The sound of a body hitting the floor echoed throughout the silent arena.
TEAM Death Boiz HAS BEEN ELIMINATED
TEAM Dream Team HAS WON
THE TOURNAMENT IS NOW FINISHED
“Dae.”
“Yeah?”
“Are we still alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“Get up you idiots.” A new voice interrupted them.
Taug cautiously opened his eyes.
“Pira! You’re alive.” He cried.
“Of Course I’m alive.” Pira was stumbling towards them, supporting himself on his now much smaller sword.
“That was close, you guys.” Dae ruffled his hair. A smile forming on his face. “Had me almost worried there.”
Pira glared at his unconcerned teammate.
“You…”
Taug rushed to interrupt.
“Guys check your messages.”
Everyone quickly opened up their UI.
“1000000000 Gems?”
Taug grinned. Even Pira seemed pleased.
“We did it; we’re rich.”
“We’re not done yet,” Dae said softly, his expression serious for once. He looked towards where the announcement had come from. “We still have to find a way out of here.”