A large portcullis at floor level raised up and out strode a tall, elegant woman with long, shimmering hair in a shade of purple so deep it was close to black, smiling and waving up at the audience. She wore a black leather corset cinched tight to accentuate her chest, with indents in the stomach area made to look like the kind of abdominal muscles Sigrid actually had, and a skirt made from strips of black leather that hung down to mid-thigh and were decorated with metal studs. Sandals strapped up to her knees and a flowing purple cape thrown jauntily over one shoulder completed the ensemble. The whole thing seemed to be designed after a Roman Centurion’s armor, a sexy Centurion, that is, a fitting complement to Stratos’ Emperor getup.
Annabelle
Powers:
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
Skills:
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
[Hidden]
“Who’s she?” Jane said. She'd removed Squishy from the shoulder bag she carried it in, and placed the little slime on her shoulder. I suppose she wanted to let it watch the fights too.
“NPC,” I said. “Probably the emcee.”
Sure enough, when the woman eached the middle of the arena floor she stopped and spread her arms wide, pure white teeth shimmering in the light that beamed down on her from the curved ceiling as she greeted her audience with a smile.
“Welcome everyone to the Players Tournament!” she announced, slowly rotating on the spot to address the entire audience encircling the floor. “My name is Annabelle and I’ll be your host this morning. I’m sure you’re all just as thrilled as I am to see who’s the strongest in the city, so let’s jump right into it, shall we?”
She was met with a roar of cheers. I had to admit, she was captivating. I found myself joining in.
That was weird. I don’t usually get roused by this kind of thing, but I was actually really excited all of a sudden. Was that me being affected by her public speaking skill, or maybe one of her hidden powers? She might have something akin to Jane’s Captivating Presence.
“Here’s how it’s going to work: it’s an elimination tournament where each competitor will be matched randomly against another. Each contest will take place right here,” she stamped her foot on the dusty, packed-earth floor, “and will last until one fighter submits or can no longer keep going.” She gave another illuminating smile and winked. “I’ll be your judge, referee, and ringside announcer.”
More roars of approval.
“Once everyone has had a fight, the winners of each match will continue on to round two and we’ll keep going until we have our champion.”
More roars.
Next, Annabelle introduced the first competitors, who emerged together onto the arena floor through the same gate. They were both boys in their teens: one was short but stocky holding a scimitar in both hands, the other taller with a longsword and a small, round shield.
“This is gonna be a short fight,” I said. “Tall one’s going to win easy.”
“You can tell from seeing their stats, I suppose?” Nina said.
“Well, I already guessed it before I evaluated them. The taller one has more reach and can block with the shield. But his power boosts his agility and his sword skill is also better, so it’s a no-brainer.”
“Damn,” Byron said from the other side of Nina, “that is one handy power you’ve got.”
The first fight was over even quicker than I’d expected, with the taller fighter holding his shield out to keep his opponent at bay and block his view, and swinging his sword around it. Two hits on the shorter one and Annabelle called it. It was the right move, each of those hits had taken nearly half the shorter one’s health, and he was deep in the red.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
The fights continued along the same lines. In many of the lineups one competitor was clearly superior to the other so it was easy to predict the outcomes correctly. There were a lot of people with swords, though few knew how to use them well, and a number of them used powers as they fought. They were mostly elemental attacks, and mostly ineffective because the Player hadn’t leveled up their mastery. Novice in anything seemed pretty weak, and a surprising number of Players still didn’t have anything raised to Competent.
In general, everybody was clumsy and nervous. Few had any fighting experience and it showed. They looked like me against Shashu or the Jackalope: hopeless and scared. Eager as they were to get into the game and prove themselves, these were mostly people who spent their lives on Earth avoiding confrontation, and when faced with an actual opponent coming at them with an actual weapon, it was not as easy as it looked in the movies. I knew that from experience. I had a strong feeling Andy, who’d studied kung fu before coming here and was used to sparring, would win his first match no problem.
"Look Squishy," Jane said. "There's your auntie Chika."
Then the team groaned when Chika's opponent followed her though the portcullis, a beefy guy who was older, taller, thicker, and armed with a scary-looking pike.
“Oh no,” Nina said. “She doesn’t stand a chance against that beast.”
“What’s with that weapon?” Sigrid said. “It’s, like, twice as long as my spear. He’s gonna impale the poor girl.”
“Maybe he only looks big next to her,” Jane said.
“No,” Wayne said. “He’s big.”
Chika Hachiman
Affinity:
Death - Novice
Gifts:
Strong Like Bull - Super strength
Powers:
Boing Boing - Competent: Incredible leaping ability
I Vant To Zuck Your Life - Novice: Transfer health from target to Player; Range: Touch; Affinity with Death required
Skills:
Acrobatics - Competent
Jiu Jitsu - Competent
Taunting - Competent
“I think our girl’s gonna surprise you,” I said. “I pick her to win.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Nina said.
The pike was big, and dangerous when used in a formation, but unwieldy as a solo offensive weapon. He had the polearm skill at Novice, but that was only marginally better than unskilled. Even still, it was the wrong weapon to have in a situation like that, because it was intended to be a defensive weapon, used to keep attackers at bay while protecing archers and such, not in duels. I had no doubt that Chika’s agility would come out on top.
As soon as the match started the man held his long pike out in front of him and began stomping toward her while she stood her ground, crouched low like a cat ready to pounce. Once he got almost within striking distance she really did pounce, using her leaping power to jump completely over him. She did a graceful mid-air flip with a half-twist, no doubt using her acrobatics skill, then as soon as she landed she had him grappled from behind, tossed over her hip, and flat on his face on the hard arena floor.
In a blink, she’d scrambled onto his back and tied him up in a choke hold. He struggled a bit but she clung on tenaciously, and with her super strength he didn’t stand a chance of escaping. He lost consciousness and it was over. His health meter was barely below full.
“Told you so,” I said.
“Yeah yeah,” Nina said. “How’d you know?”
“She’s really good,” I said. “He might’ve been big and imposing, but his powers are lackluster and situational. With her fighting style, I didn’t think he’d have the chance to use them.”
“She was awesome,” Jane said.
As the matches continued, I scanned the Players in the stands, searching out the team builders and assessing the teams they’d built. On the whole, most teams were off-balanced in terms of powers and skills, with a lot of combat and little support. The other thing they had in common was that with a few exceptions most team members had an elemental affinity: Fire, Ice, Water, or Earth. Oddly enough, with the exception of me and Jane, who could use any affinity, and Wayne’s second affinity with Fire, my team — I mean the team I assembled — didn’t have any of those elements. It’s not that other teams didn’t have some Players with non-elemental affinities, they just weren’t common and for some reason had been largely overlooked by the other team builders.
Then I spotted them.
“Holy crap!” I said, somewhat louder than I’d intended. “Sorry,” I mumbled when everyone looked at me.
“What is it?” Nina whispered.
“There’s a group over there who played together as a team at the convention. Kick-ass video gamers. Flawless teamwork.”
“Where?”
I pointed them out. There were five of them, all sitting together, three guys and two girls who all looked in their early 20s.
“Which ones have good abilities?” asked Jane.
“All of them. Really good abilities.”
“Are they on a team?”
“Doesn’t look like they are, the five of them are sitting apart from other people and none of them were a team builder.”
“We should get to know them, work together,” Jane said. ”If we’re allowed to bring in hired guns, let’s put a lock on them.”
“That is a fantastic idea,” I said.
“Of course it is,” said Jane.