I had no time to fumble my thumb on it. It was time to move. When I respawned, my placement was usually randomized between Reina and Naomi. So the great Onigen picked one, Naomi. I was a few meters from her now, and even though she was the girl I needed to strategize with, we didn’t have time. And to make matters worse, Reina’s HP dropped just as I respawned.

She was sent to the White Box.

So it was only Naomi and I for the final 18 seconds of the round.

Balizi, Wens and Crisscross’s partner, was at full health, and he was the furthest from the egg. So I used my Displacer on him, making the selection in my sys board. Before Wens and Crisscross could notice he went missing, I replaced the plant meta hunter instantly.

Quick and smooth like a thief in the night. Now, I dashed to the egg, Wens and Crisscross standing a few yards in front of it. I heard them complaining about Reina and how she did some damage to Wens. The thought about her handling business out here against these year threes made me smirk, and I could tell that Reina had fought tooth and nail for that win. All of the extra private training she’d done with Hayashi really paid off, and she wasn’t that useless weapon forger from Acadia anymore.

Wens, 40 HP, Crisscross, 80 HP… even without any stamina left, I could take them both on….

“Did you hear that?” Wens asked Crisscross.

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“It sounds like banging.”

“You’re paranoid, I don’t hear any—” An alarm went off, signaling the nest was being captured!

“Damn it! Someone’s on our egg!” Wens cried, rushing over to the elevator where the nest was. The fight that had broken earlier left the elevator hanging on its last threads of life, the nest buried in rubble, but visible from where those two were standing on the ground floor.

“Wait, Wens, this could be a—”

“Peek-a-boo, asshole,” I said behind Crisscross, who pivoted around to an invisible year one rookie. I punched him hard across the face with my base strength, which was more than enough to drop him on his ass. I didn’t give him a second to get off the floor and retaliate, walloping him until that HP bar was gone.

I started the fight, Reina worked him over, and then I came back to toss him in the coffin.

Then I turned to Wens, who was standing there confused as shit as to what happened. My plan consisted of a few items in executing order, and judging by the look on her face, she wasn’t expecting it:

Wee-woo: A sound box that imitates a false steal alarm. Duration, five seconds.

Ghost Stamina: Allows user to mimic effects of 5% stamina gauge. May only be used once per tournament. Activates within inventory.

Meta-Roulette (lvl 1): Randomly grants a low-grade talent that’s not on your system board. Effects last for 10 seconds. Activates within inventory.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Criss!” Wens cried as she watched his body dematerialize. By the time he was gone, my Meta-Roulette was gone, too. I was already charging at Wens with a fierce punch by the time I became visible again, and unfortunately, she was ready to counter with her knives.

“You’re not stealing our win!” she growled, charging six metal knives at me. When she noticed I blocked my face with my arms to take less damage, she followed with an ace up her sleeves.

The linoleum floor began to peel back from a jagged line perpendicular to me, and just like that, the floor surfed over my head!

Shit, did she have that hiding there this entire time?

The metal tsunami came out of nowhere, a flat piece of steel just underneath the floor. I step-dodged it and then pulled out two of her knives that were lodged in my arms.

Wens began panicking. Clearly, the girl wasn’t her greatest under pressure.

“Barricade!” she turned around and cried, tossing an item from her inventory like a pokeball:

Barricade: Materializes semi-meta resistant hexagon dome around nested egg or individual for 10 seconds.

I had a counter for that…

Evaporate: Neutralizes all defensive items surrounding nested egg in play.

Unlike her, my item was a command, and as long as I was within the defensive item’s perimeter, my Evaporate worked.

She fumbled when I countered her play, but I was still coming at her ready. I tossed her knives back at her. Without hesitation, she lifted her finger and controlled them, and the half second of distraction was all I needed to uppercut the last of her HP away.

It was then I realized that she was panicking for a reason—Wens was shy of stamina too….

When she was out, I ran to the nest and claimed it.

Point secured.

Magpie: No way, Flamingo! Team Owl is locked in!

Flamingo: That’s right, Magpie. Who would have thought that they’d use the Displacer specialty item in the last second to score game point?

Magpie: One canceled out the other. Solid effort from Team Owl!

The same strat?

So that was why they weren’t moving….

It didn’t matter, though, because Naomi scored the last point on the other side of the map. She negated the other team’s steal.

Two golden eggs spawned on the map again, but it didn’t matter. There were only two seconds left on the round clock, and then, the buzzer went off.

The crowd erupted at another close call. Again, we found ourselves in a tie, and I couldn’t stop holding my breath to what awaited us next. If my calculations were accurate, we should have gotten second again. Judges were in the background assembling their own numbers while the big screens in the sky counted down the final results.

Magpie: It seems that the theme of this season is tie-breakers!

Flamingo: That’s right, Magpie. Team Owl came in and really shook tournament standards, making for an edge of your seat experience!

Edge of your seat—I was on the edge of my life. Adrenaline spiked in my veins, my hands were sweaty as a cold shiver racked my spine. The larger-than-life LED screen began to flicker. The anticipation in the air was so thick, it felt as though we could cut through it with a knife.

One by one, the points of each team blinked on the huge scoreboard suspended above the battle arena:

1st Place: Team Hawk

2nd Place: Team Owl

3rd Place: Team Bear

4th Place: Team Buffalo

Magpie: Remarkable gameplay! First place goes to Team Hawk yet again! That goes to show you that these hunters are on the leaderboard for a reason.

Flamingo: They are really pushing it out there, Magpie. And for good reason. There’s a lot on the line here, folks. But let’s not count out Team Owl, who could very well take the entire season!

The entire season. I snickered. Imagine that….