Sal remained silent, sharpening his stare.
I sighed. “Have it your way.” I nodded to my dragon, who opened his massive jaws. Sal’s terrified eyes went wide as he realized what was about to happen.
And suddenly, he wailed, “Wait! I’ll do it, I’ll release her!”
I smiled. “Smart choice. And don’t you try doing anything funny. My fire dragon is faster than your quick draw.”
I released him, and in turn, he broke his card’s spell and released Reina. It was like pulling a bunny out of a hat, Reina springing up the same way she fell in. The girl looked positively dazed and zoned out of it.
“You all right?” I asked her, only because she had this terrified expression on her face. “Reina?”
She shuddered. “It was horrible… the tap dancing, the costumes, the endless trolls….”
I’m sorry, did she say trolls?
“It was a musical nightmare from hell….”
A musical?
That dirty son of a bitch…
Sal was about to retaliate, using Reina’s distraction as a gateway to attack us. But Reina struck, summoning her scythe and slicing his two cards before he could toss them. I followed up with my dragon, Sal waving his hand desperately for me to stop. I didn’t go easy on him, my dragon swallowing him whole.
He belched, and the sound of Sal dematerializing into the box confirmed that he was finally out of our hair. And just in time too, because Reina and I had to move.
I was in no mood to deal with Belhem again. Unfortunately, Reina had lost the healing candy I’d given her when Sal had sent her plummeting in his worm hole. I didn’t have another, so we had to manage for now.
We were down at the wire now, with four minutes left remaining in the final round. The score was daunting, because Reina, Naomi and I still had only 1 point. We managed to third party Team Cheetah, but Team Hawk ended up getting the point. Team Wolf scored again, and Team Cheetah got their revenge from Team Hawk with a team wipe out.
Right now as it stood, we were in last place:
Team Wolf: 2
Team Hawk: 1
Team Cheetah: 1
Team Owl: 1
Time: 6:06/10:00
Hawk and Cheetah claimed a few kills from us on purpose to offset the probability of them losing to a tie. Since Team Owl was nefarious for tied battles, this time they made sure we didn’t stand a fighting chance.
With under four minutes left on the clock, the only way we were going to secure first place was scoring not only two points, but collecting more kills than Team Hawk.
It wasn’t impossible, just as long as we kept our heads in the game and believed….
I had an egg in my arm right now as I hustled down a barber shop, trying my best to avoid Fiona from getting her hands on it. Team Cheetah was on my ass, which was better than having Team Hawk or Team Wolf. So I counted my blessings, the other teams duking it out for the other golden egg across the other side of the map. Between fighting these last few minutes and trying to set up traps, my stamina had taken a hard hit. Not only that, I was down two items, my respawn token being one of them.
Fiona tossed another explosive arrow as it beelined right over my head, taking out the top shelf behind me as well as the support beam of the shop. I rushed out the back door and found myself in a bank, another whizzing noise following me there. This time, it didn’t explode instantly, which was more nerve wracking than if it did. After that arrow, I heard four more in concession, before the sound of rusty metal creaking stopped me in my tracks.
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Wait a minute, the bank was right next to a water tower, wasn’t it?
Before I could finish my thought, the bank exploded, and a tsunami scooped me up from right under the wreckage. Canessi and Fiona worked together to try and get the egg from me, but Naomi was there, hovering over my line of view.
“Naomi, catch,” I shouted, between fits of hacking up water and choking. When I threw the egg in the air, Fiona chased it with another explosive arrow shot, and the unexpected Naomi took a hit. But this time, my team and I stuck together, so as soon as Naomi dropped, Reina was right there to scoop the egg and made a hot dash for the nest.
“Fiona, go after her!” Canessi cried and Fiona moved. “I’ll take care of these two!”
“Healing service!” someone tweeted from the right of us, and there I saw the blue-haired cowgirl Dot ringing the bell round her neck with a glass of milk in her hands.
Where the hell did the milk come from?!
“I’m full, thanks, doll!” Canessi said, at about 50% stam. “Just stand over there and look pretty!”
I got up from my knees and tried to ignite my flames, my low stamina and wet hands trying to test my limits. Naomi on the other hand had attack on her mind, shifting her attention to harmless Dot.
“Oh no you don’t!” the red headed Canessi cawed, encasing Dot in a water bubble. “No one is going to lay one hand on our healer!”
“Thanks, Canni!” Dot beamed in a perky voice.
“Must be real neat being able to recharge your stamina,” Naomi hissed at Dot as she got up on her feet. “Has me wondering just how many times you can do that without tapping out?”
“Take a look for yourself!” Dot chimed. “I keep my stamina healthy!”
“And not much else. So tell me, do you like being a servant?”
Dot took offense. “Hey! I ain’t no cowpoke!”
“But you are a slowpoke,” Naomi said, using the red water tower to whack her with it. When Naomi realized that the water bubble was strong enough to withstand her telekinesis, she turned to Canessi, but Canessi retaliated. Naomi backed off, running and dodging Canessi’s water spears.
This was the perfect distraction.
I charged in at Dot, and embedded my fingers into the water bubble, trying to break through to it.
“AAHHHHH!” Dot cried, but it was too late. I broke through, and was now in her safety bubble. Smart Dot tried tossing her arm in the air to get rid of the healing milk, however, I caught her wrist just in time.
A few drops managed to escape the glass, but there was more than enough left inside to down the beverage, watching as my stamina bar bounced back up.
Shit from 10% to 50%... not half bad at all.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Dot cried, reaching into her item inventory, but I stopped her. “Before I bench you, I need to know, where does this milk come from?” I said with a straight face, my fist still holding onto her wrists. “Because it tastes absolutely amazing!”
“Uh-erm, if I tell you, will you let me go? Heh?”
I chuckled. “Man, I almost feel bad for putting you out. See you later, Dot.” I karate chopped the back of her neck and she went down like a stack of cards. My HP gauge increased by 100, and now, it was time to chase down Fiona.
I left Naomi with Canessi and went on hot pursuit of the smartest of the girls in Team Cheetah. I tapped into my com unit and shot Naomi an order, “We are going to reset Dot’s box time.”
If Naomi could knock Canessi out at the same time I knocked out Fiona, then we’d reset Dot inside the White Box, and prevent Team Cheetah from scoring on us. That was of course, if they didn’t have an item like Displacer or Respawn up their sleeves.
Luckily, Reina managed to lock the egg in its nest, the 60 second countdown starting. Reina also had a protective barrier around the nest sitting on the rooftop of an ol’ western mansion, one of the items from her inventory. I saw Fiona loading the foundation with arrows as I rushed in, and with Dot filling my stamina bar, I summoned a flame cage around Fiona.
Six tall pillars of lava scored the skies, entrapping Fiona.
She took a step back and looked left and right, realizing there was no way out.
“Just hang tight,” I said as I walked over to her. “If my timing is accurate, Dot has eight seconds left.”
She laughed. “This is cute; the three of you are really trying? Sounds like you all did your homework, huh? Well then, there’s no point in fighting it.” She looked a little too relaxed in there, Fiona’s ease in her tight situation making me anxious. On top of that, she didn’t detonate her arrows….
Regardless, I didn’t have time to speculate on what she was planning, so I tapped into my com unit and gave Naomi the word, hoping she could get rid of Canessi. I took my two fingers and slid them together, instructing my pillars to snap shut. They fused like magnets, resulting in a quick knockout for Fiona. I could hear Reina above letting out a sigh of relief, and I let one out myself. This point wasn’t easy to get, but it was sure as hell easier than the first. “Hang in there, Reina,” I shouted, but when I didn’t hear the dematerialization prompt for Fiona, I began to worry.
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” Fiona said, walking out of my pillars with a film of glowing blue around her. “Didn’ ya mamma ever tell ya that?” she taunted in a faux Southern accent, and then, she snapped her fingers.
All hell broke loose.
The mansion came tumbling down with Reina on top of it. Our egg, our nest, all of it. We were close enough to the explosion to receive damage, though Fiona controlled its range and its trajectory. A mushroom of dust escaped into the air, covering the scene in white.
“Gotta love your specialty items! Savior is one of my favorites!” Fiona cackled.
Savior: deflects damage that would have instantly knocked you to the White Box. Allowed usage per round: 1. Activated within inventory.
That sneaky little—
“Hey,” Canessi said over my head. She levitated up there, looking down at me like a bad omen. She grabbed my head, and whispered over my ears hauntingly, “Did you know that the human body is made out of approximately 70% of water?”