I panicked when I started to feel dehydrated. The effect went from 0 to 100 in a heartbeat, my arms struggling to reach over my head and snatch her off. They were stiff, and I couldn’t peel her off of me!
“Respawn token,” Canessi taunted, “I was saving it for an occasion like this. Thanks for settling that egg for us in its cozy nest. We’ll take it from here.”
The sound of our egg being captured rang through my ears. Reina was sent to the White Box after that explosion, leaving Fiona with just enough time to capture our point.
Shit, no… we weren’t going to place!
I begged my muscles to move, cursing at this stupid HG immersion systematics! It was too real, making metas like Canessi’s too effective. You mean to tell me that all she had to do was touch me and I was cooked? She was taking my water content, and with two more seconds on the egg timer, all I could do was watch my HP drop.
But then, the alarm cut short…
“Get off of me!” I heard Fiona shout, before Naomi flew out of the rubble, being tossed right into a tree.
“Stupid bitch wouldn’t let go of my hair!” Fiona cried.
Naomi, you didn’t…
Naomi groaned, her body slumped on broken twigs and shattered masonry. She was covered in dust and debris, making it hard for me to see her. Fiona however, stood tall across the clearing, her fiery eyes glowering at Naomi, before she looked over to the egg she let go of.
“No,” she cried, glancing at the crumbled heap burying the nested egg. “No, no, nooo!”
The time was up, and our point was secured…
Holy shit, we were in top two with Team Wolf.
Team Wolf: 3
Team Owl: 2
Team Hawk: 1
Team Cheetah: 1
Time: 8:10/10:00
Team Wolf just scored over Team Hawk, Bram and his friends being sent to the White Box.
“UGH! You annoying pests!” Fiona growled, loading up an arrow at Naomi. “Take a dirt nap, mouse!”
Fiona pointed her arrow to Naomi, and when she released it, the arrow didn’t fly. In fact, she held onto it, not by choice. Ice formed around her weapon and her arms, before it swallowed her entire body, Bram then leaping in mid-air with the heel of his foot ready to stomp on Fiona.
I felt like I had to dial 911 after witnessing that murder. Bram stepped on Fiona and she broke into tiny chunks of ice. She dematerialized and was sent right to the White Box. The crowd gasped, some cheered, but most were simply in awe of Bram’s raw power.
“Touchdown!” the announcer Magpie bellowed as Bram landed back on the ground, his boot leaving a small crater where Fiona once stood. Canessi finally released me and tried to avenge her friend, while I stood there trying to process how Bram got so strong….
Was he using the Meta Roulette item?
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” he said, craning his eerie glare at me.
“You ice pick!” Canessi cried, charging full speed at Bram. “You’ll pay for that!” Bram summoned two ice blades over his arms–had a whole Sub Zero thing going on. Canessi vs Bram spelled Bram winning every time. Canessi’s talent was water manipulation, and Bram’s was ice. Canessi might as well hand over the win right now, because Bram was running circles around her.
Either way, she was running interference for me. Feeling the strength come back to my arms and legs, I detoured around their fight and rushed to Naomi.
“Hey, are you all right?” I said as I crouched down by her.
“I’m out of stamina…” she admitted regretfully. “I’m sorry, Canessi—”
“Hey, you don’t have to apologize, Naomi. Do you have Ghost Stamina equipped?”
“I don’t.”
“Take mine.” I offered, and Naomi activated it.
“This isn’t much. Maybe good enough to run away.”
“Naomi, listen to me,” I whispered to her seriously. “Your HP is low, and right now, we can’t afford you going to the White Box. Reina will be here any moment, but we have a situation in our hands. The last two potential eggs in the map. If Team Cheetah or Team Hawk scores, we’re fucked. We are out of items, but not out of ideas. There’s no way we are going to get first place, but I’ll take second.”
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“Nero?”
I smiled. “Hey. Don’t feel bad. As long as we place, then I’m proud of us. So what I need you to do is go up that tree and help me bring Bram down. Make sure he can’t see you, Naomi.”
She nodded. “All right.”
“If we keep Bram preoccupied, then Team Hawk will have a harder time securing that egg.
“What about Team Cheetah?”
“Reina’s got them and Sift, and Yoleeha.”
Her eyes grew. “You’re banking it all on Reina?”
“No, I’m leaving it on us. Team Wolf would be the type to let Team Cheetah or Team Hawk score just to mess with our placement, but just as long as Reina uses the cloak you gave her, she’ll be able to handle herself until we get there. Team Wolf might be left uncontested on one egg. Understood?”
“This plan is risky, Nero. We are assuming that Team Wolf won’t engage with Team Hawk and Team Cheetah.”
“It’s the only solid plan we got.”
She paused for a moment and then agreed. “Then, let’s bring it home.”
Naomi hid inside the tree, Canessi and Bram still going at it. Canessi was on her last licks of stamina, too, but Bram had enough for another round.
We had a little over a minute left until the game was over….
Bram clapped his hands together and triggered his ice field maneuver, locking Canessi’s legs in place. I used my flames to thaw mine away, but before I could go over there and help her bring Bram down, Bram knocked her out of the arena with a sharp slash across her chest.
Thank god for HG-armor…
Bram was definitely using an item. He was never able to deliver that much melee damage so quickly before.
“So, Meta Roulette, lvl 3 I’m assuming? Your super strength has lasted beyond ten seconds,” I said to him, his attention turning to me.
“The time I have left is more than enough to get rid of you,” he said, engaging his ice blades along his arms again.
“Then let’s dance to a song of ice and fire. Your move.”
“I’ll put you in your place, amateur!”
With a roar, Bram lunged at me, his ice blades after my vital points. I sidestepped his attacks and retaliated with a surge of flame, pushing him back. With a crash, he skidded across the icy terrain, regaining his footing immediately. This was his playground after all, and he maneuvered through it like a pro.
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” I taunted. But as I said it, a sudden chill seeped into my bones, and I knew Bram was behind it. Frostbite aura…. It was an unforgiving ability designed to interrupt my rhythm by draining my warmth, and thus, affecting my flames.
The air temp dropped exponentially, to the point where it was hard to breathe.
“You’re all brawn and no brains, to step up to me so brave in the face of death!” he battle cried, coming up to me with an ice cleaver for my neck. Little did he know, I had someone watching over me in this fight….
Naomi tossed Bram and his cleaver away from me, Bram crashing into the skeleton of the mansion. While Bram was down, Naomi picked up pieces of wood from the debris and encircled me with it. As the broken pieces of wood swung around me, Naomi was generating a protective barrier of heat, attempting to counteract Bram’s frostbite aura. Despite the barrier’s thin weave, I could feel the warmth returning to my body, reigniting my dwindling flames. I shot a grateful glance at Naomi, whose face was solid with concentration as she maintained the barrier.
Meanwhile, Bram had shaken off the impact of his crash and was back on his feet, snarling with pent-up fury. With my attention back on him, I created my own domain of fire, melting his ice, and making it harder for him to generate more. Back and forth we went, Naomi making it harder on him at every turn. Each attack Bram launched was met with a sharp retaliation from me, and a follow up from Naomi. His attention was split, Bram trying to locate where Naomi was hiding while simultaneously fighting me. Bram summoned an enormous ice spear and hurled it toward me with a speed that he hadn’t demonstrated before. He’d gotten impatient with the back and forth, looking for finisher moves. In response, I drew up walls of fire around me, melting his spear into harmless droplets before it could reach me.
“Enough games!” he shouted, pushing back with an ice shield. I met his ice shield with a blazing tornado.
He matched my energy, summoning an ice whirlwind. When the two forces clashed, they immediately dispersed, but Bram had an attack hiding behind the whirlwind. A volley of ice shards rained down on me, hissing and evaporating as they hit the wall of heat I summoned. The intense steam fogged up my vision, making it harder for me to see Bram. Using my own meta against me, he hid himself. Suddenly, the icy mist cleared, and Bram charged at me, his eyes filled with murderous rage.
“I’m not losing to a rookie!” he growled, his ice sword connecting with my armor. I registered the pain late, my stamina running dry. Shit, I was so caught up in the fight that I didn’t realize how much of it I was outputting.
With one swing, Bram sent me to the White Box, where I didn’t hesitate to use my last respawn token. Again, with Naomi and Reina on different sides of the map, my respawn point was randomized, and thankfully, luck was on my side.
“Reina,” I whispered through my com as I ran toward her. “Please tell me you have your eyes on an egg?”
“Positive,” she whispered softly, trying not to blow her cover. “Hawk scored...” she sulked. “I’m sorry, Nero, but that fight was a lost cause. So I rushed to the Serpent egg.”
“Don't worry. Just cover me. My stamina is low. I’m going to steal.”
Ten seconds left: Team Cheetah down, Team Hawk down, and Team Wolf with one man standing.
Team Wolf was already in the lead, but they were greedy, going for the same egg Reina was camping.
So far, Reina had been perched in her spot with no issues. Her HP bar was full according to my sys board. So all I had to do is rely on her to knock out one dude, Belhem.
I had no idea where Reina was positioned to take this shot, but I ran in there like a headless chicken and trusted she’d pull it off. Past the train station and into the central square I went. From the torn up Sheriff’s office lobby area, I saw the nest and Belhem guarding it. Perfect, his stamina was low, which meant that he wasn’t going to go attack titan on me.
So I climbed up the window with the broken glass and slid in for the steal.
Immediately, Belhem heard the alarm and turned around to find me. Reina followed up with a sniper shot.
Holy fuck, he ate the damage!
She landed a headshot, indicated by the glowing red spot on the back of his head. The HG-armor registered the blow, but the guy was still standing with 22 HP left.
He looked down at me and cocked his fist back to punch my jaw clean off my face, and I couldn’t do anything but sweep kick him. He fell for it, but took little damage. No stamina meant no super strength. He got back up and I blocked my face with my one arm, tensing my muscles on the hand holding that egg. I had mere milliseconds left for the steal, and as Reina’s sniper popped off again, I felt my hand slip from the egg.
The buzzer went off, and the tournament was over.