by Logan Byrne
“Are you all ready?” Borgis asked, looking over us all.
I nodded, not looking away from Bridgette, as she snarled a little at me, like some kind of rabid animal. She couldn’t intimidate me, though. If she wanted to act like a rabid animal, then I’d put her down like one.
“Begin!” Borgis yelled.
Bridgette and I circled one another, hardly blinking, as we readied ourselves for the other person to strike. I didn’t go in, keeping my distance, as Liam taught me not to make careless mistakes. It was always better to defend yourself than to attack. Just like in our strategy phase.
“Come on! Are you scared, little girl?” Bridgette asked in a snarky tone as she let out a boisterous chuckle.
I smirked, not replying, as I noticed her inching forward a little bit as we slowly circled one another. I gripped my right hand, my bottom hand, firmly around my staff, my hand turning a ghostly shade of white, ready for anything she was planning to throw my way.
Without warning, and with a valiant display of gusto and strength, she came at me, the ends of her staff flinging back and forth beside her, as she squinted her eyes and quickly moved forward. I sidestepped her, the left end of her staff just missing my face, before I slapped her in the back with my staff, causing her to quickly spin around into a defensive stance, ready to go. She was a difficult opponent, quick, which was something that I wasn’t, even if I wasn’t slow. I was average in speed, but I knew I excelled at strategy and predicting her moves, which was the only way I was going to beat her.
Not only did I want to beat her for the card, but I also needed to beat her on a personal level. Liam and I couldn’t stand her or Jason, and losing to her today would only mean that they would taunt us, flaunting themselves as better than us, which I couldn’t let happen. They needed to be afraid of us, not because we’d hurt them, but because if they were afraid, then they wouldn’t try to come after us because we might be their only match. Defeating her now would make her know, not think, that I could take her anytime, anyplace.
“Lucky hit,” she said.
I gave her a wink, slyly smiling a little, before she snarled, a rage-induced look on her face. I saw her grip her staff tighter, the top end swinging downwards towards me, as she grunted and groaned with each strike.
I blocked each one, her strikes hitting the middle of my staff, thankfully missing my hands. I knew that a hard strike to one of them would make me let go, letting her have full advantage over me. I wasn’t sure if she had figured that out yet, but I wasn’t planning on using it against her unless I absolutely had to. I wasn’t about to play dirty.
Bridgette continued striking, my staff blocking her every move, as her frustration started to seep out into her hard strikes. In a bout of anger and frustration at my skill in blocking, she pushed the sole of her shoe against my stomach, pushing me back, before wiping a few strands of hair away from her sweaty forehead. She started huffing and puffing as she started to look a little angrier than she already did, which I didn’t think possible.
“All you do is block me. Fight back!” she screamed.
I noticed a few other groups that had finished turn to watch us, their attention likely grabbed from her little outburst, which wasn’t making her look good in the least.
“If you want me to fight…then come get some,” I replied softly.
She bellowed out a thunderous scream, the octaves at which it hit ringing my eardrums, before she charged in, her staff pointed like a spear, each step she took bringing her closer and closer to me.
I swallowed, took a deep breath, and at the last moment spun to the side, her eyes following me, though her body didn’t keep up, and I slapped her hard behind the knee with the right end of my staff, causing her to drop down. I swung the left side back quickly, slapping her in the chest, her momentum shifting and causing her to lose her balance, falling onto her back. Without remorse or hesitation I swung my staff down, stopping it over her heart.
“Game over,” I said.
She screamed, pushing the staff off of her, before getting up and walking over to Jason, who grabbed her and consoled her. Her blood-curdling screams sounded eerily familiar, like something from a once-forgotten nightmare.
“How did you do?” I asked, as Liam approached me after Bridgette stormed off.
“I did well, but apparently not as well as you!” he said, smiling and putting his arm around my shoulders.
“What can I say?” I asked, smiling from ear to ear.
“The final competitors have finished up,” Borgis said, a few minutes later. “Some of you did very well, displaying a style of combat I haven’t seen in years, while other groups, well, didn’t fare too well. There are no worries, though. You still have the rifle stage as well as the final one left to go, so it is still anyone’s game, even if you lost the first round. As for the winners, don’t get too cocky now. I’ve seen great triumphs in the first round be squandered away in the second and third rounds because the competitor didn’t display any humility. Take a break, get some water, and we’ll soon start the next round.”
We rested for almost twenty minutes, sitting around and sipping water, before Borgis reappeared, asking us to come with him. He led us into a room off the side of the one we were in, about half the size of the previous room, though it was completely filled with giant chambers, all of them transparent. Bright lights shone inside, illuminating them.
“These are your rifle duel chambers. I know I talked a little about them earlier, but I’ll now go into slightly more detail. The way they work is simple: you go in one side, your opponent in another, each chamber receiving a fair amount of space for you to move and jump around. Blocking you off is a clear membrane. It’s invisible to the eye, but marked on the floor for your convenience. It will allow things to exit your chamber, the energy blasts specifically, but won’t let anything in. The energy blasts will be absorbed and correlate to the area they hit. If you are standing behind that area, you will get a hit on your tally. If you receive three hits, you’re out. Your goal is to hit the other person three times before getting hit three times yourself. You will now be partnered up. As there aren’t enough chambers for all twelve groups to compete at once, half of you will go at a time. Now, let’s get started,” Borgis said, before using a digiboard to display the results on a screen above him.
Our heads moved around again, exactly like last time. I was both hoping and not hoping I got paired with Bridgette again. I guessed it would be better that I got Jason, though, so that I could take them both out in one day. That’d be a dream come true.
I found my match, one of the older competitors, a woman named Cassandra. I had seen her before; she was from Denver, and she had wisps of graying hair that framed her slightly gaunt, wrinkled face. I didn’t remember how old she was, but I knew she was on the upper end of that sixty-year age limit. Liam’s head was under mine, his competitor a younger guy, though I thought the guy was older than him. We were some of the youngest here. I knew my match would be an easy win, and that my card was practically in the bag, but for Liam I wasn’t so sure.
“The bottom half of you on the board below the white line can go first. The rest of you will have to wait until they have all exited, at which time you can enter and compete,” Borgis said.
I was just on top of the white line, Liam below it. He gave me an exasperated look before walking away, getting his rifle and entering the chamber closest to us. Borgis rung the bell and the duels started, and the illumination of the blue energy bolts lit up the room like Christmas morning. Most of us squinted, since the room was already a little dimmed, as the silhouettes of the other competitors ran around their chambers, some of them ducking while others did somersaults, all of them trying to dodge the incoming shots.
I watched Liam exchange hits with his opponent, each of them getting a shot in. Liam was hit first. I felt a little bad, my heart sinking, as I feared he wasn’t going to win this round. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t feel hopeful.
Some of the teams exited their chambers quickly, their battles already fought, while others, including Liam’s, raged on. His opponent grinned, though not happily, the rifle wedged in between his armpit, his finger spamming the trigger button like it was twitching. Liam ran back and forth, dodging. Each of them tallied up with two strikes each; one final hit on either one of them would end the match.
A minute later, Liam got hit, and it felt like my heart actually sank; his three strikes lit up, and the rifles on both sides stopped working. He hung his head, his opponent cocking a fist back and muttering “yes!”, before they both exited, shaking hands after a hard-fought battle. He came up to me, walking slumped over like his tail was between his legs, looking defeated; it was a look I didn’t like on him all that much.
“You’ll win the last battle. I’m sure of it,” I said.
“I hope so. We need those cards to even stand a chance in the grid. I failed you,” he said.
“No. Don’t ever say that. You didn’t fail me, and you didn’t fail yourself. You only fail if you give up, and I’m not letting you give up, especially since you can turn it around,” I said sternly.
“Win this for us?” he asked, before Borgis yelled out for the new competitors to come take their places.
“I plan on it,” I replied, before walking away.
I walked into a different chamber than Liam, my opponent, Cassandra, standing on the other side, looking a bit nervous as she struggled to properly hold up the rifle. She was weak; her body was skinny, her frail, veiny hands straddling the side of the weapon.
Borgis yelled out for us to start, the dimmed room becoming lit up again with the burgeoning blasts of bright blue, my own rifle firing rapidly, the small beams of energy floating through the membrane with relative ease as Cassandra closed her eyes before pulling the trigger herself, the recoil of the weapon pushing her shots upwards, nowhere near me.
I hit her once, twice, and before I could get a third, she moved out of the way, likely knowing her time was almost up. I don’t know why she moved away, since it was much easier to accept her fate and just take the fall, and the chance of her taking me out was as slim as her chances of winning the entire competition. Maybe it was the allure of winning a card, something to make the competition a little bit more bearable, a luxury like food or water being available to you once every six hours. Whatever it was, she wasn’t getting it from me. It was time to end this once and for all.
I held my rifle up, my cheek against the barrel, as I scoped her out while she moved around, not even bothering to fire back. I felt as if I were hunting a wild animal locked up in a cage, knowing its fate was soon to be determined but it not wanting to actually give up and lie down for the kill. She had too much pride and integrity for that.
She got to the left side, stopping, pivoting, and using all of her force to push herself in the other direction. I fired one last shot, a single bolt of blue energy flying through time and space, and it hit her membrane, dead on, striking her down.
The three Xs above her chamber flashed red, all of them hits, and our chamber doors opened, the duel over. She hadn’t even gotten one hit on me. I got the pleasure of securing another card for not only myself, but Liam too. I knew it wasn’t his card per se, but we were a team, and anything that was mine was his.
I put my rifle away and walked back over towards Liam, a smile on his face, which was a good sign. Half of the groups were still duking it out. Liam’s glossy eyes reflected the blue streaks of light, his hand extending for me to slap.
I did, giving him a high-five, before turning back around to watch the finishing competitors. I looked up at the board, my face lit up, Liam’s dimmed, indicating I won my bout and he had lost, which was still a struggle to accept.
Seven minutes later the final duel ended, both of the competitors coming out covered in sweat, and Borgis reappeared from the side, looking up at the screen, before turning back towards us, sizing us all up.
“Some of you have failed, and have not been able to win a card, while others have a win and a loss and are hanging in the balance, and the rest of you have secured yourself with two wins. As you know, you will be starting the final round soon, a random round, where you can choose anything besides a rifle or blaster. We will be taking a one-hour break, so get your rest and prepare yourselves. I know the winners so far won’t want to try too hard in the final round, but those of you who win all three rounds may just win a prize, so you might still want to take it seriously,” Borgis said, before walking away, using a staff for support.
“I wonder what the prize is,” I said to Liam.
“I don’t know, but if it’s anything like an extra card or survival pack for the competition, you need to win it for us. I can’t do it, but I know you can. You’ll kick butt,” Liam said.
“Gee, thanks for the pressure,” I said, as we walked to a snack table to refuel ourselves.
The idea of winning some kind of mystery prize was a good one. I wasn’t thinking it could only be something for the competition, but rather that it could be something for before it, like another call home, a chance to sleep in, or best of all, an actual visit from our families instead of a phone call. Think of how amazing that one would be! They were all about keeping their competitors happy and hungry, and what better than to give their top talent a taste of home, so that we’d try even harder in the competition? They did love ratings, and I thought a group of fierce competitors willing to do whatever it took to see their families again would give them just what they wanted.
Our free hour passed quickly, feeling more like a few minutes than sixty. Sitting around doing nothing made me a little tired. My eyes felt like they were burning a little as the toll of my physical morning and duels mixed with my gluttonous ways at both breakfast and the snack table, leaving me feeling sluggish, hazy, and just overall bad. I kept myself awake, though, knowing that the prize of winning all three duels was too much of an opportunity to just throw away because of tiredness and a full stomach. I wanted, no, needed, to stay awake and give it my all, even if I crashed the second I won the final duel. I could sleep afterwards.
“I trust your rest was nice and relaxing. I’m sorry to say it’s over and you all have to get back to work. As before, your pairings will come up on the screen. You will also be given protective gear to make sure you aren’t seriously injured during the duel,” Borgis said.
“Wait, you said seriously injured. Are we safe doing this?” a man behind me asked.
“Right, moving along,” Borgis said.
Borgis quickly hit a few buttons on his digiboard, eyeing the man in the audience slyly, like he was avoiding the question. Two weapons racks came up out of the floor, filled with everything imaginable. The weapons that had blades didn’t look sharp, but were instead coated with the same fabric grip that the staffs and floors were covered with. I scanned the racks, trying to figure out what I’d use. The staff looked tempting because of my experience with it already, but something like a katana looked much, much more exciting.
“Now that the weapons are up for view, why don’t we get to the pairings? Once paired, you will choose your weapon, take it to your assigned zone, get your gear and put it on, and when I say so, you’ll start,” Borgis said.
The heads and faces on the screen randomized, this part now becoming just a slight bit cumbersome as we all waited patiently for their movement to slow down, all of the heads meeting their matches and assigned spots in the room.
When our heads stopped, my match being shown, I smiled, thinking my win was in the bag as I looked over across the crowd and saw my opponent standing there, looking back at me, a look of fear and trepidation in her face. She looked down, breaking eye contact. It was my last opponent, Cassandra, and somehow lightning had struck twice, giving me not one, but two easy wins today. That special prize was as good as mine, and if I were even luckier, I’d be the only one to win it.
“Now, please choose your weapons, go to your zone, and get your gear on so
we can start,” Borgis said.
I walked up to the racks and grabbed the katana, it being the only weapon that truly grabbed my attention, and held it close. It was light in my hand, the blade completely wrapped in black, like a shadowy sword of death that would slap Cassandra down and give me the valiant three-duel win I needed for my ultimate prize.
As I walked over to our assigned spot I turned back around, seeing everybody but Cassandra going to their respective areas. She was at the front, talking to Borgis, looking back at me as she did, like I had done something wrong. I gave her a confused look, as Borgis patted her on the shoulder and walked towards me, hobbling as he did so.
“Did I do something wrong?” I asked nervously as Borgis approached.
“Oh, no, you didn’t. I’m afraid that because of her age and physical condition she’s not quite feeling up to this challenge. She’s refusing to do the final duel. Every opponent has the option to forgo a phase or challenge and lose out on the card opportunity for that round if it makes them uncomfortable or they’re physically unable to do so,” Borgis said.
“Well, that’s great news, then. I won my first and second duels, so I guess I win this one too! What’s my prize? Oh, I get it, I probably have to wait until the end once everyone has had their turn,” I said, smiling.
“Well, unfortunately, I’m afraid you won’t be getting any prize,” Borgis said, with an almost sorry look on his face.
“Why wouldn’t I? I won all three. Cassandra forfeited,” I said.
“You have to actually compete and win each duel, and you only competed in two of the three matches,” Borgis said.
“That’s not fair. Put me up against someone else, anyone, and I’ll beat them just like I would’ve Cassandra,” I said, pleading with him.
“I’m afraid everyone already has an opponent. I can’t have somebody duel twice. It wouldn’t be fair to them,” Borgis said.
I stood there, stunned, unable to say anything else, as I felt like I’d had the rug ripped up from underneath me. I wasn’t getting the prize, no matter how much I begged or pleaded. I was defeated, but at the same time, I was almost too heartbroken to even fully care.