Flag Race

by Felipe Valente

  Soon the announcer began the countdown again.

  “On your marks, players! All together now! Three! Two! One! Go!”

  All players shot forward toward the center of the court.

  “Remember our plan!” Dante remarked. “We won’t try to get the flags until there’s a breach. All other teams that tried to advance ended up being disintegrated, because their Hitters hit really hard. Play defensively! Remember that their main goal is to disintegrate us!”

  “Darkness power!” Asuka yelled, tossing a card up high. The card’s energy quickly spread, covering her team’s three game lines in darkness, so anyone who entered them would only be able to see a few feet ahead.

  “Wow!” said an impressed Sigurd. “That was fast! Our three lines are protected already?”

  “Yeah! I also put the defense traps,” Mary said, after her hair billowed for some seconds. “Together with Asuka’s darkness, it’ll be a good while if they try to come for our flags! We can focus in the battle!”

  Both teams were only a few yards from the center of the court.

  “Nohman!” Blazkowicz cried out. “Show them they don’t stand a chance! Lilith, El Blacko, and I will make some simple defenses, just as a precaution. Shadow and Seforth, get ready to crush what will be left of them after Nohman’s attack!”

  The whole court started shaking. Dante’s Chaos stopped advancing as soon as they got to the center. They all watched dumbfounded, with eyes wide open and mouths agape, what Nohman was creating.

  “And Warfear starts off bringing out the big guns!” the announcer remarked. “Nohman’s just made a gigantic battle mech! It must be at least a hundred feet tall! He’s already up in its cockpit, prepared to strike!”

  Ace glanced at the screen, checking out Nohman’s stability. He couldn’t believe at what he saw. 60%! How can he still be at 60% after that!? The robot was a surprising creation. It came sliding at high speeds, and, despite its immense size, it was quite agile, working in perfect synchrony with its controller’s motions. The sight of that giant caught his opponents off guard. Dante’s Chaos didn’t know what to do. They looked at each other, wondering how they could react. They started despairing once they remembered that also none of their other foes had attacked yet. If they were all as strong as he was...

  “Leave it to me!” yelled Sigurd.

  “No!” yelled Asuka. “This is your first access! You’ll spend all of your stability trying to hold it off!”

  He grinned.

  “Don’t you worry, my lovely damsel, I’ll find a way to protect you.”

  “Do it quickly then, because that thing is almost here!” yelled Kerah, while she used her rifle’s scope to scout for the other foes, in order to be sure none of them were coming with him.

  Sigurd took a deep breath, then thrust his huge sword down into the ground and stretched his hands forward. Soon a tremendous portal, a little larger than the enemy robot, started appearing a few feet ahead of the player.

  Ace looked at his friend. What could he possibly be doing? The tension was palpable. The giant mech was coming closer and closer.

  Finally a deafening roar was heard. Now it was the opposing team’s turn for its members to look at each other in shock. From inside the portal a walloping claw appeared. There’s no way he’s doing what I think he’s doing! He could never do that! As the creature emerged from the portal, Ace’s suspicions were confirmed. He couldn’t believe what his friend had created, and using merely 20% of his stability!

  The portal closed as soon as the creature came out of it. Now everyone could see the colossal beast. Two gargantuan horns sprouted from its head. It had two small eyes, contrasting with the size of its mouth. Practically its whole body was armored by a thick light-brown hide, including its two arms, legs, and tail. Enjoying its newfound freedom, the beast bellowed out another long roar.

  “Get him, Trarrasko!” Sigurd yelled. The monster advanced.

  The mech halted immediately. Inside his cockpit, Nohman realized it would be better to keep a certain distance from the creature. He then started firing off all the weapons he could. Lasers came out of its hand, while openings in its back were shooting missiles.

  His target took the full brunt of his assault, but still the beast kept on coming toward him. Ace realized his friend had made the monster with all of its great powers, including its amazing resistance and the ability to regenerate. Amidst all the smoke coming out of the missile blasts, the Trarrasko was coming faster and faster towards its foe, until it leaped at it, mauling the giant robot with its fangs and claws.

  “Don’t you just stand there, you dumbasses!” Blazkowicz cried as he headed to the center of the court, as soon as his defenses were done. “What are you waiting for? Destroy them!”

  Shadow and Seforth were coming, circling the battle of giants that took place in the center of the court. Noticing their movements, Kerah started firing, trying in vain to hit Shadow, who immediately became a shadowy copy that looked just like Kerah herself.

  Sigurd kept on controlling the gargantuan monster in his battle against the mech. The strikes and blows they directed against each other made them be dangerously tossed around the court, nearly squashing the other players.

  “Kerah, keep on fighting the Shadow! Mary, Ace, Asuka, come with me! Help me beat this Seforth guy so we can advance!”

  The foe came running with extremely light-footed steps. His long white hair billowed behind him as he advanced with his sword in hand. Dante leaped at him as soon as he realized he was close enough. Their swords collided in mid-air.

  They began then frenziedly exchanging sword blows, with so much concentration that not even gravity affected them, as they kept on fighting a few feet above the ground. The sounds of metal clashing against metal echoed in the air. Both players were grinning. They enjoyed the challenge. Dante knew, however, that his stability wouldn’t hold out for much longer if he faced him alone, which was why he’d brought back-up.

  “Lightning power!” Asuka yelled, tossing a card up high, which soon started casting several bolts of lightning against her foe, who masterfully evaded each one of them, even while he fought Dante.

  Mary was focusing on improving her friend’s speed, but Seforth, still grinning, was relentless in his attacks on Dante. He even went so far as to deflect one of Asuka’s bolts against her friend.

  Ace was looking for a way out. He knew they had to catch their foe by surprise. He was an experienced Hitter, that’s why he was already prepared to deal with most attacks they were using against him. They needed something novel if they wanted to help Dante out. Realizing Blazkowicz would soon be coming back with El Blacko and Lilith, he was quick to act.

  “Dante! Catch!” he said as he tossed an executive suitcase at his friend. Dante evaded a slashing blow that came close to hitting his face and grabbed the suitcase’s handle.

  “What the—?”

  “Hit him with it!” Ace yelled.

  Dante avoided a few more blows before switching hands between the sword and the suitcase, which he then started using to attack.

  At every swing from Dante, the suitcase’s features were being transformed by Ace. It changed from a suitcase into a staff, then a morning star, a laser sword, and a dagger, catching Seforth off-guard. Though he did manage to parry the first few attacks, it didn’t take long until Dante’s strikes started connecting, as he kept on attacking at an amazing speed, thanks to Mary’s help. When Seforth finally managed to disengage his opponent, he was struck head-on and disintegrated by one of Asuka’s bolts.

  Meanwhile, Shadow was creeping toward Kerah. It dodged her first few shots, then drew a rifle as well, identical to Kerah’s, except for the fact it was made out of sheer darkness. It stepped back a little more then started shooting down Kerah’s own projectiles in mid-air.

  Kerah understood now why Shadow was such a dreadful opponent. Not only could it copy her body and combat style, but it was also able to quickly learn how to use her own weapons a
gainst her and to cancel out her attempts to attack it. It would do her no good to keep on firing. The Shadow would keep its mirror-like act, taking her shots down halfway through.

  She also understood that, just as she’d seen plenty of videos of the Shadow playing, the Shadow must also have seen her games. Could she possibly cancel out each and any of the tactics she’d used before?

  Kerah then brought out her battle tank, firing briefly after. The Shadow dodged it with a nimble leap, before entering a shadowy copy of Kerah’s tank. Again Kerah’s shots against her foe were being intercepted by other shots colliding with it. Kerah felt her stability slowly drop at every shot blocked by the Shadow.

  Dante and his friends who’d helped him beat Seforth didn’t have time to celebrate, because soon Blazkowicz, El Blacko, and Lilith began attacking. Blazkowicz was raining down bullets from a large six-barrel Gatling gun, directly targeting Ace, who protected himself with a large reflective shield, while Lilith in her leathery wings flew right over Dante, and El Blacko was tossing flaming skulls against Asuka.

  Mary was aiding her friends as much as she could, hastening them and slowing down their foe’s attacks, and firing energy waves whenever she had the chance to hit them, but it was no good. Though they were four against three, their opponents were gradually beginning to beat them. It was only a few blows at first, and grazing shots, but then an accurate kick from Lilith at last disintegrated Dante.

  A few brief seconds of absence of mind due to his friend’s defeat were enough for Ace to be blown up by Blazkowicz’s grenade, and for Asuka to be struck head-on by El Blacko’s skulls. Despairing at her teammate’s defeats, Mary was also quickly beaten by a flaming stream Lilith shot at her.

  Though Sigurd’s monster did tear Nohman’s giant mech into pieces, the warrior was soon disintegrated by his opponents. Without its master, the colossal creature lost its powers and was also disintegrated.

  Kerah, feeling more and more overwhelmed by Shadow, eventually took a direct hit from the enemy tank. In a matter of seconds, the whole of Dante’s Chaos was out of commission.

  Warfear took their chances then to cheer the viewers. They turned to the screens, raising their arms, asking for applause. It was a common practice in their matches. This strategy usually worked. Even though Seforth and Nohman had been beaten, there were still four of them in the battlefield. While they stimulated the crowd, they stood at attention, waiting for the exact moment when the first opponent would rematerialize, so he or she could be eliminated again soon after. Then they would repeat the procedure against each one of them, taking the team out one by one, as they came back to the game at different intervals.

  Asuka was the first one to return, but, before she even had the time to draw a single card, she got disintegrated by a rocket fired by Blazkowicz. The same went on with Dante, Kerah, Ace, Mary, and Sigurd. When Seforth and Nohman had returned, the situation began looking even worse. Dante’s Chaos was being repeatedly slashed, blasted, pierced, exploded, and disintegrated. The uproar from the audience was starting to fade. It wasn’t a game anymore. It was a massacre.

  Marta and Antônio were holding each other tight as they watched Pedro and his friends’ repeated defeats. His mother was tearing up. His father showed resignation. At least their son had tried to help out his brothers.

  The audience soon ceased to be silent and started booing instead. This wasn’t the match they expected in the final. Blazkowicz watched the scoreboard. His team’s average stability was at 70%, while their opponents’ stood at a little under 40%.

  “It’s over already!” he yelled to his partners. “Let us show the audience we can tear them apart come as they are, even if they come out all together!”

  “But, captain—” Shadow attempted to intervene.

  “Exactly! I’m the captain, the head of this team! I’m paying you to obey me, so do as I say! Let’s return to the center of the court, regroup, and wait for them! If any of you disintegrate one of them before they’re all back in the court, I’m gonna tear you a new one! And no flag-grabbing either! Let’s win this the way we always do: by beating every one of them into disconnection!”

  As soon as Mary was put back together, she made a powerful force field around her. Realizing she wasn’t under attack, she deactivated it soon after. She kept her distance from the opposing team, waiting until her friends were back in the game, one by one.

  “OK, guys, time for plan B,” Dante commented once all of them could hear him. “We have only one chance of winning, and that is if we advance with all we’ve got to steal their flags. We may not be as good in combat as they are, but we’ve always been masters at snatching flags.” Everyone agreed. “Sigurd and Asuka, you head to the left line. Kerah and I will get the right. And Ace? I’m counting on you and Mary to bring back the flag from the center line.”

  He took a deep breath before going on.

  “This is going to be our final advance. It’s time to use our stability to the max. If we spare any of it, we’ll be disconnected one by one, without a chance to come back. We’ve gone through all sorts of opponents, we won’t be defeated now! Just being here already makes us winners! They think they’ve won, but they have no idea what kinds of surprises we have in store for them! I’ve named this team ‘Chaos’ precisely for that reason. They can’t foretell our movements. It’s about time we shine, fellows! If we lose, we’ll lose with honor, after an astounding match! Come on!”

  The whole team began speeding toward their foes and splitting up into pairs, as Dante had prescribed.

  “Choose your targets,” said the head of Warfear, “and let the slaughter begin!”

  All kinds of projectiles were flying through the air toward Dante’s Chaos, as they were quickly gaining ground.

  Dante managed to penetrate the opponents’ right game line, followed closely by Lilith. Shadow soon blocked the entrance afterwards, halting Kerah’s advance.

  Asuka made wings for herself and for Sigurd, swiftly invading the opponents’ left game line. Seforth and El Blacko gave chase.

  Blazkowicz and Nohman, now piloting a robot only a few yards tall, but just as heavily armed as before, were keeping Ace and Mary from reaching the center line. Every step they took was answered by machine gun fire from the captain or by the robot’s missiles, which forced them to step back again.

  As soon as he reached the opponents’ game line, Dante realized what sorts of defenses they had prepared.

  “Lava? Why does every game have to have lava somewhere? Flag Race has always been so good without lava...”

  Ahead of him, only a couple of stone platforms could be reached, floating above the sea of lava that stretched to a small cliff featuring the red flag atop it. Lilith was right behind him, shooting jet after jet of blazing fire. Dante evaded them, but it was always a very close call. His trench coat was fully singed, and, if it weren’t for all his practice and training, he’d have been smothered already by the searing heat around them.

  Despite having her foe in hot pursuit, Dante managed to time his jumps just right, going from platform to platform, drawing closer and closer to the flag. A peeved Lilith was then making a meteor shower to come crashing down on him to try and halt her opponent.

  It was no good. Dante kept gaining ground, cutting in half every meteor that came near him with his sword, until he reached the flag. Lilith changed tactics. It was time for her plan B.

  She altered her outfit until she was half-naked, flaunting her beautiful curves and her supple breasts. Her face, which up to now featured a semblance of anger, was now taken by a seductive look and a beautiful smile adorned by her plump red lips. Her purple eyes were framed by long black eyelashes, which gave her an even more provocative aspect. All of these factors, when added to the fact that she was spending her stability precisely to alter Dante’s perception of her, made Lilith into the most irresistible woman in the world, despite her bat wings.

  “Wow, how swift you are, Dante!”

  “Oh, thank y
ou!” he said while strapping the banner on his back.

  “And so strong too!” She was coming closer and closer. “I’ve never faced someone so strong, so powerful...”

  “Yeah, I have that effect on the ladies! So you also enjoy some flirting, don’t you?” He was taking his first few steps over the cliff to come back, but she halted him with her fingers, delicately touching the young man’s chest.

  “And these muscles! Hmmmmm!” Dante arched an eyebrow. Her fingers began sliding down. “You are truly a worthy man!”

  “I... Well, I really am, aren’t I?” He smiled, his eyes already losing focus due to Lilith’s spell. “But, well, I’ve got to go, babe... I have to—” He could no longer concentrate.

  “Why hurry?” She still stood in front of him, drawing her face close to his. “You know, I agree with you: you won, you got to the flag I was supposed to protect!” She was caressing his face. “Why don’t you celebrate this victory of yours with me?”

  “You know what? I... I really can’t, because—” He was leaning his head back, to avoid her lips. He realized they were dangerously close to the edge of the cliff, above the lava.

  Lilith was growing extremely peeved at his resistance, but none of that was showing. Kiss me already! That’s all it takes for me to disintegrate you! How could he hold out for so long? Any other man would have grabbed her and kissed her at once! She focused. Sooner or later he’d stumble into her trap.

  “Oh, my dear Dante, do this for me! Just a little kiss!” They were getting closer and closer.

  “You know what? I kinda enjoy flirting, but the actual kissing thing really isn’t my cup of tea.” Dante was slowly beginning to yield to her, such was the power of Lilith’s seduction spell. “Well, maybe just one little kiss. It’s just that I’m not used to this, you know? I have the impression I had a good reason for that, but I can’t remember what that was now!”

  The succubus was grinning. She’d finally persuaded him. Just a little more, and he’d succumb to her charms.