“Marco!” he called out from the afterlife. “Did you get it?”
For a moment there was silence.
Then he heard Marco’s triumphant voice. “We scored!”
Kai sighed in relief.
That was close!
“Fucking amazing, Kai!” Claudia said.
“And now they’re trying to kill us… oh merde, we lost Josh.” Francois was less enthusiastic.
The timer in Kai’s vision showed ten seconds. It was incredible how slowly seconds passed in such a situation. Ten seconds could be an eternity in a PvP match.
“Hold on! I’m almost back!” he said.
Kai felt the urge to bite his fingernails, a habit he had gotten rid of years ago. But in his current bodyless state, he had no fingernails to bite, which, in a way, he was grateful for.
Finally, his penalty was coming to its end and he was nearly good to go.
3…
2…
1…
Kai respawned in the midst of chaos.
***
Josh was down, and so was Claudia. Marco and Francois were still standing, though barely. Both had health at less than 50% and were taking heavy damage from two Blue attackers, who had somehow managed to climb up from the tunnel and were now determined to destroy their opponents.
Kai drew his gun and was about to help his friends when he noticed the third Blue attacker – who was stealing their flag. He had already picked it up and was leaving the platform.
Kai didn’t hesitate. Instead of trying to shoot the enemy, he did the same as he had done earlier with the Yellow player: he used his bigger mass and strength and charged into the guy.
The player stumbled and lost balance but somehow managed not to fall. But not for long.
Summoning all the strength in his mechanical limbs, Kai kicked the hostile in the abdomen with full force – sending him flying over the edge and again using the uniqueness of the map to his advantage.
The flag still in his hand, the Blue fell from the platform to his certain death.
Kai grinned inwardly. It didn’t matter that the flag had fallen with the hostile. It would respawn in a couple of seconds, and as long as it was gone, no one could snatch it away from under their noses.
Kai turned around and opened fire at the two remaining attackers. Diving into cover, he hit one of them in the chest, causing critical damage.
Just then, Marco and Francois eliminated the third guy and turned their attention toward the remaining hostile. Even the best player couldn’t withstand an attack from two sides for too long, and the opponent was down a few seconds later.
The Blue base flashed on Kai’s mini-map, indicating that the Yellows had grabbed the blue flag. At least they weren’t all going after Kai’s team anymore, but this wasn’t good. If they wanted to win, they had to stop the Yellow team from acquiring the blue flag, or…
Kai sprinted forward and jumped down the hatch into the tunnel. Francois and Marco jerked their heads in surprise.
“What are you doing?” he heard Marco’s voice as he ran down the dark tunnel with all the speed this faction’s cyborgs allowed.
“I’m getting the yellow flag for us,” he called back. “Try to patch each other up and hold the base!”
“I’m back,” Josh announced, as if it were an accomplishment.
“I’ll be there in six seconds. Go Kai!” Claudia added.
The timer on Kai’s HUD showed that they still had over four minutes to play, which meant that sitting it out wasn’t an option. They had to score at least one more point to win this match. And Kai was determined to make this possible for his team. After all, they had proven that the much stronger Level Fours weren’t as superior to them as everyone had thought at the beginning.
Kai speculated that the Yellows were trying to exploit the Blue team’s temporary weakness and had gone all-in to steal their flag while half of the Blue team was still in the process of respawning.
A moment later, Kai arrived at the hatch under the Yellow base. This wasn’t the time for scouting and sneaking up. Without slowing down, he jumped up and grabbed the ledge, then pulled himself up, while simultaneously activating his damage shield.
His whole body shook as he was hit by a bullet in his shoulder. But the shield absorbed most of the impact, leaving him with a minor wound and only 15% damage.
Lifting his head, he saw that, again, the Yellows had left only one man to defend the base. Most likely, more were about to respawn while the rest would show up on the bridge with the blue flag at any second.
Kai caught another bullet from the defender as he rushed toward him and then jumped him. This time, the Yellow was standing too far away from the ledge to be pushed off into the abyss. But the Red faction had a unique ability, and Kai was about to try it on an enemy player for the first time. Slow but strong, the Red characters had an Execute mode for times when the player managed to get into close combat with the enemy and grab them.
Kai managed it. Ignoring a fresh wound that brought him down to below 60% health, he grabbed his opponent and activated the unique Execute ability. His character wrapped his massive metal arms around the much smaller and lighter Yellow fighter, twisted his neck – and ripped his head clean off.
Completely ignoring the brutality of the attack, Kai dropped the dead enemy player and grabbed the flag.
Just when he was about to disappear down the tunnel, he saw the rest of the Yellow team approaching with the blue flag. Like aggravated wasps, they sped toward him. No doubt at least two of them would pursue him. Not only would they want to prevent him from scoring another point by any means possible, but as long as their own flag was gone, they couldn’t score the flag they had stolen either. Which also made them vulnerable to a Blue counterattack, as they no doubt would try to retrieve their flag.
“I’m inbound,” Kai said, highly focused, speeding down the tunnel. “They’ll be on my ass at any second. Need backup.”
“I’m back and on my way,” Claudia said. “Josh, come with me.”
“But wasn’t the plan to defend our base first and foremost?” Francois objected. “You’re leaving only Marco and me here. And we’re not at full health.”
“I’m pretty sure the Blues will try to get their flag back and leave us alone for now,” Kai said, peeking over his shoulder. He could see a slight yellow glow at the end of the tunnel.
Damn, those guys are fast!
Following his intuition, Kai ducked and ran in zig-zags as much as the narrow space allowed. Bullets hit the wall to his right. Thankfully the cooldown for his shield was over, and he reactivated it.
He was just in time – a salvo hit his back, bringing his shield down to 45% and his health to 30%.
Not good!
“They’re grilling me here!” he called out.
“We got you!” Claudia replied. “Almost there!”
He could see them on the mini-map, approaching swiftly, and a moment later, he could see a red glow advancing in the dark.
“Keep as far to your right as possible,” she added. “I don’t want to accidentally blow your head off!”
To make it more realistic – and more difficult – the game came with friendly fire by default. Unless the campaign was set to casual mode, which, of course, wasn’t possible in PvP.
Kai did as he was told and pressed himself as closely as possible to the wall on his right. He didn’t need to look back to know that the two hostiles were very close now. Apparently they had decided to get into melee range and finish him off with their swords.
Projectiles swooshed by him as his teammates opened fire on the hostiles. Still on the run, the Yellows returned the fire and Kai found himself in a storm of bullets. Another direct hit in the back brought his shield down and diminished his health to 18%. One more and he was toast.
“Keep running!” Claudia said. “We’ll stall them!”
“Thanks!”
Both Claudia and Josh had stopped and were now crouching, their r
ifles pointing down the tunnel. Using the rest of his energy reserves, Kai leaped over them and continued running. He could see the light falling through the hatch now. He was almost there.
On the mini-map, Kai saw the Blue base glowing. The Blues had retrieved their flag.
Rushing forward, he watched as Claudia’s and Josh’s health bars diminished quickly.
Those Yellow guys must be really good players, much better in a stand-off.
He grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up and back into his base, where his remaining two teammates were waiting. A second later, he crossed the platform and planted the flag.
“Woohoo!” Marco cried out enthusiastically. “Eat this, Jason!”
“Good to see our selfless sacrifice wasn’t for nothing,” Claudia said with a falsely dramatic voice. “Careful, we managed to take out one, but two more are on their way toward the base.”
The yellow flag blinked on the pedestal Kai had put it on, then disappeared. The HUD now showed two points for Kai’s team and zero for the other two, with 90 seconds left to play.
We can do this!
He crouched next to the hatch, ready to shoot the two approaching Wasps to shreds, but they never showed up. Kai furrowed his brow in surprise. They must have turned around.
A moment later, he discovered why. The Yellow base glowed on the mini-map.
The Blues had first retrieved their flag and then waited until the yellow flag had respawned at its home base to instantly snatch it.
Clever move.
“How long till you guys respawn?” he asked Claudia and Josh.
“Ten secs,” she replied.
Kai nodded, turning around and facing the edge of the platform. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw surprised looks from Marco and Francois as he sprinted toward the abyss.
“What the fuck, dude?” Marco asked with a disbelieving laugh as he saw Kai jumping.
Kai closed his eyes. He hated the fall.
It felt absolutely realistic and gave him the creeps. He could feel the wind hitting his face as gravity pulled his body down. He knew if he opened his eyes he would see the ground coming closer at an absolutely terrifying rate.
Finally, the drop stopped as everything resolved around him, and he found himself looking at the loading screen.
Respawn in 15 seconds.
“I figured I should reset instead of using up a healing spray,” he explained to his team. “Yellows are busy chasing Blues who are busy getting the flag back to their base, so we should have a breather for at least 30 seconds before they come after us again.”
“Good thinking,” Claudia said. “Josh and I are back.”
“I don’t want to jinx it, but I think we’re gonna win this!” Marco exclaimed, hardly able to hide how excited he was.
Kai watched his respawn timer creep down as if it was in slow motion. 10 seconds left. 70 seconds left in the match.
“Oh no!” Francois called out. “They’re coming!”
“Who?”
7 seconds left.
“Blues!”
Kai swore inwardly, watching the timer that seemed to slow down from second to second. The Blue team knew that their only chance of winning was to get Kai’s team’s flag. But could they do it in less than 60 seconds?
“They’re using Rush to advance quickly!” Marco said. “Take cover!”
“I’m almost back, five seconds!”
“Yellows are inbound, too!” Claudia reported.
“What? Where?”
“Through the tunnel.”
“Are the cocksuckers working together?” Francois asked.
“That’s what I thought earlier,” Marco replied. “Impact!”
The last three seconds seemed like an eternity to Kai, then he was finally back.
Not one moment too early. He found his team under heavy attack from two sides. 60 seconds to play.
Francois was the first to fall. He was about to use a healing spray on Marco, crouching close to him, when a precise headshot struck him down. Marco was next. A hail of bullets first destroyed his damage shield then quickly depleted his health, which hadn’t fully regenerated.
45 seconds.
Claudia and Josh were desperately trying to fend off the Yellow team, which was aggressively advancing through the tunnel.
“Throw a grenade at them!” Kai called out, taking cover behind the AC vent closest to the flag.
“We’re out of grenades, smartass!” Claudia replied.
Kai remembered that he still had one in his quickslot. He couldn’t hit the Yellows without endangering his teammates but he could hit the Blues, who were now advancing toward his position and the flag.
40 seconds.
He threw the grenade. It most likely wouldn’t kill them, but it would hopefully stall their advance a bit. That was all they needed now. They just needed to hold the line for a little bit longer.
Kai watched the grenade fly at the hostiles. But before it could explode, one of the Blue players rushed forward and kicked it off the platform. The explosive detonated in mid-air, causing no damage to anyone.
35 seconds.
“Respawn in ten seconds,” Marco reported.
“Seven for me,” Francois said.
That wasn’t quick enough.
Kai watched as one of the Yellows jumped Claudia and impaled her with his sword, and then his comrade finished her off. Josh would be next within seconds.
But Kai wasn’t willing to give up. And he sure as hell wasn’t willing to let them have the flag.
30 seconds.
Activating his damage shield, he jumped up. But instead of engaging the enemy, Kai grabbed their own flag – just before the leading Blue player could get his hands on it.
For a brief moment, the Blue player froze, puzzled by Kai’s action. Then he and his friends opened fire. The flag in his hand, Kai leaped to the side, yet was hit anyway. Several bullets struck him, bringing his shield down to under 50% and his health to 60%.
Ignoring the damage, Kai charged forward to the edge of the platform. There he stopped, teetering over the abyss.
25 seconds.
He turned on his heel, facing his attackers. A helmet covered his face, making it impossible for his enemies to see his grin.
However, they could clearly see the only remaining member of the Red team lift his hand and flip them off.
More bullets hit Kai. With his health right down at 5%, he let himself fall from the ledge and into the seemingly bottomless abyss between the skyscrapers.
Falling, he saw how the frontrunner of the Blue team reached the platform’s edge and looked down at him. Kai only could imagine the rage and frustration the guy must feel.
They had lost and Kai’s team had won. The Level One and Two noobs had beaten the far stronger and more experienced Level Four teams.
It would take about five seconds until Kai died from the fall and returned to the loading screen. That meant there would be less than 20 seconds of game time left. After that, the flag would need another five seconds to respawn back on the pedestal.
Which left the enemy players with less than 15 seconds to grab the flag and return to their base. Even using the Rush ability all the way, they needed at least 20 seconds from base to base. Kai knew that – they’d tested it in training.
He grinned broadly as his body dissolved and the game returned him to the loading screen.
The taste of victory was sweet.
***
The first thing Kai felt after opening his eyes back in reality was how exhausted his body felt. Almost as if he had just performed a sprint over a long distance. At the same time, he felt a rush of endorphins, of euphoria.
He wasn’t the only one. The whole room was in turmoil as everyone was cheering and laughing happily.
Lex stepped toward him and smiled.
“That was quite impressive, kiddo,” she said. “Who would have thought you’d be such a cunning, sneaky son of a bitch?”
Kai laughed. “
Thanks, I guess.”
She petted his cheek, and even though she played it cool, Kai could clearly see how excited and proud she was.
“Seems I was wrong about you,” she said, pulling the cord from his head. “I thought you were a chicken.”
Free from the restraint, Kai turned his head toward her in surprise.
Lex chuckled. “What? Did you believe I didn’t know how to use Google?”
She watched him as his face fell apart, then she laughed heartily, grabbing his cheek between her thumb and index finger and squeezed it playfully. “No worries, sweetie. Your secret is safe with me.”
Kai nodded, perplexed. He couldn’t possibly tell if she was serious or making fun of him.
But he didn’t have time to think about that now. Now it was time to celebrate.
Chapter Nineteen
“To the dream team! To us!” Marco said, lifting his glass.
“To us!”
They all lifted their glasses and clinked. Then they downed the booze.
Kai wasn’t used to drinking strong alcohol. The first rounds of tequila had burned in his throat, but afterward the nerves there apparently had died off and he hardly felt more than a tickle when swallowing the clear liquid.
The whole group was in high spirits. This was easily the biggest accomplishment any of them had ever achieved in their lives.
“And all thanks to our hero of the day,” Marco added, hitting Kai’s shoulder cordially.
Kai wasn’t used to being the center of attention either. At first, he had tried to play his role in the success down, but neither Marco nor the others would hear any of it.
“I still can’t believe you did that,” Claudia giggled, slightly tipsy. “Taking our own flag and jumping into the abyss holding it so the others couldn’t get it… that was badass. And fucking brilliant!”
Her cheeks were flushed by the alcohol, and her brown eyes gleamed as she looked at him admiringly. For the first time, Kai noticed that she was actually cute.
Of course, she wasn’t her. But no one was.
“It was,” Josh agreed. “Man, I thought we were done, and then that… bam!”
He clapped his fist into his palm.
Kai smiled. Their victorious run in the tournament had catapulted Josh into Level Two and saved his career at Helltek, at least for now. Marco was only 150 progression points from Level Three now, and Claudia and Francois were both solid Level Twos.
Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure Page 25