Tactical Heart

by S. K. Rose

  Looking back, I see rainbow confetti falling to the ground. Getting to my feet with a suppressed laugh, I head back to loot the foolish orc. The toon is lying flat on his face and covered in confetti and bits of fur. I click on the orc to double check his health, and it is indeed at zero. The soosoo isn’t deadly if you kick it away before it explodes, but never turn your back on one—they latch on and BOOM! sayonara, fucker.

  “Who’s the real gamer now, bitch?” I sneer before I select the corpse and loot it.

  After a few seconds, the confetti and fur begin to tremble from where it’s scattered across the forest floor. With a small pop, it snaps back together, and the soosoo is in one healthy piece. I lean down and pet him.

  “That’s a good boy,” I coo.

  He makes a soft mewling sound before hopping to my gun and squeezing back into the barrel where he’ll remain until I pull the trigger once more.

  My eyes widen when a thundering screech cuts through my headphones. I flick my joystick to look toward where I think the sound came from. Whatever that was sounded angry...and big.

  And where there are pissed off monsters— there are more players for me to take out.

  I’ve already removed four competitors since I entered the arena. My laser focus is back, and I’m feeling pretty damn invincible.

  I take off at a run in the direction I think the noise came from. I pass an endless amount of trees until a huge field is sprawled out before me with a massive tree in the center. Following the edge of the forestine, I take in the strange sight before me.

  A gigantic bird with two heads is chasing a human and a fairy across the field. It would be comical if my heart didn’t seize at the gamertag hovering above the human.

  KarnageKing13.

  There’s a huge nest in the tree, and it doesn’t take me long to figure out what happened. The officials put some sort of trinket or weapon as bait, and once it was removed, the monster bird would automatically be summoned. A trap that should have been spotted a mile away.

  Shit Kane, what the hell were you thinking?

  Better have been one damn good reward for him to take this big of a risk.

  I’m close enough that I can hear Kane and who must be the fairy through my headset.

  “Karnage, what do we do?” the fairy groans. She dodges out of the way just as a claw swipes at her.

  My stomach churns at the feminine voice. He teamed up with some chick?

  I give my head a furious shake. Not the time or the place.

  I hover over the monster and silently read its name, Hydriss. Hell no. This is not my battle; I’m going to head the opposite way and see about taking out more players. These two will be seriously crippled or get taken out of the competition—either way, it works in my favor. The last thing I need to do is involve myself.

  A sound of a leaf crunching makes me flip around. Without hesitation, I swap to my Storm Blaster and shoot a strike of lightning in an arc around me. A fellow elf drops, jerking as electricity sparks through him.

  “Good try, buddy!” I snort.

  “Woah, woah. Hold on, just wa—”

  I aim the gun at his heart and send another blast that finishes him off. I hit a button combination on my controller and do a little dance over the lifeless elf. Another kill means I’m that much closer to winning the internship.

  Another bellowing screech snaps me out of my daydream. I turn to watch as Karnage distracts both heads, and the fairy flies behind the monster. Rather than aiming at the body, she aims her rifle at the head closest to her.

  Shit.

  I charge into the clearing before logic can talk me out of it. “Stop! Don’t shoot the head!” I scream into the mic. “He will—”

  But it’s too late, her aim is true, and the head explodes in a blast of feathers.

  The fairy with the gamertag of “Brightstar” yelps excitedly over the chat. “Take that birdbrains!”

  I groan and have to stop myself from face palming. Idiot.

  “Scarlett?” I hear Kane’s confused voice in my headphone, but all my attention is on the thrashing bird.

  The fairy takes to the air and zooms toward Karnage. Behind her, the bloody stump where a head used to be ripples, and the skin begins to bubble up. I open my mouth to yell again, but snap it shut with a sigh. She’s just going to have to learn the hard way.

  The bird shudders, and two more heads shoot out of the severed neck. All three heads immediately swivel to look at the fairy. Karnage shouts for her to turn around, but it’s too late, one of the heads lunges forward and snatches her out of the air with its beak. Hydriss swallows her whole with a grunt of pleasure. Dragging my eyes away from the computer screen, I glance up at the counter in the front of the room. What just read “thirty-three remaining players” has dropped down to “thirty-two.”

  Brightstar would have been booted out of the game as soon as her health hit zero, not even a chance to say goodbye to her new pal, Kane. I’m crying for her...deep down on the inside.

  Deep, deep, down.

  The head that ate the fairy starts jerking back and forth like a cat who’s getting ready to puke up a hairball. It coughs and spits out a red rifle and two glittering fairy wings that flutter to the ground. It takes more self-control than I thought possible not to laugh at those damn wings.

  Kane, being the idiot that he is, runs forward and picks up the rifle. Being close enough to pull aggro1, the beast’s heads simultaneously turn to zero in on him.

  “Oh fuck,” he mutters as his toon takes off running. Hydriss is on him within seconds, the heads taking turns as they dive at the ground. He rolls through the grass in the opposite direction as soon as a beak gets too close. He can run, but sooner or later, he’s going to hit a button too slow and be gobbled up.

  Not your problem, Scar. Let him die, this is a competition remember?

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Flipping through my inventory, I take out my blaster that has the most powerful punch and aim it at Hydriss. Looking through the scope, I wiggle the joystick and try to line up a clean shot to where I assume the bird’s heart is.

  It’s no use, he’s all over the place as he chases Kane back and forth across the field.

  “Karnage, get over here!” I demand.

  The little human toon continues to serpentine away from me. “Get out of here!” he shouts back.

  And he calls me the stubborn one.

  “Just c’mon, I have a plan,” I hiss.

  Finally, he begins running directly for me but so does Hydriss. I raise my scope and pull the trigger. The bird’s form stutters but continues barreling right at me. I shoot three more times in the same spot, praying that I hit his heart. On the last shot, Hydriss lets out a bellowing wail before crashing to the ground at my feet.

  Clicking on the bird corpse with my mouse, I loot his body and smile wide when I see that he’s dropped the Hydron. It’s a legendary gun that other players would kill for.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Scarlett?” Kane’s voice booms through my headset. His toon stands before me now, red rifle still cradled in his hands.

  “You mean besides saving your ass?”

  “I didn’t want or ask for your goddamn help.”

  Woah, where’s all this anger coming from all of a sudden?

  “The Hydriss drops one of the best guns in the game, that’s the only reason I took him out, so don’t flatter yourself,” I snarl back.

  True, though not something I remembered when I started attacking.

  “Selfish Scarlett, why am I even surprised?” His rifle turns on me in an instant. I smash a button, and my toon steps backward.

  “What the hell does that mean?” I snap. “And get that shit off me, I’m not joking.”

  “This is a competition, Wyrm, or did you forget?” His voice is cold and unfamiliar. “Because you saved me, I’ll give you a two minute head start before I start firing.”

  “You can’t be serious. Kane, c’mon, it doesn’t have to b
e like—”

  “Like what?” he seethes. “This is what you wanted, Scarlett. You told me over and over that we are enemies, and the light has finally clicked on. Maybe you were never really into me; it doesn’t matter. I need this, and I will do whatever it takes to win. This competition is on, but me and you? It’s game over.”

  Never into him? Is he fucking high?

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Don’t play stupid. Two minutes left.”

  There’s pain ringing through his words that I don’t understand, but he’s finally giving me what I wanted, he’s unblurring the lines. He’s acknowledging me as a true rival, and in this game, right now, nothing else exists. I will have to unwrap the other shit he said later; for now, I need to see him as one thing and one thing only, the enemy.

  His gravelly voice is in my ear once more. “You give this everything you’ve fucking got; do you hear me? Don’t you get soft and cheapen the competition. I’m going to whoop your ass fair and square. Do you understand?”

  My eyes flick up over the screen and meet his burning gaze. He gives me a curt nod.

  “I understand.”

  I will give it my all, and he better bring his A game.

  “Ten seconds,” he taunts.

  I kick myself into gear. Darting into the forest, I zigzag through trees, putting as much space between me and him as possible. Just when I think I’m in the clear, I hear a loud bang and watch a huge chunk of my health fall off as an unknown debuff is applied to my toon.

  Shit. He shot me!

  I keep running because if I slow down, he’ll kill me for sure. I squint at the screen as I notice something on the ground everywhere I go. Blood.

  FUCK.

  It was a bleed that gun put on me. Wherever I run, I’ll leave behind a bright red trail that might as well be a giant target on my back saying “injured player, take me out.”

  I’m in deep shit now.

  26

  Kane

  Acting like she doesn’t know what I’m talking about just to confuse me more. Well played.

  What she doesn’t know is how fast and agile I’ve gotten. She’ll feel stupid for ever underestimating me, for trying to get in my head and cost me the win.

  I glance up at the death count, only a handful of players left. This is when things will really start heating up, as the best of the best are left standing.

  I scan the grass until I find what I’m looking for, a trail of red that will lead me right to my prey. She’s hunted me down for years, and finally, the tables have turned.

  I follow the blood along a narrow path that hikes up the side of a cliff. I’m so focused on the ground, I almost miss the two players stalking toward me. I flip around and take them out with surprising ease, one headshot after the other and then continue following Scarlett.

  When I reach the top of the cliff, I find myself looking at a field of brightly colored mushrooms that tower over me. Creeping around in stealth mode, I keep my eyes peeled for the feisty elf. There’s blood everywhere: on the ground and on mushrooms, which means she has to be here somewhere. It looks like she ran back and forth through the mushroom field to try and confuse me, but she can’t hide forever.

  Leaning toward my computer screen, I spot something lying next to a smaller purple mushroom. It’s two dead dwarfs covered in bloody footprints.

  My lip curls into a grin. She’s playing with me.

  That’s my girl.

  The cap of the mushroom nearest me is suddenly blown off. I roll through the grass and duck behind another thick stem. Several mushroom caps around me begin to explode as Scarlett shoots from an unknown location. I watch where the bullets are coming from, and it dawns on me, I know exactly where she is.

  I dart behind another mushroom and then two more until I’m in the center of the field, directly under the largest mushroom.

  “Hi, Freckles,” I whisper into the mic as I throw a grenade on top of the cap and run.

  “Shit.” I hear her screech. A fraction of a second later, I see her toon falling through the air and tumbling into the grass ahead of me.

  She rises to her feet. My gun is trained between her eyes, hers is aimed at my heart.

  How ironic.

  I take a step back, and she follows suit.

  “Looks like it’s just you and me, handsome.”

  I flick my eyes to the big screen. Holy shit, just two players left. I made it to the end, just one last obstacle in my way.

  There’s a strange shimmer in the air between us. I quickly dodge behind a nearby mushroom. “What the fuck are you doing?” I shout.

  “Nothing, that’s not me!” She sounds nervous and dips behind a mushroom herself.

  Something is floating down from the sky between us. Something...sparkling? Scrolling my mouse wheel, I zoom in to try and get a better view.

  What the...

  “Kane?” Scarlett’s voice is thick with confusion. “Is that...is that a fucking unicorn?”

  “Roger that.”

  It’s unmistakable now. Fluffy white fur, spiraling horn, and a thick mane that’s every color of the rainbow. The horse whinnies and shake his head as he floats down through the sky and lands with a plop into the grass. He prances in a circle, looking back and forth between me and Scarlett.

  “It’s so…”

  “Fucking adorable,” I finish.

  The unicorn makes a little squeak, a hiccup, I think, and a little bubble floats from his mouth and pops in the air above him.

  “Kane. Look at his name. Look right now.” There’s a new urgency in her voice.

  I drag my mouse over to the unicorn until the name hovers above it.

  Graveskull.

  The fearsome monster that everyone has been hunting since the game released is a fucking unicorn?!

  As if it can hear me, the unicorn does a small jump, a shimmery rainbow trailing behind his every move, and then strikes a pose.

  I can’t help it; I burst into laughter. It’s infectious because Scarlett starts giggling herself. Forcing myself to get control, I take a deep breath.

  “You know what this means right?” I say in a grave voice.

  “Yeah, means you better look alive, Karnage.” The top of the mushroom I’m hiding behind is blown to bits. I shoot back as I tumble to the left, searching for cover. She aims to take out the unicorn, but I throw a poison gas potion at her feet, and she has to skitter away.

  Swapping guns, I equip the Grav Cannon and flip the switch. Scarlett rises up, but her toon twists fast in the air, and her gun is trained back on me in an instant. She shoots and hits my chest, almost hitting my heart, taking out a big slash of my health.

  Fuck, she’s good.

  I flip off the Grav Cannon, and her toon crashes back to the ground. I use her moment of distraction to shoot out to my left. When she’s back on her feet, she runs toward me, the massive Hydron gun equipped in her hands.

  I drop my rifle to the ground and hold up my hands and drop to my knees in the universal sign of defeat. She stops in front of me, her weapon raised and aimed at my head.

  “You almost had me. It was a damn good fight.” Her voice is low and breathy in the mic. “I’ll be sure to give em’ hell.”

  With that, she pulls the trigger and…

  Nothing.

  The bullets bounce off my toon with a plink.

  I grin and get to my feet. I pick up the rifle from the ground and equip it.

  “What? How? I—” she stutters. There’s a sharp inhale of breath, and I know she sees it. Graveskull to my left, dead as a doorknob.

  “Ruh roh,” she whispers, and I pull the trigger.

  RedWyrm, Scarlett, drops to the ground at my feet.

  Reaching down, I loot the dead elf as I whistle a happy little tune. I find the last gun she’d stolen from me and tuck it back into my inventory where it belongs.

  “Guess it was my turn to give you a little hell, huh?” I snicker, unable to fight the ear to ear grin
that spreads across my face.

  Tearing off my headset, I stand up to a chorus of muffled cheers. All the gamers who stayed to watch the results of the match are behind the glass in the back, whooping and shouting in excitement. The double doors open, and people pour inside where only the officials, Scarlett, and I remain.

  A tiny girl who looks like she can’t be more than sixteen runs up to me first. She has bright purple hair and a line of piercings on both sides of her nose.

  “That was awesome! I mean it sucked that I got eaten, but you made it!” she squeaks, and I immediately recognize her voice.

  “Brightstar!”

  She grins. “Yeah man, we made a pretty good team there for a hot minute. I always have the same username, so look me up and lets game together sometime. Wicked win, bro, you deserve it. Man, the way you got Graveskull without her even seeing…” She whistles, still muttering excitedly as she walks away.

  My body is humming with adrenaline from the win. I don’t think I’m really processing what just happened. I actually won. I’m going to be working at EkoTek as an intern. A huge smile splits across my face as the reality settles.

  I did it.

  The air is whooshed out of me as I’m suddenly tackled to the ground.

  “You won! You won!” Jack shrieks in my ear.

  Max offers his hand with a devilish grin and helps me up. When I’m back on my feet, he grapples me into a bear hug. “So proud of you, lil sis.”

  I laugh and push him away. My parents come up next, each jumping up and down with excitement as they squeeze me into a hug.

  That’s when I spot her headed in my direction. My family parts to let her through. When she passes him, Jack holds out his fist, and Scarlett bumps it with her own. Mom rubs her back and embraces her in a small hug, and Dad claps her shoulder and gives an encouraging smile.

  When she’s finally before me, her arms slip around my neck, and she holds me tight. “You’re amazing, Kane Decker,” she whispers in my ear. After a soft kiss to my cheek, she returns to her sister and the...punk.

  I watch until she disappears into the crowd.