I pointed back at the alley floor, where all that remained of Hannah was a small pool of blood. “We just lost a teammate. Why the hell are you grinning?”
“Because we just sent K-Rig back to their base and cost them one of their respawns. Maybe they’ll think twice about their strategy.”
“Or they’ll double down. Maybe we just angered the beast.”
He tossed his arms up. “Okay, so what are you saying? That we’re not supposed to fight the other teams?”
“No. I’m just saying to stay alert.”
“Why? Because we wouldn’t be alert anyway?”
“Shut up!” Lily bellowed.
My lips instantly clamped shut. So did Derek’s. Neither of us were used to having Lily shout commands, and the shock was enough to shut us both up.
She stepped up to us. “We’re only one flag into the biggest game we’ve ever played, we’ve already lost a player, and you three are just standing there arguing. If you’re going to fight, at least walk at the same time. Otherwise, I’ll be waiting at the next flag while you three figure things out.”
Lily turned and started to march out of the alleyway. I chased after her and grabbed her arm.
“Lil, wait. Sorry.”
She halted and met my eyes.
“What do you think we should do?” I asked.
She answered immediately. “We have to split up.”
I took a step back. “What?”
“Our best chance is getting the flags as quickly as we can.”
I shook my head. “No. Absolutely not.”
Derek crossed his arms. “Lily isn’t wrong. It’s a good idea. If we split up, we could collect the flags much faster than the other teams. If they’re really going after each other, the flags should be ours for the picking.”
“We’re Defiance,” Lily said simply. “We go big, or we go home.”
I glanced between them. Derek and Lily had made up their minds. I wasn’t so sure. In fact, everything inside me opposed the idea. I glanced at Rooke. He said nothing, but his expression was grim. I couldn’t tell if he agreed with it or not, but he wasn’t happy.
Still, I couldn’t bring myself to say no to the idea, either. It was as good a plan as any. If they were right, collecting the flags while the other teams battled it out was the best thing to do.
“Okay,” I sighed. “How do we divide the team?”
Lily nodded at me. “You and Rooke shouldn’t be together.”
Well, that was awkward.
“I mean, you two know what the game is about,” she clarified. “You’ll be able to figure out the flags.”
I considered that and realized she was right. I linked my arm through hers. “Okay, you’re with me.” I tossed my head over my shoulder and grinned at the guys, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. “Think you can handle yourselves, boys?”
They grinned.
We set out in opposite directions, Lily and I to the west and the boys to the east. Now we were only two each, against the other teams, and the game.
• • •
We made it to the next flag without running into any NPCs or other teams. The flag itself stood alone in the middle of the open street. There was nothing around it other than the buildings towering overhead and the lanterns strung from rooftop to rooftop. Strangely, it looked peaceful. Unlike my stomach, which was a roiling mess.
Lily walked around the flag, looking it up and down.
“What’s this one?” she asked, sounding as suspicious as I felt.
“It’s thunder. It represents movement.”
She glanced around the street and back at the flag. “I don’t get it. There doesn’t seem to be any trick to it.”
That didn’t mean there wasn’t one.
“What’s going on?” Derek’s voice sounded in my ear.
“We’re at the next flag,” I explained, pressing a finger to my mic. “Nothing else is here. Just the flag.” I swallowed thick, trying to keep my mind calm. “Where are you guys?”
“Closing in on the next flag. Not quite there yet.” He paused. “Does it bother anyone else how quiet it is?”
It always bothered me how quiet it was in this game.
“It makes it easier for the other teams to find us,” Rooke said.
I shut my mouth. If we were split like this, communication would be key to winning. But it could also be the thing that got us killed and out of the game.
Lily reached for the flag. My stomach clenched, and I lunged for her.
“Wait,” I said, locking her hand inside my own. She looked at me and sighed.
“We can’t just stand here the whole game, Kali.” She glanced up the road again. “Another team could show up at any minute.” She placed her free hand on top of mine. “Relax, okay? Being this much on edge isn’t going to help anything.”
I sighed. She was right.
“You stand guard,” she said. “I’ll pick up the flag.”
I released her hand and backed up several paces. I nodded at her. Lily wrapped her fingers around the flag. It shimmered and burst, wrapping her in a bluish glow.
I held my breath.
Nothing happened.
The street was silent and still. Shadows lurked in the alleyways, and dark corners remained where they were. The flag flashed and respawned, ready for the next team. We waited, not moving, my hand itching for my sword. But only the weighty presence of the game surrounded us.
Finally, Lily shrugged.
“Maybe that’s it. Maybe there won’t be a trick for every flag.”
I released my breath, and my shoulders sunk with relief. Still, a nagging feeling pulled at my gut. This wasn’t over.
“Okay,” I said reluctantly, backing away from the flag a few more paces. “Let’s go.”
I turned, and took half a step forward when Lily grabbed my arm. Her brow was furrowed, and her lips were slightly apart. She looked confused.
“Did you hear that?”
I hadn’t heard anything. I cocked my head, listening. Something rumbled in the distance. Together, we took a step toward the noise. Thunderous pounding marched toward us, growing louder every second. Then I heard two words that turned my stomach inside out.
“Target acquired.”
Oh, no.
No, no, no.
Not again.
Monstrous footsteps pounded the ground until the pavement shook with the impact. The robot appeared from the mouth of an alleyway and streamed toward us. Its massive claws swung from side to side like meat hooks. As it neared, I realized this was not the same machine we’d faced before. This one was at least twice the size, claws double in length, and it had eyes. Tiny, little red eyes that flicked about. And those beady, little, devilish eyes zoomed in on Lily.
“Target acquired.”
Lily stood frozen in fear, her mouth a gaping hole.
“Run,” I screamed.
My voice ripped through the mics, knocking her from her dazed state. She turned and bolted down the street. I followed.
The guys were going ballistic in our mics.
“What’s wrong? Kali? Kali?”
“What the hell? What’s happening?”
“Not right now,” I shouted as I raced alongside Lily.
“Plan?” she managed to ask me, her voice huffing.
“Just run. Let me handle this thing.”
“Got it,” she managed.
Handle this thing? What the hell did I think I was going to do? Killing it didn’t work. Cutting off its limbs didn’t work. The only way I’d survived before was by outrunning it to the base, and now we were on the opposite side of the map.
With Lily at my side, we sprinted down the open road. The machine closed in.
“Turn,” I commanded into the mic.
We’d never outrun this thing.
We exited the alley and raced down the new street. Pounding footsteps echoed behind us, crushing the road beneath as they landed.
We were dead.
I glanced at Lily. Sweat poured down her face, and she looked like she was two seconds away from a panic attack. Then, suddenly, she slowed her pace, and stumbled to a halt in the middle of the road. A distant look filled her eyes, and she turned to face the machine, planting both feet firmly against the pavement. I went streaming past her and nearly tripped over my own feet as I reversed directions and rushed up to her.
“Lil!” I shouted, tugging on her arm. “What are you doing?”
She kept her gaze locked on the machine, and her eyes narrowed with determination. “I’m going for it.”
She stepped forward. I grabbed her wrist and held her back.
“It’ll respawn,” I warned.
She turned to look me dead on. “I’ve been afraid of this thing since I was a kid. I’m done running. I need to do this.”
One look at the determination in her eyes told me there was no talking her out of this. I released her grip and backed up a few steps.
“I’ll guard your back,” I told her.
She nodded at me and turned to face the machine. Lily gripped her axes and charged, letting out a ferocious scream as she streamed toward the machine. My eyebrows went up. It’s a little scary when something so small goes into rage-fueled ninja mode.
The machine swung its massive hooks at her. She zigzagged through the strikes, dodging each blow. One blade came down beside her head, catching the very edge of the cheek and shoulder. Skin split and blood trickled out. Lily recoiled to the side, instinctively guarding her wounds. Then she wiped away the blood and dove back into the fight.
She wound her way through the machine’s legs to its back and latched onto its spine. She climbed. The machine spun and grappled to reach her, but Lily held on and ducked beneath the grabs as she ascended the machine. When she reached its neck, she reeled back and repeatedly hacked away. The machine spasmed and jerked, and stumbled across the road. With a final blow, its giant head clanged to the ground and rolled a few times. The rest of its body dropped to its knees and fell forward. Lily somersaulted off the machine and landed safely a few feet away.
I gripped my own weapons and waited for the machine to dematerialize and reappear.
It never came.
The machine simply lay against the pavement, little sparks fizzing out from the severed connection that used to be its neck. I walked up to the head and kicked it. It lolled to the side and never moved again.
Lily walked up to me.
“What did you do?” I asked her.
She looked at me and simply shrugged. “I faced my fear.”
“But I’ve taken out that machine before—”
“It wasn’t your fear to face. It was mine.”
Fears exist until we face them. After that, they can’t come back. The machine wouldn’t respawn. At least, not for us, because it was no longer symbolic of the greatest thing Lily had ever feared.
“Come on,” Lily said. “We’ve got more flags to get. We’re not even halfway through this thing.”
Though she sounded serious, I didn’t miss the expression on her face.
She was grinning.
We set out for the next flag and started working through the rest of the game.
I talked the guys through their first flag, mountain. It represented both a great obstacle and remaining still within oneself. Soon, we’d figured out they needed to scale a four-story building, moving as slowly as possible, or the building would start to rumble.
Lily and I hid from Eon in a dark alley as they walked past on the open street.
On the other side of the map, the guys did much the same thing as K-Rig passed them by.
“Seems like K-Rig and Eon are all over the map,” Derek said once it was safe to talk again.
Lily pressed her lips to her mic as she walked along beside me. “They’re hunting. They’re more focused on getting everyone else out than collecting the flags.”
When we arrived at the next flag, it sat at the top of a three-level structure, each level rising a foot higher than the next and growing smaller as it moved inward, much like a water fountain except there was no water.
Tentatively, we approached. As soon as my toes touched the edge, ten-foot-high flames shot up in my face. I stumbled back. “O-kay.”
Lily smirked at me. “I’m gonna guess this one is fire.”
I approached the fountain again. The second I got within a few inches, a wall of fire blasted into the air, blocking all paths to the flag.
“Great,” I muttered. “Now what?”
Lily backed up.
“Maybe it’s testing our fear again,” she said, taking a sprint stance. “Maybe we have to charge—”
“Lil, no—”
My heart jumped in my throat as she pushed off and soared toward the fountain. Her feet touched down right before the first level, and a barricade of flames shot up in front of her. Lily slammed on the brakes and nearly toppled in. The fire singed the ends of her hair, and her eyes went wide. I grabbed her arm to steady her, and the fire cut out.
The fire cut out even though we were within an inch of the fountain. I glanced around the fountain, then back at Lily. I let go of her arm, and the fire shot up again.
“That’s it,” I said. “We have to do it together.”
We wrapped our arms around one another, her right with my left, and locked ourselves together up to each other’s elbows.
“On three,” I said. “One, two, three—”
We stepped up. Fire shot up around the fountain’s edge but halted on either side of us. I pushed out a heavy breath. “Next step. Now.”
We stepped up.
The flames closed in around us but stopped within an inch of our skin. The heat burned, turning my leather armor hot. I squirmed, trying to remain calm, but my heart slammed repeatedly against my chest.
Lily raised her foot. “Next.”
I mimicked her, and we stepped up together.
Same level as the flag.
The flames closed in, blasting heat against our faces. Fire crackled around us until it was all I could hear. I drew slow, careful breaths through my mouth, but soon I was gasping for air in the immense heat. My vision swirled, and I thought I’d hyperventilate.
The flames swallowed the flag, engulfing it completely in shades of yellow and ochre.
“We have to reach through the flames,” I shouted over the sizzling blaze.
In unison, we stretched our free hands toward the flag. The flames receded around our fingertips. Together, we wrapped our fingers around the pole. It burst and consumed us in a reddish glow.
The flames cut out, gone as quickly as they had appeared. The air around us faded back to the void-like emptiness it always was. I let my eyes fall shut. My heart still knocked against my rib cage, but relief flooded my body.
“Count one more, boys,” I said into my mic, as Lily and I descended the fountain. “Where are you now?”
“Far east, closing in on the flag,” Rooke said. “That’ll make five. Where are you?”
“Far west.”
Rooke paused for half a beat. “So, you’re near K-Rig’s base?”
“Yup. And you’re in front of Eon’s.”
“Relax,” Derek piped up. “No one is going to show up unless they respawn. The bases don’t mean anything, otherwise. K-Rig and Eon could be anywhere.”
“He has a
good point,” Lily said, as we wandered away together. “I wonder who even still needs this flag.”
“We do.”
I heard Lily gasp, and my breath caught in my throat. Slowly, we turned together, white-knuckled and ready to attack.
Legacy stood behind us.
CHAPTER 25
Legacy simply stood there, staring at us, making no move to attack. At least, with what was left of their team. I recognized them all in an instant. Damon Mercier, their leader and team captain. Joe Davids, a hulk of a man and their enforcer, for lack of a better word.
And Jessica Salt, who needed no introduction.
They had three players, one more than us.
The breath caught in my throat wheezed out.
We stood opposite each other with a five-foot gap between us. Breaths were heavy. Knuckles were white, gripping hilts. Tension was hair-trigger thick, where one twitch from either side would have sent us straight to war. But nobody was moving. The space between us was no-man’s-land.
The audience must have been on the edge of their seats. Given that Legacy still had way more experience, not to mention more players than us, there was a good chance they could take us out, and only Rooke and Derek would be left to try to take the championship on their own.
But Legacy still wasn’t moving, and I realized what they were thinking. Each of us stood a better chance with the other in the game.
“We’ll walk away if you do,” I said.
All eyes were on me, including Lily’s. Jessica glanced up at Damon. Their eyes met for a few seconds, as though they were speaking telepathically. They’d been together for over ten years and spent more time in each other’s presence than most married couples. I wouldn’t be surprised if they could read one another’s thoughts.
Damon nodded behind us.
“We need the flag.”
I stepped to the side, keeping a five-foot gap between us. Lily followed suit. We circled each other, step for step until we were on opposite sides as before, Legacy now closer to the flag. They backed up a few steps, now a ten-foot gap between us. But they kept facing our way and made no move to retrieve the flag. My heart hammered against my rib cage.
Damon stood at the front of the group, arms crossed against his chest.
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