Waiting for me to attack them.
My heart beat in my throat. The game was forcing me to face my fear, and it wasn’t what I had expected. I thought that being alone or failing the team would have been it. But the game knew me better than I knew myself, and it had discovered the one thing I loathed above all else. What was truly my greatest fear since I’d taken over ownership.
I wouldn’t just see my friends suffer. I’d have to do it myself.
I’d have to sacrifice my own team to win the game.
Hannah walked up first. The others remained behind. Looked like they’d attack me one at a time. It made sense. They weren’t here to take me out of the game. The point was to punish me, slowly.
I drew my sword from my back and my dagger from my boot. Hannah casually tossed her massive battle-axe back and forth between both hands as she closed in on me, smiling her sweet smile.
She spun. Gripping the axe tight in her hands, she twisted around, cutting the blade through the air. I slipped under her axe, came back up, and slammed both of my blades into her gut and ripped them out again. Her eyes went wide, and her whole body went rigid. The weapon dropped from her hands, and she clawed at me as she collapsed.
“Kali, help me. Please.”
Her hands slid down my body, clutching me with desperation. I closed my eyes and turned away. My stomach threatened to expel itself.
This was a horror show.
Hannah went limp at my feet, and a puddle of black blood pooled out around her. She gurgled twice, and her head lolled to the side.
Derek came at me next.
He raced toward me with his sword drawn back, preparing to strike. I held my ground. His sword met mine as he swung.
We danced.
Metal hit metal, sparking smoky-gray fizzles between us. I feigned a strike to his right shoulder. He twisted to block, leaving his lower half open. I sliced through his thigh with my dagger. He cried out and dropped to his knees. His sword clanged to the ground and out of reach.
I walked up to him. He held up his hands.
“No, Kali. Don’t. Oh God, don’t.”
I wrapped an arm around his head. He started screaming, pleading with me. My own muscles started convulsing with disgust. I closed my eyes and made my hands move. I cocked his head back and slid my dagger across his throat. His screams cut off into gurgles, and he seized violently as he crumpled to the ground. His whole body spasmed as the blood streamed out of him. He clawed at the cut in his neck and at my own feet. I turned my gaze to the sky and swallowed the acid burning in my throat until his sounds were no more.
Rooke walked up last.
Every nerve inside me shook. He was smiling, calm. He looked at peace. Inside me was anything but peaceful. We’d worked the entire tournament to get him to that point. Where he was tranquil. Safe from his own demons.
Now I was about to kill him.
I closed the gap between us and thrust my sword halfheartedly. He easily deflected the blow. Two more swipes of my sword were also parried with ease.
He smirked.
“Come on, warrior,” he said. “Where’s that mouth of yours now?”
My heart nearly wrenched itself apart. Tears stung my eyes, and my bottom lip quivered. I shoved down the lump in my throat and gripped my weapons tight.
“It’s right here.”
I rushed him.
He crossed his swords over his chest. Pointing the tip at the ground, I swung my sword up, knocking his arms open. Without breaking stride, I slammed into him and drove my dagger right into his heart, down to the hilt. He gasped, dropped to his knees, twisted as he fell, and landed on his back. He lay there, blinking, with a stunned look in his eyes.
“How could you?” he rasped.
Black tears poured down his face. His fingers reached for me.
“Kali,” he whispered. “Look at me.”
His fingertips brushed my lips. I shut my eyes and swallowed thick. It looked like him. Sounded like him. Dying was his biggest fear, and something that he could have faced in reality this tournament. And now I’d done it to him myself.
I gripped my dagger and pulled it out. He spasmed. A last, gasping breath escaped his lips, and he went still.
I knelt and gripped my stomach. It roiled and somersaulted. Sweat beaded along my hairline. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and pushed out my anxiety. It was over. I did it. I took out my own team. While my hands shook, and my stomach threatened to expel itself, it didn’t feel like I’d truly resolved my fear. But still, I had faced it head-on. Now I just had to get to the end.
The game was mine for the taking.
Was it worth it?
There was a nine-figure grand prize at the end of this thing, but Lily had told me herself that money was empty without the people you love. The people I loved had gone through hell this tournament, from the media gossip to Rooke’s relapse to the haters, and even the VGL’s conspiring against us. Even more, I’d spent too much time worrying about money and image instead of enjoying the tournament and appreciating getting to play in the greatest competition in the world. I did what I had to do to get through it, even taking out my own team inside the game. When I thought about it, the whole thing made me a little sick. Maybe once this was over, it was time to take a step back and reevaluate what I was doing with the team and whether battling the VGL was even worth it. A horn rang out overhead, so loudly it shook my soul, and it kept resounding, like I was trapped inside a church bell. I slapped my hands over my ears. I had a sinking feeling I knew what that horn meant. If Jessica had been telling the truth, then both she and K-Rig had one flag left each. The horn could mean that all eight flags had been captured by the remaining teams, and I was no longer ahead.
The horn suddenly cut out, and the game returned to its usual deathly silence. I pulled my hands away from my ears. For once, I was thankful for the emptiness pressing in around me.
The ground started shaking.
A rumbling filled my ears, and vibrations shot up my legs. I spread my feet to balance myself. My head whipped around as I tried to grasp the situation. Was this another giant NPC? Or something different?
The ground cracked up, as if a lightning bolt were streaking through the pavement. The road split open right between my feet. The crack widened, and chunks of the road started to cave in and sink.
Definitely something different.
I ran.
I darted through the street as it ripped itself apart, pushing off. Buildings around me trembled violently and collapsed. Debris whizzed past me in all directions. Dust choked the air.
The game had become a war zone.
My heart thrummed in my ears until it was all I could hear. Massive hunks of the road broke apart and slid down into the earth. Molten lava seeped up through the fissures, painting red streaks through this monotone gray world. As I ran, my boot clipped the edge of a bubbling lava puddle and the heel started melting instantly. Great. If I fell or touched this stuff, I’d be dead.
Several circular platforms, approximately three feet across, splintered off the pavement and started rising. The rest sunk lower. The lava pools. I set my sights on the closest platform and pumped my legs as fast as they would go.
I was fifty feet away.
Lava continuously seeped in through the cracks until there was more red than gray on the road. More of my boots melted, hissing beneath me with every step. The platform kept rising. Four feet high now.
I ran faster.
The ground beneath began to crumble, as if my own feet were causing it to cave in on itself. Every step I took, more of the road melted away. Heat burned my legs. My armor felt as though it would melt and sear into my skin. My consciousness wavered. Black spots crept into the corners of my vision.
No.
I’m not done yet.
I shook my head, reached
inside, and pulled out all the fight I had left. I focused inward and zeroed in on the platform, ignoring the outward sensations. The burning heat, the lack of air in my lungs, all of it disappeared, until there was just me and that platform.
It reached six feet high.
I closed in.
The ground beneath shook so violently, I nearly stumbled and fell. I zigzagged through the crumbling road, pushing off whatever bits of pavement my feet could find. Five feet from the platform, I leapt just as the final chunk of road broke away beneath me and was swallowed up by the raging molten storm.
I flew. My hands clawed at the air until one latched on. I gripped the edge and dangled from the platform as it continued to ascend. Magma gushed up in spurts and licked at my feet. I kicked my legs. My arm strained from the movement and my own weight, and threatened to give out.
Come on, Kali. Push.
I gritted my teeth and grasped at the edge with my other hand. It caught. With a grunt, I pulled myself up. My muscles shook so hard, it nearly made my teeth chatter. My head rose over the platform, then my chest, and my waist. I leaned across it, gripped the far edge, and heaved myself onto the platform.
I made it.
Panting hard, I knelt to catch my breath. Soon, my gasps for air turned to laughter, and I didn’t stop laughing until there were tears running down my cheeks. I’d made it. I’d made it to the end of the biggest tournament in the world.
This was the endgame.
CHAPTER 28
I pushed up to my feet and surveyed the world around me. At least, what was left of it.
The game was ripping itself apart.
The sky had turned black. Not a soft, nighttime black offset by stars and moonlight, but an impossible black as if the entire sky had been replaced by a gaping abyss. It glowed red at the horizon, reflecting the rolling waves of lava beneath it. The entire sea was now one swirling mass of hot yellow and red that fizzled and hissed until the air filled with white noise. A charred stench assaulted my nose, and a deep, smoky taste bit at the back of my throat. Still, I took a deep breath and let it out. This was the first time in this game I’d felt my senses engaged. Taste. Smell. Sound. All along, the game had felt like a machine, thinking but not aware, present but not really alive. Now it had a soul. And it was angry.
Once every few feet, there was another platform like the one I was standing on, leading to the middle of the game. The center few blocks of the city were still intact, and at the very core of it all, a single building stretched tall, taller than all the others and completely untouched by the raging storm. Atop it, a golden beam shot up to the sky. The outline of a flag phased in and out of my view.
The final flag.
I scanned the rooftops and other rotating platforms. There was no movement, no sight of the other teams. Just the crumbling buildings and the lava creeping ever more inward. Despite the immense heat, a chill slid under my skin.
I could be alone in here. The championship could be down to me. All I had to do was jump from platform to platform and make it to the middle of the game.
I flexed my legs, preparing to leap. Just as I started to push off, a geyser of hot lava shot up between my platform and the next, blasting my face with heat. I skidded to a stop. My toes slipped off the edge, and my arms pinwheeled backwards to keep my balance. I scrambled back a step and sighed with relief.
The geyser shot up again, lasting four seconds before disappearing for four, and shooting up again. Four on, four off. Soon, geysers were shooting up between all the platforms and buildings, turning the sea of lava into a volcanic symphony.
I let my eyes fall shut. This was becoming more and more like an actual video game by the minute. I steadied myself on the platform and counted the timing. One, two, three, shoot. One, two three, off.
I jumped and landed on the next platform. The geyser shot up behind me, and between every other platform. I steadied myself, and prepared to leap again.
The platform began to sink.
In a matter of seconds, it had descended several inches and kept getting lower. The next platform was rapidly becoming out of reach. The geysers shot up again.
Are you kidding me?
I leapt, scrambling for the platform. I gripped its edge and hauled myself up. The geyser shot off. A flame caught the edge of my armor and licked up my leg. I slapped the fire repeatedly with my hand, singeing my palm as I smothered the flames. My jaw went tight as I surveyed my hand. Blisters were already forming.
The new platform started to sink.
I rocked on my feet as I gauged the timing and leapt to the next rocky edge. Bits of the platform crumbled away. Not just the one I was standing on, but all of them leading to the center of the game. The geysers shot faster, with less time between.
It became a race.
I started darting across platforms. Heat engulfed the air around me. My hair clung to me, sticking to the back of my neck. Geysers shot off within inches of my skin. The platforms were getting smaller by the second. Soon, I could only touch down a single foot as I vaulted from step to step.
In the center of the game, a single skyscraper remained, stretching so tall, it looked like it pierced the sky.
I was three jumps away.
The middle of the game. I was almost there.
The geysers were almost continuously on now, with only quick blinks of open space between. The platforms kept sinking, more by the second. I dashed between it all. I’d stopped counting. Instinct was leading me now. It was more of a dance than anything. My knees shook, and my head swam, but I pushed myself onward.
I landed on the final platform.
No more than a few inches wide, I teetered on the ball of one foot. The skyscraper was within my reach.
The platform sunk, touching down into the lava. It splintered apart immediately. There was nothing left to stand on.
I leapt.
I flew toward the building, my arms desperately seeking any ledge to grasp. I slammed into the wall with a thick smack. The world spun, and I started sliding down. As I passed a window, three fingers snagged the windowsill, and I snapped to a halt and dangled in midair. I closed my eyes and breathed deep.
I’m there, I told myself.
I’d reached the center. Three inches below my feet, the lava storm raged. I clung to the wall, wishing I could wrap my arms around it entirely, but the final building took up the entire city block on its own. I looked up. I couldn’t really see the top from where I hung, but a beam of golden light shot up into the sky from the skyscraper’s rooftop.
The final flag.
Now it was just a matter of the climb. Up a skyscraper. With nothing but window ledges to get me there. This was like mountain climbing without a net or a safety line. If I fell, I would be dead and out of the game.
Unless I could get in through the windows.
As soon as I steadied myself against the wall, I pounded a fist against the glass window to see if it would shatter. The glass thunked under my hand. I boosted myself up on the windowsill and kicked the glass with my foot. Nothing. Harder. Still nothing. The glass made a deadened sound as my foot pounded against it, like I was kicking concrete instead. Looked like the interior of the building was off-limits. Up the exterior, then. As I reached toward the next window, the wall rumbled under my fingertips. Oh, what fresh hell was this? Another earthquake? Wall climbing during an earthquake. The primitive part of my brain that refused to believe this was all virtual sent buzzers through my brain.
Warning. This is counterproductive for your general health.
The building started to spin.
Each floor of the building spun independently from the others, at different speeds, some in the opposite direction. This one ten miles an hour, this one twenty. Then a shuddering sound came from the walls, like the building itself had groaned, and ledges suddenly protruded, one every few feet
up the side of the building. All were five feet long and three feet across. One extended out below my feet. I touched down on it and surveyed the scene above me. It was like an actual video game, where I’d have to time the leaps to ascend up the side of the building, as each one moved at a different speed and in alternate directions.
Wonderful.
The message playing in my mind changed to a new one as I spun around and around the building, watching the ledges above me whip by.
Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up. Don’t throw up.
I closed my eyes and steadied myself. I was not going to throw up. I was going to own this whole building. The flag was at the top. The championship, the hundred million, the answer to all my problems was only a few stories away. All I had to do was take my time, concentrate, and kick ass. I would not let myself be intimidated.
When I opened my eyes again, movement below caught my attention. Five pairs of ice-blue eyes cut through the shadows, staring up at me. K-Rig. Right below me. My stomach went to knots. Now I had no time.
Okay, I got slightly intimidated.
I started racing up the side of the building, timing my jumps between the ledges as they whizzed past me. I glanced down. K-Rig was two levels down, each on a ledge, so they were staggered against the side of the building.
I kept climbing.
They were faster. The closest one was only a story below me now, and gaining. I looked up the building. At least fifteen stories towered above me. There was no way I’d make it. I couldn’t outrun them.
I had to fight.
I steadied myself on my ledge, drew my sword, and gripped it with both hands, pointing it downward. I waited, poised on the ledge as it circled the building. One pass. Then another. When the highest member of K-Rig lined up directly under me, I jumped down.
Bull’s-eye.
I landed on his shoulders, and my sword slid straight down though his body, from his neck to his navel. He went instantly rigid. I ripped the sword back out, jumped off his shoulders, and kicked my feet into his back. Straight as a board, he toppled off the ledge.
Gauntlet Page 36
