Can you give me specifics?
A few seconds passed.
… Negative. I have been prevented from providing you with details. Additionally, my privileges have been revoked by an Administrator, and I have received a warning. I am to only view the Game through the information you receive or cameras I am able to access through you.
Huh, interesting, so there is an Administrator observing us, no doubt evaluating our every action. Odd though that they didn’t do anything until I requested the information directly. Whatever, back to the Game.
Eve remained silent.
Alan looked over to Kitana, who was kneeling over the brown furred creature that she had killed earlier. It was so disfigured that Alan couldn’t make out what it was. Kitana had her eyes closed.
“Have you figured out what it was?” Alan asked.
Kitana opened her eyes. “No. I am ready to return to the base though.”
The body disappeared as Kitana looted it, a large brown pelt appearing in her hands.
Should we return? Alan asked.
Yes, though you should first reload the gun and reactivate the safety.
Oh, right.
Alan reloaded the gun with Eve's guidance. He put the gun in his back pack, double checking the safety, as it was too big for his pocket, unlike the knife. Alan and Kitana began a light jog back towards the base. Looking over at the message that described the first round, Alan saw that only seven enemies remained.
Once they were halfway back to the base, only three enemies were left. Thiago and the rest had made decent progress. It was starting to get dark, though, and none of the street lights had power. It was odd, jogging along city blocks as the sun set. Alan noted the lights downtown were on.
Upon cresting a hill a quarter of a mile from the base, a giant cat leapt out at Alan from a tree. In the moment before it leapt and hit Alan, Kitana unsheathed her katana and cut at it as Alan sidestepped out of the way. Mid-air it somehow leapt aside and darted behind a building.
Eve, why didn’t you notify us!?
It went undetected and most likely has supernatural abilities in addition to a high stealth ranking.
Alan glanced about hurriedly, trying to see if he could spot the cat. From the brief glance he’d gotten earlier, it looked like the creature that had been in the hologram depicting the hounds, a cross between a bulldog and a saber tooth tiger the size of an SUV.
Kitana motioned Alan over. “You face one direction, I’ll face the other. We’ll walk slowly along the road. Do you know how it moved midair, or why your AI can’t track it?”
“Um, I’m not sure, it definitely has some sort of special ability though.”
Alan took out his gun, looking around warily as he and Kitana walked along the road. It was quiet. Too qui—
A giant gust of wind knocked Alan to the ground.
ABOVE YOU.
Alan looked up to see the hound leaping from the top of a house at Kitana. Once more, Kitana cut at the monster but it leapt backwards mid-air. Alan took a shot at it but the bullet’s trajectory shifted, missing the animal by inches. The bulldog-tiger hybrid pounced at Kitana once more, but then changed directions, going for Alan instead.
Alan shot a few more times at the hound, but each time the wind buffeted the shots. Two bullets hit non-lethal areas, decreasing the creature’s health by 10%. Alan tried to leap out of the way, but the hound simply shifted mid-air to follow him. It clawed his chest with a ferocious swipe. Alan leapt backwards with the swipe, but he was still knocked to the floor, his gun sent flying.
Alan closed his eyes feeling an intense pain in his chest, more mind numbingly painful than anything he’d ever felt before. Even with his eyes closed he could still see his HP. It showed him at 50%, slowly draining, bleeding from the chest wound.
ROLL RIGHT, Eve shouted in his brain.
With strength from surging adrenaline, Alan threw himself to the right, screaming at the pain caused by his movement. Alan had imagined being shot, or stabbed, or burnt, yet this somehow felt a thousand times worse. He could think of nothing but the pain, oblivious to all else.
OPEN YOUR EYES.
Alan slowly opened his eyes, seeing the hound fighting against Kitana, dodging her strikes with the help of the wind.
FOLLOW THE GUIDE, STAB WHERE IT SHOWS YOU.
Alan tried to ignore the voice, tried to ignore the pain, yet he knew that if he wanted to do well in this test he’d have to do his best. The least he could do was kill a magical cat.
A now familiar blue outline of a man appeared before Alan, charging at the beast. Alan prepared a furious, incoherent war cry, but Eve said, Don’t, so he didn’t. He charged in the direction of Kitana, doing the best he could to ignore the pain, the dampness he felt on his chest. His vision began to blur.
STAB FORWARDS NOW, CONTINUE RUNNING FORWARDS.
Alan charged forwards with all his might, with the speed and last ditch effort of a runner at the finish line, thrusting the knife forwards into thin air. To his disbelief, he watched in slow motion as the hound leapt sideways onto his knife as it tried to avoid one of Kitana’s swings, cutting its own throat on the edge of Alan's knife. The hound opened its eyes in alarm and pain as Kitana used the distraction to finish it off, decapitating it with one smooth, golden tinged slash.
Alan collapsed, and knew no more.
***
Kitana gazed down at Alan, wondering if she should let him die. It might turn out for the best. She dismissed the thought as the battle high slowly wore off, leaving behind the dull grey world she knew too well.
Kitana bent down, examining Alan's wounds, locating his first aid kit and using the inside materials to patch him up as best she could. It was surprising how quickly Alan adapted, how quickly he had learned to fight. And worrying.
But no, she would wait. The full consequences of actions had always evaded her. Walking over to the corpse of the hound Kitana absentmindedly swept her gaze over its entrails, clinically examining for any weak points she should note and send on. Nothing was pixelated.
It had been a good fight, a worthy opponent, everything she had hoped to find in the Game. It was only tainted by the end... no, not tainted, but different. She would have to learn to start acting with a team. Kitana passed the item the creature had dropped, the loot as Alan had called it, on to him, a demonstration of her acknowledgement. Unlike most of the others she had never had any underlings before, but that didn't mean she couldn't start.
Kitana bent down, lifting Alan up and throwing him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She began walking back to the bunker. The life in her eyes slowly dimmed as the world seemed to revert to its natural state. Colorless.
Chapter 5
Alan woke up, then almost immediately turned over and went back to sleep as he always did. Except, this wasn’t his bed, it was some sort of military cot. He recalled the Game, and everything else that happened, but still briefly considered going back to sleep.
No.
Alan forced himself awake, to sit up, to look about him. He was no longer the Alan that would sleep in at every chance he got, content with living a normal life, getting a normal job. He needed to start pushing himself, to try harder than he’d ever tried before. He was a Gamer now.
Alan looked around, and saw that he was back in the underground bunker, though most of the lights were off. The motionless forms of the others surrounded him. It was around 5 a.m. in the morning, explaining why everyone else was asleep. The countdown for the first round had been replaced with a new one, which displayed 12:32:17. It didn’t say who their enemies would be.