Dan’s HUD directed him and his team to a waiting area where he and his teammates simply waited for the remaining timer to run down and for whoever was left outside to make their way into the facility. Dan sat on the floor and leaned back against a wall. Li stood standing with his arms folded while Angie rested her head on Dan’s shoulder.

  Even though he had already received the notification, Dan brought it up again in front of his eyes.

  Congratulations. You have survived the battle royale round of the Combat Games and your team will progress to the last round.

  Constriction reward: Deathdealer grenade launcher + 10000 credits for each team member.

  Bonus experience rewarded for completing round.

  Dan heard footsteps from the hallway his team had entered and numerous other contestants entered the waiting area. Among the first was Rachel and her team of Prime Swords. Dan wasn’t surprised to see the trio. Behind her was a mix of numerous agents from the other subsidiary shards, all varying in number.

  Miles and his team were the last to enter the room. The blond agent glanced at Dan and gave him and respectful nod.

  Including his own team, Dan counted five teams and sixteen agents that had passed the fourth round of the Combat Games. Their numbers had significantly thinned out since the start of the of the tournament.

  As the teams spread out to find their own corners to rest, the announcer’s voice blarred through the PA system.

  “Welcome to the final round of the Combat Games,” the voice said. “You have a few minutes to catch your breath before we get started immediately.”

  The entire room didn’t react too well to the news.

  “That fucking sucks, brah,” Miles said.

  It was understandable that all of them had just survived walking through the desolate forest and covered vast ground while fighting off other teams and hostile wildlife. Even Dan had to admit that having to start the fifth round almost immediately was harsh.

  He remembered the conversation he had with Miles in the forest about the nature of the Combat Games in its current iteration. They were being worked to the bone.

  Dan was thankful he had purchased the alpha cell injection before the start of the Combat Games. He didn’t feel as fatigued as he should be, most likely due to the slower build up of lactic acids in his muscles.

  “The fifth round of the Combat Games will be the most simple and straightforward of all the rounds. The fifth round will be the sudden death game. All agents will be pitted in one on one battles with each other in close combat. No weapons allowed. This will be pure hand to hand combat in an enclosed space.”

  “Well this should be fun,” Li said. “Like a good old fashioned fight club.” The stealth specialist glanced over at Miles’ team. In turn, Miles stared back at Li with a grin. Li’s gaze then rested on Rachel’s team, the same team who had given them a hard time during the cash grab round.

  The AI announcer continued. “In the sudden death games, a compititor loses if they are killed, considered too injured to continue, forfeit, or smuggling of weapons. There will be no time limit. All competitors must defeat their opponents to complete the round.”

  “Hmm… seems a bit basic, don’t you think?” Dan said.

  Angie lifted her head off his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

  “The final round of the Combat Games is just one on one fights with fists? After all the crazy shit we’ve been through? I was expecting something a lot more bombastic than just a fighting tournament,” Dan said.

  Constrictions in place.

  No general contractions in place.

  Your constriction: Stat debuff: a 30% nerf to all category stats via mandatory serum injection. Applies to all competitors.

  Constriction reward: A 20% discount voucher for your next armor set.

  Dan stared blankly at the text in his vision. A stat debuff that applied to him and his teammates felt like rubbing salt into a wound. Everyone here had to be exhausted from the previous round. Now, Dan and his team were put into a further disadvantage.

  “Geez, talk about a handicap,” Dan muttered.

  “I guess we’re going to have a challenge on our hands,” Li remarked.

  Angie rolled her eyes. “Just kill me at this point.”

  Dan wondered what constrictions were in place for the other teams. He looked around and tried to gauge the reactions of the other agents. Miles and his team’s expressions were grim, which made Dan assume that their constriction wasn’t any better than his own. The three other teams hadn’t taken their helmets off and were still slumped in their respective corners from general exhaustion.

  Unsurprisingly, Dan couldn’t gather anything from Rachel’s team. He wondered if it was merely confidence that they would smash through the last round of the Combat Games.

  “All agents, please follow your HUD markers to the combat arena. A few of you will take detours to apply your respective constrictions. Good luck,” the AI voice said.

  Dan got up from the wall and walked around Angie, though he was stopped by something grabbing his fingers and tugging at him. He looked down and saw the strawberry blond looking up at him. Angie was the one tugging his fingers. Dan picked up on the non verbal cue and grabbed her hand, pulling her up.

  “Thanks,” Angie said.

  “No problem. Now, let’s go and get that mandatory injection that will make us weaker,” Dan said.

  Dan followed the gold chevrons on the floor leading them to the arena. A few seconds later, a set of green chevrons formed on the ground that led Dan and his team to a slight detour. He assumed this was where he and his team would be injected with the debuff serum.

  The path of green along the floor led the trio into a room where an autonomous mechanical arm with a robotic hand and syringe laid on a table waiting for them.

  The same announcer voice boomed through the mechanical arm. “Please await injection of the serum to apply your stat debuff constriction for this round. You will experience a 30% stat decrease across all category stats.”

  Li stepped forward and the voice continued. “Please step into the circle on the floor and offer your arm.”

  The stealth specialist followed instructions and loweredthe right side of his coat to expose his armor. Dan looked at his teammate with a confused expression as Li plucked away at some patch on his upper arm. Then, the machine injected him with the syringe.

  “What the hell?” Dan said.

  Li glanced at him and said, “Once you upgrade to armor beyond your starting suit, you have specific areas in your armor that you can release to allow for direct injections, whether that be healing stims or for injections at a clinic while keeping your armor on.”

  “So… we can’t just stick needles into anywhere anymore?” Dan asked. He braced himself just in case Li called him an idiot.

  “The starting armor was softer and more malleable which allowed for such… crudeness. It has self-repairing weave to cover up the holes left by a healing stim. Unfortunately, that made the armor itself less durable and protective overall.”

  “Huh, I see,” Dan said.

  After Li’s injection was complete, the stealth specialist stepped away from the circle and didn’t say a word. Dan stepped up next and rolled down his long coat while the mechanical arm discarded the syringe and prepared a new one.

  Just as Li said, he found a specific patch along his upper arm that allowed injections without needed to punch a hole through the material. He simply lifted the material which exposed a small patch of his upper arm.

  The mechanical arm readied itself and then shoved the needle into Dan’s arm. After the injection was done, Dan immediately felt the difference. While the difference wasn’t enormous, Dan felt as if he had suddenly gained weight and his energy levels sharply decreased. He could feel his eyelids slowly closing shut and now he had to actively keep himself awake.

  “Well, this feels like crap,” he said candidly.

  “It feels like I’m having a hangover,” Li said. “I’m not surprised that such a constriction exists. Having to fight while being in the worst condition in your life seems like something the Alpha Corp would come up with.”

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  Angie just finished her injection and she joined the duo. “Shit, you’re right. This feels like total ass. How do they expect us to put on a good show with this bullshit?”

  “Regardless, we still have to give it our all,” Li stated. “There’s no excuses on the battlefield.”

  “Yeah yeah,” Angie waved dismissively.

  The trio emerged out of the room and followed the gold chevrons on the ground to the arena. Once they made it to the set of double doors, they opened to a vast and empty room. The sharp lines of light formed a rectangle in the floor.

  Dan and his teammates walked in and saw all the other teams have already gathered and stood just outside of the rectangle on the floor. The walls, floor and ceiling was a dull cobalt blue combined with the harsh floor lighting and the dim lights above. The team walked towards the closest side of the glowing border along the floor that made up the rectangle of white light.

  At the far left side of the room, Dan saw rows of seats filled people. The section had a crude fence surrounding the people. Some of them were wearing fancy suits and jewelry befitting of wealthy businessmen while others were wearing plain causal clothes. He counted at least a few dozen.

  He raised his eyebrow at the sight of four armed Alpha agents standing around the spectators. One of them had a minigun, another was armed with a shotgun and a pair of rifles on his back and two were equipped with large strange rifles. The barrel of such guns resemebled an open jaw of an alligator. These heavy weapons were a strange sight considering they were just supposed to be guards.

  One of these spectators was a teenage girl who turned her head toward his direction and pointed at him. Soon, numerous heads swiveled in his direction and the crowd erupted with cheers.

  “Welcome to the final round of the Combat Games,” the AI voice said. “Some of you bought VIP tickets to see this round live. You will witness our remaining contestants fight each other in one on one style matches.

  “Well, it looks like we got some fans,” Angie said. She walked past Dan and waved at the crowd of people cheering in their general direction.

  Dan’s HUD popped up a notification of an incoming call. His HUD automatically connected him to one of the agents serving as guards within the room.

  “Dan Orion, we have a situation on our hands,” the agent said. The name popped up on his HUD as Langston Scorpius. “Act natural.”

  “Okay?”

  “We’re here as guards to make sure the VIP crowd doesn’t interrupt the fights. But we’re also here to deal with a highly suspicous team.

  “I hope you don’t mean me and my friends,” Dan said.

  “Don’t flatter yourself kid. You know it, I know it. That team of Prime Swords are the guys we’re gunning after. Rachel Cutter and her folks clearly aren’t who we think they are. It’s a mircacle you and your teammates have survived this long against her.”

  “I knew there was something wrong about that bunch,” Dan said. “So who are these guys exactly?”

  “They’re infiltrators. We only just got the casualty reports from Alpha command and a bunch of our tier twos have been taken out by them during the fourth round. Jane Sunheiser was found unconscious in the forest and they slipped past Allen Draco.”

  Dan felt his heart rate increase from hearing his squad leader was knocked out by this bunch.

  “The fuck? How did they get into this tournament?”

  “We have a plan to stop these punks in their tracks. Inevitably, you will be matched up against Rachel Cutter. You will await further orders from us to disengage and then let us handle the rest.

  Dan could only stare at the agents at the VIP section. “What? That’s ridiculous. Why can’t you guys shut down this tournament and isolate these guys? And we got VIPs here that might get caught in the crossfire.”

  “Believe me kid, I don’t like this fucking shit either. According to Alpha command, the suits want this showdown to be caught on live broadcast for more marketing material.”

  He rubbed his eyes at hearing the Alpha Corp’s confusing intentions. “What?” he said.

  “They want to brag in their marketing that the Combat Games are so thrilling that enemy agents tried to infiltrate this year’s tournament to compete. Plus Michael Cynosa is backing this decision too. I don’t think any of us outside of Sunheiser had the stones to defy him.”

  Dan wondered what the hell Michael was thinking supporting a nonsensical decision like this. It wasn’t news to Dan that corporations prioritized making money above all things. But many agents had died to these intruders and they were unfairly eliminating other contestants. The only reason why he and his team were still competing were the asymmetric advantages the arctic serum granted them. This plan was many levels of stupid and careless.

  “Oh by the way, you have a fan that wants to meet you. Go and meet her before the round begins. And you have your orders Orion. Scorpius out.”

  After the call ended, Dan let out a sigh and walked over to the spectator section. He tapped Angie on the shoulder. “Let’s go, I got a fan who wants to see me up close.”

  “Nice,” she said.

  Dan looked over his shoulder. “You coming Li?”

  The stealth specialist shook his head. “No, you can go ahead.”

  Dan and Angie walked toward the spectators. Most of them swiveled their heads in their direction and he couldn’t ignore the young girl with the long blond hair waving at him. One of the agents with the strange gun glanced at him.

  “I’m Langston. Don’t take too long,” he whispered. “This little girl is giving me a headache as it is.”

  Langston was an agent who stood at equal height as he did. His wavby dirty blond hair looked overdue for a haircut as some strands of hair covered his eyes. Dan scanned the strange rifle in his hands.

  Name: Crack Shot Cannon

  Manufacturer: Emissary Armories

  12-shot capacity per battery

  Concentrated plasma beams

  Description: The ultimate high-risk, high-reward weapon. A heavily modified variant of the particle shot cannon. This weapon fires a high-intensity beam and has a much faster fire rate. No agent can withstand a direct blast. Must be vented after every two or three blasts.

  “Understood sir,” Dan said.

  He walked past the senior agent and took his glove off. He extended out his hand to the blond girl who was grinning ear to ear at him.

  “Uh hey nice to meet y—”

  The girl reach over the waist-high fence and wrapped her arms around him. Dan was surprised how short she was, standing only up to his upper chest. He looked up and saw a couple he could only assume to be her parents.

  “Make it quick honey,” the woman said. “He has to go back and compete.”

  Dan gave her a thumbs up and said, “It’s all good ma’am, just happy to be here.”

  The woman along with her husband both looked like they were dressed to attend a party. The husband wore a three piece suit and too many gold rings on each hand. The man’s hair was slicked back and sunglasses covered his eyes.

  “You put on a good show for us Mr. Orion,” the man said. His accent was either Greek or Romanian from Dan’s limited knowledge. “My wife and I saw the highlights during the third and fourth round. You were worth the VIP tickets. Our little Kayla here wouldn’t shut up until I bought them.”

  The blond girl Kayla eventually let go of him and she looked up at him with awe and wonder, something Dan had never experienced. Most of his enemies looked at him with anger, hatred, or glee at murdering the shit out of him. His allies would look at him with mutual respect or indifference depending on what rank they were.

  Dan remembered the interaction with a mother and her injured son and how she was adamantly against him helping them, showcasing her distain for agents in general.

  Her voice cut through his thoughts. “You have an amazing shade of hazel in your eyes. Seriously they look even more amazing in person. Are those natural?”

  Dan was reminded that something as fundamental to yourself such as eye color could easily be changed if you had enough credits. “Yeah they are. I’d rather save up some credits buying more guns, you know?”

  Kayla reached behind her and took out a rolled up poster from her back pocket. She unrolled the poster and Dan was dumbfounded at seeing himself on the peice of art. He saw himself as the main focus on a blurred background. The poster depicted him running across a road while in his berserk mode. Red static roiled and shot out of his toro and legs. The blood that would be running down his cheeks from his eyes was nowhere to be seen. The image was clearly from his performance in the third round of the Combat Games. As he continued to scrutinize the poster, he noticed the colors and contrast had clearly been adjusted and stylized.

  He knew he had never done any photoshoot before. And he didn’t recall seeing any cameras around to take such photos of him.

  “Could you please sign this for me?” she beamed.

  Dan pointed his finger at the poster. “W-what? How did—”

  “It’s nothing new,” Angie said behind him. Dan looked over his shoulder at his teammate. “The Alpha Corp has drones that move around the stages of the Combat games that snap pictures and footage of everything from unique angles. Anything badass gets turned into merchandise for viewers to order.”

  He blinked at her. “I see.” He turned back to the young girl. “You got a pen?”

  Dan’s eyes picked up movement from the rich couple and the man took something out of his suit. “Here, use this.”

  The man threw a pen and Dan caught it. He gave a polite nod to the older gentleman before signing the bottom corner of the poster.

  “Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of the tournament. You’re about to see a lot of fists and flying kicks for this round. You sure you’re ready for that?”

  Kayla nodded profusely. “I’ve watched people’s heads explode before on TV so it’s no problem.”

  Dan decided not to comment on the girl’s degree of desensitization and handed the pen back to her. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and Dan saw Langston looking at him.

  “Time’s up kids,” the agent said.

  “Alright then.”

  Before he turned, the girl grabbed him by the wrist.

  “If you get matched up against that Rachel chick, I’ll be rooting for you!”

  Dan nodded. “Thank you Kayla. Enjoy the rest of the Combat Games.”

  As Dan walked away from the spectators, he looked back at them one last time and saw Kayla blow him a kiss. He raised his hand in her direction and closed it into a fist, pretending to catch. Angie grumbled something under her breath.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  Angie avoided Dan’s gaze and shoved her hands into her pockets while looking down at her feet. “Nothing,” she said.

  A projection of garbled text popped up high above the center of the rectangular section of the floor.

  Determining first match up…

  Dan watched intently as the holographic text cycled through numerous names seemingly at random before the first match up stopped at two names.

  1st match: Rachel Cutter (PS) vs Miles Venator (AC).

  Combatants, please enter the arena.

  “Oh shit,” Dan whispered.

  “If I wasn’t nervous before, I am now,” Angie said. “That bitch annoys me, but she’s strong. Miles might be in big trouble.”

  Li made no comment and simply crossed his arms.

  Dan watched as each combatant walked past the white lines of light on either side. Rachel entered from the left while Miles entered from the right. A sudden hiss sound came from the floor and Dan watched as the ground beneath the two fighters slowly raised until the entire section of the fighting arena was around two third of a meter raised above the rest of the floor.

  “Wow, that’s fancy,” Dan said.

  “A bit of a waste of the architect’s time if you ask me,” Li remarked.

  The match will begin in 5…4…3…2…

  Dan felt Angie grab his upper arm as she watched her former teammate face forward against one of the toughest opponents Dan had faced so far in the Combat Games.

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