Fantasy Game On!

[Nellancholy]

As she waited to recover behind a rock, a small pinging noise made Blixt's decision for her. The herd had already thinned considerably, and the elemental pools and remaining powerups were much less contested. Everyone had either claimed as much as they could use, or...been eliminated. Maybe both. But there it was, one among the trees. Keeping both her guns at the ready, Blixt dashed forward to claim it. The diamond containing the powerup crumbled as she touched it, and a red light flowed into her, encasing her in an aura of cold.

"Huh? This is..."

The notification popped up before her eyes.

[VAMPIRE MODE]

Great. Just great. Well, she definitely didn't need to slow down then.

The brawl continued some distance away as her loungemates continued to engage opponents, and she definitely wasn't going to miss the opportunity.

Even though she hadn't actually been healed yet, it already felt like she was getting a second wind.

For the second time today, she had to leap out of a tree, nonchalantly hurling herself into the crossfire of Czecho's looted weapon as she unloaded on the mafioso.

"Hey, save some for me!"

As expected, each bullet that actually managed to deal damage to her target healed her as well, the charred marks vanishing off her avatar as she recovered.

Togy

 

[Goonfire]

”I am not that kind of support!” Reign stressed as the gunman, whose tag read ‘Don_Gatti’, chewed at Annie’s defensive wall. Hoping to draw some fire, he dove to the next tree, and as expected, the enemy swept over for the easier kill. However, he stopped; must have been out of ammo after such liberal use of it. The deafening roar of other, bigger machine guns sawing through the trees made him flinch. The gangster took heavy damage from Blixt and Czecho before he could react. Tree trunks fell around him while he scrambled to find something more solid. He tried to reload, but the cumbersome drum magazine was slowing him down.

“HYAAAA!!!” came the warcry of Aaron, whose one-time passive ability had kept him alive with one hit point. He assaulted the gangster with his sword, finishing the job and scoring six for himself. “That is my archnemesis and you shall never have him!” he asserted dramatically before turning to face Reign.

“Actually... I am nobody’s archenemy,” Reign corrected him before taking aim and spraying the cringeworthy, illogical LARPer with acid, wiping him out for good this time. That was nine flags to him, totaling thirteen. He qualified for the next round, but he’d keep doing what he did best. After all, scraping by wasn’t in the spirit of competition. “Well, those are my problems solved. I'll call us even," he snickered. "I never would've thought to swipe someone else's weapon. Tack! Now let's all make it to round two."

kase9187 Togy Nellancholy

 

[kase9187]

Annie laughed and pat her robotic suits shoulders. "If you guys can hang on, think it'd be fun to go drive by murk someone? I think it'd be hilarious."

She was glad to give support, and the laughable way the confrontation ended was enough to put her into good spirits.

Goonfire Nellancholy Togy

 

[Mirai-chan]

Rubrem Looked at them."A little help?"HE asked not far from them.

Goonfire Nellancholy Togy kase9187

 

[SilverFlight]

“Did someone say, heals and ammo?”

A voice came through their comms. It was Bee.

The backliner materialized out of thin air as her invisibility buff wore off. In her arms sat a number of restock items, from ammo to tiny, sparkling hearts. She dumped them out just by the fire pool, the place Bee had assessed was well under their "team's" control.

*~*~*

Bee had vanished as soon as the fighting began, doing what she did best. She pulled up her favourite ability: speed boost, and went to work. From a good ways beyond where her team had engaged, Bee crept around and behind their advancing enemies. The traps seemed to be mostly around the trails, but what she also discovered, was they some of them…could be moved.

“Oooooh, oh this’ll be fun.”

A tiny bit of modification: her grenades lovingly placed beside this bear trap or that spring trap, she created several locations she could run enemies by, and her bombs would net her the kills.

Once that was finished, she began to stalk the members from the other lounge. One sniper had fixed their sites on Rubrum, following the bullet angles as he took out the other players. Bee crept up to the focused player.

“Hey Friend.” She said in a cheerful voice, the player didn’t have time to cry out before Bee’s four shots rang out, headshots all. The sniper went down, cursing in Mandarin.

From then, she watched the number of players advance, picking them off when she could, harrying larger groups and splitting them up to make sure they couldn’t come at her lounge team in an organized way.

By the time she arrived at the pool her tag count was eight, and the number glittered on a holosquare at her waist.

“Let’s see here, I got two heavy ammo, four light, some incendiaries...grenade..about 20 points of hp, we can actually split it, which is cool. Man you guys were so impressive out there, I was watching....oh, hang on, I’ll be right back.”

--
Bee took off again, coming to a stop at Jace’s vantage point. She was grinning when she handed the kid a round of sniper bullets and a 5hp heal. “For you good sir! Come on, I think its almost time for us to get to the waypoint, we can clean up the last few pennants on the way." Mirai-chan

Bee returned to the pool with a broad, easy smile. The lounge had actually worked together, even Blixt and it had worked out miles better than it ever would have if they'd gone solo. As she walked by Roland she gave the player a friendly wrap on the back of his helmet with her knuckle.
"'Sup coach? happy hunting?"

Something flashed at Bee's hip and her pennant counter went up by one.
"Oh sweet someone hit my bear trap!" Bee exclaimed, in a cheery tone that did not match the words she spoke.

kase9187 Eccentric_Undead FiveElemental Goonfire Togy Tiguidi Mirai-chan Nellancholy

 

[FiveElemental]

Making his way through the forest once again, This time, he was caught off guard, as a bullet struck him, significantly hurting his pool of health. He quickly hid behind as he began scanning for culprit as he examined the residue of the strike.

"Shit, Ranged DPS. Must be invisible too. Too common of a tactic really. Only good for racking up kills, but difficult to adapt to changing circumstances, shame they're annoying to deal with... I'm glad I have you to rely on." He chuckled internally at his own comment, as he materialized a relatively large double headed hammer.

Examining the space before him, he began analyzing the trajectory the bullet came from, using a method of visual calculus to attempt to figure out where the shot originated from.
A few moments had passed, as another shit rang out, whiffing past him.

"There!" As he rushed towards the tree wthe second shot fired was from with immense speed, leaving only enough time for one clap to passby, the tree fell, as his hammer shredded through the trunk of the simulated tree came crashing down. With it, an invisible figure of a person frantically trying to get a shot at him, as a bullet almost struck him, only to be halted by a high-speed strike by his hammer. As he quickly struck the downed sniper, eliminating them from the game. As four new pendent appeared on his body.

"Four more to go."
---
He required specific power up that'll assist him to gain the remaining pendants, and he knew where to get it. Coming to an open clearing, where he was immediately overwhelmed with immense artificial heat stemming from the fire element pool nearby, where a few powerups remained, and where he saw his teammates gathering around, as Bee supplied them with restocks.

He carefully approached them, as Bee walked passed, and quickly wrapped the back of his head, and questioned rhetorically.

"Sup coach? happy hunting?"

"Ow. Yeah." He blurted out instinctively, as he turned back towards her, It stung a little as that was one of the parts of his body that was exposed. He shrugged it off, as raised one of his gloved hand, as a ashy white fog emitted from it.

"Who here needs some healing?"

kase9187 Eccentric_Undead Goonfire Togy Tiguidi Mirai-chan Nellancholy SilverFlight

 

[Togy]

"Lyudyna, tse zanadto lehko-Hey, heads up medovi bulochky! We're not out of the woodwork yet!" Czecho said, checking the ammo left in his LMG. He had half a box magazine left, plus two more. That was way more than enough. A little ways away Jace was calling for aid, and Czecho was heavily inclined to give it. Sliding into cover behind a grove of trees a few feet away from the sniper, Czecho gave Chase a cocky grin as he fiddled with his LMG.

"Potribna ruka, brate slov'yansʹkyy?" Czecho asked Jace, cocking the bolt back on his LMG. He could tell the younger player's health had taken a hit, as evidenced by the impact damage of bullets hitting their clothes, and, well, the health bar over his head. Was seeing that normal, a class-specific trait, or just a Czecho thing? He was starting to think he was the only one seeing the health bars here and he REALLY hoped he wasn't just insane.

Casually slinging his LMG under one arm, he brought up one of his burst pistols and shot Jace in the chest without hesitation. The bullets lacked their fire aura though, and upon impact, they dissolved into light green crosses, healing Jace rather than damaging him. The impact felt like a light breeze ruffling their clothes. Czecho always got a kick out of that. Sure, he could just wave his hand and heal them like a normal support, but where was the fun in that?

Flashing Rubrem a grin and two thumbs up, Czecho brought his LMG up to bear towards the enemies that had been hounding him. "Get the angle on them, I'll draw their attention!" Czecho said, knowing Jace was best suited for the task. Giddy with joy at the power he felt in the palm of his hands, he unloaded the LMG indiscriminately, tearing through trees and foliage alike, setting both on fire with the incendiary round buff he powered the LMG with.

"Hey, wait a second," Czecho said, realizing something. Turning away from the LMG, he kept firing while looking back to his other teammates. "We're one short, aren't we? Has anyone seen Indominatabl-" yeah, he wasn't calling him that, a bit of a mouthful, "Jason? Where is that guy?"

Mirai-chan Eccentric_Undead Goonfire Nellancholy SilverFlight FiveElemental

 

[Nellancholy]

Another beep notified Blixt as she took a knee, the "team" converging on one location as Czecho and Rubrem focused fire on the mobster. She'd pulled out of the danger zone, but the battle wasn't over yet. This opportunity to top off couldn't be missed. A little chirp sounded in her earpiece right on time as Helios recovered, the white cat materializing in a flash of light and twining around her legs. On its back was a cylindrical battery about the size of Blixt's forearm.

Wasting no further time, Blixt held up the battery and twisted the handle on one end, the battery's capacitor gleaming with blue lightning as she drained it to "recharge" her remaining health. As she caught her breath, she looked over the motley bunch that had gathered, already having exerted themselves significantly on that day.

"So, who hasn't made the grade yet? I sure hope none of you are more than one more kill short..."

Eccentric_Undead Goonfire SilverFlight FiveElemental

 

[Mirai-chan]

Rubrem was happy as he took thee 5 hp heal and he felt a little better as he got up and reloaded his Sniper Rifle."I feel better now, And how many Everyone got?"Rubrem asked. He Equipped his Sniper rifle back on. Rubrem got creeped out by that cheery tone in Bee's voice."Also when this is over, I wanna Try some of them takoyaki and some mochi."He said with some sass.

Rubrem sighed ad nodded."i'm Good."he said. He then looked at Czcho as the Ukrainian took his gun out and aimed it at him and put his hands up."W-w-what THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!!??"HE yelled. The Russian sniper was Scared, but once he got shot, he looked confused but realized his hp went up again."Uhh, Thank you?"He asked. Rubrem Then nodded at Czecho as he saw the group of people."On it, my Friend!"He said. He Took cover which made it seem like he was a coward, and then he set his gun up and laid down, used his Eagle's Eye Skill, and saw many Red Tabs, With The green one indicating Czecho."Alright!"He said. He fired his gun off taking many headshots, and Saw another sniper and fired his gun at the dude, Head shotting him as well."I'm Too Good at sniping! WOO!"He boasted.

 

[Tiguidi]

Letting out a small sigh as he massaged his neck, Linguine took the brief moment of quiet he got himself to look at his current amount of kills -he didn’t exactly take notice of the number when he sprayed the fire pool earlier. “Six… aight.” Maybe he could find a few stray players deeper in the forest. That shotgun guy seemed alone but he certainly wasn’t the only one.

’... Wait, why did I go off alone when I have a team…? Eh, whatever…’

As he continued his leisurely walk, Linguine slowed his pace once he heard the sound of crackling electricity nearby. An enemy? … Nope, even better! “Ooooh~” The Canadian let out a whistle as he allowed himself to grin. His careful walk toward the source of the sound came to a halt once he reached the edge of a pool filled with electrical energy. Now that could be fun.

Dipping his weapon in the lightning pool, Linguine felt a tingle go down his spine as his arm cannon started emitting an electrical aura; according to the rules, his next attack would be boosted by the pool so he better make it count.

A rustle to his left almost made him jump as he quickly dashed behind a tree, evading some bullets by the skin of his teeth. “Argh, dammit!”, he heard a female voice growl.

Welp, time to test it. Quickly rolling out of his hiding place, Linguine aimed his cannon at the girl who just tried to attack him -she looked like a typical tank player, sporting futuristic-like armor with a rifle as her weapon of choice.

“There he is!”, a male player said as he aimed his own rifle at Linguine. But before he could fire, he got hit by a powerful lightning-infused projectile. Electricity spread across the opponent player’s body and even branched out to hit his teammate, stunning them for a brief moment. That gave Linguine just enough time to spray them and take the kills.

“Gottem~” Humming in satisfaction, Linguine went and dipped his arm in the lightning pool again. By that point, other players would probably be low health, especially with that random forest fire going on. ’Wait, there’s a fire…!!??’

—

“And that makes 14, nice…”

For the past few minutes, Linguine has been going full-on assassin mode, creeping around the blaze and picking off weakened targets, damaged from the fire and/or the traps that were laid about the paths. He has taken a bit of damage himself thanks to the fire but that allowed him to make a bunch of easy kills. Speaking of easy kills, it looked like a bunch of randos were attempting to sneak up on the rest of his lounge players. If they weren’t in an AdR game, Linguine easily would’ve mistaken them for soldiers, with their camo suits and realistic-looking weapons. Shrugging, Linguine let out an ‘Eh’ and aimed at the trio of wannabe ambushers. While his piercing shot powerup faded away some time ago, his weapon had enough spread and rate of fire to deal good damage to the opponents.

“What the-!? They’ve got one here!”, one of the soldiers cried out. “On our six, a single enem-” He didn’t have to finish his sentence as he got hit and caught fire thanks to Linguine’s Random Generation.

“Spudd, no!”, a second soldier exclaimed as he quickly turned around and shot a few rounds at Linguine, grazing him for a few points of damage. However, revenge was quickly taken as he got blasted into oblivion as well by the Canadian. Since the trio had been crawling toward the main group to ambush them, they were a bit slow to get up and were much easier to hit and defeat.

“I’ve got you now!”, the last soldier said as he aimed and fired at Linguine in the chest, making the Canadian grimace and fall back.

“Nope.” came Linguine’s voice from behind the soldier, the clone dissipating soon after it got hit. Swiftly finishing the job, the Mighty Moose player ‘killed’ the last soldier, letting out a relieved sigh. These takoyaki better be good.

Going down the small hill the soldiers were hiding on, Linguine ran to the rest of the group. “Yo. Did I miss anything?”

Nellancholy kase9187 Mirai-chan Goonfire Togy Eccentric_Undead SilverFlight FiveElemental

 

[Goonfire]

"I'm a little beat up, but..." With a nod, Reign accepted one of the health pickups. He gulped at Czecho's methods of healing, silently thanking the stars he was now back at full. "You missed very little. Just some strangeness," he replied to Linguine, gesturing to the two equally crushed opponents—the machine gunner who was stopped by an idiot with a sword, and said idiot who thought a free-for-all was the place for honorable duels.

With the round nearly over, Reign noticed Roland and bee were short of qualifying. "That won't do," he stated with an exaggerated grimace and a negative shake of his head. "We've come this far. Let's not run out of steam, as the Americans say." By now, only those holding a sizable kill count remained, and few were likely in great shape. It would be an opportune time to seize those last few precious flags. The challenge would be finding them quickly.

One could literally see the lightbulb appear over Reign's head; a custom emote materialized over him to illustrate he had an idea. Motioning to Annie, he described what he had in mind. "I know! Maybe we can still do that drive-by shooting like Annie wanted. Just like in Detroit, but with mech suits!" The saucy remark was accompanied with a puckish beam.

SilverFlight Togy Tiguidi FiveElemental kase9187

 

[kase9187]

Annie grinned as Reign endorsed her idea of the mech carrying the team. She knew it would only be a matter of hanging on for the others as she could and would slowly carry them for a mobile ambush.

"Yeah, dude! I'll carry you guys on my mech and you'll shoot any dude not on our team. With shields up, they can't do shit anyhow."

In the back of her mind she also wanted to find Jason.

SilverFlight Goonfire Togy Tiguidi FiveElemental Nellancholy

 

[Nellancholy]

Some of her...allies had already pulled ahead in terms of raw numbers, having intercepted some high value targets. But really, everyone knew that in a brawl like this the goal wasn't to be the biggest winner, just the last winner. Blixt had no reason to stick her neck out too far, and she was fortunate enough to not have the ire of her loungemates. (Again, it's not like she couldn't deal with them one or two at a time.)

Even so, the herd was thinning. It was time to make up the balance. The storm was closing in, metaphorically if not literally. "Hey, if you're offering..."

Blixt repeated her move from a few minutes ago, leaping into the air to plant both feet on a tree trunk and kick off, soaring upwards to land on the shoulder of Annie's mech. "Good job making yourself a nice, big, target Annie. I definitely wouldn't miss you. Now, let's sweep up the chaff."

kase9187

 

[Togy]

Czecho wasn't entirely sure what he'd been shooting, but he must've been hitting something because his pendant counter went up by two, making his count seven. God, this LMG was amazing! How did that other guy lose when they had this thing? Honestly, it was in much better hands now.

With a disappointing click of the trigger, the ammo well ran dry. Cursing, Czecho ducked behind cover and began reloading his weapon. Sending an apologetic look to Jace, he only just now noticed the forest fire he'd had a hand in making. Whoah. Badass.

"Drive by?" Czecho asked, looking up from his weapon with unhidden glee. "Hel-heck yeah!" Czecho shot off like a bullet, slamming the top of his LMG shut and cocking the receiver before scrambling up the side of Annie's mech and onto her shoulder. "Oh, man, this is so fuc-udging cool!" Czecho laughed, trying his best to hold the LMG steady with one arm, Rambo style. Looking down to Annie, giddy with excitement, he fist-bumped the mech's arm, made a lame explosion noise after, and pulled out one of his pistols. Dual wielding an LMG and a pistol was harder than just pistols, but goddamn did it make him feel awesome.

kase9187 Nellancholy Mirai-chan

 

[Eccentric_Undead]

Jason Ortega

​

SilverFlight Mirai-chan Togy Goonfire Tiguidi kase9187 @animegirl20 Nellancholy @animegirl20 FiveElemental

Jason was honestly only in this for fun at this point. After that first encounter, he was over double what he needed. However, by taking out more enemies, it allowed him to make sure those he was concerned for. His massive form walked through the field, unintentionally stomping as he moved around. Many players had seen him, but none had approached. Some knew who he was and understood that he was far too durable to take on single-handedly. Others had just witnessed the massacre he committed. And a few just didn't want to take on someone so massive. Since physical damage was a real thing in these games, most people didn't want to take on a guy who had a sword bigger than their bodies.

His head gently scanned the area. He knew exactly what he was looking for. A tiny girl inside a massive mech suit with a huge ego. Someone he cared for deeply. Stepping through a few natural barricades, he stopped as his eyes finally caught a glimpse of the mech suit he knew all too well. His head tilted a little bit as he wondered what she was doing. Of course, once he figured it out he couldn't help but chuckle beneath the heavy armor that covered himself. To be honest he wanted to see what this was going.

Suddenly, the was a heavy hit to the side of his head. It caused massive damage for a single strike. Especially against his heavy armor. There was someone with a weapon that was very dangerous. His head immediately turned, seeing a singular player with an anti-tank rifle. This was not a normal tank rifle. He understood because he knew exactly where it was from. Some open world shooter with heavily modifiable guns. This one was clearly modified to take out most opponents in one hit. There was probably some magical element or alchemic element that made the bullets hit even harder. He was too far away for the tank to get to him. Jason knew that he was unable to take this one out. It was a very unfortunate circumstance. However, he could tell that this person was a bit rattled that he didn't kill the massive individual in one shot. Simply because his aim immediately turned to the other large figure. He doubted that the person was aiming for Annie. Rather, one of the few people that was around her. He wasn't particularly interested in protecting them, more so he was interested in seeing what they were going to do. Immediately, he activated his skill Swift Cover. In an instant he teleported right between Annie's group and the shooter. Just as the man fired, he turned and opened his arms to fully block all of them. The massive bullet ricocheted off of his shoulder, breaking off a piece of his armor. There was a small groan of pain that came from the massive tank of a man. That one really hurt. It was more surprising than anything. There wasn't exactly much that could get through Jason's defenses. He groaned as he held up his sword, looking towards the man firing "Hun, what ever you're gonna do...." A groan of soreness and pain broke his sentence ".....do it now." Another flash and another huge bullet. He took a breath and swung, cutting the bullet in half and adding a single charge counter to his sword. The two fragments splitting off and causing massive impacts behind Annie and her group.

 

[kase9187]

Annie was waiting for everyone to get on when Jason teleported in front of her. She knew it all too well, so was only moderately surprised when someone shot off some of his armor. She'd recognize his moves wherever, and knew someone was shooting.

Scooping up Reign, Bee, Linguine, and letting Roland climb onto the back if he wished, as handles appeared for him to hold, she activated her Boosters.

"HANG ON!" She shouted, carrying the entirety of the team on her shoulders straight towards the sniper trying to take them out. Another shot and she held up her shields, deflecting the shot and kicking up dirt.

After clearing a small hill, the sniper was in view. Hard to move with a gun meant to kill tanks unless you had help. "GET HIS ASS!" She shouted, a signal for the others to unload.

Eccentric_Undead SilverFlight Goonfire Mirai-chan Nellancholy Togy Tiguidi FiveElemental

 

[Mirai-chan]

Jace just looked at Czecho and noticed the forest fire."UHHH, Okay...."Jace said. He gotten up and equipped his Sniper rifle to his back and took out his handgun from it's holster on his hips. He looked at Annie with a small frown and Reluctantly Gets onto Annie's Shoulder's. He held on with one hand on his Handgun. He was holding on and he still can't Hit, because he can't aim on something moving and when Annie said to get his ass, he was literally confused,."What?"He just said sounding a bit stupid.

But He then heard some sort of band music, and then a feminine voice singing. "Sunshine, Lollipops, Rainbows.....", Jace's Right eyelid Twitched and he seemed like he was about to Take out his gun and shoot something."WHO IN THE HELL IS PLAYING THAT SONG!?!?!?!?"He shouted. Jace wasn't very happy at this fact and saw another player with the sniper playing that song on a speaker, which was traveling their location.

Togy Eccentric_Undead Goonfire Nellancholy Tiguidi FiveElemental kase9187 SilverFlight

 

[Goonfire]

Reign squeezed aboard Annie’s mech, noting it was a fine can of sardines. Still, he felt like Miami SWAT hanging onto the side of a moving, armored vehicle—pretty fun, in his eyes.

The rifle shots drew his attention; it must have been a powerful weapon to have such a loud and violent report. He witnessed Jason reappear to act as a meat shield. The damage to his armor only confirmed the anti-materiel rifle’s excessive power. A glint and music then revealed the sniper’s location, if the fireball of a muzzle flash hadn’t already. An ostentatious brass-plated gun denoted the presence of a power player. “There they are!” Reign pointed out, readying the liquid nitrogen vial.

Eccentric_Undead Togy kase9187 Mirai-chan SilverFlight FiveElemental Tiguidi

 

[Tiguidi]

Linguine nodded along as he recovered some health himself, letting out a ‘whew’ in the process. “You… didn’t miss much either.”, he simply replied to Reign.

He hasn’t even been here for a minute and the others were already planning on a drive-by assault -it did sound amusing, though, he had to admit. He already had all he needed to go to the next stage but scoring a few more kills wouldn’t hurt either. ’Err, as long as I don’t KS too much’ He grimaced as realized that some others needed to pass still.

“Y’know, I’m just gonna go the other way.”, the Canadian idly suggested. Maybe more stragglers or ambushers would be trying something stupid. From what he could observe, his lounge contained some pretty impressive tanks so either all firepower would be focused on them… ’Or they’re gonna try and get rid of us squishies.’ But just as he took his step in the other direction, he was immediately scooped up by Annie’s mech. “That also works-!”

Turret mode it is, then. Making himself comfortable, Linguine extended his arms, ready to fire at anyone that would approach Lounge 5’s players.

"WHO IN THE HELL IS PLAYING THAT SONG!?!?!?!?", Rubrum suddenly shouted, making Linguine wince at the loud tone.

“Geez, chill, it’s alright. You’ll be happy to know it’s coming from our targets…” Taking aim at the sniper, he let himself smile as he started firing with his arm cannon. “Alright peeps, sauce ‘em!”

Goonfire kase9187 Nellancholy Togy Eccentric_Undead Mirai-chan SilverFlight FiveElemental

 

[Nellancholy]

"There we go...waaah!" Even Blixt couldn't help but react with surprise as Annie hurled herself into the fray again, taking much of the group with her. The sniper could have picked one or two of them off from a distance, but even then...it's not like they would be able to pick up the pennants without getting closer. And now they had deliberately drawn attention by playing music and provoking Rubrum. That wasn't a careless move... unless?

"Thanks for the ride, Annie!" Again, Blixt flung herself into the air, using the momentum from Annie's flight to get further. The sniper had shifted their position to take cover from Linguine's arm cannon, but they weren't her target.

"There!" Emerging from behind a tree was a knightly figure with a massive greatsword, evidently the sniper's bodyguard prepared to fend off anyone so foolish as to rush a seemingly-undefended position. Not bothering to wind up for a big swing, the knight instead thrust their sword forward, with speed and force enough to split the air.

And then-

A burst of smoke crackling with static erupted from Blixt as she engaged her Mirage Field, blinding the sniper and knight for a moment. Concentrating all its strength, Helios belched forth a concentrated beam of blue-hot fire that left the side of the knight's armor molten while Blixt spun out of the way of the massive hunk of metal, loosing two slugs from her shotgun through the newly created gaps in the knight's armor.

She'd created another opening, and her allies' chance was close at hand.

Goonfire kase9187 Togy Eccentric_Undead Mirai-chan SilverFlight FiveElemental Tiguidi

 

[SilverFlight]

Bee laughed as Annie took off with the others on her mech. The backliner followed behind, close but in the trees, ready to take out anyone who might try to gank them.

The distant, saccharine lilt of a familiar song began drifting through the trees, and Rubrum nearly lost it.
Bee hid a grin. "Aaand I'll just store that info away for later..."

Where it got serious however was when the sound of the anti-tank rifle echoed through the trees. Someone was trying to take down Jason.
"I don't think so."
Bee vanished into the underbrush. It didn't take long to come up on him, pinned from Lounge 5's fire. A sitting duck.
Bee took one of her grenades, angling it so it would fall behind the enemy player. If it wasn't the last thing that took him out, it would hopefully blow him straight out into the open for her team to finish off.

"Hey Big Gun! Compensating for something?"
Bee threw the grenade, and bolted.
Eccentric_Undead


When she came back to Annie and the others she was grinning, but it wasn't for long: a blue light shot up into the sky from the other side of the arena.
"Damn, someone's reached the second level already. Huddle up guys! Hold out your counters, we need to see how many pennants our team mates still need."
Bee held up her own counter, it read "10", meaning she could not give any of her points away, but she didn't need any more either.

kase9187 Nellancholy Mirai-chan Eccentric_Undead FiveElemental Goonfire Togy Tiguidi

 

[FiveElemental]

After a moment passed, Roland began approaching the artificially induced pool of fire, closing in on a powerup gem nearby, constantly shifting between differing colors.

"Exactly what I needed."

He required a certain powerup to gain an upper hand, to gain the last four pendants he needed. As he carefully observed the gem shifting colors, most would assume that this was merely an aesthetic choice to cycle through the RGB scale. Many have noticed, however that you receive certain powers if you trigger the gem at the right color, and what he was going for, was green.

"...Pink. White. Yellow. Blue. Orange. Red. Purple!" As he went for the floating gem at peak human reaction speed, as the gem color shifted to green, as he touched the crystal, Triggering it.

[DANGER SENSE]

"...Good enough." He muttered with slight disappointment, it wasn't exactly what he was aiming for, but he will make it work. As he returned to his team, who were making plans on hunting for more pendents. Until he felt something bad was quickly approaching, as a bullet was shot, as he felt the presence of danger on a tree.

"HANG ON!" The girl in the large mecha shouted out, as Lounge 5 scrambled to get on her, as more sniper fire rang out from the trees.

He quickly got on, and held on, as she rushed the snipers position, Blixt, using the momentum to fling herself towards a hidden bodyguard for said sniper, a heavily armored knight, and staggered by her heavy shot, and leaving a vulnerable gap in between his armor. Nellancholy

A perfect opportunity, as he rolled off the mecha, and sprinted towards the knight, materializing his blade, and making a thrust. The knight recovered quickly, as he managed to push the ebony blade away it with his sword. The knight, pulling his blade back, and striking with a horizontal slash. Similar to a baseball bat strike. Roland angled his sword diagonally, the tip of his blade slightly below the sword swing, as he created a slope with his blade, causing the knight to get off balance.

"...I have a spare hand, yah know?" His other hand held onto a simple, sleek, black shotgun, which was currently imbeded intothe knights chest. As he curled his finger back, blowing back the knight with a deadly meatshot. Killing him instantly.

Looking back at his sapphire ally, he shrugged.
"Sorry for the killsteal."

His counter went up by four, fulfilling the ten pendents required to move onto the next level. His attention quickly returning to the present, as he held his shotgun up, rapid firing his shells, trying to keep the sniper from peeking out.

He saw Bee hiding in the foliage, aiming to destroy the sniper that was currently pinned down by our fire, he was able to make out her silhouette in the bush. As she lobbed a grenade, aiming to kill the pinned downed sniper. SilverFlight

Togy Goonfire Mirai-chan Eccentric_Undead Tiguidi

 

[SilverFlight]

"Everyone set? Yeah? We can go? Okaylet'sgo!"
Bee whooped and turned for the center of the arena. Now they just had to find the waypoint that would open the gate to the next area.

The forest was eerily quiet as she jogged down the path, using her map to guide the others to the nearest gate.
An iridescent wall, clear and shimmering like a soap bubble, reflected their faces as they approached. They wouldn't be able to get through unless they found the gate.
Bee trailed the edge of the wall for a moment before pointing.
"Through those trees!"

It didn't take long to find: A set of grand stone steps, over which stood a massive red Tori gate. The gate had a number glowing at it's center: "10".
Bee turned back to the others and gave a shrug. She held up her counter and stepped through.

The gate glittered and made a sound like breaking glass. Fireworks lit up the clearing as rainbow sparks rained down on Bee, who laughed.
"Woo! I didn't get exploded! I guess all you really need are the ten pennants. That's a relief."

Once on the other side of the gate Bee noticed the scenery changed entirely. Looking back she no longer saw the forest save for through the gate she had just walked. Instead she saw a sprawling cityscape: In front of her, stretching to the center of the arena, skyscrapers towered over a wide, abandoned street, lit by the light of a setting sun. Behind her, the gate seemed like the entrance to a park (everywhere but inside the gate, where she could still see her friends from Lounge 5). When Bee looked down the wide street, she saw something silhotetted in the sunlight. A hill, and a massive sakura tree, tall and proud, a twine rope about its trunk, draped in the familiar, zig-zagged paper shide.

Cherry blossom petals littered the empty street, and floated through the air, giving the whole view a regal but lonely air.

"Wow, the modellers outdid themselves with this one." Bee said with an approving nod.

"Okay, so where do we go now?"
A flash caught in the corner of her visor; there was something sparkling on the ground. Bee picked it up and the instruction window popped into the air beside her.
"Whoa-what!" Bee jumped back and tripped.


"The second challenge this will be,
together, find the items three,
In the city hidden well
A crown, a crane, a fox's tail
Bear them to the spirit tree."

Bee read the clue aloud. "Huh...is that it?"
She took a look around again:

To the left of the tree (South Bee guessed) She could see flashing lights, neon and brilliant signs: an entertainment district maybe. She saw the opening to an arcade, blinking lights, blue pink and green adorned its front, and inside she could see the signs for some of her favourite games. There was also a grand hotel, red carpets and gold fixtures, there were npcs standing there too, in hotel uniforms, standing perfectly still.

To the right of the tree (North) Bee saw the remnants of a building that had just been torn down. A massive crane stood in the wreckage. Across from that was a little stationary store, different sorts of paper was displayed in its window, which was decorated with mobiles, figurines, pens, paints and a myriad of other things.

Down the road with the sakura tree Bee saw that most of the shops were dark inside. There was a single one however, that spilled light onto the street.
"A cat cafe?" Bee read the sign.

"Oookay, where do you think we should try first? Should we split up?"

kase9187 Mirai-chan Tiguidi Togy FiveElemental Nellancholy Goonfire Eccentric_Undead

 

[Togy]

Czecho ducked off Annie's mech momentarily, snatching the steampunk-esque AT rifle off the ground. He had the thing halfway up before he fully realized it's weight and began to stumble back and forth, performing a balancing act with the massive weapon in his hands. These were all digital, why the hell did they have weight!?

"Right behind you!" Czecho said between wheezes, feeling as if his arms were going to tear off from the downward pull of the rifle. "Just...gimme a second here..." Czecho huffed, laboriously lugging the AT rifle along, the weight of the LMG slung across his back not helping whatsoever. "...a couple seconds, maybe..."

Panting by the time he reached the gate, his breaths rough and shallow because he was pretty sure the weight of the rifle pressing against his chest was crushing his lungs, Czecho gave a half-hearted "Whooh" and stepped through the gate, immediately falling to his knees and letting the rifle tumble to the pavement. Huffing, he dazedly stood up and approached the rest of the group.

"...I'm just gonna leave that there for a while."

The city was impressively realistic, and Czecho had to once again remind himself that he was looking at graphics, not real objects. That always caught him up. Going from RTS graphics to THIS was a giant jump for him.

"I'll take the crane. I think I've got an idea of what to do there," Czecho said, jogging off in the construction area's direction. The construction crane lined up too obviously with the 'Crane' part of the riddle, it had to be a Red Herring. Right? He was working off of literary devices used in detective novels here, and that probably wasn't applicable to real life, but hey, who knew?

Splitting away from the construction site, he ran into the stationary store. Humming to himself, he stepped into the paper aisle and began to quietly flip through them, taking a good few minutes to find the perfect shade of purple paper to work with. Man, he bet this was a real kick to watch back home.

Sitting himself down at the cash register, Czecho began folding and creasing the paper, quietly humming ABBA songs to himself all the while. He was only half-sure he wouldn't get copyright claimed for humming ABBA during a tournament.

After five or so minutes of the single most mind-numbingly inane arts and crafts class Esports had ever seen, Czecho finally completed his creation.

"Hey game masters!" Czecho yelled to the ceiling, presenting his Origami Crane to the sky, "Does this count!? If it doesn't, then I'm gonna look really stupid!"

 

[Nellancholy]

Finally.

It seemed like the brawl had gone on a little too long. But now the wheat had been separated from the chaff, and Blixt was gold. Oh, and the rest of the group, she supposed. As the group gathered and the gate rose, Helios landed back on her shoulders, its feline body entwining around her like a mink. The modelers had definitely put a lot of effort into this weeb shit, but hey, they're the ones giving out prizes. Couldn't do to argue with them.

Raising the control interface on her wrist, Blixt too allowed herself to be scanned and cross to the next stage. As for anyone who didn't have the good fortune to qualify or be eliminated...well, it was the walk of shame back out for them.

As Bee read the instructions, Blixt raised an eyebrow. A riddle, of course. Memories came back of getting stuck for hours going in circles around similar games. But this time, this time would be different.

Czecho made his way north to make something of the crane, apparently.

As for her...

There was a hotel chain...Crown Resorts or something? Seemed like a good enough place to start, anyway.

"Who wants to come with? All you pups need to do is keep your noses on the ground for any clues."

Her hands behind her head, Blixt swaggered towards the hotel, miming flipping a coin to the inanimate valet as she passed.

"Just kidding. I don't drive."

Stepping towards the rotating doors, Blixt's ever-alert gaze swept over the hall.

kase9187 Tiguidi Togy FiveElemental Goonfire Eccentric_Undead