Chapter 115

Big Time Hoops, Merder Stadium, Atlanta - 8:26 AM

Jamie stood nearby as I continued to sit, watching the match unfold in silence. Her anger had diminished significantly, and she was watching everything going on in the arena with her usual cold gaze. I knew she was trying to figure out what made me tick, trying to figure out how I was still in the game without touching a single ball.

I knew that she would; Jamie was smart, observant, and patient. While fourth place wasn’t ideal for her, the knowledge of how I was accomplishing my victory was worth it for both her and Branson. If all of his teams had it figured out, then they would be one step closer to countering me in future games. Not that there was a simple way for them to do that, but it was good to have some hope.

Regardless of Jamie’s inevitable eureka moment, I didn’t make it easy for her. I stole the majority of points from Summer Breeze, but I made sure to take some from Most Valuable Prisoners and Dunbar Runners as well. Not as much, of course, since I wanted those two to get to the next round, but enough that I would be in a good position after the match.

Without my presence, it was obvious that the Dunbar Runners would win Big Time Hoops without much issue. They were racking up a ton of points while staying relatively safe. Tito and Joanna were in charge of scoring, and were doing so at almost the same speed the two Jugglernauts were capable of.

In the center of their arena was a series of spheres of darkness that the Crowd Stopper was maintaining. Thanks to Goblin Vision, I could see him standing in the middle of the tallest baskets. He was still, safe but not much else. The thought of him being able to create the darkness but unable to see through it since he lost the passive made me chuckle.

“What’s so funny this time?“ Jamie asked.

“Just Dunbar Runners, nothing serious,“ I replied with the wave of my hand.

Tito may have been standing still, but Joanna was everywhere. She gathered up the balls and dunked them incredibly quickly. Thanks to the darkness and her class, Syndicate Shade, she was able to move around freely through the spell. It didn’t matter that the tallest baskets were 30 feet in the air, Joanna could easily make it.

Their last member wasn’t slouching, either. Manny was keeping the other team busy with his axe. Tristan, MVP’s Swordsman, was protecting David from an onslaught of melee attacks. The two of them were fighting back against Dunbar Runner’s team leader, but it was a losing match. It didn’t matter how much ammunition the Gunner may have had, he was taking shots slowly to conserve his bullets. Tristan couldn’t keep up against Manny’s black axe and shining shield, either.

The MVP of Most Valuable Prisoners, Lucas, was scoring the points for his team though it was at a slower rate than Dunbar Runners. He would have been slower than Summer Breeze, as well, if it weren’t for my interference. I watched as Lucas gathered two balls from different beetles and ascended up a staircase made of floating squares.

A rare drop, the Hovering Tiles were a set of porcelain squares they had found during their first scenario. They only did as their name claimed, hovered, but they stayed in the air for a very long time. More than long enough for the match to conclude. Lucas had no problems running up, dunking the balls, and jumping back down to get more. The only thing he needed to win was the same kind of speed that Joanna could reach. Alas, this was not the case.

This went on for a couple more minutes. Most Valuable Prisoners were enough to keep the Dunbar Runners busy, and any time Blake would approach us Jamie waved him off. It was peaceful, despite the incredibly dangerous woman at my side trying to ascertain my deepest secrets. She could pull a gun on me at any moment, but I had a Force Field next to my face already. Just in case.

While I was about to Drop another ball in from Summer Breeze, Jamie pulled a black, incredibly scratched up car hood out of her inventory and slammed the edge down onto my legs. I grunted in pain, but she didn’t actually attack me. Her eyes were on the scoreboard, and I knew that she had figured it out. From my position in my chair, I couldn’t see the balls, and that meant I wasn’t getting any points.

After a few moments, Jamie looked down at me and smirked. “You have to see the balls in order to mess with them, don’t you?“ she asked.

“I can neither confirm nor deny, Ms. Summers,“ I responded cordially. I glanced up at the scoreboard as I spoke. It didn’t seem like there was enough time for Summer Breeze to make a come from behind victory, but they were certainly trying. My gaze shifted to Jamie, who looked pensive. “Penny for your thoughts?“

“Pennies were useless even before currency became obsolete,“ she muttered, looking out over the arena. I couldn’t see what she was focusing on because of the car hood, but I could tell she was observing the baskets she could see. “Yeah, I’m pretty confident you have to see them in order to drop them.“

Jamie motioned towards her team before returning her hand to her hip. I arched an eyebrow at her, not that she was paying attention, and looked back up at the scoreboard. Summer Breeze’s counter was shooting up at a rate much faster than it had before and was catching up to the rest of us in points.

Shaking my head, I sighed. I casually raised my Smash Stick and struck the side of the car hood. Jamie shifted as my attack bent the metal, but she put more pressure on it so that I couldn’t get up. Her Strength was high so it was no doubt a solid plan, but thanks to the stat scramble I had gone through, mine was higher.

I shoved the car hood off of me and started Dropping the balls into the basket, stealing the points from Summer Breeze. Jamie ducked out of view for a moment and my Force Field was struck, though not with enough force to destroy it. I stood up, activated Shield, and started walking forward.

Jamie struck me twice more, which my personal barrier took for me, before getting in my face. She raised the rebar she was using as a club and went for my head this time. “An admirable effort,“ I praised as I ducked under it.

Her Weapon Mastery abilities kicked in, and the accuracy boost had the weapon falling in an arc where it would hit me anyway. I threw myself at her midsection, tackling her and interrupting her attack. She fell to the ground and I followed, gritting my teeth as I landed on a black patch of grass. Ten percent of my hit points were zapped away, but I managed to get my hands on her arms and pin her down.

I was still receiving kicks, but from her position it was hard to get one to connect in a way that would break my Shield. It only lasted for a few more Drops, anyway, and I let her go before rolling into a green square and kipping back up onto my feet. Jamie tossed the rebar into her inventory but remained laying there, her eyes glued to the scoreboard high above.

“Well, this is it, I suppose,“ she said.

“Like I said, admirable effort,“ I repeated.

“Yeah, sure thing, you-“ Jamie disappeared from the arena.

[[Notice]]

The team [Summer Breeze] has been removed from Big Time Hoops.

Points have been reset but will count towards your final tally.

Three teams remain.

I returned to my chair, kicking the car hood out of my way, and grabbed it. If I kept my head down, there was a good chance that Most Valuable Prisoners and Dunbar Runners would leave me alone for the majority of the round. They were busy with each other and I was far enough away that either of them coming after me would leave their team open to attacks.

Tactically, it was much better to sit tight and do what I had been doing: stealing points from unsuspecting teams and chilling.

However, my resources didn’t line up with my strategy. I snapped open my status screen and checked out what I was working with. Out of the 250 Mental Points in my pool, which I already refilled once with the 100 my Medallion of Uuska kept separate, I only had 59 left. That would be enough to get me through this next round since Drop didn’t take much when I was just tapping balls in for points.

“Looks like I’m not summoning any wasps this time around,“ I muttered sullenly to myself.

I started walking towards the other side of the arena. While I could see Joanna scoring in her bubble of darkness, I didn’t bother with their team at all. They could get the points they needed now and it wouldn’t matter thanks to the points resetting between every round. My attention focused on Lucas instead.

The original plan was to take two baskets for every one he made, but that would have made me burn out far too quickly. Instead, I took the first two baskets and then alternated. Lucas made one, then I took the next. I stayed just barely ahead of them in points, and conserved what remained of my MP. There was no way that I would have been able to keep up with Joanna and Tito in the next round without them.

What made it worse was that I knew it was my fault, and I lamented how many points I used in the last round. I had been showing off for Jamie, which was stupid. A part of me wanted them to know how my powers worked so that they could counter it, make it harder for me, give me more of a challenge. It was stupid, and put my bets in jeopardy.

I tossed the folding chair and Vermon’s Smash Stick into my inventory and pulled out my Vague Stick as I started running for Lucas. With Manny focusing on fighting David and Tristan, my path to the Knife Master was free and clear. My strategy had changed from sitting back and racking up the points to a more active one: if none of their team members were in a position to score, then I wouldn't ’t have to worry about spending MP.

When looking at the squares, Lucas’ position for me was lucky. I could run through the green squares diagonally to get to him. No awkward skipping over five foot squares or bouncing back and forth between one row and another. It was a straight shot to the Hovering Tiles.

The other competitors might have been too busy with their own thing to see me coming, but Lucas was not. He caught sight of me as I was closing in, a ball under each arm, and ran straight for the tiles. I was closer than he was, but he was faster than me because of my scrambled stats.

I pushed my body faster and jumped once I was close enough. My goal wasn’t the lower steps of the Hovering Tiles, but the ones near the top. As Lucas climbed, I did the same with my Air Steps. Most of my feathers had regenerated, but I only needed five to reach the height I needed. I mentally shaped the Vague Stick before I tackled the man off of the precarious platforms.

Lucas grunted in pain as he dropped the balls and pulled out his knives, but I didn’t let go of him. I gauged where he would land and threw the Vague Stick into the ground at that location. The weapon had changed so that it had a sharp point on both ends and stuck at exactly the angle I wanted. Just as the Knife Master was about to insert his weapons into my guts, I activated Air Step one more time and changed direction.

My feet hit the ground lightly near the balls, scaring off the beetles that came to collect them. Lucas wasn’t anywhere close to being as lucky. He hit the Vague Stick back-first and screamed in pain as he barely slowed. The Knife Master fell around the weapon all the way to the ground, dropped his knives, and clutched at the object that pierced completely through him.

“Sorry, man,“ I said honestly as I approached. “I know how much that hurts.“

“F-fuck y-you,“ Lucas replied. His screams got louder as he pulled the Vague Stick out of his body.

“Tough guy,“ I remarked. I grabbed my weapon off of the ground and used it to pierce his heart. The Knife Master disappeared completely.

[[Notice]]

You have defeated another player.

Points will be tallied at the end of the event.

I checked the time and nodded to myself. Even after he respawned, there weren't a lot of avenues Lucas had left to overtake me in points in this round. I picked up the two balls he had dropped and began walking up the Hovering Tiles. For the first time in the match, I dropped them both into the basket.

Taking a breath, I took a seat on the top tile. From here I could see the disc where Lucas would respawn as well as the fight still going on between Manny, David, and Tristan. Now that I was closer, I came to the conclusion that Dunbar Runner’s team leader was keeping them busy without killing them. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have guessed that he had some kind of restriction against killing put on him by the Wheel of Chaos.

The real answer was more sinister than that. Manny was making sure that his axe didn’t get a good taste of his enemies..

The black bearded axe swiped against the members of Most Valuable Prisoners, but the cuts left behind were all shallow. Tristan, acting as the frontline fighter in this battle, was already very cautious of the axe. Every time he got hit, he would feel different, like he was being corrupted somehow, and I could see from the look in his eyes that he was getting freaked out.

Pushing my Vague Stick back into my inventory as I watched this display, I pulled out Talspra’s hand crossbow and two of her poisoned bolts. This wasn’t the way I wanted to do things - I never wanted to use these on people - but thanks to my own hubris, I deemed it necessary. I loaded up the first crossbow and aimed it for Most Valuable Prisoners’ respawn disc.

“Three, two, one…“ I counted down before firing.

The bolt left the crossbow just as Lucas spawned in. It collided with his hip as I aimed deliberately low in case he came back in a crouch. He fell down while clutching the wound and hollering in pain. I set my jaw and loaded up the next one. There was no point shooting it just yet, so I sat and waited, watching as Joanna kept scoring, Tito maintained his spells, and Manny kept his enemies at bay two on one.

[[Notice]]

The team [Most Valuable Prisoners] has been removed from Big Time Hoops.

Points have been reset but will count towards your final tally.

Two teams remain.

Sighing, I paid attention to Joanna first and foremost. She barely stopped to remove the notification that flashed in front of her eyes. The Syndicate Shade looked around, and the moment we locked eyes she stuck her tongue out at me. I gave her a little wave back before she began scoring points.

It was fast, even faster than before, like seeing that she could spite me gave her a second wind. I couldn’t blame her for that, not one bit. Regardless, I started Dropping in all of the baskets she was making. My headache was coming back in full force, but I could ignore that if it meant victory.

Manny started running towards me. I was the only target he had left, and I was looking forward to this fight now that I had a shiny new weapon to deal with his demonic one.

Aiming over the Spirit Axe’s head, I fired Talspra’s poisoned bolt directly at Tito. The man couldn’t see it coming now that he didn’t have Goblin Vision, but he sure felt it. Blood blossomed around his chest as the bolt hit him, and he fell to the ground, his body wracked with pain. The darkness quickly disappeared as he could no longer maintain the spell, and Joanna fell to the ground beside him. She no longer had free reign to jump through the shadows.

I slipped off of the Hovering Tile and returned the hand crossbow back into my inventory. With a silent prayer to Sara that I wouldn’t use my remaining five bolts on people who didn’t deserve it, I pulled out the Scalpel of Angelic Healing. It started glowing a bright white as I activated its only offensive skill.

[[Skill]]

Demon Slayer

This skill can only be activated in the presence of demonic energy. You can transform this item into an Angelic sword that is especially potent against those who oppose the powers of Heaven. While this skill is active, gain an additional +10 Strength and +2 Constitution to your stats.

The scalpel transformed in my hand, and I roared with righteous fury as I ran to meet Manny head on.