this message my did stop the wing but instead of hitting lüziel it phased right through his neck. under these circumstances all of them could only utter one word
„WHAT?"
collectively all of them where in disbelieve at this situation. with racing heart lüziel broke down to the ground and shortly after got unconscious from the stress and exhaustion he gained from this 6 minutes chase. on the other side while all of these event where happening both marth and elise had their own intense battles. marth was dodging the two chasing him but the longer they hunted him the harder it got to get away without completely running out of elises range leaving her stranded to fight on her own
„can't you just give up. i can continuous this forever. it would be so much easier if you just sat down and waited till you lost"
„says the one who get slower and slower"
„you should be the one to sit down and accept your loss"
marth was starting to run low on breath but he knew that all he needed to do was hold out and hope, hope that elise understood what he meant to say but couldn't. elise was now fighting against kellam for 8 minutes and barely holding out the entire time. it was not just his speed and strength but also his techniques where cleaner and better than hers. he was on a totally different level from her and it took all of her concentration to keep him at bay. she knew that it was close to her breaking point, her muscles got tired and her head foggy. at maximum she could continuous this for two more minutes if she was lucky. maybe it was just fate but in a critical moment her opponent hold in for just a split second giving her enough room to get a bit of distance. behind her far away she now could hear people screaming
„now we got you. take your last breath before we finish both of you together!"
marth was now gambling on this. he knew that elise was already fighting them when he came to her so the timer had to be already down but he didn't knew how much. if it was more than 3 minutes this would be way to risky but he wasn't able to run away much longe and elise was right in therms of fighting someone for the first time he wasn't that great so even 2 badd fighters cold easily overwhelm him. this was his last option, drag out the fight with elise as long as possible and use the crucial moment where the enemy forces would drop to 1 to win in one strike.
„elise RUN!"
under normal circumstances she would have said or at the least thought something mean about him but right now she was relived that help arrived no matter who it was and without thinking she put all of her force into one final block followed by turning around and sprinting in the direction the call came from. while running past each other all she could hear was
„not much… right…"
she finally understood. if marth would have said from the beginning that his left was weaker than he would have realized it himself and made it impossible for her to break through with their skill gap so all he could do was pin her attention to the sides. she didn't have much time to think as she was running head first into the two from before
„you are still alive?"
„just shut up!"
knowing that those two didn't have much skill she used all of her frustration to hit them as hard as she could as greeting making both o their faces white for a moment. all of them where exhausted so this was only a war of attrition at this point. as long as elise could keep her breath would she not loose to them. on the other side was now marth standing in front of kellam. his first surprise attack did nothing but waste a bit of time but that was his win condition anyways.
„please go easy on me. i'm not a martial artist after all"
to his dismay did his opponent not try to pick up the small talk and instead was first making attempts to just run past marth. he immediately picked up on what was going on and instead of trying to stop him dead in his tracks he slowed him down as much as he could waisting precious time. it was only 50 second that he could last this so for the first time in his life he did something he would never do, he threw away all his reasoning and disregarded the safty of his own life. he threw away all his flags into the street near elise preventing kellam from being able to reach them and then jumped with his entire boy at him. he knew that he would even have the strength to win a grappling fight at full strength but all he need was just a bit more time
„ready or not here i COME!"
kellam was reasonably surprised as someone fringed himself at him who looked like he could even stand much longer. both of them where thrown on the ground from the impact but it took all of 1 swing of kellam to knock out marth. normally this would have been the end for them but this gamble payed of as all kellam was now trying to do was get to elise to finish her of leaving the unconscious marth safely lying on the ground ad thanks to this he was slowed down just enough to see his team mates collapse to the ground. elise had during this time reached a point where she was so far beyond exhaustion that she purely acted out of instinct, turning around the second they collapsed, grabbing marth flags of the ground while running towards kellam and attacking him with two strikes one as a faint and a second exactly where marth told her to with as much force as she had left into kellams side making him scream in pain completely dropping his guard getting thrown down to the ground by elise and then getting taken away 2 bundles of flags he tied tightly behind his back. the moment the second bundle got taken from kellam the win message appeared and elise got forcefully repelled from kellam.
„it's a shame we weren't on the same team. you are a diamond in the rough i would love to see grow"
with that said marth, elise and kellam vanished in green light
when lüziel came back from the dead he was surrounded by the others all looking like they where at the end in a physical but mostly mental way.
„you are not dead. i was so afraid. you told me to not be reckless but in the end where reckless yourself. don't ever scare me like that again"
„you know you made her cry right, what an asshole"
rina was hugging lüziel tightly making it hard fro him to answer
„i didn't try to die ok. i am attached to my life like the guy next to me. he was just completely overpowering us in every way possible. you know ho it feels if something move through where your neck is supposed to be?"
„well it seems like you have no major other issues besides your leg. i couldn't find anything but i was still worried"
bob was now pulling up lüziels leg after rina let him go again looking at the bandage lüziel had where he was shot at
„ah it hurts! be a little less rough"
„it's nothing that would heal over time but you won't be able to do much running till then"
„as if i couldn't guess that. so you two won this just in the nick of time for us"
lüziel was looking at marth and elise but marth was just shacking his head
„i too got knocked out before it ended"
„i can't remember the end as well. i know that marth came and swapped with me but after that it all gets hazy until i woke up here"
„so no one knows what happened"
„i remember again. he told me you tell you that his name was zenos and ehm… i don't know i didn't care much for it anyways"
rina was thinking but ended up in a blank about what zenos told them
„he said that we could be friend when we next time meet"
bob was now filling in for rinas gap. when lüziel woke up there where already a few teams there. now that he looked around he saw 7 other teams
„by the way we only have like 2 hours left until the next round starts. they really give us no resting time"
marth was looking at a timer within his menu while speaking. they took the remaining time to tell lüziel what happened last round from marth and elises side and then all continued to rest like they did before. lüziel tried to get used while walking around with a damaged leg noticing that he really could put any pressure on his leg without it hurting while rina was closely following him not letting him out of her eyes. again with a ringing exactly on time they all vanished and this time there was nothing. around them wall in front of them a football field sized even field of dirt with no obstacle or anything surrounded by even more walls. on the other side the other team.
„this got to be a joke! after all we had to go through the last round all we get now is a blank field where fighting is the only option we have."
„if it is one then it's not funny. i'm still feeling awful"
„so in other words we have two in our team that can fight at full strength, two who are heavily hindered and i basically can do nothing in an all out brawl."
„at last we have one massive advantage with the 6 flags we gained from last round"
„6?"
„apparently you can get more than the required number but no idea how, no one of us remembered what happened"
while they they complaining about their situation did the other team start to move
„no time to think, 1 sec strategy meeting, as long as they don't have weapons…"
marth was looking over at them
„as longe as they don't have MORE weapons, we maybe can beat them with face tanking"
„ah yes an arrow to the leg was not enough i think i should also have a sword cut of my arm"
„how about this instead, the most agile of us is rina so we keep them busy you steal their flags"
it only took a while until the other team reached them and now that they had no other choice marth used the trick he stole from zenos and bought a smoke bomb throwing it right before them covering the area in thick smoke. the other team had to stop in front of it or they would risk attacking their team mates or get attacked out of the lack of sight.
„this just last for 2 minutes so all it does is give us a bit more time to think"
„that's it what he can do so can i, where is the bow i bought"
„bow?"
marth was looking confused but not like anyone could see him doing so
„we forgot to pick it up"
„that was a fluke, but how many more people could there be that actually know how to use weapons and aren't just swinging them around randomly. this is way less dangerous as the round before and only two have some anyways"
„i saw their flags so i can get them!"
rinas voice was popping up out of the fog
„so you know exactly where they are and have a plan to grab them?"
„yes!"
„in that case bob are you ok being used as battering ram?"
„what are you talking about"
„we hit and run. you are still at full strength and in raw power no one here can match you very likely so all you need to do is run full fore at them and if they don't move aside me make them while rina can use that confusion to grab some flags. elise i hop e you are ready t block of a sword because it will hurt if you mess it up"
„you really hate me do you. as long as its one strike i'm able to block it even if it hits me. i got punched often enough to know how to deal with pain"
the fog started to clear out before they could finish their strategy meeting
„times up"
„how nice of you to wait for us"
now that the other team was standing closer they could see that they where even harder hit than they are changing the math completely. if you would see this scene from a far you would probably think that the other team is the one who gets attacked also clearing why they made absolutely no moves while they where hiding in the fog. despite that they still attempted to attack and with them already having made a plane they automatically moved to action accordingly on this stimuli. elise was up ahead with bob following her and marth trying his best to carry lüziel. it went as expected elise was able to block one of the swords showing her stubbornness to go through with something she set mind on by just holding her arm in the way of the second as she could reach the one who swung it. being overwhelmed the ‚offense' of the other team quickly became a halve assed defense not being able to stop the massive bob who said sorry every time he hit someone away which lead to more confusion than actually doing it's intended purpose. rina was able to grab some flags but all she could get was 2 making this game last longer than they would wish for.
„now what?"
„you think i thought that far, it's called hit and run so now we run"
elise was holding her arm with her hand mumbling some curse word while they took their distance from the other team
„let me see this, we need to quickly stop the bleeding"
bob was ripping of part of his shirt binding it extremely tight around elises wound
„when you said even if it hit you i didn't think you meant that you actually are trying to get hit"
„what else should i have done. it's better to get sliced where you wan't to get hit than somewhere random"
after this maneuver the other team was now no longer eager to get into a straight forward fight taking their distance
„so that's a trick that only works once what is the next?"
„i lost them, i lost my flags"
bob was searching everywhere but couldn't find any of his 3 flags
„so we are not the only once with someone who has nimble fingers. we are now worse of then when we started"
„so you're telling me i did this for nothing"
while marth was giving bob some of the other flags they gain in the previous rounds was elise angrily pointing at her arm
„not quite, we now at least know that combat really isn't their strength but trickery. they are so roughed up because they took purposefully hits to take flags in exchange."
„thats a great consultation price, thank you"
„we just do what we saw our last opponents do. normally i think that's a bad idea because of exactly the weakness i abused but we are not dealing with people who can lock us in combat meaning we take no risk. elise give me your flags"
„what, never!"
„you can still punch with your left all you need to do is hit hard as bob over here is just to soft to actively attack others"
„sorry but i just can't condone this to a degree where i myself would attack. i'm only ok with this because we have no other chance and at least we're doing the least harmful option"
bob was looking a bit depressed having lost the flags and also not being useful for this
„so you just want me hit them hard and you allow me to beat them to a pulp despite this being trampling on the weak"
„that's the plan, but please do it no to brutal ok, we are still all humans"
„i can also help. i can get more flags without the guys with swords"
„that's the plan. this time it's going to be a change of roles."
marth pulled out a sword from the shop
„if they can swing a sword then i'm sure i can do it better, i hope you help me"
marth was looking at lüziel
„i was already waiting for that. i have now completely given up on saving points so how about i show them how you do it for real"
lüziel too was pulling out a sword from the shop paying another 300 tallon leaving only 113 left not enough to buy any more weapons after this. both rina and elise secretively gave up their flags to marth and lüziel respectively and then the group approached. the other group who still didn't make another move was now brought into the bredouille. they could either run away or try to fight but with what they experienced just before that they chose to use the first option.
„bob you may not be able to fight them but at least try to stop them getting past you. you are intimidating enough as you are"
„let me take that as a compliment"
they now spread out circling in the other team. lüziel who could move quickly was in the middle walking lowly straight at them while next to him a couple meters distanced to the one side where marth and to the other rina. next to rina another meters distanced was bob while to the other side of marth was elise. without even thinking did the other team choose elises side as they didn't wan't to confront with bob for a second time but she did let's them get near her without scaring them a lot by suddenly starting to scream and run at them when there where in a range she felt comfortable in not letting them go. rina ran with full speed over having to reach them from the other side while marth was quickly picking up lüziel with them moving as fast as you can with 3 legs towards the center of the action. bob choose during all of this to just go behind them covering any wanna be escape artists. the other team tried their best but in between lüziel and marth swinging their swords much more confident and elise going full on berserker mode they choose to surrender after a short confrontation.
„aaah. where are they? she has no flags? aah"
„SO YOU WHERE THE SNEAKY ONE"
„i just can't get a hold of her!"
„you are way to slow for me, i watched magician my entire life to prepare for this"
„how does that even make sense!"
„you barely can touch me when i can't even move properly you really wan't to try your luck a bit longer"
„how do you do that lüziel? it's so hard swinging a sword without spinning out or being super stiff. i don'T know what i'm doing but i know it's wrong"
despite marth saying that he was still easily dealing with his opponent who was even less comfortable with the sword
„THAT'S IT WE GIVE UP YOU CAN TAKE THEM"
marth and lüziel where shortly looking at each other as their enemies suddenly lost all will to fight then answered in synch
„for real?"
„all we wanted is to survive this and we where ready to take a lot of pain if it meant surviving but we can't beat you and our tactic is useless. i can't let my team mates get needlessly hurt"
he threw 7 flags at marth who picked them up to end the game
„the other two teams where brutes and people as weak as us. the only reason we got these swords was to scare them enough to steal the flags but that doesn't work against people who don't fear swords"
with these last words both teams vanished or the last time. for the first time they did not appeared back in the broken city but instead where in a white room. around them multiple couches and a table with a first aid kit a bottle of water and glasses. the flags they had to hold on as important as their own life where all gone.
„for once this is quite the nice reception after going through multiple death games"
„it's so bouncy and soft"
rina immediately jumped on the couch bouncing up and down
„well, at least one person is not at their end"
„why does this shit hurt so much"
„let me lock at it now that we have a first aid kit"
„wait, wait, this hurts, au, stop it. why are you so darn strong!"
bob was removing the emergency bandage from elise revealing a seep but clean cut lüziel was sitting down on the sofa next to where rina was bouncing on waving at marth
„you don't have to stand there. it stands right here we won. we now have to wait for the next event to start."
lüziel was pointing at the purple screen in front of him
Mission Capture the Flag cleared
Achievement: 1/3
never lose cleared
clean victorynot cleared
annihilation cleared
Reward: 300 tallon
0 tallon
0 tallon
Bank: 113 tallon + 300 tallon
„and i ended with less than i started. well it's better than dying i guess"
„look lüziel i can bounce even higher than on my bed"
„rina don't break it"
marth started to laugh seeing the bunch in front of him
„you just go on like this was nothing, do you"
„i'm still sad that the other people had to lose but i cannot lose lüziel so i have to go on"
„some fuckers dying is now the status quo so why bother"
„you can't go saying things like that. we are civilized humans we can't just accept people dying"
„i have to agree to bob with that. the last thing i want to lose is my humanity. i have some standards i want to meet"
marth was sitting down next to lüziel and they needed to wait for quite a while until something happened
„i am so sorry for the hold up but we had to make some adjustments last minutes for the last part of act 2."
yhvlton popped up on a screen at the wall that itself also popped up on the wall
„congratulations on the winning teams you will gain special skills to choose from in the upcoming skill selection. those who made it through the loses match will also get the choice of a skill but with less options. you will gain a 2 hour time to choose from the given skills and everyone not having on until then will obtain a random one. a skill obtained here will permanently change what you can do in the future to choose carefully. i will come back once the time is over and explain the real next mission of the third part"
the screen disappeared again with all 5 getting for the first time a black message
The Special Skill shop is now open
you will have a one time chance to get a special skill for free
so look carefully for the right one
do you want to go to the skill shop
„FINALLY!!!! MIAU 'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS THE MIALL TIME"
marth was jumping up in excitement followed by elise
„WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT"
„oh i totally forgot you're a freak. you spoke the entire time like a normal human being letting me forgot how we met"