We stood on the surface of a star, staring each other down.
"What is your name?" The Granule asked before we began.
"Ezra," I replied. "What's yours?"
"They call me Fargo," he replied, placing the axe on his shoulder. Then he looked to his left, taking my attention to the audience outside the simulation. "Look out there Ezra, the people, they're expecting a show from us, and we're gonna give them one."
At the sound of that, I saw the people cheer, which proved that although they weren't in the simulation, they were seeing and hearing us. I chuckled, preparing my gun for battle.
"I have a level status of beginner premium and zero skills," I said looking at Fargo. "Are you gonna go easy on me?"
He scoffed, swinging his axe back and forth. "You're a guardian, you're the second guardian, making even a dent on you will take my name far and wide, your arena skills are of no concern to me."
I figured as much, he was just doing this for glory, using me to increase his fame. Kind of sad if you think about it. I smiled, placing the gun on my shoulder.
"Well then may the best man w—"
Before I could finish my sentence he had already gotten close to me. Teleportation? Speed? I didn't see how he did it but my response time was surprisingly quicker than I expected. I dodged before his axe could hit my left shoulder, then I jumped back giving him some space.
"Wow, you are fast," I said panting. "Almost had my head there."
Fargo smirked. "Almost?"
Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my left shoulder, dropping to my knees, I gritted my teeth with my eyes almost popping out due to the pain. A lifepoint meter like those you see in games like Mortal Kombat appeared above my head, reducing to eighty percent from a hundred. How the heck did he touch me? He never did, I dodged precisely on time, so how? He smiled looking at his weapon.
"Should have picked the axe guardian," he said.
The axe. Probably had some hidden ability I wasn't aware of. Although he got the first strike, his attack made me realise three things. One, the pain in this simulation was as real as anything. Two, the skins you choose aren't completely invulnerable to the attacks received and three, the weapons provided were more than they appeared to be.
I swiftly took cover behind one of the rocks nearby. I didn't know there were rocks on dying stars. I laid my back on the rock, adjusting my shoulder to at least ease the pain.
"Hiding won't do you any good," Fargo echoed. "Come out, let's end this quickly."
I exhaled, resting my head on the rock. Then I held up my gun, standing up and trying to look at each side behind the rock to see if he was coming. But before I could take a look on my right, he appeared with a grin.
"Peekaboo human," he said sinisterly, about to swing the axe. But this time, I ensured I dodged properly.
I jumped in the air, and surprisingly, that small jump took me farther up than I expected. When I looked below I could see it. Out of the axe came a sharp energy blade wave that vibrated when it travelled forward, thereby hitting whatever was before it, and twelve inches beside it. The wave was barely visible but I could see it from that aireal view. That's how I got hit. His swing missed me but the axe made sure to hit me. It was the axe with the crescent moon head.
The moment I noticed I had not been hit, I immediately went on the defense, shooting my blaster. He dodged immediately, running for shelter behind on of the rocks. I was still floating in the air. The moment I shot the blaster, an icon hovered above the barrel. It was round and could be rotated like a safe's lock. There were options presented before me.
Shooting options;
One; Stray lazers
Two; round lazers
Three; Magnitude lazers
Four; Bomb blast
I clicked on magnitude lazers and then shot at the rock Fargo was hiding behind. Meanwhile, simultaneously, he had thrown the axe towards my head like a boomerang. The axe hit my helmet, making a small cracked dent in it, then the axe returned to the owner. But the owner couldn't catch it, my magnitude lazer blast had blown the rock he was hiding behind into smithereens, and the force of the explosion threw him to the ground, motionless, his helmet also had a crack. His life points had reduced to fifty percent. Mine had reduced to seventy-five.
I was in the lead, I had to act quickly. I attempted to go for another shot, choosing stray lazers as my next bullet, but before I could pull the trigger, the Granule was already in front of me. One moment he was on the floor reaching out for his axe, the next moment he was in front of my blaster, holding on to the barrel with one hand and swinging the axe with the other. There was no mistake about it, he had the ability of speed, it caught me off guard the first time because normal Granules didn't have powers, but this Granule wasn't normal, he was a Knight. I had only a few seconds to respond.
Before the axe could reach my head, I leaned backwards, dodging the swing but then I remembered the aftermath of that swing, so in that split second after dodging, I left the gun in his hand and pushed myself down, back to the surface. He gritted his teeth when he saw what I had done. But then he smiled when he noticed my blaster was in his hand. It was over for me.
Without hesitation, Fargo threw the axe towards me, but I dodged swiftly, falling to the ground. Then I looked up as the axe was returning to its master and saw that he was about the pull the trigger on the blaster. What lazer option did he choose? There was no time to think about that answer, I immediately ran towards a rock, but I was too slow, he had already pulled the trigger.
Out from the barrel of the blaster came a red energy ball, the size of a baseball, that seemed to have eight electrons spinning around it. It resembled the atom of an element.
"Game over," Fargo said with a sinister look in his eyes as the energy ball dropped down to the dead star's surface. It didn't matter how far I had run, the moment the ball hit the surface, it was futile to run.
BOOM!
The whole planet blew up into pieces with me in the midst of it. The fire and the debris did extreme damage to the skin I was wearing. Half of the helmet was gone and the right arm of the space suit was destroyed. I floated within the debris of the dead star like a body dead in deep space. My life points had reduced to fifteen percent.
"Fifteen percent?" Fargo asked. "Of course. Normally a knight would have lost all life points after that attack, but as a guardian, you are different. It'll take more than one blast to take you down."
He pointed the gun at me, ready to shoot one more bomb blast.
"I win," he said.
But the moment he pulled the trigger, I shot an energy blast from my left index and middle finger with the little strength I had. Unfortunately, I didn't completely control the amount of energy I had shot out. The energy blast consumed the red energy ball but it didn't stop there— it went straight for Fargo, blowing him out of proportion, destroying every part of his skin, and almost eating up his actual skin. His life points dropped to zero and the AI stopped the game immediately, dispelling my energy blast.
'Game over,' It announced. 'Winner of round; the second Guardian. Restoration loading.'
At that the frisbee we were hovering above enveloped up for a few minutes and then returned back to normal. I felt my energy return, and any pain I was feeling had disappeared. Same went for Fargo.
'Restoration complete,' the AI said. 'Winner claim your reward.'