"There are still five minutes before, the challenge has to be accepted!, we will wait until then."
"actually, I placed the challenge right after you called dibs on this dorm, I also wanted this dorm for my squad"
The bulky fellow begins to leave with his companions, but before he gets further away, he stops and looks back at them with a devious smirk on his face,
"If your team doesn't check into the arena a minute after we do, you will lose by default"
The bulky captain had an HIR of A, similar to Nathan and David, but all three of his teammates had an HIR of B, although the HIR only depicted how fast you could get stronger with standardized training, the bulky captain still wasn't interested in having a direct confrontation, so he wanted to take the chance.
The facility is a big place, and the auditorium was far from the dorms, bulky knew Nathan would immediately rush to the dorms, when he gets the challenge notice, therefore isolating him, but all didn't go as planned because, Nathan met Bethany on his way and they came together, but they were still out numbered.
Nathan was decisive, and he chose to fight,
"Bethany, contact the other two to immediately come to the virtual combat simulation block"
"okay"
The Virtual Combat Simulator (VCS), was a device that allowed cadets squads to compete, in a virtual space, there were rankings that dictated the success of the squads, David's squad was in tenth place, they were regarded as the strongest team with an HIR Of A, but only when they were all present, although they were the best in their rating, this fight was not going to be a walk in the park.
The two adorned their immersion suits, put on the headset, and spawned in the asernal, they had 60 seconds to gear up, but that was sufficient time, these two on their own were seasoned enough , when they spawned in the virtual space, they knew exactly what their strategy was, the space they would compete in was, a limited space confined with a barrier that would continuously shrink until a Victor was decided, the space had a dystopian look, riddelled with ruins of buildings, and a sense of sorrow equal to that of ancient battlefields. Nathan and Bethany dash in the direction of a tall vantage point, intending to use the tower strategy, on their way they hear a series of beeps, but take no heed to it, they were in no position to hesitate. Evident of their familiarity with the zone, they didn't need to read from their map, nor did they have to be wary of the enemy. They soon got to their destination, a tall building that towered over the other buildings, though dilapidated, it surprisingly had an intact roof, Nathan intended to snipe from there while Bethany stood in ambush at the only point of entry.
Internally, Nathan thought,
"we are the defenders, we don't need to actively attack, even though this building isn't the center of the zone, I can use our top 10 prievelege to shift the center of the zone, this a full proof plan"
Although the shrinking of the zone will eventually bring the enemy, that was a good outcome, he could snipe them as they try to escape the zone border.
As they lie in wait, they spot the female in the enemy squad, Nathan quickly took aim, but the girl was nimble, agile and fast as she run in the direction of the tower, the enemy had successfully guessed their position, Nathan alerts Bethany,
"There is you trouble your way, she's fast"
"I am faster"
Bethany, stoically retorts, confident in her martial prowess, although she only had a pair of tactical gloves, a force dagger and force pistol, it was sufficient.
While checking for more enemies, suddenly Nathan hears a gun shot, and reflexively lowers his head, in the next second an armor piercing bullet, whizzes by, penetrating the concrete of the roof and breaking his sniper railgun,
"What! he dodged?"
Nathan was out down by the enemy sniper, but now he knew where he was, Nathan rises up from his camouflaged position, and draws out his real sniper railgun, and points it in the general position of the enemy sniper, pulling the trigger, a sound was heard in the whole vicinity, the sound was like a single thunder clap, *thum*, a second later a notification rang,
"First Blood"
Followed by a second,
"Your teammate has eliminated an enemy"
Then followed by gun shots and another ring,
"You teammate died"
Bethany had been done in by the ambush of the two enemies, the female and her companion, though bulky still remained hidden, Nathan's sniper railgun was a single use item, it was already disintegrating now.
It was two on one now, but Nathan wasn't intimidated, he was stronger than Bethany, in terms of close combat, if she could kill one of the enemies even under ambush, then the enemy wasn't one to be intimidated by.
As Nathan tries to leave the roof through the door, he is ambushed by bulky with a force sword, but Nathan's reaction time was no joke, he avoided the knife but was caught in a pincer, he wittingly rushed and aimed to disarm the enemy with the force gun, his speed was swift and elusive, but the gunner was no pushover, he quickly abandoned the gun and drew the dagger from his waist, and slashed at Nathan, although this interaction lasted for a mere 5 seconds, it was more than enough time for bulky to perform a slashing motion, the neon blue blade shimmerd in the dark staircase, leave a clear of trace an arc, it's tragectory ditermined unwavering.