Game 12: Player Hunter

The four heroes were face to face with a strange player spouting nonsense about prey.

“So, Takeshi,” the man told him. “We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way? I can't say either will end well for you, but it's your choice. Just make it quick, alright? I've got a job to do and a paycheck to collect.”

“What do you want?” Takeshi asked the man.

“I want your head, Takeshi Ishida,” the man told him. “Unfortunately, The Game doesn't allow for that. I'm a Player Hunter. I represent the interests of the Game Masters, and let me tell you, Takeshi. They do not like the trouble you've been stirring up. So they hired me to take you and your comrades out.”

“Trouble?” Takeshi asked him. “What kind of trouble have we caused that needed this kind of attention?”

“Don't play stupid,” the Player Hunter warned him. “I don't think you'd like the consequences of that. But let's just say people actually somehow think they can escape The Game?! Nah, we can't be having that now, can we?”

Takeshi stared at the man. It was clear by this point that the only way out of this was to fight.

•

“Time is wasting, Takeshi,” the Player Hunter complained. “Tick-tock, tick-tock, make up your mind already.”

By now, Rita, Proteus, and Makoto were nearby. All three were prepared to help Takeshi out if necessary.

“Oh, look, the cavalry has arrived,” the Player Hunter joked.

“You said something about people thinking they could escape. I thought the whole idea of The Game was to win,” Makoto countered. “Win and you get to escape from this place.”

“Escape?!” The Player Hunter started laughing. “Escape? You cannot be that dumb! Alright, let's try this one more time. The Game runs on players’ despair. They can't escape. You can't escape. If people could get out of here, The Game would end. And that's a bad thing.”

“Literally how is leaving The Game a bad thing?” Rita asked him.

“Hey!” The Player Hunter interrupted her. “I'm the one talking over here, not you! Now, where was I? Oh right.” He then pointed directly at Takeshi. “But your friend Takeshi here has gotten it into people's heads that they can leave this place whenever they want. So now you have two options: You can either come along quietly, or I can defeat you in battle. The Game Masters would really prefer the latter, if you don't mind.”

“We aren't going to let you lay a finger on Takeshi!” Proteus told him.

“Oh yeah? You and what army?”

Proteus then charged directly at the man, assuming his deer form once again. However, the Player Hunter was ready, and he swung his spear at Proteus, sending him straight to the ground. Proteus' Life Counter was still glitchy, and the Player Hunter took immediate notice.

“Interesting. We have a glitch on our hands. That's never happened in The Game before… I may have to bring you in alive…”

“What do you mean bring him in alive?” Takeshi asked him.

“So the Game Masters can experiment on him, figure out what's causing his code to bug out.”

“Code?”

“Oh, forget it. It's fight time, now!”

“You'll have to fight all of us if you want to get to Takeshi,” Rita warned him.

“But I cannot take all four of you on at once,” the Player Hunter admitted. “So we'll do this mano a mano.”

“I couldn't agree more,” Takeshi told him. He then made his way closer to the Player Hunter. The time he's spent in The Game has already started turning Takeshi into a skilled fighter. But this time, he may have been getting in over his head. This Player Hunter was a contract fighter; it was his job to fight and defeat other players.

“Let's take this somewhere where people are less likely to get hurt, shall we?” the Player Hunter told Takeshi.

•

The two of them decided to take the fight out to the Badlands, far away from society, and greatly minimizing potential danger to people.

“That's some fancy armor you got there,” the Player Hunter teased Takeshi, noting the worn down, second or third-hand nature of his armor. “You look like a million bucks.”

The fight proceeded quickly, with Takeshi making the first attack. The Player Hunter was armed with a massive gauntlet that doubled as a spear, so getting too close to him would be unwise. The two fighters tried looking for any opportunity to deal damage to the other. Takeshi landed the first blow, an attack to the Player Hunter's lower leg. Three Lives remaining. The Player Hunter retaliated by knocking Takeshi against a cliff wall. Two Lives remaining. Having Takeshi pinned to the ground would make it much easier for him to use his spear to inflict massive damage. He placed one foot on Takeshi's torso, and prepared his spear.

“Twenty-five thousand libras,” the Player Hunter told Takeshi. “That's how much I get paid for taking each of you out.”

“They offered one hundred thousand libras…” Takeshi realized.

“Perhaps you aren't as dumb as you look. But you're about to make me a very rich man, Takeshi Ishida.”

“I don't think so,” Takeshi countered. He struggled to reach into his coat pocket, revealing a whistle.

“What are you going to sing me a song before you die?”

Takeshi blew the whistle, releasing a very loud high-pitched sound that hurt the Player Hunter's ears. However, the magic in the whistle protected Takeshi from those same effects, leaving him unharmed. Takeshi took this opportunity to strike once again, this time right at the Player Hunter's belt. Two Lives remaining.

Before Takeshi could strike again, the Player Hunter managed to sweep Takeshi off his feet with his spear. He tried to land a blow with his spear, but Takeshi managed to block it with his sword. Takeshi found an opening and kicked the Player Hunter in the stomach. One Life remaining.

“Are you kidding me?!” The Player Hunter was shocked to see a kick was able to damage him. A flurry of strikes of both sword and spear followed. The anger building up inside the Player Hunter made his attacks more unpredictable. Takeshi couldn't react in time, ripping him away from his sword and sending him flying into another cliff wall. One Life remaining.

As the Player Hunter prepared to finish Takeshi off, he scolded him. “Troublemakers like you are all the same. You think you're all big and bad, but then you die so easily. Good riddance, Takeshi Ishida.”

But Takeshi had one last desperate answer left. He started throwing rocks at the Player Hunter, distracting him long enough to be able to reach his sword. The two fighters were now at a standstill. Both were waiting for the other to start charging forwards. They both started running at the same time, each hoping to land one last damaging blow to the other. They slashed at each other at once, knocking Takeshi to the ground. The Player Hunter was still standing.

“All too easy,” the Player Hunter commented, thinking he'd won.

Takeshi struggled to get up from the ground. It actually looked as if he had lost.

But then the Player Hunter's body began to show signs of vanishing. Neither Takeshi nor the Player Hunter realized at the time, but Takeshi's attack landed, reducing the Player Hunter's Life to zero. When he saw this, the Player Hunter simply began to laugh.

“This isn't over, Takeshi Ishida. No one is safe inside The Game.”

He then disappeared.

“Game Over.”

After that, the disembodied announcer's voice said something that made Takeshi's heart sink, “There has been a new change in the rankings! Takeshi Ishida is now the 1000th ranked player in The Game!”

“This can't be good,” Takeshi told himself.