Game 35: The Final Three Days

Mr. Set was furiously working at his computer. He had spent all these days inside and outside The Game searching for his daughter, but to no avail.

“You're still looking for the girl?” Jun Kitaoka asked him.

“I need her for my plans, Mr. Kitaoka. This isn't something you would understand because you're never really planning anything. You just delegate your responsibilities to someone else.”

“Speaking of delegating my responsibilities to someone else,” Jun replied, before handing Mr. Set a note.

“What's this?”

“A cheat code. Rather, a couple of cheat codes. Boss man wants to make this challenge more difficult.”

Mr. Set opened the note.

“How diabolical…”

•

Later that night, Jun Kitaoka crawled into his bed. He was back in the real world. He knew he wasn't needed in this arrangement anymore. Jun was little more than a paper pusher now. He hadn't done much work on The Game in such a long time. He seemed to have just lost the will to work. He had his chance to betray the others, but now… 

Was it even necessary?

The last two months had done considerable damage to the relationship the Game Masters had with each other. None of them trusted each other. They probably couldn't even trust themselves.

Jun Kitaoka simply laid in his bed, completely unwilling to even move.

Whatever was going to happen would happen regardless.

•

The six of them needed to stealthily reunite while also avoiding the threat of additional giant insects. No talking, no running, just quietly sneaking around. Takeshi and Sora figured the best way was to lie low and crawl. Rita and Aisha thought the best way was to tiptoe as close to the center of the walk path as possible. Makoto and Proteus weren't sure what the best approach was.

Makoto tried to see if he could use his magic to make their footsteps quieter. However, no spell he knew was working. He couldn't even cast them.

“Hey, Proteus, try shifting into an animal.”

Proteus tried but he actually could not make it work. It was as if he had lost his power to shift into animals.

•

Takeshi and Sora were the closest to the exit of the maze. Their strategy was fairly simple: Find the exit, then backtrack and find the others. 

But waiting for them at the end of the maze was the Desert Rose.

“We finally meet again, Takeshi Ishida,” she greeted them.

“Desert Rose!” Takeshi quietly said. “What are you doing here?!”

•

“What is SHE doing here?!” Lazlo asked while observing events from headquarters. “I didn't authorize this!”

“The timing just could not get any worse,” Mr. Set told him. “Even if we didn't authorize it, we'll just have to let it go. It could be funny.”

•

Takeshi immediately tried to reach for his sword and white orb, but neither were in his inventory. Likewise, Sora's sword was not in his inventory.

Something was horribly wrong.

“Do you like it?” Lazlo asked them on-screen. “I put this code together myself. It lets me swap the abilities and inventories of any two players I choose. This was not how I planned it, but now you get to figure out who you got swapped with in order to defeat the Desert Rose!”

“This is bad…” Takeshi noted.

•

Rita and Aisha could observe a massive magical explosion nearby. They saw it as their cue to head in that direction. Rita tried to create a shortcut with a Fire Arrow, but her arrows had mysteriously vanished. Aisha couldn't find the arrows either, but she noticed a strange white orb in her inventory.

•

“What? You can't fight back?” Desert Rose taunted Takeshi and Sora. “I was told you were the best fighters in The Game!”

“Sora… can't you do that uh… thing you did earlier…”

“I would if I was hungry… Those bugs really hit the spot.”

“Guess I'll have to finish you two off quickly,” Desert Rose told them. “Final Time!”

Right before the attack could land, Takeshi tried something. “Magic Art: Holy Barrier!”

Somehow, it worked. Takeshi realized he acquired Makoto's magic arts. A giant barrier protected them from one of Desert Rose's most powerful attacks.

“Sora, check your inventory again…”

Sora revealed a bow, some arrows, and a green orb. He had Rita's inventory.

“Okay, so how does this orb thingy work?”

“Just press the button, and you get the special cloak that lets you fly,” Takeshi explained.

Sora did so, and was granted the Mossy Sylvan cloak.

•

Meanwhile, Makoto and Proteus were much farther away from the exit. They saw faint signs of a battle, but wouldn't have been able to get there fast enough even without that giant insect threat looming over them. They still had to sneak their way out of the maze.

•

Sora was very bad at using Rita's items. Takeshi barely had a grasp of Makoto's magic arts. The Desert Rose still had a massive advantage over them.

“Pathetic,” the Desert Rose continued to taunt them. “Can't you put up even a little fight?”

Rita and Aisha arrived on scene to watch the Rose launch a Diamond Punch at the boys.

“There's gotta be something we can do…” Aisha said.

“We can try, but… is THAT my arrows and cloak?!” Rita replied. She noticed Sora was very bad at using her items.

Aisha took another look at her own inventory, revealing a sword. She realized she had Takeshi's inventory. With a loud battle cry, she charged at the Desert Rose.

Takeshi realized Aisha was trying to fight with his items, which left her extremely vulnerable to magic attacks. 

“Aisha! Close your eyes!” Takeshi yelled. She did as he told her, allowing Takeshi to make a very hasty Star Bright attack, blinding the Desert Rose for a brief moment.

Aisha got a powerful strike at the villainess, reducing her Life to seven.

“I can't believe this!” the Rose cried. “You worms actually hit me!”

“And there's plenty more where that came from!” Rita shouted. Everyone was making a big fuss now, which was beginning to draw the attention of the giant insects. Rita went over to Sora and grabbed her items from him. “Give me those! Let me show you how it's done! Ice Arrow!” Rita fired off a single arrow and…

It missed!

“What the?!” Rita was stunned. “How did that miss! I never miss!”

“Our skills got swapped along with our items…” Takeshi explained. “I got Makoto's magic arts, Sora's got your archery, Aisha has my swordplay…”

“What have I got then?” Rita asked.

“Have you got any of Sora's items in your inventory?”

“No…”

“Lightspeed Kick!” Makoto called out as he took aim at the Desert Rose. Still blinded by the Star Bright magic, she could not react as Makoto's attack landed right on target. Six Lives remaining.

“Hey! That's my armor!” Sora noted.

Rita, by using the process of elimination, realized she only had two options left: Aisha's magic and Proteus’ curse. She had no idea how either one worked, so she felt powerless to contribute to the battle.

Proteus finally joined the battle as well, trying to zap the Desert Rose with lightning attacks. He clearly had Aisha's magic, but he wasn't very good at using it, as he missed every shot he took.

“This is impossible!” Lazlo complained on-screen. “How are you learning to use each other's abilities so quickly?!”

Before he could get an answer, everyone heard a tremendous roar off in the distance. The giant insects were back, and judging from the sheer power of the roar, there were more of them than before.

“What's going on?!” the Desert Rose shouted. Emerging from the corn maze were dozens of giant insects of various species, all headed straight for her. She tried to find them off with her magic, but there were simply too many of them to handle. They managed to deal enough damage to her to bring her down to two Life before she could launch a Final Time attack.

Everyone else tried to fight off the giant insects in their own way, to varying degrees of success.

Having shaken off the giant bugs, she told the gang, “You worms haven't seen the last of me!” She then fled the scene before more bugs could come after her, calling her broom to aid her.

Realizing whose skills she had gotten in the power swap, Rita shifted into a four-winged pigeon and flew after the witch. She was aiming to knock her down one last embarrassing attack. It worked, but barely. The Desert Rose tried to swerve away just in time, but she accidentally steered her broom in the wrong direction… right at Rita.

Having fallen off her broom, the Desert Rose was now down to one Life. Having become completely embarrassed by the incident, she called her broom again and flew off.

Rita had turned back into a human just in time for the others to congratulate her.

“I don't believe this!” Lazlo screamed. “You idiots actually managed to work together despite having all your skills jumbled together! And somehow! SOMEHOW! You were able to win against the best magic user in The Game! How?!”

“To be honest, Mr. Cardona,” Takeshi explained, “THEY did most of the work.”

“It doesn't matter!” Lazlo told them. “Tomorrow morning is the Tower of Power, and there is NO WAY you will be able to conquer my greatest creation! Enjoy your victories while you can! Because I will have the ultimate victory!”

Lazlo left the gang alone, putting their skills and inventories back to where they belonged as a parting gift for “completing” his challenge.

“So, uh…” Takeshi realized. “Does anyone know how we're supposed to get back to Innsbruck?”

“Oh, for Pete's sake!" Lazlo's voice could be heard overhead as he hurriedly reset the gang's location data to Innsbruck.

“Thanks!”