5.1 - Ace of Spades

Timeline Zeta

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2012.12.25

13:37:00 Central European Time

After getting hit by the bullet emitted by the man, Natascha interrupted her kick, came to a standstill, and then accelerated towards Selena, slowly closing the vast distance between them.

“Four on one? You gotta be kidding me! What the hell just happened?”

Selena managed to command the butterfly that had stuck to Natascha to leave her back and slowly circle around to attach itself to the woman without being noticed.

Natascha and the man closed in on Selena's position in the meantime.

There was little more than half a minute left on the countdown, plenty of time for Selena to be defeated and them losing their first match.

Selena switched her position with one of the butterflies farther to the east. She had to stay away from close combat, at least until she had figured out a weakness in her enemies' abilities. This wouldn't be easy. The man was covered by Natascha. The woman by Red. Both were currently ready for close combat. And by whatever means, both enemies apparently had the means to control the targets hit by their bullets.

The man emitted one more bullet that mixed in a volley of seed bullets from the woman. Selena dodged all of them by means of teleportation, while still focused on her analysis.

Going by the game mechanics so far, there must have been some severe restrictions. Maybe only one of them had the actual skill? There was the instance of the high five they exchanged between them... Could one of them have a skill to transfer skills in a similar vein to Red's 'Four Cords'?

They had also only used four bullets in total between the two of them. And only on targets of the opposite sex.

Things began to fall into place in Selena's head. In the meantime, her butterfly had reached the back of the enemy woman without getting noticed.

It was time to test her deductions so far and use Red's former tactic.

Selena put her plan in motion, and the enemy woman found herself in free fall, crashing into the ground shortly after, despite her best efforts to reduce her downward momentum by conjuring rocks in the same way the man had done before. She crashed into the ground with barely reduced momentum.

Red was released from the effects of whatever skill she had used in the process.

With only about 5 seconds to spare, Red slowly returned to his senses.

The match ended in a draw, and their surroundings faded to white once more, like they had done when they entered the arena.

All five of them found themselves inside a dark tower. Like in a gloomy dungeon scene. Gone was the bright light from before, only dull twilight remained.

“Well played, miss teleporter,” said a woman's voice from behind. “Couldn’t help but notice that both of your frontline fighters used the same fire skill. Unless this game gives out skill copies on the dozen, I think our two groups might have a few things in common.”

Selena turned around to see their former enemies standing right behind them.

"I am Arionna Tonic, this is my cousin Jin,” said the woman. “We haven't formed a guild yet. Wanna join forces?”

Natascha shrugged her shoulders. “Fine with me.”

“Fine with me too,” said Selena.

The two of them turned to Red who just nodded and opened his terminal.

A translucent screen abruptly appeared in their field of view.

On its digital displays, three sentences were written:

“You have been invited to join the choir 'A Choir for the Ages [ ROCK ]'”

Below it, two alternatives appeared, “Accept” and “Decline”.

During the following smalltalk, Natascha, Selena, and Red followed up with a description of their skills.

“Not too shabby, but the two of us have better synergy, don’t we?” asked Arionna. “My first skill is 'Guns N' Roses'. With it, I can create small seed bullets and use them as projectiles. They are very fast, accurate, and long-range. Once they hit, they give rise to rose vines that can immobilize the target.”

“That's what you used first. What about the other?” asked Red.

“The second one is 'Sex Pistols'. It can fire a projectile that, if it hits a target of the opposite sex, will defend me for 6 minutes. It has 6 ammo charges at most and can regenerate 1 charge after 6 minutes.”

“Sounds pretty overpowered, given the right enemies,” said Natascha.

“Yes,” said Arionna, “but it is also somewhat of a gamble. The bullets aren't that fast, and the charges take long to refill. It is actually more useful in close combat.”

“As for me,” said Jin, “My first skill is 'Rock Out'. It's a pretty simple physical rock conjuration. As for the one you haven't quite figured out yet, that's 'Ace of Spades'. It can switch a skill from the user's skill pool with a skill in the target's skill pool in a one-for-one exchange. The switch lasts for about 5 minutes.”

“Huh,” said Red. “I wonder what would happen if we used ‘Ace of Spades’ on a ‘Four Cords’ copy of ‘Ace of Spades’ and then…”

“What a coincidence," said a distant, dark voice hidden in deep shadows. “We were just wondering about that too.”