Chapter 14: Second Night (Part 5)

Mary was shaking, clutching Andy’s spear to her chest. “They… They’re going to come after me, right? They want to attack me? What… um, what if they… do that tank thing again?! No, no, I can’t, I don’t wanna be captain!”

She was a few seconds away from breaking into tears. Sam groaned.

“Look, Mary, you’ll be fine. Nobody’s actually going to hurt you. It’s just a game. And it could be good for you to take a few hits, you can’t keep running away from their attacks!”

She tried to be encouraging. She really did. But from the look on Mary’s face, it wasn’t much help.

“I… I’ll try…” She swallowed, trying to look brave.

“That’s the spirit!” Shannon grinned.

“Totally!” Daniel nodded. “And don’t worry! We’re right here, ready to protect you, no matter what! There’s no way they’ll get through us!”

He smiled at Mary and her face turned bright red. She promptly collapsed.

“Hey, are you okay?! What’s wrong?!” Daniel sputtered.

“Captain kill,” Sam dryly called over her shoulder. “Okay, let’s get you up.”

She helped the shy girl to her feet.

“…What are you doing?”

Mary had the collar of her sweater tugged up over her face.

“Ifs find,” she mumbled, giving Sam a thumbs’ up. “I camb do dhis.”

“…You know we can see your bellybutton, right?”

Mary tugged her sweater down with a shriek, practically in tears. “D-Don’t look! Don’t!”

“Stop being stupid. We have a game to play.”

Daniel was confused, but mostly concerned. “Hey, um…”

“Eeep!” More shivering from the little sheep.

Sam slapped him on the shoulder and spun him around. “Don’t worry about it. Just look that way.”

“But I should at least say I’m sor-“

“Don’t apologize for her neuroticism. Just play the game.”

“Sam!” Mary hissed. “Stop saying I’m neurotic!”

“Stop being a pain in the ass.”

Mary fumed at her, but she couldn’t say anything back.

“And put this on so we can start already,” Sam added, flinging the captain jersey into her face.

“Are you guys ready yet?” Carly called impatiently.

“Yeah, we’re fine!” Sam shouted back.

The whistle started the game.

From her position as a defender, Sam couldn’t get that good a look at the middle of the field. But from what she could see, Mike as the Mercenary had really changed the game.

She had to admit, he was a bigger contribution to their team’s defense than he’d ever been as their captain. He guarded the center with ease, scattering attackers from either side just with his approach. The smart ones stuck to the edges, going in when he went the opposite direction, and tried not to engage each other. Staying in one place for too long was a death sentence.

But it went both ways. Mac, Andy, and Willis came back one after another to respawn before heading out again, and soon it became clear that neither team could get through the wall of Michael without serious casualties. Maybe he’d take an arm here, or a leg there, but attacking was slowly losing ground.

Then everything changed! For the first time, rather than running, Andy approached Mike head-on, twirling her swords like cheer batons. Mike tried to cut her down, but like she’d said, the short swords were faster. She guarded the blows and kept herself just out of his reach.

Sam wondered if she was a dancer. The way she moved was just so fluid!

Mike was only held off for a few seconds, but that was enough for both sides to start sending people through. And just their luck, Tony and Nick were on the attack!

“Shannon, stay with Mary,” Sam ordered. “Daniel and I will take them on.”

“Sh-Shouldn’t you stay here?!” Mary whimpered.

“No. If they beat us, then there’s nothing to stop them from getting to you immediately. With a little distance, you can escape better. Don’t worry. It’s not like we’re going to go too far away.”

That was something Sam had picked up from their last few games after seeing Cain in action. He would come out to meet the attackers and take care of them before they got close. Copying him pissed her off, but it was the best play they had. While the invincible strategy worked too, she didn’t have as much confidence in Mary’s ability to pull it off, and certainly not against multiple foes.

“Who should I go after?” Daniel deferred to her. Sam’s eyes skipped over Nick and landed on Tony. He was bigger than Daniel, with a longer weapon. He could probably overpower the boy, but Sam was quick.

“I’ll take the big guy, you go for Nick,” Sam decided, advancing on the spear-wielder. An idle thought was nagging in her head, but she ignored it.

“Hey there!” Tony greeted her with a smile and a thrust right at her chest. She twisted her wrist to bat the spear away, stepping to the side. But she didn’t press the attack. That shield of his was a problem, and he was quite good at putting it between her sword and an area of attack.

Hmm. If I get in close, I could go for his legs… but with that spear he’s got too much range. This is tricky… Sam felt a smile tug at her lips. This was a puzzle, and she loved puzzles. He’s not swinging, he’s mainly thrusting. That leaves fewer openings. I need to get around him somehow. She was starting to pick up on how to fight, too.

“Ah! Darn!”

Just as Sam dodged another thrust, Daniel’s groan caught her ear. That nagging thought snapped into mind with crystal clarity, fuck! She’d forgotten to warn him about Nick’s tricky sword!

She jumped back, taking stalk of the situation. Nick was going after Mary now, he had to be. Could Shannon hold him off in time? No way. She had to go save her or they would lose! She turned on her heel and ran for Nick, who was charging at Shannon and Mary. But she barely made it two steps before she felt the push of the spear hit her in the back, nearly knocking her off of her feet.

“Shit! Fuck!” Tony ran past her, charging the two girls from the side. Sam chased after him. But there was no way she could get there in time, respawn, and take him out.

Fortunately, Daniel had already respawned, practically throwing himself in front of Mary to block the spear. Mary whipped her head around and gasped, pressing her own spear into his back to keep him alive.

But that meant there was no one to help Shannon. Sam watched helplessly as Nick finished her in a single swing, taking out Mary with a second.

“Captain kill!”

Sam sighed, slowing down to defeated walk. Well, they’d done their best, anyway.

“Darn it, that was a close one…”

Andy walked up behind them with a sour look on her face. She’d been coming back to respawn after Mike killed her, but hadn’t been able to get there in time.

Meanwhile Mary was too busy fretting over Daniel to pay any attention to them. Even as he assured her for the millionth time that yes, he was okay, the attack hadn’t actually hurt.

“So what was up with you?” Andy asked, turning to Sam.

“Huh?”

“You just turned your back on Tony like that. That’s just asking to get killed.”

“Well, what was I supposed to do? Just let Nick take Mary out!?”

“No, but you could have trusted the other defenders at least,” she suggested.

“I did trust him! But then he died, so I had to-“

“I’m talking about Shannon. Even if Nick killed Daniel, she was still there, right? And even Mary could have protected herself.”

“I mean…” Sam’s face heated up. She hadn’t even been thinking of that in the rush of the game, she was too focused on keeping Mary safe. But now that she’d calmed down, Andy was right. The smart thing to do would have been to hold Tony off as long as she could and rely on Daniel and Shannon to beat Nick. Letting him kill her like that had cost them the game.

“You don’t need to push yourself so hard all the time, Sam. You can always count on us!”

She rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly and hung her head in shame. “Yeah, sorry. I guess I let everyone down.”

Andy rolled her eyes. “Pfft. What is this, National Boffer Championship League? Forget it. This is just a game! We’ll do better next time.”

She glanced over her shoulder where the others were gathering.

“…But I think things might be changing up…”

They rejoined the rest of the group. Mike was practically dancing, an unusually-broad smile on his face.

“Whew! That was fun! What do you guys think, another game of Captains? Or should we switch to something else?”

“I’m fine with one more, though I think we should switch the Mercenary,” Mac suggested. “Kind of made the game drag a while.”

“Definitely, I had my one Mercenary game of the night,” Mike agreed. “Anyone else want to try?”

“I’ll do it!” Cain said immediately. “Been a while since I got a chance at the Mercenary.”

“Sounds good,” Mike nodded. “Let’s switch then.”

Mary practically seized with terror. Sam shared the feeling.

“Wait, seriously?” So… Mike was on the other side now?

Fuck. How the FUCK was that balanced?!