Showdown

“Alright, make a run for it toward the pickup point. I’ll hold him off,” Jenny whispered to Grace, getting ready to start playing. Grace nodded, swallowing her fear as the imposing man in front of them shot off another bubble beam.

It crackled as it raced toward them, and even with her bass powered up by the amp, Jenny was only barely able to deflect the attack, bouncing the pressurized pockets of air slightly to her right.

Coming into the light, Jenny saw the tall muscular man wore a pale blue shirt and tan cargo pants adorned by a belt with numerous pouches. A slightly darker blue open vest was above his shirt. Both had accents of pink along the sleeves, topped off by a purple and yellow headband which hid a black earpiece. “Thinking of splitting up? No, no, no.

“Nobody can escape my frozen bubble blades!” their opponent exclaimed as bubbles flew out of him, encircling the group. As a response, Jenny turned to Grace and blasted her into the air and out of the way of the wall of pain around them.

Grace held up the “OK” symbol and wore a confident smile as she landed a dozen meters away. She slapped a chameleon sticker on her hand and disappeared into the forest.

“Not that it’ll matter, but you can call me Mandruzzo. Honestly, it’s better that your teammate runs away. My teammate and I work better separately,” Mandruzzo explained, sending another bubble beam toward Jenny. Deflecting it again, the amp sticker dissolved, used up.

“Oh? That didn’t feel quite as strong,” Mandruzzo commented, sending another mass of bubbles toward her. Jenny had to both play and move out of the way.

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you to just leave my teammate and me alone?” Jenny asked, staring her opponent in the eyes as the whites of hers glowed golden, a suggestive magic lacing into her words.

He looked to be considering it, but in reality the frozen bubbles surrounding them were slowly closing in. “Nope! We’re hunting you guys to get the easy win condition. Hunting monsters isn’t nearly as fun as hunting people!”

With a violent inward motion of his arms, the icy spheres around them raced toward Jenny, who jumped and blasted the ground below her. Sailing over most of the attack, one errant bubble managed to cut across her leg, opening a long but shallow cut there and tearing her pants. Landing on a tree branch, she looked back to find that the bubbles were still after her.

She tried to blast them away with sound, but it didn’t even slow them down. Falling into a handflip, she ducked behind a tree, which the bubbles cut through, narrowly missing her. Aren’t those super thin? Whatever, I’ve held him off long enough, I can go now.

With that in mind, she began sprinting away. “It won’t be that easy!” Mandruzzo called behind her as she zig-zagged through the trees. With a twirling motion, he launched a volley of electric bubbles toward her.

She heard the crackling behind her, but decided to keep running. That proved to be a vital mistake, as the bubbles caught up with her and fried her, nearly knocking her out. Clinging to consciousness, Jenny stood back up. Man, why am I even doing this?

A narrow sound wave assaulted Mandruzzo, who blocked it with a bubble shield. The sound pierced the bubble and popped it, but he remained unharmed. “That’s pretty impressive, popping my bubble shield.”

Mandruzzo began to approach her, but his teammate spoke through his earpiece, “Leave the bassist alone, the brit got away.”

“Well, surely you realize you’ve bested me. Alla prossima.” With a fluid motion, a cascade of bubbles surrounded him and exploded, a flash of light filling the area. By the time Jenny could see again, he was gone.

Jenny climbed a nearby tree before allowing herself to relax. After a few minutes, she allowed herself to believe he was really gone. Taking out her phone, she called Grace. “Did you make it to the entrance yet?”

“Got sidetracked a little bit, but yeah. I can’t see you right now, where are you?” Grace asked, cycling through the different areas she had eyes on.

“In a tree, coming down now,” Jenny said, putting her bass away and landing in the clearing.

“Alright, turn left. Little more. Liiiiiittle more. Perfect. Head straight that way and we’ll both be at the entrance,” Grace explained, sitting against the edge of the barrier, the processing building they had entered through a few meters away. Their instructors made it clear that if you didn’t come back as a pair, you may as well not come back at all.

Jenny sprinted toward her partner, glad for it to be over. I swear if I encounter another pair of assholes trying to get the points for hunting other people I’m just going to leave.

Luckily, no such trouble showed itself. Upon returning, they were given their tablets back. Jenny had apparently scored a 4 out of 5, whereas Grace had scored a 4.2 out of 5. She made sure to lord this over Jenny as they made their way back to the administrative area. When they were told to follow the directions on their tablets to the main building, Jenny was ecstatic. She immediately called John.

John’s phone vibrated, but it wasn’t in his pocket. Without thinking, he had left it on the bed in the dorm room he and Abigail had been assigned. His phone vibrated in the silent, dark room before the call ended. Meanwhile, John was downstairs training with Abigail.

“Your fighting style is weird,” Abigail commented, watching John disarm a living dummy. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

“Thanks?” John asked, dropping the wooden sword the vaguely human creature had been holding. Using Advanced Spy on it revealed that the shape in front of them was the standard training dummy for the Rider-Waites. Good for getting used to the motions of combat and creating new ideas, but any skill experience that would normally be gained was reduced to one percent via his powers. No cheating skill experience out of enemies that can’t fight back, apparently.

“Disarm it again,” Abigail ordered, the sword reappearing in the dummy’s hand. He did so, and felt Abigail’s hand on his arms. “See, if you come at it from this angle, it’ll have less of a chance to attack back, you’re further from it, and it’s easier to remove the sword from its hands. That kind of thinking can be applied to disarming anyone with most close-range weapons. Guns like yours are a little trickier.”

Gun-Kata is now level 2! You have unlocked Disarm!

New Skill, Disarm, Passive, Level 1
When attempting to disarm an opponent, your chance of success increases by (((Your Strength-Their Strength)+(Your Agility-Their Agility))(Skill Level))%.

Dropping the wooden sword, it appeared in the dummy’s hand again. “Alright, watch this,” John said, attempting to disarm the dummy. The motion now seamless as he ripped the weapon from the much, much weaker enemy.

“Wow, that is exactly what I was talking about! How did you do that?” Abigail asked, mesmerized by someone who could change an amateur attack into a masterful work of art in mere moments.

“Oh right, you have no idea how my powers work. Well, I’ll explain later. It’s kind of a hassle. For now, think you can correct my movements some more?” Snapping herself out of it, Abigail felt more eager than ever to fight the man in front of her, but knew she couldn’t…