Finals

After this first round a one hour break was announced before the start of the finals.

Raf and I went to the food court to grab some meat.

"Damn! I can't believe this! I was so close! SO CLOSE!!!!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I was right below you..."

"But you don't understand! I could even see the white of the bastard's eyes! If I had one more second! Half a second! I would have cut him in half! It was this close, you see! This close!!!"

Raf approached his hand to my face, showing two fingers almost touching each other.

Annoyed with his action I slapped his hand away, but he didn't stop.

"At the moment I jumped up, I lifted my sword to clave him in half all at once, I had everything planed, there was no way it would go wrong! But the moment he came to view, he was already shooting at me!!!"

"..."

"It was like a tiger, waiting for his prey! No, more like a snake! Or a panther! Whatever! I don't care! It gave me no chance! I couldn't do anything! Nothing at all! All I could do was watch the bullet approach me in slow motion while I was still in plain flight! It was so unfair!!!! How could he do that!? How could he predict not only the direction but even the timing of my jump so well!?"

"..."

"Those artillery shells take time to shoot, it's not like the rifles that can shoot whenever we want! There is a delay of a second or so between the time you press the trigger and the actual shot. For him to hit me, he had to calculate everything perfectly! The moment I started to jump, my jumping acceleration, the angle I jumped, and even more! This is crazy!"

"..."

"But the bastard did the impossible!! It was like he could predict the future!!! This is insane!!!"

"Yeah, yeah. Isn't that why he is called ''The Prophet''? Seeing the future should be included in his skills!"

"As if I would believe that!! This guy must be cheating! There is no way he can calculate everything like that!"

"But everybody was watching him. If he had cheated someone would have noticed something wrong. You yourself took a look at his actions moments prior his last shot on the replay and found nothing wrong! And the equipment we use are all from the tournament, so there is no way he could inject any alien software on his machine to give him a hand!"

"Then you believe this bullshit? That he simply has supernatural powers and can predict the future?"

"Man, shut up! Whether he has powers or not, I don't care. Let's just focus on the battle in front of us now. Instead of complaining about you almost losing, shouldn't you be happy you survived instead? For a second there I thought you had lost and I would have to fight on my own!"

"Damn, you are right. But... DAMN! I'm going to the bathroom wash my face again..."

==//==

After we had lunch, me and Raf parted ways, he went to the bathroom to cool his head and I went back to my booth to tell grandpa about the tournament and leave the leather bag with him.

Grandpa reacted like I expected, giving me a push telling me to not worry and to aim for first place, like my parents would. I smiled back to him and ran back to the tournament site.

After reaching the space where the simulation capsules where installed, I looked at the main monitor where people could watch the match taking place. On the monitor the best moments had already stopped showing and now there was a count down was showing 5 minutes left before the start of the finals.

"Good. I'm just in time!"

The finals were different from the preliminary. While the preliminary's objective was just to survive, the final's objective was to make points. Of course surviving would also be important, but just surviving was not enough anymore, one had to defeat as many Titans as possible as well.

Basically the rules are the following:

Everybody starts with three points.

Each time you kill a Titan, you steal a third of their points from them (rounded up), and they are taken out of the round.

The game ends when there is only one survivor left.

Then the participants are ordered by the number of points and if there is a draw, the one eliminated last takes the higher place.

To win this game there were two main strategies, either try to bully the weaklings at the start to accumulate points and hide in the end, to protect the points you made the best you can, or hide at the beginning and steal the points from the high point players at the end.

In my opinion the second strategy was the best one, as there are no easy targets and if you survive intact you will have quite a big advantage over others in the late game. But the problem is if you end up being eliminated instead, you will end up with no points, with means no prize for you...

"No matter the tactic, this is all useless if that guy start bombarding everywhere again..."

On the bright side, I think most of his teammates were taken out, or at least some of them were, so it should be easier to finish reach him now than before...right?

"Sigh...."

Baaam!

A heavy slap hits my back out of nowhere.

"Raf! The game has not started yet, and you are already trying to kill me!?"

"Good luck in the Final! Aim for first place!"

"Eh? Are you giving up now? Shouldn't you be telling me to aim for the second place?"

"Hahahaha! Right! Then aim for second place! The first place is mine!"

"Sure! Let's do this!"

After hitting fists as if sealing a contract, I looked back at him and asked.

"So what's the plan?"

"Since we are both not bad, let's bully the weak and gather as many points as we can. No point in going against The Prophet, it will just hurt our chances..."

"Are you sure? Don't you want to pay him back for the last round?"

"I do! Believe me, I do! Even more than you imagine! But before all else we got this tournament to win, so let's not invert our priorities!"

"All right, if we do that, I think we can reach at least the best eight with no problem."

"Fuck the best Eight, aim for the best Three!"

"Okay, okay, best three... Damn, this will be tough! So what if that guy start raining down the apocalypse again?"

"If he does, we-"

Beeeeee!

A siren started sounding out, announcing the last 30 secs before the match start.

"Let's talk in the communicator, good luck!"

"Good luck to you as well!"

--//--

The Final's battleground was drawn, it was the snow desert battleground.

As soon as the game started, all I saw around me was snow, snow and more snow.

The white snow around me was blinding white, with no signs of ever being touched by any men, which made sense, since it was a virtual world. There were no plants, trees or rocks, only a desert of snow as far as the eyes could see... only snow and... Titan's made of steel.

This made me lose a bit of my sense of direction, unsure where to go to meet other Titans to gain some points.

Luckily there was a map showing my location and directions, so starting from there I made my plans.

"Hey Raf, where are you?"

"B-05, right on top of the map. And you?"

"One moment, let me see... Q-27! Damn! How big is this map!?"

"Seems like we are too far to meet up for now. Let's just explore the map and try to find each other at the center again."

"All right. Good hunting!"

"Hehe! Found my first pray! I'm out!"

The final match started and so did the engine of my virtual Titan. Accelerating as fast as I could I ran through the white snow leaving deep foot prints behind.

The snow plain didn't offer any covers, so ranged attacks had an edge over melee attacks. Luckily my Elite Knight was equipped with both melee and ranged weapons, so it wouldn't be in a complete disadvantage no matter the terrain we got.

Soon my first target was found, as well as my second.

Both of them were already engaged in a fight, shooting each other right and left, and because of all the noise they are making none of them had noticed me yet.

"Great! Let's finish them off all at once!"

I ready my rifle at once and aim for the closest one's engine, while planning my next shot as well. At this moment I can't help but think this competition is a little bit unfair as well, after all no matter how much damage one does to the other's Titan, as long as the other person has the last shot, this person will steal his kill...

Ban Ban Ban Bang! Ban Ban Ban Bang!

In a quick succession of shots my rifle fire bullets at my two targets, hitting them from the side on the moment they locked their swords.

Boom!

The first one is hit in the engine that explode releasing smoke everywhere, as for the other one, he is luckier and takes a hit only on his arm, but because of the sudden impact his balance is messed up and he ends up falling on the ground, so before he has a chance to react, I sprint to him with my laser sword and finish him off.

[+1]

[+1]

Two points were quickly added to my score, leaving me with 5 points in total, which was quite good. I took a second to look at the score and was surprised to find out I was not in the lead and there were people with 3 kills already.

[Prophet: 6]

[1/2: 6]

[Bonevoyage: 6]

[Troyan: 5]

[King: 5]

[...]

Even with my double kill, I was only the 5th in the board, Raf and Prophet were on the lead along someone nicknamed Bonevoyage...

"Hey, is this a pun? Really? A pun?? Or did he wrote it wrong??"

I start questioning his sanity while trying to figure out the hidden meaning behind this name but I'm soon rudely awaken by the sound of shootings nearby, making me jump to the side while turning around.

"Fuck this is not the time to get lost in trivialities!"

Luckily the shoots were not aiming at me, but on some unlucky fellow who was tracking me from behind. I turn around just in time to see his Titan roll over and explode as multiple shoots hit his back. Searching for the source of the shoots I see a Titan aiming at me with a pistol as he ran toward me.

"All right, time for a shooting duel."

Unfortunately it seems like the opponent didn't have the same idea as he suddenly shot out two missiles from his shoulder launchers giving me one hellish surprise.

"Damn it!"

Shooting wildly with my rifle I was somehow able to destroy them before they reached me, but the explosion threw snow everywhere, including my Titan's cameras and legs, making me lose sight of him as I found myself half covered in snow.

I shook my Titan to the sides like a dog trying to dry himself after being splashed by water, sending all the snow that was over me away. The cameras started working again just in time to warn me of the enemy's fast approach. I figured out he had spend all his ammo by now as he had thrown his pistol away and was now facing me with his laser sword instead.

There was still a little bit of time before he reached me, so I shoot his legs, trying to immobilize him. But the guy seems to have predicted my move as he started zigzagging left and right, dodging most of my shots along the way.

"Damn! He is good!"

Knowing that further shooting would be useless, I decided to save my ammo and ready myself for a melee duel. Considering this guy's speed, it would be hard to run away, and even harder to kite him, so I found myself with no other choice then fighting him in a sword duel like the knights of old.

Taking the moment of peace I had left, I looked at the score to see how things were progressing as I took out my lase sword as well...

[Prophet: 10]

[Bonevoyage: 10]

[1/2: 8]

[Troyan: 7]

[Mike: 7]

[...]

Those guys are crazy! How can they make so many points in so little time!? Looking at the score I was down to the 7th place, the damn Prophet was still leading, along our French friend Bonevoyage. Raf was right behind them, with two points difference and the other ones I was not sure as I didn't pay any attention to them.

Looking at the score I counted the not eliminated folk and discover there were only 16, most of them were like me or pretty close, having 4 or 5 points. My lead was gone and I had no time to lose, so I faced my opponent and also started charging at him.

"Time to duel!"