Winners, Losers and everyone in between

Slash! Zap! Zzzzzzz!

Our swords collided on that moment. A strong light spread everywhere due to both laser weapons hitting each other, then a second later the light dispersed as each sword, little by little, started to deform as their metal melted under the contact with the laser edges.

Different from what many people think, laser swords are not made of laser beams. Actually the only part that has lasers on it are their edge and everything else is made entirely of metal.

In this kind of collision, edge vs edge, there are usually two possible outcomes: In rare cases where the difference between the quality of the swords is big, the one with the highest quality will cut the other cleanly, suffering almost no damage. As for every other case both swords will slowly melt and distort until one or both of them stop working, turning into scrap metal.

By analyzing the swords' collision's reaction I quickly deduced that the outcome for our case would be the second one, so, instinctively, before my sword took any more damage, I quickly stepped back.

Of course the enemy didn't allow me to simply retreat and continued to slash madly at me.

Knowing that blocking with my sword was not a good idea as it would made me lose my weapon, I continued retreating one step at a time while dodging the strikes and waiting for a chance to fight back.

Unfortunately the enemy's endless barrage of swings never allowed me a chance to cleanly strike back.

As time passed, I became more and more anxious as the enemy started reading my moves and his sword swings left scratches all over my Titan's body due to not being able to dodge completely.

Knowing I couldn't continue like this as the situation would only worsen and one mistake was all he needed to finish me off, I decide to gamble everything in a suicide attack. If I won, I would finish him off and continue the tournament, if not, at least I would leave my mark on his Titan and make him an easy target for Raf to finish off.

"Raf, I'm going to make a suicide attack here. Wish me luck!"

"Eh!? What!? Wait! Tell me where-"

"Too late!"

My suicide attack started as soon as the enemy finish his sword swing.

While doing a horizontal slash I suddenly charged against him using all thrusters at full power, ignoring the follow vertical slash that the enemy initiated at the same time.

My actions caught him off guard as I has only defended myself up until now so instead of trusting his armor and exchanging attacks with me, the enemy decided to parry my attack cancelling his swing half way.

Noticing he was going to parry, I shook my Titan's wrist, changing the direction of my slash, making what was a simple horizontal slash into a diagonal slash.

Slash! Pang! Zap!

As my sword lifted his parry, I rotated my wrist to the other side side, aiming for his hand. My move caught him unprepared making him stunned for enough time to cut off his hand.

His hand slowly fell to the ground, giving birth to a moment of silence as we stared at each other Titans for what if felt like an eternity.

"I won."

"Not yet."

Instead of accepting defeat like a man or trying fight with the arm he had left, my opponent simply turned around and tried to run away, leaving me quite surprised for this reaction.

"Came back here and accept your defeat like a man!"

I was prepared to receive a tackle or a punch, but so seeing him turn and flee instead was quite a surprise, stunning me in place and allowing him to take some distance.

I quickly recovered myself and prepared myself to chase him but after taking a few more steps I suddenly stopped and took out my rifle instead.

"God, this is embarrassing, I almost forgot I had this!"

Maybe because of the panic, the guy was not zig zagging anymore, so he made an easy target for my shooting skills. I loaded my rifle with the explosive rounds, aimed at his legs, and made a shot.

Bang! Boom!

As a light explosion happened, the opponent Titan's leg exploded, making him fall on the snow.

To ensure he hand no more surprises, I didn't approach him yet and shot him in the thrusters instead.

Bang! BOOM!

I got lucky with the shot and hit the engine instead, making he whole thing explode, finally giving me my hard earned points.

[+2]

Nice! Two points! It seems like he had already won against someone before!

With no enemies left in sight, I took my time to see the score yet again.

[Prophet:16]

[Bonevoyage:12]

[1/2:10]

[Yin:8]

[Troyan:7]

[King:7]

[Minion:4]

[Mike: 4 (eliminated)]

[Bard: 4 (eliminated)]

[Lolabaluza:3]

[The_White_Knight:3]

[...]

Prophet was still in first place, with quite a big lead over the others. Doctor Bones was right after him and Raf was just behind in third place.

"Keep it up, Raf! You can do it!"

"You alive?"

"Yeah! If not, how could I be contacting you now?"

"...Right. Come fast to the center, I need your help!"

"Right away!"

Only 9 Titans were left.

[All right, time to meet up with Raf in the center...]

I had been pretty lucky on all my battles and my Titan was still in top form. Even though I was only in 6th place, I could still surpass those above me as long as I took them down.

[I never thought I would survive so long in this tournament! If things continue like this, maybe we can really win!]

With this in mind, I started heading north-west at full speed but not even 4 km later my journey was disturbed by an explosive surprise.

BOOM!

(Wh!?)

Suddenly my leg fails and I start falling head first on the snow plains.

(Enemy attack!? From where!?)

BOOM!

As I try to get up again, my Titan's right arm explodes, sending me back to the floor.

"Fuck off! Give me a break!"

BOOM!

As I lost one arm and a leg, I knew it was over.

To buy a bit of time I threw my wall between me and the sniper, but it was just a matter of time before he finished me off.

BOOM!

"Raf, it seems like it will be impossible for me to come to help you..."

"What!? Did someone got you??"

"Yeah, a sniper with explosive rounds. He should be in the East side. He disabled my arms and legs and will soon finish me off."

BOOM!

"Damn! Try to keep yourself alive! I will try to do something!"

"Don't bother, it's too late. Good luck!"

BOOM!

The portable wall fell after the third shot. Considering how strong these shoots are, I have to praise it's durability. Now, with no more obstacles between us, I was at the sniper's mercy and there was nothing I could do about it...

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

One by one the enemy shots methodically dissembled my Titan, taking out my arms, legs, and weapons.

"Damn it, man! Just hit my engine and end this already!"

I try calling him on the public channel but no one answers my call.

The shots stopped and silence followed for a minute or two before the first signs of the enemy appears on my screen.

[Did he use up his ammo and now needs to finish me off on melee?]

Seeing him approach step by step I smile helplessly and wait for him.

"Yo! Wasted all your ammo?"

"No, I wanted to finish you off with my own hands!"

Hearing him answer on the radio, I recognized his voice immediately making me scream.

"Damn you Robert!"

At the same time I scream, he strikes me down with his sword.

BOOM!

GAME OVER.

--//--

"Damn it! I can't believe this happened!!! This is so unfair!!!! SO UNFAIR!!!!"

"..."

"I killed 5 Titans! FIVE! And a son of a ***** that killed only TWO Titans got ahead of me, stealing my third place!"

Hearing Raf's despair, I couldn't help feel a little bit better, making me smile helplessly.

It was not that I liked to see him suffering, it's more like the feeling of having someone in a worse situation than you, making you feel like your own situation is not that bad when compared to them.

"Damn Lolabaluza! How dare you steal my massage chairs, women and free for all buffet!?"

"..."

"Wahh!!! I want to cry!!!!"

To explain why his situation was worse than mine, I need to explain what happened after I was eliminated.

As I got out of the simulator I noticed that, Bonevoyage and other three people who were below me were also killed, leaving only Prophet, Raf, Troyan, Yin and Lolabaluza in the game.

Having nothing else to do, I wished Raf some good luck and joined the audience to watch the ending of the tournament.

The next one to fall was Troyan, aka Robert, the sniping bastard who had taken me out. Seeing him being bombarded by Prophet made me feel incredibly good.

Following this, the Raf and Yin stopped fighting and joined forces to finish the Prophet before he killed them both with his long ranged attacks.

The battle was incredible! Both Raf and Yin attacked Prophet together from both side but somehow Prophet was always one step ahead of them, predicting their moves before they even made them and sealing their attacks with perfectly aimed shots. Even so the two didn't give up and continued to attack Prophet restlessly until finally Raf and Yin score some critical hits after sacrificing one arm and a leg.

As the battle with Prophet ended, Raf had lost one arm and one leg, and Yin had both legs damaged, making his movements quite clumsy as well.

Now that their mutual enemy had been finished, it was time to settle their own scores. The battle started without any sign, both Raf and Yin attacked each other, exploiting each other's weaknesses while trying to defend themselves.

Because both Titans were already damaged, the battle was slower than usual, but this didn't make it any less exciting.

In the end Yin was able to strike down Raf after talking out his sword with a beautiful judo move, throwing him face first against the snow. But Yin didn't even had time to celebrate his victory as a laser dagger suddenly pierced Yin's engine from behind, ending Yin's winning streak just as Yin thought he reached the finishing line.

With Yin out of the game, the last survivor was called Lolabaluza, but because his score was too low, he was unable to win the tournament, ending up in third place instead.

The final results had Yin in first place with 14 points, Prophet on second with also 14 points and Lolabaluza on third with 11 points.

Raf? He stood in 4th place with 9 points, feeling a regret so big that no words could describe.

As for me? Well, I got 7th place, which put me in the best eight. Maybe I could have gotten a better position if Robert hadn't shot me in the back, but the fact is that he did and not even a miracle would change that.

After receiving our prize, a cheap t-shirt with the event's logo, we went back to my booth where we grabbed two chairs to pass the time while we waited for the first day's closure announcement.