Chapter 62: Preparation

Beep!

Orbit jumps, snapping out of his daze of fear at the sound of another screen going dark. He can only observe Aayn and Adora now.

Player Disqualified is what Daki's screen says, going dark upon his last purchase.

Shifting his eyes slowly to the three players he can still observe, he focuses on the screen showing Adora.

. . .

Adora finds herself face to face with a Queen piece.

"Please follow me, I'll explain on the way," says the Queen piece.

". . . you don't seem to be an ordinary Queen piece, who are you? What's going on?" asks Adora.

"I am the game's developed AI manager, I have merely taken control over the body of this physical piece," the Queen piece gestures for Adora to come with her, "Please, I don't know how much time we have left before another attack,"

". . . lead the way,"

. . .

"Well?" asks Adora as she jogs behind the AI manager in the woods.

"While you don't own all the properties, Daki had purchased that you be the master to all the workers,"

"When was that? And what about you?"

". . . I was purchased by player Daki to assist you within agreed upon parameters to ensure you win this game,"

"How –"

"I must ask, what style are you best at fighting in?"

Adora raises an eyebrow, "Why do you ask?"

"So that I can provide better assistance,"

. . .

"Help me help you," says the AI manager.

"Did he tell you to say that to convince me?" asks Adora in surprise.

"Yes,"

. . .

"I don't know yet. It's very weird because I'm an assassin by profession. I have never engaged in fights for long before. One shot, one kill, that's my style and I have a few skills that I rely on to quickly overwhelm and one hit knockout my opponent. But that's in cases out of the norm for me, and I may use them to buy time at worst," explains Adora.

"I usually let Haco take care of things such as drawn-out fights," she glances at her armor. "But right now, I don't know what more I can do with this armor. Her style is brute chaotic force, a display of utter dominance on the battlefield, like smashing a hammer if you may,"

They exit the forest, reaching a property.

"Thanks for the input, I'll take it into calculation,"

Adora nods, looking around and seeing all the military weapons.

"How can you use the weapons? Aren't they a part of the property?"

"No, Daki made sure that they remain as a separate system to be operated manually," explains the AI manager.

"Wait . . . that goes for all the properties?"

"Yes. Pieces are in them, controlling them. There is more for you to see,"

Flabbergasted, Adora looks around, "How did he even afford all this? He even bought your services! I know we accumulated a lot of points but . . . he even went to fight Zahtan's army on the other property . . ."

"He got a huge discount,"

"What?" asks Adora in confusion, looking around and seeing a dragon resting and soldier pieces at the ready.

"You must still have only one point in your balance," says the AI manager.

Adora opens the window to check.

". . . I thought that Daki just kept on purchasing, that's why it was stuck at one, but he isn't around anymore. Was it always just on one then? Why isn't it increasing? Shouldn't there be still functional properties?"

"Daki had accumulated points much faster than we could even calculate to predict. When the attack on the properties started, we made a deal that he can no longer gain points till the end of the game. However, specific things he stated in the terms of the deal are to have a massive discount,"

"What things?"

"I can't tell you any of them besides the ones you already know about and this last one, ask for the cost of teleportation anywhere on the island,"

. . .

"System," calls Adora and does what the AI says.

". . . Insanity . . . this cheap? This one point will be more helpful than it looks if that's the case!" says Adora. "But wait . . . what about going bankrupt?"

"You don't have to worry about that. Only one player can obtain points at this time, and he seems to be incapacitated and still at the moment,"

"How do you know?"

"I can see . . . from the purchase of another . . . one of the ways I can assist you in. Point being that we are in the market of violence now as Daki made a part of the purchase being that all properties within the alliance can be obtained by defeating and capturing the enemy property owner," explains the AI manager.

"Why not anything else with a different end goal to obtain victory?"

"That's all he could afford to buy. The prices for other forms of interference I had deemed very powerful and hence, the price was high, even with the discount,"

"Though, when he made the purchase, he had no idea that things would even develop to this point. Of if they did, that Daki would be this powerful," says the AI manager, "Not Daki, something else . . ."

"Come, there is more to show you and discuss about our plan to fight,"

"Do we even have time for that?" asks Adora.

"I would say yes," the AI manager points at the beacon in the middle of the property but says nothing more.

"Understood,"

"Daki had prepared the most favorable circumstances for our combat from the start, when he had the defense systems manually controlled. However, that beacon was installed later after the incident. All the pieces are no longer workers, but pieces of war,"

". . . fucking lunatic . . ." murmurs Adora.

"I don't think that's the accurate description for him. I would call it genius!"

"It's alright . . . let's quickly make the necessary preparations,"

. . .

A fragment of blue ash burns behind them as Orbit shifts his eyes again, looking at the insane battle between the armored blue warrior and One.

. . .

A roof formed above One, protecting them from the flaming blue spears falling around them.

Like a dolphin with the strike of a whale, the warrior flies at high speed, attacking repeatedly and relentlessly, throwing spears from all angles, not giving One a breather.

One blocking him with her shield and One parrying and deflecting with his sword, a beautiful equilibrium of stalemate, all three . . . equally stuck . . . or so One thought.

Deflecting a flaming blue spear, One looks around in search for the warrior, but he seems unable to find him.

Above!

He hears in his head and looks up, finding the warrior rushing from above. His blue flames have taken over and burned through his cover . . .

That gent madeth me think that he can't burneth through mine own veins and her think that he can't overtake her flames! A setup trapeth with false information, tampered with by the warrior since the beginning of the duel. A conclusion that–

The warrior strikes with his spear perfectly, and the Male One finds his only option to dodge, and so he does.

The Female One attempts to attack the warrior mid-air with a shield bash and . . . she lands the hit to her surprise!

The warrior is sent rolling towards the ground.

The Female One looks at him as the warrior looks at her from the ground.

". . . we winneth," she declares.

"Nay . . ." murmurs the Male One as she turns around to look at him and sees a cut on his mask.

"That warrior didst,"