Domination

Crackdown is a map inspired by the planet Mars. The monitor screen displayed a stretch of brown dust and capsule homes from an abandoned colony, with the sky a deep strawberry red.

Akira's character, a man in heavy white armor with goat-like horns on his helmet, spawned alongside two others, a man in dark gray armor with purple accents and a woman wearing light armor.

"So, what's the plan?"

The voice came from the female character, Daiki.

"For the start of the match, Haruki and I will capture the zone. Stay low, and if you see an opening, you know what to do."

"Got it, boss."

Suddenly, Daiki's character disappeared. As expected from the Clandestine kit, one of its abilities was Mimicry, allowing the character to blend into the surroundings as if vanishing.

Before Akira and Haruki headed toward the zone, Daiki asked Akira one last thing.

"Are you sure you can handle the match with your hand?"

"You're asking too late." Akira chuckled. "But don't worry. I'm the tanker. All I have to do is soak up the damage. You and Haruki do the work."

The point zone was about 100 meters away in-game. It was a square-like area, surrounded by deserted capsule homes. In the middle was a 30-meter radius holographic circle.

That circle was the zone—the area being fought over.

The Domination mode worked like most FPS games. Both teams fought to control a single area called the zone. The team with the most members holding the zone would earn points. The first team to reach 100 points, or with the most points when the timer ran out, would win.

[Blue Team: 000 | Red Team: 000]

[Blue Team: Maxfit-61, Ganbate-ne, lowkey6666]

[Red Team: YATOGAMI-chan, gun_fps, GitGud-UwU]

As Akira entered the zone, an enemy player in similar armor appeared, bombarding him with a launcher.

Naturally, Akira immediately activated his tactical ability, Shield Dome. As its name suggests, a large, semi-transparent orange dome surrounded Akira, shielding him from the explosives.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions echoed in his headset. Not long after, Yato's voice came through the voip.

"Wow, I am seeing this, right? Akira using Rook instead of Fragger? What's going on here? "

Akira only responded with a scoff. Answering would only fuel Yato's provocation. This was his usual tactic outside official tournaments—riling up his opponents to throw off their gameplay.

"But I get it. With your condition, there's no way you could use an offensive kit. Forget using Fragger, you probably can't even aim properly. Ha ha ha…"

Even though Yato's mocking laughter filled his ears, Akira remained unfazed. His mind was heated, but his heart stayed cool. Besides, from the provocation, Akira could tell Yato had no idea he was using a controller.

While Yato rambled on, Haruki took the opportunity to unleash a barrage of shots. Thousands of blue laser beams rained down on Yato. However, someone covered him with an exploding fire grenade, halting the attack.

A gray-armored man dove into the zone. From his visor, it was clear the opponent was using a Fragger armor kit.

"No way, are you really Japan's top Fragger leaderboard? Maxfit-61? Why are you running Rook?"

The voice sounded unfamiliar. Akira didn't recognize it.

"I was hoping for a one-on-one with you. What a disappointment."

Once again, Akira stayed silent, focusing on his shots at Yato. However, Haruki wasn't about to let his boss be disrespected.

"Coward. You're trying to beat Maxfit while he's injured. If he were in his prime, he'd beat the shit out of you!"

"Hey! Look who's talking. A silver rank should stay quiet. What do you even know about RRO? Shut up and grind your rank.) The enemy player chuckled. (Is Quantum Esports really this desperate to recruit a silver?"

After hurling the insult, the enemy player retaliated against Haruki with a barrage of bullets. Haruki immediately activated one of his tactical abilities, Into the Void. His character turned into a shadowy glitch-like form, and the bullets passed through him as if hitting a ghost.

Seizing the moment, Akira aimed at the enemy Fragger.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Akira emptied a clip, firing off six shots. The first two hit their mark, stunning the enemy for two seconds thanks to the Electric Conductor module. Seeing the opportunity, Haruki took his shot.

BRRRRRR!

But a dome shield blocked the barrage, disintegrating the bullets in an instant. Haruki gritted his teeth, frustrated that he couldn't deal any damage to the loudmouth opponent.

Yato had thrown up a Dome Shield to protect his teammate. But his shield was different from Akira's. It glowed red, with fiery waves of energy rippling through it.

"So, he's using a fire-attribute reactor, huh?"

The reactor attribute affects an armor kit's abilities. If a character uses a fire reactor, their abilities take on fire-like properties, such as burning. However, this doesn't apply to all abilities. Some armor kits don't get altered by attribute reactors, like Striker's Smoke Launcher ability.

The two teams were evenly matched, with neither side scoring yet. Both blue and red teams were trying to push each other out of the zone. Akira was playing as the frontline tank, blocking and taking damage, while Haruki and the enemy exchanged fire.

The third player from both teams had yet to show themselves. They were playing as assassins, only revealing themselves when there was a kill to be made.

Akira focused on shooting the enemy damage dealer, but most of his shots were missed.

"Are you really the number one player on Japan's leaderboard? Why are you missing all your shots? What a joke!"

Throughout the game, Akira kept getting trash-talked by both Yato and his teammates. But all those sharp words were just noise to him, like a dog barking in the distance.

Suddenly, the enemy Fragger made a mistake. When he threw a grenade, the trajectory was off, causing it to bounce back. Although he dodged it, he still took some collateral damage.

"What the hell are you doing, idiot?" Yato shouted.

"Sorry, boss."

Seeing an opening, Akira locked his eyes on the enemy Fragger as he carefully moved the joystick. As soon as the crosshair lined up with the target's head, he pulled the trigger.

"Gotcha!"

BAM!

[18979 Damage]

Half their HP was gone. At the same time, the enemy Fragger got stunned.

"Boss! Cover me!"

"It's on cooldown!"

Of course, Akira wasn't about to let the chance slip by.

"Now, Haruki!"

Skirmisher's ultimate ability was Dimensional Fist, a melee attack that dealt 200% critical hit damage. One hit was enough to kill. But it required perfect timing due to its long casting time.

Naturally, Yato tried to stop Haruki, but Akira wasn't having it. He fired off five shots, with four of them hitting their mark. Rook had a big hitbox, making it easier for Akira to land his shots.

"Eat this, bitch!"

Just when everyone thought Haruki was about to get the kill, a shot rang out in the air. A bullet struck Haruki's character in the head.

[1928987 Damage]

[Red Team Scores First Blood!]

[lowkey6666 - KDA: 0/1/0]

"What the hell!!!!"

Laughter filled the voip chat shortly after.

"Ha ha ha ha! They took the bait!"

"Noobs!"

"A pro player, falling for a rookie trap like that?"

Haruki got sniped by the third enemy player. It turned out the red team's assassin had been hiding behind some rocks near their base, waiting for the perfect opportunity. He only fired when the moment was right.

Of course, this tactic only worked once. But it was enough to take out one of the blue team's players, giving the red team a dominant position. Red's score started ticking up.

"Their tank is alone. Let me finish him, boss!"

"Go for it!"

With the 2v1 situation, it'd be easy to take Akira down in the zone. Anyone would feel the pressure in that situation. But instead, a grin spread across his face.

"He he he, looks like you guys are the ones who fell into my trap."

Just as the enemy Fragger used their ultimate ability, a female character suddenly appeared behind him. She pointed a gun right at the back of the enemy's head.

It was Daiki.

"Surprise, motherfucker!"

"Eggh!"

BAM!

[182867 Damage]

The HP dropped to zero. One enemy player was eliminated from the zone.

"Nooo!!!"

But Daiki wasn't done. He dashed toward Yato, and a blade appeared in his hand's character. Yato, realizing the danger, unleashed an entire clip into Daiki, but it only took away a quarter of his HP.

"Shit…"

SLASH!

Yato's character was sliced in half before disappearing.

And with that, only the blue team remained in the zone.