Chapter 8: Sole Survivors

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"C'mon Artie...*pants*...we can't....slow....*pants*...down...!" A female player says towards her friend, gasping and tired of running. "W-we should...*pants*....just f-fight...*pants*...back. W-we can't just...keep....*pants*....running." Artie tells his companion. Artie, being 5 feet 11 inches, has ginger hair, brown chocolate eyes. His outfit being white with orange stripes clone armor and is not wearing a helmet.
"I was thinking the same thing." The girl says what she has been (obviously) thinking. For right now, their lives are in great danger. The two players are being hunted instead of them being the hunters, for the tables have turned faster than a sniper shot. "Then let's set up....some....traps or...something. Wouldn't...that help us....Darcie?" Artie says, wanting a plan for taking the advantage, and no longer as tired as he was a few seconds ago.
"Yea...but with what?" Darcie, the pink hair girl with green eyes, outfitted with white and pink line designs clone armor, her helmet being tossed on the floor with its visor cracked. "We can...stick our thermal detonators...on the tree trunks....and when it gets near....boom!" He explains his plan, which was thought through for at least only eight seconds. "Good enough. Time isn't on our sides so let's set them up!" She commands. Artie nods and starts taking a few sticky versions of the grenades and starts placing them on the trunks of the nearby trees as Darcie does the same. The amounts of trees where innumerable, for they where in a forest on the planet Felucia. "All set!" Darcie claims, climbing a tree that has not been planted with explosives. Artie finishes soon after, climbing a tree a few yards away from his friend. "Now we wait." Darcie whispers to herself, holding the detonation remote on her hand. Artie starts shaking a bit, nervous that if they fail, death might take them away.
     The sounds of trees being slashed and cut down is all that is heard, for the two player's predator starts approaching their location. Darcie, keeping her eyes on the noise, readies herself by keeping her thumb on a red button that is placed on a joystick like detonator. Screeches and roars begin to get louder by the seconds, sending shivers down Artie's and Darcie's spine. And within seconds, four giant, green like crabs become visible to the two players. The ackalys starts walking towards the trees with attached explosives, smelling for the scent of their prey.

"Now!" Darcie yells, pressing the button and setting of the detonators. The ackalys starts to see the trees falling, ready to squish them like bugs. They turn around rapidly and begin their run to safety. But it's to late, the trees have already fallen and killed the green beasts.
"Hell yeah!" Darcie victoriously says, jumping off the tree. Artie smiles and climbs down instead. "Who won? Who won? I won!" Darcie taunts the dead creatures with her chant. Artie, however, doesn't see, so sure of his victory. Something's wrong, and he can't place his finger on it for the time being. "Why aren't you happy? We just killed these bastards!" Darcie asks her friend Artie, who is pondering about something. "Then why hasn't the reward screen appear in front of us yet?" He asks. It suddenly hits them like if10 bricks have been rapid fired on them. They haven't won yet. One of them is still lurking in the forest.
Darcie and Artie turn their backs to each other and start walking backwards until they are back to back, their weapons raised and ready to fire. Artie tights his grip on his battle rifle while Darcie pulls her DC-15A blaster in front of her, looking through the iron sight of her weapon, loud, quick, stabbing foot steps are heard as the final ackaly runs around them in a circle, camouflaging behind the trees. With every step, one of the two players moves a little, positioning their weapons to the last heard step, still back to back with each other.

"Hit the dirt!!" Darcie yells as she dolphin dives to her left while Artie Dolphins dives to the right, for the ackaly has come out of hiding and jumped on them, stabbing the players original position. "Open fire!" Darcie says as she rains fire at the green beast's left side. "You got it!" Comes the reply from Artie, firing his Battle Rifle at the left side of the ackaly. The ackaly, having its right claw stabbed and stuck to the floor, prioritizes on Artie, trying to slash him in half. Artie, watching the claw slicing though the air, jumps back, barely missing the sharp scythe. Darcie ejects her battery clip form her weapon, pulls one out of her belt, and reloads in a fast manner, thanks to her Dexterity Skill. She looks up to see her opponent's health. It is still in the green, looking as if their weapons have dealt almost nothing of damage. "Artie! We need a different plan of attack!" Darcie screams from across the battlefield. "Hook shoot it to the head use melee weapons on it!" He yells back, ducking in time to avoid a devastating swipe from the ackaly's left scythe. Darcie nods and attaches the hook shot attachment onto her weapon, and fires a sharp, thin knife like bullet with a rope attacked to it, hits the ackaly straight in the head. It's health depleted just a little bit and ever so slowly depleting point one do to the hook being inside its head. The pink haired girl yanks on the rope, slamming the head of the ackaly to the hard, grassy crust of the planet.

Darcie runs towards the fallen ackaly, jumps to its head, and stabs it with a 7 inch dagger. Darcie smirks, the beast health deplete by the seconds and is halfway to the yellow zone. The ackaly manages to free his right claw and stands up violently, sending the white and pink clone trooper slamming onto the nearest tree behind the ackaly. "Darcie!" Artie yells, worried about his companion. The ackaly takes the chance and slashes Artie on the stomach, causing him to fly several yards back. Artie looks to the top left of his vision, looking for his health bar. His health is in the verge of red while Darcie's is ready to enter yellow. 'We're dead, Darcie's knocked out and I can't even stand up. It just needs finish us off.' Artie realizes that death is near. The green beast walks slowly towards the white and orange clone, it's eyes staring into the soul of Artie. The beast raises its right claw, placing it several feet above his prey. Artie closes his eyes in fear, and braces himself.

Before the beast can even touch Artie, several laser blasts begin landing on its head. The monster screeches in pain, for its health is now lowered to the red zone. Artie looks back to see the beta player rushing towards the ackaly. The beast raise both its front claws and starts stabbing the floor, trying to hit the newcomer. Ian dodges each of its attack and slides feet first underneath the ackaly, and fires both Westars-35's towards the beast abdomen, and once he is no linger under the beast, he comes up and rolls foreword in one swift motion. The beast screeches its dying noise and falls flat on the floor, shattering into a million pieces before disappearing. With that, Ian is presented with the reward screen in firing in front of him, and accepts the high amount of EXP and credits.

"Darcie, are you alright!" Artie asks, picking up his female companion. She stands up with the help of Artie, and nods. "Did we win?" She asks. "No, we didn't." He replies. "Then why are we still alive!?!?" She asks loudly and confused. "He saved us....and took the rewards." That put Darcie in an angry mood. "Where is that bastard!"She yells, walking towards the center of where the battle was taken in. "Talking about me?" Ian says, his helmet making his voice sound twice as scary as his regular dark voice. "Give it to us!" She orders, causing Ian to chuckle once. "What's so funny!?" She yells towards the Mandalorian. "I defeated the ackaly." Ian states, emphasizing the I. "So? We did most of the work!" She counters his statement. "Yea, but if you where dead, I would've still kicked its ass with its health at full." Ian replies. "You got the reward of FOUR ackaly kills! At least give us the reward of the three we killed!" She snarls, getting angrier by the second. "I can't." Ian states. "Why not!" Darcie snaps back. "Cause then I'll need you in my friend list." The Mandalorian states. "Either that or you would have to become a Red Player to get my reward."

"Then let us be part of your friend list." Darcie says, still wanting the reward. "Why should I do that?" Ian asks, not wanting to share. "Well, having more people on your friend list wouldn't hurt, would it?" Artie says in a calm and nice tone. Ian thinks about this. The only people on his list where currently Jackie, Leif, and Heather. 'I guess it wouldn't hurt." He thinks to himself before nodding. "Fine." He says, accepting them to his friend list. "Here you go." Ian transfers the amount of credits three ackaly would drop. "And the EXP?" Darcie asks. "That's not shareable." Ian tells her as he walks away. "Wait!" Artie says, running to the player. "What's your name?" He asks. Ian thinks about whether he should give him his real name or game name. After seconds of thinking, he decides to give them his real. "Ian."

Artie nods. "Ok. Well, would you like to join us for something to eat? It's the least we could to thank you for saving us. Right Darcie?" He says, saying Darcie's name in a somewhat warning tone. "Fine." She replies, not excited about it.
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Once the food arrives to the table the three players start eating. "So, would you care to tell me what you two where doing outside?" Ian asks, curious about the topic he brought up. Darcie and Artie glance at each other and then look back at Ian. "Well...we where with a guild. It was called Lightning. The name was chosen because we start and finish fights as quick as lightning. Either way, we went into a dungeon and decided to raid it. Eventually....things when south....quickly. Our other team members died and we where the only survivors..." Darcie sadly replies. Ian leans back on his chair and says "I'm sorry for your lost. But we can't mourn over them for a long time. We have to move on."
"That would be correct." Artie says, looking down at his half empty plate. "So, how many players died in the raid?" Ian asks.
"6." Artie answers, not wanting talk about it. "Are you going to keep the guild or disband it?" The Mandalorian asks a follow up question. "We don't know....why?" Darcie asks.  "No reason." He says. And with that, they finish their meal and leave.
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I would like to say thank you to 0Catoria0 for giving me two characters that she made up, other than that. See you all next time.

Player count-
Players Alive: 19,757
Players dead: 244

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