I dashed through the snow as a golden quad blade boomerang sunk into a tree next to me. I kept running, my heart pounding, blood still seeping down my nose and out my mouth, ribs screaming in pain.
Another blade grazed my black uniform, slicing my right arm. I bit my lip and pushed my feet harder.
I glanced over my shoulder and found Arielle running after me, but her expression looked like she was taking a short jog. She wasn't tired in the slightest. Her blade hung from her hand lazily.
Blade. Singular.
Shit.
I turned back around and ducked just in time for the second golden boomerang to fly back into Arielle's hand, nearly taking my head with it. At that moment, it occurred to me that she wasn't trying. In fact, she was playing. I was her toy, her amusement for the moment before she sliced me down and found someone else to entertain her.
After all, Arielle Fortier never missed, especially not with her golden weapons. If she wanted me dead, I would've been lying in my grave.
I was running out of energy and she seemed to be wearing thin. A few more minutes, and Arielle would decide that it was time to place a blade in my back. I needed to find a way out. Fast.
I looped the butterfly knife out of my hair and threw it behind me. It sailed through the air heading straight for Arielle's heart. She side-stepped at the last second and kept running after me. Trying to cut her down wasn't going to work. I needed some other solution.
That's when I heard it. Voices. Many of them up ahead. A group of ten assassins came into view and an idea sprung. The assassins caught sight of me and raised their guns, but I didn't slow down. I ran straight for their group, head on.
They surged forward. I ducked and sidestepped their jabs, running as fast as I could. They tried turning around but were rudely interrupted by Arielle's blade killing one of them. The group averted their attention to her as she pounced. I heard the sounds of the battle behind me, but I kept running, diving into thicker trees with larger shadows.
The noise of the battle had faded away as I dove behind the cover of dense bushes, catching my breath. I had been sure to catch any blood I dropped, but I could only hope that no stray droplets sank into the snow and revealed my position. As for the footprints, following them would be impossible. There were too many in the area and she would lose track of mine almost immediately. Hopefully.
My head was pounding, rib cage burning, legs screaming, lungs dry as I gasped for air. A few minutes of deep breathing and I started to stabilize, little by little. I looked around. The air was still, the empty silence enveloping me. It was almost as if there was no one for miles. But I wasn't fooled. I was only a hundred feet away from the exit at most. The people here were the best of the best. It may seem like no one was here, but there could be ten people surrounding me, watching my every move at the very moment.
As if on cue, a solid object sailed through the air, heading straight for my head. I spun out of the way and an electric bomb crashed into a fallen tree. It sent up sparks on impact, but it didn't affect the tree as they had been designed not to electrocute trees during games. But it could have easily knocked me unconscious.
Electric sparks flew towards me as if I was some kind of magnet, and I backed up straight into someone's grasp. The person, a male, wrapped his arms around me, pinning my hands to my sides. I struggled, but I was too small to fight against the big muscular arms.
The boy let go of one arm, adjusting the other one to wrap around my body all by itself. I still couldn't fight back. He reached for something in his pocket, maybe a knife or a taser. I didn't get the chance to find out.
I reeled my foot back, kicking him straight in the groin and he doubled over slightly. I could see the shadow of his head hanging down and I used the opportunity to snap mine backwards forcefully, ramming the back of mine into his. He grunted as he staggered backwards, loosening his grip on me.
I twisted away, although his hand remained on my arm. Turning, I found that my perpetrator was Knox Delano, the fifth member of the Alpha Team.
Just my luck.
I twisted my arm, trying to get it out of his grasp, but he figured what I was doing a second too early and solidified his grasp on my arm as he continued to fiddle with his pocket.
Why the hell did he put a weapon in his pocket?
I kicked him in the face, but he grabbed my leg before I could set it back down, throwing me off balance as he let go of my arm and twisted my leg. I crashed to the ground, my ribs once again screaming. He leaned forward to land a punch but I blocked his hand, holding onto it as I used my free leg to swipe his foot out from under him. He fell to the ground at a strange angle, both of us still holding the other's limbs, our thrown off balance causing us to tumble down the hill.
We rolled and crashed into the creek, shattering through the thin layer of ice and landing in the shallow water as Knox rolled on top of me, pinning me down. My head spun from the effects of today's game and our tumble. My ears were closed off, though I wasn't sure if it was because of the water trickling in or something else.
Knox reared his arm back, ready to punch me unconscious, until a loading gun clicked into place on our left. In the blink of an eye, Knox rolled me into the bullet's path. At the last second, I twisted away, the bullet landing in the snow where my torso was only moments before.
I looked up the hill where another group of assassins had gathered, their guns cocked and loaded, about to pelt the two of us with more bullets. Knox tightened his grip on me, one hand closing around my neck, trying to choke me unconscious.
Why wasn't he trying to get out of the bullet's way?
I writhed in his grasp, trying to push myself out of the line of fire. The assassins' fingers were on the trigger, ready to shoot as they re-aimed. Their fingers twitched and I knew they were about to pull the trigger.
No, no, no.
An arrow sailed through the air and landed in the first assassin's chest. He fell down the hill, rolling to a stop next to me. His white suite flickered red, and he grunted, sending me a look of pure hate, but I was too busy staring at the arrow piercing his suite. It was an royal blue with a strand of sparkly gold swirling around the shaft. I recognized the specialized arrows immediately.
Tilting my head to the right and up at the trees, I noticed Nydia Raphaella, the fourth member of the Alphas, knocking another arrow.
I'm fighting two Alphas. Fantastic.
Many more arrows planted themselves into the assassins' chest as Knox continued to choke the air out of me. My head was light and dizzy, the tips of my vision darkening. A few more seconds and I would be out.
No. I need to win. I need to live.
I used one last burst of energy to grab one of Knox's own knives and stabbed it into his arm. He grunted and loosened his grip more. I jerked away, grabbing his gun in the process, and rolled to a kneel, gasping for the air I had been deprived of. I raised the gun at a kneeling Knox, ready to shoot. But before I could, a low whistling sound sung through the air and I rolled out of the way. An arrow pierced through the snow where I had been a split-second earlier.
I got to my feet and—half running, half tripping—dashed into the secure cover of the trees. Ducking behind a trunk, I watched as other assassins were shot down by the onslaught of arrows. I ignored them as I peered out from behind the tree, raising my gun, aiming for Knox again. A flash of gold and white caught the corner of my eye. I paused.
Golden quad blades sprung out, slicing through assassins' uniforms before flying back to Arielle's hands. The assassins blinked red.
And now I'm fighting three.
Arielle's gaze turned set on Knox and I knew she was going to kill him now that the others were out of the picture. The Alphas had a sort of sibling relationship. No one gets to kill an Alpha except an Alpha. And that's what was about to happen. Unfortunately, I needed more points than either of them, and killing an Alpha had to be worth a thousand points minimum.
Knox got to his feet, wincing a little from the knife wound I had given him. He cocked one of his guns, the other hand preoccupied with something in his pocket. Arielle twirled her quad blades. I heard more footsteps in the distance, knowing that other groups of assassins would be onto us in a matter of minutes, but I didn't care. Neither did they.
The dead assassins got to their feet, watching the fight that was about to begin. Some of them were quietly betting on who would strike first, what they would do. Two of them started arguing over it and another one told them that they would know the answer once the Alphas made a move. Unfortunately, they never found out.
Because I shot Knox.
The bullet lodged into the life sensor above his heart and his suite blinked red. A grin flashed over my mouth. I killed an Alpha. I was sure as hell going to win rank 6. As long as I didn't die, which I was seconds away from.
I took off as Arielle's eyes searched the shadows for any sign of the shooter, but Nydia was the one who found me first. Two blue and gold arrows seared towards me, grazing my back as they plummeted into trees. The third one came a few seconds later, whistling through the air at deadly speeds. Except this one wasn't aimed toward me. It lodged into a tree a few feet ahead. As I passed I noticed the small blinking red light on the arrow head.
Shit.
The arrow exploded, blowing off a chunk of the tree with it. I was knocked off my feet and propelled forward. I cursed as I landed in the snow on my side, pain flashing through my already broken ribs. I needed to get out of here soon, or they might kill me, and not just in a game.
Still on the ground, I fired into the trees on the other side of the creek. It wasn't a kill shot, but it did its job. Nydia Raphaella fell through the branches of the tree and into the snow, still clutching her bow and quiver, the bullet wound in her leg dripping blood.
I staggered back to my feet, fighting through the dizziness, and took off. Up ahead, the trees were starting to clear up. I was almost at the end. All I had to do was make it for just a minute, and I would survive. But that was starting to look impossible.
Arielle ran after me, this time not holding back. She moved with blinding speed, only a foot behind me within a matter of seconds. She raised her blades, ready to slice me to bits. I tried to run faster even though I knew it was futile.
The blade whistled through the air. I sucked in my breath as I ran, bracing myself for the force of the boomerang in my back. But I got nothing. Looking to my left, I found the glittering blade stuck in a tree trunk.
Arielle missed?
I glanced over my shoulder just as sounds of fighting erupted through the woods once more. Arielle was sprawled across the ground with another assassin on top of her, most likely after being tackled from the side. To say she looked pissed would be an understatement. She shoved him off and pressed a dagger against his throat, muttering the words, "Dead". Arielle stood back up, trying to resume her chase with me, but was distracted by the other charging assassins.
Somewhere off to the side, Nydia had gotten back to her feet and was helping her fellow Alpha by shooting volleys of arrows at the oncoming assassins. More branched off, chasing after me. I shot them down with my gun as I continued running.
Finally, I staggered out of the woods and into the plain field of sparkling snow, the school glittering in the distance. I breathed in the freedom, the grip of fear and adrenaline around my heart releasing and spreading throughout the open area, wearing thin and weak.
I did it. I racked up kills. I fought an Alpha. I killed an Alpha. I escaped a Crown Assassin. I won. And I would win again when I brought the Crown Assassins down to their knees from the inside.
I rejoiced.
Then the dizziness set back in and my knees went out from under me as I collapsed into the snow, face first.