1 The Two Man Army

Whoosh

The blade sliced the air in front of James inches from his face. Leaping backward he pivoted and sprinted to left, his opponent close behind and closing.

Left, right, left, right he glanced right, continuing to dodge furiously.

"Where are you John?!"

The footsteps grew louder and louder as his opponent sprinted faster and faster. Calculating in his head, James knew his stamina was way too low to outrun this guy.

'I've got to shake him if John doesn't come through' Pivoting right he leapt up and onto a rock and suddenly flipped backward, twisting to face his opponent as he did so. As he expected the man kept moving toward the rock and wasn't able to correct his speed in time. Landing behind his foe he sprinted away, laughing to himself. When suddenly he slowed. 'Not now!' As he slowed he glanced backward, only to see the man closing the gap again, with James' stamina gone. Drawing his sword he guarded against the oncoming attack when there was a flash.

Boom!

The man exploded to the left, twirling in the air like a frisbee gone wrong. Laughing James turned to see John standing on a rock, trying to look heroic but mainly just appearing like he was trying not to fall down. "It's about time!"

"I stopped for a nap, I thought you needed practice"

"More like a snack, your fat butt was too slow to get here in time"

"Just keep standing there till your stamina comes back and then finish this guy please?"

James glanced over and saw their opponent charging forward, dodging left and right madly in an attempt to be harder to hit. James rolled his eyes. Just as the man reached him and stuck out with his sword he was cannonballed in the back and flipped in the air wildly. Ducking, James slid underneath him and closer to John.

"Watch it! You almost knocked him into me!"

"Almost? I'll try harder next time"

"....."

The man couldn't believe this, his two opponents were trash talking and not taking him seriously at all.

"Open Field!" The man yelled.

"Oh? Your partner? Yea he's dead" John casually replied while lobing shots in his direction. "James? You ready?"

James charged forward in answer and slide toward his opponent, catching him by surprise and knocking him to the ground. Swinging his sword upwards James leapt up and brought the sword crashing down into the man's torso. Blood sprayed upwards and the man's body lay still. In three seconds it vanished from view.

Congratulations Fallen Flower and Shaking Barrel, You are victorious!

The system announcement displayed in the air as Fallen Flower and Shaking Barrel faded from the Arena* and returned to the lobby of Conquest. At their twin desks in their bedroom, James and John took off their headphones and slapped a high five in celebration.

"Boys! Dinner"

"Coming Ma!" The twins echoed back.

Bing

Rematch? Opponents Awaiting Reply.

10

9

8

7

James and John grinned at each other and both slammed 'No', leaping up and bounding downstairs for dinner, mom's cooking was best hot after all.

___________

Conquest!

Starting out as just another MMORPG, it quickly took the world by storm. Within its first year, it had gathered thousands of players in the United States, its birthplace. In its second year, it expanded to all of North and South America, Europe, China, and Japan. Finally, in its third year, it was worldwide and contained millions of players. All competing locally, with most competing for world glory. Now in its seventh year of play it could be considered the Grandfather of MMOs.

Conquest was very appealing for many reasons. It contained a little bit of everything, the casual player could play the storyline quests to complete the basic parts of the game. These could take more than a year depending on how casually one played. While this was possible to do solo, it was best done with a group of friends or in-game partners - called Parties.

A serious player could choose to join a Guild. This being an official, organized group of players loyal to each other for common gain. Thus being more involved in the politics and community of the game. Most mainstream players would choose this option as it gave more online interaction. Guilds caused one to gain experience quickly, although one was required to do more tasks: raids, party quests, guild wars, equipment research, and even basic errands. All of which depended on one's standing in the guild.

But the best of the best, those were in the Pro scene. Pro players were paid to play and would be backed by a Pro Guild. They competed in local and worldwide competitions and were the most famous players in Conquest.

Conquest in its fifth year had made a huge announcement: The Bullet x Blade Cup. Nicknamed by players as The BxB. This was a world competition between regions for international fame and fortune. It was set up similar to the World Cup and after its first year was almost as famous.

Electronic Sports' popularity had risen during the same time as Conquest due to the immense accessibility of the playing field. After all, it was much easier to connect to the internet for a game every day than to actively seek out a career in American Football. The ease of marketing by big gaming companies, the flexibility for when matches were played, and lastly, it was incredibly fun to watch! The ability to have so many camera views of a fight was incomparable with the real world. Online one could watch a fight from almost any perspective, changing at will.

The BxB had taken online competition global and caused countries to treat the tournament with the respect of an online World Cup or Olympics, more or less, as the gaming companies would say. It was fairly true though, it was the third most-watched World Competition, and it had the clear advantage of happening every two years instead of every four!

_________

After dinner, James and John retreated back to their computers and logged into Conquest. They still had a couple hours before they'd need to sleep, with it being a school day after all. The boys were only eleven and in many ways just normal kids. They had friends, went to school, spent time with family, got into trouble, but they also played Conquest - a lot.

Conquest, while open to everyone, was usually played by those fifteen or sixteen and up. The reason being is the majority of players were in Guilds and a Guild operated in many ways similar to a business and needed a bit of maturity, so while a player might have the skills to play the game if they didn't understand how to work with others then they would fail.

James and John were different though. Although they were eleven they were very active in their Guild, being Tier 2 members**. As a result, they actively added to the Guild's fame in Guild Wars, high-end quests, and in the Arena. The reason behind this was 1) they were more mature for their age and had helped in the family business since the age of eight or nine and 2) they were twins and shared a very special connection, seemingly being able to read each other's minds.

This is why their pre-dinner opponents lost so badly. This is why they were Tier 2. They were The Two Man Army.

*In Conquest the Arena is a place where players competed one-on-one or in a team of two-on-two

**Guilds were constructed with four Tiers, 4 being the lowest, 1 being the highest.

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