First Blood (1)

The rest of the day goes by pretty normally. I go to class, I ignore the teacher, I try to play games on my phone, I almost get caught playing games on my phone, I fall asleep. Pretty much my day-to-day. When the lunch bell rings is when everything gets significantly less sleep-inducing. As I head to the cafeteria, I can see at least three Phantom Fighters matches going on. I'm impressed, at least, at how popular the game is after it released yesterday. Making sure to avoid, well, everyone, Daniel and I manage to grab our food and hang out in a less densely populated area of the school.

"Dude," Daniel says through a bite of his burger, "This game is so weird. I mean, even the girls seem to be into it, which really makes no sense to me. I mean, what about a fight to the death makes a hot girl want to play Phantom Fighters?"

Someone slams their fist on our table. We look over to find Kaitlyn, a track team member known especially for her athleticism in the school, to be the source of the disturbance. "And what's that supposed to mean, Donut?"

"Donut?" Daniel asks, confused.

"Because the amount of damage you dealt in that match that everyone watched was zero." I explain quickly, before turning to Kaitlyn. "Hey, look, I mean- D-daniel didn't mean to say that you're not hot, I- mean... you are? W-wait, That's not what I meant-" I blush and turn away in shame.

"Oh, so now I'm not hot enough for you?"

"Wow, Rei. I mean, you really dug yourself into a hole, I mean, I look innocent compared to you now." Daniel whispers as Kaitlyn approaches.

"Thanks Danny." I whisper back. "Um... soooo..." I say, turning back to face Kaitlyn, who looks like she's about to kill me.

"Let's go. Right now." She barks at me, grabbing her prism from her bag.

"Oh, ehh... I... didn't bring mine?"

"Nice try, mincemeat, but everyone saw you fight donut over there. You're not getting away from this humiliating defeat."

"And... that'll prove to everyone that you're hot?" I say as I grab my prism from my bag, booting it up.

"It'll prove how much of a baby you are when you cry for mercy" She yells angrily as the match starts. As the cafeteria fades into The Laboratory map, I realize that I'm probably in some deep trouble. The whole school knows exactly which perks I'm using, as well as my weapon and playstyle. Meanwhile, we're loading into a map I've never seen before, I don't know what my opponent's perks are, or even what weapon she uses.

"I might be boned..." I say as a high school science lab appears around us. Scanning the room, I find that chairs are strewn about, making a retreat more difficult, and the waist-height desks in uniform order lining the room restrain horizontal movement. "This... could be tough"

I ready up and my now-familiar staff appears in my hand. I sling it across my shoulders as I watch the chain scythe appear in Kaitlyn's hands.

"Llamrei - 3 OF 4 PERKS ENABLED, + 1 ARMOR"

"GwendoVere - 4 OF 4 PERKS ENABLED, NO ARMOR BONUS"

"THREE. TWO. ONE. FIGHT!"

As soon as the fight starts, the clinking sounds of metal fly by my ear as I very narrowly dodge the chain scythe that was thrown at me. Kaitlyn pulls the weapon back and readies another throw. I know I have to close the distance between us, because she obviously has the range advantage, but it's tough to do that with the desks in the way.

The only advantage I have here is the fact that she probably doesn't know about trade off, since she most likely doesn't have a bo staff, and therefore can't unlock perks for it. And because this game is so new, most players are unlikely to have in-depth knowledge on how perks from other weapons work. Perks are unlocked through specific trees that are tied to the weapon they correspond to. You can use perks from a different weapon on your weapon, but you must first unlock that weapon and the perk to use it, obviously. I found this out last night as I messed around in the dojo with my perks and staff, however I didn't bother to check the short sword perks, which I realize now is probably a mistake.

As I think, the scythe whips back towards me, and this time, while I do manage to dodge it, it grazes me in the side of my chest, dealing 15% of my health (thanks to trade off's health and armor reduction), as well as applying a bleed debuff. It's odd, though, I'm sure I dodged it. It almost looked as if the arc of the scythe changed in midair to hit me. As the weapon comes back to Kaitlyn, I feel myself being literally pulled towards her. I fly about 5 feet forwards, barely managing to stay on my feet. I have to assume that was one of her perks, and the Scythe changing directions in air had to be another one. With no time to think, I leap towards Kaitlyn before she can throw her weapon again, and I catch her off-guard with my no doubt surprising speed. I hit her as hard as I can with my staff, but... I missed? That's not possible, I definitely had her dead-to-rights. I watch as a ghostly apparition of Kaitlyn's avatar disappears, and she's now about a foot further away from me. I narrow my eyes. Another perk. That accounts for 3 of her 4 perks.

"You move damn fast, mincemeat. I guess that's your third perk?" She taunts, almost as if she's trying to buy time. She swings her weapon horizontally, with a wide arc. I manage to dodge it, this time making sure I'm clear of the weapon changing direction. I feint with a blow from my right side, and use monkey tactics to swap the weapon to my left hand as I bring down an overhead swing. She dodges to my right, as expected, and I clock her with an uppercut. I knew she'd expect a feint like that, so I'd prepared to retaliate with a punch, dealing 10% of her health. She's also knocked backwards and stumbles a little.

"You didn't turn into a ghost that time. Guess that perk's got a long cooldown?"

Kaitlyn growls as she charges at me, catching me off-guard. She'd been playing such a long-ranged defensive game up until this point, I didn't expect her to charge in like this, especially knowing what my perks are. She swings at my right shoulder with the scythe, this time her hand is on the handle rather than a throw, and I step left. As I do so, my face collides with her fist, dealing a whopping 15% damage to my health. It looks like the bleed debuff from earlier, which has now expired, dealt about 3% of my health, so I have 67% left. Even with trade off making me take extra damage, 15% is a huge amount for an unarmed blow. I guess that's got to be her final perk.