Game Breaker Page 6

  The cages Breccan passed were filled with battling contestants. A few avatars watched and cheered. It was obvious by the crowds around several cages that there were fan favorites, but most combatants fought with few spectators.

  Breccan slowed when he neared cage five and saw at least twenty avatars waiting.

  “Ten more seconds and the Game Breaker forfeits,” a Techsec near the cage announced in a monotone voice.

  “I’m here,” Breccan called out.

  Everyone turned to look at him. Breccan found himself looking back at every type of eye imaginable, included a pair on stalks and fifty eyes from the face of what looked like a walking fly. The crowd parted to give Breccan access to the cage. He took a steeling breath and walked forward.

  “Good luck, newb,” a high voice called out.

  “The noder’s got no chance against Avit Torpedo,” a tall, scaled man wearing a bowler hat said.

  “Watch your language,” the girl in a yellow dress who stood next to him replied. “I’m here to see some sport, not listen to your disgusting mouth.”

  The scaled man grinned, revealing black pointed teeth. “You didn’t know you’d get so lucky.”

  “You’re right,” the girl shot back. “I didn’t.”

  She slammed her fist into his stomach. When he doubled over with a surprised gasp of pain, she elbowed him in the back. A sweep of her legs sent him to the floor. Everyone around them backed off as the Techsec, now glowing red, made his way to them.

  “You know the rules, creatures. No fighting outside of the cages,” the Techsec informed them.

  “Yes, Techsec,” the girl in the yellow dress replied quickly.

  The security enforcer waited motionlessly as the man in the bowler hat dragged himself to his feet.

  “Y-yes, Techsec,” he finally forced out.

  The red glow went out and the Techsec turned to make his way back to the cage. Breccan followed in the man’s wake.

  When he passed the girl, he heard the man with the bowling hat grumble, “You’ve upgraded your speed since we last fought.”

  Breccan looked back to see what she would say.

  “And worth every EC,” the girl replied with a satisfied nod of her head. Her dark curls bounced with the motion. She caught Breccan watched them and winked. “Good luck, newb. Give Avit Torpedo everything you’ve got.”

  “I will,” he replied, though after what he had seen, his lack of upgrades or weapons or whatever it took to fight in the arena was going to put him at a great disadvantage.

  Breccan realized he hadn’t even seen his opponent. With all the commotion, he hadn’t looked beyond the bars of the cage to catch a glimpse of what they held. His gaze lifted and the moment his eyes fell on the being that waited for him, his heart and steps slowed.

  A mass of metal, gears, claws, and scaled skin towered high enough that its box-like head nearly brushed the top of the cage. Arms covered in spikes bristled when the Battle Boss moved. Four red eyes glowed from a domed head ringed in more spikes. The scaled skin that covered the being’s face and arms around the metal was dark green and looked impenetrable. Cold flooded through Breccan with numbing intensity.

  “Your wrist,” the Techsec said.

  Breccan jerked back at the sound. The Techsec merely stood there with one hand out and the other holding a scanner ready.

  “Good luck, newb!” someone shouted.

  “It’s not fair he’s getting thrown to a Battle Boss on his first day,” a man grumbled loud enough for the Techsec to hear.

  A red glow pulsed warningly from the security officer and the man fell silent.

  “Your wrist,” the Techsec repeated.

  Breccan held up his arm numbly and watched the light scan across his wrist. A beep sounded and the Techsec lowered the scanner.

  “Weapon of choice?” the Techsec asked.

  Breccan stared from the security enforcer to the other cages. Inside, avatars armed with swords, knives, axes, spears, and a variety of weapons he didn’t recognize fought in brutal combat. Each pair held the same weapon.

  “Weapon of choice?” the Techsec repeated.

  Breccan wondered if he detected a hint of exasperation in the monotone voice.

  “I-I don’t know,” he hedged.

  “Start with a knife, newb. You’re less likely to hurt yourself that way,” a woman with glittering butterfly wings suggested from the crowd.

  Others laughed around her, but she looked completely serious.

  Breccan swallowed and said, “A knife.” His reply was more of a question than a firm statement, but the moment the words left his mouth, an object appeared in his right hand. He looked from the standard issue seven-inch blade to the Battle Boss. His breath caught in his throat when he saw a matching blade now grasped in one of the creature’s clawed hands.

  The Techsec pulled open the door to the cage.

  “You may proceed,” he said in his monotone voice.

  Breccan was about to ask if he had to, but he was afraid the edge of hysterical laughter that threatened to break free would give the Techsec a reason to drag him away. He slowly climbed the two steps to the cage door and stepped inside. The brief hope he had held onto that the Battle Boss in front of him would vanish and Jonny would appear laughing at the joke faded at the sound of the cage door slamming shut behind him.

  The same sound activated the Battle Boss.

  “I am Avit Torpedo. Prepare for annihilation,” the metal and scale creature said.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Breccan spun the blade in his hand. The rough grip felt oddly reassuring. He and his brother hadn’t worked with weapons often during Nidalin training, but holding something familiar felt as if he had something real to ground him. The irony of the thought teased at the back of his mind, but he refused to listen to it.

  The sounds of metal on metal, massive footsteps, or any type of gears was conspicuously absent as the Battle Boss advanced. The eerie silence of his movements was unnerving. Even the crowd that now surrounded the cage was silent in a way so many people shouldn’t have been.

  The commotion of the other fighters came muted to Breccan’s ears. The Battle Boss opened and closed his clawed hands once; with the click, all sound returned.

  “Run, newb!” someone shouted.

  “Get out of there!” another said.

  “Odds are climbing. Make your bets before first blood is drawn.”

  The mention of blood made Breccan’s heart skip a beat. Jonny had told him that if he died, he would wake up in the chair back in Holram, but he hadn’t mentioned if he could feel pain. The thought of being filleted by Avit Torpedo’s blades wasn’t a pleasant one.

  As if in answer to his thought, one of the machine’s claws shot forward. Breccan blocked it with his knife. The sound of metal on metal rang out and his entire arm went numb. The crowd behind him cheered. Breccan backed up several steps and felt the cold bars from the cage at his back.

  “Prepare for annihilation,” the Battle Boss said again.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Breccan asked aloud. He felt foolish talking to a machine, but it helped to center the whirlwind of his thoughts. “Are you on repeat?” He blocked another blow. “Didn’t your programmers think of something better for you to say?”

  “Prepare for annihilation,” the machine repeated.

  Breccan grinned. Some of the tension that filled him eased and he settled into his stance the way muscle memory bade him to.

  “Maybe if you’re programmed with a one-liner, you have other weaknesses,” Breccan said quietly more to himself than the Battle Boss.

  He watched the machine advance. At first, there appeared to be no rhyme or reason to Avit Torpedo’s attacks. He lunged with outstretched claws, spun with arms out and spiked with deadly blades that could tear Breccan’s avatar in half, rolled on the track that made up his base, and then switched to stabbing with the knife. Breccan blocked each attack with his own blade and dodged the other claws. He felt like he
was getting the hang of at least evading the Battle Boss when the machine changed directions and claws caught him down the chest.

  Breccan sucked in a pained breath and stumbled backwards with his hand on his shirt. He pulled it away to see his palm covered in blood. The fiery agony that burned from the wound answered his question about whether or not he would feel his avatar’s pain.

  “First blood drawn. Bets are closed,” a flat voice said.

  Several arguing voices rose.

  “I’ll give you two minutes!” a woman’s voice cried out.

  “I’ll take three and a half,” a man urged.

  But the Techsec didn’t reply.

  Breccan’s throat went dry at the fact that they were trying to make money off of his death. They were betting on how long he would last in the cage, not if he would defeat the Battle Boss. He tried to swallow as he switched the knife from his right hand to his left. It felt strange there, even though that was the only hand he had in real life.

  He glanced down at the tattoo across the back of his right hand. The initials glowed bright orange. It wasn’t hard to guess that the color meant he was terrified. He had never been so afraid in his life.

  His right arm tingled and he realized that wasn’t true. He was afraid for his life in the Edge, but that was far different than when he had feared for the life of another. That type of fear sent one’s limbs shaking and chilled the blood until it crept like ice through the veins. That fear was brain-numbing, spine-tingling, and had made it feel as if fire was running over his body. Which is exactly what had happened.

  As if on cue, the memories Breccan had worked so hard to stamp down surfaced. In front of him, he saw a wall of fire. He could hear Garrick screaming. The same panic was setting in. It was hard to breath. Breccan couldn’t move. He was trapped.

  A line of pain jerked Breccan back to the present. He looked down to see red running from the base of his wrist to his elbow. He couldn’t remember when he had changed knife hands, but he had just tried to block with his dominant right one that was now empty. Avit Torpedo had used the slipup to remind him who was in charge.

  The towering, metallic beast glared down at him with four red eyes and said, “Prepare for annihilation.”

  Breccan grinned a wild grin and replied, “Prepare for your own.”

  He no longer cared if he lived or died. It didn’t matter in the Edge. Nothing mattered. He might die, but he was going to try to take the Battle Boss with him.

  Breccan lowered his gaze so that he didn’t watch the creature’s eyes. Garrick used to win their practice fights by foretelling with his gaze what move he was about to make, and then doing something else entirely. Breccan had learned long ago not to fall for his brother’s tricks. He kept his eyes on the Battle Boss’ spiked chest plate. The creature moved slowly to the right as if sensing something had changed. Breccan mirrored the movement. The Battle Boss’ claws darted out, but they stopped just short of where Breccan stood.

  Seeing an opportunity, Breccan lunged toward the machine and swung himself onto its massive arms. He ignored the way the spikes cut into his skin as he batted away a claw and threw himself over the creature’s back. Avit Torpedo bucked and spun in an attempt to reach Breccan, but Breccan kept his left hand and his legs locked around the creature despite its blades.

  He only needed one opening. The Battle Boss had to have some sort of weakness. If he could hide from its grasp long enough, he figured he just might find it. If there wasn’t one, at least he had found somewhere he could avoid being sliced to pieces. Maybe there was a timer for the fights. Perhaps he could last it out on the Battle Boss’ back. It might look ridiculous, but at this point, he no longer cared.

  He waited with his heart thundering in his ears and the knife gripped in his right hand as Avit Torpedo fought to shake him free. The Battle Boss turned its metal head from side to side. When it looked right, the seams parted at the back of his head to show a slight crack in the creature’s metal makeup.

  It turned to the left and the gap vanished.

  Breccan heart leaped at the glimpse of hope. Careful to avoid the sweeping claws, he swung to the right and shouted where its ear should have been, “This way!”

  As soon as the Battle Boss’s head turned in his direction, Breccan pushed back to the left and drove his blade into the crack in the creature’s neck.

  “Prepare for ann…Prepare for ann…,” the Battle Boss repeated.

  Smoke and a strange whirling sound emanated from where the knife stuck. Avit Torpedo spun in a clumsy circle and tried to swipe at Breccan.

  “You mean, prepare for annihilation?” Breccan completed.

  He slammed his right fist against the hilt. The knife drove all the way through the Battle Boss’ neck. The machine made a strange whirring sound and then the head fell off altogether. Breccan’s muscles tensed as he prepared to jump free should the rest of the creature topple. Instead, it grew stock still.

  Breccan waited for a moment just to be sure he wasn’t going to be crushed by a hulking, spikey metallic beast, then lowered himself down. His hands shook as he looked up at the decapitated body that towered over him. Avit Torpedo’s head leaned against the cage bars. Breccan glanced at it in time to see first the middle and then the outside eyes dim and then go out entirely.

  “I can’t believe it.”

  The voice behind Breccan was incredulous.

  “That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my ava-lifetime!” another exclaimed.

  Breccan turned with the intention of laughing at them for doubting him, but the moment he looked down at the crowd that surrounded the cage, he knew something was different.

  “Game Breaker,” a woman with green hair spiked like pine needles said.

  “Game Breaker,” two men with identical cats on leashes echoed.

  “He did it!” a small boy with a monkey’s tail said. “He beat the Battle Boss!”

  “Look out, look out,” a familiar voice called.

  Bullshark Venom appeared from the crowd.

  “Give the boy some space,” he said without looking up. “You’ve all seen corpses before. It’s his first time. He deserves a little respect.” He began attempting to push the watching crowd away, but nobody moved.

  Rage Machine also moved through the crowd without any care for who he stepped on as he passed. The hulking avatar looked hilarious in the little shorts, but nobody commented. Everyone was still staring at Breccan and the fallen Battle Boss.

  “Come on,” Bullshark continued. “Get out of here.” He shook his head at Rage Machine’s approach. “You’d think they’d give a dead newb a little more respect before his avatar vaporizes.”

  Breccan met Rage Machine’s gaze.

  “He’s not dead,” the hulking avatar said in Murphy’s whining voice.

  “Of course he is,” Bullshark said. “That’s ridiculous. He went against a Battle Boss. He’s—”

  Rage Machine grabbed Bullshark’s head and forced him to turn around. The avatar’s words faded away.

  “He’s right there,” Rage Machine finished in a whisper.

  “Bre—I mean Game Breaker?” Bullshark said.

  Breccan nodded.

  “But how?” his cousin asked, his tone a bit lost.

  Breccan gestured to the Battle Boss’ head that was lying on the ground. “I stabbed the back his skull with my knife and his head sort of fell off.”

  “His head sort of fell off,” Bullshark repeated.

  “How’d he do?” Black Jack called through the crowd. “Did he last at least a minute? I had ECs on a minute.”

  The audience parted to let Minx’s avatar through. The looks on their faces set Breccan on edge. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that what he had done was different than expected, he just didn’t know why it was such a big deal.

  “Did he draw blood at least?” Black Jack asked Rage Machine.

  The hulking avatar gestured toward the cage. “He drew all the blood.”


  The avatar’s response would have been hilarious if not for the way Black Jack’s face turned white and his eyes flickered from Breccan to the motionless machine behind him.

  “How…? How…? I mean, it’s not even possible, is it?” Black Jack stuttered.

  Breccan put a hand on the bars that made up the door to the cage. His touch appeared to wake up the silent Techsec.

  “Game Breaker defeated Avit Torpedo,” the Techsec announced in his monotone voice.

  Breccan swore he even caught a slight hint of surprise in the Techsec’s tone. The man in the suit opened the door.

  “Your winnings have been transferred to you,” the Techsec informed him.

  “What?” Breccan asked.

  Bullshark, Rage Machine, and Black Jack rushed to meet him.

  “Everyone bet on how long you’ll last before Avit Torpedo killed you, but since nobody beats a Battle Boss, nobody bet that you would win, so you keep all the ECs!” Bullshark told him excitedly. “And since I brought you here, we share the winnings, right, cous?”

  “Congratulations on your win,” the Techsec said without any show of how he felt about it. He turned away from Breccan and announced, “Clean up in Octagon E Five requested.” His suit took on a yellow flashing glow and his face became expressionless as he waited for a response from whoever he had summoned.

  “You beat a Battle Boss!” a man with a rainbow halo said excitedly. “No one has ever done that!”

  “Yeah,” his companion seconded. “Battle bosses are undefeatable. That’s their entire programming!”

  A girl with long, curled pink eyelashes and fingernails to match touched the green band on his arm. “You’re a legend here from your very first day.” Her pink eyes flickered to his level panel and then back. “Imagine what you could do with a week. I’d be happy to show you around if you want.”