The wind passed John’s face so closely that the wobble in his cheeks meant a millimetre’s difference in his positioning would have been the difference between life and death.

  That was close!

  Ka Ren’s fist gave him a closer shave than a barbershop ever could have and the cracking sound of the old man breaking the sound barrier so close to his ear might well have caused him permanent hearing damage.

  Yet, despite all of that, he was alive. His heart thundered; a chaotic drumbeat keeping tempo with a speed-metal band.

  His dodge was successful and he would live to fire another bullet, at least for the time being.

  Hitting the ground with an unceremonious and painful thump, he rolled into a crouching position and fired off a round from one of his revolvers.

  Ka Ren batted it away like his was swatting a fly, his old, wrinkled face was tighter than it had likely been in years as a wide grin split it from ear to ear. He was enjoying this spectacle, though of course, it was much less dangerous for him than it was for John.

  Fighting in an avatar’s body held no real-life danger whatsoever, pride would be the only casualty for this lower middle manager.

  The stakes were significantly higher for John and they both knew it.

  Without wasting time, John began squeezing the triggers of his pistols in quick succession. Ka Ren’s skull might have been hard enough to stop his bullets but that didn’t mean that he had no weak points at all, and John had just the skill to help him find them.

  The avatar’s abs were spectacular, but surely they couldn’t reflect a bullet. That would defy science… right? Thinking on his feet, or rather his knees, John knew he needed to focus on one or more of his new skills. It was the one advantage he seemed to have over other people. Buck had told him that skills did not exist in this game and were a relic of a previous season.

  Surely they would be the key to his continued survival, at least until he could get more cards and up his game the proper way. Regardless of the reason why he had them when no one else seemed to, the fact that he had them meant he’d be a fool not to rely on them.

  Glaring at Ka Ren as he laughed and batted away bullets with hands that moved faster than the eye could keep up with, John hoped for his locate weakness skill to kick in.

  However, the problem with loosely defined skills that shouldn’t really exist was that accessing them could be difficult. He wasn’t even truly sure if they were active or passive. Were they always there or did he need to manually activate them?

  WHOOSH.

  Before he had a chance to try and find out fire sprayed across the battlefield like a water hose’s pressurised stream. Avatars screamed as the smell of burning skin and motor oil filled John’s nostrils.

  The intense heat felt slick on his skin as his sweat sizzled. He continued firing. Ka Ren’s smile turned to a grimace as he turned from John and dashed towards Joanna.

  ***

  “Burn baby burn!” Joanna sang as she used her new card to spray flaming death across the arena.

  She couldn’t believe her luck when she’d realised how well her powers synchronised. The card she’d stolen from that man in the bar only gave her the ability to create fire, it didn’t allow her to control it.

  However, that wasn’t a problem when she had a card that allowed her to levitate things. Her telekinesis card worked perfectly in tandem with the flames allowing her to create a flame with one card and move it around with the other.

  It had taken a bit of getting used to, but she was quite happy with her newest idea of using her hand like a flamethrower.

  With one hand out in front of her and the other behind her head, she danced the sprinkler dance and shot deadly flames from the tips of her fingers. It was delightful.

  Her telekinesis card came with drawbacks though, she couldn’t lift things that were too heavy and the more something weighed the longer the cooldown would be.

  Luckily for her, fire was weightless.

  The screams were like music to her ears as she danced amidst the chaos, who knew that avatars could feel pain. It seemed like a bit of a design flaw to Joanna but knowing that she was inflicting even the slightest amount of pain on the invaders was a sweet victory in and of itself. One that aligned perfectly with her goals.

  I will burn these fuckers to the ground. Burn it all down.

  The smell of burning flesh and motor oil was tantalising to her delicate nose, she could almost taste the ash and despair on her tongue.

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  “How dare you! Coward!”

  Turning just in time to dodge, she saw Ka Ren speeding towards her in flashes that on any other day would have made her question her sobriety.

  A fierce wind whipped around her like a tornado and her flames went out, it blew her body into the barrier behind her and she felt the air leave her lungs as strong hands gripped her throat.

  “This was supposed to be a two on one duel! What nerve you have, to involve the others in our affairs.” Ka Ren snarled, spittle flying from his mouth. His breath smelled like a gas station pump and the nebula in his eyes was rotating fast enough to make her dizzy.

  “You lost the right to a fair fight when you invaded our planet and killed my family,” she croaked out venomously. There was barely enough room in her crushed windpipe to breathe, let alone scream, but she was furious.

  His grip loosened slightly but the vein on his forehead was as pronounced and angry as before and his teeth were clenched.

  “You should be grateful,” he pronounced incredulously, “to be chosen as the host species for Battle Royale is an honour, it is tradition. Your species is being allowed to ascend into the system. This is the ultimate recognition of your accomplishments.”

  “Tell that to my husband, to my mother, my father… tell that to my son,” her voice quivered with rage and despair as she clawed at his vice-like grip viciously.

  He did not let go.

  “Sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of greatness.”

  “Then make one,” she spat, removing her hands from his and pressing her thumbs into his eyes.

  Fire streamed from the tips of her thumbs, blasting through his skull and coming out of his mouth and ears, scorching.

  Motor oil leaked out as he screamed in a feral, bestial way. It gushed onto her face and neck, catching fire immediately but Joanna did not scream and she did not stop.

  Pressing her thumbs further in, she continued to fire as much flame as she could through her thumbs and the palms of her hands. When she was done, Ka Ren would be nothing but a pile of goop on the ground.

  It didn’t even matter that this body was only an avatar. At least it was something. This torture couldn’t even compare to the pain that she had felt every day since this game had begun. Death was too good for these assholes. She was glad that they used avatars. It would mean that she could inflict excruciating pain on them over and over again. If they dared to come back, she’d kick them to the curb. Break their minds. Ruin their lives. Just like they’d ruined hers.

  His grip loosened, but she didn’t even notice as she screamed and cried tears of vengeance into the flames.

  ***

  As Ka Ren sped away from him John sighed, picking himself up off the floor and going to work.

  He knew that there was no way he would be able to beat that brute with ease, but there were only eight places in the next round and the avatar’s numbers had been cut dramatically by Joanna’s indiscriminate flamethrower attack.

  Now was the time to play it smart.

  If John could whittle down the remaining numbers whilst they were distracted then this round would end before Ka Ren could kill him. If he was lucky, maybe the lower middle manager would be paired up with Joanna in the next round and she could take him out. Her fire seemed to be more effective against him, and her skin couldn’t stop John’s bullets. It would be the ideal outcome for him.

  Raising his revolvers he went to work. Meticulously, and with a laser focus, he began taking shots at the dozen or so remaining avatars. They were all too distracted to notice him and he doubted any of them had bulletproof foreheads like his previous foe.

  At least he hoped they didn’t.

  Some of the avatars looked more human than others, most wore those same bodysuits but there were a few dressed differently. John wondered if they were pay to play upgrades. On the other side of the arena he saw a scarred avatar. It looked furious as it watched Joanna, yet it stood completely still.

  How stupid did these guys have to be to stand still despite all that was happening?

  Oh well, easy picking for me.

  ***

  Truffle sat on the edge of his seat in the private box that had been provided for him. The battle was intense and he prayed for his boss’ safe return.

  Watching from the best seat in the house didn’t leave much to be desired. He had all the food he could eat, cooked – or uncooked – to his specifications. He had drinks, a private TV which showed the most interesting parts of the fight close up, and a huge balcony with an unimpeded view of the chaos below.

  He also had Kesh; the friendly orc who had given him access to such a wonderful seat with perfect hospitality.

  Kesh was the ambassador for a company that was also called O.R.C. They were trash collectors, or so she said. Supposedly there wasn’t much room for recycling in the galactic rat race and so O.R.C was hired by almost every major player in the system to dispose of their waste off planet so that their home worlds didn’t turn into landfills.

  That was about the limit of Truffle’s knowledge on Kesh or the subject of waste management. Usually he would have been very keen to talk to his new friend about it, but he was a little preoccupied with the fight going on below.

  The Boss had somehow managed to narrowly avoid getting killed by a man who looked like Master Roshi on steroids and he was now walking calmly around the arena shooting avatars in the head as they stood still and let him.

  Truffle had heard the old man say it was to be a two on one fight, but he didn’t expect the avatars to sit around casually whilst they got burned to ash and summarily executed by a man in soiled jeans and a duster.

  “Why aren’t they fighting back?” He asked, though he was glad that they weren’t. He didn’t care about the competition but he wouldn’t allow Boss to be hurt.

  “Respect, little one,” Kesh said. “Execs obey management. Even when means death.”

  Kesh really had a way with words.

  Orcs didn’t seem to speak in full sentences, it was as if saying a single word more than was absolutely necessary was a foreign concept. Whilst they lacked a flare for the dramatic, like Truffle had, it was refreshing to speak to someone so completely honest.

  Especially when it put Truffle’s mind at ease. He was worried that the avatars were going to gang up on Boss, but that seemed unlikely now.

  Fears abated, he turned towards the screen and saw Joanna being choked to death by the Master Roshi rip off. Her face was turning purple as she spoke to him. Both of them seemed livid. He spoke of honour and she spoke of dead family members.

  Truffle would have felt bad for her if she hadn’t recently burned a family of three alive in a bar. It was a little hypocritical in his opinion.

  Then there was fire, lots of fire, and screaming.

  “She is true warrior,” Kesh said, admiration leaking into her voice, “scarring own face to kill foe, true strength. A warrior’s scars make them beautiful.”

  As poetic as the sentiment was, Truffle disagreed. Nothing could make a woman like her beautiful. Burning children alive saw to that… also Boss didn’t like her, so neither did Truffle.