Chapter 11: Feints

Crimson Crisis steadies his aim as he tries to shoot at the upper half of my body but I am giving him a lot of troubles. I often duck behind a fallen tree and I can quickly appear a couple of meters forward or backwards of my previous position, or sometimes I just stand up and fire at him without changing my position at all.

In terms of cover Crimson Crisis is clearly at a huge disadvantage. If he wants to have the same kind of cover as me he has to approach me. Right now he is already out of the zone where the trees collapsed and only standing trees surround him, while I am obviously in the boundaries of the collapsed trees, which gives me a far superior cover.

The problem is that closing the distance is not really an option for Crimson Crisis, he knows that I am using a Plasma Carbine while he was using a Ballistic Assault Rifle. In terms of distance and power his weapon is better, if he shortens the distance between us he is losing his advantage and enhancing my fire power against him.

Crimson Crisis tightens the grip of his weapon. He doesn’t have time to hesitate, I am hunting him viciously after recovering my weapon with movements he can't read. Even the act of recovering my weapon was a feat that he had to admire, but he has no time to think about anything.

'I can’t lose the upper hand, I just have to change locations to a place where I have the advantage again.' Crimson Crisis thinks inwardly and decides to start running, increasing the distance between us. If I want to have a decent accuracy I have to pursue him.

'It was about time you started to run.' I think with contempt seeing the running Crimson Crisis. I start to chase him without exposing myself too much because my remaining energy shields are only at 182%. I calculate that during the exchange of fire I must have depleted at least 70% of Crimson Crisis's energy shields with no damage to his health.

However there is another problem: Crimson Crisis is using a Healing-type Carrier Orb. This type of orb can heal and replenish the health and energy shields after being idle for 3 seconds at the price of having one less weapon slot, if I relax the pursue for just a moment Crimson Crisis could begin healing and then I will lose for sure.

I make a tiny leap leaving behind the fallen tree and start running towards Crimson Crisis frantically. I fire two twin bursts to the running Crimson Crisis who immediately turns around and faces me firing a burst from his weapon. I try to dodge but one of the bullets impacts on my body while 2 of mine impact in Crimson Crisis arm. We quickly do sidesteps and hide behind a tree almost at the same time.

Neither of us move for 4 full seconds as if we have reached a mutual truce. In truth what we are doing is focusing all our attention trying to guess what will be the next move of each other. Although it only were 4 seconds, in my perception it were like 4 full minutes.

Two trees separates us by 35 meters. I am behind one of the trees as a Battle Droid with a silver insignia in my right shoulder. Behind the other tree there is a human-like figure with an arm and part of his chest from a Specter.

*Bang!*

Crimson Crisis perceives a loud noise coming from his right side. The noise is loud enough to muffle the sounds of my steps temporally. Thinking of how crafty I have been, Crimson Crisis judges that the noise is just a distraction to confuse him, so he decides to break his cover from the left side trying to be one step ahead of me.

'This bastard is toying with me!' Crimson Crisis curses in his mind because unexpectedly for him the loud noise was not a feint, it is really me charging in a diagonal path to approach him from the right side.

Although it only takes him an instant to correct his aim from the left side to the right side, it is enough for me to go near him. Now I am less than 25 meters away from his position running with no weapons in my hand. I abandon my diagonal path and start running in a straight path towards him.

*Ba-ba-bang.*

*Ba-ba-bang.*

Crimson Crisis, with his Assault Rifle still in triple burst mode, shots me twice. The first burst misses me because it was shot while relocating the aim. The second burst is aimed to impact directly in my body. After seeing the first burst I just motion my left arm in front of his chest.

*Clang clang clang.*

Metallic sounds spreads in the forest as the bullets impact. In the last moment Ana deploys the Small Titanium Shield and this absorbs completely the damage directed to my body. It takes 11 sniper shots to destroy the Small Titanium Shield, 3 Assault Rifle bullets is far from being enough to leave a scratch in it.

Although Crimson Crisis has a 150% bonus damage against energy shields, this bonus doesn't apply against physical shields as my Small Titanium Shield.

Seeing the small shield held by me, Crimson Crisis immediately decides to fire to an unprotected area: my legs.

*Ba-ba-bang.*

When I see the Assault Rifle held by Crimson Crisis tilt down slightly, it is obvious what he is trying to go for my legs. As it is within my expectations, I do an extravagant forward flip to dodge the bullets and land one meter closer to Crimson Crisis.

'This is bad, he is almost at melee range!' Crimson Crisis curses again and he now has to make a quick decision. Melee weapons in Shooting Range were exceptionally lethal and he knows that I have a Plasma Saber. Some people think that this one of the reasons of the name of the game is that if you couldn't maintain your opponent away from melee, in Shooting Range, you will die.

The truth is that that statement has nothing to do with the game’s name, in all FPS games melee hits are more powerful than ranged hits.

I extend my right arm while approaching Crimson Crisis and at the same time Ana retracts the Small Titanium Shield and deploys the Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber. Since I have the Pacifist Sub Class, carrying both weapons will count as carrying a medium weapon which will give me moderate movement penalty.

"Deploy Heavy Titanium Staff!" Crimson Crisis has no choice but to accept the melee fight against me since there are only 5 meters between us.

*Swish.*

*Keng.*

I do a vertical slash from right to left which collides with the Titanium Staff that appeared in Crimson Crisis hands just at the last moment. Without losing the momentum I do a quick spin and this time the vertical slash comes from left to right, which Crimson Crisis hurriedly blocks.

After the first two blocked slashes we start to exchange blows, sometimes I would be on the offensive and sometimes I would defend.

♫ ♪ ♫

In the lobby there is only one duel left and it is being highlighted in all the screens from all the possible perspectives and angles. This has to be the amateur duel of the year. While it could be expected from Crimson Crisis because he has ranked high in two previous tournaments and just needed to rank high in this one in order to advance to the Pro category, I am a total unknown player who astonishes everybody because he am using Manual Mode.

"Hey Reynold, have you noticed?" Someone in the crowd says poking another guy with his finger.

"Noticed what?" The one named Reynold answers.

"He is in Manual Mode but his movements are not different from the system ones."

"Hmmm... Now that you mention it..."

That comment spreads like a wildfire in a dry prairie. Strangely enough, it is partially true, my movements are mimicking system movements. With further inspection, the crowd quickly notice that there are small differences and the mimic is not perfect.

However, from the perspective of Crimson Crisis in the midst of the fight, my movements are real system movements.

♫ ♪ ♫

*Swish, swish.*

*Keng, keng, pa.*

I do two slash attacks that are easily parried by Crimson Crisis. The second attack’s rebound makes me create a tiny opening which Crimson Crisis immediately exploits to hit the hilt of the Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber, knocking it from my grip and tossing it into the air.

"Chance!" Crimson Crisis roars and he starts to launch vicious blows at me. Normally a Gunner class can’t use a melee weapon as effective as Crimson Crisis was using the Heavy Titanium Staff, but that weapon is an unranked weapon, that means that everybody can use it without any penalties. The damage of this weapon is not high but the defense is excellent, he uses this staff mainly to try to make a stunning hit which will give him enough time to change back to his Assault Rifle and point-blank shot his opponent, in this case, me.

*Keng, keng, keng.*

I am like an immovable mountain just parrying the hits with my arms. Being a Battle Droid means that my body is made from a titanium alloy after all. Unless Crimson Crisis hits me with enough force or directly in the head, I can parry suffering only about 1% to 3% damage per hit.

"Two steps to seven o'clock." Ana whispers me.

*Fwosh.*

I immediately follow Ana's instructions and dodge with a step back the last swing from the staff instead of parrying. Crimson Crisis closes in and do a downwards swing with his staff aiming at my head. I don't try to dodge, instead I motion my right hand as if I have the saber and as if I am trying to parry the staff.

*Keng.*

The Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber appears in my grip and stops the Heavy Titanium Staff from hitting me. Crimson Crisis's eyes widen at the sight of the Plasma Saber. Just now Ana spotted where the Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber dropped and told me to go near in order to recover it and she immediately deployed it.

I do a half spin, kicking Crimson Crisis in the chest. He stumbles and has to retreat a few step backs before finally stopping. I don't hesitate and chase after him with my Advanced Piercing Plasma Saber.

*Swish!*

I quickly do a vertical slash which Crimson Crisis parries with his staff. The vertical slash is followed by a horizontal slash from left to right which Crimson Crisis parries again. When he parried the second slash he smiled maliciously, 'To actually think you tried to use a sword combo against me!' Crimson Crisis thinks and laughs.

A sword combo is a set of system-made movements that compacts some motions and make them a bit faster. The one that I am using consist in a vertical slash follow by a right and left horizontal slashes and finally a frontal stab. Although this kind of combo is deadly it is very easy to predict and you can’t stop the combo until it finishes. This combo is used mainly by newbies.

*Keng.*

Crimson Crisis parries the second horizontal slash and predicting that the final hit, the frontal stab, will come from the right he does a spin to the left in order to dodge it and use the momentum to try to hit me hard on the side.

*Swosh.*

Crimson Crisis eyes widen once again when he notices that the staff just hit the air, the stab never came. Instead of launching a frontal stab, I duck and kick one of his legs throwing him off balance with his back facing the floor. After the kick sweep I stand up and lunge at the Hybrid laying on the floor trying to stab him in the chest.

Moments ago I was just feigning using a beginner combo to distract him and create an opening. When I saw Crimson Crisis spin I immediately knew that I succeeded and it was time for the finishing blow.

Crimson Crisis has no time nor means to dodge and could only move slightly to avoid a fatal blow. The Plasma Saber pierces deeply his left shoulder.

"AAARGH." Although he is not feeling much pain, Crimson Crisis roars in agony trying to shake me off.

"Seismic Strike Module: Full force!" I command and suddenly my weight increased twenty fold, I’m planning to crush Crimson Crisis with just my weight.

"If that's how you want to play so be it!" Crimson Crisis curses and a cubic-like object appears in his right hand. With just a touch it stick on my left shoulder.

'Fuck, a sticky grenade!' I cancel the Seismic Strike Module immediately and then I stand up retreating a few steps quickly. If the grenade kill both of us at the same time, since I received more damage because my shield pool was larger, I will lose.

*BOOOOM*

"What a gentleman letting me live." Crimson Crisis laughs as he watches the explosion.

END OF CHAPTER 11