Chapter 27: Madam Kampion’s Plan

Just as Miguel tensed himself for the razor-lizard’s killing blow – a blow that would surely see him out of the contest, and banished from Madam Kampion’s complex in shame (if not worse), an arrow shot out from his right. It struck the green razor-lizard directly through the neck at its throat, just below its head.

And then a second arrow joined it, just a couple of inches further down.

The beast stopped moving, apparently shocked. And with the damage from the multiple attacks having accumulated to a certain point, slowly but surely it sank down, and stopped putting up a fight. With one rattling half-roar, the razor-lizard lay down on one side with a great thump, sank further to the ground, and then moved no more.

Notification: You have gained 105XP

Ignoring the shared experience bonus from a kill that someone else had completed, Miguel looked over at Sid in surprise. But far from having got up and somehow found a bow, the big man was still lying unconscious. He had clearly lost a lot of blood after the great bite on him, and he, too, wasn’t moving...

Beyond, however, stood three figures. The foremost was very familiar to Miguel.

“Chloe?” he said in astonishment, scrambling to his feet.

For it was her. There she stood, just as he remember, and for a moment Miguel just gazed at the pretty face, wavy dark hair... and slightly mocking expression.

“Hey, ally,” she said.

Chloe had another arrow nocked at her bow. The young woman was standing with two men, and all three were dressed in black-and-gray combat fatigues, with black caps on their heads. Clearly, this was one of the rival teams in the contest.

Miguel realized that despite being saved from the razor-lizard, his involvement in Demon Hunters would surely now come to an end. All of the teams wanted to be the last one standing. However, to his surprise, Chloe then unequipped both the arrow and the bow.

“You ought to finish us off,” he said, panting and still holding his own bow. He felt both grateful and embarrassed, and didn’t really know how to feel about Chloe... he’d like to see her as a friend, or even more, but knew that really, he couldn’t.

“True enough,” she called out, without coming closer. ”But I admit, I feel bad about how it ended between us last time. I wanted to show you that although I’m ruthless, I do play fair.”

Miguel inclined his head. “You were the rightful winner.”

“Thanks. Still, the publikum seem to think that I tricked you. Plus, Sid here“ – she glanced down at the unconscious warrior – “well, he was pretty honorable in that final contest. So, we’re letting you go this time. I hope your healing skills are up to scratch, Miguel.”

He glanced at his two prostrate comrades, then at the slain razor-lizard, and nodded. Aluna was starting to move, groaning and sitting up, but Sid was clearly in a bad way.

“I mean it – this is only a one-time thing, Miguel. After this, we’re even. That means that when I next see you, it’s a fight to the death. And I’ll kill you again, I promise.”

Having said her piece, Chloe turned, the two other fighters following her an instant afterwards, and the three walked away down the slope towards the trees.

“Thanks, Chloe,” said Miguel in a hoarse voice – though he had no idea whether the young woman heard him or not.

A few moments later, Miguel and Aluna had propped Sid up against the wooden chest, and dripped some of the slain monster’s blood into his mouth. The tall man had appeared to be close to death, but somehow his throat had moved as they worked, and he had managed swallow the blood. It was just as well he did, Miguel was sure, or Sid would have been out of the competition, and their team would have been down to two.

Now, instead, Sid opened his eyes and groaned. “Ugh. I feel... terrible.”

The blood had certainly had its effect. Despite his words, Sid was already looking around, some color returning to his face.

“We’ll get you back to the cave,” said Aluna.

First, though, she and Miguel dosed themselves as Sid continued to groan by the chest. They managed to drink from the green razor-lizard’s blood. Its just-killed body proving considerably easier to extract blood from than the older corpse had been.

“That was... Chloe, right?” said Aluna quietly, after swallowing a dose of the fiery blood.

“Yep. She showed... I guess you could call it ’mercy’.”

“Surprising. She must really like you. I wonder who sponsored her to be here, and if they are cool with her letting other contestants survive.” Looking towards the forest, the way Chloe’s team had gone, Aluna took another mouthful of the blood, and then swirled it around her mouth. “Damn, this stuff is good.”

Miguel didn’t agree – he hated the taste of the blood – but he had also been drinking more of the stuff. It was easy to scoop up from the creature’s multiple recent wounds, gulping down several hot mouthfuls, and seeing corresponding notifications as his hit points rose back towards the maximum.

He glanced around; Sid was now on his feet and walking over to the pair, once again holding a torch. They should be getting back to their base soon. Miguel also knew that he would have experience to spend, but that could wait until the relative safety of the cave. “I’m back to my max hit points, but it’s annoying that this is a one-off,” he mused. “If only we had some way of bottling the stuff...”

“Wait – what about that plastic sack?” said Sid. “It’s big, but we could certainly catch some of the dino blood in it.”

Miguel nodded. “Good thinking. You could perhaps lay it out under the carcass, and let some blood drip down into it.”

Aluna licked her lips as she looked at the body. “That sounds good. But we shouldn’t spend too long out here, in case another one shows up. I need to eat.” She pulled out a dagger again. “Maybe if I cut its head right off, we could drain it back at the cave?”

“Uhm, yeah... if you like?” said Miguel, impressed and a little disturbed by this suggestion.

He wasn’t sure if he would sleep well with the razor-lizard’s head being drained of its blood alongside their makeshift camp. But he had to admit, it made more sense than trying to collect some of its blood out in the open as darkness fell.

Soon, the three of them were making their way back. Aluna was dragging the severed head and upper neck of the green razor-lizard, which she had tied one of the pieces of cord around. Sid and Miguel were carrying the wooden chest, with the two torches that they had used in the fight wedged tight, the flaming ends protruding from the chest’s lid. They still hoped to get the chest into their cave – though Miguel wasn’t entirely sure it would squeeze through the entrance.

“How are you feeling now, Sid?” he said as they walked along, grunting every now and again from the strain.

“It’s strange. My hit points are back, but I feel wiped. Exhausted. I really need to sleep. I’m hungry, too.”

“Ah, this thing has a fatigue stat, if I remember.”

“Right.” Sid must have been checking his own profile, because a moment later, he said: “Yeah. My hunger’s above eighty per cent, and my fatigue’s at ninety-two.”

“Damn. We’ll need to check that our cave is clear of yiqu, and get some rest before we get back to hunting and exploring.”

Profile!

Checking his own statistics, Miguel saw the following:

Strength: 14 Speed: 18 Melee: 4 Ranged: 14 Spirit: 1 Agility: 6 Hit points: 19 of 19 Experience points: 480 Hunger: 68% Thirst: 44% Fatigue: 81%

“I need to eat and rest too,” he said. “And we still don’t have a way of storing water.”

“Even getting water is going to mean a trip down to the lake,” said Aluna from just behind him. “Who knows who you might see down there?”

A few minutes later, the trio were back inside the cave. They had managed to get the chest inside, mainly by widening the entrance way with Miguel’s shovel. He then did his best to cover it up again by piling up loose rocks on both sides.

Next, Miguel circled the cave once more, splashing through the shallow water that covered most of the area, and looking for arrows. He found another two, to add to three that he had retrieved from the carcass of the razor-lizard. Meanwhile, Aluna had done exactly what she had suggested – tied the severed head of the razor-lizard inside the plastic sack from the tool kit, and hung it from a small crevice in the cave wall. Already, at least half a pint of blood had accumulated.

“With luck, we’ll have healing potions on tap,” she said with a smile, then licked some of the blood from her hands.

The companions then settled down in their accustomed spot, torches propped up as before, and were soon eating the bread that Miguel had earlier found in the chest.

“This hits the spot,” said Sid. The big man’s method was to hold the entire loaf up to his mouth, ripping chunks off with his teeth.

It wasn’t long, though, before the big man’s eyelids were drooping as fatigue took hold.

“Ugh. Bread with no water makes my mouth feel so dry,” Miguel murmured.

Aluna just grunted in response.

“Are you tired too?” asked Miguel, looking around at her.

She nodded. “I guess that the healing blood only goes so far. Just like in the outside world, our bodies need to rest.”

“Yeah, that was what I was thinking. You think we can afford the time, and still have a chance in the competition?”

She pouted, looking away towards the entrance tunnel. “I think we have to. We must need some rest in the real world, too, right? We can’t stay awake all night. Or at least, not every night.” She raised her eyebrows at him slight, and Miguel suddenly became very aware again that with Sid fast asleep, he was relatively alone in the cave with this beautiful woman.

Changing the subject, he said: “I suppose Madam Kampion will be disappointed in how we’ve got on.”

Aluna shook her head, then pushed her glossy back hair back over her shoulders. “No, I don’t think so. She wants a win, of course, but that’s not the only priority.”

“How so?”

She fixed Miguel with a stare, and he was reminded that she had been in Kampion’s service long before he, Sid and Tarja had been recruited. After a moment, she shrugged. “I’m not sure that I’m the one to say. Especially in the middle of the contest.”

“Okay,” he nodded slowly, thoughtfully, turning a piece of bread over in one hand. “I just assumed she wanted power and wealth.”

“She has that already.”

“Right, right... Presumably, every media baron and politician wants an edge, though? Exposure, popularity.”

This time, she grinned. “It’s what our city’s founded on, after all. The publikum knows best. But of course, we’re not the only city out there.”

“You mean Technoburbia? Like... the enemy?”

Aluna took a mouthful of bread, chewing, and looking away for a moment until she had finished chewing. “Mmm. Did you ever think about how early sports and games are kind of similar to war? Strategy games, trials of strength, that sort of thing?”

Miguel scratched as his stubble and thought about this for a moment. “I suppose that early societies needed a way of finding out who was a good warrior, a good leader, and so on. You know – without actually killing them in the process.”

“Right.” Aluna looked directly at him again. “So, in some ways, we are doing something similar here. I mean yes, it’s a game. But it’s also a test of potential. Madam Kampion saw yours. The time will come when you need to prove that in the outside world. too.”

“Okay... But I mean, doesn’t she have enough people of her own?”

This time, Aluna frowned, then she moved closer, crouching down beside Miguel. She glanced up towards the nearby spherical drone before answering him, gazing at him, her eyes looking larger than ever, and whispering. “We tried it before. Rishi led a previous team, withNoah, a few other. Our efforts didn’t... satisfy the boss. But you, Sid and the others... you’ve already proved yourself.”

“Okay.” Miguel didn’t even dwell on the complement. “So, they want to see that we can fight?”

“Yep. And pretty soon, that fight is going to get real. There’s a war to win.”

As Aluna stood up again and then settled herself to sleep agains the wall of the cave, Miguel tried to fill in the blanks of what she had said. Clearly, Kampion had a plan that went beyond winning Demon Hunters. Something involving the generation-long war with Technoburbia. But what exactly?

But then, Miguel’s eyes also started to drift shut.