The single moment watching the monster as it descended towards the girl felt ponderously long, like it was going to stretch on forever. What could I do? I reached for the pocket sword, but it was futile. There was only one thing I could do, and I broke into a furious charge, opening my mouth to shout—

“Marco!” The man with neon blue hair said, then he paused, looking to the side. “Marco?” He said again, clearing watching his interface. “Marco, Marco, Marco marco—“ he shouted over and over as he broke into a sprint in a diagonal away from the monsters charge.

The girl sat for a moment, recovering, and the man and monster were charging off to my right. I looked between the man, the monster, and the cage. So to score and end the game, all I had to do was ‘marco’ the monster into it… I ran until the cage was between me and the monster, cupped my hands around my mouth, and yelled.

“Marco!” I shouted. The monster turned on a dime, rushing back my way. It pounded towards me, erasing the distance between us in a heartbeat. Each second gave it another leap in which it crossed five feet, and within five seconds it was bearing down on the cage—

“Marco!” Someone from the crowd shouted. What? Why would they—

I looked around. Most of the crowd— they were probably out of tokens. Between meals and the fact most people only killed one or two nofaces, to survive this, almost everyone here would have to call the monster.

“M— Marco!” Someone else in the crowd shouted, and the monster turned, dashing towards her— and straight towards the box. If the monster touched the box now, almost half of the lobby of players would—

“Marco!” I shouted, directing the monster away from the box.

“Marco!” Someone called it away.

“Anyone who needs the tokens, call it! I will call it back! There’s no danger!” I shouted.

The game had seemed simple, at first. There were only a few rules— call Marco to call the monster and gain points, direct the monster to the box to end the game and score extra points. But the underlying complexities only revealed themselves in the full scenario of the game. Everyone would have to call the monster at least once, and no one would want to call it twice. If it reached you without a second person calling it— well, good luck. You were basically putting your whole trust in either being able to run away from it— unlikely— or on someone else calling it for you.

To get it into the box, you had to call it without someone else interrupting you. Which meant, if someone kept stopping you from ‘scoring’ the monster, all you had to do was not interrupt the monster by calling it when it charged them, and you would have one less opponent in the game.

On top of that, there are the people who are here on purpose, and they want tokens above all else. In fact, they probably weren’t even going to let me end this game. I looked up towards the man with shock blue hair, and just in time.

“Marco!” A person from the side of the ring called, from way too close to the monster.

It was chasing the shock blue man again when I had looked up, and now barreled towards the side of the arena. The blue man stopped, catching his breath with his hands on his knees— was he outrunning that thing somehow?”

“Marco!” I called, and the monster pivoted away from the crowd at the edge of the arena, back towards me, and I turned to run.

Then it was called to its left, directly towards the cage. I called it again, and it barreled towards me— fast.

I ducked as its talons sliced the air above my head, dropping flat on the ground before another person called it and turned it away. Holy shit, that was close. The closest I think I’ve ever come. The way it swept over me, the raw pressure of being so close to an absolute fucking monster. It was like coming out of a car wreck, how sudden you’re forced to contemplate your mortality in the half instant of life or death. And then it was over in a flash.

V leaned over me. He looked strangely calm for someone in a life or death game, his breathing even.

“You’re trying too hard.” He said. “Don’t look at me like that. There are lots of people to call it. If we want to keep everyone alive we only have to call it when its about to down someone.” V said, looking out over the crowd. I could hear the things footprints stomping against the concrete, the click of the chitin talons that covered its feet as it tore through the place.

“You’re right.” I said, rising to my feet with a grunt.

“It’s tricky, because if two people are trying to farm tokens off of it, to get the maximum distance from each other, they have to stand on opposite sides of the field.”

“Which would put the cage in the middle, adding to risk of someone ending the game. But we call the monster before its close to it, we could die.”

Most of the people that had been sucked into the game were just here to survive. After obtaining one or two tokens, they backed off, heading out through the exit. No one tried to run without playing this time— the memory of what happened to the people that tried to exit early last time was still fresh. They were cut down at the gate, their bodies left in a pile to cool.

The man with blue hair had his back pressed against the cage in the center of the arena. What was he—

“Marco!” He called, right as the monster passed by him. It turned, only feet from being scored—

“Marco!” I shouted, not even fully to my feet yet. He was trying to score! Was he homicidal!? More than half the lobby still remained— if he stopped them from getting tokens, it was as good as killing them all!

He glared at me, then his mouth quirked into a smile.

The monster turned towards me, swinging— and I unconsciously moved with the ingrained footwork of a master of a lifetime of study. It was the foot work I had learned yesterday, in fact— pivoting on my feet to the side as the monsters fist flew by me. My vision was blocked by a wall of brown, fur covered flesh that smelled like moss and earth and blocked out my vision. I swallowed hard as that one moment lasted, and the beast raised its head, ears twitching—

“Marco!” Someone called, and I distantly processed the monster had turned away.

Two close calls with death, the game was less than half way over, and that idiot was trying to get everyone killed.

V waved to me— when had he made it to the other side of the arena? He was signaling me— what was the plan? Obviously, if he had moved to the opposite side of the arena, it was to kite it without letting it score. I saw the monster charging towards the center again.

“Marco!” It turned away from the center, roaring as it moved towards me. Was it— it was getting faster, angrier each time it was called. Another hidden piece to the game. Around us, the circle of people continued to thin, people from the outer ring calling it to satisfaction. Some of the last people called it more than just once, up to ten or even twenty times as we kited it back and forth.

Eventually, in the Arena, there were five. Willie paced the outer edges, only very occasionally calling the monster. It was time to finish this. I ran to the middle, pressing my back to the cage in the center— it clearly wasn’t physical. It looked almost like a hole in the world, pitch black so that it didnt reflect light at all, a floating box to contain a monster. I was betting the game would end as soon as the monster touched it.

“Marco!” I said, ready to end the game.

“Marco!” The girl with the tattoo called, pulling it away… and back towards the box! She was trying to score it, at least. I didn’t care about the tokens— I just wanted to end the game!

The man with the blue hair called it next, pulling it away from the gate. The girl with the face tattoo looked towards him, then towards me. She raised an eyebrow.

I watched as the monster slashed at the man, flinging him back until his body slammed into the fence, rattling it.

“Marco!” She called, kiting the monster back around and away from me and towards the center—

And then she slipped, and the monster was piling towards her.

She wanted the points? Fine, I didn’t care. I ran farther away from the center, to the opposite side of the monster, and called it. It spun towards me. She looked up in shock, crawling backwards.

The monster was 50 feet away— no, 20 feet— 10—

“M— Marco!” She called, stumbling to her feet, and the monster turned towards her, moving like a racing car, now, having accelerated with every call. She jumped, throwing herself out of the way as the monster slammed into the cage in the middle.

It bubbled like water, absorbing the monster, and then the stage was silent.