The voices had come from the right. Precisely the direction she’d needed to take if she wanted to make sure she was able to stay in the event area. Her skills were still active, with at least another 40 seconds before they went passive.

Cursing her luck, she dashed to the secret room and spun the handle as quickly as she could. Locks thunked as the thick bars holding the door shut slid back. Grunting with the effort, she pulled, all the time trying to ignore the sound of the approaching Cullers.

As soon as she had it roughly a hand’s width ajar, she crafted a mine, tossed it through into the room beyond, and sprinted away to the left.

It was a basic ruse, but it was the best she could come up with given the circumstances. Whether the oncoming Cullers would fall for it she didn’t know, but if they did, the mine would hopefully slow them down.

And if it doesn’t, will they risk chasing me if they see that we’re so close to the edge of the event? Her internal monologue reminded her that she hadn’t checked the rules of the event, being too caught up with the idea of twenty-five successes across all skills, so why would she even begin to think that they’d have done the same?

Reaching the end of the sewer, she slowed her approach, not wanting to accidently skid on the floor of the tunnel and risk stepping outside of the designated area. Slipping around the corner, she caught her breath and zoomed in on her minimap. The edge of the area was one pace to her left.

Talk about cutting things close! She kept moving, keeping her pace at a quick walk, activating FREERUNNING to make sure she was able to spot the best path through, not wanting to rely on her PASSIVE skill for something so important.

She did speed up her pace as the sound of her pursuers got closer. It was obvious they were nearing the open door from the sound of their voices. A mixture of hushed, harsh whispers, a raised voice saying something like “fucking do it!”

Whoever it was did it.

INSTAKILL!

CONTESTANT 299483 ELIMINATED

INSTAKILL!

CONTESTANT 014993 ELIMINATED

HIT!

[email protected]% PER SECOND

PANIC!

HIT!

[email protected]% PER SECOND

PANIC!

HIT!

[email protected]% PER SECOND

PANIC!

Screams filled the sewer tunnel only audible once the sound of the explosion had finished rolling through the tight sewer tunnels.

KILL ASSIST!

CONTESTANT 892984 ELIMINATED

KILL ASSIST!

CONTESTANT 203098 ELIMINATED

KILL ASSIST!

CONTESTANT 910386 ELIMINATED

What the actual fuck? Kill assists! Notifications like that could mean only one thing, the people chasing her had killed members of their own team. Talk about loose alliance!

Cullers weren’t to be trusted, not unless you truly knew them as she had learned to her cost, but this went beyond the pale. Gunshots rang out, closely followed by screams which were cut short. Cull notifications scrolled past on her retinal monitor. There had been at least ten people chasing her.

Gods, this is the biggest group I’ve come across!

But now she was in a bind. Ahead of her lay a sprint of more than one hundred paces before she would be able to take a branching tunnel and cut right, back towards the designated area proper. Whilst there were plenty of pipes feeding into the sewer, she didn’t want to try to escape her pursuers down one either crouching or on her hands and knees. Especially not as being shot would result in her arse being peppered with whatever projectile was being sent her way.

On the left, no more than thirty paces away was another connecting sewer, but to get to that, she’d be leaving the area.

“Come on!” Whoever the speaker was, they had powerful lungs. Echoes overlapped as the shouted order bounced back and forth down the sewers. Mai really didn’t want to see what sort of person owned such a voice, Sharkans being more than enough for one day.

Not going to make it! She thought as she came level with the connecting tunnel. Spinning to face in the direction of her pursuers, she created a shield for one hand, and a light machine gun for the other, resting the barrel of the weapon on the edge of the shield to give it stability.

BIOMASS NOTIFICATION

A pursuer bolted around the corner, staggering as if pushed. Mai waited a second for them to regain their balance, adjusted her aim, and fired. Five rounds. Muzzle flare blinded her slightly, the noise of the gun deafening in the close confines of the sewer.

CRITICAL HIT! 45%

[email protected]% PER SECOND

PANIC!

CRIPPLED!

Shrieking, the Culler clutched at their shattered leg. Blood jetted from it, pulsing with each heartbeat, stretching out at least five paces each time.

“Help me! I’ve got no BIOMASS!” they managed to shriek out.

Mai shifted her aim.

No need to waste my own biomass, they’ll bleed out soon enough.

Unless someone in their party actually wanted to help them. A head poked out from around the corner. Mai held her fire. Tucked behind her shield as she was, in the dim light of the sewer, she would be hard to spot.

Come on, come on! She silently urged her enemies.

“Help me! Help me!” The wounded Culler stretched out a hand, barely able to support the weight of their arm. A shot rang out, blasting half of their face off.

KILL ASSIST!

CONTESTANT 000485 ELIMINATED!

Mai’s arm trembled, her sights dancing around her aiming point, breathing coming in short gasps as she tried to process what she’d just seen. Whoever was leading the group around the corner was callous beyond extreme.

Splitting her attention for just a second, she took a quick look at the dead Culler. Although the lighting was bad, she could just make out that they were wearing the yellow jumpsuits so often favoured by low-level prisoners.

Which explains the leadership style. If you’re weak, you’re either a threat to the group, or you’re someone’s bitch, Mai thought as she pushed a pang of fear to the back of her mind. Back to where she’d been forced to push so many other things to just cope with what she had to do. That, and memories of her lost friends.

Another head poked around the corner and she found herself holding her breath. Willing them to not spot her. Just in case, she boosted her PASSIVE URBAN CAMOUFLAGE by ACTIVATING it. For every rank she held, she passed on a five per cent debuff to their ability to spot her. Adding this to the fact that the lighting was poor, and she had a very good chance they would struggle.

Just hope that they decide to push round before the damn skill goes into RECHARGE, she thought. If she could just stay out of plain sight long enough for them to start advancing down the tunnel, she could take down the majority of them, bottled up as they were.

A second prisoner staggered into view, stumbling out of the designated area, cursing as they received the obvious notification that they had lost their hard-won score.

“Fuck y…” they started before holding up their hands in what looked like supplication. “There’s nothing here. Looks like they’ve scooted.”

There was a pause. More precious seconds of her ACTIVE skills lost. The lone prisoner stood, looking back and forth between the tunnel and his team members, wiping his hands on his already filthy yellow jumpsuit.

And then others came around the corner. Two, three, six. And finally a large shape, herding them along with some sort of polearm.

Come on, any more of you fuckers? Mai licked her lips, her skills were rapidly counting down to RECHARGE. No one else stepped out, the lead part of the group having advanced roughly five paces. And with each pace they grew closer, the better the chance of them spotting her. Even more once her skills were in RECHARGE.

She waited, three paces more. Checking her ammo count, she still had forty-five rounds remaining. More than enough to hose the group in front of her. And to finish them off she’d use a shotgun.

More boom for your buck she thought, not even pausing to wonder where such a strange saying came from.

Breathing out, then holding her breath, Mai let rip with the light machine gun. The enemies at the front had zero chance. Dead before they even knew it, their bodies were face first in the dried effluent in a split second.

NEW TITLE! - TWOFER!

YOU KILLED TWO ENEMIES WITH ONE BULLET!

INSTAKILL!

CONTESTANT 459684 ELIMINATED!

CONTESTANT 459685 ELIMINATED!

INSTAKILL!

CONTESTANT 399584 ELIMINATED!

CRITICAL HIT! 65%!

CRIPPLED!

[email protected]% PER SECOND!

HIT! 12%

[email protected]% PER SECOND!

SUPPRESSED!

HIT! 10%

[email protected]% PER SECOND!

SUPPRESSED!

Bodies tumbled to the ground in the blink of an eye. Mouths opened in screams. Hands clutched at gaping wounds. Blood poured out of holes in a way nature never intended. Five people down and out of the fight in less than three seconds.

Shifting aim, blinded by her own muzzle flash, Mai was too slow to react as the boss of the group raised a weapon. Its barrel was massive. She had no idea what she was facing and all she had time to do was blind-fire as the enemy boss fired back.

HEADSHOT!

INSTAKILL!

CONTESTANT 123223 ELIMINATED!

Even as the prisoner boss died, his projectile landed just in front of her shield. Mai had a split second to duck back down, take a breath and then it blew.

SOAK! 95%

It was like being hit with a giant’s hammer. One second she was firmly planted behind her shield. The next she was cartwheeling through the air. Breath exploding from her lungs, Mai screamed as the hard floor of the sewer met her soft flesh.

DISQUALIFIED! CONTESTANT HAS LEFT THE DESIGNATED AREA!

Gasping for breath, Mai rolled on the ground in agony as she tried to regain her wind. Activating TREAT LIGHT WOUNDS she gasped as she finally managed to get her breath back.

Rolling onto all fours, still gasping from remembered pain, Mai scooted forward, back into the DOMINATION EVENT’s designated area.

DOMINATION EVENT FINISHED!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL QUALIFYING CONTESTANTS!

Screaming in frustration this time, Mai pushed herself to her feet and staggered away from the ambush zone. A plethora of kill markers would be certain to draw any nearby Cullers. Sobbing in rage and frustration, she barely noticed the final two kill confirmations.