Lagency

Chapter 5

DARKOI sprung up to the alarm, “Morning! Get dressed in exo!” I heard Hunter’s voice yell across.

“Ugh!” Axel groaned. 

This was the first time we were going to be in our exoskeletons! Letting out a loud whoop and jumped off my bed. Gearing up into the exo, I immediately felt 100% lighter, my already aching limbs no longer felt like they weighed like 1000 pounds.

~

“So, since it has been about two weeks since you started training, we were thinking about a little competition.”

There was a hesitant silence in the air, I felt my heart thumping against my chest; what have I learnt this time I’ve been here?

“It will be a 4v4 competition! Winning team gets next Wednesday off!” I heard loud cheering.

“So… who wants to start? Zeus and Venus, you choose your team.”

I was in a team with Zeus, Gwen and Ziara.

“Now… one thing we coaches will join!”

“Dibs on Luna!” Venus yelled.

“Dibs on Asher.”

“Hunter?”

“Elene- I guess…”

As I sat down, prepping for what was coming up, thinking of strategies, our first challenge came up.

“First things first… the sphere.”

Simply putting it, it was a semi- spheric globe with handles, obstacles, and platforms.

“If you fall to the void, you are done with. Last one standing wins.”

I paced at the bottom, waiting for the klaxon. As it went off, everyone set off, racing up the sphere.

“Play tactical, not aggressive, don’t fight unless you need to.” Asher’s voice echoed within my head.

Staying low to the ground, I slowly made his way up, avoiding the chaos of his surroundings. On the side of my view, Hunter was battling Elene. They both were ruthless, savage, and experienced. Shoving Elene hard on the side, Hunter managed to push her off the platform, leaving her half clinging to the sides. Struggling up, Elene pounced forward, taking every open opportunity to give Hunter her all, from kicks to punches and shoves.

“No one plays clean. Winners play dirty. They play smart not hard.” Hunter’s voice rang through.

Elene lunged at his stomach, jerking back, Hunter threw his weight on her hand, twisting it past her back. Then spreading a smirk while dumping her to the void.

“Bye bye now!” He swept his hands clean while approaching Zeus, with one swoop, her was face flat on the platform, pushing himself up with determination, Zeus launched himself forward, crashing into Hunter.

“Horrible move kid” He whispered as Zeus slowly block incoming hits, suddenly, Hunter threw Zeus into a headlock, pushing him off the edge, eliminating Zeus.

“On your right Darko!” Before Asher could finish, Venus landed with a thud beside me. Wrestling to the side of the globe, the fight quickly turned into a chess match, approach after approach Venus tried to play calm, but soon frustration took over, her punch jerked forward, side kick to my waist, then a hook to the head, but before it could happen, I saw it coming, the simplest combination in history, trapping her leg and tossing her over my shoulders. Letting out a short scream Venus was out.

Well guess what, I felt a hand trapping my legs, forcing me down, I knew nothing would help, thrashing out, I dragged onto Theo’s hand, jerking myself into the void, pulling Theo with me- errr… I supposed that was smart, right?

By this time, there were 6 of them left. With 3 coaches, and 3 students. Asher approached Luna, landing a hand knife on her neck. As the fight proceeded, they lowered into a fighting stance, slowly circling, Asher went forth, punching to the left, then to the right, Luna took it calm, waiting for her moment. As the waited, Asher swept her off her feet, quickening the pace. “It’s over,” he whispered. With that, Luna fell off.

2 coaches and 3 students. Theo approached Gwen from behind, suddenly landing a strike on her shoulder, then a kick to her knees. Jumping up to her feet, “Game on,” She hissed, throwing out a damaging punch to her opponent’s arm. Being blocked, she kicked Theo’s sides, launching him to the side. “Easy.” Theo was- eliminated.

Gwen made her way up the magnetic wall, slowly stalking Axel. 1v1, simple enough. Landing a punch on Axel’s back, she threw him forward, sending him into the void. The klaxon blew.

“Victory to Gwen!” Their team cheered.

“In your face!”

As Axel celebrated his victory, Asher announced the next challenge. “Paintball FIGHT!” There was a ripple of applause. A smirk spread across Ziara’s ‘this is going to be good.’ She whispered.

As the opponents descended to the forest, Ziara clutched the g*n close to her body. As the klaxon blew, she sprinted to find the hiding spot, playing it safe, she heard the soft approach behind her, her killer instincts forced her to turn, placing her opponent into an armlock, “Look what we’ve got here, raw meat, Axel, NEVER COME TO MY PLACE NEXT TIME I SEE YOU HERE, YOU ARE GOING TO HELL.” Axel pounded on Ziara’s back, drawing her pistol, she placed it over his abdomen- “you really want that?” She threatened, jerking her knee up to his stomach, firing the pistol. With second to spare, a paintball whizzed over Ziara’s head as she ducked.  

Squinting thought her scope, Ziara steadied her sniper, resting her finger on the trigger, softly tugging on it, as the paintball flew towards the open, piercing thought to air, it landed with a splash on Theo’s exo. Before Theo could return fire, Ziara ducked behind the logs and shot at Luna. Eliminating 3 of her 6 opponents.  

On the other side of the fields, Hunter pulled the trigger, eliminating Gwen, Zeus fired next, missing by barley an inch. Shooting again, Hunter caught Zeus, spreading a smirk over his face.

“Not so fast…” Ziara hissed, “And… fire!” Rest assured her paintball splashed across Hunter, taking him in surprise. 4 down, 2 to go.

A splotch of paint made its way across Venus’ armour, then, to Theo’s- wait didn’t that mean… They won?

“Well, it seems like we know who’s getting Wednesday off…” A bunch of complaints and cheers erupted.