The two boys weaved and slithered around the obstacles that littered the compound, and both of them chased each other with top speed, waiting for the perfect time to strike.
Liohime Kitagami wore an expression of joy. He was absolutely enjoying this chilling conclusion.
Meanwhile, the younger kid who tailed him mercilessly, Billy Milly, could feel a lump in his throat. He winced and aimed in front of him, trying to let a shot fly, but the young man with his luminous yellow gradient hair had already changed trajectories, running up a pillar of black, solidified foam that stood in front of him and launching himself over the kid with a roar of laughter.
What…is this feeling? Liohime thought.
For nearly two minutes, they had been battling and dodging each other, trading five shots each with all of them missing their targets.
The battle conditions and the potential ability between them had been deemed equal up until this point. For the first time in a while, although it was merely a fun game, he had been facing an opponent who matched his strength.
He should be worried by now, hell, maybe even a bit scared that he could lose.
So why….
He landed on his feet behind Billy, facing his back and held his laser gun towards his abdomen, while the latter instantly turned his entire body and prepared to pull the trigger at the same time, thus-
PING! PING!
-Trading a simultaneous direct hit, deducting one life from each other, bringing them down to their last life.
Why am I so happy!?
Liohime's eyes widened and his smile increased, while Billy frowned with tension and anxiety gripping his entire body.
I….can't lose! he reminded himself. I just can't, not with all of my friends cheering me on from the spectator room!
No matter what, he had to come out on top. He had to win. The young boy known as Billy Milly could never accept defeat at a time like this. He couldn't revert back to the same average kid who couldn't do anything special, who couldn't stand out.
He sidestepped a laser beam from Liohime and screamed out, "I'll-!!"
"-I'll win-!!!"
"-Win!!!"
Both boys yelled out those words, despite the contrasting emotions that were so easily displayed from their focused faces.
***
The two women dashed forward and twisted their bodies while firing at the same time, dodging each other's attack as if in sync.
Shihon, without hesitation, distanced herself and sped around the perimeter where Tisha stood with a powerful burst of speed.
Tisha kept her eyes locked on the whizzing figure, staring her down while Shihon's body continued to disappear behind the pillars and mirrors before reappearing again within gaps.
Then suddenly-
-She vanished.
W-What the!?
Tisha's heart stopped.
No, rather…
As soon as Shihon sped behind a pillar at her right, she did not reappear and expose herself.
She's hiding behind it.
Before Tisha could move forward to reduce Shihon's time to act, however, her body flinched as she heard glass breaking in that direction, and before she could process what was going on, Shihon blitzed into action, closing the distance in half of a second.
With fear overwhelming her, Tisha hastily fired a laser beam straight at her but-
"DUMBASS!!!!"
Shihon spat out, holding a large shard of glass in her hands and positioned it to her stomach, reflecting the light right back at her.
PING!
Shihon had acted quickly, hiding herself before smashing her fist into a mirror in front of her and using a piece of it as a shield, neglecting her gun for the first time in the game. She had not expected to get a clean hit with the reflection, but she was now even closer to beating Tisha.
With her right hand leaking minute amounts of blood from cuts, she cautiously chose not to regenerate her body and threw the shard to the side before pouncing as the stunned figure could only watch in horror.
"ONLY TWO TO GO, BITCH!"
She punched Tisha's weapon out of her hand before dashing towards it, but instead of picking it up before her opponent could react first-
Crunch.
-She stomped on it with all her might, demolishing it and removing her adversary's only hope of attack.
Tisha's eyebrows twitched, and her sense of hope flickered before almost disintegrating completely.
"You….why…"
Standing a few feet away from her, the Magical Beast Girl merely wiped the sweat from her temple, but as she accidentally used her bloodied right hand, the sweat mixed with blood trickled down towards the left side of her lips, and she sighed right before licking it away and grinning.
Now, Tisha's only way of betting back into the game was abandoning her sight of Shihon and escaping to one of the refill stations, which was a good distance away, or…
"Try to keep up so that you can get my weapon first, Tisha Marsey."
"-hk, YOU-!!"
"Both females instantly scampered to where Shihon initially hid, as they both slid past it at the same time, Tisha could feel her heart drop.
There was nothing there, only pieces of glass stranded from a broken mirror.
"Wha-"
And with the perfect strategy now complete, Shihon pulled out her gun that she hid behind her back, tucked under her shirt and into the top of her pants.
"Bang."
PING!
She pulled the trigger and landed a clean hit.
And with all hope lost, Tisha stumbled back and fell, completely defeated.
At the same time that Shihon began to slowly close in on her prey, Liohime sprung forward to close in on Billy, and the latter followed suit, firing at each other with the their fastest quickdraw of their weapons, both shots in perfect accuracy to each other.
Whichever laser beam landed first would decide the match.
And in less than a second-
PING!
-They were both hit at the same time, taking each other's last life, just a few seconds before the menacing, haunting figure of Shihon towered over the trembling Tisha.
Shihon, with the stinging pain lingering in her right hand, held the weapon and aimed the barrel to Tisha's forehead, and instinctively, Tisha could only mumble.
"N-No….how…..wai-"
"I won't wait, bitch."
PING!
Shihon fired straight at the circular target strapped at her forehead, and a cold silence followed for a few seconds.
Finally, a voice from above boomed.
"It....IT'S OVER! THE PLAYER REGISTERED AS EMILY IS THE LAST ONE STANDING!
PLAYER EMILY...WIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNSSSSS!!!!"