When the electricity from the grenade runs out, Auden stands there stunned, and I make my move. I climb up his power armor using Spider Climb. The same ability allows me to cling to his armor long enough to activate Iron Grip and latch onto the edge of his armor even while Auden tries to grab me. My hands full holding on for dear life, I use the only offensive ability I have that doesn’t require the use of my hands. I activate Bite. I feel a gnawing hunger come over me and I feel the skin on my face stretch out. I have an incredible urge to eat living flesh, and the closest source is Auden. My jaws open wide, and I lean forward and begin devouring the flesh of my enemy. His screams of pain are drowned out by the pleasure I feel as the life energy of my opponent becomes my own. There are a series of green and red numbers that float by, but I ignore them, the instinct to feast overwhelming any other impulse.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, my TP runs out, and I immediately transform back into my normal self. My grip on the power suit loosens, and I’m thrown from Auden with the next swipe of his powered arm.
As I hit the ground, I expect to be stomped or beaten by Auden. Instead, he wobbles around and falls on his armored butt. As I get to my feet, I see that he’s holding one gauntleted hand to his face and neck trying to stem the flow of blood from his disfigured face. A glance above his head shows his health bar is down to the halfway point and pulling up my own information shows that my health is now back to 100%.
Auden angrily yells out, “Heal!”
A faint glow surrounds him, but his wounds barely heal and his health only goes up a fraction. He turns to yell at his teammate, and I can see the extent of the damage I caused him. The right side of his face and neck are shredded, and whole chunks of flesh are missing from his neck.
“I said ‘Heal.' Why haven’t you healed me, Courtney?”
Courtney, the poor girl, marked in her team as a healer, walks forward, shoulders hunched, hands wringing nervously in front of her. “I did heal you.”
“What? You expect me to accept that poor excuse for magic? Heal me back to full health, you stupid bitch!”
Courtney glances to her right at her boyfriend Jeremy, but he has his hands full avoiding Lillian’s blade. Addressing Auden, she explains, “I can’t heal you more. I’m out of mana. I used it all up in the other fights.”
Auden rolls to his feet, a sneer on his disfigured face. He looks down on Courtney and whispers cruelly, “Then you're even more useless than you normally are.” Then a small curl appears at the edge of his lips. “But I have one more use for you.” Auden points at me and yells, “Steal Bite!” and I feel the ability I’d absorbed from the zombie pulled from me and streak to Auden. He smiles wide and turns to Courtney. She realizes what’s coming and tries to run, but his massive armored hands grab her by the waist. She screams as she’s pulled towards Auden’s mouth. He casually calls out “Bite, ” and his smile transforms into a frenzied rictus grin. Thankfully, Auden turns away from me as he devours his teammate but I can hear the wet sounds, and I’m suddenly glad that I can’t use the ability ever again.
There’s a wet plop as what’s left of Courtney drops from Auden’s hands. A look above his head shows me that his health has fully recovered. As he turns face, I can see that he has healed of most of the wounds I caused. He stares at his blood-soaked gauntlets and laughs. “Ha! That was amazing. I think this is my new favorite ability.” He nods once towards me. “Thank you so much for giving it to me.”
I hear a sound that makes my blood run cold. A laugh that I hoped I’d never hear again. The high-pitched sound of a man laughing like a hyena, comes from Auden’s direction, and for a moment I wonder if he could be the man in the mask. But Auden isn’t laughing. Instead, Jeremy steps from behind the bulk of Auden. I lean to the right to look beyond the two and see Lillian sprawled out on the ground, a canister still spraying a familiar gas around her in a cloud. It all clicks together in my mind. Jeremy is the man in the mask. I don’t know why he tried to kill me permanently, but I suspect it was on the order of his master.
“Auden, I’ve disabled that uppity bitch Lillian for you. It will take a minute for the gas to clear away, but after it does, you can kill her at your leisure.” He turns to me, and an undisguised look of hate comes over him. “I warned you to quit, Anthony. Now my friend and I are going to take our time picking you and your friends apart.”
Auden looks at the disabled Lillian and sniffs acknowledgment. “Well, you’re not as useless as I thought you were.”
Jeremy beams like a dog being praised by his owner.
Anger boils up inside me, and I scream at Auden, “Is this how you planned to win? Are you such a coward that you’d send your lackey to murder my family and me so that you wouldn’t have to face us in a fair fight?”
The confused look on Auden’s face tells me everything I need to know. Turning my gaze to Jeremy, I see that his expression has changed from one of adoration for his friend, to one of absolute hate for me. “He doesn’t know, does he? You did this on your own.”
“Shut your dirty mouth worm! You have the gall to accuse someone of the Arschloch family?”
“No. It’s obvious Auden isn’t intelligent enough to come up with the kind of plan you did.”
Auden turns to Jeremy at the insult to his intelligence, “What is that idiot talking about, Jeremy? What have you done now?”
Jeremy give me another hateful look, then turns to Auden with a bow and a smile. “Nothing, Auden. Don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to distract you from our victory. Kill him and the rest of his team!”
With a motion swifter than I can follow, Auden backhands, Jeremy, knocking him onto his ass. “Don’t you ever tell me what to do.”
Jeremy rolls onto his knees and genuflects before Auden. “I’m sorry, Auden. I didn’t mean to tell you what to do. I just didn’t want you to lose so I—”
“What did you do?” Auden kicks the man when he doesn’t finish his sentence.
“He kidnapped me and forced me to bind to a dungeon crystal, then he killed me repeatedly, intending to murder me permanently once I dropped to level 0.” Auden stares at Jeremy with anger, and I continue, “Then when I escaped, he came to my home to murder my family who isn't System Users.”
Jeremy’s expression vacillates between hate for me and adoration for Auden as he looks between us. “I only did it for you, Auden. After you almost lost to Anthony at the Halloween party, I knew he and his boss had a chance to beat you if they worked together. So I tried to stop them from entering the System Games. I tried to warn him first, but he wouldn’t listen. So what else was I supposed to do to protect you?” As he speaks, Jeremy crawls towards Auden’s feet and reaches up to Auden, his hands begging for forgiveness and understanding.
A siren blares in the room, causing everyone to cover their ears. The announcer's voice seems to speak from everywhere. “I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen. We have been instructed by the Oversight Committee to stop the fight while they investigate these serious accusations.”
Flashes of light occur all around the edges of the large room, and men in black suites appear. Agent Smith is among them, he points in our direction, and the men start to close in.
Auden kicks Jeremy again, sending him flying away from him. “Do you see what you’ve done, you idiot? Now we have to deal with the Oversight Committee. I won’t take the blame for your incompetence.” He smiles, “You’re a liability.”