We entered the launching area and met Candice. She was wearing the same armour but with a red scarf over her neck, probably to give it some groove.
"So, what weapon do you both prefer?" Perseus asked.
"Nothing in particular, just give me knives, I used them in gardening." Candice said.
Don't ask me why but I was pretty impressed by Candice. How she had related her gardening skills in this battle.
I was think about a weapon that would suit me but nothing came to my mind. Do I even know what I can use. I was looking at the armoury when a idea came to my mind. I was good at basketball and may it could help me with this.
"A do you guys have something to throw at long distance, I'm not talking about javelin but something heavy."
"Well I know something of that sort." Perseus ran to the armoury and brought out a wooden crate.
"Any idea on what he will get?" I asked Candice.
"Don't ask me" she said.
Before I could ask anything more Perseus returned.
"Go on open it." He said sounding enthusiastic.
I opened it and found a pair gloves in it. They were made of some metal I couldn't recognize and had something like a sling shot over them which was folded. I took them out and wore them on. They fit pretty well on my hands and the sling shot opened. It was more like a cross bow but extremely light.
"Wow, you can really lift the hands of hammer." Candice said
"What do you mean I can lift the hands of hammer?" I asked.
"Daniel, these gloves are made for only the people with strongest arms and it seems like you are one of them." Perseus explained.
"Since the stronger heroes use heavy swords and maces no one really prefers these."
All this explanation about them being heavy didn't settle with me cause if you ask me they were pretty light, just the weight of any regular glove. But I settled to ask about it later.
"So, how do I use them?"
"Its quite simple, you press the button to release the arrow while jabbing in the direction of aim."
"As you see it takes a lot of effort in fighting with them and eventually you get tired after sometime. But since it was easy for you then I think it suits you."
He opened the lower half of the box and gave me 2-3 dozen of arrows. He carefully inserted them into the the cartridge.
"Here you go, remember for regular arrows you need to push with index finger and for explosive arrows the ring finger. Use your thumb for opening and closing the crossbow."
"Alright that should be enough, let's go and join Theseus and Jason now."
He said it was enough but I had no clue that if I will be able to use my weapon.
We went to launching pad and stood on our place. The screen read 1 min to go before battle.
"Alright guys, we sneaked up on the other team and they are all planning to go for centre loot."
"That is great news, listen up this is the plan. Daniel you will support us with to your crossbow from the rear while the rest of us will go in front and ambush the fighting teams. Remember you can use revivals as arrows as well and hit us with them if anyone of us goes down."
"Sounds like a plan" I said trying to be cheerful.
The countdown started
10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1. Beeepppppppppp
And suddenly all of us were standing in a tropical forest.
"Let's take cover guys, near the center"
We started trekking towards the middle. It wasn't much of a view, just what you will find in regular tropical forest.
Did I mention that Jason had a really good sense of smell because he smelled a enemy who had been following us for a really long time.
The enemy hero wielded a dual sword and from what I could tell that was his favourite weapon.
Well its quite alright to feel embarrassed when I tell you guys I lost my cool and fired explosive arrows randomly in all direction expect in the direction of the hero enemy and gave up our location. We had to flee or others might have arrived.
"That was too close" I said panting after the long sprint.
"Daniel this ain't gonna work" Theseus said rudely.
"Cut him some slack would you, its his first game of tag" Jason said trying to cover for me.
"Sorry guys, its my fault, I know I have to steel up my nerves"
And that was end of the discussion and no one talked until we reached our spot. Luckily we didn't find anyone midway.
We all took our hiding positions, with me on top of a tree and others hiding behind different rocks or bushes.
In the middle was a crate that might have contained something awesome but none of us tried to go for it.
Then finally the time came when the first team arrived and tried to capture the crate and the second team invaded them. We waited for them to warm up and then I sent our signal by blasting a explosive grenade in the middle of battle field and everyone in my team charged.
Everything was going pretty much fine. Theseus and Jason were doing there back to back slash and hack thing, what surprised me was Candice attacking small group like an assassin and then hiding like she was never there. I don't know why but somehow Candice was more talented than I had thought.
At a point Perseus lost his sword and I thought things will start going wrong but he simply started fighting with his bare hands as if he never needed a sword
anyway.
I was constantly hitting my teammates with revives and we were doing great. I ended up using all my revives and we lost Theseus in the fight. Its obvious he didn't die or anything because we all are already dead. We finished of the last enemy and started wondering why the death match hadn't started yet. Just then an arrow came out of the right tree and hit Jason on his neck and he looked at it and smiled.
"Well seems like that is it for me" he said and disappear into dust.
And then the sirens went out and death match started.
What happened after that was quite blurry.
I remember watching a girl in full camouflage coming down the tree from where the arrow had come and walked over to the crate in the middle. She took out a staff with spikes at the end which gave me a feeling that I don't wanna get smacked with that in my face.
Perseus walked up to the girl and tried to talk to her.
"Hi, I know its not a fair fight. You can never win against the three of us at the same time so why don't you surrender" Perseus said trying to reasonable.
"Why doesn't anyone take me seriously?" The girl in camouflage said.
"Now you have insulted Sapphira the hunter of Artemis and you shall pay for calling me weak" she said.
And with that she smacked Perseus in the face with blinding speed sending him flying through the jungle.
Candice came to her senses and attacked. She was fast but not fast enough for the hunter. Sapphira took Candice's own knife and stabbed her in the abdomen.
I was too shocked to move but I tried to raise my hand to shoot. I sent a explosive arrow towards her.
After the dust settled I looked up, but she wasn't there. I saw a shadow pass over me and the next split second I knew a staff had impaled me right through my heart. I died hearing the announcement that Sapphira was the winner of game of tag.
Well, so much for dying twice in a day.
