Great Turf War

Day 6

It's too risky to take a roller head-on. Shio thought. He dashed backward and waited to see what Callie would do. Callie didn't hesitate to charge forward. Shio sidestepped, but her roller swing was able to strike Shio. Another bit of his Silver Hero Jacket burst into red light.

Shio fired his Hero Shot to get some damage, but the shots were easily blocked by the roller. He moved forward to sweep Callie's legs, but she jumped to avoid the attack, coming down with a mighty swing. Shio rolled forward, ending up behind Callie. He raised his Hero Shot for the kill.

However, before Shio could pull the trigger, he felt splatling bullets pelt his back. In a flash of red, his Silver Hero Jacket disintegrated. Wearing just a white T-shirt, he ran over Callie and dipped behind some cover. When he peeked at the fortress entrance, Sairento was chilling at the end of a long hallway.

"Aw, poor Shio's gonna go hiding now?" Callie taunted.

"Of course he is. No one can withstand the might of this splatling," Sairento boasted.

I gotta deal with two of them now? Shio thought. I definitely gotta retreat, but Callie'll just hunt me down. Sairento could probably just pinpoint my location, to be honest. This is going to be challenging.

"I'm sorry for doing this," Sairento said.

"Traitor! I gave you fries!" Shio hollered.

"It must be done, my friend," Sairento replied imposingly.

No more fries for Sairento. Shio thought. He then yelled,

"This is treachery!"

Then he lightly tapped on the Squelcher player's shoulder and said, "Take out the Roller Girl first."

Teaming up on Callie, they were easily able to splat her. When they peeked through the doorway, the only remaining member of Team Blue was still there. Sairento seemed like he was having a lot of fun standing around and watching Callie die.

"Weren't you gonna help Callie?" Shio asked. Sairento only shrugged at his question.

"Let's get this over with," the Squelcher player stated.

"Yeah," Shio agreed. They were the only ones left on Team Orange, after all. The Squelcher player tried to peek shot, but was met with splatling fire.

"I can't get a good shot with this ultimate splatling guy or whatever," he said.

"Alright. I'll provoke him to shoot, and then you attack when he's recharging," Shio replied.

"Genius."

Shio stood in front of the doorway and waved his arms around. As the barrel started to spin, Shio dived to the right. The Squelcher player waited for the shots to stop, and then dashed in front of the doorway to splat Sairento. But that turned out to be a fatal mistake. His foot met the threshold of the door, and three dots on the ground started glowing a brilliant blue. Ink mines.

The first ruptured his Silver Hero Armor. The second reduced his legs to nothing but orange droplets. The third launched his torso into the air. An amiable smile, warm words, and ruthless warfare. These are all of Sairento's weapons. The Squelcher player landed next to Shio, unable to move or speak. His eyes stared into nothingness. Now it was up to Shio to win for Team Orange.

I never thought Sairento would be so cunning. Shio thought. And to think that he lives in the clothing store...

Shio breathed shakily. With fear, with passion, and with anger. Even if Sairento was his friend, he could not bear to see an ally like this. He tried to bait Sairento into firing and dived back behind cover. But there was no gunfire.

"What's wrong, Shio?" Sairento chuckled. But he didn't sound like himself.

"Oh, the usual," Shio tried a sarcastic response while racking his brain for ideas. Sairento ignored him and asked,

"Aren't you going to attack me?"

"How am I supposed to win?"

"You won't."

Shio stood up and ran a lap around the fort, searching for an alternative entrance. There were none. When he peeked through the doorway once more, Sairento's splatling was in the middle of the corridor, where Sairento couldn't reach.

"I surrender," he announced.

After all of this, he's gonna give up? Shio thought.

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that," Shio said.

"Suit yourself," Sairento said cheerfully. He sat down and started setting up what looked like a microphone stand. Shio chucked a splat bomb at Sairento, hoping that it would all end. To his dismay, the "microphone stand" was actually a splash wall. Shio lobbed another bomb, running his ink supply dry. But it was enough to destroy the splash wall. Shio rushed forward, hoping to get Sairento within his range before he would deploy another "microphone stand."

Before Shio could even reach Sairento, before he could even reach Sairento's splatling, blue ink started pouring from the ceiling. It was a trap. Shio whacked himself in the head for being so stupid. Sairento walked over to his splatling and started charging it up. Shio closed his eyes, and it was all over.