The Ranch

Tih & Friends (4)

Axel chases while Tih runs around the battlefield of colorful lights. It only hits him after a couple minutes to look back at the weapon he chose. While dodging a barrage of attacks from different directions, Tih meticulously zips open the bag on his stomach. A faint blue glow comes from within.

Tih pinches one of the jelly balls, and pulls it away from the mass of ball jello. It stretches before detaching and bouncing back into its original shape.

Then the ball changes, the dim blue glow grows brighter and deeper, and it seems to sink into his fingers more. An alarm goes off in Tih's head and he throws it at the closest vest, which happened to be Axel, who had pounced for another attack.

He was in the air when the ball hit him. All his momentum stopped and he even flew back a little while getting the wind knocked out of him thoroughly. His vest light changes to a blue color.

Tih must find the changing of colors entertaining, as he starts tossing out one after another, completely turning the tides and ratio of colors.

Anyone watching from above would see a wave of blue slowly spread out, but then it suddenly stops.

Tih reaches for another gummy, but finds his Fanny pack devoid of any remaining balls. With that experience ended, he goes back to his first mission, looking for his teammates.

Behind him, a swarm of people try to scrape off the blue goo substance on their vests, only for their hands to stick, stuck on that area of the vest.

"Goo grenades", is what the scientist that created it named the balls. Kept at a specific temperature, it retains its spherical shape, but once the temperature changes even one degree, it will melt into a highly adhesive goo.

It had no attack power nor any practical use as a weapon or tool and was unknowingly dumped into the batch of third-rate weapons to be used for the tournament.

Although the balls themselves have no attack power, Tih's "tosses" had enough force behind it to push someone a step back. Suffice to say, it's gonna leave a bruise.

The scientist thought his creation was useless, but it ultimately became a cheat-like tool for this kind of game. The reason?

Players' vests change colors a multitude of times during these ten minutes, during which they'll be hit with many different weapons. According to the vest's function, the color of the vest will be the color of the weapon last touched by it, but since the blue goo is always touching it, it will always be the last thing it touches, giving Tih permanent points.

At another side of the arena, Basile and Victor have been surrounded by a variety of colors. Victor keeps them back with the whip, giving Basile time to load, pull back the string, and aim. The only problem left is that he's never used a bow before. Trying to shoot with only display a pitiful scene, so Basile can only use it as deterrence.

Victor and Basile look between each other. "Go!" Victor calls out as he ropes someone in. In time, Basile takes an arrow and throws it at the vest. They repeat this as many times as they can and it becomes a big brawl between a few colors.

In the end, both of their colors were changed and they had to stay in that group of repeatedly changing colored vests.

Theodore is doing pretty well by himself, if we ignore all the self-injuries. The chain of his mace is actually fairly long, but that doesn't help if you don't know how to use all its potential.

Abel was also doing well, until he wasn't. He learned a lesson today and that's not to fight metal with wood. He ended up losing his color as well, but because of that, he lost all previous caution and started ramming anyone he could see with what's left of his broken club before running away.

Lucien had neither the experience or aptitude to handle a longsword, not to mention his stamina was on the lower side of the team. He would've been caught if he hadn't tripped down a deep pit, hiding away for the rest of the time to save his energy for future games.

Instructor Henri, Kai, and Pierre grouped up, but Henri's throwing knives disappeared pretty quickly into the round. Pierre has been using his spear to slap the vest of anyone he can find as he runs through the arena, trying not to get tagged or trapped.

Kai saved most of his slingshot pellets after realizing he should use everything he can right at the end. After meeting up with the two, he divided his pellets with Henri.

Sherlock also had a problem with ammo. Like Kai, he also realized that using everything at the end would be the smart choice, but loading his crossbow took time, too much time. Instead, he scoped the landscape, found an inconspicuous area, huddled there and shot at people when the passed by occasionally. He'd only shoot once, even if he missed, so that his target wouldn't have a good grasp on his location.

Author: The ultimate cheat!

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