Great Turf War

Day 16

The .96 Gal Deco and an enraged Callie stood face to face, ready to battle it out. The Gal instantly backed up, trying to abuse its range advantage. He then shot at the Roller Girl, who planted her roller in the ink and swung upwards. The wall of ink bought time for Callie to approach the .96 from the side. Unfortunately, the .96 backed away yet again, not wanting to enter Callie's range. Callie got angrier and angrier by the second, pushing back the .96 until Shio, Sairento, and Marie could see them.

"Mess him up!" Sairento cheered. By some insatiable urge to stop that from happening, the .96 gal deco dived into his ink. Callie swung her roller right on top of his spot, but then a Kraken emerged from the green ink. Callie could barely react before it ripped through her hero armor, cutting her in half.

The .96 ended his Kraken transformation and looked around. He heard the crowd start yelling, whether in delight or in vexation. He swam back to the Overseer's spawn pad, where his team greeted him with warm smiles and joyous cheer.

"Yeah! We won!" The .96 gal exclaimed. The team jumped with joy.

"The Overseers have won the first round of the Special Forces Tournament!" the speakers announced.

Callie emerged from the spawn pad, looking dead as Marie. Disappointment filled the members of the Squidbeak Splatoon as they walked away from the arena and went back to their seats.

Sairento sighed, and said, "Ahem. There seems to be a MAJOR problem in our team composition. Definitely cost us this game."

"Yeah, and it's the backliners! They basically gave zero backup for the entire match!" Callie roared. Marie's calm demeanor cracked.

"Excuse me? What have you done? Don't forget who threw the game!" Marie lashed back.

"Not my fault! What am I supposed to do against a Kraken?"

"And what do I do against a literal Inkzooka? Besides, I'm not as useless as Sairento! He did nothing!"

"I thought we had an agreement on the issue at hand here," Sairento muttered. "Regardless, chargers are meant to combat other chargers, Marie. Is there another reason why you killed that N-Zap instead?"

"As for YOU, Callie," Sairento sneered, "what were you thinking? You have a sub and a special weapon for a reason, you know."

"Kraken is faster than killer wail-"

"That's your fault-"

"SHUT UP!" Shio yelled. "Quit blaming it on each other! We all did badly in this match!"

"Sucks to suck," Marie noted.

"You're right. It does suck losing the very first round. We need to improve our tactics and work on our game plan, not argue like some 5 year olds."

"Any ideas, then?" Sairento inquired. Being put on the spot frustrated Shio beyond belief, but he was somehow able to contain it.

"Please, Sairento. Now is not the time to rush. If we want any hope of making it to the top 3, we have to work together."

"A correct assessment, it seems," Sairento reconciled.

"Alright, Shio. What's the plan?" Callie asked.

"Firstly, I think that you should be our Skirmisher. You can initiate fights by posing a potential threat. Then, I'll sweep in and win the battle."

"Remember that the Slayer's job is not to kill, but to protect their teammates," Marie warned.

"The Slayer's performance can be measured by how many of their teammates are still standing in the end," Sairento added. It would appear that he had joined the Bully Shio campaign. Then, Sairento looked at Callie.

"The Skirmisher's performance can be measured by their ability to initiate fights without dying."

Callie scowled.

"Right," Shio said. "Now, as crazy as it seems, I want Sairento to be our midliner."

Sairento raised an eyebrow. Marie tilted her head. Callie wondered if she should get schizophrenia meds for her friend.

"Hear me out. He could be like... a mid-anchor. Basically a backliner who can fulfill the role of a midliner when needed."

"Go on," Sairento said curiously.

"You can use your range to cover the entire battlefield in ink. That would give me and Callie more room to battle, and it would limit the enemy's movement options! Oh, and Marie can also move up to increase her lethal range!"

"This reminds me of our war tactics," Marie pondered. "We could use our supreme area control to win."

"Now this is epic," Sairento stated.

"Mhm," Marie replied. "We'll use it in our next battle."

Right on cue, Captain Cuttlefish announced the second round's teams.

"Next up are the Enforcers and the Octo Slayers!"

"Aw man," Callie grumbled. "I wanted to beat up the next team!"

"Yeah, yeah. We gotta practice our new roles as a team, though," Shio stated.

"Let's at least watch this match," Sairento suggested. "The Enforcers or Octo Slayers could be our next opponent."

"Then we'll be here all day."

"Just this match. We can go prepare afterwards."

"Fine."

The spawn pads changed their colors to turquoise and orange. The Enforcers stepped into the turquoise one and the Octo Slayers stepped into the orange one. The giant screen displayed their team compositions:

The Enforcers

The Octo Slayers

Inkbrush

Carbon Roller

Rapid Blaster

Wasabi Splattershot

Splattershot Jr.

Jet Squelcher

Hydra Splatling

Kelp Splatterscope

Cuttlefish started counting down. On 3, they spread out from their spawn pads and rushed to their appropriate locations on the battlefield. The Inkbrush and the Carbon Roller met in the center of the battlefield to duke it out, while the Wasabi Splattershot positioned behind the roller.

The Carbon charged at the Inkbrush, swinging his roller at the brush, but then Inkbrush backed up to avoid it. The Wasabi ran forward to attack, but her shots were brushed away, and now ink was flying at her. The brush's extremely fast swings overwhelmed the splattershot, and thus she was splatted with ease. Due to his teammate being splatted, the Carbon Roller tried to rush the Inkbrush. However, the Rapid Blaster suddenly emerged from the turquoise ink, causing another member of the Octo Slayers to be splatted.

Woah. They already splatted two people? Shio thought. The Squidbeak Splatoon watched the match in shock, as they knew that this team would definitely be trouble.

The Jet Squelcher advanced to try and cover more ground, but was targeted by all four of the Enforcers' fighters. In a desperate attempt to help his teammate, the Kelp Splatterscope landed a neat headshot on the Inkbrush... only to be splatted by the Hydra Splatling's superior range and firepower.

The Jet Squelcher didn't even have time to think before a blaster shot exploded right in front of his face. The blast knocked him backwards, and before he knew it, there was a giant brush jammed into his head.

The Octo Slayers walked in shame back to their seats, while the Enforcers were partying all the way to theirs.

"It appears that the Enforcers have won the second match of the tournament!" Cuttlefish announced.

"Woah," Shio repeated.

"Looks like we have a lot to work on," Marie remarked.

"Definitely. If we fight this team, we'll get cooked," Sairento replied.

"Yeah, but we gotta eat first!" Callie suggested.

"Let's go, then. We can discuss tactics afterward," Shio said.