Virtually Existent

Chapter Fourteen - Bountiful Rewards

Lex sat down immediately after she was spawned into the world. Knowing that there would be no pickups in her sector, and the others would be off limits for at least a minute, Lex prepared herself by doing some stretches.

“Contestants! You have been selected out of a massive list of volunteers for this year’s Grand Melee. Everyone has been transported into the city, and in exactly one minute from now the zoning walls will be removed and pickups will be enabled. Fight well!”

Lex rolled to a stand and hopped a few times to adjust herself to the world. It seemed completely real, and if it weren't for the still air she wouldn't have had any way to tell. Just as she was ready to set out, a transluscent wall appeared in front of her, sudden enough to startle.

"Elias Jameson has been marked for assassination. If you are to kill Elias Jameson you will be given the sudden death pickup as a reward. All contestants have been given this message. Elias Jameson is currently to your east, thank you for your cooperation."

Lex ran her fingers along the third sentence. Everyone had been told to kill Eli for some reason in that case. Was it some kind of stunt for the viewers or did Eli really piss someone off this time? Lex didn't have much time to ponder, as a half minute later the zoning walls fell and released her to the city proper. 

She stepped forwards and then backwards, testing her legs before breaking out into a complete spint. Lex tore through back alleys and bounded off of walls at the sharper turns to avoid slamming right into the walls.

She had covered several blocks before she sighted her first person, and he had company. Lex pressed herself against the wall as she glanced out onto the street. Two unarmed nation entries, oblivious to her prescence with their backs turned. Simple.

Lex sprinted out onto the street with almost completely silent footfalls, coming around to the following nation entry diagonally from the left. Throwing herself up into the air, Lex grasped onto the man's long hair on either side of his head and literally swung around a full one hundred and eighty degrees. 

Her small frame didn't have the weight to reliably down the man, but that wouldn't be of much consolation to him as he barely held onto consiouness at a kneel. His ally turned just in time to see Lex finishing the wind up of a kick directly in the face, sending the head snapping backwards.

Well and truly out of it, Lex dropped into a boxer's stance and beckoned her second opponent over. Six foot five, and having trained for years to compete, this man was a solid wall of muscle standing ahead of this lightweight girl. He approached and let loose his roundhouse punch.

Lex's legs split apart and she dropped under the powerful swing, taking the opportunity at her new vantage point to attack in return with a flurry of punches in the groin. The nation entry moved backwards as best he was able in an attempt to recover, but Lex wasn't going to let him do that.

Lex rubbed her hands together for a moment as she waited for an opening. And then she saw it, allowing her to leap up and tangle the nation entry in her limbs. With a shift of her weight she brought the man's head down from his weak stance straight onto the concrete.

Lex looked up at the sky and lazily saluted to it. That stunt would definitely have caught the attention of the organisers and she was definitely being broadcast to the public live right now unless a small war was going on somewhere else, it might just turn some members of the audience towards her. 

She couldn't help but giggle at the prospect of a room full of painted fans stomping in anger on their memorabelia while she was rolling over one of the nation entries to see if he had anything worth while. Finding absolutely nothing on her second victim, she went back over to the first and pulled an SMG out from the front of the nation entry's pants.

She released the magazine in the gun and looked at the meagre level of bullets she'd been left with. Barely a half a clip, maybe a dozen bullets. She snapped the clip back into place and brough the gun's iron sights up to check instinctively. But, of course she would never find a badly aligned weapon in the Grand Melee. She gave each nation entry a pat on their unconcious head before slipping the SMG magazine through her waistband for quick access and jogging off.