GEOVRU: Repticatch

Lesson 2

"What do you think the assembly hall looks like?" Adrakenn asked. I turned to face her and gave her my opinion.

"I remember seeing a few pictures online, I know there's a big stage up front with a bunch of screens, there's a big floor that they use for various things, I'm pretty sure they're gonna have a bunch of chairs laid out all over the place. I could see her navigating something, most likely looking at pictures on her own. "I remember a while back, when this happened." She swiped to the side and a screen slid out in front of me. It was an image of four people sitting in chairs on the stage, a man was standing at the podium. From the picture you could only see one of the screens, it was hard to make out, but it looked like the first person view of someone getting stabbed in the stomach.

"Oh yeah... that was the first Forman Online Championship." I say to myself as she drags her transparent screen from my few to hers, taking away my view. "Wasn't that about five years ago?" I add. She nodded and continued on her search through images. I pulled up my own and did a little research on the Championship itself.

The standings of the Finale were this

1st: Caedes lvl 49= VICTOR

2nd: Jalis lvl 50= killed by Caedes with Technorite Sword (Legendary)

3rd: Idius lvl 46= killed by Jalis with Titanium Daggers (Legendary)

4th: Halit lvl 48= killed by Idius with Skeleton King Bow (Ebony Arrows)

5th: Gajimnum lvl 46= killed by Caedes with Technorite Sword (Legendary)

6th: Auxilium lvl 42= killed by Caedes with Zillian Throwing Knife (Acute)

7th: Spero lvl 45= killed by Christon with Hammer of Zillon (Hefty)

8th: Christon lvl 45= killed by Spero with Chiseled Axe (Salient)

9th: Lodus lvl 41= killed by Jalis with Poison Dart (Ruthless)

10th: Jepsonidy lvl 42= killed by Auxilium with Gage Staff (Protracted)

I scrolled down until a massive standings tree appeared. Half of the names that appeared were crossed out with a red line, and all names funneled from down at the bottom to up at the top, and there were a lot of them. Each tree started with one-hundred people, and then there were fifty, then twenty five, and so on until it reached one at the top. Then all 1000 of those trees combined to form another ten trees, and then those ten trees combined to form the finale tree, ten contestants all fighting to the death in an arena.

This Caedes person peaked my interest as I looked at a few videos recorded of the championship. The stats and tactics he used were trivial, but people just couldn't seem to touch him. I was happy that the camera could see him through the sneak skill so I could get a look at him. He wore a long coat clad in crimson straps. His sword was made of a kind of black metal that didn't even glimmer in the sunlight. His boots were steel toed and his gloves were bright leather. He looked invincible the way we would swing his sword in combat, then sneak away and disappear, but not from the cameras. He was out in the open for the majority of the fight however, being inside the first fight, where 4 people died. After that fight, he ran off into the forest to regain his senses. What laid there for him in waiting however were two friends who had teamed up to take out the threat. The first jumped on him with a sneak attack, but Caedes' sword skills were too much, even after the second man had jumped in. When the man with an axe hopped in, Caedes immediately threw a knife at him with his open hand, and in the split moment, took out the other with a slash through the chest.

However, there was another who would do this, Jalis, a player with black hair and crimson robes. His form of stealth was much more advanced and thought out. He would hide in the trees and stalk his pray just before taking them out. He even sat through the initial gore-fest on a tree branch, taking out one of them with a poison dart and never got caught. It was only when the final four were left that He came out of the hiding place to escape the arena slowly shrinking in on itself. He watched as Idius and Halit fought each other, Idius easily taking him out with an arrow from about 20 yards away. However in the moment of victory, Jalis jumped from the tree and ended his celebration with a stab through the back.