The Three Body Problem

Chapter 8

The war progressed quite quickly after that. Flags were stolen, lives were lost, and both teams were a bit on edge - but no one was as on edge as Watcher. Frankly, it was giving Grian a bit of a headache.

It was for this reason that he suggested having a final battle; first to his own teammates, then to Team STAR. The war had been dragging on for a while, so everyone was pretty open to the idea.

On the day of the battle, Grian and the Watcher watched as Cub and Scar set up their cameras on the head platform, preparing to report on the battle.

I can't believe they're not going to fight, said the Watcher scornfully. Cowards, the both of them.

There's a lot of people who aren't fighting. They're not cowards, they just don't want to participate.

Cowards.

Grian sighed. Are you ready?

Yes.

Let's go, then.

They joined up with the rest of G-Team in their meeting room. Grian gave a quick peptalk, then they talked strategy, then split into smaller teams and began gearing up.

Several communicators beeped at once. It was Cub: [Go!!]

The battle had begun.

Grian and Jevin immediately headed out of their base and towards Team STAR's. Their task was to distract the archers and the ghast canon while Joe built a bridge over the moat. By that point in time, the moat was deadly - magma blocks and Guardians were scattered every few feet. In order to steal Team STAR's final flag, G-Team had to be able to make it across the moat.

"I think I'm gonna try to blow a hole in their wall," said Grian, inching as close as he could and pulling out his TNT.

"I'm going to try to draw their fire over here," said Jevin. "Stay safe."

Grian lit off the TNT, but it didn't cause any substantial damage.

"Oh my gosh," said Jevin. "Dude, I've gotta get out of here, there's TNT everywhere -"

A ghast ball flew over Grian's head and landed somewhere behind him. Next thing he knew, he was flying into the air with the sounds of explosions in his ears. He landed close to the water, unharmed save for fall damage.

"I'm guessing that was the TNT you were talking about?" he said, struggling to get the breath back into his chest. "Jevin? You okay?"

"No, man, I need to get some regen. Hang on -" Jevin tossed a regen potion at his feet. "I think we've got a successful bridge, by the way."

The Watcher cheered inside his head, but Grian was too busy watching Doc and Ren. "Are they putting llamas in - I can't believe my eyes, what are they doing?"

"Grian, we need more gear."

Grian tore himself away from Doc and Ren's llama machine. "Right. Quick retreat, then."

They scampered back to G-Team's base only to find that the front was overrun by witches. They backtracked to one of Jevin's potion outposts and took turns pressing the button.

Grian and Jevin's communicators beeped at the same time. It was ConCorp: [STAR 9, G 5]

We're running out of lives, we need a new strategy! We need to take initiative!

Wels ran past them, leaping over the hill like some sort of bizarre gazelle.

Watcher took control and grabbed Cleo, who was running in the opposite direction. "Gang up on Wels, gang up on Wels!"