The REDS of war

Volume Seven Chapter Eleven

From the middle of the arena, James Ironwood stares up at Arthur Watts, who is standing on a platform in one of the four gravity biomes. Dusk stands in the commentators booth with Rail the two fervently typing at keyboards. A lava geyser shoots up from the fire biome to the left behind Ironwood, and another shoots up from the one to the right of the gravity biome Watts is in. Watts aims his revolver at Ironwood, who draws his black revolver and aims it behind himself. Watts pulls back his gun's hammer.

"Nineteen." Watts says softly.

Ironwood fires a Gravity Dust bullet from his black gun, launching himself toward the gravity biome. Watts fires his gun at Ironwood, who shoots a Gravity Dust bullet to the side to dodge it. Ironwood then fires yet another Gravity Dust bullet to put himself back on course toward the gravity biome. Once he gets near Watts, he fires yet another Gravity Dust bullet to his left, sending him toward a floating wall on his right, which he kicks off of to put himself in the air above Watts. Not expecting this move, Watts had begun to aim his revolver at Ironwood and instead ended up looking up at him in surprise before jumping away just as Ironwood comes down and punches with his right hand. The punch connects with the floor, and as Ironwood stands back up, he tosses his black revolver into the air and catches it by the muzzle, having flipped it around.

Watts once again attempts to aim at Ironwood, but Ironwood swings the handle of his revolver at Watts' face. Watts leans back to dodge, leaving an opening for Ironwood to punch him in the diaphragm. While Watts is still in the air, Ironwood spins around and kicks him in the gut, sending him flying across a gap to another platform. Watts rights himself in mid-air and lands on his toes, sliding backward. He barely manages to lean his torso to the side to dodge a normal bullet fired by Ironwood. He then blocks two more normal bullets with a Hard-Light shield deployed from his rings. He aims his gun at Ironwood.

"Eighteen." Watts fires and then activates one of his rings. Ironwood dives and rolls out of the way of the Electricity Dust bullet that Watts had fired at him. He gets up in a kneeling position and aims his white revolver at Watts, but there is a dull ping noise, followed by the gravity around Ironwood changing to levitate him into the air. There is another dull ping, and Ironwood is slammed into a floating wall.

"Ah!" Ironwood shouts as he hits the wall.

Watts smirks and runs away, jumping to another platform, and Ironwood gets up and gives chase along the floating walls. There is another dull ping, and Ironwood begins to fall from the wall he is standing on. He fires a Gravity Dust bullet from his black gun to throw himself onto the adjacent platform and rolls across the floor. The force of the Gravity Dust bullet proves to be a little too much, as Ironwood stumbles over to the edge once he gets on his feet. As he teeters on the edge, he fires his white revolver, using the recoil to steady himself and keep himself on the platform.

Watts creates small Hard-Light platforms to traverse over the sunken geyser biome toward another gravity biome. Ironwood follows him across, barely managing to make it from one Hard-Light platform to another before they disappear. He fires his white gun at Watts, who activates one of his rings, triggering a geyser beneath Ironwood. Ironwood cries out as the boiling water hits him and throws him to the side.

As he falls, Ironwood aims his black gun below him and fires a Gravity Dust bullet, sending him flying back up into the air to land in the gravity biome that Watts had fled to. He runs up a wall and onto the underside of a platform. He and Watts run parallel with one another, firing normal bullets at each other, with Ironwood using his white gun to shoot and Watts using his Hard-Light shield to defend. Watts shoots two Fire Dust bullets at Ironwood. The first bullet misses, but the second bullet hits, causing Ironwood's Aura to flicker.

"Fourteen, thirteen."

Ironwood leaps across the gap toward Watts, who activates one of his rings, causing Ironwood to fall down to the platform below. As he falls, Ironwood uses his black gun to fire a Gravity Dust bullet, which hits Watts, knocking him off his platform and into a wall. Ironwood lands on his feet, while Watts falls along the wall, landing on his shoulder on the platform that Ironwood is on.