Self-defense testing: Servants tournaments.

Thabo stood before his latest opponent; he knew this would be a tough fight but also knew that he couldn’t afford to loss. He had improved his control and efficiency but knew that without the system assist he couldn’t do anything fancy. Strangely though Thabo was very calm; he did not take his situation lightly but he felt pretty relaxed.

[change to first person]

I’m feeling pretty good today; energy up, sleep supplementation good, skills improved, but most of all I’m pretty used to this. I remember when I was in high school whilst doing boxing and athletics, man that was tough. First day I got to my gym my coach threw me in the ring and beat the shit out of me; he told me there’s no fighter who needs any training nor experience to do their best. Honestly I loved that sport. It reminders me of how I’ve succeeded with every challenge I have ever faced in life.

With force. That’s what my mother taught me, and it’s what experience has proven to me. The only way you’ll get what you want in life is if you force it, if you struggle, if you overcome. And that’s what I’m going to do here today. I’m going to force my way through to victory; not only over this ridiculous match but over this whole damn tournament and come out on top! ‘Behind every obstacle is an opportunity so massive that it dwarfs the original problem’. If I can overcome Hell; when I face everything it has to throw at me without falling. I know I can come out greater then I came in.

Left foot forward right foot back; stretch out your right arm aim your gun and keep moving. Let’s go-

His opponent makes the first move; he extends his arm and shoots out laser fire whilst charging towards Thabo. Thabo rolls to the right and begins firing his gun whilst side stepping. Thabo scraps his opponent with his first shoot before being hit himself on the left thigh. He strengthens his body and fires again; this time hitting his opponent in the shoulder. Though due to a last minute barrier the shot had little effect, but it bought Thabo enough time and the next second a segment of the floor underneath Thabo sank in whilst segments around him rose. Till they reached a point where only Thabo’s shoulder and head could be seen.

Now without worry Thabo began firing his shots. Anytime he felt a laser coming he would just duck into his make-shift bunker then emerge again a second later. His opponent noticed this and dove for the floor. He then shot out some low powered lasers to the floors around him. He quickly started crawling towards Thabo still firing his lasers but rolling every few seconds to avoid Thabo’s bullets.

Shit, this clever little shit I can barely see him so there’s no way I’ll hit especially while he keeps moving around like that. But if he thinks that’s enough he doesn’t know what I’m packing-

Shot, shot, roll left. Shot, shot, shot, roll right, shot. Shot, shot, roll right, shot, shot, shot. Roll, shot, roll, shot. His opponent just kept moving whilst responding to every shot Thabo fired, and with the debris he created in his way hitting this man became close to impossible. The man just the same couldn’t hit Thabo, every time he fired a laser then Thabo would simply duck. Had they faced weaker opponents they wouldn’t have bothered avoiding each other’s attacks, but these two knew that in this situation not dodging was a bad idea.

The distance between the two grew shorter until Thabo moved into action. He threw an object into the air aimed at his opponent. The man however was quick to react as he shot a laser at the round object in midair soon as he saw it.

-Bad move my man, I knew your reaction time was too good for that shit attack to hit you.- Thought Thabo.

The second it was hit it released colored gas out into the air. And as the smoke screen came over his vision the man heard footsteps rushing towards his. He immediately shot up to his feet and started firing where ever he heard the sounds. Then out the screen he saw a round ball fly towards him, but it was too late as the second he tried to shoot it.

*Boom*

The explosion caught the man off guard. He barely just activated his energy shield at the last second but it still didn’t fully protect him. He was cleanly burnt along his left arm and shoulder. Then once again he heard footsteps rushing towards him. He turned around and in a fit of rage began charging up a powerful laser, but just as before all that greeted him was a small round ball out of the smokescreen, which only seemed to get thicker as time passed.

*Boom*

This time he could barely even guard and was blown back a few feet. His head felt like it was cracking open and he could only hear high-pitched buzzing noises. His upper top half of clothing was blown away revealing slightly burnt or melted skin with some debris stuck in it. But the man quickly got up and calmly scanned the surroundings. Again he heard footsteps, he flinched slightly then quickly moved in the opposite direction before.

Thabo: “You should really dodge not block.” Thabo said knowing very well the man wouldn’t hear him.

Thabo stood behind the man with a gun to his back. The man froze on the spot realizing the mistake he had just made. The man spread out his energy and could clearly feel the traces of magic all over, Thabo’s magic. It wasn’t that much, a pathetic amount really, but it hinted to the trick Thabo had used to fake the sound of footsteps.

Thabo shot his gun just as the man reached for one of his crystals. The mans’ head shot forward and bragged his body with it just as a red light erupted out and surrounded him. The light quickly disappeared. Then the man turned around and kicked towards Thabo. Thabo ducked under and counter with an uppercut. Both fighters were now almost out of energy but refused to quit. Thabo enhanced his body with what little energy of his remained and the man clad himself in battle aura which would supplement his movements with pressure magic, a common technique amongst power type magic users.

The man received the uppercut but immediately recovered and threw a right hook. Thabo ducked under the punch and countered again with a quick right jab to the mans’ jaw. The man grabbed Thabo then kneed him in the stomach. He then repeatedly kneed Thabo with either foot before Thabo broke free by pushing the man onto the ground. Thabo was now on top of the man throwing punch after punch down at him. The man responded by releasing his energy out to push Thabo of him but it was too weak and Thabo held onto him tightly.

*Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang*

*Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang*

*Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang*

*Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang**Bang*

Thabo’s onslaught lasted a full minute before he stopped due to exhaustion only to see a bloody smear where the mans’ head used to be. He then tiredly stood up and limbed to the side of the coliseum. He leaned against the side and fell onto the floor. As he sat there staring at the ceiling without paying attention to the victory message he thought about his old life and his home and his family…

The time conversion within the virtual world was 2.5-1 so even though the beta was only five hours away in reality it was 12 hours and 30 minutes before the beta began for Simphiwe when he logged in. Now though he had just over 7 hours and after leaving him to mess around for so long Scientist Konrad who apparently had a Doctorate in Magic application theory on z-type energy spirit attraction summoning; so would now be referred to as Dr. Konrad and not ‘The boring blue scientist’ was debriefing Simphiwe and a few other newly summoned ‘hero trainees’ on what would be happening from now on; how the game worked and all the back setting they would need to know.

Dr. Konrad: “So all of you are part of the HIUPF and will receive benefits and duties that come with it. Your missions or ‘quests’ will be given by the planet but assigned to you through them. That way if you fail another hero will simply replace you and the HIUPF will always reward your hard work. It’s a smooth process for everyone. Any questions?”

Some hands rose up in the crowd.

Dr. Konrad: “Yes, man in the blue?” he said as he looked.

“What about things we do that are not assigned but help the planet, will we be rewarded then?”

Dr. Konrad: “In those cases it will depend on the circumstances, you will have to submit a report of your actions if you wish to claim rewards on them but whether or not you do and how much I don’t know.”

Dr. Konrad: “Yes large brown man in the back”

“You said that we would be special citizens and wouldn’t be allowed in all public areas, why is that?”

Dr. Konrad: “Well you see in the past we had trouble with some summoned Hero’s like yourselves, in the recent year’s policy has become quite strict. You see you guys can’t die on this side so it is hard to punish you, plus your all usually much stronger than our common native people even with little training.”

Another hand flew up.

Dr. Konrad: “Yes white guy in the black vest.”

“What do you mean you had ‘trouble’ with hero’s in the past? What kind of trouble?”

Dr. Konrad: “Well there’s a whole lot of history to answer that question but just imagine a terrorist who, no matter how many times he blew himself up, would come back to life. And to prove to you how much of a threat you ‘Hero’s’ can pose you can read up on an old Slavemacer who plagued a whole planet, it become quite the issue when the HIUPF found out”

The crowd of players stood silent. All had just recently logged on and none could believe how realistic this game felt. Had it not been for the alien like appearances, status screens and magic they would have sworn they were on a new planet or something.

Dr. Konrad: “Ok then if there are no more questions we can begin”.