Just last 5 minutes

“Players. Levitate,” came the referee’s analogue voice through the helmet.

Ttega lifted a few feet off the ground as did the other three players. Her vision thumped with her heartbeat.

“Players. On your marks. 3…2…1…Levotron!”

Ttega whooshed backwards and away from the Levorbs. Not a second later, two lance-like objects flew into her field of vision. One landed where she had been standing and one a few metres away roughly where she would’ve been had she gone for the Levorbs.

Receding away from the lances, she caught a glint from one of them. They had a familiar flanged pattern like the weapons Mael and V0id had. But they were longer, sharper and pointier.

V0id and Mael flew in and each picked a lance, their backs turned towards the Levorbs in the centre. 3ice zipped in and grabbed a Levorb before flying away.

So the rods were retractible weapons.

Keeping the optimal angle for vestibular flow, Ttega flew up and away, expecting a brawl to break at the centre. But instead of skirmishing with each other, Mael’s and V0id’s attention was fixed on her.

They didn’t seem interested in the Levorbs.

V0iD hovered next to the last remaining Levorb while Mael ignored him. What was going on? Even if the two had teamed up, they should’ve picked up a Levorb.

Wait. What if the match ended before five minutes? How had she not considered that possibility? If V0iD picked that Levorb up right now then it was all over.

She had to stop him.

She tilted downward to fly towards the centre before it was too late. But V0iD continued to ignore the Levorb within arm’s reach. As if—

A figure flew into her peripheral vision. Before she realised, a lance was flying towards her head. She turned and spun into an evasive dive.

Too late.

The pointed end ripped through her levosuit and the skin of her shoulder. The metallic fletchings, functioning like a jagged edge, widened the cut and carved out flesh on their way.

Structural Integrity 79%

Ttega clutched her shoulder and moaned. She glanced at it to find a wide gash. Blood trickled down her arms and fell in drops. The burning pain tore through her senses.

What in the sun’s name was going on?

Without wasting another second, she darted away towards the far end of the Sphere. How was this legal? Why hadn’t the referee halted the match or at least disqualified Mael? And how had the lance travelled at such a high velocity? No human had that much strength.

When she’d put a good hundred metres between her and Mael, she noticed something.

The lance that had hit her wasn’t falling like a heavy object would. Instead, it was floating down like a feather. Mael wrapped his hand around its shaft and looked up at her. He pulled the weapon back and pointed it at her.

Panic filled her body and her muscles tensed.

She turned and flew for her life. Her shoulder was on fire and she could barely move it without sending jabs of unbearable pain. She looked back to alter her trajectory differential to ensure maximum distance from Mael. The distance between them gradually increased. Thanks to her suit, she had a big speed advantage. All she had to do was—

The lance shot towards her with alarming velocity. But the increased distance gave her time to react and she swerved laterally out of its trajectory. It missed her by a few metres.

Again, instead of following the trajectory of a Newtonian projectile, the lance’s velocity gradually waned as it float-fell and its velocity stabilised into a slow vertical drop.

It was like a physics problem. And every problem had a solution.

But the pain prevented her brain from solving it. That lance was a problem and a solution right in front of her. But what was it? She felt a numb tingle in her elbow. Not a good sign. Had the lance injured a nerve?

She checked her visor display. All she had to do was last another…four minutes and ten seconds?

How had only fifty seconds passed?

Mael was already flying towards her with the lance in hand, its pointy end and the shaft stained red with her blood.

3ice floated in the distance with folded hands. Below, V0iD still lingered beside the last Levorb but didn’t pick it up. It seemed like Mael was the only threat for now.

But why was Mael obsessed with her? And why had V0iD not picked up the Levorb and won the match? All he had to do was extend a hand.

She struggled to focus on the questions. Mael followed the same trajectory as last time and Ttega had no trouble putting more distance between them. She expected him to shoot the lance again; which he did. But it flew faster at her.

Much faster.

Ttega clenched her teeth and put all the torque into rotating away. But it wasn’t enough. This time the lance sliced through her thigh and phantom pains from the Greenfield injuries sprang back to life.

She spun out of control and rammed into the Sphere’s wall, cut-open shoulder first.

Structural Integrity 57%

Battery 89%

Speed 4 m/s

Acceleration 9.8 m/s²

Her vision blurred and her thoughts turned hazy.

But the throbbing jackhammer of pain brought her back.

The acceleration was equal to—

I’m free-falling! She couldn’t lose yet. She was far from the five-minute mark.

Visualising as many mangoes as she could, she brought herself to a halt less than a few metres from the bottom. Blood dripped onto the ground from her injured limbs. As focus returned to her eyes, she saw 3ice pointing up.

She didn’t have time to look up.

With a jerk, she moved laterally away from where she was levitating and Mael’s lance hit the ground with a loud clang.

A second late and she would’ve died.

This wasn’t working. If she didn’t forfeit she was going to die. Giving up was the only way forward.

A anxious knot formed in her chest. And it hurt more than the shoulder or the thigh.

No. She wouldn’t give up.

Every problem has a solution. Think!

As she levitated away from the lance embedded into the floor, it all became clear. V0iD and Mael had teamed up. But not to win. To kill her. There wasn’t enough time to ask why. If she was going to survive for another three minutes and twenty-six seconds, she had to get rid of the lance that Mael was shooting at her.

Numbers and theories floated in front of her eyes for a few seconds.

That’s it!

She clutched her shoulder and flew up until there was as much distance between her and Mael as possible. He looked up at her and wrapped his hand around his weapon.

This time she didn’t flee. Instead, she faced Mael to increase her exposed surface area and make aiming easier. Mael took the bait and, instead of flying towards her, tucked the lance under one arm and hovered a hand over its centre.

Yes!

As theorised, the lance had a Keddium core which was why it levitated instead of falling. Mael had been directing energy into it with his levosuit which is how it had been flying at bullet-like speeds.

And the speed had been increasing with every shot.

There was no way she could dodge it if she reacted after it left Mael’s turret of a body. So she watched Mael’s body for the smallest variation in movements. His hand circled over the flanged core of the lance.

And then it stopped.

Within a split-second, Ttega used gravity and directed her levosuit downward. She began hurtling down at blinding speed. And it was still only barely enough. The weapon missed her head by a few centimetres.

She halted her descent and, with a crushing change of velocity, rose back up towards the lance which, having lost its short burst of kinetic energy, was back to its feather-like fall. She grabbed it.

Below, Mael taunted her with a ‘come hither’ motion of his fingers.

So far so good.

Ttega let it float horizontally in front of her. Then she placed her good hand above it without touching it and the injured one below. With half her attention on Mael to make sure he didn’t attack, she visualised a rotten mango in one hand and a ripe one in the other. She fought through the gut-wrenching pain in her shoulder and forced both her arms at a steady distance from the centre of the lance.

It began spinning in place perpendicular to its length.

It’s working!

Below her, Mael continued to trash-taunt her with wide gestures. But she ignored them. Instead, she poured as much energy as she could into rotating the lance.

Battery 50%

…

Battery 45%

…

Battery 40%

It was spinning blindingly fast now.

Keddium had an extremely low cavitation number. If her calculations were correct then the air bubbles from cavitation around the rotor-like blades were already sending shockwaves into the weapon.

Minute purple specks, almost invisible to the naked eye, started flying away from it. All she needed was one microscopic crack. The slightest change in the aerodynamics of the core which was designed to fly along its length, not spin perpendicular to it.

Within seconds, the core began dissolving in the air. Cavitation combined with the centrifugal force from the spin and tore through the weapon like a sword through cotton. Ttega relaxed her hands.

The two pointed ends, now disjointed, fell like an ordinary object.

She couldn’t help but smile under her helmet. She’d done it. And killed enough time. Only one minute and forty-nine seconds to go.

In the distance, Mael’s stance changed from confused to clapping as he levitated towards V0iD. What was he—No!

V0iD offered his lance to Mael.

Mael ascended with a relaxed posture. He reached the same altitude as her but still kept going.

He’s going to use gravity to accelerate the lance to the maximum!

Ttega ignored the numbness in her left arm and focused on numbers. The rotations per second needed to achieve cavitation in Keddium, the amount of energy drop in her levosuit’s battery, the number of times Mael had attacked her with increasing velocity.

The numbers floated against the canvas of the Sphere’s wall and they all pointed to one conclusion.

Mael had enough energy for only one shot. And if he poured all of that energy into this final shot, the lance would achieve supersonic speeds. Dodging would be impossible. And even if she dodged it, V0iD would probably step in with intact batteries and still manage to shoot her down.

There was no way out. She was outnumbered and out-weaponed. If she continued, she would die.

It was time to forfeit.

“V0iD has been knocked out. Player suit deactivated. Player has thirty seconds to leave the Sphere,” came the voice of the referee in her headset.

Ttega looked down to where V0iD had been.

V0id was walking away while making animated gestures. She followed V0id’s gaze.

It was 3ice. Had he deactivated V0id’s suit while V0id was distracted? But 3ice wasn’t paying attention to him. He was looking directly at Ttega.

And he was pointing at the Levorb.

Of course!

Ttega swooshed towards the Levorb, wary of Mael at the top of the Sphere, preparing his next attack. It took her two seconds to calculate the amount of time he needed to charge his weapon: thirty-three seconds until his levosuit lost most of its charge.

So she had three seconds to grab the Levorb and then hold it for thirty seconds to end the match before Mael shot his weapon.

She directed as much energy as she could, achieving breakneck speed. Curving downward, she approached the Levorb and grabbed it with an extended hand.

A timer appeared on her visor display.

30…29…28…

She couldn’t think straight. The world swirled around her and her eyelids felt heavy. Fighting through the light-headedness she looked up. Mael was still charging his weapon. Had she made it? Would the match end—thus disabling everyone’s levosuits—before Mael could shoot?

It was too close. But she wasn’t going to wait around for him to shoot. She’d fly up to him and knock the weapon out of his hands.

She angled her body upward, but it didn’t respond.

Structural Integrity <UNDEFINED>%

Suit Failure Imminent.

What?

She didn’t have time to decode systems diagnostics.

Stars blurred her vision. Her body shivered violently and her helm shook due to her clattering teeth.

Nanite field: Critically low.

Then it dawned on her. She’d lost too much blood and nanites. Her levosuit couldn’t synchronise with her neural synapses. At this rate, her suit would turn off on its own and the safety would engage, making her float like a hot air balloon.

13…12…11…

Mael was almost done. If she forfeited now, she’d still be safe.

No. Think! Problems have solutions!

Mael’s hand moved in a full circle with a finality.

Think!

The hand stopped moving.

4…3…2…

Clutching the Levorb, Ttega instinctively put both her hands in front of her face and her eyes shut themselves tight. A split second later she heard a deafening boom. At the same instant, a strong force rammed into her.

Pain would come. Eventually.

As she slipped out of consciousness, an analogue voice reached her ears.

“Match concluded. Winners: 3ice and Ttega.”