An arrow strikes Garrett in the shoulder. He tries to fire back, but is hit again, this time in the lower part of his arm. I move in front of him while Brink tends to his injuries. He rips the bottom of his shirt and wraps it around Garrett’s wounds after removing the arrows. Van activates the detonator, throws it, and we duck when it goes off. The explosion doesn’t appear to have harmed anyone, just propelled them forward faster. A group of four contestants jump out at us. I’m tackled to the ground by the only woman in the group. She slashes her weapon at me, but I manage to counter.
“Come on, Max, die with dignity,” the woman says to me.
I put my feet into her stomach and shove her off. She lands at Brink’s feet, but he’s too busy fighting off his attacker to help. I step backwards, going towards the water. I yell at the others to follow. If the group is an illusion, they won’t come into the water. The four of us stop when the water is up to our thighs. The other group stops at the bank. The fire in the night illuminates their clothing, revealing player uniforms with green stripes.
“Who are you?!” I shout.
“We’re you, Max,” the woman answers. She sounds like me, but doesn’t. “We’re all of you.”
Their faces finally come into focus. The woman is me, including the tattoo. I look between our team and the other one. It’s hard to tell who is who. I can only tell Brink and Garrett apart from the other two because of the ripped shirt and bandages.
Why would the Keepers do this to us? What’s the point of us fighting ourselves?
“They’re not real,” Van says next to me.
“Aren’t we?” Van’s twin says, then they all proceed to step into the water.
Garrett fires an arrow at his twin, but it sails through him. Brink charges his, but his weapon is also useless and he has to quickly retreat back to his spot.
“If we can’t hurt them with our weapons –” Garrett begins.
“Then how do we kill them?” I say, finishing his thought.
“Also, how did Garrett get hit with the arrows if he’s the one shooting them?” Brink asks, pointing to Garrett’s twin.
I have a feeling I know how, but revealing it could cause problems for me.
“Everyone take a different opponent – someone not you – and don’t let them touch your weapons,” I say.
We advance. I take on Brink’s twin, Van attacks Garrett’s, Brink attacks Van’s, and Garrett attacks mine. Since my shield is designed to repel the Deer Horn Knife, I thought taking on Brink’s doppelganger was the obvious choice. I push him back over the bank. He produces his shield, which is made to defend against the Kopis. I loop behind him and ram my blade into his back. He lets out a scream and vanishes, or so I think. When I look back over at the bank, two more have taken the ones place.
“Don’t kill them,” I yell at everyone, but Van doesn’t hear me and kills Garrett’s twin, which is instantly replaced by two new ones.
“Shit,” Van says as he battles both of his new opponents.
Van doesn’t have a conventional weapon like the three of us, so he has to use whatever he can get his hands on, which isn’t much. He winds up taking an arrow to the side. I go to him, trying to protect him from the four players now advancing on us.
“What kind of weapon does your shield protect you from?” I ask Garrett.
“Explosives,” he says between grunts of exertion.
If Brink’s works to protect him against a Kopis, and Garrett’s to protect against an explosion, what would happen if Van threw a detonator at Brink and I slashed Garrett?
I grab Van by the hand and loop him out of the water and into one of the trees.
“Stay here. When I give you a signal, throw one of your detonators at Brink.”
“Wait, you want me to do what?”
“Toss the detonator at Brink. The real Brink. I’ll take care of the rest.”
I loop back to the water and try to locate Brink amongst the others. I find him trying to prevent Van’s twin from releasing an explosive that looks to be armed.
God I hope I get this right. Nothing like trying something new in the heat of the moment.
I charge at Brink’s clones, grab them by the arms, and loop, but forward in time. I land us where I think Brink and Van’s clone will be in a matter of seconds. They come into focus just as the real Van sees us appear. Brink kills Van’s clone just as I nod. The real Van launches his explosive. I take the real Brink by the hand and loop just before the detonator hits. The explosion is massive, and kills the Brink clones. I hold my breath while I set us down on the bank. Brink’s clones don’t reappear, however Van’s have now doubled. Garrett’s clones attack the two of us. I yell at Van to stay in the tree since he doesn’t have any combat weapons like the rest of us. He doesn’t argue.
Garrett’s clones are as strong as the original, so both Brink and I struggle to stay on our feet. As we fight along the shore, the ground becomes muddier and more slippery. One of the clones grabs me by the throat and hurls me into the water, then holds me under. I struggle as water and mud fill my lungs. I swing around and ram my Kopis through the clone’s torso. He falls into the water and disappears. I cough as I reach the surface. The clone doesn’t regenerate.
So they can only be killed by a weapon they don’t
