Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) (6 page)

There would be no way to win this fight. Grace was going
to kill me, and that was that.
Grace sneered as she looked up at me.
As if to prove her obvious advantage, she ran rings around
me – literally - darting here and there, as if to emphasise that I
had no way of escape. She touched each tree around the
clearing and even punched me a few times. I began to back
away from nothing in particular, but there was nothing I
could do.
I had no powers or weapons, no friends to help me out, not
even a fair chance – in the time it would take me to even
contemplate striking, Grace could easily disembowel me or
gouge my eyes, or both.
And yet even in the face of death – a fate which could mean
something as trivial from ejection out of Simulator, to actual,
clinical, irreversible death – I seemed calm. If it was my time,
it was my time. Simulator didn’t give me an escape and so I
probably wasn’t meant to escape.
Meditating on these thoughts as Grace pranced around, I
took a deep breath in, and tried to calm myself. Dying with
dignity and acceptance would be the best way for me, and so
I clenched my fists in futility, and prepared to put up a weak
fight, in order to save what I could.
But even then, I started to feel the fear. As my heart began
to race again, the icy flow of adrenaline and fear – fight or
flight – was imminent. My heart started thumping audibly
and each time the displaced wind from her run blew over me,
my heart beat just a little faster.
Finally she seemed done taunting me.
“For what it counts,” she sneered, “I thought you could’ve
had potential…”
I was momentarily confused – had she complimented me?
And with that, her hands were clutching my throat.
She choked me while I was exhaling and so in a matter of
seconds, I was already out of breath.
I started to see black spots dance across my vision – I almost
gave in to my inevitable fate… but then I fought back.
I realised that just because she was faster than me, it didn’t
necessarily mean she was stronger. I pried her hands off my
neck and was granted a small victory.
But before I could do anything else, all too quickly she just
wrapped herself around me again and the air was knocked
out of me.
As the struggle continued, she began to mix in her choking
with lightning fast volleys of punches into my gut – further
winding me. She was so fast I barely had time to blink inbetween the cycles.
And then the black spots started to become red spots, and
my vision began to blur. No matter how hard I fought back
though, I could never win. For the second time, I began to
accept that this was the end. I was going to lose to Grace,
and I’d probably be kicked out of Elitus for it. Maybe even
die. This would just affirm how average a student I was, and
then the school would decide they didn’t need me… No
memorial, no regret – my dying moments would prove that I
was a liability.
But then I thought of Stefanie, and how she was now alone,
injured and in the hands of Victor – who was plotting with
Grace to probably kill her too. A tingling feeling of guilt and
regret that I was giving in so easily began to set in – without
me, Stefanie wouldn’t stand a chance.
And then the feeling became stronger – dignity my ass, I
wanted to fight back – to prove I was better than what
everyone thought. How could I even contemplate giving in?
And just as my lungs began to seemingly shrivel – the fight
inside me reignited.
I did have a reason to live – in fact, I had several reasons to
live, and I was not in any world, about to give up.
I tried to push back, but between the punches and the lack
of air, I didn’t have enough strength - just like before.
My body started to shut down – the feeling in my fingers
and toes was gone as my brain tried to conserve oxygen.
I was desperate. Frustrated. Tired. Weak. Angry.
This was not fair.
“GET OFF ME YOU BITCH!”
My thoughts were barbaric, simple, one-word thoughts. Me
live, she die.
To my surprise, she actually did fly backwards through the
air and thudded into one of the bigger glass trees, slumping
to the ground. I had made her airborne and the smear of
blood on the glass tree’s stump was evidence of a hard hit.
What had I just done?
A look of surprise flitted across her face – just as, if not more
stunned about what I’d just done, than myself. Was this my
power? Another wish?
I didn’t have time to contemplate it and neither did she. I
launched into a second attack, readying myself for her to
come closer, channelling the thoughts of loss and death to
drive me forward.
Somehow I’d just pushed her away, and if I wanted to live to
see Stefanie again, to prove myself to her as well as everyone
else, I was going to have to master whatever this was and
fast.
I tried to do it again, focusing on my sudden desire to live. I
kind of felt the space between Grace and myself, the
atmosphere that separated us, and I focused on trying to
build a mental wall.
But it was almost as if the power was on the edge of my
consciousness, like I was going about trying to use it the
wrong way.
And then I thought of Stefanie again. Adding to my
motivation to protect her, to protect me, to live was the
image of Stefanie lying unconscious in Victor’s arms with a
bloody scalp. It spurred me on. I almost felt the power as I
used it. Grace launched herself at me… and she was stopped.
She looked as if she’d run into a thick piece of glass. There
was an audible crack, and blood seeped from her nose.
A wave of elation and relief added to my adrenaline. I had
done it, actually used my power, actually stopped Grace. But
it wasn’t over yet.
She looked in front of her with both awe and hatred. She
was furious and yet still trying to be arrogant at the same
time.
“Tell me,” she said, “How are you doing it little Xander?
Discovered your power, have you?” She reached out to feel
the wall and as her fingers made a connection, she quickly
pulled them back – she’d been zapped.
“Well,” she made sure to sound as arrogant and all-knowing
as possible, “you can only hide behind your shield for so
long…”
And with that, she rested against a tree as she smugly
waited for me run out of energy.
She was right – it was slowly draining me. Not even the
thought of Stefanie could keep me up for much longer.
And yet I had done it. I had a power and now I was going to
make Grace pay.
Closing my eyes, I let my mind reach out to the space the
shield was occupying – confident in my newfound ability. I
could feel my wall, solid and sturdy.
I felt Grace approach it, and lay her hand on it to check it
was still there. The satisfying crackle made me smirk.
Even though never once in my life had I ever thought of
violence as an answer to my problems, Grace had pushed me
too far. Knowing it would work, I manipulated the shield to
form a tendril-like beam of energy and with as much mental
power as possible, I jabbed at Grace.
Her resounding yelp added to my grin. I knew she was just
getting angrier, and even as I was building up to my ultimate
revenge, I had to admit, this was a pretty cool power.
Maybe if I… “ARGH!” Grace yelled out again.
I made more tentacles of energy push out of the wall and I
began to lock in directly on Grace, intending on wrapping
her in a web of my energy.
I found that the longer I had to reach to hit her and the
more powerful the tendril, the more energy it required, I
knew I only had so much left in me but the satisfaction in her
pain, for now, was enough to keep me going.
More yelps. Then something went numb inside of me.
One bead of sweat too many and I felt my power
considerably weaken. I didn’t have much time left to either
incapacitate her or, well, die.
I had to think quickly.
Contemplating the extent of my abilities, I dared to think
that maybe, just maybe, that as well as being able to
manipulate the matter between us, I might just be able to
manipulate her. I wondered if what I had was full-blown
telekinesis… Every second I spent wondering, however, was
a second of effort wasted and so I decided to test my
hypothesis out.
I imagined myself picking Grace up out of the air, with an
invisible claw-like grip. I wanted to throw her with my mental
power, get her away from me once and for all and yet… I
couldn’t.
I could still feel my wall and also feel my zapping tendrils
and even feel her occupying the mental space around me, yet
I couldn’t actually
move
her.
My power was new, though, and between supporting the
wall as well as zapping her, I couldn’t summon the strength…
Tossing up my options, I contemplated. I could continue to
keep her away until I eventually collapsed from fatigue, or I
could run the risk of her attacking me while letting the wall
down to see if I could actually
do
something with my power…
I decided quickly, letting the wall down for just a second…
and instantly pinned Grace to the spot.
I could feel my mind constricting her, no longer needing to
upkeep the wall, or jab her with energy – all my mental
capacity was focussed on cementing her in place – and it was
working.
But all it took was half a minute, and a wave of weakness
passed over me again as I lost the connection. With practice,
the ability would be unstoppable, but right now, the odds
weren’t looking too great about me even getting that far.
I found myself defenceless, my limbs were like dead weight,
and I struggled to keep my eyes in focus. Judging from the
exceedingly more cruel expression on Grace’s face – she was
preparing to take advantage of my lapse.
“Oh you poor thing,” Grace said with fake sympathy. I saw
her entire body tense up, preparing to leap, and out of my last
effort to stay alive, I stumbled into the orange rope, and
attempted to run.
Weakly, somehow, I managed to fray the rope, both using
my physical and mental strength. I pushed through it and out
into the forest, attempting to run.
Trying desperately to resummon my power to help me, I
reached out to it and attempted to jumpstart it or something.
It felt like a muscle – a muscle that had been overworked,
and so for the moment, it was numb. As numb as the rest of
my body.
As I turned to see if she had caught up, I knew my efforts
were futile.
She effortlessly grabbed me from behind and pushed me up
against one of the trees. With one hand, she haphazardly held
me down – relying on my energy loss to keep me in place,
while with the other, she reached to the ground for
something - I could hardly breathe.
“What are you doing?” I mumbled deliriously.
In her hand there was now a jagged rock …
She then snarled at me, looked me in the eyes and said, “No
more messing around.”
There was a sudden pain in my forearm and for the first
time, I began to bleed. She was actually using a rock to try
and kill me – this was insane!
And then my adrenaline increased one hundred fold.
Out of panic I tried to push away, but couldn’t. And yet, in
my dimmed state of consciousness, I acknowledged my
body’s basal need to survive. Like an automaton, I began to
try and fight back.
In that instant, I broke the barrier of my power.
My body was no longer thinking of the long-term effects of a
strong-burst of power, it was using all the resources at its
disposal… now.
Looking down at my arm, the gash looked deep, and as she
raised the rock up into the air, to go for another slice, I called
on my power - to push her away from me.
“No.”
The only word I managed to utter as I called upon the
effort. It was quiet yet powerful. A wave of energy was roiling
away from me, leaving a faint crackle in the air.
It passed
through
her and she stumbled, falling sideways
and looking momentarily incapacitated – the wave was much
stronger than I thought it would be. In fact, as she lay on the
ground, her eyes seemed to glaze over – her brain was
temporarily fried. I had felt the energy force its way in one
side of her and out the other. Hopefully she was dead.
But I knew as soon as the surge left me, it would drain me –
and it did. I stumbled myself, deliriously trying to walk away,
but blocked by thick tufts of golden undergrowth.
Feebly I attempted to cut at a particularly stubborn patch,
managing only to rustle a couple of the blades and so I was
forced into the slow progress of wading through the grass,
without a clear path.
More glass trees, a golden grass meadow, one of the many
streams of the river and then – oh. I felt a small bit of energy
pass through me and perking up a little bit, I examined the
land before me.
A huge fissure lay between me and where I wanted to go – it
was big enough to look like an earthquake of some sort had
caused it. It was directly in the way, and going around it
would take time I didn’t have. I was stuck.
The soil was still moist and the site looked freshly ravaged. I
wondered what could’ve caused it…
There hadn’t been any major shakes or quakes since we’d
been here and scanning around for some way to maybe get
around it, I saw something else on the other side of the
clearing – a series of fragmented glass tree-stumps.
Whatever had caused the fissure had smashed the trees as
well, I concluded.
I got down onto my knees to both examine the crack, as well
as rest a little.
I prayed that I was in the clear, that Grace was still laying on
the floor of that clearing and that even if she was up, that she
had lost my trail. I couldn’t afford for her to find me before I
was ready to fight again.
Looking at the ground, a thought flitted across my mind,
Grace could run extremely fast, and I had telekinesis and
Victor could teleport – what if it was someone’s power was to
be able to do this? I mean, it seemed too unreal to be natural
but that meant somebody could…
Preparing myself to maybe search for some more clues, I felt
the ground shake beneath me and walls of rock began to rise
up around me, giving me zero time to react.
As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. The rock walls
completely surrounded me and I was shrouded in complete
darkness. Looking up the walls seemed to be infinitely high –
there would be no way to climb out. I felt like I was in a
solitary confinement cell, with sheaths of rock replacing the
padding.