Match 2: Ross

The one game mechanic that changed from the original game that I was thankful for was the time of day.

That night, we all slept together in a tight circle. We all knew – but never said – that all we had was each other in this.

Being the one with sleep apnea, I watched as the rest of the group fell asleep. Nick was the first one out, and I held her close to me, stroking her hair to help her feel safe.

I didn't know what else to do. When it came to game strategy, I was the one yelling at everyone – jokingly – to drop a ward once in a while. I was the one telling people to group up, split push, or attack the phoenix. I had no idea how we were going to survive.

Our group wasn't bad at the game; it was just that we needed a lot more practice than we had. With Melody being scared of any other position and Morgan and I competing for the solo position once in a while, I knew we could use all the help we could get.

I slowly pulled away from Nick and let the rest of the group sleep. My menu rang quietly as I motioned for it to open up. I selected Awilix in the Renegade skin and ran to where the Fire Giant was sleeping.

…

When I woke up, Nick was sitting at my side. Or rather, Buccaneith was. I shot upright and looked around frantically.

She put a hand on my shoulder. "It's alright, it's still early." she said. "Were you up all night?"

"Yeah…. I wanted to make sure I was ready for today."

Nick sighed. "We need you rested, not overworking yourself."

"You know I can't sleep anyway…." I trailed off. "I'm going to do what I can to protect everyone."

"This isn't on you, Ross. You know that."

"Aren't I the one that introduced you guys to the game?" I shook my head. "I'm the one that's killed all of us."

"Aren't I the one that bought you the headset for your birthday?" she asked. I looked up at her, and her face was grim.

"This isn't your fault, Nick."

"It's not yours either."

I sighed. Nick held out her hand and I took it with her helping me up. It was funny how all of my characters seemed to be mostly shorter than Nick's. Neith was a good few inches over Awilix.

"So is your plan to jungle today?" she asked. "Who would do what, then?"

"Let's go back to the base to talk to everyone." I said. Nick nodded. We jogged back over, and everyone was slowly waking up. We phased back to our human forms as we stepped into the base.

"Found him?" Morgan sat, standing up and stretching. He put his glasses back on.

"He was over by the Fire Giant. He apparently has an idea for today's match."

Everyone turned to me. "Well, I was practicing with Awilix all night. I was thinking about switching up the team a bit."

"Is that really such a good idea?" Chase asked. "You do realize our lives are at stake here… right?"

I coughed. "Yes, Chase, I am well aware." He coughed and looked away. "I was thinking that everyone can use their best or second-best characters, and I'll be able to guide us a little better as the jungler."

Morgan nodded. "That could work. So I'll do Chronos in solo?"

"Yeah. Chase, you do Kulkulkan in mid, and Melody and Nick are in the duo lane as Aphrodite and Neith."

"Sounds good to me," Melody said.

Nick thought for a minute before speaking. "Chase, are you up for doing mid lane?"

He nodded. "I can pull it off. I'll play a lot more defensively this time. I promise."

"Alright…." I said, carefully. "Let's get to work then. Chase, you go fight Ra as Kulkulkan. Morgan, head to the Fire Giant. Nick and Melody, work on clearing minion waves, and then we'll rotate. I'll bounce between camps trying to move as fast as possible."

Everyone started to pick out their gods on their menus and head toward their camps. Morgan stayed behind.

"Yo…" he said, trying to form what he wanted to say, "do you really think we'll make it? You know… like, through at least part of this death match?"

"I really don't know. Honestly, I'm just in it now to protect you guys. I'm going to keep fighting to keep you all alive."

"Can you believe our girlfriends are stuck here too? Isn't it bad enough that we could die here?"

"I'm trying not to think about that," I said, watching Nick run off to the minion camp.

…

We knew that the last match had started at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. It was now 11:30 and everyone was breaking a sweat.

As Awilix, I ran in and out of camps on Suku's back as fast as I could. I hadn't built up movement speed; I was using my usual build for her. But I wanted to see if I could push the limits of the game in order to be better. I didn't have any luck.

Finally, I went back to the base and sat down. I knew we were in for a rough match. The other team would be fighting for their lives… just like us.

Chase came into the base just then and walked over. "You alright?"

"Yeah… just thinking."

He was silent for a second too long. "What about?"

"How we're gonna die."

"Yeah…."

I shook my head. "We don't stand a chance."

Chase was silent for a minute, but then he sat next to me, pulling his knees to his chest. "We could just surrender today. We'll make it quick and we can all go together."

"I can't do that either," I said, still not looking at him.

"You don't want her to die." he stated. "You don't even care about making it out alive, do you?"

"No… I don't."

Chase mused for a minute before speaking. "Do you think she cares about making it out alive?"

I thought for a minute. "I would hope so…."

"I think that she might be feeling the same thing you are."

I shook my head. "I'd rather die here over her. I just want her and everyone else to be safe."

Chase chuckled. "I bet you she'd say the same thing."

Just then, Morgan phased into the base with us. He took out his glasses and put them back on. "Yo… I saw you weren't running around the camps anymore," he said, walking over to us. He sat down on my left.

"We were just talking about stuff." I said dismissively.

"Yeah…. I'm worried too," Morgan said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shake his head and then sigh. "We're not gonna make it out of this."

"We have to try," I said. "I won't just let everyone die here."

I saw Chase and Morgan eye each other.

Nick and Melody came over then and phased into their human forms. Nick came over and knelt down in front of me. She took my hands in hers. I looked up finally, and she was smiling. It was a small smile, but it was there nonetheless.

I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Hey…." she said slowly. "Any luck yet?" She knew I was trying to break the physics of the game.

I shook my head. She squeezed my hands a little tighter. "I don't know what to do."

"You don't have to." she said softly. She sighed. "It's not up to you to win. We have to work together."

"That's what I'm worried about." I said. She gave my hands another squeeze.

"Nope, not allowed," she said. "I'm the one that's supposed to be the worry wart, remember?" She smiled again. This time, it was more genuine. I felt my chest tighten a bit.

"Yeah, but I have a lot to actually worry about this time."

I noticed Melody had sat in our little circle too. Her knees were pulled close to her chest. "Nick's right. She's the one that's supposed to be paranoid." She smirked slightly as if trying to make herself feel more comfortable with the situation.

"Yeah man," Morgan added. "That's how you guys work, you know that."

"Not this time. It's my fault you all are here. I introduced you all to the game."

"Ross," Chase said, "it's not your fault that we continued to play it. We all fell in love with the game to at least some extent. It's our own faults we're here."

"It's no one's fault," Nick said. "We play video games together. It's just what we do. We all love it. We just… got really unlucky this time."

"We should have known." Melody spoke up. "Virtual reality… a game where you fight to the death… the plot being a war between gods…. It was so obvious we would be sucked into a real war."

No one said anything for a while.

"Ten minute remaining…." The tutorial voice broke the silence.

"I could punch that fucker…." Morgan said.

"But that's how all games work," Chase added. "Going back to what Melody said here…. The plot is always some kind of war… some sort of…" his hands made a swirling gesture, "chaos not supposed to be there. That's how a conflict is created for a world like this." He stopped for a second before he realized. "I mean… a game…."

Nick swallowed hard before speaking. "No, you're right. It is a world. This is where we're going to live out at least part of our lives for a while."

"Don't you get it?" I said louder now. I pulled my hands away. "This isn't a matter of getting out. We don't have the teamwork to make it out of here. We've only ever won matches when the other team sucked. We don't know how to work together. We win by pure luck."

"I think we could have something they don't. We have faith in each other, don't we?" She looked around to everyone. Their heads were down and they avoided her eyes. "Not just about the game guys. We've been through a lot together." At this, they all nodded or shrugged. "Would we have stayed friends when we went away to school if we didn't?"

"Of course we'd stay friends," Melody said.

"But my point is that we care that much about each other. We have faith in our friendships to make it last." She took my hands again. "We have to let that hold us together for as long as we can."

"This is pretty ironic coming from you," Chase said to her.

Now it was my turn to squeeze her hands. She took a shaky breath. "This whole thing has given me a new will to fight or something, I guess."

"Five minutes remaining…." the voice called again.

"Let's say we do win," I said, "by some stupid miracle. Then what? We keep killing people just like that?"

"We have to if we want to stay alive," Morgan said.

I shook my head.

Nick gave my hands another squeeze. I looked up at her. "None of us like it. But it's what we have to do."

I looked into her eyes. Her eyes were watery but only I noticed. She held my gaze and I wondered if she knew what I was trying to tell her.

Finally, I broke my gaze and stood up. I took a deep breath. "If we're going to do this, we need to be in it together. No hesitations and no doubting. That stops here." I looked around and everyone was looking to me, nodding.

"No more whining, damn wimps," Morgan said. Chase chuckled.

"Alright," Melody said, smirking but nervously. "I'll just try to keep my paralyzed fear to a minimum."

Morgan put a hand on her shoulder. "You got this."

"We got this," Nick corrected.

I sighed and looked to Nick. "I love you."

She smiled a sad smile. "I love you too."

"The match will begin shortly."

We all looked around at each other before being launched into the sky.

Once we got to the match, we all looked up at the screen showing what we were facing. The mastery ranked ranged from three to seven. Ours ranged from five to ten.

"Remember kids," Morgan said, "just because their ranks are lower, doesn't mean we're better."

"And we're probably not," Chase added.

"Didn't we just say to stop being negative?" I said. "Come on guys." I took off on Suku to the speed camp. In a few seconds, Morgan was at my side.

"Guys, we just need to take a few breaths," Melody's voice said in our ears. I looked around the side of the speed camp for an ambush. I dropped a ward just in case. "Just stick together and don't chase kills."

"You heard that, right Chase?" Morgan said.

"Don't worry, I know what's at stake." he retorted.

"Minions have spawned…."

I held my breath.

A few seconds later, they spawned and I leapt off of Suku. I grabbed the speed buff and headed over to the mana camp with Chronos. We cleared it pretty quickly.

"Let's grab the mid furies," I told him. He nodded and we headed over. By that point, I was halfway to level three.

"Nice," Morgan said. "I'm gonna head over to the lane."

"I'm gonna help out Chase in mid." We parted ways and I met up with Kukulkan in lane. "You're up against an Isis, right?"

"Yeah… I don't know how I'm gonna hold up."

"You will," I said. "I'll camp out in your lane a lot." I spoke up a little bit. "How are you and Melody doing, Nick?"

"We're okay, we might actually manage a-"

"FIRST BLOOD!" Morgan's name appeared above us with the Bellona crossed out.

"A kill…." Nick finished.

"AN ENEMY HAS BEEN SLAIN!" A few seconds later, Sobek appeared above us. But it was Melody's name that appeared.

"Sorry Nick! It was the doves," she said.

"Seagulls!" I called out. Chase snorted out loud. I got a chuckle out of Morgan and Nick.

"Whatever!" Melody snapped back. "I know you're not a fan of Beach Babe, okay?"

"Text me!" Morgan shouted in a shrill voice. Chase burst out laughing at this and Melody giggled.

"AN ALLY HAS BEEN SLAIN!" Nick's name appeared in the sky.

"I had to retreat, I'm sorry!" Melody said. I heard Nick sigh.

"Just remember to warn each other when you back or retreat," I said. I ran on Suku toward the duo lane. I killed some minions in the lane alongside Aphrodite before going for the attack speed buff. Nick came back pretty quickly and took her buff. I ran off to get some more furies. "Morgan, how's your lane holding up?"

"I'm doing alright," he said. His minions were headed toward the enemy tower.

"Oh guys, place some wards down. I wanna see this whole map lit up like a fuckin' Christmas tree." Just then, Nick placed a ward at the bottom on the duo lane and a few seconds later, the top was lit up.

"I'll place some when I back next," Chase said. Morgan's lane was already lit up.

I placed two wards near the mid lane on my way over. I let my instincts take over, the ones that I'd been training for nearly the last two years. I was in the beta way back when the game first came out, and I had been practicing on and off for the first few months of release before finally getting everyone to play with me. And here we ended up. But I wasn't about to let my guilt of dragging everyone else into this stop me from using what I'd learned in the past two years. I ganged Morgan's lane, setting him up to kill Bellona. I ran to mid lane and set up Chase to kill Isis. I ganked the duo lane, killing Sobek, allowing Nick to take out Hou Yi after Melody stunned him.

Nick screamed and jumped up and down. "That was so perfect!" she squealed. "Look at the map guys!" I swiped at my menu as I rode Suku to the enemy attack speed camp. The first enemy mid lane tower was down, the first enemy duo lane tower was about halfway, and Morgan was firing at the second enemy solo tower. On our end, the first duo lane tower was only about halfway down, both mid lane towers were up with minor damage to the first one, and the solo lane tower was untouched. In the time I'd been bouncing between lanes, Morgan had gotten another kill and Nick landed another ultimate on Isis to help Chase secure the kill.

As I ran back to a safe area, I noticed a red health bar too close for comfort. I turned around to see the rest of their team behind me.

"Guys, Gold Fury!" I launched Suku into the fight with Moonlight Charge, hitting and knocking up Loki before he could disappear. In the air, Nick ulted him as I Feather Stepped, killing him. Chase sent out his ultimate, knocking back the Bellona. I took the opportunity to use Gravity Surge, pulling her back to me and killing her. All that was left was Isis.

"Ross, grab her!" Melody yelled. She stunned Isis out of her Wing Gust. I jumped back onto Suku to run as fast as I could to catch up. I knew I'd be too late for the deicide. But just then, Morgan comes out from behind her and used Time Rift to kill her.

"DEICIDE!"

"Fire Giant, GO!" I yelled, running as fast as I could on Suku. "I'll tank it." But by the time we got to the Fire Giant, it was too late. We had already started attacking it when Hou Yi showed up. Sobek was right behind him to defend, and Hou Yi stole the Fire Giant just as the rest of the team respawned.

"FALL BACK!" I yelled, again too late. In the mess of it all, Hou Yi ulted Nick and Melody into oblivion. Chase tried to cover our retreat but was thrown backwards into Hou Yi by Sobek and killed.

With the rest of their team now up and the Fire Giant buff, all we could do was defend. I could hear everyone's breathing heavy as they watched the enemy team power on.

In the time that we were on defense, our first towers in the mid lane and duo lanes both fell. No one spoke through this, as there wasn't much we could do but defend the lanes the best we could. Once the rest of us respawned, everyone went back to their respective lanes.

"Nick, Melody," I said, "get ready for me to gank. When I say, Melody, you stun one of them. Nick, stun the other. Ready?"

"Got it," Melody said.

"Nick?"

"Yeah."

"Remember what you said earlier?" I asked her. "Have some faith." She was silent. No retaliation was better than disagreeing.

We waited until they approached the second tower. They got close enough that the minions were stepping into the tower's circle.

"Now!" I yelled. At once, Nick lined up and fired her ultimate at Hou Yi. Melody stunned Sobek. I Feather Stepped past the wall and landed on the Hou Yi. Nick followed me up with a Spirit Arrow to root and I took him out with some basic attacks.

In the meantime, Melody had landed her birds on the Sobek and got thrown out of the way. Nick Back Flipped to get between Melody and Sobek. When Sobek turned around, I was standing there and sent out Suku to knock him up. By then, Nick's Spirit Arrow had recharged and she landed a few basic attacks to kill him.

Nick and I looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. I nodded to her and took off on Suku.

Looking at the map again, I saw that we had three towers left to their four; we had one in each lane and they had one in each and a second in mid lane. Their towers were more weakened than ours, but we had two to go through in mid lane.

Just then, Morgan slayed Bellona. With that, only Loki and Isis were left standing. I ran as fast as I could to the mid lane and hid behind the first enemy tower. Chase was coming up to the tower, and Isis was backing up. Just before I could gank her though, Loki came up behind me and used his ultimate. Chase saw the opportunity and used his own ultimate. Just too late, I died as Chase got the double kill.

"Forget the Fire Giant and just PUSH!" I yelled to them. I watched as the duo lane took out the second tower and Chase finished getting the first mid tower. Morgan ignored me and grabbed the enemy mana buff.

"Morgan, why didn't you push?!" I yelled.

"Don't worry about it, I can still push it." But Bellona would be up in just a few more seconds.

I gritted my teeth. When you died in this version of the game, it wasn't like you were omnipresent. You essentially sat in base with a screen in front of you to view any team member you wanted, as if clicking between them. I looked back to Chase who flew to Morgan's lane as I had been arguing with him. Together, they took down the tower as Bellona and Hou Yi showed up to lane.

Finally able to respawn, I used a teleport to get to the duo lane while Bellona and Hou Yi were occupied. Only Sobek was in the lane against Nick and Melody but I knew Loki would be coming soon. We attacked the phoenix the best we could until Loki showed up. Melody missed her stun and Nick Back Flipped out of the way. Landing her Unravel on the Broken Weave, she regained health to full before using he Spirit Arrow to root him.

I took the chance and jumped over Loki with Feather Step. I landed a few basic attacks before Melody used her birds. He ran off, but the damage over time finally killed him anyway. We took the phoenix as Sobek retreated to the base.

"Mid lane, let's go!" I shouted, leading the way. Nick Back Flipped to follow and Melody was behind her. We took the tower quickly before Isis showed up.

"Retreat!" Nick called when she spotted her. All of us were able to run down the mid lane back under our second tower before we backed. When we got there, I looked at the map to realize that by some string of fate, Chase and Morgan had managed to nearly take out the phoenix in the solo lane. But to our dismay, Chase was killed and Morgan had to use his ultimate to escape.

Their entire team was back up again. Everyone went to their respective lanes and I went to take out the mid furies on both sides. Finally level 20, I got each buff for Nick and Morgan.

"Guys, I need everyone to buy a Teleport to God," I told them. "Next deicide, we're gonna backdoor the Titan… unless they'll be up too quick. Otherwise, we're gonna go for it."

"Got it," Morgan said. The three of them backed and bought the item. Chase was back up again too.

"Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pretend we're going for Fire Giant after we kill Loki. Once we find him, I'll gank him. After that, we go for Fire Giant. Activate it, but take as little damage as possible. We won't actually go for it; it's just a distraction."

The next minute of the game went by slowly. The air around us felt thick, and we all knew it would be the final play. If we didn't win the team fight, we'd lose the match.

"Loki!" Morgan yelled. I was all the way across the map when I heard it. I used my teleport to get to Morgan as he was being chased down lane. Morgan's ultimate was down, and Loki had just used his. With Morgan at half health and running toward the phoenix, and Loki and Bellona on his tail, I jumped out from behind her and Feather Stepped her, knocking her up. In a few more basic attacks, she was down.

Loki was still running after Morgan, and I jumped back on Suku to catch up. But it was too late. Morgan was nicked by Loki's bleed effect and was killed. I jumped in and used Gravity Surge, pulling Loki straight into the arms of death.

"Fire Giant, now!" I yelled.

"But what about Morgan?" Nick asked. "Will we still be able to trick them?"

"We have to try," I said. When we made it to the Fire Giant, I decided I'd be the one to tank it again. I jumped in and started to attack just barely when Isis stunned me in the line of fire.

The hesitation from the stun was just too much for me. With what little health I had left, I sent Suku after Isis and Nick used her Spirit Arrow to kill her and root Sobek. Hou Yi ulted just then and I was killed.

Chase used his ultimate and sliced through Hou Yi and Sobek. They chased them almost all the way back to their base and defeated Hou Yi.

I watched in stunned silence as Nick, Melody, and Chase fought their way through the phoenix and to the Titan. Morgan was now back up and teleported to the enemy base.

In seconds, the victory music played, and their Titan collapsed.

I fell to my knees. Nick started crying, hugging Melody. Morgan breathed heavily and Chase just stared at the Titan.

A few seconds later, we were transported to the lobby. Still in the form of our gods, Nick ran to me and I caught her in my arms. It was a little funny though since Neith is a little taller than Awilix, but the effect was the same. Chase put a hand on my shoulder, and Morgan kissed Melody.

When Nick and I pulled apart, we saw the other team.

Mostly, their heads were hanging down. Some of them were crying and others just stared at the floor.

Nick and I looked at each other in stunned silence.

I wanted to walk over and shake their hands for a good match. I wanted to tell them that they gave us a run for our money. I wanted to say that when I died, I thought we were about to lose.

But instead, I stood there. I said nothing.

Finally, the Loki looked to the Bellona and they nodded. All of them seemed to have a silent agreement. They all swiped at their menus together.

"I'm sorry!" Nick yelled. Everyone looked up at her. Tears were streaming down her face.

A few seconds later, they were all vanishing. The entire team was holding hands as they faded into sparkles.

I couldn't take it anymore. I broke away from Nick and ran to them.

"No!" I reached out and missed them, falling to the floor in a splash of sparkles around me. My fists landed on the floor and I fell to my knees. I cried out, my eyes shutting tightly.

I heard boots echo on the floor around me, but I couldn't look up. I felt a feminine hand on my back. Then another, then a man's, followed by something scaly.

We were transported out.

…

When we landed, we were in the same position back in the Jungle Practice. We were all transformed into our human selves again.

I stood up and turned to them.

"We just killed them!" I shouted. I was shaking. My knuckles were white with my hands clenched into tight fists.

"We had no choice!" Nick yelled back, still crying.

"What were we supposed to do? Surrender?" Morgan asked. "This is what's gonna happen, man."

"We just took their lives!" I yelled again. "Aren't you guys feeling something?!"

"Of course we are," Chase said. "But if we hang on to that, it'll drive us mad."

"None of us want to be here," Melody added. "But if we're gonna make it out, then we have to win."

"What if we can't do it? What if we can't take killing people?!" I yelled. It wasn't directly at anyone in particular. I just didn't know what else to tell them.

"If you want to surrender…" Nick said slowly, stepping forward, "then we have to decide together. You know it's a matter of all of our lives. Not just yours."

"I know that!" I said. She stepped back, cringing at my volume. "It's my fault! It's my fucking fault and I can't even handle taking their lives!"

I swiped at my menu and chose Sun. I ran out of the base toward Ra. I had to get away from them. I couldn't take the guilt anymore.

"Just give him some time," I heard Melody say, probably to Nick. "He'll be okay."

I wasn't sure if she was right anymore.

[Author's Note]: Hope everyone's enjoying the story thus far! As you can tell, each chapter will focus on a different member of the team. I haven't decided who will be the main character of the next chapter, so you'll have to stay tuned to find out!