This was a bad situation, I subtly glanced at my wrist pad. Of course I missed that they wiped out the last squad besides us. So of course me respawning Bangalore and Octane was gonna bite me in the ass.

"Hi friends, we're here to kill you!" Pathfinder said, his screen showing a yellow smile.

Mirage rolled his eyes, "Path, you don't need to say we're here to kill them obviously we're gonna kill them."

"Right, I'll do better in the future!" His smile didn't change and he gave Mirage a thumbs up.

I just sighed. If I was gonna die here, at least my first and last Apex match got me in second place. Not awful. I mean I could just…

"Don't even think about it." Wraith muttered.

This was my shot.

"Think about what, how good you look in black? I bet you'd look better without it." I looked back and grinned.

Her face colored slightly and everything in the immediate vicinity went dead silent.

"Dude…" Mirage and Octane said in sync.

"I'm sorry, it was worth a shot." I shrugged.

And with that casual conversation out of the way, I swung my leg backwards and kicked Wraith in the arm, which caused her to drop the R-301. I spun around and aimed the Wingman at her.

"Nothing personal, love. I'd still love to have you over some time." I winked and pulled the trigger.

Right before the bullet hit her, she vanished. A purple trail followed her back over to her team, who were kinda too stunned to react. Well Pathfinder wasn't stunned probably. But he wasn't acting.

I grabbed the R-301 that she dropped and aimed it at them. I started firing with reckless abandon. Wraith vanished again, and so did Mirage. Six holograms appeared around him and walked about two meters from him before they stopped. Pathfinder on the other hand reacted quickly, reaching for his back he pulled out an RE-45 in less than a second and began spraying at me. I ducked behind a supply bin and reloaded the weapon I had recently procured.

This was a weird match.

Bangalore and Octane both rushed for cover as the MRVN began striding forward, his monitor still displaying a smile.

"You did a really mediocre job, friend." Pathfinder said.

Bangalore clutched her leg as she pried a bullet out. She grit her teeth and grunted as she removed the light round. I had to have her at full capacity, so I sprayed her with my blood. I mixed it with a calming agent and an adrenaline stimulant. As the blood hit her, her eyes quickly darted to me, then Octane, then Pathfinder and Mirage who joined him at some point, and Wraith who was sitting back with her Triple Take.

We locked eyes and nodded. Octane just hummed and tapped his fingers anxiously.

"What's the plan, amigos?" His patience had finally worn out.

"Jump Pad yourself and Bangalore in, both of you deal with Mirage and Pathfinder. Leave Wraith to me."

"If we win this, FNG. Drinks are on me tonight. I know you just the spot."

Octane chuckled, "Count me in!"

I shrugged, "If I don't win I'll be dead, so sure."

The speedster threw down his Jump Pad and slid into it with a burst of energy from his stim, the soldier shortly behind him. Bangalore landed on top of Mirage and aimed her G7 Scout and his skull, and Octane landed next to Pathfinder, punched him and then started running away. His Peacekeeper was drawn and ready.

I aimed my Wingman at Wraith and she once again dodged out of the way of the bullet. Almost like there was some sense of precognition. This was going to be difficult. She bounced off of the wall and landed on the roof of the bridge.

It was actually impressive how far she propelled herself off the wall.

There wasn't really time to admire the sheer athleticism of my opponent as she aimed her weapon at me and pulled the trigger. Three bullets came flying out, one slammed into my leg, causing me to stumble to the ground and the other two hit the dirt next to me.

Her control with the sniper wasn't the best. I could exploit that, somehow.

Gunshots were going off in the distance, and the Ring was beginning to close again. I didn't have long. She shot at me again, due to me ducking behind cover. I had to do something.

A cold sensation came upon me and I realized, maybe I didn't have time. I whirled around and shot the Wingman, but she was expecting that as she already had my arm in her grasp as I turned. The bullet went wide.

Her face was stoic, and she stared into my eyes intently.

"Maybe in another time or space, you killed me… but not this one."

Then it was cold. As I was stabbed. I looked down, and saw her pull a kunai from my stomach.

Oh.

It had been so long since I was stabbed by an outside force that I kinda forgot the shock that came with it. Just as I was about to react, I collapsed.

"The Champion has been eliminated."

I smiled. Wraith panicked and put two Wingman bullets into me. The last thing I saw before it all went black was her running towards the gunshots. Mirage crawled his way out and locked eyes with me. He had a sardonic smile on his face.

Maybe I wouldn't die for nothing. Maybe at least my team would win. Maybe we would be…

That's when nothing came.

Author's Note: That completes this arc. Maybe soon-ish we'll get into the more coherent stuff. I'm sorry if this feels rushed or sloppy. I'm still figuring things out. Both about writing and about this story. For those curious I did a cringe thing and made a list of all of Hades' abilities. If anyone cares to either read this story. Because it kinda isn't gaining traction which sucks :(.

Legend Name: Hades

Epithet: The Vampiric Surgeon

Classification: Support

Passive: Siphon (Doing damage heals him slightly.)

Tactical: Transfusion (Cut some of his health to give his teammates a burst of healing. Does not activate when he is below ¼ health. Cooldown 11 seconds.)

Ultimate: Crimson Rain (A small bubble of blood mixed with a toxic chemical is launched, when it impacts the ground any enemies standing within it take 7 damage per tick to the flesh and are silenced. Damage lasts 12 seconds, and silence lasts 15. Cooldown 3 minutes.)