had listened while she outlined our strategy and nodded when she told me I was the flag’s keeper for this game. She didn’t have to explain, but she did anyway.
“If we leave you to guard the flag, the rest of us are clear to hunt the weres and their flag. By yourself, you are enough of a pain-in-the-dirt-posterior to keep them off our flag.”
This was the final match of the tournament, and the two sets of bleachers were packed with additional chairs set up in front of a bank of monitors for the overflow. They were full, too.
General Creek was there with his cronies, as were Agents Krupp and Mazar, and, of course, Nathan Stewart and Adine Benally.
Neeve and Eirwen flanked Ariel and Ian. Every parent and all our other classmates were crammed in like crayons in a box. The werewolf parents carefully sat in different parts of the room; there was more than one Alpha present, which could create a dominance situation if care wasn’t taken. Luckily, care sat in the middle of the main bleachers in the form of Chris, Tanya, Stacia, and the rest of their crew. Every person in the room, with the possible exception of the players and my aunt, were watching him and them. The camera flashes that went off were more often in his direction than ours.
Aunt Ash sent us to our opposite sides to start the game. Caeco had won the coin toss and selected the side nearest the bleachers, furthest from the outside overhead door. I had wanted this end because it had the windy plains and a lot of sand.
I chose an open spot in soft sand and set the flag upright for all to see while Caeco gave the team their final directions. Next, as the whistle sounded and they trotted off, I set a ring of spelled rocks around the flag. Then another further out and finally a third.
With everything set, I stood in front of the flag and mentally worked through the new spells and tricks I had put together just for this game, specifically with T.J.’s monstrosity in mind.
After about five minutes, I heard the crowd oooohh at the same time the sounds of fighting broke out over the mountain range. Thirty seconds later, T.J.’s metal creature came spidering over the side of the closest mountain, all six legs clicking as it moved. A black-painted dirt dude followed it, this one with a molded canine snout and stainless screws placed as fangs. Delwood.
They paused and looked over my situation, appropriately cautious. Then the crowd ooohhhed again at something on the monitors and they headed forward, pushed by the time. Caeco was giving the rest of the weres hell and they knew it.
“Hi guys. Ready for a whupping?” I said with my human mouth on the bench. Microphones placed in front of the bench broadcast my words to the crowd, which threw me for a second. I had been counting on werewolf hearing and mechanical amplification for my words to reach them. The public broadcast was a new feature of the games.
“We didn’t want you to sit out here crying in loneliness,” Delwood said, his avatar rubbing its blank eyes with little hands in a boo hoo move.
This time, the microphone and speakers worked for my benefit, making it easy to hear him.
“Looks like you’ve had a lot of practice making those motions, Smellwood,” I said. “Lonely childhood?”
“Reusing old names, Decimate?” he asked.
The robot spider cocked itself slightly toward Delwood’s avatar and T.J.’s voice came over the sound system.
“Dude, do you know what that word means?” T.J. asked his partner.
“Yeah, it has two meanings: to kill one in ten, which is the old Roman meaning; and the newer meaning, to kill or destroy a large portion of something,” Delwood said. “I’m not stupid, nerd.”
“No of course not. It just doesn’t sound like an insult?” T.J. backpedaled
“It isn’t. I’m giving credit where credit is due. Declan vaporized that elf dude and a big-ass tree behind him. I’m giving him props before we kick his ass,” Delwood said.
“Hello, still standing here un-ass kicked,” I said.
A loud crash sounded back over the mountain and the crowd cheered or booed at whatever had happened.
“We best get on with it before your girlfriend wipes out the rest of our team,” Delwood said.
“Yeah, time is not on your side,” I replied. “What’s your line?”
“Me? I’m gonna let you and the robot duke it out and stroll on over to yonder flag,” Delwood said.