For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,112

The floor and ceiling matched, but so did her armor. Rhaven moved before anyone could spot her, trying to figure out what this was supposed to be. When she turned through a hatch door, she figured it out. The canvas parachutes. The steel battleship. This was all World War II-era stuff, and put together in a new and inventive way.

It was also going to be like fighting in a labyrinth.

The timer said five minutes. Anyone making it past that would progress to the next round. From the leaderboard list, there were still fifty-three people in contention. How many were killed before they made it to the end would determine how many rounds there would be in this event.

Just like the last map, it took far too long before anyone ran into each other. When they did, a dot appeared on the map, indicating a weapon had been fired. Rhaven moved the other way, slipping through the halls - if that was what they were even called - and turning down every cross hall she could find. Mostly because she just didn't feel safe making a straight line.

Then, up ahead, a silhouette of a person rushed past, clearly not checking their sides when they crossed the hall. Rhaven scoped in, firing a single round, and then ducked into the closest room. Almost immediately, she heard the sound of footsteps hurrying toward her, but they stopped in the room across the hall. Braced for the worst, she strafed into the doorway to see a gun pointed right at her - yet no shots came. The name above his head said "MURDER," and it was the only reason she didn't fire.

The moment she lowered her weapon, he jumped, taking lead. Naturally, Rhaven fell in behind him. Together, they were clearly going somewhere. It didn't even matter where. Murder led, she followed, and when someone was dumb enough to turn into the hall behind them, Rhaven took them out with a careful double tap to the head.

Murder turned at the next hall, not bothering to stop. Her marker would bring the masses, and that meant it was about to get exciting. Sure enough, two turns later put them face first into a group of four. There was nowhere to hide. No cover, no space to duck out of the way, and nothing to do but kill or be killed.

Which was when Rhaven understood. This wasn't about bigger or badder weapons. It was close-quarters combat. She quickly switched to her pistol, which had modifiers for being this close, and began clearing the hall. Murder changed guns a second later, then proved he got the concept by lunging in to use his quick knife attack.

As soon as the last man was dead, the pair moved again. Rhaven hit tab to see how many were left, not surprised to find that less than half the map had been killed already. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough, and there were only two minutes left. Looked like there would be four rounds this time, which meant even more chances for her to get knocked out before she could impress someone and get a sponsorship.

That was why, at the next cross hall, when Murder wanted to go left, she went right. It took him only a moment to follow, but the sound of guns was coming from this direction, and Rhaven was willing to take a bit of a risk. In truth, she just didn't want the viewers of the stream to say she'd been camping this whole round, hiding away from the fights.

The hall ended in a large room with metal grates for floors, and two levels visible before them. Dozens of people ran around, and the weapons rattled off constantly, bouncing across her headphones and making it hard to use the sound for location. Echoes, she realized, even as she tagged some guy with his back to her.

Then, just like they did in Eternal Combat, Murder moved to her side. Together, the pair made a lap of their floor, checking each other's six so they didn't get flanked. Four more guys went down by the time they made it to the stairs. And then a grenade sailed up to land at their feet. Rhaven went one way. Murder went the other. The thing exploded, damaging the floor graphics, but they were both still up.

And in someone's sights. No, they weren't. Only she was! Six men on the level below them had sighted in on her. Rhaven moved, trying her hardest