For The Win (Gamer Girls, #6) - Auryn Hadley Page 0,4

Swinging the camera from side to side, she found a bit of shelter that didn't stand out too much, and headed for it.

She was almost there when another player came at her. If these idiots kept running in one at a time, this was going to be easy. After crouching behind a broken wall until the shots stopped, she stood, scoped in, and made another headshot before moving. Her marker would be lit up for the other players, and that meant it would show her location. In other words, this was the last place she wanted to be.

But the last four guys came in a rush. A glance at the team list showed she was the only one on her side still up. Evidently, her side was made from nothing but a bunch of idiots. Pretty typical for pick-up groups like this. Sadly, that didn't help, because four against one weren't the best odds. All she could do was even things up.

It took a moment to find the right button to get to her weapons. Once there, Rhaven selected a grenade, then tossed it at the closely-clustered group. Immediately, they scattered, but she couldn't swap back to her gun fast enough to make a difference. Cursing under her breath, she finally found the pistol and decided that would do. It also meant she had to get in close.

Just like a game tournament, she told herself, slipping around a building to get a better angle. Suddenly, the screen flashed red. Out of habit, she ducked into the closest door to break the line of sight and remove the flinchlock. Her character's armor had absorbed the damage and would regenerate, but the enemy knew where she was now. Time to make them pay for it.

Hiding just inside the door, she waited. Sure enough, the guy chasing her rushed in, allowing her to pop off a few hits in his back as he rushed past. Then, she turned to the window - just as another moved in. Two shots tore him down a bit, but the guy jumped back, most likely to heal himself. With him still alive, there were only three players left on the map. That meant it was time to get a little crazy.

Rhaven rushed out the door to see the enemy player aiming for a gap between buildings. She fired off another shot, getting a hit marker, and the chase was on. Not the way this guy expected, though. Like a pro, she went back into the building she'd just left, rushed up the stairs to the roof, across it, then over the side. Landing took a small amount of fall damage off her partially-regenerated armor, but it didn't matter. She was behind the guy, and two more shots put him out of his misery.

That left two enemies on the map, and the point was blinking, reverting back to their side. All around her, Tyler's friends were yelling for her to rush in, but she wasn't stupid. Flanking around the edges of the building again, she found the button for weapons selection, changing while she ran. With the machine gun equipped once more, it was time to end this.

In the room around her, Tyler's friends were watching quietly, almost like they were in shock. This whole thing had started as a reason for them to give her shit. Instead, she was systematically clearing the map in a game she didn't normally play. It was the biggest "fuck you" she could think of, and their silence felt a little good, but she wasn't done yet. One little mistake would be all it took to become the target of their bad jokes again.

So far, in this match all the previous fights had been on the east side of the map. Naturally, she aimed for the west, coming at the point from the direction the enemy wouldn't expect. Of course, the last two guys were watching the wrong way. That let her kill the first one without a problem, but the last guy didn't suck. He got a good hit, taking the last of her armor, but she got his down at the same time. The game animation proved it.

Then it was just a simple fire fight. In the room around her, the guys were all yelling and cheering for her to kick his ass, but Rhaven ignored it. She wanted her headphones, so she could hear the subtle sounds that would tell her so much. Like this, the chorus in the