A Visitor to the Future - 104 - The Gauntlet
The name of our next opponents shone brightly from the wall - The Castle Smashers. Our ambassadors were annoyed as we walked to the next arena.
"Of all the chances - they're the one team that we've got barely any intelligence on! Give us any other team and we'd have been able to tell you something more about their capabilities," Sarkona said, "The only source of information we have on them is from Strategic Arms, who are not a reliable source."
"What makes them unreliable?" I asked.
"They're liars," said Antonia, plainly, "The Outcasts that we befriended earlier in the tournament figured out that Strategic Arms gave three conflicting accounts of other team's abilities to several others. They then verified that all three accounts were wrong."
"I don't understand," I said, "If they did that, wouldn't that make it harder for them to trade with other teams later?"
Alexandra chimed in, "That's the problem - they were smart about their lies. They went to extra lengths to try and keep the teams they were trading with apart, and completed a large number of trades in the first two rounds before they were caught. Smart strategy, if you can pull it off."
"And totally unethical," sang out Antonia in an operatic voice, causing the other two ambassadors to laugh - some sort of in-joke I'd missed, apparently. I'd ask Antonia to explain later.
Sarkona continued with a smile on their face, "Anyway, as for what we do know for sure about the Castle Smashers - they only won one point in the last two rounds, which will make them very keen in this round. "
"Out of interest, what did Strategic Arms say about the Castle Smashers?" I asked.
"That they were using heavy gauntlets as part of their Proxies," said Antonia, "Which is believable enough, but it's probably not true. Because, you know - poor ethics."
We all approached the arena door, and the others quickly wished us luck. But one final thought went through my mind as I lingered at the entrance.
"Could the Outcasts have been lying about Strategic Arms?" I said to Alexandra.
She smiled a sly grin, "You'd have been a fine fit for Multisphere life with that line of thinking. But no, we're fairly certain that the Outcasts have been honest all along."
"Only fairly?"
She shrugged and waved as she walked into the team's spectating booth with the others, "What's life without a little risk?" she said as the door closed behind her.
I walked into the arena, and left into the pilot's space. The window at the front of the space was pitch-black. Tungsten was already seated, Gatecrash taking a moment to try and pick out any details in the dark void ahead. The two were mid-conversation.
"No, I can't see anything either," said Gatecrash to Tungsten, "The window is polarized, it's not just dark. Or, you know, it's not actually a window and we've just been staring at an opaque pane for the last ten seconds." Gatecrash leaned closer to the surface, but shook their head in frustration. "Can you see anything?" Gatecrash asked me.
"I'm not even going to try," I said, taking a seat, "I know Tungsten's vision is better than mine. We'll just have to take this one as a surprise."
"They seem to be very big on the hidden arena conditions in this tournament," said Tungsten excitedly, "Another mystery to solve, shall we get to it? Ready to link when you are."
As the link established, I was surprised to find my Proxy alone, my teammates nowhere in sight. I was stood in a corridor about ten metres wide, the walls a grey marble texture, scored with maze-like grooves which spiralled across the entire surface with no obvious pattern to them. The floor was a series of white hexagonal tiles, the pattern repeating off into the distance. To look up, the walls of the corridor extended up, to what must have been fifty metres tall. Beyond, I could see a transparent roof - and the mid-day sky, a beautiful, cloudless deep blue beyond.
I looked around, realizing that I was in a dead end space - ahead of me was a choice of direction, left or right. I was clearly in some sort of a maze.
Once again, the sound of the announcer echoed through the corridors, "Welcome back, teams and spectators!" said the voice, a hint of the cryptic in its tone. "Match number three of this tournament sees Overgrown with Moss in the lovely verdant green challenge the Castle Smashers in the luxurious royal red! The challenge in this round will be somewhat interesting, for we have split each team up, and scattered them along the outsides of this maze! But not only have we done this, we have placed several challenges within the maze itself to keep things interesting! The prize for reaching the centre of the maze? A weapon to be used against your opponents, a blade of power to be used in this round, and this round alone! Whoever reaches it first will surely have a decisive advantage over their opponents! Teams, good luck, have fun, and may the most resilient stand victorious! Begin!"
Tungsten's excited voice came from next to me in the pilot's area, his mind already made up, "I think we have to get that sword. We should get moving, quickly!"
"Is the sword that good?" I asked, "Shouldn't we group up first? If we get picked off alone, that would be really bad."
"If we can, yes," said Gatecrash, "But I've spectated Proxy sword rounds before - they're usually sharp enough to cut down a Proxy like grass. We have to get it, because the Castle Smashers are on one point."
I furrowed my brow, confused, "Sorry, could you explain that to me? How does them only having one point force us to get the sword?" All the same, I took off, heading right at the intersection.
"If this were an earlier round," explained Gatecrash, "Imagine that one team gets the sword. Engaging the person with the sword is really risky - you might get your Proxy cleaved in two, and repairing that damage is really difficult, it might lead to you writing off a Proxy for the rest of the tournament! So why take the chance - unless you've got a decisive advantage, you concede!"
"Oh," I said, now concentrating on both listening to Gatecrash and rounding corner after corner in the maze. Left or right here? Right - keep going right. Wasn't that how you were supposed to solve mazes?
Gatecrash continued, "But the Castle Smashers aren't going to concede. They can't - either they win this round or they're out of the tournament! So either we fight them with the sword, or we'll have to concede ourselves. They're all-or-nothing on this. Either way, we can't be so damaged that we can't continue in the tournament's next rounds. By the way, I think I'm in one of the corners of the maze."
"So get the sword or give up?" I said, "Are there no other options?"
"That depends if we can even the odds!" said Tungsten, "If we could take out one or two Proxies, even if our opponent gets the sword, we might be able to fight them even with the sword. Three versus one, that sort of deal."
I continued to sprint around the walls of the maze, pushing off the sides wherever I could to retain momentum.
"Tungsten," said Gatecrash, "It's probably a monomolecular-edged blade. Sharp enough to slice into almost anything. I'd rather not deal with that! So let's get moving and grab it first!"
I stumbled slightly and skidded to a halt as the maze in front of me opened up into a chamber filled with sand. In the centre of it stood a seven-foot tall beast-like shape of steel and carbon fibre, with six legs, and large claws. It turned to face me, possessing not a head and eyes, but an overlarge jaw which reminded me of shredder, and took off in my direction.
"That might be a problem," I said, turning and dashing back the way I came, "Those challenges that the announcer talked about- they have teeth!"