The Master

Close to reaching his high score, Jon didn't want to stop. He was in the zone. It wouldn't be much longer until he reached his goal, if everything kept on the way it was.

The timer counted down, two seconds left until round 30. If he could clear this round, it would be a high score! The first new high score in years. It would earn him the acclaim and respect he felt he needed.

ROUND 30, START!

"Electro-wheel!" Jon shouted, triggering the creation of rapidly spinning discs on the sides of his suit's boots. He zoomed toward zone A-4, where his first objective waited. Wary of the possible enemies, he kept an eye out for any sign of motion.

Nothing was on his minimap overlay. Not a single sign of resistance. Something was wrong.
Realizing what had happened, Jon spun around. "Total guard!"

Jon's shield appeared on all sides just as the barrage started. His shield was being pelted on all sides by projectiles. But as Jon continued to spin, keeping his shield up, he started to feel nervous. How long could he keep his shield up? It wasn't possible to guard forever. He had to find the source of the attack.

"Sight cleanse!" Jon called, refreshing his minimap and removing the debuff he had unknowingly acquired: Dark Solitude. With his minimap now working, he located the blip that indicated the source of the attack.
Taking a risk, he decided to drop the shield and try to end the attack in one shot.

"Explosion lance!" His shield shattered apart, blocking a few projectiles, and formed a lance of fire which shot toward the enemy. The NPC fell, and Jon continued his mad dash for his objective.

Something about that wasn't right. Jon contemplated. Why would I have Dark Solitude? I should have noticed that debuff. I'm slipping. Gotta keep my head in the game, I haven't made the records yet.

Arriving at A-4, Jon located the data orb. Placing it into his gauntlet, the popup showed that this orb's upside was Data Lock. Naturally, the downside was the fact that he had it in his possession, revealing his location to all the enemies in his target zone. Of course, even if his location wasn't a secret, he could still burst his way through.

Jon fired off toward zone C-1, where he was supposed to deliver the orb and find out his next objective. His electro-wheel ability had a few seconds left. More than enough to get a head start on the hunters.

As he reached the halfway point between the zones, the game seemed to freeze for a split second. This was the first time this had ever happened. Jon knew something wasn't right. But his thoughts were elsewhere. The hunters would be showing up any moment.

Anticipate, counter, react. Jon repeated in his head. This motto was how he had reached the 30th round. It was his style of play. Instead of the usual "react, counter, decide" which Jon had seen countless players use, only to fall within the first 5 rounds, Jon adopted a unique style. He would anticipate the enemy locations and strategies, counter whatever was done to him, and then react with his own plan. Most of the new players didn't even counter for their first few tries because they couldn't react in time. Playing Able-Ward required a calm mind and clear thought, as well as a knowledge of what could and couldn't be done.

The first hunter appeared. Green, so his speciality should be...
"Burst lane!" Jon shouted, holding out his hand in the direction of the green hunter.
"Vine wrap!" The hunter yelled. A flow of liquid vines erupted from the ground, and flung themselves toward Jon, but no sooner had the arrived than the whirlwind of flame barrel them down, turning them to ash, and disabling the hunter. Piece of cake.

Two more hunters met him as he turned the corner. Ok, orange, grey.
"Slicer! Chain! Counter-mode!" Jon yelled.
"Marksman!" Orange hunter bellowed.
"Shadowstep!" Grey whispered.

In Jon's hand appeared a silvery blade of reasonable length. Grey hunter faded from view, and Orange hunter pulled out his duel pistols and began firing shots. The ability chain activated, and things seemed to slow down, now Jon could accurately gauge the distance and location of each bullet from Marksman. Rather than wasting an additional skill point on attacking both the hunters, Jon's strategy was simple.

As the bullets got close, Jon deflected them. The first three went toward Orange hunter, and the last one was directed to his right side, under the assumption that Grey hunter may be there. Orange hunter fell to the ground, but Grey hunter did not reappear. Oh, no. I guessed wrong, so that means... Jon stopped, and suddenly the Grey hunter slid into his vision from the left, just in front of him, where Jon would have been had he kept moving. As the Counter-mode chain reached the last tenth of a second, he threw Slicer, and beheaded the Grey hunter.

In a state of euphoria, Jon continued, entering zone C-1 and yelling "Oh, come on! This is child's play! Give me a challenge!"

"Rune prison! Chain! Space impact! Chain! Eroding footwork! Chain! Cursed aura!" came a voice.

"WHAT?" Jon said, but suddenly, runic symbols appeared in the ground around him, and he found himself unable to pass over them. That's not possible! It can't be!

A meteor fell from space, headed straight for Jon. He needed to block it, but Jon wasn't calm anymore. How could he be? But he forced himself to focus.

"Shielding blow!" Wait, what were the other commands he used? "Chain! uh... Floating grace! uh..."
Out of command time, Jon had to deal with what was happening. Not good. I think I missed something.

Pulling out his dagger, Jon threw it at the meteor, and with explosive force, the meteor exploded into somewhat harmless shards, but then the ground beneath him crumbled, leaving a dark and possibly bottomless hole beneath him.

CHAIN! appeared in front of him, and two bright halos appeared around his ankles, holding him afloat.
Here it comes. I don't know what it was. Aww, man.

A man walked out in front of him holding a shotgun in his right hand, and an oversized sword in his left.
The look on his face smouldered, as he became shrouded in a dark, billowing cloud. From that cloud, Jon saw the glint of his assailant's eyes. That was no hunter. No. That was no NPC.

The cloud dissipated, and then suddenly, the man flew toward Jon's side from seemingly nowhere, sword first.

"Reaction flow! Chain! Data lock!" Jon yelled, just in time to begin countering.
Jon managed to avoid the strike, moving in the slightest way, stuck as he was in the rune prison.
The man passed, and when Jon turned to look, he was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, the man was falling from above, firing several rounds of his shotgun. The pellets moved too fast for Jon to block, and without a weapon to deflect them, his only option was to take as few hits as possible, and try to make sure they weren't in critical areas.

As he was pelted by the shotgun, a red warning indicated he had taken 20 points of damage. Quickly looking up, the man had landed behind him, and then jumped, but then Jon saw how he had been doing this.
What? A tele-glyph! I see, so that means that his fourth attack was a movement attack ability.

The man appeared in front of him, and to his left. The man appeared in front of him, and to the right.
The man appeared behind him, and to his left. The man appeared behind him, and to his right.
Jon was awestruck. Four of the same person at once? This must be a high level ability... possibly... no way. It couldn't be... is it... a rank 9? Aww, man, how am I going to deal with this!

CHAIN! appeared in front of him. Jon flew out of his body, ejected forcefully, his suit glowed with lines of code wrapping around it. The rune prison disappeared. The four mysterious men flew at the suit with their swords, and when the blades struck the suit, they bounced off, harmlessly.

The man disappeared through four tele-glyphs on the ground, and he reappeared beneath Jon. As Jon fell, and the man rose aiming his shotgun at him, Jon had a feeling he wouldn't be breaking the records with a new high score. Surely, this would be his end.

Before the man could fire, Jon was pulled back into his suit, as the Data Lock expired, and his consciousness' data was returned. The moment he entered, he yelled "Flash step! Combo! Silver clock!"

The man fired his shotgun, but Jon's consciousness, now back in the right place, was unaffected.
Jon floated back, out from over the pit, and then his ability activated. The world became yellow and blue. Jon was now in Flash Time. It took me forever to get this ability. I'm so glad I did.

Using flash time, Jon ran to the objective, placed the data orb into the pedestal, and then waited for the information of his next objective to show up. Flash Time ran out, and the man entered the building.

"Well, well. You're not bad, kid. You know, a few more years, and perhaps you'll be ready to face me."

"Who are you? And why are you here? This is supposed to be a single-player session!"

"Oh, come now! That's no way to address the current high score record holder! I'm the champion of Able-ward! Let's be honest, from me to you: you don't stand a chance. It would be in your best interest to just give up. I won't have to take your abilities then."

"WHAT? NO! I've worked too hard for this! I've come too far! I won't let some hacker just take what I've earned!"

"Just some hacker? Wow, kid. I'm hurt. I'm not a hacker at all! And here you are, accusing me of doing such dastardly deeds. Really. Here I was, making a generous offer, and you treat me like a criminal!"

"Yeah, well, you know that cyber field overriding is illegal. And yet here you are." Jon said, heaving a huge sigh of relief in his head when the new objective popped up.

"I told you already! I'm not the..." The man repled.

"Rewind!" Jon yelled, and COMBO!! ==Silver Clock 'Rewind'==> Flash Step appeared. The world went yellow and blue again. I probably won't be able to use this combination again. I'll have to think of something else if that guy tries to interfere with my session anymore.

Jon arrived at his next objective. Here his task was to pick the correct doorway to reach the inner chamber, and then to destroy a number of targets in a limited time.

Falling out of Flash Time, Jon knew he wouldn't have long until the self-proclaimed champion would show up. The doors he had to choose from were indistinguishable from one another. Great. I hate the puzzles that don't give clues. If only they looked different somehow... wait!

"Scattervision!" Jon yelled, and he watched as the world briefly was rendered in binary.
That was where he saw it. Two of the doors were rendered as a large number of zeroes. One of the doors was rendered in all ones. Of course, two false paths, and one true one. Makes sense to me. And maybe I can use this to distract that hacker.

"Scuff flare" Jon called out, briefly setting the soles of his feet on fire, leaving a trail as he ran to one of the fake doors. "Disengage" Jon whispered, ending the movement speed bonus and flames early. Then he lightly walked to the real door, went inside and closed it behind him carefully.

The chamber he was in was filled with floating symbols. But the ones he needed to hit were marked on his data readout, and he was able to pick them out of the jumble fairly easily.

Objective updated: Destroy all targets simultaneously, hit nothing else.

Huh. I knew there'd be a twist somewhere. Still, that's not too hard. I guess.
Suddenly, Jon heard a loud yell from a few rooms over. Looks like he fell for it.

"Ricochet shot! Combo! Emblem mark! Chain! Bullet catch! "
A pistol appeared in Jon's hand. He fired it at one of the correct symbols. The bullet ricocheted off it to another symbol, and continued to do so until it had hit all the targets. None of the targets were destroyed, but all of them were marked with a seal. Jon stretched out his hand, and caught his bullet, placing it back in the gun.

"Crest of thunder!" Jon said, and with a sizzle of electricity, each of the marks detonated simultaneously.

Jon received a new objective immediately.
"No. NO WAY! Nothing said anything about this! NO! It can't be!"

As Jon opened the door forward and entered the arena on the other side, he stared at the words before him.

Objective added: Defeat the champion high-score holder.

Before him stood the man from before. He looked fine.

"So, kid. You got me good back there. I got hit with a level drain. Now I can't use anything higher than level 8. But that's ok. I got this. Just so you know, the offer's still open. Just walk away and we don't have to do this."

"I told you. I... I can't do that. Too much is riding on this. My whole LIFE is riding on this!"

"Kid, it's a game. You don't have to go through with this. Just leave now, ok?"

"YOU don't get it! This is the ONE thing I've been good at! Without Able-ward, my parents won't even LOOK at me! Maybe to you it's just a game, but to me, it's ALL I HAVE!" Jon yelled.

"Look, I'm sorry kid, but I can't let you take my place. If you want it, you've got to earn it. And you just don't have what it takes to..."

"We'll see about that." Jon said with grim determination and a hard look on his face.