Elijah squared up against Darren, longsword secure between his hands. Darren stood opposite him, mace in one hand.
'Let's make this quick.' Elijah thought. He leaned down, bringing his hands up to his shoulder, his sword pointing to just beside where Darren stood.
Darren responded in kind, moving the mace from one hand to two.
-3-
-2-
-1-
-Fight!-
Elijah and Darren ran toward one another, reaching each other within seconds. They both swung at the same time, Elijah's blade drawing an arc horizontally across Darren, whilst Darren's mace deflected the blade with a downward swing before it could do anything.
Elijah moved again, instantaneously spinning on himself, attempting to sweep Darren's legs. In response, Darren jumped up, continuing his downward strike motion.
Elijah looked up to see a circular blunt object aimed at his face. With no fear on his face, he dropped his sword, placed his hands on the floor, and pushed away. Mid-push, Elijah reached for the blade with his right and lifted his left above his head as a precautionary measure.
Darren's feet touched the ground again, and he extended himself to match Elijah's movement. Due to Elijah's skillful move, the mace in Darren's hand lost most of its momentum, which in turn made it lose most of its force.
The mace scraped Elijah's hand, but he was out of range before it could fall onto his head. Elijah dashed to the left and struck diagonally aiming straight for Darren's neck. The black-haired boy leaped backward, parrying Elijah's blade with his mace.
Just at that moment, however, Elijah spun around with a speed that seemed unnatural, slicing off Darren's head before he could do anything.
-GG-
The VR pods opened and both Elijah and Darren stepped out.
"That was close." Darren said.
"Mhm, I agree. Had you blocked and not parried, I wouldn't have had that opportunity." Elijah replied.
He turned to Grey and said, "It's your turn to die, right?"
Grey chuckled at what he said, replying, "I'd like to see you try."
They stepped into the pods.
Grey saw his vision go dark, before going brighter. His sight was overtaken by whiteness; nothing he could see was anything other than a bright white.
The white got dimmer before his vision cleared.
Grey looked around to see a massive colosseum surrounding him. Dilapidated, cream-colored sandstone stairs and arches in a circular form all around him. The floor was a dusty, damaged rock, and Grey assumed it was also sandstone.
'Wow!' He was shocked at how realistic it all was, and looking up, he could see a sun burning brightly in the sky.
Grey looked down at his hands, clenching them and moving them around.
'Fascinating.'
DING-
A sound came from in front of him, and he saw a screen.
//
Choose your weapon.
-Close-range
-Mid-range
-Long-range
//
Grey complied with the screen and chose a spear from the Mid-range section.
It disappeared immediately after, and then Grey found himself in front of Elijah.
-3-
"Let's have a good fight." Elijah said.
-2-
"I don't know, I might just end it immediately." Grey taunted.
-1-
"If you do, you do. But we have equal stats, it's all skill."
-Fight!-
Grey and Elijah ran toward each other and then clashed blades.
CLANG!
They attacked each other again, Grey reaching out with a thrust whilst Elijah tried to dodge. The boy's dodge was in vain, however, Grey's thrust somehow curved, piercing Elijah's heart.
"How?" Elijah asked. "I know you're strong but-"
The program ended there, the VR pods opening immediately after, and Grey and Elijah stepped out.
"Well, that was anti-climactic." Var stated.
"Tell me about it. We should have had equal footing other than skill, yet I lost so easily." Elijah said, a little dejected.
"Don't worry. You'll get me next time." Grey tried to cheer him up.
"Meh."
"Why don't we go meet the girls?" Blake suggested, a little eager. He didn't let it show, but losing immediately was a little upsetting.
'''Sure.''' They all agreed.
Grey told them where the girls were, so they headed downstairs, toward the claw machines.
Once they got closer, they heard a shout.
"Dammit! I've spent 20 on this thing, how haven't I gotten it yet?"
They ran toward the sound, to see Hannah failing to latch the claw onto a plushie.
"Hannah, what's happening?" Elijah asked.
"I can't get this damn toy!" She said, shaking the claw machine.
"I see," Elijah said. "Can I try?"
"Sure." Hannah said as she paid for 5 turns.
Elijah stood before the controls of the claw machine and carefully lined up the claw and toy. Once he felt that it would work, he pressed the button.
They all watched on in silence with their breath held as the claw lowered. It opened wide, securing the plushie in its gaping maw. It retracted with the toy in tow, reaching halfway before the plushie miraculously fell out of its grasp.
"Argh. I'll try again." Elijah spoke, attempting the claw for a second time.
Grey watched all of this from beside Elijah and then turned to look at everybody else. All of them were focused on Elijah and the claw, but he saw Aurora's eyes flicker toward another claw machine.
Grey tapped Elijah on the shoulder and said that he would be just a minute.
He walked over to the other claw machine and paid for two turns.
'No one else seems to want anything, or at least they haven't shown it, So, I'll just get this.' He thought.
Grey had quickly realized from watching Elijah play that the claw machine was rigged, and he had no plans to go back on his words. He lined up the claw with one of the plushies —a black and gold teddy bear— and then pressed the button. He watched as the claw lowered itself, grasped the toy, and then raised itself back up. He felt that it would let go halfway through, even if he got it right, just like with Elijah, so he released a concentrated pulse of Space, locking the plushie in place in the mouth of the claw.
The claw continued to rise, reaching the top in a few seconds, and then moved to deposit the toy. Grey kept his control over the Space around the plushie, ensuring that it didn't fall when he heard Fallen Star.
- Grey, why are you doing this? - It asked.
'I don't know actually. But I saw Aurora look at it, and I thought that this is what a good friend would do. Besides, I can get one for mom, too.'
- Okay. Just... don't get caught, alright. - Grey was using Magic to cheat at the claw game, and if he wasn't subtle enough, he would get caught by someone who was looking.
The claw reached the end position, just over the deposit area, so Grey released the Magic he was using. The claw opened wide, dropping the black and gold teddy bear down to where Grey could collect it.
'One down, one to go.' Grey thought as he did it again, this time aiming for a blue and red teddy bear.
Just like last time, with a little Space Magic, the bear was caught securely between the claw. Even if the claw wasn't rigged to fail every time, Grey had no intention of spending more than necessary.
Ever since he turned 12, he had received pocket money monthly, but never really had use for it, so he let it sit in his bank account. Even when he did use it, he kept spending to a minimum, and he had no plans to change that. Money was handy to have, after all.
The second bear was quickly claimed by Grey, so he walked back to the group.
Once he arrived, he saw Elijah with his fists high in the air, celebrating.
"OH YEAH! I GOT IT!" Elijah hollered. He picked up the toy and passed it to Hannah, who then presented it to the girls. Blake and Darren also looked at the plushie as Hannah presented it,
"Good job mate." Var said, before going to look at the plushie. He also played the game it was from, so he wanted to hold it.
"Thanks."
Grey walked up to Elijah, a plushie in each hand, and congratulated his friend. "Good job, Elijah."
Elijah was about to thank him for the compliment but stopped when he saw the plushies in Grey's hands.
"Weren't you gone for a minute?"
"Yeah?" Grey said, confused by the question.
"Then, how did you do so well?"
"I just put the claw over the toy and clicked the button." Grey lied. He couldn't exactly say that he used Space Magic when he was a confirmed Light-Poison user.
"How many attempts did you take?"
By this point, everyone had turned away from the plushie Hannah received, to look at Elijah and Grey talking.
"Two."
"TWO!?" Hannah butt in. "How? In total, Elijah and I took," She began to count on her fingers, "37 attempts!"
Grey said to them what he said to Elijah, and then realized that he had yet to give Aurora a plushie.
"Oh, right. This is for you." He said as he handed Aurora the blue and red teddy bear. "I saw you looking at them, so I got one for you."
His words raised a few questions in the heads of everyone in the group, especially Var, but Grey didn't know that. He felt that his action was perfectly normal for a friend.
Aurora accepted the plush, her demeanor unchanging, but her eyes didn't lie. Either she had a soft spot for bears, or a soft spot for soft, cute things.
"Anyway, what's next?" He asked.
The others were still shocked that he only took two attempts, but his words shook them out of it.
"How about we get some food?" Natalie suggested.
'''Sounds good.''' They all quickly agreed, leaving the arcade, and then deciding on a place to go.
---
Aurora looked at Grey, and then at the plushie she had been given. It was her first time receiving a gift without ulterior motives from someone who wasn't family, so she was a little shocked.
She had heard Grey's reasoning too; he saw her looking at it, so he thought that as a good friend, he should get one for her. It was such simple logic, such dumb logic, something she had never heard from someone who wasn't family or a close, childhood friend, yet it made her heart warm.
She looked at the plushie.
'It's really cute.'