Final Game Book Two: Final Game, #2

By Odette C. Bell

This is it. Pavarn will show his true colors, and Chris will be forced to decide who he serves.
Stellaxia's used to fighting. She's not used to saving others. That comes when a full-scale war breaks out on the station. She must now defend the people who turned on her. But at least she's not alone. Chris rises to the occasion – this time as more than her guard.

….

Final Game follows a punchy princess and her prison guard fighting through real games to save their galaxy. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Final Game Book Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Jan 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393985723

Book preview

1

Stellaxia

Just as Pavarn shot me, I initiated the Game. Lines of glowing light intersected above me in a split second, and that’s all I needed. His bullet reached me, but by the time it tried to tear through my chest, I’d already leaped to the side and initiated a transport. I appeared 50 meters above him and 20 meters behind. He jerked his head around, but I transported again. I itched to select one of my superior weapons. I had things in my arsenal that would put even his fanciest guns to shame.

I wouldn’t do that. I selected that plain, simple level 1 sword instead. As soon as it appeared in my grip and my fingers tightened around it, I felt this pulse.

I’d sensed it before on occasion. It gave me the impression that I was transcending something. Once or twice, in the heat of battle, I’d viewed this augmented reality from another angle. That was the only way I could describe it. It felt like the Game shifted, taking up my whole world as the rest of reality fell away.

I’d described the Game before as a side realm. This was like stepping into it and forgetting the real world had ever existed in the first place.

Pavarn screamed. He jerked around and started firing in a great, wild arc that saw his sparking bullets slash across the massive arena. But his bullets weren’t just blasts of light programmed by the Game to interact with other players. They could still interact with the real world, and trust me when I say they did. Bolts smashed into the floor and ceiling, ripping chunks out of it and sending sparks scattering everywhere. As Pavarn fired on where he thought I was, ten charges ripped into the ceiling. They dug in so deep, they pulled out sparking lines of wire and conduits.

I flipped and transported once more. This time, I appeared right behind him. I slashed my sword forward. I didn’t care about my injuries. They were very much still there, and I was very much still on death’s door. A few of my ribs were broken, there was a massive gash in my brow, and blood dribbled down from my nose continually. It felt like I’d been beaten blue for a week. But my energy was back – because my purpose was.

My blade connected to Pavarn’s back. It slashed right across his unprotected shoulders. He screamed and bolted forward. He fell to his knees but then transported immediately. He appeared behind me, but I was expecting it. I spun to the side, kicked him on his jaw, flipped, transported, and appeared 10 meters above him again.

He jerked around on the spot, flailing wildly with his gun, shooting everywhere. It appeared as if he had infinite bullets. Who knew, he probably did. He would keep firing until the computer ran out of energy. Every single time he depressed his finger on the trigger of his programmed weapon, Alpha-1 relinquished its power to give every single bullet blast the energy required. The computer was now at the mercy of his whims. Sorry, it was at the mercy of the Game.

I flipped to the side again, transporting further up. Pavarn obviously wasn’t used to competing with other players who could transport too. The idiot was still looking for me on ground level. He clearly didn’t know how to float.

I’d learned how to float when I was a level 100 player. Usually you needed to be twice that to unlock the skill. For me it had just been logical. If you could transport, then of course you could float. The computer could lock onto you and selectively remove or increase your gravity field.

I felt tingles enveloping me now. I’d floated many times in many games in the past, but it had never felt this… real.

Because it was real.

That echoed in my mind as I cast my gaze down to Chris once more. He still hadn’t moved. His hand was stretched out to where I’d been. His fingers were as still as if somebody had rammed steel beams through his knuckles.

Just stay alive, you idiot, I muttered to myself as I saw another chance. I came hurtling down, using my ability to transport to speed myself up until I would’ve looked like a blazing comet streaking across the night sky.

I pushed my blade forward, and I concentrated with all my might. I forced my attention into the tip. But more than anything, I opened my mind to the power of the Game. I aligned with it.

My blade struck Pavarn. He was wearing armor – or at least an energetic form thereof that was programmed by the Game. In theory, he should be able to withstand a direct blow from this sword a million times over. But theory ended. With a scream cracking through my lips, the blade burst through his front, running him through.

Pavarn spluttered. Real blood splattered out of his mouth, down his chin, and across his arm. He had a chance to jerk his head around and stare my way. Stammering, his lips lurching wide open and flailing like hands that couldn’t grip onto their target, he tried to mutter something.

I landed beside him. I still held the hilt of my sword.

As his eyes bulged wide and blood started to dribble from the edges of his lips, I realized one thing.

I’d just all but killed him.

Defeating people in the Game was one thing.

This… this was real. I dropped the hilt of my blade and staggered back.

He grabbed it and fell down to one knee. Slowly and laboriously, he pulled his head up and stared at me. His lips opened again, and finally he said what he needed to. End the match.

Lines of light intersected above him, and the match canceled itself.

Player two has lost to player one. The defeat is considered a stage three victory. Player two will lose a quarter of their points to player one and player one will have the ability to choose two of player two’s best-rated weapons.

I’d heard voice-overs like that so many times in the past. It just melted into the background.

I stared at Pavarn as he ended the Game.

Theoretically, my sword should have disappeared from his side. It remained.

It looked real. Real enough that if I grabbed it, I wouldn’t feel some mere energetic tingle. It would be as if I was holding an actual metal sword.

As Pavarn stared down at it, fear broke through him. It shattered his expression as easily as a brick through a window. How…? The Game is over. This can’t be happening. He gripped the hilt with both hands and tried to pull it out of his side, but he was too weak. His fingers were now slicked with his own blood. They slid over the metal hilt with these squelching noises that I would never forget.

I was frozen to the spot, my hand half-open, exactly where it had been when I’d dropped my sword.

End the match, Stellaxia, Pavarn said. End it now. He spoke through bared teeth. As blood dribbled down the corner of his lips, he lost the ability to sneer anymore. He fell forward. He tried to hold himself up on his hands, but soon enough, he couldn’t. He tumbled to the side.

I just stood there, panting. Those fast inhalations quickly turned into frightened hyperventilation as my world turned upside down.

This… this was what I’d been trying to prevent.

Three years ago, I found out what the Game truly was – what it was actually capable of. Now I was seeing it with my own two eyes.

I staggered back. I stared at my hands.

End the Game, Stellaxia, Pavarn roared with the last of his strength.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that more blood was pooling beneath him. Soon enough, he’d bleed right out. Then Prince Pavarn would be dead.

I couldn’t say or do anything. The horror of three years ago came crashing down on my mind like a cruiser that had just lost all thrust. I fell down to one trembling knee.

I didn’t know what the Game was doing to prevent me from feeling my injuries, but right then and there, I reminded myself that I’d been on death’s door only a few minutes ago, too. I ran a trembling hand over my brow, then felt my broken ribs. They had not been healed. It was as if I just didn’t care about my physical state anymore – as if I had somehow transcended it.

End… the Game, Stellaxia, Pavarn stammered one last time.

I closed my eyes and clamped my hands over them.

Player one is reminded to select player two’s best weapons, the Game voiceover repeated in this dull, unaffected tone that completely ignored what had just gone on.

I went to black out. Just as I could force my mind to remain awake during most circumstances, maybe I could turn it off with the flick of a mental switch, too.

But someone wouldn’t let me.

I felt a hand descend on my shoulder. It was neither a strong grip nor a weak grip. The fingers were just… there.

I dropped my hands and turned to see Chris. I didn’t know how he was standing. His back was still smoking from where he’d been shot. His shoulders were covered in his blood. There was a crack along his visor. I could almost see his face beneath.

End the Game, Stellaxia, he said. It wasn’t a command. He certainly wasn’t screaming at me, either.

I stared at him. I finally followed his steady voice and steady grip. End… end the Game, I whispered.

Player one is reminded to select the best two weapons in player two’s arsenal.

A menu appeared in front of me. It showed all of Pavarn’s best weapons.

Just pick the top— I began. Pick his two basic swords, I changed my mind quickly.

The transaction is complete. The Game is now ended.

The light that had been filling this room disappeared as if someone had simply flicked off a switch.

It withdrew from me first, then from around Pavarn. Technically, he’d already exited the Game. But somehow I’d been keeping him in here. As soon as I logged out, the sword in his side disappeared as if it had never been.

And yet, it wasn’t a smooth transition. I thought I heard it pulling itself out of him and clattering to the ground as if it was still somehow real but we could no longer see it.

Pavarn moved. He certainly wasn’t fighting fit yet, but he was no longer impaled.

There was still blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He grabbed at his side. There was an injury there. It looked as if he honestly had been impaled. But he was wearing fancy, smart fabric. It’d moved over the hole in his side and was starting to seal it.

He didn’t push to his feet. He just stared at me in total rage. You’ll pay for this, Princess—

Chris stood above me, his hand still on my shoulder. We’ll see who pays in time.

You’ll both pay for this. You’ll both be tortured. I’ll be the one to do it. Mark my words, I—

Pavarn suddenly blacked out. Logging out of the Game had given him some kind of second wind, but in a single moment, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and it was as if his body appreciated how injured he still was. He fell to the side, still but not dead. His chest rose rhythmically. That was more than could be said for the majority of the pirates in the room. I darted my gaze to the side quickly and saw that most of them were dead – just smoking piles of armor and flesh.

The one who wasn’t was the leader. He was twitching.

I heard Chris groan. He pulled his gun from his holster, walked over to the pirate, and settled his weapon against the guy’s head.

I don’t know why, but my stomach suddenly clenched in gutwrenching fear. Don’t shoot, I stammered.

Chris jerked his head up to stare at me. Somehow that crack in his visor had grown. I could see just a slice of his expression. One eye, one side of his nose, and one angle of his carved chin. I couldn’t tell if he was suspicious of me or somehow compassionate. Why would I? He knows things we need to know.

I’m only going to give you one chance, the pirate leader said.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Chris kept his gun locked against the guy’s head.

The pirate leader looked up. Give us the princess and let us out of here. We’ll save the galaxy.

Chris let out one long, throat-shaking chuckle. Who said it’s yours to save?

I knew what he said. I saw his lips move, and I heard his words. But inside my mind, two little words were different.

I didn’t hear who said it’s yours to save – I heard Chris say who said she’s yours to save.

… I was shutting down. That ringing was back in my skull – the kind that sounded as if I had been filled with cacophonous church bells. While I was on my knees, that was a complete fluke. I suddenly had no balance, no strength, no anything. It was like someone had squeezed my muscles dry of every drop of energy they had.

Without a single word or a single warning, I fell to the side. I blacked out. I didn’t have an elastic consciousness this time. I fell into the open arms of nothingness.

I questioned if I would ever wake. It would be better for me if I did not.

2

Chris Armstrong

I jerked to the side as Stellaxia fell. I went to thrust toward her to check that she was okay, but that would be when the pirate leader slowly brought up a hand and clamped it on my wrist. It wasn’t the one that was holding the gun to his head, but it was still an unacceptable move from a prisoner.

I immediately wrenched my wrist back. Don’t get any ideas.

If you want to live through this, you need to start thinking.

I will live through this.

"You sure? What just