> Daily Team Tournament
> Map: Ruined City
> Goal: Tournament continues until only one team remains. Field Change will occur each hour of play
> Team Size: 3 (2-6)
> Prizes:
>> Last Team Standing
>> Most Kills
>> Most Survived Encounters
> Only one prize will be awarded per team.

> Starting in…
> 10...9...8...7...

We found ourselves in a field, with large, junked up mecha around to provide strategic cover and clumps of poppy bushes scattered about the tall grass. I could see two edges of the field from where we were. One edge had a row of trees in front of a huge road, while the other had several wrecked out but mostly intact buildings. The sort of structure where the glass was mostly gone and the concrete was exposed, but the bones of the building were clearly still standing strong.

“Field Change?” I hadn’t the chance to ask before the game started.

“Basically they cut the map into chunks, remove the chunks with no players in them, then put the remainder back together,” Leo explained. “Chunk size gets smaller each time they do it.”

“Oh,” I nodded. That made sense I guess? It meant the map would get smaller with time, but I guess it didn’t force you out of your hiding places right away.

“Normally you’d go on the offensive, right Laura?” Dimm asked.

She nodded. “I think we should play defense this time though. It’s a solid strat for the first couple hours and it’ll be easier for you and Tessa to defend then attack.”

“Should we go to those buildings then?” Leo looked where I was pointing.

“There will be other players over there, which sounds good to me.”

What?

“Rather than find a good spot, it’s easier to take a good one from someone else.”

I’m not sure that made sense, and Dimm looked just as confused as me...but I guess Leo would know better than us?

Whatever. Let’s head for the city!

Well, city is maybe too generous. Most of the buildings were only a few stories tall, with the occasional larger structure, often in worse repair than those around it, dispersed throughout. We mostly kept to the sidewalks, using buildings to cover us in one direction and a combination of shelled out vehicles and wild growth on the other. Of course that still left corridors where we could be seen directly ahead and behind us, broken up by only occasional obstacles.

It made it feel more like a videogame hallway, albeit one with more ways out of it than normal. The design of this space was a lot more obvious to me than the regular game world...but then again, if they had these tournaments all the time then I guess it made sense they would add more gamey elements to the level design.

It wasn’t all quiet either. We didn’t actually see any other players, but we heard the sounds of battle a few times. The report of firearms, explosions and the shouts of skills being used. And those were only the players we heard. There were plenty of weapons that could be quite silent if the user wanted...although surprisingly swords were not among them, if the number of “Cutter!” and “Slice!” attacks I heard echoing around were an indication.

That all changed when Leo stopped Dimm and I. She pointed ahead of us, across the street, to a quad of buildings, where one of the set was noticeably higher than the others. It wasn’t the tallest building around, but it was in reasonably good shape and positioned right on a corner.

We watched it for maybe a minute before I saw what Leo wanted to point out. There was another player running out of the building, away from us. They didn’t get too far, though, before an arrow sprouted in the back of their shin and they took a tumble to the ground. Fortunately for them, they fell next to some cover, blocking us, or the players in the building, from seeing them.

“Okay, here’s the plan.” I almost jumped when Leo spoke, whispering between us. “They are going to come out of their hiding spot to finish off that other player. When they do, I’ll go in and then I want you two,” she pointed at Dimm and I both, “to run for the tower. They probably have at least one teammate on lookout duty, so find them.”

She looked between us again.

“Understand?”

I nodded while Danny whispered back an affirmative.

We split up, waiting carefully for our cue. I used my Stealth skill to get just a little closer than Dimm could manage, while Leo positioned herself as near as she could get to the fallen player without exposing herself.

Two players came out, one with a big sword and armour in the front; an archer in the back, standing near the door.

Leo broke cover, running for the armoured opponent at an angle. She had a mace in one hand and some sort of gun in the other. The archer saw her first and shouted out, too late. The armoured player turned towards her, just in time to have the gun, the modified flash gun, pressed against his metallic chest. I didn’t hear the discharge, but I could see armour boy’s reaction easily enough.

The gun turned his metal suit into an oven.

He danced and screamed and tried to peel out of some of it, meanwhile Leo was getting ready to bash him over the head. I looked away then to focus on our infiltration. Arrow player was getting further away from the door now. Far enough for me to sneak in, though maybe not enough for Dimm.

Well, we had a tool for that, didn’t we.

I pulled out a bang-bang grenade and tossed it to the ground behind her, before diving for the cover of the building. I found a ruined room with a fair bit of rubble and more exposed concrete.

And no other players.

The B.B. Grenade went off and I chanced a look to wave Dimm over. I may as well haven’t bothered. I could hardly see a thing through the cloud of dust, but Dimm figured things out and was through the door in a minute.

She lightly bopped me on the head.

“Hey! What was that for…?” I whispered while rubbing my hair.

“We didn’t know if there were any players inside. Don’t be so reckless, okay?”

I nodded.

“Okay.”

Danny smiled. “Good. Now let’s get climbing.”

We took the fast but cautious approach, checking around corner before we turned them and dashing through the straight bits of the structure. There was no central stairwell that was all in one piece, so we had to zig-zag between two different staircases to get up, all the while finding no other players or even any traps. At least not any we saw or triggered.

Then we got to the top.Sure enough, there was a lookout up here. By the look of things they were some sort of thief, with knives and an outfit that screamed “I’m Stealthy!”

...Which was probably a little counter-productive, come to think of it.

Anyway! She was ready for us to come up, but she wasn’t ready for Dimm to immediately triplecast fireballs out of her rod.

And just like that, we owned the tower. Go us! A glance downward revealed that Leo had ended her own fight and she was presently standing over the injured player until…

Oh.

There it is, I guess.

I need to remember to never be on Laura’s bad side...