Match One: Team Slayer
Canterlot, Mt. Canterhorn War Games Complex

Luna stood alongside the Master Chief, the Wolf Guard, Trixie, Johnson, and Ruman in the middle of the roughly circular cavern Ruman had described, and for the umpteenth time her awe was in clear demonstration. The space inside the mountain had to be well over two hundred meters in diameter.

The cavern was lit both by lights and by the sun, which shone in refracted rays through the wall of water that spilled down from Old Town in front of the cavern’s opening to the outside. The golden light and water in turn caused the few remaining crystals lining the walls, floors and ceiling to glisten in their various colours and hues.

Beside the natural formations, the cavern was also host to a wall of metal and glass through which Luna’s group had entered from facing the outside opening.

It was there that Luna chose a set of weapons from the small facility that housed an onsite armoury which supplemented Ruman’s operation located several stories above, the control room, and utilities access points for the simulation, and even break room and spectator areas.

In the armoury, Luna went for what was most familiar as the others each chose their respective weapon loadout or readied and inspected the arms they had already brought. She trusted the weapons she had already seen in action and decided that she would test out the strange new weapons from the various species’ arsenals as time allowed.

Cortana had awoken again right in the early stages of the princess’ weapon browsing, offering information regarding each weapon in a similar manner to how she’d done so a few days ago back in the Aett. Luna’s first selection was one that Cortana recognised instantly and that Luna had selected with enthusiasm.

“The Chief’s primary weapon!” Luna enthused.

“On most occasions,” the Spartan informed her as Chief met Luna’s smile with a slightly warm nod before going for and inspecting a Kig-Yar-modified Covenant plasma rifle. “Not that I don’t mind mixing things up a little.”

“Misriah Armories MA5C assault rifle, a standard issue service rifle in the UNSC Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the Grittish Royal Navy and Griffonian Armed Forces to name a few more,” Cortana informed her. “Quite a bit of stopping power, but not as much as the MA5B variant of the series. It’s a general improvement over the latter nevertheless.”

“I can’t believe I have yet to visit this War Games complex before! It’s on my list now for next shore leave. And stopping power? I got your stopping power right here!” Johnson interposed as he holstered a magnum pistol. “M6D has the most ‘bip, bap, bam!’ of any ballistic sidearm here.”

“You are a ballistic sidearm,” Trixie tossed at him from across the room. “Trixie doubts even the trilinear bright energy shielding that envelopes and underpins the simulation map boundaries could withstand such sheer, raw firepower.”

“Oh, I smell something in the air,” Solvi had interjected as the rest of her compatriots largely spent their time scrutinising their allies’ weaponry of choice, winking at the Spartan-III before smirking at Trixie. “Better move your cushy ass on him before I decide that he’s better for the pack, blue one.”

Trixie’s flusterdness widened the grin that Johnson had already possessed. “Trixie’s insult was not intended to be delivered in that manner, she was simply making fun … ugh! I … Trixie has weapons to peruse.”

“Be stopping power a virtue, Johnson?” Luna inquired, impishly. “Perhaps methinks, but not a universal one. And this one, Cortana, I saw Equestria’s legionaries have frequently in hoof and hand,” Luna said as she levitated the white barrel and stock of a bright rifle in front of her.

“That would be the MM-1 Precision Bright Rifle, Manehattan Munition’s signature main production weapon for the past fifty years and standard issue for the Imperial Legion since its foundation.”

“Two rifles, one of rapid fire and the other singular fire for intermediate range precision … how the arquebusiers and musketeers of my day would envy us now,” Luna mused before she and Cortana had ventured from the War Games station and out into the cavern to join the others who were already ready and waiting for her to join them on the practice field.

Now in the present, having appraised her surroundings, Luna waited for the cues to begin and readied herself for the war signal to announce the start of the battle as did her companions. From the elevated spectator decks, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, a few War Games personnel and Royal Guards, as well as Russ and Bjorn all patiently waited for the combat to begin.

“Behold one, behold all, the Games Master appeareth!”

A Smart AI’s avatar, Canterhorn War Game Complex’s custodian, appeared before the combatants in the form of a life-sized adult human male in his late twenties with blue-green eyes and cleanly cut dark brown hair as shown through holographic view screens that dominated the ceilings facing both arena and spectator stands.

The AI’s kempt hair stood juxtaposed to the urban casual wear he wore under a set of irregular ballistics armour dotted with small glowing components that implied a slight energy shielding capacity. Said armour had been decorated with multihued graffiti, Waypoint symbols and jargon ineffable to the likes of Luna, and a stylized white 1.1 was hand-painted on the chest piece.

The digitized newcomer was facing the opening of the training cavern whilst rubbing at his chin thoughtfully and had yet to regard the soon to be combatants. “Welcome to Canterhorn’s War Games simulation, everyone, I’m Bellicose the Gamesmaster to all newcomers. How goes it?”

“It goes well, Bellicose,” Luna greeted. “I see I get to meet another of Cortana’s kind. ‘Tis a pleasure.”

Bellicose did a double take as his avatar finally turned to face them with a look of pure shock as he recognised most of the combatants instantly, the only speech he emitted amounting to what sounded like a nonsensical ‘blargh’.

“Princess Luna, this humble mortal digital intelligence welcomes your regal presence in this facility!” Bellicose gave a play actor-like bow before continuing to stare in amazement. “And your companions … there is not enough ‘yes’ or devotion I can offer to suitably welcome such titans.”

“Your warm greeting is plenty sufficient,” Luna assured him with a chuckle.

“1.1?” Johnson asked as he inspected Bellicose’ attire. “I’ve heard about those quasi-Spartans bumbling around the colonies, getting into skirmishes with the Split-Chins. May be paramilitary, but power to ‘em I say. I recognise who you’re based off, Bellicose, but can’t remember the particular 1.1 guy’s name at the moment.”

Bellicose simply grinned at him, still processing his presence as well as that of the others despite his actual processing power as an artificial intelligence.

Trixie snorted. “Bellicose, you’re still Gamesmaster for Canterhorn? I thought you were nearing the end of your seven year lifespan? Trixie suspects a magical countermeasure, or has your flesh and blood counterpart in the 1.1 pulled strings in public sources and asked the Empress to make more of you?”

“My progenitor may be a 1.1 vigilante and or mercenary, but this Bellicose is 2.0, wahey!”

“I sincerely hope you are an exaggeration of your human progenitor’s humour and more eccentric mannerisms, and not a completely perfect imprint,” Cortana greeted, her violet avatar appearing with her arms crossed analytically on Luna’s hoof. “I know a few others of our kind that are … and it produces some rather surreal scenarios wherever they are stationed.”

“Haha, more or less. And … that armour on your Capricorn companions. Distinguished warriors of Fenris, I have to say, this is the first time I have seen Capricorns of your specific appearance and bearing, in here or well, anywhere.”

“Can’t say the same about you, little AI,” Calder replied nonchalantly, not even really looking at Bellicose. No other words were said, leaving the implications hanging in the air.

Bellicose shifted from amusement to an intensely stern and professional gaze as he folded his arms behind his back. “Now, I anticipate that you’re all ready to begin?”

“Verily!” came Luna’s immediate response.

“Right-o! Now, a brief but verbose explanation of how War Games works for those who are unfamiliar,” Bellicose said, much to the groaning of those were the most eager of the team to jump straight into the thrill and adrenaline of a firefight.

“You are not physically present in the simulations in a true sense, your actual bodies and present equipment are phased into micro-transdimensional bubbles that conform to your exact shape until they deposit you neatly back into our world at the end of the match.”

“Hold on … which dimension?” Johnson asked with wary interest.

“Elsewhere! The wackiest plane of existence known to ponykind and the alleged home of the Draconequii. Slipspace is incredibly hazardous for that and communication would be impossible for the simulation,” Bellicose explained as he moved to redundantly brush dust off his armoured outfit.

Luna seemed skeptical for only a moment as she parsed the gamesmaster’s words. “We will temporarily be where from whom Discord hails? I would be wary of that were it not for knowledge first hoof of just how shockingly hospitable the realm of Elsewhere can truly be.”

“Yes, Your Highness! You see, what happens is that holography operates alongside powerful magic of the illusion and alteration schools and projects the map set around you, while the ground of the cavern and other tangible assets transmute to meet the exact geometry of the location while weapons, vehicles, and other materiel are simply teleported in.”

Bellicose continued, clearly enjoying himself as he broke down the general workings of the operation he oversaw.

“Cutting edge holo-drone avatars represent where you would be in physical space. Your movements in our secured corner of Elsewhere space are the exact movements of those holo-drones, whilst Illusion magic takes care of the rest. Spells feed sensory data across the planes of reality to you in real time. They will make you feel false pain when your avatar is hurt, it will ring your ears when an explosion detonates, your holo-drone will die and you will be deposited by the bubble out of the simulation if ‘you’ are, say, dismembered or pass out from loss of blood … insert the rest of the gritty details here …” Bellicose coughed awkwardly.

“How do spectators observe the matches?” the Master Chief asked.

“Augmented reality, otherwise all that would be seen is the physical warping of the cavern’s structure. Oh, and before I forget, you will not notice the shift in reality on your bodies at all. That’s how natural it feels! Now, because randomness is a virtue, it gets first pick for map selection.” Bellicose paused and tapped on his armour as he gazed at the ceiling expectantly. “And we’re going with War Games Map Set 701-5, ‘Coagulation.’ A favourite of mine as chance would have it, although I do prefer the ‘Blood Gulch’ title myself. I now give over the stage to our beloved announcer as our first map begins to take form!”

Bellicose vanished with a wink. Then, a vast and arid gulch of sparse grass and conifers that contained a small concrete circular fortification near them as well as an identical one on the far side materialised up into existence in the cavern. It was even replete with a simulated violet and almost cloudless dusk sky, Selene clearly visible high above.

The War Games announcer’s voice chimed in, with a competitive and mildly belligerent tone to their speech to signal the start of the game. “Team Slayer. One team detected, adjusting virtual enemy combatants.”

“Right-o, there you go, Mr. Announcer,” Bellicose approved through the PA system in the cavern’s ceiling.

“Wipe out the enemy team, fifteen minutes to win.”

Weapons were cocked and readied as a holographic display ticked down to zero in the air above them with a distinctive beep. Those with the best vision of the group, Luna included, could see distinctly alien, slender bipedal shapes winking in from the digital aether, holding weapons in their hands as still larger armoured shapes materialised behind them.

“Match start! Skulls on!” the announcer proclaimed.

“I see vehicles,” Luna called out to all rapidly as she deftly gestured a hoof in various directions. “Those who prefer them, mount up! The rest, form up with me into the bunker; we shall use its battlements to scope out our opposition.”

“Understood. Time to give em’ hell! Hog can hold three, so if we have any takers, follow me!” Johnson urged.

Ran wordlessly approached, her eyes conveying her intent so that no words were needed.

Johnson nodded to the Capricorn as Ruman stepped forward to join her with an affirmative expression. As Johnson broke into a sprint, the much bulkier Ran Deadmoon and Ruman also made their beelines for the nearest Warthog.

Ruman stowed his Tayrisian gatling rifle long enough to hop into the passenger’s seat before bringing it to bear once more. Meanwhile, Ran hopped onto the gunnery platform on the back of the vehicle to take control of the much larger Vulcan rotary cannon, nearly ripping it from its mount.

Obviously evident, Concordat vehicles were indeed situated around the three-level circular bunker. Included was a UNSC Hornet attack craft in the basement level that was seen through a three meter-wide opening in the floor that also ran through to the roof as the Wolf Guard, Luna, Chief, and Trixie meanwhile all advanced to the interior of the bunker’s second level.

Many of the Capricorns’ heads were just mere centimeters shy of touching the ceiling as the thundering main body of Luna’s diverse team came to a brief halt inside.

“The previous and first time she participated in the Royal Guard War Games, Trixie had discovered that the matches dubbed ‘Slayer’ and ‘Team Slayer’ are not exactly the same as in other War Games programs, and were completely random in what type of enemies it sent us, and not all of them were even Covenant … With approval, Trixie shall go up top to pick off the enemy from afar, Luna,” the unicorn said.

Luna inclined her head. “Very well. Emil, that mechanical eye upon your visage, its vision is augmented over a natural one, correct?” Emil nodded and hummed affirmatively. “Most opportune! Calder, can you spare Emil to be our scout of the enemy’s strength?”
“That we can,” came Calder’s reply. “Go on, Emil. I’m sure the blue one could also use a spotting eye as well.”

The report of a rotary cannon’s fire from Johnson and Ruman’s Warthog could be heard outside, alongside a sharp ‘krshaw’ from what could only have been a plasma mortar launching its destructive ordinance. A blue streak whistled over the bunker and based on its sound and accompanying vibration, the mortar impacted the rocks at the rear of the gulch behind them.

Trixie galloped and Emil quickly sprinted out of Luna’s sight as the weapons fire began, the former with a scoped Equestrian rifle longer and more slender than Legion bright rifles that the mare had colloquially dubbed the ‘brightsnipe’. While they stormed off to their new post, the Chief said, “Wraiths … Calder, can some of you take out that armour while the rest of us focus on the infantry?”

Calder grinned, looking almost maniacal with the way he looked before charging off, his legs carrying him faster than what should have been possible in the amount of armour he wore. Solvi and the ever collected Uffe followed close behind.

“Emil, what do you see?” Calder asked of the Capricorn perched above them, before dropping out of auditory range and entering the team’s local radio channel. “However many wraiths there are, Johnson and the weaponsmith will be useful in harassing the armour and the Hunters while we close the gap to them.”

Now on the radio as well, Emil answered with, “Something akin to a threat. I’m stealing glances on twenty Elites …”

“Zealots based on the armour colours, assuming the wraith tank pilots are Sangheili,” Trixie interjected.

“A lance of Unggoy gunners,” Emil continued. “Two lances of special operations Unggoy, at least four wraiths, two hunter pairs providing combat support, and some form of Covenant I have yet to familiarize myself with …”

“Oh wonderful …” Trixie sighed.

“What is it?” Luna pressed, eyes alight with anticipation as they all began moving outside at a wave of her hoof.

“It’s a …” Trixie’s voice held not even the tiniest of candles to the sheer volume of the spontaneous bellowing emitting from a being that was close by.

“Drinnnnnolllll!”

It ceased as soon as it had begun, to be replaced by a few auditory grumbles from the same source as well as the constant pattering of weapons fire. The new voice had carried clean over from the other side of the gulch where the Covenant were already engaging first the Warthog and then Calder and his companions.

“It’s a ... that, yeah. Drinol. Wonderful!” Trixie griped. “You all better be quick, Trixie has a feeling this hulk could wreck the entire match for us if underestimated. Trixie is going for the Hornet. But first ...”

A flash of linear gold erupted from the team’s bunker as Trixie fired a bright round that pierced clean through shielding, before going through the musculature and bone of an enemy’s neck. The sole Zealot wielding a Covenant beam rifle that Trixie had spotted then promptly toppled down like a felled tree, his impact wound still smoking.

“What’s the frakking fuss about? I’ve slain beats ten times this size!” Krom exclaimed with minor derision over the comms.

“We shall deal with this new threat with all necessary caution,” Luna said as her immediate comrades began opening fire with their longer ranged weapons, as they exchanged fire with the approaching Covenant.

Exchanging shots continuing across low hills and grassy prairie by both sides, and as they carried on, Luna gazed across the sweeping ravine. She beheld the sight of a lumbering beast, restrained by gravitational devices and supervised by one of the Mgalekgolo pairs that looked almost puny by comparison. The coinciding event of the team’s Hornet taking to the sky went almost entirely unregistered by Luna as she sized up the new hostile.

The Drinol was clad in partial dull grey armour covered in Covenant symbols over brimming grey musculature. Its head and face was concealed by a cyclopean helmet and its boulder-sized fists topped by spiked gauntlets that the Master Chief reckoned could rend through an armoured fighting vehicle with ease.

Despite the size comparison and the ensuing chaos of battle unfolding in full, the Hunters managed to keep the flailing beast under control for the time being via a tight grasp on the Drinol’s gravitic bonds.

“What, pray tell, in the name of fairest Equestria is a Drinol?” Luna asked, narrowing her eyes at the sight of the Covenant-controlled beast.

Cortana was quick to respond with, “The Covenant call them Sharquoi in the Sangheili language. We’ve only seen three such confirmed examples of them in the whole war, and two of the three encounters were literally crushing terrestrial defeats.”

Luna levitated and fired her bright rifle while priming a destruction spell as she rapidly processed the information, cutting down the nearest Covenant. “‘Crushing?’ Clever, even in the immediate face of danger.”

“See? You’re starting to get the hang of me,” Cortana replied with a hint of playfulness. “Intelligence has revealed that they’re a territorial and warlike species the rest of the Covenant keeps in fury-inducing captivity until the very moment of deployment. Heads up by the way, a lance is nearing!”

Simulated Spec Ops grunts were already advancing with zealous fervour towards the bunker in scores.

Most remaining Zealot leaders had elected to hang back, manning a number of shade turrets or positioning themselves on the bunker roof and ridges with their heavier weaponry in an attempt to stop the ensuing decimation of their Wraiths at the hands of the Wolf Guard, to little avail.

Luna wondered if the Zealots were distancing themselves as well to avoid the Drinol, which could be let loose at any moment. The second Hunter pair had already moved to support the Wraiths, while the Drinol’s handlers appeared to waiting for the proper time to unleash their living weapon before joining the fray as well.

The first of what had turned out to be six wraiths was permanently put out of digital commission as Calder, charging forward with a warcry, leapt onto the pilot canopy of the tank and bisected the gunner in one stroke of his personal power axe. Immediately, he followed up by tearing through the canopy hatch and leaving behind a fragmentation grenade inside for the enraged pilot.

Another Wraith was devastated by the missile salvo of Trixie’s Hornet before the mare began focusing the light VTOL’s autocannons on the hunter pair currently engaged in the fighting.

“There ya are, heretic devils!” one of the Grunts belted out at the closest of the enemy team as he discharged his plasma rifle rapidly and furiously, his targets dodging them almost artfully with only a few bolts of plasma hitting their mark and scorching outer layers of ceramite. “Prepare to be smashed by the might of my gruntiness, for I …”

The Unggoy’s taunt was silenced with a yelp turned-groan as a gauntleted punch from Calder sent him flying across the remainder of the gulch, slamming into the wall of the Covenant-held bunker and shattering his methane tank as a second Grunt joined him further down the wall from a punch courtesy of the Master Chief.

Both punches prompted the near-instantaneous teleportation of assorted grenade types where the Unggoy had previously stood only moments before.

Some of the Wolf Guard picked them up readily, and subsequently Chief and Solvi used a plasma grenade and a krak grenade in unison to destroy a wraith that had attempted to ram them. The core of the plasma mortar erupted in a sizeable superheated inferno that the Master Chief did not recall exploding wraiths being capable of.

Several other Grunts were mowed down by weapons fire as the wraiths numbers continued to shrink one by one. A few of the stocky aliens received headshots, their skulls popping into confetti in a surreal show before the fatalities flickered out of the simulation.

“What curious buffoonery,” Luna remarked to her comrades as she pummeled an Unggoy into the ground with her forelegs whilst finishing off a now unshielded Zealot with her aura-held assault rifle that had decided to attack up close. “What would be the cause of this, Cortana?”

“I believe it was the ‘skulls’ the announcer mentioned,” Cortana theorized.

“Yes, it is the skulls!” Bellicose interjected with excitement. “Anger, Cowbell, Feather, I Would Have Been Your Daddy, Piñata, and Boom!”

“Who devises these … Such an amazing yet strange era this is,” Luna chuckled at the nonsensical names.

With her immediate hostiles dispatched, Luna turned her head as Cortana gave out a warning. “Luna … the Dr–”

“Drinnnoollll!”

Cortana’s voice grew wary, almost anxious-like as the name reverberated throughout the entire simulation boundaries. “The big guy is running loose now, this battle just got a little bigger …”

“Let Havrom handle the Drinol, he’ll take it down faster than the rest of us combined. Just give him the space to move,” Dagmar reassured.

Johnson’s warthog had succeeded in outmanoeuvring a fourth wraith and withstood a near hit from its mortar round just after Uffe and Solvi teamed up against another Mgalekgolo. The gunner had been dispatched by Ruman while Ran tore through the wraith’s rear power core with the light anti-aircraft gun, finishing the tank off just as the raging Covenant beast began thundering towards them with speeds that rivaled that of the UNSC vehicle.

Unrelenting, the Drinol did not hesitate to pulverise the fifth Wraith which had foolishly crossed its path to the once again moving Warthog, the mass of the tank doing little to slow it as it kicked up more dust than any of the other vehicles combined. The Wraith’s metallic polymer plating proved no match for the beast’s knuckle spikes that were bigger than an average stallion.

“Rage … Drinol crush every no-Drinol!” the alien bellowed, smashing through one of the previously destroyed Wraiths to change his course to match the Warthog’s.

“Big hulking dumbass,” Johnson said over his radio with a wary tone.

“Luna, Johnson, Trixie cannot support you three from above. She must deploy her remaining ammunition against the shade turrets before they punish Trixie for trying to be a pegasi,” Trixie informed them.

It was then that the final active hostile Wraith in the gulch fell to Krom Morkai, who commandeered the vehicle directly and wasted no time in turning its mortar against the remaining Covenant with much greater ferocity than the tank’s previous owner.

“Proceed, Trixie,” Luna responded as she and the Master Chief joined the Calder and the rest of their comrades behind the burning smoking wrecks of the wraiths. “Calder, we shall focus on the Sangheili and remaining Unggoy and Mgalekgolo. With the Drinol out of the way, the rest are easily dealt with.”

“Indeed,” Calder replied before adding in one last thing. “Havrom, the beast is all yours.”

Havrom took no delay in readying his stance as he sized up and analyzed the full mass of the Covenant beast. The Drinol was coming about to face Havrom’s direction as Johnson’s warthog passed by the group, the sergeant himself having heard the decided approach via radio.

While its opponent scrutinised it, all the Drinol had concluded in its simpler mind was that the being before it was smaller, and therefore was clear to be smashed without much repercussion.

“No-Drinol, Drinol smash!” the creature roared as it charged towards the waiting Fang, double-bladed axe in hand and more than prepared for the approaching mass of muscle and bone.

With surprising speed for its bulk, the Drinol brought its spiked knuckles down towards the target in what would have been an immediately devastating blow on most targets, but with equivalent speed, the blow connected with the adamantium of Havrom’s axe.

Metal rang sharply around the area from the collision. The stallion barely even so much as flinched a millimeter or two against the force as the giant paused just long enough to register surprise on its cyclopean face.

A few heartbeats passed before, with another roar, the Drinol resumed and brought down a salvo of three successive blows. Each were met with the axe, and Havrom gave no true indication of being winded by any of them.

When the next blow came, separate from the previous chain attack and with increased anger in its delivery, it was then that Havrom swapped out his tactics and completely dodged it, sidestepping and giving the Drinol a considerably wide berth. A gust of air was generated by the swing and waved through his mohawk as well as reaching some of the others, triggering Luna to briefly give the designers of the simulation a mental applause at their attention to detail before resuming her focus.

Havrom, having regained his distance from his foe, stared the glowering Drinol down again in his battle ready pose with a clear visual indication that fight could likely carry on this such fashion for a long time yet.

“Oh for … stop playing with your food already, Havrom,” Erik laughed over the comms. Havrom didn’t reply, instead his grin just grew even wider.

This time with a low growl, the Drinol charged again, the spikes of its right fist aloft for another downward strike. Once again, the blow was easily dodged with an immediate duck. But this time, instead of using the dodge to regain distance like the previous time, Havrom emerged from the partial crouch stance and used his newly mounting momentum to bring his axe clean through the thick hide of the Drinol’s left leg.

Such a precise stroke had cleaved through more than a few major muscles and circulatory vessels. The enraged Covenant was rapidly forming a pool of violet in the dirt and grass beneath it as it recoiled. Havrom navigated around its flailing mass in a manner almost akin to a dancer before the Drinol loudly brought down a retaliatory strike that trembled the ground and saw the spikes of its right fist temporarily embedded in the now torn up terrain.

To the Drinol’s semi-comprehension, it had in its effort to counterattack doomed its own limb. Havrom seized the window of attack now as wide as a hangar opening and brought his axe down onto the arm, cleaving it off close to the Drinol’s shoulder and triggering one of the loudest vocalisations it had yet made.

Havrom’s eyes glistened with satisfaction to accompany his grin as the Drinol began to groan, using its remaining arm to prop itself up, staring at the now soaked ground as its mortal wounds quickly worked to take their toll. The alien monster’s fate was now clearly sealed.

With a triumphant howl, Havrom hefted his axe up and brought it down one final time. The blade made sharp contact with the helmet protecting the Drinol’s already dense skull and head plating. Despite the metallic ringing, the blow had not been the least bit impeded by the layering, and Havrom’s axe head was now buried a few centimeters into the Drinol’s skull.

Havrom twisted the axe diagonally to free his weapon, splitting the skull with a meaty squelch and a distinct crack before retrieving it in full and proceeding to wipe the blood from the axehead clean. No sooner had the axe been freed did the Drinol at last toppled over with finality, its remains dematerialising from the simulation soon after.

Seconds later, the last of the Zealots were massacred as Krom obliterated the final shade turret with a mortar round, the Chief stuck an Elite with a plasma grenade, and Luna took down what must have been the Zealot commander as his attempt to draw an energy sword upon her, which resulted in a brief scuffle and the very same blade being driven through one of the Sangheili’s hearts.

As the last of the Covenant crumpled to the ground, the announcer’s voice rang through the gulch this time, rather than that of a rampaging alien beast. “Match over. Victory!”

The team began to gather in the foreground of the formerly Covenant-held bunker as bodies and wrecked battle equipment began to wink out of existence regularly.

“As if there were any other possible outcome,” Trixie remarked upon exited from her Hornet with a huff.

“An amazing exercise to be sure,” Luna added.

It was then that Bellicose appeared once more, clapping enthusiastically. “Those simulations stood not a chance in Tartarus. The GSC has its champions right here, that’s beyond a doubt. But hey, War Games is typically a three-round gig. Would you all be interested in another two bouts?”

The looks on the warriors’ faces, the Chief included for he had removed his helmet, was all the answer Bellicose needed, although Luna provided the de facto clincher.

“We still have time before the Gala; it is occurring late tonight which leaves the whole day free, afterall,” Luna reasoned.

“Map Set deactivating in fifteen seconds,” the announcer informed the entire facility.

Bellicose grinned to them. “Match Two it is, then. I have just the map in mind. It consists of highly classified material, mind you, but technically as of tonight you will be the second most powerful mare on the planet politically speaking … so that should be of no concern.”

Match Two: Horde
Mt. Canterhorn War Games Complex, Classified Map Set

Luna and her team had been offered time before starting the next match to rearm and inspect armour, restock on ammunition, and swap weapons if so desired. They promptly capitalised on the opportunity, but did not spend much time and were once more ready for battle as they reemerged into the expanse of the great waterfall-dominated cavern.

“This map will take a wee bit to fully load into the simulation. It’s one of the bigger ones in our database, but for good reason. You’ll see,” Bellicose stated cryptically.

Once more the cavern promptly gave way to the almost ghost-like holographic and magical visual fields of the simulation.

An unfamiliar coastal city of parks, marble, rotundas, steeples, high rises, and bronze and copper-topped roofs that had largely given way to a fine aged green emerged into being around everyone as they found themselves in the middle of a tree-shaded and stone paved plaza. From the view of the plaza it would appear they were situated atop a hill towards the heart of the city. A sizeable harbour with dozens of piers and smaller docks laden with vessels were visible. The mostly cloudless sky was orange and pink from the late sunset, and at least two moons were visible amongst the stars in the approaching night sky.

Unlike the previous map, Blood Gulch, this map was far more active in its distant surroundings. Evidence of battle could be seen, including the distant patter of gunfire and detonations, faint shouting and war cries, columns of smoke rising from several buildings, as well as many of the barricaded or sandbagged thoroughfares and alleyways that bordered the plaza.

Propaganda posters depicting what could possibly be humans in foreign, heavy modern cyan armour riddled some of the walls of the otherwise stately buildings just as much as bullet holes and scorch marks. More strangely, the sky was populated not just by panicked seabirds but also by Covenant Banshees and strange flying beasts sparring against a kind of rotorcraft supported by GSC aircraft and aerial infantry.

Two starships were also present above the city as if to finish the backdrop. The ominous, illuminated silhouette of a Covenant Assault Carrier loomed near a bank of clouds in the eastern sky. Juxtaposed to it was the readily visible, vast hull of a ship that was the exact twin of the ENV Divinity. ENV Apotheosis was emblazoned on its visible starboard side, and the supercarrier was currently in the process of lowering via levitation from one of its ventral bays a seagoing battleship into the harbour below where a naval portion of the unidentified battle was unfolding, its own point-defense cannons firing at the enemy air units as well as at ground targets.

“Horde. Defend your position against the enemy for thirty minutes to win.”

The presently quiet plaza, compared to the rest of the alien city, was within moments filled with the sounds of readied weapons and armoured foot and hoofsteps as the position’s surroundings were assessed and available fortifications were manned. Heavy bolters and one bipod-bearing bright repeater Trixie had brought were also deployed.

“This … architecture almost reminds me of some towns on Tayros’ border with Nimbus,” Ruman remarked as he spun the barrels of his gatling rifle inside their frame whilst surveying the area. “I would be homesick in more peaceful circumstances.”

“Me and the Earth sometimes, my man. Me and the Earth,” Johnson chuckled.

“Am I the only one with so many questions about this particular simulation right now?” Cortana asked as she appeared on the shoulders of a wary and analytical Luna.

“Mine may yet outnumber yours by scores, but they are all to be explored and answered at a more convenient time!” Luna responded.

Cortana folded her arms with a nod, winking back into her chip safely stowed in Luna’s armour satchel. “Silly me. I have a tendency to get curious and investigative when the booms and bangs are about to begin.”

“Boom!” exclaimed a baritone voice from vaguely in the direction of the harbour to the west, the sound being carried towards them by the narrow streets and alleyways, accompanied by a string of unintelligible grumbling and roars from higher pitched, incredibly coarse and grating voices.

“What the hell?” Johnson said. “Another Drinol or something?”

“Something tells me we should be prepared for a creature of comparable mass if anything,” Luna cautioned, to which Havrom’s smile only widened.

From first the alleyways then the main thoroughfare that connected to the plaza, there was a sudden eruption of clouds of an odd ink-like substance, which as a result, completely obscured the view of what lay beyond while the barricades they had enveloped could be heard being blasted and torn apart.

By the time the barricades that had supposedly been left by the simulation’s backdrop natives had been destroyed, the unruly and warlike grumbling had silenced completely, to be replaced by a distinct sound of ticking as something spindly and pointly must have been hitting the stonework in rapid succession.

“We’ve got company,” the Chief stated, aiming down his assault rifle’s sights.

It was then that a shrill shriek filled the air as over a dozen rodent-like shapes the size of large dogs darted out from the obstructive ink clouds on needle-like legs, now the obvious sources of the ticking sounds.

They were targeting the team with intent as their directions were unmistakeable. Even with the rapid scampering it was evident that the cylindrical objects on their harness-laden backs were actually explosives, thus confirmed when a combination of bolter rounds, bullets, and brightmatter opened up on them.

“This is the first part of the so-called horde? Living landmines? I don’t even …” Johnson shook his head as he kept firing.

The chorus of alien war cries returned from the same direction in which the suicide bombing rodents came from as well as from behind everyone to the east as well, joined also by the recurring utterance of the word ‘boom!’ The broken Equestrian and English became increasingly audible.

“Groundwalkers … all, die!”

“Advancing!”

Most commonly heard was, “For the Horde!” which was chanted in constant repetition by what had to be dozens of voices. The constant chanting prompted Krom, Emil, and Viveka to man the heavy bolters they had been given.

More of the bomb-bearing alien rodents emerged in a steady number, constantly detonating under the weapons fire as the first of the apparent bulk of the enemy horde arrived in person.

Squad after squad of humanoids in pitch-black armour adorned with glowing red lights and brandishing bulky rifles streamed in from the two sides of the plaza with no signs of slowing down, taking cover and firing heavy munitions in semiautomatic and burst modes in way that somewhat reminded the Fangs of their preferred shooting strategy, to which they responded with firing back at the advancing enemy using their own firearms.

The ‘Horde’ humanoids came in several discernable varieties, but the most common trait of the humanoid enemy as a whole was that they appeared distinctly reptilian with beady eyes often covered by goggles and a face dominated by permanent sneers due to a lack of lips and most other soft exterior tissues. They rivaled the Master Chief and Johnson in height but were much greater in mass and were still dwarfed by the Wolf Guard in their power armour.

Humanoids with the baritone voices lumbered into the battle behind them as their smaller compatriots were being mowed down, still nevertheless gaining centimeter after centimeter of ground as they slowly advanced with apparent single mindedness for their targets.

“Boom!” the nearest giant exclaimed with a voice that indicated its possession of all the wisdom of a boulder as it hefted its massive grenade launcher at the hip.

The giant’s grenade arced over Luna’s forces and shattered a tree on the north side of the plaza. The ‘boom’ giant’s attack was rewarded by a concentration of fire from both Trixie and Krom that tore through his thick scaly hide and layers of fat rapidly. The beast never stopped approaching despite the mortal wounds being inflicted, and its angered grunts did not stop until it finally collapsed with a heavy thud and a drawn out groan. Many of its brethren were meeting and would soon meet similar fates.

“We thought the Drinol was stupid? It clearly has a rival,” Trixie huffed as she vented some of the excess heat from the bright repeater before resuming firing upon another target only to quickly be interrupted.

One of the alien insect-like rodents had managed to come within range of Trixie and thrashed in preparation to trigger its bomb. The mare yelped as she gave the creature a fierce kick with her hind leg, sending it up into the air towards the approaching humanoids before Krom, bellowing his laughter, promptly detonated the creature with a single heavy bolter burst just as it landed near a sizeable clump of the Horde’s standard infantry. The explosion sent the creatures and their equipment splattering across the stonework and several of their fellows.

Other nearby rodents’ bomb packs were also triggered in a symphony of detonations that caused the humanoids’ roars to heighten in volume. Despite the buildup of bodies on the part of the humanoids, they continued to slowly gain ground until they would seemingly form a new barrier composed solely of deceased soldiers around the plaza steps.

“That’s it? I can see why Russ didn't want to participate,” Solvi muttered over the comms, sounding rather sad.

“Be wary, as said by Russ ‘Those awaiting an enemy will never know when they stop,’” Calder replied.

“‘So we must change the roles and take the fight to them,’” the rest of the Wolf Guard intoned.

With building howls and warcries to match that of the still advancing Horde, the Wolf Guard all drew their melee weapons and close quarters firearms as they rose up from the team’s position and charged both to the east and west. Luna and the others adjusted their positions accordingly, some of them waiting for their own openings to potentially join in the soon to be close quarters fray.

“So much for holding just one position,” Johnson chuckled as he fired.

Luna watched as the Capricorns continued to advance as attentively as she could while raining gunfire and various offensive spells onto the enemy.

In apparent response to the counteroffensive, a high, shrill voice that sounded like the gale of an encroaching thunderstorm from the ocean shouted from amongst the Horde’s cacophony of voices.

“Succumb!”

Chanting and growls in the Horde reached a new volume. To the surprise of some amongst the team, a low rumbling began across the entire district of the city as the streets began to splinter in various lines, the tremors and shaking of a miniature earthquake as the simulated ground gave way in the rapidly shrinking no man’s land between Horde and charging Wolf Guard.

“How is it that the War Games simulator is able to simulate the very instability of the ground beneath us?” Luna wondered out loud, standing up and firing two bright pistols in her forelegs almost like an old time unicorn aristocrat in a duel while using her destruction magic to vaporize several of the humanoids with lightning.

“The floor of the cavern has several levels below it for such things,” Trixie answered in between bursts of fire. “Bellicose can tell you more later!”

Sinkholes took form as the plaza continued to endure the trembling. Their bottoms were shrouded from view both by depth and by an omnipresent green mist that was nearly as thick as the ink clouds the humanoids were still charging in from. Grappling hooks and massive fists appeared at the rims of these sinkholes, their occupants emerging in entire squad sizes as more of the Horde’s soldiers emerged from them.

This emergence coincided with numerous smaller holes appearing, admitting a new variant of the enemy infantry to the battle that donned a bizarre cyclopean helmet and automatic rifles whose design differred in comparison to the rest of the Horde’s firearms, which made them appear to be the spoils of the war that were likely being fought against the natives that had built the city.

What immediately drew some of the team’s attention to them was not the helmet or the new enemy itself, but the bayonet that was affixed to its rifles.

Cyclopes advanced ahead of their more common brethren with greater speed and recklessness, and were the first to meet the Capricorns in close combat. The bayonets were in actuality miniaturized chain-blades under the grip-shielded barrel, and the Horde soldiers revved them via the lever in front of the trigger housing and just above the magazine, rifle barrels skyward as they advanced.

Luna’s comrades began tossing what explosives they had into the holes that were admitting the largest amounts of their foes, collapsing them and burying any within them alive in a virtual tomb of debris and soil.

Leading the charge on the east side of the plaza, Calder fired his bolt pistol at the closest cyclops with his power axe ready in the other hand for a midward slash at the neck that could likely decapitate. The explosive round hit the reptilian square in the gut, piercing right through the armour and wreaking havoc on the thick hide beneath.

“Rage!” the humanoid seethed as it did not let up, bringing the bayonet towards where it estimated Calder’s left shoulder to be beneath the many layers of plating and anticipated cleaving through the armour.

The bayonet instead was easily met by the axe, which gave no sign of yielding as sparks flashed between the two sparring soldiers. A second and a half passed as Calder brought his pistol back about and fired another round into the humanoid, causing it to reel back and allowing him to swing his axe in counterattack. Calder’s axe made swift contact with the reptilian’s remaining body armour and cut the warrior right in half.

Nearby, the humanoids which were not being cut down by Dagmar, Emil, and Uffe’s blades—whom had joined him on that side—let out cries of rage and broke out from behind of their cover or increased the speed of their sprint towards the Fangs. Some of them brandished jagged combat knives and swords while others approached with their chainsaw bayonets at the ready or with the intention to use their rifles as clubs.

Taller humanoids of the Horde in much bulkier and robust armour appeared from the inky black as well as the sinkholes that were of a more comparable height to the Fangs than the cannon fodder they commanded. They were also joined by yet another unidentifiable subtype of the humanoid attackers, a single figure that was incredibly sinewy and towering slender in build, clad in a priestly cap and billowing onyx robes that resembled the charred banners of a sacked temple.

“Ha! Heretics! There!” the robed creature shrieked, sounding like a rupturing teapot.

As they approached with slow and belligerently measured gaits, their vocalisations revealed them to be the owners of the more shrill and harsh, grating voices that oddly complemented their stature.

“Groundwalkers,” the armoured ones hissed, drawing bow-like weapons from their backs. “Fall before the Horde!”

To some surprise, the Horde leaders were accompanied by the appearance of a small but quickly identifiable squad of Sangheili Spec-Ops in their silver and white armour.

“By decree of the Prophets Truth, Mercy, and Regret in compact with the Trinity of Worms, the Locust Horde shall aid in propelling the Covenant towards salvation. You shall be left behind, burned and bloodied in our wake, heathen vermin,” the supposed leader of the Sangheili military attache snarled through a Covenant voice amplification device.

“Die, equinoids!” some of the other Horde soldiers hissed and chanted in agreement as the largest yet sinkhole erupted in front of Calder and his immediate companions.

The roars that emerged from the latest sinkhole was unlike anything that Luna thought that the humanoids were capable of producing, prompting Luna and the Master Chief to join Calder’s fray on the east side alongside Havrom and Krom, while Trixie and the rest moved to shore up the advance on the west side.

“Something massive this way comes, but no doubt your blades are beyond ready for it, my allies!” Luna said to all after dodging one of the tall armoured reptilian’s swipes of their explosive-fire bows and running it through with her horn as the fighting picked up in ferocity on both the east and west end of the plaza.

Luna was greeted by a chorus of fervent howls and eager shouts of agreement.

By now, the entire grounds of the city square were becoming increasingly deteriorated. It was at this point that the flow of ticking bug-rodents on the Horde’s part had stopped, as if helping to set the stage for whatever was to come out of the titanic circular rift that was now threatening the stability of the buildings around the plaza.

A series of heavy thumps at bizarre intervals beneath the ground immediately around the rim of the large sinkhole heralded the new foe’s arrival as it climbed towards the surface.

What emerged first was not a massive fist, a weapon, or equipment of any kind.

Instead, a collection of eight arachnid-like limbs each as thick as an oak tree’s trunk and covered in artificial armour the same decor scheme as the humanoids erupted out of the hole. The limbs each sunk over four centimeters into the remaining street with a shaking of the earth as the monster pulled the rest of its bulk up and out onto the surface. What appeared behind the legs was a neckless head attached to the thorax and abdomen with several miniscule legs that upheld the latter. The massive frontal legs were attached to the towering thorax above the head and the creature possessed a revolting, almost human-like face with multiple glowing eyes and a mouth of needle-like teeth.

Luna, Calder, and their companions moved back a few paces from the crumbling ground, firing their weapons as the creature finished pulling itself up right. Roaring once more, the monster raised all its claw legs into the air before thundering them down into the ground in front of it, spaced right next to one another to form a terrain-pulverising nearly gapless wall blocking its face.

Munitions ricochet off the leg armour as the creature twitched and croaked from the occasional round that slipped past the defenses and peppered its face and head. After three seconds of stationary defence, the monster uprooted itself and began scuttling towards them, twitching even more erratically from a hail of weapons fire as it approached in order to try and flatten them.

Havrom was one of the first to notice the massive being, and instantly took strides towards it but this time he wasn’t alone. Krom had noticed it as well and made to take it down as well. “Oh frak no, you’re not getting to take this thing down by yourself!”

With their respective axes brought to bear, Harom and Krom charged as one towards the beast. More and more of the Horde’s humanoids were gunned or cut down as they advanced, including the majority of the Sangheili present, who were adamant on stopping the slaying of the spider-like beast of war.

Havrom was the first to connect a blow with the spider-like monster, cleaving through one of the centermost legs as it was just about to raise up, with intent to expose the face and more vulnerable soft points. Krom meanwhile used the momentum of the beast’s attack to grapple and propel himself up another of the legs, landing squarely atop the crown of the thorax right where the leg joints met.

The Morkai wasted no time as he proceeded to hack away at the carapace beneath him, targeting the nerve bundles and soft tissue that it protected.

When the beast’s attack met the ground, Havrom had to roll out of the way of the impact and subsequent shock wave before moving in for another severing of a leg. By now Krom’s attacks above had reached an intended weak spot, and the monster was now flailing more than ever, threatening to slam its entire mass into one of the crumbling buildings nearest to its radius of destruction.

Another leg was bisected by Havrom’s battleaxe as the monster twitched and flailed violently as a consequence, revealing its face to further fire from Luna and Calder’s force. Several of its eyes had been shot out, which only seemed to escalate its bloodlust and mayhem-seeking rage as it tried to remove the Capricorn hacking away at its carapace above its head. A series of bolt pistol bursts from Emil served to blast apart a third central leg that Krom had weakened substantially.

Scanning it with rapidfire eyes, it appeared to Luna that with the remaining legs it had it was going to attempt to bury itself, attempting to take Krom with it while it possibly regenerated itself. Whether due to the mechanics of the simulation or via a simulation of its actual metabolism was unknown, but what was clear to the Princess was that they could not allow it to get away, where it could then reemerge in almost any location around the plaza.

Master Chief sensed Luna looking at him, and met her cunning gaze with an expectant posture as Luna pressed them both into action with the words, “The face, the beast’s face! Havrom and Krom have provided us an invaluable opening.”

“Then we seize it,” the Chief agreed with a nod as the duo sprung into motion, one readying a combat knife and the other igniting her horn.

After having made a second successful detaching of his foe’s limb, Havrom was just about to begin his third attack when a grinning, determined Luna and charging Spartan both darted past him and into what would have otherwise been a prime killzone on the beast’s part, prior to its massive limb damage.

Havrom picked up their intended strategy rapidly. The ancient warrior could already read their intent based on angles and movement alone, and moved to join them. Krom followed suit after he stole a precious second to gaze at the bloodied and chaotic ground below.

In almost complete synchronisation, Chief’s combat knife, Havrom and Krom’s axe heads, and Luna’s beam of magically-conducted blue plasma made contact with each of its four eye clusters.

Blood sprayed everywhere from the front of the creature, causing the remaining and already slick pavement beneath its mass to become dangerously slick from the excess gore. The damage inflicted was instantaneously fatal as the Horde beast’s metabolism completely failed to begin the regeneration process under such shock and physical trauma.

A few victorious howls were let loose as the being flailed one last time before crumpling over, its four slayers having long since retreated to a safe distance during its death throes. It’s death triggered a mass-chorus of bellowing roars from the Horde.

The Horde resumed charging from east and west with renewed vigour, but Luna’s team did not by any means diminish their inflicted lethality in kind.

Casualties were had as the enemy reached the peak of their brutality. Ruman fell in the midst of the fighting, rifle at the hip gunning down a Locust that had run him through with their chainsaw bayonet into his shoulder in a downward motion. With his remaining strength he had been able to detach the now limp enemy’s weapon out of him with a sickening squelch and a bellow of pain before tossing a grenade towards some Elites in a final act of defiance before materialising out of the simulation.

Trixie’s horn was shattered from a glancing round of a Locust rifle, whilst one of the Fangs even lost an arm from a Sangheili’s lucky blade swipe as the capricorn was dodging an explosive bow bolt from the tallest of the Horde soldiers.

Two more minutes of the one-sided bloodbath continued before the entire simulation underwent a sudden change.

“Time up, match over. Victory!” the announcer chimed in, his disembodied voice echoing down from the simulated sky. To some degree of surprise, the declaration was accompanied by the subsequent and spontaneous mass-death of every simulated enemy as if from cardiac arrest as the projections gradually winked out of existence and the map began preparations for resetting itself. “New kill count and killstreak records set!”

The team promptly gathered in the center of the reappearing cavern, visually appraising each other and their equipment in the Horde match’s wake.

“I uh … guess that’s one way to end a battle,” Johnson commented as he scratched his head at the dematerializing map set.

“Indeed. Gamesmaster Bellicose, what is our third bout to consist of,” Luna submitted her question to the air around them all. “I will confess that adrenaline has even me in its grasp and I am eager for another taste of combat.”

“A spectacular performance just now! Please gather in main spectator area if you would please, and we shall discuss what the final match shall be,” Bellicose responded promptly, an unseen grin implied by the cadance of his voice.

“Very well,” Luna replied. “Trixie, lead us to the spectator stands, please.”

“Will do, but Trixie hopes she will have a moment to access a vending machine in the process!” the unicorn agreed.

“By all means,” Luna chuckled.

Match Three: Team Juggernaut
“Ghost Town”, War Games Map_Set/: 673-15

While Trixie attempted to prevent leaving crumbs from a peanut butter treat she had procured, everybody assembled in expectant anticipation in front of Russ and Bellicose’s floating avatar.

Bellicose was the first to speak, beaming like a Waypoint late night show host as he used his avatar projection to simulate ticker tape falling from above him. “Esteemed warriors, we here at the Canterhorn War Games complex like to save the best for last when it comes to sessions consisting of consecutive rounds. And ...”

“Best for last?” Trixie interrupted, her mouth still mostly full.

“Please, continue,” Luna pressed, arching a brow at Trixie.

There was a nod from Bellicose, whose grin did not let up. “And, I might add, special occasions such as this where the consecutive rounds are part of a perfect winning streak merit that the best for last consists of the most cunning … the most deadly … the most harrowing combat challenge any GSC warrior could ever face outside of true battle ... That is to say, match three for your party, Your Highness and friends, shall consist of the most powerful opponent this War Games center has probably ever seen and ever will see! Is that not incredible?!”

“Wait, don’t tell me. After what I’ve seen of the simulations here, it’s probably going to be a Scarab clown car type deal, with a bunch of tiny grunt soldiers that will emerge from it in the tens of thousands, armed with needlers and fuel rod cannons,” Johnson chuckled.

Bellicose only chuckled back. “Not quite.”

“What you describe, human, does not even come close to what you face in the last round,” Russ said, a small grin coming to his face.

“Another kind of alien beast, this one almost too big for the simulation cavern, mayhaps?” Luna ventured.

“Afraid not,” Bellicose replied with a grin now splitting from ear to ear.

“An eldritch abomination of some kind! Newly escaped from Tartarus! No … oh! Trixie knows! What if it’s a simulated, evil clones of ourselves! Surely that is the obvious and true answer … we should be worried … our own worst enemies!” Trixie conjectured with a dramatic, eerie voice.

By now, Bellicose’s chuckling had given way to outright giggles. “No dice … although, for future reference that could be an interesting idea with Royal Guard training.”

A few moments passed after Bellicose responded, Luna’s companions attempting to guess their way to an answer. It was then that Solvi’s eyes widened before she gave a rather dry and pained chuckle. “Oh we are so fucked … and I usually save that for better occasions but we are completely fucked.”

It was as if a collective thought went into the Wolf Guard’s minds as they slowly came to the same realisation as Solvi had. Though it was still lost on Luna and her companions.

“I’m sensing … odd trepidation,” the Master Chief commented.

“Whatever might you mean, fair Solvi?” Luna inquired.

Solvi said nothing and simply pointed, slowly and deliberately, at a now fully grinning Russ.

“This … should get interesting,” Johnson said as his voice trailed off, his hands fumbling in his pockets for a Sweet Williams Cigar to light up.

“We shall, all of us, be facing you and you alone?” Luna asked with her brow completely arched.

“That’s the only way to make it a fair fight,” Russ replied, his grin never faltering.

Luna’s grin was relatively slow to form, but when it did, it proved to be a direct rival to Russ and Bellicose’s combined. “I have never backed down from a challenge. My friends, what say you?”

“Auntie Marcille have mercy, me neither. I’m in,” Johnson stated as he puffed out a ring of smoke. “We have any sissies in the room?”

“Trixie is a fully grown mare,” Trixie huffed. “My magic and weapons are ready as ever.”

“I’m with her by assignment so that’s a given,” the Master Chief said simply as he gestured the hand he held his helmet in towards Luna.

“And I wish to see what Luna’s armour is made of in one final match,” Ruman added before a deliberate pause. “That was intentional.”

“We should get you out of the forge more often than you already do,” Johnson quipped as the minotaur scratched at the fur atop his head awkwardly from the neutral gazes casted his way.

The Wolf Guard meanwhile looked a little unsure of the actions, considering their loyalties obviously laid with Russ, there was no doubt about that. Though it wasn’t spoken, they nodded their heads in approval of the match up. If that was what their Great Wolf wanted, then so it would be. Russ disappeared down into the arena far ahead of the group, to give them time to prepare and fully recuperate.

Cortana appeared on Luna’s hoof, her lips pursed and a hand on her hip. “I’ve been busy for a while just enjoying the … crashing and banging, it’s an interesting ambience for my data compilation, data comparison and stratagem programming routines . But before we just go in blind for this final matchy however, any of you mighty and war-seeking GSC soldiers care to inquire of Russ’ Wolf Guard as to how your latest opponent is likely to fight?”

“An admittedly ingenious question, you stole it right from my lips,” Luna replied to the Smart AI before turning to the gathered Capricorns. “How shall we face your king as he stands before us?”

“Depends on how he will fight us,” Emil answered, his mind working fast to try and predict Russ’ actions, but even he knew his Great Wolf to be an enigma.

“A keg of Mjord says he rushes us pretty quickly,” Krom exclaimed. “That’s how he fought our enemies, and he was always at the head, the old bastard won’t change his ways.”

“Russ is smarter than that, Krom. He doesn’t fight like a Morkai, after all,” Erik replied with laugh, earning a growl from Krom.

“Krom might have some merit, Russ is direct in his approaches, only using stealth when it was the only option,” Calder countered, somewhat hating how he was agreeing with Krom. Either way, the Wolf Guard fell quiet for a moment as they all thought about the situation, leaving Luna and her companions in a little bit of an awkward silence.

One that Dagmar eventually broke.

“It’s just a hunt to him. You could see it in his grin … he’s going to pick us off one by one,” Dagmar said, to which the Wolf Guard slowly nodded after a moment of thinking.

“So what’s the damn game plan then?” Johnson asked impatiently.

“Stick as close as you can to Uffe,” Dagmar said, pointing to the more wolf-like Guard. “His nose is stronger than all of ours, and that’s saying something. It’ll force Russ to stay away from the entire group, we’re packing too much muscle for a head on attack. Ranged weapons will be almost pointless in this, our armour is too thick and his speed is ours twice over, be prepared to swarm him tactically in close quarters.”

“From what she hears, it sounds like anypony but a capricorn is useless then,” Trixie scoffed at Dagmar’s assessment.

“No, you’ll drive the dagger into his back while we take the brunt. He can only be in one place at a time,” Emil replied to the mare.

“Very well,” Luna replied with finality, processing the information in her mind as she turned to a still grinning Russ and Bellicose. “Ready the simulation, Bellicose.”

“My pleasure, Your Highness! Prepare for War Games Map Set 673-15, ‘Ghost Town!’”

After a brief three minutes spent in the armoury once more, Luna’s team emerged into the cavern. Already they were scanning the by now familiar rock faces and sparse crystal outcroppings with wary and rapid movement.

No sooner did they reach the center of the cavern, the announcer declared, “Team Juggernaut. Slay the Juggernaut to win. Match start!”

While the announcer spoke, the third map winked into existence as an overcast night sky replaced the cavern ceiling and crystals and boulders gave way to thick jungle overgrowth rife with the sounds of insects and birds.

Luna and the others were standing in a clearing, and besides the jungle, they were surrounded by the remains of a vast human water pumping and purification complex that had been left to nature. Through collapsed sections of brick walls and around the meandering exposed moss-dominated piping that a pony could easily walk through, the team could see signs of catwalks, high perches, and pipe labyrinths mostly veiled in shadow that only grew as the lone moon was frequently blocked by clouds.

The rest of the ruins offered dank and messy rooms full of encroaching plants and tall, rusting equipment as well as debris-strewn corridors that while easily defendable, could also spell doom for an occupant caught unawares. Completing the scene of industrial desolation was the frequent placement of abandoned water crates each taller than a Fang, which were spread throughout theinside and outside the complex.

“Hey, I recognise these star patterns,” Johnson remarked in a whisper to the nearest ears of Luna, Calder, and Master Chief as the team hunkered down for a moment to take stock of their surroundings. “Well I’ll be damned. That there is Mount Kilimanjaro … this simulation is set on Earth.”

“Not only that, but this isn’t the standard War Games map set … it’s been altered into a map variant I have no preparation for … so all the strategies I devised in the last three minutes are now down the drain,” Cortana lamented in Luna’s head.

“Wait … if you can devise strategies so quickly, why not do so now as we analyse our new match realm? Do you not realise who we are now truly pitted against?” Luna retorted.

“Yes, but why do that when it will be so much more fun watching it unfold without my interference. It’s not like you all can literally get killed by this.”

Luna gave a mental ‘harumph’ as Uffe began taking point with Luna close behind and leading the rest in a tight formation. It was not yet confirmed by any of them that Russ had even dropped into the match yet.

Uffe lead the ever vigilant party around the bend of the nearest pipes, and using his scent true to Dagmar’s words, found something within moments. Or at least, his nose spotted something off.

“There is no scent. None. Great Wolf could be anywhere,” Uffe muttered, his eyes darting side to side trying to figure out why he couldn’t smell anything aside from the original scent of the jungle.

“Frak,” Krom muttered under his breath.

“He’s covering his scent somehow … right, Plan B,” Calder spoke over the neural comms, not wanting to possibly vocalise the problem in case Russ was watching.

“And what is plan B?” Trixie hissed in response.

“Wait till Russ messes up,” Ylva spoke up.

“Eventually he will. The numbers game is just too strong for him to overcome,” Johnson estimated.

“We shall see for ourselves. Neural and gesture-based communication only from henceforth until the end of the match,” Luna murmured in a cautious fashion, ending all further discussion in its tracks.

The team was faced with a large, overgrown concrete-floored clearing full of the large vehicle-sized crates haphazardly disturbed about the rectangular space as they stood as inanimate sentinels for the entrance to nearest building of the water facility. As they all began to cautiously navigate their way around the obstacles whilst simultaneously trying to retain their cohesion and their lines of sight, something was noticed almost immediately.

Something shimmering was seen atop a crate nearest the closest stretch of jungle. Viveka and Emil both registered it just as Johnson and Solvi meanwhile heard a heavy thump atop one of the large collection of pipes that ran along the side of the building just below the lip of the flat roof.

Closely following the first two phenomena, a third took the form of more shimmering coming this time from one of the partially broken windows of what a pair of worn human signs deemed to be the secondary waterflow control station. Havrom and Erik focused their eyes on the building while the rest had their melee weapons ready and eyes trained on the treeline or the rooftops.

What happened next was so fast that none had even seen it coming in earnest.

A rapid yet faint set of armoured hoofsteps were heard across spongy ground and broken pavement from somewhere amongst a bank of giant ferns before Emil was wounded badly with a well placed sword swing that opened a gaping, crimson-awashed gash through his breastplate. The attack caused him to reel slightly with a shocked growl as Trixie’s horn was then shattered by the assailant’s fist as she attempted to both attack with a sword she levitated and illuminate the area.

Solvi lost her right arm to another blade stroke after managing to swipe the burning claws of her left gauntlet across Russ’ back to pierce the armour and cut down to the fur and skin.

After Johnson landed a kick in Russ’ gut that sent him back a few centimeters, then spun around counter-clockwise in a followup to Solvi’s attack that would ready him for a knife stab through the claw marks Solvi had left in the armour, the Spartan was fatally run through by Russ’ sword. Johnson let out a pained shout as he coughed a few flecks of blood, “Damn wolfhorse!”

With nearly frightening speed, Russ had turned about in the opposite direction almost too fast for the human supersoldier to even physically register in his mind. As Johnson slid off the blade and collapsed onto the ground, the others moved to rush Russ but it was already too late. The Great Wolf’s hulking and temporarily smoking form darted around the now scrambling team and vanished into the shadows of one of the massive pipes they had all just went around.

“By the stars, Emil, Solvi, Trixie, is life with you still? Johnson … lamentable,” Luna said quickly out loud, still processing the speed in which it had all unfolded as she ignited her horn to immediately stop Solvi and Emil’s bleeding whilst also tentatively working similar restoration magic to speed the healing and regeneration of Trixie’s horn.

Solvi didn’t respond verbally, instead gnashing her teeth and suppressing a growl at an apparent simulated pain, or possibly anger at having lost an arm.

“Ready explosives, Trixie feels we must flush him out and level this entire facility if need be. This is so on, now!” Trixie seethed, her eyes watering from agony.

“Inside, now! Cover entrances and keep together! Cut off his approaches!” Calder seethed over the neural network.

“Emil, you, Trixie, and Solvi join the center of our formation,” Luna instructed. “If we remain in rank at as full force as possible then we will still serve to force him out to fight.

The team promptly adjusted their spacing and set about again.

A furious storm of armoured hooves and feet thundered into the crumbling pump control station, all but the most collected of the warriors beginning to feel their respective species’ variation of adrenaline flood their systems in earnest.

Inside, the rusting consoles that once provided diagnostics and functionality for the various systems now served only to once again conceal sections of the structure from view. What especially concerned Luna and Calder’s force was the catwalk network above.

True to their anticipations and concerns, a rattling sound against one of the banks of computers that drew some eyes was followed by a scream from Trixie.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” she yelped as her tail was caught under an armoured hoof by a shadowy mass that descended from the catwalk on the far side of the expansive room from the control and monitoring area. Trixie attempted to fumble for one of her grenades whilst pinned but her window of opportunity had proven far too narrow.

All that was seen in the brief expanse of time was the muzzle of Russ, grinning triumphantly as he brought down the pommel of the sword on the unicorn’s wounded head with a sharp cracking before rushing out of a breach in one of the walls of the waterflow control room and into the jungle. In the process of his rapid departure, Russ had managed to headbutt a barely prepared Ruman, winding him before beheading Erik with an upward stroke that had followed a savage punch as the Fang attempted in vain to roadblock him.

“Dammit, again he evades us! The foliage and canopy … pursuit would be suicidal for more than a few of us,” Luna assessed with barred teeth. “Then he could draw it out, not pairs of attacks he could inflict but rather slaying us one by one.”

“We need to find a chokepoint and try to lure him in,” the Master Chief suggested. “The atrium over there at the end of this room that dominates the ruins will have the most light with the closest quarters compared to the jungle.”

“It is against our teaching but we need to regroup here and prepare for an assault, he can only wait so long,” Calder assessed but received many snorts of derision, mainly from Viveka, Krom, and Ran.

“Let it never be forgotten that there will always be times when rigid doctrine can stifle you in battle, mayhaps fatally,” Luna commented. “While the atrium would be optimal, it is possible that Russ is waiting for us to resume mobility and strike at a potential weakness revealed by even so short a distance as this.”

Luna was met with a mixture of nods and wary growls and grunts as everyone prepared themselves for holding their position near the long-inactive water flow controls.

“Infantry square, form ranks!” Luna called upon them, expecting so simple of a formation to prove an almost universal one. Though there was an obvious lack of hostile cavalry, any direct attack by Russ in their present, unaltered position would serve to force him into the center of the square where all capable combatants could then counterattack. At least, that was what the alicorn princess was anticipating.

Without delay, the entire team assumed the formation, much to Luna’s restrained satisfaction. Solvi stood in the center of the square, her remaining wolf claw retracted and a bolt pistol in hand until the claw was needed once more. Emil joined her, both his bolt pistols drawn and ready.

Forming the rest of the square around both of the previously wounded Capricorns, Luna and Calder’s force was a mixture of ranged and melee weaponry, with the ten fully battle-ready warriors alternating the two weapon classes and assuming their preferred postures of readiness.

Together they formed a living obstacle of muscle, firepower, and magic that would have been a daunting prospect for an equivalent or slightly greater force hoping to pass them. Their foe on this occasion however, had no intention of conventionally surmounting such an obstacle. Russ had other plans, and none of them were sure to be enjoyable for any on the map but himself.

Save for the frequent meeting of hands against the hilts, barrels, and handles of weaponry, as well as the occasional sigh or low growl and the sounds of the jungle outside, the nature-claimed ruin was devoid of sound as the square formation never ceased in scanning ever centimeter of the surrounding building.

“My motion sensors are clear, no movement at all,” the Chief stated. “He must be estimating the range of our scanning technology and skirting around it.”

“Then we shall continue to temper our gazes until our quarry returns,” Luna replied.

Tension was as thick in the air as a mighty fogbank. That status quo was soon shattered after a whole three dragging minutes passed as Luna registered a humanoid shadow moving near the windows nearest the computer bank area.

“Russ is upon us once more, to arms!” Luna cried, igniting her horn and reducing a stretch of concrete wall nearest the shadow to glass.

The team’s ranged weapons opened fire, peppering the control center with explosive bolter rounds, high caliber bullets, and bolts of lightning from Luna that tore the outer layers of concrete and other objects down range apart. The bombardment continued for a few seconds before they all stopped in unison, another shadow appearing elsewhere as heavy hoofsteps rang around the catwalks above.

Coinciding with the footsteps was a series of dull metallic sounds as they impacted other metal ringing out from multiple locations, threatening to divide the formation’s attention. As the sounds expanded to include that of metal against stone and vice-versa, the footsteps continued.

Krom took his best estimate of where he thought the lurking Great Wolf to be, and barring his teeth, positioned himself to fire his storm bolter at a particularly dark-shrouded stretch of the catwalk network. The Wolf Lord was only able to get out a single large burst before the loud report of a bolt pistol erupted from the opposite side of the catwalks during a brief lull in the footsteps. The surprise shot shaved off a portion of Krom’s head as he was too slow to react and dodge in full.

A drastically slowed second past before the rapid footsteps resumed from on high. Several more bolt pistol rounds were discharged in rapid succession, this time not hitting anything but the ground extremely close to some of the team, glancing the ground and sending water and pebbles flying.

Everyone began returning fire again, some with increased anger this time as ordinance was dealt out in both directions flanking where the most recent bolter shot had gone off. As the chaos of gunfire resumed, another timely bolt pistol round struck true from on high.

Ruman toppled to the ground as Krom had moments before, his gatling rifle clattering to the ground with him as more hoofsteps sounded. Krom, like Ruman after him did not die without consequence however, for Emil had since succeeded in anticipating where Russ would be and when within that window of time, and managed a return fire with both of his bolt pistols that struck Russ in the back as he was speeding to his next position. One of the explosive rounds clanged against his left pauldron, doing negligible strategic damage while the other of the duo scored a direct hit in the wound that Solvi had inflicted, producing a slight recoil in Russ’ gait that only Emil and Luna’s respective sight was able to make out.

“We’re running around like a newborn litter! Cut off his attack routes! Bring down that catwalk with grenades!” Dagmar growled over the neural net, having long since switched over to a separate comms channel from what the Wolf Guard traditionally used for mainline operations.

Avoiding load-bearing columns, Chief was the first to let out grenades. He tossed a plasma grenade towards one of the distant catwalk pillars, and a fragmentation grenade towards its counterpart in a parallel corner. The ensuing blasts caused a large portion of the suspended walkway to sag while some smaller parts collapsed, but the rest held firm.

Some of the others followed suit with higher-yield Capricorn fragmentation grenades and promptly blasted the entire control apart beyond recognition as the rest continued what they hoped was suppressing fire against Russ.

In a final protestful groan of corroded metal, the catwalk gave out from the vibrations as the entire facility shook from the prior collapse of the catwalk section which the Master Chief felled and the subsequent explosions from the Fangs’ grenades, prompting the infantry square to make a slow charge into the moonlit atrium and away from the resulting eruption of dust.

All spells and weapon discharges stopped along with the advance as Luna and the others waited for the dust to clear. Some readied melee weapons; the collapse had generated such noise that it was impossible to tell if Russ had been amongst the heavy impacts to the ground or not.

“Outnumbered eleven to one … but the odds were always in my favour,” Russ chuckled from within the dust.

With the dust still settling, the concern of more than a few of the warriors present was finally made real as Russ, ever-grinning, came charging through the cloud of debris with his blade ready to strike. The Earth’s simulated moon, sent its light down through the atrium’s haphazardly shattered panes of glass, which seem to add a glow to the Praetor’s sneer-like grin as he advanced.

Calder directed Havrom, Viveka, Ran, and Dagmar to form a rough arc formation as they met his charge in return while Emil and Solvi verified that their bolt pistols were fully loaded. Coordinating with the others, the rest of the team lead by Luna diverged into two groups and flanked around both sides of Calder’s arc. All were acting with the intent to end Russ’ match-long tactic of outmaneuvering them via sheer brute force, expecting the risk to pay off swiftly and decisively.

Much to Luna and Calder’s collective woe, Russ’ charge proved to have only been a feint, and he promptly broke off from his charge with a ground stomp that sent Luna, Uffe, and the entire arc of Wolf Guard flailing back and redirected his momentum towards the Master Chief and Ylva at break neck pace. The Spartan was able to dodge Russ’ lunge by sheer luck, and the blade instead made contact with Ylva’s wolf claws as they formed a criss-cross pattern across her chest and neck to block the attack.

Ylva and Russ struggled for only a second and a half as they tenuously matched might for might, with Russ slowly gaining ground on his opponent just before the tip of the Chief’s combat knife plunged into the wound Solvi had inflicted like Emil’s bolter round had prior.

The stab seemed to produce little to no visible physical response from the Praetor as he responded with a backward kick square in the abdomen that sent the human super soldier, energy shielding completely depleted by the kinetic impact, tumbling at least two meters back just as the others were beginning to regain their bearings.

Russ broke through Ylva’s defense just as Luna and Uffe were rushing to her and the Master Chief’s aid, having leaned into his opponent enough that her very wolf claws themselves shatter under the stress of Krakenmaw’s blade. Russ’ momentum carried the rest of his original attack through, and Ylva suffered an even more grievous slash than Emil had, the violent contact of the metal producing as many sparks as the attack did draw blood.

Calder and Dagmar, the first two of the winded to have recovered, charged at Russ as he let Ylva’s now limp form slip onto the devastated concrete beneath them. Meanwhile, Luna was charging a spell as Uffe and the Chief attempted to gain optimal angles of attack.

A gauntleted fist stopped Calder’s power axe mid-swing, while Dagmar’s golden blade clanged against Russ’ sword sharply as the Great Wolf stood between them. Russ then became like a whirlwind as he made several moves in the span of barely more than a second. Calder’s axe was forced into the air as the stallion was kicked back, and when Russ regained his previous stance, still fending off Dagmar’s blade, he caught a punch she had aimed at his gut in midair before aiming a second, solid kick at her as well.

A low flying Dagmar collided with Ran, sending them both sprawling across the floor and giving Russ enough time to run Calder through just as he recovered his axe.

Russ was then forced to dodge as he heard the priming of a destruction spell just before a bolt of magical electricity arced through the air a few hairs’ breadth away from him, filling his nostrils with the foul smell of ozone. Luna was igniting her horn for a second go of it only for the casting to be interrupted as she had to raise her wings and cast a shield to block Russ’ sword swing in the absence of a drawn sword to block with.

While Russ’ blade made contact with the solid wall of bright particles, the Praetor had to shift to ward off via kicks first Viveka then Ran and Dagmar, with Uffe, Havrom, and the Chief waiting for their own openings.

Luna violently collapsed her shield outwards with a war cry, forcing Russ back a smidgen and sending a light rain of glass down from above as everyone rapidly shifted about the atrium in an almost dance-like manner as they attempted to gang up on Russ and break his defenses.

When Luna was able to next let out a destruction spell, it was a cyan beam of concentrated plasma that Russ fended off with his blade, creating a shimmer effect as the beam died out into the surrounding air that blinded Emil as he was taking aim as well as Dagmar and Ran as they’d begun another join charge; the others had managed to shield their eyes quickly enough to suffer only visual blur for a split second.

It was in this charge that Russ was able to fell Dagmar during her downward swing by aiming the point of his sword for her exposed neck, before pulling the crimson-soaked blade free and parrying Ran’s slash of her sword, opening her defenses up for a decapitating strike as Russ followed up with a rapid draw of his bolter pistol to take down a fast approaching Emil who had both pistols at the ready.

The three consecutive kills proved costly, however, for while busy, Russ had opened himself up for an inbound charge from the hulking mass of Havrom. Havrom had his double-headed axe out to his side, and as he passed by Russ, he swung the blade hard in an arc that connected with Russ’ waist, opening a new wound through the thick plating just as deep as Solvi’s, which still had the Chief’s combat knife jutting out of it.

Havrom was hefting his axe for what he was hoping to be one of the final such attacks as he saw that the Chief had drawn his assault rifle and had his sights trained on the chinks now formed in Russ’ power armour, but he was forestalled by the likes of Solvi and an infuriated Viveka who attempted to rush Russ.

Solvi proved the faster of the two, and with her wolf claws raised to pierce through Russ’ back and finish what she had started, the Wolf Lord was not prepared for the thunderous sweep of Russ’ leg that toppled her over in an instant. It was almost blinding how quickly Russ was able to first make a fatal downward slash at Solvi’s throat before bringing Krakenmaw to bear against the brute force of Viveka’s warhammer.

The force form such a heavy weapon as Viveka’s hammer was enough to force Russ into a high crouch and several centimeters back, but the Capricorn mare’s vastly inferior speed proved her undoing. She fell soon after Russ’ sword cut through her organic arm and then swiftly found itself buried in her back, deeply enough that Russ had to use a hoof to pull the blade out faster.

It was here that it became fully obvious to Luna that the battle had reached its climax. Remaining was herself and a wounded Solvi, the Master Chief, Uffe, and Havrom against a wounded but still fully battle-capable Russ. They formed an impromptu ring around him as the Praetor regarded them with his seemingly simulation-permanent grin.

Crimson pools were now everywhere, making the ground treacherously slick. What had previously been a scene of industrial decay had become a scene of true apocalypse as the building itself seemed almost ready to come down at the next massive vibration.

If there was ever an urgent time to end the battle and thus the match to avoid the potential simulated experience of being crushed, it was now.

“Warriors, as one!” Luna called out, needing to say no more for the meaning of the declaration to be clear.

Russ’ grin only widened as Luna rushed forward with a lightning spell on accelerated charge. At her current speed, she would reach him before the others could gain the reach for their attacks, and before the Chief could do more than squeeze the trigger of his rifle. Krakenmaw redirected the currents to bend around him, but the action also opened him up for Luna to levitate a golden sword, Dagmar’s, away from under her body and into the attacking alicorn's telekinetic grasp.

By now, the Chief had had enough time to open fire at Russ’ back and sides, while a charging Havrom and Uffe covered the other two flanks to ensure they would seal the deal if Luna did not.

Luna’s own attack proved true and drove home first. As Russ was finishing redirecting the last of the electricity out harmlessly into the surrounding atmosphere, the point of Dagmar’s blade ran itself with a blue aura up through Russ’ armour in the narrow stretch where the lower chest plates met the belt, aimed towards the heart.

Dagmar’s blade did not slow its speed as it gained purchase and continued its deadly journey through armour, coat, then flesh. The attack proved enough to produce a few flecks of blood from Russ’ muzzle, but his facial expression was unchanged as both Luna’s magic and her momentum drove the blade to the greatest possible depth it could reach without further physical manipulation.

Krakenmaw was dropped, but Luna registered with dismay in the narrow three second window that Russ still held a firm grip on his bolt pistol, which in lieu of grasping at his wound, he used his reactionary force from the sustained damage to fire the weapon at Havrom just before his own attack could connect. What had been intended to be a vicious decapitating cut through Russ’ neck instead took the form of Havrom falling over with a distinctive thud that echoed all across the atrium, which had since fallen silent with the subsequent cessation of the Chief’s firing.

A now spent bolt pistol clattered to the concrete as Russ loosened his grasp on it too, its barrel still smoking from the recent discharge.

With the sword still in her grasp, Luna barred her teeth as she first forced Russ down onto his knees using the blade as leverage, before forcing it further in and fully puncturing the Great Wolf’s powerful heart.

The alicorn’s first fierce and then triumphant sneer only gave way to confusion as the dying avatar of the Praetor, still ever-grinning, met her gaze and said with amusement, “Good match.”

A fresh torrent of bellowing laughter was carried by the acoustics of the ruins and out into the simulated jungle beyond. It was the kind of laughter exactly akin to one who had heard or delivered a joke cryptic to all but a very specific audience yet was directly relevant to the entire audience whose ears it met.

Luna continued to look on in confusion giving way to bemusement as Uffe came within centimeters of Russ with one of his claws raised and ready if need be, the Chief likewise still aiming down the sights of his rifle.

The combative stances proved unneeded as Russ’ eyes closed as the laughter died down to a sharp quietude before and quickly after Russ fell to the ground, taking Dagmar’s sword with him as Luna relinquished her telekinetic field.

“Juggernaut eliminated! Victory!” came the immediate call of the announcer as the map set rapidly began deconstructing itself and giving way to the real world again.

“Wow. Simply wow, need I say any more?” Bellicose said with a round of applause as his avatar appeared along with the real forms of Russ, Johnson, Trixie, and the others back from their respective world barrier-shattering bubbles.

Some of the team appeared to still be reacting to and coming back from the recent simulation of death they had undergone, looking exactly like sleepers that had just been rudely awoken from a dream or nightmare.

Luna scrutinised them all with now fully fledged bemusement, but it did not last long as many of her friends and allies began to either grin or demonstrate their frustration from the latest and final match of the day’s War Games simulation. Yet still there was a thought in the back of her head; one of why Russ had reacted as he did in his defeat.

Amusement rapidly took root Luna broke into a chuckle before declaring, “‘Twas one most adventurous way to spend a morning before an impending gala, to be certain! Such magnificent battles; such proper-feeling armour. This would easily put the capturing of the enemy flagship days ago to shame if it were only a series of events that had truly unfolded in reality.”

“That is perhaps putting it lightly by a titanic magnitude,” Trixie weighed in as she reached for her horn protectively for a brief moment.

Luna’s ears flattened as she adopted a sheepish grin. “Indeed … ‘twas magnificent with close allies dying notwithstanding, yes! Sobering that most definitely was in its recent time. But aye, the day marches on does it not?! Let us see if modern Grand Galloping Galas are worthy of any comparison to those of my day, my friends! But first, let us have lunch and finish our final preparations.”

Author's Notes:

Annnd we're back, nearing the finale of this story arc with even more over the top action! Woot woot, next shall be the Gala. Stay tuned, coming very soon!