First things first, I took a quick hop over through that blue ring. At that moment, it was worth forty points, slightly more than my entire total so far. It took me from thirty-five all the way up to seventy-five just like that. Yeah, this was how you could rack up a super-high score. At least, assuming I could grab even more rings like this without getting myself tackled by my opponents.

Speaking of whom, was it a bad thing that I was picturing Split and Liqueguy as Casura while the two of them came toward me? Well, not in the sense of actually thinking I was fighting that woman, considering how terrifying (and quick) it would be. No, this was more like a total and complete fantasy version of getting the chance to actually pummel the fucking monster who was threatening to kill two of the most important people in my life (not to mention two others who were a couple of the most important people in their lives). It was a chance to work out just a little bit of the aggression I was feeling. And boy did I have a hell of a lot of aggression built up inside.

Okay, when I put it like that, maybe I still shouldn't picture these guys like that. I didn't want to end up beating the two of them into a coma in front of the entire audience. Or even without the audience. It was just a bad idea overall. They didn't deserve to be turned into punching bags just because I was mad at someone else.

But the point was, I had a lot of aggression built up and this was an easy outlet. Besides, I had to do something they wouldn't be expecting. Even as they came toward me, I could tell they were watching to see which way I would move to escape. They were ready for me to bolt, both of them readying themselves to cut me off. Once again, the two of them were working together, at least for the moment, to try to stop me from completely taking over the game with my high multiplier.

So, I did the thing they weren't ready for. The second I managed to take the points from that blue ring, I instantly launched myself directly at Liqueguy, using my paint to rocket my form straight into his path. There was no hesitation, no attempt to dodge to either side or retreat. I sent myself right at him as hard and as fast as I could, turning into a colorful blur of motion.

I saw a momentary look of complete surprise cross his face, his eyes widening just a bit when he saw me coming at him. He tried to adjust, but unlike me, he did hesitate. For just a second, he wasn't sure what to do. If he stayed in his solid form, I would collide with him and potentially knock him down. But if he shifted into his liquid shape, I would pass right through him and be on my way.

He hesitated too long. Before he could decide what to do, I crashed into the guy. I had orange paint to protect myself, so I only felt part of the impact. But he felt all of it. Even though he was essentially made out of hard crystal, it was still enough to make him grunt. More importantly, it knocked him out of my way. And he was pulled even more out of my way as the red paint I'd left on him at the moment of impact was activated, yanking the guy back the way I'd come. Which put him directly in the path of the turret that had been tracking my movement just as it fired. He took the sticky glob of goo right against his hand, pinning it to his chest before he could recover.

I caught a glimpse of Split making his torso and arms appear nearby, directly in the path that I would most likely take to get back to the arch. Meanwhile, his legs and head were positioning themselves between me and a couple visible purple rings, just in case I went that way for points. But I didn't do either. Instead, I twisted in the air and activated the purple-pink star shapes I already had on both of my arms, allowing me to fling them back the way I'd come so they stretched out to several times their normal length. My hands caught hold of Liqueguy's shoulders so I could yank myself to him. He was just starting to react to having his hand pinned to his chest by that glob of goo when he felt me grab on. Obviously, the first thing he did was shift right into his liquid form.

And that was exactly what I wanted him to do. It was why I made sure to grab him with my hands instead of hitting him with red paint, so he would feel me holding on, realize it was me, and instinctively shift.

My body passed right through his liquid form, even as he managed to free his hand from the sticky glob and leave it to fall away. He was free now, and in liquid form so I couldn't punch him.

Unfortunately for Liqueguy, my plan didn't involve needing to hit him. Instead, the second I passed through his liquid body, I triggered another image right on the back of my helmet. This one was a picture of a green flashlight with a white lens. Green and white. Which created a very bright, very quick flash of light right in the guy's face just as he had started to feel triumphant about getting that sticky glob off his hand. He reeled with a yelp, temporarily blinded.

In the meantime, after passing through him, I managed to angle myself to come down on top of an orb that was about three feet across. The thing was gradually spinning backward, making me run on it like a treadmill to stay in one place. But I didn't do that. Instead, I stood completely still and let it propel me that way, just in time to avoid the blast of water that came from a semi-hidden hose set up underneath a nearby cube. The liquid jet went right through the space I had just been in, even as I let myself be pulled all the way under the orb. My boots kept me rooted to the thing, letting me pass upside down through the blue ring hovering there. Another forty points, taking me from seventy-five up to one hundred and fifteen. Before I could be rotated back up into that still ongoing stream of water and lose points, I launched myself off the thing, diving away from it just in time.

One of Split's arms appeared in front of me, his hand snapping out to catch my wrist. But I was faster, catching it instead. In the same moment, I created a green-yellow stopwatch image on his arm and activated it. The combination froze the limb right where it was, allowing me to use it like a pole. My arm felt like it was practically yanked out of its socket then, as I gripped Split's limb and allowed my momentum to carry me around perpendicular to the way I'd been going before. Then I let go, flying away from the arm just as that one-second total stop wore off. But on the way, I left a little going away present in the form of a quick shot of red paint against his fingers.

Flipping over in the air as I flew away from the now-moving limb, I hurled myself up against a tall cylinder, landing against the side of it while snapping my hand out to send another shot of red paint that splattered right against Split's actual face. Which I then triggered, making the guy's hand go flying that way. He tried to counter that by simply recalling the limb back to his torso, but all that did was make both of those fly through the air so he still punched himself in the face.

Not that I actually saw that happen other than out of the corner of my eye as I went sprinting around the side of that cylinder, but I did hear the man curse. It wasn't exactly fun to smack yourself like that, obviously. And things weren't going to get better for him in the next second, as I pointed back that way without even looking, sending two quick shots. One was red, the other black. They splattered against Split's chest and combined as I took a breath and shouted, "Hey Licky!"

Except when I said it, I was already activating the matching red-black spot on my own chest. So the sound of my shout was transferred from where I actually was over to where Split's head, torso, and arm were floating. And Liqueguy, who heard my taunting call, was still recovering from that momentary blindness. He heard me and reacted instantly, sending a liquid wave that way. Poor Split barely had time to get out a blurted, "Wai--" before it collided with him and sent that part of his body tumbling end over end just to slam hard against the side of another cube.

While that was going on, I was already throwing myself off the side of that cylinder, now that I had run around to the right spot. There was a flat, square platform about ten feet lower that was sliding back and forth through the air, passing through the paths of four different jets of water and at least two of those sticky glob turrets. But there were also two blue rings and a purple along the path, the latter right smack in the middle where absolutely all of them could easily aim.

Well, here went nothing. An instant after landing on that platform, as it started going back the way it had come, I was already throwing myself into a backward flip so the blast of water I would have passed through in that second went right under me. I threw myself harder and further than I normally would have just to make sure that I both cleared that first water spray and still landed on the platform while it was moving away from me. Even then I barely made it, coming down on the very edge of the thing, facing empty air in front of me.

But no sooner did I land than I was already falling backward, timing my 'fall' so the next blast of water would pass right in front of my face. It came so close, the spray very nearly struck my visor, shooting right past my eyes. And, of course, I wasn't actually falling. I was really doing a back handspring, my palms snapping out to catch against the platform. Instead of immediately continuing that motion to flip back over, I stayed in that position, upside down with my feet pointed at the sky. The two turrets that had been tracking me fired from either side of this platform's path, sending their sticky globs sailing past. One went right by the back of my knees, where my head would've been if I was standing up, while the other just missed my stomach.

As soon as those had passed by, I continued my backward handspring, pushing off as hard as I could and flipping that way to land in the middle of the still-moving platform just in time to grab the first of those blue rings. Forty more points. Now I was at one fifty-five, and that was the third ring at this multiplication tier. Two more and I'd go up again. But now really wasn't the time to get ahead of myself. I could still lose all this very easily.

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Hopping sideways an instant after the blue ring was added to my total, I dropped right off platform. I could hear a gasp from the crowd, but I was already reaching out to grab the thing, catching on before flipping myself beneath it while lifting my legs. My feet planted against the underside, the boots allowing me to stand upside down. Once again, I used purple-pink paint, this time on my legs. Just like that, I was able to stretch out, my legs extending to several times their normal length. It was just enough to put my torso and head within range of the other blue ring that was sitting on a lonely platform about ten feet or so below this one. Another forty points, for one ninety-five.

My ridiculously stretched-out legs quickly snapped back, and I managed to catch a very quick glimpse of Liqueguy coming at me from the side. He'd clearly recovered from that momentary blindness, and wanted to pay me back for it. Not only was he rushing toward me on top of one of his waves while flanked by two more running slightly ahead of him, but he had another wave rushing toward me from the opposite side. They would all reach me long before this platform made it to the purple ring it was heading toward. Actually, that's what he was going for. There was a third set of waves coming from that direction to cut me off entirely. He was trying to trap me between waves coming from three different ways while he angled off to grab that purple ring himself.

Unfortunately for him, he had made a tiny tactical error. He was operating off the assumption that he knew how quickly this platform was moving. So, from my spot, still standing upside down on the thing, I pointed my hands 'down' (actually up) at my sides to hit the platform with a shot of purple-green. Green already sped things up, and purple added to that effect, so the platform was suddenly moving about three times its normal speed without any warning. Before Liqueguy could adjust, the two sets of waves that had been coming at me from either side completely missed, and I was already about to pass through the third one. The guy did his best to adjust by making that wave solid at the last second so my platform would slam into it. But I was ready for that too. Just as he hastily did so, I was already hitting the thing with pink paint, making a circle in it. His wave was solid, but fragile enough in that one spot for my platform to break right through, sending pieces of it flying in every direction even as they turned back into liquid.

I wasn't the only one who could speed up, obviously. Liqueguy may have been taken by surprise when I boosted the platform so much, but he was still closer to that purple ring. Actually, he was just about to take it, a broad grin on his face as he flung himself off his wave to dive into the ring.

Well, that was his intention anyway. But a half-second before he touched it, even as he had to be anticipating the chime of the points being added to his total, my helmet suddenly collided with his side. I'd literally taken my helmet off and thrown it at him in one quick motion. It was far from the first time that I'd been glad that I'd decided to wear both a mask and helmet for my costume. In this case, it gave me a handy emergency projectile. And yes, I was using purple paint for strength, aiming to hit the guy hard enough in the side to knock him off course. He barely missed the ring, going from a triumphant grin to yelping and wheezing in surprise as my helmet rebounded off his side, leaving Liqueguy tumbling before he brought up a wave to catch himself.

Even as that was happening, I had already leapt off my own platform rather than wait any longer, passing right through the purple ring just ahead of me. A purple ring that was worth an entire eighty points all by itself. I went from one ninety-five clear to two seventy-five just like that.

I hadn't exactly thrown myself toward anything in particular, other than the ring. After passing through it, I was basically diving right toward the ground, which was rushing up remarkably quickly. But I was already hitting another spinning cube off to the left with a shot of red, yanking myself that way. Which took me close enough to my helmet as it continued tumbling toward the ground for me to snatch the thing out of midair on the way past before it could fall out of reach.

I didn't actually put the helmet back on though. Instead, I gave it a quick upgrade in the form of an orange hammer image and green bird. Then I slung the thing back the other way as hard as I could, activating both. It sped up and became much tougher, just in time to smack right into the hand that Split had been trying to send after me from the side. The hand did its best to drop out of the way, but it was too late. My helmet rebounded off that limb, sending it careening sideways.

By that point, I reached that next cube. But I didn't stay long. Or at all, really. I was already using the blue paint on my boots to bounce right off it and back… sort of the way I'd come, but higher. There was another purple ring sitting there, right in the middle of the cube with three different goo turrets aimed at it, and a hose pointing down from another platform. A purple ring to lure someone in, and three goo turrets to stick them in place so the hose could drain all their points.

I was going to get that ring. But first, I sent myself bouncing off the very edge of that cube and up toward the hose dangling from the higher platform. All three turrets tracked my motion, globs of goo rapidly shooting at me with noisy 'fwuf, fwuf, fwuf' sounds. I very narrowly avoided being hit by half a dozen sticky orbs in the span of about three seconds just by twisting sideways and tucking my legs. It was close enough for me to smell the goo, and it wasn't exactly springtime fresh.

On the other hand, the stench was a reminder to put my helmet back on. Which I did right after catching hold of that hose with my other hand, I had to hold on tight, as the hose went swinging sideways from my momentum. It was like those movies with pirates using ropes to swing from one ship to the other. Well, if they came all the way back around to where they started, and did the whole thing while being shot at by cannons full of sticky goo balls. Which arguably could have made some of those pirate movies even better. I was holding onto that rope with one hand while shoving my helmet back in place with the other, even as those globules of ooze were sailing past me on all sides.

They adjusted quickly, of course, and my momentum was slowing down as the hose went swinging back to its original position. Which was exactly what I wanted it to do. As the turrets took aim once more, I pointed with the hand that wasn't holding the helmet anymore, sending a shot of rainbow paint straight down. At the exact second that the hose stopped spinning and those turrets fired, I triggered the paint and teleported down to the platform. The constant stream of water from the hose was cut off as the nozzle was hit by three different sticky globs, right before I appeared where it had been spraying. Which was also right where that purple ring was.

Another eighty points, putting me at three fifty-five and up to the next tier. Red rings were worth sixteen points each, blues were worth eighty, and purples were worth a whole one hundred and sixty. And if I got tackled at all, I would lose all of it.

So I wouldn't get tackled.

Oh, they certainly tried. All three of my opponents realized just what a lead I had right then, and came after me together. But I kept moving. I bounced and teleported and yanked myself from obstacle to obstacle on my way back toward the arch. On the way, I hit two more reds for thirty-two points together, and a blue for another eighty. I was at four sixty-seven. Which was when the others decided enough was enough and used four solid Liqueguy walls to pen me in while coming at me from above, giving me nowhere to go.

Nowhere, that was, except for down. I used red-blue paint to yank myself that way, along with green to speed that up. My body was rocketing toward one of the obstacles on the ground, a long, curved half-pipe ramp thing, which I hit with a quick circle of pink. Right before impact, I activated the emergency orange shield image I still had on my stomach, under the costume. And I cancelled that pink paint early, making the ramp very bouncy for just a second.

Yeah, I hit that thing at a bit of an angle and was immediately catapulted up and forward, doing several somersaults on the way as I rocketed past those three and straight toward the nearest of Liqueguy's walls.

They probably expected me to try to break through the wall that way. Instead, I snapped my hand out to make a quick blue circle right there. So as I hit it, all that speed went into making me rebound back the other way… and into Tumbleweed, who had been doing her level best to catch up with me. She really wasn't expecting me to come flying back at her and couldn't adjust in time. But I was expecting it, and was already hitting her with another blue-green combo, like before. We slammed into each other, with me once again stealing all of her momentum. Which I put toward rebounding back the other way and up. She went straight down as I stole her speed, hitting one of the lower obstacles with a grunt. The world around me was a complete blur, with that stolen momentum added to what I already had being enough to send me flying all the way up and over the wall before Liqueguy could adjust the height or shape of it.

My point total changed again, as half of Tumbleweed's one hundred and ten points were added to mine for what they apparently considered to be a tackle. That extra fifty-five took me up to five hundred and twenty-two. Which was what I was at as I managed to land a few feet away from the arch. I had just enough left in the tank to throw myself through the thing before collapsing to the ground. I lay there on my stomach, wheezing for breath. There was still time left on the clock, but I couldn't even move. I was done.

In the end, it didn't matter that I spent almost the last minute laying there catching my breath. None of the others even came close. Even with my interference, Tumbleweed still came in second with two hundred and thirty, apparently being pretty motivated. Liqueguy was third with two hundred even, and Split was right behind him with one ninety-five.

I did manage to pick myself up by then, as Nqobile called out our scores. She was standing just a few feet away, and it took everything I had just to stop myself from lunging at her.

"And for breaking the course record in points with time to spare, Paintball will be awarded an extra LEAT point!" she called out, making the audience roar with approval. "That's in addition to the two he wins for coming in first, and the one he had already. On day one of his first real appearance of these games, Paintball already has four LEAT points! It was quite the comeback after a so-so second match. What do you have to say for yourself, Paintball?"

She was pointing the microphone at me. Everyone was watching. I could tell them the truth. I could warn them. I could take the chance of losing Paige and Sierra to tell these people to run.

"What can I say?" I carefully replied, my voice was even as I could make it considering how badly I wanted to punch this woman.

"I guess I was just motivated."

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