Ceres Chaos [Exosuit Progression]

Ceres laughed his head off as he ran from Chad, who bulldozed through every building that Ceres weaved through. He had been tailoring the taunt since last night, researching the mannerism and attitude of Chad.

Understanding Chad’s highly competitive spirit and love for his grandfather, he made sure the taunt ticked all the checkboxes and delivered it exactly when Chad thought a proper fight was about to happen.

“Come back here you fucking outer RUNT, I’ll show you how an Athen will fuck you over!” A roar came from behind as Ceres continued to dash through the streets, aiming for the next flag while he continually hurled taunts back at Chad.

Ceres had gotten points from the explosive kills just now, using the commotion that Chad was creating as the perfect follow-up that allowed him to run away scott-free.

No team would ever want to get into a prolonged fight with him knowing that the number one participant was right behind.

Obviously, Chad had been netting the majority of the kills, but it was more than enough for Ceres to get a few assists or kills off with his grenades. His objective wasn’t really to risk the competition by having a head-to-head fight.

Chad’s competitive drive, however, was leagues above Ceres’s, causing him to kill everyone other than his teammates in the second stage, especially if they stood between him and the idiot who mocked him.

Ceres was exploiting this brutality to allow him to run through enemy formations without worrying about cleanup. He continued to taunt and laugh at Chad, whose anger burned even more.

Through this method, Chad was too infuriated to capture the control flag that was left empty due to the deaths of the owners. Ceres also left a few ‘presents’ for the next owner of the flag, to maximize his point gain.

The chase continued as they went from flag to flag. Ceres had a few close calls with Chad almost nailing a hit on him, as the difference in their speed wasn’t so wide that Chad was left far behind.

They were barely 15 seconds apart from each other as they carved a path of misfortune through the various flags. This, however, wasn’t the actual objective of Ceres’s plan.

A ping on his multi read out a message to his earpiece, seeing as he couldn’t afford the luxury of reading the screen while being chased.

“Target G at Flag F confirmed, moving to engage!”

[I can’t believe my eyes, Ceres is leading Chad on a wild-goose chase! Chad has caught up quite a few times, but Ceres is extremely slippery, not suffering more than a few minor close calls.]

[And as of this moment it seems that Ceres has made a drastic turn and is heading for a completely different flag! The participants who have been tracking this ‘natural disaster’ from afar are completely bewildered at the sudden change of the pattern!]

The other participants were confident that Ceres planned to mop up all the flags using Chad as the cleanup while he nailed a substantial amount of points from killing some team members.

His leftover explosives have also seriously maimed a few participants who tried to capture the flags that were cleared by Ceres and Chad.

[At the same time, Ceres’ team has been steadily controlling two flags while the unstoppable duo of Ceres and Chad has already destroyed five flag areas, rendering them as uncapturable due to the explosives laid as traps! Wait?! The duo is now heading for Gwen’s team! It seems that Ceres is intending to expand the party even more!]

Mrs Qiu’s dumpling restaurant burst out in shock and cheers, as the place became more crowded with residents gathering to watch their own Zone’s kid made a good joke of the supposed ‘king’ of the qualifiers – Chad.

The word spread around fast, making the restaurant busier than ever. A set of four tables for four each were already reserved for Team Zone 17, while the ‘weirdo’ group that Lisa had been eyeing ever since the start had been sitting quietly, with the gentleman’s mouth slightly agape while the elegant lady had a smile that grew larger every time Ceres successfully cleared a flag while being chased by Chad.

They were oblivious to the fact that their dainty “undercover” outfits stood out as a sore thumb from the rest of the diners in the restaurant, but they hardly seem to mind.

“Did Ceres owe anybody a debt? Are they gangsters of an inner zone triad? Are they here to strong-arm Ceres into supporting their riots and arena fights? Did he have a forbidden love with the youngest daughter of the CEO of a megacorporation??” Boundless scenarios flowed through Lisa’s head, curiosity killing her slowly from within.

But she resolved that whatever happened, she had her family heirloom – a long sword hanging on the wall to fight any mafia off.

She couldn’t hear the conversation that the ‘weirdo’ group was having, only trying to read their lips, except she wasn’t very good at it.

“It seems that even if Ceres doesn’t earn any more points, he and all the other 15 members of his team are 100% guaranteed a slot in the main competition as long as they die. What a major showing from such an insignificant orphanage.”

”I find it very interesting that they got their nerval jack installation done at such a prestigious hospital in Zone 4 despite their obvious lack of funding.” The strict lady reported to the group.

“I hardly care about his background, as long as he wins me the wager. If he proves to have even more potential than that, I’m willing to sign a patron contract with him after the main competition. I need more of these easy wagers in my life!” The elegant lady smiled, while an unnoticeable glint in the eyes of the gentleman showed a hidden curiosity.

“Well then, since the stage is effectively over unless something catastrophic happens like them dying, I will be taking my leave first. I do hope to hear more about the result of the wager during the main competition. I will see you in a month, Carden… Card…Car.” Dodging the elegant lady’s sudden whip of her arm, he grabbed his hat and left the restaurant with haste.

“Sen, keep an eye out on Imperial Prince Zachary. He’s definitely up to no good, seeing as how weirdly he reacted to Ceres winning. Also, keep on checking up on the orphanage, I hate it when someone steals what’s rightfully mine!” The elegant lady named Card or Car whispered to the other.

The other lady rolled her eyes. “You do know the orphanage has all the rights, yes?”

“Are you talking to me about that? Really?” The elegant lady scoffed.

Lisa’s eyes narrowed in greater suspicion. Who in the world would name their kids Card or Car? If she ever got a name like that she might have moved far away from her parents.

At the same time, the announcer was shouting on stream as though his life depended on it.

[This is amazing! Gwen’s team is showing a high degree of cohesion in their formation, and their scout is continuously keeping track of Ceres and relaying information back to the team… wait a minute, where’s Ceres?]

***

“WHERE DID HE GO?!” A furious Chad stopped right in front of Gwen’s team, which set up a defensive formation around the flag. Chad swore that he saw Ceres run right here, but he couldn’t find him. “Gwen, don’t you dare hide him! Tell me where he is!”

Chad Athen and Gwen Derfas were both part of the five original families, but instead of joining the Five Families College, Gwen decided to go to a public inner school instead. They knew each other as acquaintances, but nothing more. Still, Chad was too busy being in a fury to worry about things like social etiquette.

“I don’t take orders from you, Chad, we’re in a competition now and you’re a walking sack of points. How about you give up 80% of your points and walk away, and we’ll still have the non-aggression deal on.” Gwen smirked, her team of 25 members tightening around Chad, inching forward.

They may not be as strong and powerful as Chad, but their coordination was much tighter than Ceres’ team which allowed them to act as a single unit.

Chad eyed the team, calculating. Though he was confident he could defeat Gwen’s team, the time wasted here fighting her team would also allow Ceres to escape further and plant more traps along the way!

“It’s a trap, Ceres wants us to fight each other here and destroy each other while he captures the rest of the flags!” Chad exclaimed.

He knew that Ceres was leading him on a wild-goose chase, but he too had been earning points from the various kills along the way, and he really wanted to knock that smug face who insulted his family and especially his grandfather.

However, it wasn’t the right move to attack Gwen’s team now. They were such a highly coordinated group that they even had matching styles of badges and emblems to mark themselves as allies.

They wore armour plates and even helmets found in the earlier stages, unlike many of the other participants. The defensive wall they provided was tight too, and while Chad was confident enough to destroy all of them one on one, he wasn’t too sure about fighting all 26 of them at the same time.

“Agreed, so be on your merry way on your fun chase. I will not help you nor block you.” Gwen declared, putting on a serious front against Chad. She knew she wasn’t as strong, but she currently had the upper hand in everything.

However, something was seriously bugging her, as she swore that she had a scout tracking Ceres’ movements, so she was sure that he should be in the vicinity, but she hasn’t heard back from her scout at all….

The scout should have rejoined the formation much earlier before Chad even arrived.

Doing a rapid headcount of her team, she noticed that there was indeed one missing member! “Find out what’s the last known location of the scout! I need to know what happened to his multi-terminal! Switch to comm channel B to prevent fake messages!”

Gwen shouted orders, as a few members started swiping and tapping their multis rapidly, while Chad continuously scanned the area and the team.

They shared data continuously, trying to extrapolate the possible position of Ceres and the scout over the next ten minutes. Chad impatiently stomped his feet as he paced around the flag, peering at Gwen.

“She’s really living up to her nickname of Mrs Meticulous!” Chad thought to himself. The videos of the second stage had given a sort of nickname to various participants that had caught the viewers’ eyes.

Almost everyone had seen the meticulous planning done by Gwen’s team before attacking the spawners, which was the direct opposite of how Chad destroyed the spawner with brute force.

Ceres could be considered a sort of a middle ground between them, loosely planning the large strokes of a plan but making up for the shortcomings with pure tenacity and strength.

Gwen knew that Ceres must have watched her videos and analysed her personality as well. She too was an exosuit repairer and watched Ceres’ videos too. She ran multiple possibilities in her head, trying to use her computational ability to the peak.

As she was thinking, an exosuit wearer walked out onto the street towards the team from the last known direction of the scout. His face was covered by the same helmet that the team wore, and he also bore the same emblem and badge. It was the scout.

The ranged members of the team immediately aimed their rifles at the scout! The defensive shields swung to face towards his direction, while the scout stopped, before raising both his hands up.

“Kieran Bura, Scout, Code-02883, I was knocked out by Ceres and left for dead! The last I saw was that he ran off towards the next flag! His path took him around us! Sending video on comm channel B!”

Gwen checked the video on her multi while Chad watched from behind. The rage built on Chad’s face, knowing that he was completely fooled. He had bullheadedly rushed to the flag as he was 10 seconds behind and could only faintly make out Ceres’s trail, but it had cut short halfway, making him assume Ceres was already at the flag.

“ARGH, YOU FUCKING TWAT I’M GOING TO FIND YOU!” Chad sprinted off in the direction shown in the video, which showed the helmet camera of the unconscious scout, which showed Ceres leaping on top of a roof and running off.

Gwen heaved a sigh of relief as Chad rushed off, even though she did not gain the points from Chad. She didn’t want to fight Chad at all, though she was confident of winning. But how many of her friends would have been knocked out of the competition?

She wanted to keep her team together as much as possible, even if she had to face them as enemies in the main competition.

As the scout continued walking back, some of the team members let down their guard, but a sharp “HALT!” from Gwen forced them to return to aiming position.

“Security Question 1: What was your pet’s name when you were six-year-old?”

“Gwen, are you serious? I cleared the code, and I can barely remember the answer to...”

“SHUT UP AND ANSWER! Take off your helmet while you’re at it!” Gwen wasn’t taking any chances, not after seeing Ceres’ affinity for grenades and explosives.

A lot of things could’ve happened to an unconscious scout, especially seeing that the scout was practically left unharmed.

Gwen couldn’t figure out what was the trap laid, so she stayed wary, her brain burning as she kept calculating the possibilities. She was a fellow exosuit repairer too, and she wasn’t about to allow herself to fall into a lowly trap.

“Err, Mary? Little Cat? Smallie? I had three pets when I was six!” Kieran took off his helmet, creating a wave of relief through the team.

It was sad to say this, but the blemishes and severe acne on his face that only affect specific spots were very hard to mistake for someone else, and at least more than one member of the team thought this. A good majority of the team finally relaxed for real, the last four to five minutes of tense confrontation being a bit too much.

“Alright, walk forward one step at a time!”

The scout complied, walking forward slowly, but before he took the fifth step, Gwen suddenly shrieked: “Kieran, take off your exosuit!”