BXBX NOVEL Chapter 23 - Paintball Demon
If Samuel knew he would be unleashing a demon by asking Lena to come and play paintball, he might've reconsidered inviting her. At the same time however, he couldn't deny that for once he enjoyed being on the side of the winning team and seeing Roger struggle to score points.
"I told you, you need to be more quiet! If we end up getting found, it's going to be your fault for not knowing how to be more stealthy!" The princess hissed at Samuel as she bumped him with the butt of her paintball gun.
"I'm trying my best here! Unlike you, I don't have the train to know how to sneak around without being heard!" He fired back trying to keep his voice as he stayed close to Lena. He had been doing his best to watch the way she picked up her feet without making any noise to try and mimic what she did, but she moved so elegantly and quickly that his mind couldn't process the way she moved before he himself had to move quickly to follow her.
She had definitely undergone enough training from Samuel's perspective that she might as well have been a trained assassin. They weren't using real guns yet she was treating the game like it was life or death and it was her job to make sure that Samuel stayed safe got hit as little as possible.
"Just one more thing that I am going to have to end up teaching you! If I wasn't skilled any of this we'd be losing right now." She tsked as she took cover behind one of the objects that served as a cover against enemy fire.
They were in the last thirty minutes of the final game and Roger had made it his goal to get at least one shoot on the little queen which thus far had been impossible.
Most of his team had tried to dissuade him from this goal as they had deemed it impossible by the time the first two games had finished and instead opted for trying to avoid getting hit and causing there to be a bigger gap in their points by the time the last round ended.
After the end of the second game, they had changed the rules to make the game last longer. The rule change was that each player could take three hits before they were considered 'out'. Without this rule, matches would last a far amount of less time.
The accuracy and sped at which Lena was able to nail the players on the opposing speed was rather faster as she had learned pretty quickly how the game worked. The only real suprise for her was that the paintball gun was easier to fire than a normal gun.
Roger had originally thought he was going to be able to use Samuel as their weakness since he had played with this friend so much that he could easily predict what his movements would be. Lena had picked up on this quicker than he had anticipated however and made the other boy change his strategy and stick closer to her to avoid making their team lose points.
He couldn't deny that the little queen's reflexes were on a little different even compared to his own which usually were the best out of all his friends. It was almost like she was trained to be a stealthy devil who knew her enemy's weaknesses and the best way to defeat them.
The rest of both their teams had moved to the other part of the field to where they could play on a more level field with each other which just left the other three to fight it out until the end of the match. Roger would've preferred to have a second person with him who could serve as a lookout to let him know if he was in danger of being hit, but he knew at this point besides giving him a sense of security, another person would be pretty much useless in helping him to score a point.
His team was going to lose the game anyways so with the little bit of time that was left before the buzzer went off, he wanted to save his pride by at least getting one hit on the girl who seemed impossible to hit.
The moment that he heard the two voices of his targets, he tried to slow down his breath so that he could listen better and try to hear exactly where they were located. He knew that they were close, but how close was the question.
With how dark the room was, he couldn't see for any shadows either so all he could really do was move slowly and hope that he would see them before they noticed him if he could stay quiet enough and in the shadows without being noticed.
Luck wasn't on his side however, because the moment that he turned the corner, he, Lena, and Samuel face to face with one another. He tried to recover quicker from the surprise than the other two as he only had one chance left before he would out and the game would be over so he if he wanted to get a hit in, it had to be done now.
Lena was just that much faster than him however and she quickly knocked Samuel down and out of the way to avoid him getting hit and she moved at the same time Roger aimed his gun to take a hit at her. His gun went off, but it missed it's mark barely by an inch and the princess took this chance to get the last hit in that she needed.
They both were breathing hard due to the adrenaline, but neither one of them was in a bad mood over what happened. Lena didn't bother trying to help him up as she left and made Samuel come with her so that they could let the employees know that the match was over and they were done playing.
Roger was beyond frustrated that he couldn't make the hit that he had wanted to, but he at the same time he was thrilled to have found an opponent in Lena who actually was a challenge for him to go after compared to the rest of his friends who weren't as good as him.
After they had washed up and changed out of the gear and returned everything without any damaging having occurred. Roger was the one to approach Lena and hold out his hand for her to shake.
"I can't deny that I hate that I lost to a girl, but you're a decent opponent." Samuel didn't think that she was going to shake his hand at first because of the disinterested look that was on her face. Lena hadn't bothered to speak to anyone except for him since their match had ended. Much to his surprise however, she did shake his hand though it was a brief one.
"You're not yourself. You have potential but you're too rash and not stealthy enough that you give yourself away too enough. In real combat, the end result would've been far worse for you than just a few bruises." Samuel internally winced at this comment, but Roger didn't seem to pick up on how serious she was and instead laughed it off.
"You're probably right about that. Hope I never find myself in that situation. Could I possible though look forward to getting the chance of challenging you again in the future?" She gave a noncommittal shrug in response to his question.
"We'll see. I haven't decided yet if this is something I want to keep doing or would find fun to do again."
"Fair enough, but I'll keep asking until you change your mind."
They parted ways not long after that. Samuel had of course made sure all along to keep Lena's father updated about everything that was going on so that he wouldn't be worried or upset by the time they got back. It was still early enough that they would be back before dinner if the princess sped as much as she had on their way over.
"Did you have fun?" Samuel ventured asking the question as she handed him the helmet to put on and made sure that her motorcycle was ready for them to go. She stared at him thoughtfully for a few seconds, before turning to get on the motorcycle so that he could follow suit and get on behind her.
"Perhaps." was the only reply that she gave him before they took off and headed back in the direction of to her home.