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“Watch your left! Their bishop is on standby.” The knight across the board yelled towards Tracy. The blonde shouted back her gratitude.
The pawn couldn’t trudge ahead anymore or else the bishop she was warned about would kill her. Yet she was so close to reaching the end of the board. Alongside her was one of the other bishops, Wu Chang, who was given orders to escort the pawn.
“Stay here.” Xie commanded the girl then ran alongside Fan to take down the black bishop that threatened her path.
Tracy looked around the battlefield and watched her friends fight for their lives as the black team pushed the offense. She watched many avoid attacks, hold off other soldiers, and shout their cries of pain.
Some of the opposing team’s soldiers were scattered on standby, who knows why they haven’t moved for a few minutes now.
“Ugh…” Tracy fell onto her knees, using the flag she carried as a lean support. All of that fighting and dodging was finally catching up.
The other team may have the same amount of troops as them but most weren’t pawns, chances of victory were shallow.
The blonde watched Wu Chang defeat the other bishop and run their way back to her. “Go! Get up, we have to move!” Fan yelled as Xie and him ran towards their teammate. Tracy pushed herself up and ran as fast as she could, losing the balance in her feet yet still pushing ahead.
The bishop followed behind, they were almost there. The two soldiers smiled at each other as they watched the little pawn catch herself up off the ground, she was gonna make it-
BANG
Tracy stopped in her tracks, the sudden gunshots were loud and sounded very close by. Did a rook miss his shot?
She didn’t feel any sort of injury, “Wu Chang are-”, the pawn turned around and was faced with the opposing team’s rook.
He stood where the tall bishop was, now they laid on the ground, lifeless.
Tracy dropped her flag and kneeled to the bodies, trying to find the smallest chance of them still being alive. “Xie? Fan!? Wake up!” She was on the verge of tears.
“Get over it, they’re dead.” The pawn looked up at the rook that was reloading his flintlock.
When did he come over to them? He was nowhere near.
That’s when it struck her, the rook was one of the black pieces on standby. And when there was an opening between them, he came over and shot Wu Chang.
“If they weren’t. It would be you on the floor.” The rook in front of her wore black goggles on top of his head, rolled up sleeves, big gloves, and had brown hair with a gold fade.
Tracy quickly got off the ground with her flag and immediately swung at the dark soldier. He swiftly dodged her attacks and laughed, he laughed at her.
The loud laughter echoed across the board and rang throughout her body.
“You are just a pawn, that flag couldn’t even hurt me even if you tried.” The rook chuckled at the pawn.
“Stop talking!” Tracy tried jabbing the brunette but he just kept avoiding the attempts.
“You aren’t worth my time, besides, it would be a waste of good gunpowder.” The rook looked down and that irritated her.
Tracy knew that she was just a low class piece, she has limitations, she’s weak, and she’s always used as a sacrifice, and this rook was just rubbing salt into the wound.
“I’d love to play a bit longer but I have an important role to play.” The brunette swiftly made his way towards her king.
She couldn't stand by and watch him kill anymore of her teammates, especially after the mockery.
-
“Was I too cruel to that pawn earlier?” Luca asked himself as he spun his pistol around.
The rook shook the feeling off and showed off a tooth smirk as he got closer to the opposing king.
“Good game, better luck next time.” Luca raised his gun to finish the game but instead was greeted with a bullet. The flintlock that was in the rook’s hand was shot out of his grasp, startling him and the king.
The white piece ran the other direction as the brunette went over to his gun.
“I thought we took down all the rooks.” Luca grabbed his weapon, and traced over the bullet burn. It was way too close to his fingers, the mark felt too accurate to be a missed shot.
“Yeah, you did.” A loud voice echoed from afar. It was the same pawn he had spared earlier.
The pawn no longer had her flag as it was now replaced with a musket rifle, her hair was up, and she adorned different clothes to represent her new status.
‘She reached the end of the board, but why didn’t she promote to a queen?’ Luca put on his goggles and dropped the happy expression he had on earlier.
The new rook lowered her rifle and walked over to him while reloading. “You could’ve promoted yourself to queen. It would have been easier to kill me.” The man walked towards the white soldier, offering a toothed smile.
“I don’t need you to explain what I could’ve done because I know, I can still kill you as a rook.” The blonde began to circle the man and he played along, following her invisible circle path.
“Bold, you are only capable of killing me now because I spared you. Remember what you were, low life pawn.” Luca furrowed his brow.
“If I were a bishop or knight, you’d still be dead. And you need to know that you’re a dead man walking.” The ‘rook’ stopped walking, indicating that she was finished conversing.
Luca stared at the woman diagonal from him. The loud clashing of metal and cries behind them was drowned out as they were now focused on each other.
The man grounded his foot into the floor, steadily watching the rook for her next move. She quickly dashed towards him.
Using the butt of her rifle to jab him in the stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs. Luca recovered quickly to grab her rifle, attempting to pull it out of her grasp. With the rifle dug into him, he tried to yank it to his side.
The short soldier gritted her teeth and pushed the stock deeper into him, trying to slip the gun out of his grasp.
“Why don’t you start shooting?” Luca stuttered to the white soldier.
“Why don’t you!?” She yelled at him and was able to get her gun back.
The brunette held his stomach and pointed his gun at her. Hand lightly quivering, still affected by the harsh jab.
She used his weak state as an opening to jump back, then pointing her rifle at him.
They both shot their weapons as they moved and limped, but both missed by a strand.
“Fuck.” They both hissed behind their teeth.
Luca missed her head, the hat she had on was evident with the black burn grazing its edge. And the woman missed his neck, the rook’s black collar had a small bullet hole through it's hem.
How irritating, this entire fight was happening just because he didn’t kill her. ‘I got too cocky, Joseph’s gonna be on my back later…’
It would’ve made everything easier if he didn’t spare her. The constant thought of regret rotated in his head.
“Screw it.” He put his gun into his holster and ran head first into the opposing soldier. Luca caught the woman off guard, tackling her to the ground.
-
Tracy had just missed her shot, she quickly tried to reload her rifle. Ripping a gunpowder packet with her teeth.
“C’mon c’mon…”
The rook ran to the right of the black soldier, avoiding his line of range; what she didn’t expect was him charging her. Eyes widening in shock, next thing Tracy knew, her gun was out of her hands and spun away from her.
The instant impact hurt but wasn’t painful. “Augh!” She coughed out.
That same black soldier was now on top of her, his knee was dug into her chest while the other laid flat onto the ground, giving him the leverage to keep her pinned. His gloved hands grabbed her collar, his face was covered in black smoke from her missed bullet.
Just looking at him caused aggravation, not only was he looking down on her earlier, now he had evidence of her own mistake right on himself.
“Whatever you are trying to prove, it’s not going to work!” The soldier yelled down.
“Shut up!” Tracy grabbed his collar, “You don’t know anything!”
The brunette felt himself get lifted as she used her own legs as a catapult. When she flipped herself back onto her feet, the rook slid to the rifle.
“Ack!” The black soldier whimpered in pain. He pushed himself off the ground and ran towards the white rook.
Tracy grabbed a metal ball from her bag, trying to speed up the gun reload while running. This had the other soldier quickly trying to reload, grabbing a gunpowder packet from his pocket and ripping it with his teeth.
The two were racing against time, pressure was tense as the only thing that could be heard on the board was them cocking their guns.
Tracy pointed her rifle at the man from afar, her eyes relaxed as she aimed for his head. At the same time the opposing soldier pointed his pistol at her with a hand, and his face had an indescribable expression.
She scrunched her brows and pulled the trigger.
-
Luca gritted his teeth, at the end of his gun was another soldier he had to defeat.
It’s always the same format, after one of the kings is toppled, the game resets and every piece will have to fight till they die. There was no end to this game of chess, at this very moment he hesitated to shoot the rook.
As much as the man wished he had gotten this over with earlier, he didn’t have the heart during that moment. “I’ll see you next match.” The rook whispered underneath his breath.
BANG
-
What was left on the board were two kings, and one rook.
Tracy’s expression stayed the same, as her body fell over. Luca watched as another soldier die by his hands, he didn’t mean to actually pull the trigger this round. His eyes blurred, the guilt of another death was now added to his hands, he didn’t want to kill this ‘pawn’.
But it was all a part of the endless game they were playing.
While the two were fighting, the black rook took all the blonde’s words to heart, her effort, and the tone of her anger felt like desperation and resentment. Luca sighed, and looked towards the white king.
The king ran himself into a corner as Luca trudged over to him, “Good match.” Luca reloaded his flintlock and shot the white chess piece. Black won this round and soon everything will reset, just to repeat the cycle.
In the end, Luca was right. Tracy was nothing more than a pawn, a piece used to benefit others, all that talk just for her to lose.