Multiplayer Read Online Free

face me,” sneered Mal-X. “Face me! Like a Man! Or perhaps you are not a man at all?”
    Izaak retraced his steps and picked up a shotgun he’d passed a moment earlier. He’d have to be careful up close with that nexus blade, but he had an idea that would level the field. Mal-X respawned and, as soon as he entered the courtyard, Izaak activated his arc-sword. A thin rod sprang from the handle and twin arcs of crackling electricity glowed from the hilt to the end of the rod, forming a long, narrow blade. As Izaak had known he would, Mal-X pulled his nexus blade to meet the head-to-head challenge. Izaak saw the edge glowing gold as they approached one another. He’d have to time this just right. At the last second, Izaak dropped the arc-sword and whipped out the shotgun. Mal-X cried out and lunged forward, but before his stroke fell, Izaak’s blast caught him point-blank. “How’s that for a blowjob!” Izaak laughed, making the score eight to five.
    “ Shem et Duat! ” snarled Mal-X. “That is the last time you will kill me!”
    This was too easy. Time to end it. Mal-X reappeared and wandered into the courtyard again. What an idiot, laughed Izaak. Typical Muslim. He must have realized he couldn’t match Izaak and was giving up. Hector put Vera’s crosshairs on Mal-X’s head and pulled the trigger.
    But Mal-X vanished in a glittering flash, leaving the bullet’s vapor trail to arc through the emptiness and fade into the distance. Izaak gaped in surprise and an instant later fell to the ground. A message popped up on his HUD, You were killed by Mal-X. “What the heck was that?” he roared.
    “That’s called a melee attack,” said Mal-X, and Izaak could hear laughter in his words.
    “No, I mean, how did you –” But there was no time to discuss it. Hector respawned atop a tower. Blinded by rage and temporarily unable to think, Izaak crouched down, hidden behind the low wall that encircled the top of the tower. How did he do that? Hector wondered.
    A red blip appeared on Izaak’s motion sensor, but before he could turn around Mal-X, who had not come up the stairs, attacked from behind and killed him again. The score was now eight-seven. “You freaking douche!” Izaak howled in rage, a tornado-like fury rising inside his stomach. “You’re cheating!”
    “So like an American,” said Mal-X calmly. “Swearing to sound tough. You don’t sound tough, little boy.”
    Hector told Mal-X exactly what he thought about that comment, but it was soon nine-eight in favor of Mal-X, and Izaak spawned in a closed room he remembered as being where he’d first spawned. Hector was so angry by now, his teeth were clenched and his hands shaking. This guy was cheating! Hector didn’t know how, but he was sure of it.
    He crouched and made his way to a window where he waited, panting. Mal-X crept by outside and Izaak silently dropped a grenade on him. “Eat that, asshole!” snarled Hector through clenched teeth, as the bomb went off. Nine-nine.
    A moment later Izaak zeroed Mal-X in Vera’s sights but couldn’t hold it steady. He thought back to what his father had told him. This wasn’t a real gun but the principle was the same. Breathe. Breathe. When he felt his hands steady he squeezed the trigger on his controller. But Mal-X disappeared again. Izaak sprinted, then crouched down again, waiting. He got in position for another shot and fired. The virtual bullet went through virtual air. The virtual Mal-X was gone.
    “Victory is mine!” cried Mal-X an instant later, as Izaak tumbled to the ground for the last time.
    “You cheating loser!” howled Izaak in disbelief. “I’m going to report you!”
    “Bring it on, kid,” Mal-X laughed. “Bring it on. You know where to find me.”
    A cut scene rolled and Hector watched as his never-before-defeated vanguard, Izaak Ersatz, knelt and offered his beloved Vera to the masked, turban-wearing Mal-X, who lifted it high in triumph. The illusion of the game crumbled. He