The breeze on the battlefield was light. It brushed past the large hedges lining both sides of the lane without giving away anyone who might be hiding within them. Denethor Dawnbreak protector of the realm adjusted the mighty sword on his back. It was almost as large as he was but he weilded it in one hand with ease. He was a mountain of a man with long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He had one long scar running down his left cheek scarring what would otherwise be an overly handsome face; complete with a clefted square jaw lightly covered in stubble.

        As he surveyed his lane he frowned. Sure there were endless waves mooks who charged him headlong but he never batted an eye as he slaughtered them with a deft grace. They died with a shrill squeal and a puff of smoke. One of them broke away from him, Denethor turned but he was too late. He swore under his breath but as he turned to chase he knew it was pointless. A watchtower behind him lit up blue and a sapphire beam shot out of it and burned the intruder as he ran. Denethor was unphased by the scene. "All clear up top. It’s a little too quiet if you ask me."

        "Alright Dene, I’m on my way. Stay  close to the tower though. I don’t want you to over-extend yourself. " A female voice said with a playful tenor.

        "The Jungle is quiet as well." Another voice called out. This one was gruff and deep with a hint of excitement to it. " I think it might be smart to group up and push the top lane. The last I saw, the enemy was gathering there."

        "Alright Myra and I are on our way as well." A third voice called. This one was also deep but monotone and almost sad.

        "Let me just grab a mana-rune and I’ll be right there." A small female voice piped up. It was soft and faint with very little confidence behind it.

        After a couple seconds a wood elf appeared. She had dark brown smooth bark skin and big bright green eyes. Her slim form was covered by a motley collection of autumn leaves ans she wore a bark quiver which sprouted an infinite supply of arrows. "Sylvia Thorn here reporting for duty." She gave a half salute "Captain Denethor." She said with a wink. Denethor rolled his eyes Sylvia never took anything seriously. Elves were always a jovial bunch. How their lively race entered this dour war he could only guess.

        A couple seconds more and a short dwarf with an axe on his back and weilding two flintlock pistols burst in. Stonebeard the dwarven hunter. "I scouted the other team’s jungle, they were nowhere to be found." Another figure appeared behind the dwarf. Denethor had not even noticed him at first. Tall and dark this had red eyes and two silver long-swords that he carried with an uneasy grace. He wore a long coal-black cloak with shadows seemingly coming off it in a fog. Denethor shook his head "Zaul I didn’t see you arrive."

        "I have come" was all the respose he offered.

A scream rang out of the jungle. "It sounds like Myra!" Stonebeard shouted. They all ran into the jungle.

        As they ran into the jungle a thick web shot out through a bush and caught Zaul by surprise. He didn’t have time to grab his blades before large spiny legs wrapped him in a thick cocoon. The team hesitated on whether or not to go forward towards Myra or back to Zaul when a large scaly green lizardman bowled into Denethor through a wall. "Don’t worry about me! Free the others." Denethor called out.

        There was some movement in a bush and before anything could come out Stonebeard charged in shooting his flintlock pistols. A second later he and another figure emerged from the bush the dwarf with a fear spell icon over his head forcing him to run away and the other was a floating woman with long black robes and long silvery hair streaking out behind a faceless hood. She cast another spell that appeared to be a debuff and then a couple damage over time spells on the dwarf.

        Sylvia immediately fired off a few arrows at the white haired lady forcing her to back off. A sticky white web shot out at Sylvan from where she last saw Zaul ambushed but she managed to side-step it. As she does a large spider-like creature emerges from the bush and gives chase. Sylvan dashes as fast as her elven legs will take her to the nearest hedge and dives headlong into it. She darts off to another set of bushes trying desperately to shake the monsterous arachnid. A second later she emerges where they had heard the scream only to find a now still form of Myra lying next to a murderous looking werewolf creature. He instinctively sniffed the air and looked directly in Sylvia’s direction.

        She decided it was time to move again and ducked back into the bush from which she had just emerged. Unfortunately there was also a very large spider back that way. A large web enveloped her and as she struggled to get free the werewolf caught up to her and clawed at her back. She could feel the claws dig deep into her skin. As a last ditch effort she pulled out her grappling hook arrow and shot it at the nearest wall to put some distance between herself and her pursuers.

        Denethor Dawnbreak was fighting for his very life. Blood and sweat converged on his forehead. Every blow and parry might be his last. His foe was a giant dragon-man with smoke escaping from his jowls. Sylvia loosed a volley into the large fire monster. The beast man paused and blew a breath of flame at Sylvia. Luckily she was too far away for it to burn her. At most it singed her verdant cape. The momentary switch from enemies was his downfall as Dawnbreak greatsword pierced his scaly hide.

        They didn’t have much time to celebrate before his friends showed up. The spider and Werewolf were joined by the robed witch. As a stream of webbing spewed  forth at Sylvia. Denethor jumped in front blocking with his sword and saving Sylvia. "Go on! You have to make it otherwise they will overrun the base!" Sylvia nodded and pulled out her grappling hook arrow again. The werewolf made a move to leap out at her but once again Denethor moved to block his path. In a minute she was up and over the nearest wall. Sprinting as fast as she could back to the base. If she could only manage to get back there she could activate the defenses and maybe hold out until reinforcements arrived.

        Just as she rounded the last tower and darted out of the last bush and up the stairs toward the base when she heard a ’click’ and one of her legs would not move. She looked down and her leg was caught in a comically large bear trap. Next to it was a bomb with an also similarly large decorative ribbon. She tried to pull out her grappling hook arrow but it was shot out of her hands by a small imp with a once again strangely large crossbow for its diminutive size. All she could do was watch as the timer on the bomb ticked down to zero.

DEFEAT popped up on Brittany’s screen. "Not again guys!" She slumped down into her seat in dismay.

        Many voices all started arguing at once. All of her team and the others there tried to talk over one another. Some had helpful comments to share but most were just angry vitriol spewed at eachother others were jeers at certain characters or players.

        "It was Myra’s fault!" someone said.

        "Yeah," another voice chimed in. "If she hadn’t been caught out alone when the enemy team was MIA we might not have been ambushed!"

        "It’s not my fault! I was practically one-shot by that Lukas Caine! that werewolf weasel! He needs a nerf like yesterday!

        "It’s not my fault I picked a powerful character! You must just be bad!"

        "You’re all a bunch of noobs!"

        Brittany couldn’t take anymore of the bickering "Stop making excuses! We lost! Let’s move on! But next time we are definitely switching the teams up. Ugh OK I’m done. I’m logging out!" She turned the game off. As she came out of her cubicle she noticed that many of the other players were also coming out. A few men approached them as they came out. One sat down with Brittany as she came out too. He wore black slacks and a white polo shirt. He had a lanyard with a badge that said ’Champion Arena Employee’ across it.

        "I wanted to ask you a couple questions before you left." He said enthusiastically. Brittany nodded and sat down with him. "Okay, first what did you think of the game?"

        "It was AWESOME! I mean the active camera needs a little work and some of the mechanics are a little archaic, I mean last hitting minions? Really? But the real difference maker was the new Visceral Environment System. I mean I was THERE! I could even smell the forest air! That’s just incredible!"

        ’Yes that is the new proprietary software of VideoCorp. We are planning on debuting it with the game."

        "Oh yeah I can’t wait to tell everyone all about it on my stream channel."

        "Well," the man nervously cleared his throat "There is an NDA you signed when you came in today remember? That prevents you from talking about the details of the game and what you have experienced here today."

        "Oh yeah." Brittany was a little taken aback by the bluntness of the statement. "No totally...yeah I knew that." She said a little less enthusiastically.

The man went on in detail about how the NDA worked and what she had agreed to but she just heard white noise and suddenly she really did not want to be a part of this conversation anymore. She slowly backed away from the man who was sapping all of the fun out of the survey the room the city and her life.

        Back at her apartment  Brittany turned on her computer. She waited for the warm glow and familiar tones to lull her to a more comfortable place. She cracked her neck and prepared for getting into streaming persona. She switched on her camera as smiled as she went live.

         "Hey all! It’s Battle Brittany we got a new game today called ’Champions Arena’ that little bit I CAN say. I’m not allowed to really talk about it, but I can say that I am super-stoked! It was easily the most exciting game I have EVER played."

        She adjusted the camera and got closer to it. "Just between you and me after the alpha test I went and grabbed an application and you may be looking at the brand new intern of VideoCorp! I know I know it’s not a paid position but its a step right? Right? Maybe after a year or so... who know? I could be helping design games!"

        She squeed a little in delight. "You could have the pleasure of watching the incorrigible Battle Brittany before she became queen of her own game series! Its a dream of mine and am hyper-excited to be on that yellow brick road. Anyways I hope you are ready to see me kick some butt on Assault Bots Attack! Woo!"

        Mr. Wilson wore a suit. It was grey and it did not quite match with his tie, but he was unaware of that although he kept touching his tie unconsciously as if his aesthetic senses were trying to tell him something. Along side him in a cold sterile room with a glass table with twelve seats and a blank white board and projector. There was a TV on the wall making the projector jealous but the TV was too smug to notice. "Mr. Green," he started without looking at the man he was talking to. As it stands right now the Visceral Environment Technology is not a viable option unless we can impress the investors."        

        Mr. Green did not feel comfortable with his suit at all. It wasn’t his tie either. That he had nailed. It was a very classy bugs bunny tie that screamed professionalism. No it might have been that at 19 years old Mr. Green was not used to being called Mr. Green and that his suit was at least two sizes too big and for some reason had no prints of looney tunes characters anywhere on it. It might also be that he was talking to the CEO of the VideoCorp company personally and being threatened with AT LEAST his job and probably his life if TV shows he watched had taught him anything.

        "But Sir, the players absolutely loved the tech. The game was what they disliked if anything."

        "Mr. Green, the game is not what we are discussing at the moment."

        "It has dated mechanics and laughably generic stereotyped characters." Mr. Green continued to argue nervously.

        "Kevin!" Mr. Wilson caught the anger in his throat and swallowed. He tugged at his mismatched tie and loosened it just a little. "The game will be addressed later. Right now I need to see a reason to put it into our new game. The cost of it is nearly triple what it would take to make the game itself. It doesn’t seem like a good investment. Sure a few gamers who got invited to a top secret alpha with paid accomodations might say they "liked" it isn’t enough. I am afraid that you will need to pack your bags. You have a week until friday and then you are out."

        "But... I won’t even be able to work in the industry without this game. My tech-"

        Mr. Wilson cut him off "Your technology is the property of VideoCorp. So that means yes, if the game is not made we will not use your technology. Since we bought it we decide how to use it."

        "Without that no one will even know what I am capable. I have nothing else! No one will hire me for my coding skills with no proof of what I am capable of."

        "That’s not really our problem here at VideoCorp and after Friday, neither will you be."
        "That’s it?!" Mr. Green, better known as Kevin was flabbergasted and not just at the ugly tie Mr. Wilson had.  "Is there nothing I can do to change the investor’s minds?"

        Mr. Wilson smirked a knowing smirk that only those who practice their smirks in the mirror can really pull off with any efficacy. "Nothing I am afraid." He said matter of factly, but just as Mr. Green thought he would leave it at that the CEO paused. "Nothing unless you could somehow actually place the user inside the game, but that’s just a silly fantasy."

        Mr. Green was left in the cold sterile room, with a smug television and a jealous projector. The Whiteboard of course was too polite to say anything. Mr. Green made his way down to his office which had no real objects with any animosity towards eachother except for his computer. He started to work frentically on it. Otherwise he would lose his job and his tech. At least the TV shows were wrong, he was still alive but his tech was all that made him stand out in the industry, but he stupidly sold it to VideoCorp, and now if he lost his job he would have to get a new one. He shuddered at the thought of working at some retail chain or worse yet fast food. No, somehow he would need to makehis tech viable and so he worked and his computer hated him for it.