The Duel

At 3p.m. on Tuesday 2nd December, the duel truce was declared, and the duel took place later that afternoon. In order to make it more about duelling skill rather than practice, the location of the duel wasn't revealed in advance. So with a large and enthusiastic bunch of spectators, the five duellists met at Clare Memorial Court to end it once and for all.

After the intended location wasn't available, we headed over to Robinson Thorney Creek. It was getting dark, and it wasn't a very well lit area, so we gave up any plans of having an ordered, tactical duel, and just decided to run around in the dark for a bit. Despite impressive attempts to keep the players apart, the usual groups formed, and began to circle the duel area, looking for an opportunity.

Matthew Johnson takes up the story:

With the darkness closing in, and the rain lashing down, a figure stepped out of the night to the group in front of him, who wanted to see him dead. The figure was dressed in black, a long coat trailing behind, him, eyes hidden secretivly behind sunglasses. The figure spoke. "It ends tonight".

Flinging the coat to one side, a large array of weapons were revealed. he draws, and starts to shoot....

The duel was held between five people, three allied by common interest, two by neccessity. We started spread out around the area, all out of sight. Quickly, the allies found each other, and started circling round the area. This went on for a while, until four of us ended up two each side of a wall, trying to work out a safe way to advance past it.

A commotion broke out the other side of the wall, as they were trying to climb their side, and I was tryiung to climb over from ours. The fifth player, who both sides thought they were allied with, had managed to sneak up behind Tom and Michael, and shot them both.

This was indeed Edward Allcutt's doing. Tom Garnett's view:
Banichi.
1/10 for being an evil, conniving, oathbreaking, traitorous, backstabbing bastard.
10/10 for being an evil, conniving, oathbreaking, traitorous, backstabbing bastard.

Sincerely, if posthumously, Minion

So it was down to three. But action was not long in coming...

With only the three Trinity Hall CompSci players remaining, Ed stepped out to announce the death of the Mathmos, and so Mike lunged and him and fired. Thinking the shot fatal, he declared Ed dead - assuming that I was out of RBG range of him. Unfortunately for him, my secret weapon, the uber-long RBG, had more range than he'd guessed, and my shots were the last thing he heard as he turned towards me to announce Ed's death.

Was that the end? Had Matthew Johnson won? No! For although the body of Michael Cripps lay motionless on the ground, the body of Edward Allcutt stirred slightly.
"Tis only a flesh wound!" he cried. "I live!"

It was a close call, but in the darkness it seemed that the shot had most likely hit his upper arm. As Matthew Johnson was far too honourable to finish Ed off there and then, so we relocated to a beter lit and smaller area for the decider. A one armed Allcutt against Johnson.

Just as I was about to be declared victorious, Ed's body stirred. Bloody, and without an arm, but not dead, he got up, determined to still fight (as the discussion about whether he was actually dead had taken a while, we relocated to a better lit location, I reloaded, and we restarted). The final two players circled the undergrowth warily. Ed, with one arm, had selected a pellet gun for range, I also had a pellet gun, and my long RBG - doubled loaded for a spread effect. This turned out to be decisive. With more ammo, I could shoot at him without hitting, and then move closer with each time he hid from the shot. Finally, I was close enough and dived out of cover, firing my long RBG. He got one shot off, which went wide, and then several of mine impacted his chest, and it was the end. I had won.

I missed the finale due to chatting with spectators, but the bullet ridden body of Edward Allcutt lying on the ground, and a smug grin on the face of Matt told the story.

All the tension, all the paranoia, all the stresses and strains, it had finally come down to one. To rapturous crowd approval, Trinity Hall's Matthew Johnson was awarded his MA for a superb game, and headed off into the night, looking for adventures anew and fresh challenges.
As he left, and I found myself alone, I sat down and surveyed the scene. The blood of so many friends had been spilt, so much pain, so many tears. I wondered who would challenge next, I knew the cycle would repeat next term; perhaps a different cast, but the same script. Time would tell. It always does. With one final glance back at so much that had gone before, with a rueful smile of so many highlights, I allowed myself to be hidden in the dark and faded away.

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