It was a sunny day on the bloody hills of Valhalla. There was a slight breeze and the gentle sound of lapping water from the nearby shoreline, it did not calm us though, but rather it reassured us that the end was near. Many good soldiers died that day (most of them me), and if we did not act fast all their sacrifices would be for nothing.

             Thirty seconds remained until the cease fire, and two deaths on either side would bring the battle to an end. My comrades and I were held up in the southern stronghold, with nothing but assault rifles and pistols. Out on the hill in front of us we were able to spot an enemy sniper. To our right sat a still warthog with an unfriendly gunner on back. And approaching from the left was a gigantic metallic behemoth, with more fire power than Richard Nixon in Vietnam, known more formally as a wraith. Their fourth ally was nowhere to be found.

            One of our less talented men couldn’t handle the stress, and rather than rising to the occasion he quit. Leaving us out numbered, out gunned, and out flanked. I must admit that I myself had given up, accepting the hopelessness of our situation. I was prepared to take a draw. However my good friend, known to the others only as Admorant, was not so easily beaten, and even in the fog of war he managed to see clearly the path to victory.

            Over head lay a large bulky weapon (pod rockets) which fired high accuracy low damage missiles.  It was the perfect tool for taking out unwanted vehicles. However, going to retrieve it would mean exposing ourselves to the sniper as well as the wraith, and once grabbed movement would be slow and extremely susceptible to enemy fire. Only Admorant was able to see that these were not hindrances but opportunities.

            Our foes were trigger happy ready to jump on any opportunity to end the game victoriously. We took advantage of this and sent our third man out to his imminent death.

            Within five seconds he hit the ground dead in a barrage of bullets, bombs, and a brilliant streak of red light, telling us their fourth member had rejoined the fight wielding some heavy fire power.

            In the same five seconds Admorant had hopped in a vacant warthog by the beach and drove it up to our fort where I jumped on the hood holding in my hands our last chance weapon.

            Admorant drove our improvised tank around the right side of our base where we received fire from the enemy warthog. It was too late though for our unfortunate foe as he was already being hit by four of our well timed rockets. A split second later Admorant made a sharp turn to avoid being hit by a giant blue flame sent at us from the wraith. As I slipped off the hood of our car, flying towards the earth, I fired 6 shots at our attacker.

            And in a single instant four things happened all at once. The wraith exploded, a sniper bullet pierced through the top of my head, a red light collided with our warthog killing Admorant, and the time ran out.

            We then returned to reality where we waited for the results of our match in complete silence, knowing that we may have lost, tied, or won the battle in the last fraction of a second. In the moment before our destinies were revealed we sat and contemplated whether or not we had made the best move, I think we all agreed that we would not have been satisfied ending the game any other way. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail”.   A flash of the screen showed us that the results were in, and with a wave of joy and relief we discovered that our risk had paid off.