A few days later, the familiar sound of battle could be heard from the site of the behemoth’s rampage.

-32

A red damage figure floated above TidalWave’s head as his arm was hit by a magic blast. He grunted as the hit blew away a large amount of his health. Another few shots like that and he would be dead.

He jumped to the side to dodge more incoming missiles and breathed in relief as his partner forced his opponent to stop firing and instead retreat as arrows rained on her. TidalWave followed his enemy and closed in but she saw him coming and carefully aimed a few more blasts at him.

By now he was used to her pattern. Even if each shot was precise, she couldn’t concentrate fully on aiming at him and also on dodging the arrows. But that didn’t make her any less dangerous. Once he got in close she sacrificed her accuracy for a more rapid-fire rate. She fired shot after shot at his torso and he raced to make more distance between them rather than coming closer.

She was too dangerous up close.

He grabbed one of the disposable swords he had purchased in Lum and threw it towards his enemy. At the same time that he threw the sword, his ally covered his back by shooting another arrow directly at her. Unless she dodged perfectly she would get hit by at least one of the attacks.

But she was expecting it.

“Wind blast.”

The blast of wind pushed the sword out of the air and his opponent dodged the arrow and sprinted towards him. He lifted his sword to retaliate against her onslaught. She was completely on the attack now. She ignored the arrows that breezed past her as she used the minimal movements required to dodge them.

When she finally got in close to TidalWave she lifted her wand and fired more magic blasts at him. He dodged the first few but at the last second one caught him in the chest and he blanched.

-32

Taking advantage of this, his opponent moved in for the kill and he smiled. He activated his shadow dance skill and used the increased movement speed to dance around his attacks and reach her back, slashing at her repeatedly until her body fell, lifeless, onto the grass.

His trap had worked perfectly.

“DAMN IT.”

Seven stamped her foot in frustration when she revived. She still hadn’t killed either TidalWave or Archy, let alone won against them. But she had come close several times now. Their fights were lasting longer and longer and she had refined quite a few of her battle skills.

She would conserve mana by firing only at opportune times, she had also begun aiming more precisely to force TidalWave to stay back and dodge but had also learned to forsake some accuracy in order to hurt him.

‘And the two bastards still won’t die.’ She grumbled to herself.

Archy pretended to wipe his virtual brow as he walked up to TidalWave. “She almost got you that time, right?”

“Yes.” TidalWave was stony-faced as he focused entirely on the previous fight, “I won’t be able to use that ability too many more times before she stops falling for it.”

“Dang it.” Archy cocked his bow. “I’m going to come in closer. We’ll both pressure her with a joint attack.”

Spark Joy continued to sit to the side as she watched the duels with interest. She knew TidalWave and Archy were continuously changing their tactics to match Seven’s progress. Amazement was only one emotion she was feeling at the girl’s abilities. Sure, she hadn’t won a single match yet or killed either of her opponents. But she was getting ridiculously close.

Spark Joy had gone on several dryad and treant raids with Seven and noted that the girl was getting more and more skilled. Whenever they were picking up items Seven would take the chance to fire at leaves, and when Spark Joy traveled with Third he confirmed she was getting better at her other skills too. She asked about TidalWave and Archy as well and noted that they were also growing in skill.

“WHAT WAS THAT?” Archy bellowed a question as a magic blast that had clearly missed a second ago hit him.

Spark Joy had seen this occasionally too, but only against monsters. Seven could change the direction of her magic sometimes. She had even shifted, albeit slightly, the direction of Archy’s arrows occasionally. Unfortunately, she couldn’t shift the direction much and usually ended up being hit because of the change rather than having it help her. It seemed like it required a lot of concentration, however, because TidalWave quickly dispatched her as she hesitated for a second after doing it.

A player that could both deflect enemy attacks and change the direction of her own. If she could perfect that weapon, then the magi would become an even more formidable opponent.

It hadn’t been fighting the entire week. Spark Joy and her team had completed several quests in the entire outer ring area. Not only quests calling for the culling of ordinary monsters but also new quests that wanted the deaths and items dropped by corrupted creatures. The purple glowing things were slowly spreading and now it wasn’t rare to find a corrupted creature even among the wolves that prowled outside the outer ring of the woods.

Alongside the spreading of corruption was the destruction of a lot of ingredients. Luckily their team had been collecting and storing a lot of them within Lum. They only rarely used the spiked fruit to repel monsters from their back line. However, many of the other teams that had appeared in the woods were finding it difficult to find a large amount of the plants that had been so prevalent before.

Luckily the team had found several corrupted and uncorrupted magica that not only allowed them to complete their quest to kill the monsters but also provided them with ingredients. Unfortunately, during the last two days, even the corrupted magica had dropped corrupted ingredients.

Other teams were becoming a far more common sight now. New players in the area were around level 28-29 at the highest. They were usually a lot lower in level on average. The team had even come across a crowd of hooded figures numbering over a hundred players fighting monsters. Archy had almost immediately run from the sight before complaining that the odd dwarf society was multiplying like rabbits.

Spark Joy herself had reached level 32. The other team members were all within the level 32-33 range as well. Their clearing speed of high-level monsters and their quest rewards had left them far ahead of the ordinary players. This was including the hours some of them spent dueling instead of farming.

“We should take on the inner ring area today.” Spark Joy spoke to Roxxy who as usual was sitting next to her watching the duels with sparkling eyes.

They had joined in and fought duels against the others as well, but Seven, Archy, and TidalWave had fought the most duels out of all of them. Every team member was rapidly improving.

Spark Joy hadn’t thought it possible for her to improve her skills so quickly but being surrounded by powerful players that she could fight any time had given her a lot more experience than she was used to. They had almost all gone under extreme transformations.

“Indeed.” Third had been in the nearby woods farming. “It is a good time to try and beat the wilders.”

He had taken to scouting the area for ingredients and clearing mobs while the others were dueling. He enjoyed the fights when he took part, but he knew he could gain more by leveling and practicing his control. He could completely destroy Seven in a one-on-one duel because from a long-range he could summon rifts in front of her attacks and cause every shot she fired to damage her. If she didn’t attack from a long-range, he would instead summon the rifts on her body to hurt her. He could also dodge very well despite his avatar’s size so he wasn’t an easy opponent at all.

He was a perfect counter to magi.

Archy and Spark Joy also had trouble fighting Third one on one. The only person who seemed able to completely overwhelm him was TidalWave.

“Okay, okay.” Seven huffed as they finished the latest duel. “We’re all here. We should get moving onto the next thing.”

She still felt miffed that she couldn’t kill either TidalWave or Archy. She had come so close with that surprise magic blast that had hit Archy. She had lost count of how many duels they’d all fought together but she was willing to bet a few hundred but less than a thousand. She lasted a lot longer now against both her opponents and was even damaging them to dangerous levels. Give it a few weeks and she might be able to defeat them.

At least she could dream.

“We’re going to have to make our play for the wilders soon.” Third could see two parties already farming monsters around them, “This place is starting to crowd.”

Their ultimate goal as a party was to reach the dragon's treasure. Unfortunately, the mysterious corruption was slowing them down but if they allowed other teams to catch up, then they risked someone else stumbling onto the treasure before them.

The team nodded their heads and walked toward the inner forest, killing corrupted monsters as they walked. Peppered amongst the treants and dryads were the occasional chameleon monsters that would strike at them from behind. Fortunately, they had grown used to the attacks and Seven and Third dodged the strikes easily. The full-grown chameleons were apparently all corrupted and their items drops were useless except for the cash.

Soon they reached the smog that blanketed the inner ring. They’d heard from the citizens and guards of Lum that this smog was a recent addition to the forest. Whatever was corrupting the creatures had probably caused this mysterious phenomenon as well.

The team prepared to fight as an arrow came flying out of the dark and Spark Joy blocked it with her shield. They still had the same equipment as they’d had a few days ago but most of them were close to getting extreme upgrades. Seven was planning to buy the advanced wand once she returned and the others all had their eyes on good things. Before that, they needed to clear the wilder quests and corrupted wilder quests to net them a lot of cash.

TidalWave jumped into action alongside Roxxy as they flew into the wilders that came out of the smog and began their assault. Archy and Seven aimed their attacks at the wilders heads to get critical hits. Seven was finally confident enough after so much practice against leaves to hit towards the vital areas of her enemies. She still missed more than she hit, unfortunately, but the party insisted she continue to practice instead of going for the easy damage. They all knew it would help in the long run.

The wilders were tough to kill but each one occasionally dropped a large sum of silver and even a few odds and ends like steel arrows for Archy. Their ingredients were all corrupted, which made Seven sad. There were a lot of wasted plants due to the wilders being natural foragers.

The wilders were actually a primitive species closer to people than monsters. Asking around Lum had revealed the fact that the wilder tribe here were normally war-like and worshipped a dragon they believe lived deep in the woods.

It was a dead-on hint that the team was on the right track to finding the dragon's treasure. If the actual location of the treasure had been another few days out into the wilderness they would have probably given up by now.

The wilder archer let out a shriek as Spark Joy's sickle dismembered it and they finished it with an arrow to the eye.

Archy seemed to have taken personal offense to the computer-aided aim of the mobs.

They spread out as they walked into the fog. This was where it became a little more difficult to navigate. They didn’t think they would lose each other but the lack of visibility meant that they could accidentally risk stumbling onto more than one group. Worse, if the enemies called for reinforcements like all corrupted creatures seemed to be able to do, more enemies than they could handle could surround the team.

“How far can you see?” Third asked Archy while eyeing the surroundings.

The game had apparently given Archy keener senses than they had due to his class as an archer, “Nothing on this side.”

“Same over here.” “Same.” Seven and Roxxy said before Third turn to ask them.

Apparently players part of the elf race also had keen senses inside this fog.

They had already taken some minor forays into the smog previously but hadn’t gone too far before being ambushed by too many enemies for them to handle. This time they were confident they were high leveled enough to handle any enemies that might try to ambush them.

More arrows flew towards them in the darkness and they sprinted towards their new opponents. Each wilder provided them with ample experience and because no other parties were exploring this deep there were plenty of enemies nearby. Soon the entire party received a welcome notification.

[Quest completed; Greater Wilder subjugation.]

[Quest complete; Lesser Wilder Archer subjugation.]

The guard captain in Lum would give them a reward when they reported back to him. They would probably receive a greater reward than usual due to the corrupted status of the wilders. They had also received a quest to kill their corrupted counterparts that they would complete soon.

They continued to farm deep into the woods and most of them leveled again as they slew the creatures. Each one of them was skilled enough to dodge the wilder arrows and swords easily. Even if the smog obscured their enemies they still had to come close eventually.

[Quest completed; Greater Corrupted Wilder subjugation.]

[Quest complete; Lesser Corrupted Wilder Archer subjugation.]

They celebrated their accomplishments and headed back to Lum. They had hunted hundreds of wilders. They still had two quests to complete in the inner ring area which asked them to discover four kinds of enemies in the inner ring and four kinds of plants but due to the smog, the search for plants was difficult. The one species they had found was completely corrupted and unusable so they didn’t have too much incentive to look under such unfavourable conditions.

“Oh man finally.” Archy breathed a sigh of relief as they exited the inner ring. “That place gives me the creeps.”

“Oh-my-god I know right,” Roxxy nodded her head. “Damn things keep coming out of nowhere. We need some sort of leaf blower to get all the fog out of the way.”

Seven had tried using her wind magic to blow away the smog but since it only moved things a single foot it had been less than helpful.

They chattered happily until they reached the gates of Lum and walked into the nearby guardhouse.

[Commander Gut: Lvl 120.]

All the NPC guards were extremely high level, but unfortunately never left the city.

“Ah, you’re back.” Commander Gut said with some surprise, “I didn’t think it’d take you so little time. Very good work, especially given the current circumstance in the forest.”

“We are happy to assist the great city of Lum in this time of unrest.” Third responded with a smile.

Archy rolled his eyes at the display and eyed the surroundings.

Military men filled the guardhouse and players undergoing quests flocked around them. There were a few powerful-looking groups among those present but they mostly avoided Archy and the others.

They hadn’t bothered to keet their spars in the forest secret from others. They didn’t really see a need to hide the duels and quite a few players had come for a peek at what all the ruckus was about. At first, it had been parties that thought monsters were fighting but then as word got around that it was a party of players practicing the occasional player came by to watch.

It quickly became clear that Archy’s party was not one they wanted to mess with.

Archy smiled and waved at the ones looking at them. Only a small fraction of the players around here had seen them dueling but those that had didn’t forget the sight. They were especially wary around Seven.

The girl had been concentrating so deeply during the duels that Archy doubted she’d even noticed players watching her. But she was the only one of the players that constantly fought against two opponents for hours on end.

She hadn’t won but the people watching hadn’t cared about that. Most were skilled enough to see that TidalWave and Archy were insane players in their own right. Seven hadn’t reached their level yet but she was scary strong just for challenging them and holding her own.

[You have received: 4 gold.]

Archy received the quest reward alongside a huge chunk of experience and leveled to 35. He could see the others had all reached level 34-35 as well.

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Greater Corrupted Wilder Archer subjugation. Information: Kill 400 Corrupted Wilder Archers. Reward: ???]

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Third’ to take on the quest: Greater Wilder Archer subjugation. Information: Kill 300 Wilder Archers. Reward: ???]

Archy happily accepted the new quests. Soon they would head deeper into the inner ring and try to reach the dragon hoard. It was only a matter of time.

“Alright, time to go shopping.” Archy’s eyes shone.

He could honestly sell the rare ingredients that they had all collected in the first few days for a lot of gold due to their rarity. But he had instead waited and saved money in anticipation for the day the corruption spread further and wiped out the supply of all the ingredients. Eventually, it would be fixed by players taking quests but he would make sure to make a gigantic profit before then.

“What are you going to get?” He asked Seven as the team walked out into the street.

“New wand.” Seven was practically drooling as she prepared to go to the magi guild.

She had her eye on some pretty powerful equipment.

“Heh. Looks like me and Tidal will have to step up our game.” Archy laughed.

“Hi there.” A new voice called out to them, “Are you TidalWave, Archy, Spark Joy, Third, and Roxxy?”

The team turned towards this new person who had listed almost all of their names.

“Yup, that’s most of us.” Roxxy pointed at her last teammate. “You forgot Seven.”

“Oh.” He looked at Seven with a bit of confusion, then his eyes cleared as he remembered something, “Oh.” Then he promptly dismissed her in his mind and turned to face the rest of the team.

“Wide vocabulary you have there buddy.” Archy didn’t like the way he had ignored Seven. “What do you want?”

“I-um, wait one second.” The man turned around and cupped his hands into a microphone shape around his mouth. “Hey guys, I found them!”

“Annoying.” TidalWave seemed as equally pissed as Archy at the person’s attitude.

The team tensed as they heard his tone of voice. If this new person hadn’t ignored Seven like that, then he wouldn’t be this mad.

“Relax.” Third seemed to think of something. “I think I know why this is happening.”

“Andrew- I mean, Attracting.” Seven said dryly as she worked it out as well. “There’s probably no other person who would forget about me if they were looking at our team.”

Her friend had probably completely forgotten that she was travelling alongside TidalWave and the others and she could see him mentioning her as a ‘tag-along’ or something along those lines.

“We don’t know that for sure.” Spark Joy was a little more skeptical.

They had gotten the attention of a few different players because of their duels.

Four other people joined the man and the five cheerfully sauntered up to them.

Then Archy and the team watched in surprise as the person who appeared to be the leader lifted his hand and smashed it on the back of the first person’s head.

“I saw what this dope did.” the leader turned towards Seven and gave a low bow, “My sincerest apologies. He’s a pretty rude guy but he doesn’t mean bad. I’m Nastin.”

“Seven.” Seven smiled in response and gave her name, “Don’t worry.” She eyed Archy with a cheeky grin. “We have someone like that in our team too.”

Archy humphed lightheartedly at her words.

“How may we help you?” Third was surprisingly curt.

He had really wanted to go shopping.

“Well, this is a little bit of a strange situation we have here.” Nastin gestured towards his team. “We would like to duel you. Perhaps in a team battle in the arena or individual duels.”

At the word, ‘duel’ Third could see several of his teammate’s eyes light up. He sighed internally, he knew that they were battle maniacs and that since they weren’t under any time constraints, the others would probably want to fight.

“Why.” TidalWave took over the conversation.

Contrary to the look in Spark Joy and Archy’s eyes, he wasn’t as excited. He found it strange that a team would come out of nowhere to challenge them.

“Well.” Nastin coughed, “We’re a group of players called Dark Horse. We like to challenge powerful players in every game we play.”

“Oh.” TidalWave said flatly, “Yes. I know of you.”

“That’s a big claim to make.” Spark Joy added with darkened eyes.

“Oh?” Seven could see that all of her teammates had heard of this ‘Dark Horse’ group.

“They’re a group of professional players.” TidalWave saw her confusion and explained it.

“Exactly.” Nastin smiled and nodded, “But of course the game is still young so the pro scene hasn’t fully been established yet. It will be soon but until then we’re just levelling and getting further towards our second classes.”

‘I really have to get up to date on this sort of stuff.’ Seven thought to herself.

“That doesn’t explain how you found us.” TidalWave had the feeling that this was more than a weird coincidence or journey of curiosity, “Or why.”

He didn’t care whether they were actually a professional group of players. He had the feeling they weren’t lying and they had no reason to either. It was a rather strange claim to make to strangers.

“Well, we met this player called Attracting-” Nastin began and then stopped as the team he was speaking to let out a collective groan, “Uh, I guess you really do know him.” he saw that they weren’t going to interrupt and continued, “Well weird thing is, he came to us and he knows us all. We don’t exactly advertise ourselves as a pro team, especially when a game is starting out. That gets really annoying with people following us around or spamming us with messages. So when he revealed he knew our identities we were pretty surprised.”

Now they'd convinced TidalWave that they weren't lying. He was starting to think that Attracting’s ability to spot strong players was nearing supernatural levels.

“So he’s a friend of yours.” TidalWave concluded.

‘Huh. That’s weird.’ Seven didn’t know that Andrew knew professional gamers in real life.

When had that happened?

“No, no.” Nastin shook his head at their expressions, “We don’t know him in real life, or at least if we do we don’t know who he is. But somehow he knew who we were so since he listed you guys as a pro team of five we should fight… We came to fight you.”

Nastin coughed lightly at his explanation. He could already see from the looks he was being given by the other team that they had no idea what he was talking about.

“He said we were a pro team?” Archy had a hint of ridicule in his voice.

“Yes.”

“A pro team of five… and did Attracting mention Seven?” TidalWave gestured to Seven who tried to hide out of sight and at the sudden attention.

“He may have mentioned that an ordinary player named Seven would…” He hesitated as he thought of what Attracting had told them, “Tag along.

‘I knew it.’ She felt like facepalming at her friend’s predictability.

“Man that guy is really annoying.” Archy had honestly forgotten Attracting existed until today.

“So we came here for nothing?” Nastin’s teammate that had first spotted the team complained.

“Oh um,” Nastin seemed embarrassed by the sudden turn of events. “Sorry for bothering you then. It seems like that guy told us some bad information.”

“No.” Third shook his head and took TidalWave’s place as a speaker, “He led you to the right place for a fight.”

Third didn’t know what Attracting was up to but frankly, he didn’t care about that annoyance. He was more interested in seeing how his teammates did against actual pro players. He had heard of Dark Horse even though he was not too into the competitive gaming scene. He could tell that everyone else except Seven was itching to fight as well.

“Oh really?” Nastin could see they all wanted to fight but hesitated, they were ordinary players after all, “How about you take a look at our names and classes before decided?”

Nastin waved his hand into the air as he clicked on the screen only he could see.

[Nastin: Paladin of Light. Level 35]

[Blastar: Paladin of Healing. Level 34]

[Chaser: Sword Dancer. Level 35]

[Glacier: Wizard of Ice. Level 34]

[Grenda: Archer of Darkness. Level 35]

Nastin was well aware that every other player was around the level 30 mark in Lum. He couldn't be sure of every player in the city but he was sure that as a professional gaming team his party was most likely the strongest in the city.

Archy and Roxxy whistled as they saw the opposing team’s classes. Only one had an ordinary rare class; the other four were all skilled enough to gain classes with their own names.

“Yeah let’s do this.” Archy could feel excitement coursing through him.

Third looked at the team and they all nodded back to him.

“Okay then.” Third considered something, “Since you are a pro team we will compete in individual battles against your players. I don’t think we’re good enough to win in a team battle.”

“But you think you’re good enough to 1v1 us?” Their warrior, Chaser, retorted.

“Yes.” TidalWave responded to him simply.

He nodded at Third and the wizard sent their classes and levels to the other team.

“Oh.” Nastin’s eyes sparkled as he saw the information. “If you hadn’t denied it already I would definitely have thought you guys were pros.”

He could see that several of them had also gained uniquely named classes.

“Okay-okay-okay,” Roxxy shot off, “let’s go to the arena. It’s awkward standing around the street like this.”

They all followed her as she led the pack.

The teams had nothing to say to each other as they made their way to the arena. Although TidalWave and the others were curious as to the enemy's strength, the warrior named Chaser had left a terrible impression on them. The other players all seemed nice enough if aloof. They gave nice greetings and seemed to be comfortable in following Nastin’s lead as he agreed to the dueling conditions.

They soon found out that they were the only players in the building. Apparently not many players wanted to use the facilities yet. They were all too busy grinding.

They all gathered into their respective groups and eyed each other.

“Who wants to go first?” Nastin stood forward to face them. “I will let you know that I will go fight first for my team. I am also the most powerful player in the team, so it would be good of you to send your strongest player in return.”

The truth was that Nastin had ulterior motives in fighting first. It was true that he was the strongest player in his team in terms of skill but if the other team was too weak then he would cancel the fights after his win. As a pro team they felt awkward enough fighting against ordinary players due to a mistake on their part. He didn’t want to force his teammates to stick around fighting one-sided battles if it turned out these strangers were too weak.

TidalWave was having similar thoughts, “I’ll go first.”

He didn’t know how strong a professional team was. They would undoubtedly be on another level compared to what he was used to. But there was no mistaking a single fact. Over the last week and a bit, he had spent hour after hour fighting against his monstrously skilled teammates.

Compared to when he had first fought Attracting he wouldn’t hesitate to say that he was several times stronger than he had been. Even at that time he had been confident in himself and now he was even more confident.

But he wasn’t cocky.

TidalWave intended to go all out from the beginning in this fight.

Nastin nodded and they teleported into the arena. The paladin set their starting positions as only a few meters apart and TidalWave didn’t object. They were clearly both close-ranged fighters so spending extra time reaching each other would be pointless.

[Duel will start in 5… 4… 3...]

Seven and the others watched with wide eyes. They didn’t want to miss a single detail of this fight. On the side, Nastin’s team was looking with curiosity as well. They didn’t think that their leader would lose but his opponent didn’t seem like an ordinary person either.

They genuinely hoped it would be a good fight because they enjoyed playing against strong players more than anything.

[Start the duel.]

TidalWave dashed towards Nastin the moment the duel began. The paladin grinned and swiped his long sword at the oncoming warrior only to find it hitting the air. TidalWave had sidestepped away at the last second and had stabbed his sword into Nastin’s unprotected side.

-64

After reaching level 35 TidalWave had a total of 54 strength.

Nastin immediately retreated with wide eyes. His reaction had come only milliseconds after the sword had hit him, showing TidalWave that his opponent was incredibly skilled.

It was just a pity that this paladin’s opponent was a monster.

Nastin attacked TidalWave as the warrior followed him.

“Shadow dance.”

Nastin’s sword flew through TidalWave as the one-second invulnerability to physical attack activated. Using his speed boost TidalWave went straight for the kill.

“Reaper’s fury.”

-115

Nastin jumped back as he saw TidalWave’s blade stab towards him but suddenly found himself seeing a gray screen as the attack went out of the sword and covered the entire area in front of TidalWave.

‘It was an area of effect skill.’ Nastin couldn't hide his shock.

The entire duel had lasted around five seconds.

As he revived and returned to his teammates, he went through the battle in his head. From the beginning, he'd been outclassed. From the first attack where he had been too slow to dodge to his enemy to his underestimating the range of the second attack.

He hadn’t even managed to get off the buffs his paladin class excelled in.

Then he smiled. He had seen the enemy's attacks now. Soon he would learn to counter them.

“Well crap.” Archy’s voice knocked Nastin out of his train of thought. “I thought this was going to be a really fun day.”

The archer looked disappointed at the battle. He knew that if it came down to it he could probably beat the paladin with ease as well unless the guy had long-range attacks like Attracting did. Even then he had practiced so much against Seven and Third that he wasn’t sure he would lose in that situation either.

He had really been looking forward to these fights.

“I’ll go next.” Spark Joy could see Archy was hesitating and she knew he wouldn’t be able to win if he wasn’t taking things seriously, “If that’s okay with you guys.”

“Yeah…” The other team seemed to be in a daze after seeing their leader die within a few seconds.

“Guys.” Nastin’s sharp tone brought them all back into the present. “Glacier will go next.”

There was no doubt in their minds that they had to win this one. It was clear to them that Spark Joy was a tank, so they had their wizard go up against her. They knew tanks were famous for being slower due to their heavy equipment and the wizard could easily slow down and kite her opponent by hitting her with ice magic.

Spark Joy accepted the new duel and was transported into the arena. This time she got to choose the range that each player would start at but to Glacier’s surprise Spark Joy gave her the chance to start from the furthest possible location.

It would be easy to pick off the tank with ranged attacks from this distance.

The moment the duel began Spark Joy sprinted towards her opponent. It would take her a few seconds to reach her opponent at full sprint so she didn’t hesitate to use all her speed.

Glacier’s eyes calculated the speed at which Spark Joy moved and she fired her basic attacks from afar. After her class advancement, all of her attacks were now icicles that slowed her opponent by 5% when they hit. It could stack up to a maximum of 15%. It would completely destroy the tank once it hit her.

Spark Joy was disappointed by the wizard. Her basic ice attacks were bigger than Seven’s magic blast but much slower and a lot less frequent. She had expected a lot more.

She calmly dodged every single attack and soon was in front of Glacier.

The wizard jumped back as the tank drew close. She hadn’t been sure before but now that her opponent was closer she could confirm that the tank was actually just as fast as a regular player.

“Crap.” She lifted her staff, “Ice ag-”

“Sickle drag.”

She began to chant a spell but before she could finish she felt a chain wrap itself around her body and she watched in horror as Spark Joy pulled her closer. Spark Joy jumped up and slammed her shield straight the incapacitated wizard and followed it immediately with a normal attack.

-64

“Ice barrier.”

-0

At the last moment, the wizard blocked Spark Joy’s basic attack with a spell and retaliated with a basic attack.

-16

Spark Joy successfully raised her shield to block the attack in time but found herself slowed. She smiled as the wizard moved a few steps back. She was clearly out of a normal warrior’s attack range.

-20

Spark Joy sent her sickle smashing into her opponent as it flew the few feet easily. She caught her opponent off-guard as the weapon that shouldn’t have reached her suddenly extended.

“Sickle drag.”

The wizard looked in horror as Spark Joy released another sickle chain. The ability didn’t have a cooldown but because of the tank’s low mana she could only use it four times without consuming items during these short duration fights.

Since her ‘ground pound’ ability was on cooldown Spark Joy simply used a basic attack again and the wizard’s body fell lifelessly to the ground. She hadn’t had enough health to withstand that many attacks.

Spark Joy returned to her team and they cheered but not too loudly. They had expected a lot more from the enemy opponents. But they didn’t want to disrespect them either. They were clearly very skilled players despite their losses.

Nastin and his team were silent as Glacier revived.

“Who’s next?” Archy could acknowledge from Glacier’s reactions that the enemies were strong players, “I can take on the archer?” He looked at TidalWave for confirmation.

The archer moved forward before Nastin could speak. She had already acknowledged the skills of the opposing team, they all had, now she wanted to compare herself to their archer.

“This will be fun.” She gestured at the arena with her bow.

Archy smiled.

He liked her attitude.

He could tell Roxxy and Third wanted to have a go now. TidalWave and Spark Joy also looked like they hadn’t had enough yet. Archy waved them back with a withering glare. They stared back at him and he lifted his bow to show them that he was the archer of the team and he would fight the enemy archer on his own.

This was his prey.

“No.”

Then he went silent as a figure walked in front of him. Seven was staring at the enemy team with a glint in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. This was different than when he and TidalWave had fought against her. She looked like she wanted to prove something.

“I want to fight.”