“KNIGHTS OF MAGNOLIA ATTACK.” Leo’s voice echoed through the chamber and the horde of hooded figures marched out and engaged the other players that were defending Attracting. Within seconds the entire battlefield had become a mess of tentacles and players all trying to kill the other.

Archy and Third had actually gone back and away from the main attacking force of knights as they circled and surveyed the battle. They could clearly see the tentacles were aiming only for players that the boss could see so they were mainly safe from this distance. But more importantly, they could also hit the boss from far away.

“I’m going to kill him first.” Archy pointed his newly unsealed bow and arrow towards Attracting.

This stranger had pissed him off far too much lately. First, he had insulted Seven numerous times and then he had forced them to rush into a serious quest without doing proper preparation. His lying to Leo and trying to use the knights for his own gain using Archy’s name was the final straw.

He wanted to eliminate him to appease his anger.

“Wait.” Third’s voice suddenly cut through to him and Archy saw the plump wizard shooting off rifts into the boss monster, “I know you’re angry. I can guess why as well.”

“Hurry it up.” Archy said crossly but didn’t shoot at Attracting.

Despite his attitude, he was still calm in his decision making and he trusted the wizard to make the decision that would most likely win them the fight.

“We need to kill the Corruptor first. Its tentacles are far too dangerous and will murder the knights before they can get to the enemy players. I believe you are the best person to do that.”

“The eyes?” It was a fairly obvious weak point.

The Corruptor's body was lined with dozens of eyes that all turned towards the crowd of players and watched them carefully. It was obviously using them to direct the tentacles it was sending down into knights of Magnolia from the ceiling and the walls. The sheer number of players surrounding it meant that it should have been aiming for the knights nearest to it, instead, it was attacking specific players within the crowd or at the largest concentrations of knights.

This was what was causing them to lose the battle so badly.

“I think Attracting is watching the battle through the monster somehow.” Third gazed carefully at where the monster’s tentacles were being aimed, “There is no other way to explain its strange attack patterns.”

From his vantage point away from the main battle, he could see that the boss’s tentacles were far too efficient for a mere wild monster. It was almost strategic in its actions. He watched Attracting sitting on the things head and watching down on the battlefield. He didn’t know how the player was controlling the boss but he knew that as long as they crippled the Corruptor the entire battle would be theirs to win.

“So the best way to hurt him is to hurt the monster. Got it.” Archy had a target now.

He sent his arrows flying into the Corruptor’s eyes and smirked as they smashed directly against the same eye he had been aiming for. His aim had improved by leaps and bounds after all the dueling and practice with Third’s new and improved leaf training.

-57

-114(Critical hit!)

It took about four attacks to make a single eye pop. But there were dozens of them to hit.

The Corruptor shivered as its eye was attacked and suddenly the damaged area sent out four bolts of darkness straight towards Archy. The archer dodged every single one but not before a rift formed in front of where his body had been and the bolts passed through it.

-25

-25

-25

-25

“Fascinating.” Third grinned as his tactic worked.

“Why didn’t the damn thing attack you.” Archy complained as Third switched back to sending rifts into the thing.

“We share the same figure.” Third jokingly pointed towards the round creature and his own round belly.

He could return the damage of all the retaliation attacks as long as Archy continued to fire into the eyes of the boss. He couldn’t aim directly for the eyes since his rifts wouldn’t pierce them. They would only go through into its main body. But that still meant he never missed an attack.

The two moved into action perfectly mirroring each other as they moved to the edge of the cavern and got a better vantage point. With the cover of the knights of Magnolia that were swarming the area, Archy fired shot after shot into the Corruptor’s eyes and Third returned the damage of its attacks back to it. Together they were dealing more damage than any other player combined.

They made a perfect team.

“There he is!”

The knights that were trying to fight the players scattered across the edges of the field saw Archy and tried to get to him as a rallying point. They were being attacked by tentacles constantly which made the process a slow one but the attacks began to slow down as Archy continued to pop eye after eye.

Then he saw Seven’s magic smashing into the eyes as well and he smiled.

With their high damage and attack speed, the trio would be able to take down the boss easily as long as nothing disturbed them. Of course, Archy knew that Attracting and his team would be thinking the same thing.

Archy watched his surroundings carefully as he fired arrow after arrow into the Corruptor. The truth was that even with the knights swarming around and protecting him he could feel something was off about the situation. Attracting was still sitting calmly on top of the monster’s head and the tentacles hadn’t moved to attack Archy or Third. In fact, they had begun to attack to surroundings knights in an effort to cut them off from the duo.

‘They’ve probably sent people to kill us personally.’ Archy thought.

“We’re being surrounded.” Third came to the same conclusion as Archy.

Archy stiffened as he felt something moving towards him and then jumped out of the way. The nearby knights looked at him strangely. Suddenly they keeled over and died as arrows appeared in their chests.

“PROTECT HER.” Leo’s voice suddenly called over as he saw the guard protecting Archy die off.

‘Dang it, Leo. I said not to say anything stupid.’ Archy cursed his cousin in his mind.

He could see his dwarf family member running off into a swarm of tentacles with a giant sword in his hands.

“We can -not- talk about it another time.” Third said as he saw Archy suddenly become distracted by his cousin’s shout, “We need to find out where these shots are coming from.

“Grenda.” Archy smiled as he saw more knights fall over, dead.

They were being hit by arrows that couldn’t be seen until they were already hitting their target. There was only one archer he knew that had invisible arrows. Due to her abilities however, she had to have snuck in close enough that her arrows would remain invisible while they were in the air.

Archy turned towards the direction the arrows seemed to be coming from and saw a trio of players running towards him and Third. The wizard grunted as he saw that they had sent two archers and a warrior. Luckily being this far away from the Corruptor they weren’t in too much danger from stray tentacle attacks.

“We’ve come to kill you.” Chaser appeared with Grenda in tow and the archer fired off more invisible arrows at Archy and Third.

“Well it’s about time something fun happened.” Archy smirked, “Stick to the loudmouth.”

“I think it’s a bad idea to stay together.” Third replied.

The duo immediately separated as the enemy clashed against them.

Unfortunately Third hadn’t seen where the arrows would go and his rifts couldn’t return any damage back to Grenda. He kept his eye on the Dark Horse archer but noted that the other player near her was also carrying a bow.

“Be careful of them.” Third hadn’t seen the other archer firing at them.

“You’re mine buddy.” Chaser interrupted Third with a grin as he dashed towards the wizard.

Dark Horse had already clashed with Third enough times to know that any ranged opponent would have a difficult time beating him. They had opted to send Chaser out instead. The warrior was skilled enough to dodge the wizard’s attacks and he could also get in close which was Third’s weakness.

“Your words remind me of a certain annoying archer.” Third couldn’t help but smirk, “Fortunately you are not nearly as skilled as he is.”

Chaser ignored Third’s taunts as he drew close and began dodging the rifts that Third formed on the ground to kill him. Third began jumping back as the warrior came closer. He prayed that Archy would be able to defeat the two enemy archers because he doubted that he could defeat Chaser in direct combat. His class was simply too incompatible for that.

Unfortunately, Chaser was quickly gaining on him.

He wasn’t a professional gamer for nothing. As long as he wasn’t fighting a ranged player like Archy or Seven who were deadlier in close range due to their attacks he was sure he wouldn’t have much trouble. Besides, those other two had been specially picked out by Nastin and Colt to deal with Archy.

They had planned this attack perfectly.

The archer in question was weaving between the crowd of knights that were dropping dead around him like flies. It wasn’t that they weren’t skilled, but simply that they chose to move in front of the invisible arrows to give him time to work out a counter-strategy.

They were suiciding to buy him time.

*Clang* *Clang*

By now the knights had figured out the arrows were invisible and we beginning to block them with their swords. Unfortunately, they were only skilled enough to block one before another struck them in the head and killed them. Out of all the other people Archy had met in any game Grenda was by far one of the most skilled at aiming her arrows.

Archy had chosen to ignore Grenda until he could get in closer. The majority of his attention was focused on the Corruptor as he continued to take out its eyes. In a matter of seconds he had turned it into a pincushion.

Unfortunately, he was too distracted to consistently attack it. Seven had also stopped firing at it for the moment, so the tentacles were starting to smash against the knights with renewed vigor.

He also kept part of his focus on the mysterious opponent standing passively next to Grenda.

The knights that had grouped hadn’t simply tried to take every shot while Archy moved around. They also swarmed towards Grenda and the other archer to try and kill them. Unfortunately, there were too few knights and due to the tentacles attacking them they were scattered and made into easy targets for arrows.

[Gyro]

Archy read the name floating above his head.

He hadn’t heard of this person but it was clear he was part of Colt’s Crew. That meant he was an extremely skilled player in his own right. So far he seemed to be firing ordinary arrows at any knight that got close to Grenda but he hadn’t yet made a move against Archy.

At least he hadn’t made a move that Archy could see.

“Protect!” A war cry came up as a dozen knights moved in front of Archy and charged towards the two enemy archers.

They had finally reached the conclusion that they needed to march as one to have any hope of killing the enemy players. They avoided the majority of the tentacles as they rushed at the enemy archers and got closer and closer.

With their cover, Archy finally drew close enough to focus on killing Grenda

“Darkness.”

Grenda saw him arriving and instead of firing more arrows she brought forth the veil of darkness to surround her and make her unseeable to her enemies.

Archy didn’t care. He knew exactly where she was from the position of her arrows as they struck down the knights protecting him. He fired two arrows directly into the darkness where he knew she would be. He was too close to her to dodge.

*Clink* *Clink*

His arrows fell out of the air harmlessly.

Archy’s eyes widened and he moved sideways to dodge more invisible arrows as he tried to process what he’d seen. One moment his arrows had been moving into the darkness and the next two normal arrows had flown out and knocked his out of the air.

Archy realised what was happening.

The mysterious archer, Gyro, was skilled enough to hit enemy arrows with his own.

He was blocking all of Archy’s attacks.

A dozen knights had been reduced to six as they tried to dodge in every direction, unaware of where the arrows would be fired. They slowly made their way into the veil of darkness and Archy lost sight of them. He could hear them shouting as they fought against the enemies within.

“Two on one doesn’t seem to be a fair fight between such skilled archers.” A voice called out as the sounds of fighting died down.

The veil lifted as the ability's time ran out to reveal the two archers surrounded by dead bodies of the knights.

‘Leo needs to raise his standards.’ Archy sighed.

“It is a pity I didn’t know about you beforehand.” Gyro tilted his head closer to Grenda, “You neglected to inform me of such a skilled opponent in the enemy forces.”

His way of talking made Archy think of a certain nearby wizard.

“I can’t stand people that talk like that.” Archy said bluntly.

“A pity.” Gyro didn’t fire arrows but Grenda didn’t stop attacking as Archy dodged shot after shot.

He had lost count of how many times he had dodged her arrows. Even if her attacks were invisible he could tell their trajectories with his eyes closed. He wouldn’t be beaten by attacks so similar to his own.

*Clink* *Clink*

But Gyro was knocking his arrows of the air with a precision that caused his spine to shiver.

‘This guy is skilled.’ Archy had to admit it.

He didn’t know why Gyro wasn’t attacking him but he would be in serious trouble if the archer changed his mind.

“Why aren’t you fighting against me?” Archy was insulted by the archer’s actions.

“Because it would be unfair. You are worthy of my respect and I will not rely on mere numbers to defeat you. Instead, I will make sure that you cannot interfere in the battle. Our forces may be outnumbered but our skill far surpasses your own. You cannot win against us whilst you are alone.”

Anger flashed through Archy at the man’s words. Then he looked around and saw between his dodges how he would win. In the next second Archy fired his attack at the only target he knew was preventing him from winning this fight.

Gyro moved his bow to intercept the attack but frowned as Archy’s arrow went completely in the opposite direction from Grenda.

“Then let’s see how you fare against two of us.”

The arrow flew straight at Chaser who was fighting Third nearby. The warrior was completely focused on chasing the wizard and seemed to blink in surprise as his head was suddenly struck.

-114 (Critical hit!)

Chaser dropped dead on the spot and Third quickly ran towards Archy to back him up.

“Ah.” Gyro blinked at his sudden miscalculation.

The archer brought his bow up and fired four arrows at the running wizard. His precision meant that each one was aimed directly at his enemy’s chest and although they would likely be dodged he was prepared to fire more the moment the enemy moved.

“NO.” Grenda panicked and tried to stop him but it was too late.

Gyro had sent all four arrows with perfect aim straight at Third.

-25

-25

-25

A rift opened up in front of the arrows at the same time that Third dodged and Gyro found himself getting hit by damage that caused him to lose almost all of his health in seconds.

“What?” He turned in confusion, thinking that he had been sneak attacked by someone.

“He can return half of your damage to you if your arrows pass through his blackhole-thing.”

Grenda suddenly found herself under intense pressure as Gyro’s distraction gave Archy the opportunity to close in and fire at her. She dodged the first two shots but she knew with his skill at firing that he wouldn’t miss now that he was closer. Archy managed to get into close up range just as Gyro turned back. He finally realised that he had been tricked.

Archy aimed his bow at her and fired at point-blank range.

Grenda closed her eyes as she felt the attack course through her. And then opened them in surprise as she realised she hadn’t been hit.

-57

Gyro’s eyes were still confused as his body collapsed onto the ground. Despite his skill, he had underestimated the enemy and their abilities far too much. He hadn’t even had time to get off an arrow to block Archy’s attack.

“Pretentious bastard.” Archy muttered as he turned back to Grenda, “Let’s do this.”

She smiled as Third stood back and instead focused his attacks on the Corruptor.

She could see that their teammate Seven had dealt severe damage to its eyes while the archers had been fighting. For some reason Attracting hadn’t sent anyone to kill her specifically or counter her while she was fighting. But he had sent players to kill the other enemies on the field that could pose a threat to the Corruptor’s eyes.

‘Why did he spend so much time figuring out how to counter the long-range Archy and Third but not their other main long-range damage dealer.”

And then she saw the notification saying that Seven had killed Nastin.

She dodged another arrow sent by Archy and then she returned her concentration to the fight at hand. He was getting closer to her by the second.

Even though Archy had her outnumbered he’d also chosen to fight fairly. She thought that he had a personality closer to Gyro’s than he realised.

“Yeah. Let’s do this.”

They jumped back and fired off their attacks at the same time.

-114(Critical hit!)

-Miss

Unfortunately, at this range she had no hope of not getting hit by his bow. She died with a smile on her face. She knew that they would fight a lot more in the future. She would make sure of it.

Archy barely dodged the invisible arrow and sighed in relief. If she had aimed for his chest instead of his head then he might not have gotten out so lucky. Although he had done the same thing to her.

He turned back to the Corruptor as the creature’s tentacles tried to ensnare the knights. He saw that the knight's numbers were almost dwindling to nothing. Hundreds of them killed by the boss and the few skilled players that Attracting had brought together. The majority of the knights were the ones left fighting the players near the boss’s body. Underneath the mass of attacking tentacles, he could make out Roxxy and Spark Joy fighting alongside the knights in the frontline.

“KNIGHTS OF MAGNOLIA. BACK OFF FOR A SECOND”

Archy saw Leo off in the distance confronting IEatTortillas and smiled.

His cousin was definitely going to get his ass kicked.

He brought his focus away and instead of helping his cousin he fired arrow after arrow into the Corruptor. The boss’s area of attacks was wide but with so many opponents it simply couldn’t cope with the strain. With every eye popped it lost a bit of its attacking power and soon Seven, Archy and Third’s combined attacks had brought down its health immensely.

He fired a final arrow into the Corruptor’s last eye and dodged the retaliatory attack. The monster suddenly shrieked as its health dropped by a massive amount. Attracting began panicking from the top of its head as he finally noticed that it might die. Despite that Archy could see the player muttering under his breath instead of sending out attacks.

“It looks like destroying all the vital spots at the same time has caused it to almost die.” Third continued to fire his rifts and then took a moment to rest as he recovered his mana.

Archy fired another arrow as he saw its eyes quickly regrowing. Luckily hitting the spots could still critical hit.

They had almost won. Even though there were still some members of Colt’s Crew left and the knights of Magnolia had dwindled until there were only a couple of dozen left they would win this fight. The tentacles couldn’t attack with even a third of the deadliness they’d had at the beginning of the fight.

He was vaguely aware of Seven joining him and Third and they all fired their attacks at the boss to finish it off.

‘The moment this thing dies I kill you.’ He glanced murderously at Attracting.

Suddenly the player in question stood up and waved his wand.

“SHADOW GROUP HEAL.”

And then a timer appeared on top of Archy’s head.

5... 4… 3… 2… 1...

“What the hell.”

****

IEatTortillas was having the time of his life.

He was single-handedly taking on dozens of knights of Magnolia as he tore through the battlefield easily. The tentacles firing down on the mass of enemy players had caused them to become separated and lack any direction. He was going through each one easily with the cover of the boss. Thanks to his class skills he was gaining a bonus twenty attack damage and on top of his already destructive strength, he was finding the fight almost humorous.

-106

-106

-106

He weaved through the crowd of opponents and tentacles as though he was dancing. Every blade aimed towards him was expertly dodged and he would return with attacks of his own. Even without the tentacles helping him he felt that he would kill a lot of them. After joining the game he had made it a point to commit himself wholeheartedly to improving his battle skills despite Attracting stacking him with overpowered items. He had improved by leaps and bounds using nothing but his natural talent for battle.

The knights seemed to take affront to his relaxed attitude.

They focused more and more members into his path and slowly but surely he found it harder to dodge their attacks. The dwarves had begun to dodge the tentacles and group up. But it also became easier for him to kill them now that there were so many. He found himself slowly piling dead bodies on the ground as though they were falling from the sky.

“KNIGHTS OF MAGNOLIA. BACK OFF FOR A SECOND”

A loud voice boomed and the knights scattered like leaves. Suddenly he was confronted by a hooded dwarf holding a sword almost three times his height.

“Leo Hentus.” The dwarf introduced himself, “Leader of the knights of Magnolia.”

“IEatTortilllas. The name explains what I do.” He smiled, “let’s fight dwarf.”

He dashed at the dwarf and struck at him with his blade. If this person was the same as the other knights then he would die with a single strike.

*Clang*

IEatTortillas suddenly found himself staggering back a few steps as the dwarf smashed the edge of his sword with his own weapon. The sheer force of the attack caused him to fly back despite neither of them getting a hit in.

“Okay. This just got interesting.”

IEatTortillas flashed his sword in a straight line towards the dwarf and saw his opponent move to intercept him. The knight leader’s massive sword was brought down and at the last moment, IEatTortillas moved his sword to the side, causing both attacks to miss but also allowing him to swipe again his opponents flank.

*Clang*

At the very last second, the dwarf brought his sword around to block the new attack but if it had been a split second later the dwarf would have been killed. It looked like his sword was powerful but lacked mobility.

‘So he can’t move his sword quickly.’ IEatTortillas grinned.

He had found his opponent's weakness.

Leo Hentus seemed to sense that he was fighting someone out of his league as IEatTortillas rounded back to him for another round of fighting.

IEatTortillas vaguely noticed that the tentacles seemed to have gone prone as they limply struck the knights around him. He would have to see what had gone wrong after he killed this dwarf.

They brought their swords back together but this time IEatTortillas ducked underneath the massive weapon and found himself facing the dwarf’s back. The dwarf realised that none of his players could possibly match up to this monster.

“KNIGHTS OF MAGNOLIA RUN AWA-.”

-106

Leo’s voice was cut off as he was stabbed through the back by IEatTortillas.

The knights of Magnolia retreated and spread out as IEatTortillas returned to slashing through their members like butter. They tried to fight back but compared to Leo their skills were far too low to even think of killing him. He was skilled enough that none of the players could block more than two attacks before being hit. Every hit was an instant kill.

The knights finally realised that running away would only lead to them getting picked off and instead they turned around to outnumber him, their swords glimmering through the air as they struck at him.

He ducked and weaved out of the range of the knight's weapons as his sword stabbed through their ranks and left a sea of dead bodies in his wake. In a matter of minutes, he had already slain dozens of his enemies.

To everyone around him, he looked like a god of death.

He turned to face the last of the surrounding knights. The entire area around him had been cleared and once he killed this knight he would move onto the next batch. He lifted his sword and the knight half-heartedly raised his own to try and block the attack.

He smirked and swiped down for the killing blow.

*Clang*

Then a weapon collided with his sword in mid-air and caused him to pause. Someone had successfully blocked his attack by throwing a sword at his weapon. The hooded player tried to stab him during the opening only to be met with another attack to the chest, turning into a corpse. Then he turned around to face his new opponent. He recognised him easily, after all, he hadn’t been allowed to forget this player because of all the praise that Attracting had heaped on him.

“TidalWave.” He took in a deep breath.

‘So this is your new friend Milly.’ IEatTortillas smiled.

This was the person that Seven had been partying with.

IEatTortillas stood in place confidently, “I’m not going to come to you.”

He watched his opponent’s every move carefully. He had been told numerous times by Attracting to watch out for this person. He didn’t take it too seriously, after all, he had a great amount of pride in his fighting skills and his items. This entire fight he had been like a reaper that reigned down destruction on the battlefield. Frankly, he thought his friend had been a lot more cocky and arrogant lately, leading him to slowly stop following his lead. So he didn’t take Attracting’s warnings seriously.

TidalWave moved towards him and he acted instantly, stepping back and blocking the oncoming blade. If he had been a second slower it would have cleaved through his defences and dealt massive damage.

It was true that Attracting’s warnings hadn’t been taken seriously.

But Seven had said he would never beat TidalWave in a fair fight.

He retaliated against the warrior with a quick slash followed up with a stab towards his opponent designed to end his life. TidalWave dodged both of the attacks easily.

Because of Seven, IEatTortillas wouldn’t dare to take this fight lightly. He would kill the warrior using every move available to him, even if it meant retreating to fight later on. Seven would never have warned him without the confidence to back it up.

“You’re the one Milly- I mean, Seven, said I couldn’t beat.” IEatTortillas gave him a smile, “You know, on the one hand, I respect her opinions and love her like a sister for them but on the other, I never did like losing.”

TidalWave stayed silent as he met the enemy’s sword with his own and the sound of clashing metal rang through the air. He was trying his hardest to focus only on the fight in front of him. He avoided the sword and blocked attacks as a priority, sacrificing his ability to go for the kill. He had seen this person’s attacks dealing damage higher than his health.

If he let a single one through he would die.

He blocked another one of the attacks and ducked through his opponent’s guard, ending up behind him. Before IEatTortillas could turn around his neck was struck with a blade and TidalWave moved in for the second attack straight after.

-64

-Blocked

Then he retreated as IEatTortillas suddenly turned around faster than he had expected and blocked his attack. In a matter of seconds they exchanged attacks numerous times, neither getting a hit in.

“You’re skilled.” He assessed her carefully, “Not like your friend.”

“Seven is skilled!” IEatTortillas swiped his blade at TidalWave only to find it blocked time after time.

TidalWave ducked another attack, “I meant Attracting.”

“Oh.” IEatTortillas moved back as he spotted movement at his side.

IEatTortillas suddenly struck out to his side and killed another knight that had been trying to sneak up behind him. TidalWave rushed forward to continue the attack.

“Is that guy actually Seven’s friend?” TidalWave decided that this would probably the only time he could sate his curiosity about something.

“What do you mean? They’ve been friends for years.” IEatTortillas didn’t allow the unexpected question to dull his reactions as they each tried to find a weak spot in their defences.

He was still hurting from the hit he had taken.

“Seven is probably more talented than I am.” TidalWave continued, sending out a probing attack to her side, “It’s just that she doesn’t have the experience I do.”

“Haha.” IEatTortillas smiled as he heard his friend being praised.

“So why does Attracting keep ignoring her?” TidalWave continued.

IEatTortillas suddenly charged forward as he tried to take advantage of TidalWave’s talking, only to be sidestepped and put on the defensive as he blocked another attack to his side.

“What do you mean?” He responded as he jumped back to put distance between himself and his enemy.

He watched TidalWave carefully as they circled each other. The other players had mostly decided to leave them alone as they prioritised killing each other. The truth was that the other players simply didn’t want to disrupt such a beautiful duel. They could see swordsmen of equal ability fighting each other and they knew that to interrupt this moment would cause them to regret breaking a beautiful moment.

It truly was a clash of skill.

“Attracting didn’t invite Seven to any of his quests.” TidalWave eyed his opponent carefully, “I know because she came to play with me whenever you two went on quests.”

“Bull.” IEatTortillas vehemently denied it, “I invited her to every quest.”

“But who told you about them?”

‘He’s right.’ IEatTortillas found his concentration wavering for a second, ‘Attracting messaged me personally about the quests a long time before I told Milly. Why didn’t he tell Milly as well?’

TidalWave saw his opponent faltering but chose not to attack. He truly hadn’t asked his question in order to make the would-be hero lose the fight.

He wanted answers.

“She’s also just as skilled as all of us in our team, but she was the only one ignored by Attracting every time we met.” He took a step forward to test IEatTortillas but the opponent didn’t even flinch, he was too deep in thought, “She wasn’t even invited to take part in this cave conquest that Attracting set up. Even though all of us and even players that Attracting hadn’t even met were invited.”

“...” IEatTortillas wasn’t even responding, although TidalWave could tell the player was paying attention to his every word.

“Finally when she made a comment about wanting to be skilled he said, and I quote, ‘Don’t worry, fat people can be skilled too.’”

The truth was that with the exception of Archy, who seemed to have extreme selective hearing, the entire team had heard Attracting’s words to Seven at the arena. He had shouted them at her after all, and the entrance to the arena was only a few meters away from where they were inside of it. They had also her swearing like a sailor in return.

But none of them had mentioned it to her afterward. They weren’t close enough to her to comfort her in that sort of moment even if they felt bad. And despite what Attracting said there was one thing they all had confidence in.

They knew she was extremely skilled.

“HE SAID WHAT.”

Several nearby knights of Magnolia were startled as IEatTortilla’s shout reverberated around him.

Then he remembered how Seven had been acting towards Attracting when they met again in Lum. She had been cold and distant.

‘She also wanted to speak to me about something after the quest was done.’ IEatTortillas remembered, ‘She was pretty upset about it.’

He recalled the hurt expression that had crossed her face as she mentioned she wanted to tell him while Attracting wasn’t around.

‘This must have been what she wanted to talk about.’ He suddenly realised.

“You heard me” TidalWave responded coldly, “So tell me. What kind of friend is this person? Because I don’t call that kind of disrespectful and ignorant person a friend. It’s honestly remarkable to see the lengths he manages to go to completely disregard her ability and talent. While he goes on praising every other fighter he meets right in front of her.”

IEatTortillas saw Seven firing magic blasts at an enemy nearby while dodging tentacles trying to kill her at all angles. There was the body of a paladin slowly fading away nearby. IEatTortillas had seen the whole fight from the corner of his eyes. It was the leader of Dark Horse, Nastin, a player than even Attracting had claimed was at the peak of players. Even just seeing these few seconds of fighting he could tell that Seven was one of the more talented players here. But for some reason Attracting had ordered all of the Dark Horse and Colt’s Crew members to kill other players that he considered a threat. This was while he was ignoring the one player dealing the most damage to the boss.

Seven was clearly dominating the playing field.

So he decided to send a message to Attracting despite the danger TidalWave presented.

-Hey, what do you think of Seven?-

-Who-? Attracting’s message came in hastily, -Oh, can we talk about that after? It’s a little hectic around here. If you want to play with her we can do it after. She’s probably just farming around Lum or something. We’ll be full of money and items after we win this. So she’ll be happy to be carried by us.-

‘He hasn’t even realised that she’s here.’ IEatTortillas felt angry at the realisation, ‘Does he think that little of her?’

Suddenly he felt like he had been a terrible friend for not noticing Seven being treated like this by Attracting. When had Attracting changed so much?

“You know.” IEatTortillas suddenly lifted her weapon and took a step forward, “I’m going to find out for myself why he’s being a total asshole. Then I’m still going to kill him for it. But first, we had a nice duel going on,” She raised her sword back with her full concentration, “and it’d be a shame to end it here.”

TidalWave smiled. He could see this person cared deeply about Seven. He had been worried that his enemy was another person that Seven considered a friend that seemed to disrespect her at every encounter.

He thought It was a pity that he would be the one to win this duel.

They lunged at each other at the same time. He dodged the incoming attacks and tried to land one of his own, finding it blocked by the enemy’s blade.

“Hero’s rally.”

TidalWave suddenly found himself retreating as the speed of his enemy’s attacks increased drastically.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Their swords reverberated as they clashed time and time again. Suddenly IEatTortillas stepped forward for the kill.

“Shadow dance.”

And his sword swiped through TidalWave’s body without dealing any damage. TidalWave had activated his defensive skill at the perfect moment.

-64

TidalWave responded to his opponent’s confusion with an immediate attack aimed at his opponent’s body and IEatTortillas jumped back as his health dropped to dangerous levels. Unfortunately, he was then confronted by an attack he hadn’t seen before.

“Reaper’s fury.”

“You could have won this duel at any time couldn’t you?” He smiled as he saw the final attack coming.

-115

Despite IEatTortillas being outside the ordinary basic attack range, TidalWave’s ability flew further and struck him down.

“No.” He said honestly but his opponent had already died.

IEatTortillas had been a very skilled opponent. He was sure that if he hadn’t had both shadow dance and reaper’s fury to be used at the same time that he would not have won the fight so easily.

*Clap* *Clap*

Suddenly TidalWave heard the sound of someone clapping and turned around to see a new opponent eyeing him hungrily. Behind this clapping person was another warily lifting his dagger.

“A magnificent fight TidalWave. Absolutely stunning.” Colt stepped forward with his two swords at the ready, “I do not say this lightly. Until recently there has never been an opponent I consider worthy enough to warrant my full attention.”

“And now?”

“Congratulations.” The assassin eyed him happily, “You are a worthy opponent. No, you are far more than just worthy. You are the greatest player I have ever met.”

“Two on one?” TidalWave had just used his two best abilities.

While they were on cooldown he wasn’t ready to fight two extremely skilled opponents at the same time.

“How about we make it two on two?” A new voice called out and TidalWave breathed a sigh of relief as a girl suddenly appeared beside him.

“Seven?” Colt seemed uninterested in her, he turned to his ally, “Attracting said she wasn’t anyone that mattered. Kill her.”

TidalWave saw the figure behind Colt disappear and he smiled.

He trusted Seven to win that fight easily.

She had fought against Third enough times to know when someone was turning invisible. She stayed still next to TidalWave until she had counted enough time for the enemy opponent to reach her.

“Stone shift.”

She shifted out of the way as a surprised player with a dagger in his hand swiped the empty air in front of her.

“Come play with me for a bit.” She said cheekily as the enemy oriented himself.

She jumped back and soon the two were out of TidalWave’s sight.

“You have to finish this soon.” TidalWave stated, “Because in a few seconds she’s going to come back and you’ll be outnumbered.”

“I doubt it.” Colt’s eyes flashed dismissively, “But a few seconds is all that will be needed to determine a winner when it comes to people of our skills.”

His form shimmered and suddenly he was on top of TidalWave with both swords bearing down onto the warrior. TidalWave stepped back and dodged the sudden attack, swiping back against Colt only to be blocked by the assassin’s weapons.

TidalWave knew instinctively that this person was on the same level as him.

And he had none of his abilities off of cooldown to fight against him.

Colt didn’t waste a single second as he followed TidalWave’s retreat. He jumped at TidalWave and the warrior could see Colt’s body blur and grow hazy. Suddenly there were two different bodies with their own weapons. Both of them were lunging towards TidalWave and he found that he was suddenly confronted by four blades.

-50

-50

He dodged the first two but they were followed up by two others and suddenly he had lost all but six health. Colt had been watching his entire fight against IEatTortillas and so had been able to gauge his speed and movements.

On the other hand, TidalWave knew nothing about his opponent or their abilities. No matter how equal they were in terms of skill it was impossible to defend against class skills when he hadn’t even seen them used once.

He couldn’t win this fight.

“Did you know an attack to the head almost always lands a critical hit?” Colt smiled as his two bodies shimmered menacingly and brought all four blades down to hit TidalWave, “Imagine if you had a skill which could target that vital area, and always trigger a critical hit when it did.”

“Dagger’s end.”

Colt’s entire figure shifted as the real Colt’s body followed a predetermined route towards TidalWave’s head and smashed both swords into it.

-100 (Critical hit!)

[Skill: Don’t Fear the Reaper has been activated.]

TidalWave’s final ability activated as he faced the killing blow.

It was an attack that allowed him to survive a killing hit exactly once and left him with one health after activating.

But now that he had seen Colt’s abilities TidalWave was sure he could dodge them if they fought a second time.

He would just have to survive long enough with his remaining health.

“I got rid of his survival ability” Colt suddenly shouted to Attracting.

Then Colt jumped back and away from TidalWave instead of killing him. TidalWave looked around hesitantly and then brought a healing potion to his mouth as he saw Colt sprinting away and his allies gathering nearby.

“SHADOW GROUP HEAL.”

Suddenly TidalWave was surrounded by a purple glow and he saw a number appear on his screen.

5...4...3...2...1...

‘Damn.’

[You have died.]