“This is our enemy.”

Violet looked up as she heard Attracting’s voice call out to her. Then she ignored him as she dodged blast after blast of molten rock that was being thrown at her by one of the deadly creatures of the Underground. She had better things to do than be distracted by the priest and get killed by a stray attack.

“You mean your enemy.” She stabbed her rapier into the head of the beast and with a shrill cry it disintegrated into dust and shadow, leaving behind a blue light.

Ever since meeting the blonde-haired man she had come across rare item after rare item, gold after gold, monster after monster. But she still didn’t trust him.

“Yeah, yeah.” Attracting rolled his eyes as he neared her, “Watch this. It’s just about to get interesting.”

“Fine.” Violet received a notification that her party member was trying to show her a video and allowed it through, “Where is this?”

She could see three figures fighting a goat-headed man in armour. She could tell in an instant that they weren’t in the underground. Despite the black layout of the arena, there was clearly a sky visible and multiple buildings rose up high with splendid architecture. It was distinctly different from the rough and drab cities she had come across down here.

“Zhalnor. The continent I started in.” Attracting’s eyes shone as he watched the video, “But that’s not the important part. That person is TidalWave.”

“TidalWave.” Violet repeated the name and watched the figure Attracting marked out, it was a handsome man wielding a sword.

She watched his every movement carefully. The priest didn't shut up about this player but she couldn’t tell before now whether he was really a big deal or if it was all talk. But she could instantly tell that the warrior was more skilled than any other player that she had encountered.

He ducked and bobbed every sword strike delivered by his enemy and when his allies were being attacked he utilised the gaps in timing to defend them and save their lives. Even if he still died every now and then it was clear that he was improving, even as the enemy was getting faster and stronger.

“Who is he fighting?”

“An NPC.” Attracting smiled, “He can’t win. But someone is recording this and sending it straight to the forums. It's sure to create a sensation.”

Violet looked at the person streaming the fight with interest. They had to be positioned in a building that could overlook the arena. If they were someone important she would remember to keep an eye out for their posts.

-Joy-

‘I’ll keep you in mind.’ Violet brought her attention back to the video in time to see TidalWave lower his sword and allow his teammates to be killed, ‘Oh?’

Attracting saw her surprised expression, “He’s realised his limits. He’s given us one hell of a good show but even he can’t beat that NPC, it’s way too high level for him to even do damage to it.”

Violet ignored his words and narrowed her eyes to get a closer look at TidalWave’s expression.

That wasn’t the face of a man that had given up.

‘So.’

She smiled as she saw the NPC hesitate, it had clearly come to the same conclusion she had.

‘Show me what you’ve got.’

****

Seven frowned as she saw the battle raging up over her head. She had slowly been walking closer to it as TidalWave stood facing his enemy. Something was bothering her about the whole event. It wasn’t Roxxy and IEatTortillas sitting in the corner that bothered her, or even the two fighter’s staring each other down with swords drawn.

It was the dome they were all floating in.

‘That looks really familiar.’ She couldn’t help but draw similarities between the dark arena and the blue space she had just been inside.

They almost seemed like they were the same.

‘But Muriel’s a witch.’ Seven tried to reason with herself, ‘And that thing is a swordsman.’

“Hey Barnacle.” She turned to the spectating priest who had found himself following her to the fighter’s guild, “Is it possible for a swordsman to use magic.”

“It is.” Barnacle scrunched his eyes as he tried to remember what he’d learnt about swordsmen, “There are magical swordsmen and spellswords. But they’re as common as a crab living in grassland.”

“Gotcha.” Seven nodded, “And is that guy a magic swordsman?”

“Absolutely not.” Barnacle vigorously shook his head, “The true followers of Varsha believe in the absolute might of physical strength and skill. They do not rely on magic.”

“Then how do you explain that?” She pointed to the dome, “That looks pretty magical to me.”

Barnacle grinned as he saw her pointing towards the arena, “Really? Because it doesn’t look very magical to me. In fact, it seems like something that is completely unrelated to magic.”

“Excuse me?” Seven thought over his words carefully.

‘Oh.’

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the dome above her.

One, two, three… thirty.

There were thirty focus points spread out across the entire thing.

But the goat-man wasn’t a magician or wizard.

“Yes. It’s willpower.” Barnacle confirmed her suspicions, “Something completely different from the realm of magic or swordsmanship, but obtainable to those that follow the paths of both.”

Willpower. It hadn’t occurred to her that maybe the control stat was related to something other than magic. After all, it seemed fairly connecting considering how she used it, and how Third used it. But maybe willpower was something different even from that.

“So that black stuff is his aura?” Seven was intrigued.

It was so strong that it could be physically seen.

“That is one way to put it.” Barnacle chuckled at her expression, “Have you experienced something similar recently?”

Seven nodded but then hesitated. She had definitely been taken somewhere filled with focus points when she was with Muriel. However, this dome seemed a little different. Since she could see through it, and the others were able to see outside of it, she assumed it was different from what Muriel had done to her. But the basic principle seemed the same.

‘Okay.’

Seven closed her eyes again and began to concentrate until she could see all the focus points.

This was a lot easier to study than the complex monstrosity the witch had sent her to.

‘Let’s see what I can find.’

****

Azeroth felt pride as he saw what had become of his little spectacle. He hadn’t expected his opponents to put up the fight they had but the longer it dragged out the more he could show his skills off to the city below. He had spent so much time sealed up in that rackety old shack that he didn’t even mind the rebellious gaze the swordsman was staring at him with.

“You are an ant. Perhaps with time, you will transform into a lion.” Azeroth’s voice held a hint of passion as he looked down on the lone warrior attempting to fight against him, “But today is not that day.”

This was more than he had expected. When the three had walked into his guild he had expected them to put up a bit of a fight. Then he had been excited to see them begin to actively challenge him as he withheld his true power from them and allowed them to slowly become accustomed to his movements.

But now he had fulfilled his goal.

He could see the streets littered with civilians, bystanders and Verm’s followers. He had wanted to demonstrate that the fighter’s guild was not to be taken lightly and he had succeeded. He had shown his power and the power of the future members of the guild. Not a single priest was happy at the sight of his demonic might being put to use in the middle of their city.

“You may access your library. You have more than earned that honor.” Azeroth lowered his sword and smiled at the person that had dared to challenge him, “Go.”

-1

Azeroth’s eyes widened as a sword appeared in front of him and his cheek was grazed by its blade. The cut quickly healed up but Azeroth snarled as his pride was wounded. Now he had been struck twice by the same person. An opponent that was inferior to him in every conceivable way.

He hadn’t felt this humiliated in decades.

Azeroth raised his sword and deflected the next attack, “So. You choose death. So be it”

He immediately moved his body and intercepted the incoming foe with his blade, sending the enemy flying back several feet.

“You can’t even stand a single blow.” Azeroth chuckled, “You have courage. I welcome it. But you also have a foolishness that will get you killed. Surrender now and I will still welcome you to the guild with open arms.”

He couldn’t be bothered to spend time on ants.

The opponent didn’t respond and instead jumped back at Azeroth, causing him to step forward and smash his sword against the oncoming blade.

Only to have been deflected to the side by his opponent.

“Impossible.” Azeroth raised his sword only to find it being blocked once again by his enemy.

This time his opponent didn’t go flying back. Not only had his sword attack been deflected, but the force of the blow had also been rerouted to the side and had completely missed his opponent.

His opponent jumped back and Azeroth saw that the warrior hadn’t given up, “What is your name?”

No. his opponent hadn’t given up. The ant had grown even stronger since the beginning of the fight. For the first time since the battle began his opponent smiled.

“TidalWave.”

****

TidalWave felt the rush of adrenaline hit his system as he watched his opponent turn towards him. The old man was finally taking this fight seriously.

TidalWave took account of his abilities and smiled. Don’t Fear the Reaper had finally recovered and was off cooldown. He hadn’t noticed it at first but after Azeroth had struck him the first time he had immediately hit him again and killed him through the passive ability. He still had five spare swords in his inventory to throw at his opponent in times of trouble.

But most importantly, he had finally found a way to increase his damage output. When he hit his opponent's armour it became impossible for him to get a continuous combo going, and his ability only allowed him to increase his attack damage as his combo increased.

“So you can swing a sword.” Azeroth’s eyes twisted in joy, “But you shouldn’t overestimate your-”

TidalWave jolted into action the moment Azeroth began to speak and the branch leader was forced to cut his sentence short as TidalWave sent a cut aimed directly for his throat.

“You talk too much.” TidalWave followed the cut with another strike to his cheek.

-Blocked

TidalWave grinned as his swipe was met with a clash of metal. He immediately sidestepped the retaliatory strike and stabbed his sword into Azeroth’s side.

“Foolish.” Azeroth ignored the attack as it hit against his armour, “You- GAH”

Azeroth turned to face TidalWave and gloat only to find a sword flying into his mouth and out the back of his throat. He immediately bent over and coughed as the sword fell to the ground but the damage caused more than just physical harm.

He had been incapacitated by the sudden hit.

TidalWave smiled. He had taken a guess and had waited for the gloating goat to open its mouth after he hit it so that he could throw a different sword straight into it with his free hand. And that had led to his opponent's downfall. Even if the branch leader couldn’t be damaged he could still be brought to his knees.

TidalWave didn’t hesitate as he brought his main sword down to slice open his incapacitated opponent.

-Miss

Only for it to fall through thin air.

Azeroth’s body disappeared into a black cloud and TidalWave prepared to guard against sudden attacks.

“You.”

TidalWave’s spine crawled as he heard a low voice laced with fury rise up from behind him. He could feel the hatred being directed towards him. His opponent wasn’t satisfied with holding back any longer. Now he would fight seriously.

“You… dare humiliate me?”

TidalWave could feel the hate and killing intent oozing out of the voice. He didn’t even bother to turn around and face the enemy before activating his skills.

“Shadow Dance.”

His body immediately shimmered into a shadowy version of itself at the same moment that the entire arena was smashed to pieces by black and red flames. Bit by bit the arena was broken until only the area around TidalWave was left intact.

TidalWave turned around and raised his sword to block any incoming attacks.

Then he saw what was happening.

The flames weren’t smashing the arena. It was Azeroth’s sword. The branch leader was slicing through the air so fast that it couldn’t be seen. The flames were only an aftermath of the skill. The goat-headed man floated in the air with fury in his eyes as he looked down at TidalWave.

Within the second that TidalWave had become untouchable by physical damage the entire sky had begun to swirl with air. Instead of falling from the raging winds Azeroth stood defiant in the sky.

The fighter was floating in mid-air as if by magic.

“No more bragging?” TidalWave was keenly aware that he was standing on the only bit of arena left intact, “What’s wrong? Sword got your throat?”

Azeroth raised his hand into the air and within seconds the space above him began to swirl with blood-red symbols.

“Well, crap.”

TidalWave felt confident that he could hold on longer if they were fighting against each other in sword-based combat, but he had no doubts that the branch leader was about to wipe him off the face of the earth with whatever spell was being formed right now.

He looked down and frowned.

If he jumped off the platform he would probably die on the ground. But that might be preferable since he would just respawn in the city center and wouldn’t have to continue fighting Azeroth. He got the feeling that he’d pissed off the NPC a little too much.

Then he shook his head, ‘Thinking of running already?’

He had his passive ready to keep him alive if he suffered fatal damage. Even if Azeroth was planning to bomb him to death with magic he would survive.

‘So I better make the most of this.’

****

“He has balls. But there’s no way he survives this.”

Two figures sat in relaxation as they watched the fight between TidalWave and Azeroth. They had begun watching it the moment Claire had spotted the demonic branch leader on a thumbnail in the forums. They both recognised the NPC as a higher-ranked follower of Varsha. Even in the Kyrgios continent they were exploring it was rare to see a fighter’s guild member of that rank.

“God this thing is uncomfortable.” Claire shifted around the mound they were sitting on and brought her knees up to her chest.

It was a pile of dead goblins. Of course, it was just a decoration placed there by the game. They had long ago killed all the goblins.

“How much do you want to bet on that Claire?” her partner couldn’t keep the glow off of his face as he saw each strike made by TidalWave, “He can’t deal damage but that doesn’t mean he can’t get away somehow. Look at his expression. I bet he could have run by now and just chose not to.”

“Pascal you fool.” Claire giggled, “You’ve fallen right into my trap. If I win, you have to give me the next green ranked item we find. No take-backs.”

Pascal sat in silence for a moment before nodding his head, “And if he lives?”

“He won’t.” Claire said with confidence

“If. He. Lives?” Pascal emphasized the words slowly as he stared at the screen.

Claire was about to stick out her tongue and laugh but then the words died in her mouth as she saw his deadly serious expression, “Fine. If he lives, which I highly doubt, you get to keep the next yellow ranked item we find. No contest. Even if its a wand I’ll let you sell it off if you want to.”

Pascal's eyes gleamed but he didn’t take them off of the screen, “Deal.”

Then he stood up and leapt off of the mound with a single motion.

“Come on.” He lifted his hand to Claire and gestured to them, “The rest of these guys aren’t going to kill themselves. We have work to do.”

“Whattt.” Claire grumbled but followed him, “You just don’t want to watch the guy lose. You owe me a green item.”

“No Claire.”

Pascal waved his hand and with a flash of lightning a staff appeared in front of him, hovering in the air.

“I just have the utmost confidence that he’ll win.”

****

“Why is he just standing there?”

Jein stood in front of the gates of Translor with a pouting expression. The magnificent city with spires reaching to the skies didn’t seem to phase the girl as she kept her eyes on TidalWave standing on top of the broken platform. To her, it looked like the warrior was just standing there waiting for his own death.

“He can’t jump. The fall would kill him.” Ji-woo stared at his own video with eyebrows raised.

He had greatly admired the swordsmanship displayed by the player facing off against the fighter’s guild branch leader. It almost came close to his own skill.

“Who cares, that goat is going to kill him. Either way, he dies.” Jein couldn’t understand the reasoning behind it, “I swear if he’s all skills and no brain it's going to suck.”

“Regardless. He is a threat.”

“Ugh.” Jein rolled her eyes at him, “We don’t even know if he’s going to be competing. He’s not even fighting another player.”

“He will compete. And if he is this skilled then he will eventually meet us.” Ji-woo said with absolute certainty.

Pascal scrutinized the combatant carefully. Every strike he had sent at his enemy had been done without hesitation. Despite knowing that he could never win against the NPC he had expended all his effort without hesitation. He didn’t even doubt for a second that he was going to come out on top in this confrontation.

That was the most dangerous kind of opponent.

“He must have something pretty special that he’s aiming for then.” Jein shrugged, “After all, you don’t get that skilled without having something to chase.”

“Or someone.” Jiwoo smiled, “There is more in this game than what we know.”

“Ugh.” Jein grunted, “I thought our main opponents were going to be the french. And now this guy shows himself and screws everything up.”

“It would be worse if he hadn’t.” Jiwoo closed the video and smiled, “Well, I’m sure he’ll survive somehow. He seems confident in his assessment.”

“If you say so.” Jein closed her video and turned to the city in front of them, “Second biggest city in the Zhalnor continent? When are we getting to Lux? That’s where the strong players will be, right?”

“Patience. We have nowhere to go.”

Jiwoo brought out a badge and the gate guard hurriedly rushed to accommodate him with praises and good service.

“Let’s just wait for all of them to come to us.”

****

‘I’m screwed.’

TidalWave was willing to admit when he was beat.

If he jumped down from the shred of arena left floating in the sky then he was almost certain that he could survive with his second chance skill. But he had never tried to use it outside of battle. It was possible that just jumping to death naturally would lead to him actually dying and losing an item. Or maybe even experience.

But if he stayed here then whatever skill Azeroth was spending so much time preparing would undoubtedly destroy him. He had little doubt that the skill was designed to kill him several times over if it could.

He needed to get away fast.

But the moment he began to feel that his brain was coming up with a plan the sky brightened in a sickly red.

Azeroth smiled down at him with an unreadable expression, “Final Judgement.”

Symbols streaked across the sky and spiralled in a cone as Azeroth said the words. Each symbol glowed blood red and intertwined with their counterparts as they slowly gathered together and formed a funnel. The entirety of the sky seemed to pulse with power as the symbols floated down towards Azeroth.

Then they flew into his sword.

“You have put up a good fight.” Azeroth lifted his sword and then began to descend downwards, “Despite my anger, I will admit, the fighter’s guild will always have a place for you.”

“Good.” TidalWave breathed a sigh of relief.

At least he hadn’t made a permanent enemy out of this NPC.

Azeroth struck towards TidalWave with his sword and out of the bright metal a brilliant light sliced down towards TidalWave. The attack seemed to split the space it travelled through in half as it passed through. TidalWave could see bright flashes of lightning and the dark collapsing similar to Third’s rifts wherever the sword light travelled and in a split second it had already reached him.

He raised his sword. Even if he couldn’t fight against the attack he could always hope that he could somehow block it.

-Jump-

The message came suddenly and unexpectedly.

‘Hmm.’ TidalWave smiled.

He took one final look at the light that was tearing towards him, and then he took a step back and let his body fall off of the edge of the remains of the arena.

[You have been challenged to a duel by player; Seven. Accept? Y/N]

He accepted.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing.’ He thought as he felt his body falling.

Above him, the light smashed through the arena and continued towards him. It was already nearing and he could see its heat waves emanating in the air around it.

Then a shadow crossed over his body as a figure appeared in the air beside him.

“Wind blast.”

TidalWave smiled as his body was suddenly blown away by the magical attack and then his eyes widened as he felt his arm smack against something solid.

‘What’s this?’

He looked around and lifted himself up just in time to see the sword light fly past him and smash into the ground with a giant explosive tremor.

He had definitely been in the air only moments before. But now he was standing on top of a thin blue platform that hadn’t been there before. He had been smashed into it by the wind blast that had moved him to the side. It was so faint that it looked like a transparent blue bubble that was about to pop.

Because it was floating in the air it had stopped him from falling to the ground and dying.

“So. You have more tricks up your sleeve.”

TidalWave looked up from the blue platform to see Azeroth landing beside him with sword outstretched.

“I’ll admit. I did not expect you to be able to manifest your will. You truly are a talent.” Azeroth smiled and lifted his sword, “Final Judgement.”

TidalWave groaned as he saw the sword flickering with light.

The branch leader had more than one charge of the thing.

TidalWave watched the light spread out and fire towards him and lifted his sword.

‘At least we tried.’ He thought weakly.

“This has gone on long enough.” A new voice interrupted TidalWave’s solemn thoughts and he snapped his neck towards it.

From his side a figure was bounding towards him in the air, waving a staff at him. He realised what the figure was trying to tell him and he jumped out of the way just as the sword light smashed past him. Only to land on another platform. This one was black as night, but within it swirled the same endless mists and space that could be seen in Third’s rifts.

He looked up at the sword light just in time to see it fly straight into a dark rift that formed in the air in front of it. The moment the light passed through the rift he turned back to see Azeroth staring at him on top of the other platform with a surprised expression.

-15,000

TidalWave saw a huge damage number float over Azeroth’s head and the goat’s eyes widened in anger, and fear.

“WHO DARES-”

“Wind blast.”

-1

A second figure appeared in front of Azeroth and before he could react he felt his body being blown backwards. Right over the edge of the blue platform.

“Well now.” TidalWave blinked and then saw that the space where Azeroth had been standing was replaced by two new figures, “This is something I didn’t expect.”

Both Third and Seven were standing where Azeroth had been. Correction. They were floating in the air. With nothing underneath them.

“Indeed.” Third raised his eyebrows and stared at Seven intently, “I did not expect this at all.”

“God, how can you walk on air as well?” Seven replied as she saw Third floating in the air, “Do you even realise how hard it was to figure out how to do this?”

TidalWave saw Third chuckle and then they all turned to look down at the figure that had smashed into the ground. Azeroth had been too surprised by the attack to even initiate his ability to stand in the air. He had hit the ground with full force and was wedged inside the crack that had been made by the first skill he’d sent at TidalWave.

“I doubt that killed him.”

TidalWave could already see the figure shifting as it tried to lift itself up after the fall. He could feel the anger emanating from Azeroth in waves. The air around the branch leader was warping and the ground had even started to melt in places. Then TidalWave turned to his friends and smiled.

“So how are we going to do this?”