“TidalWave.” Violet took a step back as Attracting’s voice echoed out across the lava cavern, “This is our official challenge to you.”

Rising from the bubbling lake the monster roared and Violet sprung into action with rapier in hand. The only way to reach the creature was to use the various small rocks jutting out of the lava as platforms. She honestly didn’t want to care about what the priest was saying behind her, but his analysis of her moves was surprisingly helpful. He was pointing out the monster’s weaknesses before she even became aware of them and she used his leads to gain an advantage. That still didn’t help her low opinion of him. He was so up himself it was off-putting.

Honestly, she had seen Magnolia’s dueling videos online and she was a big fan of TidalWave’s skill, but she also had the feeling that the guy wouldn’t care less about this video. She also wanted to fight stronger opponents and if this was the way to get their attention then she would go along for the ride. For now, she had a monster to kill.

She leaped off a rock as the lizard approached and swung her rapier at it. A small blade of wind formed at the edges of her weapon and quickly launched itself into the monster’s eye, causing it to roar out in pain. Violet smiled as she jumped from rock to rock and closed the distance. She was surrounded by lava at all sides and a single wrong movement would cause her to lose her footing and fall into the deadly arena, but she knew she wouldn’t make that mistake.

This was her time to shine.

*****

A small crowd of people had gathered around Spark Joy and Troy as they watched the video of Violet fighting the fiery lizard for the fifth time. The sheer spectacle of the massive creature being downed by a single person wasn’t distracting them from her expert footwork and timing.

“Roxxy…” Spark Joy eyed her friend venomously as Roxxy used the tight grouping as an excuse to push her towards Troy.

Roxxy just smiled and pushed Spark Joy even more. She knew her iron shielded friend was too shy to talk to people easily, even online. This was just her way of giving her a figurative and literal push. She also enjoyed the expressions her friend made as she prodded her further.

“Do you know him?” Colt pointed towards Attracting who was narrating on the side, “I think I recognise him.”

“I have never seen that man in my life,” Archy was scrutinizing the priest, “Did one of the videos piss him off?”

After the Corruptor fight it hadn’t been hard for the team to work out Archy's online persona. It was pretty obvious after his cousin had shouted it for all of them to hear. As such, Archy hadn’t held back and had instead put himself in charge of posting videos of their duels online because he was convinced they would be popular. He was absolutely right. He was also in charge of filtering them so that players like Roxxy, Spark Joy and Seven weren’t in them. The three of them had let him know early on that they didn’t want any of their duels to be put online no matter what.

It was all put into a side channel so that Archy's normal content wouldn't become too cluttered with duels. But even then it still gained quite a few views for a new series featuring unknown players.

On the other hand, TidalWave had become quite a big figure on the Zodiac Online forum because of his duels. It wasn’t enough for him to be known throughout Zodiac Online, but it was a splash with potential. Archy was convinced that with his looks, swift movements and raw skill he was the kind of person to attract large audiences online without doing too much work. Over the past week the video uploaded online courtesy of 'Joy' showing his fight against Azeroth had given him a whole new level of popularity.

‘Luckily he’s not the kind of person to let that get to his head.’ Roxxy thought to herself as she continued to push a protesting Spark Joy.

“That’s Attracting.” TidalWave remembered him clearly, “Haven’t seen him for a while and he generally just spouts nonsense when we do.”

“So we have met him?” Spark Joy was surprised; she still hadn’t been one hundred percent sure.

“It has been a couple of weeks.” Roxxy shrugged and finally gave up on moving her friend as a sickle came into contact with her legs, “And we only saw him twice.”

The priest himself wasn’t doing too much in the video, but even TidalWave and the team had to admit that his analysis of the fight was spot on. Violet was fighting a creature multiple times her size that could possibly take her out in a single hit, but somehow Attracting was predicting their entire skillset. When she was about to jump he would tell the audience to look out for it, when she was going to aim for a vital spot he had already spoken about it half a minute ago.

It was almost prescient in a way.

“Why does he always have to single me out.” TidalWave was annoyed, “I’ve never even started a conversation with the guy.”

He honestly couldn’t remember a single time he had spoken to Attracting out of his own free will. The man just kept coming back into his life like some sort of annoying disease.

“Augh.” Seven blanched as she saw her former friend.

She wasn’t the kind of person to learn just from hearing someone talk. She adapted by seeing how her opponents move. Seven didn’t doubt that she wouldn’t even be on this girl’s radar. She definitely wouldn’t pose much of a challenge if she somehow came across the warrior. Even after multiple viewings she still couldn't grasp the technique's behind Violet's footwork.

Moving lightly and nimbly from rock to rock as she parried and dodged the lizard’s ferocious attacks, Violet seemed to be like a fish in water. Watching her move and fight made Seven realise how clunky she was in her own movements. Violet seemed to be moving how someone would imagine a body to move in their dreams, smooth and unrealistically perfect in its execution.

Her opponent was also clearly no joke. Combined with the lava scenery and disproportionate moving space this was clearly a monster that was designed for wiping out entire groups. The lizard let out a mighty roar and swiped at the lake with its claws, causing a wave of lava to rise and splashes of the deadly liquid to fill the air. Violet immediately responded by leaping into the air and with a flourish she landed on the creature’s back and stabbed into its skin.

Violet was making the monster look like an elephant being played around with by a mouse.

The entire fight was being recorded by Attracting as he narrated the events and taunted TidalWave at the same time. It was clear that he was issuing some sort of challenge but by now they were once again focused entirely on the mesmerising fight.

Except for Spark Joy and Roxxy; Both of them had an unreadable expression on their faces as they heard the detailed analysis being spewed out of Attracting’s mouth.

“He’s talking a lot of smack for someone that’s doing absolutely nothing.” Troy could see Spark Joy’s expression becoming more distant as she thought carefully over the priest’s words.

“I’d like to fight her.” Archy’s eyes sparkled, “That rapier looks like it could chop my arrows cleanly in half without trouble. Clearly she’s aiming for more precision than power.”

“Yeah.” TidalWave agreed, “It just hits it home again that there are people a lot more skilled than us out there.”

They had never once thought themselves to be the strongest players in the game. For one thing, they had Dark Horse to thank for several bruised egos. They had organised a few dueling sessions against them since the fight against the Corruptor and despite TidalWave and the others being slightly higher in level, it was clear that Dark Horse was higher in skill. At the very least Blastar and Nastin had become monsters after they began taking the game seriously. TidalWave was also sure that there were more players like Seven out there.

Undiscovered monsters.

All in all, it meant that Attracting’s message was completely useless. He wasn’t even sure why the priest was so obsessed with him. He sneaked a peek at Seven and IEatTortillas and saw them talking animatedly about Violet and her playing style. They couldn’t care less about Attracting despite having been his friend. It looked like as far as they were concerned he could say whatever he wanted but they didn’t have to listen.

“Hey-hey-hey,” Roxxy’s voice whispered next to TidalWave’s ear, “Come with me for a second?”

TidalWave nodded and brought out his sword. Clearly Roxxy wanted to spar just as much as he did after seeing the amazing fight Violet had shown them.

“Oh-my-god you think too much about fighting.” Roxxy laughed the moment they’d gone far enough away from the group, “I didn’t bring you out here to duel. I wanted to talk to you.”

She rested her back on a nearby tree and with a bang she smashed her elbow against it, causing the leaves to fall down. She picked one out of the air and twirled it around in her fingers as she began to frown.

“Oh.” TidalWave looked at his sword and then put it back awkwardly, “Oh? What’s up?”

Roxxy’s frown was quickly wiped away and she smiled playfully, “Tell me, how much do you know about this Attracting guy?”

TidalWave crossed his arms over his chest and felt his forehead scrunching up as he recalled every bit of information he knew about the priest. Admittedly, he didn’t know too much about that guy.

“He’s got a rare class. So his abilities can’t be too bad. He seems to know who all the skilled players are despite never speaking to them before and he is Seven’s friend. That’s about it.”

“Succinct and to the point, I like it.” Roxxy gave him a thumbs up, “So, do you think he might be cheating?"

“What?” The question blindsided him, “No, I don’t.” TidalWave shook his head, “If he was then he would have told IEatTortillas. Attracting didn’t seem to keep any other information from him. Besides,” TidalWave had another reason for believing that the priest wouldn’t cheat, “Clearly he’s not on good terms at the moment with Seven, but I don’t think she and IEatTortillas are the kind of people to hang out with a cheater. You know she works harder than any of us.”

He pointed over towards the girl in question who had already moved on from the video and was starting a new duel against IEatTortillas. It was a source of motivation for him. He was able to see every step taken by her in her journey to improvement and not once had he doubted her hard work and goals. She had never once come off as a person who would cheat or would tolerate a cheater.

He also sincerely doubted that she even knew how to cheat.

“You’re right.” Roxxy nodded, “But he definitely knows a lot about us. From what you told me, he beat you in a fight-”

TidalWave coughed, “-He kind of cheap shotted me at the end-“

“He killed Archy as well-“

“-Archy totally underestimates his enemies-”

“And he took out Third, and Spark Joy, all by himself.” Roxxy finished her sentence and rested her chin on her curled fingers, “I know we’re not the best in the game, but you can’t deny we’re damn good at fighting at least, other things like diplomacy maybe not so much.”

TidalWave thought about the recent frog incident and Azeroth fight, “Okay.” He agreed, “We’re good fighters.”

Roxxy smiled, “So how did he beat almost every single one of us without ever fighting us before?”

“Um.” TidalWave honestly didn’t know how to answer.

On the one hand, his instincts were telling him to claim it was all a fluke. After all, Attracting had cheap shotted most of the team with moves they had never seen before. But then he began to fight against this train of thought. It was easy to call a single fight a fluke, maybe two. But now that he thought about it, the priest did always seem to have the upper hand no matter what the circumstances.

Somehow the priest had won against several of them in a duel. It was a record that they couldn’t even maintain against each other. That guy definitely had something they didn’t, and that was beginning to bother TidalWave.

“Well then.” Roxxy let TidalWave mull over the question a little longer, “How skilled do you think he is? Like, do you think he could win against us in a fight.”

The memory of their duel flashed over his mind, remembering Attracting being overwhelmed by a sword and resorting to one final attack to win before he was killed. It had been an early level duel but that meant that it was also a duel of raw skill, and Attracting had definitely lost that fight until the end.

“Definitely not,” TidalWave was quick to answer this time, “he doesn’t have the skill to fight us and win. Well, he can’t win without resorting to cheap shots at least.”

He was certain about his judgment. He simply couldn’t imagine the priest winning a fight against him without bringing in an unknown factor into the fight.

“Do you think he would win against us?” He asked his teammate.

“Yes.” Roxxy’s eyebrow’s furrowed in confusion, “No matter how I see it, he’s going to win against us the next time he fights us.”

“Oh?” Now TidalWave was interested, if there was a potential fight coming up he wanted to know about it, “I trust your judgment. Why do you think he’s going to win?”

“Because he’s a damn good player,” Roxxy admitted and then frowned as she felt a bad taste in her mouth, “Oh-my-god that’s annoying to say for some reason. But yeah, he’s a good player. I’d even say a great player.”

TidalWave laughed but then went silent as he saw Roxxy wasn’t joking, “Are you sure about that? He won a few fights against us when we didn’t know what he could do. I’ll admit he’s good, but I wouldn’t say great or damned good.”

He crossed his arms and decided to take a page out of Roxxy’s book, leaning against a tree and picking up a leaf to play with as he began to think about what the tank was saying to him.

“TidalWave.” Roxxy was stone-faced as she spoke, “That guy might be a prancing dumbass who can’t seem to get over himself, and he might be Seven’s friend who is equipped with all sorts of items.” She took a deep breath as though she couldn’t believe what she was about to say, “But before anything else, I think he’s a master strategist. Definitely not someone who we should continue to think of as a joke. I mean,” She hesitated and thought of how to voice her concerns, “He’s a priest. He’s not a fighter, or magi, or a tank. He’s a healer. The kind of person who is never supposed to be in the front line because they stand no chance in a close combat fight and will die to any other class that is not their own. Ultimately, he is a supporting class that is supposed to be used to enhance the performance of other people.”

“Oh.” TidalWave was starting to see what Roxxy had already envisioned, “So he can’t beat us… but it doesn’t matter because he’s not supposed to be able to win in the first place?”

“Exactly,” Roxxy cracked a smile but the concern still edged at the corners of her lips, “I’ve studied the videos he posted online, and gone over the fight we had against him dozens of times in my head. There is more to fighting than just mechanical skill, this game requires brains as well. He is clearly a strategist whose skill is beyond us in every way. He has had the advantage at every fight we’ve encountered him in. He’s had every angle planned out and as a support class managed to kill several of us. In the fight against that giant cocoon, he actually managed to wipe out hundreds of players and our entire team except for one person. We also seem to keep forgetting that he did that while somehow controlling a boss monster. And that’s when he only had a dozen players defending him. He may have lost, but it was because we got lucky that he didn’t kill Seven, not because he was unskilled.”

“Having a boss isn’t a skill.“

“Being able to plan that entire battle from head to toe is.” Roxxy shook her head, “He didn’t get caught off-guard, and I remember him waiting for us and being prepared to fight against the entire army we had. One that we didn’t even know we were going to have. And having a boss is a skill if its a certainty. I know I wouldn’t have been able to do what he did, I would have died easily. Anyone of us would have.”

“And now he’s issued this challenge to you. But he’s in the Underworld, we know that and he’s clearly there in the video. Why would he be issuing a challenge to you now when he doesn’t even know when he’s going to see you again?”

She clearly didn’t mean it as a rhetorical question.

“He’s going to be at the inter-city competition.” TidalWave was no longer laughing,

It was obvious once he thought about it.

“And he’s not going to be alone.” Roxxy was glad to see TidalWave wasn’t trying to make excuses around Attracting’s accomplishments anymore.

“How many are you thinking?” TidalWave decided to take a page out of Roxxy’s book, leaning against a tree and twirling a leaf in his fingers, “A full team of five? He definitely has his friend Violet coming, but I don’t see how he’d have any more players like that around him.”

Roxxy shook her head.

“Two full teams of five.” Roxxy said to his surprise.

“What?” TidalWave’s eyes widened, “How do you know he has two teams?”

“I don’t.” Roxxy admitted, “But he seems to plan everything he does perfectly. He’s shown us this video, with Violet in full swing and kicking ass. She’s clearly just as skilled as you are, maybe more so. But he hasn’t hesitated to show us her skills despite the fact that every other time I’ve seen or heard about his fights he always hides something. Now he’s showing us everything in a way the entire world can see it? It’s a classic distraction move. He’s showing us what’s in one hand while keeping the other hand out of sight.” She took a deep breath as she thought about it, “He’s probably hiding a few other players, and given his track record, they're going to be extremely skilled. And just because he seems to have everything planned out so meticulously I’m going to assume he has a second group of players in wait that will show up and back him up in this little plan of his.”

“Okay, okay.” TidalWave lifted a hand and took a deep breath, “So… Wait a second; let me catch up with you here. I get that he might have two teams,” He began picking up leaves and used them to represent the points that Roxxy brought up, “and that you think he’s going to be in the inter-city competition. But let’s say those things are true, why? It’s not a big thing, and I don’t even think people know about it. It’s just a small fighting tournament for people who managed to level up a bit before everyone else gets serious. We don’t even know what the format will be.”

The bishop had been extremely unhelpful in that regard. The most that he was allowed to say about the competition was that it changed every year in how it was formatted, so even if the last year had consisted only of team battles this year could be completely different.

“I don’t know what his plan is.” Roxxy bobbed her head against the tree, “Which I think is really fun.”

“You do?” TidalWave’s lips broke out into a grin, “You find it fun that this guy is going to come in with a hidden team of players and try to win a competition that nobody is even going to remember? You find it fun that he’s probably going to kick our asses?”

“Well, when you put it that way I can confirm that I find it extremely fun.” Roxxy waved her hands excitedly, “This guy has gotten by on two things so far, the first is that he seems to plan for everything, even the things he can’t possibly know are going to happen.”

“Yup.”

“The second is that he’s been helped a lot by us.” Roxxy pointed at herself and then at the team that was gathered around analysing Violet’s fight and the others duelling in the background, “We’ve underestimated him at every corner and turn. And because of that he’s managed to win or almost win every fight we’ve had with him. Well, you can fool me once and its shame on me, and then twice as well. But if he thinks I’m going to underestimate him again, then he’s going to get one hell of a smack to his pride when we cream him at his own game.”

“Think about it from another angle.” Roxxy’s eyes finally took on their characteristic shine, “When he fought against you guys, you all managed to find each other. When we stopped him at a seemingly random boss we all walked away with more gold than most people would have in this game and extremely powerful weapons. This guy is a walking pot of gold and even if we’re just picking up the scraps we’re in for a big haul.” She waved her hand and TidalWave could see her excitement, “So I don’t know what it is, but I’m willing to bet at the end of this there’s going to be an unexpected benefit. And I want us to be in a position to take the whole thing from underneath him.”

“Alright then.” TidalWave began to see the big picture, “Tell me what we’re going to have to do to beat this guy.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

****

Violet watched her new team carefully. She couldn’t deny that the players Attracting had gathered together were incredibly skilled. She didn’t know where they’d been gathered from but each one was so complementary to each other that when she joined them she was sure nobody could stop them.

“TidalWave, Archy, Third, Spark Joy, and Roxxy.” She muttered the names under her breath as Attracting’s team fought against the nearby mobs.

The truth was that before meeting Attracting she had never cared about what was happening in other continents of the game. Then he had shown her a video of their practice session that a content maker named Magnolia had begun to post online.

She had been amazed.

Attracting had also shown her a blog and let her know that Spark Joy ran the entire thing alongside Roxxy. The blog was an analysis website that provided in-depth video analyses of Zodiac online and its classes. Even though the two tanks of this team weren’t featured heavily in the duels they were clearly more knowledgeable than her about Zodiac Online. She had no doubts about their talent.

She had watched every single video posted online and hungrily gone looking for more. Nastin, Colt, these were two others that made appearances and were extremely skilled, but it was TidalWave, Third and Archy that grabbed her attention the most. That trio had skills that transcended the rest of the players she had met. Not just because of their current abilities, but also because of their rate of improvement. She had no confidence in winning one hundred percent of the time if she encountered them.

It was only when she was reaching the very dregs of the internet that she had finally run out of videos to watch. It was a new group and players were only just starting to notice them. Because Zodiac Online was so new it was easy to find every shred of online evidence about them. These players were definitely eye-catching. Even then the other players Attracting had gathered were too busy levelling to reach their second class advancement to try and challenge newly emerging players. They figured that if that team was still skilled after the second class advancement then they would go and try to challenge them. Violet smiled as she watched a video posted online on Dark Horse’s website.

[Dark Horse vs Unknowns]

It was one of their older videos from when they first started playing Zodiac Online. The player, Chaser, was filming as he confronted TidalWave and his team to a fight. They argued and then eventually came to a consensus to fight each other in the arena. She watched the fights greedily until it came to the archer vs archer fight she had been waiting for. She loved seeing Archy fight, and she knew that Grenda was no pushover. Then a plump looking girl pushed her way into the fight.

[Seven]

‘He’ll never give up a fight.’ Violet smirked.

Along the way she had become a fan of Magnolia’s brash personality without realising it. She knew the internet sensation was also the player; Archy. To her surprise, Archy actually moved aside and allowed her to fight. She didn’t know who this player was but it looked like she was a part of the team. Thinking back Violet recalled seeing her on the sidelines for a lot of the videos, apparently, she was like Roxxy and Spark Joy and didn’t want to appear in the spotlight.

It seemed like Archy was definitely going to protest. Then out of nowhere TidalWave and Archy insisted instead that two members of Dark Horse fight Seven instead, and Violet grew confused. This was an internationally recognised team of professionals and even one of them could put up a hell of a fight.

‘Were they trying to bully her?’ She felt sad at the thought.

She had followed the team’s videos so long that she was convinced they were good people but if they were bullying a team member then it would pull a lot of the fun out of following them.

Then the fight began.

She began to witness what she could only describe as a miracle as the girl began to dodge the invisible arrows while running from Chaser. Then Chaser was obliterated within seconds and Seven turned to Grenda and outmaneuvered her. Violet realised she was holding in a breath and let it go as Seven killed the archer who was hidden by her veil of darkness.

‘This girl is just as skilled as her teammates.’ Violet’s eyes were sparkling.

Then Seven agreed to fight against TidalWave and Archy to demonstrate her skills to Dark Horse.

It was glorious.

Violet knew she wouldn’t have the confidence to win against both of these players at the same time. Yet this magi had lasted minutes fighting against both of them at the same time. Violet could see that none of the three were holding back as they tried to kill each other and ultimately it was Seven’s lack of mana that led to her death.

‘This is when they were all lower levelled,’ Violet realised, ‘I want to know how she is now. Can she still fight against them?’

Violet wondered if the girl could only have gotten more skilled since the time this video was taken. Unfortunately, it seemed like there were no more videos of her online. She didn’t participate in any of the recorded duels and even if she was in the video it was only as an unnecessary and ignored side character that was watching the fight or killing monsters in the background.

“Seven.” Violet startled Attracting as the priest was standing next to her and healing any team members that had low health, “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

Attracting's eyes glazed over. "Ah. She isn't someone that should be coming to the inter-city competition. Not that you shouldn't prepare for a fight just in case, but she has a fairly standard class we'll be going over later on."

“Bullshit.” Violet said with enough savagery to cause her nearby teammates to stare at her, “I asked you why you didn’t tell me about her. She's on their team, isn't she? That means she's a threat.”

Attracting's eyes flashed with anger for a brief second but then he took a deep breath and tried to think of the situation carefully. He didn't think he'd be talking about that girl today of all days. They were so close to the competition as well.

He shook his head to clear it from emotions, “Did you see her in one of the dueling videos?”

“Yes.” Violet answered curtly, “Do you have any more videos with her in them?”

“One. Split into a few sections” Attracting’s expression turned sour, “When I lost a fight against their team in Zhalnor. I was-” He coughed lightly as his cheeks blushed, “Recording because I thought I would win and it would make a great video. Got several shots from good angles too.”

He had prepared so thoroughly for that fight that it annoyed him how easily it had fallen apart.

“Show it to me.” Violet’s eyes shone as she received the videos from Attracting, “Is she in any of them?”

“Yeah.” Attracting's expression was thoughtful as he recalled the events of that night and passed the footage to Violet.

It was something he didn't want to see a repeat of.

Violet sighed at him and began to play the videos without another word. She smiled as the first was a recording following IEatTortillas as the player faced off against TidalWave. That was a good fight. She quickly flicked through the others until she came to the one that followed Nastin. The leader of Dark Horse was an extremely powerful paladin and even in these early days, he’s been on the stronger end of players. He was renowned for his honour in battle and his calm demeanour.

This terrifying player had decided to launch a sneak attack against Seven.

“No matter how much I insisted.”

Nastin stood proudly as he seemed to predict that Seven would dodge the oncoming blow. Violet could see him launching into a battle stance and not allowing a single movement to get passed his eyes.

“That fool Attracting wouldn’t agree to send anyone to fight you. And now I’m all alone against an extremely skilled opponent.”

“Nastin.” Seven greeted the paladin warmly.

Violet’s eyes widened as the two began to fight. It was one thing for the girl to defeat Chaser when the warrior didn’t know her attacks, but watching Seven fight against a fully knowledgeable Nastin was on a different level. Then Seven won and the battle suddenly turned around. It was true that Archy was firing at the Corruptor’s eyes for a lot of the battle but Violet could see that Seven had done it consistently due to her fights lasting only a few seconds. She had provided support to the knights and frontline whilst dealing the most damage to the Corruptor boss and halting its movements. Violet could see that this girl was probably the sole reason that Attracting’s plans had come undone. Despite Nastin trying to stop her and failing, Attracting had done nothing but completely ignore this danger at his side.

Then she saw Seven finish off Colt and she sighed. The girl had such expert movements yet she was so unknown. It was such a shame. Then Violet wondered if that group had any other hidden talents. They would truly be a marvellous team to fight alongside or duel against.

“You said that at least some of these guys are going to participate in the upcoming tournament that’s being organised, right?” Violet probed Attracting as the man healed.

“Yup.” Attracting’s lips smiled playfully, “We have to defeat them there, and everyone else that gets in our way. That’s why it’s vital that we prepare.”

Violet nodded and returned to watching the video. She wanted to memorise every movement and habit this magi had. Then she would practice. But she wanted more updated information. She needed to see how much this player had improved since this fight.

“TidalWave, Archy, Third, Spark Joy, Roxxy and Seven.” She muttered the names in a chant

They would become her new targets.

She finally had somebody to look forward to fighting.