‘Augh.’

Ana didn’t want to get out of her bedsheets and face the cold air that threatened to ruin her peaceful drowsiness. Too much had happened over the last week for her to start getting out of bed early now.

‘Wasn’t there something important happening today?’

She briefly tried to remember what her brain was trying to tell her. Something about Zodiac Online…

“Oh crap!”

Ana’s eyes flew open as she remembered what she had to do today.

‘Crap, crap, crap.’

She rushed out of her bed and practically flew towards her computer to turn it on. She’d completely forgotten Emily was going to be fighting in the inter-city competition.

‘Damn my sleepy brain.’

The moment her computer turned on she opened the Zodiac Online forums and went to find the event stream. Roxxy had done some digging and even though the event wasn’t anything major, it was still possible to watch the official video live. This way the entire team could follow the competition and not have to go all the way to talk to the bishop in Lum to get transported into the stadium.

Of course, Ana had used the opportunity to sleep in.

[10,000]

‘Wow. It’s a lot more popular than I thought.’

There were viewers in the five digits with the count steadily rising. That was a lot of people watching Emily and her team fight. But they would also have their eyes on the other teams that were participating in the matches.

Luckily Ana could see that the event hadn’t started yet. Inside the forum she could click on the individual city whose team she wanted to watch and a list of players came up as well. She clicked on Emily’s name, Seven, and saw the five Lum players in the waiting room.

Lum: points; 0

‘Points?’ They hadn’t been given any details from the bishop as to how the event would play out.

They had only been given notice that if the competition took too long and you had to log out, you could substitute up to two players per city.

She looked around the waiting room only to see Emily pacing around with a worried look on her face. Ana just laughed and sat back as the timer indicating the start of the matches turned to zero.

Then the players were teleported out of their rooms and into a large platform. Each platform was big enough to be considered mid-ranged in the Lum arena and it looked like they were all grouped in sevens.

There were fewer players than she was expecting. Apparently some cities didn’t have enough qualified players to participate with the full five.

Lum: points; 5

‘Good god.’

She blinked and in that time Nastin had instantly wiped out his opponents. Lum had gained five points and she could see his individual score listed the same amount as well. It was definitely an eye-catching sight but she would have loved to have actually seen the fight.

‘I’ll watch the replay after.’

For now, she wanted to see Emily’s battle.

[15,000]

But then something caught her eye. It was the viewer count of the event.

[25,000]

[32,000]

The number was quickly rising.

****

“Shadow heal.”

“Magic blast.”

The ranged players near Seven and Attracting froze as the two players attacked each other almost instantly. Seven sent magic blasts careening through the sky towards Attracting. Her eyes blazed with fury as she ducked behind a very surprised magi in order to avoid Attracting’s attack.

The magi squeaked as she instantly burst into a purple haze of light. Seven grinned. This was a trick she’d learnt from Archy. Attracting’s shadow heal had begun to touch her but it couldn’t fully hit her if there was someone between her and his line of sight.

She had been preparing for this fight for a long time.

Seven followed up with a jump towards the priest and several magic blasts smashed through the air towards Attracting.

Only for them to hit a corpse.

“What?” Seven almost stopped incredulously until the magi she’d ducked behind turned around with her weapon raised.

“Frost g-"

-106

Seven casually destroyed the damaged magi with her basic attack and made her way towards Attracting’s corpse.

“Stop h-”

-106

-106

Stoneshifting through the glimmering lights she fired off magic blasts to anyone that tried to interrupt her. She wanted to make sure that the priest had really died. There was no way that he had gone down that easily. Not when she had seen him plan so meticulously for everything he’d done.

A girl appeared in front of Seven wielding a glowing green whip that seemed to elongate and fly through the air. It flew towards Seven without a second thought and her opponent grinned in victory as she took advantage of Seven’s distraction to kill her.

Seven dodged the incoming attacks several times without a second thought as she concentrated on moving closer to the corpse. These were nothing compared to Nastin’s sword blows or TidalWave’s sharp killing slices.

“M-monster”

-106

The corpse fell to the ground with a look of surprise on its face. The whip disappearing as the player decided to respawn.

The stone platform was surprisingly big and she couldn’t see any reason for her attacks to have hit the priest. He was fully capable of dodging this kind of basic magic and she had expected it to be a game of cat and mouse.

Dodging past a sudden fireball flying into the ground next to her and sending a retaliatory attack back at the surprised newcomer, she finally she reached the corpse. It was definitely Attracting.

He hadn’t even tried to move.

‘It must be some kind of trick.’

But he definitely had died. There was no denying that.

‘Damn it.’ She decided to turn around and face her opponents.

She would concentrate on the battle in front of her and then try to figure out what to do about Attracting’s strange actions. She looked back at her opponents and realised that while she had been distracted she had killed them or damaged them enough that they’d turned on each other.

There was nobody left alive except for her.

[Congratulation on surviving your battle.]

[Next placement battle: 8 Minutes.]

The priest had definitely thrown the match, and he had done it in a way that meant he was the first to be eliminated from the battle royale.

‘Why would Attracting want to lose?’

It made no sense.

‘And why do I feel so troubled.’

****

Bonnie felt despair coursing through her body as she eyed her final opponent.

[Archy: Level 42]

She couldn’t beat him.

She had watched as he had destroyed the opposing archers within seconds. Each one had dropped to the ground with arrows sticking out of their eyes and even the ones that had tried to dodge hadn’t been able to escape his pinpoint accuracy.

Except for her.

“Not bad, not bad.” Archy grinned as he turned towards her, “Looks like you’re pretty skilled.”

“Liar.” She eyed him angrily.

His words seemed more mocking than complimentary.

She had seen him shoot her arrows out of the sky in mid-flight. He had simply aimed at them and before they had been able to hit their target they had been intercepted by his own arrows. She didn’t even know that was physically possible.

“Ah damn, sorry.” Archy shook his head, “Don’t mean to come off as an ass.”

Then he looked at her awkwardly, “Well now this is just awkward.”

She blinked at his forthrightness in surprise. He seemed nice enough.

Then he shot her in the eyes.

****

“Over here!”

Spark Joy and Troy were startled by a loud voice as Roxxy shouted at them while waving from her seat. Several people turned their heads to stare at the duo and they ducked their heads down to avoid the sudden attention.

“Does she always look that show-y?” Troy smiled at the sprightly girl as she appeared as energetic as ever, “What am I saying. Of course she does.”

“Yup.” Spark Joy moved towards her friend and watched the giant screen that was placed in front of them.

The entire area was accessible if you went to your local city and asked them to take you there. It was a series of seats much like a modern-day stadium except with a rustic look. Thousands upon thousands of empty seats with a few people scattered here and there cheering for their friends and talking.

“So-so-so.” Roxxy began to explain without prompting as they reached her, “There’s a point system apparently. Each rounds winner gets five points, and the second place gets fo-”

“Hey.” Roxxy suddenly stopped mid-sentence and whipped her head around to stare at something behind Spark Joy, “Do we know that guy?”

Spark Joy frowned and turned around to see who Roxxy was talking about.

Then she did a double-take and checked again.

[Dire Wolf: Level 25 Wild Rider.]

A ferocious-looking man with shaggy hair going down to his waist had entered the seating area and had begun to watch the matches with his arms crossed together. His expression wasn’t what Roxxy was talking about however, it was his face.

He looked exactly like the player ‘Dire Wolf’ from one of the previous games they’d played and covered in their blog. But that player wasn’t someone who would be so low level. They were a genius that delighted in solo-playing and killing anything that got in their way. One of the top rankers in the games that they decided to play.

“Maybe it’s someone that’s copying his looks and name?” Troy said.

Dire wolf was famous enough that even he’d recognised the player.

“Yea-” Roxxy was about to agree with him but then stopped again as she saw more players coming through the stands and taking a seat next to them.

[BL Truesky], [BL Youren], [BL Uri]

Black Lightning.

It was a famous organisation in the virtual gaming world. They had a professional team in almost every major game and had players whose stardom and fame ordinary people could only dream about. They were certainly a target for name copying so it wasn’t uncommon to see players in various games taking on their names in order to impersonate them.

But these players all looked exactly the same as their real-life counterparts.

‘What is going on?’ Roxxy couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing.

The stadium seating area which had been almost empty a few moments before was suddenly filling up. Not enough to fill the thousands of free seats, but enough so that it seemed a bit more crowded than before.

-It’s not just them.- Spark Joy suddenly switched to private messaging, -Look, Lucie is over there as well.-

Roxxy turned around and almost groaned as she spotted a happily chatting girl in the stands. Lucie. The blogger hadn’t even bothered to change her looks from real life. She was one of their biggest rivals in the online gaming blog scene. But the last time Roxxy had checked the girl was playing a different game.

When had she switched to Zodiac Online?

Roxxy turned back to check the crowds and awe swept through her body as she realised that the spectators almost all seemed to have three things in common.

They all shared names with famous professionals in gaming.

They were all fairly low level compared to everyone else.

And they all had rare classes that didn’t have a name associated with the five basic classes.

-Hey. Have you noticed something strange about the players in the competition?-

Roxxy suddenly jolted as her awestruck disposition was interrupted by a message from Third. He was watching the matches as he absorbed the spells from the library. Apparently he had only found one he was happy with.

-What do you mean?- She replied back.

Surely he wasn’t able to see inside the seating area and see the players she was eyeing.

-Take a look at the city of Taehra.-

‘Taehra?’ She’d never heard of it, ‘Ah.’

She opened up the player list for the city and looked at their points in surprise.

They had a combined zero points so far. And all of their matches had concluded except for one. This was definitely the city whose team was at the bottom of the barrel when it came to this competition.

But it was the city’s players that caught her attention.

Attracting: points; 0.

Belfast; points; 0.

Cracklebush; points; 0.

Vengeance; points; 0.

Violet; currently in a match.

She hadn’t heard of most of the players. But she definitely recognised the names Attracting and Violet. But he had lost, and not only had he lost, he had come dead last in his group. She had expected better from him.

‘What is he planning?’ Roxxy’s frown deepened.

She didn't believe for a second that he was trying to get his city eliminated from the match.

“Roxxy.” A voice called out to her, “Hey Roxxy!”

“Mm? What’s up?” She lifted her head only to see Spark Joy staring at the screen with an odd look on her face.

And it wasn’t just her friend. Troy, Dire Wolf, and all the other players that were sitting down had gone quiet and were staring up at the screen. Roxxy turned to face the battles and blanched as she saw that there was only one match still going on, with two people clashing again and again.

TidalWave and Violet.

****

[Make sure you come dead last.]

Those were the instructions Attracting had given the team before they had gone into battle. All they had to do was make sure that they died and they would succeed in accomplishing whatever plan he had set up.

Violet hadn’t cared too much about it. She knew from the training that they’d all done that Attracting wouldn’t give up the competition that easily. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have wasted two weeks of his life turning them into a fully functioning team. And somehow he always had a plan ready for whatever fight or obstacle that got in their way so they had all decided to follow his lead in this.

Well, he had told her she would have her choice of strong opponents if she did it. So she would follow along for now.

[Battle royale placement battle commencing in 5…4...]

Violet crossed her arms and tapped her foot as she found herself transported into a stone platform together with six other players. If she was going to jump in and die then she didn’t need to have her weapon out to do it.

The moment the players saw each other she jumped into the middle without a second thought.

‘Come on.’ She goaded the players mentally, ‘Easy target right here.’

But the players seemed to hesitate as they saw her confidently jump into the middle of them all without a second thought. She saw them edging closer into her range as they tried to figure her and each other out. They were afraid of some kind of trick.

“An interesting strategy.”

Violet turned to see that only one of the six players had stayed back and was watching her carefully.

“Do you always act this confidently? Or do you have an ace up your sleeve?”

“Ah.” Her eyes widened as she saw the name above his head.

[TidalWave: Level 43]

****

“So.” TidalWave lifted his eyebrow at the girl that had jumped into the middle of the group, “You’re Violet.”

This definitely wasn’t the kind of strategy he’d been expecting her to employ.

‘Is she that confident in fighting off six players at once?’

TidalWave could see that she didn’t even have a weapon in her hands.

-77

-77

-77

Then his eyes widened as a stream of numbers appeared over the heads of the player’s surrounding Violet. Each one of them took several hits at once and died where they stood, a look of confusion on their faces as they went from alive to dead within a couple of seconds.

Even he had barely been able to catch the sudden whirl of attacks.

‘A skill?’

No.

He hadn’t seen anything indicating a skill.

She had simply taken her weapon out of her inventory and sliced through every single player several times. Her hand and weapon a blur as the rapier suddenly appeared and she spread it out to hit every single one of the five players. None of them had been able to react quickly enough to defend against the attacks. Each strike so sudden that they caused a small gust of wind to appear as they passed through their enemies. Soon the corpses were turning gray, their faces still expressing the feeling of disbelief that their players had in the moments of their death.

All of them had been killed before they could blink.

If he hadn’t seen it he wouldn’t have believed it possible.

“Ah crap.” Violet stared down at the bodies, “There goes the plan.”

She stared up at TidalWave and smiled playfully, “So you couldn’t see that huh? Pity.”

She had acted out of surprise and excitement. It was so rare that she got to meet an opponent she actually wanted to fight. So she had instinctively brought out her weapon and without a second thought she had cut down any of the annoying flies that could get in their way.

But it seemed that TidalWave wasn’t as skilled as she’d thought him to be. He had clearly missed most of the attacks she’d made. She doubted he’d be able to block a single one of hers.

‘I guess I’ll just have to kill him and apologise to Attracting after.’

She already had bloodlust throbbing through her veins.

She dashed forward and in the time it took to blink an eye her rapier was heading straight towards TidalWave’s head. He took a step back as he was faced with the sudden attack.

To her, it looked as though he had completely failed to reach her level. She had thought from the videos she’d seen that he was someone who would do more than just react to her attacks, she had thought he could finally give her a challenge.

Then he brought his sword up to block it in the nick of time and she saw him smiling.

“You’re right.” A metallic ring resounded through the air as their weapons clashed, “I missed it the first time-”

He pushed her rapier back and using the momentum he aimed a slice towards her neck. Only for it to be met with several attacks that aimed to redirect his sword. He grunted as the force of the blows caused his weapon to diverge towards the ground, and in the next moment, Violet was once again next to him and aiming a blow at his head.

He eyed the rapier coming in and time seemed to slow down as he scrutinised the weapon. Its trajectory, its speed, its force. All of these factors had already been seen through by him. He ducked back to avoid the blow and grinned as he brought his sword back around to chop off her arm.

Only for it to hit thin air.

‘She’s fast.’

Violet had leapt back the moment he’d brought his sword around to counterattack. She wasn’t cocky enough to believe that her attack would definitely hit so she had preemptively jumped out of the way of his attack.

“-but now I’m used to it.” He brought his sword back to his front and held it with both hands in front of him.

The two stared at each other, both with the same thought running through their heads.

‘Strong.’

Then they leapt at each other again.

This time neither of them was willing to give their enemy the chance at a first blow.

TidalWave had only crossed a single step before the rapier reached his throat. He ducked out of the way and with both hands clasping his sword he brought the weapon down on Violet’s side. He smiled. There was no way she would be able to recover in time. She was being dragged forward by the momentum of her stabbing attack and his sword would hit her before she recovered. He watched his sword move inches away from her hip...

...but with a sudden metal ring the edge of his blade found itself competing against the very same rapier he had just dodged.

‘Uncanny.’

She somehow managed to recover almost instantly from launching an attack and having it dodged. She could redirect her weapon mid-swipe and even fire off several stabs before he had launched a single slice. With a swift movement of her hand his sword was forced back and he found himself once again staring at a completely unharmed opponent.

Without hesitation he brought himself back into an aggressive stance and swung his sword at his opponent with every intent to kill. A cut towards her stomach. Blocked. Lowering it to swipe low at her legs. Blocked. Continuing the combo with a slice upwards to carve her in two.

-Dodged.

“Ha.” Violet’s expression brightened as she was forced back.

She had been too slow to block it with her weapon.

‘How long has it been since I’ve been forced to take a step back.’

She brought her rapier up to face the charging sword warrior and with a flourish the weapon disappeared as she swung her attacks together so quickly that the thin blade was invisible to the naked eye.

With a scream the rapier cut through the air and half a dozen slashes made their way towards his body. She was no longer aiming for the head, now she was willing to get whatever slight advantage she could.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this.” Violet could feel the joy emanating from her heart.

She could feel her emotions resonating with every stab of her weapon as her opponent blocked her attacks completely. His chain of attacks were linked in perfect harmony with the tip of her rapier as he defended his vital spots. His arms swung his sword in a wide arc and the sheer strength and force behind his charge caused her to step back as he drew nearer.

She ducked a swing and stepped towards his side, sending more attacks towards his undefended ribs and arms. But he reacted the moment he saw her body shift and by the time she attacked he was already in place to defend against her. Every step and attempt she made to get at his side or to try and move behind him was thwarted as he sped up his attacks and tightened his defence.

‘He’s a monster.’

She was constantly circling him in an eternal dance. The music was the ringing of steel and the footwork was their combined intent to edge into each others space. The first one to submit would be defeated. But neither of them had any intention of losing.

With a final step Violet tried once again to jump behind him, sending blow after blow into his side.

He blocked them all perfectly.

And now it was his turn to fight back.

Violet felt a burst of killing intent emanating from in front of her as TidalWave’s disposition changed and he struck out straight towards her chest. With a gasp at the sudden attack, she brought her rapier up to defend. Her weapon was blown back, and her body was forced back a step, but she had successfully stopped the attack. Before she could celebrate TidalWave's sword twitched in mid-air and changed its course from her chest to her exposed head.

‘Yes.’ Violet brought her rapier up and hit its tip against the sword’s blade, switching its direction and causing it to fly past her.

But it only missed her by a hair.

He had spent the last minute defending but with a single swing of his sword he had completely changed the dynamic of the fight.

“So tell me.” She dodged more and more attacks, each deadlier than the last, “Are you having as much fun as I am?”

TidalWave weaved his attacks with his sword rising through the air towards her but at her words he jumped back to safety.

He had seen that she was about to launch a surprise attack with her rapier.

The childlike expression he had on his face was all the answer she needed. He was the same as her. He raised his sword towards his opponent and his piercing gaze struck her.

Almost instinctively neither of them had used the skills provided by their classes. This was a fight based on pure talent and ability. A sight which couldn't be replicated by even the greatest of actors.

This man was her equal.

And she was his.

Violet repositioned herself to a safe distance and the two circled each other with smiles on their faces. They had no intention of giving way, no intention of losing or being defeated.

They would fight until only one was standing.

****

‘Scary.’

Jein giggled as she watched the two warriors fighting each other. Those two were so perfectly matched that just seeing the fight was causing the nearby players to feel terror.

‘It can’t feel good.’ She could see various expressions on the player's faces as they viewed the battle, ‘To realise that there is someone so far above you.’

She and Ji-Woo had finished their fights quickly, although she had been sad to see that there was a paladin already in the waiting room when she arrived that had cleared his battle even faster than she had.

She only liked losing when it was to Ji-Woo.

Jein turned to her swordsman partner with a grin, “Hey I bet those guys could give you a chall-”

And with a squeal she took a step back. Her partners face was a seething mass of emotions.

Jealousy. Bloodlust. Anger.

She could see the raw emotions on his face for the first time since she had met him. He was furious. Not at the players, and not at himself. But at the fact that he had been unlucky enough not to get paired alongside the duo fighting on the screen.

‘I want to be there.’

That was what his expression told Jein as he curled his fingers into fists.

Jein instantly shut her mouth as she saw that he wasn’t in any mood to talk. The normally calm and calculating man was experiencing something that she couldn’t possibly understand.

After all, she had never met an equal in her own field.

Already Ji-Woo’s body was beginning to let off sparks as his passive skill began to fire off. They had both agreed to hold back when it came to the first matches, just in case there were future ones against strong enemies. Even if they won they wanted to do it using the minimal amount of moves and skills so as not to give their opponents much to analyse.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Ji-Woo was going to break that promise. Jein looked at the screen as the match between Violet and TidalWave concluded. It had been a draw, with neither one able to kill the other for a full ten minutes.

Ji-Woo was literally sparking fires around him as the magic caused power to surge through his body.

Jein shook her head sadly.

‘I pity your next opponent.’

****

Cheshire was having a bad day.

“Hot damn I knew you’d be here. Nobody can stop the Cheshire cat.”

His friend patted his back as they finally met together in the waiting room. He had thought that this was the losers area for players that had been eliminated, but it turned out that he was wrong.

This was the place for all those players that had scored four points or higher.

It was slowly filling up with players as more and more battles finished. His team had managed not to come last in their matches but only one other player had gotten into this waiting room. The rest were apparently in another one for players with three points or less.

Cheshire brushed off his friend’s praises with a frown. Officially he had come second in his battle which gave him 4 points for his city. But he didn’t feel good about it. He hadn’t come second because he was skilled.

Nastin had just killed him last.

“So what happens now?” He asked his friend but in reality, he was just trying to pose the question to himself.

He could see the cities being ranked on a screen in front of him. There were only two more minutes until the next fight but almost all of the major battles were finished. All that was left were stalemate battles and the odd match where two players were even in skill.

“I think we go back in until a definite order has been established.” His friend eyed the screen suspiciously, “It looks like this is just a way to determine where each city is in the rankings. I don’t know if the lower-ranked ones get eliminated or not. I’m hearing whispers that there’s something after the battle royales and that’s why we’re getting points.”

[Second battle royale placement match commencing in 5...4...]

Cheshire brought up his spirits as he found himself once again in the stone arena.

Sure, he hadn’t won his last match. But he was still skilled, and he had four points already gained for his team. He looked up and checked out his opponents. Five of them were completely new, and he had never seen them before.

But he definitely recognised the one furthest away from him. After all, it was hard to not know a celebrity when you saw them. The man he was staring at brought out his sword and with a single flash of blinding light, the entire platform was bathed in arcs of lightning. It looked as though an angel had descended from up high to lay judgement upon the six people around him.

In a second the two opponents closest to the thunderous man were burnt to a crisp, their corpses transforming to dust before they could hit the ground.

[Ji-Woo: Level 45 Avatar of Lightning.]

Cheshire sighed.

‘God damn it.’