Seven kept her wand raised as she looked down on her opponent.

Even when she was using aura step, she knew the guardian could take her out with a well-placed sickle. But the tank was too strong to hit from a distance. She would just knock all the attacks out of the air until Seven had run out of mana.

Seven threw magic blasts towards her opponent and watched as the tank dodged all of them. Then the tank retaliated by throwing her sickle towards Seven, the blade trying its hardest to reach her. And it was succeeding.

‘I’ve got to get away.’ Seven created another platform higher in the air and made her way towards it. ‘Get some distance.’

As Seven jumped off the platform she realised the grave mistake she’d made. In the space between two platforms, a glint of metal marked the appearance of a sickle rising to cut her. She’d underestimated how slowly she was moving in the air, and how quickly her opponent could throw the sickle at her. She couldn’t dodge the attack mid-jump and even if she reached the other platform, it would already be too late and the sickle would still pull her towards her enemy.

She was helpless.

“Damn.” Seven watched the sickle digging into her chest, dragging her to the ground.

The fall damage alone was enough to kill her.

That made the third duel in a row that she’d lost.

“You’ve gotten used to my movements already?”

“Yup.” Spark Joy’s mirthful expression greeted Seven as she revived. “You’re pretty stifled when you can only move from platform to platform. You’re just relying too much on aura step now.”

Seven had learned a lot over the past few duels. The tank had exploited the issues with aura step from the moment they’d begun and had completely dominated the fights. The first issue was that aura step was incredibly slow to start up. Let alone creating a platform, just stepping onto it and making new ones like steps to fly higher and higher made Seven an easy target for Spark Joy to attack her. Seven’s concentration had to be perfect to maintain the platforms and make them, and once she stepped onto them they locked her into a certain position that was still close to the ground. It was a period of the fight full of openings for the tank to exploit.

Spark Joy’s previous two victories had been during the beginning of the match.

‘She’s right.’ Seven scrunched her eyes up as she tried to think of a solution to the dilemma. ‘If only I could do what Azeroth did and create a huge arena. No, then I wouldn’t even be able to reach them with my attacks.’

The was the first issue she’d encountered. The second had been the fall damage. When Seven finally got high up enough that scythe attacks weren’t an immediate issue she’d found out the hard way that falling would cause her more damage than anything her opponent could do. Spark Joy’s dragging attack forced her to speed onto the ground and splatter like an undercooked pancake.

“That’s why we do it.” Spark Joy read Seven’s strained expression and smiled gently. “I can’t do too much today though. I’ve still got to talk to some of the priests taking care of the Verm library. Apparently there are some interesting legends there on mythical creatures that have been cited as accurate.”

“How’s it going?” Seven was curious about Spark Joy’s self-imposed mission.

Ever since the competition had ended, they’d all been going on with individual missions. Seven and TidalWave had been farming together and completing subjugation quests. Third was learning spells and Archy was trying to figure out all the secrets involving archers inside Lum.

Spark Joy had spent the free moments of her time searching for dragons to kill. It was the one condition that they couldn’t complete to unlock the yellow-ranked weapons they’d received after defeating the Corruptor. From the libraries to NPCs, she’d been completing quests and raising her reputation to gain access to information on possible dragon locations. The entire team had been helping her where they could but other than Roxxy none of them had a large enough reputation to get any good information out of the NPCs. They were all tight-lipped to players that they didn’t know.

Spark Joy sighed. “It hasn’t been too fruitful to be honest. This is a pretty flimsy lead at best.” Then her eyes lit up. “I had a major breakthrough recently, actually. I was going to go and check it out later. I need to get someone to help explore, there are too many mobs between here and there.”

Seven’s eyes lit up. “Can I come?”

She was itching to do some battle. She wouldn’t be able to play Zodiac Online for the next couple of days if she went off with Andrew, so she was getting it all out of her system.

“Sorry.” Spark Joy shook her head and looked apologetic as she saw Seven’s expression fall. “It’s at a place past the frogmen village. We’ll need someone that they don’t mind giving passage to.”

“The frogmen?” Seven blanched as she remembered the events that had led to her being banned from the village. “Are they hiding a dragon somewhere?”

She’d had a pretty bad encounter with an archmage named Trog, but in hindsight it had all been her fault. She’d crossed into the frogmen village territory and started slaughtering their villagers without mercy. She still felt kind of bad about it, even if they were computer-generated NPCs.

“Yeah, the ones you massacred.” Spark Joy joked. “They have a pretty interesting tale of a monster living deep within the lake their village is inside. They think that if you go far enough down the river you’ll encounter a dragon-like creature that lurks below the surface. Apparently the only one to see it and live was the village archmage, and when he came back he could summon dragons to fight for him out of water.”

“Oh?” Seven could vaguely recall something like that.

She could definitely still remember the Archmage’s attack. Twin columns of water shaped like serpents had formed in thin air, moving so lifelike that Seven had mistaken them for summons. The raging animals had crushed her without mercy. They’d left quite an impression on her.

‘But could they have actually been dragons?’

“Those things were based on a monster?” Seven couldn’t help but feel envious of the frog.

“Yeah, and it could be a dragon. Dragons and snakes are closely related in most games as well, so there’s a chance we’re onto something big.” Spark Joy had questioned Seven thoroughly about the incident earlier alongside Third but Seven hadn’t thought it relevant. “So we’re going to have to check out what the monster is and then run like hell if it’s something we can’t kill by ourselves. We can only get to that part of the lake if we go through the village. It's cut off by high-level mobs from every other side.”

It didn’t need to be said that if they could kill it by themselves, Spark Joy and whoever went with her would wait until the entire team was there.

“That’s going to be a pain if it’s actually a dragon. They don’t exactly like me there, not enough to let me go through.” Seven wasn’t exaggerating.

The frogmen had placed an order to kill her on sight if she went anywhere near their village.

“It’ll still take a few days to verify the information. There’ll probably be a higher levelled zone there for us to make our way through.” Spark Joy tilted her head. “Damn, maybe I should take a couple of people.”

“Archy and Roxxy.” Seven didn’t have doubts about the choices. “TidalWave wants to learn aura step from the fighter’s guild.”

Azeroth liked TidalWave more than any of their group. The old man had let slip in conversation that aura step was available on the second floor of the fighter’s guild library, but not how to get there. TidalWave hoped that his improved skills after fighting Violet would boost him enough to impress the branch leader.

Seven was startled to see an uncharacteristic sparkle in Spark Joy’s eyes when she mentioned Roxxy. Her posture shifted and before Seven could even blink Spark Joy had transformed into a bubble of energy that looked like it was about to explode.

‘She kind of reminds me of Roxxy.’ Seven mused as she saw Spark Joy’s transformation.

“Roxxy is heading out this weekend.” Spark Joy said with a conspiratorial grin. “A friend of hers invited her to one hell of a gathering. She’ll be out for a couple of days at least.”

“A boy?” Seven was quick to home in on the new information.

“A boy.” Spark Joy confirmed and they both smiled.

Spark Joy was clearly excited by the development, and Seven was caught up in Spark Joy’s enthusiasm. They moved into position as they began the next duel, smiling at each other and talking.

Seven began the fight by stone shifting as far away from Spark Joy as she could. “So she’s going on a romantic getaway?”

Spark Joy leaped through the air and threw her sickle at Seven, bringing her shield around at the same time to block an incoming attack. “Not exactly. She’s just getting together with an old friend, he used to be my housemate way back in the day.”

“An old flame with a new trick? Guess he must be trying pretty hard.” Seven could definitely see men chasing after Roxxy.

Roxxy just seemed to have that kind of flighty personality.

“She was always the one more into him, actually.” Spark Joy missed with her sickle attack and watched as Seven began to form platforms. “So when he asked her out she almost fainted from the shock.”

“Roxxy did?” Seven dodged the incoming attacks and made her way up the platforms carefully. “He must be one hell of a guy.”

“They have fun.” Spark Joy retracted her weapon and made her way towards Seven. “I always wanted them to get together, but then some stuff happened and I had to switch houses. We sort of lost touch after that.”

Instead of attacking the magi she jumped onto the nearest platform that Seven had left up and then made her way towards the floating girl.

“Oh what the hel-” Seven barely got the words out before Spark Joy’s shield smashed into her and pushed off of her platform.

A second later a sickle wrapped around her leg and dragged her towards the tank, who jumped down from the platform and crushed Seven’s body with her shield. Seven tried to retaliate with a magic blast but by the time she got her wand up the sickle was back in Spark Joy’s hand and cutting through her head.

[You have been defeated by player: Spark Joy.]

“So I can step on your platforms.” Spark Joy looked content.

The platforms had all disappeared the moment that Seven died, but while she was alive they would only disappear if she wanted them too or if she lost her concentration. Seven hadn’t even thought about Spark Joy trying to run up them before she could dismiss the skill. The tank had immediately used the oversight to her advantage.

“You know, it might be better for you not to use aura step for a bit.” Spark Joy couldn’t help but remark and she watched Seven revive. “You can beat me easily if you stop trying to get high into the sky first. You have the absolute advantage on the ground and against a tank like me, it's not like you’ll be in danger of getting one shot.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Seven sighed as she thought over the fight again. “I’m just being stubborn. It’s such a great skill but somehow I thought it would be more useful.”

“It will be.” Spark Joy assured her. “You’ve got time to practice it and make it work for you. Not everyone has an ability that lets them drag in players from a long-range.”

‘It’s not exactly uncommon though.’ Seven left the thought unsaid.

She knew Roxxy could also knock her off her platforms by throwing her shield. If the tank hit her platforms she could even break them, causing Seven to die from fall damage. At the least Seven would be severely incapacitated.

That was the third weakness of the platforms. They used focus points as their main origin, with Seven manipulating the focus point so that matter could be created on it. However if an attack so much as looked at it the wrong way the platform would shatter into pieces.

She’d discovered that the hard way when Roxxy’s shield had missed her and hit the platform underneath her instead. She’d plummeted to the ground and before she knew it she was being stabbed to death by an overly enthusiastic tank.

It hadn’t helped that she’d been killing in duels Roxxy a lot lately.

“Hey.” Seven’s brain suddenly put two and two together. “If Roxxy and I are heading out this weekend doesn’t that only leave us with three players? We’ll probably lose our team city spot.”

“Oh, you’re planning on heading out as well?” Spark Joy wasn’t concerned. “Roxxy is planning to give her spot to Third before she leaves. So we’ll still have four players to defend our spot. Honestly, I think we could defend it with three people as long as we have Archy and TidalWave.”

“Are you sure I shouldn’t give up my spot?” Seven had been giving it some thought lately, and it wouldn't surprise her if they asked her to step aside.

“Absolutely not.” Spark Joy shook her head. “Unless you want to of course. But we definitely need you in the main team, you’re one of our strongest fighters.”

“Thanks.” Seven could feel her pride rising as she heard Spark Joy’s words. “That’s fun about Roxxy though, don’t worry, I won’t tell her you told me.”

“You better not” Spark Joy punched Seven lightly in the shoulder and then her eyes widened as she looked behind the magi. “Oh hey, look who we have here. We were just talking about you.”

“All good things I hope.” Seven heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Third!” Seven turned around and then froze in her tracks. “What the heck happened to you?”

The wizard looked terrible. His robes were severely burnt, his eyes had dark shadows underneath them and even his comically rotund figure seemed to have shrunk unhealthily. It was like staring at a very fancy corpse, or a zombie.

“The library is not as safe a place as they would have us believe. I am now under a curse that is making my character disheveled for the rest of the day.” Third stated as though it was a common occurrence as he made his way up to the duo and smiled. “It’s good to see you both again. I trust everything has been going well?”

“We’re not cursed if that’s what you’re asking.” Seven smiled as she saw it was still the same old Third.

She’d been a bit worried that he’d gone off and ditched their group. Even though he was constantly messaging them, they still hadn’t seen him for over a week.

“Ah yes, a wonderful state to be in. It’s not a fun thing to be cursed.” Third raised his staff. “But not something that will keep me down either. Would either of you like to fight?”

“I’ll give it a try.” “Sure thing.” Seven and Spark Joy spoke and the same time and then laughed.

They formed a party and challenged Third to a duel.

It would be two against one.

“How much space do you want between us?” Spark Joy was adjusting the settings of the duel.

Technically they could start wherever they wanted to, but because Third had just come back they would probably be fighting a few duels in a row. So they would let the system pre-set a range and just use that.

“I would like to try all of them.” Third’s voice was confident. “Let us start with close range.”

Seven whistled. Close range was the hardest range to fight at for a wizard. His techniques and skills were all dependent on his ability to stay alive, something that became a lot harder if there was a close-range tank fighter hitting him from all angles.

“Your funeral.” She took a step back as the duel began.

With Spark Joy in front of her she could easily obscure her body from Thirds view. She had tried this trick numerous times when fighting against Third in duels.

“Sickl-”

“Magi-”

Seven and Spark Joy threw themselves into the fight at the same time. Both of them working in perfect harmony to launch their attacks at Third.

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Seven was suddenly eating dirt and grass as the attacks smashed her body into the ground. She'd been flung across the grassy plains by several explosions and then a rift had formed in front of her, causing her momentum to kill her when it forced her to ride through the purple crack in space.

‘What the hell?’ Seven watched her body turning grey, and a quick glance to the side showed her that Spark Joy was in a similar state. ‘What just happened?’

“Yes.” Third’s voice floated towards Seven as she revived. “This is as I expected.”

She’d been taken out within a second.

“Rift destruction isn’t that powerful. Or that quick to activate.” Spark Joy joined up with Seven. She’d been blown even further away, and Third had shot a couple more rifts as her while she was incapacitated to finish her off. “Did you get an upgrade?”

“I did.” Third pointed to his eyes and they looked at his avatar with interest.

His pupils were glowing a faint purple and black colour, with little purple lightning strikes flowing in and out of his skin. It was like looking at something charged with power.

“So that’s what a new constitution does.” Spark Joy’s interest was piqued. “But I thought you didn’t have the time to learn one?”

Constitutions could be learned in the library just like spells, but they took far more time.

“Luckily I was helped by some of the kind NPCs at the library.” Third smiled as they began to reset the dueling parameters. “Shall we try it at the longest range now?”

‘Helpful NPCs?’ Seven shuddered.

Her visit to the library hadn’t been nearly as easy going as Third’s seemed to have been.

She lowered herself into a defensive stance as she was teleported by the system to a far range alongside Spark Joy. As a magi she couldn’t risk firing a single shot at Third from this range, his rifts would tear her apart if she did. But as long as they moved quickly enough his rifts weren’t difficult at all to dodge.

“Get high into the air. Make sure to avoid the rifts.” Spark Joy took command instantly as they prepared.

Getting near Third while he could use rift destruction wasn’t something they could afford to do. Seven would need to hover above it to avoid the blasts.

Aura Step would be the way to go with this one.

“Hello.” Third’s voice suddenly broke out from behind her and the duo froze.

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Seven felt her body being blasted back but before she could react two more rifts formed where she was falling, dealing damage to her and killing her instantly. Because the duel hadn’t ended Seven was given the chance to observe and she turned to watch Spark Joy running away from Third. Seven knew she wasn’t retreating, the tank was trying to see what Third had done to get so close to them. Apparently Third had only had time to concentrate on killing Seven because Spark Joy’s health bar was completely untouched.

Then Third lifted his staff towards Spark Joy and magic began flowing out of the weapon.

‘He’s forming a rift? No.’ Seven’s eyes widened as a gigantic rift formed around Third’s body.

He was teleporting.

Third disappeared but in the next second a rift formed next to Spark Joy and Third emerged from inside it, blasting back the tank and finishing her with more rifts. The tank's eyes were wide in disbelief as she died and Seven couldn’t blame her.

They’d been completely toyed with the entire fight.

“Damn you got me. Spark Joy looked at Third with interest as she revived. “What level are you Third?”

‘Oh right.’ Seven suddenly realised what Spark Joy was getting at.

Third hadn’t had any time at all to level up since he’d been in the library.

‘Did he kill us while he was almost twenty levels lower?’ Seven couldn’t believe it.

Surely he wasn’t that powerful.

“Level 43.” Third’s avatar shimmered for a second and then they could see his level next to his name. “My apologies. I forgot I’d hidden it. I haven't simply been spending time at the library. I had to go through some harsh quests to receive these powers.”

“So you did get time to level up.” Spark Joy looked relieved. “At least I know you’re only nine levels lower than us.”

Spark Joy and Seven were currently level 52.

“Can everyone become that powerful just by spending time in the library?” Seven narrowed her eyes.

She would spend all of her time there as long as she could get access to these kinds of spells and power. She didn’t care if she didn’t have to farm. This was a level of power that she’d only seen when she was fighting against Claire and Jein.

“No, no.” Third shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s quite a bit more complicated than that. Not only did I have quite a few lucky encounters, I even managed to gain the A rank in the Magi Guild of Lum’s test. They gave me access to the second floor after that, and a reward for being the first player to accomplish it. Not to mention I passed the test of that witch you mentioned Seven.”

“Oh?” Seven’s eyes lit up.

She’d taken the same test when she’d first come into Lum. She’d received a D rank, the third-lowest rank possible. But because of Third’s interference, she’d later received a portable test that she could take any time.

`Is now the right time to take the test?’ She wondered as she viewed the box in her inventory.

She would receive a reward that scaled based on her results, but she didn’t know how high she could go. Even if she could get a B, she was competitive enough now that she wanted to aim for an A just like Third had received. She wanted the highest tier reward a player could get.

‘No.’ Seven shook her head and turned back to Third. ‘Not yet.’

She would wait just a bit longer.

“So then.” Third turned to them with his staff outstretched mockingly. “Shall we go for another round?”