Being forced to fight was anyone’s worst nightmare. However, some embraced the chaos. Despite all its faults, a rule that forced people to fight each other exposed their inner selves, even if only a little. Some preyed on the weak and some fought those that they hated, and there were the few that wanted to fight the ones stronger than them —to test themselves, perhaps.

Blair was neither.

The prospect of being able to fight without fear of death or repercussions seemed oddly satisfying. She was just like everyone else: she wanted to rip out the throat of people that pissed her off, which was no one in Gloom Town, but still, she had those urges.

But that didn’t mean she wanted to fight.

“Me?” asked Blair and pointed an index finger at her chest, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah,” said a mousy-looking girl that stood roughly around Paula’s height who seemed close to her age, and audibly summoned a hatchet in her hand. She had the grocery store uniform, which was a dark blue vest over a light blue T-shirt. It looked heavy but manageable —definitely easier to sling around than the mace. Its edge looked as sharp as a sword’s but it was lacking in reach, merely half the length of one.

It would be useless against her spear if she played it smart.

“Why me?” she asked.

“Well, since- since I think I can beat you,” said the girl.

Blair felt like she recognized her, but didn’t know when she ran into the girl. It could be someone she knew from back in high school since she seemed close to her age. She narrowed her eyes and whispered, “Inspection, activate.”

Name: Clara Tuffin

Status: Council Member

Definitely not a name she recognized.

“Council Members have to fight too?” she mumbled to herself.

“Yeah,” Clara whispered back.

“Well, we should just get it over with, then. We’ll have to fight either way since three kills is unrealistic,” said Blair and slightly pursed her lips. She didn’t remember how to challenge someone to a Duel, but against her better judgment, she decided to wing it and spoke out, “I challenge you to a Duel.”

“Do you want to bet with our Daily Ration Cards? Since, you know, we both need the extra water,” asked Clara quietly.

Even if Blair was confident in herself, she’d never risk her lifeline.

“No. Obviously,” she hissed back and Clara furrowed her brows in retort.

“Then Blank Cards it is,” she said and a Card appeared straight in her hand.

“Are you sure?” asked Blair and bit her lips. There was a side of her that wanted to vent all her frustration by trying to actually kill someone, but the more humane side of her made it difficult to force herself to do that.

[Player: Clara Tuffin] has challenged you to a Duel. Would you like to accept it?

“Do you really want to fight me, though?” asked Blair and looked around. There were others around. Fighting inside a building didn’t seem like the best idea but it was common sense to hover somewhere in the Town Hall since no one knew when the Monster Wave would start.

The timing was fortunate yesterday but no one could predict when it’d start.

“Or fight at all, in fact,” Blair added, her heart rigorously thumping as she stared at the interface in front of her.

“If we don’t fulfill the quota, other people will challenge us. I’d much rather pick a fight that I could possibly win,” said Clara and Blair couldn’t exactly refute that —if a man picked a fight with them, their chance of victory would plummet, especially if they were athletic.

“Fine. I accept,” said Blair and a pop-up appeared before her face.

[Player: Clara Tuffin] has placed the Skill [Claw Retraction (C)] in Ante. Please, select the [Common] Skill you wish to place in Ante.

It required a Common Skill, as two Cards of different rarities couldn’t be placed in an Ante against each other.

It only made sense she’d use her Claw Retraction as well and she placed it in the Ante. Just like she summoned the Communication Card, she commanded the Card to appear after saying its name aloud. Before she managed to grab it, it was sucked away by an invisible vacuum cleaner and both of the Cards met in the middle of the duo, hovering mere inches from the ceiling that was over three meters tall.

The world turned gray and only Clara and Blair retained their color. This chromatic effect extended to their clothes, letting them retain their colors as well. It was odd to look at the world through a grayscale filter, almost like she was stuck in a show from decades ago.

“We’re finally alone,” said Clara and rubbed her temple and scalp with one hand as she stared at Blair with a pursed lip.

“Steel Spear, appear,” said Blair and let the spear manifest in front of her. She stretched out her hand and pulled the spear out of the light, scattering what remained of its case into colorful fragments.

“Wait, wait,” said Clara and raised a hand in front of her, “Apparently, you can put a condition before you start actually fighting. Let’s just say whoever draws first blood wins, okay? Or it might hurt a lot.”

Pain…

That was something Blair completely forgot about. She merely focused on the prospect of venting out frustration on someone without risking injuries or death, which led her to look down at her hand. She clenched it once and loosened it.

There was a slight pain but it seemed mostly healed and only three nights had passed since she’d gotten the injury.

Then a window appeared before her face, obscuring her vision for a few seconds.

[Player: Clara Tuffin] has requested to add the Win Condition: [Draw first blood]. Would you like to accept it?

“Yes,” said Blair as she nodded, but before she could even finish the nod, she felt something hit her arm and before her brain even registered the pain, the Duel had concluded.

It was easy to recognize from all the noise.

Sorry! You’ve lost the Duel and have lost the [1 x Claw Retraction] placed in [Ante].

That bitch had to have thrown the axe!

“You!” growled Blair and clenched her fists as tightly as possible before she spouted off anything rude —it was a skill that she’d mastered. She had to appear perfect and that meant she couldn’t burst.

That was cheating!

“Sorry. I couldn’t have beaten you otherwise,” said Clara and gave her a wink followed up by a smirk.

“Okay, then. What about a rematch?” she asked as calmly as possible, emphasis on possible. She was positively fuming and her voice was strained.

“No way. There’s no way I’m winning again,” Clara said and shrugged her shoulder.

She was a bitch.

“I challenge you to a Duel,” Blair said and put a smirk of her own on her face, “The rules say that you have to accept a Duel when challenged.”

“Well, you certainly have the right to challenge me,” said Clara and walked away humming a happy tune as if nothing had happened, “Doesn’t mean I have to accept it.”

That was a loophole!

It said that they could challenge anyone, but that didn’t mean the challenged one had to accept the Duel.

“Fine, then. I’ll just follow you around and warn anyone that you try to Duel,” said Blair and walked after the Council member with a hurried pace. She’d get her revenge, somehow.

“Well, do it later, then. I’ve already met my quota for today,” she said and gave a nonchalant shrug.

“So you won thrice by cheating,” said Blair and slowly exhaled all the air in her lungs —she had to keep calm.

It was unbecoming of her to get so worked up over something like that. It was just Claw Retraction but had it been her Daily Rations card, she’d have to resort to looting a corpse to get her lunch!

“Fuck you,” Blair whispered and promptly turned around.

She thought of announcing her foul game to everyone as loudly as possible but stopped herself. If she proceeded to not cheat any further, it’d end up damaging what little reputation she had managed to scrounge up by providing a decent plan, even if it was Dexter that had perfected it.

14% of the population had died during the first two Waves and in the third one, not that many could’ve died.

That meant a maximum of around 16% of them were gone if she highballed it, and that meant there were over 800 people. Depending on whether the number of people was divisible by three or not, some people would have to Duel a lot more than thrice.

“You won’t tell anyone about my methods and that’s a direction,” Clara said and gave her a wink.

“I will, without a doubt,” said Blair matter-of-factly and turned on her heel.

“Well, you can certainly try,” said Clara and walked off after giving her a cheerful wave.

That was it.

Her bucket list now included pissing Clara off. Blair’s pettiness knew no bounds and she’d do everything short of murder to achieve it. It would be evil to kill someone, not petty. That, and if she died, Blair couldn’t see the aftermath.

The best part about pissing someone off was seeing their reaction, after all.

But there were more important matters at hand.

She still needed to find someone to Duel with to reach the quota. If she couldn’t, that Forced Expulsion would be dangerous. They were only supposed to survive for ten minutes while within the Settlement, but if they were kicked out of the barrier, then they’d be fighting for their lives all day, every day.

Persuading someone into putting an Eagle Vision in the Ante could be possible if they were Citizens. It was likely that they wouldn’t want to lose any of their other Cards. Maybe their weapons, but Blair didn’t believe people would risk losing their Starter Skills and Daily Ration Cards.

That’s when she remembered about the Blank Cards.

While she wanted to save them for later usage, others mightn’t have the same idea.

The more she thought, the more likely it seemed that she’d get Blank Cards rather than Skills or Equipment. If she did manage to get a weapon, though, she wondered if wielding both at the same time would stack the bonuses.

If so, that would be a cheat and those who had smaller weapons would be far trickier foes than her initial assumption. Someone with 2 daggers would ultimately have the same Strength boost as someone who had a larger weapon while also getting a decent boost to their Agility.

That was absurd and unfair.

Blair looked around and spotted Dexter appear out of nowhere, mere meters away from someone else.

“Told you I’m kinda good,” he said and tapped his temple with his index finger, “It’s what’s here that matters.”

“Rematch!” screamed a man that appeared to be in his early thirties, but with a balding head. He wasn’t quite overweight but had a beer belly, glaring daggers at Dexter, “I’m beating you this time.”

“No way. You don’t have any Blue Skills left,” said Dexter and turned away.

“Fine. We’ll put Blank Cards in the Ante. How about it?” asked the older man —it was someone that Blair had seen a few times, and she could bet he was a Guard.

More importantly, Blair wanted to know if Dexter was a Guard or not. He was close with the Mayor, after all.

Name: Dexter Redwood

Status: Citizen

Redwood.

It was the same one as the Mayor’s.

That meant they could be relatives.

It made more sense than whatever conspiracy theory her mind could’ve conjured up otherwise. The fact that he was still only a Citizen meant that he wasn’t interested in the Raid as much as she would’ve believed him to be.

Didn’t he want to get a Green Skill as well?

“I don’t need them,” Dexter said nonchalantly and spotted Blair standing only a few meters away from him.

“Fine. I’ll find some of them and fight you tomorrow,” said the man and promptly left, ears bright red.

“Oh, hey, Blair,” he said and lazily waved at her.

“Hi,” she mumbled in response.

“Wanna fight? It’s actually cool. Kinda like a boxing match or something,” he said with a massive grin on his face.

She’d already lost once so she had to win this one. Against a man, and especially one that could use the Blue Skills better than her, it was almost impossible to win. The only chance she had was to take him by surprise —the way that Clara defeated her.

“I don’t think I’ll win,” she said and raised her hands for a shrug.

That’s what people did when they were joking.

“It’s fine. Let’s just use Blank Cards. They’re practically disposable anyways,” said Dexter and raised both eyebrows.

“Didn’t you say you wanted Blue Cards just now?” asked Blair.

“Well, that’s because I didn’t want to fight him again. Businessmen are too competitive, geez. Even the ones in university and college are like that,” said Dexter and after he finished the sentence, deeply sighed, “It’s like they think everyone’s their rival or something.”

“And the ones in STEM aren’t?” she asked, thinking back about how everyone decent in the more scientific courses was starting dick-measuring contests left and right.

“Nah. Most of us are too lazy for that. The majority of them, on the other hand, are way too competitive,” he said.

“I’ll… be on my way, then. I need to find someone in my own weight class,” said Blair, unwilling to ‘throw’ the match —any match. If she was going in, she’d be going in to win.

That reminded Blair that the ones that wanted to ‘compete’ against her were the cream of the crop —the ones that read extra material outside of class.

The only allure of Duels was the fact that she could vent some stress, but fighting against an acquaintance would defeat the entire point of that.

“By the way, do you have Eagle Vision yet?” Dexter asked.

“Yeah, luckily,” said Blair.

“Hmm, then you should know that it’s pretty useful. If you don’t want to fight for Blank Cards, how about I bet an Eagle Vision while you bet a Blue Skill? That’s fair, right?” he asked.

That was too enticing an offer to pass up.

She didn’t know if there’d be more Dire Eagles attacking them tomorrow, and as such, finding more Eagle Visions was a necessity. The fact that she didn’t know how to increase her Perception only served to make it more difficult.

It wasn’t like she could just spam her Mana-draining Skills or do push-ups until it increased.

Maybe eye exercises?

No, that couldn’t be all that useful.

“Are you sure, though? You also need glasses,” said Blair.

“I have 2 Levels in it. Losing one won’t matter much,” he said and that was the last straw. He wouldn’t be losing anything even if he lost so she wouldn’t feel guilty about winning if she could manage to do that.

She was willing to wager an Ice Shield to possibly win an Eagle Vision.

If she won, she wouldn’t lose the Card.

Letting her Eagle Vision reach Level 3 would mean that its Stamina drain would be decreased and that she’d be able to use it for longer, though she hadn’t even used it once in a situation that required it. The fact that the glasses were practically glued to her eyes thanks to the bandage tying it to her head helped.

“Are you really sure?” Blair asked as a courtesy.

Blair had an idea of how she could win. She’d take a page out of Clara’s book, but without taking advantage of a pop-up. If she was to win, she’d win fairly. There was no point in winning by cheating. Duels were just like tests —she had to win them with her own capabilities, or there'd be no point.

At least for her.

“I challenge you to a Duel,” said Dexter casually and the familiar sight of a notification appeared before her face.

[Player: Dexter Redwood] has challenged you to a Duel. Would you like to accept it?

Blair whispered a quiet, “Yes,” and the next notification appeared.

[Player: Dexter Redwood] has placed the Skill [Eagle Vision (C)] in Ante. Please, select the [Common] Skill you wish to place in Ante.

“Ice Shield,” said Blair, assuming that it was a better idea to keep an offensive Spell in her arsenal. If push came to shove, she could simply trade her Fire Ball with an Ice Shield with someone willing.

The moment she finished saying the name of the Skill out loud, a gray filter spread around them and as it did, the silhouette of people faded.

Her plan was to get him before he got the chance to get his bearings, so the moment the filter started to appear, Blair whispered a Fire Ball into existence. The fact that it formed for so long was annoying but due to how close they were, when it started moving, it almost couldn’t be dodged.

“Steel Spear, appear,” she said and summoned her weapon, which also took a second to form.

Dexter ducked to the side before the Fire Ball which was slightly smaller than a basketball started its flight. He pointed a finger at Blair and the wind started to gather where his finger stood before, but before it finished forming, Dexter was already dashing to the left.

She could barely make out when his mouth moved, making her convinced that he tried out some ventriloquism at some point. He had to have!

“Ice Shield, activate,” said Blair, not even bothering to conceal the fact that she was using it. It started to form and just barely managed to guard against the Wind Blade, but shattered only a moment after it endured the attack.

That left the next Wind Blade, which was on the verge of finishing to form.

Blair summoned yet another Ice Shield but this time, instead of hiding behind it, she dashed to the left by using it as a cover. It was almost transparent, like the ice at the top of a frozen lake that wasn’t covered by snow. You could see what was on the other side, but not perfectly. She didn’t use it to surprise him, but to defend herself from the Wind Blade.

It was surprisingly difficult to notice thanks to being made out of the air, which was almost fully transparent.

She’d already used 3 Spells, which meant she’d used 15 Mana. That meant she had only 20 remaining, and that she could only use 4 more. However, unless a minute passed, if she used 4 and let her Mana hit 0, then that’d mean she’d lose consciousness.

That couldn’t be allowed.

The only reason Clara’s strategy worked was because she’d already summoned her weapon before the match.

While Blair didn’t know how much Mana Dexter had, it couldn’t possibly be much more than hers. He’d used 2 Spells so far, meaning he’d wasted 10 Mana. If she managed to dodge a few of his, then she’d have an advantage.

“Wow, you got no chill,” said Dexter as he stood a few meters away, panting.

Still, even if that cheater’s strategy didn’t work as a whole, it didn’t mean that she couldn’t salvage parts of it to generate an advantage.

Most of it hinged off of a mechanic of the System that she’d gotten far too used to.

“I’m definitely getting that Eagle Vision,” said Blair.

It’d be Level 4, and that’d mean it’d drain only 0.6 Stamina per turn. Her goal was to let it reach Level 5 so that she could ultimately use it twice as long as she would otherwise —it was always easier to calculate in intervals of 5, after all.

But she was getting a tad bit ahead of herself.

She hadn’t even won this one.

More importantly, she wanted to keep her Ice Shield if she could.

“Aren’t you gonna use your weapon?” asked Blair, and right after she finished the question, she proceeded to whisper and tried to do so without moving her lips much, “Retractable Claws, appear.”

She didn’t know whether it’d work, but it was worth a try.

It wasn’t cheating —she would be using it after the fight had started, not before.

“Well, what can I say? I’m bad at using it,” he said and shrugged with a dumb grin on his face.

Blair started to dash at him abruptly, spear in her right hand. It was too heavy to properly wield with one hand, but she’d use both hands to support it when she’d use it. In her left hand, she held the Card, which she proceeded to throw straight at Dexter’s face.

“Retractable Claws, store,” she whispered and the Card abruptly turned into light. It covered his vision for a moment, but Dexter didn’t waste any time in casting yet another Wind Blade. Taking a chance, Blair sidestepped and by the time her spear reached Dexter’s belly, the Wind Blade shot forward.

It missed.

Blair’s spear didn’t.

She felt a slight resistance as Dexter’s clothes met the tip of her spear, but the moment her spear tore through it, it was a smooth sail.

The Duel didn’t end then and there, though.

Dexter coughed blood and fell to his knees, followed up by a scream.

Blair knew full well that you bled to death faster if you pulled out what stabbed you, so she did. It’d only delay his death if she kept it there. He responded to that with a grunt, and he managed to force out a word, “Forfeit.”

Congratulations! You’ve won the Duel and have gained the [1 x Eagle Vision] placed in [Ante].

The world regained its color and Blair spotted people frantically running around.

“Agh!” screamed out Dexter, clutching onto his belly. He was on his knees, tears streaming down his eyes. He was breathing roughly, eyes wide open, “Fuck! Fuckity fuck! It hurts.”

“Well, it’s supposed to hurt. You got stabbed in the gut,” said Blair as she stored her spear.

She could bet that the pain was worse than the injury that the Dire Eagle inflicted on her left arm during the First Wave.

“Shut up!” shouted Dexter, eliciting a snort from Blair. He finally regained his senses after kneeling there for several seconds, took a final deep breath, and crawled back to his feet, “Okay, I’m setting a condition on any Duel I’ll start in the future.”

“Yeah, I should probably do that as well,” she said.

The Tutorial didn’t tell her that she could just forfeit.

Her lack of knowledge hadn’t screwed her over yet, but it would have at one point. She had to learn more about the unexplained parts of the System from the other so-called Players at some point. More importantly, Blair had to talk to the Mayor about that loophole in the rules.

Unless that was intentional.

That’s when she noticed a System window hovering in the upper left corner of her vision.

The [Monster Wave] will start in 134 seconds. Please prepare for battle.

More than half of the preparation time had passed by.

“Oh, fuck me sideways,” said Dexter and rigorously scratched the back of his head.

They were on one of the lower floors, most likely the third or the fourth one.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Blair after staring at the counter for a few seconds, “We couldn’t have been fighting that long.”

“For some reason, time in Duel Zones passes twice as slow. That means five minutes in the Duel Zone is ten minutes in the normal world,” said Dexter and whistled through his teeth, “And sorry. That hurt more than I expected, so-”

“Less talking, more running,” said Blair and glanced at the barrier.

The moment she did, her eyes widened.

“Fuck me sideways, was it?” she asked, not peeling her eyes off the steadily dimming barrier for even a second.

Almost in unison, dozens of eagles cried out.

That was when Blair noticed that people weren’t climbing up the stairs, but descending them, some of them surging onto their floor as well. Being on the higher floors in a situation like this was basically suicide.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” said Dexter after he looked at the barrier as well.

There were too many Dire Eagles today —at least sixty of them, and there seemed to be a few Dire Wolves as well.