17

Fundamentals

Without sparing a moment, Torgo lunged for Rian with his sword held sideways. Rian turned around and dashed away, hoping he was fast enough to evade. When he landed half a second later, he turned to see Torgo landing out of his dash behind him.

Again Rian saw the delay in movement that came at the end of the Dash skill: Torgo struggled to swing at him as soon as possible. The delay was just enough for Rian to gauge where Torgo was aiming and then block.

Rian kept his grip tight as their blades impacted, sending sparks flying, their swords rebounding off each other. He prayed that it wasn’t doing any damage to his weapon.

Torgo kept swinging, giving Rian barely any time to watch the cooldown icon for Dash. Adrenaline—or at least what he thought was adrenaline in this world, this body—surged through him. Every bit of attention he had narrowed into the fight. It was harder to think like this, but he was experienced enough to divert some of his focus to what was going on beyond the fight itself, letting a part of himself strategize.

He desperately needed a strategy here.

Unless Torgo had something special on him, Rian could safely assume that their dashes had the same cooldown, which meant he could estimate when Torgo had the skill available. That was the most important thing here: circumventing the immediate danger of getting cleaved in half by a single Dash-strike.

Again their swords clanged off each other. Each time Rian blocked, a chunk of his stamina bar depleted. Torgo’s relentless attacks made short work of it, and Rian continued to retreat. As his stamina emptied, with his breaths running short, Rian dashed away to the edge of the footpath to escape, but there was a shimmering barrier where the forests began. When he got up against it, he couldn’t move beyond it. He couldn’t run away.

He turned, and at the moment before Torgo would dash again to follow him, Rian realized that Torgo was hardly winded throughout the entirety of their last exchange—because attacking consumed less stamina than blocking. Of course. That was how the System was balanced: toward offense. Between that and the barrier, there was no escape. He had to fight back.

He already felt out of his depth with how complicated this was getting. It wasn’t as simple as dodging and attacking like in Shadow Spirits. He needed to watch both at once: his dash’s cooldown and his stamina bar. If he lost track of either one, Torgo was going to annihilate him.

Torgo leaned into another dash to close the distance. As he kicked off the ground, he spun the sword in his grip before careening through the air, his body locked into position just as Dash activated.

Rian took a hard step sideways, wound up, and swung as Torgo flew toward him at a slight angle away. But in that fraction of a second, he saw that Torgo had positioned his sword to the side—before he’d even used his dash, anticipating Rian’s exact move. Rian’s sword struck his, mid-dash, blocking it entirely.

Ugh. Wait—no, there’s an opening here!

As Rian’s sword rebounded and he struggled to hold it steady, he prayed that he had enough time. Torgo’s dash ended a few steps away from him, but he was still within range.

Rian lunged, thrusting the blade at Torgo’s back—but that moment where his sword had rebounded off Torgo’s meant it had taken some time to readjust, to reverse its momentum. And that window of time was just enough for Torgo to come out of the dash’s end-delay, turn, and block.

This time, Torgo was the one to step back after their blades clashed. “Wow,” he said. “Not bad. For a moonie.” Keeping his guard up, he stood there in wait, then ran one hand through his hair. “Why don’t you take those shades off? Let me see your face.”

Rian took a few more steps to widen the distance between them while he brought up Torgo’s stat page. “Nah,” he said. “I’m good.”

Torgo

[LastWhisper]

Level 8 Beginner

HP: 201/201

MP: 177/177

STR: 10 (12)

DEX: 8 (10)

INT: 4

SPR: 4

—

PVP rank: C (Silver) (Top 14%)

(12-0)

Top 14%. Well. That wasn’t good.

At a glance, it seemed those extra numbers beside Strength and DEX meant Torgo’s stats were less than normal. Right, Rian recalled, because there’s a balancing mechanic in play, inside this PVP instance. We’re on mostly equal footing, stat-wise.

“How about this,” Torgo said. “You tell me your main, and I’ll tell you mine.”

Rian continued to ignore him, but the more he talked the better. He could taunt him all day if he wanted. Rian wouldn’t let the opportunity to strategize go to waste.

The main problem was that Torgo had at least one other Beginner skill, but Rian couldn’t see which one it was until he used it. He could see his opponent’s stats and equipment but not their skills. As much as he hoped that Torgo’s second skill was Heal, like Rian had chosen, it simply wasn’t of any use in PVP. If Torgo was a dedicated PVPer, there was no chance he’d taken Heal. The skill simply took too long to channel—four whole seconds—unless one of them knocked down or restrained the other combatant, at which point it’d be better to go for the finishing blow than to spend precious moments restoring HP.

That left either Energy Strike or Critical Back-Attack.

Rian glanced up at his HUD. There was a timer for the match, sitting at around three minutes. That was all he had to do: survive and move on. And he would keep the locator device and one of his lives.

But that probably wasn’t going to happen. Because Rian knew exactly what kind of player Torgo was. He was undoubtedly a smurf, a high-level player on a low-level alt-character. He’d been hanging out near Elmguard to pick off unsuspecting players for fun. However this turned out, it wasn’t going to end here. There was no doubt that this asshole would gank the hell out of Rian after this. With his guild name constantly hanging above his head, Rian couldn’t hide the fact that he was in Moonlight.

“What’s the matter?” Torgo said, noticing Rian’s inaction, and aimed his sword again. “Not feeling up to it? Come on, I’ll give you a free shot. I promise. Moonies always need a handicap, don’t they?”

What the hell had Kat’s guild done to piss these guys off?

Charging Rian down again, Torgo sprinted forward then dashed. Rian kicked off, sidestepping. He expected Torgo to completely overshoot at this distance, but then Torgo landed right beside him, canceling his dash at the perfect moment.

He’d caught Rian off-guard, but again the end delay of the dash provided Rian a moment in which to act, allowing him to ready himself and block Torgo’s next swing.

Torgo struck Rian’s sword, knocking his grip sideways, and gracefully followed up with a second slash.

The blade cut into Rian’s shoulder. A curve of light appeared and a bit of blood sprayed through the air. Rian nearly screamed, feeling something move through him, but nothing had happened to him. His arm was still there.

You have taken 70 damage! (HP: 116/186)

Holy—

Rian dashed away before Torgo could follow up again. Both of them had just used their dashes, so there was at least a moment for him to think.

When Rian turned to keep his eyes on him, Torgo was laughing.

“Oh man, the look on your face,” he said. “Looked like you really thought I took your arm off. Did you just start playing or something?” He rested his sword against his shoulder. “Guess I was wrong about you after all. You’re just another scrub—hanging out right where you belong, in a guild full of scrubs.”

Rian resisted the urge to press his hand against his shoulder as if to quell the bleeding that wasn’t happening.

Dammit. He’d let himself stay on the defensive again. He couldn’t afford to let himself get tossed around like this, even if timing out the match was what he wanted. Offense truly was the better option. But if Torgo was as skilled as he seemed, then attacking him would be like Rian sticking his hand into a blender.

It was safe to assume that hits on the torso or head dealt more damage than those to the limbs, which meant Rian was one direct hit from death. If he attempted to use Heal, Torgo would take the opportunity to strike him down. He needed something faster. Something like—

The potion Kat had given him.

Before Rian could do anything, Torgo was already running toward him again and swinging. Rian watched his moves carefully, blocking and retreating, then waiting for openings and retaliating to keep his stamina up. It was simpler than he’d thought, at this level; neither of their dexterity stats was that high, so it wasn’t as if they were swinging at wild speeds yet. There was enough time to predict where Torgo was swinging and where he was blocking, but there was also plenty of time for him to react in turn.

The way their weapons clashed and how momentum transferred between them was more realistic than Rian expected, but he could tell the mechanics of fighting in Mirage were simplified as it would be in a game. It wasn’t like a professional fencer could show up on a level one character and stomp high-level players, though they’d certainly have a leg-up. It was the class skills that changed everything; they determined the flow of the fight. The player better utilizing them—their class skill synergies—would be the victor.

And with only two skills at this level, the fight would come down to basic combat ability. There wasn’t much to work with, but that was a good thing as well. It meant Rian’s approach was simplified.

Torgo probably wasn’t expecting anything from him except to keel over and die like any other Beginner.

But Rian was better than that.

Amid their exchanges of attacking and blocking with Rian finally holding his own, Torgo’s expression fell from amusement to displeasure. Torgo suddenly lowered himself slightly, bending his knees. Rian caught it: he was telegraphing a dash through subconscious bodily cues. And he was going for it at point-blank range.

Rian turned and dashed out of the way at an angle to maximize the distance between them to buy himself enough time.

He landed and turned to see that Torgo had also dashed forward, placing them at the distance of two dashes away from each other. Rian quickly brought up his inventory and focused on the Brass Knuckles weapon he’d bought in town. A drop-down menu appeared, displaying options to either equip, discard, or assign the item to a quick-swap slot.

Perfect. Exactly what he needed.

All right, Torgo. Let’s see if you know about Dash’s hidden mechanic.