Marcus regaled what had happened to him over lunch. Kyrie listened attentively. When he was finished, she did not say anything for some time.

Then Kyrie said, “So, you go away for a whole day to read a contract and you don’t even remember reading it as your body was taken over by this Memory. And you spend time with this Tasha who is the daughter of the Game Masters and now you are back with basically nothing to show.”

“Thank you for such a crude summary.”

“You are welcome.”

Marcus sighed. Kyrie definitely missed the sarcasm in his tone. Or wait! Was she being sarcastic?

Marcus said, “Well, I am going to talk with Memory now. See what to do about the contract he so wanted to read.”

Kyrie nodded and said, “I will go and look for quests which would help us level up fast.”

“Us?”

“I am leveling up with you Marcus. I don’t like being left behind. Now, how much experience do you need to reach the next level?”

“Fifteen thousand eight hundred.”

“More than I need apparently. Alright. I will be back as soon as possible.”

Kyrie left and Marcus went up to their room. He took off his boots and sat on the bed with his legs crossed. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Memory, thought Marcus, are you there? We need to talk.

Oooo, replied Memory, why does it feel like you are going to break up with me Blank?

I need explanations Memory. Not your usual shenanigans.

Shenanigans! Fancy words from not a fancy man.

Memory!

Alright. Keep your pants on. I have read the contract. I have memorized it. I am happy with it. Does that answer your unasked question?

Perhaps. I do want to ask why you wanted to read the contract though?

Tell me Marcus Blank. You have been an adventurer in this world for quite some time. Does it seem okay to you?

Marcus thought for some time about the question Memory had asked. It was a valid question. The demon invasion, the weird equipment, quest and adventurer description, and something about the stats did feel off to Marcus. Moreover, the change in stats and the removal of relationships did not sit well with Marcus. It seemed that even though the Game World of Una had been a Game World for so many years, there were still bugs in the system designed by the Game Masters and they were still working on it.

Marcus thought about his observations to Memory.

Memory replied, you are on the right track but not completely correct. There is something wrong with the system on this Game World but it is not what you think. The contract has some of the answers. Give me some time. I will transcribe it for you and then you could read it. It will take some time though.

How much time? asked Marcus

Memory replied, I don’t know. The document was large. Larger than I expected. Rauros and Leyda are thorough but somehow it is not enough. Give me a few months. Till then, your reward. Check your passive skill, it would help.

What? asked Marcus but received no reply. He brought out his stats.

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 3

Age: 25

Current Location: Fontaine

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 100

Experience: 14,000 / 29,800

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 40

Intelligence: 50

Vitality: 50

Agility: 40

Wisdom: 39

Luck: ???

Health: 500

Mana: 256

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 8

Well Rested - Level 4

Twinblade Proficiency - Level max

Alcohol Tolerance - Level 3

Stealth - Level 5

Battle Analysis - Level max

Description: The anomaly has now become a better adventurer. With a little effort people may forget he is an anomaly after all.

Spells known:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon] [Force Push] [Detect Magic] [Force Pull] [Trap]

Spells Equipped:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon] [Force Push] [Detect Magic] [Force Pull] [Trap]

Spell Slots: 6

Physical Attack: 255

Magical Attack: 420

Physical Resistance: 470

Magical Resistance: 307

Critical Attack Chance: 45%

Critical Attack Damage: 90%

Status:

None

Marcus was a bit stunned with his [Twinblade Proficiency]. It was at max. He had also gotten a new passive skill, [Battle Analysis] and it was also at max level. He would have to check out what this [Battle Analysis] was but [Twinblade Proficiency] at max level would really help him during the upcoming fight with Harados. Marcus was surprised that Memory had actually come through. Maybe he had misjudged it after all.

Marcus gave a whoop of joy and went down. He went in search of Kyrie. Now, he just needed to level up to get that mana upgrade. Then he would be ready for Harados.

***

Marcus woke up. It was the day of the duel with Harados. He had leveled up in the last few days and had reached level 101. He had gotten the requisite health and mana blessings. He had all the updated gear equipped. He was ready.

Kyrie was the only one going to come with him. The site of the duel was the same as where Marcus had summoned Harados. Marcus was feeling nervous.

When he went down to breakfast with Kyrie, he saw other adventurers waiting. They started to clap and cheer for him. Marcus grinned, his nervousness lessening a bit. However, he could still feel the knot in his stomach.

Nadia approached him and said, “There is a slight change of plans. Kinnear and Charinge would also be accompanying you. Zoey has everybody on alert. She is expecting something. We don’t know what. She thinks your duel is too good to be true and Harados is definitely planning something else. Be on your guard Marcus. And try to win. It would be bad if you lose half of your stats.”

Marcus nodded. He could not say much. He wanted to thank Nadia but somehow could not say the words. Marcus forced breakfast down his throat. He could not eat much. He had never taken the lead in a fight and had mostly dealt damage when he could. There had always been someone who dealt more damage or was in control of the fight. This time, Marcus was alone.

They had not discussed the time for the fight and in hindsight, Marcus had considered that it was not good. Marcus checked his gear and looked at his status one last time.

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 3

Age: 25

Current Location: Fontaine

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 101

Experience: 1,000 / 30,600

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 40

Intelligence: 51

Vitality: 50

Agility: 40

Wisdom: 40

Luck: ???

Health: 625

Mana: 340

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 8

Well Rested - Level 4

Twinblade Proficiency - Level max

Alcohol Tolerance - Level 3

Stealth - Level 5

Battle Analysis - Level max

Description: The anomaly has now become a better adventurer. With a little effort people may forget he is an anomaly after all.

Spells known:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon] [Force Push] [Detect Magic] [Force Pull] [Trap]

Spells Equipped:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon] [Force Push] [Detect Magic] [Force Pull] [Trap]

Spell Slots: 6

Physical Attack: 255

Magical Attack: 426

Physical Resistance: 471

Magical Resistance: 309

Critical Attack Chance: 45%

Critical Attack Damage: 90%

Status:

[Well Rested]

He was ready. He looked at Kyrie, Kinnear and Charinge and they all understood. Marcus stood up and exited with the other three following him.

They flew to the crater where they had summoned Harados a week back. Well, Marcus and Kyrie flew while Kinnear and Charinge drove their mechanical bipeds or MBs.

They reached the spot in about a couple of hours. Marcus could see that Harados was waiting for them. He was standing in the same spot where Marcus had summoned him.

Marcus landed and dismissed his mount. Lara had levelled up too. She was not at level 10.

Marcus said to Harados, “You are early.”

Harados said, “We did not set a time. I have been here since zero hour. You are late.”

Marcus did not say anything. He nodded at the others who walked up to a safe distance away from Harados and Marcus.

Marcus said, “How are we doing this?”

Harados raised a hand and a dome appeared above Marcus and Harados. The dome was the size of the ritual circle initially, but Harados made some hand gestures to expand it. If Marcus had to guess the dome was now spread over a diameter of 100 meters. Kyrie and the others seemed to be standing just about a couple of feet outside of it.

Marcus said, “What are the rules of the fight?”

“There are no rules, Marcus Blank”, said Harados, “It is a fight to the death. Anything goes.”

Marcus nodded and readied his twinblade. He saw Harados unsheathe two short swords. Both adventurer and demon lord readied themselves.

“Shall we begin?” asked Marcus.

They both charged at the same time. Marcus did not want to enchant his weapon with holy damage right at the beginning. He wanted to see what Harados was capable of. It seemed that Harados wanted to do the same.

Their initial flurry of attacks was just them circling each other, testing each other’s defences. Marcus managed to get in a few hits taking off 300 points of health from 102300.

Harados the Houndmaster

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 102000 / 102300

There was still a long way to go as Marcus could see. He finally cast [Enchant Weapon: Holy].

Harados said, “Finally getting serious, are we?”

Harados charged, a leaping attack which Marcus just dodged in time. However, one of Harados’ swords slashed towards Marcus as Marcus dodged. Marcus blocked it with his twinblade and hit back. He attacked and Harados blocked his attacks easily. Marcus needed a hit. Even with his max [Twinblade Proficiency] he was finding it difficult to attack Harados.

Marcus knew what he had to do. He needed to use [Battle Analysis]. He had read the description of the spell.

[Battle Analysis]

The adventurer can understand the flow of the battle and position themselves such that they can cause the maximum contribution, may it be healing or damage.

He had wondered what it was. He had tried to practice with it. It had not come easily but he had understood how to use it. [Battle Analysis] was a passive spell but you had to be attuned to it in order to the spell being effective during the battle.

Marcus took a deep breath and let his instincts guide him. He focused on Harados, his body language, his swords, his armor and what he was doing at that time, and it was as if the world had slowed down.

Marcus understood what he had to do in order to hit Harados. He let Harados charge. Marcus sidestepped Harados’ attack, blocked another one, dodged the third and then attacked. It was a hit. He pushed his attack, landing three more hits. One enchanted strike was left now.

He needed the right time to cast [Whirling Weapon] and [Battle Analysis] instinctively showed him the way. Marcus followed the analysis and soon he had an opening and he cast [Whirling Weapon]. He had discovered that [Enchant Weapon: Holy] gave him five enchanted strikes. However, combining it with [Whirling Weapon] somehow counted as one strike only. That meant Marcus could hit his enemy with [Whirling Weapon] many times dealing a high damage and it would be counted as one strike only.

His twinblade started to whirl. Harados tried to dodge but he somehow tripped and Marcus took the advantage. He took massive chunks of health off Harados and Harados could not even move till the spell was over.

As soon as it was over Harados jumped back and got into a defensive crouch.

Harados the Houndmaster

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 60210 / 102300

Marcus smiled. This was good. He had done good damage. Now he had to wait 2 minutes to use [Whirling Weapon] again. Also [Enchant Weapon: Holy] had entered the cooldown of 1 minute. He would have slight weaker attacks for a minute now.

However, he had something up his sleeve. He brought a flask out of his inventory and poured it on his twinblade. He knew what it was.

Holy Oil

Enchants your weapon with Holy attack for ten strikes. The damage is dependent upon your wisdom score.

The attack from Holy Oil was not the same as [Enchant Weapon: Holy] but it would be highly effective against demons.

Harados tilted his head and beckoned Marcus to attack him. It seemed that the demon lord would not be charging Marcus now but had gone on the defensive.

It was Marcus who charged this time, slashing his twinblade in a circular pattern at Harados. Harados dodged and defended Marcus’ attacks. Marcus could see that Harados was being careful. Harados retaliated and landed a couple of strikes on Marcus. Marcus lost 278 points of health. That was not good. He did not have as much health as Harados and it was clear that Harados needed far less strikes than Marcus to kill him.

Marcus put some distance between him and Harados and downed a health potion. He saw that Harados was still in a defensive position. Marcus wondered what to do next. Harados was clearly waiting for him, and Marcus did not want to play right into his hands.

Marcus cast [Trap] a few feet in front of him. He could see Harados tense a bit. Marcus sidestepped the trap and charged Harados, albeit a bit slower than before. As he neared Harados, he cast [Force Pull]. Harados stumbled and was pulled towards Marcus. Marcus could tell Harados was not expecting that.

Marcus slashed a couple of times and twirled and went behind Harados. Then he cast [Force Push]. Harados shot back and landed straight in the trap Marcus had set. The trap exploded. It did not cause Harados much damage as the trap caused only physical damage, but it did stagger him. Marcus took this opportunity and attacked Harados fiercely.

Marcus managed to hit him well, reducing his hit points a lot. He got hit by Harados a few times which dealt about 152 points of damage.

Harados the Houndmaster

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 39876 / 102300

Marcus smiled as he saw Harados’ health. He downed a health potion, getting his health back to full. He also downed a lesser mana potion.

The effect of holy oil was over but the cooldown of [Enchant Weapon: Holy] was over. He enchanted his twinblade with the spell and started walking towards Harados.

Harados started to laugh. Marcus stopped. What was the demon lord up to now? Harados continued to laugh.

Finally Harados said, “So, it begins.”

Harados raised a hand and the area behind Harados, beyond the dome, was covered with hellhounds; loads and loads of hellhounds.

“Fuck!” said Marcus. This was not good at all.

***

Kyrie was very tense while observing Marcus’ fight. She did not want him to lose, and it did seem he was doing well. However, it had all changed quite recently when Harados had laughed and raised his hand. An army of hellhounds had suddenly appeared.

The hellhounds did not seem to be attacking Marcus or entering the dome where the fight was taking place. Instead, they were charging at Kinnear, Charinge and her.

Kyrie readied her bow and looked around. They were surrounded by hellhounds from all sides. There was no way they would survive such a huge onslaught. Beside her she could see both Kinnear and Charinge ready their bows.

“Well, we are gorked”, observed Charinge.

“Yes, we will revive but we will be leaving Marcus alone”, said Kinnear.

“I think we should focus on taking as many hellhounds as possible”, said Kyrie. She was amazed that she could keep her voice calm in such a situation.

“A fine gorking idea indeed”, said Charinge.

Kyrie shot the arrow at the charging hellhound, killing it in a single shot.

Critical. Good, thought Kyrie as she shot arrow after arrow at the incoming hellhounds. She dodged some of the hellhounds when they got close to her attacking range. The whole crater was full of snarling, barking, sounds of bows firing and arrows whizzing thought the air.

Kyrie did not know for how long she fought. She fought like the devil though. She glimpsed Kinnear and Charinge from time to time and saw that they seemed to be struggling. They were not level 101 like Kyrie and were finding killing the hellhounds a bit difficult.

Kinnear was the first to fall after about five minutes of fighting the hellhounds. Charinge followed her a couple of minutes later. Kyrie was now alone facing the hellhounds. She attacked and dodged and weaved her way through them.

She did not know for how long she fought. She made her way to the nearby copse of trees. Water. She needed water. She climbed up a tree and downed a health potion quickly. She oriented herself and focused. She could sense a stream nearby. She could lead the hellhounds there, away from Marcus.

Kyrie gave one last look at Marcus who was still fighting Harados and then jumped to another tree from the tree she was on. She was just in time as one of the hellhounds disintegrated it with fire.

Kyrie started running in the direction where she had felt the stream. She could feel the hellhounds following her, gasping and panting behind her. Some managed to attack but she dodged and attacked back.

Not far now. She was not far away from the stream. She had to run. She had to make it. The stream was a safe place. Water. She just needed water.

She heard the stream and increased her pace. She saw it. There it was. The final sprint. She screamed as she felt something hit her. She stumbled, reached the stream, unequipped her bow in a split second and fell into the water. Some of the hellhounds followed her but then they could not see her nor sense her. This was her turf. Her home. Her natural habitat.

Kyrie could see that she was already healing. She had not used a spell, so her mana was full at 244. She knew what she had to do.

Kyrie swam a bit away from the hellhounds and cast [Summon Water Elemental]. She was in a source of water. She lost 201 points of mana, and she could feel the water in the stream reduce a bit as a huge Water Elemental manifested in front of the hellhounds.

Kyrie stepped besides the elemental. She grinned at the hellhounds who had suddenly gone silent, mostly shocked by the arrival of the Water Elemental.

The growling started again, low at first but it increased in numbers. Then the hellhounds charge. This time however, Kyrie was ready. This time she drew her bow and fired. And beside her the Water Elemental charged.

***

Marcus dodged another attack as he saw Kyrie disappear in a copse of trees with all the hellhounds following her. He wondered how many hellhounds Harados had summoned as he blocked another one of Harados’ attacks.

Marcus counter attacked, dealing a blow, a critical hit and then stepped back. He cast [Force Push] making Harados stumble a bit. Before Harados could regain his balance, Marcus put some more distance and took health potions to get his health to full. He was running low on health potions. Only 10 left.

Marcus needed to finish this fast. In the last few minutes, when the hellhounds attacked Kinnear, Charinge and Kyrie, Marcus had been a bit distracted and Harados took this opportunity to attack Marcus relentlessly. Marcus had to use quite an amount of health potions and he had managed to hit Harados for about 1,000 points of damage.

Kinnear and Charinge were dead and Marcus was sure that Kyrie would soon die. They would be resurrected in Galados but Marcus would be all alone with Harados and his hellhounds soon. And that was why he wanted to finish this fight fast now.

Marcus cast [Enchant Weapon: Holy]. Harados charged and Marcus could see the flow of Harados’ attack with [Battle Analysis]. Marcus dodged and blocked the two successive attacks. He just needed one successful cast of [Whirling Weapon] now. However, considering how Harados was fighting, with such aggression, Marcus felt that it was going to be tough, even with [Battle Analysis].

Marcus waited. Harados charged again. Marcus grinned as he dodged the attack and cast [Trap] right on Harados’ feet. Harados dodged but Marcus cast [Force Pull]. Harados screamed as he stumbled right into the trap. The trap exploded and it hit Marcus too as he was near it but Marcus ignored it. Harados was staggered and Marcus cast [Whirling Weapon] as he charged into Harados.

Harados screamed the whole time the twinblades spun, hitting him, taking off huge chunks of health. Marcus could see Harados’ body disintegrating even before his spell was over.

Marcus stood panting as the dome surrounding him disappeared. He heard distant howls which suddenly faded away. Had he done it?

Marcus checked his notifications. He ignored all the others and checked the last one.

Congratulations! You have killed Harados the Houndmaster. You get 120,000 points of experience.

Marcus had done it. He had single handedly defeated a demon lord. He started to laugh. He laughed for some time and then checked his other notifications. Then he paled. He had won the fight, but the battle had just begun. If he was reading the notifications right, then the landmass Artorios was under attack!