Thunder rumbled as the cascade of lightning overhead intensified. With Hinata bobbing along behind her, Velvet bore down on Sally.
“Letting you move freely will be real rough!”
“What about just letting me win?”
“As if!”
As long as she was within range of Martyr’s Devotion, Sally had no reason to fear Velvet’s lightning or Hinata’s debuffs.
It was a struggle against two of the best players in the game, and Maple was letting all those attacks hit her without a scratch to show for it.
“Commence Assault!”
“Ice Wall!”
Hinata blocked Maple’s barrage, keeping Velvet safe while she blocked Sally’s daggers with her gauntlets.
They’d obviously decided Hinata should handle ranged attacks, letting Velvet focus on the close-quarters battle.
That was really their only option. Given the sheer ferocity of Sally’s onslaught, Velvet could not afford to divert one iota of attention to Maple.
If she didn’t focus on Sally, her head would roll.
But that didn’t mean they were on the ropes.
“Ice Mountain.”
“Purple Bolt.”
“Whoa! S-Sally?!”
Ice bulged up beneath Maple, sending her flying. She took no damage, but the goal was to move her.
And, of course, to get Sally outside the range of Martyr’s Devotion.
“……Damn, you’ve got sharp reflexes.”
“I know.”
When the lightning faded, Sally was still there, completely unfazed.
Martyr’s Devotion had been knocked back, but Sally had simply backstepped along with it, rendering the bolt ineffective against her.
“We won’t win like this!”
“No.”
The ice mountain had broken a bunch of Maple’s weapons, forcing her to redeploy them. Aside from that, though, she had taken no damage—proving once again that they needed to go after her, not Sally.
Even without Indomitable Guardian, the fact remained that if they wanted to hurt Maple, they had to get through her defense. Velvet’s lightning had doomed many a player, but it was just a lightshow in Maple’s eyes.
“And tonight, Sally’s got no openings at all. It’s, like, legit terrifying.”
They’d fought before, but now Sally was like a different player altogether. She was blocking every attempt to slip past her and get to Maple. But that was still a more feasible strategy than trying to land a piercing attack on Sally (and letting Maple soak that damage for her).
Velvet’s AOE attacks and Hinata’s movement interference were both skill sets that worked against Sally’s play style—but Maple completely invalidated them.
To get to Maple, they had to take out Sally. To get to Sally, they had to take out Maple.
“I doubt you’re out of options…but if you’re not coming to me, I’m coming to you.”
“……!”
Sally’s vibe transformed, forcing Thunder Storm’s leaders to focus once more on the foe before them.
“Thunder God Advent. Lightning Rain.”
Electricity crackled around Sally. Lightning fell from the sky.
Neither of them would ever mistake those skills—they were the same ones Velvet herself used. The core of her style. She knew their power and range like the back of her hand.
Velvet quickly backed out of that range, eyes wide, aghast at the sight before her.
“Is she seriously copying them?”
“I’ll be ready. We’ve got to be sure.”
Lily had told them how Sally had used Pain and Maple’s skills.
Pain’s had proven to be an illusion, so this might be the case here, too.
“Ain’t no use freakin’ out and turning tail!”
Velvet wasn’t nimble enough to dodge her own lightning. Literally only Sally was that insanely evasive.
To take Maple out, they had to plunge into Sally’s lightning storm.
“Spark Impetus!”
Hinata used Light Magic to keep her health up as Velvet steeled her nerves, added a speed boost, and plunged into the storm.
Moments later, a bolt hit home—and went right through her body, vanishing into the ground.
“That takes guts.”
“So it is fake!”
“Basically!”
While they were still in range, Sally opened her menu, buffing herself with a few items. Then she came at Velvet, both daggers crackling with electricity. Certain she didn’t have to worry about the lightning, Velvet focused on Sally’s onslaught—letting Hinata handle anything Maple sent their way.
Martyr’s Devotion made the ground glow, and their shadows overlapped. Velvet’s gauntlets caught each of Sally’s daggers with a metallic clang and a shower of sparks.
“Purple Bolt!”
Lightning shot from Sally’s daggers, blanketing Velvet’s vision.
Until it struck, it was exactly like Velvet’s own skill. She kept a safe distance, evading it.
“Even illusions suck!”
After blinding her opponent, Sally pressed the advantage, pursuing.
“Ice Wall! Ice Spear!”
Hinata threw up a wall between them and Maple, using that time to fling spells at Sally.
“Ice Spear!”
Sally easily dodged, sending the same spell Velvet’s way.
But Velvet was no longer flinching.
She plunged right on after Sally, focused solely on her target even as the spell hit her left shoulder. To her surprise, there was an audible crack.
“Wha……?!”
Chunks of ice scattered. Damage sparks flew. Caught off-guard, Velvet briefly slowed her pace.
“Oboro, Phantom World.”
“—! Electromagnetic Leap!”
With Sally’s clones bearing down on her, Velvet bailed, trailing sparks.
This moved her outside the ice wall’s cover—a chance Maple was ready to take advantage of.
“Commence Assault!”
A barrage of lasers surged upward, targeting Velvet in the air. She’d been using those weapons for so long that she could even line up a tricky shot like this.
“Gravity Control.”
Still mid-air, Velvet bounded upward, as if batted higher by some unseen force.
Since Maple’s aim had been accurate, this was just enough to escape her barrage.
“That was close!”
Velvet darted across the air, avoiding Maple’s artillery before touching back down.
Maple had been keeping her distance to avoid Velvet’s piercing attacks, which meant there was enough lag on her barrage for Thunder Storm to work with.
Still, this exchange had added a new concern to the pile.
“That wasn’t an illusion?!”
“That’s for you to figure out!”
Clones in tow, Sally closed in. Looking closely, Velvet saw white mist mixed in with the illusionary lightning around her—quite like Hinata’s own.
Chilled air. Had that done it? Was it a bluff to confuse them? Neither knew for sure.
“Guess we’ll just dodge ice?!”
It hadn’t done that much damage. Hinata knew basic healing spells, so she topped Velvet up before Velvet once more flung herself into combat with her inscrutable foe.
“……”
She’d landed one trick, so Sally refocused.
What she wore looked like her usual gear, but it was actually her second unique series, with the visuals alone swapped out via the Guise skill.
She’d also actually used a water spell. By changing the skill name and visuals to Hinata’s and then using Subzero Domain to freeze it, anyone unaware of the trick would assume she’d copied Hinata’s skill.
“Wind Cutter!”
A spell to make them flinch, and bait them to take a step closer. With Martyr’s Devotion protecting Sally, she only had to worry about getting out of range, or soaking piercing damage.
And she still had Reality Twister up her sleeve.
“Maple!”
“……!”
Preparing their next gambit, Sally gestured to her friend. They’d prepped a set of these hand signs in advance, and only Maple knew them.
“Ice Pillar!”
After throwing out a pillar to limit Velvet’s options, Sally used her webs to yank herself right on top of the girl.
With Sally’s speed, this distance was negligible.
“Commence Assault!”
Maple was acting as a stationary turret and filling the air with gunfire. Hinata ignored what wouldn’t hit, and if it would, she blocked it with walls of ice or used gravity to draw it off course.
But while Hinata’s skills were preoccupied with the incoming barrage, Sally got in close.
“Double Slash!”
“Vibrofist!”
Skills came with a preset motion. That left Sally exposed where she’d normally be untouchable.
Glowing red daggers slashed at her. Velvet blocked one with a gauntlet, and thrust out her other fist.
“Cancel,” Sally said—and mid-swing, her daggers charted an all-new course, blocking Velvet’s punch.
She’d canceled her skill. Velvet had never heard of anything like that.
Sally ducked down, taking another step in. Velvet tried to react to that—
“……?!”
And felt a pain on her side.
Her attention snapped to the source of it—a deep wound in her flank, with the sheer quantity of sparks attesting to the power of the blow.
“Gravity Control!”
Velvet’s heart had skipped a beat, but Hinata kept her cool enough to forcibly drag her backward.
“Ice Palace! Heal!”
This blocked Maple’s attacks, and even with Sally’s mobility, she couldn’t get over this wall.
“You okay?”
“Barely…but yeah, yikes!”
When they’d dueled, Sally had been holding back. They’d known that—but this surpassed their wildest expectations.
On the other side of the ice walls, Sally shot Maple a thumbs up.
They’d rehearsed this combo. It wasn’t easy, but knowing she could pull off gambits like this gave Sally a fresh surge of confidence.
She’d used two tricks.
First—Cancel was not a real skill. She’d just faked Double Slash perfectly, using Guise and her own physical abilities. Since the skill wasn’t actually active, she could stop at any time.
All she’d done was swing her daggers, after all.
Second, she’d used her own body to hide one of Maple’s bullets till the last second.
When it was in range, she’d used Mirage to make it look like it was flying awry; but it actually passed just over Sally’s head when she crouched, and the invisible projectile ran Velvet through. Much like her previous trick with Maple’s shield, Sally had made the bullet disappear.
“Let’s finish this…!”
Velvet and Hinata didn’t know how these tricks worked, and the pace of battle gave them no time to stop and think. They’d never figure it out.
Sally was sure of that. She saw Velvet come flying out of the ice palace, landing before her.
“That was nuts! How’re you doing this?!”
“Afraid that would be telling.”
“Seriously, I’ve got no clue! I can’t even begin to get a handle on whatever this is! So…”
Sally had begun to step in, but paused—sensing a hint of steel in Velvet’s tone.
“I ain’t gonna try.”
Sweating the details would not get her up to Sally’s speed. And even with Hinata here, Velvet was no match for Sally’s cunning.
A prolonged battle against forces she could not understand would not go well. If her opponent used finesse, she had to use the opposite.
Take advantage of her own strengths, and force a victory.
“Vertex Voracity.”
“……!”
A blue aura appeared around her. The moment Sally spotted it—Velvet was already slipping past her.
Too fast for her to react. Brute-force speeds that shot right on by.
“Superspeed!”
“Superspeed!”
Sally sped up, but Velvet matched that, maintaining the advantage.
“Maple!”
Sally knew she couldn’t catch up, so she shouted a warning.
“Commence Assault!”
Maple took aim and unleashed a hail of bullets, but between Velvet’s freakish speed and Gravity Control, none hit their mark.
She was moving too much for Maple to get a bead on her.
“Cocytus.”
With Martyr’s Devotion live, using this on Sally would just transfer the effect all the way back to where Maple stood.
But when she was trying to hit Maple—that worked perfectly.
“Brittle Ice Sculpture. Rusted Armor. Celestial Collapse.”