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“Argh! Pain’s blow didn’t land!”
“Oh well. Ain’t nobody gonna match him in a short-range fight. He just got outplayed.”
Three fights had started at once, and in the spectator room, they were played in sequence.
Players taken out during the fight started teleporting in.
Drag was still howling. Pain’s torrent of light had just missed catching Lily and Wilbert.
He and Dread had been watching the fight with Misery and Shin when Mai, Kasumi, Marx, and Hinata joined them.
“Sorry. At least I kept Mii safe…”
“Hey, that’s more than enough! Who could have predicted that?”
“Yeah…”
“That was a tough situation, but you made the right call.”
He’d done what he could. Now it was in the survivors’ hands. Marx had saved Mii because he knew she’d come through.
“Yui pulled it off…whew.”
Mai was relieved to see Marx here without her sister. That proved their plan had worked.
They’d hoped to get Mii, but defeating Marx was a result to be proud of.
“Yeah, those were some sweet moves. A bold choice that flipped the tables!”
“Nobody else could pull that off.”
“Th-thank you!”
Knocking another player skyward and returning an attack to its sender were both moves exclusive to the twins.
“You get those cast-iron nerves from Maple?” Drag asked. “You’re not thinking of becoming a human firework just ’cause you can, are you?”
“If so, I’d recommending finding another plan,” Dread growled.
“Same…”
“I-I’d rather not.”
“Can’t believe Kanade played along.”
While the other camps were talking, Hinata was fidgeting, eyes glued to the screen.
“Worried about Velvet?”
“Kasumi… Yes, I mean…”
With the big battles done, the screens were now flipping around between smaller skirmishes, and it wasn’t really clear what had happened after.
“We wanted to take her out, but from the looks of it…”
“I bet she managed to join up with Mii.”
Neither Velvet nor Mii were there—and that spoke volumes.
Velvet had still had a few minutes left on her buffs.
Hinata hoped she would use that speed advantage to get away from Sally—who would be forced to stick around till Maple was free again.
“If Maple and Sally won, I’m good with this. Pain will step up to fill my role,” Kasumi said.
Both were agile attackers. Their styles might differ, but many players could fill that role.
That’s why Kasumi had taken the risk.
And as a result, Maple and Sally had managed to eliminate Hinata—a player that simply couldn’t be replaced. That alone justified sticking her neck out in front of Lily and Wilbert.
After a while of waiting with their eyes glued to the screen, it became clear that no further battles had taken place. They were soon joined by Shin, who wanted to hear their stories.
“Kasumi, you had that debuff up your sleeve?”
“I wasn’t hiding it. Just never had the right opportunity to use it.”
“True, Maple Tree doesn’t really need debuffs.”
Shin shot Mai a look. He was clearly picturing her blowing everyone away with no debuffs at all.
“They really lured us out good. I feel sorry for Chrome.”
Their pet monster had given Wilbert movement inhibitors every bit as powerful as Hinata’s—a problem they hadn’t anticipated.
Chrome had been close enough that, if not for those debuffs, he’d have made it in time.
“It’s my fault, too. If I’d survived…”
Dread’s pet, Umbra, was great at movement and escaping. They’d planned for him to be highly active during the nighttime hours. His early elimination had clearly changed the course of battle.
“Frederica’s gonna chew me out.”
“Oh well.”
“Hinata, you and Velvet had a rough go of it, too.”
“Sorry…we thought we could win that.”
They’d entered the fray intending to take Maple out and steamroll their way to victory. With Maple gone, they’d have had Sally on the ropes—and they’d been counting on Flame Empire’s arrival, too. Sally had just been a way tougher foe than either Hinata or Velvet had imagined.
“Oh, yeah! What is up with Sally?”
“She was all over the place.”
“Really? I didn’t get to see it…”
“Fighting her is one surprise after another.”
Hinata had been right there, but Shin had focused on her the moment Kasumi used her skill and went down. As such, the two of them were leading the discussion.
“Dread, what do you say?” Drag asked. “You fought her one-on-one before, right?”
“Yeah, back in the fourth event. Don’t think I could do as well now.”
Dread was shaking his head.
“Really? That’s a surprise. I thought you’d come a long way.”
“She’s just that much more polished. And Umbra ain’t built for dueling.”
Dread thought Pain would have a better shot.
“That reminds me—Sally used Godspeed,” Misery said.
“Uh…wait, did you teach her that?” Marx asked.
Dread just shrugged, like he was clueless.
“Without that, we might have been able to run for it…”
But the speed boost and disappearing act had let her get close.
And crucially, their judgment had been slowed by the skill she shouldn’t have had.
“Guess we gotta be even warier. And what was up with the shapeshifting weapon?! And the messed-up skills?!”
“Ew…” Marx looked appalled. It was the same look he had worn the first time he’d seen Maple’s monster form.
They wanted to bring as much intel on Sally back to Flame Empire as possible, so the other two joined Shin in observing the screen.
Everyone sat down on the chairs provided, watching the feed—which was currently showing what the rest of Hinata’s guild members were up to.