The upshot: The moment the column of light vanished, Sally swapped her bow back to a dagger, darting in. Velvet looked faintly surprised, but she considered this attacker might be a fake and stopped herself from unleashing a skill.
She could survive one hit. She held out as long as she could, scanning her surroundings.
Once in range, Sally swung those daggers, and they sliced across Velvet’s chest and belly, red sparks spraying.
“……?! Stun Spark! Purple Bolt!”
A frontal assault. It had caught Velvet off guard, but she wasn’t about to let Sally make a clean getaway. She kept pace with her using an electric stun skill, then thrust a fist forward to send lightning after her.
It was a clean hit, and Sally vanished into thin air.
“…!” Velvet nearly gasped.
The next thing she saw was two flaming spears running through her back and out her chest, accompanied by an unadorned greatsword.
When had they swapped places? She was unable to answer that question, but the Sword Dance–enhanced triple strike demolished Velvet’s remaining health.
✦ ✦ ✦
This was merely a Training Room duel. They’d respawn right away after a loss, their cooldowns over.
Which was why they could go full throttle.
“When?! When’d you do it?! When did it become fake?!”
“That would be telling. What do you think?!”
“Augh! You were real until the hit landed, so it’s gotta be after that…”
An illusion had taken Sally’s place, while the real one dodged Stun Spark and Purple Bolt, avoiding all the raining lightning and moving around behind Velvet.
It sounded impossible broken down like that, but this was Sally.
“And those spears are magic! That seems pretty damn strong.”
“They are.”
The backstab, the water veil, the pillar of ice, the phantom distraction—so much had happened outside Velvet’s range of vision, and the upshot was that only the outcome made sense.
That really proved just how unorthodox Sally’s style was.
“So I learned jack.”
Sally could tell Velvet had yet to see through the subterfuge.
She’d been making good use of Reality Twister since the event. That had made the damage done by a fake Sally (generated by Mirage) momentarily real. Sally’s internal clock was so precise she’d nailed the date change during the fight with Velvet and Hinata—matching the skill to the Mirage’s attack motion was easy.
It was an ace up her sleeve, too tricky for anyone to decipher. As a result, no one outside of Maple Tree really knew what Reality Twister could do.
✦ ✦ ✦
In fact: She’d been fake since Polar Light. The whole time.
But to work that out, one had to know about a secret skill.
Unless Sally told someone, the truth would remain shrouded in darkness.
“I should have the advantage!”
“I’ll give you that.”
“I really need Hinata along…”
“I’ll just bring in Maple.”
“Ah-ha-ha, that would be fun.”
If her movements were limited, even Sally wouldn’t be able to fight for long. Velvet’s real strength came out when Hinata was at her side. A rematch this soon after the event wasn’t a bad idea. Maple and Sally’s plan had just barely come out on top, but either side could have won that night.
“Thunder Storm’s plans for the tenth stratum?”
“We’ll see what it’s like once we get there, but I’m planning on blitzing it!”
Naturally, she meant with Hinata in tow. She’d let Velvet ignore gravity and run wild—there was nowhere they couldn’t go.
“If it’s not a quest, you might be able to run directly to the final boss.”
“I hella doubt that’s possible. I mean, there’s plenty of flying pets, right?”
Flight was becoming a force to be reckoned with. The event had proven it. There was still only one turtle rider, but it wasn’t just Pain and Mii wheeling around those skies.
Given that, the developers would have to plan for it.
“What about you?”
“I just know Maple and I are going around together. Easy for us to align our schedules.”
“What about the event? You’ll be in the PvP, I know.”
“Yeah, that’s the plan.”
“……Then it’s on?”
“Well…we’ll see.”
“Aww!”
Velvet looked shocked, but Sally knew what she meant.
If there was a PvP tournament, would Sally fight Maple?
That was the unspoken question.
“By the event, we’ll be busy offline. It’ll be harder to log in.”
“All the more reason!”
“……You’re a big PvP buff, but for how long? Since when?”
“Er…um, hmm. I wasn’t really a massive gamer or anything, I’m just…naturally competitive.”
“Same. I’ve always liked this sort of thing. But lots of people don’t—and they’re not wrong.”
“True.”
“Maple’s got nothing against it, but she sure doesn’t like it as much as I do. So I’m not sure if us fighting would be fun for both of us.”
It would be their last event, and Sally wanted to make it one to remember. If Maple would have fun, then Sally would love to fight her—she’d always wanted to.
“But if it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be.”
“Are you being nice, or just awkward?”
“…………”
“There’s plenty of time, so see what happens. But if she doesn’t want to fight you, I’ll take you on!”
“You’re just a battle junkie.”
“You betcha! Let’s go again! I wanna turn the tables on you.”
“Sure, sure. I’ll still win.”
The dream was still distant.
The decision was not yet made.
✦ ✦ ✦
Sally and Velvet faced each other, and at the buzzer—both broke into a run.