Daniel didn’t know a thing about Eternite’s moveset, and the window displaying his stats didn’t help, either.

While Daniel had a higher Close-Range stat, Eternite still had the advantage in Long-Range, Health, and Combo-Potential. The stat chart said his Damage was lower than Daniel’s broken damage, but Daniel warily eyed his silver four-foot rapier, butterfly fluttering in his stomach.

He only had a Damage advantage because of his counter storing damage. Eternite, meanwhile, had a sword that worked like an actual sword if Daniel’s health dropped below halfway. After that point, cutting off limbs and stabbing through vital organs were fair game, and the thought haunted him.

Even worse, Eternite had a Broken speed stat.

Ahead, further down the aisle, Eternite eyed Daniel’s stat window, too, and nodded at him before pressing the button to accept the battle. The referee spawned on top of the aisle-side chairs. “Chase VS. Eternite! Best of three! Fighters, enter your starting positions!”

The blue and red squares marking their starting points appeared on the tile. But, instinctually, they were both already spaced out enough. Daniel glanced over at Cedric, standing past the columns on the outside of the chairs in the aisle, and gave him a final thumbs up before shifting all of his focus to his opponent. Eternite entered his pose, pointing the tip of his rapier.

“Round one!”

Not knowing anything about Eternite’s moveset was fair — neither of them knew anything about each other. At a glance, Daniel already knew the rapier was what gave him a higher Long-Range stat, thanks to the disjointed hitbox. With every attack, hand to hand fighters like him risked extending their arms, where they could still be hit. Meanwhile, fighters using weapons like Eternite didn’t have that problem, since he could stick his sword out without risk of being hit.

“Ready?”

Daniel slipped his headphones over his ears. A beat drummed along with his heartbeat, and a distant hi-hat went off every half second to help him with timing. If Eternite fought with a rapier, precision was probably his game, and precision was always easier to counter.

“Fight!”

No one moved.

The rhythm dancing through his ears sharpened his nerves. He hoped for Eternite to make the first move, to show his hand. But, Eternite remained in his tight fighting stance, too, sizing him up with eyes of steel.

Daniel took the first wary step. Eternite edged closer, too. Every breath brought him another inch into his enemy’s range. Eternite’s rapier was three feet long.

He lunged and weaved past the tip of Eternite’s blade in a flash, striking with a high light jab. Eternite drew back, but Daniel’s punch met the blunt edge of his rapier, and it flashed a blinding white.

Eternite had a counter.

Light trailed his ethereal, dancelike movements as he parried Daniel’s fist and swiped his blade across his knees, slashing through the cloth. A searing pain made Daniel wince as he backpedaled, gritting his teeth. Eternite hunted him down with a thrust, but Daniel flexed into his counterpose as the tip of his rapier struck his forehead. Time slowed to a crawl, and he crouched for a low heavy punish to the gut.

And then, Eternite moved in his slow motion.

His heart skipped two beats of the tune in his headphones as Eternite quickly crouched and shielded his face with his rapier. The flat edge gleamed white the instant Daniel’s fist made contact. Time lurched to regular speed as his revenge slash tore clear through the air above Daniel’s head.

Daniel rolled out of Eternite’s range, catching his breath. Eternite wasn’t a Joke Fighter, but his moveset revolved around counters, too. As they locked eyes, underneath his helmet, Eternite raised an eyebrow, likely having the same realization.

Something didn’t make sense. Daniel tightened his fighting stance, adjusted his headphones, and popped his neck asst few seconds replayed in his mind. Why would he go for a high attack, knowing Daniel wasn’t there?

Because his counter didn’t give him flexibility. Eternite’s counters were more rigid than his, having a specific trigger point, and a specific point of revenge.

Only one way to find out.

Ahead, Eternite struck three different, distinct poses: he held his rapier high, then to the side, then low. The blade shimmered white before it blurred into a silver storm of thrusts and stabs. Daniel countered just as the beat dropped in his headphones. One of the stabs hit his skin like a pinprick, and in slowed time, Eternite stabbed repeatedly at normal speed.

Daniel weaved underneath the next stab and went for a low, light cross. It was just to test the waters, and like he hoped, Eternite flexed into his low counter once again. Time lurched forward as he swung high, but Daniel already knew what was coming next. He shot to his feet and countered again, countering his counter.

The light in his fists intensified, passing another unspoken message: Eternite’s counters reflected the damage of the attack he countered, too.

Daniel cracked a grin and tried fleeing from close-range with the stored damage. The tip of Eternite’s rapier caught him in the shoulder. It didn’t pierce the skin — it bounced off, as if he wore invisible armor. But, it still did damage, and the slashes after that combined into a full combo, dropping his health below the dismemberment threshold.

Daniel couldn’t smile anymore. Eternite’s rapier could now put real holes though him. As such, he pushed the offensive, going for another high thrust. Daniel’s heart pounded to the beat. He barely countered in time, and phased right through Eternite in slow motion, pausing behind him.

Down, Forward, Back, Down, Back, Forward, Back!

Two bars of Meter enhanced a chunk of stored damage, coursing through Daniel’s right arm. Eternite tightened his grip on his rapier, turning on a dime, eyes wide in shock.

The smile returned to Daniel’s face as the tune in his ears reached a crescendo. Countering wouldn’t save him. Daniel could counter his counter, and return the damage tenfold.

“Burst!”

Crimson light mixed in with a blue, and now, blocking wasn’t an option, either.

End it with one hit!

But, Eternite brought his rapier right in front of his face. Last time, it was a show of respect. His blade shimmered white, and so did his eyes — his entire body bathed in angelic light.

When Daniel’s superpowered fist made contact, Eternite’s blade let out a high-pitched whine. The bright mixture of red and blue fled from Daniel’s skin, swirling around Eternite’s blade before he plunged it into Daniel’s heart.

Daniel’s voice caught in his throat, stuck on the blade. Time slowed. His blood exploded from his chest. Every nerve screamed before going numb, paralyzed, as if facing a horrible fear once again.

Because his body had felt this before..

He wasn’t in the church anymore. The school bus he’d taken every day laid upside down in the grass. Smoke billowed from the engine, fading through the mangled front grill, all torn and bent from smashing through the hole in the highway barrier and through an iron fence.

Daniel laid on one end of the hole through the fence, with the metal post where his heart should’ve been. He gasped for air, a silent cry as blood pooled where his shoulders laid in the grass. In his distant, blurry vision, classmates crawled from the bus wreckage, faces frozen in horror. Distant sirens wailed from far away.

The referee brought him back to the land of the living, and he sat up on the carpet across the aisle, clutching his chest. The sword wound was gone, and so was the iron fence post he’d only felt for a brief moment.

He had died.

Daniel held the chairs to stand, his legs shaky before he fell once again. The gruesome vision replayed in his mind, filling the memory gap between falling asleep on the bus and waking up here. He didn’t just wake up here — he fell unconscious with metal impaled through his chest. Light came after. Lots of light filled his vision, and that was where his mind had buried the traumatic events.

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Was this even the land of the living? His best friends were mourning him. HIs parents were mourning him. Carmen was probably mourning him.

Carmen.

“Round two!”

A glance at Eternite’s rapier brought the fear back, but the thought of her burned it away. She did the same when he first arrived here, when he fought Apex and her underlings, and even when he finally got over himself and asked her out.

“Ready?”

Daniel raised steady fists. He could process that vision later — he wouldn’t be a slave to his fear now.

No more.

“Fight!”

Eternite broke the standoff, shuffling forward, but when Daniel expected a rapier, he instead grabbed him by the collar, throwing him over his head. Daniel rolled to his feet, a chunk of health taken from the one weakness to both of their techniques. He faked a low attack. Eternite crouched into a counter, but the moment Daniel opened his hand, he flinched away from the grab.

Grabs wouldn’t work again.

Scoffing, Eternite rushed in with a thrust. Daniel struck his counter, but his rapier paused at the last moment, successfully baiting him. He swiped across his face, freezing him in hitstun before Eternite followed the combo with more swipes and stabs, like a ballerina of silver.

The final heavy launched Daniel across the aisle, barely a foot away from the boundary. He vaulted from one of the chairs into a jumping heavy punch, and Eternite backpedaled to punish — just like he thought.

Daniel drew in a sharp breath and thrust his fists to his side, meeting the tip of the rapier with his own forehead. He weaved past without punishing yet, but Eternite went for a second slash, and sure enough, Daniel countered that, too.

The veins in his forearms hummed with power. Eternite warily backed away, but Daniel hunted him down with an obvious high heavy. Eternite easily countered and stole the stored damage, but his high counter always came back with a low swipe.

Daniel contested his counterattack with a counter of his own, and swung low with his punishing hit. Instantly, Eternite moved in his slow motion and countered low, and once again, Daniel countered the high attack, too.

It was repetitive. It was the same pattern. But, Cedric’s lessons flashed through his mind as the music in his ears reached a crescendo. Once again, Daniel aimed for another low punish. The conditioning had worked. When Eternite dropped, expecting to counter a low attack, Daniel stayed standing and swung over Eternite’s guard, rocking his helmet with a shockwave of blue energy.

He kept the pressure going as the beat dropped, uppercutting him into the air and knocking him back down, decimating chairs with a loud crash. On the bright side, it cleared up space in their arena.

Eternite threw a disembodied chair leg.

It smacked Daniel in the face, tagging him in hitstun long enough for Eternite to punish with a heavy stab. The stab bounced off of his body, but the armor wouldn’t protect him anymore — his health dropped into the dismemberment zone.

Eternity was a man of precision. A swordsman of accuracy, of finishing things as fast as possible. If he was a swordsman, Daniel would’ve gone for the throat strike to end it all. But, Eternite was a counter-fighter, too. He would know that Daniel would expect him to stab and give him the chance to counter. He would know that grabs beat counters.

Eternite reached for Daniel’s throat.

Daniel ducked and shot him in the chin with an enhanced uppercut.

“Down!”

Daniel pumped his fists into the air, jumping in excitement. Stored damage left his hands like a popping balloon, and he’d never get tired of the feeling.

Once the referee revived Eternite, he rose with dead set focus.

Both of them used counters. If nothing changed, they’d be at a stalemate of trying to predict each other’s counters, and their counters to those counters. Daniel furrowed his brow; he needed to throw him off, somehow.

At that moment, the song in Daniel’s headphones changed to one he hated. He’d forgotten to take it out of his playlist, and it easily threw off his focus. A lightbulb went off in his mind. Daniel pulled out his phone, put the dubstep on loop, and turned the volume all the way up as he let his headphones hang from his neck.

“Final round! Ready?”

Underneath his helmet, Eternite’s face twisted into a grimace.

“Fight!”

Last time, the tense standstill was like a calm beach before a coming tsunami. The dubstep grinded against Daniel’s ears, defusing any tension, dispelling any strategic thought he could have.

Perfect.

“What do you think? Pretty unique beat, huh?” He nodded to the beat. “They didn’t have this back in your day, did they? They had more, like classical music and peaceful stuff, I think. Nothing like this!”

Eternite’s grip tightened on his rapier. He raised it over his head, still pointing it forward.

“I bet you think this sounds like garbage. Like an assault on your ears. Who would make this kind of stuff, am I right?”

He lowered his rapier, striking a second pose.

“Well, you’d be surprised—”

“Shut up!” Eternite bellowed, his english thick with a french accent.

With his third pose, the light shining from his armor intensified. He thrust to the side, and his thin blade shot from his sword, bouncing off of the column, speeding right for Daniel’s face. He dashed towards him at the same time, attacking from two directions.

And yet, Daniel couldn’t hide his cheeky grin.

Being annoying is all it takes?

Daniel countered the flying rapier easily, and the blade faded away in slow motion as it regenerated at Eternite’s hilt. He let the counter window run out, bracing himself for the coming attack.

Instead of swinging, Eternite grabbed Daniel by his throat, raised him into the air, ripped his headphones from around his neck, and tossed him backwards like a ragdoll. He stared at the headphones, studying them for a moment before crushing them underneath his feet.

Daniel let it play aloud from his phone instead, and turned it to full volume. “Nope! The sound doesn’t just come from there. It comes from here.”

Eternite clenched his fist.

“And it’s even louder now. I know, I know, it’s like magic to you. Should I break it down in caveman terms?”

“Shut up!” Eternite boomed, dashing towards Daniel.

“Is that the only thing you know in English?”

Blinded by anger, Eternite’s high medium slash was as obvious as ever. Daniel struck his counterpose as the blade collided with his cheek. Despite the slowed time, he knew his chances of punishing were low, since Eternite could cancel lights and mediums into counters.

He went for a high cross anyway. Eternite countered, stealing his stored damage for a low retaliation, and Daniel countered that, too, before swinging purposefully into his low counter.

Again and again, they parried and countered each other’s attacks at a breakneck pace, dancing around the thin aisle, turning and pivoting past every swing, yet striking all the same. With every counter, the glow in Daniel’s forearms grew, leaking from his fingers like an aura of power. With every riposte, Eternite’s silver armor hummed louder. Every counter blasted the church with a stronger shockwave, drowning out the music as they compounded the shared damage back and forth.

This was the plan.

They played hot potato with a spud that only got hotter with every throw. Soon, the potato would become hot enough to burn someone’s hands off, whether him or Eternite. Eternite had to know it, too. It had to be why he kept triggering Daniel’s counter, too.

The next hit would win.

But, the horrible song started to get to Daniel, too. His concentration slipped, and he barely countered one of Eternite’s attacks, saving himself from being oneshot.

The dubstep hit its loudest climax: an ear-piercing high note repeated over and over to the bone-throbbing bass. On the next counter, Daniel rolled away, taking the baton of damage with him — his shining veins felt like they would jump out of his skin at any second.

Daniel pulled his phone out. “Wanna get rid of the tunes? Take it!”

He threw it forward, and Eternite took the bait, slashing right through Daniel’s phone. Daniel closed the distance with a lunge. His timing was a breath off; Eternite recovered fast enough to go for a stab.

At the tip of his rapier, Daniel only saw the metal fence post in his chest.

He wouldn’t be afraid any longer.

Daniel punched the tip of Eternite’s rapier. The clash canceled the hitstun, but it was still a sword — it plunged between his middle and ring finger, snapping through bones and tendons, spraying blood as it left his elbow. Screaming, Daniel used it as leverage to pull him closer and drive his fist into Eternite’s kidney. Twenty counter’s worth of stored damage ripped his armor to shreds, shattering the ribs underneath.

Eternite’s dilated before he crumpled.

“K.O.!”

The crippling pain brought Daniel to his knees as the rapier weighed his arm down. When the referee extended a hand, the rapier phased through, clattering against the floor as the wound disappeared. Daniel collapsed, shaking, eyes fixated on the pool of his own blood.

It disappeared as the referee repaired the church, returning the decimated chairs. Cedric applauded from beyond the nave, dashing past the seats to give him a high-five.

Eternite rose and saluted Daniel, then Cedric and the random staff member, then the referee.

Cedric concentrated as he spoke. “He’s…thanking you,” he said. “Congratulating you on showing him the limits of his patience, and showing him where he has to grow.”

“You’re welcome, man. Sorry I had to be a little cheap,” Daniel said.

Eternite shook his head, and Cedric smiled for a moment before relaying. “He says you weren’t being cheap at all. Counter-fighters like you two must use all tools that are available, even your opponent’s mind.”

Pride and happiness filled Daniel’s heart as a menu displayed his new class, S Class, and his new rank within the top two million. Now, he was only one and a half million ranks away from returning home and showing them he wasn't dead.

Eternite spoke more, and Cedric translated. “He now says goodbye, as he wishes to explore this new world he’s come to, and himself.”

Daniel held out his fist. “Later, Eternite! Tell him this is a gesture of our times he should get used to.”

Once Cedric translated it, Eternite started quizzically at Daniel’s fist before bumping it. The silver swordsman strolled away, sheathing his rapier. Chills ran down Daniel’s spine from the high-pitched metal shriek. He was back at the horrible scene, impaled on that fence in grass wet by his own blood, ears ringing from the mess of screaming metal from mere seconds before.

“Daniel? Are you okay?”

Daniel blinked. Back in the church. He studied his breath. “Yeah...yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go share the good news.”