A cold wind blew past Weed; pushing his hair forward as he walked towards the ceremony grounds. The stars twinkled brightly and the new moon lay hidden behind a single cloud in the sky.
Emily held up her weapon; it was a black gauntlet with a sword extension. She wore it on her right arm. She had another for her left arm. She raised her right arm cross her chest such that the blade crossed across in front of her face. She checked the sharpness and then her eyes looked on ahead at her prey; Weed. She put the blade down and shot towards Weed. She wasn’t running but gliding as silently as ever. The breeze rustling through the trees masked any sounds that she could have made.
Weed didn’t even hear her coming and would have been dead in an instant had it not been for the warning.
“Watch out Weed!” Geomchi Five shouted out as he sprung forth from the garden hedge right between Weed and Emily.
As Weed turned around instinctively upon hearing his name, he could see Emily dart towards him with her blades out from the corner of his eyes. Weed tried jumping backwards to avoid getting skewered by the baldes but tripped on his legs and fell on his back. His eyes revealed fear as he saw Emily descend upon him. However, Emily was no longer seeing Weed; her attention had been diverted towards Geomchi 5 who had issued the warning. She didn’t feel anyone elses presence in the region. Just as Emily brought down her blades to kill Weed, Geomchi 5 stepped appeared between the two and fended off her attack.
Weed took the opportunity to get up quickly as Geomchi 5 held his ground with his sword grinding against Emily’s. It was very much evident that Geomchi 5 was struggling to hold back Emily who continued pushing forth without using an ounce of her leg strength. It was as if there was some mysterious force moving her.
Weed didn’t waste anymore time. He knew immediately what this situation meant; the coup had begun. “I am going for the Lord, are the others here?”
“Aye! 20 Wind Geomchis at your invitation!” Geomchi 5 replied as he threw back Emily with a great deal of effort.
Weed smiled, he knew trusting his guts was worth it. He had sent out ten invites to the Geomchi’s along with a guest passes. Weed’s motive was to get the Geomchi’s well connected in the game as sign of gratitude for curing him. Weed was happy he decided to repay that debt; since he didn’t have an iota of a clue that the coup would happen today. The more Weed thought about it the more suspicious he became. The coincidence that the coup would happen today seemed so unlikely especially since the ball was completely impromptu.
‘Unless…the enemy was waiting for a chance to get in…’ Weed thought. ‘Which would mean…the lord was quite safe if he didn’t hold a tea party…” Weed’s eyebrows scrounged slightly as he frowned. There was only one inescapable conclusion as he put forth all facts and events that had occurred. ‘Arthur is leading the coup.’
“Then I leave her in your care!” Weed called out.
“No problems!” Geomchi 5 replied as he crossed swords with Emily. Unlike Emily’s twin blades, Geomchi 5 had a swiss long sword. It had a longer reach than Emily’s blade and landed more impact.
Emily hissed like a cat as she jumped back to avoid Geomchi 5’s blow. Geomchi 5’s eyebrows were slightly raised as he heard her get angry like a cat; it sounded somewhat familiar.
“Old Mongrel! You should have stayed in your Dojang till your last breath!” Emily shouted as she reverse twists and strikes Geomchi 5’s blade with full force. Geomchi 5 bended his knees slightly to take the full impact of her strike.
“Old Mongrel…nobody has called me that for a while…Tujin Khalifa… why are you taking the form of a little girl?” Geomchi 5 asked as he lept forth striking his sword down with full force. Emily chose to dodge. She had a higher grade weapon but her experience in real life and gaming taught her to never underestimate her opponent. Furthermore, her enemy here was one of the Geomchis. The Geomchi’s were legendary players in the VR world known for their unimaginable level in martial arts. Emily had no idea what level Geomchi 5 was at and hence she was completely on guard.
“A small world…wouldn’t you say?” Geomchi 5 asked slightly amused.
Emily smiled as she recalled her previous duels with her former teacher.
“A bit too small…old mongrels should have quit VR gaming…” Emily screamed as she circled Geomchi 5 slowly.
“…And you should work on your tongue...its still twisted as ever…” Geomchi 5 replied. He assumed the same tone with her as he took with his students. She was after all a former student.
“I was your rightful heir!” Emily screamed out as she lunged forth again. Geomchi 5 would have been dead had it not been for his higher level of martial arts sense. He didn’t have the high agility or speed stats like Emily but his martial arts instincts guided him to move before Emily’s blades could pierce him. The two danced for a while like this with Geomchi 5 doing his best to avoid her attacks. Emily wasn’t giving a moment’s breathing space for if she did, Geomchi 5 would surely attack back. Emily wanted to use the non stop blows as stepping stone to turn the tide against Geomchi 5.
“I still fail you. You can barely control your tongue or your anger.” Geomchi 5 barely managed to reply to Emily’s hate filled comment. He knew she was gauging his character level with each move and he wanted to throw her of balance with a comment or two of his own.
The two danced with their blades criss crossing each other, just barely missing their skins by the width of a hair.
“Since when did you attack little children behind their backs,…” Geomchi 5 tried again to stir her emotions. Since she was a former student Geomchi 5 was well aware of her mental and physical weaknesses. Geomchi 5 knew that while her physical weaknesses would no longer apply here, her mental ones were wide open as ever. He knew if he had to defeat his student his attacks would have to begin with words.
Just before Geomchi 5 opened his mouth to pass another snide remark he noticed his strategy worked. Emily sped up her attacks; now Geomchi 5 wished that he hadn’t said anything. Geomchi 5 cursed his luck; his plan backfired. He began finding it harder to hold her back, the difference in level was more than evident.
Geomchi 5 jumped back to create gap but Emily closed it in an instant. Geomchi 5’s long sword advantage turned into a considerable disadvantage in a close quarters combat. Emily had decided to defeat Geomchi 5 not just in a literal sense but in a technical one as well. Her choice of weapons were better given their surroundings and duration of fight. Geomchi 5 might have opted for a katana or something lighter but given his poverty in this world arranging for fine weapons was out of the question.
“This isn’t reality, old mongrel!” Emily shouted with a nasty smile growing across her face. She had a good idea of the difference between their levels and skills. “The rules here are not governed by the physics you grew up in…and I am the stronger one here!”
At the end of her sentence, Emily applied a slight bit of wind element and managed to cut Geomchi. It was a huge slash across his chest, tearing his armour as if it were simple cloth.
TRRRINGG!!
Critical Hit! -250HP!
Emily had a very evil smile on her face; she was taking pleasure in hurting Geomchi 5 and enjoying seeing him in pain. Geomchi 5 was breathing heavily; had this been reality he would not have been breathing so heavily however the game dynamics demanded him to do so and thus he did. Geomchi 5 could see a yellow bar blinking red on the corner of his visual field; his stamina had been depleted. One of the pentalties of negative stamina burn was slow death (unlike Royal Road, where players would immediately die). Geomchi 5’s vision began to blur as he reeled under low stamina and low HP.
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“EMILY SPEED UP!” A man called out as he jumped over the wall as he approached them.
Emily clenched her teeth; this was no easy feat. She wanted a dominating victory where she could decimate her enemy with complete impunity.
“The Ninjas are on the move!” The stranger added as he crossed them.
“Good by old mongrel!” Emily muttered as she lowers her blades. An ametur would have attacked but Geomchi 5 stepped back sensing danger.
A gust of wind violently began swirling around Emily. Emily’s hair went up as the violent tornado like wind that blew around caught pace. Geomchi 5 thought she was crazy if she would fight like that. Then just as it suddenly as the wind had started it disappeared without a trace. Geomchi 5 was fixated at Emily; he was expecting a sudden attack. His instincts didn’t betray him but his abilities did. Emily suddenly appeared behind him, before she could stab him he sensed her bloodlust and jumped out of her attack zone. He just barely managed to dodge a critical attack.
“What is that?” Geomchi 5 asked as he slowly stood up. It felt for a moment Emily had completely disappeared and then reappeared behind him. Geomchi 5 had fought many creatures in Royal Road but none of them moved as fast as she did. ‘Or am I so weak that it appeared like teleportation?’
“You must be so low levelled that you don’t even know what an elemental attack is like.” Emily laughed as she repeated the vanishing trick several times in front of Geomchi 5. “This is what elemental battles at level 200 is like old mongrel.”
“You move faster?” asked Geomchi 5 as he got behind Emily and surprised her. “You don’t need an elemental ability for something like that.” Geomchi 5 was the best among all Geomchis when it came to lightening steps. ‘The rules of physics might have been bent for this world but the laws of physics still hold.’
Before Geomchi 5 could attack her a violent gust of wind blew up from the ground towards the sky. The wind defense was activated and Geomchi 5 was sent flying into the air before he could do anything to prevent it.
“You might be better than me in reality, but here levels rules everything. I am strong and you are weak!” Emily cried out. Geomchi 5 could sense her frustration and desperation to prove her strength. It is the dream of every student to surpass their teacher; Emily’s determination to do so was past the borderline of obsession. She did not expect to find the Geomchis here but now that such an opportunity had presented itself, she did not care about anything else but killing her teacher in the most ego crushing manner possible.
“Yet you cant kill me.” Geomchi 5 teased her as he got up. He slowly patted his dustry trousers. One would have thought of abandoning a plan that back fired but Geomchi 5 now had different reasons. He wanted to push his former student to her limits to see how far had she come. Was her martial arts sense still lacking or was it more refined.
Emily eyes shone with anger. The words of her ex teacher tormented her; they were a continuous reminder of how weak he considered her to be. She darted towards Geomchi 5 at full speed and they clashed once again. However, it wasn’t an ordinary clash Geomchi 5 was blown back by the impact of the strike. Geomchi 5 flew a good twenty feet before hitting a stone wall. Since he managed to defend, he lost little HP but as he got up he noticed that the edges of his prized sword (he got it from a quest) were cracked and completely worn out. It were as if his sword had been sent through a stone crusher.
“Pure swords are useless here.” Emily said as she slowly made her way towards Geomchi 5.
Geomchi 5 picked up his sword and examined it. He knew Emily wanted him to do so; so he took the opportunity to rest a bit. “How did you do this?” He asked while appearing to be in complete awe. He knew feeding into Emily’s ego was the best way of buying time.
“I have coated mine with my element.” Emily gloated. “It swirls like grinders around my blades, grinding anything that comes in contact with it.”
Geomchi 5 smiled and then resumed with taunting her,“Well if that’s truly what you did…its barely impressive…”
Emily returned a smile for a change, “Look at yourself before you speak…”
Geomchi 5 looks down at himself and he notices he is struck at six places. ‘Damn…she is fast in this world…I didn’t even feel being hit…’ He thought to himself as blood stains blotches grew larger on his clothes.
“Element Wind also boost my speed and AGI.” Emily bragged as tried demystifying her movement.
Geomchi 5 finally began realizing that Emily was only toying with him. She was so completely absorbed in this game that she didn’t really exert any of her true physical strength. ‘I had high hopes of this one…’
Geomchi 5 wondered what his options were at this point. He had bought enough time for Weed and he knew the chances of him beating Emily at this point were pretty much on par with the probability of a meteorite falling from the sky and knocking Emily dead. Geomchi 5 was fairly pleased in all with the results of his training so far in RREV. There existed a was huge gap between a level 65 and level 200, however Geomchi 5 was sure that he did more than justice for one at this level. Adding to that fact, Emily was a pro gamer of the worst kind (she played for herself with not an ounce of kindness to offer others). Geomchi 5 felt a little proud that he held out for as long as he did.
‘Then I guess there is only one thing left to do..’ Geomchi 5 took a few steps back and said, “You win. I don’t think I can beat you now.”
Emily stood frozen; it was a rather anticlimactic end to their battle. A ‘You win. I don’t think I can beat you.’ Emily was burning in anger, she felt more dissatisfied than ever. She felt cheated of her victory, she boiling mad in anger…
“My job was to buy him time. He must have …” Geomchi 5 explained till he spat out blood. Emily’s right blade ran through his heart.
“Good bye Sensei, may our paths never cross again.”
Geomchi 5 smiled as he looked down at her, she had at last used a technique he taught her. Geomchi 5 turned into a puff of grey smoke and vanished upon being logged out of the game.
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Authors Note:
1. There would have been more chapters....but T_T work ate into my writing time.
2. Thanks everyone for the ideas and feedback!
3. Too dark of a chapter? Let me know Yes or No.
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