On the ring, an old feud is going to be settled, again.

Apparently these things don't get resolved after one side got their butt handed to them, as long as they don't give up hope. And hope for more beautiful ladies with great assets is something the guildmaster of has aplenty.

_ Olkan: , my love, the offer to join my guild still stands you know?

Without context, one can never guess that this scene of a handsome man on a throne smiling kindly at his crush is the beginning of a duel to the death.

Sure, "death" is only a mild inconvenience to both of them. Doesn't make his behavior less surreal though, especially when the other party is glaring at him like he was society's figurative and literal trash with a sprinkle of radioactive nuclear waste on top.

_ Hessenria: Please do everyone a favor and drop dead, you damn pig. There's no little girl for you to swing your junk around this time and you think you can win? Get your delusional rear to do something productive instead of bullying defenseless kids if you want to have any chance against me, you piece of rotten kitchen refuse with no redeeming quality!!!

_ Olkan: UWAH! Anything but calling me a lolicon, please!

The harsh mistress of the tavern is at full power today, and it wouldn't be verbal abuse if the victim finds it (wholly) enjoyable!

_ Melodyn: Thank you, , for your generous service. Makes you wonder what kind of degeneracy our guildmaster promised for her to be this eager in addition to showing up…

_ Hessenria: I heard that!

_ Choruse: That's why we need to hurry this up and find out. Get ready!

_ Olkan: Wait! My heart is not ready yet!

_ Choruse: Don't care. Fight!

And so begins the first match of the quarterfinals. The handsome man's delicate heart was promptly ignored by everyone since he is almost certainly not a blushing maiden in love before her first date.

Except for a few brave souls who tried to put the snaky merchant in that imaginary scene for the sake of science. Their sacrifices will not be missed.

_ Melodyn: Both combatants have opted to use buff consumables as their first actions! Get your popcorn out folks, for we are going to have a long game ahead!

Time and money spent on buffing yourself is time and money wasted not bashing your enemy in the face, so players prefer getting straight to the action instead. Because all participants are at max level, their buffs are usually at the same strength and won't make a difference if the opponent uses buffs as well.

It is when one thinks they have better buffs or their buffs are specialized that they need to use it. For , it was the highest quality consumables that his guild does not sell to the market. He has to put everything into his defense stats to survive the onslaught long enough.

As for , she went all-in for MAT to increase her skill's damage, so much that min-maxing magi are chewing their handkerchiefs in jealousy as they see her total MAT in the betting menu. Although that left every other stats to be desired, the status difference between a merchant cooped up in the guildhall and a combat specialist surrounded by depraved idiots makes it an even playing field.

Being the daring and brave hero that he is, immediately raises his brand new tower shield and braces for impact. Tower shields are a bit bulky to carry around. Still, the increased surface area against projectiles is worth it.

Meanwhile, decides to take it easy instead. It's not like she has to do crazy stunts to distract this guy in front of her this time. Staying at long range or ramming into melee range ensures her chance of dodging anything coming her way. It's the medium and short range in between that are dangerous.

A few seconds passed without either of them doing anything. Having finished hunkering down behind his shield, was the first one to break the stalemate.

_ Olkan: Take this! And this! And also this!

Not just one, but three white magical bolts launch from him in quick succession. Everyone was caught by surprise, included. She dives to the side and begins to book it with the homing bolts right on her tail.

_ Melodyn: I'm not sure how he did it, but opened up with a barrage instead of a one-hit wonder!

_ Choruse: …That is just a rod without [Overcharge].

_ Melodyn: Shhhh~! Anyway, cannot just shrug them off either. If it is properly enchanted, it will still deal a good amount of damage, and surely more reliable than counting on a single shot to decide the battle!

Every one to three shots, he would switch to a different scepter with identical appearance and continue the barrage. No one knows how many he has in his inventory, just that there is at least one overcharged scepter he used to kill his previous opponents, and it is nigh impossible to know when he would use it, or if he had already used it.

By keeping her distance and focusing fully on evasive maneuvers, the waitress made a full circle around the ring without getting hit. While she may not have the SPD and reflexes of speedy min-maxers, she has played this game long enough to understand the homing mechanics and "dance" around them unscathed, as long as the number of assailants remain few.

That does not make her current situation any less tedious though. It is taxing on her mind just to keep track of the projectiles, let alone counterattack. She doubts that guy would mix his trump card in this constant barrage just yet. He would wait until she takes damage, either by mistake or enduring it to strike back, only then would he pull "that" rod out and fire.

The harsh waitress lets out an uncharacteristic long sigh as she realizes she's always stuck with maniacs specialized in attrition warfare, be it or . What a pain.

She obviously is not going to play into her opponent's strong point. The best way to do that is to close in and smack him, in the face, with a sword, or two, repeatedly.

Again, it's the closing in that is dangerous. She needs to approach without being overwhelmed by attacks from all directions.

_ Choruse: is heading straight to ! My ghoulish mother's last words were "Don't bring knife to a bow fight", so our waitress should probably take that into account.

_ Melodyn: And she said that twice. She re~ally should have learned after the first death.

While everyone was confused by the tear jerking if not a bit bizarre backstory from the dark elven sisters, has entered the kill zone where she is the most vulnerable. Still out of melee range, too close for comfort, that kind of thing.

Seeing her opponent preparing for another attack, she pulls her countermeasure out of her inventory and puts it in between them.

_ Olkan: What the heck is that?!

A scarecrow. One with a sprout on top of its head, to be exact.

An army of scarecrows comes into existence as throws one after another in front of her. They are surprisingly weak, breaking apart after being hit once or twice, yet is retreating backwards. For the spectators to his sides, they could see the dread on his face too.

The reason for these dummies is not obvious at the first glance, but a merchant's intuition is only second to that of ladies. For one, the seemingly decorative furniture is absorbing attacks. A bolt smashing into them is a bolt wasted, and he is already hard-pressed as it is without this… whatever this tactic is.

Another problem is that his opponent is dead set on having the scarecrows blocking his line of sight. As trivial as it sounds, the targeting will pick up the piece of furniture in the way instead of the actual target since it is a valid target in itself. Only someone with good understanding of the system could come up with this kind of metagaming, like this waitress who has been playing since the first day of closed beta for instance.

There's no way he can win head-on, that is for certain. His main strategy was winning with overwhelming firepower before dying in melee, which is kind of not working so far. However, he is a merchant, and a true merchant would never venture without an exit strategy!

_ Olkan: [Slam Bomb]!

*BOOM*

_ Hessenria: Kuh!

The waitress avoided the throw, but still got blasted backward by the bomb. The bigger the blast radius, the worse the damage tends to be for balance reasons, so this one definitely won't be killing anyone anytime soon. What it does have is a high knockback effect to delay enemy's advance. There's also a [Stun] effect, but as the attack power is so low, it's not going to happen.

A glimmer of hope forms in 's mind. If he can keep the distance, eventually he will land a hit. Sure, homing won't work when he cannot see through the smoke, but dodging is equally if not more hindered, and blind firing is not that hard when he knows the general direction of the target anyway.

He begins to believe that he can actually win.

Until rushes out of the smoke towards him before he can even switch his scepter, that is. The bomb was the backup instead of the main plan for a reason.

_ Hessenria: DIE!

The sounds of the spectators' cheering upon that scene were enough to drown out all of the bombs thrown in this tournament up to this point combined.

Facing against superior adversary, long item cooldowns, disadvantageous positioning, and worst of all, public opinion, the heroic leader of …

_ Olkan: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!

…Starts screaming like a little girl.

Despite the embarrassing act, he did fight viciously until the bitter end. Throwing bombs to push his opponent away, using up his strongest scepters, even going so far as using a sword to fight in melee just to chip off a bit more HP in vain. He had already paid for the scepters and consumables, might as well use all of them for their intended purpose.

After a long and painful struggle, went out with a bang in the literal sense. A miracle did not happen for him, except for a scarecrow stuck on his butt for some inexplicable reason.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Everyone here knows not to think about it too deeply, for their own sake.

_ Dead Olkan: Welp, this was even worse than last time.

_ Hessenria: Because you didn't have a few dozen henchmen to absorb the hits this time.

_ Dead Olkan: How am I supposed to do that in a tournament…? Anyway, win the championship for me, will ya?

_ Hessenria: …No, I'll win for the prize.

_ Dead Olkan: The atmosphere is important!!!

____________

_ Melodyn: has scored another hit! Will be defeated without being able to return the favor even once?!

After a quick strike from the flank, the cat-eared leader of Blue Blood Federation immediately disengaged to a safe distance. Safe distance in this case is pretty much a few steps back since fights in melee.

_ Choruse: Well, 's build is glass cannon so he will be dead if hits him once.

is strafing around for an opening. Melee glass cannons are at much more risk than ranged builds and requires a lot of patience to pull off. In exchange, it hits like a truck due to making good use of sneak attacks to ignore a good chunk of the target's defense.

And is definitely feeling it.

_ Elix: That one was for !

_ Ignar: I didn't fight him though?! And weren't you his enemy?!

_ Elix: I promised to defeat him in the finals, but you robbed me of that chance! Now I will just kill everyone in my way!

_ Ignar: …It's the same plan except for who you fight in the finals!

While the mighty warrior was distracted by little details, goes in again. Bait an attack, evade, counterattack from the flanks or rear for a sneak attack, rinse and repeat.

As soon as the half-cat gets into range, swings his sword. And just like previous attempts, all he manages to slash is empty air. His opponent has already jumped back and used [Leap] to close in again from his left side.

Just as planned.

_ Elix: [Pierce]!

_ Ignar: [Slam]!!!

Much to the rogue's surprise, a kite shield manifests into existence between him and the warrior. He is still in the middle of the jump by [Leap], and therefore has no way to evade the big metal plate coming in his direction.

*WHAM*

True to the words of the commentators, that one shield bash in the kisser was all it took to end the match. There was no need for the fancy [Night] sword at all.

, mighty wielder of a legendary sword, leader of , continues his winning streak by questionable means of trickeries and kicking the opponents while they are debuffed.

____________

Block B's quarterfinals start with the ill-mannered assassin, , and the utterly depraved maid, . Both are quite well-known among the player base. for his "helpful" advices in the tavern, and for her display of degeneracy in her own shop. As such, the spectators are already dubbing this match "The battle of horrible personalities" on the board.

It is not known if the winner will be considered to have a better or worse personality. Not that "better" in this case is much of a compliment to begin with.

_ Cosetha: Even though it pains me to point my blade towards one of pure blood, only I can save from the horrendous half-blooded torment she is going through! After that, we will be able to walk to the sunset while h-h-holding hands intimately!

To already assume of holding hands, she is truly the most wicked of the wicked. The audience are totally cheering for naughty girl though.

_ Maximus: Lolol! Get your head out of your *BEEP* ya scrub! You can't even get your *BEEP* out of harm's way without doping, and you think you stand a chance against that woman? Is that brain of yours filled with trash materials or something? Or completely empty even, heh.

While both are about on the same level of rottenness, is being booed through and through. The bias toward cute girls (appearance-wise) is going strong today as well.

_ Choruse: The half-blooded torment she mentioned… That was us, wasn't it?

_ Melodyn: Shhhh~! Get ready, FIGHT ON~!!!

The fight to the death begins like an eating contest, with the depraved maid pulling back and chowing down on the poor dumpling as quick as she can. Unlike [Alchemy] consumables, food has to be eaten normally. In the context of a duel, that means spending many precious seconds occupied with stuffing your mouth while the enemy is trying to slap you with the biggest stick they have. Not a desirable situation to be in, simply put, hence the need to stay as far back as possible.

Of course, being the kind and easygoing gentleman that he is, the (self-proclaimed) honorable assassin would never give chase or something like that. He will just stand in place, pull out his own dumpling, and eat it.

_ Cosetha: …!

_ Maximus: …

While maintaining constant eye contact to assert dominance!

One cannot really choke in this game, but whatever was feeling at the time came pretty close to it.

She was so high on power, she forgot that dumplings were sold in the cafeteria. They are as expensive as high-level equipment, but there was nothing stopping anyone from buying for personal use, or in 's case, getting them as compensation for a party member's science-related deaths. Without the attributes and statuses advantage, the maid is merely a level-capped player (albeit a very degenerate one) whose combat capability is nothing of note.

In other words, her chance against the professional PvPer in front of her is paper-thin, to put it mildly. Needless to say, her opponent is fully aware of that.

And that is why is breaking out a nasty grin that is normally seen only on serial criminals before they act.

_ Maximus: Get REKT, fridgin' noooooob!!!

_ Cosetha: KYAAAAAAAAAA!!!

The battle was one-sided.

____________

_ Melodyn: And now, the ultimate showdown between the greatest summoners in this tournament! The phoenix versus the dragon, who will win? Let the battle… BEGIN~!

_ Spectators: OOOOOHHHHHH!!!

_ Choruse: Wasn't that a salamander?

_ Fuelri: Sateri-chan dammit , it's a drake!!!

The gladiators summon their pets right off the bat. Some of their previous opponents did try to kill them during that short moment, so having both taking it easy and glare at each other menacingly is a nice change of pace. is even gracious enough to wait for to jump on her mount.

Or confident. Probably both.

Neither of them uses any buffs. While is a big guild, they do not have much going for crafting. There is no advantage for him to use [Alchemy] items except for healing potions until the opponent buffs herself first.

After the slow and peaceful start, they finally begin the actual fight.

_ Torenis: Etena, [Dive].

The flaming bird starts its run towards the cavalry girl like a heat-seeking missile, but burning. One might wonder if it would seek itself due to the heat, but fantasy worlds don't have missiles so they don't delve too much into that thought.

_ Fuelri: Let's go, Ren!

Charging forward, the pair is right on collision course with Etena. Everyone was holding their breath for the impending massive explosion…

_ Fuelri: [Leap]!

Just to find the oversized salamander jumping over the not-phoenix as if it was in a hurdling race.

The lengths players in this tournament will go to avoid getting hit, even if they are tanks…

_ Torenis: Tsk.

Despite the sudden maneuver, 's guildmaster was not surprised, only annoyed. Since his summon is practically immortal save for a constant stream of instant-kill attacks, the only way to win is engaging him directly. Them coming at him is not only taken into account, but fully expected.

had a plan for this exact scenario, naturally. The enemy is an angry elf with a halberd in her right hand, so the best course of action is evading to his right side at the last second, since it is harder to swing a polearm to the opposite side on a mount. A perfect plan, he would say…

*THWACK*

Until a javelin stabs straight into his forehead.

_ Torenis: GUAH!!!

He did not see that coming.

_ Melodyn: A direct hit! was so focused on fantasizing about holding hands with the mistress of the cafeteria, he did not notice switching arms to her javelins!

_ Torenis: Who the heck would want to hold hands with her!? I am going to beat her up for ruining the treasury back then!

As expected of a master strategist, his mental fortitude allows him to throw a retort back at the commentator while diving out of the way of the salamander, with a javelin still stuck on his face.

Now, his physical fortitude is also being put to the test as the elf continues homing in on him. He is not going toe-to-toe with that, obviously, so he is legging it as fast as his SPD allows. The elf using ranged weapons was not planned, but not something he cannot handle. After all, he has fought several archers in the past. The general strategy remains the same: Keep evading and let Etena do the hard work.

That being said, archers don't usually charge straight at him with a fire-breathing pet so this experience is definitely new to him!

_ Fuelri: Sorry, but I will be the one to beat ! Don't worry though, I will make sure to smack her in your place, if she even gets to the final that is!

A third of the audience thinks the two look like love rivals. Another third thinks they sound like love rivals. The remaining third thinks they act like love rivals.

They are probably love rivals.

_ Melodyn: , why do you think chose javelins over bows? Roleplay? Real life habits? Length and thickness of the shaft?

_ Fuelri: What does the last one have to do with anything?!

_ Choruse: Good question, . Bows are considered superior because their PAT is added to that of the arrows. There is almost no reason to exchange the image of an elegant elven knight sniping with a bow for javelins… It has to be the shaft, doesn't it…?

_ Fuelri: LIKE HELL IT IS!!! I obviously wanted to avoid looking like a typical elven knight!

No one understands her reasoning even if she says "obviously", obviously.

The peaceful scene of a smart-looking guy running for his dear life from an angry gal throwing and swinging deadly weapons continues for a while. Everyone but the flame bird took many hits from the interception attempts of both sides. Potions were consumed like water, and it seemed like this would drag on until one player runs out of those healing orbs first.

Everything changed when the cavalry elf stopped chasing for no apparent reason.

_ Fuelri: Good, everything's ready.

Ordering her pet to step aside to avoid another assault from Etena, the elf looks at the strategist still running away to gain as much distance as possible.

_ Fuelri: You can run, but you cannot hide. Mana, grant me strength! Guide me to my enemy, so I can enact the divine retribution!

Before anyone can comprehend the sentences which read like they have been ripped straight out of a middle schooler's diary, the elf has disappeared in a blinding light…

And appeared in front of .

_ Torenis: What the…

_ Fuelri: [Rapid Assault]!

The guildmaster received a full torrent of blows before he manages to disengage successfully. However, the salamander catches up to him from behind and chomps on his head. He escapes in another direction, though not without losing a few more chunks of HP from the attempts on his life.

_ Choruse: has managed to outmaneuver in one fell swoop! I am not sure what she did except that she most likely used [Recall], but if she is going to teleport around like our guildmaster did in a particular clip on the board, ' gladiator is in big trouble!

The spectators roar in excitement after the sudden turn of events. None of them understands what is happening either, but they are happy to see the actions kicking up a notch.

_ Fuelri: No matter where you go, the light of justice will show me the way to deliver your punishment!

With each cringey sentence, the great strategist finds himself in the middle of a pincer attack. The elf will be in [Leap] distance, dishing out a massive amount of damage before he can turn anywhere else. Her pet will be in hot pursuit right after, which is definitely not helping his situation.

Because their approaches became so erratic, can no longer run in circles, or any kind of planned route really, nor can he have his pet do charging attacks as soon as the skills are off cooldowns. His DPS plummets, while that of his opponent hits a new high. In other words, he is in deep.

His struggles to find a counter to this uncanny play came to an end soon after that. "End" as in he got stunned after a [Slam] in the face at half health, beaten senseless by two monstrosities for the whole duration, stunned again by a well-timed [Charged Slam] once the first [Stun] wore off, then finally succumbed to the various wounds that may or may not require some censorship if they are to be shown in this game.

One might say that he got done in by bad luck, but as things stood, had him in her reach for all intents and purposes. She could strike with almost perfect accuracy, so it was only a matter of time before two successive stuns landed. As good as is as a player, his attributes and stats were not that high, which only helped to hasten his demise. Leaving all of the combat to the pet usually has that problem.

_ Dead Torenis: Seriously, what the heck was that? Can you even be called cavalry if you get off the horse to fight?!

_ Fuelri: Actually, by the time machine guns were widely used, cavalry mostly used horses for transport then dismounted to fight on foot.

_ Dead Torenis: That era?!

The so-called cavalry girl just shrugs as pops out and drags both and Etena into the corpse-disposing trapdoor. As long as it works and she is still categorized as cavalry, she won't be hung up on the small details.

She is already out for relying on technicalities though.

_ Fuelri: Uh… By the way, can I clean up the ring before I leave?

_ Referee: Sure…?

proceeds to pick up small near-transparent glass plates all over the arena for the next ten minutes. Unless they know what to look for, there is no way to see them from a distance, let alone notice someone dropping it on the ground in a chaotic situation, like an intense cat-and-mouse game in which a "cat" is blindingly bright by being on literal fire for example.

After some confusion about their functionality, the secret of the teleporting (dismounted) cavalry is finally revealed.

There was no [Recall] network in the arena for her to abuse, so she made one herself and did it anyway!

____________

The quarterfinals ended with only players from two guilds remaining.

players won much more handily performance-wise, but it was and 's victories in the quarterfinals that shook the game's meta to the core.

In the next few days, a brand new doctrine would take shape. Focusing on (ab)using futuristic hyperspace arsenal and liberal applications of [Construction] items in said space to gain an advantage over the enemy, it will transcend modern day tactics, changing the way wars are waged forever. And from then on out, the player base shall call it…

Furniture warfare.

Historians are not amused.