Bai Qi watched as the two weird girls walked back into the Hall, elbowing Li Feng in the side as they did so. That caught the attention of the rest of their friend group, the six of them all sitting together in a corner of the lobby while they waited for news about some new dungeon that was supposed to be opening to the west of the city. There had been two teams that had set out to scout the day before, and they were both supposed to report back at some point today, but that was for later. Now, these two weird girls were back, and Bai didn't intend to let them just slip away again.
The two had walked over to the counter and waited in line, as the Hall was quite busy today and there were several people at each of the Seniors with questions or problems. Bai gave a little shudder in looking at the two Seniors working the desk, as many here had had demonstrated to them just what those…aliens...could do. It had not been a pleasant experience, especially considering the display had followed a branch of the Chinese military attempting to attack one of the eight other Halls located within China's old borders.
That attempt had gone spectacularly wrong, though the Senior Enforcer that responded, perhaps out of disdain for what they considered a pitiful display, had largely spared the lives of the troops that day. No, only most of the senior command staff was killed, and that with speed, precision, and a raw display of overwhelming force. Bai shivered once again at the memory of that day, having witnessed the attack with her team, which had already started trying to move about the country and level up themselves before they had obtained their CRA memberships.
She was brought out of her ruminations by Ming Deng kicking her lightly, though even the tiny girl's 'light' kick felt like a sledgehammer blow. Despite all of them now being above level sixty, the diminutive and petite girl was still stronger than all of them, due to several factors. She also, in a juxtaposition of her size and apparent weight-class, loved fighting with her fists and feet, up close and personal. Regardless of all that, Ming was clearly looking to her to do something, and so Bai gave a little shake of her head in response to the kick, and a little glare at the tiny terror, and stood up, walking over to the line herself.
She wasn't there to stand in line, however, and approached the two girls, almost freezing when the one with strange ears on the top of her head whipped that same head around at lightning speed as she got within three steps. She steeled her nerves after a second and continued up to them, seeing the other girl turn and point that blank mask at her. They both just stared at her, the whole experience being quite eerie with the expressionless masks and the fact that they also had seemingly perfect control of their bodies, not twitching a single muscle as they waited for Bai to speak.
"You're not from here," she said to the two women in Universal Standard, something that she had managed to learn instantly thanks to a funny little crystal in the library.
"Was it obvious?" asked the shorter of the two in a faux shocked voice.
"Why are you here?!" Bai snapped out, a little too aggressively, wincing internally when she thought of the two girls' levels. To her surprise, the two just shared a glance before the shorter one reached up with a slight chuckle and took off her mask. Bai gasped as soon as the mask was clear of the girl's face, seeing that her eyes were shockingly weird, with the pupil being a bright silver while the irises were a glimmering, crystalline blue. It took her a second to realize, as more shocked gasps and whispers started behind her where more people were checking the cause of her gasp, that the girl's sclera were also a bright silver.
"I'm sorry," Bai immediately snapped out before the girl could say anything, giving a small bow. "I didn't realize you were an Enforcer."
"Well, I kinda am," the girl said, rubbing at her neck a bit. "But if you mean I'm from off-world, then no, I'm from Earth as well."
"Really? But your eyes…" Bai said, trailing off as she got lost in the girl's incredibly beautiful gaze.
"Dungeon reward," the girl replied with a shrug, as if that explained everything, and Bai supposed it mostly did.
"Sorry, we're next," the girl suddenly said, Bai looking over to see one of the Enforcers from 'Bai’s' Hall giving them a glare for holding up the line. "Let me take care of this, then we can talk."
The two strange girls stepped up to the counter and discussed something with the Enforcer, Bai catching something strange about them reporting on a mission. She wasn't exactly sure what that was, but she definitely intended to find out. She hadn't moved, but stood slightly behind the two with her arms crossed, not realizing she was glaring at them, though she calmed when the unmasked girl briefly turned and squinted her eyes. Bai waited for them to finish what they were doing, surprised when the taller of the two pulled out her emblem and handed it to the Enforcer briefly, who did…something with it before handing it back. The two finally turned and stepped aside from the area of the line, stopping next to her.
"Where are you from?" Bai demanded again, a little more peevishly than she had intended.
"Uh, we're from New York," the unmasked girl said. "I'm Beth, and this is Blood."
"Bai," Bai replied coolly. "Why did you come over here, then?"
"Uh, we needed more missions to get her to Silver," the girl replied, jerking her thumb at the still-masked one.
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"Excuse me, what?" Bai asked, feeling even more confused. What did that mean? Were they trying to get Silver emblems? Was that it?
"Yeah, Silver emblems," the girl, Beth, replied again, making her own emblem appear with a flick of her wrist. Bai stared at the badge, mouth dropping open as she realized it was a bright silver color, and not copper, as everyone else's was. The girl with wolf ears, Blood, apparently, pulled out her own emblem and showed it was still copper before they both made them disappear.
"So, you came over here just to do our work and leave?" Bai asked a bit hotly. "How about we settle this the proper way?"
The tall girl just stared at her blankly, before looking over to the even taller woman. They didn't speak out loud, but it seemed some kind of communication passed between them before this 'Beth' turned back to her and said, "Let me just make sure I understand. Did you challenge me to a duel?"
"Of course; it will have to be a Stats-Limited Match," Bai said, some excitement seeping into her voice.
"Of course," the silly American replied with a big grin, not knowing what she was in for. Their levels might be high, ridiculously high, in point of fact, but Bai and her team had spent hours fighting, and far more hours training. All of their skills were polished to a very high level, with most of them being at the top of Copper already. These big, foreign oafs who spent all their time grinding levels had no idea what they had just walked into.
"Excellent," Bai crowed, glancing over her shoulder, her group having walked up while she was talking with the two young women. "Let's go to the arena!"
She led the way, marching enthusiastically down the corridor with her team just behind her, the two Americans trailing slightly behind them. They eventually marched out onto the arena floor, seeing a handful of teams training, either together or with instructors. Despite the number of people, the arena was big, almost scarily so, and there was still plenty of space for them to take up a dueling field. Bai was going to call an instructor over, as she also intended these to be official duels, but she needn't have bothered. Both an instructor from their Hall, as well as a massive ogre, showed up just as they had selected the field and were starting to get ready.
The instructor from their hall, an elf, tall even for her species, was muscular without being bulky. Bai had seen her in a far more revealing outfit and thought she had, essentially, the perfect body; tall and lean, but still with well-defined muscles and noticeable curves. The only problem was the elf, Tana Ma'sen, had a rather dour personality, remaining fairly cold and aloof. She never stinted when helping, however, and would even take time to offer advice to amenable teams even without them having to ask for assistance. The tall ogre she didn't know, but Ming whispered to the group, switching back to Mandarin, that the massive, very high-level man had come in with the two Americans, likely being from one of the Halls that had teleported in over there.
"Official duels?" Tana asked coldly.
"Yes, ma'am," Bai replied in Universal.
"Don't embarrass them too bad, girlie," the big ogre rumbled at the two girls, causing Bai to scoff before walking into the dueling field. She really couldn't believe her luck; many people, especially in this part of the country, had taken quite quickly to dueling, and it was already becoming hugely popular. A duelist's arena record was fairly important, and Bai couldn't wait for herself, and maybe her group, to chalk up a few easy wins on the silly Americans.
The girl, Beth, had put her mask back on and walked up on the dueling field. At some point, without Bai or the others noticing, a sword had appeared in her hand, and not just any sword. The blade alone was more than a hundred and fifty centimeters, with a long hilt that could easily be held with both of the girl's pretty, long-fingered hands. The blade itself was black, made of some kind of blackened mana steel, and Beth held it with an immense familiarity. Bai wasn't intimidated, however, as she was also at the top of Apprentice with her chosen weapon, unsheathing the heavy saber from her back. This would be a duel of heavy swords, and Bai was extremely confident in her techniques.
The dueling field activated as Tana stepped into the referee box, their stats all being adjusted. Bai was surprised as three of her five stats rose, only her STR and DEX adjusted downward at all. She hadn't had to do a Stat-Limited duel before, but the lowest level of correction was a flat one hundred for every stat, so that was obviously what they would have to use, considering the Americans were just over twice her own level of seventy. She would have to take a second to get used to being weaker and less agile, and clearly Beth would as well. The other girl immediately started bouncing in place before leaping back and forth, maneuvering around quite rapidly as she got used to her own reduction in stats.
Bai did her own preparations for a minute before standing in the circle at her end of the field. The other girl stopped a moment later and entered her own circle, the two of them both nodding to Tana when she asked for their ready signals. The match then started, Bai wasting no time in charging the other girl. She was sure the young woman couldn't have polished her skills nearly so well, and Bai had gotten an improved version of Charge called Hero's Rush, making her a vital core of her own team. She activated the skill after a couple steps, blurring towards Beth with her saber held ready to rend the girl apart, just imagining the look of surprise under the mask.
It was her own face that contorted into a shocked gasp before transforming into a rictus of pain. The shock was because the other girl had disappeared, and Bai didn't mean she moved so fast she blurred away but had genuinely vanished. The rictus of pain a fraction of a second later came as a force that felt like a mountain falling from heaven smashed into her back, pulverizing her armor and shattering her spine along with half a dozen ribs. Bai flew across the field like a rocket, slamming painfully into the outer wall that prevented spells, and combatants, from leaving the field during an active duel. She collapsed to the ground, gasping and retching in pain as the arena mended the damage to her armor and person, her body perfectly whole in just under a second.
Bai lay there panting for a handful of seconds before starting to scrabble to her feet, stopping when a hand appeared in front of her. She looked up to see the American standing over her, offering her a hand up. She scowled, but still took the hand, surprised, even with stats affecting people, at just how quickly and easily the young woman lifted her off the ground and set her on her feet. The others quickly approached, at least of her team; the ogre was drinking something from a truly enormous mug on the sidelines and the other American…had laid down to sleep? Weird.
"What was that?" Bai asked the team in Mandarin.
"She teleported," replied Ming with a shrug, a fire clearly burning in the tiny girl's eyes.
"That's what I thought, as there was no sign she had just moved very quickly. I can't believe someone of our level already has a teleport," she muttered back angrily.
"I can't wait to fight her," Ming growled, her grin stretching from ear-to-ear.
"How did she take me out?" Bai then asked.
"She hit you with her sword in some kind of powered-up swing. I don't know what it was, but I could feel the impact from outside the ring," Li answered her with a sympathetic wince.
"That doesn't make sense!" Bai snapped before turning and marching over to the girl who was standing and observing their group huddle with her arms crossed over her chest. "How did you do it?!"
She had made the demand in Universal Standard, and Beth answered her as such. "I used a movement skill to get behind you and then hit you with a skill that lets me swing my sword faster and harder."
"That doesn't make sense!" Bai cried, furious. "How can your skill do so much damage?! Our stats were all one hundred!"
"I have a couple boosting skills that make me stronger," Beth replied with a shrug.
What an infuriating girl! Bai would just have to show her the difference practice and skill could make! She wouldn't be caught out by a cheap trick like a teleport again, making sure to defend herself from all angles and not be so reckless with her charge.
"Again!" she demanded, to which the girl just shrugged, walking back to her circle.