The doors to the VR pod opened. Fox, who had emerged out of the darkness, saw her childhood friend, Vix, staring at her with a concerned expression on his face. Her eyes grew misty.
“Fox…” Just as he had gently called out her name, the young, pink-haired girl threw herself into his embrace. Feeling his warmth envelop her, she released all of her pent-up feelings.
Fox cried and cried and then cried some more. She cried that she had lost. She cried that she was not good enough. She cried that she was powerless. She cried for crying like an idiot. She simply cried.
Seeing his beloved like this, Vix felt his chest tighten. He felt as if someone was holding onto his heart and was slowly, painfully constricting it. It was a new and foreign pain unlike any other that he had ever felt before.
Nonetheless, Vix hated this pain! He hated this pain more than any other that he had felt before.
Vix’s trembling eyes settled. His face, which was full of creases and frowns, smoothened out. He then grabbed onto Fox’s quivering shoulder and pulled her out of his embrace. He looked at her tear-stained face.
Staring firmly into her red, misty eyes, Vix spoke with a tone which was as heavy as it was soft. “We will be champions.”
Fox stared back, blankly.
The handsome, navy blue-haired youth looked unbothered by her lack of reaction and continued. “We will win this tournament and you will achieve your long cherished dream.”
In the depths of her despairing eyes, a tiny spark seemed to have been lit by his words.
“Until then, please don’t cry,” Vix firmly stated.
He then released his grasp over her shoulder and took a step back. Just as he was about to turn around, he heard a low, almost-hoarse voice. “But…”
Turning back, he smiled a gentle, beautiful smile toward the speaker. “You’ll trust in me, won’t you?”
Fox unconsciously nodded her head.
“That’ll do.” Vix’s smile seemed to grow even brighter. “Just trust me and cheer for me.”
Walking away from his beloved, Vix’s expression became ice-cold. He then looked at Aether, who was looking at him with lazy, half-amused eyes, and said, “We are crushing those bastards.”
“Tch!” Aether clicked his tongue. He then helplessly threw his hands and replied with a smile. “Whatever you say, boss.”
Aether then turned around and spoke to Cypher. “Cypher. You’re with us in this game.”
The younger boy absentmindedly nodded his head.
“Midas. You’re on watch duty,” Aether instructed his other teammate. He then walked toward the VR pod with the ‘Brawler’ character set up in it and comfortably sat within.
Shooting a final glance at the team celebrating on the opposite side of the floor, Aether clicked his tongue once again and said. “You pushed the Fox button.”
Shaking his head while the doors to the pod closed, he finished, “You shouldn’ta did that.”
The pods closed and Aether, Vix, and Cypher entered the game. The fourth round began.
[Player Vixard (Cursemaster), Player OneFistMan (Brawler), and Player Str0nk (PeaceKeeper) join the game.]
[Stage: Mount Doom.]
---
[Game: 3v3. Team Duel.]
[Game Length: 30 mins.]
[Stage: Mount Doom. (Ideal Field for Brawlers and Cursemasters. Unideal Field for Modders and Virtuals.)]
[Participating Characters: Team Fox and Friends- Cursemaster, Brawler, and PeaceKeeper. Team Coldplay- Gunner, Brawler, and PeaceKeeper.]
“Whoa!” Swiping the screen away, Aether spun back just in time to avoid a flaming rock crashing down on his initial position. Not even a few seconds had passed since the game’s starting and Aether already found his life under threat.
Hopping away, Aether first sought to find a cave or some sort of rocky overhang that would protect him from the falling debris of flame and ash. The ash did not do much to his character, other than obscure his vision. The flaming rocks, however, were a different story.
Getting hit by one of them meant losing 10-15% of your health. While not fatal, it was certainly a great enough threat to tip the scale of balance. Fortunately, avoiding them wasn’t too hard of a task for professional players.
“There’s a cave.” Aether found a safe zone pretty quickly. After performing some basic reconnaissance and confirming that the cave was uninhabited, Aether made himself at home.
“Let’s see. There should be some equipment in here.” Aether started searching the cave.
Mount Doom was a stage that was both universally loved and hated by all players. People loved its grand, atmospheric setting of flowing lava and falling rocks. The overcast sky and the overall glum feeling made players feel like it was the home of some grand villain in a fantasy novel. It was a very memorable stage.
As for players who hated this stage, the reasons were the same; falling rocks, raining ash, flowing magma… while it looked good it was a terrible stage to play in.
The uneven terrain made combat engagements to be insufferable. The raining ash obscured vision and tampered with electronics, hindering players of Virtual and Modder. Also, one had to constantly keep an eye on the flaming rocks that fell randomly. Getting hit by one of those things, especially if you were near a cliff or a lava river, was no joke.
For all these reasons, Mount Doom was universally declared as the ‘Most Hated Stage for Professional Competitions’. There were even some petitions in the past to have it removed from the professional scene to better facilitate the showcase of the actual skill of players. However, these petitions did not pass.
Why? Because this map gave birth to some of the most entertaining and awe-inspiring plays in the history of the Ascenders Cup. As the saying went, ‘diamonds are formed only under great pressure’, the stage, Mount Doom, forced the players to shine their brightest.
For Team Fox and Friends to be thrown onto this map during a time of great duress; when their presence and continuation in this competition were under immense threat… it was unknown whether it was a fortunate event or an unfortunate one.
Aether quickly finished his cave-diving and exited the cave after kitting himself with some decent equipment that he had found. More or less adjusted to the stage, he then began acting according to the instructions passed down to him by the vice-captain.
“And now to seek the enemy,” Aether chuckled and started running. His fluid motions and steps were a far cry from when he first started playing this game, two and a half weeks ago.
-
“Oh, it’s you, Cypher.” Realising that it was his teammate and not an enemy as he had previously assumed, Vix, cancelled the curse that he was chanting and put down his staff.
At the same time, Cypher, who was hiding behind a boulder, revealed himself. Seeing that it was his vice-captain, he sighed with relief.
“How was your luck?” asked Vix, referring to Cypher’s hunt for equipment.
“I could use a better shield,” Cypher tapped at the shield within his hands. “Otherwise, I’m ready.” He uttered with conviction.
“I saw a purple shield, some distance away in the west. Let’s go and get that,” said Vix, without missing a beat. He then turned around and started leading Cypher to the shield’s location.
Seeing the broad, robe-covered back, Cypher thought to himself. ‘As expected. The game feels different with Vix taking the lead.’
Truth be told, if Cypher was asked who he would prefer to be his captain, he would unhesitatingly choose Vix.
This was not to say that he found Fox to be lacking. Cypher greatly respected Fox and believed that she possessed a special charisma that drew people towards her.
Having said that, he found his vice-captain, Vix, to be more ‘reliable’. This ‘reliability’ gave him ‘stability’ around which Cypher centred his own self.
With Fox in the lead, a game of Pathfinders Ascent was usually a rollercoaster with many ups and downs. There were some moments of immense delight at the sight of victory and other moments where winning felt like a distant, hopeless affair. It was equally as exhausting as it was fun.
However, with Vix leading the party, Cypher felt himself playing with preset objectives and moving towards an overall goal. Matches with Vix were always calm, mechanical, and orderly. He felt like a cog in a machine whose contributions invisibly led toward victory.
If he had to choose between fire-like passion and ice-like order, Cypher found himself leaning towards the latter. For a person who lived a life as tumultuous as his, Cypher found himself attracted to order and stability.
Cypher felt that as long as he obeyed Vix’s orders well, he would find himself heading towards victory.
“There. Take that,” Vix pointed at the glowing piece of equipment hidden inside a crevice. Its hiding spot was so obscure that the fact that Vix even found it in the first place was a miracle in and of itself. Still, the vice-captain acted nonchalant as always and said, “Once you are done equipping your shield, we shall head towards our objective.”
“Objective?” repeated Cypher.
Vix nodded his head. He then explained, “We are going to find an area that is advantageous to us and set a trap in there. Then, we wait for the enemy team to walk into that trap.”
His words were so straightforward that they seemed alien to Cypher. With his mouth agape, he asked, “That will work? Our enemies will just walk into the trap?”
“That’s right,” Vix replied curtly.
“How?” he asked. He was then struck by another question and asked, “Why?”
Cypher was asking why he believed that their opponents would willingly walk into a trap.
Having understood his query, Vix darkly chuckled and said, “It’s true that any normal team wouldn’t, however.” The Cursemaster’s eyes flashed with eerie malevolence. “This team definitely will.”
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Vix then cruelly thought to himself, ‘Coldplay. For daring to make my adorable little fox cry, I’m afraid that I’ll have to end your journey here.’ He then laughed an evil laugh.
Hearing the vice-captain’s laughter, Cypher felt cold shivers pass down his spine. He felt that his usually quiet and polite friend seemed very different today.
“Let’s go and kill the wolf that bullied my fox,” Vix declared and marched. Cypher quickly followed.
-
Five minutes later. Somewhere on the mountainside.
“HAHAHAHA!” Aether heartily laughed. He looked at his opponents with eyes full of disdain and amusement as he continued. “You look even more pathetic than I thought, Oma!”
“BASTARD! YOU JUST WAIT!!” The cheery Gunner screamed at the taunting Brawler with bloodshot eyes. Not a trace of his previous light-heartedness was found in him. “I WILL KILL YOU!!”
Aether audibly scoffed at the threat. He then flashed a villainous smile at his opponent and asked, “You mean like this?” Aether’s leg flashed with a kick and struck the stunned hostage lying beneath him.
His foot made thunderous contact with the unmoving Brawler, flinging the female down the cliff and into the flowing lava river.
“NOOO!!~” Oma screamed at the top of his lungs. His eyes widened with shock and disbelief.
[Player Lona was burned to a crisp.] The message brought him back to reality.
Oma stared at Aether with great hatred in his eyes. “YOU!!” The murderous intent in his voice made it seem like Aether had killed his only lover (which technically speaking, he did.)
The smile on Aether’s face vanished as he stared back. With a teasing glint within his eyes, Aether talked back. “You? You what? What are you going to do? Coward.”
BANG! BANG! BANG! Oma squeezed his dual pistol triggers like there was no tomorrow.
Seemingly having expected this, Aether dropped flat on the ground and rolled away. He then pressed flat with his palm, jumped up, and continued to evade the storm of bullets. Every single motion of his had strange, mesmerising fluidity.
The Dancing Gunslinger, famous for his unmatched close-range combat skills, found himself unable to land a single shot on the moving Brawler. If previously, Fox found Oma’s shooting skill to be transcendental, Oma now found Aether’s evasion skill to be divine.
Landing on his feet just in time for Oma to run out of bullets, Aether pointed at the man and wriggled his finger. “If you want revenge, come and catch me.” He then kicked off the ground and started running.
Hurriedly reloading his guns, Oma kicked off the ground and chased after the Brawler. “Stop running, bastard!” His eyes were red with madness with nothing but the intent to kill Aether found inside them.
C0ldestpl4y, the enemy PeaceKeeper, only now reached the location of their confrontation due to his character’s severely lacking agility stat and infuriating terrain. Seeing the enemy Brawler run and his captain furiously chasing after him, he cursed to himself and began chasing after them once again.
-
As he ran in an unspecified direction dodging the bullets shot by Oma, Aether soon found the sign that he was looking for.
“There it is,” he spoke to himself as his eyes caught a glimpse of a symbol drawn on the rock surface on his left. Understanding the meaning of the symbol, Aether immediately turned right and continued running in earnest.
A few dozen metres later, he found another symbol. This one had a different message compared to the previous one and meant that Aether was heading in the right direction.
Like this, Aether seemingly ran around like a headless chicken. Of course, he never forgot to dish out a few villainous lines to thoroughly infuriate his pursuant, the efficacy of which was shocking, to say the least.
As he continued to lead his enemies into the trap devised by his vice-captain, Aether once again clicked his tongue at how devious and vicious Vix was underneath his polite and handsome exterior. He recalled the conversation that he had with Vix during the middle of the third match.
[Vix: I see!]
[Aether: You see what?]
[Vix: Our opponents’ weakness. Argh! It was so obvious! How did I not see it until now!?]
[Aether: Mind sharing it with me? I still don’t understand what you mean.]
[Vix: It’s Oma and Lona!]
[Aether: …the two strongest players of the enemy team?]
[Vix: Exactly! Why are you looking at me like that? I agree that their skills are top-notch, but don’t you see their weakness?]
[Aether: Nope.]
[Vix: It’s their relationship! Don’t you see how close they are to each other?]
[Aether: What does that have to do with anything?]
[Vix: …you’re more naive than I thought, Aether. Anyways, our problem right now is that we don’t have enough skilled players to take them down, right?]
[Aether: Right.]
[Vix: Then our only available tactic is to outnumber them. Lure one of them into a trap, a killing box, if you will, and blast them to kingdom come!]
[Aether: How will we lure them though? It’s not like we can taunt them to gather aggro and lead them into a trap.]
[Vix: Why not?]
[Aether: What do you mean ‘why not’? It’s not like they are some mindless, raid boss–]
[Vix: Their relationship.]
[Aether: …!]
[Vix: Get it now?]
[Aether: Oh~ I get it. I’m picking up what you’re putting down~]
‘Exploiting their relationship with each other by shamefully killing one before the other, and then using that to gather aggro and lead them into a trap… should I say, as expected?’ Aether chuckled to himself. ‘He truly is a descendent from ‘that family’, all right?’
And since Aether played the Brawler, a fairly balanced character, and because he was the only one who could pull off the insane tactic proposed by Vix, the responsibility of ‘playing the villain to infuriate the hero’ landed on Aether’s hands.
Other players might consider this scheme to be dishonourable and shameful. However, for Aether, who played in this tournament only for the sake of the prize money, honour and shame weren’t concepts that he considered in the first place. As long as it would earn his money and wasn’t something that went against his morals, Aether would take on any job.
This was his motto and the way he had survived for 15 years in this hellish city.
“Besides. What I’m doing is just another form of trash talking.” Aether recalled one of the holy precepts of a toxic gamer.
Having led his opponents on a wild goose chase, Aether finally caught sight of the final symbol. “Oh. We are here.”
Vaulting over a rock, Aether’s body suddenly fell and disappeared from Oma’s vision. The veteran Gunner, who had not quite been himself since Aether’s taunts, threw caution to the wind and followed after him without checking his surroundings.
“Wait! Captain–!” His teammate, the PeaceKeeper’s reminder, arrived too late.
The prey had already entered the net.
“[Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair]” Vix, who had been waiting for this moment, completed the chant for his ultimate ability, just in time for the Dancing Gunslinger to fall into his trap.
“It’s over,” Vix coldly spat out as he felt the curse land and the Gunner’s body stiffen. Aether immediately swooped in, enthralled the Gunner in a myriad of attacks and flung him into the volcanic crater which served as the stage for their battle.
The PeaceKeeper belatedly arrived at the scene, only to be teamed up against by three players and soon succumbed to their attacks.
And thus, the fourth match of the Round of 32 came to an end.
The score now stood at 2-2. A final match to decide the winner was upon them.
---
Outside. Team Fox and Friends side.
The instant the pod doors to the VR machine opened, Vix caught sight of a pink-coloured being rushing up to him and landing heavily on his chest. The sudden impact caused him to exhale heavily.
“Vix! You did it!!” Fox’s cheerful cries rung within his ears. “You did it! You did it! YOU DID IT!!”
“Calm down,” Vix immediately patted this bouncing rabbit. Looking into her awe-filled eyes with a proud gaze, he said, “We still haven’t won, yet.”
“Oh, but you’ve already won my heart!” Fox backed away and spoke dramatically.
Vix’s heart thumped erratically from hearing her words. His face suddenly felt hot and stuffy.
Fox, however, hadn’t seemed to have noticed his blush as she continued. “Tch! Tch! Is this how those damsels in distress feel after coming into contact with a knight in shining armour? Ah!~ I finally have my own knight!”
She then looked at Vix with teasing eyes and asked, “What do you say, sir knight?”
Realising that she was simply teasing him and did not mean and/or realise what she had just spoken, Vix sighed disappointedly. He felt the raging excitement within his heart, cool.
Blinking her eyes innocently at his reaction, Fox asked, “Why are you sighing like that, Vix?” He found her unawareness to be both infuriating and cute.
“Nothing,” he shook his head. He then looked at his teammates with seriousness and said, “Our enemy should’ve realised our scheme by now. They won’t fall for it again. Our next match will be very, very difficult.”
After stressing how difficult it would be, he continued, “We will repeat our current line-up. Our opponents are guaranteed to bring a Virtual to counter our PeaceKeeper. Let’s pray that we land a favourable map.”
Hearing his words which were filled with a sense of helplessness, Cypher asked with gritted teeth. “Must we use a PeaceKeeper? Can’t we replace me with either Fox or Midas?”
“We can’t,” Vix immediately replied.
“Why not?” asked Midas.
“Cause then we’d lose our meatshield,” answered Fox. She then caught her tongue and hurriedly turned toward Cypher. “No offence, Cypher.”
“None taken,” Cypher simply waved off her apology. He then descended into his thoughts.
“Fox is right,” Vix sighed. “Actually, it would be perfect if we could use a Virtual, instead of a PeaceKeeper, but…”
“Only Aether can play Virtual,” Midas replied after being struck by a realisation.
“I know I’m good but even I can only play one character at a time,” Aether shrugged.
This was Team Fox and Friend’s fatal weakness. Their five team members only specialised in a single character, with only Aether being able to play Virtual with great proficiency. This flaw shackled them and hindered them from playing at an optimal level.
“Can’t one of us just play Virtual?” asked Midas, naively.
“Can you play Virtual at a professional level?” questioned Vix.
Midas shook his head. The others reacted in the same way.
“Well, no use in worrying about this now. Let’s figure something out later. For now,” Vix’s eyes flashed with brilliance. “Let’s win this round.”
The other let out a united shout. Vix, Cypher, and Aether entered the game once again.
---
At the same time. On Team Coldplay’s side.
“Those despicable bastards! How could they–” Just as the female Cursemaster was cursing at Team Fox and Friends’ unsportsmanlike conduct, she found herself interrupted by their captain.
“Enough,” Oma said heavily. His usual cheerfulness was absent from his face.
The communicator that he wore inside his ears suddenly buzzed with activity. Tapping on its side, Oma answered the incoming call.
[Sorry for losing.] said the voice.
A smile found itself appearing on Oma’s face upon hearing that voice. “It’s fine. You got outplayed by the opponent.”
[Won’t lose again.]
“That’s debatable,” Oma replied honestly. “I know this sucks for you to hear but their Brawler is better than you.”
[...jerk.] cursed the voice.
“Hey, hey, hey! Why am I the jerk!?” Oma exclaimed, having suffered a great injustice. “Take it back.”
The voice, however, ignored him and continued. [Use Virtual.]
“Don’t try to change the topic. Take back what you said to me!”
[Use Virtual.] the voice repeated.
“Haa~” Oma sighed. He knew better than anyone else how stubborn his soon-to-be wife could be. Knowing that he won’t be able to make her take back her curse, he said, “I know. The final line-up will be you, me, and C0lderpl4y”
He then looked at his teammates and asked, “You guys get that?”
They nodded their heads. However, the expression of injustice on their face did not seem to recede in the slightest.
“Haa~” Oma sighed once again. “I know you guys feel offended by our opponent’s underhanded scheme. To be honest, I do too.”
“Then–!”
“However!” Oma interrupted his teammates. “That does not mean that I resent them. This is no friendly children’s game. We are all competing with the chance to enter Eden at stake!” Oma thundered.
“If I find a weakness to exploit in my opponent. A weakness that would guarantee me victory. I would exploit it too,” Oma shrugged. “Honour? Sportsmanship? I’m sorry but I’m not in a situation that allows me to honour all these silly things. What we’re fighting for, is not just the title of champions but also for the chance to escape this hellish city!”
“And for that,” Oma weighed heavily. “I’m willing to do anything.”
Everyone possessed a reason for wanting to enter Eden. Some did it to escape from this hell while others did it to save someone that they loved. There was no one reason that was superior to another.
What mattered, in the end, was who could claim victory. This world was one where only the fittest could survive. If one wanted to enter Eden, then one had to beat the others down to claim that chance!
Oma understood this. And for that reason, he did not resent his opponents. He was an intelligent man who could separate the game from reality.
“Having said that,” he suddenly smiled. His smile was full of cunning and anticipation. “It’s not that they don’t have any weaknesses of their own.”
After explaining the opponent’s weakness to his teammates, Oma entered the game.
[Player I<3Lona (Gunner), Player Lona (Brawler), and Player C0lderpl4y (Virtual) join the game.]
[Stage: Fallen Towers]
Fate was as fickle as ever.