Azalea closed the gap between herself and Asami pretty quickly, but she soon realized that may not have been the right course of action. Luckily, for her, her first action was to retrieve her spear. So when Asami danced to the side with a graceful movement, her nine black tails swiping to aid the movement, her counter-attack, which was meant to hit Azalea as she pressed her advantage, never landed. Azalea wrenched the spear out of the wooden wall it had impaled itself in, and turned to face her opponent.
She still had the advantage, she thought, watching the fox girl closely. She could tell that her opponent knew it as well. If those threads came out again, all Azalea had to do was jab with her spear. Even if she swung that sharp knife again, Azalea had the range to hit her first. It wasn’t a very good position for Asami to be in. Azalea smiled, showing her teeth.
Asami’s arm moved in a flash, startling Azalea. She hadn’t tried to summon threads or swing with that dagger. Instead, she jumped back, once again aided by her bushy tails, and threw the knife in a straight line right for the center of Azalea’s chest. Azalea wrenched her body to the side but only succeeded in avoiding the lethal blow. The dagger slammed into her left shoulder, actually spinning her slightly. She lost her balance on the dew-wet cobblestones, and Asami pounced.
Azalea rolled low, remembering Caius’ lesson: never block if you’re off-balance. Always try to evade. It worked for her, as another of Asami’s knives streaked through the space where her head had been a heartbeat before. Azalea tried to kick the fox girl’s legs out from under her, but she was already dancing away again, and now, she had the range she wanted to summon those threads again. Sure enough, by the time Azalea had regained her feet, spear raised to fight on, she could see a faint silvery thread floating in the air around Asami’s curvy frame.
“You’re not like those other brigands,” Asami commented. She had a soft, pretty voice, but it was marred by the note of sadistic pleasure that coated her words. “They all ran once they saw what I could do. Or at least they tried.”
“I’m not a coward,” Azalea growled. Her tough airs were slightly ruined by the whimper of pain as she yanked the thrown dagger out of her left shoulder and threw it to the ground. The game might have reduced the pain of that move to one-hundredth of what it would feel like, but it still hurt. Why would the devs allow them to feel any pain at all? She hated the idea.
Asami’s smile widened. Like Azalea, she showed her teeth when she smiled, but it was a far more sinister expression. Azalea had the sudden impression of facing a wolf baring its fangs, leering at its prey before its life was snuffed out. She shook her head roughly, pushing the mental image away, and lifted her spear again.
“No,” Asami replied, her smile fading slightly. “You’re no coward. Let’s see if you can keep that bravery for long.”
Looking back at that moment, Azalea couldn’t be quite sure what had taken her over. Maybe it was some kind of misplaced mortal fear, or maybe it was the competitive side of her that had just begun being nourished. When Asami drew back one hand to cast the thread in her direction, she felt as though her brain was shut off, and… something else took the controls. She jumped forward and to the side, avoiding the loop of thread. Asami was quick to re-direct it to follow her, always making sure the thread was between them.
For such a small and weightless thing, it sure moved fast, Azalea thought, dancing left and right, trying to get past the thread. But Asami was clearly determined to capture her in it, and wouldn’t let her close the distance as she had before. Frustrated, Azalea lifted her left hand and cast a powerful gust of wind. It not only blew the thread back like the loose string it was, it also knocked Asami back a pace or two. But before she could get back in her spear’s effective range, the damn threads had been summoned again.
If only her agility were higher, Azalea thought. Why had she spent so much of her time farming and selling food? If only she’d trained harder, she could have been fast enough to close that gap and strike the fox girl down. Oscar could have done it, no doubt. But Azalea didn’t like the idea of trading places with the rogue. Tsubasa was nastily fast with his knives.
She jumped back as Asami flicked the thread towards her, leaning back as if she were doing the limbo. She made sure to keep the thread within sight no matter how she was forced to twist and contort her body to avoid it - and she did pull some truly ridiculous poses - and get closer at any cost. But the longer she danced, the more quickly she realized that she really couldn’t close the gap. That thread was too great a threat, and she couldn’t sit still long enough to cast a spell. She needed something new. She needed…
Without warning, she jumped forward as if to charge in, then darted back right away. The trick worked, and Asami thought she was going for a mad rush. The thread jerked over to get in her way, but she was already retreating. She needed a distraction, she thought. Dashing back to the crowd of fighting players, which was now alarmingly small, she got the attention of a nearby player by yelling at the top of her lungs, just as Caius had done. He whipped around, his eyes wide at the crazed red-haired woman, and swung his weapon to attack.
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Azalea didn’t try to kill the player. Instead, she swiped her spear in a low-angled arc, knocking his weapon out of the way. Then she reached out with her free hand to grab his collar, spinning him around. Just in time, the thread appeared. Ducking low and using the surprised player as a shield, she watched the silver thread descend. It cinched tightly around the player’s throat, then he was yanked forward. Or rather he would have been, but Azalea held tight to his belt. She grunted at the force, but Asami wasn’t strong enough to pull both her and the player.
She reached her left hand around the player’s struggling, choking body, pointing it at Asami and releasing a firebolt. With her improvised cover, she had more than enough time to charge a spell. In fact, she charged several. For some reason, Asami didn’t bother to dismiss her thread again - or perhaps she couldn’t while she was under a barrage of magic from her opponent. It was the same problem that had faced Azalea seconds before, and now the tables had turned in her favor once again.
Asami dove out of the way with a significantly less graceful movement, her face scowling. No player in Project Terra had figured out a way to cast more than one spell simultaneously, and she was no exception. She had only one choice. Dismiss the threads and cast other magic, or keep them and try to dodge and recover the advantage. She chose the latter, which was a mistake.
Azalea knew she wasn’t fighting fair, but she didn’t really care. She could feel her buffs long gone and knew that if this last barrage of firebolts, fireballs, lightning bolts, and blasts of wind didn’t work, nothing would. The fox girl was too nimble and quick-witted. One slip up and she’d have her first death in the game. The longer she prolonged that eventuality, the better, she thought.
I’ll make her understand why I have the Slayer title, Azalea thought fiercely, and remind the others not to mess with me. She continued the litany of spells without hesitation, churning out a new one as soon as she’d cast the last. She actually did significant damage to the wooden buildings around and behind Asami as the fox girl continued to duck and weave, and she was surprised she wasn’t triggering a raid event with her attacks. Maybe the system knew she wasn’t trying to harm the buildings, but the fox girl that was using them as an impromptu parkour course.
Finally, the silvery thread vanished from around the player’s neck. Azalea wasn’t able to hold up his weight, so she was forced to let him drop. She continued firing her spells even as her cover went away, but for some reason, Asami didn’t retaliate. She heard the fox girl let out a loud and angry curse, then duck around the corner of a building out of sight. Finally, Azalea let up. The player in front of her was in no mood to fight now, with severe debuffs caused by the damage of that thread. She put him out of his misery with a quick thrust of her spear.
“Tsubasa! Let’s get out of here!” Asami’s voice reverberated across the market grounds. She sounded like she was in a real temper, Azalea thought with a smirk. She’d won this fight. She wondered when the next would come. Turning to where Caius, Riley, and Oscar were facing off against Tsubasa, she was surprised to see that the duel between rogues was still going, and as fast and ferocious as before.
But Oscar was slowing down. Now without the agility buff himself, he wasn’t attacking nearly as often and spent most of his energy on avoiding the flashing daggers in Tsubasa’s hand. It was clear the cat man knew victory was near at hand, and he redoubled his efforts. Thrust, slash, punch, kick, then a spin to the side. Oscar got a new cut on his right shoulder. Another slash, another stab. That opened a hole in Oscar’s chest, and he staggered back, gasping in surprise and pain. There was just a second of empty air, in which Tsubasa watched his dying opponent. He bobbed his head ever so slightly, then darted forward, one knife raised. Oscar exploded in a shower of items and coins.
Caius stepped forward to close the gap at once, but Tsubasa, after reaching one hand out to snatch Oscar’s bow from the air, jumped back out of the range of his sword, clearly disinterested. It was as if he’d completed what he’d come for, and now he had no desire to fight more. He nimbly sidestepped Riley when he came back for a second attack as well, his tail twitching in some emotion they couldn’t comprehend. He turned and jumped onto the verandah of a nearby building, then from it to that building’s roof. He gave a short, almost peremptory wave with one hand, then fell out of sight on the other side.
All of a sudden, before they could really come to terms with the swift end, the battle was over. Glancing around, they were no longer surrounded. Barely half a dozen players from outside their guild remained. And it was clear that they were tired and afraid. By sheer chance, one of them had been there at the start and had seen these four fighters enter the melee. The fact that they were still standing after diving into the crowd like that terrified them.
“So it’s down to you five,” Caius said, switching his glare from the place where Tsubasa had vanished and leveling it on them. “You want to finish this?”
Something about the demented, battle-crazed look in his eyes unnerved them further, and the nearest player shook his head, sheathing his weapon. “I’ll pass. You win this one.”
Caius turned to the others, and they gave muted murmurs of agreement, also stowing away their weapons. Only one duo seemed vaguely interested, but even they weren’t willing to risk it. Not long after, the other players were vanishing from sight. One, however, paused once he was a decent distance away, and called to them. “I hope you know you’ve just made an enemy of Dawnbreak City! You’ll never have another peaceful moment here!”
“That was kind of the plan,” Caius muttered. He knew the player wouldn’t be able to hear it, and he didn’t care. “Right, let’s get all this junk gathered up. Azalea, we’ll fill your bag first.”