Asami jumped back, magick literally dripping from her fingers in the form of long, silvery threads. Azalea was already on the attack, not wanting to give her any room to swing those threads and slice her to pieces. She had an inkling that, if she’d done as much hard training and fighting as the Progenitors had, then those threads wouldn’t just strangle anymore. They even seemed a little brighter than usual, as if made of steel and not mana.
Asami weaved to the side, avoiding the point of her spear. The thread trailing from her left hand wrapped around the shaft of the weapon, and she started to give a tug, clearly intent on yanking it out of Azalea’s hand. But she was already casting a wind spell, which knocked the foxgirl back. She was forced to dismiss the threads. Now only armed with those from her right hand, she gave them a powerful flick. Azalea was forced to jump back herself, if only to avoid getting trapped. She let out a low curse, knowing that her immediate advantage had gone.
Behind her, Oscar and Tsubasa were moving once again in the blur of strikes, parries, grabs, and punches that came with their unique and dangerous fighting style. They danced from side to side between flurries, neither able to land a telling blow. Caius and Riley both hovered, weapons drawn and bodies tensed, waiting for an opening that so far hadn’t come. Each time they attempted to swing their weapon to aid Oscar, they encountered nothing but open air. Any attempt to attack further would likely result in accidentally harming their friend.
Azalea got off a lucky blast of fire that destroyed the newly resummoned threads from Asami’s left hand, but then felt a sharp pain on her left arm as the threads scored a relatively deep cut right below her shoulder. Grunting in pain, she backed off yet again, running into Riley’s back. She shot off several lightning bolts, giving her time to think. A quick healing spell, and the wound was gone, only a faint lingering sense of pain to remind her.
Slowly but surely, she managed to suppress the panic and uncertainty that always greeted her at the start of a fight, and gave into the calm, calculated instinct that Caius and multiple battles had hammered into her. Lately, the time it took to switch mindsets had dropped significantly, but it still wasn’t nearly as fast as she would have liked. But she knew now that her best advantage would lie in speed. Dexterity. She cast a buff over their entire party, benefitting both her and Oscar. Asami matched her, casting an Agility buff over herself and Tsubasa as well.
Azalea darted forward, then slid to a stop, jumping back. Asami fell for the bluff, whipping her nasty little threads through the air, but finding nothing. Then Azalea moved forward again. But this time, she used the self-targeted spell called Flash Step, which Shiora had agreed to teach her after the battle against Matlin. She still wasn’t completely used to the speed at which she could dash forward, and overshot it a bit, ending up face-to-face with the fox girl, much too close to use her spear effectively. So instead, she drew her fist back and punched Asami in the face.
The fox-girl reeled back with the blow, clearly surprised by both the speed and the unexpected action. Azalea wasn’t prepared for the rapid pace either, and thus couldn’t follow up effectively. By the time she’d recovered her balance and went to thrust her spear, Asami managed to grab the shaft of the weapon, holding it in place and rendering it useless. But now she was too close to use her threads. With a wide grin, she too thrust her first forward, punching Azalea in the face in the exact same manner.
Both women staggered back a few steps, blinking rapidly to clear their eyes, gasping for breath. Asami was shaking her head slowly, that grin still firmly in place. “Well, well. You do have a rather unexpected style, don’t you?”
Azalea wasn’t much in the mood to answer that question and hefted her spear, ready to attack once more. But then Asami held up a hand, and she hesitated. The magical threads were gone, and it didn’t look like Asami was making much of an effort to summon them again. “Just hold on a minute. We’re not here to fight to the death. That’d be a waste of effort.”
Still holding her hands up slightly to show she had no intention of attacking, she called over Azalea’s shoulder to her brother. “Tsubasa, you almost done over there?”
As before, he gave no reply, but continued to fight, a look of concentration on his face. Azalea turned to watch the dueling rogues, noting the buffs that were over both of them. They were still equally matched in both speed and strength. She tried to track whose knife was whose, but still all she could register was a blur of silver and black as the two tried to strike each other.
Without warning, Tsubasa disengaged from the flurry of blows they were trading, leaving Oscar off-balance, staggering forward for a moment. He danced back a few steps, bringing one knife up, held by the tip, and threw it. It flashed through the air too fast to see, but Oscar managed to narrowly avoid it. Then it flashed a bright blue and suddenly shot back, slicing a fine line across Oscar’s shoulder before landing back in Tsubasa’s hand.
Azalea began to move to support her friend, but before she could, Oscar retaliated, hurling his two knives through the air. They both glanced past Tsubasa’s face, then, before the cat-figure could retaliate, Oscar had unslung his bow, drawn and fired an arrow, all in less time than Azalea could consider the action. Still off balance from dodging the two knives, Tsubasa couldn’t completely avoid that swift shot, and now sported a brand-new red line across one cheek.
“Yeah,” Oscar said, letting out a heavy breath. He reslung the bow, and drew two new daggers. “I can do cool rogue shit too.”
A slight smirk formed on Tsubasa’s face at the comment, but predictably he said nothing. Instead, he drew another knife from his belt and chucked it away from him. It clattered noisily on top of the wall. Asami let out a low whistle behind Azalea. “Holy shit. You were actually serious about that?”
“What are you talking about?” Azalea asked, completely confused by the random action. But then she saw Oscar pushing his knives back into his belt and stooping to pick up the discarded knife. He regarded it curiously in one hand for a moment, then spun neatly on one foot, throwing it at a nearby building. It gave a satisfyingly deep thock as it hit. Then, with a flash of that same blue light, it yanked itself out of the wood and back into his hand. He didn’t catch it nearly as gracefully as Tsubasa had, but he seemed highly delighted by the new weapon.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“It’s a gift,” Asami explained. “We had enough rare material left over to make a second throwing knife, but he insisted that it be higher quality. He was always planning on giving that to your friend if he felt him worthy.”
“He told you all of that?” Azalea asked. She wasn’t sure what was going on. Were they fighting each other or not?
“Maybe not in as many words,” Asami said with a low chuckle.
“I’m guessing he didn’t use any words at all,” Riley put in. He was the first to abandon his hostile stance, though his body was still tensed, alert for any danger from the siblings. “So you just wanted to test us?”
“That’s part of it,” Asami replied. She could tell that she faced no real danger. As tempted as Azalea was to try and score a definite win, her battle focus had gone completely now, and she knew she couldn’t manage to do anything effective before the fox girl could react. So she slid her spear back into its sheathe on her back.
“Well, if you’re not interested in fighting us anymore, what are you doing here?” Azalea asked. “We don’t have nearly enough Yemon to hire you to kill all those people coming for us.”
“There are more methods of payment than money,” the foxgirl quipped. “We have our own reasons for leaving Dawnbreak, and for helping you out here.”
“So you’re not doing it for free.”
“Of course not. Nobody works for nothing. Whether it’s money, items, or good feelings, we’re all paid somehow.”
Azalea took a deep breath, not sure how to feel. As she had plenty of times in the past, she looked for the one person whose wisdom and experience in life she knew she could count on. He looked just as thrown as she had, so she turned to Oscar. He gave a quick nod. Then to Riley, who gave a slight shrug. “I mean, there is a literal army headed our way. We could use their skills.”
Another deep breath. Somehow, she could feel, deep inside, that this would turn out to be the most important decision she’d make in this game. Somehow. “Fine. What exactly did you have in mind?”
----------------------------------------
“So that was crazy.”
Azalea turned, seeing Riley walking up the gentle slope of the hill to where Azalea was watching the last of the attacking force from Dawnbreak leaving their settlement. She let out a quiet laugh.
“You can say that again.”
“So that was crazy,” he said again, a broad grin stretching across his face. She couldn’t resist the urge to roll her eyes at him, just as she couldn’t resist the laugh that erupted from her. “You’re so dumb it’s actually funny.”
He spread his arms to the side, and dipped into an elaborate bow. “I try my best.”
They stood side by side for a moment, watching the fleeing players. Then, by some silent agreement, they turned to see the progress of the village’s defenses being taken down. Azalea’s idea of uniting the entire village under one property had come in handy. Nobody could raid them again for a week, so they had time not only to rebuild, but also to expand. She still wasn’t sure why the village chief had trusted her to be the one that owned the land. She’d agreed to let him continue to rule over the Terrians that called the village home, and her guild would work together to oversee the players.
“Think we might change the name?” She asked Riley. She’d gotten so used to the village existing as a permanent place in her mind, that she didn’t think she could ever call it by another name.
“Probably not,” Riley said. “I don’t think any of us would want that.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. “Besides, it’s not our land anyway.”
“We’re certainly making it so. Caius has been working hard, training the new recruits.”
She nodded. She’d seen the grizzled warrior training other players, and even a few Terrians, in the fighting styles he knew. Caius knew how to use almost every weapon in the game, and with how quickly their land was growing, they’d need some players to be able to defend it against future attacks. It only made sense that they had guards on hand. Those players that volunteered would be paid fairly, so it was a job like any other.
“The Sisters really leaving?” Riley asked.
“Not all of them. I know Alasta and Tankbabe are staying in the city. Fluffypie is with them. But Kyraa, Centrogen, and Bubbles are definitely going. They said this place had gotten too nice. They didn’t like losing command in the end.”
“Kyraa feels like she could be a problem in the future. I hope she doesn’t come back as an enemy.”
“Even if she does, we’ll be able to handle it,” Azalea said with certainty.
Again by silent agreement, they found themselves leaving the hill, arm in arm, feeling ridiculously happy about how things had turned out. Sure, they didn’t know what the future was going to hold. This game was still so new, and change was still happening everywhere they looked. What was more, the second wave had been announced. In less than a week, new players would be logging into the game for the first time, without any idea of what they were up to.
“Man, we’re going to have our work cut out for us,” she said with a long sigh. “I’m not sure what’s more important right now.”
“Sure you do,” Riley said, that easy grin still on his face. “You know exactly what you want to do first. Just because you’re in charge of a growing brand-new city doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to do exactly what you want.”
“That’s true,” she agreed, now grinning herself. “Alright, let’s go get something to drink. I’m starving.”
- END OF BOOK ONE -
Author’s Note: Thanks for reading my book! And if this isn’t the first one you’ve read, thanks for reading another!
Special shoutout not only to my Patrons (who let’s be honest give me a huge motivation to keep going), but also to everyone who interacted with this story. It was a new challenge for me, writing something so… free-form. I’ve definitely picked up a few tricks and tips, which I plan to use in future additions to this story. We got to explore a bit of the system with Azalea and her party, and even met a bit of how the world works. But there’s so much to discover, and so many more characters to unleash! So I’ll see you in the next installment!
In the meantime, if you’re a fan of fantasy books, and you like intricate magic systems and deeeep worldbuilding, check out my other stories! You can find them quite easily by clicking on my profile. Just like this one, they’re all available completely free!
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That’s all for now! I’m about to go into a month-ish hiatus, so you won’t see me post for a bit. But the next story is already planned. You can expect more information about that in the weeks to come.
Thanks again. Writing stories happens to not only be my job, but also my therapy, my addiction, and my greatest calling. So thanks for being part of the journey.