The wind softly howled across a canyon as two figures stood far apart from one another as heavy breaths could be faintly heard from both individuals as they stare at one another.

"Looks like your almost out of mana, how long do you plan to continue?"

"..."

The long-haired man spoke as he raised the two-forked spear which was being used as a supportand earlier and pointed it towards his foe.

But the hooded man infront of him didn't respond and lifted a magic rod, preparing a spell for his next attack.

Around them are corpses of their comrades who died with either cuts, bruises, arrows stuck in their bodies or burned due to magic, but there are no traces of blood if one looked as the wounds looks like artificial.

Correct, this is not reality but the virtual world and outside are people watching as the battle continued while on two different sides are a group of people on inclined chairs with helment on their heads attached to the platform that is currently showing whats happening inside.

What is happening is the Virtual Cup, a competition for professional gamers at the current age of technology.

"He's right, Archeon is almost out of mana... this is troublesome."

On one side, a young man said nerviously while looking towards the virtual projection as a hand clasps his shoulder, causing him to took at the tall man behind him who then spoke, "It's alright, he'll win."

"Yeah!"

Hearing that, the young man calms himself and returned his sight to the projection.

Back inside the virtual world, sounds of explosion causes the walls of the canyon to shave and even shed off some rocks as a long-haired man jumps back out of the smoke which was blown.

"Damn!" He cursed while sliding backwards after landing.

In front, the smoke was blown away with the form of the hooded man rushing forward as he spun his rod.

Panicked, the spearman puts strength to his legs and points his spear in front to execute a skill.

[Lounge]

In a mere two seconds, he traversed 24 meters in a second and closed the distance between them in an instant. Unfortunately, this was a flaw.

Klang

The long-haired man eyed his eyes wide because not only did the spellcaster parried his skill but his other hand was rolled into a fist as it was covered in purplish flame.

[Enchant]

[Arcane Blast]

One-Man Union Casting!? The spearman wanted to block or evade but it was too late.

Boom!

The long-haired man was hit hard and blown diagonally upwards while making a recovery but there was no one there when he looked down.

He felt a chill in his spine and immediately turned around to defend but was met with a scythe made of ice attached to the rod which decapitated him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Everything happened quickly as audience outside silently watched that silhouette of the spellcaster that looked like the grim reaper who came to collect the spearman's soul just before the host came to announce the result and was followed with applause, whistles and howls from everyone.

-----

""Cheers!""

Eight young men and three young ladies raised their glasses in jubilation, celebrating their victory.

"Haha, we are going to the finals!" The brawny guy said as he chugged down the glass of beer.

The man with glasses sneered at him, "Heh, you were paniking at the last moment."

"You looking for a fight, four-eyes?"

"Oy, oy, calm down you two." The tall man in luxurious clothing said as he continued.

"We won because of Archie here, we should be thanking him.

Everyone turned their eyes to the young man silently eating on one side who became somewhat embarrased after noticing their gaze.

"I couldn't do it without all of you, you know."

"Dont be shy, you should be proud. Besides..."

The brawny guy tapped his back with a large grin on his face as he look towards one of the girls.

"You should also thank Lily who had been focusing on healing you the entire match."

Hearing that, the girl, Lily shrinked back while responding with a mosquito-like voice, "I'm sorry."

Her apology isn't without reason, Rex, the brawny guy in the group was their tank in the group but she was to focused on assisting Archie during the match, causing the big guy to die.

It was a mistake on Lily's part so, it is not unjust for her to feel guilty about what happened.

Rex, waves his hands as he spoke to her, "Nah, it's alright. They were targting him the most after all, you didn't do anything wrong."

"He's right, we would've lost earlier if you didnt focused your attention on him."

"Yeah."

Seeing everyone in agreement, Lily could only nod back to them shyly.

But when everyone thought it was over, Rex then added, "In this case, Archie should repay Lily by going on a date with her!"

This caused the girl's face to turn red because of what he said.

"Alright, alright, stop teasing Lily."

"Yes, sorry."

The brawny guy apologized as he was rebuked by the mature looking girl who went to confort the young lady.

Archie, being the one in the center of the topic could only shrug as he was used to how the conversation always end up with teasing and nagging among them. They all continued eating and celebrating until past 11PM before finally going on their separate ways.

Looking up the dark sky, Archie decident to take a detour to buy some snack at the near by grocery store before going back to the hotel they are staying in.

On the crossroad down the streed, he waited for the walk sign to turn green before moving forward but at the moment, he noticed a truck which doesn't seem to look like stopping.

So archie ran and was on the other half of the road but when he looke back, the truck seemed to have turned towards him and then he knew that the person driving it was after him.

"Fuck!"

Archie loudly cursed as he continued running but it was no use and escape was impossible, he could only close his eyes while feeling something hard finally hit him.

-----

Opened his eyes, it was dark and blurry but he was still able to see something. There was no truck which hit him and the floor he was on is not made of asphalt.

Archie was staring at his hand not only because it was stained in red but due to how the tip of his fingers are shapped like claws. Other than that, something else made him speechless as he looked down.

What?

There was a curved sword stuck upon his chest and he felt like everything is even turning dark. What is this feeling? Right, he was dying but it made his confused as Archie remembered being hit by a truck just now.

Slowly rising his head, he then saw a figure wearing an armor but it was quite slim for a man's build as well as the long light blond hair. It was a woman but he cannot see her face.

Strangely, he smiled while seeing tears drop down from that flurry face. Archie felt a sence of relief and gratification but why?

The woman looked like she was saying something and then turns around and then walks away, he tried to call out but there was w0no voice coming from his mouth.

Archie raised his bloody hand to reach forward as the woman disappears into darkness before he finally felt something in his eye, it was moist. Yes, he was crying.

But before he could think of anything else, everything once more turned to darkness as a tinge of pain was felt in his head.

-----

The sound of a beep could be slowly heard, Archie tries to open his eyes and see himself in a bed in a white room and then noticed a white clothed woman staring at him just before rushing out of the room just as he was about to ask something.

Suddenly, he felt another tinge of pain in his head which caused him to stare before tears finally falls down from his face before finally saying something only he himself could hear.

"I finally remembered... everything."