Deep Inferno, September 28 2012

Vestalia peeked out. She saw the wide area with a waterfall fed by hot water nearby. An orange-skinned dinosaur-shaped monster could be seen there, definitely not the small and cute one they had fought earlier. It was even bigger than the Tyranno they had been avoiding. She read the monster's name Burn Dinorex.

"That's the Nightmare that Pendragon mentioned. We can access this Mobius Terminal to prepare ourselves. We can open the Market Place, to access the store to buy and sell items like an online shop site. In addition, we can also open the Storage to take or store items and equipment that we will carry in inventory. There are several other menus that you can read about in Mobius."

Vestalia looked at Velocity, who was using a cable to connect his Mobius to the monitor. The process was similar to connecting a cell phone to a computer’s USB in the real world. As if reading her mind, Velocity said, "You don't need to use your Mobius. Leave this to me. All you have to do now is allocate your stats and skills according to our plan."

"Then, shouldn't we wait for Pendragon after arriving at this place?" asked Vestalia while checking the digital clock. "There's still fifteen minutes before he catches up with us."

"Oh no, this is an exciting time," said Velocity sarcastically. "We're going to fight that Nightmare NOW!!"

"N-Now??" exclaimed Vestalia in shock but still trying to whisper. "What a big monster there!"

"Don't be afraid, just follow my lead," Velocity said confidently. "Pendragon will catch up with us by teleporting like before. If anything happens, he'll be the one to help us."

"But the instruction is to fight Nightmare with Pendragon, right?" protested Vestalia, still not convinced.

"Trust me," Velocity replied, his voice growing more confident. "We just need a special technique. Now follow me!"

Velocity ran out from the terminal towards where the Nightmare stood. Vestalia followed him, still worried about whether they could fight the big monster.

Burn Dinorex seemed to notice their presence. Vestalia began to cringe, but Velocity remained calm on the monitor. Velocity held Mobius and spoke the keyword, "Analyze!". Velocity was seen throwing a ball-like object at the Nightmare as it began to approach them. Vestalia began to panic even though there was no screaming coming from her mouth. Velocity then uttered another keyword, "Smoke Bomb!"

She only saw Velocity throw something, then they were back near the Mobius Terminal. "What happened?" asked Vestalia. She realized that their characters had teleported despite the short distance.

"I've used an item called Analyze. So, I was able to read Nightmare's bio on Mobius," Velocity replied. "Then I used the Smoke Bomb item so we could escape the battle. That will reset the battle with the Nightmare."

Vestalia did not respond. It seemed like Velocity's actions were familiar to him. She didn't understand the meaning of that action yet.

"Give me a moment to read its bio," Velocity continued. However, he only looked at Mobius for a few seconds and then commanded Vestalia, "Pull your weapon and follow my commands, okay?"

"Okay!" was all Vestalia could say. Without further ado, she spoke the keyword to retrieve her Racket. Velocity did the same with his Hammer or Mace.

"When the battle starts, don't use your magic right away!" Velocity ordered. "Use the Guard keyword until I give the signal. Keep your distance and pay attention to all the information listed on the monitor. HP and MP bars on the top left of the screen. Break and Threat bars in the centre-right of the screen."

"What are Break and Threat?"

"There should be a tutorial in the middle of the battle to explain."

Just like before, they began to approach Burn Dinorex. Vestalia watched the screen as she used the keyword Guard. The cat was defending with the text [Guard and Regen up] and the Command bar changed to Command (Defense) with the Guard icon replacing the Attack icon. She also lost his Water Ball magic icon. She panicked a little because she saw her magic command was lost due to Defense Mode and the monster's HP which reached 50,000. But she tried to calm down with Velocity's presence.

This time Velocity began to attack the Nightmare with hits from his Mace. Vestalia didn't pay much attention to the monitor when Velocity did the Analyze earlier. This time, she was paying attention to the Break and Threat bars as Velocity said, as well as the background music that changed as they entered the battle with the Nightmare. Very adrenaline-inducing music, she thought.

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Vestalia saw something incredible. Although Velocity's body was tiny compared to the Nightmare, the fight seemed evenly matched. Vestalia saw Velocity's Command mode alternating on her party members' screens from the Offense mode as the main mode. Velocity occasionally used Heal to recover his HP between hits with Recovery mode. She noticed Velocity's HP was reduced by about 100-200 points due to the same fireball attack, but the Nightmare’s scratch or kick attacks did no damage. She noticed Velocity was now in Defense Mode and wielding Shield, a shield-type equipment in his left hand.

"Watch the Threat bar now!" Velocity exclaimed. "Once my Threat points reach 10,000, use your Water Ball!"

Vestalia watched the right side of her monitor. She could see the Threat bar with Velocity's name and Threat points. She began to understand that the Nightmare was likely to continue attacking Velocity because his Threat points were much higher than hers. This meant that it could have switched target to Vestalia if she had attacked earlier and increased her threat points.

Following Velocity's lead, she began to speak the Water Ball keyword after 10,000 Threat points. The text on the bottom right screen changed back to Command (Magic) and her magic command returned.

She noticed another bar, the Break bar which began to increase dramatically. She read the tutorial information, this one bar would increase faster depending on the number of players and the type of Skill attacking the Nightmare. If there were more physical attacks, the monster's defense would be reduced in the Stagger state. While magic attacks will reduce the monster's mental in the Topple state.

"When the Break points are full, the Nightmare will start to panic and enter the Stagger or Topple state," Velocity said. "There are various things that will happen, but generally speaking, when a Nightmare is in Stagger or Topple we should go All-In, meaning deal as much damage as possible."

"So, I should keep attacking?" asked Vestalia. "I'll run out of MP later!"

"Keep attacking!" countered Velocity. "For now, just keep using the neutral magic ball with the Attack icon and use the Water Ball again when your MP regenerates. For the next battle, there will be plenty of other things you can do."

In a few seconds, Break's points reached 500% and she saw the words Topple. Vestalia saw Velocity's actions change. He uttered several keywords at once, "Aqua Force! Ginger Bread!". There was a one-second pause before she called out again, "Clementia! Sylphario! Dragonic Power!"

Vestalia saw a change in Velocity's character who gradually appeared to be eating and drinking something and then casting magic. His mace now looked like it was encased in a water bubble at the head of the bat. Around the bubble were sized-rats gold-colored dragons. She also noticed that Velocity's hands were also growing. All the keywords he had spoken earlier must have caused changes in his body and weapons.

"I've done Buffs, a bunch of magic to increase my stats!" Velocity exclaimed. "Let's keep attacking, Vestalia!"

Burn Dinorex looked angry and panicked, its attacks looked even more brutal but Velocity was still able to hold him off. Vestalia felt the pace of the battle getting more intense, the damage they dealt was greater than at the beginning of the fight, especially the Water Ball which reached 1000-1500 damage. While Velocity was in Offense Mode and dealt 500-700 damage. However, the Nightmare also became more aggressive. If it wasn't for Velocity distracting the Nightmare with high Threat points, perhaps the other players would have been in chaos during a battle like this.

Booom. There was an explosion-like in their battle area. Vestalia had just taken damage, not fatal but half of the HP was enough to make her respond with her Heal in Recovery mode. Velocity immediately exclaimed, "You need to keep your distance! Even though it kept attacking me, some skills of it could hurt other players who got too close. But other than that, good job!"

Vestalia didn't reply, only blushing slightly at Velocity's criticism and praise. Within a few seconds, Burn Dinorex's HP was run out and the Nightmare began to collapse. She saw all sorts of things coming out of the Nightmare, from Sepilith, Items, and tutorial text explaining Energy Points and Rewards. Their level had also increased by four levels to level 12, having previously gained two levels from their training.

"We did it!" exclaimed Velocity. "We got Rewards and we leveled up with a lot of Experience. But this process will decrease Energy Points, abbreviated to EP in this virtual world."

She looked at the EP on the monitor, which had decreased by 60 from 10970 to 10910. Their weapons and the rewards they had earned all slowly absorbed or uploaded into the Mobius. Vestalia asked in the middle of the upload. "What does this EP do?"

"It's a kind of activity restriction feature," Velocity said. "There are some restrictions made to this game compared to its predecessors. For example, we can only create one character on an account and EP limits our activities in a moon phase or a two-week cycle to prevent gaining too much Experience and Sepilith because some players can battle at all 24 hours in Espion. EP is also a good idea to reduce the effects of gaming addiction."

Vestalia didn't reply, she wanted to ask further questions but was preempted by Velocity. "I'll explain sometime. Espion was not in a conducive and comfortable condition when it was played last time. A game like this has different elements of conflict, economics, and own politics that also can be argued in the real world."

"Hoee?" Vestalia only responded with confusion. She then checked her digital clock. It was already four in her time or six in Mobius time, Pendragon should have arrived.

Bammmm, there was a loud bang in Vestalia's ears. The sound was accompanied by the appearance of a familiar green dragon. "Well, youngsters. Are you ready to... WHAT????"

Pendragon only gaped at Burn Dinorex's knocked-out state.