We decided against attacking right away. Although we believed that finishing fights quickly was the best strategy against Players, this time we were starting the fight from a severe disadvantage; Roach knew about our Abilities, but we didn’t know his. He had proper equipment, while we needed to be careful about stepping into something sharp or slipping on a pool of blood.

We had Nosy and Stanley with us, on the other hand. We didn’t expect either of them to be useful, but perhaps they could buy us a second or two against Roach. Our opponent with his dull gray spear bided his time too, unfortunately; he was gathering a cloud of smoke above his head, expanding it and rolling it along the ceiling in our direction. Depending on how much control he had over the smoke, he would be potentially able to suffocate us.

While we elongated Soul Eater’s handle, Nosy decided to end our little standoff by spitting a glob of flames at Roach’s head. A tendril of smoke reached down from the ceiling at the same time, solidifying for a moment to block the projectile before turning back into its gaseous form.

“Randel versus Roach, with Nosy to encroach,” Stanley suddenly sang. “The fight is on, coach!”

He did a backflip in the air before flying to the other side of the room, as far from Roach as possible. We would have felt disappointed, had we not caught the flash of alarm on Roach’s face.

“This is your last chance to go back to your cell,” Roach warned us, tossing his cigar aside and grabbing his weapon with both hands. We finished transforming Soul Eater into a sleek black spear a moment later, matching Roach’s. The black metal was a bit too heavy to our liking, but it would have to do. We shifted our stance, raised the spear above our shoulder, then threw it at Roach with as much force as we could muster. Multiple tendrils of smoke reached down from the ceiling immediately to block the spear’s path. Although Soul Eater punched through the first few tendrils, the multi-layered barrier stopped the spear short.

“My turn,” Roach said, opening with a move that felt familiar from our duels with Devi; it was the Lunge Weapon Skill, except much faster than hers. We barely had time to evade the attack as Roach shot across the room, and so we had no chance to retaliate no matter how defenseless he might have been in that brief moment. A tendril of smoke tried to grab us from above and we stepped to the side, but Roach was already following up on his attack with a spear thrust. We teleported Soul Eater to our hands to parry his strike, then hopped back as a spike of smoke dropped from the ceiling. Roach raised a hand at us as we retreated and a wide, viscous net burst forth from his palm. Our teleport was on cooldown, so all we could do was to turn Soul Eater sideways and toss it into the net, letting the sticky material wrap around the weapon instead of us even as more smoke-spikes formed above our head. There was no denying it; Roach outmatched us completely.

“Roach attacked fiercely, killing Randel nearly,” Stanley sang, his voice rich and melodic. “Ooh, but only nearly, because Randel moved clearly fast like the wind.”

We jumped out from under the smoke-spikes as they crashed to the ground, and almost overbalanced as our body felt much lighter than before. Roach attacked again, a Weapon Skill boosting his speed once more, but this time we had no trouble dodging his thrust. We twisted our torso and let the spear pass by our chest, then grabbed the handle and tried to wrench it out of Roach’s hand—only for the entire weapon to collapse into smoke. Afraid of breathing in the smoke we jumped aside, but Roach just reformed it into a long sword.

“Nosy in the meantime, that clever little feline, licked the smoke to wear it like a cloak!”

We circled around Roach as even more smoke billowed toward him from the burning furniture, and he gathered it to form a sword in his other hand too. From this angle we could see Stanley as he sat cross-legged on a table, beating his fists rhythmically against the wooden surface and drumming a beat that could pass as dramatic. The smoke swelled even more while Roach eyed us, daring us to attack.

“The air grew thick with the smoke, but Randel was a wind-fast bloke. His movements created breeze, which blew the smoke away like a sneeze!”

We swept one hand above our head and sure enough, our movement elicited a wave of air that broke the smoke apart. Roach didn’t watch this idly, of course; he turned around and shot a sticky web at Stanley, who rolled off the table to cover behind it.

“He moved like the breeze, but help me please!”

We teleported Soul Eater to our hand and tried to stab Roach from behind, but tendrils of solid smoke protected him even without him looking. More smoke gathered around us, and we swept our spear in a wide arc to blow it all away while Roach advanced on Stanley. His long overcoat ruffled for a moment before two shining-blue shapes dropped to the ground from underneath it; spectral cockroaches, sized like small cats. Roach lunged at Stanley while his large cockroaches skittered toward us, and we shifted our grip on Soul Eater to defend ourselves.

Still boosted by whatever Stanley did to our body, we slammed our spear through the first cockroach and evaded the other by jumping up to a nearby table. The second creature skidded on the ground as it tried to turn around, but by then we yanked Soul Eater out of the first cockroach and threw it at the second one. Although we hit the cockroach head-on with the spear, we realized that it wouldn’t matter much; as soon as Soul Eater was removed from the first cockroach, its missing parts reformed and it continued to come after us, barreling into the table’s leg.

“R-Randel?!” Stanley said, weaving in between the flurry of strikes that Roach was launching at him. We didn’t have time for the cockroaches—though we supposed that was exactly their point, to buy Roach time.

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If the spectral creatures wouldn’t die no matter what we did, we just had to kill their source. The table underneath us tipped to the side as the cockroach broke one of its legs off, and we jumped off nimbly and sprinted toward Roach. Our opponent sent two more cockroaches at us, but we teleported our spear to our hand and used it to vault over the incoming creatures. The smoke parted as we landed close to Roach, spinning the spear around our shoulders to bring it forward, striking at Roach’s side—only for a transparent blue carapace to appear on his back and completely negate our blow.

Roach didn’t even so much as glance at us anymore.

We dodged to the side to avoid a pair of cockroaches snapping at our leg, and turned around to see that the other two weren’t far behind either. We let out a frustrated growl; our body was weak and pathetic, and Roach treated us like nothing more than a nuisance while he chased after Stanley. We batted away cockroach after cockroach with the tip of our spear, but they kept getting back up while our arms got more and more tired.

“Oh, c’mon!” Stanley said, dropping low to the ground to avoid Roach’s sword—only for one of the cockroaches to lurch forward, latching onto Stanley’s leg. It all went wrong in a heartbeat. Stanley gasped in pain as the spectral bug bit into his calf and he tried to fly up quickly, but Roach was quicker, slashing one of his swords across Stanley’s chest. Stanley careened down into a table in a spray of blood, and only a fortunate jerk of his head prevented a falling spike from splitting his skull open. Roach then stepped closer to Stanley and raised his sword—and the fabric of the Material World suddenly grew thinner.

Music filled the air and we stopped to stare, for we were aware what caused this snare. It was Stanley’s Domain, worming its way to our brain just as he was about to be slain. Roach’s eyes went wide, fearful; an unseen audience clapped, cheerful. Not wasting his time, Roach struck—but Stanley, in a bout of luck, flicked a golden coin right into Roach’s eye and nearly blinded the hapless guy.

“Take that,” Stanley cheerfully said as Roach’s blade missed his head. He flew away with his bleeding chest, distressed and messed but not suppressed.

“What the hell,” Roach said with a yell. All his cockroaches had stopped advancing; they stood upright instead, dancing. The lights dimmed in the room, leaving me in gloom—until two spotlights turned on with a boom. They shone on me and Roach from the ceiling, as if we were the stars of this chilling evening filled with bleeding, beating, and killing without meaning.

“This is ridiculous,” Roach sneered, his smoke acting weird. It coiled like a theatrical fog, inviting me to monologue.

“This ends now, evil slaver,” I said with a conviction I tried to savor. “It’s everyone’s right to be free—yet you have locked me up, however briefly. I’m afraid we won’t be able to get along; I now stand here to right the wrong! You may be strong, but as long as my song is sung, I can fight you all day long.”

Turning my words more thematic, the music got more dramatic. The beat of the drums were soon joined by flute, then the melody grew stronger by adding a lute. At the sound of this chord I brandished my sword, and stepped toward Roach while our audience roared.

“Are you kidding me?” Roach asked unfittingly. “This Domain is a pain, a plain disdain, an inane terrain!”

He looked around to search for Stanley, but I spoke again, confident and manly.

“You can’t ignore me anymore; I’m stronger than before. Here comes the encore!”

The crowd cheered as I charged in with Soul Eater, but even though I was eager, my strike was way too meager. Roach blocked my blow with his sword and slashed at me as a retort. We jumped back in a blink, finding it hard to think. What was the meaning of this? Something was amiss. We couldn’t move the way we wanted, which left us uneasy and daunted.

“You’re still weak,” Roach had to speak, but I just smiled; I would not be defiled.

“It’s not the sword that matters but the heart! Let me impart this to you; it would be smart if you could tell the two apart! The goal in my heart shines so bright that its righteous light lends me might.”

“What the hell are you talking about,” Roach growled, slashing at me to resume our bout. I kept dodging his strikes, lightning fast they were; the tips of his blades were nothing more than blur. He hacked and whacked and smacked me around and I kept giving him ground, being no match for him pound for pound. I got a shallow wound here and there a small cut, and though I could stop the bleeding somewhat, I had no chance to strike back; I had lost my knack.

“This isn’t how I imagined my future,” I said, scrambling over broken furniture. Roach formed more smoke-spikes and let them fall, but even as I evaded them all, he dropped his sword and held out his palm; aiming at me, steady and calm. He shot a sticky net at me again, and I had no time to dodge right then.

Finally, I thought, and let myself be caught. The force of the impact blew me off my feet, plastering me to an upturned seat; tied up nice and neat like a piece of meat. With Soul Eater in my hand I could not retreat, to my apparent defeat.

“Oh no,” I said with woe. I tried to look weak and helpless, but my heart was beating fast—what if this scheme was my last?

“I’m about to rip out your throat,” Roach stopped to gloat. “You can moan and groan, but I have shown that you’re no match for me alone.”

He pointed a smoke-spear at me as he came closer, the Domain forcing him to act like a poser.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said, my words changing the song. “You thought that I’ve been alone all along.”

With a sudden twist, a small gray beast burst through the mist and bit into Roach’s wrist; his sharp fangs pierced coat and skin, much to Roach’s chagrin. I cast Mark of Replacement through Nosy’s bite and to my delight, I felt my mark appear outright. To dispose of his attacker Roach punched Nosy’s nose, who let him go to avoid receiving more blows. Nosy’s long dark fur rolled and swirled like a storm cloud; he returned to the smoke to wear it like a shroud.

“You annoying pest—”

Roach couldn’t say the rest, because we swapped places at my behest.

I towered over Roach, who lay trapped in his own net; he cried out in alarm as our eyes met. Panic took him over and he struggled to get free, uselessly, for the power of this story stood with me. The lights began to dim as I thrust Soul Eater at him; his chances of blocking the spear were slim.

Clang! The fang of the spear sang as it found the ground next to Roach’s head.

“I’m not dead?” Roach said, opening his eyes as his dread fled.

“You know, I’m not that mad,” I said. “Your son doesn’t have to lose his dad.”

Having expected his demise, Roach looked at me with disbelieving eyes. The unseen crowd let out a disappointed sound as I turned around, leaving Soul Eater in the ground.

“Come on Nosy, we’re leaving,” I said, seeing the smoke receding. Weaving around the people I killed, I walked out of the room filled with regret and guilt.

> Quest fulfilled: Yorg’s conceit

> You earned one Feat!

On the final notes of the music’s beat, Stanley joined me in retreat and our scene became complete.