Amara gripped her scimitar tightly as she and Kovogt turned and bowed to the Admiral before their fight. Behind them, their lieutenant, Igassi, bowed as well. Amara was careful not to make eye contact with the level 48 player, fearing that her placid demeanor might crack and give away her confidence. She turned again and stared calmly at Igassi. The man was not ready for this. He had been promoted to lieutenant a couple of months ago, having only undergone two cycles as a grunt. This was Amara’s third life, and she resented the inept druid she had been forced to take directions from.
In her two previous lives, her lieutenants had wisely passed on a match-up with her, as had Julia, their captain, leaving her to be killed by the Admiral himself. She had been assigned to different squads in each life with different lieutenants and had never played with Igassi before. He had been easier to manipulate than her other lieutenants and had caved to her desire to obtain a god. Deity quests didn’t offer much loot or experience, the only two things this organization cared about, so they were frowned upon, but she had taken advantage of another player’s illness to secure a double shift in the game, meaning she was active when her other party members were not. Deity quests were meant to be done solo, so Igassi had agreed to let her do one.
Amara was 16, living in Nakhon Ratchasima, the largest city in the poorest province of Thailand. Her boyfriend, Kasem, was a digital artist who mostly drew NSFW pictures of anime girls for horny Westerners with nothing better to do with their money. She didn’t like it, but his income gave him an excellent computer and the best high-speed internet in their neighborhood. Only in the converted warehouse where the Admiral’s real-world minions logged them in and out of the game was the internet better, but that required a satellite dish on the roof.
It was hard to find information on the Realms of Infamy, but Kasem could access the dark web, and Amara spent every waking hour she wasn’t in school or plugged into the game surfing on his computer and researching. Her parents didn’t care what she did. She got perfect marks in school, not that it was that challenging, and she told them she had a job at a local street market. She made ten times what a girl her age would generally make selling fish, and she cashed out exactly that much and gave it to her father.
Kasem had found a vendor in Hong Kong with a VR unit for sale about once a month. He held a bidding war for it, and the eventual selling price was twice what the artist made in a year. It was more than Amara had made yet in the game too, but if she became a lieutenant, she would increase her earnings by a factor of five. She already had a dozen quests picked out for her eventual squad to run through to maximize profits. They were low on experience, but it didn’t matter if the Admiral killed her for going slow; she would have enough money to make a serious bid on the VR unit and then be set.
Amara was a natural at the game. It required high levels of math and logic to understand strategies, but there was also a social aspect that couldn’t be denied. She binged Western reality shows like Survivor and The Bachelor and understood the game within the game. She played a tracker, a variation of the ranger class, but played it much closer to a rogue. It was the only other class in the game that got access to the sneak attack feat for free. Amara was as silent and deadly in the woods as an assassin in the city streets.
She had manipulated the operator who ran the game to put her in Igassi’s squad once the player had been promoted to lieutenant, knowing that the forest druid would take them on many wooded quests. She was right and had banked more loot in this round than in both previous runs through the game. Igassi and her squad mates were too green to realize she hid most of her items in public areas, only reporting about half of what she found. It looked to her lieutenant that she didn’t know what she was doing, so he constantly underestimated her and didn’t need that much convincing to let her go on the divinity quest.
One of the divine boons she had received was a +20 to save against all plant-based spells. Amara had studied the lieutenant's attack strategies and knew precisely how he would initiate this fight. Igassi had no idea that his opening attack would be useless.
The Arena didn’t have shadows, not really. Instead, the magical lights produced bright spots evenly spaced around the perimeter. Between those focused areas of high illumination, the intensity dimmed to about level 12, never enough to hide if someone was looking at you without a bit of mana to help. Amara stood in one of those dim spots now and had directed Kovogt, the newbie mage she was paired with, to stand an exact distance away. It was just within the area of Igassi’s largest thorn spell.
When the Admiral gave the command to start, the level 15 druid had the initiative and cast his predictable opening magic attack. Before Kovogt could get off his fireball, six-foot-high thorns rose from the arena's dirt floor in a wide strip, barely encapsulating both players. Amara imagined most in the crowd thought her proximity to Kovogt foolish. Had they stood only a few feet further apart, the druid would have had to cast two spells, and one of them might have gotten an attack in.
Kovogt failed the save, was held Helplessly entangled by the thorns, and began to take damage. Igassi focused his attention on the mage first. The druid’s affinity to the woods made him vulnerable to fire, and killing the flame-throwing mage was a priority. He summoned a swarm of bees to drain Kovogt’s hit points further and stalked toward him with his staff raised.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Amara saved against the thorns, maintaining her mobility, but stood still, positioning her arms as if she were securely Grappled. If Igassi had a personal operator, he would know she saved, but he didn’t. She still suffered damage, but only half, and she had more health than the mage. The best part of this attack was that the thorns counted as foliage, and all of her bonuses to stealth kicked in. Not only that, but the shade from the thick, woody vines swarming around her reduced the light in her area to eight, giving her even more of a bonus.
The tracker watched Igassi execute several crushing blows against the mage, reducing his health to double digits. Amara hid, Shadow-Stepped within the thorns until she was directly behind the druid, and performed a sneak attack. If the druid was using his familiar correctly, the Falcon had the Perception skill to see the attack coming, but the overconfident player kept the bird on his shoulder. Igassi didn’t have many hit points, and Amara’s violent strike, bolstered by several enchantments on her weapon, took him below half his health. Even with his significant Magic Defense, he failed the save and fell to the ground, dying.
Kovogt looked momentarily thrilled until the tracker’s eyes focused on him, and he realized his fate. With the druid still technically alive, the thorns remained in place, and the mage had no defense against the tracker’s blade. Two rounds later, the grunt was dead, and Amara turned to finish the druid.
It was the quickest battle of the day and probably the month, especially since it was an upset. While the Admiral was impressed, he was not pleased. He rose from his chair and bellowed for silence in the stadium. The crowd had gone crazy from the unexpected outcome but quieted quickly. Amara drove her sword into the dirt and took a knee, bowing before the ruler of this city. She felt herself leaving combat mode and leveling up but didn’t waste time in her inventory to adjust her stats.
The Admiral transported himself to the middle of the arena, and Amara didn’t look up. “Julia, get down here!” His massive voice echoed through the stadium. The grunt guessed that the captain didn’t have the magical ability to transport herself like the Admiral had, but if she knew what was good for her, she would take the damage from the lengthy jump without thinking. Julia was a level 22 bard with a perfect combination of rogue, mage, and fighter abilities. Her songs were even pleasant to listen to. As much as Amara envied the more experienced player, she was glad their positions weren’t reversed.
“A-Admiral,” she stuttered, her beautiful voice sounding like a child’s. “I have no excuses for my lieutenants’ performances this day. I have failed you and promise to do better going forward.”
“It seems we had this same conversation a week ago when another of your lieutenants lost embarrassingly. You had a chance to make a change, but you haven’t. Now, three of your lieutenants are green, and I believe a fourth is also a former grunt. This is unacceptable.”
Amara didn’t dare look up to see the faces of the two players, but she stole a look to the side to see the crowd on the first level. They were smart enough not to yell their opinions and potentially drown out anything their master might say, but almost to a person, they all had their thumbs pointing down in classic Roman gladiator style.
“Sir,” Julia quavered, knowing her hope was slim. “I can change. I just need the right players. This tracker proved more than capable just now. I am sure I can shape her into the best lieutenant in the city.”
“Her name is Amara,” the Admiral said. “I’ve fought her twice. Her skill should reflect well on you, but since you apparently don’t even know her name, I’m guessing you’re not responsible for that. She is far too good to be chosen in a fight like this. If I were her captain, I wouldn’t let any of my lieutenants face her alone, much less with a partner. No, you failed for the last time.”
Boos started to circulate through the crowd now, kept to a low murmur so as not to drown out anything the Admiral might say. Julia tried to ignore them. “Admiral Koll,” she said, her voice taking on a melodic tone. Amara was shocked that the bard would try to use magic on the man, but the younger player guessed the woman had nothing to lose. “Darius,” she continued, daring to use the Admiral’s first name. “We are above this type of brutal display. You don’t want to have to replace a captain, do you? Yes, I’ve made my mistakes, but I understand the gravity of the situation, and I will do better. Please,” her voice lowered to almost a whisper, “let’s discuss this further in private, away from this circus. I’m sure we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
Amara felt dizzy from the heavy dose of mana in the bard’s voice and had to put her fingertips on the dirt to keep her balance. She expected the Admiral to reach out any moment and snap the captain’s body in half, but it didn’t happen.
“As you wish,” he finally said.
The tracker felt a rush of magic from right beside her, and both players vanished, much to the crowd's disappointment. The boos grew louder but turned to cheers as Amara stood, spun around, and lifted her arms triumphantly.
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In the box seats, Lexi sat back and let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Though not as vocal as the crowd, she had looked forward to seeing what the Admiral could do with his bare hands against a level 22 player fully equipped. “That’s it?” she asked.
Pieter shrugged. “Sometimes he gives the crowd what they want, and sometimes he does his own thing. It keeps them from growing complacent.” She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t. Instead, he rose. “Come, if we want an audience with him, we should be first in line. None of the other captains will want to talk with him right after a performance like that.”
“Do WE want to talk with him?” Lexi asked.
“That is why we are here,” he said, extending his arm toward the back of their private chamber. She shrugged and led the way out.