“How can you be so bad at this? She has been playing for less time than you and knows how to do it better.”

Marta is starting to get tired of me doing whatever random stuff comes to mind.

“Hehehe! I’m better than you! The pro said it!”

Clara spins around in glee as she laughs at me.

“I-it isn’t like this! It’s because I want to have fun and don’t care about winning or anything! I swear!”

“Ea, ea, ea… Don’t worry, Andreu, we understand…”

Clara comes near me and starts to pat me with her horrible tentacles.

Aagh! I don’t need you to console me, I’m telling the truth! Also, it should be the other way around! It should be me patting you and not the other way around, I’m the older brother!

I tremble in a mix of shame and disgust as I grab my sister’s arm (tentacle) to stop her patting.

Ugh, slimy…

“I can’t understand how I ended up losing against you all the time… You’re a fool, why couldn’t I win a single time?”

You’re still mulling about this, Marta? Didn’t we agree we would forget everything!?

Also… it’s because you can’t adapt to random things. You expect everyone to do their best and when somebody doesn’t, you can’t react on time.

“I shouldn’t have come… I should have stayed in my dungeon, creating more monsters…” I cross my arms and mutter.

“But then you would miss our ‘together time’ you insisted so much upon, Andreu. And more importantly, you would miss my amazing training course to turn you two into decent DMA players! You should be grateful, because thanks to me, you’ll be a better player soon!”

She smiles, a smug expression on her face. So irritating. Let’s… shatter it.

I get close to her. We’re about the same height, our eyes look straight at one another.

“But I don’t need your help, my dungeon is doing good, don’t you know? Maybe in a few months, I will be more famous than you? Then, I’ll beat you to the ground and show everybody who’s the best…”

“You’ll beat me when the pigs fly!”

“Well, in my dungeon, they do! So this means I can beat you anytime! Hahaha!”

“Then… uh, ah…” Aha! I got you there, Marta. You don’t know how to retort, hahaha! “I-in your dreams! You’ll never beat me again!”

Clara takes this chance to sneak up on us and starts patting our heads, the two of us at the same time.

“Ea, ea, ea…”

Not again, Clara. Please, not again! She knows I don’t like it, so she does it on purpose.

What the hell are we doing, you ask? I’m sure you can imagine from bits of what we said, but I’ll explain anyway.

Remember when we decided to leave our differences behind and restore our previous relationship? This is the result after talking about what we could do.

And spending time together was the perfect opportunity for Marta to take the lead and force us into a training session with her as the trainer. These were her exact words:

‘I want to die out of shame when I see your pathetic actions, Andreu. So I’ll teach you two how to move and plan your dungeon invasions. Clara, you’re a lot better than this pathetic worm, so I’ll also teach you how to beat the crap out of any enemy you find, ok?’

It’s kind of amazing how she manages to diss me so many times in a short conversation without it sounding forced, don’t you think so?

Anyway.

The thing is we’re now in a special area inside Marta’s main account dungeon, a secret area close to impossible to discover unless you know it’s there. She prepared a special course to train me and Clara and is now using Makarel’s account to dive into it with us.

She could use her main account too, and come ‘protect’ the dungeon from our invasion. But this way is better because she can better help us if needed, and you can’t invade your own dungeon, so she had no choice but to use the second account.

By the way, her main dungeon, the one we’re currently in, is a Divine Blood dungeon, the faction with the celestials. Angels, demigods, pegasi… Very powerful stuff.

If you can remember, when I was first creating my champion, I found one unit called Demigod, the stupidly expensive one with equally stupidly high stats…

If you do, nice! Because my sister’s main Champion is another highest-tier unit from the same faction, with only slightly lower stats but with the ability to fly. I’m talking about the Seraphim, the strongest angel. An angel with comparable strength to dragons, demon lords, and the Abyss’ cosmic horrors.

This is the Champion she uses in the top 100. I asked her before and the reason she used a dragonoid – or however they’re actually called – in the tournament was because she likes flying a lot. Doubly so when it comes to combat.

The Seraphim is soooo strong! Plus you can fly! I’d love to play as one… but I’ll never admit this in front of her.

Also, my champion is better. Cooler. Stronger. Well, maybe not the last one.

I wanted to ask her to bring a Seraphim into my dungeon so I could capture it, but it’s sooooo expensive to create one… Even if I captured it, I wouldn’t be able to create a unit using it for a very long time. It would drive me mad, having a Seraphim inside a stasis chamber with which I couldn’t do anything, so I decided to forget about it.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

For now.

But wasn’t she a dragon, you ask? No, that’s Makarel, not her main account.

She didn’t want people to realize it was her before she fought against us. She thought it would be too easy to recognize her if she used a similar champion with similar skills, so she choose another faction.

In my opinion, she failed at it.

Similar ways to fight, plus both champions with wings, and a similar roleplay… As demonstrated by the rumors before our fight, her fans immediately realized it was her, only that she was playing with another champion.

So, as I was saying, she’s now training us. She prepared a special course to work for us, one for me and another for Clara.

I can swear mine is specially crafted to inflict as much pain as possible…

The main reason she tells me I suck is because I get too absorbed into the traps and monsters, and then miss the next ones.

What did you expect from me!? I’m always looking for new ideas! New monsters, new ways to use the traps, skills I didn’t know existed… It’s a treasure trove! It’s the first time since I’ve started playing this game since I’ve had so much fun! Excluding when I’m inside my own dungeon, of course.

When I find something interesting, I think of ways to use it in my own dungeon and fall into the next trap. Or don’t see the next group of monsters… Or I walk into a wall…

The usual stuff, really.

Then there’s the other part of the training course, which is combat training. I like to call it ‘hell mode’. Marta is obsessed with this part. She wants me and Clara to be good enough to avoid attacks and skills from somebody at her level.

Yeah… It’s worse than you can imagine. HOW am I supposed to avoid the attacks of somebody who can predict where I’ll move to avoid them!?

For god’s sake, I’m a mage! Why do I need to learn how to dodge attacks? What I need to learn is how to use my brain so that the enemy never gets close! That’s the important stuff!

Ok, you got me… That’s an excuse. I suck at it and I’ll admit it.

On the other side, Clara’s doing a lot better than me in the combat training. She can now avoid almost one attack from every twenty Marta makes.

I’m not envious. No, I’m not envious at all… She’s better than me, but I’m not envious. Especially so when Marta praises her but never praises me. As I said, I’m not envious. Not at all.

Also, I’m a mage, I use my brain to fight. It’s normal I’m not that good at moving my body around.

----------------------------------------

“The proper way to plan your dungeon in normal times and in PvP is very different.” Explains Marta. “You should already know it’s bad to put the invaders into impossible situations, but on the other side, it’s a good thing to achieve in Dungeon Battles. Or in matches like in the tournament.”

“But can’t I make my dungeon very difficult? I want all the invaders to die! Hehehe!” Asks Clara.

“If you really want, you can. But then there will be very few players who will come, and you’ll have a hard time obtaining rewards from them.”

“Ah, I see! So this is why there’s almost nobody who comes into my dungeon.”

I shudder. If I had no intentions of going inside Clara’s dungeon, now I have even less.

“Lately, Eva is the only one who comes regularly…”

“Eva? Who’s this Eva you’re talking about?” I ask her. I thought she only had contact with me and Marta, did she find somebody else?

Clara answers. “She’s my classmate.” She then clenches her fist and furrows her brows. Well, I imagine her doing so because of her tone, she has no brows after all. “It’s her fault my slaves aren’t coming into my dungeon anymore…”

Hey, Clara. You said the word ‘slaves’ once again, you know?

Should I retort…? Nah, let’s feign ignorance. I look at Marta to check her reaction. She looks at me, and we both nod at the same time. I’m sure she’s thinking the same as me.

The next one to say something is Marta.

“Then, let’s move to combat training. Today, you’ll be fighting between yourselves.”

“Yes! I want to practice my strangling moves! Brother, you’re my target today! Hehehe! Prepare to lose!”

“Noooooo…! Not combat training!” I shout, falling to my knees in despair.

Somebody save me! Literally, anybody! I’ll pay you whatever you ask, so please come and take my place! I don’t want to die so soon! I’m too young!

And this time it isn’t simple combat training but it’s against Clara’s Champion. It’s the worst! It’s like mixing the two things you like the least into a single, horrifying experience!

I look at the game’s clock, hoping for it to be close to dinner time. This way I can say it’s too late and quickly disconnect… but there’s still an hour left.

I’m screwed.

“You know what, you’ve been talking a lot about how to build better dungeons and other stuff, Marta. But you’ve never been to my dungeon yet, am I right?”

“You’re right, I haven’t.”

Maybe I can change the topic like this? Let’s push my luck a little bit more.

“Then, how can you be so sure of what I need to know and what I don’t? Shouldn’t you invade my dungeon first, instead of wasting time like this? And then, once you beat it, you can tell me how to improve my dungeon… It makes no sense doing it the other way around.”

“Yes… maybe I should invade your dungeon first… Sometimes, what you say makes sense and it surprises me…”

Nice! It’s going according to the plan, let’s push a little bit more. And let’s ignore the last part.

“As much as I respect you for your experience, if you don’t know what I lack, I’m sure you can’t make good judgments. Yes, we should go to my dungeon instead of wasting time like this.”

“Then, I want you two to come to my dungeon too!” Interrupts Clara. “I too want to improve it!”

I shudder. There’s no need for me to go too, right? Why are you talking in the plural, Clara? Didn’t we agree you would never ask me to go inside your dungeon again!?

I need to get myself out of trouble before it’s too late. “I’ll help you too, Clara, but I asked for help first, so we should go to mine first…”

Marta interrupts me. “Your dungeon is doing kind of fine if I’m to believe what I read in the forums. As much as I hate to admit it, you must be doing something good. We can go to yours later. Clara’s dungeon comes first.”

Shit, it backfired! But it’s still better than this, at least I can skip the combat training part.

If I have to choose between the Abyss’ horrors, and the Abyss’ horrors plus combat training, I would obviously choose the first.

“Then, let’s quickly go to Clara’s dungeon…”

“What are you saying, Andreu? Today, we’re doing this. We’ll reserve Clara’s dungeon invasion for the next time, don’t you agree?”

Clara nods. “Yes! Today, we fight!”

Marta grins as she rubs her hands together. “Then, let’s start!” She says. I’m sure she’s enjoying my suffering a lot.

I try to run away, but she reacts faster than me and grabs my shoulder, stopping me.

“Where do you think you’re going, Andreu?” She asks.

“I-I… I, remembered I have something important to do, so I must leave right now… My bad, hahaha…” My eyes spun around in fear as I look for a way out of this.

“You have something more important than spending time with your two sisters, which you insisted so much upon? Really?”

Omg, that grin. It’s the evilest one I’ve ever seen!

NOOOOO! Leave me alone!

Somebody save me! Devil, I’ll give my soul to you, so please save me! God, I’ll pray to you every day from now on, so a miracle would be really appreciated!

I wait for some divine intervention.

…Nothing?

“Andreu, let’s fight! Hehehe!”

“...”

I have no choice but to accept my horrible fate.

[https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]

For Andreu, these training sessions were way worse than the training of heroes in films and movies, where the main character trains to the limit of their body. It must be said, he tended to exaggerate things.