“SISTEEER!”

Clara’s shout fills the whole room as she runs towards Marta, wildly swinging her tentacles around.

At the same time, Marta sheathes her sword. What is she doing? Is she taunting Clara? I’m not sure, maybe she has some other plan… but it’s a very effective way to proclaim you’re better than the other. I would do it if I could too. Just maybe not against my little sister, because it would be too much.

Well, let’s see what happens next.

I fill my mouth with imaginary popcorn and continue to watch the show.

When she’s close enough, Clara swings her tentacles in a wide swing. Go, kill her! So we have a chance to win this match! Though it’s a very easy-to-predict attack, and I’m sure Marta will avoid it without trouble, maybe with the Blink skill.

…or not. She just lets the tentacles hit her, not moving a single muscle.

What are you doing, Marta? It isn’t a proper fight if you don’t resist! I want to see you suffer! Hahaha! I evilly grin at the image of her begging for mercy, something I’m sure Clara won’t give her.

“Oh! She took no damage!”

I look at Marta’s HP bar and it’s still almost full. This… this is cheating! How does she dare to cheat in the middle of the tournament!? Somebody report her!

Nah, I’m joking, this must be the effect of those flames that are currently covering her. It must also be the reason why she survived the Grand Finale explosion.

Agh, what an OP skill…! I never knew something like this existed! Maybe it’s a skill exclusive to the dragon faction?

Clara makes a few more swings before realizing she isn’t achieving anything at all. Then, she latches her tentacles around Marta’s champion.

“W-why!? Why did you do this, sister!? Why, do, you, hate, me, so, much!?”

Finally, her annoying ‘sister’ cry has ended. It’s weird, it lasted for more than a minute. Didn’t she get tired in the middle of it? She kept shouting even while pummeling Marta with everything she had!

She didn’t even breathe during that time… It’s possible because this is a game, but it’s weird in any way you look at it. Humans have the instinctive need to breathe even while inside the game, after all.

“Calm down a little, won’t you?”

“Nooo! I’ll make you pay for this!”

Marta tries to stop Clara’s futile efforts to kill her, but she refuses.

Is it me, or she looks disgusted at being grabbed by so many slimy tentacles at the same time? Because if so, I might be able to use this in the future… Fufufu! Hahaha!

“Why, won’t, you, die, already!”

“*Sigh!* This is the effect of my skill. Until it ends, you can’t kill me.”

“Then disable it so I can kill you faster!”

“Don’t be unreasonable…” Marta rolls her eyes at Clara’s insistence. “Now that we’re like this, why don’t we take this chance to talk a little? It’s been so long since the last time…”

“No! I don’t have anything to talk with you! Because of you! It’s because of you that I won’t be able to play anymore with our brother! We’ll be defeated here! Y-you’re… a demon! Demon!”

“Come on, Cl… sister…” Marta rolls her eyes once again. “I had to defeat him at least once! After so many defeats, and him continuously bragging about it… I had to show him who’s the better player!”

Yeah, regarding this… I SOOOO don’t agree with you. It’s not my fault you took it so seriously that it ended up hurting your pride, Marta! As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always considered you a better player than me.

And you talk about bragging, but… I certainly don’t remember ever saying anything like ‘Weren’t you so good? You suck’ or ‘You can’t even predict this?’.

I swear! Don’t judge me with those accusing eyes! I didn’t do it! …only a little.

Anyway… it doesn’t justify your actions! You knew this tournament was important for both me and Clara, but you still decided to play against us, and beat the shit out of our team! It’s your fault! Y-you’re a… a Demon! Demon!

Hahaha… it looks like Clara’s childish anger has infected me… Or was I naturally childish…? Nah, that’s impossible. It must be because of her. I’m 100% sure.

“Also, who says I came here to eliminate you from the competition?”

After hearing Marta’s last sentence, Clara stops attacking, releasing her from her grip. By the way, my brain stops too.

“Y-you don’t?”

Clara asks in doubt. I too want to ask this question, but I can’t because they can’t hear me right now…

“No, you silly.”

Marta wipes Clara’s nonexistent tears from her nonexistent face. If this wasn’t a game, I’m sure she would be crying right now. And Marta knows it too.

Hmm… I know it makes sense, but the whole situation certainly sounds absurd.

“I just came to settle my score with him and to play a little with both of you. But now that it’s come to this, my skill’s effect is about to end and you can freely kill me. Then you’ll only need to defeat the other three guys or destroy our dungeon core. How does it sound?”

“R-r-really? Are you saying the truth?”

“I am, you silly. Look, the effect is already disappearing!”

As she strokes Clara’s cheek - meaning, the tentacles that occupy that area - the fire that was covering her whole body dissipates as if it was never there.

“Come on, do it now.”

“Um, I’ll do it!”

Clara and Marta hug each other. In this way, when Clara’s passive skill activates, Marta will start to take damage until her HP drops to zero, killing her. Though it might take a while.

But before she dies, Marta whispers something in her ears. I can’t hear it! Please, whisper loudly!

As much as the DMA staff allows the viewers to see and hear everything that happens during a match, even including things the players can’t see like invisible enemies, they took into account that, sometimes, players might need a little bit of privacy. So if you whisper into another player’s ear, it isn’t registered and nobody knows what are you saying.

It’s a very good feature for when you need it, but not now! This makes it impossible for me to listen to what are they whispering to each other by playing the match’s recording! And I can’t miss what they’re saying right now! It’s as if you’re watching a drama and miss the most important dialogue!

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

I quickly run in their direction and manage to hear the last part of it. Fiuu! I made it! It isn’t everything, but at least is something.

“...the third portal should be free right now. Go there and destroy our core, sis. I always wanted you to win this match.”

“T-thank you, sis!”

I wipe my translucent cheek. These aren’t tears, I swear! It’s just that my eyes are itchy right now! Fucking onion-cutting ninjas! Don’t you have enough when you come in real life, that you have to come inside the game too!?

Having said this, Marta’s HP bar is suddenly reduced to 0 and she dies. That was fast! I thought it would take a while!

Then, her phantasmal champion appears next to me and we look at each other. Yeah, once you’re dead, there’s no need to prevent the players from interacting with each other.

She frowns when she sees I’m so close. Then, with an angry expression, she asks.

“Did you hear it?”

I’m sure she’s talking about the part I missed… Shit! So it WAS important! If only I was closer…

“Umm… I only heard the last part about the dungeon core...”

“Are you sure!?” I nod at her. I don’t want to fight with her. At least not right now. “Then it’s fine.”

She then looks at Clara and sees her sprinting into one of the passages.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, it’s the passage that leads to the third portal.” I confirm Marta’s thoughts.

“It’s good then.”

It might sound weird, but each portal has a number and it always connects to the enemy’s portal with the same number. This way it’s possible to make strategies around the portals, and easily communicate important information between teammates.

“What are you going to do now?”

“I’ll return to the control room and watch what my teammates, Baldy and Lily, do during the rest of the match. And you?”

“I’ll…” She looks in the direction of the same passage Clara used. “I’ll follow her, I think. I want to see her playing for a while.”

“Ok… then, let’s talk later.”

“Yeah, let’s talk later.”

With this, we both go our separate ways. There’s no need for big goodbyes. After all, there should only be about ten meters between us once we disconnect from the game. We can meet each other as soon as the match ends.

I must say… I never expected what would happen in this match. So far, it’s the biggest surprise in this tournament.

The All Shall Despair? Yeah, that too was a surprise, though not as big in my opinion. And it was a bad one. A horrible one! The worst surprise I could imagine! If they told me if I wanted another surprise like that one, I would certainly say no!

But there shouldn’t be any more surprises in the tournament, am I right?

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

“Haha… that was very close… I was on edge all the time. Luckily, it ended well for us.”

“You’re right. Then… can you release me…?”

“Release you? Oh, I didn’t notice! Sorry, ahaha…”

I quickly release Laura. Because of what happened between Andreu and Makarel, and then between her and Clara, I got so nervous I grabbed and squeezed the first thing I found… which turned out to be Laura’s arm.

After being saved, I quickly returned to this room to watch the results of our plan. But I almost had a heart attack when I saw it didn’t work and Makarel was doing fine! At first, I couldn’t understand, but then I noticed the fire wrapping her champion and I wanted to kill myself.

Then she killed Andreu because of my blunder!

How could I forget about it!? The dragon faction’s exclusive ultimate skill! The Dragon’s Wrath! OMG! It’s the basic of the basics!

The first thing when planning this match should have been to take into account the possibility of Makarel having the Dragon’s Wrath skill!

Dragon’s Wrath (Active skill) Cost: 200 EP, 200 MP For the next 1 minute, you are invulnerable, and all your stats are increased by 20%. After this time ends, your maximum HP becomes 1 until the end of the Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle. This skill can only be used once per Dungeon Invasion or Dungeon Battle.

As with all ultimate skills, the Dragon’s Wrath has a huge drawback. Having your maximum HP reduced to one means that absolutely anything can kill you. After all, the minimum damage is always one. Regardless of how high your defense is, and how low the enemy’s damage is, the minimum is always one. Unless you have complete resistance to that damage type.

This means at least our plan managed to somewhat eliminate Makarel from the match, only that it went in the opposite direction as we expected: instead of Andreu being reduced to a cripple and Makarel ending up dead, he died and she would soon turn into a cripple.

But then, just as I was about to exhale in relief, it happened. The loud ‘sister’ cry. It came from the passage I used to come here.

I turned my head in surprise and noticed something I didn’t expect… Clara wasn’t in the room anymore! We saw her running in Makarel’s direction thanks to the cameras that caught her!

It must have been then that I grabbed Laura’s arm, in a mix of surprise and tension. She didn’t even notice it, because she was as altered as I was.

We already got this match! We managed to reduce Makarel to a cripple! We only had to wait until the skill’s effect ended and we could freely kill her! But then Clara left the room and ran in Makarel’s direction!

“Noooo, stop her somehow!” I shouted, shaking Laura. “She’s invulnerable right now! If Lemon fights against her, she’ll be killed!”

“I… I can’t do anything! We can only hope she doesn’t do anything stupid!”

“Shit! And why did she shout ‘sister’?”

“I don’t know… maybe she got angry because it’s the team her sister trained? The cause must be because Makarel killed Mad Rad.”

“...”

Not convinced, we decided to keep watching everything develop. There was nothing we could do anyway…

Despair ensued. Watching Clara attack Makarel repeatedly without any effect, I knew everything was lost.

But… why wasn’t Makarel doing anything? She just stood there, receiving Clara’s attacks… She even let Clara grab her with her tentacles…

Then, she said something and Clara stopped.

“What’s going on? I can’t understand anything!”

“I… have no idea. But it looks good for us, doesn’t it?”

“Well, yes.”

Then, Clara and Makarel hugged each other. Soon after, the Dragon’s Wrath skill ended and Makarel died. Then Clara ran to one of the passages, the one that connects to the third dungeon portal.

…which brings us to the present.

“Maybe, we misunderstood and Makarel is actually their sister, instead of only the trainer?”

“Maybe…?”

I don’t know anymore, but it could be the truth. Why would Makarel let herself be killed like this otherwise?

But this doesn’t explain everything. If Makarel is Andreu’s and Clara’s older sister, it could explain why she let Clara kill her…

But HOW did Clara know that Makarel was her sister? Maybe it’s something I can’t understand because I’m not their brother? Because it shouldn’t be possible for her to know, we can’t hear anything from this room!

Was it telepathy? Sixth sense? Did I miss something? I don’t know anymore…

“If we’re lucky, Makarel will have told Lemon about a route into their dungeon, so we can win this match. Now we only need to focus on defense.”

Laura snaps me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, yeah! I got too distracted because of my blunder… I should have remembered about that ultimate skill…”

“Don’t worry too much now, Baldy. We’ll have to talk about this later or watch the replay to understand what happened. For now, let’s focus on the other three players.”

“Sure.”

The match is still going. It turned into a 3vs3 match, but there’s nothing sure yet. The best thing is that our worst enemy, Makarel, is dead.

“Do you know where Fredloq, the archer, is? I need to vent some stress and he’s the perfect target.”

I do some stretching as I wait for her answer.

“Hmm… I think I last saw him in that area… yes, there he is!”

“I’m going then. I leave the defense to you.”

“...ok. Don’t be too reckless…”

“Reckless? Me? You must be wrong… Hahaha!”

Laura makes a worried expression as I leave the room. Why is she so worried? I’m just going to kill some pests…

I think I aged about five years when being chased by Makarel today. And another five because of Clara’s unexpected outburst…

Now I must recover by feeding on our enemy’s juicy, tasty souls! I’m going to kill them all, release the accumulated stress, and feed on their souls! My time to show my skills has come!

“Tremble in fear, you puny mortals! For I’m coming for your delicious and eternal souls! Hahahaha!”

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

“You know what’s the worst about dying? It’s having to wait for the match to end, without being able to talk to anybody.

Luckily, Ricard managed to distract me with his antics and not-so-good tactics. And they call me crazy…”