Chapter one
Two women stood in contest near the edge of a cliff. Having seen movies before, they both knew this situation would turn into an obvious punch line but neither wanted to give the other the satisfaction of retreating first.
“Well, aren't you the naughty one? Making off with our loot just like a thieving cat.” Spoke a haughty woman as she laughed but her eyes were doing anything but. She glared back at the little 'thief’ who had stolen something not quite valuable but also not worthless. “Now then, if you would be so kind, please return that ring back to us,” she ordered from on high as she flicked back her long, lustrous black hair. Her eyes were like ruby gems that glimmered powerfully through the sunlight. If one were to pick a word to describe her, ‘noblewoman’ might be the first thing that came to mind. Her attire was somewhere between formal ball gown and wizard’s robe; they had a rich texture like they were crafted from extremely expensive material but also possessed the flexibility necessary for practical combat manoeuvres.
“I refuse. In the first place, why do I have to oblige with your command even though we're not in the same party? I spotted that wyvern first and even got in the first shot. You guys were the ones that came in and stole the kill,” retaliated another woman dressed in a monochromatic maid uniform. Her hair was a smooth caramel brown tied up into a ponytail, and her sharp face was accentuated by her piercing azure gaze. However, there was a unique focal point to this person, that being the completely automated silver arm. At a single glance one might divine that her history might be something like ‘she lost her arm fighting a powerful enemy and had it replaced with a silver augmentation’. At the very least, that was probably the kind of theme she was going for. She snickered back as if to provoke the noblewoman.
“Silence that filthy, lying mouth of yours! I've had enough of you recently. This territory is clearly being managed by our guild, yet a rat like you comes in and operates without our permission. So who's really at fault here?” The noble woman retorted. As she had claimed, it was true that the piece of land they were fighting on had been managed by her guild, therefore it could be argued that all monster drops belonged to them.
Of course, that was only if the maid acknowledged the noblewoman’s rulership of the land. The fact of the matter was, she didn’t care for all this talk about land ownership and whatnot- this wasn’t a legal session- this was a game, and she was only trying to have fun. None of this ‘ownership’ crap had anything do with her because it was a ‘system’ devised by the larger guilds so they could avoid disputes. It was never implemented by the game makers. The only ones who benefited were those within large guilds, and the ones who enjoyed playing solo or in smaller guilds were completely screwed over by this ‘agreement’. Which was why the maid made it her business to raid in the guild’s territory; she did it to piss them off intentionally.
“None of the smaller guilds or solo player base has acknowledged this farce,” replied the maid as she summoned a thin short sword and a miniaturized heater shield the size of her forearm. Despite their pale and unimpressive appearance, they were of the highest class of equipment in the game and had some arguably overpowered abilities. Of course this advantage was neutralized by the fact her opponent also possessed equipment of the same standard.
Her opponent conjured a mighty and ornate metallic staff. A glamorous crimson jewel complimenting the colour of her eyes sat at the top of the staff. She pointed the tip towards the maid in a threatening motion and scowled. “I tire of repeating myself. Return. The. Ring.” Her eyes were completely serious.
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“If you think you can take it, go ahead,” the maid retaliated with a condescending smirk.
“Fine,” the noble woman shook her head and suddenly blasted a large, blazing ball of flames at the maid. “I'll just take it off your charred remains!”
The maid charged straight into the oncoming inferno and with precision and speed cleft it in two halves. Pushed by her momentum, this time she charged towards the noblewoman while wearing her hostility like a coat.
“Wha…?!” The noble woman shrieked back in surprise. She knew ‘attack negation’ was a thing in this game but it was an extremely difficult move to pull off. One needed not only to take the exact timing correct, but also take into consideration the latency of the servers as well as identifying the key attack frames. Basically, it shouldn’t have been possible for normal players unless they were extremely luck or playing on a zero latency server. “Okay, that’s annoying!” she reflexively conjured a defensive spell to block the obvious attack. A holographic orange wall of hexagonal grids formed before her to intercept the maid’s sword.
“Tch,” the maid clicked her tongue as her sword was repelled by the force of that defensive wall. “Fine, let's try this again,” she muttered as her figure suddenly vanished into thin air.
“Camouflage, is it?” The noblewoman knew this ability. It was the bread and butter of all assassin players. In the first place, she had been in a disadvantageous situation as the natural counter to her mage class was the burst damage potential from the assassins. If she couldn't predict where this maid was going to attack from, she would be taken down in an instant. “Did the devs still not patch that broken 100 to 0 combo yet?” She gritted her teeth as she erected her defensive barrier on all sides. However, the problem is that these defensive walls had a time limit and once it vanished she still needed another second or so to reapply it. While it certainly wasn't a big gap and online games often had latency to deal with, the maid had enough skill to successfully negate her previous attack even with all that. She would definitely have enough skill to exploit the brief second her shield went down to attack.
The noblewoman clenched her fist as she let out a deep sigh. “I didn't want to have to use this on someone like you, but you have my respect for putting me up against a wall,” she complimented as she pointed her staff towards the sky. Dark clouds gathered ahead and sparks of lightning flew across the skies.
The maid then emerged from her invisibility. Her eyes widened expression soured in disbelief, “that bitch!” she shouted. “You were whining about a 100 to 0 combo and you're going to use that?! Talk about hypocrisy!”
The maid gathered herself and prepared for a way out. “God dammit! Naraka!” she shouted as four shadowy arms sprouted from her back. They didn’t possess a fixed, solid shape and seemed as though they could easily be changed from one shape to another on a whim. The four shadowy hands morphed into the same short sword the maid was holding.
“This is it,” the noblewoman snickered with a touch of villainy. “If you return that ring then I’d be more than happy to call off ‘Gehenna’.”
“Pfft, you think I'm scared of that? Please, give me some credit.”
“Wha… you think you can negate an ultimate as well?!”
“With Naraka… possibly? I mean, hey, why do you care? If I die then just take back the ring.”
“Fine, whatever. Die then!” The noble woman thrust down her staff and as if on command the sky rained fire. Their surrounding environments also started full catch fire and the heat intensified every few seconds. Gehenna was that kind of ability, the power to bring about the end of the world… well, that had been the flavour text, but in truth it only scorched a small but sizable part of the map. There were various other secondary effects but that was unimportant currently.
The maid took a deep breath as she tightened the grip of all of her short sword and aimed her four extra shadow limbs. She crouched down as if to wind up her body. And in the next moment, she jumped up with frightening speed and power. The ground trembled as she vaulted off of it like a trampoline and rushed into the eye of the storm.
At that moment, the two players’ visions darkened…