“Hello Q, I’m back. Are the girls all ri- oh.” Sharon walked into the room to find Q surrounded by the girls, being pet in every place possible. As soon as Sharon appeared, Q locked eyes with her and pleaded, “Help me!”
(A/N: EVERY place possible)
It took 5 minutes to convince the girls to leave Q alone, but they all left reluctantly. A few of the girls were talking about wanting to use her tail as a pillow, or how they just wanted to play with her ears forever. Victoria hadn’t said anything, but when she looked at Q she blushed and ran away.
After the girls left, Q let out a sigh of relief while deciding in her mind that she would get revenge on Kukis for abandoning her not once, but twice! Once the girls had left, Sharon simply smiled as she handed Q two books. “It seems you were quite popular with the girls.” She said with a giggle. “I hadn’t expected you to keep their attention with your stories, or… that.”
“Please… don’t talk about it.” Q muttered as she accepted the books. How was I supposed to know they were going to attack in droves?
[Quest Complete!] - Babysitting
[Rewards]: Spellbook of Ember, Spellbook of Gust
Sharon simply laughed again as she pointed at the two books. “Those books are the most basic of fire and wind spells, [Ember] and [Gust]. I’m sorry I couldn’t get you anymore spells. It seems that most of the spellbooks in my household were given out as rewards for other adventurers.” Sharon bowed in apology, which temporarily made Q flustered.
“Oh that’s no problem at all! I actually haven’t done much to contribute to the Prim Roses so receiving this is already enough. Thanks for going through the trouble to get these books.” Q bowed back towards Sharon.
“My, you really are a polite child.” Sharon smiled kindly at Q. “Actually, you’ve contributed quite a bit. I heard about what you did for Lily, and thank you for that.” Q was about to say something in response, but Sharon continued speaking. “Oh yes, I suppose I should share this interesting tidbit of information I got from my meeting.”
“Information? What’s it about?”
“It seems that both houses have decided that only you adventurers would fight against each other.”
“Really?” Q was surprised. “The conflict between houses is being left up to the adventurers?”
“Yes. Both Malcolm and Cadby are incredibly impressed by the adventurer’s rate of growth. It seems that they’ll surpass our normal fighters in a few days. Not to mention that they’ve learned about your special… disposition.”
“Oh, you mean how we can’t die?” Q replied. Well it’s not like it was a secret anyway.
“Yes. It was truly curious. The first time an adventurer died was in the forest when he recklessly challenged a creature far stronger than him. The rest of his comrades didn’t seem too concerned about it though. While we tried to comfort them, they only told us not to worry about it. Then, one day later he appeared in the town square perfectly healthy, and they went on with their task. It was a bit unnerving to be honest.”
“Huh… well, I guess it makes sense for us adventurers to do battle then. We basically learned all the techniques from your houses, and since we can’t die it’s the perfect way to settle this dispute without killing people.”
“Exactly. Well, once again, thank you for looking after the children Q. I’ll be seeing you around.” Sharon exited the room and left Q with her thoughts.
So… only the players are fighting against each other huh? Sounds like PvP fun times. Although, since I’m a part of the Prim Roses which side would I fight? Actually, would I even fight? While Q pondered these questions she decided to use the the spellbooks she just obtained.
[New Spell] - Ember (Costs 5 MP, 5 second cool-down) Sends out a small flame at your target. Deals weak fire damage.
[New Spell] - Gust (Costs 5 MP, 3 second cool-down) Sends out a small wind blast at your target. Deals weak wind damage.
Cool. Now to find somewhere to practice them… Q headed outside the hideout and went behind the old house into the backyard. There was a clear open space with no one around, which made it perfect to practice new spells. Q extended her hand and said, “[Ember]!”
A small flame appeared from the palm of her hand and strangely enough didn’t feel hot at all. Seeing that the flame simply stayed on her hand no matter which way she moved it, she pushed her hand forward and the flame shot out, quickly dissipating after traveling for 2 meters. Well, its range is better than my previous [Spark]. I’m not sure about the damage but that can be experimented with later. Q extended her hand once again and said, “[Gust]!”
This time a gust of wind shot forth immediately, traveling farther and faster than [Ember] and reaching up to a length of 3-4 meters. An interesting point Q found was that it was still perfectly visible despite being wind, which puzzled her for a while. Well, it wouldn’t be fair if players were hit with invisible attacks huh? She realized.
Q decided to try testing them on a wall to somewhat judge the damage. After a few minutes of experimenting she found out that [Ember] is slow but affects a decent area, while also dealing a good amount of damage (which she estimated by the size of the scorch marks left on the wall).
[Gust] on the other hand was fast and affected a small area, and probably didn’t do as much damage as [Ember] did. So basically wind is fast and weak, fire is slow and strong? Then does that make lightning fast and strong? Q was about to continue experimenting when she got a message from Kukis.
Reading her message, Q checked her friends list to see that Brie had indeed returned, so she began making her way over to the square. On the way she sent a message to Brie to tell her to wait at the square, and received one in response.
Yup.
When I get my butt over there I’m giving you a punishment for leaving me again.
Q didn’t receive any more messages after that, causing her to let out a wry smile. She reached the square in a few minutes, and found the two waiting for her. “Welcome back Brie. Got everything sorted out with your parents?”
“Yes. I have been… enjoying my time here, and my parents have agreed to let me play for a maximum of 8 hours each day.” Brie smiled as she looked at Q and Kukis.
“Awesome! That’s just enough time to stay for the event!” Kukis exclaimed.
“Yeah. Actually that reminds me, here you go.” Q passed over the Guardian Rapier to Brie. “I got a sword from the tutorial and finally got it fixed. It should be better to use for fencing than your current sword.”
“Oh my! Thank you Q. It seems I can finally display my skills properly.”
“Hold up a second, are you saying that you weren’t able to use them properly before?” Kukis asked, remembering that Brie was actually able to keep up with Q.
“Yes. It is incredibly hard to execute fencing techniques when using a heavy or thick weapon. This should make it far easier for me.”
“Well,” Q clapped her hands, “let’s not burn daylight here! We have an event to prepare for!”
“Yeah!” Kukis cheered, but then went silent.
“What happened to all your enthusiasm?” Q asked.
“Well… what are we really going to do? Our levels are high enough that we won’t really get a lot of benefits from hunting things outside of town, and I’d rather not go too far away at the moment. All that there is to do is train our skills I think.”
“Then let’s do just that.” Q grinned. “Want to get a bit of practice with your sword Brie?”
“Yes, that would be ideal.”
“Alright then… it’s time to… d- d- d- d- d-d-d-d-duel!” Q enthusiastically said as she sent a duel request to Brie. While Kukis was laughing, Brie had a slightly confused face as she looked at the duel request sent to her.
“Do the duels in this game go to the death?” Brie wondered.
“To my knowledge no. Now let’s start!” Brie nodded and accepted the request, and suddenly there was a notice sent to all players standing nearby them.
[Q has challenged Brie to a Duel] - Please stand back.
“Whoa, it said Q. Is that the player who killed an enemy 15 levels over them?”
“Look, those two are the ones fighting!”
“But… they’re just little girls. Is one of them really Q?”
“What do you mean ‘just little girls’? It’s great because they’re little girls!”
The crowd of players around them began to talk among themselves as they cleared an area for Q and Brie to fight. The townsfolk somehow knew that they should stay away as well, though some of them continued to watch in interest. On hindsight, I probably should have moved to a less populated area first… Oh well! Q thought as she realized she’s attracting a lot of attention to herself right now.
Numbers appeared in the sky above Q and Brie, and the two began to prepare themselves for the fight.
5… 4…
Brie took a stance with her sword.
3… 2…
Q pulled out her dagger and tensed her body.
1… Battle, Start!
As soon as the countdown finished, Brie immediately dashed forward! With light footsteps, she reached Q within seconds. Brie thrusted her sword forward without much force put into it, to probe Q’s defenses. Q in response moved her dagger to deflect the thrust to the side, then moved forward to close the distance between them. Brie had already expected this though as she stepped back and avoided Q’s swing with a hairsbreadth.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
This quick exchange of theirs didn’t even last 3 seconds, and the crowd was absolutely astounded to see them move at such speeds, especially at such a low level. Q and Brie didn’t notice them at all though, as they continued to probe each others defenses.
Q found that Brie was being incomparably cautious at the moment, as if a single stab could end the match. She found that appropriate though, since you would lose a round in fencing if you got hit just once. Q simply grinned as she moved forward with her body lowered. She quickly deflected the attack that Brie made towards her, and then she swept the ground with her leg, hoping to knock Brie over.
Surprisingly though, Brie actually jumped (though it was more of a hopping motion) and avoided Q’s leg. With the opening Q showed after that attack, Brie immediately thrust towards the center of her body. With a quick reaction speed, Q twisted her body and managed to avoid getting stabbed, though she still got scratched by the blade and was dealt a bit of damage.
After this Brie backed off which confused Q, but her confusion was quickly cleared once Brie lowered her sword. “Brie… are you treating this like a fencing match?” She asked.
“Yes, is this not what this is? A duel?” Brie tilted her head not understanding what Q meant.
Q let out a long sigh as she explained to Brie what was actually going on. “Things are different in T.W.O. I did say that the fight wouldn’t be to the death, but that’s because the game prevents us from receiving a killing blow. Otherwise…” Q brought up her dagger, “It’s a serious fight.”
Seeing this, Brie narrowed her eyes and immediately got back into her stance, and the two of them began circling around each other. After a few seconds of this, Q instantly moved forward, but then dashed back just as quickly. Brie was caught off guard by this movement, as she thrust into empty air where Q was a moment ago. Q took this opportunity to knock Brie’s weapon aside, and then thrust her dagger forward!
Surprisingly, Brie actually spun in the direction the sword was knocked away and then brought her sword back up front to parry the dagger! Q was temporarily shocked as the two of them locked their weapons together, both pushing to try and obtain the advantage. “Haha… I didn’t know that fencing had a move like that.” Q said as she exerted more force into her dagger.
“That,” Brie pushed her sword forward, “was a move that I had created. After all, you said this was not a fencing match, but a real ‘fight’.”
Q grinned as she suddenly jumped back, using the force of Brie’s sword to gain distance between them. “Yeah… that’s how it should be.” She grinned again as she changed her dagger into a reverse grip. Q lowered her body and hid the dagger behind her back as her free hand formed a claw. Seeing the change in Q’s stance, Brie became even more vigilant as she slowly began to inch forward.
Q also began to move forward, and they slowly approached each others striking range. Q made the first strike as soon as she was in range of Brie’s blade. Q first swiped with her claws, trying to either push away Brie’s blade or get a grip on it. Brie noticed this and flicked her wrist, making an incredibly fast slash at Q’s arm. Q turned around and spun in place, then intercepted Brie’s blade with her dagger, forcing it to change direction.
Brie responded by pulling her sword back, and then thrusting it forward at Q! Q quickly moved to deflect the sword, but as soon as she did Brie made a light hop backwards, then thrust forward again! Every time Brie would attack, Q would be able to successfully deflect it but she didn’t have any other options as she was suppressed by Brie’s rapid thrusts. She couldn’t afford to take a hit either, as Brie’s attack had surprising amounts of force in them, so Q was forced onto the defensive against these thrusts.
Hopefully she'll run out of stamina at this rate... But contrary to Q’s hopes, Brie only seemed to be getting faster and faster, and gradually Q was unable to keep up with deflecting every single strike. She slowly began taking minuscule amounts of damage, but eventually it built up until a quarter of Q’s health was gone. Okay, time for stage 2 then. She thought as she quickly jumped back and yelled, “[Gust]!”
Brie eyes widened as she was surprised by the sudden spell flying at her face, but still kept her composure as she blocked the attack with her sword. “Using spells now, Q?” Brie asked with a slightly disdainful look.
“It is a fight. Anything goes you know?” Q only smiled in response as she began to add in spells to her attacks. Q returned her dagger to a normal grip, and then cast [Ember] with her other hand. As Brie moved to the side to avoid [Ember], Q shot a [Gust] at her location and then approached with her dagger flashing. Brie was forced to block the spell, but that left her open to receive Q’s attack! Luckily she was able to move her body slightly so she didn’t take a direct hit, but she was still surprised to see that she had lost quite a bit of health from that single attack.
Now that Q added spells into the fight, the battle became far more complicated for Brie as she had to deal with not only Q’s incredibly fast attacks, but also quick spells which caught her off guard. She wasn’t able to avoid every attack, nor was she able to attack Q who was constantly moving around and backed off to fire some spells if Brie got too close. If you are using abilities, then so will I! Brie decided as she lowered her body and brought her sword close to her.
“[Forward Thrust]!” She said as her feet pushed off the ground and she approached Q with incredible speed. Q wasn’t able to react in time and she was nicked by Brie’s sword, and took some damage. Brie’s attack didn’t end there though, as she yelled out, “[Piercing Strike]!” Brie thrust towards Q, and Q deflected it with her dagger just in time. Unfortunately Brie’s blade activated it’s special ability at this time, and Q was dealt extra damage, bringing her health down to two thirds.
Q gritted her teeth as she sent out another [Gust] to gain distance between the two of them. “Well it looks like you’ve definitely one-upped me in swordplay. But still…” Q changed her stance again into standing straight up. “That’s not going to be enough to win the fight. [Magic Fist - Tri-Spark]!” Q’s fist was covered in a bright glow as she dashed forwards.
Brie got into a defensive position, as she was fully aware of the damage that Q could do with that attack. She kept moving backwards, staying out of Q’s range while also throwing out a few quick slashes at the same time. Q ignored these completely though, as she was dead set on approaching Brie. Brie raised her sword and was about to thrust at Q with another [Piercing Strike], but Q suddenly threw her dagger at her!
The dagger approached Brie, forcing her to abandon her attack deflect it into the air. Q used this opportunity to open her now free hand and yelled out, “[Tri-Spark]!” Electricity began to fly forward as Brie was unable to dodge it. All of a sudden her movements stopped as she noticed that she had the [Stunned] status on her. Q instantly closed the gap between them once Brie stopped moving and hit her with her glowing fist.
The instant that her fist made contact, three slightly larger sparks came out and hit Brie, dealing enough damage to bring her health to low levels. Q didn’t stop there though, as she caught the dagger that fell from the sky, and stabbed Brie right in the center of her exposed chest, knocking her over and dealing critical damage which brought Brie’s health to zero.
[Q wins!]
As soon as that message appeared, both Q and Brie’s health and mana were refilled to full and their equipments durability was also restored. “*Whew* You sure are a strong fighter Brie.” Q said as she extended her hand to Brie. For a moment Brie simply stared at her hand, but then she took it as Q helped her up. Once she was able to stand on her feet, the entire crowd went wild as they began to discuss the duel.
“Holy crap! That was awesome!”
“That fox-kin is Q? I can’t believe it…”
“The mouse-kin’s swordplay was really impressive.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I could do any of that no matter how hard I tried.”
While the peanut gallery made random comments, Kukis approached Q and Brie. “I know that you two are pretty amazing, but I never really thought about how ridiculous your capabilities are until now. What the heck did you two do in real life to get this strong?”
“I do fencing.” Brie simply said.
“I do all sorts of random things.” Q shrugged her shoulders, not getting into detail about her real life activities. “Anyway, want to go for round 2 in another area? I won’t use magic this time.” Q grinned, and Brie agreed. In this way they passed the time improving their skills with Brie until she had to log off.
----------------------------------------
A/N: Behold Brie, master of swordplay!
In today's chapter we get a close look at how Brie is actually really good at sword fighting. She's never been able to display her abilities correctly due to her not facing a human opponent so far and also not using the right kind of weapon. Now that she's fought against Q, you can see her real strength start to surface.
Even though Q won in the end, that's because she used magic. In a straight up battle between the two just using swords, Brie would win like... 7 or 8 times out of 10 (even with Q using her 'time slow' ability). Well, at least that's her power level. Anyway, fun times, and the war is set to start next chapter despite there still being 3 days left (because shameless time skips).
You hyped for the war? I'm hyped for the war! Thanks for reading everyone! Leave comments and schtuff.
Fun-fact: Kukis' name originated from the word 'kooky', and then sort of morphed into what it is because I also wanted to call her Cookie.