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“Range. But even then, she took a few hits that I think should have been fatal, so she might have something to counter that. Thankfully, she’s on our side.”
Liz pulled him over to a banner that showed a tattooed fourteen-year-old. “Watch this one. He looks young, but he’s strong. queendom’s side, so we should watch out for this one.”
They looked far too young to be more than a newly awakened Tier 1, but with only a recording, Matt had no way to tell their Tier. In the recording, the queendom fighter seemed to flicker around in their battle with three people.
Matt watched as the man appeared in two spots, faster than he could blink. He said, “It has to be a short-range teleport.”
Liz asked, “A part of his Talent? I can’t see an actual teleport skill being given out, as it is too valuable and strong for a starting skill gift. It seems to be limited in range as well. It feels like a Talent.”
As they watched the young man use devastating kicks to dismantle a party creeping through a dense underbrush area, Matt had to agree on the Talent idea. If it was a skill, they seemed far too young to be that proficient in melee combat. They were a kicking monster, and Matt didn’t even notice a skill being used. One missed kick dented a tree to the point that slowly toppled over.
What impressed Matt the most was when the fighter disarmed someone, and proceeded to use the sword with the same grace as when they used their legs. Matt wasn’t sure he could be as proficient if he split his focus to more than one fighting style.
“We can just have Conor fight him.”
Matt nodded at Liz’s suggestion. The Melee style would force the man to eventually take a hit from [Demon Zone], and that could allow Conor to finish the man if the blow stopped the teleporting.
Seeing their melee teammate, Matt split off from Liz and watched the banner Conor was trying to dissect. The fighter seemed ordinary enough, with the exception of violet hair and incredibly pale skin.
The recording started in the middle of an already ongoing fight, as the man moved through a pack of kingdom embossed fighters like they were cheese. When an attack seemed to land on their uncovered back, a turtle shell of what looked like mana flashed to protect him. The shell seemed thinner than a normal skill’s density, so Matt speculated that it was a Talent. Suddenly, the fighter flashed forward with ghostly, tiger-like claws, and disemboweled the defenders’ leader in two brutal swipes.
Matt expected the recording to end there, but the fighter was attacked by a humanoid-looking tiger. They proceeded to exchange nearly a dozen blows with claws, before both retreated with deep cuts over their exposed arms and chests. Before the fight had a decisive end, the recording looped back around to the start.
When he saw his teammate standing next to him, Conor asked Matt, “How would you handle him? He seems to have a defensive form and an attacking one. Emily would probably be able to blast him, but he moves quickly. Might be hard to hold him off. Don’t know if I could do it if he was determined to move around me.”
“I might be able to slow him with my ice spell, but even that wouldn’t do much more than hold him off for a few seconds. s**t, there are a lot of strong people here.”
Conor nodded at that. “I thought I was hot s**t, but apparently not. Average of the better fighters at best.”
Matt had to agree. He knew they were good, but just the people on his team all had the abilities needed to counter him. Annie would hit him from behind, and if she timed it right, she could penetrate [Cracked Phantom Armor] while it was weakened from defending another attack. If she got a dagger skill, she might not even have to wait for that. Emily could just pepper him at range until her skill got eight times stronger and blast him into ash.
Conor was an easier fight, but only because his main skill was countered by Matt’s armor. He was still a better melee fighter than Matt was. While Matt was better with his longsword, Conor had a much better understanding of more weapons and that gave him versatility.
The war was showing Matt that he wasn’t as special as he thought he was. It was sobering.
When the entirety of the team met back up, they agreed to move on. As they left, they passed each of their own banners. The first showed Liz tearing through the metal tree, and they paused to watch out of morbid curiosity.
The group of them all shifted awkwardly as the next banner showed the footage of Aster and Emily wiping out nearly a dozen people in as many seconds. To top it off, Annie was shown to stab two women from behind, but the video thankfully made her visible, which meant most of their trump cards were still hidden. Although, it made Matt wonder which of the other banners were similarly edited.
The three banners were in a row, and they hurried past after watching each once. Matt grinned at Conor, who returned it as they realized that they hadn’t done anything to rate the banner treatment with their less flashy fighting styles. Matt didn’t mind, and Conor didn’t seem to be bothered about being out of the spotlight either.
It was a good reminder that people were always watching, and without anyone truly dying, there was no way to stop information from getting back to their enemies.
They sheepishly moved out of the bubble of banners after that, too embarrassed to remain.
The next area they wandered into was a casino, and Matt and the others got to watch as Liz won round after round of poker. Matt had heard how good she was, but seeing first hand was another thing altogether.
Annie asked, “How is she that good?”
Matt didn’t have an answer but felt a little background wouldn’t be amiss. “I know she beat a Tier 24 in poker a few times. She’s just good.”
Emily and Annie loudly whispered to never play Liz, then started wondering if they could bring her to an actual casino.
The table made everyone wear an anti-AI bracelet to restrict things like card counting, but it didn’t seem to slow Liz down, and she continued to win. She didn’t win every hand, but if she raised the ante, she was more than likely to take it.
Matt had heard about her skill with cards, but seeing it first hand was both amusing and terrifying.
Sadly, they weren’t playing for points or mana stones, but instead various raffle prizes that she could try to win. Considering there was no buy-in, it was fair enough, but Matt wanted to see Liz at a real casino now, and wondered if the twins had the right idea.
The others eventually left, but Matt was interested enough to stay and watch as the game progressed. He was only able to pull her away when the table bled off its remaining players, as they ran out of tickets and had to move on. No one was interested in taking their places, with Liz reigning supreme.
Liz came up from the table with fistfuls of tickets, and she danced around to their congratulations as she cheered. “Let’s go see what we can get!”
The ticket counter was staffed by half a dozen people, but they were still swamped as they tried to process people’s purchases. In the end, Liz threw all her tickets on the lottery for what was called the ‘Mundane Living In Rough Conditions Skillset’. It had six skills in total, intended to make life easier when delving for long times or away from amenities. It had [Create Water] for its obvious usage, and [Cleanse], which would remove dirt or contaminants from something at the caster’s discretion. It didn’t destroy the contaminants, just moved them away, but it was a skill that Matt still wanted. They hadn’t been able to find one during their own delving.
- Writer
