11
1283 Words
Their attacks proved ineffective, but neither tried to use more than the skills they had already shown. There were enough aborted movements from both royals to indicate that they were each clearly holding back reserves of skills and abilities.
It was smart, but it caused the fight to stalemate rather quickly, and the referee called it a draw after a few more ineffective engagements.
Neither side looked entirely happy with the outcome, but they weren’t upset either. The prince and princess both put on charming smiles and headed back to their respective sides. The princess didn’t try to start any other shenanigans, and with that, she was gone.
The battered and soot-covered prince smiled while he called out, “A good fight! Ah, yes, where was I? Mr. Polovesnty, we were talking about what you would gain by joining my faction.”
Matt and Liz turned back as Albert was swarmed by green outlined people trying to join the kingdom’s side. Apparently, his little showing was more effective than Matt would have guessed.
It didn’t escape his notice that Sara had an identical scene around herself on the other side of the landing area.
Matt and Liz returned to their room, and by nightfall, were joined by three other people to round out their squad.
They all sat around in the little common room that linked their five doors into a suite.
The first was a man who looked slightly older than them and had the beginnings of stubble on his face.
He introduced himself, “The name’s Conor. I’m peak Tier 6 and twenty-two years old. I primarily tank, with a few special properties that allow me to use [Demon Zone] without hurting myself. I’m a solo Pather, so I’m going to have to change some things up to work with y’all, but I can make it work.”
Matt looked closer at the man and nodded, he knew the skill and its limitations, as he was looking at getting it himself back on the training world, but that hadn’t panned out yet. It was an incredibly rare Tier 8 skill, since it wasn’t valuable enough to farm rifts for.
Liz nodded and said, “We’re familiar with the skill, and Matt at least can work inside without issue.”
That caused Conor to look closer at Matt. They would need to have a good spar and test each other out. Melee fighters needed to be familiar with one another’s fighting styles if they were going to work efficiently in each other’s vicinity. The best way to accomplish that, obviously, was a good fight.
Matt looked away and nodded at the next two people who sat close to each other.
They were identical twins. Even Matt’s AI had a hard time telling them apart when they left his sight. It didn’t help that they purposefully styled themselves in the same fashion, but they took the hint and introduced themselves.
“I’m Emily.”
“And I’m Annie.”
Emily continued, “I’m a burst mage with mostly water and lightning spells.”
Annie went on without missing a beat, “I’m an assassin with invisibility.”
Like that, she vanished. Even the indent where her weight pressed down on the couch was gone.
Matt spun and guarded his and Liz’s rear, ready to activate [Cracked Phantom Armor] at the slightest indentation of the short carpet.
From behind him, Annie questioned, “What are you doing?”
Matt turned around to see that the woman hadn’t moved.
“I half-expected some teleport or [Blink] with a move like that.”
The woman looked wistful when she said, “No. I wish. It would be an amazing combination. Sadly, we’re just too poor to buy a skill like that.”
The other twin, Emily, continued, “We’re both peak Tier 6 and twenty-five. We were going to Tier up to 7 early, and keep ahead of the curve, but we held off with this little war. We had the time, and even without the rewards, the combat experience isn’t easy to come by.”
Matt waved slightly and said, “Matt. Low Tier 6. I have [Hail] as my only real offensive skill. I’m a longsword melee fighter with an armor Talent that lets me take hits a Tier above my own. I also get a strength increase with the skill.”
Conor and Annie looked interested, so he flicked his armor on for a moment to give them a look. He was going with the same excuse that he used during the golem fighting, as he was sure that Juni had it registered. There was no need to blow a cover that was already provided for him.
Liz continued, “I’m Liz. Blood mage who can act like most water mages, as I’m sure you already know. Emily, we should see how your lightning works with me. I absorbed some blood iron, so maybe we can do some combination attacks there. I’m good at sustained and long fights, as the more people bleed, the more free blood I get to use. I can take down Tier 7 foes with my skills.”
Matt held up Aster, who had walked by him, and introduced her, “This is Aster, my bond, and the third person on our team. She’s an arctic fox who uses ice spells. She’s just starting to talk, but she’s only really at two-word sentences, so cut her some slack. She loves eating ice cream and hearts.”
The latter caused everyone to pause slightly, but no one questioned it. He also purposefully didn’t say their ages. While Liz was six months older than him, she still wasn’t quite nineteen. While not unheard of, it was an incredibly fast pace to reach Tier 6 by. They were hoping that little tidbit would be overlooked.
Aster looked around and asked everyone present, “Ice cream? Where? No smell.”
The others smiled at that, but Emily asked, “While I don’t have a problem with it per se, why are you three in charge? You’re weaker than us, and younger by a good margin.”
Liz answered that. “Well first, we’ve been in the kingdom for a while. We came in as a part of the subjugation mission for this planet. That involved fighting in the golem battles when we were Tier 5, and we took both first and second places for our contributions when taking the fortification.” She let that settle for a moment before she tacked on, “We were only mid-Tier 5 at that time attacking peak Tier 6 monsters. We’re on the Path as well.”
The last was added as almost an afterthought, but Matt had to smile at how it caused all of them to re-evaluate their perceptions of the trio. Liz, for all her bitching about high society, had a knack for handling people.
Conor nodded. “That’s impressive enough. I won’t complain.”
Annie asks, “So, you’ve been here longer. Why choose the kingdom over the queendom?”
Matt shrugged a shoulder casually. “We were already here and actually like Juni, the prince’s right-hand man. Also, we wanted to delve in peace during the downtime between the announcement and attack.”
They had since confirmed that it was a good call, as anyone who chose to swap sides had been confined to the cities for the duration of the countdown timer. They were stuck there until the neutral city had been built. Matt didn’t want to know where they would be if they hadn’t had the time off to increase their wealth and strength before the announcement of the war.
- Writer
