Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Rival

The dungeon’s doors swung shut again, the only noise breaking the tense silence that had overtaken the room.

Monica and Prim stood at one end, weapons held tight and at the ready as they watched the mysterious person emerge from the dungeon, prepared for anything after they’d recovered from their long trip here.

The other player seemed significantly less concerned, not reacting to the apparently wary party opposite them with anything more than the raising of an eyebrow as they looked the pair over.

“…? Didn’t think anyone else would find this place anytime soon. Congrats on being late, I suppose.”

“T-That’s a little rude...”

“And yet no less true.”

They gestured over their shoulder with a thumb at the door they’d emerged from. Sure enough, a name was slowly materializing on the plaque mounted on it, marking it as no longer being uncleared.

[Phantom’s Gold Mine] (Dungeon Lv. 20-28)

- First cleared by Glass.

“I take it that makes you Glass, then?”

“The one and only.”

Glass stood at a good head and a half taller than Monica, a human with neatly styled jade-green hair, bangs hanging low enough to cover a good third of their face. A thick scarf was bundled tightly around their neck, their outfit as limited as possible, wearing no more armor than just a pale white cropped jacket and matching shorts above a pair of jackboots, as lightly armored as she’d seen anyone be thus far.

They had no visible weapons to speak of, both hands empty and held loosely at their sides, clearly not threatened by either Monica or Prim.

Monica, seeing as they seemed to hold them no malice, slowly lowered her staff, stepping forward towards the dungeon entrance. Prim seemed slightly more wary, but scooted after her, watching their guest uneasily.

“Well… I suppose we’ll be going in ourselves, then?”

“Feel free to try. Not my fault if you get yourselves killed.”

Glass simply walked past them, uninterested in staying to chat as they headed towards the only exit to the chamber.

“Killed? Hmph, I’ll have you know you’re not the only first clearer here, thank you very much.”

The stranger, previously ignoring them as they moved to leave, stopped in place, still not looking at either of them.

“...I take it you mean you were the one that cleared the first dungeon?”

She puffed her chest out proudly, the smug aura as palpable as it was unbearable, bowing low.

“Why yes, Monica Furdel herself, world’s most talented magus, in the flesh.”

“Hmph. I had every intention of taking that world first clear, and you’re the one who took that possibility from me. Making you the only person worth my time so far.”

“Oho, aiming to be my rival already? My, and we’ve only just met!~”

“Rival? Not at all. I’d just like to see what it is you have that I clearly don’t.”

They turned to face the pair, their earlier silent indifference now shifted ever so slightly, muscles tensed and coiled like springs as they glared directly at the self-absorbed witch.

Prim moved between the pair, hammer held aloft in a combat stance as she felt the raw aggression emanating from them while they approached.

“If you have a problem with her, y-you’re gonna have to go through me too.”

Glass broke their one-minded glare at the kitsune, letting it fall on the heavily armed crafter before them.

“Were you with her when she cleared that dungeon?”

“N-No, but I won’t stand here and let you threaten my friend-”

“Then get out of my way.”

“-guh.”

There wasn’t even any motion or attack for her to see coming. One moment, the seemingly unarmed human stood motionless in front of her. In the next, she felt their vision fading as a fist stuck square into her stomach, the force behind twisting her guts into a knot as she was launched clear across the room, slamming hard into the wall as she was incapacitated in a single blow.

“P-Prim! Who the hell do you think you are?!”

“Don’t you have more important things to worry about right now?”

Monica’s stance hardened, holding her staff out in front of her as she readied herself for a fight.

“I hadn’t seen any need in using these, but… I suppose I may as well here.”

They spread their arms at their sides, finally deigning to equip their weapons.

A massive thunk of metal echoed out as two heaps of polished metal struck the ground at either of their sides, sheer chrome and steel shaped into a pair of ungodly large fists as they sat on Glass’s hands, entirely unconcerned with the sheer weight they carried.

“Try and live up to your reputation at least, I’d like to enjoy this.”

Not waiting for a reply, they crouched slightly before launching directly at her.

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It was all Monica could to dodge hard to the side, the first of the massive iron fists swinging hard at her head-on as her attacker gave her no time to prepare for a fight.

Her earlier stint being trapped under her own rubble had timed out her Dancer’s Weave buff, leaving her at only her base speed to deal with the sudden assault. 60 AGI suddenly seemed like a snail’s pace as the attacker rushed her down.

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Glass caught themselves as their opening salvo missed, fancy footwork quickly adjusting for the massive momentum the swing had created as they shifted it into a spin without missing a beat, bringing the second fist barreling back towards the fox in a backhanded strike.

Each punch came out too rapid to predict, the unwieldy hunks of metal moving faster and more exactly than they had any right to as their wielder moved with perfect precision, leaving no openings for a mage to launch a counterattack.

The fox danced wildly, her earlier confidence already gone as it took all her concentration simply to not be hit, knowing full well there was no way she’d be able to take a straight punch from something that size.

At no point did the attack let up however, each swing leading perfectly into the next as they covered every opening they left, leaving not even the space to cast a retaliatory spell as they pressed the assault steadily, neither too aggressive nor too lax.

A battle of physical attrition like this would normally have been the optimal way to counter to a caster unable to protect themselves at close range.

But Monica had already proven herself to not be the average mage.

And as swing after swing was thrown towards her, aiming to specifically cover any escape venues a logical combatant would aim for, she instead kept in close with her opponent, throwing off the aim of those unwieldy weapons they insisted on swinging around.

The area they covered was massive. But size like that meant they had a minimum range as well.

Staying in as close as possible kept her safer than trying to make distance ever could have, throwing off her opponent’s studied rhythm at the same time as she tried to restack Dancer’s Weave, every point of AGI pushing the balance steadily in her favor.

What began as an entirely one-sided exchange slowly and inexorably shifted gears, the lightning-quick aggressor finding themselves beginning to be outmaneuvered and pushed back as their prey grew inevitably faster than themselves, brow furrowed as someone clearly used to their speed being excessive was forced to contend with a target that outsped common sense entirely.

Still, Glass only kept on pressing their calculating assault, trying to outdo raw speed with zoning pressure, denying them the space or freedom to focus on anything but dodging their swings as boots scuffed and slid across the smooth stone.

She couldn’t simply play defense forever, but neither would her opponent give her room to perform any offense of her own. But with the pair of them locked several inches apart like this, they weren’t the only one who could fight in melee range.

Monica’s aggressive dodging was finally interrupted by return fire, lunging in close as her staff swung in fast from the side, weaving under their extended fists.

“Flame Shatter…!!”

Glass already had no idea what the mage was capable of after being surprised by her raw speed alone, so any kind of heavy counterattack she could muster would likely be something they’d not seen before, and need to be accounted for. A shuffle of their feet, and both fists came together hard in front of them, forming a heavy shield of metal to block attack came their way.

Unfortunately for them however, their entire fighting methodology up till this point relied solely on predicting and countering what an enemy was most likely to do. AI enemies always followed a set pattern after all, and even most players simply relied on their best skills rather than raw skill.

Faced with a player that fought like no one else however, they had made two drastic errors in quick succession.

The first was that there was no attack coming towards them, and that Monica had simply yelled the first string of words she could think of that sounded like a skill name.

The second was that her staff swung towards them hilt first, not aiming for Glass.

“Blowback!”

Monica shot backwards away from the pugilist, an engagement range of several inches turning to a good twenty feet as she landed feet first against the back wall, not wasting a millisecond of momentum while they recovered from their defensive maneuver.

“Hazard Fumes!”

Her familiar toxic cloud finally deployed, quickly spilling out like rushing water to fill the rounded chamber as it covered her.

Glass was terrifying at close range, but if that was cut off, those massive weapons would only keep them from getting away from her instant-kill zone. This was her win-

“Phoenix Crash.”

There was no hesitation on their part, a sound like cannonfire echoing out as her untouchable cloud was ripped open, recognizable paired masses of steel and chrome piercing through as they were wreathed in hellfire, golden-green flames incinerating the poisonous gases harmlessly.

She tried to kick off of her perch against the wall, her legs stiff from impact and the inferno already burning away at her minuscule HP reserves, but every point of AGI should have still given her room to keep space between them.

But even as her muscles began to move, the living flame careened into her head on, fist meeting her entire body in a grazing hit as it slammed hard into her side, knocking the wind from her lungs and sending her skidding across the floor on her back.

She’d… She’d been hit.

Her health was already sent into the red as she’d barely avoided a direct hit, her clothes still lit aflame as it kept slowly draining the rest away.

“G-Guh… Shoc-”

Crack.

They were already on top of her again, entire body glowing and aflame as they moved nothing at all like they had before, the other fist launching downwards towards her as she once more barely dodged away, cratering the solid stone below and launching her airborne.

“S-Silksh-”

Thud.

A booted foot met her abdomen, catching her in a hook as she was caught in midair and thrown hard against the wall, barely retaining enough HP to stay conscious.

“S… Sa-”

One last, deafening boom as she was hit head on, an unthinkably massive fist covering her entirely as she was cratered into the wall, her last point of HP emptying as the blow hit hard enough to kill her several dozen times over.

Glass pulled back their arm, the fists receding as they were stored away in their inventory once more, the flaming aura they had burning itself out as they simply watched the kitsune slowly slide to the floor, eyes hazy as they began to dematerialize as they lost the health to continue living.

“Hmph. Just some sort of gimmick build, then? Nothing as threatening as I expected. I suppose you did get me to use a skill, at least.”

They turned away again, leaving the pair behind as they acted as if nothing important has occurred since they exited the dungeon.

Monica tried to drag herself after them, glaring with a wrath unknown to her before this instant as she was simply cast aside and discarded.

“I-I’m… not done… w-with you…”

There wasn’t even a response, the stranger already gone, unable to pursue the first person to ever beat her, as her eyes closed and she passed out, defeated.

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