Chapter 12 - Beast Slayer

Chapter 12

~

"We're now approaching the end of our tournament! Down to two teams totalling just 8 fighters who was fought their way up from the previous multiple hundreds. How's that for excitement, huh!? Let's hope they don't let us down!" The commentator roused theatrically after routinely making everyone but the two active fighters move to the outer edges of the arena floor.

"In the first match of today's finals we are both surprisingly and unsurprisingly joined, first of all by the someone that's been shouldering every single match her team has been in so far, the girl who I'm convinced could probably walk off getting hit by a car with just a scratch to show for it, Nana!"

"However, will her defenses hold up against the guy, the walking mountain of muscle with the dad bod amongst dad bods. Looking like someone that just walked straight out of the bone chilling tundras after chugging testosterone and bench pressing a moose, give it up for Saul!" A deafening cheer was sent thunderously booming throughout the arena after their introductions.

"I like your energy people! Well, I'm not gonna keep you waiting no more, let's get these finals started!"

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Fight]

As soon as the countdown disappeared Nana wasted no time in shooting towards Saul who stood in place with an easy close-eyed smile on his face.

Initiating with a couple of snapping whip like strikes producing a few dull thuds as they impacted his body she then shifted to a lower stance before circling around his back, though upon her arrival, she was met with a giant baseball glove sized hand forcing it's way through the air towards her.

Her deceptively dull gaze sluggishly moved to acknowledge it, taking no more than an instant to process it before the 3 instances she could comfortable have running simultaneously instinctively fired up, churning like machine spurned cog-wheels as each one individually mapped out dozens of appropriate answers and counters.

Slip it: Strike elbow joint. Strike wrist. Retreat to a distance and re-engage. Take advantage of the awkward angle to move into his unguarded side follow with srtikes to kidney... Catch it: Use as leverage to gain access to upper body, throat and head. Use as leverage to whilst simultaneously destabilizing his lower body with a kick to knee joint capitalize on moments of pain to drag him down to the ground... Bat it away, take it into a lock. Target nerve clusters: Bludgeon - Palm: open, side, heel, closed, hammer arm. Precision: Fingers, tensed. Puncture: Tiger hand, tensed, rake across.

Nana's face remained unchanged even as her mind fired off non-stop whilst also speeding up her thought process making the world around her slow down to a crawl.

Despite the shining opportunity reverently presented to her though, out of all the possible solutions her mind supplied her with, she ultimately chose the exact opposite purely because she desired a more detailed grasp of his characteristics which she could then add onto her mental sparring partners.

Doing absolutely nothing.

The world resumed it's normal pace just few moments before the tree-trunk sized arm slammed into her like a battering ram bodily lifting her into the air before he followed through with the swipe accompanied by a short grunt of exertion and sent her flying.

Unpreturbed by the slight numb feeling that shot through her side and forearm that was struck, disappearing just a second later, she was once again supplied with a plethora of ways to land that would allow her to mitigate, or even entirely eliminate, the minor damage she would soon take. Once again choosing to just let things play out.

Crashing back down to the ground with a harsh thud she entered an uncontrollable roll and continued skipping her way along the arena floor kicking up a trail of dust, ending up getting slammed into the bars upside down with a resounding gong like 'Dang' ringing out upon impact.

Giving a slow blink, she directed a curious stare towards her current opponent. If he was strong enough to send her flying with such force, he was probably the physically strongest person she had encountered to date.

"Ho-h, that's gotta smart. Saul really sent her flying with that one." Jun commented with a light smile tugging at corners of his mouth, his hand positioned as if to shield his eyes from the sun as he with rapt attention watched the girl nonchalantly righting herself as if nothing had happened.

"Yeah." Kaya unenthusiastically drawled in response looking rather bored, sitting in a slumped heap with her chin supported by her palm, still not looking at him, while she took a peek down at her wrist showing both of their status boards she easily wrestled herself access to.

Nana - [HP] 98%

Saul - [HP] 95%

"Welp, this mission just got a bit harder." She ponderously muttered underneath her breath with both eyebrows raised in muted surprise, still looking rather unfettered despite her words.

Flicking a small stone, nailing Jun who reacted with a small, "Ow!?", in the head to get his attention, she continued refraining from even looking at him out of pettiness but nonetheless still spoke up to notify him. She was a professional, after all. "Shitty boss, we've got a problem."

"Hmm? Show me, show me?" He parroted inquisitively directing her a stupid looking, quizzical expression.

Moving the small window showing their stats to the back of her palm she lazily waved it in front of his face.

"Oh, you're right. That would be a problem, huh?" He blinked in surprise after giving it a look. "Have you thought of any solutions? You said that we couldn't get access to the program's core data without staying here for quite a while, right?"

"Yep. I couldn't mess with it too much from the outside, I only managed to give myself some lesser privileges but they're more of party tricks than anything actually helpful, like this thing for example." She waved the status window again. "I've got a little something running in the background right now slowly burrowing deeper but it needs time. Say what you want, but these guys are at least smart enough, or more likely paranoid enough I guess, to not skimp on their defenses against invaders."

"There's like 50 layers of shit to get through before I can access the juicy bits. At least they haven't detected me yet so that's a plus."

Jun let out a hum, pursing his lips in thought as he idly noted the girl dashing right back into it, her and Saul beginning to trade blows back and forth. Saul continued with wide, powerful blows using his stature and reach to his advantage while the girl circled around him, peppering him with a series of snappy blows.

"Hm?" Jun suddenly let out a questioning noise thinking he spotted something odd, though halfway convinced his mind was playing tricks on him. "There's no way, right~?" He mused to himself in amusement, but the more he watched, the more his eyes gradually widened.

Even if he as their captain thought that his team were the best of the best in their respective areas, the cream of the crop, the undisputed number one, he had to admit that Saul was a really bad matchup against the extremely nimble girl. She literally could, and kinda was, running circles around him.

Saul was strong no doubts about it, extremely strong even, he knew that very well. But. He was also, courtesy of his physique which provided that strength, comparatively slow. To be fair, he could even be called surprisingly fast if you accounted for all the bulk he was swinging around.

The mellow human tank had fought somewhat similar opponents during previous missions, but most of them were taken care of by either him, Quill or Mergen, whilst he butted heads with the eventual hired muscle whoever their targets were had hired.

Now, not to undersell their previous achievements, but from what he had seen so far the girl was multiple levels above the usual rabble they went up against which begged the question...

Why the hell was Saul able to hit her.

Even the initial strike that first sent her flying, she should have been able to quite easily evade.

He got his answer relatively quickly once he took a closer look at the two of them searching for anything that stood out and ultimately found the girl's eyes almost clinically tracking Saul's every move, managing to constantly angle herself in a way where she would always have clear sight of him despite the seemingly intense pace of the fight.

Really focusing, he could even spot her actively stopping her body from what he was pretty sure was instinctively countering or evading, actions she was easily more than capable enough to pull off. A conspicious moment of pause present in her movements every time before she was hit.

As the fight went on he was increasingly sure in his conjecture, the girl was sandbagging to map him out for some reason. Why? He didn't know, however, it also presented him with another, more interesting question. Throughout this tournament, was she only sandbagging against Saul specifically or... had she never really even been trying in the first place?

"How scary~" He chirped in a sing-song like tone of voice, his eyes narrowing a few degrees as an intrigued glint flashed past his cunning deep blue orbs.

"What?" Kaya voiced in confusion, not really hearing what he said as she had been busy focusing on a tablet she had hidden, stitched into the inside of the deliberately poofy jacket she had chosen to better conceal her tapping away at it.

"Nothing, nothing." Jun nonchalantly waved it off, the usual sunny, close-eyed smile back on his face masking any signs that might have alluded to his actual thoughts with his preferred front of what he coined the 'contrastingly gentle rugged bad boy next door' look.

Looking over with a confused frown, she rolled her eyes when she saw him donning that, in her eyes, absolutely idiotic expression on his face. It might be irritatingly effecting more times than you'd think, but she still thought it was fucking stupid as hell.

"Anyway, I think I've got an idea to buy us some time."

"What?"

"Quill. Mergen." He called out making the two of them turn to stare at him inquisitively, their faces shortly after morphing into perplexed confusion. "Have the two of you ever performed at a birthday party?"

A beat of silence stretched on for the next few moments as they both shot him a couple of weirded out looks, a frequently reoccuring question they often found themselves asking each and every time their captain decided to 'think outside the box' once again appearing in their minds.

What the hell was he up to now.

"Let's entertain a kid shall we?" His following words did nothing to alleviate their confusion.

"Kaya run some interferance please and connect me to Saul, privately if you would."

...

<"Saul~ Hello~ Testing. Testing. 123, 123.">

<"Oh, Jun. Hello."> Saul mentally responded in slight surprise upon hearing Jun's voice with the distinct audio quality present while communicating with Kaya's bootleg telepathy. It had taken a bit of acclimating to get used to it at first due to the whole 'hearing' people 'speaking' directly into your mind and then extensive training to be able to separate private thoughts and what you actually wanted to broadcast proficiently.

Safe to say, during the inital periods of testing there had been more than a few awkward silences after someone had accidentally let something they'd rather keep to themselves slip out while distracted.

Now however, it was basically an indispensible tool they utilized during pretty much all of their missions. It made coordinating otherwise chaotic situations so much easier, not to mention the possibility to transfer information with literally just a thought whilst not uttering a single word reducing the risk of revealing themselves by speaking out loud to zero.

<"How are you holding up out there buddy?">

<"I'm doing fine for now, though I could do without the pain. Her hits are unexpectedly powerful for her frame, pretty sure I'm losing this one. I'm surprised that I'm even managing to hit her at all to be honest."> Saul replied thoughtfully, slightly distracted by having to keep constantly trying to guess at where the elusive girl would appear next.

He got his answer a moment later when he felt a handful of rock solid strikes digging into his back, the girl having once again disappeared when he swiftly sent a powerful hammer arm swipe at her previous position. He was unable to hold back a wince and a grimace as his other side also flared up with bluntly pulsing pain, courtesy of another handful of blows, a couple of seconds later.

<"Thought so, she's letting you hit her by the way"> Jun confirmed bluntly.

<"Ah, so that was it. I had a sneaking suspicion it was something along those lines but I wasn't completely sure."> Saul responded with a tone of revelation but not much else, he was self-aware enough to acknowledge his weaknesses and didn't really see it as anything beyond what it was.

<"Yep. Anyway, we've done a slight miscalculation regarding how much time we have, disrupted by a certain someone currently to your right."> Saul's side once again flared up in pain. <"And Kaya's worried we'll be eliminated before she can get drill a backdoor into their thingymajig whatsamacallit.">

<"Oh."> Saul internally nodded in 'understanding'. Both him and Jun were, in terms of technology and such, equally uninterested in anything beyond the bare basics, not really seeing the point in researching further into the how's and why's as long as the things worked properly.

<"Mhmm, either way, referencing her previous matches your little opponent will probably start actually aiming to finish the match after she gets bored so try entertaining her for as long as possible. I think Mergen, Quill and I on top of your fight is probably enough time but apparently Kaya isn't quite as sure and I'd be an idiot not to listen to her opinion regarding things like this.">

<"I see... so I just try dragging it out for as long as possible, then?">

<"Right. Do your best to keep her interested too, try not to repeat the same thing as much as possible.">

<"Um, Jun? I think you're already well aware, but I'm not exactly the most trained in martial arts, nevermind multiple disciplines."> He was fairly proficient in some form of self-taught wrestling but he didn't even bother trying, the chance of him catching the girl in a hold might as well have been non-existent at the pace she was flitting around.

He was also a half-decent brawler, but it was almost actually difficult not to be considering all he did was properly leverage his size and natural strength to his advantage. Whilst he was physically stronger than the girl, he was pretty sure she was so far ahead of him in terms of technique it wasn't even funny.

<"Improvise."> Saul deadpanned at the flippantly thrown comment he received in encouragement.. <"I believe in you Saul, you can do it!"> The following sentence also did absolutely nothing to help him out with the situation at hand.

Inwardly heaving a sigh at their volatile boss he decided to just do what he could.

Though with that said... he didn't really know how he would actually go about doing what he could. Beginning with an aim to not be as stationary of a target target predictably didn't change much, the girl sticking to him like a particularly stubborn glue.

His inexperienced kicks also didn't do much, legs may most of the time be stronger than arms but his proficiency in punching and aforementioned unfamiliarity with kicks in general made them just about even out in terms of power, the few times she let them actually land that is.

Any attempts he made at pursuing and following up with a barrage of blows after he had slammed her away were easily thwarted, the girl displaying her unquestionable superiority regarding technique by either simply evading or even using his own body to her aid, always managing to drag him back into the middle of the arena eventually.

He did surprisingly manage to last for a fair amount of time partly on the merit of his sheer bulk helping him out but also because the girl apparently decided to use him, as he had seen her use others, as a practice dummy. Beginning to cycle in kicks into her forms this time, and unfortunately for him, she was much more experienced. Her lightning fast legs packing the power of a charging bull each time they smashed into him like a pair of steel beams.

Eventually the imposing giant despite his great stature filled with strength couldn't take it anymore, Saul feeling his leg giving out courtesy of multiple brutally sharp kicks lashing out at his knee.

The impact was accompanied by a chilling, crystal clear 'crack', ringing out alongside a hoarse, agonized scream unbiddenly escaping his throat.

Losing his balance, beginning to topple over, he unfortunately couldn't react in time to shift his weight leading to him landing on his awkwardly bent leg prompting another bellowing shout of agony to leave his mouth as he harshly crashed down to the ground.

Saul just laid there, his eyes turning insensate and glassy as his mind entered a state of blankness, as if to shy away from the excrutiating pain plaguing his physical shell. The entirety of his torso and it's insides barely felt intact at this point. If he was a betting man he'd have put everything he owned on the whole upper portion of his body, barring neck and above, by now consisting of what amounted to pummeled meat paste.

The part of his mind responsible for his fondness of darker humor likening his current state to a piece of tenderized meat.

His legs in comparison were probably in a relatively, to his upper body that is, better condition. Even then, they still felt like someone had repeatedly hammered into the joints with a goddamn pile bunker. The left one might've given out first, but he didn't think his right was that far away from following.

It almost felt like just thinking about moving them produced a series of disturbing cracking noises.

His upper body was sending out loud, throbbing pulses of pain while a consistent stabbing agony erupted from his knees to the point his eyes watered and his teeth groaned in protest from the force he was gritting them with.

"That hurts... Alot..." He wheezed out miserably, his face morphing into a fierce grimace as he fought to stay lucid, his eyes blurring by either unshed tears or the constant sensation of his broken body, he wasn't sure which.

Registering a shadow being cast down onto him, he sluggishly shifted his sight to see a blob of colors he knew to be his opponent standing above him.

She just looked at him for a few seconds or at least he that's what he thought, he couldn't really make out any details beyond her vague silhouette, before she crouched and as that metal limb disguised as a human arm raised he hoped that he had bought enough time for Kaya to finish.

He really didn't want all that pain to be for nothing.

James hurriedly swallowed the bile that shot up his throat when Nana's fingers speared through the guy's eye, the guy's body going completely stiff before it slackened entirely.

"Fuck... that goddamn squelch and the image of her fingers disappearing into his skull is gonna haunt me forever." He lamented with a shaky whisper.

A shiver shooting through his body when, thanks to the game broadcasting the sounds and voices in close proximity to the participants to the audience, another disturbing squelch was heard due to Nana retrieving her arm from the guy's destroyed eye socket prompting a slurry of blood, brain and the guy's pulped eyeball to spew out of it like a grotesque geyser.

...

An air of solemnity hung over the other members in the [Unchained Menagerie], their unblinking eyes locked onto Saul's digital corpse as they seared the image into their memory. It was a grim reminder of what they could end up looking like if they fucked up badly enough.

The 5 of them were people who had gathered from various walks of life and formed the mercenary group they now operated as. Although intially founded in reality they had ultimately switched over to VR after a particularly close call, almost losing 3 of their members.

As a consequence however, they started gradually losing the edge they once possessed.

Compared to reality where there were no room for fuck ups, it was a one and done, no second chances line of work constantly surrounded by death and danger.

VR was different.

If you got your head blown off? No problem, just respawn outside that digital space. Got your arm cut off? No problem. Just respawn and you'll be as good as new, no lost combat effectiveness and no outwardly debilitating negatives. Legs cut off? Same thing. Taking damage in VR, although painful since most spaces they got sent into were in [Daredevil] difficulty, left no permanent marks.

Well, physical marks that is. Phantom pain was 'surprisingly' enough, a pain to deal with.

Regardless. When presented with the ability to act without consequences, granted you had the mental fortitude to disregard the sensation of pain, it inevitably bred a sense of arrogance. They could be as reckless as they wanted since they wouldn't die anyway, right?

True. Well, it was up until now if the recent rumors flying around the digital underworld were accurate. They had gotten wind that someone managed to develop a program that allowed the user to lock others that had died in any digital spaces they designated under it's influence to that specific digital space until manually freed.

Although it didn't confer any tangible offensive or defensive capabilities on it's own, just the threat of being unable to leave was a terrifying enough deterrent by itself.

Why?

Other than the notion of being trapped in a certain digital space whilst unable to do anything to free yourself completely at the user's mercy?

Because it brought up the possibility probably not many had thought of before.

Killing others through VR.

It wouldn't even be particularly difficult to just leave someone sitting inside an empty digital space until their bodies starved to death in reality or until they broke under the pressure, isolation or just by overthinking.

The mind was both a miraculous tool capable of producing previously unfathomable innovations just as much as it was a dangerous quagmire if left alone for too long.

They hadn't managed to confirm the rumors yet, but they also hadn't managed to disapprove them either which in and of itself lent some credit to it's authenticity considering the wide network of connections they had access to.

It was a chilling wake up call for all of them, the previously safe VR space was about to get alot more dangerous and if they didn't get their shit together, one of them were probably going to fall victim to it sooner rather than later.

"Who's up next?" Jun voiced once Saul had sent a message confirming that he respawned in their little hideout, something they had taken to doing as a precaution after coming into contact with the rumors.

"I am of no particular opinion myself."

"I'm going last, my little 'worms' won't work when I'm not in here."

"Mergen?"

"I'll go." Mergen responded eagerly, a slightly too wide smirk settling over his almost skeletal features as he pulled up the status board.

...

Another introduction riddled with snide remarks courtesy of the commentator later the two fighters ultimately stood face to face towards the middle of the arena floor staring each other down, Nana's vacant stare meeting Mergen's predatory grin.

As the countdown began Mergen dragged his digits through his greasy locks and subtly rubbed his fingers together, the slippery layer of fat now the surface of his hands reassuring him that he at least wasn't completely screwed.

He'd feel much better carrying his more expansive arsenal of solutions he usually brought on missions but apparently the chemicals contained inside them were flagged dangerous enough to bar their entry leaving him with a paltry handful of tricks he could use.

Maintaining the sleazy unhinged expression he wasn't so sure was just a mere mask anymore plastered on his face, his thoughts quickly spun as he assessed the situation.

The current battlefield offered no terrain he could possibly take advantage of, just flat ground. In melee combat he was massively outmatched, he could possibly have stood a chance if he had access to his array of daggers but unfortunately, they were also taken away.

Mid to long range also wasn't even feasible with the tools at his disposal, he didn't have any guns and once again, his daggers that he was somewhat proficient in throwing were unavailable.

The only other method of attack he could think of was mental warfare, trying to wear down her will to fight through either intimidation, verbal assault or diplomacy. Something that was close to impossible considering he had next to no information regarding her personality, likes, dislikes. Goals and aspirations, motivations and desires.

Outside of the obvious that is, but he also didn't favor his odds at trying to talk down an absentminded battle-hungry brat with facial paralysis.

On the spot improvisation wasn't his forte, he much preferred thoroughly researching his targets before meticulously constructing multiple threats and taunts, comments surrounding what they would most likely value the most, family, morals, pride, greed, envy, jealousy.

Whatever would destabilize their mental state enough to either allow for either an easy subjugation or just a straight up surrender was preferrable.

He may like a good fight every now and again, but he liked winning a fight before it had even begun even more.

Unfortunately his usual approach wouldn't work here and without his tools he wasn't sure how long he could stall against the anomaly standing before him.

[Fight]

Knocked out of his thoughts by the synthetic voice he swiftly reacted, pushing off his back foot and dashing forwards to meet his opponent who did the same in a bid to overwhelm her with a ferocious barrage from the start relying on his little trick surprising her enough for him to get the upper hand before she regained her wits.

Ideally his strategy would prevent her from gathering any momentum since he didn't think there was too much he could do when she really got going unless she allowed him to hit her as she had Saul.

His hand tensed in a manner resembling a snake's head and surged forwards, Mergen inwardly frowning when the girl moved to block it, it seems he wouldn't be afforded the same privileges Saul had. Despite that however, his lips soon pulled into a victorious smirk when instead of properly blocking him, his hand slid along her raised forearm and mercilessly struck the side of her throat.

The girl let out a choked noise containing more surprise than actual pain much to his chagrin as he reconfirmed that particularly annoying trait of hers, a confused look settling over her features as her body inevitably stiffened up instinctively.

Mergen immediately capitalized on her briefly stunned state and sent a rain of blows her way hitting her in spots he knew would incapacitate the average human body, focusing his efforts on impairing her physical state.

If he had still thought the sensation of pain would stop her after her showing against Saul then he'd take the initiative himself to declare his intellect well and truly defective.

Not letting up his flurry of blows his eyebrows gradually furrowed in discontent, Mergen's previously sly grin slowly replaced with a displeased scowl as the girl started parrying his punches, commanding a sharply increasing proficiency in her movements somehow already acclimated to his slippery hands.

Despite this however, she continued staying on the defensive.

As the fight progressed the girl got better and better at not only accounting for his little trick when she blocked but also got better at seemingly predicting his next move, eventually starting to occasionally preempt a strike or two of his.

It wasn't too noticeable when she had just begun doing it, but with time, Mergen was eventually left silently gritting his teeth, feeling incredibly stiffled as the girl practically moved to counter him before he had even started moving himself.

On top of that he didn't know how much more abuse his fingers could take, each hit he landed caused more and more damage to his hands but he didn't really have any other options available at the moment.

His clobbered together style focused alot on precision strikes and locks but with his decision to use the solution he slathered his hair in a bid to get an advantage in melee, he wouldn't be able to get any proper grip even if he tried.

Rationally he knew that he was doing fairly well at stalling the fight as much as possible but the feeling of being so constantly, and easily at that, read was really starting to get to him at this point.

Mergen as much as he'd like to think himself above such things, unfortunately also possessed what he had taken advantage of countless times in order to fell his enemies. That useless little thing called pride.

His mind logically concluding that the girl was merely what in his mind accounted to 'toying' with him at this point despite her ability to go on the offensive only further fuelled his already simmering temper.

Eventually, emotion overwhelmed reason and he disengaged after throwing an impulsive kick, his thoughts too clouded by anger to see her eyes trailing it's path, pushing her into a short slide backwards.

Breaking into a sprint he discreetly signalled with his fingers when he ran past his team, soon being connected to a shared telepathy 'call'.

<"What's up Mergen, I thought you were doing great out there."> Jun voiced in badly feigned surprise, having already figured out both Mergen's current state of mind and what lead up to it.

<"Fuck off with your bullshit, Jun! Kaya, status!"> He didn't snarl but it was a close thing.

<"You can stick that attitude up your bony ass and then try again tough guy."> She shot back flatly, sounding rather bored.

This time he did snarl.

<"Just fucking tell me! Why the hell do you have to be a bitch about it, I just want the status! We don't have time for this shit!">

<"Hmmm, we do actually. You running around like an idiot is buying us time. Good job, idiot.">

<"Kaya! Te-"> Mergen ground his teeth to the point he heard them creaking and was just about to start screeching into the connection when he was rudely interrupted, the next sequence of events happening almost too fast for him to react.

The 1st second he heard his team shouting something in warning along with a series of extremely rapid but feather light thumps echoing out from behind him, initially from further away and then an instant later, right behind him.

The 2nd, the world seemingly tilted on it's axis and he was for some reason also airborne 'lying' horizontally in the air able to see the ground beneath him whilst he, relative to his senses, slowly rolled in place.

The 3rd, he had almost completed a half circle when he confusedly registered his opponent floating above him, casting a shadow down onto his body. Something too quick for him to make out approaching his head, and an instant later, a split second view of the ground approaching before nothing, a crisp crack followed by a shroud of black being his last memory of the arena.

...

The surroundings were deadly silent as Nana lifted her bloody foot from the caved in face of her opponent, a small but noticeable crater of spiderweb cracks spreading outwards from below his head as the blanket of dust kicked up by the force of her attack slowly settled around her.

The time it had taken for her to arrive next to Mergen, sweep his legs from under him and then perform a ruthlessly swift spinning axe kick was too fast for anyone to react properly, still processing the events by the time she took a step back from his now deformed corpse.

Most were knocked out of their dazed states when they saw Nana in what outwardly portrayed a fit of immaturity and somethig akin to habitual disregard, used Mergen's t-shirt to wipe off the splatters of his 'lube solution'.

The childlike behavior and her general indifference creating a feeling of thin, almost imperceptible contradiction tinting the scene. The undertones of alien-like normalcy with which she moved with as if she hadn't just crushed someone's skull in, but was instead just going about her day introducing an extreme sensation of eerie wrongness.

A hair-raising chill permeated the atmosphere prickling their skin accompanied by a creeping sense of dread pooling inside of them as the incredibly jarring image of usuality fiercely clashed against the rather morbid backdrop.

James' body had completely clammed up, tensed to the extreme as he shakily rubbed his arms despite an uncontrollable quiver dominating his crouched form.

He didn't think this could get much worse considering his day so far but the current feeling proved him wrong, it was something he had only occasionally felt wandeirng the streets by himself a cold dark night out or some disturbingly good horror movies featuring multiple small hints of irregularity rather than jumpscares.

In his opinion, those abominations were the undisputed kings when it came to the horror genre.

Orson's eyes narrowed in thought. He had only caught her figure when she was already upon her opponent, but if she was still using that odd technique of hers to traverse the arena then she was improving at a much faster pace than he had first thought and he had initially evaluated her as a little monster already.

The possibility of her being even more absurd made him not really know what to think.

<"...Kaya, replay?"> Jun requested once his voice returned.

<"Yeah...">

Kaya despite her daze deftly tapped away at the hidden tablet and shortly after the three of them received a clip of the match through the 'telepathy hub' built into it.

The way her bootleg telepathy worked was using the 'hub' as a focal point connected to their minds at a surface level. They sent what they wanted to communicate to the hub through this connection which then sent it to the others also tethered to it, though it was also possible to send the message to select persons despite more being connected.

This also allowed her to deliver information from external sources, in this case simply sending it to the hub which then forwarded it along.

A bewildered silence pervaded the connection as they watched Mergen book it after throwing a desperate kick at her. The girl's gaze sluggishly trailing his silhouette as she allowed him to get some distance before eventually deciding to give chase.

A strong push off her back foot saw her shoot forwards, though instead of entering a sprint, her body suddenly swayed before she somehow turned on a dime making a sharp 180 seeming to get even faster by moving along with the motion.

She continued moving back and forth in this manner, making '8' patterns as she incredibly swiftly picked up speed until the only thing they could make out was a blur, moving so fast she started producing a series of mild winds only further pushing her to go even faster.

The next section they almost had to play in slow motion as, after presumably being satisfied enough with her speed, she suddenly shot towards Mergen like a bullet. Her unclear figure seemingly clad in a veil of turbulent gales aiding her acceleration and was upon him in a matter of moments.

Mergen was then snappily and surgically disposed of after which the clip ended.

<"Shitty boss, Quill... you saw that too right? How in the actual hell did she start making fucking winds just by moving!? That also wasn't some visual effect she slipped through game laws, it actually helped her go faster! Is she a goddamn mage or something!?"> Kaya's voice gradually increased in volume until she was practically screaming into the connection, pure disbelief filling her as she wondered if she had accidentally joined one of those rpg roleplay servers instead of the death game she thought she did, the only place something like that belonged.

Although VR allowed for close to unlimited customization regarding their digital spaces, it also had it's quirks and kinks.

One of them being that despite many having endeavored to create a realistic rendition of the generic 'fantasy world' setting, it just did not want to be shaped into that particular mold.

At all.

She had also looked into it a bit out of curiosity and despite her knowledge and experience she was completely stumped, there was in theory absolutely no reason for the digital spaces to be so stubborn when someone tried creating specific entities, environments and effects.

For example, game enthusiasts have predictably tried re-creating 'Skills', and everything that that entailed, taking inspiration from various games and media. None of them has succeeded so far, the closest anyone has ever gotten was purely visual effects mimicking them at best.

Another quirk of digital spaces were the creation of NPCs. It was extremely picky and choosy with what was allowed regarding them and even now, no one had yet managed to map out it's boundaries in any way meaningful.

Not for a lack of trying, she knew that there was most likely the equivalent of a well-developed city's military worth of people spending countless hours testing it's limits each and every day.

No, no, the biggest reason that no one had managed it yet was... that it was seemingly flunctuating on a constant basis.

One particularly famous case featured an especially devoted developer who had created an incredibly lifelike dragon NPC, he had sunk in an ubelievable amount of time polishing it to perfection. Texture, color, proportions, weight, shape, shadows, feel. Manners, sounds, personality, reactions, likes, dislikes, ego, backstory.

The guy even integrated body temperature and smell, the madman did it all to make it as realistic as possible.

After he was finally finished he had to his dismay discovered that although there was nothing noticeably wrong at first, his dreams of fighting, interacting and perhaps flying on a dragon quite quickly came crashing down a few moments later.

Upon attempting to physically interact with the majestic dragon he himself had created with blood, sweat and tears, his hand simply phased through it's silhouette. As if he had just tried touching a hologram.

When he eventually got out of the state of crushing disappointment he had immediately started raging and ranting about it online.

As one did.

Countless theories and ideas had been flung around regarding the reason why but no one had hit the mark yet.

The most popular theory was that it was because the developers of the FIVRH's didn't want people accidentally getting hurt by a poorly programmed or deliberately made dangerous NPC but the existence of the [Daredevil] difficulty and the scarce information floating around regarding inhuman 'games' in the testing phases, sort of debunked that theory.

What was even weirder was that NPCs most wouldn't consider dangerous also had a small chance of just straight up being unable to be loaded in.

Someone had made a generic slime monster the size of a football with absolutely no offensive abilities so to speak of because they wanted a cute digital pet, the slime being a good choice since it wasn't exactly intricate in it's appearance.

You'd think it'd be fine but nope, when they were done they were met with the same 'unable to be loaded' prompt as the dragon guy.

Hence, most people eventually reached a consensus.

Digital spaces were just fucking weird. *Shrug*

What she had just seen however could have been realized by two possibilities, one of which was more ludicrous than the other.

The more probable but still groundbreaking explanation.

The girl had not only somehow managed to get 'Skills' working to the point they could interact with your digital body, but also already hijacked the game and was just fucking around for the fun of it.

The actually physically impossible explanation.

The girl could just by moving around generate consistent winds of not so inconsiderable strength and then somehow manipulate them to work in her favor in order to bolster her own acceleration.

Again, what the actual hell was going on.

<"Air doesn't even fucking work that way!"> Kaya internally freaked out as she tried coming up with a probable enough explanation to glue back her slowly cracking perception of the world.

<"...Maybe she's a wind sprite disguised as a human? She was probably kicked out of her group because she liked fighting a bit too much.">

<"Shut the fuck up, Jun! Why the hell are you still in the mood to joke around even now, this is some straight up supernatural bullshit okay! First her inhuman durability and now this, what if there's like vampires and werewolves and shit just running around hiding in plain sight!?">

<"Do you think they have cat girls too, then?">

<"Not. The. Time. Jun."> She forced out through teeth gritted in irritation, doesn't he understand the possible implications of a supernatural society being present in the real world!?

<"Hmm, a fascinating premise indeed. Creatures so far thought to be purely fictional truly existing out there, that is. I myself would be rather interested in meeting one of them face to face if it were to be true."> Quill pondered idly.

<"...The two of you have the sense and crisis recognition of a pair of rocks you know that? You'd think living a life dancing on the metahporical razor's edge would 'somehow', absolutely not being sarcastic here, impart you with some miniscule concept of danger but nooo, still idiots. Idiots proficient in debatably legal operations granted, but idiots nonetheless."> Kaya broadcasted her annoyance, outwardly unable to suppress her brows slightly furrowing in discontent.

<"Quill do you want to go next or should I?"> Jun asked breezily as his eyes quirked into crescents, glinting in undisguised amusement. He didn't even have to look to know that Kaya was currently simmering.

<"I suppose it's my turn this time, I'm quite inadequately equipped to deal with deviations going forward should anything unexpected crop up."> Quill stated matter of factly as he stood to stretch producing a few pops and crackles before he marched to the field, pulling up the status board whilst he walked.

As much as Jun usually joked around Quill was well aware of his terrifying talent in both thinking quick on his feet and solving problems in rather unconventional ways. He had issued more than a fair share of seemingly random orders during missions only for it to somehow factor into a larger scheme later on.

On the contrary Quill would liken himself more akin to a soldier than anything resembling a commander, he felt relatively comfortable following orders and had no desire to change his role in their group anytime soon.

Not that he was wholly incapable of formulating rudimentary strategies by himself, they were just nothing close to as elaborate or well thought out as what Jun could conjure with ease.

There was a reason that he was chosen as their leader after all.

Taking his place inside the arena, his boots clacked together as he habitually stood at attention with his hands clasped behind his back.

The girl seemingly saw him approaching and positioned herself on the opposite side, sending him a brief glance before she seemingly drifted away in thought, her neutrally set face gaining a vacant undertone.

Zoning out the commentator announcing the two of them Quill took a closer look at the girl now that he had the chance.

Compared to others he had seen she wasn't very impressive in terms of pure musculature but still sported a toned, rather compact build of lean well-proportioned muscles exuding a robustness that didn't match her frame.

Although rather tall for a girl her age which he estimated to be somewhere around mid teens, she appeared quite dimunitive in his eyes. Recalling the image of her stood next to the taller of her two teammates didn't help, either.

Through all that however, the thing that made even him tense up was the unnatural sense of oppression she subtly emitted.

It wasn't anything especially obvious but something about just standing there, facing her, caused his body to react with hesitation.

His brows furrowed in thought but eventually concluded that he couldn't really place the feeling and shook his head, no time for distractions.

The goal was stalling for as long as possible which conveniently enough, nicely lent itself to his usual approach, that of grappling and subduing.

Quill readied himself as the countdown began, appearing overhead and next to his ear, and saw the girl come back to herself with a blink before turning to stare at him.

[Fight]

As soon as he heard the announcement he immediately dashed towards the girl, who also charged.

The two met in the middle of the arena and as Quill went in for a grapple despite knowing she'd probably get a few unguarded blows in, he was confused when instead of going for a punch she matched his movements.

A few moments later, the two clashed against each other with their hands locked together and much to Quill's surprise he was instantly stopped in place.

He had assumed that he would have an advantage based on weight, height and strength but as he tried pushing against her he found that she wouldn't budge no matter what.

Which in his mind shouldn't be possible considering the aforementioned advantages he was sure he held over her.

Tightening his grip over her decidedly smaller hands in an attempt to break the stalemate to no effect, Quill shortly after felt the familiar sensation of Kaya's telepathy connecting to him whilst he was still trying to out-muscle the girl still perplexed by her seemingly rooted state.

<"Yo, Quill. Might wanna look down buddy.">

Hearing Jun's voice advising, followed by an amused chuckle, he looked down before being hit with a sense of speechlessness upon seeing the girl's feet half-buried into the dirt floor anchoring herself in place.

Even entirely disregarding her apparent ability to penetrate into the floor at all, the hardness of which roughly equalled that of a frequently trafficked dirt road, he didn't even notice when she had done it.

He was in all honesty unsure of which of the two to be the most surprised by ultimately settling on both in equal measure. Well that on top of the downright bizzare, and kind of impossible, unorthodox maneuver she suddenly decided to use against him.

Snapping out of it he swiftly moved to capitalize, backing away whilst simultaneosly giving her a firm tug towards him making her stumble out of the crevices she created.

Moving in to sweep her legs he also thrust their clapsed hands into the air to destabilize her, taking advantage of his superiority in height but was completely caught off guard when she shot up along with them, having kicked off of the ground.

Her knee fiercely smashed into his face and with a crack, Quill's vision flashed black for a second. Quickly letting go of her hands he staggered backwards, gingerly cradling his nose.

Wincing slightly at the dull pain now pulsing from it he took a second to marvel at the girl's perverted toughness, feeling like he was just hit with a brick.

"Aaand! Stickman's buff grandpa eats an unprotected blow to the face! You're supposed to block those, you know? Especially when you're up against a rock disguised as a human. Plus points for guts though, I wouldn't want it happening to me." The commentator piped up.

Wiping the blood slowly trickling down from his nose he re-centered himself and resolutely charged back at her again.

Trying for a punch his arm was not only easily batted away he also took a viscious blow just below his ribs which probably glanced his kidney evident by the incredibly cutting sense pain it brought making him lock up, his air forced out in a tight agonized wheeze.

Unfortunately the girl apparently decided that he was still 'fighting' and performed a small hop, somehow instantly entering a rapid spin for just a moment which ended when she lashed out with a monstrous kick nailing the side of his temple with such force it made him experience a brief blackout.

When he foggily roused a few seconds later he was welcomed by head-splitting ringing in his ears and the sensation of the whole left half of his face crushed to pieces and mush. In his muddled state of mind he also deliriously noted that he had seemingly lost vision on that side. His solely functioning right eye, though it comparatively fared better, supplied him with vision stained by black ink blots of various sizes.

He recognized the commentator's mousy voice, now extremely grating to his ears... or ear, screeching in the background but he couldn't make out anything coherent through the seemingly all-encompassing ringing painfully smothering any thoughts that tried forming.

He also blearily registered the bootleg telepathy's connection still tethered to his mind but in his current state everything he received just sounded alien in nature, unrecognizable jibberish which could barely be constituted to resemble words.

Even still, just hearing Jun's voice scattered through the cocophony of chaos produced by every little noise he heard blending together allowed him to somewhat regain a slight clarity.

Practically operating on auto-pilot, the only thing he could cling onto to not pass out from pain was doing what he did best, shut up and follow orders.

Shakily trying to get up with a single-minded focus of stalling just that little bit longer aided by stubborness he pushed through the pain, sluggishness, and the small voice telling him to just stay down.

Eventually, he slowly managed to get up into a kneel before a massive wave of vertigo slammed into him like a tsunami. The world tilted on it's side resulting in Quill collapsing back down to the ground, his perception of direction messed up to the point he almost felt like he was stuck in a gyroscope.

However, that didn't deter him. Every time he failed to stand up he simply tried again. Once, twice, thrice, ten times, a dozen times. His concept of time and the world around him blurred together into an infinite slog, ending up ejecting the contents of his stomach halfway through, but after what he felt like was an eternity of attempts, he finally managed to get up.

His back was slumped, his hands placed on his precariously wobbling knees while he panted like haggard dog. Face slack unable to muster the energy nor will to maintain any expression at all. His eye locked onto his opponent, her figure somewhat obscured by an unfortunately positioned ink blot.

The noises of the surroundings disappeared fading into the aether, her profile the sole remaining lucidity of his mind. He took a step forward, he almost tripped but managed to right himself. Another step, he was about to topple but quickly followed it up with another to re-balance himself.

At this point whether he himself was controlling his body was dubious, his mind on the verge of shutting down but nevertheless he continued, one step after another, and then another, and another.

And then, miraculously, he was running. Picking up speed as he charged at her with everything he had left, every single scrap, every sliver of strength that remained and then some solely dedicated towards a singular goal.

As he neared the end his efforts were very nearly wasted when he almost stumbled right before the finish line but through gritted teeth and willfullness he managed to prevent a fall with a well-timed push off his back leg.

Though it did lead to him coming in lower than he had planned, however, it didn't matter.

He quickly readjusted his course to aim at her midriff instead.

He wouldn't crumble, not now. Not until he had brought her down to the ground at least once.

A defeaning warcry thundered through the arena just as he crashed into her, shoulder positioned to slam into her solar plexus and at the moment of contact, a sort of crystal clear clarity suffused his entire being with a roaring sense of both triumph and relief.

He really did it, he somehow pushed through it all and managed to get a clean hit in, bringing her to the ground. An indescribable feeling of achievement filled him as he inwardly recognized it as true, it wasn't only that he brought her down, it was also pride, pride at not having faltered, not having failed.

Despite the odds being so stacked against him he could later take pride in having completed an although in the grand scheme of things, relatively small goal, a great personal goal. It displayed not only his tenacity and determination, it also reassured him that he could. That he could push past his limits and accomplish something even if it might seem impossible at first glance.

Just as he was about to peacefully succumb to the calling of unconsciousness he was abruptly interrupted by a suddenly crisp awareness of the world around him.

The first thing he registered was the tensing of his body, his feet feebly trying to generate some pushing power with a hint of desperation present in his movements.

The second was an odd obstacle standing right in front of him sporting a layer of bewitchingly silky smooth softness wrapped around a rock-like hardness emitting a comfortable warmth.

The third was his arms shakily encircling that obstacle trying to topple it which his very sluggish mind eventually concluded was his opponent, a brief glance to his side confirmed his guess.

It seems that... although he accomplished the first half of his goal, he had somewhat underestimated the second half's difficulty...

Quill blearily felt a pair of sturdy but slender arms snake around his neck before applying a gradually mountaing pressure until a few seconds later, a brutal crack was heard.

...

Feeling her opponent's body slump in her arms Nana instead of simply dismissing his corpse rather gently lowered it to the ground before carefully turning it over. Crouching above it her eyes landed on his smashed face almost unrecognizable to the previous stern sharpness, his visage now marred with bruises, swelling, blood and unnatural indents, pinning it with an unsually intent stare.

A few seconds later she made a small noise caused by a tiny exhale through her nose, blinked and then stood up. She wandered a few steps before the previous traces of curiosity disappeared form her face, regaining it's neutral blankness.

...

James felt his ears popping, paralyzed in an amalgamation of fear, awe and a plethora of other emotions he couldn't identify at the moment as Nana's opponent let out a bellowing warcry charging at her after forcing his broken body to stand up again.

Unfortunately he was once again ultimately stopped by the moving fortress that was Nana, his efforts only amounting to pushing her back a short distance after slamming into her midsection but even then, he was still trying. Still trying to desperately bring her down after initially failing.

The image was... it was nothing like he had ever witnessed. It evoked both a fiery sense of hot-bloodedness and an urge to go do... something, anything. To go on an exciting adventure fraught with dangers, to fight with fantastical beasts and explore the unknown. To find treasures scouring dungeons and foil plans of evil.

But also of... pity.

As the inevitable crack he had come to associate with Nana rang out a few seconds later he still felt that familiar shiver shoot through his spin but was mildly surprised to find that it had somewhat lessened in intensity compared to before.

...He really hoped that that wasn't a bad sign.

...

<"Foof that sure got my blood pumping, that warcry was sick as shit too let's save the replay for later Kaya. Quill can be pretty badass when he actually tries, huh?"> Jun commented with a muted liveliness and an unreadable expression, suppressing an imperceptible sigh as he shook off the slight melancholic mood.

He didn't think he'd ever get used to seeing his team die no matter how many times it happened which was a fair bit in all honesty, though he always tried his utmost at preventing it as best he could he wasn't omnipotent.

...Scient? Present? One of the three.

<"Roger dodger, shitty boss."> Kaya responded genially, her tone slightly subdued as she gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder.

Although she couldn't say she knew the feeling, having to shoulder the burden of practically holding the team's lives in his hands and then send them out acting according to his own plans fully knowing that if something went wrong and one of them died there was a possibility of it being due to his own negligence or fuck up.

It required a monstrous steadiness in terms of temeperament and enormous amounts of mental strength to not buckle under the 'weight', another reason that he was chosen as their leader.

There were scarce incidents of blame flying around during their early days but they had since built up a trust in each other despite their frequent bickering. Each member knew that they could rely on the others.

<"Welp. I guess it's my turn to face the beast."> Jun mused. He leisurely stood up and dusted off his pants, removing his jacket and chucking it over his back as he took to the arena whilst casually rolling up his sleeves.

<"I'm done here in a few minutes thanks to the guys' efforts so we're pretty much guaranteed a success."> Kaya idly reported after a quick check with the help of her concealed tablet.

<"Alright, cool. Then I don't have to stress or anything which is just fiiine by me. I'm too young and handsome to get stress lines anyway.">

<"I think your raging narcissism has pretty good odds at beating it back relying on it's sheer quantity either way, you'll be fine.">