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Back on the island, Arione showed the spell to me.

Was it a warning? A way of gloating?

Was the Mage's personality entirely incapable of showing off the fact that through Clover, he'd gotten his hands on the [Grand Magus] questline and mastered one of his signature spells?

His pride saved my life.

My [Lunar Shield] snapped into position, and I angled my sword to deflect the beam which didn't shoot so much as it flashed.

When a bomb goes off, there's the source of the blast but everything happens so fast. Shrapnel gets embedded in people's faces as if by teleportation.

[Disintegration Ray] doesn't travel.

It's already there.

So I changed my mind and whipped my sword back.

The lower side of my stomach, right where my appendix should be burned with unimaginable pain. I heard someone cry out in pain –most likely me– and I free-fell from that height.

Next thing I knew, I was crawling on the floor. Even without coherent thought, I knew instinctively that the mana in my body was in disarray. My shield lay beside me, smoking and burnt black. [Snow Scream] lay embedded in the scales.

Arione plopped down on the ground only ten feet from me. Maybe less.

There was a long gash across his neck. At the last second, I'd managed to slash; turning my blade aside from defense into offence. He fell to his knees, hands clutching at a healing potion in his hand.

…I did the same, taking a healing potion out and drenching my wound with it.

"Bastard." Arione's voice was hoarse. [Ice] had penetrated his vocal chords and he'd need Clover's help to heal it in full. He dragged himself by his elbow and knees towards the fallen staff.

I saw his eyes flash towards my [Lunar Shield] as I picked it up. I winced as my hand sizzled and the handle literally burned itself into the palm. Feeling the control of my mana return, I cast [King's Guard]. The shield orbited around me once more, but not before tearing itself from my hand with a sickening sound.

I walked over and picked up [Snow Scream].

He picked up his staff.

It took us maybe ten seconds.

Broken souls moaned all around us. Flame and poison.

Arione's eyes met mine.

And the dance resumed.

I sprinted, my steps unsteady. Gods, my stomach burned with something unholy. But I was afraid to look at it. The fact that I was alive was a miracle.

If I didn't have magic immunity…

As it were, only the [Fire] portion of the damage was inflicted on me.

I could barely run.

But Arione wasn't in the best shape either.

His chest was a mess. The broken ribs from earlier, plus the [Hateful Wound] had done a number on the fragile mage. I saw him grimace in pain with every movement, but that didn't stop the spells from being cast. Pillars of flame rose around him, twisting around each other and forming a freaking tornado made of fire; thirty feet tall and roaring with poisonous fumes.

｢ Arione Popindale casts [Tornado] ｣

｢ [Tornado] reacts with [Memories of Hell: First Circle - Limbo] ｣

｢ [Tornado] turns into [Fire Tornado] ｣

｢ [Fire Tornado] reacts with [Memories of Hell: Second Circle - Lust] ｣

｢ [Fire Tornado] turns into [Fire-Poison Tornado] ｣

The manifestation of fiery wrath covered him from my vision, but I saw him take out another red bottle.

He was trying to buy time.

I limped over to the fire, raising my sword to slash it in two.

And I stopped.

I fell to my knees.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot.

…I just took a Grade-S spell to the gut.

…

What was I doing?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I was fighting against a Grade-2 Mage. In a one-on-one.

I thought I could win.

But I was losing.

That was a fact.

I don't know how many healing potions he had in the Dimension Ring of his. But I knew for sure it must be more than mine.

Even now, my wounds burned constantly. My stomach burned so much I could barely walk. My Lunar Shield had left my hands a mess and I knew I should get my healing potion; but it would burn.

The whole area burned with fire.

Arione had changed it into a battlefield where he could do nothing but win. All his fire-spells were buffed here, while debuffing my elemental resistance. He created a [Special Field] where I was constantly taking damage, while his spells worked on chain reaction.

Almost idly, I swung my sword and dispatched another fiery soul that tried to grab me. It moaned, wasting away to nothingness.

I almost collapsed from the effort.

I gritted my teeth.

But I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill him so bad. I wanted to prove that I was better at this game than him. That I was the superior [Player]. That the meager gameplay knowledge he had was nothing in the years that I spent.

…If I didn't have MSS, what did I have?

Yet, I was losing.

I recognized a [Game Over] scenario when I saw one.

My buffs were maxed out. My body could barely contain it. Which meant the best property of [Lunar Shield] was useless now. Doror had switched [Lunar Shield] to cover my weakness; a slow start. But by doing so, he exposed another one.

Lack of a gap closer. Lack of a decisive move.

Before, [Lunar Shield] could allow me to bring the enemy closer to me. Or send them flying away.

But now…

The buffs maxed out much faster.

Yet, if I encountered an enemy like Arione that I couldn't finish immediately…

My lack of active skills was painfully obvious.

[Hateful Wound]. [King's Guard]. [Share the Load]. [Sadistic Kleptomaniac].

He couldn't shrug off the damage, but [Hate Wound] without [Artisan of Battle] wasn't strong enough to finish him off; especially when I couldn't inflict more damage to him. [King's Guard] couldn't stop the heat and the poison; already everything hurt more than before. The tick damage from the [Special Field] was wearing me down; which I only noticed because of the [Disintegration Ray]. [Share the Load]... my buffs were maxed out. And against a Mage, debuffing his [Physical] stat could only do so much.

[Sadistic Kleptomaniac].

Any spell I cast against him could be seizd back by him. He knew how to deal with them.

A Grade-2 Mage is not a joke, even if it's Arione.

The flaming tornado halted, then melted away in the rain. Once it was gone, Arione stood there. The wound on his neck was still frozen, but closed.

His eyes were still glowing with blue mana. He stood straight.

Four empty glass bottles lay at his feet.

I couldn't get fucking close to him. To dish out enough damage. He had so many spells at his disposal.

…I was weaker than him.

I thought I could kill him.

But I couldn't.

The gap between me and a Grade-2 Mage was still large. Especially when he knew every trick I had.

He knew my buffs. He knew that I had [Shadow Blink]. Without the element of surprise…

I had nothing.

I was going to lose.

And he knew it.

He took a step closer, walking instead of flying. His lips curled into a nasty sneer.

"Giving up?" He said, "I spent ten years. Ten fucking years in this game. You haven't been here for even two years yet."

I heard nothing of what he said. I was thinking.

Why was I going to lose?

Lack of abilities to use. Lack of a gap closer. Lack of a decisive one-hit punch.

"Somehow, you fucking got two racial blessings. Was it that bitch, Oung? Was it? You think I wouldn't notice?" He spat, rain pouring down his face. "You think I'm fucking blind?" He roared, not at me, but to the clouds.

Lightning flashed.

...He knew all the tricks I had up my sleeve. He knew my weakness. He'd been exploiting it from the start.

"That fucking bitch, I had to crawl through shit before Clover finally agreed to get me on the Grand Magus quest. And you? You?! You had it handed over to you on a platter."

[Special Field]. I was fighting on his field. Fire buffs. Making me burn. Making me poisoned. Everything that I couldn't do shit about.

"Fuck Oung! Fuck Khan! Fuck the Smith! They can rot in hell for all I care! Fuck the Light and the Nine too! All the gods can fuck off and die!"

Something had to change.

But I had no ability to create a [Special Field] or cancel it out. I didn't have a way to raise my elemental resistance. I didn't…

I didn't have anything else.

A wall.

I was facing a wall.

"What'd she offer you? The beastman blessing? FUCK! I had to spend years brownnosing assholes at the Tower and you just fucking come in and she starts dropping Cores like–"

A wall…

A wall?

Arione was a wall?

Game over?

I was breathing hard. Wheezing. Smoke was in my lungs.

Was I going to die?

"...If I didn't fucking promise that bitch–." Arione stopped raving. He bit his lip so hard that it trembled. "Surrender."

"Surrender to me, in a Mana Vow. And you can live."

I looked up. He saw the doubt in my eyes, and he knew that I saw that he saw.

"Just do it. It's better than dying." His expression softened.

…and mine hardened in response.

"It's not game over yet." I muttered.

I was playing Arione's game. On his [Special Field], with his [Spells] and his little stage.

"What are you–"

His expression froze and his hands whipped up, mana coalescing into another [Fireball].

But it was too late.

The [Neung-uh's Ocarina] met my lips, and I blew into it.

A tiny little melody. Insignificant amongst the raging ocean in the middle of the Imgui's mating grounds.

But the rules of MSS are absolute.

The Imugi's were already here.

Before, when the Imugis were rising, I saw things.

A lot of things.

Underneath the waves. Clinging to the scales.

"Gek?"

The first group of critters popped up behind Arione. Each of them different in shape, form, size and most importantly...

Core Ability.

A probability game. Maybe someone else might have trouble when they had a dozen options presented to them.

It didn't even take a whole second to make my decision.

Gripping the sizzling Lunar Shield in my hand, I threw it like a frisbee, covering it with deadly sharp [Aura].

It's head fell clean off.

The Grade-9 [Sea Goblin].

｢ Sadistic Kleptomaniac has stolen [Moisturizer] ｣

｢ Lock Slaveborn is [Wet] ｣

｢ [Moisturizer] heals [Lock Slaveborn] ｣

｢ [If Only I had a Body…] increases [Moisturizer]'s effectiveness by 50%｣

Arione's Fireball went off not two inches from my face.

It burned like hell, burning my cornea, lips, fingers, everything sizzling into a smell of grease that made me want to wretch.

But the smoke cleared.

And the pain subsided.

Skin grew.

Sinews repaired.

My hand felt better.

And the gaping chunk of meat that was missing from my stomach began to return.

I used [King's Guard] and my shield returned to me.

Everywhere around us, more and more more kept cropping up.

"Gekgekekekekekek…"

"Kyu?"

"Kruuuuk?"

"GAAAAAAAA"

Dozens.

Maybe a hundred.

Monsters were slithering, scaling, climbing and even gliding up the sides of the Imugi's body to where we were. Drawn here.

He turned back to me, eyes shaking.

"My turn."

Nothing is unbeatable in MSS. It's all about compatibility.

I just needed to create a situation where my compatibility for victory was stronger than Arione's own.

And I put the [Neung-uh's Ocarina] to my lips and blew it a second time.

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