Marta raises her head in our direction after landing.

"Pay close attention," she says. "Since this is a demonstration for you four, I won't use my wings. Everything you'll see me doing, you can do too."

I'm not so sure about that… But sure, why not? At least, it makes sense, logically speaking.

Clara pumps her fist. "Yes! I'll do my best to learn and copy you!" It looks like she doesn't think the same as me.

Following her words, Marta folds the majestic and impressive wings on her back, compressing them as much as she can behind her back. The wings, usually presenting a large target for their enemies, shrink until they're no larger than the rest of her body.

As much as their size is reduced, they'll still put her at a disadvantage, especially now that she has banned herself from using them. To put it into perspective, it's like having a human as tall as you strapped to your back: a dead weight that won't help and instead slows you down while increasing your hitbox.

Oh, and I know I've said the unfurled wings are a large target, but I've never actually seen them become a liability for my sister. If anything, they're a great source of extra mobility that helps her crush anyone who dares stand in front of her.

Unlike other times, this time I do know what I'm talking about… I was one of her victims when she forced me to spar with her in one of our training sessions. I like to call them 'torture'.

"Do you think this is just a farce she put up for us, and she created a safe path to show off?" Asks Laura right next to me. "I've heard you complain about her unfairness a few times…"

Oh, that. The fact that she shows her love in a certain way, let's call it 'unique', and how good she is at this game are two unrelated matters.

"Hmm? No," I shake my head. "I don't know if she carefully placed every trap, or if she just shoved them all in this place, but I'm sure there's no safe path. It's impossible to cross this trap course by avoiding all the traps. I'm sure about it. When our sister says something is possible, it's because she knows she can do it easily."

"But how is she going to cross it?"

I can't stop myself from chuckling at Laura's annoyed tone and furrowed brows. Loving to play as a game master for tabletop role-playing games, and having ample time to observe the traps from above, she must know it's impossible to cross the trap course without taking damage.

"Just wait and see. You'll discover it soon, hahaha."

I'm used to watching Marta displaying such skill that makes me feel like shit. That's why, tired of losing to her, I always go for unconventional tactics that throw her off when we play together.

…That's also why she always gets angry at me. If you think about it, logic says I should never win against her, but in the end, I somehow do it anyway.

They do say luck is also a skill, possibly the most important one, don't you agree? Hahaha!

While I beat Marta with my absurd tactics, Clara can predict them, rendering them useless against her. Then, Marta wins against Clara because she's more skilled and knows the rules better.

It's a bit like rock-paper-scissors.

Anyway, let's refocus on the important matter at hand… Otherwise, if Marta discovers I was daydreaming, she'll get mad at me. And this time, I won't have any valid excuses.

"This is a special case because you know where the traps are from the start, but in real matches, you should always keep an eye around. Before you act or move, you must learn what you can of what lies ahead. Information is half the battle, and rushing ahead mindlessly is the fastest way to die."

Good! It seems I didn't miss anything important. Probably.

Marta's eyes scan everything within sight, following her advice before she continues.

"Meanwhile, decide on your steps and identify the most dangerous places. This also applies to monsters, although there are none today."

I do as she says and think about all the traps I can see. The arrows, for example, aren't a huge deal: they have a straight trajectory, similar to a line, and as long as you aren't in the way when they pass, you're fine. It's the same for the flamethrowers, the spike traps, the lasers, and most of the other traps.

But there are a few that don't follow this pattern. For example, the moving walls. The only way to avoid being crushed by them is to completely avoid the area when they push together. Or the acid floodgates, which will affect the whole floor.

Those are the real dangers.

"After you decide the path you're going to take, it's time to start moving." As she talks, Marta starts stretching. "Wasting time and hesitating is also a bad move. Even then, always keep this in mind: take nothing for granted and keep your eyes open."

Nobody dares to interrupt her when she talks.

Don't misunderstand. I'd love to make her roar in anger because I interrupted her, but I know the consequences, and they aren't pretty. I'd rather avoid trouble with Marta when there are still two weeks of training left. You can surely understand my thoughts.

"Alright, here I go. Don't miss it because I won't explain in the middle. This is more of an art than a science."

With a smile on her face, Marta stops looking in our direction and focuses ahead of her. She places her feet right at the edge of the trap corridor and slowly breathes in.

Is it just me, or is she too calm? I hope she doesn't make a stupid mistake because of this and embarrasses me, after having praised her so much…

Without giving me time to finish my thoughts, Marta suddenly waves her hand in front of her, triggering the two arrow traps that hit me. When the arrows whisp through, she takes a step to the side, instead of straight forward, and avoids the pressure plate that burnt me.

Okay, okay… I can buy it. I can buy that she moved like that because it was the safest, and not just because she knew there was a pressure plate there, since I activated it a while ago. It makes sense that, after crossing the door, most players would step right ahead. This makes that place a perfect place for a hidden trap. As much as I hate to admit it, what Marta said about avoiding obvious paths is starting to make sense.

Now, Marta is standing right in the path of the two arrow traps. She knows she has a short delay of time before they fire again. It's a safe spot until then. She uses this time to kick the edge of the spike trap, making the spikes pop up from the ground, revealing themselves.

It's then that I tilt my head in confusion. Why is she wasting time with that instead of just going around it?

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Everything becomes clear shortly after.

The next trap is the swinging pendulum blades. Placed taking advantage of the terrain and the previous spike trap, the only way to avoid it is to duck down, which Marta immediately does.

The pendulum passes right above her head with a swoosh. But this is where things unexpectedly take a turn for the worse. While Marta is down, a blade pops out of the wall, slashing at her from the side.

I didn't see that trap before it popped; it was very well-hidden! But in that position it's impossible to make quick moves…

What surprises me even more than the blade I didn't spot is that, without losing her calm, Marta simply kicks the spikes she had activated beforehand, giving her a burst of speed forward and safely avoiding the unexpected blade.

"Ah, so that's why…" That's why she made sure to activate the spike trap.

What comes after this is even more ridiculous. She weaves through the traps as if they were a joke. From our position, it looks more like a dance than a struggle for survival. She looks like a fairy safely crossing a deadly metal storm.

"Wooow!"

Clara, enchanted, watches Marta without even blinking. Well, not that her Champion has eyelids, or eyes for that matter, but I'm sure she wouldn't blink if she had those. On the other hand, I…

"...We're supposed to do this later? Is she trying to be funny or something?"

"Shht! Shut up, Mad Rat. Don't spoil this moment." Ricard glares at me before immediately looking back at Marta's performance.

In return, I send a weird glance at him. Is it just me, or is this the first time I've ever heard Ricard asking for silence? Silence, when he's the one who never shuts up? I must be dreaming.

The thing is, he did it so naturally…

Just in case, I look to my right and see Laura wearing a similar expression to mine. What a relief, I'm not the weird one. I got scared for a moment.

Everything goes smoothly like this until Marta approaches the acid floodgates.

Since there's no other visible trigger, the acid floodgates must trigger on player proximity, which means there's no way to stop it in this narrow passage. And once it does, true to its name, it'll flood the ground with acid that will burn anything it touches, turning the whole floor into a danger zone.

Remember that taking a single point of damage counts as a failure, making these acid floodgates incredibly dangerous.

From what I see, there are just two ways to deal with the acid. You either run faster than it or find an elevated position to hide until the effect disappears. But the ground is flat, so…

Marta approaches the trap, and as soon as she sees the first signs of activation, she starts running forward, way faster than anything we've seen so far. She skillfully moves through the entangled trap mess, using the shortest path to outrun the acid wave chasing her from behind.

There's one problem with this tactic, though, and it's that there's a single path she can take, which doesn't waste time by going around certain traps.

Let me repeat it to emphasize it: there's only a single valid path, which makes it the perfect place for a hidden pressure plate. If I have realized it, there's no chance Marta doesn't know too.

And surely enough…

*Click!*

"Sister!"

By the time Clara's warning shout reaches her, Marta has already rolled on the floor to the side, skillfully avoiding the 'skewer' activated by the pressure plate. As expected, Marta knew there was a high chance that there was a hidden trap, so she just went ahead, assuming it would. If there was a trap, she was prepared for it. If there wasn't, it didn't matter anyway because she didn't take any unnecessary risks.

As a side note, it always feels weird to hear Clara call me and Marta 'brother' and 'sister'. It's been like this since the first time I asked her to use my nickname. Does she do it because she feels even weirder when calling us with our game nicknames?

I guess I'll never know unless I ask her.

Marta skillfully manages to outrun the acid flood until she approaches the moving dungeon walls, which immediately start closing in, narrowing the already narrow passage even further.

The biggest problem with the moving walls is that they pack enough strength to crush you while not impeding the other traps from working. When they close in, they limit your movements, but the traps embedded in the two sides and the ceiling continue to work as normal.

This stretch of wall, in particular, is especially nasty because it has a swinging blade pendulum swinging back and forth, covering the whole wall stretch, and making movement even harder.

"This is the final nail in the coffin," says Laura. "The walls will slow her enough that the acid will outrun her. If she keeps pushing like that, the reduced mobility will make her fall for one of the other traps instead. It's the end."

What Laura says makes sense from a logical point of view. But… "I wouldn't be so sure." I counter.

"Yeah! My sister must have a way to get out of this!"

"Shht! Don't talk. Just watch and learn."

I roll my eyes but do as Ricard says. And as I expected, Marta's actions leave all of us with our mouths hanging open.

The first thing she does is wait. Yes, wait. With the acid wave behind her and the closing walls in front, she just stands still – well, as still as you can be while avoiding arrows flying at you – and waits. She waits until the walls come within two meters of each other, and then she takes a step forward, taking advantage of the delay between arrow shots.

While staring at the swinging pendulum blade, she puts her hands and feet on the walls and uses their strength to climb up, making even parkour experts look like a joke.

This position is perfect to avoid the acid, but the walls will eventually crush her.

Of course, that's not all, as she keeps climbing and then waits again. This time, she waits for the swinging pendulum to approach her, then she lets go of the wall and holds onto it.

The pendulum goes back and forth, and Marta rides it. At first, I think she's planning on using the pendulum as a safe way to cross the crushing walls, but then I realize it isn't possible. With the way she's grabbing onto it, and how close the walls are to each other, she has no room to move and reach the other side of the pendulum. If she lets go, she'll fall straight down and be crushed by the walls.

By the time the pendulum swings back to the start, the gap between the two walls is just slightly more than half a meter. It's then that Marta, using the inertia from the swinging pendulum, jumps back into the space flooded by the acid.

Thanks to the extra inertia and height given by the swinging pendulum and her carefully planned moves, Marta safely lands on top of a spinning chain blade, about two meters up in the air.

Then, with a loud thud, the two moving walls collide in the center. The pendulum blade gets crushed between them, and the acid floods the ground. But Marta, safe from the two, calmly smiles and raises her head to look in our direction.

We watch her with incredulous expressions.

While Marta waits for the acid to fade away and the walls to open once more, she speaks for the first time since this incredible performance started.

"Until here, it's something you should be able to do, too. This is the minimum level you need to complete this training." …If this is the minimum level, I'm not sure if I even want to know what an 'excellent' would require. "Now, I'll show you the limits of what can be done."

Well, I guess I have no choice but to learn it, regardless of my will.

We all gulp, not sure what to expect next. But even then, nobody dares open their mouths. The incredulous spectacle made us unable to talk, and now she's saying that was the 'basic' version of it!?

I exchange a glance with Laura and simultaneously gulp. Nervousness and incredulity fill our expressions in equal parts.

The craziness starts as soon as the walls go back to normal and the acid's effect disappears. Marta drops to the ground, and…

…what follows is too surreal to properly describe.

Unbelievable things like skillfully landing on the spiky tips of the traps without taking any damage right at the moment they pop up, catching an arrow mid-flight and throwing it towards another trap to trigger it ahead of time, or even grabbing a saw blade barehanded and even using its speed to propel herself forward. She even used the fire burst released by a pressure plate she didn't know was there to evaporate the acid of another floodgate-type trap and create a temporary safe space for her.

And all of that, with her folded wings hindering her!

"Is that… Is that even possible?" Laura mutters.

I've never agreed so much with anyone else's thoughts as I do right now. But with my mouth hanging so low that it reaches the ground level, I can't express my thoughts out loud.

"Have you ever heard the phrase 'Don't try this at home' in a TV show? The same also applies to the stuff you can see in DMA's professional player videos. Don't try to imitate what you see in them, because you can't. There's a reason why they're pro players and you aren't."

- From an unknown source.

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