---------LEGEND---------
PLAYER/USERNAME
Alexander/AlexFae
Amber/Davina
Grace/Lasair
Xia/Genevieve
-------------------------------

Genevieve's chat message instilled a sense of urgency in Grace's heart, their team had grown, however, she felt that her place alongside Genevieve was like a party within a party; if Genevieve needed her, she had to be there, she had always been there since she found Xia busy trying to make her way inside Lavyella and even if perhaps Genevieve didn't know her identity outside the game, she considered her a friend, one of the few that Grace had.

The effect of [Iron Aura] was running out again, both Grace's race and her Aptitude had left her with a small amount of MP and in combat it is almost impossible to use an item since there were around three seconds between bringing up the inventory and selecting the desired object. The monsters prevented her from abandoning her position and were starting to surround Grace as AlexFae was forced to divide her attention on three fronts: her own, Davina and Genevieve's and hers, with the large yellow and green centipedes that were climbing from the outside in an attempt to reach the shooting spot.

[AlexFae: We need to change tactics.]

[Davina: it would be fantastic, if they kill me the streaming will stop! The viewers want to see how it ends!]

[Genevieve: My MP bar just dropped below 10%]

[AlexFae: Lasair, assist them first, I still have my MP bar more or less full.]

[Lasair: I'll do it right away.]

Grace's path was blocked by the mass of centipede monsters, it was impossible for her to move without being attacked from every direction. She killed yet another centipede with a well-calibrated shot and took half a step back; the [Warrior] Aptitude didn't grant many spells, it was in fact the Aptitude that among the four granted the least useful spells in a party since they only had an effect on the caster themself, however there was one thing in which it excelled compared to the other Aptitudes regarding magic: the speed of casting.

Grace traced the few somatic components. The blade of her sword began to glow with golden light, “[Power Strike]!” she declared out loud, releasing the spell's effect.

Grace swung the sword in a horizontal arc between her and the building Genevieve and Davina were in; the golden light transformed into a bright blade mowed down every centipede monster that stood in front of her within a seven feet radius. This was her chance to get through the horde without getting killed – even though Grace would still have suffered damage – and so she took it.

[Lasair]
[Level 11 – HP: 55%]

Grace had taken some damage that had inevitably accumulated on top of what she had already received in the first two waves, but she arrived on the other side of the square with more than half her health still. Grace made her way through the horde up the stairs, where she found Genevieve with [Mystic Shield] about to disappear, she had arrived in time. “They really didn't want to let me pass,” she apologized.

“Thank you, you saved me,” Genevieve said. Genevieve's system didn't allow her to change her facial expression, but her voice had a delicate note that suggested she was happy to have Grace there with her. Its frame rate must have improved as it seemed to react more quickly than if it were seeing everything in spurts, a sign that they were at the end of the wave.

“I'll never let you down”, Grace replied, curving her lips in a sweet smile.

A short distance away from them there was Davina, her fairy was filming them and Davina was looking at them with her hands clenched into fists under her nose. Her eyes were dreamy.

Grace and Genevieve looked at each other a few times before exclaiming to Davina, almost simultaneously, “don't look at us that way!”

“But you two are so sweet!!” Davina protested whimpering.

A signal interrupted them to warn them that the third wave was over, AlexFae had probably eliminated the remaining resistance while they were talking. All of them called out their fairies and tried to restore as much HP and MP as they could for the boss battle.

[BOSS PHASE STARTED]

A terrifying screech made them cover their ears, the ground shook under their feet. They leaned out of the windows or the broken walls to see AlexFae not far from them in front of the entrance of the building and was looking higher and forward, they too looked and froze to see a gigantic centipede whose size was so vast that with its shadow covered at least 2/10 of the city. It had a mouth full of curved teeth, very black eyes and its six upper limbs ended in long scythe-like legs. The red chitin was made even darker by the eternal sunset of that dungeon.

[Centrafeid Lord of the Forgotten City of Lenivara]
[Level 29 – HP: 100%]

“Yeah, no,” Davina said, shaking her head several times, “not even my best spell would be able to scratch that thing.”

“Okay, try to stay hidden and don't do anything that might draw attention to you,” Genevieve turned her head towards the others, “the only one among us who has at least half the levels of that centrafeid is AlexFae, so it's best for the two of us,” she pointed at herself and at Grace, “to work covering each other's backs while AlexFae tries to damage it as much as possible.”

The boss was converging on them, so there was no more time to spend on chatter: Genevieve went down the stairs while Grace jumped out of a broken wall and made her wings appear, unfolding them so that she landed softly next to AlexFae. After that nice joke that Davina played on her, throwing her into the void to find the courage to glide she found it much less scary, "Me and Genevieve will attract it to us, could you find a way to take it down in the meantime? Davina is too low on levels to give any real help, so it's just the three of us.”

"Roger!"

The Centrafeid Lord came roaring towards them with its enormous maw gaping, the multitudes of paws making a horrible noise as they destroyed elements of the ruined city with their passage. Genevieve stood almost shoulder to shoulder with Grace and began to activate one of her spells, she had decided to save the recovered MPs to generate shields rather than use them to restore their health.

The battle was long and unnerving, it wasn't the epic fight you often see in movies and anime but rather a war of attrition; their energies were used to avoid the most lethal attacks and to save their strength for successful - or almost successful - strikes while AlexFae used every kind of strategy she could think of to take advantage of the openings Grace and Genevieve offered her. Sometimes AlexFae used her spells to feint and confuse the Centrafeid Lord, other times she positioned herself at a distance and targeted it with her arrows while it was engaged on Grace and Genevieve.

In the end it was Grace who finished off the gigantic boss with yet another successful blow on its armor, death due to a thousand cuts had been verified and proven as possible: the Lord of the Centrafeid let out a desperate moan of pain, opening its jaws towards the sky and bending upwards before starting to tip onto its side, exploding into a multitude of colorful bubbles just before crashing into the ruins of the city.

[DUNGEON CLEARED]

- - -

They had done it, somehow Xia hadn't died and she had managed to resist her greatest enemy: the technological limits of her old computer. The boss vanished and the system informed them of their victory, allowing the group to reunite after coordinated work, despite the lack of action on Davina's part, who however still managed to level up after all that fighting.

"We made it!" Davina exclaimed throwing herself into Xia’s arms.

"Uh!” Xia hesitated, not only because she didn't crave physical contact that much but also because the technological limitations of her set didn't include the sense of touch and therefore the only reason Xia knew Davina was hugging her was because she was getting a visual feedback, “yeah, strange but true.”

There was something else the system was telling me that I thought needed my attention.

[You obtained Mythic Sword of the Ancient Knights of Lenivara(x1)]

The fact that no one had yet commented on having received an item of maximum rarity made Xia realize that among the rewards received by everyone, that one was only on her list. Davina continued to rub against her despite Lasair's protests, at least until Xia spoke up, "am I the only one who got a Mythic rank weapon?"

From their expressions, Xia already knew the answer.

"How did it happen?" Xia asked, “I don't think I contributed that much to killing the boss.”

“The system is not based only on damage or killing the boss and monsters,” said AlexFae, “the algorithm calculates the overall contribution, such as amount of damage absorbed, assists, damage inflicted, amount of monsters killed…” she shrugged, “evidently the system calculated that your contribution in absorbed damage, assists and monsters killed at your level deserved the reward.” AlexFae smiled at Xia, “congratulations. I advise you not to sell it, even if you would do it for a very good price.”

“Oooohh!!! Why you and not me?” Davina grumbled, putting her arms around Xia's neck and puffing out her cheeks, "my contribution was very important too, you know..."

“C-congratulations, Genevieve,” Lasair bowed her head and fidgeted with her thumbs.

That sword was definitely a rare piece and who knows when Xia would have finded an object with the same rarity without spending real money, she knew in her heart that that object was nothing more than a pile of pixels and that if it had to be based on hand-to-hand combat skill, Xia didn't deserve it. “Come on…let me go!” Xia protested to Davina, placing her hands on Davina’s shoulders in an attempt to make some space between them, “I have to do something!”

When Xia finally managed to free herself from Davina's grip, she called her fairy to the palm of her hand, entered the inventory, then selected the Mythical Sword of the Ancient Knights of Lenivara and...

Xia did what had to be done

Lasair's eyes widened and she put a hand over her mouth, “what?? No no! I can't take it, you received it! I don't deserve it!" Lasair shook her head several times and the system informed Xia that she had rejected the trade.

Poor girl, within the party Lasair was the only one who was more of a lost soul than Xia, perhaps that was why Xia wanted to help her so much; they were two broken toys, Xia and her, “if it wasn't for your rescue I wouldn't have survived to the dungeon boss, if you hadn't taught me how to sword fight I wouldn't even have gotten to this point yet, besides… you're a a much more skilled swordswoman than I, this sword will be more effective in your hands than in mine.”

Xia sent the request to exchange the sword again, Lasair bit the corner of her lower lip, a manifestation of her conflict between that part of her that would have liked to accept the gift and the part that didn't make her feel worthy, “are you sure? Let's... let's say I borrow it? I'll give it back to you as soon as you want it."

Xia nodded a few times.

[Player Lasair accepted the trade (-1 Mythical Sword of the Ancient Knights of Lenivara]

Bye bye ultra-rare object...

Lasair immediately equipped the new sword, which appeared at her side before being unsheathed and shown to the whole party and to the spectators who were following Davina's live stream: it was a weapon worthy of a knight, with a cross guard inlaid with floral motifs, the hilt was made of blue leather and the long blade was pearly white. She emulated a few strikes against the air and beamed at them..

Suddenly, Xia realized that that smile had a value greater than that of a bunch of pixels

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