*Good thing that worked.*

Having Niyo fight into a headwind was no accident. With proper footwork and positioning, Jisha forced him to play to her advantage. Though it wasn't guaranteed that the Blind would have been effective, it was an educated guess based on the semi-realistic terrain conditions from other maps.

*>Placements complete.*

*>W 10 - 0 L*

*>Rank: Brown Belt ★*

*Whew.*

White, Orange, Yellow, Camo, Green, Purple, Blue, and now Brown. Ranking up normally would have taken many times longer, but the placement matches allowed her to speedrun through. Now that the placements were over, though, a win would only take her one star forwards. Likewise, a loss would set her one star back.

After three Brown Belt stars, the next stop was Red Belt!

*Eh... Just one more game?*

---

*>Winner: Allunæ*

...

*>Winner: Allunæ*

...

*>Winner: Allunæ*

*>Belt Promoted!*

*>Rank: Brown Belt ★★★ -> Red Belt ★*

...

*>Winner: Allunæ*

...

*>Winner: Allunæ*

...

*>Winner: Allunæ*

*>Belt Promoted!*

*>Rank: Red Belt ★★★ -> Maroon Belt ★*

*>Winner: Allunæ*

...

*>Winner: Allunæ*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★★ -> ★★★*

*Uh... One more?*

The adage "one more game" was a trap. If you won, you had to end on a loss. If you lost, you had to end on a win. And if you were one step away from a Black Belt, "one more game" was required!

*>Select your class:*

...

*>Locked in: Elemental Mage*

*>3...*

*>2...*

*>1...*

*>Welcome to Solo Duels.

*>Allunæ (Maroon Belt ★★★) vs Molotova (Maroon Belt ★★★)*

*>Map: Emergent Canopy*

*Ahhhh... A familiar face.*

Familiar faces became more and more common the higher one's rank was, and the one who appeared before her now was the feisty girl from Bren's posse.

This wasn't the only familiar thing about her, though.

They were both Elemental Mages, and upon randomization, both Allunæ and Molotova received Fire Mage.

The map was the canopy of a jungle; their spawn points were in the crests of leaves and branches of supermassive trees of unknown height.

*Wonder if she'll tell me anything about Bren?*

It was uncertain. However, there was one thing that was bound to happen no matter what.

*It's about to get hot in here.*

 

—

 

*>Allux: Tova, are you still stuck at Maroon Belt in Duels?*

*>Molotova: What? Of course not! I'm just experimenting with different classes.*

*>Adverse: Are you sure about that?*

*>Molotova: ??????*

*>BrenT: Calm down, everyone. She can do it if she puts her mind to it.*

*>Molotova: Naturally.*

*>BrenT: Just remember school starts next week.*

*>Molotova: Ah? Right. Yes.*

*>Allux: Don't let our team down.*

*>Molotova: Shut up, Al.*

*>Allux: Don't call me that.*

*>Molotova: AL AL AL AL AL AL AL AL-*

*>BrenT: Okay, that's enough. I'm going to go help with family business.*

*>BrenT has left the room.*

*>Allux: We're watching you, Tova.*

*>Allux has left the room.*

*>Adverse has left the room.*

Just like that, Zhutova Skeran was all alone in Concord's VR chat room.

"*Sigh*..."

*>Molotova has left the room.*

The luxurious lounge faded into the darkness as the world around her transformed into her personal virtual abode. She opened the door right in front of her, and...

"Haaaah!"

*SMASH*

*CRASH*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH THAT DAMN AL!!!"

...

This was her favorite VR pastime - the Rage Room widget.

It was an ordinary room, but her character strength was obscenely high, and all objects' brittleness was turned up to 11.

Clocks, mirrors, glasses, vases, screens...

Nothing was safe as Tova tore down the room as explosively as she could. Shiny glass shards flew everywhere scattering across the floor and furniture.

Paintings, chairs, tables, appliances...

Tova rampaged to her heart's content.

Every time she threw a punch, she imagined Allux's stupid face on the other end of it.

"Haah.... Haahahahaha....!"

Naturally, the room was a mess.

She hadn't had enough yet, but there was nothing else left to break, and she didn't want to ruin her progress by resetting the room.

*BANG BANG BANG...*

With a couple of punches at the walls for good measure, Tova left the Rage Room and entered VMA's Public Sandbox.

The Sandbox consisted of two options: Public and Private. The Private one was simple - one simply chose a map and loaded into the game to practice their skills in a solo setting. Training dummies, targets, obstacles, and much more could be added to perform drills and hone one's abilities.

The Public one, though, was Molotova's favorite. It was basically an open world with countless players scattered everywhere. There were no objectives and no laws. It was anarchy.

*>Loading:*

*>20%*

*>30%*

*>40%*

...

"Come on, come on, come on..."

Each spawn point was random, so it was a complete gamble as to where one would start out. Tova prayed as hard as possible for her favorite terrain.

The loading animation reached 100% and VMA's open world rendered around her.

"YES!"

Not only was she in the middle of a jungle, but the system had blessed her with a Fire Mage.

Tova cast all of her spells without even waiting one second.

"Flame Wall! Flame Shot! Flame Lance!"

This, along with spewing Basic Attacks nonstop, was... less than ideal for the environment. The wood around her sizzled and smoldered.

"Flame Wall! Flame Shot! Flame Lance!"

The bark smoldered more and more heavily, and the surrounding leaves caught fire. Slowly but surely, the flames crawled towards the driest bits of wood.

*WHOOSH*

A fiery eruption rose from the kindling.

Leaves everywhere lit ablaze. Countless twigs crackled on the ground.

Surrounding players quickly took notice, and like the good citizens of the planet they were, tried eliminating the problem from the root.

However, Tova was anything but defenseless.

*>Molotova ⚔️ Adrienne*

*>Molotova ⚔️ Twiisted*

*>Molotova ⚔️ Shadia*

*>Molotova ⚔️ Nala Xi Enjoyer*

*>Molotova ⚔️ The_Inevitable_Surgeon*

...

*>System announcement: Player Molotova is on a 10 player kill streak!*

...

The world was ablaze. Players died left and right amidst the forest fire. No one could mess with her here, and her heart was at ease.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the real world. The flames eventually died down, and the terrain quickly regenerated its former pristineness.

"Tch."

*>Molotova ⚔️ Kid Knee*

*>System announcement: Player Molotova is on a 20 player kill streak!*

With one final parting gift, Tova was more than "warmed up".

Logging out of the Public Sandbox, she dove straight into Duels.

As much as she wanted her catharsis to last forever, it wasn't feasible. As the game loaded, the problems forcefully crawled back into her mind.

"'We're watching'??? Fucking creep!"

Of course, he was talking about her performance in "The Coalition", but did it matter? That Allux was a creep regardless!

*>Locked in: Elemental Mage*

*>Welcome to Solo Duels.*

*>Molotova (Red Belt ★★★) vs Azerix (Maroon Belt ★)*

*>Map: F40X Asteroid*

It was time to take out the rest of her anger on her opponents!

*>Winner: Molotova*

*>Belt Promoted!*

*>Rank: Red Belt ★★★ -> Maroon Belt ★*

...

*>Winner: Molotova*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★ -> ★★*

...

*>Winner: Molotova*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★★ -> ★★★*

"Easy."

Three simple victories in a row. Now, with one last game, she would prove she truly deserved a spot in The Coalition. Stuck at Maroon Belt? What a joke.

However...

...

*>Winner: Bvorak999*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★★★ -> ★★*

"Unlucky."

As a mage, how was she supposed to fight in a tight space against a Juggernaut? It was alright, though, no big deal.

...

*>Winner: Molotova*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★★ -> ★★★*

...

*>Winner: Ezerius*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★★★ -> ★★*

"Again?"

How was she supposed to fight an Archer in a wide-open space?

"It's fine... It's fine..."

It was but a minor setback.

...

*>Winner: Molotova*

*>Rank: Maroon Belt ★★ -> ★★★*

"Whew..."

It was a complete beatdown against another Archer; a well-deserved victory. Her confidence shot through the roof. This time, the Black Belt was definitely within reach!

"Hear my prayers, Goddess!"

*>Locked in: Elemental Mage*

*>Welcome to Solo Duels.*

*>Molotova (Maroon Belt ★★★) vs Allunæ (Maroon Belt ★★★)*

*>Map: Emergent Canopy*

Were her prayers truly heard?

It was time for Fire Mage action in the jungle, just like she'd played in the Public Sandbox. And, it was against another Fire Mage! On top of this, out of the thousands of maps in the game, this was her favorite, so she knew all the ins and outs.

Victory was practically guaranteed.

"I pity you," Tova scoffed.

She was barely even paying attention to the world in front of her anymore - only visions of reclaiming her Black Belt crossed her mind.

Yes, not long ago, she *had* been a Black Belt in Duels. However, her performance as of late was severely lacking. Everyone in The Coalition picked up on it, but no one knew it better than Tova herself.

*>Fight!*

"Today's the day I reclaim my worth! Flame Lance!"

"Your worth?" her opponent asked.

"You wouldn't know. Flame Shot!"

Both of Tova's abilities missed, but her goal in this match wasn't directly striking her opponent to deplete her HP. Instead, it was to burn the surrounding footholds and have her plunge to her death!

Fall damage wasn't prevalent in VMA, but fall damage from extreme heights like these trees that approached 1 kilometron?

As long as she could secure the height advantage and burn away all ground Allunæ could stand on, it was a victory. All she had to do was guide her opponent to a place with precarious footing and burn her off the map!

However, she quickly realized this battle wasn't going to be as easy as she anticipated.

*Why is her aim so good??*

Of course, from this distance with slow projectiles, neither of their accuracies were 100%. However, why did it seem like Allunæ could read her mind? Everywhere Tova stepped was like a minefield of fireballs!

*-1*

*-1*

*-1*

...

Countless miniature fireballs raged through the forest. Neither side was safe, but it was evident that Allunæ's true skill level was beyond the Maroon Belt.

"I can't fucking hit her!"

They were playing the same class, which meant their physiques and abilities were identical. So why did it feel like she was swimming against a raging current, slowly being pushed back?

Tova gritted her teeth in anger as she persisted. Just because Allunæ's mechanical skill exceeded hers didn't mean the battle was over.

Map knowledge was among the most important skills of top VMA players, and it was actually one of the things holding Tova herself back from higher ranks. Usually, she was the more mechanically skilled one, but she would often find herself losing because of some minor unknown feature of a map she never bothered to memorize.

In this instance, though, she found herself on the opposite side of the equation. Mechanical skill wasn't worth as much since Elemental Mages had natural resistances to their own element - in fact, setting a Fire Mage on fire even buffed their attacks in exchange for HP. Rather, she was confident almost no one knew more about this map than she did!

""Flame Shot!""

""Flame Lance!""

""Flame Wall!""

The explosive Fire Shots collided midair with a *BANG* and the Fire Lances vaporized each other.

"How???"

Tova was once again taken aback by Allunæ's mechanical skill. Hitting a player was one thing, but hitting a speeding projectile with one of your own? It had to be said that Tova wasn't aiming most of her Shots and Lances directly at Allunæ, but rather at various organic structures around her.

They were both Fire Mage? What a load of crap. One of them was a true magician!

It didn't matter.

Tova could count on her Flame Wall to guide Allunæ as she pleased.

Sweat poured down her forehead as the forest fires grew wilder and wilder. It had started with miniature fireballs singing leaves, but the massive Flame Walls ignited almost everything they touched.

Both of them had to be incredibly careful as to where they stepped - the previously stable footholds of thick branches and leaves began losing their integrity.

*CRACK*

*CRASH*

The lighter branches from above were the first to fall. However, "lighter" didn't necessarily mean they were small. These virtual trees were around 1 kilometron in height, and even the smallest branches at the tippy top of the canopy were wider than human torsos.

*CRASH*

The previously peaceful forest transformed into a hellscape of endless fiery meteorites bombarding them from above.

This was a good thing.

The more the footholds gave out, the more Tova was at an advantage. She knew where to step. She knew which branches would give out first. Only her opponent would have to spend mental resources to remain afloat.

Tova continued skillfully casting her Flame Walls along branches, trunks, and leaves. The Mage's Walls didn't have to be cast along the ground; as long as there was a surface, the walls could even be built upside down. Ordinarily, the walls wouldn't last more than 10 seconds. However, the hyper-flammable terrain allowed remnants of the Flame Walls to persist well beyond that time limit.

Slowly but surely, she wrapped Allunæ in a chokehold.

"You won't slip away now."

Allunæ had been choosing her steps methodically, and while this kept her from falling, it made her an easy target to corral.

Tova moved in closer and closer to refine the construction of her cage. The more Flame Walls she planted, the more leaves evaporated, and the more branches tumbled from the sky, taking others with them.

This was it!

Tova didn't even need a spell - it was the final slew of Basic Attacks. They were not even remotely targeted at Allunæ, but rather at one of the many branches above her.

*CREEEEAK*

The top of the tree rumbled and shook as a gigantic branch tumbled down.

Her opponent had nowhere to run, nowhere to jump. The only thing Allunæ could do was watch as the building-sized flame crushed her.

*CRASH*

Tova closed her eyes as the collateral damage from the branch spewed flaming debris everywhere. When she reopened them, the only thing that remained where Allunæ was standing was a gaping pit with endless smoke rising from below.

Molotova sighed in relief. In a few seconds, the system would announce her victory.

"Finally... Hahahahah!"

She laughed and punched at the air with glee.

But...

"What're you laughing about?"

"????!!"

"Stone Lance!"

*-200*

Tova's heart dropped.

She stood there, stunned, as Allunæ had somehow reappeared in front of her.

*-10*

*-20*

*-20*

...

"Dammit!"

Tova took several hits before she could even react.

At melee range now, the two went at it with hand-to-hand combat. However, as a mage player, raw martial arts weren't her specialty.

But it shouldn't be Allunæ's specialty, either!

Tova was completely suppressed by her opponent's mechanical skill as a mage, and now she felt as if she were fighting against her master going all out.

*>Winner: Allunæ*

Molotova dropped to her knees as the inexplicable post-match lobby appeared before her.

"WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK?????????????????????????"

How could this be?

All thoughts left her head as she punched the ground.

Only then did she realize Allunæ was still there, staring at her.

"A- Ahem," Tova cleared her throat and pretended like everything was fine.

What was she thinking? Tova could simply ask what happened.

"Do you know BrenT on VMA?"

"Eh?"

A question out of left field. What was this all of a sudden?

Actually, why was she even questioning it? Whenever people recognized her, all they wanted to know was Bren's whereabouts or something. Apparently, being a member of The Coalition only meant being a conduit to deliver its leader messages.

"If you see him, tell him to add me as a friend."

Tova stopped herself from instantly refusing.

This player had beat her on a map she'd spent hundreds of hours burning down over and over again. Perhaps it was wiser to make a deal.

"... Tell me how you did that, and maybe I'll consider it."

"I used Mud Wall."

"Huh???"

"I'll give you more details if you can get BrenT to add me. Deal?"

"..."

"Ah, I've gotta go. How about you add me first?"

Allunæ suddenly logged out.

"... What?"

 

—

 

Molotova led Jisha around by the nose on the Emergent Canopy map, and as much as it sucked, it couldn't be helped. The map was far too complex. Leaves everywhere, branches, vines, various footholds, a three-dimensional terrain with variable destructibility... There was simply too much information to process with one look.

It didn't take long for Jisha to figure out that her opponent knew the map very well. This was a problem. No matter how smart someone was, they couldn't win a chess game against a grandmaster if they'd never seen a chessboard before.

No matter where she walked, the Flame Walls would always lead her towards more and more treacherous terrain with more and more risky footholds. It was quite literally a maze with only one exit - Molotova's final act.

It was commendable. How much knowledge of the map was required to pull off something like that?

As she watched the giant flaming branch drop onto her, Jisha truly thought she might lose. However, she wasn't just going to sit there and accept defeat.

*Is there anything at all?*

As the branch plummeted towards her, she looked everywhere to find *something* that could save her.

When she looked down, a lightbulb went off in her head.

*I think this should work.*

It was risky, but there wasn't enough time to try anything else.

So, into the depths of impending doom... she jumped. With the leaf as a launchpad, she used all the force her legs could muster. Her target? A lone vine.

Was the vine sturdy enough? Was it long enough? Did she have enough momentum to properly execute her plan? All of these variables remained unknown. The only way to solve them was to try!

And...

*First phase, complete!*

Her jump was a success! She latched on like a wild monkey; the momentum from her fall allowed the vine to swing like a pendulum. This pendulum swung towards another tree trunk.

Using the other trunk as a foothold...

*Mud Wall!*

When she'd used Mud Wall against the Yellow Belt Adoya, she'd noticed it sprung out of the ground with high velocity.

Using the Mud Wall as a booster, the pendulum swung the way it came with much greater force.

And...

There was well enough speed for the vine to carry her back up from where she'd fallen.

There was so much smoke that Molotova had naturally been caught off guard.

From there, it was a simple melee beatdown.

Ridiculous? Of course it was. But this was the level of ridiculous creativity required to break out of an impossible situation.

Jisha would reveal her strategy if and only if BrenT added her as a friend. However, before she could wait around long enough... she received a notification on Concord, a third-party messaging application.

*>Synycal: Come over!*