"Sorry, I got a bit too excited and didn't watch my strength," Chen apologized.
Listening to Chen, Alos felt pain radiating through his entire body. Yet, strangely, the moment he took off the VR glasses, the parts of his body that had just been pummeled felt no pain at all.
Is this thing... really this intense? Alos thought.
He looked at McBride. "Does it hurt this much when you play?"
McBride, who was currently sparring with Li Li, nodded while playing. "Yes... I'm used to it. You'll get used to it too."
Alos looked at McBride's screen and saw him playing a massive, muscular fat man holding his own against a young girl. Knowing his own skill was still far from enough and not wanting to be looked down upon by his old friend, Alos gritted his teeth and put the glasses back on.
"Could you... go a bit easier?" he asked Chen in-game.
"I'll only use light punches and kicks then," Chen agreed immediately.
Twenty seconds later.
"K.O!" "Perfect!"
Chen was a man of his word; he used nothing but light attacks. Yet, even so, he drove Alos's Sagat to the edge of the stage with just a few moves and finished him off with a perfect combo of rapid-fire strikes.
While the individual pain of each hit was lower this time, the speed at which Chen's attacks landed was significantly faster. Alos spent half the match in the air, being juggled upward every time he tried to land, only to be kicked back into the sky the moment he hit the ground.
It was miserable. The last time he felt this pathetic was being physically disciplined by an instructor after a fight at the military academy.
Realizing that staying on this path would only result in more beatings, Alos saw that this Pandaren was far from the incompetent creature he had imagined. He lowered his posture. "Master... could you find me a weaker opponent? Then you can guide me from the side, and maybe I can actually get some practice in."
Chen had been thinking the same thing; the first two rounds were merely to humble Alos. He called over Raymond, who was watching nearby, to act as the opponent.
Tess immediately said to Alos, "Uncle, this guy is the weakest player in our cafe. If you can't even beat him, you might as well give up."
Raymond didn't mind Tess's teasing; he was used to it. In fact, he was quite happy, thinking he finally found a newbie he could "bully."
For the match, Raymond—who wasn't an expert with any specific character—chose Ken, a character very similar to Wayne's favorite, Ryu.
As soon as the match started, Raymond began spamming "Hadoken" without a word.
"Hadoken!" Clap. "Hadoken!" Clap. "Hadoken!" Clap.
The audio sounded like a broken record. The ki blasts hit Alos but were blocked by his guard.
"You can fire projectiles too. Give it a try," Chen instructed.
Under Chen's guidance, Alos pushed his hands forward. A red, tiger-shaped flame flew out, colliding with Raymond's Hadoken and exploding into nothingness.
Consequently, the game turned into a two-person horizontal shooting match. Both acted as if they only knew one move, continuously firing projectiles at each other. Since it was a training session, the timer was set to infinite.
Tess couldn't help but shout, "Stop fighting already! You can't kill each other like that!"
Wayne patted Chen on the shoulder. "Teach him properly... I can't watch this anymore." He then walked back to his private booth.
Chen began teaching Alos how to use forward jumps to bypass projectile-happy opponents, how to use close-range strikes and throws to control distance, and how to pin an opponent against the edge of the screen. He also emphasized defense during openings, baiting the opponent to attack, and then countering their mistakes.
If nothing else, Alos was exceptionally good at defending. The two rounds of intense pain from Chen had instilled a strong instinct to dodge and block. Although Alos was a latecomer to the game, he possessed something that no one else in the room except Chen could match: combat experience.
Unlike many officers, Alos had started commanding small units immediately after graduation, accumulating merit through skirmishes. Because his military theory scores had been low, he was initially assigned as a patrol captain, escorting official supply caravans from Stranglethorn Vale to Stormwind.
Later, during the Defias and Bloodsail Buccaneer uprisings, he had carved his way from Duskwood to Booty Bay. He eventually fought the pirates so fiercely they didn't dare set foot on land, so he took a small boat and chased them onto their islands to continue the slaughter.
It was due to these merits that he was "accidentally" assigned to the Navy, eventually rising to become the commander of the Alliance's Second Legion. His presence was also a vital symbol of Alliance sovereignty in Theramore.
Every time a Hadoken was fired, Alos would leap into the air and descend with Sagat's unique Tiger Knee and Tiger Elbow, leaving Raymond with no room to fight back.
"Whoa! This uncle is actually pretty good!"
The players watching didn't know Alos's identity, but they were impressed by his visible, rapid improvement.
Next, Chen had Reinier act as his opponent. After four or five rounds, Alos was evenly matched with Reinier, who had been focused on Age of Empires II lately.
"See, Marshal? You'd better be careful later," Verdan said.
Cantebury couldn't help but add, "Marshal, don't forget what the bet was."
McBride, usually an amiable man without any air of superiority, found his competitive cells fully activated whenever he faced his old friend. "Don't worry, girl. I might lose to anyone, but I won't lose to him."
Alos didn't back down. "Just wait. Let me practice a bit more, and I'll have you crying for your mother."
The crowd in the cafe loved the drama, and the counter was buzzing. Members of the Stormwind forces whose Hearthstones were set to the Lion's Pride Inn used them immediately; those near mages requested portals. Soon, the cafe was packed.
Wayne questioned high-ranking members like Verdan, but since they had returned with McBride, they knew nothing beyond the fact that Anduin had been rescued. Seeing that top-tier experts like Shadowbreaker and Andromath hadn't returned, Wayne couldn't help but worry. He feared that by changing the timeline—saving Marshal Windsor—he might have altered the flow of events entirely.
However, looking at the returning soldiers, it didn't seem like anything had happened to Varian or Lo'Gosh.
Before long, a massive crowd gathered in the lobby to watch the showdown.
"The Marshal tried a command throw! The General dodged it!" "What do you know? That's the Marshal testing the waters. One grab is all it takes." "The General is spamming high and low projectiles! Even Chen doesn't look this aggressive." "Can Chen's Guile fire projectiles at different heights? This is the General's '3D' assault." "Oh! The Marshal knocked the General down!" "See? The simplest moves are the most effective." "Wait, the uncle got back up and tripped the Marshal right back!"
The noise grew louder. Tess ran to Wayne. "Boss, come quick! The Marshal and that General uncle are fighting so intensely!"
Wayne, preoccupied with his thoughts, felt a bit irritated. "I'm not looking. What's so interesting about two noobs pecking at each other?"
In the lobby, McBride won the first round. Alos refused to accept it, claiming he hadn't played enough and demanded a best-of-three. McBride refused, but with the crowd cheering, he eventually agreed.
After three rounds, Alos had won two in a row. Now McBride was unhappy, claiming he had let Alos win to build his confidence, and demanded a best-of-five.
Soon, even the people in the upstairs booths were drawn down by the bickering. Amidst more cheering and chaos, the score reached 3-2. McBride regained the lead, and Alos protested again.
They went from a best-of-seven to a best-of-seventeen. It was turning into a marathon. As night fell, both commanders had to return to the city to report for duty, finally ending the session.
The two commanders, behaving like old children, bickered all the way to the door. Verdan and Cantebury were sweating, trying to mediate while suffering internally.
"You're just a sore loser," McBride said. "All these years, and you still won't admit I'm better."
"I absolutely won't! I asked around—you've been playing three days longer than me. Give me three days, and I'll crush you," Alos retorted.
"Forget it! Even three years wouldn't help! I'm your senior from the academy; don't forget who tutored you when you were failing your tactics class!"
"Don't bring up the past! Let's talk about now. Are you saying my leadership is inferior to yours?"
"Oh? You lost the duel, so now you want to compare troop leading? Fine, want to try tomorrow?"
"Try me! Just wait until I call my men!"
McBride immediately stuck out his pinky finger. "Fine! Tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM, right here. We won't fight personally. We each pick five people and command them in a war simulation. Whoever doesn't show up is a coward!"
"Fine! Just you wait!"
One used his Hearthstone, while the other asked Zardeth to open a portal to Stormwind. They vanished one after the other.
Wayne finally felt the world go quiet... until Tess ran up to him again.
"Boss, you have to see this."
"See what now? Can't I just have a moment of peace?" Wayne groaned.
"There's a very strange person outside," Tess said. "He's been staring at us for a long time, but he won't come in."
"Maybe he's just curious? Let him stare; it's not like we're doing anything illegal."
Tess put her hands on her hips. "Stupid boss! Come with me! If it were just a normal bystander, I wouldn't have bothered you!"
Wayne sighed and stood up. Based on Tess's tone, his first thought was: Great, is it another Bronze Dragon, a Black Dragon, or some weirdo delivering a message?
He walked to the door. On the road not far away, he saw a man sitting upright on a tall bay horse. He could only see a thick, greyish-white beard; the rest of the man's features were obscured by a hood and the night.
Just as Tess said, the horse was nothing special, and the man's clothing was incredibly ordinary. He carried a large wooden hammer on his back that looked even worse than the weapons used by novice adventurers. Yet, within this incredibly plain exterior, there emanated an extraordinarily powerful aura.
It was as if wherever he went, a beam of bright, holy light followed his presence.