"Five grand, you're an asshole."
———
Hall 153 of The Unknown. A low-quality, near-dilapidated cinema hall, seated with only a handful of scattered viewers.
"WHAT?!" Sean jolted up abruptly from his seat. One moment earlier, he was completely hopeless for Xiao Bai, and was expecting the beam of fire from Noah to absolutely incinerate the goth girl without resistance.
"I'm not watching, I'm not watching, I'm not watching..." Eleanor was curled up tightly in her seat, two palms firmly covering her face.
Sean pried her fingers away from her eyes forcefully, "No! No! Eleanor, LOOK AT THE SCREEN!"
"I'M NOT WATCHING I'M NOT WATCHING AHHHHHH YOU BLOCKHEAD! Oh..." Eleanor's panic gradually simmered down after the edge of her vision caught the screen.
"The Shadow Daggerist just saved Xiao Bai." Sean explained what was happening in the livestream rapidly, "Do they know each other? Why don't I know that they know each other? What did Shadow Daggerist call Xiao Bai? Five grand? Huh??"
Theodon, next to them, was equally bewildered, as he stood frozen stiff, watching the footage ahead without making a single sound. He'd pay extra attention to Xiao Bai's eyes, those lifeless brown eyes reflecting so much confidence that it genuinely disgusted Theodon.
The firmness in Xiao Bai's gaze told Theodon that this was all under his intentions, perhaps even under his manipulation somehow. Theodon didn't know how, but...
———
Back on Klein's Bridge of [Werewolf By Vermillion].
After the insult and a succinct glare at the unfortunately short goth girl, Eryn turned her emerald eyes back onto the two Nazis ahead, drawing two intricately-designed daggers, one on each palm, both glimmering sharply via reflection.
Noah was more stunned than anything, as he repositioned his ablaze runes around himself defensively, with a deep frown and grinding molars.
The arrogant Mikkel, on the other hand, laughed so hard that his hazel eyes were forced shut, "HAHAHAHAHAHA! What the fuck is even happening?! Hahahaha..."
"What the hell is funny? Your lack of hair, dipshit?" Eryn's sharp tongue cut cleanly through the laughter.
Mikkel would justify himself arrogantly, "I'm the strongest player by power in this game. If you wanna live, you wouldn't defend her, and you certainly wouldn't insult me. So what? Life's been too tough? You like suicide by rape?"
"Jesus Christ, your confidence is insufferable. I'd rather get gangbanged by five midgets than spend another minute talking to you." Eryn grimaced slightly, then rolled her eyes in annoyance.
Noah's gaze was averted downwards by instinct. Hanging in the cerulean sky was a sun as yellow as Earth's, thus illuminating a shadow beneath everything on the ground. That's the case, but Eryn was an exception; she didn't have a shadow beneath her at all.
By instinct again, Noah observed the ground near himself and Mikkel, then found a feminine shadow moving swiftly through the brick streets at a terrifying speed. Nothing physical casted that shadow.
"Look out!" Noah called urgently, but Mikkel didn't react in time.
"Tier 2, Swap." Eryn chanted right in front of Mikkel's eyes, then suddenly began fusing with the floor; a shadow formed with every missing piece of her body.
Meanwhile, for the feminine shadow that had just arrived beneath Mikkel, each of those missing pieces of Eryn would emerge. Not slowly, but swiftly, the gleaming dagger in her hand moving the fastest.
CRACK!
Eryn pounced onto Mikkel, who barely retreated in time, her dagger slashing an opening in Mikkel's bronze chestplate, leaving fragments spewing out violently in all directions. Unfortunately, the cut only shattered the armour, but was too shallow to damage Mikkel himself.
Mikkel stumbled backwards.
Meanwhile, the shadow on the ground in front of Chen Mo, casted by nothing, began waving at him urgently to run, pointing towards a horse-drawn carriage nearby. Chen Mo understood the cue instantly: "Hide," then he sprinted away without hesitation.
"Tier 1! Blazing Runes!" Noah chanted, and the ablaze runes near him shot forward towards Eryn.
As an A+ player compared to Noah's B+, Eryn was able to weave her body through the assault of all the runes. Each one of those burning symbols shot past her, narrowly missing every time, except for one.
Tsssssssss...
One of them grazed Eryn's left cheek. It sizzled faintly, leaving behind a subtle burn mark.
[HP -1] the system told Eryn.
"Shit," she muttered quietly, as an axe loomed above her, sharpening as it dropped.
"Tier 1, Unjust Laws, First." Mikkel chanted, before swinging hard downwards with force.
Eryn had intended to block the strike with her dual daggers. She'd step into a stance, stabilising her knees and positioning her daggers carefully to prepare for impact.
But, when the axe reached with a loud clink and several sparks, Eryn suddenly realised something: the axe was cutting straight through her daggers.
Eryn abandoned defence. She retracted her daggers before their blades were sliced off then rolled quickly to the side.
CRACK!!
The sharpened axe struck the brick streets with terrifying strength, enough to dent the ground severely while scattering shards in all directions.
Eryn evaded, backing up until she couldn't: the ablaze runes were lined up in a circle behind her, preventing any further retreat.
Noah, in the distance, commanded: "Tier 2, Arson."
The centre of the circle of runes roared violently with flames, before it blasted out a turbulent beam of fire.
Eryn vanished into the floor into a shadow.
She emerged instantly from behind Noah.
WHOOOOOOSH!!
The two daggers split the air. Then on impact, tore through the lava-coloured cape, completely obliterating the back of Noah's hardened magma armour.
[HP -10] the system informed Noah as blood splashed out from his back, and from his mouth.
"Arghhh..." Noah dropped onto his knees, groaning in pain.
"Tier 2, Execution." The bald Nazi, Mikkel, chanted, swinging his axe to cut through empty air. Then, a silver blade would be spawned from the arc Mikkel's swing created. The silver blade was rectangular, and resembled that of a guillotine.
The blade soared forward fiercely, directly aimed for Eryn.
Eryn vanished into the ground into a shadow.
The silver blade missed her, but continued its travel until smashing into a two-storey terrace house, slicing its second floor away from the first with a loud boom. The rubble would then crush all residents within it mercilessly.
Eryn appeared behind Mikkel this time.
"Tier 1, Unjust Laws, Second." Mikkel mumbled those words very quickly.
Eryn's dual daggers were shoved with all her strength towards the back of Mikkel's bronze armour, but—
CLANK!
Unlike her first attack on this set of armour, which shattered the chestplate, this ambush yielded not even a dent as a result.
Mikkel turned around, swinging the axe with his entire body weight behind it.
But the axe was blunt, and instead of slicing through Eryn, it struck her ribs heavily, then the force sent her flying to one side.
Having excellent agility, Eryn stuck the landing cleanly, but the axe to her ribs still dealt damage: [HP -3]
Noah got back onto his feet slowly. A feminine figure in the form of a shadow sprinted past him along the ground. Mikkel noticed that too, then he proudly declared, "Haha! I've already figured out two of your AAs."
"Really?" Eryn rubbed dust off her lips, "Because I've also figured out two of yours too. Even two of his." Eryn pointed at Noah briefly, then joked without laughter, "We have so much in common, if only you weren't a bald and ugly motherfucker who's gay as hell for Hitler."
"Hahahaha!" Mikkel was still as arrogant as ever, "Tier 1, Unjust Laws, First!" He rammed a sharpened axe into the ground, aiming directly for the feminine shadow.
That shadow dodged swiftly, and the axe ended up slicing through the street instead. Mikkel deduced confidently, "Your Tier 1 is a detachable shadow. Judging by how it dodged, it receives damage the same way you do, so it probably has other senses too.
"Your Tier 2 is called Swap. You and your shadow switch positions. You used that to avoid every attack your agility couldn't handle."
"And your Tier 1 is called useless." Eryn spat, her eyes and tongue still sharpened to their limit, "You either get a really strong axe or a really hard armour, but never both. Neither of which helps with your shitty body proportions and that repulsive face."
"You talk a lot of smack, Shadow Daggerist." Mikkel spun the axe in his hand with a smug smirk, "But there's a third law to my Tier 1. You not realising that means your brain is as underdeveloped as all other women."
"Oh my god, you're not just racist but also sexist? What's next, homophobic? Are you trying to collect the infinity stones of degenerate behaviour right now?" Eryn attracted the two pairs of eyes of the Nazis by stepping into a stance that suggested a quick attack, but she never pounced.
This was to distract the two, while her shadow slipped past the Nazis' guard and reached Chen Mo, hiding inside an empty horse-drawn carriage. Empty, because its passengers, along with most passersby from when the fight first began, had already sprinted away from the scene, including the enforcers.
One look, and these NPCs immediately understood that this wasn't a fight people of their level could participate in; this was a battle of elites.
The shadow first flipped Chen Mo off with the fiercest middle finger. No other words or expressions were needed to convey Eryn's anger towards Chen Mo. Then, it waved its hands, signaling for him to follow it. Chen Mo complied immediately, his expression still cold and unreadable.
As he sprinted northwards on Klein's Bridge with the shadow leading the way, his live chat at the bottom left of his vision would express their confusion:
[EleanorLmAo: what the hell is happening?]
[hianime11: newbie is friends with an A+ player?]
[GanGam: Who the hell is this Shadow Daggerist? ThataotGirl???]