Somnium Online

Raid 2

"En Garde!" Lysander shouted, shuffling forwards, his rapier disappearing in a blur of motion.

Eric deflected the lightning-fast series of slashes and thrusts, but just barely. He countered with his own series of attacks, but Lysander skipped around them with ease.

"You aren't half bad," Eric admitted.

"Where's that wind you were so proud of earlier?" Lysander taunted.

Eric gritted his teeth. One of the disadvantages of his style of offensive wind magic was it's tendency to obliterate everything in its path.

The sewers were too narrow and closed in. The right quarters made Alice's icicles, which normally were easy to dodge, into a lethal weapon. But they rendered Eric's whirling dagger trick nearly useless.

Eric shuffled out of range of a slash too fast to be dodged, much less seen.

"Boss, he's too fast for you, I'm turning on physical enhancement programs. Initiating program."

Eric nodded as his body grew exponentially lighter, time to finish this duel.

Anne cracked her knuckles. They popped nicely. Ash and sparks flashed all around her from where the massive fireball had demolished the building.

The building ahead of her was a charred wreck, the right wall totally gone, the floor had collapsed, and the ceiling was partially vaporized, the edges of the impact crater still glowing with heat.

Anne formed a volley of lightning bolts. The woman blocked them by encasing herself in shadows.

"That was stupid" Anne muttered, the lightning. Bounced off, circled around, and came back again, but with the same results.

"Fine. Have it your way, everyone clear out." Her unit scrambled to get behind her and find cover.

The woman spoke again, her voice was shrill and coarse. "I am Morgana, all who face me perish."

Anne clenched her fist, it started to glow faintly, then it glowed about as bright as a dim flashlight, after a few seconds it was bright as a good fire, then a lightbulb, a little longer and it's intensity approached that of the sun, you couldn't even look at it directly.

She charged.

Eric charged, his feet blurring as he ricocheted off the side of the wall, dropping behind Lysander and slashing diagonally.

Fencing is great at defending against frontal assaults. But Eric was playing outside the rules.

Lysander shuffled forwards, just barely avoiding being cleaved in two.

While his attention was diverted, Lin rushed him, coming in low. Which was exactly what Lysander wanted.

He kicked backward suddenly, taking Lin by surprise, and throwing her off balance.

She flew backward, and Lysander took the opportunity to retrieve her fallen katana.

"Oh shit," Brian whispered.

Lysander switched his stance from fencing to kendo.

"Is there any style this guy can't use?" Alex asked.

"Nope," Lysander smirked. "I couldn't decide on one style of sword fighting back in the real world, so I learned them all."

Eric gritted his teeth. That explained a lot. The strongest players in this world were the ones who already knew how to fight.

Eric tried an overhead slash, but Lysander snapped his blade over his head, forming a sort of roof that Eric's blow bounced off of.

Eric took a step back, giving himself some space. His fighting style wasn't based on any single method. He simply analyzed everything his opponent did and then adapted to solve it like a math problem.