A virtual body is not flesh and blood.
When human beings are no longer bound by the restraints they are born with, just what heights can their hands reach?
After the thunderous noise gradually died away, the man holding the spear in one hand slowly drew back the shaft and planted his foot on the ground with a crisp sound. The gaze hidden beneath his bangs held no emotion at all as he calmly watched the blonde girl he had struck down in a single blow.
"Send him a message. That way, there won't be any unnecessary trouble."
Didos's voice sounded as though it were echoing slowly up from the depths of a dark mine.
Argo, meanwhile, could not understand any of it.
Why could that resilient girl be defeated by a single strike alone?
Was it an absolute difference in character stats?
No, impossible. Sheeta of the Divine Dragon Alliance was top class in both level and equipment. That should have been impossible.
Then why?
This grim reaper who had appeared at her side in an instant with a charging skill, that one strike like breaking dawn, contained a power that all but surpassed current understanding.
Where had it come from?
Argo took a slight step back. Her lack of understanding left her unable to properly grasp the situation, and so the mystery of the man before her turned wholly into a wave of terrifying pressure.
Didos quietly watched Sheeta struggle back up from the ground. There was no fear on the girl's face, only the same resolve as before.
"No. That is absolutely unacceptable."
Using her sword to support herself, the girl slowly rose from a crouch to her feet.
Didos gave a slight shake of his head, but it seemed he understood her determination.
"Then I can only make you submit."
He stepped forward.
His build was undeniably massive and powerful, with a chest even broader than Agil's, and his advance alone carried immense pressure. He pulled the plain, unremarkable spear free from the ground again and held it in one hand. Unhurried and calm, he simply walked toward Sheeta.
Then he brought it down.
The spear, carrying a pale gleam, slashed mercilessly toward the girl.
But at that very moment, golden thorns bloomed in full.
Her brilliant golden hair swayed like flower shadows as the girl, having rallied herself again, dodged the blow. Seizing the opening left by Didos's recovery after his attack, she launched a fearless counterattack. For perhaps the first time ever, she clenched her teeth tight.
Clang!
A sharp sound rang out. In front of Didos's left chest, he used the shaft of the spear like a shield and blocked the lightning fast strike.
The cold, merciless man and the golden haired girl faced each other, their gazes locked.
"Beautiful."
Didos looked at the breathtakingly lovely girl before him and gave that emotionless assessment. Then he drove one arm forward, using both the shaft of the spear and Flameforged at once to shove the girl back, and the spear in his right hand chopped toward the girl at close range like an axe.
It should have been a weapon meant for long range combat and thrusting, yet in his hands it moved like a long handled axe swung at ease.
"Mm!"
Sheeta let out a muffled groan. No one knew where the immense force in that spear came from. Once again, she was driven back.
What followed was an assault of terrifying speed that made the nerves go numb.
The constant ring of steel crashing against steel echoed out as the crimson blade was steadily pushed back under the pale spear tip.
"You're still not fast enough."
Didos looked coldly at Sheeta as she struggled to parry his attacks, speaking in the tone of a teacher correcting a student's clumsy technique.
Under that relentless pressure, the usually quiet girl finally found a fleeting opening and unleashed a Sword Skill.
Blue light wrapped around Flameforged's fire like blade, and in a style utterly unlike her usual self, eight overbearing sword shadows burst forth. The absolute priority granted by the system to the Sword Skill finally broke through Didos's assault, severed his momentum, and slashed toward him.
Rending Octave.
A mid level one handed straight sword skill.
It was as fast as a rapier, piercing through the pale dusk like shadow and striking straight at Didos's face.
The man sharply turned his head aside. Flameforged's edge only barely grazed his face, leaving a crimson streak and carving a faint cut across Didos's cheek.
The force of that sudden motion sent the long bangs that had always hidden his eyes flying up, finally revealing those black pupils like stagnant water.
"Beautiful."
The same praise left his mouth again, but this time it held more sincerity than before.
And within those black pupils, hidden deep in his eyes, a faint dim golden light flickered, almost too subtle to notice.
"!!"
Sheeta stared into those eyes with a look of utter disbelief.
How similar that feeling was.
How similar that sensation was.
How similar that gaze was.
"Yurne... ro?"
Sheeta stood there in a daze, letting out that simple voice from the bottom of her heart.
But Didos showed no hesitation at her change. After evading that heavy Sword Skill, the spear, which had paused for only an instant, came sweeping back. This time it smashed sideways into the girl's waist. The shaft seemed filled with tremendous brute force, and once again it sent her flying.
Having taken control of the battle once more, Didos silently watched Sheeta as she was knocked through the air and crashed to the ground. He did not press the attack immediately, only stood there and watched her struggle up again.
"You... you are..."
Sheeta's voice came out in broken, troubled fragments.
"No..."
"Only..."
"Only you..."
"You can't meet him."
Up to this point, those were perhaps the words from the girl that carried the most tangled emotion. The twisted way they emerged from her lips showed the turmoil in her heart. Trembling, she used Flameforged as support and forced herself upright again. Pain now filled a face that had never shown worry before.
"No..."
she murmured softly, almost as though blaming herself.
"Only this. Absolutely not."
Sheeta launched a fierce assault on Didos. Along with the sound of Flameforged tearing through the air came the disordered tone of her voice.
"Absolutely not!"
Sonic Leap.
Sharp Nail.
Slant.
The trajectory traced by the girl's crimson blade was a chained combination of multiple Sword Skills.
It was an attack born of complete mastery over those skills, almost instinctive, as though it perfectly mirrored a certain player's combat style. More than that, built upon that theory, her sword had already surpassed the speed granted by system assistance and reached a level beyond it.
A crimson sword.
Golden hair.
"So that's it... is this the power of the man XaXa spoke of?"
Didos finally took the spear in both hands and assumed a stance to receive the attack.
Behind the bangs that had settled back down, his black eyes finally turned completely into a clear, radiant gold.
...
The coordination between the shield swordsman and the curved sword user was flawless. When one advanced, the other stood ready. After three or four months of fighting together, that teamwork had already sunk into their bones. Naturally, it was the highest priority tactic forged through countless battles.
But.
Neither the poncho player nor XaXa with his clownish manner of speaking showed any sign of faltering.
Even while each facing two members of the front line group alone, neither of them was at a disadvantage.
"Hah... what even is this?"
XaXa sighed as he continuously carved away at his opponents' HP bars with his rapier.
"Do you really take me for one of those labyrinth monsters that can't adapt?"
"Did you really think I'd fall for something that obvious, charge right into those baiting skills of yours, get locked in recovery, and then be finished off by the other one?"
The dissatisfaction in his voice only grew deeper.
"Try changing the way you fight your enemies a little, would you?"
"Can't you at least make those baiting skills look more convincing? Doesn't fighting like this kill all the excitement?"
Tactics made for hunting prey were completely meaningless against real humans who could actually judge a situation.
But the more tragic part was that these high level players, so skilled at hunting, seemed unable to find any other tactical methods to use with teammates once they were in pairs.
If they carelessly jumped in, they would only disrupt their ally's attack and cause mistakes.
But if they waited for an opening, no opening appeared.
More importantly, the target they were calculating damage against was no longer prey, and that alone threw them into confusion.
Monsters only repeated fixed attack patterns. Over time, players naturally built up an internal sense of how much damage and risk came with different kinds of attacks. But an opponent who was also a player was different. The ways they could kill changed endlessly depending on the person and the situation.
Even a mere hundred points of damage could be piled up through normal attacks alone, or mixed in with skills.
That was the absolute opposite of monsters.
Adaptability.
And even if everyone here was made of data, a player's avatar still carried a soul. It was alive. The feeling transmitted through a blade when carving away flesh bit by bit was already completely different.
"They're just filthy red players!" someone shouted in frustration.
"But you're the ones getting beaten stiff by filthy trash, aren't you?" XaXa burst into that irritating laugh again.
Stats, equipment, level.
Those things should have given them the advantage.
Yet they were the ones being pushed back.
At the end of the day, in an ordinary game, this kind of gap was actually normal.
It was simply the difference between PVE players and PVP players.
"Do you really think you can get away with this?! Be ready to face the fury of the entire front line after this!" the shield swordsman shouted like a threat.
"That really does sound like something a member of the strongest guild around would say," the poncho player replied with a low laugh. "What we're doing probably looks like pointless, profitless fooling around to you. But what if I told you this was enough to shake your whole side to its core, Officer of the Divine Dragon Alliance?"
"What...?"
"Mmh, think about it carefully. We red players you look down on should really be going after low level players with no power to resist. So why would we suddenly attack a major guild party like yours here, right in front of a Floor Boss gate?"
The poncho player's voice brimmed with irrepressible delight.
"Don't get so worked up. I'm helping you."
"That's nonsense..."
"No, no, no. You only say that because you don't know." The poncho player continued, "By doing this, we're risking our own lives just to help you expose a certain someone."
The poncho player and XaXa stepped back together with practiced coordination, standing side by side as they faced the four utterly vigilant players.
"Think about it. If a guild claiming justice and devoted to clearing the game was hiding one of the earliest red players, that would be a pretty serious matter, wouldn't it?"
"What are you talking about...?"
"Oh, I'm being perfectly clear. What I mean is that inside the Divine Dragon Alliance, there is a man who committed player murder earlier than anyone else in this game."
The four of them froze.
"You think I'd..."
"How heartbreaking. I came here with a sense of justice to tell you this." The two men, with their crimson markers overhead, shook their heads like wronged, law abiding citizens. "And it's someone you know very well too."
The poncho player smiled meaningfully.
"That man is your famous Vice Commander, Yurnero."
"What.?!"
The shield swordsman stared at him in shock.
"In the Town of Beginnings, yes, during the very first month after this game began, that man personally killed three pure and innocent fellow players on the field of the Setting Sun . I saw it all with my own eyes."
"You think... I'd believe your nonsense?"
No.
Whether you believe it or not does not matter.
Because
I'm about to reward you with a real fact, unfolding right before your eyes.
As delight deepened in the poncho player's gaze, all four of them collapsed in disbelief. Each of them had a small knife stuck in their back.
"Hey, hey! Johnny! What took you so long to make your move?!" XaXa was the first to jump up and complain to his companion.
The four players sprawled on the ground glared bitterly at the flashing paralysis status in the upper left corner of their vision.
"Well, those four weren't exactly ordinary opponents. If I wanted to ambush all of them at once, I had to wait for the right moment."
A lazy, smug voice came from the direction of the labyrinth entrance. A player who was解除ting his stealth skill shrugged as he spoke.
"Mm, that settles it."
The poncho player walked over, crouched beside the shield swordsman's head, and spoke softly in a tone like he was reading a bedtime story.
"Then I'll give you a chance, Officer. Hurry up and call over your friends from the Divine Dragon Alliance. Ah, and while you're at it, you can call the Knights of the Blood too."
He finally let out a laugh.
The situation that would drive that man into a corner was finally complete.
The poncho player looked toward Didos and smiled with quiet meaning.
...
Sheeta had no idea how many times she had already been knocked down.
But the girl still refused to give up.
She struggled to rise again.
She had to... she absolutely had to defeat him.
She could not let this man meet Yurnero.
This was… absolutely unacceptable.
And yet the eyes she turned toward the cold Didos were also full of sorrow.
Ah.
This too was a tragedy born from her own failure to fulfill her duty properly.
But if, if there was even one person she could save, then she truly wished it could be... that person.
She was forced down again.
Didos placed a foot on the girl's back, pinning her firmly to the ground.
The inscrutable man looked toward the poncho player's side and received an OK gesture.
This was enough.
Didos thought.
This was enough to protect them.
To protect these hard won friends by his side.
He looked at XaXa and the poncho player, then for the first time let out a long sigh.