The tall gold-haired woman in front of us looked to me like the commander of an army of knights. Her bright silver plate and her stern scowl gave her an unbreakable presence—and she walked with the step of someone who expected to be bowed to, even if nothing was happening.

  [Celestial Order] Annath. The leader of the third strongest guild in the world, the rank 1 swordfighter player, and top four on the global leaderboard, regarded as one of the five gods of the game.

  I scanned the surrounding forest right away to see if Annath had allies. She seemed to be alone. I couldn’t tell for sure how she had tracked us here—maybe a low level player in the area had spotted us and wrote our location to some bounty tracker—but it didn’t look like she was here to outright assassinate us.

  Veyra did, however, flinch at the mention of Seven.

  “You two know each other?” I asked.

  “Old friends, you could say,” Annath said. “Assassin. Or should I say, Aiden? Who do you think you were hugging just now?”

  I eyed Annath suspiciously. “She’s Veyra, the best time mage in the world.”

  Annath stepped forward and asked, “Do you remember a player called SevenStrife?”

  I frowned as a response.

  “The cheater who got removed from the top one hundred leaderboard for manipulating the game’s casting system,” Annath continued. “Sevenstrife hacked her game pod to make the game think she was imagining a spell’s runic pattern really quickly. Quite a simple cheat, allowing her to cast spells much faster than anyone else, even faster than those who actually practiced quick-casting spells. She was caught for it, and she was banned.”

  “Your point?” I asked.

  “My point,” Annath continued, now directing her prying gaze at Veyra, “is that SevenStrife, my old guild mate, has made a return. The footage on the forums confirms it. You are the same player with a slightly older face, Veyra. Long time no see, Seven.”

  Veyra was biting her lip, looking like she wanted to escape the conversation and just log off.

  “I wasn’t banned for cheating…” Veyra said. “Like I’ve told you.”

  “I wonder, are your excuses any better today?” Annath asked. “Why would Wind Virtual ban a top one hundred player if not cheating? How can you cast spells at twice the speed of everyone else if not for cheating?”

  Veyra said nothing, avoiding Annath’s eyes.

  “You’re casting spells even faster today,” Annath said. “Bold move, using the exact same cheat four years later. It won’t take long until the developers catch you again.”

  I glanced at Veyra, whose posture was closed off, like she really didn’t want to talk about this.

  “Anything to say for yourself?” Annath asked.

  “My account was banned, sure,” Veyra said, though she wasn’t looking Annath in the eye. “I hacked my game pod, which is also true…” She lifted her head. “But I didn’t hack it to cheat at the game. My casting is real.”

  Annath sighed, looking like a mother after their daughter failed a test. “The same excuse, and still just as unbelievable. Why would a top player have any reason to hack their game pod, except to cheat?”

  “I hacked the pod to get rid of the forced log-off feature,” Veyra said. “That’s why I was banned.”

  Annath snorted, shaking her head. She took another step forward, brows furrowed. “Do you know how disappointed I was to learn what you were? I genuinely believed you were the next great mage in the making. I’m equally appalled to see you playing now.”

  “I’m not cheating,” Veyra said again. “Wind Virtual investigated it themselves. They even unbanned SevenStrife after I talked with them and explained why I hacked my game pod.”

  “So why have you never logged on since?” Annath asked.

  Veyra bit her lip. “How could I log on? My reputation was gone. More than one guild member sent me threats that if they ever saw me in real life, they’d pull my teeth out. So I just quit the game and left like everyone wanted…”

  “Fact is,” Annath said, still approaching us, “nobody can cast spells like you can. You’re a cheater. The clips I’ve seen tell it all. You—”

  “Hey,” I said, when Annath took one too many steps toward us. I stood between her and Veyra. “If you hadn’t noticed, she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

  Annath paused, giving me a confused look. “I overheard you planning a date. Perhaps you shouldn’t, considering that Veyra is the most blatant cheater the top five hundred leaderboard has ever seen.”

  “She’s also really good at hugs,” I said.

  Annath tilted her head. “And what does that have to do with anything?”

  I unsheathed both of my daggers, now clad in my main gear. “How I see it, your allegation has nothing to do with our date either. You’re free to fuck off.”

  Annath gave me an exaggerated blink. “Wow. Are you so in love that you believe cheating at the game is suddenly acceptable? You are being lied to straight to your face.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Or maybe you’re the one that has misunderstood.”

  I said that, but in my head, I was a little shaken. Veyra admitted she used to be Sevenstrife. An old top one hundred player. Cheating or not, I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask and facts I wanted to confirm.

  But preferably, I wanted to talk without Annath’s demanding face staring at us. She was the enemy.

  “I won’t let anyone talk to Veyra like that,” I said. “If you’re just blindly throwing allegations, feel free to leave, or I’ll fight.”

  “In that case, enough talking,” Annath said. Her hand slid to her sheathed sword. “It’s rare to find opponents that still pose a challenge. Literal cheaters will do as great practice. If the developers won’t ban cheaters anymore, I will cut you down myself.”

  She didn’t wait around; the ground quaked as Annath’s longsword slid out of its sheath. The Celestial Runesword (Mythic Sword) was one of the most famous weapons in the whole game. A misty aura enveloped its silvery blade, and the sword’s fuller was filled with enhancement runes, adding insane amounts of stats to it.

  I had a fraction of a second to admire it in person, only to find the blade already crashing down between my eyes as Annath cast [Sword Dash]. I met the swing with The Immortal and prepared for impact.

  Until the sword suddenly changed trajectory, slicing at me from the left instead.

  I was far too late to even think of blocking. I activated [Shadow Dash], my only option for surviving. I didn’t dash anywhere, using the skill merely to turn myself into a shadow. The sword passed right through.

  [Shadow Dash] ended, and I was ready for a counter-attack.

  Except, Annath’s blade was already slashing at me from the right. I moved my daggers to block, this time managing to defend with The Immortal.

  [Perfect Block!]

  A perfect block, enhanced by 500%, yet an explosion went off and the force of the attack shot me ten feet back, flying parallel to the cliffside. I angled myself mid-air and landed cleanly on my feet.

  “Sharp instincts,” Annath said calmly from where she’d hit me. “And a nice block. But you’re still too slow.”

  Her left foot rose elegantly from the ground, initiating [Sword Dance]—the signature fighting style of the sword dancer sub-class. Her footwork moved with little hops, and each hop gave her a stat boost, buffing her sword. She activated [Sword Dash] again, and in a flash, her sword was crashing down at my head.

  The angle of her swing was impossible to read until the very last moment, when the blade was already about to crush me. I lifted my daggers in a panic, just barely managing to land a perfect block to save my life.

  Another relentless swing followed immediately after—faster than even the Sword Of Time that I thought was already on the brink of human limits.

  An [Elemental Barrier] appeared between the attack and my body, but Annath’s sword ripped it in half, as if the barrier was paper.

  Dodging was impossible; my only option was to block. My bones felt a jolt from the sheer power of Annath’s swings, and only the perfect blocks with The Immortal kept me even slightly alive.

  More support came from behind as Veyra cast icicles. Annath danced, hopping effortlessly for more stat buffs, and she slashed the icicles while performing her sword dance. Her sword cut the icicle, and the blade continued toward my face.

  I managed to jump back, my nose nearly meeting the tip of her blade.

  She closed the gap in an instant. [Sword Dance] continued, and she only seemed to get faster. Her sword was seemingly everywhere all at once, and her armored body had no weak spots I could see. Even if I tried to [Shadow Dash] to cut her nape, her dance would have already moved her unpredictably to another position, and I’d miss.

  One of the five gods! I thought while desperately blocking another attack I could barely read.

  Most sword dance players used [Sword Dance] merely as a buffing ability to use out of combat, too clumsy and risky to use as anything but that. Very few could actually incorporate the dance into combat, and only Annath could make the dance look like an actual fighting style, not only buffing her attacks with each hop but also staying in the fight during her dance. Her footwork was ridiculously fast and difficult to predict.

  Despite that, the ground directly under the landing of her next hop turned to ice as [Absolute Zero] grabbed her foot.

  The spell landed perfectly, but Annath’s boots crushed the ice, and her footing wasn’t affected in the slightest.

  Goddamned mythic boots! I cursed in my head. Unlike us, Annath had the equipment and levels to match her skills. Faced with a set of full mythic gear, we were like lost mid-game players.

  Another heavy swing hit me immediately after, and despite a perfect block, I was flown into the air.

  I landed, and I realized I was no longer Annath’s target. She dashed to Veyra, quickly crossing the twenty feet of distance between them.

  She’s saving Sword Dash, I realized. Annath wanted to force Veyra to use her portal before using her own mobility spell.

  I needed to do something about that.

  The first spell Veyra cast was [Chronorift]. Annath didn’t care, running straight through and even throwing a few hops for [Sword Dance] to enhance her sword, slashing at any spikes that tried to damage her. Only a few connected, and they only did 2% damage each, bringing her to 96%.

  Veyra formed a wall of ice between herself and Annath, casting the wall nearly immediately.

  Annath slashed at the ice wall, breaking it into pieces without the slightest issue.

  Behind it, Veyra’s figure was revealed with her eyes closed, finishing the casting time of another spell. [Time Freeze] exploded, hitting Annath.

  This time, even the god of swordsmanship couldn’t fully stop its effects. The explosion of time and frost dealt 12% damage and knocked off the momentum and timing of her [Sword Dance]. Annath required an extra step to get back into rhythm—enough time for Veyra to dip into a portal, but not before casting another icicle, which Annath was forced to block.

  “And you say you aren’t cheating!” Annath yelled like a curse, and she activated a skill that I recognized as [Super Sensitivity]. A skill available to only level 250+ players that expanded the user’s senses outward in a fifty yard globe. Within that globe, the user sensed any monsters or players as heat sources, easily trackable.

  Annath’s eyes snapped to Veyra in an instant, who hid behind a tree next to me. Having saved [Sword Dash], Annath was the one with a mobility spell, while Veyra’s portal was on cooldown.

  A common and powerful tactic. A tactic, which was also the most predictable move she could use in the situation.

  I [Shadow Dashed] in front of Veyra and freed [Curse Of The Lich] perfectly at Annath’s dash.

  The discharge of dark magic hit her head-on. It wasn’t a critical strike, and Annath barely took any damage, but her momentum was slowed, and her dash fell short.

  I grabbed Veyra’s hand, calling, “run!” and I bolted to the cliff as fast as my legs allowed, where I jumped straight off. The air grabbed the hood of my cloak and my hair as we rapidly fell to the trees below.

  “Portal the ground!” I shouted mid-fall. “I’ll dash!”

  She pointed her staff at the ground, spawning a portal at the point where she would fall. She dipped into the portal and I lost sight of her.

  I used [Shadow Dash] right before hitting the ground to avoid fall damage. My shadowed body returned to reality, and I continued running into the forest.

  I ran for a solid five seconds, when a falling knight in plate armor fell directly in front of me with a resounding crash. Annath stood calmly and pointed her sword at me.

  Well, shit, I thought, realizing that I had absolutely no chance of escaping from one of the five gods. I quickly wrote a message to Veyra.

  Assassin: “Run. You can live if I fight.”

  With that, I faced Annath and readied myself for a fight to the death.