Assassinate Wonderwind [Book 1 Completed!]

Katanas, so far, had given me an easier time than longswords.

Longswords were versatile weapons, great for thrusts, which were a pain in the ass to deal with as a dagger user. The double-edged blade allowed for quick redirection and recovery. Their adaptability made them just as tough to deal with as a spear.

Katana users tended to be more specialized. Katanas were fantastic at decisive cuts to one-shot an opponent, sometimes straight from the sheath. The curved blade would fuck you up in a flash if an opponent landed a good hit. The katana users I’d fought tended to be more calculative as a result, preferring one good slash over long exchanges, while longsword users were more eager to exchange blades. Not that I could exchange blades with a dagger much regardless.

So how would things change against a Grandmaster fighter?

There’s no need to be afraid of him, I thought. He follows the laws of physics all the same.

The match began with a staredown, like most matches. Erick waited for me to make the first move, merely circling around me with small steps. He knew that swords always won reactive battles against daggers. If he got me to attack first, my chances dropped drastically. His movements were so practiced it almost looked mechanical, even though we hadn’t exchanged a single attack yet.

I didn’t come here for staredowns, I thought and opened the fight by visiting the edge of his range. I flicked forward with my dagger for a feint, hoping to bait an attack out of him.

The katana exploded into a swing.

I leaned back just as the tip of his blade grazed the skin of my forehead. Holy fuck; I dodged to the side with my weight awkwardly backward, as he thrust for a follow-up kill. I deflected with my sickle, barely avoiding being cut.

The next swing came immediately after, just as deadly as the previous. Blocking would have probably snapped my wrist. I was way too late to side-step. My stance for lunging in was broken.

I stepped back, and with my awkward stance, he could extend his range without risking letting me in. I was forced to desperately redirect his katana off of its trajectory with my sickle, while side-stepping in the opposite direction.

I lived, but that still wasn’t enough as he recovered and attacked. The angle of his cut blocked all of my approaches. I lifted my dagger for a haphazard redirection while stepping out.

I usually ducked under these types of swings in Wonderwind, but I didn’t have time for that. Erick fought with speed similar to Shaltar’s inhuman guardsmen, except his swings were also intelligent. His footwork felt like a wolf chasing me at night.

I backed off more aggressively out of his range, and he chose not to overextend, letting me off of the pressure.

There was a grin on his face. “Wow,” he said. “It’s a miracle you’re alive. I’ve never seen someone deflect with a sickle like that.”

The words passed through my head as I focused entirely on the fight, taking a breath to calm myself. I can read you. I see your attacks.

That hardly helped me. Erick wasn’t unpredictable. He didn’t need feints. Rather, his swings simply left no opportunities for me to do anything. Every movement of his sword was theoretically sound, like a lock that couldn’t be picked.

Surely, there had to be a flaw within him.

I attacked again, faster, but more cautiously. I took jabs at him at the edge of his range, more so just to provoke him. He hardly reacted, knowing my range perfectly. I wasn’t close enough to hit his vitals. If I extended any further, he’d pounce, killing me on the spot.

Really, the theory between the dagger and katana matchup was pretty much solved. At the high levels, swords and spears always won. I needed to gamble just to have a chance for an attack.

I noticed that my footwork was actually faster. That tired me out faster, sure, which was why Erick happily let me hop around, but my feet were, without a doubt, faster than him. I just need one good engagement!

Despite the thrusts with my dagger, it almost looked like Erick was paying more attention to my sickle. A disruption with its hook was much more of a win condition for me. My sickle was the tool I’d used to create opportunities in most battles prior. My dagger was more of a killing tool.

I sped up, dancing with him in hopes of prompting a slight hesitation. Erick was a master, but I had one small advantage. That was, Erick probably didn’t deal with daggers and sickles very often. The last time could have been months, if not years ago.

So how will you react to this move?

With my next jab, I flicked the dagger for a throw, then dashed forward.

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Erick’s eyes flickered a little but he turned his hips, dodging as my dagger flew past, falling lifelessly on the ground.

My dash was a much bigger threat. His katana exploded into a cut for the killing blow.

This time, my stance wasn’t hazy. Erick was the one whose balance of weight was slightly off. He only had one angle for a cut.

The attack was still deadly, coming at me with years and years of practice. I knew exactly where it would hit and how I needed to dodge.

I dodged to the left with all I had, having read his shoulders perfectly, yet his katana still cut the end of my right shoulder. The blade carried past me, just half a step too deep to recover.

I growled with my counter-attack, and the hook of my sickle pierced the side of his neck.

Erick collapsed on the ground, and the duel was over.

[You are Victorious!]

[Damage taken: Serious but not fatal wound - Right shoulder cut open]

[Skill Rating Increase: +63]

[Rank: Master Elite]

[Returning To Menu…]

The landscape switched back to the menu. I let out a disbelieving snort.

Then I burst into a laugh. What the fuck? That actually worked?

I just beat a goddamned Grandmaster player? Rank 454. The top zero-point-zero-one percentile of all players. I actually won?

Holy fuck. I hadn’t felt adrenaline like this after a fight in a long time. I was on an absolute roll. Out of all things, that stupid, reckless move was what worked?

I sat down on a tree trunk, my hands shaking, while still chuckling. The forums would have fun with that one, that was for sure. I actually beat a top five hundred player with a fucking sickle and dagger combo. That was the type of fight I’d gladly share with friends and family.

I moved to download the replay and opened the chat with Veyra.

Then I hesitated.

I sighed. Tomorrow. She needs time to think now.

Usually, Veyra would have been practicing right now. She wasn’t even online. I had no idea how her practice was going. Was double-casting viable or not? I’d need to ask her later.

The hype I felt began to get replaced with anxiety. Why did it feel like something was just wrong, and about to get worse?

It’s just needless worrying, I told myself. We’ll talk tomorrow and everything will go back to normal.

Maybe it’s time for some Wonderwind. I felt a lot faster today, and I had one benchmark to test whether I actually was faster, or if I was just imagining it. I logged into Wonderwind and headed out to fight Shaltar’s guardsmen.

***

My build was still just as incomplete as I’d left it. The Immortal was broken and needed to be repaired. That only cost around five gold at the blacksmith and was easily completed, but I wasn’t really in a position to challenge Dragrath right now.

I truly felt like I’d stand a chance against him now if we fought with even gear. Or maybe that was just the results from Steel making me overconfident. Erick and Steel players didn’t have [Shadow Dash], and they weren’t experts at using game mechanics like Dragrath.

Either way, I teleported to the wilderness outside Aetherdale, to the same spot where I’d fought the guardsman last time.

He wasn’t there, though, and the path was empty. I looked all around and continued following the path, but I just didn’t find guardsmen.

That was troubling. As far as I knew, the guardsmen weren’t respawning monsters. They worked more like a resource for the castle’s leader—an army to command and relocate. Someone could have either killed the guards, or maybe Zenith Protocol had retreated them inside the walls to avoid letting guards needlessly die.

I kept searching, moving closer to the castle, until I found something. Not monsters, but player nametags. Two of them, discussing something on the side of the road, just outside a cliff that overlooked the castle itself.

[Eon Covenant] CinderLight, and [Eon Covenant] Lrekk.

Oh wow. Two of Eon Covenant’s elders. CinderLight, the guild’s co-leader, was considered the second or third best fire mage, currently rank 31 on the global leaderboard. Lrekk was a sword fighter at a similar level, rank 36. These guys were Eon Covenant’s best players straight behind VeilShot.

They didn’t seem to have spotted me. A tree was placed almost comically perfectly near them for me to eavesdrop. With [Stealth] and [Conceal Footsteps] active, I got close enough to listen.

“I’m supposed to be at my niece’s birthday, you know,” Lrekk was saying. “What’s the plan? Why have we been called?”

“Would be easier if you just checked the guild chat every now and then,” CinderLight said.

“Or it would be easier if you just told me what the fuck is going on,” Lrekk said.

“Have you been looking at Zenith Protocol’s stream?” Cinderlight asked.

“Castle management, yeah?”

“It's profitable as hell,” CinderLight said. “So the top guilds decided we can’t let FireBrand get even more ahead. We’re attacking. Shouldn’t take more than an hour or two if all goes well. You’ll make it to the birthday.”

Lrekk blinked, frowning at him. “Uh, what? We’re attacking fucking who?”

CinderLight laughed. “You heard me.”

“Seriously? No, what the hell is this? You can’t just decide shit like this on a whim. Have you two gone crazy? At least give me a heads up!”

“Veil didn’t tell anything to anyone to avoid betrayals,” CinderLight said. “It’s not just us. We’ve got a lot of allies this time.”

Lrekk frowned. “We’ll need both Syntrix and Celestial Order with us for a stunt like this.”

“Yep,” CinderLight said. “That’s our allies. We’re launching the attack in half an hour.”

Oh wow, I thought behind my tree. What a time and place to happen to arrive at. None of this had been public on the forums. The guild leaders must have privately arranged this while all of their guild members livestreamed their dungeon hunts normally. Not uncommon. I was incredibly lucky to randomly eavesdrop on this.

The raid would be happening in one hour. Possibly the biggest guild war of the year.

I bit my lips at that. Veyra wasn’t online, and my build was shit. Just a few days later, I could have seen so much gold from this.

“Veil?” Lrekk said, glancing at the tree I was hiding behind. “You’re fucking crazy. We’ll probably still lose.”

He was clearly talking in my direction. I hid, confused, until I realized he had [Super Sensitivity] on. He sensed my body heat.

Oh fuck.

“Who?” CinderLight asked. “Veil just came online? He’s in the guild hall.”

“Huh?” Lrekk said. “So who the fuck is behind that tree?”

Silence.

I glanced around myself. This spot was probably a meeting area for Eon Covenant, but the two appeared to be alone for now. It didn’t seem like I was about to get any practice against guardsmen.

Maybe dueling Lrekk would suffice. I readied my daggers and [Shadow Dashed] behind CinderLight, slashing my sickle at his neck.

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