Battle of Strategies (Last Part)

(Robin's POV):

"Tarot Card XIII! Justice! Activation!"

I held up my tarot card and activated it to boost myself equal against my enemy whose overcharge status buff is almost gone. The reason why I waited for that is because the buff from the tarot card will stay until the stoppage of combat. I now have a large leeway to fight against Arcturus without seeing a chance of losing in combat.

"Welcome to my battlefield."

"I-impossible..." - Arcturus

I dashed toward Arcturus in about the same speed and kneed him to the gut. He was knocked back and barfed out some blood. His barrier appeared but he has lesser defenses compared to his combat prowess earlier.

He charged forward after recovering to try and make a counter attack. I managed to dodge every single thing without that much of a problem. I waited for Jay to fire his rifle to hit so I can land another bullet at the same time.

With the missing arm, his body is quite unbalanced so he made some mistakes here and there. I was able to defend myself without actually attempting to block and just swiftly maneuver my body around without taking any hits. In the meantime, I managed to take back Heaven's Beacon and hid it pretty quickly in the inventory.

Arcturus had the look of a person panicking very hard due to the lack of chances for fighting back. At some point, I finally heard the gunshot which is Jay's signal. I parried his fist and made him receive the sniper bullet on the side while I shot a bullet and landed two attacks in separate sides before the barrier had a chance to be re-casted.

"Ignition."

"Gahaa!!!" - Arcturus

The shout of Arcturus burning from the inside resonated throughout the entire underground area. It was enough for most people to be aware and the enemies just started flooding in. A bunch of magic attacks were aimed towards me so I had to dodge away from Arcturus.

"Chih, might as well... Searing Light!"

I fired a laser towards the town wall again and eliminated multiple enemies easily. I brought down the laser and tried to burn Arcturus but he dodged it in desperation. The laser stopped just after he dodged, because of the duration mistake, he started drinking a potion quickly while his barrier is down. I don't think Jay would allow that.

"Jay, he's drinking. Aim on him."

"Got it." - Jay

Jay fired another bullet without flinching and damaged Arcturus even more while interrupting his potion. He started to have the look of a person trying to escape from the scene but I'm not gonna let that happen.

The swordsmen try to swarm me down so I simply raised Heaven's Beacon up.

"Blinding Light!"

Heaven's Beacon emitted a huge amount of light that was enough to blind every single swordsman in the battlefield for a long time.

"Searing Light!"

I activated my laser once again and annihilated every single enemy without making that much effort. Some ran backwards to hide somewhere so I'll just spare those guys. They might come back for revenge but they're not really that much of a threat to me.

I dashed towards Arcturus who is panicking and crawling backwards to the wall. He was screaming something in pain and noticed that he has no chances of survival.

"The second you entered a battle against me. You should've realized that I am not an enemy."

"H-huh?! Why?!" - Arcturus

Why he ask? Well the answer is pretty obvious.

"As one of the representatives of Asylum, I declare war."

I brought out Mana Breaker and sliced off his other arm, causing him to shout in agony once more.

"Call for help because..."

"Hi- hiiiiii!!!!" - Arcturus

I stabbed Mana Breaker to the wall nearly hitting his head. I was waiting for the barrier to disperse as it was re-casted when I sliced off his other arm.

"No matter how much effort you make, you're already dead."

Arcturus was shivering after hearing my final words come out from my mouth. He started begging to the point he'll even surrender the Virgo but I know only one way to extract the power of zodiacs out from a player. Kill them.

He had the look of desperation as if he could try to convince me that he doesn't want to go through death once. I simply waited for the barrier as his hopes get up. I pulled Mana Breaker off from the wall and once his barrier is disabled, I raised up my sword. His face that seems to be filled with hope shifted into extreme despair as I pour down hopelessness into this person's heart.

I'm not forgiving you for anything.

Without hesitation, I sliced off his head that had the face of lost hope and giving up.

I walked back towards Jay's position who was keeping an eye for surprise attacks and doesn't seem to have fired his rifle.

"Good work Jay, I would be screwed if I didn't have you around."

"W-what are you talking about?! I was holding you back from the defense..." - Jay

Jay seems to have some guilty feelings due to being unable to evade some attacks in his position. It's a terrible spot for a sniper, I should take responsibility on that. Not that we have a choice anyway.

"Let's head back?" - Jay

"Wait, I'll go get the zodiac loot in a bit. You can go ahead."

"Alright!" - Jay

Jay doesn't seem to have any more issues with going ahead so I went back down and took all of the loot from Arcturus's spot.

"Some ore... A book... Probably for Karl... Ah! Here's the Virgo item!"

A small bubble contained the zodiac sign Virgo. I took the bubble and hid it in the inventory for the time being. I then walked back towards the staircase while drinking a potion and disabled the tarot card.

"Phew... That was a lot of fighting..."

(Ridley's POV):

It was already sunset and we had received no sign of them returning. I was getting a little worried because Grace might think Jay and Robin would be unable to return unscathed.

We had kept an eye on her along with Rylle just in case she breaks down. We got her some lunch and just stayed in her room while we talk about some things in regards to our current life in this virtual world. Everything was pretty fine until we somewhat left Grace alone in the room against her reflection. We did manage to save her but she really needs to see Terrence at this point. We don't really know why Robin only brought Jay but I guess it will be better to go as pairs for the time being.

"I gotta say, they're taking quite a while..."

"Yeah, I wonder what happened to them." - Rylle

Currently, we're in Grace's room waiting for them to return here. Grace is asleep while me and Rylle are playing some card game.

"What are we playing again?"

"Poker, jeez..." - Rylle

I was holding a three of a kind card and discarded one other card to try and get a good card for myself.

After checking the card, I got another Ace of spades and got myself a four of a kind. Wait, which is rarer again? Four of a kind or straight flush?

"Ready?" - Rylle

Rylle is actually the one dealing the cards for us. He then shows his card which is a straight flush and showed a smug face along with it. Wait, straight flush is stronger?

"Heh, straight flush with hearts! What do you got?" - Rylle

"Four of a kind, I forgot which is stronger."

"Ah, then it's my win." - Rylle

We're only betting with copper coins so there isn't really that much problem between us cheating on the game or so.

After Rylle started shuffling all the cards, we heard the door open gently. I guess they have arrived.

"G-guys, sorry about being late. We kind of entered a scuffle with an entire faction..." - Jay

"Entire faction? Wait! You mean-!" - Rylle

Rylle seems to be shouting so I covered his mouth immediately. Grace is sleeping there!!

"Shh!!!"

"Yeah, it's that underground faction lurking in this place. He actually held the zodiac sign Virgo and we ended up fighting him to the death. It was the first time I saw Robin that serious in combat, and seeing him use that tarot card in combat. Apparently, the effect involves the balancing of stats against an enemy. It's too damn overpowered!" - Jay

"Shhh! Grace is sleeping..."

This time, I covered Jay's mouth who is being loud.

"Come on you two! Don't be lou-!"

"Shh!" - Jay

"Shh!" - Rylle

Now both of them covered my mouth.

"Guys, what are you doing?" - Robin

"R-Robi-!" - Jay

Robin places his index finger close to his mouth as if to tell Jay to tone down his voice. Somehow, Jay complied easily and asked about his time.

"What happened down there?" - Jay

"Well..." - Robin

Robin closed the door gently and sat down next to us.

"I simply looted some things on the way back here. I did gain myself a lot of stuff so we won't have to worry about us losing anything. By tomorrow, we'll head to the Crystal Palace. Pretty sure Denzel would be back by then..." - Robin

"Really??!!" - Jay

Jay kept his tone down while showing extreme excitement. I guess he's about to see Gayle again after a year. Can't be helped...

"So guys, we should get some sleep. I'll take night watch for tonight." - Robin

"Alright, good night guys."

"Yeah, good night you three." - Rylle

"Thanks Robin, good night!" - Jay

All four of us went our rooms excluding Robin who just stayed right outside of Grace's room.

Oh man, I miss them.