Dot Hack Repairations
Chapter 7
Demons and Shadows
OMEGA WARRING CITY LUMINA CLOTH
"Now it's time for the match to begin!" howled the MC with gusto.
Haseo winced, now he remembered why he hated being a spectator in the arena.
"The current arena Emperor Alkaid has received two challenges today!"
Haseo jumped up with renewed interest, two challenges? Who's the party that's not Endrance?
"First we have "Team Alkaid" verses "The Wings of Midnight!" The MC screamed deafeningly, causing many players to double over; clutching their ears and crying.
For the love of Aura, somebody take his mike! Haseo moaned as he minimized the background volume setting on his M2D.
"Hey, you're Haseo, right?" A guy with a really long blue ponytail asked.
"Yeah," Haseo said, "Who're you?"
"I'm Kuhn, and I-" Kuhn began to say something but Haseo cut him off with a bored voice.
"Yeah, yeah, you're an Epitaph User, your Avatar is Magus the Propagation, you work for Yata and Pi, and you're interested in my 'special powers.'" Haseo was barely, just barely holding back a grin as he watched Kuhn's reaction.
Kuhn's eyes had widened to the size of saucers, multiple sweat drops were cascading down his face, and his right eye was twitching. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
"When you're ready to talk to me, feel free. But first I'm going to watch this match!" Haseo commented casually.
On Team Alkaid's side three female twinblade characters were warping in.
Alkaid: Twinblade Level 34
Shu: Twinblade Level 33
Wei: Twinblade Level 34
Wow, Haseo thought, For this tournament they look pretty strong, stronger than last time.
Haseo then turned his gaze to the opposite platform, then had a sudden, horrible thought.
"Wait!" Haseo hissed in a panic-stricken voice, "Isn't Endrance an Epitaph User too?"
"YES!" Kuhn growled, having found his voice, "And if he challenges them there is a high probability that he will use his Avatar to win."
"Oh, nevermind" Haseo sighed with relief as he noticed that the player who had warped in was wearing black.
"NO!" Kuhn shouted loudly, irritating the nearby audience, "How do you know about his Epitaph?"
"Oh, I'll tell you about that later, if you don't figure it out for yourself, that is."
ARENA FLOOR
"What the hell does this guy think he's doing?" Shu demanded, as the three of them looked contemptuously across the field at their single opponent.
Wei snorted, "let's finish him and get this over with."
"Okay! Let's shred this guy!" Alkaid shouted as the three of them leaped forward.
Ado laughed quietly as he watched them charge at him.
So unorganized, He thought before drawing a talisman that transformed into the Sword of Shadows.
Haseo watched as the three girl twinblades bore down on their target who suddenly drew a sword.
As the girls reached the player, he disappeared.
What? Haseo thought, then gasped as the player reappeared behind Shu and; spinning his sword casually, ran her through.
Wei screamed in rage as she saw Shu fall to Ado. She rushed at him raining a score of hard blows in his direction.
Ado sighed, bored, as he easily dodged around the girl who was intent on slicing and dicing him. He was so fast that he didn't even need to block a blow, he just avoided them all.
"Rgh! Stay still!" Wei screamed as she redoubled her efforts to disect Ado into bite sized pieces.
Ado abruptly stopped dodging blows and simply began to fend them off with his sword. With the seventh block he swung back, sending Wei sprawling.
"Rip Maen!" Shu was back up, revived by Alkaid's spell, but in critical health.
"As long as you three let me fight you one at a time..." Ado began, but had to pause as he backflipped away from Wei's second enraged charge. Another rain of blows was thrown, but Wei was getting tired, and her attacks began to slow.
"...I'll have an easy time beating you!" Ado finished as he sent the panting Twinblade soaring into the barrier with a single backhanded sidecut.
He's right, Alkaid thought frantically as she healed Wei and Shu, He's stronger than each one of us!
"Come on girls!" She cried bravely, "Let's take him down together!"
That's right, Ado thought eagerly, Bring on the entertainment!
Shu and Wei tried to circle Ado as Alkaid began attacking him head-on. Ado waited a moment, then jumped and executed a mid-air backroll over Shu's head as she charged, thereby allowing Shu and Alkaid to crash into each other.
Ado landed, laughing, and promptly recieved a few slashes to the gut from Wei, who he'd forgotten about in his glee. Whirling around until he was behind her, Ado tried to impale Wei in the back.
With a crash Ado's blade was stopped by Alkaid, who had used her two blades to lock his sword in place.
"Yes! Work as a team, protect each other!" Ado encouraged as he let go of his sword and used a well-placed ankle sweep to wipe Shu off of her feet as she tried to lacerate Ado.
Leaping away he shouted "Lei Zas!" and beams of light poured from his outstreached hand, heading towards Shu.
Alkaid quickly shouted "Ol Repth!" using the last of her SP to increase her sister's Hit Points enough to withstand the oncoming spell, I hope, Alkaid thought.
By some miracle Shu hung on with 17HP left, and as Ado landed, she lunged and slashed him across his upraised arm.
Ado screamed in pain as his HP was sent into the critical range,
All right, He thought angrily, No more playtime.
Shu tried to sieze the chance to finish Ado off, but he leaped back and drew a glowing saphire talisman.
"Rue Corv!" Ado shouted, and a wall of ice materialized in front of him, isolating him from his trio of skilled opponents.
Shu was unable to stop herself, and promptly crashed into the wall.
Ado then drew out a midnight black talisman, which he threw in front of him.
"Ani Zas!" He shouted, flinging his right arm out.
Black lasers burst from his hand, smashing the ice wall, and heading for Wei.
Shu and Alkaid both jumped in front of the attack, blades crossed in a guard position.
Ado, seeing this, promptly canceled the spell by aiming it at the ground.
He then raised his hand and his discarded sword whirled through the air and back to his hand.
Shu and Wei immediately dashed to either side of him, and as he tried to dodge...
"Suvi Lei!" Alkaid screamed, desperately aiming a paralyzing spell at Ado.
To her immense relief the spell hit her target, though she began panicking when it was thrown off by his armor.
Wei and Shu had just aimed twin Gale Blade skills at Ado, who leaped out of the way.
Damn it! Alkaid thought with frustration and a little bit of fear, No matter what we do he's always a step ahead of us!
"LaSuvi Lei" Ado proclaimed casually, paralyzing Alkaid's entire party.
As if to prove my point... Alkaid began panicking in earnest as Ado approached her, while she and her sisters lay helplessly at his feet.
"Well done Alkaid" Ado said, before he raised his sword. Alkaid squeezed her eyes shut.
A squelching sound caused her to open them again, and she gasped at what she saw...
Ado's blade was buried in his own chest, and he gasped out, "Oops!" and winked at Alkaid before he faded out and died.
"The winner is Team Alkaid!" The MC roared, and Alkaid jumped, shocked back to the "real" world.
Haseo was gaping at the arena floor and the results of the battle.
"He had them beaten!" He howled, gripping the railing with astonishing strength, "Why did he surrender?"
"Well, maybe he...Oh forget it!" Kuhn hissed. "I've got no clue!"
A screeching sound assaulted his ears a moment later and he turned back to see what it was.
Endrance had just entered the arena and the spectator's railing was bending and almost melting under the obvious fury of the Terror of Death's incredibly powerful grip.
"Let's go!" He hissed as he ripped the railing up and discarded it...and it reformed where it was origionally.
"Go? Go where?" Kuhn asked in confusion.
"To your guild's home, yes, I do know about Project GU, and I'll tell Yata how I know if you'll bring me to him." Haseo growled, then added, "We already know what's going to happen here."
Right on cue pink energy patterns began surrounding Endrance's character...
Alkaid laughed as Endrance suddenly doubled over, shivering, while she, Shu, and Wei surrounded him.
Suddenly Endrance lashed out with his sword, impossibly fast, and all three of the girls, though they were at full health, died at once.
FIVE MINUTES LATER OMEGA WARRING CITY LUMINA CLOTH
"How did he do that?!" Alkaid howled to herself as she paced relentlessly around the rear plaza of the Arena. Shu and Wei had logged off and were busy fuming downstairs, leaving Alkaid to wonder what Endrance had done to win the match.
"He must have cheated!" She decided, "There's no other way he could have done it!"
Alkaid was devastated after her defeat, she had had to relinquish her Icolo Guild Key to Endrance and give up her Demon Palace Emperor Throne... to a cheater!
"He did cheat..." a soft voice murmured from behind Alkaid.
She whirled around to face a nervous looking Ado.
"What do you want?" She demanded.
"I know why you're angry, and you have good reason to be," Ado said
"Damn right!" Alkaid snapped, "But I want to know WHAT that cheater did!"
"I recorded the match that you fought with Endrance and found out how he won." Ado said before he pulled up a screen in front of his character.
"I don't know how he did it, but he didn't win legally." Ado finished as he found the desired file.
Alkaid leaned over his shoulder to watch as he pressed play.
The battle between her team and Endrance progressed exactly as she remembered it, untill Endrance doubled over. Then things began to get wierd.
"What the hell are those freaky pink lines around his body?" Alkaid asked in shock and confusion.
"Just wait, it gets better!" Ado said grimly.
Alkaid watched as a giant cat-like creature with a giant rose for legs appeared where Endrance's character was. It drew back an arm and slashed out with its claws in a giant circle, killing Alkaid and her teammates.
"What was that?!" She demanded in fury, I KNEW he was cheating!
"I'm not sure, but I intend to find out." Ado turned and was walking away when Alkaid ran ahead of him and blocked his path.
"While what, I sit back and watch?" She demanded.
Ado turned his head, avoiding her eyes, and muttered something.
"What?" Alkaid asked rather rudely.
"I said that I usually work alone" Ado said, "But if you want to help..."
Alkaid heard a PONG as she recieved a short mail.
You have recieved Ado's Member's Address.
"So when do we start?" Alkaid asked.
DELTA ETERNAL CITY MAC ANU
HOME OF RAVEN
"Okay spill it!" Pi screamed, maddened that Haseo wasn't giving her any information. "How do you know about Epitaphs and GU?"
"I TOLD you, I'll only tell that to Yata!" Haseo screamed back.
Multiple anger veins bulged out of Pi's forhead as she struggled not to MURDER this annoying kid who wouldn't listen to her.
"Look here, Haseo" She hissed, "I'm Master Yata's second in command and-"
"You're an old hag," interrupted Haseo, smirking and causing Pi's left eye to twitch involentarily and several more anger veins to appear on her head.
"Why you-"
"PI!" Kuhn shouted, "Calm down! We need to interrogate the kid, not kill him!"
PONG!
A short mail was delivered to Pi, she read it and seemed to visably calm down.
"Alright" She sighed with relief, "You're not my problem anymore."
"Huh?" Haseo questioned.
"Master Yata will see you now..."
A.N. OK, that chapter's done. If you think that this part of the meeting at Raven is funny, oh just you wait untill the next chapter.
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