All right, continuing right from where we left off. I do want to give a special shoutout to Namitaa776 for helping out with a specific scene in this chapter. And, of course, a thank you also goes to LightZephyr for the beta read as always!
I do not own BanG Dream! Girls Band Party nor do I, in any way, shape or form, intend to pretend that I do.
'If I go right, I either run into stronger enemies or a safe town…' Rinko finished her train of thought, already knowing what she wanted to do. Or, rather, what she knew she had to do; it wasn't something she was thrilled to do, but it was better than the alternative. With a small sigh, Rinko steeled herself and turned to Silver Kite as if hoping her avatar could give her a response, "Let's get going."
There was no going around it: Rinko was starting to get bored. As surprising as her start to the game was, the tension quickly dissipated to make room for… not much of anything. The area Rinko found herself in, while beautiful in its own way, had been the same since she spawned into the game. And despite how much she enjoyed the scenery around her, Rinko was starting to get tired of seeing the same patches of grass again and again.
If Rinko didn't know any better, she would have started thinking she was walking around in circles. But that wouldn't be possible, right? She had been moving in a straight line since leaving the spot she spawned in, so there was no way Rinko was not going anywhere.
The area she was in just had to be a really big one and Silver Kite was just taking up more time than Rinko was used to. Rinko couldn't really complain about Kite's movement speed considering her avatar's low level. Quite the opposite, really; Rinko was shocked to learn that Kite was already seemingly almost as fast as Rinko's other characters.
What was bothering Rinko was the fact that Kite lacked any skills to make moving through the map not a waste of time. Unlike what Rinko was used to in other games, she had no ability to increase her movement speed or even a lack of an ability to teleport small distances. As a result, Rinko knew she would be stuck trotting along at her pace for a long time to come.
Even with trying to reassure herself that everything was fine, Rinko was still feeling worried. Knowing it would eat away at her if she didn't figure out the answer now, Rinko took a deep breath and satiated her curiosity and worries by looking around. She remembered an oak tree in the area she spawned in, so if she really was walking around in circles she should see that tree again.
Rinko made Kite slowly turn around on the spot so she could scan the horizon. So far, Rinko hadn't seen the familiar sight of the tree which was reassuring to her; she was just being paranoid again. With a small sigh, Rinko was ready to continue moving when something caught her eye.
"Wait a minute…" Rinko muttered as she edged closer to the familiar sight. Rinko would stop when she was sure she wasn't seeing things. She wasn't, but she did feel her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. Rinko had been feeling queasy about something, like a small voice in the back of her mind telling her something was wrong.
Rinko's suspicions were confirmed when she saw a familiar oak tree. Not just any oak tree, either.
'This is where I started…' Rinko thought to herself, trying to make sense of the situation. She was sure she had been moving in a straight line, so how could she have made such a mistake?
A flash of light was all the warning Rinko would get to avoid the other player. When the dustcloud had settled Rinko saw her assailant: a tall and lean yellow-colored avatar. A piece of cloth was used to cover the avatar's face except for its mossy green eyes, but the avatar's design was not what was worrying Rinko.
What was unnerving Rinko the most was that this avatar was in a fighting stance, ready to launch another attack at Silver Kite.
'But why haven't they?' Rinko frowned in thought while trying to think of a reason. She wouldn't be given the chance to figure it out as the game chose that moment to notify Rinko of something. Upon closer inspection, Rinko saw that she was asked to enable voice chat of all things, 'Voice…? Am I ready for that yet…?'
As Rinko was debating with herself, wondering if she could handle enabling voice chat and talking with random strangers, her mind gravitated towards her best friend. Ako would be proud of her if she could do this, and Rinko didn't want to hold Ako back. This has also been the main reason she ran for student council presidency, so what was the point if she couldn't be brave when it mattered?
Gulping down any residue fear and hesitation, Rinko checked her headset to make sure everything was working like it should and enabled voice chat.
"Finally, that took you forever to accept. Let me guess: you are a new player?"
Rinko flinched hearing the other player, not only because of what they said but also the voice itself. The voice sounded very crackly and full of static, but not as if there was a bad connection. With no explanation she could think of, Rinko wondered if it was the game's doing to hide the identity of their players.
'The more I learn about this game, the more I want to play it…' Rinko smiled as she stared at her monitor in awe for a few seconds. One second too long in the other player's eyes.
"Hello?! Are you still there?"
"Yes, um… sorry," Rinko apologized to the other player while simultaneously trying to keep her heart rate from skyrocketing. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Rinko reminded herself of her earlier resolve. She had been in search of other players for a while to get pointers on the game. Rinko would never forgive herself if she didn't take advantage of the situation now that one was handed to her on a figurative silver platter, "You're right… I am new… so as my senior in this game… can you please give me… some answers?"
"Interesting…" the player controlling the yellow-colored avatar muttered before falling silent. Rinko could only hope that the other player was contemplating their options. Finally, after what felt like hours to Rinko but could have been only a handful of seconds, the other player spoke again, "Unfortunately, I don't have a reason to help you. But if you can impress me in a fight you might change my mind."
"A… fight?" Rinko echoed in disbelief, her brain already trying to figure out the other player's intention. Two seconds later, Rinko understood the implications of the challenge, "But you are… much more experienced…"
"Relax, I will not go all out against you. As you said, I have been playing this game for a while now so I would destroy you in about three seconds if I were serious. Maybe more depending on how good you are at dodging," the other player said, their tone seemingly softening up when they realized Rinko's worries. They continued a muttered stream of words that were inaudible to Rinko before a notification showed up in the middle of Rinko's screen. As Rinko was reading the notification and processing the wording in the message, the other player spoke again, "Click 'accept' and we can start that fight. It should be pretty hard to miss."
Had she been in a clearer state of mind, Rinko might have felt offended by the other player's phrasing. Tonight, however, Rinko was much too focused on formulating a strategy. She had been playing for barely half an hour and she was already dragged into a PvP fight against a much more experienced player.
No matter how hard she tried to ignore it, the same question kept popping up in her mind: what kind of a fighter will the other player be?
'Kite-san seems like a close-range fighter, so as long as they aren't a ranged-type, I should be fine,' Rinko thought to herself as she pressed the 'accept' button to initiate the fight. The notification then changed to a clock hovering two-meter above the ground, counting down to what Rinko could only assume was the start of the fight.
But Rinko had other things to worry about than the clock. A nagging voice in the back of Rinko's mind kept telling her that her opponent would be a ranged-type to complete Rinko's bad luck that day. The voice's consistent yammering made it very hard for Rinko to tune out this worry in favor of focusing on what she was getting into.
It was also at this time that Rinko realized she was muttering things under her breath. In fear of being an annoyance, Rinko muted her mic so the other player wouldn't be able to hear her. Rinko then took a couple of deep breaths, closed her eyes to tune out her surroundings, and prepared herself for what was to come.
'Kite-san's only attacks are their fists and those daggers…' Rinko was raking her brain for a solution to the battle and figuring out a strategy for survival. Her plan came crashing down as her worries piled up again, forcing Rinko to focus on her breathing before anything else. Only after she felt like she wasn't going to faint did she begrudgingly accept that there was only one thing she could do.
When Rinko opened her eyes again, the countdown had already reached the single digits. Rinko didn't fancy her chances to find another player to teach her the ways of the game, so Rinko knew what she had to do.
Rinko had to fight the stronger player in front of her. And she had to win.
"Three… two… one… go!" Rinko called out, directing Silver Kite to dash forward. No matter what kind of fighter her opponent was, Rinko knew that she had to get in close to try and deal as much damage as she possibly could. Moving in close had the added benefit of limiting her opponent's movements if they were a ranged-type fighter and attempted to attack Rinko from a distance.
But as Kite sprinted forward, Rinko's screen lit up in a light so bright it blinded Roselia's keyboardist. Despite every fiber of her being telling her otherwise, Rinko turned away from her screen with a wince. She was defenseless, and if the other player could take advantage of Rinko's lowered guard…
When Rinko opened her eyes again, she saw that a thick mist had formed between her and her opponent, obscuring the other player from Rinko's field of vision. With her sight limited, Rinko didn't dare move from the spot she was standing on; as Rinko didn't know where her opponent might attack, she couldn't move without risking Kite running straight into an otherwise avoidable blast.
'Why use a move that blinds both players? Unless…' Rinko inhaled sharply when she not only realized what her opponent was doing but also that she recognized this attack pattern. Her opponent was playing very similarly to how Rinko's fire wizard did in Neo Fantasy Online.
And now, knowing what the other player was trying to do, Rinko felt a surge of confidence. The difference in level and experience between the two players meant that Rinko would likely be unable to win.
'But if I play this right I might have a chance,' Rinko thought to herself before turning to Silver Kite. Rinko knew that it all came down to whether or not Kite could do what Rinko needed her avatar to do; whether she won or lost, it came down to this, 'I am counting on you, Kite-san.'
Rinko calmed her breathing and closed her eyes. Having used this strategy against countless opponents in the past made her confident she could break it; the tactic revolved around making the target panic and make a misplay in the confusion. A misplay that would not go unpunished by the other player if Rinko were to fall for the trap. If Rinko could stay calm and play like she always did, she knew she could do it.
As a result of Rinko standing still, the fight had screeched to a halt as well. A heavy, almost eerie silence hung in the air that would have unnerved Rinko any other day. But this was Rinko's playground, the thing that she could do, and Rinko's patience and calmness of mind were rewarded a few seconds later.
A beam of light struck the ground where Silver Kite would have been had Rinko not dove to the side at the last second. The blast grazed past Kite's right side, causing negligible damage to Rinko's avatar. Instead of damaging Kite, the blast would result in a sizeable hole in the ground.
A small sigh of relief escaped Rinko's lips when she saw she had escaped taking the first hit, but Rinko knew that she wasn't out of the woods yet. If the attack was that terrifying when it missed its target, Rinko didn't want to imagine how much damage it would inflict if Kite were to get hit by that directly. It took all of her willpower to do so, but Rinko managed to maintain her composure in the face of such an attack. The last thing she wanted was to lose this chance because of a mistake.
'If I am going down, I am at least going down with a fight,' Rinko thought to herself while wiping the sweat off her brow. Despite her facade, she knew how close she just avoided disaster. At the same time, however, Rinko knew the battle was far from over… she had been cornered many times before, this was just another day for Rinko to prove herself, 'I did it before, I can do it again… right, Kite-san?'
After taking a moment to consider her options, Rinko unsheathed one of Kite's daggers and threw it through the mist. The earlier blast made attacking the point of origin a very tempting thing to do, but Rinko knew better. If the other player used a similar strategy as Rinko did in the past, then Rinko's opponent would have moved already to avoid an attack returned at them.
Rinko's gamble proved to be successful, and she was rewarded with the mist slowly thinning before disappearing completely. As Rinko had suspected, her opponent moved after launching the blast at Rinko. And based on how close Rinko's dagger struck the avatar's left foot, Rinko knew she had read her opponent well.
Seeing the distance between the two avatars made Rinko second-guess her decision to not dash through the mist for a split second. Had Rinko kept going, she might have been able to land a solid hit or two, but at what cost? Rinko knew that she had made the right move to stop; she couldn't have risked such a careless, reckless, Ako-like move when she knew next to nothing about her opponent. Especially not if doing so could open Kite up to an easy counterattack.
'Knowing the skill they have to almost land a blast through that mist… they were probably ready with a trap if I had gone through that mist blindly,' Rinko thought while at the same time trying to seize in the current situation she was in. Both players were exposed now, but with Kite's speed, Rinko was sure she could go on the offensive.
If Rinko could find a big enough opening to do so.
"Impressive… you not only avoided my attack but managed to break my illusion as well," the other player's voice caught Rinko by surprise. In Rinko's past experiences, her opponents wouldn't try and communicate with her in the middle of the fight, Rinko's onslaught was usually enough of a deterrent. But now that the predator has turned prey, Rinko couldn't help but wonder what the other player was thinking.
"Is the gap between us… really that big?" Rinko muttered as her mind came to the only conclusion it could reach: the other player was strong enough to be able to afford talking with their opponents in the middle of a fight. If Rinko's assumption was right, then—.
"Tell me: how were you able to avoid taking any damage just now?"
The other player's voice shook Rinko out of her train of thoughts and forced her to think of an answer on the spot. Unfortunately for Rinko, she'd soon find out that her short period of good fortune was running out. Rinko was halfway through her response before remembering she had muted herself earlier, forcing the girl to start over.
"I used to… fight like that in an old game," Rinko began her explanation, recalling her precious wizard's playstyle. Rinko had already opened her mouth to continue her answer when she realized it might have come off insulting or making fun of the other player, two things Rinko didn't want to do. So instead, Rinko took a few seconds to find the right words before speaking again, "And once I knew… I could predict where your attack… was coming from. And predict… your movement after attacking."
"And that wasn't all I could do…" Rinko trailed off with a small smile, her gaze shifting to the bottom of her screen. Had Rinko been able to focus on her opponent more she would have heard the other player gasp. Instead, Rinko left herself wide open in favor of activating the only skill of Silver Kite she knew how to use: Dark Sight.
The skill Rinko used was one that made Silver Kite conceal itself in the shadows, temporarily preventing other players from seeing or attacking Rinko's avatar. In exchange for the invulnerability the skill bestowed, Rinko would not be able to launch an attack of her own while the skill was active. Also, the skill only lasted three seconds, but Rinko knew that three seconds was more than enough.
Taking full advantage of her opponent's confusion, Rinko dashed forward as fast as Silver Kite's legs could carry her. As she moved, Rinko saw her chance for victory and took it; the second Rinko's invulnerability had ended she was already wielding her dagger and pressing it against her opponent's throat from behind. The thought of blood trickling down the other player's throat caused a shiver to run down Rinko's spine, but still, Rinko persevered.
Thankfully for Rinko, the avatars did not have any blood to be spilled in battle.
"I win," Rinko announced, panting slightly. She wasn't confident in her strategy to overthrow her opponent, fearing the other player's experience and level might be too much for Rinko to overcome. But with no other way she could have thought of on the spot, Rinko felt an unusual emotion boiling up inside her.
She felt proud of herself.
"Not bad… You not only avoided my attack but managed to corner me and hold me at knifepoint. Not bad at all for a beginner… " the other player said softly. Rinko managed to hear their words regardless, making her feel even prouder for what she had accomplished. Despite how her opponent phrased it, Rinko knew that she was just complimented.
This pride Rinko felt disappeared the moment her opponent's avatar did as well, and in its place came shock and confusion.
"What just—oh no!" Rinko's eyes widened when she realized her mistake a second too late. She and Kite spun around, but by that point, the battle was already decided.
"But not good enough to beat me. You are not the only one who can disappear into the shadows like that," Rinko could almost see the other player's smirk as they held a sword in their hand, the tip of the weapon pressing lightly against Kite's throat.
It was over. Rinko had lost.
Rinko felt devastated. She had dedicated her entire strategy on the only path of victory she could think of, but that was still not enough. The only solace for Rinko was that she knew she had been fighting an uphill battle from the beginning. Once the level and experience gap was cleared, Rinko knew she would have a chance at victory.
This thought succeeded in somewhat comforting Rinko, although the bitter aftertaste of defeat would remain in the back of her mouth for a while.
"You might have lost the fight, but you proved yourself to me," the other player's words caused Rinko to look up. In the heat of battle and her focus to try and win, Rinko had almost forgotten why they were fighting in the first place. Rinko could almost cheer when the other player spoke again, "I will help you get started in this game, to the best of my abilities, anyway. That being said, I never quite got your name?"
"Ah, right, I'm sorry," Rinko realized that the other player was right. The two were so focused on their little spar that they never introduced themselves to the other, "My name is Silver Kite."
"Kite-san then," the other player muttered to themselves as Rinko was waiting for a response. Rinko wanted to know the other player's name as well, but she didn't want to be bothered and ask them outright. What if it inconvenienced them and they changed their mind about helping Rinko with the game?
Rinko's worries came to a grinding halt when the other player sent Rinko a friend request. The act was not something that Rinko was anticipating, so she was all flustered by the time the other player finally introduced themselves to Rinko.
"My name is Amber Moon. It is nice to officially meet you, Kite-san."
And that's all for today! Like Kuroba from chapter 3, Amber Moon (and Amber Moon's owner) are not an OC. What they are, however, is a last-minute addition to the story… Anyway, that little trivia aside… I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a review telling me what you thought, and until next time! Take care!
Also, a quick note: because this month has five Saturdays instead of the usual four, I will be uploading the next chapter not on the third Saturday (15/08) but the fourth Saturday (22/08). That, admittedly, isn't the real reason for the delay, but the delay will still happen so there is the announcement. Thank you for your understanding and patience in advance.