A majority of one-time events for CNO are held in a large cubic structure known as the Cubic Maze of Trials (more commonly referred to by players as The Cube). The interior of this maze is randomly generated for each event it is used in. During the days for events it is used in, it hovers in the air over Serulis. The Cube vanishes after the date changes from the day of an event.

-Lepus Guide to CNO: The Cube

Nearly an hour had passed since the event had started. I was honestly a little surprised no one had reached the Ultra Core yet, but I was sure that wasn't going to remain true for long. All I could do was pray that Violet and I would be the first ones to reach it as we ran together through the gigantic maze that was The Cube.

After meeting up with Violet, the two of us had hurried through each floor, conducting a full sweep each time to see if the Ultra Core was there. After going up through five floors, our instincts told us that we had gone past whatever the center of the maze layout was. Going with our second guess of the Ultra Core being on the top floor, we decided to chance it and focus on finding the elevators to climb the floors as fast as possible. If we were right and the Ultra Core was there, we couldn't afford to waste time mapping each floor out completely.

The Hermes NBS I used outclassed Violet's Flora NBS when it came to speed a little, so I was forced to slow my running pace as we ran. However, Violet's company more than made up for it. Having an ally as skilled as her allowed us to deal with most of the players we encountered with relative ease. Every floor we reached, we located the room with the elevator as fast as possible, went to the next floor, and repeated the process all over again.

The two of us were currently on the eleventh floor of The Cube. So far, this floor had just been a long hallway, winding and weaving with no branching paths. Between that and the fact that we had gone through so many floors already, both Violet and I had a feeling the end of the maze was close.

As we turned another corner, an exit out of the hallway showed itself before us. Violet and I glanced at each other, thinking the same thing, and picked up the pace. If our guess was right, we were about to clear the event.

"To be perfectly honest, I didn't think we were actually going to be the first ones to get to it." I admitted as we ran.

"You're going to jinx us saying stuff like that."

"Didn't take you for the superstitious type."

We finally emerged through the exit and into a brand new room. It was open with the exception of a single slab sticking up out of the ground. The same terminal we had seen for every elevator so far.

"Bingo." I said as we ran up to and looked at the terminal. It was a simple contraption to use. Once a player placed their hand on the terminal, the outline of the portion of the floor that served as the elevator would glow. Players then had a few seconds to get on before it would rise up to the next floor. I reached my hand towards the terminal to activate it.

And then it happened.

A laser bullet shot through my right shoulder. Red pixels representing blood spilled out from the damage effect and I watched my HP fall by 5%. Violet and I quickly turned around and saw who had been responsible for the bullet just now. It was a pair of players who were at the other end of the hallway we had just come from and were running towards us with guns pointed.

"Told you!"

"Alright fine, I jinxed us! My bad!" I shouted back as I quickly hit the terminal to activate it. The portion of the floor right behind it began to glow and the two of us dived behind the terminal for cover as a spray of laser bullets flew past us. The terminal wouldn't protect us for long though. Once the elevator started moving, we'd rise up with it and be completely exposed.

I reached for my waist and pulled out my Silver Photon Handgun just as the floor began to rise. Violet already had her own handgun out. We just needed to hold them back until we were at the next floor and we were home free.

"I'll take left." Violet said.

I silently nodded and got ready. Just as we were about to rise high enough for our heads to be past the terminal, the two of us moved to the side with me rolling to the right. Laying down on the floor, we both began returning fire to the pair of players that were now halfway down the hall.

I wasn't much of a shot, but that didn't matter here. Neither of our guns were going to do any significant damage unless we hit their heads anyway. The purpose of this gunfight was to slow them down and prevent them from reaching us in time. I hadn't noticed it before, but being shot at in this situation made me realize that the elevators in this place moved really damn slower than I would have liked.

The two players noticed the elevator rising and decided to throw caution to the wind, running at full speed as they shot at us. Bullets typically didn't do much individual damage to players outside of headshots so as long as they avoided those they would be fine. And with Violet and I using handguns, neither of us were equipped for pinpoint accuracy.

The ceiling above us began to open up as we reached the halfway point. The two enemies were nearing the door to the room. A few of their bullets had nicked me on the shoulders and arms, but thankfully none had hit my head so I still had plenty of HP.

"You really need to do target practice more often." Violet criticized as she continued to fire.

"Who do you think I am? William Tell?" I retorted. "I barely use this thing unless I have to."

Our suppression fire was doing the trick. We were about three quarters of the way up. Having finally gotten high enough, Violet and I moved back along the floor, preventing our two enemies from being able to shoot at us. We were home free.

Just as I thought that however, my eyes caught sight of a grenade flying up and landing on the elevator. Violet and I shared a look that screamed 'Oh crap' and I lunged at the explosive. If it went off while we were on the elevator, our chances of survival were slim at best. I shoved the grenade off the elevator and watched as it rolled off. A second later, the explosion came and I was blown back by the shockwave. Better that than taking the explosion itself though, since after slamming onto my back I saw my HP only dip to about the 60% mark.

The cries from down below told me however that the two that had thrown the grenade were not so fortunate. Violet and I shared a sigh of relief that we had escaped the close call just now.

As the elevator reached the next floor, it was clear almost instantly that we were somewhere important. For starters, unlike all the previous floors, this one had a visible sky. It was clearly artificial though as it had a deep blue hue that gave off a nighttime vibe with stars scattered about. Various pillars were placed throughout the floor.

This had to be it. I was sure of it. And with our two adversaries down below either dead or being forced to wait a few seconds for the elevator to start coming back down, there was nothing left to stop Violet and I.

"Looks like we did it, Vi."

"Yeah… I'm not so sure."

I glanced at Violet in confusion and saw her looking behind me. I turned around and saw immediately what she had meant.

We weren't the first players to arrive.

Standing before us were five other players. But they weren't taking action to try and kill us. Instead they were simply standing around, almost as if they had been lounging about waiting for us.

Just as I was about to open my mouth to ask what was going on, an announcement sounded and echoed through the area. "Player Tae is the sixth to reach the Final Testing Floor. Player Violet is the seventh player to reach the Final Testing Floor." The next thing Violet and I knew, a window popped up before us with a message.

[Congratulations. You have made it to the Final Testing Floor. Please note that this floor is a safe zone and will remain as such until the final round. The final round will be explained once ten players have reached this floor, or once two hours have passed for the event. The winner at the end of the final round will place first and receive the Ultra Core.]

"Final round?" Violet questioned.

"Came as a surprise for us too." another player mentioned. "Though I really hope we don't end up having to wait two whole freaking hours."

"If anyone has the right to complain, it's me." another player spoke. "I couldn't believe the message when I saw it after getting here first."

I looked at the player that had spoken just now. Once I saw the name Zenos hanging over his cursor, I had little trouble believing he had been the first here like he claimed. CNO was still a relatively new game, but back in December there had been a massive PvP tournament known as Cyber Clash. At its core, it was a singles tournament meant to decide CNO's top player. I had entered it back then, but only made it to the first round of the main event before getting taken out. Zenos however had placed second in the event, losing to a player named Kaiser in the final round. Put simply, he was one of the top players in the entire game.

Fitting a top player of CNO, Zenos's NBS was one of the best in the game, a model known as Hades. It had a black frame with azure flames burning in various parts of the body. Sheathed at his waist was a black-gripped templar sword that was one of the small handful of metal blades in the game, his weapon of choice.

I knew from the name registry of competing players that Kaiser was also in the final round, but I didn't see him among the players here. That wasn't too surprising though. Kaiser was known for using a Guardian class NBS model so speed wasn't his forte. His chances of making it here within the three remaining slots were decent given his combat skills, but not guaranteed. This was a race, and while skills in battle helped, speed was the primary factor for this event.

Honestly I was praying Kaiser wouldn't make it. Dealing with Zenos was going to be tough enough without Kaiser here as well.

Left with nothing to do but wait, Violet and I stood together leaning against one of the nearby pillars. We had both used recovery items to replenish our HP back to full. A couple of minutes passed by after the elevator went back to the floor below, but nobody new had come up, telling us that the two players from before had been killed by their own grenade. Ironic, as if they hadn't used it they would have still been in the running for the event.

With our newly acquired free time, Violet and I decided to get a look at our competition. Besides Zenos, there were four other players standing closely together. They were likely working as a team, similarly to Violet and I. As for whether they were just a party of friends or members of the same guild, I couldn't tell yet. The fifth and final player seemed to be solo like Zenos, but I didn't recognize him so he could be ignored for the most part.

Finally, after another five minutes, the sound of the elevator activating was heard. Everyone watched as another player emerged, seemingly just as confused as we had all been from the presence of so many players. A second player came soon after. And finally, after ten minutes, the final player arrived.

Just as the elevator clicked into place, a fanfare noise sounded throughout the floor. As it died down a few seconds later, a monitor window popped up in the air, showing Sayuri on the other end.

"Hey all you diehard CNO fans! Have I got some juicy news for you! The tenth and final player has finally made it to the last floor! With that, it's time for the final round to begin!" the idol called out, likely speaking both to us and all of the players watching the live feed of the event. "The rules of the final round are simple. It'll be a ten player battle royale in a no holds barred fight to the finish! Last player standing wins and gets the fabled Ultra Core!"

The other players there all immediately put their game faces on. Even the final player that had arrived just seconds ago managed to get a grasp of the situation quickly and could tell no mistakes could be made from this point on if they wanted to win.

A ring roughly ten meters in diameter lit up at a certain area on the floor as Sayuri continued her explanation. "Now then, will the ten players please each stand somewhere inside the ring. Once every player has done so, a timer will count down for the start of the final round. When the timer hits zero, the fight will begin and you can move anywhere you like on the floor."

Each player began walking towards the ring. We each stood somewhere near the edge, knowing that the second the timer hit zero everyone would spread out or attack whoever was near them. Once everyone had taken their positions, a thirty second timer began ticking down, hovering over us in the center of the ring.

As the timer ticked down, I surveyed the eight players Violet and I would have to take down. Out of the eight of them, five in particular were the main concern. Zenos was the second highest ranked player in the game. If anyone had an edge in this fight, it was him. The other threat was the group of four huddled together. If they were a team for the event like Violet and I, they could easily end up sticking together and picking off the competition one by one. But taking either threat head on right at the start would be tantamount to suicide. The better option was to fall back and wait for one or the other to be weakened.

And if that didn't work, I had always wanted to see how I stacked up against one of CNO's top players.

At the fifteen second mark, the player to my right let out a condescending chuckle my way. "I hope you don't think you're going to win with that peashooter at your waist."

I glanced at the player, taking in his build. He was using a Blitzkrieg model and had a long pole hanging from his back. "So do you actually know how to use that weapon of yours? Or are you just overcompensating for something?"

Ok so it was a bit of a cliche joke. Sue me. They couldn't all be winners.

Regardless, my comment seemed to get under his skin nonetheless from the glare he was giving me. "I'm going to teach you not to act so cocky, asshole."

Violet rolled her eyes. "Mouth getting you into trouble again?"

"Who, me? Nah. It's just my way of making friends."

Five seconds left.

Everyone brought out their weapons. Mister Compensation removed the pole on his back and hit a switch, causing a blade of light to emerge near the side of the top end of the pole, showing it off to be a laser axe. I kept my gun holstered. I wasn't going to need it for what was about to happen.

3… 2… 1… 0.

With that, a buzzer sounded, the ring of light disappeared, and the word 'Start' appeared big and bold. The one member of the four-man team with an assault rifle started laying down covering fire as he and his teammates fell back. Everyone did their best to avoid the spray of photon bullets as they moved back behind cover. But the Blitzkrieg user was instead headed right for me. Unfortunately for him, I had also been moving his way. I ducked down to avoid the bullets from the other player and slid along the ground. He raised his axe up and prepared to swing it down at me, but I was already prepared for that. I clenched my feet and the boosters on my legs triggered, propelling me past him far quicker than he had been able to swing his axe.

Getting right behind him, I swung my leg up for a kick that hit his head. Annoyed by this, he turned around swinging his axe for a horizontal slash. But I was already way ahead of him. I leaped up over the swing, and as his axe hit nothing but air, I grabbed his head and drove my knee right into his face.

Virtual or not, that was going to hurt.

His HP had already fallen down into the yellow from the two clean hits to the head. I reeled my fist back for a punch. My opponent brought his axe up to block his face, expecting me to hit the same spot yet again. But by doing so, it left his gut wide open, which I took full advantage of as I drove my fist into it. As the air rushed out of his virtual lungs, I swung my leg up with a kick at the shaft of his axe. The weapon left his grip and spun in the air.

"Damn you!" he shouted as he lunged at me.

Word of advice. When someone's kicking your ass bare-handed while you have a weapon, attacking them without one typically isn't a good idea.

I lowered my body and hit his with a sweep kick, knocking him off his feet and making him land facedown on the ground. I stood over him and caught his axe as it fell towards us, bringing the blade to his neck. "Seems it was just compensation after all."

"Go to hell."

"Alright, then save me a spot there." With a swing of the axe, I slashed his neck clean off and finished what was left of his HP. His axe shattered into polygon fragments along with his avatar.

One down. Seven to go.

Not liking the idea of staying out in the open, I rushed towards the pillar Violet was hiding behind. A couple sprays of gunfire came at me, but I didn't take too much damage from it as I took cover next to Violet.

"How'd things go with your new friend?" she asked.

"Just peachy. We're going out for coffee and doughnuts after this is over."

Violet glanced out from her cover. "The other two soloers look like they have a truce so they can take out the group of four. Zenos is on their other side, so he might try and flank them while they're distracted."

"In that case, let's go for Zenos." I suggested. "The two groups will have their hands full with each other. Better to take out Zenos now while not having to worry about interfere-"

Before I could even finish a figure emerged from the side. Violet and I gasped as Zenos decided to bring the fight to us and swung his sword. His blade was a high-rarity piece of equipment that had a nifty yet incredibly annoying feature. It doubled as a whip.

The blade split into several sections, each connected by a line of wire running down the center. I rolled out of the way, while Violet brought her blade up to block it. It curved slightly around her, cutting her right shoulder slightly and making her lose a few pixels of health. It would have wrapped around her completely had the rest of the blade not hit the pillar.

Zenos hit a switch on the hilt, and the whip retracted, the multiple blades jagging along Violet's sword of light. His whip sword was a tricky weapon to handle, but he had shown in the Cyber Clash two months ago that he had gotten more than enough practice with it.

"The Accel Brawler and Bloody Rose." Zenos said in an amused tone, referring to us by our nicknames that we had picked up from our reputations. "I hope you'll make this worth my while."

"I'm surprised a big timer like you has heard of us." I responded.

"I like to do my research. Prevents the competition from surprising me."

"Can't argue with that."

Violet and Zenos quickly became trapped in a sword fight. Having the lighter weapon, Violet's attacks were swift enough to keep Zenos from utilizing the whip function of his sword properly. Even though she wasn't a top player, Violet's skill with a blade was one of the best I had ever seen. She left next to no openings in her style and had various combo attacks that always managed to break through her enemy's guard. I could only guess that she was like me and had real world experience related to her fighting style. Perhaps kendo or fencing.

Zenos seemed to be in awe of Violet's skill as well. He was slowly being pushed back. But rather than get annoyed, he seemed to be enjoying the struggle. "Not bad. I can see why you've earned the name Bloody Rose."

"For the record-" Violet said as she attacked with another two swings of her blade. "-I really hate that nickname."

It was true. Every time Violet heard that name, a scowl came to her face. She had earned the name both because of the Flora model she used and how skillfully she dealt with any enemy in her path. I didn't know why she hated the name, as it sounded pretty good to me. I had called her that once in a joking matter. That was the one and only time I had ever called her that.

There weren't enough bits in CNO to pay me to get her that pissed again.

Violet and Zenos continued their sword fight, but it was clear that Zenos was beginning to adapt to Violet's attacks. Now rather than her pushing him back the two were trapped in a stalemate. I even saw Violet take a step back instead. We were going to have to fight Zenos together if we wanted any chance at victory. I ran in, and Violet backed away at the last second, having heard me approaching. But Zenos proved he wasn't to be taken lightly as he blocked my fist with his sword.

I tried to knock him off his balance with a kick at his legs, but Zenos hardened his stance and stopped my leg short. He took advantage of the opportunity and shoved me back, causing me to lose my balance momentarily instead. I couldn't let him put distance between us for long though. The second that happened, he would unleash his whip and I'd be in a far worse position. So I closed the gap between us and continued attacking with a flurry of punches and kicks, making sure to be wary of the sharp edge of his blade. I still received cuts here and there, gradually lowering my HP, but I was also chipping away at his.

I heard Violet's voice call behind me. "Rotation!"

I knew instantly what she meant by that and called back "Got it" as I continued my attacks. I kept them up for another five seconds before stepping back. At that same moment, Violet leaped into the fray and began her series of attacks. She kept it up for five seconds before we swapped out yet again. It was a style we often used when fighting an opponent together. We would switch in and out for five second intervals, allowing us to overwhelm an opponent and prevent them from having any openings of attack.

In theory.

Zenos seemed to figure out our strategy after the third or fourth rotation. He timed his attack perfectly, just as Violet was moving back and I was going in. His blade slashed at my abdomen, taking away a good 30% of my health and sending my HP into the yellow. What was worse was that the slash knocked me back slightly, allowing him to leap back and gain the distance necessary to use his sword's whip function. Violet and I both retreated behind the nearby pillar, feeling the force of his blade crashing against the thankfully immortal object.

I heard Zenos call out behind the pillar. "I gotta give you two credit. You're not half bad. This is turning out to be pretty fun." he said. "When I found out there'd be a battle royale at the end here, I was kind of hoping for the chance to settle my score with Kaiser. But you two are proving to be a fun challenge."

"Better not tell Kaiser that! I'd rather not have him coming after me with a rusty knife shouting about how we took his boyfriend from him!" I shouted back.

"I wouldn't worry about it! He said it's fine for us to see other people!"

Had to give the guy credit. He knew how to roll with a joke. It was a surprisingly rare quality in people these days.

"If you're done with the foreplay, mind thinking about what the hell we're going to do?" Violet asked with a raised whisper. "This guy's good, and he really knows how to use that weapon. If we just charge in blindly, we're going to be ripped to shreds."

Another clash of Zenos's sword against the pillar further drove her point home. Zenos was no fool. He had the range advantage right now. He wouldn't come at us and waste that. He'd continue attacking from mid-range, trying to force us out of hiding.

I looked at the gun at my waist. It wasn't going to do me any good in this fight. With Zenos's skill, he'd deflect any shot I fired that would go near his head. If I was going to take him down, there was only one way I was going to be able to do it.

Up close and personal.

I swiped open my menu and went to my equipment tab. I scrolled through my list of weapons and replaced my Silver Photon Handgun as my sub weapon with another weapon known as Assassin's Edge. Just like that, the handgun at my waist vanished with a flash of light and was replaced with a combat knife. It was similar to a switchblade. The only difference was that instead of a metal blade popping out, a six inch blade of light appeared when I pressed the switch at the pommel of the weapon. But I kept the blade sheathed for now as I held the grip tightly in my left hand.

"Think you can keep him busy for a few seconds?" I asked.

"If this fails, I'm never going to let you live it down."

"If this fails and we die, I promise I will buy you the sweetest most expensive desert Serulis has to offer."

"Well now I'm tempted to make you fail."

"You do that and I'm never buying you deserts again."

At the sound of the next hit from Zenos's sword against the pillar, Violet and I sprang into action. Violet came out first, causing Zenos to fling his whip sword at her. The second he did, I came out of cover on the opposite side that Violet came out from, and made a mad dash towards him.

Zenos saw me coming and prepared to swing his whip at me next, but Violet had no intention of letting him do so. After deflecting his first lash, she took her sword and stabbed it into the ground in between two sections of the blade, causing it to get stuck when Zenos tried to pull back.

The grip of the Assassin's Edge blade was firmly in my hand, but its length was only slightly more than the width of my fist. Zenos didn't seem to realize that I was holding something yet, likely assuming I was simply coming at him with my usual martial arts. How long he would believe that was going to make the difference between victory and defeat here.

Seeing the approaching danger, Zenos flipped the switch on his weapon to cause it to automatically retract. The force of it was more than Violet's sword could handle and it was yanked out of the ground. Desperate to get a hit in before he could counter, I lunged forward and readied my blade. Zenos realized it was in my grip at the last second, but it was too late. I hit the button on the pommel and the blade of light shot out. It slashed his stomach as I dashed past him, bringing his HP down by 10% and just barely getting it into the yellow area. But now his sword was back, and my weapon wasn't going to stand a chance against his in a battle of strength.

"You're finished!" Zenos shouted as he turned around and thrusted his sword through me.

My HP quickly began to fall. Normally the smart thing to do would be to move back to stop the damage from continuing. But Zenos wasn't someone I could beat without taking some serious risks. I impaled my knife into him, causing his own HP to start going down.

Zenos flashed a smirk. "Hate to break it to you, but your HP will hit zero well before mine does at this rate."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." I smirked back. "Vi! Now!"

Zenos gasped, suddenly noticing Violet's presence behind him. He tried to pull his sword out from me to counter, but I had let go of my knife, keeping it embedded in him, to grab the grip of his weapon and prevent him from moving it. This wasn't a game of whether my blade could out-damage his.

It was a game of whether my HP could last long enough for Violet to cut him down.

"Raaaahhhhhh!"

Realizing the danger he was in, Zenos desperately tried to pull out the blade, but it was no use. My STR stat was greater than his. Violet took full advantage of the opportunity to slash her blade right through Zenos's exposed back. She kept up her slashes, performing a four hit combo that almost seemed to form the shape of a square.

And just like that, the runner up of the Cyber Clash tournament had his HP fall to zero.

"Tch, damnit. Looks like I got careless." Zenos muttered as his avatar began to glow with a pale blue light. He flashed me a grin before shattering. "You two better win this thing so I don't look even worse."

As Zenos's body and sword shattered into fragments, I stared at the spot where he had been just a second ago. "You got it."

Although Zenos's sword was no longer impaling me, my HP would still be dropping for a few more seconds and it was already dangerously low in the red. I went to swipe open my menu, but before I even could Violet had already handed me a Recovery Charge. I pressed the button on it and my HP began to go up and down for a brief moment, the healing and damage fighting over who would win out. But a few seconds later, the impalement damage ended and my HP began to go on a steady rise back up.

Violet breathed a sigh of relief. I imagined, like me, she was still processing the fact that we had managed to take down one of CNO's top players, even if only barely. "Alright, all that should be left is-" Her expression suddenly changed as she glanced to the side. "GET DOWN!"

Before I could even register what was happening, Violet tackled me to the ground and a flurry of bullets whizzed over us. I turned my head towards the direction they came from and was greeted with an unpleasant sight. Three players from the group of four working together. And the two solo players nowhere to be seen.

Damnit, those two had one job! They couldn't have at least taken out one player each?!

"I'm giving those two soloers one star each in their review." I commented as Violet and I scrambled to our feet and ran to the closest pillar to take cover. The sound of bullets hitting against the pillar told us that we could so much as peek our heads out without risking getting a hole in them.

From what I had seen, only one of the remaining three had a gun on them. If the other two did, they were likely small sidearm handguns like the ones Violet and I used and as such weren't worth worrying too much about. The assault rifle user however was a problem. The rapid fire optical gun in their hands would make swiss cheese of us. Even if we could try and get close while keeping the bullet damage to a minimum, neither mine nor Violet's HP were at any level to take that kind of punishment.

As it stood, my own HP had only recovered up to 25% so far and the Recovery Charge I had used wasn't going to heal much more. Even using a second Recovery Charge wouldn't bring me back to full health, but right now I needed every pixel of health I could get. So I opened my menu and brought out another Recovery Charge. The second I saw the one Violet had given me stop working, I pressed the button and my HP began to slowly rise once again. Within thirty seconds, my HP would be back at around 80%, but that was only if I didn't take any further damage before then. And something told me our three remaining adversaries weren't going to wait forever for us to heal. Sooner or later, they'd start approaching to finish us off. And if Violet and I got caught in a pincer attack, we were screwed.

Violet poked her head out, but quickly pulled back a second later as laser bullets zoomed past her. "They're about twenty meters away. But I don't see us getting any closer with that gunner pinning us down here."

We needed to do something quickly. It wouldn't be long before the other two players got impatient and began advancing towards us while their gunner kept us pinned down. We needed to get to them, but that approach also had the problem of the gunner. If we both went, one of us could probably make it and take out the gunner, but the other would likely end up dead and the survivor would be left to take on the remaining two alone.

But what if one of us could move in faster than the gunner could shoot?

An idea slowly formed in my head. It was risky, but sitting here wasn't going to accomplish anything. I looked to Violet. "I'm going to get in close. Once I have his attention, run in as fast as you can to back me up."

"Tae, you know how much I hate self-sacrifice plans."

"It isn't self-sacrifice if you get there before I die."

Violet let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine. Just try not to get killed before I get there."

"I'm touched how much you care for my safety."

"Hardly. I just need a meatshield to throw against the other two after we kill the gunner."

Ow, my pride.

I readied myself for my desperate plan. This was it. If this failed, we were finished. But I wasn't just nervous. I was also excited. Moments like these, where your back was against the wall and you had to bet everything on a do or die plan. This was what made VRMMOs so exciting.

After all, a game's no fun if it's easy.

I leaped out from the pillar and the gunman, whose name I could now read as Ulric, began taking aim at me. I only had a couple precious seconds before he started shooting. I aimed my left arm out at the pillar Ulric and his buddies were near and fired off my grappling hook. It stuck to the pillar and I reeled myself in just as the bullets started flying. A couple nicked me on the shoulder, taking my HP down by a couple pixels. But now I was zooming towards them, and their faces showed that they hadn't been expecting my sudden arrival.

Once my feet hit the pillar, I detached the line from the wall and kicked off, flipping sideways as I landed. I lunged towards Ulric as he was turning to aim his gun at me, bullets already flying from it. I ducked under the stream of gunfire just before the barrel lined up with me and drove my fist right into Ulric's gut. The blow was hard enough to get him to pause his shooting. His HP seemed to have already taken a small hit from their fight with the two solo players earlier, and with my hit just now the bar went into the yellow as he tumbled back.

I continued my assault as I ran at Ulric. I swung my fist down at him, and he held up his gun as a shield. It succeeded in absorbing the blow, but a dent could now be seen in it. I punched at it yet again. If he was going to use his weapon as a shield, then I just needed to break it.

As I swung my fourth punch at the gun, I heard an odd sound behind me. I turned around to see one of the other two players gripping his arm, which was in the shape of a cannon. And the cluster of light in the barrel showed it was ready to fire.

"Shit!" I cursed as I lunged to the side. Just in time too, because not even a second later the blast from the cannon flew past me and crashed into Ulric.

Did I mention those blasts explode on impact?

The shockwave of the blast blew me off my feet. I slammed onto my back and watched my HP fall back into the yellow. Ulric however had been taken out completely by the blast and not a trace of him was left. I grunted as I got to my feet, looking at the now two remaining members of the group. The one who had fired the cannon just now was called Charon, while his partner had the name Laris hanging over his head.

"Trying to take out your teammate along with your opponent? That's pretty harsh." I said.

"It doesn't matter how many of us fall. All that matters is that Ironheart gets the Ultra Core." Charon responded.

I could only assume Ironheart was the name of whatever guild they belonged to. They had probably had all of their members enter the event for the chance for one of them to get the grand prize. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't the only guild who had done that either. But that disregard over which of them won made them dangerous. It meant they had no qualms about killing each other, or offing themselves, to take me or Violet out.

Speaking of my partner, I could finally hear her approaching, as did Charon and Laris. While Charon's primary weapon was his cannon arm, Laris seemed to be built for mid range with the spear in his hands.

"Take spear guy!" I shouted. "Leave discount Megaman to me!"

Charon didn't seem to take too kindly to my nickname for him based on the glare he shot my way. But with Violet keeping Laris busy, he was stuck dealing with me.

While most normal guns had limited damage output, the bigger ones like cannons and sniper rifles were different. A direct hit from either packed quite a punch. But the downside to either was they couldn't do rapid fire. They had a charge up period for each shot, making them easier to dodge if you saw the charge up. Put simply, I needed to keep a very close eye on that cannon.

But there was one other problem.

Charon backed away, knowing a close quarters fight was not to his advantage. I tried to dash in and close the distance, but as I did a pair of metallic wings emerged from Charon's back. A blast of heat came from them and in an instant he was lifted into the air.

In total, there were six classes of NBS models. There were Attackers like Violet's Flora, who had a high STR stat to dish out lots of damage, at the expense of being a glass cannon with low DUR and HP. The Sprinter class, like my Hermes, were similar to Attackers except they focused more on SPD than STR. Guardians were the tanks. They had high DUR and HP to take hits, as well as high STR to carry any heavy equipment, but the downside was their SPD and SNS stats were abysmal. Scouters were best used for those that fought from a far distance. They had remarkably high SNS, which made hitting targets with guns significantly easier. All-Rounders, such as the Hades model Zenos used, were basically a jack of all trades. They had decent stats in practically every category but excelled in none. What they lacked for in specific roles though they more than made up for in versatility.

And finally, there was the Aerial class, the same class that Charon's Avior model belonged to. Their stats varied from model to model, but their defining trait was the jetpack-like wings they each had that allowed them to fly through the air.

It wasn't as game-breaking as it sounded actually. There were jetpack gadgets that could be equipped to the back of any NBS, allowing them to fly. The advantage Aerial class models had though was that unlike the jetpack gadgets that could only allow players to fly for about a minute or two, their wings could last nearly five minutes. On top of that, the flight controls were rumored to be a pain in the ass to learn and even then they weren't exactly smooth if you didn't have all of your concentration pooled together. If you believed the rumors, CNO had tried to copy the Flight Engine ALO used but had fallen short, resulting in the somewhat sloppy flying mechanics the game currently had. Don't get me wrong though, if you could master flight with an Aerial model you would have a big advantage over your opponents.

Charon took off into the air, charging up another shot with his cannon. I dodged as he fired it at me. In a long range fight like this, the only thing I had that could hit him was my Silver Photon Handgun. But that was locked away in my inventory right now and something told me Charon wasn't going to wait around for me to equip it. Even if I did, there was no guarantee I'd even be able to land a shot at him from this distance.

Charon fired shot after shot at me as I was forced to run around to avoid getting blown to bits. "Any chance I could convince you into coming down and fighting me like a man?" I asked.

"No thanks. I prefer shooting at you until you're a pile of ash."

"Worth a shot."

I continued to dodge blast after blast. However, Charon seemed to be adjusting to my movements because one of the following shots came close enough for the shockwave to knock me over. I got to my feet just in time to avoid a direct hit from the following shot, but it was still close enough to do damage, knocking my HP further down. I really hoped Violet was having better luck than I was. At the rate things were going, I wasn't sure I would be able to last long enough to wait for his flight time to wear off and force him to descend.

I'd like to say I continued dodging Charon's blasts with the grace and elegance of a professional figure skater. But that would be a giant lie. I looked like a little kid running in fear from the big bully on the playground. But trust me, it looked cool as hell.

At least that's what I was telling myself.

As I dodged yet another blast, it was clear Charon was getting increasingly annoyed. He glanced in the direction Laris and Violet were fighting, probably to get an estimate on how long it would take for Laris to back him up. I decided to take a quick peek myself.

Violet, as it turned out, was indeed having better luck than I was right now. Her HP was still at around 60%. Laris meanwhile had fallen to about 30% of his HP. He was getting creamed by Violet. There were few out there who could match Violet in a close quarters fight.

All I needed to do was wait a bit longer for Violet to finish Laris off and it would be two on one. Even if neither of us specialized in long range combat, Violet and I could handle Charon with our teamwork. Unfortunately, Charon seemed to have the same idea as his latest charged blast was not aimed at me, but rather Violet and Laris.

"Shit!" I cursed. I quickly called out to her. "Vi, look out!"

It was too late though. Violet turned her head just as the blast shot out of the barrel. She and Laris had no time to dodge as a small explosion occurred around them. Laris's HP hit zero almost instantly as his avatar shattered. Violet however still had just barely a sliver of health left. But she was down and Charon was already charging up his next shot.

I ran to Violet, hoping that I could make it in time, while knowing deep down that I had no chance of making it. Violet tried to get up and run in time, but it was too late. She had evaded a direct hit, but the blast radius covered enough ground to hit her and take out what was left of her HP. I watched as her avatar shattered away.

"Violet!"

The situation had just gone from bad to worse. The only players left in the final battle were me and Charon. And not only did I have the lower HP percentage between the two of us, but I also had the range disadvantage.

Hoping I could at least get in some damage while his guard was down, I brought out my Assassin's Edge and hit the switch to make the blade of light emerge. I threw it directly at Charon while his attention was still on the spot where Violet had been just a second ago. He noticed the knife at the last second however and hovered sideways. The knife flew past him and lodged itself near the top of one of the pillars.

Ok yeah, maybe throwing the knife wasn't the best plan in hindsight.

Charon brought his attention back to me and once again we were back in our game of shooting fish in a barrel. I dashed behind a pillar, evading another blast, but it was only a couple seconds later that Charon flew around and lined me up in his sights once again.

Now at this point I'm sure some of you are wondering why I didn't have a jetpack gadget equipped for situations like these. Did I not have the money? Was it some insanely high rarity drop? Did I think their design was stupid? Well the answer is actually none of them, and far more simpler. There was a reason why I used the Grappling Hook gadget so much. There was a reason why I never relied on thrusters to slow a descent from a tall height.

I may or may not have just the tiniest little fear of flying.

I was fine moving through the air with my Grappling Hook gadget. In my eyes, as long as the line was connected to something securely fastened to the ground, it wasn't flying. But moving through the air without anything tethering me to the ground? That was out of the question.

The reason for this stems back to seven years ago, back when I was eight. My mother had been invited to visit an old friend of hers in the U.S that she trained with when she was younger. So she had decided to bring me, Akari, and our father along. All signs pointed to it being a great trip. However, shortly after taking off, the plane experienced technical difficulties. The pilot was forced to make an emergency crash landing into a river.

The damage wasn't really all that bad looking back at it. Nobody had sustained any serious injuries. Emergency procedures went more or less smoothly. But that incident had left a deep scar in my mind. A scar that still lingered to this day. I was unable to get on a plane ever since without nearly having a panic attack.

I had tried flying with a jetpack once before in CNO. I wish I could say all that happened was I flopped around helplessly and crashed. But the truth is worse than that. My heart rate had skyrocketed so much that the Amu Sphere had disconnected me. That embarrassing moment was a secret that I hadn't told a single soul. Not even Violet.

Even using my Grappling Hook to get to or lower myself from high places was something I hadn't been entirely comfortable with at first. But unlike using one of the game's jetpacks, I had been able to do it without disconnecting. It took a month of practice, but I was able to use Grappling Hooks like a pro now without my fear taking over.

But that didn't solve my current issue.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" Charon shouted as he continued firing blast after blast at me. Only two minutes had passed since he took flight, but it felt like two hours. And the shockwaves from the blasts were chipping away at my HP bit by bit. I wasn't going to last at this rate.

"You can shoot, but you can't aim!" I called back. I went behind another pillar for a brief couple seconds of rest. These pillars were taller than the flight limit Charon's NBS allowed him. But even if I climbed them with the Grappling Hook, I couldn't bring myself to jump and freefall into Charon. My fear kept me from taking that action, as pathetic as it was.

I glanced out at the pillar where my Assassin's Edge was located. With no openings to open my menu and equip my Silver Photon Handgun, it was the only other weapon I had access to right now besides my gauntlets. But it was at the top of the pillar, which wasn't exactly easy to reach while evading Charon's cannon. As I stared at the knife, Charon flew to the side, blocking my view from it as he aimed with his cannon.

Of course!

The idea popped into my head like an epiphany. I chuckled to myself like a madman. Either I was a genius for coming up with it, or a complete moron for taking this long to think of it. Regardless it was probably my one chance at victory. I had to bet everything on it.

I shot out my Grappling Hook from my right arm directly at Charon. He quickly reacted and moved slightly to the side, the line shooting right past him. He fired his canon at me. It hit, knocking my HP down into the red. But I wasn't blown back.

My line had connected with the pillar behind Charon, its true target.

Ignoring my low health, I reeled myself in with the Grappling Hook. The look in Charon's eyes as he saw me appear through the cloud of debris brought a grin to my face. I swung my body to the side midair, allowing me to crash right into him and pull him along with me as we moved towards the end of the line. I slammed into the pillar with him, pinning him against it.

"Cute trick but you're still finished!" Charon said as he moved his cannon arm towards me. However, before he could knock me off, I pressed my arm against his cannon arm, holding it against the pillar. "What's your plan now?" he asked. "All of your limbs are occupied."

It was true. My one arm was holding his cannon back while the other was connected to the Grappling Hook line, preventing me from moving it much. As for my legs, they were busy pressing against Charon's body to prevent him from flying away. But I wasn't going to need my limbs to end this.

"All I need to win is my mouth."

"Sorry but bad jokes aren't going to damage my HP." Charon smirked.

"I don't know. I've been told I have a pretty sharp tongue." Leaning in, I moved my head right above Charon's and bit my teeth into something. The very thing that was going to finish Charon and end this.

The grip of my Assassin's Edge blade that was lodged in the same pillar we were pressed against.

As I pulled the knife out from the pillar, the blade still out and sharp as ever, Charon's eyes widened. The realization of my play had sunk in. Too little too late though. I swung my head in and stabbed the blade into Charon's head. His HP quickly took a nosedive.

"AUUUGGGHH!" Charon screamed as he struggled. "Get off me! Get off me damn you!"

It was a test of endurance. Would I be able to hold Charon down until all of his HP was depleted? Or would Charon get free and finish me off? The two of us kept up the rather unseemly struggle for what seemed like forever. Until finally it ended.

Charon broke free.

I was shoved aside just as his HP neared 10%. My back hit the pillar and my Assassin's Edge fell out of my mouth and plummeted towards the ground below. Charon hovered away, a red gashing damage effect in the spot of where his left eye was supposed to be thanks to the stab wound just now. He brought up his cannon arm and took aim.

"Game over." he said with a grin. "Glory goes to the Ironheart guild."

I watched as Charon charged up his shot. With how low my HP was, even the tiniest bit of the blast hitting would finish me off. I had only one chance at victory now. However, I hesitated to do it. I was terrified. All of my instincts were screaming at me, telling me it was a bad idea.

But dammit, I had come too far in this event to give up now.

I pressed my feet against the side of the pillar and jumped off, releasing my Grappling Hook from the pillar. I was freely moving through the air, without a single thing tethering me to the ground. I tilted my body to the side, the momentum just barely allowing me to dodge the blast of Charon's cannon. I poured all of my self control together, doing all I could to ignore where I was right now. All that existed right now was me and Charon. Nothing else mattered. I kept telling myself that, deceiving myself with the desperate lie. I reeled my fist back as I closed the last of the distance between us.

Charon gasped. "No!"

"Raaaaaaahhhhhh!"

Contact. And just like that the rest of Charon's HP vanished.

Seconds later, Charon's avatar shattered. But I wasn't able to focus on my victory. I was too focussed on something else now. The ground about a hundred meters below me with nothing to keep me afloat.

My heart began racing faster than even the rush of battle could make it. A warning message appeared, telling me my heart rate was reaching near the limit. I quickly began falling towards the ground below. But at this rate, my AmuSphere would disconnect me before I even reached it. I needed something. Anything that could keep me from continuing my freefall.

Turning my body around midair, I shot out a Grappling Hook. It connected onto the pillar and I swung towards it. But with my anxiety still affecting me, rather than gracefully standing against the pillar, I slammed face first right into it. But it didn't matter. I was no longer falling. Slowly, my breathing and heart rate decreased from the rapid pace they were both at. Once they were back to normal, I slowly lowered myself towards the ground.

As I descended, fanfare sounded throughout the room with fireworks exploding in the artificial sky and a sign reading 'Congratulations' hovered in the air.

It was finally over.

All of Serulis was abuzz over the result of the event. My name wasn't entirely unknown in the world of CNO, considering few players actually fought primarily with gauntlets and still did well, but frankly I was still rather low on the totem pole for CNO players. A majority of players that had placed bets had pinned their chances on Zenos coming out on top. I could only imagine they were as disappointed as him when they found out that he hadn't won just by reaching the final floor first. No doubt my victory had led to more than a few players having significantly lighter wallets now.

After the fanfare had ended, I had received a notification listing my prizes for coming in first for the event, most notably the Ultra Core that everybody had been gunning for. About a minute later, I was teleported out of The Cube and emerged in the Government Building as all the other participants had after getting killed or failing to reach the final floor in time.

After dealing with the mob of players that came up to me, some congratulating me, others hating me and saying I'd rue this day (I wasn't aware Saturday morning cartoon villains played this game), and even a few trying to buy the Ultra Core off of me on the spot, I left the Government Building and heading to my typical rendezvous point to meet up with Violet.

I found her waiting for me when I finally arrived. She flashed me a smile when she noticed me approaching. "Nice job."

"You know it." I said. I walked up to her and the two of us shared a high five. Even though I had been the last player standing, I knew there was no way I would have even made it to the final floor without Violet having my back. This was our victory.

Leaning against the railing and staring out at the vast city of Serulis before me, I opened up my menu, went to my items list, and materialized the Ultra Core. The typical Cores players had been using in the game up to this point were orb-shaped items about the size of a tennis ball. They were primarily a blue color with a white ring pattern going around the diameter of it. The only difference the Ultra Core had was that it was red instead of blue. "So how should we settle it?" I asked.

"Hm?"

"You know, our usual thing. We got this together, so now we have to figure out how to decide who gets to keep it."

"Oh. That." Violet said, finally realizing what I meant. She shrugged her shoulders in response. "You keep it."

I was certain I must have misheard her just now. This was a one of a kind item - at least for now - that would give whoever used it a big edge up on the rest of CNO's playerbase. Heck, if it wasn't for the fact that the devs had said ahead of time there would be other ways to obtain them in the future, I would potentially call it game-breaking. And Violet was saying that she didn't want it?

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "You can't honestly tell me you don't want it."

"Of course not. I'm not stupid. I know how valuable that thing is." she said. "But we've always settled these things with a duel, haven't we? And that final battle at the end might as well have been one."

"But we didn't fight each other. We were working together the whole time."

"It was still a battle royale. Had we been the last two standing, we would have fought for the Ultra Core then and there. I got killed first, and that's on me. You were the one to survive to the end."

"Vi… are you really sure?"

"Don't make me keep having to say it." Violet poked me in the chest while giving me a stern look. "You won it, fair and square. We can just agree that the next one we find goes to me."

I honestly couldn't believe it. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to having to duel Violet over it. Our record was about half and half, so we were about even with each other. If I had fought her and lost, no doubt I would have been at least a little disappointed. But getting it like this just felt… weird.

But I wasn't going to press the argument any further. Violet showed she was serious and arguing further would only insult the kind gesture she had just done. "Alright. If that's how you feel then I accept."

"Good." Violet said with a smile as she clapped her hands together. "Though since you seem to be feeling so hesitant… I guess I'll accept you treating me to Cream Tarts as your way of paying me back."

"Wait, what?! You're extorting deserts out of me?!" I exclaimed.

"Extorting is such an ugly word. I prefer to call it skilled negotiating." Violet turned and began walking off towards her favorite sweet shop in Serulis. "Come along now. You wouldn't want to keep me waiting after my kindness to you just now, would you?"

I groaned as I held my head low. Of course she had managed to find some way to make me treat her to sweets. If there was anyone willing to do whatever it took to get expensive desserts, it was Violet.

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed the final battle of the first arc everybody. Next chapter is the final one for The Event arc, and since it is more of a transition into the next arc it's a bit on the short side. Thankfully, that means you'll all be getting it much earlier than usual. I should have the next chapter ready in a week or two. See you then, readers.