“Black Magic: Breath of Death!!”

“Sword Grandia: Divine Purge!!”

Boom!

Two silhouette then appeared out of the dark clouds, bloodied from up to down.

Their amours mangled, muscles damaged and multiple bruises in multiple areas of the body, face drenched in sweat, blood and dust.

But one thing is different.

The glow in their eyes, shining even brighter, with one having a pure white shine and other a pitch black one.

Both collided again fiercely, creating sparks between them.

The Spear Master used the sword more proficiently but the NPC, without any sort of knowledge about sword just swung a blade he pulled of nowhere but….

Crack

“Tch…”

The blade broke and turned into dust, leaving the hand of NPC empty, again.

The NPC then pulled another sword from the space. The sword looked even more menacing, but the ways its wielder wielded downgraded its performance.

The NPC again rushed towards the Spear Master with more speed but the Spear Master dodged and countered every attack but…

“He is adapting at a faster rate!!”

As time passed, the NPC learned more about weapon and slowly, his attacks started to reach the Spear Master.

‘How can a machine, an artificial intelligence learn this fast. It is impossible to learn this much in such a short amount of time.’

The Spear Master was confused and shocked as he who practiced various martial arts and mastered various weapons was shocked to see a program mastering a weapon in such a small span of time.

The adaptation was so fast that the NPC slowly started to overwhelm the Spear Master who was renowned for his martial arts and knowledge for various weapons in the game.

The situation became even worse as he started to fuse his sword with various magic skills.

‘It’s getting dangerous!!’

If he adapts to my every move, then it will be impossible to defeat him.

“Sword Grandia: Sword dome!!”

A dome of energy appeared around Spear Master, stopping the NPC to further attack him.

“Do not hide like a rat now, use that energy you got from your friends.”

The NPC, with a corner of his mouth raised taunted the Spear Master. The Spear Master ignored the taunts, but slowly he realized that he was at his limits. He slowly started to lose his focus, with his vision blurring.

[Do not waver, Spear Master!!]

The goddess too called him out after realizing that he is nearing his mental limit but he didn’t listened to her.

The NPC, looking at this, sneered and then started to bring out more swords and other weapons. The weapons then started to levitate, pointing their tips towards the energy dome.

“I acknowledge, that you, Spear Master is the first one to ever cause me this much trouble.”

The NPC then pointed his hand towards the dome after which the weapons then started to slam onto the dome.

“I acknowledge that you were the only one brave enough to stand in front of me. I haven’t seen this valor in anyone in my whole life. Now come out and face me, your ultimate doom!!”

The continuous raining of weapons leads the energy dome to weaken which then lead to small cracks appearing.

“Come one, fight me.”

The NPC roared with excitement, and started to pour out even more weapons.

“Fight, you coward. I acknowledged you as my rival. So get up and fight!!”

He shouted even more, but only one word reached the Spear Master.

‘Rival?’

Why? Why does it feel good? Why does it feel so fulfilled?

The Spear Master experienced a sudden feeling that overwhelmed him. He who always tried to do everything to get the recognition of a single person, his own father but never even got his attention was infuriated and eventually lost confidence in himself.

And now, a machine is acknowledging him as his rival.

‘He, a program is acknowledging me? Hahaha!!’

For the first time in his life ever since he took his first step, he now feels that he has done something in his life. Someone in this world finally acknowledged him for his hard work.

He felt overwhelmed as he then received a notification.

Ding

[Congratulations!!]

[You have gained the recognition of ???]

[You have gained a VIP code.]

[Number of uses: 2]

[The VIP code can grant anything.]

[Use this code cautiously.]

What? A VIP code?

The Spear Master was shocked to see the sudden occurrence of VIP code as well as many other notifications. But he ignored everything as what caught his mind was its description.

It can grant anything? Isn’t this a total cheat? The whole world would be in turmoil if this were to be leaked.

While being excited about the new item he got, he suddenly heard a cracking sound.

Crack

He looked towards the energy dome he erected which was slowly cracking up.

“Tch..”

“This monster!!”

Even though he acknowledged me and gave me this cheat, it still is infuriating that he is not giving me enough time to enjoy.

The Spear Master inwardly cursed the NPC, but quickly regained his focus. He took a step back and readied the sword.

He took a deep breath, remembering the emotions he felt moments ago which helped him channel the chaotic energy inside him more efficiently.

“Hahh!!”

He slashed his sword downwards, breaking the weapons raining on him. The output in that slash was so high that it shook the earth and sky as the energy passed through the barrage of weapon and breaking them mercilessly

“!!”

The NPC got alerted as the slash contained enough power to fatally injure him. He skillfully dodged the attack

“How did he-?”

Before he could say anything, the same slash he dodged, from the back reached him, injuring his left arm.

“AHHH….!!”

The NPC screamed. Even though he tried to dodge the attack, it still got him and the worst part is that the pain he received was something he never experienced throughout this whole fight.

The attacks of legendary weapons felt like a child’s play but this attack had enough power to injure him this fatally for the first time.

“Divine Heal!!”

The NPC staggered but timely used a healing spell on the wound. The wound took longer to heal even though he used a highest tier magic of the Gods.

He somehow regained his composure and then looked towards the Spear Master but he was nowhere to be found.

“Where did h-”

Puck

“!!”

A sword then pierced his left chest from behind as he was about to say.

The NPC, shocked, looked backwards, only to find the answer to the question he was about to ask.

“Behind you, motherfucker!!”

***