The Arena of Couples II

---Chapter 10: The Arena of Couples II

“Greetings everyone, and welcome… to the Arena of Couples.”

With those words from Chronos the admin, various players within the lobby all began clapping. Afterwards, he continued speaking.

“Let me begin by thanking all of you for volunteering to participate in this PvP battle royale event. As promised, everyone shall receive a participation prize upon completion of their matches.” explained Chronos. “All pairs here will be assigned to a specific match, wherein four pairs will participate in a battle royale. As per PvP event regulations, all participants’ levels will be temporarily skewed to Level 50.”

“Oh, is that how these things work?” Yui whispered to herself, nodding.

“Yeah, these kinds of events always skew everyone’s levels to 50 to try to keep everyone’s damage output within a roughly similar range. It’s the most efficient way to keep things as fair as possible.” Quartz explained. “I take it this is your first time at a PvP event?”

“Yeah, I’ve never really thought about fighting other players before…” Yui seemed tense.

“Well don’t worry, I think we should manage pretty well.” Quartz encouraged, while trying to hide his own nervousness. “Anyway… after our match, we’re gonna broach the subject with this Chronos guy when we go to receive our participation prize, understand?”

“Understood!” Yui nodded.

While the two of them whispered to one another, up on the podium Chronos was selecting the various pairs for each match of the event, and displaying it on the large monitor behind him. Just then, Quartz and Yui’s pair was displayed on the screen, along with three others.

“These will be the participants in Match 2.” Chronos declared.

“Whoa, we’re going out there pretty early, huh?” Quartz commented.

“Just means we’ll be done sooner!” Yui smiled.

“Right, let’s give it our all.” Quartz smiled in return.

The two continued to wait as Chronos continued to go over all of the remaining matchups, until finally…

“With that, everything is set.” Chronos declared. “Participants of Match 1, please make your way to the arena!”

Following his command, the first group of pairs left the lobby alongside Chronos and they all headed out toward the main arena. In the lobby, the large monitor now displayed a video capture of the arena, so the players standing by could watch the matches taking place before their own.

“Guess we’ll be giving this first match a look before ours, huh?” Quartz asked Yui as the two took a seat at one of the lobby’s tables.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen a PvP match before, so I’m sure this’ll be useful for planning our own match!” Yui looked excited.

The two watched the screen attentively, waiting for the first match to begin.

---

Meanwhile in the arena, Rokugo, Mint, and Striker were all seated in the audience, watching attentively just as the first match was getting underway.

“Not much of a crowd, huh?” noted Striker, glancing around at all the empty seats.

“That’s to be expected.” Rokugo responded. “This is a pretty small scale event, on a server with less traffic than those more popular. It really is just a testing ground for the larger Valentines tournaments they’re planning for next year.”

“Yeah, PvP in this game used to just be one-on-one for a while, right?” asked Mint. “They’ve only just recently implemented pair and party fights, so they’ve been holding smaller events like these to test them out in a competition setting.”

“Correct.” nodded Rokugo. “It was earlier this summer when the big push for more variety in PvP started to become loud enough for the devs to start slowly introducing these new formats.”

“Whoa…” Striker nodded, impressed. “Anyway, check out this match, though! Seeing so many players all fighting each other like this is crazy!”

The three watched as the first match was now in full swing. Four pairs of varying classes were all trading blows back and forth in a large spectacle in the arena. It was almost too much to keep track of at once, considering there were 8 players all fighting at once.

“It sure is hectic… I’m not even sure where to look.” Mint chuckled.

“Well, once it gets to Quartz and Yui’s match, I know where I’ll be focusing my attention!” Striker grinned.

“Well duh, that’s a given!” Mint retorted.

“I will say, going by class alone, our friends are pretty well suited for this type of combat.” Rokugo noted.

“What do ya mean?” Striker asked.

“Well, as a Fighter and a Healer, they’re naturally balanced with Yui going on offense, while Quartz plays support.” Rokugo explained. “Plus, due to her equipment and unique circumstances, Yui is very powerful in both attack and defense. If they play things carefully, with Yui making sure to land strong blows while protecting Quartz from attack, all while he continues to heal and boost their stats, they should have a solid advantage.”

“Look at you, already analyzing their chances before they’ve even taken the stage!” Mint gave Rokugo a sly smile.

“It’s only to be expected.” Rokugo pushed up his glasses.

---

“Wow, there’s so much to keep track of, it’s hard to follow it all…” Yui’s head began to spin as she tried to follow everything happening on-screen.

“Yeah, having to face three other pairs at once will be tough…” Quartz lifted his hand to his chin, trying to think about how the two of them should approach the upcoming battle.

Before long, however, Match 1 finally began to wrap up. Two of the pairs had already been taken down, and the final two were fiercely giving it their all. About a minute later, one of the pairs finally fell and the first match came to a close. Cheers erupted from both the lobby and the audience.

“Looks like we’re up next…” muttered Quartz, nervously.

“We can do it!” with a confident smile, Yui took hold of Quartz’s fist, encouraging him.

“Right!” Quartz nodded.

The two watched the screen again, with Chronos standing in the center of the arena with his mic. He’d just finished congratulating the winning team.

“And so, Match 1 has been completed! After a 5 minute intermission, we shall begin Match 2!” Chronos declared, as he and the four pairs left the arena.

Quartz turned his eye to the hallway outside the lobby, where he saw the group pass by, heading to a different room.

“Looks like the location where the players receive their prize is in a separate room.” Quartz deduced. Yui nodded in response.

After a couple of minutes, Chronos returned to the lobby.

“Participants for Match 2, please make your way to the arena now!” he declared.

Quartz and Yui gave each other a nod, before rising from their seats and making their way to the arena. Around them, they could notice three other groups also heading the same way.

The four pairs all made their way to the arena in the center of the coliseum, one pair in each corner. In addition to Quartz and Yui, there were three other pairs: a knight and mage named DemonishDude46 and Breezy, a spearman and archer named MiracleBee and Sakura, and lastly a pair of fighters named R-Dragon and ComBuster.

“Wait a minute…” one of the pairs seemed to have caught Quartz’s attention.

“Hm? What is it?” Yui asked, curious.

“You’ve gotta be kidding…” Quartz sighed, realizing he knew one of the other players.

“Oh?” the player named DemonishDude46 turned his head and took notice of Quartz. “Well, well, well… If it isn’t the Gloomy Healer himself! Fancy meeting you in a place like this.”

“Kh… Hello, Demon…” Quartz replied, sullenly.

This is when Yui realized. This DemonishDude person must be from one of the various parties Quartz joined during his early days in the game. Basically, he’s one of the people who originally coined Quartz’s ‘gloomy healer’ nickname.

Yui looked closely at Quartz, and could tell he was starting to lose his nerve. Sure enough, being faced with someone from his past like this had probably shaken his resolve. Yui knew they’d start off on the wrong foot if the match began with Quartz in this state, and so…

“Don’t worry, Quartz…” Yui whispered to him.

“Hm?” he glanced up at her.

“At the very least, we can defeat him… I know it!” Yui declared with a confident smirk.

[To be continued…]