Thanks to our opponents falling for my trick and Laura and Clara’s ambush, we’ve won all four matches, thus qualifying for the next phase: the tournament bracket.

  The reactions to our victories were… let’s call it ‘varied’. From viewers adoring us thanks to the unexpected tactics, to players complaining it wasn’t fair, to Marta’s once-in-a-lifetime ‘good job’, there was a bit of everything.

  It’s just that some reactions were… Well, they were a bit too much. I’m sure you know what I mean.

  And no, thank god they didn’t get a spot after losing all four matches. The last thing I wanted was to have to fight them another time.

  You know what, let’s stop thinking about it and focus on the present.

  Today, we’re meeting to plan the next match, the first one where we have no second chance. Lose this one, and we’re out of the tournament.

  To do so, we’re visiting Laura’s dungeon.

  ‘Why?’, you ask? Why not. It’s easier to plan things inside the game, where we have easy access to everything we might need. Also, it isn’t common for us to go into her dungeon, and a change of pace is always nice.

  “Nice job, Laura,” Ricard says. He has been nodding nonstop for a while. “You followed my advice properly, and the result is better than I expected. You’ve done a good job balancing the luxuriously decadent vibes with the macabre.”

  “Thank you.”

  Laura acts like a guide, showing us around. Ricard and Clara are excited to see all the new rooms and decorations, but my reaction, although I do my best to hide it, is slightly different.

  Her dungeon was the one we used as the base for the horror-hotel themed dungeon we created for the preliminaries. Since then, Laura has renovated her dungeon quite a bit, following Ricard’s advice and her own ideas.

  As we follow her, the rooms and decorations become increasingly bizarre.

  I mean, I can understand that Laura’s demonic dungeon, Hellish Dreamland, based on decadence brought to the extreme, requires her to show the worst parts of human nature, and what could better showcase that than an obvious critique of the materialistic nature of all humans?

  Look at those fancy red chairs! The golden-framed paintings! Or the marbled walls and floors which form perfect geometric patterns!

  There are also extravagant banquet halls, rooms literally filled with gold coins, and rows upon rows of servants, some of whom are wearing extremely suggestive clothing, the purpose of which needs no explanation.

  Every single one of them screams ‘expensive’.

  But then, among all those, you find the most unexpected human decorations. Yes, you heard it right. It’s human decorations, as in real humans.

  Well, not real humans, just NPCs, but you know what I mean.

  For example, right above us, a human in tattered clothes hangs from the ceiling. It holds several candles on its mouth, arms, and feet. It’s the most macabre chandelier I’ve ever seen.

  Between those two paintings, there’s another one, crucified upside-down.

  And what about the bloodied iron maiden, made out of gold with embedded diamonds, resting near the room’s corner? I’m sure you can buy a country by selling it, and that’s just an instrument to torture!

  The worst part is that, as Ricard said, it looks good when combined somehow…

  …in a demon-like way, I mean. If someone were to tell me this is how Hell is – the real, actual Hell –, I’d nod in acknowledgement.

  Suffering for all eternity as the plaything of demons, tortured and used as part of the furniture, and having to watch them as they indulge in their desires…

  Hell indeed.

  “Wow! It looks so amazing!” Clara says, pulling on my sleeve. “I want to do something like this in my dungeon, too. It makes me shiver in excitement!”

  It makes me shiver too, but for a completely different reason... It isn’t fear, unlike Clara’s Abyss dungeon, though. It’s more like an instinct telling me to run away.

  A primal fear telling me to run as fast as I can before it’s too late.

  I wonder why.

  “Why don’t you ask Ricard instead of me? Isn’t he the one who helped Laura create this dungeon?”

  “Well… I’d like it best if it were you…”

  Help my little sister improve her Abyss-infested dungeon? Not only that, but to incorporate life-like humans into the decoration, suffering from the unfathomable horrors from the abyss?

  If I were to do it, I’m sure I’d inevitably put myself in those humans’ place, and the nightmares that would come after would persist until the day I die.

  Yeah… no thanks.

  Clara looks at me with puppy eyes, or she would, if her Champion had eyes. Luckily for me, the horrifying black tentacles forming her body prevent me from falling for her tricks, and I shake my head.

  “N-no, you can do it without me. I don’t think I can help you with that… You know, it’s not my style.”

  “Hmm… okay! I’ll ask Ricard instead!”

  Haa… I survived.

  “Then I’ll show you once I finish! You must tell me if you like it or not!”

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  “!?”

  Noooooo! Anything but thaaaaat!

  My inner scream is interrupted by Laura. She opens one door and walks inside.

  “We’re here. This is the room I prepared for today.”

  A spacious room with a table and several chairs, decorated similarly to the rest of the dungeon, is what awaits. There’s just one difference when compared to what we’ve seen so far: there are no demons or humans, except for those acting as furniture.

  I wish there were none at all, but you can’t always have what you want. This will do.

  Ricard and I sit in front of each other, while Laura sits right next to me. Clara, despite knowing she should pay attention, instead sits on a nearby sofa, pulls out an Abyss creature from who knows where and starts poking it with her tentacles.

  She repeatedly puts a tentacle, as if it were a finger, inside the creature’s mouth, prompting it to bite her. Then, she pulls her tentacle back, muttering to herself.

  “Hehehe, cute…”

  Let’s ignore her for now.

  Immediately after sitting, we turn our heads towards Ricard.

  “You said you know our opponents, right?” I ask.

  He slowly nods his head, as if resigned to his fate. “You know them too…”

  “We do?”

  I tilt my head. I don’t remember much about the guys we fought yesterday. Don’t tell me he actually expects me to remember everyone we’ve fought? That’d be crazy!

  Even crazier than the Mad Cultists! …Okay, maybe not that crazy.

  “Do you know them?” I ask Laura.

  She shakes her head. “Their name, Sword&Sorcery, sounds familiar, but…”

  Ricard slowly exhales, looking at us with disbelief. “They’re the ones who defeated us in the first tournament. The four human characters, roleplaying as typical RPG classes. Rogue, Druid, Barbarian, and Wizardess.”

  Why is Ricard acting as if we had already lost the match? Normally, he would be pushing his tactics over anyone else’s, filled with confidence, but today, he keeps staring at the table with a blank face.

  “Aaaah, it’s them!” I nod. Who were they again?

  Laura snaps her fingers in realization.

  “So it’s them. I knew that name rang a bell…” Laura, noticing my confusion, adds a short explanation. “Don’t you remember? When you blew yourself up at the end of the match, we almost tied, but the Barbarian survived the explosion and killed you. That’s how we lost.”

  Now that does sound familiar. But I do blow myself up all the time, so I’m still not quite sure…

  “A-ah, yeah.”

  I nod in ‘acknowledgement’, switching the topic quickly so they don’t notice.

  “So… what’s up with them? We lost once, but this doesn’t mean we’re going to lose again, doesn’t it? Does it matter that they’ve beaten us once?”

  It doesn’t matter if they've improved at the game since the last time we fought. We got better, too. We were trained by our older sister, Anthemia, one of the top players in DMA! There’s no way they can beat that, is there?

  Even after my argument, Ricard’s expression doesn’t improve.

  Ricard suspires once more, refusing to meet our eyes. We glare at him until he spills the truth.

  “That isn’t the problem… Did I tell you we’ve been playing together?”

  “No, but does it matter?”

  Who cares who he spends his time with? As long as it isn’t me…

  “Ah, I understand. You must have given them information about our team, right?”

  Laura’s guess surprises both of us equally. I open my eyes wide, and Ricard flinches, covering his face.

  He slowly nods his head, “Just a bit…”

  “Define ‘a bit’,” I demand.

  “Monsters... Skills… Preferred builds and tactics…” Ricard starts scratching his head, his voice lower and lower, until he suddenly stands up, shouting. “To show off, I told them everything. Everything!”

  Laura and I look at each other and have one of our eye-to-eye conversations.

  ‘Should we kill him now, or wait until we’re outside the game? I like the latter better.’

  ‘Fufufu, fine by me. While we’re at it, we should punish you for every time your actions almost killed us…’

  ‘I’ll generously forgive him.’

  Aren’t I magnanimous?

  “But there’s nothing I could’ve done to avoid it. I never expected to have to fight them again, and even less at an important match like this one, where we risk elimination. You don’t know how difficult it is to deny someone who persistently asks with a smile on their face while acting all chummy with you.”

  My eyes unconsciously move towards Clara, still playing with her minion on the sofa. I know, Ricard. I know it perfectly well.

  “A-also… Also, it wouldn’t have mattered if it were any other team; the problem is with this one in particular. If it weren’t for Wizardess, it would be okay, but she’s too smart. Now that they know everything, it’ll be impossible for us to overcome them!”

  Ricard starts pulling at his hair once more.

  “I’m sorry, guys. I doomed us.”

  Laura intervenes to calm him down, asking him to explain everything in detail. We must know what they know before we can decide how to proceed.

  By the time he finishes, my brows are so furrowed that, even though they are on opposite sides of my rat face, they look like a single one. “So they do know everything.”

  “I told you, I told them everything…”

  Except for the specifics of the dungeon we’re using and the newest monsters, mostly because he hasn’t met them since the tournament started, Ricard told them everything.

  “But this isn’t all bad. You must also know a lot about their dungeon, right?”

  “That’s true!” Ricard beams up at Laura’s question, “I also know almost everything about them!” only to quickly slump down once more, “But nothing will work against Wizardess… She’s too smart.”

  I nod, “If she’s half as good as you’re saying, it’ll be a problem.”

  We fall silent, thinking about what we can do. Surprisingly, it’s Clara who breaks the silence.

  “Why don’t we surprise them with something they won’t expect? Leave everything to Andreu! My brother can surely come up with a plan they can’t do anything against, hehehe!”

  Ricard and Laura look at me with expectant gazes. I can feel the pressure building up, but to that pressure, I say:

  “You want a plan as crazy as possible? Sure, leave it to me!”

  They won’t see what struck them until it’s too late. But don’t blame me if the result isn’t what you expected, okay?

  “I’ve got an idea that will break any plans they might have. Believe in me, team. We’ll win this time for sure! Fufufu! Hahaha!”

  Between Ricard’s knowledge of the other party and my plan, I’m sure we have a shot at this.

  “Baldy, get ready. They’re here.”

  “I know. I’m on it.”

  Watching through the camera placed next to the dungeon portal, Ricard and Laura see several silhouettes appear, shrouded by blinding light. With his glowing blue eyes, Ricard pays extra attention to the two Champions.

  Even while the light hides them, their shapes are easy to recognise. One wears a hooded robe, hiding their figure completely, and the other wields an axe as large as their whole body.

  “I knew she wouldn’t accept staying back,” Ricard says. “As expected, it’s Rogue and Barba–”

  As the light starts to dissipate, he suddenly freezes. When he recovers, he bursts out, “Who the hell is that fat guy!?”

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