Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

80. THE DUEL - ROUND ONE

With exercising all her willpower, Flora concentrated on breathing. She stared at the floor, not daring to look up and give away her rage.

'Calm down. Calm down. You want Robby to find a partner. You want grandkids. And if you descended into a hissy fit, every time Eddie smiled at somebody, you would have died of a heart attack a long time ago. They love you. They love me. Everything else is white noise.'

Flora's gaze wandered to the Octopussy at her feet. It displayed a lake with gently moving water, which further calmed her down. But then a long tentacle appeared and reached out to the shore. It picked up a ginger tabby cat and dunked it into the water.

A low growl notified Flora of Ahoncathyr watching. She snorted.

"Play nice, Aito. But thank you for cheering me up."

"Beep."

"Let's get this farce rolling," Robby grumbled and led the group inside.

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~~~ Tigressa Flameante

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Ressa felt uncomfortable with the assembled group. No need to talk about Lana, she hated her.

She had issues with Hub, as well, because Robby spent too much time with him. She should be Robby's number one priority!

Then, there was the mousy kiddie who had smashed her in a duel. Ressa was sure the girl was fishy. Besides, the advantages people got from the kiddie server were unfair!

While Ressa was thankful for the smiling face of Robby's uncle, she didn't trust him. Robby had told her he was an actor. Maybe he wanted to lull her and then backstab her on behalf of her future mother-in-law. His outfit integrated a skin of a raging maelstrom. Clearly, it was a message to her and her pet. Water was their nemesis.

And at last, there was the mother-in-law. Robby had bungled up their first meeting, but she didn't give him a hard time about it. Most of it was Lana's fault anyway.

When meeting Flora today, the hag hadn't looked up. Probably, she was frightened out of her mind as it was proper for a B-rated newbie.

Ressa had spent the whole morning thinking about how to conduct the duel. Of course, she couldn't let the hag win, Lana would never allow her to see the end of it. But maybe by pretending it was a challenging fight instead of the massacre it ought to be, she could score some points with the monster-in-law and Robby.

In the PvP-Antechamber, she checked her outfit in a full-length mirror. The orange leather cat-suit suited her orange hair and emphasized the red and yellow strands in it. The color would make a European look pale but harmonized well with her golden skin color.

"Don't underestimate them, little one. The squid smells dangerous." Anhoncarthyr growled. "I'll take care of it. Distract Flowing Flowers until I have finished it off."

Ressa snorted. "Distract her? I'll kill her myself."

"Look at her antechamber."

The screen blurred the details, but Ressa could see a lot of reflecting surfaces.

"Mirrors!"

Frantically, she searched in her inventory for her plasma rifles and guns. Naturally, she carried a backup for enemies resistant to her usual laser load out. But the plasma equipment was level 200 and only B rated. When it got squeezed down the rating stayed the same. She lost a good chunk of damage per shot in contrast to her level 1 S-rated equipment.