Unbelieving, Sidestep could only watch as Alan masterfully evaded his every attack, even the one from behind. Alan simply aimed, fired and hit. And the duel was over.

***

With a flash of light, Alan found himself once more standing in the same dueling ring, and a message popped up, notifying him that he won the duel.

To Alan’s surprise, Sidestep graciously bowed before him, and calmly said, “Well fought. It seems I greatly underestimated your abilities. I forget that worlds not touched by the Game are still full of actual warfare and killing. You must have trained hard to become such a warrior.”

Embarrassingly, Alan could only say, “Thank you, you fought well too,” while feeling a bit guilty about how Eve and his augments were what had done all the work. It was better if people didn’t realize that though, thus he kept silent.

“I hope that you forgive me for trying to get a rise out of you, I knew a bit about the guild trials beforehand thus actually antagonized a number of people with the hopes they’d challenge me,” Sidestep whispered conspiratorially with a mischievous grin, “I look forward to working with you in the future.”

“Um, sure, no problem,” Alan said, a bit taken aback at Sidestep’s sudden attitude change. “Maybe later you could give me a few tips about the flying simulator as I actually haven’t ever used one before, or what you know about the guild trials.”

“Of course, just find me once the first trial is over. Well, I look forward to your future duels, don’t you dare lose to anyone else!” Sidestep said with a cheerful grin, as he stepped out of the ring.

Alan turned to look at the crowd, who looked more confused than anything else. There were some disappointed murmurs as well as surprised glances at Alan. It was clear no one had been expecting Alan to emerge victorious, and he noticed various objects changing hands as a few of the arms masters had apparently bet on the outcome of the fight.

“Congratulations on winning the first duel! A bonus 100 points to you, and 50 points to Sidestep for a valiant effort. That was quite the fight,” Mason’s booming voice sounded from Alan’s side, startling him.

“Um, thanks. You said to put on a good show, but people’s reactions are a bit strange…”

“Well, of course they are! They didn’t see the fight, after all. Only the arms masters and full guild members saw the fight, the rest of the recruits just saw you disappear then reappear. We realize that if other players saw your abilities it would give them an unfair advantage, after all, and I must say, both of your abilities were quite impressive. It’s a shame Phantom has his eyes on you, otherwise I’d like to test you myself. Anyways, that concludes the duel!”

As soon as those words were out of Mason’s mouth, a large, heavyset giant that must have been six and a half feet tall with the same grey skin as Mason leapt into the middle of the ring, and challenged Alan to a duel. As he had no idea of what the other recruit’s abilities were, Alan hesitantly made the decision to set the duel’s wager at 500 guild points, as the other recruit only had 750. Shortly thereafter, Alan and his opponent, whose name was Skar, were transported into what appeared to be an underground fighting pit, about the size of a boxing ring. The duel’s settings that Skar had chosen were unarmed, unarmored combat until a combatant either lost consciousness or conceded. Looking at his opponent’s bulging muscles, Alan felt a bit nervous… until Eve reported a 99% chance of winning. The tactics she outlined were pretty simple. Go for the weak spots.