Lucas quickly grabbed Novis by his hand dragging him along to the subway station. The two of them boarded on the train as they headed back to the internet cafe. Lucas had now distanced himself a little away from Novis, realising what he had done in the heat of the moment.
While riding the train Lucas couldn't help but mumble to himself. He was currently planning every situation that he might encounter when he faced Novis. An imaginary battle started to play out in Lucas's head. Novis saw this and thought Lucas was extremely angry at him for some reason.
"I had just made an off-handed comment, it was just a joke and he gets all annoyed." Novis thought to himself.
"That was not just a joke to him," Arthur said.
"Of course it was a joke, even with your help Arthur, of course, we couldn't become a pro, you barely managed to beat him last time. It took you thirty minutes to finally win. If we went up against a pro player I don't even think we could last a minute."
"Novis, I wasn't fighting seriously in the match against him, I wouldn't play seriously against a child. I was teaching him."
"What do you mean?"
"In that match, I purposely fought in a way that would make him learn. Make him think about his moves more, work on his defence, let him know of his strengths and weaknesses."
"Oh, so you are stronger than him, well he is just a kid after all so it's expected that you as an adult should be better."
Arthur then looked towards Lucas who was standing on his own.
"You're wrong about him Novis, he isn't just any regular old child. When fighting him I could tell he was special. It was why I wanted to train him. When he grows up he will be one of the best players in the world."
Novis was shocked by hearing Arthur's words, wasn't Lucas just a regular kid who enjoyed the game. But he had talked about wanting to become pro. Novis and Arthur hadn't played against many people so it was hard for Novis to gauge what Arthur true strength was. When he fought against his brother Bill he still hadn't learnt the rules and got attacked by the tower. The two of them hadn't actually fought. If they were to fight now Novis wondered who would win.
Novis had all thoughts now running through his mind, he himself still didn't know enough about swordsmanship to tell how strong someone was by watching them. Novis had no clue that all the opponents that he had seen fight so far, were monsters.
Novis and Lucas left the subway and went over to the VSW internet cafe.
As the two of them walked through the door Sophie was surprised to see Lucas back so early, she also noticed that he managed to bring Novis back with him.
As Lucas walked past the front counter he simply said to her.
"We will take the VR capsule machines at the back."
Last time the two of them fought they used the standard Vr headset this time Lucas didn't want anything getting in there way, so he wanted to use the capsules.
While the two of them walked to the back of the room many people had noticed Lucas and the kid next to him.
"That kid isn't he..."
"Yeah, he's the one who beat Lucas."
"What Lucas was beat!"
"Yeah, I remember him coming in."
Before they had even reached the capsules at the back, a crowd had gathered around the screen.
Novis looked at the crowd of people and felt nervous. His heart was pounding faster.
"Wait, hang on!" Novis said.
"Please Novis, Let's start."
As Lucas said that he proceeded to get into the capsule on his side.
Novis thought how could he not get nervous with all these people watching him. But it wasn't that, Lucas was just far too focused on the match that he didn't even notice anyone else around him.
"Novis switch with me now," Arthur said.
The two of them switched bodies. Arthur looked towards Lucas one time just before entering the capsule. Lucas could suddenly feel a huge amount of pressure coming from Novis, he didn't know what happened but it felt as if Novis had become an entirely different person.
Novis entered the capsule and the two of them started the game. The crowd around them was getting excited, one of the kids was the son of the number one player in the world Justin bell. A person who they had all fought when they first came to the internet cafe. They knew how strong Lucas was, he was already good enough to become a pro.
But now opposite Lucas was another Kid who had beaten the so-called genius. The crowd would not miss a single second of this battle.
The two of them entered the game and selected their characters, Arthur had selected Dragonslayer who he had been using the whole time so far. While Lucas selected Mu Samu, a samurai looking character. It was the same character that his father Justin bell specialised in.
In the cafe, the people were talking about their character selection styles.
"So the kid selected Dragonslayer, it's a well-balanced character that can cover all basis, but because of that, it doesn't have any particular strengths either, making it unpopular with the pro players. It's a low tier pick. I find it hard picturing him winning with that character." A man said.
"I agree, you never know though, Lucas picked Mu Samu, a character who focuses on strong attacks but doesn't leave much room for defence. If you miss an attack it leaves your opponent with a big opening to strike back. You have to be really skilful and dodge right after. It looks like Lucas is serious, he's playing his main character."
Arthur and Lucas wasted no time in meeting down the middle lane. The two of them were going to duke it out. No fancy tricks, no tactics. It was going to be a straight-up sword fight between the two of them.