“Okay everyone, here’s the deal: I apparently work too much.” That got a chuckle out of the full Carne Den staff assembled around me. The place wasn’t yet opened for the day, which made for a good time to hold a staff meeting. “No, seriously. You know you’re working too much when Princess Luna herself tells you so in a dream.” Everyone quieted down a bit at that. “That was just a few days ago. So, with that being said, I’ve considered closing the restaurant for a day or two every week.”

“What about just shortening some days?” Ají suggested from her spot on Gilda’s back.

I took a moment to compose myself from the notion that Ají was the one to suggest that. “That’s also an option, I suppose. Do you have any specific ideas on that?”

“Well, considering how things are on Sundays, we could shorten them from 3-1 down to 5-11.”

“Alright, I do like it, but I still think closing for a day every week would be better. We’re making enough money as is that we can afford to stay closed on Sundays and still come out way ahead, especially since the smoked products are apparently popular enough that everyone’s willing to pay through the nose to have some, even with the smoke upcharge at four bits per meat.”

“Why do we have that upcharge again?” Silver asked.

“To try to reduce the demand for it so we can actually have a reasonable amount available at all times. So far, it hasn’t worked. Back on topic, who all can live with us being closed on Sundays?” A number of forelimbs went up, followed a few seconds later by the rest of them. “Sounds good. Starting next week, we will be closed on Sundays. Does anyone have anything they want to bring up or add?” Nobody raised a limb. “No? Alright, meeting adjourned, everyone scheduled for later or not at all today, go do whatever it is you want to do. Everyone here for opening, you know what to do. I will go write up a sign for the changing hours.” Everyone dispersed to go do their things, except for Aegir, who approached me. “Game talk?”

“Game talk” Aegir responded. “I’ve been keeping an eye on what’s happening in the Iron Ring tournaments, and there’s one that’s been trashing every opponent who goes against him: Jupiter. It’s just one or two hits and his opponent is down for the full count.”

“Jupiter, huh?”

“Yeah. He’s a huge red minotaur. Not even the best human players have been able to last a whole minute against him. They dodge and weave, but as soon as they’re within range, he throws one punch and they’re down. The only way anyone’s lasted more than one hit is by going minotaur with all free points invested in defense and health, and then they got another punch and went down.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Nope. But, seeing as you’re a human playing as, well, yourself, you may just have a critical advantage: familiarity with form.”

“Yeah, but I’m probably nowhere near his stats. We’ll talk more in the game tonight.” I went into my office and started writing up the signs announcing the coming change of hours.

That night, I was training in-game when Aegir came in. “Sorry I’m late, Yang. I got stuck in traffic on the way home.”

I rose an eyebrow as I braced against a blow from the punching machine. “Really?”

“Okay, no. I was busy trying to figure out what kind of picture to hang on a wall at home. Anyways, you’re doing defense training, I see.”

“Yeah. If I can block Jupiter’s attacks long enough, I think I’ll be able to outlast him. I may not be getting the stats, but the motions are important.”

“How’s your inventory looking?”

“Good amount of cloth, some leather, and a bit of chainmail. Did you know that there’s a piece of leather armor that uses all three of those?”

“Really now?”

“The Deft Boots of the Dragon. Light leather armor, very rare item, looks just like mine.” They even had the different length socks and the purple bandana. “Good defense, and they increase both agility and knockback resistance. I just need a few more levels and some more chainmail and I’ll be ready to craft and wear them.”

“Is that why you don’t have any armor yet?”

“It’s also expensive to do, okay? Besides, I’ve made it this far without armor, so I’m sure I can go a bit further.”

“You’re sure? You’re at level twelve, so you’re getting to the point where armor becomes tougher and more common.”

“I’m sure I’ll manage.”

I had a hard time getting to level fifteen. Cloth armor, despite being the lowest grade, was still effective against someone without any, namely me. I actually got to level fifteen after a fight that I lost, thanks to the game’s mechanic of getting five percent of the fight’s exp reward on a loss.

“Oh, that was a pain” I said as I went to the leather crafting station after the fight. “So, the items scale with my level?”

“They do” Aegir said. “Are you sure you have enough rings to afford it?”

“I’ve sold every visual and armor item I’ve gotten as a reward as soon as I found out about these while browsing the armor catalogues. And I’m short by one ring for the crafting price. Great.” Aegir gave me one ring. “Thanks.” After putting all the necessary items in place, I initiated the crafting procedures. Moments later, The Deft Boots of the Dragon came out, briefly giving off a golden glow.

“Are they worth it?”

I put the boots into my inventory and equipped them. “Oh yeah. They feel great. The defense they provide counts for my whole body, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Alright. I’m broke now, so let’s go find some fights.”

The first fight with the new boots on was against a minotaur called Barrel Buster. He was a bit taller than me, had full leather armor on, and looked ready to live up to his name. The slip of paper with his name listed a no limits fight, so it would just be one round that lasted until one of us was down for ten seconds.

“So, I can do anything I want?” I asked Aegir.

“Yes, including groin attacks, though those are still seen as the poor plays that they are. You can do kicks, flips, whatever you want. I’m guessing he has no limits on so he can do a signature move of some kind. At least that’s what I’ve seen in my experiences.”

“Alright then. Let’s get to it.” I made my way into the ring, along with Barrel Buster and his minotaur coach.

I’d noticed there were a lot of minotaur players in the game, and knowing about Jupiter, it kind of made sense.

“Barrel Buster, are you ready?” the coach asked.

“RRRAAGGHHH!” Barrel Buster shouted.

“Solar Dragon, are you ready?”

“Yep” I said.

“Go!” The coach got out of the ring with a surprisingly graceful dive and roll.

“Huh. That’s cool.” My distraction at the coach’s moves cost me when Barrel Buster came at me with his move, wrapping his arms around and crushing me in a vice-like hug. “Not cool! Not cool!”

While my arms were pinned and immobilized, my feet were still on the ground. I had to figure out some way to utilize that one option. “Come on, what can I do? What can I do? This is wrestling, not boxing. How can I break this grip?” He’d managed to squeeze me down to around 60% of my health when I finally got an idea. “Please work.” I managed to get both of my feet in place on Barrel Buster’s abs and began pushing off of him. His grip did not make it easy, but I managed to get enough pressure off my body that I could breathe again and get my arms free.

Barrel Buster redoubled his efforts, but the grip my boots provided didn’t quite work out as either of us expected. I was crushed against him again, this time with my legs pinned against my body and my arms free. “This works.” In the face of my decreasing health, I started punching Barrel Buster’s face with everything I had. Eventually, he let go of me, with my health down to around 35%. While he was open, I delivered a kick to his gut and sent him back to the middle of the ring, giving me a bit of distance and thinking room.

A crazy idea came to my mind, and without thinking it through very much, I used it. I started by running towards Barrel Buster, who looked ready to crush me again. At the last moment, I launched myself into a somersault. As I’d hoped, my legs caught on his crossed forearms. With the momentum and a bit of leverage, I flipped myself up and continued the motion, grabbing his horns, flipping over him again without letting go. When I landed, I braced my feet and bent forward with all my might, sending Barrel Buster over me and bodily slamming him onto the floor with a huge impact.

Being the good sport I was, I let him get up before attacking again. Being upset at the crushing hug from before, I started punching his face before he was fully back on his hooves, not once letting up. To finish my blitz, I crouched, swept his legs out from under him, and delivered an uppercut to his falling face, knocking him down.

Barrel Buster’s coach came to do the count. “One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Solar Dragon wins!”

“Wait, what?” Barrel Buster asked as he jumped back up. “How?”

Aegir came up next to me. “Those were some really good moves out there. You should practice those for real. Also, please remind me not to get on your bad side.”

“Good idea. On the practice. I’ll have to see if there’s a gymnasium around at some point.” Aegir and I suddenly found ourselves in front of my gym’s board. “What just happened?”

“Barrel Buster must have closed his game.”

“Ragequit. Let’s see what I got.” I opened the box and pulled out a note saying that I’d earned 15,000 iron rings. “That’s good.” Under that was a large medkit. “That’s good.” Under the medkit was another item: a piece of legendary grade cloth armor that looked like my scarf: The Determined Scarf of the Dragon, a head region equip. “Hmm. Strength boost, health boost, decent defense, and increased chances of getting back up? Heck yeah!” I immediately equipped the scarf. “I wonder if the game’s trying to tell me something?”

“Or maybe you’re just lucky. Let’s figure out what your Ultimate will be.”

“Ultimate? Some kind of super move?”

“You could say that. There’s four Ultimates to choose from: Fortify, Afterimage, Second Wind, and Payback. Fortify gives you a strength and defense boost at the cost of speed and agility. Afterimage does the opposite. Second Wind restores ¾ of your health, gives you overheal for a bit, and increases your chances of getting back up for the minute after activation. Payback deals anywhere from half to one and a half times the damage you’ve taken during the match or since the last use to your opponent after a ten second charge up period, during which you’re slowed down.”

“Can you go over that last one again? You lost me during that.”

“Sure. Let’s say it’s round four and you’ve lost, say, 5,000 health over the match. When you activate Payback, you will be slowed down for ten seconds. If you don’t get hit for those ten seconds, you will deal 7,500 damage. Every hit you take decreases the damage output by five percent of the original amount, 250 in this case.”

I did a bit of quick mental math. “So if I got hit thirty times in those ten seconds, no damage would be dealt?”

“No. The lowest amount of damage our example can deal out is 2,500. It bottoms out so it can’t be completely neutralized. If you use Payback again, it only counts damage taken after the first one was executed, otherwise following the same rules. Got it?”

“Yeah. I think I’ll go with Second Wind. It’s the only one without any penalties, and is more my speed.”

“Alright. Melody will give you a form to choose your Ultimate from when you hit level 20.”

“Sounds good.” With an objective set, I started looking over the board for opponents. It was amazing how quickly that became the easiest way to gain experience instead of using the machines. I was also amazed at how much I was enjoying the fights, something I never thought I’d do before.

Author's Notes:

To everyone who has submitted a character, you now have new information to work with that I had forgotten to mention in the previous chapter: Ultimates. You may add the Ultimate of your choice to your character.

To everyone who has or has not submitted a character, you can submit two characters. Remember, more info is better.

To everyone who has not submitted a character, I look forward to what you can come up with.