(Denzel's POV):
"Is it something about you? Cause we won't do that to our savior." - Gayle
"I'm glad that you understand. If you want details, Rika has it, so you can ask her later."
"I see." - Gayle
"Now, enjoy your stay."
I left the room and started checking the other rooms. Thrish and Rika seems to be in the kitchen but I have asked them earlier about their stay so I'll go ask Malech's group.
I moved to the rooms below the sky floor and noticed Malech talking with the others in his room.
"Barging in."
"Oh it's you Denz, what is it?" - William
William was first to notice my entrance this time, their attention was taken by my entrance that it makes it easier for me to check up on them.
"How's the palace?"
"I gotta say, it's a calming place. It feels like living in luxury if this is not inside of a game." - Malech
"Though I had to work for the last two days, familiarizing with the place is just a little too big. There's so much you can do in a single structure." - William
The two immediately started talking about their opinions of the palace.
"Well, we can train ourselves as much as we want while still living like rich nobles." - Jerald
"There isn't anything heavy to do in here though." - Vince
What Vince actually said is true. There isn't a lot of things to do inside the palace aside from living in luxury and training. So I'll maybe try to train them as much as I can while we have nothing to do.
"Denz, about future missions." - Jerald
Ah, I forgot about that.
"Soon, I'm going to start making a witch farm with Seymour's group so I'll have you guys bodyguard the place. But sometime later or in a few days will be something. So Malech and William, I believe you two should start preparing."
"Huh? What for?" - Malech
The two of them tilted their heads from confusion when I start talking to them in a serious note.
"Aside from that, if you guys want to, I��ll have you guys practice combat five against one."
All four of them showed shocked faces to my declaration of battle.
"Alright, call Flora later and plan out. We'll take the practice tomorrow morning with an audience. The venue will be a few hundred meters away from the palace. No rules so I allow everything, we'll be using duel health of course."
"Ha! Yeah!" - William
Now that they seemed high spirited, I wonder how I'm going to fight five at the same time. Well, they're clearly better than the five assassins I fought inside the castle walls some time ago so I have to be very careful.
"Well then, I'll take my leave."
"Alright! Now guys, let's plan out!" - William
"Ou!" - The other guys
They're high spirited.
I returned to the sky floor and checked the sun shining at the afternoon mark, it's starts lowering itself slowly as I noticed Bella was also in my room.
"Oh hey Bella."
"Ah Denz, just going to clean up some things since I have nothing to do." - Bella
Bella starts using air magic to blow off dust inside the room. I moved to the side in order to not be a hindrance.
"So, what do you think about the new residents?"
"I'd say some are pretty lively, my suspicions are still up on Leo and Miguel though." - Bella
"They're pretty chill most of the time though, I think Malech is just fueling the flames."
"Not quite. But Miguel is a dark knight who has that tricky issue about miasma related abilities." - Bella
"Miasma?"
"Yes, the effects of miasma is that it can devour the heart of a person. The effects are permanent, it will make a person run amok with their power and wreck havoc around. Leo's a gunslinger but can use portals. So they're dangerous until they have protected this place in a heavy pinch." - Bella
"I see, then keep an eye out just in case."
"Got ya, I'll go check up on May and Ashley." - Bella
Bella left the sky floor and moved to the sixth floor where May and Ashley are currently residing. I laid myself down in bed early and closed my eyes to rest up since I'm pretty much down for the day.
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The next day arrives as I opened my eyes next to Rika who is sleeping next to me. How cute, I'm glad to have this sight every time I wake up. I stood up stealthily without waking Rika up and changed to combat gear.
I looked into the dense crystal that functions like a mirror and took a look of myself. Damn, looks like those items from that MMORPG game I loved.
I left the sky room and moved one floor downwards. Everyone seems to have prepared themselves and are making practice swings already.
"Guys, I get that you're excited but the rules of the Crystal Palace is that nobody is to draw their weapons if they're not in the dojo."
"Alright, alright, we're a little excited too, so how about we gather an audience as well." - William
True, we need an audience to see some things up in the fight. I guess I should try asking Seymour huh? Or rather, I can feel him coming here already anyway.
Just a few seconds after I felt his presence. He arrived to the palace and showed himself right on the ground floor. We all jumped down to get ourselves into battle mode.
"Ey Denz, you and your group seem to be ready to fight? What gives?" - Seymour
"Nothing really, we're gonna try a five versus one spar someplace away."
"Really? Then allow me to see this." - Seymour
Everyone seems to have waken up from Seymour's arrival and joined us to the snowy area someplace away the palace.
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"Alright, no rules, and no time limit, use as much as you need... So ready up!" - Seymour
Seymour decided to act as the referee to the match in which he'll answer questions from Rika's friends. Miguel and Leo narrowed their eyes to focus on the match. So I guess they want to see me in action huh.
"Ready!" - Seymour
All of us, readied ourselves in combat and took out our weapons.
"Chronorift-!" - Malech
"Astrorift-!" - William
"Shadowrift-!" - Jerald
"Skyguard-!" - Vince
"Prisma Element-! - Flora
Everybody is going all out huh? Guess let's not disappoint.
"Crystallization! Cryogenesis!"
"Begin!" - Seymour
The three assassins immediately left their positions while Vince stood guard to Flora who's staff is shining a bright yellow light immediately.
"Light Pinnacle Skill! Solar Flare! Hyperion!" - Flora
Opening with that?!?!?!
I instinctively dashed to my left as soon as I heard Flora's chant. A powerful light beam crashed down to where I was a few seconds ago. Dangerous! While I was thinking about that, William was the one who closed in to my position with his whip sword which he retrieved yesterday and his crossbow that was aimed at me.
"Transweapon tech! Flesh Blaster!"
My left gauntlet turned into a cannon to blast flesh with large pointy bullets. I aimed it directly at William and fired it.
"Rift Portal!" - William
Crap, I forgot about that. While my bullet simply passed through the rift and ended up passing on some rift. I stopped on my tracks while William shot the projectile from his crossbow.
"Na?!"
It was a firework rocket! Crap!
"Transweapon tech! Duality!"
I dashed through the explosion of the firework rocket and make some slashes on William who is pressing forward behind it. A few strikes ended in vain but after I heard a clinging sound. Two swords in a daisho blocked my blades in which are not William's weapons. Jerald was standing there as if stalling me and keeping me in place. He tried to step on my foot in which I used as an opportunity to remove his balance in one go.
"Kh!" - Jerald
I then heard two weapons coming in from my back and my side as if to cut me off from escaping.
"Nature Pinnacle Skill! Nature's Frenzy!" - Flora
Roots spread out covering a large area with me as the center. So they've gone as far as to use this huh. Alright then, guess I have no choice.
"Peaked-Out Concentration."
My concentration has reached beyond my peak. Allowing me to focus completely on the fight.
"Glitchy Process! Ender Cannon!"
I escaped the area by moving in towards Flora and Vince. Vince attacked by skillfully swinging his naginata while keeping distance. I blocked it with my sword and raised it up and stabbed him with the other sword. I then launched a kick to his gut so he won't make any more moves. As I closed in to Flora, I felt an incoming tremor to the ground that most likely came from William's staff. So I jumped up while changing my left sword into a grapple arm, launched the grapple arm and kicked Flora down and stabbing his right shoulder while kicking his face to knock him out.
William comes close while throwing all five daggers in which I parried. Malech comes from the other side throwing in his grapple part of the chain.
I launched the grapple arm but was struck by Malech's chain scythe. I was then pulled into his direction with an incoming scythe directly to my face. William came from behind me after blinking five times to throw the five daggers once more, while bringing two whip swords.
Jerald came in from the side with his two katanas in a daisho.
I lowered my entire body to slide towards Malech, making his scythe miss the mark and aimed towards William instead.
"Flash Freeze."
Some cold smoke was immediately puffed from the ground and blocked everyone's vision. I knocked down Malech and jousted him from his stomach.
I received cuts from William's daggers but I threw one directly back at him from the flash freeze.
I heard a 'clang' noise which directly hit William's forehead with the handle, making him dizzy from the shock. Without any delay, I stood up and moved to Jerald with one sword on his neck.
"Checkmate."
Jerald raised his hand in resignation and formed a scheming smile. Wai!
Before I was able to react. I was engulfed in flames and received major damage. So that was all a trick huh. But it's still a draw since everyone is in death's door anyway.
Jerald was also included in the flames and sustained major damage as well.
"And that's enough!" - Seymour
"Zel!" - Rika
Rika was the first to dash to me as I lose consciousness.
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I woke up a few minutes later beside everyone who received quite more damage.
"Ah, you're awake now." - Gayle
Gayle was the one who was sitting near the bed in the fourth floor.
"Actually, that was amazing, to think that you can also use 'Peaked-Out Concentration'." - Gayle
"Well, it's just something I accumulated-"
A beeping sound was made which interrupted me. Gayle opened her status panel and seems to have received a message. She checked who sent it and it seems it's about time.
"It's Lester." - Gayle