Himari wasted no time in attacking first. She darted toward Abs, boosting herself with blasts from her hands.
"She caught on to my M.O. I'll have to switch things up a little and surprise her. But I'll also have to try to anticipate her moves."
Abs banged her right foot to the ground. Two large rock fists bulged out of the ground and shot out to Himari in succession. Himari easily avoided both of them and started shooting tiny FYBER bullets out of the knuckles of both fists. Abs swayed to the left and to the right, dodging those bullets.
"Nice! Well played! But you'll have to better than tha..." Abs stopped short when she caught sight of the thin strings in the paths of the bullets she had just dodged.
"Brilliant!" She thought, as time seemed to slow down for her. She turned around and noticed the bullets changing trajectory right behind her, and moving to encircle her. The bullets were actually appendages, acting as anchors for Himari's FYBER strings.
"She intends to trap me."
She turned to Himari who was fully focused on her, but unaware of the rock fists also changing trajectory behind her.
"She hasn't even caught on to my plan yet, but it looks we might be on the same wavelength. Our attacks have the same basic principle." Abs thought with a smile.
Before the strings could wrap around her, she slid into the ground, completely submerging herself in it.
In real time, Himari's FYBER strings passed right through the after-image Abs had left after disappearing. Himari panicked and backed off while retracting her FYBER-stringed-bullets.
"INCOMING! BEHIND YOU!" DD's voice announced.
Himari instinctively shot herself into the air with FYBER blasts from her fists. The rock fists she had narrowly avoided, quickly changed course and followed her up into the air.
"Homing? This is bad!" She thought.
She blasted herself forward, then took a 45-degree nosedive in the opposite direction, slightly bypassing the rock-fists. The rock-fists also changed direction in mid-air and continued pursuing her. She kept changing course in mid-air while trying to figure out a way to get rid of the rock fists.
"Wait... what am I doing?" She thought as she remembered the first rock fist that knocked her to the ground and exploded after connecting.
"I can destroy them!" She said to herself.
She propelled herself forward to the incoming fists and shot FYBER beams at both of them. But the beams ricocheted off the thin invisible layers surrounding the fists.
"Or not. I'm screwed. Plan B!" She said while taking another nosedive to avoid the fists.
"DD... thanks for having my back earlier!" She yelled through the sound of her blasts as she plummeted toward the ground in a zig-zag fashion.
"No problem. That's my job." DD responded.
"Can you locate her?" Himari asked.
"She has been hiding underground. But It looks like she's... resurfacing?" DD answered, unsure.
Himari's eyes widened. Moments before she touched down, a huge rock-palm emerged out of the ground to meet her.
"I played right into her hands. Literally. Only one option left. " Himari thought.
She curled up into a ball and braced for impact. Caught between the homing rock-fists behind her and the large palm in front of her, she cried out...
"DD! ACTIVATE HARDBODY!"
"Hardbody activated" DD's voice responded.
"FYBER-body-mine. Not a bad name." Himari whispered to herself.
Abs smiled within the shadows.
"Activate diamond" Abs calmly called out.
"Diamond activated." A voice similar to DD's responded.
BOOOOOM!!!!!
Rocks flew in different directions. After a brief silence, Himari rose out of the rubble, coughing. The giant hand that had earlier emerged out of the ground now glistened.
"So, this is Diamond." Himari thought.
The outline of a door appeared in the wrist of the diamond hand. The door suddenly flew in Himari's direction and sliced off bits of her hair, moment after she ducked. Abs jumped out of the doorway and landed with both hands in her pockets.
"You little twerp! Now we're talking!" She said while grinning from ear to ear.
Himari assumed her fighting stance again.
"Scary. I almost lost my head there." She muttered to herself.
Just then 'LEVEL 3' appeared above Himari's head.
"Oooooo a Level up! Congratulaaaationnnnnssssss! Wooop wooop Woooooohooooooooooo!" Abs cheered while clapping.
"I can't tell whether she's genuinely excited about this or just mocking me." Himari thought with a look of concern.
A panel suddenly appeared before her, displaying...
ATTRIBUTE UPGRADE:
HARDBODY UPGRADED TO BATTLE TANK
"Man, I can't wait to test that out!" Abs growled with a smile as she made a fist.
Himari flinched.
"Ok. She taunting. Looks like my break time is over. Here we go again." she thought as she drew in a sharp breath.
ROOOOOOOOARRR!!!
The booming voice from above interrupted the combatants. Himari and Abs looked up toward the direction of the sound. A massive dual-wielding giant was descending on them at an alarming speed.
"OVABOSS! PORK!" Boomed the lion.
"Ovaboss? Pork?... am I the one he's calling pork?" Himari thought.
"ARI! STAY OUT OF THIS! I TOLD YOU NOT TO INTERRUPT ME! " Abs yelled.
The diamond hand extended out of the ground a grabbed the lion in midair. Abs continued yelling at at Ari the lion, obviously reprimanding him. While Himari observed them in shock DD's voice announced...
"Self-defense skill activated: Fatal F"
"Huh? Did I gain a new skill?" Himari asked.
A gas mask suddenly covered Himari's head.
"DD... What's going on?!"
"This skill was set to activate at a time you would have to deal with 2 high-level threats at once. It kicked in once that lion appeared. " DD responded
"Was set? When did I..." Himari's thoughts were interrupted by a ghastly memory of DD naughtily typing away on the panel.
"NO...! MAKE IT STOP!!" She snarled.
"LET GO OF ME, YOU SHINY SHINY HAND!" Ari screamed from above as he repeatedly struck the diamond hand with the pommels of his cutlasses, attempting to break out of its grip.
A calmer Abs now turned to face Himari.
"A gas mask?" She thought.
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF! Himari's butt emanated a powerful green gas that filled the spread out, making the invisible FYBER-battle-dome now visible.
"DD" Himari called out with a resigned tone.
"Yes?" DD responded.
"You're an idiot." Himari continued.
"The feeling is mutual. But look at your opponents before jumping to conclusions. " DD added.
The cutlasses fell out of the hands of a passed-out Ari. The diamond-hand dematerialized. While through an opening in the gas cloud, they noticed Abs, the highest-ranking player in Aurum Web of Warriors, laying still on the ground.
"S-Stu-pid-ly unbelievable." Himari stammered after a good minute of stupefacation.
"Was her weakness all along?" She continued.
"I can't believe it. We did it. We won." She whispered to DD in disbelief.
"Does that mean you admit that I'm a genius and that Fatal F is a useful skill?" DD asked.
"You're disgustingly innovative, yes. And I'll only keep that skill if I can modify it." Himari answered.
"Deal." DD responded.
"Deal." Himari confirmed.
"Deal." Abs' voice added.
Himari gasped. And turned to notice, Ab's body still laying where she first saw it.
"Fooooooled ya! That's a dummy. But I'm impressed. If that move could knock Ari out, it has earned my respect. That guy is hard to bring down. Ask Naa." Abs' voice continued.
A frightened Himari kept backing up till she bumped into Abs. In a swift reflex action, she spun around, intending to deal an elbow blow to Abs' pretty face.
"Time to meet your maker." Abs calmly declared, while gracefully avoiding Himari's elbow. Then, with lighning speed, she reached out her right hand and knocked Himari out with a finger-flick to the forehead.
Himari opened her eyes. She was surrounded by waves and waves of bright tangible light. Each wave that washed over her, sent sparks of electricity flowing through her, from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. Her senses were over 10 times sharper than they were in the physical world.
"This is... Am I dead? This isn't the game." She thought
"Meet your maker. Did she actually kill me? How is that even possible? But why am I so calm." Her thoughts continued racing.
Just then, she noticed the source of the tangible light waves drawing nearer to her. It was the brightest and most beautiful sight ever to be seen. Too good to describe with words. It was massive ball of light, fire, electricity and warmth, more than 10 times brighter than the sun. Then, an even brighter being stepped out of that sphere of light. Himari could only see him from his neck, downward. But she could not look at His face because is was too bright. Yet, she could feel his warm gaze on her. She immediately knew who He was.
"Adonai Yeshua?" Himari called out as she covered her face.
"Yes, I am." He answered. She could feel the gentlest smile radiating fom his face.