The man in a suit tossed Mia a card, but she didn't look at it. Instead, she looked at Jessica's unconscious figure before turning to Emma, taking a second to get the words out.
"So... was Jessica a martial artist?"
She puckered her lips ever so slightly.
"I would say that she was a martial artist if it wasn't for the fact her previous dodging and attacks all showed a lack of technique. In reality, it seemed she was picking it all up on the go, hence why I said she has potential. Along with that, the last attack that she did seemed to happen because of a sudden inspiration."
Mia blinked several times, clearly quite confused.
"Eh? She is just a natural talent?"
Emma tilted her head to the side slightly.
"Hm... it's a bit more complicated than that, but that thinking is the right idea. Though you probably shouldn't be worrying so much about her, when you're the one going up next."
Mia's eyelids twitched. She pulled the card up and looked at it.
It was a 7 of hearts.
All in all, not too bad considering that it could've been an ace. Mia already knew that she would need to lower its value if she wanted a chance at winning. After all, she heavily doubted that she herself would be able to win against Jess' opponent, and that was a 5.
If it was a 4... she was somewhat confident. However, she wasn't too sure if that was overestimating her own capabilities. But at least from her perspective, the fight with a 5 was a relatively simple one.
She didn't really understand the moves that were made, but she just thought of them as dodging due to her own ignorance.
With that in mind, she settled on going for a level between 2 - 4.
"...I think I'm going to try to go for one at 4."
Emma raised her eyebrow ever so slightly.
"Is that so? I can point you in the right direction, to save time and stamina. We both are carrying people after all."
Mia blinked a few times before nodding a little.
"Ah, yes... yes. Thank you."
Mia decided not to question how she knew, despite feeling quite curious about it. Emma let out a chuckle before pointing in a direction.
"Just this way."
The man in a suit seemed a bit displeased but didn't say anything about it. With that, the two of them made their way, each carrying a person in tow. Soon, they found themselves at a new cage, this time with a white bunny.
As promised, the padlock was labeled with a 4 of hearts. Looking on the inside, there was just a bunny sitting under an umbrella that was made out of flowers. The bunny was simply lounging, laying back with its eyes closed. Although it was significantly bigger than a normal bunny, in terms of human size, it was only about the size of a child.
All in all, it didn't look very scary. While the monkey also didn't look too intimidating the rabbit looked far more timid than anything else. Seeing this, Mia regained a bit of confidence in herself.
She expected it to be fast and agile like a bunny would be, but it shouldn't hurt too badly. After all, it wasn't that big and looked fluffy if anything else.
With that in mind, she carefully set down Jessica on a nearby hill before going over to the padlock. She took a second look at the bunny before taking a deep breath, deciding to prepare herself.
Mia ran through her thoughts once more, confirming that she wanted to fight the rabbit, and pulled out a 3 of hearts to combine with her card. Just as the newly formed card appeared, she inserted it and the padlock along with the cage wall fell down.
The bunny's nose twitched. Then a second later, its head snapped up as it realized what was going on. Despite the fact it knew it was going into a life or death battle, there appeared to be a smile forming on its face.
It reached over with a stubby arm and with a grunt, it pulled the umbrella out of the ground, holding it with both hands rather adorably, before cutely shaking from side to side.
Mia couldn't help but feel reluctant to attack, seeing how docile it appeared. In fact, she thought it would've been better if she just let the rabbit win. Unbeknownst to her, she had pulled out the katana from her storage deck and was lifting it up in the air, pointing toward herself.
She tightly gripped the handle of the blade, on the verge of committing seppuku unironically.
Jack watched on with a bit of curiosity but didn't think about it too much. After all, for him, self-mutilation was something very normal and was fine to do so long as you didn't die in the process.
Right as she resolved to plunge the blade in herself, she suddenly snapped out of it, cold sweat forming on her back. She couldn't help but feel a strong sense of fear assault her as she realized what had happened.
If it wasn't for the fact that she felt it was a little odd in her mind that a level 4 monster appeared so harmless. It was interfering with how her game brain worked since she saw the value of the cards representing their level.
That tinge of curiosity was just barely enough for her to not suicide without even knowing it.
She slowly brought the blade away from her before glaring at the bunny with a completely new viewpoint. Apparently, it wasn't agility that was going to be Mia's main concern, but rather some sort of mind control.
While panting, she pointed the sword at the bunny with reasonable anger.
As she was taking a few seconds to calm down, the bunny frowned, displeased that the fight wasn't as easy as it could've been. Nonetheless, it decided to continue in its own way.
First, it held out the umbrella in Mia's direction, blocking the view of the bunny.
Then a moment later, the umbrella was tossed up into the air before countless identical looking bunnies all ran in separate directions. Mia's eyelid twitched. She didn't panic too hard, as she judged they were more likely illusions rather than actual clones that could attack.
After all, anything more wouldn't fit the difficulty rating.
Still, she couldn't feel a bit paranoid that they might be real. Once the closest bunny got close to her and rushed her, she swung her katana, using the minimum strength to swing properly. She figured that it must've been an illusion, as the first one was never the real one.
As she expected, the bunny only dispersed after being cut through.
She still swung just to be safe, and at least make the bunny think their attack was working in some capacity. As the various images launched themselves at Mia one after another, she swung through all of them, steadily dispersing their images.
However, she was starting to get nervous, since the real one should be attacking any time soon. At the same time, she really underestimated how many different images had appeared in front of her.
This time, she didn't dare neglect her attacks, as there should be a sneak attack coming any time soon.
The nearly hundred images were steadily cut down, until there were only a few left.
Once it came down to the final few, Mia felt that the real one was almost to guaranteed to attack, thus swinging at full power at the next few that rushed at her. After cutting down one, there were three more left.
Then two.
Then one.
Then... none.
All of them were illusions. It was at this point that Mia suddenly realized that if the bunny truly wanted to capitalize on all the illusions, it would just have to attack at the same time with all of them.
After all, it wasn't like there was a need for balancing mechanics such as changing behavior patterns in real life. Unfortunately, there were no patch notes for real life.
Truly, a shit game.
Mia looked further across to see the bunny simply standing there, holding an umbrella. It put a hand to its mouth before letting out a giggle, as though finding it ridiculous she fell for such a trick.
After taking a deep breath, Mia calmed her frustration before rushing forth toward the rabbit. If it was going this far to avoid combat, then it must not do well in direct confrontation.
However, despite rapidly approaching, the bunny didn't seem concerned at all. Not even opting to retreat away.
Still, this didn't stop Mia as she closed the distance. After all, there were few other ways for her to win this kind of battle. But before she could get close, a soft glow came from the bunny's umbrella.