Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG

While the arena changed, Flora, Eddie, and Mia ate caramelized strawberries. They needed the sweetness after the sour loss. Now, a 25x25m big boxing ring rose in the middle.

For the Riverstones, Hub and Robby entered the ring. The Brooklyn Bowlers sent a red and gold batticle and a drone driver. The batticle was at least three meters high and moved on three mechanical legs. On its shoulders rested thick rail guns and pincers protruded from its hips. "Long3rd Leg" stood above it.

"I don't get the name. All three legs of his batticle have the same length." Flora said.

Eddie coughed. "The third leg of the player, love. He claims that his dong prong hongs long."

Flora was enlightened, even though she didn't believe it. Anybody with the name of Mostexcellent Toasterwizard surely had no clue about toasters. The toasters had to speak for themselves! Anyway, she was the most excellent toaster wizard, so any other person named in this fashion had to be a liar. Now, Flora had the urge to beat up that hypothetical person. Video Games promoted violence! Only a bit over a week in VR, and she wanted to behave like a brute!

The four players bowed to each other, then Robby and the drone guy, Dude TheDude, walked behind the ropes. Hub, in his shiny paladin armor, and Long3rd remained in the ring.

"The second event is a tag team match. Two players fight inside the ring. If one of the combatants doesn't want to fight anymore, they can tag their teammate by touching them. Then they have 5 seconds to attack together. Afterward, the player gets ported outside the ring." Mia explained.

Like every fighting obsessed boy, Robby had his WWE phase, so Flora was familiar with the concept and the proper behavior for the audience. "Smash those heels, son!" Flora jumped up, splashing Eddie and Mia with water.

Because Hub and Long3rd started the fight, Flora calmed down. "Prepare to clap! In this bedroom, cheering for my sweetie is obligatory!" She ordered her companions. "Even if you have to support Hub!" Oh, the sacrifices she took for her son!

Under bombardment, Hub ran towards the massive machine. Compared to the red-golden batticle, Hub looked small but shiny. Flora recognized the glow of Divine Radiance and the glimmer of Retaliation. The bullets rebounded from his armor and shield.

The batticle stopped pelting the paladin as soon as it noticed that its own fire hit it. Instead, it accelerated towards the opponent.

Hub charged as well. With an ear-splitting bang, the large tin can and the small tin can collided. Hub bounced off, but despite the thing called physics, the batticle took a step back as well.

Mia shook her head. Flora interpreted that reaction that the move was as silly as it looked.

The opponents traded blows, and to Flora's astonishment, Hub seemed to be winning. He lost only a quarter of his hit points, while the batticle lost half.

"Is the HP bar from Long3rd or the batticle?" Flora asked.

"Only the batticle. I configured the display that the driver's bar is only visible when the vehicle is kaputt."

The batticle ran towards the ropes where the drone driver waited. Because it used Nitro, greenish jets propelled it forward.

Although Hub risked damage from the fire, he attacked the hamstring of the machine. Close to the ropes, he veered off and raced to Robby. The two combatants tagged their teammates simultaneously.

As Robby vaulted over the ropes, Flora jumped up again. "Get him, son!"

"Go for it, honey plum!" Eddie followed suit.

Mia looked at the two pumped up senior citizens and shrugged. "Keep pushing, boss." She said perfunctorily.

The Dude TheDude had joined the fight as well, and his drones fired at Hub.

The two Riverstones leaders exploded in light. They cast BlessAndCondemn with such a speed that a strobe light would be envious. Their mana bars plummeted, but Hub's health bar got topped off. The health bars of their enemies flickered, only the bar of the Dude lost a few percentages.

"Dude is using cluster maintenance. They should focus on him." Mia said.

As if Robby had listened in, he vanished and reappeared behind the drone operator. His fist flew to the Dude's head. Just when it was about to hit, a shield flared up. The bluish membrane shattered but took the momentum of the punch with it.

The Dude's head barely moved when the fist landed. Activating his rocket boots, he dashed away.

Flora thought it was a very light mech-suit, or maybe only some powered, unconnected armor parts. His right hand and shoes looked like power armor, and his helmet was clearly high tech. His red and silver breastplate had some buttons on it, which led to Flora questioning the design's wisdom. What kind of meaningful use could buttons have that an opponent could activate with a punch? Or maybe it was a trap? Flora had both questions and ideas.

Meanwhile, Hub and Long3rd were ported out of the ring. They followed the combatants and stayed as close as possible to them.

Robby chased the Dude, but his drones ran interference. They looked like flying easter eggs as big as abbot Irdens's upper body. Not only did they shoot on Rob, they also rammed him.

From the spectators' position, it seemed that the Dude did nothing but evade the monk. However, Flora saw his combat tool flashing. He was still channeling Cluster Maintenance.

"Positioning is critical in tag team matches, even more so than usual. The people inside can't target the people outside and vice versa. To be exact, the outside people can use no skills at all. However, AoE cast from inside can hit the outside players." Mia explained. "Currently, TheDude is healing the batticle. Rob tries to wrangle him in the middle of the ring, where he is out of reach."

Robby charged at his opponent, but a drone swerved to him from the back. Flipping, he kicked it right in the path of the second drone. They collided, and one of them even crashed on the ground.

"Wow, nice work! I didn't expect them to hit each other. Normally, friendly objects can't collide." Eddie exclaimed.

"Yeah, the rules about that are hard to grasp and won't work reliably. In this instance, the drone counted as weaponized, so it hit its mate." Mia answered.

Robby had reached the Dude and half dragged and half threw him to the middle of the ring.

The drone operator tried to get up, but Robby kicked his shoulders, then dropped his knee on his torso. Still lying on his back, the Dude activated his rocket boots and slid over the floor.

Robby fell off but rolled to his feet and leaped towards the target of the Dude, the ropes. He came down just in front of the Dude and attempted to kick his head. His foot collided with it, but the sliding Dude's momentum was too strong and took him down.

They grappled on the ground, Robby clearly the more experienced melee fighter. However, the drones weren't idle. Shooting, they sped towards Robby and crashed into him, targeting his head.

At the last moment, Robby ducked. Although he dodged the drone, the Dude capitalized on it and shocked him. On the center of Robby's shaved head was a ponytail. Under the influence of the electricity, it now looked like an antenna.

Flora was torn between her protective mother instincts and laughing.

While Robby twitched, the Dude made it to the ropes and tagged his partner.

Looking at the HP, team Riverstones seemed to do great. Hub was full, Robby at 75%, whereas the Dude only had 50% and the batticle 70%. However, Robby was still twitching when the batticle entered the ring.

"Snap out of it, baby," Flora prayed.

"He's faking," Mia said.

When the batticle wanted to stomp on the shaking clan leader, Robby exploded to the right and curved around it. He elbowed the Dude so hard that he went airborne. With flashing fists, Robby hit him a few times until the drone-operator smashed into the ropes. 

There, Hub waited for them. A fist bump later, he joined Robby in pummeling the drone dude. Additionally, he spammed Bless and Condemn.

The batticle moved to the other end of the ring and spewed out high caliber bullets. Although the drones shot too and the air around the drone operator crackled, Robby's HP grew, and Hub's HP bar sank only a tiny bit.

Flora was disappointed when the Dude was ported off the ring. He had only 35% health left; just a few seconds more, and he would be a goner.

Hub cast spells on Robby until the latter hopped over the ropes. They bumped fists, and Robby vaulted back in.

"Is that a legal move?" Eddie asked. "Not that I'm complaining, but if they tag as soon as their team times finishes, they get another 5 seconds together, right?"

"Yes. You have to scare off the outside partner with AoE or wrangle the inside partner away from the ropes."

Glowing with the power of Retaliation, Hub charged at the batticle, and Robby used him as living shield, moving in his shadow zone.

They tore into the batticle like a blender into the dough. When Hub was ported out, only half of its HP remained, whereas Robby's bar was close to full.

Robby mounted the machine. His legs clamped around the right railgun as his hands clawed on the wires of the left rail gun.

One pincer of the batticle stabbed into Robby's flank, but he was in the blind spot of all the other offensive means. The machine lumbered to the ropes. Due to Hub's efforts in hamstringing it, the progress was slow enough for Robby to dismantle one of the guns.

When the Dude joined the fight, Robby tagged Hub, and they focused on the healer.

"Nice interrupts," Mia commented. Flora hadn't noticed it, but the Brooklyn Bowlers' HP wasn't rising, so her boys had done something right. Before the joined time ran out, they killed the Dude with finishers.

Hub and Robby took turns dealing with the batticle. Long3d only resisted perfunctorily.

Clan Riverstones vs. Brooklyn Bowlers: 2:1.

Flora grinned, proud of her boy.

Team Fire took the stage, all dressed in red and orange colors.

For the Brooklyn Bowlers, two guys and a girl in street clothes walked to the middle.

This time, the Riverstones won the honor to select the arena. The ring vanished, and a cave inside a volcano replaced it. Magma streams flowed between black rocks congregating in a burning lake. The arena was bigger than the stadium.

"3v3 PvP is the next event−one point for every killed player until nobody survives."

When the match started, the Brooklyn Bowlers vanished.

Team Fire conjured walls of fire that combed through the arena until they found the opponents. The combat flowed back and forth, but the Riverstones had an advantage.

After Ahoncartyr tore into a rogue named Wonker Warrens, their healer was distracted, and Ressa and Emba killed him.

The remaining woman and Wonker ganged up on BBQ and threw him into the lava lake.

Instead of sinking, the Fire Healer levitated on the surface and pulled the Wonker to him. The rogue ported away, but the lava had hurt his legs, limiting his mobility.

The woman, another Latina with blond dyed long hair, threw a knife at BBQ, disrupting his levitation. BBQ plummeted into the lava.

Ressa and Emba ripped into the distracted woman and the hurt rogue and won the match for the Riverstones.

Clan Riverstones vs. Brooklyn Bowlers: 5:2.

Flora, Eddie, and Mia clapped.

"It's going great for our clanmates!" Flora cheered and high-fived Eddie.

Mia said nothing, but Flora could see that she disagreed.

"4v4 Relay is up next."