Novis had agreed to play Frank in a 1v1 game. Novis was quite confident in winning after all. The last time they had battled Novis had beaten him without getting a scratch on him. So he didn"t think it would be hard to do the same.The two of them entered the game and selected their characters while the others watched from outside.
"let"s do this!" Novis said.
Arthur and George didn"t want to say anything, it seemed like Frank was confident for a reason. The two of them just saw this as a chance for Novis to learn from.
Novis went to the middle lane as usual and so did Frank. Frank waited patiently for the NPC knights to do battle with each other and so did Novis. The two of them continued to wait and wait until eventually, Novis had run out of patience.
Novis went forward and started to fight with the NPC knights but at that time so did Frank. Frank watched carefully as Novis fought with the NPC knights and waited just at the right time to block one of Novis"s attacks.
The NPC knights target quickly switched from the other NPC knights to Novis and all started to attack him at once. Novis was able to dodge some of the attacks but in the end, got hit a few times. Novis eventually dealt with the NPC knights and then wanted to go after Frank.
But when Novis looked up, Frank was already by his tower waiting for the next wave of Knights. Frank kept on repeating this process using the NPC knights to his advantage.
"Okay I understand now, we can stop the game," Novis said.
The two of them ended the game there and exited the VR headset.
"Well I hope you guys understand a bit more about the game now," Frank said, "What I did there was just a taster of what Woo Woo will do to you, they are a lot more skilled at using the NPCs to their advantage. They understand every aspect of the game as they have been playing for years."
The team clapped at Frank"s amazement and felt somehow they might be able to pull it off. They continued to play game after game but it was just a repeat of last time.
They tried implementing the things Frank taught them but it was useless. What Frank didn"t realize was that it was nearly impossible to teach someone something that would usually take years, in just a weak.
After losing match after match from playing online, the teams high suddenly went to a low.
"Cheer up guys!" Frank said. "We still have time until the game, I know we can do it."
The team gave a slight smile in response but it was impossible for them to be in a good mood after the losing match after match.
After everyone had left the room, Frank sat there on his own once again.
"It looks like we"re going to have to rely on you once again, I just can"t do it."
*****
On the way, home from school Novis was currently thinking about the games Arthur and George played. Whenever they played online, they never bothered implementing using the knights on their team.
"How come you guy never seems to struggle fighting multiple opponents?" Novis asked.
"That"s a tricky one Novis," George replied, "We fought on many battlefields in the past where a stray arrow or a sword could come out of nowhere. Our senses are always on high alert and it took years after years to perfect."
Arthur continued to nod at George"s words.
"Again it seemed like it all comes down to experience, Is there anything I can do?" Novis asked.
Novis felt like although Frank was trying his best. The strategy of simply getting better at the game wasn"t going to work. Before when doing new things with Alex, it was always focused on one thing. The team felt like they were making progress towards some type of goal but right now it felt like they were going back to square one.
So Novis came up with his own answer. He simply needed to be like Arthur and George, too strong and skillful with his weapons, no matter how many enemies came at him, he could deal with them in some way.
"There is one thing I can think of, In fact, I and Arthur were talking about it after your last Game."
Novis was suddenly surprised, he had actually expected the two of them to tell him there were no shortcuts, to work hard like they usually did.
"Have you ever heard the term, Berserker?" George asked.
"hmm, I think maybe a couple of times in some games but I don"t really know what it means."
"Well in our world it was a term used to describe a specific type of fighter. You see, when people fight their mind goes into different states, as you know not every person is exactly the same. Some people perform better when their situation gets tougher or some people perform better when their mind is clear and calm. This state allows you to perform to the best of your abilities. You don"t think about what you are going to do, you just react."
"So what does this have to do with me?"
"Well Novis, if you remember your last fight with Frank, you were extremely enraged at that time. So angry that mine and Arthurs words couldn"t be heard but when we watched you fight, you were performing better than we had ever seen you perform before. That is what we call a berserker, a person who gets stronger the angrier he is or the more hurt he is. You seem to fall into the first category."
"Really wow, I never knew. That"s great then, teach me how to go into this berserker mode then."
"That is kinda the problem, we don"t really know how. This whole thing is on you."
Novis felt like the next few days ahead of him would be truly difficult.