Arabelle

Arabelle laughed.

"What? I think that's the best thing you've said this day, Shiro-chan. If only I knew that all it took to draw out your sense of humor is to drag out a fight for this long..." The girl gestured at the lone zombie. If she wasn't imagining it, the damn thing even looked a little bit smug. Yeah, right. It was only delaying its own death, she reminded herself. They were going to wipe out its smug face later... and at this point, she didn't even care if it was her or Mishiro who did it. Heck, she was barely receiving any damage but she felt like it was dealing just as deadly damage to her pride!

It went for Mishiro... and missed. Lovely.

"Shi-chan!"

Even calling out her scythe's name wasn't enough. Arabelle was left with the embers of her dying Sword Art and the annoying little pest still stood upright in front of her. Watching.

~~BINGO BOOK

"Well, that's an unusual way of saying 'thanks for trying to assist, Arabelle! You're the best team leader ever!'"

She just wanted to get this done. Energy was starting to become less of a concern to her at this point - as soon as she missed her second attack on the zombie anyway. She quirked a brow as Mishiro missed hers too. It wasn't about stats and efficiency anymore, this was a matter of pride! Now that she had the opportunity to, Arabelle would show her friend that she would absolutely take revenge and overkill this mob to death for shaming her--

The small purple-haired girl missed a third time.

FUUUUU--

She wanted to cry and get a double serving of cake. She didn't even bother if that would be seen as slightly uncharacteristic of her, she just wanted to comfort herself after three fails in a row, dammit!

Arabelle was calling it now. This fight was going to be the biggest drag of a fight they were ever going to have.

~~BINGO BOOK

"Shiro-chan, do you even realize who you're saying that to?"

A pianist with trophies and medals on her shelf as recognition of her wonderful refined skill in the art. She would have better hearing than most, due to her training. Okay, let's be fair. She knew which sounds to pick out and focus on and which to drown out to meaningless white noise.

Mishiro hit hers. No Bleed though. An missed hers. The zombie An missed went after Arabelle and dealt a smidge of damage to her. Okay, that was fine. The girl was still 'improving,' as Mishiro called it earlier, and Arabelle didn't want to start up another tense situation by making one of her usual jabs. She actually liked An's company. All she needed to do was to keep trying. Yeah, Arabelle could have the patience for that.

She watched her energy. Then, recalling Mishiro's words, she looked up at the effect's time limit. Yeah, she would rather they finish this fast so it wouldn't suddenly wear off in the next round. "I'm stepping in, Shiro!" Arabelle called out. She ignited her scythe and weaved past the annoying zombie that wouldn't leave her alone, zeroing in on Mishiro's target. 

She swung.

And missed.

Well, crap.

~~BINGO BOOK

"Shiiiro-chan~, you meanie. I take it back! You're the worst and the only best friend I've ever had!" Arabelle feigned offense. It mostly proved ineffectual as she just narrowed her eyes and gave her friend a slight pout. "I get the strangest feeling you're assigning the blame of something onto me but I don't know what. Sorry, but I never went and seduced him, he just fell unprompted like a dummy. I'm not complaining though~."

Then the small purple-haired girl had to pause and think. Like, really really really hard.

"Not exactly," she responded to An's question plainly. Turning to the curious girl, she giggled. "So there's your explanation. Come on, An. Be more honest. I know exactly what you mean~. You meant how I was watching the guys earlier, right? Does having a boyfriend mean you can't appreciate the goods? I mean, it's not like you're buying or anything... Well, I guess that's one of the reasons."

Arabelle was about to launch into a nine-paragraph long explanation of why her not-boyfriend was the best and at the same time the worst, only to be rudely interrupted by her friend. She felt [censored]blocked at the very least. With a huff, she retrieved her scythe and stood. Boy talk later. If anything, that would at least serve as extra motivation to get through this round.

"When everyone's ready!"

At their affirmatives, she leaped off the stage. She shoulder barged straight into a zombie she spotted, reducing it to data fragments instantly, and tried to catch the rest with a swing of her scythe. Unfortunately, some had been standing a bit further away and another activated its second wind ability upon contact. Lovely. "Shiro-chan, An, you know the drill!"

~~BINGO BOOK

Arabelle nodded along in approval. "Plus! Always remember that as long as you try hard enough, you won't be at that level forever. When you're already aware that you're bad at one thing, it just makes it easier to know what you have to improve at, right?" So this break time turned into cheer-up-their-depressed-new-teammate time, but the small purple-haired girl didn't really mind. Her sparkling crimson eyes was a lovely thing to see. That was fun in its own right. 

"Oh! Very. We've known each other since the first week of the game, right Shiro-chan~?" Arabelle leaned over and squeezed her friend's armored hand with a sweet smile. Clasping Mishiro's hand in both of hers, she continued, "My, my. This is almost embarrassing to admit but... I think my life would have been very different if I never knew you! Yes, even if your coldness hurts me sometimes, you're still the best best friend I've ever had! I can't imagine life without you!"

No homo though.

She dropped her friend's hand.

"Hmhm~. No, it's fine. I'll take another friend or two! It's not like friendships are exclusive or anything." So were 110% of her relationships. "I mean, it's never been exclusive. Since the beginning of time. Why did you even feel the need to ask?" She tilted her head to the side, pretending to think for a moment, then a smirk formed on her lips. Oh. With their interactions, maybe An had-- "Shiro-chan, Shiro-chan, have we been acting a bit too close lately? You know, I think we might have given the wrong impression. I don't know, we're friends, but sometimes another girl's intuition is spot on. Do you have something important to tell me~?"

Arabelle was silently pleased when Mishiro took the initiative to speak up - until she realized what she was talking about. Of course. Count on her best friend to bring something like this up when it was heavily implied she wanted something fun to talk about.

So apparently, the two had managed to offend each other in the middle of combat. Maybe during one of the short pauses in between. Whatever. Arabelle usually liked drama - it was really fun to watch in movies and even more of an amusement in real life - and she would sometimes even go out of her way to involve herself in it sometimes. But not right now. As their team leader, Arabelle had her priorities in check for once!

She listened in, tried to get a firmer grasp of the situation with what meager information they provided her - way to make her feel included, amirite? - then caught An's attention. "Alright. First off, this is hardly a bother. We didn't even need to adjust when you joined us or anything and heck, your talking about this right now is much better than spending half the break holding a one-sided conversation with Shiro-chan."

A pause. Arabelle remembered that this Shiro-chan could just as easily take away her dessert privileges. And I oop-

"Oh, but no offense, sugar."

The small purple-haired girl smiled. She was practically being showered with praises! From Mishiro's sincere compliment to An's sheer admiration... was she in heaven right now? Arabelle felt like she'd achieved something really big, even though wiping an entire group in one hit was really just a small matter to the stronger players, but~ she remembered feeling the same way when she started dealing significant damage as a DPS. "Thank you~! It really was nothing... ah, but now that I managed to do it once, I think I can do it again! Hmhm! Eventually, all you two would have to do is to sit back and watch the superior DPS do her job!"

If it wasn't already blindingly obvious, she had completely failed to notice An's growing feelings of negativity.

Arabelle looked at her status bar and sighed. So that energy drink she had consumed earlier was all for nothing. Oh well, at least she got that little achievement under her belt, and she could spent the rest of her break relieving that wonderful moment to herself. She snapped her fingers and pointed the rest of the team to the stage; they would have gotten so used to the routine by now that they would know exactly what she meant.

Once back at the stage and seated at her usual spot, leaned against the back of the treasure chest, Arabelle pulled her legs close to her chest and smiled brightly.

"Alright! For this thread's last interlude, what do you two want to talk about?"

Ever since the start of the event, or rather when she learned she could kill a zombie with one hit of her AoE, she always had this sort of goal to wipe them all in one clean sweep. They had been going with the general strategy of Arabelle starting them off with an AoE and the others picking off the ones that were left, but the latter part of her strategy wouldn't even be needed if she killed them all in her initial attack.

Was that foreshadowing? Hmmm--

"Of course," the small purple-haired girl awarded her teammate with a confident smile. An went on though, and Arabelle thought her constant bumbling was starting to annoy her by a slight fraction - she had decided earlier that she did like the girl's bright personality - but the constant promises to "try harder" was getting old. Like, really quick. But at least she was trying to cooperate. And... actually communicating that to her teammates. Arabelle didn't know. Arabelle was kind of conflicted and her thoughts were in a disarray with the battle around her, so she put that off for now. "Hmhm~. Fine. You're doing fine either way. But now that you're making promises, I expect better results or you're buying me cake afterwards!"

Either the girl would start to do really well, or Arabelle would have her cake. It was a win-win! The sort of cleverness she would only expect from none other than herself!

The small purple-haired girl located another set of unlucky victims.

"We're going! Shi-chan!"

She hadn't been calling out her scythe's name like that in this event. Maybe because of how similar it sounded to her nickname for Mishiro. But! Doing so apparently worked as a sort of lucky charm! Or a power enhancer, she didn't care either way. Sending her scythe on a wild arc through the group of mobs, she was pleasantly surprised to see that each one disintegrated upon making contact with her Sword Art.

All four.

Arabelle turned back to An.

"Just kidding! We'll see about the next round~!"

~~BINGO BOOK

Arabelle giggled. "I miiight have accidentally left her with the impression that if she shut up, I would stop teasing her completely." That was absolutely mistaken though. When someone doesn't acknowledge you at all, don't you just feel an even greater urge to keep prodding at them? See what faces they'd make? See what emotions they'd hidden deep in their soul come to surface? Probably, any sane person would give up. But - though she wouldn't consider herself insane - Arabelle was bored enough and had the time on her hands.

She checked her energy and popped open another energy drink. The small purple-haired girl was in the process of sipping through its horrible contents when An and Mishiro did it again - though to a less amusing extent this time. One simply missed. The other chased after and--

Immediately, Arabelle had grabbed her scythe to deflect the zombie's attack once she realized it was not where it was supposed to be. She was too late though; she could practically feel its dirty little hands leaving a trail of mud and earth on her nice military uniform. How dare... Without thinking, Arabelle held onto her scythe and kicked it in its twisted face - knocking it back a good few inches away.

She dusted off her uniform and glared at her teammates.

"Keep your heads in the game and finish it off!"

~~BINGO BOOK

And the last zombie went down. Victory for Team Arabelle! 

Arabelle held up her hand for a high-five with her best friend, then on second thought, did the same with An was well. She was just so glad at finally killing their eighth group of mobs after that one hitch that made her think they would spend forever on one fight, that she hardly even minded the new girl's overwhelming lack of contribution. Of course, realizing that the silver-haired player was a cultured like-minded individual played a big part as well.

"Awww, I'm so glad you understand, Shiro-chan!" she exclaimed with exaggerated cheer. "Yes, you're all grown-up and lovely now. It's a large step up from giving me that dead stare whenever I so much as made a comment. Ahhh, I am so proud~." Arabelle moved, but not any closer to her best friend. She instead latched onto An's arm with a sweet smile. "An totally gets me though. It's totally fine to indulge yourself. Right, An?"

Okay. As much fun as that was, they needed to wipe out a few mobs. The small purple-haired girl let go of An's arm and prepped her scythe. "Right. There's another group nearby... we'll kill all of them, no sweat. Then we'll take on another and after that's a break. Got it? Good!"

She took off running and unleashed another deadly barrage of attacks.

~~BINGO BOOK

"You tripped," she repeated, incredulously. "I wouldn't expect such a beginner's mistake from you, Shiro-chan! Did all these..." Arabelle gestured to the players - mostly the males - around them with a smirk. She knew her best friend could see it too: their smooth yet forceful movements, the way they handled their weapons, and the determination in their eyes... [Censored]. "Distractions finally get to you?"

Most likely though, it was her friend's rather below average proficiency in any held weapon.

S i g h. Arabelle momentarily let her guard down - not like she needed to, the zombie was barely looking at her at this point - and pressed her palm to her forehead. As an afterthought, she waved off An's apology - at least she knew what she did wrong - but she frowned at the girl's energy value. One miss and her energy was completely spent, forcing the rapier user to sit back and regenerate. How troublesome indeed.

Briefly, she considered downing another energy drink but a peek at her own stats showed that drinking another was just going to be a waste, she might as well just regenerate the rest later on. Why was it that when things were finally going good, luck would decide to shake its head and say "that's enough fortune for all of you"? The end was very far from sight too, the small purple-haired girl thought glumly as she watched zombies still pulling themselves out of the ground and engaging with groups of players at the ready.

~~BINGO BOOK

Arabelle was internally screaming as she drank from her energy drink. And it wasn't from the bad taste, but that might still be a factor. She tossed the empty bottle away where it would soon disintegrate somewhere on the ground and headed over. "Hey, hey, what happened?!" One moment she was peacefully trying to restore her energy and the next Mishiro was crashing through the place, her uncontrolled Sword Art hitting everything else but the target. A little bit after, An startled and fell in a spectacular failing of her own.

Lovely.

She had totally jinxed them. And no, she didn't mean that annoying whiny girl who stole all of her guild leader's attention from her. Arabelle nonchalantly batted away the zombie that had tried to make a swipe for her - it must think of itself as a lucky thing, but it'll be dead sooner or later. "I think I get what happened here and so do you. Shiro-chan, An, get up. If you can't kill it this round, I'll at least pitch in the next!"

~~BINGO BOOK

She wiped two. An took care of the one that had 1 HP left. Mishiro took care of the one at full HP. All in two rounds of combat! Arabelle had to say, that had been a perfectly lovely run! She smiled smugly at her best friend as they regrouped. "Now what would have happened if I let you keep that weapon with Paralyze earlier...? You seemed pretty reluctant to use the one with Bleed when I asked you to, didn't you?" Still, credit where credit was due. Arabelle gave her friend that Paralyze weapon in the first place because it had accuracy and she was still unsure of how her friend would fare against the zombies, and no random noob could just land those hits. "Keep it up and I'll give you a candy."

Of course they weren't stopping. They wouldn't stop - not until Arabelle ran out of energy. She tossed her hair to the side and located another group. Ordinarily, the grind would have been boring but with her friend and An here, and sure to stay for the entirety of it, she was starting to feel a bit festive even in the midst of such a grim event!

"That one. Let's go!"

Arabelle fired up a Sword Art and charged.

~~BINGO BOOK

--Arabelle popped off the bottle cap and downed another energy drink. God, the consequences of erratically switching from extreme exhaustion as a consequence of being at low energy for too long and regaining energy in bursts only to use it all up again were going to hit her hard tomorrow. Maybe not as bad as overexertion in the real world, but she had a strange feeling she was going to be struck with a pseudo-sickness or something.

Oh well! If that happens, there was always Claude.

She watched as her other teammates handled the rest. Mishiro finally inflicted Bleed on a mob... or more like, she finally got the chance to. Arabelle hadn't exactly given her that opportunity earlier, but at least seeing the results now proved her idea was right on. An killed her mob and while she wasn't being all too vocal about it, she could just sense that the other girl was internally celebrating over her victory.

And here Arabelle sat with twenty-something kills to her name.

How cute.

~~BINGO BOOK

Awww, An was actually a bit cute! Arabelle smiled politely in return, but she could barely contain the pride welling up inside her. Well, of course! The silver-haired player was just a level one after all, it made sense she would admire any strong player who came her way, but to have it specifically directed to her... and to her dedication... "Thank you!" Arabelle replied with a sweet, sincere smile. All of a sudden, she was acting a lot friendlier with the other girl than before. "Like Shiro-chan said. You'll improve eventually! Just keep it up and you'll be good in no time. Now then, let's start!"

Humming to herself happily, she took off the stage. Again, she chose the nearest group - which was slightly further than it was before, now that she paid attention to it - and fired up another Sword Art. Spinning in the air, the small purple-haired girl landed gracefully on the ground and used her momentum to direct several strikes at their current targets.

Two fell, and two remained standing. Crap. After that boost in confidence--

"Shiro, go after the one with full HP! An, you take the other!"

~~BINGO BOOK

She smiled knowingly. 

"--And when he gave it to you, you were up on the stage, right? Was anyone else there? I presume a few other players must have gotten the same idea as you did."

Arabelle wasn't leading her any further down that line of thought though.

"No. Just numbers." Her answer was immediate. "Just in my experience though. The players in higher tiers faced something stronger, but that''s not our concern right now. What you're getting now is essentially what we got then, minus the second wind ability."

She nodded along in approval to Mishiro's words to An until -- Did she just--? Throw her under the bus? How dare she. Arabelle turned to her friend, glaring deep into the other girl's dead eyes. Bad memories of dealing one damage to a dragon resurfaced. She knew she often said she wanted Mishiro to be less boring, but not like this! Oh, but this was better than the long stretches of silences. Let's humor her, then! Arabelle smiled sweetly. Venomously. "And who gave you permission to say that? Ara, ara, I thought you would have been caring enough to know that was a sensitive topic. I got my perception of you all wrong, Shiiiro-chan~." 

God, even An was laughing.

"So how about I share one of yours too? I believe I know more of your embarrassing secrets than your brother ever did. It's only fair~."

She waggled her finger playfully and smirked. Based solely on her expression, Mishiro should know exactly what she was talking about. Now with that handled - Arabelle turned to the new girl. Laugh at me more and I'll personally ensure you're out of the team. "Nope! I started with the standard two-handed battle axe, but I found it a bit too short and heavy for my liking. So I went ahead and had a customized weapon crafted at a frontliner's blacksmith. You have heard of a guy named Macradon, right? I got that--" She nodded to the scythe propped up on the wall nearby. "--and the scythe Shiro-chan was using awhile ago, from him. I like using it! People say it's inefficient for a weapon, but it fits into my style well, so I'm not complaining."

Plus, it looked fab.

She tuned out An and Mishiro's nerd talk - oh god, there were two of them now - and curiously picked up her current object of interest.

"Stay safe! c:"

Oh. Huh. Handwritten. She didn't recognize it, but if... .... Ashen eyes drifted to the large treasure chest behind her. It had been overflowing with goodies at one point - and Mishiro apparently had the first claim to it. Arabelle turned the note over in her hands, absently flicking the tip with a gloved finger. "Hey, Shiro-chan," she said suddenly, ignoring the girl's question for the time being. "You were the one who got this treasure chest, right? Someone hand it to you? It's a pretty sweet gift."

The Tanabata Festival. It took all of Arabelle's will to not make a face. First, she had been on a perfectly good date. Second, the minions took freaking forever to kill - not because of their individual strength, but because of their numbers. Third, everyone started dropping out in the middle until she was left with just the nice guy who purchased a performer crystal from her. Lots of respect was earned that day. And last and most important, she had been on a perfectly good date.

How dare they.

"Hmhm~, I just found this one similar to the previous," the small purple-haired girl related. "Like - feels kind of like they're just recycling events. Same objectives, same strategies needed to defeat, but different themes and premises and rewards, and different mobs."

Whatever. They hadn't been there for the Star Festival; they wouldn't get her. She turned to An with a sweet, innocent smile. No, you totally suck. "Somewhat. It gets easy to tell when you have more experience. But hey, you didn't ditch as soon as things started to look bad." The image of a blonde, with a smile just as bright and just as klutzy, came to mind. "I wouldn't say that's enough, but you're at least not a coward."

Big oof.

Arabelle was exhausted. 

But she was absolutely not going to let it show. As soon as they reached the safety of the stage, the small purple-haired girl made a show of carefully propping Shikama Doji up against a wall before looking out at the stage in search of a particular item. Oh, it was still here! And with a few consumables still inside nonetheless! Either no one was getting the last sets of free buffs, or a few other players realized the sheer altruism of buying things for the people who couldn't afford it. It was like a charity case. 

Smiling, she nestled herself comfortably at the back of the treasure chest. She let the back of her head rest against its open lid and closed her eyes. God, she was tired. She was almost tempted to down another one of those horrid energy drinks. Or the pills she'd heard of from a few players. They were at least tasteless, but then again, outside concessions were not allowed. "Get used to this, Shiro-chan. And An," she added that last part as an afterthought. "If this is a raid event worth its salt by SAO standards, we're going to be at it for a looong time. It's a good experience as any though!" Her brown eyes opened to briefly make contact with the newcomer's vibrant red. "So tell us more about you, An~. Call it a team building session. Is this your first time?"

Idly feeling about the ground, her fingers brushed against what felt like a dead leaf. She would have simply fanned it away. But, by some weird force of nature, she turned her head to inspect it instead. 

A slip of paper.

Arabelle was starting to wonder if letting the new girl in was a good decision.

The small purple-haired girl watched as Mishiro failed to hit the last one then turned to An, expecting her to finish it off. An landed a clean hit. Okay, fine. However, by some stroke of misfortune, the zombie's weird regeneration slash second wind ability kicked in at the last moment and it didn't die. Fine - Arabelle heaved a long-suffering sigh - that was fine, but a bit troublesome. At least the girl could hit a target that wasn't just an immobile dummy. But her reaction right after was unbecoming. 

She panicked too fast. This had to be one of her first experiences with combat.

Arabelle ignored the girl's questions. Her joining the team was mostly Mishiro's doing, she could handle... whatever that was. Closing the growing distance between her and the zombie, she brought her scythe up in a quick slashing motion, easily cutting the creep's body in half like it was paper. She looked up at her energy bar. A lost cause. Sighing, Arabelle signaled for the two to return to the stage. "Let's take another break. I need it."

~~BINGO BOOK

Mishiro went in and finished one off. Good, they wiped out their group neatly this time. Arabelle smiled brightly, proud of her AoE damage. From dealing one damage to a basic quest dragon... to this. Truly the MVP! She glanced back to find New Girl trailing after them, cheering rather unenthusiastically while her expression and implied she was going through an existential crisis... or something. Fair, she had no contribution whatsoever after all. 

"Thank you!" Still, the girl's praise was motivating. It was better than Mishiro's near complete lack of dialogue aside from the absolute necessities. Kind of refreshing, she might even say. Arabelle tapped Mishiro on the shoulder with the blunt end of her scythe. "Too bad we didn't get to try it out... but keep that weapon on you, okay?" Then, addressing both of them, "We're going for another right after this!"

Green flames licked at her scythe as she came crashing into another group of terrified zombies.

~~BINGO BOOK

"Good girl." Arabelle smiled. "Don't worry, you'll understand it when you see it."

--And then, they were rudely interrupted. Some female player with silver hair and pretty, pretty red eyes ran up to them in what was probably the least professional greeting ever. Also... she kind of reeked of airhead. Well, teaming up was hardly a job interview, but there were still unspoken rules of etiquette. Arabelle looked from An to Mishiro, then back again. Have they met? Was there some reason this... reallyyy weak player was approaching them and not one of the other teams looking for extra members on the stage? Whatever. Even one damage can help.

"'Of course! Just do your job and don't get killed and you're perfectly welcome!" The small purple-haired girl accepted the join request with a sweet smile. Yeah, no. This was supposed to be just me and Shiro-chan but maybe if you're good for conversation, maybe I'd actually be totally fine with it. She pointed Mishiro to a group of zombies nearby. "We were just about to go after another group though. Ready yourself and stay out of my way at first."

That means you better pull your weight when you get the chance to, noob.

The executioner's scythe descended on their enemies' heads.

~~BINGO BOOK

It was there on the ground, writhing in pain. It was going to die at the two reapers' hands, anyway. The persistent little thing just had to cling to "life" to annoy them and delay the inevitable. She nodded to Mishiro. Decent, could use a lot of work, but that had been a killing blow right there... if only the zombie didn't have a strange special ability of some sort.

She gave her scythe a showy little twirl and chopped off the creature's head. 

Okay, how many did they have left to go?

A quick survey of her surroundings showed that they had a lot. The small purple-haired girl whirled around to face her teammate. "Do you still have that weapon I gave you? The one with Bleed?" She remembered that weapon, mainly cause its name made her laugh. The Widowmaker? For a Rare weapon? Well, maybe if they meant the wielder... but whatever, she wasn't going to make that joke when she was about to ask her wonderful best friend to use it. "Put it on and use it for the next battle. I wanna try something."

~~BINGO BOOK

Mishiro kind of sucked at this.

The small purple-haired girl would have been content with sitting around and chugging down as much offbrand energy drinks she could before the next round of mobs came along, but watching her teammate stumble around clumsily with her scythe was almost painful to watch. And totally boring. If that was just as much damage as her regular Sword Art could do, they'd be spending more time fighting than the time they thought they would save by conserving energy consumption so they won't take too much breaks in between.

Sigh. Arabelle retrieved her scythe from where she had it propped up on an upright chair. "Don't take this personally, Shiro-chan," she said, loud enough for the girl with dull eyes to hear. "But you're not supposed to hold it that close to you." 

To demonstrate, she unleashed a weaker Sword Art that consumed more than half of the last creep's HP. Enough was left for her teammate to get the last hit on.

~~BINGO BOOK

Arabelle spun around and took a few steps back. A zombie that should have been handled by another team took a swing at her but she quickly distanced herself and jabbed the blunt end of her scythe against its chest. "Hey!" she called out to the incompetent group through cupped hands. "Keep your eyes on your mobs, we're trying to fight our own group here!"

The inside of the tent really was not the best place to fight. Even someone with as much experience as her was having difficulties. The space was simply too small, the other teams were inside, and there were lots of obstacles in the way. She would have considered just taking Mishiro outside and going on a rampage, but there were zombies rising from the inside of the tent's ground too.

They'd be cut off from the buffs before they knew it.

Speaking of.

The small purple-haired girl ducked under another swipe - sending a glare off to the other teams - and withdrew an energy drink from her inventory. She tipped her head back and downed the entire gross-tasting thing in one gulp.

~~BINGO BOOK

Just one?! If she had less composure, Arabelle would have thrown her scythe down in frustration. But no, not even that; she liked this scythe too much to even scratch it any more than necessary. She watched, tense, as her weaker teammate defended against two of the undamaged zombies. Okay, she was doing fine. Not like they would do anything worse to her than one HP of damage and some dignity lost at those... smelly... grimy hands. Clearly, she'd underestimated the dirty bastards by a slight margin - or not at all slight. Once again, one of the zombies she'd hit survived... with what looked like 1 HP.

It'd happened too many times to just be a coincidence. And Mishiro already proved that it was at 1 HP, by finishing off with a basic attack.

No offense, Shiro-chan.

"No need to tell me, I've got it!"

So somehow, they had a weird special ability. She didn't know exactly what but she wanted to completely finish them off this time. The small scythe wielder zeroed in on one of the zombies that was now getting up in the aftermath of its attempt to attack her friend and ignited her scythe. She twirled it in her hands and unleashed her Sword Art.

Arabelle made sure to tear it to shreds this time.

~~BINGO BOOK