The moment she had unleashed the ice skill upon Rei, she felt as if she made a mistake. He had fallen back, but he didn't fall over. He was still conscious. His skin looked unscathed as it normally did simply because there was no data in him that changed his skin to look damaged. She knew she had done at least some kind of damage to him, but it was impossible to tell how much or how effective it was.

The arm was heavy, different compared to the thin scrawny arm she had. It held the armored plates, the sword which did not belong to her, and most importantly, the extra data which could not and would never assimilate with her own. She had hacked a skill and earned an arm, but all she did was hack that skill. The arm wasn't hers. The data she copied was not meant to repair, and now Balmung was gone.

Rei wasted no time. He was still bent on destroying her, but the NPC had noticed the glint of fear and frustration in his eyes. He was alarmed and worried by her new skill, and so felt compelled to destroy her as quickly as possible. What better to destroy ice with than fire? His voice carried through the empty alleyway. "Fire Blade!"

I can't let this end here! Dammit! The NPC took a step back, bracing the sword before her. But the fire came, rushing like a torrent to engulf her. No, blocking wouldn't do. Even when Rei blocked her ice strike, he still took damage. She would too, and any kind of damage meant instant deletion. Panic swarmed her, her mind raking her thoughts, memory, ideas, anything that could pull her out of this mess, but all she could do was hold that fake sword before her.

But the fire never swept over her. It froze where it was, the pixels flickering, and it looked like someone had pressed 'pause' and stopped the attack. The girl's breath was caught in her throat, her eyes lay unmoving on the approaching flame as if simply blinking could mean an entire world of difference. Instead of commencing to eat her away, the flames were dismembered like some kind of machine until no traces of it were left. The NPC gasped and she darted a look to Rei, looking to see if he had done something. His frustration and shock could not be suppressed any longer and he openly screamed out. "WHAT THE ****?!" The censoring of the word usually would've brought a kind of giddy relief to her, but she only stared in shock.

The attack lock fell right back into place and all players, all those who remained inside the Village of Requiem shifted from their programed fighting stance to a harmless upright pose. Such was a characteristic of the Root Town. With the slight change in pose, the NPC's own arm, which was character data nonetheless, moved to sheath it's blade to where a case would have been.

A sharp pain sparked up the NPC's arm, as least that's what the sensation felt like. The data was, after all, a copy of a skill, a skill that was now unusable in a root town. Just like the flame, it picked itself apart, but not only that, took away her own arm in its stead. The NPC reeled to the ground, gritting her teeth. The data had even begun to chip away from her ribcage. She bore nothing but a disintegrating stump now.

Even now when her wound was propelled into such a severe state, she looked back up to Rei with a grin of victory. He could not attack her, just as she was left vulnerable. He failed in eliminating her, and that was enough to bring triumph to her face. Still she spun around, rising back to her feet as she darted out of the alleyway, and made her way to the field where she was guaranteed both freedom and security from the people who wanted her deleted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A loud voice boomed into Rei's ears, commanding any attention that even strayed away from her voice and toward the dashing AI. It could almost be heard by the rest of the root town but the message was restricted for only his ears. In fact, the root town was nearly desolate now. The players had left to go into the field or had gone to other servers from the recent chaos or because of the looming lag that flowed from it.

"Heavy Blade Rei! Stop whatever you're doing immediately!"

A screen opened up before Rei with the administrator, Aeki, on it. Her face was one of immense annoyance, though she hid it behind her usual formal expression. It was the 'whisper' command that every player was entitled to. The scene at the town square couldn't be hidden behind her small frame.

The three long arms behind her looked as if they were towering over a being on the ground, pinned or severely wounded. Their voices were caught on the message.

"...yah will be suspended as of now. Your IP address will be banned on the account of..."

Aeki's strong voice quickly overrid the Long Arms behind her.

"You're accelerating the situation out of hand. Remain where you are. You're still under Quarantine inspection!"

"Miss Aeki!"

The black-haired woman glanced over her shoulder. "What is it?"

"The Attack Barriar was activated again." Her face was grim like one's of a child before a scolding parent. "Baralai-sama will--"

She waved her arm, instantly silencing the Long Arm. "That's fine. I'll deal with it." Aeki darted her even sharper glare at Rei. "Don't move." With that said, the screen blacked out.