Competition is often said to be a two-sided blade.

On the one hand, it does foster friendships and also growth in skill.

On the other hand, it promotes bitterness and rivalries... that, while often beneficial to a human's growth, often lead to brutality, hatred, and other such negative emotions.

Irregardless of this, competition, in spite of everything, is still a fundamental and perhaps, no, almost definitely, even necessary part of the human experience.

After all, how do you know who you are if you haven't brushed your skill against some kind of metric?

Be it a pitch as a singer, a grade as a student, a fight as a warrior....

... who knows?

Either way, a person needs a metric against which to grade themselves.

And competition brings this metric.

But.. that's not everything competition brings along.

It also brings something along the lines of a connection to others in the process.

That, in and of itself, is hard to explain.

But... one can perhaps say it like this.

If a man was to, say try archery, with every thing he had, and then face off against a man, who, also, had practiced archery with everything he had, in a sense, they end up be coming closer.

Why?

As one walks through life, one finds oneself talking to all sorts of people.

Men, women, children...

No doubt, the majority or at least a large amount of these people have brought no threat to said person.

The majority have been either not too exceptionally life changing or incredibly.. for lack of a better word, basically non consequential.

This ethos.... This fact....

However, somehow... the person with whom you battle is the kind of person with whom you slowly grow closer.

And why is that?

Because everything you are.. comes out when you're really trying.

It is an oft said statement.

People show who they really are when they're about to die, when they have nothing else to lose...

In that case, everything they are comes out of them in a desperate attempt to resolve an issue.

In the case of a competition, when two people are going against each other with everything they have... even if they lose, even if they feel outmatched.... that was their everything.

And not just their skill.

Their hard work, their tenacity, their very being is brought out into battle against someone else.

If it is true that most people can not be themselves around others... then... it is completely true... that most people are looking for someone who can bring who they are out of them.

In short, people look for a rival.

Someone against whom you can give and show your all.

Someone who... weirdly... ends up becoming a very peculiar friend.

In this case...

Max and Tiffany held the controllers in a poised position.

Both felt it...

... their opponent's intensity.

Ken took a moment to get over the momentary shock that was Julianne Hunter's experience..

And then...

Ken: Alright then.

And he turned to the Max and Tiffany.

Ken: So... this is how this is going to go down.

Max and Tiffany both nodded.

Not a word.

Rose: (thinking: Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! This is soooo tense!)

Luke: (thinking: Be careful, Tiff. Max isn't a straightforward opponent. But I think you already know that.)

Julianne: (thinking: You've got this, Maxie.)

And Ken continued....

Ken: The both of you won't be playing the game in a conventional sense.

Max and Tiffany: Huh!?

Rose: Wai... what!?

They'd all thought they'd be playing some kind of contest. A one v. one, or a... who can kill more characters.

But... Ken wanted something more specific.

Ken: We'll be using... the tutorial mode.

Max: Huh!?

Tiffany's answer came only a second later.

Tiffany: I see. Understood.

Her eyes turned to Max, and Max turned back to her... and then back to Ken.

Max: But... why?

Ken: Because having the two of you play the game in any conventional way would give you far too much of an advantage. Besides, you're not scared... are you?

Max: No!

To be completely honest with himself, he wasn't really scared... just shocked.

Max: (thinking: What is Ken up to?)

Ken: (thinking: It really doesn't matter to me who wins this contest. Heh...)

He smiled to himself.

Ken: (thinking: Let it not be said that I am an unfair judge.) Alright then. Max, if you will.

Max: Hmph.

He turned on the tutorial mode... showing a blank landscape.

Max: Hey, Tiffany.

Tiffany: Yeah?

Max: Select the Dextrous class option on the settings of your side of the screen.

Tiffany: Ok.

She selected it, as did Max, and the areas around them turned into something of an almost jungle like city, filled with giant root and stem like structures growing out of the ground.

These structures doubled as a climbing apparatus as well as, surprisingly, homes.

Max: Ok then.

He put his controller down and crackled his fingers.

And then...

Ken: But before we begin...

Max: Hmm?

Ken: Unsurmountable leader? If you may?

Max: Huh?

Ken: I would like for Tiffany to take a few minutes to get used to the game first.

Max: But...

Ken: It's only fair. Isn't it?

Max: Mmmmmm...

It would be a lie... if Ken said he wasn't curious about the true result of this contest.

Ken: And now...

It would also be a lie... to say that he wasn't getting a little kick out of bothering Max.

Ken: ... if you may, oh insuperable leader.

Tiffany: Alright.

At that point, the eyes of all the onlookers fell onto Tiffany Chang.

There was one big question.

Could she actually do it?

Of course, Luke, Ken, and Rose were all aware of how capable their team leader was.

They, after all, had several experiences with her beforehand. On many occasions, they had borne witness to her intellect and tenacity.

However, even with this intrinsic knowledge, they still had something of a doubt.

For one thing, Max was absolutely amazing at this.

It wasn't as though they'd doubted Tiffany's talents, but... it was like expecting a master chef, who'd been cooking for years to go to a completely foreign country and cook a completely unknown dish and make it better than a dish served by someone who was already exceptional in that region.

Simply put... they knew Tiffany could pull off miracles, but this?

This would be one heck of a miracle.

However... none of them put it past her to somehow figure this out and somehow beat Max.

Tiffany: So... like... this?

She started to clumsily fumble across the controller, running in random directions, flopping about, here and there.

And then... just as Max and Ken were about to halt her and tell her what to do...

Tiffany: Got it.

And she then, somewhat clumsily, grappled onto a building, ran to the top, and then continued to grapple and run to other buildings, shocking them all.

Rose: Oh my gosh! Tiff!

Luke: How in the...?!

Ken smirked.

Ken: Hmph. (thinking: It's just as I expected.)

And as for Max, he immediately felt it.

That pressure.

She'd somehow figured out the controls much faster than he ever would have imagined.

He turned to her in shock.

Max: (thinking: Just by... watching?)

And she didn't stop there.

Her player character continued to climb up higher and higher and higher.

Each climb slightly less clumsy than the last.

Tiffany: I think I got it.

Ken: It would appear that way.

Rose: I know, right. Tiff is soooooo talented.

Julianne: (thinking: Well... she's not wrong. Having a team or aliens and deviants under your belt... and now.... being able to do this? Tiffany Chang... Just what are you?)

Ken: Agreed.

Luke: Yep.

And then all eyes turned to Max.

This challenge... simply put... was no joke to him.

Max could see it.

If she could learn that fast... then... this fight would be even more difficult than he'd expected. Simply put, the monster in front of him was even bigger than he'd expected. To say nothing of his mother's presence, of course...

However....

Max: Yeah, yeah.

And his eyes turned to the screen.

Max: Bring it on.

His words struck an odd chord with Tiffany, who could sense the fire in his spirit. She simply replied.

Tiffany: Sure.

And the battle would soon begin.

Tiger vs. Wolf.

And so it begun.