Date: 2016-06-03 04:00:00+00:00
Description: In the highly competitive e-sports league of Avalon Online, Silver Star has stood atop the ranks for almost three years. Their dominance has won them fame and fortune, and they appear invincible. But one stunning betrayal and a harsh punishment later, and their place at the top is gone. The remaining members of Silver Star have one form a new team and climb their way back to the top, fighting through every obstacle that lays in their path. But the journey back will be anything but simple. Starting from the bottom is never easy, and old comrades may have some unfinished business to attend to...
Publisher: Xiphos Press
Rights: Copyright 2016 Mitchell T. Jacobs. All rights reserved.

Avalon Rebirth

Mitchell T. Jacobs

Contents

Copyright

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

About the Author

Also by Mitchell T. Jacobs

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 by Xiphos Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 978-1-945345-00-5

1

He couldn't believe it. Neither could the crowd, judging by their stunned reaction. Even the announcers were silent for a few moments before they found their voices.

“And there you have it. A stunning upset in the second round of the tournament! The number one ranked team, Silver Star, falls to Lionheart!”

Darin looked around at his teammates, trying to find something, anything, that would tell them why they had lost. He knew never to underestimate an opponent, but…

But their plan had been perfect and had gone off without a hitch. He had eliminated one enemy within the first few minutes of the match and had bottled up the other two. That only left a two-on-one matchup with the final opponent, and that meant Lionheart was as good as finished. Yet he had somehow managed to destroy their pillar and claim victory for his team.

Leah had a stunned look on her face as well. As his gaze shifted over to Jon and Leo something went off in his head. They looked plenty guilty, but he didn't see any surprise in their expressions. Why?

“What's going on?” he demanded.

“What?” Leo asked.

“Don't what me. You had a two-on-one, and he somehow got through and destroyed the pillar. Do you honestly expect me to believe that's a coincidence?”

“It happened.”

“That's all you have to say? It happened?” Darin replied, feeling himself becoming angrier and angrier by the second. “What about our rank?”

“It doesn't matter,” Jon said quietly.

“What?”

“It doesn't matter,” he repeated. “It doesn't matter because it's over.”

“What?”

“It's over. Silver Star is over.”

Darin froze for a moment, not quite comprehending the words. “What's that supposed to-”

“I'm quitting,” Jon told him, walking away. Leo hesitated a moment, then followed behind.

“You too?” Leah asked quietly. “Your both leaving?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He heard Jon sigh. “Because I don't want to be a part of this team anymore.”

“What kind of answer is that?” Darin demanded, his mind racing. What would that mean for them? Not only were they out of the tournament, but losing the other two would mean having their team disbanded, losing their ranking and all the perks that came with it.

He started to chase after them, but Leah grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.

“Don't bother. They're not going to change their mind,” she said.

“You're just going to let them go? Let this all just collapse around us?”

“What's the point in chasing after them? What are you going to do if you catch them? Make them stay?” she said. “We're finished. And we've got more things to worry about than that. The commission will probably end up sanctioning us for throwing a match.”

Those words made him feel even worse. Avalon Online had turned into a major business, an e-sports league with regular events, sponsors and millions of dollars at stake. With that came the problems of gambling, match fixing, and exploits, and the commission treated them all seriously. Fines, suspensions and other forms of punishment were not uncommon.

And Silver Star stood to lose the most out of anyone in Avalon Online. They were the top-ranked team, with plenty of sponsors and capable of taking the top pots in tournament on a regular basis. The commission would probably make an example out of them to send a message to the rest of the competitors.

“How… how could they do this?” Darin muttered to himself, still not quite believing that this was happening.

He heard Leah sigh. “I don't know. I doubt we're ever going to get a straight answer out of them either. I guess we're just going to have to deal with what's coming our way. But this really sucks.”

Darin didn't say anything else. What else could he say at this point? They were finished, and their reputation along with it.

* * *

As expected, they received a stiff punishment. What he didn't expect was just how harsh it would be.

Darin read through the message, still stunned at how hard the commission had come down on them. Not only had Silver Star been disbanded, not only had they forfeited their winnings from the tournament, not only had they lost all of their sponsors, but in addition all of them had been reduced from A-rank to D-rank.

That last punishment hurt the most. Silver Star was dead anyhow, and they could have probably found other sponsors when they formed a new team, but losing their A-rank status meant they would have to start from the bottom, with all of their previous advantages gone.

And that left them with little to do but pick up the pieces. Darin met Leah in one of the central hub's lounges to figure out their next steps.

“It's not fair,” he grumbled. “We didn't have anything to do with this.”

“They have no way of knowing that,” Leah answered him. “And Jon and Leo weren't exactly leaping to our defense either, so...”

“So that leaves us high and dry in the D-ranks. That leaves them in the D-ranks too. What were they thinking?”

“Maybe they're planning on fighting their way back up the ranks?”

“They just threw away all the experience that we gained. We're going to have to go back out into the MMO world to get it all back,” Darin groaned.

Tournaments and challenges took place in the central hub's arena, but outside of that there was a sprawling world containing millions of virtual acres to explore. Most of Avalon Online's player base was focused in those areas, leaving the tournaments to the professionals.

It turned the game into two worlds that complimented each other. The tournaments brought attention to the MMO, and the MMO gave players a place to train, explore and socialize.

Avalon Online also had the advantage of being a full-immersion game, where the players were fully interfaced with the world and felt like they were actually inside. Everything about this felt real, even though they were actually sitting in a chair in the real world, connected to the equipment that made this all possible.

“It's not so bad,” Leah said, running a hand through her avatar's ice-blue hair.

“You really want to start from the bottom and grind our way up again? You remember how little the lower rank tournaments pay out compared to A-rank, right? And how much time it takes to get enough experience to get back to that level?”

“Look, I'm trying to find some sort of silver lining in all of this, OK? We're not going to run out of money anytime soon, unless you were spending it all on hookers and blow.”

Darin frowned. “That's not funny.”

“Well, we're you?”

“Of course not. But I don't like the idea that we just lost our ranking like that. It's embarrassing.”

“Well, look at it this way. No one could actually take us down. It took an inside job to beat us.”

“Not helping.”

“Well, silver lining. The other silver lining is that we haven't been permanently banned. So what are you going to do about it? Are you just going to quit?”

Darin frowned. “No, of course not. What else would I do? Go flip burgers?”

“Hey, don't knock it. Someone has to do it. I've done it.”

“Yeah, but you moved on when you had something else presented to you,” Darin said. “So why would I give up on this?”

“Because you keep complaining about it?”

He blew out a breath. “I'm just frustrated, that's all. How else should I feel? Two of our partners just stabbed us in the back, and I have no idea why they did it. We're back at the bottom too. Why aren't you frustrated?”

She shrugged. “I am. But just wallowing in self-pity isn't going to do anything to help us, so why waste time doing it? I want to get back on top of the mountain as badly as you do.”

“I don't even know where to start.”

“Getting a full team together might be the best way. Or were you planning on just grinding out the experience and then figuring out our team later?”

“What do you think?”

“What do I think? I think we should start by getting another two members on our team, then go from there.”

“OK. Why, though? Why not go with the other option?”

“Are you just being a contrarian?”

Darin shook his head. “I don't have a problem with it at all, but I'd like to know why you prefer one option over the other. Neither is really wrong.”

“Ah, but I think that my way has more advantages. If we start out by building our levels back up we might not be able to get the team we want. And we need to be able to work together as an effective team, of course.”

“What about it? We can always train later. Even if we're technically stronger than D-rank the level cap will bring us down to to the proper amount.”

“Right, and that's not wrong either. I just feel like it's better for us to try to get a team together and train together. It feels like less wasted effort.”

He frowned. “Does getting a team together mean anything if we rush through it and end up with the wrong members?”

“Well, we have to start somewhere. We don't have to hurry, but we should keep our eyes open. That's what I'm going for. And like I said, it's not like we're going to run out of money anytime soon.”

Darin leaned back in his chair, thinking. Leah's logic was sound, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go in that direction. He wanted to get back on top as quickly as possible, and being grouped with lower ranked players might not be the best way to do that. Would they be able to keep up? He doubted it.

Even without their levels and experience points, he and Leah possessed a considerable amount of knowledge and savvy from their time as the top-ranked team. It wasn't just about how strong a team's members were, or how high their levels might be, but how they were utilized and how they worked together. Most of the A ranked teams were evenly matched on paper, but it was in the execution that the differences became apparent.

That was what made Silver Star so successful. They were able to work as a unit greater than the sum of their parts, using cunning and improvisation as much as brute force and skill. Many tried to copy them, but no one could quite match their abilities. Would anyone in the lower levels be any different?

He still had plenty of reservations about it, but this was probably the only way forward for them. Darin didn't want to lose his last teammate to another dispute, not when the others had just abandoned him.

“So we need to start recruiting. How do you want to go about that?”

“Asking about it?”

“I mean, how are we going to do that so we don't end up wasting our time with a bunch of useless applicants?”

She snickered. “You're so mean.”

“Be fair, do you really want to sift through a bunch of people who have no idea what they're doing? I realize that we're not going to be able to get back up on top immediately, but I'd like to get people who are somewhat competent.”

“Well, we could go exploring.”

“What good is that going to do?”

“We might be able to find players that know what they're doing if we go to certain locations. Badrock Falls or the Crystal Pillar would be good ones.”

“Most people go in raid teams.”

“Right. But there's ones that go solo too. And it's no too high level, so we'll be able to get people that can compete in the D-rank tournaments.”

“Level doesn't matter.”

“No, but pretty much all of the good ones have been scooped up by other teams. So we're going to have to find less experienced players. We can train them up, but we just need to find people with good skills.”

Darin sighed. “Starting from the bottom again. Feels like we just got thrown off Olympus.”

“What, so you think that you were a god of some kind? Isn't that really arrogant?”

“I know I'm not really important in the grand scheme of things. But yeah, I guess you could say that we were gods, so to speak, at least in this world. And now that's all gone.”

“We have a way to fight our way back up through the ranks. That's not so bad. And who knows, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe this is the new start we need.”

“Did we really need a new start?”

Leah nodded. “I'm not sure if you noticed, but the other teams were starting to creep up on us. A lot of player and team builds are becoming standardized, and we were starting to stagnate. We still had our lead, but…”

“But someone was going to catch up with us eventually,” he said. “So maybe it's a good thing we have the opportunity to change, is that what you're saying?”

“Well, at the very least it's going to be interesting. And who knows? Maybe we can come up with something else. Maybe we should come up with new ways to approach this. It's what got us on top in the first place.”

He smiled. “Always positive. I'm glad it wasn't you that stabbed the team in the back.”

“Maybe they felt that way too and felt trapped,” Leah shrugged. “Would you have been willing to take risks and lose our sponsors if we failed?”

Darin didn't answer, but he saw her greater point. Silver Star had made their name in Avalon Online's tournaments by using innovative, sometimes risky tactics. It won them a lot of fans, but they gradually settled into a routine. Once they reached the top they focused on staying there, and that meant not taking risk.

Leah might be right. Their team might have been stagnating at the top, content to just hold their position instead of pushing the envelope. Now, though, with Silver Star gone, the landscape in the A-rank division would change drastically. Now dozens of teams would be jockeying for position, unopposed by the insurmountable obstacle they had once faced.

Even if they reached the A division again, there was no guarantee that their old bag of tricks would work when they got there. Innovation might be their only way forward.

“So, we head out into the field, pick a location and then start searching for prospects?”

Leah nodded. “That's what I'd do. How about the Crystal Pillar?”

“Sounds fine with me.”

“Then there's no use waiting around all day. Let's go.”

* * *

Darin swung his halberd and caught the crystaling with a punishing blow. The creature, a magically animated golem with a humanoid shape, shattered on impact.

He whipped his weapon around in an arc and took out three more with a single sweep, their bodies exploding into a hail of crystal shards. The ground around him was already littered with the remains of several more.

A brilliant flash lit up the area, taking more crystalings with it. Darin didn't need to look to know that Leah had fired another shot from her bow, charge with a destruction spell. He cut down their last adversary and checked to make sure the area was clear.

“Well, looks like our skills haven't diminished too much,” Leah commented as she walked up. “Or at least it doesn't feel that way.”

“We're kind of over-leveled for this place,” Darin replied.

“Sticking with the same build?”

“Yeah. So are you.”

“I wanted to get a proper feel for it now that we got demoted,” she explained. “Now that I know it feels natural I might try to change my skill sets. Come up with something new.”

They had plenty of options. Unlike most RPGs, players in Avalon Online weren't restricted to a specific class. Instead, they chose a weapon type to wield, an armor class to wear and a magic class to cast. Players could come up with any number of combinations to suit their tastes.

In Darin's case he wielded a polearm, wore medium armor and used support magic. Leah wore light armor and used a bow, combining it with destruction magic to devastating effect. She could charge her arrows with spells, making them act almost like artillery shells when they landed.

Her choice was a popular one, and almost every major team had someone with the those abilities. Everyone had a player with defender magic as well, to mitigate some of the damage from a powerful enemy like that.

But it might be time for a change. Players could alter any of their types at the central hub, using a device called the Book of Fates. That way they could train themselves in multiple skills, using them whenever the situation called for it.

The only restriction was that they had to declare their character build a week before any tournament, and couldn't change it until after the tournament was over. That meant they needed to know how it would function, what strengths and weaknesses it might have, and how it worked in the context of a team.

Most players who were seriously invested in the tournament scene spent their time between events tinkering with their character builds, trying to find some sort of advantage. A team that could arrive on the scene with a workable new build put themselves in place to have a significant advantage, even if it was only one player. The changes could influence the entire course of a battle, and even slight deviations could have far-reaching consequences.

It was like real world sports, in a way. Everyone was in an arms race to gain a new competitive advantage, and the innovators were often the ones that took the top. It was why Silver Star had risen so far.

But they weren't going to get very far if they didn't have four players, and so far they hadn't run into anyone on the way to the Crystal Spire. A few groups had show up here and there, but they gave Darin and Leah a wide berth. The NPC enemies here weren't terribly tough either, at least not for their levels, and the experience they gained was minimal. There weren't any good loot drops either, and neither of them wanted to take the time to carry it all back to the hub and sell it. They already had enough in-game currency.

“What gives?” he said. “I'd have thought there would be more people out here.”

“Well, a lot of them are probably watching the tournament.”

“Right,” Darin said, and winced. Normally he would have never noticed, because they be busy trying to win.

“Sorry.”

“Well, it's true.” Something else occurred to him. “That probably means anyone out here isn't interested in the tournament scene.”

“Probably. But there still might be a few that might want to join, so I thought it might be worth a shot. But I guess not.”

Darin sighed. “So do we head back?”

“Let's keep going,” Leah suggested. “I know it's not going to get us a ton of experience, but we can test out our builds a little more. You never know when something odd is going to come up.”

“That hasn't been a problem before.”

“That's when we were at the A-level. Things might be different now that we're at D.”

He sighed again. Alway the same problem coming up. “I'll follow your lead.”

That was all he could do at this point. After a long period at the top with the path laid before him, Darin felt directionless.

2

Leah drew back her bow and sighted in on her target, aiming for the creature's weak point on the neck. The monstrous bear would probably be too much to handle by herself, at least on even terms, but she didn't plan on allowing a fight like that to happen. If she could spring an ambush on the creature she'd be able to inflict a critical hit, probably enough to kill it in one shot. Even if it didn't, the bear would be weakened enough for her to finish off in short order.

She let the arrow fly…

And a noise suddenly startled the creature, making it turn and spoiling her shot. Leah watched in frustration as the arrow went into the bear's flank, enough to damage it, but not to kill or severely hurt it.

And now it knew right where she was.

It charged toward her, fangs barred and roaring. Leah stood up and nocked another arrow, hoping she could score a good shot and stop it in its tracks. If not, she stood to lose quite a few experience points when it killed her. So much for her going out on her own.

She didn't have time to cast a destruction spell on her weapon either. The shot had to be perfect, in the eye or the mouth, somewhere that would kill the beast instantly. Leah let the arrow fly…

And it hit the bear in the shoulder, causing it to falter for a second, but it wasn't nearly enough. Not even close. And now, she didn't have time to let loose another arrow. Leah drew the long dagger off her belt, though that would do precious little good against a tough opponent like this. The only thing she could do was to hurt the creature badly before it mauled her to death. She braced herself for the inevitable impact.

It never came. One moment the beast was charging toward her, and the next it had stopped in its tracks, roaring in pain. A second later it toppled over dead.

Someone had charged and stabbed the bear through the eye, killing it instantly. From their speed she guessed they had a light build, probably with some sort of light weapon, light or no armor, and manipulation magic. She was almost certain that they had used Flash Step to close the distance.

“Are you OK?”

Leah looked at the newcomer, a woman with long, deep purple hair, a thin build and tanned skin. As suspected, she wore light armor and held a long, thin sword in her hand, probably a rapier.

The weapon in particular caught her interest. Most light weapons user preferred to use them in matched pairs. Dual-wielded daggers were used by the majority of top-ranked players going for a light build, since in theory they'd be able to deal more damage.

“I'm fine,” Leah finally answered. “Wasted a shot that I thought I had, but at least he didn't crunch me.”

Her counterpart shifted awkwardly. “Um, yeah, sorry about that. I might have distracted it.”

“Well, you pulled me out of the fire, so I can't really complain about that.” She offered her hand. “I'm Leah.”

“Erika,” the other replied, shaking the proffered hand. “Good to meet you. Are you alone?”

“I am right now.”

“Um, pardon me for saying so, but have I seen you before? You look familiar.”

“Ever watch the Avalon Online tournaments?”

“Some, yes.”

“Heard of a team called Silver Star?”

“Weren't they the ones that got sanctioned for cheating, or something?” Erika asked. Leah saw the realization spread across her face. “Oh. Um, well, I-”

“It's fine,” she said, waving a hand. “You're not privy to all the dirty details.”

“Are… are they true?”

“Not exactly. Two of our teammates decided to throw the match, and we all got punished for it. Severely. All of us were busted down to D-rank.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, the other member of our team was really unhappy about it. I am too, but what can you do?”

“I see. Well, I'll leave you be, if you want. Sorry about messing with your kill.”

“Hold on a second,” Leah said. “Where are you headed? The top of the falls?”

“Yeah, I was going to try to get some icewind flowers up there.”

“For alchemy?”

“Yes, for that.”

“Do you mind if I tag along? I was headed up there too, and it's probably going to be easier as a pair.”

“Sure, come on.”

Leah followed behind her new companion, wondering how to start up the conversation. She was still interested in the build that Erika had chosen. Was it just something she decided on a whim, or was that her regular build? And from the look of things she had some combat skills, possibly enough to consider for inclusion in the new team.

Of course, that depended on a number of things falling into place, none of which were guaranteed. The incident with the bear could have just been a fluke, or she might only have a limited number of ways to fight. That was always the trouble in the lower ranks. Many players were capable of fighting and fighting well, but only with one style. A skilled enemy team could adapt and exploit that weakness. Versatility was king in the A- and B-ranks, and it became more pronounced the higher they went.

It could be taught, but in Leah's experience players capable of doing it showed at least some signs of being able to improvise and adapt, even if they were only rudimentary at best. They needed something to build off from, and some just didn't have the instincts. It was one thing to come up with a plan while sitting around a lounge, but it was another to invent one when someone was swinging a sword at their face.

She wanted to see if Erika was capable of that before talking to her about joining a new team. It would also be nice to at least have someone to talk to on the way up the falls, and she seemed pleasant enough. At the very least she wasn't as down as Darin had been lately, though she could hardly blame him for that. The betrayal had hit him hard.

“So,” Leah said, trying to start up the conversation, “I noticed that you're carrying a rapier instead of a pair of daggers. Is there a reason for that?”

“I just like it,” Erika answered.

“But a lot of others use two daggers because it lets them do more damage. Yet you only have one weapon,”

“Well, I guess I have my reasons. It gives me better reach. Using daggers means I have to get really close, and that gives things the chance to maul me. Standing off at a distance means I'm safer.”

“But you used Flash Step like most of the others do. That should get you in close before an enemy has a chance to fight back.”

“Right, but if I have a rapier it makes things happen faster.”

“I'm sorry?”

“Because of the reach,” Erika explained. “Sure I can get in close pretty quickly because of flash step, but with the rapier I can hit them at a longer range because I have two or three times the reach. I know it's only maybe a fraction of a second, but...”

Leah nodded. “Oh no, I totally get what you mean. Sounds like you've thought it out a lot.”

Erika shrugged. “Well, I guess it was just a bunch of trial and error. I found out how I liked to fight through experienced and designed a style around it.”

“Like the system is designed for,” Leah nodded. “So this is your normal build?”

“Yeah. There's a few more of them that I'll run sometimes, but this is my normal option. It just feels comfortable.”

“Do you normally work alone, or do you have a team?”

“It all depends. I've run with temporary raid teams before, but I usually end up exploring along. My build just doesn't always fit with what they're looking for in a team.”

Leah nodded. “Because they want you to be a close-range damage dealer, but the rapier doesn't allow you to do that as well as someone wielding two daggers or a wakizashi can.”

“Yeah, that was normally the reason. I can do other things, but they don't always fit with the kind of team that people one. So eventually I just got used to going it alone most of the time.”

Leah was about to ask another question, but a blur of movement caught her attention. She nocked and arrow and drew her bow back, expecting trouble at any moment. Bears weren't the only danger out here at Badrock Falls.

The first wolf came charging out of the brush, snarling with fangs barred. It fell with a yelp as Leah shot off her arrow and hit it square in the chest, killing it with one hit. She nocked another and searched around for more. They always traveled in packs around Badrock Falls.

She wasn't terribly concerned about the wolves. All locations in Avalon Online had weak enemies known as grunts, which were weak and usually could be killed in a hit or two. They only posed trouble to players in huge numbers, but it was what came with them that gave her pause. Where there were grunts there were always elites, and those enemies could pose a serious challenge.

Another pair of wolves charged out of the undergrowth. Leah shot the one on the left, hoping that Erika would be quick enough to take out the other one. She wouldn't have time to get another arrow off before the creature reached them.

She didn't have to worry. Erika moved forward, putting herself in between Leah and the creature. As it sprang toward her she skillfully sidestepped its pounce and stabbed it through the throat. The wolf crumpled to the ground and lay still, killed almost instantly by the blade.

“Good strike.”

“Thanks.”

Leah looked around, searching for any more signs of danger. It looked like that was the last of the wolves, but…

“Where there's wolves there's goblins,” she said.

“Yeah. Might be a good idea for us to move quickly. Otherwise we might get caught out here dueling with them,” Erika said. “Unless that's what you want?”

“Well, that's not the worst thing in the world. Though I'm not really one for dueling with this build. It's a lot harder if I can't hide behind someone or spring ambushes.”

“I'll see what I can do to keep them off your back.”

That was always the problem with going solo or in pairs. The grunts never posed much of a challenge, but the elites in an area could be very troublesome, even to seasoned players. Ranged attackers like Leah would have problems if the enemy was able to close the distance, since her close-combat skills were basic at best. The most she could hope for was to hold off an elite long enough to either get away or have her partner kill it.

But she did have her own advantages. Even with Flash Step Erika couldn't close the distance on an enemy like an arrow could. And if that arrow was charged up with a destruction spell the results would be devastating.

Leah didn't want to use too many spells, though, not against elites. There was always the chance that a boss-class monster would appear, and if she was stuck firing regular arrows at it they were in serious trouble. It might be better for them to save them for later and rely on Erika's abilities for now.

“Sounds fine with me,” Erika said after she explained. “I really don't like the idea of fighting an ogre up close and personal with a rapier.”

“Have you done it?”

“Of course. And I've done it by myself too.”

“Did you live through it?”

She laughed. “Yeah, I did. Managed to kill it too, but it took forever and it was a real pain. I kept having to run away and wait for Flash Step to recharge, then run back in and get as many hits as I could.”

“You just used flash step?”

“I wasn't going to wait around and let it hit me. Using my wraiths is way too chancy. If it picked the right one I'm in trouble.”

The manipulation school of magic had another ability called Wraith, where the user would create copies of themselves. On their own the wraiths were harmless, but they would attack the targeted enemy and force them to focus their energy on determining which one was the real threat. A skilled player could use the opportunity to distract their opponent and then land a critical blow.

There were plenty of counters for it, of course. Destruction spells like the one Leah used on her arrows could take out several closely grouped targets at once, and two-handed weapon users could sweep their weapons in wide arcs to fend off attacks from large groups. But it would provide a distraction, at least, and even a second's difference could prove decisive.

That was in player-to-player combat, though. Wraith still had its uses out in the wild, but it was less pronounced against NPC opponents. In that case a manipulation user was better off adapting Erika's strategy, using Flash Step to charge in and out of the battle and keep their distance.

They continued up the pathway to the top of the falls, dealing with a few packs of wolves on the way up. None of them posed any challenge, but where were the goblins? They should be here somewhere, lurking and ready to strike.

Leah was about to say something to Erika when a roar interrupted her thoughts. The ground beneath them shook, and for a moment the sun was blocked out by a shadow.

“Well, that explains it,” she said to no one in particular.

The ogre towered over them, at least ten feet tall with massive legs like tree trunks and bulging arms to match. Its mouth was filled with vicious pointed teeth, enough to rip through even heavy armor if it clamped down on it. And with tough, rock-hard skin covering its chest and back, the monster could take plenty of damage and keep fighting.

“How important are those icewind flowers?” Leah asked.

“Pretty important, actually.”

She sighed. “So there's no running away, huh?”

“I'd prefer not to.”

Leah drew an arrow and nocked it, keeping her eye on the ogre the entire time. “I'm going to try to stun it with a Force Arrow. Can you get in and land a good hit?”

“Yeah.”

“You know where to aim?”

“Throat, mouth and eyes,” she said. “Or the feet if we want to cripple it.”

“Go for the feet first so it can't chase us if we need to get away.”

“Got it.”

The monster roared at them again, then thundered toward them. Leah charged her arrow with a Force spell and let it fly. A brilliant flash lit up the area, and the ogre stumbled backward for a moment, stunned by the shockwave. It wouldn't do much damage, but at least it would throw it off balance.

And that gave Erika the opportunity to close the distance and attack the ogre at close range. She struck out at the huge monster, catching it in the bottom of one of its feet with a stab. The ogre roared in rage and pain, then swiped at its assailant, but she was long gone by then.

Leah nocked another arrow and let it fly at the beast, impressed by her partner's display of skill. Erika hadn't even used Flash Step to get away this time, probably keeping it in her back pocket for a time when she needed it more. For now they seemed to be working well in tandem, even though they had only spent a short time together.

The ogre roared angrily as another arrow cut into its flesh. It grabbed ahold of a tree and uprooted it like it was a stalk of grass. Leah braced herself for its next attack.

“Watch it,” she warned.

“I know.”

Leah didn't have time to say anything more. The ogre roared again and hurled the tree straight at her, forcing her to dive aside to avoid being hit. The trunk missed her by mere inches, and Leah felt some of the leaves brush the back of her neck.

She landed on her feet, thanking her lucky stars she had survived her close call. Any closer and she would have been severely hurt, and they didn't have a support magician with them to heal.

Another arrow hit the beast in the face, enraging it further, but Leah felt nothing but frustration. At A rank she might have been able to hit it in the eye, but now she was struggling to place her shots where she wanted. Apparently the demotion had hurt more than she originally thought.

A blur charged at the ogre again, and the creature stumbled for a moment. Leah took the opportunity to nock another arrow and charge it with another destruction spell, Fire Blast. This one would do some serious damage, but it had a recharge time of five minutes. It also had a wide area of effect, and she didn't want to hit her partner in the process.

“Get clear!” she warned.

In a moment Erika had disappeared from view. Was she far enough away to avoid the blast? Leah couldn't hold the arrow any longer, or it would explode in her hands. She fired off her shot, straight into the ogre's chest.

The blast sent the monster reeling backward, the sound drowning out its roars of pain. Leah felt the heat of the explosion ripple past, tugging at her cloak for a moment before fading away. She had another arrow nocked and ready within seconds. The fire arrow might have hurt the ogre badly, but it wasn't dead. Even when wounded it was capable of doing damage.

She fired off her arrow, then nocked another one. Leah raised her bow to fire again, but the ogre had grabbed something and hurled it toward her, forcing her to dive aside to dodge it. Stone shattered everywhere, narrowly missing her once again.

Another rock came flying in, and Leah rolled out of the way, her mind racing. She had managed to avoid damage so far, but eventually her luck might not hold out. If it threw another tree at her she might not be able to dodge. Even if she was able to keep away from the projectiles, she had to spend all of her efforts staying alive. The creature would start to regenerate health eventually, and then they would be back where they started.

But one thing worked in her favor. Alone, Leah was in trouble, but today she had a partner.

Right on cue, Erika charged back into the fray. More figures appeared around her, and Leah guessed that she must have activated Wraith. She counted five in all, a fair number, though the best were capable of making up to ten.

The ogre roared again and struck out with one of its hands, catching one figure and dissipating it into a cloud of smoke. It struck out at another one, smashing its hand into the ground and destroying the target as well.

But another one of the figures jumped onto its arm and charged upward. Before Leah even knew what was happening the ogre roared again in pair, then toppled over onto its knees, trying to hold itself up. One of its eyes had been severely damaged.

Leah drew back her bow one last time, aimed for the other eye and let the arrow go. A second later the monster thudded into the ground, shuddered and then lay still.

She let out a sigh of relief as Erika rejoined her.

“Well, that was something,” her partner said, a smile on her face.

“I'll say,” Leah nodded. “So that was an interesting combination. Draw its arm down with Wraith, then climb up the arm with Flash Step and stab it in the eye. Have you done that before?”

“No, that was the first time.”

That floored her. “Really? You just came up with that plan on the fly and pulled it off?”

“Well, I've been thinking about it for a while, but I never actually tried to pull it off. Seemed too risky when I was fighting all alone. But since you already weakened it with the fire arrow and made it go berserk, I thought it might be worth it this time.”

“But still, just trying something like that on the fly...”

“I guess I thought it would be fun?” she shrugged. “I haven't had the opportunity to test things like this out, so I guess I wanted to take the chance.”

Leah nodded and said nothing else. The gears in her mind continued to turn. A player with an unorthodox style and the willingness to try new tactics. That could be something very valuable to a new team. The question was, would she be willing to compete in the tournaments.

“That should clear the way to the falls,” Erika said, breaking in to her thoughts. “Might as well grab the icewind flowers before something else comes after us.”

“Right. Go on ahead. If you're going to just pick them then there's a few more things that I want to do around here.”

“OK then. Well, it was definitely fun teaming with you. Wouldn't mind doing it more in the future.”

“Likewise. Oh, and before you go?” Leah said, opening up her menu and pressing a few buttons. “Would you mind adding me to your contacts list?”

Erika opened her menu as well. “Of course. Thanks for the help again, by the way. That ogre would have been a real pain without help.”

“No problem.”

Leah waved as Erika headed up the final ascent to the top of the falls, still trying to absorb everything that had just happened. Within the span of an hour they had gone from having not candidates for their team to having a very intriguing one.

Things had just become very interesting indeed.

3

Darin made his way through the cobblestone streets, his senses on high alert. The crumbling buildings around him were quiet for now, but that could change in an instant. Here in the Lost City the undead walked the streets, and they would prey on the unwary passing through.

He had been here more than enough times to know of the danger, though at this point anything short of a group of elites or a boss wasn't going to give him any trouble. This trip wasn't about a challenge, or gaining experience, or anything particularly important, for that matter. Darin just wanted a way to blow off steam.

He knew they needed to keep moving forward if they wanted to get back into the A ranks, but Darin felt like the motivation had been sapped from him. Continuing on seemed like a slog, a chore, but he knew there was no choice. Not if he wanted to regain their status.

Leah seemed no worse for wear, even though she showed a few signs of frustration as well. At least she had a prospective recruit for the new team, which was more than he could say. Darin had reached out to some friends and contacts, putting out feelers to try and hook a new member, but so far no one had bit. Either everyone was already taken, or their name had been so tainted by the scandal that no one wanted to associate with them.

That last possibility bothered him the most. Darin had sent out another inquiry, wondering what exactly their former teammates were up to. So far he hadn't heard anything concrete, but it still bothered him. What were they up to? Had this all been planned from the beginning?

And why had they abandoned Silver Star in the first place? They had said they were sick of it, but did they mean the tournament scene, or just the team? Was he responsible for the breakup somehow? Darin didn't think so, but the thoughts wouldn't leave his head. Everything before seemed fine, with nothing out of the ordinary. They had just prepared for the tournament as usual, aiming to win first like they always did. If there was-

A screech put a halt to his thoughts. Darin dodged the axe that came whipping around a corner and brought his halberd up into a defensive position, trying to see how many enemies he faced. A trio of skeletons shambled around the corner, axes and maces gripped in their bony hands. They were grunts, at least, nothing to be concerned about. He sprang forward and took them out with a single sweep of his weapon.

More shrieks filled the air as a host of skeletons charged out of the surrounding ruins. How many were there? A dozen? A hundred? It made for an intimidating sight, but Darin had no fear for his safety. They might look scary, but grunts were little more than ants, only threatening in huge groups. And even then, a skilled player could make short work of them.

He waded into the midst of the fight, swinging his weapon around in wide arcs. Bones shattered into dust and clattered to the ground, smashed to pieces by his wild, vicious strikes. With almost six feet of reach at his disposal none of the skeletons could close the distance to even strike at him, let alone land a good blow.

An arrow zipped past him, but Darin had prepared for that. Since he was traveling alone his normal support magic would do him little good, so he had switched it out for destruction magic back at the hub. He sent a fireball searing through the air toward the offending skeleton, destroying it and several others in the process. The rest continued to press toward him, but they meant nothing. Darin hacked them all down within a few seconds.

He leaned on his halberd for a moment, surveying the damage. That was at least twenty enemies he had taken out without any trouble. And yet, that didn't mean anything. They were just fodder, a way for the game to make players feel powerful. Grunts might look intimidating, but they were little more than flies.

He wanted some sort of challenge, something that tested his skill and posed a threat to him. At this point he wouldn't mind taking on a boss-class enemy, even if that was highly dangerous if he tried it alone. Darin was still looking for some way to vent all the frustration, and fighting was the way to do it. If he had to focus on staying alive and dealing with a tough foe then he wouldn't have time to think about anything else.

If-

Darin spun around as he heard a noise behind him. More skeletons? It didn't sound like it. They would screech before they attacked, and there weren't very many things in the Lost City that attempted stealth. Normally they'd just try to swarm him with sheer numbers.

“Anyone there?” he called out, wondering if it was another player. This wasn't a PVP zone, so there was no danger of having to fight someone else. Besides, if they were going to try to recruit someone he needed to talk to people. Maybe this would be a promising lead.

“So you're a live one?” a male voice answered.

“Yeah.”

The newcomer walked into view, a tower shield slung over his back and a sword in hand. He had short black hair, dark skin and wore heavy armor, probably equipped as a tank to absorb huge amounts of damage. Darin guessed he had chosen defense or manipulation magic to support his build, though either would be of limited use. He'd probably spend most of his time just pressing forward, smashing anything that got in his way. Anything short of a group of elites or a boss wouldn't be able to get through his armor.

“Exploring?” he asked.

Darin shrugged. “More like going for a walk?”

He laughed. “In the Lost City? That's some walk.”

“Well, I was anticipating a fight too, so it's not like I came unprepared.”

His counterpart looked around at the heaps of bones surrounding them. “Yeah, I can see that. Looks like you know what you're doing.”

“Well, I'm not lacking for experience.”

“No, I guess not.” He offered his hand. “I'm Taji. Or I sometimes go by Taj, whichever you prefer.”

“I'm Darin,” he replied, shaking his hand. “Good to meet you.”

“So you're out for a walk?”

“Yeah, that's it. Trying to get some stress out. My week hasn't been the best.”

“You're one of the players from Silver Star, right?”

“The former Silver Star,” Darin corrected him.

“Yeah, I heard what happened. That really sucks. The punishment was way too harsh, at least in my opinion. Not that it's going to make you feel any better...”

“It's even worse when you didn't do anything to deserve it,” Darin said. “I wasn't the one that threw the match.”

“Oh, so one of your teammates stabbed you in the back?”

“Two of them, actually. So I'm looking for recruits for a new team. You wouldn't happen to be interested in that, would you?”

Taji laughed and shook his head. “I'm not so sure...”

“I know it's not a good look, teaming up with two people who were just busted for cheating. We didn't do anything, but-”

“Oh, it's not that,” Taji said. “I've actually tried some of the lower ranked tournaments. I've qualified for D rank with three separate teams, but we never did well. So I just stopped trying. I'm not sure I was any good at it.”

“How bad did you do?”

“Lost in the first round each time,” he explained. “It just never seemed to work out. I'd like to participate in the tournaments. Everyone does, I think, but they're tough. And if you don't have the skills for it, well...”

“But if you were recruited, would you be willing to give it a shot?” Darin asked, feeling a bit of hope. Taji's failings might not necessarily be his own fault. Having a good player on a team didn't matter if the entire unit couldn't work together effectively.

He shrugged. “I guess. But I'm not sure that you'd want me...”

“Would you mind pairing up for a bit?”

“That's fine.”

“So I can see how you fight, of course. Is that your normal build?”

“I have a couple that I use, but this is one I stick with a lot. It's easier when I can just focus on using weapons.”

“What kind of magic build do you have?”

“Defense. I use stone skin some of the time, but that's about all. It's a lot easier for me to just wade in and smash anything that gets in the way.”

Darin nodded. “OK, sounds simple enough. If I see anything that might help you I'll give you some pointers, if that's fine with you. I've done tank builds before.”

“Sure, that would be great.”

“And I'll act as the damage dealer for the time being,” he added. He had the combination of reach, magic and speed to perform that role well. Taji had a strong defense, but the armor would slow him down, and his magic was purely passive in nature.

“Sounds good. I'll take lead?”

“Go ahead,” Darin nodded.

At least he knew that much. When grouped together a tank was best positioned in front of the group, since they could take damage and deal with any threats that appeared. Even if they suffered hits they had enough health and armor to absorb it without much trouble, allowing the rest of their party to organize their own attack. Now, to see how much he knew about the combat aspects of Avalon Online.

They had only traveled a short distance when Darin heard a growl, followed by a loud clacking noise. It was definitely larger than any of the skeletons they had faced before, probably an elite. From the sound of things there was only one, but that could change quickly.

“Ready for it?”

“Yeah.”

“Go with Stone Skin to make sure that it can't get your health down very quickly,” he instructed, just as the skeleton walked into view.

It stood over them both, probably about eight feet tall, wearing rusty armor and carrying a massive club in its hands. It had reach, almost as much as Darin's halberd, and it wasn't going to just crumble into dust like the smaller hordes of grunts.

“Stone skin, then Challenge Call to make sure it focuses on me?”

“Right.”

Darin started to cast a destruction spell on his weapon, lightning strike, hoping to do some extra damage when it hit. The halberd blade crackled with electric energy, enough to stun most living creatures. It wouldn't affect the undead, but using Fire Blast meant he'd be caught in its area of effect.

The skeleton growled at them and swung its club down at Taji, who braced his shield with both hands. The impact drove him to his knees, but he kept his footing. Moreover, he didn't suffer much damage from the attack.

And that gave Darin a good opening. He charged in from the left, swinging his weapon in a wide arc with the back spike first. The point smashed into the creature, cutting through its armor and sending a jolt of electricity through it. The skeleton stumbled back for a moment, hurt.

Taji suddenly sprang forward out of his stance, swinging his sword and bashing with his shield. The monster's armor deflected the blade, but the blow from the shield sent it stumbling back again. More importantly, he drew its attention and forced it into a crouch, lowering the skeletons head to a reachable distance.

That was perfect for him. Darin moved forward and made a leap at the skeleton, bringing the halberd blade down in a two-handed overhead swing. The creature's head smashed apart with a sickening crunch, and a second later the rest of its body crumbled into dust. The remnants of the armor clattered to the cobblestones, and then the city around them went deathly quiet.

“Nice kill,” Taji commented.

“Yeah. Good work from you as well,” Darin said. “I notice that you got aggressive.”

He made a face. “Yeah, I guess that's my thing. A lot of people don't like it since they think I should be just soaking up the damage...”

“Then what's the point of you even carrying a weapon?” Darin asked. “There's more than one way to be a tank. Your method is an interesting one, actually. You force it to fight you and don't allow it to move its attention elsewhere. That might not be that important against NPCs, but against other players that could be big.”

“I've tried it before. But my teammates didn't like it so much. I wasn't playing my role in the team. Attacking is for the damager.”

Darin nodded. That was part of the problem at the lower ranks. The basic configuration of a tank, a damager, an archer and a supporter was something good to start with, but it wasn't the only way to compete. There were other ways to go about building a team, and even when choosing roles, it was better to have a bit of versatility. He had often fought as a supporter, but had a limited ability to shift to being a damager or tank if needed. That was how the good teams overcame setbacks, by adapting on the fly.

But he could see where Taji's problem came in. He might be too advanced for his own good, a piece of the puzzle that wouldn't fit in with a basic team, but had good potential when paired with similar players. Leah had described her candidate in a similar fashion.

And for the first time in a long time, Darin felt happy, almost giddy. Even after all the setbacks, they might be getting somewhere. From what he could tell, Taji had some potential to be a good A-rank player. They just needed to be able to bring that out and make it work in the context of a team.

“Were you doing anything else here?” Darin asked.

“Oh me? I was just out here looking for something to fight.”

He hesitated for a moment. “So, that last display from you was pretty interesting. Enough that I think you might be capable of something better. Would you be interested in joining a team?”

“The new tournament team you were talking about, right?”

“Yes, that. There's an open spot for you if you want to join.”

Taji rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I'm flattered. But don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself? I didn't show much. Just-”

“Just some unorthodox style and out of the box thinking,” Darin finished. “And that's important. You don't get to the top of the A ranks by playing it safe and by the book. Being able to come up with new tactics and new solutions is all a part of the game up there. You seem to be able to do that. So are you interested?”

“If you're offering then yeah, I'll take it. But I'm not sure-”

“Not sure if you'll fit in?”

Taji shrugged. “I haven't exactly had the best track record for something like this.”

“Well, maybe it wasn't you. Maybe it was your teammates. And pardon me for saying so, but me and my other partner are a cut above pretty much everyone else.”

“Weren't you demoted?”

“Well yeah, but still.”

Taji grinned. “Ah, I didn't mean anything like that. And I get what you're saying. It's just...”

“If you're nervous about this we can do a trial run,” Darin offered. “If we don't think it's going to work then we'll let you know and we'll find someone different to take your place. Or if you don't feel comfortable you can leave. But I don't think that's going to be much of a problem.”

“That sounds fair. Do you have two more for the full team?”

“One more, and one possible candidate. So you won't be the only one new to team combat,” Darin explained. “We'll have some time to figure it out.”

Another screech interrupted their conversation. Darin spun his halberd around in his hands as another wave of skeletons approached. Grunts again, and yet this time he felt a lot more eager to face them. Maybe it was because things were finally looking up for him. A sliver of luck had finally showed itself.

“I guess we have to keep fighting,” Taji commented, his sword and shield at the ready. “Any tips you want to give me?”

“Nah, it's just a grunt horde. Go to town on them or whatever you want. If an elite or a boss shows up we'll deal with that when it happens.”

“Got it.”

Darin charged forward into the throng of skeletons without another word, his spirits soaring. Whether it was by fate or dumb luck, they had a way forward. It wasn't perfect. Leah still needed to confirm with her prospect, and they'd both need training. They'd need even more seasoning to be able to fight alongside experienced veterans effectively, and the former Silver Star members had to re-hone their skills as well.

Skeletons exploded into clouds of dust and bone as he swung. Taji piled in beside him, swinging his blade and bashing out with his shield.

It might not be easy. Their future might still be very well in doubt. But Darin couldn't help but smile a bit. They were getting somewhere.

4

Leah made one last check of her inventory and took a deep breath. “So, today's the day,” she said to no one in particular. She and Darin had arranged a meeting with their two potential recruits at the hub's central plaza.

“That it is,” Darin nodded. “It might not mean too much, but...”

“Oh no, I know what you mean. They may or may not work out. But at least we have some candidates for our team. And they're unique too. That's a bonus.”

“Isn't everyone unique?”

“You know that's not strictly true. Everyone seems to want to follow one particular pattern. I know it works, but it just gets so it's all the same after a while. You know, boring.”

He shrugged. “But if it works...”

Leah couldn't really argue with that. When they were on top there was no reason to risk their position. If they could keep all the other contenders at bay they would use the best tactics and character builds available to them, even if they weren't particularly inventive. There were only a few configurations that the A rank teams used, mostly because they worked and no one wanted to take any chances. A bad team build and a string of losses could send them plummeting down the ranks.

But there were always shifts in the Avalon Online metagame. Eventually someone would figure out a way to break the mold, to find a different way to fight and win. They'd tear through everyone in their path before the other teams started to adapt, and then a new norm would settle in for a while.

It felt like another shift was coming. Silver Star had weathered several before, but it had always been from the top. Darin and Leo had always kept a keen eye on the C- and D-ranks, watching for teams that were making their push up the card. By the time they reached A-rank Silver Star already knew what they were facing and could adjust accordingly to meet them. It served them well, allowing them to keep their crown for almost three years.

But now they would have to go through another shift on the other end of things, at the bottom pushing their way up. Maybe it was better for them that way, Leah mused. When they were on top they always had to react to other teams and their new tactics. This time they could be the ones dictating the changes. If that was the case, she welcomed it.

“We just have to make sure that our team fits together,” Darin said, breaking into her thoughts.

Leah nodded. “Yes, but as long as they're willing and able to learn that shouldn't be a problem. You said that your candidate was a tank?”

“Yeah, he used the sword and shield, defense magic, and heavy armor combination. Though he was a bit more aggressive than most tanks I've seen in the lower levels.”

“Because he attacked after using Challenge Call?”

“Yeah, because of that. I was expecting him to just turtle up and take damage. But he went out and attacked. I don't know if that's just something he did, or if he knew the reasons for it...”

Leah didn't know either, but it was a good sign. Using defensive magic greatly increased the protection afforded to the user, but it also greatly reduced their offensive capabilities, limiting the damage they could do by half or more. Many players who acted as tanks opted to rely on their heavy armor and shields, just taking the damage. After all, that was what they were there for.

But most of the A- and B-rank players knew differently. Tanks might not be able to deal a lot of damage, but they could inflict some. That could be the difference between one of their teammates scoring a killing blow or severely wounding the target but not completely putting them out of action. Every little bit counted, no matter how small.

It was little touches like those that separated the players at the bottom from the players at the top, not the number of skill points or levels they possessed. A team could coast on pure strength for a while, but eventually they would run into the wall where everyone they fought was equally matched in skill. When that happened it was smarts and savvy that tipped the scales toward the winners.

And teams that might struggle in the D-ranks could suddenly start a rapid ascent once they reached a certain level, because they had the ability to think creatively and put it to use. Strength in Avalon Online lead to linear success. Intelligence and creativeness made that grow exponentially.

“They should be here any time now,” Darin said, looking down at his menu for the time. “Did you contact her?”

“Who, Erika? Of course. She said she'd be here.”

“I know. But-”

“Have a little patience,” she said, poking him with one of the limbs of her bow. “Most people outside the B- and C-ranks aren't full-time players. You remember what it's like to have an actual job, don't you?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then that might be why they're not here. Maybe they got caught in traffic or had to work late.”

“Point taken. You make it sound like we were so spoiled.”

Leah smiled. “Well we were, weren't we? I know a lot of people watch the tournaments, and I know it makes them a lot of money in advertising revenue and the like, but still, we made millions of dollars because we were good at a game.”

“So are football and baseball players.”

“Yeah, and a lot of people say the same thing about them. I'm not saying that I would give the money back. If they're willing to pay out then I'm more than glad to take it. I just don't think that we're all that important in the grand scheme of things. But then, I'm not the one paying out all the money, so...”

“It's not going to matter if we don't get back up the ranks.”

“You're so focused on that,” she said. “I'm not quite sure if that's healthy, either. I think it's bordering on an obsession for you.”

“Don't you want to get back up on top?”

“Of course. But don't you remember how long it took us to get from D- to C-level the first time? I know we're a lot more savvy this time around, but are we really going to be able to move faster this time around? If we can't, then what are you going to do?”

Darin frowned. “We'll think of something. But I don't think that's going to be a problem.”

“Hey, avoiding the question isn't going to make it any better,” she said.

In truth, Leah wasn't sure they could make a quick ascent up the ranks, not if they wanted to have some new tricks up their sleeve when they arrived back at the A-rank. Formulating new tactics and strategies took a combination of time and trial and error, and that could mean weeks, months of preparation. Even if they had something concrete it might not work when they were under pressure. They could very well lose tournaments, forcing them to grind their way back to a respectable ranking.

The process could go back and forth until the team managed to come together into a properly functioning unit. Many didn't make it that far. Those that stuck together still had a long climb ahead of them, facing foes with a plethora of knowledge and skill at their disposal. There would be challenges in their path, walls that seemed insurmountable, and that could stall their progress for months.

“I want to be the best,” Darin finally said. “That's what I want. It's not about the money. We had the top. We held the top for almost three years. I don't want it to just end like this.”

“Are you sure you're not just obsessed?”

“Be fair, do you really want to go down like this? I can accept losing. I can't accept that we lost our spot for something we didn't even do.”

He had a fair point, and it still bothered her, even as she tried to move past it. The fact that the only reason they weren't on top were the commission's sanctions didn't sit well with her either, but at this point they had no way to argue them. Nor did they have time to mope about them either. Leah wanted to get back to number one as badly as Darin did, truth be told.

But she thought she was more realistic about their prospects. They had more skills and knowledge than the first time around, but that didn't mean this would be easy. They would have to fight their way up from the bottom again, and this time everyone knew who they were. They couldn't just become anonymous. Silver Star might be dead, but their names and faces had been plastered all over while they stood atop the A-ranks. What better way for a team to make their name than to take out two of the former top-ranked team?

That did come with an advantage, though. Since everyone knew who they were, everyone would probably be wary of them as well. They could use the intimidation factor to equalize the odds somewhat. And in addition, they'd have two new team members. Even if a team had Silver Star's battle strategies completely memorized, the new team would fight in a completely different manner.

“Like I said, I think this might be the time for us to start over and come up with something new,” she said, watching players going about their business around the plaza. A few glanced at them, but most seemed to be caught up in their own interests.

“I know, but if we're too focused on coming up with something new that might impede our progress.”

“You're such a downer,” Leah commented.

“Why?”

“Because you are. Listen to yourself. We might have lost our rank, but we have a whole path full of potential laid out in front of us. The possibilities are endless. I'm sorry, but sometimes being at the top felt like we were stuck in a very small cage. A very nice, gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless.”

“And this give us the opportunity to spread our wings and fly again,” he said. “OK, I see your point. It's just...”

“Having two friends just walk out on you like that with no warning really sucks,” Leah sighed. “Yeah, I know. I haven't deleted either of them from my contacts. Haven't tried to talk to them either. I probably never will. But...”

“When you work with someone for so long it's hard to just suddenly separate from them,” Darin said. “And it's hard when someone you trusted just stabs you in the back with no warning. Let alone two of them.”

“Let's not take it out on our new comrades,” Leah cautioned. “I don't know Erika all that well and I haven't met your recruit, but treating them with suspicion isn't going to get us anywhere. We have to be a team, not just four separate players working together.”

“I know.”

Teams were always talked about in Avalon Online. Commentators and even players discussed how important their cohesion was to the success of the best units. It wasn't enough to have four strong players on one side. If they couldn't work together, all their strength meant very little. A weaker set of players that were properly organized into a team could very well overcome the level and skill deficiency.

Silver Star had started out as a team, but as they rose up the ranks they seemed to become something more. Leah had heard others refer to them more than once as a machine, unthinking, unfeeling, capable of grinding through anything in its path. That ruthless efficiency allowed them to chew through anything that crossed their path.

But it also meant a loss of some of their camaraderie. They still had close relationships, or at least she had thought that was the case, but it was business as well. Maybe that was why Leo and Jon had decided to leave. Maybe they were tired of it all and wanted to go back to something they longed for, something simpler and more fulfilling.

Leah couldn't exactly blame them for feeling that way, though she wished they would have said something about it. She had similar thoughts at certain points, and now might be the time to go back to that. She wanted to be back on top, but she wanted to do it with a team of friends, blazing their own path. Was that too much to ask? Did she want something completely out of reach?

“It's not worth it if we end up like this again.”

“I'm sorry?”

“It's not worth fighting our way to the top of the A-ranks if we just end up collapsing again,” she said. “I think we got too focused on winning and ignored everything else. That might be why Jon and Leo left.”

“Did they say anything like that to you?”

Leah shook her head. “No. They never said anything about being unhappy. But they could always put their emotions aside to focus. Maybe they just got sick of it and decided enough was enough. Or maybe I'm just making things up. The point is, do we want to risk it again?”

“So you want to take it slow to avoid that kind of risk, is that what you're saying?”

“I'm not saying that we have to slow down. I'm just saying that it might be a good idea. Unless you want to go through all of this again.”

“OK, point taken. But don't you think you're being paranoid about it?”

Leah shrugged. Maybe she was. At this point, though, she only wanted to make sure that something like the last disaster didn't happen again. It wasn't unusual for a team to break up, even a high-ranking one, but not in such a spectacular fashion. Usually they just faded away. If they had to go through another change, she wanted it to happen that way.

They didn't have any time to think about it any further. Leah spied Erika waving to them as she approached. Another player walked across the plaza toward them as well. She didn't recognize him, but Darin stepped forward to meet him.

“Sorry I'm late,” Erika said.

“No, it's fine. We weren't doing anything important anyhow. This is just to get everyone up to speed and see how we work together as a team.” She turned to the other newcomer. “You're Taji.”

“Yes. Good to meet you,” he said with a warm smile.

“I'm Leah. Looking forward to teaming with you. This is Erika, by the way. My other partner in crime, Darin. And Taji, as he already introduced himself.”

The other three greeted one-another, and Leah felt herself relax a little. At least it seemed like it was going smoothly, though it was way too soon for her to tell whether they'd make a good team or not. That would require some fieldwork.

“So we're going to head to the Crystal Pillar today for some action,” Darin explained. “For now we're just going to work together and get in some fights. Hopefully we'll have to deal with a few elites. That should test our skills.”

“Or a boss,” Leah said cheerfully. “That will test them even further.”

“Yes. Though two of you managed to take one down by yourselves. Showoffs.”

Taji looked over at them. “Wait, you took out a boss-class monster by yourselves?”

“It was two of us,” Leah explained. “And it took a bunch of improvisation and tricks. It wasn't just us walking up and hitting it a bunch of times till it died.”

“It kind of was,” Erika spoke up.

“Well yeah, everything is, but there was a bunch of stuff in between.”

Taji shook his head. “Kind of puts us to shame, huh?”

“You held your own just fine,” Darin told him. “No shame in that. And that's what we're going out for. To see if we can get everyone to fit together as a team. Does everyone have their builds set?”

Taji and Erika both nodded. Leah made a mental note of their party's composition. They had Taji equipped as a tank, Darin as an all-rounder with support magic, Erika as a quick-strike damage dealer, and herself as their ranged support. At first glance it seemed fairly standard, but it was in the implementation where the differences would become. Leah was eager to see just how they all fit together.

* * *

The crystal giant let out a low, guttural roar and swung its club downward, slamming into Taji's shield and forcing him to stumble back a few paces. He kept his shield up and his balance steady, though. Leah took a quick look at the health bar floating above his head. Using a combination of his shield, Stone Skin, and positioning he had managed to avoid most of the damage. More importantly, the giant had expended its attack.

Right on cue Erika flashed into sight, making several swipes at the giant before disappearing back into the crystal pillars surrounding the battlezone. Darin charged in after her, making swipes at the creature with the back spike of his halberd. Taji joined him after a moment, alternating bashes with his shield and cuts with his sword.

Leah pulled out another arrow from her quiver and began to cast a spell on the tip, silently counting out the time before her other teammates were safely out of range.

Like all NPC enemies, the crystal giant had a specific attack pattern that could be predicted and deciphered. Once they knew it they could move to exploit it. In this case they had a ten second window between strikes, where they could charge in and inflict damage without fear of retaliation.

They needed it too, because the giant was strong enough to flatten everyone but Taji in one or two hits. Leah was relatively safe at this distance, but one wrong more or mistimed step would get Erika or Darin killed.

“Fall back,” Darin ordered, using interparty telepathy to communicate the message to everyone. It could only be used by teams, but it allowed them to talk to each other over long distances without shouting.

Leah watched them go, nocking and drawing back her bow. Once they were clear she'd hit the creature with a force arrow, hopefully staggering it in the process. Her fire blast arrows wouldn't be nearly as effective against the huge creature's tough crystalline skin, so she needed to rely on the others to do damage.

None of them were particularly well equipped for the area, in truth. Impact weapons like warhammers and battle axes were most effective against the crystal creatures here, but that would mean they'd have to switch to unfamiliar weapons. Right now it was better to do less damage with a familiar weapon.

Darin hadn't said anything to her, but Leah imagined this was all planned. It allowed them to explore battle tactics, giving them handicaps without putting themselves in too much trouble. If the enemy became overwhelming they could always run away, but just killing them instantaneously wouldn't help them to develop team skills. Better to take the time to learn their skills now than to rush about and be unprepared later.

That went for both the present and the future. Now, if only she could get Darin to agree with that.

Leah sighted in her arrow and fired.

The shockwave sent the crystal giant stumbling backward, roaring in a low, angry tone. Leah pulled out another arrow and fired off a shot into its body, though she knew it wouldn't do much damage. One of the destruction spells, Crush, could hurt the crystal monster badly, but they were saving that for later. Right now they were just focused on figuring out how to fight it as a team.

“Watch it. It's coming around again,” Darin warned.

Taji stood in front once again and deflected the blow, though this time the attack drove him down to a knee. Leah noticed a significant chunk of his health bar fade away.

But Darin noticed it too. Within a second he was already beside their tank, casting a healing spell to restore the bar and help keep Taji in the fight.

“Do we end it?” Leah asked.

“Hold off and heal for this go around,” Darin ordered. “We'll pick up our normal attacks after the next time it strikes.”

“Got it. I'm going to hit it with a Fire Blast arrow,” Leah said.

“That's not going to do much.”

“I know. But I'm bored. Making a big explosion will liven things up a little bit.”

She heard the others chuckle over the telepathy line. Good. They had a long way to go until they were a proper team, and even longer before they could even think about challenging for the D-rank tournaments. There were still plenty of challenges ahead of them.

Leah drew back her bow and fired off the arrow. As it exploded into a ball of brilliant flame, she watched in satisfaction as the rest of the group pressed their attack. Their journey back to the top had to begin somewhere. And this looked like a good start.

5

“I wondered if you were going to show up,” the tall figure dressed in black commented as Darin walked up. “Didn't even send a confirmation message back.”

“Sorry Chad,” he replied apologetically. “I was a little occupied and didn't see it until a few minutes ago. And I thought hurrying over here was a better use of my time. I almost thought you would have already left.”

Darin sat down next to his old friend on the lip of the fountain, watching all the other players going about their business. One of the lounges or cafes might be a better place to meet, but for some reason Chad always wanted to meet outside. When pressed he had made some comment about ascetics, which Darin didn't understand. He just thought of it as one of his oddities.

Eccentric or not, though, Chad was no slouch in the world of Avalon Online. He had an A-rank team of his own, not quite top tier, but always hanging around the top ten.

“Always the efficient one,” Chad grinned. “Guess that's how you ended up on top.”

Darin frowned. “Yeah.”

“Sorry if that touched a nerve. I didn't mean-”

“Oh no, it's fine. It is what it is,” Darin said. “No use crying about it, as Leah likes to say.”

“Is that how you really feel?”

“Honestly?” No, that's not how I feel. This sucks. This sucks a lot. We're getting punished fro something we didn't even do. I can understand getting fined for sanctioned, but getting busted down to D-rank? How is that even fair?”

Chad nodded. “So you weren't involved in it. That's what I thought.”

“Wait, so you actually believe me?”

“Is there any reason I shouldn't? You are telling the truth, aren't you?”

“Of course I am. Not that it helped us any when we were put in front of the commission,” he said sourly.

“Of course. They have their own reasons for doing things, and they don't always line up with what's fair for the players.”

“Not sure what you're getting at.”

“This isn't a game anymore. It's a business. There's money changing hands, sponsors, prizes, media deals. People in here are celebrities. You know all about it. You know how much betting goes on, right? There's always Vegas lines on the outcome of the tournaments.”

“I've seen quite a few. Usually they were there to show how heavily we were favored.”

Chad laughed. “Oh, going to bring that up, huh? Do you know how many e-mails I got on my fan account from people who bet thousands of dollars on us to beat you guys?”

“You came a lot closer than most of the others.”

“Horseshoes and hand grenades, man. Horseshoes and hand grenades.”

“Yeah. And to think that we went from that all they way back to D-rank, all because of Leo and Jon. I suppose I should be thankful that we weren't completely banned, but still. We just had our reputation completely wrecked. We're pariahs now.”

“Well, yes and no. Depends on who you talk to.”

“How much of a difference is there.”

“The people that believe everything and take all news at face value might hate you, yeah. But most of the A-rank knows better. It's been a point of contention in the waiting rooms, actually. Who was involved, whether there was actually any foul play, or if you guys just slipped up...”

“Well, we did throw the match. But I wasn't the one responsible. Neither was Leah.”

“That's what I was inclined to believe. Anyone with half a brain knows that you would never willingly throw a match. You're way too competitive. I don't think anyone could offer you enough to do it.”

“Thanks. I just wished that the commission would see it that way.”

“Well, like I said, they have their own agenda to push. With so much money flying around they have to make it look like its under control and all the competitions are fair. So when the top team steps out of line, they bring the hammer down. Sorry to say, but you guys are just a victim of the business machine.”

“Yeah, I understand it. Even though it sucks. But it's not really fair, either.”

“So what are you going to do? Try to fight your way back to the top?”

“Yeah. That's what we're aiming for. We're currently trying to get a team together so we can climb back up the ranks.”

“I pity anyone that gets in your way,” Chad said with a smile.

“How is the A-rank tournament going? I haven't been paying much attention to it.”

“It's weird, truth be told. No one seems to know what to do now that Silver Star is out of the running. It's been so long since you guys weren't the obvious team to beat.”

“That really doesn't tell me anything.”

“No, I guess not. Well, there's a power vacuum in the middle of the A-rank division. Anyone still in the tournament has the ability to stake their claim to the top now. And that feels really odd to a lot of people. Scary, even.”

“What about you?”

“Us? Well, I'm not one to celebrate a friend's misfortune, but you'll forgive me for thinking that this might be our chance to get over the hump and take the top.”

“Can't blame you for that, no. But that just means you couldn't beat us the old-fashioned way,” Darin replied with a smile.

“Sure, go ahead and rub it in,” Chad laughed. “But that's the general mood around the A-ranks. It sucks for you guys, but this is our chance. And if Night Dragon has the opportunity, we'll take it.”

“Of course,” Darin nodded. He'd do the same thing in their position.

“But we're also not delusional,” Chad added. “We know that you'll be coming back to take your spot. Some of the others think this will be the end of you. Not us. We know you'll be back.”

“That's a long way off.”

“What, aren't you supposed to come out with a bunch of bluster? How you guys are going to stomp all over anyone who gets in your way?”

“Are you really going to believe it if I say it?” Darin asked. “I'm not even sure if I'd believe it. Leah doesn't. She thinks it's going to be a while.”

“I'd go with her instincts. She knows what it's all about. Of course, this is just my opinion. But...”

“Nah, it's mine too. I know better than to just ignore what she's feeling,” he replied. Leah tended to be spot-on wit her feelings, or at least in the ballpark.

“Nothing wrong with it taking some time.”

“Well of course you'd say that. It gives you more time to enjoy all the perks at the top.”

Chad laughed again. “Hey, you guys held onto them for long enough. Let someone else have a turn.”

“Fine. We will. Not exactly by choice, but...”

“Yeah. And I get what she's thinking. Nothing guaranteed, though. They might have taken away your skill points, but they didn't take away your brains. At least I think they didn't.”

“Yeah, still inside my head as far as I know. But enough about that. What did you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Oh, right. Well, I heard a bit of news through the grapevine about your old partners. I'm not sure if you already know about it or what, but I thought I should ask, at least.”

“What about them?”

“Well, apparently they have the same thoughts you do. I don't have things completely confirmed, but Leslie heard some rumblings though her friends and contacts. They're recruiting, at the very least.”

“Finding two new members to join is hard,” Darin said.

“It's not for two, though. It's one. Apparently the other spot is already filled. That's the part I though would really interest you.”

Darin frowned as he considered that tidbit of information. It might mean something, or it might just be chance. Jon and Leo could have planned their exit from Silver Star far in advance and took the opportunity to prepare for a new team. On the other hand, the whole thing could just be a coincidence.

At this point he didn't know what to think. And did it matter anyhow? As much as he loathed his former teammates for betraying them, he had too much in front of him already. As he had heard once, it was better to care for one's own household first than to look at the households of others.

Still, he wanted to know more, if possible.

“Do you know who the third member is?”

“That's the other thing. No one seems to know who she is. She's never shown up in any of the tournaments. She's not a part of any of the raid groups. There's nothing notable about her,” Chad explained.

“Can't say that's any different that what we're going through,” Darin said. “Our two recruits are unknowns too. You pretty much have to be looking for those types at the D-rank.”

“Yeah, but some people might be willing to jump ship to fight alongside two former members of Silver Star.”

Darin sighed. “You know what, I don't think I'd want anyone who's willing to ditch their teammates like that. Hits way too close to home, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, point taken. I'd say it wouldn't matter for your counterparts, but evidently that's not the case here. If she was someone who jumped ship from another team there'd at least be some information floating around about her.”

“How long ago did this happen?”

“The day after you guys lost your match. I just wanted to take some time to confirm it before I went and started spouting off about it all,” Chad explained. “And I don't know how you feel about it, but it just seemed suspicious to me. Like, if they were as surprised about the sanctions as you wouldn't it take a while for them to move on?”

“They were the ones that threw the match. They had a two on one advantage guarding the pillar, and the other guy somehow got through. There's no way that could happen, unless they allowed it.”

“So it's planned. That's not exactly comforting. And then there's a bunch of other suspicious stuff about the whole situation...”

Darin glanced over at him. “What kind of stuff?”

“This is all just speculation,” Chad said. “Probably just me spitballing and making a big deal about nothing, but here it goes. There's something funny going on. Almost everyone thinks the commission came down way too hard on you, even if you actually cheated. But still, it happened. And there's some speculation as to why.”

“What is it?”

“You guys were way too good,” Chad said. “I hate to admit it, but there weren't very many of us that could think of challenging you. That doesn't make for good drama or viewing, either. There's no suspense.”

“I've never heard any complaints.”

“Well no, it was fine for a while. People watched because it was fun to see you guys go to work, you know? How dominant you were. Of course, it's not so fun when you're the one being dominated, but hey, it is what it is.”

“Yeah.”

“But eventually that becomes boring. People just don't want to repeatedly watch something where the outcome's never in doubt. And it was getting to that point with you guys, sorry to say. A lot of people wanted things to change.”

“So you're saying that the commission decided to punish us so harshly so they could get us out of the way and shake up the A-rank division,” he frowned. “That's...”

“I know it's pretty outlandish, yeah. I might be making things up inside my head. Who knows.”

“But if that actually is the case...”

“You're never going to be able to prove it. This is their world with their rules, and they're not dumb enough to do something so obvious. They'll always be able to hide behind something to justify their actions.”

“Yeah, I know. It's hard when the people in charge are your judge, jury and executioner.”

“I think you just ended up on the wrong end of things. They wanted a way to shake up Avalon Online and breath some excitement back into the tournament scene, and your incident gave them a perfect excuse to do that.”

“Nice to know that we're so highly regarded. Or that we were so much of a pain that they had to invent a way to get us out of the picture.”

“Hah, you would say that, wouldn't you? Thankfully you've never announced it in public. I know that you're being tongue-in-cheek, but people who don't know you might not take it that way. They'd probably hate you, actually.”

“Yeah. So we're stuck at the bottom of the D-ranks right now because someone wanted to switch things up and get the A division moving. Joy. And our former comrades planned for it and are getting ready to make a push back up to the top.”

“That about sums it up,” Chad agreed. “But you said that you were going to form up another team, right?”

“That's right. It's getting there.”

“Then that's your ticket back. You want to make the commission pay for what they did to you? Climb your way back to the top and win. Of course, if you want to stay on the bottom that's fine with me.”

Darin smiled. “Right. Well, sorry to disappoint you...”

“No, it's fine,” Chad grinned back. “I'll take being on top, but if we make it there I'll always know that there's an asterisk next to it. We didn't beat the top players. So if you fight your way back up, that's fine with me too.”

“Thanks.”

“Plus, that'll be pretty entertaining anyhow. Truth be told, the B- and C-ranks are where the best action is, in my opinion. And it'll be fun watching you guys come up again. And if you make it back to the top, then the commissioner has to present you with your winnings..”

“Oh, so this is cringe comedy for you, is that right?”

“Hey, you have to admit it'll be pretty funny if it happens. Can you imagine the look on their faces if that happens? Or what kind of speech you could give? I'd pay to watch that, honestly.”

Darin was glad that someone else had confidence in them, especially a friend from outside his team. Nagging doubts had started to creep in ever since Silver Star had disbanded. Had he done something to upset the other two? Was Leah right, that he was too focused on winning, to the exclusion of all else?

“I have one question for you,” he said. “Might be an odd one.”

“Hey, I've heard plenty of those. So shoot.”

“Why do you participate in the tournaments?”

Chad made a thoughtful face. “Why? I guess there's a lot of reasons. First I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, then we found out that our team was good at it, and then we just kept fighting up the ranks. Plus there's the money.”

“So it's because you found out you were good at it, and want to keep getting the money from it?”

“Yeah, sounds about right. But we have fun. That's the big thing. I'd rather be in the B-ranks enjoying myself than to be at A-rank and miserable. But we seemed to be able to have our cake and eat it, so to speak.”

“I wonder if the others felt that way,” Darin mused aloud. “I don't think I took the fun out of it, but...”

“Maybe it's not you,” Chad said. “Different people need different things to feel fulfilled. I don't blame someone for putting in all the effort to be the best, just like I don't blame someone who wants to take the easier path and have fun.”

“I see your point.”

“But still, there's better ways to handle it than just walking out on your partners. There's points where pushing for your own goals becomes selfish.”

Chad's last statement wasn't directed toward him, but Darin still felt its impact. Was his desire to be on top just him being selfish? Was he just dragging people along for the ride, ones who'd abandon him once they got sick of humoring his whims? That might very well have been the reason that Jon and Leo had left.

Maybe the A-rank division wasn't the only thing that needed to change. Maybe it was better that he changed his outlook a bit. The competitive fire would never leave him, but if it pushed away his comrades? Avalon Online was all about teamwork, and individual players meant very little in the grand scheme of things. Maybe it was his own ego that needed reigning in.

“Thanks for that,” Darin said, standing up. “For both the info and for lending an ear. Good luck in the tournament.”

“Thanks man. And good luck to you,” Chad said, rising and shaking his hand. “I'll see you guys when you get back to the A-rank.”

“We'll see each other before then.”

“Well yeah, but that doesn't sound as cool.”

Darin laughed. “OK. I'll see you then.”

6

Leah sat down in her recliner, a tablet in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, looking over some Avalon Online data. Even in the real world the game continued, at least for those that were aiming for the top ranks.

She had often heard it described as a sports league, where players spent huge amounts of time training and studying for their next matches. The actual tournaments were just a small part of their daily activities. Instead, they spent time honing their skills and analyzing everything from their character builds to their prospective opponents, even to the environments they'd be fighting in.

It might seem overkill at first glance, but Avalon Online was a major e-sports league in its own right, and millions of dollars were at stake every time teams clashed in the tournaments. It was no different than football or basketball in that regard. On its face it was just a game, but there were so many other factors to consider. Fame and fortune were at stake, and the best players focused on being able to squeeze out even the tiniest advantages.

Silver Star had been no different, and old habits died hard. Their new team might not even be qualified for the lowest tournaments yet, but that didn't mean she wanted to just sit and wait for things to happen. There was always some way to get better performance, and even though Leah though it would take time, she also didn't want to waste it if she could help it.

She had to smile at the thought, though. Sitting around playing video games had never been anyone's idea of a solid career choice, at least not back in high school, but it beat her degree in mathematics. Over the past three years Leah had earned far, far more than she would have taking any other career path. So much for conventional wisdom, and for that she was thankful. She could focus her energy on making the team better without feeling it was a waste of time and effort. After all, the better they fared the more they were paid in prize money.

A week's worth of training brought their ad hoc team closer to the average, though Leah thought they still needed a lot of work. That was to be expected, of course, and to her satisfaction Darin seemed to take it all pretty well. It had taken Silver Star months to seriously challenge in the D-ranks, and even longer for them to advance. Even with their previous experience she didn't think it would be too much different the second time around.

And then there was the factor of their new recruits. Both Erika and Taji had shown good progress, but fighting a group of NPCs with predictable attack patterns was far different than fighting a group of other players. Even the lower-ranked teams could spring surprises that a programmed enemy couldn't even fathom.

They could learn. They already showed signs of being able to do just that, taking their mistakes into account and learning from them. A confrontation with a boss-class monster in the Lost City had nearly killed them both, until Darin and Leah pulled out all the stops and managed to defeat the beast. Even so, it had been a close call. Erika's normal strategy of using flash step had failed when the monster used a movement restricting spell, taking away her trump card.

She learned. The next time they went into the Lost City she made use of her other abilities, particularly wraith and sky walk. Wraith allowed her to create distractions, and sky walk made platforms for her to step across, allowing her to stab the monster in its weak points.

Taji had learned as well, though his abilities were far more straightforward. He learned how to take damage, how to mitigate the amount of damage he took, how to draw the enemy's attention to himself, when to attack and defend…

It almost made her seem stagnant, Leah reflected. She continued to use her standard build, one of ranged attacks, destruction magic, and light armor. It served her just fine, but she wondered if there was something missing, something that she could do to create a new way of fighting.

She didn't want to give up her bow. Darin had performed the role in the past, but she was the one that specialized in the technique. Leah didn't want to put any more stress on Taji and Erika either. They had more than enough to deal with at this point. So for now changing weaponry was out of the question.

Changing magic, however, was not. Destruction magic was powerful, but it wasn't the only way to win a battle. Support or manipulation magic could easily turn the tide of battle. Defensive magic could as well, but in her role as a damage dealer it wouldn't be particularly helpful.

She went over builds, wondering what kind of changes she could make. Manipulation magic might be interesting, allowing her to reach different spots on the battlefield or outflank the enemy at a moment's notice. Leah had seen a few archers use Flash Step before, allowing them to quickly get into position for a good shot. But then, that meant trading the killing power of destruction spells, along with some of the versatility.

It wasn't just about dealing damage to the enemy. Used properly, destruction spells were capable of changing the complexion of the battlefield, destroying terrain, creating spots for her teammates to shelter or hide inside, taking away cover from the enemy or even just impeding their footing. Manipulation magic could make up for that a little bit, but not nearly to the same degree. And it also lacked the sheer destructive power of a fireball or shockwave when called for.

Support magic could also help, but Darin already used it. More than one support mage tended to be redundant. So once again, destruction magic seemed to be the best way forward for her archer build.

But maybe it wasn't about what abilities she brought to the fight. It might be more about how she used them. Was there something that she had missed, that so many other players using the same abilities had missed? Leah looked through video highlights of previous matches, looking for something, anything that could give her a clue.

Would it really help, though? She wasn't the only one pouring over the data, search for some way to get an edge on the competition. New ideas were going to be scarce, and Avalon Online was very much a copycat league. If someone came up with a good idea, it was almost certain that someone else would steal it and try to make it their own. Silver Star had done more than their fair share of that in the past.

Leah took a drink and cycled through some more videos, thinking. Maybe it wasn't about finding something completely new. If they could find a technique or strategy they could refine, that could be their new opening. Even small tweaks could dramatically change the way a team operated. Some shifts were sudden, and some were gradual. She had been preparing for the former once they reached the top, but maybe the later was more likely.

There were other issues with radical changes. Erika and Taji had their own way of doing things, and trying to make them turn on a dime could stunt their development. They didn't have nearly enough free time to learn, either. Like a lot of others in the lower ranks, they still had day jobs. Once they got into the tournament scene and started to rack up wins that might change, but for now they had to be efficient about how they trained.

And then there was the final step they needed to accomplish, the last obstacle in their path before they could be properly be considered a team and enter the D-rank tournaments. In order to gain entry to the arena a team had to complete a dungeon known as the Cave of Origin.

It wouldn't be easy. Leah had been through it once before, but the area was always randomized. Through the magic of virtual reality, players could be sent to what essentially amounted to a pocket dimension and tasked with conquering the dungeon laid out before them. And while they had a general idea of what would happen inside, it was different enough so she couldn't quite be sure.

What Leah did know was that the cave would be a tough test for their team. It needed to be, since it weeded out serious contenders from those who were too unskilled to make the cut. The Cave of Origin contained all manner of enemies, ranging from mobs of grunts, to elites, to bosses that would give even experienced players paused. They would need to use all the skill and teamwork at their disposal.

And then there was the end of the cave. That was the one common element that everyone knew about. Once a team conquered the dungeon they faced one final test: a fight against another four person team, modeled on the fighting styles of a player unit. They might be NPCs, but they were a far greater threat than anything the standard enemies could muster.

That was the final hurdle they needed to clear before they could be considered for the D-rank tournaments, and it wasn't easy. Silver Star had failed twice before finally defeating the challenge, and even then it had been no sure thing. The team they faced at the end was also randomized, and fought with different techniques. They could prepare for them, of course, since their composition was public knowledge. But there was no way to know for sure what they were facing, and no team combination that would be strong against all possibilities. Either they had to bank on being lucky enough to get a favorable matchup, or they had to run a generalist team and rely on their skills to pull them through.

And in some ways, fighting skilled human-sized enemies was more challenging than trying to deal with a huge monster. At least in the second case their opponent had predictable attack patterns. Fighting an equally strong team meant dealing with smaller, quicker foes that could deploy a variety of abilities. What they lacked in sheer power they made up for in versatility.

It would be difficult. Leah just hoped the others wouldn't become discouraged if they ran into a wall. They'd always have more chances, but that wouldn't happen if the team just gave up. How would they react when faced with a real challenge? That was the question that made or broke a team.

* * *

“So that's what we're up against,” Leah said as she finished explaining the next steps to Erika and Taji. “We have to clear a raid dungeon geared toward challenging players aiming for the D-rank tournaments. If we get past, we can enter. If not, then we have to start over and keep trying until we do.”

“Will our normal builds work?” Erika asked.

“They should, as long as we're built to work as a team. Remember that. We have to be able to play off everyone's strengths and weaknesses. The Cave of Origin is specifically built to test it.”

“And it's not easy,” Darin added. “We failed the first time around.”

“We failed twice, actually,” Leah corrected him. “But the point stands. If we're not ready then we're going to get chewed up and spat back out.”

“Can't we just go back in and try it again?” Taji asked.

“We can, but it's not just a matter of going back there,” Darin explained. “You're only allowed to challenge once every seven days, so you can't just keep charging in. You have to be prepared.”

“And with the randomization just going back might not be good anyhow,” Leah said. “There's no guarantee that you'll do any better the second timed around. It might end up worse for you, in fact.”

“And the next D-rank tournament is coming up in less than three weeks. Ideally I want to be able to enter that, if that's alright with you.”

“It's fine with me.”

Taji frowned. “Yeah. There's just one thing about it...”

“What?”

“I'm not sure how much time I'm going to be able to devote to this until we get rolling. I have a job in the real world that I need to keep up with, so unless I can really start getting paid here…”

“What's the prize payouts?” Erika asked.

“For the D-rank? It's ten thousand per team member if you come in first place. It scales down to five thousand for second place, one thousand for third and so on.”

“And there's major tournaments every three months, so the most you can make at the D-rank is about a forty thousand a year,” Taji said. “If you come in first every time. That's not a lot, and not very secure.”

“No, but if you climb up into the C-ranks you start to be able to make a lot more. There you get a five thousand dollar payout just for taking part in the tournament.”

“Yeah, but that's going to take a while to get to that level, isn't it?” Taji asked. “And there's others that are spending most of their time training for it. I can't. I have too many bills and debts to pay.”

Darin looked over at Erika. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Is this going to make it tough for you to keep up with your job?”

She shrugged. “Eh, not like I like it that much anyhow. Waitressing doesn't exactly pay that well.”

“Better than nothing,” Taji pointed out.

“Oh, I'm not saying that I hate my job, but if something better comes along then I have no problems dropping it. Of course, I have to pay rent, so I'd like to have some savings before I just walk away...”

Leah spoke up. “If we can qualify this is the perfect opportunity to get into the scene. Right around this time of year they're going through the reseeding.”

“Where they figure out the ranks, right?” Erika asked.

“They're always keeping track of them. Placement in the tournaments does matter. But this is the time it matters the most.”

“Would you mind explaining? I haven't seen much of these ones before. And when I did the rules always seemed to be really confusing.”

“Sure thing. So in this tournament, everyone who participates gets assigned a point value to represent their strength. They take into account the amount of skill points you possess and what kind of abilities you take. Then the teams are put into a pool where they go through a one huge match against everyone else. Teams get points for the kills they make, and the highest scoring teams are put into the tournament bracket.”

“I remember it being complete chaos the times my teams participated,” Taji said.

“It is, at least for the teams that are trying to break in. The top ranked teams get an automatic bid for the tournament bracket, so they don't have to bother going through the mess. But the winning team in the tournament is ranked number one.”

“And that's the key to it,” Darin said, picking up where she left off. “The top team in a bracket can challenge the lowest ranked team in the next division. If they beat them then they take their spot. Or more precisely, they switch spots.”

“So we'd go up to C-rank and the team we beat would go back down to D-rank?” Erika asked.

“Yeah, that's right.”

“Huh, that's sounds pretty sucky for the losers.”

Leah agreed somewhat, but it was one of the harsh realities of Avalon Online. The success stories, the top teams and the glamour took center stage, but for every major player there were teams that would always be stuck in the middling ranks, teams that could never get traction or would gradually lose their touch and fall out of contention. Even when they were at the top Leah had recognized it. Success and failure were divided by a thin line, and they could cross it at a moment's notice.

And there were two ways that could influence a team. It could put a huge amount of pressure on them, forcing the players to constantly look over their shoulders at anyone that might be catching up to them. Leah knew that plenty of teams in the bottom of their respective divisions had to live in fear that someone below them would take their spot, possibly bumping them down to a lower division. That meant both a financial loss and a diminishing of their status.

They could recover from that setback. Some renewed their determination and made another push, while others fell further back down the ranks and eventually disappeared. Innumerable teams started to free-fall and never recovered. Maybe it was because they had been passed by other teams, or maybe their psyche had been broken and they couldn't regain their ability to fight.

But there was the other side of the coin as well. Many teams used the situation as motivation, as a way to push themselves forward. Instead of looking over their shoulders they looked ahead, trying to put as much distance between them and the bottom as possible. If they were in the top ranks there was no danger of them being sent down to a lower division. On the contrary, it meant being able to push for higher divisions, or once they reached the A- and B-ranks, to attract sponsors.

“It's the nature of things,” Darin said. “Everyone knows that when they get into the tournaments. We just need to be able to stake our claim. And if we can do that, then we have a real path open to you both turning into professionals. If we can get to C-rank, would you be willing to devote more time to this?”

Taji thought for a moment. “I think I would. But I have to be sure. I can't just quit a good job over maybes.”

“Then we have our goal in front of us. Conquer the Cave of Origin, win the D-rank seeding qualifiers and then move up to C-rank.”

It sounded so straightforward. If only it were the simple, Leah thought, but then saying and doing things were always on different levels. They couldn't think too far into the future either. The first challenge would prove hard enough.

7

It had been so long since he had been here. Darin looked at the pair of pillars stretching into the sky, covered in an alien language and lit up with a green, eldritch light. There were so many theories about what they meant. Some players believed that there was a secret contained within the cave related to the pillars, something that would change the entire complexion of the game, or give them secret powers if they discovered it. Others just believed it was decoration and nothing more.

Darin hadn't thought about it much. It was all just a wild rumor, in his mind, something that the designers had added in for flavor. Not everything had to be a conspiracy of a big secret. Besides, the Cave of Origin was intimidating enough on its own.

He looked back at the rest of the party: Erika with her light armor and rapier, Taji wearing plate mail and carrying a battle axe and shield, and Leah with her bow. Darin himself had a halberd and medium armor as usual, along with support magic. He'd be directing traffic for the duration of the raid, attacking, defending and healing whenever it was needed.

“Deja vu,” Leah commented as they approached the archway leaving to the cage. “Want to take bets about what kind of monsters we're going to have to deal with this time?”

“Hopefully not the ice ones. Those were annoying.”

“What about them?” Taji asked curiously.

Darin shrugged. “The standard stuff, actually. They hit you with freezing attacks that slow you down. It's not like they're extremely dangerous, but even the grunts are annoying. You feel like you're trying to fight with your feet stuck in quicksand.”

“Have you ever actually had your feet stuck in quicksand?” Leah asked.

“Well no. But...”

“I kind of get the picture anyhow,” Erika said with a smile. “So hopefully there aren't any enemies like that. I can't say that'd be good for me using Flash Step.”

Darin turned his attention forward again and took a deep breath as the passed through the archway. Despite his experience, he gripped the haft of his weapon a little tighter. This was it. Now that they were inside the Cave of Origin they had to complete it or come back a week later if they failed. They'd only get one do-over at this point if they wanted to make the next tournament.

“Go with what we planned,” he instructed, moving into position. “Taji first, then me, then Erika and Leah.”

The rest of the group moved to their spots as well. Their formation was fairly standard, all things considered. Taji would walk up front so he was first to meet anything that came their way, using his defense to shrug off any hits. Darin followed behind him to offer support and healing. Depending on the situation he could either start an attack or provide extra defense to help Taji hold his ground.

Erika and Leah would be in charge of dealing out most of the damage, using their normal builds. Leah would use range and her powerful destruction magic, while Erika would rely on up close and personal attacks with precision.

“Is there a standard layout?” Erika asked as they walked. “I mean, I know the dungeon's randomized, but is there some sort of pattern to it?”

“There's an entrance and a boss room at the end,” Leah said. “Other than that it's completely unpredictable.”

“Every single time I've been through here it's been completely different,” Taji agreed. “Sometimes there's just a maze of tunnels with a few small rooms and nothing else, sometimes there's a couple of big rooms. You can never tell.”

Darin wondered what the designers had been thinking about when they created the cave. The highly random nature of the place meant that teams traveling through could end up stuck in difficult, sometimes completely unfair situations. But then, that was true in the tournaments as well. A pair of teams could be equally matched on paper, yet when they battled one could be clearly superior to the other.

One thing he did know was that the Cave of Origin was about testing their combat skills. Carved recesses in the walls held torches, bathing the entire cave with light. It wasn't the sun, but they'd have no trouble seeing. Nothing could just jump out of the dark to attack them. The monsters in here didn't need to. They had more than enough power.

He tensed for a moment as they stepped into a wider chamber, half-expecting trouble. For a moment Darin saw nothing, just dirt floors and rock walls with a few stalagmites and stalactites scattered around. They weren't large enough to hide anything, but…

But the ground beneath them started to rumble.

“Is that a boss?” Erika asked.

Taji shook his head. “They wouldn't throw one at us right away.”

Darin agreed, but the other possibility was far worse. He brought his weapon up into a defensive position and started casting Champion's Call, a spell that increased the strength of every in the party. If what he suspected was true, they'd need every bit of it they could get.

The rumbling grew more and more intense by the second, going from mere vibrations to an audible shaking. Darin looked around, trying to figure out just where it was coming from. There was only one doorway leading out of the room…

And then another suddenly opened as a stone slab lifted away. Not even a second later a horde of enemies started pouring into the chamber.

“Golems,” he heard Leah say via telepathy. “Looks like they're wearing earth seals.”

“Then this isn't going to be easy,” Darin replied as he watch more and more charge in. How many of them were there? Fifty? A hundred? There were probably even more than that.

Grunts might be easy to kill, but even they could pack a punch in large enough numbers, and right now they might be approaching that point. Moreover these were earth golems with boosted defense. They still would only take two or three hits to kill, but that was two or three extra times for them to get their own attacks in.

“Try to avoid as much damage as possible,” he told Taji. “I'm going to have to work as the secondary tank.”

“Got it,” Taji said, and cast Stone Skin on himself a second later.

The first golems charged forward, just simple, rotund bodies with stubby arms and limbs sticking out. They looked fragile, almost like they were made out of clay, but they had glowing lines running up and down their main body. In this case, the lines were green.

Darin moved forward and swung his halberd in a wide arc, trying to damage as many as he could with the first attack. If he could just get a critical hit he might be able to take them out with one swing. If not…

The weapon smashed into the first golem with an audible crack, sending shards of pottery flying everywhere. The creature remained upright, but the blow staggered it. The next two in line suffered a similar fate.

Darin gritted his teeth. Not good enough. The golems were still moving, and more pressed in behind them. Taji smashed out with his axe and shield, hurting a few more. But it wasn't enough. One struck out at him, then another.

Darin dodged first blow, then grunted as the second managed to make contact with his armor and send him stumbling back. He regained his footing and deflected another strike, but the rest of the golems were beginning to push them further back.

“Incoming,” Leah warned them over the telepathy link, and a moment later he saw an arrow streak over his head. It impacted against the far wall where the golems had charged out from and exploded in a ball of flame.

The back ranks of the enemy horde were completely incinerated by the fire blast. More of them were knocked over by the blast, some completely disabled, others severely damaged. Darin had to brace himself for a moment as the shockwave rippled past him. There were still plenty of golems left, but Leah's attack gave them a slight opening.

“Switching from tank to attacker,” he said, then cast Pre-sight. The ability would allow everyone a split-second to react to enemy attacks. It wasn't much, but it could mean the difference between narrowly dodging an attack and taking a hit. While he was locked in combat Darin couldn't heal the others, so keeping the rest of the party from getting hit was the next best course of action.

Darin charged forward, focusing his attention on one of the damaged golems. He thrust forward with his weapon's spearpoint, catching the creature in one of the cracks that had formed. His attack must have caused a critical hit, because the golem broke apart into thousands of little shards.

He went on the attack again immediately after it fell, swinging his weapon around and catching another golem with the back spike. The weapon buried itself deep in the monster's body, and Darin yanked it back toward him. The motion ripped a large gash in the golem and caused it to stumble. Another swing finished it off.

He saw a blur flash by and a golem fell, stabbed in one of its weak points. Another fell, then another, then another. Darin had to smile at that. Erika was pulling her weight, using her speed and precision to get in close and then stab the golems in their vulnerable areas, right in their magic seals.

It would kill them instantly if they were struck there, but it took a direct hit that most players couldn't manage. Only the best archers could even think about hitting a target that small, and other close-combat fighters had to concentrate on defending themselves, so achieving it became difficult.

But a fast-moving fighter with Flash Step and good aim could get in and out of an area before the enemy had a chance to respond, hitting the golems in their weak points and getting away without taking any damage. It would only work so long as the ability's timer lasted, but it would allow them to pare down the size of the horde.

Darin aimed his own strike at a golem's magic seal, but the creature blocked the halberd blow with one of its arms. The limb shattered under the power of the swing, but the monster remained standing.

“How many are there left?” Darin asked, coming around with another blow and smashing the golem's body in with the axe head. In his position he couldn't count the enemy numbers, not without distracting himself too much.

“Looks like about fifty or so,” Leah said. “Anchor yourself. I'm using a Force arrow.”

Another shaft streaked into the midst of the golem horde, going off with a blue flash and sending a shockwave ripping through their ranks. Darin dug in his heels and tried to remain in place, but the power of the attack was too much. He stumbled backward, watching the health bar in the side of his vision drop by a third. He saw Taji struggle back as well, though his Stone Skin, heavy armor and shield took the worst of it. He didn't see Erika anywhere, but Darin imagined she had gotten clear. Leah wouldn't have risked killing one of their teammates, not this early in the dungeon.

But if it had wounded them, it had also hurt the enemy ranks far worse. Only a dozen earth golems remained standing, all showing signs of damage. Cracked bodies, missing limbs, it was clear that they were on their last legs.

“Take them out?” Erika asked over the telepathy link.

“Go for them, but we're going to hang back for a second,” Darin said. “Taji, I'm going to cast healing over both of us.”

“Shouldn't we wait until we kill them all?”

“That depends. The cave might send something else at us,” he said. No use in taking chances.

Darin activated his ability and watch his health bar climb steadily. The support magic's healing ability restored a certain amount of health, and that number could be split between the party. If there were two then each would get half the healing, if there were three they'd get a third and if there were four they'd get a quarter of it.

Right now they were still in good enough shape to fight without healing, but Darin didn't know if there were any elites waiting for them. He didn't think so, not when the cave had already thrown a tough challenge at them right from the beginning, but he couldn't be sure.

“OK, as soon as you top off head into the fight,” Darin said.

“Got it,” Taji replied, and a few seconds later he charged the next golems.

Darin watched his health bar reach full again as well, but he hung back, wanting to see how the other two fought by themselves. Another golem fell to the rapier and flash step combination. Three more moved in and seemed to surround Erika as the ability wore off, but she moved far, far too quickly for them to capitalize. A series of blue-green platforms appeared in the air and in a second she was behind the trio, out of danger.

The golems moved forward to attack her now that her best ability had worn off, but Taji was next to her in an instant, providing cover. The first monster's swing ran straight into his shield, reverberating off and causing the creature's arm to crack. Taji came around with his weapon, smashing the axe head into the creature's main body and cutting a huge hole into it. As it stumbled backward Erika moved back out from behind him, stabbing at the newly formed gash. The golem shook violently and then fell over, its magical energies completely gone.

“Going to stand around and just watch everyone else fight, huh?” Leah commented.

“Just seeing what they can do.”

“Funny, because it looks like you're just mailing it in and taking a break from my point of view.”

Darin gripped the haft of his weapon. “Well, when you put it that way...”

He charged toward another golem, leaping at it and thrusting with the spearpoint. By skill or sheer dumb luck he managed to hit the monster right in its magic seal, causing it to shudder and then explode in a cloud of dust and magical energies. Another tried to hit him, but Darin partially sidestepped the blow and deflected the rest of the strike off his shoulder armor. He countered with his own attack, a backhanded swing of the spike and ripped a hole into the monster.

Within a few seconds the rest of the golems were vanquished. Darin breathed a sigh of relief and then took stock of the situation.

“Anyone seriously injured?”

“I'm fine,” Taji said.

“Me too,” Erika said cheerfully. “They weren't fast enough to catch me, and when they did I had someone to duck behind. Thanks, by the way. You make a very good wall.”

Taji laughed. “Ah, that's sort of what I'm here for, right?”

Darin looked back at Leah. “Did you even have anyone come near you?”

“Of course not. You two did a pretty good job of capturing their attention,” she replied, giving him a thumbs up. “Of course, this was ridiculously tough for the first room of the Cave of Origin. Must have come up with an unlucky draw.”

Darin nodded. The room wasn't unwinnable, of course, merely difficult, but an unprepared team might have been slaughtered if faced with the same situation. Was this all just bad fortune, or was it an omen of something greater? They hadn't faced any of the dungeon's elites or bosses yet.

“Let's just hope those are the only earth golems we face in here,” Darin said.

“They're annoying,” Taji agreed. “Though water and wind golems aren't going to be fun either. Or fire ones.”

“I'll take monsters that we can kill in one hit over swarms of them that take two or three.”

“Speak for yourself,” Leah said. “I like not being shot at.”

“Well, we can see what's ahead,” Erika said. “One way forward.”

Darin couldn't help smiling at her remark. She might be the least experienced of them all, but her enthusiasm was infectious. Both she and Taji had it, in fact, though she was more outright with it. He didn't mind it at all, though. In fact, it reminded him a lot of his early days in Avalon Online, where he was just one small person exploring a vast world with three comrades. It felt almost nostalgic, like a callback to simpler days.

“Right,” he said. “Form up into standard formation again and let's see what the rest of this cave has waiting for us.”

Taji took the lead once again. Darin tried to move up beside him, but the tunnel leading out from the previous previous chamber narrowed quite a bit, only allowing one person passage at a time. They'd have to advance in single file.

“Warn me if you see anything,” he told Taji. “And I'm back here if you need support spells.”

“Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Though I don't think that we're going to run into anything in here until we reach somewhere wider. It's never happened to me before.”

Darin frowned. “That's funny, because I can remember getting ambushed by an elite golem in one of the narrow tunnels. Maybe it was just luck of the draw?”

“Maybe.”

That was the trick of the Cave of Origin. There were so many factors that went into its generation, so much randomization that trying to predict what might be inside was nearly impossible. They could rely on previous knowledge of course, read what other players had discovered on their trips through. They could have a basic idea of what they might face inside, but they couldn't know for sure.

And once in a while, this kind of environment could throw a curveball at them.

Darin was about to say something else when Taji began coughing, stopping and blocking the tunnel with his considerable bulk. For a moment he thought his partner had come under attack, but then purple gas started filtering past him. Darin only had a few seconds to react. He cast Protection Ward, blocking the rest of them from being harmed by the gas, but it was already too late for Taji.

“That's not good,” Taji commented, coughing all the while.

One quick glance confirmed that he had been hit with status effects, lowering his defense. It would wear off, but for now he had less protection than even someone wearing light armor.

“What's going on?” Erika asked.

“Status effect gas,” he said. “Taji must have triggered a trap and released it. And it's the defense lowering type.”

“That sounds like a developer's nasty trick,” Leah said.

“I'm confused,” Erika commented.

“Yeah, me too,” Taji added.

“It's because they probably anticipated something like this, so they created some sort of corridor to force us into a certain way of doing things,” Leah explained. “Standard procedure is to send in the tank first to meet enemies first and take all the damage. But this type of corridor must have been created with that in mind, because there's a trap with gas that lowers defense.”

“So they trick us into sending the tank through the narrow tunnel first, then hit him with magic that hurts his ability to perform his role?” Erika deduced.

“It's worse than that,” Darin told her. “Right now he has lower defense than you or Leah. It'll wear off in about fifteen minutes, but until then he can't properly tank.”

“Can't we just wait for it to wear off?”

“If you don't keep moving forward the cave starts spawning boss-level monsters to attack you,” Taji said. “One of my teams tried that once, believe me. We lasted about thirty seconds before it killed us all.”

“We have to keep moving forward,” Darin said. “And that means we're going to have to switch up formation. Taji, let me and Erika past. Fall back and hang around Leah.”

“Right. Um, how are we going to do that?”

Darin sighed. “Can you crouch down?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry about this,” he said, and tried to scramble over Taji.

The climb wasn't exactly smooth, especially when the shaft of his halberd caught on the wall for a moment. Darin slipped and plummeted forward, face-planting onto the tunnel floor. He heard the others laughing over the telepathy link.

“Smooth moves,” Leah said. “Such a great example to everyone else.”

“You know what, why don't you walk in front?”

“Oh I would, but I imagine you'd still want me here in one piece at the end of the dungeon.”

Darin got up in time to see Erika vault over Taji and land smoothly.

“See? She can do it just fine.”

“She also has lighter weapons and armor,” Darin grumbled. He turned forward. “Well, come on. This dungeon isn't getting any smaller while we stand here.”

They had barely started and already the Cave of Origin had them on the back foot. Darin's character build could perform many roles, but it couldn't do them as well as a specialized player. He couldn't take nearly as much damage as Taji could absorb, and he didn't have the proper magic to augment his abilities either. At best he could continually heal himself, but that meant not being able to care for the rest of the party.

Changes were in order. The Cave of Origin was meant to test whether a team was ready for the big stage of the tournaments. That meant being able to both fight under ideal conditions and to be able to switch their tactic when needed. They never knew what kind of challenge they would face when they built their teams, so they had to be able to improvise. No one wanted to watch a horribly outmatched squad stumble about as their foes ran circles around them.

“We're going more offensive this time,” he said. “Taji, once we get into a fight use Stone Skin to make sure you stay alive and pick your spots. I don't want to lose you before we get into the tougher parts of the cave.”

“Got it.”

“Wouldn't it be better to have him just stay back?” Leah asked. “With Stone Skin activated he's not going to be doing much damage anyhow, and he's still going to have less armor than you. I'll use him as a guard.”

“OK, we'll do it your way. Erika, you're going to have to wade in with me. We'll be attacking aggressively, but we have to stay alive and keep any enemies from getting back to the second level.”

“I'm guessing that means making heavy use of Wraith,” she said.

“Yeah, that's probably for the best. And keep an eye on your health bar. If I'm tanking I'm going to have to focus most of the healing on myself. Let me know before you absolutely need it, otherwise I might not be able to help you fast enough.”

“Got it.”

“And you're going to have to pull us out of the fire as usual,” he added, glancing back over his shoulder.

“Was already planning on it,” Leah answered.

The corridor began to widen, and Darin prepared for what might lay ahead. More golems, probably. The cave might be unpredictable, but the monsters inside usually stayed consistent with a constant theme. It was where and how they were placed that made it a challenge.

Once again the chamber was empty as they stepped inside, but Darin wasn't fooled. He looked around, waiting for the enemies to show up. There had to be another passageway where they would appear from. Or maybe there was something else going on here. The game's designers were quite good at that, putting in little tricks that seemed minor but could dramatically change the complexion of a fight. Now if they-

“Above!” Erika shouted out.

Darin turned his head up in time to see a massive number of golems drop down from the ceiling. He counted dozens, scores of them, all with fire markings emblazoned across their bodies. The lines glowed a shade of flickering orange-red.

“OK, we're going to have to take them out quick,” he said.

Fire golems didn't have the defense of their earth counterparts, but they could deal out far more damage. A few of them weren't a threat, but the numbers amassed before them could add up to a lot of damage. And that was just the grunts. If there were any elites…

He had to dodge to one side as the first few golems sent fireballs streaking toward him. Darin jumped, then dove and rolled as more and more unleashed their attacks.

“Shoot them,” he said over the telepathy link. “Preferably with Force arrow.”

“Got it.”

They didn't have time to mess around. Darin figured that he and Erika could dodge the shots and take a few without much problem, but if the monsters started to hit Taji then he could be a goner. They needed him once the status effects wore off.

So here they were, trying to find the balance between charging headlong into fights and waiting too long and allowing tough enemies to spawn and kill them. They couldn't just hold back, and they couldn't just press forward. It needed to work in tandem. And that meant…

He saw a blue arrow streak into the midst of the enemy and impact on a golem. An instant later the shockwave ripped through the rest of them, shattering them all like porcelain dolls caught in a tornado. Darin had to shield himself as the blast rippled past him as well, watching his health bar decrease once again. As the wave faded away he cast heal on himself and Erika.

One shot. One shot had managed to destroy them all without a second thought. That was the nature of grunts. Sometimes they looked far more powerful than they actually were. At this point, effectively down one team member, he would take it.

“OK, good enough. Let's-”

“Um,” Erika interrupted him.

“What?”

She was looking at the ceiling again. “What about those?”

Darin craned his neck upward and had to bite back a curse when he saw what she was looking at. Three huge figures suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and stood before them.

They were fire golems, but they were much bigger than the grunts they had just faced. Darin knew they were elites, with offensive and defensive boosts to match. They weren't just going to fall down to one attack like the weaker hordes had done.

And their previous strategy wasn't going to work anyhow. Leah had already fired off her destruction spell, and it would be several minutes until she could use it again. There were other spells, but…

But at this point they needed everything they could get against a group of powerful monsters. With one of their own number severely weakened the team might be outmatched at this point.

Their challenge might end right here.

8

Leah drew back her bow, aiming for the magical seal on one of the golems. She hoped she could take it out in a single shot, since the target was much bigger…

But the creature swatted the arrow aside like it was a gnat. For all intents and purposes she shouldn't have even bothered to fire. If Leah's quiver wasn't endless it would have just been a waste of projectiles. As it was the only thing the unaugmented shots were good for was as a distraction.

And while it was bad enough fighting one elite, fighting three was infinitely worse. She had to keep her eyes on all of them at once, otherwise their powerful attacks could find their mark. And…

“Watch it,” she warned the others as another golem began charging up an attack. Leah watched it carefully, wondering where it would aim.

The monster fired. A brilliant orange beam streaked toward her. Leah had to dive headlong to one side and throw herself flat to avoid being incinerated. As it was she could feel the heat of the beam pass by her.

It took her a moment to regain her bearings and push herself back up onto her feet.

“You OK?” Taji asked through the telepathy link.

“I'm fine. But don't get hit,” she warned. “That's more than enough to ruin your day.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

Leah guessed that the beam wouldn't be a one-hit kill, but she didn't want to find out either. At the very least it would shave off a good chunk of their health. And with their ability to fight back limited at the moment they couldn't afford to spend time healing or regrouping.

She drew another arrow from her quiver and nocked it, simultaneously casting the Crush spell on the arrow as she did so. Once the projectile impacted on the target it would work almost exactly opposite of the Force spell, pulling inward instead of pushing outward. The motion was almost like compressing something inside a fist, hence the name Crush.

Leah drew back her bow again and sighted in on the target, once again aiming right for the magical seal. If she could just hit it, or even get close…

The arrow zipped through the air toward the golem, but the monster moved its arm to deflect the shot. This time the shaft impacted…

The creature reeled as the crush spell took effect, shattering the arm and doing a bit of damage to its body as well, but it was still alive and kicking. And more importantly she had just used one of her precious spells for little gain.

Leah's mind raced as she tried to come up with a new solution. Fire Blast would have no effect on a fire type monster. Force arrow was still recharging, and she just used crush. The water spell she knew could only be used at close range. Gale would do little good against a golem that was firmly anchored to the ground, and it didn't work well with arrows. And so-

She didn't have time to think any further. The second golem charged up its own beam and fired at her. Leah dodged aside again and rolled to her feet.

“Anyone have any ideas?” she asked. “I'm out of good spells to try.”

“We'll try to distract them while you recharge,” Darin said.

“Maybe I'll try the trick I used on the ogre,” Erika added.

Leah frowned. “Careful with that one. The ogre couldn't fire beams out of its eyes.”

They might not have any other choice at this point. Her arrows were useless if they weren't charged with magic. The golems could simply deflect them with no ill effects.

She looked up at the monstrosities and their magic seals, standing there almost tauntingly. It was right in front of them. Just one hit in the right spot and they could slay the monstrosities. But knowing that and actually doing that were two very different things, especially when the golems had their own defensive abilities.

Another beam streaked toward her. Leah dove to the side again and let out a yell of frustration.

“Are you OK?”

“I'm fine,” she said tersely. The monsters were targeting her, probably because she was dealing out the most damage.

Normally someone with defensive magic could cast challenge call to draw the enemy's attention, but if Taji tried it at the moment it would essentially be suicide. Thanks to the gas he had all the weight of heavy armor without any of its protection, and he probably couldn't dodge the beams.

She saw Erika cast Sky Walk and then move forward in a blur, closing the distance on one of the golems with Flash Step. It looked like she might score a hit…

But the creature swung its hand around, and in an instant she was falling, her health in the yellow. Even Flash Step's pure speed couldn't evade something so massive.

Leah nocked an arrow and fired, though at this point it did little good. She checked the timer on Force. Two more minutes. At this rate they weren't going to live that long.

“The beam,” Taji began to say, just as another attack flew toward her. Leah gritted her teeth and rolled to the side, coming back up with another arrow nocked in her bow.

“What about it?” she asked, firing her shot.

“Right before the golem fires the beam it freezes in place for a moment,” Taji said. “That might be a window to get a shot in without it trying to deflect the arrow.”

“Got it,” Leah replied. Whether that information was actually useful was seriously in doubt. Taji could be correct, but it only gave her a second. If she missed or didn't manage to kill the monster she'd be right in the path of the beam, and at this point she had barely dodged some of the shots.

“I don't know if I can do it,” she said. “It's really chancy.”

“The only other thing we can do is hold them off and wait until your force arrow recharges,” Darin said, “and we might not have enough time.”

She knew that very well, but Leah still had doubts about her shooting skills. The drop-off from A-rank to D-rank was vast, and she wasn't certain she still the precision needed for the shot. Larger targets were fine, but…

But with these golems the seals weren't that much bigger than the ones on their smaller cousins. It might present a relatively stationary target, but Leah would have to pull off the shot under pressure. If-

Leah saw one of the golems lift its foot and stomp downward, narrowly missing Erika with its strike. As it was the shockwave still took out a chunk of her health. The golem she had wounded with crush lashed out with its good arm, smashing the floor of the cave and forcing Darin to dodge as well. And the third moved into position, likely preparing to fire off another beam.

Leah took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She'd do it. She had to, otherwise they were stuck. Waiting for her abilities to recharge meant very little if half the party was dead before they could be used.

She drew an arrow out of her quiver and nocked it, then pulled back the bowstring in one smooth motion. Leah watched carefully as the third golem stopped in place and began charging up its beam attack. Her first instinct was to fire as soon as she saw the ball of energy begin to form, but she held off. If she fired too soon then the monster would move to deflect her shot.

Leah waited. She waited, watching the ball of energy grow bigger and bigger by the second. If the arrow didn't connect she was going to be little more than ash in a few seconds. Even if it did there was no guarantee the creature would fall in one hit. And…

She purged the thoughts from her mind, focusing in on her target. The world around her seemed to disappear. The cave, the rest of her teammates, the golems, everything else was gone. Leah was in her own little world with just her bow and the ball of light in front of her. And behind that ball of light lay her target.

She fired.

The golem jerked backward, almost like it had been shot in the face with a cannon. The beam of energy didn't face away, but as the creature let loose the orange-red light impacted on the ceiling, safely away from everyone else in the party.

Leah drew another arrow out of her quiver, wondering if she needed to make another shot to kill the beast. In a moment she drew back her bow, but then let it slacken. Another shot was completely unnecessary.

The golem fell forward, almost like it had stumbled onto its knees. In the blink of an eye Erika charged forward with Flash Step, landing a leaping blow with her rapier right in the creature's magic seal.

The golem crumbled into dust, but its comrades still fought on. Leah had to dodge another beam, rolling to her feet and nocking an arrow as she completed her roll. They weren't out of the woods yet, but now they were getting somewhere. Now she knew they could fight back and win.

* * *

Leah let out a sigh of relief as the last golem toppled over and crumbled into dust. Just three elites in this room, and they had almost killer her more than once. Even after taking out one and damaging another they were still dangerous, and one had almost managed to fry her with a random beam.

“Everyone still in one piece?” Darin asked.

“I'm fine,” Erika said cheerfully.

“Still in one piece,” Leah said. “Though at times it got pretty close.”

“I'm fine too,” Taji said. “Though I didn't do much. They didn't even target me, so it's not like I was even useful for that.”

“Hey, another pair of eyes is always useful,” Leah said. “I was too busy trying to dodge the beams and get off shots to notice the attack patterns. Thanks for that, by the way. We'd probably still be fighting if you didn't notice that.”

“Thanks.”

Darin cast healing over everyone in the party. “OK, we can't stay here. We have to keep moving. Same formation as last time, though hopefully when we get into the next encounter the poison gas will have worn off. That way we can go back to our original formation.”

“How much longer do we have left?” Erika asked. “That's two tough fights already. Aren't we up for a breather, or is it just going to keep getting harder and harder?”

Taji shrugged. “This is as bad as anything I've faced in here, and I had to make a run through every time I switched teams.”

Leah looked over at Darin. “Might have something to do with us. The cave does scale to the players going through, so having two high-level fighters going through might increase the difficulty.”

“We're still D-rank,” Darin said, “and this is still pretty difficult regardless. And does it really matter? The only way out is if we win or we get killed in the process.”

“Then let's get going.”

They moved through the next series of tunnels, encountering a few fire golem grunts that were easily dispatched with one hit. That might be their reprieve, and they still had to fight their way through. It wasn't hard, but still, Leah could see Darin's point. For the moment it seemed like everything was conspiring against them. Some unseen hand was throwing every obstacle possible in their path.

But that was just her being paranoid. Of course there was something controlling this entire thing. The world around them was just a construction of ones and zeroes, pumped into their brains and interpreted into data they could understand. A program was determining those numbers and randomly selecting when and how they would trigger. It seemed real but it was all artificial.

“Another chamber,” Darin said over the telepathy link. “Looks like this one has high ceilings. And there's stalactites hanging from the ceiling too. Taji, move up-”

“Don't go in there yet,” Leah interrupted him. “Wait for me to move up to join you.”

“Do you have another plan?”

She didn't respond as she walked up to the front of the group and looked through the doorway. Sure enough there were stalactites and rock outcroppings hanging from the ceiling, a whole bunch of them. Leah didn't see any enemies inside, but she thought she knew why.

“What are you doing?” Taji asked as she drew an arrow out of her quiver.

“Testing something.”

Leah drew back her bow and fired into the midst of the ceiling, trying to stir something up. Sure enough, a winged golem dropped down from the ceiling and flew around for a few seconds before returning to its roost.

“Air golems,” Darin said.

“Air golems with a bunch of places to hide,” Leah corrected him. “This is going to make it really hard to fight them off. They'll swoop in and attack, then go back up into the rocks on the ceiling to hide. I can't aim like that, and the rest of you are only going to be able to hit them when they dive down.”

“We'll just have to be quick,” Erika said.

“Yeah, that sounds like way too much of a chance,” Leah said. She drew another arrow and nocked it.

“Don't want to go in and fight?” Darin commented.

“Yeah, screw that.”

Leah cast Force arrow and sent the projectile streaking toward the ceiling. A moment later the shockwave ripped through the hanging rock formations, destroying large chunks and sending others plummeting toward the cavern floor. Air golems scattered everywhere, some badly damaged and unable to fly. Others were smashed into the ground by the falling debris.

“Keep an eye out in case they try to come get me,” Leah said. She targeted one of the large rock columns and cast Crush on the next arrow. The impact pulverized the facing on one side like it was an aluminum can being crumpled up in a fist. The stone structure tilted to one side and fell, taking out several more stalactites with it.

“So you're just going to keep casting destruction spells until we clear them out?” Erika asked.

“Or at least until they have no cover,” Darin said. “Taji, keep an eye on the tunnel so something doesn't spawn and sneak up on us.”

Leah sighted in another arrow and cast Fire Blast on it. This time, with most of the cover on the ceiling destroyed, the explosion reached a long way. Dozens of air golems burst into flame and dropped to the bottom of the chamber like roman candles.

“Looks like that's enough for now,” she said. “You three can clean up.”

Darin nodded. “Taji, with me. Erika, follow behind and guard our backs. And Leah, if you could help that'd be good too. We still can't hit anything that's flying above us.”

“Huh, what makes you think that I can manage that? Trying to shoot things with D-rank skills is hard,” Leah replied. She nocked an arrow anyhow and followed them in.

An air golem swooped low and tried to make an attack with its talons. Leah brought her bow up to make a quick shot, but she never got the chance to even fire. Taji took a swipe with his axe and caught the monster square in the body, smashing it with one hard blow.

“I'm going up with them,” Erika said, just before she cast Sky Walk. She leaped onto the platforms and took out a pair of golems with precise strikes.

There were stragglers, but at this point the room was essentially cleared. A few random grunts weren't going to be enough to stop them.

Leah felt like she had taken the cheap route, but she didn't feel guilty about it at all. So far the Cave of Origin had been nothing but trouble, with no easy opponents for them to face. Hordes of tough monsters, traps, and they weren't even finished yet. If the golem theme held out they still had a set of water creatures to deal with. And after that…

After that they still had to face the worst challenge of the dungeon, the final bosses. Right now she had a feeling they'd end up facing one of the stronger teams.

The next corridor was far shorter than the other ones, and opened up into yet another chamber. Water flowed out of spouts embedded in the walls, forming a large pool on the cave floor. There was one narrow route across, meandering and weaving in all different directions. Leah looked down into the water to see how deep it might be, but the bottom wasn't visible.

“Sure looks like a lovely spot for an ambush,” Taji commented.

“Seems like it,” Darin said. “And it sure seems like we have the worst luck. There's no dodging this.”

“What about if I sky-walked over to the other side?” Erika asked.

“That'd be all well and good if we knew the room was safe, but it's not. I'm almost certain that there's water golems in here somewhere,” Taji said. “And then you're on the other side cut off from the rest of us.”

“Have to cross this place somehow,” Darin said.

Leah thought for a moment. “Well, we could be careful. Go slow and try to make sure we're well-guarded wherever we go.”

“Or?”

“Or we just run through and smash everything that gets in our way,” she said. “At this point I'm willing to risk it, because this is getting annoying.”

She knew very well that she was being impulsive. Right now they were almost all the way through the dungeon, and dying now meant starting over from the very beginning along with losing one of their precious chances to make the next tournament.

But being able to adapt and take calculated risks was one of the most important skills in the tournaments, especially in the higher divisions. Right now Leah thought this was worth taking the chance, because there was no guarantee that taking it slow would be any safer. At the rate things were going she half expected there to be a boss-class creature in here.

“It's a risk,” Darin said.

“Yeah. And I'm tired of waiting around. Let's go.”

She might have been the one advocating for patience on their journey up to the top, but even she had limits as to how much time she wanted to waste. Let this place try to stop them. They would smash their way through, just like they had dealt with the rest.

To her surprise the opposition in the water room was fairly light, consisting of only a few water golems that popped out of the pool and attacked. Darin and Taji had taken care of them in short order, so quickly that Leah hadn't even needed to draw her bow.

She supposed that she should have been thankful for the respite, but the change made her uneasy. Were they over the hump, so to speak, or was their final challenge going to be even more difficult?

“Here we are,” Darin said as they stood in front of the last hallway leading to the boss room.

A pair of doors blocked their path, made of blackened iron and decorated with all manner of symbols and sculptures. Swords, dragons, wolves, warriors, they all blended together and made for an intimidating sight. Leah felt her unease grow even more as she looked at them.

It wasn't the sight of the doors that gave her pause. She had seen them before, and they looked the same as always. No, it was what lay behind them, waiting for her team. Leah knew very well that the tough challenges they faced on the way here were nothing more than a prelude, a way to weed out the woefully unprepared teams. This was where the real test began, the one that separated the capable teams form everyone else. And despite facing down this challenge before, Leah still felt the nerves.

There were so many difference, so many little things that could go wrong. They had a team with two relatively new players. Taji at least had some experience in tournament style matches, but Erika was completely new. They had no idea what kind of team they'd be facing here either. Would they be standard? A team focused on ranged attacks, or one that used speed? Something else? There was no way to know until they opened the door.

But then, that was the way the tournaments worked. Teams had to submit their character builds in advance, but no one except the tournament committee knew that information until the match started. A team bringing a new configuration or strategy could spring it on the enemy and achieve the element of surprise before they knew what was happening. The Cave of Origin was no different.

She looked over at Darin. “Do we bother formulating a plan before we go in?”

“Since we don't even know what we're facing that's not going to help.” He turned to the others. “Just stick with the basics and don't take any risks until we know what we're up against. We'll come up with our plan of attack then.

Leah made one last check of her health and equipment. Good enough. Now it was time for them to put up or shut up.

“Ready?” Darin asked.

Everyone else nodded.

He pushed open the doors. “Let's go.”

They stepped into the final chamber. Leah noted that it looked the same as the last time she had been here. The entire room was made of cut stone instead of being carved out of the rock like the rest of the cave. Torches lit the area, but part of the wall on the other side of the chamber remained shrouded in darkness. That was where the enemy would appear from.

She tensed for a moment as the darkness suddenly lit up. New torches burned against the far wall, illuminating a quartet of banners. It took a moment for Leah to realize what kind of symbol was emblazoned on them.

It was a wolf, pitch-black and howling.

“Of course,” she heard Darin say in a resigned tone. “Of course we get the Black Wolves.”

Leah didn't have time to respond. Four shadowy figures seemed to appear out of thin air and charged toward them. She yanked an arrow out of her quiver and drew her bow back.

It was crunch time.

9

Darin was completely taken aback by the speed of his opponents. He had heard about the Black Wolves, but he had never actually encountered them inside the Cave of Origin. Neither had many others, and fewer still had managed to live through their encounter. Some god had it out for them, or they would have if this wasn't a virtual reality. In this case his team might just have the worst luck possible.

He brought his weapon around to parry, just as one of the shadowy figures charged at him. Darin barely managed to deflect the blow, and the force of the attack still rattled his weapon. The haft of his halberd vibrated violently, sending a shock through his hands and causing him to grit his teeth.

Another blur charged at him, this one far faster than the last. Darin tried to dodge again, but he couldn't get out of the way. The pair of daggers cut at him, deflecting off his armor but sending him stumbling backward. He whipped his weapon around in an arc, trying to score a hit or at least force the enemy to fall back, but cut nothing but air. His foe was already gone.

Darin activated the telepathy link. “We have a damage dealer with a longsword and medium armor, and a dual-wielding rogue with manipulation magic. It already used Flash Step on me.”

“There's an archer too. Looks like it's using support magic,” Leah said. “I-”

Her voice suddenly cut off, but Darin didn't have time to check. The rogue came back around for another attack, and again he had to deflect it off of his armor. He hadn't lost much health so far, but one of the attacks was going to find its mark and cause a critical hit.

“I'm casting Challenge Call now,” Taji said.

“Stay on the defensive. Don't open yourself up to attack,” Darin ordered. “And make sure you add on Stone Skin as well.”

“Got it.”

“Casting Pre-sight,” Darin told the others. He would have done it at the beginning of the battle, but the speed of the enemy attack had forced him to defend and spoiled his chance.

“Um, Darin?”

“Yeah?”

“I'm a little stuck right now,” Leah told him

He chanced a look over his shoulder. A pair of chains hung off her armor, connecting her to the ground and restricting her movement.

“Taji, Erika, keep an eye on the enemy and make sure they don't get near Leah,” he ordered.

Binding. The archer must have cast Bind on one of their arrows, and a fairly high-level one at that. Darin also had the power, but his was only made of rope. It was still useful if he could score a hit, but managing that would be difficult.

And the ropes weren't much against hordes of enemies or large foes, making them only effective against human-sized targets. That was all well and good, but Darin didn't think he could hit any of the Black Wolves with it. They were moving far too fast.

And they had only accounted for three of them. Under standard configuration they'd have a tank somewhere. Where was it? If he-

“Up!” Erika yelled out.

He saw the glow before anything else. Sky Walk. Something had just cast Sky Walk. And a split-second later another shadowy figure leaped down across the platforms, moving in a blur. This one had a longsword in its grasp, and Darin knew he wasn't going to get his weapon up in time to block. His armor might not hold up against a strike from a strong weapon like that either. If only-

Another series of platforms suddenly appeared in the air. Before he even knew what was happening another blur charged into the fray, forcing the other one to back off.

“So they have no tank and two rogues, along with an archer and damager,” Leah said. “That's going to be a problem.”

Darin looked around, trying to regain his bearings. Taji stood his ground, fending off attacks from the enemy damager with his shield. Leah still remained chained to the ground, and the enemy archer was nowhere to be seen. One rogue had retreated, the other was still on the platforms. Erika wasn't visible either, so she must have been the blur that saved him.

“What do you want to try?” Leah asked.

“Hold off on using destruction spells for a second. Let's know what we're aiming at first.”

“And then?”

“Try to keep the enemy off our backs,” Darin said. “Taji, I'm going to try to gang up on one of the enemies with you. Try to keep your guy in place.”

“Got it.”

Darin looked around, trying to determine the location of the second rogue. He didn't want to end up charging into a fight only to get stabbed in the back. There weren't many places for it to hide, but he couldn't spot his foe. Was it regrouping, or waiting for him to turn his back so it could strike? The AI for these opponents was far beyond anything else in the cave.

He had to take a chance, though, otherwise they'd be stuck in a stalemate. And with their most powerful attacker stuck in place they were at a huge disadvantage. Right now they had to focus on taking down at least one of the enemy. If they could just get it to a four on three fight a lot of different options opened up.

The attacker with the longsword would make a good target. It didn't have the specialized manipulation spells of the rogues, or the range of the archer, but it would be the easiest to kill and could still do a fair amount of damage if left alive.

Darin cast binding in his hand and held it for a moment, trying to decide when to fire his shot. Bind wasn't terribly accurate unless it was cast on a weapon or another projectile, and he didn't have anything he could use at range. There was also the danger of friendly fire. If he missed and hit Taji by mistake they'd have two players that were effectively immobilized.

That left him with only one choice. Darin gripped his weapon in his left hand and charged forward, hoping to cast the spell at close range. If he could just get within ten feet or so he'd have a point-blank shot. If only the-

Another blur suddenly appeared in front of him and struck. Darin didn't even have time to properly react before his foe had disappeared in the blink of an eye. He saw his health bar drop into the yellow in an instant.

But right now he was committed to the attack. He had to expend the last spell before he could cast healing, and he might as well make it count for something.

“Hold him in place,” he ordered Taji over the telepathy link, and sprang forward to close the final distance.

The enemy fighter started to turn and move away, but Taji caught it with a blow from his sword and sent it staggering. That second's worth of distraction was more than enough for him. Darin reached out and cast Bind. Ropes snaked around the enemy's limbs, anchoring them to the ground. They lashed out with their blade trying to cut free, but it made an opening.

“Take it out,” Darin said, and leaped in with a two-handed overhead strike. His chomp cut away one of the ropes, but it also left the enemy fighter with a massive gash running down one side.

Taji charged in as well, swinging his shield to bash out and stun the fighter further. Another sword stroke cut away more ropes and inflicted even more damage, though with Stone Skin active it wasn't a lot. Every little bit counted. Besides, it provided another distraction.

Darin whirled his weapon around and came back with another overhead strike, this time aiming for the enemy's skull with the halberd's back spike. He felt the impact, almost like a crunch, and then the resistance was suddenly gone. His target toppled over, stone dead.

He didn't have time to celebrate. An arrow suddenly thudded into his side, knocking him off balance for a moment and causing his health to drop even further. The damage wasn't the worst part, though. No, it was the status effect that came with it. And right now that was enough to throw their entire plan off balance, even with one of the enemy down.

“Guys, I have to fall back,” he said. “One more good hit and I'm done for.”

“We'll handle it from here,” Taji said.

Erika didn't respond, which didn't surprise him in the slightest. She was still caught up in her battle with one of the rogues, hopping across the aerial platforms, the cave floor, even the walls and the ceiling at times.

Darin moved back beside Leah, wondering when the status effect would wear off. The archer had cast Weeping Wounds on the arrow, a high-level support spell that prevented the target from being healed for several minutes. Coupled with the damage that he had already suffered and Darin was in a tight spot. If he took any more damage he risked being killed, and that would put the team at a severe disadvantage. At least this way he could wait for the timer to run out, heal himself and then go back into the fray. Hopefully the others could hold out until then.

But it put them in a tight spot. With Leah chained to her spot and his own damage preventing him from joining the fight it was up to their two newest members to carry the load. And they'd have to do it against the toughest possible boss combination, to boot.

“Not how I planned on this going,” he commented to Leah.

She drew back her bow and snapped off a shot. “Not how I planned it either, but isn't how it always goes? Your plan's only good for the first thirty seconds before everything starts to go wrong. Now it's about seeing what we can salvage.”

“Or what they can,” he said. Another arrow came streaking toward him, but the Pre-sight ability he had cast helped him to get out of the way. That was all that he was good for at this point.

“I think it's time we stopped playing around,” Leah said.

“Oh, this is what you call playing around?”

“Since I haven't used any of my destruction spells I think that counts. I'm killing that archer, and I'm using everything I can to make that happen.”

“Go ahead,” he told her. Saving the spells meant very little if the enemy just picked them all off one at a time. The sooner they could get rid of the archer, the sooner they had less enemies to worry about. And once they were abler to fight four on two the battle would swing even further in their favor.

That was, if they were in any shape to fight at that point. Taji held steady, fighting off one of the rogues who charged in and out making strikes. Even without using Flash Step it was too fast for him to hit, especially when he carried a bulky set of armor and the weight of a shield and battle axe.

Erika still fought with the other rogue, this time using wraith as another trump card. Her enemy must have mirrored her, because there were at least a dozen figures fighting it out. And then there was the archer, the one thing that was causing most of the problems. The rogues were difficult to deal with, and the swordsman damager had caused problems as well, but it the archer that was making things hard. It could reach out and hit anyone, and everyone had to keep their head on a swivel. Darin had failed to do so and was now stuck in his current predicament.

At least the archer didn't have destruction magic, because then they would have been in serious trouble. The support magic was bad enough, though, and it worked in synergy with the rest of the team. Instead of dealing out huge amounts of damage like Leah was wont to do, the enemy archer focused on slowing down their team and creating openings for the rogues to make quick strikes. It was working too. Even though the Black Wolves hadn't killed anyone, Darin was effectively out for the time being and Leah was severely limited.

But she could still lash out, and that might be their best hope for completely turing the fighting in their favor. The question was, could she get a good shot in without hitting anyone else? They didn't have a huge amount of room in here.

“I'm starting off with a Fire Blast arrow,” Leah said over telepathy. “Make sure you don't get caught up in the blast.”

Darin watched her pull back her bow and cast the spell, feeling the frustration simmering inside him. Right now he was just a bystander, doing nothing because wading into the fight was far too much of a risk. He could provide some limited direction, heal the others if needed too, but he felt like he should be on the front, fighting off the rest of the Black Wolves.

And the worst part about it was that he was right here, but he couldn't do anything to help the other two. Their success was largely dependent on the new players. The thought kept repeating in his mind, no matter how much confidence he placed in them.

Darin couldn't help it. He felt so weak at this point, a shell of his former abilities as a top-ranked player. A month or two ago this fight would have been a cake walk, not every worthy worrying about. Anything short of a legendary-class monster would have fallen victim to Silver Star.

But then, there wasn't much drama in that either. Chad's words echoed in his mind. No one wanted to watch an invincible team stay on top for too long. After a while there was no drama, no excitement watching challengers line up and go to their doom like cattle to the slaughter. If someone wanted to change that, if someone wanted to shake up the entire complexion of the tournaments and breathe life into them…

He hated to admit it, but whether he liked it or not the entire world of Avalon Online was changing. He could fight and claw every inch of the way, hoping against all odds that things would stay the way they were, even though deep down he knew it would never happen. Or, he could find a way to adapt to the changes, moving forward instead of dwelling in the past.

And part of that meant trusting his teammates both new and old. They weren't going to get anywhere if he continually babied Erika and Taji.

He glanced down at the timer in the corner of his vision. One minute. One minute until the effects of Weeping Wounds ended and he could heal himself. Just one minute, but a lot could happen in that span of time. Their fate could be decided before he even got the chance to go back into the fray…

Trust, though. Trust in his teammates. They'd do it. They'd find a way to pull through, even in his absence. If they were aiming for the top there were times he was going to be down and out, and it would be up to the others to carry the team. They might as well start right here.

Leah fired her arrow.

The enemy archer tried to dodge out of the way, but Leah's shot landed far too close. The resultant explosion rocked the entire chamber, sending a gust of wind rippling past and tugging at his cloak. Erika and Taji both took a bit of damage, but the enemy archer bore the brunt of the destruction.

Somehow it managed to survive the first shot, but just barely. It stumbled around, one leg hanging limp. Even at this distance Darin could see its health bar was firmly in the red.

“Why didn't you do that before?” he asked.

“Because you told me not to,” she retorted. “And because you were way too close to it and would have taken damage. Count yourself lucky I decided not to. If I had fired off a shot like that the rogue attack that hit you would probably have killed you.”

“It's still alive...”

Leah drew back her bow again. “Not for long. Guys, I'm firing a Force arrow. Plan accordingly.”

A moment later a shockwave ripped through the chamber, putting the archer down for good. For one awful moment Darin thought Erika had been caught up in the blast as well, but the figure that flashed away was a doppelgänger. She remained upright and fighting with relatively low damage to show for it.

The timer disappeared. Darin quickly cast heal on the entire party, then grabbed his halberd in both hands and charged back into the fray. Two down. Taji still stood, facing off against one of the rogues and taking continual damage. He wouldn't succumb, but he also couldn't hit his fast-moving opponent.

Darin could change that in a flash, though.

“Taji, I'm coming up beside you. Watch where you swing.”

“Got it.”

Darin watched the rogue's moves carefully, trying to decipher its movements. The figure traveled fast, though it was clearly visible and definitely not using flash step. If it had been there would have been nothing more than a blur. It would be difficult to predict where the rogue would turn up next.

But that was where his weapon came in. Darin didn't have to be precise like Leah or Erika. With such a long reach all he had to do was swing it in a quick, wide arc, and chances were that he'd hit something.

Darin did just that. He swung, expecting to feel the impact at any moment. But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. He frowned and adjusted his grip, reversing the swing and coming back around with the spike of his weapon. If he couldn't get it moving forward…

He saw the enemy rogue come in for another attack and realized his strike wasn't going to connect. Darin tried to shift his aim again, but he didn't think he could reverse the swing in time. The rogue was going to be in and out before he could adjust. If only-

The impact surprised him, so much so that he almost dropped his weapon as the shaft reverberated from the blow. It took Darin a moment to even realize what had just happened. The enemy rogue had jumped right into the path of his swing and suffered a grievous blow. Darin brought his weapon around and prepared to finish his foe off, but he never got the chance. A rapier slid right into the armor joint on the neck, killing the rogue instantly.

“So, that's the end of them all,” Erika said.

“Wait, so you finished off the other one?” Taji asked.

Darin made a face. “You killed it in a one-on-one duel? How'd you manage that?”

“I had reach, and my weapon is really quick and easy to maneuver. I used that to keep the enemy at a distance and then I picked my spots. It took a while, but I was able to finish it off without taking much damage.”

“You put all of us to shame,” Leah said. She walked up to join them, free of her bindings. “I got one kill because I hit it with two destruction spells, and the other two just ganged up on their kills.”

Darin looked over at Taji. “So did you swing at the second one?”

“Yeah, I was kind of hoping that we could at least corner it. And it worked out for the best, because I wasn't expecting it to just jump into your swing.”

“Limitations of an AI,” Leah shrugged. “It's better than anything out there in the cave, but it still can't completely replicate human behavior.”

“I'll take it. That thing was really starting to get annoying.”

Erika knelt down. “Speaking of which, any idea what these things are?” She lifted up a black stone that glinted in the low light of the cavern.

“Never seen it before,” Leah said.

“Yeah, neither have I. Are there more of them?” Taji asked.

The group quickly searched the rest of the chamber and found three more.

“I guess that it's a loot drop from the boss battle?” Erika said. “But it doesn't say what it is.”

“That probably means it needs an appraisal,” Leah said.

Darin nodded. “Yeah, that's probably in order. I have a friend that can do it. But first we have to finish this place up.”

“Aren't we done?” Erika asked.

“With the fighting. But not with what we came here for. There's one more chamber,” he said, pointing to a tunnel that had just opened up at the far end of the room. “That confirms we completed the Cave of Origin, and it also has a teleport portal to the outside. Unless you want to walk all the way back?”

“I'll pass, thanks.”

A stone pedestal stood in the center of the next chamber, waiting for them as they approached. As soon as all of them were inside the passageway behind them shut, and the pillar lit up with lines of brilliant yellow light.

“What's our team name going to be?” Taji asked.

Erika smiled. “Putting us on the spot, huh?”

“No, I mean we don't actually get to choose a name. The cave randomly selects one and gives it to us. That's how every team that takes part in the tournament gets them.”

“That sounds kind of disappointing. What if you don't like it?”

“They tend to be fairly neutral names at worst,” Leah told her. “Nothing embarrassing.”

“But still, wouldn't you like to have the ability to make it up?”

Darin shook his head. “I never really thought about it that way. I guess I always believed that it was the team that made the name, not the other way around. That our performance in the tournaments would be what made the name famous.”

“I agree with that,” Leah added. “We weren't great because of Silver Star. Silver Star was great because we made it that way.”

“Huh, that's pretty profound, actually. Almost sappy, in a way.”

Darin cracked a smile. “Well, let's not stand around all day. I want to see what name we earned at least.”

He walked forward and put his hand on the pedestal. The light shinned ever brighter for a moment, before it arced up into the air and formed a series of letters.

Their name was Raven's Call.

10

They had cleared the first hurdle, but that was only one step in a long journey to the top. The newly-formed Raven's Call might have qualified for the D-rank tournament, but they still had many things to completely before they were fully prepared.

Leah walked along the streets of the main hub, shopping, observing, picking up information and gossip wherever she could. Her team had the skills to challenge for the top, but they also only had very basic equipment at this point. If they wanted to make a serious challenge to move up to C-rank they needed as many advantages as they could get, even if they were small.

But it wasn't just a matter of buying the equipment with the highest stats and using it. There were always restrictions as to what they could use depending on their rank. A-rank equipment was better than B rank and required a higher skill level to use, and so on and so forth.

Their skill level was a point value directly tied to how many enemies they had defeated, and in the case of the tournaments it worked in tiers. A D-rank player could have killed the exact number of enemies that an A-rank player had, but once they stepped inside the arena the cap went into place. The players could only use skills and equipment up to a certain level until they progressed to the next rank.

And then there was the issue of the point values that came along with everything. All players had a point value determined by their equipment and skill level, which translated into how powerful the team ranked and how many points their foes received when they defeated them. A team in the D-rank with maxed-out skills and equipment would be worth 20,000 points, 5,000 for each individual player.

It seemed like nothing more than a formality of the scoring system, but Leah's time in the A-ranks had taught her far differently. The tallest blade of grass was the first one to get cut, or so they said, and it was no different in the Avalon Online tournaments. In multi-team matches, the strongest team was often targeted by all the others if they had a significant advantage.

And strength was a relative term anyhow. Support magic was considered to be less powerful than destruction magic by the points system, but used correctly it could be just as strong, or even capable of exceeding it in some cases. Her team's fight against the Black Wolves had been proof of that.

The enemy archer had also given her some ideas about a possible new character build…

But there was another quirk to the points system, one that many teams tried to manipulate to their advantage. There were dozens of stages that a match could take place inside, ranging from forests, to swamps, to mountains, to caverns and many more locations. Every place had its quirks, its secrets and pitfalls that could greatly influence the outcome of a battle.

That was where the points system came into play. In every matchup, unless the stage was already defined, the lowest-ranking team was given the choice to pick the stage. There were limits, of course: once a team used a stage they couldn't pick it in any successive match-ups should they advance in the tournament. But even so, that gave the lower team a great advantage.

It was enough to spark upsets in the first round, since the lower team had the ability to know what stage they were picking and plan accordingly. Some teams even used that as a central part of their strategy, relying on terrain to carry them to victory. If they knew what they'd be up against then they could lower their point values just enough that they'd be able to pick the location in every matchup. That was plenty possible as well, and Silver Star had done it more than once.

There was risk when choosing that strategy, of course. Since the point totals were gathered up to the deadline and release en masse there was no guarantee that a team could accurately predict what the others would do. They could lower their point totals even further to make sure that they were always able to pick the stage, but then they ran the risk of being severely underpowered. A team had tried that once against Silver Star, making an elaborate plan that relied on the swamp stage. It would have worked perfectly, except for the fact that they were too weak to stand against a powerful foe. Once Silver Star had figured out the enemy trap they had simply steamrolled over them with brute force.

That was just one of the parts of the metagame that went on in the tournament scene, with teams trying to gain even the slightest edge over their opponents. Leah didn't think it would be much of a problem in the D-ranks with so many inexperienced teams starting out, but habit made her think about it anyhow. And if they were going back to A-rank then it wouldn't do to have that skill wither away.

She was in the process of moving to another shop when a voice called out to her.

“Out on the town alone?” Leslie asked as she walked up, her long black hair flowing behind her almost like it was being tugged at by a gentle breeze.

“Still have the hair effect on, I see,” Leah commented.

“It looks good. Especially for someone in a team called Night Dragon,” Leslie said. “Besides, I want to look stylish, if I can. If you can't be the best, at least be entertaining.”

“Oh I can't argue with that. How have you been?”

“Been better. We lost in the tournament semifinals, though it was pretty close. But we still moved up in ranking since we finished third.”

“Wouldn't everyone since there was one less team?”

“Yeah, well, we moved up four spots anyhow, so it wasn't just a reshuffling because you guys weren't there.”

“I wouldn't be surprised if you were up at the top before long.”

Leslie laughed. “Ah, thanks for the vote of confidence. And this is probably going to sound horrible, but I'm not so sure. That's the goal. Getting to the top, I mean. I'm just not quite sure we have what it takes to do it. We can get near it. It's just that one little hump...”

“I know what that's like.”

“Huh, do you really?”

Leah looked up as another voice joined in the conversation. This one was male, and it sounded very familiar…

She recognized the newcomer at once, but she didn't quite believe it either. The person before he was familiar enough: a medium build and height, light-colored skin and short-cropped blonde hair, but he wasn't dressed in silver like she had usually seen him wearing.

Leslie looked over her shoulder at him too. “Well, you seem to have a lot of nerve, just interrupting us like that. And for even showing your face around here for that matter.”

Leo shrugged. “I'm not sure what you're getting at. I'm a player here too.”

“You know exactly what I mean. I-”

Leah interrupted her. “It's fine. I'm sure he's smart enough to know that there's bad blood all around. Though coming around just to taunt someone is pretty low. Way lower than I thought he'd go.”

Leo gave her a confused look. “I'm not here to taunt you.”

“It sure sounds like it,” Leslie observed. “And why should she believe you? You're the reason they were busted back down to D-rank.”

“The commission-”

“Yeah, the commission said this and that, but only an idiot believes them. Anyone with a brain knows who's actually at fault. We watched the match. Are you really going to claim that Darin and Leah are at fault for that?”

Leo shrugged. “We suffered the same fate as them.”

“Yeah, I bet. Except you were probably planning on something like that happening, weren't you? So can you really count that? Or are you just going to keep going on and on about some sob story that no one believes. And-”

Leah cut her off. “Hold on a second.” She turned to Leo. “What were you saying about me knowing something?”

“Oh, that. I was wondering if you really knew what it was like not to be able to get over the hump, that's all,” Leo told her. “Not like that was really ever much of a problem.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Walking around. Talking. Recruiting. You wouldn't be willing to join a team, would you?”

“Is that even a serious question?” Leslie spoke up.

“That depends on the answer. Her answer,” Leo replied with an acidic tone.

“Sorry, but there's too much going on there. Plus, I have my own team.”

“With Darin, huh? Figures. You were always the loyal one in the group. I would have asked for you to join us, but I think you would have given the game away.”

Leah looked at him in disbelief. “What… What did you say?”

“OK, that was a poor choice of words. But the scene at the top was becoming pretty lonely. Did you really want things to stay the way they were? Where we were all just four soulless robots putting on the same show year after year?”

“You had no problems taking the money from that,” Leslie pointed out.

“Maybe I should have had problems with that. Maybe not giving back all the money from that makes me a hypocrite. But it doesn't mean what I'm saying isn't true either.”

“So this was planned from the beginning?” Leah asked, wondering if she should delve any further.

What did it matter? She had a new team that with a clear goal in front of them. They needed to focus on the D rank tournament if they wanted to have any success. And yet, she still wanted to know. Her questions about the betrayal hadn't been answered, and as loathe as she was to admit it, Leah at least wanted to know why it had happened.

“Define beginning.”

“You know, you're starting to become really insufferable, and I don't remember you being that way,” Leslie said.

“Maybe it's because I started seeing things a different way and got sick of just going along with the flow,” he retorted. “If that makes people hate me, so be it. I'd rather be honest with myself than pretend everything is fine just to get along.”

“You certainly did a good job of it up until you stabbed us both in the back,” Leah commented. “Would it have killed you to warn us about that before or after the match, not during it?”

Leo looked away. “Yeah, I wasn't happy about that either. But that was how things worked out.”

Leah felt a flash of anger despite herself. The way he had just casually responded irked her. She felt the urge to punch him, but tried to restrain her anger. It wouldn't do her any good, and she didn't want to lose face by striking out at him. Instead, she responded with words.

“So that's it? You're not happy that you threw away our name and got us all punished, just because you and Jon couldn't be bothered to bring this up outside of a match?”

“You're really looking worse and worse here,” Leslie said.

Leo looked down at his feet. “Yeah, I know. And I'm not happy about the way I acted. But it was what I thought I had to do at the time.”

“What you thought you had to do?” Leah asked.

He looked straight at her. “Yeah. I'm not proud about the way it went down, but it happened. And the breakup had to happen too.”

“Why?”

“Did you not see it? Did you really not see it? What happened to us while we were at the top? Once we took the top spot everything became about winning. When was the last time that we went out into the overworld, huh? When was the last time we did anything other than fight in the arenas?”

“So that's it?”

“What do you mean, that's it? Are you really happy with that? We were nothing more than a machine. Everything about us was focused on winning and nothing else. And the four of us were just cogs in the machine. There's nothing left of the old Silver Star. It's dead, and I couldn't be happier. That thing we were at the end was an abomination.”

Leah didn't respond. She couldn't, not when she had similar thoughts in the past. They weren't as strong or as disdainful as Leo's but still, she had felt something like that as well. Silver Star may have been a triumph, but their reign at the top of the A-rank division had changed something, fundamentally altered they way they looked at the virtual world. When it stopped being about adventure and goals and just became a matter of numbers and tactics, that as where the magic of this place died.

And they must have felt it. From what Leo had just told her Jon believed it as well. The team's soul had been ripped out as they fended off challengers to their throne. At first they fought with the same fire they had while they pushed toward the top, but gradually it died away. What replaced it was cold, efficient, effective. It had brought them a lot of success, fame and wealth, but…

But it was a shell of what they used to be, and Leah had felt its effects even as they fought to stay on top. Nothing except winning mattered, and everything was focused on it. Even when she was outside of the virtual world she thought about it constantly.

“I can't argue about that,” Leah told him quietly. “I know how you feel. I felt it too. But there were better ways to go about it.”

“I know that.”

“So does that mean you're out of the tournament?” Leslie demanded.

Leo turned around. “For now. We'll be back to claim the top spot with a new team. And we'll do it the right way. But for now we'll take the time to regroup.”

“Don't drag another team down with you like that,” Leah said.

“I could tell you the same thing,” he replied. “You're in the next tournament, right? I know very well that neither of you two can sit out. You're both too competitive.”

“Darin is the competitive one, not her,” Leslie said. “Though I don't see how that's even a relevant part of the discussion.”

Leo shook his head. “They both are. She may have a bit more control over it, or maybe she doesn't want to admit it. But she's still ridiculously competitive.”

“Everyone in the tournaments is competitive. Everyone at the A-rank level is ridiculously competitive. Are you sure you're not just lashing out because you couldn't hack it at the top of the division?”

“I said that, did I? That I was sick of the whole thing at the top. And I'm sick of the attitude up there too. Everyone thinks that there's only one way to do it, and everything has to be treated seriously. Everything has to be taken seriously and there's the right way to do things. What happened to it being fun? What happened to being able to take some joy out of it? We're all just mindless drones.”

“And you're just going to complain about it, huh?”

“No. We're going to change it. We're taking the top again, and we're going to do it the right way.”

“That'll be a change from the way you seem to be operating lately,” Leslie commented. “And you seem to presume a lot, to think that you're just going to get back to the A-rank just like that. Especially when you don't even have a team in the tournament.”

Leo let out a sigh. “Look, Leah, we don't have any grudges against you. And you have the right to be mad at us. I don't disagree with that. But don't make the same mistakes as last time and drag another team down like that.”

“Yeah.” Leah watched him walk away without another word. His attitude rubbed her the wrong way, but what he said…

“What a jerk,” Leslie commented. “He has a lot of nerve, talking to you like that.”

“Maybe he's right, in some way,” Leah shrugged.

“You can't seriously believe that.”

“Be honest, aren't you getting a bit tired about how things are at the top? I don't agree with the way he said it or the way they just ditched us, but he might have a point. It's not like I haven't thought about it before either.”

Leslie bit her lip. “That's still no reason to just abandon your team in the middle of a fight. Even if you have your reasons, that's still a betrayal when there are other options.

She sighed. “Yeah. It still sucks.”

Leo's words stuck with her, though. He wanted to bring back the game's soul, not to continue on the path they had already traveled and he had come to despise. Leah still had those feelings as well. The top might have seemed glamorous, but it was lonely too. So much of their time had been spent merely maintaining their spot, leaving them little time for their excursions into the wider world of Avalon Online.

And after their challenge in the Cave of Origin, Leo's point seemed even more pronounced. The dungeon had been something different, something exciting and a bit unpredictable. She and Darin had been able to use their knowledge and experience to make things easier, but it was still a change of pace.

It wasn't just the environments either. The enthusiasm of their new teammates had been infectious, and even after all of her hours spent in Avalon Online it had felt like something new.

“I think he's right,” Leah said. “Or at least, I think he's partially right. A change needed to happen at the top. And I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that with my new team too. And I hope you do too.”

“So bring some of the fun back to the upper ranks,” Leslie nodded. “That's not far off from what we already thought. But some people say that Night Dragon doesn't have the killer instinct we need. And will this really change anything? Other teams will want to keep their spot by any means.”

“Would you really want to abandon everything that makes Night Dragon what it is?” Leah asked. “I can see his point. Silver Star did that, and look at where we are now. I can't deny his point. I'm competitive, and I want to get back up on top. But I want to do it the right way. I want to enjoy the ride up, and I want it to continue while we're up there.”

“Sound like you have your goal.”

“And what about you?”

Leslie shrugged. “Well, we'll probably keep going the way things are. It did take us to third place, at least. And who knows, maybe it'll take us to first.”

Leah nodded. “That's the aim. We'll get to the top. But we'll do it our way.”

11

Darin heard the bell ring as he opened the shop door and stepped inside.

“You there Morri?”

“That who I think it is?” a female voice answered.

“Depends on who you think it is.”

A woman with short black hair and pale skin stepped out of the back. Darin noted she was dressed in a smith's apron as usual, and wore a pair of gloves as well.

“Just who I thought it was,” Morri said. “One of the few people that can actually get the name right.”

Darin smiled. “Sure thing. Morgan.”

She scowled. “Hah hah, so funny. I don't see how it's that difficult to get straight. Morgan has two syllables, Morrigan has three. How do they manage to get that confused?”

“They do sound similar if you say them fast.”

“Huh, not you too. You better not be here asking for a favor if you're going to be like that.”

“What if I was running an errand for Leah?”

“Then she should've send a better errand boy,” Morri replied with an amused smile. “So, what did you want?”

“The D-rank tournament's coming up.”

“Yep, and I've been making good coin selling weapons and armor to the players that air aiming for it. Always do, since they can't always get good item drops out in the wilds. So is that what you're here for? I have a good selection of pretty much anything you could want. All of the highest quality, in fact. And don't you forget it.”

Darin smiled. “Yeah.”

“I mean it. Don't go around spreading nasty rumors about my business.”

“If I thought your craftsmanship sucked would I really have used your A-rank gear?”

“Huh, fine, you win. So what are you really here for?”

Darin pulled out the magic scroll that served as the game menu and opened it up. “Your expertise is needed. We stumbled across some rare loot in the Cave of Origin, but none of us can figure out what it's used for.”

“That's the trouble with you fighters. You all just focus on your combat abilities so much that you can't even tie your own shoes. Whatever happened to being well-rounded?”

“Hey, tournament fighting pays the big bucks.”

“Yeah, it also makes you seem dumber than a box of rocks at times,” Morri said. “Anyhow, now you've got my attention. I should probably charge you for an appraisal, but I'll let it slide.”

“Thanks,” Darin replied, activating the scroll and bringing up the item he wanted to know more about. He sent a message to Morri's scroll and watched as she read it over.

“Huh, so I'm guessing that you had a fun time in the dungeon. This thing only gets dropped by the toughest boss in the cave. Or bosses, more accurately. So you managed to kill the Black Wolves?”

“Yeah, we did. It was a real pain too. The whole dungeon was. I swear that someone had it out for us and gave us all of the worst possible enemies.”

“But you made it through.”

“Only because we knew what we were doing. If we were a bunch of amateurs we probably would have been dead in the first room.”

“Yeah, now it's sounding like you're just pouring on the melodrama,” Morri commented. She looked over at the scroll again. “Well, like you said it's rare loot. As it is it's useless, but it can be refined into an armor augmentation seal.”

“Do you know what it does?” he asked.

“Won't know for sure until I make it, but I've seen them before. Made a few seals with them as well, though like I said, they're pretty rare.”

“Yeah, so what does it actually do?”

“So impatient. Well, it provides a defensive boost to any armor its embedded into without any ill effects. It scales as well, so you can always put it in better armor as you go up the ranks. And it's not permanent, so it can be removed without destroying it.”

“What's the catch, and why isn't everyone trying to get their hands on one?”

“There's three catches, actually. First off, this isn't the only thing I need to make the seal. The other elements are a lot easier to get ahold of, but they aren't cheap. And unless you want to go out hunting for resources...”

I'll pass, thanks,” he said. That time could be better spend training.

“That's the first thing. The second thing is that the Black Wolves are a pretty rare spawn in the first place, and most people end up getting killed going up against them. So these are rare, and a lot of people don't want to give them up. They're trophies, so to speak.”

“What's the third catch?”

“The third catch is the worst one. It has to do with the points system in the tournament. The seals may increase defense, but they also increase the point value of your character build. And the scaling isn't proportional either, which really hurts.”

“I'm not quite understanding what you're getting at...”

“This is just an example, but say that the point value to defense value is a one-to-one ratio. With this seal the ratio for the extra defense is more like two- or three-to-one. So if your defense goes up ten points, your character point value goes up thirty.”

Darin nodded, finally understanding where she was going.

Morri continued. “So you might get a good defense increase, but you're also painting a target on your back. And if you're in a multi-team match then everyone will probably be gunning for you. To score points, of course.”

“Put that way this sounds more like a curse than a reward.”

“Well, it's all what you want to make of it. Weren't you guys famous for coming up with different plans to exploit certain builds?”

“I guess, but I'm not sure that this is worth the trouble. Especially if it makes the other teams come after us.”

“That doesn't sound like the person that was the head of the top team in Avalon Online,” Morri said. “And think about it. Everyone knows who you are. You don't think that they're going to try to gang up on you anyhow?”

“They might be wary of us and keep their distance.”

“Then you need to have some way to draw them out, don't you?” Morri asked with a smile. “What better way to do that than making yourself a nice piece of bait?”

“Oh, so now you're a strategist, huh?”

“Just some suggestions. So are you going to try to get the seals or not?”

“So you're just encouraging me because you want me to pay a lot of money to have them made?” he asked. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Hey, I know how much gold you and Leah have. And that you're willing to pay to get a leg up on the competition. So what'll it be?”

Darin shook his head. “I'll think about it.”

“So ungrateful. And I even gave you a free appraisal.”

“And thank you for that. But if I'm spending a lot of money I want to be sure that I'm not just throwing it away.”

“You call spending your money on my work throwing it away? Get out of my store,” Morri said, though he could see the smile on her face.

“Does that mean you don't actually want my money?”

“Well, if you come back with it then I'm not going to refuse...”

“Maybe I'll go shop around. See if anyone else can give me a better price,” he teased.

“Hah, as if. Don't come crying to me if you lose a tournament match because the seal didn't hold up like mine would have.”

Darin grinned. “Thanks again,” he said, and exited the shop.

* * *

He met up with Leah later that day and heard the news.

“So, finally ran into one of them, huh?” Darin commented after he heard her explanation.

“Yeah. It was completely out of the blue too. I don't think he was expecting it. I certainly wasn't.”

Darin frowned. “And Leo said they had their reasons for ditching us, is that right.”

“Don't get the wrong idea, but they were a lot more… reasonable than I was expecting them to be,” Leah said. “I don't agree with they way they did it, but...”

“But nothing. They still ran out on us and cost us everything. And they have no room to talk about trying to win the right way, or whatever. They contributed to how we kept our spot. It was as much Jon's idea as mind.”

“That might be true, but like it or not both of them thought there was a problem, and they were convinced enough to act on it,” Leah insisted. “Maybe it's better to give it some consideration rather than dismissing it outright.”

Darin scowled. “Yeah, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about doing that. Especially when it's coming from the two people who couldn't even break up the team face-to-face. They had to stab us in the back.”

She sighed. “OK, then consider something from the person that stuck around. When I say we need to take some time to get to the top I mean it. I want to get back there, but I don't want to do it if it means sacrificing our soul to get there. What's the point if we're just following along with what we're supposed to?”

“The goal is to become champion.”

“And after that?”

“To stay champion.”

“And how long will you do that? How long do you think you can manage that without trading away parts of your soul? The things that made the team strong when we were on the way up?”

That question took him aback, and Darin struggled to come up with an answer. Winning had been Silver Star's sole goal, to take and hold the top spot in the A-rank division and reap the rewards. They had done it, maybe far beyond anyone's wildest dreams including their own, but…

“Is there really a soul, or is that just people trying to ascribe some higher importance to this all? It's a competition.”

Leah leaned back against the wall. “Did you ever play sports in school? Or did some other kind of team activity?”

“I ran track.”

“OK, that's not the greatest sport for my analogy. Let's go with mine. I played volleyball in high school. We were pretty good, actually. Made the state championships twice, won once. We were pretty focused on winning. But there were other parts to it.”

“Such as?”

“Playing together as a team. Pushing ourselves to be better. And just enjoying it all when we we went out there and played. I think that was the biggest thing that made us successful. We wanted to win, we wanted to be better, but we also wanted to keep doing it as a team. We enjoyed it, and that seemed to feed our enthusiasm. It's a lot easier to push yourself when you're doing something that you enjoy.”

“And you think that needs to happen now?”

“I do,” Leah said. “Like it or not, the top of the A-rank division is stagnant. Everyone is locked into one way of doing things, one way to win. No one wants to take any risks for fear of losing their spot and falling down the ranks.”

“I can't really blame them. There's millions of dollars at stake there, and everyone needs to be able to compete at a high level. Who knows if a new method is going to change anything.”

“But that's the problem,” Leah argued. “No one is willing to take the risk. No one wants to put their neck out because they're too afraid. It's like they're all trapped in a cage with no way to spread their wings and try something new.”

“So what are you saying, that we should try something new?”

“Yeah. I think we can change the tournament divisions for the better. Everything is too set into one pattern, one way of thinking. Why not go outside the box and create a new way of doing things?”

“That's a lot easier said than done,” Darin commented. “And the enemy will adapt. Then the new way becomes the old way soon enough.”

“That's true, if we stick to one way of doing things. But if there's multiple ways of doing things then they can't do that, can they? Teams will have to constantly change, constantly adapt. If we're always in the running at the end of tournaments and we're unpredictable, that forces everyone else to change their tactics and be on their toes.”

“So change ourselves to change the rest of the division,” Darin mused.

“That sums it up.”

He shook his head. “That might sound fine, but that's not going to help us now. Is this really the time to try to change things when we're trying to get Erika and Taji far enough into the ranks to get decent earnings? If we don't take the top of the D rank division our team is dead in the water.”

“Which is why we need to change things up. There's so many other teams aiming for the top of the division as well. Do you really think that none of them are going to be a challenge?”

“OK, then what are you proposing? Something radical?”

“No, something a little different. But the effects will probably be radical. I want to change my character build.”

That wasn't quite what Darin would call a little different. Changing a character build could have far-reaching effects on both the player and the team. Even switching the weapons they wielded could fundamentally alter the way they fought in combat.

“What are you planning?”

“I'm switching magic. Going from destruction to support.”

“Any reason why?”

“You remember the archer the Black Wolves had in the Cave of Origin, right?”

Darin nodded. “Yeah. So that's where you got your idea from?”

“Yeah. Normally I might discount it, but after thinking about it for a while I realized that it might be an even stronger build on an archer than destruction magic. It might not be as obvious, but...”

“So what's your plan?”

“My plan? You're going to have to make some changes as well,” Leah told him. “Switch from support to manipulation magic.”

That caught him a bit off-guard. “So you don't want to have any destruction magic in the party? That's a pretty significant handicap. Or are you planning on lowering our points values so we can pick the stages?”

“That would be nice, but I'm not counting on it,” Leah said. “Even if we were guaranteed to be the team with the highest points total I'd still choose it. There's a particular strategy I want to try with it.”

“Is it the one where you attach everyone to the ground with Bind?”

“That's part of it. But Weeping Wounds is the real killer in the support magic tree, and that could be really deadly in the lower ranks. You know how narrowly a lot of them think.”

Darin nodded. Players using support magic tended to be pigeonholed as healers, used to keep the tanks and the attackers upright and in fighting condition. That was one of their primary roles, in fact, but it wasn't their own ability. Support magic was capable of changing the battlefield.

Many players seemed to forget that when they were in the middle of a match. Darin had been guilty of it more than once, content to only heal and use his weapon as his only form of offense. But the other powers….

They might seem weaker than pure destruction at first glance, but they were just as capable of altering the course of a battle. One shot from the archer in the Cave of Origin and Darin had been effectively taken out of the battle, even if he hadn't actually been killed.

“So your configuration is going to be you as an archer support, Taji as a tank and me and Erika as attackers?” he deduced.

“That's the idea. We transition to being an offense-oriented team, and that means I switch from being a damage dealer to being a supporter.”

“That's a fairly drastic change.”

“For us, maybe. We can handle that. But Erika is used to constantly being on the attack, and she has the skills and smarts to pull it off. She's the only one of us that got a one-on-one kill against the Black Wolves. And Taji's role is straightforward.”

“I suppose. But then that means I'm going to have to make a transition. And I have to make a completely new build if I want to use manipulation magic.”

“Not exactly. Everyone goes for pure speed to pair with flash step. But maybe that's not the only way to look at things. Maybe your current combat build would be able to use the abilities effectively?”

Darin thought about that for a moment. Most players that took manipulation magic also chose light weapons and armor to increase their precision and speed. The theory was that focus on one particular area would turn the user into an extremely powerful specialist.

But there could be another way. Daggers lacked the reach of his halberd, and a lightly armored player couldn't absorb as much damage as someone wearing medium armor. That limited the number of roles they could play. And while he might not be able to match the speed of a pure rogue with his current build, using Flash Step he could run circles around players in heavy armor and even all-rounders.

“The reach is going to help,” he said aloud.

“I was hoping that you'd come up with that,” Leah said. “I thought of that while watching Erika fight with her rapier, but I wanted you to come up with why it was a viable idea.”

Darin could see how a new build might be used. He'd combine speed, reach and protection, forming an all-rounder that could deal with all manner of enemy classes. It wouldn't have the defense of Taji or the quick-strike ability of Erika, but it would be able to serve many purposes.

“This might be worth looking into,” he said.

Leah nodded. “And this is why I wanted things to change. Put a little more excitement into the way we fight. Come up with something new.”

Darin remembered Chad's theory about the commission wanting to shake things up at the top. They may have done it in several unintended ways.

But the fire to compete still burned within him. Darin wanted to win. He wanted to take the top of the D-rank division and then stake their claim to the C-ranks. Changes were just a means to an end. And if they were going to make them, they had a lot of practice to do before the tournaments began.

12

Leah fired off an arrow, hoping that it would land right where she wanted. The charging ogre roared, almost like it was bellowing dire threats in a hideous, unknown language. A moment later its forward momentum stopped. The arrow slammed into the creature's right arm, and a dozen ropes snaked out and buried themselves in the ground. The other ends wrapped around the ogre's arm.

It tugged at its bindings, bellowing all the while. Leah knew very well that her Bind ability wasn't very high at the moment. The ogre would break free soon enough. But her goal wasn't to kill the monster. No, it was to slow it down for the rest of her teammates to deal with.

A series of blue-green platforms appeared in the air in front of the beast, and a blur charged up. For a moment Leah thought it was Erika, but the shape moved a little slower than usual. The leap off the last platform confirmed it. Darin jumped into the air and swung his halberd downward in an arcing blow, right onto the monster's skull.

The ogre roared in pain and thrashed about, its health bar dropping into the red from the devastating hit. Leah nocked another arrow in case she needed to deal out some more damage, but another blur came charging in. A split-second later the ogre toppled over dead, stabbed through the eye with a single rapier thrust.

“So how was that?” Erika asked over the telepathy link.

“I think that ogres would be an endangered species by now if this was the real world,” Taji said. “You two have killed more than enough of them today.”

That had been their fifth one today since Raven's Call had come to Badrock Falls. They still had a week before the tournament, and Leah wanted to take every opportunity to get her new character build down before they had to fight on the big stage.

Taking down boss-class monsters wasn't exactly the same as fighting a group of enemy players, but it could still be useful for training. It provided them with a powerful foe that could take many hits and dish out damage as well, forcing them to use all their abilities and stay on their toes.

So far it looked good. Taji and Erika remained in their normal roles, taking and dealing out damage, respectively. It was Leah and Darin that had the most to learn. Silver Star had used several combinations, but eventually settled on certain builds and honed them to perfection. Almost no one could even think of beating them when the team had been clicking on all cylinders.

But teams were starting to get wise to their tricks, or at least it seemed that way. Silver Star had lost a few matches to the second and third ranked teams, though they had always managed to win their rematches and it never dropped their rank. Their losses remained few and far between, but the myth of their invincibility had been diminished a bit.

Leah had already been thinking of making a change before the upheaval happened. If they had continued their course more and more teams would catch up, and their their championship spot would be in jeopardy. She didn't think it was going to much different in a few months or a year either. Everyone would start to use certain techniques and know how to counter them.

The trick was to come up with different ways of fighting, several, if possible. Unpredictability would be the key. If their opponents couldn't anticipate how Raven's Call would fight they couldn't focus their preparation on one thing. At the very least it would make them think, and the more time they had to spend on multiple issues the better.

“Is that enough for today?” Taji asked. “I have other things to do.”

“That's fine,” Darin said. “We're done for today.”

“Alright. See the rest of you soon.”

Leah watched as he logged out and disappeared. It was easy to forget after being a part of Avalon Online for so long, but there was a whole world outside of the virtual reality that paid them little mind. Even with millions and millions of followers and viewers, the majority of the world's population probably had never heard of the game, let alone the people that played it.

And that thought was quite humbling. The best teams in Avalon Online were celebrities, with fame and fortune. They held power inside here, and yet that didn't mean a lot in the outside world. They could take their fortunes with them, but yet they could very well be unknown by everyone they passed. It wasn't like a professional sports team, where everyone's name and appearance was known. In here everyone used avatar, and though they tended to look similar to the person using them, they could be also have significant differences. Leah didn't have blue hair in the real world, for one.

“Well that's a bummer,” Erika commented. “I had the day off too.”

“There's other things we can do besides taking on bosses,” Darin said. “There's other things we should do, too. We're going to have to get by the qualifiers, and that's going to be chaos.”

“Isn't that the one where they throw all the teams into one huge arena and let them fight it out?”

“That's the one.”

“Well, not exactly,” Leah added. “There's a few more rules to it. The top eight teams in the D-rank division get automatic bids into the tournament, so they don't have to bother fighting. So the qualifiers are to find the other eight teams.”

“Sounds like a big mess.”

“Oh, it is. That's why none of the other divisions do it, but it's a way to make the D-ranks exciting. Otherwise it's just a lot of teams that don't know what they're doing stumbling around and tripping over each other,” Darin said.

“Oh come on, there's good teams on their way up through the D-ranks as well,” Leah said. “Granted, they tend to not stay there for very long.”

“But still, the idea is to make the division exciting. And it does that. It's capped at two hundred and fifty teams, so that's a thousand players fighting it out in the same place.”

“Did we make it under the cap?”

“Yeah, I made sure to register us as soon as possible. We were number two hundred and thirty, so it's getting up there.”

“But anyhow,” Leah said, “we're going to have to fight a lot of enemies at once, and that means staying alert and keeping our heads on a swivel. We're probably not going to win if we don't do that. And we have to make sure that at least some of us survive to the end.”

“Isn't it the teams with the most points that move on?” Erika asked. “That sounds simple enough.”

“It is, so you can't just hide and wait it out until the end. But if your team is completely eliminated your point total is cut in half. So you could kill half the field and still end up losing if your entire team ends up dying in the process.”

“So stay alive. Got it. Might be hard with all those explosions flying around.”

Leah had to agree. Most teams would have one player wielding destruction magic, and with so many crammed into one arena there was always the potential for a huge number of destruction spell to go off at the same time. The stages for the qualifiers were large, but it wasn't unusual to see dozens of players killed within the first few minutes of the match.

“That's always the trick. But better to be cautious to begin with. You can't win the match at the beginning, but you can certainly lose it.”

“Isn't there a timer on it?”

“It's two hours,” Darin said. “So a lot of teams will try to score their points early and then wait out the timer, because they'll theoretically be facing the tougher ones at the end.”

“But everyone knows who's in the top eight, along with their own points total,” Leah added. “So it's not unusual to see teams making a last-minute push to try to make up ground. As long as we stay alive we should be fine, but that's easier said than done. We need to avoid the early rush.”

“So I need to get in some practice against large hordes,” Erika said. “A really large one, if I want some sort of challenge. Just so I'm thinking about watching my back.”

“Well, it's also about working as a team. Four pairs of eyes are going to spot threats easier than one.”

“But you're not going to have your destruction magic with you. That's going to change things up a lot,” Erika pointed out. “Maybe too much. Wouldn't that be good for taking out a lot of enemies?”

“You can't kill a player with one shot with a destruction spell. You can hurt them badly, but you can't kill them. That would be way too cheap. Besides, it's the person who actually kills them that gets the points, not the ones that did the most damage. So if you or Darin were to sneak in there with flash step...”

She laughed. “Huh, kill stealing. I'm sure that's going to make everyone happy. Won't we have enough trouble with people trying to gang up on us?”

“It's already going to be a problem, so what's adding on a little more fuel to the fire? Besides, kill stealing is perfectly legal. I know people don't like it, but we need to make sure we qualify.”

Using that tactic would anger some people, though. No one liked to inflict a lot of damage on the enemy, only to see another team swoop in and take all of the points. Many teams would probably target them and be out for revenge, though that could also work in their favor as well. Leah could imagine Raven's Call stealing kills to gain points and anger other teams, then leading them into prepared traps.

She looked over at Darin, who had gone completely silent. Leah noticed he had his menu scroll open and was looking at something.

“Anything interesting?”

“Message,” he said, still reading. “A priority one too. From the competition committee, no less.”

Leah felt her heart skip a beat. Were they in more trouble? Was someone just targeting their team for their own amusement?

“Is it-”

“It's a general message,” Darin told her. “Sent to all team leads.”

She felt a bit of relief. “OK. So nothing too important.”

“Well, I wouldn't say that either...”

“What is it?” Erika asked.

“They're tweaking the format. They're taking out one of the matches.”

“Which one?” Leah said curiously.

“The final. Or what used to be the final, at any rate. They're switching it to a four way match, so the teams that would normally be in the semi-finals will fight each other at the same time.”

“Can they do that? It seems pretty close to the date,” Erika commented.

“There's probably something in the fine print.”

“That's a pretty big change to make on short notice too. I wonder why they did it?”

Leah wondered that too, but her only explanation sounded completely paranoid. Someone wanted to make sure that the old Silver Star members didn't win the tournament, and the best way to ensure that was to pit them against three other teams at the same time. Even though Raven's Call could probably beat any other team in the division, dealing with three at once would be difficult.

But that was just speculation, and probably baseless at that. The more she thought about it the more it sounded like a conspiracy theory, just sour grapes from a team that had been caught and punished.

“So that changes things up a bit,” she said, trying to be diplomatic.

“It changes things up a lot. But that's also one less match we have to win, so there's that,” Darin shrugged.

“It's pretty much like what we were doing, right?” Erika asked. “Preparing to fight multiple teams. The only difference now is that there's going to be less of them in the final. That works to our advantage, right? And for everyone else in the qualifiers too. Because we were already preparing to fight a large number of teams.”

Leah had to smile. “Yeah, that would be right. And that's a much simpler way to think of things. Much better, too. We can do this. We just have to make sure that we're prepared.”

That was the trick. They could spend all their time complaining about the changes being implemented, or they could buckle down and make sure they were prepared to compete at the highest level possible. Even if someone was conspiring against them, it wouldn't matter if Raven's Call was so well prepared that they were capable of mowing through every team that stood in their path.

“I think we're going to have to make some changes,” Darin said. “Specifically with our equipment.”

Leah glanced over at him. “Does that mean we're doing what I think?”

He nodded. “Yeah, there's no use trying to mess around with the points total, not with four possible teams in the final. We can't prepared for every contingency, and they're probably going to gang up on us anyhow. So we might as well make sure our team is carrying the strongest equipment.”

That was the other thing. It wasn't just about skill points or knowledge, it was about attitude as well. Someone who she couldn't remember had explained it to her years ago. Between two evenly matched teams, the team with confidence and swagger in their step would usually win, because they expected to. That expectation drove their actions, made them fight harder and in a more confident fashion.

Their team might as well embrace it. Everyone knew who they were, everyone was intimidated by what they were capable of doing. Raven's Call would be going into the tournament with a target on their back, and everyone would be lining up to take their shot.

Let them come, though. Leah had full confidence in her teammates. They needed to win, and they were going to take the championship. Everyone else was just in their way.

* * *

“And here you are. Four prepared defense seals made from the Black Wolf Soul,” Morri said, handing over a box. “Made of the best materials and of the highest quality, of course.”

“Wouldn't expect anything else from you,” Leah replied with a smile.

“Well of course you wouldn't, but your partner in crime was complaining about how much money he had to spend on these. Getting the resources for them wasn't cheap, though. And then there's not many smiths with my skill level to make them the right way.”

“Oh, ignore him. I'm not going to complain. I still have the D-rank bow you made for me kicking around, and I'm going to use that in the tournament. There aren't many better things I can get.”

“There aren't any,” Morri corrected her with a grin. “I'm the best there is.”

Leah opened up the box and took a peek. Inside sat four seals, made of a hard black material, almost like obsidian but without any imperfections or markings. A symbol made of silver had been imbedded in the seal, forming a series of interlocking circles and triangles.

“So is there anything particular about these? Do we need a smith to attach them to our armor?”

“No, you're fine without me,” Morri told her. “All you have to do is push it on to the chest of the armor and it'll embed itself. You will need a smith to take it off, if you want, but I'll do it for free. Provided you're not doing it every day.”

“Nah, we'll be fine.”

“Alright. So that's it then. Silver Star is back in the tournament scene a little more than a month or so after their last incident. Everyone too.”

Leah looked at her, confused. “Everyone?”

“Yeah, Leo and Jon have been in here purchasing equipment for their team. They didn't have any Black Wolf Souls, but they were trying to get some stuff for two people I didn't recognize.” She paused for a moment. “Something up?”

Leah frowned. “Yeah. Leo said something about not going into the tournaments until they were ready. Something about waiting for the right time and people. I guess he changed his mind...”

“Or maybe he was just saying something to throw you off your game,” Morri suggested. “Whatever you tournament fighters do. Maybe he just wanted an extra edge.”

That was possible too, but that meant that Leo had lied to her during their last conversation. Leah didn't think he was the type to do that, but…

But that was what he had been doing over the past few months, hadn't it? He and Jon had gone along with the flow, deceiving their teammates and pretending everything was alright. Why should she be surprised that he was willing to lie to her again?

And yet, that thought still hurt her. They had been teammates for so long, and even after the betrayal, on some level she still had a bit of trust in him. Leo seemed to feel the same way, or at least she thought after their last conversation. But now? Now she wasn't sure, or rather, she didn't know what she could believe.

“Thank you for that. And thank you for the information,” she told Morri.

“Your welcome. Good luck in the tournament.”

She left the shop, her mind churning all the while. That news changed a lot. At first she thought that the tournament would be relatively simple. Even though there would be good teams in the D-rank, the combination of Raven's Call's experience and skill would trump them all.

But now they had another element to deal with, a team that had strong members as well. And both sides knew each other fairly well. If push came to shove the former Silver Star members would probably end up neutralizing each other.

It would be up to their newer members to tip the scales. If things worked out the way she thought, Leah and Darin couldn't just act as the crutches for their team.

Taji and Erika would have to prove that they belonged on the big stage.

* * *

Darin listened intently as Leah explained the situation to him.

“Well that's unfortunate,” he said. “But not unexpected. We can prepare for it, at the very least. Let's just hope we don't run into them before the final.”

“Wish there was something else we could do,” Leah said. “They have the advantage. They've probably started preparing for us. We don't have that luxury.”

Not with the tournament two days away. Their character builds and skill levels were already locked in. Right now the only thing left to do was to add on the seals, which were already accounted for in their character profiles. After that the only thing they could do was sit and wait for the competition to arrive.

“But it's only two members, right?” Taji asked. “That means there's two new ones.”

“That we know nothing about.”

“Doesn't the same thing go for them? They don't know anything about us, and we don't know anything about them.”

Erika looked up from reading something in her menu scroll. “Are they really that tough?”

“Yeah. They're good. Leo was our rogue, and Jon was an all-rounder with some tank tendencies. Both were really, really good. We wouldn't have been champions without them,” Darin said.

“Mmm. But doesn't that mean everyone's going to try to go after them as well? At least that splits up the attention,” she said optimistically.

Leah inhaled. “OK, we're thinking about this too much. We just had to fight the way we normally do and everything will be fine.”

“We'll pull through as a team,” Taji said.

If only she could have that kind of confidence at this point, but things had radically changed. Now they had an opponent that could clearly match them.

Confidence, though. Confidence and swagger. It didn't matter who they were facing. Raven's Call was strong enough to take on all comers and come out on top. Leah tried to keep that in mind, tried to push the doubt away. They'd win. They'd push through all obstacles, and they'd win.

They had thought about it more than enough. The time to act and execute was upon them.

13

Darin stood in the tunnel, hearing the sound of the crowd out in the main arena and the low buzz of conversation among all the other teams gathered here. Once the ceremonies began they would file out for the audience to see.

There was talk between the various teams, though they all seemed to keep their distance from Raven's Call. Maybe it was respect, maybe it was fear or maybe it was just plain disdain. After the punishment that had been inflicted upon them many teams considered the former Silver Star members to be tainted. After all, if the commission had doled out such a harsh sentence then it had to be deserved.

He tried to ignore it all, tried to focus on the task ahead of them. They had to get through the qualifiers and all the chaos and havoc that came with it. There were so many teams there, though, so many things that could go wrong. Most of them weren't very experienced, but that could also make them very dangerous. At the very least they were unpredictable, and that could be much harder to deal with than a team which was stronger but more set in their ways.

“This is pretty exciting,” Erika said, not quite able to hide the enthusiasm in her face. She stood out from the others, many of which looked like they wanted to hide or vomit.

Darin appreciated the enthusiasm. She needed to keep it controlled, but it was better than being frozen with nerves.

“This is your first tournament, isn't it,” Leah said.

“Yeah. Can't wait to see what it's like.”

“Don't go too overboard,” Taji cautioned. “It's fun at first, but then the magic fades away if you don't win. Or at least if you don't perform well.”

“You'll do fine,” Leah told him.

“Thanks. I hope I can do a lot better than the other times. The best I've finished isn't even in the top fifty.”

Darin glanced at him. “We'll do better than that. Focus on getting the top rank so we can have the nine seed. I know that doesn't mean anything for choosing stages, but it looks good.”

“Doesn't that mean that just getting eighth is fine?” Erika asked.

“Well yeah, but don't just focus on that. I want to make sure that we qualify. I don't want to just squeak by into the tournament, if we can help it.”

He had no more time to talk. The signal went up, and teams started to file out into the arena. Darin heard the roar go up from the crowd, though it was much quieter than usual. That was to be expected, though. D-rank didn't have nearly as much popularity as B- or A-rank. In fact, there probably wouldn't be a lot of people watching in the outside world through live streams. The players sitting in the stands might be it.

That was perfectly fine with him. The payouts for winning remained the same whether one or one million people watched the D-rank tournaments, and it meant less people seeing how Raven's Call was capable of performing. The more surprise they had as they rose up the ranks the better.

But the teams standing above them weren't the only threat. There were also the rivals that would come up beside them, and they might be the greater threat…

Darin looked around for any sight of Leo or Jon, but he couldn't see them amongst the huge throngs of players. That was to be expected. There were a thousand of them here, so the odds of ending up beside them were very low.

But that also mean they had to deal with their old partners inside the battle arena, and that was where things started to get dicey. Darin knew very well that both Jon and Leo were plenty capable, cagey and skilled. Even with their skill rank demotions they'd be hard to handle.

At least they'd have a few surprises to spring. Since both he and Leah had switched their magic classes they would be fighting in an entirely different fashion. The others were plenty capable of adjusting on the fly, of course, but during the initial confrontations they might have the element of surprise.

And that was what mattered right now. Rivalries and grudges had to take a back seat. The qualifying match was going to be chaos, and the only way to pull through to the tournament was to stay alert and be focused.

He felt someone nudge him.

“We're starting,” Leah said to him in a low voice. “You looked like you were zoning out.”

“Got it. Remember to find each other,” he said to the rest of his team.

The announcer's volume suddenly went up.

“Contestants, prepare to enter the battle stage. Fight hard, play fair and good luck!”

The virtual world around him suddenly disappeared into a black void. Darin took a breath and exhaled to steady his nerves. Their path back to the top started now.

* * *

Snow crunched underneath his feet as he walked. Darin looked around the polar forest warily, wondering how close he had been dropped to the rest of his teammates.

There was one last element to the qualifiers, one quirk that changed it from an organized affair to a wild, chaotic brawl. Players were randomly dropped into the stage and separated from their teams. If they wanted to work together then they had to find their comrades and join up. That meant traversing dangerous terrain filled with hundreds of enemies, all of whom would gladly take the opportunity to swoop in for a kill.

Darin had plenty of confidence in his abilities, but he was no fool. Even if he had A-rank skills a swarm of D-rank players could overwhelm him, and right now his skills were capped. He couldn't afford to let them gang up on him.

It was all about finding the others. Darin opened up his menu scroll and looked at the map, then found where their markers were. He made a mental note and then opened up the telepathy link, keeping an eye on the tree line all the while.

“Everyone, see that rock formation a little toward the east end of the stage?”

“I see it on the map.”

“Me too.”

“Right next to it,” Taji said.

“OK. Let's try to meet up there. Taji, if you can, hold up there and keep the spot clear. Don't pick fights with overwhelming numbers, and run for it if you don't think you can hold off the enemy, but try to hold it.”

“Got it.”

“Everyone else, try to get there as fast as possible so we can provide support. Once the team's together go from-”

He didn't get a chance to complete his sentence. A blur charged out of the forest, heading straight for him. Under normal circumstances Darin might be at a disadvantage, but the snow slowed his foe's progress a little bit. He had another second to react, and that meant everything.

The enemy rogue swung at him with both daggers, but by then Darin was gone like as wisp on the wind. His enemy stopped and looked around in confusion. It was only for a split-second, but it was enough. Darin swung his halberd around and caught him square in the ribs with a strike, then whirled his weapon around and came down with an arcing blow, driving the spike right into his foe's neck. The rogue crumpled over and then disappeared in a cloud of multicolored dust.

First kill. Darin sprinted in the direction of the rendezvous point, feeling a bit of satisfaction. One kill wasn't going to win them the battle, but it was a start. Moreover, he was pleased with how the new build seemed to be working out. Flash Step had allowed him to catch another player off guard and then gave him the speed to launch the finishing blows.

He used the rest of the ability's time to make some distance, hoping that he could at least get out of the driving snow. The coating on the ground sucked at his boots, slowing him down just as it had done to the recently defeated enemy.

Darin thought about using Sky Walk to give him an unimpeded path, but that came with its own dangers. Every archer in the vicinity would see him and probably try to turn him into a pincushion. He could combine it with Flash Step once the ability recharged, but that meant using up two of his most powerful assets outside of combat.

A thicker part of the forest loomed ahead. Darin rushed through the last snowbank and sprinted into the stand of trees, feeling the ground beneath him become clearer. At least now he could run at full-

He heard a yell and saw the longsword come arcing at him. Darin jumped backward to avoid the blow, bringing his halberd up into guard position. His opponent lifted his weapon and came in for another swipe. Darin dodged again, feeling wood chips bounce off his armor and face as the sword smacked into a tree.

The swordsman kept coming, making cuts and chops at a blistering pace. On open ground they'd be deadly, but inside the forest they kept catching on trunks and branches. Apparently he only knew one way to fight with the weapon.

Darin knew more. As the swordsman came around for another strike he made a feint with his halberd, thrusting toward his enemy's foot with the spearpoint. He lifted his foot up to avoid the blow, but now he was on only one leg. Perfect.

Darin had his weapon in perfect position. He jerked the halberd upward, sending the spike arc into the meat of his opponent's upper leg. As the man stumbled from the blow he pulled back his weapon and made a thrust into his foe's neck with the spearpoint. Two kills.

“You're racking them up,” Leah commented over telepathy.

He kept running. “Just two. How are you coming?”

“Getting there, but I'm avoiding combat. Not really built for taking on people outside of a group.”

“Heh, no big deal. There's no reward for individual kills.”

Darin saw his team's total go up again, likely from Erika. Taji wasn't built to inflict kills, not without taking a lot of damage. They were holding steady too, currently at fifth place.

But their ranking suddenly dropped down to sixth, and Darin almost immediately found out why. The heat and sound of an explosion rippled through the forest around him, faint but evident. Someone had used Fire Blast, apparently on a fairly large group, and vaulted their team firmly into the rankings.

He couldn't think about it, nor allow himself to become distracted. Raven's Call needed to fight as a team, not go running around by themselves looking for kill. There was still plenty of time to catch up and get to the top. And right now they couldn't afford to be picked off one by one.

Taji's voice suddenly came over the telepathy link. “I'm under attack.”

“At the stones?”

“Yeah.” Taji went silent for a moment, probably too busy fighting to talk. “Looks like a single rogue, but she's fast. I'm going to need support.”

“Can she kill you?”

“Not unless she manages to chain several critical hits together, but I'm more worried about what might be coming with her.”

Darin took a chance and opened up his map scroll as he ran. “OK, I'm getting close. Hold out until we can join up.”

“Got it.”

The trees thinned and then parted up ahead, and Darin found himself facing a wide area full of deep snow. The rock formation lay ahead, probably about two hundred yards away or so. With decent whether it wouldn't be a problem, but the snow in front of him looked like it was waist deep. It would take a lot of time and effort to push his way through, and he'd be very vulnerable in the meantime.

That made the risk worth it. Darin activated Sky Walk and created a series of platforms leading up to the formation. It ended short of his destination, but it would get him most of the way there.

Flash Step wasn't ready yet, but he didn't have time to waste. The platforms were clearly visible, and anyone with half a brain would know what they were there for. He had to get across before every archer lined him up and shot him.

Darin leaped onto the first platform, feeling the wind buffeting him. He jumped to one, then another, then another. The stage's conditions certainly weren't helping his cause, but he could at least take a little comfort that everyone else was going through similar struggles.

“Taji, how are you holding up?” Darin asked as he made another leap.

“Uh, not good.”

“Not good?”

“I'm starting to get swarmed here,” he said. “There's-”

Taji's voice disappeared for a moment, but Darin didn't need to hear any more to know that he was in trouble. He could see it very well himself. Black dots on the snow were surging up the rock outcropping, attacking a single man in heavy armor with a shield and sword.

Apparently several of the other teams had decided that Raven's Call needed to be destroyed as quickly as possible, and they were ganging up on them to do it.

“Leah, Erika, get here quick. We're getting singled out.”

“Got it.”

“Almost there.”

So was he. Darin was in the process of leaping onto one of the last platforms when he saw the timer for Flash Step disappear. He made a quick calculation inside his head and then activated the ability.

The extra burst of speed propelled him forward as he made his final leap. Darin fell headlong toward his target, a snowbank just on the outside of the rock outcropping, and made a clean landing. As soon as his feet touched solid ground he pushed off again, using Flash Step to increase his forward momentum.

The first player in front of him met an unfortunate end on his weapon's spearhead. As his foe fell Darin continued to charge, whirling his weapon around in a wild arc. There was a time to be cautious and defensive, and a time to go for broke. Right now, faced with so many enemies, the later was necessary.

His ferocious attack stunned the enemy. They tried to recover, but Darin gave them no respite. One, two, then three fell to his blows. Taji was suddenly beside him, lashing out with sword and shield to inflict even more damage. With Stone Skin active his attacks weren't powerful, but they kept their opponents off balance.

More enemies moved up the outcropping toward them, but they started to falter as they realized that there were two fighters. Darin didn't want to give them a chance to rally or retreat.

Thinking on the fly he activated Wraith. Four copies of himself suddenly appeared and went on the attack. They wouldn't do any damage, but at the very least they'd buy him and Taji more time for the others to arrive on the scene. Meanwhile he could continue to rack up kills.

A pair of blurs tried to attack him, but Darin simply whipped his halberd around in a wild arc. Even if the didn't score a hit he'd make the enemy fall back, or at least throw them off balance. One moved away, but the other wasn't able to change direction in time to avoid the axe blade. The rogue stumbled, badly wounded, and then Taji finished her off.

One of his wraiths disappeared in a cloud of smoke, but it provided him with another distraction. Darin made a leaping thrust and caught his foe under the arm, scoring a critical hit in the process. He yanked his weapon back and finished him off with another sweep.

The enemy started to fall back, apparently cowed by the fierce resistance they were putting up. Darin didn't blame them one bit. Why bother charging into a strong enemy-held position only to be cut down? There were other, easier targets to deal with.

But then they had another problem to deal with. The enemy could just retreat to a safe distance to bombard them with destruction spells, and there was very little they could do to counter. Darin had to wait until Sky Walk and Flash Step recharged, and Taji didn't have a good way to get across the deep snow. In fact, how had he gotten across in the first place?

“Muscle power. A lot of it,” Taji told him as they watched the enemy start to retreat. “Of course, they weren't shooting at me then, so that makes it a lot easier.”

“I'm sure,” Darin responded, his mind racing. What to do? They had jumped up to fourth in the points rankings, but that didn't mean much if their team was wiped out in the process. Should he have the other two leave and go pick out more targets, just to make sure that part of their team survived?

Half of the field was still active. That put them in good position to make the tournament, especially because they were quite a few points ahead of fifth place. The top teams seemed to be making kills as well, so as long as Raven's Call finished in the top eight they were fine. It didn't matter if they won by a lot or a little, they just needed to win.

But splitting up the team also smacked of playing not to lose instead of trying to win, and that often ended in failure. Desperate teams in the bottom were able to make miraculous comebacks as they seized the initiative and made their push. The teams that sat back and just tried to keep their spot ended up struggling, and sometimes lost despite their best efforts.

What to do…

He made a snap decision and activated telepathy. “Erika, Leah, if you're still headed for the rocks stop and don't come any further.”

“We're almost there,” Erika said.

“Are you together?”

“We are.”

“Then it works fine. We drove off the enemy and they're falling back. I'm guessing they're going to start dropping destruction spells on us.”

“Oh, you mean the group of three or four teams over on the northwest end?” Leah asked. “I wondered why they weren't fighting each other.”

“You can see them?”

“Yeah, we can. Hold tight. We'll wait for them to start focusing on you, then we're going in for the kill.”

Taji made a face. “Two of you against how many?”

“Eleven, it looks like. Don't worry. As much as I'd like to just drop a Fire Blast on them there's other things we can do.”

Darin and Taji looked at each other.

“What are your orders?” Taji asked.

Darin shrugged. “We'll sit tight. I've learned to trust her on these kinds of things. She knows what she's doing. Hopefully.”

“You really didn't need to add that last part.”

“Eh, I felt like it needed a disclaimer.”

He stood and waited, watching the timers tick down, wondering how long it would take Leah and Erika to put the plan into action. Or, if he was thinking in a more negative direction, how long it was going to take for destruction spells to come raining down on their heads.

“Well this is pretty intense,” Taji commented. “I never had that many players come after me at once. Made me wish I didn't have to use stone skin to stay alive.”

“Did you get any kills?”

“Yeah, two of them, but they weren't easy. It was like I was beating them with a stick, not a sword.”

“Still points for us, no matter what,” Darin said. He decided to take a look out toward the enemy positions to see what was going on.

At first the wind and snow obscured his vision, but Darin soon spotted the group of shapes of in the distance. Several were moving, but others seemed to be standing still. And one particular shape moved like a blur…

He laughed, despite himself.

“What?” Taji asked.

“I don't know why I even worried,” Darin said as he realized what was happening.

Leah had shot one of the players with Bind, probably the strongest one to take him or her out of the fight. Once that was set she started firing arrows and sent Erika loose on their hapless foes. With all their attention focused toward the rocks the element of surprise had been deadly.

And as a bonus, they had a lot more points. Darin watched as their team marker moved up to third on his HUD, well ahead of the bottom ranks. They just needed to stay alive to keep it that way.

That wouldn't be much of a problem. The pieces for the were beginning to fall into place. So far the top five teams were head and shoulders above the rest, and everyone else was scrambling for the bottom three spots.

“What do we do after this?” Taji asked.

“We hold here and we wait,” Darin said.

It wasn't exciting or particularly sporting, but every one of the top teams would probably do it. Once they had enough points to feel like they were comfortably ahead they would go into defense mode, likely anticipating their rivals would do the same.

Sometimes a team with a particular grudge would try to seek out their foe to eliminate them and force them out of the qualifying rankings, but that was a double-edged sword. The hunter could quickly become the hunted, and end up losing their own spot in the process. As much as he wanted to take out their former comrades, Darin didn't want to take that risk. By the look of things neither did Leo and Jon. Their team's marker hadn't moved in a while.

“We're through,” Leah said.

“Got it. Join up with us here and let's wait it out.”

Their first step on the road back to the top was nearing completion.

14

Leah could feel the tension in the air as the eight qualifying teams stepped up onto the platform. All eyes seemed to be turning on Raven's Call and Iron Titan, and they certainly weren't friendly.

She tried to ignore them, instead focusing on the tournament bracket being displayed on the arena's screen. Raven's Call had finished third in the running and picked up the eleventh seed, matching them up against the sixth seed, Swift Angel. Leah didn't know anything about them, but they were the next team on the list.

But that wasn't the only thing that had her attention. Iron Titan had placed high as well, beating out Raven's Call, but they had only come in second. Instead, a new team called Crimson Flame had come in first place, and they had done it with a much larger score than the everyone else. Apparently they had continued to hunt and fight even after their spot in the tournament was secure.

Was it just impulsiveness, or did the team have an aggressiveness, a killer instinct that they decided not to reign in? Both could be very dangerous, but the second more so, especially if it was paired with good tactical sense and a bit of restraint. Unbridled fury could be a powerful weapon in battle, but it could also lead the users to fall into traps if they weren't aware of what was happening around them. Did Crimson Flame have that knowledge? Only time would tell.

But for now they had to focus on their next match, which would happen tomorrow. They'd have little time to prepare, and if their opponents were smart they would have been watching the qualifiers to do some scouting.

“Well, at least that's one hurdle down,” she said as the team walked back down the arena tunnel.

“And at least that gets us decent payouts,” Taji said. “A thousand for qualifying. Better than I ever got with my other teams. Though we never even came close to sniffing the top eight.”

“Makes up for me having to take this weekend off,” Erika commented.

“Right. I had to take a vacation day, so this is at least a nice consolidation prize.”

“It'll be even nicer if we can win the entire tournament,” Darin said. “Remember, these are all just consolidation prizes. The real winnings are at the final.”

Leah frowned. “We have to get there before we can start thinking of that. First up is Swift Angel. After that it's probably going to be Lightning Strike, if the seeding holds up. And then we have a four-way match. That's not going to be easy, especially if Iron Titan is in it.”

“That other team. Crimson Flame, was it? They seemed like they were pretty good,” Erika said. “Granted I never ran into them. Must have been on the other side of the stage. But they were racking up a lot of kills.”

“Yeah, that's the sign of someone who either got really lucky, or is really good and coming out of their shell,” Darin said. “Let's hope it's the first one. It's going to be hard enough with one top level team in this tournament.”

Leah glanced over at him. “Speaking of which, do you have any idea who the other two members of Iron Titan are? I didn't recognize them from anywhere.”

“Well, one's female just like Chad said. The other I know nothing about.”

“What's this about what I said?” another voice rang out.

Leah looked up to see the members of Night Dragon leaning up against one of the tunnel walls.

“How'd you get down here?” she asked.

“Once the qualifiers ended they opened up the entrances. So we walked down here. Congratulations, by the way. That was sharp fighting by you all.”

“Thanks.” She greeted the other three. “Leslie. Evan. Winona. Good to see you all.”

“Good to see you're up and kicking,” Leslie said. “Though I would have liked to see you kick Leo up and down the stage.”

“Give her time,” Winona said, running a hand through her long pink hair.

Leah smiled. “Yeah. As much as I might want to do that, it's not happening. He's a rogue as usual, and I'm kitted out as a support archer. So I'd rather not have to face him in close combat.”

“Naturally,” Evan said. He glanced over at Leslie. “You're way too emotional about these things. Isn't winning the better way to go?”

“Huh, too emotional. That's my team for you.”

“Better than having your team run out on you.” Evan paused for a second, then turned to them and made an apologetic face. “Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.”

“Oh, that's fine. It's true anyhow,” Darin said.

“So what are you planning on for the rest of the day?” Chad asked. “Prepping for your next match.”

Leah nodded. “That's the hope, although I'm not sure how much film there is on Swift Angel. They're pretty new, if I'm not mistaken.”

She had looked over the profiles of the top-ranked teams in the D-rank tournament before this all began, though she didn't remember much. Leah's focus had been on winning the qualifiers, and once they were past that they could focus on taking care of business with their next opponent.

“Sucks to be them,” Winona said. “Sucks to be the team going up against Iron Titan as well. You have to fight two former A-rankers who know what they're doing.”

“We're not the only ones on our team,” Leah said.

“Nope,” Chad said with a grin. “And you picked two good ones, by the look of things. What were your names again?”

“Erika.”

“Taji.”

“Right. Well, you both handled yourself pretty well for your first tournament.”

“It's actually not my first,” Taji said.

Leah's attention drifted away from the conversation as Leslie caught her eye. They moved a little further down the hall to talk.

“So you just decided to come today?” she asked.

Leslie shrugged. “Can't come cheer on a friend? Besides, watching the D-rank tournament is always tons of fun. Or at least the qualifiers are. It's complete chaos.”

“That's not always a good thing. Especially when a lot of the teams aren't very good,” Leah said. “I got one kill because the other guy wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Shot him right off the edge of a cliff.”

Leslie laughed. “Oh come on, that's where the fun is. The upper ranks can be a bit too clean, you know? There's too many skilled players that know what they're doing. There's no rough edges, no mistakes. You get that a bit more in the lower ranks, and it makes it exciting. Or at least entertaining.”

Leah had to laugh as well. “Oh come on, you're so mean. Picking on lower-ranked players for your own entertainment.”

“Hey, at least I'm not just stomping all over them in the middle of a tournament. You're basically taking candy from babies, you know that? Shame on you.”

“Well, wouldn't have happened if we didn't get demoted. But since it happened...”

“You'll do what it takes to get back on top,” Leslie finished for her. “Well, I'll be pulling for you guys. Up to a certain point, of course. If you just wanted to hang around the upper end of the B-rank division, that would be great.”

“Sorry, but once we've been at the top we can't just let it go.”

“Eh, it was worth a try. But good luck to you anyhow. I'd like to see you move up the ranks a lot more than those other two.”

“Yeah.” Leah paused for a moment, thinking. “Weren't you the one that got the information on Iron Titan?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, I did. Well, at least I got some of it. One of my friends passed it along to me, and it was technically before they formed up their team, but I guess it counts.”

“Any idea who their new members are?”

Leslie shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. The girl was the first one to join, but I don't know anything about her other than that. She fought as an archer in the tournament, if you didn't know.”

“Didn't see her in combat, so that's good to know,” Leah said. They might just be making idle conversation, but there was no harm in gathering a bit of intelligence at the same time. She had a feeling they were going to have to fight Iron Titan in the finals.

She tried to remember her brief glimpse of the new member of Iron Titan, but it wasn't clear. Red hair and pale skin. That was all Leah could recall at the moment.

The second one she knew even less about and could barely recall any details about him. If she passed him on the street Leah would have never been able to pick him out, but he must have some ability. Leo and Jon wouldn't have let him on the team without it.

“Anyhow,” Leslie continued, “don't think too much about it. At least that's what I do. The more you think about it the more it bothers you, and then your performance suffers.”

“So have confidence in our abilities.”

“That's about it. And who knows, maybe this'll work out for the better. Now you won't have three teams ganging up on you. At least, I don't think.”

“That's another way to look at it,” Leah agreed.

Whatever the case, it didn't matter unless they won their next match.

* * *

Leah heard the arrow zip by her, but she ignored the threat and tried to focus on her target. Standing on top of a rock in the middle of the shifting desert sands she had a perfect vantage point, but that worked both ways. If she could see the enemy the reverse was true.

But with so many steep dunes in the area this spot was too good to give up. It was important enough for her to risk being hit by the enemy archer's destruction spells.

The Force arrow managed to hit, though the Fire Blast missed. Leah healed herself, but she knew she couldn't hold here forever just taking shots. The last arrow probably had Crush cast on it, which meant her foe was out of spells.

“Erika, where are you?” she asked.

“Getting there, if you want me to take out the archer,” she said. “It's rough going on the sand without Sky Walk or Flash Step.”

“Just keep going. I'll hold for now.”

“Do you want me to come back to guard you?” Taji asked.

Leah watched him press forward over the sands, being attacked by a pair of enemies. One had a longsword, and another carried a two-handed battle axe.

That accounted for them all. Darin, Taji and herself had dealt with the enemy tank already, hitting him with weeping wounds and then a flurry of powerful strikes. Their foe had a lot of health, but without the ability to regain it he fell under the unrelenting assault.

That put her team firmly in control with a three-on-one advantage, but they couldn't afford to take it easy. Not with the enemy archer still roaming about with all the destruction spells at his disposal. One well-placed shot could completely flip the match on its head.

Leah scanned the dunes, trying to figure out where her opponent had ducked away. Ideally Erika would be able to sneak up and kill the archer with a quick strike, using a combination of flash step and sky-walk, but she couldn't count on it. If she got the opportunity to make the kill she'd take it.

Raven's Call wasn't just fighting against the enemy, but the clock as well. To ensure that matches ended on schedule they had time limits, and if one team wasn't eliminated by the time it expired the side with the highest point total would claim victory.

They had the lead now, but that might not last. One kill would tip the scales back in Swift Angel's favor, and then it was anyone's game. Right now the most likely kill was her, and Leah was determined to ensure it wouldn't happen.

What else could she do, though? Weeping Wounds wouldn't help much, since her teammates were too far away to exploit the opening. Bind would be of limited use as well due to the terrain. There wasn't anything solid that she could attach the ropes to, so the best Leah could hope for was to slow the enemy down a bit.

It was their armor seals. Even though they were a much lower seed in the tournament Raven's Call had the higher points total, and their foes had picked the terrain to exploit that. They had both open fields of fire and enough areas to hide in, and Leah's support powers were limited. She'd be more useful in something like a town stage or a forest, but…

But this was where they were right now, and wishing for something different meant nothing. She had arrows and a clear line of sight. She'd make something work.

“Leah, can you distract the archer?” Erika asked. “I'm two dunes away from him and have a clear path, but it's long distance. I don't want to get shot while I'm using Sky Walk.”

Leah quickly opened her map scroll and found Erika's position. “Got it. I'll try to hit him with a Weeping Wounds arrow to make him flinch.”

“Thanks.”

She nocked an arrow and cast the spell, focusing on the dune where she though the enemy was waiting. The arrow didn't have to hit, but it had to look like it was a threat. Whenever he popped up…

There. It was little more than a dark contrast against the tan-colored sand and blue sky, but it was enough to aim at. Leah let her arrow fly, silently hoping that it hit home.

“Arrow away,” she said over the telepathy link.

“Thanks. I'm closing in right now.”

Leah watched the shaft cut through the air, trailing an ugly red and black streak of magic as it flew. The hit meant nothing at this point, not when it already provided the distraction, but she wanted it to connect anyhow. It was part of her marksmanship, a confirmation of her ability to contribute something to the fight outside of her magic.

She glanced back at the fight happening out on the sands. Darin had joined Taji, and both pressed their attack against the remaining two members of Swift Angel. So far so good. Now, for the archer.

The arrow disappeared out of view when she turned back to her original target. Had it missed? Hit? At this distance it was impossible to tell, and there was no point in asking Erika to confirm it either way. It was just a stupid point of pride, some way to assure herself that she still had the ability to contribute. After spending so long as a destruction magic user her support abilities seemed tame by comparison.

“Hah, that takes care of him,” Erika said over telepathy a moment later. “Thanks Leah. He was so occupied with the arrow he didn't even see me coming.”

“No problem. You hear that guys?”

She looked back toward the other fight to see the axe wielder fall, cut down by a strike from Darin. Leah couldn't make out the last survivor's face from this distance, but she imagined he had a look of terror right about now. And likely unbeknownst to him, he was all alone.

“Let's finish this,” Darin ordered.

“Give me space so I can fire Bind,” Leah said. She nocked her arrow and cast the spell, then drew back the bowstring and took aim.

They had a four-on-one advantage, but Leah wasn't in the mood to take any chances. Neither were any of the others, most likely, and she wanted to leave an impression on anyone watching. If their next opponents were scouting the match they were going to know that Raven's Call was playing for keeps this time. If the could intimidate their foes before they even stepped into the arena, they'd gladly take that advantage.

She let the arrow fly and watched it streak into the enemy's armor. Ropes grew out of the shaft and wrapped around his body, then reached down toward the ground. They didn't stick in the sand, but they caused a tangled mess. He stumbled.

And that was the end for him. Darin and Taji didn't even allow him to get up before they piled onto him. Two brutal seconds later and it was all over.

The stage disappeared, but Leah paid little heed to the cheering crowd in the stands as the arena materialized around her. It was too soon to savor a victory. One down, two to go.

15

Darin watched the battle unfold on the screen, trying to gather any information he could on their prospective opponents. He already knew they'd be facing Lightning Strike in the next round, but the match was tomorrow and they had already prepared. Their opponents were skilled, the third seeded team in the tournament, in fact, but they weren't unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination. As long as they fought together played smart Raven's Call should come out on top.

It was the finals that worried him the most, especially because they were guaranteed to get into a confrontation with Iron Titan at some point. From the look of things Leo and Jon kept their usual character builds, a dual-wielding rogue and a heavily armored tank, respectively. They looked to be the most dangerous, but Darin knew very well they weren't the only threat. The other two members of the team probably weren't scrubs, and underestimating them could come back to bite them.

The first member, the red haired archer, seemed straightforward enough. She stood on a good vantage point in the middle of the arena firing off arrows laced with destruction spells. That seemed normal, but Darin wasn't so sure.

“See anything unusual?” he asked Leah.

“Well, she knows what she's doing. She's not just casting spells and firing them off randomly. There's a trick to that.”

“How so?” Erika asked curiously.

“Well, different spells are used for different things. Most people treat Fire blast and Force arrow the same way, but they have different effects. Fire Blast is more effective against something in the heavy undergrowth, for instance. It burns everything away. And you can use Force arrow to destroy harder targets like stones to flush them out.”

“Pay attention to how Leo fights,” Darin told her. “I know you use different weapons, but the way he uses manipulation magic might help you to come up with some new techniques. Or you'll at least be able to refine the ones you have.”

“Got it.”

He turned his attention back to the fourth member of Iron Titan, an all-rounder with medium armor and a longsword, wielding support magic. Apparently that was his replacement, though Darin didn't know what to think of him. He seemed unremarkable, just another player with decent skills, but that might be enough. Not everyone had to be a standout on a team. Sometimes good, solid hands were enough to let the aces go to work.

He had been like that once. Darin had never been subpar, but Leah and Leo were always the standouts in Silver Star, and Jon was no slouch himself. At the beginning Darin had felt like fourth best on the team, but that only motivated him to work harder to get better. Gradually he had come into his own, honing both his combat and casting skills. Now he was capable of fighting as an all-rounder as well, taking on any role he needed to play.

That might be the case with the fourth member of Iron Titan. He might be unremarkable now, but being around other skilled players would push him to get better. Darin thought it was fairly likely that he'd improve greatly as time passed. Or maybe not. Maybe Leo and Jon had just picked someone so they could get into this tournament. In any case, Raven's Call couldn't discount him. They'd have eight other players to contend with as well.

He watched with great interest as Iron Titan's archer flushed one of their opponents out with a Force arrow, right into Leo's path. His former comrade charged in with flash step and scored a pair of critical hits to the neck. His hapless victim fell and then disappeared in a cloud of dust.

“Must suck to be them,” Chad commented from the next row. “Must have sucked for Swift Angel too. You get an automatic bid into the tournament and get to face off against the worst team possible.”

“That's how the breaks fall, I guess,” Darin shrugged.

“And at least they were guaranteed decent winnings,” Taji pointed out.

“I wouldn't call them decent, but I see your point. Everyone wants to take the championship,” Chad said. “Not just for the money, but for the potential to jump up to C-rank.”

“I guess if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. Or something like that,” Taji shrugged. “I know that's a bit cliché, but...”

Leslie laughed. “A bit harsh too. You'll fit right in. If you're not prepared to fight all-out and take on all comers you don't have a place in the tournaments.”

“So it's about taking it seriously?”

“Eh, I wouldn't quite say that. Or I'd define that a little better, actually. Of course you need to take it seriously, but there's no point in playing to win over all else. We're here to provide entertainment. That's why we get paid. Because people watch this, and sponsors are willing to fork over the cash to shill their stuff.”

“Doesn't that just mean we're being a business?”

“You're not being very clear,” Evan said to Leslie.

“Well fine, why don't you explain it better,” she said, sticking out her tongue.

“I think I will. We're here to put on a show. We'd like to win, of course, but people don't want to watch something they think is boring. So they want to see the best teams compete, where the outcome is in doubt. That's more exciting.”

“And seeing lower seeds come out of nowhere to win the tournament is always exciting as well,” Winona said.

“That's another thing. People like underdogs. People like to watch drama unfold. So they hate it when teams go out of their way to prevent that from happening.”

“I didn't hear many complaints about us letting the clock run out in the qualifiers,” Erika said.

“Well that's to be expected. It normally happens anyhow, so no one's surprised. We got to see a ton of action at the beginning, so that helps too. But like your last match, if you just killed three of the enemy team and ran away to let the timer run out they'd hate you for it.”

“Wouldn't it just have been easier to kill him four-on-one?” Taji asked. “Instead of running away, I mean.”

“OK, bad example. But still, you get my point?”

“Yeah.”

Darin looked back at the screen as the others continued to converse, studying everything he could spot. Jon had one foe completely entrapped, using a combination of Stone Skin and Challenge Call to make it impossible for them to go elsewhere. With the Challenge Call spell active the victim had to attack the user, or they would suffer a huge attack penalty, making their damage almost negligible. Not that it was much better fighting a tank, because Stone Skin and heavy armor could absorb any blow.

And that left his other three teammates free to take on the remaining two enemies. Leo and the other attacker went after one, backing him into a corner and then cutting him down without any mercy. It was hard enough to take on one rogue by himself, and with another attacker it was nearly impossible.

Iron Titan's archer shot another arrow, this one laced with the Crush spell. Darin watched in amazement as the shaft flew straight and true, hitting its target square in the center of his armor. A moment later the spell squashed him like a piece of overripe fruit. If it had been a real person blood would be flying everywhere, but the dust cloud still made for an impressive sight.

That left the final opponent with a four-on-one disadvantage, and Darin knew very well he wasn't going to be able to overcome that obstacle. If he was lucky he might get a kill as he went down swinging, but the match was over. Now it was just a matter of formalities.

He looked over at the screen showing the bracket. “Crimson Flame against Ice Guardian. That should be interesting.”

“Fire beats ice,” Erika said.

“Except when ice is the first seed,” Chad said. “Still, they're pretty interesting. This is one of the few times three of the qualifiers made it into the quarterfinal round. Or semifinals, actually.”

“Unusual for them to have an all female team too,” Winona said.

“And they scored pretty highly. I wouldn't underestimate them just because they're new,” Leah said. “Either way, that's going to be a tough opponent in the finals no matter what.”

Darin looked back at the screen. Iron Titan had wasted no time in swarming their opponent, and the end was near. A rain of vicious blows cut down the last survivor, and the match ended.

“And that's it, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer said. “Iron Titan advances to the second round of the tournament to face the winner of the next match.”

“Want to watch any more?” Leah asked.

Darin sighed. “Not really. I'd like to fight. But I don't think there's anything more we can do to prepare for the fight. Lightning Strike is a fairly standard team.”

“There's that,” Chad said. “Leave it to you guys to switch things up. Now they have to study up on combinations and you don't.”

“Why'd you decide not to go with destruction magic?” Leslie asked.

“It was something different? And I got the idea from somewhere,” Leah told her.

“Not going to share it?”

“Nope. Friendship only goes so far. Though I'm sure you can figure it out.”

“Huh. And I was going to wish you luck in the next match. Guess you don't need it.”

Maybe not, Darin thought. They just needed to remember their plan and stick to it. The enemy wasn't going to be a pushover, but Raven's Call could handle them. They had already dealt with some fairly tough match-ups.

But those weren't going to be anything compared to what awaited them in the finals. As much as Darin knew he shouldn't be looking too far ahead, the prospect wouldn't leave his mind.

* * *

“Any idea what they're going to pick?” Erika asked as they walked down the tunnel to the arena floor.

Darin shook his head. “Could be anything. I'm guessing forest, or river, but that might just be me thinking too much. We'll see.”

He could hear the noise from the crowd start to pick up the further they walked, and felt an odd feeling in his gut. At least he couldn't throw up inside a virtual reality, or he didn't think it was possible.

Two matches had already completed. Lion's Roar, the fourth seed, had made their way into the final, as had Iron Titan. That left two spots open, and Raven's Call had to claim one of them.

It wasn't just about winning the tournament, moving up to C-rank or making sure they received the greatest amount of winnings possible. Those were important, of course, but Darin felt something more. He wanted to make sure that his old comrades didn't get the chance to win. If push came to shove he would rather one of the other teams take the tournament. At this point he didn't think he could stomach the prospect of the two traitors standing on top of the podium, basking in the glory while his team sat below them.

His team had to win. They had to win this match if only to make sure they could stop Iron Titan. He knew very well that it was an obsession, but at this moment he didn't care. Darin still wanted to make Jon and Leo pay for stabbing them in the back.

He barely acknowledged the other team as they entered the arena. Just another obstacle standing in the way of victory. They'd crush them, the same as they had crushed everyone else that got in their way during this tournament. Raven's Call wasn't going to play around, not when they had to win.

“Let's do this right,” Leah said. “Focus on forming up when we get into the stage, and then let's get to work.”

Darin nodded, content to let her take the lead this time. He could have done it if needed, but right now his feelings consumed him. He looked around at the crowd, wondering if Iron Titan was watching. Were they hoping that Raven's Call fell in this match, or did they not care? He thought they'd want to take on all comers, but that was based on his old impressions of them. Darin didn't know what to think of them now.

The sound of the announcer's voice broke into his thoughts.

“Teams, prepare to enter the stage!”

Darin took a deep breath to steady his nerves. Now wasn't the time to think about anyone else, not the past or future either. He had a fight in front of him, and he needed to focus on the here and now, on every moment in front of him.

The arena disappeared into a black void, and then he felt water splash beneath his feet. Darin looked around as a waterfall and steep banks materialized around him.

The river stage, just as he predicted. Good enough. Darin grabbed his halberd and walked along the river, feeling the water slosh around his feet. He opened up his map scroll and took a glance to find the rest of his team. Erika was closest to him, and he was headed in the right direction.

Walking along an open space might seem suicidal, but Darin calculated it was worth the risk. The river banks were elevated, making him a perfect target for any archers lurking about. At least in the river bed he was protected from arrows, unless the archer scaled the banks themselves.

And if anyone else tried to attack him here he could use the water to his advantage. He had Sky Walk, allowing him to rise out of the encumbrance around his legs. His enemies might not be so fortunate, and even a bit of water could slow their movements.

“Erika, you see my marker?” he asked over telepathy.

“I saw it. I'm moving toward you.”

“Keep an eye out for anyone following you,” he said. “I'm hoping one of them tries to jump me here, so-”

Darin saw a flash and activated Wraith, whirling around to try to confuse his attacker. One of the specters disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

He saw the ripples in the water, though. Darin lashed out with his halberd, but his swing was too slow. He shifted his grip, adjusting for the return attack that was sure to come. Darin guessed his opponent would try another attack to at least thin out the number of Wraiths. If only the rogue would pass close enough so that he could reach out and try to score a hit…

The blur came around again, just within range, it looked like. Darin didn't want to waste flash step, not when a hit wasn't even close to being a sure thing. He swung as quickly as he could, but the shadow was too fast. It cut down another wraith and then ran up the riverbank and out of sight.

He scanned the bank, trying to decide how to proceed. He could attack, though Darin thought the enemy might be trying to lead him into a trap. On the other hand, if he stayed here he might end up a sitting duck. Either the enemy archer or the rogue could pop up and try to catch him unaware…

Darin heard a splash and turned a second too late, just in time to see the rogue charging at him again with both daggers out. He didn't have enough time to dodge, nor to get his weapon back around to counterstrike or block. He didn't even have enough time to activate Flash Step.

The only option left was to rely on his armor. Darin braced himself for the inevitable impact, hoping that the rogue didn't score a critical hit. If it did then Darin was in trouble. He'd be seriously wounded with no help in sight, and then all bets were off.

The rogue started to make one final lunge…

And suddenly jumped back as a new figure joined the fray. Darin saw a thin blade darting about, barely visible under the extended speed of Flash Step. The rogue reeled once, then twice, dust leaking out of his wounds as he tried to cope with Erika's flurry of attacks.

Darin tried to join in, making a lunging thrust with his weapon's spearhead, but the enemy rogue thought better of it. A second later he was gone.

“Not how I wanted that to end,” Erika said. “Got a few hits on him, but nothing critical.”

“That's fine. Now they're wary,” Darin told her. “And thanks for bailing me out. That was about to get really bad if he scored a critical.”

“Don't mention it.”

Darin turned his attention back to the surrounding terrain. The sound of running water seemed to drown out a lot of the background noise.

“Are you still in the riverbed?” Leah's voice cut in over the telepathy link. “Aren't you going to get shot up there?”

“Stabbed seems more likely at this point. Where are you at?”

“Coming over the southern bank, so don't flip out and attack us. Taji's with me, by the way.”

Darin nodded. “Good to hear.”

“So we have everyone,” Erika commented as the other two walked into sight. “That's pretty quick.”

“Yeah, and that's good. Would have liked to take out that rogue, but we survived and we're in fighting shape.”

And this was the first time their team would be fighting together in one place during the tournament. Now was the time to unleash their true potential as a unit. The sum of their whole was greater than their individual parts, and they'd prove it now.

“What do you want us to do?” Taji asked.

Darin looked over at Leah. “You seem to be in command today. I'll let you handle it.”

“Right. Form up into an advance formation and let's cross over to the other bank. Make sure that you keep your eyes open. I don't want anyone getting picked off by a stray arrow.”

Darin complied with her instructions, careful to keep some distance between himself and everyone else. The last thing he wanted was to clump together and have the enemy archer hit them with a destruction spell.

“So, do you think that the rogue is going to come around for another attack, or he's going to try to join up with the others?” Erika asked.

“I'm guessing that he'll keep his distance,” Darin told her. “There's no sense in trying to attack four of us when he couldn't get two. And he's probably thinking that backup will help a lot.”

“Do we really want to fight them four on four?” Taji asked.

Leah nodded. “I'd prefer it that way, actually. That way we know where everyone is. The last thing I want is for the rogue or the archer to be somewhere we can't see them.”

Darin agreed as well. The element of surprise could be a powerful tool, and it wasn't like a four-on-three disadvantage was impossible to overcome. Most tanks were created to take on multiple opponents at once and keep them busy while the rest of their teammates got into position for their attacks.

“Should I scout ahead?” Erika asked. Darin could tell she was starting to get antsy.

“No. Stay together so we don't get picked off,” Leah instructed.

They cleared the northern riverbank and started across the field toward a line of trees, staying spread out. Taji moved in the center of the formation, where a destruction arrow was most likely to hit. He could take the most damage, so it made sense for him to be in the epicenter of the blast.

Darin was almost certain the enemy was on the other side of the field in the trees. The question was whether they would wait for Raven's Call to get close, or if they'd try to pick them off at a distance. It all depended on what their archer felt…

“There they are,” Leah said. She nocked an arrow. “Darin, Erika, go around the right flank and use Flash Step to close in. Don't get hit. Taji and I are going up the center.”

“Got it,” Darin said. He activated his ability and sprinted in a wide arc, trying to get a bit of distance from the rest of his comrades. The enemy archer would have to chose between shooting the incoming pair, or dealing with the archer and tank coming down the center. The former was more dangerous but far harder to hit, while the later moved much slower but could cause problems if they closed the distance.

It all depended on how Lightning Strike wanted to play this. If they trusted the rest of the team enough to deal with the pair of incoming rogues…

He saw three figures step forward, weapons in hand. One was a tank with the standard heavy armor, sword and shield, one was the rogue, and the final one had a spear.

“Take the rogue,” he told Erika. “I'll keep the other two busy.”

“Got it.”

Darin didn't think he could beat the other two, not while they had a tank, but he could keep them busy for Leah and Taji to close the distance. The archer could fire destruction spells, but Taji could absorb the damage and Leah could heal him as they advanced. Meanwhile she would be firing off support spells to help neutralize Lightning Strike.

Their fight would be over quickly compared to the other matches, probably within twenty minutes from the start time. Fast and brutal suited him just fine. The only question was who would walk out of here with the victory.

Darin charged into the fray, sweeping the fighter's spearpoint away with a flick of his halberd and following up with a lunging thrust. He felt a slight reverberation as the tank moved his shield and blocked the blow, but he was already moving, taking the momentum from his opponent and directing it into a sweeping strike.

He whirled his weapon around in a wide arc, aiming for the neck gap in the tank's armor. Darin knew he couldn't kill him in one blow, but a critical hit could give him something to think about and make him back off. The less he had to fight the pair simultaneously the better.

The tank saw the blow coming and tried to deflect the attack, but Darin's swing was far, far too quick. He felt a satisfying impact and yanked the axe blade back out, watching his foe stumbled backward. His health bar dropped rapidly, by a quarter of its length when it finished.

He didn't have any time to celebrate. To his credit the spearman reacted quickly, charging in with another thrust to ward Darin away from his comrade. He countered the blow, then made a thrust at his opponent's feet.

To his disappointment the spearman jumped backward, just far enough out of reach that Darin couldn't trip him with the back spike. Apparently Lightning Strike had watched some of the previous matches and were aware of their tricks.

But there were plenty more where that came from.

“Use Wraith,” he ordered.

Darin heard the sound of an explosion come from the direction of the field, followed by a faint wave of heat. Had the other two survived? He didn't have time to check. Darin activated his ability made another attack, trying to keep the spearman's attention. As far as he could tell his opponent had support magic, and he didn't want to let him restore the tank.

But the spearman blocked again and again. Darin had to jump aside as the enemy tank waded back into the fray, attempting to land blow after blow. Darin dodged one and scored a good hit, but this time he didn't do much damage. Stone Skin, probably.

“We're almost across,” Leah said. “Hit with a Force arrow and fire blast, missed with crush.”

“Got it,” Darin said, deflecting a strike from the spearman and dodging another from the tank as he talked.

“I hit the archer with weeping wounds. Can you take her out?”

Darin chanced a glance at the archer, still standing and firing arrows. She wasn't too far, just twenty yards or so away from him, but both the spearman and tank stood in his path. He saw Erika dueling with the enemy rogue as well, and he couldn't use flash step at the moment. That left only one option…

“On it,” he said. He leaped backward to avoid another attack and activated Sky Walk.

Darin didn't hesitate. He created three platforms in the blink of an eye and jumped on the first one. The spearman, to his credit, reacted quickly and tried to stab him from underneath, but Darin was already jumping to the next platform. He leaped to the third one, crouched down for a moment to coil his energy, then sprang at the archer with an overhead swing.

She saw him coming and tried to dodge, but at that moment flash step's timer disappeared. Darin activated the ability mid-jump and came down in a blur, landing a vicious, bisecting blow. The archer disappeared in a cloud of dust.

He still had time with Flash Step. Darin dodged a Bind spell and brought his halberd around in a thrust, straight into the enemy spearman's neck. That blow didn't finish him, but a sweep from his axe blade did the job. Two-on-four in the blink of an eye. Darin couldn't have planned it any better.

“Nice work,” Leah told him as she and Taji jogged up.

“Thanks.”

“Wasn't talking to you,” Leah said. She pointed over to Erika. “Out-dueled another rogue one-on-one.”

Darin glanced over at her. “Really?”

“Yeah. Really.”

The last surviving member of Lightning Strike looked at them like they were monsters. “This is so unfair,” he said. “Of all teams, we had to get you.”

Darin nodded. “Yeah. It really is.”

That didn't mean he wasn't going to take the opportunity to finish him off, though.

* * *

They were in the finals, but any elation from their victory soon faded as they watched the next match. He could feel it in the atmosphere around him too. Ice Guardian, the top seed in the D-rank tournament, was being completely manhandled by a qualifying seed.

Darin watched with grim interest as Crimson Flame finished off an archer using a similar trick to his own. Had they taken that from watching the previous match, or come up with it on their own? Either worked, and while some people might decry copycats, the tournaments were very much a follow the leader affair. If one team found a new technique or trick, other were sure to use it.

But it wasn't just about technique. Crimson Flame seemed to communicate well without even speaking, using hand signals and other visual cues to coordinate their attacks. Their team configuration was standard, but their abilities seemed to be far above the D-rank levels.

And when the last enemy fell Darin felt his unease grow by the second. He could feel the shock in the crowd. Upsets weren't unheard of by any stretch of the imagination, but one like this…

A lower seed had completely toyed with the top-ranked team in the division. More importantly, they'd be facing that team in the final along with Iron Titan. And the fourth seed was nothing to sneeze at either…

“So much for easy,” Taji said.

“That just means it looks a lot better when we come out on top, right?” Erika said.

“They pay the same whether you beat the three best teams in the world or three scrubs. I'd like the one that's more certain.”

“We just have to make sure we're on top of our game tomorrow,” Leah said. “We may have to face them...”

“Do we have to face them, or do they have to face us?” Erika asked.

Taji shrugged. “I don't see the difference.”

Darin caught what she was saying. It was all just a matter of outlook. If Raven's Call expected to win then that increased their chances of victory, so long as they took their opponents seriously. They didn't need to fear them. They needed to impose their will on the others.

“Tomorrow's crunch time,” he told the others. “We've come a long way in a short time. Let's make sure we keep it going.”

16

Leah frowned as she watched more and more of the Crimson Flame match, trying to decipher any meaning she could from the fight. Iron Titan was going to be a tough foe, that much was certain, but the newcomers were somewhat of an enigma to her.

That made them dangerous. In fact, an unpredictable foe could be more dangerous than a stronger but well-known enemy because they had the element of surprise. If they couldn't predict the enemy's movements then they'd constantly be on the defensive.

What made them appear so powerful? Out of the four teams going into the final, three of them were lower seeds and all of them had swept their matched four to zero. Was it the level of competition? Leah knew that Silver Star's experience was far beyond anyone in the D-rank division. Even with their relative equality in skill levels, their instincts and knowhow gave them a significant edge over other teams. That accounted for Raven's Call and Iron Titan.

But Crimson Flame? Leah had never heard of any of the members. None of them had been in the higher ranks of the tournaments. The team had never competed in the D-ranks before this tournament either. To all appearances they were complete novices, and yet they had performed beyond all expectations.

Were they just naturally talented? Were they lucky? Leah didn't think so. She might have been able to convince herself of that if they had just come through the qualifiers, but making it to the finals was an entirely different beast. Even if they did have luck on their side there had to be some skill to go with it.

Four teams, one winner. Leah thought that made things even more difficult. At least in a normal tournament they could focus on one team, even if they had to match up with Iron Titan next. But this type of match meant dealing with three vastly different opponents. She hadn't even begun to look at Golden Ram, the fourth team in the final and the one with the highest seed. They might not have the experience of Iron Titan or Raven's Call, but they weren't going to be pushovers. Not when they knew every other opponent was a strong contender.

She leaned back in her chair and sighed. Out in the real world, and still she was focusing on the virtual one. Of course there was plenty at stake inside it, so it wasn't like she was wasting her time, but…

Leah heard an alert go off on her tablet, and a video message popped up. She recognized Darin's username and accepted.

“That was quick,” he said. “Are you looking over stuff for tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I'm guessing you're doing the same?”

“Not much else to do. And I want to make sure we know what we're getting into with the two other teams,” he said. “Golden Ram is pretty standard, but Crimson Flame...”

“They're pretty unnatural,” Leah said. “If I didn't know any better I'd say that they were veterans, but none of the players have ever taken part in the tournaments. So they're just naturally skilled, I guess.”

“Huh, kind of makes you envious, doesn't it? We actually had to work our way up before we could even think of winning a tournament. Remember that?”

“Do I have to?” Leah asked with a smile.

Silver Star's first tournament had been a complete disaster. They had only managed to make two kills in the qualifying rounds before they were completely annihilated. Their second attempt had been better, but they had still missed out on making the tournament. It took quite a bit of training and effort to become competent, and after that it had been a long slog to the upper ranks.

But sometimes there were teams where everything clicked. Whether it was just luck, or that they had an intrinsic understanding of how to fight, they were able to make rapid ascents up the ranks. Leah had seen it before, and Crimson Flame just might be the latest in a long line of those teams.

Whether they could sustain that momentum in the long run was yet to be decided. Teams could rip through the D- and C-ranks on pure natural talent, but the B- and A-ranks were a far different story. Every team in those divisions had to come up the hard way, and they knew every trick in the book. They knew how to counter them as well, and a combination of brains and skill almost always beat pure talent.

That might be true here as well, but Leah was still wary of the newcomers.

“So anyhow,” Darin said, “I think that we can do this, but we have to make sure that the others don't gang up on us. Actually, I'm hoping one of the other teams takes out one or two of Iron Titan first.”

“Don't want to fight them four on four, huh?”

“I don't have a problems with that, but I'll take what I can get. I want to make sure that Taji and Erika think this team is sustainable. I think we have a solid team here, if we can just keep it together.”

Leah nodded. “Yeah. I think we found two good ones. I think we might have fought a diamond in the rough with Erika too. She's out-dueled two rogues with no outside help. She that might be her role.”

“Rogue killer,” Darin said. “Capable of taking on the strongest and fastest enemy attacker and holding them at bay. Capable of killing them all by herself too. That's a powerful weapon to have.”

“Don't discount Taji either.”

“Oh, I know. He's not flashy, but he knows what he's doing. And he knows his role in the team.”

Tanks didn't have a glorious role within a team, but it was an essential one. They could take damage and occupy multiple enemies without much fear of being killed. Even if they couldn't inflict much damage, their presence allowed the rest of their unit to operate freely. Leah would have never been able to make it across the field in the last match without Taji shielding her from the destruction spells.

“I think we're going to have to keep our eye on Crimson Flame,” Leah said. “They look pretty dangerous.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Though I guess we can be thankful that there's three strong teams in the final. I was afraid that the other three would gang up on us.”

“It's still possible.”

“Yeah, but less likely. Iron Titan is in the same position as us, and I don't think that Crimson Flame is the type to do it either.”

“Do you really know that for sure, or is that just gut instinct?” she asked.

“Just a feeling. But if it's going to be chaos then that's fine with me.”

“So, everyone but us is running a standard team. That's going to make it tough, since we don't have a destruction magic user.”

“You were the one who decided not to go with that.”

“I know, and it has several advantages, but with three other teams it's going to be tough. If it was just us against Iron Titan I think we could handle it fairly well, but there's too many wildcards.”

“So you have an idea for taking out Iron Titan? We might need that if it comes down to us and them.”

“Yeah. I'd have Erika occupy Leo, and then go after their other attacker.”

“Not their archer?”

“No, because that's the standard play, and they'll probably be expecting it. Conventional wisdom says that we should take out their most powerful damage dealer, and she's it. But I'm almost certain that Jon would be guarding her, and then we're stuck in a mess.”

“So better to take out one member rather than take the risk of being bogged down. Sounds like a plan.”

“Of course that doesn't work when there's two more teams in the match. If we send Erika after Leo I'm inclined to think they'd just let them fight it out and try to pounce on us while it's happening.”

“Yeah, but at the same time I'd rather take my chances with that rather than have Leo running around.”

Leah understood why. Leo had an innate understanding of surprise attacks and ambushes, and he could use a combination of stealth and speed to get right on top of his target. She knew very well she'd have to keep her eyes peeled when they were in the stage, otherwise she'd probably end up with a pair of daggers in her back.

But was that threat enough to risk putting them at a disadvantage when they took on the other teams? She wasn't quite sure.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“What do I think? I think we're going to have to take some risks, because we don't have the offensive power that the other three teams do. I think mobility would be a good weapon. If we can draw some of the other teams into fights with each other then that benefits us.”

“That's if they don't catch onto what we're doing. I think they're likely to gang up on us if that happens.”

“Well, fine. We can do something different if it comes to that. Maybe try to get everyone fighting at once and then try to take out a few of Iron Titan. I don't want to have to take them on at the end, especially if we're weakened.”

“I'd say that Crimson Flame would be worse. We don't know much about them,” Leah said. “Of course there's Golden Ram, but no offense to them...”

“You don't think they're going to be as much of a threat as the other two. I agree.”

Leah sighed again. “So much to decide on again. Should we have invited the other two to talk it over?”

“I think they've done enough for today. And we have our plans anyhow. I just feel like we need to get the old edge back.”

For some reason the conversation with Leo popped into her head. Leah didn't know why she even thought it mattered at this point. He might have talked grandly, gave the impression that he wanted to do things a new way, but here his team was in the finals. To all appearances it looked like he had gone back on his proclamation.

And yet, that didn't mean his words lacked any merit. Did they have some truth to them? Leah might want to change the way her team operated, but here she was resorting to old habits. They were doing everything they could to win, even when they were outside Avalon Online's virtual world. They could try to justify it all they wanted. They needed to win to make sure the team stayed together, or that they wanted to move up to the next division, but…

Could they really claim they had changed at all? At this point they were little better than Leo and Jon, claiming one thing while pursuing another. And would they drag the rest of their teammates down with them chasing that goal? Could she really keep going like this acting like nothing was wrong?

“You know what?” Leah said. “I think we need to stop worrying about this. We have the ability to do this. Not just us, but Erika and Taji too. I know we need to prepared, but I think we're at the point where we're getting diminishing returns. We're overthinking it too much.”

“So just stick with the original plan?”

“Yeah, and we'll figure it out if we have to change our tactics in the middle of the fight. It's almost guaranteed to happen anyhow, so why waste time coming up with solutions for every scenario? I think it's better to be able to do them during the match.”

Darin made a face. “OK. I'm not a huge fan of it, but...”

“But the further we go with this the less helpful it becomes,” Leah said. “And then there's one more thing. How much fun is it to sit around and make a million plans?”

“OK, point taken. I'll see you tomorrow.”

“See you then.”

Leah shut off her tablet and leaned back into her chair again, thinking. She hoped that she made the right decision, because if they lost tomorrow she'd be second-guessing herself for weeks. Losing didn't mean the end of their team, but it would be a severe setback. They'd have to claw their way up the D-rank division again, and if Iron Titan won she wasn't sure she could stomach seeing them ascend any further.

But then, there was the new approach she wanted to take. This meant nothing if they couldn't enjoy the fights they competed in, the competition they faced while they made their way up the ranks. Leah had faith in herself and the rest of her team.

No, she thought, she wasn't nervous. Instead of fighting three teams of scrubs, Raven's Call was in for a tough match where the winner was in doubt. It would be a challenge, and for anyone watching it was sure to be entertaining as well.

That was their role, after all, and she'd embrace it. It wasn't just to win, or to make money. It was to entertain. And win or lose, they'd make sure that happened.

* * *

Leah heard the roar of the crowd as the teams advanced down the tunnel and to the arena floor. As they emerged the sheer scope of it all hit her. This wasn't just a D-rank match anymore. The size and verbosity of this audience matched that of most A-rank matches. Apparently the fight card had captured everyone's attention.

She had no idea how many people were watching from outside the virtual reality, but Leah imagined it must be significant as well. The Avalon Online commission had to be happy about that, though she wondered what they thought about having two teams of former Silver Star members in the final. Was it just a coincidence for them, or were they not pleased at the prospect? Leah wasn't sure they'd ever know.

“This is it,” Darin said quietly to the rest of the team. “Win this and we're the top-ranked team in the division. Then we can think about challenging C-rank.”

“First things first. Let's win this,” Taji said.

Leah nodded. Obvious advice, but sound as well. That was a good sign, at least. Taji seemed focused. She couldn't tell Erika's mental state from her actions, but she had always seemed ready during the previous fights. At least it appeared she was loose, calm and collected with no outward sign of nerves.

But they weren't the only ones that seemed ready for the fight. Leah looked around at the other teams, hoping to gain a little insight, but there's wasn't much to be seen. They all seemed either focused or bored, standing around and waiting for the announcers to finish their spiel.

She took a glance at Crimson Flame and Golden Ram, both looking fairly confident. Leah was about to look at Iron Titan as well, but then the announcers finished their preliminary speeches.

“Teams, prepare for battle! The match will take place in the ravine stage!”

Leah smiled. “Perfect.”

She saw Darin nod and look over at Erika. “I don't need to tell you what that means, do I?”

“Already on it.”

The ravine stage had several levels, but the players would spawn on the floor of the landform. If they wanted to get higher they needed to climb, and that favored players who had the sky-walk ability.

Raven's Call might not have a destruction mage in their ranks, but with two manipulation magic users this stage suited them perfectly. If they could get together as a unit, or even as pairs they might be able to outmaneuver the enemy and gain the high ground.

She didn't have any more time to think. The timer started to count down, and the arena faded away. Leah inhaled and reached back for her bow, waiting for the stage to materialize around her. Now it was time to find out if her hunch was correct.

* * *

Gravel crunched beneath her feet as she walked. Leah kept her eyes peeled, looking for any signs of movement. With so many enemies in the stage the slightest lapse of attention could prove fatal.

Granted, her loss would be far less severe to her team than any of the other archers, but she still provided a valuable service to her team. She was their only healer, for starters, and Leah imagined they'd be taking hits at some point. Even the swiftest and most agile fighters couldn't dodge forever.

“Erika, how close are you?”

“Moving as fast as I can,” she replied. “I think we'll meet up when I come around the next bend.”

Leah looked ahead and saw the ravine curving away to the right. She thought that was what her teammate saw, but she couldn't quite be sure until she reached it. And opening her map was out of the question right now. If someone decided to spring an ambush she'd have no way to spot it com-

She reacted in the blink of an eye, before she even fully realized what was happening. Leah dove to the floor of the ravine and rolled into an indent, hoping it would be enough to shield her. A searing heat passed over her and cut her health bar by a small portion, but she survived with no other ill effects.

As she rose to her feat her opponent nocked another arrow.

“Didn't think I'd get you with that, but I could hope,” the red-haired girl said. “Oh well.”

Leah cast Pre-sight and ran as soon as she could anticipate the trajectory of the arrow. She dove again and rolled, hoping the arrow would miss, but this time she wasn't so fortunate. The shockwave from the Force arrow buffeted her and tossed her about. Leah's health bar plummeted into the red.

She sprang onto her feet and healed her wounds, but now she had no room for error. The next hit or two might be enough to kill her, and there would be no way to recover for a few minutes. And that was if her foe didn't hit her with a Crush arrow…

But she wasn't helpless either, not by a long shot. Leah nocked an arrow and drew back her bowstring, then fired off a shot.

Her enemy dodged aside gracefully, just as expected, but Leah had already nocked another arrow. This time she took better aim and cast Bind on the projectile.

She fired.

Her opponent saw the arrow coming, but her previous dodge had left her off balance. She tried to push off to get away, but the arrow impacted on her shoulder. Ropes snaked out of the arrow and tangled around her, then embedded themselves in the ravine walls and floor.

Leah fired another arrow, then another. If she didn't have destruction spells to kill her enemy then she'd just do it the old fashioned way. Raven's Call would draw first blood, and Iron Titan would end up severely hampered. She couldn't have planned it any better.

Arrow after arrow slammed into the target as her opponent struggled to break free of her bindings. She had a knife, but Leah knew it didn't have the cutting ability of a sword or even a dagger. She wouldn't be able to get away before the arrows did their work.

Leah watched with satisfaction as the archer's health bar dipped into the red. Just a few more shots. She drew back her bow one more time and aimed right for the neck. A hit there would almost certainly finish her off.

She fired.

Blue-green platforms suddenly appeared in the sky above her, and a blur charged up. Leah nocked another arrow and tried to fire off a shot, but the rogue moved far too fast. Iron Titan's archer burst into a cloud of dust, and her arrow clattered uselessly against the ravine wall.

Leah looked up in annoyance as the newcomer stopped and turned to face her. She had silver hair, carried a pair of daggers and wore Crimson Flame's colors.

“Sorry about stealing the kill,” she shrugged, “but we have to do what we need to in order to win.”

Leah responded by firing off her arrow, then drawing another. The loss of a kill and the points that came with it certainly wasn't good, but that was the least of her concerns right now. As it stood she had to fight a rogue one-on-one.

“Hey Erika,” she said over the telepathy link, trying to remain calm, “anytime you can join me would be good.”

“Little busy,” came the reply.

Leah sighed. She had been afraid of that. With Erika embroiled in a fight elsewhere she had little choice but to stand and face her foe. Darin and Taji were too far away to do any good. By the time they closed in the battle would be decided.

The rogue charged down the ravine wall, sliding brazenly and with no fear. Leah felt a momentary stab of fear in her chest. Her foe would be right on top of her in a few seconds. She might have one change to get a shot in, but it probably wasn't going to be enough to stop the charge. She couldn't use Bind or Heal. Pre-sight would wear off in a few seconds. Champion's Call was effectively useless at this point.

There was only one option left: run.

17

“Darin, Taji, I need help. I'm being chased by Crimson Flame's rogue.”

Darin opened his map and found her position. “Isn't Erika the closest one to you?”

“She's fighting.”

“Then Taji is the closest one to you,” Darin told her. “Do you know where he is?”

“Sorry, but I'm a little too busy to look at the map.”

“OK. Head down the ravine in the direction you're going and take the right fork. Taji, can you head toward that position and join up with her?”

“Got it.”

He closed his menu scroll. “I'll head-”

Darin stopped talking as he saw a pair of enemies heading toward him. A tank and a damage dealer, both from Golden Ram. Were there more somewhere?

“Change of plans,” he said. “Looks like I have company.”

“What do you want me to do?” Taji asked.

“Keep going toward the rendezvous point. I'll try to get there, but it looks like I'm going to have to fight my way out.”

“Understood.”

Darin watched the pair move toward him, pondering what path he should take. He could stand and fight, but the prospects of that weren't good. It meant facing a tank that was capable of taking anything he dealt out without much trouble, and the damager probably wasn't anything to sneeze at either.

He could run as well, but that probably meant drawing them toward his teammates, and it sounded like Leah was in enough trouble as it was. Darin had a feeling he'd pick up more foes, and he didn't want his team to be caught in a situation where they would be outnumbered.

That left only one good choice. He activated Sky Walk and created a series of platforms up the side of the ravine, then leaped atop them. Once he was in the upper levels he'd be safe from everything but rogues and archers. And if anyone tried to follow him up the steps…

Darin turned around as he reached the top, weapon ready to strike, but the others seemed to have caught on to his plan. Neither had followed him up, much to his disappointment. He would have liked to stab one in midair, maybe send them plummeting toward the bottom of the ravine for an easy kill.

No matter. He couldn't stay in one spot, not when there were enemy archers lurking somewhere in the stage. Darin ran along the upper part of the ravine, keeping his head on a constant swivel. He might be relatively safe from close-combat fighters up here, but a canny rogue could set an ambush for him if he wasn't careful.

He went over the situation in his head as he ran. Erika was locked in combat, though no one seemed to know who she was fighting or even how many there might be. Leah was being chased by a single rogue from Crimson Flame. He had just left behind two of Golden Ram's members. That left eight more enemies to account for.

If he could just catch one of them off-guard…

The arrow came streaking in before he could properly react, blowing away a large section of the upper ravine and throwing him off balance. Darin felt the ground give way, and a second later he hurtled toward the bottom.

Where had the archer come from, and which team were they on? Was this a well-laid trap, or was it just a coincidence? First he had to stay alive.

Darin saw several large pieces of earth falling with him and made a quick decision. He activated Flash Step and flipped toward one, using the extra boost of speed to close the distance. His feet kicked off, and he sprang toward the next one, then another, then another. As he neared the floor Darin pushed off the side of the ravine to kill his momentum, then rolled and rose to his feet. His health bar dropped a little, but he was still in one piece.

But he didn't have much time to celebrate. The two Golden Ram members were hot on his tail, and this time he didn't have the ability to use Sky Walk.

“Huh, nice landing,” a familiar voice said.

Darin groaned inwardly and glanced over his shoulder. “So did you plan this all out, Jon?”

His former comrade shrugged. “Honestly, no. I didn't plan on that happening. But apparently we all have the same thought.”

“We all?” Darin asked, just before he spotted three more fighters. One was the damager from Iron Titan, and the other two were from Crimson Flame. They eyed each other nervously.

“Looks like a party,” one of the Flame fighters said, a tank with heavy armor and short auburn hair.

Jon looked over at her, then back at the Golden Rams. “You all had the same thought, I'm guessing?”

“Seems like it.”

“I guess.”

Darin felt a sense of dread come over him. Six-on-one with three tanks. There was no way he was going to be able to get out of this in one piece, not unless he ran for his life. But that also meant he had all three of the opposing tanks here with him, and that might give the rest of his team the freedom to operate freely.

He decided to stall for time.

“And what's this thing you were all planning on?” he asked.

The other Crimson Flame member giggled, a fighter with long, dark blue hair and a spear. “You don't know, huh?”

“Obviously not...”

“You think we're just going to let you do what you want like you did with the other teams?” the Golden Ram's tank asked.

Just as he suspected. Every other team was trying to neutralize him, probably because he had the most dangerous build on the team. Erika could probably give him a run for his money, but then there was the experience factor to account for…

But they wanted him dead, and Darin was pretty sure he couldn't stall them for much longer. Likely the only reason they hadn't attacked yet was because they were trying to determine whether the others would take the opportunity to take some free shots.

And that gave him the chance to seize the initiative, at least for a moment.

“You want to take me down?” Darin asked. He whirled his halberd around in an arc and stopped it in a guard position. “Bring it.”

He activated Wraith and charged toward the Golden Rams, hoping that the others would try to follow him. If he could just break through them he could lead everyone on a chase…

The pair saw him coming and tried to block, but Darin swung his halberd around in a wild arc to force them back. Just a few more feet...

He felt the impact in his ribs and grunted, but his armor held out. Darin watched his health bar drop by a bit, but not by much. And a moment later he was free, or as free as he could hope for now.

The armor seal. That was probably the cause of all this, or at least contributed to why everyone was chasing him. Whoever scored a kill could lay claim to a huge number of points, and in a wild match like this that could prove critical.

Darin wasn't going to complain about that, though. More than likely they would have come after him anyhow, extra points or not. The armor's extra protection had saved him from taking major damage from the last strike, and he had the feeling that wouldn't be the last time it saved him.

And then there was the matter of the points. Darin didn't think the three teams were just going to allow one of their opponents to take them. If only he could find a moment to exploit that…

“Erika, Leah, Taji,” he said over the telepathy link as he ran, “I'm being chased by two members of each team.”

“Do you need help?” Leah asked. “Taji joined up with me, and the rogue's gone.”

“No. You're probably not going to get to me in time, and you have the opportunity to get the jump on some of the others. Go help Erika and then start picking off the others for more points.”

“What about you?” Taji asked.

Darin glanced over his shoulder, seeing the rest of his foes in hot pursuit. “I'm going to keep them chasing me and hold them off for as long as possible. Take the opportunity to get our team ahead.”

“Got it.”

One of his wraiths disappeared in a cloud of smoke, destroyed by a sword slash. The rest would be gone soon enough. Darin didn't think they would serve as anything more than a momentary distraction.

But they had bought him a bit of time. Time for him to run, time for his abilities to recharge, and most importantly, time for the rest of his teammates to go to work picking off the rest of their foes.

His pursuers had made one critical miscalculation, at least. All of them had decided to come after him, and that meant three forces at odds with each other were trying to accomplish the same goal, albeit for their own teams. They weren't just going to let one of the others finish him off and lose the points for their team, and Darin might be able to play off that to prolong the fight even further.

They probably thought they could finish him off quickly with six players, even with the squabbling over who would take the kill. His job was to prevent that from happening for as long as possible. Eventually they might start to break off as their teams suffered more and more losses, but that would give him more openings.

He saw the spear wielder spring forward and leap, coming at him with a jumping thrust. Darin dodged aside, but then another one struck out him. He deflected the first blow, then the second, but the third attacker piled in and landed a trio of hard strikes. Darin gritted his teeth, expecting his health to drop into the yellow.

But the bar only moved a small length. Darin moved into a defensive position and looked back at the six pursuers, a realization dawning on him. He grinned at them.

“Two of you just cast Challenge Call at the same time, didn't you?” he said, trying not to laugh with glee.

A mistake, one made from inexperience, but a critical one at that. Challenge Call reduced the amount of damage a player could inflict if they didn't attack the caster. Normally it only harmed the enemy, but with two of them using it the spell affected everyone present.

He couldn't have planned things better. Darin's own attacks were almost useless, but in the grand scheme of things that didn't matter. He would be too busy defending himself to strike back, and would have to rely on critical hits.

But now the enemy would have to hit him far more times to score a kill, and all the while his powers would be recharging. Challenge Call would wear off eventually, but in that time he could stall them for a long while.

Jon and his comrade knew that as well, because they started to back off.

“Well, you won this round,” Jon told him. “Out of sheer luck, nothing more.”

They backed away and headed toward another part of the ravine, probably hunting for more targets. Smart choice, Darin thought, and Jon probably wasn't responsible for the Challenge Call fiasco. He was far too experienced.

But Darin wasn't about to let them go either. Flash Step's timer disappeared, and he made a quick decision. Darin gripped his halberd in both hands, aimed himself right at the spear-wielder and activated the ability.

Everyone around him passed in a blur as he launched himself forward, putting all his speed and power into one strike. Darin brought his weapon around in a completely horizontal swing, aiming right for the neck. If he could just get a critical hit…

The halberd's shaft vibrated a bit, but Darin felt no bounce-back. The weapon seemed to cleave past his target cleanly. He didn't see the results, but at this point he wasn't expecting a kill. Just dealing out a severe wound would be good enough.

More importantly, his momentum carried him forward and in front of the retreating Iron Titan members. Darin slid to a stop then charged back toward them, aiming for the swordsman. He thought he was out of range of Challenge Call at the moment. Just one hit in the right spot…

Darin's blow connected, but his blade did little damage. He backed off, feeling a twinge of disappointment.

“Had to make me do it,” Jon said unhappily.

Just as he thought, though Darin considered that the best-case scenario. Now that all three tanks had used Challenge Call causing damage would be next to impossible. All he had to do was to stay alive and keep getting in their way.

He saw his team's point total jump up out of the corner of his eye. Good. Now they were neck and neck with Crimson Flame, and the longer this went on the more time the other three members of his team would have to score more kills.

Doubtless the others knew that, but the ravine's terrain made it difficult for them to counter his attempts. None of them had manipulation magic, so they couldn't just run past him or go above him. As far as Darin was concerned he had complete control of the battlefield.

He saw the swordsman glance over at Jon. “What do we do now?”

“Keep fighting and look for an opening.”

That probably meant the last kill was one of their teammates. Good. As much as the other teams posed a danger, Iron Titan remained the greatest threat in his mind. The current situation was proof of that. Inexperience had turned a relatively straightforward fight into a disaster, and handed his own team the advantage.

But he still had to face a six-on-one disadvantage, and Darin was certain they wouldn't make the same mistakes again. He had to stay on his toes if he wanted to make it out of this in one piece.

The other four caught up, approaching warily.

“You're a real pain, you know that,” Crimson Flame's tank told him.

“I try.”

One of the Golden Rams spoke up. “Iron Titan is down to those two. Might be the time to eliminate them for good.”

Jon fixed him with a glare. “Try it, if you want to be eliminated.”

Darin watched the confrontation, hoping it would spill over into something more. If an all-out brawl started he was going to fight for himself, hitting anyone and everyone that got in his way. If they could just score a few more points…

The blast caught him completely by surprise. One moment he had his feet on the ground, and the next he felt his body slam into the ravine wall, dropping his health bar into the red. As Darin got to his feet he saw the others had been hit as well.

The pair of Golden Rams stood up, their damager casting a healing spell. “Good work,” he said, probably over the telepathy link.

That was when Darin remembered he had never accounted for their archer, likely the one that forced him back down here in the first place. If he was up high then the next shot could very well be the end of him…

He whipped his head around, following the damager's line of sight to the upper part of the ravine. There. He spotted the archer, partially concealed behind a rock.

Darin couldn't afford to wait around. He activated Sky Walk and charged up the created pathway. The archer was out of range of challenge call, so all spells would do full damage. Another hit and they might have four kills…

He didn't mind that, but the points total was a different story. It would put Golden Ram firmly in the lead, and the only way to take them down was to completely eliminate their team and cut their points total in half. That meant racing against the clock, and Darin didn't want to take that chance.

He only hoped that his enemy didn't score a lucky shot…

An arrow whizzed past him, deflecting off his armor and nicking off a bit of health. Darin jumped to the next platform, weapon at the ready. His quick reaction might have caught the enemy off-guard, but it didn't mean he was safe. If the archer created a Crush arrow and held off until he was at point-blank range…

He was on the second to last platform when the timer for Wraith disappeared. Darin made a split-second decision and activated the ability, hoping it would provide him with a little bit of protection.

The archer drew back his bow again and fired, another spell swirling around the tip of the arrow. Darin launched himself off the final platform, hoping he wasn't the target. If the archer didn't sense he had moved to the right side of the wraith formation…

The arrow zipped through the centermost figure, crushing it into oblivion. As the archer realized his mistake he tried to retreat, but at this point it was far too late. Darin made an angled slash, catching his target square across the chest with a powerful leaping blow. He followed up with a backhanded sweep and cut the archer down.

Darin took a glance at the points totals. Raven's Call was ahead by several kills. His delaying tactics seemed to be paying off.

“Leah, you there?” he asked over the telepathy link.

“I'm here.”

“How are you doing?”

“Well, we just took care of Crimson Flame's rogue. The three of us managed to gang up on Leo and killed him. I see you got a kill too.”

“Yeah. Golden Ram's archer.”

“We still can't find their rogue, but we're headed toward you.”

“We're getting close,” Taji added.

Darin glanced down at the scene below. The truce between the teams had broken down, and all three were in the midst of combat. He still had to account for the last member of Golden Ram, but-

The rogue materialized out of nowhere, charging straight for him. Darin saw the blur, but he didn't have time to react. All his abilities were spent. He had fought a long, grueling battle and given his team the edge, but this was the end of the line for him.

Still, he tried to fight back, sweeping his halberd around in a horizontal arc. It probably wouldn't do anything, but at least he'd go down fighting.

He braced himself for the inevitable stab, but it never came. Another blur charged across his line of sight and forced the other to deviate from its path. Darin saw the attacking rogue stumble with a wound and struck out. He caught his assailant in the ribs with a stab, and a moment later a rapier thrust finished him off for good.

“You OK?” Erika asked.

“Could use some healing, but yeah, I'm fine.”

Leah's voice came over the telepathy link. “I'm coming up to meet you.”

A moment later she jumped up from Erika's platforms with Taji close behind.

“Wow, you look like you're a mess,” she said, nonchalantly casting heal on him. “So that's it?”

Darin looked back down at the chaotic fight happening below. “Yeah, that's it.”

“Well, we killed the other three rogues. The archers too, so that means we could just hide up here until the timer expires.”

“If Crimson Flame manages to kill all four of them down there...” Taji said.

“No need to just stall,” Darin said. “I've done plenty of that already. We have all four of us to their two. Let's finish them off and win this.”

He leaped back down the Sky Walk platforms, the rest of the team following behind.

* * *

Darin could remember few victories that had come with this amount of satisfaction. There were plenty of others where his team had fought through much tougher challenges. And there were many more where the rewards at the end far exceeded what they earned from the D rank tournament.

But this was a triumph that he could treasure. Even if fortune had favored them, even if their dominance was due to the other teams making mistakes, it felt like validation. Not only had Raven's Call staked their claim as a serious contender, but Darin's faith in his team had been rewarded.

He looked back down the podium at the other teams, paying special attention to Iron Titan. Even after losing two of their members they had fought on, scoring enough kills to put them in third place. They had barely edged out Crimson Flame, and Golden Ram continued to fight until the end as well. Darin was fairly certain they hadn't seen the last of them, and they'd learn from their mistakes in this match.

But for now he'd savor the moment, soak in the cheers of the crowd and the elation of victory. The looks on his teammates faces were prizes enough.

“Good work everyone,” Leah said. “This is what it feels like to be a champion.”

“I think I like it,” Taji grinned.

Erika nodded. “I'll second that.”

Darin looked at both of them. “Good. There's not many times you'll get this feeling inside this world.”

“Now we just have to maintain it all,” Leah said. “Challenging up to the C-rank...”

“Weren't you the one that wanted to take it slow?” he asked.

She laughed. “I was. I still do, sort of. But we have the opportunity in front of us, so we might as well take it.”

Darin nodded. They may have won their first tournament, but this wasn't the end for Raven's Call, just one step on the journey up to the top. He looked at the rest of his team.

“Enjoy this, because we're going to be feeling this a lot more. This is just the beginning.”

About the Author

- @mitchelltjacobs

www.xiphospress.com

Also by Mitchell T. Jacobs

World at War Online

1 Black Wolf: A World at War Novel

2 Howl: A World at War Novel

3 Fang: A World at War Novel

4 Werewolf: A World at War Novel

5 Deception City: A World at War Novel

6 Carnage City: A World at War Novel

7 Commando City: A World at War Novel

8 Dead City: A World at War Novel

9 Victory City: A World at War Novel