I still had five seconds left on my skill trio. Bart was frantically trying to top off his health, Lox’s bleed effect had a couple seconds left, Bell continued to cast debuffs on me that cleared every half second, and Yuri was limping away - his hobbled debuff still ticking down.

Lowering my glaive, I went to thrust the blade through Yuri’s exposed back. Something hit me from the side, staggering me, then pulling me in the opposite direction. White-hot fire spread across my gut. I looked down and spotted a small blade stuck in my side, a rope attached to the blade. I followed the rope back to see Lox with both hands wrapped around the rope. He smiled and winked. Then tugged with all his strength on the rope.

“Get over here,” he said in his best Scorpion from Mortal Kombat impression.

The blade was hooked in my flesh somehow, and his pull yanked me closer to him, causing me to stumble before I could get my wits. The pain was intense, and I struggled to think. After a moment, I managed to steady my feet. Reaching down, I grabbed the rope, and pulled back. His eyes went wide as he was forced to take a step forward, then braced himself and pulled harder. As a Berserker, most of his stats were dumped in Strength, and if I had to guess, his was slightly higher than mine.

So I opted out of the tug-of-war, and sliced through the rope with my glaive. The sudden lack of tension sent him stumbling to his butt, and I went back to stalking Yuri. My skill trio dropped as I closed the distance, and Yuri managed to get a [Hobbling Shot] into my leg as my glaive cut through him. Shit! I had forgotten to activate my [Balanced Stance] ability that would have negated that! The pain staggered me as the debuff notification appeared.

You are hobbled (7 seconds)

Movement speed -50%

Yuri was dead, teleported out of the arena. Three down, three to go. But I had no way to clear the hobbled effect, and the pain was debilitating. I tried to push through and as I limped after the ranged Angels, they realized that I was powerless to reach them. I used my [Rallying Shout] to increase my speed, but forcing my legs to move was sending lances of fire through my leg. My [Peace of Mind] buff cleared, and Bell went to town, stacking crippling debuff after crippling debuff, until I was stuck in place, the pain intensifying with every second.

“I give,” I stammered, my breath coming in ragged gulps. “Denise, shut it down!”

The debuffs cleared instantly, the pain with it. I collapsed to the ground, my heart racing, my lungs heavy.

“Oh, shit, you okay, Ray?” Bell asked, running up to check on me.

I tried to speak, but my lungs ached. I nodded instead, my eyes closed against the phantom agony. There was no more pain, but for a moment there, it had been crippling.

When I managed to wrench my eyes open, I noted a dozen concerned faces looming above me.

I waved their concern away. “I’m fine…”

“You don’t look fine,” Bart said.

“It’s…the pain…” I replied, trying to lever myself up to a sit. Pairs of hands wrapped under my arms, helping me upright. I suddenly became hyperconscious of all the concerned faces looking back at me. Forcing myself to stand, I ignored the protests as they told me to take it easy. “Well,” I said once I was on my feet, “that was a wrinkle I hadn’t expected.”

“Was it that bad?” Tear asked.

I shrugged, the corner of my mouth turned up in a smile. “Only an 8 out of 10.”

“That’s pretty bad,” Lox said.

I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. It’ll be like one of those Progression novels. I’ll just have to endure enough beatings so that my mind is conditioned not to shut down when under that much pain.”

Some of them shared concerned looks, but it was Jeremy that spoke first. “That sounds low-key traumatic, dude.”

I shrugged. “It’s the only way. If that happened out against the Necks, I’d be dead. If I can callous my mind, think clearly under fire and intense pain, then I’ll be that much safer out in the field.” There were a few unconvinced looks across the group. “Listen,” I added. “We considered the cooldown window to be my biggest weakness - but it’s not. The lack of pain reducers is the real weakness.”

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“I don’t know,” Bell said skeptically. “Kinda looked like the debuffs did all the work there…” She looked around at the group. “Once his peace of mind skill turned off, he was a sitting duck, no?”

There were grunts of agreement, but I shook my head. “No - I mean, yes, the debuffs were rough. But it was that initial hobbled effect that shut me down. If I could just push through the pain, I could have caught one of you, or positioned myself so that Bell couldn’t just free cast.” I looked around the room, catching eyes as I turned. “I need to condition myself to push through those effects, push through the pain.”

“You sure, Ray?” Denise asked. “Why don’t we take a break, then try again later…?”

I shook my head. “No, now.” My eyes went wide as I realized how controlling that had sounded. “I mean-uh, if that’s okay with you guys…?”

The six Angels formed a huddle, Bart calling over his shoulder. “That’s fine. But we need a strategy meeting.”

I chuckled and waved for them to continue. I turned to my own strategy team - Jeremy, Kink, T, Denise, and Ryan.

“Any tips?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Jeremy said. “Hit them and don’t get hit.”

I did a golf clap, shaking my head in awe. “Thank you, General Snot, for your astounding wisdom.”

Jeremy shrugged humbly. “The first tip’s free.”

Denise did end up giving me some pointers on how to corral the backline so they weren’t split across the arena. She also suggested I draw Lox into the center so I could use his body to block shots from the ranged damage dealers.

And she gave me one more tip, and I smiled when she explained it to me.

—

Combat begins in:

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Begin!

The fight started off much the same as before - except I waited to activate my core trio. Instead, I activated [Guardian Shield], my short duration deflect, and raced towards the opposing six players. Like before, they hesitated to do any physical attacks, noticing the deflect buff over my nameplate. But as I crashed against Lox, Bart called out, “He doesn’t have his bleed or regen up! Fire!”

Of course, I immediately turned on my bleed and regen, flashing Bart a smile as Tear, Lox, and Yuri all attacked. One strike got through, but the other two were deflected, inflicting bleed on Yuri and Lox. One of Tear’s attacks had gone through the deflect, but it hadn’t imparted any debuff, so that was good.

With Lox bleeding, I could move around him to get to the backline. But Denise had given me a better idea.

I whipped around, grappling onto Tear.

“Hey!” she shouted in surprise, as I lifted her up over my head. Lox struck again as I exposed my midsection by hoisting Tear up, but the attack was deflected again, stacking another bleed on him and healing me of the damage Tear had inflicted.

Before anyone else could react, I launched Tear over Lox’s head, her body careening into the backline like a wrecking ball. She knocked down Bell and Laurel, her head clipping Bart’s ankle as he tried to dodge. I followed up fast, running around Lox to get at the prone players. I immediately noticed Bart begin to cast a familiar spell, and reached down to pull Laurel into a bear hug. She struggled against me as his [Repel] spell launched us backwards - but only a few feet. I had positioned my back so that it was near the edge of the arena, and the skill knocked Laurel and I against it, rebounding us back to the floor.

As I went to stand, I noticed Lox preparing an attack, and activated my primary deflect, [Blurring Defense]. The grappling hook from before was deflected, inflicting a third stack of bleed on him. I reached down and picked up Laurel again. This time, I threw her at Lox, who had to move to dodge, causing his triple-stacked bleed to chunk him down by 25% with one step. Laurel crashed against the sand, a dazed expression on her face.

I took that moment of confusion to race after Bart and Bell, who turned to flee too late. Tear was nowhere to be seen - stealthed again, I was sure - but she couldn’t attack while my deflect was up. My blade skewered Bart center mass, and a quick second strike put him down for good. I was on Bell a moment later, my [Peace of Mind] activated to negate her defensive debuffs, like [Horrify]. Yuri, in a moment of panic, attacked with his bow, but was deflected, inflicting bleed on him as well.

Bell ran in terror as I chased her down like a school game of tag. My glaive took her in the back, killing her instantly.

Bart was dead, and now Bell. Tear was stealthed, waiting out my deflect. Lox was bleeding, but there were only a few seconds left on that. Yuri was bleeding.

That left Laurel as the biggest threat. I activated [Rallying Cry] to give me a speed boost, and ran for her. She was mid cast, fire forming in her hands, when I began my run. With my speed boost, it would be a close thing, me getting to her before her spell finished. I closed the distance as fast as I could, but her ball of fire left her hands before I could impale her, the fire splashing across my chest and face.

Pain washed over me like I had never experienced - not the true, skin-melting pain of real fire, but enough to make me cry out in anguish. But I pushed through it. This was what I wanted, I reminded myself. The fireball washed over me, and on the other side was Laurel’s horrified face as my glaive went straight through her neck.

My core trio went down a moment later, and Tear struck from the shadows, while Yuri launched a barrage of arrows at me.

But I had been expecting it and activated my [Guardian Shield] for the second time of the fight. The attacks were all deflected - albeit without the retaliation or regen effects.

I whirled on Tear, who let out a frustrated growl as all her best ambush attacks were deflected.

“Come to daddy,” I said as I reached out and grabbed her a second time. She struck at me futilely as I lifted her above my head, aimed for Yuri, and launched her ass like a ballistic missile.