Everyone stood within the walls of the jGuadian base once more, Bromy, Foxly, Crown and Jordan were soaking wet from landing in the river.

"That was terrible..." Crown sigh.

"I feel cheated..." Jordan sighed.

"Yeah, our team should have totally won that!" Bromy exclaimed.

"You used your poor life choices as a weapon against me!" John exclaimed wiping the cigarette smoke residue off his face with his sleeve.

Bromy shrugged, "You cheated by having infinite stamina," he said dismissively.

"That's different!" John exclaimed.

"Wait, I should have been the one running since I have infinite stamina, too!" Foxly said looking around to the people who all averted their gazes except for Crown who just remarked: "Oh, yeah...".

"Wait, you knew?!" he asked.

They all nodded awkwardly.

"..." Foxly let out a sigh.

"It's alright, you were a better offence than runner," Crown replied.

"Nice work!" Alex said looking to Thal.

"We... we did not deserve that victory..." Thal said feeling as if he cheated.

"True, but the fact is we won second-place fair and square!" Alex replied crossing his arms and looking generally satisfied.

Pedecree sat down, he was drinking some tea and generally enjoying the day.

"Alright, everyone! Competition number two!" Curstl exclaimed.

"Ah, we're keeping the same teams!" she added.

"This time, we are playing toss-the-intern!" she finally said as all the previously confused interns looked at her in shock.

"I've placed large metal spikes in the distance, whoever kills the tossed intern faster wins!"

One intern fainted at the reveal of their roles.

"Thou wants us to terrorise our own comrades?!" Bonifacius demanded crossing his arms and looking at Curstl with a look of disgust.

"N-no?..." she replied uncertainly.

The atmosphere grew thick with Bonifacius' displeasure as Curstl began to sweat.

"Alright!" she exclaimed clapping her hand loudly.

"Everyone, ten-minute break!"

A round of cheers came from no less than four members of the competition.

As the people spread out Curstl scanned the area for JonhWillStab, moments later she spotted him walking up to the guest area.

Before he had a chance to converse with any of the three individuals seated there, Curstl grabbed him by the arm, dragging him away from the guest bench.

She let go of him behind a small boulder.

"Uhm... Hi?" he said uncertainly.

"You're meant to be the smart one, right?" she asked.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"No, I'm the edgy slash strategic one, Bromy and I think XPhaxX are kind of smart, Bonifacius knows a good bit about-" John was cut off.

"Great, because I need you to help me figure out how to come up with a competition that Bonifacius wouldn't dislike!"

"Why not ask him?" John asked.

"And confirm I planned to have us toss interns across the field into large spikes, never, he seemed to really hate that idea..." she sighed.

John scratched his head.

"I don't know any sports! Think John, think, don't come off as a loser!" he looked around trying to come up with an idea when he saw the Thief waving at him.

She made a batting motion with her empty hands.

His expression grew darker as he looked back to the brainstorming Curstl.

"Is she telling me to knock-out Curstl? That might w-"

"Baseball, dumbass!" the Thief called out seeing the sinister glint in John's eyes as he reached for his dagger.

"What about baseball?" John asked trying to act cool by placing his dagger-grabbing hand on his hip.

"Baseball! That's it!" she exclaimed,

John breathed a sigh of relief.

Curstl returned to the group about two minutes into the ten-minute break.

"Alright, everyone! Change of plans!" Curstl announced grabbing everyone's attention.

"We're playing baseball!"

"Oh, baseball!" Bonifacius exclaimed looking seemingly happy with the suggestion.

"Ah yes, "baseball"!" Bromy exclaimed confidently.

"Oh, yeah, I love baseball!" Jordan said uncertainly.

Crown and Foxly remained silent.

Pedecree continued drinking his tea.

Revenberry looked around uncertainly.

"Oh damn, I'm not sure I know the rules of baseball..." she thought, regardless she didn't speak up.

"I'll just pay attention to how the others are playing..."

Curstl continued "And since I don't know all the rules that well, JohnWillStab will handle this round, we'll say he got second-place by default or something to not put him at a disadvantage!" she exclaimed.

JohnWillStab felt his still heart drop.

"WHAT?!"

Curstl gestured him to walk up in front of everyone.

Their eyes followed John.

"N-now, I'm sure we are all familiar with the rules of baseball..." he began.

Most of them nodded.

"So... every team should get onto the field..." John said.

"What about the playing field, don't we need bases?" asked Revenberry.

John looked at her in bewilderment.

He looked to the jGuradian fortress that stood only a few meters beside them.

"WHAT KIND OF GAME IS BASEBALL IF THIS BASE ISN'T ENOUGH!?" he thought as imaginary sweat began to form on his forehead.

"Y-yes, of course!" he said fake-coughing to hide his uncertainty.

"But for this game, we'll be using the... John-style rules..." he said.

"John-style rules?" murmurs went around the crowd.

"I-it's names after J-John Baseballs!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah, I heard about him!" Jordan said uncertainly while crossing his arms.

"Y-yeah, you know the rhyme!" John exclaimed.

"John base-balls was base-balled and died of syphilis after sleeping with a base-who-" he was cut off by Bonifacius.

"I am not familiar with these new rules, but I am excited to learn!" he exclaimed.

"Phew... at least Bonifacius believed me!"

Bromy looked at John.

"I'm a bit rust with the ol' John-style baseball, but I saw a few tournaments on TV so I'll pick up the rules pretty quick!" Bromy said pulling his hat down to hide the confused look on his face.

Meanwhile the Thief, Vampire and Olivionion sat on the guest bench.

"None of them know what baseball is..." the Thief remarked.

"What do you expect of a bunch of no-lifes playing an MMO..." Olivionion remarked.

"I still think they're a special case... very special..." sighed the Thief.

"Huh... I just know you hit the ball with the stick and run to a slab of concrete before someone catches the ball or brings it to a base." Olivionion shrugged.

"So you know more than all of them combined..." she sighed before placing her head in her folded arms.

JohnWillStab drew a line in the dirt marking out a large rectangular area.

"JohnWillStab, what about armour?" asked Bonifacius.

"WE HAVE TO WEAR ARMOUR ON TOP OF BUILDING BASES!?" John thought.

"Ah... well... we'll be using our existing armour!" John exclaimed.

Bonifacius nodded, "I see, and for the bat?" Bonifacius asked.

"A bat... the smacking stick! I know that!"

"Let's... ehh... use our weapons!" he suggested.

"Alright! Lastly, what about the balls?" he asked.

JohnWillStab looked down sadly before offering a sombre smile.

"Yeah, still working on that, I'm focusing on the raid prep so I didn't have a chance to research a gender-bender potion, you see..." he let out a sigh.

"Are thou saying we are using potions?" he asked.

John looked up in confusion.

"..."

"..."

"You know what, sure?"

"I am very much interested in thou take on this game!" Bonifacius exclaimed before patting John on the shoulder and walking back to tell the others the rules.

Several boring hours later...

John looked onto the battlefield, Bromy and Jordan sat in a mall bunker made from soil and spare boxes and barrels.

Across from them, Bonifaciuus and Curstl stood in what looked like a perfect replica of a medieval castle made from dirt and barrels, it even had a functioning drawbridge and moat, both made only from dirt.

The structure was several meters tall.

"I cannot wait to see how this shall play out!" Bonifacius exclaimed.

"Aw, he's having a good time! THAT MEANS WE HAVE TO WIN BY ALL MEAN TO KEEP HIM HAPPY!" Curstl thought clenching her fists with newfound determination.

In the other corner was a small dirt shed, its doors remained closed ever since Foxly and Crown stepped inside.

Opposite them sat Pedecree, cross-legged in a small pit of dirt, Revenberry sat next to him drinking some of the tea he made.

Alex and Thal stood upon a mound of dirt.

"Bold move, who needs cover when you can have the height advantage..." Thal remarked.

"Nah, I didn't feel like playing in the dirt..." Alex shrugged.

Each one of them held a bag filled with potions dropped from monsters, anti-venoms, fish-oils, basic health potions, etc.

John breathed a deep breath.

"Good... nobody caught on yet..." he sighed.

"How are they doing that with dirt?" asked the Thief, still sitting at the guest-bench.

"What do you mean?" asked Olivionion.

The Thief gestured towards the structures.

"They're building castles, draw-bridges and sheds with working doors, from dirt!" she exclaimed.

Olivionion shrugged.

"Magic?"

"That is a cop-out and you know it..." she remarked.

"Can you prove it's not magic?" he asked.

She let out a sigh.

"I can't prove it's not magic..."

John blew the whistle as the chaos began.