Then the dust cleared, and it was Matt’s turn to be surprised.

Wrapped around the precision, skilled swordsman was the kid, holding him back like someone trying to keep his friend out of a schoolyard fight.

“Brennan! Stop! I know him,” the kid was screaming so hard his voice broke. “Just stop for a second!”

“Like hell! Let him go, Derek!” The archer was apparently back in action, at least if the strength of her voice was any indication. As the dust cleared more, he saw her scooping up her bow and nocking an arrow. “You know what? Fuck it. I’ll do it myself.”

The tip of the arrow started being shrouded with some kind of dark cloud, one that Matt very, very much wanted to avoid. It could be poison, or it might not be. It didn’t matter. It was a bad news color.

“No!” the kid yelled, jumping towards Matt, who just barely managed to hold back his strike. The kid was not defending himself. He had dropped his sword. He stood in front of Matt, arms spread, blocking for him.

“Move out of the way, you little shit!” Artemis snarled, and the light on the arrow faltered before disappearing.

“Artemis! Stop! I’m telling you, I know him. We can talk about it in the tent.”

Artemis faltered at that last word. Must be some tent, Matt thought. He kept charging his shovel strike even though he either needed to release the strike into somebody’s face soon, or face whatever backlash damage it dealt.

“Matt! Are we going to take him out?”

Matt shook his head slightly. These were still people, and the main reason he had attacked as hard as he did was because of the kid. That same kid was fast proving that something unexpected was happening, beyond what Matt understood. He was going to hold back, if only for a moment.

Suddenly, the precision swordsman moved. The kid wasn’t holding him now. Matt got ready to cut him in half with the charged strike. But then the swordsman simply resheathed his sword.

“Oh, you know him? Oof. Sorry about that, man. I’m Brennan. Good to meet you.”

—

The next ten minutes were touchy. Brennan was an easy sell on Matt being, if not a nice guy, at least somebody who they had ambushed and probably didn’t deserve instant death over it. It was also him who took Derek’s vaguely worded insistence that he didn’t want Matt dead and somehow negotiated with both Matt and Artemis to lower their weapons.

Matt kept his shovel in hand, however. The first thing he did on breaking his charge-stance, besides taking a troubling large backlash hit that cut about an eighth of his HP out of his pool immediately, was to take distance from the group. When asked by Derek to please put away his weapon, as Brennan already had, he explained that his guardian had forbidden him from doing so in the strongest language. Since Lucy had said “don’t fucking do it”, it was technically true.

At the mention of his guardian, each of the three looked confused for a moment, but accepted it.

Eventually, it was decided that Matt would follow them to their camp, but only if Derek was allowed to carry all the weapons. If nothing else, he had already put his money where his mouth was on the whole “don’t kill the new guy” position, and even if he betrayed Matt, the time it took to arm the other two would be time Matt could use to escape. To further increase his chances, Matt walked a good distance behind the others, which Artemis would absolutely not have accepted had Brennan not shifted into a stern, authority-wielding voice and virtually ordered her to.

It was a mess. Nobody felt safe. A sneeze could have restarted the fight. The only reason Matt did it at all was the fact that he felt fairly sure he could escape, a general belief that wandering aimless through the demon-territory wilderness was just as dangerous, and a general desperation to be around other humans. That desperation only got stronger because of something Derek had said near the end of the negotiations.

“I understand you are feeling stranger danger vibes off this whole thing. I get it. But trust me, it’s going to be okay.”

It was “stranger danger” that got him. That was an Earth term. Derek wasn’t just a human, he was an Earth human, or at least knew one well enough to pick up their slang. After that, he was decided. He’d brave the danger of the angry girl, the goofy camp counselor and the erratic now-friendly murder-child.

Lucy agreed, grudgingly, that it was a good idea, or at least the best choice they had at the moment. She might have been the only person present less happy about it than Artemis, though. Both females of the party spent the rest of the walk visibly paranoid, one watching Matt like a hawk, and the other keeping her eye out for the slightest suspicious move from the touchy archer.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

—

Back at the camp, Derek somehow convinced Artemis to go into an odd tent with him. He said something about how he had done a pretty good job with the hunting, and that she could trust him not to be “completely wrong about this.” She insisted Brennan be given his sword back, which Matt reluctantly agreed to. It seemed like it was the only way to move things forward.

As soon as the tent flaps closed, Brennan sat down on the ground and heaved a big sigh of relief.

“Listen, man. Don’t tell her I said this, but I apologize for Artemis. She’s actually really nice, I promise. She’s just… protective, I guess. It’s a pretty dangerous world, and she’s not reincarnated or anything. She’s lost people. It’s made her jumpy.”

Matt didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything at all. He grunted noncommittally, which Brennan seemed to accept. From what little he knew about Brennan, it honestly seemed like the guy accepted most things more easily than most.

Derek and Artemis didn’t stay in the tent long, and when they emerged, Derek looked roughly the same while Artemis’s demeanor had vastly changed. Without a word, she grabbed Brennan and dragged him to the tent, looking concerned and elated at the same time.

“So, hey.” Alone with Matt, Derek seemed bashful. “I don’t know, like, a cool way to say this, but… I’m sorry for what happened when we met. I’ve thought about it a lot. It was wrong. Even if you turn out to be a bad dude. I’ll convince the others. Just… I mean, just give us a chance. If you can.”

Matt nodded, slightly.

“Matt, stay on your guard. I mean, something clearly happened to this kid. He changed. It’s possible he’s.. I dunno. I don’t know if they have trickiness potions, but… just stay on your guard, a bit, if you can.” Lucy looked truly concerned.

After a much longer time, most of it spent in silence, Brennan and Artemis emerged from the tent.

“Hey, listen. I’ve talked to Artemis. She and Derek are going to clear out for a little while. So you know, this is actually a pretty risky thing to do right now, and you and I aren’t going to be able to talk very long, anyway. But that way, at least you don’t have to worry about getting stabbed through the tent, or anything.”

It was an oddly nice gesture. Not enough to make Matt feel better yet, and as Derek and Artemis sprinted away, he made some subtle hand motions to Lucy, indicating she should post up outside the tent and warn him if they were coming back. He was pretty sure system rules would allow that.

Inside the tent, Brennan began, “So, Derek let us in on how you met, a long time ago. I knew most of the story already, but I didn’t realize how he failed to give a chance to explain anything. I get why you reacted the way you did to Artemis even without that story, but it makes even more sense now.”

Matt nodded. “It wasn’t exactly a nice experience, you know. I was much, much weaker than I am now. He almost killed me.”

“Yeah, I got that impression from his story. But the main thing I got from it is that the system doesn’t seem very happy with you.” As Matt started to search for a way to deflect that question, Brennan held up his hand in a “wait” motion. “I just want you to know, we don’t like the system much either. And we don’t talk about it much on the outside. This tent is about the only thing I know of that makes it so the system can’t see us.”

Matt glanced nervously towards the tent flaps. If the system couldn’t see them in here, he had no idea if Lucy could. Or how that would even work.

“We can actually get out of here now, if you want. I’m just asking, or even begging, for you to come with us for a bit. Things have been changing. What happened to that demon base happened to one of our settlements. It killed everyone. We don’t know why, but the system has nudged the balance in favor of the demons. It will even things out eventually. It always does. But by that time, a lot of our people will die.” He sighed. “I think you are the only chance we have of changing that. So come along? Please?”

It was the “please” that did it. Brennan was desperate. He was really begging. Either he was history’s greatest actor and about to slit Matt’s throat in his sleep, or he was a deeply sincere guy really asking for help. With that one word, he eliminated any other options that Matt had.

—

After emerging from the tent, Brennan explained, briefly, that the demons had been tracking them via their skills somehow, and that they needed to leave immediately. After his tent had somehow magically packed itself away into his backpack, they took off towards Artemis and Derek.

They did end up running into demons along the way, but between four humans and one guardian, they cut through them pretty quickly. That, more than anything, did wonders to settle everyone’s nerves. By the time they made camp that night, everyone was much more confident that they weren’t going to murder each other the moment their backs were turned.

“So you just… poked it? A giant cursed heart? And that was all it took?”

“Yeah. And my guardian demands that I tell you that I do stuff like that often because, and I quote, ‘I’m a dumbass like that literally all the time.’ Her exact words.”

At the mention of Lucy, he once again saw them look confused.

“Do they not have guardians here, Matt? It must be something like that. They look at you like you are crazy any time you mention it.”

“We can talk about it later,” Matt whispered.

“That didn’t help. Maybe lay off talking to me directly for a bit, until we can get details.”

Matt nodded. After a moment of awkwardness, Brennan cleared his throat.

“Well, first, thanks. I’m not entirely sure, but I think you probably saved an entire colony with what you did, even if it wasn’t what you meant to do. And you saved us a job. We were going to damage that base if we could, to see if we could get their forces to pull back. Now, I don’t think we have to. Losing an entire base is huge. If that doesn’t get them to retreat, nothing will.”

“No problem. It’s not like I didn’t get stuff for it.”

Artemis looked at his cloak greedily. “I’ll say. Do you know how hard stealth gear is to come by? It’s not craftable. At least not normally. I’ve been looking for a cloak like that forever.” When that drew odd looks from Brennan and Derek, she suddenly realized how what she was saying could be taken. “I’m not saying I want yours! I’m not. Come on, guys, You knew that.”

Derek looked at Matt, deadpan. “Watch yourself, man. I once saw her kill a guy for his dagger.”

“That was three days ago, and that guy was a demon raccoon. Stop trying to get us into life and death battles with each other, Derek. Brennan, stop encouraging him.”