Once the archery contest ran out of time and ended in a draw, and with Jane beside me chomping on nuts, I realized that my alone time was over. There were still hours to go before the banquet so I decided to go get something to eat. Sadie’s skewers were calling to me. I’d been so busy I hadn’t had one in a while, and besides, I had a present for Sadie. Petal and Kay had bonded during their competition and they came along, trading fletchery tips the whole time, and of course Jane wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to scarf down some steaming hot war pig.

We were about to leave the town square to head down Dagger Street toward Sadie’s when a group of men came strutting toward us, with Troy Hobbes’ rugged mug leading the pack. Team Invinctus, number two in the rankings. I could see Troy's steely eyes traveling across our group, stopping briefly on each of us in turn. He was evaluating us. So, naturally, I did it right back.

It wasn’t the whole of Team Invinctus, just half of them. There were a couple of women on the team, but the ones who were here with Troy were all men. They all had a strong set of abilities with a definite focus on melee combat. Nearly all of their affinities fell among the prime elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Ice. And they all looked just as arrogant as their hunky leader.

It was the first time I’d seen Troy since the encounter with him and Kiki at the restaurant with Morgan. He gave me a curt nod, then went right up to Jane. She’d been chatting with Kay and Petal, but he interrupted them without a second thought. He had no time for Kay or the NPC, he only had eyes for Jane.

“Hello there,” Troy said. “It’s nice to see you again, Mary-Jane.”

She looked up at him, her face shifting from the animated smile she’d worn a moment before to a total stoneface as quickly as a Nascar's gears coming out of a corner.

“Oh. Hello,” she said dryly. “Trevor, was it?”

I would’ve been mortified if someone like Jane got my name wrong, but to his credit he didn’t wince or anything, rather his annoyingly handsome face simply spread into a wider smile. He and I were clearly playing the game of life on a different difficulty setting.

“Close,” he beamed, “it’s Troy.” He stepped forward, not only getting closer to her but also inserting himself between Jane and me. He was awkwardly close so I reflexively took a step backward. Without missing a beat, he shifted to fill the space I’d opened up so I had to move back even more. He was now facing Jane and I was left staring feebly at his back. Definitely a smooth operator.

“Are you enjoying the festivities?” Jane said. “The elves are something else, aren’t they? Who knew they were the Nature Dungeon?”

“I—” Troy began, but Jane didn’t give him a chance to get any further, she just kept talking.

“And isn’t it amazing how Daniel managed to get control of it? And the Light Dungeon? And all as a team of one person? How amazing is he, am I right?”

“I—”

“And did you know that Petal here is Captain of the Elven Guards? She and Kay were just having an archery competition, maybe you managed to see some of it? They’re both incredible.”

Jane finally had to stop for breath and Troy made his move.

“I’m sure neither of them can hold a candle to you, Mary-Jane,” he said. He nodded once at the other women. “No offense meant, of course. It’s just that Mary-Jane here is a truly spectacular specimen.”

Specimen? I could never be called an expert when it came to these sorts of social interactions, but didn’t he just give offense to all three of them just now? How is it you're allowed to offend people as long as you say “no offense” first? Can confident, good-looking people really get away with stuff like that?

Jane rested her hand on his chest and glanced downwards, an uncharacteristically meek gesture. “You flatter me.”

Huh. Apparently they can.

“You’re welcome. That was my intention,” he said.

“I think you misunderstood, I wasn’t thanking you.”

“Oh?”

Or maybe they can’t, after all.

Suddenly, Troy took a step back and bumped into me, and I realized Jane had just used the hand she’d placed on his chest to give him a push. In the before days that probably would've knocked me over, but I'd changed. I was a lot stronger now, and sturdier, and I surpsrised myself when I didn't budge when he backed into me. He stumbled a bit, but recovered quickly.

Jane looked up again, but not at him. She was looking straight over his shoulder at me.

“It’s not that I am opposed to being flattered. I just don’t want it at the expense of the people who are important to me.”

Troy put a hand over his chest, as though he was the one who’d just been offended. “I truly did not mean to do that. Perhaps I can make it up to you over dinner?”

“Sorry, I’m busy,” Jane said.

“But I didn’t say when.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

There was a pause. Even though she was face to face with Troy, Jane’s eyes never once flickered from mine. He must’ve noticed, because he glanced back at me.

“I see,” he said.

“You know Daniel,” Jane said. It wasn't a question.

“We’ve met,” he said. This time he didn't glance, he turned to look a me. “Weren’t you with another girl last time I saw you?”

“Probably,” I said.

Over his shoulder, I noticed Jane and Kay both crack a smile.

“I see,” he said again, although I wasn’t sure what it was he saw. This whole exchange was zooming over my head.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

When Troy turned back to face the women all trace of their amusement was gone. He focused on Jane again.

“Perhaps your schedule will clear up sometime in the near future, Mary-Jane, when you have fewer distractions. I shall look forward to that dinner.”

Then he turned toward me again. “As for you. I hope you enjoyed your time with the elves.”

“You said that like it’s over,” I said.

“Hmmmm. Did I?” Before sauntering off, he nodded once at my companions. “Ladies.” Then he sauntered away, his teammates following obediently. Something about their smirking faces made me uneasy.

“Jesus, that guy,” Kay said after they were out of earshot. “What’s with the Mary-Jane thing?”

I explained how her name showed up on her Status and Kay howled. “Guess he thought he was being smooth,” she said.

Jane sighed. “Probably works for him most of the time.”

“True,” Kay said. “He is awfully pretty.”

“Yeah,” Jane said. “Nice wrapping paper, but...”

“You’d make a good pair,” I said. When I saw anger flare in Jane’s eyes I quickly added, “Superficially speaking. You’re both, ah, well wrapped.”

“Nice save,” Jane growled, then she grabbed my arm. “Come on, let’s go get some orc meat.”

Less than a minute later, after we’d started down Dagger Street toward Sadie’s, we saw Chika up ahead. She was backed agaisnt a wall with a group of Players around her, ten of them, all men. A quick evaluation showed they were all members of Team Overgeared. Most of them would’ve been about my age, some maybe a bit older.

I didn’t need Sigrid’s ability to know that there was danger afoot.

“What is with the men around here?” I grumbled, and stormed over to the group.

As I approached, I overheard one of the men talking to Chika. He had to be at least twice her age.

“Come watch the martial arts display with me.”

“Uh, no thanks,” Chika said.

“Come on, I thought you’d be interested in that. Winner of the big tournament and all.”

“Really, uh, it’s okay,” Chika said, her eyes darting around. She saw me, and her eyes widened.

“Everything okay here, Chika?” I said in a loud voice.

“Well...” she began.

The men all looked back to see who was interrupting them and the guy talking to her said, “Who’s this?”

“A friend,” I said.

He turned back to her. “So you’re Chika, eh? Cute name for a cute girl.”

I stopped behind him. “I think it’s time you guys moved on.”

“Don’t worry yourself,” the man said to me without looking back.

“Oh, I’m not in the least bit worried about Chika. If push comes to shove, she can handle herself against the likes of you. I am a bit concerned about you though, so I thought I ought to step in to remind you that this, what you’re doing right now, it’s not okay.”

He kept his back to me. “Huh? We’re just talking, right Chika?”

Something about the way he said her name made me shudder. Jane and the others appeared beside me.

I could feel my ire rising. I’m not usually a confrontational sort of guy, but it was like something suddenly snapped inside of me. Like that time went I went off on Chuck and Greg, or the exchange that had given Shannon a name. Only this time it was worse.

“Oh please,” I said, disgusted. I pushed past to stand between him and Chika, then I turned on him. “Come on, how old are you? She’s a kid. That’s not okay. What the hell is with this place that it makes assholes think they can do this shit?”

I saw Jane looking at me, her mouth agape. Then she saw me notice and her expression changed about twelve times in one second, finally landing on her default: amusement. “Oh no,” she said, “you made Daniel swear. You are fuuuuucked now.”

That made Chika smile.

“Hey, I know this guy,” one of the other men said. “It’s the elf boy.”

This made older creep hitting on Chika give me a once over, then grinned. "Well so it is."

"And that hot chick there's on Maple Leaf," said a different guy.

Pervy McPervington then turned to see who the hot chick was. Jane, Petal, and Kay all crossed their arms over their chests and glared at him. Honestly, that could've refered to any of them, but only Jane was on Team Maple Leaf.

The creep looked back at me and grinned. “I don’t care who you are, Elf Boy, you really think you and your girlfriends here can stop us?”

“Oh you did not say that,” Jane said, followed by the soft thwip of her rapier drawing free from its scabbard.

At the same moment, Kay had somehow made an arrow appear nocked and ready in her bow, while Petal crouched low like a leopard ready to pounce, her twin knives held at the ready. Following Jane’s lead, Chika also flowed smoothly into a state of combat readiness with her trademark grin stretching from ear to ear, that single little fang poking over her bottom lip.

“Honestly? Yeah,” I said to the foolish man.

The Overgeared men all moved to draw their weapons too, but the main instigator gestured for them to stand down. He chuckled and a couple of his teammates joined in. It seemed forced, but it still pissed me off.

"You've got balls, that's for sure," he said. "But I think your luck has given you a big head. Now I'm tempted to give you a dose of reality."

I was about 90% sure he was bluffing. There's no way he'd be dumb enough to start something now with the festival going on and clan security on high alert. Make that 80% sure, he might be that dumb. I decided to call his bluff.

I tore a page from Troy’s book and took a step closer to Jerky McJerkface, forcing him to back up.

“Hey,” I said in a conspiratorial tone, “if you’re serious, I’ll even give you a handicap. You pick any one of us and that person will just stand by and watch. Sound fair?”

“Oh, I like that,” Jane said.

“I want to know who they’ll pick,” Kay said.

“Yes, I’d like to know who they think is the strongest one among us,” Petal said.

Chika snorted. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

There was a pause, then at the exact same moment all four women said: “It has to be me.”

The guy looked at me with a what’s going on? kind of expression. I shrugged.

We never did find out who they thought posed the most threat because at that moment all of the guys jolted. If we’d been back on Earth where there were cellphones I would’ve guessed they’d all felt their phone vibrate with a text message, all at the same time. I would’ve been right, more or less. A few of them reached for something in their pockets, and when they pulled their hands out again I noticed they were holding a small, glowing cube.

“Lucky for you,” the lead pervert said, “we’ve got somewhere else to be.” Then he looked directly at Petal and leered before the group of them rushed off toward the center of town.

Why’d he look at Petal that way?

I put my hand gently on Chika’s shoulder. She looked as unphased as ever, but I could feel her trembling.

“You okay, Chika?”

The girl looked up at me and grinned. “Never better.”

Even I knew she was lying, but if she didn’t want to talk about it I wasn’t about to force her.

I moved my hand to the top of her head and ruffled her hair a bit. “That’s my girl. We’re getting some war pig, wanna come with?”

“Yeah! Deffo! Let’s go, Onii-chan!” She lifted my hand off her head and clung to it as she started skipping down the street toward Sadie’s, dragging me with her.

I looked back, about to ask for help, but when I saw Kay give me a thumbs up and Jane smile, I stayed quiet and let Chika have her fun. I’d never been anybody’s big bro before.