Less than a minute after leaving the pub I nearly jumped out of my skin when a voice from right beside me said, “Mission accomplished.” It was Kenji, of course, showing off his ninja skills and making excellent use of his stealth power.

“Jesus,” I said, coming to an abrupt stop. “How long have you been there?”

“Since you left the pub,” he said.

I started walking again, probably a bit faster than necessary, but I was in a pissy mood. “You could’ve said something.”

He scampered to catch up. “I did.”

He got me there.

“There’s a problem,” Kenji said. “With that team you had me follow.”

“What kind of problem?”

“It’s their leader. He’s going to die.”

I stopped walking again. “Tell me.”

Kenji gave an efficient report of what happened after he’d left to follow the group I’d seen in the arena stands. After the tournament, the five of them had immediately left for the forest, intent on finding a way past the wall of thorns. Like so many efforts before theirs, it had ended with arrows.

“Where are they now?”

“Last I saw they were carrying him back to the city.”

“You made the right choice coming back. Let’s go get Nina.”

I burst back into the pub and beelined it for Nina, Kenji in tow. She was sitting with Byron and Bruce.

She smiled up at me. “Back so soon?”

“Someone needs your help,” I said.

Her expression switched to serious right away. “What can I do?”

I explained quickly.

“Oh dear,” Bruce said. “You should get going.”

Jane chose that moment to come to check things out. “Where are we going?”

“I explained quickly again.

“Byron,” Jane said, “can you open a portal to the forest?”

He shook his head. “I wish. I can only open into places I can see.”

“Damn,” I said. “Guess we’re running.”

“Although, I could put up one end of the portal here, then open the other side when we reach them like I did when we rescued you from Kiki’s gang.”

“Good thinking,” Jane said. “We can get back quicker, at least.”

“You’re coming too?” I said.

Jane smirked at me. “Stop trying to hog all the action.”

“What action?” Sigrid had leaned over from an adjacent table where she’d been talking to Andy, practically falling onto me.

“The only action you’re getting is sleeping off the booze,” Jane said.

Sigrid put her hand on my shoulder and shook me. “Nooooooooo.”

“Andy,” I said, removing her hand. “Can you make sure this one gets back to bed safe?”

Jane snorted. “That’s gonna lead to a whole different sort of action.”

I scoffed. “Doubtful. He’s even drunker than she is. Bruce, I hate to ask, but...”

He gave me a thumbs-up. “I’ll babysit them, don’t worry.”

I flagged down a waitress to borrow a pencil and a piece of paper, then started scribbling. “Sam, we need your powers.”

“Anything,” Sam said.

I rolled up the paper and handed it to Sam. “Summon a very fast bird, find them, and deliver this.”

“You got it.”

Wasting no time, Byron created a portal in the pub and we charged Wayne and Chika to guard it, then I left with Sam, Byron, and Nina, racing through the city behind Kenji, who was not only stealthy but also very fast. True to her word, Jane also came along for a piece of the action.

We were just leaving the city gate when Sam told us he’d found them and delivered the message: ‘Find a safe place. Help is coming.’ With Sam’s navigation, we sped to their location just outside the edge of the trees. All five were there, three men and two women, all around their early 20s. The injured man was lying on the ground, head cushioned on a rolled-up cloak. The three men were dressed in full armor like knights, one of the women wore lighter armor and carried a bow, and the other wore a long dress. The metal plate armor hadn’t prevented the leader from being pierced by two arrows, both of which were still sticking into him. His helmet was off, revealing curly blonde hair that was stuck to his handsome face in places with blood. His health was just into the red zone.

Arthur Crenshaw

Unaffiliated

Affinity:

Air - Novice

Gifts:

Sword Spirit - An intelligent spirit possesses wielded weapon

Powers:

If I Could Read Your Mind - Competent: Telepathy

Hallowed Ground - Competent: Boost attack and defense of nearby allies

Stairway To Heaven - Competent: Walk on air

Skills:

Strategy - Competent

Sword - Adept

A falcon landed on Sam’s shoulder. He stroked its feathers then dismissed it. It vanished.

The woman in the dress held up the note I’d written. “You sent this?” She had the same blonde hair as the injured man, Arthur, only hers was straighter and cut in a shoulder-length bob. She had a unique look. You probably wouldn’t say she was as conventionally beautiful as Sigrid or Jane, but nobody would argue that she wasn’t very attractive in her own way. Even when her face was scrunched with worry.

Morgan Crenshaw

Unaffiliated

Affinity:

Void - Novice

Gifts:

Hands Off My Stash - Extra-dimensional storage space

Powers:

Alchemy - Novice: Create potions

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Don’t Believe It - Competent: Create illusions that remain as long as mana is used to maintain them

What Do You Need? - Competent: Create simple temporary objects

Skills:

Chemistry - Novice

Crossbow - Competent

Knife - Competent

Mixology - Novice

She had the same last name. Were they married?

“Yes,” Sam said. “That’s our message.”

“You’re not NPCs,” she said.

“We’re here to help,” said Nina. “I have healing powers.”

The woman’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

“May I?” said Nina.

“Yes!”

One of the men held out his arm in front of Nina to block her. “Morgan, can we trust them?” He’d picked up his shield when we approached, but his sword was still in its scabbard on his hip. His armor gleamed.

Jake Repuski (Lancelot)

Unaffiliated

Affinity:

Fire - Novice

Gifts:

Tougher Than I Look - Improved vitality

Powers:

I Go Crazy - Competent: Go berserk to increase attack at the cost of defense

It’s Just A Flesh Wound - Novice: Regeneration

Skills:

Affinity Control - Novice

Sword - Competent

Jane awarded him one of her more dazzling smiles. “It’s okay. Honest.”

He lowered his arm and nodded.

You totally just used your Captivating Presence power, Jane. Naughty girl.

Nina knelt beside him and started using her power.

“Will he...“

“He’ll be fine,” Jane said. She poked her finger into the hole in her clothes where she’d been shot with one of those arrows. “Nina’s had some practice at this.”

We all watched as Nina performed her magic. The arrows were pushed out and the wounds closed. The man, Arthur, opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Jane leaning over him.

“Wow,” he said.

She stroked some of the hair off his face. “Hi there.”

“Arthur, you okay?” said Morgan.

He ran his hands over the places where the arrows had struck him. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, I feel fine other than some soreness where I got hit.” He looked up at Jane. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, it was all her,” she said, gesturing at Nina.

“A power like this would’ve been helpful at that ghost town,” the man named Jake said.

“Ghost town?” I said.

“That’s what we called it, because it was full of undead. What was it called in the quest again?”

“Death Dungeon,” Morgan said.

“Right. Super appropriate name, too. We got our asses handed to us before we could even go inside one of the houses.”

“We’ve heard about that particular ghost town,” I said.

“We found the Void Dungeon,” Jane said.

“What was that like?” Jake said.

Jane shuddered at the memory. “Lucky to get out alive.”

“Seems we’ve got some leveling up to do before we can tackle the dungeons,” Morgan said.

Then came the questions. Who were we? Why did we help? How did we know?

“Those are excellent questions,” Jane said. “But I think they’d be much better answered over drinks.”

Arthur laughed. “I wouldn’t say no to that. Unfortunately, we forgot to pack a keg.”

“Not to worry,” Byron said. He put up the second side of his portal. The pub could be seen on the other side. “We’ve got you covered.”

“What the hell?” said the woman with a bow. “That’s some kind of magic door, right?” She had auburn hair hanging in a long braid down her back and her chain armor was lighter than what the men wore, with only a few pieces of solid metal plate in strategic places. She carried a longbow and had a quiver of arrows on her back.

Katherine Walker (Kay)

Unaffiliated

Affinity:

Water - Novice

Gifts:

I Got The Moves - Improved agility

Powers:

Chameleon - Novice: Blend in with surroundings

Don’t Blink - Competent: Super speed

Skills:

Archery - Competent

Knife - Competent

Byron nodded. “We call it a portal, but yeah. The other side opens into a pub in the city. The rest of our team’s there.”

“So cool!” the woman, Katherine, said.

Jane and Morgan helped Arthur to his feet. “Then I guess drinks are on me,” he said.

Back in the pub, Bruce had already taken Sigrid and Andy back to the dojo, so the rest of us pulled some tables together and exchanged introductions. Along with Arthur, Morgan, Katherine, and Jake, there was a quiet but observant Korean man with a mop of curly hair named Lee.

Sung Lee (Galahad)

Unaffiliated

Affinity:

Earth - Novice

Gifts:

I Got The Moves - Improved agility

Powers:

Graviole - Competent: Alter gravitational pull

Immovable Object - Novice: Stay in one place

Unstoppable Force - Novice: Cause an earthquake

Skills:

Affinity Control - Competent

Drawing - Novice

Sword - Competent

“I really am curious about how you knew I needed help,” Arthur said once our drinks were delivered.

Do I tell him everything? Honesty is probably the best policy. Well, selective honesty.

“See, it’s like this...” and I went on to tell him about how I remembered them from the eSports part of the convention, leaving out the part about how it was my fault they’d been abducted, then how I asked Kenji to follow them so I could arrange a way to meet them, and how he saw they were in trouble and came to me to get help.

“What I don’t understand,” I said, “is how you aren’t on a team.”

“It’s not that we weren’t asked,” Arthur said, “it’s just that, well, we’ve known each other since we were all kids.”

“Arthur’s my baby bro,” Morgan said from one side of him, making him cringe. “He hates it when I call him that.”

Jane giggled from his other side and nudged him with her shoulder. “Aw, that’s cute.”

“That explains the same last name,” I said.

“How do you know that?” said Morgan. “How do you know our last name?”

Now I had to explain the All Shall Be Revealed power.

“I get it. That’s how those other people who tried to get us onto their teams knew so much. Thanks for being honest.”

“Right,” said Arthur. “About not being on a team. Like I said, we’ve known each other forever, and have been playing games almost as long. I know from experience that it’s vital for a team to—”

“Blah blah blah,” said Jake, moving his hand like a puppet’s mouth. “Get to the point, Arthur. Basically, we remained teamless because none of the people who approached us seemed a good fit.”

Arthur shrugged. “What he said. Our eSports team name is The Round Table. It’s an old in-joke because our parents named me and Morgan after King Arthur and his sister Morgana. Our friends adopted the names of other knights as their online handles.”

Jake stood up and put his hand over the breastplate of his armor. “Lancelot.”

“Uh, Galahad,” said Lee, rising a little off his seat and sliding his glasses up his nose before sitting back down quickly.

Katherine remained seated and just waved. “Kay. Everyone’s always called me that since I was a baby as a short form of Katherine. Lucky there just happened to be a Sir Kay in the Round Table.”

“What names should we call you?” Jane said.

Arthur glanced at his knights. “I know it’s super nerdy, but could you use our handles?”

“Sure,” Jane said. “But I’m just gonna go with Arthur. It would be too weird to call you a king.”

Arthur laughed. “That’s fair.”

“I’m glad we met you guys,” Morgan said. “Too bad teams are only ten people.”

“Or that we didn’t meet earlier,” Kay said.

“We’ve met now,” said Jane, raising her glass. “So here’s to new friends.” We all drank to that.