The next morning, as I was getting ready for school, I happened to be reading the forums for Panarena. One of them immediately caught my eye.

Serenade Hollow: who the actual f--- cleared this dungeon?

Anon: so yeah, just like it says: that dungeon out in the Aldholt? Someone cleared it

Anon: wait what? no way, man

Anon: i'm telling you, i saw the clear-flag and everything

Anon: Same. My guild and I were headed down to try it for the first time in weeks and we definitely saw the clear-flag.

Anon: ???

Anon: ?!?!

Anon: that prank dungeon near Noondale? you can't be serious!

Anon: dude, who could have--oh wait...

Anon: like really, who could have beaten *that* dungeon of all places?

Anon: wait wait wait... you remember those two chicks who beat the Cloverbell quest?

Anon: …

Anon: …

Anon: dude

Anon: yeah

Anon: you think?

Anon: those two? … wouldn't put it past them

Anon: DUDEZ... WTF...

Anon: the silvernight twins or whatever?

Anon: yeah, those two

Anon: omg

I quietly chuckled to myself at seeing that thread go on and on with its speculations and ranting about how hard the dungeon was, and then switched off the computer for the time being to head down for breakfast.

***

Half an hour later, I was on the bus and headed for school. What can one really say about bus rides, except that they're long and boring? Upon arriving, we disembarked, and as we entered the building, Ty gave me a flick on the shoulder.

“Watch yourself, Dans. That Q-B got plans to do something about you on Friday; but that don't mean he won't try anything before then.” he told me.

“Thanks, Ty. I'll remember.” I told him, and we headed our separate ways for the day.

I had just started to get things out of my locker for the morning when I suddenly felt the unwanted weight of a simian-like hand on my shoulder. I let out a sigh. Doesn't he have anything better to do? And how'd he get it into his head to try going after Rachel anyway?

“What do you want now?” I asked in a dismissive way. Not that talking down to him would make him reconsider what he was doing; but it might make him slip up a bit.

“Who do you think you are anyway, punk?” the voice of Justin Shrivers came to my ears. “You stop with that Danes girl, you hear me? She's mine. I want her. I'm not gonna let some little punk like you get cozy with her while I'm around.”

Ugh, no wonder his father has to pay bribes to keep him here...

“Somebody's been head-tackled waaay too many times in the field,” I quipped.

“What'd you say?” he said in an angrier voice.

“If brains were money, you'd be flat broke and in the red.” I said with a louder voice. Was it my imagination or were there more gasps and exclamations of astonishment than there had been yesterday? The grip on my shoulder tightened.

“You wanna take that back before I slam your face into the lockers?”

“Aren't you late for an appointment with Dr. Goodall?” I said, poking the fire even more.

“That's it!” he suddenly yelled out, but before I could do anything to slip out of his grasp (which I could have done at any time to be honest), Mr. Jones' voice barked out the offending miscreant's name.

“Shrivers! Get your hand off of him and get to class!” the older man said.

“Don't mind me, sir, I'm sure my old man--”

“I said get your hand off of him and get to class, boy; I don't care who your father is.” our homeroom teacher said in a stern voice. A moment passed; the hand then let go of me, and the taller boy headed off with a cocky swagger to his class. Mr. Jones came up to me, and gave me a funny look. “Would you mind not poking the fire, Daniels?” he asked me sincerely.

“Sorry, sir.” I replied.

“Good; now hurry up.” the teacher said, heading back into the classroom. A pair of arms then gently wrapped themselves around me. Rachel.

“You okay?” she asked me.

“I'm okay.” I said as a smile came to my face. “He can't get away with it forever; he'll cross the line sooner or later.” I added as she reluctantly let go.

“Though I have to say, those burns were pretty good.” she added with a faint grin as she began to get her books for morning classes.

“Ah-heh,” I sheepishly returned. She winked at me, and when we had gotten our stuff we made our way into class.

Our classes went by with their usual rhythm of enjoyment, interest, terror, and fascination, and then almost as soon as our lunch break started Ellie popped in to sit with us. She sat down, a huge grin on her face.

“Girl, Lana. Where, where and how did you find her? She is so cool!” the older girl said at once.

“She thinks the same of you, by the way.” Rachel said. “We wouldn't have been able to do that without you!”

“Oh I had a blast!” Ellie returned. “But really; you found one of the best players. I remember how she was in A-o-H, but she's totally thriving in Panarena.”

I remember how these sorts of conversations happened with Rach and me before... but it's still weird hearing about myself in a disconnected context, I thought to myself.

“She really is something,” Rachel remarked with a faint smile. I don't know how I kept a straight face. “We just sort of ran into each other in a happy accident, and things went from there.” she recalled.

Happiest accident of my life.

“Nice!” Ellie said. “Though if I didn't know you and Sean were an item, I would have totally thought the rumors were true when I first saw you two holding hands.” she added with a mischievous expression. “Feels like you have some competition, lover-boy!” she said as we pulled out our lunches to eat.

“Oh he knows about Lana.” Rachel said.

“Cool.” Ellie nodded.

Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.

“So anyway,” Ellie continued, “I have my stuff ready to go; I'll be travelling to Cloverbell as soon as I'm done with homework and stuff, and then maybe we can go out and do more crazy things.”

“We'll have some space set aside for you when you get there.” Rachel replied.

“Don't fuss too much; we can sort it out when I get there.” the other girl said.

“Oh don't worry, it's just a bit of clearing.” the reply came, and Ellie softly clapped her hands.

“This is gonna be exciting!” she said delightedly.

At that moment, a bee landed on my desk. Now, let me tell you, I have faced monsters of all kinds in all sorts of games, but those bumbling little nuisances terrify me to no end. And it was a big bee. With the reflexes of a ninja a threw myself out of my chair as Rachel let out a gasp and Ellie went “Whoa!”, and then I scrambled out into the hallway to have a meltdown near my locker.

“Holy--get it!” someone's voice said as a couple of other shrieks were heard. Rachel came out and found me quivering on the floor; she knelt down and began patting me on the back.

“I hate 'em I hate 'em ihate'em ihate'em ihate'em ihate'em...”

“It's okay, it's okay,” she said.

“No it's not no it's not no i's not no i's not no's not no's not no's'not no's'notno's'not...” I spluttered out in a deranged, mantra-like manner.

A few minutes later there was a loud swat and a victory whoop, followed by the words--

“Uh, that's Daniels' desk,” along with some murmuring.

“Well clean it up already!” Ellie nearly barked, and we heard feet scrambling.

I slowly got to my feet with Rachel's help, and we came back in to find the offending invader being duly tossed into a trash can. There was no sign of violence on my desk, but the food had been moved around a bit. I sat back down with a quiet sigh of relief.

“Well, second round of excitement for the day, huh?” Ellie quipped. “Aside from that drama at the lockers this morning, I mean.” she added with a knowing look. “You'll stand up to that football dork but you can't stand a little bee?”

“That football dork doesn't buzz around and sting people for no reason,” I retorted at once.

“We-ll...” Ellie returned with a funny grin, “Not exactly the same way, no.” she remarked, and Rachel giggled.

***

By sheer contrast, the rest of the day at school seemed to go swimmingly. We--Rachel and Ellie, that is, agreed that the gang would set out for another dungeon later that night after sorting things out at Cloverbell, and after parting post-lunch and parting again after World Cultures we had a pretty low-key and enjoyable time. The two of us stole out of the school after getting what we needed to take home, more out of Rachel's concern that a certain thug might happen along than any desire to actually go home, and after sharing a hug we were on our separate ways home.

Homework was a struggle that afternoon, even with Rachel's help--or as she put it, even with my help. But we managed to get through it, and then after dinner and a couple chores I headed in to Panarena for the evening.

Once logged in I began sorting through the massive amounts of crafting materials we had obtained since before we even met Ellie in-game, and placing them in various places around the estate that more or less made sense. Ari logged in about ten minutes later and examined my handiwork thus far.

“I like it. And I think she'll probably go for either that space behind the house or the one downstairs,” she told me.

“With the empty shelves and barrels and such; that would be a really good spot for a smelter and forge down there, and all the other crafting stations she seems to have...” I nodded, bringing up her character panel. “She has some jeweller proficiency too... oh right! The accessories... and we got a level or two from that dungeon also.” I remembered, and the two of us began allocating our stats and skill points.

“Nice!” Ari said as she finished with hers.

“Hm?”

“I finally got up the Ice-tree the way I wanted.” she told me.

“Oh right! Grats on that,” I said to her, and she beamed at me.

You can literally invent any kind of spell here in Panarena. That's one of the many wonderful things about magic in this game. But technically, every skill is a derivative from a basic skill-trees that the game provides mages: fire, ice, poison, wind, storm, manipulation, psychokinesis, holy magic, healing, and summoning. Ariana was focused on fire, ice, storm, holy magic, and psychokinesis, with bits of healing thrown in. I watched as she began crafting a new skill; it was a wintry-storm blend she called “Ice Queen's Wrath”.

I've literally helped to create one of the more creative magical geniuses I've ever seen in a video game, I thought to myself with awe.

“Oh! A message from Ellie; she'll be here in about an hour or so.” Rachel then said.

“Got it!” I nodded. “Let's go with the assumption she'll want to be indoors with her crafting stations,” I then said, and she nodded back at me. We spent the next hour arranging things based on that premise, and then Ellie herself turned up at the gate of the estate.

“Nice place!” our Nordian comrade said as she pulled up in a waggon driven by horses. This, by the way, is a useful thing to have, especially for craft-focused players like Elizasmith. It has a much greater inventory capacity than players, and it has the bonus of being able to transport players as well.

“We've got a spot or two you'll probably like,” I said as she dismounted.

“I'll look over them after more adventures. For now, let's get these crates inside!” she told us, and we quickly obliged her. In the next few minutes we had twenty crates of ores, gems, leather, hides, ingots, weapons, armor, jewellery, and other assorted materials and such sitting inside Cloverbell.

Smith much? I thought to myself as the last one was set down.

“That reminds me; we sorted out what we wanted from the accessories from last night, you want to look them over?” I said aloud, and Ellie pondered the question for a moment.

“Nah. I'll look later. Right now I want to get to that special dungeon I told you guys about; it's got alchemical and scholarly resources, perfect for you, Ariana. But it takes a while to get to,” she told us.

“Oh? Where is it?” Ari wondered.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“It's a supposedly haunted mansion in the Ghoulwood.” Ellie said with a grin.

“Neat!” the reply came.

“Nice,” I remarked.

“Right? So, ready to make more Panarena forums flip out?” she asked us, and I smiled.

“Daang it were they mad this morning,” I said, and Rachel giggled.

“Were they?” she wondered.

“O-M-G, they were.” Ellie nodded, and then laughed.

“Let's head out then!” I said in agreement, and with that we were off once more.

Now, the Ghoulwood was a pretty straightforward area. And if you have no idea what I mean by that, let me say it again: Ghoul-wood. Basically, it's a forested area (very haunted looking from what I saw on the forums and promos) inhabited by lots of undead type monsters, bosses, and dungeons. We made good time getting there, too. But what I didn't realize was that, to get to the Ghoulwood, you had to go through this place called the Vale of Stingers.

Any guesses as to what that means?

If you guessed that it's filled with monsters that more or less resemble ginormous versions of that ubiquitous pest and harasser of humanity commonly referred to as “bees” or “wasps” and the like, congratulations, you hit the gold mark.

As soon as we got near to the place, I heard the unmistakable sound of buzzing. A shiver ran down my spine, and my eyes widened. Ariana suddenly noticed my increasing discomfort, and put the pieces together at once. I huddled into a ball to try and contain myself, and to keep from flipping out as we passed through the area. Ari put a hand on me, just as she had done earlier in the day.

“Oh wow, there's a special one over there!” Ellie said. “I'm gonna go see if it drops anything; don't worry, I'll be right back.” she told us as she dismounted the driver's seat to go and face the foe that had attracted her notice.

“We'll be okay, we'll be okay.” Ari whispered gently as we sat there together. I wanted to believe her, but the buzzing kept getting louder and louder. I finally decided that I wanted to look her in the eyes as she told me that, and slowly lifted my head--and then a big one landed on the back of the waggon. A scream erupted from my mouth, and a short shriek burst out of Ari as well when she saw it; seconds later it was disintegrated by a giant halberd, and Lizzy stood there looking at us with an expression that bordered concern and amusement.

“Dang, girl, you can scream.” she remarked as she put the halberd away. “Got a few nice things from that; nothing too special, I think, but I'll have to double check later.” she continued as she got back into the driver's seat.

I took deep breaths to calm down, and practically buried myself in Ariana's arms.

“I've never seen anyone as scared of these things as you -- wait, scratch that... I have. Huh, who knew there were two?” our friend remarked as we set off again.

When we finally got to the Ghoulwood, I hopped out to act as vanguard in an effort to redeem myself, dispatching the undead monsters that crossed our path with a will. By the time we reached our target destination, it was late afternoon in Panarena. The black and grey mansion loomed before us like a perfect stereotype of itself, eerily absorbing the light of the sunset and the shadows of barren and misshapen trees.

“What's this place called?” I wondered.

“This is the home of Al-Krig Jazieer the Alchemist, a legendary potion-maker and scholar in the game's lore who did some pretty impressive and also some very nasty things.” Ellie told us.

“Oh wow; I wonder if we'll find some recipes and such inside...” Ari remarked as the two of them hopped down so we could head for the weathered edifice before us.

“Probably!” Ellie nodded.

We entered the mansion-dungeon cautiously, finding absolutely nothing inside waiting for us. Even our special search skills didn't reveal anything, though we had learned there were places where those skills did not reveal creatures at all. Ariana activated Storm Wards and Holy Barrier around us, and we proceeded further inside.

There were literally tons of resources, materials, and recipe books for the taking. And despite our fears there was practically nothing inside to disturb us from taking them. We carted out quite a bit after a thorough search of the place, and then after scouring the last room we went to double check it one last time. It was picked clean of what could be picked, of course, but it was bizarrely fascinating. And there was a special looking alchemy station at the far end; I supposed it was meant to be where this manor's owner practiced his craft. But it also gave me a bad feeling.

“Well, that was... anticlimactic. But hey! We got a ton of stuff, so no complaints here!” Ellie remarked as she wandered around aimlessly.

“True!” Ariana agreed. “The stuff we got should see us through almost to middle-grade in the crafting skills.”

“You got that right,” the taller girl said in reply.

Wait... there was something like that alchemy station in Sorrowdin... I thought to myself as I continued pondering the bad feeling I got from it. What exactly did it do? I can't remember; man, it's been so long since I played that game...

“And this thing is nice! Wish we could take it too,” Ellie added as she made her way towards it.

“That would be amazing! Though I guess it just looks fancier? It's probably no better than a master's workshop, from what I've read in the guidebook I got a few days ago.” Ariana said, and Ellie nodded.

“Heh, that's probably true. Still... this design is so neat!” she said, and she went in for a closer look, setting her hands on it.

It was at that exact moment I remembered, that in Sorrowdin, there was this one part of the game that was really easy to get through -- so long as you only touched what you were supposed to touch. Kind of like the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin.

“Wait, Ellie, don't touch--” I started, but it was too late. She pulled back instantly, but she had touched it the second my voice reached her.

“Ahh--!!”

“Huh?”

“Oh boy, what did I do now...?” the three of us said at once.

The room darkened, and out of the shadows a ghoulish figure of green color and red eyes emerged. There was a black staff in his hands, and a devilish gleam in the crimson eyes that now glared at us.

“Foolish mortals! You did so well, only to fail my test at the very end! Die, die now, and feel the futility of trying to steal from Al-Krig Jazieer!” the figure said.

“Holy Barrier!” Ariana said as the three of us quickly banded together. Our enemy launched an attack at us, which was immediately deflected by her protection spell. I dashed forward to give him a reply.

“Holy Crescent Flash!” I called out as I executed the maneuver on him. As I darted away and prepared for another attack, I noticed that his health bar was only minimally affected. “Even with holy damage?!” I ranted as I skidded to a halt near the others.

“He has an immunity!” Ellie noted.

“Dang it!” I swore, thinking fast on how to overcome this situation. “Elemental resistance?”

“Let's see,” Ariana said, and cast a few spells at him. Most didn't seem to phase him, but her Ice Shards made him stagger a bit. He groaned, and began chanting something.

“Vulnerable to cold -- to ice!” I said.

“Perfect!” Ariana said with a smile.

“Heh? Why? Oh!” I wondered, and then smiled as the answer dawned on me.

“Hmm?” Ellie looked over at us.

“Ellie! Stomp!” I said to her, and she obliged me with Thurian Stomp. It stopped him from chanting, but he began to start again after a few seconds. Then I ran towards him, more to make him think twice about continuing to chant than to actually damage him. I tried to slice him up a bit--to no avail--and then scurried out of the way as I heard Ariana's voice again.

“Ice Queen's Wrath!” she called out.

The ghoul was suddenly enveloped in a torrential hellstorm of ice and snow. It stopped his induction again and reduced his health bar massively. By the time it was done doing damage, he had practically no health left.

“Oh I get it!” Ellie then remarked, and swung her halberd downwards. “Frost-mode!” she called out, and her weapon glistened with an icy chill as she rushed him, raising the halberd again and bringing it down with a force upon him. That was the polearm skill Grand Cleave. Needless to say, it finished him off, and we received a bonus chest as he disintegrated into nothingness.

“Nice!” Ariana clapped her hands.

“All-righty, let's claim that and get out of here!” Ellie said.

“You got it!” Ari returned. We looted the chest, finding some bonus rare materials and a special recipe inside, and then left the mansion without further trouble.

As we departed the Ghoulwood, I suddenly remember that we had to go through a certain area again, and my face twisted into an uneasy expression. Ariana smiled at me as we got near, and patted my hands.

“Don't worry about it, I'll take care of you.” she told me. I looked at her curiously, wondering what she was going to do; I found out when we got to the entrance of the Vale of Stingers. She brought up a few spell commands that I didn't quite recognize, and then called out a command: “Impair!” she intoned, and immediately I was blind.

Wait, I can't hear anything either. What was--oh, I get it! Ehh... except this is really disorienting!

This odd experience lasted for another ten minutes or so, and then I felt hands on my head. After a moment I could see again, and my ears popped.

“There!” Ari said with a smile on her face.

“I don't deserve you,” I whispered softly, and her cheeks colored as she continued smiling.

“Back at you.” she whispered in return.

“Whew, it got dark.” Ellie remarked as we began heading back into the central regions of the Aldholt.

“Let's keep our eyes open; there could be outlaw guilds running around in the woods about now.” I said, and she nodded back.

“True. They've been getting bolder lately, especially the one... Blackwood Patrol.”

“I heard about that one,” I remarked. “Isn't their leader super notorious right now?”

“He is--stole a rare quality greatsword from a tank-player a few weeks ago. The guy won't really play without it, but he logs in now and then to see if anyone accepted his quest to retrieve it.” Ellie told us.

“Oh, right, players can make quests here too!” Ariana chimed in. “This game really is something else,” she said with wonder, and I nodded.

Technically, players can't create quests on the scale of the game's own. They're more like bounties: bounties for defeating outlaw players, acquiring a certain amount of crafting materials or making a certain amount of gear, escorting crafters or merchant players, things of that nature. But it was true that Panarena was truly a new frontier in gaming in nearly every way for having this kind of feature.

“Lana, can you get out and keep watch ahead? I'm gonna go slow through here.” Ellie called back to me.

“You got it!” I said as I hopped out, activating stealth mode.

What are the odds we'd run into that guy and his gang, of all people? I wondered to myself, then shrugged. It was a big region. Anyway. Ellie's tone of voice suggested that she was expecting trouble even moreso than I was, and she would know, having played here longer than the two of us. Had she already been in one of those infamous and nail-biting experiences known as a PvP battle in this game?

Sure, we'd both experienced it in Age of Hyperborea; but here in this new and different format of game, there was bound to be a massive difference in manipulating an avatar and being your avatar. Still... Ellie didn't seem like the kind of player who'd lose a battle in this game. Not after what I'd seen of her in action here.

We continued along the worn road for a couple hours as the night grew stronger, and then when we got near to an S-shaped portion of it I caught sight of something and went to jump up on the waggon beside Ellie. She heard me, and slowed to a halt.

“Let me scan the area,” I said, activating Shadow Vision as I reappeared. There were seven player signals further ahead, all of them lurking in positions as if to jump out or pounce upon an unsuspecting target. “Mostly lower in level than us; there's a couple of upper-thirties... and there's a level fifty. He's got a huge greatsword. Ahh--” I broke off upon hearing what I had just said, and Ellie let out a low whistle.

“Wow... so that's Tom Blackwood, the outlaw's hero.” she said softly.

“That guy you mentioned earlier?” Ariana asked to be sure.

“Yeppers.” Ellie nodded.

“We can probably take them if we play it cool. I can take out those three twenty-somethings with Shadow-world, and maybe one of the thirties if I'm quick enough.” I told them.

“I getcha,” Ellie said. “We roll along like it's just the two of us to keep them off their guard, and then you take those three or four down before they have a chance to think while Ariana and I spring into action to help.”

“That's pretty much what I have in mind,” I nodded back.

“I'll start with some impairments and traps, if I can.” Ariana said.

“That'd help; do you think you can snare the leader?” I asked her.

“Hmm... I'd rather try it on someone I'm sure about,” she replied with a doubtful look in her eyes.

“No worries... we'll figure him out on the fly, then.” I smiled back.

“All right, they may be getting antsy up there--go!” Ellie said.

“Right,” I returned, and slipped back into stealth to prepare for my first round of attacks.

Slowly the waggon advanced towards the bends in the road where our would-be assailants lay in wait for us. You twerps have no idea what's coming your way, I sniggered to myself as I crept towards them. Fortunately for me, none of them had an anti-stealth skill. If they did, I would have been detected by now. It was amusing to me that none of them had a stealth skill themselves, either. What kind of outlaw players don't invest in that sort of thing? Heh, you're just plain and classic highwaymen, huh? I thought to myself--which, in a way, I kind of admired. If I hadn't met Ariana I might have joined an outlaw guild myself for the experience.

But since I had met Ariana, I was gonna do whatever it took to stay by her side. I took refuge behind a tall oak tree. Not that I needed to, it was just instinctual from my AoH days, when doing so was a bonus to moving in stealth. The waggon was almost near them. I could see the seven of them twitching as they prepared to leap into action. Now. I activated Shadow-world, and went in for the kill.

Just as I had planned, I downed the three lowest levels among them before they could so much as squawk, and then I went for the fourth-lowest. He somehow evaded an instant-killing blow, but I got him with a second attack. By that time, the remaining three had jumped into action, just not the action they had hoped to be taking.

“Get her! Get the sneak!” a gruff voice called out. That was Tom Blackwood, no doubt. I evaded two crossbow shots, and then scrambled up a tree to get my own bow out as Ariana and Ellie sprang into action themselves. Ariana wrapped up one with a binding spell and laid him out flat on the ground, while Ellie clove the other in two with her halberd as he tried to evade my arrow.

I knew it, she's been in a Panarena PvP battle before, I thought to myself.

“Worthless scum!” Tom called out angrily as he saw the remains of his team lying around, along with the prone form of the sixth who was merely trapped.

“Surrender and hand over the sword!” Ellie said to him.

“Hah! Oh, I see, it's you again! Things are a little different this time, my Nordian friend!” he said to her, drawing out the greatsword.

“I bet you can't even use that thing,” she returned with a sassy tone.

“Shall we put that to the test?” he retorted menacingly. Ellie held her ground, holding the halberd at the ready. “Hah! Didn't think so... now where's that little--”

I assume he was about to say something derogatory about me, but he never finished. At that moment, an ice-spell and an arrow came hurtling towards him. Choosing to take the arrow and dodge the spell, he swerved to his right, whereupon my shot hit him in the arm while Ariana's ice-bolt shattered on a tree next to his head. She followed it up with several more attacks which he expertly dodged, while I gauged the situation from my vantage point. Why wasn't Ellie moving to fight him?

Then I noticed that the waggon and horses had bars for their own health-status. She was being tactical, keeping herself positioned so that she could intercept him. If she engaged him in a fight he might slip past her and wreck our transportation; he might try to do so anyway just for spite, and because his dodging was so good he might hurt Ariana as well.

I then activated Hunter's Eye, a critical booster for ranged skills, and queued up Piercing Barb, aiming to make sure he couldn't dodge or evade. He was too busy trying to evade Ariana's barrage of attacks. I drew the bow back and activated the skill; it got him right in the back, and a huge DoT began draining his health.

No ranged defense or mitigations, huh? I thought to myself smugly. Wait, huh?

At that moment, he apparently queued up a skill of his own; he raised the sword he had stolen above his head, preparing to bring it down as he crouched into a pouncing position. Ellie raised her halberd to block it.

But is the quality of that halberd as good as that of the sword? I wondered, and then decided that question didn't matter. Ellie was probably hoping for me to jump in with either another bow-shot or a sneak attack. Let's not keep her waiting!

I jumped down from the tree and into Shadow-world again, drawing out my daggers. Tom then turned to his left--towards me. He anticipated that!

“You'd really sacrifice yourself for your friends, huh?” he said to me.

“Lana!!” Ariana cried out. I activated a booster skill as he swung down, moving like a cat to evade his downward swing, and then I returned the favor.

“No one's gonna hurt my friends while I can still stand -- Heart-stinger!!” I called out, stabbing him with both daggers squarely in the chest. The look of shock on his face pleased me to no end; the sword fell from his grasp, and I swiftly kicked it towards Ellie as he fell to the ground and disintegrated. The other players then disintegrated as well, following their leader to the resurrection point.

“Hopefully they spawn back far away from here,” Ellie said as she picked up the sword, and Ariana let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness--I thought you were a goner!” she said to me as we came back to the waggon; I hopped up and gave her a hug.

“Not a chance, partner!” I told her with a smile.

“I guess we just leave him?” Ellie said, pointing to the survivor of our reverse ambush.

“It'll wear off eventually.” Ariana shrugged.

Daang it; remind me not to make you mad, I thought to myself with bemusement. Ellie got into the driver's seat again, flicking the reins, and we were off once more. We encountered no more outlaws or monsters after that, and reached Cloverbell just in time for the two of us to log out.

“I'll get these things sorted; my parents' don't really care how late I stay up, just as long as I get up in the morning.” Ellie said as we got down from the waggon.

“If you're sure?” Ariana asked her.

“Don't sweat it! Have a good night!” she told us with a great big smile on her face.

“Ahh... I guess we'll let you handle things then. It was fun!” I told her, and she flashed us a victory sign.

“You bet! See you in school tomorrow, Ari!” she added. The two of us went inside after that, and after a hug we logged out for the night.

***

On the forums the next morning, there were two hot topics trending for the Aldholt region of Panarena:

Blackwood Patrol thrashed by the Silvernight Twins and a friend.

Timidator of the Shieldwardens guild returns to tanking with the return of his greatsword Vergundel.

I smiled to myself; we were definitely getting a reputation.