On Thursday, it was back to being cold. After my encounter with Myanihia, I had logged off at the synchronous midnight and set a couple of alarms to ensure I woke up on time. That plan worked without a hitch, and I was all-too soon out of the door to wait for the bus. In the cold. Well, at least the rain didn't start until I got on the bus. And it stopped again once we neared the school. Super rainy lately, huh, I thought to myself as I headed inside. Instead of a flick, Ty just bumped my shoulder with a friendly fist, heading off to his locker as I continued on to mine. Rachel and I met with a smile, got our morning books out, put everything else away, and headed on inside the classroom.

“Anything interesting happen after we left?” she said in a quiet voice as we sat down.

“Hmm... kind of,” I replied in the same.

“Oh?”

“Myanihia turned up again.”

“Hmm...?” Rachel remarked, her expression curious. “What did they want?”

“Just to talk again, I guess.” I shrugged.

“Any deep secrets?” she asked with a laugh.

“Oh, a whopper.” I said in a more serious tone. She looked at me with surprise.

“Oh? Can you tell me?”

“Hrrmm...” I sighed, looking back at her with a thoughtful expression.

“Hmm...? One of those kind of secrets, huh?”

“If I tell you, you can't tell anyone else. Not even Andrea.” I warned her.

“I can handle that.” she told me sincerely. I curled my lower lip for a moment, and then beckoned her closer, whispering so that only she could hear. When I was done, she looked back at me, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Wow,” she said in amazement. “Did... sh--they... do anything?” she then asked.

“Not really,” I said honestly. “They're about the same with or without the mask, it seems. Just... mysterious, disinterested, pragmatic... cold.” I told her as she nodded back.

“Hmm.” she returned, taking my hand. I smiled.

“You wanna do something on Saturday before the tournament?” I then asked her, and she smiled back.

“Let's make some plans later.” she told me with a wink.

“Heh...?” I returned, giving her a curious look this time.

“Hmm... I'm not saying anything definite, but it might be a double-date, if that's okay?” Rachel softly explained with a big smile. It took me a few seconds, but I caught on, and then affected a grin of my own.

“Ahh... I gotcha.” I nodded back. She beamed back at me, and then the bell rang to start us off for the day.

There were so many things churning around in my head while morning classes went on that I was surprised I was aware enough to take notes. I mean, beyond prepping for out midterms--English and History were giving us topical essays, Mathematics gave us drill sheets, and Science was giving us both an essay and a presentation--there was also a lot of arguably less important things running amok. And that was without counting what lay ahead for our afternoon classes: a World Cultures essay that was reportedly being set at ten pages minimum, tryouts for the musical, and an extensive review of vocabulary, grammar, and characters for Chinese.

The less important yet also very important things running around in my head included the tournament, Mad Dog, Myanihia, Lysandra, upcoming holiday quests, next year's guild competitions, and if we would start to gain more members in the guild later on.

And, of course, more relevant to real life things such as our club doing official things instead of being a mere hangout for we the gamers, such as work visitations and company tours, wondering what kind of things we could do as a group while we still had the chance to do so, speculating on vacation spots and stuff... and the newly uncovered development of Andrea getting a boyfriend. I mean, I wasn't as in to the whole talking about other people's relationships and-or setting them up thing, but it did make me kind of happy inside for some reason to see it happening. Was that a girlish thing I had picked up in the last couple of months? Who knows, I mused as our science teacher closed her lecture with an admonition to keep studying. Then the lunch hour began, and Rachel and I were off to the club room.

To our surprise, there was now a second guy in the room when we got there, sitting near to Andrea, who looked slightly nervous. He had dark-blond hair and a pair of glasses that said “librarian” over his brown eyes, and he gave us a smile as we walked in to take our usual seat.

“Oh! You're Thomas, aren't you?” Rachel said.

“Ah-hah, I am!” he said in a pleasant voice.

I figured. Heh, they make a nice match, I thought to myself with a faint grin.

“A-Andrea invited me over to check the place out... don't know if I'll join yet or not, but it's--” he began, inadvertently cut off when the others arrived.

“Oh! You're already here! Lo-ser! You could at least tell your best friend when you--” Ellie began as she hurried in with Mary and Anhe, and then stopped, almost dropping her lunch when she saw Thomas next to Andrea, who blushed at Ellie's surprise while Thomas affected a half-smile. Mary and Anhe calmly sat down with us, their lips twitching in a smile, as were mine and Rachel's.

“D--d-d-d-d-don't just stand there, Elisabeth Drew!!” Andrea finally cried out. Ellie regained her composure, affecting one of those cat-like smirks of great contentment, and sat down in her usual chair to get her lunch out.

“Hiii, Thomas.” she said.

“Ah, h-hey, Elisabeth,” the other replied.

“I'm glad you showed up! Now all those rumors about Sean's personal harem will finally start dying down,” the blonde girl said with a grin as she opened her drink and took a swig.

“Guhyeck!” I coughed as the others giggled.

“Anything to help a fellow quiet-guy out,” Thomas smiled back amiably, and I smiled as well, giving him a thumbs-up.

“So you said yes?” Mary then asked Andrea, who nodded, a quiet smile on her face. The other girls all let out whoops or congratulatory exclamations, Anhe clapping happily along. Rachel turned to me and gave me a subtle smile. I knew precisely what it meant.

Come to think of it, we haven't really had a double-date since we ran into Joshua and Jane that one time, I recalled.

“Ahh, finally...!” Ellie then said with a sigh of relief. Rachel and I looked at each other with amusement, a wordless conversation going on between us.

H-how long has she been trying to set them up?

N-not sure, to be honest... seems like a while, huh?

Definitely, right?

Oh absolutely! We smiled at each other.

“Two pairs of lovebirds; hey, if Sean and Rachel are turtledoves, what the heck are you two gonna be?” Ellie then wondered.

“Eh??” Thomas returned, clearly confused.

“Ahh...” Andrea returned uncertainly.

“Never mind that for now,” Mary said. “We have our meeting this afternoon if you want to officially join; of course, we don't mind you hanging out for just lunch, either!” she told Thomas.

“Eh? Oh, sure, I wouldn't mind. It seems like a fun endeavor!” he replied.

“Even if it is mostly just an excuse to come and talk about our video game,” Anhe said with a shrug.

“Ahh! Andrea told me a bit about that before we got here,” he said with a grin. “I've been playing it too; it's great, huh?”

“No way!” Ellie exclaimed.

“Definite way!” Thomas returned. “I play a druid-type; I thought I was doing pretty well in the Grand Tournament, too, until I ran into Mad Dog!” he said with a wry grin.

“Ohh! You were the werebear!” Rachel suddenly realized. “And you do some druid-type stuff as well?”

“I figured a werebear druid would be similar enough to my experience in Molek to help me along in this game, so yeah, I went that route.” he said.

“Oh cool; Sean and Rachel play that game too.” Ellie said.

“Really??” he said, his eyes lighting up. “We should play sometime! But right now the Panarena craze really has the gamers, doesn't it?”

“More or less,” I agreed.

“So you're all in the same guild together? Doesn't that create in-game harem rumors for you as well?” he asked me with a laugh.

“Ahh...” I began, uncertain of how to reply.

“Oh trust me. Sean's a completely different person in-game. There's no rumors like that going around.” Mary said, subtly winking at me.

“Come to think of it...” Thomas then remarked, “What was the name of your guild?”

***

“Th-that was fairly humiliating...” I remarked as Rachel and I headed off to World Cultures with Ellie. The girls had ended up taking a vote, deciding to let Thomas in on our family secret. He had been shocked for a moment, then slightly annoyed that I might actually be a pervert, and then doubled over with laughter as the girls assured him I was the furthest thing from it and usually on the receiving end of any shenanigans that went on in-game, citing waaay too many examples for my liking.

“I think it was worth it, though.” Ellie shrugged.

“Oh definitely.” Rachel agreed.

“I hope so.”

“Trust me, I've known Thomas almost as long as I've known Andi.” Ellie replied. “And if nothing else, that handshake he gave you should have persuaded you that things are gonna be fine!” she added.

“True,” I had to admit.

“I look forward to meeting you all later, and you too, Windstrider!” he had said at the end of lunch.

“S-same,” I managed to reply as we shook hands.

“Hmm... the mall is too obvious...” Rachel said as we rounded a corner. “Where else could we go?” she asked me.

“Heh? Oh!” I remembered, and then smiled. “What about that cafe and bookstore we like?” I said, and she reached over to give me a high-five.

“Yes!!” she said.

“And now you're planning romantic things for friends, huh?” Ellie grinned at us.

“Isn't it fun?” my girlfriend smiled back.

“Oh def.” the older girl nodded as we reached class, heading inside to take our seats.

When our afternoon classes were over, we returned to the club room, officially adopting Thomas as one of our members as a first order of business, getting him up to speed on our plans for the club, and then finally breaking out our homework and review sheets for our study group. Anhe was very vocal for a change with Rachel and myself, ensuring that we knew the correct pronunciation and the right way to write the characters for our upcoming Chinese midterm-slash-final.

“My mother will also be teaching you next year for Japanese, and she does the advanced classes as well, but she always says that this first year is very crucial, especially for Mandarin!” she told us animatedly.

“Hm? Anhe, you speak Japanese too?” I asked her.

“I do! Look forward to your favorite mother and daughter teaching duo next year!” she said proudly.

“We definitely will!” Rachel smiled back, and I nodded in agreement.

We finished all of our academic to-do lists about ten minutes before we had to leave, so Thomas showed us a few card tricks that he had done on television before. I would never understand how people did them even if I lived a thousand years, but it was certainly impressive. Then we found out that he could also drive, which was a good thing, because Ellie suddenly got called in for an emergency shift at work, so Andrea, Rachel, and I ended up going home with him. He dropped the girls off first, and then we went to my house.

“It really is funny, finding out about your 'family secret', as they like to call it,” he said with a soft grin.

“I guess it is,” I had to agree.

“I'm sure that some mind doctor somewhere would love to do a special study on you someday, but for now, I'm just glad--”

“That kind of stuff was the furthest thing from my mind by the time I got to this game, believe me,” I said to him, and he laughed again.

“No worries, man.” he replied, and with that we were suddenly pulling up to my house.

“Ahh... thanks, and... thanks.” I said as I got out of the car. Thomas smiled back.

“You got it!” he said, and a few moments later he drove off.

I got into the house just as it started to rain for the second time that day, briefly sighing in relief.

“Club go okay?” dad's voice came from the living room.

“It did,” I replied.

“Good; there's a few subs in the fridge. I guess your homework is done, and it's gonna get worse with the rain anyway, so you can do what you want for today.” he said.

“Thanks, dad.” I said in reply.

“No problem, kiddo. Have fun!” he told me, and with that I went to eat an early dinner (being a little before six) and then scurried off to my room. I read a couple chapters from a book that I was keeping up with for the next hour, and then headed on in to Panarena.

***

It was early morning in Panarena. It would be about a whole day in-game before the tournament resumed. I wandered aimlessly, passing through the Market District and eventually ending up in the Central District where the Holy Palace was situated.

It was just like I remembered from the introductory cinematic I had seen. The mountain it sat upon was not tall, but it didn't feel short, either. It was almost as if the palace was somehow shaped from the mountain itself. I couldn't go inside, of course; according to the forum rumors, that privilege was going to be bestowed upon those who distinguished themselves in the guild competitions or in the PvP battles against Onyxus players and guilds.

Somehow, I don't think they're far wrong, I thought as I strolled through the gardens that surrounded the area. There were bards and minstrels playing at various locations, and court nobles or courtiers idling around to listen. It was a soothing place, and by the time I wandered out of it the area had livened up a bit more, being around eight in the morning for Panarena.

I ended up walking through the Homesteads District, looking around at all the magnificent manors and mansions that players could buy or win here in the capital of Harmonia. There were more than a few that seemed just too gaudy for my liking, but there were also one or two that definitely caught my eye. We could definitely set up a house here, maybe, I pondered as I gazed at one of the latter, a cozy villa with a central garden visible through its breezeway. I'll let the others decide when or if it comes to that.

Then I ended up in the Market District again, where, as I at least half-anticipated, Lysandra found me first. She gave me a hug, and then we continued walking together, not saying anything at first, but I could tell she was more at ease for sure. She wasn't wearing her usual outfit. Today, our werewolf guildie was wearing a black dress-tunic with soft leather sandals, and a silver necklace with a sapphire shaped like a wolf set into it.

“That looks nice,” I said after a few moments.

“Thanks.” she smiled back. “I'm in a rare girlish mood today, you know? So I thought I'd change it up a bit.”

“I can understand that,” I nodded back.

“Hahh... tournaments are so stressful, I'm done being a gloomy loner, blah, blah, blah.” she quipped, and I grinned back at her. “Partly sarcasm, at least. I'm glad to be a part of your guild. I don't know how quickly I'll come down from how I used to be, but...” she trailed off, a soft smile on her lips.

“We'll be here for you.” I told her, and she nodded.

“So. Mad Dog tonight.” Lysandra said after a moment.

“Yeah.” I returned with a slight unease.

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“No use fretting now.”

“I know... just some other things on my mind.”

“Oh? Like what?” she asked me.

You have a sister. She says she doesn't care about you, but I get the strangest feeling she's lying about that. It's just a gut feeling I'm getting.

“M-mid-term exams and stuff,” I replied out loud.

“Ahh... yeah. Difficult stuff?”

“The math is worrisome, and the science ranks behind it, to say nothing about the Chinese; but at least with that I'm a bit more confident.”

“Hmm... say something!” she then grinned at me, and I impressed her with a few phrases I was now more able to put together than I had been at the start of the semester. “That's really good; what are you planning to do in college?” Lysandra wondered.

“I don't know... I wasn't really thinking that far ahead, until this year... and now I really don't know.” I admitted. She smiled, patting my shoulder as we reached the others, who had just logged in.

“You'll find it. I promise.” she said.

“Lana!” Ari called, running towards me and wrapping me in a hug as I hugged her back. “Look who we found!” she said as she let go of me to take my hand, pointing to a tall player near Healina.

“H-hey... I dunno, that kind of works for you, somehow,” the guy told me.

“Oh! It's Ma--uhh... what's your name here?” I suddenly wondered.

“Derwydd; it's a bit punny, linguistically speaking,” he said with a laugh as Healina smiled up at him.

“Hmm...? Oh, I get it!” I grinned. His name was his occupation: druid.

“Nice to see another person who understands Cymraeg!” he grinned back.

“It's fun, isn't it?” I said.

“Lana, is this one here okay for our pre-game hangout?” Healina asked me, indicating the nearby tavern. It had a cottage look to it, and there was a homely smell wafting out from its doors, along with a hint of incense. There were trains of ivy and moss running along one of its sides, and a well-tended flower garden on either side of the walk that led up to it.

“Sure!” I said, and we headed on inside.

I soon understood her desire to try this one; it reminded me very much of the bookstore and cafe I had suggested to Rachel as a spot for our upcoming Saturday. The place was run by Pixies and Gnomes, and we were absolutely overcome by the adorableness of it all -- even Belle. Derwydd seemed fairly amused at how I was nearly indistinguishable from the other female characters in this regard, whispering something to Heali at one point that had her quietly shaking with laughter, nodding back as she looked over at me. I pretended not to notice.

When it was finally time for the tournament to resume, none of us actually wanted to leave the tavern. There was about forty minutes left. Finally, Lysandra stood up, gently picking me up out of my seat with a strong hand before hoisting me over her shoulder.

“I'll go drop our fearless leader off at the arena and come back here after.” she grinned.

“See you soon!” Ariana waved as I, suspended in the air, feebly waved back. The others laughed back heartily. I have never been so glad that Lizzy was not online in my entire Panarena life, I sighed as the werewolf-girl headed out the door with me.

She put me down before we entered the Arena District, by which time I felt thoroughly embarrassed about all the pointing and chuckling that we had gone through. I let out a sigh, and she smirked at me.

“I have to do something to remind my little sister that she'll always be my little sister.” she commented.

“I-I thought we adopted you,” I quipped back.

“True, but still.” she shrugged.

“I feel like I'm getting that little-sister thing a lot lately,” I then remarked as we got near the arena. She put a hand on my head, scruffing up my hair a bit.

“Because we love you.” she said softly, making sure I was the only one who could hear. I blushed, and she kissed my cheek. “Go show Mad Dog how a queen deals with their enemies.” she said, and then headed back to the cozy tavern with a wave. I nodded back, and then turned to head into the arena, ducking into a side room to equip my gear.

Once I had done that, I entered the contestant's hall as usual, finding it fairly lonesome to look at now that it was almost over. I meandered over to what had become the usual spot for me, sitting down with a forlorn sigh.

“That was a nice upset yesterday.” someone remarked as they approached me. It was Barbarianne. “They're still ranting on the forums about it, and they probably will be until after New Year's.”

“For that matter there's probably a lot of ranting about all the other upsets and failed expectations,” I said with a wry shrug.

“True!” she agreed. “I hope I get to fight with you; but if I don't, I insist you come over to our guildhall sometime for an informal match!” she said to me.

“I'll look forward to it either way,” I replied, and she smiled as we shook hands on it.

“Though Valkrysti definitely has you in her sights as well, to say nothing of--” she cut herself off, nodding towards the corner where Myanihia was.

“I know.” I returned in a soft voice.

“Good luck to whomever ends up facing them at the end.”

“You think they'll get there, huh?”

“They're a definite shoo-in. A lot of people think you or Ghostlord are the only ones who stand a chance against them now.”

“Not you, Valkrysti, or Mad Dog?” I wondered.

“I don't want to put myself down, but I don't think I could keep up with their strategies. Their Shadow Clone skill is too good.” Barbarianne remarked with a sigh. “Valkrysti could probably blow them away, but then Myanihia is more than capable of doing the same thing to her. And Mad Dog...” she paused, looking over at the man in question. “That one's a toss-up.”

“Hmm...” I reflected, and then slowly nodded. “I can understand that.”

“Yeah. Hey, nice talking with you... I'm gonna get myself ready for this wizard fight I have to deal with.” she said, patting my shoulder.

“It was nice talking to you, too!” I said, and she smiled as she headed off. Shortly after our exchange, the tournament was resumed for its sixth round of matches.

There were only eight fights tonight. The tournament had started at its new-normal time, but the duration of the matches was being extended to an hour for this round and the last two, along with the final match. This was because the survivors-slash-victors at this point, including myself, were more wary of each other and the skills we could unleash. The GMs had decided that because of this, more time might be needed or there was the possibility of draws even with the hitpoints rule in effect.

“And... there goes Barbarianne's opponent,” I remarked as the first match concluded.

He had kept her on the ropes for the first twenty minutes, using a dazzling array of magic from all across the board; one minute he was raining down lightning, the next a massive fire had broken out, only to be doused moments later by a flood that threatened to knock his opponent out of the ring, and then this was chased up by a windstorm punctuated with ice shards and shock sprites that wore her down more than she seemed to have anticipated.

The mistake that this impressive wizard suddenly made was to get arrogant, approaching Barbarianne with a gleaming dagger to finish her off--or so he thought. As soon as he was within range, she lunged with her axe, knocking the dagger away and forcing him to use his staff to defend against her for the next minute until she again used the axe to hook his staff and yank it away from him so she could drive her sword through him. He yelped, and then she used the axe to finish him off.

After her victory, Valkrysti and her opponent, a high profile archer who had skillfully dispatched their opponents throughout the preliminaries and the tournament, appeared on the stage. The thing that separated this archer from a lot of the others who had been defeated or who were also still hanging on was that they used a special compound bow that you could get if you had enough reputation with three Dwarf factions in the game. This made their damage output greater than most, but he had also learned to rapidly fire that bow as if it was a semi-automatic firearm.

Valkrysti actually had to equip her shield to repel his deadly shots. As she kept focusing on defensive skills and healing spells to sustain her, he continually rained down a host of arrows upon her, eventually shattering her shield with one of his more powerful shots. I whistled in admiration, wondering what skill it was.

“Thunderfury.” the more familiar nondescript, muffled voice of Myanihia remarked.

“Nice.” I returned. “Eh? When did you get here?”

“Just now.” they--she, told me. “Thunderfury... is a good skill to have, for an archer-type. Far up the skill tree, though.”

“Hmm.” I nodded as my attention returned to the fight. It didn't seem like the archer, Zeebub Bael, was ever going to run out of arrows.

“Interesting. He trained up a mage skill.” Myanihia remarked. I was puzzled for a moment, and then I understood.

Whatever mage skill you train up gives you access to Mystic Storage, no matter how high you actually level the skill. That meant Zeebub had used this little quirk to craft a nearly endless supply of arrows and quivers made from the right kind of materials, allowing them to be held in Mystic Storage until needed.

“And because Mystic Storage simply re-equips you when you're running low on a consumable, whether it's a potion or a missile-type weapon, he can keep doing that all day if he wanted.” I observed.

“Precisely.” Myanihia nodded.

“Still, for all that, it seems like she's slowly turning things around on him.” I noted.

“Good eyes.” she replied to me softly.

Valkrysti had pulled out a second shield by now, still focusing on defense. But she was also quietly setting traps. If Zeebub had actually taken a pause he might have noticed her doing so, and he might have also not unwittingly fallen for her tactic of luring him into them. Subtly, she psyched him into circling the stage opposite her as he continued to try and break her second shield as well, only to suddenly step onto one of the traps she had laid. It was a shock rune. He misfired the shot that he was preparing to fire, and was thrown off of his rhythm.

Valkrysti did not hesitate for a second. She charged at him, bashing his face with the shield several times to further disorient him, then blinding him with a spell before running him through with her spear to end the battle. A couple more fights between others I didn't recognize then took place, both fights ending with the combatants eliminating each other at the same time, and after the second of these Myanihia vanished for her match. Mad Dog then joined me to watch the screens.

“Don't know how you stand them, or why they talk to you.” he said with a light shrug.

“It's complicated.” I remarked, not untruthfully.

“Huh.” he said. “Ahhh, Ghostlord. This will be good!” the werewolf guild leader said with a grin.

Ghostlord, the Rogue Shadowkin, landed on the stage with Myanihia Black. Some had thought he was a necromancer early on, but then he had never really used any defining skills since fighting in the prelims. “Necromancer” was probably only attached to him on account of his name, but technically, dominating ghosts and evil spirits was more of a sorcerer's thing, or at least that was the general cliché.

I had never actually gotten near this guy, but they gave off a very similar vibe to Myanihia's own lack of presence. But at least I knew when Myanihia was around, even if I couldn't always predict where exactly they were. With Ghostlord... there was basically nothing.

“Shadowkin are hard to detect, even by scent. They're anomalous.” Mad Dog noted.

“Come to think of it, Snow Elves have that sort of presence-less thing too.” I recalled.

“Hmm? Snow Elf? Myanihia? How can you tell?” Mad Dog looked at me quickly.

“Huh?” I looked back. “I saw h--their eyes once.” I told him.

“They got that close to you, huh?” he wondered with an interested look in his eyes.

“They've gotten close several times,” I shrugged.

“Hmm.” the werewolf said in reply, returning his attention to the display, as did I. “Curious. I wonder what it is that has all these players circling around you; myself included.”

Th-that's what I want to know!! I thought bemusedly.

“Oh! It started!” I then said as the countdown went to zero.

This time, Ghostlord showed their true colors. It was as if they had been waiting this entire tournament to fight Myanihia, holding all of their special skills and trump cards for just this fight. He did have necromantic skills, but I quickly identified him as a Void Mage.

“Oooohh...!!” I said with awe as I watched his skills come to life for the fist time.

“No wonder his previous opponents seemed to be drained of life by the end of the match; it was a passive skill from his racial tree and the Void Mage masteries.” Mad Dog remarked as he observed the battle.

I wasn't sure who would come out of this battle: the fighter who became a part of the shadows, or the one who literally was the shadows. Myanihia seemed taken aback by the sudden reveal of void magic, uncertain of what to do for the first few minutes of the fight except to keep evading the attacks. Void magic was pretty rare on this side of Panarena; a lot of the skills I was seeing now were ones I had only read about in the guides or on the forums.

Soul Rupture, one of the more deadly attacks, threatened to knock off quite a lot of health from Myanihia several times. And Nihilistic Harvest, an area-of-effect spell that remained on the ground for nearly five minutes, had her on the ropes for sure. But she fought back with her ranged skills, attacking her enemy with poison darts and jagged barbs to place moderate DoTs on Ghostlord. He seemed to struggle with these attacks, but his relentlessness was not so easily dissuaded.

As he calmly kept casting spells in the center of the stage, Myanihia had her hands full continuing to dodge and evade his malicious reprisals for the next several agonizing minutes, including an attack I recognized as Soul Burst from the forums, which was an attack meant to implode your enemy from within at a random spot. It had a high fatality chance if it struck the right area. Fortunately for Myanihia, who was low on health, it just barely missed her, and then she used a paralysis poison on her enemy, which dropped him to the ground.

As Ghostlord's area spells ended prematurely, Myanihia slowly recovered herself, and then strode over to him slowly with all the finality of death itself. Ghostlord tried to get back up, using some of his skills to try and cancel the paralysis, but Myanihia only used more on him until he was as still as a gargoyle. She then got within melee range, and used her short-swords to take off his head and end the match.

“Heh. Wasn't much after all.” Mad Dog shrugged. “Two more matches, and then it's the two of us.” he said, and I nodded back.

Those next matches went on for about forty minutes total. The intense duel between two mages ended when one finally overpowered the other in terms of sheer force, the almost-victorious lightning mage grinning at his victory over the hapless fire mage, who cast a retribution spell that took the other out at the last possible moment. Following this, the last knight in the tournament and the last archer also took each other out simultaneously, and so it was down to Mad Dog and myself.

“Four, count 'em, four technical draws so far!” Lumpstein grumbled as the two of us materialized on stage.

“The rules state that, in such an event, both players lose the match.” Athena said.

“Hah! Bet we get a lot of complaints about that later.”

“But at this rate we can move up the schedule a bit; and instead of having two matches on Saturday we can skip to the grand finale.” Forseti shrugged.

“Hmm.” the Dwarf GM nodded.

“Our apologies to the eight disqualified combatants; better luck next year!” Wandreada said cheerfully.

“Now we get to see another interesting fight from the assassin who's been surprising the odds, and the werewolf who's been riding on them!” Ricklelopes said with a hint of glee.

“Let the final match commence!” Athena called out as the ten-second countdown began. I readied my daggers, and Mad Dog shifted into his werewolf form. The counter hit zero, and the match began.

At first we danced around each other a bit, daring the other to make the first real move. Then Mad Dog did the honors, lunging at me. I dodged out of the way, and then on a sudden impulse I jumped onto his back, stabbing him twice near the gut before he shook and threw me off. I quickly regained my balance and then spun out of the way as he swiped at me, then entered Shadow Speed to do some damage with my bow. He took several hits, but he also snatched several more of my arrows from the air and snapped them, catching a Twin-shot with his jaws and breaking them with his fangs. Shadow Speed ended, and I retreated into Shadow Veil.

He then let loose with one of his howls. I then discovered that, because I was a Gael, I had a moderate resistance to werewolf howls, if not a complete immunity, but I also remembered that I had a two-percent chance to nullify a howl-skill. That was not favorable odds, but it seemed like a jackpot winning number to me right now. As Mad Dog lunged at me again, I swiftly took out my daggers, swiping him with Holy Crescent Flash and then evading a swipe.

For the next couple of minutes I used all my skills to evade those powerful paws and claws, trying to lure him into feeling confident enough to not use the howls. Because he probably didn't need to, to tell the truth. His strength was enough.

I then slipped up a bit, and he knocked the wind out of me, sending me flying across the stage. He pounced, and I rolled out of the way as fast as I could, springing back to my feet before he could swipe again and dropping one of my lotus bombs. It was sure to be more effective on him than it had been on the other person. I dropped two more for insurance, and then looked back; he was having a definite reaction to it. Mad Dog sneezed a couple of times, trying to blow away the smoke, but by that time the lotus and nightshade had definitely affected him.

Even so, I doubt he'll roll over so easily, I remarked internally. The triple dosage I had given him had him tottering for a moment, but he pressed through it and let out another howl. This one summoned up lesser wolves to help him, and I had my hands full trying to get rid of the minions while the mad dog himself came after me with a fierce grin.

“Ha-ha! I can keep you on the run, and one way or another, I'll end this fight with my claws and teeth yet again!” he declared, sending a shiver down my back.

Any means, huh? I then thought. I stumbled a bit as I finished off his last wolf, and he raked me across the back with his great claws.

Y--YEOWCH!!!! I screamed inwardly, a strangled sound coming from my throat. Mad Dog pranced around for a bit, getting ready for another lunge, when he suddenly looked at me with interest.

“Oh-ho, that's right,” he suddenly recalled. “You've never died before in this game, have you? You've never known how painful it can be.”

“Got... close... once...!” I stammered out.

“Ha! Still,” he chuckled.

There was a massive bleed effect on me. Mad Dog actually waited until it had worn off, leaving me with sixty-five percent health down from the eighty-six I had been left with earlier from being smacked across the room and fighting off wolf minions. He was at nearly the same amount. I had a feeling that mine might go down faster soon.

“Ughh...” I said dazedly, trying to get up.

“Are you still fighting?” Mad Dog asked. I was nearly up again when he let loose with Howl of the Void again. I froze instinctively, then I noticed that my two-percent resistance had come through.

Don't let him know it, was my first thought. Without him noticing, I managed to equip the pistol I had been given, keeping it hidden. Mad Dog finished with his howl, and then strode towards me. He had a grin of victory on his face as he picked me up by the collar of my jerkin, probably getting ready to run me through the gut.

But then I surprised him. As fast as lightning, I pointed that pistol right between his eyes and fired twice. His eyes widened, but he smiled all the brighter as his avatar disintegrated; those two shots to the head, coated as they were with wolfbane, had downed him instantly. I landed back on my feet unsteadily, hearing the sound of wild applause from the audience and the sound of cackling from Ricklelopes and Lumpstein.

“You never fail to astound us all, Lana Windstrider. On to your next match tomorrow, then!” Forseti remarked, and with that I was teleported to the victor's hall.

***

I wandered back to the cottage-like tavern, where I found my friends waiting for me. Once again, they looked as if they had been doubled over with laughter for the fifteen minutes or so it had taken me to get back. I approached them with a sheepish grin, and Ariana gave me a hug as I sat down with her again.

“Oh my Gawwwd. Where did you get that pistol?” Maryn said as she cracked up again.

“Ah-heh... f-from Myanihia...” I replied.

“Ehh?!” the girls, including Lysandra, all exclaimed at once.

“Pfft. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they liked you.” Lysandra then remarked.

“They do visit Lana an awful lot, don't they?” Belle agreed.

“Hmm?” Derwydd wondered. “But--”

“Derwydd!” Healina gently tugged on his sleeve, whispering to him. He then let out a sly smile, nodding back.

“What was that about?” Lysandra wondered.

“Ah, nothing!” Heali said.

“Hmm...”

“I guess those other eight players are probably pretty mad,” I remarked then, “But I'm kind of glad I only have to go through two more times, now. Some of those disqualified players were ridiculously powerful.”

“And the ones who are still in the tournament aren't?” Belle said with a sly giggle.

“Well sure they are, but I have a better handle on them than the others.”

“Who was it that said 'know your enemy' to Rayna the other day?” Ariana remarked innocently.

“Hyeck!” I gulped.

“But I totally get it!” she then grinned.

“Hahh...” I sighed.

“Anyway; oh, they have some lovely items on the supper menu here!” Ariana said as she pulled up the menu in question.

“Sounds good to me!” I nodded.

“A private little party doesn't sound bad for a change.” Lysandra said in agreement.

“Ha-ha, you girls have been at quite a few after-parties lately, huh?” Derwydd said.

“Definitely.” Healina nodded.

“Time for a guild-only party! Boyfriends included, of course!” Belle said with a wink to the two of them. They immediately blushed, looking over at each other with a smile.

As we slid into our usual banter, I gazed idly out of the window for a moment. Myanihia was there. She shook her head. I took that to mean she wanted me to challenge either Valkrysti or Barbarianne next. I blinked, and she retreated into the shadows.

“Lana?” Ari said to me.

“Nothing.” I replied, rejoining the conversation with a smile.

I'll see you on Saturday, Myanihia Black.