Tuesday morning was a rainy morning. And it was cold. By the time I got onto the bus I think I had already had it with the day, and it had barely begun. Ty was sitting there almost half-asleep as I sat down. Remembering last night in-game, I smiled to myself halfheartedly, wondering if that was how our fight was going to go. He looked over after a moment, and gave me an inquisitive look.

“You know you're the new topic of the forums, right?” I said to him quietly, and he shrugged.

“Those things have a hidden bonus,” he said. “They have a one-percent chance to deal fatal damage on werebeings.” he told me casually.

One...?!?!? I was inwardly screaming as my face silently did, looking at him in disbelief.

“That's the exact same expression Wild gave me.” he remarked with a grin.

“That's the exact same expression everyone had when you pulled that off...” I said in a bemused monotone. He only shrugged, and returned to looking out the window.

When we arrived at school the rain had mostly stopped, but the cold was still there. We got off the bus and headed inside as quick as we could before Ty flicked me and made his way to his own class. I continued on to my locker, where I found Rachel waiting, a smile on her face.

“You're early,” I said with a smile of my own as I sorted out my stuff for the morning.

“Ellie rushed us out the door this morning.” she shrugged.

“Nice.”

“Oh, she was at least partially curious to know if you'd gotten anything out of Ty about what he did last night.”

“Well, get ready for it,” I said with a wry grin as I finished sorting out books and we headed inside.

Classes passed by fairly quickly for a change, and then we switched out our stuff and got our lunches to head for the club-room. The entire time I had kept the explanation waiting despite Rachel's initial insistence, but she accepted that I wanted everyone to hear it at once. And of course, once we had all gotten there and Ellie put the question to me herself, I duly answered and got to witness my expression from earlier playing out on their faces.

“One percent?! One!? A one percent fatality chance?!” Ellie practically screamed before Andrea nudged her; the blonde girl then affected a sheepish grin for a moment before letting out a sigh. “That's crazy!” she said.

“Wonder what he would have done if it had let him down,” Mary said as she relaxed from her initial amazement and took a sip of her drink.

“Standing there with a pair of tiger claws in a giant bear's chest... he'd already gotten swiped at, and he didn't come out of that fight undamaged. I guess the other guy would have made some serious work of him, however the rest of the fight went,” I mused out loud.

“Yeek.” Andrea grimaced.

“But anyway; so a few more of our friends and the people we were keeping an eye on are definitely in the fight.” Mary noted.

“And no doubt we'll end up with a couple more in the running this week.” Rachel said.

“Timidator, Angelfire, and Sky Belle... I wonder how Wildeye came out... I never asked Ty about that,” I suddenly recalled.

“I think Wildeye is on tonight,” Ellie remarked. “They did a good job scheduling everything so that everyone has a chance to fight in the prelims, but the actual tournament stuff will all be happening in a time-slot generally favorable to us. Well, to you four. But anyway. I saw Wildeye's name on the brackets for tonight.”

“Nice!” Rachel said. “He's also a claw-user, isn't he?” she then wondered.

“I think most of his guild is, except for a handful of shield-users and several healers.” I nodded back.

“I guess I could have figured that out from the name!” she grinned.

“But that Myanihia character...” Andrea suddenly frowned. “The Grand Melee and Magic Event, or 'Brawl' as some people are putting it, will definitely see him end up with a huge kill-count. Even I can tell that.”

“What is that event going to be?” Anhe then asked.

“Hmm... it's like some sort of maze, isn't it?” I replied, trying to recall what I had read.

“An Escher maze. A multi-tiered Escher maze.” Andrea nodded, and I stared blankly for a moment before recalling exactly what that was.

“Ehh??” I whined.

“Cool!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Oh boy.” Mary groaned.

“Hmm?” Anhe looked around at us curiously.

“Basically, the maze is going to be wonky and weird looking.” I said to her.

“I do not understand,” she said with a faint smile. Mary then went over to one of the computers, pulled up an image-search, and typed in the words “Escher stairs”. Anhe went over to look, and seemed even more confused than before. “How can they do that sort of thing?” she wondered.

“And it's not just Escher elements, but all sorts of fun surprises are going to be waiting inside that maze. Apparently it's not about getting out of it; it's just how long can you survive until the timer runs out.” Andrea then told us calmly.

“You've really gotten into this, haven't you?” I remarked.

“True!” she said cheerily.

“That is so weird...” Anhe said again, still fixated on the images Mary was showing her.

“So what's your plan for Friday?” Ellie asked me. Friday night was going to be the night of the opening event in question.

“Avoid Myanihia if possible.” I replied simply.

“No one else?” she wondered, a grin on her face.

“If it's going to be one of those gauntlets, then there's only a few opponents we should really watch out for, and that person is one of them. I bet a lot of people are probably going to go down from instant death traps of one sort or another, from what I'm hearing about this maze.”

“Ooh... that'd be fun to watch. But I have to work that night...” Ellie sighed.

“I'll be recording it, and I'll pick out the good bits for you.” Andrea returned. Ellie smiled back at the words.

“I know. But at least I get the day-shift Saturday, so I'll definitely be in to watch that night.”

“That'll be the first several rounds and brackets of actual tournament.” I recalled.

“They're going to have us put our names down for the brackets like they did for the prelims, right?” Rachel wondered.

“I think so, yeah, and then we get eight fights again before the final event.” I replied.

“That's...” she began, counting softly to herself for a moment before speaking again, “Oh wow, they expect over five-hundred players to make it through the opening event.”

“More likely they'll stop the thing when they get to their preferred number, but yeah.” I nodded back.

“Ohh, true.” Rachel agreed. “But anyway, we're almost out of lunch time. We'll have to pick this up again at club!” she then noted.

“Eh? Ahh!!” I almost jumped as I looked at the time, as did a couple of the others. We hurriedly finished off our lunches and then scurried off to afternoon classes.

“Who do you think we'll be rooting for tonight besides Wildeye?” Rachel asked as we scampered to World Cultures with Ellie.

“Hmm...” the older girl pursed her lips, a thoughtful look on her face. “Well let's not say we don't know anyone again.”

“R-right...” I returned wryly.

“I guess we'll have to wait and see then!” Rachel said.

Afternoon classes went by quickly, and soon we were talking about game stuff and club stuff in our club room again. And doing homework as well. My mind was more or less focused on the tournament, so it really helped to do homework and stuff here rather than at home. Sure, we had video-calls, but there was something better about helping each other (or being helped, in my case) in person.

“Oh,” I suddenly recalled during a lull, “Jannie suggested that we definitely take some time to do some sparring with each other.”

“We really should.” Rachel nodded. “But I don't think I could go hard on you.” she then added with a smile.

“So find someone who can go hard, on all of you.” Lizzy said at once.

“Who?”

“Let me think...” the older girl replied with a mischievous grin.

***

A few hours later, I was dodging fireballs from a girl who literally embodied fire-magic in this game. Yep. Angelfire was my sparring partner. She had immediately agreed to going a few rounds with me, and had suggested a couple other people from her guild to help Ariana, Maryn and Anhe adjust to fending off other wild styles of combat.

“I can't replicate that blade skill, but their magic casting is subpar compared to me -- if you can't deflect or deal with my shots, you'll never deflect theirs!” she confidently boasted as she shot her missives at me. I was doing everything and a half to avoid getting hit or to deflect her attacks. Across the way I could see Ariana dealing with another shadow-user like myself.

I could also see a very smug Lizzy sitting next to a somewhat bemused Healina. The blonde Nordian seemed extremely proud of herself for setting this up. What surprised me more was that quite a few other people had turned up to watch, at least until the prelim matches started up again. Jannie herself was there, watching my bout with Angelfire intently.

“Nrrgh!” I grunted as I contorted myself to avoid one of the most off-the-cuff triple bolt attacks I'd seen so far.

“Whew! Good one!” my fellow guild-leader exclaimed with approval. “Come to think of it, that Myanihia didn't really use any of their shadow-skills...” she then said, pausing for a moment.

“That most likely means one of two things,” I replied, “Either they focused more on the combative techniques rather than the shadow ones, or they were waiting until the main event to show them off.”

“Hmm...” the other girl frowned, thinking about it for a moment herself as she brushed a lock of her practically flaming red hair from her face. “Smart egg, that one. We'll have to be careful on Friday.”

“Right?” I agreed.

“But anyway... I think you'll be fine at this rate, but let's go another ten minutes just because.” she then said, and I nodded back.

This time, she encouraged me to do more than just dodge and block, and so in-between my doing so I launched a few arrows at her -- all of them deflected -- before turning to my knives. I used Shadow Speed to try and throw her off a bit, but she didn't seem all that surprised, and quickly turned to using her swift sword to parry my attacks. I hadn't quite noticed during our last battle, where we had been serious antagonists to each other, but Angelfire certainly lived up to the first half of her name as much as the second. Her character had piercing amber eyes set in an elegant face; I think she was either Thessalian or Roueni.

Very quickly I stopped thinking about that and redoubled my attention to fighting her. Come to think of it, in these close quarters it would be her getting the more beneficial experience on account of Myanihia also being a dual-wielder -- well except for the part where they used swords instead of daggers. But I think Angelfire was wise enough to know that there was going to be a difference there.

By the time the sparring was all over I was seriously winded. So was she, honestly. Man, her magic skills are definitely top-tier for her level, but that swordwork is also incredible, I thought to myself as I received a water from one of the onlookers. It was Jannie. She was also a vision, by the way, since I haven't really mentioned it before: golden hair and blue eyes; she was also a Gael like me.

“You two got into it.” she said with approval.

“Just a bit,” I laughed gently as Angelfire joined us. “You really improved since... since that time,” I said to her. “I hope we don't run into each other any time soon.”

“You got me completely by surprise that time,” the flame-haired girl returned. “I've learned better now.”

“True. You do have a couple of sneaks to work with,” I noted.

“No one quite on your level, but they do good.” she said, and Jannie nodded.

“The one fighting Ariana is also in the main event so far, isn't he?” she asked.

“Hm? Oh, Sneaks MacBoo,” Angelfire then noted. “Yeah, he is, and he's super proud of it, too!” she grinned. Jannie and I then both laughed.

“MacBoo! Cute!” the golden-haired girl said through her giggling.

“Right?” I agreed.

“Exactly!” Angelfire grinned. “So tonight Wildeye's up, huh?” she then said.

“Seems like it,” I said.

“A couple of people from Crowley's Revenge and Fear The Reapers are on, too,” Jannie nodded. “I don't think Skeletor himself is joining, but I know Aleister definitely entered. One of his guildies said he was up tonight.”

“Nice!” Angelfire said.

“No Skeletor in this fight, huh?” I mused.

“But Deathscythe from Hallow's Eve should be in.” Angelfire then noted.

“Hrrmm... but I kind of wanted to fight Skeletor... especially after hearing those rude comments he made during the Garth-Queens War...” I grumbled, and Jannie grinned, patting my shoulder while Angelfire affected a wry smile.

“D-did he say rude things?” she wondered.

“W-well, they felt kind of rude, anyway...” I remarked.

“Sure.” Jannie nodded, and then the others joined us.

“A guild-leader pow-wow, huh?” Maryn remarked.

“Just a bit.” I nodded.

“Just wanted to remind you that the next prelim matches start in twenty minutes!” Ariana smiled, taking my arm subtly.

“Ack! I had an order I wanted to place with that panda-guy -- nice sparring, Lana, we need to do it again some time!” Angelfire said, and then dashed off.

“Th-that vendor's popular, huh?” I remarked.

“We're going to the other one tonight, right?” Ari asked me.

“Yep.” I nodded.

“Hmm?” Jannie wondered.

“Let's show her!” Ari smiled, and I nodded back.

The three of us then went to visit the owl-person's shop. He ran a coffee and cakes shop in a quieter section of the district, and the three of us were so enchanted with the place that we actually took a seat to enjoy a meal together and watched the prelims on a crystal display the proprietor had in his shop. A couple of Jannie's guildmates, both girls, also joined us. Their names were Tabitha and Winnie.

“Oh, wicked!” Winnie exclaimed as Wildeye's first fight came on screen. She was a Memphite like Tyman, by the way.

“Ooh, here we go.” Jannie said in agreement as she zeroed in on it as well.

“What's the one on the right? That guy looks familiar,” Tabitha, a Pompeni girl, suddenly wondered. “Oh, sugar-spice! That's Skeletor!” she suddenly said.

“Huh?!”

“Wha!?”

“Wow!”

“Oh, snap!” the rest of us exclaimed in amazement.

He was just as we remembered, a Rogue Shadowkin in a raggedy long and black cloak. A skeletal mask hid his features, and he wielded a gnarled staff-type weapon that I couldn't quite identify.

“Is that a guisarme or a naginata?” Jannie wondered.

“Not sure,” Tabitha shook her head. “Oh! It's a naginata. Probably enchanted, too, from the way it's shimmering.”

“Definitely.” Ariana agreed.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“It's kind of amazing how many people do a mage-melee combo in this game,” Winnie remarked.

“I know, right?” Tabitha nodded back. “Like it seems like one out of every five players does something like that, or even a bow-mage hybrid sometimes. Angelfire's a shoo-in for one of the best, I think, but there's a lot of other good ones out there.”

“Like that Myanihia...” Winnie murmured in a disgruntled tone.

“Shh! They started!” Jannie then said.

Wildeye's fighting style was more relaxed than Tyman's, but just as deadly. He actually lured his opponent into close range to quickly finish them off rather than trying to gauge them and then attack. The hapless axe-fighter went down with a squawk, and the Mountain Tigers' guild leader was on to his second round.

Skeletor's fight was terrifyingly quick. As soon as the fanfare to begin had sounded, he thumped his weapon onto the ground. I thought it was just for show, but apparently it was a non-vocal casting for a freeze-spell. No, not a cold-type spell, a spell that literally freezes you in place. He then walked up to his opponent and sliced them in half, ending the fight.

“Uh!” I practically gasped out.

“W-whoa...” Winnie remarked with a touch of shock.

“Ugh, something else to mind if he makes it through...” Ariana grumbled.

“Right?” I then agreed. “A magic-assassin, a deadly pixie, the mad claw-wielder, and now a guy who can just freeze you and kill you.” I recounted, and Jannie whistled.

“You're not even counting Angelfire.” she grinned.

“Ah-heh...”

“Pixie? Oh, that cutie from the other night!” Tabitha suddenly recalled.

“It was last night, dork.” Winnie quipped, and we all laughed. “This chocolate and hazelnut cake is just too good!” she then remarked as she swallowed another bite of the treat in question.

“True!” Ariana smiled in agreement as she took another slice herself. “And this minty tea is so lovely; I think it has a touch of honey as well,” she said.

“I think you're right,” Jannie nodded.

“Oh hey, Deathscythe!” I then noticed, and the display in question enlarged itself.

“Oh, yes!” Winnie exclaimed. “Haven't gotten to see him fight in a long time.”

“Same old scythe... I think,” Ari said as she looked at it curiously.

“Hmm? Oh wow, I think it is,” I said as I looked closely. The Vampire summoner had upgraded his equipment since we had last seen him, but apparently his scythe was a unique weapon that could be continually reforged to his level. “Who's he figh--oh...” I cut myself off as I noticed his opponent, Magisteria.

“Ohhh...!” the other girls chorused.

“Ugh, who to root for now...” Winnie sighed.

“Eh.” I shrugged.

“I feel like this could go either way.” Ariana said as she observed the scene. Deathscythe was level ninety-two, and Magisteria was ninety-four.

“True... she's a shadow-mage, after all, nearly a necromancer.” I agreed.

“Ooh, I forgot about that,” Winnie remarked. “She deals with that creepy ghoul-magic too, I think.”

“I bet she was fun this Halloween.” I then grinned.

“Right?” the other girl smirked.

“Ah! They started!” Jannie then said.

It was probably one of the more intense magic battles the prelims had seen so far. Both of them had excellent defense against the other, and neither of them had any real advantage in terms of spells or techniques that could effectively turn the tide against the other. The minutes ticked off slowly as the two of them stalemated each other over and over, spells of darkness and all sorts of wild and scary magic flying back and forth until the thirty minutes were finally up. They were both out of breath, and they both had all their health left.

“They tied!” Ari exclaimed.

“I bet the GMs love that turnout.” Tabitha quipped.

“They probably learned their lesson from Maryn and Myanihia; next time we'll see them fighting different people.” I shrugged.

“Heh. I'm happy it turned out that way, though.” Winnie smiled.

“Definitely.” I agreed.

We watched several more fights as we finished our meal together, and then when the break came up, Jannie surprised us by suggesting we go to a bathhouse together. Ariana agreed at once, which inevitably meant I was going to be dragged along. And so we found ourselves at the establishment in question about ten minutes later, after taking some to-go treats from the owl-man's shop. Again there was another crystal display, currently showing the banners of the tournament until it was time for the next several rounds of combat.

The five of us disrobed and then went to settle in to the warm water gratefully, sighing in enjoyment. Ari and I leaned on each other, while Jannie and the others relaxed on the opposite side of the small bath we had gotten into. There were several of these smaller tubs and such around, along with a couple large ones, and of course the main bath itself, a great pool in the midst of all the others.

“These are always so amazing...” Tabitha said dreamily.

“Girl, you know it.” Winnie agreed.

“I could fall asleep here.” Jannie remarked contentedly.

“You did!” her two friends chimed in, and we all laughed again.

“Anyway; who do you think will be standing at the final battle?” Tabitha asked us.

“Hmm? Oh, I dunno, really... as long as I get to fight the people I'd like to fight, I'll be okay with the results.” I shrugged.

“I think you'll make it to at least the third-to-last battles.” Ariana remarked.

“Not you?”

“Of course I'll make it there too!” she beamed. “But the final battle...” she then mused. “Probably too early to say.”

“Anything goes, huh?” the Pompeni girl said.

“What about you? What do you think?” I wondered, and she thought about it for a moment.

“Hmm... I know Jannie is hoping you'll beat them, but I personally want to see Skeletor take down Myanihia.” she then said. “He'll definitely make it to the end... maybe Magis, too, at this rate...”

“Her defense was nuts,” I agreed. “I thought those reflects would get Deathscythe for sure, but both of them had full health at the end.”

“Right??” the other girl nodded back enthusiastically. “Or maybe we'll get to see some action in the Grand Melee and Magic Brawl,” she then grinned, no doubt imagining the chaos.

“Maybe,” Jannie shrugged. “But forget the tournament for a moment... I want to hear about romance for a few minutes,” she said with a wink, looking over at us.

“Hah?” I squeaked out.

“It's going great!” Ariana smiled happily.

“Oh right, you two are a thing!” Winnie then joined in. “So is it just in the game...?”

“No, we're together online and offline.” Ari said, and I softly smiled at her.

“Nice!” the other girl nodded.

“How far have you gone?” Jannie then asked, and this time Ari clamped up as well.

“Hah??”

“Ehh??” the two of us exclaimed at once.

“They've at least done this sort of thing before,” Tabitha grinned to her guild leader.

“True!” Jannie nodded.

“I-I know this game allows th-th-this sort of thing, as w-well as PDA... b-b-but I don't th-think it... it...” I stammered out, but Jannie only smirked at us.

“Hmm? You didn't discover the Extended Personal Options in the menus?” she said, bringing up a panel to show us as an example. Ariana and I both gulped as we looked. There was indeed an option to allow... well, I'm sure you can imagine the details.

“N-n-n-no way w-we would have l-l-looked for that!” Ari blurted out in embarrassment. I nodded vigorously in support of her words.

“Jannie, hon, you're scaring the high schoolers.” Winnie then remarked.

“Huh? Oh!! Ah-ha, sorry! I forgot! You're both so mature for high schoolers.” Jannie grinned as she closed the panel. Ari and I then exchanged bemused glances, letting out sighs of relief.

“Our parents would ban us from the game if they knew that sort of thing could happen here,” I remarked with a wry grin.

“Oh, I don't think even the beta-testers knew it was there. At least until the game went live.” Jannie shrugged.

I'll have to ask Lizzy... wait, better not... or I'll *never* hear the end of it.

“I-is that so?” I wondered.

“H-how did you find out?” Ariana wondered.

“It's a secret.” Jannie smirked again. Tabitha then tapped her shoulder.

“They're on again!” the other girl said, regarding the crystal displays, and we were distracted from further conversation as the preliminaries resumed.

This time, Magisteria and Deathscythe were paired with other opponents, whom they made short work of, and they were then immediately thrust into their second battles. I also noted another battle with Skeletor; this time he was fighting against another mage, one who seemed to have experience in dealing with his particular kind of style. She either repelled, blocked, or was simply immune to his unique spell, which caught him off his guard. He then had to reveal that he was also a practitioner of shadow magics, along with some wickedly cool necromantic spells.

“We're getting all excited in these prelims, can you imagine how people will be screaming when the real show starts?” Winnie remarked at one point.

“Don't forget the people screaming at home while watching the live-streams!” Tabitha grinned.

“Giiirrrlll, yaass!” the other girl cackled.

Magisteria practically blasted her second opponent out of their arena, scoring her second win. Deathscythe had an uphill battle against a priestess-type player, who held him off until literally the final minute of the battle, when he finally tripped her up and immediately activated some high-level vampire skill to instantly drain her health. That was a sight I wouldn't forget any time soon. Then there was Skeletor, who slowly but surely turned the battle in his favor to score another win.

“I like how there's always someone who manages to drag out their opponent's hidden or reserved skills.” Jannie remarked as Skeletor's opponent went down.

“For the most part, anyway.” Winnie agreed, glancing over at us. “Out of the Silvernight Queens, I think only Maryn was forced to show off her special skills. Lana was just Lana the whole way through; that Anhe girl, I don't know much about her but she just plowed them down, and of course Ariana blasted the living daylights out of everyone.” she commented.

“Wh-what's that supposed to mean...?” I softly grumbled, wondering if I had been given a jibe or a compliment.

“Anhe is ridiculously good.” Ariana nodded. “She's soloed group quests and beaten them.” she added with a grin.

“Whoa!” Tabitha exclaimed in surprise.

“How do you get all the crazy ones in your guild?” Jannie said with a small grin and a shake of her head. “I take it back; Healina has some sense. All healers do.” she then amended. Ari and I exchanged a sheepish grin with each other.

“W-we have no sense...” I laughed hesitantly.

“It's okay, we'll find it.” she said to me.

“Ooh, there's another werebeast I bet!” Winnie then said, enlarging one of the displays.

“Huh? Oh! Ooh...” I said as I caught sight of them. They were wearing a pair of ragged black pants, similar to the guy who had fought Tyman, but this one also had a worn-out bandeau top of the same color. It was a female player, and she looked deadly. Unlike the other guy, however, she also had a sword over her shoulder, the scabbard affixed to a black leather baldric. Her hair color was on the border of brown and black, as was the color of her eyes. Her opponent was a knight-type player, possibly a paladin.

“Name, Lysandra. Level, eighty. Race, Werewolf.” Jannie read aloud, and I felt a shiver of excitement at that last word. Ariana looked over at me, seeing my attention suddenly riveted.

“It's the werewolf thing, isn't it?” she said with a grin.

“Definitely!” I replied. “I mean, werebeasts are cool no matter what, but werewolves are the classic so far as I'm concerned!”

“I know what you mean!” Tabitha agreed.

“She's got a sword, too; but it seems like a supplement more than a focus.” Jannie said as she observed the other girl carefully.

“I hope she wins... I wanna try fighting her.” I said.

“This is her third match, so she's got a decent chance of winning.” Winnie said as the countdown reached the last ten digits.

“It gets hard to predict sometimes after the third and fourth matches, huh?” Ariana remarked in observation.

“Totally.” the other girl nodded in agreement.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Zero.

Fanfare.

The battle began, both opponents rushing each other, the werewolf girl drawing out her sword, a katana-like weapon, to counter the paladin's bastard sword. She fended him off easily enough, and even dodged his magic skills at point blank. This seemed to unnerve the guy a tad, and he suddenly redoubled his efforts with the sword instead of trying to use more spells.

“Come on, babe, how'd you get to that third round if ya gonna be so spooked by that?” Winnie sniffed as she watched him fumble.

“You're a hardcore player, huh?” Ariana smiled.

“Winnie's a stay-at-home mom and successful game-blogger, so definite yes there.” Tabitha nodded, and the other girl--or woman, rather, smiled back.

“I'm not as old as that makes me sound, though. I'm barely past twenty.” she added.

So, young lady? My mind automatically thought as the conversation paused again. Lysandra now had her opponent doing what she wanted, or so it seemed. She kept unnerving him while at the same time keeping a steady rotation in a calm manner that only further rattled the paladin.

“Isn't that--?” Winnie suddenly wondered.

“Hm? Oh!” Jannie snapped her fingers, bringing up the paladin's name. “Johann Starson from the guild ♥Valiant♣Hearts♥,” she read aloud for us.

“I thought so.” the other nodded back. “He fought that Garth idiot in the local tournaments earlier this year.”

I mentioned before that Garth had fought in tournaments; as Winnie just said, they were local or regional tournaments, and had no bearing on this, the Grand Tournament for all of Harmonia. Well, except in the betting pools, I suppose.

“Oh now they're getting into it,” I said as I saw his sword moving faster and in more precise patterns; apparently he was regaining his nerve. Lysandra reacted just as calmly as ever, strengthening her defense while at the same time giving him a devilish smile.

“Ooh, girl, what big teeth you have...” Winnie quipped, and a couple of the others giggled at the words.

“She'll let loose in a couple minutes or so.” I remarked.

“I bet you're right, girl.” she replied to me.

She danced around with him for about another minute or so, during which he mustered the guts to try spell-casting on her again. Once more she dodged them all, even at that impossible-to-miss close range, and when he freaked out again she grabbed him by the neck of his armor, picked him up, and tossed him a few meters away.

Ho-ly Snap! I thought in amazement.

Then Lysandra sheathed her sword, and took off the baldric to set it and the sword aside. While Johann struggled to his feet again, she then stretched out her limbs. I knew what that meant. It was werewolf time. As her opponent tried to get to his feet quickly despite the encumbering armor, she transformed into a majestic black-furred werewolf with eyes that nearly glowed, and let out a wild howl that froze the poor paladin in his tracks.

As soon as she saw how spooked he was, Lysandra then galloped towards him with all her speed and might. Johann let out a high-pitched scream, trying to raise his sword again, but at that moment the she-werewolf reached him, swiping the sword away with a powerful hit and then knocking him back onto the ground with a second swipe. She then gripped his armor with a strong paw and ripped it off like it was paper before closing in on his neck with her ferocious maw. He barely had time to let out another scream, which materialized as more of a gurgle, before exploding into pixels.

Lysandra the Werewolf then stood up from her finishing move, raised her head high, and let out another howl, this one a howl of victory.

“Daaaang,” Winnie whistled in amazement. “You be careful if you run into that one.” she said to the two of us. Ariana nodded back, but I was still transfixed by the victor, who shifted back into a humanoid form and adjusted her clothes so that they properly covered her once more. She then picked up her baldric with its sword, and stalked out of the ring like she owned the place.

“Wow...” I remarked.

“Still want to fight her?” Ariana said with a slight smirk.

“M-maybe...” I returned halfheartedly.

“Oh hey, a short break; let's get out of here before we totally prune up.” Winnie then said, and the five of us left the bath to dry off and redress ourselves before heading out to return to our rooms. We exchanged a few hugs before heading our separate ways, promising to join up again another night, and then Ari and I returned to where the rest of our guild was.

***

“Where the heck did you get to?” Lizzy said as we entered the room.

“We spent some time with Jannie and a couple of her guildmates,” I said as we sat down on our little couch.

“Oh yeah?” Heali smiled.

“It was fun!” Ariana said. “We should all go and get together next time!”

“Hrmm... well, the more, the merrier,” Lizzy shrugged.

“Did you see that werewolf girl?” Maryn asked us, and we nodded back.

“Oh we definitely saw her.” Ariana replied. “Lana was practically transfixed.”

“Can't say I blame her,” our shield-user smirked back. “Those were some slick psych-out moves she pulled on poor old Johann.”

“Hmm? You know him?” I wondered.

“I almost joined his guild before I heard about the Silvernight Queens,” Maryn told us. “And then I refused any offers until I could find you guys.” she added with a smile.

“We're glad you're with us!” Healina smiled back.

“Def!” Lizzy nodded.

“I'm glad you're all with us.” I said with a grin as I settled in again.

“I am glad to be with you, all of you, as well.” Anhe replied happily.

“Ah! They're starting again! Ooh... werewolf girl versus a shield-warden this time...” Lizzy told us.

“A self-healing tank?” Maryn said with interest.

“This guy is level one-seventy. Dude!” our halberdier remarked with a pout.

“Tough luck!” Healina said sympathetically.

“She'll make it past him.” I shrugged.

And she did, by the way. It was a struggle for her to overcome the guy's solid rotation of defense skills, but eventually she decided to try a last-ditch gamble by using one of the few distraction spells werebeasts have, a summons for wolves, in her case, which he fended off while she hurled her sword at his shield with her full strength, cracking it straight down the middle before shifting into wolf-form. The shield-warden was thoroughly shocked by the loss of his shield, that he barely registered the angry she-werewolf bearing down upon him until it was too late. With all of her pent-up frustration she then smacked off his head, ending the fight.

“Pffft! Gyhugh, hyeck, hyagh -- whaaaa?!?” Lizzy spluttered as she nearly choked on her drink in a spit-take. The rest of us could only stare at the sight, shuddering at her outburst.

“Good... God!” Healina finally swore. “I thought her last finishing move was vicious, but that one takes the prize!”

“Round five, here she comes...” I said with a gulp. Another display popped up for us, and we tried to recover out wits by watching a fight that, by comparison, was far tamer.

After two more in-game hours, the prelims for the night had ended. Wildeye, Skeletor, Deathscythe, Magisteria, and Lysandra had all made it past their matches. The six of us toasted them several times over before logging out for the night -- well, most of us. I decided to try and calm down with a walk around the city, still hyped up from watching the werewolf girl's fights. Ariana and I shared a goodnight kiss before she and the others logged out, and then I switched to a red knee-length tunic with a brown leather belt and knee-sandals before heading out.

I walked around for several hours, keeping an eye on the real-time and plotting to make sure I went to sleep at seven the next game day so I could wake up at two--which would be six-thirty in real-world time.

As I aimlessly wandered through the streets, which were quieting down now that the prelim matches were over for the night, I saw that I was entering a more Victorian-style part of the district. The street before me looked like something out of a Charles Dickens' novel. I couldn't help but wonder if there was a greedy, selfish geezer on this street who might be involved in some sort of supernatural quest arc for the upcoming holiday season.

I came to a market square of intersecting streets and several cozy looking shops and taverns, the street-lanterns giving everything a definite late autumn-slash-early winter vibe. And as I prepared to head down one of the other streets, I suddenly ran into her. Dark-brown hair that was almost black. Cool amber eyes that nearly glowed. Her ragged outfit now mostly covered by a heavy black cloak, her feet shod in soft-looking black boots. She saw me, and grinned.