Once I’d calmed down a little, I remembered my new belt and messaged Grandpa and Juana as we made our way toward Podaga’s bathhouse. So what do I do with this belt?

Right, you’re integral to this plan, Juana said. First off it’s critically important you do not get killed by the Bannik or the knights. We need you to help get the Podaga fight started right. We’ll need a minute to reposition everyone and we’re concerned about that first lightning attack, so Arjun and I came up with a plan.

I had a sinking feeling. I’m not going to like this, am I?

What are you talking about? You’ll love it. You get to be the hero, Grandpa said. You’ll probably die pissing your pants but I’ll ask Jones to edit that out of the after-action recap so nobody will know.

Great. Thanks.

Juana gave me my instructions.

Well, that sounds incredibly painful but straightforward. Right, let’s do this.

As we had hoped, a bunch of our minions were milling around by the lure we had placed earlier. Our outpost spawned a steady stream of creep, mostly skeleton pirates and cannibal pigs riding velociraptors. I had hoped that the theme would change in Phase Three, but it seemed like we were stuck with the creatures we had gotten used to on our Phase Two island.

Frank and the other three tanks were equipping the Day-Glo orange vests Dwight had made them. The vests increased their threat considerably and made it so once a mob had focused on them, they were unlikely to lose that mob's attention.

Under Jones's camouflage, Sage, Alison, Bob, Annie, and I snuck forward. I had a brand new creep lure in my hand, ready to place.

Now, my advance team was approaching Podaga's hut, ready to start the fight. As we reached the edge of the grass, I tensed, waiting for someone or something to give us away. There was no movement from the bathhouse. I planted the lure in the grass just at the edge of the clearing, and we snuck back. I sent Grandpa a message. Lure planted. Destroy the old one.

Done, he replied. You should have company in a minute.

It was actually about two minutes out before the first of the creep arrived. I tipped my hat to each of them as they approached. Annie used her "hat for your rabbit" ability on one of the pig chieftains, doubling his stats and height as well. "Time to ring the doorbell," I whispered.

Jones pulled a sniper rifle with a telescopic sight from his inventory. He dropped to the ground and set the rifle up, pointing at the door. He set his eye to the scope. A moment later, he fired just one shot.

There was a high-pitched whine as the round shot forward. It struck the door of Podaga's bathhouse, right in its center, splintering the bright blue painted door and drilling a hole right through it.

I held my breath. Eight seconds later, the door burst open and the Bannik swarmed out. There were six of them, same as before, wielding buckets and brooms. They poured out into the clearing, then looked around slightly comically just as our creep reached the lure.

The Bannik howled and raced forward. Our creep let out various cackles, whoops, and grunts as they joined the fight.

Sage cast Cowgirl Cheer. I pulled half a dozen different buffing items out of my inventory and began applying them to our creep, including a wand we’d gotten from the treasure vaultin Phase Two.

The Bannik were each more than a match for any individual one of our creep, but the creep outnumbered the Bannik six to one. I watched with my teeth on edge, wanting to jump in and intervene. When the third Bannik was down, I messaged Grandpa. All right, move everyone into position.

We're on our way, he replied. Do not engage until we're there.

I know, I said. It would be better to have something disastrous happen to our creep than have to take the Bannik out ourselves than for me to somehow start the fight too early and risk having the knights out of position.

I heard rustling and crackling footsteps as our team got into position. "Give me a boost into the tree, Shad,” Sage said. I helped her up into the branches of a nearby pine tree. She would be on lookout.

It was time for me to join one of the clusters of long-ranged damage dealers. We were positioned on the far west side of the clearing. I didn't like being so far from the action. There wouldn't be much I could do if things went wrong.

I was thinking about this all wrong, I scolded myself. Grandpa, Juana, even our new ally, Alison, had made it clear. This kind of fight wasn't about one person's heroic abilities. This fight was about working as a team. I could do that.

No, really, I could.

As the last Bannik fell, our four tank volunteers got into position. I could see Frank's face pretty well, even though he was a good forty feet from me, at the southeast side of the clearing. He was sweaty and nervous-looking. His duty weapon was in his right hand, and he kept wiping his forehead with his left.

The other three tanks were named Javier, Marilla, and Dante. I hadn't yet had time to see what their classes were, but Javier was wearing a little red half cape and an enormous black and silver hat, something like a sombrero, but not quite the same. He looked like an old-fashioned Spanish bullfighter to me. Well, I'd seen more ridiculous classes.

Marilla pulled a wooden shield as tall as she was out of her inventory. It looked like a piece of plywood she had strapped metal loops to the back of. The front of it was painted with the words "Trespassers will be eaten."

Dante was lacing up a pair of bright green sneakers. He wore a bright green windbreaker as well. It didn't give me any clue as to what his class might be.

They stepped into the clearing as the last of the Bannik died. And just in time, because the four knights appeared in the doorway just like before, dressed in their armor and their bright blue capes with the shield-bearer at the front.

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The four tanks strode forward in a line. Frank was half a step back from the other three. I could tell he was nervous. Probably the others were too, but I couldn't read them as well.

The knights advanced down into the clearing as a unit. Javier stepped forward. His cape was in his hands, and he shook it at the broadsword-bearing knight. It worked. The knight raised his sword and broke away from the pack. Javier darted back toward the northwest side of the clearing. Marilla screamed and hurled a small, round, bright pink plastic ball at the shield-bearer. The ball exploded all over the knight's shield, coating it with bright pink sparkles. It seemed to enrage the knight and lured him off to another corner.

Now Frank and Dante were facing the last two. Frank shuddered. He shouted something indistinct. It didn't seem to attract either knight's attention. Javier reached down and scooped up a wad of grass and earth. He threw it at the axe-wielder, catching the knight on his faceguard. The knight started for Javier, who got him into position. Frank yelled again and then unleashed his restraint ability on the pike-wielding knight.

"Now!" Grandpa yelled, and we broke into action. The healer teams ran forward, positioning themselves in the middle of the clearing, where they had a clear view of everything that was going on.

Alison stood between the two groups, her hands raised as she shouted back and forth. They had a private chat channel for this as well, or so Alison had said. I wasn't one of them, so I focused on my job, which was to take down the knight we had called "Pike" as hard and fast as possible.

I started shooting, adding my damage into the incredible barrage that chewed into the knight, dropping him a good 10% of his health in the first 5 seconds of the fight. Then he seemed to use an ability of his own, jumping back up in health. I hoped Sage had gotten a look at what he had used. She was supposed to be relaying information back to our team at the outpost, so they could analyze what skills were being used and give us counters for them.

"That's not my job right now," I reminded myself. Focus on the target.

The problem was, I had a lot of really useful abilities for spreading my damage around, doing a little here and there, chipping away, but I didn't have much that was good for this sort of fight, where I was just supposed to stand on the side and blast holes and things.

I forced myself to maintain my position and took shot after shot at Pike. Some of my allies had much more interesting abilities. An enormous red and blue gorilla appeared behind the knight and began attacking him from behind, grabbing one of his arms and twisting it backward. The knight was still furiously focused on Frank, swinging his polearm one-handed.

Someone else filled the clearing with a cloud of ice crystals. "Cut that out," Grandpa ordered on the raid-wide chat. "Nothing that impairs anybody's vision, and avoid water-based spells."

We were pretty sure that Podaga's lightning would have a greater effect with water involved. It felt like a cheat. Here I was with an invulnerability to water, and Podaga could just zap me as easily as anyone else.

We had Pike nearly halfway down. "Melee, go," Grandpa ordered.

The two different melee fighters groups charged in, six miners in each. The one led by Grandpa surrounded Pike, swinging at him, trying to stay out of the way of Frank and the giant gorilla.

Frank's Restraint had faded by now. We had told him to keep Posse in reserve for later. Still, the pikeman kept stabbing at Frank, courtesy of the special Day-Glo orange vest Dwight had given him and the other three tanks.

I kept trying to watch the whole fight. One of the other tanks was dropping dangerously low, but then a couple of the healers focused on him and brought him back up. Alison was doing her job well, so I just needed to do mine. I grit my teeth and shot another barrage at Pike. He was nearly down. I kept focus on him until the knight disappeared in a wave of sparks. Sage let out a whoop I could hear from clear across the clearing

"Melee team Alpha, attack Shield," Grandpa ordered as he charged. The other melee team was still fighting against Axe. Now two of the knights began to drop in quick succession. Our analysis team had ranked Frank as the weakest of the four tanks, with Javier as the strongest, so we had decided to take out the knights in that order.

I guess we were settling into a rhythm because things were going smoothly. Then one of the melee miners cut it a little too close. She ran in with a cudgel and struck at Axe, who shifted his attention briefly from Dante to her. One quick strike obliterated her. "It's alright," Grandpa called. "We're still in this. Stick with it, team."

I kept my focus up, but that one mistake led to another and then another. Three of us went down in the next 20 seconds. Two melee and one of the healers who ran up close to try to apply a touch-based heal to the targeted damage dealer. I could hear Alison shout over the combat from here, "Focus! Keep your assigned targets!"

Axe went down. Melee team Beta ran to help Javier face off against Sword.

A moment later, Shield went down too. "Melee team Alpha, retreat," Grandpa ordered. "You'll just get in Beta’s way. Get ready to engage Podaga in a minute."

That was my cue to step out of my concealment and take up a place near the door. As Misfits took out Shield, I readied myself, reviewing my assignment.

Podaga stepped through the door, readying his speech. His hands raised to the sky, broom clutched in one as he began to invoke the lightnings.

I cast High Noon on him and breathed a sigh of relief when the skill activated. I had been a little worried that this wouldn't count as a duel.

Podaga looked incensed. "What foul villainy is this?" he roared. "How dare you!"

"Everyone in position," I called. "Heal up. Let me know."

Grandpa and Alison were shouting orders, moving people around, while Podaga ranted and raved at the sky. Two of our support casters came in, casting area-wide heat spells that dried up the dew on the grass and sent a sizzling fog upward. It was uncomfortably warm for a few minutes. When the steam stopped rising, they backed away.

"All right," Grandpa said. "Go ahead."

I took a deep breath, downed my lightning resist potion and then the one that made it do double duty for ten seconds, cast Call 'Em Out on Podaga, and then shot him with the biggest, most powerful boom round Sage had made.

As High Noon ended, Podaga thrust his broom at me. A solid beam of lightning struck me, but we had been counting on that.

The Grounding Belt that Sue had made me shook and let out a teapot whistling sound. The lightning zapped me head to toe, making my teeth ache and my skull rattle. My health began to drop precipitously. At the same time, it set up a resonance, sending a beam of lightning back at Podaga. I could see it shaking his broom.

As my health dropped toward zero, I had the satisfaction of watching the broom disappear, exploding into chunks of wood and burning greenery and taking Podaga's hand with it. The sorcerer lost ten percent of his health in that burst.

Unfortunately, the blast wave finished me off. A minute later, I respawned back in our outpost and hurried to join Juana and Arjun, who were watching the rest of the fight. "How's it going?" I asked breathlessly. "Think I could make it back in time to help?"

"No way," Juana said, shaking her head. "Even running would take you, what, twenty minutes to get there? It'll all be over before then. Oh, he's gearing up for another lightning blast!"

She leaned forward and whispered something into the microphone. I tried to watch what was going on.

We were seeing the feed from Jones' drone and another off of Sage's spy cam. Most of the rest of the raid were also wearing the all-seeing eyes, but when I tried pulling them up, I saw it was just a jumble of blurry action. Sage and Jones definitely had the best views.

I grit my teeth and fumed as the team took down Podaga. After a minute, it was clear we were going to win. I took a deep breath, sighed, and turned to Juana. "I'm going to get back up there. We've got a Rusalka to talk to."

She grinned at me. “Take it easy. I’ve got to pay the bill for all those respawns now and you’re way too trigger happy.”

“Hey!” That struck me as unfair. “You and Arjun specifically came up with a plan where I was going to get hit with a million volts of lightning, and then you blame me for dying?”

“Sage told me to be sure to give you a hard time about that.” She winked. “Right, they’re finishing up. Better hurry or you won’t get any of the loot.”