Callie logs into row. Her character awakens at an inn at the elven city.

She examines her quest log and checks the details of her last completed quest. “The statistics on the forest fire quest states that fifteen percent of the forest was lost thanks to the deranged fallen that wanted to smoke out Melody and Envy from the forest. That is a lot of acres. The statistics on the contribution report states that the MVP's for extinguishing the flames were random water mages and the disciples of the sloth.”

“The water mages handled fifteen percent of the fire. The amount sounds like a little but there were only a handful of water mages that contributed several times more than what a regular person could without water magic. Even some of the parrots pitched in and mimicked their water spells to douse five percent of the fire, incredible.”

“The fabled Sloth of Sloth and their newfound disciples including some of Melody’s pirate crew put out ten percent of the fire. They slowed down the spread of the fire to a crawl using their new form of magic that affects speed. The potential amount of fire that would have spread if not for their intervention was considered by ROW’s algorithms to factor their contribution.”

“The elves from here handled forty percent of the fire. Sounds like a lot but almost every individual elf participating only put out much smaller percentages of the fire alone. The number of participating adventurers in the area were less in number than the elves and handled thirty percent of the fire.”

Callie closes her quest list. She leaves her inn and ventures through the city. She checks her map to see that her party members are at a nearby tavern. Even Heli’s pet parrot that was previously captured by the fallen angel Fowl Clay is there.

Callie finds her party members drinking some fine bottles of sparkling cider. Callie takes a seat by her friends. She asks, “What are we celebrating? Forest fires?”

The room goes silent as people unrelated to the party stare daggers at Callie’s direction. Melissa tries to hide her snicker.

“Alright, too soon. My bad.”

Melissa cheerily replies, “Fifty out of a hundred fallen angels from the island in the sky were captured and sent to prison! We caught all of the fallen responsible for starting the fire!”

Melody takes a drink. “That still leaves fifty fallen that are still after my crew. The fifty that went flying around the continent before the fire started. We are not going to stick around until they return. My crew and I have plans to take a boat across the sea the moment that Peri wakes up. I am not so sure she has anywhere else to go, so we are going to invite her to come with us. It is the least we could do after all she has done for us.”

Zinnia offers, “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to travel to my hometown of the kingdom of Steel? I hear the reparations for the kingdom are coming along swimmingly. They were looking for adventurers to help liven the place up.”

“No thanks. Being buried underground doesn’t sit right with me. It sounds like traveling from one bird cage to another. No offense.”

Zinnia nonchalantly shrugs. “Your choice.”

Heli asks, “Then what about the cities of Marigold or Crimson Rain? Crimson Rain is near the sea. The place is as interesting as they come and the people there are really festive. Never visit during Halloween though. That is when spooky stuff begins to happen. I repeat, never visit during Halloween unless you want to turn into a rock candy sculpture.”

Callie interrupts. “As if you aren’t going to go again next year for the yearly cooking contest.”

Heli playfully sticks her tongue out at Callie. “The contest was created in my honor. Would be rude of me to miss it.”

Callie argues, “Marigold is famous for the city’s hospitality, love, and kindness. I am sure we could find places for your entire crew to stay. They are really fond of the saying ‘there is always room for one more’. I see the saying on rugs and posters everywhere.”

Melody replies, “Then we wouldn’t be close to the sea. We would be stranded in the middle of the continent. Our goal for the time being is to eventually acquire a boat. A kind of majestic boat capable of sailing across the seas just like the ones from the stories our forefathers used to tell us about. I can promise that we are not going to end up as terrible as our forefathers or the fallen though.”

Callie states, “I do have some acquaintances in Crimson Rain that need a bunch of guild members. Your entire crew plus the parrots could fit in there. They are not the nicest kind of people, but I don’t know where else you could get cheap room and board for so many people.”

Callie continues. “Maybe having more members could give them the opportunity to better themselves as a guild. Who knows?”

Callie makes eye contact with Zinnia. The two of them simultaneously agree as they say, “Nah.”

Heli replies, “A little birdie told me that the adventurer’s guild is going to distribute rewards for the all the participants that help put out the fire. That should help a little with the room and board.”

June, Heli’s pet parrot, interrupts. “I did not tell her that.”

Heli then seems a little downcast. “Callie, how do I say this? Ooh I just hate to be the bearer of bad news! It has been fun hanging out lately, but I am running out of vacation days before my culinary school starts again. I better return to the city of Tan now that the coast is clear. Sorry.”

Callie frowns. “I understand. On the bright side, the fare for a voyage is super cheap nowadays. We don’t have to wait for yearly sponsored Halloween events anymore. Just write me a letter and we can hang out the next time you are free.”

Zinnia suggests, “We could walk you back home. That will give us a chance to see the parrots and pirates off on their voyage as well.”

“Sounds like a plan to me!”

Melissa cuts in. “Speaking of bad news, I think I will stick around the city of Tan to enjoy the rest of my vacation by the beach. I quit adventuring for a reason, you know? All the fatigue from these last few days is really starting to catch up to me and wear me out.”

“I am really happy that I was invited though and that I got to cross out discover a hidden area off of my bucket list in my retirement. Better late than never.”

“Awe. Okay.”

Melody finishes her drink. “All that is left to do is wait for Peri to wake up. Might as well collect our contribution rewards for participating in the quest to extinguish the forest fire and enjoy our last day here.”

The party visit the guild where the members that participated in battle against the fallen were rewarded with five silver coins each. They all receive a second smaller participation reward of a pin depicting a sloth and a parrot.

Callie is granted a small amount of exp for turning in the quest that makes a notification pop up that reminds her that she has an unspent skill point.

“I have leveled up from the battle against Fowl. My main Mage class is now level thirty nine. My Disciple of Greed subclass is now level ten. Another skill point spent to upgrade Ice Wall and Greed Greed.”

Callie teases, “What new skill did you unlock, Zinnia? Tell me all about it.”

Zinnia pouts. “You know that I am stuck at level fifty and I can’t level up anymore without gathering the evolution material necessary for my classes.”

Callie chuckles. “We should see if they are selling any around here. They are probably going to have more archer and summoner related materials than anything else but still worth a shot.”

The party exits the tavern once everybody has had their fill. They venture through the less terrifying areas of the city where the sheer drop to the forest floor is not so immediately visible. Callie spends the entire time walking behind Zinnia and holding onto her shoulders as though she were some sort of lifeboat.

The party arrives at a public plaza where there are poles set up from place to place that have decorative banners depicting some of the events that took place during the fire.

They depict the Sloth of Sloth repelling flames. A second depiction displays the sloth slashing at some fallen. A third depicts the sloth united with a number of elves to teach them the spell Land of the Lethargic. Another set depicts parrots valiantly carrying elves into battle. They depict them carrying elves from fire to fire and mimicking water spells to douse the flames.

Heli cheers, “The Parrot of Envy and the Sloth of Sloth have become the elven city’s mascot! They consider the animals as some of the forest’s guardian animals now!”

Melissa asks, “What about the rest of us fighting for our lives with the fallen? Or the various firefighters working tirelessly to put out the flames?”

Heli replies, “Call that a culture shock. The elves are so in tune with nature that they kind of glorify animals and most of them tend to neglect anything else. They do not even consider themselves as heroes. The closest thing they have to folk heroes here are even more stories about guardian animals.”

Melissa’s eyes gleam as bright as gold. “Forget about being heroes. We should have gotten the money that went into making these banners, am I right Callie?”

Callie responds, “Right. I got double the reward when helping out during an emergency in the city of Crimson Rain. I like the cool pin though. Someday I will collect enough of them to completely cover my outfit like a shining disco ball. Until then I will keep the pin as a trophy in my house.”

Heli looks displeased with the pair of them.

The party ventures through public plazas with stalls set up like a farmer’s market. There are people selling exotic fruits like naturally grown bananas that are thick, full of seeds, and nowhere as tasty or sweet as the bananas genetically modified to be sold in an average grocery store. The selection of exotic pets being sold include: bears, monkeys, owls, sloths, and parrots.

Callie glances at the familiars. “Parrots were added when the pirates were freed from the island in the sky. Sloths were not available as a familiar before. They must have been added with the recent turn of events. Summoner type players must be having the time of their lives right now.”

“I get that most players would not want centipedes as familiars. Even less players would want grotesque flesh amalgamations like the Centipede of Greed. Frankly, I don’t blame them.”

“But I really do wonder why centipedes were excluded as familiars when these other two animals from the ‘sin’ series of monsters were added. There are plenty of other grotesque options for pets available in the game. Was that an oversight on the part of the game developers? There is no way that could be the case. They even accounted for players using the sloth series of magic to help dispel the forest fire which is an insane prediction in itself.”

Callie is not in the market for a familiar and her question goes unanswered so she moves along sooner or later. As Callie predicted, the most interesting items she finds in the market is a selection of bows.

“Damn, this bow is amazing! It is made from materials dropped from a Dryad and has a chance to make roots sprout from the ground and attack the target. This second bow has the ability to drain mana to change the element of the user’s basic arrow attacks into a choice between earth, wind, and nature elements. They even sell a special kind of arrow that whistles as they fly through the air as an alternative way for ‘Rangers’ to issue various commands to their familiars. Now I know where to go if I ever want to change classes into something that uses a bow. Or a level fifty five bow.”

Zinnia seems confused. “I thought that you liked magic. Would it make you happier to learn how to use a bow?”

“Nah. I just like the options they have readily available. Collecting the greed series of items hasn’t been a walk in the park so far. I still have no idea how I am going to find somebody that can make light mage robes out of such heavy materials. That is going to be a problem for another day though.”

Somebody that looks like a menacing mummy approaches the party. Only one of their eyes is visible from beneath their wrapping otherwise they are completely wrapped in gauze from head to toe. The gauze even trips them up as they walk.

The ‘mummy’ slowly approach like a monster in a movie stalking their prey. The prey obliviously stands in place. They are none the wiser even as the monster stands right behind them.

The mummy places their arm over Melody’s shoulder and says something inaudible muffled out by the wrapping around their lips.

Melody winces. A look of guilt overcomes her. “What kind of horrific burns require so much gauze? Sorry you had to go through that for my behalf.”

Peri unwraps the gauze around her mouth. “What are you talking about? I only have one small burn on my arm. Then they told me to wrap myself up in this mysterious material and I would heal. I am not so sure how the fancy magic paper works and they gave me something called bandages for my cuts too!”

Melissa’s primal instincts awaken. She cannot help but claw at some of the loose gauze as the gauze swings back in forth in the breeze. She then tugs and undoes the gauze to reveal Peri in near perfect shape.

Melissa explains, “Right, you were stuck on the floating island. Of course you wouldn’t know what this even is. Or what it is supposed to do. Gauze is supposed to…”

Melissa wraps Peri’s injured arm in gauze.

Peri states, “This is much more convenient than what I was thinking! But I like being wrapped in gauze! I will keep the rest as a cool costume!”

Melody states, “We are going to go try working for a guild called Undead Blood Toll. There is something unpleasant you should know about the guild. The guild is infamous for violence as they regularly take quests involving... Do you want to come with us anyways?”

Peri winces. “How could you betray my trust like that?! After all the hard work we went to get you out of the clutches of the fallen! I thought that you would be better people than them! There is no way I would ever condone that type of guild!”

Melody replies, “We have no money to our name and we do not have many choices. It is not that serious of a decision. We join the guild, take advantage of the cheap room and board, do a few quests, and we leave the moment we can afford to stand on our own.”

Melody continues. “I have heard a story or two from the tavern patrons about what joining the guild entails. We never have to participate in less than reputable job requests if we do not want to. There are a couple of other quests relating to gathering materials to go around. We will never turn out like the fallen. I can promise you that much.”

Peri replies, “You have the option to avoid the guild all together! The world is such a vast place and you are telling me there are no better alternatives? Don’t lie to me! Don’t tell me that you aren’t going to end up like the fallen either! They said they would never end up like monsters and look at them now!”

Peri turns to the rest of the party in tears. There is a certain anger visible in her eyes in the few moments of clarity when there are no tears flowing. “How can the rest of you stand for this?!”

Melissa winces. She states, “The world is not that simple. All things considered, I would say they are some of the luckier kind of people for being able to find such a cheap place to stay. I had a less than reputable start as a thief before I was able to turn things around for myself.”

Peri turns to Callie, Zinnia, and Heli.

Callie lies, “Don’t look at us. We have nothing to do with their choice.”

Peri starts to walk away. “The many should not be punished for the sins of the few. I expected there to be a few bad apples when I committed to saving you all from that cage. I can only hope the rest of the released descendants will not turn out this way.”

Melody replies, “We are not bad apples. We will prove you wrong. Someday.”

Peri stops for a second. She turns back with a stare that makes Melody feel as though she were staring into her soul.

“I cannot believe you.”

Peri walks away and is soon lost to the crowd. Peri has left the party.

Callie mumbles, “I kind of feel bad. I only knew her for a few days, but I can say that Peri is a really nice person. Maybe the best play here was to keep her out of the loop.”

Melody replies, “Then she would feel twice as betrayed when she discovers the truth for herself. Better to get it over with.”

The party leaves the elven city and returns to the city of Tan. There are no remaining fallen lurking around waiting to ambush them for they have already spread out to search the rest of the continent.

Melody, Envy, and the rest of her pirate crew set sail for the city of Crimson Rain on another continent.

Callie and the rest of her party wave them farewell as the boat leaves the dock. They awkwardly remain at the pier until the parrots and pirates are no longer visible and then some.

Eventually Melissa breaks the silence. “You two could take the rest of the week off from adventuring. There is always going to be an adventure waiting for you on the world of ROW. That is just the kind of place the world is. On the other hand, my vacation time does not last so long. We could spend the rest of my vacation time playing volleyball at the beach and surfing.”

Zinnia replies, “Sure, I would love to!”

Callie is lost in thought weighing her options. “I could miss out on discovering some hidden areas on the new continent. I could be missing out on thousands of viewers in my live-streams. Then again, I really do enjoy spending time with them even if they are only NPC.”

“I always feel some level of regret when I think about the opportunities that I missed to spend time with my ex-friends. I feel regret even when the decision was usually out of my control thanks to life getting in my way. Ugh, the memories still haunt me.”

Heli worriedly asks, “Why is this taking you so long to decide? I don’t have to think about it. I would have answered yes right away. Does that say more about you or me as a person?”

“Yeah, alright. I love ya two too much. What can I say? I have a bad habit of overthinking things.”

The party spends the rest of the week at Heli’s apartment. They play volleyball, go visit a handful of shops including the Wonder Mall, visit a couple of more museums including one depicting various types of stones and gems found in the area, and visit the nearby marble quarry.

Zinnia purchases a level fifty rare quality Sword of Greed from the Cursed Forge blacksmith shop at the mall that replaces her uncommon sword. She now owns three pieces of gear from the Greed series of equipment: light shoes, a shield, and a sword.

Sometime during the week the party members receive letters addressed to them individually with similar content.

“Dear, Callie. We would like to thank you for your help expanding our guild. Finding new guild members for a run down guild is no easy task. Finding twenty guild members almost simultaneously seems like an unbelievable miracle. Since we last saw each other, the Undead Paradise and Blood Toll guilds have decided to merge together and the guild hall has never been so lively. We went from ten members to twenty and now we are at thirty with the addition of the pirates. Please do not hesitate to reach out if there is anything we can do to repay the favor. – Myoso, the co-master of the newly formed Undead Blood Toll Guild.”

“PS: Officially the name of the guild is… but we are thinking about naming the guild Undead Marooned Blood Toll with the addition of the pirates. We don’t know for certain yet. Let me know what you think.”

Callie mutters to herself, “Would be kind of funny if the guild name just kept on growing exponentially larger.”

Heli states, “I wasn’t around for the merge of guilds. They thanked me for helping them find the pirate crew though. They also told me that I could rely on them if I ever have any problems.”

Heli looks worried over the implications. She nervously scratches at her scalp. “How did I ever get involved with such a bad crowd? I am just a chef! The rest of you are bad influences!”

A second letter arrives sometime during the week but this time only Callie and Zinnia receive one.

“I never forgot the crazy stunt you pulled in the kingdom of Steel that allowed us to meet with our ex-guild masters one last time. At first I was so depressed about the encounter that I could not bring myself to lift a finger. Then my sorrow turned into anger. My anger only grew the longer and longer I though about the way they treated us.”

“Recently I ran into a robot in the city of Crimson Rain. I swear on my afterlife that the robot is our ex-guild master Dread. I have no idea how they turned from a zombie into a robot, but I swear that I can tell from the aura of their soul that they are one and the same.”

“Rumor has it that you like interesting and unusual quests. Here is something interesting, my fist. I want to punch him. I want to beat him up just once after everything he has put me through. I have plans of challenging his new guild into a guild battle and I need your help to do so. I want you to help me come up with a plan for a guaranteed victory. Somehow you know Dread even better than I do despite the years we spent together. Somehow you can actually get him to reply to your letters. – Myoso”

Callie thought to herself, “Myoso is an NPC. She is probably wasting her time writing letters to his old zombie character. He doesn’t even play on that account anymore. There is no way he would ever notice them and there is no way that Myoso would know that.”

Callie opens a second tab and opens a browser where she sees the a video channel for the player, ‘Dread of Undead Moldy Bread’. Sure enough, they have made a new robot character. She clicks on one of his latest videos and their new character’s username is ‘No Dread Over Inorganic Metal Bread’.

“So Dread is in the middle of leveling up a new character. Myoso has a good eye for this kind of thing.”

Heli asks, “How did you even end up in this scenario? You and Zinnia are real wildcards, Callie. One day you are defeating vampires in an emergency quest to save a city, the next you are making enemies with corrupt angels, and then you are assisting assassins.”

Callie laughs. “I swear that I did not plan anything. Things just turned out this way. You have to admit that the crazy nature of the world of ROW knows how to keep thing interesting.”

At the end of the week another boat sets sail from the continent of Sin to the other side of the world. Heli waves farewell at the pier. Heli leaves the party.

Melissa states, “When I said my farewells, I had no idea the two of you were coming with me.”

Callie giggles. “I am bad at saying goodbye.”

Callie and Zinnia arrive at the City of Crimson Rain. Melissa arrives at the same city only to transfer to a train that takes her to the city of Marigold. Melissa leaves the party.

Callie visits the place where the Blood Toll guild used to be only to find that the entire guild building is missing. The terrain has been altered from the gloomy atmosphere into a much more generic. Even the guild tower looks like a generic tower.

“This is a newbie level one guild ran by players. I guess the Blood Toll half of the guild decided to sell their territory. Makes sense to me, would be a little weird for a guild to have two separate branches in the same city. They probably used the funds from selling their land to repair the Undead Paradise guild. The building was in shabby condition the last time that we saw it and the upkeep for a guild can get expensive.”

Zinnia replies, “Kind of risky to invest so much into a guild. If the merger doesn’t work out, there are going to be complications. The Blood Toll half of the guild is not going to have a place to return to.”

The party then travels to the location of the Undead Paradise guild.

Callie seems shocked. “Blood Toll just relocated their entire building next to the Undead Paradise building. They now have two buildings placed right next to one another and the guild members just roam freely between them. Okay. A little inconvenient and unorthodox but I would be lying if I said that wasn’t cool.”

Zinnia adds, “I like the new banners. They did not have any before.”

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The new banners depict an assortment of graveyard monsters including undead and vampires. The new guild name is written as Undead Blood Toll.

Zinnia mimics the poses they are making with their extended hands. She growls. She makes a pale imitation of a zombie’s face. “Do I look as spooky as them?”

Callie replies, “Sure. Come on, ghoulish one. We have a quest to do and I am recharged and ready to rumble”.

“More like cause trouble and meddle in other people’s affairs.”

“You know me so well.”

The duo step inside and the massive guild doors swing open with a loud creak. The scene inside is something strange to behold. There are parrots, pirates, and zombies dancing on top of the tables. The rest of their guildmates cheer them on with mugs of frothing orange juice sloshing around. There are phantoms flying through the walls that do not bother to use the door. There are a pair of vampires that grab a book from a bookshelf. They sit around a table silently reading. The furniture is bolted down to the ceiling and the vampires are hanging out upside down.

Callie and Zinnia are greeted with a warm welcome composed of a number of undead and pirates all saying hello. They all seem to know the two of them by name. Zinnia steps onto the table and begins to dance alongside of them.

Melody jests, “Couldn’t get enough of me, eh? I don’t blame you. I look like a goddess in new clothing.”

Callie has to take a second glance to double check. Melody is indeed wearing new clothing. Her old clothing was tattered, stained, and had small random holes from place to place. Her new garments still look kind of rogue-like. The outfit definitely passes as something a pirate would wear.

“I guess your sense of fashion would be difficult to change considering the limited selection you had on that island.”

Melody squints. “What the hell? What are you saying?”

Callie has to double take. “You are asking the wrong person. I have never been one for pirate fashion.”

“Good save.”

“So Envy looks like they are feeling better now.”

“They are as fit as a fiddle! I have never seen them act so energetic when we were on the island! They fly around the guild in circles. They roam around the town and explore every single twist and turn. They peck at every crack and crevice in the cement. Sometimes I even see them perch on buildings and watch them get chased away with a broom.”

“At first I was worried sick over their behavior. I thought they were going mad with some disease, but somebody told me that my parrot got something called the ‘zoomies’ and that it was a sign of happiness. They even stopped picking at and tearing out their feathers. That used to be one of their bad habits that would get out of hand and leave them with patches of their skin exposed. Amazing how they dropped the habit almost completely.”

“You love to hear it. Anyways, I came here because I have some business with one of your guild masters.”

“The co-guild masters are sparring out back.”

Callie peeks through a window and she sees Myoso and Iris. They are casting spells and throwing daggers. Callie becomes invested with their battle and breaks free of her trance when Zinnia calls her.

Zinnia boasts, “They have taught me how to do a human dance! They call it a default dance.”

Myoso and Iris spawn some food from their inventory. They have a little lunch break. Myoso stabs her sandwich and a phantom apparition of a sandwich appears that she eats.

Callie joins the two. “So I hear that you want me to orchestrate a guild battle.”

Zinnia states, “I do not get why you are so hung up about this. Dread is a scumbag. Why should you even give him the time of day? He would not do the same.”

Myoso replies, “As a wrathful beast man once said, he filled my head with dreams. False promises of grandeur. Lies about someday becoming the best of the best rated guilds. My guildmates and I gave everything we had. We did our best under the banner of the guild and we were lead to ruin. I was so committed to the cause that I spent every day in a battlefield somewhere in the hopes of improving myself little by little. I even chose my classes, gear, and overall builds based on what the guild was lacking.”

“He simply got up and left when he found stronger allies. I can’t bear to see him walk away without any repercussions. We were supposed to be a guild that stands side by side during our highs and lows. I get so angry when I think about that I can’t think of anything else. I just want to beat them down once. Just once and I could call it even and forget about this entire ordeal and move on.”

Callie replies, “I am sorry to say that the odds are stacked against you. Phantoms have not been blessed by the world of ROW for quite some time now. The last time they were in the spotlight was a couple of years ago. On the other hand robots are blessed if I recall correctly. I am not so sure this is a competitively viable battle. The chances are more than likely that you will be beat down instead.”

Zinnia states, “We are blessed with an increase of exp gain and we have a number of sets of gear, skills, and classes that the rest of the world knows very little about.”

Callie thought to herself, “In short, robots are buffed to match the current meta of the game. They arguably have one of the best stat pools that a playable character can have. Naturally, characters made from day one of ROW, such as phantoms, are at a disadvantage.”

“I don’t care! My win rate of in the arena is nothing to scoff at! I will take my chances!”

Callie does some quick character searches on her menu. “I hear that you have a fifty eight percent win rate this season. I would consider that to be pretty impressive but you are forgetting that Dread is still one of the top players. You may not know it but Dread is now the leader of one of the top five guilds. Dread’s win rate is higher at sixty five percent.

Callie thought to herself, “Lower level competitive arena battles are pretty much fifty fifty toss ups. The thing about that is that most people loose them half of the time.” She chuckles at her own joke.

“When most people think of top ranking players, they imagine somebody with a near perfect win rate. They expect the competition to be full of fools and novices that the so called ‘better’ players can plow through. That could not be furthest from the truth. The better players can only tear through players sitting at lower ranks until they eventually reach the rank that suits them.”

“When it comes to the diamond rank, the best rank in the arena, the top rankings fluctuate and change pretty regularly. Somebody with a fifty eight percent win rate is considered a great player. Somebody that crosses the sixty percent win rate thresh hold is easily considered one of the best, deserving of diamond ranking.”

“Reaching such a high win rate with a character that is not in the current meta, such as a phantom, is commendable. Even so, the truth of the matter is that Myoso is at a disadvantage.”

A wide grin starts to spread across Callie’s face. “But what if she beats the odds and wins?”

Callie replies, “All right. I will orchestrate the guild battle but have one condition. I want to be on the sidelines as a commentator. In a perfect world, I would ask to be the exclusive commentator.”

“How I wish nobody else would make their own commentary over the events of the battle and everybody would just watch mine instead. I could have had it all to myself. Alas, something like that is too unrealistic to hope for in the age of information.”

Everybody besides Callie all seem confused.

Callie suggests. “Maybe you should consider learning a new class. You could surprise him with one of the latest sin series of classes. They are some of the strongest classes available right now and I could teach you how to unlock them.”

Myoso replies, “Do you have any idea how long it would take me to reach level fifty with a new class? He is not going to sit around twiddling his thumbs either. By the time I get to level fifty, he will likely master one of the new classes too.”

“Good point. Then the next best thing that I can suggest is getting the best possible set of gear. What are robots weak against?”

Zinnia answers, “Some weakness that I know of are acid and lightning.”

Myoso replies, “No, that will not work with my characteristics as a phantom and the nature of my classes. The elemental match up is all wrong.”

Callie begins to snicker maliciously as an idea dawns upon her. “I have two plans in mind. I will tell you the backup plan first. Getting the legendary set of equipment from the ‘Cursed Armor’ series is the second best option that I can think of. The set of gear will drastically boost all undead related abilities including your passive ability as a phantom to momentarily become intangible. I may know how to get the armor but I am not strong enough to do so.”

Myoso curiously asks, “And what about the other option?”

“How well acquainted are you with the Hellebore the harbinger?”

Iris interrupts, “Are you accusing us of conspiring with that psycho!?”

Myoso complains, “She is crazy! She hates everything and everyone!”

Callie replies, “She hates all mortals. She hates all living beings. No, I am not implying that you have ties with her. I just wonder if you might be able to convince her to let you borrow her armor.”

Myoso’s eyes widen out of shock and realization. “She scares me but I-I could try asking. I-I am willing to try.”

Callie asks Melody and Envy for their participation in the guild battle.

Melody replies, “Sure. Nothing immoral about a guild battle.”

Callie takes a short ‘nap’ on a bench. She opens her contact list. She sends Dread a message. “Hello again, Dread! I have another challenge that could do wonders for our channels. I have recently come across a new type of boss monster that has never before seen in battle. One of the ‘sin’ series of monsters from the new continent called the Parrot of Envy. The catch is that the monster is very elusive and difficult to encounter. The only way to challenge this one is to challenge the monster’s entire guild to a thirty versus thirty guild battle!”.

Sometime later Dread responds. “What a really weird gimmick! What kind of boss only battles in guild battles? How is this even fair design? How do you even come across these kinds of things?”

“The world loves me, lol. I have no idea. I am not even a member of a guild and somehow I came across this event. So is your guild available sometime this week?”

“Most of us should be free two days from now. That is when we normally grind through guild battles and raids. My guild members will be overjoyed to participate in a new event for a change.”

Callie thought to herself. “I was the one who came up with the challenges, yet his channel spiked in loyal viewers from that point on. Mine barely went up in comparison.”

Callie sighs. “I bet some smart lass would tell me to get good if I went complaining about this kind of thing on social media. The demons in my head can shut up. I am damn well trying my best.”

The date for the guild battle is set. There is still a little preparation that needs to be done.

Myoso roams through a land where nothing grows. The trees are dead. The places where the rivers once ran are now full of viscous, bubbling black liquid of unknown origin.

The monsters that roam the land are undead, phantoms, and banshees. Their levels all range from at least level ninety to a hundred whereas Myoso is only seventy seven. There are faces in the shadows that watch Myoso as she hovers by. The more ‘animalistic’ type of beasts are monsters with numerous eyes, putrid toxic slime, and the worst monster of all are the mosquitos. The dead ‘tree trunks’ reveal spider-like legs and randomly walk away to a new location every so often.

There is a town that has been reduced to rubble. Almost all of the buildings have broken windows, are missing entire sections, or are a pile of bricks standing where a home used to be.

There is one castle that remains standing. The defensive walls around the tower have been destroyed and all that is left is the main building. There is a moat surrounding the castle and a broken drawbridge that can no longer retract. The doors have been broken off from their hinges and lay on the floor.

Myoso reluctantly enters. There are more monsters on the first floor that all ignore her. She flies through the walls and checks from room to room until eventually she comes against somebody with an imposing figure working by a set of smithy gear on some broken pieces of metal.

The person in question is hunched over. She has such long, and unmaintained hair that her hair drags along the floor behind her. Her eyes and hair are completely white as though she were some sort of undead spirit possessing a mortal shell. She is covered in imposing dark colored armor with decorative spikes. Her figure seems bulky and muscular even through her set of armor.

Her weapon of choice is a scythe that has been broken into shards scattered across the room that she seems to be working on attempting to fix. The color of the metal is as black as obsidian with a decorative gold edge. The size of the pole suggests that the scythe used to be a weapon that a person with an average stature could never hope to wield.

The woman never even turns around to acknowledge Myoso. She knowingly grasps a shard of broken metal in her bare hands. A dark elemental aura starts to form in her other hand as though she were preparing to cast a spell.

She speaks with an ethereal and overlapping voice as though there were several voices speaking in unison. “A mere mortal dares to trespass into my castle? I will destroy you where you stand.”

The woman is level one hundred. She is nicknamed as ‘The Harbringer of the End of the World’.

Myoso is trembling with fear. She gnaws on her finger so hard that she begins to take damage.

She timidly replies, “B-but I am not a mortal. I am a ph-phantom. So there sh-should be no reason why you should ha-hate me. I never meant to pass tress, trespass! The doors were open. I was hoping we could talk.”

The woman stands up straight. She is standing ten feet tall.

“Well why didn’t you say so! It has been an eternity since I have had guests! All I get nowadays are adventurers that are here to fight with me! This is such a pleasant surprise!”

Later that day Myoso returns in a set of armor. Callie and Zinnia are playing cards with the pirates.

Callie looks amazed. “There is no way that you actually managed to pull that off!”

Myoso timidly replies, “She nonchalantly threatened to beat me up and destroy my entire city if I do not return the armor when I am done. She said it in such a casual matter-of-fact manner too. I believe she could if she wanted to. Her exact words were, by the way I will…”

The day of the guild match arrives. The players set forth to an arena. The arena changes shape and sizes in order to accommodate the game mode but none of the NPC even seem to find the nature of the arena as something strange.

On this day many players are confused as to why Hellebore is missing from her castle. Hellebore roams through the city of Crimson Rain and makes her way to the arena. Ghosts and spirits roam above her all flying high in the air.

An NPC that dresses like a tailor does not notice the ghosts. She stands in front of her sportswear clothing store.

She calls to her from the streets. “Mam! You cannot walk around dressed like that! Not in this city at least! You will be arrested! For ROW’s sake! If you have nothing else to wear, and no money to spare, then take this on the house!”

The tailor offers some sportswear.

Hellebore indeed looks like a struggling and suffering soul to someone who is unaware of her apocalyptic and ghoulish background.

Callie meets with Dread and they start live-streaming. Callie has a smug look about her the entire time.

Dread still has the same brown hair and hairstyle that his zombie character has. His new character is a robot but unlike Zinnia the robotic features of his mechanical body are more apparent. He has mechanical joints that twist and turn. He has no shoulders or knees. Instead he has metal ball joints that twist and turn that seem to magnetically and magically move his limbs. His body is covered in metallic colored armor that seems to be built into his robotic body. His fingers are metal claws that look like built in gauntlets.

“A lot of you guys were really excited about the last challenge that I did with Callie. A bunch of you were asking for a rematch and so here we are! Can I get revenge and win against Callie’s cheating ways or is she going to pull another victory? Stay tuned to the end…”

A crowd gathers as NPC flock to the arena. A fair number of players interested in the boss battle with Envy gather as well. An over-sized monitor displays the match up of the guilds Undead Blood Toll vs the Loaf Legion.

Attacks are exchanged. The battle does not get far before there is an interruption. Hellebore, the Harbinger of the End of the World enters from one side of the arena. She is dressed in sportswear which is beyond unusual choice of clothing for her character. She walks in a straight line directly through the battlefield to the other side of the arena where Callie and Zinnia are seated.

As Hellebore walks through, a wailing convoy of level one hundred ghosts and spirits follow her around like an army of the damned. The light of day is suddenly blackened out and the arena looks as pitch black as though it was the middle of the night.

An NPC spectator shouts out, “The harbinger! She will forge her scythe, the rivers will run red, and the living will perish! She is going to destroy us all!”

NPC spectating the battle panic, scream, and flee out of fear for their lives. The participants in the arena start to turn their weapons against Hellebore and the ghosts roaming across the arena.

One of Dread’s guild members slashes Hellebore for five percent damage. Hellebore casts a powerful beam of dark magic with her bare hands that sends the player tumbling across the arena.

Hellebore speaks with a ghastly voice. “My, my, foolish mortals engaging in bloodshed for mere entertainment. The living are so eager to seek out an early grave.”

More of the participants ready their spells and are about to target Hellebore.

“Fret not. I am not here to destroy the city—for now. I am only here as a spectator today. You may resume your trifle battle.”

Callie sits at the commentator stand laughing the entire time.

Hellebore summons a ghost like a mount to walk over and rise above the arena wall that separates the arena from the spectator segment.

Hellebore asks, “You dare to laugh in the face of death?”

Hellebore leans in so that she is facing Callie face to face.

Callie stops laughing but she cannot stop snickering and trembling from joy. She takes one look at the juxtaposition between the apocalyptic entity and silly sportswear and starts laughing once more.

“Then you must be the raving madman that Myoso has told me about. The unusual mortal who befriends the undead and monsters of the world of Row.”

Zinnia warns, “Get away from her!” She has a fierce look in her eye. Zinnia defensively creates a phantom hand ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

Hellebore ignores the phantom hand. She takes a seat by the two of them.

“Fret not. I am not here to fight—not today at least. Perhaps I might even feel inclined to spare two mortals once I forge my all mighty scythe and return to destroy the world of the living.”

Zinnia reluctantly dispels her phantom hand. She clicks her tongue. She forces Callie to change seats with her so that Zinnia is sitting in the middle like a barrier between them.

Callie curiously asks, “Who is the other?”

“A tailor who gifted me this outfit.”

“You mean you weren’t wear—well okay. So it looks like we have a very special guest joining us today for commentary. The final boss of ROW’s main story line. Give it up for Hellebore the…!”

Both Hellebore and Zinnia seem confused. Hellebore asks, “The what of what?”

Callie ignores them and continues. “You know, every so often I see some kind of monster wearing cool looking armor that adventurers cannot take for themselves. I always wondered what they wear beneath and now I know. I also have always wondered what kind of effects these mysterious sets of armor might have.”

Hellebore replies, “My ‘Armor of Anguish’ set of gear is unique equipment bound to my soul. The amalgamation of souls that I am composed of more specifically. The armor cannot be parted from me unless I will it. No mere mortal could ever hope to equip the set of gear as the armor would rapidly drain their vitality until they shrivel up and perish. The armor of anguish is one of the best sets of equipment that exists in the world of ROW and my personal favorite set of gear.”

“No kidding. Myoso has low tier stats compared to Dread. Your unique set of heavy armor is even better than Dread’s legendary set of heavy armor and brings up Myoso’s stats from low to the upper end of medium tier. By the way, what kind of dagger did you give her? I have never seen that weapon before. I did not even know that you used daggers.”

“That is a broken shard from my almighty unique tier ‘Anguish Scythe’ reforged into a dagger. The last party of adventurers that I fought with broke my scythe and now I am in the process of reforging the weapon. The mere shard is just as strong as Dread’s legendary tier weapon.”

Callie guesses, “There is no way the dagger has the same kind of magical abilities as the scythe though if it is just a broken shard, right?”.

“Correct.”

Callie speaks out of in game chat. “The eternal cycle and toil of the final boss of ROW. Spending forever to fix the scythe that will bring the end of the world. ‘Coincidentally’ she always manages to fix the scythe just in time as the next set of adventurers will arrive to challenge her, defeat her, and break the scythe.”

“All a part of ROW’s main story line. I never got that far in the story myself but is there anybody that doesn’t know the world famous main story line already? There were comics, TV shows, movie adaptations, and even cinematic trailers for the free DLC (extra Downloadable Content).”

Hellebore continues, “My equipment may be powerful but Myoso is weak. Her experience does not make up for her pitiful selection of skills.”

Callie replies, “You are forgetting that she still has a certain trump card. The ability that caused the world of ROW to curse her with low base attributes.”

Callie asks, “Is there anything you would like to add, Zinnia? I notice you have been quiet.”

“I would like to report that I don’t know anything about the modern world and I have no idea what you two are talking about.”

The battle in the arena restarts once everybody gets over their initial confusion caused by Hellebore’s surprise appearance.

Myoso ignores all of her enemies and flies around until she finds Dread in a clump of a few players.

Myoso shouts out, “I call a one versus one fight right here and now!”

Dread replies, “I see that you came prepared. Alright, I will allow it. I never thought I would see somebody borrowing Hellebore’s armor. Callie’s challenge is getting better and better by the minute.”

Myoso is wearing an entirely different set of armor and clothing than she normally does borrowed from Hellebore. The purple glow coming from her body’s natural characteristic of a phantom only adds to the armor’s dark, grim, and eerie splendor. Her dagger is as black as obsidian and has a decorative golden edge.

Dread has metallic armor and gauntlets as sharp as claws that seem to be built into his robot body. The metallic silver color is naturally reflective of the arena’s lighting.

Myoso is quick to make the first move. She casts, “Poltergeist!”. She shrieks and wails like a banshee. A number of phantoms appear that rush across the arena in a large AOE type attack that deals five percent damage against Dread.

Dread doesn’t even bother to try to defend. He cannot do so properly with physical damage gauntlets and the attack is weak anyways.

Dread lunges straight towards Myoso. He tries to claw at her.

Myoso casts, “Ethereal!”. She becomes intangible and Dread’s claw phases right through.

Dread immediately halts his attack and steps back.

Myoso chases after him and slashes at him with her dagger for ten percent damage.

Callie states, “Ethereal is a special ability iconic to ghost type characters. She was trying to phase through him and stab him in the back for double damage. A shame the intangibility does not last so long and takes so long to cool down. Dread saw the attempt coming from a mile away.”

Dread counters, “Palm Push!”. He strikes Myoso with the palm of his hand and the attack knocks her back into a nearby rock. A message from the game appears stating that Myoso supposedly resists damage from the attack but the attack deals ten percent damage anyway and stuns her.

Callie states, “Myoso is so fragile. Phantoms resist twenty percent damage from physical attacks and are weaker against magic instead. Her base character attributes are coming into play here. It takes both her natural resistance to physical attacks and the heavy duty Anguish Armor to cancel out her low stats. Imagine the kind of high damage she would be taking if Dread were a mage instead.”

Myoso gasps, “He is so fast! Why? We are both wearing heavy armor!”

Dread rushes towards her and catches up in no time. He balls his hand into a fist and punches Myoso for ten percent damage as she barely has the chance to step away from the rock behind her.

Myoso figuratively feels as though she barely has the time to breath. She casts, “Lunge!’’ She dashes away in the few seconds necessary for Dread to prepare a second attack. She turns her head behind her back like an owl while the rest of her body continues running and finds that Dread has zero trouble keeping up. As a matter of fact, he is outpacing her in their short chase.

At that point Myoso is cornered. She suddenly stops running at an awkward point. She casts Ethereal and her body turns into a ghastly mist that reforms with her entire body turned around in an unusual movement that no living being could replicate. She slashes with a strike that Dread finds difficult to avoid with his increased momentum. Dread takes ten percent damage.

Zinnia states, “I recognize that craftsmanship. Dread is wearing a set of armor that comes from the kingdom of Steel. The armor is enchanted with the skill ‘Mechanical Movement’ which increases the user’s movement speed and attack to a certain extent based on the user’s weight.”

Callie winces. “Bad news for Myoso. Dread’s main class is a tank that relies on a heavy build and he is making up for his shortcomings with the armor’s enchantment. His subclass is a brawler that has plenty of short range dash type abilities like lunge to help him charge into large scale battlefields whenever and wherever necessary.”

Dread claws at Myoso. She ineffectively blocks with her dagger and takes eight percent damage.

Dread kicks Myoso’s unguarded lower body and knocks her back a few feet. This time there are no obstructions around for Myoso to crash into. He then charges into her with a shoulder bash type of attack for a combined total of eighteen percent damage.

Myoso guards against the shoulder bash using her entire arm with the dagger still equipped. Dread pushes while Myoso stands firmly in place. They slide a few feet along the arena. Myoso’s health drops down to fifty four percent.

She chants, “Anguish Armor skill, Dance with the Dead!” A dark miasma appears around Myoso. There is the sound of sickening creaks and cracks. Her face warps into something ghastly and more resembling of a demonic spirit. Her body grows to a size somewhat similar to Hellebore’s tall body except that Myoso has not had the time to bulk up. Her newly formed body is lanky and scrawny instead. Her hair grows longer. Her fingers grow unusually and disturbingly large.

Callie states, “That transformation ability only works once per battle. Ideally she should have used the ability towards the end of the match but she was backed into the corner and there is nothing else she can do. Phantoms, especially ones that are Assassin and Dark Mage hybrids, are supposed to be swift and hard to hit. Using heavy armor makes being swift impossible but she wouldn’t even be able to survive for a second without the armor. At this point her only way to break out of Dread’s chain of combo type of attacks is to outright overpower him.”

Myoso makes a fist and holds the dagger between her knuckles with the blade exposed. The size of the dagger looks almost like a toy now in between her lanky fingers. She furiously punches Dread as a powerful attack that deals twenty percent damage. Dread’s health drops to fifty five percent.

Dread mutters, “Damn, double damage! I thought only Hellebore could do that! No matter, you only have fifteen seconds!”

Dread retreats and a chase ensues. Dread casts lunge in an effort to gain some extra distance and so Myoso does the same. Myoso is faster than she was before under the effects of the transformation but she is still missing the last bit of luster and cannot seem to catch up.

Myoso casts, “Poltergeist!”. An unavoidable wave of phantoms fly across the arena that strike Dread for ten percent damage. Even the phantoms looks more lanky and sinister after Myoso’s transformation.

Myoso casts, “Dark Wave!”. An orb of dark magic forms ahead of Dread. The orb congeals and oozes.

Dread is left with limited options. He changes paths and the first dark orb bursts into a wave of dark magic that narrowly misses.

“There’s a second one with zero cool down?! She predicted this!”

A second already congealing sphere suddenly bursts and the wave of dark mana strikes Dread for twenty percent damage. His health drops to twenty five percent.

Myoso’s body shrinks in size with sickening creaks and cracks. Her temporary frightening features disappear. She collapses from exhaustion. Before she hits the ground she extends her arms and shoulders to at least prevent her head from smacking against the floor.

“This is not exhaustion! What is this? I can’t move!”

She forces herself to stand back up as soon as her weakened state allows her. She nearly collapses again and staggers in a weak effort to keep herself up.

Dread casts, “Weapon skill, Glorious Rubble!”. Dread raises his hand. A miniature tower roughly the same size as a human rises from the ground ahead of him. The tower’s style of architecture is the same as the buildings that can be found in the kingdom of Steel.

He then casts, “Combo skill, Glorious Palm Push!” Dread strikes the wall and breaks through his tower. A huge chunk of the rubble is launched like a projectile that strikes Myoso for ten percent damage and knocks her down.

There is a momentary pause as Dread moves around the remaining rubble to readjust his angle of attack. He casts, “Glorious Palm Push!”. He strikes the rubble a second time and a second chunk of rubble strikes Myoso while she is down as a projectile for another ten percent damage.

The little rubble that remains of Dread’s constructed tower is merely a few bricks unfit to be used as a projectile.

Callie asks, “What are you doing? Get out of there!”

Hellebore states, “Nobody can withstand the anguish that casting Dance with the Dead causes. Undead or not, the Anguish Armor will stress the user to their very core. The foolish phantom coveted the power of a boss type monster and now they are paying the price for their arrogance. Twice the strain on their very soul.”

“Twice the length of a boss break phase?! That’s crazy!”

Myoso manages to stand back up again. This time she does not topple over even as she is being attacked.

Dread repeats his combo starting with the construction of a second Myoso is defenseless as a third and forth projectile strike her for twenty percent damage total. Her health drops to fourteen percent.

Myoso shouts, “I can’t lose now! I swear that I will have my revenge!” She charges forth and hovers across the battlefield as fast as she can.

Dread is not so far away. He has become stationary in order to build and launch projectiles. He is within sprinting range.

Myoso casts, “Poltergeist! Dark Wave!” A field of phantoms and then a dark wave strike Dread for fifteen percent damage total. His health drops to ten percent.

Dread casts, “Combo skill Glorious Palm Push!” A tower is built and a chunk of rubble is launched that strikes Myoso for ten percent damage. Her health drops to four percent.

Myoso does not stop advancing. She is no further than ten feet from her target.

Callie mutters, “A valiant effort but this is the end. Dread’s skills have much shorter cool down. What a shame the battle turned out this way.”

Dread casts, “Glorious Palm Push!” A second chunk of rubble is launched that strikes Myoso, or so it seems.

A cool down timer for Myoso’s Ethereal ability drops to down to one second. 0.9, 0.8… as the chunk of earth comes flying at her face. The chunk of earth is a mere inch from her face when the cool down hits 0.1 seconds.

Myoso grits her teeth. She balls her hand into a fist.

Myoso phases through the wall harmlessly.

She reappears on the other side and punches Dread in the face without warning. Dread tries to raise his arms in defense but he has almost zero time to prepare against such an unexpected attack. Some of Dread’s damaged armor crunches under the weight of her attack. The punch drops Dread’s health to zero and makes him despawn from the arena.

Myoso does not say a word. Repressed emotions resurface. Tears that never seem to end start to flow no matter how much she wipes and scratches at her eyelids. She shrieks at the top of her lungs in a blood-curdling scream as though she were a banshee instead of a phantom.

Callie rises from her seat. She leans out from the wall on the stands. “She cast Ethereal at the last second! I don’t believe it! She actually did it! She actually won! Then what about the rest of the battle? Can Undead Blood Toll really pull off a victory against the one of the world’s top five guilds?!”

Myoso does not last long with the little health that she has remaining. Shortly after screeching she attracts the attention of a few enemy mages that cast fireballs that strike her and defeat her. They seem as though they were already prepared and idly standing by for the battle to end to finish her off just in case Dread lost.

Callie pans the camera. “The situation for the rest of the battlefield shares the same underdog type of vibe. There are fifteen members of Undead Blood Toll remaining, including parrots even though they are technically considered monsters and technically not considered guild members, versus the Loaf Legion’s twenty! I recognize some of the key members on Blood Toll’s side. There is Iris, the co-guild master; Melody, the marooned pirate; and of course Envy, the boss type monster!”

“But where are the rest of the undead? There are only five that I see remaining, including Iris, and the rest are all pirates and parrots.”

Zinnia states, “I have been keeping an eye on them. They have already been defeated in battle.”

Melody and Envy fly across the battlefield. They bash into one of the enemy mages and Melody fires a shot that slays them. They then retreat even as they face a barrage of attacks in retribution and take around eighty percent damage all at once.

One of their crewmates with a larger than life parrot does the same strategy and defeats one of the low health enemies. They mount their parrot familiar and attack one of the enemies but they are ensnared by a net in mid-flight and shortly defeated afterwards.

Melody and Envy retreat to their side of the arena where one of their vampire allies start to heal them.

Melody complains, “There is not much more that I can do with my hit and run tactics! They are not as spread out as they were when the battle first started. They are too coordinated and their aim is getting better and better with each risky dive we make! One unlucky dive and I am done for.”

Projectiles and spells are exchanged. Three undead are slain from the Undead Blood Toll’s side of the arena. Two members of the Loaf Legion are slain.

Callie calls out, “Ooh, that is unlucky! The battle is now a ten versus sixteen! Undead Blood Toll traded three of their members for two of the enemies. They cannot afford to take any more exchanges like that! What can they even hope to do at this point?”

“The undead are dropping like flies. There are only two remaining even though they started at twenty. The pirates are drastically outlasting them despite only being ten members of the guild.”

There is one vampire healer working overtime. The injured flock to him and they are sent back into the battlefield at an excruciatingly slow pace.

Some pirates cross swords with their enemies. They block and parry swords in an impressive display of swordsmanship in miniature one versus one battles that are respected by both sides. Only every once in a while does a true attack slip past and somebody takes major damage.

Five more pirates fall in battle. Only three of the legion are defeated in the exchange.

Melody and Envy are healed back up. They prepare to set out again.

The vampire tugs at Envy’s feathers. “Wait, I am coming with you!”

Melody replies, “You better stay here and heal everyone else.”

“There is nobody else! Better I accompany you rather than stay here defenselessly. Maybe my healing can pull you out of a tight spot.”

Melody seems confused. She double checks the arena.

Callie states, “Blood Toll has five remaining members. Their last remaining damage dealers are Iris, Melody and Envy. Besides that, they have a vampire healer and a pirate that is a support type ‘Disciple of Sloth’ remaining. The Loaf Legion guild is sitting comfortably with thirteen members of the legion guild remaining.”

The last remaining pirate adds, “All or nothing, captain. I’ll come along to slow em down and shoot at em’.”

Both the vampire healer and the pirate join Melody.

Melody asks, “What about you, Iris?”

Iris replies, “I can fly on my own. We better give them two hard to hit targets to divide their attention instead of letting them focus on one. That would be a death sentence.”

They set off into battle once more and they are greeted with the hellfire of numerous spells and projectiles.

The pirate casts, “Land of the Lethargic!” The first wave of projectiles are slowed down to a snail’s pace.

Envy and Iris have no trouble dodging the first volley of spells. The secondary barrage of spells cast immediately afterwards is much harder to avoid. Envy takes eighty percent damage. Iris takes forty percent damage.

The vampire casts, “Heal!” They restore Envy’s health by twenty percent. A measly amount in comparison to the damage the enemies can deal.

A third barrage of spells defeats Envy. The party comes crashing down to the ground into a tough spot.

The wave of enemies advance.

Melody commands, “Focus fire on the closest enemies first! Lucky Shot!”

The party’s focused fire slays one of the advancing enemy swordsman.

A second and a third swordsman are now within melee range and attack in return. There are a number of remaining enemy mages, healers, and supports in the distance casting various spells.

The party’s focus is then split up as they try to face two different attackers. The damage they deal is almost completely negated as the supporters raise their defense and the healers restore the rest of the swordsman back to full health.

The swordsman strike. The enemy mages cast a number of damaging spells that promptly defeat the remaining party members.

There are two mages separated a little from the main unit. Iris slashes at one and defeats them.

She turns into a swarm of bats to avoid an attack in retaliation. Numerous spells are cast that strike her down the very second that the effect of her ability wears off.

Callie checks the score. “The Loaf Legion wins with a score of thirty to nineteen kills. I would be lying if I said that I did not see this coming. The Loaf Legion isn’t the fifth ranked guild for nothing.”

Callie grins. “Undead Blood Toll may have lost the guild battle but I know one phantom that scored a victory today. A personal victory they had been so desperately craving.”

Hellebore asks, “You find delight from the sight of the bloodshed? You may be too far gone even without the effects of the Anguish Armor.”