Seven looked up at the ongoing standoff between TidalWave and Azeroth with a worried expression.

“He isn’t going to win this.” Barnacle remarked from next to her, “But he has certainly gained the respect of the city. I think it’ll take a couple of days but all of Lum will hear about this eventually.”

She nodded and felt anxious as she viewed the sky darkening, “Yeah, but I don’t want to see my teammate lose when he’s trying so hard.”

“A respectable answer.” Barnacle squinted his eyes as Azeroth raised his sword and the entire sky began churning and a slight red tinge etched into the sky, “But your friend is screwed now.”

“Willpower.” Seven suddenly repeated the word, “What did you mean when you said it was willpower that Azeroth was using to float.”

Barnacle turned to her in surprise, “Isn’t it obvious? Willpower is what we use to guide magic and skills and turn them into something manageable. It is how we weave the fabric of reality to follow our whims.” His eyes took on a bright white glow, “Look underneath his feet and you will see what I mean.”

Seven did know what he meant. She could see it when she closed her eyes, a single focus point underneath Azeroth's feet that was invisible to the naked eye. But somehow he was standing on top of it while he charged his weapon.

‘There’s not enough time.’ She could feel the dismay showing on her face as she studied Azeroth’s floating skill and the platform he’d created.

Both were powered by focus points but weren’t magic of any kind. At least not that she could see. They were purely skills that were made possible by crystalized willpower.

‘Platform. Platform.’ Seven concentrated on her surroundings and sweat began to drip down her forehead as two invisible focus points appeared in front of her.

She wanted to try and replicate the platform that she could see on top of her. But the precious seconds were going by and she was getting nowhere.

-You’ll need more than that to power your magic youngling.- A voice echoed in her mind.

It was the voice of Muriel. The witch she’d met in the library.

“Oh yeah?” Seven couldn’t see where the witch was watching her from but she added another focus point, “I really can’t do much more than this.”

-Pathetic.- Muriel let out a sigh, -But perhaps what you have in front of you is passable. Why aren’t you doing anything with it? Where is your domain girl, you are trying to create a platform are you not?-

“If I knew how to do that I wouldn’t be sitting here with my eyes closed like a dumbass.” Seven was getting frustrated at the witch now.

Couldn’t the NPCs be a little bit more helpful?

“They certainly could be more helpful.” Barnacle spoke out to Seven and she opened her eyes to find him sitting down next to her in a meditation position, “At least, I’m guessing you haven’t gone crazy and that there’s actually someone talking to you. Through some kind of magic no doubt, you magi and your secrets.” He chuckled, “I suppose you’re trying to imitate the platforms so that you can go up there to aid your friend who is about to be annihilated.”

The sky had already begun to transform fully into crimson and Seven could tell there were at most a few seconds left.

“Yes.” Seven nodded, “Can you help me?”

“Of course not.” Barnacle stated it outright and dashed her hopes, “I am a priest. And not a very high ranking one at that. However, I can tell you that it doesn’t look too difficult to me. You are trying to transform nothing into something. Do not overcomplicate it.”

‘Transform nothing into something.’ Seven could feel the ticking clock as she tried harder and harder to figure out the puzzle behind this magic.

She closed her eyes and brought the three focus points into existence once again, trying to imagine them as shimmering blue platforms like the one above. A whole area which could be stood upon and used to replace footholds and land.

‘....And nothing is happening.’ Seven smashed her fist into the ground in frustration.

“Looks like you’re dead.” She said into TidalWave’s direction.

A burst of cackling laughter filled Seven’s head as she spoke and there was a flash of blue light. Replacing the previously open space was the form of the witch Muriel, standing and laughing at Seven as she tried to bring the platforms into existence.

-You are most definitely not sorcerer material- Muriel’s voice echoed into her mind, -But you have potential girl. You simply have not had enough time to access it. Tell me, do you wish to gain the power to save your friend?-

“I do.” Seven didn’t hesitate.

She didn’t want TidalWave to get wiped off the map if she could help prevent it.

-Then make a bargain with me.- Muriel stretched out her hand towards Seven, -The power you want, temporarily granted to you. However, in return you must do a single favour for me.-

‘Hmm.’ Seven looked up into the air just as the symbols began to float back into Azeroth’s sword.

It was a tough choice. On the one hand, it was definitely a shady deal. On the other, she was being asked to do a favour, and that could only mean some sort of quest.

‘Is that a bad thing?’

Seven reached out towards Muriel’s outstretched hand and took it.

‘I guess I’m going to find out.’

“Deal.”

Muriel’s face brightened ominously as she felt the magic flow from herself into the young magi before her. A bright blue light of cascading mana that swirled through the air playfully and entered into the nimble magi’s skin.

“Good. Good.” She repeated herself, and smiled, “Go and save your friend youngling. After that, we will have much to talk about.

[Unlocked: Aura Manipulation.]

[Unlocked: Aura Step.]

****

“So how are we going to do this?”

TidalWave watched Azeroth with hawk-like accuracy because if the branch leader decided to come up with something to smash them to pieces he wanted to be able to dodge it.

“I can probably jump down from here and be fine.” The ground didn’t seem too far down to him now that he had fallen so much, “And you two can suddenly fly through the air I guess.”

“No need to risk him chasing you down as you land. I can carry you. Besides, we cannot defeat him.” Third waved his staff and several rifts appeared in the air as though they were defending against possible attacks, “And he seems fairly pissed. I suggest we run and make do with our lives.”

“I second that.” Seven agreed, “I don’t really want to go fighting random strong guys and making them my enemy. I’ve already got frogs on my back.”

She had better things to do than to be looking over her shoulder for enemies in every area she was trying to play in.

“Indeed.” “Yeah.” Third and TidalWave both nodded their heads.

TidalWave had nothing to gain by staying here. He was sure Azeroth would accept him into the fighter’s guild the moment he calmed down. He was willing to give the NPC that time while he went and trained like crazy for the next time he challenged the branch leader.

‘And there will be a next time.’ TidalWave vowed to himself as the NPC looked up at him through fiery eyes.

“Alright then, so we are all in agreement. Let’s bail. TidalWave you can come with me.”

Third grabbed TidalWave before the warrior could respond and suddenly they were stepping through the air and towards the Magi Guild of Lum.

“We’re going there?” Seven travelled through the air alongside them and TidalWave saw her face turn a little nauseous, “I just saw an NPC I really don’t want to meet again there.”

“It’s the only place that will offer us sanctuary if Azeroth attempts to follow us.” Third was adamant, “Unless that NPC is going to kill you we will have to touch down and beg the attendant to given us sanctuary."

“I hope it’s Lass.” Seven sighed as they reached the guild and quickly ran through its doors.

It was perhaps the luckiest part of her day today that Lass was still in attendance at the desk.

“Ah miss Seven, Mr Third.” Lass’s eyes lit up as he spotted them walking in, “Quite the show you have given us at the guild. Wonderful display of magic. Come in, come in.”

He waved them through happily and closed the ornate doors behind them.

“Oh don’t worry, that old windbag can’t take a single step outside of the fighter’s guild territory or he’ll be pissing off more factions than he can count. That’s probably why he had to do his little display in the sky, little loophole but the theocracy will find a way to punish him for it.”

“This is the magic you guys could do in your sleep.” Seven didn’t know why Lass was so enthusiastic, “We didn’t even hurt him. Well,” She turned to find Third grinning at her, “I didn’t hurt them. Third did a lot of damage.”

“Yes, yes, it was all basic magic.” Lass agreed with her, “But you humiliated him with it! Oh how long I’ve lived to see this day. We have quite the rivalry with the fighter’s guild, spanning back centuries. But there’s no time for that, I do believe I have been left a message by the witch Muriel. You accepted her patronage and powers in order to save your friend is that correct?”

Seven looked down guiltily as Third and TidalWave stared at her, “Yeah.”

“Good.” Lass waved his wand and immediately a blue light was sucked out of Seven’s body.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

[Skill locked: Aura Manipulation.]

[Skill locked: Aura Step.]

‘Aww.’ She’d hoped she would be able to keep the skills for a while longer.

It felt really nice to step through the air without a care.

“My.” Lass gathered the blue light into a ball that seemed to cloud over and shimmer as it hovered in the air, “That is far more magic than I expected. You must have a lot of potential to be able to hold this kind of magic in your body. If you had been any lesser magi then this agreement you made with the witch would have turned out differently. Definitely not nearly as happy as it did.”

“What would have happened if I didn’t have that potential?” Seven asked with a queasy look on her face.

“You would have exploded and become a wonderful magic ingredient for any magi that practices such sorcery.” Lass smirked, “Of course, the fact that the witch wasted such powerful magic on you shows how much potential you have. I am sure that even if you had exploded she would still have gained her investment back through the magically flambéed flesh. That is how talented you are.”

“Gee thanks Lass. You really know what a girl likes to hear.” Seven couldn’t help but hope that as a player she was never going to explode.

She didn’t like the idea of a witch using her body for magic ingredients, game or no game.

“And you?” She turned around to Third and put her hands on her hips, “I suppose you worked it out all on your own.”

“I was with Spark Joy watching from above from a nearby building and enjoying the show.” Third admitted without shame, “The moment I saw TidalWave was going to lose I rigorously studied the platforms and absorbed the techniques he used. Quite interesting, but unfortunately I seem to have used up a lot of my potential.”

Seven could see Third’s eyes cloud over at that remark.

“I only have two skill creation’s left.” Third clarified as he saw her staring.

“Oh.” She coughed lightly, “Right.”

She would have to ask the others what Third meant after. It probably had something to do with what he’d discovered about making skills. She’d been a bit too distracted by the events to think about his discovery.

“Guys.” TidalWave’s voice cut through to them and they saw him staring at the door, “We have company.”

It was opening to reveal a procession of twelve priests and one particularly well-dressed person leading them into the magi guild. From the way they were smiling at TidalWave it was clear they knew exactly who he was.

“Sir TidalWave, sir Third, and miss Seven.” The leader turned towards them and grinned, “Such a grand battle you have shown us. Most wonderful.”

“Why thank you.” TidalWave bowed slightly at his words, the priests seemed powerful enough to warrant it, “How may I help you… Excuse me I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”

“I am Trei.” Trei’s grin dimmed slightly as he began to walk closer to the trio, “I am the bishop in charge of public relations in Lum. However, I am facing quite a dilemma and was on my way to speak to you now that you have finally all returned to the city at once.”

He waved his hands and the priests parted to reveal Roxxy, Spark Joy, IEatTortillas and Archy all being escorted by priests into the guild. Seven waved at them and they all joined together. She could tell Archy was angry that he’d missed the fight and she laughed as she patted his back.

“Clearly you were expecting all of us.” Third crossed his arms as he sensed a request coming on, “So I will emphasize my teammate’s question. How may we help you?”

“Ah yes.” Bishop Trei seemed taken aback by Third’s attitude but then his smile returned. “Tell me, brave warriors.”

Bishop Trei waved his hands grandly into the air.

“Have you heard of the inter-city competition?”

****

In a darkened hall the wail of a goblin could be heard as the green-skinned creature tried and failed to slam its hammer into the player. The girl expertly jumped and spun around to dodge the attack, making sure to land her wand direction into its eye before letting off a blast of magic that disintegrated it.

“God that was such a rush.” Claire giggled as the final goblin’s ashes disappeared, leaving behind a blue light, “I can’t believe that guy survived that.”

“I can’t believe you just lost a future yellow-ranked item.” Pascal smiled as he laid back on the walls of the hall.

He hadn’t needed to help out at all this time.

“He had help.” Claire stuck her tongue out, “I’d make the same bet ten times out of ten.”

“Then I’ll take your suckers bet every day of the week.” Pascal laughed as he imagined the yellow item he’d receive in the future, “I’m not the kind of guy to turn away free money.”

“Yet you’re so cheap when we’re ordering out.” Clair shot back as she picked up the items surrounding her and sighed happily.

It was a nice haul for the short amount of time she’d spent obtaining it.

“We’ll probably be seeing them in the inter-city matches.”

Claire tilted her head in confusion as she picked up a glowing blue light.

‘Inter-city matches?’ She didn’t know anything about that.

“Oh right.” Claire suddenly realised that she had -maybe- remembered her manager saying something about that, “When’s that again? And what is it?”

Pascal rolled his eyes at her response. If he didn’t actively look out for her she would probably forget to wake up in the morning. Somehow she missed important events entirely like they were wiped out of her memory.

“The Fighter’s Guild of Kraug sent out an official to invite to us, remember?” He looked at Claire but it was clear that she had no idea what he was talking about, “In a week. The top five of each major city will be offered the chance to fight each other. In a friendly cross-continental match. It’s a really big event for the NPCs. The cities use it to raise their prestige every year according to the game lore. Of course, it will be the first of its kind to actually happen in the game after release. Although it’s not particularly well-known by players, it is certainly a sign that the creators of Zodiac Online are starting to pay attention to competitive playing.”

“Oh right.” Claire nodded her head, not remembering a thing, “And we are definitely going to be part of that right?”

“Yes, Claire.” Pascal’s voice was dry as ice, “We’re going to be there.”

“Fine, fine.” Claire would go along with it as long as Pascal did, “Are we trying to win?”

“Not exactly. The organisation wants us to of course. Yanti won’t be able to join us since she’s in Zhalnor but our other team members will have gotten in.” Pascal thought about a rather disturbing message he’d received, “Personally, I want to find a player called Attracting and see what his deal is.”

He had been taken aback by the message that he’d received from this player out of the blue. But now after searching him up online he was curious. There were a couple of videos online about this guy. He was a player that had suddenly gained a lot of influence in a city called Lum, but more importantly, he had a class called ‘Shadow Priest.’ that Pascal had never heard of. But the limited time of the videos and fights made it hard to gauge his strength.

“Oh.” Claire didn’t know the name, “Is he strong?”

“I don’t know. But he’s going to be there. And with all these unknowns popping up I’d rather get control of the situation sooner rather than later. So I want to check these players out. Who knows, maybe there’ll be some fellow pro’s in there fighting with us.”

Claire thought about the video they’d just finished watching. The swordsman, wizard and magi that had appeared out of nowhere.

“You think they’ll be there?”

****

“Of course they’ll be there!” Jein lifted her arms up into the air in anger, “They’re going to be riding high off of that ridiculous fight! That bastard went and pulled out some magic cards out of his ass and now I look like a fool. I should have trusted you when you said he’d survive.”

Ji-woo smiled patiently at his friend's rampage. She was cute when she vented out into the street but he knew she didn’t mean any of it. The priests flanking him from either side were too busy trying to calm her down to notice that she wasn’t actually serious about the tantrum.

“Those are called teammates. And yes, I suppose we will be fighting against them. I can’t see them not being in the top five of their city.” He thought over the parameters of the inter-city competition, “Considering the city officials are only inviting the top-ranked players, it's possible they’ll simply not accept the offer to participate. It’s not really a place to gain fame and it's not a well-known event so I don’t doubt that they might hesitate to waste their time on it.”

“Who cares about fame.” Jein instantly shot him down, “It’s a chance to gauge your opponents! Those five Frenchies are going to be there, that’s for sure. And that bastard that sent us the message. What is he again? A shadow priest? I can’t wait to stick my sword into that staff waving-”

The rest of her words were cut off as she was pushed by the priests into a chamber and she saw a pair of players eyeing her incredulously. She was making quite the scene.

“We’re getting off track.” Ji-woo walked in after her and smiled at the pair of players that they’d disturbed, “I’m more worried about the players that came to that swordsman’s rescue. They clearly seemed to coordinate well, and that could pose a problem for us.”

“Why? We’re not seriously trying to win the thing are we?” Jein wanted to smack the priests away as they hovered around, “It’s just a competition for beginners. Half the people there are just no-lifers who levelled a lot. I doubt two-thirds of them ever show their face in another competition as the real players start weeding them out of the ranks with their skills.” She didn’t care if she offended the other players in the room with her words, “We’re just here to find that Attracting guy, smash his head in and then leave.”

“That competition is the only reason we’re getting special treatment.” Ji-woo looked to the door and saw the priests ushering into the room another players, “There. That makes five of us.”

“So.” Jein turned towards the fifth player with a curled fist, “This is the last of us then.”

She recognised the player that had just entered the room.

Ji-woo had wanted to meet with these three other players for a few days now. Ever since he had received a message from a player named ‘Attracting’. The message had come out of nowhere and he had immediately blocked Attracting from sending him another. But it was the contents of the message that were strange.

-Please don’t participate in the inter-city competition being held by the NPCs with the thought that you’ll win. It will only make you feel worse when you lose. You’re not strong enough yet to come out on top.-

The first emotion Ji-woo had was suspicion. Nobody should know who was playing on this account other than Jein and a few of his organisation’s top members. There was no way for them to be compromised. He had even hidden his details online and made sure no videos were leaked.

But then he’d realised he wasn’t the only player that had received that same message.

‘Man.’ Ji-woo had almost smashed his head into a wall when he realised Jein had been sent the same message.

She had been absolutely livid about it for the entire day and hadn’t let him hear the end of it. In the end, he’d had to take her out to cool off. She only liked rock climbing and hardcore jogging up at least a thousand steps. It took her almost six hours to calm down. And when she gets angry she didn’t bother holding back with the non-stop ranting insults or using his credit card.

For that alone, he would make sure this Attracting person would pay.

“Hello. I suppose we’re the five that received the same message.”

The newcomer being guided in by priests smiled as she was being eyed suspiciously by the four other players in the room.

“My name is Yanti.”

****

‘We’re ready.’

Attracting watched Violet fly through the Underground beasts with ease and smiled. He had sent various messages of challenge to dozens of players. To the ones he knew would be motivated by anger, he sent intimidating sentences, to those who he held interest in he sent offers of cooperation if they were impressed by the team he had gathered.

Violet was the last piece of the puzzle he needed in order to make his mark among the player base. The rest of the world still thought that this was a tiny, insignificant event that would be attended by a few people and ignored by the general public.

Only he knew what would become of that legendary day.

A day when the true greats of Zodiac Online from all continents finally met and fought each other. Where the entire world had their eyes on the fights and it was finally realised by the outside that Zodiac Online was something more than just popular. It was the first sign that this game would be the greatest to have ever been made.

It was a day that couldn’t go wrong for him, even if he was simply there. But he still planned to win it. To this end Attracting had gathered his own team, including himself, and now with Violet finally ready to fight he had a surefire way to win the competition.

The Koreans, and the French. These were the two nations whose players dominated the rankings of Zodiac Online for years. It was said that the players at the top of even these nations were in a legendary class of their own. Even rare players that had crossed the realms of normal talent like TidalWave, Archy and Third could only be at most equally matched with these players.

All these high-level teams would fall and be crushed by the players he had gathered together.

The final Underground beast died with a yelp and Violet turned around to face him. She had been growing stronger by the minute ever since the Azeroth fight had ended with TidalWave living. He knew she wouldn’t be motivated by any old video or empty promises. So he had shown her the videos he had gathered from Spark Joy’s blog to motivate her.

And now that she had seen him fighting against Azeroth she was completely in sync with her motivations, aiming to not just fight against the warrior but to completely dominate him in the competition. She was becoming far stronger than her previous self, the player that was once the undisputed number one in the world.

‘But that’s not for a while now.’ Attracting grinned as he thought of the upcoming competition.

‘TidalWave.’ The very player who had dethroned Violet from her top spot, in another time.

Two number ones would soon be clashing on a stage that would be seen by the world.