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“You’re a-rollin’ with the Hit Squad! Ugh-ugh! Just a-rollin’ with the Hit Squad! Whoo-whoa!”

I turned toward Charitybelle and Fabulosa so Tardee and his boys wouldn’t see me speaking the incantation for Detect Stealth.

Charitybelle’s forehead furrowed in confusion, but I didn’t explain.

With my new magical vision of Detect Stealth burning, his two friends rounding the doorway appeared as transparent ghosts—but still invisible to Charitybelle and Fabulosa.

After finishing my spell, I turned to the entrance and spoke loud enough for Tardee to hear. “Get ready, but hold here, ladies. Don’t move forward. I got this guy.”

Tardee’s ceased his off-key song.

“Wait. Wait. Did I hear that right? You said, ‘You got me?’” When he spoke the word “wait,” he raised an upheld hand behind him in a halting gesture to his cohorts.

I might not have needed Detect Stealth if Tardee planned to give away his teammate’s positions. In all my deliberations, I hadn’t counted on my opponents blundering their advantages. Ironically, it made predicting their actions more difficult.

His eyes brightened in disbelief. Like a typical bully, he over-enunciated his words to instill terror. “A level 4 newb against moi? You’ve not even graduated! You’re still in nursery school.”

With only 50 seconds left on my Detect Stealth buff, I prodded him into action.“You’ll lose your fans after I mop the floor with you.”

Tardee snorted a laugh and looked down at the polished marble. After mustering a comeback, he got into character by skipping a couple of paces forward. “I’ll even give you the first swing, darling. Do you know why? Because I can’t attack you. You’re so worthless the game won’t let me hit you unless you attack me first.” He beat his chest, indicating I should strike him. I had 30 seconds left on my Detect Stealth buff.

I sighed. This jerk was too stupid to take the bait and foiled my plan without knowing it. If Tardee didn’t comprehend the danger I posed, perhaps his companions would. Hoping to lure the stealthers inward, I explained myself and shifted to an aggressive combat stance. “I’m going to bounce you out of the building. Even though I’m lower level, I’m faster and deadlier than you.”

A small part of me wanted to believe this, but it wasn’t true. In a fair fight, even someone with rank 15 skills couldn’t beat a level 16 with a wooden practice spear.

Tardee narrowed his eyes at my taunt. He must have detected a note of seriousness in my voice—even if he didn’t understand me, one trickster recognized another.

I waited, burning through 45 seconds of my minute-long Detect Stealth.

Tardee’s friends moved forward, and he made no further motion to stop them. We allowed Tardee’s allies to move forward into an attack position, each of us thinking the other had no idea what would happen. They crept along either side of the hall, outflanking me for imminent backstabs.

Instead of looking directly at the faded assassins encroaching into the temple, I focused on Tardee. The more they believed I prepared myself to attack Tardee, the more they’d commit themselves to getting closer. While pretending to aim it at Tardee, I angled the spear’s dull end toward the assassin close to Fabulosa.

Instead of launching the weapon, I jabbed the practice spear into the stealthed player’s back.

/You crit Jimbozo for 22 damage (0 resisted).

/Jimbozo loses stealth.

/You lose Ivory Tower Power.

The critical hit came from breaking my opponent’s Stealth, not through the strength or accuracy of my swing. The buff for my newbie protection disappeared from my interface—for the rest of The Book of Dungeons, my neck rested on the line.

My blunted practice spear did very little damage, but the dummy weapon had the reach I needed. The boffer came from the drill yard and served as a source of bludgeoning damage. Though insubstantial, the maneuver broke Jimbozo’s cover.

The reveal opened Jimbozo up to a sudden walloping from Fabulosa. Stealthers in most games embraced glass cannon strategies—all offense and no defense. Taking away Stealth and surprise robbed them of an essential advantage.

I poked the butt of my spear toward the second stealther, the one by Charitybelle. It amounted to only a clumsy attack, and my intended target spotted the ruse and parried my weapon. His speed shocked me, but the action also cost him his Stealth status.

When the assassin named Falconeer moved to backstab Fabulosa, Charitybelle interceded, swinging her mace at him. Charitybelle’s weapon moved slowly in comparison, but it scored a crit from behind, forcing him to twist around and face her.

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I’d exposed both stealthers, but neither had lost over ten percent of their health pool.

I aimed a Compression Sphere at the floor between myself and Tardee, who reacted slowly to my attacks. He suspected something and acted with caution. When he Charged, my spell’s epicenter appeared directly beneath him when I’d finished casting, augmenting the Compression Sphere’s effect.

The spell collapsed the air with a thunderclap and a white cloud of water vapor. The mist wasn’t thick enough to obscure vision, and the fog lingered in the air while we fought. Instead of pushing Tardee toward the temple doors, he flew 15 feet into the air and landed upside-down on his head.

Tardee sported a Stun debuff for a few seconds. As much as I wanted a free critical hit, I didn’t have time to deliver it. My partners were in too much trouble.

The spell’s shockwave blew me back a little, and I recovered behind the assassin, Falconeer, who still faced Charitybelle. In the few seconds it took me to bounce Tardee onto the floor, Falconeer had roughed her up with combat abilities, dropping her down to 15 percent health.

What was Charitybelle doing? My skills and Fabulosa’s experience made her our party’s most vulnerable member. Her determination to prevent Falconeer from backstabbing Fabulosa would do us little good if she died.

When Charitybelle’s health pool jumped to 80 percent, I knew she had consumed the only potion she could drink for the rest of the fight. Her face became rigid with concentration.

Ever the sportsman, I jabbed at her opponent from behind with my spear. Though blunt, my practice weapon delivered a modicum of damage to Falconeer’s exposed back shoulder—the rear attack earned me another crit.

/You crit Falconeer for 36 damage (0 resisted).

Critical hits inflicted double damage, and attacking from behind increased the chance of scoring one. Falconeer turned faster than I expected, delivering an upward slash along my chest, tearing through my padded cadet uniform.

I backed away as Falconeer pursued, but it gave Charitybelle a chance to flank him.

A sound effect from one of Falconeer’s combat powers triggered. He deflected her backstab, countering with a quick slice to her shoulder. He shuffled against the wall to protect his flank.

We all backed away from one another.

While repositioning, I bashed the assassin battling Fabulosa for only 12 damage.

Falconeer’s reaction, once again, proved to be quicker than anyone’s. “Jim, behind you!”

Jimbozo performed a graceful pirouette, which deflected my attack. Although he bled from Fabulosa’s blow, he executed a counter, jabbing a shallow cut into my gut.

The second hit dropped my health to 22/100. Any hit would be my last.

But Jimbozo’s counter had cost him his life. With a zap and burned chlorine smell of ozone, Fabulosa delivered a life-ending critical attack from behind with her signature electrical melee strike, Discharge. Unfortunately, she could cast it only once every ten minutes.

Jimbo’s body disappeared, and his gear fell to the marble floor in a loose pile.

Downing a minor healing potion brought me to 72/100 health, but Charitybelle’s health had dropped to where a single hit would knock her out of the game.

I lunged at Falconeer, preventing him from attacking her.

He twisted and blocked my shaft with his short sword. A magical whoosh filled the air as Falconeer’s arm shot out. The tip of his weapon cut deeply into my left arm.

/Falconeer critically hits you with Aim for 42 damage (0 resisted).

/You are poisoned with Weakness.

I couldn’t believe this guy delivered 42 damage. His cooldown powers were insane. He seemed to sense my high dodge rank and saved his abilities for me. Falconeer used Aim, a complicated passive ability that produced a second critical hit after the first. This buff created unpredictable damage spikes, but it only lasted for short durations, leaving everyone wondering if it would be effective at all. While active, the buff left unnerving combat messages to warn targets they might receive a double-crit.

Debuffs for Stun and Weakness appeared in my peripheral vision. Weakness lowered my strength enough to render attacks ineffectual, lasting for a minute. I could barely do a few points of damage at a time. Stun stopped me from moving for six seconds.

Falconeer moved toward me to deliver a coup de grâce, but Charitybelle and Fabulosa interrupted his attack. Before Fabulosa inflicted a flanking strike, I heard another power’s sound effect, and Falconeer’s body lurched to the side as if something had pulled him out of harm’s way.

After dodging Charitybelle’s attack, he positioned himself behind me for a fatal backstab. Ever the aggressor, Fabulosa interceded again, moving between us to cover my back.

By this time, Tardee returned to his feet and healed himself. With PinkFox gone, Charitybelle, Fabulosa, and I had no healing.

Tardee healed back to full health and picked up his short sword.

My Stunned fingers gripped my spear, but I couldn’t move anything below my neck. I looked behind Tardee and pantomimed a grin of relief as if reinforcements had arrived. It offered only a cliché bluff, like tossing a pebble to distract someone—but it worked.

Tardee cast Detect Stealth and scanned the space behind him. When he realized he had missed his chance to attack me, he relaxed and took his time. He must have remembered that I only amounted to a level 4 obstacle. But my ruse worked, and his hesitation gave me enough time to shake off Falconeer’s Stun.

I launched a Shocking Reach at Falconeer when my Stun debuff ended. Our best chance involved focusing our fire on these guys one at a time. Hopefully, my spell would distract Falconeer, creating another opportunity for Fabulosa to strike. If Tardee’s healing cooldowns ended, we would be in big trouble.

/You hit Falconeer with Shocking Reach for 18 damage (2 resisted).

Only two points of resisted damage? These guys had poor willpower, but Falconeer took the hit without losing focus of his combat stance. He fended off constant attacks from Charitybelle and Fabulosa with two short swords, proving himself an incredible fighter and faster than anyone I’d seen.

Tardee charged down the hall, and I moved forward to distract him. Charitybelle and Fabulosa had their hands full already. Someone needed to protect their flank, so I met Tardee with an easy smile. The more I could get him talking, the less he’d aid his ally.

Falconeer gave a sideways glance toward Tardee. “Heal me, you moron.”

Tardee spoke without a hint of remorse or a glance at his partner. “Can’t. On cooldown.”

Falconeer shook his head. “You healed yourself? Great.”