“That doesn’t sound like a good thing. What’s the point of high durability if the wounds are still lethal?” I wondered aloud.

“You’re right. In a world with guns, twenty-five fortitude doesn’t do much. We need to make use of our Talents to pose a real threat.”

“Are you talking about Rapid Healing?” I asked. At the time, I wasn’t aware of all the Talents available to Dark Apostles. I knew we maintained our Talents from our time as Revenants, and I knew we had at least one talent to enhance our senses. Beyond that, I was unaware.

“No,” Crow said, allowing the crumpled bullet to fall to the floor, “I’m talking about Battle Aura.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just now,” Crow continued, “I was trying to block your bullet with Battle Aura. It allows you to use mana to strengthen your body. I was pretty good at using it in Ninth Oasis, but I guess the activation command is different in Ferrum Online.” At the end of his statement, Crow took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders.

“Okay,” he said like a coach getting ready for another exercise. “Let’s go again.”

“What!?”

“Same place, same speed,” Crow said while firmly planting his feet. “Come on.”

“I don’t want to shoot you again!”

“Too bad, ‘cause I need to be shot.”

“Can’t you practice your Battle Aura without me shooting you?”

“Unfortunately not. If I activate it without incoming damage, then I won’t know if I even used the ability. We’ll know I’ve activated Battle Aura when the bullet doesn’t hurt me.”

I sighed loudly and pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Okay,” I said with annoyance clearly in my voice. “Just so you know: you’re crazy.” Crow smiled mirthfully at this, but he did not otherwise respond.

Once more, I shot Crow in the stomach. I aimed and fired in exactly the same way as last time. This time, however, a flash of sparks emanated from Crow’s stomach as my bullet struck. My mind was drawn to the times I had gone to shooting ranges with steel targets. The bullet had completely disintegrated before it had penetrated half an inch into Crow’s skin.

Crow nodded as the echoing boom of the gunshot dissipated. He felt the impact point and, when he drew his hand away, there was no blood.

“Was that it?” I asked as soon as Crow could hear me.

“Oh yes,” Crow responded. “The activation command is more of a ‘mmn’ and less of a ‘hnng.’” Crow said as if the sounds made perfect sense.

“I don’t follow.”

“It’s not something I can really explain with words.” Crow shrugged.

“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask,” I began. “How do you manage to look so comfortable with all of these extra Talents?”

“Comfortable is… perhaps not the right word,” Crow said, looking down at his body. The side of his mouth turned upward slightly in an expression of disgust. “It’s just… I’ve used avatars with all of these Talents - Rapid Healing, Battle Aura, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Vision, Danger Sense - before. Though, I’ve never used an avatar that had them all at once. It feels like I’m playing a remaster of an old game that I was really good at, but the remaster was made a hundred years after the original. The pain, the exertion, the… visceral sensations of the body,” Crow looked down at his body in clear disgust, “are much more accurate to the real world.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“In hindsight,” I laughed, “I really wish that I had played Ninth Oasis so that I could understand what you’re saying. It’s funny, you sound just like Tantalus did when he talked about his time playing Ninth Oasis.”

“Tantalus?” Crow said with recognition and concern in his voice. “You met him?”

“Oh, yeah, you’ve probably heard of him. I only heard that he was a YouTuber after I had been with him for a while.”

“I knew him pretty well back in the Old World,” Crow said with a smile. “In fact, we lived in the same building for a few years.”

The pieces suddenly fit together as Crow said those words. “Oh yeah, I talked to FullDan, and he mentioned your name. You were in the Scions of the Blue Flame?”

“Yes,” Crow said, the concern in his voice increasing. “FullDan was there, too? Who else was there?”

“Well, the S-ranks I met were: Tantalus, FullDan, Ashcroft, Emile, GatorKing, Mozaic, Trismegistus, and Mander. Redgrave was also there, and I heard that someone named ScaryClock was in Osiris.”

By the time I was done listing out the names, Crow was lightly banging his head against the wall. A look of exasperation was clear on his face. He looked like a man who had just realized that the job he had just been assigned was much more difficult than he had originally anticipated.

“This is a problem,” he said.

“Why?”

“Half of the Knights of Ashes are in Osiris! Even one of them would be a serious problem for us. You just listed five. Beyond that, Tantalus is a genius, and Mander basically invented half of the moves used in Ninth Oasis competitive play.”

“Genius seems like a strong word. I met Tantalus, and he didn’t seem that smart,” I said truthfully.

“Trust me, that was part of his plan. Tantalus wants people to underestimate him. I'm convinced that even his accent is a ploy for people to underestimate him. I mean, come on, he's lived in Boston for more than a decade now. The only reason he hasn’t dominated Ninth Oasis play for the past few years is because he’s a shut-in. He didn’t want to deal with the inter-office politics after Kingfisher retired.”

“Huh. He was a shut-in? I really didn’t get that sense from him.”

“By the way, what was the political situation in Osiris like?”

“Hmm,” I tried to draw the memories back to the surface of my mind. “Well, Ashcroft released a few videos on the BloodNet trying to call a meeting in the central park of Osiris. I get the sense that Tantalus didn’t want to hold a public role in Osiris, but Ashcroft made him. A bunch of S-ranks met in the central park and gave a few speeches. Just before I died, Tantalus was setting up a chain of command with the S-ranks at the top.”

“That is the worst case scenario for us,” Crow growled. “Ashcroft and Tantalus being in the same city allows them to cover for each other’s weaknesses. Ashcroft has no battle awareness beyond a hundred feet, and Tantalus has countless personality issues, but together they complement one another. That’s why Kingfisher always assigned them to the same unit.”

“It sounds like we need to separate them,” I said, coming to the obvious conclusion.

“Yes,” Crow snapped his fingers, grateful for my minor input. “We should mention this at the strategy meeting tomorrow.”

“I like the sound of that,” I said in a tone indicating a desire for the conversation to end. This linguistic subtly was one of the only things I had retained from my Midwestern upbringing.

“Good, good,” Crow said. His eyes were locked on the ground like a man lost in thought. He began to walk toward the exit before stopping for a moment and saying, “By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know any method to change your avatar?”

“No idea,” I said. Crow was acting weird, but I couldn’t quite place the reason for his discomfort.

“All right. Anyway, see ya. Thanks for your help.”

“Happy to help,” I said as I waved at Crow’s back. I had to conceal a chuckle when I remembered what that “help” entailed.

Crow disappeared up the spiral staircase.