When I finally saw Jack coming down the road, towards us, I screamed his name. That gray hood, that light-footed gait. It had to be him. Someone else was by his side. Not Atlas, nor anyone I could recognize from this distance. But out of the two pedestrians heading our way from afar, one of them was Jack, I knew that much.

Saber, too, shouted. She began to run up, and I followed after her, ever the less athletic of us two.

And Jack must've heard. I saw his chin lift, and he pointed at us, and he said something to the man beside him. And he gave us a big wave.

Finally. After who knew how long, we had finally reunited. Jack, our teammate and friend. Still alive. Thank goodness.

Saber ran into Jack with a big hug, and she picked him up and spun him around.

"Dang it!" she gushed, overwhelmed and seemingly about to cry. "Jack!"

"Hey, easy there kiddo," Jack said as he laughed. "Great seeing you two." He gave Saber a pat, then found footing as she lowered him back on the ground. I ran up as well and held them both in a wide embrace.

"I can't believe it," I breathed. "It's actually you."

The man that accompanied Jack observed us several yards away. He waved awkwardly at me with a smile. He certainly looked familiar…

"And Gunther!" Saber said to the man. "You've made it here as well!"

Wait. He was the guy from the Combat Institute who wielded an assault rifle. He had fought in the tournament, and afterwards Hei and I ran into him while he was guarding Fink's dungeon. I hadn't recognized him at first without his iconic weapon.

How did he get here? And…was the gunman's name really Gunther? Like, really?

"Professor Saber!" Gunther greeted with a slight bow. "I'm so relieved. I never thought I'd see you again."

"Why not?" Saber asked playfully. "I'm not gonna kick the bucket that easy."

"No, I mean in that sense that –"

"I'm sure we all have a lot to talk through," Jack interrupted. "But first things first. Saber, Sophia. Have you written anything in your team notebooks?"

"Pfft." I gave a quick sigh. "A heck ton. I'm assuming you've gotten none of it?"

"Certainly not. And it looks like your HP bars are orange. So we aren't part of the same team anymore. What do you say, the four of us form a group for now?"

"Heck yeah," Saber said. "Like old times. Gunther was a pretty stellar student, so I'd be happy to have him join us too.”

“We met by chance, and he tagged along with me since we both had you and Hei as mutual friends,” Jack explained to Saber. “So seems like this is the playoff.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Oh wow. I always knew Saber had students – she was a professor, after all – but it felt weird actually realizing one of my peers in the Institute was her student. It made me see Saber in a slightly more elevated light.

Gunther was elated to join us, and we formally inducted him and Jack into our party. We now had a team of four, now that Tanin had formed his own team of three with his two friends. Things could get a little awkward come next Challenge since you couldn't enter the arena as four people, but that'd be fixed once we found Mr. Atlas as well and formed a five-man band.

"What were the chances of us running into each other?" Jack chuckled.

"Well pretty high actually," I said, "considering we were looking for you."

I shared a bit about how Saber and I ran into Tanin, and how we then met Tanin's two friends. And, in a well-timed manner, the three of them were catching up to us as well.

Jack squinted. He pointed at James.

"Wait," Jack said. "That guy has a Seekflower."

"I know," I told him. "That's how we found you. And we've got positions for Mr. Atlas as well."

"Sick. Your luck really is something else, Sophia, Saber."

"All good?" Tanin checked as he walked up to me.

"Yeah!" I said. "This is Jack," I introduced. Though they had already met before, I think.

"You're the recruiter guy from the Institute," Jack acknowledged.

Tanin nodded. "That was indeed me. And that's…"

He looked to Gunther. "That's someone from the Institute as well, right? Pretty sure I've seen him around the cafeteria."

"Nice to meet you, Tanin," Gunther greeted. "I am from the Combat Institute. I had Professor Saber for her Introduction to Laning Phase class."

Tanin smirked at Saber. "Was he a good student?"

Saber tapped a finger on her chin in thought. "We didn't have time to finish the semester, but his grade average was an A- I think?"

"Not bad," Tanin acknowledged.

"Gunther, right?" James asked him. "Good to meet you."

"Hey, yeah. Nice to meet you too." Gunther extended his hand for a shake. "What's your name?"

"Excuse me for a second," James said. He stepped away a bit to lay the Seekflower down by the pavement. The whole time, he had been holding it cautiously with two hands, like how someone would hold a delicate infant.

"Firstborn star of winter," James suddenly recited as he clasped his hands. "I call upon thy austerity. Unveil thy majestic form, the embodiment of frost and blizzard, and shape our destiny upon this frigid stage."

The ground froze beneath us, all around. A thin, continuous sheet of glistening ice built up across the streets and pavements and lawns, stretching outward for about twenty or thirty yards in an oval. It was almost like a skating rink.

"What are you doing?!" I shouted at him. As I reached for my new railgun in panic, Roger clutched my wrist.

"Calm down," he ordered. "This is not a fight. It doesn't have to be."

"Dance upon the sunken graves," James continued. "Turn dreams to naught and still the hearts of the plunderers."

A short fence of ice manifested around the frozen rink. Roger had stopped me from drawing my weapon, but he couldn't stop the others. Jack, Saber, and even Tanin had gone into battle-stances, weapons at the ready. Gunther summoned his gun assault rifle of thin air.

"Explain yourself," Tanin ordered James.

"This is a barrier technique," James said in a calm voice. "Until it is dispelled, it will freeze the heart of the first person who attempts to exit. But do not worry. As long as we all stay inside, it is completely harmless."

Tanin stared to James, then Roger.

"...And your aim is?" Tanin asked.

"Gunther of the Combat Institute," James declared. "Wanted by the Bounty Hall for theft, sabotage, and forceful resistance. Worth forty thousand dollars. Dead or alive."