As Novis heard the name form Hastam's mouth, everything suddenly started to make sense. Why Lucas's playstyle was suddenly so different and how he was able to improve so fast.

"Wait what do you mean taken over?" Novis asked.

Hastam then proceeded to tell Novis the events of yesterday. How when he came to the stadium last night, Lucas wasn't in is body but the spirit was and how they had been attacked on site.

"I'm afraid that the spirit has its own goals and it has to be planning something while using Lucas's body, I don't know what but I saw it meeting up with the other spirits."

Just then as Hastam had finished speaking his sentence, he saw something from the corner of his eye. He immediately grabbed Novis by the collar and pulled him to the ground under the table.

*Crash

Screams were heard all over in the coffee shop, as the shop window broke and shards of glass were scattered all over the table and shop floor.

As the two lifted their heads from the table to take a peek outside, they could see Lucas standing there with four people by his side. One an elderly old man in shorts and a Hawaiian top. Another young one in a business suit. Then two females next to him, one dress in a skirt and formal wear, while the other female was in sportswear like she was just about to go running.

"What happened?" Someone in the shop asked. "Did anyone see anything?"

"No, it just suddenly broke, I have no clue what happened."

"Maybe it was a bird?"

"Seriously, these windows aren't that cheap stuff you use at home."

As Hastam looked at the group, he knew they were here for trouble. "I didn't think they were going to attack in broad daylight, what are they crazy?"

As Novis stared at the group as well, he could see Lucas's spirit hovering by his own body. Just like Hastam had said. Then Mortem raised her hand, covered in a purple aura, she swung it once again and purple energy had left with it.

"Novis switch with me now!" Arthur shouted.

Novis left control over to Arthur. Before the purple energy could reach them, Arthur gathered sword energy of his own in the palm of his hand and swung it out.

When the two energies collided, they both cancelled each other out shattering on impact.

The look on the other group's face was that of surprise.

"Who is that warrior in that boy's body!" The old man asked.

"Maybe she's just starting to get weak." The female in gym clothes said.

"Are you kidding me, Mortem's one of the strongest ones here and her host's body is especially powerful, so she can produce more sword energy than anyone else right now." The old man replied.

Hastam while in the cafe was slightly shocked, why had they come after him, he was fine fighting inside the game world but this was outside in the real world. Everything felt so different and he didn't know what to do.

At the time when he had seen the attack, he had just reacted on instinct.

"Hastam switch with me, this is not a battle for your world," Xin asked.

Hastam did as his spirit had asked and switched places with him.

"Arthur, we should get away from the public, otherwise the people around will be hurt, it seems these disgusting things don't care for the lives of others," Xin said.

"Agreed."

On the way out form the cafe, the two of them could see Mops by the side. They each grabbed a mop and broke off the heads. It now looked like both of them held metal pole's in their hand.

"Hey wait, you two haven't paid for your drinks!" The shop owner shouted.

Xin then rumbled through his pockets until he pulled out a black wallet.

"Here you are," Xin said as he threw the wallet to the man before leaving.

"Hey what are you doing, my driver's license, all my credit cards are in there!" Hastam complained.

"We don't have time to go through it, I did as I saw you do before and handed the man the green notes from the wallet," Xin replied.

Hastam felt a headache brewing in his head, the thought of all the calls he would soon have to make. Cancelling his credit cards and getting a new driver's licence.

"Spirit troubles, don't worry I have to deal with them to," Novis said.

The two of them were now out on the street and the group was hot on their trail following behind them. The street was busy full of people walking up and down.

"Is there anywhere we can go where there aren't so many people?" Arthur asked.

"Wait, you two are planning to fight? Why don't we go to the police or something, let them solve this?" Novis said.

"Novis for whatever reason it seems these group of people are chasing after you and your friend. Trust me when I say this but a few of your policemen won't be able to restrain or do anything against these guys. I have dealt with these types of people before. If they can't find you, then they will go after your friends, your family. We need to give them a reason to never come after you again."

Novis was scared, frightened, he thought that the only thing he had to worry about was Mac's gang but now it seemed like everything was suddenly getting a lot more complicated.

"Fine."

Novis then started to look round to see if there was anything nearby, that's when they saw a car park nearby still under construction. Other than the workers it was going to be the place with the least amount of people.

*****

Meanwhile back at the stadium.

"Sir there have been no signs of Lucas, it looks like he might not be coming today." An agent in black said as he stood outside the stadium.

"What did you say!" Tom shouted down the receiver. "But the match is soon to start, something must have happened."

Then Tom had the strangest feeling in his stomach. If Lucas's spirit, was Mortem like Tom thought it was, then he knew their goal and perhaps when she had arrived at the tournament and saw another spirit, she thought that they might be involved with everything.

"Novis I'm sorry but you might have just been dragged into all this mess." Tom then slammed his fist down on the desk in front of him hard. "Are any of our agents back yet?"

"No sir." A man said in the IT room, "They are still out recovering the remaining artefacts. Two of them have been successful while the other four have failed."

Tom then placed his hand on his head at the bad news, it seemed like everything was going wrong for him. "I'm sorry Novis, you are on your own for now."

*****

Inside the reception area, the Montem VSW team was still sitting there together waiting to be called in.

"Hey, where is Novis?" Dan asked.

"I don't know he's not replying to my texts, he's not answering his phone or anything," Scarlett replied.

"You don't think he maybe chickened out at the last second do you?" Frank said.

"No way, Novis isn't like that!" Ashley shouted, "Maybe you guys don't know this but Noivs has been training with my dad at his dojo harder than I have ever seen him train before."

Ashley started to think back at all the times she had seen Novis badly hurt. How she had seen all the bruises over his body as he was put through the hellish routine from her father.

"I'm telling you now, if Novis isn't here then something has happened."

At the same time other on the other side, it seemed like Montem weren't the only ones dealing with their own problems.

"Has anyone seen Lucas, he was meant to be here by now." The teacher asked. She was an older woman and not just any old teacher but the vice-principal of the school. She personally decided she would lead the team as she felt like the VSW games was a big part of Westgate's image.

"I don't know, he was with us on the bus, then he said he had something important to do." A team member said.

"That Lucas, he's acted so strangely ever since he joined our VSW team, I think we would have a better chance with winning without him anyway." Another member said.

"Yeah, I agree."

Ever since Lucas had joined the team they didn't get along. The team had been together so long and had worked hard for the tournament but when Lucas came along and said he wanted to play, one of their good friends was immediately kicked off the team and Lucas was allowed to join.

The vice-principal didn't even care that Lucas had never turned up to a practice match or any practice games before, all she cared about was who would give her team the highest chance of winning.

Then suddenly, an announcement was made in the reception area.

"Attention please, we are sorry for the delay but all repairs on the arena have been completed. If you would please make your way to the stadium and participants follow their representatives to their assigned area to get ready for today's match. thank you. "

****

Special thanks to yogoboi, AsuraNineThoughts, Splats and Doodlebug for the gifts these really help me continue making the story and support me into becoming a full-time author.