The sparring rooms of the Refuge were like playgrounds for Players, designed and built by Devi. They were the only facility of the Refuge that she had been interested in—unsurprising, in hindsight. She had always been more focused on self-improvement than creating things. Was that a Sylven thing or something that came from her personality? I couldn’t begrudge her for it, though I did feel a bit disappointed; my romanticized ideas about the two of us creating something great together were gone.

Devi called one of her sparring rooms the Mushroom Pit, which was … well, exactly that. A shallow pit filled to the brim with glowing mushrooms. Soft and bouncy mushrooms, which were a pain to get out of but proved to be an adequate safety measure for anyone who fell off the numerous floating platforms. Because platforms floated everywhere! Devi had clearly been inspired by the elevator in Stonehearth; the room was full of stone platforms that moved as long as someone was standing on them. Up and down, left and right, passing each other really close. Sparring on the platforms was quite challenging, especially since they came in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

I sat on one of those bigger platforms, dangling my feet as I watched Devi down below. She was a patch of bold colors amid the glowing mushrooms; dark blue skin and rough leather armor lit from below, her silvery hair in a warrior braid playing with the rather diffused light. I did my best to commit the imagery to memory. Just the colors and the shadows and the general atmosphere—the rest I’d be able to figure out later.

Eventually Devi arrived back to Imaya’s platform and collected the wooden sword she had dropped. Imaya was already clutching her own practice sword. It wasn’t typically the swordplay that decided their bouts, but I supposed that both of them were low on mana by now. Imaya kept using Archer’s Respite, which was a perfect Ability in this room; with a single thought she could push everyone around her back and away—and oftentimes off the platform.

It was a rather one-sided matchup, though that had never stopped Devi from trying. She had a few tricks too. Although her clones were astonishingly bad at navigating the platforms, she could create them endlessly and they were a constant distraction. Get one close to Imaya, and it could multiply quickly to mob her. The clones were also able to open Instant Portals that blocked the brunt of Archer’s Respite—and with her latest power-up, Devi was now able to wield those portals.

It was her new high-tier Equipment that did the trick. Devi had saved enough credits to buy a pair of fingerless gloves – called Conjurer’s Gloves of Movement – that allowed her to grab and telekinetically move her conjurations. Clones and portals alike. Though its range was short, she was effectively able to carry one of her portals like a shield. Needless to say, Imaya stopped calling me OP ever since she had learned about Devi’s powers. An energy sword that could cut through almost anything, a bouncing laser beam able to obliterate giants, and now an indestructible portal-shield.

Imaya stood considerably behind in terms of power, but in the here and now the use of wooden swords and floating platforms tilted the odds in her favor. The armor she wore was plated and heavy, an odd cross between a modern bulletproof vest and medieval armor. It had dark green colors with sections that occasionally glowed not unlike her eyes during Arcane Vision. I didn’t know what exactly her armor did, but I suspected it gave her stability and poise because Devi never managed to so much as budge her in spite of their difference in height.

Imaya also had a shield – a mundane-looking buckler – that moved her arm and parried blows on its own. The shades regarded this power with derision, but I found it a nifty decision for Imaya. Between her Weapon Skills and her buckler, she could both attack and defend herself like an expert fighter. Kinda. We couldn’t help but notice how awkward her footwork was and how unnecessarily she took blows instead of evading them, but … well, even so she fought better than Devi. Personally, I was of the opinion that Imaya’s technique was good enough for someone who wasn’t lucky enough to be possessed by shades. Sometimes I truly envied those who envied me for my combat prowess.

“Enough rest?” Teva’ryn asked from beside me. I watched the girls a moment longer, then sighed and turned to him.

“I suppose.”

“Is that yes?” Teva’ryn asked. Clearly, he hadn’t been taking language lessons from me.

“I suppose,” I replied with a grin.

Teva’ryn nodded at me in a solemn manner. Damn, he was always so serious. I grabbed Soul Eater, then instead of struggling to stand up with my fake leg I tossed Soul Eater up and teleported myself into a standing position. In the meantime Teva’ryn jumped over to the next platform, walking away to create some distance between us.

Imaya had classified him as a battlemage, though I wasn’t sure how accurate that term was. The Sylven man’s armor consisted of cloth garments with a simple tabard over it—according to him, it was similar to what he had worn as a guardsman. It didn’t do much as physical protection, but it excelled in magical resistance—and more importantly, it gave him tons of mana regeneration. Mana was important for him to keep his army of arms poking at me.

Devi and Imaya were still fighting each other, but the Mushroom Pit was large enough for two pairs of us to fight at the same time—especially since the girls rarely used more than a couple of platforms. Teva’ryn and I were more mobile, on the other hand. Unlike the girls, Teva’ryn was actually challenging to fight.

“Ready?” Teva’ryn asked.

I directed a thought at my vambraces to swap my ordinary clothing to my armor. I winced as they did. My clothes beneath the armor were damp with sweat from sparring earlier. But, hey—at least I looked cool from the outside. The Boots of Stability on my feet were solid footwear of dark leather, granting me the ability to attach myself to any surface. They also prevented me from slipping or stumbling, which was a pretty neat feature for someone with a mechanical leg. Honestly, that alone made this purchase to be worth it. I was already considering buying another pair so that I could walk properly in my other set of clothing too.

My leg and chest armor came from the same armor set, but I had already forgotten their names. Something dark and ominous. They made me look like a shade in the flesh, darkness incarnate, lord of the night, and stuff like that. Dark steel plates curved and weaved over each other, making the armor over my chest look unnecessarily complicated but imposing in design. Heavy, dark mist oozed and dripped from the edges of the plates as if I had just emerged from a pool of ink. Oh, and I also left afterimages behind whenever I moved. This series of fading shadows trailing behind me was due to my legwear, which allowed me to teleport myself back to the place where I had been five seconds ago. It was a neat perk that fit my Abilities nicely, though in the heat of a fight it required a big brain to keep track of.

The chest piece was for defense, though the elaborate metalwork covering my armor was mainly just for show. The real protection was coming from a dark skin-tight aura that would spring to life whenever something was about to hit me. It protected body parts that weren’t even covered by the armor. It also helped me against getting poisoned or suffocated. Plus any damage to the armor would be regenerated in time. Plus it gave me some attribute point boosts. It better damn do all of that for its price! The shades had insisted on buying something that actually gave us protection, and they weren’t settling for anything but the highest quality.

Finally, last but not least, the fifth and final part of the Player Equipment, the head-piece: a pair of sunglasses—or in other words, a pair of shades.

Great puns aside, I kinda ran out of money after buying my legendary-tier dark armor and so I had to resort to something cheaper for the head slot. But the sunglasses were magical Player gear too, granting me sensory powers. Dark-vision and mana-sight much like Imaya’s Arcane Vision, as well as enhanced hearing and a better sense of smell. They also gave me like a hundred extra swag points and made me the coolest kid in the neighborhood, so for that alone I was inclined to keep them. Imaya snickered at me from a few platforms away, and I heard it because my shades gave me such a good hearing.

“You laugh now, but you won’t laugh when I beat you with a spoon,” I threatened her in a deep voice. I gave her a sideways look and pushed the sunglasses higher up my nose, which just made her laugh harder. It would have been the perfect time for Devi to hit her, except Devi was still climbing out of the pit after her most recent defeat.

I didn’t want to make Teva’ryn wait any longer though, so I turned to face him and raised Soul Eater. My weapon was shaped like a sleek and balanced dagger with dull edges. I walked to the edge of my platform just as it reached ground level. Teva’ryn was gliding away horizontally higher above, forcing me to look upward. Not an ideal starting position, but we liked the challenge.

“Ready,” we said.

Teva’ryn grabbed his weapon with both hands, then pulled it apart to hold a sword in either hand. His Player-weapon had two main features: the hilt’s length could be adjusted at will, and the weapon itself could be replicated endlessly. Kinda like Devi’s clones, except all of the copies were sharp and durable too. It would have been the perfect weapon for her, if she weren’t so stubborn about that energy blade of hers.

By the time we started to move, Teva’ryn already had a pair of translucent blue arms sticking out from under his armpit, grabbing his swords. We threw Soul Eater up and away, arcing it over Teva’ryn to a platform behind him. He dropped one of his weapons in response and launched a phantom hand at it to grab it. It would prevent us from teleporting to it, severely limiting our options to get close to Teva’ryn.

We let him do it anyway. As Teva’ryn snatched the black weapon out of the air, we sprinted across our platform and stomped with our mechanical leg, which pushed back with increased force to boost our jump. We landed on the next platform in a crouch, darkness rolling off our armor with after-images of us trailing behind. Teva’ryn chose that moment to throw Soul Eater back to us, forcing us to dodge. We leaned back to snatch the dagger out of the air—but another part of our mind teleported the dagger to our hand already. A mistake. Our teleport was now on twelve seconds of cooldown.

We gritted our teeth as we continued running, berating ourselves. For as long as our fading memories could reach, there had never been any reason for us to share; working together was unprecedented for shades. It led to all sorts of annoying mistakes whenever our will wasn’t in sync.

Teva’ryn didn’t let us approach him freely, of course. Having finished creating three copies of his sword, he launched both of his spectral arms at us with blades pointed at our chest. He had remarkable control over limbs that weren’t naturally part of his body. We ducked under one of the swords and parried the other, then slashed at the translucent limb. Soul Eater carved through the material with ease, making it disappear and drop the copied sword. The other limb attempted to stab us from behind and we threw ourselves to the side, barely avoiding the backstabbing arm. Teva’ryn had been practicing with his limbs a lot, performing complex motions instead of just flailing them around like some retractable tentacles—and he was getting better with them fast. Almost as fast as Devi had been at picking up the Terran tongue.

We cut through another spectral arm that tried to grab us. Teva’ryn stood still on his platform with a frown of concentration, launching three more hands at us. We were getting bogged down fending off the arms, which was never a good sign. But Teva’ryn’s platform was gliding toward ours. We just needed to hold out a little longer.

We dodged and then dodged again, our mechanical leg bucking dangerously even as our Boots of Stability kept us from stumbling. A clumsy dance. Teva’ryn’s arms were capable of both pushing and pulling us if we let them reach us, but that wasn’t the only reason we kept slicing them apart. One of the spectral hands slammed into our platform, then another, and we weren’t quick enough in destroying them before they both left a shining blue circle on the ground. Damn. We spared only a brief glance at the circles to see a pair of spectral arms emerging from them, one of them shooting toward us and the other slapping its palm to the ground to create more circles. Time for us to move. We parried a sword that Teva’ryn sent our way, letting the arm behind us grab our ankle. It tried to trip us but our boots kept us steady, and so we had the time to swing our arm around and throw Soul Eater at Teva’ryn. More of the arms grabbed us from behind, leaving us only one way out; we teleported to the dagger as it reached the edge of Teva’ryn’s platform.

Fighting Teva’ryn without his spectral arms would have been challenging, but not impossible. He wasn’t a bad swordsman by any means, but his technique was uninspired and predictable. Not as predictable as Weapon Skills to be sure, but we knew his school of sword well. If he used his spectral arms, however? That predictability went right out of the window. He was a nightmare to deal with, at least if we wanted to avoid getting hit by his blades.

He attacked us as soon as we arrived, a pair of spectral hands swinging swords at us while he himself wielded a spear—technically a glaive. Soul Eater rushed to our aid even as we ducked under the first strikes, dark material expanding along our arm to form a wide, round shield. Teva’ryn’s glaive clanged sharply against Soul Eater on our right arm, jolting our shoulder. One of his spectral arms got around the shield and swung a sword down at us, but its angle was wrong; we slapped the blade aside with the back of our free hand and grabbed the sword’s hilt, twisting the weapon out of the spectral hand’s grasp. Flipping the stolen sword around, we used it to parry the other hand’s strike and cut through the spectral arm. A moment later Teva’ryn elongated the hilt of the sword in our hand to make it too unwieldy to use, forcing us to toss it away.

Although the Sylven man was physically stronger than us, he chose to disengage and retreated to another platform that passed us by. Jumping after him would have been dangerous simply because he was ready to grab us as soon as our boots left the ground. Teleporting over was a less risky option, but Soul Eater wasn’t in its dagger form. No matter. Instead of wasting time transforming the weapon we slipped the shield off our arm, spun around to gain momentum, and threw the shield like a frisbee. Teva’ryn’s eyes widened and he stopped multiplying his sword, reaching out with his own hand to catch the shield before it could have hit him. We teleported to the shield immediately, grabbing Teva’ryn’s wrist before he had any chance to retreat. Our fingers touched bare skin beneath the sleeve of his garment and we cast Mark of Replacement, grinning as we felt the Ability taking hold. We won. Teva’ryn tried to strike us down, but it was too late; we activated our armor’s ability and teleported back to where we had been five seconds ago.

The thing about fighting on moving platforms is that five seconds is a lot of time for those platforms to move. More often than not, using our armor’s ability would just make us appear in the air because the platform had moved on already—just like in this case. We tumbled backward as our feet found nothing but air, falling toward the pit briefly before activating our Mark of Replacement and switching places with Teva’ryn. I arrived with my hands outstretched as if I was bracing myself, Soul Eater attached to my arm as a shield.

“Not too bad,” I said, glad that the shield throwing trick worked. Longer matches tended to favor Teva’ryn, so I had done well by throwing him off before he could have gotten too handsy. I walked to the edge of the platform to see where he had fallen—and we jerked back as a translucent arm slammed into our chest. It grabbed our armor and tried to pull us down, bending us by the waist even as our Boots of Stability held onto the platform. We almost toppled over, but we managed to ram the edge of our shield through the spectral arm to destroy it. Hopping backward, we transformed Soul Eater into a dagger and noted with surprise that Teva’ryn was hanging from the platforms, spectral arms clinging to them from below. He had dropped his weapon to use all four of his arms to swing from platform to platform, spectral hands shooting out and pulling him in.

We were impressed. In fact, we were so impressed that we didn’t notice the spectral arm in time as it emerged from our chest, grabbing onto our hand that held Soul Eater. The arm was coming from a blue ring on our chest! Teva’ryn had always placed those circles on the ground, so it hadn’t occurred to us that he could place them on people too. We slammed the edge of our palm against the spectral arm, but the thing was elastic enough to withstand the blow. We clawed at the arm until we finally burst it apart—but we had lost precious seconds, which was enough for Teva’ryn to arrive to our platform. He launched more hands at us and we sliced at the arms with Soul Eater, but the circle on our chest tripped us up once more; another arm emerged from it to grab our hand. Teva’ryn landed a few more solid punches on our armor during this lapse in our defense, and though we teleported Soul Eater to our other hand to cut through the arm binding us, it was too late; Teva’ryn had placed two more rings at our shoulders.

Spectral arms sprouting from our armor grabbed both of our hands, pulling them tight against our shoulders. The third arm reached out from our chest and grabbed us by the neck, and though the defenses of our armor prevented the grip from choking us, it pulled our head forcefully forward. It was now our turn to retreat while we could, backing off to the edge of the platform. There were no other platforms behind us, however.

“Concede?” Teva’ryn asked, striding toward us. Our teleport was still on cooldown; we needed to stall for time.

“I’m a sore loser,” we said, trying to lift our head enough to see Teva’ryn. “It’s not over until you land a hit on me with your weapon or make me fall.”

“I drop weapon below.”

“Too bad,” we said, then let go of Soul Eater briefly to teleport ourselves to it—but the spectral arms attached to our armor teleported with us, remaining in place.

“Too bad,” Teva’ryn agreed. As he closed in on us, we lamented that we could have turned this situation around if only we had a proper leg instead of that lump of steel. Kick-based martial arts were not in the mechanical leg’s repertoire, and so we lost this battle. Too bad indeed. I felt disappointed in the shades.

As Teva’ryn lifted one foot to kick us off the platform, I activated my vambraces to switch back to my ordinary clothes. My arms came free as the translucent hands holding them vanished with the armor, and I grabbed at Teva’ryn’s leg just as his foot connected with my chest. There was nothing graceful or professional about it; I clawed and clung to his leg with all I could, and by pure coincidence my mechanical leg kicked him as I tumbled off the platform. Teva’ryn lost his balance and fell with me, and a disorienting moment later we hit the squishy mushrooms in the bottom of the pit, bouncing a few times before sinking into the glowing fungi. My chest hurt from Teva’ryn’s kick, but I would live.

“Sorry,” I said, coughing a bit as I struggled to stand up. “I told you I’m a sore loser.”

I hadn’t been able to win this round, so I had made sure that he didn’t win either. Petty, I admitted to myself. We were only training, yet I did my best to prevent Teva’ryn from winning. If cornered, better to make everyone lose. I wondered what that told about me as a person.

“This is good lesson,” Teva’ryn said, grunting as he used his spectral arms to push himself back to his feet. “I overly confident. Should push you with magic instead of kick.”

Wobbling with each step, he waded across the mushrooms to find his dropped sword.

“Good lesson,” I echoed him, then teleported myself to Soul Eater and sat down on the platform above.

I could have used Soul Eater to stab Teva’ryn instead of grabbing his leg – earning a win right before I fell off – but in the heat of the moment that hadn’t occurred to me. We were not perfect. We were not perfect, but each of us had our strengths and we just had to learn how to work together. Together, we would become perfect.

“I swear I haven’t had so many self-absorbed thoughts in all my life,” I muttered, clutching Soul Eater tighter. “Guys, you love yourselves way too much for your own good.”

The shades didn’t answer. I liked to imagine that they were just shy. Much better than thinking that they were conceited, right? I swung my mechanical leg around, dangling it off the platform and watching Teva’ryn as he looked for his weapon. I wished my problems were as mundane as his. He found his sword eventually, and after that it didn’t take long for him to pull himself up to my platform. Off to the side, Imaya whooped loudly as she landed a solid hit on Devi. Another win for her. Devi didn’t let her celebrate for too long however, demanding another rematch.

“They look happy,” Teva’ryn said, sitting down next to me. “Eager to train.”

Devi and Imaya started another round, but Devi fell off her platform almost instantly.

“I’m glad that they are,” I said. “They are going to need the practice.”

“Need?”

“They’ll need to be able to defend themselves from what is coming, Teva’ryn. It’s a mess. House Quinn is still looking for Devi and would rather see me dead, Yorg and the rival gangs in the area aren’t going to leave us alone—oh, can you believe that Tora founded our very own gang, which I’m apparently the leader of? We’re already in conflict with the Black Moon. And then there are those shadebound Players, as well as the Scarlet Hand who hasn’t shown up yet but certainly will come back for me. Even financially we have our rivals, since the Factory is starting to view us as a competitor.”

Grouped together, I realized that they didn’t paint a very bright future. So far I had managed to treat each of these things as separate problems, and that made them feel less daunting. Teva’ryn sat silently for a while, pondering on what I said. Seeing the troubled expression on his face, I cleared my throat.

“I know it’s a lot—”

“I think of leaving.”

“W-What?”

“These things you say,” Teva’ryn said. “They are your problems. Your fights. Not mine.”

“But—” Weren’t we in this together? My objection died on my lips, however. Why had I even assumed that Teva’ryn would stay? I felt a familiar sickness in my stomach.

“I want to find my own purpose in this world,” Teva’ryn said. “Your purpose is not mine, Randel. So I leave this city soon.”

“But what about Imaya?” I asked. “Have you told her this yet?”

“Not yet. She will not like it. But she finds purpose here, in Dungeon. She will stay.”

I hated myself for feeling relieved at that. I ran a hand through my hair to hide my reaction. Teva’ryn was leaving. Not a big deal—it just caught me by surprise. He wasn’t even my friend, really; I hadn’t talked to him more than a handful of times in the past few weeks. I just hadn’t had the time – and the willingness – to get to know him better. I hadn’t gone out of my way to befriend him. Was it really so surprising that he had no incentive to stay?

“Well, I wish you good luck in finding your purpose,” I heard myself say.

“My thanks,” Teva’ryn said. “I hope you find yours too.”

“My purpose is just to stay alive,” I said with a sad chuckle. “I have considered leaving the city too, you know. Ditch the Dungeon and try to lay low somewhere else.”

“But you will not?” Teva’ryn asked.

“I will not,” I said. “I have a feeling that trouble would find me no matter where I go. And if I had to face said trouble, I’d rather do it where I have at least a small measure of power.”

Teva’ryn nodded solemnly, considering my words. I didn’t think that he saw the big picture, that the Inspector would never allow me to lay low and relax. She had given Soul Eater to me for a reason. She wouldn’t let me waste away.

“Will Devi stay with you?” Teva’ryn asked.

“Of course,” I said. I hoped.

“Then take good care of her, Randel. Protect her, if you can.”

“Heh. Sure. Just don’t let her hear you talk like that.”

Our conversation petered out as we watched the girls exchange blows on the moving platforms. This time Imaya had put her shield away to make the fight more fair, though eventually she managed to land a solid hit on Devi’s head anyway.

“Another match?” Teva’ryn asked.

“No,” I said. “I mean, no, thanks. I’m tired already.”

I was just so damn tired of everything these days.