“Huh.”

The lum arena was bigger than Seven thought it would be. She could see they'd filled the place with trees. The clashing of arrows and sword ringing out as Archy fought against TidalWave. Those two had been a lot closer to the area than her. Third had already snuck out to the magi guild but was sending her updates on when the tanks would arrive.

“MILLY” A resounding voice boomed out across the arena as IEatTortillas appeared and brought Seven into a bear hug.

“Hey Ana.” Seven smiled and broke away from her friend.

Below, inside the arena, Archy tripped over as the voice shocked him from his concentration. TidalWave didn’t waver in taking advantage of the distraction to close the distance and stab at the struggling archer.

[Player: TidalWave has won the arena duel.]

“So you joined TidalWave and Archy’s team.” Attracting joined Seven and looked down at the two with interest as they began to duel again, “I’m surprised they teamed up.”

“They’re great.” She said with genuine admiration, “I’m lucky to be part of their team.”

“I agree.” He looked down at them with an unreadable expression.

“Oh god, it's so good to catch up.” IEatTortillas cut through the awkwardness with a grin, “You went through the forest right? I swear we were up to our asses in quests for the last day.”

They chatted happily together as Attracting continued to watch the duels with interest. Seven explained that they were there to recruit tanks and would meet with the potential teammates soon. She didn’t need to hold anything back but she didn’t mention that they wanted Attracting present just in case he had some magical way to tell if they were good players. She hadn’t exactly agreed with TidalWave’s assessment, but she could admit that Attracting was good at picking out a skilled player.

-Seven.- A private message from Third interrupted her chat. -Did you tell the magi guild to prepare something for when I came in?-

He sounded extremely excited.

-Yeah, I mentioned something like that to the shop guy.- She thought he would be done with the shopping and be on his way back to the arena by now, -why? What happened?-

Instead of replying with a message he sent her the picture of a rather regal looking staff, marble white wood with a golden orb hovering at the tip.

[Master staff of Control (Sealed): +6 INT, +4 CON, +2 WIS]

-They gave me a test to complete instead of payment.- Third couldn’t contain his happiness. -Thank you so much. This is a great help.-

-That’s great!- She admired the stats of the weapon, -What does it mean if it's sealed?-

-The magi shopkeeper informed me that I would be able to unlock the weapon further during my second class advancement. Even if I find a better weapon along the way I should hold on to this one until that time. Ah, Spark Joy and Roxxy have informed me that they are on their way now to the arena. I’ll be right there.-

“Oh, the people we’re going to be meeting will be here soon.” She let IEatTortillas know, “We’ll have to keep chatting later.”

“Sure.” IEatTortillas nodded his head enthusiastically, “I’m going to watch those two fighting. They’re insane!”

He walked away with Attracting to one of the nearby seats. The area they were in was elevated far above the arena so they had a view of the entire area. Down below Archy was pushing harder against TidalWave because of his sudden loss. Seven could see both had grown a lot stronger, most likely due to the equipment they had purchased while checking out Lum.

Soon Thirds rotund figure burst through the door and he brought out his new weapon.

“It's excellent. Absolutely excellent.” He beamed.

As he was showing off his new equipment two newcomers walked through the door behind him and looked down at the arena curiously. Archy was celebrating as he had been TidalWave only seconds before. The warrior was impatiently waiting for Archy to accept the rematch but the archer was having too much fun lifting his arms up in triumph to the clapping IEatTortillas.

“Hi there.” One of the newcomers walked up to greet them. “You’re Third and Seven right?”

It was mostly a formality to ask since the game always placed their names above their avatar’s heads, but they appreciated the ice breaker.

“That’s us.” Seven nodded and turned away from the arena to say hi, “Are you Roxxy? That must be Spark Joy behind you.”

“Yup. Sorry we’re late, we went out farming to buy the last of our gear.”

Spark Joy gave them a wave and as Third started to talk to them about the team, Seven’s eyes wandered across their equipment. The girls were both completely stacked head to toe in steel armour. Roxxy clearly had the same items that TidalWave had equipped but Seven didn’t know what stats they gave. Either way, it meant that the girls would be more powerful than the stats that they’d sent to the team over the forum.

Spark Joy looked especially vicious. She wasn’t carrying the chain and sickle weapon she had listed but her iron shield was almost the size of three-quarters of her body. It had a menacing minotaur head insignia that seemed to jump out of the iron slate. Her chest armour seemed thicker and tougher than what TidalWave and Roxxy were wearing. She definitely looked like someone that could hold their ground against monsters easily.

Now they had all powered up by buying the equipment they needed.

Third had somehow scrounged the money up to buy some normal health and mana potions which healed for 75 health and mana each. So they would compensate him for the costs afterward and everyone gained 10 of those each. They also bought enough to provide some to the tanks if they joined the party.

“So those two are the other team members?” Spark Joy held a steady gaze at the arena where TidalWave and Archy had just begun their latest fight.

Seven was confident those two had completely forgotten that they were supposed to be meeting new team members today. She could see both were fully concentrating on the fight. Archy was riding off the momentum of his winning streak and TidalWave was indulging in his favourite pastime of surpassing his current skills.

She could see that Attracting was watching the fight intensely. He seemed to frown in confusion as he saw Third appear, then he looked to Archy and back to Third and shook his head in confusion.

“Oh-oh!” Roxxy bounced around trying to get a better angle to view the fight, “This looks like fun.”

Archy ducked between trees and bushes firing arrows at TidalWave. This time Archy wasn’t taking any chances, each arrow aimed squarely at his enemy’s chest so that every shot would require the most precise of dodging or else it would still hit.

Archy trusted TidalWave to dodge the arrows by the narrowest of margins, so instead of firing them all in a straight line, he shifted his aim so that only one side could be used to escape the first arrow. He then shot the second arrow at the spot where TidalWave was forced to move into if he didn’t want to get hit, making the second arrow unavoidable. A third and fourth arrow soon followed a similar tactic but each one was slightly shifted to each side so that even if TidalWave tried to dodge the second arrow he would be hit by yet another.

A deadly strategy.

Of course, TidalWave couldn’t dodge every arrow. He simply wasn’t fast enough and the arrows were too precise in their path. Instead, he dodged the first in the barrage and used the flat side of his sword to block the next arrow, allowing him to stay in place and escape the trap that Archy set up.

Archy grumbled to himself as TidalWave dismantled his tactic so easily and fired more arrows while jumping back. If TidalWave got too close he would activate his flame body skill that would allow him to move faster than the warrior.

The annoying part for him was that despite his range advantage, TidalWave was inherently a faster player than he was. Due to one of the reaper abilities he was able to catch up with Archy given enough time. To counteract this the archer fired arrows that forced TidalWave to zig-zag and take detours to dodge them. He would even duck and dodge behind trees so that TidalWave would have to take time to move around them. It was a game of cat and mouse, if Archy couldn’t force TidalWave to move out of the way enough then the warrior would catch up to him and he would have a more difficult fight in close combat. And TidalWave knew it.

“Oh my god-oh my god.” Roxxy was watching them intently, “how are they moving like that? What do you think Joy?”

“Amazing.” Spark Joy breathed the word as she watched the delicate balance that had formed between the roaming archer and charging warrior.

She could see that a single mistake would lead to defeat. But neither of them was making that mistake.

Seven and Third were fairly used to it by now. The outcome of the fight interested them because they knew that if Archy won he would brag to them non-stop for the next hour. Especially if this was the last fight between them now that the tanks had arrived.

Seven blinked as Roxxy seemed to materialise in front of her with a barely restrained expression of glee, “Are you two as great as them.”

Seven had thought about dueling the other three in her mind often. In reality, she didn’t think she was strong enough to beat Archy or TidalWave. She knew TidalWave was too good at dodging and fighting in close range for her to win at the moment. He would slice her like a fish after a few seconds. She also didn’t think she could beat Archy. His aim was too good at the moment so in a long-range fight he would surely get more hits in against her than she would against him.

For now, that is. Once she had mastered the art of changing the direction of her magic blasts and practiced her accuracy further she was sure that the outcome wouldn’t be so certain.

She didn’t know about Third. She felt that she might counter his class a bit but she hadn’t put that theory to the test. But she was sure he could put up an equal fight against TidalWave and Archy.

“Third is.” She said honestly, “You should ask him to fight against one of those two after.”

“She says that.” the deadly attack that was Roxxy’s gleaming eyes suddenly faced Third, “But I think you’ll soon find out for yourself how skilled each of us is. That is if you would like to join.”

“Oh-oh, can we Joy? Can we?” Roxxy turned to Spark Joy.

Then she went silent as she saw the iron guardian completely engrossed in the fight below.

“Hmm?” Spark Joy broke out of her spell and she turned to Roxxy.

Roxxy repeated her question and Spark Joy nodded, “Of course.”

‘That went remarkably easier than I expected.’ Seven smiled.

She had thought with all of Third and Archy’s talking yesterday that the tanks would give them excessive demands if the team wanted to travel with them. But the two seemed like down to earth players that weren’t too cocky. She was looking forward to having them on the team.

Third felt like grinning as Seven barely stopped the emotions crossing her face. The girl was an open book and she didn’t even know it. He had different ideas on the situation. He hadn’t been a big fan of meeting the tanks and showing off in front of them with a duel but he trusted that TidalWave had more common sense than Archy. If the archer had suggested the idea he would have shot it down in a second. He knew from talking with the tanks that they were thinking of making demands. Their attitude had been fairly relaxed but as level 20s that were both rare classes they had probably been looking down on all the team making them offers. He figured that they had only come to check out his team because having four more level 20s was even rarer, let alone four that had rare classes. They probably considered themselves equal to or even slightly above this team that had damage-dealing classes and so could level faster.

But that had changed the moment they viewed the fight happening below. If they had been less skilled players than they might have assumed that the two in the arena were showing off and were making an event for the tanks.

‘But those buffoons completely forgot about the reason they’re in there.’ Third felt like chuckling at the fact that their lack of attention had caused a major benefit.

Every move they made was designed to bring them closer to killing the other. They had completely forgotten formality and pageantry in favour of deadliness. They were so equally matched in skill that the duel was being dragged out but it was also a testament to how high their ability was that both could hold on this long without making a mistake. They had turned a simple show into a tightrope dance of death, and the two tanks were skilled enough to pick up on it.

Roxxy was bouncing around excitedly but Third could see her eyes following every movement and attack that was being made. He was sure that she could see the amount of skill being displayed and was calculating all sorts of things underneath that cheerful guise. But it was Spark Joy that Third was interested in. He could see that she’d seen the level of skill his team members had but instead of viewing it as a spectacle or appreciating them she seemed to have a single thought in her head.

She simply wanted to fight them.

That interested Third more than Roxxy’s reaction. She was a tank but she seemed to have confidence in herself, and she had a class that wasn’t attached to one of the basic paths, meaning it was like his own and TidalWave’s, harder to qualify for and harder to obtain. If she wanted to fight against those two, then it was because she had confidence that even if she was a tank, she could win. That thought made Third excited.

“You’re probably thinking some super complicated thought right now.” Seven popped up beside him as the two tanks became engrossed in the fight again.

The duel had finally entered its final stage as TidalWave had caught up to Archy despite the archer’s attempts to delay him.

“The thought crossed my mind,” Third acted innocent, “that it would be a good idea to allow the two tanks to fight against our team. If they wanted to, of course.”

“Of course.” Seven repeated cheekily.

“Well now. Hello there.” A new voice called out to them and they turned around, only to find that Attracting was calling to the two girls watching the fight.

They turned around with expressions of annoyance on their faces. Roxxy’s expression immediately shifted into a cheerful smile but Spark Joy wasn’t as skilled in hiding her emotions, simply choosing to ignore Attracting and instead go back to watching the fight, only to witness Archy being stabbed through the stomach and dying.

“I didn’t expect to see the famous tank duo of Lum while watching an arena match.”

“Wow, did you hear that Joy, we’re famous.” Roxxy spun around and pestered Spark Joy with the revelation.

Then she saw her friend was frowning in annoyance. She had missed the end of the match between TidalWave and Archy due to Attracting’s interruption.

“So who are you? Do you want us to join your team?” Roxxy turned back to Attracting. “I’m sorry I think we’re going to join these guys. They look so skilled and fun to play with.”

At her words Attracting opened his arms wide and looked at Archy and TidalWave, who had finished the duel and come up to the platform to stand next to Third and Seven.

“Well, I’ve beaten both of them in fair fights. Their wizard as well.” Attracting grinned as he revealed this to the tanks.

“Is that true?” Roxxy spun around to face their team and asked.

“Absolutely.” Third agreed.

“One hundred percent.” Seven nodded her head.

“I lost fair and square,” TidalWave added.

“What are you talking about? He cheap sho- BLERGH” Archy’s objection was cut short as Third elbowed him hard in the stomach.

Roxxy eyed them with suspicion. If they had lost against this person surely they would be a lot less cheerful about it? They seemed positively giddy at the memory.

What she didn’t know was that at that moment the four of them had come to a single conclusion. If Attracting brought up beating the three players he had dueled, then they would agree with him to the greatest possible extent. Unfortunately, it seemed like Archy hadn’t quite gotten the hint, but they felt that they could still proceed with their niceties.

Why?

Because Attracting was annoying.

Even as his friend Seven couldn’t deny it. The guy went around challenging random people to duels and winning by cheap shots in most of them. Then he went around bragging to others about it. Since growing in skill she could see that no matter how good Attracting was, all the people he had beaten were far more talented and that the guy wouldn’t win without resorting to some sort of surprise attack if he fought them again. She hadn’t figured a way to match that cheap shot attack of his yet, but Archy alone had probably already thought of half a dozen ways to win in a rematch.

It scared Seven to think about how many strategies Third had come up with.

So they had come to a consensus that the situation was similar to that of an adult being confronted with a yapping puppy. They decided to indulge the puppy and hope that it scampered off and stopped annoying them. Then, Attracting could go and bother other people.

Attracting took the bait hook, line, and sinker.

“You see? But don’t take their word for it. How about we have a fight right here and now?” His eyes gleamed and the team rolled their eyes.

His actions were fairly predictable at this point. Seven could see TidalWave triumphantly sending her hand signals as his plan worked perfectly. He had somehow managed to guess Attracting’s actions far in advance.

“He really beat you?” Spark Joy had become curious as well now.

“Absolutely.” Third led the chorus.

“One hundred percent.” Seven nodded her head even more enthusiastically.

“I lost fair and square.” TidalWave added again.

“I still have no idea what you guys are talking abo- BLERGH” Archy had tried to defend against Third’s elbow and was hit on his other side by TidalWave.

“How about we have a duel?” Attracting offered the duel to Spark Joy and without a second thought, she accepted.

Then two teleported into the arena below and the team watched with interest.

“What was that?” Archy flailed his arms about, “We should be kicking that jackass’s ass.”

“No you see he’s like a baby dog…” Seven began to explain patiently to Archy as the fight began below them.

Roxxy listened with interest as Seven explained the Archy why they were ignoring Attracting’s taunts.

The fight began and Seven was shocked to see one of her underlying assumptions completely shatter from the get-go. She had thought that Spark Joy would be as slow as a turtle when fighting because of her heavy armour and giant shield. The girl ran through the field with a speed comparable to her own, as though she wasn't troubled at all by the weight of her belongings.

“Very good.” Third appreciated the ducking and weaving that Spark Joy employed even before she had seen her enemy.

“She’s the best.” Roxxy was enthusiastic.

She had no doubt that Spark Joy would win this duel.

Attracting was calmly waiting at the edge of the arena where there was an open space. If he wasn’t careful, Spark Joy would body slam him. The iron guardian had just spotted him and was trying to do just that.

Attracting burst into action, calling down a purple claw made of smoke and also lifting his wand, causing a burst of purple to bypass Spark Joy’s shield and erupt on her body. She dodged the claw but felt surprise at the sudden purple cloud sprouting on her body.

“There it is.” Archy’s and Third’s expressions darkened.

This was the attack that had surprised them both. It was completely unavoidable as long as Attracting had the opponent in his line of sight. This was also the reason he had lured Spark Joy into an open area.

It was particularly effective against Third because his rifts couldn’t return the damage of an enemy attack if they didn’t pass through the rift. He had died without being able to utilise his greatest weapons.

Spark Joy immediately reacted by crouching behind her shield and the attacks stopped. She could deduce the attack was based on his line of sight and had hidden her body behind the shield. Luckily for her, it worked.

TidalWave clapped at this and Seven looked at him in surprise. “What?” He gazed at her innocently. “It's a smart tactic.”

By now, Attracting and Spark Joy were only a few feet away from each other. Spark Joy was just too fast and Attracting had been in a corner to start with. He swiped more claws at her and moved around her in a way that allowed him to bring her into his sight, causing damage. She also used her iron sickle to hit him; Each attack seemed to be able to extend a few feet, far more than a sword could. Attracting was in bad shape and Spark Joy still had over half her health left.

Suddenly she ran into the fleeing priest and threw out her sickle, causing him to stop moving as it wrapped around him. She caught him and brought him in and as she jumped up with her shield. She was clearly going to slam him to death with this move.

His health couldn’t take another hit.

But before she could come back down to attack him a blue light shone around his body. Seven and her team groaned as the light shot at Spark Joy just as she was about to come down for the kill. Her eyes widened in surprise and her body went limp as it fell to the ground, dead. Roxxy let out a strangled croak as the win she thought would go easily to Spark Joy suddenly got turned around. She looked at the team and couldn't see surprise on any of their faces.

There was no doubt in their minds that Attracting was good, but he had clearly been completely outclassed. If their theory about the mysterious attack having a one-day cooldown was true, he wouldn’t even pose a challenge to them now. But they had no intention to fight him when they wouldn’t gain anything from it.

Seven still had her doubts as well. She had seen him use the attack more than once in one day before.

A few seconds later, the two duelists appeared. Attracting sported a smug expression and Spark Joy was frowning.

“Is that also how he won against you?” Spark Joy had a dark expression on her face as Attracting watched them all with a triumphant grin on his face.

“Absolutely.” Third led the chorus again.

“One hundred percent.” Seven nodded her head even more enthusiastically.

“I lost fair and square.” TidalWave smiled.

“Something about a puppy.” Archy eyed Third and TidalWave carefully.

Attracting was too far into his celebratory mood to notice that they were completely re-using the lines they had before. He quickly turned to Roxxy and Spark Joy.

“Good fight. There’ll definitely be chances for us to benefit from each other. Let’s party up sometime.”

Spark Joy grunted in response but Attracting didn’t notice as IEatTortillas walked up to them and told him to get off his butt since they had quests to do. They waved bye to the team and Seven walked out with them to say a more personal goodbye.

“You have a great team there Milly.” IEatTortillas was ecstatic to see that her friend was partying with people so skilled, “You’ve got to introduce us all properly later. But they definitely make me want to practice more just by watching them.”

Without another word, he barrelled off into the city and Seven sighed happily as she saw her friend was the same bundle of energy as ever.

“I want to be as skilled as them soon.” She replied despite the fact that the warrior was already long gone.

Attracting began to run after his companion but turned back for a second to shout a reply, “Don’t worry, fat people can be skilled too!”

*CRACK*

“You mother-”

Seven sent a stream of curses at the priest but he’d already disappeared into the crowds. She could have sworn she had heard her forehead making a cracking sound. The people around her started to stare and then rushed hurriedly away as they saw her expression.

‘Well, now I just feel like shit.’ She stood dejectedly outside of the arena, ‘Where did that come from?’

That definitely didn’t sound like the normal Andrew she knew in real life. Attracting was a lot more shallow.

‘Has he only been seeing my weight this whole time?’

She didn’t sport the idea that she was skilled enough to be challenged by him yet. But she hadn’t thought that her skill and her looks were the only thing that interested him. Even if she hadn’t changed the appearance of her avatar, it didn’t matter since it was a game. He should act just like he normally did in real life.

He’d been ignoring her the entire time and only playing with IEatTortillas. Despite IEatTortillas inviting her to every adventure that they had gone on, Attracting hadn’t asked her to join them a single time. Even when they received quests Seven had only found out because IEatTortillas had told her when Attracting hadn’t bothered to. Seven could tell that Attracting wouldn’t object if she asked to party with them. But to her there was a difference between being wanted and being allowed to tag along.

She shook her head to get rid of her confusion and anger, ‘Whatever.’

Archy walked out of the arena to bring her back inside, “Hey, what are you doing out here being so anti-social? We’ve got to go say a proper hello as a team to our new tanks.”

She turned around and Archy could see her stormy expression, even he could tell something had pissed her off, “What do you think when you see me playing?”

Archy was taken aback by the sudden question, “Um, don’t get me wrong here.” He hesitated and clearly was taking his time to find the right words, “I think you’re super skilled but I think TidalWave and I are just at a higher level right now.”

He expected her to get angrier than she was and he prepared himself to defend his statement but in an instant her frown turned into a beaming smile.

“Good answer.” She walked back inside, “Let’s go greet those new teammates.”