Paul kept an eye on his companions while the group of kids walked towards them. Everything about this was setting his nerves on edge. As far as he knew, this shouldn’t have happened.

Did everyone know when the COLOSSEUM would open? It seemed impossible, but it was really the only thing that came to mind. He’d expected his party to have some recovery time before being thrown into some monster fights, not… whatever this was.

“THREE AGAINST EIGHT? OH, THIS SEEMS ALMOST UNFAIR… BUT RULES ARE RULES!” And then there was that guy, screaming into the mic up above. Man, he was already annoying, and this had just started.

The eight young kids stopped a few feet from them, arranged in a common triangle formation that designated the importance of each within their party. The guy up front stepped forward, stopping in front of Paul, who just so happened to be standing slightly in front of Heather and Jamie. The kid must’ve assumed Paul was the leader of the group.

It was a mistake, but he wasn’t planning on correcting it. This may be useful.

“Hi!” The kid smiled, sticking out his hand for a handshake. “Name’s Holden! What’s yours?”

It took Paul far too long to respond, his brain still trying to catch up. Too many things had happened in the past few minutes, and it was making his head spin.

“…Call me Paul,” he eventually managed, grabbing the kid’s hand. Holden’s handshake was surprisingly firm, and Paul’s eyes narrowed.

“Nice ta meetcha! Just wanted ta say hi, ya know? Good luck!” Holden grinned as the handshake ended, him and his team retreating to the far end of the arena as the announcer screamed something about sportsmanship. Heather and Jamie were whispering frantically behind Paul’s back, but he paid them no mind, instead opting to monitor Holden and his team.

Most of them seemed like the regular riff raff, but there was something about Holden that made Paul uneasy. He really wasn’t liking where this was going.

The whispering cut off behind him, and Jamie’s voice floated into his ear, steady amidst the chaos surrounding them.

“They used INSPECT and checked our LEVELS when that Holden kid grabbed your hand,” she whispered. “Should’ve used ANALYSE, then they could’ve seen our STATS. They think you’re the strongest member of our party.”

Paul struggled to keep a straight face, laughter bubbling up in his stomach. Oh man, those kids were gonna regret that. Heather and Jamie were still far ahead of him when it came to raw STATS.

He also decided to keep any comments about either of them to himself in the future. He hadn’t realized Jamie could hear things from such a far distance while using WIND.

“Alright, we can probably use that to our advantage then. Got any game plans?”

Heather hummed, tapping her fingers against her thigh. “Pretty standard fare for us, but we’re gonna rely more on misdirection than usual. Paul, I’ll be calling the shots, but we’re gonna try and make it look like we’re listening to your directions instead. Got it?”

“Ah, yeah, I can work with that.” Knowing how their party worked, Jamie would probably connect them all with WIND while Heather relayed her plans in their ears. They all tended to contribute to the plan, but Heather was the one who usually compiled it into something feasible. The time dilation from LIGHTNING was useful for that.

A spot of worry filled up in his gut as he realized something important.

“So… how do you two plan to fight? If they realize you’re on Realistic Mode…”

Heather and Jamie shared a look, something passing between them during the few seconds it took for them to break eye contact. They turned back to Paul and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got something worked out already,” Jamie said. Paul nodded, the worry in his chest dissipating slightly, but not completely. Realistic Mode didn’t allow players the use of SKILLS, which the other team could exploit heavily if they figured it out. Still, he would trust that Heather and Jamie knew what they were doing.

“LOOKS LIKE EVERYONE’S READY!” the announcer screamed, and Paul winced. He’d almost forgotten about that guy.

“NOW, TODAY’S ACTIVITY IS A HALF-HEALTH GLADIATOR TOURNAMENT! THE WINNERS WILL BE EXEMPT FROM FIGHTS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY WHILE THE LOSERS WILL FIGHT OUR NEXT CHALLENGERS! THREE LOSSES, AND YOUR TEAM GETS BOOTED FROM THE COLOSSEUM!

“THERE’S NO REAL RULES, JUST TRY NOT TO KILL EACH OTHER! THAT’S FOR LATER! JUST KNOW THAT IF YOUR HP DROPS BELOW HALF, YOU’LL BE PULLED FROM THE FIGHT!”

“Heather,” Paul whispered, and her ears perked up, “you cannot get hit. At all, if you can help it. You get hit in the wrong spot, you’re out of the fight. Doesn’t matter how high your REGEN is, you’ll drop under half health.”

She nodded, and he could see her lips pinch together into a thin line. Her eyes glowed for a moment, LIGHTNING flaring within them before it vanished, her face returning to its normal apathetic mask.

“MOVING ON, OUR CONTESTANTS! YES, ON MY LEFT YOU CAN SEE TEAM FLASH FROM FOUNDATION! THEY MAY BE YOUNG, BUT THEY HAVE NEVER FAILED A SINGLE QUEST OVER THE TWO YEARS THEY’VE BEEN OPERATIONAL! GIVE THEM A HAND!”

The crowd roared once more, and Paul could see a few signs being waved by some of the players in the stands. It seemed that the kids in front of them were more famous than he’d expected. Well, that’s another complication, I guess.

“AND ON MY RIGHT! THE WILDCARDS, THE ONES WHO CLEARED THE TOWER! THEY HAVE NO QUESTS TO THEIR NAMES, NO FORMALIZED GROUP, BUT I WOULDN’T UNDERESTIMATE THEM! THEY MAY HAVE SOMETHING NEW TO BRING TO THE TABLE! CLEARING THE TOWER’S NO SMALL FEAT, SO THEY MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT!”

More roaring, great. Can’t they shut up for a minute? I’m trying to think. Glancing over at his friends, Paul noticed that Heather’s eyebrow kept twitching and Jamie’s eyes were flickering between soft green and vibrant violet. It seemed he wasn’t the only one annoyed by this sham of a show.

They couldn’t even forfeit. If they lost three fights, they wouldn’t just get booted from the COLOSSEUM. No, their avatars would be deleted since they weren’t able to clear their beginner area. It had happened before, and since the COLOSSEUM was still technically part of their beginner area, they absolutely needed to win.

“ALRIGHT! NOW THAT INTRODUCTIONS ARE OUT OF THE WAY, IT’S TIME TO GET STARTED! EVERYONE READY?”

Paul’s body tensed as a countdown began flashing in the corner of his vision. Drawing his hammer, he prepared himself as the crowd began chanting.

“TEN! NINE! EIGHT!” He noticed one of the boys charging a rifle of some sort, his body glowing as he loaded his gun with a SKILL. The kid with the staff also began glowing as they started chanting something under their breath.

“SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR!” He flashed a few signs to Heather and Jamie, a rough idea of what the group ahead of them seemed to be planning, and the two of them nodded. They hunkered down behind Paul as he shifted his grip on his hammer, triggering the beginning of his SHIELD.

“THREE! TWO! ONE!” A brown-skinned boy popped up from behind Holden, pointing a glowing… wait, was that a submachine ray gun?

“BEGIN!” Paul didn’t even have time to curse before bullets and laser beams blasted against his SHIELD, his feet dragging along the ground as he was pushed back slightly. Heather and Jamie braced his back, keeping him from sliding back any further.

Fire rained down from the sky, and Paul cried out as it phased right through his SHIELD, burning his body as his HP started dropping in the corner of his eye. Whoever TEAM FLASH’s MAGE was, their BLAST SKILL was at a high enough LEVEL to completely ignore his SHIELD.

Jamie shifted slightly behind him, and he felt her twitch as some fireballs struck her back. Heather was wrapped between him and Jamie, keeping her from being hit. She was their weak point, with the way her VIT couldn’t be upgraded.

After about fifteen seconds, there was a momentary lapse in the bombardment as TEAM FLASH started reloading. Paul could barely hear their melee fighters approaching, their footsteps quick and light as they flew across the ground. He shifted his grip again, and his hammer started glowing as he readied himself to use his COUNTER.

Through the smoke and ash, Paul barely caught a glimpse of a gleam of metal and raised his hammer on instinct. With a loud clang, one of the boys was thrown back, faint red lines appearing across his skin as Paul’s COUNTER took effect.

Then, with a swirl of wind, the smoke cleared. Paul’s eyes widened as he saw Holden coming in from the side, his spear driving straight towards Paul’s exposed chest. He moved his hammer to catch the head of the spear, but he was much too slow.

Another clang echoed; a black dagger bathed in blue batting the spear to the side. Holden’s eyes widened dramatically as Paul’s BASH struck him straight on instead of deflecting his spear.

“AND WHAT A START! THE CLEARERS EASILY WITHSTOOD TEAM FLASH’S BOMBARDMENT AND ARE IN THE PERFECT POSITION FOR A COUNTERATTACK! A COMPLETE REVERSAL! HOW DOES TEAM FLASH PLAN TO RECOVER?”

Holden shot away from them, grunting as he bounced along the floor, his blond hair flapping wildly. There was a rush of air, and Paul abruptly noticed Heather and Jamie’s presences vanishing as the bombardment began anew. He was pushed back further this time without the crutch that was Heather and Jamie’s STR STATS, and he needed to use his hammer to try and deflect the fireballs coming his way, but he was smiling.

“7 o’clock, overhead.” Heather’s voice floated through his ears, and he responded immediately, his hammer crossing over his shoulder as he deflected an axe aimed at his back from a redheaded boy. He kicked the kid in the chest, sending him stumbling back.

“4, legs.” Jamie’s words made him jump, a sword whizzing right beneath his feet. He tucked his legs in as he went into a roll, barely managing to avoid another barrage of fireballs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Heather blur into existence in front of Holden, her knives sparking with blue electricity.

The kid with the submachine gun shifted his aim towards Heather, and Paul’s eyes widened.

“8, dodge left,” he called, making sure to pitch his voice slightly higher than normal. Jamie’s WIND took effect, carrying the words to Heather after registering his vocal pitch, and she blurred out of existence again as the kid fired.

Laser blasts cratered the ground around Holden, but none seemed to hit him. Must be some sort of SKILL.

“3, neck.” Paul ducked, his attention drawing back to his own enemies. Practicing this back in the TOWER was probably one of the best decisions they’d made as a group.

It worked best against large groups, allowing them to warn each other of incoming attacks and react accordingly. Jamie was a bit of a genius for coming up with it, in Paul’s opinion. They didn’t use it much against bosses, but mobs were fair game.

A large club rustled the hair on his head as it soared past him, and he sprung up, shifting his grip on his hammer, making it glow again. Activating BASH, he brought his hammer around and slammed it directly into the kid’s face, knocking him into a spin as he careened across the arena.

“WHAT’S THIS? DO THE CLEARERS HAVE SOME SORT OF PRECOGNITION SKILL? OR MAYBE SOME SECRET COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE? WHATEVER IT IS, IT APPEARS TO BE EVENING THE ODDS!”

He drowned out the roar of the crowd as he wove around another attack, noticing the redheaded kid with the axe charging towards Jamie while she prepared to strike the kid with the club while he was disoriented.

“3, chest.” He pitched his voice down this time, WIND carrying his words to Jamie instead of Heather. She leapt into the air immediately, easily clearing the kid’s height, seeming to float for a moment. Then, her staff flashed green as it whipped around, slamming into the poor kid’s noggin while the earth rumbled, spikes impaling the other kid she’d originally tried striking.

Both kids cried out, but then a flash of light wrapped around their bodies, and they vanished.

“TWO OF TEAM FLASH’S MEMBERS HAVE BEEN DEFEATED! IN A SINGLE MOVE, THE CLEARERS HAVE STARTED LEVELING THE FIELD!”

“Idea time,” Heather’s voice whispered. She was breathing heavily, blurring around the field as she focused mainly on dodging the marksmen, who had started targeting her instead of Paul. “Good job you two, by the way. Anyways, you should rush the marksmen and see if you can take them out. One or two would work, but it would be nice to get all three. It’ll help alleviate pressure.”

Paul nodded, locking eyes with Jamie. He smirked. Time to play up appearances.

“I got something!” He called loudly, making sure TEAM FLASH could hear him. “We’ll go with TRIGGER!” TRIGGER was a completely made-up codename, just a way to make TEAM FLASH believe that Paul was directing Heather and Jamie. Paul and Jamie already had the plan from Heather, but if everyone focused on Paul, they wouldn’t realize just how dangerous Heather was.

Sure enough, two of the leftover melee fighters immediately targeted Paul, trying to catch him in a pincher attack. Heather and Jamie’s voices in his ears were the only reasons he stayed standing, barely able to keep up with his hammer. Even so, he could see his health steadily decreasing with each passing second from small nicks and scrapes he received, getting closer and closer to the halfway mark.

Growling, he used BASH to knock his opponents back and poured his energy into his legs, sprinting towards the marksmen. Jamie was already there, bouncing off air to avoid a fireball from the MAGE and spinning her staff to deflect a bullet from rifle kid.

Strangely enough, her movements seemed familiar. Not in the way that he was used to, but it was almost like…

Ah, so that’s their plan. That’s actually pretty good. FLUX, one of the easiest SKILLS for STAFF users to learn. Jamie’s movements were nearly identical to anyone who trained FLUX at a high LEVEL, mimicking it near perfectly. The SKILL itself was hard to counter, and it had been one she’d used frequently a few years ago, before this whole mess had started.

Glancing over at Heather, noting the way that she deliberately performed only three actions during any engagement, confirmed his suspicions. It looked identical to the THREE-POINT ACTOR SKILL.

Apparently, his friends had decided that mimicking SKILLS would be the best way to keep people from believing they were playing on Realistic Mode. Great idea in theory, usually not so much in practice. His friends seemed to be making it work, though.

A sharp pain flared in his shoulder, and he grunted as one of the sword users withdrew their blade from his flesh. Glancing at the corner of his vision, he noticed that his HP was dangerously close to hitting the halfway mark. He maybe had a couple of seconds left if he was lucky.

“Tag out, Jamie!” She disengaged immediately, and Paul shifted his grip again on his hammer to activate BIND. Swinging his arms around, he launched the glowing hammer at the group of ranged attackers, grinning as their eyes widened in shock.

The MAGE chanted something, and a barrier appeared, protecting them and their friends. It seemed like a good plan… until the hammer broke through the barrier like tissue paper. The hammer hit the MAGE in the chest, and glowing tendrils of energy lashed out, wrapping around the MAGE and his two friends, pulling them to the ground.

Paul’s HP hit the halfway mark, and he sighed as he felt a pull on his body, light filling his vision. The last thing he saw was Jamie’s vicious grin as her eyes glowed violet, her staff screaming through the air as it streaked towards the three panicking boys lashed to the ground.

There was a short moment where Paul felt nothing, his avatar a jumbled bunch of particles floating through the air, but then the light faded. His feet touched the ground again, and he groaned as his vision cleared.

He seemed to have been relocated to the edge of the area, in a small dugout-like structure. There was a door that opened to the area, and another built into the COLOSSEUM walls, likely leading to resting and training areas. Paul could view the fight through the open window of the dugout, and he immediately focused on his two companions.

Heather was a blur, as per usual, but she was stopping more frequently than before. She was tiring. Holden’s spear whipped around him, deflecting Heather’s knives as she tried to exploit his openings. Paul could see some red lines traced across Holden’s skin, so Heather had at least been able to deal some damage, but it seemed mostly superficial.

Jamie, on the other hand… Paul winced. He almost felt bad for those kids. Her grin was bloodthirsty in a way that sent chills down his spine, her violet eyes filled with glee as her staff blurred around her.

Both kids cried out as they were knocked backwards, Jamie cackling as she threw her staff in the air. Clenching her fist, she smacked it against her palm, an audible crack echoing across the arena. The kids watched with wide eyes as the ground crumpled to dust beneath them. They fell, screaming, into the hole as Jamie caught her twirling staff.

With a flash of light, they appeared at Paul’s side, and he briefly glanced at them before turning back towards Heather and Jamie.

“TAKE IT EASY DOWN THERE! I’VE GOT OTHER MATCHES TO COVER LATER, AND WE CAN’T HAVE THE BEST MATCH BE THE FIRST ONE!” The crowd laughed, whooping and hollering as the fight continued.

All three combatants blurred across the field, Heather and Jamie ganging up on Holden as he struggled to deflect them with his spear. It looked like an unbreakable offensive, but Paul could see the way that Heather’s chest rose and fell frantically, Jamie limping slightly from a gash in her leg. This match would be over soon, and it was still anyone’s game.

“Um… mister?” He startled, glancing down at a kid who was watching him with wide eyes. “You said your name was Paul, right?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, kid, that’s right.”

“Um…” There was a pause as the kid played with his fingers, and Paul smiled at the little guy.

“Don’t worry, kid. Ask whatever ya want. I may not answer everything, but I’ll try, alright?” The kid brightened, nodding vigorously.

“Yes! Well… I, ah… I used INSPECT on your party earlier, but…”

“But things didn’t work out for ya, did they?” Paul questioned, seeing where this was going.

“No, but that doesn’t make sense! You’re, like, LEVEL 40-something and they’re both under LEVEL 10! Why can’t Holden finish this fight already?” Paul opened his mouth to reply, but the kid was on a roll.

“And still! You’re their leader! Highest LEVEL, and you called the shots earlier, so why? Why are things still going?”

Paul sighed. He felt guilty about how they’d treated these poor kids, but he squashed that feeling as soon as it appeared. His friends were in a battle for survival; these kids were not. Crushing a little kid’s feelings was worth it if it kept his friends alive.

Crouching down, he gazed into the kid’s eyes, noting the way that the other kids were all trying to appear like they weren’t listening. It wasn’t working.

“Buddy… sorry about this, but we tricked you guys,” Paul said, and the kid tilted his head slightly. “I’m not the leader, and I’m not the strongest of my teammates. Actually, heh, I’m kinda the weakest.”

There was a shriek from the arena, and Paul shot to attention, his gaze sweeping his surroundings. He recognized that shriek.

Sure enough, he found Heather standing before Holden with his spear through her chest, the spear still glowing from the aftereffects of a SKILL. From the absence of gasps or any stunned silences, Paul had to assume that most of the audience had the gore censorship settings turned on. That was probably for the best.

Holden’s expression displayed his glee, finally landing a definitive hit on his opponent, but that faded as Heather smiled back, blood coating her lips. She grabbed the spear in her chest as her body began to teleport to the dugout, holding him in place as Jamie plunged down from the sky.

“LEVELS aren’t everything, kid,” Paul whispered as Holden’s face received a large red dent, Jamie’s staff using a blast of WIND to strike him down. Two flashes of light appeared, depositing Heather and Holden on one of the benches in the dugout.

“THAT’S A WRAP, FOLKS! THE FINAL VERTICT OF OUR FIRST MATCH! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? WHAT AN EXCELENT REVERSAL! GIVE IT UP FOR… THE CLEARERS OF THE TOWER!”

The crowd roared viciously, and Paul watched as Jamie’s eyes flickered back to their usual green. She slumped in place, using her staff to support her aching body, barely managing to send the crowd a tired smile.

Heather coughed, blood splattering across her lips as the hole in her chest mended itself. Her eyes grinned at Paul, tired but content.

“Man, that huuurt!” she whined, and Paul snorted.

“Sure, sure, like you haven’t had worse.”

“I refuse to acknowledge that right now. Lemme nap first and I’ll think about it.”