The new day came with a distinct shift in the mood. Everyone had wrung all the merriment they could out of the previous night, now it was time to face the world. Thando, Willem and Chan were in the clearing doing early morning drills to keep themselves fit. They were already fit of course, but it felt good to be at least doing something in preparation for their first day of real combat.

Waking up had been pretty awkward. Turns out seductive Sabine only appeared when she had some dutch courage in her, and seeing Thando shirtless in the weak morning light had turned her into a blushing, stammering mess. She all but ran out of the room when he started doing his daily pushups.

Feeling guilty at hijacking the shared room all night, he went outside, where Willem and Chan had already started their drills in the pre-dawn light and joined them.

“Sorry if I’m a bit stiff today guys, I had to sleep on some hay.”

“Oh shit bro, me too. Such a shame that events conspired to make us all sleep outside our designated beds.”

The two glared accusingly at Thando.

“Oh wait, we didn’t all sleep on hay right? Someone looks limber and well-rested. Where did you get your rest, by the way, Thando?”

The man in question was grateful for his darker skin, as it made it harder to see his blush.

“Okay guys, I get it, damn. I’m sorry, I honestly wasn’t expecting us to click so easily.”

“Awesome bro, that apology really took the crick out of my back.”

“Whoa same. I feel like I slept on a bed of clouds after that.”

Thando laughed despite himself.

“Fuck you guys, you knew exactly what you were doing sending me to talk to a girl that was clearly attracted to me. Both of you are smart enough to have known this was a possibility. Regardless, I think we can call that a success. How did it go with Likhwa?”

“Well, we didn’t have the advantage of pillowtalk, but we were chatting the whole night. He’s actually a cool guy. He has a bit of resentment towards Annelise though, apparently him and Maxwell were the dynamic duo until she came in and basically pushed him out. But he’s happy to see his friend happy, so he never brings it up. Except when he’s super drunk I guess.”

“Super drunk? Chan, did you let the poor man go drink-for-drink with this alcohol sponge?”

“I warned him bro, I really did. Willem totally egged him on purposefully though.”

“Fake news, I did no such thing.”

“Yeah that does sound like Willem. Did you at least keep him hydrated?”

“I didn’t do it though.”

“Yeah, I gave him some water after every drink. It’s amazing how consistently this ploy of his works though bro, any dude who’s even slightly insecure always tries to prove how tough his liver is when Willy’s around.”

“There is no ploy, you guys are crazy.” He said with a smirk, “And stop fucking calling me that.”

“Calling you what?”

Maxwell had come out of the house and joined their conversation.

“Willy, bro. Definitely call him that, he loves it. Won’t respond to any other name, in fact.”

Maxwell and Thando laughed as Willem tried unsuccessfully to grab the mischievous man and ended up chasing him behind one of the houses.

“So Thando…”

Maxwell wiggled his eyebrows knowingly.

“Ugh, does everyone know about this?”

“Probably. Lise and I noticed she never came back to the room after talking to you and put two and two together, the Inspired can literally sense life so they definitely knew you guys were together, Piet’s betrothed slept in the bedroom underneath yours so she probably know-“

“Okay okay, I get it. I’m not slick.”

Maxwell chuckled at that.

“Its fine, I encourage it even. I’ve known Sabine for quite a while now and she doesn’t handle stress well at all. She would usually stick to Lise in these situations, but I’m afraid I might have messed up their friendship a bit when I asked her to marry me. They haven’t been as close as they once were ever since our engagement.”

Thando was about to respond when Alexander walked out of the house, Connor in tow.

“Call the others, we have to get an early start. Thando, I hope that was a casual encounter. Build relationships when we’re not all in imminent danger of violent death.”

Thando threw his hands up in exasperation, wondering if he’d ever hear the end of it.

Maxwell walked back inside to get his group, as Willem and Chan ran back, red-faced and breathless with laughter.

“Sleep with one eye open bitch, I’ll get you eventually.”

“I love you too, Willy, I just think we’re moving a bit too fa-“

Alexander cut in, serious and stern-faced.

“Fun’s over, kids. We need to get going.”

With that, the mirthful atmosphere vanished. The rest of Maxwell’s group shuffled out of the house, sombre and quiet in anticipation of a day of brutality. Alexander addressed them.

“In maybe half an hour, the sun will officially rise. You should get an icon in the corner of your vision indicating the conflict you’re currently facing. At that point it will have officially activated and we’ll start having regular encounters, meaning we can never stay in one place for too long. Don’t die.”

Annelise broached the topic Thando had been dreading.

“What about the unconscious dude? Wouldn’t it be better to like, leave him here if we’re gonna be constantly on the move?”

Thando, Willem and Chan all spoke over one another.

“What the fuck, we can’t just leave him!”

“Sorry my brother’s life is so inconvenient.”

“Chill out sis, we’ll be the only ones responsible for him.”

Annelise raised her hands, palms forward, in a defensive gesture.

“Okay wow, I was just bringing it up to the group. We’re going to have to decide sooner or later and I’d prefer us to do that like, now instead of while we’re getting chased by a giant.”

“She’s right,” Alexander agreed, “let’s make the decision now because it will only get harder and less convenient. Put it to a vote?”

Thando’s heart thumped as the group nodded in assent. He spoke quickly.

“Wait, before we vote, I’d like to make clear the fact that we won’t make him anyone else’s problem. We’ll carry him, feed him, wash him, everything. With me, Willem and Chan taking shifts pulling the wagon, we won’t slow the group down. Each one of us can run at full speed for about five minutes with him on our back, probably a lot more now that we’re superheroes, so if we need to dash away, we won’t hold you back. It’ll be as if he isn’t even there.”

The group digested his words as he made his case. Alexander butted in.

“You three are severely underestimating how rough this will be. Looking at all your archetypes and those that we probably haven’t even found yet, this will be the toughest Shift in history. But I won’t force you. Anyone in favour of bringing the kid, raise your hand.”

Immediately, Piet’s friends raised their hands, and after a glance at Thando, Sabine raised her hand too, blushing conspicuously. He shot her a grateful smile, suddenly feeling guilty.

The two Inspired, Maxwell and Annelise didn’t even flinch, but Likhwa looked torn. His gaze bounced from Piet, laying on the small wagon bed, to Sabine, to Maxwell, to Annelise.

Come on dude, raise your damn hand. I don’t want to leave this group.

Slowly, under everyone’s scrutiny, he raised his hand, looking sheepish. Annelise scoffed and turned away. He tried to justify his choice.

“I mean, we snatched him from the jaws of death yesterday, it just seems like a waste to then abandon him.”

Likhwa, you beautiful man!

With four voting to leave him, but five voting to keep him, it was a done deal. With that, plus a lot of grumbling from Annelise, they set out of the hamlet just as the sun peeked over the mountains in the distance.

Conflict Activated

The Spectre of War has appeared once more! A physical manifestation of the people’s worries about the coming hostilities, the Spectre drifts through the land, bringing horror and panic with every sweep of its terrible gaze. As the [Demon King]’s vanguard, it weakens an area by bringing to life the fears and phobias of the populace, destabilising attempts to mount a defence and allowing the rest of the Infernal Horde to sweep through unhindered. A truly insidious foe, it can amplify the terror you feel from one of its apparitions, and the more you fear it, the stronger it gets.

The group stopped in their tracks, the nascent archons distracted by the golden screen popping up in their fields of view.

“What happened?”

“A screen bro, it just appeared in front of me and I’m guessing everyone else too.”

Alexander and Connor shared a look.

“Tell us what’s on it.”

Thando recounted the information to a pensive Alexander, the blond man pacing with a hand on his chin as he digested the description of the conflict.

“Okay this is an opportunity. Usually these aren’t explained off the bat and you’d have to find a tavern or similar to understand what it is you’re facing. Gerald’s going to be so smug about this. This conflict will be pretty straightforward, sounds like this spectre traps you in a schema of your own fears. Since this is Man vs Self, the spectre itself likely has no direct combat ability, and should be easily dispatched if we can all get-”

Willem and Thando turned to Chan, whispering under their breaths as Alexander went on in the background.

“Who’s Gerald?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get that either.”

“I think it was a namedrop bro. He mentioned he knew [Gamer] right? His real name is Gerald Gygax.”

“What does he have to do with this?”

Chan shrugged.

“We’ll ask him later, bro.”

At that, they turned back to the still-speaking man.

“-ith Thando and Willem at our rear, since they have the most directly offensive abilities and can react to threats with enough force to either put them down, give us the opportunity to assist or the breathing space necessary for a quick getaway. Everyone’s clear on their role?”

Everyone except Chan nodded, the man in question sporting a confused frown before simply shrugging and strolling over to pull the small wagon.

They walked in formation through the forest, Alexander, Likhwa and Annelise at the front, Maxwell and Sabine in the middle along with Chan doing his best impression of a mule, and Thando, Willem and Connor at the back.

The greenery around them would normally be calming, but ever since the conflict had started, the normal forest sounds had gone silent. It reminded Thando too much of when they’d confronted the goblins.

Likhwa would sporadically leap high into the air, above the treetops, and stand on a platform of air as he made a cylinder with his hand and stared though it like it was a telescope. Of course, it may as well have been.

He was scanning the horizon as usual, when he gave a wordless shout and immediately dropped onto the ground.

“At least this stupid archetype is good for something. I think I see the Spectre about 11 miles from here, we can follow the road. It’s kind of transparent, so hard to see”

Alexander turned to the others.

“Okay, that’s about 20km if I’m converting right, so at our pace we should be there in about 2 hours. Prepare yourselves, there’s a good chance that whatever we see will be the exact thing you’re least mentally ready to deal with.”

Steely gazes and nods of assent met his statement and the group rushed off, a palpable tension now in the air.

“Big fucker, isn’t he?”

Everyone silently nodded at Maxwell’s observation. The faceless Spectre was massive, easily topping the tree canopy. It looked like a scaled-up version of the famous slenderman, with a pale, featureless face, only in stained white robes, with wicked claws at the end of its dangling arms. It was hovering just above the ground, the ragged ends of the robes fading into nothingness near the forest floor. Manacles of a dark metal bound its wrists, but the thick chains attached to them were broken and dragged on the ground, creating runnels between the bushes.

“Can we not just bombard it from a distance? That should be the safest plan.”

Agreement rang out at Likhwa’s suggestion, but Alexander swiftly put paid to the idea.

“That won’t work. I’m not sure how this Spectre functions but conflicts won’t let you change the nature of the battle you face. Man vs Self means exactly that, we will all get some sort of personalised challenge.”

The heavy chains clanked and crashed as the towering Spectre floated across the otherwise silent forest, its eyeless gaze peering off into an unknown horizon. It gave Thando chills when he stared too long. The group just watched it for a second, mesmerised, no one saying a word. Annelise broke the spell.

“Ugh, I’ll go first. Obviously, you all lack the balls to get this over and done with.”

Her eyes shone with a familiar golden light as she held her hand out to the side and a short black rod materialised in her palm.

“I have to like, get its attention, right?”

Her voice reverberated with an aura of authority as she touched the zeitgeist, an effect of her archetype, [Headmistress]. Her relaxed demeanour completely at odds with the rest of the group’s feelings.

I knew she was crazy.

Alexander responded to her question.

“I think so. Beacon-type monsters like this guy usually have a range within which they’ll always know where you are. Let’s try getting closer.”

“Cool,” she said, inhaling deeply before taking a sprinter’s stance. “Try to keep up, boys.”

She shot off into the trees, the leaves rustling at her passage.

“Stay with the group!! Dammit, why do you kids always go running off into danger?”

Alexander ran after her, with the others immediately following. They’d agreed to leave Piet behind, hidden in one of the trees far from the action, putting Thando’s mind at ease.

Annelise was visible in the distance, jumping from treetop to treetop like an elf. She was making great progress when, all of a sudden, the gaunt Spectre whipped its head around to face her directly. An eerie siren emanated from its chest, low at first but quickly rising in volume. Two ghostly flames appeared in front of where its eyes should have been, and Annelise erupted in that same pale fire.

“NO!”

Maxwell shouted in alarm, but his fiancée was unharmed. Instead the flames collected themselves into a rapidly spinning ball above her head. She looked up at it, confused, and tried to jump out from under it but it followed and continued spinning. The siren was now loud enough to make their teeth rattle, but Annelise just screamed a challenge at the Spectre, undaunted by either the sound or the menacing ball of fire.

The fireball poofed out of existence, surprising everyone, just at the same time that the “flame eyes” the Spectre had disappeared as well. The siren abruptly stopped and the massive apparition turned back to its path, no longer looking down at Annelise.

“So am I missing someth-“

She was cut off as a titanic green snake reared its head above the treeline, complete with other, smaller snakes constantly wriggling out from chinks in its scales and falling to the floor like rain. Annelise shrieked.

“Fuck, she needs help.” Maxwell said between pants, having pushed his body to try keep up with his Lise.

The train-sized snake, still dripping with smaller snakes, hissed at both Annelise and the group quickly catching up to her, before striking forward with its fangs bare. A drop of venom fell to the forest below, boring a hole through the tree it landed on and vanishing into the ground.

Annelise pointed her rod at the attacking beast and it disappeared with a light pop. She was still screaming.

Maxwell caught up to her, avoiding the flood of snakes that were now slithering everywhere, jumped up into the tree she was on and grabbed her, Sabine following closely behind. She had stopped screaming but was now shaking and muttering under her breath.

Thando and the other archetypes were standing around in the trees close by, concerned but confused.

“What happened to the snake?”

Thando’s question was shared by everyone else, except apparently Alexander.

“One of her effects, Detention, lets her put things in suspended animation in a pocket dimension. It’s limited though, this will last for about a minute at her current strength. She has to calm down before then.”

As they spoke, the snakes on the forest floor provided a constant, low hissing in the background. Annelise was still shaking while Maxwell whispered reassurances in her ear and held her. Alexander looked worried.

“Annelise! This is what the Spectre wants. If you shut down now, you’ll die when your Detention times out. This won’t get any easier until you kill your fear! We all need you to get through this!”

Maxwell shook his head.

“She and snakes have a long history, man, this isn’t a baseless phobia. Can’t we take it down for her?”

Instead of answering, Alexander jumped down into the sea of hissing snakes. He passed right through them, as if they weren’t there. He stood thigh deep in the writhing snakes and looked up at Maxwell with a shrug.

“The plot demands she get through this alone. Only she can affect them.”

Maxwell grimaced, but Sabine had a solution.

“Wait guys, I can help. I’ll give her my Favour, it’s a thing I can do. Just watch.”

Sabine’s hair lit up like a waterfall of radiant, sparkling honey. She manifested a set of glowing jewellery draped all over her neck and wrists. Just looking at them gave a slight invigorating sensation. She took off a bracelet and slowly placed it on Annelise’s wrist. Once on her wrist, it released a visible pulse of energy into her body, jolting her out of her stupor and rekindling the golden light in her eyes.

Just in time as well, as the massive snake rematerialized mid-lunge. Its jaws snapped shut right above them, as the rain of snakes resumed once more. They fell through all the others like holograms, but a few would hit Annelise in the face and head. She let out another scream but this was more anger than panic.

She looked up at the oversized reptile as it drew back for another strike and she said something under her breath, before leaping directly at it. The titan brought its tail around to whip at the woman and fling more snakes at her but she was too quick, dodging each lash like it was easy. The Favour on her wrist kept pulsing with energy and with each pulse, she got faster and faster.

After another failed lunge, Annelise grabbed onto one of its scales and rode it up as the beast reared back. It released another chill inducing hiss, but Annelise was not shaken.

“Fuck you too! EXPELLED!”

She shouted the last part as she brought her rod down on the snake’s head. A violent energy ripped through the giant’s head as it blew apart in a shower of gore. Instantly, all the snakes swarming the ground disappeared, along with the rest of the big one’s body.

Annelise came stumbling back, absolutely drenched in hot, sticky blood.

“I fucking hate snakes.”

At which point the Favour on her arm vanished and she collapsed onto the ground.