February 18, 2019, 11:25 am.

The exit doesn't open as Atun waits for the crowd to quiet. "Are there any here who would stand with these brave warriors, that they may compete?"

Even as she speaks, every one of the K'tharn we've defeated jumps forward, out of the crowd. Despite her words, for a second I expect them to attack us. Then I realize we're being given the opportunity to pick our teammate. We can use non-user teammates.

Rufka and I glance at each other, then we point to the K'tharn with the claw and shield combination. She was tough enough to tank a plasma bolt, and almost fast enough to hit us. More importantly, if this is anything like the Desh’mersa we watched with Tipan, we're going to need a grunter. Someone who can actually survive taking a solid hit.

The soldier steps forward, Atun clapping behind him. The others remain standing there. So Rufka and I talk for a bit, then settle on another who was annoying to track down, usually requiring three arrows or spells to defeat.

There's not a lot to work with, really.

Again, Atun claps her hands. This time, all the others step back, collapsing back into blue dust as a prompt appears.

"Select K'tharn Bulwark and K'tharn Runner as your third and fourth team members? Unanimous vote is required."

I confirm with Rufka that we want the bulwark and we both vote yes.

"Congratulations on forming team Mud-dollops. Please note, to earn the right to change your team’s name, you must survive a full season of Desh'mersa."

After that notification is a long list of the rules. It's not quite the same as the game Tipan took us to. For one thing, lethal combat is expected. Though there's a penalty for the opposing team if the person who dies isn't holding the Theet. Which is the name of the fancy frisbee from Tipan's original explanation. Another change is that it prohibits flying. And all magic except shields. The shields are a surprise, but I suppose even here the game's been adjusted from what it used to be.

I also note the literal pages of rules for substituting new team members. Most seem to be flavor text, describing how their families will be contacted once they die. Amidst that, I come across a passage stating pets can't participate. Now I'm sure these are System modified rules, since I doubt anyone would've tried to play with a pet before integration.

As I scan over the rules, Atun speaks again. "As is customary, the Mud-dollops shall have an entire day before their inauguration. May they make peace with their gods."

Once she's finished, the exit opens and the crowd starts to fade. Rufka and I exit the arena, not speaking until we're back at the pedestal. Hovering above the pedestal is a new display, showing a list of team names. I can't help but note that Mud-dollops is far from the worst. I think that honour might go to Zabian-dung. Above the list of team names is a counter, just over twenty-four hours. The display below it remains the same, though Atun's features in the middle are almost filled out. Only her head remains blank.

"So... Tipan's gonna love this," I say, looking up at the team names and noticing that they're all slated to resolve tomorrow.

"She's going to need to unlock it herself," Rufka points out.

"Mhm. You think that's gonna stop her?"

"Course not. Little sky-rat's better than that," Rufka laughs. "She'll probably have it unlocked by the end of the day."

"She is getting pretty close, isn't she?"

"Mhm. This'll be the last push she needs. Speaking of last though," Rufka looks at the remaining set of challenges. "Do we want to try Atun's next difficulty?"

"I... lunch first? But then? Hell yeah."

"Good. Smoulder would never let me hear the end of it if we gave up now," Rufka says, looking at where Smoulder is sitting on my shoulder. Smoulder nods slowly, though I can tell through the bond that she's confused and is just mirroring Rufka. Even so, Rufka is probably right, even if Smoulder doesn't understand.

After a quick lunch of tangy chicken, we enter the next stage. Atun doesn't challenge us after the fight. Nor the one after. Even as we complete the final set of K'tharn challengers, she simply sits atop her throne watching us with her ever present smile. As the exit opens, she waves us off.

"That... was a little disappointing," Rufka says as we leave the arena.

"Little bit," I agree. "But... we've finished every challenge we can. You know what that means?"

"Yep. 'hardcore mode' time," Rufka says, using the English word as she runs her hand across the console, punching in one of the more challenging sets of opponents. "No magic, solo. I think it was your turn."

"You've been talking to Josh and Rose about video games too much," I say, shaking my head. "I was thinking cuddles."

"Uhhhh. Tempting," Rufka admits before shaking her head. "But no. We can cuddle on Smoulder's turns."

"Fine," I reply, spinning my staff once in a way that Tipan instructed me I absolutely was not to do in combat. No matter how cool it is.

Thus, Rufka and I spend the rest of the day practicing while grinding more points. At the end of the day, I'm able to purchase enough points to cap my Strength and Constitution at 90 each, and Endurance at 100. I could afford to bring my Perception and Resolve to 125, but I hesitate as I look over my class abilities. I'm tempted to pick up the Elemental Chakrams I unlocked when I first levelled my class. As a class ability, there's a good chance they'd work inside Atun's disruption field. And we've confirmed she still comes into combat as long as we fight against one of the sets of challengers that originally triggered her.

Deciding it'd be best to start training with a new weapon sooner as opposed to later, I buy a Progression point but save the rest of my Arena points as we head to the park. Taking the full ten minutes, I summon the Chakram, my attention focused as the ability guides my efforts to create a more stable form of condensed mana than I've seen anywhere than in the actual Mana Essences. Far more stable. An inspection with Facet gives me ideas about how I might be able to reinforce other constructs too. But it's a slow process without the System providing its assistance.

Then I stand up, Chakram in hand. I can't stop the smile as I give it a practice swing. It feels more right than any of the weapons we've been practicing. And after several swings, I can feel my Melee Weapons skill giving me feedback about what I'm doing wrong. A sort of shadow Lexi that tugs at my movements. Something it wasn't doing with any of the other weapons. When I look closer at the form, it seems to be more of an image of a taller amazonian warrior princess. Does having proficiency make me more like Xena? And does that mean I'll be even better with more points? Or does it just give better guidance?

"Oh. You never mentioned you had a class weapon," Rufka says, staring at the solidified fire I hold in my hand.

"I... uh, kinda forgot about it," I admit as I shift into a blocking stance Melee Weapon Xena is whispering to me. "You know I prefer my spells."

"Sure," Rufka agrees, squeezing my shoulder. "What do you say we practice a bit?"

"Uh. One second," I reply, running back to the shop to buy another Progression point, buying the second rank of Chakram as soon as I return to the park. Rufka and Smoulder are already flying around on the far side, away from the entrance. While they dance and dodge, I start following the guidance of my Melee Weapon skill. Even as I work, the skill goes up, feeding back into my steps. After an hour, I already feel more comfortable with the Chakram than I am with my staff.

Then I throw it for the first time.

As the flaming ring soars across the park, I can still feel the connection. There's guidance from my Throwing skill, similar to when using it as a melee weapon. And what the description fails to mention is my ability to control it in flight, even outside of my normal aura. Further testing reveals that it being out of sight greatly degrades my control, but I can re-establish it the second it comes back into sight. After several minutes of flying my chakram around like a drone, I bring it back. At this point, Smoulder and Rufka are done for the night. I'm tempted to keep playing, but cede to their desire for dinner.

The night goes by in usual fashion, Tipan proving Rufka right, defeating Atun and unlocking Desh'mersa shortly after we tell her about it. Most of the evening is spent listening to Tipan gush about having a dungeon where she gets to play. She's even able to join our team, replacing the NPC runner. Kellica also manages to solo Atun, though she didn't care about unlocking Desh'mersa. It helps that her metal armor blocks most of Atun's damage. Only after we're talking about the newly ulocked Desh'mersa does she reveal that she's been fighting the harder version of Atun. But as soon as we unlocked the game, the harder version was locked to her. To say she's excited when we ask her to join our team is understating the amount of damage she does to the kitchen.

While they're not as excited as Tipan or as dominating as Kellica, the others manage to complete the challenge as a four-person party. Roberts still hasn't faced Atun in single combat and he just chuckles when asked about it. They get the dubious honour of receiving the team-name paw-sludge.

I'm unable to keep a straight face when I try to tell Josh it could be worse.

Of course, this means we're all waiting in the challenge room the next day, chatting as we wait for the timer to count down. The second it does, we get a new quest.

"Quest received: Complete a full Desh'mersa tournament as the victors. Rewards: First place: 1,000,000 Arena Points. Second place: 500,000 Arena points. Third: 100,000 Arena Points. Unlocks: Desh Atun combat."

There's a moment of silence as the team names reshuffle before flashing into place in pairs. Of course, we're listed at the top of the board. And our first opponents?

Paw-sludge.

"Oh. We are so going to kick your ass," Josh says as their team slots into place next to ours.

"You're just saying that cause I can't use magic," I grouse, glaring at him.

"Yep," he agrees, crossing his arms as he grins down at me, his stupid curls flopping down.

"This'll be a good training opportunity people," Beth says. "We've been getting sloppy on teamwork lately."

Josh and I both turn towards her and she smiles back as she adds, "Plus, we're totally going to kick your ass, kid."

"Oh, it's on," I reply, grabbing Rufka by the elbow and inclining my head towards the kitchen where we can make battle plans in private. Which we immediately defer to Tipan, though Kellica has a few ideas of her own.

We enter the arena across from the others a few minutes later, before the forfeit timer can count down. I'm positioned as our goalie, and while most magic is against the rules, a blanket statement that prohibits everything except shields, this is the one position where my proficiency will give us an edge.

Of course, Roberts is guarding their goal as well.

Just glad he doesn't get to use his special barriers.

The game starts quick, and it's not long before I have to get my hands dirty, grabbing the Theet. Before Josh can smash into me at mach-9, I toss it to Kellica who takes it on the counter offensive. I quickly lose track of the number of times it crosses the arena before it comes back, launched at me by Beth. When I go to grab it, it curves at the last second, bouncing off my hand and giving them the first goal.

I stare at where the frisbee like object floats inside the net for several seconds before pulling it free and watching it reform in the centre.

It's the last goal either team scores for the rest of the game.

There's lots of cheers from Beth's side after while our team moves directly onto the next match. Thankfully it's not an elimination tournament. Instead, we're granted points for each victory, and we're going up against every other team twice. Which means we'll have a rematch eventually.

Our first match with the non-user teams are surprisingly brutal, their attributes letting them mostly keep up with us in a way they couldn’t in regular combat. Doesn't keep us from winning three games in a row, until we're matched against Zabian-dung. The match seems to be going well until one of them kills me with the Theet.

It's so sudden, it's not until I'm reforming on the slab outside, that I even realize what happened. Staring up at the ceiling, I play back the sequence in my head. Kellica was blocking two of their team. Rufka was still near their goalie after a failed shot. Tipan had a solid grip on the Theet. Or so I thought when I flicked my attention back to the two Kellica was wrestling with. Next thing I knew, I had taken a Theet to the forehead several times.

Embarrassing.

Thankfully, the screen updates with a victory a short time later and I see my friends come out.

"Guess you guys didn't even need me," I say as Rufka hops over the pedestal to get to me.

"Rufka kinda unloaded on them after you went down. I forgot that this version allows you to..." Tipan waves her hand in my direction even as Rufka plops down beside me.

"I'm sorry I failed Tel'thoni," Kellica says, nodding in my direction.

"Uh. You didn't? I'm the one that let myself get brained," I reply, waving off Kellica's concern.

"But it was my duty to keep them away from you."

"Not like you have your armor," Rufka says from beside me. "Sides, Lexi is right. She needs to be more careful."

"Thanks. I think," I say as Rufka gives me a kiss on the cheek before pulling me to my feet.

"You're welcome. Now, come on. We can't let this slow us down. We're already a game behind," Rufka says, waving at the projection. I nod, then follow her inside. The rest of our games go much better now that I take our opponents more seriously. It also helps that we know we can beat them with the Theet to take them out of the game without penalty. I feel like that's a flaw in the rules, but don't question it.

Our very last match is against our friends. After another round of trash talk, we return to the arena. Unlike with the non-players, none of us feel comfortable taking the others down with the Theet. Until Beth almost takes Rufka's head off with it.

That's when things get... messy. I'm not able to track half of the fight as the others smash into each other, but I find myself yelling at them to focus on the game. At some point, we score a goal, and when the game ends, we get our victory.

But when everyone else exits the arena, only Roberts and I are on speaking terms with our opposing teams. Instead of leaving, I turn my gaze towards Atun, who has remained silent throughout these matches.

She meets my eyes and smiles back.