Even though they discussed strategies for the full five minutes, SoulShadow’s team of three assassins could, in fact, not defeat us.

  They tried to dive Veyra as a team of three. She responded as we had practiced, by leaving a [Chronorift] underneath herself before simply portaling next to me. I protected her until her portal came off of cooldown.

  The three assassins tried their absolute hardest to kill her in that period, only to find themselves being the ones targeted. They looked for an opening to dash in, while Veyra blasted them down with [Ray Of Time].

  That spell was usually considered too difficult to use against assassin players with high mobility due to the spell’s recoil. Even Veyra’s aim wasn’t laser-precise with it, but she still dealt way more damage than we took.

  WrightKnight tried to throw daggers, and I blocked them. Blast [Shadow Dashed] in, but Veyra spawned a wall of solid ice, blocking his approach.

  SoulShadow prepared ranged [Ghost Slashes]. He seemed to believe he had a free opportunity to attack, with us already defending against two assassins. He didn’t expect to receive a ranged counter-attack to his face, as Veyra flicked [Ray Of Time] at his face, forcing him to cancel his attack and focus on dodging.

  It turned out, Veyra’s aim was better than his dodging. She burned him down, until he was forced to retreat with [Shadow Dash] instead of even thinking about attacking.

  So that’s to say, Veyra stole all of the remaining flashy clips. Her situational awareness of the locations of all three assassins was perfect. All I needed to do was protect her just a little, if only to stand next to her to give our opponents less angles to attack, and she could deal with the fight just fine.

  [You Have Won Round Three]

  [Team Solo Mage 3 - 0 Team Syntrix]

  [Match Over]

  The cheers we received were the loudest so far. Many audience members were too shocked to say anything, being SoulShadow’s fans. Just as many seemed ecstatic to see us win. Anna had upgraded her banner to an even bigger one, with not just mom and Ricky holding it up, but a fourth person I vaguely recognized. Greenwitch.

  The hell was that guy doing with them?

  More amusing was the way Syntrix got out of their game pods. SoulShadow, in his golden necklace, climbed out. A disappointed frown sat atop his straight posture as he turned to his teammates, who silently looked away. He then walked up to me, offering a handshake.

  I accepted it with a smug grin on my face. He said nothing and walked off. He didn’t even look at Veyra, as if lowering his hand to the level of her wheelchair was a dishonor. His supporters still cheered as he walked away.

  Whatever, I thought. Now wasn’t the time to lament about the fact that my former idol was a bit of a prick in real life. I bowed to the audience. Veyra waved, and we made it backstage.

  I placed my hand on her shoulder, grinning. “That’s second place.”

  “We actually did it…” she said with a sigh. “Three versus three tournament as a duo. Who would have thought? I can’t believe this actually turned to profit.”

  “We’re just too good, I guess.”

  I saw her lips resist the smile that tried to come out as she faced my grin. She failed, chuckling. “I guess we are. That was a great run.”

  Organizers bustled about, talking with SoulShadow. I heard them congratulate him for third place, but he was having none of it, walking straight out of the doors, past his coach and out of the room.

  We just smiled at each other. “Honestly, I can’t wait to go on the date tomorrow.”

  She smiled, shaking her head.

  “I guess we have the finals first,” I said. “Tomorrow’s the big stage.”

  Suddenly, her smile fell. “Yeah…” she said, though she didn’t look excited. Her eyes turned troubled, as if she was thinking about something.

  “Is everything alright?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’m happy,” Veyra said. “We got what we came here for. I’ve reached my goal. This was awesome. I was right to come.” She smiled at me again. “Thanks, Aiden. For dragging me out here.”

  That smile didn’t stay, and she looked troubled once again.

  “You don’t look very excited,” I said.

  Her lips formed a line. “Honestly, I wish this would have been the finals match. Or at least, I wish the finals would be held in the smaller arena. I don’t get why we were put on the main stage. Everyone already knows how the match will go. We’ll show up and get stomped by Annath.”

  “You should both still try your best,” Aree said behind her. “It’ll be a great fight if you don’t stress about it. Maybe you’ll have a chance to win.”

  “I can’t just treat a finals match as a casual meet-up on a big stage!” Veyra blurted out. “I have enough money for the surgery now. But instead of being allowed to celebrate, we still have to go suffer against Annath!”

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  “Congratulations!” an organizer butted in. She was the same tall woman running the three versus three event, grinning at us. “Awesome match. That brings you up to second place.”

  “Thanks,” Veyra said, clearly trying not to look displeased.

  “The finals are held on the guild PvP main stage at two PM tomorrow,” the woman said. “It won’t be the main event, so there’s no need to stress. Think of it as a warm-up performance for the Guild PvP semis. We will send you updated entry instructions as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, thank you.” Veyra said. “We’ll be there.”

  We discussed with the organizers for a little bit, and more people congratulated us, saying it was a great match. The decision to move the three versus three tourney to the main stage had apparently been made last second, and preparations were still underway. They promised they’d get back to us by the end of the day regarding the little details.

  Even the biggest Wonderwind tournament in the world was busy in the back-end, it seemed…

  Veyra and I exited. At the doors, she said, “I think I’ll go to sleep early. I’m tired. I’ll be online if you need me. Thanks again.”

  “Yeah, I get that,” I said. “Let’s give it our best tomorrow.”

  Her smile was tired, but warm. “Thanks again. I’m looking forward to our date. See you tomorrow.”

  They turned around, leaving. I watched them turn around the corner, out of sight. I kept standing there, feeling bittersweet. I felt like I should have been better at comforting her. Yet, I couldn’t come up with anything to make her feel better.

  It’s all fine, I thought. No need to stress.

  I checked the clock. It read just past seven. I wasn’t tired yet, even after all of our matches.

  I felt happy, of course, but getting second place didn’t feel as amazing as I had hoped. Was it because the match had been too anticlimactic? SoulShadow hadn’t given much of a fight. If anything, Eon Covenant’s team had been stronger. They just got unlucky and faced Annath first, and then us. If Eon Covenant fought SoulShadow, they would have probably won.

  I found myself opening my phone while I walked back toward the canteen in the competitors’ area. It didn’t take long to find a discussion thread on the forums about the match we’d just held. The largest post was titled, “Is SoulShadow washed-up, or is Assassin A just better?”

  By Sennax4, 1,296,548 upvotes: “Holy shit SoulShadow just got rolled, what the fuck was that? Who is this Assassin A guy? Why has nobody heard of him before now?”

  Reply By VermilionHalo, 945,126 upvotes: “I read that he’s eighteen years old? This is his first tournament appearance. It’s seriously impressive.”

  Reply By Lowmansky, 234,569 upvotes: “SoulShadow has been washed for years lol. Unc is just playing for money at this point. Everyone has defeated him. Hardly an achievement.”

  Reply By Sennax4, 467,214 upvotes: “Nope, Soul is still just as good as he always was. He just hasn’t improved as fast as others. Assassin A’s shadow dashes are wayyyy better. I’m just waiting to see him fight Dragrath in a fair duel now.”

  By Eveveeee, 395,217 upvotes: “Assassin used to be my classmate. Ask me anything.”

  Wait, I thought, pausing my step. What’s Eve doing here?

  The man behind me walked around, and I gave an apologetic smile, walking behind him, while I focused back on the comment.

  Reply By Lowmansky, 10,234 upvotes: “How much of a low-life was this guy?”

  Reply By Eveveeee, 670,159 upvotes: “He actually showed up to class every day lol. He just barely passed every exam one or two points away from failing. I remember him being teased for playing too much. He didn’t even qualify for local tourneys being too low level. This year, he finally did, and somehow he’s just beating everyone? I honestly don’t know how he got so good.”

  You’re the one who teased me, Eve, I thought with a sigh.

  By Manaclemaniac, 1,053,234 upvotes: “Veyra is op, someone nerf her.”

  Reply By Adrenix, 893,421 upvotes: “She’s so damn good, it’s insane. It’s no wonder they can win as a duo with that quick-casting. Her reaction times are insane. She looked a bit sad after the match, though. SoulShadow didn’t even shake her hand. Maybe she was offended?”

  Her reaction times were being praised. Veyra was insanely sharp, of course, but in my opinion, most of her skill didn’t come from her reaction times. Even more impressive was her ability to read the battlefield. Veyra put an insane amount of research into every match, learning the cooldowns of each and every spell opponents liked to use. It wasn’t her reaction time that allowed her to be so precise; it was her ability to predict her opponents.

  I’d also studied top players for a full year some time ago, but compared to Veyra, I just went in and hit things. She was much more calculative. She knew what she could and couldn’t do before a match even started. That was what gave her motivation and determination.

  Against Annath, however, her motivation was entirely gone. She wasn’t determined to follow a plan like with every other match.

  It’s because she doesn’t have a plan. Her analytical viewpoint was stumped. Annath was strong enough that she couldn’t see any way she could win. And since Veyra couldn’t see a realistic way for us to win, her motivation and excitement for the match must have gone with it.

  It hurt to see her like that, stressing about something she didn’t think she could do anything about. Even worse was that our opponent was Annath, her former guild mate, whose presence still seemed to bring bad memories.

  Why am I so bad at comforting her… I thought. Once again, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

  Maybe I was overthinking it, but I really just wanted to see her smile at the end of the match. We couldn’t end our Worlds run just getting stomped by Annath.

  My stomach grumbled, and I picked tacos from the player only buffet table and sat at an empty table. I scrolled the auction for a little bit to see if I could buy something to give us more of a chance. I was still considerably broke, though, since I hadn’t yet received any prize money, and most of my wealth was stored in my items.

  Maybe I can sell Godripper or Emerald Aurora? I thought. Items were still moving fast for high prices, with Worlds ongoing. I wasn’t the only one staring at possible items to buy. Some of the more popular eSports teams had dedicated auction guys just staring at fresh items that went on sale.

  The canteen was filling up while I ate, and empty seats were becoming sparse. I looked up from my phone and saw someone sit in front of me.

  “Assassin A, right?” an asian man asked with a happy smile.

  I studied his face for a bit.

  “Monolith, right?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he said, smile evolving to a grin. He was from Zenith Protocol’s B-team.

  Aurinn and CrazyPizzaMan sat down next to him—players I didn’t know the real names of, but who I’d seen on the forums dozens of times. They all congratulated me for beating SoulShadow, and we chatted for a bit. I gave short answers, while wondering if I should send Veyra a text to somehow reassure her.

  “So, is Veyra your girlfriend?” Aurinn asked—their support mage, who had a ponytail in real life, with a skirt and black stockings.

  I shrugged. “Do you think she’d say yes if I asked her out.”

  Everyone just gave me a smug grin.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Come on now, we’ve seen the post,” Aurinn said. “You two are so cute together. Ask her out. I’m rooting for you.”

  Trust me, I want to, I thought, but before I could say anything, another tall man walked up to me. With me sitting at the edge of the table, he had no trouble facing me. The moment I looked to my right, I flinched, recognizing a legend. Long brown hair and a braided beard, with sharp eyes, he wore a grey woolen coat that covered him almost to his feet.

  This was FireBrand.

  “Apologies if this is the wrong time,” he said. “I wish to talk to you, and I have five minutes.”

  20 chapters ahead on !