Soon, eleven more Players joined us down on the floor. Lianna made a bee-line toward us, her eyes looking neither left nor right but remaining locked onto me. Even after she made it next to me she didn’t look around. She had to be aware that an awful lot of people were looking at her but didn’t want to see just how many. I wondered how many of those eyes weren’t on her but on her guns.

  “So on a scale of one to ten, how full of regret are you for joining Team Player?” I said.

  “Zero,” Lianna said without a moment’s hesitation.

  “Really? Decided to embrace the chaos?”

  “Something like that. Sigrid gave me a pretty good pep-talk on the way down here.”

  “She’s good like that.”

  Lianna looked at me with worry all over her face. “Listen, Daniel. Whatever this game is...”

  I risked putting my hand on her shoulder. Thankfully, she didn’t flinch or knock it away but accepted the gesture in the comforting way it was intended. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Just do your best.”

  “But—”

  “I’m serious. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, just do your best and try to have fun. That goes for everything, really. It’s just a game, after all.”

  She frowned. “I really can’t figure you out.”

  I laughed. “I’m not that complicated.”

  “I bet you’re regretting choosing me now.” She finally ventured a look around, taking in the hundreds of Players gazing down upon us. “Any one of these guys would help you with these games far more than me.”

  “That may be true when it comes to the pure combat games,” I said, “although with your new weapons and armor I think you could go toe to toe with just about anyone here, and you’re only going to get better very quickly. That doesn’t even matter, anyway. For the games I want to play there’s nobody better to help me than you, Lianna.”

  “I sincerely hope you’re talking about the Players Guild and not something lewd.”

  I never got the chance to offer a pithy response before Annabelle interjected, snuffing out all other conversations. “Alrighty then,” Annabelle said. “Wanna know what game you’re playing?”

  Without waiting for a response, the mysterious NPC raised her arms over her head and the familiar purple mist shrouded her before twinkling away to reveal a new outfit.

  Her long purple hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was now wearing a red tracksuit with thick white stripes running down the sides of the arms, body, and legs, and stark white running shoes. The top was unzipped and hung off one shoulder jauntily, revealing a tight white tank top underneath. A whistle hung on a string around her neck and she carried a clipboard under one arm. She’d totally nailed the classic sexy anime high school gym teacher.

  She held out her free hand, palm up, and an inflated red rubber ball appeared in it.

  “Who else here loves dodgeball?”

  “You’ve got to be joking,” someone said.

  Annabelle pouted. “You don’t love dodgeball?”

  “Isn’t it, like, a bit weird to play that here?” Kiki said, twirling her finger in a long bleach-blonde pigtail.

  “It’s a game, isn’t it? But then again, isn’t everything?” Annabelle said with a wink.

  She started walking slowly around the arena floor, bouncing the red rubber ball as she went. Poom. Poom. Poom. A white line appeared on the ground, connecting the spots where the ball landed to draw a wide circle in the middle of the floor with a gap of about five feet between it and the outer wall. She kept talking and walking, explaining the rules as she kept pooming the ball on the floor.

  “So here’s how this is gonna go down. We’re gonna play a dodgeball variation called Poisonball. Players all start off inside this circle. You cannot touch the ball inside the circle. That includes catching it. If you do, you're out and must move outside the circle. Outside the circle, you can touch the ball all you want. Grab it, throw it, pass it, whatever. Hit someone on the inside and make them join you on the outside. With me so far?”

  “If we’re all inside the circle, who starts off with the ball?” Tiff said.

  “Excellent question.” Annabelle had completed her circuit, drawing the complete circle. She caught the ball and rested it on her hip. “Me, of course.”

  “This is the big quest?” Troy Hobbes sneered. The leader of Team Invictus wore an outfit that reminded me of the main character in the old Double Dragon arcade game. Blue jeans with kneepads and tall boots, and a baggy tank top decorated with Chinese hanzi worn under a denim jacket which had its arms cut off to become a vest. “You didn’t seriously call us all together to play dodgeball for a dungeon.”

  “Poisonball,” Annabelle corrected with a winning smile. “And no. As I said before, this is a quick game simply to determine the order in which teams will be sent into the real quest. Do pay attention or I’ll have to keep you back in detention,” she added with a wink.

  Troy’s mouth snapped shut with an audible clack. Something told me that he had been no stranger to detentions when he was in high school.

  Annabelle continued her briefing. “The first Player who gets eliminated, their team goes last. The last one standing in the circle, their team goes first.”

  “How’s that going to work?” Troy snapped. Did that guy have any expression other than a scowl? “There are two of us from each team here?”

  “Simple. Team Captains aren’t playing, only the Players you chose. One per team.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Instantly, a lot of the team Captains started coaching their chosen Player on strategy. I didn’t bother coaching but focused on damage control instead.

  “Oh shit,” Lianna said, covering her mouth with her hand. She looked over at me with wide eyes.

  I gently took her wrist and lowered her hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “But I’m gonna lose.”

  “So what?”

  “Don’t you care?”

  “I care more about you,” I said.

  Her eyes narrowed as she still looked at me. “Stop hitting on me,” she said. “It’s inappropriate.”

  “I wasn’t...” I started to say, then I saw her smirk and realized she was joking. “My regret level for inviting you onto the team just shot up to seven.”

  “Give it time, I’m sure we’ll get that up to ten before the morning’s over.”

  “If you can still joke, you must be fine.”

  A voice rose over the din. It was Troy Hobbes again. “Can they use powers?”

  Annabelle’s forehead wrinkled. “Duh. Yeah. And items too, but no weapons. This is a friendly game after all. But if the ball hits anything you’re carrying, that counts as a hit and you’re out.” I saw Sigrid frown at that. She had probably been planning to use her shield.

  “Any more questions?” Annabelle said. Without waiting for a response, she grinned and bounced the ball. Poom. “Alrighty then. Team Captains, shoo. Skedaddle on back to the stands. Players, find a spot inside the circle.”

  After one more “Don’t worry” to Lianna and a thumbs up to Sigrid, I headed back into the stands with Morgan. There was an open spot at the end of the row beside Chika. She looked over at me then smiled when I sat beside her, that single little fang protruding over her lower lip.

  “Bet you’re glad you don’t gotta play dodgeball,” Chika said.

  “More than you can imagine,” I said.

  “Lianna looks like she’d rather wrestle a dragon than be down there right now.”

  “She does look a bit nervous, yeah.”

  Chika bit her lip, then blurted out, “Why did you choose her anyway? I mean, don’t get me wrong, like, she’s nice and all, but she’s not really, you know, a strong gamer type. You know?”

  “Depends on the game,” I said.

  Chika bit her lip some more, thinking about it. “I’m pretty sure whatever game she is good at, it’s not dodgeball.”

  “I suspect you’re right about that, Death Girl.”

  Chika cackled and grinned at the moniker.

  “Now shush,” I said. “They’re about to start.”

  Chika leaned forward on the bench beside me, her attention drawn by the action below. I couldn’t help noticing she kept running her fingertips over the spikes on her collar, almost like they were prayer beads and she was wishing luck onto Sigrid and Lianna, or maybe wishing she was down there instead. I was pretty sure Chika would kick major butt at dodgeball.

  On the arena floor, most of the Players had crowded together into a group in the middle, all jostling for a spot on the inside where the chance of being struck by the ball was lower. I noticed that Sigrid was still sticking close to Lianna, both of them on the outer edge of the massed Players, the frontline of those who might take the hit.

  Annabelle stalked around the edge of the circle, bouncing the ball and grinning. Poom. Poom. Poom. As she moved, the Players turned to keep her in their direct field of vision.

  “Alrighty then,” Annabelle said, pulling her arm back to toss the ball. She feinted a throw, provoking more than a few Players to jump. She did it a few more times, faking a throw that didn’t come.

  Then, just when the Players were anticipating another feint she looked up into the crowd and winked, then poom! She hurled the ball hard down at the ground. It bounced once, sailing up in a high arc that would bring it down smack into the middle of the pack of Players.

  Everyone’s eyes locked onto the ball and tracked it as it sailed after the bounce. The Players on the arena floor who’d massed together assuming there was safety in numbers found themselves in the most precarious position of all.

  Annabelle’s bouncing tactic had thrown a gigantic wrench in their strategy, and the earlier jostling among the Players degraded into pushing and shoving as many of those compressed at the center fought for space to move away.

  Lianna had begun on the outer rim with Sigrid beside her and she remained rooted to the spot, head tilted back, watching the ball. From our vantage up in the stands it was impossible to tell where the ball would come down, but Lianna and the other Poisonball competitors had a better angle. I watched Lianna’s face and I could tell from the way she smiled and made no effort to move that the ball was not on a trajectory to hit her.

  In the few seconds that the ball was in the air, pretty much every other Player had moved, scattering like cockroaches in the light. Then I noticed one Player moving differently than the others. It was Lucas Grimes, the Player Troy Hobbes had chosen for Team Invictus, the Player who’d been so deadly in the Player’s Tournament with his superspeed and katana. He had moved around Lianna, and at the very last second before the ball landed on the ground he used a burst of his superspeed to dash up behind Lianna and shove her, hard, toward the center of the arena and into the ball’s path.

  It happened so fast, Sigrid’s danger sense didn’t even have time to trigger.

  Lianna, totally not expecting it, was knocked off her feet directly into Sigrid. The effect was like shooting a billiards ball. All Lianna’s momentum was transferred to Sigrid, who was also not expecting it. She fell hard, face first, onto the packed dirt floor of the arena. Poom! The red rubber ball landed square in the middle of her back, then bounced away. The other Players let it bounce, then gave it a wide berth to roll away and come to rest against the wall on the opposite side from where Annabelle stood.

  The arena was silent. I looked toward Troy in the stands. He was one of the only people not gazing with a shocked look on their face down at the floor. Instead, he was looking directly back at me, a smug smile on his ruggedly handsome face.

  Lianna was the first to move, drawing my attention away from Troy and back down to the floor. She rushed to Sigrid, extending her hand and helping her up. Sigrid stood and brushed the dust off the front of her armor.

  Sigrid exchanged a few words with Lianna I couldn’t hear, then Lianna looked up at me, clearly wracked with guilt. She tapped the side of her head and pointed at Sigrid so I joined a three-way with the two of them. A three-way telepathic link, I should probably clarify before you get any pervy ideas.

  Me: You guys okay?

  Sigrid: Nothing hurt but my pride.

  Lianna: I’m so sorry.

  Sigrid: I know, it’s fine. Which asshole was it?

  She pointed at a Player near her.

  Sigrid: Him?

  Me: Nope

  She looked around, then pointed to another one and looked back up at me.

  Me: Nope.

  She chose another suspect. I couldn’t help but notice all the people she suspected were men.

  Me: Nope.

  “What’s she doing?” Chika said out loud beside me. All anyone could see was Sigrid pointing at random people in turn.

  Then Sigrid pointed at Lucas.

  Me: Bingo.

  Sigrid nodded, then stared at Lucas. He stared back, smiling. For a long time she stood there, with everyone watching, staring stone-faced at the man who’d indirectly pushed her down.

  Chika looked over at me. “Are you, like, communicating somehow?”

  I answered Chika in her head.

  Me: Yeah. I copied Arthur’s telepathy.

  “You’re kind of scary, Senpai,” she said aloud and leaned against my arm.

  Up next: Poisonball