Spiteful Healer

“So…” Hae-won had a mischievous grin on her face as she reappeared in front of Aegis’ livestream broadcast. She’d momentarily logged out of the gameworld and resumed her role of his caster, and watched the chat zooming past her with various messages along the lines of praise.

‘The queen returns!’

“CASTER GODDESS!’

‘We missed you!!’

“How do you guys like my live commentary?” She read more praising messages. Behind her, Aegis and his party were doing last-minute studying of their upcoming opponents on the broadcast. Shinji veered the camera away from Aegis to point at Serenity, who was working with her dancers on various movement combinations. He didn’t focus too much on her, though, and she currently had her own stream running on the Fanta-See Network, with Megan as her broadcaster.

“How’re you holding up?” Tommy’s voice entered Shinji’s ear through a virtual call as he was working in his office simulation, leaning back in his chair at the moment to relax. “That Ranger vs Shadow Dancer fight was rough, huh? But you’re being praised by those in the know for how well you kept up on the actions of both players.”

“That’s nice,” Shinji sighed. “We’re just getting started, though. If more matches are like that, I’m in for a long day.”

“You gonna manage it?”

“Are you kidding? This is what I live for.” Shinji replied.

“Well, good news. Thanks to your efforts, Hae-won, and Aegis’s, we’re sitting pretty in the top 5 streaming slot.” Tommy added as he was in his own office simulation, looking at the viewership list for the top streams.

• Feng[VGN], 17m Viewers The rıghtful source is NoveI★Fire.net

• Makaroth[VGN], 15m, Viewers

• Seraxus[VGN], 9m, Viewers

• VGN News[VGN], 6m Viewers

• Aegis[FS], 5m Viewers

“Still not number one though?” Shinji asked.

“Still not number one,” Tommy replied, hearing determination and drive in Shinji’s voice, which he returned in kind with his intonation.

A display of the top 5 broadcasters, on five separate screens, hovered above a bar in a dimly lit tavern, somewhere in the dark corners of Kordas. A collection of unscrupulous individuals was gathered, looking rough and dirty, with eyepatches, scars, and tattoos covering their avatars.

Mostly players, the sort who wanted their in-game avatars to look as rough and unattractive as possible and were proud to look in such ways. Orcs, lizardfolk, and dark elves were the primary patrons, with a few NPCs mixed in between. Most of the NPCs sat at tables in the corner of the tavern, minding their own business to the best of their ability. This was hard to achieve given the noisy gathering of players towards the center of the tavern, in front of the livestream broadcasts.

A particular group had a table in the center, slamming gold pouches down, ordering bets, and having the players behind the bar take them.

“What’re the odds right now?” Finley asked as he stood amongst the group. The player behind the bar,

A scarred black-scaled Lizardfolk with pristine razor-sharp teeth opened his mouth to reply. “5 to 1 odds for Synopse vs Aegis, 15 to 1 odds for Seraxus vs Feng.”

Hearing this, Finley hesitated for a moment and looked to Cheryl, who was standing behind him. When their eyes met, she shrugged, so Finley shrugged.

“100 Million gold on Aegis,” Finley proudly slammed a gigantic pouch of gold on the table. The amount was high enough to get a few people to pause and stare at him curiously.

“You know something we don’t know?” Another betting player asked him, raising his eyebrows.

“Nah, I just believe in the kid,” Finley smiled slyly.

“Heh. Just cause he whooped your ass doesn’t mean he stands a chance against Synopse.” The player shook his head dismissively at this while the bartender took Finley’s bet. This comment caused the other players to chuckle, but Finley wasn’t bothered by it. As he turned to find a seat at the bar, he received a notification on his interface, which gave him pause—a message from Emerill.

“You guys are missing out, this tournament is insane!’ Emerill sent to the party chat, of which he, Finley, Quiver, Joltblade and Quiver were all in.

“We’re not missing out, we’re watching the broadcasts,” Cheryl replied.

“Naaaah, seeing it in person is way better,” Emerill answered.

“Standing in a noisy crowded stadium? Do you even have a good seat?” Finley replied.

“Front row. It adds to the enjoyment, unlike those musky taverns you guys are probably watching from.”

“Hey, I like musky taverns,” Quiver answered defensively.

“What’s the crowd feeling about the next matches?” Joltblade asked.

“Sentiment is still that Seraxus takes the whole thing, so most of the hype is around who wins between Synopse and Aegis. By the way, what’s the odds at?” Emerill asked.

“5 to 1,” Finley replied.

“Oh shit! That’s free money! Put 50 mil on Aegis for me!” Emerill replied excitedly.

“Put it on him yourself, I’m not your maid.”

“I might lose my seat, though!”

“I’ll do it,” Quiver said

“Thanks,” Emerill replied excitedly.

“Why’re you all so sure Aegis’ party will win? Those guys were not even that good at PvP. They barely beat us. And they barely beat their quarter final opponents,” Joltblade said.

“They always barely beat everything. But… they beat it in the end, don’t they?” Cheryl answered him, and got no response from the others.

In a contrastingly well-lit and bright dining hall, the members of the Night Hunters had gathered within their guild-run Tavern. Every member was present and seated at several large round tables scattered throughout the room. Large mugs of ale and plates of food were set in front of every one of them, but all were in heated discussions about how the upcoming match between Synopse and Aegis would go. A gigantic floating display of Aegis’ livestream was on the far wall for all of them to watch, but the stream was currently muted so that they didn’t have to listen to Hae-won talking with the livestream chat.

“I think it’s one-sided. Up until now, Pyri hasn’t really gotten to let loose. If Synopse doesn’t have a direct answer to shut her down like Skar, she’s just going to run wild,” Yorgi spoke on Aegis’ behalf.

“You’re putting too much faith in Pyri,” Sapphire said while shifting her plate of carrots closer to her side of the table and grabbing one to bite into.

Trexon shrugged. “Synopse is no slouch. He’s got spell control on the level of Pyri and Simon. I think he’ll be able to keep up with her.”

“Who’s gonna be the deciding factor, you reckon? Maybe Darkshot again?” Sherry asked.

“Yeah, right,” Ren rolled his eyes at her, which caused her to throw him a nasty look.

“Hey, if it weren’t for my boyfriend, Aegis’ team would be completely out of this tournament already,” She retorted.

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“She’s right,” Quinn nodded.

“They’re all good players on both sides. It’s gonna be an interesting match, for sure,” Herilon chimed in.

“Nah. I think Aegis clutches this one out,” Baffo replied firmly.

Quinn raised her eyebrows at him.

“This guy just likes Aegis ‘cause of that weird tank bond,” Sapphire shook her head and chuckled, causing others to join in on the laughter as well.

Inside Erikson’s tavern, within the village of Rene, the White Flames had gathered alongside all of the other player residents. Ruffily, Chax, Amlie, Eccen, Josephine, and Keldan’s group were among the patrons.

“You know, I was in Aegis’ math class in high school. We were basically best friends,” Keldan was explaining to a group of lower-level players, who looked on at Keldan in amazement. Eccen, who recalled Aegis and Keldan’s first interaction and huffed dismissively, walked away from the conversation to join a table that Chax was sitting at.

As in the other taverns, a livestream was displayed above the bar. Still, Chax was only glancing at it from time to time as he had several parchments rolled out on the table in front of him and was using a quill to scribble on them, continuing to work hard in his position within Rene.

“Sup?” Chax paused what he was doing to glance at Eccen.

“Not much,” he took a seat at the table and placed his mug of ale down at the edge, just barely avoiding placing it on Chax’s parchments. Chax didn’t say anything more, nor did Eccen.

“How’s it going, woof!?” Ruffily approached the table excitedly. “You think he’s gonna win?” She sat across from Eccen and placed her own mug down, also just barely avoiding Chax’s parchments. Chax gave her a look, but she didn’t notice as she engaged in conversation with Eccen and the two started excitedly talking about the previous match.

“Did you guys see how cool Rakkan was?” Amlie appeared and took up another spot at the table, further crowding it and slightly agitating Chax. The three got into it quite excitedly, with nothing happening in the arena at the moment due to the 10-minute break.

In the midst of their excited discussion about who was cooler, Rakkan or Darkshot, Amlie sloshed her mug of juice a bit too animatedly and caused some of it to splash out and land on some of Chax’s parchments.

Chax gave her a look. “Do you guys mind?”

“Oh, nope, not at all, you can keep working.” She smiled back at him innocently before going back into the conversation.

“Ladies…” An older balding doctor huffed as he marched through his hospital, entering the nurses' station only to see all of the nurses sitting down and staring at a television where Aegis’ broadcast was on display. “Are you all on break now or something? I don’t think so. Get back to work!” He shouted at them angrily.

“But Jillian and her son just made it to this month's tournament finals. Look, they’re famous now!”

“I don’t-” The doctor started to reply, but stopped as he moved to get a view of the screen behind the nurses’ station desk. “Really? Our Nurse Jillian?” He asked in disbelief.

“Really!” One of the other nurses replied.

“Go and get your brother out of his sim-box, it’s lunch time,” Renault’s father instructed his daughter as he entered the living room, seeing her staring up at the television. On it, Aegis’ stream was playing.

“No way, he told me to make sure no one disturbs him today,” Renault’s older sister replied, leaning back on the couch defiantly and giving her father a look.

“Excuse me?”

“He’s in this tournament. 5 million viewers on his team alone. It’s a huge deal, Dad,” she explained while motioning the screen. His father turned to it and took a few moments to take in all of the display information, looking at Hae-won speaking in front of footage of Aegis’ party.

“Which one is Renault?”

“The big muscly orc, Rakkan.”

“Well, what’re they doing right now?” His father asked with interest as he took a seat beside her on the couch.

“It’s an intermission before they go into the Semifinals. They might be the next match, the order hasn’t been decided yet…” She explained. Renault’s father asked several more questions before his mother huffed into the room.

“Where is everyone? I just finished making lunch, and the dining room is empty!” She complained, but was entirely ignored by both of them as his sister gave an in-depth explanation of Renault’s class, and his father listened attentively.

“Yeah, that’s my son. He was fucking badass, right?!” Derrick's dad shouted excitedly into the phone; his ear implant lit up. He was moving about the kitchen, taking advantage of the break to make a snack. After rustling up a plate of healthy steamed vegetables from an instant-cooking device in his kitchen, he made his way back to the living room of their home, where Derrick’s sim-box was in view, next to a large television floating on the wall in front of a couch.

“Of course, they’re gonna take it all the way. They’re built differently here in our hometown,” His dad spoke proudly into the call as he plopped down onto the couch and glanced at the sim-box briefly before turning back to the livestream broadcast on the screen.

“Any updates?” Nicholas asked Ryan in a voice call, as he and Andrew remained inside Nicholas’ office simulation alongside an idle visualization of Samantha.

“Everything is running smoothly. No breach attempts, no performance stuttering whatsoever from any client. The system is perfect,” Ryan replied.

“And Chris?” Nicholas asked.

“Says he’s still working in engineering to make some last-minute improvements to a possible security vulnerability.”

“Okay, great. Keep me informed,” Nicholas said before ending the call.

“What do you think?” Andrew asked after a brief silence between the pair, who were seated in comfy blue chairs in an open space with no walls, and a plain gray floor and roof that extended as far as the eye could see into darkness. The only sources of light in this office simulation were the dozens of floating transparent screens around them and the light blue glow emitted by Samantha’s digital form.

“About what?” Nicholas asked.

“The tournament. You still think they’re going to be able to stop that sword and fix your game world?” Andrew asked with a hint of anxiety in his voice.

“They’re all working together now, I think. These players are all strong,” Nicholas replied.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Andrew responded. He was met with only silence, though. “If Seraxus makes it out of this tournament with that sword, he’s going to feel empowered and go wild, and the whole world is going to watch him do it. Now’s the time to nerf that weapon, so that his opponents can beat him.”

Again, Nicholas didn’t reply. He leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together in front of his mouth and holding his chin up with just his thumbs.

“You’ll regret it if you don’t do it now.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“You’ll regret it.”

“Then I’ll regret it,” Nicholas snapped back coldly. “I still believe in the players and Samantha to self-correct. I still believe in the system we designed and built together.”

“Alright,” Andrew threw his hands up in surrender. “Stand by idly and let it burn to the ground. It’s your dream world, not mine,” he added in a condescending tone.

The first Semifinals match will begin in 60. Your team has been chosen to compete first.

Aegis and all his party members received the prompt, which caused them to stop what they were doing and close their interfaces, giving each other knowing looks.

“What? What is it?” Serenity asked curiously as she saw this.

“We’re up first,” Aegis answered her. He turned to his companions. "You guys ready?”

Darkshot let out a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Yup.” Pyri smiled.

“Mhm.” Lina nodded.

“Let’s do this.” Rakkan punched one of his fists into the other hand. They all made last-minute checks of their equipment until, finally, the doors leading into the arena opened.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the first Semifinal match will be between Aegis’ team, and Synopse’s team, the representatives from the Sages of Destiny guild and proud members of the VGN!” The VGN broadcaster’s voices could be heard from outside, despite them still being down a tunnel and in their waiting room.

The crowd erupted in violently loud cheers that shook the entirety of the arena - Aegis could feel the vibrations through the stone floors and his Salamander leather shoes. He took the lead and began marching down the tunnel, and the rest of his companions followed behind him.

“Good luck!” Serenity called out to them as they headed out.

Very quickly, it became deafeningly loud. As they stepped through the threshold of the arena, the bright sunlight from above shone down on them, momentarily blinding them as their eyes adjusted. Once it had, they could see the standing audience again, waving their hands in the air, clapping, and screaming.

Many audience members held banners and flags, most of which were too far away for Aegis to read the text on them. The flags, too, were mainly unfamiliar to him, but he spotted a few flags that were donning the colors of Kalmoore.

“Look, we’ve got some fans,” Aegis pointed out a few.

“Probably because I’m such a badass,” Darkshot replied.

“Yeah. Right,” Rakkan rolled his eyes at them. The group of five continued to strut forward towards the center of their side of the arena. It wasn’t long before they reached the spot closest to the blue magical barrier that kept them on their side of the arena, and they could see Synopse’s party approaching from the opposite side.

Synopse was wrapped up in waving to the cheering fans and smiling, but eventually he stopped to look across the arena at Aegis and his party. Unlike Skar, though, Synopse didn’t glare or grin menacingly.

Aegis was caught off guard to see him smiling a happy, excited smile. One of anticipation and eagerness - a very similar smile to the one he often saw on Pyri’s face. He was prepared to glare across the arena at Synopse’s party, but instead felt Synopse’s expression to be contagious.

He instead returned the same smile.

“Remember, it’s just a game. Let’s have some fun!” Synopse cheered across the arena at him.

“Is he messing with us?” Rakkan asked quietly at the party.

“Nope. No, don’t think so. That’s the kinda guy Synopse is,” Pyri shrugged.

“Heh.” Aegis’ smile grew wider. “Alright. Let’s have some fun,” Aegis shouted back to him.

Match begins in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0.