Spring had finally begun. Rolling out of bed with a crick in his neck Daniel’s body felt sluggish and heavy his mind was fried and he wanted nothing more than to stay in and do nothing all day at least that what he thought he should be feeling but instead his body was filled with vigor and energy as today was the day that he'd get to demonstrate some form of love to Jessica. Slipping on his glasses Daniel entered the school wandering through the halls for his friends until he was stopped by a gang of his peers most of them wore graphic Japanese tees or shirts covered with aheago girls while their dirt mustaches and pungent musk filled the area. 

 

Their apparent leader a tall skinny guy with an oversized videogame sweatshirt, his wire-framed glasses were mounted on his oily forehead while his R.O.W glasses sat proudly on his face red pimples dotted his face while his sweaty musk wafted through Daniels nose. “Hey chinpoko step off our turf before we have some problems” deeply confused Daniel began backing away slowly wondering to himself ‘what is this some kind of high school westside story’. Trying desperately to leave the group slowly encircled him staring at him like he was nothing more than a cornered rat closing in the group’s leader smugly stepped forward a smug grin plastering his face “oh you think you could've escaped well there's no escape for you now fool now you're going to hand over all of your items and be a good little slave and serve us” deeply unnerved Daniels blood ran cold as he frightfully backed away from the leaders clammy claws. That is until Daniel heard something, the deep squeak of basketball shoes on linoleum accompanied by the deep thuds of feet slamming the ground Daniel turned to see where the noise was coming from until he saw Arron barrel through the thin wall of people punching the group's leader in the face. 

 

The encounter was so fast and so shocking that as Daniel fell to the floor to avoid the attack he felt as if the world had simply slowed for a second to simply admire the scene it presented. Landing on his back Daniel quickly shot up turning to watch as Arron stood over the strange groups leaders with nothing short of a pissed off look in his eye “Fuck off you weebs, go back to your rooms and jack it to your fuckin’ cartoon porn” spitting of the kids face a clear red welt slowly began to swell on his face as tears began streaming down his cheek. Helped up by his group the leaders once confident voice was reduced to a whimper as he retreated meekly into the school “It’s not cartoons its anime” yet without even a second glance Arron soundly flipped them the bird speaking loud enough for them to hear “Yeah, yeah shove it up your ass you lil' fag!”. Walking over to Daniel Arron lifted him roughly by one arm almost half dragging him as he began walking down the hall “I can't believe you nearly got bullied by a group of fuckin' weebs you really are a lil' puss aren’t you” Daniel reluctantly looked at the ground as he was being dragged along until he noticed his surroundings he was being dragged to the field Daniel was about to question Arron's actions until he saw her friends waiting there. 

 

Roughly letting go of his arm Daniel quickly fell into Jason's arms “Woah there buddy don't want ya hurtin' that big ol' brain of yours” lifting him up Jason’s face gleamed with excitement while Marley and Sydney whispered to each other eagerly to the side. “Good news Danny boy today is the day of our first PVP battle which means it’s gonna be time to put your supporter skills to the test” furrowing his brow Daniel’s look was enough to make Jason step back “oh right I should probably tell you who were going against well we’ll be battling the Crylics at lunch for hanging their art on our turf and we already have a BPP filled with 25000 in our favor so as long as we win and were going to win we’ll-” it was at that moment that Jason once again saw that Daniel hadn't understood a word he said. Taking a deep sigh Jason patted Daniel's shoulder saying, “just meet us at the courtyard at lunch some broker will probably sky drop a guide or something for everyone.” as his friends walked off Daniel couldn't help but notice something green. 

 

it was there for a flash, but Daniel could've sworn he saw something green flash under Jason's jacket, disregarding it Daniel went to class happily seeing Jessica sitting at her desk with her friends as they chatted up a storm. scanning the room in his glasses he was finally able to notice the bars hovering over everyone's they were extremely faint until he focused on them and saw Jessica's character name Aradia le fey. Admiring the uniqueness of her name Daniel finally broke his dream-like gaze with Jessica when her head whipped around the classroom, immediately Daniels body was covered in a cold sweat ‘did she see me, did she catch me staring, what if she knows I'm staring, does she think I'm a creep, am I a creep’ it took a good while for Daniel to calm down as class went on per usual. 

 

Pulling up his inventory Daniel tapped the quartz ring and dragged it to the present tab happily typing in Aradia le fey before pressing enter and as the box vanished into floating motes of light Daniels heartfelt ten times lighter as if it was floating along with the ring itself. Quickly burying his face in his arms he slightly peaked from betwixt them to watch as Jessica looked at her phone, her eyes lighting up grandly as a warm smile crept across her face and for a moment, she looked around trying to find her sender. Daniel could feel it deep in his heart, after class he was going to tell Jessica how he truly felt and then they were going to have the best time playing R.O.W together. The bell delivered it screech of the day forcing every student out of their seat and onto their next class Daniel was readily making a beeline for Jessica's desk when his phone vibrated with a notification, apparently, someone sky dropped something to the entire class. Tapping the notification Daniel read the message and soon a cold sweat ran down the length of his back.

 

“To all noobs, the brokers association has presented the following message as of Friday all guild territories have been established and claimed the location goes as follows”:

The theater - Umbris: Goth/Emos

Library- Melior: Nerds/Geeks

Multipurpose room- Kurai Tsume: Weebs

The gym - The Pops/MVP: popular/ Jocks

The art gallery/studio - Crylics: Art kids

The field - Herbodia: Stoners

The cafeteria - safe zone: no battles nor PKing allowed

All clan less individuals shall be known as rats and they hold no territory

 

Important locations to be aware of : 

The Band room - BPP: Bit Point Pool 

• Location for bets on the PVP battles

Vs. Station

• Location to register PVP battles

Cash crossing 

• Shop for items and cash to BP conversion

 

BATTLE NOTICE:

11:30 MVP/POPS VS. MELIOR 25000 BP/ 15000 BP

End notice

 

Daniel felt a queasiness in his stomach he’d never felt before the room felt like it was spinning and his legs felt as if they could barely support his weight, grabbing his bag he immediately rushed to the bathroom his hand clamping on his mouth as warm vomit rose from the depths of his throat. He tried to breathe yet the vomit only saw it as an opening spilling forth and burning his nostrils bursting into the bathroom the vomit dripped from between his fingers until it launched from his mouth filling the toilet in front of him. Doubling over he clutched the toilet paper holder for support before simply collapsing to his knees, blowing the vomit from his nose Daniel took labored breaths while his throat felt rough and dry. He couldn't do this it was too much now he’d have to fear walking the halls, he had to watch every step he took it was too much. Daniel's body was tired is eyes were watering and sweat had covered his brow in a thick sheen.

 

Looking at the message again Daniel remembered something Jason said that he’d be fighting a PVP battle during lunch but the more he looked at it he saw only the popular people and the nerds going against each other. ‘Was he considered one of the popular people?’ Daniel could do nothing but stand in the stall eyeing the vomit-covered toilet as not every chunk made it in, sighing Daniel wiped off the vomit with toilet paper before washing his face in the sink. Collecting himself he stared at his reflection and what he saw wasn't very intimidating nor brave in the slightest, but he remembered Jason's words in that moment “they're counting on me” and with reaffirmed determination, he left the bathroom. yet the moment he left the lights turned off changing the clear surface of the mirror into nothing more than an empty dark abyss.

 

Time passed rapidly for Daniel as the anxiety of the upcoming battle ate away at his confidence, he continuously looked over his stats and spells wondering how he would fair against the opponents. Electro web, palm flash, and charge burst were all good attack spells but he didn't have enough SP to do them all at once and with a recharge rate of 1 SP per minuet he had no hope of overpowering them with attacks, and he’d been farming so much that he entirely forgot about using righteous dominion to heal meaning he didn't know the range or even how to use it properly and he couldn't test it now or he’d have low SP going into the fight. Daniel's leg bounced against the floor anxiously barely able to keep still his mind raced with pans before remembering something, he's the supporter. Suddenly a weight was lifted from Daniels shoulders if he was the supporter than that simply meant that he just had to aid his team while they did all the damage and with that Daniels, the entire strategy changed he didn't need to attack he simply needed to support.

 

Finally, the lunch bell rang and with it did the flood of students rush to the band room and the courtyard to prepare for the upcoming fight with Daniel right alongside them. Entering the courtyard Daniel pushed through the thick wall of student stumbling out into the clearing in the center where his friends stood proudly in a line side by side, Jason proudly stood in the center like he did as a quarterback and produced a smile that could've given Superman a run for his money. Standing in line Daniel faced the nerds and was slightly surprised by the results it was three girls and two guys and it appeared that a little under half of them were simply wearing pajamas. The three girls wore fancy sweaters and skirts with dark flowing cardigans that landed near their knees while the guys wore dumpy hoodies and baggy sweatpants almost as if they just got out of bed and came in their most over worn pair of pajamas, even their stance was weird. Their legs were far apart and rigid like something was chafing them between their legs but aside from their weird stances their eyes were burning with determination, serious and callous just looking at them mad Daniel reluctant to pursue the battle but he steeled himself as timed wound down ever so slowly. 

 

It was 11:28 only two more minutes before the battle began, a large almost overly dramatic sign appears saying "XK4LIBER vs. ZIGGURAT" staring at the giant x hanging over his head Daniel wondered why the team didn't have a cooler name until the counter appeared. As the counter slowly wound down from 10 Daniel gripped his phone tightly, his heart was ready to leap from his chest but despite his nerves, he was ready to fight alongside his friends. 

 

5...

That is until he realized something important. 

4…

 Something he should've thought about from the beginning. 

3…

He wondered why he never asked this before. 

2...

1…

They didn't have a battle plan.

 

The second the timer reached zero the giant title card was replaced with the word fight and immediately the battle began. The two disheveled guys immediately charged Daniels group quickly shouting out spells as they rushed towards the center of the line “dry liquid” “dampering gust” in response Daniel used desecrated dome to trap the two guys there but he was quick enough to stop their spells. Daniel watched as the spells washed over his friends and while he was expecting them to die immediately, he saw that their health bars were barely in the red “Daniel, healing. Now!” using righteous dominion Daniel immediately began healing his friends selecting each of them before commencing the spell sadly watching as his SP went from 13 to 1 in a heartbeat. It was only then that he watched as the girls on the other team began firing off heavy-hitting spells with effects but luckily Arron blocked them with treasured shield. 

 

Rushing forward Arron quickly buffed himself with warp shield before releasing ash torrent directly to one of the girls' faces. Startled the girl began to stumble backward while the other two immediately turned to deal with Arron, quickly launching spells his shield went down once again with his heath quickly whittling down until it was fully red. As he fell to the ground, he began crawling on the ground over to Daniel “Heal me. Heal me you piece of shit” but Daniel could do nothing he still needed at least 4 more minutes for his SP to recover and Arron would be dead in 3 leaving him to simply apologetically gaze at Arron as his last will bar ran out and he was pronounced as outed for the battle. 

 

Daniel looked to Jason to deliver an apology, but his face was filled with joy and confidence as if this is what he expected to happen “charge” as Jason, Sydney, and Marley charged the remaining three girls something unexpected happened. The dome holding the two guys fell and suddenly a barrage of spells came from behind and erased what little health the group had leaving them all on their last will. As each of them fell to the ground the three girls looked at them all with scorn before turning their gaze to Daniel. He stared at his SP as it went from 4 to 5 and quickly tried to heal Jason but the spell was interrupted by a swift attack from one of the disheveled guys. As the group stared down Jason one of the girls simply fanned her hand at him sending the disheveled guy after him for a quick death, to which Daniel was ready to accept until one of the girls pulled out a small vial of blue liquid. Pouring it on the floor Daniel noticed one important thing appear around them. +1 SP. 

 

Taking a deep breath Daniel rushed towards his two attackers quickly using electro web to slow one of them as he passed the other one by desperately jumping into the middle of the circle Daniel watched as his SP rapidly filled up before using spirit release. As the three girls tried to recover from the sudden intrusion, they had Daniel used charge burst and palm flash to make them flee their recovery circle. Daniel didn't know how long the circle would last but he was going to make the most of it quickly using electro web and crimson cocoon on two of the girls' Daniel immediately sealed hem in a desecrated dome before focusing on the guys now rushing towards him. Watching the cooldown timer Daniel used charge burst only for it to miss as he was hit by a dampering gust. Watching his health plummet halfway Daniel used psycho drain pushing the stronger of the two attackers back before using electro web and crimson cocoon to begin weakening the other a bit more. Daniel's nerves were on edge and he could see the light from the spell fading so he decided it would be a small victory if he was able to take out at least one of them. Using righteous dominion he regained the last of his hp before the SP circle finally wore off. 

 

Using charge burst on his slowed opponent Daniel watched as he laid on the ground with his last will before the crimson cocoon took the last of his life. Daniel was ready to face the other boy until he heard that another enemy was downed. Turning to look at the dome he watched as the girl he used electro web on was still suffering the effects of Arrons' ember torrent, not waiting to pass this opportunity Daniel ran over and just as one of the girls was preparing to heal her he used palm flash officially outing her from the battle. Daniel knew the two trapped girls would be out of the dome soon, so he checked his SP and sighed he only had enough for two more strong attacks, but he’d come this far, and he wasn't backing down. Rushing over to the disheveled guy laying on his back Daniel saw tears in his eyes and snot running down his nose “p-please don't do it please I give up I surrender” suddenly a small notification box appeared before him “accept surrender? [y] [n]” tapping the [y] Daniel watched as the game announced that a player had surrendered watching as the guy ran away into the crowd of people. 

 

Turning around Daniel watched his dome breakdown as the two girls faced him with nothing but disdain in their eyes. Daniel wondered if he could possibly take them with the condition he’s currently in until a prompt popped up before him again “accept team surrender [y] [n]” confused Daniel wondered why they would go for this option when they have the advantage until it dawned on him. They had no more SP. They must've been supporters like him buffing their teammates which explains how the two guys were able to escape the dome so fast and why they had the SP circle. Tapping [y] a large fanfare roared through the sky as an overhead announcement appeared saying “XK4LIBER WON!!!” soon Jason, Arron, and everyone else stood up as if nothing even happened. For a second Daniel wondered if they were going to lift him up in celebration like he'd seen in all those movies time and time again but nothing of the sort happened. His friends all seemed disgruntled and angry their faces contorted into distortions of rage while he did nothing but stand there and for a time Daniel felt farther from his friends that he ever had before.