The streets of La-Roc were quiet this late at night, most of the city having surrendered to sleep hours ago. Lantern orbs cast pools of golden light at regular intervals, creating a patchwork of shadows that made the crumbling buildings this far out of the city center look almost artistic instead of just neglected. I emerged from a set of stairs into an alleyway instead of a building this time, the warm night air a welcome change from the stuffiness below, and grabbed a lantern orb from its sconce. The familiar light warmed my palm as I started making my way toward Doreen's.

  My bare footsteps echoed off the stone street, the only sound besides the distant white noise of the nearby harbor. I'd promised to meet everyone for drinks, but that conversation with Arryava, and the trip back to the surface, had taken way longer than expected. Were they even still awake? Malcolm had probably given up and gone home by now—he wasn't much of a night owl.

  As I rounded the corner onto the street where Doreen's sat, Valor suddenly screamed a warning through my mind. I took two steps to the side, just as the tavern door exploded outward in a shower of splinters.

  Thea came flying through the doorway like she'd been fired from a cannon, her white fur a blur. She hit the flagstones hard, bounced twice with impressive height, then crashed straight through the window of the building across the street. Glass shattered in a spectacular cascade that would've been impressive if it wasn't so concerning.

  "Ow. Shit-baskets!" Her voice drifted back through the new hole in the wall, followed by creative cursing that would've made a sailor blush.

  I stared at the destruction for a heartbeat, then cautiously approached Doreen's entrance—or what was left of it. The door hung from one hinge, swaying gently like it was contemplating giving up entirely.

  The scene inside was complete chaos.

  Tables had been overturned to form makeshift barricades. Chairs lay scattered like casualties of war. My friends were spread across the room in various states of combat readiness, and at the center of it all stood Doreen, her green aura blazing around her small frame like a bonfire.

  And on the last standing table, sitting innocently in the center, was the cause of all this destruction: an honest-to-god chocolate cake.

  Not a small one either. Dark, glossy, icing and what had to be at least three layers made my mouth water instantly.

  "Mine!" Doreen snarled, her usual friendly demeanor completely gone. She moved like liquid, her green aura leaving trails as she spun to face Erik, who was trying to flank her from the left, and launched herself through the air. Her foot connected with his chest before he could even react, sending him sliding across the floor to crash into an overturned chair.

  Katie pressed herself against the far wall, something between a smile and worry on her face. Cass sat slumped in a corner, pressing a hand to a spectacular bruise forming on her jaw. Malcolm hadn't even stood up from his chair, just sipping what looked like that coffee I'd made earlier with an expression of mild amusement.

  "Come on, Doreen!" Jeremy called from behind an overturned table. "Just one piece!"

  "You want cake, my love?" Doreen's voice had dropped to something dangerous. "Then earn it! I'll show you a few pointers about what real speed looks like!"

  She blurred forward, meeting Jeremy barely emerged from his fortified position. Her palm strike sent him stumbling backward into Erik, who had just recovered from the last hit. They both went down together.

  I set my lantern orb on what remained of a shelf and really looked at the cake. I remembered Katie and I talking about them, and she knew how to make pound cake… but after I had explained how to make Devil’s Food Cake, she had lit right up. And after the day I had? I needed some fucking cake.

  Valor exploded to life around me as I ignited a mana burn, blue flames dancing along my skin as I stepped into the tavern proper. The familiar rush of enhanced perception flooded through me, time seeming to slow as my aura expanded outward over everyone in the room.

  "Really, Ben?" Katie called from her safe spot. "You're really doing this?"

  "It's chocolate cake, Katie!" I grinned at her. " chocolate cake! I have to at least try."

  Doreen's head snapped toward me, and her grin was absolutely feral. "The fuckin’ Breaker wants to play? Good! I was getting bored!"

  She launched herself at me with zero warning, moving so fast she left an afterimage. My body moved before my brain caught up, flowing into the opening stance of Yang-style Tai Chi. Her fist whistled past my ear as I redirected her momentum, using her own force to send her spinning past me.

  Or that was the plan.

  Doreen twisted mid-air like a cat, her foot catching me in the ribs with enough force to lift me off my feet. I hit the wall hard enough to crack the wood, gasping as the air left my lungs.

  "Gaia's tits!" Cass laughed from her corner. "She's going all out!"

  Red chose that moment to bound through the broken door, his seven tails fanning out as he took in the scene. His excitement pulsed through our bond—

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "Sorry buddy," I wheezed, pushing myself back to my feet. "Chocolate's really bad for dogs. You sure you still want to help?"

  His response was to immediately charge Doreen, who was already moving toward me again. She had to pivot to avoid his lunge, giving me just enough time to flow into an offensive stance.

  , I promised through our bond. All the cheese. Farts be damned.

  Red's tails all wagged intensely as we moved in tandem, him low and me high, trying to bracket Doreen between us. She laughed—actually laughed—as she dropped into a stance I recognized, her green aura condensing around her limbs.

  "Two against one? That’s more like it!" She moved like water channeling violence, slipping between Red's snapping jaws and my grasping hand after a failed strike. Her elbow caught me in the solar plexus, and while I was doubled over, she used my back as a springboard to flip over Red.

  There wasn’t anything Valor could do, she was just too damn fast.

  Malcolm took another sip of coffee. "You might want to try actually hitting her," he suggested helpfully.

  "Thanks for the advice!" I gasped, barely avoiding Doreen's spinning kick. Red tried to catch her leg, but she shifted her weight and sent him skidding into a pile of chairs.

  Jeremy had recovered enough to try again, coming at Doreen from behind while she was focused on me. Without even looking, she grabbed his extended arm and used his own momentum to throw him straight at me. We collided with a painful slap, and by the time I'd extracted myself, Doreen was perched on the table next to her cake like a guardian gargoyle.

  "Anyone else want to court death?" she asked sweetly. "I’m feeling generous with training today!"

  I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of a room full of super heroes getting their asses kicked by a single mouse. Even Jeremy, her own Husband and someone that had trained me, was no match for her.

  I pushed more mana into Valor, the mana burn intensifying as blue flames grew brighter and I settled into a lower stance. Red circled around to my left, rumbling playfully. We moved together, Valor and our bond working together to make us almost one force.

  Doreen's grin widened. "Better! But still too slow!"

  She became a green blur, and suddenly she was behind me. Her palm strike would have broken my spine if I hadn't managed to shove an obscene amount of mana into the impact point. Instead, I was launched into the air and I managed to snag the edge of the table as I flew past, using the momentum to swing myself around—

  My fingers grabbed a chunk of cake.

  Doreen's foot caught me in the ribs mid-grab, and I went flying again, but this time with a grin on my face. I hit the street outside hard, rolling several times before coming to a stop against a wall. Everything hurt, my ribs were definitely bruised, and I was pretty sure I'd broken my collarbone for the thousandth time.

  But as I sat up, I shoved a chunk of chocolate cake into my mouth, savoring the flavor and texture. It tasted like home.

  Worth it. Absolutely worth it.

  The rich, chocolaty sweetness exploded across my tongue. This was the real thing, Katie had somehow managed to make a perfect chocolate cake.

  Doreen appeared in the doorway, her green aura still flickering around her. "You sneaky fuckin’—" She paused, seeming to realize she’d kicked me right at the cake, then laughed. "Fine! You earned that piece, Breaker. But try that again and I'll show you what I can really do!"

  "Got it," I groaned, accepting Katie's hand as she helped me to my feet. She was trying to look disapproving but failing to hide her smile.

  "You're an idiot, look at you," she said, but there was fondness in it.

  "An idiot who got cake," I corrected, savoring the lingering taste.

  We limped back inside to find everyone in various states of recovery. Cass was passing around healing pills like party favors—except to Erik, and Malcolm had produced a bottle of Sevenfold Liquor.

  "To getting our asses kicked!" Jeremy raised a glass, wincing as the movement pulled at what was likely a cracked rib.

  "To chocolate!" Thea added, returning to the common room from outside. Dust covered her white fur, making her look like she'd been rolled in flour.

  We drank, we laughed, and we spent the next hour comparing bruises and retelling the fight from different angles. Doreen eventually relaxed enough to share tiny slivers of her prize, though she watched each of us like a hawk as we ate them.

  "How did you make this?" I asked Katie, savoring my second sliver—earned by offering to fix the front door.

  "It was supposed to be a surprise," Katie said. “I made it when I got back to town for you, then brought it here since that’s where everyone said you were supposed to be.”

  "Except you weren’t," Malcolm muttered. “Doreen was.”

  The night wore on, stories got more elaborate, and the alcohol made everyone's bruises seem less important. Cass tried to demonstrate the move Doreen had used on her and ended up drunkenly falling off her chair. Jeremy and Erik got into an argument about Tai Chi. Red curled up in the middle of the room, occasionally thumping his tail when someone mentioned his contribution to the fight.

  "You know," Cass said, several drinks in, "this is basically how my mother taught me to fight. Get your ass kicked repeatedly until you figure out how not to get your ass kicked."

  "Same, though that was my Aapo," I said dryly, then winced as Katie poked my bruised ribs.

  "Come on, Breaker," she said, standing and offering me her hand again. "Let's get you somewhere you can pass out properly."

  I said my goodnights, collected Red—who was so full of cheese from the kitchen that he could barely walk—and let Katie guide me through the familiar hallways to my old room. It hadn't changed much since I'd moved to Mo-Lei, still a storage closet of all sorts of knick-knacks in bad taste.

  "You really do fit in here," Katie said as I collapsed onto the bed, but she was smiling as she said it.

  I swallowed a healing pill that I had stored in my soul-space and sighed as it took effect.

  "Oh yeah, I didn’t have to chance to tell you," I mumbled into the pillow. “Maris withdrew her claim, I get to stay.”

  “What?”

  I turned my head to look at her. "There are still duels, but the whole ‘getting thrown off Ark’ piece is gone."

  Katie grinned a grin that made me forget who I was for a moment, then launched herself at me in an awkward hug that definitely didn’t make me grunt with pain.

  Red jumped onto the bed with a huff, immediately taking up more space than seemed physically possible for his size. The smell of cheese on his breath was already pretty bad, and I knew it was going to be a rough night.

  "Thanks for making the cake," I said to Katie.

  "Of course. I’d call it a successful test, too. Tomorrow I’ll make another one and charge double—I have to pay for Sylvarus, you know."

  I stared at her. "You're amazing."

  "I know." She kissed my forehead, carefully avoiding the bruise forming there. "Now sleep. Don't you have a monster hunt tomorrow?"

  Right. The hydra thing. That was going to be fun with bruised everything, healing pills only did so much. I really needed to figure out how to make that refined mana again so I could heal passively.

  But as I drifted off, Katie warm against my side and Red snoring at our feet, I couldn't help but smile. These moments—stupid, painful, wonderful moments with friends—made Ark feel like home.

  Hollowflame, Eidolons, Vajras, all of that didn’t matter. Because right here, right now, things were good.

  Tomorrow could bring its monsters. Tonight, I had cake, friends who'd fight beside me over something stupid, a warm bed to pass out in, and Katie.

  Then a chemical warfare from Red’s ass hit my nostrils.

  Yup. Things were good.