“Scenario two” Gavin groaned “so fuckin lame.”

  They were in the underground arena. Brilliant lights battered their eyes that had grown accustomed to the darkness. They were trapped inside a dome of light, swirling pearlescent streaks like a soap bubble.

  Outside of the dome stood Steven and Harold Stewardson, an older man and woman who looked vaguely related to them, and four other bodyguards. All were dressed in expensive armour and were eagre to fight. The stands were packed with people, as many as had been in here on the night that had set this all into motion.

  Gavin felt his access to his powers return, he palmed a ring from his inventory and back to check.

  “Is that Harold or Stevens mum and dad?” Gavin asked Sam, pointing at the older man and woman who were now talking to the crowd.

  “Stevens, they're the heads of the Stewardsons household, Vance and Geraldine, both level three, I'd expect the guards are all level two.”

  “Variant four then?” Gavin asked.

  “Ugh, fine, you know I don't like that one.”

  “Yeah, but the first part is fun at least.”

  “For you.”

  Gavin strode to the edge of their barrier and tapped it. The bubble appeared to be a typical energy shield, probably level three, he'd be hard pressed to damage it. He couldn't hear what they were saying outside, meaning they probably couldn't hear what he was saying inside

  “Oi cock womble.” Gavin yelled, cupping his hands to the dome. Harold smirked even more broadly at him.

  “Those assholes” Gavin complained “they blocked me from being able to talk.”

  “Gavin, if I know you at all I know you'll find a way to piss them off.”

  “Too fuckin right I will” thinking a moment Gavin snapped his fingers.

  “Hey Judy, can you make an illusion of the old lady there violating her husband with a cactus?”

  “What's a cactus?”

  “Ahh, spikey plant that grows in the desert.”

  “I don't think so, it's probably too complicated.”

  “What about if you make it as crude as possible, it'll really sell the effect. Also, add in an arrow and point it at them.”

  Judy concentrated a moment, making a small sign in front of her.

  “What is this? A sign for ants? It has to be at least three times bigger than this.”

  “Uhh, okay.” Judy said, making it somewhat larger.

  “No, I mean like massive can you make it as big as this dome?”

  “I can try, Judy said, stretching the image in all directions, soon the child's drawing of Stevens mum and dad having intimate relations filled the free space inside the dome.

  “Fuckin brilliant Judy.”

  “It's quite a strain on my mana.”

  “Got it, don't overdo it, wait, I've got a better idea.” He said, feeding a little of his own mana over to top her up.

  Gavin reached into his inventory to access the prodigious amount of wood stored in there, drawing it out and fabricating it into larger than life effigies of their abductors. Vance and Geraldine were performing a similar action to Judy's illusion, with a reasonably accurate two metre long cactus. Harold was on his knees in front of Steven who was giving his dad a hand, while the guards stood around in a circle seeming to enjoy the scene. Gavin was especially proud of how realistic he got the clothing scattered on the ground to look. To remove any doubt, Gavin laid out sticks on the ground to form an arrow pointing at the group outside the dome, then an note that read “Vance” with an arrow “Geraldine” and another arrow, “Steven and Harold” with a third.

  “I think they noticed.” Judy said.

  “They sure have” Gavin said, laughing at the Stewardsons who were growing quite red, anger flashing in their eyes.

  They'd stopped addressing the crowd and were seeming to yell something at Gavin, who cupped his hand to his ear then made a palms up shrug.

  Suddenly the dome swirled with colour going opaque.

  “Touched a nerve there” Sam said.

  “Of course, they met him.” said Val with a resigned tone in her voice.

  “This affront to my mockery will not stand” Gavin fumed.

  “Well, we can't do anything now, they can't see or hear us.”

  “Can't smell us either. Can't tou- huh.”

  “Huh what?”

  “Ahh, something Soliece wouldn't like me explaining.”

  “Just do whatever it is.”

  “Here's hoping this works.”

  Gavin returned his wooden construction to his inventory, fully intact, not only would it be a waste of mana to deconstruct it, he might want it later, if even as a collectors item, it was his masterpiece like the trojan horse in Troy. Next, he removed several bars of iron from his inventory fabricating into sheets that he formed into a colossal cone that he pressed to the dome. He Scribed some runes into the mouthpiece of the cone he thought he would never need again then funneled a bit of mana into them. His task complete, he put his mouth to his makeshift device.

  “Oi, dingleberries” Gavin's voice boomed “Wait, that might not translate for you guys very well, a dingleberry is like a bit of shit that's dried in the ass hairs of a sheep, oh, a sheep is like a swamptrotter, except covered in wool, and without the hard face, its-”

  “Gavin, we have sheep here” Sam said.

  “Wait? You're telling me I could have been eating mutton this whole time? I've been eating lizard steaks when there were lamb chops? This is the worst thing to happen to me since I got to this world, and I once had to spend two days with Harold, God that guy is a douche. Oh, ahh, a douche is a device a lady uses to clean out her, you know, not to imply that Harold is literally a douche that his auntie uses, anyway, it's just an expression from my world.”

  “Gavin's homeworld must be absolutely devastated he left to come here.” Judy said to no one in particular.

  “So anyway, man I hope this is all coming through, I'm going to be really disappointed if I've been rambling this whole time and no one's heard it.” Gavin continued unabated.

  “Oh, we've had to hear it.” Valerie complained.

  “Quiet you. Anyway, this is our formal notice that since you have elected to kill us, we decline to do your dirty work anymore. I think we'd all be better off if we just came clean, took our lumps in jail for the conspiracy we committed to get you guys elected, and live out the rest of our lives in peace when we get out.”

  The dome dropped, revealing a livid looking family in front of them

  “Lies!” Geraldine screeched at the same time as her husband.

  Gavin continued on unperturbed “This is what we in my world, which isn't this one by the way, I'm an from a whole different one, call a false flag operation, a country that plans an attack on its own people then blames it on their neighbour as a pretence to go to war with them for-”

  Gavin was cut short by a bolt of lightning that smashed him in the chest, felling him where he stood. He dragged his cone down with him, the whole contraption tumbling to the stone floor beside him. Gavin was dimly aware of commotion, flashing lights and sounds of steel scraping on steel, but his world was closing in on him, eyes going dim as arcs of electricity crackled across his scorched flesh.

  Gavin felt himself drift into the void, surrounded by darkness. He felt almost content, knowing he'd made a difference here, everything would be okay, wouldn't it? His friends would be okay, he could just drift off into the great nothing. He could feel his soul fraying at the edges, dissolving back into the ether.

  Except. Except his friends were not okay. His friends were fighting for their lives around his corpse. They might only have moments, Sam and Val might be fine for a time, but that time would be short. He'd be god damned fuckin ashamed to let them fight while he lay on his back and let them die. Also, to a lesser extent, it’d be really fuckin dumb if he, a sparky, died to some fuckin electricity spell. How. Fuckin. Embarrassing.

  [Title: Defender of the weak.]

  [sacrificing your life in the attempt to aid another has marked your soul. Your soul has adapted to keep you alive through severe wounds. Your [Constitution] attribute has increased. When you take near fatal damage a last burst of healing energy will automatically heal your wounds]

  Pain flooded into Gavins lungs as reality slammed back into him. He was alive and whole, the scene around him burned vividly into his eyes. Immediately in front of him Harold and Steven were on the ground, Harold was missing his whole shoulder, his arm connected by a flap of armpit. Steven was desperately trying to scoop his intestines back into his body like he was an actor in a D-Day movie. Judy was down too, a streak of glassed stone next to her on one side and a blackened patch of broken stone to the other, she was alive but dazed, gasping air like a fish out of water. Sam was in rough shape, her tree form was heavily battered as she swung her sword ineffectually at Geraldine who was dodging back out of reach with inhuman speed while Vance harried her with arrows from his bow, blasting chunks of wood off her body. Valerie had dealt with all of the guards before she’d fallen, unmoving.

  “Not today” Gavin howled, throwing himself into the air as tendrils of life streamed out of his body and into his friends. Instead of taking one of his wands or his new staff from his inventory he equipped an experimental weapon of his own design, shouldering the weapon and pointing the bulbous end towards Geraldine as she launched herself at Sam for the killing blow.

  [Item: Gavins experimental Magic Propelled Grenade-adjacent launcher thingy]

  [Type: Weapon, explosive]

  [Rarity: Level 1, Epic]

  [Description: A one use device designed with the intention of making one thing turn into many things]

  [Effect: propels a warhead(?) Filled with various chemical compounds towards the target. Device detonates on contact mixing the chemical compounds inside the device]

  Gavin watched the grenade explode out of the launcher at Geraldine, he slammed his will into the end to punch it faster through the air and guide it into his enemy. Geraldine noticed the device too late, in mid air and unable to divert her course as she leapt at Sam. It caught her in the ribs, blasting her backward before erupting in a purple-green fireball that burst outwards with a blistering concussion wave.

  Gavin was thrown back to slam into the barrier that ringed the arena, Sam smashed into it too a second later, her tree form shattering, leaving her bruised and bloody body to crumple next to him. Judy was down again as well, having just regained her feet. Valerie was on one knee trying to stand to face off against Vance who was staring at his wife in horror.

  Geraldine staggered to her feet, her torso torn asunder. She’down been split in half at the navel, left half of her rib cage, arm neck hanging off one side and the other arm and right ribcage hanging off to drag along the ground, intestines, lungs, heart and other various organs her body cavity flowed out of her in a waterfall of gore. She took four staggering steps, lightning crackling from one hand that dragged across the stone before crumbling to ash, as if the very molecular bonds holding her atoms together just gave up.

  “What have you done!” Vance wailed, turning his bow on Gavin. Six arrows were in the air before Gavin had even noticed the first being shot, with a moment to react he ether warped to appear a few metres away, the arrows smashing into the wall beside him, gouging chunks out of the heavily enchanted barrier.

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  He shunted more energy into his friends, feeling his energy dip as he burned through his potions, coins, stored crafting resources, then into his magic items, wands, his throwing star, dinosaur cloak, thousands of enchanted rings prepared over the past days to protect him and his friends.

  Spent, he fell back, clinging to the edge of life with his fingertips as his friends rose to their feet. Fully restored.

  Sam's tree form returned as she dodged and sprinted across the arena, arrows blasting her to ribbons as she attacked. Judy shot her own bow back at Vance who easily sidestepped the arrows as if they were barely worth looking at even as they split into two and curved in to hit him. Valerie was there in a flash, her dancing swords slashing at him from every direction. He was taking some hits but not many, thin trickles of blood seeped from his flesh as her razor sharp blades did little but scratch him. Then Sam was there too, adding her sword into the fight.

  Vance didn't appear to have any teleport based powers, just the sheer strength and speed of a demigod. He dropped his bow, taking out a longsword that he used to eviscerate Sam, slashing her legs out from under her with a single attack.

  “No” Gavin groaned as Vance slid his sword into Valerie's chest, pinning her to the ground, a feral look in his eyes. Then he turned his eyes on Gavin, murder on his face.

  Slowly he stalked towards the prone Gavin, letting Judy's arrows smash into him as he walked. Red welts formed where her they exploded across his face. He raised his sword, ready to bring it down on Gavin's head. Then his eyes flashed with bright white light. Vance flinched, giving Gavin a moment to flop to the side. When he looked up he saw his attackers eyes were strobing black, white, yellow, orange, pink, blue. The colours were changing faster and faster as a high pitched squeal pierced Gavins ears and drove him to distraction.

  Judy.

  Determined, gritting her teeth Judy's hands were a blur as she poured all of her mana into her bow, refreshing the enchantment to empower her arrows, sending a constant stream of explosions at Vance's face.

  Whipping his sword around wildly, unable to close his eyes against the onslaught of sensory overload, Vance thrashed in the direction the pain was coming from. As he closed the distance she jumped to the other end of the arena bombarding him with arrows from the other direction.

  The fight was not pretty, it took more than ten minutes of Judy bludgeoning Vance to death with pinpricks, he was completely unable to defend against her, not able to find her to kill her. Finally, he went down. Judy continued hammering his body until his face was nothing more than pulp. Judy fell to one knee, struggling to maintain her balance.

  The fight was done. The knights broken, but not beaten.

  A long moment of stunned silence followed before the arena erupted in applause and shouting. They'd just seen four level one fighters defeat eight enemies, including two level three and several level two fighters. The fact one of the knights was actually level two made absolutely no difference, this story would spread like wildfire.

  A wash of green light flooded the arena, restoring Gavin's health along with his friends. Standing to dust himself off, he sauntered over to the healer standing at the open entrance.

  “Cheers for the heal mate, what's ya name? I'm Gavin”

  “Lance.”

  “Nice to meet you Lance, anyway, I'm gonna go have a yarn with my mates.” He said, turning his back on the man.

  “Hey wait.” Lance called to his back.

  “What?”

  “You don't have a healer on your team?”

  “Observant” Gavin confirmed.

  “Can I join?”

  “You a priest of Florrin?”

  “Ahh, yes, actually.”

  “How long were you watching out there?”

  “I ahh, that is to say, I knew I’d be needed here so I came, I got here right as the bubble shield came down.”

  “And you didn't jump in earlier to help us out?”

  “No, I ahh, well, they would have killed me.”

  “You wouldn't be a good fit mate, sorry.” Gavin said, sauntering back to his friends.

  “Alright team. Time to go?” Gavin said, pulling his friends into a hug.

  [Title: forged in battle]

  [Your team has fought and lived through battles that should have killed you, bonding your souls together]

  [Gain a limited telepathic bond with allies. Range and level restrictions are reduced for allies that share this ability. ]

  “Neat.” Gavin said, reading their new ability.

  “One last thing before we get out of this town, reckon we could see if scenario twelve variation three works?” Sam asked the group.

  “Fine by me.” Valerie laughed.

  “Me too.” Judy said.

  Gavins portal opened beside them, an inky black void in the middle of the gore strewn arena.

  “Gavin, you know I can't use that.” Val said frowning

  “You couldn't use that, pretty sure you can now, try it.”

  Grinning ear to ear he watched as she walked through. The team followed behind her, the noise of the crowd at their backs vanishing as they emerged at the Starbourne estate.

  “Judy, did I tell you that spell was one of the best or what?” Gavin laughed as Sam pushed open the doors to her former house “Sam, are you going to take back what you said about Judy's power?”

  “Gavin, banter later, we have to set a tone, remember” Sam said in a hushed voice.

  “Fine. But we are definitely discussing this at length back in the bat cave. Did you know I actually died again back there? I’m pretty sure that title I have actually gives me a free life on a cooldown, not just a one off thing.”

  “You what?” Judy asked, astonished.

  Sam stalked through her parents home, her heavy armour clanking on solid stone. She led them down the main corridor and into a room on her right.

  “Mother! Father!” she bellowed “Entertaining room. Now.”

  Her party followed her inside to sit on the couch and chairs facing the door. Gavin stood behind them, his back to the door gazing out the window contemplatively.

  “Too much tone Gavin” Sam whispered.

  “Oh. Right, this is your show.”

  Gavin sat down at an empty chair, resisting the urge to put his feet up on the table. He made a gesture to summon a beer from his inventory, but was disappointed to learn all of their food and drinks were gone, consumed to keep his friends alive minutes before. He'd have to remember that they each owed him a beer for saving their lives.

  “Samania?” Griffon called, his footsteps rushing down the hall.

  Griffon barrelled into the room, rushing to his daughter, arms outstretched. Sam stared at him coldly and he faltered.

  “Sit” she commanded “we’re here to talk, then we’re leaving. Where is mother?”

  “Here” came Anabelle Starbournes brittle voice “you came back.”

  “Not for long. We plan on leaving, we won't be back. Ever.”

  “You can't leave!” she squawked. Her face was stretched thin, heavy purple bags marred her bloodshot eyes.

  “Yes mother, I can, I can go where I damned well please.”

  “You haven't heard? The Stewardsons want our blood, your blood, I, we, can protect you.” Anabelle said.

  “Ha” Samania laughed coldly “do you know where we’ve just been?”

  “Ahh-”

  “We were just abducted by the Stewardsons and brought to the arena to be puvlically executed.”

  “How di-”

  “Steven Stewardson is dead.”

  “You ki-”

  “Harold Stevenson is dead.”

  “Both-”

  “I. Am. Talking. Mother.” Sam said, ice dripping from her breath “Four of their level two guards are dead. Geraldine Stewardson is dead. Vance Stewardson is dead. We. Us four. Killed them in fair combat. You cannot stop us from leaving and we. Don't. Need. Your. Protection.”

  “How?”

  “The power of friendship.” Gavin said, unable to help himself. “Sorry, as you were, doing great by the way”

  He sat back, miming zipping his lips then when he was satisfied Sam wasnt looking motioned drinking from a bottle to Judy.

  “That's impossible.” Griffon said.

  “No. It happened. There were thousands of witnesses, the story will be out by now.”

  “Then-”

  “I've come here to talk at you, mother, not to you. We’ve solved the mess you created As far as the public are concerned, the Stewardsons bribed, or blackmailed our team to make it look as though this house was trying to attack them to make them look like victims for their own political game. We confessed to our part of the false conspiracy then killed anyone who knew that we were lying. It is now your problem to take care of the details, I don't want to hear a word of anyone from this town wanting to inconvenience us in any way. I want you to remove any black marks from our records with the guild and you to stay out our way.”

  “Thats-”

  “In exchange, we will forget about your conduct the last time we met. You know Paragon gave Gavin an actual piece of his soul and shielded him from your scrying for coming to my aid. If you think you were in any way in the right for your actions you are wrong.” Sam glanced at Gavin who sent her back a thought through their new telepathic link.

  “Now you can talk, have you got anything to say for yourselves, either of you?”

  “Samania, don't do this, you can stay here.” Her mother pleaded.

  “Not a chance. I'm going out to make my own way, just like you always wanted, just on my terms, not yours.”

  “We only wanted what was best-” Griffon whined, his powerful demeanor looked haggard and hollow now.

  “You only ever wanted what was best for you, father, not for me.” She glanced at Gavin again who held out five fingers, dropping one then another. “Goodbye father, I hope you grow a spine one day.”

  A portal rose up between the Lord and Lady of the house, Sam stepped through, Gavin and Judy teleporting beside it and followed her through, while Val, completely blocked from sight, stood to walk through last.

  ***

  “Top tier monologue Sam” Gavin said, high fiving her “didn't know you had it in you.”

  Sam let out a long held breath watching her hands tremble. Judy put a hand on her shoulder for support. Sam looked up, beaming at her friend's

  “Thanks team, I couldn't have done it without you there.” smShe said, pulling them in for a bone crushing hug.

  “No worries mate” Gavin said “so, where to now? Wanna go find that portal user and give him a bit of a kicking?”

  “Sounds like as good a plan as any.” Sam said.

  “Lead on then chief.”

  The four knights of the round table set off on their next adventure, the beating sun casting long shadows behind them.

  “Ahh shit.” Gavin groaned “those Stewardsons had a bunch of gear I could have looted, also, I may have eaten all our beds to keep you alive.”

  “You what?” Sam yelled rounding on him.

  “Your camping supplies too. We pretty much only have anything Judy has in her inventory and your dimensional bag.”

  “I left my bag in the estate the night of the incident.” Sam said. “I'm not going back in there to get it.”

  “That's right, yeah, well, we only have what's in Judy's inventory then.”

  “I only have arrows, you had all the party funds.”

  “Jesus, fuck guys.” Gavin groaned “I super don't want to have to clear contracts tonight. I want dinner and a beer, we fuckin earned it.”

  Behind him Judy took a long loud slurp of an ice cold pint, foam covering her upper lip and the tip of her nose.

  “Please tell me you have more than one.” Gavin begged. “Please.”