“You better not have made us late!”

  “We’re not that late, Farrah. See, the colors are still doing their swirly thing.”

  “It’s called prismatic stabilization, Gary, not ‘swirly thing’.”

  “You understood what I meant, so ‘swirly thing’ obviously works.”

  Clive watched as Farrah sighed, shaking her head at the leonid, who just gave her a toothy grin.

  He’d come to know both well through his work with Farrah. Garry had also made it a habit to knock over at least one thing in his office on every visit.

  Jason had pointed out that it meant he should tidy the room. However, a bronze ranker really shouldn’t be knocking over items in the first place. No matter how massive the leonid was.

  Clive watched Jason stand to greet his friends, moving away from his girlfriend, who watched him with an odd expression. Maybe she wasn’t used to sharing. Her honey brown eyes flicked to him for a second.

  “You know, I don’t think we’ve truly spoken much one-on-one, Assistant Standish.”

  “Clive is fine, Lady Mercer.”

  “I tend not to be as informal as my brother.”

  “To be honest, the first time I met him, I didn’t realize his standing… Though, now that I think of it, he wasn’t, well, standing.”

  “What were you both doing?” Cassandra asked with a raised eyebrow. The question getting the attention of Thad’s healer.

  “I thought you both met on the contract,” Neil said, crossing his arms. “Are you saying you knew him from before?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t call helping him get up, really getting to know him. It all happened rather quickly, but I had places to be. I don’t think I even caught his name at the time.”

  “Helping him what?” Neil asked, his face pale. “But I thought… He said you and Jason.”

  “What about him and Jason?” Cassandra asked, turning to look at Neil, who blanched further.

  “Are we sharing more hot goss about me?” Jason asked, taking back his seat between Clive and Cassandra.

  “Yes, first my brother, now your magic society friend. Is there anyone else I should be worried about you having some torrid imaginary affair with?”

  “Wait… Clive and I? That makes no sense. Why would there be a rumor about us?”

  “Well, we did sleep together, the one time.”

  “So, wait, you’ve slept with both Jason and my brother?!”

  “I mean, I did offer to sleep with your brother, but he didn’t want to share with Jason.”

  Neil, Cassandra, and Jason all sat staring at Clive. He even noticed Dustin slipping a lesser spirit coin into Phoebe Geller’s hand.

  “I would like to start by saying that while everything he said was technically accurate, it holds zero context, which I’m unsure how to unpack in such a public forum,” Jason said, looking for the first time since Clive had met him, lost for words.

  “Oh, trust me, we’ll have a private discussion about this in the near future.”

  “I maintain my innocence in all of this!”

  “Jason, there are many words I would use to describe you, and innocent is not one of them.” Came a smooth Vitesse accent.

  “Rufus, mate, not helping at the moment.”

  “Why would I help further? I’ve already finished adjusting the mirage chamber parameters for this fight.”

  “You adjusted it for this fight… didn’t the last time you adjusted the chamber, Humphrey had to watch countless kids get murdered? I’m not sure Thad could handle that,” Jason said, “Wait, why are you taking such a vested interest?”

  And there went Jason, steering the conversation as he usually did… though Clive was surprisingly grateful for the distraction, as the elf and the noble woman both had murderous intent in their auras for some unknown reason.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “The right fight can change a lot for a person, and I want to see what the outcome of this one will be.”

  “He means he wants to see, oh, how’d you put it, that sniveling incompetent half-star learn a valuable lesson in humility that may one day make him worthy of passing a real assessment,” Gary said, his tone taking on a snooty characteristic as Rufus looked aghast at his friend and then to Cassandra.

  “You must be—”

  “Lady Cassandra Mercer, and you must be my brother’s biggest fan,” she snapped at Rufus, who grimaced.

  “Apologies for my private, confidential thoughts, which should’ve remained as such.”

  “No apology for the content?”

  “I won’t apologize for the truth, only that it was so negatively presented.”

  “These are your friends, Jason?” Cassandra asked, her eyes turning on Jason.

  “Well, at least the ones I haven’t slept with,” Jason said with a laugh, casting a contrite smile at his girlfriend.

  Cassandra didn’t appear amused as she looked back at the screen, the colors finally settling.

  “Is that…”

  Clive glanced over at Neil, the elf looking up with a frown.

  The screen was split in two, with Thad on one side and Humphrey on the other.

  “Oh, that’s messed up,” Dustin said, crossing his arms. “Is this on purpose?”

  “It’s the Old City Monster Surge. What’s the matter with a brothel being… wait, are you implying that’s the one he…” Phoebe watched Thad glance around the balcony, appearing not that concerned despite his teammates' dismay.

  [“Is this Old City?”] Thad mused to himself, his voice faintly distorted as he looked out at the wreckage of the city, smoke billowing from multiple buildings. [“Wait…”]

  Everyone watched as Thad, in a smooth motion, jumped up and over the railing, wind whipping through his hair as he landed safely on the ground in a crouch, then immediately glanced up at the sky, realization apparent on his face.

  [“Well, ain't that some shit! Really!? Here!?”] Thad threw his hands out, looking around him as if searching for a recording crystal. [“Is this some kind of joke?!”]

  “Lost his temper already? Not a promising start,” Rufus said, shaking his head, his judgment palpable. “If he keeps that up, he’ll attract monsters.”

  “Or worse,” Jason said, looking at the other screen, which showed Humphrey staring at Thad from a distance, the other man unaware he was already being hunted.

  Humphrey crashed to the ground like a meteor, his wings spread out behind him, sword buried deep in the cobblestone, where Thadwick had been moments before. Humphrey let out a frustrated breath as his eyes met his opponent.

  “I see it on the wind.”

  Humphrey felt the spell take effect, a momentary sense of impending doom, catching him by surprise as golden gauntlets appeared on Thadwick’s hands. He needed to finish the fight quickly before he found out what the spell was capable of.

  He rushed Thadwick, his sword disappearing as he used the explosive combat style of the surging storm to close the distance. However, Thadwick did the unexpected.

  He moved into the attack, using Humphrey’s own momentum to redirect his position.

  Humphrey could feel several minor hits contact his side as Thadwick passed him. The jabs barely registered as he summoned a long sword in his hand and swung in a horizontal arc. Thadwick jumped back, the wind from the blade whipping his hair back.

  The dodge had been the right move, but the wrong direction as Humphrey’s wings propelled him forward, his hands catching the noble’s armor, slamming him into the wall behind him. Thadwick let out a grunt of pain as his head smacked against the wall. Humphrey slashed his sword up, only to see it cut into the wall as the young noble disappeared from his grasp, electricity coursing through him as he fell to a knee.

  He felt oddly sluggish as he stood and turned to face Thadwick, motes of electricity still clinging to the other man, his hands rising into the third stance of the surging storm.

  “Death from above, is it Geller?”

  “I thought it good to end your suffering early, but you never make anything easy, do you?” Humphrey asked, lunging forward, sword pointed towards Thadwick’s chest.

  “I mean… I’ve been told I’m easy,” Thadwick quipped, turning to the side, his leg sweeping out, which Humphrey easily leapt over.

  “That’s not… You know that wasn’t what I was implying!” Humphrey exclaimed, turning to cut in a downward slash, which Thad caught with both gauntleted hands.

  “Well, I’m sorry for not dying immediately. Now you’ll have to face me in a fair fight,” Thadwick said as he teleported away. The sudden release of the sword caused Humphrey to stumble forward.

  Recovering, Humphrey turned to see the other man raise his hands, making a come here motion. It reminded him of Jason.

  “A fair fight? With you?”

  This was ridiculous. Even if Thadwick had managed to survive this long, he hadn’t even landed an impactful blow.

  No, everything had been minimal, almost as if the other man had been more focused on landing the hit than doing damage.

  “Unless you see someone else here? Wait, did you schedule a second fight without me?” Thadwick asked, spreading his arms wide with a stupid smile that Humphrey had never seen before.

  “Are you being obtuse on purpose?”

  “I’ve been told I never make things easy,” Thadwick smirked.

  “Well, you’re deluding yourself if you thought fighting me would be fair to you.”

  “Is it better to be deluded, or to admit that your mother rigged the match in your favor. Which, really, is a disservice to you, as I thought you would’ve been fine on your own.”

  “My mother hasn’t rigged the match. The only person in need of support is you.”

  “Are you saying the balcony was your idea? Color me surprised, didn’t think you had it in you.”

  “Balcony?”

  “I mean, I know psychological warfare’s more your mother’s domain… Hmmm, I guess it’s Jason’s too,” Thadwick mused, watching as Humphrey adjusted his own stance, a sudden smirk playing across his lips. “He says hi, by the way.”

  Humphrey’s eyebrow twitched.

  “I don’t know what you did to seduce Jason, but he’ll figure you out soon enough.”

  “What, are you wanting pointers so you can ask him out yourself, Hump?”

  Thadwick's reaction time, while fast, wasn’t enough to save him.

  The young man’s pained scream echoed through the ghost of Old City, as Humphrey's sword found its mark.

  Updated Clive Art! Got to make him look good so other people think he's an actual threat haha.