The greatest logistical challenge of Soma Locke's morning was not coordinating the Reclusive Avengers. It was finding a table large enough to accommodate Buck's lunch.
Three cheeseburgers, two orders of fries, a mountain of wings, and a drink roughly the size of a fire extinguisher sat before him.
"Are you feeding an army?" Soma asked.
"Growing boy needs his protein."
"Buck, you're forty-three."
"And still growing!"
"Outward," Ella murmured.
Raven nearly choked on her drink. Across the table, Miles struggled to fit his newly purchased crimson replica axes beneath his chair. One caught on the table leg. The other nearly knocked over a passing customer's tray.
"Can somebody hold these?"
"No," Milly replied without looking up.
"You didn't even check!"
"I don't need to."
Soma regarded the weapons. "Based on our terrain, I recommend storing your equipment in the merchandise-check area."
Miles clutched the axes protectively. "You want me to abandon my children?"
"They're foam."
"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"
"That's right," Buck said, thumping the table. "A warrior never abandons his weapons."
Ella turned toward him.
Buck quietly picked up a chicken wing. "Beautiful weather we're having."
"We're indoors."
"Beautiful ceiling."
Soma laughed. Miles finally arranged the axes across the empty chair next to him like two very expensive dinner guests.
For a little while, the group ate and argued about nothing important. Buck insisted that his fictional shield technique would work in real life. Ella questioned whether his real knees would survive it. Miles confessed that he'd once played for seventy-two hours with only brief breaks, prompting Ella to demand proof that he knew how showers worked.
"It's called dedication," Miles protested.
"It's called a biological emergency," Soma said.
Milly raised her coffee. "I informed him of this at hour thirty."
"You encouraged me!"
"I told you that you were going to become a cautionary tale."
"Same thing!"
Raven's knee brushed Soma's beneath the table. "You've been smiling all morning," she murmured.
"Is that a complaint?"
"Not even slightly."
Her smile warmed him more than he knew how to explain.
"Excuse me?"
A boy stood beside their table clutching a folded convention program. His mother waited several steps behind him. The boy looked from Raven to Buck and back to Soma, eyes widening.
"Are you TacticalKlutz?"
"Uh. Yeah?"
"I KNEW IT!" He winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell."
Buck beamed. "You've found the legend himself, little man. Master of impossible raids. Keeper of this pack of idiots."
"Buck," Soma warned.
The boy barely noticed. "Is it true you worked out the Harbinger's weakness while everybody was trying to kill it?"
"More like we recognized a pattern," Soma said. "It would've meant nothing without everyone doing their jobs."
He gestured around the table, naming each guild member's contribution. Buck had held the boss. Ella had timed the spell sequence. Milly had covered their blind spots. Raven had kept the team alive. Miles had protected the final skeleton until the right moment.
Miles pressed a hand to his chest. "HE SAID I WAS ESSENTIAL."
"You were," Soma admitted.
"Say it again."
"No."
"PLEASE."
Milly quietly raised her phone. "Recorded."
The boy laughed. Then he extended the program. "Could you sign this? You're my favorite player."
"Mine?" Soma asked, genuinely startled.
The boy nodded.
"What's your name?"
"Oliver."
Soma wrote carefully on the blank cover: To Oliver—Every impossible boss is just a problem you haven't solved yet. Keep thinking. TacticalKlutz.
Oliver read it twice, holding the program like a treasure. "Thank you."
After he left with his mother, Soma sat staring at his pen.
"I didn't really do anything," he said.
"You made his day," Ella replied.
Soma looked across the hall, where Oliver was excitedly showing the inscription to his mother. He'd spent so long thinking of himself as somebody who stayed home behind a screen that it hadn't occurred to him he might mean something to a stranger.
A warm, unfamiliar feeling settled in his chest.
Then someone recognized Buck's laugh, and privacy became a distant memory.
Within minutes, fans surrounded the table. A young woman in handmade healer robes asked Raven for a photograph. Raven admired the stitching so enthusiastically that the woman began to tear up. Two brothers asked Buck to flex for a picture; Buck obliged with twelve increasingly ridiculous poses while Ella threatened to seek legal advice about their marriage.
A group of students questioned Ella about the final Harbinger spell combination. She answered with a dazzling explanation of timing, mana efficiency, and linked magical effects, transforming from their exasperated den mother into the brilliant elementalist Soma knew.
Milly was approached by a shy girl wearing a homemade assassin cloak.
"I started playing daggers because of you," the girl admitted. "Everyone said the class was too difficult."
Milly blinked, evidently less comfortable with admiration than she was with ambushes. "Then keep practicing," she said quietly. "Don't let anybody choose your limits."
The girl left smiling.
Miles was having an entirely different experience.
A fan asked him to pose with both crimson axes. He swung them dramatically upward, caught a hanging promotional banner, and had to be rescued by a booth attendant wielding a stepladder.
"Heroic," Milly observed.
"I WAS ATTACKED BY THE ENVIRONMENT!"
By the time the crowd began to thin, Soma's hand ached from signing autographs. He was just beginning to relax when two fans approached carrying an enormous illustration.
It depicted Soma's strategist avatar carrying Raven's healer through a storm of magical light. Rose petals filled the background in quantities that suggested the artist had a personal vendetta against florists. Across the top read: TACTICALKLUTZ × ELVENWONDER — THE REAL ENDGAME.
Raven clasped her hands. "It's gorgeous!"
Soma stared. "That's a very generous interpretation of what happened."
The fan grinned. "Can you two hold it for a photo?"
Raven immediately agreed. Soma found himself standing beside her, holding one edge of his own fictional wedding portrait.
"You look handsome," Raven whispered.
"I look like somebody sculpted my jaw from a mountain."
"I think it's accurate."
His ears heated.
Buck appeared behind them. "ELLA! THEY'RE MAKING WEDDING PORTRAITS!"
"BUCK."
"How many grandkids you want?"
"At least three," Ella called without looking up.
Soma's mouth fell open. Raven doubled over laughing.
"This family," Soma announced, "is a public health hazard."
"Welcome to it," Milly replied.
Their next destination was the Armory of Legends. Glass cases displayed swords, shields, magical staffs, and collector's replicas of famous Ascension Overdrive equipment. One wall held a nearly perfect copy of Buck's shield.
Soma leaned forward. "They've made the upper rim too heavy."
Buck frowned. "It's beautiful."
"It's beautiful and it would destroy your shoulder after fifteen minutes."
Buck turned toward Ella. "Hear that? Our boy's already critiquing the engineering."
"Please don't encourage him," she said.
Miles discovered a demonstration rack filled with foam weapons. He seized an axe, pointed it at Buck, and shouted, "FACE ME, OLD MAN!"
Buck slowly grinned. "You're making a terrible mistake, son."
"Boys," Ella warned.
Buck picked up a practice sword.
"Boys."
Soma and Raven backed away. Milly raised her phone.
"Should we stop this?" Raven asked.
Soma studied the open aisle, the soft matting, and Miles's dangerously enthusiastic stance. "Nobody's holding a real weapon. We can probably allow one round."
Miles charged with a battle cry. Buck sidestepped. Miles's boot caught the edge of the demonstration mat, and the guild's self-proclaimed greatest damage dealer plunged face-first into a pile of promotional beanbags.
Silence.
Then Buck raised his practice sword. "VICTORY!"
"Four seconds," Milly reported.
"New personal best," Soma said.
Miles emerged with a beanbag stuck to his shoulder. "I DEMAND A REMATCH!"
"You're banned from rematches," Ella declared. "And possibly from walking."
A nearby employee was laughing too hard to object. The guild escaped before Miles could file an official appeal.
✦ ✦ ✦
Their VIP passes carried them through a side entrance into the main auditorium. Inside, thousands of seats faced an enormous stage. Six illuminated placards waited behind a long table: DADDYWARBUCKS, ELLA_MENTAL, LUCIFER69, SHADOW, ELVENWONDER04, TACTICALKLUTZ.
Miles stopped. For the first time all day, he seemed incapable of shouting.
"That's us," he said.
Soma looked out at the crowd filing into the hall. His stomach tightened.
"How many people?" he asked a passing employee.
"Just over three thousand expected."
"Three thousand," Soma repeated.
"Yes, sir."
"Actual people."
The employee blinked. "Generally speaking."
Buck clapped Soma on the shoulder. "Relax. Pretend they're naked."
Ella smacked his arm. "Do not tell him that!"
"It's classic advice!"
"It's terrible advice," Milly said.
Raven moved beside Soma and took his hand. "Look at us instead," she whispered.
He glanced at her.
"You've talked to us through a thousand battles. You're still just talking to your friends."
Buck was debating microphone volume with a technician. Miles had found complimentary candy. Ella was apologizing to the technician, and Milly appeared to be considering whether a fire exit would open quietly.
Soma exhaled. "Right."
"That's my tactician."
The lights dimmed. Screens flashed footage from their final battle with the Harbinger. The crowd roared as the replay showed the boss collapse beneath Ella's finishing magic.
"WELCOME," the host shouted, "THE FIRST GUILD IN ASCENSION OVERDRIVE HISTORY TO CONQUER THE HUNDREDTH FLOOR! THE RECLUSIVE AVENGERS!"
Buck charged onto the stage. "WHAT'S UP, YOU BEAUTIFUL NERDS?"
The auditorium exploded with cheers. Miles pumped both fists in the air. Ella waved. Milly nodded once. Raven held out a hand, and Soma took it before walking into the lights.
The panel was a glorious disaster.
Buck declared that successful tanking required "a face sturdy enough to stop a freight train." Miles insisted his skeleton management had been the key to victory. Milly observed that the skeleton had shown more patience than the rest of the team. Ella attempted to restore order, only for Buck to claim he'd proposed to her during their first raid together.
"We were already married!" she protested.
"THEN IT WAS A RENEWAL OF OUR VOWS!"
Even the host had tears in his eyes from laughing.
Eventually, he turned to Soma. "TacticalKlutz, you're considered one of the best strategists in the game. What's your greatest strength as a leader?"
Soma could have answered with preparation, pattern recognition, or contingency planning. Those were easy answers. Instead, he looked along the table at his friends.
"Knowing when to trust somebody else."
The audience quieted.
"A tactician makes plans," he continued, "but a plan isn't worth much unless the people carrying it out trust one another. Buck trusts us to keep him standing when he's taking hits none of us could survive. Ella trusts us to create the opening she needs. Miles and Milly trust that we'll cover the risks they take. Raven trusts us to protect her when she has to focus on healing."
He glanced at Raven, then at the others.
"And I trust every one of them to do things I couldn't accomplish alone. We didn't beat the Harbinger because one person had a brilliant idea. We beat it because six friends refused to give up on each other."
For a heartbeat, the room was silent.
Then applause rose from the front rows, spreading until the auditorium was standing.
Soma stared, stunned. He hadn't meant to give a speech. He'd only answered a question.
Buck wiped suspiciously at one eye, then thumped Soma between the shoulders. "THAT'S MY BOY!"
The room laughed and applauded harder.
Soma laughed too.
✦ ✦ ✦
Backstage, Miles collapsed into a chair. "I am a celebrity."
"You are a public nuisance," Milly replied.
"Same thing."
Ella distributed water bottles while Buck demanded to know whether their VIP passes included more food. Raven leaned against Soma's shoulder.
"You did great," she said.
"I nearly passed out before we went on."
"I noticed."
"Encouraging."
She smiled. "Then you remembered who you were talking to."
Soma looked toward his friends. Buck was stealing candy from Miles, Ella was threatening both of them, and Milly was filming evidence.
The world's most famous guild, apparently, was still six idiots who liked each other.
Raven slipped her fingers through his. "Come on. There's a whole convention we haven't seen."
Soma glanced at the clock. The afternoon was slipping away faster than he wanted.
"Then we'd better make it count," he said.
And hand in hand, they returned to the exhibition floor.