Rufus Remore considered himself a competent judge of character. He’d been drilled over and over in the fundamentals of assessment. How to quickly ascertain a person’s motives, standings, and loyalties at a moment's notice. After all, half the battle was knowing one’s opponent.

  His assessments had rarely steered him wrong. It’d been one of the reasons he’d trusted Jason and had continued to work with him despite his dismal use of his first spirit coin.

  It had saved his team.

  So now he sat, perplexed, as his judgment was called into question while he watched the fight unfold before him.

  This couldn’t be Thadwick Mercer.

  He didn’t move right, talk right. His eyes held a soft inquisitiveness that rarely narrowed.

  If he had not spent weeks watching the man fail repeatedly at even the most straightforward task, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize him.

  What was happening?

  He’d heard Jason’s stories. Listened to Farrah talk about the man’s take on magical theory. Even Vincent had given a begrudgingly glowing review of his recent contract record.

  Yet it'd all seemed like they'd just been talking about some other person. A person with the same name. He’d even given in to the theory that Thadwick had finally learned shame by his falling out of a brothel.

  But there was a big difference between a man humbled and whoever this was.

  “Clive, is Thad drawing out your Rune Trap?”

  Rufus looked over at Jason, pointing at the screen as Thadwick Mercer put the finishing touches on a ritual taking up the entirety of the Clinic’s courtyard.

  The Ritual was mainly drawn in the dirt, with salt poured at various angles, a chalk diagram inscribed on the yard's only tree, blood covering its roots.

  “No, it’s my rune gate.”

  “He’s a Numpty if he thinks he can access your storage ability like that, especially in a mirage chamber.”

  “I doubt that’s what he’s attempting… Though he’s making the same mistake as the first time.”

  “First time?”

  “Yes, I caught him doodling it on our first contract together. He almost got his arm ripped off by inverting it. He was lucky he hadn’t finished…” Clive trailed off as he studied the array, his eyes going wide as he stared at the tree. “Oh, that's brilliant!”

  “Brilliant? In Greenstone? You’d need every scrap of ambient magic in the vicinity to even think of powering something like that. It would take days! … Not to mention the inversion would cause it to explode.” Farrah stated, looking at Clive like he’d lost his mind.

  “The magical backlash is the entire point! And I didn’t say he'd thought this all the way through. He’s allowed to be brilliant and an idiot. Look at that conduit array! He’s even built a stealth mechanic into it!”

  “So even when the ritual failed to activate, people wouldn’t notice how big a fool he was?” Farrah scoffed, only for Davone to hold out his hands to quiet them both.

  “Can you at least give him a chance to defend himself? You know, he’s right. You all don’t know how to give a compliment.”

  “That’s because I wasn’t aiming for a compliment,” Farrah said, waving her hand at the ritual on the screen.

  “I called him Brilliant!”

  “You also called him an idiot, Standish.”

  “As I said, both can be true!”

  Rufus looked at the healer with pity. The boy was smitten; that was plain as day. A new development since the assessment. He wasn’t even sure Thadwick knew.

  Rufus glanced at Cassandra Mercer, eyeing Davone herself.

  He hated nobility politics.

  It’d been the whole reason he’d met the Mercer family in the first place.

  The reason he’d watched Thadwick waste all his Mana on thoughtless spells. He’d even wasted all the ambient magic when he—

  “You’re both wrong,” Rufus said, shocked at his own realization.

  “Well, I doubt that, but fine, I’ll bite,” Farrah said, with a laugh. “How?”

  “Trust me and watch.”

  Thad stood on the clinic's roof and observed his work with a satisfied hum.

  It was unfinished. The last rune sitting half-drawn on his arm in his own blood, connecting him to the relay.

  Was it safe? No… but was it effective… well, that was to be seen.

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  -This is insane. -

  But it should work, right?

  -It will end the match one way or another. -

  Thad paused as guilt started to build again.

  -User…-

  I can’t do this.

  -Gods, you’re useless. -

  You don’t think if we—

  -User for the last time, killing a manticore, and let me emphasize that again, A manticore, singular, will not end the match. I don’t know where you got that asinine idea from, but let it go. I would ask if you’d been paying attention during the parameter briefing, but I know the answer. -

  I was! Well… I was trying to.

  -You weren’t! You’re welcome for me picking up the slack, like always. -

  -What would you do without me? -

  Probably not be in this mess in the first place.

  -Probably not be in this... Redacted you! -

  Language!

  -Oh shut it! You want to know the real secret to not having either of you die? -

  Wait, there’s a way?!

  -Yeah, it’s called, not challenging Humphrey Redacted Geller to a fight in the first place! That was all you, by the way! -

  All me? Did the last three years not factor in at all, you think? Maybe need to recheck your math there.

  -Three years, please. We’ve been enemies since childhood. -

  ...

  -…-

  -So are we going to finish this thing or what? -

  I’m so going to hell for this.

  -Fine, you’re right! And I’m in hell already! And that’s crazy, cause I don’t think it even exists!-

  -NOW LISTEN TO ME, YOU-

  -MORAL HIGH GROUND HAVING-

  - MENACE OF A MAN.-

  -I need you to give Humphrey Redacted Geller a clean death before you both end up falling to Manticore venom, which, trust me, will make you feel like you’re in some made-up realm meant to punish people for not being deferential to a god who doesn’t even give you cool powers if you worship them! -

  Huhh… you have a point.

  I hate that.

  Thad sighed and raised his hands out, feeling magic building as he prepared for the spell.

  Are you sure you got this?

  -Please, if I can concentrate on a parameter brief, I can hold a spell together. Just focus on getting him here. -

  “The lie of the mirage brings false relief.”

  A warm breeze tousled Thad’s hair as heat waves rippled before him. He felt Thadwick take over the spell, adjusting the parameters until suddenly the ritual had disappeared as if it had never existed in the first place.

  The trap was set, and now it was time to be the bait.

  He should’ve bled out by now.

  Humphrey’s chest heaved as he dodged the manticore’s barbed tail.

  There was no way that Thadwick should still be alive, yet the match persisted. Why? How?

  Humphrey flung himself into the air, flying forward and landing in a roll across a roof as he heard the winged beast roar in anger. It’s loud wing beating as it took off in pursuit.

  Just keep running, just keep—

  A sudden sense of doom and anxiety wracked him, causing him to almost trip.

  It was getting worse. Every minute that passed, the panic grew. He didn’t want to know what happened when the spell reached its zenith… though he knew it wouldn’t be long.

  He needed to find Thadwick. He shouldn’t have given up Stash.

  Ok think.

  Thadwick gave up his healing ability. No potions were allowed, no spirit coins. They’d even been scoured from the map. There was no way he should’ve survived losing that amount of blood; there had to be some trick.

  The sound of heavy footfall followed him as he leapt to another roof, then off it onto a balcony, then another, his footing sure as he poured all he was into each deliberate movement.

  “Looking great out there!”

  Humphrey tripped and hit the ground hard. Only to look up and see Thadwick watching him from the top of a building with a smug smile. “You know killing the manticore won’t end the match!?”

  Humphrey jumped up, pulling his sword as he turned to face the monster that had followed him, only to have his eyes grow wide with horror.

  It was gone.

  And there was only one thing worse than a manticore… a hidden one.

  “Oh, wait…. Looks like you lost it.”

  He stood corrected… There was a worse thing.

  “How are you not dead?!”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know!”

  Humphrey glared up at the man, seeing his arm covered in dried blood but somehow healed.

  A stupid, confident grin on his face.

  Humphrey teleported, landing on the roof and dove in despite the disorientation, only for Thadwick to easily step out of the way of the sword, then take off running in the opposite direction.

  “Hey! Get back here, you coward!”

  “That sounds like a terrible idea! I could get stabbed!”

  Humphrey let out a frustrated breath as he took chase. But the man was fast. Why had Thadwick come to find him only to run away? To taunt him? Wait, why were they running?

  Humphrey flew forward, swinging his sword, only to miss as Thadwick jumped down and landed in a courtyard.

  Wait, he recognized this courtyard. It was the clinic where Jason trained…The medical clinic.

  And realization dawned on him as he landed near Thadwick, whose eyes suddenly took on a faintly golden glow as the spell Humphrey had been dreading triggered. Impending doom washing over him like a wave.

  And then, as if by some karmic joke, the manticore attacked.

  “Fuck!” Thadwick yelled, jumping away from the barbed tail, his hands reaching out as he chanted. “No Cost to Great.”

  Humphrey let out a gasp as he felt every drop of ambient magic disappear around him, as if oxygen itself had vanished.

  This was a trap!

  Thadwick dodged again, then glanced at Humphrey, confliction in his faintly glowing eyes.

  “Get out of here, Geller!”

  “What?!”

  “Teleport! Now!”

  And Humphrey did just that as he saw the courtyard come to life with glowing red runes that hadn’t been there moments before. The deafening sound of an explosion ripped through the town.

  However, despite the distance he’d managed, a wave of force and heat caught Humphrey, sending him into a wall, and the world went dark.

  “Humphrey, please be ok!”

  There was a ringing in his ears as Humphrey’s eyes opened to a teary Thadwick, outlined by a smoke-drenched sky.

  “Oh, thank god! I thought you’d died. I’m so sorry.”

  “What?” Humphrey started only to stop as the absurdity of the situation hit him. “The Manticore?”

  “I killed it. Though I think…” Thadwick paused as he looked over his shoulder at multiple monsters looming on the horizon. “I think I might’ve screwed up. I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.”

  “We won’t.”

  “What?” Thadwick turned back, his eyes going wide as a dagger slid into his chest, the man’s hand coming up to weakly grab Humphrey’s wrist as blood came to his lips, their eyes locking. “I…but I.”

  “Why didn’t you take your revenge?” Humphrey asked in frustration, as he watched red bloom across his rival's chest. “You could’ve won!”

  “Cause you didn’t do anything wrong,” Thadwick whispered, his eyes going unfocused as he fell forward, the match ending.

  Updated Clive and Jason

  Updated Dustin, Thad, and Neil... don't worry Dustin.