When I pulled in, Ryan was already waiting on the sidewalk next to my driveway. His arms were crossed, bouncing like he’d been pacing.

  “We need your help,” he said, hurrying toward me. “It’s a quarter to one, and our tank can’t make it. We need you.”

  “I don’t know if I can find you one in that amount of time,” I said.

  “We were hoping you could put up the shields to box them in. That’ll free the casters to burn them down.”

  I rubbed my chin. “Hmmm…I can do that. Who do you have for casters?”

  “Mitchtomo, SandB, and me. Meg’s the Healer.”

  “Ice, Lightning, and MANA. That’ll work. If we keep them tight, I can cover it with one or two shields. If they’ve got a Shaman or caster, Meg knows what to do. Those CURSEs hurt, but they’ve hit me often enough. I can take it.”

  We walked over to where the rest of his party waited by the sidewalk. The sun was high and hot for May, baking the street and throwing sharp shadows from the houses. I gave them a quick wave.

  “Looks like I’m your designated tanker and shield maker today,” I said. “Ryan and I went over it. If we pin them against the building, I can wrap one shield, at the worst two, around the whole group. Once you’ve got a few more levels, you’ll be able to adjust their shapes yourselves. Makes things easier, and you’ll need fewer casters to keep mobs penned in.”

  “Is that what you did in the dungeon?” Mitchtomo asked.

  “Nope. Most of the time, we’d cover the inside of the room door with my shield first, then Blaze’s FIRE SHIELD right on the other side, facing the mobs. You’ve got to give it about six inches of space. When they’re TAUNTed into rushing us, they take damage from her shield. Meanwhile, we’d pick off the casters and whatever else wasn’t dumb enough to physically attack us. Mostly MANA and FIRE BALLs. Shadow liked catching them from behind. Which is good, because some of them was UGLY…and that’s the good-looking ones.”

  The joke earned me a round of chuckles. I smiled; glad it landed. More importantly, I hoped the explanation sunk in.

  Checking the time, I saw we had two minutes before the spawn.

  “If you spot a Shaman, nail it with BOLTs before it leaves the building,” I said. “SandB, triple your MANA BOLT’s MANA on any Shaman. I know you’ll burn MANA faster, but unless this is a big spawn, we’ll have it wrapped in a minute. You shouldn’t run dry.”

  “If you’ve got DETECT and TRANSFER MANA, this spot sits right on a Ley Line. Runs through my garage. Tap it and recharge. I think you can also TRANSFER MANA directly into someone if needed. I don't know for sure, I haven't tried it yet.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  We set up. The neighborhood felt oddly quiet, birds keeping low as if they sensed what was coming. The familiar blue glow shimmered inside the house’s windows, signaling the mobs were on their way. A car drove past, barely looking at us.

  “Guess we’re old news for the regulars.”

  I snapped my shields into place, enclosing a space about two meters wide by five long.

  “Need to start thinking in meters for dungeon runs. Better practice now."

  Now it was tank time. I stepped forward, both swords out, and shouted insults at the remaining mobs. As the only thing standing between them and the casters, I made an easy target. They charged, and slammed straight into my shield. Good thing I could cast while holding steel. The enchanted sword made a solid focus.

  I let the others do most of the damage. My job was keeping the monsters’ eyes on me, yelling or jabbing with a blade when needed. It was over in just less than a minute. My shield collapsed with a faint blue shimmer.

  “Good work, folks,” I said. “None of them got close enough to hurt anyone else.”

  SandB’s gold leveling glow lit up, and I congratulated her. She grinned and thanked me. "Guess I don’t scare her as much as I used to."

  Crossing the street toward my place, Ryan and Megan fell in step with me.

  “Will?” Megan asked, her brow furrowed. “When I was at your house last night, I thought I saw someone standing in your hallway. Then they weren’t there. And Blaze…she wasn’t herself. I know you two fought, and both of you were hurt. She was really worried when she called me for help. Something felt wrong. Were you fighting before the fight?”

  I laughed, shaking my head. “No, just the opposite. We were talking, then she got…strange, now that I think about it. She said she decided to find something out, and she did. Everything’s been fine since.”

  “Yeah, we heard about you two at the West End last night,” Ryan said. “She didn’t look like herself in those robes.”

  “I know. That’s part of why she wore them. Also, we needed to get there as fast as possible when the call came in. Faster than changing clothes. The robbers would’ve reacted differently if she showed up as an FBI agent. She had them confused enough for me to slip in behind her.”

  “Will, we’ve got a bet,” Ryan said with a sly grin. “About who dropped the guy who shot the manager. I think it was your ninja girl, Shadow. News says it was one of your Irregulars in her thief group. Which is it? Meg’s going with the news.”

  “Well,” I said, then got close to them and whispered, “Don’t tell anyone, but it was the cook.”

  “The cook?” Megan exclaimed. “What do you mean, the cook? You mean they work there?”

  “The cook’s part of Shadow’s Sneak and Peek Squad. Thing is, most who take Thief and STEALTH don’t want people knowing who they are. Chief Brown knows them, and the prosecutor saw the video. It’s fine. It was to save the manager’s life…defense of someone else. And she’s a pretty good cook, very handy with a knife.” I smiled.

  “So, I can officially say no ninjas were there that night. Or FBI agents. Just an Irregular who called for help and guild members who answered.”

  “I hope our guild turns out as helpful as yours,” Ryan said. “Most of ours are good people, but not like yours. Yoshi told us guilds can merge. Are we going to merge with yours?”

  I thought about my answer before speaking. “Right now, I don’t know. You need at least one Level 3 guild to merge. We talked about it. If you keep clearing spawns like you have and start running dungeons, you’ll get there quick. He said your guild’s almost at Level 2. It’ll depend on both guilds. We’ll worry about it when it happens. But…I’m in favor.”

  They both thanked me before heading home. I went inside for a late lunch, some rest, and editing. Can’t forget that. And a lot of thinking about what they’d said. I wasn’t sure if my first guess was right…or if I wanted it to be.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-IKFuBPSkU

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