Chapter 45 - Victory over the Seas

With the loss against Larghan, the timer finally ran out. I really wanted to watch the post-match commentary, and see what people thought, but I needed to log out of the dungeon before I could do that. When the canopy on my bed opened, I took a minute to gather myself. I was used to spending time within a projection booth, but long sessions were extremely disorientating. After a minute, I pushed myself to my feet, and went to check on George.

When I opened the stall my fuzzy pal came sprinting out, nearly knocking over Bella’s bed as he ran around the room. Luckily, the bed was empty, since Bella had disconnected earlier in the fight. “Calm down knucklehead, the fight’s already over!” I yelled, as I tried to stabilize the bed before it fell over. The massive spider finally froze, looked at me, and clicked his mandibles. “Don’t look at me like that. I told you Kass was the best one to challenge the dungeon master, and there wasn’t enough time for a second match.” George just huffed at me, then ran out the door.

I followed him out, at a much slower pace, sighing at his antics. Thankfully most of my staff had left the area after being eliminated, or were spectral, so he didn’t bowl anyone over in the mad scramble down the hallway. I nodded at the few people that were still in the projection rooms as I made my way to the entrance.

By the time I stepped into the atrium, George had made a lot of ground. I barely caught a glimpse of the fuzzy klutz making his way into the residential area. Before I could follow him, a turquoise and pink missile launched itself across the atrium at me. “Talia… I’m sorry, I failed you! I lost that fight,” Kass cried as she threw her arms around my shoulders, before partially collapsing against me. I gently patted her on the back, unsure why she looked so depressed.

“You did extremely well, I watched the entire thing. You faced a dungeon master at his full strength, and actually wounded him. There are very few parties that can claim that, even when he’s holding back,” I said, in an attempt to comfort her.

“What do you mean full power? Doesn’t he always fight like that?” Kass asked, sniffling.

“Of course not. Most dungeon masters have an almost mythical level of power. They’re either immortal or extremely powerful beings, and they have to hold themselves back in most fights,” I replied. ”If we had more time, we might have been able to wear him down with several waves of attacks, it’s unfortunate we just didn’t have the time.”

“You could have shared that information ahead of time,” Kass said as she pulled back slightly.

“I didn’t have time. You guys barely had time to fight Larghan in the first place. Like I said, you did an amazing job, and you struck a pretty good blow at the end. You should be proud of yourself.”

Kass pulled back a little farther, stared at me for a moment, then broke out into a huge smile. “I’m not sure if it’s really a big deal, or if you’re just trying to comfort me, but thank you either way.” She slid up next to me, and slid her arms around mine. “I guess we won, even without having to defeat Larghan, so I DID over-react a little. I just really wanted to show everyone how we were a force to be reckoned with”

“I’m pretty sure you proved that, just based on the number of floors you conquered along with Calliope and Bella,” I replied, as I pulled her towards the residential wing. “I barely managed to take down one, and that was with Bea, Jenkins and Bella helping me.”

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

“You’re helping enough with that big brain of yours,” Kass said with a smile, as she tousled my hair. I smiled slightly, then I slightly increased my pace towards the residence. Her smile fell, just a little. “What’s the rush?”

“I wanted to check out the coverage, and see what everyone was saying about the match, but George ran off as soon as I let him out. When I find that troublemaker…”

As I stepped into the cafeteria, a cheer erupted from everyone inside. My brain paused as I took in all the decorations, and fancy food. I would have paused, if Kass hadn’t been holding my arm. “What’s going on?” I asked blankly.

“We’re celebrating, of course! Did you think we’d all sit around after a match like that?!” Bea yelled from a table in the back.

I stared at my friends, as they chowed down on almost comically big meat. “You all arranged this ahead of time? What if we’d lost?” I asked.

“Then we would have spent the evening consoling each other,” Calliope replied, as she threw two pieces of meat over the table. One was snatched up by a giant claw, which shot out from under the tablecloth. The other was grabbed by a very familiar, fuzzy head.

“YOU!” I half growled at my companion, before he disappeared beneath the table again.

“Relax Tali,” Kass said from my side, as she pulled me further into the cafeteria, and towards our friends. “I know you want to analyse absolutely everything that happened, but there will be time to do that tomorrow. We won our match, George isn’t being a complete shit, and we have a room full of good food, and friends to share it with.” She practically pushed me down into a chair next to Chelsea, and sat down beside me. “So eat now, think later.”

As soon as Kass was distracted by a lobster I stealthily reached for my tablet, only to have my hand slapped. The naga put a huge plate full of chicken, bread and vegetables down in front of me and stared at me through narrowed eyes. “Tomorrow!” she said seriously.

I nodded half-heartedly, and started slowly chewing on the delicious surface meat, under her watchful gaze. I had to take a couple of big bites of the chicken before she was satisfied enough to talk to Bella, who was sitting on her other side.

I hummed to myself as I chewed on the bounty, before turning towards Chelsea. The girl was poking at a small plate of food, unenthusiastically. “What’s the matter?” I asked, between mouthfuls of chicken.

“I completely screwed up today, and let everyone down,” she replied quietly, “I’m the only one that died without completing a single objective.”

“That’s true,” I said. Chelsea turned towards me, probably a little hurt by my casual acknowledgement of her shortcoming. “But you were in a battle that was disadvantageous to you, and it was only our first match. You shouldn’t be ashamed of your performance, we were faced with an equally skilled group, and we're lucky that we didn’t lose more people in those exchanges.” Chelsea nodded slightly, so I continued. “Instead of obsessing about your loss, consider it a learning experience, and figure out what you’d do differently next time.”

The girl continued nodding, looking slightly better about herself, so I placed an oversized chicken leg on her plate, while chewing on my own. She looked at me, slightly confused. “Chicken makes everything better,” I said between bites. Chelsea snorted, but did take a bite of her own meal.

Satisfied that she wasn’t going to wallow for the rest of the meal, I looked around. A couple of months ago I never would have imagined sharing a meal with so many colleagues, and friends. I was so used to going at it alone, I’d almost forgotten what it was like. Now, I could hardly imagine a world without them.

As I slouched back in my chair I realised Kass was right, I didn’t have to solve everything all at once. Tomorrow was another day.