“Looks like Jump, Entry, and Slash, what do you think?” Ikara said, leaning against the window.

“Huh?” Rowan asked, startled out of his thoughts.

Ikara gestured. “Her skills. I’m betting on Jump, Entry, and Slash. I mean, she’s a dragoon, right? Gotta be. That class is kind of built on Jump, so that’s a gimme. Entry… that’s the drop she did off the wall. Lessened her fall damage. At higher levels, it’ll load all the damage she should take from the fall into her initial stab—you want to stay away from that one. And Slash… she could just know how to swing a spear, but you usually thrust with spears. I’m betting she needs a skill to move like that.”

“You, uh, you know a lot about skills,” Rowan commented.

She grinned. “That’s what happens when you grow up around a bunch of them. I didn’t want to sit around in the village like the rest of the support classes and kids and be protected. I was always out causing trouble with the warriors. You pick up a lot, that way! A lot of useless bullcrap, my dad would say, but what the hell.”

“You know all about skills, Kaidu knows all about the Tower… I feel kind of pathetic,” Rowan replied.

“Hey, it’s your quick thinking with the rake and running out there to kite the rat that got us those two kills. Don’t sell yourself short,” Ikara replied. “Hell, we could’ve racked up all the monsters in the arena without risking a thing or spending a single MP if Miss Dragoon over there hadn’t shown up.”

Rowan leaned up beside her and watched as the dragoon girl darted forward and thrust her sword into the heart of an angry beetle. “Yeah.”

The dragoon girl turned suddenly and caught sight of them. Her brows furrowed, and she leaped up out of the stands and over the field. For a second, she hovered there, then plunged down onto a scorpion monster on their side of the stands. She nodded a hello and trotted over to them casually. The monsters fled from her, hurrying out of her way.

“Sorry, I didn’t see people were already here, leveling. Hope you don’t mind me jumping in.” She tipped her head and smiled, thin, wheat-brown hair spilling over her head. Sauntering up to the concessions window, she leaned against the outer counter.

“It’s fine. We don’t own the monsters, after all,” Rowan said, waving his hand.

“It’s not fine. This is our hunting ground. We saw it first,” Ikara grumbled under her breath.

Rowan elbowed her. We can’t fight her without Kaidu. Let’s not start fights we can’t win. God knows I’ve done enough of that, lately.

Her brow furrowed. “Level… twelve? Sixteen? What are you guys doing here?”

Rowan pressed his lips together. Scan.

Now that she was closer, her details displayed bright and large. Katherine Anders. 17/F. Class: Dragoon. Level: 5.

Two levels already, huh? Rowan sighed. He waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it.”

Her eyes widened, and her mouth shaped into an ‘O.’ “Wait, support classes? Ohmigosh, did you guys get lost? I can guide you to safety. I’m only level five, but the monsters aren’t too nasty around here.”

“We’re fine. We beat those monsters,” Ikara said, gesturing.

Katherine glanced at the bat and rat, half-buried under a pile of rubble. “Are you sure?”

“We were saving our MP. We can fight, we just…” Ikara shrugged.

“Thank you, but we have this handled,” Rowan added.

“If you’re sure…” she said, uncertain.

“We’re sure,” Rowan said firmly.

“Yeah, Katherine,” Ikara threw out.

She flinched. “Katy, it’s Katy.”

“You could leave a few monsters for us, Katy,” Ikara mocked.

Rowan elbowed her again.

Katy’s brows furrowed. “But you’re support classes.”

“Yes. Thank you. We hadn’t noticed,” Rowan sighed.

Katy shook her head. “I won’t feel comfortable leaving you two behind. Come on. Let’s go.”

Behind her, all the monsters started to creep out of hiding, almost in concert. Their eyes shone with a faint light, dazed and flat. Rowan stared, then glanced around the top of the arena. This reminds me of the frogs. Don’t tell me…

“What’s this? A trio of idiots, full of cash for us!”

A man in black leather armor hopped out of the press box on the far side. The burly man and woman who’d accompanied him last time walked out of the tunnels to his left and right, arms crossed.

“Not them again,” Rowan muttered.

“Ugh,” Ikara groaned.

Katy whirled. Her eyes settled on the man, and she paled. “Level twenty?”

Rowan bit his lip. Katy could destroy me and Ikara at level three, easily. We might not be able to win this.

The man squinted. “Wait a second, is that you? Rowan, or whatever? You didn’t die?”

Rowan waved. “Still got fifty credits.”

“You know these guys?” Ikara hissed.

“Kind of, if you count them mugging me once before,” Rowan muttered under his breath.

The man shook his head. “Alright. You, fuck off. You, girls. Credits on the table.”

Ikara beamed at them. “How do you feel about GSEZ bills?”

“The fuck are those?” the man snarled.

The burly woman chuckled. “God, Henry, you really know how to pick ‘em.”

Rowan narrowed his eyes at the trio. Scan.

A blur of static buzzed above their heads. He twisted his lips. Now that’s a Scan-blocking skill.

Sighing, Henry pointed at Katy. “You. C’mon. You’ve got to have credits.”

Katy jumped in place. She shivered, her spear trembling visibly.

A smile cracked across Henry’s face. “Now that’s what I want to see.”