“These idiot children will get us all killed.” Alexander complained, “Follow them!”

The rest of the group was forced to follow the three friends as they rushed off to save their fourth.

Alexander quickly caught up to them, leaving Connor with the others.

“You’re going to get yourself killed! You don’t even know how your powers work.”

Willem smiled grimly.

“What better way to test them than a fight with something that won’t mean game over if we lose?”

The four men who’d ended up ahead of the pack quickly traversed the farm behind the house and entered the woods where Piet was sad to be.

“It does mean game over you idiot, if you die, we won’t have enough strength to beat this thing. You’re putting us all at risk.”

Thando shrugged and answered for all of them.

“I’m legitimately sorry for having to do this to you guys, but you don’t know what we’ve been through together. I’d rather die than know I let Piet get killed without trying to save him.”

Alexander sighed.

“I sincerely hope this fool endeavour doesn’t wipe us out but fine, we may as well use this as a teaching experience. What effects do you each have access to?”

“Literary Devices.”

“St. George’s Arsenal.”

“Are You Feeling Lucky.”

Everyone looked at Chan.

“That wasn’t a question, that’s my effect. I’m a [Wildcard].”

The forest around them was eerily silent. Alexander had told Connor to prioritise safety over everything else, so the rest of the group were lagging quite a ways behind.

“I can’t help with your effect, Chan, but definitely with you two. I still remember when schools weren’t just four hours a day in front of a screen, we learned exactly what this stuff was. Literary devices are basically techniques that help you write stories that aren’t rubbish. Though I guess kids don’t write stories any more. Which devices can you use?”

“Onomatopoeia and Hyperbole.”

“Okay, onomatopoeia is simple enough, it’s when you write out sounds.”

“Isn’t that all writing? Words are sounds.”

“Yes but this specifically refers to words that sound exactly like what they’re describing.”

“Like ‘Buzz’?”

“And boom and zoom and bang.”

“How do I use it?”

“[Gamer] is likely special even among primaries, so I can’t say how it works for you guys. But every other archon activates cycles that let them access their powers. Just focus on the idea of what a writer is meant to be. Yes, I realise you don’t have many examples, but you chose to do this the hard way. As for you Willem, St George is a famous dragon slaying legend in the West European Isles. Presumably, his arsenal will help you slay dragons.”

“And I’m meant to focus on the idea of what a dragonslayer is meant to be?”

“Not an actual dragonslayer but what it represents. A little guy doing the impossible. David standing up to Goliath.”

“Yeah those blue boxes said something similar.”

“Chan, I don’t know. Maybe try think about chaos or spontaneity.”

“Amazing advice bro.”

“I don’t know, okay! We were supposed to be in a peaceful clearing figuring this out over a whole day.”

The silence was oppressive. They’d never actually been in a proper forest before, but they’d seen videos and watched renders of people exploring them. This was unnatural, but then again, so was everything else about this situation.

Alexander stopped them, and silently pointed through some trees. The other three nodded and slowly made their way in the direction indicated.

As they crept along the underbrush, they smelled a rancid, rotten scent. Glancing around at each other in alarm, they ran forward before seeing a horrific sight. There was a mound of half-eaten dead bodies piled up near an especially large tree. Flies buzzed and insects crawled around the bottom layer of corpses, feeding.

But the real shocker was seeing Piet, unconscious, tied up and gagged with visibly broken legs, as a troupe of what looked like fifteen goblins dragged him towards a much larger specimen. While the smaller goblins were about waist height, this one was around four metres tall and bulging with muscle, more of an ogre.

At that moment, the three men acted in sync.

Willem stared directly at the large one.

“Mine.”

His eyes flashed with golden light as he took off at a pace Thando had never seen before.

Chan saw Piet’s sorry state and held a hand out to the side. Brilliant rays of light shone from his hand as he summoned a pair of spectral, glowing dice that he let fall. They landed on a six and a three. A burning 9 appeared above his head.

Thando exploded in an aureate radiance. Both his hands seemed to vacuum up the light he was producing, the shine eventually coalescing into a copy of his journal in his left and a stylized quill pen in his right, except an overpowering golden light spilled forth from the pages of the book and golden particles dusted off the feather.

Alexander watched all this with a begrudgingly impressed look.

Willem, already in motion, jumped up into the air on a trajectory aimed straight at the large ogre. The beast in question had looked up when the forest suddenly became awash in golden light, only to see the outraged man in flight. Willem splayed his hand and space itself seemingly condensed into a huge black lance, filigreed in gold. Grabbing it out of the air, he drew back and with a wordless scream, buried it up to the hilt in the oversized monster’s face. The point burst out the back of the ogre’s skull with a squelch as it toppled.

Chan, burning number still above his head, pointed his hand towards Piet. A beam of blue-white energy shot out, enveloping him and immobilizing the man completely. Chan pulled the beam back and Piet levitated above the chaos of the panicking goblins, moving quickly towards them.

Thando simply put pen to paper and, in ink that flowed like molten gold, wrote, “Boom.”

A massive explosion rocked the area, instantly cratering the forest floor, the trees around swaying back at the sheer force and the kidnapping goblins getting blown to smithereens. The tree next to the mound of bodies was blown clean in half, while gobbets of flesh started to rain down on the group as the remains of the goblins and their victims fell back to the ground.

Piet, now in Chan’s arms, was quickly shoved at Alexander. The healer put a hand on Piet and his various cuts and scrapes started visibly closing up, his legs cracking and snapping back into the correct orientation.

Just as this happened, Connor burst out of the bushes, two knives in hand. He took in the scene of utter chaos around him, noted that everyone was alive, and sheathed his weapons, disappearing back into the vegetation without another word.

“That was dumb, irresponsible and could very well have gotten us all killed! What if there was more than one group of goblins? What if your powers didn’t activate at a suspiciously convenient time? Never fucking do that again!”

This time, it was Annelise who’d assumed the responsibility of taking them to task. She’d even dropped her constant use of “like” in her anger.

Thando, Willem and Chan were sitting down in front of her, staring at the ground to try and look chastened but they were all supressing grins. It had worked out. They had saved him. And looked awesome doing it.

They were back in the clearing they’d initially found. Connor and Alexander were talking the others through activating their powers, with mixed results. Piet was still unconscious, but they’d convinced his tearfully grateful fiancée to let them “guard him while he recovers from his ordeal.”

They now had a wagon they were keeping him in. Alexander grumbled about them only making it harder on themselves when they eventually had to leave him, but they ignored the pessimistic healer and basked in the triumph of their first battle.

Maxwell came over and put a hand on Annelise’s shoulder.

“Babe, be more understanding. You know I’d do the same if you were in his situation. Don’t blame them for loving their friend.”

She looked back at him, then down to them, and sighed.

“Ugh, you’re right but like, in saving their loved one, they put mine at risk. What happens when next time it doesn’t go so well? How many people is an acceptable loss in pursuit of a guy who’ll like disappear when this ends anyway?”

Thando immediately stood up.

“Never imply he doesn’t matter again. I’m serious.”

Maxwell stepped forward to calm him down.

“Whoa whoa, relax. She didn’t mean it like that, she just meant we all depend on each other to survive right now. She’s justifiably nervous that you guys are putting the safety of your friend over the safety of the group, especially since Alexander says it’s wasted effort. She doesn’t want someone she cares about dying for no reason.”

“I understand that, but I don’t think you realise just how close we cut it. Alexander himself can vouch that if we’d hesitated, Piet would be dead. As fuck. Without even a chance of teleporting out of here. That’s someone we care about and you can’t ask us to stand by while he gets his bone marrow slurped or whatever the fuck goblins do. Even if it was a rash decision, which I fully accept it was, it was the right one.”

“This time. All we’re asking is that, next time, we make the decision as a group.”

Thando silently considered him for moment.

“You’re good at this. I am now both calm and agreeing with you.”

Maxwell shrugged.

“I’ve had a lot of practice. Let’s just say my life sucked pretty hard before I met Lise.”

“You don’t think it sucks right now?”

“Not yet at least. I’ll wait until someone dies.”

“That’s dark.”

“Haven’t you read the plot? We’re saving the world. I think I’m allowed a little darkness.”

Damn, this man was likeable. Thando chuckled.

“I guess you are.”

Alexander called them over from the middle of the clearing. Everyone had successfully manifested at least one aspect of their archetype, though with nowhere near the amount of energy Thando, Willem and Chan had shown. Sure, they hadn’t been able to repeat it but it was no longer theoretical. They were officially superheroes. It was getting dark however, and even heroes needed rest.

“Great work today, people. I think we will be ready for tomorrow when the conflict activates. We’ll look around for some easy targets to get you used to combat, but if we see this Spectre, we run. It’ll be the easiest conflict to overcome but not easy by any means. It’s a Man vs Self conflict, so expect any insecurities or phobias to manifest and attack you in some form. Right now, your limiting factor is knowledge but soon it’ll be your acclimation. It sets a hard limit on the amount of ego you can use at any one time and eventually, that will kill you. This is the last day we won’t have to set a watch and the last day we’ll have any spare time. Use the time to work on your acclimation and understanding your archetype better. Get to know your teammates more deeply. Today, we rest. Tomorrow, we go to war.”

The group taken over the house where Piet and his “betrothed” stayed. It was meant for two people and a few future kids, however, so there wasn’t much space for the 9-man strong squad of Archons and Inspired. Alexander and Connor shared a room, Sabine and Annelise another, Likhwa and Maxwell a third and Thando, Willem and Chan had to squeeze in the last available room.

They realised that place was stocked with actual food when some neighbours brought a feast over as thanks for saving Piet. It was almost a shame that they were going to steal him away the next day.

As they ate, drank and laughed together, Willem, standing by the roaring hearth, called Chan and Thando over.

“Chan was right, yet again. The others are souring to the idea of keeping Piet with us. Ironically, he probably wouldn’t have any trouble convincing them to keep one of us.”

“I’m always right bro. But yeah, with what Alexander said about keeping constantly on the move, no way they’ll agree to drag the wagon around. And despite our awesome powers, we maxed out against those goblins. That was probably our current upper limit. Even though we won, that was mostly because we blitzed them. We can’t protect him on our own, especially vulnerable like he is, but it looks like they’ll vote to leave him behind.”

After much pleading, Alexander had agreed to keep Piet unconscious, at least until Man vs Society activated at which point they’d deal with whatever happened.

Thando stared into the fire as he spoke.

“Not necessarily. Piet is indisposed right now, but we’ve seen him work. I say we talk to the people that look like they haven’t made a decision yet. Annelise definitely has and Maxwell will probably support her. But Sabine and Likhwa seem neutral. Alexander and Connor will listen to the group, even if they disagree, and if we get the two neutrals to back us, we’ll be a majority. Piet will be safe, at least until that damnable conflict activates. But I figure we’ll have bigger problems at that point and he can just stay incognito in the background.”

“Sounds legit. But Sabine is Annelise’s best friend and Likhwa obviously has a thing for her, not to mention his friendship with Maxwell. How exactly are we going to convince them to disagree with the queen bee?” Willem wondered out loud while scanning the room with his gaze.

“Come on bro, battle plans are your thing. You’re telling me you can’t see a world in which they choose us over them for one decision? There has to be a way.”

“I actually think there might be. Sabine has looked this way three times in the last minute, despite Likhwa’s efforts. I think that’s your shot, Thando.”

“How do you know she’s looking at me?” Thando chuckled.

“Come on dude, let’s be realistic. You’re 6’4 and ripped, not to mention I want to punch you every time we look into the same mirror. You know you’re hot, bitch, don’t do that false modesty kak.”

“Fair enough, but talking to her is gonna make Likhwa hate me and by extension, us. We can’t afford that.”

“It might, but not if Chan and I show him a good time. Get your mind out of the gutter, you know what I mean.”

Thando and Chan were supressing laughter at Willem’s statement but they saw the sense in what he said. None of them were Piet, he could have the entire group eating out of his hand, but they could simulate his effect by splitting the task up.

When Likhwa got up to refill his cup, Thando nodded at his companions and they went to intercept.

He walked up to the chair next to Sabine and sat down, greeting everyone at the table with energy and initially just soaking up the friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the newly blonde girl fidgeting in her seat and staring at his well-muscled arms.

And Piet thinks I’m jealous of his skills, hah.

He turned and looked her directly in the eyes.

“You know, people say its rude to stare.”

To her credit, she didn’t melt into an incoherent mess. She blushed heavily but managed to respond.

“Maybe I’m an asshole.”

He leaned back in his chair.

“Pretty bold of you, being an asshole to the biggest guy in the room.”

She turned her body to face him.

“Pretty bold of you, claiming to be the biggest.”

Thando laughed.

Okay, I like her.

“I thought size didn’t matter though. Have all the women in my life been lying to me?”

“Possibly. Maybe you just don’t have the right women in your life.”

She looked him up and down.

Damn, she’s not bad at this. I might end up getting seduced. Oh well.

“Most likely true. See, the trouble is,” he said, turning to look her in the eyes again, “every woman says they’re the right one.”

He took a sip of his drink for dramatic tension.

“But there’s just no way to tell the difference between an angel,” he looked her up and down, “and a temptress.”

He held her gaze.

She smiled.

Willem and Chan supported a singing Likhwa to his bed as he could barely stand up on his own without collapsing into a wine soaked stupor. They got him into his bedroom, a room conspicuously missing a roommate but they just figured he was with his fiancée.

“That should definitely do it. Nice guy, but a bit deluded about his chances with Sabine.”

The whole night he’d been confiding in them about “this special girl” he knew, that he was going to make his wife one day. It was painfully obvious who he was talking about, as he had slipped up and said her name a few times in his drunk state.

“You’re an asshole bro,” Chan laughed, “you know very well you can drink anyone under the table. He wouldn’t be this drunk if you weren’t so conspicuous about ‘keeping the wine flowing’. You know he has something to prove.”

“Nah, I didn’t pressure him into anything, he tried to keep up with me. Besides, we kept him hydrated so it’s not like he’ll have a hangover tomorrow. I figure this is better for him than moping about Sabine all night. This is his, and our, last chance to unwind. Speaking of unwinding, I’m ready to sleep like the dead.”

Willem stretched as he turned the corner to their room. And stopped.

“What is it bro?”

“That motherfucker!”

Chan stepped out from behind Willem and saw the sock hanging on the doorknob. He laughed.

“Piet’s gonna be sleeping on a wagon bed bro, we’ll be fine. It’ll be like old times.”

They walked back down the hallway, Willem grumbling all the while about stupid freakishly tall pretty boys.