‘Ironshield Has Returned!’

  That was the headline from an online forum with close to five million views and thousands of comments in a space of two weeks. The news that Ironshield had not only come out of retirement and re-entered active duty but also regained his lost limb saturated every other mainstream media outlet. From televisions and the internet to physical newspapers and magazines, Ironshield had no choice but to appear in each one of them.

  “I knew you were famous, but never this famous,” Jin said. He leaned against the brickwork of a radio station as Ironshield emerged from yet another interview, their third this morning alone.

  The big man stretched, his new arm rippling under his sleeve as they walked out of the studio. “Same here. I could do without the fame. It’s bloody tiring sitting there and yapping all day long.”

  “Heh. Tell that to your fans,” Jin joked, stepping into pace beside him. “The headlines call it a 'Miracle.' Act of God, and so on. At the very least, it diverts the eyes from me. And here.”

  Jin brought his phone to Ironshield, and the veteran Player’s face twisted in horror.

  “W-What is this?!”

  “You. Or to be precise, an AI-generated version of you.”

  “But why the hell am I naked and all?!”

  Jin didn’t answer, but read aloud a few of the funnier comments. “If that hulk can regrow his arm, what else can he regrow?’ Jin paused. “Long, thick and hard ones! I’d like to try that in–“

  “Alright. I’ve heard enough. Done. No more goddamn interviews or appearing in cheesy television shows. We’re Players, and it’s time for us to hit the RIFT. Is our party ready?”

  Jin cracked a grin. “Ready? They’re far from ready. But before we test our party’s coordination, we have to wait for Elise,” Jin replied, “Once we register the party, we’re all set”.

  However, a complication emerged once Elise arrived with the news.

  “Someone already took the name 'Elysium' for their company?” Jin stared at the paperwork. “Why didn't the administration mention that when we filed the forms? What a waste of time.”

  Elise looked at her shoes, dejected. “I’m sorry. They run the background checks after the formal application. I should have guessed it was taken. It’s a common name.”

  “So, what now?” Emilia asked. “Elysium’s taken. What name would we go for?”

  “Might as well rename us 'The Morons,'” Ka Fei chirped, leaning back with a smirk. “Fits the predicament.”

  “You’re part of this 'Moron' group now, arsehole,” Emilia retorted.

  Jin ignored the usual bickering between the two youths. He saw the guilt on Elise's face and stepped in. “Thanks for the hard work, Elise. I’m not blaming you. Do I need to pick a new name immediately?”

  “Not yet,” Elise said, her smile returning. “We can use a placeholder until they process our final registration.”

  “Which means we have until next year,” Ironshield noted. “Then stop talking. Time to hit the RIFT and pump up those ratings.”

  With Jin already having secured the commission from the headquarters, they moved as a five-man unit. Eustace Sinclair took point as frontline stealth-type DPS. Wong Ka Fei served as the vanguard. Emilia provided the backbone as the offensive and defensive buffer. Jin hovered in the middle, his eyes tracking the perimeter, ready to unleash his crowd control if the numbers turned against them. At the spearhead stood the Duane ‘Ironshield’ Johnson, their most important pillar.

  In the kitchen of combat, two cooks only led to a mess. While Jin was the company’s founder and their party leader, he knew his limits. Ironshield possessed the battle instinct of a veteran who had survived thousands of encounters. On the field, his word was law. Jin’s terms were clear – three strikes, and he would send that party member straight home for the day. No arguments.

  The other three learned that lesson quickly.

  Emilia, in particular, had questioned the hierarchy. To her, the one who formed the party should lead it. She viewed leadership as a matter of status rather than skill – a birthright of the social ladder.

  But the RIFT was an indifferent teacher. A diabolical master that would swallow the prideful whole.

  And Emilia soon discovered that command of the field was a different beast altogether. It was a primal survival necessity that cared nothing for statuses, titles, or the name on a registration form. In the RIFT, the only status that mattered was the leader’s ability to keep the party alive. And win.

  ***

  It was a dark subterranean chamber, the air thick with the scent of rot and wet stones. Only the light from their lanterns hanging by the belt provided the much-needed comfort within the cavern.

  “Eustace, three o’clock! Get rid of the spawns!” Ironshield didn't turn his head. He stood like an iron pillar, his shield locked against the Boss – a crystalline Jade Spider that pulsed with a rhythmic, sickening light green glow.

  Eustace moved upon command, drifting through the shadows. Clinks and clangs soon sounded, punctuated by the occasional sparks coming from his direction.

  “Ka Fei, ignore the Boss,” Ironshield commanded. “Clear the line!”

  The young heir bristled, his ego clearly wanting the glory of the big kill. “But the Boss is at sixty per cent–”

  “Clear. The. Line.” The big man’s voice was soft, but the weight of it forced Ka Fei to pivot.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  It was a tactical move. By forcing the Berserker to clear the minions coming at them, Ironshield was maintaining the aggro on himself. He wanted to avoid the ‘threat rip’. If the focus shifted anytime during the battle, the others would be in peril. Especially Emilia. If a monster, environment or even a rival Player disrupted her mid-cast, the party’s buffs would drop, and the formation would collapse.

  To ensure she remained at her prime, Jin stood alongside her as a bodyguard. While Emilia’s fingers wove through the air to maintain the tether of her offensive buffs, Jin dispatched two monsters lunging from the rear.

  “Emilia, shift focus,” Ironshield grunted as the Jade Spider raised its massive sickle-like limbs. “The Boss is entering a physical resistance phase. Drop the strength buff. I want defensive and mana generations!”

  “But I’m already mid-cast for the–”

  “Drop it. Adjust, or we lose the tempo.”

  It was efficiently ruthless. Ironshield was treating them like extensions of his own limbs. He monitored the Boss Monster’s movements and its possible attacks – based on more than two decades of fighting – while calculating what skills his party members were using and their rotation, readjusting their ‘output’ in real-time.

  Then came the next transition. The Jade Spider shrieked; the ear-grating sound bounced off the speleothems, echoing throughout the cavern. The ground beneath the Boss Monster began to glow.

  “Zone control!” Ironshield bellowed. “Jin, get on with the next phase! Everyone else, fall back behind me!”

  As the Jade Spider unleashed a radial burst of crystalline shards, Ironshield planted his large shield into the wet earth. His glowing aura expanded into a translucent dome. creating a safe space for those behind him. Jin, meanwhile, had finished preparation.

  “All done,” he shouted from afar. “The boss is now yours!”

  Beyond the barrier, the Jade Spider stood still, its crystalline limbs hanging from the cavern’s ceiling.

  “What useless monster,” Tome sounded in Jin’s mind. “A spider trapped in a web made by a worm.”

  Guided by Jin’s ‘extra knowledge’, Ironshield's next set of instructions came fast and hard.

  “Ka Fei, disembowel the boss. Eustace, clear the minions. Emilia, boost Ka Fei’s speed and Eustace’s strength!”

  A few minutes later, the party, led by Ironshield, felled the Level 20 Boss Monster < Jade Spider >.

  ***

  While the other three were resting, Ironshield came up to Jin. “So, what do you think?”

  Jin shot a glance at the kids. He saw the sweat on Eustace’s brow, the trembling in Emilia’s hands, and the deep, satisfying grin on Ka Fei’s face.

  “Good. But still rough around the edges.” Jin delivered his verdict. “They’re reacting. Passive and not anticipating the battlefield. Worse…”

  “There’s more?”

  Jin nodded. “You've got to do three people’s jobs at once. I thought I had it rough. Not only do you got to soak damage, but also leading the charge, with orders and your own support skills. Emilia wasn’t quick enough with her cast.”

  Ironshield smiled. “That’s life as the party’s shield.”

  Jin pursed his lips. “Not from what I saw the other day. That damned tank from White Raven.”

  “Oh?” Ironshield raised an eyebrow. “You mean Leo, their Gold I Star Rookie? He’s young. Guess he’ll learn.”

  “I don't care. If he puts Eleana in danger because he can’t give proper orders or because he overestimates his own strength, then he sucks.”

  “Damn! Your standards are too high,” Ironshield said.

  Jin smiled, motioning for the man to rejoin the others. “For the kids to survive, it’s better to have high standards than none. This isn’t a game, after all. And you know that.”

  “I do,” Ironshield replied, his gaze shifting to the three youngsters who were still catching their breath. “And you know what else?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Our party lacks balance.”

  After the battle, Ironshield gathered the team for the post-mortem. He stood before them, not as the famous hero from the news, but as a commander dissecting an operation.

  “You won,” Ironshield began, his voice dropping to that 'soft weight' again. “But you didn't win because of your coordination. You won because I held the line and Frank watched your backs. Ka Fei, you almost ripped aggro three times because you were chasing a high-damage burst instead of following my rotation. You’re fortunate this is an E-Rank RIFT. If you exceed the threat ceiling like that in higher-ranked ones, even a normal monster would’ve killed you. Thrice.”

  Wong Ka Fei hung his head low and said nothing

  Ironshield turned his gaze to the others. They weren’t spared either.

  “Eustace, you’re a scout turned DPS, yes?”

  The blond nodded.

  “Then you should know better than reacting to your enemies. You must strike them before they notice you. Use your original class skills and behave accordingly. Anticipate and predict what your enemies will do.”

  “Y-Yes, sir!”

  “And Emilia,” Ironshield turned to the Lowenhald princess. “You’re too tethered to your preset casts. Most likely because of your family’s training. But training isn’t the battlefield. If the field shifts, you have to break your cycle and adapt. Your casts need to come quick and fast. Got it?”

  “I-I do…”

  Jin smiled. Ironshield’s reports were much gentler than he could have hoped. “And now you know why I let him take command? If it were me… well, I’d kick your arse instead. Right, Eustace?”

  The blond’s face went pale. “Please… anything but that. I’ll never want to fall down a pyramid like that ever again.”

  Ka Fei and Emilia laughed at Eustace’s expense.

  “Anyway, you said something about our party, Ironshield?” Jin asked, “Imbalanced, was it?”

  The veteran Player nodded. “We survived this time, but we are top-heavy,” he said, ticking off his fingers. “We have the shield, the glue, and the firepower, but we’re missing someone to clean up our mess. And judging by how we’re doing things, we will have a lot of mess. Painful ones.”

  “Oh?” Jin’s eyes widened. “You mean, we need a healer?”

  “That, and we also need someone who can deal damage-over-time. It'll ensure Ka Fei isn't forced to burst every time a minion breathes on us.”

  “Wouldn’t that balloon our party to seven members?” Jin continued. “Isn’t it too much?”

  “As a starting party, still not enough,” Ironshield replied. “We could form two parties of four and create a semi-raid team. One specialises in the vanguard and the other in rear support.”

  “Makes sense. But who would want to join us?” Jin then cracked a grin.

  “I know that look. And no. The instructors at SeComm won't join active fields outside of their classes. And members from my old company, Valiant Blaze, have been absorbed by others.”

  Jin chuckled, raising his hands up in mock surrender. “You caught me.”

  “Also, I’d like party members who aren’t married to their roles, classes, and abilities,” Ironshield added, much to the surprise of everyone, including the party leader himself.

  “What do you mean?”

  Ironshield looked at the group before continuing. “The problem with newbies is that the DPS stays DPS, the Support stays behind and wants nothing to do with the vanguard, and the Tanks care for nothing but the monsters in front of them. You saw that with Leo, right? And Ka Fei, Eustace, and Emilia. What we need are people like you, Frank. DPS, support, and definitely crowd control.”

  The three juniors looked at each other, fear etched in their shared silence. But before they could ask, Jin allayed their concerns.

  “I won’t kick any of you out,” he laughed. “But Ironshield’s right. We need someone versatile who can handle various roles despite–”

  “I know someone!” Emilia interrupted, her hand shooting up with excitement brewing in her eyes. “He is a Dual-Class Player. He has the brains. He has the looks. And he can heal and deal damage. Better than Ka Fei, anyway.”

  “Oi, oi, oi,” the Berserker snapped. “If this guy is who I think he is, don’t you ever compare me to him. Or anyone else. It’s unfair.”

  “Oh!” Eustace chimed in. “Y-You mean him?! No way it’s him, right?! Damn. He’s so cool!”

  Jin was curious and turned to Ironshield. From the tanker’s expression – a bead of sweat rolling down his temple while he shook his head – there was something the four of them knew that Jin didn’t.

  “Who is it, Emilia?” Jin crossed his arms, his voice masking his scepticism. “Someone who can do everything? Sounds too good to be true. Players like him will never join a starting party like us.”

  The red-haired princess answered with renewed vigour. “Hehehe. Of course, he will. If I ask him. He always listens to me.”

  “Oh?” Jin raised his eyebrows. “Who is he then?”

  “It’s my eldest brother! Vincent van Lowenhald!”