Left. Right. Duck. Roundhouse kick.

“Defender, cover the left flank!” The fabric covering my old headset’s mic stuck to my bottom lip while I was barking out orders in my harsh gaming voice. Careful not to hit a landmine, my own character moved over the remainders of what once had been the palace of Ciel. Until the most recent update, the palace had been the most luxurious and finest building in the game, but the developers decided that luxury was not what this game needed. Thus, they’d let a troll horde invade the palace for a forty-eight-hour event that left nothing but barracks of this sophisticated place. 

“Gotcha, BlackZ.” On the poorly lit screen of my PC, Defender’s huge knight followed my order and finished the group of trolls that was hiding below the arch that would lead us directly to the vaults and the treasury.

The brief moment of silence after Defender’s attack gave me the chance to cast a trap spell that would come in handy when we went deeper down into the vaults. Lifting their weapons, ready to protect me, my comrades surrounded my avatar with theirs. “My mom says hi,” I murmured while my caster was busy reading in his red spellbook.

They returned the greeting sternly.

It took some time but eventually a blue energy ball formed in my left hand. Just in time when the heavy footfalls of the trolls’ reinforcements heading upstairs echoed in my headset. With a pounding heart, I placed the trap at the top of the stairs before rushing behind a pillar already occupied by Clover, our healer. 

“Get down!” I yelled when seeing the helmet of the troll leading their group.

My guildmates let themselves fall to the ground, the energy took hold of the trolls a moment before the backlash of a life-ending explosion let the budling shake. A fragment of one of the trolls’ armor scratched my arm but that was nothing compared to what would be awaiting us when we headed down the stairs now. 

“Baaam!” GoldenBoy92 cried out when his dragon knight made it his job to open the massive iron door that revealed our reward. “Boss, that was badass!”

I leaned back in my office chair with a heart that was pounding with adrenaline. The gold inside the well-equipped treasury, at the same time, the number of coins in the upper right corner of my screen increased significantly. Only three level-sixty-quests left, then we could finally afford a guild quarter big enough to invite new members.

“Stop calling me that,” I muttered. I was everything but a leader. 

“But he’s right, boss,” added Defender in his unnaturally low voice. “You’ve planned this mission, so, you’re the boss.”

“I plan all of our missions,” I reminded him and took a sip of water.

“Well, then I’m afraid, you’ll stay our boss,” called out our fourth member, Lady Lad. Her ranger entered the treasury the latest because she’d had to get down from her position on one of the few remaining pillars in the palace’s hallway. She was an excellent archer who covered all of our missions from afar.

Except for GoldenBoy, Defender, Lady, Clover, and myself, there were two more people who spent each and every Friday night in WizQ. But AOL had not yet logged into the game, and it seemed Horny7 was busy with something, or else he would’ve spoken up right now. He always did. Like, always.

It was sad but also the truth that I knew the only friends I had by their avatars only. Back when we teamed up, the beta version of Wizards’ Quest had just been released. We’d been too shy to ask other people for help with quests, so while all the other players began their adventures, we were the only ones left in our home village - aside from a couple of the frozen NPCs. No one asked the other for their names; thus, it became a silent agreement in our group to never inquire into the others’ identities. So, even if we happened to go to the same high school we wouldn’t know - and that was very likely, as the beta version of WizQ had only been accessible in the Seattle area.

Despite us agreeing on anonymity, we were still close friends who talked both about guild matters and our daily problems. Which was why I didn’t hesitate to tell them about Holland’s latest approach.

“She hot?”, asked Horny7.

He lived up in every conversation we had. I admit that there were days when he was getting on my nerves and all I ever wanted to do was mute him, but then he’d surprise us with a strategy that made it impossible for us to lose a quest.

Lady Lad jumped to my side. “Little bitch, get your sex drive together! You do know that our lovely boss wouldn’t pay attention to something like that.”

Horny7 snorted. “Fine, is he hot? That athlete guy.”

I ran a hand over my face. “That’s not the point here!”

“Uh, oh. You made him angry!” Clover hardly ever engaged in our conversations but when he did, he usually said stuff that was on the safe side. He was our junior member and had joined the Shadow guild as recently as one year ago.

“Well, I dunno…,” Lady Lad went on. “Making friends with a guy for money…sounds wrong, doesn’t it?”

Affirmative murmurs from my other guildmates.

“What’s up, guys?” The final member of our guild had just logged into the game and unmuted himself to join the conversation. “Sorry, I missed most of the fun. There’ll be a huge event at our store soon.” AshesOfLord, or simply AOL, had to work during most of our quests. At 25 years of age, he was our guild’s senior member. Until he graduated from college half a year ago, AOL had been the first to join and the last to leave the game. But now, he missed as many quests as he joined due to his job. Still, he was one of us.

Defender explained the matter in a few words.

“Umm…How much money are we talking?”

I swallowed. “Five grand.”

“WHAT?”

“Say what?”

“Come again?”

“What the heck?!”

“What the…?”

“Rich bitch!”

“Horny!”

“What? If she can blow five grand for something like this, she’s rich and a bitch!”

AOL whistled right into his mic.

“Ouch!”

I dragged the headset from my head and rubbed my ears.

“…der it.”

“What?”, I interrupted AOL when putting the headset back on. “Sorry, I only got half of it because somebody blew up my eardrums.”

He snorted. “Don’t be a baby, BlackZ. Anyway, what I’ve just been saying…I’d consider it. I mean, it’s five thousand dollars. I’m sure you could make use of it, can’t you?”

I didn’t answer. True, we needed money, but… “I don’t wanna hurt him."

“Boss…”

“Boss…you’re too good for this world.” GoldenBoy92’s avatar clapped with his green scalded hands before pressing them to his chest.

“That’s honorable, boss,” said Defender in his low tuned voice.

“I don’t get it.”

“Of course, you don’t, Horny.”

“No, let’s be honest. How could you possibly hurt him?” His elf pushed his light blonde hair over his shoulder in a move that reminded me too much of Holland. “Tsk. These guys don’t even look at you twice…and if they do, they beat the hell outta you. So, why bother?”

“Because…” I hesitated. Well, why? 

The image of the shy smile on Clay’s face appeared in my mind.

“Because you’re better than that.” Lady Lad’s voice was surprisingly tender. “You don’t wanna be like them. And you’re worried that the athlete…”

“Can we please call him Tsubasa? The athlete’s just so lame.” Oh, Horny…

“Fine.” Lady Lad sighed. “You’re worried that Tsubasa might become your friend for real and that he finds out about the deal, right? Then he’d be hurt, and you don’t want that.”

I held my tongue because she was right.

Clay had never engaged in the bullying. Before Tuesday, he’d never even talked to me, but when he did…he’d been kind. He even wanted to help me patch up the bruises his boys had caused on my body. No, I didn’t think he was a bad person, and he didn’t deserve to be used like that. I mean, how would you feel if somebody made friends with you for money?

Like sh*t, exactly.

A heavy silence filled our chat.

But that’s what we had Horny for.

“You didn’t spill if he’s hot!”

And suddenly, I couldn’t help laughing.