Pomp. Pomp.

One, two, three. One, two, three. I huffed. Wiping away the sweat from my brow I looked around to find myself all alone. The gym was eerily quiet as the afternoon sun drifted in through the high set windows overlooking the practice rings.

“Guess all the guys went home huh.” I didn’t even notice. I had been too busy hitting the heavy bag. Sweat beaded down my arms as a familiar voice rounded the corner.

“They probably got tired of you hogging the bag Sel, other people come here to box too you know.”

“Well then they should get here earlier. Also, its not my fault the gym only has one heavy bag Ben. Now that, that would be your department.”

His perky black hair bounced in the evening light. “Hah well you got me there. But maybe if you let the muscle heads use it every once in a while then I'd have more paying customers."

“Maybe when those muscle heads learn not to hit on me then I'll let them have a wack at it," my gloved hands ruffled through my short red hair. I could still remember how my hair would sway at my waist as I would practice my sets. Reaching my forehead, I felt short locks of hair glued down by sweat. Pulling off one of the gloves, I made my way towards the towel rack.

"Anyway, you about done yet? I was planning on closing up early tonight."

As I wiped the sweat from my brow I gave Ben another once over. From the dark circles underneath his eyes I could tell he was exhausted, but something else seemed to linger in the way he stood.

“You sure you're alright Ben? I’ve noticed the gym has been pretty empty lately,” I said, grabbing my belongings from a nearby locker.

Ben held the nape of his neck with one arm, his face turned towards the floor. “Guess you can say we’ve been low on customers lately. Even some of our regulars have slowly stopped coming back.”

With my bag in hand I moved closer to him. “I’m sure you’ll be alright. Boxtro’s still got some fight left in her. After all, if this place closes down, where else will I go to box on the cheap?” I patted him on his arm with a pert smile on my face.

“You’ll just have to hog someone else’s equipment I suppose…” 

"Oh no!", I said with fained melodrama, "I'm leaving, perhaps never to return...“ I turned and made my way towards the entrance.

“Wait, Selle I was just kidding!”

All I could do was smirk as I made my way out of the building. 

Ding. The bell at the door sounded as it closed.

And with that I headed home.

I had spent most of the afternoon working out at Boxstro so it was already getting dark out. I wonder why he wanted to close up early. The sun was just starting to set as I made it to the bus.

“Hey are you going over to Mai's house to watch the meteor shower?” I overheard a young boy ask his friend. They couldn’t have been much older than second year highschool students.

Meteor shower huh? Too bad I got plans. Might've been fun to watch. The bus ride home was rather uneventful, as most bus rides are. Most of the time was spent scratching in my notebook or staring out at the late day cityscape. I gave the driver a quick thank you before getting off, and after walking another couple city blocks I was finally at my apartment building.

As I turned the doorknob to my apartment, I was quickly met with hungry grumblings from my cat, Grendel. His black and brown fur curled around my leg as he continued to meow ferociously, his golden eyes darting from my face and then back towards his empty bowl.

“Mrowh!” he mewed as though he was threatening me with some random act of violence if I didn’t feed him soon.

“Shhh it's ok. I know, I know, I’m sorry. I lost track of time again at the gym.”

Moving over to the kitchen I prepared Grendel’s favorite, salmon flavored cat food. After setting it back down on the floor I made my way over to my desk and booted up my computer.

I wonder if the guild is planning on doing any grinding this weekend… “Bingo”

[Prepare for the 20XX Annual Holy Wars Tournament! 

Double XP weekend, Double drop chance for monster cards. +20% rewards for Arena battles.]

“Wow, they’ve even added higher rewards for arena play. Looks like I’ll be able to afford some more expensive food this month for you Grendel”

“Mwroh?” Grendel purred at the base of my feet, his medium length fur rubbing against the short stubble on my leg. So soft.

“Done eating already? My little man.” I reached down and pet his fluffy head. I watched as he walked over and curled up in his cat bed before I turned back to my screen.

Ping. Ping.

Huh? Someone from the guild’s already online? Checking the in-game chat window I noticed two different messages. Checking the first, it read:

[UndeadMochi]: Yooo did you hear that John totally bailed on tonight’s raid? Totally lame T-_- 

Huh… I thought we all agreed on doing the raid tonight. Let me check the other message before I message Mochi back.

[ElmWood]: Uhhh… s-so John’s not coming. He said he had work or something… I don’t know if I believe that, but uh what are we gonna do? We sorta need a mage for tonight’s raid.

Damnit John… I really wanted to level my Holy Knight tonight. I guess I’ll let everyone know what’s going on. I opened a group message to the attending guild members.

[Seleth_]:So I just heard from Elm and Mochi that we’re down a wizard for the raid tonight.

[Tilda_Bear]:Oh yea! Sorry I forgot to message. John told me he couldn’t miss the meteor shower tonight so he can’t come. Something about an assignment for his astronomy course he’s taking.

[Seleth_]: Ok… Well because of his absence I will switch over to my Grand Wizard and take over his duty.

[UndeadMochi]: I know you’re the guildmaster and all, but dude you really suck as a Mage.

[ElmWood]: I-I’m sure it will be fine. Seleth is still level 53 on their wizard.

[UndeadMochi]:Yea… and that puts them at the lowest level spot T-_-

[Seleth_]: Everything will be alright. Elm is still pretty good for dps at his level and Tilda can make sure I don’t lose too much health.

[Tilda_Bear]: So it's settled then?

Later that night on the raid voice call.

“I need heals!”

“Elm I need you to back off or else they’re going to swarm you.”

“Mochi stop stealing my kills!”

“No, don't aggro the minions!”

Exhausted after a long night of gaming, I ended my last taste of normal.