The Best Birthday Present Pt. 2

Once we went through the dungeon entrance, we were immediately transported to a dark and dank series of interconnected caves. When I looked back at the entrance, I could see bits of the forest we'd just left.

"Wait here for a moment," Lord Happy said.

"Please, why should we wait? It's just a level ten dungeon, we could probably beat this place by ourselves with one hand and no weapons. Let's just pull everything in this area in one go and be done with it. What are you? Chicken? Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk!" Ultimate Trash Talk went on and on as Lord Happy scouted the area.

"If you're that bored, I'll send you something to keep you busy," Lord Happy dashed around the edges of the cave, poking at things that were hidden in the darker areas with his weapon.

The weapon was one of the multi-tool sort of items explicitly created as a starting weapon for Unspecialized. It only had three forms, though, so it was nothing like the famous silver weapon, Myriad Manifestation Umbrella. The forms of the starting weapon were the most commonly used for Unspecialized: a spear, a sword, and a cannon. Lord Happy was using the spear.

Every time Lord Happy jabbed the spear into a dark crevice, a roar would shake the room. He would move to another section and repeat the process, causing my nerves to reach new peaks. Glowing eyes peered out from the dark spaces that Lord Happy poked. Green eyes, yellow eyes, red eyes, and blue eyes. It was practically a sea of eyes!

"We're all going to die," I said faintly.

"Oh, Ye of little faith," Lord Happy said, and I was sure that he meant "Ye" as in my surname and not the ye meaning you. I rolled my eyes at the play on words. Before I had finished, Lord Happy used Shadow Clone to zip back to the far side of the cave.

The eyes started moving and slowly crawled into the light shining from the cave entrance. Lord Happy had aggroed seven wingless dragons the size of horses! The squat legged beasts were covered in hard knotted plates of scale and bone from their shoulders to their tails. They looked dangerous and hard to kill. I just knew we were all going to die.

Besides Lord Happy, Unrivaled Pain was the first of our group to move. She darted forward with Dragon Tooth to spear two of the dragons, before canceling the move and spinning out of the way. It took only a second to see why. The moment she was in the first dragon's range, it's red eyes flared, and flames shot out of its mouth. If Unrivaled Pain had continued her ability, she would have roasted and lost who knew how much life!

Lord Happy's weapon transformed into a cannon, and he used Delivery Gun to shoot three of the dragons straight towards Ultimate Trash Talk.

"Oh I see how it is, you give me three. That's fine, I can kill all three with my eyes closed, just watch my sword!" Ultimate Trash Talk declared and immediately started slashing and dodging the dragons.

Laughter in the Wind used her own cannon to interrupt the fire breathing dragon that tried to barbecue Ultimate Pain. She seemed to be humming under her breath as she shot at it. Watching how the two women worked together, I was slightly stunned. Though the obvious teamwork was evident from the first moment, the monsters we had fought up to now could easily be slain by a single person. Their synergy was beautiful and made me kind of jealous, especially when Lord Happy joined in, seamlessly working with the other two, as he brought another dragon with him to join the group.

"Don't just stand there, grab that last dragon," Lord Happy said, and I shook myself out of my dazed stasis.

The last dragon had golden eyes, and it was heading towards Lord Happy's group of three. I slid behind the dragon and stabbed it on its foot. It roared and whipped around, glaring my way. Its eyes brightened, and I threw a Shuriken. It hit the dragon in the eye and stunned him. I moved forward and cut at it with a normal slash. As soon as the stun wore off and its eyes started to amp up again, I threw both my hands out, catching him with a Ninja Skill: Neck Bind. The rope wrapped around the dragon's throat, and I yanked, knocking it down and disrupting its ability.

By this time, I'd noticed the red-eyed dragons were fire magic dragons, the blue were ice, and the green had healing magic. There was only one yellow eyed dragon, but I guessed it was probably an earth magic user. I didn't want to be caught up in some AOE attack from this thing, so every time its eyes flared, I used an interrupt skill.

"What's taking you so long, kid? I've already dispatched two dragons, why are you still fighting one? Hurry up and kill it. Kids these days are shameless, sitting back and letting the seniors do all the work. When I was your age, I could kill all seven of these by myself with my bare hands! Hmph," Ultimate Trash Talk acted like he was insulted.

I could feel my face heating, and I stepped up my game. I didn't want them to think I was sandbagging.

"Don't listen to him, Behind the Moon. You're doing just fine," Laughing in the Wind commented soothingly, "He's just spouting grandpa stories."

I bit my lip on a laugh and dodged a vicious bite from the dragon. Laughing in the Wind was right, he did sound like he was saying, "Back in my day..." like a grandpa did when he told stories to little kids.

It didn't take long for the dragon I was fighting to reach red blood. I had to use my interrupts one after another, and soon, they were all on cooldown. The dragon's eyes flared, and I threw my Ninja Blade into the rock surface of the wall and scurried up to dangle from my blade. The dragon let out a roar, and the ground shook with its fierce magic.

The earthquake didn't last long, and before the dragon could finish its ending animation, I yanked my Ninja Blade free and leaped. I stabbed downwards as I landed, catching the dragon at the base of its neck, finally killing it.

"Not bad," Lord Happy said and nodded beside me.

I didn't linger on the faint praise but ran over to help finish off the last dragon.

"Who told you I needed help? I'm the original Sword Sai- I mean Blade Master. Who needs help? Not me!" Ultimate Trash Talk exclaimed.

My eyes widened, and my face drained of blood as I finally made the connection. Ultimate Trash Talk was going to say Sword Saint, the original Sword Saint was Huang Shaotian. Huang Shaotian was also known for having the worst trash talk of any player in the history of Glory.

If Ultimate Trash Talk was Huang Shaotian, then the Unspecialized, Battle Mage, and Launcher were probably... I gulped, "You, you, you, you," I stuttered.

"Ultimate Trash Talk, you've broken Behind the Moon with your trash talk," Unrivaled Pain said calmly.

"This is why we can't take you anywhere," Laughter in the Wind giggled softly.

"But, but, but, but," I kept stuttering. How could this happen? How was this possible? Pros, even ex Pros, didn't sit in random internet cafe's to play Glory. But could there be any other logical explanation? I turned and stared at Lord Happy. "Lord Happy... Team Happy! You're Ye-"

"Keep it down! We don't need that kind of attention in here," Lord Happy said and scanned the nearby customers to see if they'd noticed anything. His shoulders relaxed when no one acted like they were paying attention.

I opened a browser window and searched Ye Xiu Team Happy, and sure enough, a picture of a much younger version of the man sitting next to me popped up on my screen. I was sitting next to the former captain of Team Happy. In a random internet cafe. During the opening of the twenty-fifth server of Glory.

"But why are you here?!" I couldn't help but exclaim. I'd still not come to terms with meeting the former player of Lord Grim.

It was Laughter in the Wind who answered him, having followed the conversation through the voice chat in-game, "He was visiting with Chen Guo. Guo Guo always likes to work at one of her internet cafe branches during the new server launches. She says there's nothing like the excitement Glory brings on a server launch day. Since she was going, he decided to go too!"

"Chen Guo? Isn't she the boss of Team Happy?" She had a chain of internet cafes? I knew Team happy had started from a grassroots internet cafe family, but I had no idea it had turned into a chain, or that they were still somehow connected with the team.

"I'll introduce you to her later, I think she would be interested in meeting you," Ye Xiu said, "but first... let's finish this dungeon,"

"No fair! You're really shameless! I was going to tell him to come here so I could steal him for Team Blue Rain! That's it! I'll PK you for him, PK, PK, PK, PK, PK, PK!" Huang Shaotian demanded.

"Calm down. I met him first, so, naturally, I get to take him for Team Happy. The next time we find a player, I'll let you steal him for Blue Rain, ha ha," Ye Xiu lit another cigarette as he spoke.

"Do you think I have enough time to run around with you, looking for new players? You're shameless! I only logged in because you begged me," Huang Shaotian sniffed, "It's like you're looking down on me. I'm the Blue Rain coach after all, unlike you, I have work to do!"

"I have plenty of work to do. It's not easy being me," Ye Xiu said, and the girls giggled in response to Huang Shaotian's sputtering.

Ye Xiu maneuvered Lord Happy farther into the cave, "Let's go."

Could I finish the dungeon? Currently, my fingertips were a little numb with the shock. Ye Xiu and Huang Shaotian wanted me. Me! I never thought to dream of getting involved in the Pro scene. I shook my hands out and placed them on the mouse and keyboard. I was playing with Glory legends! 'This... this was the best birthday present ever!' I thought, and followed the team deeper into the dungeon.