Victory

"Dead!" Torie raised her sword above her head and pivoted to see who had been responsible for her most recent demise. She set her jaw and scowled when she spotted the blond hair and cocky grin that never failed to turn her stomach.

She glanced at her team and didn't see Anna Beth's red sash, so she slouched away towards their respawn area where her friend waited.

"Dead again?" Kal, another of Torie's friends, sat in a canvas chair and marked a tally on the clipboard he balanced on his knees. He was lean of frame and face, with too-large eyes that made him look younger than he was, and a little bit like an owl with dreads. Normally he donned a wizard sash for park class battles, but today he was recovering from a bad headshot and had volunteered to sit as life pool reeve.

"Dead again, and three guesses who killed me." Torie had to fight the urge to toss her polearm to the ground.

Anna Beth folded her arms. "Buff, blond, thinks he's god's gift to amtgard?"

"And sloughs half the shots I throw? Yes. Him." Torie griped, hoping Kal was counting her respawn time because she was too busy fuming. Her eyes sought out the hated figure on the field. As if he sensed her, he turned and met her eyes with a meaningful smile. Torie pivoted to face Kev and tried not to think about the fact that Shade was probably staring at her butt now. "He's been stalking me all battlegame, killing me every time my back is turned. He won't even fight me face to face."

"Because he'll fucking lose," Anna Beth pointed out. Torie looked gratefully up into her friend's warm features. If Torie was to look up 'Valkyrie' online, she knew none of the women pictured could hold a candle to Anna Beth. She was taller than half the men on the field with dark hair that she allowed to poof like a mane around her face. When she wasn't scaring the shit out of everyone in her platemail she was leveling up her healer. She gave Torie a sympathetic look with her dark brown eyes. "Next time I won't die like a chump and I'll rez you."

"No worries," Torie sighed, waving a dismissive hand. "I'll get over it. I just wish he'd take a fucking hint."

"Some guys..." Kal rolled his eyes. "You're count's up, both of you. Get out there and kick some ass."

Hauling in what was meant to be a cleansing breath and instead was more of a resigned gasp, Torie braced her polearm and charged out to help her team.

~~~~

At the end of the day, battlegames lost and won, Torie and her friends were packing Kev's car. Torie was trying to lever her polearm into its perfect niche between the seats so it wouldn't shift and end up in Kev's lap, when she heard a voice that made her whole body stiffen.

"Hey, great fighting today." Shade strolled over, thumbs hooked in his jeans pockets, faint grin on his thin lips.

Torie hastily scanned the park for her friends, but they had returned to the field to chase down a few of Anna Beth's missing spell strips. Torie cursed inwardly and turned back to the car, even though the polearm was already resting safely in its place.

Shade- she didn't know his mundane name- tilted his head to look through one of the car windows at her in a move she knew he thought was charming. Torie sighed and pulled back from the car, hands on hips. Shade was holding a sword out to her, hilt first. She looked down at it.

"Take it," he raised his eyebrows significantly.

"Why?"

"So I can show you a few tips. Help your fighting improve."

Torie chewed the side of her tongue. He'd tried this tactic before. She'd tolerated it the first time. New players were always excited to share what they'd learned. She decided not to mention (again) that she'd been playing the game two years longer than Shade, who had started a few months ago. Of course he had taken to it avidly and with an intensity that made Torie's entire friend group raised their eyebrows and chuckle. She didn't take the sword.