Chapter 65: A Day Off

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: A Day Off

The staging area stayed silent for several seconds. Thirty-one heroes had gone into an SS-rank gate, and thirty-one heroes had somehow come back out, with three cores sitting on the metal floor between them: one enormous SS-rank core and two S-rank cores, their glow lighting up every exhausted face in the room.

Garrick pushed himself upright. His armor was practically wrecked, mud caked over most of him, blood dried across one shoulder, parts of his clothing burned clean through but his eyes were still sharp.

He looked down at the cores. "Someone get these to the Association vault."

Two Association staff moved in fast. The SS-rank core took both of them just to lift. One of them stared at it, stunned. "This is—"

"SS-rank," Garrick said.

"We’ll handle it carefully."

"You’d better." He picked up the two S-rank cores himself and handed them over. "These too."

The containers were sealed and carted off, and only once the security doors shut behind them did his shoulders finally drop. "Mission complete."

Aria let out a long breath. "Finally."

Kael collapsed onto a nearby bench. "I’m never entering a swamp again."

"You said that about the ice caves and the desert gate," Lena said.

"And I Meant that."

Darius laughed.

Felix sat on the floor against the wall, completely spent, his healing mana had barely stopped running the entire fight, Seraphina beside him, neither of them saying anything.

The officials who’d come to collect the cores stayed close to Garrick, and within a few minutes his team was falling in around him, heading for their own transport back to Association headquarters.

He looked back at Aria’s group before he left.

"Good work out there." A nod to the team at large. "All of you."

"Likewise, Commander," Aria said.

He raised a hand in farewell and left with his people and the officials, the group thinning out fast once they’d gone. Aria watched them go, then turned back to her own exhausted team.

"Medical checks for everyone."

A collective groan.

"And after that?"

Kael’s head came up. "Food."

Aria sighed. "Fine. Food."

Kael was on his feet immediately. "Best leader ever."

---

**The Restaurant**

A few hours later, the mood had completely flipped. Blood and mud washed off, gear swapped out, medical clearance signed and now, finally, food.

The place was big enough, but their group still took up several pushed-together tables, plates covering almost every surface: meat, rice, noodles, soup, grilled vegetables, dessert, more food than any sane group should have ordered.

Kael looked over the spread like it was a religious experience. "I love this team."

"You only say that when there’s food," Lena said.

"I also say it when there isn’t food."

"When?"

He paused. "...Hard to recall a specific instance."

The table laughed.

Felix leaned back. Aria and Darius were arguing over who’d actually done more damage to the Tyrant. Ryan insisted his work had gone completely unnoticed.

Mira was laughing at Kael’s running commentary, and Lena was threatening to pour water on him if he reached for her plate one more time. Even the quieter members of the group had loosened up.

Seraphina sat beside Felix, mostly listening, occasionally smiling. She’d spent years surrounded by people she couldn’t trust an inch, this felt strangely peaceful by comparison.

He noticed her watching the table. "What?"

"Nothing. Just watching everyone."

"They’re idiots."

"I heard that!" Kael called over.

Felix grinned. "Good idiots, though."

"Exactly," Kael said, nodding proudly.

Seraphina studied Felix a moment longer, then smiled faintly. "Yes."

The dinner rolled on, Garrick getting launched through four trees, Kael nearly losing it when the Tyrant fired its first water beam, Darius getting thrown clean into the swamp, Felix dragging Seraphina through the collapsing gate.

Kael grinned at that last one. "You two looked pretty comfortable running together."

"We were," Seraphina said, calm as ever.

His grin widened. Felix reached for another piece of meat without looking up. "Don’t start."

Darius laughed. Aria just shook her head. "You two never change."

Nobody was in a rush to leave. Tonight belonged to them, and the meal stretched on far past.

---

Eventually the Association transport came around, dropping people off one by one, some home, some back to family, some to someone waiting for them. When it reached Acheron, Seraphina stood by the door.

"See you on Thursday," Felix said.

"See you." She stepped out, and he watched her disappear into the facility before leaning back in his seat, already thinking ahead to the next session, what Liora would want to do this time before the thought dissolved under sheer exhaustion.

The transport finally reached Valemont, and Felix stepped out in front of his building. "Thanks."

"Good night, sir," the driver said.

He let himself in, and the door closed on total silence. He stood there a second. "Finally." Shower, change, something light to eat, and bed. He was out almost instantly.

---

**The Next Day**

Noon. Felix sat on his couch, controller gripped in both hands, eyes narrowed in total concentration, watching his character die on screen.

**DEFEAT.**

He stared at it. "...Again?"

He restarted. Lost again. Again after that. This was the same game he and Liora played, the one she dismantled him in without fail, round after round, never even looking particularly excited about it, just quietly taking him apart match by match.

It wasn’t that he was bad. He wasn’t. She was just absurdly, unfairly good, and he’d decided somewhere around the fifth loss today that this had become personal.

He lowered the controller. "Tomorrow," he muttered, eyes narrowing at the screen. "I’m winning at least once tomorrow."

The doorbell rang. He frowned, not expecting anyone, set the controller down, and went to answer it. It rang again before he got there.

"Coming."

He opened the door to find Kael, Darius, and Orion standing outside.

"Yohoo!" Kael said, grinning.

"Kael?"

"Sup, Felix." Darius lifted a carton of beer in greeting, and Orion just raised a hand. "Yo."

Felix looked at all three of them, then at what they were carrying: beer, chips, popcorn, several bags of snacks, enough food collectively to last a weekend.

"What’s this about?"

Kael walked past him into the apartment without waiting for an invite. "You."

"We haven’t hung out properly in a while," Darius said, following him in, and that part was true, since the rehabilitation program had basically eaten Felix’s entire free schedule.

Missions, therapy, patients, reports, meetings, more missions. Days like this had gotten rare.

Orion came in last, setting the snacks down on the table. Felix looked at him. "You too?"

"Why not."

Kael’s eyes landed on the television, where a massive, glowing DEFEAT was still plastered across the screen. "Wait a second. Did you just get completely bodied by the bot on medium difficulty?"

Felix froze.

Darius turned slowly toward the screen, then back to Felix, a broad grin spreading across his face. Orion’s eyebrow arched upward in quiet amusement.

"...You’re on a losing streak, aren’t you?" Kael said, grinning wider.

"No...I did not."

"Felix, you hesitated like a guilty man on trial,"

Darius said, laughing.

Felix pointed an accusatory finger at the sofa.

"Sit down."

"He’s embarrassed," Kael crowed, delighted.

"The world’s greatest combat healer is getting his ass kicked by a console."

"Play."

"Fine, fine." Kael dropped onto the couch, grabbing the second controller off the table. "If the AI can dismantle you that easily, I want in on humiliating you properly."

"You’re all terrible," Felix muttered, and just like that, the apartment came alive.

---

For the next several hours, the outside world didn’t exist. They played, watched something in the background nobody was really following, argued about nothing in particular, ate enough chips to horrify a nutritionist, and drank through most of what Darius had brought.

Kael was loud. Darius was competitive. Orion stayed quieter than the other two but with this group specifically, he was different. He laughed more, smiled without trying to hide it, complained openly when he lost, even shouted at the screen the one time Kael pulled off a comeback win nobody saw coming.

"THAT WAS LUCK!"

Kael shot to his feet. "Skill!"

"Lucky."

"*Skill!*"

Felix lost it laughing. Darius nearly choked on his drink. Orion just stared at Kael for a second, picked up a cushion off the couch, and threw it.

*WHUMP.* Direct hit.

The room went dead silent for half a second before Felix and Darius both broke down laughing. Kael peeled the cushion off his face.

"*You!*"

"You deserved it," Orion said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Since when did you become like this?"

"Since you started talking."

Felix laughed even harder. This version of Orion barely existed anywhere outside this apartment, quiet and reserved everywhere else, but here, with these three specifically, no pressure, no expectations, just himself.

---

Eventually the games wound down, something playing quietly in the background with the lights low, the table buried under empty plates and snack wrappers and bottles. Darius leaned back into the couch.

"This feels like five years ago."

Felix smiled. "Yeah."

Darius had been on a different team back then, one that eventually dissolved over internal politics before he landed with Aria’s squad but he’d already known the rest of them well before that, and whenever family life gave him the room, he still showed up for nights exactly like this one. Gaming, food, drinks, nothing complicated.

Kael looked around the apartment. "We really don’t do this enough anymore."

"No," Felix said, quieter. "I’ve been busy."

"That program?" Darius asked.

"Yeah."

"Then we make time."

Felix didn’t answer right away. Then he smiled. "Yeah."

Orion raised his bottle. "Next time, my place."

Kael looked at him. "You have a place?"

"Obviously."

"I’ve never seen it."

"That’s because you’ve never been invited."

Darius burst out laughing, and Felix nearly dropped his drink. Kael looked genuinely wounded. "Why am I always the target?"

"Because you’re easy," Orion said.

"He’s got a point," Felix said, grinning.

Kael sighed and grabbed another handful of popcorn. "Fine. But I’m winning next time."

The room filled with laughter again.

---

Night came around eventually, the gathering running far longer than any of them had planned. Kael lingered by the door.

"Same thing again soon?"

"Definitely," Felix said.

"We shouldn’t let it go months this time," Darius said.

"Agreed."

Orion raised a hand. "Night."

"Night."

The three of them finally left, and Felix shut the door on a silence that felt a lot louder.

He looked around the wreckage of his apartment: bottles everywhere, popcorn ground into the carpet, controllers scattered on the floor.

"I’ll deal with it tomorrow," he muttered.

Tomorrow also meant a session with Liora, couldn’t be late for that. He changed, dropped onto the bed, and was out almost before his eyes finished closing.

Just the sound of old friends laughing, still echoing somewhere in the back of his head as he fell asleep.