Chapter 12: Training

OMG! Marlowe Roxe you fricken ROCK! I went to check my updates this morning and I find a review on all eleven chapters… You have no idea how happy you made me~! I would have screamed for joy if I wasn't afraid of waking my parents up -.-' And as for your idea for Doll protesting using her familial connection to win the tournament, while she does think it's a little mean she also wants her brother to stay in the competition. She doesn't want him to drop out just because he's lazy. And unfortunately I can't add your epic brother sister fight because Harry doesn't want to fight with his sister at all. He might have to in the upcoming war and he's really afraid of that. Oh and as for the emperor and empress knowing about Harry, well they do know a lot about him but they didn't know he had a Second Life game…

917brat: The deathly hallows miiiight play a part in soul removal…I'm not completely sure yet.

Pheonixstar123: Unfortunately Sunshine and Kenshin aren't going to show up just yet. After the contest Harry going to travel to all four of the other continents and he might have a brief meeting with them. Maybe…

Krystal-Eve: Hahaha! Then I must be a review whore :D And Caelus will be getting jealous just not for a while yet.

Anyway, there aren't really ten reviews for chapter 11 but Marlowe Roxe put in a whole bunch so I thought I would be nice and just give this chapter to my readers. :D


Game Start

So both teams set off to areas with high monster population for survival training.

Upon reaching the wooded area where had been, coincidentally, training before, Odd Squad and Dark Phantom balked at how many monsters there were. They immediately chose Prince to be bait and Harry had to feel sorry for him. They were at least thirty levels below him and even he had some trouble with the marshmallow monsters as he had dubbed them. So Harry stopped Prince before he went and handed him the locket that the black haired elf had made, saying it was good luck. Prince looked at it skeptically but took it anyway and slipped it over his head.

Harry had made the locket himself and had fashioned it after Slytherin's locket. It was the piece that he tied his Immortality ability to. As long as Prince wore that necklace and Harry wore the counterpart he would be able to use Harry's Immortality ability without even knowing it. It, unfortunately, only worked once before Harry had to recharge it but it was still really useful.

Harry watched carefully as Prince swung his blade downward onto a monsters head barely leaving a dent. Just as he had thought, the swing wasn't strong enough and it only served to piss them off. All four of the monster's eyes opened in rage as they transformed from cute little marshmallows to giant, ugly, muscled beasts. Prince ran for his life towards the two teams and they all took off running as well. Well, looks like Harry was going to have to do most of the work for a while.

Drawing Raze from its sheath, he charged up his Hartz Slash (an ability his sword has that uses mana to send out a blade of dark energy into the opponents) and let the dark energy cut down the first three monsters. Dark Phantom, seeing that he was attacking on his own, turned around and joined in the mob fight followed by Odd Squad.

When all the monsters were killed Prince crouched down in depression at having to be bait and Harry just chuckled. By now the green eyed elf was covered in blood and he was going to have to bathe later. Usually he had his cloak and mask on but seeing as Dark Phantom hadn't connected him with the ruthless Savior (even if his online name was the same. I mean come on how many players are going to be named Savior?) and Harry just contributed it to the fact that Wicked knew him as Wang Fei so Dark Phantom only knew him as Wicked's real life friend and Odd Squad never said anything against that.

Doll's team tried to cheer Prince up with healing potions and water but the sulky elf was having none of it. Harry sat himself down in front of Prince and pulled out a healing potion. He fiddled with a lid for a moment while everyone watched curiously, even Prince. Once the cork had pooped out of the beaker Harry forcefully shoved it into Prince's mouth and made the warrior swallow every last bit of it. Once that was complete he got up and plopped himself down by a tree a few feet away. Everyone gaped.

After that Prince was chosen as the bait every time and he was also the one that lured the monsters away when there became too many of them to protect the teams' levels. Harry, of course, had no problem with any of the mobs. Doll had even told him that he had looked as if he was gracefully dancing through the enemies' ranks and leaving a shower of blood in his wake. At that Harry had smiled but inside he was trying to push away memories of the war because Hermione had said the same exact thing before she died.

And so the training continued for a while. It was as Harry was destroying the last monster that had dared come near him that his locket, the exact replica of the one Prince was wearing, heated up. Harry knew his ability had been activated. He looked around hoping to spot the elf but he remembered that he had lured away a large group of monsters. Crap! That meant Prince was on his own with Harry's immortality keeping him alive.

Unfortunately he couldn't track where Prince was with any of his abilities so he turned to the now finished Odd Squad and Dark Phantom. They were freaking out over something until all of them froze. Something that Harry couldn't hear spurred them into action and they all scattered in different directions yelling about finding Prince. Ah so they knew he was alive and severely injured then.

"We'll help as well," Wicked stated to his team.

"I will too," Harry murmured to Wicked as he passed.

Harry was like a blood hound sniffing out a trail. Using his Keen Eyes he had Dolor check out suspicious things that were far away while Harry looked at clues in the other direction. Finally he had found a body with his eyes and surprisingly there were no monsters around whatsoever. He called Dolor back and his little pet settled in the nape of his neck as Harry jogged toward his little discovery. When he was a few feet away he slowed down as he watched Wicked come onto the scene.

"Found you."

Wicked stepped closer to Prince and Harry cautiously crept closer. What would the Dark Phantom member do? Prince seemed to say something and Wicked answered, "No I'm Wicked."

Harry was close enough now to hear Prince mumble, "Ah, so it's Zhuo-GeGe…"

"Xiao Lan!"

Wicked's face in that moment was so surprised that Harry wished he could capture it on camera. Unfortunately, he didn't have one but he did commit it to memory as best he could. The he slipped out of the trees and had to dodge an oncoming blade. Seeing it was only his friend, Wicked turned back to Prince and gently picked him up.

"Xiao Lan? Xiao Lan is that you?"

"Yea that's Lan Lan alright," Harry stated startling his real life friend.

Wicked looked as if he were going to reply but a shout of 'Prince!' stopped him and both males turned to see all the other players running their way. Harry stepped out of Gui's way as he sped towards Prince and Wicked with his arms outstretched.

"Thanks Wicked. Leave Prince to m…" But Wicked only walked right past Gui not even acknowledging him. Harry chuckled. So Zhuo was going to be overprotective now was he?

Gui turned back curious and confused and watched as Wicked took Prince to Wolf-GeGe to be healed. His precious Prince was healed quickly and stood up with an almighty roar. When Gui's precious Prince's gaze found him he shivered at the look in the elf's eyes. His Prince needed to vent and he was okay with giving himself up to be beaten if it helped. The beating didn't even commence as Prince only got to choking before something caught his attention.

Lan turned at the sound of her name being called through the whisper channel. Standing up she faced Zhuo-GeGe completely and begged him not to tell anyone.

"~Especially that big-mouthed brother of mine. Please! Zhuo-GeGe don't tell anyone.~"

"Prince why do you two look all lovey dovey?" Lolidragon asked pointing to the two elven warriors. Harry snickered in amusement.

"Apparently GuiGui's love rival has appeared," said the thief girl coming to her own conclusions.

This time Harry had to stifle laughter.

Prince freaked out and ran over to Lolidragon, covering her mouth. "Don't listen to her Wicked!"

Harry was shaking he was trying so hard to hold back laughter. He turned to hunch over and caught sight of Gui's face. Immediately all amusement drained out of his body. That face was of one who was truly heartbroken. Did Gui really love Prince so much?


The next day the two teams decided to train alone which left Harry torn. He really wanted to hang out with his friend but he also wanted to protect his sister. Well he got to see Zhuo in life everyday so sister it was. That was how he got stuck waiting for the last member of Odd Squad. Finally Gui showed up, along with two ghosts but there was something wrong. Prince freaked out over the ghosts and kicked Gui straight in the face.

"Don't worry about the contest. What's there to be nervous about?" Prince asked completely misinterpreting Gui's mood. Harry went over to correct Prince's mistake but Gui beat him to the punch. The demon bard latched onto his precious and asked who was better with tears in his eyes. "Wicked or Gui?"

Prince looked at Gui with a 'what type of drugs are you taking' expression on his face before he answered in the most 'duh!' tone Harry had ever heard. "What are you saying? Of course it's you."

Then Gui went through the most amazing transformation right in front of Harry's eyes. He seemed to go from depressed chibi to beautiful bard in a few seconds. It was sort of awe inspiring actually. But Prince continued speaking as if nothing had changed and he completely ruined the mood.

"Because you're my comrade. Wicked is an ally but we'll still have to fight him in the end."

Oh poor naïve Prince… Harry watched as Gui assumed the fetal position in his depression. He had to admit that he sort of looked like a dying bug at this point in time. Harry watched from his seated position as the rest of Odd Squad came running up and apologizing for tardiness. Lolidragon heckled them about it for a few moments but gave up eventually. Harry stood up and brushed dirt of his butt.

"So we're all here now. What are we going to do," Harry asked as he slung an arm over Doll's shoulder.

"Dark Phantom's already left for their secret training," Lolidragon huffed.

"Then we'll just have a secret training of our own," Ugly Wolf stated flashing a toothy smile.

Everyone oohed and questioned what it was going to be. There was a silence in which everybody anxiously awaited what the beast type was going to say.

"Escaping," he said simply.

"Great idea," Harry exclaimed as everyone else fell to the floor in exasperation. "Hey don't knock it 'till you try it guys." Everyone gave him funny looks. "What? It's an American saying. It means don't throw something out just because you don't like the sound of it. Try it first and if you still don't like it then you can toss the plan."

"Savior is right. To escape you must have strong footwork, good decision making skills, and good eyesight. And most important is your ability to hide. So don't look down on escaping! Even with 36 tactics, running away is still the better option."

Harry nodded along. Escaping came in handy a lot during the war. Especially if you were doing sabotage assignment or an infiltration mission that had gone wrong. Harry had done a lot of escaping during his younger years because of 'Harry Hunting' as well. So Harry liked the escaping idea but there was just one problem.

"How are you going to hide your little stand out trio over there," Harry questioned with his thumb pointing at Prince, Lolidragon, and Gui.

"Ah I've already thought of that."

And with that, Ugly Wolf pulled out a bag full of a myriad of masks of different shapes and sizes. Prince immediately started testing them out while Lolidragon complained about them. She made a comment on each mask Prince put on but Yu Lian had had enough. She grabbed ugly Wolf's ear and dragged him away to start asking about their escape plan.

Gui decided to join in the conversation by suggesting the group split into three groups with Harry as the wild card.

"How should the groups be split?"

"Well," Gui started, "Prince with Yu Lian, Lolidragon with Doll, and Wolf-GeGe with me."

Harry could see the advantages in the pairings but apparently the others couldn't because Prince asked why the groups should be split like that.

Gui was still in his serious tactician mode as he continued his explanation, "Prince and Yu Lian are a pretty good duo so they'll be fine when escaping together. Also in our two groups, in times of crisis Doll can sacrifice Lolidragon and run! Wolf-GeGe can also sacrifice me. Warriors, strong wizards, and sorcerers with summoning abilities have the advantage. Thieves and poets are secondary."

"What if we have to sacrifice one of ourselves," Prince questioned worriedly.

Gui gave the white haired elf a soft look and responded, "I believe you can protect both Yu Lian and yourself. Is that fine?"

"No problem!"

"And I guess I'll be the wildcard. If any of you need help, just call my real name and I should hear you. I'll mostly be hanging around Doll though," Harry said as he leaned up against a tree.

The team agreed and the escape training started. Harry had a blast as he watched everyone take turns getting burnt on the butt running away from Lolidragon who had a torch in her hand. This was supposed create strong footwork. As Odd Squad improved their eyesight by running through large crowds as quickly as possible, Harry circled above and made sure everything went okay and that none of the group got lost. For decision making, everyone decided that robbing a bank was a very bad idea… The masks took care of the hiding part.

After a discussion with Dark Phantom both teams decided that that was the best route. Though, Miwa protested the whole way shouting that they should just use Heaven's Nine Fury. Harry had just snorted and shook his head. Dark Phantom's teams were split like this: Wicked and Miwa, Feng Wu Ching and Black Lily, and Marksman and Playboy. Harry again offered his help and some accepted.


Real Life

Harry sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow. He set the carving tools down on the table and looked at the finished golem. It looked strange with no hair but Caelus' had as well. Harry grabbed a blanket and tossed it over the Dictator's golem while muttering about finding new hobbies. He climbed out of his trunk, shrunk it, and then attached it back onto his necklace.

Heading towards his small kitchen to make some tea, Harry contemplated the pros and cons of winning the tournament and decided that the cons still outweighed the pro. What need did he have for a city? He was going to be traveling. On that line of thought…

Harry needed to figure out if he was going to try to fly to another continent or if he was going to pay the five crystal coin fee for boat travel. Flying would use less money but tire him out faster. Boat ride would save his energy, waste his money, and take forever… Well flying seemed like the better option! He could always rest for a while once he reached the other continents anyway. With his mind made up Harry went back to sipping his steaming Earl Grey tea.

It was three hours later that Harry knew he needed to get out of the house or he was going to go stir crazy. So he tossed on some shoes, threw some money in his pocket and immediately froze. He hadn't put his old wand fragments in his magically enlarged pocket; they were actually supposed to be sitting on his small chair in the corner of his small place. Glancing over, Harry confirmed the fragments of his Holly wand were still on the chair so what in Merlin's name was in his pocket?

Slowly, as if afraid of what he might find, he grasped the long wooden object and pulled. The bumpy and rigid feeling was quite familiar, it actually felt like Raze, but he pushed that thought out of his mind and pulled the object up in front of his face. Then he gaped. Then he screeched. Then he flung the offending object so that it bounced off of his closed door and landed a foot away from his feet.

The Elder wand lay inconspicuously where it was tossed and seemed to taunt Harry. Hoping he was wrong about his new theory, Harry reached in his pocket again before came in contact with silky smooth material. The out came the invisibility cloak. And Harry reached his other hand in to pull out the resurrection stone still set in the gaunt family ring.

"Why," Harry wailed as he sank down on his knees.

He had known that two of the three- wait! He glanced back at the Elder wand still innocently lying on his carpeted floor. Its grip had felt exactly like Raze. Could that mean the stupid wand had been with him from the start? No,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,no,NO! This was not happening! Why did they have to come back now? Harry did not want to be the Master of Death. He just wanted to spend his life with Caelus (who he was positive was his soul mate) after he pulled his soul out of the game.

Harry froze again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately… He shook his head and focused back on souls. The three Deathly Hallows focused on the dead which meant souls, right? So maybe, just maybe they could help him with pulling out the trapped souls. He gathered the three items and hugged them to his chest while inwardly screaming for joy. His moment lasted a while longer before his cloud of happiness dispersed slightly and he was able to come back to his senses.

He glanced down at the gathered items he was holding and glared.

"I still hate you, you know."

Harry stuffed all the items inside his trunk for later use and resumed his preparation for leaving. Once he had everything ready he headed out the door, remembering to lock it behind him. Harry felt lazy today so he wasn't going to take his bike, instead he strolled down the sidewalks without a care in the world.

Well that's what it looked like to other people anyway. Harry's thoughts were in a jumbled mess. He was almost completely finished with his soul mates book and he still couldn't find anything that could prove they were soul mates. In the game though there was no function that allowed, ahem, sex. So he couldn't actually consummate his marriage even if he wanted to. Even though the game was 99.9% realistic it was still missing that .01%.So unless they added that feature at a later date he would have to wait until Caelus' soul was in the golem.

But he still wasn't sure how exactly to go about getting the NPCs' souls out. He had the Deathly Hallows which would probably help him a lot but he still had no clue what to do with the trio of items. He was going to have to test the boundaries and see what exactly the Hallows could do.


AN: Yay~ Another chappie done :D OMG I can't believe I've gotten over 100 reviews I am so deliriously happy right now! Please keep reviewing my lovely readers because I will love you foreva and this story will stay alive!