Phong moved before the next exchange could begin.
Alex's breathing was steady, but he knew her too well now. He saw the tiny shift in her hand, the way her fingers crept toward the pouch at her side.
The pouch that held the Berserking Strawberry.
His hand came down on her shoulder.
Firm.
Grounding.
Alex glanced at him.
Phong shook his head once. "Not worth it."
For a second, she looked like she wanted to argue.
Then her mouth pulled into a small pout instead.
Not angry. Just annoyed that he was right.
Still, she listened.
That mattered more than anything.
The psychic pressure around her thinned. The bow vanished first. Then the rapier. Then the shields and the vajra, each construct dissolving into pale light that scattered into the cavern air like dust.
Behind her, Jake saw it and let out a quiet breath through his nose.
"Well," he said, giving Ciara a crooked look as he lowered his daggers, "that was getting fun."
Jack rolled his shoulders and let the stone pillars sink back into the ground. "Maybe later."
Joanne kept the crackling ball of lightning on her fingertip for another beat, just long enough to make sure Ageyudi understood the point, then let it wink out too. She adjusted the ring on her finger and stepped back with the others.
"Boring," she muttered, though not like she meant it.
They drifted back toward Phong without complaint.
Not one of them challenged the call.
Samir noticed that.
Phong could see it in his eyes.
Ageyudi opened her mouth, likely ready to spit out something else stupid enough to restart the fight, but Samir lifted a hand slightly and she stopped. Not happily. Not quietly. But she stopped.
His gaze settled on Phong then, more directly than before.
Not dismissive anymore.
Evaluating.
The level one farmer sitting by the lake, the same one Ageyudi had called dead weight, had just ended a clash between high-level divers with a hand on Alex's shoulder and three calm words.
And the others had followed his lead.
That changed things.
Samir was not stupid. He could tell respect when he saw it. This was not the sort of forced patience people gave a mascot, or a boyfriend they humored because of who he dated. The camp moved around Phong like his judgment mattered.
Phong stood slowly, the fish still in one hand.
Bruno pressed against his leg. Nyx slipped closer, silent and watchful. Rico remained seated, but his dark eyes flicked between everyone with usual mischief.
Phong looked at Samir. "So what did you want?"
Samir tilted his head. "Straight to it."
"You came here to provoke her," Phong said. "Why?"
For the first time since arriving, Samir smiled without any edge to it. It was brief, but real.
"Fair question."
He glanced at Alex, then back to Phong.
"The world above is changing again. Bigger than the usual guild politics. Bigger than sponsorship deals." His voice stayed level, but there was a quiet weight behind it now. "The biggest corporations and national governments have joined hands to build a new league. A divers league."
Jake's expression shifted. Joanne's brows rose. Even Rico sat up straighter.
Samir continued.
"Starting next year, in March, there'll be a national tournament here in the United States. It'll run through September. The champion and the runner-ups will represent the country in an international championship in November."
The words hung there for a moment.
Even on Floor 2, even next to a dark dungeon lake, it sounded big.
Because it was.
A whole structure built around divers, not just raids and survival and private contracts, but public competition. National scale. International scale.
Phong glanced at Alex. Her face had gone still in a different way now.
Samir nodded at her. "Interest around Alexandra Vogel shot through the roof the moment her name started circulating in the right forum. Arbiter Mindblade isn't exactly subtle as a reputation. Top guilds are desperate to scout her. Best of the best teams want her as a member."
Rico made a tiny delighted noise. "Famous girlfriend."
Alex did not even look at him.
Samir went on. "A lot of divers already see her as one of the strongest contenders for champion. Maybe the strongest. People talk." He spread a hand. "I was curious. We were nearby. So I took the chance to gauge her power for myself."
Ageyudi looked like she wanted to say that had been the plan all along and not her losing her temper halfway through it, but one look from Samir kept her quiet.
Phong studied him.
Not excusable, maybe, but honest. Samir had wanted to test Alex, and the easiest way to do that had been to push until she struck first.
Alex folded her arms. "And?"
Samir looked at her evenly. "You're the real thing."
That was not praise tossed out lightly. It sounded like a conclusion.
Then his gaze slid back to Phong, and there was something more thoughtful in it now.
"But you're more interesting than I expected."
Ageyudi frowned. "Samir."
He ignored her.
"You don't move like a man leaning on someone stronger to carry him," Samir said. "Your people trust your calls. That usually means you earned it."
Phong did not answer.
He did not need to.
Samir gave a small nod, as if that silence confirmed enough.
Then he turned.
Cian and Ciara fell in beside him at once. Ageyudi lingered half a second, eyes still hot with resentment, before stepping back too.
They started away along the shoreline.
After a few paces, Samir stopped and looked back over his shoulder.
"If Team Dominic enters the league," he said, "my team will be there too."
His expression was calm again, but the confidence was back in full.
"And when that happens, we'll beat you."
Then he kept walking.
The four of them moved off into the dim light of the cavern, their figures shrinking against the lake until distance and shadow swallowed them.
For a while, no one spoke.
Then Rico inhaled sharply.
"…sports arc. Tournament arc!"
Jake laughed first.
Jack followed.
"In my farming simulator? No freaking way!"
Joanne covered her mouth, already grinning.
Even Alex let out a small breath that was almost a laugh, though when Phong looked at her, she was still staring after Samir's group with narrowed eyes.
Not angry anymore.
Thinking.
Phong looked down at the fish still in his hand, then back toward the dark shoreline where the four strangers had disappeared.
The camp had become quiet again.
But it was not the same quiet as before.
Now it felt like the world had just knocked on their door.
They ended up gathering around a low campfire.
The tension from earlier had not vanished completely, but fire and food helped.
So did the fact that nobody from Samir's group was still standing nearby trying to start another fight.
The fish Phong had caught went onto a flat grill plate Jack had set over the flames. Beside it, several more fish, a pair of thick river eels, and a basket of hard-shelled lake crabs were laid out on broad leaves, ready to cook. Most of it had not come from their own effort.
It had come from the lizardmen.
A small delegation from Lake Baratok had arrived not long after sunset. Their scales caught the firelight in deep green and bronze, and though their posture still held that natural alertness of a people used to guarding the shoreline, there was no hostility in them tonight.
Their queen had apparently taken a personal interest in bonktatoes.
The message had been relayed with formal seriousness through their people, though Rico had later summarized it as, "Lizard queen sees angry club potato. Lizard queen wants angry club potato."
That had not been inaccurate.
As the leader of Camp Stymphalian, and also the recognized leader of an honorary vassal and ally of the lizardmen, Phong had agreed to send some. In return, the queen had sent gifts from the lake itself. Fresh fish. Crabs. Eels. Food worthy of a proper exchange instead of simple trade.
So now both groups sat around the same fire, eating together with the dark lake at their backs and the cavern ceiling glimmering faintly overhead.
One of the older lizardmen showed Bruno how to crack open part of a crab shell without wasting the meat inside. Bruno watched with complete focus, tail thumping against the ground each time he got it right.
Nyx, seated with perfect dignity near the fire, acted above it all right until Joanne peeled a strip of fish and set it in front of her. Then dignity lost to appetite in less than a second.
Rico had somehow negotiated for the fattiest section of eel and was treating it with the solemn respect of a religious experience.
Jake snorted at the overly dramatic raccoon. Jack muttered something about raccoons having no shame. Rico ignored him because he was busy chewing.
Everyone else just accepted that was Rico being Rico.
Phong sat with Alex close beside him, one knee drawn up, a plate resting over it while he turned a fish with a bit of carved wood. Firelight played across her face, catching on the edges of her hair and the hard line still lingering in her mouth.
She had been quieter since Samir's group left.
Phong did not rush her. He had learned that much.
Around them, the talk drifted between camp matters and the lizardmen's dry comments on the behavior of surface divers. One of the younger lizardmen was especially fascinated by the idea that humans held organized markets near dungeon gates even after monsters had trampled them more than once. His tone suggested this was proof of species-wide insanity.
Phong could not really argue.
Eventually Alex stared into the fire and said, "I hate it."
The conversation near her dipped.
Phong glanced sideways. "The league?"
She nodded, then frowned more deeply. "Everything about it."
Her voice was not loud, but it carried.
"I don't like the way the rich keep turning this place into something clean and shiny for people to look at. Dungeon diving is not clean. It's not glorious." Her fingers tightened slightly around the edge of her plate. "It's a necessary evil. You go in, you level, you survive, and maybe if you get strong enough you can protect the people who actually need protecting."
Her gaze dropped for a moment, but not in uncertainty. More in old anger.
"The only reason I ever cared about getting stronger was because kids in my neighborhood needed someone who could stand between them and people like Josh and Olen." She gave a sharp breath through her nose. "And now those same kinds of rich families, or families just like them, want to use people like me as a blinking electronic marketing billboard."
There was real disgust in the way she said it.
Not vanity wounded by attention.
Something much deeper than that.
Phong turned the fish once more, listening to the skin hiss over the heat.
Then he said, "It's very human."
Alex looked at him flatly. "That is not helping."
A few people around the fire gave small sounds of agreement before he had even finished breathing.
Phong smiled a little anyway. "I know."
He rested the stick across his plate for a moment and looked into the fire.
"The Horns of the Earth walked through the trade town near the gate to Manhattan and crushed half of it into a warning nobody could ignore." His tone stayed calm, but the memory of it sat heavy in the words. "That shook people. A lot. Especially when even powerful and influential company like Amazons and the fast food giants were powerless before the bull. Then Josh and Emma vanished into Floor 3, and that made things worse. Strong divers disappearing tells ordinary people the world is still bigger and meaner than they want to believe."
The lizardmen nearby listened in silence. They did not know all the names, but they understood fear and public unrest just fine.
Phong went on. "When people are scared for too long, morale sink, nihilism creeps in, the elite need to give them something. Some direction. Some hope. Something that looks like order." He shrugged lightly. "And in war, heroes get made whether they want to be or not. Divers are the easiest choice."
Alex stared at him.
Then she pouted.
Actually pouted.
"Putting it like that makes it even worse."
Jake pointed a piece of grilled fish at Phong. "He has a gift for that."
"Truly," Joanne said with deep offense, "that was the least comforting version possible."
Jack nodded once. "Impressively bad."
Even one of the lizardmen gave a slow blink that somehow managed to look judgmental.
Phong accepted all of this with the look of a man who had expected it. "I'm just saying it makes sense."
"That is not the same as making it tolerable," Alex said.
"Correct," Joanne replied at once.
Rico lifted his eel. "Team Alex."
Phong laughed under his breath.
At least that was better than the earlier mood.
He picked a clean, flaky strip from the fish he had just finished grilling and held it out toward Alex. "Here."
She looked at him for one second longer, still trying to be annoyed.
Then she leaned in and took the bite.
Her expression softened despite herself.
Phong said nothing about that. He only smiled and went back to separating the meat from the bones.
Alex noticed, which was probably why she immediately reached across him, stole another bite from the eel on his plate, and made an exaggerated "hmmph" around it as if lodging an official protest.
Phong turned to stare at her in mild disbelief. "That was mine."
She chewed with great dignity. "Compensation."
"For what."
"For your terrible worldview."
Jake laughed so hard he nearly choked. Jack had to smack him between the shoulders while Joanne covered her face with one hand.
Rico clutched his own eel protectively against his chest. "No compensation from Rico. Raccoon innocent."
Nyx, apparently deciding theft was now part of dinner etiquette, reached in and stole a piece of fish from Phong's plate too.
Bruno tried to follow that example and got gently redirected by a lizardman elder, who handed him a proper crab leg instead. Bruno accepted this as a fair ruling and lay down happily to work on it.
The fire crackled.
The smell of grilled fish and eel drifted out over the dark water. Voices rose and fell around it, human and lizardmen together, awkward in places, easy in others. For all the danger of Floor 2, for all the uncertainty waiting ahead, the little ring of warmth near the shoreline felt real.
Not safe forever.
But real.
Alex leaned lightly into Phong's side while she finished stealing from his plate, still pretending she was too displeased with the world to be in a good mood.
Phong let her.
Mostly because she looked better like this.
And partly because if he argued, she would probably steal the rest of the eel too.