The sun was high in the sky without a cloud in sight. It was a rare sight to see a day as beautiful as this one and while most kids would be outside playing in the park or hanging out with their friends, one in particular had been set a task.

Novis had been asked to clear his Grandfather's dojo. It was a sword dojo that hadn't had customers for a long time now and his grandfather was far too old to teach.

No one had any interest in learning real sword skills these days. They were far too busy playing games. Who could blame them? With today's technology, VRgames were more realistic than ever. Practising with a wooden sword in a dojo felt unreal now to many.

Novis was currently in the dojo sorting various items into boxes. Novis was an ordinary boy with no outstanding features about him. He had short black hair and was the average size for a fifteen-year-old boy his age.

Like every fifteen-year-old boy, he struggled with money. Too young to get a day job and his parents weren't the rich type to spoil him. So when his grandfather offered him some pocket money in exchange for some help, he couldn't refuse.

The dojo was currently overfilled with junk leaving hardly any space to move. His grandfather took this as a chance to clear the house as well and had placed everything he didn't want in the dojo.

Novis' good friend Scarlett had just entered the dojo carrying another box from the main house.

"Phew, I think that's the last box. Your grampa said if there's anything you want you can keep it." She said while wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Scarlett had long curly red hair. She was a kind girl who had known Novis since they were kids, so she had always found it hard to say no to him.

Novis was currently going through all the boxes his grandfather had left in the dojo to see if there was anything valuable.

Digging through one of the larger boxes, he started to pull out dirty old vases, magazine papers and all sorts of other rubbish.

"Is there really nothing good here?" Novis thought while inspecting a dirty old cup in his hand.

Scarlett was currently walking around the dojo looking at the pictures up on the wall of Novis' grandfather. There were many captured moments of his grandpa at prestigious competitions and amidst intense fights.

"Did your grampa ever teach you how to fight with a sword?" Scarlett inquired.

"No, I never found it interesting. What's the point if we don't use them in wars anyway and no one uses a real sword nowadays. I kinda always saw it as a useless skill to have."

Scarlett continued to wander around the room until she spotted a meter-long sword on a stand at the back that piqued her interest. She walked over towards the sword to get a closer look wondering if it was real.

"Is this real?" Scarlett asked.

Novis stood up from where he was and walked over to where Scarlett was at the back of the dojo.

"Oh you mean this thing? My grandfather said it's meant to be some legendary sword with the spirit of a dragon inside that's supposedly protected our family from dangers for generations."

"That's kinda cool you know."

"And obviously a lie. Hey, do you think we can sell it?"

"I don't think your grampa would sell something that important."

"Didn't he say to you anything in this dojo? Well the sword is in this dojo, right?"

Novis went to pick up the sword. His arm gave in a bit as it was heavier than he'd expected. He then peered down the edges of the sword with one eye. The edges still looked razor-sharp. He wanted to run his finger down along the edge to see if it would cut him but decided it was best not to.

"It seems to still be in good condition. I think I can sell this for some good money," Novis said.

"Are you sure you should really do that?"

"It will be fine. Besides, I need the money now that my allowance got cut. It was just a little prank can people not take a joke anymore?" Novis grumbled.

"The teacher ran out of the room crying. I think maybe you went a little too far" Scarlett pointed out.

Novis flipped over the sword and noticed an engraving of a dragon. Suddenly, the dragon mark started to glow a bright blue colour.

"What's with this sword? It's glowing" Novis said in bewilderment.

Scarlett went to have a closer look at what Novis was talking about.

"What do you mean? I can't see anything glowing."

Novis pointed on a section of the sword near the hilt.

"Can't you see? Here the dragon mark...it's glowing."

No matter how hard Scarlett tried to look, she still couldn't see what Novis was pointing at.

"I don't even see the dragon mark you're talking about."

"Here!"

"I don't see anything."

"Are you blind! Right here!"

"You can see the mark?" A mysterious voice said. The voice sounded as if it came from a middle-aged man who was sitting on a toilet.

"That's what I've been saying the whole..." Novis stopped himself mid-sentence, realising that the voice hadn't come from Scarlett.

Novis heard the voice again.

"Can you hear me young boy?"

Novis turned his head around to see where the voice was coming from thinking that someone might have entered the room.

"I knew it. You can hear me!" The voice confirmed.

"Scarlett, do you know where that voice is coming from?" Novis said while looking behind a pile of boxes hoping to find someone hiding.

"First the sword is glowing and now you can hear someone. You haven't got heatstroke, have you?"

"No Scarlett seriously I could hear a voice."

"Oh I know, it's one of your pranks again. Well, I'm not buying it this time" Scarlett huffed as she stormed out of the dojo.

Novis was known for pulling pranks and Scarlett was a favourite target of his, only this time Novis wasn't joking. He felt like the boy who cried wolf.

"The world has given me a second chance. I must thank the heavens above."

As the voice said these words, Novis realised that the source of the voice seemed to be coming from the sword he was holding.

As he brought the sword towards his face, Novis expected he might see someone inside it. Then it started to shine brightly. The light emanating from the sword was so strong, it had temporarily blinded Novis causing him to drop the sword on the floor.

Briefly, all Novis could see was white but within a few moments, his eyesight had returned to normal.

What Novis saw in front of him left him speechless. Directly above the sword was a transparent smokey figure floating in thin air. The figure was the most handsome man Novis had laid his eyes on. Shiny blonde hair, chiselled face, all while wearing knightly silver armour. He looked like a prince from a fairy tale.

"Please don't kill me!" Novis pleaded as he fell to his knees begging the mysterious floating figure.

The spirit started to slowly walk towards Novis.

"My time has come and you shall help me on my journey."

As the spirit spoke these words, a white mist began to envelop Novis. His heart began to pound harder and sweat trickled down his face.

The white mist started to enter through Novis' body through his nose, mouth, ears, wherever there was a hole. Novis could do nothing to prevent its infiltration of his body. When the mist had completely entered Novis' body, his eyesight began to blur and vision went black.

Scarlett was patiently waiting outside the dojo for Novis to come out and apologise but when hearing the commotion coming from inside, she resigned herself to check and see if Novis was okay.

"Novis is everything okay..." She said as she peeked her head into the dojo.

As she made her way into the dojo, she spotted Novis collapsed on the floor. He wasn't moving a muscle.

She frantically ran over to Novis' side and began to shake him.

"Novis wake up! Are you okay?"

Novis managed to slightly regain consciousness but his mind felt muddled.

"Who are you? Where did that spirit go?"

"You and I are now one." The spirit responded.

The next day at Montem middle school, the class was about to begin. The history teacher Mr. White stood at the front of the class holding a stack of papers in his hand.

"Remember finals are coming up soon, so today we're going to do a mock test."

One of the students in the class stood up and screamed.

"No way!"

Novis had woken up from the scream, but his eyes were only half open and his mind all jumbled.

"My head is all messed up still. There's no way I can take this stupid test," Novis muttered while staring at the blank test paper.

"Maybe I can help?" The spirit asked.

Novis jumped up from his seat causing his chair to fall to the ground. The teacher and other students gave him the death stare.

"Sorry about that." Novis nervously smiled and quickly sat back down in his chair.

"Are you still scared of me?" The spirit inquired.

"Just go away!" Novis shouted, again causing everyone to again stare at him.

"Is there something wrong Novis?" Mr. White asked, the irritation on his face apparent.

Scarlett raised her hand and said, "Novis said that he is being haunted by a ghost, sir."

"One of your silly pranks again boy? You better not cause another disturbance in class again or you're out of here."

Novis cursed under his breath and began planning his revenge on Scarlett for this humiliation.

One of the students sitting next to Novis leaned over to whisper to him and said,

"Hey, is it a sexy girl ghost or one of those creepy old dudes?"

Mr. White furiously banged his pen on the whiteboard. "What did I say about interrupting the class?" he exclaimed. The veins on Mr. White's head looked like they were about to pop any second now.

Novis then lifted the collar of his shirt up towards his mouth and begin to whisper.

"I told you not to talk to me! This is my mind, not yours."

"But I..."

"Did I ask you to speak to me?"

"No" The spirit replied in a soft quiet voice.

Seeing the spirit in its dejected state, Novis began to feel sorry for it. He decided there was no harm in speaking to it.

"What's your name?" Novis asked.

"Arthur."

"That's an old name. So who are you?"

"I was a knight for the king of Avrion."

"He really is like those princes from fairy tales." Novis thought to himself.

"It was my duty to serve the king and act as his champion. I battled with other knights from other kingdoms nearly every day. One day, I was tasked to duel a knight from another kingdom. During the fight, I suddenly felt ill."

"What happened?"

"I was poisoned, betrayed by someone from my kingdom. When I lost the duel, I was unable to pass on to the other side. I had yet to complete my final wish."

"So if you're dead, does that mean you're a ghost?" Sweat started to run down the side of Novis' cheek.

"Yes. After I died, my spirit attached itself to my sword. I don't know how long had passed by but it was many years until my sword came into the possession of a young boy. My sword had been passed by many people but it was the first time someone could hear my voice."

"Was this boy like me?"

"The child was interested in swordsmanship so he allowed me to become his teacher. He became a well-renowned knight, but died at the young age of 25 due to a sickness."

"So why are you still around? Why are you haunting me?"

"I have yet to achieve my dream…my dream of creating a sword style that is unbeatable."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but people don't fight with swords in this era."

"That's ludicrous! How would people fend for themselves if they were attacked?"

"Look I don't know how old you are, but people haven't used swords for like a 1000 years. We have technology now, things like nuclear bombs and guns."

Suddenly Novis felt his body being taken over and stood up in the middle of the class.

"What are you doing!"

"I need to see if what you say is true. A life without swords…I cannot believe it."

As Novis and Arthur were fighting for control over Novis' body, he began to walk out of the classroom in a robotic manner.

"What are you doing? Sit down Novis."

"Sorry sir, I need to go to the bathroom."

Novis' mind was feeling tired. It was as if his brain was having a tug of war match and eventually, his mind had lost.

Now Arthur had full control of Novis' body and started to roam the school halls.

"Where are we now?"

"Why should I even tell you? Give me my body back!"

"If there is no way for me to use the sword there is no purpose of me being here."

"Okay okay look, fine I'll try to find a way so you can fight with your sword again, just give me my body back."

"You promise?"

"You have my word."

Although truthfully Novis was just saying anything he could to get his body back, Arthur believed that Novis would keep his word. A knight's word was their honour.

As soon as Novis had regained control of his body back, he rushed to the toilet to splash some water on his face. He couldn't believe that everything was happening right now.

If Arthur was able to take control of his body like that whenever he wanted then Novis could do nothing about it. He had no choice but to keep Arthur happy and find some way for him to use his sword again.

Scarlett had noticed that Novis was acting strangely. She was worried he might have gone crazy. After all, she had seen Novis repeatedly talk to himself while staring over his left shoulder.

As Novis sat back in his seat to continue class, he started to think about ways he could keep Arthur happy. Then he overheard two students talking about a popular game.

"Hey did you see that VSW game last night between team Psychic and Aqua?"

"Yeah, Zion carried the whole team. His skills are out of this world!"

The students were talking about a game called Virtual Sword Warrior or VSW. It was currently the most popular game out on the market and had been for the last ten years.

Esports had become a worldwide phenomenon but still hadn't overtaken traditional sports in popularity until the introduction of virtual reality. In the last decade, virtual reality had advanced to the point where only the mind was needed to fully control a character.

VR changed the gaming world making Esports mainstream. It had become so popular it even had its own Esports Olympics that attracted more viewers than the standard Olympics.

"Why didn't I think of it before? We can play a VR Game."

Arthur started to feel a rush of blood go to his brain.

"I don't know who this VR is but I will defeat him."

Novis slapped his forehead realizing this was going to be harder then he thought.

While walking back home Novis tried his best to explain to Arthur what the concept of a VR Game was. Thankfully Arthur was a quick learner and caught on quickly.

"So by wearing this device, it sends me to an illusionary world. I can then fight in this illusionary world with no consequences of getting hurt. That's amazing! how does it work?"

"Just think of it as magic and to be honest, I don't know much about this myself, so we're going to ask my little brother, he plays these type of games all the time."

Novis was one of the very few people who never spent his time playing games. It was a rare thing in this day and age but his brother was the complete opposite. As soon as he got home from school he would go online.

When Novis arrived home luckily his brother Bill was in the kitchen getting a snack from the fridge. One of the very few times Novis would see him.

Bill had just closed the fridge and had a load of snacks held between his arms.

"Oh hey Novis, are you feeling better I heard about yesterday?"

"Yeah I'm fine as you can see, actually I wanted to ask you, how about me and you play a game together? if I beat you how about you give me your allowance this week?"

Bill's eyes started to sparkle, his heart started to pound. He had always wished that he could have a brother that was interested in games. It was fun for Bill to play with people online but playing with close friends or family was just a different feeling altogether.

"A game! really! you mean you know how to play now!"

Bill quickly ran up the stairs and shouted: "What are you waiting for come on let's play!"

Bills room was filled with posters of characters from VSW he even had some pictures of some pro players. If he wasn't playing a game he would be watching a pro match. On top of Bill's bed were two VR headsets. Bill had a second when for his friends when they would sometimes come over to play.

Bill went to grab one of the VR headsets. The headset covered the back of your head and eyes. When using the headset you needed to lie down similar to how you would sleep. You could use it in a seat but unless you had a comfy one you would come out of the game sore all over.

"We can play as much as you want Novis. here this one for you." Bill handed me a black VR headset, the one he kept for himself was red.

Bill let Novis lie on the bed while he went to sit on his gaming chair which was also red and black. The chair was able to recline back to the point where you were lying down, so it was near enough the same as a bed.

"So should we go online or do you want to warm up One vs One first?" Bill asked.

"How about we just play one game between me and you."

"Only one game!" Arthur Shouted.

"Didn't I tell you not to speak unless I was talking to you?" Novis said out loud.

Bill was looking at Novis with puppy dog-like eyes. Bill had thought he had done something wrong. Seeing this Novis quickly went to correct himself.

"Sorry, I didn't mean you I was just thinking about something that happened today at school don't worry, Let's just play."

"What game did you learn to play?"

Novis didn't know much about games so he only knew the most popular one, when asked this question he replied with the first thing that came to his mind.

"Err...Virtual sword warriors."

"Great, that's my favourite. So you want me to give you my allowance if you win, I'm strong you know?"

"How strong are you?"

Bill started to smile, he had been waiting for this day to show off to his family. His aim was one day to become a pro after all.

"I'm currently ranked diamond five for this season."

Bill was expecting his brother to go crazy but Novis had no clue what Bill was talking about and just smiled back at him.

Bill felt like his heart had been torn in two.

"Sigh, I guess your still a noob after all. There are currently seven divisions in VSW, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master and God. These division are then split into five subdivisions. For example, if we take bronze, you can be bronze 5 which is the lowest or bronze 1 which is the highest. I'm currently Diamond five meaning I'm better than around 98% of the people who play the game."

Novis didn't understand most of what Bill had said, but he understood the last part clearly. If he was better then 98% of people who played the game then he had to be good. He knew his brother was good but didn't realise how good. Novis was starting to have second thought's about playing against his brother.

"Hey Arthur, do you think you can beat him?"

"As long as it is a match involving the sword there are very few who can beat me."

Arthurs confidence had made Novis feel a bit better.

"You might need to help me a little I've only played this game a few times."

"Don't worry, when we enter the game I'll make a party chat, that way even though we're not on the same team we can still talk to each other."

"Alright let's go."

The two of them then proceeded to put on their VR headgear. A few moments later there mind was transported inside the game.

Suddenly Novis found himself in a blue open space. He looked the same as he did before entering the game wearing his school uniform.

Novis said looking around the blue room.

"Arthur are you there?"

Arthur appeared in his spirit form next to Novis.

"Yes of course."

Novis was worried that when he entered the game perhaps Arthur would be left behind in the real world. it was a surprise to Novis that he could still even see Arthur in the virtual world.

"So what do we do now?" Novis asked

A notification screen suddenly popped up in front of Novis.

"Arthur I'll let you chose, what would you like to call yourself?"

"Arthur"

"It's taken. You need to come up with something unique, you never know maybe one day the whole world will know this name."

"Try Pendragon."