The Last Experience Point

Chapter 70: Kill or be Killed

For a short while, there was an unnatural, foreboding quiet: an unsettling moment of silence that even the howl of the skin-numbing wind did not interrupt. Whether it lasted five seconds or five hours, Zach could not be sure. All he could do was observe in a state of mute horror as blood, chunks of flesh, internal organs, and even a few rib bones continued to fall out of a torn-apart body, dropping fifty feet downwards before joining a pile of butchered remains that now stained the pathway leading to B4. It would be yet another thing that Zach would have to see when he closed his eyes: another grisly image to appear in his nightmares. He was quickly growing a collection of them, wasn’t he?

“Gods above,” Rian whispered, his body visibly trembling.

Lienne covered her mouth and took a step back. “That…that’s too much,” she said.

Given her overt dislike of the Elvish people, Zach found it oddly reassuring that, at the very least, her reaction to the display of Olivir’s unmerciful brutality came across as equally as horrified as his own. Rian was also wincing in disgust, and he began darting his eyes between Zach, Lienne, and somewhere over his shoulder as though considering a route of escape. For the time being, all three of them continued to back away as the constant leak of blood slowed down to a trickle. Finally, the two appendage-like apparitions that Olivir had summoned started to become increasingly more transparent before eventually disappearing into nothingness. No longer held by anything, this caused both halves of the white-cloaked Elvish scout to begin plummeting back down to the surface of the plateau. What followed was the sound of a slap followed soon after by another slap as two large chunks of flesh plopped onto the pathway like discarded pieces of meat. After the second of the two hit the ground, Zach felt Lienne nervously clutching his arm while Rian made an audible gulp.

“Are…are those three people on our side?” she whispered as though afraid she might be overheard.

Zach nodded. “Yeah. The level-73 zombie is Grundor, the Elvish girl is Kolona, and the guy with the fancy vest and silver hair is Olivir. He’s the one who brought me back to life.”

Lienne huffed and clutched his arm even more tightly. “You mean…what you were saying before was true, Zach? You really did die?”

He drew a breath and released it slowly. Then he tried to speak, but he found his throat had gone dry. He wasn’t ready to call to mind what had happened between him and Queen Vayra. He was also tired of constantly seeing shit like this: of witnessing people die, especially in such terrible ways. When did it end? Did it ever end? Certainly, there would be at least some more to come in the next few moments. Then what? Was he destined to be around murder and death for the rest of his life? Worst of all, the way Olivir had killed the white-cloaked Elf reminded him so much of the way the dragon had ripped apart its victims.

Can’t think about this right now. Really, really not a good time!

Zach had to fight to stop his brain from pulling up those horrific memories of Ziragoth butchering the townspeople, as for some reason, the images of what’d happened there began to pop into his head with such vivid detail that it actually seemed to obscure his vision. He saw their faces with perfect clarity: he saw the blood running down the street. How was this happening to him again? He should’ve been over this by now. Wiping his face, he fought to keep himself under control. This was not the time or place for this. He needed to be strong.

“You really didn’t have to do that, Olivir,” Zach said, unable to control the horror and pain in his words.

“I’m sorry,” Olivir replied. His voice contained what genuinely seemed like a great deal of compassion. He spoke to Zach without turning around to look at him, keeping his eyes pointed on the threats ahead. “Once you’ve been alive for over two centuries, uhm, you kind of learn that sometimes it really is kill or be killed.”

Kolona exhaled, and there was an unmistakable note of sadness and regret in the sound of it. She had now unsheathed both of her reddish-purple daggers. It seemed she fought in a way that was similar to Kalana. Fluffles, for his part, unsheathed his claws, and Grundor balled his massive hands into fists as though preferring to fight unarmed. Come to think of it, Olivir also had no visible weapon that Zach could see. Although, after what he’d just done, Zach doubted he needed one.

The three of them were standing just a foot or two ahead of Fluffles, who himself was standing protectively in front of Zach, Lienne, and Rian. Across from them, behind the mound of flesh and gore that had once been an Elf, were the five Elvish scouts who were regarding them all with equal parts fury and misery. The white-cloaked Elf was holding his massive sword in an elevated position as if prepared to charge, and the other four Elves wearing cloaks of green appeared equally as ready for battle. Merienel stood frontmost to them all; her eyes were wide, her knees slightly bent, and her grip on her spear tight. Behind her, two of the green-cloaked Elves stood side by side. The one to her right wielded a dagger in each hand like Kolona, whereas the one to her left brandished a single, double-edged arming sword. Behind them both, the fifth and final Elf carried a curved, wooden staff.

“We should retreat,” the staff-wielding Elf said. “We can return with help.”

“Thou shalt not!” yelled the white-cloaked Elf, his eyes bulging with rage. “They hath killed mine own brother. Their heads art mine to collect. Ilan…Ilan wast mine twin. Mine own twin! Humans! I curse ye till the last breath!”

Rian cleared his throat. “In fairness, you guys started it.” His words caused all five sets of eyes to glare solely upon him. This caused Rian to take another step back. “What?” he asked. “I’m just saying. I mean, it’s true, isn’t it?”

“Tis not!”

Zach coughed out a laugh, and it was at this point he lost control of himself. There was something about Rian that brought out the worst of his facetious ways. Ever since he was young, he would always cope with serious situations via inappropriate remarks, which tended to make everything worse. He’d gotten way better at it in recent days: almost to the point he thought it might be gone from him for good. But something about Rian brought all of it back to the surface. And now, he was so guilt-ridden, troubled, disgusted, pained, sickened, and just…just entrenched into this mess that the only way he could protect himself—the only way he could emotionally survive what he knew was to come would be to clamp down on it like a steel security gate and let the asshole inside of him take over. For the first time in a good while, Zach fully gave in to his ugliness. It was the only way he could stop himself from being swallowed by everything he’d been made to endure.

“Look on the bright side,” Zach said to the white-cloaked Elf, nodding his head at the torn-in-half corpse. “Now you have two brothers.”

The Elves gasped, Kolona tensed, and Rian barked out a laugh—and in that moment, Zach understood that he and Rian really were the same in this regard. Rian’s mother, Zach recalled, had sold her body for money and ruined his childhood as a result of it: and that was before his parents had died in a guild-on-guild war and left him and Lienne alone and destitute. He must have understood it too: when things became too much, there was only one way to deal with it. And that was to shut the door. Close yourself off.

“Hey, Elf guy,” Rian called. Like Zach, he motioned at the absolute mush of a corpse. “How do you even know he’s really dead? Maybe you’re getting ahead of yourself here. I mean, none of us are doctors. Maybe he just needs CPR.”

“You dare?” the Elf shouted indignantly. “Tis my brother you mock!”

“Was your brother,” Rian corrected. “Now he looks like poorly folded laundry.”

Zach laughed so hard that he cackled. But it hurt. It hurt so much. The guilt. The cruelty. What was he doing? Why was he doing it? This was cruel. This was awful. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want any of this. This wasn’t who he wanted to be. He grinned. “Honestly, Rian, I think all that white cloth makes it look way worse than it actually is. It really draws your attention to the lower intestine, right?”

Rian barked another laugh. “How will they even explain what happened to his family? What would they even say? ‘We’re sorry, ma’am, but your son was ripped in two pieces by a giant transparent hand monster?’ They’re going to have to lie and say he died in a sword fight to make it seem less embarrassing. I got 50g that says no one tells the parents the truth.”

Zach choked on his own laughter. But he wasn’t enjoying this. It hurt. He wanted Kalana. He wanted to go home. “Hey, imagine if there’s actually, like, a box on the life-insurance form to check for that exact thing. Right beneath heart attack and accidental fall, there’s just a fucking box for ‘giant hand monster.’ Like it’s not even that rare. It’s just something that happens here sometimes.”

Rian guffawed. “I wish I had that power. If I could summon a giant hand like that, I wouldn’t want a girlfriend.”

“Who’re you trying to kid, Rian? You wouldn’t even be able to make full use of the pinky.”

Rian feigned being struck. “Wow. You take that back right now, you—”

“Guys, enough!” Lienne shouted at them. “Both of you: stop. This isn’t the right time, and you’re…” She lowered her voice. “…you’re scaring me,” she finished at barely above a whisper.

Olivir and Kolona both took their eyes off the Elvish scouts and, in unison, glanced over their shoulders; each were glaring at the two of them. Or were they actually glaring? No. No, they weren’t. It only seemed that they were because of the frowns on their faces. But on second thought, Zach was pretty sure what he saw in them was concern—particularly for him. But if so, Grundor did not share in it. He laughed loudly and obnoxiously while clapping his hands together. Fluffles had no reaction at all, and Lienne merely looked at the whole lot of them as though totally confused and uncertain as to how to react, but at Zach and Rian in particular, she came across as worried and off-put in a way that seemed unlike her usual self.

“Hang out with you for two seconds, Rian, and I’m back to being a fucking asshole,” Zach whispered to him.

“Back?” Rian replied in an equal whisper. “You never stopped.”

If there was any chance the Elvish scouts were going to retreat or surrender, it had likely vanished the moment Olivir had ripped apart one of their kin. Even still, Zach held out hope deep down that maybe they’d be frightened into running away; maybe they’d decide that this wasn’t something worth risking their lives over and would just flee. Yet as he and Rian provoked and prodded the white-cloaked Elf who had just watched his own brother die in front of him, Zach was not surprised when the Elf released a scream filled with anguish and pain then began to charge forward, followed soon after by his compatriots. And by the Gods above, did they all move fast.

In just an instant, it became perfectly, unmistakably clear to Zach why Olivir had insisted that he wouldn’t be able to do much to help. Not only did the five Elvish scouts explode forward with a speed he could not match, but they dashed towards his group so unfathomably fast that his eyes almost couldn’t keep up with it. There was even something akin to a miniature detonation on the ground where each of the five had taken off, causing literal spirals of dirt and dust to rise up into the air where they had been standing. Yet with equal, if not even greater haste, Grundor and Kolona blasted forward to meet them. And then, just like that, the fight began in earnest while Zach, Lienne, and Rian all remained perfectly still. It was probably a safe guess to assume that Rian and Lienne were just as clueless as Zach was regarding what they could actually do to help or if it was even possible for them to assist. Zach, at least for now, had enough time remaining on Unleashed Phase to contribute if he was needed.

Unleashed Phase Duration

11:02 Remaining

Two loud grunts temporarily drowned out all other sound as Grundor met the grieving, white-cloaked Elf head on, followed by two high-pitched clinks as Kolona locked her daggers against those wielded by a green-cloaked Elf. Immediately, she and the Elf began trading wild slashes at each other’s throats while mutually evading; this, as the Elf with the arming sword rushed to Kolona’s side and lifted his weapon high above his head. With a grunt of exertion, he then brought it down with enough strength that Zach could hear it whoosh through the air even from where he stood. A terrible wave of fear shot straight through his heart as he realized that Kolona would not be able to dodge it: not while she was so busily engaged in ducking beneath alternating dagger slashes from the foe in front of her. Zach froze up. What should he do? Should he dash in to help her?

Ultimately, it didn’t matter what he decided, as he was already too late. The sword connected perfectly, slashing down directly onto the side of her neck. But rather than tear into her throat and splatter more blood onto the pathway, there was instead a brief, yet violently bright orange flash of light, and abruptly, the sword was repelled with such force that it flew backwards over the head of the Elf who’d struck her. His hands still gripping the blade, it caused his arms to curve over his own scalp as he stumbled away; it was as if the sword were pulling him backwards. It was only then that Zach recalled her passive ability: Shield of the Agile Goddess. As long as Kolona had a higher speed or dexterity stat than whatever was trying to harm her, she would need to be struck five times before she was vulnerable.

Pausing a moment as if confused, the sword-wielding Elf readjusted his stance, again moved in towards Kolona, and then raised his blade as he tried charging her once more. But this time, Kolona, who had only just leaned away to evade a high-aimed slash of her foe’s dagger, pivoted on her hips, lifted her foot, and thrust it backwards, kicking the sword-bearing Elf in the chest with such incredible force that he was actually sent airborne. Zach watched as he literally flew more than twenty feet away in the direction of the field behind Kolona before landing on his ass, dropping his sword, rolling uncontrollably, and aggroing about thirty purple pumpkins in the process—all of which sprang to life and began to leap at him, nipping and biting. The Elf merely groaned, sat up, retrieved his weapon, and then completely ignored the mobs as he scrambled to his feet and charged forward a third time, clearly intent on returning to the fight.

Kolona, now momentarily free to focus all of her attention on just one enemy, again ducked beneath a strike from one of the daggers, but this time, the moment she straightened her posture, rather than return with a slash of her own, she spun her body full circle while lifting her rear leg, delivering a spinning heel kick directly to the face of the dagger-wielding Elf, snapping his head back while knocking what looked like several teeth out of his mouth; this, as the Elf with the arming sword—and his train of now at least fifty level-4 “Audacious Pumpkins” chasing after him—continued to make straight for Kolona, whose broken-jawed opponent appeared dazed and stunned, his mouth oozing blood. Somehow, he still managed to duck and weave, surviving what Zach had been sure would be a killing blow from Kolona.

He watched as she grunted, twisted her hips, and delivered an incredibly heavy, overarm slash that would not only have killed, but likely decapitated her target. Given the wobbly, unsteady state the Elf was in, Zach had been sure that the attack would connect; he’d even tensed up in anticipation of it. Yet, somehow, the green-cloaked Elf managed to just put himself out of her reach even as he continuously shook his head, likely trying to recover from the powerful kick to the face. Undaunted, Kolona pressed forward after him while the sword-carrying Elf continued to gun straight for her with dozens of aggroed purple pumpkins hurrying closely behind to catch up.

Zach did not see what happened to Kolona next. In fact, he was immediately forced to take his eyes off of her as, in the corner of his vision, he noticed a green, missile-shaped projectile that he assumed to be magic heading straight for where he, Rian, and Lienne were standing. The shape of it almost perfectly resembled that of Lienne’s spell, Flamestrike, differing only in color. But this projectile was larger, flew through the air far, far faster, and left a green streak behind wherever it traveled that disappeared only after several seconds had come and gone.

“Watch out!” he called out to the siblings. Both turned their heads his way, yet he could tell from their confused, alarmed frowns that neither Rian nor Lienne understood what he was attempting to warn them about and from where.

Acting off reflex alone, Zach shoved Rian out of the way and switched to a single-handed grip on his sword. Then he wrapped his free arm around Lienne’s waist and physically lifted her up before running out of the projectile’s path, narrowly avoiding being struck. Having only barely dodged the fast-moving bolt of magic, Zach looked over his shoulder and watched as it continued to fly off into the distance, casting a green glow in a small radius around itself until finally it met its end after crashing into an Aggrieved Scarecrow and doing 26,660 damage against the level-10 mob’s mere 400HP.

Releasing Lienne, Zach once more gripped his blade with both hands. Then he looked around frantically to see who had attacked him and where they were attacking him from. He realized only a moment later that no one had specifically attacked him, and what he’d dodged had been a wayward attack in some kind of magic battle between Olivir and the staff-wielding Elvish scout. The two were standing about twenty feet directly across from one another while Grundor fended off the white-cloaked Elf and Merienel, preventing either from attacking his master.

“Just die already, vampire,” the Elf said, panting. He pointed his staff directly at Olivir, who merely smirked and stood with a calm, relaxed posture.

“Ehh, but I already did that once before. It didn’t take.”

The Elf shouted out a word in a language Zach did not know then fired off three more of the projectiles from the end of his staff. Each one cast an eerie green glow as they zipped across the short distance and headed straight for the vampire. Olivir merely ducked beneath the first, stepped deftly around the second, and then made an upward, swinging motion with his right hand, causing a literal scythe to briefly materialize in the air before him and knock away the third—in Zach’s direction, unfortunately. Once more, Zach was forced to shove Rian out of the way as it flew towards him at an incredible speed. But unlike before, there wouldn’t be any time to “relocate” Lienne. So, instead, switching yet again to a one-handed grip, he placed his left palm between her shoulder blades and forced her to duck down beside him. The green, missile-shaped projectile flew mere inches above the both of their heads. Far too close for comfort. Zach had to imagine that, if that thing even grazed one of them, they would die instantly.

Now, Zach felt an intense fear rising within him, and not for his own safety, either: but for Rian and Lienne’s. As outclassed as he might have been by the Elves, who were clearly far higher in level than himself, he at least had tools at his disposal to survive an encounter with enemies far stronger than himself; the fact that he had lived through Ziragoth was by itself proof of that. Lienne and Rian, on the other hand, did not. By far, they were the most vulnerable people here—even more so than Olivir, who despite having only a single point into constitution, genuinely did not appear rattled or worried. Though it would only take a single hit to put an end to the vampire, scoring one was clearly going to be easier said than done. But for Lienne and Rian, who lacked the speed and dexterity needed even just to stay safe from a distance, Zach became fearful that something terrible might happen to them.

Fluffles must have also been worried about the siblings, because rather than attack the Elvish scouts, he too continued to remain where he was and stand before them protectively. By now, Zach had expected him to join in the fight. Was he too concerned to leave them alone? Or was there another reason? Actually, now that Zach had a closer look at the giant, shapeshifted cat, he realized that Fluffles wasn’t even really paying attention to the battle. He was looking at something beyond it. His head was turned to the direction of the hill that Zach had originally fallen down, and he began to hiss with a wrath that Zach had not seen from the cat since their encounter with Ziragoth.

“Fluffles smell her,” the cat announced, his voice booming and filled with hate.

“Who?” Zach asked.

“Chumpkenwiffles. Fluffles smell the doggie!”

His knees becoming unsteady, Zach felt as though the blood was draining from his face. “What do you mean by that?”

“Doggie is coming here.”

Zach tried not to shout in alarm, but it was difficult. “Is she coming alone?”

“No,” Fluffles said. “The other one come too. The one who lie about Fluffles.”

“Queen Vayra?” Zach asked, his breath getting caught in his throat. “Please tell me it’s not Queen Vayra. Gods, please, anyone but her.”

“Yes. Mean lady coming with Fluffles’ greatest enemy.”

“Fuck!” Zach shouted—and so did Olivir.

The vampire turned his head towards Fluffles. “Queen Vayra’s on her way here?”

“She coming now. Chumpkenwiffles tell her we here.”

“Shit, shit, shit! Kolona, end this now! We need to kill these scouts and make a run for it!”

Zach looked over to the Elvish, spear-wielding woman, who was spinning around gracefully and launching attack after attack on Grundor. Each one was connecting, and each attack dealt tens of thousands of damage to the zombie, who Zach could now see was at less than half health—and in real, genuine pain. Though he was succeeding in keeping her and the white-cloaked Elf off Olivir’s back, the two-handed bastard sword combined with the fast and merciless spear attacks were shredding his HP so fast that Zach began to wonder if he might actually die. Even if he was just an NPC, he was still a living, sentient being. They all were. That was the tragedy of this whole fucking mess! As Grundor bravely tanked hit after hit, Zach could see that Olivir was constantly shifting his eyes to look at Grundor’s health.

“You okay, Grund?” he called.

“I’m fine!”

“You don’t look it.”

HP

457273/1200000

Name

Grundor

Level

73

For a brief moment, Olivir’s entire body became shrouded in a black, shadowy aura. Then it faded, and now, an otherworldly black flame engulfed both of his hands like gloves. Narrowing his eyes, he threw his right arm forward, and then Zach watched as the flame fired off his hand, heading straight for the staff-wielding Elf, who in response threw himself off to the side and avoided it. In the spot where he’d been standing—and in a considerable radius around it on both sides of the path—a flame of pure blackness set the terrain alight. Though it produced no heat—at least none that Zach could feel—it caused all the grass nearby to become brown, wither, and then disintegrate all in a matter of seconds while burning about twenty pumpkins for over 50,000 damage each.

The Elf retaliated—or almost did, at least. Huffing and looking exhausted, he pointed his staff at Olivir, but he was too slow. Olivir threw his opposing hand forward, and once more, he sent forth his black flame. The Elf swore, lowered his staff, and was again forced to dodge. But due to the locations of both flames, which somehow remained active even with nothing to feed the fire, the Elf had been forced to maneuver himself in such a way that he was now cut off from his friends and trapped in a small, relatively narrow space where he would no longer be able to escape. Now, Olivir had him. Both of them knew it.

Zach felt an enormous pain in his chest: one borne of pure guilt as he saw the Elf’s face contort in a look of utter desperation and fear. And for just the shortest of moments, the Elf turned his head in Zach’s direction, and he saw the pitying look that was being sent his way. This caused the Elf to bare his teeth, shriek in a horrified rage, and become frenzied in a way that Zach could not have anticipated. With another, even louder and angrier shriek, he extended his left, staff-bearing arm all the way up and above his head, and then he roared a word in what Zach presumed to be the Elvish language.

“If I’m going to die, I’m taking them with me!”

“Them?” Olivir asked. Then Olivir scowled and spun his body around to face Zach, Lienne, and Rian.

He’s targeting us instead! Zach realized. Oh, shit!

Two things then happened at the same time. First, the world erupted with a light so intense that Zach had no choice but to avert his eyes or risk being blinded. And second, a sensation of heat flooded his senses: one so terrible that it made Zach immediately miss the bitter cold. In less than the time it took to blink, the temperature around him skyrocketed from well below zero to what Zach estimated to be that of a pre-heated oven. Up until this point, he was tolerating—if barely—the frigid air. Now, not only was the chill chased out of his body, but he began to sweat. It was so hot that it was painful. There was also a hell of a lot of noise, too. The sound of a hissing screech drowned out everything else going on around him. It was as though someone had set up a microphone connected to an incredibly powerful speaker system next to a boiling teapot.

Cupping his hands to control how much light entered his eyes, Zach looked upwards—and then yelped in terror. In the sky above them was a sun-like fireball larger than a two-story house, which with each passing second, descended faster and faster towards him and his two friends. Within an instant, the temperature skyrocketed again and went from painfully hot to torturously hot, and the world became so bright that Zach now had to fully close his eyes, but not before witnessing Lienne falling to her knees and screaming in agony, while Rian covered his eyes and lowered his head.

As painful as this was becoming for Zach, it must have been dramatically worse for them. Zach was in Unleashed Phase with a Phase Level of 1. Right now, he had 36 points into constitution. That was probably a bit more than Rian had despite being a tank. And Lienne no doubt had way less. She could die or be seriously injured before the ball of flame even crashed into them. She was now screaming so loudly that, even with the screeching hiss of the fireball, Zach could hear her wailing.

What am I supposed to do? he thought, panicked.

There was no way he could Phase Blink away and Phase Rescue the both of them. He needed to see his targets to use that ability, and it was far too bright for him to even open his eyes, let alone actively look for them. Phase Shield also wouldn’t do him much good, because even if he huddled over both of them and used it, it would only protect them for 1.2 seconds. Even if he waited until the moment of impact, it would be too late: they were both likely going to die before the fireball even struck them.

I’ll just have to use Phase Rescue. I have to do it!

Zach forced his eyes open, then shouted in pain as the obscenely bright light caused his head to ache and a burning sensation to form in his retinas. He darted his head around, now becoming abruptly disoriented. Where were Rian and Lienne? It was too bright. He couldn’t see them. He couldn’t see anything—anything other than a humongous skull that appeared to be laughing as it soared upwards into the sky heading straight for the ball of flame.

Wait, what?

Was Zach becoming delusional? Had his eyes become so badly damaged that he was now seeing things? Whipping across the sky and rising directly upwards was what looked, at least to Zach, like a literal laughing skull that actually cackled hysterically as it rose higher and higher into the air. It was massive: almost as large as Olivir’s estate. And it was making straight for the ball of fire—now with its mouth opened impossibly wide, even as it continued to cackle as though reacting to the world’s funniest joke.

Then the light began to dim, and the heat began to dissipate. His vision clearing, Zach now watched in utter fascination as this gigantic skull, which could only have been summoned by Olivir, actually ate the fireball. It…it ate the Gods-cursed thing! One moment, it was streaking towards the three of them, and the next, it disappeared inside of the skull’s mouth, which immediately snapped shut. Yet despite this, the skull still continued to cackle, even as it began to shake and vibrate madly as though it were having a seizure. This continued to pick up in speed and intensity until, with a deafening bang, the skull exploded, resulting in one more flash of bright light, one more wave of intense heat, and one more cry of pain from Lienne and Rian. Then, at last, everything became still.

Even with his ears ringing, his eyes burning, and his head fuzzy, Zach reached down and pulled Lienne back up to her feet, desperate to ensure she was okay. She was crying, and she looked really shaken up, but both she and her brother looked like they were mostly unharmed. Even still, she was panting, sobbing, and insisting that it still hurt. “Zach, I’m burning,” she cried. “I’m burning!” Her eyes were still closed, and she was trembling.

“You’re okay,” he told her. “It’s gone. Olivir got rid of it.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s okay. You can open your eyes now.”

She opened them slowly, as did her brother. They each looked like they had something they wanted to say, but neither of them seemed capable of speaking it. They were in shock. Zach couldn’t hold that against them. Gods, he knew what that was like all right. That had been way too close. They’d almost died. Zach had almost lost the only friends he had aside from Olivir and Kolona. They were too important to him. Even despite not knowing them for very long, they had already been through so much together, and if anything happened to Rian or Lienne, he would not be able to handle it. Especially because Zach had basically already lost everything else: his mom, his dad, his apartment in Whispery Woods. His entire former life. What he had now was adventuring, Kalana, and his friends. And he almost lost them. He almost lost them both. And it was all because…

It was because of him! Because of that fucking Elf!

Zach scowled at the staff-wielding Elf, who along with Olivir, was struggling to catch his breath. The two of them had temporarily paused their duel, as it seemed they were both in exertion debt. This, however, did not stop the Elf from forming a crooked smile and laughing at the three of them.

“You’re right to be afraid,” he said. “There’s another where that one came from. Just wait for it, humans. Just wait for—”

Zach activated Phase Blink, targeting the Elf who had almost killed—and continued to threaten—his friends. He wasn’t going to take them away from him! No! That couldn’t be allowed. Even as Rian and Lienne cried out for him to stop, and even as Olivir’s eyes widened in alarm, Zach screamed out his rage and misery in a sound that was so terrible he almost did not recognize it as his own voice.

Less than an instant after activating Phase Blink, he felt the world shift around him as he moved far too fast to even register his change in positioning as a form of motion. Having used it with a target, his body was spun around a hundred-eighty degrees so that he faced the staff-wielding Elf’s back. Then he raised his sword, gripped it tightly, and again screamed out in maddening rage while the sonic boom from the broken sound barrier resulted in a bang so loud that it caused all five of the Elvish scouts, along with Kolona, Olivir, Fluffles, Rian, and Lienne to flinch.

This Elf might have been dramatically more powerful than Zach. He might have been way higher level, too. But if he was anything like Lienne, his constitution would be far, far lower as a spellcaster: low enough, Zach was willing to bet, that even someone like himself, who the Elf could ordinarily kill with a single ability, posed a serious threat to him if he managed to get in close. Especially with a strength and speed buff active on him.

To the Elf’s credit he did manage to fully turn around and face Zach, his jaw dropping open in bewilderment and fear. “How did you move so fast?” he asked with a gasp. “How did you—?”

In that moment, Zach drew upon everything in the world that had hurt him—all of it. Varsh. The memory of his father’s death. Ziragoth. Queen Vayra. He channeled the pain of all of it into himself, and with a hateful glare directed at the Elf who had almost killed his two best friends, he made all of it his fault. This Elvish scout, whom he had never before met. Right now, Zach made him the bearer of every last ounce of his burning contempt.

And with that, he opened his mouth, screamed blindly yet again in a fit of uncontrollable rage, and he thrust his sword forward, piercing the Elvish spellcaster through the chest and causing his mouth to drop open. There was a tearing sound as his sword emerged from the other end of his body, followed by a cough that sprayed blood out of his mouth and all over Zach’s face. Zach, gritting his teeth, yanked his sword free of the Elf’s chest. The Elf, gasping for air, clutched at his wound, then coughed up even more blood while stumbling backwards. But Zach pursued, and with a furious, left-to-right swing of his blade, he decapitated the Elf, causing another spray of blood to literally squirt from the stump between his shoulders where his head used to be.

“Zach,” Olivir whispered, still breathing heavily from using something that must have come with a monumentally huge cost in exertion. Zach looked at him. And rather than say any other words, Olivir gave him a firm, knowing, and eerily compassionate nod. It was a look that conveyed more than any words could speak—though speak he did after another few moments of silence. “I’ll take it from here. Just give me a second.”

“No,” Zach said, shaking his head. “I’m not done!”

Grundor was still struggling valiantly against Merienel and the white-cloaked Elf, whose massive sword was making quick work of him. Zach needed to act now before it was too late. “Phase Slash!” he cried out, swinging his blade and targeting Merienel. A ripple formed in the air before him, one which traveled so fast that it was almost impossible to see. Yet, somehow, even with her back turned to him, she did see it. How? Zach did not know. But in just a fraction of a second, she ceased attacking Grundor, spun around, and then bared her teeth at Zach, likely only first noticing now that he’d killed another of her friends. Not that it would matter, anyway. She was done for. His Phase Slash had struck her dead on. He watched as the ripple slammed into her and did…nothing?

The hell?

Zach felt a jolt of terror race through his heart as what was supposed to be one of his most powerful abilities did about as much to the Elvish woman as his Wave Slash had done to Ziragoth. It was almost as though her body had simply absorbed the hit like it was nothing more than a soft snowball.

“Da’lir,” she said, her voice filled with anguish and hurt. “You killed Da’lir!”

Despite the rush of fear in his heart, his own piping-hot anger and need for catharsis was somehow greater. Therefore, even against all common sense, Zach stood his ground and returned every last bit of the hatred in Merienel’s glare with one of his own.

“I’ll kill you too,” he said back to her. He raised his sword and prepared to engage her directly. “I gave my life to save your people. And all any of you have ever done is try to hurt me and people I care about.”

“Zach, no!” Olivir shouted in warning, having apparently caught his breath. “It was really smart of you to go after the mage. I didn’t even think of that. But you really won’t be able to do much here. Seriously, dude. I’ve got this. She will kill you.”

Zach shook his head. “I…I killed someone. I killed someone…”

“You can’t think about that right now. Don’t let yourself.” Olivir took a single step towards him. “You need to get away from her before she—”

Even with the speed buff that Kolona had given him, and even with his natural affinity for fighting with a sword, Zach was totally, completely unprepared for the level of power difference between himself and the Elvish woman, who despite being just a scout, moved with such magnificent speed and precision that it was only by the grace of the Gods themselves that Zach, mostly by pure chance alone, managed to raise his sword and guard as she rocketed towards him so fast that her body appeared to his eyes as just an incomprehensible blur.

As fast as the other scouts were, she was faster. In a time so short he doubted it could be measured, she crossed a distance of almost fifty feet and then howled at him, her voice filled with grief and vengeance. Had his arms not already been well positioned to block in the direction that her attack had coincidentally happened to come from, and had his eyes not been fortunate enough to somehow anticipate, based on nothing but a blur, her angle of attack, Zach was sure that this would have been his last moment of life.

Swinging her spear horizontally, the bladed tip of her weapon crashed with a thunderous clap against the middle of the sword that Fluffles had crafted for Zach. The force of the blow was so strong it caused an electric-like shock to travel through Zach’s wrists and subsequently into his fingers. It actually caused his body to physically slide several feet backwards over the dirt on the pathway as though pushed. But worst of all, she destroyed his sword, splitting it directly down the middle. Zach watched, his mouth agape, as the top half of the blade shattered and flew over his shoulder. Then, all at once, the hilt and whatever remained began to vanish into nothingness, suffering a full break.

Voices shouted out to him in warning. Lienne, Rian, Olivir, and even Kolona all cried for him to run. They were all either preoccupied, unable to help, or incapable of reaching him in time. He merely stared a moment in a hopeless confusion as Merienel peeled back her lips even further and bent her knees. She was going to attack him again, wasn’t she? And now, he was completely defenseless. Now, he was really going to get it. Maybe he deserved this. He’d killed someone. He’d taken a life. How would he ever be able to…

No! No! Shut the fuck up! Fight! Do not be weak! Your friends need you!

Even from fifty feet away, Zach had only just barely been able to see her movement, which to his lower-level body, had come across as a streak of light. But now that she was less than eight feet from where he stood? It was reasonable to assume that he not only wouldn’t be able to see her next strike, but even if he could, his limbs wouldn’t physically be able to move fast enough to avoid it. Therefore, with the understanding that relying on reaction or past fighting experience was totally, completely useless in the face of such an overwhelming difference in stats, Zach decided to activate Phase Shield immediately as nothing more than a guess. And thank the Gods, he guessed correctly!

Even while the Elvish woman was still physically standing there across from him, unmoving, the world lit up with a beautiful, golden, and comforting light as a gigantic metal shield twice the size of his body materialized into thin air before and slightly above him, protecting his entire frame behind it. Less than a fraction of a second after the shield came into existence, Zach just sort of “noticed” that Merienel was now right in front of him, with her spear thrusting forward and meeting his shield. She had moved so quickly that he did not even witness it. Yet as Zach’s shield fully repelled her forward-lunging strike, she appeared baffled, amazed, and overtaken with explosive rage all at the same time. Despite the shield only lasting for 1.2 seconds, she struck three more times, and each time, her weapon bounced harmlessly off the shield, which at last vanished into thin air.

And now, Zach braced himself. At no point during this encounter with the Elves was he as frightened as he was in this moment as he waited for the pain to begin. Phase Shield would always return a very small portion of the damage it had blocked to the user. In the case of Moldark, this meant a slight little pinch that he could barely feel. In the case of Ziragoth, it had cost him his eye as well as his arm. And now, having just stopped multiple attacks from an Elf who was far higher level and far stronger, the returned portion caused…a nose bleed?

Zach wiped his nose, which ached slightly and had begun to release a small trickle of blood—at least based on the miniscule amount he saw as he ran his sleeve across his face. He did not think this was due to lacking even slightly in power, either. It was more a testament to how unbeatably strong Ziragoth was. And to think: his reward for surviving through this—if he somehow did—would be to have to worry about that as soon as this was over. Maybe he was better off dying after all.

No! I have to live! I have to see Kalana again! I have to warn Mr. Oren!

Now that he had used Phase Shield, the ability was on cooldown for another 47 seconds. He was now well and truly out of luck, wasn’t he? Lacking a sword, he could no longer use Phase Slash or Wave Slash, not that either of them would so much as tickle the woman. And Phase Blink likely wouldn’t be as much help as it usually was, either, as Merienel was so fast that, in the time it took him between one use of the ability and the next, she could probably catch up to him and stab him in the back. So, what was he supposed to do now?

Behind him, he could hear Rian and Lienne sprinting over in his direction as if to help. In fact, he was pretty sure the shadow he saw moving along the ground in the corner of his eyes was one of Lienne’s Flamestrikes. He almost wanted to laugh as the missile-shaped bolt of fire flew over his right shoulder and struck Merienel dead center in the face. She didn’t even blink. With her vengeful eyes trained solely on Zach, it was possible she wasn’t even aware someone had tried to attack her at all.

“You killed one of my people!” she hissed. “I’ll kill you!”

Zach guessed that the only reason she hadn’t finished him off was for the same reason that Anelia Hellcrest, the bounty hunter, had also hesitated after he’d used his Phase Shield against her: uncertainty over what he had done and how she should proceed. Last time, Zach had managed to bluff his way out of further combat, as he had been dealing with a professional bounty hunter who, while irate, did not possess any true hate or malice towards Zach in the way that Merienel now did, and who therefore weighed her own safety into each of her attacks.

This time, things would be different: he knew they would. Any second now, she was going to explode forward and skewer him or hack off his head. If there was anything in this world he could do, now would be the time to do it. Yet he had nothing left. Nothing! His sword had been destroyed—again—and the only ability that could save him was on cooldown. Truly, he had nothing left in his arsenal. Except maybe that ring, but he doubted an item ability of all things was going to save him.

Still, he realized he might as well try it. He had nothing left to lose at this point. He was desperate to try something—anything! He was up against someone far greater than him, with stats so high he doubted even a maximum-distance Wave Slash would give her so much as a paper cut. Hell, Phase Slash had not even impacted her with enough force for her to notice it, so what good would this do? And so, even knowing how useless it would be, Zach balled his right hand into a fist, lifted his arm, and extended it in her direction. Mentally saying goodbye to Kalana, he activated the so-called “blasting ability.”

Then he opened his mouth as wide as it could go and made a “GUHH!” sound as a red light even more blinding than the light of the decapitated spellcaster’s fireball caused everyone, enemy and ally alike, to pause what they were doing and turn their heads. An inch or two away from his knuckles, a cylindrical laser beam fired out of the ring with such incalculable force that it launched Zach backwards at a speed that made him wonder if he’d somehow activated some kind of “reverse” Phase Blink. The size of the beam was ludicrous, too; even having emerged from such a tiny ring, it was so large that, if it had been a solid, hollow tunnel, an adult male could fit inside of it.

Time almost seemed to come to a standstill. One moment, he was activating his ability, and the next, he was shooting backwards like bullet fired from a gun. Only, instead of the crack of gunfire, an even louder, almost cartoonish-sounding “pew-pew” became the dominant sound on the plateau. Shocked, Zach stared ahead of him in disbelief. Then, with a painful, head-splitting bang, he collided into Rian, who also made a low, guttural noise as the two of them were now both flung away from Merienel, whose eyelids opened wide, and whose pupils became enlarged as the blasting beam “blasted” a hole straight through her entire body.

Even as Zach flew backwards through the air, he could see the surprise in her face as his beam punched a hole directly through her. By the time the beam faded, there was just an emptiness from her waist all the way up to her neck. It was like her entire torso had been a detachable door. Zach could actually see through her and out the other side. There was nothing there: no organs, guts, or blood. Just an entire, cylindrical-shaped hole.

“W-what?” she croaked. Then she fell forward onto her face and did not stir again. This much, Zach had just enough time to see before he and Rian crashed into—and then through—the straw- and thatch-built cabin that marked the entrance to B3. Zach groaned and grunted as a myriad of sights and sounds came upon him so quickly that he did not have time to process any of it. Why had everything gone so dark? Was he rolling? Where was he?

“Ugh,” Rian moaned. “You okay, bud?”

Zach tried to speak, but no words would escape his lips. And it wasn’t until everything had finally stilled that he realized why: his lips, like the rest of his entire body, were currently buried beneath about fifty big pieces of thatch. He and Rian, it seemed, had literally destroyed the entire cabin. They’d simply detonated it. Digging his way out, Zach pulled his head up from beneath a massive pile of thatch and straw like he was a diver coming up for air. Then he saw Rian’s hand extended towards him, and he took it. His friend yanked, and he pulled Zach out of the rubble so that now they stood at the very beginning of the path that led to B4.

“You don’t think this is going to fuck up the dungeon, do you?” Zach asked him. “We just destroyed the door.”

“I doubt it,” Rian said. “Remember the door that took us to B2?”

Zach lowered his head a moment as he called it to mind. Right away, he understood the point that Rian was trying to make. “Oh, yeah, right.”

After descending what Zach now thought of as the “never-ending staircase,” upon entering the door that led to B2, it would then literally fall forward and collapse after walking through it. From now on, that would likely be what happened any time someone came to B3. If someone were on the outside looking in, Zach imagined they’d see a metal door pop into existence out of thin air, only to fall over and vanish once someone had come through it. Previously, the door would remain, and the entrance would turn into what had been a two-story thatch cabin. That was clearly no longer going to be the case.

Or maybe everything will reset in a few weeks?

Either way, this wasn’t the best time to wonder about the dungeon. Zach, in a bit of pain, stumbled forward. His hands and feet were still releasing black smoke and the occasional ember, but he felt weakened and fatigued. His wrists ached terribly just from the one attack that he’d guarded against, and he no longer had any weapon with which to fight. Come to think of it, he was pretty sure he had a flail in storage, but he had no fucking idea how to use that, and he wasn’t about to try to figure it out against high-level Elvish scouts.

“How did you do that?” Rian asked him, awe in his voice. “And why did you wait so long?”

Zach looked at him and sighed. “I found a ring that scales off intelligence. I guess I’m so used to fighting with melee I forgot that intelligence is actually my highest stat. It’s been useless to me until now.”

“Just…just how high is your int right now?”

“80.”

Rian made an inhuman sound that resembled a squawk. “That’s nuts! Gods, Zach! No wonder.”

Zach moaned. “It’s not what I’m good at, though. I’d rather have more strength and constitution.”

His friend opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted by Lienne, who came hurrying over. She still looked a bit shaken up, but she appeared to be in higher spirits. “You guys,” she said, “we’re winning!”

“We are?” Rian asked.

The three of them were now several-hundred feet away from the action, but even from here, Zach could see what she was referring to. And when he did, he wished he hadn’t. Having calmed down now from his adrenaline-fueled battle rage, an immeasurable guilt flared up within himself, one that was not aided by the sight he now took in from farther on down the path.

It took a moment for him to hone in on what was actually happening, as the battle was now a complete mess. Over two-hundred pumpkins and about five scarecrows were uselessly hacking away at everyone but Olivir, who wisely chose to stay out of their range, as he alone could be hurt by them. The rest of them, however, simply ignored the parade of low-level mobs as though they weren’t even present.

Zach observed as Kolona at last gained the upper-hand on her foes. On the heels of a successful combination attack that saw the dagger-wielding Elf hit her twice in quick succession, both times repelled by the shield, Kolona ducked beneath a third attack, and rather than strike back with one of her own, she decided to bend backwards, rotate her hips, and jab her arm awkwardly and unexpectedly behind herself, catching the sword-bearing Elf to her rear off guard and puncturing him right between the breast bone; the Elf had been trying to flank from behind, but he was stopped short as her reddish-purple dagger found its mark. Rather than pull it out, however, Kolona gritted her teeth and began to run it upwards, slicing him open from his chest all the way up to his throat, using the dagger to open up the Elf like it was a zipper. Only then did she pull out the weapon as the Elf clutched himself with both hands while blood gushed out of him.

Though she was too far away for Zach to overhear, he could tell from the movement of her lips that she said, “I’m so sorry.”

Spinning herself back around, Kolona prepared to re-engage with her fellow dagger-user, but it was to no avail; the Elf was backpedaling away from her, completely oblivious to the level-73 zombie who had crept up behind him. Grundor reached down and grabbed his right leg with both his hands. The Elf shouted out in shock as, with a tremendous amount of force, Grundor lifted him up into the air by his leg and then slammed him back down headfirst onto the pavement. But he did not release the Elf’s leg. Instead, he lifted him right back up, whirled his arms over his own shoulders, turned his body, and then slammed him a second time in the opposite direction, again headfirst. The sound of his head hitting the ground was loud enough that Zach could hear it from several-hundred feet away.

Grundor did not show the Elf any mercy. His body, already twitching, continued to do so as Grundor lifted him up and slammed him a third, then fourth time. He was dead long before the fifth, and by the time Grundor got to the tenth, Zach had the impression that this was personal. The Elf’s eyes were still wide open and unblinking. Eventually, Grundor seemed to get bored and he dropped him, only to begin stomping down on his skull until it became deformed and oblong shaped. Zach had to look away.

Olivir was also faring well. And by “faring well,” Zach meant that the white-cloaked Elf was in so many different pieces that his brother’s corpse now looked relatively intact by comparison. Zach didn’t even see what Olivir had done. He had no idea what magic had been used or how gruesome a fate had awaited that poor man. Lienne did, however, and from the way her face paled and her lips quivered, Zach did not imagine it was something she wanted to talk about.

“Chumpkenwiffles coming!” Fluffles shouted.

With everyone out of breath, exhausted, and hurt both physically and emotionally, Zach knew that there would nevertheless be not so much as a minute’s rest. All seven of them walked towards one another, meeting up quickly. “So, after all that,” Olivir said, breathing heavily, “we’re still going to be rounded up by Queen Vayra.”

“No,” Zach said, shaking his head firmly. “We’re going to make a mad dash for Kalana.”

Olivir cringed. To say he looked skeptical was an understatement. Despite having already resolved the argument over Kalana’s nature, Zach could tell he was still not fully convinced. “She’s going to kill us all,” he muttered. “I don’t know if we should still go along with this plan. Queen Vayra is on our tail, and you better believe she’ll follow us, dude.”

“We just need to make a run for it,” Zach said confidently. “Nothing’s really changed.”

Olivir held out his hand as he struggled to catch his breath. “So, wait, wait, wait. Time out. You’re telling me your plan is to…what, exactly?”

Zach sighed. “I’ve got like six minutes left on my Unleashed Phase. If Kolona gives Lienne and Rian her speed buff and we all make a mad dash for B7, which is just a beach on Shadowfall Coast, I can get you through the door and maybe make it onto the sand before I collapse and pay off my high exertion debt.”

“And then what?” Olivir asked.

Rian coughed into his fist as if to draw their attention. “I still don’t even really know anything that’s going on. Can someone please explain to me why all this shit just happened?”

“I’d also really like to know,” Lienne said.

Zach ignored them both. He’d explain it to them both while they ran through Yorna. Returning his attention to Olivir, he said, “Look, it’s really simple. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the only thing that I know for sure will work. First: we run for our lives.”

“Then?” Olivir asked, curling his lips.

“Then, I take out my phone.”

“And then what?” Olivir asked, exasperated. “What happens next?”’

Zach gulped. “I make a call and hope for the best.”

“A call?” Olivir repeated dubiously.

“That’s right. A call.”

*****

Alex tried his best not to be overly harsh, but as the girl’s former teacher, he was losing patience with her. “Kalana,” he said, becoming well and truly annoyed, “you need to focus and review the data we have on the dragon.”

“I am,” she lied.

Alex folded his arms and gave her a look of disappointment. “So you’re not hiding your phone behind your back?”

She giggled. “Nope!”

He rolled his eyes. “Please. Just for once, take my word for it. Zach is fine. There’s no need for you to keep checking your—”

Kalana’s ears twitched as her phone rang. Then her whole face lit up. Alex knew right away that it had to be Zach calling her. It was as if reality had conspired against him to make him look stupid. Oh well. No one was right all the time. Even still, he blamed Zach more than Kalana for this. Zach knew what Kalana was about to do, and he must have known she needed to concentrate. For him to wait until right now to call her was highly irresponsible. But at least, finally, Kalana could have some peace of mind. She was going to need it if she was going to be able to concentrate on the—

“KALANNAAAAAAAAAA!” Zach’s panicking, furious voice screamed so loudly that Kalana almost dropped the phone and even Alex flinched.

“Z-Zach? Where have you been? Why’re you yelling? Umm, I’ve been so worried about you, and I was so scared, and I thought something might’ve—”

“YOUR MOM IS TRYING TO KILL US KALANA!” his voice roared out of the phone’s speaker. “YOUR MOM IS”—his voice was briefly interrupted as something akin to a massive explosion was briefly audible before giving way to static—“HOLY SHIT SHE’S BLOWING UP THE WHOLE FUCKING DUNGEON. SHE’S GOING ON A RAMPAGE!”

“What…what’s going on?” Kalana asked, her face draining of color as though taken over by fright.

Whatever she was feeling, Alex was likely beginning to feel it as well. A sinking, terrible dread began to grow in him and caused him to feel weak in the knees as he fearfully wondered what in the name of the Gods the boy had gotten himself into this time. As things would have it, Donovan, Zephyr, and several high-ranking members of various adventuring guilds just so happened to stroll over, as Zach was screaming so loudly through the phone’s speaker, which was on maximum volume, that he immediately began to draw a crowd.

“KALANA LISTEN TO—OH FUCK WHAT KIND OF MAGIC IS THAT, OLIVIR? OLIVIR, DO SOMETHING! I THINK SHE’S SUMMONING A FUCKING WIND DEMON OR SOME SHIT. RUN! NO, GO LEFT. KALANA, ARE YOU THERE?”

“Zach, what’s wrong?” she shouted into the phone. “I can’t understand anything you’re saying! Please, talk to me!”

“IN CASE I DIE, I NEED YOU TO HEAR IT ALL AT ONCE: YOUR MOM IS TRYING TO KILL US, YOUR COUSIN IS ALIVE, AND ZIRAGOTH IS A DOUBLE PHASE, WHATEVER THAT MEANS, AND IT’S GOING TO WIN. AND I’M WITH A VAMPIRE. I’LL BE THERE IN FIVE—RIAN, DUCK!” His voice abruptly became lower, but he still spoke more than loudly enough to be heard by the curious, growing crowd. “Is she…is she summoning a fucking tidal wave? She is! That twisted psychopath! She’s going to drown us in the tunnel. What kind of insane powers does this miserable bitch have?”

“Don’t look back!” cried a different, young-sounding, and male voice that Alex had never heard before. All of this was happening so fast. Whatever “this” even was. Alex was now in a stunned state of silence as he listened in on this madness. Even Donovan seemed to sober up and straighten his posture as whatever chaos Zach had gotten involved in seemed to render everyone speechless.

“Kalana, are you there?”

“I’m here!” she cried into the phone. “I’m so confused. Are you okay? Where are you? I’ll come right now! Did you…did you say my mom?”

“Listen to me, please! I’m in B6. I’ll be on the beach in Shadowfall Coast in like three minutes from now if your mom doesn’t kill me first. We have intel on Ziragoth. He’s like ten times worse than what Donovan thinks he is and we have the file or something. Also, your—hold on a second. Fluffles! I swear to the Gods you’ll never get dinner ever again if you chase that flying unicorn.”

“But it a horsie birdy.”

“Fluffles, you will die! Don’t you understand that?”

The level of confusion that Alex—and likely the others—felt listening in was so great that it could almost be fairly described as being a type of agony. What the hell was happening? Was Zach in some kind of danger? Why was he, Rian, and an unidentified boy whom Alex believed was called “Olivir” all shouting at one another? Also, did he just say the words “flying unicorn?”

“Baby, please, I don’t understand anything you’re saying. You need to speak more clearly. You keep using words like ‘mom’ and ‘cousin’. Is that some kind of code? Zach, talk to me!” A steadily growing panic had entered into Kalana’s voice, and at this rate, it would rival Zach’s before long.

Rather than words, the only sound to come through the phone’s speaker was a tremendously loud roar of a creature that Alex had never heard before, followed by three consecutive explosions and what Alex took to be a great deal of running water. Then a bunch of extremely profane swear words from Zach, who really let them fly without regard for whoever might be listening.

"What in the Gods is that thing?" Zach asked with a yelp. Alex did not think he was speaking to Kalana. "No, seriously. What in the absolute fuck is that?"

"What thing?" the boyish voice asked. Then he audibly grunted. "Oh, that. That's a dinosaur."

"A dinosaur? What the hell is a dinosaur?"

"It's the thing that's chasing us."

"It doesn't even look real. Keep that away from me!"

"Zach, please," Kalana said as she began to urgently call out Zach's name as if to regain his attention. Somehow, it worked.

"Sorry, Kal! What I was trying to say is that your cousin’s alive. She’s with me right now. I’ve also got a vampire with me. And about fifty of the green-cloaked Elves are chasing us not including your mom.”

“My cousin?” Kalana asked, sounding bewildered. “Zach, I don’t have any more cousins. I haven’t had any since—”

“Okay, maybe you just need to talk to her yourself. Catch!”

“Catch?” Kalana asked. There were two pops from the phone, and Kalana became even more anxious as she shook her head. “Zach, what are you saying? My mom? My cousin? Green cloaks? This doesn’t make any sense. Where are you? What’s going on? I’m not gonna be mad if you got yourself into trouble, I just really wanna come help, so if you’ll just—”

“Kalana?” a sweet, innocent-sounding voice said. “Oh, Gods, is that really you?”

Alex watched in a state of morbid confusion as Kalana, in a single instant, went from panicked and excited to something else entirely. The exact, precise moment that the girl’s voice came through her phone’s speaker, Kalana covered her mouth and began to weep. “K-Kolona?” she replied in something in between a question and a shout. “Is this real? Is this really happening?”

“Kal!” the voice cried. “It’s really you, isn’t it?” The voice broke, but not due to the connection quality: the girl appeared to be weeping the same as Kalana.

“Oh, Kolona. I’ve missed you so much. How are you alive? Where are you? How do you know Zach?”

“Zach…Zach said you…you wouldn’t hurt us if he took us to you.”

“Hurt…you?”

Zach’s voice chimed in. “The vampire I’m with thinks you’ll try to kill your cousin if—stop it, Fluffles. I told you three times now to stop provoking the dog!”

“No! Fluffles HATE Chumpkenwiffles!”

Alex rubbed his temple as the sound of loud, angry barking echoed through the phone’s speakers, as well as yet another, more distant-sounding voice. “You can’t run from me, Fluffles! I am going to eat you!”

“I not running! Fluffles fight Chumpkenwiffles any time! You are a bad doggie.”

“You are the worst cat.”

“No! No! Lienne say Fluffles the best cat.”

“Felidrath said that Chumpkenwiffles is a good girl and the best.”

“The hell is going on?” Donovan asked, scratching his head.

“Nothing good,” Alex replied with a moan, rubbing his face as his stress levels grew.

Just then, the covering to Kalana’s tent was ripped aside, and a man clad in golden, glistening armor wearing a white-and-red cape stepped out. As much as Kalana had changed, her father had perhaps changed even more. He now looked every bit the king he would have been had he not been cursed to forever remain just a prince following the destruction of his people, which barred him from claiming his right to ascension. And though his daughter’s potential was greater than his own, for the time being, he was the more powerful of the two.

“Zach, what’s wrong?” Eldora said, his voice as kind as his figure was impressive. “Did I just hear you mention Kalana’s mother? And…and that voice I thought I just heard.”

“Your Majesty!” excitedly squeaked the female voice. “It’s really you! Uncle!”

Of all things, Eldora fell to his knees and began to weep beside his daughter, the two now holding on to one another. “My dear, dear Kolona,” he said. “You’re alive. Oh, Gods, you’re alive.”

“Not for long!” Zach roared. “Is no one fucking listening to me? Your wife, Fylwen, is literally gaining on us.”

Eldora’s emotions shifted dramatically from one of joy, relief, amazement, and disbelief, into rage and something akin to fatherly concern. “So, she made it to Archian Prime, then.” He spat onto the grass. “I thought she’d died.”

“Dad? What’s going on?”

“Nothing good, Kal. Nothing good. Zach is in real trouble. I won’t let anything happen to him or my niece. Not after only just finding out that she lives!”

Alex turned over the words in his head. He was slowly—but very poorly—piecing together what he was hearing. Yet it was Zephyr who nodded as though he’d been understanding everything all along. “Oh, so that’s what’s happening,” he said with a chuckle, rubbing his chin. “It’ll be good to see Olivir again.”

“Who?” both Alex and Donovan demanded. It didn’t surprise Alex that Zephyr Vextran, leader of the Explorers Brigade, had, well, explored enough to have some clue as to what was going on, but what did surprise him was how coy he was being about sharing whatever he knew.

“Count Olivir Soloux,” he said, snapping his finger and nodding his head approvingly. “A vampire from Archian Prime I ran into during an expedition. Very, very well-mannered man. He looks like a boy, though.”

“Who is he? And what does he have to do with what’s going on?”

“Everything,” Zephyr said. “At least everything that matters to us about this raid.” Zephyr shrugged. “I never got the chance to barter with him, but I always suspected he has valuable information on boss spawns in his library. If he’s with Zach, and Zach’s claiming he has information on Ziragoth, then it’s likely that, all this other cute madness aside, whatever he’s trying to warn us about is a real and serious problem. We might need to…”

Zephyr halted speaking in a way that came across as sudden and intentional. Before Alex could ask him why he’d gone quiet, heads began to turn and eyes began to widen. Without even looking over his shoulder, Alex knew right away that the leaders of the political guilds were coming to investigate the source of the commotion. One, in particular, arrived just in time to hear Zach say, “I don’t think we’re going to make it. I’m sorry, Kal. I love you. You’ll never get to us in time. We might be able to make it through the door, but at the rate the Elves are gaining on us, Fylwen will end up killing us on the beach.”

With indignation and alarm, Peter Brayspark, leader of the Guild of Gentlemen, rudely shoved Alex aside and shouted, “Zachys Calador! Did you say that the Elvish are pursuing you onto human lands?” He scowled. “Take heart, young warrior. I am coming now, and on my honor, I shall save you and your companions. No Elvish scum shall dare lay a finger on a human in our place of refuge! Fylwen has some nerve coming back here after the way she betrayed me.”

If anyone wasn’t paying attention to the fiasco up until this point, that all changed now. All at once, the entire camp turned to total disarray as, amid every other absurd happening, Peter V spread his arms widely, and a red gemstone he wore as a necklace began to glow, brightly. Now, out of a clear, hot, and sunny blue summer sky, nine bolts of lightning struck the ground in a ring all around him. Before Alex could so much as question what was happening, he gasped in total surprise. Standing before him were nine, fully-armored, angel-winged Valkyries, and each one was over level 150—a level higher than anything he’d ever before seen with the sole exception of the sentient NPC known as Angelica. He also summoned a level-50 flying Pegasus whose hooves were made of pure fire.

“How dare that accursed woman threaten a human,” Peter growled. “Indeed, she ought to have remained in that other world. But to come to our home and threaten Zachys Calador, a hero of humanity. Gah! Nay, I cannot forgive this treachery. I dare say our duel is long in coming.”

Alex really wanted to say something to him. He wanted to say anything to the man. But he was simply far too overcome with shock and incredulity. What level was Sir Peter Brayspark? He doubted Peter’s level was that much higher than his own, and if he had to bet, he'd say it might even be a tiny bit lower. This meant that whatever gem he wore around his neck must have been some kind of equipment with artifact-level rarity. But if so, why had he never called upon this force in one of his guild’s numerous battles? Even now, he could be putting an end to the Royal Roses.

It must be some kind of restriction, Alex thought. Maybe the Valkyries won’t attack humans.

Whatever the case, Peter, along with his nine NPC Valkyries of a level more than double Alex’s own, blasted off into the distance at the same time that Kalana and Eldora began pulling themselves together.

“Zach,” she said, wiping her eyes. “Why would you say Kolona is worried about me hurting her?”

“Because of your mother,” Eldora answered in place of Zach. There was an intensity in his eyes that Alex had never before seen from him. “I think I know exactly what’s happening now.” He scowled. “We need to hurry, Kalana. Your mother will kill Zach and my niece if we don’t hurry. I never thought this day would come, but it has.”

“What aren’t you telling me, dad?”

He shook his head. “Too much to explain now. But I will. I promise you. It's just that there are so many things you would be happier not knowing.”

“Everyone always assumes that about me!”

“I’m sorry, Kalana.”

Alex felt truly awful for the girl, who was so confused that it actually looked painful. To be fair, Alex was just as perplexed, but in her case, these events seemed far more significant to her. At least part of them did, anyway. Despite in no way wishing to undervalue the extreme importance of what she appeared to be discovering, it was those few snippets about “Ziragoth” that most troubled Alex, and he had no doubt that it was the same for Donovan and all the other raid leaders as well. That, and only that, was his concern for the time being.

“Donovan, you heard it too, right?” Alex whispered to him.

He nodded. “I got no idea what the kid knows, but man, my blood’s boiling.”

“Did he say Ziragoth is a ‘double phase’ boss?”

“Sure sounded that way, Alex.”

“What is that?”

“No fucking idea,” Donovan said with both a laugh and grunt simultaneously.

Alex returned his attention to Kalana, who was having to almost physically fight people who tried to shout into her phone or grab it as a mass hysteria and confusion had settled over the raid camp. The political guilds were demanding to know when they could “expect to begin negotiations with their esteemed Elvish visitors,” whereas the adventurers were now all shouting about Ziragoth. But one man in particular managed to calm them down. He was a man who, despite not being a guild-leader, Alex took to be the most dangerous and formidable member of any political guild.

“I need to get there immediately,” Abram Gespon said. He was grinning ear to ear. In his eyes, Alex could tell he saw an opportunity. He was a man that defined craftiness. Despite only finding out mere moments ago that there were more Elves alive than Kalana and her father, and that they were headed here now, he had likely instantly devised some plot or negotiation tactic that, in all honesty, he would probably succeed in achieving. “This is a wonderful, wonderful day,” he said, patting several of his compatriots on the back.

“Sir Gespon the Virtuous,” said Norc, an Orcish captain of the Royal Roses who Alex actually found to be tolerable. “Pardon my interruption, but I do hope you don’t intend to meet alone with what could very well be a hostile party.”

Abram Gespon chuckled. “You’ll all be meeting this ‘queen’ fairly soon. Mark my words, I will bring her back here, because I know I’ve got something she wants. Even if I don’t know what it is yet.” Raising his voice, he ordered his attendants to begin rushing in even fancier carpets and to prepare for an “official state visit.”

With two hours left until Ziragoth would begin his rampage, Alex was now actually listening to a man order various, white-hatted chefs to begin preparing their finest food while demanding even nicer decorations for the “leadership tent.” Upon these words, he hurried off after Peter Brayspark, though in his case, he appeared content to wait for a helicopter as opposed to flying on a mythical animal.

This whole situation has become insane.

“Zach,” Kalana said, “is my cousin there? Please. I gotta talk to her.”

“I’m here,” she replied. “I can hear you.”

“Did you…did you think I would actually hurt you? Is that why you never told me you were still alive? I missed you so much. So, so much.”

“I…I didn’t know if you would or wouldn’t.”

“I would never,” Kalana said, tears once more in her eyes. “I would never. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever!”

“That’s what I always believed too, Kalana. It’s just that I’ve already died once, and there won’t be any bringing me back the next time.”

“Died?” Kalana asked with a gasp.

“I was brought back by my Olivir. Same as your Zach.”

“Shh!” hissed what sounded like the voice of Zach.

“Oh! Sorry!”

If there was any point during all this madness that Alex should have grabbed away the phone, it would have been at this point in the conversation. Even with only the slightest understanding of what was taking place, he knew that what had just been said could not be unsaid: and he knew that nothing good could come of it.

Kalana’s expression darkened and her eyes narrowed. “Zach…died?” she asked in a whisper.

“Of course not,” Zach said with a laugh. “Fluffles! No! Leave the dog alone!”

“Yes,” Kolona replied. “Olivir brought him back.”

“But…but he’s still alive right now?” Kalana asked, her voice having become somewhat cold.

“Yes.”

“But he did die. For real?”

“Yes.”

She looked at her father. “I’m gonna kill mom. Slowly.”

“Let me handle her, Kalana. You rescue Zach and your cousin. I will deal with your mother.”

Fury in her eyes, she viciously shook her head. “She’s dead. She’s dead!”

Alex tried to interject, but before he could utter a single word, a miniature explosion coming from where the girl and her father had been standing, along with a sudden gust of wind, caused grass, dust, and dirt to be sprayed all over Alex and Donovan as the pair of Elvish royalty blasted off at absurdly irresponsible speeds that put themselves and others in danger. Alex frowned. It was never acceptable to run that fast within two miles of a sentient being. He needed to have a talk with her about that later: but first, he had to break his own rule.

“Media blackout, now,” ordered a member of the Royal Roses into a communications device. “I don’t care what reason. Do it now. If I see a camera within fifteen miles of any point along the city’s coast, whoever owns it is getting ten years behind bars, and whoever operates it is getting twenty. Thirty years if they're the same person.”

Alex waited for the Royal Roses captain to pass, and then, against his own better judgement, he decided to abandon the raid camp and hurry after Peter, Abram, Kalana, and Eldora. With a degree of self-aware hypocrisy, he broke into a full sprint even knowing how dangerous it was. If he tripped, he could easily slam into a building and kill dozens or hundreds of people. Even still, he felt that he had no choice. For once, he needed to be there for Zach—even if he had no damned idea what was going on. Much to his surprise, as he took off at a mad dash, the world seeming to blur around him, he saw that Donovan, Zephyr, and dozens of other adventurers were following behind. Whatever was going on, he just prayed to the Gods that they made it back in time for the dragon.