Four young adults walked down an empty street, hungry and worn out after their first day in this world they looked around at the ghost town they were in. There was no cars on the street, nobody walking by, nobody seemed to be in the homes or the stores.  Nobody was there, it seemed like the four of them where the only people in the world. Although the place looked to be a little messy, as if something had been through here and ransacked most of the houses.

      “Creepy.” Kadin said quietly. “I don't think I've ever seen Oline city this... Empty before.” The tall, skinny man with short black hair mused as he looked around. “Are there no NPCs or anything around here?” He questioned. He wore a simple black hoodie with black pants, and as he walked he clutched his right shoulder and looked to be in pain. If one looked closely enough at him they could tell that his shoulder was broken from a recent fight.

      Zanath shrugged “Maybe the game isn't built enough to have NPCs yet?” He suggested. He was the shortest of the guys there, with white hair that was about medium length. He had an athletic build and was wearing a white t-shirt with blue jeans.

      Kadin shook his head. “No, ordinary townspeople would be much easier then the monsters to make. So if they have monsters, they could easily have normal people” He said. “Of course, it is possible they just didn't bother with that yet. But... Something isn't right” He said.

      “It still bothers me that there's no logout button, and that they haven't come to get us out yet. It's been over a day now, why have they not pulled us out? You can't say they wouldn't notice something wrong when all their game testers have not returned after a full day.” Mendores stated. Mendores had light brown hair that was a little longer in the back and he was average height. He had an average build aside from appearing slightly stronger then the others and was wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants.

      “Plus they made pain perfectly realistic.” Kadin added, wincing a little as he tried to move his broken arm and was met with a sharp pain.

      “That is your own stupid fault.” Estellese spoke up. The girl was just a little below average height making her the shortest in the group by just a little. Her hair was shoulder length, and mostly pink but a little white just at the tips of her hair. She was wearing a violet tank top with a matching violet knee-length skirt, and had a tough but gentle look to her. “If you hadn't run off by yourself like a cocky idiot, you wouldn't have needed me to save your ass and you wouldn't have broken your shoulder.” She stated bluntly.

      “Hey, if I knew I could actually get hurt in here I wouldn't have tried to fight the goblin by myself.” Kadin protested.

      “Excuses don't make it any less of a cocky and stupid move.” Estellese countered. By now she had pretty much gotten tired of Kadin's cocky attitude over the last day they had been here.

      Kadin sighed, he was about to try and argue but was interrupted by Zanath shouting. “Everyone MOVE now!” Kadin and Estell turned to Zanath, then followed his gaze up into the sky as him and Mendores started running out of the way. Kadin cussed and grabbed Estell by her arm, before diving to the side, knocking them both to the ground and just barely getting out of the way in time before a loud explosion echoed throughout the empty city. A car-sized fireball slammed into the ground in a small fiery explosion where the four young adults had just been standing. Leaving a small scorched crater in the middle of the road. A loud roar filled the air above them, shaking the ground under their feet. Just the sound of the roar alone was terrifying, never mind the events that just unfolded.

      “Are you freaking kidding me? A dragon? Seriously??” Kadin shouted, as him and Estell got back up onto their feet. The four of them all exchanged a look, and it was clear between the group that they where all absolutely terrified but trying to keep a strong front.

      Mendores stepped up to lead the group right away. “Everyone! Follow me and do not fall behind! Keep your eyes on the dragon, it will no doubt come back for more.” He said before turning and running down the street. The other three friends nodded and all ran after him.

      The dragon growled and turned around, it's wings flapping and sending strong gusts of wind to the ground underneath the dragon. The black dragon was bigger then a house and flew high above the rooftops as it swooped down for another attack.

      “Incoming! Move!” Zanath called out again, “It's trying to grab us!”

      “Down the alleyway then!” Mendores instructed as the four friends all took a sharp turn and ran down a narrow alleyway. The dragon slamming it's claws into the ground and shaking all the buildings around it as it narrowly missed grabbing Estell. It turned and saw them running down the alley, then took a deep breath and blew a stream of hot flames into the alley, filling the alleyway with fire.

      “Turn! Turn!” Kadin shouted as he looked over his shoulder and saw the flames blasting through the alley towards them. The four of them took another sharp turn to get out of the alleyway and onto another street. The flames hit the end of the alley and burst out the sides into the streets, hitting Kadin in the back and sending him to the ground in a yelp of pain as his back caught fire and was badly burnt.

      “Shit!” Estell said as she quickly ran over to Kadin and pat out the flames on his back with her bare hands. Wincing and hissing in pain as she burnt her hands a little in the process, but she put out the flames. Mendores and Zanath quickly grabbed Kadin after that and pulled him back onto his feet.

      “I'm fine! Keep running.” Kadin said in a pained voice. Hearing the dragon's earth-shaking roar echo through the streets again. Followed by the loud crash of a building collapsing as the dragon stepped on a house and used it to jump and take flight again.

      “Come on! We need to lose this thing!” Mendores ordered before he took off running down the street again, followed by his three new friends. They could hear the sounds of the dragon's wings flapping as it soared through the air behind them, catching up and swooping down for another attack.

      “Dodge!” Estell called out as the dragon spat another fireball down at the group. Making them all dive to the sides to avoid being incinerated by the blast that created another small scorched crater in the paved street. When it missed the dragon flew past them and started turning to come back in for another attack.

      “This way! We need to break it's line of sight!” Mendores called out as he turned and ran down another alley, the rest of the group quickly got back onto their feet and ran into the alley after him. Another loud explosion was heard and the buildings around them shook as the dragon's fireball hit the house next to them and collapsed a part of it. Followed by another terrifyingly loud roar as the dragon lost sight of them again.

      The group of four ran out the other side of the alleyway, only to be greeted by an even worse sight. The dragon's roars had not gone unheard, and this city was not empty. There was hundreds of them, crawling over the buildings and down the streets. Giant spiders, the size of buses and semi trucks. And even worse, many more goblins where starting to flood out of the woodwork, busting out of houses, crawling out of alleyways, marching down the streets. With the dragon still flying behind them, it was a nightmare.

      Estell's eyes widened, and her arms where trembling in fear as she looked at all the monsters approaching. “W-What do we do now?” She asked quietly.

      The other three guys where speechless and frozen in fear for a moment. “We.. W-We run faster!” Mendores said quickly. The group of four backed into the alleyway again, the goblins and spiders on one side, and the dragon landing on the other side. Blocking both of the exits. The dragon took a deep breath and prepared to fill the alley with flames, with the four friends trapped inside it.

      “Everyone! Up!” Zanath called out as he jumped up on top of a dumpster, then jumped off the bin, kicked off the wall and landed on the roof. Thankfully, he knew parkour or they may all have been dead right there. He leaned over the roof and held out his hands to the people below him. Kadin jumped up first, using the dumpster to boost himself high enough to and grab Zanath's hands, and was pulled up onto the roof by his friend. Then they both reached out to help the other two up. Allowing both Mendores and Estell to jump up and grab onto their hands. So Zanath and Kadin could pull them both onto the roof with them, just barely in time. They all felt the intense heat as the alley below them was engulfed in flames mere seconds after they got out of it. The four of them panting for air as they watched the flames that had nearly killed them all.

      But they where far from safe, the dragon and the giant spiders started climbing up onto the roof. “Jump across to the next roof and get down on the other side!” Zanath instructed. Getting onto his feet and taking a running start, before nimbly jumping across to the next building. Kadin and Mendores followed him, also jumping across. Estell was right behind them, but she wasn't quite as good at jumping as the others, her jump came short and she missed the roof. With a shout of fear she started to fall.  

      “Estell!” Kadin shouted as he lunged forwards and grabbed her arms. But the added weight threw Kadin off balance, and his broken shoulder weakened him, making him start to quickly slip off the roof with Estell. Mendores and Zanath acted fast when they saw Kadin start to slide off the edge of the roof. Grabbing onto his shoulders and waist to stop him from falling, then together they pulled Kadin and Estell back onto the roof. Laying them on their backs once they where pulled to safety.

      But they were not given even a moment to rest. Estell looked up from her laying position on the roof. “Look out!” She shouted quickly as she threw a sweeping kick at Mendores' and Zanath's legs. Knocking the guys to the ground right before the dragon's flames went over the four of them. Feeling the intense heat again as the flames just barely missed the two guys, thanks to Estell knocking them over. The four of them quickly got back up once the flames dispersed, singed but otherwise unharmed.

      Mendores spotted a balcony on the side of the house next door to theirs, with a window leading to the second floor of the house. “Jump across and go through the window. Break it and get inside!” He called out, leading the group to run across the rooftop again and jump across to the next balcony, this time everyone made the jump.

      Kadin glanced back to see the spiders and the dragon quickly gaining on them them again. “Hurry up guys! They are right behind us!” He called out.

      Mendores picked up a potted plant and smashed open the window, breaking as much of the glass out of the window as he could, as quickly as he could, before hurriedly ordering “Everyone in! Go! Go!” He quickly climbed in through the window. “Watch the glass!” He added. Estell followed him into the building, then Zanath behind her, and last Kadin. It was silent for a moment, and the four of them stopped to catch their breath, all of them panting heavily. Thinking that they may be safe inside.

      Until there was a sudden loud crash and the cracking of wood, as a dragon's claw broke through the wall where the window had been and grabbed Zanath. “Shit no!” Estell shouted. Both her and Mendores grew bold, the two of them charged headfirst at the dragon's claw, and together they slammed their shoulders into the dragon's wrist. Forcing the dragon to let go and allowing Zanath to quickly dive out of the way. Once Zanath was free Estell and Mendores quickly jumped back.

      The dragon roared furiously as it pulled its claw back out of the building, then reared up on it's hind legs and started repeatedly slamming it's front claws into the house. Tearing chunks of the house apart and making the building start to collapse with every loud, wood shattering slam of it's claws. “Get to the basement! It should hold if the upstairs sections of the house collapse!” Mendores ordered as they all started running down the stairs.

      Although as they ran down the stairs one of the dragon's claws smashed through the wall, striking Mendores and cutting deeply into his side, making him shout in pain and sending him tumbling down to the first floor. “Mendores! Are you alright!” Estell and Zanath called out.

      Mendores weakly stood back up as the other three quickly rushed down the stairs to his aid. “I'm okay, get to the basement.” He said urgently. Kadin quickly hooked one of Mendores' arms around his neck and helped him limp to the basement stairs. The house still shaking and collapsing as the dragon pummeled the second floor. And things weren't getting any better as suddenly the front door was kicked in by the goblins and they started pouring into the building.

      Estell turned and saw the goblins entering the building. “Go to the basement! I got this!” She instructed as she picked up a wooden chair and charged the goblins, as if she was going to ram them with the chair. But right before reaching striking distance, instead of running into them she stopped and hurled the chair at them, catching the stupid goblins off guard and knocking them back. Once they where stunned and trying to get up Estell turned and ran into the basement with everyone else, almost tripping as she ran down the stairs and slammed the basement door shut behind her.

      The four of them started quickly blocking the door with everything they could get their hands on. They could hear the goblins pounding on the door moments after they where all inside the basement, and the dragon tearing the house apart above them. After a few seconds, the ground shook violently and there was a very loud series of crashes. Followed by silence. The entire house collapsed and was reduced to rubble, leaving just the basement intact. Then, with one final triumphant roar, the dragon could be heard stomping away from the ruins of the house.

      “We're alive!” Estellese said breathlessly as her and Kadin just collapsed onto the hard basement floor, panting and gasping for breath. “We're freaking alive! I can't believe it.”

      Zanath leaned back against a wall, then slid down it until he was sitting down on the floor, his knees bent up to his chest. Mendores just sat down on a washing machine they hadn't moved yet, holding his head in one hand and the deep cut on his side in his other hand. Shaking his head a little as he tried to relax and push through the sharp pain. They where all tense, and terrified after that ordeal. They all badly needed a moment to relax, and tend to their wounds.

      “Welcome to Realism. We hope you like the welcoming party, because they sure as hell don't like you.” Kadin remarked in a sarcastic tone, trying to add some humor into the situation. Although nobody laughed, everyone was in far too much shock to find his poor jokes funny.

–

--

Next chapter: Retracing our Steps

2: Chapter 2: Retracing our Steps

Author's note: Sorry, slow chapter, I know.

~~ Chapter 2: Retracing our Steps  ~~

 

       The four of them where battered and worn, but alive. It was unbelievable that they managed to survive, and it was only their second day here. They knew they couldn't hide in the basement forever, there was no food here and they had already gone a full day without eating. But for now, it was a safe place to catch their breath and recollect themselves, before tending to their wounds.

       Zanath was unharmed, luckily for him. He was used to running and doing these sort of things so he was the first to recollect himself and got up. He silently wandered off into the basement and began looking around. Picking up a toolbox and looking through its contents. He pulled out a hammer and some long nails and began looking around the basement once more. He seemed to be lost in thought though, his mind was elsewhere.

       Kadin was the next to get up. He ignored his burns and broken shoulder for the time being, spotting a some blankets and noting the toolbox Zanath had pulled out. He grabbed one nail and then grabbed some of the thin sheets, from there he used the nail to tear up the sheets. He was cringing and wincing with every movement of his broken arm, but he didn't care. He knew that he probably worsened the breakwhen he that arm to pull himself onto the roof and to catch Estellese, so he didn't see any point in babying it or worrying about making it worse, he already screwed it up. Once he tore up a few pieces of the blanket he handed two to Estellese. “Bandage your burnt hands for now, if you need help just ask.” He said softly. “We'll have to find something to treat burns in the city, until then that's the best we can do.”

       Estellese quietly thanked him and got to work on bandaging her hands while Kadin walked over to Mendores. “And we need to bandage that wound to stop the bleeding.”

       “Kadin, you have your own burns to tend to. You should do that first.” Mendores said kindly, he was more worried about his newly made friend then himself. Despite being injured more, he knew he was tough enough to deal with it a little longer.

       Although, Kadin was the same as Mendores there, he put his friends first and wasn't going to tend to his own wounds until his friends where alright. “You are bleeding, that must be stopped first. Plus it's my back and shoulder that are wounded. A bandage isn't going to help with that much.” He stated. He simply wrapped the torn piece of the blanket around Mendores' torso over his shirt, making sure it stayed tight over the slash wound in his side to stop the bleeding. Once he finished bandaging Mendores he went back to sit on the ground to rest for a bit.

       “Alright. We need a plan to get back to the real world.” Mendores said. “Think back to before we entered the pods, was there anything anyone saw that could be of use? Try to picture the rooms we were in. I remember Zanath was sitting on the left side of the waiting room and he was zoned out, or watching the light, I'm not sure which. Right Zanath?”

       “Huh?” Zanath called out from the other side of the basement. And for a moment his head popped out from behind a shelf.

       “Did you see anything odd or out of place, or anything we could use to escape in that building we were in. Before we got into the game?” Estellese asked him. “We are trying to picture the place and search for clues.”

       “No I did not.” Zanath said simply before disappearing behind the shelves again.

       “He's working on something, and he was spaced out for like, the entire time we were there. Let him do his thing.” Kadin mused. “I remember you two were sitting next to eachother, and I was off in the corner. And after an hour or so of silence I started the conversation.” He said, as the group tried to remember the day of events that lead them here.

–

      The four of them were in an empty white room, there was nothing but the four of them and a few chairs in this waiting room. “This game is going to be groundbreaking for the gaming world. The very first, perfect virtual reality game. I can't believe I won that contest.” Kadin finally broke the long, awkward silence before glancing up at the others.

      Estellese smiled a bit and nodded “Yeah, me neither. So there was only four contest winners for the alpha testing of the game?” She asked.

      Mendores nodded and opened his eyes. “Yes, only four. But surely we can have fun in the game with just four of us.” He said.

      Estellese sighed lightly, a bit disappointed she was the only girl there. But she shrugged it off. “So what's everyone's names?” She asked.

      Kadin looked up from his ticket, “Kadin.” He answered simply. “Master thief and evil genius.” He added jokingly.

      “Wait, you're a thief?” Estellese questioned, giving Kadin a strange look.

      “Only in the video game world. When playing games, I play to have fun and I do everything but play nice.” Kadin said, “Are the rest of you going to introduce yourselves?”

      Estellese sighed and rolled her eyes a little, shaking her head at the guy. “Just don't be a troll and screw up the game for everyone else. I'm Estellese, or Estell for short.” She said simply.

      Mendores nodded “I'm Mendores.” He answered simply. “Nice to meet you everyone. I think we should stick together and work as a team here, at least until we understand the game enough to go solo.”

      “Where's the fun in that?” Kadin countered. “That's like getting a new game and playing on easy or normal first. It's boring as hell. Start on the highest difficulty, learn as ya go, never take the easy road-”

      “Be a showoff who doesn't know when to stop talking.” Estellese finished Kadin's sentence for him, earning a pout and a glare from Kadin.

      When they finished talking Zanath looked over at the others, “And I'm Zanath. I'm mainly interested in how this game will work really. That must be some crazy advanced technology to actually make virtual reality like this possible. It's interesting, I want to know how the machine works.” He said.

      The door to the room finally opened, and what looked like a scientist in a lab coat walked out. He looked at the four young adults, “Do all of you have your tickets?” He asked. To which the four of them all held up their tickets. “Good. We will begin the alpha testing now.”

      “Finally” Kadin interrupted. Stretching a little and putting his hands behind his head as he waited for the scientist to lead the way.

      “Just follow me to the pods. You four are the first people, beside the game developers, to see this game. Make the best of your time here.” The scientist said before turning and walking back into the room he came from, gesturing for the others to follow him.

      The four of them followed the man, and listened as he continued to speak. “The alpha testing, as always, is not the final product. The game is subject to change while you're playing it. Some things may be added, some things may be removed.” He explained, then stepped into a room with four futuristic looking pods. He gestured to the pods “Climb in, and close the pod. You will feel yourself fall asleep, and then you will be in game.” He said.

      “Alllright!” Kadin cheered. Only half listening to what the man said as he quickly darted over to a pod and climbed into it. He laid down inside it and closed the pod over himself, before immediately pressing the start button and closing his eyes. As the man had said within seconds he looked to be asleep.

      Estell sighed and shook her head as she watched Kadin finding his childish behavior a bit annoying. But once the scientist finished speaking she climbed into her own pod and closed it, noticing a few buttons on the inside. She pressed a few of them and was toying around with them for a moment. Before she also hit the start button and closed her eyes.

–

      “That's the last I remember before entering the game.” Estellese finished. “The waiting room was just an empty room with a buncha chairs. Not even a magazine or a plant in there. And the pod room was the same, an empty room with the four pods and nothing else.” She said.

      “Well, before we entered me and Zanath had a conversation with the man running it.” Mendores said. “Zanath was asking him how it worked, and the man was avoiding the questions. Eventually he just said he hadn't made the game and was just there to run the test. But I think he was lying about that.” He said.

      “Well, duh.” Kadin stated simply. “This whole thing was a lie.”

      “What happened while you two were in the game? Before me and Zanath entered?” Mendores asked.

      “Not much, we were trying to figure out what happened. And I was laughing at Estell's hair.” Kadin said. To which he got a glare from Estellese.

      “Why would you laugh about her hair?” Mendores asked.

      “It's pink!” Kadin laughed. “She had brown hair in the real world, like Zanath. But when she logged in her hair was suddenly pink. At least Zanath changed his hair color to white, that looks sorta normal. But pink?” He chuckled. The look on Estell's face showed that she was trying really hard not to smack him.

      “It looks fine.” Mendores stated. “Anyways, once we were in the game, did anyone see anything in the game version of the building that could be used to get out?” He asked.

      “I noticed that the building had become a lab of sorts as I walked out. Once outside I was too distracted by the goblin” Kadin replied.

      “What happened there? You left the building being all cocky. Then when we went outside you were getting your ass kicked by a goblin.” Estellese stated.

“Hey, I thought it was just a game. I didn't know getting hit would hurt.” Kadin sighed and began explaining exactly what happened. Starting right as Mendores and Zanath joined them in the game, a minute or so after Kadin and Estell had gotten in.

–

      They were in an empty room, the same room the pods the had just gotten into were in. Only the pods were now gone and a table with books on it was in the palce of the pods. “So this is the game? I guess they weren't kidding when they said the game was realistic then. You know it's realistic when you can't tell the difference between the game world and the real world.” Kadin laughed lightly. Then turned to see Mendores and Zanath appear in the room.

      “Is this the game?” Zanath asked as he looked around, inspecting his surroundings and the people in the room.

      Kadin nodded “We think so.” He said. “You two just appeared out of thin air, so I'd assume it is. Lets get going now that everyone's finally here.”

      “What are those books on the table?” Mendores asked as he walked over to the table and picked up a book. Examining it before opening it to read a few pages.

      “Who cares? We're not here to read a book. Lets goo” Kadin replied.

      “They are game manuals, that say how to play the game.” Mendores said, inspecting the book in his hand. Estell and Zanath quickly walked over to him and also each picked up a book and began reading.

      Kadin rolled his eyes. “Come on. What kind of newbie actually reads the game manual before playing the game? Leeets gooo.” He complained.

      “The kind of newbie who want to know how to play.” Estell muttered quietly, they hadn't even been in the game for ten minutes and she already wanted to find a sword and stab him. She was looking forward to kicking his butt in this game later on. Maybe that would fix his cocky attitude.

      Kadin let out a long sigh. “Fine, I'm going ahead of ya then. Don't come crying to me to save ya when I get all the good stuff 'cause you where all too busy reading useless books. The controls are exactly like real life, we don't need to know the controls when we've been doing it all our lives” He said, before turning and leaving the room. “Heck, if I hadn't gone into the pod and seen the three of them appear out of thin air, I would've thought I was still in the real world... Which is kinda creepy if you ask me... If I had been unknowingly placed in this world...” He murmured to himself as he walked.

      While the building was the same exact shape it had been in the real world, he was starting to notice a few changes in it. It was no longer an office building. As Kadin looked into the rooms he passed it looked like it had become some high tech laboratory, or something of that sort. He shrugged it off though, he did have a little interest in the lab but was more interested in just playing the game. Figuring he could come back to it later if need be. He walked outside and looked around.

      As he had predicted, the outside looked exactly like the real world, only a little more empty. He didn't see any cars driving down the street, or any people outside. Although, one thing did catch his eye. A five foot tall human-shaped figure, that was green and wielding a club. Kadin easily guessed it to be a goblin, despite not being too short, by its green skin, pointed teeth and rather savage appearance.

      Kadin took note of the fact that he had no weapon, and the goblin had a club. But he picked up a small stone anyways, thinking 'What's the worst that could happen? I die and respawn back in the room with the others?'  He took careful aim and hurled the stone at the goblin. Hitting him right in the middle of its forehead. “Heeey! Dumbass! Over here!” Kadin taunted the goblin, waving his arms over his head.

      The goblin stumbled back from the hit, then looked up at Kadin and growled furiously. It raised its club and sprinted after the man. Kadin was a gamer, he had never been in a real fight before, and quickly learned it was much harder then it looked. He lunged forward and threw a jab for the goblin's throat, but before he could even reach the goblin, it used the club's longer reach to smash him in the shoulder with a sickening crack. Kadin shouted in pain as he was thrown backwards from the force of the hit, slamming into the wall of the building behind him. He quickly reached his left hand up to grab his wounded right shoulder.

      Kadin groaned in pain, cussing loudly “I get that this game was supposed to be realistic... But really, did they need to make the pain perfectly realistic too?” He complained. That alone made him instantly regret starting the fight, he didn't think it'd actually hurt to get hit, or at least not that badly. Why would they make a game so painful? He would've been more careful had he known.

      He looked up, trying to clear his mind of the searing pain in his broken shoulder. Only to see the goblin inches away from him swinging the club down at his head. Kadin shouted and cussed as he quickly threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding being killed. He pushed himself back up onto his feet, stumbling a little as he got up. But before he could do anything else the goblin lunged forwards and swung the club at his ribs again. Causing Kadin to have to stumble back to evade the club.

      He may have been alright with dying before, but now he knew he could feel pain and wasn't too keen on being killed. He really didn't want to find out how much being beaten to death by this goblin would hurt. But there was nothing he could do, the goblin kept pressing the attack faster then Kadin could retaliate, throwing attack after attack after attack at Kadin. The black haired man was struggling just to avoid getting hit, never mind getting a chance to swing back. With each attack he was getting worn down, it was becoming harder and harder to continue dodging. And it took more effort to dodge then it took to just swing a club, so Kadin would be worn out long before the goblin would.

      Kadin was panting heavily and backing away, watching as the goblin approached him for another attack. Although, what happened next confused him. He saw the goblin suddenly get tackled to the ground from behind by a pink blur. Then, seeing that the goblin was down Kadin just fell backwards onto his butt, panting for air.

      “Estell! Are you insane?” Mendores called out as the other two guys came out of the building with her. Laughing a little at the sight of the small girl almost wrestling with the goblin after having tackled it.

      “Yes I am. Is that a problem?” Estell chirped in a joking manner, making the other two guys laugh lightly. She had jumped on the goblin's back, attempting to ride its back, but she had knocked it over instead. And now was wrestling with the goblin as she sat on its back, trying to keep it pinned to the ground while the other two guys ran over and quickly pulled the club out of its hands. Although Estell couldn't keep the goblin pinned for long, the goblin threw her off itself, knocking the pink haired girl onto her back with a grunt as she hit the ground.

      The goblin sprung back to its feet, but it didn't matter. Estell's distraction was enough for the other two guys to make their move. Zanath, who had disarmed the goblin, smashed its knees with the club while Mendores quickly delivered a powerful elbow to the back of the goblin's neck. Making the goblin fall limply to the ground, knocked out cold.

      Estell laid on her back and threw her fists up in the air. “Woo! We killed our first monster. That was actually kinda fun.” She cheered.

      “Yeah that was.” Mendores said as him and Zanath chuckled, high-fiving each other before they both held out a hand to Estell. Who used both of her hands to high-five Zanath and Mendores at the same time before grabbing their hands and pulling herself back to her feet.

      She looked over at Kadin and chuckled lightly, “Only two seconds into the game and I've already had to save your butt. What happened to the cocky guy in the lobby?” She teased.

      “I got hit.” Kadin stated. “There's a major problem here, the game's a little too realistic. The pain feels completely real. I really feel like I broke my arm.” He said in a very pained tone.

      “I'm sure they wouldn't do that for a game.” Zanath said. “That doesn't make any sense. I can understand a little pain, but completely real? Nobody would play a game like that.” He pointed out.

      “Yeah, you're just being a wuss. Deal with it.” Estell said simply, grabbing his arms and pulling Kadin up to his feet as well. Making the man cringe and yelp in pain as she tugged his broken arm.

      “I am not, they really made it way too realistic.” Kadin argued. Shooting a glare at Estell for pulling on his arm.

      Mendores thought about it, then pinched himself as hard as he could. He looked up at the others, “Kadin is right, pain feels perfectly real. Pinch your arm to find out yourself.” He said them. “Should we log out and inform the creators about it? I mean, that may just be a small mistake they can fix before we play.” He said.

      Kadin nodded “We definitely should. Just imagine how much it's going to hurt if we get stabbed, or clawed up, or burnt. Things that happen constantly in games, it needs to be fixed before we continue.” He said.

–

      Mendores nodded a little, trying not to laugh as he listened to Kadin's part of the story. Although Estellese couldn't help but to laugh at him, and when Kadin glared at her she just stuck her tongue out at him. “Hey, you had that coming.” Estellese said.

      “And that's everything we did yesterday. Right? After that we figured out that we couldn't logout, and decided to wait out the rest of the day until they pulled us out of the game. And they never did.” Mendores said. He was quietly hoping there was more to what happened, because he couldn't find anything in their recollection of their first day here that could help them get out.

      “Yeah, that was it. After a day we gave up on waiting and set out to find food, got chased by a dragon, and ended up here.” Estellese replied. “I can't remember anything that could help us get back to the real world.”

      “There was nothing there we could have used to get out.” Zanath's voice said as he walked back to the group. He was carrying what looked like a few pieces of wood with nails sticking out of them. “Right now, our only hope is that someone notices we are gone and comes to get us. In the meantime, we need to survive. If the creator was sick enough to make pain realistic we don't want to find out if death is too.” He said as he handed out the pieces of wood. Upon closer inspection they were the legs of a wooden chair, apparently Zanath had broken the legs off a chair and hammered a few nails through them to make them into makeshift clubs.

      “Nice work with the clubs Zanath. You have a plan?” Kadin asked as he took his makeshift club and looked it over.

      “No, I do not. Although we need food and weapons. As well as medication.” Zanath said. “I suggest we hit the grocery store, there should be a pharmacy and food there and if it's as deserted as this town we can just take what we need. And if we hit the hardware store, maybe we can grab some tools to use as weapons.” He said.

      “That means going back up into the city though.” Kadin said. “We will need to be stealthy, and look out for the dragon. I am pretty sure the noise was what drew the massive swarms of monsters to us, so as long as we're quiet and sneaky, we should be able to move about on the surface without being mobbed again.” He said. “I have no doubts that we're going to have to fight our way through town though, now that all the monsters are here.”

      Estellese nodded a little “Right, everyone ready then?” She asked, she was holding her club a little awkwardly with her burnt hands, and Kadin took note of that but he didn't say anything.

      Mendores nodded and everyone stood up. “Ready. Lets clear the door.” He said as they all prepared to go back outside.

–

–

Next chapter: Aftermath, first steps forwards.

3: Chapter 3: Aftermath, First Steps Forwards.

~~ Chapter 3: Aftermath, first steps forwards.  ~~

      Mendores nodded and everyone stood up. “Ready. Lets clear the door.” He said as they all prepared to go back outside.

      “How are we going to get out? If the house collapsed the door and stairs will no doubt be blocked by the debris that fell on it” Estellese pointed out. Kadin and Mendores looked around at the group, also wondering the same thing.

      “We unscrew the door, pull it off the frame. Then we will just have to dig our way out of the debris. We can pull the bigger debris into the basement to get them out of the way. It's going to take a while to actually get out of here.” Zanath replied simply. He pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and began working on removing the screws that kept the door attached to the door frame. After a moment he pulled the door off the frame and stumbled back, trying to hold it up. “Someone grab this.” He instructed.

      “On it.” Mendores said as him and Estell quickly walked over and took the door from Zanath, they carried it out into the basement and placed it up against the back wall before returning. They looked up at the stairs that lead the way out of the basement, of course the stairs were completely covered in debris by the collapsed house, and the way out was completely blocked. “Alright, Kadin search the basement for more tools. See if we can find some hand saws or something to cut the boards we're not able to move. Everyone else, form a line, we'll grab whatever we can pull out and pass it down, whoever is in the back places the debris in the pile near the back wall.” He said.

      And with that they got to work. Kadin returned with a handsaw he found and joined the line to help move the debris. It was four long hours of work, with a couple breaks, before they finally caught a glimpse of the sky, there wasn't much light coming in now. Zanath took a quick glimpse of the moon and determined that it was around midnight, if time worked the same in this world which he assumed it did.

      He pushed the last few boards out of the way and climbed up out of the basement. His three new companions followed along behind him moments after and looked around. All of them took a defensive stance, standing almost back to back as they all faced different directions. There was nothing there though, they were in the clear for now.

      After a moment, Kadin laughed softly and lowered his makeshift club. “We look like a buncha idiots standing around with sticks like this. None of us even know how to fight.” He said. But right as he spoke Estellese and Mendores spoke up.

“I know how to fight.” Mendores replied.

At the same time Estellese said “I've taken some martial arts.”  Which grabbed the attention of Mendores.

“You've taken martial arts too? I've gotten a black belt in a few different styles.” Mendores asked, keeping his voice down and gesturing for the group to follow as he began walking down the street.

“Yeah, I'm no black belt but I have taken enough classes to know what I'm doing.” Estellese replied. She and the others in the group followed along behind Mendores, keeping on guard and on the lookout for more monsters or the dragon.

      Kadin was a bit shocked, “Wait you both know martial arts?” He questioned, the realization that he was the only one who didn't have any skills that were useful in this world hit him rather hard. He bit his lip and looked down a little. He wasn't going to be outplayed like that, he wasn't going to settle for anything other then being the strongest and best player in the group.

      “Yes, I have. And it seems she has too.” Mendores replied. “It may be a good idea if me and Estell do the fighting, while you two back us up and cover our backs. That way we reduce the chances of anyone getting hurt.”

      “That sounds like a good plan.” Estellese replied.

      “No way. That's a stupid plan.” Kadin stated. “We have four people, why would we cut our manpower in half by only having two of us fighting?”

      “We are not cutting our forces in half, we are taking a defensive approach. This way we have a strong defense and nobody gets hurt.” Mendores countered.

      “And we have a crappy offense, so we can't take down our enemies quickly. No matter how strong your defenses are they won't protect you from everything, something will eventually break through. If we kill off our enemies quickly they won't have a chance to hurt us, we won't need defense.” Kadin stated.

      “Zanath what do you think?” Mendores asked, trying to solve this more diplomatically.

      “Both approaches have their pros and cons. I do not care either way.” Zanath replied simply and briefly, keeping his attention on the skies.

      “You don't talk much, do you?” Estellese asked him, giving Zanath a curious look.

      “Nope.” Zanath replied simply. “I'm in introvert. I think more then I talk. Don't let that bother you though, I do like the company, just not all the time.”

      “Anyways, it's two against one Kadin. Just stick with our plan.” Mendores said.

      Kadin looked as if he was going to argue further, but before he could speak he heard something shouting and growling in some foreign language. The four of them turned to see a group of six goblins walking out of an alley. It seemed like one of the goblins was the leader of the group, that one, unlike the rest, actually wore more then just a loincloth and had a metal helmet. The leader was shouting something in its native tongue and pointing at the four humans in front of him.

      “Fine, I'll follow your plan. But if things even start looking bad I'm doing things my way.” Kadin stated, watching as the group of goblins began approaching them.

      “Estell, stand a short distance away from me, fight defensively, dodge or parry then counter. Do not block, based off the damage that first goblin did to Kadin, these things are pretty strong. Zanath, come here and cover my back. Kadin you cover Estell. You two don't attack until we do, follow our lead and just follow up on our attacks. They will likely dodge or block us, when they do you guys strike them. It's your jobs to do that, and to help prevent us from being attacked from by more then one at a time.” Mendores instructed. To which everyone nodded and moved into positions, then raised their makeshift clubs and braced themselves for the fight. They were outnumbered, and in an open area which was bad. But, they were counting on the goblins not being overly intelligent and not working well as a team.

      Just as they had expected, the goblins rushed forwards without much coordination. Just a six man, or rather a six goblin charge at the four humans. Some goblins ran faster then others and arrived long before their allies instead of all arriving at the same time, and that was what gave the humans the chance to win this fight. The first goblin to reach the humans went for Mendores and Zanath. It swung it's club for Mendores' ribs but Mendores was quick to jump back and evade the blow. “Now!” He called out, he was in the middle of jumping back and the goblin was in mid-swing so neither of them were able to attack.

      Zanath heard the order to go and lunged forwards, slamming his makeshift club into the side of the goblin's head, striking with the side that had the pointed nails sticking out of it. It was a quick and decisive strike, he killed the goblin almost instantly then pulled back to move behind Mendores again.

      The rest of the goblins were catching up fast, the leader and one other ran for Mendores and Zanath, and the other three rushed for Estellese and Kadin. Estellese took a few steps back and braced herself as she watched the three incoming goblins. Kadin mirrored her movements, and doing as he was told waited for her lead before attacking. The three goblins rushed them almost in a triangle formation. There was one goblin in the front, rushing Estellese head-on, then there was two goblins behind him, heading towards Estellese's left and right sides.

      “Don't let them surround me! Push back the one on my left.” Estellese ordered. As the first goblin rushing in for a frontal attack reached her she lashed out with her makeshift club, swinging the club for the goblin's head. Although she did not expect this attack to land, it was a diversion. As expected the goblin reached up and grabbed the club, carefully avoiding grabbing the nails sticking out of it, and with the goblin's inhuman strength it was able to catch and stop her attack as if it were nothing. But she expected the attacked to be blocked in some way, as the goblin grabbed her club she delivered a quick but strong stomp to the goblin's kneecap with her heel, breaking it's kneecap and sending the goblin toppling down to it's knees as it cried out in pain. She pulled her club back, but the next two goblins were closing in on her fast, and she would not be able to dodge both of them at once.

      But, that was Kadin's job. As Estellese made her move on the first goblin, Kadin rushed forwards after the goblin that was trying to move around to her left. Swinging his club very fast and quite hard at the goblin's head. The goblin, of course, saw that coming and jumped backwards to evade being struck by the club but that was the plan. As that goblin jumped backwards it gave Estellese the space she needed to jump to her left and dodge the goblin that was swinging a pipe at her from her right. “Now attack right!” She said quickly as she narrowly dodged the goblin on her right.

      Following her lead Kadin turned and quickly lunged at the goblin on her right, he was left open after he attempted to swing at Estellese and missed. He dove in and bashed the goblin in the head with his makeshift club, his attack lacked power since he had to hold his club left handed due to his right shoulder being broken, but it was enough to knock the goblin down. And as soon as the goblin was knocked back Kadin stepped forwards and slammed the club down on it's head two more times, finishing it off.

      The goblin with the broken knee was starting to get back up, but Estellese was focused on the third and final goblin, the one Kadin had pushed back moments ago. Kadin rushed over and attempted to slam his club down onto that goblin's head too, but the goblin once again acted quick and grabbed the club, yanking it out of Kadin's hands and this time being prepared to block a kick. Kadin was forced to back off, but thinking quick he swept the pipe the last goblin had dropped off the ground and flung it at the goblin's head as fast as he could. Making a loud “Clank” sound as the metal pipe struck the goblin's forehead and knocked the goblin out.

      Estellese was focusing on her own goblin, she had jumped infront of it when she dodged. The goblin was quick to swing the wooden plank it was carrying down at her head, and she knew she would be unable to block the goblin's inhuman strength. So she used her club to bash the goblin's plank to the side, pushing it away from her and making it miss. As soon as the plank narrowly missed striking her Estellese threw a jab at the goblin's throat, striking hard enough to make the goblin stumble back and begin to choke. Thinking that was her chance, she followed up her attack by swiftly swinging her makeshift club down at the goblin's head. But the goblin was quick to deflect the attack with his own weapon. Estellese was not going to let the goblin win this fight though, as her attack was deflected she delivered a powerful kick to the side of the goblin's head, spinning her body with the kick to make it strike harder. The goblin let out a yelp of pain and was knocked to the ground, disoriented from the blow. And before it could recollect itself Estellese brought her makeshift club down on it's head and finished it off.

      Meanwhile, Mendores and Zanath were dealing with the leader of this goblin pack and one other goblin. “I'll distract the leader and keep him busy. You focus out the other goblin, keep him close to me. As soon as you give me an opening I will turn on the normal goblin and we'll overpower him, then we bring down the leader together.” Mendores instructed as the two goblins rushed at them.

      “Got it.” Zanath answered as he stepped out from behind Mendores and stood beside him instead, keeping just a few feet of space between them. The lead goblin rushed for Mendores since he had been in the front before, and the second goblin started going for Mendores too. But as the second goblin started moving towards Mendores Zanath moved in and cautiously swung his makeshift club for the goblin's head, just a quick and light swing not intended to strike the goblin but intended to force it to back off and get away from Mendores. The goblin stumbled back to dodge the club and turned his attention to Zanath. This goblin held a short and light metal pole, as he turned to Zanath he swung the pole for Zanath's head. But the man was quick and ducked underneath it, as he ducked the goblin changed the direction of the attack, swinging down at Zanath instead. Seeing the change of attack Zanath swiftly tucked into a roll and rolled to the side to evade the blow, at the end of his brief roll he was in a crouching position and saw an opening. It wasn't part of the plan, but it was an opening. He sprung up and tackled the goblin to the ground, grabbing the goblin's head mid-tackle and slamming it down into the concrete road as he tackled the goblin, knocking it out on the spot.

      The leader of the goblin pack was bearing down on Mendores, as soon as it reached him it lashed out with a downward strike for his head, which Mendores parried and pushed away with his club. Mendores tried to followup the parry by elbowing the goblin in the face while he was vulnerable but the goblin simply shoved him back with it's free hand, it's inhuman strength letting it almost throw Mendores backwards with a simple push. As Mendores stumbled back from the push the goblin rushed in and swung it's club horizontally at Mendores' head. Mendores was quick to slam his own makeshift club up into the goblin's weapon-wielding arm, driving the nails in his makeshift club into the goblin's wrist and forcing the goblin to drop it's own club. The goblin shrieked in pain and its club was unintentionally thrown off into the distance when it let go, but he was not going down. The goblin lashed out and grabbed Mendores by his throat, with it's inhuman strength it could easily crush the man's throat or snap his neck. Thinking fast Mendores dropped his club and grabbed the goblin's wrist with one hand, his other hand rushed to slam a punch into the goblin's elbow, breaking the goblin's arm and causing the goblin to cry out in pain as it was forced to let him go.

       Mendores saw Zanath finish off the other goblin and saw that Zanath was ready to help. Taking advantage of the goblin leader being momentarily stunned from the pain, and having no weapon to strike with, Mendores pushed himself forwards and in one swift movement pulled the helmet off the goblin's head with one hand and shoved the goblin back towards Zanath with his other hand. Making the goblin stumble backwards into Zanath, who promptly landed the finishing blow, a club to the back of the goblin's head. And with that the fight was over, Kadin and Estellese were just finishing their fight and the coast was clear.

       Mendores' clothes and the bandages that were wrapped around the wound on his side were starting to turn red, he was bleeding through them all. All the quick movements from the fight and him needing to use his arms to attack was tearing open the wound on his side and making it worse then it already was. Nobody there, except for Zanath, was in good shape; Estellese's hands were still burnt and in searing pain from holding the club; Kadin's back was also burnt and hurt from moving, thankfully he hadn't needed to use his right arm. But out of the three Mendores was the worst off, he was bleeding and at risk for bleeding out if his wound kept getting worse.

       “Everyone good?” Mendores asked, panting lightly. As he spoke he looked over the helmet he had taken from the goblin leader and decided to keep it.

       “All good.” Estellese replied.

       “Grocery store is just around the corner. We need to get there quick before we run into anything else. Or before something comes to find out what all the screaming was about.” Kadin stated as he picked up his makeshift club and the pipe. He looked around at the dead goblins. “No EXP or loot for killing things? What kind of crappy game is this?”

       “If you want loot you could take their loin cloths. That's the only thing they got on them.” Estellese teased. “Anyways, lets go. Before something else finds us.” She stated, and with that the group rushed down the street, straight to the nearby grocery store. Thankfully there was nothing between them and the store now but they didn't know how long their luck would be lasting at this rate.

       As they approached the store they were thankful to find that the door was unlocked, and as they slipped in they saw that like the rest of the town, nobody was here. There was food on the shelves, a pharmacy in the back, everything a normal grocery store had. Everything except people. “Grab as much food as we can. Also, any perishable food that you really want to eat, take it now. If this game is as realistic as it seems to be, all this food is going to go bad soon due to nobody running the store and the store having no electricity. And it's already been without electricity for two days.” Mendores stated. And with that everyone scattered to find what they wanted from the store.

–

–

- Next chapter: Chapter 4: On the run, escaping Oline City.

4: Chapter 4: On the Run, Escaping Oline City.

~~ Chapter 4: On the Run, Escaping Oline City.  ~~

 

        Now that they were safely in the store the group spread out and began searching the shelves for food and supplies. At first glance the grocery store seemed stocked and full of food, but upon closer inspection the place had already been looted. There was still food left behind, but a lot of it was missing or had gone bad. “Seems like the goblins have already looted this place.” Estellese said.

        “I don't think it was the goblins.” Zanath said. “They don't seem to be so... clean and gentle. Nothing in here is broken or messy. I would assume that if it was the goblins the place would be trashed.” He pointed out. “Maybe we are not alone in here?” He mentioned.

        “It's a possibility, but we are the only Alpha testers as far as I know. So who else would be here?” Mendores pointed out.

        “Hey guys!” Kadin called out. He walked out from the pharmacy section and held up a small bottle filled with a light red liquid. “I found two of these in the pharmacy. They look like potions, me and Mendores should use them.” He said.

        Estellese poked her head out of one of the isles to see what Kadin wanted. “We don't know what those are... They look like potions but who knows what they do?” She pointed out.

        “Well, what better time then now to test them.” Kadin replied simply as he pulled the cork out of the one he was holding and drank the whole thing. He waited a moment, and slowly he felt his body starting to go numb, to the point where he could no longer stand and was forced to lay down. “Whoa, looked like a healing potion. But now everything's gone numb. I can't move.” He mused, seeming more intrigued then worried.

        “You idiot.” Estellese sighed. “Why would you drink it if you had no idea what it was? I mean, come on, wasn't your earlier stunt when we first logged in bad enough?”

        “It looked like a healing potion.” Kadin pointed out.

        “So what? Just because it looks like a healing potion doesn't mean you should assume it is one and drink it.” Estellese countered.

        “All the things in the store look like food, and you are going to eat this food. But nobody knows if this stuff actually is food.” Kadin pointed out.

        “I... that doesn't count! All these things are food from the real world, why would people make these things look like real world food if they weren't?” Estellese protested.

        “Also, the pain in my back and shoulder are going away. I don't know if that's from the numbness or not though.” Kadin added.

        “Doesn't make you any less of an idiot for drinking some random potion you found lying around.” Estellese replied. “I'm going back to searching the store.” She said before turning and heading off into the store to resume searching for food.

        Kadin just remained on the ground, watching everyone walk past as they grabbed things off the shelves. Everyone had picked up mostly non-perishable foods, mainly canned foods and cereal, but everyone also picked up a few things for themselves too. Mendores had a hand basket full of fruit and vegetables as well as some painkillers and antibiotics, Estellese had a pack of chicken in her basket, and Zanath passed by carrying three baskets. One basket was filled with cereal, canned food, and other non-perishables like everyone else. One was filled with water bottles. And one was filled to the brim with tons of small candies.

        Kadin chuckled lightly as Zanath passed by. “I never would have expected you to be someone who liked candy so much.” He mused.

        “I don't.” Zanath replied simply as he stopped walking to speak to Kadin. “It's to make the food last longer. And to fight hunger when we run out.” He said simply. He noticed that Kadin was giving him a very confused look, so he sighed lightly and explained it in more detail. “While we are traveling, if we limit our food intake to one meal a day it will last longer. But we will no doubt get hungry. When we get hungry, we can just eat one or two little pieces of candy to settle the hunger for a short while, to help us hold out until we get our daily meal. Tricking our brains into thinking we are eating so we don't feel hungry for a little. Plus candy is small and easy to carry so we can take a lot of it.”

        Kadin seemed shocked for a moment as he thought about it. “Smart...” He murmured. He was actually rather glad everyone in the group seemed to be intelligent, it drastically increased their chances of survival.

        “Yes, thank you.” Zanath replied shortly, and when Kadin didn't say anything else right away he turned and left to resume shopping.

        Kadin just watched everyone as they shopped, he couldn't do much when he couldn't move. But, little by little the numbness was starting to go away. It was about five minutes after he first drank the potion that the numbness went away and he was able to sit up. Surprisingly, he was no longer in pain and he was able to move his right arm without it hurting anymore.

        Mendores noticed Kadin sitting up, he walked over to Kadin and crouched down beside him to talk. “Numbness going away?” He asked. “How are you feeling?”

        “Yeah, it's going away. And I am feeling fine, surprisingly my arm and back don't hurt anymore. I think it really was a healing potion.” Kadin answered as he moved his right arm around a little to show that it was no longer broken.

        Mendores nodded and smiled a bit. “Good. And that makes sense when you think about it. I would assume a healing potion would just drastically speed up your body's natural healing, how else would they work? And if that's what they do, that drastic increase in natural healing probably will mess with the rest of your body, making it numb.” He said. He stood up and held out a hand to help Kadin get up.

        Kadin nodded a little. “I guess that makes sense. We just need to remember that when we find more potions we can't just stock up on a million potions and chug them in the middle of a fight to be immortal, like you can in some games. With the numbness effect we won't be able to use them unless we are somewhere safe.” He thought out loud. But then took Mendores' hand and pulled himself up onto his feet. He then grabbed the second potion off the shelf and handed it to Mendores. “You are the most wounded person here. This one is yours.”

        “I'm fine. We should give it to Estellese, her hands are burnt.” Mendores replied.

        Kadin simply shook his head and pressed the potion into Mendores' hand. “You are the most wounded, for the sake of all of us, you need it more. Have a seat and heal up. I'm going to grab some supplies for myself” He stated before he walked off into the store to get a basket.

        Mendores nodded and drank the potion, then sat down on a nearby bench and leaned back against the wall behind it to rest and wait for the numbness to subside.

         Kadin went to get himself some food, like everyone else he grabbed as much non-perishable food as he could fit in his basket, but he also grabbed a steak for tonight and stopped to grab several bottles of vitamins. He knew they were not going to have a good diet from here on out, so he hoped the vitamins would help them stay healthy.

        It wasn't long before everyone met up at the pharmacy, Mendores was just recovering from the five minutes of numbness, his wounds were all healed and he felt ready to fight again. “Alright, are we all ready?” He asked as he looked over the rest of the group, when he got a few nods of agreement and a few people saying “Yes” he nodded and spoke again. “Alright, head to checkout, put everything in bags that will be easy to carry, and lets get going to the hardware store to get some weapons.” He said.

        “Triple bag everything.” Zanath spoke up. “Just in case one bag rips.” He added as the group walked to checkout to bag their loot. Once they had everything in easier to carry bags they left the store and went back out into the streets.

        Mendores lead the way and spoke up for the group. “We will need to be careful. We probably can't run as fast carrying all this and we are definitely not as agile with it all. One person should not be carrying bags so they can hold their weapon instead.” He said. He noticed Estellese struggling a little to carry her bags, with her burnt hands it really hurt to carry things. “Estell, since your hands are burnt why don't you give us your stuff and be the one carrying a weapon.” He said.

        Estellese nodded a little and handed her bags to Mendores and Kadin, then grabbed her makeshift club. “Thank you.” She said. “Anyone know where the hardware store is? I didn't live in Oline city, and didn't visit it often.” She said.

        “I used to work at a business here, just follow me.” Mendores answered. He placed the dented and worn metal helmet he had taken from the goblin leader on his head and lead the way down the streets. With the other three following along close behind him. Although it was not long at all before they ran into the next road block. Everyone was tired, the sun was starting to rise as the third day began and they had not gotten any rest. But, with the sun rising and a new day beginning the monsters in the city were beginning to wake and were starting to come out again.

        The roar of the dragon could be heard in the distance, making the four Alpha testers duck into an alleyway to hide as the dragon flew past. Just a few minutes after the roar echoed through the streets the goblins began sleepily stumbling out of the alleyways and homes. Yawning and stretching as they looked around. They had a whole city to loot now that the dragon lead them here, there was so many shiny things. Many of the goblins now carried bags and packs of shiny things they had collected overnight. Mostly random junk such as tin foil, plastic jewelry, mirror shards, jewelry, metals, and whatever else was shiny.

        At first it was just a couple goblins wandering out into the streets, and the four Alphas picked up the pace to get away faster. Trying their best to stick to the shadows and move silently, to not draw attention to themselves. But as the morning went on, and as the dragon continued roaring like a rooster in the morning, more and more goblins were coming out. What started as four or five goblins wandering the streets every here and there quickly became twenty or thirty, which quickly became large crowds all over the place. It was like a massive infestation! There was hundreds of them, everywhere.

        As the crowds began building up the Alphas ran found themselves unable to continue, there was a massive crows of goblins blocking their path and more were coming out, they would be surrounded in seconds and they knew if they didn't get out of the streets the goblins would see them. They turned and rushed into a nearby house, shutting and locking the doors behind them. They were so close to the hardware store, Kadin cussed quietly as he peeked out of the second floor window and watched the goblins swarming the streets. “What do we do now? They are searching the houses, it's just a matter of time before we are found.” He asked.

        “There's no way we are making it to the hardware store like this.” Mendores said bluntly. “The city is just too dangerous, we need to get out. There's too many monsters here.”

        “But we need the resources the city has.” Estellese countered. “We have pretty much nothing, the city has everything we need to survive.”

        “Yes, we need the resources the city has to survive, but think about it. Are those resources worth dying over?” Mendores replied. “We are pretty much a couple rats in a room full of hundreds of cats. Yes, there is cheese in the room, but we sure as heck don't want to be here right now. If we are going to survive, we need to avoid fighting unwinnable battles like this one”

        “For once I agree with Mendores.” Kadin spoke up. “Some times the best tactic in combat is to flee and live to fight another day. There's no way we can take out these goblins. Each of us cam probably take out two or three of them, and there's around fifty just in the street right outside the house. Never mind the fifty or so further up the street, and the hundred or so I can see at the intersection in the distance. There is no possible way we can take them all on, we have a better chance of surviving if we get out of here.”

        “But if we can't survive here, where we have everything we need to survive, how will we survive someplace else where we have no resources?” Estellese countered. “Zanath, you're the smart one, you agree with me, right?” She asked but then when there was no answer she looked around. “Zanath? Where did he go?”

        Mendores shrugged. “He wandered off shortly after we came in here. I am pretty sure he is still somewhere in the house.” He replied as he peeked his head out of the room.

        Almost as if on cue Zanath walked into the room carrying a couple backpacks, some duffel bags, a pillowcase, some rope, and a few other odds and ends. “Alright while you guys were doing, whatever it is you were doing, I searched the house and grabbed all the valuables I could find.” He said as he put everything down. “There was two backpacks and three duffel bags in the closets. We should be able to put our food in these so we don't need to carry around grocery bags. I raided the kitchen and grabbed the kitchen knives, but we should keep the makeshift clubs because these are just steak knives, they will work as weapons but are short and flimsy, they may break or we may need something that hits a bit harder at some point.” He stated.

        “Wow, well you have been busy.” Estellese replied in surprise. “Thanks. So you think we should stay here and try to survive in the city?”

        “No. We have better chances outside the city.” Zanath replied. “The other cities, if there is any, or the outside world if there is not hopefully won't be so mobbed. Grab a bag and a knife or two everyone.” He said.

        “Oh... Fine you guys win.” Estellese sighed.

        Kadin looked over the rest of the items Zanath had gathered. “What's the other stuff for?” He asked as he and the rest of the group each grabbed a bag and began filling it with the stuff they took from the grocery store. Mendores and Kadin got the backpacks, while Estellese took one of the duffel bags. Kadin took two knives, Estellese and Mendores both took one.

        “The rest of the stuff is things I wanted for myself.” Zanath said simply. “Drank one water bottle and dumped out two others, filled them with gasoline from a container in the shed. Don't worry I packed plenty of water, losing two won't matter much. Then I also grabbed a hammer, screwdriver, nails, a lighter, and a few magazines.” He said simply as he packed everything except the candy into the two remaining duffel bags. Once he was packed he grabbed the pillow case and cut four tiny holes into it, then threaded the rope through the four holes to make straps and tied the rope together. With that done he filled the pillowcase with the candy and strapped it onto his back like a backpack, then strapped the two duffel bags over his shoulders and grabbed the rest of the knives.

        “Ready to go?” Mendores asked everyone once his friends were all packed up. “With all the goblins in the street, and the giant spiders who are probably still lurking around somewhere... Getting out is going to be hard. But we are already close to the eastern edge of the city, it's not too far.” He said. To which everyone nodded. “Good, stick together, cover eachother's backs. And do not stay to fight unless we have to. Our supplies will slow us down, but make sure to keep moving.” He instructed.

        Once he had gotten a nod or an “Okay” from everyone he lead the way back to the front door and placed his hand on the handle. “On the count of three, I open the door and we all run out. We run east.” He said, then pointed to his left to indicate which way was east since Kadin and Estellese were giving him a confused look. He kept his knife in his belt and held the makeshift club in his hand. Estellese readied her knife, Kadin held one knife in each hand, and Zanath held one knife in one hand and the club in his other hand.

        “Alright. Three. Two. One.” Mendores started, then he suddenly shouted “Go!” and threw the door open, rushing out of the house with his three new friends following along behind him. The four of them sprinted down the street, catching the attention of the groups of goblins who turned and began running after the humans. But even with their extra baggage the humans were able to run fast enough to stay just a little ahead of the goblins. But the goblins were right behind them, if they stopped for even a moment the crowds of goblins would catch them.

        But by the time they reached the end of the street the plan was already going wrong, not that they had expected any better. They had a crowd of goblins behind them and an even bigger crowd infront of them now. “Turn left, into the next house. Run through and out the back door, get through their yard to get to the next street over!” Mendores called out as the group took a sharp left turn and ran to the nearest house. Mendores sprinted ahead of the group to get to the door first, giving it a solid and powerful kick. With a lout smash the door was busted open and everyone was able to rush into the house.

        Once they were all inside the house Kadin grabbed a nearby coffee table and shoved it infront of the door to slow the goblins down, then rejoined the others as they made a mad dash for the back door. But as they passed through the living room and into the kitchen they quickly found that there was already two goblins inside the house.

        “Don't stop, plow through them and keep running! And don't get hit!” Mendores called out. Leading the charge at the two confused goblins. The first one grabbed a nearby chair and swung it for Mendores' head, but Mendores ducked under the swing and followed up with a quick but powerful uppercut to the goblin's jaw, knocking the goblin to the floor as he just ran right past and out the back door. Estellese was right behind him and followed the path he cleared to get out with him.

        The second goblin was blocking Zanath and Kadin's paths though, and they could hear the swarms of goblins rushing in the front door of the house already. That coffee table hadn't stopped them for more then a second. Seeing that Zanath was a little slowed down by all of his bags Kadin ran ahead to take on the goblin himself, partially to help his friend and partially to get revenge on the goblins for making a fool of him earlier. Being more cautious of the goblin's inhuman strength and his own lack of combat skill he rushed at the goblin and stabbed one of his knives for its throat, but the goblin simply grabbed his wrist and stopped Kadin's attack. The goblin's other hand moved to grab Kadin's other arm, expecting him to try and stab with the other knife, but Kadin didn't do that. He instead kneed the goblin in the crotch. As the goblin shouted in pain and hunched over then Kadin stabbed it in the throat with his other knife and shoved the goblin out of the way, the whole fight taking just two seconds to end. With the goblin shoved aside Zanath ran past and Kadin ran right out of the house with him, just a few seconds behind the others.

        They rushed through the back yard and onto the next street over, this street wasn't any better, it too was filled with goblins but the intersection ahead was clear. Mendores spoke up “The city limits are just ahead, about two blocks away there will be a highway we can get onto that leads out of the city, it goes alongside a lake.” He explained as they rushed down the street.

        “I don't know how much longer I can keep running.” Kadin panted.

        “We're all exhausted. Just keep running.” Estellese replied. The group raced down the street, they had a semi-clear path. There was a few groups of goblins ahead of them but they were small groups of ten or twenty, small enough to run around and get past before most of the goblins noticed them. But after running about one block they ran into another mob of goblins blocking the path forwards, forcing them to take a sharp left turn down another street, followed by a right turn a little further down the street to go around the mob. But, this didn't work either. There was another mob of goblins down this street, and the mob chasing them was getting dangerously close.

        “Through the house again!” Mendores called out, intending to repeat the trick they used last time. They took a sharp right turn and ran for the nearby house, and again Mendores delivered a powerful sprinting kick to the door. But this door did not budge. Mendores was sent stumbling back, “This one's made of a much stronger wood! I can't break it.” he called out as he turned around to see the massive crowd of hundreds of goblins quickly closing in on them.

        “Stay alive! I'll open the door.” Zanath called out as he grabbed one of his duffel bags and threw it through one of the house windows, smashing the window open. Then in a flash he dove into the house through the window, skillfully slipping right through the hole he made without touching the glass. It would take everyone else a while to climb in without cutting themselves open on the glass, and they didn't have the time for that.

        The three who were left outside spread out in the yard not far from the door, clutching their weapons cautiously as they watched the horde of goblins rush at them. “Cover each others' backs and wait for Zanath.” Mendores called out. It was all he could say before the swarm of goblins was on top of them. “And be careful!” He called out.

        In an instant they were almost surrounded and had goblins rushing in from every direction except from behind them. Mendores was in the front so he was the first one to be targeted and three goblins rushed at him. As the first goblin charged him he swung the makeshift club at the goblin's head, making the goblin jump back to dodge the blow. As he swung a second goblin lunged at him from the side, but he dropped his club and grabbed the goblin's shoulders to push the goblin back and off himself. But while he was pushing away the second goblin the third one lunged in and threw a punch for Mendores' back.

        Estellese was quick to intercept the goblin that was attacking Mendores. Stabbing her knife into its arm to stop the goblin's punch and then kicking it to the ground. But as she kicked that goblin yet another goblin came rushing at her from the side. She was quick to slide her duffel bag off her shoulder though and swung the bag that was full of cans at the goblin, bashing it in the head and knocking it over before it could get within arms reach of her.

        Kadin wasn't faring much better, another three ran after him. As the first goblin charged at him and dove in to tackle him. Kadin quickly sidestepped the goblin and kicked it in the head when it missed and hit the ground. But as he went to move away from the goblin, it grabbed one of his legs just as the second goblin was rushing in to punch him. Thinking fast Kadin dodged the punch by falling onto his back and quickly stabbed the arm that was grabbing him to force it to let go. The second goblin moved in to kick Kadin after it's punch missed but Kadin flipped back onto his feet to evade the kick and jumped backwards just in time to get distance on the two standing goblins.

        Mendores backed away from the two goblins he was fighting, and looked up to see ten more of them catching up and joining the fight. But Zanath finally got around to the door and got it unlocked and open. “Get in!” Zanath shouted.

        “Door's open! Go!” Mendores shouted as he began running back for the house. He stayed behind to make sure both Kadin and Estellese were able to safely run inside before he too ran into the house, slamming the door shut behind him. “That won't hold them for long, go, go!” He called out as he ran for the back door, taking the lead again. His three friends followed along behind him and mere seconds later they could hear the front door being smashed open by the goblins.

        They got out through the back door and sprinted through the back yard, getting back on the streets. The four of them sprinted down the street, dodging the groups of goblins they passed on the way. It was just a short dash down another two streets before they made it to the highway that lead the way out of the city. “Right there, there's the highway! We are just about at the city limits.” Mendores called out as he lead the way onto the highway and began running down the pavement. But... It was then that they came across an odd sight...

        “Wait... What?” Mendores questioned. The highway went a few more feet, to the city limits, then it just stopped. The pavement came to an end, and there was a big, open field of grass ahead. “That's not supposed to be there...” He murmured. It looked as if someone had just copy and pasted Oline city in the middle of a big open field and didn't bother finishing the roads that went outside of the city limits.

        “What do we do now?” Zanath questioned.

        “Just keep running, they will have to give up and stop chasing us eventually. Run out into the field!” Mendores called out. He knew it was a terrible idea to run out into an open field like that, but there was no going back now. There was too many goblins behind them to turn around and go back now. They could only hope the goblins would give up the chase eventually.

–

–

Next chapter: Discovering the Emory Forest.

5: Chapter 5: Discovering the Emory Forest

~~ Chapter 5: Discovering the Emory Forest. ~~

 

        The four Alphas came sprinting out of the city, running right out into the big, open, grassy field with the hordes of angry goblins right behind them. They ran for what must have been another hour or two, it felt like forever and the endless fields of tall grass seemed like they stretched on for ages. Their bodies were sore and exhausted, they couldn't run much longer, and then like a gift from above they spotted a forest ahead of them.

        “Oh thank god! Something other then grass!” Estellese breathlessly called out as they ran for the forest. The rest of the group was staying focused on running and did not speak. The four of them ran straight into the forest, cutting off the goblins' vision of them, then thinking fast Mendores made an order.

        “Everyone!” He panted. “Climb a tree, quick before the goblins see us. They seem stupid, they won't think to look up in the trees and will run past us. We only have a few seconds.” He panted, then in a flash he jumped up and grabbed onto a branch, then pulled himself up onto it and turned around, holding out a hand to help someone else up.

        Estellese was right behind him, she grabbed onto his hand and he helped her pull herself up onto the branch with him. Zanath was right behind her, he jumped at a tree, kicked the bark of the tree and sprang off it, then grabbed onto a high branch and flipped onto it. Kadin was in the back, being the slowest in the group. He jumped up and grabbed onto Mendores' hand and he too was pulled up onto the branch with Mendores and Estellese. Once they were all up the three of them quickly began climbing a bit higher, on the other hand Zanath didn't need to since he was already high enough to be out of sight.

        They barely made it up in time, just moments after they climbed up the branches the massive wave of goblins came running past. Just like Mendores predicted, they were not looking up in the trees, they were looking forwards and just running towards where they thought the humans had gone. It felt like it took forever for the whole herd of goblins to run past, once they had all passed the group looked around at each other, and Mendores shook his head, holding his hand up as if to signal “stop”, he wanted to make sure they stayed in the trees for a little while, just in case the goblins came back or in case there was a few lagging behind.

        They silently waited up in the trees for about thirty minutes, just to be clear that there was no more goblins going past, or coming back through. “Alright, I think it's all clear.” Mendores finally said before he began climbing down the tree, with Estellese and Kadin following moments after him.

        “Alright, we're in a forest now. Now what?” Zanath asked, before jumping straight down from the branches, and tucking into a roll when he landed to break the momentum of the fall without breaking his legs. “Think this will be safer then the city?”

        “Well, nothing is attacking us yet. And we don't have a dragon over our heads ringing a dinner bell.” Kadin replied simply, he was still breathing a little heavily from all the running. He just walked over to the base of the tree and collapsed onto his butt, leaning back against the tree.

        “We had moments in the city where nothing attacked too though. Doesn't mean we are safe.” Mendores pointed out.

        “True.” Kadin replied. “But for the moment, we are in the clear. We should take the time to rest before something else finds us.” He stated.

        Mendores shook his head. “We just had thirty minutes of rest, we need to keep moving and find a safe place to hold up before night falls.” He replied. “This forest seems to grow thicker in that direction, which I think is towards the center. We should head that way and see if we can find an area with a lot of trees grouped together that we can use as cover for the night. The tight space will hinder crowds from swarming us, and stop bigger creatures from getting in.”

        Estellese nodded briefly and turned to look where Mendores was pointing. “Sounds like a plan. If we can find some supplies to set up a makeshift camp that would be useful too.” She said.

        “Come on, we just got away. We can't rest for a while?” Kadin complained as he stood up, knowing very well that they were right, they had to keep moving. Any time spent resting was time not spent finding safety, and every second they weren't finding safety they were putting their lives at risk.

        Mendores shook his head and began walking, leading the group. “Yes, we can rest when we find a safe place to set up camp. A place where we won't be ambushed and killed. Or, at least a place that's a little denser and easier to defend then this.” He explained. The group quieted down as they followed his lead into the woods. They walked for a while, it was a nice lull in the constant danger they had been in before.

        As they walked deeper into the forest they noticed some odd herb-like plants on the ground. They definitely were not any type of plant from the real world, they had a red stem and thick white leaves. Thinking the plants may be poisonous, and worried that they could be poisonous to the touch like poison ivy the group decided not to touch them. Although Kadin, being Kadin, was rather interested in the odd plants and had picked a few of them.

        He was inspecting them closely, the first one he picked apart the stem and ground the leaves down between his fingers, noting that the white leaves left a reddish powder when ground down. The next herb he grabbed then sniffed and bit a small piece of a leaf off. He wasn't really watching where he was going, but thankfully he was in the back of the group so nobody really noticed him tripping and stumbling over tree roots, bumping into trees, and playing with the strange plants. Well, not until he spoke up. “Hey guys, these smell and taste a lot like the healing potions.”

        Estellese stopped and turned around, only to see Kadin with one of the white leaves half in his mouth and a leafless stem in his hand. “Seriously? Didn't we just agree not to touch those because they may be poisonous?”

        “I dunno, did we? I wasn't really paying attention.” Kadin replied simply.

        “Must you try eating every strange thing we find?” Estellese questioned him. “Seriously? You're gonna get yourself killed.”

        “Not everything, Only the things that look like they are good for you.” Kadin said simply. “I inspected it first, it smells like the healing potion, and looks like it may be an ingredient to it, there was a powder similar to what the ground leaves look like in the pharmacy. I even feel a little numb after eating a small piece of one. Just a little.”

        “Can we please kill him before he dooms us all with his stupidity?” Estellese questioned.

        Mendores sighed softly. “Come on you two, no fighting.”  He stated. “Kadin, how sure are you that its an ingredient for a healing potion?” He asked.

        “About eighty percent sure.” Kadin replied simply “But I would need to test it, and would need more then one to test it, the effects of just one seem to be minimal and hardly noticeable.” He explained.

        “Alright, well don't eat any more. We'll figure out what they do later if you're willing to be a test dummy.” Mendores said simply.

        Estellese was shocked. “You're joking right? He eats a random plant off the ground and you are going to tell him to eat another later?”

        Kadin nodded “Yeah, I'm up for it. I am pretty confident that these are used in the,- DUCK!” he shouted out.

        The four of them dropped to the ground as fast as they could, and with a loud swoosh a massive metal battleaxe flew over their heads and slammed into the tree behind them. “What the hell was that?” Estellese questioned. And she got her answer sooner then she may have wanted.

        With a loud roar a ten foot tall, half human, half bull, hulking mass of muscle came stomping out from behind the trees on the right side of the group. The minotaur gave them a death glare and snorted loudly as it stomped it's hoof on the ground. They had trespassed into the beast's territory and the beast wanted them out, now.

        The group looked down at their weapons, these tiny kitchen knives and fragile clubs, then looked back at the massive beast in front of them. “We probably can't even effectively damage it...” Zanath spoke up. “Bulls have strong hides, these tiny kitchen knives aren't going to do more then scratch it.”

        “It's not attacking, I think it just wants us to back off.” Estellese pointed out.

        “Then lets do that.” Mendores replied. “Quickly.”

        The Minotaur was getting impatient, it slammed its hoof into the ground again and let out a low growl as it suddenly started charging at the group. Causing all four of them to make a mad dash away from the beast. The minotaur gave chase, but only for a few more seconds before it stopped and went back to get its axe.

        The group did not turn back, they just continued running as fast as they could to get away. They ran deep into the woods and didn't stop until they were sure that they had run very far away from the beast. They finally came to a stop near the center of the woods, where the trees were all close together, the forest was cramped and hard to maneuver through here.

        Mendores slowed down to a walking pace once they arrived, “Alright, spread out a little and find a spot where there's enough space for us to lay down and rest. We don't need a lot of space, I don't see anything around here we can really use to make a tent. Not easily at least. And while you are searching grab as many of those odd red and white plants as you can.”

        “Are you sure it's safe to stay here?” Estellese questioned. “If we run into more of those things we could be in a hell of a lot of trouble.” She stated.

        Mendores nodded. “The minotaur has hooves, and was pretty big. I don't think it would be able to easily maneuver around this dense area, or slip in between the trees like we do. Plus it was slow, so we should be fine. We will meet back here by night fall, and hope someone found a place for us to stay” He replied before he split off from the group, not going too far, and began searching for a good place for everyone to rest for the night.

        Kadin and Estellese also went off their own separate ways, and then Zanath too split from the group and began searching the woods. Out of everyone here he was having the least difficulty traveling through the denser and thicker woods. He scouted through the woods for a while, it was slowly starting to get dark and he knew he was considering heading back to the meeting point soon to find the others. But he suddenly heard a quiet growling coming from his left. He turned a little and spotted three gray wolves slowly stalking towards him. They were bearing their fangs and growling, slowly circling him as the small pack tried to surround him. He grabbed all seven of his knives in one hand and adjusted them so he was holding one between his thumb and pointer finger, and the rest in his palm. His other hand grabbed his makeshift club and he waited for the wolves to make a move. He considered calling for help, but decided that he would be fine on his own.

        Suddenly, the wolf in front of him, the leader of the pack, started the attack. The wolf lunged at him, trying to tackle him to the ground. But Zanath was quick to bash the wolf out of the air and onto it's back with the makeshift spiked club. As the wolf flew back he threw one of the knives at it with deadly accuracy, piercing the wolf's throat and killing it with the very first knife he threw.

        He heard the other two wolves rushing in to bite his legs and was quick to jump forwards, dropping his club so he could grab onto a tree branch. Then he quickly flipped himself up onto the branch. Once he was safely up on the branch he looked down at the wolves as they growled at him, and he threw the rest of his knives, three at each of the wolves. The first wolf was struck with all three, once in the shoulder, once in the back, and once in the back of the neck. That wolf yelped in pain and collapsed to the ground, not dead but too wounded to keep fighting.

        The second wolf was only hit by one, straight in the center of its back. Once the first knife hit the wolf quickly jumped out of the way of the rest and then returned to growling at Zanath. Zanath took the two duffel bags off his back, so he wouldn't be weighed down by them as much, and dropped them down to the ground. Then he jumped down from the branch, tucking into a roll as he hit the ground and sweeping his club up off the ground as he rolled. Of course, the wolf jumped on top of him immediately and pinned him down onto his back, but right as the wolf went to bite him he shoved the side of his makeshift club into the wolf's mouth to stop it from biting. As the wolf struggled and tried to bite the club, Zanath reached around and grabbed the knife from the wolf's back with his other hand. Then in one swift motion he yanked the knife out of the wolf's back, and stabbed it back into the side of the wolf's head.

        With the three wolves either dead or incapacitated, Zanath stood up and recollected his knives. He picked up his bags, and he finished off the wounded wolf by quickly cutting it's throat. He didn't want it to suffer with it's wounds, and he knew it wouldn't survive either way. He frowned a little as he looked over the three dead wolves, he was a bit sad that he had to kill them but he shook it off. This was a game, as real as it felt they were not real. He grabbed his things and went to meet the others back at the meeting point.

–

He didn't need to wait too long before the others arrived, everyone pretty much came back around the same time. Estellese was already back when Zanath returned. She looked up at him and asked “Did you find anything?”

        “Just the plants.” Zanath replied simply, choosing to leave out his encounter with the wolves. “You?” He asked.

        “I found a place we can probably stay, and more of those plants. They are all over the place.” Estellese replied simply. And as she spoke she spotted Mendores returning to the camp.

        Mendores smiled a bit “Good because I didn't find anything other then the plants. So we are just missing Kadin then?” He asked.

        “Of course, he probably did something stupid and got himself killed.” Estellese remarked.

        “You don't like him much, do you?” Mendores chuckled.

        “He's cocky! And annoying as hell!” Estellese protested.

        Mendores chuckled softly and after a moment Kadin returned to the group with a handful of the odd plants. “Welcome back,” Mendores greeted “Estell has found a place for us to camp out for the night. We're going to head there now. Lead the way Estell” He said.

        Estellese nodded and lead the way to a tiny clearing that was surrounded by bushes and thickly settled trees that made getting into it difficult. The group slipped into the tiny clearing, there wasn't a ton of space but there was enough for everyone.

        “I wonder why the trees didn't grow here.” Kadin mused. But when everyone else shrugged he just sat down in the middle of the clearing and began grinding up some more of the oddly colored herbs in his hands. He couldn't grind them up too well, it took forever, but he was grinding up several of them.

        “You going to give the herbs a test? See if they work?” Mendores asked. To which Kadin simply nodded. “Alright, I'll help out then.” Mendores added as he sat down near kadin and he too began grinding up a few herbs.

        Zanath and Estellese wandered off to different sides of the clearing, both of them were looking for a semi comfortable place to sleep while Kadin and Mendores prepared a few of the herbs. For a little while the group was quiet. After a few minutes enough of the herbs were ground up into a sort of a powder. With that said and done Kadin took one of his knives and carefully made a small cut on his arm, then he took the ground up herbs he had in his palm and then he dumped them into one of the bottles of water Zanath had brought, and then he quickly chugged down all the water.

        “The potions took five minutes to work.” Kadin said, just in case they had forgotten.

        Mendores nodded “I know. We'll keep a close eye on you until then. Just to make sure nothing bad happens.” He said. “Not that there's much we can do if something bad does come from drinking those.” He added.

        Kadin nodded a little “I am pretty sure they are ingredients in the potions. I should be okay. If not then I'll figure something out.” He said.

        Mendores nodded, and within a minute or so Kadin went numb and had to lay down. The group remained relatively quiet for the next few minutes. They were all a little worried about what would happen. The five minutes felt like they dragged on forever, but by the end of the five minutes the cut had healed and Kadin was back on his feet. “It works, these are used for potions.” He stated. “Lets get another one ready for Estell, so we can heal up her burns.”

        “Already got one. Ground up several more herbs and put them into a bottle while you were making yours.” Mendores replied as he tossed the water bottle that had the ground herbs mixed in it to Estellese, who caught it and cautiously inspected the red water.

        “So, just drink it all? And thanks.” Estellese replied. When she got a nod from the others she drank the entire bottle as fast as she could and laid down, waiting for it to work. In five minutes her hands were healed and the burns were gone.

        With everyone in good health and the group in a semi safe area they all found a place to lay down and went to sleep for the night. One person at a time would take shifts watching over the camp for a few hours each. Mendores took the first shift, then Estellese, then Zanath.

        On Zanath's shift he was looking up at the full moon, he could just barely see it through the trees. He stood up when he suddenly heard a wolf's howl in the distance. Followed by another howl moments later, then another, and another, it sounded like there was a ton of wolves surrounding them. Thankfully it was just wolves, but there was so many that it concerned him when he heard the howls and nearby growling steadily getting closer. It was getting a little too close for comfort.

        “Guys, wake up. We may have to fight a few wolves.” Zanath said, repeating the words several times as he quickly rushed to each of his new allies and shook them to wake them. Once everyone was awake and standing together he looked up at them. “I hear a lot of wolves around us and they are getting closer. But I took three of them out earlier, they are easy. We should have no problem standing our ground.” He explained.

        “You killed three of them by yourself? Nice.” Estellese replied as the group grabbed their weapons again and prepared for the fight ahead of them.

        There was another howl, this one sounding very close to the edge of the clearing. The group turned to face the source of the noise, they could see the bushes moving as something came closer. Then, all of a sudden, some furry, human-sized creature came dashing out from the trees. It was moving so incredibly fast that it was just a blur, and in a split second the beast went from the woods to standing two feet away from the four humans. It swiped it's claw at Zanath who attempted to block with his makeshift club, but it was useless. The beast was so strong that it splintered the wooden club into pieces, knocking Zanath backwards a few feet with the force of the blow.

        The group looked up to see a six foot tall humanoid standing on two legs. It had a human torso, arms, and legs but had a wolf's head, and paws for hands and feet with a long tail while it's entire body was covered in fur. It was a werewolf and it was not alone, moments later three more werewolves began running out from the trees. They were surrounded.

        Moving quick Kadin lunged in and stabbed the werewolf in the side of the neck with his knives. He jumped back as the werewolf spun around and swiped its claws at him, narrowly dodging the attack. He thought he had landed a good blow in there, the werewolf was bleeding very badly. But as the werewolf turned on him and began walking towards him he watched as the wounds on the beast's neck slowly healed. Within just a few seconds the werewolf had fully recovered. “They heal! We can't damage them!” Kadin called out as he dove to the side to evade another slash from the werewolf's claws.

        “Well we can't outrun them, they are too damn fast!” Estellese countered as she turned to the other incoming werewolves, along with Zanath and Mendores. The four of them were almost standing back to back.

        “Get to a tree, maybe they won't be able to reach us up in a tree!” Mendores called out as he watched the werewolves slowly approaching and surrounding them.

“Are you crazy? How are we going to make it to the trees before we get mauled?” Estellese countered.

        Mendores stepped up to take the lead again. “Run as a group, cover each other's backs. Whoever is attacked needs to dodge, and someone else needs to strike their attacker. Just knock the attacker away and keep running. Go!”

        The group began to run, but as they did one of the surrounding werewolves lunged for Estellese. But Estellese was quick to dive out of the way while Kadin bashed the werewolf aside. They immediately continued running for the trees. They couldn't even move five feet before the werewolves were on top of them again. One lunged for Mendores but was quickly bashed away by Estellese. A second one attempted to tackle Zanath but Zanath ducked underneath it and thrust a knife up into its stomach as the werewolf flew over his head. He lost his knife, but he just grabbed a new one from his belt.

        There was just so many of them though, another wolf lunged at Estellese, but she was quick to dive out of the way and Kadin followed up the attack by slamming his makeshift club down into the werewolf's head, knocking it to the ground. But immediately after he struck that wolf another wolf jumped onto Kadin's back and pinned him to the ground, but in a flash both Mendores and Estellese   slammed into the werewolf's side and shoved it off Kadin. But as soon as they did two more werewolves were already moving in on the three of them and a third werewolf was rushing after Zanath.

        Zanath was quick to jump backwards to avoid the lunge of the werewolf that was attacking him, and skillfully flung one of his knives at one of the werewolves that was going after his three allies. Striking it in the Achilles tendon in the back of the werewolf's leg, sending that werewolf tumbling to the ground. The other werewolf lunged for Mendores but as planned Mendores dove out of the way and Kadin was quick to bash the werewolf with his makeshift club and knock it backwards a little.

        They finally made it to the trees, which hadn't even been that far away. But another problem quickly arose, the wolves were attacking too fast for them to climb up the tree. Zanath tried jumping up and kicking off the tree like he had done before, but another werewolf lunged at him while he was in mid jump and swatted him out of the air with it's claws. Leaving a deep cut in his side and slamming him right back to the ground, causing him to shout out in pain. Before the werewolf could cause him any further harm Estellese rushed over to attack the werewolf from the side, and shoved the werewolf away. As it stumbled back she quickly grabbed the back of Zanath's shirt and yanked him back up onto his feet as fast as she could. She barely made it in time before another werewolf was in front of her and taking a slash at her head.

        Estellese couldn't dodge fast enough, she let out a yelp and in a panic she lifted her club in an attempt to block. But the werewolf's claw slammed into her club so hard it just snapped her club in half and went straight through her block, causing her to move her arms in front of the werewolf's claws as fast as she could to protect her head. She screamed out in pain as the werewolf's claws dug deep into her arms and she was thrown back against the tree from the force of the hit. Kadin and Mendores both were quick to rush in and bash the werewolf who was attacking Estellese away with their clubs, but things were turning bad, fast.

        Mendores took a defensive stance between Estellese and Zanath, and the werewolves. “You two, get up the tree, as fast as you can. Kadin, help me cover them.” He instructed, watching as Kadin came up beside him to try and cover the others, and as the other two did their best to start climbing the tree. But they were greatly slowed down by their wounds. One of the werewolves tried to run past Mendores to reach the two wounded fighters but Mendores was quick to slam his makeshift club into the werewolf's kneecap, knocking the beast to the ground with a loud crack and a howl of pain. A second werewolf lunged for Mendores, but Kadin was quick to grab his arm and pull Mendores out of the way, then promptly slammed his makeshift club down onto the werewolf's head. Another werewolf lunged for Mendores but Mendores slammed his club up into its jaw, knocking it onto its back. And as the fourth and final werewolf lunged for Kadin he quickly dove out of the way.

        They still hadn't even left a scratch on a single werewolf, the ones they struck down just got right back up within a few seconds of being knocked down. But by now Zanath and Estellese were safely up in the tree. “Kadin you're next. Go!” Mendores called out.

        “No way, you can't take them all on yourself. And you can't climb fast enough to get up there with them all attacking you. You first” Kadin countered.

        “Kadin just go!” Mendores argued as he dove out of the way of another werewolf.

        “No. I'm not going until you do. I can climb faster.” Kadin argued.

        Mendores could tell that Kadin was going to be stubborn and was not going to give in, and they did not have time to sit here and argue. “Fine, just be careful.” Mendores insisted as he ran to the tree and started climbing up.

        Kadin was doing his best to hold out against all of them alone, but without help he could not afford to make a single mistake. He had nobody covering his back, nobody to save him if he got pinned. He jumped to the side to evade the lunge of one werewolf, and barely managed to sidestep a  slash from another werewolf. As a third werewolf came in he stumbled backwards to avoid the blow, but then as the first one rushed in to attack again he was forced to parry the attack with his makeshift club. He used the club to try to block and then push away the werewolf's attack, which caused his own club to splinter into small pieces and sent Kadin stumbling backwards, but successfully pushed the attack away from himself.

        But then the second werewolf lunged at him, pinning Kadin to the ground. Kadin shouted in pain as the werewolf's claws dug into his shoulders and cussed loudly as he was pinned. He had no way of getting the werewolf off himself, it was much stronger then he was. The werewolf opened it's mouth and moved in to bite his throat, then suddenly there was a loud metallic clang and the werewolf was knocked off of him. He looked over to see that Zanath had thrown the heavy bag full of canned foods down at the werewolf and struck it in the side of the head.

        “Get up here! Now!” Mendores called out as he reached the higher branches in the tree, then leaned down and held out a hand to try and help pull Kadin up faster.

        Kadin sprung back onto his feet as fast as he could and made a mad dash for the tree. The other three werewolves rushed after him, and would have caught him long before he reached the tree. But Zanath was quick to throw three knives down, and with pinpoint accuracy hit all three werewolves in the face with a knife, which made them recoil in pain and slowed them down just long enough for Kadin to reach the tree.

        Kadin jumped up and grabbed Mendores' hands, but as Mendores tried to pull him up the werewolves recovered from their knife wounds and two of them grabbed onto Kadin's legs, digging their claws into him and tearing at his legs. Kadin shouted out in pain and Mendores tried to pull him up but the werewolves were holding him down and trying to pull him back. The more both sides pulled, the more the claws tore up Kadin's legs. “Get them off! Quick!” Mendores called out.

      “I can only reach one of them! My view of the other one is blocked” Zanath called out, but he promptly threw a knife down into the face of one werewolf. The werewolf howled in pain but refused to let go and instead dug its claws deeper into Kadin's leg, causing Kadin to scream out in pain. Zanath quickly threw a second knife down at the werewolf's face, again to no effect. When that didn't work and he realized he only had one knife left he knew he had to try something different. He needed something heavier to knock the werewolf off Kadin and he didn't have anything he could throw that they didn't need.

      Zanath took a deep breath, and quickly calculated his move in his head, then suddenly he jumped down off the branch and landed right on the werewolf's shoulders, slamming his feet down onto the werewolf as hard as he could as he landed. He used the werewolf as a springboard, slamming it down to the ground while jumping off it and back up into the tree. He whimpered in pain from the movement, the slash in his side made moving extremely painful, but that wasn't all. The wound also slowed him down, it stopped him from jumping as high as he normally could. As he jumped up and reached out to grab the branch to get back up, it was just out of his reach, and he started to fall back down.

       In a flash, something grabbed onto Zanath's arm, catching him before he fell too far. He looked up to see Estellese, who was now screaming in pain as she tried to hold him up with her torn up arms. “Get up! Quick! I can't hold you for long!” Estellese shouted out, her voice wavering in pain.

       Zanath grabbed onto Estellese's arms, but realized that the other werewolf was still clinging onto Kadin's leg. “I'm sorry!” He said quickly, before he swung himself at the other werewolf and slammed his heel down into the werewolf's elbow, causing the werewolf to howl out in pain as it's elbow was broken, and forcing the beast to let go with that arm. But the swinging also pulled Estellese's arms and made her scream in pain again. Zanath then cringed in pain as he pulled himself up her arm and grabbed onto the branch they were sitting on, then let her go and pulled himself onto the branch. He only just barely pulled his legs up in time to avoid being grabbed by another werewolf who replaced the one he knocked down

       Meanwhile, once Zanath knocked one werewolf off Kadin and knocked one of the other werewolf's arms away, Mendores took that moment to pull Kadin up. He yanked Kadin's arms as hard as he could. The werewolf was still clutching his leg with one of its claws, and those claws tore into Kadin's leg as Mendores pulled, but with it only having one hand grasping Kadin, Kadin was pulled out of the werewolf's grip and up onto the branch with Mendores.

       Everyone was finally up in the tree, just out of the werewolves' reach. But it wasn't over, the werewolves couldn't jump as high as the humans could, but they instead moved to the base of the tree and dug their claws into the bark, then began climbing up.

       “No... They can climb trees? You're kidding me...” Mendores panted out, then turned to look back at his three wounded friends. None of them were in any condition to fight.

       “How the hell do they expect anyone to survive in this game?” Estellese nearly shouted.

       “We need to climb higher, it's the only place we can go.” Mendores stated.

       “Are you crazy?” Kadin groaned. “I can't move my legs, they are torn up too much.” He stated, his voice was weak and laced with pain. His legs were in very bad shape and he was losing a lot of blood. “Blood loss is setting in, I am lightheaded and my vision is slowly going black.”

       “We have no choice, up is the only way we can go. Use your arms if you can't move your legs.” Mendores stated before he grabbed Kadin and lifted him up near a higher branch.

       Kadin whimpered in pain but caught onto the plan quickly and grabbed onto the branch, then pulled himself up. Thankfully the werewolves could not climb nearly as fast as they could run.

       “Estell, grab onto my back, I'll carry you up.” Mendores instructed, being the only one who wasn't wounded he had to help everyone else get up. There was no way Estellese could continue climbing fast enough with her arms torn up like this.

       “You sure?” Estellese questioned, but when he nodded and crouched down she got onto his back and he stood back up, giving her a piggyback ride. “Zanath, come up right after me.” Mendores stated before he started climbing up the tree as fast as he could with Estellese on his back. He was struggling to climb with her added weight, but thankfully he was strong enough to climb relatively fast. And Zanath was right behind him, struggling to move with his wounds but pushing through the pain and climbing as fast as he could.

       Mendores and Zanath climbed right past the branch Kadin was on, going up the tree without him. “I will be back for you Kadin. Estell, keep an eye on him.” Mendores ordered.

       “Got it.” Estellese replied. She looked down at Kadin and the werewolves that were closing in. She watched as they climbed higher and higher, but the werewolves were slowly closing in on Kadin. Kadin grabbed his club and was trying to swat them down, but the blood loss was making him weak, he couldn't put enough force into his swings to knock them down. Estellese bit her lip, then acted as fast as she could. She pulled her duffel bag of food off her back, using her legs to hold onto Mendores, then threw the duffel bag down at the werewolves as hard as her wounded arms would allow. Her bag was full of food, mostly cans, and that made the bag heavy. As it struck the first wolf in the head it hit hard enough to knock the werewolf off the tree, which in turn made the werewolf fall and knock all the werewolves underneath itself off the tree too. But all the werewolves just got right back on the tree and started climbing back up.

       Mendores finally reached the highest branches that could support their weight. Mendores quickly put Estellese down on a branch and immediately started climbing back down as fast as he could. He was about halfway back down when he realized that the werewolves were getting a little too close to Kadin again, they could almost reach him. He grit his teeth, he didn't want to throw away even more of their food, but he had no choice. He pulled his bag of food off his shoulders and hurled it down at the top werewolf. But as the bag fell down towards the werewolf the beast let go of the tree with one hand and swatted the bag away, it was not going to fall for the same trick twice.

       The werewolf that was the highest up on the tree grabbed onto the branch that Kadin was sitting on, Kadin was repeatedly hitting it in the head and hands with his spiked club but his body was too weak from blood loss. The werewolf was just completely ignoring his feeble attempts to knock it down, it was hanging from the branch and was slowly starting to pull itself up.

       Mendores saw his bag miss, and saw how close the werewolf was. There was no way he could climb down fast enough to get there in time, he was too far up the tree. He cussed lightly under his breath, then in a reckless attempt to save Kadin, he let go of the tree and fell. He was not even close to being as agile as Zanath, he couldn't pull off the fancy tricks Zanath did. As he fell he grabbed onto the branch Kadin was sitting on to break his fall, with a loud pop and a shout of pain he felt one of his shoulders break as his shoulders ended up taking the impact of the fall, and his hands were cut up on the tree bark. It was far too big of a jump to simply catch yourself like that. But that didn't stop Mendores, as soon as he grabbed the branch he swung forwards and kicked the werewolf that was hanging from the branch as hard as he could in the chest, with both of his feet, Knocking the werewolf off the tree and right back down to the ground. The fall knocked the werewolf out, and it seemed like the werewolf did not recover from unconsciousness as fast as it recovered from everything else.

       Mendores cringed in pain as he pulled himself up onto the branch and looked down at his hands, they were covered in blood but he couldn't tell if it was his own or if it was from one of his friends. It felt like his hands were cut up by the branch though, so he assumed it was his own. The second werewolf grabbed onto the branch now that the first one had been knocked off, and it too started pulling itself up onto the branch.

       “Lets go.” Mendores said as he crouched down and let Kadin grab onto his back. As soon as Kadin was holding on he began climbing the tree again, as fast as he could. He was exhausted, and in severe pain from his broken shoulder and torn up hands, but running off adrenaline he was pushing through the pain and climbing fast. The werewolves were quickly falling behind, thankfully they were very slow climbers.

       Mendores made it almost all the way to the top, but then suddenly he felt Kadin leaning back and felt Kadin's grip slowly loosening. Kadin had lost too much blood, he passed out and was no longer holding on, he was slowly slipping off Mendores' back. “Get a potion made up for Kadin! Now! Have Estellese drink one too, but get Kadin's down here first!” Mendores shouted up to the others, who were about fifteen feet above him. He grabbed Kadin to stop him from falling off and quickly moved onto the nearest branch where he leaned Kadin up against the trunk of the tree, he couldn't both hold Kadin up and climb at the same time.

       “On it.” Zanath called out as him and Estellese quickly grabbed some of their herbs and began grinding them up as best as they could, then they would to mix them into two water bottles.

        The werewolves were slowly catching up and getting close, Mendores gripped his club tightly and was prepared to swing if they got in range.

       “Done! Catch!” Zanath called out. He waited for Mendores to put the club down and look up before Zanath tossed the water bottle potion down to him. Mendores went to catch the bottle, but with his hands being so torn up and numb from the climb, and his hands also being covered in blood and slippery, when he tried to grab the bottle he couldn't grab onto it tightly enough and it slipped right out of his hand, falling down to the ground at the bottom of the tree.

       “Carry it down Zanath!” Estellese shouted at him in a panic. She handed him the bottle she had made for herself then quickly got to work on making another one. They had collected a lot of herbs, but it was only enough for about ten or so potions, that was the second one they made and it was wasted, and they were going to need four more to heal everyone. They were going to run out in no time at this rate.

       Zanath took the bottle from Estellese and put it in one of his pockets, then quickly began climbing down the tree as fast as his wounds would let him.

       The werewolves were starting to reach the branch now though, the one that was the highest up on the tree grabbed onto the branch and started pulling itself up. Mendores grabbed his club, and then grabbed Kadin's too, holding one in each hand. Then he started smashing the spiked clubs into the werewolf's head and hands repeatedly, as fast and hard as he could. The werewolf howled in pain and was struggling to hold on and trying to pull itself up, but it was getting wounded faster then it could recover. After many swings, it's hands became too torn up to keep a grip on the branch and it fell all the way back down to the ground, it too was knocked out and did not get back up, for now. But the other two were not far behind.

       Zanath reached the branch Kadin and Mendores were on, and quickly rushed over to Kadin. Pouring the drink into his mouth and forcing the unconscious man to swallow it. Meanwhile the second wolf grabbed onto the branch and Mendores began bashing it's head and hands just like he did to the last one. It again took many hits to bring it down, but it eventually lost its grip and fell to the ground, being knocked out by the impact like all of the others.

       The last of the werewolves saw the failures of the other two and tried a different tactic. Instead of climbing onto the branch everyone was on, it started climbing onto a nearby one, out of Mendores' reach. Once it was up on the limb it turned to the humans who were across from it then jumped across to their branch, landing in between Mendores and Zanath.

       The werewolf swiped its claws for Zanath's head, but Zanath ducked under the swing and carefully took a step back to get some distance. Mendores stepped forwards and slammed both clubs into the werewolf's side, trying to knock it off the branch, he made it stumble but it didn't fall. Zanath saw his opportunity as the werewolf stumbled, he dove forwards and tackled the werewolf, throwing both himself and the werewolf right off the branch.

       As they fell, Zanath grabbed onto one of the first branches he fell past and caught himself. He shouted in pain as the slash in his side was torn open even more and just hung there for a moment, watching the werewolf fall the rest of the way to the ground. It too was knocked out and joined the others in laying at the base of the tree. Zanath pulled himself up onto the branch and collapsed onto it, panting heavily. His wound was just a slash in the side, but he too was starting to feel the effects of blood loss setting in.

       But, they were safe for now. With the werewolves out of the way Mendores laid back on his own branch, panting for air. Once the five minutes were up and her wounds were healed, Estellese made two new potions and climbed down, passing one to both Mendores and Zanath. But she noticed that Kadin's five minutes were up, and his wounds had not completely healed. They were mostly healed, but there was still a few deep cuts and scrapes. Thankfully, he took the potion before he bled to death, but it was a very close call.

       “Hey, the potion didn't heal Kadin all the way.” Estellese pointed out.

       Mendores shrugged and shook his head after taking a look. “I don't know...” He said breathlessly. “His legs were really badly torn up, maybe there's a limit to how much damage the potions can fix. We'll give him another one, maybe that will heal the rest.” He stated.

       And that was what they did, a second potion was able to heal Kadin the rest of the way, and after that they went back to sleep up in the tree for what was left of the night. Each of them would take shifts in keeping watch over the others, including Kadin when he woke up.

–

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Next Chapter: Back to Square One.

6: Chapter 6: Back to Square one

~~ Chapter 6: Back to Square One ~~

     Morning came in what felt like no time at all, nobody slept well with the threat of the werewolves looming just below them. But at this point, there was nothing more they could do, they were stuck up in this tree until the werewolves left. When morning came Mendores was on his shift, watching over the group. He watched as the werewolves turned back into humans, and those humans saw the bags of loot that had been thrown down at them during the previous night. They took all of the bags before running off, and Mendores was too high up in the tree to get down in time to stop them. All of that food and survival supplies, they had just gotten it, and now it was gone.

     Kadin still had his bag of food, and Zanath still had his bags of water and candy. But everything else they had picked up on their way here was gone. “We are right back to where we started...” Kadin spoke up, walking over to Mendores and watching as the werewolves ran off with their things. “Completely helpless against the countless beasts all around us... With no supplies to survive... What do we do now?”

     “We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Mendores replied. “It seems like no matter where we go, we will be nothing more then food for the locals.”

     “I would say, we were safer in the city though.” Kadin replied. When he spoke Mendores paused to think about it. But before he could answer Estellese spoke up.

     “Are you insane?” Estellese countered. “The city had a fricken dragon!”

     “I would have to agree with Kadin on this one.” Mendores answered. “The city had a dragon, yes. But only one that we know of. We can hide in the houses to keep out of the dragon's sight, but out here in the woods, if these werewolves come after us again. We can't escape them. We were lucky we got away the first time, they just move too fast for us, and we can't do anything to harm them.” He said.

     “What about the goblins?” Estellese countered. “Those things have nearly superhuman strength. And the giant spiders we saw before?”

     “The goblins may be strong, but they are dumb as bricks.” Zanath interrupted as he joined the others. “And the giant spiders have the disadvantage of being giant. Their size won't help them much in the tight alleyways.” Plus, he himself felt safer in the city. With his skills in parkour, the buildings offered much more safety to him then they did to others.

     “So. We are heading back to the city then?” Mendores asked.

     “My vote is go back to the city.” Kadin answered. “We have no chance of survival out here.”

     “City.” Zanath replied.

     “Fine...” Estellese sighed. “I just think we would be safer finding a new place.”

     “It is just too much of a risk.” Mendores replied. “What if whatever else is out there is worse? Werewolves are low on the chain of dangerous monsters, all things considered. We have nothing to defend ourselves with, but we know we can handle the monsters in the city. It is our safest bet right now.” He explained. “Lets go everyone.”

     “Which way is it?” Estellese asked.

     “South west.” Zanath replied, pointing to their right. “We ran north east to get here, and the sun is rising in that direction.” He explained, pointing to the sun in a left-ish direction.

     “How do you notice these things?” Estellese questioned.

     “Isn't it obvious? Everyone knows where the sun is.” Zanath answered.

      “It's not obvious... When ou are running from hordes of giblins that are trying to kill you, who pays attention to the sun?” Estellese replied. To which Zanath just shrugged.

     Everyone made their way down the tree, and quickly headed back in the direction of town. They were all exhausted from that sleepless night, and they wanted to conserve their energy, so they did not run and instead jogged back towards town. Mendores and Estellese lead the way; Kadin trailed behind them a little, not being in as good shape as they were; and Zanath, despite being able to easily outrun them all, trailed in the back not far behind Kadin.

     They had a rather uneventful jog back towards the city. They avoided the place where they saw the minotaur before and quickly were out of the forest. They did notice that there was a mountain south of the forest and east of the field that was surrounding Oline city, but they opted to not check that out. The dangerous mountain paths were not what they needed right now. It was a few hours later that they finally reached Oline city again.

     They stood on that weird city limit where the city met the surrounding grassy field, where the road out of the city just stopped and suddenly became grass. “Hey, Kadin. I broke my club in the last fight, can I have yours? Since you aren't using it?” Estellese asked, noting that Kadin had chosen to carry two knives and had his club just lying in his bag.

     “Sure.” Kadin said, he took the makeshift club out of his bag and handed it to Estellese.

     “Can I have your knife? You don't use it and I threw all but one of mine.” Zanath asked Estellese.

     “Uh...” Estellese hesitated. “Sure.” She said and handed him her knife, he was pretty good at throwing those things. She just hoped he didn't lose this one too.

     Mendores took a deep breath. “Alright, lets go everyone. Keep your weapons in your hands, as always.” He said before he began leading the way into the city.

     Estellese shook her head a little and followed along. “So, now that we are here. What exactly are we doing here?”

     “Surviving.” Kadin answered simply and bluntly.

     “Searching for supplies.” Mendores answered. “We need weapons, food, and shelter. We can probably find food and shelter here. Maybe weapons if we are lucky.”

     “Overall, we just need to find a safe place to stay, we could probably eat goblin if we needed to.” Kadin spoke up.

     “Eew!” Estellese countered. “What the hell is wrong with you? Those things are dirty, disgusting, they smell horrible, and they look like people.” When Kadin gave her a rather unamused look she added “You are either insane, or an idiot.”

     Kadin raised an eyebrow. “Why not both?” He asked, causing Zanath and Mendores to chuckle very briefly.

     “You are right, definitely both, my bad.” Estellese replied and shook her head.

     Mendores chuckled a little, “We do need to focus and keep quiet guys. We are not exactly walking through a field of lilies.” He stated as they turned the corner and froze. Lying in the middle of the road was the sleeping dragon, or, what was a sleeping dragon. The dragon growled quietly and slowly opened it's eyes, looking up at the four humans.

     “Ooooh, you woke up the dragooon” Kadin said in a teasing tone as he turned to Mendores. Mendores and Estellese both shot Kadin a glare. “What? He did.” Kadin replied.

     “Slowly back away, maybe it won't attack us.” Mendores said quietly, trying to ignore Kadin for the time being. The four of them began very slowly backing away, trying not to anger the dragon and hoping it would just go back to sleep. Maybe, if they were lucky, it wouldn't be hungry and would have eaten a few goblins or something.

     But it was no good, the dragon stood up and let out a loud roar. Baring it's teeth and staring down at the humans who had trespassed in her domain yet again. Kadin, Mendores, and Estellese quickly spun around and began sprinting down the street, but Zanath did not run just yet.

     Zanath took the knife Estellese had handed him and took advantage of the fact that the dragon was close to him. With a flick of his wrist he threw the knife point-first straight into the dragon's right eye. As soon as the knife struck the dragon's eye the dragon let out a roar so loud that the ground shook, and Zanath spun around and sprinted after the others, his speed allowing him to catch up to the rest of the group in no time flat.

     “I just gave you that knife and you already lost it?!” Estellese questioned him.

     “I got the dragon's right eye, probably blinded the thing in that eye. With the way a dragon's head is shaped, the eyes are on the sides. It probably can't see anything on its right side now.” Zanath stated. “We should stay to its right.” He added.

     Mendores nodded “Good thinking.” He replied. Then, as a strong gust of wind signaled to the group that the sleepy dragon had taken flight, he began giving out instructions. “Dragon's probably going to try another flyby fireball. Be ready to dodge then rush to the alleyways on the left before it can turn around. We need to lose the dragon and get some distance from the area before that roar attracts the hordes again.”

     “Got it.” Kadin and Zanath replied.

     “Why the left? He's blind in his right eye we should go right.” Estellese questioned.

     “When the dragon turns around, his right side will be our left.” Mendores answered.

     “Oh, makes sense.” Estellese replied.

     As he had predicted, the dragon swooped down from above and spat another fireball down at them once it was directly over their heads. The four of them could feel the searing heat from the fireball before it even came close to them and immediately all four of them dove to the sides to get out of the way. Kadin and Estellese landed on their stomachs while Mendores and Zanath tucked into a roll and ended up back on their feet.

     Mendores grabbed Estellese's arm to help her up, and Zanath did the same for Kadin. Once they were up they looked to the sky and saw the dragon starting to circle around to come back at them again. “Quick!” Mendores called out as he sprinted off into the alleyway to their left with the three others following right behind him.

     As they ran down the alleyway they heard the dragon swooping past and felt the gust of wind as it flew by them. They could hear the distant roar of the furious dragon, having lost its prey. But as Kadin looked up at the sky he could see that it was circling around the area, searching for them. “We need to get somewhere where it can't find us. Fast.” Kadin stated “It is flying around and looking for us.” He added.

     “That's not all that is looking for us, eyes on the road not the sky. We'll hear the dragon if it comes after us.” Mendores replied as they ran out the other side of the alleyway, only to see the goblins pouring out of the houses and alleyways yet again. But, oddly enough, there was one place the goblins were not coming out of, an old subway entrance. Just a big staircase going underground, of all the places the goblins wouldn't be, that was the one place Mendores had expected the goblins to be. And they were not there. Why? “The subway entrance. Only place they are not coming out of. It's very risky, I don't know why they aren't coming out of there, but the dragon won't find us there and it's the only place we will be able to get into from here without fighting through the horde of goblins. Unless we do another rooftop run, but if we did that the dragon would surely spot us.” He instructed.

     The group was hesitant about this idea, the fact that goblins were not coming out of there was both a relief an a concern. It was great they had a seemingly goblin free place to run to, but what was in there that was keeping the goblins out? Then again they didn't have much choice in the matter, so the four of them sprinted for the subway as the goblins started closing in on them from all sides. They made it in and rushed down the stairs, with hundreds of goblins right on their heels. But... It was not a subway entrance. The stairs came to an abrupt end.

     At the bottom of the straight subway stairs was not a subway, but a very deep hole with a small spiral staircase going straight down, so far down that the bottom could not be seen, looking down the humans only saw black. Having nowhere else to go, the four humans rushed down the spiral staircase with the goblins following right behind them. The goblins were fighting each other to get down the stairs first, each one of them wanted to get the humans for themselves and were shoving the others out of the way. This resulted in several of the goblins being pushed off the stairs and plummeting down to their deaths.

     They rushed down the stairs for what felt like forever, evading the occasional falling goblin on their way down. When the four humans reached the bottom of the stairs they found themselves in one very small room. The only things in the room were the stairs, the dead goblins who fell off the stairs, and a big eerie looking double door. The door was black, metal, and huge with pointy iron poles sticking out of it as part of the design.

     The door looked anything but inviting, it was pretty clear that whatever was behind that door was not happiness and sunshine, most likely the complete opposite. But as they looked back and saw the hordes of goblins rushing down the stairs after them… There wasn’t much choice.

     “Through the door, push it open and watch for the points. Be ready for whatever is on the other side.” Mendores instructed. “And pray it isn’t worse then the hordes of goblins…” He silently added in his head.

     Mendores and Zanath took the left side of the double door while Kadin and Estellese took the other side. Being careful not to jab themselves on the metal bits sticking out  of the doors, they pushed the heavy doors open. An eerie blue glow emitted from inside the room but they didn’t have time to figure out what it was. All four of them rushed into the room and then slammed the big doors shut behind themselves just as the goblins started reaching the bottom of the stairs.

     They could hear the shouting of the goblins on the other side of the door that didn’t have the reaction speeds to stop in time, and ended up running into the sharp metal bits sticking out of the door. The door shook as several of the goblins hit it, but they couldn’t maneuver around the spikes well enough to get a firm grip on the door and push it. And then, there was silence, for now.

-

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Next Chapter: Into the fire.

7: Chapter 7: Into the Fire

-- Chapter 7: Into the fire. --

Silence. The four of them remained holding the massive doors shut long after the goblins stopped trying to get through. Nobody dared to move, everyone was frozen in place. It was several long minutes of silence before the four players stepped away from and door and turned around to face what they had gotten themselves into now. It looked to be a cave, but was oddly shaped. It would have been pitch black if it weren’t for the blue crystals that lined the walls and emitted a light glow giving the area a blue-ish tint and making it just barely bright enough to see. There was stalagmites and stalactites on the floor and ceiling of the cave. The ground was uneven and rocky as if it were a natural cave, but the way the room was carved out in a squarish shape as if it was meant to be a room brought question to if it was natural or not. None of them could really tell.

There was one doorway-like opening on the far end of the room that lead deeper into this cave, and beyond that the room had nothing else in it. The four of them took a moment to look around and take all of this in before they turned to each other to try and figure out what their next step should be.

“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” Kadin replied simply. “Whatever is deeper in this cave… Is probably far more dangerous than a goblin. But, on the other hand. Maybe there won’t be such an overwhelmingly high amount of whatever it is.”

“Keep in mind…” Zanath spoke up. “That could be a bad thing. There wasn’t very many werewolves attacking us, but we still stood a better chance against the goblin hordes then the werewolves.” He stated.

“Of course.” Kadin replied. “Just commenting on the situation, so we can try to brainstorm some sort of plan.”

“So…” Estellese started. “Do we take our chances on the cave, or go back out and pray the goblins are gone?” She asked. “My vote is to try our luck in the cave, the bad luck has to end sometime right?”

“My vote is for the cave as well” Kadin replied. “Don’t think our luck will be any better, but we need to give the goblins time to move on to someplace else.”

“Yeah, cave.” Mendores replied.

“Agreed” Zanath added.

“Alright, cave it is then.” Mendores stated as he began walking across the room, towards the doorway like exit to the room. It seemed to lead to a long hallway, further making them question if this cave was natural or not. They all silently walked down the hall, trying to make  as little noise as possible. Keeping their weapons held tightly in their hands and staying on alert. They knew something had to be down here… What was with the big door? And the oddly shaped room-like caves? The strange glowing crystals in the walls? Is this where the humans of the city are hiding? Are they friend or foe? Is there some monster down here? Treasure? Death? They didn’t have a clue what it was but they were sure something was here.
At the end of the hall they came to a choice. There was three different paths they could take, four if you count the one they came from. To the west, on their left, the hallway seemed to continue too far down for them to see the end of it. To the north, straight ahead, there was what appeared to be a big and empty room, all the crystals were too high up to shed light on the ground but it seemed like there was a lot of small things scattered all over the ground. And then to the east, their right, was a room with water in it. The half closest to them seemed like a normal room, but the other half of it was covered in what appeared to be deep water. And then, of course, there was the path to the south where they had come from, the long hallway leading to that first empty room with the door.

The four players paused for a moment at this crossroads and looked around, thinking of where to go. “Don’t split up.” Kadin spoke up, as if predicting what everyone was thinking. “We don’t know what is in here, if it turns out to be something like the werewolves from before, we will not survive if we are alone. It is slower and more time consuming, but we need to stay as a group of four. It is the only way we can bring down the tougher monsters of this world.”

“I agree.” Mendores said. “Take it slow, stick together, watch eachother’s backs. It is what has let us survive this far, and it will continue keeping us alive.” He said. “Any votes on which way we should go? I vote north.” He asked, then looked around at the others.

“North.” Kadin, the only one to speak up said. “There is something in the room, we should check it out. Be cautious though we don’t know what else is in there, not bright enough to see much.” 

With that the group cautiously walked into the north room, trying to get a closer look at the little objects on the ground. The closer they got the more the little objects took shape until eventually, when the group was near the center of the room, they could see that the things scattered on the floor were bones. Human bones, from many different people.

A bit shocked by this finding the group was stunned for a moment, and suddenly there was a loud crash from behind them.  They turned to see the stone walls on either side of the doorway they had entered through slam together. The entrance, and the only exit, to the room was lost between them. There was no way out of the room now but that was the least of their worries.

Suddenly all the bones in the room sprang up into the air and came together to form five living skeletons. Two of the skeletons wielded sharp iron swords, while the other three carried some extra leg bones as weapons. One swordsman was in front of the group, one was behind them. Two of the bone wielders were to the right and one was to the left

"Everyone stay close!" Mendores shouted "Take out the ones with swords first," he paused for a moment as he took in his surroundings. They were surrounded and he saw all five skeletons dash in towards them, intending to strike as a group from all sides. They had to get out of this circle of skeletons, they couldn't handle an attack from all sides. Not when outnumbered and against foes who were both immortal and better equipped.

Mendores had to make a call, quick. "Follow my lead! Blitz the left skeleton!" He called out, hoping that they understood his slightly tactical orders. Mendores turned and sprinted as fast as he could at the lone skeleton on the left, raising his club in preparation to block the skeleton's bone weapon.

Kadin was right behind Mendores, having heard the order and followed Mendores closely. Zanath and Estellese were a few steps behind Kadin. The skeletons turned to chase the four humans, but with the humans moving out of the center of the room, now all of the skeletons except the one they ran after were behind the humans, not surrounding them anymore.

The lone skeleton that the group charged stood its ground. As Mendores charged at it the skeleton swung its bone club for his ribs. But Mendores was quick to use his makeshift club to block the bone. 

Kadin moved in to take out the skeleton while it clashed weapons with Mendores, he gripped his knife tightly in his hand and stepped forwards to stab the skeleton. But then he stopped as the realization hit him. What good would a kitchen knife do against a skeleton? It can't pierce bone and there is no skin or inner organs to target. So, what could he possibly hope to achieve by stabbing or slashing the skeleton with the knife?

In Kadin’s moment of hesitation the skeleton pushed Mendores back, and he had to act quick. So Mendores kicked the skeleton in the ribs as fast and hard as he could. He was hoping the bones would fall apart and scatter, instead the skeleton remained in one piece, but it was knocked backwards and onto his back. Unharmed but knocked over.

Seeing the skeleton fall to the ground Estellese jumped on it. Landing on her knees with one knee on each side of the skeleton's ribs. She immediately began smashing her makeshift club into the skeleton's skull, trying to crush the skull.

Zanath turned around, trusting Estellese to finish off that skeleton. Mendores and Kadin also turned to face the other four skeletons.

With four hard slams of her makeshift club, the skeleton's skull caved in, the front of the skull was shattered and gone. Thinking it was dead Estellese went to stand, but the now headless skeleton reached up and grabbed her by her long hair with one hand while the other hand moved to try and claw at her throat. She let out a yelp of surprise and a grunt of pain before grabbing the skeleton's attacking arm as fast as she could to stop it from reaching her throat. Then, using the leverage of her position over the skeleton, twisted its arm and brought her knees out from under herself. Slamming her foot down on the skeleton's elbow and snapping its arm. And yet, with no head and one broken arm, the skeleton continued struggling, pulling at her hair, and would not die. It truly was immortal, but not unbreakable.

Meanwhile the other three were facing the remaining four skeletons. Mendores closely watched the positioning of the two swordsmen, waiting for them to leave themselves open to attack like the first one had done. But they stayed behind the two bone wielders, using the lesser equipped skeletons as cover. Mendores knew their plan, they were going to wait for the humans to attack the bone wielders and move in while the humans were distracted. If the swordsmen attacked while the humans were in the middle of fighting the bone wielders, the humans would have no time to react and dodge the swords. Mendores also knew that they were still outnumbered and under equipped, which meant the skeleton's could force a fight by making bone wielders attack them. If they happened they would have no choice but to fight back, leaving them open to the swordsmen. It was a bad situation to be in.

Zanath waited for instructions, he had his own ideas but Mendores seemed to be leading the group, and it was always best if only one person was calling the shots and everyone followed along. Less chance for mistakes that way. And Mendores had proven that he knew how to tactically lead the group.

"Stand your ground, stay close. When they attack us, dodge and let the person next to you counter attack. Those who are counter attacking, knock the bone wielders back. But push the sword wielders closer to the rest of us. Play it defensive." Mendores called out. He hoped this plan would work, but knew it wouldn't if the skeletons all attacked at the same time.

Kadin, on the other hand, was being Kadin. He saw the same bad situation Mendores did, he had also figured out the skeleton’s strategy and knowing that, he ignored Mendores's order. He did not stay close, he grabbed his knife and ran straight at them. Four on one, against their swords, when he had little to no combat experience.

"Kadin! Defensive! What are you thinking, get back!" Mendores called out. But Kadin was not listening.

The bone wielding skeletons raised their bone-clubs and prepared to strike Kadin as he got close. But at the last second he dove to the side, narrowly dodging their attacks. But that was exactly what the skeletons wanted, as soon as he dove, as soon as his feet left the ground, the skeletons knew he could not dodge again until his feet were back on the ground at the end of his dive. The swordsmen stepped forward and both slashed their swords at Kadin, they both stood in front of him one slashing from left to right, the other swinging from right to left at the same time.

Kadin could not dodge this one, like his previous one on one fight with the goblin in his first day here, the range of the skeletons' swords outreached his own, making his aggressive rush leave him wide open. But, as if he had weeks of training since his goblin fight, he swung the duffel bag he had on his shoulder at the skeletons, using the extended reach of the bag to strike and knock both of them onto their backs before their swords could reach him. Two of the skeletons were down, this was a huge advantage. However Kadin would not be able to take it. As soon as Kadin’s feet touched the ground, one of the two bone-wielding skeletons slammed its bone-club into Kadin's side, making Kadin shout out in pain and stumble back. The other skeleton saw Kadin stumble and tackled him while he was off balance, pinning him to the ground.

Mendores saw Kadin injured and pinned down with the other bone-wielding skeleton advancing on him, then he looked at the two swordsmen that were knocked to the ground. They were the biggest threat, and if they weren’t taken out quick they could kill everyone here. But Kadin was in danger… He had to make a decision. He turned and ran for the two knocked-over skeletons “Zanath, cover Kadin!” he called out. As he ran towards the knocked-over skeletons the first one he approached was almost standing up, it quickly tried to slash its sword at Mendores. Mendores was swift, he blocked the sword with his makeshift club and grabbed the skeleton’s wrist with his other hand. In one swift movement, he lifted his leg and slammed it down on the skeleton’s elbow, snapping its arm bone right out of the elbow socket.

Mendores pulled the skeleton’s detached arm and the sword it was still gripping away from the creature. Moving skillfully, he flowed his next movement, slamming his makeshift club into the skeleton’s other shoulder to break that shoulder, then spinning around just in time to block the other skeleton’s sword with the first skeleton’s arm.

The skeleton on top of Kadin raised its bone-club and swung it down at Kadin, whom threw his arms up infront of his face. With a shout of pain Kadin blocked the attack, at the cost of fracturing his left arm. The skeleton raised its bone to strike again but was tackled and knocked off Kadin by Zanath. Zanath pinned the skeleton down to the ground, but then the other bone wielding skeleton rushed up behind Zanath to try and push him off its ally. But right before it reached Zanath it was struck by a pile of bones and knocked to the ground. Zanath glanced up to see where the bones came from and saw Estellese standing a few feet away. 

Estellese had shattered both arms and legs of the skeleton she had pinned into pieces, and once she was finished with it she threw it’s remains at the skeleton attacking Zanath. Her broken club, having snapped from the sheer brutality of her attacks, laid on the ground behind her and the bone the skeleton had been using before was now in her hands as she rushed in to rejoin the fight.

Zanath had no blunt weapons to hit the skeleton he was pinning with. The skeleton swung its bone for his head but he leaned back to evade getting hit, then grabbed the skeleton's wrists to restrain the monster. He was struggling with it, fighting to stop it from thrashing out of his grasp.

Kadin was quickly back on his feet, sore but otherwise okay. He rushed to Zanath’s aid and slammed his foot down on the skeleton’s arm, forcing it to bend in such a way that the bone snapped, giving Zanath the edge he needed to pin the skeleton’s other arm. With the skeleton’s other arm pinned and bent backwards, Kadin stomped his foot down on that arm too and snapped it like the other.

Meanwhile, with the swordsmen, right after Mendores blocked his second skeleton’s sword with the first skeleton’s sword-wielding arm, he threw a kick for the second skeleton’s ribs, making it stumble backwards and preventing it from attacking again right away. Right as he put his foot back down, after his kick, the skeleton he had pulled the arm off of grabbed his ankle with its other hand and yanked it, pulling Mendores off his feet and onto his butt.

The stumbling skeleton regained its bearings and rushed at Mendores while he was down, sword at the ready to stab the man. But before it could reach him a blur of pink rushed out in front of Mendores. It was Estellese, of course, the only pink thing in the cave was her hair. Estellese rushed out at the skeleton, charging it head-on despite seeing that it had a sword and she just had a bone. Mendores noted that she was best suited for bringing these things down. Out of everyone here, her fighting style was the most blunt and brutal, excelling in grappling, exactly what was needed for smashing bony skeletons.

As Estellese neared the skeleton the creature slashed its sword for her waist. But as quick as she was she used the bone to parry the sword, blocking the blade and pushing it away with the sturdy bone. Rusty blades had little effect on the special skeleton bones, other than the big crack it left in the side of it. With her free hand she grabbed the skeleton’s neck and tackled it to the ground, slamming it back into the floor as they fell and landing ontop of it as she had done to the other. She didn’t bother going for the head this time, her grip shifted straight to its sword wielding arm. They hadn’t been on the ground for more than a second before she was grabbing the arm, bending it backwards at the elbow, and then kicking the back of the elbow hard to snap the bones.

Mendores knew that that skeleton was as good as dead now that Estellese got her hands on it. He turned his attention to the others, one skeleton that was pinned and being taken out by Kadin and Zanath, and the other one that Estellese had knocked over, whom was back on its feet now and moving in on Zanath and Kadin.

It was just a bone wielder, nothing too threatening. There was something off about these skeletons though, and it bothered Mendores. The goblins, dragon, Minotaur, and even the werewolves seemed almost like animals, real animals. They seemed alive, and seemed to be fighting for their land and survival. These skeletons... They were different. They were fighting just to fight, they were charging straight in with little to no regard for their own safety, they were moving in very predictable patterns, they didn't seem alive like the other creatures. Maybe it was because they were skeletons, but something about it just seemed off.

It didn't matter now though, all that mattered right now was getting out of here alive. He pulled the detached skeleton arm off the sword it was still tightly gripping and trying to swing at him, then tossed the arm aside and took the sword into his free hand. With that, he rushed at the last skeleton standing. He liked the dual-wielding style, even if his weapons were mismatched being able to block and attack at the same time was useful. Especially against unskilled skeletons.

As the last standing skeleton moved in on Zanath and Kadin, who were both too busy breaking their pinned skeleton to notice this one, Mendores rushed in to take it out. The skeleton spotted Mendores and stepped back, swinging its bone at Mendores's head. But Mendores blocked the swing with his newly obtained sword, using the sword to block since it wouldn't do much damage to bone, then with his other hand he slammed his makeshift club into its shoulder so hard that both the skeleton's shoulder and the club broke. Then, Mendores followed up that attack with a spinning kick, flowing from the way he pivoted his body to swing his club, to swinging his lower body along with his upper body for the kick. Knocking the creature a few feet away. He watched as it fell onto its back and began rushing and stumbling to get up again.

Kadin rushed past Mendores in an attempt to tackle the skeleton, but as he got close it swung its bone-club at him, forcing Kadin to jump back and avoid getting hit. Mendores saw the opening Kadin had gotten him though, while the skeleton was busy swinging at Kadin Mendores came up beside it and slammed the blunt hilt of his sword into its shoulder. The bone of the skeleton's shoulder cracked, then Mendores grabbed it by the back of the neck and slammed it face-first into the ground.

Kadin was on top of the skeleton in a flash once it fell, pinning it to the ground, then Mendores grabbed it's good arm and twisted it back, then kicked it hard to snap its arm. As he did that Kadin did the same to the other arm, and Zanath joined them to snap the skeleton's legs.

With the last of the skeletons down, the three guys stood up and glanced over at Estellese who had already finished off her skeleton and was brushing the dirt off her clothes. 

"You guys done?" Estellese asked as she picked up the sword that the skeleton she had taken out had been using.

"Yeah." Mendores answered. He glanced down at the sword in his hand, then back up at Estellese and her newly obtained sword. Then he looked at Kadin and Zanath, weaponless aside from a few kitchen knives. Zanath and Kadin were the weak links in the group right now, they weren't bad, but they were not on the same skill level as Mendores and Estellese. Mendores knew that he and Estellese could handle themselves with or without weapons. But him and Estellese were probably the only ones who would know how to use a sword correctly. So... Mendores pondered, give the swords to the people who can use them the best to strengthen their best fighters and get the most use out of the swords? Or give the swords to the weakest links, to keep them safer at the cost of not getting the full benefit out of having a sword.

"Estellese, I think we should give the swords to Kadin and Zanath. We can fight with the bones, better to keep the less experienced fighters safe" Mendores stated, choosing the more defensive option. In his mind keeping the weakest links safe was more important than giving their team a stronger attacking force, the best offense is a good defense in his mind.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Estellese replied.

"Are you kidding?" Kadin countered. "As much as I'd love the sword, you guys will put it to better use. We need a strong offense, if you guys have them we can chop down any enemies we face before they attack us."

"No, you can't guarantee that we will be able to kill everything before it reaches you guys. Defense is better, keeping everyone safe is more important" Mendores stated.

"You can't guarantee that having a defense will keep you safe either. Every defense can be pierced. But if your opponent is dead they ain't piercing anything. Kill your opponent before they get a chance to attack you, that’s the best defense." Kadin countered.

"The skeletons are dead, and I am pretty sure they could pierce things" Zanath spoke up in a joking tone. "Either way, Mendores is pretty much our leader, let's just do as he says. He hasn't lead us wrong yet."

Kadin hesitated a little, "Fine." He relented. And with that Mendores and Estellese passed their new swords to Kadin and Zanath. "Thank you." Kadin said.

"Yes, thanks everyone." Zanath added. He took his sword and walked over to where the door used to be and started quietly looking around.

"So how do we get out of here?" Kadin asked. "The wall shut behind us."

"That one, I do not know. We'll have to look around for a solution." Mendores replied.

"Found it." Zanath said simply as he crouched down a few feet away from where the door had been. He started messing with something on the floor and after a moment there was a quiet click and the wall slid open to reveal the door again.

"Pressure plate." Zanath stated. "We must have stepped on it and triggered the trap on the way in. Good thing we were all close together or that could have split us up. Which would not have ended well for the ones trapped in the room."

"Good thinking Zanath." Mendores replied. "Alright, everyone out of the room, we are going to hit the room with the water next to find out what is in it."

"We are staying in the rigged and trap filled cave?" Estellese asked

Mendores nodded "Traps aren't here for no reason. And we got two swords out of it so who knows what else we can find here."

"If I had to guess..." Kadin started. "And if this was a normal game I would say this is a dungeon. The entrance was a really odd door, the cave is carved out to be like rooms, the rooms are set up in a dungeon-like design not a practical one, monsters and traps in the rooms for seemingly no reason. It all screams out dungeon, or it would if this was a normal game but I do not know for sure, this game doesn't seem to be normal."

    "If it is a dungeon then all the Better for us, dungeons mean loot." Mendores replied. "Now, follow me and stay in formation. Me and Estellese in the front, Kadin and Zanath in the back. Just like the skeletons did, me and Estell will parry or block the first attack and will lock down the enemy, then you two sweep in for the kill while the enemy is facing us. Stay close, and let's go." And with that him and Estell lead the way out of the room, with Kadin and Zanath right behind them.

--

--

Next chapter: Dungeon Diving.

8: Chapter 8: Dungeon Diving

~~Chapter 8: Dungeon Diving ~~

Mendores lead the way out of the trap room, with Estellese by his side and Kadin and Zanath following right behind them with the swords. They re-entered the crossroads room they had been in before, then turned and went east into the room that was half filled with water.

They walked into the room and cautiously looked around. When nothing happened, and they saw that there was nothing but the water in the room they relaxed their guard, but didn't lower their weapons.

"It's an empty room?" Mendores mused. "I expected another trap or something."

"Why is there water in the room?" Estellese asked. "That is a bit odd, and out of place isn't it? Maybe there is a reason for it?"

"We don't know, it could just be random design. Or leftovers from a recent flood." Kadin said "but you are right, it could be there for a reason..."

"Underwater room..." Zanath murmured.

"What?" Kadin asked.

"There is a room down there. Behind the rock." Zanath said as he pointed out into the deep, back corner of the pool of water, on the right side. The water was dark everywhere except that corner, which was still dark but was ever so slightly brighter than the rest of the pool. "It's brighter in that corner, almost in the shape of an opening. Must be an opening to another room."

"How do you notice these things?" Estellese questioned him.

Zanath shrugged "I thought it was obvious..."

"No... A barely noticeable light in the back corner of deep water is not obvious... Not to normal people at least" Estellese stated. “Neither is the position of the sun while running away from a massive horde of goblins.”

Zanath just shrugged again. "I don't see how people wouldn't notice it... But I'll take your word for it."

"So we're going for a swim then?" Mendores asked, looking around at the others for their opinions. He saw Estellese and Zanath nod as they stepped closer to the water.

"Bad idea" Kadin stated abruptly. Making everyone stop and turn to him. "What if the water is poisoned or otherwise toxic? Or if there is something we can't see in the water? If we all jump in it would be the end of us." He stated. "Two people should go in and investigate the potential door. The other two wait here for a minute and watch over the two in the water. If they get through the door and don't come back, then it's probably safe to follow them. If something in the water goes after them, or they start struggling in the water, then it's probably not safe or poisoned." He explained.

Mendores frowned and hesitated. "I don't like splitting up... But if the water may be poisoned then you are right, we should be cautious before we all jump in. And considering how harsh the game has been so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the water was poisoned. I don't think it is, mind you, but it wouldn't surprise me at this point."

Estellese nodded "so, me and you go in Mendores? Let the other two follow if it's safe."

Kadin nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me. You two should have the skill to take down anything that may be waiting in the next room."

"No. Me and Estell are the best fighters. Sending the best fighters away would leave you two defenseless if you get attacked." Mendores stated. "Well, not completely defenseless, but not as safe as you'd be with us."

"But we need all our attack force to be in the front to face whatever may be in that room." Kadin stated. "Forget defending the people who stay behind. Keep the front lines strong. The back lines are less important since they likely won't face combat."

Mendores shook his head. "No Kadin, we need to make sure the back lines are safe too. You and Estellese head into the water. Me and Zanath will wait here and will follow once you two safely make it through. Or I’ll jump in and pull you out if there is any problems and then Zanath can use the potions on us."

"Wait what?" Estellese said "why do I have to go with HIM? The guy who doesn't listen and eats random potions and herbs he finds lying around. Hows he supposed to help if we find trouble?"

Kadin pouted but before he could speak Mendores spoke up. "Estell, you will be fine, trust me. He's not as stupid as he seems."

Kadin raised an eyebrow "I am not sure whether I should be insulted or complimented."

"I'd say both" Mendores replied, then smirked a little. "I trust ya enough to put you on the front lines, I know you can handle yourself." He added.

Kadin smirked a little "I'll take it as a compliment then." He replied. "Let's go and get this done Estell. " he added. Kadin turned and walked up to the edge of the water. He took his bag off his shoulder and dropped it on the ground, not wanting the food to get wet. Then went to sheathe his sword but realized that he didn't have a sheath. For a moment he awkwardly fumbled with the sword, trying to figure out where he could put it since he needed both hands to swim. But eventually he came to a solution, and took off his shirt.

Mendores and Estellese gave him a questioning look, while Zanath nodded in understanding. "I'm just gonna... go..." Estellese said in a rather awkward and weirded out tone, before diving into the water and starting to swim deeper down into the water, towards the corner that was concealed behind the rock.

Kadin took his shirt and tied the arms tightly around his waist as if it were a belt, then he slipped the sword between his pants and his tied-on shirt, using his shirt to hold it in place. "See you guys on the other side" he said before he too dove into the water and swam after Estellese.

Zanath and Mendores watched them go, then took a seat by the edge of the water, watching them to make sure they were okay. "I wanted a moment to talk to you. I just don't know what to think of Kadin..." Mendores mused. "I mean, he does a lot of stupid things, but they always work out one way or another. Is he smart and planning these things or just plain lucky?"

Zanath shrugged. "Could go either way really. We will have to see"

"Think it was a good idea sending him alone with Estellese?" Mendores asked

"No." Zanath replied. "I'm not concerned about a monster getting them, I'm more worried about them killing each other. They don't like each other. She hates his cockiness. He knows she hates it and is purposely being cocky to irritate her. I wouldn't be surprised if he pissed her off and she killed him" Zanath said flatly.

"Good point… Maybe I should have gone instead of sending her." Mendores thought out loud. “But, admittedly she’s a better fighter than I am, if anything is on the other side she has the best chances of beating it out of everyone here.”

“You are pretty good yourself.” Zanath pointed out.

“Good, yes, but not as good as her.” Mendores replied. “You and Kadin are learning and picking up on all this incredibly fast too. Which is good.”

“I don’t know why, I seem to just be learning and picking things up much easier than normal.” Zanath replied. “Been like that ever since we entered the game.”

“Huh, I hadn’t noticed, but now that you mention it, me too.” Mendores mused.

-
-
-

Kadin swam deeper and deeper into the water, swimming towards the rock in the corner of the pool. When he finally reached the rock he peeked around to see what was making the light that was coming from behind it. He saw an opening in the wall behind the rock, into a brighter room. Not having a lot of air left he swam towards the opening in hopes that there was a place to get some air in the room it lead to.

Kadin swam through the opening and found something that struck him as odd. He was at a crossroads, the paths through the water went left and right. He wasn’t sure which way Estellese went, but that wasn't what struck him as odd. The stone wall in front of him was perfectly flat, there was no way that it was natural. A natural stone couldn't be that flat and couldn't come to a perfect corner like this one did. He found it odd it looked man-made, better than man-made actually, but he was running out of air and couldn't stay under the water to ponder why this may be here. He looked down the left path, then down the right path, trying to figure out which one would lead him to air. Then he looked up and realized that the wall in front of him stopped just a few inches above the water. He could climb on top of this wall to get out of the water. "That works" he thought before he swam up and grabbed onto the top of the wall, then pulled himself up onto it. Curiously, he looked around as he caught his breath to see what was in this room.

"Holy crap!"' he shouted as he dove and rolled to the side. Barely getting out of the way before a massive axe slammed into the ground where he had been, the loud clang of metal and stone clashing echoed through the room and the ground shook. Kadin looked up to see an eleven foot tall hulking mass of pure muscle, with the head, legs, and tail of a bull but the furry torso and arms of a human, and two hooves for legs. A Minotaur, carrying a massive axe that had a blade bigger than Kadin's torso.

Kadin quickly glanced around the room, trying to see what he had to work with, what scenery he could use, what else he had to fight in here, what hazards he could use against the beast. A quick glance around the room revealed that he was standing on a perfectly flat platform that was surrounded on all sides by the water he had come out of. There was nothing on the platform aside from himself, the minotaur, and a treasure chest on the opposite side. Kadin knew he couldn't touch the chest with the Minotaur bearing down on him, and there was nothing here to help fight the beast. It was an arena, clearly built to force the players to face the Minotaur head-on. But how?

The Minotaur stepped towards Kadin to close the distance, slashing its axe horizontally for Kadin's torso. Kadin jumped backwards, landing on the edge of the platform and narrowly getting out of the reach of the beast's axe to dodge the swing.

He looked over the beast, trying to analyze the creature. Starting at the head, he noted the horns and knew that bulls had incredibly hard skulls. He crossed that off the list of targets, it was too tall to reach its head anyways. He then glanced at the torso, huge and muscular, so much muscle that he probably wouldn't hit anything vital if he attacked there, crossed that off the list of targets. He glanced down to the minotaur's legs, they were hooves and were not quite as muscular as the rest of the creature. He narrowed his eyes at the bottom of the minotaur's hooves, unlike a foot the hooves were smaller and round, like walking on stilts. Kadin smirked widely ".... Peggy..." Kadin murmured.

"What?" Estellese's voice called out from behind the Minotaur. As the Minotaur charged at him again Kadin glanced behind the beast to see Estellese pulling herself out of the water and onto the platform to help. She must have swam around the platform instead of climbing right ontop of it.

"I have named him Peggy! Because he has peg legs!" Kadin shouted out as the Minotaur ran up to him and pulled its axe back to swing it at him again.

"Those are hooves you idiot!" Estellese shouted back as she ran at the Minotaur from behind. Unsure of how she was going to attack the beast.

As the Minotaur swung its axe horizontally at Kadin again he quickly ducked underneath the axe. It swung over his head with so much power that the gust of wind it left behind messed up Kadin's hair and almost knocked him off balance. Then, Kadin rolled backwards into the water and dove deep down, out of sight.

The Minotaur glanced down into the water, and not seeing Kadin anymore it turned to Estellese and swung its axe backhanded at her, the blade was only on one side of the axe so swinging it backhanded would hit her with the blunt side.

Estellese turned and grabbed the handle of the axe as quickly as she could, trying to hold it back. But the Minotaur was too strong, she was knocked onto her back and was sent skidding across the stone floor. Since it was a backhand swing and not a full power swing she almost stopped it, and got away with just a few scrapes and bruises. She quickly climbed back onto her feet, hurt but okay. "Kadin! Where the hell did you go?" She shouted out.

The Minotaur marched towards Estellese, axe in hand, the hulking eleven foot tall beast would be intimidating to most people, but Estellese was not bothered by it. She marched right back towards the beast, determined to take it down even if Kadin wasn't going to help.

As the two neared each other the Minotaur swung its axe down at Estellese, who quickly sidestepped the swing. The axe slammed into the ground and cracked the stone floor, sending tremors and the echoing sound of metal hitting stone through the room. As the minotaur's axe hit the ground Estellese looked up at the beast that was twice her size, then jumped up and slammed her fist into the minotaur's stomach. The beast was so tall that that was the highest point she could effectively reach with a jump.

The Minotaur grunted in pain and stumbled back, but was otherwise unharmed and promptly swatted Estellese out of the air with the hand that was not holding the axe. The blow knocked the wind out of Estellese and broke two of her ribs but she grabbed onto the beast's large arm to prevent herself from being launched across the room from the sheer force of the attack.

The beast was not of high intelligence, feeling something stuck to its arm it raised its arm up closer to its face to see what it was, and in that moment Estellese let go of its arm, and jumped at its face, grabbing onto the beast's horns as she slammed both of her heels into the minotaur’s eyes. The minotaur roared out in pain and stumbled backwards, but Estellese didn’t stop. She kicked it hard in the side of the head, then slammed her other knee into its snout, then kicked it in the chin with her first leg again as her second leg pulled back to slam another heel into its throat, then raising both of her legs to drive her heels into the minotaur’s eyes once more before she just started wildly and fiercely kicking, kneeing and slamming her heels into it’s face as fast and hard as she could.

The minotaur roared out in pain again and again, trying to shake her off. Her hard blows to the face were making it stumble backwards and its arms flew out to the sides as it struggled to keep balanced on its hooves. Until finally with a roar of rage it regained its bearings, grabbed Estellese with its free hand, then yanked her off its own face and threw her across the room. She hit the wall on the opposite side of the room with a shout of pain and fell into the water, but right away she pulled herself out of the water and back onto the platform, badly injured but refusing to stay down. Her forehead was bleeding and bruised from where she hit the wall. She glanced up at the minotaur, its face was covered in blood that was pouring out of its eyes and nose, its eyes were shut and not opening, it was thrashing about and blindly swinging its axe in the general direction it had thrown Estellese but wasn’t even coming close to hitting her. But, other than being blinded and a bit bruised, it seemed unharmed. She took a deep breath to steady her heavy panting and wiped the blood off her forehead, preparing to go after it again, glaring straight into the minotaur’s closed eyes..

It was then that the minotaur roared out in pain and suddenly collapsed to the ground. Estellese was a little confused, what had happened? Her gaze shifted from the minotaur’s head back down at the ground and saw Kadin standing behind the fallen minotaur with a bloody sword, and noticed that the back of the minotaur’s legs had been cut and were now bleeding quite badly. Then, she realized that Kadin was carrying a few small miscellaneous items in his free hand, all of them were stacked up on top of each other and balanced carefully on the palm of his hand. She turned to see that the treasure chest the minotaur had been guarding was open and empty now. With an irritated sigh she turned to Kadin. “Did you loot the chest while I was fighting that thing?”

Kadin’s eyes shifted to look around the room and he hesitated for a second. “.... Possibly….” He replied unsurely.

“What the hell! I could have died you idiot!” Estellese shouted at him as she walked over to him, ignoring the minotaur that was now flailing on the ground. Kadin had sliced the tendons in the back of the beast’s legs, paralyzing both of it’s legs and rendering it unable to get up.

“I thought you would run… I don’t know why you stayed to fight the thing. It has peg legs, we can out maneuver it.” Kadin replied.

Estellese grabbed the miscellaneous items that Kadin took from the chest out of his hands and looked them over. A book, five scrolls, and four vials with red liquid which looked like the healing potions they found in the store.

“Hey! I found them, and I killed the beast. Well, with your help, but I got the treasure, knocked the creature down and incapacitated it myself.” Kadin protested. But as soon as he finished speaking Estellese answered him simply by taking the book and thumping him over the head with it, knocking him onto the floor. With that and the irritated look on her face, he promptly stopped asking for the loot and instead went to examine the minotaur.

As Estellese sat down and opened the book to start skimming over it, the sound of something moving in the water could be heard on the other side of the room, and a moment later Mendores climbed out of the water. He looked around the room with an amused expression on his face, noting the bloodstains on the floor and wall, the small craters in the floor from the minotaur’s axe, the incapacitated beast flailing on the ground, and that Estellese was battered and bleeding. “Nice. You okay?” He commented with an impressed look on his face. “anything in the chest?”

“A spell book, what appears to be more healing potions, and some scrolls I haven’t looked at.” Estellese answered. "And yeah, I'm fine." She said despite her broken ribs and badly bruised body.

"A spell book?" Mendores asked. "So we can use magic... Can I see?" He asked as he sat down beside Estellese and tried to read the book over her shoulder. But he frowned, the pages were blank. "Erm... The pages are blank Estellese."

"No they are not." Estellese replied. "It is a detailed instruction manual on how to use a fireball."

"It's blank" Kadin stated as he stood behind her and leaned over her shoulder to look at the book.

"No seriously. It is not blank" Estellese stated. "Look" she said before she took a deep breath and held out her hand, then she started to focus. A few seconds passed and nothing happened, until suddenly there was a spark of flames in her palm. Just a brief spark before the flames died. "Damn, it's harder than it looks" she muttered.

Mendores shrugged. "Well, you got a spark. Maybe only you can see the book for some reason. What's on the scrolls?" He asked as he picked one up and opened it to read it.

As he did that, the sound of water moving could be heard again and Zanath pulled himself out of the water and onto the platform.

"Oh there you are Zanath." Mendores said. "You were right behind me when I swam into here. Where did you go?"

"Followed the left and right paths to see if there was anything else under the water. It is a circle, well, a square technically. Nothing else down there." He answered, looking over the struggling Minotaur with a puzzled expression. He grabbed his sword and walked over to the beast, being careful to avoid its flailing arms, then he slit its throat in one swift swipe of his sword. "Shouldn't leave it alive. Don't want it surprising us when we are not paying attention. Plus we don't know if they heal when not hit for a while like normal NPCs in games do." He stated.

"We also don't know if they respawn, and it respawning on top of us would be bad" Kadin added.

"Good point" Zanath nodded.

"Alright, guys." Mendores spoke up. "These scrolls seem to be spell scrolls." He said. "The instructions say to touch the scroll and then focus on it, and it will cast the spell for you."

Estellese raised an eyebrow and looked up from the book. "If magic can be cast that easily, what is the use of this dumb book? It goes through this complicated process to cast a spell." She questioned. To which Mendores shrugged.

"What spells do the scrolls cast? Do they say?" Zanath asked.

Mendores nodded and started opening each scroll one at a time. Reading off what each spell did.  "Blink: Teleports the user to a targeted location instantaneously."

"Dibs" Kadin stated.

Mendores glanced up at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything and turned his attention back to the scrolls. "The second one is a barrier spell. It projects a barrier around the caster, the barrier will protect the caster from harm but will break if it takes too much damage. The third one is called death's grasp, when used the first living target you touch will have the life drained out of them. Any life drained from the target will heal the caster. Takes nine seconds of holding onto the target to drain all of their life and kill them, losing contact with the target ends the spell. The fourth spell is bolt, it takes three seconds to charge but after the charge it fires a powerful lightning bolt at the target location. And the last scroll is gale, it says it creates a massive windstorm in the target area with very powerful winds." Mendores listed off. Then he took a deep breath, "Does anyone want to pick their own spells? Or is it okay if I give them out to the people I see best fit?"

"I have dibs on blink" Kadin stated.

"None of them really interest me" Zanath replied.

"I like all of them except the bolt one and gale ones" Estellese replied.

"Alright." Mendores said, then handed out the scrolls. He gave blink to Kadin since Kadin wanted it and giving the swordsman a teleport attack would be useful, Kadin looked over it, then folded it up and put it in his pocket. He gave death’s grasp to Estellese since she was the best at grappling and he knew that she was wounded and hurt despite her tough act, he figured this would heal her injuries. He gave bolt to Zanath, since Zanath had the best accuracy and a lightning bolt would presumably be hard to aim. Then held onto barrier and gale himself. "Barrier is the spell I want, I can turn a strong defense into a killer offense. And gale is a tactical spell so I feel it is best left in my hands since I am the tactician here, Zanath and Kadin are both strategists not tacticians. Any objections?" He asked.

Everyone looked around but nobody objected. So after a moment Mendores spoke up again "alright. With that all set lets get moving." He said. "Estellese are you sure that you are okay? You look a little battered from that fight." He asked.

"I will be fine." Estellese replied.

"If you say so." Mendores replied "So our next goal is to scout out the hallway on the left of that four way intersection we found previously. Let's go."

"How are we going to keep the book and scrolls dry?" Zanath pointed out. Making everyone stop for a moment.

Kadin, who like everyone else was still soaked from swimming pulled his scroll out of his pocket and looked at it, inspecting it closely, it was dry. Then, he pulled it back and threw it into the water. Ignoring the gasps and odd looks from the others, he walked over to the edge of the platform and watched his scroll sink lower and lower until it reached the bottom.

“Kadin… Why did you do that?” Mendores asked unsurely.

To which Kadin shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Did you hit your head?” Estellese asked.

“No, if I remember correctly I believe it was you who was hit in the head.” Kadin said. Then, without warning he jumped into the water and swam to the bottom, grabbing his scroll and bringing it back up to the surface. He climbed back onto the platform and inspected the scroll again, noting for the second time that it was still dry. “The scrolls are waterproof. Book probably is too.” He stated.

“You are insane. And lucky.” Estellese replied. She hesitantly looked down at her book before she pulled back both sides of the cover and flipped it face-down, so just one page that had nothing but a picture on it was hanging down from it. Then she cautiously dipped that page halfway into the water and pulled it back up, looking closely to see that the page was still dry and unfazed by the water.

Mendores nodded a little. “Well, I guess it isn’t too far-fetched to say that they are magically waterproof since they are magic items. Would kinda stink if a mage lost all their spells just because it started to rain in the middle of a battle. At least the game isn’t completely cruel.”

“Yes, that would suck.” Kadin replied. “Imagine being a mage who uses the water element, but if you get your books and scrolls wet you can’t use magic anymore. That would just be silly.”

“Anyways, lets get moving. We don’t know what else lies ahead.” Mendores stated before he jumped back into the water and began swimming back to the previous room. The others followed shortly after him, with Estellese going last. Her broken ribs were slowing her down and making the swim back very painful.. But in time the four of them made it back to the room with the water and picked up the stuff they had left in the room.

Estellese checked her book to see that it was undamaged by the water. And with that she placed the book in Zanath’s duffel bag so she would not need to carry it.

“Alright. Remember, stay in formation and follow me.” Mendores said as he took the lead with Estellese by his side. Zanath and Kadin readied their swords and followed along right behind them. The four of them walked out of the room, across the crossroads room they had been in previously, and into the hallway to the west. It was the only direction they had not explored yet.

The hallway-like section of the cave stretched a long ways to the west, although the group could see a side path to the north. It was not a narrow hall, it was pretty wide, so they had space to maneuver. They stayed on guard as they walked, making it about halfway down the hallway before they could hear something growling.

Out from behind a small pile of rocks walked another monster. It had the body of a lion, the head of a ram with 4’ long horns on its head. There was a 6’ long snake where its tail should be, and the snake seemed capable of moving on its own by the way it hissed and stood up almost straight upon seeing the humans.

The four Alphas gasped and took a step back upon seeing the creature, Kadin and Zanath raised their swords but were unsure of how to get close enough to strike. Mendores started making a plan in his head, but before he could speak the creature inhaled a deep breath, then suddenly spat a stream of searing hot flames at the group, making Mendores and Kadin dive left, while Estellese and Zanath dove right to evade the flames.

“No time to sit around!” Mendores called out quickly and panickedly. “Zanath, Kadin, flank from the right and left sides. Estellese, we attack from the front. Go!”

Mendores and Estellese rushed in head-on towards the creature, and as expected it spat another stream of flames at the two of them, forcing them to jump to the sides to get out of the way again. But this bought Kadin and Zanath enough time to get around on the sides of the beast. Kadin moved in first and slashed his sword at the neck of the creature, but the snake-tail moved with lightning fast speeds and threw itself infront of the blade. Kadin’s sword was not sharp enough to cut through the scales of the snake’s body, it did nothing to the snake aside from leaving a few scrapes on its scales.

Zanath moved in from the other side, slashing his sword down at the monster’s back and aiming for its spine. However the creature tilted its head back, moving it’s horn infront of the sword to block that attack too.

The snake-tail lunged for Kadin after blocking his attack, aiming to bite his shoulder with it’s lightning-fast speeds. But Kadin quickly used his sword to push it away from himself before it could bite him. The beast went to jerk its head back to try and jab its horns at Zanath, but before it could do so Estellese had gotten back onto her feet and grabbed the beast’s horns. She was struggling with it, fighting to hold it down as the creature bucked and fought back. Trying to pull away, trying to push forwards and bite her, trying anything it could to get out of her grip. Her broken ribs were searing with pain, the more it struggled the more she hurt, she couldn't hold it back for long.

The snake-tail moved away from Kadin and in the blink of an eye lunged to bite Estellese’s neck. But Mendores was right on the mark, he slammed his bone-club up into the bottom of the snake, knocking the snake-tail backwards and away from Estellese.

The beast took in a deep breath again, and Estellese knew that it was about to blast more flames directly at her. She was standing right infront of its face after all. She let go and quickly dove to the side to get out of the way, but while she did that both Kadin and Zanath stabbed their swords into the sides of the creature. Causing it to roar out in pain as flames burst from its mouth again. Estellese and Mendores had bought them just enough time to get their attacks in. As the beast struggled and stumbled backwards in pain, stunned momentarily from being stabbed twice, Mendores rushed in and slammed his bone-club down on the creature’s head, knocking the creature to the ground.

The snake-tail lunged for Mendores this time, aiming to bite his shoulder. But Mendores leaned his head forwards, putting his head infront of the snake’s bite. With a loud pang the snake hit the metal helmet he was wearing, the one he had stolen from the goblins back in the city, the night they found the grocery store. Then Estellese immediately grabbed the snake and used her strength to hold it back so the others could safely attack the beast. Zanath and Kadin were quick to both stab at the creature once more, finishing it off.

When the creature and the snake-tail went limp, Estellese threw the snake to the ground, panting lightly. “Good plan.” She said. “That could have gone very, very wrong if we hadn’t been following an attack plan.”

Mendores nodded. “Yeah. Good work everyone.” He said. “Lets get moving though, we don’t know how big this place is. And it is likely filled with a lot more monsters.” He warned.

The four of them grouped up again and went back into formation, Mendores lead the way taking the turn to the northern pathway. It was another one of those odd doorway-like openings in the cave wall that lead to a room-like area in the cave. In this room stood three skeletons, all armed with bone-clubs.

“Alright, Kadin and Zanath, you two take the one on the left. Me and Estellese will each take our own and-” Mendores started to say, before Kadin interrupted.

“Its just skeletons, we handled them before. Blitz. No need to be tactical. Rush in and wipe them out.” Kadin stated before sprinting at the center skeleton.

“Kadin!” Estellese yelled after him, her tone reflecting her annoyance and irritation with the man.

“He does have a point.” Mendores said. “Doesn’t make him right, of course, but he does have a point. These don’t look lethal, let him do his own thing. Estellese, you take the left, I’ll tag-team the right with Zanath. This should be easy.”

Kadin ran at his skeleton and swung his sword for its head. However, the skeleton didn’t particularly care about the sword and swung its bone-club at Kadin’s ribs. Kadin’s sword struck the skeleton in the head, and the skeleton struck him in the ribs. Both of them were knocked to the ground and Kadin let out a grunt of pain. He was bruised and hurt, but the skeleton was unharmed. They both started standing up, but as soon as Kadin got on his hands and knees he sprung off the ground and tackled the skeleton.

Meanwhile, Zanath and Mendores rushed at the other skeleton. As they approached it it moved in to take a swing for Mendores’s torso. Mendores dropped into a slide to dodge the attack, like a baseball player sliding into home plate, and he slid right into the skeleton’s legs to knock the creature off its feet. Zanath followed up with a quick stomp to the skeleton’s upper spine to pin it to the ground while the two of them quickly got to work breaking it into pieces.

Estellese walked towards her skeleton, as the creature stepped forwards and took a swing at her head with its own bone-club she raised her arm and blocked the club with the side of her fore-arm, wincing in pain as the bone left a nasty bruise. She immediately twisted her blocking arm around to grab the skeleton’s arm, then she yanked the skeleton towards herself, while leaning back and throwing a powerful kick at the creature’s chest. With her yanking it towards herself, and kicking it back at the same time she tore its arm right out of the socket and knocked the skeleton back onto the floor. The skeleton quickly tried to stand, but Estellese was quick to jump ontop of it, almost the second it hit the floor, and start slamming its own bone-club into its joints. Snapping and shattering each of its joints in its shoulders and legs. She was not in a good mood right now, Kadin was irritating the hell out of her, and she did not feel like dealing with skeletons. When she was finished she looked up to see that Mendores and Zanath were also done, and that Kadin had his pinned and was breaking away at the joints just now. Once he was finished, Kadin stood up and looked around at the others. 

“All clear?” Mendores asked, not expecting an answer since it was obvious. “Lets move.” He said as he took the lead again, letting everyone get into formation while he followed the path to the north. He went through another doorway-like opening on the north side of the cave to find himself in an empty room, the stalagmites and stalactites in this room were all over the place, and there was a ton of them. Even some sticking horizontally out of the walls like spikes which shouldn’t have been possible. But with nothing of interest in this room Mendores moved on and lead the group deeper into the cave. There was only one way to go again, which was west through another door.

As they walked into the west room they spotted a treasure chest up on an incline ahead of them. Although next to it was another one of those beasts from the hallway. The snake-tail of the part lion, part ram, part snake creature hissed loudly and the creature right away jumped down at the four of them. Lunging from the top of the incline straight for Mendores.

Then, there was suddenly the loud sound of a crack, followed by a loud booming sound and a bright flash of light. When the flash of light faded away the group looked up to see a bolt of lightning striking the hybrid creature out of the air. Mendores, Kadin, and Estellese looked back, tracing the bolt of lightning to where it came from. Following its path to Zanath, who was pointing at the creature with two of his fingers.

The hybrid creature slammed into the ground, and before it could recover from the landing or being electrocuted Kadin stabbed his sword down at it’s head, killing it.

Everyone looked at Zanath for a moment. “Sorry. Didn’t feel like dealing with another one. It jumped, and it can’t dodge in mid-air so I figured I’d just zap it.” Zanath replied simply. However as he spoke, the “bolt” scroll that he held in his free hand suddenly turned to ash, and he watched the ashes slowly flutter to the ground like black snow. “Oh… I guess the scrolls are just one-time use.” He thought out loud.

“No, that was good Zanath. Those things give us enough trouble, we don’t want more of them if they can be avoided.” Mendores said. “And now we know not to waste these scrolls. That must be the difference between the scrolls and your book Estell. Scrolls are one time use, but your book teaches you how to use the spell on your own so you can use it whenever.” He said. “Not sure if that’s true, but it seems like that is the case.” He added. Although when he finished speaking he realized that Kadin was missing. “Kadin?”

Kadin was already at the top of the incline, had opened the treasure chest, and was poking around at the items inside of it, looking them over as he pulled them out one by one. Hearing his name called he looked down at everyone, tilting his head to the side a little “Hmm?”

“Again Kadin?” Estellese questioned. “You guys go get the treasure, I’m gonna stay down here. It hurts to move, and I don’t want to climb up the incline just to have to walk all the way back down. The room looks like a dead end.” She said, resting a hand on her broken ribs. “If there is another room up there call down to me and I’ll come.” She added.

Mendores raised an eyebrow at her comment about Kadin doing something again, he assumed something must have happened between them before him and Zanath arrived at the minotaur. But he nodded a little. “Alright, no problem. Be safe and yell if anything shows up. Even if you can take it down yourself.” He said as him and Zanath climbed up the incline to the chest.

“Nothing useful in here.” Kadin muttered quietly. He looked over the items he had pulled out of the chest. Five small golden nuggets, three ingots of some sort of metal. A golden chalice that had several gems encrusted on it. The chalice gave off an odd vibe when it was touched, something about it felt strange, like it was full of energy or something. And two rubies, they were round and almost big enough to fit in your palm.

Mendores took the items and added them to Zanath’s bag. “Loot is loot. We’ll find a use for it.” He said, giving a few extra seconds of attention to the odd chalice, before that too was stuffed in the bag. “This seems to be a dead end, so lets head back to the hallway and see where it leads to.” He added. He could tell everyone was getting worn down a little, but they had to see this through until the end. Going back up to the city was not safe and neither was stopping to rest here.

Kadin and Zanath nodded a little. “Alright, lets go.” Kadin replied before he headed down the incline, with Mendores and Zanath following behind him. Once they regrouped at the entrance of the room Mendores took the lead again and directed everyone to get back into the formation.

The group walked back out into the hallway, then resumed following it to the west for a while until they reached the end of it. The four of them were remaining quiet now, they were all tired, sore, and exhausted. None of them felt like talking, at this point they just wanted to go home and rest, maybe take a nice warm bath.

At the end of the hall there was a room to the south, so following the only path they could they walked down to that room and found themselves at another crossroads. Again, the path split in all four directions. Mendores lead the way straight ahead, continuing south to find that the room was just an empty room. So they went back to the crossroads and took the west path. Entering another empty room that had a doorway leading south, to another empty room and door leading further south. Mendores was starting to question if there was anything left in this dungeon as he lead the group south into the next room. But as they walked through the doorway and into the room they saw something they wish they hadn’t seen.

In the room was a staircase leading downstairs, but in front of it was a massive, fifteen foot tall troll. It carried a huge club that was as big as a human’s entire body. The massive beast had skin that was so thick it looked like stone was embedded in its skin in various places throughout its body. Its massive size and incredible strength was matched only by its incredible stupidity. The troll, seeing the four humans grunted and immediately ran after them.

Kadin cussed loudly as he turned and started to run, with the other three following mere seconds after him.

“What do we do? How do we fight that thing!” Estellese yelled.

“It is too big to fit through the door. Just run!” Mendores called back, glancing over his shoulder as they backtracked through the dungeon.

As the troll chased them and neared the door, the beast ducked as if it was going to duck low enough to fit through the door. However, even when ducking the beast was still much bigger then the door and the troll did not stop running. Its leg fit through the door but the rest of the beast slammed face-first into the wall. But the troll was so big, and running so fast, it smashed right through the wall, roaring in pain and shaking its head, but that didn’t stop it, it just kept running after them.

“You were saying??” Estellese panickedly questioned. “We need a plan.”

“Nothing we have will be able to harm that thing!” Mendores countered.

“Follow me, I know where to go.” Kadin spoke up, before he sped up to lead the way.

“You sure?” Mendores questioned.

“I’m sure.” Kadin replied as he lead the way, running back through the dungeon paths.

“You know where you are going?” Estellese asked.

“I memorized the layout of the dungeon.” Kadin answered.

The troll continued its chase, at every door it passed by it ducked again as if it thought it would fit through the door this time, and every time it slammed face-first into the wall and broke through it, with a surprised grunt of pain. 

Kadin lead the way to the long hallway they had ran through, running halfway down the hallway before he turned to take that north side-path, and then he ran up through that path.

“Kadin… Isn’t this the path with the chest?” Zanath asked.

“Of course.” Kadin replied as he ran through the first room, past the destroyed skeletons. Then lead the way into the second room.

“Wasn’t the path with the chest a dead end” Zanath questioned.

“Yes.” Kadin replied simply. stopping in the middle of the empty room that was right after the skeletons. There was two ways out of this room, south the way they had come from where the troll was barreling towards them. Or west, the room with a chest that was a dead end.

“Why did you lead us into a dead end!” Estellese shouted at him, spinning around at him with a firey look in her eyes that clearly said she was ready to kill him.

Kadin shrugged. “Dunno.” He replied. “Sounded like fun.” He looked around at the spiky stalagmites and stalactites on the floor, ceiling, and walls. He had thought they were pretty odd the first time they walked through here. After a moment, they heard another loud crash of the troll slamming through the doorway not far from their room, it was almost here. Kadin turned to Mendores, giving him an expectant look as if waiting for him to do something.

“I am seriously going to kill you!” Estellese shouted at him.

Zanath and Mendores looked around, trying to think of something. And Kadin just kept watching Mendores, waiting. “Thiiink abooout iiiit…” Kadin said slowly.

Mendores looked around the room again, trying to figure something out. After a moment it hit him. “Everyone get into the corner, immediately!”

“What? Why?” Estellese said quickly.

“Just do it.” Mendores called out. With another loud smash, the troll slammed its face through the wall above the doorway and crashed into the room, roaring out in frustration.

The four Alphas ran into the back corner of the room. “Huddle close together, grab onto eachother-”

“And kiss your ass goodbye.” Kadin interrupted in a joking tone.

Mendores shot him a glare. “And grab onto some part of the cave wall. Hold on tight, keep a hold on anyone you can. Whatever you do make sure you are holding onto something.” He finished what he had been about to say before Kadin interrupted.

“If we are huddled this close together one swing will take us all out.” Estellese countered. But she did as she was told, grabbing onto part of the jagged wall with one hand and grabbing Mendores with the other. Mendores grabbed onto a stone sticking out of the wall and Kadin. Kadin grabbed onto an indent in the wall and Zanath. Zanath  grabbed onto another indent in the wall and Estellese.

The ground shook with every step as the troll ran at them, getting closer and closer. Once it got within reach it raised its club into the air and got ready to slam it down on the four humans. But then mendores let go of Kadin, and grabbed one of his scrolls.

Mendores activated the scroll, and threw it out into the middle of the room. Suddenly the entire room was engulfed with powerful gales, blowing everything in the room all over. It was like a tornado had been unleashed, any rocks, stones, and small boulders that had not been stuck to the floor or walls were picked up and sent flying around the room in a circular motion. The troll, like the rest of the stones, was pushed by the strong winds and stumbled right before it could swing. The winds were so strong that the troll was struggling to stand, it wasn’t being lifted off the ground and blown around, but it was being pushed around by the wind, sent stumbling in circles around the room, and couldn’t keep its footing.

Mendores quickly grabbed Kadin again as the four humans struggled to hold onto the wall. If any of them let go they would without a doubt be swept up in the windstorm.

“What is the plan?” Estellese shouted out over the sounds of rushing wind. The winds were so strong, and were pulling the four alphas away from the wall. They were all struggling to hold on and not be pulled off into the windstorm, but with her broken ribs holding on was excruciatingly painful. Her eyes were starting to get watery.

“Hold on and hope it works.” Mendores replied. “Whatever you do just don’t let go.”

The troll continued to struggle and stumble, until eventually the winds pushed it to step on a sharp stalagmite on the ground. With a roar of pain the sharp stone stabbed through the troll’s foot. The wound on its foot made the troll stumble even more, barely able to stay on its feet as the wind pushed it all over the place. Until eventually, it fell and was swept up in the whirlwind. Flailing about, the troll tried to grab onto something, anything to ground itself again but it was fruitless. It was pushed and thrown around, and around, it eventually veered just a little off course from all of its flailing and slammed into the spiked wall. It was impaled by several stone spikes, and in an instant its body went limp and the ground below it was covered in blood.

The whirlwind continued a little longer, with the four humans barely holding on. When it finally came to a stop the four of them all let go and collapsed to the ground. They were all panting lightly for a moment. “We killed it…” Mendores panted out. “Take a moment to relax, we are safe.”

Estellese quickly wiped a few tears from her eyes, and took a deep breath, cringing in pain. Even breathing was starting to hurt very badly now. She considered asking for a potion, but shook her head. No, they needed those potions. She recollected herself and went back to acting as if she was unharmed. “No thanks to Kadin.” Estellese argued. “Can we kill him now? I’ll gladly-”

“Hey.” Kadin interrupted. “I said I know where to go. I said nothing about getting us away from big and ugly. Plus, we lived, so clearly I did the right thing.”

Estellese sat up and clenched a fist, giving him a death glare. But Mendores spoke up. “Let it go Estell. We need him.” Mendores stood up and brushed himself off, then held out a hand to help the others up. “Now that we caught our breath, lets get moving. I saw stairs leading down behind the troll, that probably goes deeper into the dungeon. But there is one path we didn’t check on this floor so lets check that first and then go down the stairs.” He said.

“Sounds like a plan.” Zanath said, taking Mendores’s hand and pulling himself onto his feet.

Estellese also grabbed Mendores’s hand and pulled herself up. “Alright…. Side path it is.” She said in a rather irritated tone while Kadin got up on his own.

“Formation everyone.” Mendores said, before leading the way back to the second crossroads, the one right before the troll. He lead the way to the east this time, the one way they hadn’t gone. They walked into the first room, which only had one door leading east, so they walked into the second room which also only had one door, going south this time. The four of them were on edge, expecting an attack at any second, but none came. Walking south into the third room they found another treasure chest, in an empty dead-end room.

“Careful, could be a trap.” Zanath said. However by the time he said it Kadin was already standing in front of the chest with his hands on it ready to open it. “Or not, go ahead.”

Everyone stood back as Kadin opened the chest, and when nothing happened the rest of the group walked over to the chest to see its contents. He pulled out three more ingots of the same metal as the previous ones. A spikey mace that seemed kinda heavy, and a small cloth bag that like the chalice they found earlier gave off this weird vibe, as if it was radiating energy. Muttering quietly to himself about the chest having more junk he put the ingots into the cloth bag, and was surprised to realize that the bag only got a little bit heavier, and that the ingots took up almost no space. Puzzled, he looked inside to see that the ingots had shrunken to be about one fourth of the size they had been. He reached in and took the ingots out only to see that they were still normal-sized once out of the bag. “Huh…” He mused.

“Well, that’ll be useful.” Mendores said as he took the bag and ingots from Kadin, then put the ingots back in the bag. “Zanath pass me all the loot we put in your bag. Anything we don’t need to use is going to go in here.” He said. Zanath quickly passed him the rubies, ingots, and gold nuggets so Mendores could keep them in the magic bag.  Then Mendores handed the mace to Estellese. “This is good guys, we are getting our feet on the ground. We are getting armed. Lets keep exploring the dungeon, when we get out maybe we’ll be well armed enough to have a better chance of survival out there. Lets go.” He instructed as he slung the bag over his shoulder.

The group nodded, they may be exhausted but their moral was a little higher at least. They went back into formation and followed Mendores back to where the troll had been. They looked down the stairs and the room below seemed to be clear, so they cautiously walked down the stairs to the next floor. They found themselves in another empty room, this one had a door leading to the north.

Once everyone had reached the bottom of the stairs, the group walked north into the next room. “You’ve got to be kidding me…” Kadin murmured in a quiet voice. As they walked into the room the natives of the room came into sight. Three of those lion, ram, snake hybrid creatures they had run into before. The beasts turned to see the humans as they walked in, the three of them began to growl quietly and slowly walked towards the group, ready to fight or chase if needed.

--

Next Chapter: Diving Deeper

9: Chapter 9: Diving Deeper

--Chapter 9: Diving Deeper --

 

As the Alphas walked into the room their eyes set on the three hybrid creatures in the room. One of these things had caused enough trouble... Facing three at once… Would be dangerous.

Mendores thought over what scrolls they had left. Kadin's teleport scroll, his own barrier, and Estellese's death grip. Nothing that could easily bring these down like Zanath had done before. "Alright, everyone we're going to-" He started but before he could finish Kadin had already sprinted off after the leftmost creature.

“Sprint off and act like an idiot. It’s what he does best.” Estellese grumbled.

Mendores shook his head. “Let him do his own thing. New plan, Estell take the rightmost creature, Zanath with me on the center one. Lets hope Kadin knows what he’s doing. Plan is to pick them off one at a time by outnumbering them, so just hold out until me and Zanath kill ours.” With that Mendores and Zanath ran towards the hybrid creature in the middle.

“Got it” Estellese replied. She tightly gripped the battle axe she had taken from the last chest and ran towards her assigned beast, but she treaded with caution. Her injuries slowed her down and weakened her, she knew that, and as she watched the snake-tail she could tell that it moved too fast for her. It moved too fast for any of them to keep up with. She was going to have to be careful with this one. The lion part of the beast roared out loudly and pounced at Estellese, but Estellese quickly threw a spinning roundhouse kick at the beast, striking it in the side and knocking it out of the air. The beast hit the ground on its side and skidded a few feet, but immediately rolled onto its feet and with a roar of anger lunged for Estellese again. Her ribs were searing in pain, she spun back around as fast as she could to face the beast again but it was too late. As soon as she saw it the beast tackled her to the ground and immediately moved to sink its teeth into her throat. But before it could bite her she dropped her axe since the beast was too close to hit it with the axe and slammed a fist into the creature’s nose, causing the beast to yelp in pain and recoil for a brief moment. But it turned its attention right back to Estellese and took in a deep breath, with her pinned underneath its paws it was getting ready to spew more flames.

Estellese immediately thrust her right arm up to grab the beast’s throat, shoving its head up so that it spat its flames up into the air. Growling in frustration the beast started trying to struggle to get its throat out of her grip, it began clawing at her anywhere it could reach, and suddenly Estellese heard a hissing from her left side. She turned to see the snake-tail reaching around the side, the snake’s head head pulled back and suddenly lunged forward at her throat with lighting fast speeds. Estellese cussed loudly and thought fast, taking her left arm and thrusting it down its throat to prevent it from biting her neck. She screamed out in pain as she felt the snake’s fangs sink into her arm, and felt the claws of the beast tearing away at her, and felt the weight of the beast on top of her broken ribs. It all hurt so much her head was spinning. Estellese grit her teeth, trying to bear through the intense pain, as she slammed her arm that was inside of the snake against the ground, slamming the snake’s fangs deeper into her arm, but keeping her arm pressed firmly against the ground to make sure the snake was pinned and wouldn’t be able to bite her anywhere else.

And then, she focused on the scroll she had in her pocket. A red aura surrounded her and the beast, one for each of them, but the aura of the beast looked as if it was being sucked into Estellese’s aura little by little. The beast started struggling and trying to pull away, but Estellese tightened her grip on its throat, squeezing so hard that her nails broke skin and the beast started to bleed. “You’re not going anywhere now.” She growled, fighting through the pain, trying very hard not to scream as the beast clawed away at her, as the snake repeatedly bit and yanked on her arm in a mad attempt to pull her arm out of its throat. As the beast’s aura grew weaker and weaker, its body grew weaker and its attempts to fight and pull away grew feeble, its loud roars and growls became quiet whimpers and yelps. Until eventually, the beast’s aura was gone and it lifelessly collapsed to the ground. Leaving Estellese lying in a pool of her own blood, her body torn and mangled from the beast’s claws, with silent tears she couldn’t hold back running down her cheeks from the sheer pain as she laid on the ground. She laid there for just a moment, before shakily standing back up, barely standing but standing nonetheless. It was then that the second part of the scroll started kicking in, her wounds all began rapidly healing from the life force she had drained from the creature. She checked her pocket hoping the scroll would still be there, it saved her life, but it was nothing more then ash now. It would not be there to save her again.

Although, she did wonder why nobody had come to help her. Usually the team was right on top of that. She looked around for the others, only to see that they were not in much better positions.

Kadin jumped back narrowly getting out of reach of the snake-tail to avoid getting bitten by it. As soon as his feet touched the ground the lion head took in a deep breath and billowed out flames, forcing Kadin to turn and run to the side to get out of the way of the flames. He shifted a little, running at an angle to try and strike at the beast from the side. As he got close he swung his sword down at its back but the beast tilted its head back and blocked the blade with its long horns. The snake-tail whipped around and lunged for Kadin’s shoulder with lightning fast speeds, but Kadin was quick to jump back again and get out of its reach before it could hit him. He couldn’t get a single hit in on the beast, it was too fast and had too many defenses for him to strike it, and its constant attacks were forcing him to stay on the defense.

Mendores and Zanath were not faring much better. As Estellese looked over at them Mendores had grabbed onto the beast’s horns and was fighting to try and hold it in place while Zanath came up on it from the side. Zanath stabbed his sword down at the beast, but the snake tail swung in and blocked the blade with its scales, before turning and lunging for Mendores. Mendores was forced to jump backwards and let go of the beast’s horns to get away from the snake, and as soon as he did the beast turned and the lion’s head let loose a blast of flames at Zanath. Zanath dove into a roll to get out of the way, but as he rolled away from the flames the beast pounced on top of him.

Mendores was right there, so in a flash he charged at the beast. The snake tail lunged for him, but Mendores bashed it out of the way with the bone he had stolen from the skeletons and rammed his shoulder into the beast’s side, knocking it off Zanath. The beast was back on its feet in the blink of an eye and let out another blast of flames at Mendores and Zanath, forcing Mendores to quickly sidestep the flames, and making Zanath have to jump off the ground from his lying position and roll out of the way. The beast then charged at Mendores, and Zanath took the opportunity of it being distracted to rush in and stab his sword at the beast’s side. But the snake was not distracted, it swooped down and blocked the sword with its scales again.

Then suddenly Kadin appeared out of nowhere on the other side of the beast and stabbed his sword into its other side. The beast roared out in pain as it felt the blade plunge into it, and then Kadin yanked the sword down to not just stab the beast but to slice it open. The beast roared out again in pain and the snake hissed loudly. Zanath used this brief moment that the creature was stunned from the pain to stab at it once more, aiming for where the heart would be on a lion, then yanked his sword back out and jumped away from the beast to get out of the way of any further last-ditch efforts the beast had before it died.

The beast spat out a fireball at Mendores who quickly sidestepped the flames, it roared and struggled, trying to turn and attack Kadin but it couldn’t move fast enough, before it could turn to him it collapsed to the ground, dead.

“You killed yours already Kadin?” Mendores questioned, wondering why Kadin was suddenly here and not fighting his own beast.

“Of course not.” Kadin replied simply, as if it had been a silly question. He held up the ashes that used to be his blink scroll to indicate how he got here and how he got away from his beast. “It’s probably about to pounce on us any second now.”

With a loud roar the last of the hybrid creatures rushed in and moved to pounce on Mendores. But before it could reach him a red and pink blur rushed past Mendores and punched the beast in the nose mid-jump, slamming it back down into the ground. It was Estellese, of course, and she was completely soaked in blood to the point where her hair and clothes looked more red than pink and purple. It was her own blood, but nobody knew that because her wounds were all healed and she was unharmed. “I killed my creature, this is the last one.” She said before moving in closer to the beast.

Mendores glanced over at where she had been fighting before, to see that the creature she had been fighting was indeed dead. He looked back at the others with a rather shocked expression. “The longer I’m around her… The more I am glad she is with us and not against us.” He said before he rushed off to assist Estellese.

“Agreed, she is scary.” Kadin replied before following the others.

The hybrid creature got back onto its feet and growled, taking in a deep breath before spewing out a stream of flames at the oncoming Alphas. Everyone quickly moved to the sides to avoid the flames and continued moving in on the beast. Mendores took the lead. “Same plan as before, surround it, restrain it, kill it.” He took the front and charged the beast head-on, as the beast backed up and prepared to spit more flames Mendores rushed in and grabbed its horns, yanking them to make the beast look down at the floor.

The snake-tail lunged at Mendores to force him to let go, but Estellese was on top of it. She grabbed the base of the snake-tail and yanked it back, sliding her hands up its body to grab it closer to the head so she could stop it from turning and biting her. As she restrained it the snake head spun around and tried snapping at her, but it couldn’t reach with her holding it back. It opened its mouth widely and hissed at her, and as it did Estellese noticed some clear liquid leaking out of the snake’s fangs. “Eww, don’t slobber on me.” she growled at the snake as she used her other hand to smack it over the head and shut its mouth. As she restrained the snake half Zanath and Kadin moved in from the sides and slashed down at the beast from both sides, their blades cutting through the creature’s body and killing it on the spot.

As the last of the beasts’ bodies fell lifelessly to the ground everyone took a second to catch their breath. “Good job team” Mendores said. “Alright so Kadin used his scroll, we are down one scroll then.”

“I used mine too.” Estellese replied. “I took a bit of a beating, had to use it.” She added.

“Oh, alright we are down two scrolls then. That means mine is the only one we have left.” Mendores replied. “How did yours work, are you all healed up? How are you feeling”

Estellese nodded “Every injury I had was completely healed. I feel pretty good now, although my arm burns like hell where the thing bit me.” She said.

Mendores nodded, “Maybe your body hasn’t registered that the wound is gone yet, it did heal pretty quick.” He suggested.

“Yeah, probably” Estellese rolled up her sleeve and looked at her arm, the fang marks from where the snake had bit her were gone. But the area was all swollen, and looked to be red and inflamed, and it burned. But the scroll had healed everything so she didn’t think much of it. She looked over the group, Kadin was a little burnt, and the others were a little battered, but everyone was otherwise alright.

“We ready to go?” Mendores asked everyone, to which the group nodded. He got up and once everyone was up and ready he began leading the way through the room. They headed east into a hallway. The hall was empty so they continued through it until they reached a crossroads. To their left, north, was a room with seven skeletons in it. To their right, south, the empty hallway continued.

“Bet ya those skeletons are guarding something.” Kadin said. “We can take em out pretty easily.” He added.

“It is a possibility, not a guarantee.” Zanath pointed out.

“Well, yeah. But we are here for equipment and supplies right? Mine as well check and see if anything is there” Kadin said.

Mendores shook his head. “We are outnumbered almost two to one. While I trust that we can handle skeletons, we’ll need to be careful.” He said. “Just think about how much numbers has helped us, we never would have killed most of these creatures if we didn’t outnumber them. Don’t underestimate the skeletons.” He said as he lead the way and took the first step into the room. “And remember, blunt attacks. Your swords are useless here.”

As they stepped into the room the seven skeletons noticed them. All seven skeletons carried swords this time. Estellese readied her battle axe, she was pretty sure the weight of the axe would cut through these specially hardened bones no problem, unlike a sword.

“Spread out a little so they don’t surround us, but stay close enough to each other to assist each other when necessary.” Mendores instructed. And the group did as he asked, each of the Alpha testers spreading out a few feet from each other, watching as the seven skeletons rushed at them with swords at the ready. Each person had two skeletons running at them except Zanath who was the furthest to the right, only one chased him.

Mendores focused as his two skeletons ran at him. The first one raised its sword and swung the sword for his neck, but Mendores blocked it with the bone he had stolen from the first set of skeletons they faced. Immediately after blocking it he grabbed the skeleton’s arm with his free hand, yanked it down and slammed his heel into the shoulder joint, snapping the skeleton’s arm. But before he could finish it off the second skeleton rushed in and stabbed its sword at his stomach, forcing Mendores to let go of the first skeleton and quickly sidestep the thrust, turning his body to get it out of the way of the blade as he stepped to the side. And while turning his body he used that momentum to slam his bone club into the head of the other skeleton, knocking it to the ground.

The first skeleton grabbed onto Mendores’s leg as it tried to get up off the ground, but Mendores was quick to slam the heel of his other foot down on the skeleton’s shoulder, breaking it and rendering the skeleton’s arm unable to move. With that one incapacitated he turned his attention to the one on the ground, He saw it starting to get back up as quickly as it could, so he pelted his bone-club at the skeleton’s head, hitting the skeleton on the side of the head with it and knocking it back onto the ground. He then immediately jumped on the skeleton and picked up the bone club he had thrown, before he began using it to smash and break the arm and leg joints on the skeleton.

Meanwhile, Estellese who was not too far from him made even quicker work of her skeletons. With the battleaxe she had taken from the last treasure chest they didn’t stand much of a chance. The first skeleton rushed at her and slashed its sword for her neck, but Estellese simply ducked under the sword and then slammed her battleaxe down on the skeleton’s left leg as hard as she could, striking hard enough to cut through the bones of the skeleton’s leg and take the leg right off. As the skeleton lost balance and fell over, she raised her axe twice more, once to slam it down on the skeleton’s neck and behead it, and once more to slam her axe down on the skeleton’s spine, cutting it in half. She looked up to see the second skeleton rushing in just seconds behind the first, and she quickly picked up the severed torso of the first skeleton and threw it at the second one. Not expecting such an attack, the second skeleton couldn’t dodge in time and was knocked over when struck by its ally’s torso. And as soon as the skeleton hit the ground Estellese was on top of it, slamming her axe down at it to break it into pieces and finish it off.

Zanath, who was beside Estellese only had one skeleton rushing at him. By now these skeletons were no longer even a threat, they had learned the basics to combat shockingly fast and at this point the linear attacks of the skeletons seemed like child's play. He still wondered why the creatures in this dungeon were different, why they all had linear attacks, why they didn’t act and seem alive like the creatures on the surface. The monsters in this dungeon acted exactly as he expected an AI to act, which being in a game world that wasn’t surprising. But the monsters on the surface… They didn’t act like AI, from the little he had observed of them they acted as if they were alive and trying to survive in this world just like anyone else. And that puzzled him, it almost puzzled him enough to make him forget about the skeleton he was fighting. Suddenly when he snapped back to reality the skeleton was standing right in front of him and a shining piece of metal was swinging for his head. Using his speed to his advantage Zanath dropped to a crouching position to duck under the sword, then once he was crouched and the blade was past him his legs sprung him up and he tackled the skeleton. He slammed it into the ground and landed on top of it, then began slamming the blunt hilt of his sword into the skeleton’s shoulders to break them. It took a few strikes to break the skeleton’s hardened bones this way, and the entire time the skeleton was struggling, squirming, and throwing punches at him with its free hand, But in time he broke both of its arms and moved on to the legs.

Kadin had the hardest time with his skeletons, he had no blunt weaponry to fight them with and he was still facing two of them at once. As the first skeleton rushed in and took a swing at him Kadin clashed swords with it, using his own sword to block the skeleton’s. Then Kadin immediately kicked the skeleton to knock it over, but before he could do much more with it the second skeleton stepped in and he had to block the sword from that one, as the second skeleton pushed forwards and slashed at Kadin again, Kadin was forced to back away from the first skeleton and block the second one’s attacks. He couldn’t get an advantage with both of them attacking him, or a moment to focus one of them out. He did not do well with facing multiple targets at once.

The first skeleton stood back up and stabbed its sword for Kadin’s chest, but Kadin sidestepped and quickly moved his sword to block a slash from the second skeleton just in time. But as he blocked the second skeleton’s attack the first one stepped forwards and slashed its sword for Kadin’s legs, forcing him to jump back and stopping him from counterattacking. But as the first skeleton swung for Kadin’s legs, suddenly it was hit over the head from behind by a bone and knocked to the ground. Kadin glanced up to see Mendores, coming to assist. The second skeleton slashed at Kadin again, aiming for his throat, but Kadin blocked it with his sword again and kicked the skeleton to the ground. With Mendores handling the other one, Kadin had no problem pinning this one and promptly got to work at breaking its joints so it couldn’t move. While Mendores pinned the other one and did the same.

The fight was quick and swift, they had gotten used to fighting these simple skeletons. With all the undead beings on the ground and too broken up to fight the four Alphas went and took all of the swords from the seven skeletons. Mendores kept two of the swords, then placed the other five swords, his makeshift club, and the bone he had been using in that magical shrinking bag they had found. Despite the bag shrinking everything that went in those items that nearly filled it. “Everyone okay?” Mendores asked.

“Yep.” Estellese replied. And everyone else nodded.

“Alright, lets see what was behind these skeletons then.” Mendores said as he gestured for the group to follow him. There was nothing in this room but there was another room to the east of here. As they walked into the next room, they found that this room was also empty and was a dead end.

“Really?” Kadin grumbled. “Nothing but a dead end? We could have skipped that entire fight.”

“Well, it is a dungeon. Can’t expect every fight to lead to something useful.” Zanath said. “We at least got some swords out of it. In case we lose or break the ones we got.”

Mendores nodded “And I got two swords of my own, so that’s a plus. Lets check the other path, we must be nearing the end of this dungeon. And if we are not I think we’re gonna call it quits and back out soon.” He said. “Stay on guard.” He turned and started leading the way back to the crossroads they had passed before fighting the skeletons.

Estellese tightened her grip on her axe when he said to stay on guard, but cringed in pain when she did so. She glanced down at her arm, That burning sensation had spread, it no longer was just around the area the snake had bitten her, now she could feel the burning going down her entire arm and her entire arm looked red and a little swollen. It hurt to move her arm, it felt like the muscles were all on fire. She didn’t know why this was happening, but it wasn’t too bothersome at the moment so she ignored it for now and just followed along behind the group.

Once they reached the crossroads they headed south this time, following the hallway as it turned to the east. There was another crossroads that went south again, but the group passed it up and followed the long hallway to the east. There seemed to be nothing else around, they weren’t running into any more monsters. The hallway eventually turned to the north, and lead to a short set of about ten steps, with a closed metal door at the top of the steps.

The four of them exchanged a glance, whatever was beyond this door wasn’t good. “If I had to guess, this would be the boss room.” Mendores said.

“We passed a side path along the way here, should we go back for it?” Zanath asked.

“We’ll get it on the way out.” Mendores replied. “Is everyone ready for this?” He asked.

“Ready” Estellese, Zanath, and Kadin all replied in unison.

“Alright, lets go.” Mendores said as he lead the way up the stairs to the door. Everyone followed him, until suddenly Estellese ran away from the group and ran into the nearby corner of the room. She placed one hand on the wall in front of her and leaned over into the corner.

“Estell?” Mendores questioned. But right after he spoke he got his answer for why she was acting strangely, She threw up, twice.

“Ugh…” Estellese groaned, cringing a little when she was finished. “Sorry, suddenly I’m not feeling so well.” She said quietly, waiting a moment to make sure she wasn’t going to throw up again before she returned to the group. The burning sensation in her arm had spread even further now, she could feel it spreading from her arm across her chest. And now she was starting to feel very ill. “I’m okay now, I’m ready to go. Probably just overstressed, that can make you sick.”

“You sure?” Mensores asked.

“I’m sure.” Estellese replied. “I’m okay.”

“Alright, I’ll trust your word.” Mendores replied. “Lets go, be on guard everyone.” He added as he pushed the metal door open and walked into the room, with his three friends right behind him.

As they entered the room they saw that it looked like a big chamber, it was a large open room with nothing but pillars every here and there in it. Pillars, and a giant snake that was almost as thick as a bus and about a hundred and thirty feet long. They all went wide-eyed as they stared at the giant snake, and the snake lifted its head high into the air and stared back at them, hissing loudly as it uncoiled and started slithering towards them.

“Uh, guys.” Kadin stated. “I can’t move.”

“What the hell? Me neither!” Estellese said in a panicked tone.

“Neither can I.” Mendores replied.

“What is going on! Why can’t we move!” Estellese frantically spoke as she struggled and tried everything she could to move away from the oncoming snake.

The snake was getting closer and closer, staring them down as it moved. It could have moved much faster if it wasn’t keeping its head up like that to stare them down.

Zanath suddenly stumbled and took a few steps away from the snake, then he held up one free hand as if shielding his eyes from the sun, only there was no sun in here and he was shielding his eyes from the snake. “Close your eyes and move! Don’t look at the snake, it’s a basilisk!”

--

--

-- Chapter 10: Dungeon boss: The end of the dungeon --

10: Chapter 10: Dungeon Boss, the End of the Dungeon

--Chapter 10: Dungeon boss: The end of the dungeon --

 

The door behind them slammed shut and they could hear it lock them inside as the snake rushed at them. It was huge, at least a hundred and thirty feet long and as wide as a bus.

“Close your eyes and move! Don’t look at the snake, it’s a basilisk!" Zanath shouted. While his eyes were closed he moved his hand up to block out the snake’s eyes, like you would use your hand to cover the glaring sun when looking at clouds. Opening them again when he was sure his hand blocked the line of sight between his own eyes and the snake's. This broke the paralysis and he ran out of the snake's way.

"What??" Estellese shouted back. Kadin and Mendores both closed their eyes and suddenly they could move again, they immediately ran to the side to get out of the giant snake's path. Estellese hesitated, afraid to lose her vision when there was a giant snake coming at her, her breathing became heavier as she started to panic, and couldn't help but to stare back at the snake as it grew closer and closer.

Then she finally closed her eyes and tried to move, but she was still frozen in place. "It doesn't work!!" She shouted back.

Zanath grabbed Estellese's arm and yanked her out of the way, to his side. He then moved his hand and looked at the snake for a moment, and tried moving. At first he could move but with every millisecond that passed the paralysis became stronger and stronger. He quickly closed his eyes before becoming paralyzed.

"You stared at it too long" Zanath stated. "The longer you look at it, the stronger the paralysis gets! Do NOT stare at it for more than a second or two, or the paralysis may get so bad you can't close your eyes!" He shouted to the others.

Now that everyone had moved the snake stopped and straightened it's back so that its head was so high up it almost hit the ceiling. It looked down at the others and let out a loud and long hiss, and moved more towards the center of the room where it was close to everyone.

"How the hell do we fight it if we can't look at it?" Estellese questioned.

"It is a giant snake," Zanath stated "it can't exactly move quietly nor is it smart enough to use stealth. Listen to where it is, and only open your eyes for brief moments to check on things you can't hear."

"Split up, it can't look at all of us at the same time!" Mendores added

"It's got scales" Kadin pointed out as he ran to the north side of the room, leaving Mendores on the west side. Zanath and Estell remained on the east side and the snake was on the south side.

"Good point. Our swords won't be able to hurt it through the scales." Mendores thought out loud. You could almost see the gears in his head turning as he tried to figure out what to do now. They were not prepared for this, nor were they equipped to fight this thing.

"Well what is the plan?" Kadin asked, watching Mendores and waiting for some sort of idea or plan from him specifically. You could almost see the gears in his own head turning as he too tried thinking of some way out of this.

"I don't know, just hold out until I can think of something." Mendores called out. He watched as the snake spun around and glared down at Estellese and Zanath again, as it turned to them the snake flicked its tail at Mendores trying to slam him into the wall with its bus-sized tail. Keeping its eyes locked on Zanath and Estellese it charged at them.

Mendores dropped flat onto the ground to duck under the snake's tail. It was close, he could feel the gust of air rush over him as the tail just barely went over his head. And he could hear the pillars around him being smashed apart as dust and debris were thrown everywhere. He sprung onto his feet once the tail passed and got ready for the next attack.

"Eyes! Closed! And move left!" Zanath shouted when the snake looked at them, shutting his eyes as he ran left towards the south side of the room. Memorizing the positions of the pillars so he would not run into them, and opening his eyes only when he was sure the snake was not in front of him.

Estellese hesitated, again not comfortable with losing her vision in such a dangerous situation, but she closed her eyes and ran with Zanath to the south side of the room to kite around the snake.

The giant snake lowered its head to get into position to bite them and hissed loudly, then turned to chase after the two as they ran. Zanath heard it turn and when it hissed he noticed that the sound came from a little lower then it had been before. In a flash he spun around to face the snake, keeping his eyes open as he flung one of his knives at the snake's eye. His body locked up and froze in place when he made direct eye contact with the beast, the paralysis was much stronger when he looked straight back into the snake's eyes. But the knife was deadly accurate and stabbed the snake in the eye, causing it to let out a loud and pained hiss. The snake recoiled its head back a little but kept moving forwards, crashing its body into Zanath before he could break free and move.

Zanath screamed out as his legs were crushed under the snake's body, the weight of the snake broke both of his legs. He would not be able to walk in this condition. He started using his arms to drag himself out from under the snake and away from the creature while the others moved in.

Mendores and Kadin grabbed Zanath's shoulders and helped drag him back, and when Estellese saw them she slammed her axe into the snake's side. Even with her strength the blow from the axe did nothing, although it caught the snake's attention and made it turn on her, which was exactly what she wanted.

Once it turned on her she turned and ran away from it, trying not to look at it again but at the same time feeling panicked and tense with every second she couldn't see it and didn't know what it was doing.

There was only so much space in that small room, it wasn't long before she reached the wall and the basilisk was right behind her. She was out of ideas, with no way to harm the beast and no place left to run she didn't know what to do now. She knew she couldn't turn around to face it or she'd be paralyzed, and she knew it would strike at her any moment, she could hear the hissing right behind her. She could feel her muscles tensing up, begging her to turn around even though she knew she couldn't look at it.

"Dodge left!" Mendores shouted out, and she knew he was talking to her. Who else would need to dodge? She immediately dove to her left just in time for the snake's fangs and the rest of its head to slam into the ground where she had been. She immediately spun around and slammed the blade of her axe into the snake's open mouth, striking at any non-scale covered flesh she could reach. After her quick swing she spun around and ran away from the snake, back to where she had come from. She didn't need to see to know that her attack worked, the snake recoiled and hissed loudly, and she could hear the blood pouring out of its mouth. But even so, to a creature as big as the basilisk a cleave from an axe was just a scratch, it was more pissed off then hurt by such a blow.

With Zanath safely placed in a corner of the room Mendores and Kadin took advantage of the snake being distracted and threw everything they had into an attack on the back end of the snake's body. They hit it as hard as they could with their blades, kicked and slammed the hilts into the scales, Mendores even tried slamming a small broken piece of a pillar into the scales, all to no effect. They had nothing they could use to pierce or break the scales. The snake whipped around and turned its attention to the guys attacking it from behind, lunging for Kadin and Mendores. Kadin dove out of the way to dodge the snake's attempt to swallow them, but Mendores stood his ground. He waited until the last second before he jumped to the side of the snake's wounded eye. Dodging the bite and grabbing Zanath's knife from the snake's eye mid-jump.

Mendores threw the knife to Zanath, and the knife landed on the ground just a few feet away from where Zanath was sitting. "Think you can hit the other eye if I distract it?" Mendores called out.

"I can try. No promises" Zanath replied. He crawled over to the knife and grabbed it then forced himself to stand on his broken legs, cringing and hissing in pain but toughing it out as best as he could.

"Estell and Kadin once Zanath makes his move distract it and get it off me" Mendores ordered as the snake turned to him again and lunged at him. And this time he didn't move.

As the snake lunged at him, trying to swallow the tiny human, he jumped back just far enough to line himself up with the snake's teeth, so that it would bite him instead of swallowing him. Then Mendores activated the barrier spell, it's teeth sunk into the barrier and got stuck in it, keeping him jammed in the snake's mouth until the barrier breaks.

The snake bit down harder, trying to crush him in its jaw and the barrier started to crack. Mendores only had a very brief moment before it would break. "Now!" He called out. He himself immediately began wildly slashing and stabbing his swords at everything he could reach in the snake's mouth. Tearing the inside of its mouth apart with his blades.

Zanath took aim and flung his knife at the snake's other eye. With the deadly accuracy he was known for his knife struck the snake in the eye, blinding it in both eyes and taking away its ability to paralyze them. As Zanath did his part Kadin and Estellese rushed in and started hammering on the snake's back half as hard as they could to try and draw its attention.

The snake threw its head back and screeched in pain. Estellese continued slamming her axe against the snake's tail end as hard as she could and eventually the scale cracked and broke off. Seeing her opening she took her axe and cleaved into the small exposed part of the snake's body again and again, hacking away at any piece of flesh she could strike. She couldn’t hit anything vital this way, inflict a few more slashes and deep cuts into it’s skin. It would be near impossible to kill the snake this way. It lashed out in pain, snapping its tail back then slammed it forwards into Estellese and Kadin. It hit them hard enough to throw them into the wall, snapping their ribs on impact, and giving them both a severe concussion as their heads hit the wall. Kadin's head was bleeding badly, his skull was cracked in the back. They were both in extreme pain and badly hurt, but Estellese was immediately back on her feet almost immediately, and Kadin got up aswell although he took a few moments longer, he was not as easily able to tough out severe pain and injury. Three of them were wounded now and rendered almost unable to fight in their condition, but the basilisk was only blinded and slightly injured in one small area on its massively long body. This barely hindered the beast.

As the blind snake whipped its tail around trying to strike at someone, it smashed several more pillars as it flailed. It eventually swung at Mendores whom upon seeing it coming stabbed his sword into the vulnerable spot Estellese had struck and used the sword as a step to jump over the snake's tail. Losing one of his swords but leaving another, deeper wound on the beast. Mendores planned to wear it down, one blow at a time keep chipping away at it until blood loss set in. But with everyone injured... They had just lost all hope of surviving a prolonged battle like that.

Estellese and Kadin moved over to Zanath as the snake was distracted by Mendores. "I need a healing potion." Estellese said.

"We can't use them in combat, remember?" Zanath replied.

"Shit, that's right. What do we do?" Estellese replied.

Kadin stared at the snake, with a thoughtful expression on his face. He watched as Mendores tried to fend off the snake by himself.

The blindness of the snake only hindered it for a very short time, it had adjusted to the loss of sight and now knew exactly where Mendores was. It would stick out its tongue every few seconds, using its other senses specifically its sense of smell, to track the human. It lunged at Mendores who dove out of the way, barely dodging the snake's head. But as Mendores dodged the snake whipped its tail at him, forcing him to hastily try and jump over it again, using the remains of a broken pillar as a stepping stone. Jumping over something that big was no easy task and this time he wasn’t lucky enough to make it. The tail slammed into his legs as he jumped causing him to flip and crash into the ground and seriously injuring his legs. Thankfully they were not broken, but they were badly fractured in several places. He pushed down the pain as he forced himself back into his feet, determined to keep the snake distracted so the others would be safe.

The snake again lunged at him and he dove to the side to evade it, throwing his sword at its eye in an attempt to hit any flesh he could. But his skill in knife throwing was not as good as Zanath's, and throwing a sword was harder than it looked. His sword hit the snake's eye but the side of the blade hit the eye instead of the point, effectively doing nothing to the snake and leaving him weaponless as the snake turned on him again.

"Estell, give me your bag" Kadin stated firmly.

"Why?" Estellese asked as she handed Kadin the bag of potions. She watched as Kadin took all four of the  potions they had found in the dungeon out of the bag.

"I'ma gonna heal the snake" Kadin stated in a dead serious tone.

"What the hell Kadin! Don't-" Estellese started to shout before being cut off by a cough and the need to puke again. This time she held it back, but she was rapidly getting sicker.

"The poor snakey is hurt! If I heal him he will become my best friend and we will ride into battle together and he will love me and I will call him fluffy and we shall take over the world together." Kadin replied.

"Are you an idiot? It will kill us if you heal it! We just damaged the damn thing we will lose all the ground we gained in this fight! Give me that!" Estellese went to grab the potions but before she could Kadin sprinted off after the snake.

Estellese was going to try and stop Kadin, but as she started moving towards them Zanath told her to stop. "Estell. Stay here and let him do his thing." Zanath stated. "There is no way we are surviving this doing things the way we were. If we don't do something new, we can't win this. It's just impossible. Better to try something than to do nothing and die." He stated.

Kadin uncorked a potion bottle and waited for the snake to attack Mendores, once it lunged at Mendores and opened its mouth to swallow him again Kadin made his move. He threw the bottle down the snake's throat. Mendores dodged out of the way and Kadin retreated to keep the snake's attention on Mendores, the only one in good enough health to dodge the snake. Even if he was just barely able to dodge.

Mendores noticed what Kadin was doing, he did not know what Kadin was throwing since he missed that conversation but he assumed Kadin had a reason for feeding the snake whatever it was he was throwing. So Mendores worked with Kadin to repeat the maneuver three more times, setting the snake up for Kadin to throw the potions in.

As the snake ate the next two potions  its wounds slowly started to scab over and heal. It was regaining its eyesight, the bleeding was stopping, it was healing. Slowly, the potions took five minutes to fully heal their target, but it was working. "Uh… Kadin...?" Mendores questioned him unsurely and cautiously. He took a glance back at his ally to see Kadin throwing the last healing potion at the snake. Then he looked back at the snake and thought about it for a moment. Observing the snake’s slow and heavy movements. "Genius." He murmured.

Estellese had noticed the snake slowing down and had come to rejoin the fight, thinking it was getting worn out she felt like she could safely dodge these slower attacks with her injuries. "You mean that sarcastically, right?" She questioned.

"No. Well, Kadin definitely is not a genius but the idea is." Mendores answered. They watched as the giant snake slowly started backing off.

"Did you hit your head too?" Estellese questioned. "It's healing, if we couldn't kill it while we were unharmed how will we kill it now? Kadin thinks it’ll be friendly now."

"Did you forget the side effects of the potions?" Mendores asked. "They paralyze the drinker. The snake may be healing but he basically tranquilized it, even the snake can tell something is wrong and is backing off. Once the paralysis sets in we need to move in quick and make a killing blow. It may be healing, but if we kill it while it's healing the potion shouldn't bring it back from the dead. Hopefully." He stated. "Whether or not Kadin did this on purpose or for his own reasons is up for question though.” He added. He watched as the snake backed away into the corner, it looked scared. Its movements were rapidly slowing down until eventually it collapsed to the ground.

Mendores and Estellese watched as Kadin walked up to the snake once it collapsed and began petting its head. “Good snakey. Relax. Stop trying to eat us.” He whispered to it in a soft tone, and the snake violently hissed back at him. “Bad!” Kadin snapped and swatted it on the nose. “You will not use such language! Bad snakey!”

Mendores sighed and decided to ignore Kadin as he walked over to the snake’s head. It had not regained enough of its vision to paralyze them yet so he needed to move quickly. As he approached Kadin held out his sword, handing it to Mendores as he passed. “You’ll need this.” Kadin replied. “Since you lost both of yours.”

“Thanks” Mendores took the sword and stepped closer, before stabbing it into the snake’s eye. He knew it would take more than just that, the thrown knives had not killed the snake earlier, but then again the thrown knives had not pierced that deeply into the basilisk’s eye due to them being thrown. Mendores shoved the sword in as deeply as it could reach, then he took a step back and kicked the hilt as hard as he could to force the blade in even deeper. The snake let out a loud screech of pain, then it’s body went limp. It was finally dead, although the sword was now buried so deeply in the snake’s eye that it could not be taken back out. Not that it mattered, they had spare swords.

Moments after the basilisk was killed the door opened again and a hatch could be heard opening in the ceiling above them. Suddenly a treasure chest just fell out of the ceiling and landed in the middle of the room.

Mendores looked around, everyone was badly injured, this fight had almost been the end of all four of them. Zanath’s legs were broken; several of Kadin’s ribs were broken and his head was still bleeding very badly, he possibly had a cracked skull; Estellese also had several broken ribs and was off throwing up in the corner of the room again, Mendores himself was also injured. He knew Kadin just threw away several of their potions and he wondered how many they had left now. He hoped Kadin didn’t use them all on the snake, he had thrown several of them and they didn’t have many to begin with. He turned to the chest and sighed softly, hoping that whatever was inside would be worth it. Although, inwardly he knew nothing that chest could offer would be worth all four of them almost dying.

“How many potions did Kadin take?” Mendores asked.

“All of them” Estellese replied between coughing fits.

“Zanath, please tell me we still have some herbs left to make our own potions?” Mendores asked.

“We do.” Zanath replied. “But only enough for three. Not enough for everyone, and if we all use one there will be none left to save us from something bad happening later. And I’m sure I don’t need to say, no matter what someone’s going to get hurt again eventually. And we are in no condition to risk fighting the werewolves, we can’t go back to the forest we got the herbs in.”

“You guys drink the potions.” Kadin spoke up. “I’m not taking one. We can hope to find more in the chest, or in that room we passed by on the way here.” He said. “Surely the dungeon will give us some extra potions in that room before the boss. We didn’t check it out, so we can go there now.” He said as he walked over to the chest and opened it.

Zanath limped over to the others, having already mixed the herbs into the water bottles while the others were fighting. He handed one to Mendores and Estellese, then sat down and drank the last one himself. Estellese drank hers and also sat down. Mendores looked at his and hesitated, he wanted to save one for an emergency, but also knew that if he didn’t drink it his wounds would slow him down and that could result in him being unable to protect his friends. Kadin also needed it more than he did, but at the same time Kadin was not as good of a fighter as he was. The team was safer if Mendores was not injured. Plus Kadin had already stated his opinion, Mendores knew the stubborn man wouldn’t drink it unless forced to. After a moment of contemplation, he drank his and sat down and spoke to Kadin. “Next potion we find is yours. Stick close to me and Estellese for protection”

Although right as he said that Estellese began coughing heavily and nearly threw up again. “Scratch that, stay near me, both of you. If that illness is not cured by the potion.” Mendores corrected himself. "

"Uh, I'm not sure if you guys are gonna like this chest" Kadin interrupted.

“Why?” Mendores questioned as he turned to Kadin.

Kadin took a deep breath, then sighed. “It’s empty.”

“Of course. Just our luck.” Mendores sighed, he lowered his head a little and looked almost defeated. If the game was this cruel, surviving would be even harder than they thought. “All that for nothing, this game is brutal.”

Estellese shook her head. “Really?? We almost died for that and it’s empty. Are you freaking kidding me?!-”

“Yes, I am” Kadin interrupted.

Estellese continued “I mean, Why the hell would they put an empty-” She stopped as Kadin’s words registered in her mind. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

“I am aware.” Kadin chuckled. “But I’m a loveable asshole so that makes it okay.” He added. Mendores and Zanath remained quiet, but they both smirked a little and Mendores briefly chuckled. They were both relieved, and slightly amused by the joke.

Kadin started pulling the items out of the chest, holding each one up for a moment so the others could see before placing them on the ground. Since the others were paralyzed by the healing potions and would be unable to check the chest themselves. He pulled out a bow, a quiver with 6 arrows in it, and a chainmail chestpiece that protected both the torso and arms of the wearer, although the metals used to make the chainmail seemed weak and flimsy. Kadin grabbed what looked like a necklace with a large diamond and gold pendant, however as he touched it he felt this bizarre sensation of energy emanating from it. The strange feeling made him gasp and drop it, as he yanked his hand back as if he had just grabbed something thorny. After seeing that the necklace did not do anything aside from give off that odd feeling, he reached in and picked it up again then promptly put the strange thing around his neck.

The others were giving Kadin an odd look, wondering why he had jumped. Although, knowing Kadin and knowing that any time he found something unknown he used it straight away, they assumed there was something abnormal about the necklace he was now wearing. “Kadin,” Mendores stated. “One of these days that curiosity of yours is going to be the death of you. be careful.” He said simply.

“One of us was going to have to try it out and see what it did. Otherwise we’d never learn” Kadin replied just as simply. “But I appreciate the concern. However I can’t tell what it does or why it gives off this funny feeling.” He added as he pulled out the last few items. There was what looked like a bag of coins, and two marble sized diamonds along with one golfball sized ruby. He placed these miscellaneous things in that magic bag Mendores had to save them some space. Then he laid down on his back to wait for the potions to work on the others. The second he laid down he hissed and cringed, the back of his head touched the ground and sent a sharp pain through him causing him to jump. He had forgotten about that injury, in the rush of adrenaline from the fight or flight reflex the pain from his wounds had almost been unnoticable. But now that he was unwinding, everything hurt. Especially his head and ribs.

Kadin rolled over and laid face-down on the ground. “How bad is my head?” He asked.

“Pretty bad.” Mendores answered. “Well, it looks pretty bad. But then again you’re still conscious and able to function so I guess it can’t be that bad. Otherwise you’d be knocked out or dead.”

“Not necessarily” Zanath spoke up, “Some pretty bad brain injuries won’t knock you out or kill you. But then again, without a doctor here to check it we wouldn’t be able to tell. The bleeding seems to have stopped at least.”

“True, true.” Mendores replied, “With just us the best we can do is judge by what it looks like. And it looks okay. Aside from all the blood.” He looked back at Kadin, however Kadin was now gone. Mendores looked around the room and couldn’t see Kadin anywhere. “Where’d he go?”

“Dunno, wasn’t watching him.” Estellese replied. She was just lying on her back while the potion healed her injuries.

“I have no idea.” Zanath stated. “He could not have gone far. I didn’t even hear him move.”

“Who are we looking for?” Kadin asked.

“You” Mendores replied. “Where are you?”

“Still laying where I was before.” Kadin replied as he raised his hand to wave at the others. As soon as he raised his hand he suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, still lying exactly where he was.

“Kadin” Zanath started. “I think that necklace turns you invisible.” He stated. The only explanation for that was that Kadin had been invisible, and logically the only thing that had changed about Kadin was the necklace he put on. “It must turn you invisible when you are still.”

“Huh.” Kadin mused. He put his hand down and just laid there, and sure enough he turned invisible after two seconds.

“Hey! It works.” Mendores laughed. “That could be useful.”

“Very.” Kadin replied with a bit of a smirk, although nobody could see it.

“A necklace that makes him invisible.” Estellese mused. “Can we find a ring that makes him mute too? Combining both would be pretty awesome.”

“Hey!” Kadin pouted, but then chuckled lightly along with everyone else.

They waited out the five minute duration of the potions, and once it was over everyone but Kadin had recovered from all of their injuries.

Mendores looked over the items, assuming Kadin was going to take the necklace no matter what. "I don't think anyone has any arguments against giving the bow and arrows to Zanath, right?" He asked.

"I do not know how to use a bow" Zanath stated.

"Does anyone else know how?" Mendores asked, and when there was no answer he turned back to Zanath. "Well, nobody does. You have the best aim, so it's best in your hands. And I think Estell should have the chainmail, since she's our front line." He added.

Zanath took the bow and arrows and began fiddling with them, testing them out and taking a few practice shots across the room.

"You are also our front line Mendores." Estellese stated. "You take it, I will be fine without it." She still felt very numb and sick, the potion healed her wounds but it did not cure her of whatever illness she had.

"You sure?" Mendores asked. And upon seeing her nod he took the armor and put it on himself, now he had both a helmet and a chestpiece."Let's go, we have one more room to check then we can get out of here."

Mendores lead the way, and everyone followed after him. Kadin was limping and lagging behind a little bit due to his injuries but he was able to somewhat keep up with the others. And Estellese was still coughing and getting sick as they traveled back to the room they had passed up. It was empty, but had another room leading off to the west, That room was also free of monsters but contained one treasure chest. Mendores opened this chest, fearing it may be a trap but it was not. Inside was three more small bags of coins, 4 marble-sized topaz gems, and an odd looking ring. Like the necklace the ring gave off this strange aura, like it was emitting energy. It was a plain golden ring and the top of it where a gem would normally be instead had a flat and blank surface. Since Estellese was the only one to not get an item from the previous chest, Mendores passed her the ring, assuming it had some sort of magical properties to it. Kadin was both surprised and concerned that there had been no extra potions in the side room as he had hoped.

With that, the dungeon was fully explored. Or at least they did not know of any other rooms remaining so they assumed that was it. The four Alphas backtracked through the tunnels, looking over the destruction that was left behind from all of their previous battles. Now, they return to the surface armed and at least not completely defenseless anymore. Although, with Kadin and Estellese’s conditions taken into consideration, Mendores wondered if they were better off or worse off than when they entered, They were armed, but half of their group was also unable to fight effectively due to injury or illness.

They exited through the massive spiked doors that started their dungeon run, passing by the goblin corpses, and began making their way up the stairs, back to the subway entrance. “Estellese, what symptoms are you experiencing? From your illness?” Mendores asked. He figured that since there was a lull in the combat, now was a good time to figure out what was going on.

“Well, throwing up constantly for one. My stomach and throat are burning like hell from that.” Estellese replied. “I felt numbness in my right arm, which has spread through most of my body now. There are times where I can not breathe, like, I can’t inhale or exhale, my lungs just won’t work.” Estellese started

“That is very concerning.” Mendores thought out loud.

“And now I feel a very sharp pain in my arm, where the numbness started. That too seems to be spreading.” Estellese finished.

“Where?” Zanath asked. “I mean, where on your arm.”

“Here.” Estellese said as she pulled back her sleeve. Revealing that a spot on her arm was turning a dark shade of purple, while the area around the purple was a very dark red and all swollen. “Oh shit!” She gasped. “I didn’t think it was that bad. What the hell is going on?”

“Estellese.” Zanath started. “Were you at any time bitten by a snake? Or the snake end of any of those hybrid creatures?”

“Yes.” Estellese replied. Then her eyes widened as she realized what he was implying. “Wait! Were those things poisonous? I used my healing spell, and a potion, does that not cure poison?”

“Yes, those were poisonous snakes. And I would assume a normal healing potion won’t remove poison. Going by video game logic, we would need an antidote potion.” Zanath answered. “And we need to find an antidote fast, that poison has been in you for a while now. Judging by the symptoms you described I think the poison is causing your lungs to periodically fail. We need to cure this before your lungs permanently fail or you experience heart failure.”

Estellese’s eyes widened in fear, but only for a moment before she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she reopened her eyes she was calm and collected, on the outside at least. On the inside she was afraid that she would die here, she knew the chances of them finding an antidote in this overrun and looted city was near impossible. “Where do we go? A pharmacy?”

Mendores spoke up as they reached the top of the stairs and stepped out of the subway. “The first potions we found earlier were in a pharmacy section of a grocery store. So a real pharmacy may be our best bet.”

As soon as they all stepped out of the subway suddenly a massive earthquake shook the city. Birds shot up into the sky, the dragon who was on the other side of town was startled awake and flew high into the air trying to figure out what happened, and a girl who got startled by the sudden earthquake fell off a nearby rooftop.

Kadin looked behind him at the source of the earthquake, only to see the stairs in the subway vanish, and he felt as if something massive underground suddenly tunneled off to the east. Did the dungeon just tunnel away?

The other three spotted the young girl falling from the roof. The girl flipped herself up-right in mid-air and landed on her feet in a surprising show of agility. She was short, had incredibly pale skin, very long, straight blue hair, carried a bow and arrows on her back, and she wore what looked like blue and white colored clothing that looked like it belonged to some royal medieval family. Her sharp blue eyes locked on the four Alpha testers, and when she noticed that they had seen her she cussed, grabbed her bow and an arrow and immediately notched the arrow and prepared to fire.

Mendores and Estellese quickly stepped closer to the subway, preparing to use it for cover just incase they needed to evade fire. But she did not fire straight away. Zanath also grabbed his bow and an arrow, but was not nearly as fast as the girl was.  He aimed back at her but also did not fire.

“Lower your weapon!” Mendores called out. “We are not here to fight! We’re actually really happy we found another human. Please lower your weapon, we are peaceful.”

“You know…” Kadin started. “Saying ‘we are peaceful’ while we are covered in the blood and guts of a bunch of different monsters doesn’t really look honest.”

“Kadin. Not now.” Mendores stated sternly.

“Another human…?” The girl murmured, pausing for a moment to think. “Human…?” She murmured again before giving them a confused and distrusting look. Then she suddenly bolted off in a west-ward direction.

As soon as she started to run Zanath fired an arrow at her, aiming for her leg with the intent to stop her from escaping. He didn’t really want to hurt the girl, but she was another person in this world, they had to find out what she knew and if she knew how to get out of this game. Or, if possible, where the other humans were so they could try to survive within a city or something. They could always heal her later when they found some potions. However as soon as the girl saw his arrow coming at her she stopped running and spun to face them, in an instant she took aim and shot his arrow out of the air with her own., and a split second after that she had notched a second arrow and fired it straight at Zanath.

Zanath quickly dove to the side to get out of the way, narrowly dodging the arrow. But in the time it took him to dodge she had already notched a third arrow and fired again while he was mid-dodge. This arrow, he could not dodge. But it also was not aimed at Zanath, but instead was aimed at the quiver on his back. It struck the strap of his quiver with pinpoint accuracy, cutting through the strap and sending Zanath’s quiver along with the rest of his arrows spilling out onto the ground.  The move accomplished two things, it prevented him from firing back but also made it very clear that she could have killed him had she aimed for his head instead of his quiver.

As soon as she saw her arrow hit its mark she spun around and bolted off to the west again. Zanath, being the fastest in the group tried to chase after her, but the girl was far too fast. Zanath, despite being incredibly fast himself, didn’t even come close to matching her speed. She was long gone before he could see where she went, and he returned to the group.

“Daang” Kadin sighed. “She’s a really good shot. I can see how she is surviving out here on her own. Where’d she go?”

“West.” Zanath stated. “South west I think. And we don’t know for sure she’s alone”

“Should we follow her?” Kadin stated.

“I would, if we were not in such dire need for an antidote. She and the other humans, if any, may have antidotes with them. But searching in a random south west-ish direction doesn’t mean we will find them. We might, we might not, it would be very risky to bet everything on that.”

“It’s also risky betting everything on a pharmacy not being looted though.” Kadin replied.

“Why did you shoot her?” Estellese spoke up.

“Our lives are depending on us getting out of this game, or at the very least finding some supplies so we don’t die right here. She was a chance we had to get out of here, or get supplies. I couldn’t let her just run off. I was aiming for her leg anyways. Figured it would stop her from fleeing, and we could just give her a potion to fix the wound when we find one. I know, not the best idea, but her fleeing has a very high probability of being the death of us. I had to try.” Zanath stated.

“Oh, I guess it makes sense. But I don’t like the idea still.” Estellese stated. “Now what?”

“I’m sorry.” Zanath replied.

“We find a pharmacy.” Mendores stated. “And as a last resort, we follow the girl. It will be easier and quicker to find one pharmacy in a city, then it is to find one girl who could be anywhere in the world.” He said. “So let’s place our bets on the easy one, but also search for a pharmacy in a south-west-ish direction so if it doesn’t work out we are at least a little closer to plan B.”

Zanath nodded “Works for me.” he picked up his arrows and the ones the girl had fired at him. The girl’s arrows had a very sleek and elegant design to them, he looked them over for a moment before putting them in the quiver with his other ones.

“Lets go.” Mendores said as he again lead the way.

-

-- Next Chapter: The Deadline. --

11: Chapter 11: The Deadline

-- Chapter 11: The deadline --

 

"Anything? Is there any potions left at all?" Mendores called out to the other side of the pharmacy.

 

"Nothing. It has been looted, everything is gone" Zanath called back.

 

"Kadin any sign of the goblins? What about the dragon?" Mendores asked.

 

"Nothing. They do not appear to be nocturnal, as long as we continue to travel in the night we should be safe from the hordes." Kadin stated.

 

"I wish we could." Mendores replied. "But after fighting in the dungeon all day, and searching the city all night... We are going to face a serious exhaustion problem if we don't get sleep tomorrow night. Estellese, how are you feeling?"

 

"Not good." Estellese choked out. She was just laying on the pharmacy bench, trying to regain her strength. "It's starting to get hard to breathe guys, resting is helping but please tell me this isn't another empty pharmacy."

 

Mendores walked out of the back section and shook his head. "Someone cleaned it out. It's empty."

 

"Third one in a row. What do we do?" Zanath asked, and everyone turned to Mendores, waiting for his solution.

 

Mendores looked around, then shook his head. “Why are you all looking at me? Guys I’m not the leader, I’m only calling the shots because nobody else is. I… I don’t know what to do.”

 

“Logically, you are the best candidate for leader here.” Zanath replied.

 

“Yeah,” Kadin added. “You’re the only suitable leader. Estell has leadership qualities and is strong, but she is too hot tempered.”

 

“Hey!” Estellese coughed out. “I am not”

 

“See?” Kadin added, getting a growl from Estellese in response. “Zanath is smart, but he is too quiet and withdrawn to lead. Plus while he makes the most logical decisions, we’re often not in agreement with these decisions. Such as shooting the girl. He was right, it was our only chance, but I believe I am the only one in agreement with him that it was the right choice. Mendores’s decisions are more balanced, we can all usually agree at least a little with them.” He said.

 

Zanath nodded a little in response, and when nobody spoke Kadin continued talking. “And I am not trustworthy, I’m not afraid to admit my faults. I can be rash, I have a bad habit of expecting people to know what I’m planning, such as Me and Estell’s earlier encounter with the minotaur. I didn’t think she’d stay and fight. I don’t make a good leader either.” He explained. “We all bring something to the table that nobody else does. Estell is strong, and an incredible fighter. Zanath is highly intelligent, his brain saved us several times. Mendores, you contribute your leadership skills, nobody else can match that.” He stated. “Oh, and I contribute my witty comments, a warped sense of humor, and a promise that I will one day take over the world.”

 

Mendores and Zanath chuckled lightly, taking the brief moment to relax while trying to think of something. “And how will you do that?” Mendores asked.

 

Kadin smirked. “Once we return to the real world. I will secure a mind control chip, and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. I will put said mind control chip in the cookie and then offer the next person i meet a free, warm, gooey, freshly baked, amazing, chocolate chip cookie. When they eat it I will control their mind via the chip that would now be implanted in the back of their throat. I will have them then begin producing more mind control chips, and cookies. They will pass them out to other people, who will eat them and come under my control then join the production of more chips and cookies. Nobody can resist a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. The people who say no the first few times, will eventually find themselves in hell. Everywhere they look, people will be handing out cookies. Imagine, your entire day being spent with the scent of warm, gooey, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies haunting you everywhere you go. Seeing the cookies everywhere, having people wave the cookies under your nose. Resistance will be futile, nobody can resist that scent for long. Nobody.”

 

“That is surprisingly well thought out.” Zanath noted. “Not that it’d work, such mind control chips are impossible. But well thought out.”

 

“Of course. I am an evil genius after all. I said that when we first met.” Kadin replied. he was about to continue talking when he suddenly looked out into the street and shushed everyone. He stood in the open doorway of the pharmacy, watching the street. After two seconds he became invisible due to the enchantment on his necklace.

 

The others watched silently as two goblins walked past the store windows. They turned to walk through the door Kadin was standing in and as soon as they got near Kadin he lashed out at them. He suddenly reappeared with his sword mid-slash at the first goblin’s neck, before the goblins even had time to register that something just appeared in front of them the first goblin was decapitated. The second goblin shrieked in surprise and jumped backwards, but it was too late. Kadin followed up his swing by lunging forwards, shouting out in pain as every broken bone in his body suddenly felt like they had just been hit with a sledgehammer, he stabbed his sword through the second goblin’s chest, killing it. Kadin then stepped back into the doorway, resuming his position as the door guard. His necklace made guarding the location pretty easy, even in his wounded condition.

 

“You okay?” Mendores asked.

 

“I hurt like hell. But I’m fine.” Kadin replied. “It didn’t hurt this bad while I was fighting the snake, what gives?”

 

“Adrenaline.” Zanath answered. “While fighting the snake your body was in fight, flight, or freeze mode. Or what most people call fight or flight, whatever. Either way, your brain knew your life was at stake, that and the massive adrenaline rush drastically dulled the pain so you could fight, or flee.”

 

Kadin looked up just a little “Hey brain, I’m kinda still in danger can you turn that back on? Just for a…” He paused. His eyes fixated on something down the street and up high, something nobody else could see from inside the building. “The heck? Is that…” He squinted, trying to get a clearer view.

 

“What is it?” Mendores asked.

 

“That’s her! The girl!” Kadin said quickly. “I see a female silhouette, long hair, bow, quiver on the waist. It is watching us, and… It looks like the figure has a notebook or something and is writing something down.” He held still and turned invisible again, so the figure would not notice him watching it when whoever it was finished their writing. He didn’t want the figure to know he had spotted it.

 

“We have been traveling south west since we spotted her, but maybe we haven't seen any sign of her because she has been following us.” Mendores thought out loud. “Why would she be following us and taking notes?”

 

“Is she a scout for some other group?” Zanath asked. “If we set up a base somewhere, I could easily see myself scouting out the area and tracking people in the same way.”

 

“Weren’t we the only Alpha testers?” Mendores asked.

 

“We don’t know that.” Zanath replied. “Although, the chances of other people surviving this hell would be pretty slim. There is, however, the other question.”

 

“Which is?” Estellese asked.

 

“Is she human?” Zanath stated. “She is humanoid, for sure. But she could be an AI, or even a non-human race that just looks human. She did seem pretty confused when we mentioned being humans.”

 

“That confusion could have been from not knowing other humans got into this world. We were surprised to see her aswell. But you are right, we shouldn’t overlook the possibility that she is not human. Or not from the real world if she is. We still need to make contact regardless”

 

“She doesn’t know we saw her right?” Zanath asked. “What roof is she on? While she is watching Kadin, I can sneak out the back door and climb up to her roof.” He stated.

 

Mendores nodded. “That may be our only bet. If she escapes don’t waste too much time chasing her, we do not have time to spare we need to get a cure for this poison. We escape this game together or not at all, we need to make sure Estell lives before we look for an exit.”

 

Zanath nodded “Agreed.”

 

“She is on our side of the street, third building down. On the roof. I’ll turn visible and pretend to be doing stuff.” Kadin answered. And with that Zanath nodded and slipped out the back door.

 

“Estell.” Mendores started. When she looked up at him he continued. “If your condition worsens at all, you must tell us immediately so we can abandon this and move on. I know you prefer to be tough and act okay, but now is not the time.”

 

“Got it.” Estellese replied. “Thank you.”

 

Kadin was unsure of what to do, so he just started making a random tower of whatever trash and objects he found on the street around his feet. he figured that would confuse the girl and keep her attention focused on him. He smirked a little as he thought about how this would likely also lead to her jotting down some amusing notes in her confusion. The next few minutes felt like forever as he waited for Zanath to make contact.

 

Zanath was moving very slowly to ensure that he did not make a sound as he climbed up the building. Finally reaching the top he peeked his head over the edge to see the girl looking down at Kadin. It definitely was the same girl. He quietly climbed onto the roof and moved a little closer, keeping about fifteen feet of space between them. He then raised his hands above his head to not appear threatening and spoke. “Hey.” He started. “We come in peace.” Getting out the most important statement first.

 

The girl yelped and jumped in surprise, spinning around to face Zanath and grabbing her bow in a flash. This time, Zanath did not touch his bow and instead spoke again “I do not want to fight. Just talk. None of us want to fight.” He said. “I am sorry, for what I did last time.”

 

The girl stared at him for a moment, she did not move and kept her bow in hand, but she did not grab for an arrow just yet. It was at this moment that Zanath realized something. It was very possible the girl did not speak English. “I am a Friend. Friendly. Nice.” He said as he slowly sat down, trying to show that he was not here to fight. But still no response, she did not budge. “I am not a monster. No monster. I am human.”

 

As he claimed to not be a monster she frowned, and glared back at him. “What are you trying to pull?” She questioned.

 

“You speak English!” Zanath let out a sigh of relief. “We are not trying to pull anything, we just want to talk to you.”

 

“You are lying.” The girl countered.

 

“No we are not. We only want to talk.” Zanath replied. “I promise.”

 

“You said you are not a monster. You lied.” The girl shot back. “Get out of here.”

 

“We are not monsters! We are human, we are all human.” Zanath countered.

 

The girl glared at him, in a mocking tone and with her voice dripping in sarcasm said “I’m not a monster, I’m just the freaking boogy man. We come in peace! We only slaughtered every living thing we encountered since we arrived!” She then frowned and turned dead serious. “Your friend said it pretty clearly, can’t say you come in peace when you’re covered in the blood of all the creatures you killed.”

 

“Whoa, wait. That was self defense, we only killed them because we had to.” Zanath answered. “And we are NOT monsters, we are human. Humans are not monsters. I get the feeling you are not human, are you?”

 

“Not all of those were self defense. You invaded the home of several creatures, killed them all and took their treasures. I watched” The girl stated. “And humans are monsters, you are no different from the goblins you just killed moments ago. Goblins which were not even attacking you. And no, I am not human, you have proven to be barbaric and uncivilized, I would be ashamed to be one of your kind.”

 

“We needed that stuff to survive. And humans are civilized, we are from the real world and we are the most civilized species on the planet.” Zanath replied. “How long have you been watching us?”

 

“So humans are willing to kill other creatures, who had done them no harm, in order to further the survival of their own species? Such a selfish race.” The girl stated, letting go of her bow to jot down more notes. “So you come from another world? I guess I was mistaken in calling you monsters.”

 

“We didn’t want to kill them, really, we had to. And yes, we come from the real world. Thank you. You did not answer my question though.” Zanath said.

 

“You never have to kill.” Her words were sharper and more firm than ever. “If you really do come from another world, then you are not monsters, you are aliens. Then again, aliens could also be monsters… But I guess alien is more technically correct for documentation sake” She crossed out something near the top of the first page in her notebook and wrote in something else, no doubt exchanging ‘monster’ for ‘alien’. She then resumed talking “I’ve been tailing you since the moment you appeared, I noticed a strange flash of light inside a building and went to check it out. I saw your black haired friend in there, through a window. Then the rest of you appeared. I have followed you since.”

 

“We are not aliens either, we are human. But I give up call us whatever you like.” Zanath stated. “What race are you? And where can we find a human city? Or, rather…” He looked around “A human city with living humans in it, not this place.”

 

“The race ‘human’ is an alien race. As per your own description. You came from another planet, which you have apparently named ‘the real world’ which I must say is a stupid name for a planet considering there are many planets in existence and they are all real. But regardless, that is your own description of yourself and that makes you an alien.” She stated.

 

“Okay. I will admit, that makes sense. But that implies that humans do not exist in this world.” Zanath interrupted.

 

“I was about to say that.” The girl spoke. “If you want a human civilization go back to your home planet. I am an elf, we have lived on this world for thousands of years and we have explored the entire planet. Up until you guys spotted me yesterday you were identified as short-eared elves. I only refer to you as humans because that is what you called yourselves. Nobody on this world knows what a human is. This notebook, I am filling out information to add humans to the monster encyclopedia. But… You say this city is a human city?” She asked, looking very curious.

 

“Okay, that explains everything.” Zanath stated. “Yes this city is a human city, it is an exact copy of Oline city, a city from the real world. Only, in the real world there is other cities on its borders not an open field. And, the issue of returning to the real world to go back to human civilization, that is why we needed to talk to you. We don’t know how.”

 

The girl seemed fascinated with his information on the city, and flipped to a blank page as she began writing incredibly fast. “So this is a human city, from the human planet called the ‘real world’, is the technology here human technology?” She asked, ignoring his other statement.

 

“Yes, it is. It is not working in the city’s current state of abandonment, but it is all human technology.” Zanath replied.

 

“How can a civilization have such advanced technology, yet be so uncivilized?” She commented. “How does it work? The technology? This city has existed since the beginning of time, but has always been completely abandoned and has never decayed, well until recently when the goblins found it. But there has never been any explanation for how it got here. We suspected dwarves or fairies, but they are just as confused by it and nobody understands the technology here. Over the centuries we have deciphered some of the technology, but other parts of it continue to elude us.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a light bulb and held it up. “This, what is it? How does it work. What does it do? These are everywhere in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Why is there so many?” She was so curious and so absorbed in trying to get answers to all of her questions that she was asking them too quickly for him to actually answer before she moved on to the next question. But she finally stopped and waited for a response.

 

“We are civilized…” Zanath sighed quietly. Obviously he was not going to change her opinion on that “That is a light bulb. When it is turned on it emits a light, we usually turn them on at night so it does not get too dark.”

 

“Like a candle but with no flame?” The girl interrupted. “How does it work?”

 

“Yes, exactly. And we often have a lot of them all connected to a switch, so we can light up an entire large area with the flip of one switch.” Zanath said. “It works with electricity. Lightning, from storms, the lightning goes in through the bottom part. Well not real lightning because that much power would make the bulb explode, but we create small amounts of lightning in other machines, and transport it through these wires, the things that look like strings connecting everything, and the wires eventually connect to the bulbs. This small amount of lightning, which we call electricity, is what makes almost all human technology work. Well, it is much more complicated than that, but if I went into the complicated details you likely would not understand it since your race does not have the technology. That is the simple explanation.”

 

She put the lightbulb down for a moment and hurriedly wrote down more on her notebook, once done she picked it back up and held it by the bottom part and seemed to focus. A bolt of electricity shot down her arm, down her hand, down her fingers, and into the light bulb. For a brief moment it lit up, but then the bulb shattered and went out. The girl shouted in pain and surprise as several shards of glass stabbed into her and she dropped what remained of the bulb.

 

“Are you okay? I said it would explode if too much was put in.” Zanath said quickly as he moved to stand up.

 

As soon as he started to move the girl grabbed her bow again, “Don’t move!” Once Zanath sat back down she let go of her bow and began pulling out the shards of glass. Silently watching him, once the glass was removed she hovered her hand over the cuts and her hand emitted a green glow and the cuts rapidly healed. They were tiny cuts, and within a few seconds she was healed.

 

“You have healing powers. We need your help, we have one wounded person and one poisoned person down there.” Zanath said.

 

The girl shook her head. “Go back to your home planet if you need help. If there is one thing I learned from you all is that humans are dangerous and not trustworthy. I will not heal your friends.”

 

“I told you the light would explode if it received too much energy.” Zanath countered.

 

“I wasn’t talking about the light. You were upfront and honest with that, and what you said worked. It turned on for a brief moment and it did make light. The information you gave me will no doubt help the elves figure out this human technology so we can use it ourselves. I am very thankful for that. But that does not excuse your murdering spree. You are not to be trusted.” She stated.

 

“We can’t go back to the real world. That is why we needed to talk to you so badly. We need your help getting back, really since we got here all we have wanted was to go back.” Zanath said.

 

“You teleported here, didn’t you? Why not go back the same way you came, teleport, I do not know how you did that, we elves have not left our own planet before. I don’t think any race has. I can’t help you.” The girl replied.

 

Zanath shook his head. “We did not teleport. This is a game, a fake world. Humans have a lot of these games in which fake worlds exist, but normally the human does not enter the world of the game. Each game tells a story, like a book, and the human presses buttons to make the story progress, and since it is interactive like that the human can change the outcome of the story a little bit. We do it for fun. But this human in the real world, he made a game unlike any other, it was supposed to make you feel like you really were in the fake game world, not just watching it but actually in it. Me and my friends went to play, and we ended up here. This is that fake game world, but we can’t find the button to get out.”

 

The girl scowled and glared at him. “I take offense to that human. I thought your reference to the real world was just an issue with stupid planet names, but you seriously think this world is fake? The elves have been here thousands of years, you have not even existed for more than a week and you claim you are real but we are not? This world is real, I am real, if anything here is not real, it is you, human. You have no place claiming our world, our home, and the things living here are fake.” She scolded him. “I can not help you return to your world, and I have all the information I need for the encyclopedia. Goodbye human.” She finished as she turned to leave.

 

“Wait!” Zanath called out, he went to stand but thought better of it and sat down again. “Take us to the elven city then. Our friend is poisoned and dying, and we need shelter. Please.”

 

The girl shook her head. “No.” She stated. “Humans are dangerous and are not to be trusted, I told you that. I am sorry, I may dislike you but I do not wish for any of you to come to harm or die, despite that I will not endanger the lives of my village by allowing dangerous and violent creatures to follow me home.”

 

Zanath hesitated, trying to think of some way to make her stay. “I can help! I can teach your people about human technology, I know how a lot of this stuff works. I can teach the elves how to build these things and use human technology.”

 

The girl hesitated, it was a good offer. But she shook her head again. “We will figure it out, you helped us enough, we don’t need you.”

 

“At least repay me for the help I have given you. Use your healing powers to cure my friend of poison and we will call it even.” Zanath pleaded.

 

She hesitated again, “I’m sorry. I do not trust you, any of you. I have seen you kill too many creatures, when you did not need to. Self defense is one thing, seeking out fights and killing is murder no matter what you are killing. I will not allow a murderer near me, you are already far closer than I am comfortable with.” She stated and resumed walking away. But she stopped and hesitated, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a potion. She placed the potion on the ground and resumed walking towards the edge of the roof. “If I had an antidote I would give it to you, but I don’t. This is a standard healing potion. It will not cure poison, but it will heal the damage the poison has done to their body and buy them a few more hours. I am sorry, that’s all I can give. The elves have scavenged this city and taken most of the valuables already. I doubt you will find anything else here, unless the goblins brought it from somewhere else or we missed something. But we don’t miss much, the only areas we didn’t loot were areas the dragon was in when we came. But it moves so we eventually got to almost everything.”

 

Zanath sighed and looked at the potion. “Thank you, it’s something at least. What is your name? I am Zanath, my friends are Kadin, Estellese, and Mendores.” She seemed friendly, she had hesitated when she decided not to help which made it obvious that part of her wanted to help, it showed that not helping was difficult for her. Zanath hoped that maybe, if he made her connection to the group a more personal one by giving her everyone’s names, maybe it would be harder for her to leave them without help.

 

“Lillith.” The girl replied. “Good luck.” She added before she leapt down from the roof, and with superhuman speeds she bolted down the street in a south west direction. From the roof Zanath could see the city limit, where it turned into an open field. He quickly got up and rushed to the edge of the roof where he watched her run out of the city and off into the field, keeping that straight south-west direction the entire way.

 

Zanath picked up the potion she left behind once she was out of sight, then started climbing back down. ‘She must be returning home. Which means, the elven settlement is outside the city in a south west direction. Thankfully, she didn’t think to avoid my line of sight. The elves must not be used to dealing with intelligent creatures, based on the prevalence of goblins everywhere.’ He thought.

 

As Zanath returned to the group he spotted Kadin in front of the store, still building something with random junk from the ground. “Kadin? The girl is gone, you can stop trying to distract her now.”

 

“I know.” Kadin replied. “I’m bored.”

 

Zanath looked over what Kadin was building as he entered the pharmacy, upon a closer look he realized that Kadin had built a gravestone out of a tire, a stick, some cardboard, and duct tape. And in front of the grave, he was now arranging some old and stale cheerios into the words

“R.I.P.

Fluffy & Peggy

They will live on forever in our hearts and our exp points…

Do we have exp points?”

 

Zanath shook his head and sighed softly, then continued on his way into the building. Kadin followed him in a moment later but remained in the doorway.

 

Mendores hopefully looked up at Zanath when he heard the man enter, but then sighed quietly and lowered his head when he saw that Zanath was alone. “You were gone for a while, I was hoping you reached out to her.”

 

“I sort of did.” Zanath answered, then took a seat near Mendores and Estellese. He took out the potion he was given and handed it to Estellese. “It is a normal healing potion, she said it will not cure poison, but it will repair the damage the poison has done to your body. Or in other words, it will delay the effects of the poison by a few more hours.” He said.

 

Estellese shook her head and handed it back to Zanath. “Kadin is injured. He needs it. I'll hold out for an antidote, we must be close to finding one.” She replied.

 

“Nope.” Kadin responded. “Too busy mourning the death of my friends, Fluffy and Peggy, to drink a potion. Can’t drink it now. You take it.” He said, glancing back at the group with a concerned look on his face.

 

“Kadin…” Estellese replied. “You are seriously hurt.”

 

“I had only just met them…” Kadin sobbed out, so incredibly over dramatically that it seemed more silly than sad. “But I know… I know we could have been friends… I will cherish our memories forever. Like that time they tried to kill me… Or that other time they tried to kill me… Or that other time… They also tried to kill me.” He acted as if he didn’t hear her.

 

“Estellese,” Mendores started. “you are also in critical condition, and we both know he is stubborn and won’t take it. Just drink it.” He said. He caught Kadin giving them another concerned look out of the corner of his eye, he felt like he was starting to understand Kadin a little better. Mendores whispered to Estellese “I think he will take a potion once you are safe and not dying on us. Just a hunch. Please just drink it, we are all worried.”

 

Estellese hesitated, but then took the potion and drank it. “Thank you. But I am concerned about him, I saw him when he killed the goblins. He is hurt a lot more than he is letting on.”

 

Mendores rested his hand on his own forehead and sighed in frustration, shaking his head a little. “I know.” He murmured. “I’m trying my best to make the right decisions. But it is hard, especially when put on the spot like this.”

 

“Exactly, we all agree. That’s why we look to you as our leader.” Zanath joined in. “There is a lot to discuss about my meeting with the girl, when we have time.”

 

Mendores nodded and took a seat nearby. “We have five minutes before Estellese can move again, that enough time?”

 

“Yes.” Zanath replied.

 

“Listen up Kadin! Zanath has important things to discuss.” Mendores called to Kadin, then gestured for Zanath to start.

 

“Alright, where to start. I was able to speak to her, she is not human. She is an Elf, however she does speak English. She has given me the information that humans do not exist, we are the first, this city has been a mystery to the creatures of this world. Apparently it’s been here since the beginning of time and never decayed until recently. The elf saw us appear when we logged in and has been tracking us since. Documenting us in an encyclopedia as a new type of monster for, I would assume, her elven village. The elves must be primitive in their technology, she asked me to explain what a light bulb was. However she did say the elves had been researching the human technology, and that they had figured out some of it and now use it in their village. She does not know this is a video game, she believes this is the real world and was insulted when I said it was not real. So she can not help us log out. She had healing magic and I asked her to heal us, but she refused and she also refused to bring us to her village. Claiming that we were dangerous and untrustworthy. She was unhappy with us killing things. However, I watched her leave. She left this city, went out into the field, and traveled south west. I would bet the elven village is that way. She said the elves had already picked this city clean of resources, our best bet of finding an antidote would be going to the elven village. We won’t find one in this city.” Zanath explained.

 

Over the next five minutes he went into greater detail, mentioning how the girl was clearly feeling threatened by his presence, yet she had the kindness to stay and speak to him anyways. How she left him the potion for Estellese, and how he did not believe the elves were bad people, despite her refusing to help. And so on. Once Estellese was finally recovered they all stood up and prepared to leave.

 

“Alright. We head out of the city and travel south west.” Mendores stated. “We move as fast as we can, if we do not find this elven village by noon we will stop wherever we are and sleep for a couple hours. We are going on 24 hours without sleep, and while normally that wouldn’t be a problem, we are also seriously pushing our bodies way beyond their limits here. We can’t afford to lose sleep, if we are tired we will make mistakes and one mistake could mean the death of us all. Everyone good?”

 

“All good.” The other three all replied almost in unison.

 

“Estellese, how well did the potion work?” Mendores asked.

 

“I still feel numb everywhere. But the pain is gone, the numbness is dulled, and I can breathe normally again.” Estellese replied.

 

“Good. Keep me updated if anything changes.” Mendores stated. “Sunrise is coming soon, we need to get out of the city before the masses of goblins wake up again. Let’s go”

 

The others nodded and agreed, and with that they rushed out of the building and in a south west direction. They had already been traveling in that direction for quite a while since leaving the dungeon so they were already very close to the city limits. They were slowed down by Estellese and Kadin’s conditions, but despite that moved as quickly as their slowest members could go. It was a little past sunrise when they reached the city limits and crossed out into the hilly plains surrounding the city. It was all tall grass and hills as far as they could see, and that was not all they could see. Now that they had time to look around, and now that there was almost nothing obstructing their view, they could see things that were quite far away they saw how dangerous this world really was. They saw numerous minotaurs wandering the plains, they saw at least two dragons far off in the distance and they were unsure if those were two new dragons or if one of them was the same one that was in the city. There was giant spiders, giant wasps, slime creatures, hound-like creatures that they could tell were not normal animals, tribes of goblins traveling together. The city was relatively safe in comparison, there was not an overwhelming infestation of monsters out here like there was in the city, they could be easily navigated around, but the monsters out here were much scarier than simple goblins.

 

The fields were big and open, there was plenty of space to just not go near the other creatures. It made their journey longer having to stray off the straight path to avoid monsters, but they were slowly crossing the field. As they traveled they saw the mountains to the east fading away into the distance, and saw the ocean to the south coming into view. Along with that, another relatively small forest was directly south west of the city they had left, the forest was much closer than the ocean was, it was the halfway marker between the northern city and the southern ocean, but it was pushed off to the west so it was not directly between them. Like a random clump of trees in the middle of the plains.

 

“We are searching for Elves, so we should probably check the forest” Zanath stated.

 

“That’s racist!” Kadin interrupted. When the others turned to him he shrugged. “That’s all I have to add.”

 

“Anyways. The forest is our best bet, all things considered.” Zanath finished.

 

Mendores and Estellese nodded and Estellese said “Sounds like a plan.”

 

The group slightly altered their path to head more westward, it would be a few more hours before they finally entered the forest. Thankfully due to careful maneuvering, and using the tall grass as cover a few times they were able to reach the forest without trouble. Despite being smaller than the other forest they had found, this forest oddly looked like a dense jungle with vines, bushes, and other plant life growing all over the place. They traveled towards the center of the forest for an hour more, before they stopped in a small clearing.

 

“Estellese how are you feeling?” Mendores asked.

 

“I’m starting to have trouble breathing again, and the pain is back.” Estellese replied, she tried speaking normally but anyone who listened closely enough could hear the pain in her voice.

 

“Alright. I don’t want to stop, I really don’t. But we need to stop and rest for at least an hour or two. Or we’re going to end up too exhausted to defend ourselves.” Mendores stated. “It is almost noon. I will take watch, you guys try to get an hour or two of sleep in.” He said.

 

The others nodded in agreement and started getting comfortable on the ground. “Estellese can I borrow your axe? I’m going to light us a campfire if I can.”

 

“Yeah.” Estellese passed her axe to Mendores then laid down in the dirt.

 

Mendores took the axe and walked over to the nearest tree, then he took a swing at the lowest thick branch to try and make a log out of it. His axe struck the branch and cut partway through it, then he heard this very loud, deep, and long growling noise echoing throughout the forest. He froze for a second, looking around to see if he could find out what made the noise. It stopped and the area became silent again. After a few moments, when he was sure it was gone, he lifted the axe and slammed it down into the branch again, cutting deeper and almost cutting it off this time. And right away that loud, deep, long growl echoed through the forest again, this time louder and sounding angrier than before.

 

Mendores looked at the axe, and the tree branch, then pulled his axe out of the branch and took a step back. “Okay… Let’s stop hitting the tree then.” He murmured. “Zanath! Got anything to make a fire?” He called out.

 

“I still have that lighter I picked up in the city, before we got chased out by goblins the first time.” Zanath replied.

 

“Great, I’ll gather sticks and stuff from the ground and we can try lighting that instead.” Mendores replied. He gave the axe back to Estellese, then went off to gather a small pile of sticks, dry leaves, and anything that would burn. Once he had a small pile he turned to Zanath “Can you light it? It is not much, but it should hopefully warm you guys up and make it slightly less uncomfortable. At least for a little.” He asked.

 

“No problem.” Zanath replied. He took out the lighter and flicked it on, then lit the mini camp-fire in a few places so that the fire would grow and engulf the pile quicker.

 

Suddenly they all heard that loud and deep growl again, this time louder and angrier than ever. Moments after it was followed by another voice joining in the growling, and another, and another, and soon there was hundreds of them in every direction.

 

“What the hell is going on?” Estellese questioned as everyone started standing up as quickly as they could.

 

“I don’t know.” Mandores said quickly. But his eyes widened as he suddenly saw every single tree around them starting to move… Starting to stand up. Faces began appearing on the trees, they all uprooted themselves and stood, ready to fight. “No….” Mendores let out breathlessly. The closest tree to them whipped out one of its branches, slamming the thick branch down on their tiny campfire. It smothered the campfire and put it out immediately.

 

“We just pissed off the entire forest. I don’t think they like fire!” Kadin murmured in shock.

 

“Thank you captain obvious!” Estellese stated.

 

“We need to get out of the damn forest! They must all be ents.” Mendores shouted as he turned to run back out the way they came, but the ents had seen them enter the forest, they had already moved to completely block the way they came in. There was thousands of them, everywhere.

 

“They blocked the way, pick any other direction and run! We need to get out of here NOW! Follow me!” Mendores called out as he lead the way towards the biggest clearing in the trees he could find. Everyone else ran after him and followed as closely as they could. The ents were slow, but they were massive and no doubt incredibly strong, not to mention their sheer numbers.

 

Mendores stopped just in time for a massive branch to slam into the ground in front of him, and he changed directions to avoid it. The group followed right behind him, but Kadin and Estellese both had to duck to avoid being struck by another branch as another tree tried to knock them away from the group. They caught up and the four of them continued rushing towards any small clearings in the trees, trying to keep as much space between them and the ents as possible at all times.

 

“I don’t suppose we can just climb a tree and escape like we did last time?” Kadin called out.

 

“Kadin now is not the time!” Zanath interrupted. They took a sharp turn to avoid a blockade of ents that was trying to catch them by walling them in, just barely slipping out through a gap in the wall of wood before the last ent could move into place. They were thankful for the creatures being incredibly slow. But as they bobbed and weaved through the trees towards the next clearing some of the smaller and faster moving branches lashed out and grabbed onto Mendores. Yanking him to the ground as they tried moving to pin him down for the slower and bigger trees.

 

Estellese acted quickly, pushing through the pain she slammed her axe down on the smaller branches, with her strength she sliced right through them in one swing allowing Mendores to push the severed parts of the branches off himself and get back up. But by then it was too late, the bigger ent had reached them and was about to slam a massive branch down onto him and Estellese.

 

Zanath swooped in and grabbed Mendores, yanking him out of the way of the branch, while Kadin grabbed Estellese’s arm and pulled her to safety. The other ents were closing in and there was no way they could hold up against the attacks from that many all at once. “Go! Go!” Mendores called out, once he was on his feet he resumed running, making sure the others were keeping up, he spotted a clearing ahead of them that was much bigger than any of the previous clearings and hoped this was the way out of the forest. They were completely lost in all the commotion by now, they didn’t know which way was out anymore.

 

As they rushed into the clearing, they saw that it was infact not the way out of the forest but instead was just one massive opening in the trees. Near the trees on the opposite side of the clearing they spotted a human shaped figure. It looked to be a tall man, and they ran straight for him. As they got closer they noticed that the man had long white hair and carried a bow on his back. He also seemed to be wearing a light set of plate armor. His long white hair was tied back in a ponytail, so unlike the blue haired girl from before his thinner and pointed elven ears could be seen.

 

“Hey! Help! They are after us!” Mendores called out.

 

Once they were approximately thirty feet away from the man, suddenly a hail of arrows came raining down from the sky. Hundreds of arrows, aimed right at the four Alphas from all directions. The four of them froze and stopped running, all they could do was watch as the arrows came down. There was so many that dodging them all would be impossible. The arrows did not hit them, they instead landed all side by side in the ground forming a perfect circle around them. The circle gave them about five feet to move in any direction while remaining in the circle if they stood directly in the center. The arrows were fired from so incredibly far away, there was no possible way the archers who fired them could have seen their target, yet every arrow landed perfectly on target to form the circle. Once the circle was formed each arrow lit up and fired what looked like a small bolt of electricity towards the center where the Alphas were standing. All the bolts collided in the middle and disappeared except the ones that struck the humans. As the Alphas were struck by the bolts, they all collapsed to the ground and were paralyzed.

 

The man then looked at the ents, which were all rushing in to attack, moving as fast as the slow creatures could. He held up his hand as if signaling for them to stop. “Halt!” He called out. “They have crossed into our territory. They are ours to deal with now.”

 

The ents stopped, but replied with a long and annoyed growl.

 

“They are in our land, that is the agreement. We protect each other but we do not interfere in each other’s land. We will handle the intruders.” The man firmly stated.

 

The ents let out their long growl again, then turned around and began walking back to where they were before. The man turned his attention to the humans and was about to speak when a girl’s voice interrupted him.

 

“Did we capture them?” The voice asked. As she spoke the girl walked out from the trees behind where the man had been, alongside her was Lillith, the blue haired girl from before and two other elven bowmen. She seemed quite young, much like Lillith, and looked to be no older then her mid-teens. Where as the man looked to be in his thirties. She had long blonde hair and carried a sword rather than a bow. She was short and wore a full set of thin and light armor. She was different from all the other elves though, everything she wore, from her armor, to her clothes and sword, to the jewelry she had, was all very elegant and incredibly expensive looking. While the others seemed to just have rather plain armor and clothing, fancy, but plain. The blonde girl’s sword, armor, and clothing had jewels, gold, and incredible designs all over.

 

The man looked over his shoulder at the woman and frowned. “Alicia, you shouldn’t be here. This is a military matter.” He stated.

 

“Adamar, last I checked I was in charge of everything, including the military.” Alicia stated sternly. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

 

“These things are dangerous! You can’t be here, you are in danger here. Especially not after what happened to your parents, the village needs you alive.” Adamar argued. “Be the responsible adult you’re supposed to be, don’t needlessly put yourself in danger.”

 

“I had to see for myself if these humans really existed.” Alicia stated. “And news flash, I’m not an adult so I don’t have to act like one. That’s why I’m still the princess, not the queen. I don’t need to take responsibility.” She almost snapped back. “Plus, I brought my sword. So I’m not in danger.”

 

Adamar frowned and gave her a stern look, but when she just gave him the stern look right back he sighed and shook his head.

 

“We have wounded, and our friend is poisoned.” Mendores interrupted. “We only ask for help healing our friends, and safe passage out of the forest. We come in peace and will leave you alone.”

 

Alicia turned to Lillith, ignoring Mendores. “Are these those aliens you spoke of?” She asked quietly.

 

Lillith nodded quietly. “The exact same ones I was tracking.” She answered.

 

Adamar looked down at Lillith with a disappointed expression on his face. “You lead them right to us. You didn’t cover your tracks.”

 

“Hey!” Lillith argued. “I am a healer, not a soldier. I’m not as good as the rest of you and I’m not used to these situations. It is not fair to expect me to think of that.”

 

“That is why we have rules! Non-military elves are not to go that far from the village.” Adamar firmly scolded. “You should know better.”

 

“But A-” Lillith started, but then stopped and looked at Alicia.

 

“I know Alicia gave you permission to go. That doesn’t matter, you still shouldn’t have gone out there. It is dangerous. You can’t-” Adamar stated.

 

“I am the ruler here” Alicia interrupted. “So my word is final.”

 

Adamar gave Alicia a stern look again. “You can’t let people break the rules just because they are your friends. The rules are in place for a reason, people can get-”

 

“Princess.” Alicia interrupted again. “That means I can.”

 

Adamar shot her a glare, then sighed and shook his head. “This should not be discussed in front of whatever those things are.” He said as he gestured to the alphas, then turned to them. “Confiscate their weapons, bags, clothing, and anything else they have. Examine their things thoroughly. Put them in the prisoner’s uniform and in a cell immediately. They are prisoners until we decide what to do with them. Let’s go everyone.”

 

--

-- Next Chapter: Reality or Fiction? --

12: Chapter 12: Reality or Fiction

~~ Chapter 12: Reality or Fiction ~~

 

Mendores, Kadin, and Zanath awoke to find themselves locked in a cell together. Everything had been taken away, their clothes, their weapons, their items. They had been dressed in an elven prisoner uniform. A bright orange one piece jumper that was heavily weighed down with weights on the inside. The suit also had straps that wrapped loosely around the legs of the wearer. This gave them the space they needed to stand and take really tiny steps, but running or moving quickly would result in tripping on the straps. On top of that, the suit gave off that odd aura of energy just like the previous enchanted items, it was enchanted to make the wearer feel extremely weak and feeble. The prisoner's uniform made quick movement and fighting near impossible.

 

The three guys looked around. They could hear other people moving nearby, but walls separated the cells and they could not see their fellow prisoners. Oddly enough the ground under their feet was grass, not a stone floor.

 

"Where is Estellese?" Mendores stated.

 

"I do not know" Zanath replied. "She was with us when we were knocked out and taken in, but she was gone when I woke up."

 

"The ground here is grass." Kadin pointed out. "We can dig our way out and find her" he said as he immediately started digging. But as soon as he started to dig he heard a voice from somewhere down the hallway.

 

“Stop Digging!” The voice called out.

 

“Okay! Stopping immediately!” Kadin called back as he continued digging away as fast as he could.

 

There was a sigh from down the hall, and the voice called out to them again. “You didn’t stop. Stop it now.”

 

“Yes I did, no worries!” Kadin answered, but resumed digging.

 

Footsteps approached and within a few seconds Adamar was standing in front of the group again, this time wearing a fancy white shirt and pants instead of his suit of armor. His long white hair was let down and his arms were crossed with an irritated expression on his face as he glared at the three guys. He held up his hand with the back of his hand facing the guys, showing a ring on his finger. This ring looked almost exactly like the magic one Estellese had that they never figured out the purpose of, only Adamar’s ring was different. Where Estellese’s was just a flat surface, Adamar’s was a flat surface that had a carving of a rose on it. “Stop digging. I can feel everything you are doing with my signet skill. And I never take the ring off.”

 

“Signet skill?” Mendores asked. “What is a signet skill?”

 

Adamar frowned a little. “You do not know what a signet skill is? The female in your group had an unactivated signet ring on her.” He questioned, giving them an odd look. “These signet rings, like the one the female had, are magic rings. Invented by the fairies, these rings will read and learn everything about you while you wear them. Your past, future, personality, fighting style, future career, everything. Then the rings will create one magical ability that suits you, based on what it learned. These powers are unique to the wearer, nobody in the world can have the same power. Similar, maybe, but never the same. Obviously, wearing more than one is pointless since they’d all give you the same power. Mine allows me to connect with nature, specifically plantlife. I can feel everything that happens to any plant life within a one mile radius of myself, and can extend it much further if I focus on it. I can also see through the plant life within that radius if I focus on it. This grass under your feet? I can feel every move you make and I can look through it to see you at any given time.” He stated firmly. “And don’t try digging out, we are not stupid human, there is a cement floor underneath the grass. Plus if you left the cell I’d feel your footsteps on the grass outside and would instantly know where you are.”

 

Kadin hesitated a little, then re-buried the hole he had been digging. That plan surely was not going to work.

 

Mendores stumbled onto his feet, the restraining prisoner uniform making getting up difficult. “Where is Estellese? Our fourth member.” He asked.

 

“Gone.” Adamar replied. When he noticed the expression on the three humans suddenly snap into a deadly serious glare at him he took a step away from the prison bars. “The documentation on your species mentioned her being the most powerful out of the group, and also the most likely to start a fight. Her being poisoned when we captured you was a very convenient way to swiftly take care of that problem before it had time to become a problem.”

 

“Bring her here, now.” Mendores nearly growled at him.

 

Adamar shook his head. “Can’t do that now.” He replied. “You should be more worried about yourselves. I am still deciding on whether or not you three are to be executed for the safety of the village. Her fate was already decided hours ago, yours still remains undecided.”

 

“If you hurt her you are as good as dead” Kadin snapped back at him.

 

Adamar gave him an annoyed expression. “I am a soldier, human, not just any soldier but the one in charge of the entire Elven military. That basilisk that nearly killed you all is nothing, I face creatures hundreds of times more powerful nearly every day and I do not need four people to bring them down. You couldn’t even touch me.”

 

“If you are so high and mighty, then why consider us a threat? Why bother locking us up?” Zanath countered.

 

“You threaten the civilians, human. Not me. I am not always here to protect them.” Adamar countered. “And understand, I do not want to kill any of you. I’m not some bloodthirsty monster. Anyone with a sense of religion or morality should know, peace before all else, save a life instead of ending one, do not fight unless forced to fight. However an alien creature deemed to be extremely violent and dangerous showing up on our doorstep while we are in the middle of a war makes me question your allegiance and question if it is safe to even allow you to leave with the knowledge of where our village is. Those are the exact traits of our foes, extremely violent and dangerous creatures from another world, you could be allied with them or tempted to join creatures that are similar to your own kind.”

 

“What are you fighting against?” Zanath asked.

 

“Demons.” Admar stated flatly.

 

“You think we are similar to demons?” Mendores questioned.

 

“Very similar, only less monstrous in appearance.” Adamar stated.

 

Mendores shook his head. “Some humans are, not all humans. And not us. Just like I would presume some elves, not all just some, share traits similar to demons.” He said, taking a bold move to try implying that elves are no different.

 

Adamar watched Mendores for a moment, but did not say anything. As if studying him, thinking about what he said.

 

“Back to the topic at hand. Where is our friend Estellese?” Mendores asked. “You do not seem like a bad person, so you would not have harmed her, right? She's just in a different cell?”

 

Adamar hesitated, thinking his action through. He placed his hand on the lock to their jail cell. His hand emitted a gray-ish glow and the lock clicked. With it unlocked Adamar walked into the cell with them then closed and magically locked the door behind him, locking himself in the cell with the three alphas. He stared back at Mendores, straight into his eyes. “I killed her.”

 

The second the words left his mouth Kadin slammed his fist into the side of the man’s head. Mendores had also been about to punch him, but Kadin got to it first. At a loss for words, Kadin sprinted after Adamar to strike him again and screamed “you sonofa-” But he was stopped when Mendores grabbed his shoulder to hold him back. Kadin shot a glare back at Mendores, but stopped.

 

Adamar stumbled back from the blow, he was shocked the man could move so fast with the prisoner uniform on, but he did not attempt to fight back. “I eliminated the threat to my village. So what will you do? Kill me for protecting my people? You claim your previous acts of violence were okay because they were to protect your friends. Mine is for the same reason. Is that enough reason to kill me?” He questioned and watched them closely.

 

“No.” Mendores answered. “While I will not apologize for my friend hitting you, that and worse was merited, but no, killing you when you were only protecting your loved ones would not be morally right.” He stated. He glanced at Kadin, who was clenching his fist and seemed ready to beat this elf to death. Mendores tightened his grip on Kadin’s shoulder to silently tell him to relax.

 

Adamar listened and waited for them to finish. “I will admit, I deserved the smack on the head.” He said. He turned and unlocked the prison door and walked out of the cell, then left it open as he walked down the hallway. “Come. I will bring you to your friend, she is being taken care of in the infirmary.”

 

“She is alive?” Kadin questioned as the three guys followed Adamar out of the cell.

 

“Yes. I lied to see what you would do. If you would forgive my supposed actions, when they were for the protection of my loved ones, then I should forgive yours.” Adamar answered. He lead them into a side room where their clothes were and unlocked their prison uniforms so they could change back into their old clothes.

 

Kadin frowned a bit and looked down. He was glad Estellese was alive but irritated that the man had pulled such a trick.

 

“We have many questions to ask.” Mendores said. “They do not need to be asked now, and we do not intend to take information and offer nothing in return. We offer our assistance in any way we can help.”

 

Adamar nodded. “I'll answer your questions or direct you to people as best as I can. But I can not promise answers to everything. Especially since your race appears more technologically advanced than ours.”

 

“Well. We have one big question that I doubt you can answer but I have to ask. If you can not answer that, then we will need to know as much about this world as possible. Everything here, the creatures, the land, the magic, it is all completely foreign to us.”

 

“You have no magic in your world?” Adamar asked. “What skill do you have? Incredible speed or strength?”

 

“Neither. Average speed and strength. We are intelligent, but it would appear that you elves are equally as intelligent.” Mendores answered.

 

“Saying average strength and speed in a world where humans do not exist is meaningless, considering what we call ‘average’ is based on human skills” Zanath pointed out. “Average untrained human running speed is twelve miles per hour. And on average can lift at most about a hundred twenty five pounds.“

 

“How did you survive out there without any magic or special skills? By your analysis, you are about as powerful as a non-combat elven civilian.” Adamar replied.

 

“Luck.” Mendores answered “a lot of luck, and teamwork. We protect each other no matter what the risk.”

 

Adamar nodded “I see. It would seem like asking for your assistance driving back the demons would not be possible then. Ah well, you can help in other ways I'm sure.”

 

“We will gladly help with the demons” Mendores replied.

 

Adamar shook his head “You can't. Even a lesser demon, the weakest of them all, could take you all down in an instant. They can run approximately 25 miles per hour, lift a thousand pounds, are equally as intelligent and technologically advanced as us, and have a complete mastery of one element of magic. Typically fire, ice, or black Aether. And those are the bottom of the barrel weakest demons in existence. Their ranks go all the way up to Abyssal demons, titans the size of towers with ungodly speed, strength, intelligence, mastery of all three of the mentioned elements and a fourth Psychic element, with the ability to summon hordes of other demons to its aid.” Adamar explained “in this world, that basilisk was just a guppy compared to the real monsters out there.”

 

“How the heck do you take out something that powerful?” Kadin questioned.

 

“With an army.” Adamar replied. “And even with that we have yet to take one down without heavy casualties. Thankfully those creatures are trapped in the underworld, with all the other demons. Some can escape into our world through rifts that have opened, but very few rifts are big enough for an Abyssal demon to fit through. The ones that are big enough, we have locked down under heavy security at all times.”

 

“Why not close the rifts?” Zanath asked. “Or is that not possible?”

 

“We have tried, and have sent our best mages to do it. But we can not figure out a way to close them.” Adamar replied. “We assume there is a way, our mages were able to shrink the portals by striking them with Aether spells, both black and white Aether worked, but only by a very tiny amount.

 

Zanath nodded a little and became silent, as he often did while thinking about something.

 

The group stepped out of the prison and into the village, the houses here were all stone and medieval looking and there were elves roaming the streets everywhere. The three humans were catching odd looks every once in awhile, clearly the majority of the village had not yet seen the report about them. “Are they the snow elves from Tiraka village?” A small group of villagers they passed by asked. “No no, they can't be elves. Their ears look more like that of a dwarf.” Another said. “But they are by far too tall to be dwarves! They are taller than some of us.” The first interjected.

 

The group followed Adamar to a large building lit by candles and walked inside. Inside they were greeted by a  short woman with long blonde hair. She wore a long green dress and held a staff in her hand, the staff appeared to be metal with a type of crystal on the top end that made it almost look like a spear. She had a thin but very curvy body type,  and appeared to be in her twenties. Although her demeanor was that of someone much older and wiser, quite similar to the way that Adamar looked significantly younger than he really was.

 

“Crystal.” Adamar greeted. “These are the other three humans, I believe they have also sustained injuries in their travels. Correct?” He turned to Mendores.

 

“Just Kadin.” Mendores said as he gestured to his friend. “The rest of us used potions. There wasn’t enough for everyone.”

 

Crystal smiled a little and nodded. “Alright. I hope you three are as entertaining as your friend. She is a character, especially when angry.”

 

Mendores and Kadin chuckled softly at the comment, then Adamar spoke up. “Humans, this is Crystal, the head healer of the town. The best of the best when it comes to any and all nature-element based magic, not including the fairies.”

 

“You can’t include the fairies in any magical competition though. That would just be unfair.” Crystal commented.

 

Adamar nodded “I have reports to file and work to do. I will be sending some body guards to watch over the humans.”

 

Crystal chuckled softly. “It is not necessary, I can handle them. Plus Alicia is here if anything goes wrong.”

 

“That is precisely why I am sending bodyguards. To ensure Alicia’s safety. I know you can handle yourself.” Adamar countered.

 

Crystal placed a hand on Adamar’s shoulder, “Hon, Alicia is fine. She does not need protection.” She stated in a tone that seemed like an adult telling a child to not be afraid of the boogeyman.

 

“She is still just a child, she is only sixteen and still doesn’t realize that she is not unstoppable. She doesn’t have enough experience, or knowledge of the world and its dangers.” Adamar stated.

 

Crystal shook her head. “Almost all teenagers believe they are unstoppable Adamar, that is normal. But Alicia is being smart and responsible about this whole thing, and we know she is a decently good fighter.”

 

“She is not being responsible!” Adamar interjected, but then realized he had raised his tone and promptly lowered it again. “She showed up while I was capturing the humans. That was a dangerous situation, we didn’t know anything about them.”

 

Crystal shook her head. “She showed up fully geared up in armor, with a weapon, ready to defend herself if need be. AND she took two body guards with her. Three if you count Lillith who, while she is not a fighter, is still a good shot Adamar. Should she have been there? That’s up to personal opinion, foreign affairs is a job for the royalty, not the military. So I think she should have been there, but I also fully understand your reasoning for trying to keep her safe. Regardless, you can’t say she was irresponsible about it, you owe her an apology for that.” She scolded.

 

Adamar opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t. He paused a moment then started to speak again. “I can’t argue that, I will apologize when I get the chance. But understand where I am coming from, it is my job to keep her safe. I have to worry about these things, her parents died because I didn’t worry enough. I didn’t use enough safety precautions, that is my fault.”

 

“And now you are worrying too much and keeping too tight of a grip on her.” Crystal stated. “And it was not your fault, nobody is at fault for that. Although I think this conversation has gone on long enough, the humans are looking quite confused and probably feel like that awkward third wheel watching a friend’s family argue.” She chuckled softly and gave the three alphas an apologetic smile. “They are not dangerous. While healing the female I scanned her as well. Their bodies are pretty much exactly the same as ours, only their lifespan seems to be about one tenth of ours, just a little taller and without the pointy ears. Surprisingly, they appear to be the missing race in the demons. If you remember, there are demons of each race in the world and there was one race of demon that did not match any other. It matches the humans.”

 

Adamar sighed softly, and nodded at the mention of the conversation going on for too long. Although he looked interested when she spoke about the demons. “Good observation Crystal. Lillith also mentioned in her report that the abandoned village was a human village. So they do have some sort of presence in the history of the world. Somewhere.”

 

“There is also the legend of the boy and his dog.” Crystal pointed out. “It isn’t just a fairy tail, many people claim to have seen him over the last several years. He called himself human as well.”

 

“That is definitely a myth, or some boy playing a prank that coincidentally called himself human.” Adamar replied. “The boy also claimed to be the son of god.”

 

“Well, the myth states that he claimed his father created the world. He didn’t claim to be the son of god. But I guess that is being nitpicky since they are similar enough to mean the same thing. Anyways, good luck with your work.” Crystal stated, not so subtly stating that he had talked enough now.

 

Adamar finally took the hint. “Alright, I will trust you with keeping an eye on the humans. And Alicia.” He said as he turned to leave.

 

“Alicia  can keep an eye on herself Adamar!” Crystal called back to him, then turned to the humans. “I am sorry, that man would just talk us to death if given the chance. If I wasn’t over a hundred years older than him I woulda thought he liked me or something.”

 

“Does he?” Kadin asked out of curiosity.

 

“No.” Crystal replied simply. “Now what is wrong with you?”

 

“I was struck in the torso by a giant snake, and slammed into a wall. I believe I have injured my head and torso.” Kadin answered.

 

Crystal nodded, then placed her hand on Kadin’s shoulder and focused. “Don’t move. I am manipulating your skin and bones and everything else inside you, moving will make that difficult for me.” She stated as her hand began to emit a green glow. She closed her eyes for a moment and focused, then said “You took quite a blow to the head. I can fix your skull, but I am not a psychic, I can’t fix any brain damage. If there was any brain damage caused by the blow, I wouldn’t know. You also broke your ribs and bruised up your body.” She said. Then Kadin suddenly could feel his bones moving around inside of his own body, he felt his ribs piecing themselves back together and then rapidly regenerating until they were back in one solid piece again. He gasped and tensed, biting his lip as he tried not to squirm at the sudden, scary and bizarre sensation. Eventually it ended and he felt the same thing in his skull. Within about twenty seconds the pain was gone and he felt in perfect condition again.

 

Crystal took her hand off his shoulder. “Done.” She said. “Good as new.”

 

“Really? That fast?” Kadin asked in shock.

 

“It is magic, and I have achieved a mastery of it. Unlike potions which only speed up the body’s natural regeneration, I am skilled in nature magic. I can bend and alter any part of nature to my whim. Your body, is a part of nature. I could make you grow a third arm if I wanted to. Ooor.” She said before placing her hand on Kadin’s head, and within a second his hair turned from black to pink. “Change your natural hair color. Or whatever I felt like doing.” She laughed lightly.

 

Mendores and Zanath couldn’t help but to laugh at the sudden change in Kadin’s hair.

 

Overhearing all the commotion Estellese and Alicia walked out of the back room, Estellese had already changed back into her old clothes. Upon seeing Kadin’s hair Estellese also burst out laughing. “Oh god, please tell me that is permanent.” She laughed.

 

“Please kill me now.” Kadin sighed.

 

“Yes, Estellese, unlike your own hair I changed his natural hair color to pink, it would always grow back pink if I don’t change it back.” Crystal replied.

 

“Wait mine isn’t natural?” Estellese asked.

 

“No, your hair is dyed pink. It is naturally brown.” Crystal said. “I can make it naturally pink if you would like me to.”

 

“Yes please.” Estellese replied. And with that Crystal walked over and placed a hand on Estellese’s head to adjust her natural hair color.

 

Mendores looked puzzled and concerned. “That means someone dyed our hair, for those of us who changed our natural color, before they sent us into this g-” He stopped before saying game. “This world.” He did not want to offend the elves.

 

“Me too please.” Zanath spoke up. To which Crystal nodded and made her way over to him to permanently change his hair color so it would grow back the same color of white it currently was, then she changed Kadin’s back to his normal black color.

 

Alicia had been patiently waiting for everyone to finish, and once the conversation died down she finally spoke up. “Humans, we have things to discuss. For starters I would like to set up a peace treaty between the humans and elves. Not an alliance mind you, but some agreement that we will not try to kill each other. I would also like someone to meet with the scientists of this village and begin explaining human technology. I would only need your leader to set up the treaty.”

 

“I can come with you to set up a peace treaty, although we do not have a leader.” Mendores answered.

 

“And I do not mind meeting the scientist.” Zanath offered. “I am, no offense guys, probably much more knowledgeable in human technology than any of them combined.”

 

“No offense taken” Mendores laughed. "You are as close to a scientist as we have right now"

 

“Good.” Alicia replied. “After the peace treaty, I will return your belongings to you and direct you to the inn. I will arrange for them to give you a room for four days, but if you plan to stay any longer then that you will have to pay for the rooms yourselves. The other two can do whatever you want. I presume, since you come from civilization, that you understand basic laws of civilization correct?” She asked.

 

“No stealing, no hurting or killing people, be respectful to others in general. Those laws?” Mendores asked.

 

“Yeah pretty much.” Alicia answered. “Just be civilized, I do not want to have to kick you out so soon. The two who are assisting me, come.” She then turned and left the building, with Mendores and Zanath following along behind her.

 

Crystal turned to Kadin and Estellese, “So what will you two be doing?”

 

“I would like to know about magic.” Estellese asked. “How does it work? How do you use it? I had a fireball spell book I had been reading, but I could not quite get it to work.”

 

Crystal smiled a little. “It is simple, magic is all about energy. You have energy inside of your body, in order to use magic you take that energy out of your body, convert it into a magical element, and then make the element do what you want. This, of course, uses up your body’s energy. Using powerful spells or many spells is exhausting. It's worse if you use magic in combat, because you are also running, dodging, hitting things and all that, those things all use up your energy too, add magic into the mix and you can run out of energy fast if you're not careful.”

 

Estellese nodded a little. “There is no mana, or special energy used for magic?”

 

“No there is not, it uses your body’s natural energy, same energy your body uses to make itself function and do things. Anyone can use magic. However, if you can not read learning it will be nearly impossible. You can learn magic through pure trial and error, but it is so difficult almost nobody can, excluding the fairies who invented magic but it is hard even for them. The normal way to learn is from a book, which are written by the fairies, that or from a teacher. Beyond that, there is two ways to learn magic. Spells and elemental control. Your fireball book is an example of a spell, if you learn that you will be able to throw fireballs. That is it. With full elemental control over fire, you could throw a fireball, you could control it making it chase your target down, you could make it explode, you could make it turn into a little fire man and have it dance around the battlefield.” She explained

 

“Why would you want a spell if full control can do all that?” Estellese asked

 

“Spells take less energy to use, are easier and quicker to learn, and you can learn multiple element spells. Mastering a full element takes a very long time, while mastering a spell could take just a couple days. Also when you master an element, it makes learning other elements harder, because the ways the elements work all conflict with each other. It is like learning to write right handed, then trying to do it left handed. Then trying to do it with your foot. It is not impossible, but each element gets drastically harder to learn and takes longer and longer. Where as spells, they do not conflict, you can learn spells of many elements and be fine. Spells tend to be more useful for those who are not only mages, people who mix magic and melee or range. Whereas elemental control tends to be better for people who use only magic. But, that is just a preference.” She said.

 

“Now there is 13 known elements of magic, 17 if you include sub-elements since some elements like Aether or Mental are so big they are divided into sub-elements. These elements cover everything from fire and water, to ice and metal, to empathy and psychic which are two of the three mental sub-elements. These elements also all have 3 categories. Normal magic which encompasses about 95% of all spells, it is the magic I explained to you before, it uses your energy. Then there is will magic, spells that are so small and simple that they don't really require any energy to use. Like making a tiny spark of flames. It is useful for things like starting a campfire and stuff. Then there is blood magic, blood magic spells are the strongest spells possible but the use of blood magic is taboo and is frowned upon.”

 

“Why is that?” Kadin asked.

 

“Every spell you cast needs energy. Blood magic can be any element, but the spells are so incredibly powerful that they require more than just energy. It requires your blood. Every single time you use a blood magic spell it will wound you, the wound will be equivalent to the spell’s power. But these are not normal wounds, no amount of potions or healing spells can ever heal a wound caused by blood magic. These wounds will, eventually, heal on their own but if you use blood magic more than like, one spell every few months, you are basically causing yourself a slow and painful death. Blood magic wounds can range from stab wounds similar to being stabbed with a small knife, to loss of limbs, to instant death.”

 

“Why would anyone want to use blood magic if it injured themselves this badly?” Estellese asked

 

“Because blood magic is so powerful it can't even compare to normal magic. With normal fire magic a master of the element could make an explosion big enough to level a house. It would probably knock them out from the massive amount of energy it would take, but normal magic can do that. Now imagine how powerful a spell would need to be to use up so much energy it disintegrated the arm you casted it with. Or not just an arm but your entire body. These spells are beyond powerful, but the cost for using them is steep. Blood magic is not unheard of, it is just rare. I personally have one blood magic spell I save for an emergency. Not a high tier one, but even the lowest tier blood magic spells are dangerously powerful.”

 

“Where can I learn magic?” Estellese asked.

 

“We sell magic books in the store. However you can also find entry level spell books in the library for free. Just don't expect to find anything too special in the library, anything beyond simple fireballs and such would be sold in stores.” Crystal replied. “I can show you the library and the store. However I suspect you will have no money until you get your things back.”

 

“That would be very much appreciated.” Estellese replied.

 

“Alright then! Follow me.” Crystal chirped before leading the way out into the village. As they followed Crystal out into the village Kadin lagged behind a little and looked around at the people living there. He observed them, while Estellese remained close to Crystal and just followed. It looked like any other small crowded city in the real world, just with different buildings and clothing on the people in it. Elves rushed off to their jobs, children ran around playing games, some children got yelled at for not being in school, neighbors and friends were chatting in the yards and Kadin caught snippets of the conversations. They were real conversations. After a little Kadin tugged on Estellese’s arm and pulled her back a little so she also lagged behind with him.

 

“What is it?” Estellese quietly asked.

 

“These elves.” Kadin whispered. “This is just a game right? They are all AI aren’t they? Why do they all seem so… Alive. So self-aware. I do not understand, making an AI or an NPC… interactive… It shouldn’t be possible. They seem just as self-aware and alive as you and I, it is impossible for an artificial intelligence to be THAT realistic. Sure, the game technology is beyond anything we knew of in our world, but it is not that far fetched the current technology comes close so it is reasonably possible to make a virtual reality game. But making AI that are equally as alive and self aware as we are? That is pure sci-fi and impossible.”

 

“What are you trying to say Kadin?” Estellese questioned unsurely.

 

“Is this really a game?” Kadin asked. “The same question we had from the start.”

 

“Of course it is, we entered game pods to get here. It has to be.” Estellese answered.

 

“No. We didn’t.” Kadin stated.

 

“What the hell? Of course we did.” Estellese replied a little louder, but still at a whisper.

 

“The elf lady said your hair was dyed Estellese. Don’t you understand what that means?” Kadin asked.

 

“No.” Estellese replied, expecting him to explain it.

 

“That means, when we entered those pods and we felt ourselves passing out. I assume you all felt the same thing I did at least.” Kadin started and Estellese nodded to agree with him before he continued. “When the pods made us pass out, it did not send us into the game. Your hair got dyed after you entered the pod, otherwise you would have already known it was dyed. Which means, after we passed out in the pods, someone must have taken us out. Which is when you and Zanath had your hair dyed by whoever did this, THEN we got sent into this world. The pods didn’t do it.”

 

Estellese looked shocked, her eyes widened for a moment and she looked around, then turned back to Kadin. “Alright, who are you and what did you do with Kadin. You’re actually making sense for once. Well, that or I’m going insane.”

 

“This is too serious of a matter for me to screw around.” Kadin stated.

 

“Hey wait.” Estellese interrupted. “The interface. When we first logged in we got the game manual, and it told us how to open the interface. We never really used it since we didn’t have a need to send each other messages when we were all always together, but it did work! We can open it. Plus we can use magic, and there is monsters here. These things can’t be real.”

 

“If we were sent to another world, or another dimension, monsters and magic could very well be real. The interface, I will admit, is not possible for that to exist if the world is real. But at the same time, it would not be possible for the elves to be this alive and self aware if the world was fake.” Kadin stated. “Since we got here, we have been trying to find a way out of this game, and we've been constantly asking ourselves how this could possibly be a game when we feel pain, when it is so unfair, when it isn't game-like at all. I think we need to stop.” He said.

 

“What do you mean?” Estellese questioned.

 

“Stop thinking of this world as a game. I can’t tell if this world is real or not. If I am going to be wrong I would rather believe this world is real and be proven wrong, then believe it is fake and be proven wrong. If it is real, we could actually be killing real people, or, rather, creatures that resemble people. But still they seem self-aware enough to be considered people. This village seems safe, I think we should stay here and figure out where we really are. Take some time to adjust to the world, get our feet more firmly on the ground. Gear up, learn about the world, and if we choose to venture out again do it when we are prepared and ready for what is out there.” Kadin whispered.

 

“For once, I agree with you. I must be insane. However, we shouldn’t decide this without the group. Let’s wait until we are all together. For the time being, we need to treat them like real people and not AI. I’ve already been doing that, but we seriously need to drop that viewpoint we had before.” Estellese replied.

 

“Agreed” Kadin said.

 

--

 

--

 

After dropping Zanath off with the scientists and Lillith, Alicia lead Mendores to the biggest house in the village. Her own home, where the royalty lived. There were two bodyguards waiting outside of the building, protecting it from intruders. As Alicia passed them she stopped “You two, please come with me. I will be arranging peace negotiations with the human and need you two to keep the peace should things go bad.”

 

The guards nodded and followed Alicia and Mendores into the house. The four of them walked through a few long and elegant halls and ended up in a room that looked a lot like a boss’s office in a workplace. Two chairs and a long table between them. Alicia sat on the far side of the room and Mendores sat in the first chair, while the armored guards stood at either end of the table with their hands resting on their swords.

 

Mendores looked around and noticed that the bags he and his friends originally had were on a shelf behind Alicia. She did say she was going to return their belongings after so he didn’t think too much about it.

 

“So. You want peace with the elves, correct?” Alicia questioned.

 

She was quite good at making things feel extremely pressured Mendores thought to himself, before nodding “Yes. We would like an alliance.”

 

“No. Peace is given, an alliance is earned. If humans wish to join the alliance between the elves, fairies, and dwarves you must earn your place. It is not given for free. But we will offer peace, and a promise that if you some day earn it you will be welcome to join.” Alicia stated.

 

“Understood. We would like peace then, and will someday earn the rights to join the alliance.” Mendores answered.

 

Alicia nodded. “Peace with the elves will not guarantee peace with our allies. You must take that up with them. We also reserve the right to revoke this peace treaty if you are deemed a threat to our society. Or our allies.”

 

Mendores was beginning to wonder if they had law school in this world, because she seemed like she had been to it. “Understood.” He answered.

 

Alicia stood up and picked up a paper from the shelf, then slid it across the table to Mendores. She did not sit down yet though. Mendores took the paper and looked it over, it was a written declaration of peace between humans and elves, stating clearly that attacks on the elves or their allies will result in the treaty being revoked. It was short, plain, and simple. Neither side needed to agree to anything other than being friendly to each other and not killing each other. Mendores signed the paper and passed it back to Alicia, who did not sit down to sign it.

 

“Good, all it needs is my signature to be finalized then. However, before I sign it I have my own questions to ask. I need to know if you really are good people.” Alicia stated and gave him a stern look.

 

“I will answer any questions you need as best as I can. But I assure you we are good people.” Mendores answered.

 

“The religion of the elves is one of pacifism. You do not kill or even fight unless there is no other choice. While, our allies do not share this religious outlook and do kill, we accept this because at the very least they only kill in self-defense, or they kill creatures who are a true danger to the world. Such as demons, undead, and were-creatures. You killing the goblins could be seen as self defense. But what excuse do you have for the goblins that were not trying to hurt you? Or what about the other creatures?”

 

Mendores took a deep breath. He knew he could not tell her this was a game and that it is normal to do that in games. “Survival.” He answered. “We were thrust into this world with nothing. We had no choice but to struggle, fight, and do anything we could to get what we needed to survive long enough to figure out how to return to our own world. We came here on accident. It does not excuse our behavior, but we were scared and we didn’t think. We know better now.” It was not a lie, it was the truth. He just left out the game part.

 

Alicia nodded “Understandable, and a reasonable answer. I’ll accept that.” She said, then she walked back over to the shelf and reached into the bag that used to belong to Zanath. She pulled out a small book. “Last question.” She said, before dropping the book on the table in front of Mendores. “Explain this.” She stated in a sharp, almost angry tone.

 

Mendores was unsure of why she seemed so sharp and angry all of a sudden. He looked down at the book to see what it was. ‘Well… Crap.’ he thought. The book on the table in front of him was the game manual Zanath had taken.

 

“Lillith’s report stated that you humans thought this world was fake, a game of some sort. This manual confirms that.” Alicia stated sharply. Her tone was like an icy dagger, angry, sharp, cold, straight to the point. “We are not stupid human. Who do you think we are? Or rather, what do you think we are? This is not some game, it is not some fantasy made up world. You killed real living creatures out there. We are real, living creatures. If you can’t see that, if you don’t believe that, how can we trust you to not kill us later just because we are ‘not real’ in your eyes?”

--

--

-- Next Chapter: The World of Realism --

 

13: Chapter 13: The World of Realism

~~ Chapter 13: The World of Realism ~~

 

“We are not stupid human. Who do you think we are? Or rather, what do you think we are? This is not some game, it is not some fantasy made up world. You killed real living creatures out there. We ARE real living creatures. If you can’t see that, if you don’t believe that, how can we trust you to not kill us later just because we are ‘not real’ in your eyes?” Alicia stared him straight in the eyes, her stare was sharp and icy, demanding an answer.

 

Mendores paused for a moment to think, feeling her glare growing colder by the second. “Humans have these games in their own world. It is like a story book, only you control the main character yourself so it makes you feel like you are a part of the story. This new game came out, it said it would make it look like we really were in the game instead of just controlling a character through the pressing of a few buttons. Me and my friends entered this game, and that is where we found these manuals. In this world.” He said cautiously. He reached out and held his hand palm down, then swiped it across the air imagining a keyboard under his hand. And just like the manual said a holographic keyboard and screen appeared in front of him.

 

Alicia seemed shocked by this and took a step back. The guards next to her grabbed their swords and prepared for a fight but did not unsheath them yet. They relaxed when they saw that nothing happened.

 

“This is what we call an in-game menu. We humans can not do this in the world we come from, only in games. However this menu is missing almost all of the important parts of a game menu. The only thing it seems to have is a function for chatting with all humans in the world, a function for talking to one specific human, and a function to open a storage room of some sort. We have not tried out the storage room thing, honestly in all the commotion I completely forgot we could do this until just now.” Mendores said.

“That could be magic.” Alicia stated. “That doesn’t make this a game, or a fake world.”

 

“Try it yourself. You can use magic, right?” Mendores stated.

 

Alicia focused and held out her hand, palm down, and swiped it across the air just like Mendores had done. But nothing happened. She tried it a couple times and even the guards gave it an attempt. But nothing. “Okay, so only humans can do it it would seem. That still does not make this world fake.”

 

“You are correct. It does not make the world fake.” Mendores replied. “But we were told it was. We were placed in these pods and transported to this world. Most humans have never set foot in another world before! So believing that we just went to another planet would be insane. Our technology can’t even find another planet with life on it anywhere in the universe nevermind bring us anywhere near one. So when we arrived here, we did not expect it to be a real planet. Then when we were met with this game manual, and this ability to open a menu that us humans only get inside of a game, we were duped into believing this was a game too.” He said.

 

After a brief moment of silence Mendores continued talking. “Most of us questioned if this world was real or fake from the start, it felt too real, we could feel pain here and that isn’t supposed to happen in a game, as I said the menu was missing almost everything a game is supposed to have, and most importantly all games have a button you can press to stop playing, we never found any such button here. We were unsure about this, that was why we never died. Normally in a game, dying is okay. It just means you lost but the game will restart, bring you back to life and let you try again. But this didn’t feel like a game, so we did everything we could to make sure we didn’t die, we did not want to take the risk.  We never met any intelligent life before you. But now that we have met you and the other elves, we know this isn’t just some game anymore. I do not know where we are, or what this world is, but I know for sure it is not a game. Games do not have living people in them, the people in the games couldn’t possibly be as alive and self-aware as you and the elves here.”

 

Alicia nodded, but remained silent. Watching him as if judging every word he said.

 

“I can’t speak for the others but I think we have given up on returning to Earth, our home planet, by now. We need to find our place in this world, with only four of us it would seem like the existence of humans will be short lived, but you never know what will happen and speaking for myself I want to find some sort of place for myself, some reason to be here, if I’m going to be staying in this world.” Mendores finished.

 

Alicia remained silent a moment longer, but when he did not speak she glanced down at the peace treaty then back at Mendores. After a moment she signed the treaty and held it up for a second for him to see before slipping it into a bookshelf of archives and papers. “The treaty is signed then. There will be peace between the humans and elves. We may send a scout or two to watch over you humans from time to time but we will respect your privacy and refrain from doing that too much.”

 

“Thank you.” Mendores replied. He let out a sigh of relief, glad he had defused that bomb. “So what do we do now? I get that we can stay here for a little while, but what do we do with our lives here and where do we go after this? We don't know what is out there.”

 

“I do not really know what is out there either. Adamar made a point of not letting me venture too far from the village. So you would need to ask him. I do know, however, that the dwarves make their home deep underground in the mountains east of here. And the fairies live on the Altia isles, off the shore south of here.” She said “as for what to do, I would suggest earning a place in the alliance. You have no chance of survival if we don't stop this demon outbreak. At the same time we can't afford to carry dead weight so we can't just let you in, you must earn a place. You must prove that you can do something to help that makes it worth keeping you. I am sorry if that is harsh, but we are struggling and faltering in this war with the demons already. Adding on dead weight would only break us.”

 

Mendores nodded “if I wanted to scout the demons, where would I find them?” He asked.

 

“In hell.” Alicia answered. “Demons are not natural to this world, they are born in hell. When they enter this world and are killed, they return to hell. They can never truly be killed, just sent back. Which is why we struggle so much with this, we have taken down their leader countless times, each attempt he claims thousands more lives. Each time he just comes back as if nothing happened. However they can only enter the world two ways. One, if they are summoned but nobody in their right mind would summon a demon. And two,  through these rifts between hell and the world that have recently been popping up, we keep these rifts guarded at all times but more keep cropping up seemingly at random. The nearest rift is out in the field just south of this forest.”

 

Mendores rested his chin on his hand “I will probably check that out then, thank you. I do not know what we can do right now, other than sharing our technology, but I’ll figure something out.”

 

Alicia smiled softly “good, glad to hear it.” She paused for a moment then placed all the bags of things the Alphas had collected on the table in front of him. “you are free to go, I do not need you here anymore unless you have more questions. I noticed you have valuables in your bags, if you need money you can likely trade them for money in the stores.”

 

Mendores shook his head “No questions that you can answer. Thank you.” He said as he got up, took the bags, and left. As he left he opened the holographic keyboard and sent a message to Kadin, Estellese, and Zanath.

 

“Guys, hopefully you remember how to use this. I have spoken with Alicia and we have signed the peace treaty. We should find a way to help them with the demons so we can join their alliance. I am going to gather as much information as I can. -Mendores”

 

It was a minute later that he saw his hand emit a brief flicker of light and heard a ping sound in his head. He reopened the keyboard and opened his messages, finding one from Zanath.

 

“Sounds good. If you need help just ask, I am teaching the elves about electricity. -Zanath”

 

Mendores sent him a message back “Can you also teach them how to make guns? It may help them in this war with the demons. -Mendores”

 

“I plan to. They are learning these things incredibly fast, and their ability to use magic to summon the materials we need to build things is amazing. We are making progress at astounding rates, and even I feel like I am learning much faster than normal. I've felt like I was growing stronger and learning much faster since I got to this world. -Zanath”

 

“Me too. I wonder if that is some side effect of this world. Good luck. -Mendores”

 

He started walking out into the city and looked around as he thought about where to go next. It was just a moment after he heard another ping and his hand blinked again.

 

“Hey, it is Kadin. I'm at the library with Estell. She just accidentally knocked over a massive bookcase, but more importantly as it fell she caught it and was able to lift it. Even she said that was not normal for her, she has gotten a lot stronger since we started.”

 

“Zanath has noticed this same thing. We seem to be growing and learning much faster than we did in our own world. In her case that is shockingly fast. I can not explain how or why but we should take advantage of this, become stronger so we can survive out in this world. We will be gearing up to fight demons in the near future. I have Zanath working on getting the elves to invent guns, you and Estell do whatever you can to get more powerful. I am going to scout out the demons and then I'll follow suit. -Mendores”

 

“You going alone? That sounds dangerous.”

 

“I will ask for an escort from the military. Also, if you don't sign your name I have no idea who is sending the message. It doesn't say. -Mendores”

 

“I don't trust the military. That sounds more dangerous than going alone. -The amazing and awesome Kadin”

 

“Well I do trust them Kadin. They know what they are doing, and can keep me safe. I will meet you guys at the inn later -Mendores”

 

“Please be careful. -Kadin”

 

Mendores closed his menu and went out in search of Adamar. It took almost an hour to find him, but after enough asking around he finally found the man. “Excuse me, sir.” Mendores started.

 

Adamar turned to Mendores “hello human.” He greeted flatly. “I heard about the peace treaty. And I have checked on the labs, I am impressed by this technology and I have only seen this one thing you humans call electricity. It seems to work much like the fairies appliances, but without magical energy which makes it practical for use outside the Altia Isles. This could actually be very useful.” He said.

 

Mendores nodded. “I have also instructed my friend to teach you all how to make guns. Those are human ranged weapons, far better than a bow and arrows. They require much less effort to use, less space to carry, and can be fired a lot faster, while dealing out more damage in some cases.”

 

Adamar raised an eyebrow. “I look forward to seeing these.” He replied.

 

“I hope they exceed your expectations.” Mendores answered. “Now onto why I am here. Alicia has told me about the demonic portal south of here.”

 

Adamar sighed and frowned. “She should not have said that.” He grumbled quietly.

 

“Well, whether she should have or should not have is not the issue. I am going to go scout it out, if you want our assistance with the demons we need to know what we are up against. I am requesting a military escort. If I can not get one I will just go alone, but I would prefer to be with a soldier who knows what they are doing.” Mendores replied.

 

“No.” Adamar answered. “The demons are too far over your heads, there isn’t anything you can do. You’re essentially no stronger than a civilian, and you’re asking to try to help fight something that even my best soldiers struggle to fight.”

 

“You are correct. Right now we are not strong enough. But we have noticed that we have been growing in power drastically faster than we normally do in our home planet. We are not sure why, or how, but in just the few short days we have been here we have learned skills that should have taken us months of practice to learn. And a friend of mine has gotten drastically stronger, physically, I do not know the specifics but if I had to guess I would say her strength has doubled in the few days she has been here. Something is making our bodies and minds grow faster than normal, a lot faster. Give it a couple weeks and we might actually be strong enough to help. Plus from what I understand you sell magic books here, and I think we can learn magic although I am not sure of that since magic did not exist in our home planet. But if I am right we will soon have magic to use on top of whatever skills we have picked up by then.” Mendores countered.

 

Adamar hesitated. “If what you say is true, with that and these gun things you speak of you may be able to assist later. However it is still unsafe for you to go there now.”

 

“That is why I request a military escort. If I am with a soldier or two I should be fine, right? If a demon or two slips past the defenses you have set up the escorts can take them out. I will stay out of their way and will not try to fight unless they need my help.” Mendores answered.

 

Adamar shook his head. “You do not understand the scope of this. Demons are powerful, even my best soldiers can be taken down by middle-tier demons. And even if they do kill it that does not guarantee your safety, you have not faced magical creatures before, there is nothing the soldiers could do to protect you if the demon decided to aim for you. The demon could just simply make the ground under your feet explode, they can’t save you from that. A trained soldier would know how to evade such an attack easily, or a trained fire mage could use their own fire control to cancel out the demon’s fire magic and stop it. But I have no fire mages, and you do not have the experience needed to face magical attacks.”

 

Mendores looked down for a moment and thought it over, then looked back at Adamar. “I understand the risks, but I still want to go. We need to know what we are up against.”

 

Adamar sighed softly. “I can not escort you, I have things to do here. But I will see if Emmei is busy and ask him. He’s a master swordsman and knows some displacement magic to get you out of harm's way if necessary.”

 

“Thank you.” Mendores replied. Then he followed Adamar, assuming he would lead the way to Emmei.

 

---

 

Zanath looked around at the elves in the room with him, all of them were taking notes on the lecture he had just given. “Anyone know where I can get a drink?” He asked, giving a six hour long lecture was no easy task. Especially when unprepared. And he wasn't even done yet. Oddly enough the elves in the room were still paying full attention and waiting for more information, it was unlike any school he had ever seen. But then again, these were not students, they looked to be mostly adults and were scientists who were getting information on advanced technology.

 

An elven woman spoke up, she had short black hair that was tied in a bun leaving just her bangs hanging over her forehead. She seemed rather small, but then again all the elves here looked a bit small. She had soft brown eyes and wore thin glasses, her clothes were similar to that of the other elves, they looked like clothes made of expensive silks. “Yeah there is a dining hall just next door. My name is Esyll tell them I sent you and they will give you a free drink.” She said. She was the head scientist and was leading up this project.

 

Zanath nodded “thank you. If you would like you can experiment with the designed I showed you to make a few light bulbs work while I am gone. Or just take a break, we have all been working hard for a very long time.” He said. As he turned to leave he saw the scientists turn to the two mages they had brought with them and asked them to summon all the equipment they needed. And just like that everything they needed to start building electrical appliances just appeared on the tables and the elves got to work. “These summoned items are temporary right?” Zanath asked, just to make sure he understood.

 

“Yes” Lillith answered. “There are two types of summoning magic. One where you create an item out of magical energy, which is what they did. The energy holding those items in existence will fade away in a few minutes and the items will go with it. The other summoning magic is to summon a real physical object. To take something that already exists and just bring it to you. But in order to do that it must exist, and you must know it's exact location. Those summons do not go away, they stay forever since they were not created by energy.” She explained. “So, when we decide to build real appliances, we will summon the real resources we have. We just don't want to waste resources experimenting and learning. The things you need to build this stuff is mostly in short supply for us. It'll take time to stock up on it all.”

 

Zanath nodded “when I get back I will begin teaching you about solar panels. With the living trees around you you'll want solar, wind, or water powered electricity since those won't harm the surrounding environment. And, being surrounded by trees with no lakes nearby, solar is your best bet since the trees will block the wind.” He said as he started to leave.

 

“Solar? As in the sun?” Esyll asked.

 

“Yes, exactly. Taking the sunlight and turning it into electricity to power these things.” Zanath said.

 

“Wouldn't that only work during the day?” Lillith asked.

 

“Uh, yes and no.” Zanath said. “We can still get sunlight at night, not much. But the energy gathered during the day can be saved up to use overnight. It will get you through until the next day. I'll explain more when I get back”

 

With that Zanath left, and eventually returned with a drink to see the elves had all assembled their first electrical appliances. Most just lit a light bulb with potatoes, but a couple of the more gifted ones, like Lillith and Esyll, had already assembled their first very simple Dynamo generators and we're making lights and switches with those.

 

“Alright, everyone ready for the true test of everything we learned? Building a solar panel? Once you learn this, your solar panel can replace the potato as a power source. With enough solar panels you can provide power to the entire village which will allow you to add lights to the houses along with countless other human inventions.” When the others nodded and stopped what they were doing he began his next lecture on solar panels and solar power. As the lecture went on he eventually had them start making solar panels, and lead them through the process of building them. By the time the panels were finished it was night time

 

“Alright, so these will not work tonight, they have not had time to store energy during the day and it is a new moon today. However, I can see that they are all well built, we can test them in the morning.” He said

 

“Question” Esyll started. When Zanath turned to her she continued “if these panels can power the lights, and are powered by light, couldn't we just place the lights in front of the panels for an infinite power source?”

 

“Yeah! That or use light magic on them, what do you think of that” Lillith asked Esyll rather than Zanath since Zanath had no knowledge of magic.

 

“That too could work” Esyll replied.

 

“Well, they are powered by sunlight not regular light. They are different. As for magical light I would assume that wouldn't work either, since it also is not sunlight but I wouldn't know.”

 

“Let's try it then.” One of the male scientists stated as he held up his hand. Light suddenly came out of his palm as if he was holding a flashlight in his hand and he shined it on one of the solar panels. The light bulb it was attached to turned on, but then after a moment the light bulb shattered and the solar panel also shattered and broke apart. Everyone jumped and Zanath gave the solar panel an odd look. That sort of light should not have been able to turn it on, and that wasn't nearly enough light to make it break. So then, why did it turn on and break? Frankly, Lillith shouldn't have been able to turn on the lightbulb with her lightning magic like she did before either but he had just ignored that detail before.

 

Zanath stared at it with a perplexed expression on his face. Oblivious to the elf apologizing to him. Like the scientist he was, he was trying to make sense of it all. Even if it was magic, it HAD to have some scientific explanation. It HAD to follow some sort of scientific rules, otherwise magic would have no limits at all and would be able to effortlessly bend time and space itself. “Esyll, magic is created by pulling your energy out of your body, then infusing it with an element, and controlling the energy to control the element, right?” He asked.

 

“Well, yes. That would be the way magic works in a very simplified and basic way.” Esyll answered.

 

“Can you project the energy from your body without giving it an element? Just as pure energy?” Zanath asked.

 

“That would be difficult, even Aether magic, the purest of all elements, has a tiny bit of conversion to an element. But it would be possible.” Esyll answered.

 

“I am inexperienced in the use of magic, so I will need one of you to do this. But please try sending energy, without any element attached to it, into one of the working solar panels. Be prepared for it to break like the others did.” Zanath asked.

 

Esyll hesitated, giving him a curious look. But she placed a hand on one of the solar panels and focused, sending pure energy into it without any elements. For a moment, the light bulb attached to it turned on, just like before, but then it shattered and the solar panel also shattered and broke. “Okay, it broke. Why did you want me to break it?” She asked.

 

“To test a hypothesis.” Zanath answered. “The light this guy shined on the solar panel did not turn it on, nor did it break it. And Lillith, the Lightning you sent into the light bulb earlier did not turn it on either. It is the energy, the energy infused with your magic is what powered these things, and is what broke them because they are not built to run off that type of energy.”

 

Esyll and Lillith nodded “So what does that imply?” Lillith asked.

 

“It explains how you two were able to turn these things on when you shouldn't have. It also gives me an idea. I may be able to build something that can convert your magical energy into electricity. And if I can build something that converts energy into electricity, I can build something that converts electricity into magical energy.” Zanath thought out loud, his mind racing through possibilities faster than ever.

 

“That sounds like it could be very useful, in some way, but how so?” Esyll asked.

 

“The problem with closing these demonic rifts was that nobody had enough energy to keep up with sustained magical attacks on them right? And you said Aether was the element that worked best, and Aether is almost pure energy. So if we hook a few machines up to huge solar panels and channel all of that electricity to a machine that turns it into magical energy, and use that machine to pump the magical energy into the rift nonstop at massive volumes… That might just close it, if your observations are correct.”

 

“Are you serious? We’ve been holding these things back for over a year and you find a way to end this in a day?” Lillith said in shock.

 

“You figured out how to close it. Not me.” Zanath replied. “All I did was potentially solve the problem of not having a big enough power source to successfully use your strategy of closing it. And I still don’t know if that is even possible, it is just a hypothesis. I must go and start doing some research and tests, it could take me weeks to figure this out and get a working prototype built. But if both electricity and magic are types of energy, and both can interact with technology, I should be able to make some sort of conversion system.” He said, pressing his fingers against his temple as he racked his brain trying to think it through. “I need someone to bring me whatever books you have on the scientific explanations of magic to my room at the Inn, and for you students, your homework today is to study everything we went over, and build lights with switches that can be attached attached to these solar panels. I expect everyone to have a working system by tomorrow. The switch should be able to turn the light on and off.”

 

The scientists nodded and took a few last minute notes. Esyll turned to Zanath “I will get the books. I would rather not bring them all the way to the inn, it is a bit out of the way for me, but if you come with me I can get them for you now. I just need a promise that you’ll bring them back when you are finished.” She said.

 

Zanath nodded “I promise. Once I have thoroughly studied them I will no longer have a need for them, so I will bring them back. That may take a few days though.” He said. And with that he followed Esyll to get the books then went to the inn for the night.

 

As he entered the inn he was greeted by the receptionist. One of the few males he had seen in the village that had short hair. “I was told the humans were given a room to stay in for a week?” He asked.

 

The man nodded “Yes sir. It’s upstairs, third door on your right. It is room 023, your friends are already there.” He said with a smile. “If you need anything don’t hesitate to ask, I’m Eric, I’ll be in room 1.”

 

Zanath nodded and thanked the man then went up to his room. He opened the door and walked in, spotting the three other Alphas already in there. It looked a lot like a hotel and even had some furniture such as a couch, table, and four small beds. Estellese was lying on one bed with a book in her hands and a couple other books beside her on the bed. As Zanath entered she glanced up at him and gave him a brief wave in greeting and resumed her reading. Mendores was lying on another bed on the other side of the room, and Kadin was on the floor doing pushups.

 

“Welcome back.” Mendores greeted. “How did it go?”

 

“I may have solved the problem with these demonic rifts. I will need to do some research but I might be able to build something that can convert solar power into magical energy and pump that into the rifts to force them closed. However I do not know if this is possible, it is just an idea.” Zanath answered.

 

“Awesome! Seriously, nice job!” Mendores replied, sitting up and holding up a hand to Zanath as he walked past.

 

Zanath paused for a moment to glance at Mendores’s hand, it took a brief moment for him to realize why Mendores was doing that but once he figured it out he high-fived his friend and  went to sit on the edge of one of the beds. “Thank you.” He replied.

 

“I had a feeling you would figure it out. But I didn’t expect you to solve it so quickly.” Mendores said.

 

“I didn’t solve it. They did. They just had one hole in their solution to the problem, and I was able to patch up that hole for them.” Zanath replied. “Should I even ask why Kadin is doing pushups?”

 

Mendores shrugged, and Estellese was not paying attention at this point. Zanath could see that she was reading her fireball spellbook, and the books beside her were other spellbooks. Kadin did speak up though. “Mendores said he thinks we are growing at a much faster rate in this world then we did in the real w- …..” He cut himself off before saying more. “On Earth.” He corrected himself. “So with that in mind, I’m exercising. Partially to test that idea and partially to get prepared to fight some demons since we all know that is coming up soon enough.” He explained.

 

Mendores nodded “I had them take me to the portal earlier. We met a demon on the way there, it was just a lesser demon but still. I saw that fight, they are so many leagues above us in sheer power. We never would have stood a chance if we bumped into even the weakest of demons on our own. If we are really going to help them with this, we need to hope the prediction you and I came up with is right, that we do learn and grow stronger at a drastically faster rate then on Earth, and we need to seriously do some exercises and other training for the next couple weeks. Learn some magic if possible, and preferably get ourselves some guns. Or, at the very least buy new equipment. I got all of our things back so tomorrow I will sell everything we don’t need and will distribute the money evenly between the four of us.” He explained. “So if there is anything you want to keep, claim it now. I will not sell our weapons, armor and other worn things. But everything else is gone tomorrow unless claimed.”

 

“Dibs on that fancy cup we found!” Kadin called out.

 

Mendores gave him a confused look. “Why would you want the cup?”

 

“I dunno, it felt magical like the other things we got. We dunno what it does, but we shouldn’t get rid of it if it has some sort of magical properties we may not know of.” Kadin pointed out.

 

-- Next Chapter: To war. –

14: Chapter 14: To War

~~ Chapter 14: To War ~~

~~ Part 1: War Preparations ~~

 

“Alright, and that concludes your class for today.” Zanath instructed as he closed his books. “We are doing very well everyone, with that you have constructed your very first firearm. It is just a simple pistol and ammunition, but even something as small as this can be deadly. Arlen, please summon a melon in the target practice area.” He asked as he raised the pistol he had built himself.

 

The man nodded and focused for a moment, making a watermelon appear on the other side of the room in an area designed for target practice.

 

Zanath raised his gun and within a split second fired, and a moment after the watermelon burst apart. “And unlike a bow, you can fire these incredibly fast.” He said as he fired his next three shots within a second. “They only take up one hand, so you could hold two of these and fire both at once to fire even faster, or hold a sword to fight in close quarters using the gun to shoot them once you clash swords. And the ammunition is small and easier to carry than a bunch of arrows. Just be sure you hit something vital, unlike the arrows a bullet may not kill a target if you don't hit something vital such as the head.”

 

Adamar walked up to Zanath from the sidelines where he was watching. “Thank you, human. These look like they will prove useful in the battles with the demons.”

 

“The elves will need to train with these, and I have different types of guns to show them. There are far too many to go through them all but I intend to also introduce rifles, which are meant for shooting at longer ranges, automatic guns which fire faster, and RPGs which are essentially big explosive guns. I feel those will be the most useful for the battles ahead of us. Oh! And gun safety, never point a gun at another person. That would be essentially like pointing a drawn bow at someone.” Zanath explained.

 

Adamar nodded “Of course. Understood. How goes the conversion device? Have you made any progress in the last two weeks?”

 

Zanath nodded “I have made a lot of progress. Well, little progress but a big breakthrough in understanding which I consider a lot of progress.” He replied. “I have figured out that magical energy is the same as any other energy, only it is at a frequency drastically lower than radio waves. So now that I have figured that out I am pretty sure I can make something to convert it into a frequency we can use, and vice versa. I just need to build something that can detect this frequency and-” He was stopped when Adamar held up his hand.

 

“I appreciate the details, but I have no idea what you are saying.” Adamar replied. “I will just take your word for it when you say you made progress. I wish you good luck with the rest of this. As thanks for the help I have added an additional two weeks stay to your room at the inn so you do not need to worry about paying for the room for a while.”

 

“Thank you. But does the military have the funds to pay for that? With this year long war, and with the losses the demons bring in every attack, you must be struggling with financing the military.” Zanath asked.

 

“No. The military can not afford this. I paid for it out of pocket, not with military funds.” Adamar replied.

 

Zanath seemed surprised “Thank you, very much. We will do our best to make sure it is worth it.”

 

“I am counting on it.” Adamar stated. He then turned to leave, taking a few of the pistols that were built. As he walked he inspected them, looking them over as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea of these new weapons. He had to say, while they looked powerful he took more comfort in the use of his bow. One thing he noted right away was that these weapons were incapable of using the volley attacks he and his army had liked so much. He definitely saw their power but he did not see guns as a replacement for bows, rather he saw them as a companion to bows. Now his Rangers had a ranged weapon that worked in close quarters. Now when those pesky speedy foes got into the back lines the archers could switch to a pistol and fight back rather than being sitting ducks with their bows. And their warriors could keep a pistol on them for those evasive rangers who kite them just outside of striking range. Just these pistols alone would make their army much more versatile and adaptive. As a master tactician, he liked these new possibilities a lot. It gave him confidence for the battles ahead of them.

 

With the lecture for the day finished Zanath returned to the inn to resume his work on the conversion machine. That had been his everyday schedule the last two weeks, teach then research and build, then bed and repeat. He had been working nonstop since they arrived, and it was clear it was wearing him down. He had bags under his eyes and his white hair was becoming messy. He was starting to walk with a slump and his eyes were half open as he made his way into the inn. He entered his room and went to get to work on the conversion machine, but it was gone. Everything was gone, the partially built machine, his tools, his books, notes, and plans. Kadin was the only one in the room and he was sitting in the open window.

 

“Kadin, did you see what happened to my stuff?” Zanath asked.

 

“Yep.” Kadin replied.

 

“Oh good. Where is it I need to get back to work.” Zanath asked.

 

“All gone.” Kadin answered, turning to Zanath with a soft smile.

 

“What do you mean all gone?” Zanath questioned, narrowing his eyes.

 

“I made it all disappear. And I dunno how to make it come back.” Kadin laughed.

 

“Are you serious?! Kadin we need these things, we have to get that machine working as soon as possible!” Zanath shouted back.

 

Kadin shrugged. “Oops” he said simply. “Guess you'll just have to wait till I figure out how to make it reappear. You can't rebuild it without your notes, so you mine as well get some rest so you're ready to continue once I figure it out.” He stated.

 

“Kadin no, bring it back now.” Zanath sternly ordered.

 

“No can do I dunno how~! Goodnight!” Kadin called out despite it being only around noon. He spun around on the windowsill, slipped, and fell out the second floor window.

 

Zanath quickly ran to the window to make sure Kadin was okay. As he looked down to see where Kadin had landed he saw that the man had landed on a big pile of pillows. Obviously this exit had been planned. He turned to look at the beds and noticed that the pillows had been taken off every bed in the room and placed on his own bed, to make his own bed look as inviting and comfortable as possible. Zanath sighed and pressed his fingers against his temple. “I get the hint.” He murmured. By now Kadin was long gone, and without his stuff he could not resume work on the machine. So he went to bed.

 

--

 

Once Kadin had finished cleaning up the mess of pillows he had made and returned the extra pillows to the front desk he headed off into the city. Not far from the Inn he bumped into Mendores heading in the direction of the Inn. “Zanath is sleeping in the inn and has asked not to be disturbed.” Kadin said.

 

Mendores nodded “I was going to take everyone to go and get some equipment. Estellese is already at the store.” He said. “I guess Zanath will have to go on his own later. If he wants anything here, it seems like he’d rather just use the guns.” He said as he lead the way to the main shop.

 

The elves had designated one building to be a shop, it looked very much like the shopping malls back on Earth where everyone had small stores all set up in one big building. The only shops that were outside of this building were the elven equivalent to grocery stores, where they sold food and drink. The place was massive and was packed with people, you could always see at least two hundred people in any direction you looked but the building was big enough to accommodate everyone and still give you space to see the stores and maneuver your way through the crowds. This big building had what looked like streets, they were mostly straight pathways where the tiles on the floor were a darker color than the rest of the floor. They were wide enough for four people to stand side by side, however there were people walking in both directions so to avoid bumping into each other walking in lines of two was better. It seemed like there was some unwritten rule, or a cultural norm, to not stand still on these pathways just like the rule to not park in the middle of the street. Anyone who wanted to stop walking or stand around stood off to the side and everyone who was walking somewhere walked on the pathways. Mendores looked around and thought it was a pretty clever way of handling the large crowds

 

While about ninety percent of the people there were elves, there were other races here as well. A few dwarves standing about three feet tall could be seen walking through the crowds, and a few fairies standing about six inches tall could be seen flying over the heads of the other people in the building. There was also some creatures that looked to be a mix between animal and human but those seemed to be rare amongst the crowds.

 

“Hey guys, where’s Zanath?” Estellese said as she joined the others. She had been waiting for them at the entrance.

 

“Sleeping, apparently.” Mendores replied. “Which is good, I was a bit worried about him.”

 

“Ah, alright. Well let’s go see what we can sell and what we can find in here.” Estellese said as she lead the way into the giant store. They went from one store to another, first selling everything they needed to sell while window shopping, before doing any real shopping.

 

Mendores sold the 6 iron ingots, 5 small gold nuggets, two palm-sized rubies, the three extra rusty iron swords, plus he also sold his own two and Kadin’s swords as well. He sold the two marble sized diamonds, the goldball sized ruby, and the four marble-sized topaz gems. Mendores threw away his makeshift club and the bone he had taken from the skeletons, and he got the value of the four small bags of coins.

 

The end total was 17,600 worth of elven currency, which was these crystal shards about the size of a dollar. They had to ask how this currency system worked and what the different colors meant. The currency here was these magic crystals that had the ability to combine and separate at the command of the person holding them. It was like being able to take a ten dollar bill, and pull it apart into a five and five ones any time you wanted. Or taking a bunch of spare change and smushing it together to make dollars of equal value. It made carrying this money so simplistic. It was possible, using basic magic anyone can use, to tell how many crystals you had merged together so you know how much money you are carrying. The crystal that you held onto also seemed to grow ever so slightly in size the more other crystals you merged into it. It would seem this was the main and only currency for Elves, Fairies, Dwarves, and many other races.

 

They pulled the one crystal with all their money apart into four, each containing 4,400 crystals merged together. One for each of them. Mendores put Zanath’s crystal in his bag for later, then handed Kadin and Estellese their own. “Let’s go gear up and get everything we need to tackle these demons.” Mendores said. It was so nice to have this long period of peace and safety, after everything they had been through being able to just sit back and relax, do some shopping, and not worry about dying was like a vacation. But he knew that would be coming to an end soon.

 

When Kadin and Estellese both almost cheered out “Yes!” They set off to shop. Their first stop was at a blacksmith who sold weapons and armor, as soon as they walked in Kadin’s eyes went wide “Dibs on the scythe!” He called out, pointing to this obscenely huge scythe hanging from the wall in the back. He ran over to it only to find that the price tag on it was more than triple the funds he had. He frowned a little and sighed.

 

“Don’t worry Kadin. A scythe that big would be pretty impractical anyways.” Mendores laughed.

 

“Says you.” Kadin countered. “I’ll prove you wrong someday.”

 

“I’ll be interested to see it.” Mendores replied. He looked around the store a little, then eventually went straight to the shop owner to get what he needed faster. “I need a kite shield, a sword, some armor that can protect me while being lightweight and mobile, and I’d like a chain hook. I have 4,000 crystals to spend. What do you recommend?” He asked.

 

The shop owner listened, then stepped out from behind the counter to start showing him the items he requested. “You will want light plate armor, it is in between full plate and chainmail for protection. With your funds the best you can afford would be a low-grade metal but you are wearing a steel chainmail chestpiece and a steel helmet. Steel is pretty expensive so if you are willing to trade me that, I can get you a full set of iron light plate armor and everything else you need in iron for 2,000 crystals. And” He started. “If I was you I would go to the enchanter across the store, she can enchant your armor to be lighter weight than the material really is to make it provide better mobility. That should cost an additional 2,000 if I remember her prices correctly, which takes up everything you intended to spend, but uses that money to the best effect.”

 

Mendores thought about it for a moment, and Kadin approached him. “You're not considering that right?” Kadin whispered. “He is a shopkeeper, he isn't going to help you get the best deal he is going to help you give him all your money.”

 

Mendores shook his head “He is a shop keeper, which means he knows what the best deals are. I trust his judgment, and so should you.” He whispered back, then turned to the shopkeeper. “You built these things yourself right? If I pay an additional 50 crystals, can you add sections on the arms of the armor that I can attach my chain hook to? If you can do that we got a deal.”

 

The man smiled and nodded. “Yes sir, I can easily do that for you. Both arms right?” He asked. When Mendores nodded he took the armor off the shelf and grabbed the arm pieces. Then he grabbed some iron from behind the counter and his hands suddenly started to turn bright red. The iron melted in his hand and just like that he formed it like clay to make sections the chain hook could be clipped onto. When he noticed the shocked looks on their faces he laughed softly. “You are the humans everyone is talking about, right? I guess you have never seen a mage who uses the metal element. It helps a lot with blacksmithing, being able to bend and weave metal to my command.” He said

 

“In our world, if we touched melted metal like that we would burn our hands off.” Mendores replied.

 

The man laughed “It is no different in this world. You can't see it, but I am controlling the metal and not letting it touch my hands. My control is like a paper thin  glove protecting my hands from the metals.” He said. Within seconds the attachments were complete and he handed everything to Mendores. “Keep the extra fifty dollars. The attachments were free, and repairs will be free after the battle. It’s my thanks for your assistance, I offer the same thing to the soldiers.”

 

“Thank you very much sir, my name is Mendores, hopefully I’ll be able to return the favor within the next few weeks.” Mendores replied as he took the armor and weapons. Most of them were placed inside his minimize bag but they filled the bag quickly so he had to carry some of them.

 

Once Mendores was finished Kadin approached the counter and bought two steel longswords. Estellese did not buy anything. As they left the store and headed towards the enchantment store Mendores turned to Estellese. “You are not buying any armor or weapons?” He asked.

 

Estellese shrugged. “The axe is good enough for me, and I’d rather not be weighed down by armor. The way I see it, buying a new weapon would be a waste when I have a perfectly good one already. And heck, I don’t bother using a weapon half the time anyways. Just look at the fight with those hybrid things for example, I dropped the axe and just punched the damn thing in the face. But spending my money on new spells on the other hand, that could make me far stronger because it is something to add to the arsenal I already have.”

 

Mendores nodded “That’s a valid point, I hadn’t thought of it that way.” He said. They went into the enchanting store and he was able to buy the lightweight armor enchantment for 1,000 crystals. In addition to that he enchanted his chain hook to have a magically extendable and retractable chain for an additional 1,000 crystals. Leaving him with just 400 left. While here Kadin also had both of his swords enchanted, making them magically sharp enough to cut through most metals.

 

With that they went into the magic store and began looking around at spells. Everything here was a bit too pricy for Mendores so he opted not to buy any magic at this time.

 

Estellese almost ran right over to the wall where the books of full elemental control were all lined up on the shelves.  She remembered what Crystal said, with each element you have full control over they grow weaker. So Estellese settled on limiting herself to just two full elements, and an arsenal of spells from various elements. But which two? There was so many! Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Air, Nature, Wood which was a subelement of nature, lightning, metal, light, darkness, Aether: White magic, Aether: Dark magic, Aether: Summoning. And the mental sub-elements of Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Empathy. She stood there, staring at the options. Which combination would be best? Water and Lightning? Darkness and Light? Aether black and white? Metal and Earth? It was a difficult decision, she was struggling to decide. But she reached out and took the Fire and Earth books. A powerful offensive element, and a sturdy defensive one. It was at that time her signet ring let out a bright flash of light.

 

Suddenly, a ghost-like copy of herself stepped out of her own body. This ghostlike copy selected the books fire and water, reaching out and taking ghost-like copies of these books for herself. Then another copy of herself split off from her body and took Darkness and Light. And another, and another, and another, and another. All of them taking a different combination of spells. Then all of the ghosts suddenly looked like they got sucked back into Estellese’s body and disappeared.

 

“The hell was that?!” Estellese shouted. She looked down at her signet ring, what looked like it had been the source of this odd event. The flat and blank part on the top of the ring was no longer blank. Now it showed a picture of a girl walking down a road, standing at a crossroads where the road forked in many directions. Very faintly, you could see copies of the girl in the background walking down each road.

 

“That would be your signet ring.” A lady standing behind the counter chimed in. “Have you not seen one before? Yours must have just now become active. It chose a power for you, and now you can use it.”

 

“What power did it choose?” Estellese asked.

 

“I wouldn’t know.” The woman answered. “Everyone’s signet is unique to them. The picture on the ring usually has some sort of symbolism pertaining to what it does. Beyond that, to figure it out you’ll just have to try using it at some point. Please not inside the store, don’t want to accidentally blow something up.”

 

Estellese purchased her fire and earth books, these would give her complete control over these two elements once she mastered them. Kadin then bought one spell, not a full element. It was an Aether: Black magic spell that let him throw a sharp pinwheel-like blade of energy. It was a rather advanced spell, but he hoped to learn it before the war. Kadin also bought a signet ring for himself. Once they left that store they stopped by a potions shop where Mendores bought 10 potions for the team. And with that, they were geared up and ready for the war. Mendores used his virtual keyboard to turn one of the doors to a restroom into a portal to his stash room and stored his new armor and weapons in there for now. With that they set off to resume training and preparing for the war.

 

Kadin returned to the Inn to find Zanath sleeping. He must have been asleep most of the day, and kadin didn’t expect him to wake until morning at this rate. Thinking that that would be enough to get Zanath back into good health again Kadin opened the portal to his stash room in the doorway to their room in the Inn, and walked inside. A moment later he walked back out with the machine, Zanath’s notes and books, and everything else that had disappeared. he put it all back where he found it then closed the portal to his stash and left the inn to go practice his new spell and train.

 

~~ Part 2: The Battlefield ~~

 

Three more weeks had passed, and Zanath had not only finished his machine but had taught the elves about guns, solar power and electricity, and taught them how to recreate his conversion devices. That way, if by some turn of bad luck he doesn’t survive the battle they have everything they need to recreate his devices and close the rifts themselves.

 

Kadin looked out the window to see Adamar and Alicia addressing the army out in the center of the village. Almost all of the soldiers in the elven army now carried guns along with their primary weapon of a bow, jewel encrusted staff, or some melee weapon. The only ones who did not carry a primary weapon other than a gun were what appeared to be a new section of the army who carried rocket launchers. They were accompanied by elves with staves. Everyone had at least a pistol on them.

 

Estellese had not figured out her signet skill, and Kadin’s had not yet activated. Zanath bought himself one but his also had not yet activated. Zanath, otherwise, saved all of his money and just kept his old sword. He took a rifle and a pistol that he built for himself, leaving his bow and arrows in his stash. Estellese had learned the bare basics of fire magic, Kadin had grown both stronger and faster but had not learned his spell. And Mendores had also grown stronger and faster than before. Zanath, having spent most of his time teaching or working, did not physically become much faster or stronger than he had been. They were much more powerful than when they first arrived in this village.

 

“Are we all ready?” Mendores asked the others. The air was tense, they all knew that the battle that awaited them would be their most dangerous one yet. For the first time ever they had time to prepare before the fight, but even at that everyone knew that if these demons were as tough as the elves said they might not make it out of this.

 

“Yeah” Everyone replied.

 

“Relax guys. We will be fine.” Mendores said softly. “Stick together, and watch each other's backs like we always do. We have an entire army on our side this time, with that plus the four of us keeping each other safe we can do this. If we can survive the werewolf attack alone we can survive a demon attack with an army by our side.”

 

“Can we really trust the army to have our backs?” Kadin questioned.

 

“Of course we can.” Estellese countered.

 

Kadin shook his head a bit. “Well I don’t.”

 

Mendores turned to kadin “We have to, regardless of if you want to or not.” He said then opened the door just in time to see Esyll standing outside. She was just about to knock. “Hello, can I help you?” He asked.

 

“Esyll, what brings you here?” Zanath asked.

 

“You know her?” Mendores asked, stepping aside so he wouldn’t get between them.

 

Zanath nodded “She’s the head scientist, I’ve been working with her to build the machine.” He answered, then turned to Esyll to see what she had to say.

 

“We need to go, quickly.” Esyll stated. “Alicia says the demons caught wind of our plans, I don’t know how but they know what we are doing. Needless to say they are really pissed off and are already hitting us with everything they got to try and stop us. The group guarding the portal are losing the outpost, fast.”

 

“Let's go guys, hurry!” Mendores called out as he slipped past Esyll and rushed outside to meet up with Adamar and the army. Adjusting his new suit of armor as he ran. Kadin and Estellese rushed out after him.

 

“What do you mean we?” Zanath asked.

 

“Me and the other scientists are coming too.” Esyll stated. “Well a couple of them anyways. And Lillith is also tagging along, she may not be a scientist but she has interest in the sciences” She corrected.

 

“No, it was supposed to be just me.” Zanath corrected. “The scientists are mostly non-combat civilians, it’s too dangerous for you to come.”

 

“You’re a civilian, by our standards, and you’re going.” Esyll pointed out. “We understand the risks, we will be safe. We are scientists after all, we have our ways. Now let's go before we are late.” She said as she turned and started walking down the hall.

 

“Please be careful. I really don’t want anyone else putting themselves in danger.” Zanath replied as he followed along.

 

The four Alphas joined up again with Adamar as he finished instructing the soldiers. He turned to the Alphas “We are moving out. Stick close to the scientist group, let the soldiers handle the combat. There will be guards assisting the scientists, so you should not need to worry about facing a demon alone. But this is war, there is no guarantees here and no telling what will happen. We can not promise your safety, and we hope you will do whatever you can to help.” He stated.

 

Alicia was standing beside Adamar and seemed to be zoning out, but suddenly she snapped back to reality and turned to him. “Adamar we need to move.” She interrupted. “I was watching the battlefield, they breached our defenses. The elves guarding the gate were taken by surprise by an attack on their flank from demons that must have come from another rift, the outpost was lost and only a few of the guards are still alive. They know we are coming and are resisting with everything they have.”

 

Adamar grit his teeth and signed “split into your segments, begin moving towards the rift. Esyll bring the humans to the segment with the scientists. Also get two healers to join that group, Crystal and one other.”

 

“We already have Lillith, so we’ll just get Crystal.” Esyll answered as she rushed off to find Crystal.

 

The entire army started splitting into groups of 50-100 soldiers each while Adamar and Alissa moved to the front. Esyll lead the four Alphas to a group of 30 elves including Crystal and Lillith in the back of the army. Then Adamar gave a gesture towards the surrounding forest and suddenly all the trees stood up and moved aside to clear a path. Mendores skimmed over the soldiers, the front lines had most of the armored elves equipped with melee weapons, the middle lines had archers and riflemen with a moderate mix of elves carrying melee weapons to protect the back lines. The back lines consisted of more archers, the group of scientists, a group of healers, a group of elves carrying RPGs with a few mages accompanying them, and just a couple swordsmen to keep them protected. Every elf carried a pistol with them now as a secondary to their primary weapon. And all of the elves that had guns as a primary carried a sword as a secondary.

 

Once the trees cleared the path Adamar shouted out “We are taking the first step in turning this war around. With this step the end of this war is in sight! Send them back to hell!” As he shouted he and Alicia began running through the path cleared by the trees, and like a stampede the entire army followed them in formation, most of the shouting in agreement with Adamar as they ran.

 

The rift was not far, once they got through the southern side of the forest they could see the smoke in the distance and the towering flames of what used to be the elves defenses. And within a few more seconds of running Adamar began issuing orders as demons started coming into sight.

 

The scientists group and the alphas within it veered off to the side, along with the archers and RPG branch of elves, while the rest of the forces hit the demons head on. Adamar and Alicia could be seen leaving the front lines and moving to meet up with the archers that were moving off to the side. Once there Alicia sat down cross-legged and focused, then suddenly her signet ring flashed and what looked like a mist left her body and turned into a spiritual form of Alicia. Adamar stood beside her and focused on the plant life, he could feel the footsteps of every elf and demon on the battlefield and could view the battle from any spot in the grass. “Scientists move up the flanks on the east and approach the rift. Alicia, I will take command of the soldiers on the west half of our forces, and will lead them to flank from the west. I need you to lead the forces on the east half, push forwards and make a wedge cutting off the demons from the scientist group.”

 

“On it!” Alicia’s spirit said before flying off over the battlefield. With her spirit, she could watch the battle from above and fly down to issue commands to groups as needed. And with Adamar’s own signet essentially allowing him to do the same thing only from the grass below their feet, it offered a massive tactical advantage over the demon leaders who could only lead the battle from within the fighting, where they couldn’t see everything.

 

The four Alphas could see the demon forces and scanned the battlefield ahead of them. The vast majority of them looked like warped and distorted versions of humans, elves, dwarves and a few other humanoid races. They looked mostly like their original race but were distorted in demonic ways, having horns, claws, almost scale-like skin. Those were the lesser demons, they were not armored and carried melee weapons. The second most common demons were the normal demons, they no longer resembled their original race these ones looked completely demonic with horns, claws, spikes, fangs, and red glowing eyes. But they remained somewhat humanoid in general shape, they were lightly armored and also equipped with melee weapons. Beyond them were the pure demons, they stood 8 feet tall with hooves for legs and four arms. All their veins were bright red, they had massive horns on their head like minotaurs and were huge, bulky demons. Their skin looked like metallic skin and they were covered in what expert mages would know to be blood magic scars. These had no armor or weapons, but they were massive and could be seen using incredibly powerful magic. Leading the demons were greater demons, they were the least common but there was still at least sixty of them. They stood at a intimidating 10 feet tall and were massively muscular. They had mammoth tusks, huge bone-spikes sticking out of the back of their neck all the way down their spine. Horns, claws, hooves, a monstrously demonic appearance. Their scary and intimidating form was only made worse by the massive and heavy set of armor they wore which was adorned in even more spikes and skulls. All of them wielded utterly massive weapons, the one Mendores could see closest to them carried two battleaxes, each of which were bigger than his own body. And he remembered being told earlier, both greater demons and pure demons were masters of at least two magical elements. It was starting to sink in for all of the Alphas, the elves were serious when they said that they were nowhere near strong enough to help in this battle.

 

“Cloak up!” Esyll called out to one of the mages traveling with the group. Zanath recognized the man as the light mage who had broken the solar panels previously. The man focused for a moment. Suddenly everything around them disappeared, it looked like they were inside of a big black orb. In reality, the light mage had just stopped all light from entering or reflecting off the area around them, rendering them invisible, then lit the inside of the area so they could see. Several scientists in the group were carrying the large machine and solar panels to power it, they moved towards the center as the rest encircled them and the group began moving towards the rift. “Alicia, guide us, we can’t see beyond our cloak.” Esyll instructed.

 

“Just keep going straight, I will guide you.” Alicia called out from above and the group marched forward.

 

--

 

[Location: Front Lines]

 

Alicia’s spirit signaled for the archers in the back lines to spread out and form a crescent as she lead the front lines straight into battle. Following her orders the armored melee soldiers charged at the demons. Directly in front of them was a pure demon leading forty lesser demons split into four rows of ten in front of the pure demon. As the elven lines charged at them the pure demon gave out an order and the lesser demons unleashed a hail of fire and ice. Hundreds of fireballs and sharp ice spikes were fired at the elven lines. As the lessers unleashed their small attacks the pure demon took a deep breath and slammed his hands together once, then suddenly spat out a fireball. It started off at the size of an egg, but as it flew towards the soldiers it rapidly grew to the size of a house.

 

As all these attacks flew towards the elven front lines Alicia shouted out “Now!” Suddenly two of the elven mages waved their staves and the ground under the feet of the elven front lines opened up and they all fell into the hole, then the ground closed behind them and they disappeared. All the fireballs and ice shards slammed into the ground and hit nothing. The house-sized fireball from the pure demon struck the ground and exploded, the explosion was massive and powerful enough to make everyone nearby stumble. The demons marched forwards towards the exposed elven back lines, all cautious and waiting for the elves to reappear somewhere, when suddenly 30 rockets came flying out from the smoke, fired by the lines of RPG elves that had been behind the front lines.

 

A third of the lesser demons waved their arms upwards and created an ice-wall in front of the incoming rockets to block them, but they had never seen such weapons before and didn’t know what they did. The first few rockets hit the ice and exploded, destroying the wall, leaving the demons wide open to the rest. The next several rockets flew into the demon’s front lines, exploding and killing off thirty of the lesser demons. As the pure demon saw the rockets incoming it cast another spell and created a black chain connecting it to one of the other lesser demons. As several rockets struck the pure demon, it’s life-link spell caused the lesser demon to take all of the damage instead leaving the pure demon completely unharmed by the attack. However, a fresh blood magic wound could be seen on it’s side from it’s previous fireball attack.

 

Before the smoke from the rocket’s explosions even had time to clear the elven rangers had already fired a volley of arrows into the sky, all these arrows came raining down on the demons from above. The pure demon was quick to shield itself by making an ice ceiling above it’s head but several more lesser demons were picked off in the volley. Then the elven frontline soldiers all suddenly sprung out of the ground right next to the demons after the last arrows fell and immediately attacked. Several more lesser demons were taken out by the surprise attack, but the couple remaining managed to fight back. The more skilled elves focused out the pure demon while the novices aimed for the lesser demons. While more lesser demons began rushing in to replace the dead ones.

 

As two elven soldiers sprung out of the ground around a lesser demon one of the elves slashed their sword at it from the front. The lesser demon blocked with it’s own sword, using it’s superhuman strength to overpower the elf and shove him backwards to the ground. The second elf came up behind it and took a stab at the lesser demon from behind but the demon heard her coming and jumped forwards to evade the stab, with a wave of it’s hand it turned the ground under her feet to ice and threw her off balance as she slid on the ice. The elven woman stumbled on the ice trying to regain her balance, and as soon as the demon saw this it snapped it’s fingers and made an ice spike shoot up from the ice under her feet.

 

The elven woman jumped backwards to dodge the spike, but as she was in mid-air from her jump the demon hurled it’s sword at her. She couldn’t dodge again fast enough and was in no position to block. The sword struck her in the chest and pierced her armor, but the armor stopped it from killing her. She was knocked to the ground and immediately yanked the sword out of her chest as she tried to get back up.

 

The other elven soldier had gotten up by now and got close enough to the demon again to attack, he slashed at the now unarmed demon, but the demon used its enhanced speed to sidestep the blade and blew a gust of frozen air on the elf’s sword-arm. Covering the arm in ice so he could not swing again, then the demon clapped its hands and focused on the woman getting up. Suddenly ice appeared under her feet again, then the ice sprang upwards and engulfed her, freezing her into a solid ice-cube. The other elf slammed his frozen arm into a rock and shattered the ice, freeing his arm as he turned his attention back to the lesser demon. The demon held out it’s arms and made an ice sword appear in it’s hand then charged at the elven soldier. Seeing this the elven soldier grabbed his pistol with one hand and kept his sword in his other hand and charged the lesser demon. Again they clashed swords but this time as the demon overpowered him and shoved him back to the ground the elf pulled up his pistol and fired three shots at the demon, one of which hit the demon in the head, killing it on the spot. One lesser demon down only a couple hundred or so more to go, not counting all the stronger ones. The remaining soldier looked around, his nearby allies were fighting the other lesser demons and the pure demon. Beyond that hundreds of skirmishes just like this were happening all over the place. Deciding to stay with his group he moved to assist with the nearest lesser demon.

 

The more skilled elven soldiers targeted the pure demon. Eight of them surrounded the massive beast and moved in from all angles. As they charged in the pure demon stomped a hoof on the ground and suddenly all the ground around it turned into ice, causing the eight attacking elves to all start slipping and stumbling on the ice. As soon as the ice appeared the demon slammed two of it’s hands together and sent out a fiery explosion in all directions. Two of the elves were badly burnt and incapacitated by the  attack, two of them held up their hands and created a bubble of water around them to protect themselves from the flames, and then jumped up as a large wave appeared under their feet and carried them closer to the demon. Another elf jumped incredibly high and landed off the ice further away from the demon and the flames. One of them waved their arms and made a flat wall-like barrier of magic appear in front of herself and her two nearest allies to shield them from the flames. Then she created a flat barrier over the ice and ran across it, using her superhuman speed to close in on the demon incredibly fast. The two allies she had shielded also jumped onto her carpet-barrier and used it as a bridge over the ice as they moved in.

 

As the barrier woman and her two allies rushed in the water-elves fired powerful jets of water at the demon from two sides. The demon attempted to freeze the water, but they just kept firing more and the frozen section ended up just being pushed aside from the force. The jets pushed the demon and made it stumble towards her as the barrier-woman moved in and slashed her axe for the demon’s side. The demon stumbled right into the blow and shouted out in pain as the axe cut deeply into its ribs, but then it swung its arm at the woman to swat her away. The woman created a bubble-like barrier around herself to protect herself as the demon struck her, the blow knocked her back but she was otherwise unharmed. Her two allies rushed in to repeat her maneuver but as they moved in closer the demon slammed a fist into the barrier they were running ontop of and shattered it, causing them to fall back onto the ice. As they fell two ice spikes sprung out of the ground underneath them, one of them used his own ice magic to shove the spike under himself back into the ground. The other quickly threw her shield under her feet so that her shield hit the spike and she landed on the shield right after, allowing her to jump off it and stab her sword into the side of the pure demon’s neck. As her body flew over the pure demon’s shoulder she held onto her sword, dragging the tip of it through the demon’s shoulder and then down it’s back as she fell behind it, leaving one very long but shallow cut all the way down.

 

The demon roared out in pain and stumbled backwards. The two elves surfing on waves moved in for the kill. The first one lunged in with a claymore sword to strike the demon’s head while it was recoiling in pain, but the demon was too quick, it’s upper left arms grabbed the elf out of the air. The demon suddenly glowed a bright red as it then took its upper right arm and slammed its fist into the hand that was grabbing the elf. The elf was crushed to death instantly by the demon’s superhuman strength, and through the demon’s Aether: black magic the elf’s life force was absorbed into the demon. Every wound the pure demon had healed in an instant as it stole the life from the dead elf, except for one new slash that appeared across the demon’s back from the use of blood magic again.

 

The demon, now mostly unharmed, threw the crushed remains of the dead elf at the other surfing elf knocking him off his wave of water. As he fell to the ground an ice spike sprang out of the ground underneath him, but he was quick to hit himself with a jet of water and push himself off the ice and away from the spike. The demon then stomped his foot and a trail of sparks suddenly raced across the ground towards the water-elf. The elf landed on the ground right as the sparks reached his feet, and seeing the sparks he immediately jumped high into the air to dodge whatever they were going to do. Suddenly incredibly powerful flames exploded out of the ground into a towering pillar of fire, engulfing the elf in the flames. The elf’s burnt corpse fell out of the pillar of flames and lifelessly hit the ground, the flames had been so hot that part of the elf’s armor had started to melt, just a little. Everyone felt the massive wave of heat from that blow.

 

“Cassi! Shield everyone!” Alicia called out from above, and following instructions the barrier woman pressed her hands together as if she was praying and focused, creating a powerful barrier around herself and her surviving nearby allies. The blonde elven woman then looked up to alicia’s spirit for further instruction. But before she could ask another volley of arrows and five rockets rained down on the pure demon. Using it’s superhuman speed the pure demon ducked, bobbed, weaved, and dodged most of the incoming fire but was struck by several arrows and took a rocket to the leg. It almost lost it’s leg from the explosion and fell to the ground, crippled. It shouted out an order to a nearby lesser demon, whom turned and ran to the pure demon’s aid.

 

“Go! Finish it off!” Alicia called out as she flew off to direct the back lines to fire at another target in a different skirmish. The surviving elves all started moving in to land the finishing blow, but the superhuman speed of the lesser demon was just a little faster than the fastest elves here, the lesser demon made it there first. And as soon as it got there the pure demon reached up and grabbed the lesser demon by the head, then slammed its head into the ground, killing its own ally on the spot. That red aura appeared around the pure demon as it absorbed the life from it’s slain ally, and all of its wounds healed again. As everyone closed in on it the pure demon sprang to its feet and slammed all four arms into the ground. Thousands of huge ice spikes began springing up from the ice everywhere around it, and yet another massive blood magic wound appeared on the creature’s chest. All of the elves managed to dodge this attack, they jumped high into the air but had nowhere to land with all the spikes below them. But Cassie was quick on the draw, she focused and created a floating barrier platform under herself and all of her allies so they could safely land in the air high above the spikes. “Open fire!” Cassie called out as herself and her three surviving allies pulled out their pistols and began firing down on the demon as fast as they could.

 

The pure demon threw its arms over it’s head to try and block the bullets but was shot numerous times before it could summon an ice ceiling above itself to protect itself from the attacks.

“It is getting worn down from magic overuse! It’s slower than before. Emar, tear the ice apart with your own ice control, force it to keep its focus on keeping its shield intact. Other guy, keep shooting even if the ice is there. Suki back me up I’m ending this!” She ordered her friends, and that one other guy.

 

“Right behind you!” The black haired girl with the shield called out. As Cassie jumped down towards the spikes Suki jumped down with her, they both landed on a lower barrier-platform just above the spikes and rushed across it towards the demon while it was distracted. Emar began using his control over ice magic to fight with the demon for control over the ice ceiling, he began trying to force it to tear apart, forcing the demon to continue exerting energy to pull it back together, locking them both in a struggle for control over the ice. A struggle that the demon was winning. As they fought over the ice Cassie and Suki rushed in under the ceiling and got in close to the demon.

 

“Suki, catch!” Cassie called out as the demon turned on them and attempted to slam all four of it’s arms down to crush them. The demon was almost twice their size, and with it’s superhuman strength one blow would be enough to kill them on the spot. Cassie jumped back to evade the attack.

 

“Got it!” Suki called out as she rushed past Cassie, right in front of the incoming fists of the greater demon. She dropped her weapons and as the fists came towards her she reached out and grabbed the first two of them. She slid backwards but managed to catch the demon’s arms and match it’s superhuman strength with her own. As the other two fists missed Cassie and hit the ground Cassie rushed forwards, she ran past using her superhuman speed to get right up in front of the demon before it could swing at her again. As she moved in, a circle with an odd symbol appeared under her feet, and as soon as she stepped into it the circle burst and launched her up at the demon’s face with incredible speeds and with a lot of force. Using the speed to move too fast for the demon to evade and the force to make her attack much stronger, she slammed the blade of her axe into the demon’s neck in an upward swing and took it’s head clean off in one blow. She almost flew high enough to hit the ice ceiling above the demon after passing it. As she fell back down the pure demon’s body lifelessly collapsed to the ground.

 

The four survivors of this mini battle regrouped next to the corpse and looked at the others from their group fighting the lesser demons around them. This battle was far from over, that was only one small group of demons out of the entire sea ahead of them and other demons were already closing in on them. Cassie focused and created a large dome-like barrier around them to give the group a moment to breathe.

 

“The lower ranks are falling to the lesser demons, we should help them.” Suki stated.

 

“We can’t.” Cassie replied. “We need to find the next pure or greater demon that isn’t already being attacked by our allies and focus it out.”

 

“But the rest of our group will die.” Emar interjected.

 

“I know.” Cassie stated grimly. “They are soldiers and they knew what they were getting into. Some may die, yes, but a lot more will die if we don’t take out the greater and pure demons before those guys reach the rookies on the front lines. If those guys get anywhere near the rookies, the rookies are screwed. It falls on us, and the rest of the veterans out there, to step up and clear the big guys, we need to trust the rookies to handle themselves and keep the little guys off our backs.”

 

Suki and Emar nodded. Then Cassie spoke again. “You, other guy. What’s your name?”

 

“Stashi” The man answered.

 

“Alright, Stashi. You held your own pretty well there. Follow my lead and come with us, we can use your help.” Cassie stated as she took down her barrier and prepared to move on.

 

“Who died and put you in charge missy? Alicia leads us.” Stashi stated as he reloaded his pistol.

 

“Alicia does lead us. But she isn’t here right now and is probably busy leading everyone else, the more time we waste sitting around waiting for her orders the more people die. I lead my two friends, you either follow my lead and come with us or see how well you do fighting alone. Your choice.” Cassie stated firmly. “Let's go guys.” She added before turning and running off towards the nearest pure demon she could see. Suki and Emar followed right behind her.

 

“Point taken.” Stashi replied before turning to follow the others.

 

There was line after line of normal and lesser demons ahead of them, and they were not about to let the elves past. Three normal demons stepped forward and held one arm out as if to signal “stop”, and immediately three massive flamethrower-like flames blasted out of their hands at the incoming elves. “Throwing them back!” Cassie called out. With a wave of her hand Aether-element glyphs appeared on the ground underneath the feet of the demons.

 

“Got it.” Emar called back. As he ran he clapped his hands together and an icy mist burst out of the ground under the flames. Extinguishing them instantly before they could even get close to burning the elves. Then with a wave of his right arm ice spikes sprang up two feet behind the demons tilted at an angle to point at the demon’s backs.

 

The demons had been too focused on their attacks to notice the glyphs. Cassie snapped her fingers and the glyphs let out a flash of light, and suddenly the three normal demons were thrown backwards and were impaled on the spikes behind them. The demons let out a screech of pain before they began struggling to pull themselves off the spikes, but it was over.. Emar closed his hand into a fist and twisted his arm, and suddenly multiple spikes of ice sprang out of the ice spikes, impaling the demons from the front, back, and within and killing the three of them on the spot. The noise drew the attention of the other nearby lessers and normal demons who turned on them and began throwing fireballs and ice shards from all directions at the group.

 

Cassie waved her arms in a circular motion over her head once, creating a smaller dome-like barrier around the group to block the incoming fire. “Fire all ranged attacks at the ones blocking the path. Ignore the rest. Barrier won’t hold for long, don’t waste it.”

 

The group nodded, Emar focused and began taking control of many of the ice spikes that were being thrown at them, and redirected most of them at the demons in front of them. Suki, Cassie, and Stashi grabbed their pistols and began shooting at anything standing in their path. The demons ahead of them either got shot down or were forced to move aside to evade fire, allowing the elves to rush through.

 

--

[Location: East Flank]

 

Further off to the eastern side of the battlefield the Alphas and scientists had made it more then half way across the field when suddenly they heard a voice. “Do not be alarmed.” Adamar stated. “Your stealth group is about to cross paths with one of my stealth rifle groups. Please do not panic and attack each other on sight.”

 

“Got it sir.” Esyll answered. Within just a few more steps their invisibility bubble merged with the bubble of another group of elves. Alicia’s spirit could be seen in the bubble along with one mage who was creating the invisibility dome and ten elves carrying rifles.

 

“But ma’am, once we open fire won’t they know where we are?” One of the elves asked.

 

Alicia’s spirit shook her head. “No. These new things shoot very tiny projectiles which are hard to see, and the demons still don’t know what these weapons are. They won’t be able to see the shots because they won’t know what to look for. Now, aim anywhere between ten and twelve that is where there is nothing but demons. Make sure you’re not all aiming at the same spot. Once you hear the signal just shoot a full magazine randomly into that area. There’s enough demons there that you’re bound to hit most of your shots. Then reload and wait for instructions on where to aim next”

 

“Where are the rest of the riflemen?” One elf asked.

 

“Scattered around the field, same as you. We are going to signal all of the scattered groups at the same time, the demons in the back lines will be taking a hail of bullets and rockets from almost every direction all at once. We will attack in short bursts, move between bursts, and attack different areas each time so they can’t just seal themselves in an ice dome or something. Well, they can still do that but by the time they do we’ll be shooting somewhere else so it won’t matter.” Alicia instructed.

 

The Alphas and scientists did not stop to watch, they kept moving forwards and soon left the bubble of the riflemen. They were once again in their own invisibility dome, unable to see the area outside the dome. But they could hear the battle raging not far away, and just a moment later they heard Adamar’s voice shout “Fire!” and immediately after they heard gunfire from many locations both near and far, including the group they just passed.

 

--

 

[Location: Above the Battlefield]

 

Alicia’s spirit flew up high as she watched from above as all the groups opened fire on the demons. Over a thousand bullets, poured into the crowd and she watched as hundreds of demons, mostly the small ones, were killed off, putting a noticeable dent in their ranks.

“Second team, fire!” She called out. Suddenly several floating boulders appeared out of thin air beside her. Each one had an earth mage using magic to make the boulder levitate, a light mage making it invisible, and several elves carrying RPGs. The light elves ended the invisibility spell so the RPG elves could see. Once the elves could see, they all took aim at any big demons they could see and rained down rockets. At the same time the rows of archers in the far back lines let loose a hail of arrows into the center of the demon’s forces. The demons had a terrifying advantage in close quarters, but the elves by far held the advantage for long ranged combat especially with their newly acquired weapons. One elf alone typically stood no chance against anything above a normal demon, with the exception of the highly skilled ones. But when grouped up like this there was no better force in the world for unleashing sheer devastation from incredibly long ranges. Although, all of this was dependent on Alicia and Adamar’s ability to watch and command the entire battlefield from a safe distance. Without them, these coordinated attacks would be near impossible to pull off.

 

Seconds after the rockets and arrows struck the retaliation fire came at them. Thousands of fireballs, ice shards, and sparks amping up to turn into massive explosions flew back up at the RPG elves in the sky. “Block and get back to the ground! The same trick won’t work twice.” Alicia’s spirit called out.

 

Suddenly a massive jet of flames burst out of a greater demon on the ground. Blasting all the way up to the rocks and striking one of them. The fire blast was big enough to engulf the floating stone and killed the elves on it. Then the greater demon swept the beam to the side striking three other stones and killing the elves on them before the others could block the incoming flames. The surviving Earth mages turned their stone boulder into a stone ball, with the elves safe on the inside, the flames and ice struck the outside of the stones and did nothing to the elves inside. The second mages on the rocks began summoning more rockets for the RPG elves to reload as the earth mages moved the rocks back to the ground.

 

Alicia turned her attention back to the battlefield. The elven front lines on the northern end of the battlefield were buckling, but so far were keeping the demons out of the back lines. Alicia knew there was only a little time left before the front lines were too broken and scattered to stop the demons from rushing through to the back. She was about to assist them when she saw the demons retaliating against Adamar’s invisible rifle groups. The pure demons in the back who were not yet in combat began blindly firing explosive fire blasts and fireballs randomly out into the southern and western fields. The greater demon who had taken down the elves on the rocks began rushing towards the eastern side of the field and Alicia knew exactly what he was going to do. “No!” Alicia nearly shouted. There was no time to warn everyone, Alicia’s spirit rushed straight down towards the east side.

 

--

 

[Location: East Flank]

 

The scientists and Alphas were moving forwards, slowly approaching the southern end of the battlefield where the Rift was. They were cut off from everything, they could hear the battle but the invisibility bubble prevented them from seeing outside the dome. They had no idea how the battle was going, and could only hope for the best. Suddenly Alicia’s spirit flew into the bubble at incredibly fast speeds and screamed out “Everyone get down!”

 

Esyll, Lillith, Crystal, the four Alphas, and a few scientists all immediately dropped to lay flat on their stomachs on the ground. Not even half a second later that massive beam of flames swept over their heads narrowly missing them. The mage, and all the scientists who had not dropped to the ground fast enough were caught in the beam and killed instantly in the flames. Everyone who did survived and dodged the attack, but sustained severe 2nd degree burns on the side of their body that had been facing the fire. The grass all around them caught fire, their invisibility bubble popped and all at once they could see the surrounding battlefield, and the demons on the battlefield could see them. They saw the seven other stealth groups that had been on the eastern side, all reduced to nothing more than burnt corpses so fast they hadn’t even made a sound.

 

“Don’t move!” Alicia called out. “Deal with being on fire for a second and play dead so the big one goes away!”

 

“Don’t shout it out” Mendores quietly stated through grit teeth, trying very hard not to scream despite being on fire.

“Her spirit can only be seen or heard by those she allows. Or very skilled mages.” Crystal answered surprisingly calmly.

 

They remained still for a moment before the greater demon turned away and rushed off to rejoin the battle, assuming everyone to be dead.

 

“Alright it’s clear to move.” Alicia called out. Estellese stumbled to her feet and in spite of her burns walked out of the flames, shaking from the sheer pain. Crystal and Lillith stood up and easily stepped out of the flames, unharmed, but nobody else did. The others just shouted out in pain when they tried, the burns were too severe for them to move.  “Crystal give the group some inconspicuous cover. Lillith help Crystal heal everyone. I’m going to send some-” Alicia started but stopped.

 

Estellese, Lillith, and Crystal turned to Alicia’s spirit who looked confused. “What Adamar?” Alicia asked. “They broke through already? Shit!” Alicia then turned back to the others with a panicked look on her face and spoke so fast she almost couldn’t be understood. “Adamar and I are under attack I must go. I’m sorry you’re on your own for a while.” As soon as the words left her mouth her spirit suddenly disappeared.

 

“Lillith, heal Estellese since she’s already out of the flames.” Crystal instructed before she focused and made several vines spring out of the ground. “I’m sorry everyone, this is going to hurt.” She warned before making the vines each grab the legs of one of the burning survivors, then the vines promptly yanked the survivors out of the flames accompanied by most of them screaming out in pain. Crystal then focused and made the grass that was feeding the flames shrink away into the ground, leaving the flames with nothing left to burn and causing them to go out. She then made the grass grow back tall enough for them to hide in when crouched and began healing them.

 

Lillith’s hand began glowing a light blue as she rushed over to Estellese to start healing her, both of them ducked down in the grass. “You’re pretty tough to move with burns this bad.” Lillith commented.

 

Estellese just shrugged. “How did you and Crystal not get burnt?” She asked.

 

“We did.” Lillith answered. “We just healed ourselves while playing dead.”

 

“What do we do if that happens again?” Estellese asked. “We can’t keep stopping to heal everyone.”

 

“The mage who cast the invisibility spell is dead. We need to make it the rest of the way without the invisibility. On the plus side that means we can see the attack incoming.” Lillith stated. Pausing for a moment to shift Estellese so she could resume healing the burns. “Crystal may not be a combat mage, but she can protect us from such attacks. She knows some Aether magic and can make some minor barriers. Now that we are visible you may see combat though, be ready for that.”

 

Estellese nodded. “We are as ready as we’ll ever be.” She said.

 

“Take a moment to mentally prepare yourself, there’s several wounded. Even with Crystal’s expertise in healing and my assistance, this is going to take a few minutes.” Lillith stated.

 

--

 

[Location: Far Back Lines]

 

There was a loud clashing of metal inches away from her face. Alicia opened her eyes and looked up to see a normal demon standing right infront of her. His sword inches away from her head clashing with Adamar’s sword. She rolled to the side and glanced back to see that Adamar had been behind her, reaching over her head to block the sword from striking her. In a quick and swift movement Adamar shifted his sword and stabbed the demon. She drew her sword, what had happened to the guards that had been stationed next to them? She looked around to see corpses spread across the grass around them, a few of them were normal demons, three of them were pure demons, but the majority were the guards. Another quick glance told her why they were all dead, if the three pure demons were not enough, there was two greater demons not far from them and three normal demons still alive. Alicia caught the last few seconds as the three remaining guards struck down one of the greater demons.

 

And that greater demon was not going down without a fight, as one of the guards stabbed a sword into the beast’s heart the demon knew it had mere seconds left to live. In one final act of defiance it slammed its fists together and cast a blood magic spell so powerful it cleaved two massive and deep slashes down the demon’s torso. The demon let out an icy explosion turning itself and the three guards around it into one big ice-ball. Then, the ice ball shattered leaving nothing left of the demon and guards that had been trapped within it.

 

“Alicia, fall back.” Adamar stated.

 

“We are the only ones left Adamar! You can’t take that thing alone nevermind that and three little ones!” Alicia insisted.

 

“You are the princess Alicia, you can’t take risks like-”

 

“Now is not the time!” Alicia interrupted. She watched as the greater demon charged at them. The demon stood 10 feet tall and was bulky. It had mammoth tusks, huge bone-spikes sticking out of the back of its neck neck all the way down their spine. Horns, claws, hooves, a monstrously demonic appearance and face. It also wore thick, heavy armor adorned with more spikes and skulls and carried two utterly massive battleaxes. The three normal demons spread out and followed the greater demon, two on its left and one on the right.

 

“Alicia” Adamar started, but seeing the look of determination on her face he knew she wasn’t going to leave. “I’m going to distract the big one, I need you to take out the little ones and-”

 

“Hey! I can take on the big one too!” Alicia interrupted.

 

“I know. I was saying help me with the big one after the little ones.” Adamar finished. The demons were getting close now, they had to move. Adamar grabbed an arrow and the tip of the arrow let off a light-blue glow before he fired it off at the greater demon.

 

As expected the greater demon dodged the arrow, but as it flew past the arrow created a massive gust of wind that blew the greater demon and the three normal demons back several feet. The greater demon and one normal demon were thrown off to the right, while the other two normal demons were thrown off to the left. In the blink of an eye Adamar had already notched and fired another arrow, this one with a purple glowing tip. His arrow struck the ground next to the greater demon and suddenly turned into a large purple orb that appeared to be sucking everything nearby towards it. Pulling the greater demon and normal demon in.

 

Alicia saw her opening and dashed off towards the two normal demons on the left. Reaching a sprint speed of 30 miles per hour she was closing the distance incredibly fast. One of the normal demons threw three fireballs at her but with her incredible speeds and agility she slid beneath them all, predicting the ice demon’s next move. At the exact moment she went to slide the ice demon turned the ground under her feet to ice, trying to make her trip into the flames but instead making her slide even faster right to them. It realized its mistake immediately but not had time to change the ice back to dirt before she was ontop of them. At the end of her slide she sprang onto her feet and lunged at it. The ice demon immediately tried to stab her while she was in mid-air and unable to dodge but Alicia’s sword suddenly glowed a bright white and she slashed the demon’s sword with her own, slicing it in half. The demon’s sword struck her in the chest, but by then it was broken and could not pierce her light armor. Alicia slammed feet-first into the demon, knocking it to the ground as she landed on her feet, standing on it’s chest. The fire demon spat out a stream of flames, like a flamethrower, at Alicia to try and get her off his ally but she ducked underneath it again. As she ducked she stabbed her sword down into the ice demon’s head.

 

The fire demon stomped its foot on the ground and suddenly Alicia felt a powerful heat from the ground underneath her. She dove to the side and tucked into a roll, barely getting out of the way before the ground under her feet exploded in flames. As she recovered from her roll she reached into her pouch and threw a handful of very tiny needles at the demon, aiming for a few small areas where there were gaps in its armor. The needles were so tiny they couldn’t be seen, and thus could not be dodged. The demon felt several of them strike its arms near the joints and almost immediately it lost all feeling in its arms. It was paralyzed.

 

Alicia was about to move in for the kill when Adamar shouted out “dodge!” Alicia jumped backwards as quickly as she could and saw what looked like a black fireball fly past her. She dodged it, but it changed directions in mid-air and struck Alicia anyways. She was unharmed by it but a black aura surrounded Alicia and she dropped to one knee, feeling her stamina being drained out of her. Every move she made, even the tiniest movement, felt completely exhausting and she was starting to pant lightly. She looked up to see the greater demon struggling to stand up while the gravity field Adamar had fired still continued pulling it and the other demon to the ground. She glanced back to Adamar to see that he also had a black aura surrounding him, he was struck by the same spell and was struggling to stay standing due to all the energy being drained from him.

 

Adamar notched an arrow on his bow, this one with a golden glow, then he took aim at the greater demon. The demon saw Adamar as the immediate threat, it turned to him and formed an ice-ball in its hand then promptly threw it at Adamar. As soon as Adamar saw the attack coming he turned and fired his arrow at Alicia instead. The arrow flew through the air and struck the ground right next to Alicia, then in a blinding flash of light Adamar disappeared. Where he had previously been standing, his arrow laid on the ground and where his arrow had struck he now stood.

 

The ice ball flew to where Adamar had been before teleporting and exploded sending shards of ice in every direction. However, Adamar was long gone now. “Focus your energy into dispelling this curse!” Adamar called out. Alicia nodded and focused, then Adamar placed his hand on her head and he too focused on it. The two of them together were able to overpower the demon’s magic and dispel the curse. The black aura around Alicia disappeared stopped sapping her energy, she lost a lot of her stamina in the process but she was free now.

 

“I’ll dispel the one on you.” Alicia called out as she jumped to her feet and went to grab Adamar’s arm to help him get the curse off himself.

 

“No time!” Adamar called out. His gravity spell wore off and the little purple orb faded away. The greater demon and the lesser demon who had been caught in it stumbled but were free, and the paralyzed demon was regaining feeling in its arms and was starting to rejoin the fight. The greater demon hurled one of its axes at Adamar and charged straight for them at incredible speeds, with the other demon right behind him running at inhuman speeds as well. The half paralyzed demon was cautiously approaching from the side, sword at the ready as the last few seconds of paralysis wore off.

 

Alicia cussed as she jumped to the side and yanked Adamar by his arm with her. She let him go at the end of her jump, throwing him a couple feet back as she took up a defensive stance, watching the greater demon as it charged straight at her. Adamar landed on his back and couldn’t get back up with the curse still draining his energy.

 

The demon closed in on her within seconds and slammed its axe down at her with one arm. Alicia jumped back to avoid the blow but as soon as the axe struck the ground it let out a large explosion of flames that badly burnt Alicia. The second her feet touched the ground the greater demon was already on the attack again it made a motion as if it threw something and six massive ice spikes appeared and were thrown at Alicia. Using her inhuman speed and agility she ducked under the first spike then rolled to the side to evade the second and lunged mid-roll as far off to the side as she could to get clear of the rest of the attacks. The formerly paralyzed demon was right in front of her at the end of her lunge and it immediately slashed its sword for her ribs. Alicia ignored his attack and stabbed her sword straight through the demon’s head. Trading blows. She let out a cry of pain as it cut through her armor due to its super strength, but it did not cut too deeply into her skin. It knocked her backwards, sending her skidding several feet across the ground before she was able to flip onto her feet and regain her bearings again.

 

But it was only for a fleeting second, the greater demon was already in front of her again, it swung both axes horizontally at her, one sword aiming high for her neck the other aiming low for her legs to ensure she would not jump over or duck under them. With the extended reach of both massive axes dodging forward or back would also be pointless and the axes were coming from the sides so she couldn’t dodge that way either. Alicia hopped forwards and flattened her body out as if she were laying down, narrowly slipping in between the axes. As soon as the axes passed by her she tucked into a roll and hit the ground, then sprang up at the greater demon. Her sword emitted a white glow again as she slashed for the closest important thing the short girl could hit on the huge demon. Her sword, embedded with magic, sliced clean through the demon’s armor and cut its right arm clean off at the elbow. The demon roared out in pain and took a deep breath, Alicia knew what was coming next. While in mid-air she kicked the demon’s stomach hard enough to push herself away from it just in time to avoid the demon blasting flames out of its mouth at where she had previously been.

 

The other demon hadn’t been able to help without risking striking the greater demon or getting hit by it. But as soon as Alicia jumped away from the greater demon it saw its opportunity and moved in. It moved right behind where Alicia was about to land and fired three ice spikes up at her back, then prepared to strike her with its war hammer as soon as she landed.

 

Suddenly one of Adamar’s air-element arrows flew past Alicia, the gust of wind that followed along behind it caught Alicia and pushed her away from the ice and the demons. She landed hard on her shoulder and shouted out in pain, but she at least didn’t get impaled by the ice. Alicia struggled to get back on her feet, exhaustion and the severe pain from her wounds was setting in.

Adamar had pulled himself into a sitting position but even at that he was struggling to not fall over from sheer exhaustion. His arms were shaking as he forced himself to pull another arrow back on his bow, in this position he couldn’t draw the arrow back far enough for it to be deadly but his magic arrows didn’t need deadly force to work.

 

The greater demon paused for a moment to assess the situation, they had been ignoring Adamar under the assumption that he would be unable to fight with the curse on him. But now he was becoming a pest. The greater demon grunted something to the normal demon and gestured to Adamar with its only remaining arm, then it turned to Alicia.

 

The normal demon rushed at Adamar, forming an ice javelin in its hand and promptly throwing it at the crippled elf. In a bright flash of light Adamar disappeared again and was replaced with an arrow, one of his teleport arrows he had fired off somewhere else while they were fighting Alicia. The normal demon began looking around, trying to figure out where he went. As it skimmed the area it noticed that Adamar had been crawling around throughout the fight, leaving these teleport arrows everywhere. Suddenly there was another bright flash of light nearby and Adamar appeared ten feet away from the demon. When he appeared he was already drawing back an arrow with a blue-ish yellow glow, within a split second after appearing Adamar released the arrow. Not giving the demon even a second to react before the arrow struck it in the shoulder. It did not pierce deeply into the demon’s skin, Adamar couldn’t draw the bow back much in his condition, but as soon as the arrow struck its target a powerful electric shockwave burst out of the arrow and electrocuted the demon. The pulse paralyzed the demon’s entire body and the demon collapsed to the ground. Taking a glance back to ensure that the greater demon wasn’t coming, Adamar crawled forwards towards the paralyzed demon. Once he got close enough to reach it he grabbed an arrow and used the tip of the arrow to slit the demon’s throat, killing it.

 

Adamar knew he needed to get this curse off himself, only a magic user could remove a curse like this from themselves and Adamar didn’t know magic, he only knew spells and it wasn’t enough. He needed someone else to get it off and Alicia wasn’t going to be able to help while she was under attack. It was only a matter of time before the greater demon noticed he was still alive, or killed Alicia, he needed to get help immediately so he could get back into fighting condition. He took a teleport arrow and stuck it into the ground next to himself, then grabbed a second one and took aim high in the air above the battlefield. This would be risky, teleporting into the middle of battle in his condition, but he had to do something. He fired the arrow into the battlefield and teleported to it, having no idea who or what it would land next to.

 

The demon fighting Alicia was enraged now that it had lost its arm, it stomped its hoof and multiple lines of sparks rushed across the ground straight at Alicia. Alicia sprang off the ground and backwards just in time for the first chain to reach where she had been and burst into a massive fiery explosion. She saw the others still coming after her and began sprinting as fast as she could to the side to get out of the way. But the sparks curved and chased after her, even with her superhuman speeds they were gaining on her fast. She knew they wouldn’t stop until they came close enough to explode, she had to fake them out. She stopped running and waited for the sparks to reach her, but as soon as she stopped the greater demon waved its arm upwards and an ice dome suddenly sprang out of the ground around Alicia trapping her inside where she wouldn’t be able to evade the explosion. Alicia panicked and looked for a way out but the dome surrounded her on all sides and even had a ceiling, there was no opening to escape. Alicia cussed and her sword began glowing again as she sprinted at the nearest wall of the dome, she had only seconds before the sparks would catch up.

 

The greater demon on the outside of the dome sprinted towards it at its own super speeds and placed its good hand on the side of the dome, focusing its energy into the ice it made the inside walls of the ice all turn into spikes, then as the sparks caught up and caused the inside to explode the greater demon pushed on the ice dome and made the spiked walls collapse in on each other and slam together to crush anything remaining within it. But as the demon collapsed the dome it spotted a small hole cut into the back side of it, demons were intelligent creatures, it knew what that meant. It let out a roar of frustration and immediately jumped backwards, just barely in time to dodge Alicia’s attack as she lunged in from the side. The demon focused and made a tall wall of fire ignite between itself and Alicia, then the wall suddenly flew forwards at Alicia while the demon grabbed control of the broken ice dome, turning the ice within the dome to hundreds of small spikes. It started rapidly firing off the spikes at Alicia from behind while the wall came at her from the front.

 

Alicia heard the ice moving behind her and saw the wall, she immediately used her incredible running speeds to sprint off to the side. Running out of the way of the flames and the initial attacks of the ice. The demon adjusted its aim as she ran and began firing volleys of fireballs at her, so the ice spikes came at her from behind and the fire from the side. Alicia kept her head down and ignored the ice, her armor protected her from ice shards at least until the demon used bigger and sharper magic ice, she turned to run straight at the demon again which meant running into the oncoming fireballs. She slid under the first one then sprang into a flip to jump over the next three, once she landed she sidestepped the next two. As she got closer to the greater demon it took in a deep breath again, She knew it was about to spit flames at her, and her sword began glowing. The greater demon bellowed out a massive wave of incredibly hot flames at her once she was in range, and Alicia ran straight into it. With the flames obscuring its vision of her she jumped at the demon, using its knee as a stepping stone she jumped again. The demon felt her step on its knee and immediately knew what she was doing, it dropped its axe and tried to use its hand to swat her away but was too slow she and stabbed her sword through the demon’s head before it could reach her. Her armor piercing enchantment let the blade slice cleanly through the armor, skull, and everything else in the way, killing the beast on the spot. Its attack struck Alicia too late, but its claws sliced through her armor and gouged her side and its superhuman strength slammed her into the ground a few feet away. The demon collapsed to the ground moments after she was slammed back into the dirt. Alicia survived the blow, but was unconscious from slamming into the ground and too badly wounded to stand regardless. The impact had left her with numerous broken bones, she was badly burnt almost everywhere and had several cuts in her from the battle, including those deep slashes from the demon’s claws.

 

As if on cue the second the battle ended a tall elven man wearing black robes walked over from behind a hill. he carried a massive claymore sword and had very long straight black hair that reached his waist. He didn’t wear the fancy clothing the other elves had, his robes looked cheap and like they didn’t fit in with everyone else in the village. He walked straight over to Alicia and stood above her for a moment, then he nudged her with his foot. He hissed in pain and jumped back when her armor burnt his foot, the metal armor was incredibly hot after being struck by the flames and was no doubt burning her as well. “Out cold, but still alive.” The man murmured in an amused tone.

 

--

 

[Location: Front Lines]

 

Adamar appeared in the middle of the fighting on the front lines. He was lying on the ground surrounded by the corpses of elven soldiers and demons, he would have blended in and been undetectable if he didn’t have a blatantly obvious black aura surrounding him. Thankfully, his accuracy had landed him on the elven side of the fight, there were more elves near him then demons. But as he looked around he noticed that most of the elves here were low ranked soldiers or newer recruits, and they were all being torn apart by the three nearby pure demons. Their sheer numbers of elves allowed them to constantly keep landing blows on the tall beasts, but the demons’ mastery of Aether: Black magic and their near constant use of lifestealing spells was making the elven attacks completely useless, the pure demons healed off any damage they received.

 

“Hey!” Adamar called out to one of the passing elven soldiers. “Get this curse off me and I’ll take them down.”

 

The elf stopped and turned to him. “Adamar? What happened?” He asked.

 

“A large group of demons ambushed Alicia and I, two of them were greater demons and one of those two cursed us both. I got Alicia’s curse off her in time but she wasn’t quick enough to get this one off me.” Adamar answered. “I need to get back to her immediately.”

 

The elven soldier nodded and placed a hand on Adamar’s shoulder, they both focused and the curse was dispelled. “Go back to her, we will handle these things.” The soldier stated.

 

“You’re group is getting slaughtered, as much as I want to go back I have to trust Alicia to handle herself for a few seconds. I can’t let these things break through to the back lines. They’ll tear apart the archers.” Adamar stated.

“A lot of normals and lessers did get through and are already after the archers, we are holding the big ones back as long as we can.” The soldier informed him.

 

“You did good. The archers can handle the normals and lessers, they do have a few guards and these new gun things.” Adamar replied. With the curse off him he stood up and stumbled a little, it had drained a massive amount of his energy but at least now he could stand and fight. He threw one teleport arrow into the ground under his feet, then drew a second one back on his bow and fired it up into the air. Within a split second he had already drawn and fired another one, this one an air-element arrow, aimed at the three pure demons. Then he pulled another back, this one glowing red, he aimed it at the ground under his feet and waited.

 

The air-element arrow caught the pure demons by surprise and sent them all stumbling backwards. There hadn’t been any archers fighting them a moment ago, so once they regained their footing they skimmed the battlefield searching for said archer. The center one spotted Adamar and called out to its allies, signaling where the elven military commander was while the other two kept the low ranking elves at a distance. Then, suddenly, Adamar disappeared in a flash of light. Adamar teleported to the arrow he had fired into the air, which was now falling down on the pure demons from above. He was already aiming down so as soon as he appeared he fired straight down at the middle pure demon’s head at almost point blank range. As soon as he fired the spell came into effect, and the arrow cloned itself seven times, turning into a hail of eight arrows firing down into the pure demon’s head. The demon was killed on the spot and Adamar landed on its back, immediately firing another arrow into the side of the left pure demon’s head. Adamar jumped off the corpse as the body began to fall over and jumped behind the demons. As he was in mid-air the two pure demons turned to face him and he fired another at the left one’s head. This time the left demon saw it and created an ice wall to block it while the right pure demon created a wall of ice spikes behind Adamar.

 

But as soon as Adamar fired he disappeared in a flash of light again, teleporting back to the one he had dropped and fired again at the back of the left pure demon’s head. This was his lightning arrow, the demon didn’t know where it was coming from and was unable to dodge, the arrow struck it in the back of the head then it let out a powerful pulse of electricity straight to the beast’s brain. The leftmost demon lifelessly collapsed to the ground, the only pure demon remaining frantically started looking around, trying to figure out where the archer had gone this time while at the same time trying to protect itself from the attacks coming at it from all directions by the other elves.

 

Adamar prepared to fire at the last demon, but he didn’t need to. There was too many elves attacking it from too many directions all at once, with guns, swords, and magic. When it had its two allies keeping them back was easy, but fighting alone there was too much going on for one creature to respond to all at once. The elven soldiers struck down the last pure demon without Adamar’s help. “Keep pushing forwards. I need to get back to Alicia.” Adamar instructed

 

“What about all the normals who breached the back lines?” One soldier asked.

 

“Trust the back lines and the guards there to handle themselves. We need to push through the demon forces so when the scientists reach the rift we are close enough to distract the demons close to the rift.” Adamar explained, then he disappeared in a flash of light again.

 

This chapter ended up being 47 pages long (In google docs.) So for the sake of your sanity and mine I have split it into three parts. The first two are here, the next one (with the remaining 17 pages is still being looked over by my beta-reader/friend and will be posted as a new chapter within the next 1-3 days.)

-- Next Chapter. Chapter 14.5: The Rift --

15: Chapter 14.5: The Rift

-- Chapter 14.5: The Rift --

[Location: Far Back Lines]

Adamar reappeared where he left his arrow and quickly looked around to find out where Alicia was. He was surprised to see that the greater demon was already dead, but alarmed when he noticed Alicia lying on the ground not moving. Then he spotted the elf in the black robes, the man was lying on his back in the grass about five feet away from Alicia with his massive sword on the ground beside him, his legs crossed, and his arms tucked behind his head as if he was relaxing on a vacation.

“Emmei? What are you doing here? Is Alicia alright?” Adamar called out as he rushed over to Alicia.

“I’m a mercenary Adamar, not one of your soldiers. I go wherever I please.” Emmei answered. “And she’s still alive. Took quite a beating, but she’s alive.”

“Did you save her and kill the demon?” Adamar asked.

“Did you pay me to help in any way?” Emmei asked.

“No.” Adamar answered.

“There’s your answer.” Emmei replied. “She killed it on her own. Was a pretty close fight though. I almost stepped in to help you guys, so that’s something I guess.”

“Why are you here? Did you change your mind about helping us in this battle?” Adamar asked.

“Nah. I knew you guys would be fine without me. However I did come to report where these additional attacks are coming from. The group that snuck up on the outpost this morning, and these ones that came after you. A new rift opened nearby, it is fresh and still very small so unlike this one where many demons can crawl out of it all at once, it hasn’t grown enough to let more than one demon at a time out. They’re coming outta it, grouping up once they all get out, then are coming in waves to join this battlefield.” Emmei explained.

Adamar frowned and looked puzzled. “Someone mentioned that before. We don’t have the manpower to take care of that one too. We’ll have to just keep watch for flanks from there. Thank you for the information though.”

Emmei opened his bag and pulled out a piece of a device. “That’s why I got this. I’m going to go shut it down, you can pay me for it later. I stole one of those human rift-zapper things from the village, you really need better security when the soldiers are gone by the way. Then I had a few of the scientists there tell me how to put the pieces together and turn it on. Figured I’d inform you before I went, incase I fail to close it or incase another group comes after you before I get there. The rift is east of here, if any more come they’ll come from that direction.”

“You can’t do that alone.” Adamar protested.

“It’s a new rift, they can only come out one at a time, and my signet can make me stronger and faster with every blow I land. As long as I can survive the fight with the ones that already got out, and not get hit or miss an attack in the process, by the time I clear them out my signet will be boosting me enough to take on anything that can fit through that portal one on one. Then I just setup the rift-zapper thing and make sure every demon that comes out dies before another can get out.” Emmei stated. “The way I see it, I either save the village and get paid a nice sum of crystals, or I die trying. It’s a win-win situation really.”

“No Emmei, please wait for the soldiers to take this rift out then we’ll send a few veterans with you to clean that one up nice and quick.” Adamar insisted.

“Again, I’m a mercenary not one of your soldiers. I’m doing it my way, I’ll come back and give you a heads up if I take it out.” Emmei stated before he picked up his sword and walked away.

Adamar let out a sigh of irritation but let the man go. He had a battlefield to lead, he focused and reconnected to nature again, regaining his vision of the entire battlefield as he resumed leading the elven forces.

--

[Location: East Flank]

By now the Alphas and the surviving scientist group had been fully healed by Crystal and Lillith and were preparing to get moving again. “Alright everyone, we are going to sprint the rest of the way.” Crystal called out. “It is not too much further from here, I am going to use a spell that will make you all much faster. I warn you, if you’re not used to moving this fast it’ll be hard to control yourself at first so stay focused.” She warned as she focused on the spell. Everyone around her could feel a strange tingling feeling in their legs. “Stay close everyone, I’m taking over as lead mage and I’m not a combat mage, so if you stray too far from me I’m going to have a hard time protecting you from incoming fire. Now that we are not invisible, there will be no way we can avoid a fight. Once we reach the rift we can’t just secretly close it, we’re going to have to fight to defend the machine.”

Everyone nodded and moved in closer to Crystal and awaited her signal. Once she finished giving everyone the speed buff she shouted out “Go!” and everyone took off running. The four Alphas stumbled at first and fell on their faces, their normal running speed had been increased by forty miles per hour which left most of them running at over fifty miles per hour. It was a drastic change. The elves slowed down a little to give the humans a chance to adjust, but once the Alphas were able to run straight again the entire group sprinted forwards towards the rift. The demons on the battlefield noticed their advance now that they were no longer invisible and began throwing fireballs and ice shards at the group, the group was moving too fast for the demons to chase them down even with the super speed the demons had. As the ice and fire rained down at them Crystal flicked her staff and made a tall wall of wood appear beside them. The big wooden wall hovered in the air between the group and the demons and followed them as they ran, blocking the incoming attacks. The demon’s fire attacks lit the wall on fire.

“Why didn’t we do this from the start?” Estellese asked. “We woulda been there by now.”

“The original plan was to use stealth.” Esyll answered. “The machine will take time to work, if we just ran over the demons would see us and we’d need to fight them while the machine does it’s job. If we used stealth, we could remain invisible and undetected while the machine did its work and we could have completely closed the rift without a single demon even knowing what happened. The stealth plan was clearly much safer and had a higher success rate, but we didn’t plan on the light mage being struck down by the crossfire. Now that the stealth plan flopped we will without a doubt have to fight off the demons. I know we lost a lot of people in that fire blast, but I must admit now that we are visible we are likely going to lose a lot more of us before that rift is closed. Be prepared.”

“Be positive Esyll!” Crystal stated. “You have me here to protect you all, we will be okay. I can hold them back for a while. And I am sure Adamar and Alicia will rejoin the battle any time now, they will surely send backup to aid us.” As she spoke she glanced over at Lillith who was being oddly quiet and looked distracted. “Lillith, what’s wrong hon?”

Lillith put on a fake smile and looked at Crystal as she ran. “I’m fine. No worries.”

“It’s Alicia, isn’t it? I can tell you two are very close.” Crystal replied in a concerned tone. “She’s a tough one, she will be okay.”

“She didn’t sound okay. She should be back by now.” Lillith answered in a quiet, worried tone. “I so badly want to go back and make sure she’s okay.”

“Then turn and go back. We’ll be fine.” Crystal answered.

Lillith shook her head and showed another fake smile. “I can’t. If I turn back to help her now and anyone else in this group died, I would never be able to forgive myself. I know it wouldn’t be my fault, but that’s just how I am, I would blame myself for not being there to save them. I can’t help it. I have to stay and just hope Alicia is okay.”

“Don’t hope for it, know it. She’s with Adamar and a group of guards, and she is one heck of a fighter herself. She IS okay.” Crystal insisted, although she herself was unsure of Alicia’s fate. Any number of things could have happened, it was war after all, all it took was one misstep for even the best of fighters to go down.

They had already been close so with their enhanced speeds they reached the outpost within a few minutes. It was a large wall surrounding the rift with towers on each corner. The walls and towers were mostly destroyed and damaged, there was bodies of elves and demons scattered everywhere. “Our cover is already blown, no sense sneaking in. Just follow my lead I’m bringing us to the rift in the most direct way possible.” Crystal called out. As they ran straight at the outpost she twirled her crystal staff and pointed at the wall, suddenly a massive tree sprang out of the ground in front of the wall, then unnaturally bent and curved itself over the wall to make a wooden ramp. The group sprinted right up the wooden ramp which lead them over the walls and straight to the rift. It looked like a massive portal on the ground and as they looked down into it they could see the fire and brimstone of the world on the other side, along with thousands of demons marching on the surface of that world. It would seem that the rift was high up in the air over the demonic world.

They stopped once they reached the rift and Crystal immediately turned to start surrounding them with layers of wooden walls in hopes of keeping out the demons who no doubt would be closing in on them any second now. “Get the device up and running!” She called out.

Esyll and the other scientists opened their bags and began pulling out the parts and pieces of the machine, each of them had taken a piece to lighten the load on everyone. Then they all got to work alongside Zanath and Lillith constructing the big and bulky machine along with the solar panels needed to power it. They hadn’t even gotten close to putting it all together before they could hear the demons hammering away at the wooden walls around them, those walls would not hold them back for long.

“Esyll, can you and the scientists build this without me?” Zanath asked.

“Yes we can. Why?” Esyll asked.

“I’m going to buy us a little more time. Crystal can you make a wooden tower?” Zanath asked.

“Can do!” Crystal replied as she focused and made a short wooden tower rise out of the ground. She then returned her focus to the walls, using her wood-element magic to repair the walls every time the demons damaged them. It would not make them impenetrable, but it would without a doubt make them hard to break and slow down the demons.

Zanath grabbed his rifle and quickly began climbing up the tower, and before he knew it he saw Lillith zip right past him on her way to the top. She went past too quickly for him to tell her it was dangerous, so he just continued climbing up after her. Once he reached the top he saw Lillith firing off arrows at the demons down below at incredible speeds, and with very good accuracy. She hit every target in the head, or, at least every target that didn’t dodge or block her attacks. “you take the left side I’ll take the right.” Lillith stated.

“On it.” Zanath answered. He rested his rifle on the banister of the tower and began taking shots at the demons that were attacking the wall on his side. They were unfamiliar with bullets so most of them had no idea what was hitting them, and because of that they took longer to realize that the attacks were coming from the tower.

On the ground the scientists worked as fast as they could putting the pieces of the machine together. They had it almost completed when three lesser demons climbed out of the rift.  “Humans, I’m counting on you to take those things down. They have super speed, strength, and magical skill do NOT underestimate them! They are much stronger then you are, I can’t really help I need to keep focused on repairing the walls.” Crystal called out.

The demons turned to rush at the scientists but Estellese, Mendores, and Kadin moved in to cut them off. “I don’t want to split us up, but if we are going to hold them back we each need to take on one of them.” Mendores stated. 

Kadin and Estellese both replied with “Alright” as they split up to each take on their own demon, Kadin took the left, Estellese took the right, and Mendores took the center.

As the three rushed in Kadin’s lesser demon opened up by lobbing three fireballs at him, causing Kadin to quickly jump to the side to get out of the way of all three. 

The lesser demon facing Estellese summoned a tall wall of flames between them, then pushed its arm forwards to push the wall towards Estellese. Causing Estellese to jump backwards to evade the flames, as she jumped she threw a fireball of her own back at the demon’s torso. The demon’s fire wall was not a solid object, so her fireball passed clean through it and struck the demon in the chest, burning it slightly. Estellese started running to the side, towards Mendores, to try and get around the wall.

The lesser demon facing Mendores began firing off small ice shards at the man as he charged it, but Mendores pulled down the face-plate on his knight armor and the ice couldn’t even scratch his armor. He rushed in close to the demon and the demon shouted something to its ally that was fighting Kadin. As Mendores moved in for the kill and slashed at the demon’s neck the ice demon tucked into a roll and rolled towards Kadin. As it rolled it threw an ice shard for kadin’s leg from the side.

Kadin had been focused on his own demon and hadn’t seen the attack coming. The thin 3 inch long ice shard stabbed into his leg and he shouted out in pain. The fire demon in front of him took the opportunity to slash at Kadin’s neck while he recoiled in pain, but suddenly a metal hook came flying from Mendores and stabbed into the fire-demon’s shoulder. In one swift movement Mendores yanked the chain attached to the hook, yanking the fire-demon away from Kadin and pulling it to the ground before it could hit him.

Seeing the opportunity Estellese lunged over to the fallen fire-demon and slammed her axe down onto its head. But she paid the price for ignoring her own opponent, moments after her axe struck its foe she was struck in the back by a massive fireball and received 2nd degree burns over most of her back. She shouted out in pain but regained enough control to jump back just in time to evade the axe of the ice demon as it turned to attack her. Moments after her own fire-demon followed up and slashed its sword at her from the side, Estellese spun around and blocked the sword with her axe while Mendores rushed in and Kadin limped towards them. As her axe clashed with the demon’s sword Estellese tried to overpower the demon, but the demon’s superhuman strength outmatched her own strength and she was struggling to hold it back. A spark shot down the demon’s arm and up to the tip of its sword, as soon as the spark reached the tip of its sword it burst into a massive fiery explosion and the demon jumped backwards to get away from the flames. Estellese screamed out as she disappeared in the burst of flames, but suddenly her axe came flying out of the fire and slammed blade-first into the demon’s face. The demon was knocked backwards and sent lifelessly flipping across the ground.

As the flames cleared Estellese stood there, her entire body covered in 2nd and 3rd degree burns. She was in so much pain she was visibly crying, but she was still standing, still able to keep fighting.

“Estellese! Fall back!” Mendores called out as he rushed in and moved to stab his sword into the ice demon. But as soon as it heard his clunky armor get close it spun around, it exhaled an icy cloud that turned his sword into a block of ice. The ice block sword struck the demon but didn’t hurt it, and the demon immediately retaliated. With the demon’s superhuman strength it grabbed Mendores’s shoulder and kicked his knee, snapping his leg. Mendores screamed out as he slammed his shield into the demon’s head before and the demon threw him several feet away. The demon barely had time to react, it ducked just in time to avoid Kadin’s sword but couldn’t move fast enough to avoid being stabbed in the chest by Kadin’s other sword. Then, using the sword’s armor-piercing strength, Kadin yanked his sword upwards and through the rest of the demon’s body. Throwing the corpse to the ground afterwards.

Kadin pulled the ice shard out of his leg and looked up to see four more lesser demons crawling out of the rift. He cussed before shouting “There are more coming!” he looked up to the tower “Zanath! Shoot these-” he shouted out but before he could finish he saw the top of the tower explode. The top fourth of the wooden tower was shattered apart by the explosion and came collapsing to the ground. Lillith could be seen in the debris as they fell, her blue hair stood out amongst the flames. She grabbed her dagger and stabbed it into the side of the wooden tower, using it to catch her fall. Although she was clearly badly wounded by the explosion. As soon as she regained her bearings she resumed climbing down the tower.

The four new lesser demons finished crawling out of the rift then turned and made a mad dash for Estellese and Kadin, unleashing a hail of fireballs and ice shards at the two of them. Kadin was able to hobble out of the way with his wounded leg, but Estellese’s burns were slowing her down far too much for her to evade everything. She was struck in the leg by another fireball, and was stabbed by ice shards in numerous places.

Estellese struggled to take a few steps towards the demons, fighting to stay on her feet, but her body finally gave out and she collapsed. Kadin started limping over to her and Mendores had pulled himself onto his feet and was trying to use his sword as a crutch to hobble towards her. But neither of them could move fast enough with their wounds, the demons had superhuman speed after all. The demons closed in on Estellese in seconds, the first one to reach her slammed its hammer down at her head, but before the hammer could strike her vines sprang out of the ground and yanked the hammer away from the demon. Moments after a gunshot was heard and the demon collapsed to the ground, dead.

“Give them cover fire!” Esyll called out. Her gun already in hand after she had shot the first demon. The other scientists dropped everything they were doing and grabbed their pistols, there was only five of them left, counting Esyll, but the group began firing at the oncoming group of demons as fast as they could. Two of the demons were struck by surprise and killed, the third was wounded but hid behind an ice wall. “Back to work!” Esyll called out as the scientists put their guns back in their holsters and got back to building the machine.

Esyll left the group and rushed over to aid the Alphas with her pistol in hand. “You guys can’t let them attack the scientists. We can’t risk their magic hitting the machine.”

As the last demon standing hid behind its ice-wall Kadin looked back to see four more lesser demons climbing out of the rift. They didn’t stop coming.

Lillith reached the bottom of the tower and immediately began digging through the rubble, she knew exactly where Zanath landed and was able to dig him out quickly. He was in critical condition, but was not dead. The tower hadn’t been tall enough for the fall to kill him. Lillith yanked him out from beneath the rubble and immediately began trying to heal him.

Crystal cussed as she tried to figure out what to do. She couldn’t both heal them and hold up the walls at the same time, and if she let the walls drop they’d have more than a few demons rushing in on them. She focused for a moment and activated her signet skill. Suddenly hundreds of vines sprang out of the ground around Estellese and hid her from sight. A tree had grew out of the ground where Estellese had been lying, and hanging from the tree was a large cocoon. that was surrounded by huge thorns and the vines. Estellese had disappeared but was somewhere in there. “Defend the cocoon! It’s the only healing ability I can use without dropping the walls. I can only use this once, I can’t use it again for a few hours.”

As she spoke an armored woman with short black hair, carrying a sword and shield sprang over the walls and landed. She was covered in blood and her armor was full of dents and cuts, she looked like she had sustained some injuries but had been healed by one of the battlefield healers. The elf quickly took account of the battlefield and took a moment to think of the best attack plan.

“Suki!” Crystal called out. “Oh god you have no idea how glad I am to see you. Where is Cassie and Emar?”

Suki lowered her head. “They didn’t make it. An elf named Stashi also died with them.” She said quietly, her voice wavering slightly as she tried not to cry.

Crystal bit her lip and looked down. “I’m sorry. We will make their lives worth it when we end this war.”

Suki shook her head. “It will never be worth it.” She snapped. “My best friends are dead, they will never come back. Every single demon we have killed in this fight? None of them are dead, they will all be back tomorrow. We may close this rift, but they’ll just open another one somewhere else. We may actively shut down every rift they try to open before they get big enough for demons to get out, but no matter how fast we locate and shut them down, someday we’ll miss one and this whole thing will happen again. Do you not see how futile this is?” She looked up at Crystal with teary eyes. “It will never be worth the lives we have lost!” She turned and rushed off to face the demons that were coming out of the rift.

Crystal bit her lip and remained silent, until the silence was broken by the whirring of the machine the scientists were building. They finished it, it sprang to life and the rift was visibly shrinking, slowly but it was shrinking. They just had to hold out a little longer. She kept her focus on the walls, putting everything she had into repairing them as fast as possible but the demons were slowly breaking through and pushing closer. She could count them, there was at least fifty of them on the other side judging by how fast they were tearing the wall apart. A few of the demons started trying to take Suki’s idea and began creating ice stairs to climb over the wall. Seeing this, Crystal quickly made the wall taller and created a wooden ceiling above them to ensure nobody else could climb over. Leaving a few tiny holes in the ceiling for the solar panels to receive light.

The four demons rushed at the cocoon but Suki was quick to intercept them and kadin was limping after them not too far behind her. Mendores remained by the cocoon to defend it. The four demons blitzed Suki, trying to blast their way through her as they raced for the cocoon. They didn’t know what it did but it was obvious they had to stop it. They unleashed a hail of fireballs and ice spikes at Suki, but Suki raised her shield to block them. As she raised her shield it suddenly expanded two times the size it originally was to protect her from the incoming attacks, then it returned to normal size.

As she approached the demons two of them broke off from the group and tried running past her on her right and left sides, while the other two rushed at her head-on. “Hey!” Suki called out, she spun around and hurled her shield at one of them, and her sword at the other. The demon on the left jumped to the side to dodge the shield and the demon on the right created an ice wall to block the sword. But Suki knew telekinesis and was able to control her weapons while not holding them. With a quick gesture the shield swerved and slammed into the demon’s head, and the sword flew up over the wall and stabbed down into the unexpecting demon’s head.

As the demon struck by the shield stumbled back Esyll took the opportunity to shoot the demon in the head. She remained in between Kadin and Mendores.

The two demons rushing Suki moved in for the kill, one of them slashed an axe at Suki’s neck while the other summoned an ice javelin and prepared to throw it when Suki dodged. Suki sprang incredibly high up into the air and with another flick of her arms her sword flew at the two demon that had been attacking her and slashed at the left-most demon from one side. While her shield moved up into the air to block the ice-javelin that was thrown at her.

The lesser demon realized that Suki was too powerful for it to take out and as Suki fell to the ground it rushed after Kadin instead. Suki’s sword swooped in to slash at the demon, but the demon blocked the sword with its dagger and threw a volley of ice-spikes at Kadin.

Kadin dove out of the way but cringed in pain as he landed on his injured leg. He turned to the demon and prepared to dodge again.

Suki landed on the ground and spun around to chase after the demon that was attacking Kadin, her sword and shield flew back into her hands. But as she rushed at the lesser demon the wall not far from them exploded and burst apart and a pure demon came smashing through it. “Crystal! The wall!” Suki called out.

“I know!” Crystal shouted back, she was panting heavily. Keeping these walls up was taking a lot out of her, she couldn’t keep this up much longer. The wall behind the pure demon immediately sealed shut so no other demons could get through, but there was nothing she could do about the one that was already inside.

“How long until that cocoon hatches? And who’s in it?” Suki called out. “I can’t take this thing alone.”

“Thirty seconds, and the human’s best fighter is in there.” Crystal called out.

The look on Suki’s face was one of utter disappointment. “Really? A human? You couldn’t have put someone useful in there, the humans can’t fight worth shit. We are screwed if we don’t get a good fighter to help.”

“Hey!” Kadin called out, bracing himself as he watched the lesser demon closing in on him. “Humans, right here within earshot.”

The pure demon let out a roar and skimmed the battlefield. It set its eyes on Crystal and knew right away that if she died the wall would go down and all the surrounding demons would get in. It charged straight for the woman.

“No you don’t!” Suki shouted out as she raced after the pure demon she let go of her shield and left it floating beside her as she ran, reaching out with her free arm and grabbing the air, then yanking her arm back. The demon’s leg was yanked backwards as if she had just grabbed its leg and the pure demon fell flat on its face.

As it fell the scientists turned and opened fire on the pure demon, firing every bullet they had left in their pistols at the creature. The pure demon immediately made an ice dome around itself to protect itself from the bullets and it stayed there for a moment while Suki rushed in close.

The demon chasing Kadin turned the ground under their feet into ice as it moved in and stabbed its dagger at his shoulder. Kadin stumbled backwards and blocked the dagger with his sword, the armor piercing enchantment on his sword allowed it to slice clean through the dagger, while he stabbed his other sword at the demon’s chest. The demon attempted to block with its other dagger but the sword just cut the dagger in two and pierced through the demon anyways, catching the demon by surprise. The demon was not killed by the blade though, and before Kadin could cause any further damage it used its superhuman strength to shove Kadin away. Kadin stumbled back and readied his swords for another attack, but the demon wasn’t going to move in close enough to be hit anymore. It focused and made an ice spike spring out of the ground towards Kadin’s chest, causing the man to jump backwards to avoid the spike. As Kadin jumped backwards a spiked ice wall appeared behind him and it was too late to avoid it, he was already mid-jump and going straight for it.

Suddenly he felt a hook stab into his side, the chain hook yanked him away from the wall and knocked him to the ground. He looked up to see that Mendores had hooked him and hopped back, letting the weight of his armor pull Kadin away from the spikes. Kadin was badly wounded by the hook but the spiked wall would’ve killed him. Moments after another three gunshots were heard from Esyll and the lesser demon collapsed to the ground with a bullet through its head and the other two missed.

Kadin glanced back at the rift, it was significantly smaller than it was when they started. Two more lesser demons crawled out of the rift, it was now too small for more than two to get out at once, they just had to hold out a little longer. But, it was then that a thought hit him. Once they close the rift… Then what? They were sitting here, surrounded by demons. Those demons are not going to just go away once the rift closes. How were they supposed to get out of this?

As the two lesser demons rushed at Kadin and Esyll Kadin tried to struggle back onto his feet, but he was too badly wounded to get back up with the gouge from the hook and the leg wound. Esyll began firing off shots at the two incoming demons, but being unfamiliar with firearms and combat the demons were evading her shots, until two gunshots went off from somewhere else. Striking both demons in the legs and sending them stumbling to the ground. Kadin looked over to see Zanath and Lillith healed and back on their feet.

Lillith rushed over to heal Mendores while Zanath rushed in to help Esyll with the demons. Zanath slung his rifle over his back and pulled two pistols out of the holsters on his hips. He took two more shots at the heads of the wounded demons but the ice-demon quickly created an ice-wall to block the bullets. Zanath was surprised the bullet didn’t pierce the ice, but assumed it had some magical properties that made it denser. “Esyll, flank their right.” Zanath called out as he moved around to their left

“I don’t know what that means!” Esyll shouted.

“Move around their right side.” Zanath called back. as he approached their left side he fired another shot at the first demon he could see. They were both getting up and tending to their leg wounds. The ice-demon immediately created another ice wall to block Zanath’s shots, but once the wall went up they began firing a barrage of ice spikes while the fire demon sent a trail of sparks across the ground towards Zanath. Zanath didn’t know what the sparks did, but assumed they were bad so he rolled to his left to avoid the ice-spikes and continued running around the demons to find an opening. The sparks curved and began following him.

Esyll circled around the right side and fired at the demons as soon as she got around the wall. The ice-demon was shot in the head and lifelessly fell to the ground. The fire demon turned to Esyll and sprinted straight for her, throwing three fireballs. One at her leg, one at her head, and one at her chest. Esyll shouted and turned to try and run away, but the demon was much faster than her. She was not trained for combat, she moved out of the way of the first two fireballs but the one aimed at her chest struck her shoulder and badly burnt her. The demon was closing in on her fast, seeing that she couldn’t outrun it she spun around and fired a shot straight into the demon’s chest.

The demon stumbled back and before it could attack Esyll again Zanath made it around the wall and fired another shot through the demon’s head. Zanath stopped and looked around, the rift was seconds away from closing, it had shrunk to the size of a quarter and nothing else was going to be able to get through that. He looked back to see that Lillith had finished healing Mendores and was just finishing with healing Kadin now. He looked over at the ice dome, the pure demon still hadn’t come out of it yet. They waited, and the rift slowly closed and disappeared.

Suki stood right outside the dome, waiting, wondering why the demon was hiding in there for so long. Sure the demon was severely outnumbered and outgunned, it didn’t stand a chance. But it was not normal for a demon to be a coward. Unless… Suddenly the ice dome began to open and she could see the demon holding a massively charged black magic orb. “Get down! Everyone!” Suki shouted out as she ran over to Crystal. Kadin, Lillith, and Mendores also ducked behind the tree that Estellese’s cocoon was hanging from, and Zanath ducked behind the ice wall near him. Crystal created a smaller wooden dome around herself and Suki. The scientists ran for the tree while Esyll ran for the ice wall, but before either of them could make it the demon threw the orb at the scientists and the machine.

The orb shot through the air like a bullet and slammed into the ground next to the machine. As it struck the ground it exploded and destroyed the machine, although the demon was too late to stop it from closing the rift, it had taken too long to charge. As the orb exploded it fired thousands of tiny black needles in all directions, these needles stabbed into the backs of the scientists as they ran. Esyll just barely made it behind the ice in time to avoid the needles. Then, every needle suddenly burst into a small but powerful explosion. All the scientists were torn to pieces and killed, Crystal’s wooden dome was blown apart and Crystal’s arm was badly injured in one explosion that slipped through. The tree was badly damaged, but the cocoon was as strong as metal and did not sustain much damage.

The attack left the entire battlefield scorched and destroyed. If Suki hadn’t warned them, they all would’ve met the same fate as the scientists. The demon looked around, noticing that it had failed to protect the rift. It let out a roar of frustration, and turned to the next best option. Kill everyone here and hope they are the only ones who know how to build the machines.

Suki rushed out of the broken wooden dome straight for the Pure Demon “I thought you said it would hatch in thirty seconds!” She called out.

“Do you really think I can keep an accurate track of time right now?” Crystal snapped back. “Should be any second now.”

The demon roared out and stomped on the ground, sending a wave of flames across the ground in all directions. Seeing the fire Suki jumped over it, but as soon as she did the pure demon sprinted forwards and swung its arm out to grab her.

Suki threw her sword at the demon’s face, then jerked her hand to the side and used her telekinesis to push herself away from the demon’s arm. The demon dodged her sword as Suki landed back on the ground a few feet away, then with another jerk of her arm her sword spun around and slashed at the demon’s head from the side. The beast attempted to dodge but was not fast enough, the blade sliced into the side of its head, but the wound was shallow and non-fatal. As Suki sent the sword in for another attack the demon turned its head and spat on the sword, and in an instant the sword was encased in a block of ice and was no longer sharp enough to damage the demon. The block of ice struck the demon on the side of the head and did nothing. The demon then turned and threw a massive fireball at Suki, seeing her as the only threat out of the people surrounding it.

Suki threw her shield onto the ground and jumped on top of it, then used her telekinesis to lift the shield, and herself, off the ground. She quickly rose high up into the air to dodge the fireball and barely got out of the way as the fireball exploded. She noticed that the cocoon was starting to crack and threw herself and her shield at the tree.

Mendores and Kadin were remaining behind the tree, they knew they didn’t stand a chance against this beast and were trying to stay out of the way. Zanath was behind the ice wall, taking aim at the demon and waiting for that perfect shot to present itself. The cocoon started to crack and Suki landed beside it, picking up her shield and turning back to the pure demon.

The demon took in a deep breath and bellowed out a huge wall of flames at Suki and the cocoon, but suki focused on her shield and the shield expanded to a massive size to block the flames.

While Suki held back the flames with her shield, the cocoon burst open and Estellese fell out of it. She was fully healed and good as new, but she was different now. Her skin had a green tint, her body was covered in sharp thorns, she now had sharp claws, and she had butterfly-like wings sprouting from her back. She landed on her knees but stood up and curiously looked over her arms, then wiggled her wings and glanced over her shoulder at them. “Okay, what happened?” She asked.

Kadin and Mendores just shrugged.

“Human” Suki stated. When she saw Kadin, Mendores, Estellese, and Zanath all look over at her she sighed and shook her head. “Pink human. That one.” She said pointing at Estellese. “We have one hell of a monster here and I can’t kill this thing alone. Crystal’s signet has given you these new abilities and physical traits. You can move at three times your natural speed, have triple your natural strength, those thorns and claws are as strong as steel, and the wings do allow flight.” She explained. “Now you have thirty seconds to help me kill this damn thing before all these powers run out and you go back to normal. If you can’t kill it in thirty seconds, we all die. I know you humans aren’t capable of much, so just back me up. Keep it off me and I might be able to get it.” 

Estellese stood up and took a deep breath. “Don’t underestimate me.” She stated. “I may not understand their magical attacks, but I can fight. Just tell me if there is something dangerous I need to look out for. Like if something’s gonna explode or something.”

“Human, don’t be stupid. Your race can’t handle combat of this skill tier.” Suki stated, but Estellese ignored her. 

Estellese took a moment to test her wings and hovered a few inches off the ground, as she did the demon slammed a fist into the shield and Suki stumbled back a few feet. Estellese looked up at Suki and knew she couldn’t waste any more time, “Let's go.”

Suki nodded and her shield returned to its normal size, revealing the pure demon that had been standing behind it. “Take the left, I’m going around the right.” Suki ordered.

“Estellese, we will help however we can. But there isn’t much we can do here.” Mendores called out.

“Thank you. But make sure you stay safe.” Estellese called back before following Suki’s orders. She ran to the left, mirroring Suki. The demon still saw Suki as the only threat, it stomped its foot on the ground sending out another wave of flames across the ground. Both Estellese and Suki jumped over the wave, and as they jumped the demon sprinted after Suki firing another fireball at her.

Suki used her telekinesis to push herself out of the way of the flames, while Estellese rushed after the demon with her new enhanced speed. The beast was almost twice her height but she wasn’t letting its size intimidate her. She saw the demon preparing to blitz Suki and grabbed its leg, yanking it backwards right as it went to run. The pure demon was knocked off balance and fell to the ground.

“Estellese! Axe!” Mendores called out. Estellese turned to him to see him throw her axe towards her. The axe landed on the ground a couple feet away.

As Estellese rushed to grab her axe the demon started standing back up. Lillith, Esyll, and Zanath all took this moment to open fire on the demon. Esyll and Lillith let loose a hail of bullets and arrows, while Zanath took several shots at the demon’s head with his rifle. The demon covered its head with one of its arms but roared out in pain as it was struck with many bullets and arrows. Its metallic skin greatly lessened the damage of the attacks.

Estellese grabbed her axe then her and Suki rushed in to try and finish it off but they were not fast enough, the demon sprang back onto its feet and moved back, away from everyone. It had to reassess the situation, Suki was no longer the only threat and it knew it had to stop focusing her out.

“That worked! Flank it again!” Suki ordered as she rushed around the right side, and Estellese rushed around the left.

The pure demon had other plans, it sprinted at super speeds right past Estellese and Suki, straight for Zanath and Esyll. A fireball appeared in one of its upper arms and rapidly grew in size as it sprinted for them, and as it got close it threw the fireball at their ice wall.

Zanath and Esyll were forced to dive away from their ice wall. Once the fireball struck the wall it exploded and the ice was destroyed, they barely escaped the explosion. The demon continued closing in on them incredibly fast with Estellese and Suki chasing right behind it, but suddenly it felt something sharp stab into its leg.

“Estellese! The chain!” Mendores called out as he attached the chain hook to his armor. He had thrown the hook end into the demon’s left leg, and not a moment later he was being dragged behind the demon. He didn’t have the strength to pull it back and instead the demon was just pulling him along.

Estellese grabbed the chain as she ran past it and braced herself, with her strength the demon couldn’t move its leg forwards and was tripped again. As the demon fell to the ground Suki ran up alongside it and telekinetically pulled one of the swords the fallen lesser demons dropped into her hand as she prepared to kill it. But the demon was expecting to be tripped this time. It slammed a fist into the ground and burst into a massive fiery explosion. Forcing Suki to jump backwards to avoid getting burnt.

Estellese was not afraid of the fire though, she didn’t care about the explosion and ran straight into it. She screamed out in pain but slammed her axe down at the demon’s head. The demon threw its arm up to block her axe, and roared out in pain as she cleaved its arm off. The demon spat out a sharp ice spike straight at Estellese. Estellese ignored the spike, she roared out in pain as the spike stabbed through her stomach and she slammed her axe down at its head again. The demon threw another arm in front of the axe to block it, and screeched out in pain as it lost another arm. It felt arrows and bullets sinking into its sides and body again and it’s resistant skin could only do so much to protect it from these attacks, it looked up to see Estellese, biting back her pain, as she relentlessly slammed her axe down at its head again.

Suddenly the pure demon disappeared in a burst of black flames, Estellese’s axe slammed into the ground and she was burnt by the flames. Lillith rushed to Estellese to try and quickly patch her up. Then the demon reappeared in another burst of black flames behind Esyll and Zanath. Esyll screamed and Zanath shouted as it grabbed both of them, one in each of its remaining hands, and went to slam them together with inhuman strength. Intending to crush them both.

Kadin suddenly appeared in front of the demon, he had moved there and turned invisible while it was distracted by Estellese. He jumped up and slashed his sword through the arm that was holding Zanath, cleaving yet another of the demon’s arms clean off with his sword enchantment. The demon roared out in pain as Zanath, and it’s severed arm, were thrown off to the side. Zanath was badly injured by being thrown but him and Esyll were saved from being crushed.

Kadin turned to Esyll, he jumped again and slashed his sword at the demon’s other arm to try and free her as well. The demon was reeling back in pain but it maintained focus and blew out an icy wind at Kadin, freezing his sword and preventing it from dealing any damage. The demon then kicked Kadin with its hoof and sent the man flying backwards several feet with a loud bone-cracking snap. Kadin hit the ground and did not get back up.

Suki was closing in on the demon fast, while Estellese was partially healed and following not far behind. As the two girls closed in Suki raced for the demon’s arm to try and free Esyll, but before she could get close enough to strike it a red aura appeared around the pure demon and it slammed Esyll into the ground then stomped its hoof down onto her, crushing her entire torso into the dirt.

“Esyll!” Lillith shouted, and for a moment the three elves froze. The loss of Esyll hit Lillith hard, but the grief could be seen in Crystal and Suki’s eyes as well. It was like a chill had shot through the three of them.

The demon stood up tall as the lifestealing spell went into effect. All of its arms grew back, all of its wounds healed. Then, as a result of using a blood magic spell, one deep slash appeared on its chest. It let out an enraged roar and looked over the battlefield. Three out of eight opponents were down, it had wasted time on the pink girl’s buff, and it was unharmed. The demon smirked.

It didn’t have any time left to think, Estellese was already in its face and moving in to attack. Estellese jumped at its head and used her wings to give her a boost, slashing her axe directly for its face again. The demon blew on her axe and turned it to ice, like it had done to Kadin, but Estellese didn’t care. She slammed the ice-cube into the side of the demon’s head with her now enhanced strength and sent the demon stumbling backwards. Estellese flew straight at its head again as it stumbled back and the demon retaliated by spitting a fireball at her, but she didn’t care, she flew straight through the fireball and slammed the icecube-axe into the demon’s head again. As she struck Suki moved in and stabbed her sword into the demon’s knee. The demon hissed in pain and jumped backwards a few feet, as it landed on the ground it fell to one knee and was unable to stand on its wounded leg. It slammed a fist into the ground and created a massive ice wall between itself and Estellese. Estellese flew upwards to try and get over the wall but as she rose higher the top of the wall shattered and all the incredibly sharp ice-shards were rapidly fired at her.

“Down!” Suki called out, grabbing Estellese with her telekinesis and yanking her down out of the air to pull her away from the spikes. She caught Estellese and quickly put the other woman down on the ground beside her, then Suki held up her shield and the shield expanded to a massive size again to block the incoming ice shards.

“The demon is using too much magic, it’s starting to use weaker and weaker magical attacks it must be running out of stamina.” Suki informed.

Estellese looked over at Suki “You lifted me like nothing.” She said in surprise.

“Of course, I have super strength.” Suki replied. “How the hell are you still standing with that spike in your stomach? Nevermind fighting.”

“You do? I have an idea.” Estellese said, ignoring the question on her condition. “Pick me up, and as soon as he comes out of hiding throw me at it. Mendores I’ll need you to distract it with the hook before I’m thrown.”

“Are you insane!” Suki questioned.

“Yes I am.” Estellese replied with a smirk. She stood up straight but then winced and hunched over again as her injuries sent another surge of pain through her. “The thirty seconds must be almost up. You will have to trust me, if I can get my hands on it I can take it down.”

Suki paused and gave Estellese a distrusting look.

“Guys! Ice wall is down!” Mendores called out as he rushed forwards, around their shield, and threw his hook at the demon’s face.

“Trust me.” Estellese insisted as she threw her frozen axe to the ground and moved closer to Suki.

Suki hesitated and bit her lip, listening as the demon turned on Mendores. Then she dropped her shield and sword and lifted Estellese. Her shield returned to its normal size and gave her vision of the demon again, and as soon as she saw it she flung Estellese at the demon as hard as she could.

The demon rushed at Mendores and slammed a fist into the ground, sending a shockwave of flames at Mendores. The man quickly lept to the side to get out of the way but as he jumped the demon summoned an ice javelin and threw it at his chest. Mendores was quick to block the ice with his shield but it knocked him to the ground. The demon then noticed the giant shield go down and turned to the girls that had been behind it, but the second it turned to face them it saw Estellese closing in incredibly fast. Suki had thrown her so hard she was hurtling towards the demon far too fast for it to react in time, Estellese crashed into it and slammed the demon into the ground, landing on top of it. Like a snake striking its prey her arm snapped forwards with lightning fast speeds as she jabbed her clawed thumb into one of the demon’s eyes and two of her clawed fingers into the other, blinding the creature. She immediately grabbed the demon by its head and slammed its head hard into the ground with her enhanced strength. The demon bellowed out a blast of searing hot fire at her, but she let the fire hit her. She screamed out in pain as she just started slamming her fists and claws down into its head over and over and over, leaving deep cuts on the demon with every blow.

The demon went to grab her but Estellese stopped hitting it and shoved the two arms that tried to grab her away, using her enhanced strength to almost match the demon’s. But she could only hold back two arms, the other two grabbed onto her and she started struggling to get out of the beast’s grip. A red aura appeared around the demon as it began squeezing her within its grip, crushing her torso and breaking her ribs with its sheer strength. Estellese would have screamed out in pain, but her lungs were also being crushed and she could not breathe. It lifted her into the air to slam her into the ground but suddenly went limp and dropped her. Estellese fell onto the ground with a breathless whimper and her body went mostly limp.

Suki pulled her sword out of the fallen demon’s head and put it back in its sheath. She looked around at what was left, Lillith, Crystal, Herself, and Mendores. Of course, three of the four humans were taken down by just one of these things she thought to herself. She looked at Crystal, the woman was on her knees and her entire body was trembling as she fought to stay conscious, she fought to keep the walls up and keep the demons out. Suki knew they were surrounded, what now? How were they going to get out of here?

Lillith rushed over to Estellese and immediately started trying to heal her wounds again. As Estellese looked up at the blue haired woman she noticed that Lillith was crying and shaking. It was clear that she was trying very hard to hold herself together, but she was struggling and breaking down.

Mendores cringed as he saw Estellese’s condition “Estell… I will never understand how you can take such a beating and keep fighting. Nor how you can let yourself be wounded like this so easily.” He shook his head but was impressed. “How smart are these demons?” He asked.

“As smart as any other elf.” Suki answered.

“Smart enough to check the bodies?” Mendores asked.

“Why would they check the bodies? We don’t have anything of value to them.” Suki answered.

“To make sure we are dead.” Mendores answered. His armor was already dented and battle torn, so he walked over to the dead pure demon and stuck his hand in the blood, then began wiping it all over his armor. “Make yourself look like you’re wounded and dead. It is the only way we are getting out of this. Crystal, if you can do the same thing, cover yourself in blood and make a few fake wounds on yourself. Out of all of us, your magic should let you pull this off better than anyone else.” Once he had covered himself in blood he laid down on the ground and stopped moving.

“We have to do this now” Crystal called back “I can’t hold this up any longer, I can’t.”

Lillith healed Estellese just enough to save her from internal bleeding and lung damage, and to stop her from bleeding out. She didn’t have time to heal everything else, she was already bloody from touching everyone who was wounded but she covered herself in more blood and laid down next to Estellese. She laid face-down on the ground so the passing demons would not see her crying.

Suki hesitated, she did not trust this plan, but she didn’t have any better ideas. She too covered herself in blood and laid on the ground to pretend to be dead.

Crystal shakily stood up and stumbled over to the pile of bodies where the scientists had been shot down and collapsed to the ground when she got there. As she collapsed the wooden walls all around them started getting blown apart and stopped repairing themselves. Within seconds the walls were torn down and demons of all ranks began flooding into the area. With the last of her energy Crystal used her nature magic to warp her body to look like she had been struck by the same exploding spikes as the scientists, without actually having any major wounds. Then she passed out.

Tension rose as the demons stormed into the area and looked around, and everyone was seemingly dead.

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-- Next Chapter: Chapter 15, The Bearer of Bad News. --