Chapter 19

  Mode: PVP . . . ? I had a sinking feeling that fell from my chest to my stomach. The parties aren’t all working together to fight the boss?

  The wooden door somewhat stuck, I slammed it in, and wood splintered outward and away. Threads of inky blackness rushed in thin lines past us, and I made sure to avoid stepping on them. Fred on the other hand . . . did not. I checked our corners.

  “Fred,” I said for what felt like hundredth time. “You have to stop.” I felt like the guy was half drunk all the time.

  I gripped my axes hard, expecting mind-controlled knights coming right at us. But nothing happened. We pushed forward slow and steady down a long hallway deeper into the mountain. It was completely dark for the others, but I could still make out shapes with my enhanced sight. Thankfully, Fred had a lighting spell that cast white light all around us. It flickered against polished stone and intricate designs. A couple minutes later, the hallway opened up into a massive dwarven-like hall.

  I looked around. It reminded me of the dwarven city in the first movie of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Endless pillars in all directions. Except this place . . . felt hungry. Pools of the black ink were littered around the floor, along with black and red mounds that reminded me of ant hills.

  A scraping sound came from the pillars above us.

  I looked up and saw nothing.

  “Sam . . .” Mie said. “I don’t like this.”

  I waved to shush her.

  Matt strode forward, back straight, shoulders square. “COME OUT, YOU WITCH, SO I CAN CAST YOU BACK FROM WHENCE YOU CAME. LET ME RID THE LAND OF YOUR VILE GRASP.”

  I cringed from the sudden noise.

  Again, when nothing happened, we moved further into the hall. I kept an eye out for other parties, and nameplates, but there were none. Maybe it’s time-based? And they are all in other instances of this?

  We came upon a raised platform. It had steps that led up to two thrones. A large throne, and a slightly smaller one by its side. On the large throne though . . . rested a partially decomposed . . . head.

  “Sam,” Mie said again. “I realllly don't like this.”

  More scraping from above.

  Then I saw something large scramble down a pillar a couple yards away from where we stood.

  It was a massive spider . . . only it looked part crab. It had eight legs. The front two on each side were tipped with what looked like reapers’ scythes. Round curved blades of black death. The back legs looked sturdier and were covered with a bumpy carapace-like material, but those ones didn’t seem to wield the blades. It had a huge . . . butt about the size of a dump truck, and its much smaller head stayed obscured as it moved like a freaky centipede over to one of its black and red pools.

  It moved its—again really, really large—butt to one of the pools of red and black liquid. Then it uhh—how do I explain this—it reared up on its hind legs, defecated out the black ink substance, and then turned around to . . . eat it.

  I took a step back. It was . . . pretty damn gross.

  “Did that thing just eat its own shit?” Mie asked.

  Matt banged his breastplate again. Ire spread across his face. “BLACK QUEEN! YOU WILL NOT HAVE OUR LAND! THIS LAND IS OURS!”

  “That sounds . . . very racist,” Mie said.

  I hissed, “Matt, keep it down.”

  But it was too late. It looked up, cocking its head toward us.

  No longer obscured by darkness or its legs, I fully grasped the nature of this . . . spider-crab . . . thing.

  Its head was actually pretty big and looked like one of those deep sea angler fish. Its large mouth was lined with pointed teeth, and even its eyes gave off that crazed look of hunger and death.

  “Holy fuck!” Mie said as it skittered over to us, its legs clinking in a fast clatter.

  It reared up in front of us, and I inspected it.

  Black Queen of The Black Domain

  Level 33, Arachlum, Queen

  Time remaining: 20 minutes

  HP 25,000/25,000

  “Mie,” I said, registering the time limit, but I paused. I just saw something flicker at the corner of my elvish vision. Something red. There it was again. Oh . . . no. The other parties had been staying out of sight . . . We hadn’t. I cursed, frustrated I could be so dumb.

  “What?!” Mie said. “TELL ME WHAT TO DO.”

  “RUN!” I yelled, fully realizing the depth of our mistake.

  We all turned and started sprinting away. All of us . . . but Matt.

  He stood tall, and I had to admit, looked freaking awesome with his bulky black armor, and the two-handed sword he held at one side. The queen raised her four massive scythe-claw-thingies toward him.

  I groaned. I had really been hoping to keep him alive . . . but there was no way we could draw the boss’s aggro and be the center of attention for all the other parties.

  The blades swept down. He caught two with his sword in a block, but the two coming in from the other side dealt a devastating blow. His legs were severed by the lower claw, and the upper bit deep into his armpit.

  A golden pane of glass fell through him, and his legs flew back on. I looked over my shoulder to where Mie—

  I skidded to a halt. Mie had stopped, her staff raised.

  “MIE, NO!” I cried. I could feel her stubborn determination.

  “We need him!” she yelled.

  I growled, clenched my fists, and turned around. Fuck. We are so dead.

  Matt regained his footing, sweeping his blade upward and taking the queen in the jaw. It did damage, but her health pool was so vast.

  Then another party was on us, and there was no time to plan, to regroup, or to even think. The group of four had a big guy with a heavy shield, a ranger-looking class with a crossbow, and two fighters, one with a sword and one with a spear. I activated my ring, and vaulted toward the spearman. He also . . . vaulted toward me. We collided in midair, both our momentums halted. Then we both fell, crashing to the ground. Pain lanced through my side and leg.

  Spells and other projectiles flew overhead from yet another party. I saw Fred stumble into an inky line, the Corruption Vine plunging into him. God damn it, Fred. Then he went invisible.

  I activated Reaper’s Dance, targeting twelve players. At least three other parties had gotten involved. Not all targeted us though; it was one massive free for all.

  As I leapt from target to target, sinking my axes and dealing massive damage to the players, I had time to think since I was untargetable for the duration of Reaper’s Dance. There were three more parties in a fray on the other side of the queen. It looked like one had started in on the her, but had then been ambushed. I saw one party lurking in the distance, sitting out the fight entirely. That is probably the right play. I thew out a chat, praying the others would see it.

  Sam: We need to move to the edge of the room!

  But the situation was so dire and chaotic, I doubted they would even see the message. Clara was pumping arrows two at a time into the tank, but she was slowly getting worked down by the other three in his party. She blinked away out of sight. Mie sheltered behind a column, Flash Healing Matt as best as she could. I saw her take an arrow to the side.

  A couple other latecomers were now targeting the queen, and I prayed for a New Threat proc to get her off Matt. I whipped my head all around, trying to get a sense for the players’ levels. They were all . . . lower than us—not by a significant amount, but on average we were about two levels ahead of everyone in sight.

  I looked back to the queen engaging Matt. Red nameplates were everywhere. Then I saw it. A green spell, drifting its way across the cavern to hover over the queen. The spell did something I hadn’t seen before. It . . . stopped for a split second above the queen. Then shot upward toward the high ceiling, almost as if it wasn’t sure how to implement its arbitrary blow. Oh God, Fred . . . Will this work? There is no way this will work on a boss, right?

  The spell hit the ceiling, and the mountain itself shifted. A sound like thunder rolled over me.

  BOOM!

  Then there were loud stone cracking sounds from every direction. Ohhh man. It worked. I couldn’t believe it. Oh . . . no . . . Just as my Reaper’s Dance completed, I realized what was about to happen. The world itself broke.

  The massive pillars all around me snapped as if spring-loaded. They shot out in all directions at once. One pillar in particular caught my eye. It collided perfectly with another then came sweeping through the room, avoiding everything else against all odds, and slammed into the queen’s big butt, narrowly missing Matt. She rocketed backwards, as if she had just been hit by a bat. I lost vision as a pillar fell in front of me. It was so deafening. I dodged another as pillars started falling in numbers. One crushed a player in front of me, his upper body completely flattened before—

  Darkness took hold of me. Pain was everywhere. My legs, my arms, my entire body was on fire with pain. I reformed on all fours, but I felt . . . smushed. Blood dripped off my lips, and I could barely see. No . . . I was Knocked. I briefly registered that Mie and Clara were also both Knocked according to my party interface, which meant it was just Fred still alive.

  Sam: Go invisible, Fred.

  Fred: I am . . . but I think she can still see me!

  Mie: What did you roll?!

  Fred: Uhh . . . a 9.

  With immense effort, I looked up in the direction of a loud screeching sound that had started piercing the room. At this distance I couldn’t make out much. The boss scuttled about, looking injured and enraged, but her health bar was definitely down by ninety percent. Holy fuck.

  Sam: Fred, do not engage the boss, just keep running! I’m going to try and make it to the corner of the room. Try and shed the queen off of you by bringing it past other players.

  Clara: Ow.

  In terrible pain, and over the next couple minutes, I slowly made my way to the corner of the massive hall. Players were Knocked all over the place, all heading to the outskirts of the room. I was the first one there, then Clara showed up, then Mie . . . then four other Knocked players. Fred’s chats hit the logs every so often, and I prayed he wouldn’t get caught.

  Fred: I think she can still see me!

  Fred: Oh fuck, she can.

  Fred: Okay. I don’t think she can get me under this pillar.

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  Fred: OW! MY PINKIE TOE IS GONE!

  I crossed my fingers that whatever shelter Fred had found would be enough. Now we just needed someone else to proc New Threat to take the boss’s attention. I vaguely wondered if Matt was dead. Probably.

  I squinted toward the boss fight. With the queen being so low, more players were starting to ignore each other and target the boss.

  Something black registered in my vision in front of me. A spider . . . had just crawled onto the back of one of the other Knocked players. It scuttled up to the back of his neck . . . The elf player started gurgling and screaming as the spider began to burrow down and into his neck. Drops of blood and black ink hit my face. His immunity like our own . . . was up. My stomach dropped. Those are the same life-credit-stealing spiders, I realized.

  Sam: FRED, WE NEED YOU, MAN!

  Mie: FRED, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE.

  Another spider showed up . . . then another . . . then another. They all skittered up onto the back of the remaining Knocked players and starting burrowing, just as the first player—now a mob—got to his feet. Jesus Christ. We are so fucked.

  We all started screaming and gurgling as another spider showed up. We were the furthest in the corner, and thankfully the newly created mobs turned and ran toward the center of the room where all the other parties and players were still up. About half had maybe turned on the boss, while the other half still chaotically took shots at other players.

  Fred came into view, the queen chasing him, swerving back and forth like a crazed freak-ass centipede. She was definitely injured with only eight or nine percent remaining. Her butt looked like it had been flattened. Fred went invisible, but still the queen seemed to see him. Maybe some sort of passive ability to see invisible things?

  Another spider showed up. It crawled onto Mie.

  Mie: FREEEEEEED! PLEASE GOD. NO!

  I watched in horror as the spider began its twenty second burrowing process on the back of her neck. I couldn’t do anything AGAIN. Red liquid pumped into my mind. It flooded through every corner of my being. I was so tired of being useless. I was so tired, of barely surviving. My race and Battle Arts were pointless. I couldn’t tank, I didn’t hit big, I couldn’t quite kite. I growled. I tried once again to do anything. But I couldn’t. I checked the debuff on Mie.

  {Recruiting} for 10 seconds

  {Recruiting} for 9 seconds

  A spear took the queen in the face. She turned in that direction . . . indicating New Threat had procced.

  Fred appeared in thin air in front of me, and then he pulled a knife from his belt. I realized . . . that until right this instant, I hadn’t known what his second Battle Art was.

  He slid the knife into the butt of the spider that was halfway into Mie. The debuff fell away . . . and I couldn’t believe it, but he started rezzing Clara.

  I dared not believe, my ragged breath catching.

  Two more spiders showed up. One started digging into Mie again, and one . . . into Fred.

  Sam: Don’t you dare let go of that rez, Fred.

  Mie: I hate this game. I hate my life. I hate EVERYTHING!

  Fred frowned and started making a deep groaning sound when the spider crawled up and started burrowing into him. But to my surprise, he kept his focus on rezzing Clara, which might have been the smartest thing I had ever seen him do.

  A few seconds later, Fred stepped away and started . . . dancing in a panic. Clara popped up, took a couple steps back, then released a single shot with two arrows. The spiders on Fred and Mie went limp and then fell off.

  I gripped my fists tight, anxiety, rage, and disbelief flowing through me. Can we actually survive? Two more spiders scuttled toward us. I heard distant clangs, clatters, and screams which told me the battle was still under way. Clara took those two new spiders out with a single split shot as well. Fred started a rez on Mie, and Clara knelt down next to me.

  I couldn’t believe it. I dared not believe it.

  Then all four of us stood up. Mie Flash Healed everyone until we were all maxed on health, and Clara and I kept the spiders off us. Fred . . . huddled in the corner, feeling at the back of his neck.

  I stepped out in front of everyone, facing the middle of the room. Pillars were still rolling, but most had come to a stop. The boss was taking out players one at a time with ease, and now most, but not all, of the parties were targeting her. “Okay,” I said. “One more shot from Fred kills that thing. Let’s get him close enough to let it rip.”

  Everyone nodded.

  We sprinted back to the center of the hall, taking down or shoving aside any players who tried to intercept Fred and jumping over pillars as we went. I should say most of us jumped them. Mie . . . she just rolled over them like an overweight lady. The queen came into view, and I watched in disgust as it fell headfirst on top of one of those lizard mages.

  When the queen backed away, the player was headless. But he Knocked, and his head reformed back on. The system seemed to pick whatever restoration process made the most sense? I still didn’t know. Two players not targeting the boss crossed our path. I vaulted, swept one, then Ass Cracked the other. We dispatched them in moments.

  “Suck it, noobs,” Mie said softly.

  The queen scurried around with no particular target in mind and spewed black ink out of its flattened butt. It was everywhere, and we were constantly cutting Corruption Vines off each other.

  Finally, we were in range. Fred raised his staff once more, a green spell flew over the boss, and I had a sudden thought. What would happen if he rolled high again? Would the ability understand that it only needed to do sub ten percent of the target’s health . . . or would it—

  BOOM!

  The mountain . . . shifted again.

  “WHAT DID YOU ROLL?” I shouted.

  Fred looked over to me, his eyes wide. “Ten.”

  I started running.

  “Oh god. Oh god. Oh god,” Mie said in fear. The others were all running next to me.

  Cracks went up the pillars in front of us, and all around . . . then once again, they started shooting everywhere as if they were spring-loaded. Fred disappeared from my left. That was normal by now, him going invisible. A pillar shot past. Mie disappeared from my right side. That . . . was less normal.

  Mie: WHY DO I KEEP GETTING CRUSHED BY SHIT! UUUUGH.

  Greg: Get wrecked, Mie.

  An enemy player to my right got completely crumpled like a beer can. Another was running in circles with a spider burrowing into him, another raised a blunderbuss towards Clara and me. A pillar swept overhead that I just managed to duck. It slammed into the blunderbuss dude, then proceeded to roll over a few others.

  Fred: I’m knocked.

  Concrete chipped, pillars fell, spiders were squished, players screamed, and Corruption Vines were everywhere. I stumbled and fell into a pool of black. Ten vines rose up, and all punctured into me, snaring me like I was caught in a spider’s web. Right, that is exactly what this is.

  Clara: I’m knocked . . .

  Yelling, I activated my Vaulting Strike, targeting a random black-eyed player-mob. The vines strained, then started popping until I was free. I hit the ground, rolled under a falling pillar, and jumped onto another rolling toward me. Then another, as they continued to fall like dominoes, until finally they started slowing down.

  Shit, shit, shit. I ran around looking for the others and found Clara first on all fours. I ran up to her and started a rez, watching my logs.

  4/10 Parties Remaining

  The Black Queen has been slain!

  3/10 Parties Remaining

  2/10 Parties Remaining

  We have to kill each other too?! One party was still up. I glanced at my Map, not sure why I hadn’t thought of it until now. This area was under fog of war. Shit.

  Greg: Two red dots in the northwest corner. Mie’s map picked them up.

  That was . . . Greg being intentionally helpful, without any prodding, threats, or . . . anything. That little freak frog is starting to grow on me, I thought. I couldn’t believe we were still alive.

  I got Clara up. She popped a health potion, and we ran to the corner Greg indicated. Mie was on the ground, groaning behind a pillar a few meters away from the enemy players. Clara started rezzing her while I took a peek at the corner players. There were only two: one was tall, and one was short. The tall one looked up . . . he wore a mustache.

  I froze . . .

  No . . .

  It was Loc . . . and Liam.

  The hope that had been growing inside of me died.

  No . . . I thought again. Not this.

  Loc recognized me, and his face went white. He understood. We both did.

  No way. We can’t kill them. I can’t kill them.

  There had to be a way out of this. A way to bend the rules. A way where we both came out alive.

  But before I could do anything, two blazing green arrows flew past me and slammed into both of Loc's eyes, bringing his health down by a massive eighty percent . . . He fell to his knees, head to the sky and fists clenched, screaming in pain.

  I went numb. Their levels were so low. How did they even get here?

  “Wait,” I croaked to Clara.

  Another arrow took Loc in the shoulder, and he Knocked. Liam stood still, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief at the lack of empathy. Two more arrows whizzed by me and took him in the gut.

  “What are you doing?!” I yelled at Clara, grabbing her shoulder.

  She didn’t respond. She fired again. Liam’s eyes were wet . . . and looked dead. Like the remaining hope that there was good in the world had just been squeezed out of him. He sat down and curled into a fetal position, arrows sticking out of him. He had to be in so much pain. His eyes turned from shocked, to full of anger . . . but he didn’t move. Clara fired yet another round, ignoring my grip.

  “STOP!” I bellowed.

  She didn’t stop.

  Liam was in the single digits now. I grabbed Clara by the wrist. She looked at me, startled, her eyes alight with red fire.

  “What are you doing?! STOP! We can find a way to help them!”

  “I want to be clear,” she said, her eyes narrowed in on me, “I play for no one, BUT ME.”

  Then she pulled her arm out of my grip and pulled back on her string. I stepped in front of her bow as she fired, and her arrows punctured deep into my chest.

  “St-stop” I croaked out, blood rushing into my lungs.

  She ignored me, took a side step, and fired at Liam again. He Knocked, and then they both collapsed . . . Their party wiped.

  “NO!” I shouted.

  I was on my knees, my head in my hands. Pain coursed through my body, but it felt so distant. So far away. Why are we in this place? I thought. Why . . . are we here? I couldn’t take the pain of killing good people. And for what?! Tittles?! This Jeff?! GOD DAMN IT. I didn’t understand why, and I was so tired of trying to survive, just to inject the universe with more pain.

  Mie and Fred ran up and stopped behind Clara, confused by what they saw. Mie must have found and rezzed Fred.

  Mie sent me a Flash Heal, and the arrows slipped out of me and clattered to the floor.

  My eyes were wet. “You didn’t have to do that,” I whispered.

  “It was the only way.”

  I said it again louder, “YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO DO THAT! . . . WE COULD HAVE FOUND ANOTHER WAY!”

  “What other way, Sam?!” Clara asked. “The way where we lose?! No. It was the only way.”

  “You don’t know that,” I croaked.

  Mie and Fred were silent. Greg . . . was not.

  Greg: Sam . . . it was you or them. The system locks any other options down. No leaving the raid . . . no party changes . . . etc.

  Sam: Shut up, Greg.

  Mie: Shut the FUCK up, Greg.

  I looked at Clara. Red hot liquid swept through me so strongly that I was afraid I might rupture a blood vessel. I didn’t want to rein myself in. I wanted . . . so badly . . . to let it out. To rage and rage at the world. To rage against this game.

  Clara faced me, her eyes holding mine with stubborn determination. I wanted so badly, to rage against her.

  Mie was staring at me, a look of fear and concern on her face.

  I couldn’t stop it. A memory struck the black barrier. No . . .

  CRACK!

  . . .

  The room was dark, and the curtains were drawn. Dust gathered on the windowsill, and the bed covers enclosed me in darkness. An empty bottle of whiskey lay fallen over on its side on my nightstand. Under the covers . . . it was deep and silent, and all I wanted was that silence.

  “Babe,” Rachel said. “I don’t like this.” Her voice sounded kind . . . but off. Like she had been trying to avoid saying what she was about to say for a long time. “This . . . isn’t normal.”

  “Go away,” I said muffled, my tone dead. She was ruining my perfect place of solitude. She was reminding me of the pain. Of all the people I didn’t save. Of the people I had failed. The face of the mother of the child I’d failed rose up before my eyes. Her screams echoed in my mind. The curtains opened, and I shied away from the light.

  “I think you need to see a doctor,” she said.

  Red liquid poured into me, pressurizing in an instant. I was furious. She doesn’t understand. She doesn’t know what is best for me. My dark bubble of silence was gone, because of her. I got up and flung the covers off of me. I stepped toward her and drew my arm back, ready to strike.

  But I paused.

  Her face . . .

  It caught the light as my eyes adjusted. She had stumbled back with a look of horror at what she saw. At what she saw in me. I lowered my arm in confusion, at what I had been about to do. What am I doing?! No. God, no.

  Feeling rushed back into my mind and body. Pain strode in anew, and now thick with who I was becoming. Tears spilled down my cheeks, and I clutched my chest. “I don’t know who I am,” I choked out. My eyes went to the floor and blurred as tears filled them. I went down to my knees.

  I heard the sounds of her feet coming toward me slowly.

  She is afraid. God damn it. I made her afraid. Fuck.

  A gentle hand touched my shoulder, and I let the tears flow. “You always tell our kids to just keep trying, to just keep moving. I need you to listen to your own advice,” she said. “It’s time to get up. It’s time to keep moving.”

  . . .

  I pushed the memory away hard. I hated that memory. I pushed it back through the crack. That anger . . . was different. I had been drunk and depressed. My wife hadn’t done anything wrong. Even Clara was just trying to survive. She chose the best option we were left. I would have liked to talk things out, but in reality she hadn’t done anything wrong.

  But the creators of this reality . . . had.

  Mie continued to look at me with intense concern.

  I needed to get up. I needed to get up, and just keep moving.

  So with effort, I turned away from Clara, I turned away from everyone and everything, and looked inward.

  More red liquid pumped into my mind, and my fists clenched. The pressure built . . . but I didn’t let it out. I held onto it with a vice grip, stoking it, feeding it.

  When the time was right, I would let it out. I would let it all out.