Stepping out of the store John was once more greeted by the now crowded streets. Pushing his way through the crowd he made his way to the road leading out of town and was once more on his way home. As usual it was a short trip back down the road and his farm was soon in sight. However, as he approached, he realized something was wrong. There was a hole in his wall, a fairly substantial one as well. He slowed and looked at the hole, the ground around it was covered in sand, as if someone had pulverized the stone.

Stepping carefully through the hole John looked around. Everything seemed fine at first, however as he drew nearer to the house he saw movement through its windows. For a moment he wasn’t sure what to do, then, ducking out of the doorway, came a woman as tall as Axia. She was wearing thin leather armor and had a pair of daggers at her hip. She was also extremely good looking, as were the three men who exited the house after her. John could tell from looking at them that they shared a race; they were in the same height range, same perfectly sculpted physique, and had supernaturally good looks.

“Well!” said the woman in an exasperated tone. “It took you long enough!”

“I’m sorry?” John asked, confused as he looked between the four. Two of the men were identical blue-eyed blonds wearing identical leather and cloth outfits, carrying identical rapiers, the other had dark skin and a bald head, he was wearing dark brown robes with a silver trim. The woman had long, bubblegum pink hair and red lacquered nails.

“A good start!” She said cheerily and the dark man rolled his eyes. “Now, you are John, groundskeeper of the Gateway of Worlds, correct?”

John looked at the four of them warily. “Yes, and you are?” He said even as he shifted slightly away from them.

The woman smiled as the bald man waved his hand through the air. There was a pause, and then John heard the cellar door open behind him. Looking over his shoulder he could see two more women exit, one in heavier armor, with a sword on her hip and shield on her back, and the other in flowing white robes. Neither sported outlandish hair colors, being a brunette and a redhead respectively. They also shared the height, perfect form, and good looks of the other four. John looked back to miss bubblegum, his stomach sinking.

“Oh good, we’re all here. I’m Mageslaya, the twins are Da Capo and Coda, don’t ask who is who, because I don’t know. Our mage friend here,” she pointed to the bald man, “is Shinespark, and the two lovely ladies behind you are Zena, our lovely warrior princess, and last but certainly not least, Healz4Pay, or just Healz for short.”

“Now that we’ve all been introduced, hopefully this will go swiftly and smoothly.” Slaya smiled at John. “Now, mister John the famer, we find ourselves in need of your assistance. We,” she gestured at her cohorts, “have been tasked with taking the Gateway of Worlds for our patron.”

John looked at the woman, and then glanced at the rest of her posse. “So, what… you want me to give you the Gateway of Worlds?” he asked finally.

Slaya beamed at him. “Exactly! I’m glad we’re on the same page. All you need to do is transfer your claim to us and we’ll be on our way. Easy as that.”

“Easy as that?” John asked, perplexed.

“Yep! Easy as that,” she said with a smile.

“And what do I get out of this?” John asked.

“Well, to begin with, we won’t burn all your crops and tear down your farm around your ears.” She replied cheerfully.

“So, your plan is to coerce me by force?” he asked incredulously.

“By any means necessary, really,” Slaya said more seriously. “If I thought it’d do any good, I’d invite you to our guild. You’d have to rebuild your character as a Titan of course, but we’d happily help you get a solid set of levels under your belt. That said, from what I hear that’s not an option for you is it?” Her eyes flicked around the farm. “Word is you’re on a bit of a timer out here, and I’d bet we can wait you out. How long, I wonder, will it take you to give up?”

John gave her a sour look, then glanced at the other titans, they had varying expressions of boredom. His gaze returned to the woman with the pink hair. “So, to clarify, you’re going to grief me until I give you what you want?”

“That’s about the long and short of it. Unless you’ve got some other deal you’d like to propose?” She asked.

“I mean, unless you’re going to offer me a lot of money the answer is going to be no,” he replied.

Slaya paused and seemed to consider. “How much are we talking, I could maybe swing a couple hundred.”

John snorted. “This is a one of a kind, unique, never before seen tree. I’d be hesitant to part with it for several thousand.”

“Tree? What tree? We’re talking about the shrine,” the woman said, beginning to sound annoyed.

“The shrine is there because the tree is there,” John informed her. “The Gateway of Worlds only exists because it’s built around a unique tree.”

Slaya squinted at him then glanced in the direction of the shrine. “Seriously? Well, I guess it doesn’t change much. We still need the shrine, and we definitely can’t swing several thousand. Which I guess puts us back at square one, sorry.” She said in an almost apologetic fashion.

“Then it appears we’re at an impasse, because I’m not giving up the shrine,” John stated firmly.

She shrugged. “Then we’ll just have to get you to change your mind. Alright folks! Plan B it is!” she said, clearly to her compatriots.

A wand appeared in Shine’s hand and both the blonds drew their rapiers, similarly John could hear the sound of a sword leaving its sheath behind him. He glanced back, to see Zena slowly advancing, then sucked in a sudden gasp of air as two lines of fire cut their way across his side and arm. He looked back in time to see the twins retracting from a lunge. Looking down he could see they’d scored two long gashes on him, and even managed to cut the puncture resistant tunic.

John scowled, the pain wasn’t that bad, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it should, but it was still enough to be distracting. He wanted to back up, but the woman with the sword was behind him. The twins smirked at him, Slaya shrugged at him, and Shine was slowly turning his house to sand. Taking a deep breath John ignored the pain and started to aspect his mana toward fire. He wasn’t going to go down without a fight, even if he knew he was going to go down in the end.

He watched the twins for a moment, and then twisted to see Zena once more, and then he gestured with his hand, releasing his first spell of the fight. Flame blossomed from him, radiating like a small nova. John felt a small moment of satisfaction as he heard the blond men yelp in pain. They had obviously been coming in for another lunge, as he’d expected them to. The armored woman came to a halt and backed up slightly.

John looked at the twins, they were scowling and one seemed to have a burned hand. Slaya looked mildly interested. Still radiating fire, John did a full turn and examined his target. In an enemy group you always singled out one person first, the healer. Fortunately this group had color coordinated, and named, theirs. Healz had already brought up her hands, and John could see the mana coalescing in front of her, forming some sort of shield. That was fine, he wasn’t going to shoot anything at her. He made another gesture, channeling some of his pure mana, and the earth below her exploded as nearly a ton rose up and smote her. There was some strain from maintaining his flame shield and casting another spell at the same time, but he’d endured worse before.

The brunette swore and stepped in towards John, who brought up one hand and used Control Flame to grab the corona around him and flare it outward. Her shield came up and glowed faintly blue as the fire was drawn to it like a magnet. The flame splashed against the surface and seemed to dissipate. John frowned, then inhaled suddenly as two lines of pain etched themselves across his back. He turned quickly to see the twins, both faintly outlined in red as they drew back. The two were also chanting in low, rhythmic tones and the glow around them pulsed in time to whatever they were singing. Obviously, they had used something that would protect them from fire. But that was fine, he had three other elements to choose from.

As he began to raise his hand to cast another spell something ran into the back of his knee, and then his head, forcing him to the ground. John dropped the fire spell and rolled over to see Zena standing above him, her sword falling swiftly. With a thought and a gesture he brought up a slab of earth to interpose the strike, he then kept it going and pushed it up against her, forcing the woman to step back. Two more painful strikes came from the twins as he was dealing with the brunette.

For the first time since the fight started, Slaya moved. She was fast, fast enough John couldn’t see much but a blur as she moved forward and stabbed both her daggers at his belly. They barely penetrated but the pain was on a whole different level. He gasped and brought a hand up, calling on Move Earth once more. Nothing happened.

“Sorry John, but I think we’re done with the magical portion of this event,” she said as she stood, ripping the blades out of his abdomen, then backing off almost as fast as she’d pounced. “See you after respawn, yeah?”

“What-” John began but was interrupted as Zena swung her sword downward once more. Swiftly he brought up his arm to block. There was a meaty thwack and a reverberation he felt through his whole arm as the sword bounced off bone. Zena grunted.

“What the hell are you made of? Did you drop all your points in constitution?” The woman complained even as she drew back her arm for another swing. John wasn’t sure what to do, he couldn’t feel his mana anymore and he wasn’t carrying any weapons. The sword came down and John rolled, to his right, doing his best to get out of the way and up off the ground. Unfortunately, his lack of dexterity was making itself known, and his injured arm wasn’t responding right. Rather than springing to his feet he made it to his hands and knees.

A pointed metal boot buried itself in his gut as Zena did her best imitation of a kick off. John oofed as the air was forcefully expelled from his lungs and he was thrown to the ground once more. He could hear the twins raising their voices once more, this time in a wordless song. He could see the mana swirling around him, pulsing to the rhythm of their song. He felt it as the mana pressed down on him, slowing him further and trying to secure him to the ground. He pushed against it, and made some headway, forcing himself up to a siting position, only to receive another boot, to the face this time.

It was a testament to his constitution that the full force kick didn’t break anything; however, he could feel teeth loosen in their sockets and blood poured from his nose. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that state of affairs didn’t last long. John’s eyes came into focus just in time to see the sword descending toward his neck. He tried to get another arm up and twist out of the way, but the mana holding him down made the actions too slow and too late. The blade parted the skin of his neck in a spray of blood, though it stopped short of his spine. Zena retracted the blade and stepped away, leaving him to bleed out.

John clutched futilely at his neck as the blood pumped itself out. He gasped for breath that would do him no good, and the struggled to sit or move. Unfortunately none of these actions had a beneficial effect, and darkness swiftly encroached until finally his vision went dark and a few lines of text flashed before his eyes.

[You Have Died.]

[You have dropped 3 gold, 5 silvers, 25 coppers.]

[You have dropped your Belt Knife.]

[You have dropped your Battered Amulet.]

[You have dropped 2 Tiny Poor Raw Mana Stones.]