“... so then he says that it’s not his place to talk about, like it’s above him somehow, despite him being on the board. What’s so important that he wouldn’t have permission to talk about it? I'm under the biggest non disclosure agreement there could be, so what wouldn’t he be willing to talk about?”

Hermes burbled in response, both uncaring and unable to properly understand.

Jicker sat back and sighed, looking around him as they travelled onwards. The woods were thick as Hermes forced his way through, his bulk proving surprising adept at twisting between the trees. Being able to ignore the sticking effects of the sap thanks to the Goldcrowns aura, the crab pushed rapidly through the foliage, not caring about touching what would otherwise be potentially deadly. The light vanished quickly as the canopy above became too dense for the sun to pierce through, leaving them to travel through murky darkness. This wasn’t a real issue however, since gremlins had excellent night vision, and Hermes barely needed to see anything to know where he was going.

It was quiet as they moved through the trees, no bird song, no animals, not even wind moving the leaves. The only sound was the ground giving out under Hermes’ weight, the forest floor covered in a thin layer of rotting vegetation from before the Blightwoods taking over. After the first hour, Jicker had found the silence uncomfortable, and had begun using his mount as a sounding board. But even that became awkward after a while, leaving him to sit in silence, alone with his thoughts.

As evening fell and the few traces of sunlight faded away, it became apparent that they were going to need to find a spot to stop for the evening. While Hermes could travel for days without rest, the last thing he wanted was for the crab to take him all the way to the Nemesis while he wasn’t even awake.

Searching for a clearing large enough that Hermes could sit down comfortably for the night, Jicker was caught off guard when he heard a laugh come from not too far off in the woods. Not a haunting child’s laughter that one might expect to hear in the deserted woods at night, but a hearty laugh of someone who was almost definitely alive. Tapping the crab’s shell, Hermes got the message and the two slowed, quietly approaching, fire light making it out from between the plants as they did so. Dismounting, he quietly walked in on foot, not wanting to startle anyone by bringing in a giant armoured crab.

As he broke the tree line, he was greeted with a brightly lit campfire that blinded him momentarily, having gotten used to the darkness. The talking he’d heard on approach stopped immediately, weapons being drawn as he blinked his eyes clear.

“Dammit Greg, you’re supposed to be on watch, a damn mob just walked right into camp, the hell are you doing?” One of the men shouted in a gruff voice.

“My best dammit! I don't see anyone else standing out here looking!” A reply came from the opposite direction. “Did it drop anything interesting?”

“Just getting to that part.” Turning the person faced Jicker holding a sword out stretched. “Now, c’mere you, it’s too late to chase you down through these woods so let’s make this nice and easy...”

Jicker quickly held up his hands. “Easy! I'm a player, just wondering if I can share your campsite, no need for violence!”

The campers paused but no weapons were lowered. “A player huh, weird lookin’... you alone?”

Jicker let out a sigh of relief, lowering his hands. “Yeah, just me. I was trying to get through the woods but its taking a bit longer than planned so I was-“

The man laughed, several others chuckling as well. “Let me rephrase that.” He began, giving his sword a few practice swings as he slowly stepped closer. “You’re out here, alone, in an area where people die suddenly all the time? Where people get kidnapped and murdered by the many bandits hiding out in these woods since the guards aren’t going anywhere near them? And with all that in mind, you just walk up to the first campfire you see?” He laughed again. “You might be a player, but you’re sure not smart.”

“...ah.” Processing the man’s words, he stumbled back, narrowly avoiding their sword as it swung down. Quickly turning he ran back into the vegetation, only to feel a burning pain in his back as he did so.

Sneak attack! You have taken 357 damage.

You have resisted the poison!

Staggering forwards, he turned his head to find a barbed arrowhead protruding from his shoulder, having pierced all the way through. Gritting his teeth he pushed on, diving further into the darkness, zigzagging as he ran in hopes to avoid any other arrows.

“Look at the little guy!” A woman from the group called out mirthfully. “John, you want to go catch him?”

“Nah, it’s cold and dark out there and besides, he’ll probably die from the poison anyway. We can have a look for the body later, so someone leave a marker of which way ran...”

The voices faded away as he kept running not trusting the idea that they’d actually let him go. He was so concerned with what lay behind him that he almost ran face first into another figure that was standing silently in the dark. Grabbing his shoulder that sill throbbed; he looked at the person in front of him and actually felt relieved when he saw they were a monster.

They’d been human once, but a person generally had more of a throat if they were still alive. Looking around he saw the entire clearing was filled with similar figures, undead people and animals all with horrific and fungal growths covering their bodies. In the centre of the group were several dozen Greycaps, climbing over and investigating Hermes, who for their part didn’t seem to care much and took care not to accidently squash the little figures.

“Having fun are we?” He said, surprising them and sending one tumbling down from the top of the crabs shell. Hermes was quick to help though, and snagged the poor mushroom before it hit the ground, getting a small cheer from the others. Putting it down, the crab turned to its master and made distressed noises when it noticed his injury.

“This?” Jicker said pointing at the arrow. “I’ll be fine once I take some healing pills, just needed to find somewhere safe to pull it out first.”

Numbing the area as best he could with anaesthetic, he drew his scalpel and slowly began cutting through the back of the arrow, struggling to get purchase thanks to the angle. Eventually it broke away, leaving him to grit his teeth at the next part. Taking a deep breath he grabbed the arrow just behind the head and tried to pull it out.

Strength check failed!

You have taken 53 damage for failing to remove the Arrow of Anchoring.

“God dammit that hurts!” He swore as he was hit with a new wave of pain, the arrow refusing to budge under his efforts.

The arrow they’d hit him was apparently enchanted, normally used for attaching ropes for climbing, but there were always those who turned tools to weapons. Until it was removed he wouldn’t be able to heal the injury, and if he hadn’t resisted the poison, he’d be left crippled from that too.

“I hate bandits, but at least I didn’t get kidnapped again.” He grumbled as he swallowed a pill to remove the new damage. “Hermes, come over here and...” Pausing as the crab stood, he looked at its heavy snapping claws, each larger than his whole body. “...You know what, I'm not strong, but I'm not an idiot either, sit back down.”

Jicker sat down himself, carefully leaning against a rock to keep pressure off his injury while he thought. He could head back to Macross and find someone in the guild to deal with it, but travelling back to have what was basically a big splinter removed would be more than a little embarrassing. These thoughts were quickly interrupted by further jolts of pain as he felt something tugging on the arrow, making him gasp in shock. Turning gingerly, he saw that one of the Greycaps had come up and had tried to pull the arrow free, but achieved little more than wiggling around a little, causing yet more damage.

“Thanks for trying,” he said through gritted teeth. “But it’s stuck in pretty good and you’re not strong enough to pull it out. So please, stop touching it.”

The Greycap tilted its head to the side in thought before hopping away and trilling softly, calling out to several others. They whistled to each other, discussing something as Jicker watched on bemused, before they started piling around him and all tried to grab the arrow together before he quickly intervened.

“Stop, wait a second!” he shouted as he waved them off with his good arm. “I get that you want to help, but even together you’re not strong enough.”

The greycaps moved back and seemed to go back to the drawing board for a minute, until one paused, raised a hand and gave a questioning burble. The others went silent before burying their faces in their hands and laughing. The one who’d raised the question whistled loudly, and turned to face out into the trees. A moment passed before heavy footprints could be heard stomping through the woods, revealing a true monster.

“How did you little guys manage this?” Jicker asked, honestly impressed. Standing before them was a giant that had fallen victim to the greycaps spores. It still wore heavy black armour, the few gaps it had now filled with the Blightwood fungus, leaving it completely sealed everywhere but its eyes, which stared out, grey and lifeless. In one hand it held the remains of an enormous sword, the blade snapped just above the hilt, while the other reached for Jicker before he could react. Without so much as a warning, the undead giant pinched the head of the arrow between two fingers and tore it free, a gout of blood following it for a few moments. For the next minute, all the gremlin could do was sit there and try to breathe while choking down more healing concoctions.

“Ow,” He said emotionlessly once he had it under control. “But thanks. Which of you managed to get control of this guy?”

The little Greycap that had whistled for the giant jumped up and down, waving its stubby arms in the air happily. It called out again and the giant reached down once more, this time picking the little figure up and gently placing it on its shoulder, where it struck a proud pose.

“That’s...how did you actually manage this? No offense, but you guys aren’t really up to fighting someone like this.”

Dropping their stance, they seemed embarrassed as they had the giant turn around, lesser undead scattering out of the way of the armoured hulk. Covering most of its back were huge tears where something claws had ripped into the armour as if it had been made of paper. Whatever had attacked it wasn’t just a dumb beast though, because once it had gotten through the metal, there was only a single injury of note. An almost perfect circle over a foot wide had been bored into its back, tearing out its heart while leaving everything else almost untouched. If the Giant wasn’t completely dead, it would still have every other organ working just fine.

“Or as fine as they could be without a heart.” Jicker said to himself as he finished his train of thought. “You guys didn’t kill it, you what, found them right before they kicked off?”

They nodded sadly.

“Don’t be upset, there’s nothing wrong with scavenging, I've done it myself. But where did you find them, I don’t really want to run into whatever did this.”

The giant, along with all the Greycaps, turned and pointed into the darkness, causing Hermes to burble in alarm.

“We’re travelling that way, are we Hermes? Great, this is exactly how I wanted today to go. I don't suppose you guys and your big new friend are heading that way too?”

Heads shook, and they pointed the other direction, but as they did the arrow still stuck in the giant’s hand caught his eye.

“Well, if you’re not up to travelling along with me, I don't suppose you feel like visiting a few other people tonight? If it’s not far out of your way, maybe show them a little of the care they showed me?” he asked, gesturing to his shoulder.

Greycaps mislead many people with their appearance, and if people didn’t know about them beforehand, they’d surely think they were innocent. They were tiny, soft and spent most of their time playing around, giggling like curious children. But one look at them while their expressions twisted into evil smiles and it was clear they were killers.

“That’s a yes then? Well before you go then, I've got a few toys and other bits and pieces you can use if you feel like it, now where’s my bag...”

~~~~~~

John yawned as he stared at the fire, idly wondering why a flame in the game made him sleepy like a real one, but not one on a video. They’d been camped out in this section of the Blightwoods for a little over a week now, picking off people trying to get through on their way to Macross, but now that the games were in full swing their targets had dropped off.

Scratching his chin, he wondered if they should call it, move on and find another place to stake out. They only got two people yesterday, and the only player they’d even seen today had been the weird green one that had walked straight into their camp on their own. Yawning again, he rubbed his eyes, smiling as he remembered the fool’s face when they’d finally worked out what was happening. He sometimes made fun of Mitch using such expensive items on every target, but he couldn’t deny their effectiveness. As he stood up to go and see if the body was lying just behind the tree line, he wobbled, and wondered if he should log off, since he really shouldn’t be this tired.

But when he blearily looked over to where their victim had escaped through, he woke up with a shot of adrenaline as he spotted a small glass bottle with thin blue vapour pouring out from it.

“Wake up you bastards!” He screamed at the rest of the camp who were lying around him, struggling to remember when exactly everyone else had fallen asleep. Slapping his cheeks to try and shake it off, he kicked a sleeper and drew his blade, getting ready. “We’re under attack! Sleeping gas or something, get the hell up now! Greg, how the hell have you missed things twice tonight, get in here and secure the area!”

While he couldn’t see any actual threats yet, John was glad to see Greg’s hooded form step out from the darkness. The man might have made for a terrible watchman, but he was a hell of an assassin, and his skills tended to even the odds when they struck at groups that outnumbered them.

“You actually manage to spot anything out there, or were you just asleep up a tree again?” John asked, eyeing the surrounding area, trusting his back to his team mate. “See if you can get anyone else up, a quick slap ought to do it, and yeah I’ll take the heat if Molly complains.”

Scanning the area he tried to focus, and began to move to kick away the bottle that was still leaking, but was stopped when a hand fell on his shoulder. Turning he found Greg standing behind him, his hood still drawn low.

“Greg, you need to get your shit together, now what-”

Whatever else he’d wanted to say died in his throat as Greg threw back his hood, revealing a Greycap squatting atop the torn stump of the man’s neck. The monster’s face was set in a wide grin, its purple light quickly joined by a dozen more that lit up in the darkness, revealing them to be surrounded.

“You little shit’s! You’re gonna pay for this!”

As he brought his sword back to begin his swing, he was thrown to the side as something sped from the darkness, crashing into him. Rolling back to his feet, he looked to what had attacked him, to find Greg’s severed head, now partially crushed from the force of the impact.

“What the hell is going on?!” he screamed in a panic.

Moving back, he turned to face where the head had come from, only to see a black clad giant breach the canopy, and step towards him, a broken sword raised in one hand, and the shaft of an arrow in the other.

~~~~~~

When Jicker finally broke through to the other side of the Blightwoods it was just approaching midday, the warm sun relaxing after hours of dark and dreary shade. Stretching, he crawled out from Hermes’ shell and looked around at the Highlands, seeing how they’d fared since the last time he was here.

It had been a wide open area, filled with hills that had been covered with long abandoned farms. While the farmers only existed in history books, their fields still covered the area in golden wheat, the stepped terraces broken by the occasional plateau of white marble jutting from the ground. It was these plateaus that gave the area its name, since the higher areas of land were claimed by various territorial beasts. The taller and wider the area, the stronger the monster it held, making the area both dangerous to the unprepared, and easy to navigate for those who were.

While he hadn’t spent too much thought into an area that had been abandoned by its very design, he hadn’t let it off easy with the forces involved. A rain of hell fire had been deployed in the area, the blistering heat burning away the crops, blackening the marble and turning the very soil to crude black glass.

But even that hadn’t been enough to break it down it seemed, with rain and wind slowly scouring the marble white again, and verdant green shoots breaking the ground all over the place. Climbing down, Jicker picked up a piece of the ground that had broken under Hermes’ weight, feeling oddly happy that his work would be almost unnoticeable within a few more months.

“Now Hermes, you’ve got a good sense of direction, where can we find the Nemesis?” he asked the giant crab that had started chewing some shoots it had dug out.

Turning about, Hermes smacked the ground a few times before looking at him hopefully while continuing to eat.

“Here... Right they’re supposed to be somewhere around here and you don't know any better than I do. I don't know why I thought you’d know, but hope springs eternal I guess.” He said with a sigh. “Well, grab yourself a clawful if you want, you can eat while we look around.”

With the Games on, it wasn’t really a surprise that an area this close to Macross was largely deserted of players. With wide sunny pathways and all the monsters of note up on the plateaus, travelling was actually peaceful for once. Hermes had no problems clambering up the terraces, even travelling vertically sometime as his legs dug deep into the earth beneath. It had left Jicker to grab on to his mount desperately the first time it had happened, but with a scolded crab and piece of rope to function as a seatbelt, the rest of the trip went smoothly.

“Is there anyone else?!” A voice cried out, catching their attention.

Hermes paused, turning around and preparing to head towards the sound, just waiting for the command.

“Are you... making fun of me?” Jicker asked incredulously. “I got shot just yesterday for going towards random voices, and now you expect me to do it again anyway?”

Hermes waited patiently.

“Look we’re out here looking for a monster, not a person, and there’s a lot of area to cover, so we can’t just suddenly go off to see other people. Especially when we don't know who they are, or what they want. It could even be a monster for all we know... Yes, I know what I said, stop looking at me like that.” He sighed. “You know what, fine! Just know that if it turns out to be a monster that eats me, It’ll eat you too, and you’ll deserve it. Okay, go on then.”

The crab burbled happily, and headed towards the voice.

~~~~~~

“Anyone else? We’re on a deadline, but if you can hear me give a shout and we’ll wait!”

The voice, a woman’s now that they had gotten close enough to hear it properly, had been shouting out for the last few minutes as they approached. She had impressed him with just how loud she could be, but some comments had also given him a few doubts as to her state of mind.”

“Looking for people who are happy to die! Slowly is better, but everyone is welcome!”

“Accepting anyone who can be stabbed, burned, broken or crushed, the more vulnerable the better!”

“Short term offer, be quick and dead, or slow and boring!”

When they rounded the final bend, Jicker was surprised to see a large group of players milling about, surrounding a cat-folk woman with a paper megaphone, standing atop a large bison.

“Last call, everyone’s welcome with almost no chance of reward, come throw yourselves to your deaths!” she called out, her voice thundering around them.

As the last echoes faded away, her ears twitched as she listened out for any replies before shrugging and throwing the megaphone away. Hopping down, she beckoned everyone to come closer.

“Can everyone hear me? What am I saying, of course you can! Now I'm sure a lot of you have questions, so does anyone know what I've been calling you all for?” she asked.

“...Suicide?” someone asked jokingly, getting a few chuckles.

She scrunched up her face. “If you thought that and came here anyway, strongly consider getting help. But I get that I might have caused some confusion, so let’s take it from the top. I’m Anna, leader of the Screaming Tigers guild, and a few hours ago one of our scouts spotted the Nemesis not too far away.”

Like a dam bursting, everyone began talking at once, with almost a quarter of the crowd beginning to leave immediately. For his part, Jicker suddenly found himself incredibly interested in what Anna had to say.

“Hey!” she shouted, drowning everyone else out. “I'm a Sonic Speaker, so you are going to hear what I have to say! Now then, as you all guessed, yes our guild is going to make a run at them, and yes we’re looking to get as many people as we can. If you got this spot under your own power, you’ve got all the skills we’re looking for. This is the Nemesis, so I'm not gonna bother lying and saying we have a genius plan, because those don't work against it.

What I can say is we have a number of high levelled players with a wide range of damage types, so we should be able to beat it, assuming we live long enough. That’s where everyone else comes in, myself included. Every person fighting it is another time it’ll have to switch things up, exposing different weaknesses for other people to hit while it kills that person. I know it’s not a great plan but drowning the enemy in bodies works depressingly well on most things, so we’re trying it here as well. If we fail we’ll all die, so plan for that, but if we win, the survivors will get some impressive loot to split with everyone, and we’ll all get to say we took down the Nemesis.

So, who’s in?”

“...When do we attack?”

~~~~~~

The Nemesis, a beast feared by more players than almost any other, stood alone on an outcropping of stone, seeming to survey its domain. Twelve feet tall, it was a greyish humanoid, yet...off. Its arms were too long, its legs bending too far, its shoulders too narrow. It was as if someone had taken a child's drawing and given it form. It turned at their approaching party, not out of concern or to threaten them, but just to notice a change in the landscape.

Someone had asked what the plan was if it had stayed up on the plateau it had claimed, but it had turned into a non issue. The Nemesis was a lot of things, almost everything in fact, but a coward wasn’t one of them, and there had never been a case where it had done anything but fight to the death when attacked.

Now that it faced them, Jicker could get a look at its features, or more accurately, the lack of them. Where there should have been a face, there was just sagging leathery skin, the same as the kind that covered it’s whole body. It gave the appearance of being half melted, like a wax figure left out in the sun too long.

‘Is it already fighting someone? Why does it look like that?” Someone asked quietly.

Anna shook her head before whispering back. “First time seeing it? This is what it looks like when it's left alone, its ‘default’, I guess. Now come on, everybody start spreading out, we need to surround it to have a chance.”

Slowly they began to fan out, all being sure to keep their distance, not wanting to end being the first to draw its ire. Jicker stood out on the field, one of the only people to have brought a mount out, and certainly the largest on the field. Other players were torn between trying to hide behind it, or keeping far away from the giant target. Eventually everyone found a position, bunkers were rapidly dug and walls erected, all while the creature watched on impassively.

“So when do we start?” A man asked while shouldering a glowing hammer.

“We’re getting ready to launch the first strike soon, so that’ll be when we begin.” Anna answered with a shrug.

‘Soon’ became a minute, then five, and before long half an hour had passed. People sat around, being constantly ready to go fraying people’s nerves, and being almost as exhausting as the battle itself would be.

“Are you ready yet? This is killing me!” A woman called out, voice filled with nerves.

“This was a spur of the moment attack, we’re doing what we can but it’ll be ready when it’s ready.” Anna answered unhelpfully.

Another five minutes passed before someone finally snapped. An elf in a white robe leapt to his feet and using his staff drew a large runic circle on the ground before standing inside and began channelling magic.

“What the hell are you doing you idiot” Anna shouted, running over to try and stop him.

“You wanted an opening attack,” The wizard said scornfully. “Well here it is!”

Before she could stop him, the circle lit up with a blinding light illuminating the area before it was sucked away into the staff he carried. A moment later it was released as a ray of brilliant energy, lancing up to the Nemesis who remained motionless.

Right before the ray struck the creature’s body seemed to ripple, a change passing over it faster than even the oncoming attack. The grey leathery skin that hung loosely was replaced with a clear, glass-like substance, converting even its bones and organs until it became a being of pure crystal, its hands now tipped with jagged claws.

As the beam struck, the creature didn’t try to block or dodge, instead it just remained still, as the beam passed through like light through a window. As the attack went off into the distance behind it, the crystalline monster leaned forwards and dropped off the edge it perched on, quickly kicking off the wall and launching at the shocked Light mage.

The claws it had grown passed as effortlessly through the man’s robes as the beam had gone through its form. Tossing aside the now dying mage, it took in the sight of the now panicking group around it, who were just now readying their own attacks, and screamed a single clear note, before charging forwards.