“Who-?”

Amy just shook her head, grinning, and motioned toward a small hole at the back of the eye socket. Alpha hesitated, but the elf seemed innocuous enough, and she had kept Alpha from falling. Plus, Alpha really didn’t like R3dLit3 and his buddies, and she had no responsibility to them except to bring their items back to them if they died. Finally, Alpha shrugged and moved forward, crouching next to the slim elf, who shot her a conspiratorial wink before turning to look down on the action.

The team below had already engaged with the first wave of the Lich’s forces. Ten skeletons and six ghouls were attempting to surround the boys. Above their heads, tags blazed the bright red of aggressive mobs. So far, UmberHulk6 was holding them off easily, using his shield skills to shatter the ground into walls that slowly crumbled before the damage being piled against them. From behind the walls, Charleston Chew and R3dLit3 threw spells and shot exploding arrows. I’ll Kill You All was nowhere to be seen, so Alpha assumed he had already gone into [Stealth], and was sneaking around somewhere.

::No, damn it, don’t try to kill him,:: R3dLit3 snapped, still in party chat. ::I don’t care if you can one-shot him! We need that dagger, and your job is to steal it. Once you have it, you can do whatever you want!::

UmberHulk6 roared a taunt, and all of the monsters turned to look at him. He flung up his arms, still howling, and a wall of force exploded out from his body. The skeletons were blown into their disparate bones, and R3dLit3 easily popped their skulls with arrows as they flew through the air, preventing them from reforming. Charleston Chew hit the staggered ghouls with a [Fire Wall], and they burst into virulent green and yellow flames.

::I told you to just hold them off, Hulk! Now we’re going to have to deal with the second wave, and it’s way more difficult. Those nasty bursters make me wanna puke.:: R3dLit3 glared at UmberHulk6, who shrugged unrepentantly as the gold shimmer of a level up surrounded him.

With the skeletons and ghouls down, the Lich, who was standing on a mound of bones in the bulging back end of the skull-chamber, waved his desiccated arms and chanted a series of unintelligible words. Behind the robed skeleton, a flicker resolved into the form of I’ll Kill You All, who froze with his hand halfway into the gaping front of the Lich’s robe.

Alpha couldn’t suppress a snicker at the ridiculous image, and glanced over as the strange woman snorted a laugh. They exchanged a grin, and turned back to the battle.

Understandably, the Lich wasn’t particularly pleased to find someone else’s hand stuffed into his shirt, and he swung his arm, backhanding the assassin away. I’ll Kill You All flew through the air, crashing into the inner side of the huge skull’s nasal cavity. He grunted in pain, and his life bar on the party sheet in Alpha’s interface flickered down to just over half.

“Ohh,” she muttered. “That was rough. He must have focused on strength and agility, because his endurance sucks.”

Amy nodded, sounding oddly complacent. “Not quite a glass cannon, but not far off. He depends on being able to dodge, and he can’t do that when he gets caught red-handed. Lich’s passive [Perception] is really high, so it’s next to impossible to steal from him.”

Alpha arched a heavy brow. That sounded like experience talking, but as far as she knew, hardly anyone bothered with Lich, especially if he managed to summon his third round of defenders. “You do this often?” she murmured.

The elf blinked, and Alpha clarified. “Hang out up here and watch other people die.”

Chuckling, the other woman shook her head. “You’d be surprised, but no. I’m… particularly interested in Lich. I heard a rumor that he has something I’ve been looking for.”

Alpha stiffened, even as a small horde of zombies shambled, crawled, ran, and stumbled into the gaping mouth of the skull. They had risen from the graves lining the walls of the outer cavern, and would have overrun Alpha if she had still been watching from below.

“You need something he drops?”

She really didn’t want to deal with a kill stealer or grave robber right now. Kill stealers swooped in when a party had almost finished off a mob or boss, and took the final blow, which automatically made some of the items the monster dropped go to them, even if they hadn’t contributed anything else. Grave robbers were even worse. They waited for the original attackers to die, or killed them off themselves, and then took everything. If Amy was a grave robber, Alpha would probably need to let the guys know, if only in self-defense. After all, if Amy did want their items, she would have to kill Alpha too, eventually.

Amy leaned back, waving her hands as if she could see Alpha’s suspicions and wanted no part of them. “Oh, don’t worry. This item can only be stolen, not dropped. That’s why your friends are keeping the adds occupied. They’re hoping Killer there can steal from Lich.” She chewed on her full lower lip. “I don’t know how they found out that he has it, or how to get it, but it was bad timing. This would have been a lot easier without them. Though watching them try to not kill Lich is pretty funny.”

::-ing birds!:: R3dLit3’s voice intruded into their conversation, and Alpha turned to look down again. The team was definitely looking the worse for wear, now, though JumperMan was keeping their health fairly well topped up with potions. Still, Alpha could see that their stamina and mana had dropped considerably, and potions to replenish those were not only much harder to make, but had a cool-down period that prevented you from drinking more than one at a time.

R3dLit3 had popped a Pie Zombie a little too close to himself, and now he was surrounded by Vampire Finches. The drab little birds darted around, landing on anyone who wasn’t watching, and pecked them, inducing a Bleed effect. Though the original damage was miniscule, the cumulative effect of several Bleed debuffs could quickly drain even a high-level player, if they hadn’t invested a lot of points in endurance.

Charleston Chew finished off the Pie Zombie he was fighting and looked at his party leader. With a gesture, a cloud of fire engulfed R3dLit3. The ranger staggered, and his skin blistered, but the birds dropped like wasps wandering into a cloud of pesticide. Several birds screeched and flew off erratically. Alpha jerked away from the opening as one small, slightly crispy avian somehow managed to fly straight through the head-sized hole and into the space where Amy and Alpha crouched.

Alpha jerked back, swatting ineffectually at the bird. Since it was an aggregate creature, if it was damaged, any surviving members of its flock would also be aggroed, so Alpha couldn’t afford to actually damage the injured animal, but she didn’t want it to land on her, either.

With a fluid motion, Amy’s hand darted out, and she neatly grasped the bird’s back. Her fingers rested on each side of the creature’s wings, and it struggled weakly. Its tiny, pointed beak jabbed ineffectually at the air, and Amy stroked its head in an affectionate gesture, her expression oddly calculating.

From below, a triumphant shout rose up, followed by a strangled yell. Alpha looked from Amy to her new little pet, and scurried around back to the small gap in the bone. She glanced at the party list, and saw that all five boy’s health bars were at 25% or lower. JumperMan’s bar showed he had barely any hit points remaining, and even as she watched, the last bit of color drained away.

Party member JumperMan has died. He must be resurrected within one minute, or he will be sent to respawn.

A small timer began flickering beside his name, but Alpha ignored it in favor of leaning over to peer down below. After all, even if she had a resurrection potion, using one drew more aggro than doing almost anything else, and she was just a mule.

The Lich was enraged. Alpha had been part of a Lich raid twice before, and she’d never seen him go berserk so soon. Usually, he was completely calm until all three waves of adds had been defeated, and he would only start directly attacking after his own health was halfway down.

Now, however, the bony boss was flinging spell after spell at I’ll Kill You All, while the assassin dodged for all he was worth. Without a healer, UmberHulk6’s health was being slowly whittled down, and Charleston Chew looked like he was ready to break and run. A Pie Zombie exploded into a gloopy mess, the birds inside flying out to join the thick mass already swooping and diving at the boys.

Alpha saw the moment the mage snapped. Several of the disgusting little birds were perched on him, pecking at his flesh, and he simply shrieked, as wave after wave of flames burst from his body, crisping R3dLit3 as much as his avian attackers.

::Charlie, man, get it together! You rotten-:: R3dLit3 broke off as the mage took two stumbling steps toward the exit before his legs gave out beneath him. The stacked Bleed debuffs had taken their toll, and the mage was as dead as the alchemist. As happened so often, once a few members of the party were down, the others didn’t have a chance. UmberHulk6 went down with a grunt, and R3dLit3 began swearing viciously. He jumped onto UmberHulk6’s corpse, then leaped to Charleston Chew’s. He deliberately kicked them in their faces as he shot bird after bird from the air.

Finally, however, he, too, succumbed to his wounds. His skin was streaked with blood as he tumbled over onto his side, and fifty birds flocked to land on him. ::Damn it, Killer! Get the knife to the damned mule, then pull them off. At least this thing won’t be a total loss. Just take it to the fu-:: R3dLit3’s mental voice broke off as his name turned gray in the party list.

I’ll Kill You All performed a twist in mid air, vaulting from the Lich’s abandoned pile of bones. He practically flew as several dark, twisting spells burned through the air around him. Alpha lost sight of him for a moment, as he somehow managed to grasp something on the inner surface of the skull below her. She heard scraping and scratching noises, and then a black-gloved hand thrust through the gap, almost poking her in the eye with a long poignard. The fingers released the weapon, and it clattered and scraped down to the bottom of the eye socket. A wet crunch came from the other side of the bony wall, and I’ll Kill You All’s name joined the others in gray solidarity.

Alpha reached for the blade, but another hand snatched it up before she could. She looked up, eyes widening as she saw Amy clutching the weapon, which was a simple silver blade with a strangely gleaming tip. Amy turned her wrist, and something red sloshed inside the tip of the blade. Alpha found her gaze locked on that glinting, liquid movement, even as she pulled the Return scroll from her inventory. Sure, they’d be mad that she didn’t have their prize, but at least they’d have quite a bit of other loot to console them, and she wasn’t going to fight another player head to head for a group she didn’t even like.

Amy grimaced, eyeing the knife in her hand. “I really didn’t want to do this, but… Maybe it’s for the best.”

Alpha’s fingers twisted the scroll, preparing to tear it in half. Amy lunged forward, and to Alpha’s immense surprise, she slapped her captive Vampire Finch against Alpha’s chest. The half-orc’s moment of shock was enough to make her hesitate as the bird was followed quickly by the long, slim blade of the knife.

Alpha felt the cold length of the weapon slide under her ribs, and the tip of the knife penetrated her heart with a burst of pain that drove through her low pain settings like a sudden splinter jabbed beneath a fingernail. Something snapped inside her, and she fell backwards limply, staring up into the smiling face of her attacker.

A gentle hand pushed a braid back from her face as her vision narrowed to a black tunnel. “It’ll be all right, Alpha. I really am sorry it had to be this way, though.”

You have died.

Your race has changed.

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