Nick woke up with a start, his heart pounding. He looked around the room and then let out a long sigh. That had been way too close, if he had been alone it would have been fine but he’d almost gotten Jamie killed. Nick turned around and found the man leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, panic spiked through Nick again. He rushed over to the man and grabbed his wrist, almost thanking god when he felt there was still a pulse. It was a strong pulse as well, Jamie’s heart beating like a strong drum. The man woke up and looked down at Nick who was practically holding his hand.

“Hey bud, whatcha doin’?” He asked.

“Just checking that you’re still alive. Can’t have you kicking the bucket on me,” Nick said.

“Bah, it would take more than a few demon bugs to take me out. I’m more worried about you dude, you went pretty hard there,” Jamie shot back.

Nick thought about it for a moment and had to agree, he had gone pretty hard. He’d gone harder though and he was getting used to it, hell he was even enjoying it. Nick didn’t reply and just moved towards the chest in the middle of the room, hoping for some good rewards. Jamie didn’t push the subject and followed along, no doubt just as curious as Nick. Then Nick realised he hadn’t explained how to loot in Horde rooms worked to Jamie yet.

“So basically, for each wave we complete we get slightly better loot. Every 5 waves we complete we get a major bump, which usually means an additional item, or at least that’s what I’ve been seeing so far,” Nick explained.

Jamie nodded along. “So, we should get two items? Slightly better ones because we did the 11th wave?” He asked.

“Yep,” Nick replied, “And my class gives me a skill that increases the quality of rewards I get from this sort of thing.”

“That seems a little busted, do a lot of people run your class?”

“No, there are some pretty well-known drawbacks to the class. People tend to avoid taking this class, I didn’t get that choice though,” Nick said with a finality that Jamie thankfully picked up on.

Nick pulled open the chest and his eyebrows creased. Wasn’t he supposed to be the lucky one? Jamie practically squealed and Nick didn’t stop him from reaching for the weapon. Jamie twirled the large metal club around in his hands. Nick recognised the weapon as some old Japanese type, Kanabe? Kanaba? Wait, Kanabo. It was roughly one and a half metres long, almost as tall as Nick was. It was entirely metal with a leather grip wrapped around the handle. The metal club was dotted with metal studs, Nick really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. Jamie swung it around awkwardly, clearly not used to the weight or length of the weapon.

“This is awesome, exactly what I was looking for,” Jamie said with a grin.

“I’m pretty sure it’s a kanabo, a Japanese weapon. Looks pretty mean that’s for sure.”

Nick then turned back to the chest and found the last few things inside. There was a small pouch with a small bunch of green pills, about 7 if he could count properly. The last thing was clearly a sticker, one depicting a flexed bicep. The bicep had a ‘2’ tattooed on it. Was this the better sticker? Nick was curious to try it. He took the sticker and placed it on his forearm, if it didn’t stick he’d know it was something he could give to Jamie. It stuck and Nick felt a slight shudder. He turned to Jamie, who was busy playing around with his new weapon, occasionally wincing whenever he swung in a certain direction.

“Hey dude, wanna arm wrestle?” Nick asked, taking the sticker off his arm.

Jamie just grinned at him. The two of them got down on the floor and readied up. Jamie won pretty convincingly, though he had been surprised at how much of a fight Nick had been able to put up, clearly Nick’s one strength sticker giving him some sort of benefit. Nick then took the new sticker, put it on his arm and challenged Jamie again. Jamie him a puzzled look but agreed. Nick then easily beat him, it wasn’t even a competition. Jamie asked for another and Nick easily beat him again.

“What the hell is that? How’d you get so strong suddenly?” Jamie asked.

Nick then explained stickers to him and how he’d just found his first of the next tier up. Jamie went contemplative for a moment and then nodded to himself, clearly piecing something together. The duo then limped their way back towards the restaurant, more than a little banged up. Jamie’s ribs were likely broken and while Nick’s healing had done a lot he had lost a lot of blood. He could barely use his right hand either, his thumb looked normal again but definitely wasn’t useable. Thankfully Nick had been getting pretty used to feeling anaemic lately.

It was as the two were hobbling through the wide lobby room towards the hallway that led back to the sushi restaurant that something unforeseen happened. The doorway to the car park opened up. In came a team of five people. Quickly assessing them Nick spotted three obvious front liners and two archers. One woman with two swords, one man with a large battle-axe, and a man with a shield and shortsword. The two archers were female, both with bows. It was a mostly female group, Nick could only hope they leaned on stereotypes and were a mostly agreeable bunch.

“Hello there! Welcome to the 64th-floor guys!” Nick called out.

“Hey!” The female with two swords called out cheerfully.

Nick relaxed a little, a bit of friendliness went a long way it seemed. Nick eyed up the group and found that they were all holding their weapons, a hint of caution still in most of their eyes. The two archers were scanning the room. Nick chuckled and realised that they did look a lot like bait. Nick was still pretty covered in blood and was in dire need of a shower. He looked over at Jamie and almost sighed. The man was standing tall, gaze levelled toward the new group. He stood straight, with his new club in front of him held in both hands. He looked bloody imposing, which Nick couldn’t help but be impressed by.

The group moved towards Nick and Jamie, the female swordsman with two swords who seemed to be the leader and walked in front of everyone else. “Hey lads, you two alright?”

Jamie didn’t say a word a just watched the group. Nick spoke for him. “Yeah we’re good, just a bit of roaming, you know the deal.”

“Cool cool,” the woman said, looking around the room. “Does the entire floor look like this? It’s pretty nasty.”

“Sadly it does. That’s probably why not one seems to like it here,” Nick replied.

“Yeah,” the woman said, returning her gaze to Nick, “I hear there aren’t usually many people here. Most skip this floor entirely, we certainly did.” The woman’s group laughed at her remark.

Nick pieced the information together and realised this team was likely levels five to six, Nick and Jamie wouldn’t have much of a chance if things went south. Nick needed to keep the conversation going and try to dissuade any hostilities.

“So what brings you guys back here?” Nick asked.

“Just felt like doing some roaming on a less busy floor you know? The other floors are all getting pretty busy right now,” the woman said.

“Are they? I didn’t know that. Seems like a good enough reason to come here then,” Nick spoke slowly. Why were the floors getting busier?

“Yeah? Just like after every Earthquake, people need food and places to sleep until things are stabilised again,” the woman sounded a little confused.

That was probably well-known information and Nick had just made himself look clueless, hopefully, the team wouldn’t think too much of it. Nick caught one of the archers staring at him.

“What is a 4-3 and a 2-0, doing down here?” The archer asked.

That certainly made the group change their stance, their hands tightening around their weapons. Nick saw more than a few predatory glints flash through the groups eyes. Nick’s fists tightened. He really wasn’t a fan of these perceptive classes, giving away all of his information like that. Before Nick could say anything Jamie finally spoke. “Is that going to be a problem?”

Jamie spoke clearly and confidently, his gaze not once faltering. The swordsman sighed and raised her swords. “Okay, let’s make this easier on all of us. I don’t want any more blood on my hands. You give us whatever you’ve got on you and we all walk away from this.”

Nick was piecing together some sort of response when Jamie let out a monstrous roar, taking everyone by surprise. Jamie then lifted his new weapon and slammed it down on the swordsman, taking her by surprise. The woman was still fast and managed to move slightly own of the way, getting her head out of the way. Her shoulder still got clipped by the strike though and the massive weapon crumpled the woman’s leather armour and shoulder, sending her down to the ground with a scream.

Nick also tried to take advantage of the short buff. As soon as he heard Jamie roar he activated Hasten and Fight For Your Treasure, he then jumped right past the two front liners and pounced on one of the archers. The archer was quick but clearly couldn’t react in time to Nick’s massively increased speed. Nick tackled the woman off her feet and landed on top of her. Not one to stand on ceremony, Nick slammed his elbow down into the woman’s face without hesitation. Nick felt something give way but didn’t stick around to find out, jumping away from the woman and hoping he’d done enough to incapacitate her. Nick quickly surveyed the situation. The swordsman Jamie had hit was crumpled on the floor screaming and the archer Nick had struck wasn’t moving. The other archer had moved themselves to position herself with the remaining two front-liners between herself and Nick and Jamie.

The two front-liners didn’t charge forward toward either of the duo, instead, they fanned out around the archer, placing themselves properly between the archer and the duo. They seemed fairly experienced, which would only make things harder on Nick and Jamie. Jamie had brought his kanabo up onto his shoulder, looking menacingly towards the remaining three. Nick thought quickly and began dragging the downed archer over to the crumpled swordman. He bagged the bow and two swords before speaking to Jamie quietly. “I’ve got a plan, follow along.”

Nick didn’t wait for a response. “Alright everyone, this is how the next few minutes are going to play out. My friend and I are going to drag your two friends to another room,” the team bristled at this, “and we’re going to strip them of their gear. Then we’ll head our separate ways and pretend this never happened,” Nick said loudly.

“And why would we let you do that?” The man with a battle-axe called back.

Before Nick could speak Jamie swung his kanabo down to the floor inches away from the swordsman’s head. Nick was impressed, he wouldn’t have been able to do any better himself.

“Because then everyone lives. Or we continue this fight, we finish off your two friends and then roll the dice on how the rest of the fight goes,” Nick replied.

The opposing team members looked between each other before grunting and lowering their weapons. Nick let out a breath he’d been holding. “Good choice. Let’s get this over and done with.”

Nick then grabbed the unconscious archer by her chest plate and started dragging her off towards a nearby door, Nick didn’t know what was on the other side of said door but it would have to do. Jamie picked up the swordman with one hand and hoisted her up, earning another scream. He really had done a number on the woman’s shoulder. The other room was a toilet of sorts, with sinks and cubicles, thankfully not another hallway. Nick checked and was glad to find some other doors that led out of the room, they wouldn’t have to awkwardly shuffle back through the lobby.

As Nick started taking the armour off the archer she woke back up groggily, Nick noticed that she had a knife at her hip and quickly removed it from her before she could get her bearings. The woman let out a yelp and grabbed her bloody nose. She then looked up at Nick with tears in her eyes. “What are you going to do to us?”

Nick sighed loudly. “Just take your gear, nothing else.”

The woman shakily nodded and began to remove all of her armour. She placed it on the floor in front of her. She had a full set of decent-looking leather gear, a quiver, and a small bag. She looked at Nick then back at her own clothes.

“No. You can keep your clothes. Help your friend remove her gear.” Nick said.

Jamie hadn’t moved since they entered the room, he’d just positioned himself against the door, metal club at the ready. The archer nodded at Nick’s words and began tentatively helping the swordman. The woman had stopped screaming at this point and was just staring and Nick with hate in her eyes. She did groan as the archer removed her chest plate though. When the armour and been removed Nick got to see the extent of the damage. The woman didn’t even have a shoulder left. Her arm was just hanging at her side by a loose connection of shattered bone and muscle. It was one of the more gruesome injuries Nick had seen.

“You only won because you took me by surprise,” the woman spat.

Nick stared back at her like she was stupid.