Cause and effect chains raced through my head as I stared at the falling gremlins. The ceiling wasn’t that high up so I doubted they would be injured from a controlled jump. The twins had to hold the tunnel to prevent us from being flanked, but they were our best defense. The twang of Lily’s bowstring shot through me like electricity, snapping me out of the mental whirlwind. It was the same issue I had dealt with in boot camp. I could analyze a situation to death, following chains of possible events to logical conclusions to the point where I hesitated to act. Now, like then, it was the sound of combat that shook me loose, and forced me to even greater mental focus.

Just the facts then; Gremlins were coming down from above from at least six different openings based on the numbers. Our strongest defensive units were stuck holding the door, while our offensive units were glass cannons. Rhiogail’s men might be able to help, but we shouldn’t rely on them as this was a quest.

“Marie, you, Lily and the other healer stay on the tunnel!” I called out.

The mages were cutting loose at the gremlins, but I doubted they could keep up the pace for very long. Jared was trying to get them to move back against a wall to prevent themselves from being surrounded, but they didn’t seem to be listening. Richard however had a grin on his face that reminded me of a wolf looking at a lamb. He glanced at me and said, “See if you can keep the kids standing.”

With that he sprang from his kneeling position in a long lunge that speared one of the gremlins out of the air like a heron taking a fish. I blinked in astonishment as he seemed to dance among the falling gremlins, his sword in a two handed grip, dealing deep cuts as he passed. My eyes tracked his movement and I could see the patterns he wove: step forward, cut, step past to put the opponent between another attacker and himself, finish off the opponent with a strike from behind, side step to avoid the leap from behind – how did he know that was coming – and back to the second opponent.

It was a sight to behold, but I didn’t have time to watch. I stepped in close to the crossbowman and swung the spear like a quarterstaff to launch a gremlin away from him; doing little damage, but giving the man some distance to fire. “Thanks,” he said.

I nodded, “Get to the wall near the healers. Your aim is good enough to pick off ones for Richard, and the healers are over there if you need backup.”

He grunted and said, “What about the mages? They are getting pretty torn up over there.”

He was right; one was on the ground trying to use his staff to hold the gremlin off of him, while two others were quick stepping away while trying to maintain enough focus to throw their spells. I shook my head and said, “If they lose their cool in this situation they are as good as dead. I’ll see what I can do, but I don’t know how the group structure works if you go down.”

“Shit, I didn’t consider that,” he said and quickly moved to the cavern wall nearest to the healers.

I assessed the battlefield, and Richard’s position on it, and grinned evilly. This next bit may not be the most effective method of doing things, but it should at least look cool.

With a surge of speed faster than anything I had managed before, part of my brain attributed this to the increased agility of the Freelancer, I rushed forward and drove my foot into the gremlin on the mages chest like I was trying to make a field goal. Honestly I was as surprised as the mage when the gremlin easily lifted into the air flying straight toward Richard’s back. A back that was no longer exposed as the man turned and used the edge of his sword to clothesline the little yellow bastard.

The mage on the ground cackles, “Goal!”

I snort out a short laugh and help him to his feet saying, “Get with the others by the tunnel. If you have aether left try and hit the stragglers but don’t risk hitting Richard or myself.”

Nodding the mage ran off to join the others, leaving me to turn around and catch a sharp claw across my arm instead of my belly. “Fuck!” I cry out, that hurt worse than a knife wound.

The source of my injury was a gremlin that was soon joined by two more that began to swipe at me, keeping me spinning on the defensive. “I wish I had a god damn pistol, put a bullet in each of your slimy little AUGH!!!”

One of the gremlins had managed to bite deep into my left leg as I blocked the swipes from the other two. The pain was bad enough to make the leg buckle and I dropped to a knee, still keeping the spear moving and blocking the now increasing number of strikes that were coming at me from three directions.

“I’ll take at least one of you bastards down with me,” I growled out, releasing one hand from the spear shaft to aim my fire magic at the left most gremlin that had bitten me.

Chola, overlooked until now, swept in before I could cast my spell, a whirlwind of light and fire as she danced around the gremlin to my right. Part of my mind registered that the fire was more intense on her wings as trails of fire were left in her passing. Dropping the spear I raised my right arm to accept a bite from the center target as I cast fire into my target.

Chola’s actions made more sense as the trails of fire condensed on the Gremlin burning it to ash and a burst of light. “And then there was one,” I snarled as I gripped the skull of the bastard, the one who was currently chewing on my arm, and cast fire.

In retrospect this probably was not one of my brightest moves, but I challenge anyone to think clearly with a three foot yellow monster using you as a chew toy. The flare of heat engulfed the gremlin, singing me in the process, and left me without an opponent for the moment. Chola glided in and settled on my arm, above where I had been bitten, and I said, “Thank you Chola. Can you warn me if any of them start heading this way? I need to tend to my wounds.”

Chola’s little bird head cocked sideways as she spread her wings and a soft crimson fire began to sweep from her talons down my arm. I flinched expecting to be burned. Instead I felt like I had just stepped out into a warm afternoon day at a beach, as I watched the bite wound knit closed.

“Damn, I wish I had some kind of log to tell what you just did,” I muttered as I focused on my leg and cast my healing magic into it instead.

A firm hand gripped my shoulder, and Richard’s voice asked, “How are you holding up?”

Chola hopped to my shoulder as I retrieved my spear and stood saying, “That was unpleasant, but I still live. What’s our status?”

Lily answered, “The swarm is dealt with, but I don’t think it’s over.”

Sure enough, now that I was paying more attention, I saw a new countdown timer appear. This one showed fifteen minutes. “I thought they only said three swarms,” I complained.

Rhiogail asked, “What are you talking about? The men said this should be all of them.”

I glanced up at the others, noting that two of the mages were unmoving on the ground. How were we supposed to answer that question without giving away the game elements that we had access to? It was Jared, the crossbow wielding soldier, who responded, “It is always best to expect more trouble. Besides, those creatures didn’t seem like the type to think of tunneling their way to us.”

Rhiogail cursed, “Damn you’re probably right.”

As she moved away I whispered, “A boss of some sort you think?”

No penalty fell on my head, so I guessed I was okay using the term since it was not directly a game term. It did make me wonder what forms of slang we could get away with though. Lily answered, “Probably, or the end of the situation. I doubt we will be that lucky though.”

Jared and Richard both looked at us confused and I clarified, “Escalation. They brought fists, we brought swords. Now what are they going to bring?”

Jared scowled, “Probably a tank, because those waves were too easy.”

I waggled my hand and responded, “Something bigger and smarter is likely, but the only reason we did so well during those waves was the twins and Richard.”

He continued to scowl, but nodded his acceptance of my words. I turned to Lily, “Two of the mages are down. Are they out or gone?”

“Gone, they got swarmed around the same time you did,” she said as she turned to look at the bodies, “Holy Shit!”

Multiple heads whipped around to look at the fallen players bodies as they glowed with a soft green light, the same shade as the crystal we had been encased in. A few seconds later their bodies faded into the light and were drawn into the crystal which began to glow.

I heard the rasp of steel as Rhiogail and her men drew their swords at the sight of two glowing figures appearing next to the large crystal. As the glow faded I saw it was the two mages. Respawn, I thought, realizing what I was seeing. This was a game for us, no matter how easy it was to become immersed, and players in MMORPGs almost always had respawn.

“Okay, that sucked,” said one of them as he checked his body for injury.

Rhiogail stammered, “That’s impossible.”

I waved a hand at her and said, “That’s a dirty word; maybe don’t use it around us.”

My comment drew chuckles from the others, and eventually from Rhiogail, as I continued, “Do you remember how I mentioned us sleeping in pods designed to preserve our life? Well if the crystal took on that task maybe it is still trying to do that.”

I knew it was a weak explanation, but I didn’t understand enough of the world’s lore or technology to offer a better one. I needn’t have bothered though as Davis interrupted with the information, “Some texts state that the Ancient Pioneers could use crystals to preserver there spirit when their body died, and then the crystal would fashion them a new body. It was apparently based on the same process that caused monsters to be created from the corrupted Aether.”

I shrugged, “We’ve been on ice for however long it’s been. Don’t ask us.”

Davis smiled and said, “Some other texts state that the Aicrys, sentient spirits of the crystals themselves, bless some people with the gift of another life. There are rumors that the Eisendrachian Emperor has this blessing.”

It appeared that while the mages retained their clothing and Aethercrest, they still needed to reclaim their weapons. Good thing to keep in mind for later. I looked around at the rest of the group and asked, “What do we do now? Should we make a run for it and try and get out of the caves, or see what comes down that tunnel next?”

Richard shrugged and Lily echoed him. Rhiogail spoke up, “My men and I don’t like to run from trouble, but there is a good chance whatever comes next will be between us and the exit.”

I had a hard time arguing with that, I was about to speak again when Jared interjected, “It might be best to let us whether the brunt of the attack. While your men have had a chance to rest, it seems like we have a decent chance of not staying dead.”

“We can’t let you do that, we are soldiers of Vendras,” Rhiogail began to argue.

Richard cut her off, “Aye lass, we know. We want to have the fun though, and besides you can’t give us a tour of the taverns if you die.”

The squire stared at the tall swordsman dumbfounded. I snickered and she shook herself enough to respond, “Who says I’m going to show you the taverns?”

Richard just smiled and said, “Me.”

The snicker turned into full on laughter at that point. I couldn’t believe the balls on this guy. He would have given military officers fits with his eagerness to charge in on a fight, but he had backbone to spare. Rhiogail blushed and turned to organize her men for either a fight or a march as Lily said, “Be that as it may, we need to deal with what comes next before you get the lady to buy you that drink.”

“We probably need to figure out how money works too when we get out of here. I wonder where the others ended up,” Richard replied.

I was wondering that too as I watched the time. I continued scanning the room as the timer approached two minutes, and began to notice something odd. The crystals light seemed to be pulsing, getting brighter for a second and then dimming. “Does anyone else see that?” I asked.

Richard replied, “Yeah, that’s not ominous or anything.”

As the timer hit zero the crystal flashed with light and a miasma of darkness seemed to be shoved out from it. I noticed that Rhiogail and her men began to cough as it reached them, and they began to sag with weakness. Each of the players seemed to give off a soft aura that kept the dark miasma away.

“Yeah, definitely ominous,” Richard said, lifting his sword into a high guard.

Some of the miasma began to coalesce into a humanoid form about nine feet tall. The thing could have jumped and grabbed the spires that hung from the ceiling. As the cloud settled skin could be seen the purple of a bruise, and as leathery as a lizard. It looked to be shaped like one of the gremlins bigger brother, much bigger. As the miasma cleared from its face we could see a mouth filled with large shark like teeth, and eyes that glowed with a malicious red light.

It roared out its fury and hatred at we mere mortals that had slaughtered its kin. In the silence that followed the only sound was Lily’s voice as she stated, in no uncertain terms, “Shit.”

Spoiler: Character Sheet at end of Chapter Three Name: Michael Wolfe Class: Freelancer Cores: Unknown Hybrid, Strength 6 Offense 6 Agility 7 Defense 6 Vitality 6 Spirit 6 Willpower 6 Aether Pool 120 Luck 5 Advancement Pool 17 Skills None Abilities Evolving Summon: Phoenix, Evolving Magic: Fire, Magic Wind Shield, Magic: Heal Traits Lucky Break; Spirit Caller