Stretching her hands over her head, Rachel let out a long yawn. Pulling a soft down pillow over her face, she placed it in a particular direction as to block out the sliver of light passing through the curtains. Making a heavy effort to get out of bed, she turned her body ninety degrees while pushing her legs out of the blanket. Staying in the position for ten minutes, she felt the cold grasp of chill take hold as she slithered her feet back into the comforting hold of the blanket. Closing her eyes, she slowly dosed back to sleep all her cares and worries melting off of her like a popsicle on a summer's day. A sudden bombardment of cooked meats and stew hit her nose as she lifted her body off the bed. Licking her lips, she could feel that her lips were chapped denoting that her hunger bar must be low. Opening her stats, she was surprised to see that her hunger bar had dipped all the way down to three percent.

“You awake,” I said in a soft tone, as I made a small crack in the door.

“Yeah,” she said in a tired voice.

Nudging the door fully open with my foot, I carefully maneuvered the platter of food towards the cupboard sitting next to the bed. Being extra careful with the wooden stein I was holding under the platter, I placed it next to the trays, making sure not to spill any. Reaching into my makeshift leather apron I had made with the extra scraps of leather Kain gave me, I pulled out a small wooden spoon from the front left side pocket.

“Did you make this?” Rachel asked, observing the crooked edges.

“Yeah, I’m learning a bunch of new crafting skills,” I told her closing the door as the sound from the bar was quite loud.

Taking a sip from the cup, Rachel was caught off guard as the salty brine hit her lips. “Is this broth?”

“It was that or an ale,” I told her, scratching the back of my head. “Kain, Cassius, and Don don't believe in water, so that's the only other option.

“Thanks,” she said, picking up the bowl of stew. “I guess you made the bowls as well.” Giving me a warm smile, she proceeded to take small sips of the thick stew. “Mmmm.” Grasping the spoon, she jammed it into one of the pieces of potatoes, taking large chunks out of it like a ravenous carnivore. Putting down the spoon, she dove for the large piece of meat that looked like a turkey leg, it's dripping juices covering the platter. “Mmm,” she hummed again, taking a large bite out of the drumstick.

“You like it?” I asked her.

“Yeah” it's really, really good.”

“Thank,” I told her, my face feeling turning a deep red.

“You made this?”

“Yeah, took me a few tries l, but I think I finally got it to taste appetizing. You should have seen the first few, they were like salt sticks.”

“Wait, how long have I been out,” Rachel asked.

“Four days going on five,” I told her pointing out the window, the moon starting to hover over the horizon.

“What?” She said in a blur of confusion. “Why was I out for so long?”

I recanted the story, letting her know the crazy event that took place while trying to keep her alive. “... and that's when we woke you up. You were still really groggy, but we were able to bind you to the inn. Several minutes after that you died and resurrected a day later. What was weird was that even though the damage from the potion poisoning stopped, you were still affected by the side effects. You were vomiting all over the place so we put you to bed, and you were pretty much passed out after that.”

Getting up, Rachel rushed passed me, heading towards the door. Pushing it open, she was greeted by a boisterous sound of laughter and idle conversations. Striding up to the balcony she could see the large Luminaria floating about the room, it's fins putting out a distinctive shadowy pattern. Holding her hands out as the fish swam right next to the balcony, she felt it's slick yet warm skin drape across her fingers, the dots of lights glittering as they dance back and forth.

“Wow,” she said in utter amazement. “Which god did you summon?”

“Uh… someone name Celestine. The guild leaders were pretty surprised because she is well known, but no one has yet been able to summon her as a shrine. They told me she is the god of the heavenly bodies, safe passage, and luck. I’m not sure what all that entails, but I’m just glad someone answered.” Taking out a torch and lighting it, I handed one to Rachel.

“What is this for?”

“It’s getting dark and since you want to work here, help me light sconces,” I told her, pointing to the metal torches hanging from the walls. “I’ll take the bottom, you take all the one up here, there should only be about ten or so.”

“Did you make those too?”

“No, Don made them, they are too high of a crafting level for me at the moment.”

“So where are the Guild leader now?”

“Light the sconces first and I’ll take you to them.” After about fifteen minutes of running around the inn, I met Rachel on the first floor near the bar.

“Hey Sid, you still looking for more leather?” One of the patrons asked, downing his mug of ale.

“Yeah, but not right now, can you get back to me in the morning?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Walking to the right side of the bar next to the open stage, I stood outside of a door marked “Private”. Giving it three quick knocks, the door slowly open as G.J. took a quick peek out the door.

“Hey G.J., can Rachel and I come in?” I asked.

“Oh, hey Rachel, I see you're finally up.” Fully opening the door, I could see Don, Harriet, and Melina all standing around a table yelling at each other.

“That’s the reason why I need to come in last, If it uses fear, I can follow up with Guardian's Heart,” Don said.

“But what about its gale strike, if blows away half the team and they are out of the fight for a good minute,” Maline rebutted.

“Sen and her group should be able to cover that, we have to worry more about its thunder breath, that thing...” Harriet tried to say before I gave another set of knocks near the door.

“Hey guy, Just want to let you know Rachel back up.”

“Come in, come in,” Don said, grabbing one of the chairs that were pushed to the side of the room. “Here Rachel, how are you feeling?”

“I’m doing a lot better. Where is everyone else?”

“Kain, Cassius, and Sen are back at the portal trying to pull the third group through.”

“What?” Rachel said in confusion.

“On the day you died, we tried going after the wyvern. With only twelve of us, we didn't even stand a chance. It wiped half of us out with one lightning strike and then picked us off one by one. We are now dragging more people across the portal to bolster our party,” Melina said, scrolling across her UI.

“Speak of the devil, I just got the signal from our watch,” Harriet said.

“Takes one to know one,” Melina said with a slight chuckle.

Gearing up, the group walked out of the small room into the boisterous tavern. “Fumes, Bvat, Slog, you're with us, everyone else is on backup,” Don shouted, his order turning the room into a full on boot camp. The three players instant put down their ale and hustled towards the party, each one geared and ready to go.

“Can we join?” Rachel asked, breaking the moment of silence. Harriet gave Don a shrug as he motioned to her for an answer. “Sure, but keep in the back and follows any orders given.”

“Yes, sir,” Rachel said, grasping my arms and pulling me towards the group

A girl with short cut hair enter the room, above her head were cat ears that wiggled back and forth. Her eyes gleamed with a bright yellow tint as she approached us. “I just got the signal,” she said. “They are unable to make it through the east side, there are about four or five monsters currently in that area and they don't have the resources to take on that many. They are going to try to take the ridge to the west, but I haven't gotten any signal what they want to do after that.”

“Alright,” Harriet said. “We're heading out now, keep us posted.”

“Yes ma’am,” the girl said walking out the door. As she walked away I could see a very unusual bow strapped to her back, its bowstring gleaming with a smooth metallic gleam.

Exiting the Inn, I could see the girl’s eyes focused on me as she ran towards the group. With a bounding leap, she soared above us, her tail brushing lightly against my face. Grabbing onto the second story balcony, she made another leap this time onto the roof. Pacing towards the tree coming out of the roof, she began to quickly climb making it to the top of the two hundred meter tree in less than a minute.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“That’s Myre, She’s in Cassius’ guild,” Don answered.

Mummering some words under his breath, Don let out a radiant light that enveloped the party. An icon popped up above everyone name, showing a symbol of a shield. Don again casting another spell, made another icon pop up, this one also a shield but with a noticeable blue outline. Melina, following up Don, cast her own set of spells. The icon of an eye popped up as well as a set of boots. A flash of light suddenly obscured my vision as a wave of green washed over the landscape. Everything was now covered in a bright green outline making it so much easier to see in the dark.

Don, being in front, ran towards a scattering of brushes. After a few seconds, he gave a signal, letting us know that the area was safe and we could follow. This continued another six more time until I was able to see small amounts of movement at the edge of the ridge.

“I think I see them,” I whispered, pointing to the faint amount of movement.

Melina cast a baseball size orb in her hands that had a very dim glow, almost like a burnt out light bulb. Throwing the orb, it moved in a slow wavy pattern almost like a perfect sine wave. After a minute, the orb reached the area we last saw the movement before hitting a tree and vanishing. A few moments later, a small feather drifted down from the hill, its golden metallic sheen gleaming off the light of the moon.

“That’s them,” Don said, heading to the next bush. Coming up next to him, I could visibly see Kain’s outline, his hulking figure hard to miss.

“Hey,” Cassius said, his voice whispering in my ear like a warm breeze.

“Fucking, fuck,” I screamed silently. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“That’s the idea. We pulled through nine more people, half of them were badly injured by the Leviathan and were out of healing. We need to get them to the inn as...” Cassius tried to say before being interrupted by a red shaft of light coming from the inn.

“Hide,” Melisa whispered, making a motion to everybody to keep their heads down. The sound of hooves could be heard as several monsters raced across the open landscape. Keeping still for what seems like forever, the sound of the beating footsteps became distant.

“Where's the okay sign?” Kain said?

“I don't know,” Don replied. “I'm going to go ahead.” Taking a step out of the scraggly bush, A red signal fire shot out. “She wants us to stay put. Anyone have eyes on the threat?”

Boom, boom, boom. Three shots back to back, the first two being red and the last one a bright fluorescent purple. “What the hell does that mean?” Kain asked, looking to Cassius.

“One red means enemy, two means dangerous enemy. Purple means emergency, but we rarely use that color because of how ambiguous it is.”

“What kind of emergency?” Harriet asked.

“I don't know. That's the reason we rarely use it.”

The sound of large beating wings could be heard as everyone in the group looked up simultaneously. The wyvern, gliding over us, open its mouth, and electrical current traveling across its body.

“Fuck,” Don yelled, holding his shield straight up. “Brace yourself.”

Boom, boom, boom. Another three set of arrows shot up from the inn as the beam of electrical lighting exited the monster’s mouth.

“What?” Kain said, following the beam’s projectile.

“What the fuck is that?” Harriet said, watching three purple arrow light up the sky. “What does three emergency mean?”

“Really, really, bad news,” Cassius answered with a shrug.

The wyvern flew high in the air, with a sudden stop, it turned its nose down and dove towards the ground. The wyvern disappeared as it flew behind the ridge. “Go now,” Harriet shouted, pointing the injured members towards the inn. “Whatever is coming we should be able to hold it.”

A screech blasted out from behind the ridge of the wyvern took flight. Instead of coming down for another attack, the monster kept flying leaving the area. Boom, boom, boom. More purple arrow sprayed the skies this time in rapid succession.

“Rachel, Sid, follow the others,” Harriet said, pulling a staff, the top of which held a white crystal with rainbow translucent hue, from her inventory.

Grabbing Rachel by the hand, I dragged her as hard as I could, but she would not budge. “Rachel let’s go.”

“I want to see what it is,” she said not budging.

“No, we need to go.”

“Sen, can I stay,” Rachel asked in a sweet voice.

“Um… sure,” Sen replied as she cast a series of buffs on the group.

“See, we’ll be fine, Sen will take care of us.”

I could barely make out the green outline of a monster making its way across the hill. If it was not for the buff Melina put on me, the monster would almost be invisible, Its body covered by a tattered cloak of darkness. Surrounding the monster were lines of heat, almost like its body was covered in an invisible flame. In its right hand, it held a scythe, an old wooden stick almost to the point of rotting connecting to a long curved blade at the end.

“Is that a lich?” Cassius said, his tone more serious than ever.

“No, that’s a reaper,” Sen answered, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

“We need to go,” Don said.

“Hell no,” Kain shouted. “This thing looks like it got a sack full of legendary items.” Pulling out a spear, he aimed it towards the monster.

“What the hell are you doing,” Melina said.

“I’m going to charge it.”

“Are you stupid.”

Heading her no mind, Kain’s body began to glow a deep tint of red as his arms, legs, and back swelled with a muscular tone. With a blur, he charged at the monster with unimaginable speed, closing the large gap in mere seconds. The spear hit the monster with the sound of tearing cloth. The monster rose its left hand summoning a dark circular ring of flames that surrounded Kain.

“What an idiot,” Melina reiterated, rushing up towards Kain. Holding up her staff, she shot out a ball of radiating light which lit up the sky for a few seconds. The monster recoiling from the light and took a few steps back. Holding up its scythe, it took a wide swing. Kain held up his lance ready to block the attack, but the blade slid right through him as well as Melina not doing any amount of damage.

“Let’s go,” I shouted again, grabbing at Rachel’s arm.

“No way, this is getting good,” She said grabbing my arm and pulling me closer to the action.

Turning its head towards us as we got closer, the reaper form became a fuzzy haze as it phased out of existence. “Look out,” Don shouted, as the monster appeared behind us. A ball of iridescent light formed around us as Sen jumped in front, her wand casting a wall of thick glass. Slamming his mace against his shield, the sound of large banging drums could be heard as Don made his way behind the monster. “I got aggro”

Picking up momentum as Kain rushed down the hill, he slammed into the monster with another heavy hit, his spear gouging through the monster like a piece of cheese. The monster, unable to go for Kain, swung his scythe towards Don. As Don readied his shield, the scythe made the same motion passing through him as it did for Kain and Melina. Immediately follow the swing, the monster let loose from its hand a flurry of small flaming balls of fire. Instead of flying towards Don, the balls flew around the reaper, each one traveling in a random motion making them harder to dodge. Jumping back from the flames, Kain stowed his lance and pulled out a longbow, the grip of which was covered in a thick leather hide. An arrow appeared in his hand, this one thicker and longer than a normal arrow. At the end was not your usual cutting blade, but a large thick metal ball. Drawing the bow, the string began to glow red like his body, after a few seconds of charging, Kain let loose, the energy transferring from the string into the arrow. The heavy metal ball rammed into the side of the monster with a heavy thud as the sound of cracking bones could be heard as the monster staggered back and forth.

“Crit,” Kain shouted.

Slamming the end of the staff to the floor, a wave of fire erupted sending everyone flying backward. Small gouts of flame appear randomly around the reaper as it began casting a spell at Kain. A wall of bones sprouted behind crashing into him like a tidal wave and bringing him closer towards the reaper. Another wall of bones appeared this one heading towards the front of Kain ready to turn him into a bone sandwich. Kain's health immediately dropped down to ten percent as he attempted to get back up.

“Fountain of the Goddess,” Harriet yelled, dodging the several gouts of fire erupting from the floor.

“Over here,” Sen said, trying to guide the group towards a flat open field.

Don, immediately knowing the plan, made a wide arc around the monster and headed towards Sen while banging on his shield trying to provoke the monster. Whirling around the reaper made a swing at Don but missed hitting Harriet who was too focused on dodging the attack.

Phasing out once more, the monster appeared next to Don.

“Gotcha,” she said as a magical binding circle erupted from the floor.

With a loud cackle, the monster slammed its scythe towards the floor, this time a large skull appearing above Kain, Melina, Don, and Harriet. The four instantly dropped to the floor, their body skidding down the hill. Gouts of fire, now having fewer targets, erupted under Sen. There were only milliseconds in between each blast making it impossible for Sen to dodge every attack. Eventually, her stamina ran out, as several gouts erupted under her bringing her health to zero. The bubble around Rachel and I immediately dissipated as the passive fire scorched our body killing us just as fast.