I snatched my fallen Health Potion from the ground and downed it, quickly restoring my health to full. Another Frost Arrow struck Chaucey in the helm. His health was close to half and he scrambled quickly around the corner of the merchant’s building.

“You like that, Chaucey?!” Kewtypie shouted, drawing back another arrow.

“Jack!” D shouted, racing up behind me and grabbing me by the arm. “We have to get out of here—now!”

“We can’t just leave them!” I hissed.

“Did you see their levels? We can’t take them all!”

I glanced back at the battle as Psycho fired some kind of Shockwave from his wand. It crashed into Bonecrusher and ripped away at least a quarter of his health. A guild war was raging around us between two rival PK guilds, and for the moment, they seemed to have completely forgotten about Cavey and us. Two factions warring over who had the rights to attack Stoneburg, and for the moment, it was unclear who was winning.

“Let’s go!” D shouted, tugging at my arm. D was right. There was nothing we could do. It was bad enough when it was just Bonecrusher and Chaucey, but with the arrival of The Mercenaries, it was next to hopeless.

I made a move to go but stopped. Cavey was lying on his back, his health dangerously low, and Bonecrusher was aiming a spell right at him. If that hit him, it would kill him. There were only seconds left—less maybe. I leapt into action.

I sprinted forward to close the distance between us, then activated Warrior’s Charge. Waves of ice swirled around Bonecrusher’s hands. He was about to cast.

Please work, please work! I thought as I lowered my shoulder at his chest.

“Ahhh!” I screamed as I slammed into him at full speed.

The stun went off!

The ice around Bonecrusher’s hands vanished and gave Cavey the moment he needed. He sprang to his feet and quickly downed a Health Potion, bringing his health back almost to full.

“Thanks, Jack!” he shouted quickly, aiming his staff at Bonecrusher. A Flame Bolt slammed into Bonecrusher’s chest, knocking him back slightly. It was a minor victory, but this still wasn’t a fight we could win.

“Try this on for size!” someone shouted behind me. I turned to see Psycho, aiming his wand at Chaucey, who had somehow leapt onto the roof of Gehman’s hut and was firing arrows as fast as he could.

Psycho cast, and a semitranslucent black cage formed around Chaucey’s body. It spun quickly and then collapsed in on itself, vanishing into his chest. Chaucey’s eyes almost bugged out of his head. Whatever that spell was, it scared the Hell out of him.

Before he could move, a Frost Arrow struck him, and I watched in disbelief as almost all his health vanished. Chaucey hurled himself off the roof as Kewtypie fired again, narrowly missing him with an arrow that would have killed him. He hit the ground running and started sprinting down the hill towards the lake.

Kewtypie fired again, but Chaucey ducked and the shot missed. He pulled out a Health Potion and downed it as he ran.

“He’s running!” Psycho cackled, racing after him. “Come on!”

The Mercenaries instantly dropped what they were doing and followed Kewtypie as he chased after Chaucey. He was weak, and they wanted him dead. Bonecrusher was all but forgotten as Psycho, Kewtypie, and Osiris chased Chaucey down the hill.

He ran after them, obviously trying to help his friend. I watched as they reached the flats below the hill and disappeared into the distance, the sound of their spells and arrows fading away as they ran.

I turned around as Xavier and Cavey came up behind me.

“What the Hell was that?” I blurted out. I knew exactly what it was, but I had to say something. The fight had me seriously shaken up, and I braced myself against the wall of Gehman’s hut as D came over to my side.

“That was Sinful and the Mercenaries,” Cavey replied grimly. “They’ve been at war since the beginning. Fighting over control of the Northern towns.”

“We’re nothing to them,” Xavier growled.

“Those two Sinful guys could have killed everyone,” D said.

“If The Mercenaries hadn’t showed up they might have.” Cavey nodded.

“Why… why would they do that?” I asked in utter disbelief. “After everything The Ripper said?”

“They either don’t care,” Cavey replied. “Or they don’t believe him.”

“No,” Xavier shook his head. “Some people are just evil.”

I put away my sword and slowly made my way over to the spot where Gehman had fallen. His face was completely expressionless—lifeless. A computer model, nothing more. I shuddered and looked away.

“What happens next?” I asked.

“His body will stay there until someone loots it,” Xavier replied. “And then it vanishes.”

“Vanishes?” I replied. “That’s it? No burial or anything, it just vanishes?”

No one replied. Of course there was no burial in a virtual world. It just didn’t seem right that a person could die and simply vanish from the world forever.

“Xavier, get his things,” Cavey said firmly. I could hear the pain in his voice. He was just like the rest of us—scared, fighting desperately in the world he was trapped in. But he was also a guild leader, and he knew what had to be done. He couldn’t just leave Gehman lying there forever. “Loot the others as well.”

Looting someone’s things was the closest thing in Carrethen to putting a fallen comrade to rest. But if The Ripper was telling the truth, Gehman wasn’t at rest at all. He was lost forever in the electronic void…

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Xavier knelt down beside Gehman’s body and looted whatever he’d had on him when Chaucey’s arrow struck him in the back, but as his corpse began to fade from existence, I had to look away.

“Jack,” D said quietly, stepping up beside me. “We’ve got to get the Hell out of here now. I’m not high enough level for this shit, and if those guys come back, we are going to be the ones lying on the ground!”

“I know!” I snapped back. He was right. How the Hell did Bonecrusher and Chaucey manage to pass me anyway? Even with my help, D had only reached level 12. Cavey and Xavier were 16 and 15 respectively, and even that seemed like quite the achievement.

“How did they do it?” I asked, turning around.

“Do what?” Cavey asked.

“They’re higher level than I am,” I replied. “Even if they were leveling 24 hours a day, that doesn’t seem possible.”

“We’re not exactly sure,” Xavier said grimly. “We think they’re using an exploit in a dungeon somewhere.”

“We’re not sure where though,” Cavey added. “We’ve been too busy to go looking when we don’t even know where to start.”

“Do you know what town they’re bound at?” D asked.

“Daric,” Xavier replied. “But we’re not going to attack them—”

“I know where their leveling spot is,” D interrupted.

“You do?” Cavey asked in disbelief.

“The Crimson Catacombs,” D replied. “It’s a high-level dungeon—level 40 Ilizak. They’re these giant bug things. Back in Beta there was a wall at the bottom of the dungeon that you could stand behind and shoot through and just cheese them all day long and they couldn’t get to you. Tons of experience. I thought the devs would have patched it by now though.”

“So that’s how they’re doing it…” Cavey muttered.

Glancing over at D, I saw the look in his eye and I knew what we had to do. “We have to take it from them.”

“You’re damn right we do.” He grinned.

“But first, you need some levels.”

D scowled back at me. I turned to Xavier. “Any good leveling spots around here?”