1

To Zack, going through the portals always felt like jumping through an invisible door, a kind of cosmic waterfall. As he landed in the fourth room, he noticed it was larger than the others and was crescent-shaped, taking up one whole side of the tower.

On his left side, the same guardrail curved in a parenthesis shape that followed the contour of the tower’s courtyard. He saw that he was above ground again. Ghostly light leaked in from the aperture at the top of the structure.

Six pairs of red eyes turned and focused on him. Initially, he thought there were six wolves, all pulling their lips back to reveal sharp incisors. Then he realized the wolves had two heads protruding from their immense bodies, linked together by a chain attached to thick metal collars. Zack’s Creature Description appeared.

DIOSKILOS (Level 11)

HP: 178

MP: 45

STRENGTH: 26

CONSTITUTION: 17

DEXTERITY: 19

INTELLIGENCE: 4

WISDOM: 7

XP: 62

DESCRIPTION: Two-headed wolf, a relative of Cerberus.

The wolves advanced slowly, stalking him, growling.

He heard the now familiar ppfffttt sound as more teammates passed through the portal behind him.

At the front of the pack, a larger wolf snapped at the air between them and the beast’s green skin wrinkled. Saliva dripped from their fangs and pooled onto a raised platform in the center of the room.

Behind Zack, Harper shouted her directions. “Orcs, move to the middle. Keep your backs against one another. Crouch low to the ground, cover your bodies with your shields. Fend off their attacks and strike them with your swords. Draw their aggro. Go!”

Damon and Ethan flanked Zack. The three orcs marched deliberately to the center of the room. The three wolves snarled at them as they spread out in front of the perimeter wall. Zack heard Harper barking instructions to the other members. “Janna, Angie, slip in behind the wolves’ sightlines. Angie, use your bow. Jordan, Emma, you’re with me!” In his peripheral vision, Zack saw Harper, Jordan, and Emma run adjacent to the guardrail.

Two wolves lunged at Zack. They crashed against his shield, driving the orcs back. Their heavy claws scraped against his shield, trying to break through their formation. He saw the larger wolf skirt to the other side of the room, behind their phalanx.

Suddenly, one wolf crawled over his shield and snapped at him with both muzzles. There was a loud click as its jaws clamped above his head.

Zack drove his sword up, aiming for the head on the right side.

The wolf’s head jerked to the right, evading the blow, but that dragged its left head into the weapon’s path. The sword clattered noisily against the monster’s teeth before piercing through its green flesh. Warm blood splattered from its mouth and onto Zack’s arm.

The Dioskilos’ two heads howled in pain. The beast started backpedaling, its claws banging against his shield again, attempting to pull the impaled head from the sword.

Zack saw a green orb fly through the air, swerving around their phalanx. The toxic ball struck the second wolf, which was bull-rushing their shields. That wolf whined and dropped to the ground before snapping back up, driving against their shields again.

The first wolf finally yanked its impaled head away from his gladius. Zack heard a sick chiming sound as the tip of his metal blade scraped against the bottom of its skull. The impaled head lolled lazily against the attacking beast’s body, its eyes already becoming pale.

Arrows shot through the air and plunged into the green skin of the two wolves still pounding against their formation. More howls of pain.

Zack noticed the third wolf returning to the perimeter wall, scampering like a dog scurrying after a morsel of food. Its skin was on fire. A moment later, he heard its claws rapidly tapping against the stone floor. Zack braced for the blow he knew was coming.

The third wolf catapulted against him. Its impact, along with the other two wolves’ force, broke their formation. Zack was flung back, smashing into the backs of the other two orcs. His momentum pushed them forward and away from the phalanx, with Damon and Ethan falling face-first onto the gritty floor. Two wolves leaped over Zack and landed on their backs. He heard their muzzles grind against metal armor. Then he heard the wet smacking sound as their teeth found flesh.

Damon and Ethan started screaming.

2

When Emma stepped through the portal and saw light in the room, she turned off her Fire Glow spell. Harper had just given her orders to the orcs and was directing the rest of the team. Emma moved with her and Jordan toward the opening, which faced onto the courtyard. She caught a glimpse of the exit portal and noticed it was completely solid. The portal hasn’t been activated yet, she thought.

Two wolves leaped at the orcs’ phalanx while the third, larger wolf circled to them. She started firing from her bow, but the wolf was crafty, dodging most of her arrows despite its size. One plunged into its front shoulder while another sank into its hip.

Emma reached over her shoulder to snatch more arrows and was horrified to realize she had fired all ten. Suddenly, the wolf rushed her with its eyes widening. It knows it has the advantage, she thought.

Before she could utter Weapon Refresh, the wolf leaped, plowing into her chest and driving her to the stone floor. As she fell, Emma knocked Harper’s leg with her shoulder, toppling the mage to the ground.

The Dioskilos settled onto Emma and thrust for her neck with both jaws. She whipped her elbow around to block both attacks. Rows of sharp fangs squeezed against her chain mail and her skin lacerated against the metal. The beast’s powerful jaws clamped down further. Emma felt intense pain as a bone in her arm fractured. She screamed. While the one head gripped her left shoulder, its second head drove forward, seeking to cause more damage.

Emma summoned her sword. The nagamati handle materialized in her dominant right hand—the wrong one, the one she was using to ward off the wolf. She lost her grip on the sword. It clanged uselessly against the floor. She screamed as the wolf crunched the base of its jaws together, and the humerus in her arm broke. Red-hot pain engulfed her mind. She struggled as her broken arm sagged against her face, restricting her air flow. Instinctively, she pulled her arm away. More pain flooded her brain. Her consciousness wavered.

Releasing her left shoulder, the second head inspected Emma’s injury. The two heads looked at each other, realizing her vulnerability. The left head shoved her right arm with its muzzle and pinned it over Emma’s head. The right side went for her throat.

As rows of teeth pierced her skin, Emma closed her eyes.

3

While Jordan fired arrows at the two wolves storming the phalanx, Harper cast Poison Sphere and sent it toward them, poisoning one wolf on the spot. She received a message.

Success! You have poisoned Dioskilos! The creature will lose 1 HP every 5 seconds.

She glanced to her right to check on Emma, who was shooting arrows at the slow-moving third wolf. Harper heard a howl of agony and turned to see that Zack had impaled one Dioskilos with his sword. She ran her poison sphere into the injured wolf.

She heard a crash to her right and, a moment later, she herself was knocked from her feet. Tucking her head in at the last second, she slammed against the unyielding stone. Harper yelled as a sharp bolt of pain traveled through her chest where the Dryad arrow had impaled her just two days before.

As she lay on the floor, a purple projectile sailed over her, just a couple of inches from her face. She heard a wolf’s howl echo through the chamber. Jordan ran past her, gripping his sword and firing another Acid Reflux from his mouth.

Harper sat back up and saw Jordan wedge his sword between the attacking wolf’s head and Emma’s neck. He heaved the weapon up with both arms, lifting the Dioskilos off of Emma and cutting through its right-side neck. As the creature’s weight shifted onto his body, the wolf snapped viciously at his chest with its left-side head but was repelled by his chain mail.

Harper saw two purple spots bubbling on the top of each head. Nice shooting, Jordan, she thought. She snapped back to her feet and directed the still-active Poison Sphere at the third wolf, curling it around and avoiding Jordan.

The third wolf howled.

Below Jordan’s skirmish with the beast, Emma lay prone on the floor, not moving. Blood was streaming from her neck. Harper cast Intermediate Heal on her.

Jordan’s wolf drove at his neck while its other, partially severed head drooped limply on its right side.

Harper ran to Jordan’s side. She wielded Fire Scorch at the third wolf. The monster caught fire immediately. It yelped, jumped off of Jordan, and quickly retreated to the back of the chamber. As it passed Janna and Angie, the nurse swung at it with her long whip. The beast skirted away from them and scurried to the middle of the room with its skin still burning.

Harper ran to Emma. She pulled her broken arm from over her head to straighten it. Emma screamed. “Lay still,” Harper told her. “Don’t get up.” She examined Emma’s neck wounds. There were dozens of swollen punctures from the incisors, but the cuts weren’t deep.

Harper searched for Janna to determine if the nurse was aware of Emma’s condition. She was. Janna’s blue healing spell was already sailing across the room.

A thundering crash came from her left. She turned and saw that the burning wolf had smashed through the orc phalanx. Damon and Ethan lost their balance and, before they could regain their footing, the other two wolves pounced on their backs.

Harper raised her arms and started charging Fire Bullet.

The two orcs landed facedown on the floor. The wolves snapped at their plate armor, but their teeth clanked uselessly against the metal. Both orcs struggled to get back up, exposing their necks in doing so. The monsters clasped onto the back of their necks.

Harper grimaced as the wolves ripped away their skin. I can’t wait any longer, she thought. The Fire Bullet was charged at only 50%. It would have to do. She darted forward and thrust the spell. The fireball blew a hole through both wolves, killing one instantly. The other Dioskilos crashed into the far corner of the room, where it whimpered and struggled to get back up.

The large wolf, mounted on Zack’s chest, stopped attacking him and looked at the carnage. Acid still smoldered on its head. Patches of its green skin were completely burned off, leaving blackened open sores.

The beast turned its head slowly. Its crimson eyes found Harper. A window appeared in her vision.

Wolf Wrath!

A low growl resonated from its maw as it sat perched on Zack, who used the monster’s distraction to plunge his sword into its ribs. The Dioskilos flinched but didn’t move as its rage continued to build.

The beast leaped for Harper. Its jaws opened on its one remaining head. As she raised her arms to shield herself, Harper saw Damon bounce up and sprint for her. The massive wolf’s weight drove her body to the floor. The beast moved quickly to pin her with its heavy paws. In the moment before the beast attacked her, Harper could smell its breath. It reeked of spoiled meat. The monster’s saliva poured out in a gush that completely covered her face, making her choke. The spit dribbled down her throat and into her eyes as her vision blurred. Then she felt its teeth clamp onto the top and bottom of her head. Its fangs shredded her skin.

She shrieked as the pressure of its jaws compressed her skull. More decayed saliva flowed into her mouth, and with it, she could taste her own blood. She heard a swift, whistling sound, and the pressure on her head ceased. The jaws loosened, and the decapitated head of the Dioskilos fell to the floor with a heavy thud. The monster’s dead body sagged onto hers and a torrent of blood poured over her face.

Harper coughed violently and twisted away from the carcass. She stumbled to her feet, wiping her hands over her face in a frantic attempt to remove the blood and saliva that had seeped into her eyes and soaked her hair. She continued to thrash at her face, feeling panic and revulsion overtake her. As she shrieked in terror, a weight settled on her shoulder and she flailed away from it blindly. The touch returned, and she realized it was someone’s hand.

“It’s okay, Harper,” Damon told her as blood flowed from the back of his neck. “It’s over.”

4

That wasn’t entirely truthful. The larger Dioskilos was dead. The wolf that Harper had blown a hole through was dead as well. It lay in the middle of the floor with a hole the size of a dinner plate blasted through its chest.

The third wolf was crumpled in the chamber's corner. It panted shallowly but had given up on its attempts to get back up. The Fire Bullet had blasted through its hind legs and part of its abdomen. It whimpered weakly, hopelessly.

The blood and saliva that covered Harper still clung to her face, and now her hands too. The team had no water she could wash the effluvium off with, so she pulled two pears from her inventory and used their juices to clean off some of the muck. When she was finished, she had her first good look at the chamber, and saw it was full of human corpses and loot. Seeing all that loot would have overjoyed her at any other time, but Harper was running low on joy these days.

Damon was the one who’d saved her. He’d shorn off the Dioskilos’ second head with his battle axe, but it had been too close for comfort as far as he was concerned. He asked her what they had done wrong.

“Nothing,” she replied. “This is how it’s going to be until we gain more levels and more spells,” she informed them flatly. What she didn’t mention to the team was that they were at a distinct disadvantage having to enter the rooms individually. And that the rooms were too small for such intense battles. She spat on the floor, trying to clear her palate of the disgusting fluids that had dribbled into her mouth. “You all better get used to it,” she said coldly.

Janna, who was busy healing the team’s various wounds, glared at her, ready to chastise her, but she bit her tongue for the sake of the team.

The monster in the corner whined, and Damon ordered Ethan to finish the beast. As Ethan walked toward the injured Dioskilos, Harper stepped in front of him. “I need the points,” she told him.

He stared at her suspiciously for a moment, then complied, remembering that she was at a low level.

Harper charged her Fire Bullet and drove it at the monster, obliterating its two heads. At the same time, the exit portal changed from a solid mass to the undulating surface they were accustomed to. Harper told them to expect that going forward. “We’ll have to clear the rooms to move on,” she said.

Jordan asked why there wasn’t an Epiphany cloud containing the Wolf Wrath spell.

Harper shook her head. “Because it wasn’t a spell. It was the mob’s natural buff, kind of like ‘rage’ for a barbarian.”

The two kills gave Harper 124 experience points. She dropped her 20 attribute points into her constitution stats, wanting to raise her HP. Damon, who’d killed the larger Dioskilos, saw his level jump to 20. Harper told him to place his 8 attribute points into constitution as well.

5

Harper walked to the curved guardrail to gaze out over the courtyard. They were above ground. They knew that as soon as they saw the light in the room. She looked up and saw the first bridge that spanned the courtyard. It was five stories above where they stood.

Harper led the group around the chamber, scavenging for loot and inspecting the corpses. There were fifty-one dead humans in the chamber. Their bodies were at different stages of mummification, but they had one thing in common: they were missing their arms and heads.

“The wolves couldn’t have done that?” Damon asked Harper, but Janna answered. “Uh-uh. No animal could have systematically decapitated each cadaver in the same way. There must be a purpose behind these desecrations.”

“Why would there be so many bodies?” Emma asked as she cast more healing spells on the team members.

“Probably because we’ve reached the end of the line,” Harper theorized. “The people who defeated the mobs in the earlier rooms… they all died in here. That the wolves were still alive and the amount of bodies here suggests it. From now on, every room we enter will be occupied.”

The brothers checked the corpses to ascertain if their father was among them. “Dad’s not one of them,” Ethan muttered after they finished.

“Hmm, so we can assume he never made it to the tower,” Harper said, “and when we go bac—”

“He could very well be in this tower,” the orc interrupted.

Harper understood Ethan was grasping at straws, trying to be optimistic.

“I mean, aren’t places like these supposed to have hidden passageways and stuff?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Sure, they often do.” She waited for Ethan to say more, but he appeared satisfied with their tacit agreement and the brief glimmer of hope it provided.

6

They arranged the loot from the cadavers in the center of the room.

“My god. Why is there so much?” Emma asked.

“Maybe these were the humans who were trapped here by Cloud Nine,” Harper replied. “The same ones who the Jennings said plundered the village supplies.”

The team used their Object Description skills to get the rundown on each item. There were twenty-nine varieties of armor, forty-eight weapons, and twenty-three wineskins. While the members looked on, happy with the find, Zack was unimpressed. “Where are all the firearms?” he asked.

Among the assorted pieces of armor, there were six Coppergate Helmets, which included iron skull caps and cheek guards. The team wanted the orcs and the hunters to receive those.

Next were four pairs of Bronze-Plated Pants. These were constructed of loosely fitted metal plates. The orcs got these, with the extra pair going into Jordan’s inventory. No one else wanted to wear the heavy leggings, afraid it would affect their mobility.

They had six pieces of Bronze Armor, which were more solid than the orcs’ current armor. They were a snug fit on their big frames, but were sectioned off enough to allow for adjustments. Like the pants, the armor was too heavy for the other members to consider. They placed the three extra units into the orc inventories.

Two pairs of Bronze Gloves went to Damon and Zack. Ethan missed out and was not impressed.

A Bronze Shield that was both wider and taller than the orcs’ clipeus shields went to Damon. Zack had jokingly suggested rock, paper, or scissors, but the team decided to give it to their primary tank soldier. Damon didn’t have room in his inventory for the new items, so he asked Emma to carry his Almain Rivet armor and clipeus shield.

They gave three pieces of Splint Mail to the hunters. This armor offered more protection than the chain mail, covering their bodies like the orcs’ plate armor, but was light enough to keep the hunters mobile.

Four Studded Leather armor units went to the remaining two members who didn’t receive a defensive upgrade, Harper and Janna. Harper argued forcefully against using the armor, wanting to keep her flexibility, but the other members insisted. Harper discarded her jack of plates armor to make room in her inventory. Janna dropped the extra pieces into her inventory.

They found three Enchanter Capes, which were for mage use only. Harper relished putting the cape on to see what it did to her stats. It bumped her intelligence and wisdom stats by 10 points. She pocketed the other two into her inventory.

With the divvying up of the armor completed, they sorted through the weapons. Four Falchion Swords went to the orcs and Emma. These were longer, heavier blades than the gladius and nagamati swords.

The Flail, a weapon with three spiked metal balls hanging from a short handle, went to Damon. They awarded Jordan the Bastard Sword. He jokingly asked if it was a commentary of him. The sword was longer and thinner than the falchion.

The Flamberge Sword went to Janna. It was long and thin like the bastard sword, but the blade waved in and out down its length.

Angie had selflessly insisted the other front-line soldiers receive the sword upgrades, so the team rewarded her by giving her the nine Spears they foraged.

The team found twenty-seven Shurikens, three of which were embedded into the chamber’s stone walls. Angie and Emma got ten each while the other seven went to Jordan. “Yeah, sure. Because I’m a bastard, right?” he quipped.

Two Crescent Knives, long, curved blades that could be gripped from the center and used in close combat, went to Janna and Harper.

The last offensive items, three Enchanter Rings, were restricted to the mage class. Harper slipped one on, and her wisdom and intelligence stats got bumped by another 5 points. She dropped the extra two rings into her supply.

The most valuable items the team found were twenty-three Wineskins. The members finally could carry water. Harper proposed backtracking out of the tower to fill the skins. “I could use the water to clean this gunk off my face,” she urged.

The team considered it, but Damon wanted to move on, arguing they could change their minds and go back at any point. Harper pouted when the members agreed with his decision.

Each member received three wineskins aside from Jordan, who only got two. They waited for his reaction and he did not disappoint, complaining theatrically about being the bastard of the group.