1

Harper woke up first and could see it was still dark, but that didn’t dissuade her in the least. Damon was positioned right in front of her. She shook him. He didn’t move. She was going to shake him again when he spoke. “What?” he grunted.

“You’re getting up to camp for points,” Harper said, careful not to pose it as a question.

“We are, are we?”

She rocked his shoulder. “Come on. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Damon raised his arm from Angie, who was snoozing in front of him. He had removed his armor when they had gone to bed because of the long rock spikes that extended from the shoulders. He stretched in the little space he had, then deftly got up, re-equipping his armor, shield, and sword.

They woke Janna, Zack, and Ethan next, and the members slipped through the portals for an early morning hunting session. About an hour later, they returned from multiple excursions into the skeleton and stoner head rooms. By that time, the sun was up and light filtered into the tower.

Janna and Harper had concentrated on the stoners. Janna reached level 55 on twenty-seven kills and dropped her 16 attribute points into intelligence and wisdom. Harper jumped just two levels to 62 with twenty-five kills and dropped her 8 points into wisdom.

The orcs focused on the skeletons. Damon got to level 56 with forty-two kills. Harper asked him to drop his 28 attribute points as 9, 9, and 10 into constitution, dexterity, and endurance. With forty-one kills, Zack rose from level 42 to 55. He applied his 52 points as 17, 17, and 18 into constitution, dexterity, and endurance. Ethan had forty-seven kills, which got him to level 57. He dropped his 28 points as 9, 9, and 10 into strength, dexterity, and endurance.

On the way back to the fungo room, Damon turned to Ethan. “I should have thought of this earlier,” he said. “Since you’re going to be the main orc attacker, I want you to have the flail.” Damon handed him the weapon.

Ethan was thunderstruck. “I’m honored, man. Thank you,” he said humbly. Ethan passed his Almain Rivet armor to Damon to make room.

They had a small snack when they returned. Angie, Jordan, and Emma had cooked one salmon each, and they all had some of the fish. Harper reminded everyone of their roles. “Emma, remember you’ll be performing the hybrid role with me and Janna,” she said. “And Ethan, you’re the only orc who hasn’t had a major injury to your arm. You’ll be the attacker in the tank group.”

Harper looked at the bridge and sighed. She glanced at the Inmates. “I don’t mind telling you, I hope we finish this today.” They greeted her with a bunch of hurrahs and grunts of agreement. Then Harper stepped over the guardrail and planted her feet onto the bridge. She slowly got down on her hands and started moving forward.

2

Harper insisted on being the first to cross the bridge. It made sense. She was one of the lightest members of the team. She cast Defense Buff upon herself and hoped it would be enough to save her if she plummeted to the courtyard floor.

Once she was actually on the orange-stoned bridge, she could feel that the structure was very solid and felt a little more secure in crossing. Still, she trembled as the safety of the guardrail fell out of reach.

When she was twenty feet out, Harper suddenly had the urge to pee. She grimaced, trying to will the urge away. She gazed up to see how much further she had to go; it looked like another forty feet.

Now the sunlight pounded through the aperture at the top of the tower and Harper could feel her body heating up. Her palms became slick with perspiration against the nonporous stone, making her worry about slipping.

As she reached the middle of the bridge, beads of sweat dripped from her constricted face onto the stone platform. The bridge tapered in depth toward the middle. If it’s going to crumble under my weight, it would be here, she thought. Around her, she could see the vast expanse of the courtyard and the distance from the tower floor. She felt slightly dizzy.

A chilly breeze brushed up against her, and she gripped tightly onto the rounded corners of the bridge. Out of nowhere and for the first time in days, she thought of Megan. And that made her think of Miguel. Her mind was spinning as a sensation of vertigo seized her.

Fuck, Harper! Concentrate, she thought to herself.

She glanced back at the Inmates. They were fixed to the guardrail, their eyes wide, their mouths open, their skin pale. Harper returned her focus to the bridge ahead, and that slight movement of her head disoriented her. She swayed to her right and, suddenly, she could feel her wet hand sliding on the slick stone.

Oh, no! Oh, NO!

She heard moans of concern coming from behind her. The fear, vertigo, and disorientation flooded her mind. She felt drunk. Any moment now, I’m going to slip off the edge and fall! she panicked.

She imagined her head crashing against the hard stone of the courtyard floor. That made her nauseous. With the tower spinning in her mind, Harper closed her eyes. She still felt like she was on a mad merry-go-round from hell, but the images of the tower careening through her vision were gone for the time being. She felt grounded.

Your visual reference is gone! her mind pleaded. You could be leaning and not even know it!

I know… I know, she answered.

She took a deep breath, then exhaled. Opening her eyes again, Harper realized she had been dangerously canted to her left side, but she didn’t panic. She leaned slowly to her right and straightened herself out, ignoring the constant pressure in her bladder.

Don’t look at anything but the bridge ahead, she told herself. At that moment, she was glad she had shoulder-length hair; it cascaded down from her head and helped block out her peripheral vision.

She moved her right hand ahead of her body. Both arms were slick with sweat and freezing cold.

How could I be sweating and freezing at the same time?

Never mind.

Another breeze rushed by her, seeming to answer her question. Harper shivered.

She moved her right knee ahead, dragging it along the hard stone.

Then she moved her left hand.

Bizarrely, she had a sense that Brett was watching her and had an impulse to look down at the courtyard.

Will I find him there, looking up at me? Willing me to fall?

Never mind. Just keep moving.

She moved her left knee forward, focusing only on the twelve inches in front of her. She moved her hand. Then the other knee.

“Only another five feet,” Damon’s voice reassured her, bouncing off the circular walls of the tower. Why he hadn’t coaxed or called out to her earlier, she wondered. Because that would have distracted you at the worst time. You were losing it back there, she answered herself.

With only five more feet, Harper wanted to look up, see her goal, but she resisted the urge. Another hand moved forward. Another knee.

After what seemed like an eternity, she sensed the guardrail in front of her and, this time, she did look up.

The stone posts of the guardrail stood twelve inches from her face.

She cried out desperately and reached for the posts like a swimmer grasping at a life-preserver. As her hands closed on the cold stone, her entire body shivered and she started crying. Her legs moved involuntarily, scrambling her panicked body over the rail and into the safety of the next room.

3

Beside the guardrail, Harper clutched at herself for five minutes, shivering and unable to move. She had never been so scared in her life. Even the battles with heavy mobs like the Dioskilos and Thorn Spider hadn’t terrified her as much as her experience on the bridge.

When she got back up, she hurried into the corner of the room and relieved her bladder. The team had been disciplined about where they went to the bathroom, going outside or using the muddy basement level as their toilet area. But Harper wasn’t about to go back across the bridge just to go relieve herself. When she was done, she walked to the guardrail and looked over the courtyard at her waiting teammates, who stood by patiently.

“How are you doing?” Damon called out.

“Why, I’m just chipper,” Harper joked. She asked who was going next.

Damon said he would.

“Remove all of your armor,” she called back. “You want nothing weighing you down while you’re out there.”

Damon unequipped his armor, stepped over the rail, and crawled onto the bridge. He didn’t have any problems crossing. As a seasoned Marine, he had been in similar situations many times before.

Still, Harper worried about the extra weight the orc carried. Her fears proved to be unfounded. The bridge didn’t lose any of its structural integrity. Damon made it over in five minutes. He climbed over the guardrail and stood next to Harper, rubbing his hand on the small of her back. She threw a perplexed look at him, but Damon stared straight ahead. He didn’t seem to be conscious of what he was doing.

Zack came over next.

At first, he tried walking with his arms outstretched for balance. He eventually came to his senses and got onto his hands and knees, making it across the bridge in the shortest amount of time.

As he climbed over the rail, Damon shook his head. “That was really stupid.”

Zack grunted and nodded as he stood beside Harper.

The only person to have problems crossing the bridge was Janna. That was expected because of her fear of heights. So Emma and Jordan crossed over with her, taking a place on either side of her. Together, the three teammates made it across safe and sound, although Janna was shaking like Harper when she reached the other side.

Harper looked up at the second bridge in the tower, which was another hundred feet above them. She shuddered. They marked the room as 13. “I wouldn’t have crossed that bridge if I knew it led to the thirteenth room,” Harper joked.

They re-equipped their swords and armor and passed through the only portal in the small room.

4

Harper entered the fourteenth room and realized they were in the darkened basement again. However, they were at its highest level; she could see the courtyard floor directly above them. Cracks of light leaked through the ceiling, but the room was still very dark. Harper launched Fire Glow to push away the gloom and saw that the room took up the entire circumference of the floor.

Damon saw the shadowy figures first. He’d just turned to say something to Harper when he was struck in the head by a blunt green object that seemed to come out of nowhere. The blow knocked him to the ground.

Harper saw strands of vines that trailed from the blunt object. She tracked the vines, which were pulling away from Damon, to a human shape standing near the wall. The figure was dressed in a hooded brown robe. Its head was down so Harper couldn’t see its face. A large green belt covered its waist. Spreading out from the belt and the creature’s back were the long vines that had struck Damon.

Harper’s Creature Description details came up.

VINE DRUID (Level 15)

HP: 146

MP: 157

STRENGTH: 10

CONSTITUTION: 14

DEXTERITY: 13

INTELLIGENCE: 15

WISDOM: 16

XP: 78

DESCRIPTION: Ancient beings of the natural world.

The druid held a wooden staff with long green prongs on its end that slithered with a life of their own.

Harper moved closer to the creature and realized the druid’s robe was constructed from fragments of oak wood, almost like scales.

Most of the Inmates were in the room now. Emma cast her own Fire Glow spell and sent it to the other side of the circular room. Harper saw six more vine druids scattered throughout the chamber. They glided toward the Inmates, seeming to levitate above the dirt floor.

“I’m not sure tanking is going to work here,” Harper said, “but whatever we do, let’s stay together as a unit.”

Harper heard a rustling sound. She turned toward it. Another bolt of vines shot from the closest druid, striking her knees like a baseball bat. It knocked her off her feet, and she smacked her head against the dirt floor. She checked her HP.

239 out of 265.

Okay, not bad, she thought.

She heard more rustling noises. Ethan and Zack cried out as their heavy weights slammed into the ground. These mobs seem to have the same attack pattern. Harper sat back up in time to see Jordan nock two arrows on his bow. The closest druid raised its head for the first time and hissed at Jordan. All Harper could see was the vague shape of a mouth and two white eyes peering from the darkness of the hood.

The creature banged its staff onto the floor. A line of dirt bulged from the ground and sped toward Jordan, tripping him. He tumbled to the floor as his arrows fired into the ceiling.

Beside him, Angie shot an arrow.

The druid waved its staff in a swift, fluid motion, deflecting the arrow into the stone wall. It swung the staff, and multiple vines shot out from the front and back of its body. The vines flay open at the last second, generating a blunt end that was a foot wide. They struck every member of the team, dropping them all.

Emma, who landed near Harper, wielded Acid Fly at the druid. The monster shot more vines, snagging the insect and crushing it. Its body parts fell to the ground, then disappeared. Still laying on their backs, Emma and Harper glanced at each other, shocked.

I didn’t think it could do that, Emma thought to the mage.

Me neither, Harper responded. Is the fly still depleting your MP?

Emma checked and shook her head.

The other druids were just a few feet away. Damon jumped up and swung his bone-axe at one druid. The blade got stuck, wedged into the sturdy oak of the creature’s robe.

Harper saw the druid’s HP sink from 146 to 131 from the blow and was immediately grateful for the new ability. “That worked, Damon!” she shouted. “Keep using the axe!”

Damon pulled the axe from the druid and got ready to swing again. The creature lashed out with more vines, dropping Damon again.

Harper turned to Emma. “Try Earth Tangle and Song of Distraction while I try Fire Scorch.” They both got back up, retreating a few steps as the horde of druids bore down on them.

Harper wielded the fire spell. The druid was instantly engulfed in fire. More vines shot out from the dying creature, this time covered with flames. The burning vines circled Harper’s arms, and her exposed skin burned while her leather armor caught fire.

Harper screamed.

She wiped the druid’s burnt and crumbling appendages from her body. Turning away from the dead druid, Harper started charging a Fire Bullet as she assessed the battle.

The orc’s axes were chopping at the druid’s wood robes, but the process was slow and hardly made a dent on their hit points. Some druids had arrows, bone spurs, and throwing knives protruding from their oak robes, further demonstrating the futility of physical weapons.

Emma touched her shoulder. “The Song of Distraction spell isn’t working, but the Earth Tangle spell is slowing them down.”

Harper nodded, then noticed two druids had ganged up on Jordan. They had him confined in a spiral of vines. “Go untangle Jordan!” she shouted furiously at the orcs. “Everyone else, back away from the druids!”

When her teammates were a safe distance away, Harper unleashed her fully charged Fire Bullet at the two druids. The spell ripped through them, obliterating their oak robes.

Fully exposed now, two purple humanoid figures huddled together. Their white eyes shone with ferocity as they raised their arms to cast spells. Angie rapidly fired four arrows, which punctured their chests and killed them. Harper unleashed a torrent of Fire Scorch that encompassed the remaining druids. The fire depleted their hit points quickly, and soon the fight was over.

5

Harper didn’t waste any time grabbing the druid staff from one of Angie’s kills. As her fingers wrapped around the weapon, a wave of energy ran through her arm, then her body.

Congratulations, Harper! You have found a Druid Staff. This weapon will increase the potency of your spells and allow you to perform combos with a single arm. Available to all Mages, so tell all your friends. Don’t be a prude, hang out with a Druid!

Harper tried the staff right away, willing Fire Bullet through the long shaft of wood. The spell charged within the weapon’s prongs, which twitched around the growing ball of fire. She swung the staff sideways and drove the fireball into the wall, pounding a hole into the solid stone. She tried all her spells and found that the staff helped her direct the spells much better. I like this, she thought, quite pleased with herself.

The other Inmates were maxed on their inventories too, so Harper asked Janna to discard her trilance struss and deposit the second unburned staff into her inventory. Next, she checked the Epiphany clouds and was flooded with messages.

Congratulations, Harper! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Battering Ram. This spell will shoot seven vines that will entwine and strike your enemy with a heavy blow! Ranked advanced and available to all Mages, so tell all your friends. Battering Ram will cost you 2 MP, and has a cooldown rate of 5 seconds and a range of 100 meters. This ain’t no anagram, this is a Battering Ram!

Congratulations, Harper! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Ground Swell. This spell will maneuver the earth in a direct path toward your enemy, jostling them from their position! Ranked advanced and available to Hunters and Mages, so tell all your friends. Ground Swell will cost you 1.5 MP, and has a cooldown rate of 1 second and a range of 100 meters. Your adversaries might feel like they’re on solid ground, but you have Ground Swell support!

Congratulations, Harper! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Dirt Storm. This spell will create a cloud of dirt that will swirl around your enemy, distracting them and impairing their vision! Ranked progressive and available to Hunters and Mages, so tell all your friends. Dirt Storm will cost you 1 MP every second, and has a cooldown rate of 5 seconds and a range of 100 meters. Seeing will be believing when it’s your enemies who can’t find their way out of Dirt Storm!

Jordan, Emma, and Angie collected their Dirt Storm and Ground Swell spells while Harper experimented with her three new spells, hoping to create a few combos. It didn’t take long before she found one, using Earth Tangle and Battering Ram.

Brilliant, Harper! You have discovered: Bridge of Vines. Create a bridge structure with vines and brambles! Ranked progressive and available to all Mages who possess Earth Tangle and Battering Ram, so tell all your friends. Bridge of Vines will cost you 15 MP every second, and has a cooldown rate of 20 seconds and a range of 100 meters. Don’t crawl and whine when you have Bridge of Vines!

“Hmm. This combo seems to be made specifically for the bridges,” Harper told the team, wondering if it was one of the few times Cloud Nine had thrown them a break. Experimenting with the spell, she created a sloped bridge between the top of the guardrail and the floor of the chamber. The vines and brambles weaved together, producing a three-inch-thick slab of vegetation. More importantly, the spell attached to the solid rock of the rail.

She turned to Emma, who was the lightest member of the crew. “Put your weight on that. I want to see if it will hold you.”

Emma was hesitant but approached the green structure. She settled her weight on it, grabbing a nearby post in case she slipped. The bridge remained solid, even after Harper asked her to bounce on it. She tried it herself next and then asked Janna and the hunters to try it. It held firm.

She asked Damon, who was the smallest orc, to try it next. He crashed through the structure as it crumbled under his extra three hundred pounds of weight.

“Damn it—you’re on a diet,” Harper joked. “Starting now!”

“Is this about my muscular, thick thighs?” he quipped back.

She snickered.

“So, the spell is a no-go for the orcs,” Angie said in a more serious tone.

The mage nodded.

Harper earned 390 experience points from the druids she burned, which boosted her to level 64. She deposited her 8 attribute points into intelligence. Angie bagged 156 XP, which nudged her to level 53. She dropped her 4 points into dexterity. Emma marked the room with Acid Fly as number 14 and was relieved that the druid hadn’t permanently killed off the spell.