1

Harper walked into the pink marble room behind Damon and immediately registered several things. First, the ceiling was twenty feet off the ground, not the usual ten feet. It was also covered with sharp stalactites that were uniform in size and shape: three feet long by eight inches in diameter.

Second, there was an opening in the ceiling at the far side of the chamber that overlooked the room’s largest boss, a twenty-foot-tall skeleton that sat cross-legged and held an immense sword over its lap. The monster’s skull raised to look at them. What is that in its eyes? Harper wondered briefly.

The third thing she noticed was that the ring-shaped chamber took up the entire floor.

Finally, she had a good look at the other mobs in the chamber. We’ve entered a boss-rush room, she thought. On her right, another Dioskilos started moving toward them. Her Creature Description details appeared.

DIOSKILOS (Level 33)

HP: 534

MP: 135

STRENGTH: 137

CONSTITUTION: 53

DEXTERITY: 100

INTELLIGENCE: 13

WISDOM: 37

XP: 310

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

The wolf was about one and a half times the size of the three beasts they had encountered earlier in the tower. On the left side of the chamber was a regular-sized Thorn Spider. Thankfully, the room wasn’t covered with cobwebs. Harper waited for her Creature Description details to pop up for the spider.

THORN SPIDER (Level 35)

HP: 460

MP: 242

STRENGTH: 66

CONSTITUTION: 46

DEXTERITY: 90

INTELLIGENCE: 24

WISDOM: 2

XP: 118

DESCRIPTION: Arachnid with a thorn-covered exoskeleton.

Harper didn’t hang around for the details on the gigantic skeleton, knowing she was probably too far out of range to get the prompt. She pulled on Damon’s shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”

While Damon expressed his confusion, Harper jumped back through the entry portal. Lucky for us, it wasn’t a one-way portal. She passed through easily enough, but not before having a very unsettling experience. In the split second that Harper crossed through the portal, she intersected with Zack, who was just entering the chamber. In that brief moment, she penetrated his skin and sailed through Zack’s internal organs. She saw everything, from his newly healed punctured lung to his circling eyeballs.

Zack utter a startled, “What?” but it sounded metallic and statically modulated.

Then the experience was over and she was back in the previous room, stopping Ethan from walking through the portal next. An instant later, Zack and Damon walked back into the room.

“That was some psychedelic shit, Harper,” Zack said. “I think I saw your heart.”

Harper snickered.

“Why did we do that?” Damon asked.

“We need to plan for how we’re going to tackle the different bosses in that room.” Harper turned to the other Inmates. “From what I saw, there was one of those two-headed wolves in there, along with the giant spider and a skeleton as big as a house. Did you see anything else, Damon?”

He shook his head. “No. Other than the horde of smaller skeletons surrounding the big one. And that the wolf is much bigger.”

Harper nodded. “Right, so let’s construct a game plan. Leaving out the variable of the skeleton, for now, your axes and the acid spells worked best against the three wolves last time.”

“Yeah, and we have new spells now,” Emma added. “We could try Song of Distraction against the wolves this time.”

“That’s right,” Harper said excitedly. “We should try all the diversion spells, considering we have three bosses in that room.” She glanced at Jordan. “As for the spider, that mob evaded our aerial spells very well, and I don’t want Jordan jumping on that thing again.”

“Thank you,” Jordan winced.

Harper smiled. “Plus, it has the ability to snatch our weapons away.” The orcs grunted, remembering how easily their weapons were taken. Harper paused, looked down, and thought about the scenario for a few seconds. The Inmates watched her with interest. Finally, she looked back up at them.

“Here’s what I think we should do,” she said.

2

After checking everyone’s mana regen rates, Harper and the orcs ran both Defense Buff and Offense Buff on themselves. Each orc had over .75 MPR left over, so she asked them to run Defense Buff on Jordan, Emma, and Angie.

Jordan was asked to run Offense Buff on the same three members while Angie would run Earth Tangle on both the wolf and spider.

“I’ll cast Dirt Storm at the spider,” Harper said, “and Song of Distraction when I enter the room. That will leave me 5.32 to run my other spells.” She glanced at Emma. “I want you to stay near the portal and concentrate on Mana Heal.”

Emma looked disappointed. “That’s going to knock us down a fighter,” she countered.

Harper shook her head. “We need to keep you safe. You will also have an overview of the battles and can inform us of anything we may be missing: attack patterns, mob movements, that sort of thing. If you see a member in a dire situation, then you can jump in.” She waited for more protests.

Emma didn’t argue.

Harper looked around at the other Inmates, privately shocked they hadn’t taken up Emma’s side. The mage stressed they still had their mana pools to wield any offensive or defensive spells they deemed appropriate. “Tanking isn’t likely to work because we have multiple bosses that will probably advance on us,” she told them.

She divided the team into battle groups. She would fight the spider along with Zack and Damon. Angie and the brothers would take on the Dioskilos.

“Of course, that leaves the big question mark, the giant skeleton at the end of the room,” Harper sighed. “On that, we’ll have to improvise. Hopefully, we can take down the two bosses before having to deal with the big one.” She looked around at the team. “Any questions?”

Damon replied for the group. “No, that’s a good plan.” Then he turned and jumped through the portal.

3

Harper cast Song of Distraction, then Dirt Storm at the Thorn Spider as she followed Damon and Zack toward the beast.

Jordan cast Earth Tangle at both mobs, then bolted for the Dioskilos along with Angie and Ethan. He realized that the tangle spell had no effect on the gigantic wolf because it wouldn’t adhere to the chamber’s marble floor.

Angie fired a spray of arrows that pierced the wolf’s chest. One of her arrows punctured the right eye of its left-side head. Red liquid splashed from the wound. The Dioskilos howled so loudly that even Damon, Zack, and Harper, who were on the other side of the room, stopped to look over.

“Nice hit, Angie!” Ethan exclaimed, running beside her. He had equipped his skelchion and lunged at the monster’s right-side head. The Dioskilos dipped down and smacked its skull against Ethan’s body, flicking him away like a fly. He crashed into the hard marble wall. The monster now had a shallow gash on the top of its head.

With his greater speed and jumping abilities, Jordan jumped and landed on the monster’s rightside. Facing the rear of the chamber, he plunged his boney bastard sword into its neck. The Dioskilos sagged briefly. Jordan jumped off the monster’s back and landed near its hind legs.

Back on the floor, he noticed the pack of thirty skeletons in the back of the chamber. They circled the gigantic skeleton, which was preparing to swing its sword in his direction. As massive as the sword was, Jordan could see that it couldn’t reach him, so he didn’t try to avoid it.

Then the giant skeleton slashed its sword through the air. A foot-high red beam shoot from the tip of the blade. Before Jordan could evade it, the red wave pounded his waist and traveled through his body. It felt like an extremely sharp blade had chopped him in half. Jordan looked down to make sure he was still in one piece. He was shocked to see that his splint mail wasn’t even damaged. He noticed that his HP had dropped from 288 to 251, but his mana pool had also depleted, going from 120 to 98.

That thing just stole my mana, Jordan thought. His Creature Description details came up on the gigantic skeleton.

PARANTHRO ([`!~!]

HP: 899

MP: ##

STRENGTH: ###

CONSTITUTION: ###

DEXTERITY: 137

INTELLIGENCE: ##

WISDOM: 52

XP: ###

DESCRIPTION: Huge skeleton that^.!%__!;

Feeling weaker, Jordan noticed one more thing about the giant skeleton. It was covered with the same glitches they had seen previously. The black splotches infested the skeleton’s bones like a rash. He saw the anomalies in the monster’s eye sockets and along its right shoulder.

The creature swung its sword again, but was aiming at Harper’s group this time.

Jordan turned his attention back to the Dioskilos battle. The creature had advanced on Ethan and Angie, moving them back and closer to Emma, who was standing by the portal. He ran, then leaped onto the gigantic wolf’s back. Using his claws, Jordan pulled himself up the monster’s body.

As the Dioskilos tried to buck him, Jordan drove his sword through the skull of the right-side head. His blade crashed through bone, then skewered the monster’s brain. The head drooped immediately and Jordan, mounted on the dead head, fell to the floor.

The monster whipped its other head around and snapped at him. The Dioskilos’ large fangs sliced the skin on his left quad. Jordan screamed. He pressed his hand against the wound, and it was instantly soaked with blood.

Off to the side, he saw Emma cast Mana Heal. The spell’s red light circled his injured leg. Emma kept the spell going, drawing from her mana pool. “Tell me when you’re good,” she shouted.

As the spell continued, renewed energy flooded through Jordan’s body. He removed his hand. His leg wound shrunk, then completely healed over. It was like watching a time-lapse film. Damn, that Mana Heal spell is good! he thought. Behind him, the wolf abruptly sagged.

“You can turn the spell off now,” he called to Emma. He spun to get a better look at the battle. Ethan had just taken out the beast’s front-left leg with his hammer. Its paw jutted out at a severe angle, away from its body. Meanwhile, Angie had buried four spears into the monster’s chest, and as Jordan watched, she impaled its last remaining eye with a bone-spur shuriken.

Jordan checked the Dioskilos’ hit points: 60 remaining out of 534. Battle’s almost done, he thought.

Just then, the spiked ceiling started descending toward them.

4

Rushing toward the Thorn Spider, Harper could see that the Dirt Storm spell had worked. The cloud of swirling dust had confused the spider. The Earth Tangle and Song of Distraction spells, on the other hand, didn’t work.

The spider shot silk at them, but missed because of its impaired vision. Harper allowed Damon and Zack to run ahead of her while she charged a Fire Bullet. Damon swung his axe at the spider’s pedipalp claws at the front of its body and sheared them off. The creature hissed at them. Zack swung his axe vertically, tearing through two of the spider’s four eyes. It squealed and crab-legged away, but the Dirt Storm spell followed it.

Suddenly a red beam shot through the air, coming from the rear of the chamber. Its force stunned Harper and the two orcs as intense pain surged through their bodies. She noticed that her mana points had taken a hit along with her HP.

Taking advantage of their confusion, the Thorn Spider shot a thick silk web at Damon’s chest and shoulders, knocking him to the ground. Before he could react, the monster shot a flurry of silk strands that adhered to his legs, arms, and head.

Almost completely immobilized, Damon unequipped the axe and his skelchion appeared in his hand. He tried to swing at the web that entangled him but didn’t have any leverage.

Zack charged in with his hammer, swinging across the spider’s left legs. The blow sent all but one of its appendages flying to the back of the room. The spider tilted to its left side. Undeterred, it lifted Damon above its venomous claws, shooting more silk and spinning his body into a webbed husk. The spider lowered Damon toward its dripping mandibles.

“Get me out of here!” he shouted through the silk that confined him.

Harper drove her Fire Bullet at the monster’s claws. Because of the still-active Dirt Storm spell, the spider did not attempt to evade the projectile. The fireball tore through the spider’s body, eviscerating its brain and killing it instantly.

Damon’s web-covered body landed on top of the spider’s carcass. His bronze armor shattered the thorns that protruded from the spider’s body, but one thorn pierced through his leather boot and impaled his left foot. He screamed. Damon tried to move, but the silk that covered his body had pinned him to the Thorn Spider’s corpse, seven feet from the floor.

They heard a rumble from overhead and watched as the ceiling started to descend and the sharp points of the stalactites inched toward Damon’s prone body.

5

As Emma stood in front of the entry portal, she watched the two separate battles play out. The Inmates looked well in control of both. Jordan took a major role in the fight against the Dioskilos and she felt both proud of him and worried at the same time.

As she followed his movements, Emma saw the giant skeleton swing its sword. The red beam that shot out from the blade ran through Jordan’s group. It continued and widened as it spread through the room, covering more territory.

That thing is coming at me, Emma realized. Fortunately, she had more time to react than Jordan did. She looked to the ceiling for something she could jump and hang on to. The sharp stalactites weren’t an appealing option, and there was a chance they might not even hold her weight.

With time running out, she ran toward the on-rushing beam and leaped over it. The crimson ray passed under her body. Emma landed next to the guardrail. As she retreated back to the portal, she checked the two battles. Zack and Damon had damaged the Thorn Spider and, as she turned to her right, she saw Jordan bury his sword into one of the Dioskilos’ heads. The monster attacked Jordan as he landed.

Emma saw the blood pouring from his leg wound. While she cast Mana Heal on Jordan, Emma studied the rear of the chamber. She noticed that the skeletons, including the gigantic one, didn’t appear to be too interested in the fight. The smaller skeletons paced back and forth with their swords and shields. Near the rear chamber wall, a skeleton swung at a device embedded in the pink marble. Emma heard a loud clunk, and then the ceiling started moving down.

It’s a switch! Emma realized. She looked up at the ceiling. The sharp points inched closer to her. She checked the battles again. Jordan’s group was almost done with the Dioskilos. Harper’s and the orcs had killed the spider, but Emma could see that Damon was pinned on the spider’s back.

I have to turn off that switch!

Emma sprinted to the right side of the room. There were twenty skeletons between her and the switch. They raised their swords and charged at her. Emma jumped high and far, catapulting herself toward the switch on the wall. As she glided through the air, she felt the tops of their swords tapping against her splint mail. Knowing her calves were not protected, she curled her knees in to avoid the blades. Still airborne, Emma’s Creature Description details appeared.

HARRY (Level 6)

HP: 75

MP: 48

STRENGTH: 15

CONSTITUTION: 7

DEXTERITY: 6

INTELLIGENCE: 4

WISDOM: 6

XP: 75

DESCRIPTION: The reanimated bones of ancient Greek Argonauts.

She crash-landed into two skeletons, which raised their shields at the last second. Her body thudded against their metal and sent the mobs flying. Immediately, two other skeletons were on her, swinging their swords in wide arcs.

Emma raised her arms to block their blows with her mail’s metal plating, then rolled away and toward the switch, knocking the feet out from under another skeleton. Her shoulder smacked against the marble wall and she sprang to her feet beside the switch. Putting her weight under the metal lever, she moved the switch back up and the ceiling stopped moving.

The surrounding skeletons raised their swords and advanced on her. She swung her sword horizontally, catching a few mobs in the midsection, but only temporarily driving them back. Acid Fly, Emma thought. I can distract them with that spell. She launched the spell and directed the fly away from her position.

The skeletons didn’t chase it. They kept advancing on her.

Fuck!

Emma swung her sword and chopped off the skulls of two mobs. She looked around for the Inmates. The Dioskilos and Thorn Spider battles were over. Angie and Jordan were running toward her, but the other members hadn’t realized her predicament. “I need some help over here!” she screamed just as the giant skeleton’s massive hand threw her across the room.

6

Zack saw the ceiling coming down. He climbed on top of the seven-foot-high carcass of the spider, lacerating his hands against its thorns in the process. He pulled at Damon’s body, but couldn’t get him loose. “Harper, what do I do?” he asked desperately.

“Hold out your sword,” she replied.

He did and she blasted the tip of his blade with Fire Scorch for fifteen seconds. “Try to cut him loose with the hot edge,” she told him.

Zack sawed at the web that had seeped into the spider’s corpse. Most of the thorns had been broken away by Damon’s heavy metal armor, but some were still in his way and Zack had to work around those. Still, the hot blade cut through the webbing easily. He looked down at Harper, who was watching him attentively. “It’s working,” he said, then nervously looked up at the descending ceiling.

Damon pulled against the web as Zack cut through it, speeding up the process. “We’re getting there, buddy,” he said reassuringly. Damon didn’t look too concerned.

Then the ceiling suddenly stopped. A moment later, Emma screamed. Harper and Zack looked toward the rear of the chamber.

“I’m staying here,” he said.

Harper nodded before racing on to a new battle.

7

After being thrown by the giant skeleton, Emma landed fifteen feet away from the switch, crashing into the hard wall. The Inmates converged on the area to defend Emma, attacking the smaller skeletons with their melee weapons. Ethan plowed through most of the smaller mobs with his hammer. Their bones rattled against the wall near her.

“The switch,” Emma called out painfully. “It has to stay up. Someone guard the switch.”

They heard another audible clunk, and the ceiling started descending again. Ethan bolted for the switch while Jordan and Angie stayed with Emma.

“I guess that’s why there’s a hole in the ceiling,” Angie muttered as she watched the ceiling descend and the top half of the giant skeleton pass through the hole.

Ethan reached the switch, but the skeleton’s massive hand flicked him away and he crash-landed beside Emma. Then the giant swung its sword again. The red beam raced through the Inmates’ bodies, robbing them of mana and hit points. As the red spell cascaded over the vanquished skeletons, their bones flew back together like pieces of metal drawn to a magnet.

“God dammit,” Ethan snarled at the reanimated mobs.

He ran for the switch again, taking down more skeletons. This time, instead of hitting the switch, he bashed his hammer into the hand of the giant and crushed its bones against the hard marble floor.

Ethan turned to the switch, lifting it up and stopping the ceiling’s descent. To his left, the giant skeleton’s bones grew back, sprouting from its wrist and re-materializing its hand. “What the—” he muttered. The reshaped bones swatted him away. As Ethan slammed into the wall, a smaller skeleton flipped the switch. The ceiling resumed descending.

The giant hand waved its sword again, firing another red beam that injured the teammates and reanimated defeated skeletons.

Rubbing his shoulder, Ethan turned to Harper. “What do we do?”

Harper checked on Damon and Zack. They were still perched on top of the dead spider. The ceiling’s spikes were only two feet away from impaling their bodies. “Get back at that switch, Ethan,” she yelled, “until I can figure this out!”

Ethan ran back into the pack of skeletons.

Harper turned to Angie. “You go with him. Protect the switch, no matter what!”

Angie equipped her nagamarrow sword and followed Ethan, who had cleared the way with his hammer.

Having seen the giant’s hand re-materialize, Harper decided to try different sections of the skeleton’s anatomy. She cast the Boulder spell and drove the marble ball through the giant’s patella, hip bone, and sword-bearing hand.

But those bones grew back.

“What the hell are we going to do?” Emma asked as she cast her healing spells.

Harper looked up at the ceiling, which had temporarily stopped again. “We have to get above the ceiling,” Harper responded.

8

“It has to be the skull we need to target,” Harper explained, “and that is above the ceiling now.”

Emma and Jordan looked at the ceiling, which was ten feet off the floor.

“There aren’t any columns we could try to climb up,” Jordan replied. “We’d have to jump from the guardrail and hope to latch onto something.”

“I know,” Harper said, then smiled. “That’s why Miguel and I asked you to be the Grimalkin race. You’re both specifically designed for this type of task.”

He moaned. “That’s a little too easy for you to say.”

Harper shrugged. Jordan shook his head, but walked to the rail anyway. Although the ceiling’s inner ring was solid marble and perfectly flat, he could see the top edge if he leaned out far enough. He looked down at the bottom of the tower and could feel himself getting dizzy. A cold breeze wafted up through the courtyard.

“It’s either you jump,” Harper said as she nodded to Ethan and Angie, who were still battling the smaller mobs, “or we get your brother to throw us over.”

Another red beam rippled through their bodies, and they groaned. Jordan looked at his brother, knowing he had to make a quick decision. “Can you run that vine spell up to the ceiling?” he asked.

Harper tried, but the vine mesh would not construct vertically. Jordan glanced once more at his brother, then jumped from the safety of the chamber just as the ceiling hitched and started moving down again.

9

As he jumped off the top rail, Jordan catapulted his body, ascending to the top edge of the ceiling. He scraped his clawed hands into the marble surface, but the top of the upper floor was completely flat. With nothing to grab onto, Jordan started sliding down. Slivers of pink rock flew from the gouges he was scraping into the ceiling, but the speed of his drop was increasing.

“No, no, no!” Jordan screamed as he saw the top edge of the upper floor drift away from him. So, this is how I’m going to die in this stupid world, he thought miserably.

Suddenly, a hard rock banged against his coccyx, and his free fall was stopped. With his claws still gripping the very edge of the platform, Jordan was afraid to look down. He realized the rock, which was pushing him up, was spherical. It moved him closer to the edge of the upper floor. My life has been saved by a bowling ball! he thought hysterically.

Jordan clawed frantically at the platform, gaining more traction now from his elevated position. Afraid he was going to make the wrong move and plummet to his death, he leaned his torso toward the edge.

Then the marble sphere soared up at a slightly faster speed, driving his hip over his head and cartwheeling him onto the safety of the platform.

10

As Jordan lay on his back on the descending platform, he saw light coming through the tower’s aperture just a few floors above him. He noticed the orc Defense Buff had turned off. I must be out of range, he thought, or it won’t go through the marble. Instead, he cast the spell on himself.

The ceiling hitched again and stopped moving.

Jordan stood up. The giant skull at the end of the platform turned to look at him. Its eye sockets were filled with the starry kaleidoscope of the glitch pattern. The bare, dry teeth on its closed jaw were as big as his hand.

“Are you okay up there?” Harper called up.

Jordan knelt and stared through the opening. “Yes! Yes! Which one of you cuties saved my life?”

Harper smiled at him. “That would be Emma.”

“You rock, Emma Taylor!” he shouted. Emma beamed up at him. “I don’t want either of you to attempt coming up here,” he said in a more serious tone.

“Yeah, that’s what we thought,” Harper said. “We’re just glad you made it.” She frowned. “Now, here’s what I think you should do. The Boulder spell that just saved your life? Well, you can—”

A burst of energy slammed into Jordan, and he knew immediately what hit him. Bright pain poured through his body as he rolled on his side against the marble platform. Somehow, that damn skeleton hit me with the red beam without its sword, he thought. As his vision cleared, he saw he was right; the giant’s sword was still on the floor below. Only the skeleton’s skull and shoulders poked through the opening at the far end of the room.

So, how did it hit me?

Jordan decided he didn’t care. He ran for the giant skull, calling up his Boulder spell. The marble ball followed as he closed the distance on the monster. “Get ready to be bowled over, you fucker!” he shouted.

The skull opened its jaws, revealing a black-and-white glitch that stretched like an elastic band from its teeth. Bright rays of light projected from its mouth like long fangs. Another burst of energy shot from the monster’s mouth, but this beam was much larger than the one from the sword. Jordan watched the ten-foot-high wall of red energy race toward him. He braced for it, but when the beam hit him, it lifted him off his feet and sent him flying backward. He saw the Boulder spell vanish in its red wave.

Jordan landed on his back, racked with pain. He rolled to his side until his head was peering down the courtyard opening again. “That thing is using the red spell on me, and it’s eliminating my Boulder spell,” he called down to Harper.

While Harper considered the problem, Jordan looked at his HP. It was 197 out of 288. “Holy shit,” he muttered, then told the girls about the damage he’d sustained from the red wall. Emma ran Mana Heal for him while Harper pointed her staff at him.

“This should help,” she said. A bubble of green energy rose from her staff and enveloped his body in a green sphere.

Mana Reject, nice! he thought. Jordan bounced back up and sprinted toward the giant skull. The protective sphere followed him. He cued up another Boulder.

The giant skeleton countered with another wall of red energy.

I’m ready for you this time, you fucker, Jordan thought, grinning. The red beam washed over his sphere, causing him no damage, but the boulder vanished again.

God damn!

The monster changed strategy as it tried to squeeze through the hole in the ceiling, but couldn’t fit through. Jordan watched in disbelief as the skeleton tore away its shoulder blades against the marble edges. Stalactites burst through the opening and landed on the surface.

That thing’s going to tear itself apart, he thought, then realized, That’s what it wants.

The skeleton’s ribs popped like firecrackers, breaking off against the rim of the opening. Even as that happened, the giant’s shoulders re-materialized.

Jordan readied another Boulder spell. The skull shot a wall of energy at him. He guided the marble ball into his green sphere. The red magic passed with no effect on him or his spell.

That’s it!

Just thirty feet away from the skeleton, Jordan fired the marble ball at it. The monster tilted its head away from the blow, but the boulder still clipped the left side of its skull. A large chunk of bone spiraled off and landed on the platform.

“That’s right, you fucker!” he yelled defiantly, but his exhilaration only lasted a moment.

The hole in the skull grew back.

Oh, fuck, Jordan thought.

11

Not only did the skull grow back, but the monster’s shoulders, arms, and ribs grew back as well. The giant skeleton looked like a toddler at a feeding table as the marble ceiling wrapped around its frame. It leaned forward and swiped its long arms at Jordan.

Jumping at the last second, he felt its rough bone fingers tear a layer of skin from his calves. Damn, that hurts, he thought. Jordan checked his HP. It was 199 out of 288. Huh? It’s increased? he thought, then remembered his 3.84 HPR.

He backed away from the grasp of those long arms and ran to the courtyard opening again. “The boulder worked,” he called down, “but the skeleton just keeps rebuilding itself!”

Harper raised her finger, indicating she wanted Jordan to wait, as she consulted with Emma.

Wait? Wait? he screamed in his mind. You want me to wait!?

Harper walked back to the edge and grinned at him. You know, we can hear you, she telepathed.

“I don’t care if y—” Jordan yelled.

A loud crash pounded against his eardrums, and a heavy vibration ran through the platform. The ceiling suddenly fell a whole foot.

Jordan looked to his right and saw the skeleton crawling toward him. The monster had torn away from its hipbone. Its skull and ribcage barely squeezed between the platform and the top of the chamber. Its jaws opened. Another red beam cascaded toward Jordan. He looked down through the courtyard. “Ladies, I need an idea!”

“Try a debuff,” Harper answered. “Run Basic Heal on the skeleton.”

“Yeah, it’s undead,” Emma said excitedly.

Jordan jumped back up and faced the skeleton. The monster heaved itself closer to him. What’s it going to do when it gets here? he thought. Eat me? It doesn’t even have a stomach, hah!

Then a dreadful certainty dawned upon him. It’s going to swallow me, he thought, horrified, into that void.

The skull, which was only ten feet from him now, shot another red beam. It glided over his protective sphere.

Jordan pointed his arm and cast the healing spell.

The skeleton immediately stopped. Its bones turned a dull red. Jordan could hear a crackling sound as tiny fissures appeared throughout the skeleton’s bones. He checked the monster’s HP. 743 out of 899. He cast Basic Heal again.

The monster went into a frenzy, its arms clutching and scraping against the floor rapidly now, trying to get to Jordan. It opened its jaws, but this time, the red beam didn’t come.

Jordan shot a Boulder deadcenter at the monster’s skull. Bone fragments flew as an eighteen-inch hole splintered through the front and back of its skull. He shot another boulder. The monster’s HP was 437. Still, the monster kept clawing, gouging through the marble surface. Its bones were still cracking from the debuff.

But it was getting closer.

Jordan knew he had one more shot before its sharp fingers would reach his body. He readied another Boulder. The skeleton lunged, its arms shooting forward, fingers racing toward him. Jordan fired the boulder at the top-right portion of its skull. The giant’s skull exploded, sending shards of bone skittering along the marble floor.

The monster’s three-foot-long fingers wrapped around his legs and squeezed. Jordan felt instant pain as he fell to the floor, but his bones didn’t break.

I’ve weakened it, he thought, then checked the monster’s HP. 210 out of 899. Jordan smiled and cued up one more Boulder, aiming for the skull’s left side.

He fired.

The rock plowed through the remaining bone on the top side of the monster’s head. Slivers of bone sailed against the far wall and another large chunk rattled across the floor. As the dead skeleton’s skull bashed against the solid floor, chunks of teeth flew across the room.

The fingers around Jordan’s legs loosened. He let out a deep breath. Oh my god, it is finally over. He closed his eyes and inhaled.

Then he heard clunking and clicking noises. The familiar sound of bones tapping on stone. He opened his eyes and sat up, afraid the giant skeleton was reanimating, but the destroyed beast wasn’t moving. The sound was coming from behind the behemoth.

Jordan couldn’t believe his eyes. You have got to be fucking kidding, he thought incredulously. At the far side of the room, the smaller skeletons were climbing up the discarded legs of the giant skeleton. They jumped through the hole and onto the platform. Why the hell didn’t the Inmates take care of these guys!? he thought angrily, and then it struck him. Those skeletons kept reanimating until the big one died.

The horde of skeletons was racing across the floor now. Jordan called up his Boulder spell one more time. He whipped the round rock from side to side at an insane speed. The skeletons never got close to him as their bones exploded throughout the chamber.

And finally, the skeletons stayed dead.

Jordan sat on the platform for five minutes, alone, trying to decompress. The Inmates called up to ask if he was okay, and he reassured them he was. As he sat, he watched the glitch pour out of the giant skull’s mouth and collect on the marble surface. He took a lot of deep breaths, but he didn’t think about much. His brain was a vacuum. Eventually he rose, walked back to the opening the smaller skeletons had climbed up through, and jumped down to the floor below.

12

The ceiling had actually reached Damon while he was still on top of the spider’s carcass. The first couple inches of the stalactites had broken off against his plate armor, then the ceiling had stopped for the last time.

The Inmates discussed their XP totals. Jordan gained the most experience points, bagging 451 XP from the giant skeleton and 2,250 points for the thirty smaller skeletons he destroyed. That skyrocketed him up eleven levels to 62, and he split his 44 attribute points on constitution and endurance.

Angie had killed off the Dioskilos by thrusting her nagamarrow sword up through the monster’s second head. That gave her 310 XP and raised her level to 56. She dropped her 8 attribute points into endurance. Harper knocked off the Thorn spider, which earned her 118 XP, but wasn’t enough to raise her level.

They pushed away the giant skeleton’s legs, expecting they would see the portal behind it, but there was nothing but wall.

“It must be upstairs,” Angie said.

They shoved the skeleton pieces back against the wall and Jordan climbed up to have a look. At the chamber’s far side, opposite where Jordan’s final battle took place, a portal was embedded in the chamber wall, three feet above the moving ceiling.

The Inmates considered flipping the switch to line up the platform, but decided they would just jump into the portal.

The Thorn Spider and the Dioskilos Epiphany clouds had the same spells they had gathered earlier in the adventure, but the giant skeleton’s cloud granted them a new spell. After Jordan climbed up to check on the portal, he saw the Epiphany cloud hovering near the beast’s skull. He extended his hand into it and received a message.

Congratulations, Jordan! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Mana Flash. This spell will deal HP damage to your opponents and will also drain their mana reserves. The spell’s effectiveness will depend on the race and level of your foes. Ranked advanced and available to Hunters and Mages, so tell all your friends. Mana Flash will cost you 10 MP, and has a cooldown rate of 15 seconds and a range of 100 meters. It’s time to take out the trash with Mana Flash!

Harper, Angie, and Emma climbed up to the second level to grab the spell before the cloud disappeared.

Once they were up there, the team decided to move on to the next room. The orcs tried to climb up the giant skeleton’s lower half, but the bones collapsed under their weight. With no other option, Harper had Damon, who was the lightest orc, sit on one of the Boulders. She slowly levitated his big body up through the opening in the ceiling. Damon gripped the relatively small ball anxiously as Harper waved her staff around, directing its movements.

She looked at Angie mischievously and started moving the orc in circles above the opening. Damon moaned nervously and complained loudly. Still, Harper wasn’t done playing, swaying him from side to side. Jordan and the girls laughed at Damon’s reactions.

“Come on, I’m getting seasick here,” he grunted.

Finally, she lowered him to the platform.

He walked menacingly toward the Inmates. Harper retreated a step, but he sidestepped her, wrapped his arms around Angie, and scolded her. “You should be looking after your man,” he grumbled.

13

Despite Damon’s grumblings and Zack’s warning of, “Don’t try that shit with me,” Harper had more fun with the two other orcs. Zack got heated, barking at the Inmates at the far end of the chamber.

“Well, if you don’t want the elevator ride…?” Harper mused, sending Zack back out over the opening.

“Uh, no, no,” he pleaded. “Put me back!”

Harper relented and brought the big orc back over the floor. Ethan received the same treatment. The entire episode provided the team with some much-needed laughs. Then the Inmates walked to the edge of the courtyard opening and looked up at the aperture. It was still daylight, but from the dark blue color in the sky, they could tell it was getting late into the afternoon.

Harper gazed at the top floor of the tower. “That’s probably the finish line.”

Like the one they had just fought through, the top floor appeared to be multileveled. They studied it, hoping to see an indication of what might be living up there, but the room was motionless and silent.