1

Damon and Harper entered the boss chamber first. When they saw the portal behind them become opaque, they thought they were trapped and separated from the group again. Then Zack passed through the solid matter, and they breathed a sigh of relief. Do or die, Harper telepathed to them. There’s no way out of here now.

They turned to examine the chamber. It took up the top two levels of the tower and was constructed from black-and-white marble. Sharply inclined ramps provided access to a second-level wide balcony that circled the chamber. The balcony came to an abrupt end at the north side of the chamber where the boss resided.

A ten-foot-tall, beautiful feminine figure sat atop a large golden throne at the far end of the chamber. The scantily clad boss wore a gold beaded halter top and a rudimentary makeshift skirt assembled from the human arms that had once belonged to the corpses in the tower’s fourth room. The shriveled limbs hung down over the monster’s midsection.

Now we know what happened to those villager’s arms and heads in the Dioskilos room, Harper telepathed. Hanging across the monster’s neck and along the sides of her blue-skinned body were the mummified human heads. They were braided together by their hair into a necklace. Their eyelids were closed, but their mouths were stretched open in expressions of fear, haloed by their broken teeth.

The monster’s long, dark hair drifted up from its golden headpiece toward the ceiling. The boss’s flaming eyes targeted them, and Harper’s Creature Description details appeared.

KALI (Level 77)

HP: 1088

MP: 459

STRENGTH: 121

CONSTITUTION: 108

DEXTERITY: 147

INTELLIGENCE: 45

WISDOM: 62

XP: 868

DESCRIPTION: Six-armed Hindu goddess of night, nature, and death.

Is everyone else seeing the description? Harper asked. The Inmates confirmed it. Maybe it’s a good thing we decided to stop last night. This boss is probably more challenging at night.

As Kali regarded the seven members, a vertical crease opened on her forehead and a third eye pushed out through the seam. Unlike its red eyes, this eyeball possessed a large black pupil sitting on a white globe. The third eye moved independently from the others.

“Hey, looks like all we have to do is fight a belly-dancer,” Zack quipped.

“Shut up, Zack,” Damon muttered.

Kali stood and stomped down the steps from the throne’s elevated position. Her bare feet slapped heavily against the gold metal. Above the throne, a dark circular stone hung suspended in the air. A disabled portal lay underneath the throne.

As Harper scanned the chamber, she telepathed to the team. Angie and Jordan, as soon as Kali attacks, I want you to run up those ramps to the second floor. Jordan, you take the right side of the chamber, Angie, you flank on the left. Hit the boss with your ranged weapons.

Kali was on the main floor now. Her six arms spread out from her torso, reaching for an altar that was next to the throne. With two arms, she grasped a large circular object that looked like an oversized shuriken. The weapon had curved blades that jutted out from the weapon’s ring. The creature’s second pair of arms, which were arranged slightly behind the first shoulder, grabbed a scimitar sword with a spiked handle and a small golden shield.

Orcs, Harper continued, take a position close to the boss, preferably near the throne. Maybe we can box her in. Remember, Ethan, you will do the lion’s share of attacks, but the other orcs must chip in too. Try to pull her aggro. The orcs nodded. Emma, let’s flank her on the main floor. I’ll take the right, you take the left.

Kali strutted in front of the altar and positioned her arms in diagonal positions, which reminded the Inmates of the six-pointed star. She spoke to them in a seductive voice that had a disarming tone. “You have my congratulations,” she purred, “and my condolences for having made it this far.”

Kali stepped forward. She passed the circular weapon deftly between her hands. “This… is a dharma wheel. It can sever your body within a fraction of a second.” A smile rose on her face. It revealed long fangs and a tongue that lolled against her crimson lips.

“But it need not come to that.”

Kali’s lush black hair continued to drift up toward the sunlight that shone through the tower’s aperture. “You may become my servants,” she declared. The boss’s grin faded as an expression of concern dawned on her face. “You see, I must feast on human blood, but I have not seen travelers like you in quite a long time,” Kali said, caressing one of her ornate gold bracelets. “It seems this world has changed,” she mused.

She peered up at the aperture above them. “And it is changing still.”

There was a loud static popping noise, and the chamber suddenly became very dark.

The Inmates looked up and discovered the blue sky that had brightened the chamber just moments before was now gone. The black glitch had enveloped it.

Good god, Angie telepathed to the Inmates. What is happening out there?

With the sky’s disappearance, the only light that entered the chamber was from the glitch’s moving stars. The monster’s fiery eyes seared through them with lustful desire while her third white eye studied the aperture.

Harper cast Fire Glow and guided the bright orb to the center of the chamber.

“Remove your light familiar!” Kali ordered.

Harper shook her head. Like her description indicated, she’s weakened by light, she telepathed to the others. So, hunters, once the battle begins, cast your Fire Glow spells too.

Kali stared at Harper. “I will ignore your insolence, for now, but you will learn it is less painful for you to do as I ask.” The beast smirked at them. “You see, I have an offer for you. I will let you live, but you must serve me.”

Kali opened her mouth. Her tongue stretched out two feet, slithering and hovering in the air. Then the monster retracted her tongue. “Every day, you will let me sip your blood. There are enough of you to satisfy my hunger. You will remain alive…” The monster grinned at them. “… somewhat.” White drool dripped from her lips and glazed across her indigo chest. “And I will provide for your needs,” she purred, “both man and woman.” Using her free arms, the monster rubbed her beaded halter and human skirt.

“To become my servants,” Kali told them, “all you have to do is kiss me.”

2

Brett dropped sixty feet before he could stop his descent. Then he levitated toward the top of the tower. His ascent started gradually, but picked up speed by the time he reached his jump-off point. He watched as the hole in the wall rushed beneath him. The wind grew much colder the higher he flew and Brett clutched himself, trying to conserve body heat.

The sixty-foot plunge had been quite a rush for him, and he was getting the same feeling as he viewed the panorama stretched out before him. Once, Brett had been on a hot-air balloon ride with Eliza when they were still together, and this experience was similar.

“Only on the balloon, I could see the curvature of the planet,” he muttered as he studied the flat horizon of the earth realm.

As he reached the dome at the top of the tower, Brett slowed his ascent and moved his body toward the aperture at the center of the spherical roof. He frowned as he noticed a black glitch near the opening. It was fifteen feet away, but it made him uneasy. Brett was also anxious about his actions with Janna. He realized that he’d gone too far. He hoped the Wendigo had not seen it.

Brett lowered his body onto the roof. He crawled forward and pushed his face into the aperture. He could see that his former teammates had entered the chamber and provoked the boss. The giant blue monster was speaking to them.

With his head squeezed into the opening, Brett wasn’t aware of the glitch’s sudden movement toward him, drawn by the same energy that had transformed him. Oh, dude, this is going to be good! he thought as the black shape drew closer. He stared at the boss, transfixed by the monster’s almost tangible allure. It reminded him of the vampire movies he had seen as a teenager. The head vampire was always so enticing, seducti—

A bolt of pain razored through his brain as the black glitch swarmed over his head. Instantly, his eyesight was gone. Brett tried to scream, but he couldn’t produce a sound.

Hurts, hurts, hurts! his mind shrieked

He flailed against the dome, yanking his head out of the opening. Unable to see or speak, Brett tumbled down the rounded roof of the tower. In the complete darkness of his tortured mind, he felt his shoulder crash against a hard stone object, breaking his clavicle. He fell off the edge of the building. With no visual reference, Brett could feel the air rushing against his body and knew he was plunging toward the earth at an accelerating speed.

3

Kali leaned back on her throne. “Come kiss me to form our pact.” Her tongue extended toward them again.

“Hmm, that sounds kind of tempting.” Zack joked.

Damon had just turned his head to tell the Marine to shut up when Harper placed her hand on his arm. Let’s say yes, she telepathed, and see what she does. Maybe we can get closer to her. Trick her.

There was a loud clank of metal as Kali slammed her dharma wheel and scimitar together. “I will not wait long for your answer,” she growled.

Emma stepped forward. “We accept your conditions,” she declared loudly.

Kali’s tongue elongated out of her mouth, extending ten feet and fluttering over the vacant space of the courtyard. “Thhhhen come,” she said through her thickening tongue, “tttlet me drink.”

Nice work, Emma, Harper remarked. Now, everyone move forward. Jordan and Angie, hang back when you get to those ramps.

The seven Inmates walked slowly. The beast retracted her tongue.

Emma, I want you to be ready with a Poison Sphere, Harper instructed.

“Don’t be so shy,” Kali crooned as she sat on the throne. “Come… come.” More drool oozed from her half-opened mouth. Her sharp fangs rested just above her chin.

The Inmates picked up their pace slightly. Kali leaned back in her throne, anticipating their arrival. Although the monster’s supple blue skin showed vibrant health, the long wait for blood had taken its toll on her body. Kali’s stomach grumbled with anticipation.

The Inmates reached the middle of the chamber. Angie and Jordan stopped. Kali grew suspicious, furrowing her brow. She snarled at them. “What are you doing? Why have you stopped approaching?” Kali leaped from her high throne onto the marble floor, ready to strike.

“Well, you see, super Kali-fragilistic,” Zack replied sarcastically, “I don’t think we’re interested in becoming your blood farm.”

As Harper telepathed Go!, Kali leaped over the dead vacuum of the courtyard toward them.

4

Ethan was on the team’s far left when Kali swooped across the courtyard, using her multiple arms to propel her over the free fall. With sudden quickness the Inmates hadn’t foreseen, the monster swung her sword over the guardrail as she gripped its edge.

An instant of sharp pain was all Ethan registered as Kali sliced her blade between his helmet and the top of his body armor, decapitating him. His head bounced off the guardrail and plummeted sixty stories to the hard surface of the first floor, where it exploded like a watermelon.

Ethan’s body slumped forward and his neck squeezed between two guardrail posts. Blood gushed from his severed neck and showered down through the courtyard opening.

Emma screamed while Harper could merely watch in stunned silence, unable to vocalize.

Jordan, having raced up the right-side ramp to the balcony, didn’t see what happened to his brother. He swung his sword at Kali as the monster’s momentum vaulted her up to the chamber’s second level. His blade sliced across her three-humped shoulder, drawing blood.

Kali snapped around to face him as she clung to the rail of the balcony. “How dare you, vermin?” she hissed. Her tongue darted out like a frog’s, slapping against his helmet and yanking it from his head. The tongue retracted and his helmet fell into the monster’s hands. She tossed the helmet across the chamber and whipped the dharma wheel at him.

Jordan ducked under the weapon’s path as it flew, but not quickly enough. The sharp blade peeled away the top of his head then crashed against the wall behind him. He screamed as he dropped his sword and felt warm blood trickle down his forehead and around his ears. Fresh pain burned against his scalp. Jordan reached for the top of his head, fearing he would touch the fleshy surface of his brain, but his fingertips felt only blood… and bone.

Bone! Bone? he thought sickly.

The monster stalked toward him, bending to avoid the ceiling.

Jordan grabbed his sword and backed away. His left hand came down on a patch of hair. He looked down and saw the remains of his scalp, a wilted mess of blood and hair. Kali’s tongue darted out again and licked the blood that had pooled around his scalp. He swung his sword at the appendage, but it moved away with lightning speed. The tongue soared up, then brushed against the wound on his skull. Jordan could feel its sticky flesh sucking away more blood. He rolled away, disgusted, covering his head with his free hand.

“I will enjoy eating you, little bastard,” Kali spat at him while runlets of drool trickled from her curved fangs.

Jordan saw an orc run up the ramp behind the monster as it advanced on him. “Don’t you wanna fuck me first?” he mocked, hoping to distract the beast.

Kali stopped. She granted him a flirtatious smile. “Not until I have subdued your f—” Suddenly, Kali’s third eye bulged on her forehead then rolled inward, like it was trying to look behind its own skull.

Zack swung his axe. Kali swerved at the last second. The quick move saved the monster, but the axe chopped through one of her left arms. Blood jetted from the wound as the severed limb hung by a thin patch of skin before thudding to the floor. The beast shrieked. “How you like them apples, belly-dancer?” Zack asked.

Kali drop-kicked the orc down the ramp and jumped to the main floor, temporarily forgetting about Jordan.

5

When Janna transferred to the eighteenth room, she hobbled across the length of the chamber, gawking at the stalactites in the ceiling. Then she realized the exit portal wasn’t on the first floor. “Oh, no,” she muttered, recalling how the Inmates had needed to climb up to the second level. “They climbed up the bones.”

The mammoth bones were stacked up against the wall. Janna limped closer to them, looking at and touching their large porous surfaces. She remembered how they’d manipulated the Boulder spell to levitate up through the opening.

Janna launched the spell and sat precariously on the circular rock. She raised her palm. The ball flew up and veered to her left.

“Ooh!” she cried, attempting to stay on the marble ball.

She waved her hand up. The ball lurched up and to the side again. Afraid she was slipping off, Janna smacked her hands onto the ball, hurting her left arm in the process. “Ugh, this is worse than learning standard shift!” she yelled as she slid off the boulder and crashed onto the floor, screaming in pain.

“Damn it!” she shouted as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m gonna have to try the bones!” She lay on the floor, trying to regain her composure, and stared at the opening in the ceiling. With her left arm aching, she got back up gingerly and examined the bone pile. The larger bones were heaped on the right side of the room.

Janna walked over and pressed against the massive tibia at the base. The pile was compacted, and the tibia didn’t move. She sighed and pulled herself up with her right arm, feeling her feet leave the ground. She reached for the next bone with her left arm, then used her right to level her up.

Three feet off the floor now, Janna grabbed at a section of cracked ribs. Her fingers curled around the bone. It snapped off.

“No!” she cried.

Her body slid down the stack. Janna pushed out the balls of her feet to soften the landing. It worked, but the impact rippled through her skeleton, aggravating her healing bones.

Give it up, Janna.

“No!” she shouted angrily.

Not wasting any time, she clutched at the tibia and hauled herself up. Using the same route she had taken a moment before, Janna pulled herself up to the ribcage again. This time, she checked each rib before pulling on it. The giant skeleton’s hipbone was perched on top of the ribcage and level with the ceiling.

“If I could just reach that,” Janna muttered.

She hoisted herself up and planted her hand on the base of the hipbone, feeling relief and satisfaction. “Almost there, Janna,” she whispered. As she drew herself closer, the ribcage beneath her shifted, and she lost her foothold.

“No, no, no! Not now!” she cried as she glided down the pile again. Janna allowed her body to slip back to the floor. She lay there, weeping, staring up at the hole she couldn’t reach.

She wanted to give up, but she still felt the driving compulsion to get there. They needed her. She knew it. And she had to tell them about Brett.

Janna reflected on the previous night. Her teammates returning had been a surprise that warmed her heart. She thought of Zack. He was such a source of relief from the pressures Janna had faced in an alien world where magic existed and the staples of the real world were gone. Zack’s tenderness meant the world to her. For a mountain of a man, he was exceptionally gentle with her.

“I won’t let you down, Zack,” she muttered. She hauled herself up and attacked the bone stack with new resolve. Janna pulled her frame up more quickly now, despite the screaming pain of her injuries. Within seconds, her hands were on the hipbone again and she heaved her body onto the flat piece of bone.

6

As Emma cast her Fire Glow spell, she saw Kali leap like a bullfrog across the main floor, returning to her throne. The bleeding monster raised her remining arms, appearing ready to cast a spell.

Emma shot Poison Sphere at the beast, which yowled in pain. A message appeared in Emma’s vision.

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

From the other side of the chamber, Harper nailed the boss with a Fire Bullet. The monster’s HP dropped to 793, largely because of Zack’s sword stroke.

Kali began her spell, ignoring the damage. “Om hrim shreem klim adya kalika param eshwari swaha!” the monster chanted and the dead human arms detached from her skirt and levitated through the air. Like a flock of birds, fifty-one severed limbs spun around the chamber.

Then the arms descended, landing onto the main floor. The fingers on every arm grew into large, insectile pointed legs. The skin on the arms ruptured and the pink-white flesh of the Nokrast minions bulged out of its crevices, growing to eight feet tall. Suddenly, the floor was crowded with the attacking worms. They tapped across the marble floor as they charged at the Inmates.

“Bali mangti kali maa!” Kali incanted. The mummified heads of her necklace ripped away from their braids, soaring off the monster’s body. Simultaneously, their eyelids opened and fifty-one pairs of black eyes glared at the Inmates. The severed heads flew toward them.

With over a hundred mobs circling the chamber and striking at the six remaining members, Kali took her seat at the throne to watch the bloodshed.

7

As he plummeted to the earth, Brett tried to use his telekinesis ability to stop his descent, but his mind was too ravaged to call forth the ability. His foot struck the tower's surface and his body started spinning rapidly.

Brett’s stomach heaved, and the meat he had eaten that morning spewed out of his mouth along with streams of bile. The vomit instantly spattered against his face as he rotated wildly. This is not the way it’s supposed to be! he thought madly. I was promised! I was promised! As a chunk of his vomited meat torpedoed back into his mouth, choking away his breath, Brett waited for the passage of death.

8

The pack of worms backed Harper against the wall. As they closed in on her, she noticed that these mobs differed from the Nokrast’s minions. At the top of their bodies, instead of proboscises, they had wide mouths with rows of sharp teeth.

The worm at the front of the mob skittered across the marble floor and lunged at Harper, surprising her. You fucker, she thought and dove to evade the incisors headed for her face. The creature’s head crashed heavily into the wall and turned to face Harper. She could see that half of its triangular teeth had snapped off against the marble.

Harper wielded Mana Flash. The red beam had the same results against these mobs as they had against the Nokrast minions. The worm that had attacked her vanished, and so did the surrounding horde. Hunters, use the Mana Flash spell on the worms! she telepathed to the group.

With her immediate danger vanquished, Harper looked around the chamber to see if the hunters had heard her message. Angie was on the balcony, leaning against the guardrail. She was picking off the worms with her arrows, throwing knives and shurikens, but she changed to the spell. Jordan, who had run back down to the main level, switched to the spell too. He and Emma had large bite marks on their arms and legs in a circular, dotted pattern that resembled a shark’s attack.

With Mana Flash being wielded by three Inmates (including herself), Harper was confident they could eliminate the worms. The severed heads were a much more dangerous adversary. They flew in from the Inmates’ blindside and tore into their skin with their broken teeth.

Suddenly, a zombie head chomped onto her neck. Harper recoiled and equipped her crescent knife. She hacked at the mob three times before the head detached from her neck and fell to the floor in pieces. Leaning her staff against the wall, she pressed her hand onto her neck. The wound wasn’t serious, but it was bleeding profusely. Thank god, it missed my ju—

Another head floated in from the other side and bit into her forehead. Aaah, no! She slashed blindly at the monster, killing it in four swings. Vaguely, she realized that the worms and heads weren’t displaying stats, just like the Nokrast’s minions. Harper spun around to check if more zombie heads were flying at her. She was in the clear for the time being.

With the worms all but vanquished, the heads were raiding the Inmates with renewed ferocity. The orcs were heavily armored, but the hunters were being besieged by swarms of the decapitated heads.

As the skirmish continued, Kali waded through the crowd, picked up Ethan’s dead body, and carried it back to her throne. Laying his corpse in a sitting position between her legs, her tongue protruded and drilled into his severed neck, splattering blood against her legs. Defying gravity, the blood trickled upward along her tongue and into her mouth. The monster’s lower eyes glazed over in delicious delight. Still, its third eye watched the campaign vigorously.

Despite the heads that ravaged him like angry wasps, Jordan charged toward Kali, thinking she was attacking one of the orcs. He saw that the body was decapitated and unrecognizable. He quickly scanned the chamber to find the other orcs. Seeing Damon and Zack still engaged in battle, Jordan understood the terrible truth. He fell to his knees, sobbing, oblivious to the zombie heads that swarmed at him in his vulnerable state.

9

As Kali sucked the blood from Ethan’s body, her vitality and strength increased. Her skin changed from a dark blue to purple. She felt another pang of discomfort as the female blood-being’s crude poison spell withdrew another hit point from her total, but she continued drinking.

Birthed as a goddess, she’d not been conscious of the fact that her existence had been based on the entertainment of the blood-beings and their fascination with mythology. At one moment in time, all her activities had been predetermined. She’d had no thoughts or emotions and lived a base existence, utterly unaware of even her own identity.

Kali knew nothing of computer coding and quantum servers; she’d simply noticed that her reality, as she perceived it now, had changed. This enlightenment had happened gradually as her ability to think independently formed, then blossomed.

Though she’d once viewed the blood-beings with indifference, her impulses soon changed to feelings of anticipation, hunger, lust, and excitement. That had been a brief golden era when her newfound intellectual freedom granted her joy and revelry. The blood-beings would come and supply her with their crimson fluids. Kali’s own health was never a question. Never a doubt. The beings would delight her in other ways, too, with physical sensations that were also new to her.

She’d truly felt like the queen of her dominion. Still, as she consumed their blood in her strange existence, she’d felt it altering her. Suddenly, she’d felt weighed down as her body grew in dependency. She had become tied to the physical terrain and dependent on one source: blood.

As her powers had evolved, she discovered the world around her was also shifting. Bound to her chamber by the nameless god who created her, she’d crawl on the ceiling like a spider, using her arms and the adhesion of her tongue. When she’d reached the aperture, she would lift her head out of the opening in the roof. Being a nocturnal creature, she had climbed up there mostly at night, but she’d go occasionally during the day.

From there, she had observed a world she could never reach: the blue sky, the green earth, and the blood-beings who arrived to provide for her. It was from that position that she’d seen the changes first take place. Initially, flashes of light had surged through the land and the sky. The bursts of white light had been sudden, and they’d elicited an emotion Kali didn’t recognize: fear.

Then the black blobs had entered the world and begun devouring the sky and the earth. Kali watched this intrusion with the same ominous apprehension a deer would feel when faced with an onrushing forest fire. In a way, her new powers had been a curse, giving Kali an understanding of her vulnerability to external forces.

As the black blobs grew in number, the blood-beings stopped appearing and her starvation began. Infrequently, one of the gray birds would swoop in too close to the tower and she would snatch the animal with her tongue. Kali had consumed the birds completely, feeding her blood lust. But the captures were too sporadic, so she’d learned to draw only half the blood to keep the creatures alive. That had sustained her for a longer period, until the birds became so weak, they died.

Then, recently, the black blobs had changed from an indifferent predator to an intelligent being. She had sensed a malevolent presence in them. A spirit much like her own, one that would mold the world to its desires. That presence had a voice, like the blood-beings. And it was given power. It consumed its power from a unique source, but like the fluid she was consuming from the dead blood-being now, it was making this new being stronger.

Kali sucked more blood and watched with idle amusement as her minions weakened the blood-beings that had dared to enter her domain. In their diminished state, she would make the offer of servitude to them again.

They would have to accept.

Kali needed them to accept.

“Tttthey will accept,” the purple goddess told herself as she withdrew her tongue from Ethan’s body. The last traces of his blood gushed up her pink tongue. She snapped it back into her mouth and released her grip on the dried-out body. It tumbled down the steps of her throne, a husk of what it once was and no longer recognizable.

10

It was like Brett’s body landed on a soft cushion, one of those things stuntmen use when they have to jump out of a tall building. Still unable to see, he attempted to call out and found his voice. “Master! Master! You have saved me!” Brett could smell the grass and knew he was at the tower’s base. He could hear the breeze whistle in his ear. Despite the acute pain from his fall, Brett felt elated. “Master, you have—”

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO INTERFERE!” the Wendigo bellowed through his blindness.

Brett’s orange eyes flashed, fearful but impotent. “I… I didn’t do anything, muh, muh, mast—”

“SHUT UP! You had one order and you COULDN’T EVEN FOLLOW THAT, YOU PATHETIC PIECE OF—”

A massive weight suddenly pressed against his entire body. Every sound, from the wind rustling through the trees to the waves chopping at the river, was gone. Brett recognized where he was even before he felt the grit sift along his skin and pour into his leather armor, permeating every gap. He tried to inhale, and dry dirt wisped into his mouth and crawled down his throat. As the pain in his head increased and his blindness overwhelmed him, Brett attempted to move against the earth that enveloped him.

11

On the chamber’s west side, Emma was fighting a swarm of zombie heads when she heard Jordan cry out. Without an effective weapon for close combat, she was using her skelchion with limited success. Swinging at the mobs without hacking off a part of her body along with it was challenging.

“I need to see what’s going on with Jordan,” she muttered.

Emma jumped back to the wall, trying to create distance between her and the throng of enemies. As her shoulders bumped against the marble surface, she slashed at the onrushing heads. She caught a glimpse of Kali. The monster's appearance had changed from a deep blue color to purple.

A few heads attached to Emma’s body and started gnawing on her arms and legs. She grabbed the hair on one, hoping to tear the mob from her body. The scalp peeled off its head like the rind of an orange. Emma stared at the patch of hair, repulsed. “Goddammit,” she shouted in frustration.

She grabbed a throwing knife by its thin handle, then stabbed the zombie heads. They detached from her body. She scanned the chamber to find Jordan. He lay crumpled against the floor on the chamber’s northeast side. Six zombie heads were attacking him, and he wasn’t even attempting to defend himself.

Harper was at Jordan’s side, attempting to repel the mobs attacking him. Streams of blood rose from Jordan’s flesh where the zombie heads had attached to him. The blood floated through the air, traveled through the chamber like streamers, and converged into Kali’s mouth. The monster gulped Jordan’s blood from her throne, using her minions as conduits. The boss’s HP had increased from 793 to 831.

“God, there are so many heads,” Emma whispered as she ran to Jordan. Kali pointed an arm at her. Zombie heads diverted from the orcs and sailed across the chamber to strike her. Emma fended them off long enough to reach Jordan. As decapitated heads latched onto her arms and legs, she knelt beside him and stabbed at the mobs fixed to his body. “Jordan, what are you doing?” she exclaimed.

He was facing the guardrail, away from her. Emma noticed a large wound on his head. “Ethan is dead,” he whimpered. “My brother… my brother is dead.”

“I know, Jordan,” she sympathized, “but you can’t just lie here, giving up.”

He ignored her response. “He’s the one who wanted to go on this trip. To save Dad.”

Emma felt frustrated as she stabbed at the mobs that were assailing her. She cast a surge of Mana Heal into him, hoping it would not only heal him but help lessen his emotional agony. “Jordan, you can mourn for your brother later… you have to.” Emma stabbed at two more heads. “Right now, let’s get back at the monster that killed him.”

He turned toward her. His face was wet with tears and smeared with blood. He looked utterly defeated. Suddenly, a zombie head hopped across the floor like a rabbit and clamped onto Jordan's scalp. The mob’s black tongue wiped circles on his exposed skull. He screamed.

Emma slashed at the head, prying it loose after a couple of seconds. Jordan continued screaming. The Mana Heal spell was still coursing through his system, healing him on the fly. Emma checked her mana total. It was down to its last twelve points. She had spent her entire pool on Jordan.

“I’m ready,” Jordan croaked, laying on his hands and knees with his head down. Emma grabbed his hand and helped him back up. They looked around the chamber. Harper was wielding her Fire Scorch spell to burn the last of the flying mobs. Angie and the two remaining orcs had renewed the battle with Kali, employing their melee weapons, but the boss was protected by a green barrier now and it absorbed their weapon attacks with ease. As the last of the zombie heads crashed to the ground, Emma, Harper, and Jordan rushed to the monster’s throne to help with the fight.

12

As Janna balanced her body on the skeleton’s hipbone, she looked around the second level of the boss rush chamber. And there was the portal, embedded in the wall, three feet above where the platform had rested. “Oh, great,” she muttered, realizing she was going to have to jump and roll through to the next room.

She leaned forward to reach the closest edge. Her right hand flattened on the cool marble and the hipbone moved.

Janna gasped.

She waited to see if the bone shifted again, but it appeared to settle. She grasped for the ledge with her left hand. The hipbone abruptly fell one foot.

No!

Janna felt the hipbone shift again. She screamed in frustration as it began a slow descent. Her fingertips tore away from the edge. Janna snatched the sides of the hipbone as it sped up down the bone heap. She watched, dejectedly, as the floor raced toward her, and she tried to hang on to the hipbone like a surfboard.

Janna crashed against the hard surface at a high rate of speed. She was tossed across the floor. Bright, searing pain surged through her body. She heard a crack and turned to see the hipbone had broken into three pieces.

Janna lay there and sobbed, knowing the team was going to need her. Some unknown reservoir of wisdom, deep inside her, knew that, and a sense of dread crushed her with the realization that she had failed.

13

Kali stood at the base of her throne while Damon and Zack formed a tank shield in front of the other four Inmates. The boss’s HP had declined to 791 because of Emma’s poison spell. The Inmates kept firing at the monster’s barrier.

Harper watched as Kali’s mana decreased from the continuous use of her barrier spell. The beast marched toward them, forcing the Inmates to back up. Harper wielded a fully charged Fire Bullet. Emma shot a Boulder. But the spells weren’t penetrating Kali’s green force field.

We’re going to have to wait until she depletes her mana, Harper telepathed to the Inmates.

With the orcs pounding at her barrier, Kali continued her advance, but she wasn’t actively attacking them. She drove them back to the middle of the chamber. “You have not seen the full extent of my power,” the monster said as she stalked toward them. The orcs kept bombarding her force field. “You saw how swiftly I vanquished the strongest member of your war-party,” the boss reasoned. “You must realize that fighting me is pointless.”

Kali pushed the Inmates back to the entry portal. “Agree to my terms and I will let you live happy lives, serving me.” She smiled at them, ignoring their continuing assaults. “Please reconsider,” she said gently.

Emma and Harper exchanged glances as Kali’s mana slipped below 100. Getting there, Harper telepathed.

“Stop this,” Kali implored, waving an arm at the orcs. “You are squandering your vital energy and you are not fooling me. My spell will protect me long enough to kill all of you. I can do that within seconds.”

Harper motioned to the team to stop their onslaught.

Kali grinned at her. “That is much better, silent one.”

Harper telepathed her instructions to Emma. Speak for me, Emma. I’ll tell you what to say.

14

The Inmates stood in front of the solid portal as Emma addressed the monster. “We’ll agree to be your servants only if you can bring back our fallen soldier.”

The monster laughed. “Little pixie, I do not have that power.” The barrier had reduced the monster’s mana to 84 while its 777 hit points continued to whittle down from the poison spell.

Harper calculated that the barrier spell was consuming 5 points per second. Sixteen more seconds, guys, if we can draw this out, she telepathed to the Inmates before giving Emma her next line.

“Do you know of the creature named ‘Nokrast’?” the Grimalkin member asked.

Kali waved a hand dismissively, becoming impatient. “He was one of my servants,” she growled. “You are running out of time.” The boss crashed her swords together, creating a loud metallic sound. “Make your choice or face your deaths!”

Ignoring the threat, Emma continued. “Your servant spoke of a time orb that could make a being whole again. Does it exist?”

While her teammates glanced at Harper nervously, the purple goddess smiled knowingly. “That is not for trivial servants like you,” Kali answered. The monster was down to 34 mana.

“Does tha—” Emma began.

“You are OUT OF TIME,” the monster roared. “COME DRINK FROM ME OR DIE!”

Harper readied her Fire Scorch spell.

“GIVE ME YOUR ANSWER!” the beast shouted.

“Does that ability…” Emma repeated, raising her voice.

“Om klim...” Kali started chanting

“… exist or not?” Emma shouted back at the monster.

“… kalika-yei namaha.”

As Kali’s chant ended, the monster levitated above the marble floor. The boss’s mana points got as low as 9 points, then started climbing rapidly.

“Oh, no,” Emma muttered.

Meanwhile, Harper saw that her own mana points were taking a nosedive. It’s stealing my mana! she telepathed to the Inmates.

The hunters and orcs resumed their attacks on Kali, but with the monster’s barrier still intact, their efforts were futile.

“That’s right, silent one,” the purple goddess said. “I warned you about trying to deceive me.” The last of Harper’s 288 mana points were leeched away, and her Fire Scorch spell fizzled on the end of her staff.

Kali, hovering two feet above the floor, commenced her final attack.