1

Harper and Jordan decided they needed a break. Lorenzo had temporarily regained a minimal level of consciousness, and they had fed him the salmon pulp. Soon afterward, he needed to go to the bathroom and attempted to sit up. Intense pain erupted from his injured back, and he lost consciousness again. It was at that point that his bowels and bladder released. While cleaning up the mess, the veterans concluded they would need to remove the chain mail that had remained on his body since the Dryope attack.

“We should’ve had him unequip it when he was awake,” Jordan said.

They carefully pulled the mail off while supporting Lorenzo’s dead weight. Twenty minutes later, they removed his soiled underwear and began cleaning his body and the bed. They swapped in new canvas material for the bed.

“I never thought I’d be playing nurse,” Harper groaned as she held her filthy hands away from her body. Jordan’s were much the same.

With Lorenzo strapped in and back asleep, the pair walked to the river to clean themselves. By then, the sun had just set. “Zahra won’t be happy if she finds out we left him unattended,” Jordan suggested, and Harper had a curt reply.

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” She paused. “And besides, she should have given us a plan on what to do if he needed to relieve himself.”

He grunted agreeably.

They scoured their hands in the frigid water, then began walking back to the cabin. Jordan grabbed Harper’s arm. “I heard something,” he whispered. They peered through the gloom for any sign of movement. He equipped his sword while she readied her steel staff.

“Do you see anything?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Can’t see a thing in this darkness. Maybe you should light a—”

Wood creaked just south of them, a sound that was barely audible over the rush of the river. Jordan glanced at Harper. They heard a shuffling noise to their right now.

“Whatever it is, it’s moving,” she said, then lit a Fire Glow spell and found what hgad been tracking them. Standing just outside the light’s thirty-meter radius, in the middle of the road, were two wooden shapes.

“Dryads,” the veteran mage hissed.

The monsters leaped at them, landing on their chests and driving them onto the hard dirt road. The smaller Dryad plunged its tentacles through Harper’s flesh. She screamed and, almost in unison, Jordan screamed beside her.

As the Dryad’s wooden appendages drilled into four different sections of her body, the pain was overwhelming and Harper dropped her staff. She saw her HP drop from 313 to 257 on the multiple strikes. The monster jumped, then slammed its weight into her torso, pushing the air out of her lungs. Two tentacles wrapped around her neck and squeezed. She gasped for air.

To her left, she heard the other Dryad growl and croak the word pay repeatedly as it attacked Jordan. Strangely, the monster attacking her was as silent as a shark. In the distance, she heard a loud crash coming from the tower, but dismissed it at once.

With her oxygen depleting, Harper looked at her right bicep. It was a bloody mess. The creature’s tentacle had burrowed a hole through it, right below the cutoff of her armor. She flicked her wrist awkwardly, but the Fire Scorch spell still shot out from her hand.

The flames spread over the Dryad’s wooden husk. It howled painfully but remained perched on her body.

She wielded a Boulder from her left hand, which was equally pinned by a drilling tentacle. The rock flew erratically but pounded into the monster’s torso, driving it from her body. Harper felt excruciating pain as the tentacles wrenched from her flesh.

She heard Jordan yell and glanced to her side. He was standing and directing the same Boulder spell at the larger Dryad.

In the fraction of a second that Harper looked away, the smaller Dryad jumped her again. She weakly raised her left forearm in defense as the blood from her bicep dripped onto her face. The monster pushed her arm away. The other tentacles reared back like spears, all aimed at her head.

“No, no,” she cried. “Jordan, help me!”

The Dryad unexpectedly froze. Its eyes, the only part of its body that wasn’t made of wood, glowed a cerulean blue at her. They seemed to transform, reflecting an almost human quality. The monster snapped at the air. “Pay,” it screeched. “Pay!” Its tentacles fluttered wildly behind it, poised to strike but still hesitating.

What Harper experienced next would haunt her dreams for weeks to come. The Dryad’s conflicted face appeared to exhibit empathy. Its features softened, its mouth gaped open, and its eyes widened. The creature started choking with a violent, rattling sound, seemingly at war with itself. Its head jerked from side to side as its throat convulsed, spewing sawdust into the night air. Then, in a brief moment of relative inner peace, the monster looked down at her.

“Kra… kra… ha… hra… hra… har… har… har… harsta,” it croaked. It tried to repeat its last word, but the effort came out as a series of dry coughs.

As blood flowed from her wounds and tears streamed down her face, Harper understood and saw what had become of Miguel. She bawled his name and reached up to the being that still harbored a shred of his soul. The moment seemed to last forever, but it was over within seconds.

As the Dryad tried to speak again and its body continued to struggle against itself, Jordan’s Boulder blasted through its head. Its blue eyes, which remained focused on her to the last millisecond, disappeared in an explosion of bark and timber. As the monster’s heavy frame fell onto her body, Harper started screaming.

2

“No… noooo,” she wailed as Jordan pulled the monster’s carcass off her.

He gazed at her, dumbfounded. “That thing was ready to kill you, Harper.”

The veteran mage shook her head. “I know, I know,” she sobbed. “If anything, you put him out of his misery.”

He looked down at her, even more confused. “Put who out of their misery?”

Harper's eyes met his. “Miguel. Didn’t you see that was Miguel?”

Jordan stood over her, blood streaming from the same injuries Harper had. The Dryads had attacked strategically, drilling their tentacles into their limbs to disable them. The veteran hunter had large wounds near his hands and wrist and around his calves and ankles. He shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean,” he said as he struggled to stay upright.

Harper tried to stand and winced in pain. Jordan extended an arm to her and painfully helped her up.

“That Dryad you just killed,” she said. “It used to be Miguel. I saw him in its eyes.” She stared at Jordan, exasperated. “Didn’t you hear it call my name? What Miguel used to call me? Hasta?”

He shook his head. “All I heard was the word pay.”

She gazed at him for a few seconds, trying to process everything that had happened and disappointed that she was the only one to recognize their deceased teammate. She sighed, completely disheartened.

“Come on, we should get back and carry on with the healing.” Jordan said then paused. “For Lorenzo, I guess, and now us too.”

They leaned on and grappled to each other, shambling to the cabin like a pair of drunks leaving a bar after closing time. On the way, they cast healing spells. As they reached the doorway, Jordan muttered, “At least we’re clean now.” It was a halfhearted attempt at levity but felt more like gallows humor than anything else. Harper didn’t respond.

3

When they returned, Lorenzo was snoring. The two veterans wondered if that was a good or bad sign.

“I think it means he’s breathing better,” Jordan offered. “Maybe it’s a result of him relieving himself?”

Harper grunted noncommittally. She cast Mana Heal on the injured recruit, then went back to healing their wounds, which hadn’t yet closed. Knowing the group was taking an unusually long time to scavenge the tower, she telepathed Damon next.

How are you guys doing? she asked.

I’ll tell you when we get there, he replied gruffly. Make sure there’s a fire. We’re starving.

The veteran mage sighed and relayed the message to Jordan. “I’ll stay with Lorenzo. Why don’t you start the fire?”

She agreed and turned to the open doorway.

“What are the chances there are more Dryad out there?” Jordan asked, stopping her in her tracks.

Harper considered it, then shook her head. “Only two escaped from the battle in the woods.”

She exited the cabin and began gathering the wood and kindling for the fire. The charred rafter beam Brett had used to kill the Jennings still protruded vertically from the fire pit’s base. Harper cast Ground Swell. The spell manipulated the earth in a direct line towards the beam. It loosened the beam and canted it to one side. She tried to dislodge it, but it remained planted firmly into the scorched ground.

“Fucking Brett,” the veteran mage muttered and wielded the spell again.

The compacted earth swelled as if a giant gopher was racing for the target. This time, the impact blew the beam out of its hole and Harper had to jump to avoid it. After it crashed to the ground, she ignited the wood and kindling she had gathered with Fire Scorch, then tried to hoist the rafter beam on top.

Even with her strength stat at 145, it was too heavy to lift. The veteran mage sighed and cast Boulder. She pounded the middle of the beam until it finally broke in two. She lugged the pieces onto the fire and watched as the flames caught on the blackened wood.

Harper sat next to the flames, stealing a moment for herself, and thought about Miguel. Her heart ached and her eyes watered as she realized that the last trace of his soul was gone for good. He’d been her protector to the very end. As her tears flowed freely now, she agonized over what had happened to him.

“I’m glad you’re dead, you fucking bitch,” she said, referring to the mother beast.

She spent another ten minutes at the fire, depressed yet still appreciating the rare moment alone. Then she rose and walked back to the cabin. As she crossed the road, she saw Damon’s crew just entering the village, but she continued into the building nonetheless.

“You have your fucking fire,” she muttered under her breath to only herself.

4

Damon and the three nurses entered the cabin. The orc general shot an annoyed glance at Harper, but she ignored it. “How’s the patient doing?” he asked.

The veteran mage glared at the group. “He pissed and shit himself,” she shot back. As a sudden swell of anger grew inside her, she continued, “We had to clean ourselves at the river and were attacked by two Dryads.” She gestured at the blood on the floor from their injuries.

Damon’s gruff demeanor disappeared at once. “Oh. Are you okay?”

He seemed concerned, but Harper was still angry. “We survived, didn’t we?”

The retort didn’t faze the former Marine one bit. He still had the worried puppy-dog expression on his face. Harper blew past him and went to join the rest of the returning group at the fire.

While Zahra, Rachel, and Keshon attended to Lorenzo, Damon turned to Jordan. “Our trip wasn’t exactly sunshine and lollipops either.”

The veteran hunter had to suppress a laugh at the general’s unwittingly humorous reference. He asked what had happened and the orc told him.

“I heard a noise during the attack,” Jordan mused. “That must have been when the tower moved.”

The orc general agreed and asked Zahra to stay with Lorenzo while the rest of them joined the group at the fire. As they left, Jordan pulled Damon aside. “Harper thinks one of the Dryads was Miguel.”

The orc general grunted dismissively.

5

While Damon and the nurses rushed to the cabin, the rest of the team hurried to the fire, eager to fill their bellies. The Alabama orcs offered the food from their inventories to feed the team.

“I think we should hold onto the salmon,” Hammer suggested. “We can eat that raw.”

They arranged six rabbits, twelve squirrels, and one ptero bird over the bonfire.

As Harper joined the group, Zack addressed the members. “Anyone who doesn’t have food in their inventories is going to go on a hunt with me”—he paused—“and I mean early in the morning.”

“Damnation. That’s only a few hours away,” Jackson moaned.

Zack nodded. “Yeah, but we should fill them up before we enter the dungeon.”

That piqued Harper’s attention. “So, you found the dungeon?”

The orc grinned widely. “Yup. We saw it from the top of the tower.” He frowned. “Although we couldn’t see the entrance.”

Sierra scoffed. “Only because the shadows were dark, and the distance.”

Zack shrugged as Jordan, the two healers and Damon joined the large party.

The orc general sighed. “We have a lot to do before we head to bed. Harper, get going on the levels and points.”

The veteran mage was surprised, and ready to complain until she realized the attribute points had to be done before the twenty-four-hour limit. “Alright. Let’s go around and start with the orcs.” She looked at Armando.

“I killed nine zombies and twenty-seven skeletons, which put me at level 43,” the soft-spoken orc said.

Harper asked him how many attribute points he had, and he told her 128. “Since we have such a large group, I’m going to keep the stat strategies basic for now.” She informed them that the orcs got an automatic boost to their strength and constitution with each level-up. “But I still want you to assign those attribute points to those stats, along with dexterity. Place your points as 43, 42, and 43 into those stats.”

Damon was next. He had killed eleven of the village zombies, which boosted him to level 62. With only 4 attribute points, he dropped them all into dexterity.

“I’m easy,” Zack said when they came to him. “I got two Dryads earlier in the day. That’s 80 XP, but it was enough to jump me a level to 59.”

Harper told him to drop his 4 points into dexterity as well.

Jackson was next. He had bagged one Dryad and seventeen stoner heads, securing 499 XP, which moved him to level 25. He dumped his 80 points as 27, 26, and 27 into strength, constitution, and dexterity.

Hammer followed with twenty-four stoner head kills, earning 648 XP and jumping to level 35. He applied his 104 points as 35, 34, and 35 into the orc stat trifecta.

Silo had nailed eight zombies and twenty-nine skeletons, obtaining 837 XP, which lifted him to level 40. He dropped his 136 points as 45, 45, and 46 into the same three stats.

Feeling fatigued already from the process, Harper moved onto the mages next. “Your automatic boost goes to intelligence and wisdom, but like the orcs, I want to pile on those stats and add constitution.” Before moving onto the other mages, she told the group that she had scored 40 XP from the one Dryad she’d killed in the morning, but it didn’t boost her level.

Kylah was next. She’d bagged the big prize, the Dryope, along with twenty-two skeletons. That gave her 828 XP, which topped her at level 38. She deposited her 132 points evenly into intelligence, wisdom, and constitution.

Vlad scored had thirteen zombies and twenty-six skeletons, receiving 832 XP, which boosted him to level 43. He placed his 132 points evenly into the mage trifecta.

Sierra had killed twenty-eight skeletons, collecting 700 XP and putting her at level 33. She invested her 112 points as 37, 37, and 38 into the three stats.

Harper moved onto the hunters next. “Your boost goes to strength and dexterity,” she said. “I’m going to add to that last one along with constitution and endurance.”

Jordan said he had killed one Dryad and eleven zombies. That gave him 194 XP, upping his level to 67. He dropped his 4 attribute points into endurance.

Angie followed suit with nine zombies. She rose to level 57 and placed her 4 points in the same stat.

Nevan nabbed twenty-seven stoner heads, putting him at level 34. He dispersed his 116 points as 39, 38, and 39 into constitution, dexterity, and endurance.

Thao followed with two Dryads and twenty-two stoner heads, acquiring 674 XP, which boosted her to level 43. She split her 108 attribute points evenly into the same three stats.

Harper mentioned that she had viewed Lorenzo’s stats while she was attending to him. “He remains at level 9,” she said with a sigh, “which is not a good situation for him.”

She finally moved onto the healers. “You get an automatic boost to your magic stats when you level up, but I want to target your points into two other categories — constitution and endurance.”

They started with Rachel, who’d bagged thirty-five skeletons. This gave her 875 XP, which raised her to level 42. She divided her 140 attribute points into the two stats Harper recommended.

Keshon went next. She had dropped fifteen zombies and twenty-one skeletons, garnering 735 XP, which moved her at level 44 with 116 attribute points to place.

Harper then turned to Rachel. “Do you mind swapping with Zahra so we can finish with her?”

The blonde healer nodded and entered the cabin. A moment later, the nurse from San Antonio joined the group. She told them she had nailed twenty-five skeletons, gaining 625 XP and ascending to level 32. She had 100 points to disperse into constitution and endurance.

With the stat allocations done, Silo moaned loudly. “Ugh. Are we done now?”

Harper glanced at Damon, and he shrugged. “There’s more, but I guess it can wait until morning.” He gazed up at the black sky, relieved that the first traces of light hadn’t yet appeared. “I’ll let you guys figure who sleeps with whom, but I want at least four members per cabin.”

Damon stood and raised a finger. “But as Zack mentioned, those who have emptied their food inventories will rise early to go with him.” Since he was part of that group, the orc general pulled Zack and the Alabama orcs into the same cabin.