1

After being informed of Lorenzo’s condition, Sierra and Vlad airlifted the two team leaders to the next floor. Damon passed through the opening first, followed by Harper.

“At least we have a spawning location we can use to level up,” she said, staring down at the second floor.

The orc general grunted his agreement, then jumped off the boulder along with her. They surveyed the room. Clear water still poured through cracks in the eastern part of the structure, but with the widening of each successive floor, the overflow got further from the wall. Standing against the circular walls were a dozen middle-aged women in yellow dresses.

“What the hell?” Damon chuckled, but Harper waved her hand, cautioning him.

The ladies’ faces were smeared with an overabundance of gaudy makeup. Their long, blonde hair stood on end from apparently excessive applications of hair gel.

“Hey, you girls are hot,” Zack joked as he entered the room along with Armando. The two orcs plodded through the mud, which was only a foot deep, and stood alongside the team’s leaders. “Any of you ladies got a name?” the mischievous Marine teased. They stared back at him silently with wild expressions. He shrugged and smiled at Damon. “I guess the cat got their tongue,” he mused.

While the orc general told Zack to shut up, the ladies slowly started walking forward, fanning out to form a perimeter around the teammates. Zack noticed that two of the mobs were glitched. Their eyes were gone, and the sockets had been filled by the black quantum void.

He elbowed Damon. “Are you seeing that?”

The general nodded.

Suddenly the mobs snarled at them, and their teeth transformed into long fangs while sharp, iron claws jutted out from their fingernails. The orcs raised their swords and Harper readied a Fire Bullet as their Creature Description details appeared.

PHYLLIS DIGGER (Level 33)

HP: 299

MP: 374

STRENGTH: 191

CONSTITUTION: 29

DEXTERITY: 152

INTELLIGENCE: 37

WISDOM: 34

XP: 235

DESCRIPTION: These vampiric adversaries are no joke.

The Phyllis Diggers raised their claws and appeared to cast a spell. Bright light radiated throughout their bodies. The creatures started laughing maniacally, closing in on them.

Harper shot a worried glance at Damon, then launched her fully charged bullet. The fireball blasted toward two mobs, but they moved quickly over the thick mud, avoiding the projectile. The bullet pounded into a large brick behind them, spraying rock fragments across the room.

Unexpectedly, the Diggers dove into the mud. Their arms became a yellow blur as they slashed at the mud, then stone, with their thick claws. Chunks of limestone burst into the air above their rapidly working bodies. Within seconds, they’d excavated a series of enormous holes throughout the floor.

Having seen the damage the bullet had done to the wall, Harper switched to Mana Flash, but the agile creatures leaped over the red beam, not sustaining any damage to their health or mana pools.

As the rest of her teammates entered the room, the veteran mage resorted to Fire Scorch next. “At least I can follow them with this,” she muttered to herself. The flames burst from her fingertips, and she directed them towards the closest mob. It screeched in an almost human-sounding voice.

Suddenly, two heavy objects pounded into her back, propelling her forward. Before Harper could gain control, she fell into one of the newly excavated holes. I’ll be damned, she thought as she passed through the rough opening in the floor and dropped back into the stucco room.

2

Two Phyllis Diggers set upon Zack and Armando at the same time, evading their weapons and landing on their chests. Despite the orcs’ height and weight advantage, the speed of the blow knocked them onto their backs.

Zack swung his sword at the creature but it batted the weapon away with surprising strength. He lost his grip and the sword fell into the mud beside them.

Then, incredibly, the mob spoke. “My husband calls me a nuisance,” it deadpanned hoarsely. “But I think I’m more a pain in the neck.”

Caught completely off-guard by the weird situation, Zack didn’t react as the Digger lunged for his neck. As its jaws gaped open, the vampire’s fangs gleamed in the amber light of the glow spells. Then they sank into his skin. Pain ripped through Zack’s neck. Oh god, my jugular, he thought as he waited to see if his blood started spraying.

It didn’t.

He heaved the monster from his chest. Drops of blood dripped from the Digger’s incisors as it scrambled against his tree-trunk arms. The monster's eyes shone at him with psychotic vitality.

“Come on, Zack. I know that wasn’t very lady-like,” the Digger mocked in a dry, twangy voice, “but when you have my looks, you cut right to the foreplay.”

It chomped hungrily at the air between them and slashed through Zack’s steel battle armor, drawing a line of blood. The Digger brought its iron claw to its mouth and tasted his blood.

The Marine veteran watched as his blood seeped into the monster’s tongue. Have I been dropped into someone else’s weird dream? he thought in a daze. How does it know my name? He staggered to his feet.

The creature grinned at him. “That’s what I like about you, beefcake! You’re a real stand-up guy, but first, we have to lay some groundwork.” The Digger jumped at him.

He was able to deflect the monster’s mouth away from his neck. Its pointed teeth scraped against the top edge of his battle armor. The Digger lunged at his exposed flesh, burrowing into the muscle above his shoulder.

Zack screamed as the monster kicked against his body. He reached for his sword, found it, and swung blindly. The monster’s arm thudded against his steel armor, and he felt warm blood squirt onto the underside of his neck.

The monster appeared unfazed. “Haven’t you ever watched a Hammer flick?” it spat. “That’s not how you kill a vampire.”

The Digger leaned toward Zack as he tried to remember the vampire movies he’d seen. Stake through the heart! he remembered. That’s how you kill vampires. A stake through the heart!

“Thanks for the info, you dumb blonde,” Zack grunted as he twisted his sword to get the right angle and plunged the blade through the monster’s chest.

Its eyes grew wide with shock as its yellow dress turned crimson. The Digger croaked and moaned, reaching back at the sword, trying to grab at it.

Then it lowered its one remaining arm and grinned at him. “A wooden stake, you idiot! It’s supposed to be a wooden stake!”

The vampire dove at him and, this time, its fangs found his jugular.

3

Armando had seen his fair share of vampire movies. The good guy always won in the end, but it was usually from a variety of methods. Sure, garlic and crosses staved them off, but it never killed them. A wooden stake through the heart was the most well-known tactic. Other, less orthodox methods were decapitation, exposure to sunlight, and the very strange concept of burying a vampire under a running stream.

So, while his Digger tried to mesmerize him with its banter of stale jokes, the former Marine police and corrections officer scanned his inventory for something he could use. There wasn’t a single wooden item. Hope the other methods work, he thought.

As he held the vampire at bay, he released the hold his right hand had on its thrashing body. He grabbed the sword he had dropped and swung for its head. His accuracy was off. The blade sliced through the mob’s torso.

The Digger abruptly stopped attacking. Its clawed hands delicately touched the ragged wound that ran at an angle from right side of its groin to the top-left of its stomach. Large amounts of blood began seeping from the wound, flowing over the vampire’s yellow dress like dark pudding.

With shock etched on its face, the creature gaped at Armando. “How could you do this after all we’ve been through?” it asked melodramatically.

Its torso started sliding to the right, dislodging from the monster’s lower half. The Digger grasped onto Armando’s body for support as its lower half flopped over onto his waist. The monster’s iron claws clanked against his armor before gripping his shoulder.

The Digger grinned. “Let’s cut to the chase,” it quipped and laughed maniacally.

The vampire used its claws to crawl over him like a spider. As it bared its fangs and pulled towards his neck, Armando grabbed a snatch of the monster’s blonde hair and pulled its head upward. He swung his sword and was right on target, slicing through the mob’s neck.

The rest of the Digger’s torso collapsed onto his chest. At first, he didn’t think the monster was finally dead. Its brown eyes found his, and it launched into another witticism.

“The two racers were neck and neck, but then—” The monster’s mouth closed with a snap and its eyes turned gray.

Armando shuddered and threw the dead head across the room. It bounced along the muddy surface and fell into one of the holes in the floor holes. He stood up and had a brief look around. All of his teammates were paired up with another Digger. He couldn’t find Harper or Zahra anywhere in the room, but quickly assessed that Rachel and Zack were in the most danger. They were on their backs, straddled by the yellow vampires, but Zack was the closest, only ten feet away.

Armando rushed to him, grabbing his monster by the hair and yanking it from his neck. Zack immediately pressed his hands against his throat, but large amounts of blood squirted through his fingers. His tan skin was turning pale.

Meanwhile, the attacking Digger glared at Armando. “That was very rude, young man,” it scolded. “We were busy necking.”

Armando looked warily at the monster. “Oh, shut up,” he said, then swung his sword, decapitating it. Its body slammed to the mud and he tossed the head away.

He knelt beside Zack. Blood still squirted through his fingers, and he looked at Armando desperately. “I… I’ve been bitten by a vampire.”

Armando placed his hand on the Marine’s shoulder. “I’ll be right back with one of the healers,” he said, then ran toward Rachel.

4

The Diggers seemed to sense that Rachel was one of the weaker members of the group. As a result, she had an unhindered view of the battle before it came to her. With incredible speed, the creatures dug eight holes into the floor and punted two members to the room into them, evening the combatants to twelve apiece. Then they attacked the veterans first.

In the few seconds she had before she was attacked, Rachel watched the onslaught fearfully. As a zoologist, she had accepted the mission looking for adventure and enlightenment. She’d been told the large number of military personnel would keep her safe.

Then she saw how the battles played out. The bunyips, the Dryads, the nøkken, the worms, and the gigantic monster in the dungeon floor. They presented formidable dangers, and the team was, at times, outmatched. Even the veterans, at their advanced level, were not immune to the threats. Already Heinrich and Jackson were dead, and Rachel had every reason to think she could be next.

As the battle developed, she backed away from the fight—something she wasn’t even aware of doing. She watched as the monsters zipped across the floor with lightning speed before settling on a teammate.

“What am I doing?” she muttered as she realized that she was retreating from the fray.

Fighting against her overwhelming fear, Rachel pulled up her weapons list. The trilance struss stood out for her. It was a wide, long spear. A double-sided axe blade was harnessed near the top of the metal point. She thought it was perfect. I can attack from a distance, she tried to encourage herself.

Rachel equipped the struss and tried to balance its length and weight. She staggered toward the Digger that was attacking Silo. They were one of the few combatants still on their feet. Rachel picked up speed, trotting toward the yellow vampire. She lowered the weapon, intent on impaling the monster.

She didn’t see another creature racing toward her. It jumped at the healer, landing on her slight chest, and twisting her body. Rachel slammed into the mud on her back. The struss somehow managed to stay between their bodies and she groped for it, positioning the long metal object between them.

“Looks like you wanted to make a point back there, little sister.” The vampire tapped its claws against the silver surface of the struss and licked its lips.

Its vacant, starry eyes horrified Rachel with dawning realization. It’s one of the glitched monsters, she thought.

The monster grinned at her, seemingly aware of her observation. “That’s right, healer. I have been touched by god—and go figure, I’m a fucking vampire!” The Digger opened its mouth. Inside, the quantum void had obliterated the monster’s tongue and throat. Black saliva trickled down the length of its long, curved fangs.

Rachel shrieked. That’s going to drip on me! She twisted to her side then looked over her shoulder and watched the corrupted liquid spill from the monster’s mouth. She arched her back away from it and her senses went into high alert, trying to detect whether the tainted drop had made contact with her body. As far as she could tell, it hadn’t, but the Digger took advantage of her vulnerable position and slashed its claws across her leather armor. Rachel felt the rawhide tear, then screamed as the iron gouged through her armpit. The damp air kissed her opening wound and chilled her blood.

Rachel groped for the struss, which had stayed between them.

As the Digger straddled her, it made a kissing gesture. “Mwah, mwah. Come on, sister. Let’s swap spit!” The vampire dove for her neck.

“Noooo!” Rachel cried as she thrust the struss at the monster to ward it off. The metal connected with one of its fangs, breaking it off. The tooth clattered down the length of the weapon.

Not far away, she heard Armando shout to the group, “You have to decapitate these things to kill them.”

Rachel stared at the weapon she realized was going to be useless in defending herself against the Digger. I need to switch to my sword, she thought, but if I remove the struss, I’ll be exposing myself.

The monster smiled at her. Its broken tooth gleamed in the dim light. Its eyes seemed to exhibit cunning intelligence despite their black-and-white corruption.

“Yes. You’re in quite a bit of a quandary, aren’t you, my beautiful sister?” it said derisively.

Rachel made the switch. The struss disappeared as the sword materialized in her right hand. The monster dove at her neck. She craned the tip of the blade toward the Digger, already knowing she was too late. She raised her left arm to block the creature, but it batted her arm away like a fly. Its mouth stretched open, inches from her neck.

A large hand swooped in and grabbed the monster’s head, yanking it away from her body. Rachel saw a sword swing and slice through the Digger’s neck. Its body fell to her left side. Terrified and revolted, she rolled to her right side. She glimpsed Armando standing above her, holding the monster’s head.

“Watch out—that one’s glitched,” she cried.

The tall orc threw the head away. Rachel broke into sobs. He grabbed her by the shoulders, aggravating the injury below her armpit.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” he said. “Zack needs your help.”

5

As she and Armando raced to the other side of the room, Rachel saw that half of her teammates had defeated their attackers. Those members were now ganging up on the five Diggers still in the room.

When they got to Zack, he was out cold. One arm had fallen askew but his right hand was still pressed limply against the wound in his neck. A dark pool of blood had formed on the thick mud near his injury. He was still bleeding, although at a slower pace than what Armando had seen earlier.

Rachel cast Mana Heal, emptying her reserves, then looked around the room. “Angie! We need you over here!”

The veteran, who was helping Vlad take down a Digger, ran over. “Oh my god,” she gasped when she saw Zack’s condition.

“We need those bras from your inventory,” Rachel urged. Angie handed them over. The healer knelt beside Zack and wrapped the two bras around his neck to limit his blood loss but not restrict his breathing. She checked her MP and cast another round of Mana Heal.

She looked up at Armando. “Can you hold this canvas in place? Apply pressure to the wound, but don’t block his airflow.”

As the tall orc squatted beside the injured veteran, Rachel stood up. She ran a hand through her dark blonde hair, not realizing she was leaving a blood streak that would soon congeal and become sticky.

“Where’s Zahra?” she asked Angie. “We need her expertise.”

The two women surveyed the room, but couldn’t find her or Harper. Forgetting her telepathic ability and overwhelmed with the pressure of the situation, Rachel screamed, “Where the fuck is Zahra?”

As her stunned teammates glanced at her, puzzled by her outburst, the nurse from San Antonio rose through the opening in the center of the room from the floor below.

6

Zahra rushed to Zack, whose bleeding had slowed to a trickle.

Armando looked up at her. “I think it might have been one of his arteries.”

“How many healing spells has he had?” she asked.

“Two Mana Heals,” Rachel answered, “and a bunch of Basic Heals.”

“Everyone, direct your Fire Glow spells over Zack,” Zahra called to the team, then pulled away the canvas wrapped around Zack’s neck. The flesh surrounding the puncture had turned gray. “It’s his posterior external jugular,” she said as she examined the injury closely.

The teammates who had gathered around her exchanged puzzled expressions. The exposed vein had been frayed, and Zahra could see some scar tissue on its outer edges.

She got back up and asked Armando to rewrap the canvas. “The healings are working. He passed out because there wasn’t enough blood going to his brain. Keep using those spells.”

While Harper administered Mana Heal on the wounded Marine, Zahra checked the rest of the team. Rachel, Silo, and Vlad’s injuries were the worst. The healer went to work on them in the macabre setting of the aftermath. The dead vampires in their yellow dresses littered the floor. Piles of limestone lay around the large holes they had burrowed.

Armando stayed close to Rachel while she was being healed. She was still rattled from her encounter with the Digger, and the tall orc discreetly wrapped his arm around her waist.

As he scanned the room, he made eye contact with Harper. “So those monsters drop-kicked you into the holes?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It wasn’t a very fun ride down, but at least the thicker mud softened the landing.”

“Did those mud creatures on the lower floor attack you?”

Harper shook her head. “They didn’t have a chance. Zahra and I didn’t waste any time getting back to this floor.”

The tall orc rubbed his chin. “It sure seemed like you two were down there a long time.”

The veteran mage initially stiffened her back, then relaxed. “That’s the way it happens in these battle sometimes. If you need help, the minutes can go by like hours. But the reverse can happen too. If you’re being attacked, you never feel you have enough time to react. Before you know it”—she sighed and glanced at Zack, who was just regaining consciousness—“you’ve lost a member.”

7

Vlad had been waiting for the opportunity and jumped Silo the moment he had the chance. Despite the British orc’s size advantage, he was taken by surprise and driven into the mud. Before he could react, the Russian mage’s fist pounded into his nose.

“Who fucking tell you about about ‘VD’?” the burly mage screamed into his face.

As their teammates charged after them, Silo kneed Vlad in the groin and punched him in the ribs. “Fuck you!”

They grappled against each other. The Russian shifted on Silo’s body and drew his fist back to strike him again. Damon’s hand swooped in, wrapped around his forearm, and yanked him off. As he was held him back, Vlad rained expletives down on the Brit. “Who da fuck tell you dat? Zhopu porvu margala vikoliu! Was it Nevan? You fucking, zhopoliz, piece of shit.”

Even with his broken nose, the British orc grinned at him. “No, VD,” he mocked in his high-pitched voice, “it wasn’t Nevan.” Blood flowed over his teeth and into the black whiskers of his goatee. “Maybe it was one of your sluts?”

The Russian tried to break free again, but Armando helped Damon keep him at bay now. “You pizdoon. I gonna fucking kill you!” Vlad’s face turned red as he screamed more expletives.

Damon slammed the palm of his hand onto the mage’s back. “That is enough!”

Vlad seemed to settle down slightly, but he watched Silo like a hawk as the Brit rose from the muddy floor.

“Nice going, VD. I think you broke my nose,” Silo said as he touched his bloody nose.

“Don’t you ever use that word again!” Damon shouted at the British rookie.

Meanwhile, Vlad didn’t answer back, but he continued to glare at his opponent with a deathly expression. His balls ached like hell, but he wasn’t going to give Silo the pleasure of knowing that.

Damon chastised both members for the next few minutes and instructed the other orcs to keep an eye on the pair. “But we’re not going to babysit you two,” he grumbled. “I can’t believe I have to say this, but we have bigger issues to deal with. So, smarten the hell up.”

As the heat of the conflict died down, the teammates went back to check on Zack. The two combatants glowered at each other through the throng of their teammates, both knowing that their grievances were not settled.

8

Zack regained consciousness soon afterward, and when he did, he gazed up at the teammates with a somber expression. “I’m a vampire now,” he moaned as he pointed at the scarred remains of his neck injury.

Harper and Damon laughed almost simultaneously. “It’s still nighttime, dingus,” she snorted. “If you were a vampire, we’d know it by now.”

Zack wasn’t convinced. “Maybe I have to sleep in a coffin first.”

The orc general laughed. “Well, then, you’re in luck. We’re in short supply of those.”

“Maybe you’re going to turn into a comedian,” Angie teased.

Zack gazed at the team leaders, unimpressed with their lack of seriousness on the subject. He attempted to stand up, and Damon grabbed him to keep him from falling over.

“Take it easy, buddy,” Damon said. “You’re not fully recovered.”

Zack pointed at the Epiphany clouds hovering in the room. “What’s in those?”

Harper glanced at the clouds warily. “Uh, we decided not to take the chance. Those mobs were glitched.”

Zack scoffed. “Just two of them.” He barged forward, staggering slightly.

“Watch it—you’re still very weak,” Zahra called out to him, but he ignored the warning.

He searched the blonde carcasses and found the two mobs that had been infected. “There. We just have to avoid their clouds.” As Harper and Damon urged him to stop, the Marine walked through the closest Epiphany. A text screen appeared in his field of vision.

Congratulations, Zack! You have found an Epiphany that contains the spell: Greased Lightning. This spell will allow you to run like a gazelle! Ranked advanced and available to all classes, so tell all your friends. Greased Lightning runs at 5 MP per second and has a cooldown rate of 10 seconds. This ain’t no hydromatic! It’s systematic!

He grinned at his teammates. “See, I’m fine,” he laughed. “Watch this.” He cast the spell and bolted across the floor, avoiding the holes. Before reaching the end of his dash, Zack’s dizziness got the better of him and he lost his balance, barreling into the far wall. “Ow,” he laughed as he rubbed his shoulder.

As Damon scolded the Marine and Zahra checked his shoulder, Silo rushed into the same cloud. “I want some of that, mate.”

Harper tried to warn him against it, but she was too late. Frustrated, she turned to the rest of her teammates. “Everyone, stay where you are,” she shouted, then walked up to Zack, who was leaning against the grimy wall. “That was pretty reckless. You saw what happened to Emma.”

The Marine shrugged. “There were only two mobs that were glitched,” he explained as Silo raced to their side, extolling the virtues of the new spell.

“This is freakin’ amazing. I can go three times faster now.” Silo looked over his shoulder at Vlad. “Try catching me now, fucker.”

Damon smacked him in the head. “You’re pushing your luck,” he warned.

The team spoke briefly about camping for the night, but no one wanted to stay in a muddy room filled with corpses.

As they prepared for the next floor, Damon insisted on Zack sitting out the next battle. “I want you fully recovered,” he said, then turned to Vlad. “You. Stay with him. Make sure he rests.”

The Russian mage sagged. “I should be part of next battle,” he argued, but the orc general just folded his arms. Vlad sighed. “Alright. I make sure pigface balvan go nowhere.”