4

Jordan watched the towering behemoth, feeling the same apprehension that Zack was experiencing. Knowing his aerial weapons were going to be useless against the giant’s stone armor, he queued up his first spell, but never had a chance to use it. With his full concentration on the beast, he saw the flash of white to his right at the very last instant. He turned and saw a jagged sword flying through the air. He raised his arms to defend himself, but was much too late.

The blade and its array of wolf fangs ripped through his exposed neck, spinning him around on his feet. Jordan felt the cold air embrace his severed flesh as his blood sprayed over the surroundings.

Thao, who stood eight feet away, was showered with the warm, crimson fluid.

“Uhh,” he groaned as he crashed onto the dungeon floor.

As his consciousness wavered, the freezing river water splashed against his wound, temporally relieving the acute pain. Thao ran to him and pressed her hands against his neck. She screamed at the other teammates, but the sound was muffled as the rushing water filled Jordan’s ears.

Above him, in the bright blue sky, he saw Brett swoop over, suspended twenty feet above them. The hated adversary screamed at him triumphantly, but Jordan didn’t hear it. Brett swung his arm. The bloody sword that had shredded Jordan’s neck soared through the mist that hung over the flood. It fluttered in the air nearby.

With a widening grin, Brett whipped his arm downward, and the blade raced toward Thao.

Not knowing if he had the strength to do it, Jordan leaned to his right and pushed the Vietnamese rookie over. The blade missed her, then arced at an acute angle. The wolf fangs shredded the front of Jordan’s neck. His body was pitched to his left side, and a mixture of water and blood flooded his mouth. He coughed violently and felt his breath escape from the wound in his neck. Oh, that’s not good… he thought drunkenly, then passed out.

5

As the two orc leaders huddled amidst the raging waters and the intensifying battle, Armando ran to them. “Damon, give me your hammer!” he shouted as he glanced nervously at the lumbering giant.

Zack, who still hung on to his wailing friend, shot Armando a steely look, then realized what the rookie orc’s plans were. “Go on, Damo,” he said. “Give him your hammer.”

Damon equipped the weapon, then threw it aside. Its heavy marble base clunked on the flooded dungeon floor. As Armando grabbed its iron handle and bolted for the foot of the behemoth, his Creature Description details came up.

EARTH GOLEM (Level 74)

HP: 1143

MP: 351

STRENGTH: 204

CONSTITUTION: 114

DEXTERITY: 112

INTELLIGENCE: 35

WISDOM: 37

XP: 522

DESCRIPTION: Physical manifestation of corrupted life force.

Armando swung the hammer at the Golem’s boulder-encrusted foot. Small chunks of rock shot out from the impact. “You gotta be kidding me,” the startled orc groaned.

He checked the monster’s HP. The blow didn’t even shave off a single point. He swung again. More stones chipped into the choppy water. The Golem’s HP remained at 1143, but this time, the giant noticed the young orc. It lifted its massive foot, and the shadow completely covered Armando.

He ran back toward the still-intact dungeon floor. As the shadow followed him, Armando had a visceral sense of what it must be like for a rodent being tracked by a hawk. As his legs splashed onto the opaque green circles of the dungeon floor, a loud roar boomed over him. Then the shadow of the Golem’s foot pulled away and crashed into the hardened earth just outside the dungeon.

Armando stared up at the beast, not believing his luck and wondering what had made the beast stay its attack. It’s the dungeon floor, he realized. If the Golem plants its foot on the floor, it will crash right through! He thought of all the successive floors of the dungeon and realized that the behemoth would break through each and every floor, plummeting to the very bottom of the structure. Where that floor monster still waits, he thought.

As his eyes bulged at the revelation, he realized how they could beat the Golem. Over the din of the churning waters, he shouted to his teammates, “To defeat this thing, we have to draw it to the dungeon floor!”

Harper, who was one hundred feet away, just outside the edge of the floor, yelled back, “That sounds right. Good call.” Her eyes were drawn to the air above him, and fear suddenly gripped her. “Look out, Arman—“

Armando turned and saw the massive orange hand bearing down on him. It smashed into the whole of his body, buckling his armor. Feeling like a Mack truck had hit him, the orc was flung nine hundred feet away from the battlefield. He crashed into a tall tree and fell limply to the waterlogged ground.

6

Still trying to console Damon, Zack saw a shape move past the trees. Brett! he thought, and his rage went to full burn. He let go of his friend and punched him in the shoulder. “Come on, Damon,” he shouted. “You’re a sitting duck out here!”

Then the Marine sprinted toward Brett, who was two hundred and fifty feet away, but closing fast. When the hell did he learn how to fly? he thought as they seemed to be closing in on each other. Then Brett made a hard left, and Zack saw who he was targeting.

“No,” he cried as he saw the madman’s sword speed like a bullet toward Jordan. Glinting in the day’s bright sunlight, the blade sliced through the side of the Grimalkin’s neck.

“You fucking bastard,” Zack roared as he continued to run through the violent waters.

Still, he wasn’t close enough to stop the second blow either. That one took Jordan down, and even from a distance, Zack could see the water briefly turn red before the current swept away Jordan’s blood. He thought about casting Greased Lightning, but remembered the spell’s tendency to remain on. He couldn’t risk exposing himself that way. Instead, he pumped his legs and activated Leap at the last second.

Zack bounded over the land and water, launching at Brett. The former healer turned to face him and extended his arms, welcoming the attack. In the split second before they collided, long claws protruded from the madman’s fingers and fangs grew from his teeth.

“That’s right! Come to me, you jarhead, you fucking piece—”

Forty feet above the wrecked landscape, their bodies collided. The force blew them back toward the trees, but they remained airborne. Brett held his hated rival, but his claws did no damage against Zack’s steel armor.

“So, we meet again, old friend,” the madman yelled with delirious glee. “Only this time, I’ll be doing the beatdown!” He lunged forward and buried his fangs into the Marine’s neck.

Blood spread on Zack’s skin as Brett pulled away with a piece of his flesh in his teeth, then spat it into the orc’s face. Temporarily blinded, Zack swung his fist toward his opponent’s face. His steel glove pounded against something much harder than a man’s flesh. He shook his head, clearing the blood and flesh from his face, and saw that his fist had slammed into a large rock that hovered in the air between them. How did that get there?

Brett threw Zack downward, and the Marine crashed into the vast crown of a tree.

The madman leviated above him. “I wanted Jordan first,” he said as his sword and the large stone circled his body, “but you were a close second, jarhead.” He flicked his wrist, and the sword settled onto a tree branch. “Blades are too quick,” he mused.

Behind him, more basketball-sized rocks rose from the ravaged soil.

“Blunt force trauma is much more enjoyable,” Brett finished with a grin, then seemed to hesitate. He looked to the east, then back at the orc. He thrust his arms down. The dozen rocks suddenly sped toward Zack, who raised his shield, hoping he could block half of them.

7

Finding the team’s location wasn’t hard for Emma. She saw the gigantic monster lumbering through the landscape, focused on what she was sure were her former teammates.

And, as she expected, she found Brett.

She couldn’t see what he was doing, but he appeared to be attacking someone below the trees. You didn’t keep your promise, she thought. Sadness and regret clenched in her chest, and she immediately second-guessed her decision to be with him. But she shook it off. You made the right choice, she affirmed to herself. But you should’ve cut him loose after he fixed the glitch’s effects. However, that wasn’t Emma’s style, and she knew it. She didn’t use people, then discard them.

As she rushed through the humid air, she saw Zack perched in a tree. Brett levitated above him, out of his reach. Many large rocks circled the former nurse’s body, and Emma realized what he planned to do.

“No, Brett, no,” she shouted, just as the madman launched his attack.

The stones moved all at once, crashing into the orc’s shield and armor. One small boulder smacked into his steel coppergate helmet. Zack cried out painfully as the helmet was knocked loose of his head. Brett grinned like a cat that had caught a mouse. He hurled himself toward the orc, extending his claws.

Emma was still too far to intervene. She looked around for anything she could use to block him and saw a limb hanging from a dead tree. She pointed at the large piece of wood and flung it at him. It jarred Brett just enough to alter his path. He crashed into the tree crown beside Zack. The Marine was on him at once, pummeling him with his armored fists.

Emma wanted to tell him to stop, but realized that she couldn’t. Whether they accepted her or not, she felt a part of the team again, and Brett was at war with them. Still, as she closed in and saw the bloody mess that Zack had reduced Brett to, she grabbed his fist.

He whipped around, and the rage she saw in his eyes made her retreat three feet. Blood leaked from a wound to his head and a couple of other places on his body, but it wasn’t anywhere near Brett’s injuries.

The Marine grinned. “Welcome back, little lady,” he exclaimed. “Thanks for saving my bacon.”

Zack turned to finish the job, but Brett had crawled away from him. He rose high above the tree. “Goddammit!” the orc shouted, then turned to Emma. “Get him. I think he killed Jordan!”

Stunned by the news, Emma hesitated. She stared into Brett’s orange eyes. A faint, indulgent smile crept across his lips. He soared to her, passing over Zack, who tried to grab him.

“Yes, Emma! Why don’t you kill me?” he raged at her from just two feet away. Blood flew from his head as he screamed. “I mean, what have I ever done for you? Except save your life!” Now spit splattered from his destroyed lips, and she realized he was sobbing. “They left you for dead, Emma! I took you in, loved you, made you my own…”

A hard laugh burst from her mouth. “Huh? Made me your own?” Anger enveloped her, and she pushed him two feet back. “I don’t belong to anybody,” she growled. “You made a promise to me, Brett, and you couldn’t even man up to that! I wanted to trust you, but now I see I never can.”

Hovering before her, Brett’s orange eyes grew brighter and more intense. Emma felt a rush of lightheadedness overtake her, and she swayed above the trees. Abruptly, her rage disappeared, and she became less sure of her decisions and emotions.

“Uuuuuh, you’re do… ooing this, aren’t you?” she asked, but realized she already knew the answer. Still reeling from the effects of the madman’s persuasion spell, Emma mumbled, “Get ooouut of here, buh… Brett, or I will kill you.”

Brett’s bloody face crumbled. “But… but…”

She drawled out more words. “Tuh… urn whatever spell this is off… You…uuu and I are over… If you interfere uh… again, we’ll kill you.”

Brett bawled and screamed. Rage, shame, and pain seemed to visibly emanate from his gyrating body. He hovered in the air for a few seconds like a balloon that had deflated, then turned and sped toward the river, shouting obscenities in his wake.

Still feeling groggy, Emma peered down at Zack, who remained at the top of the tree. She wasn’t sure what kind of reaction to expect from him.

He held up his arms to her and grinned. “Come on, little lady. We have another boss to take down.”