Run run, faster faster! I gotta go faster! I was pushing myself to the limit trying to get to Zak. My breath was about to give out and my body could barely keep up with my mind, but that didn't stop me. All I knew was that I had to get to the village as soon as possible.

Terrible thoughts were beginning to creep into my mind. Thoughts of Zak dying, thoughts of losing my only friend. Soon a flood of emotion began to come over me. Anger, fear, sadness.

I don't want to be alone... Not anymore. Not ever again. I had been so lonely ever since I got trapped in this game. No friends, no family, no one who even wanted to keep me around. Countless days spent in darkness with nothing except for myself and my thoughts. How could I hope to help Zak when I can hardly do anything for myself.

I shut my eyes and tried wiping away the falling tears from my face. That's when I began to hear noise off in the distance.

Huah! Take that!

Immediately I snapped out of my state of turmoil and began following the noise. I tried to run faster as I approached a hill seeming to shield the noise.

Hah-hah-hah! My breathing continued to intensify, but I was more determined than ever. Upon reaching the top of the hill I was blinded by the sunlight that shone on me. Lifting a hand to block the sun out of my vision I could see Zak and what appeared to be a zombie-like creature battling towards the bottom of the hill. About a kilometer away I could see the village we were looking for.

“ZAK!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. A smile of relief managed to take over my emotional facial expression.

Zak shot his head towards me. “It's about time you showed up!” he yelled, smiling back at me. He swung his heavy axe downwards on the monster but it jumped backwards in response. Once he created enough distance between himself and the monster he began running towards me. Nearly tripping, I started running towards him as well.

“Boy am I glad to see you.” Zak said. “It's been one hell of a rough one, this guy just won't quit.”

“Is it a strong monster?” I asked, trying to get updated on the situation.

“Not really, but it's pretty damn quick. I'm not able to swing my axe fast enough to get off more than a scratch.”

The monster roared and finally started running towards us.

“Okay Zak, I have a plan. Wait for my signal.”

“Alright Kath, you better not let me down!”

We took off towards the monster. Once we got close enough I could finally read it's name. Forsaken Villager. Definitely an undead type monster, but I've never seen one so fast. It had rotting skin with a blue hue, a dislocated jaw, and some chunks of meat missing out of it. It looked like something straight out of a horror film.

“Stay a bit back and wait!” I commanded Zak as I engaged combat with the monster.

As soon as I was in range of it, the monster threw down a heavy punch at me. I lifted my shield to block it and swept my mace at its legs to test it's speed. It barely managed to jump over my attack. Hmm, this should work. The monster came at me again, this time instead of absorbing the blow with my shield I brushed it off and the monster lost its balance. I had the perfect opening to attack.

“!” I shouted to activate my Mace Skill. In a lightning fast motion I swung my mace from my side to above my head and crashed it down on the monster's skull. “Now, Zak!”

The monster stood there motionless as Zak came flying in to flank it.

“Huah!” he yelled as he sliced his axe horizontally through the monster. The two pieces split apart and burst into millions of pixels. “We did it, Kath!” Zak looked over at me with a smile, but it quickly faded away. “You okay man? You don't look so hot?”

Suddenly I became weak. First my legs gave out, then my vision began to darken. My eyes slowly closed as I saw Zak running towards me...

Blackness was all I saw. Nothing but empty darkness.

I guess I'll never get out of here, will I? I thought. It seemed like ever since I entered Aincrad that it was me versus the world and maybe that's the way it was supposed to be, but in the darkness I could always see a light. I really wanted to reach that light, but it was always so small and so distant that I never thought I had a chance to reach it. This time it was different. The light was coming to me. This little white light continued to get closer and closer to me. I didn't know whether I should be happy or afraid. As the light got closer I could hear a voice, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The light began taking over my vision and before I knew it all I could see was light. The voice was clear to me now.

“Hey Kath, wake up!” Zak said, worried.

I shot straight upwards unaware of what was happening. “The monsters-”

“Don't worry about it,” Zak interrupted, “I dragged you away from that hellhole.” I finally took a look at my surroundings and sure enough Zak and I were back at our original resting spot.

“What happened to me?”

“Not quite sure... One second you were kicking that zombie's ass and the next you blacked out.”

“I probably just over-exerted myself. I pretty much sprinted for 15 minutes just to catch up to you. I was scared you were in danger.”

“Pfft, me in danger? Not even in your dreams!” laughed Zak. He must have seen the worried expression on my face because in an instant he changed his tone of voice. “Thanks for having my back there man.” he said while placing a hand on my back. “What was that skill you used there anyway? That undead piece of crap couldn't even move after you hit him.”

“It's a mace-skill I learned not too long ago called . It stuns whoever I hit with it for 3 seconds.”

“Wow! That's awesome! I can already tell we're going to kick that boss' ass ne-”

“Boss?!” I interrupted. “What boss?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. After killing that monster our quest log got updated, take a look.”

I raised my hand and opened up my menu and cycled through to my quest log. Zak was right, there was a notification beside The Forsaken Village. I opened the quest and the new information was brought up on a screen in front of me.

Upon finding the village you discover that it is completely taken over by the horrific plague that consumed the villagers. Thankfully, there is a way to lift this plague. The heart of the plague comes from the leader of the Forsaken: Kulz, The Witch-Doctor. Destroy Kulz and his even curse will be lifted, returning the Forsaken back into the soil.

“So, Kulz is the boss we have to kill?” I asked.

“Yup, once we get rid of him the quest should be over. I'm pretty sure since this is a boss quest we're going to great crazy good gear outta this!” Zak replied. “Once you wake up a bit more let's go back there and end this thing!”

“Settle down, Zak.” I interrupted, “Didn't you notice that there was a difficulty rating put beside the quest title?”

“Was that the '3+' I saw beside the title? What does that mean?”

“It's the recommended number of members you have in your party during the boss battle. Every quest with a boss ending has one of those ratings. I've only done one before and it was pretty tough. I think it'd be wise if we recruited two members to come join us rather than one, the safety is worth missing out on a bit more Col and EXP.”

“If you say so, but who are we gonna find on such short circumstances?”

“You know The Aincrad Vanguard correct?”

“Of course I do, they're the strongest guild in the game at the moment! They wouldn't even accept me into their training grounds. There's no way they'd help us out.”

“I once saved a Captain and Sergeant of their guild while I was in a dungeon. I guess their squadron triggered a trap and a bunch of mobs ended up spawning like crazy and circled them. I cut a path through the mobs for them from the outside and helped them flee the dungeon, but unfortunately I couldn't save the other three members of their squadron.”

Zak was just looking at me in awe, his boyish face made it look as though he was looking at a super hero. “Wow Kath, you really are amazing, aren't ya?”

I chuckled at his comment. “Not as much as you'd wish to believe. As I was saying, the two members have asked to repay me in the past, but I always turned them down. Hopefully they'll help us out with this.”

“Yeah they oughta! You saved their asses!”

“Well who knows what will happen, all I know is that it's starting to get dark and we should probably head back to Primum for the night. Tomorrow morning we can head over to the Aincrad Vanguard's Guild HQ and try to catch them before they go out grinding.”

“Sounds good to me, let's go get some grub!”