"Your mother is paid each time we kill someone," Nikola repeated breathlessly.

"Yeah. So we need to get past these assholes in less than 8 minutes."

There was nothing else in the world that Nikola understood better than shoving aside her meddling conscience for the sake of her family. She did a practiced twirl with her [Cleaver] in her hand, rolling it over her fingers and catching it in her palm again; feeling its ample weight, its sturdiness.

Nikola surveyed the area. There were at least 30 people gathered at the barricade, but as another [Volley of Arrows] sprinkled from beyond the gate, she couldn't tell how many of them were alive.

"I will take the long-haired male at the front. You should attempt to embolden the crowd, and break through the barrier together."

"Got it," Luke agreed, but the Butcher's cloak was already fluttering in his face.

The Hyena was distinctly separate from his party. From how consistent the spray of arrows was, Nikola had to assume that the rest of his party was comprised of Archers that were hiding behind the wooden wall.

She didn't give him the benefit of a neatly packaged warning cry; instead, she searched for a part in the sea that was the crowd and zeroed in on it. She reached out with her [Cleaver] and drew a line, cutting it in half and waiting for the surge of forward movement that came with her [Crunch] skill.

The Butcher darted past the crowd, a trail of glittering glitch-lines behind her.

Bodies thudded to the stone to her left and right, another wave of bolts hitting their mark.

Nikola aimed her [Cleaver]'s shimmering edge for the man's exposed neck as the distance between them became feet, and then inches.

He saw the fragmentation around her before he caught sight of the rest of her, but it gave him enough of a warning that someone was descending upon him that he moved just in time.

The Butcher's [Cleaver] connected with his armour with an ear-splitting clang. It crunched beneath her Class Skill, but it wasn't the deep, satisfying sound that came with leaving her foe [Crippled].

"What the--"

The armour around his shoulder fell apart, exposing the flesh beneath. Nikola licked her lips and wedged the corner of her blade into the muscle that sat at the top of his arm.

"Stop standing around!" Luke bellowed from behind her. "Quick, while she's got him occupied-- if we can break down the barricade, we can get at the archers."

More people came rushing in from behind him just in time to hear his instructions. Luke held his backpack above his head and led the charge, and many of the individuals in the crowd joined him in one cohesive mass.

Some of them even removed their pack and copied him, and soon they were all at the foot of the barrier. It was made of the tops of crates and discarded scrap wood. "It's not even that strong! Just kick it!"

He wound his leg up and smashed it into one of the crate lids, and so did several others, crunching the structure into splinters with their combined effort.

Four Archers stood there wide-eyed as a crowd of 30+ people demolished their wall.

"I don't think our strat works as well against real people," one of them squeaked out just before an angry Warrior from the crowd ran them through.

"What level even are you?" The bemused quality had seeped out of the Hyena's words, replaced with a profound annoyance. He gawked at the gaping hole in his beautiful plate armour.

"I don't know," Nikola replied honestly as she watched her blade part his flesh, redness jumping from the gash. A shiver ran over her as he frantically reached behind him for his weapon, but his eyes rolled and he and his beautiful armour clattered to the ground before he could even grab it.

What a shame. I wanted to see what it was, she thought.

Oh, she had missed this feeling; too often lately, she had been made to feel powerless. She tried not to bite her lip and failed, but at least the position of her teeth stopped her from smiling.

Luke quickly drew the shape that summoned his Red Box. "Three minutes, Nikola!"

The murderer shook her head from side to side, shaking herself out of her blood-haze and sprinting off through the now-accessible exit and into the green field beyond.

Hearing of the dwindling time window, many others around them gasped and took off.

The group of golden-armoured Players whose leader had been exploded into pixels floundered, looking between each other uneasily now that their boss was far enough behind that he wouldn't make it in time.

Nikola and Luke bounded hastily through the lush green grass, up towards the hill the Dungeon was headed for.

The Dungeon was scraping down from the crimson sky as they hauled ass. It was perched upon an island that looked like a giant had yanked a chunk out of a cliff and placed a tiny castle on it, and it was downright majestic. Liquid silver was dribbling over the craggly edges, originating from the tip of the top-most tower.

The two of them reached the top of the incline just as the building was touching down, melding seamlessly into the landscape except for the colour differentiation where the two types of land met; a dark, loamy earth, and the abundant grass.

Huffing and puffing, Luke poked at his screen a few times. "Accept my party invite," he said, and sure enough the option was there when Nikola opened her own interface.

Would you like to accept Lukeknight64's party invitation?

Party Name: Dungeoneers

EXP Share: Even

Loot Share: Even

Party Duration: End of the Dungeon

Accept | Decline

She hovered her finger over the 'Accept' option. She didn't have much time to read it over, but splitting everything in half seemed like the fair thing to do.

A dark part of her wanted to force a 60/40 split out of him, or more-- but she wouldn't know what to do with whatever she got, and Luke was already in far less fancy-looking equipment than the others present.

Nikola clicked Accept.

The Players around them were doing similarly, splitting off into groups of five or fewer and shooting out Party Invites.

With the Hyena and his lackey Archers gone, there was no more pre-fighting amongst them; they were engrossed in preparation, swapping items back and forth and hashing out strategies.

A soft 'ding' entered her mind, and she saw a '1' hovering over her [Messaging] app.

Lukeknight64: Nikola, when we get in there I want you to use your Butcher class and ignore your Rogue class.

Lukeknight64: We need you favouring the class you already have levels in.

Lukeknight64: And don't just start killing people right away. We need to defend ourselves first, but there could be some potential allies in there.

Lukeknight64: It's going to be tempting to just fuck everyone up because of what we both have on the line, but let's just focus on the monsters for EXP and not the other people.

Lukeknight64: We'll have more luck later if we don't make enemies now.

Nikola looked between Luke's focused face and the time at the bottom right of her screen.

Nikola Brightdark: I do not remember the vast majority of my Butcher Class Skills, and I cannot check them.

Nikola Brightdark: I will use what I can remember, and I will play nice as long as I am not attacked.

One minute.

A live timer popped up, white and hovering in the sky like a sun. It counted down from the one-minute mark.

Lukeknight64: Thanks. Let's try to clear the dungeon and make as many friends as possible this time around.

Lukeknight64: You want to keep a good reputation in the World of Wills.

Lukeknight64: If enough people in the game believe you're a manic killing machine, you'll start to become one.

Lukeknight64: And you won't be able to choose who to kill and not kill anymore.

30 seconds.

Nikola gave a real world nod to Luke, who was drawing his [Sword] from its sheath. It was huge, and it required two hands for him to be able to use it. He dissipated his Red Box and she did the same.

21 seconds.

The people around them were drawing their weapons. She thought she could hear one of them hyperventilating, and the sound of steel shinging moving against leather rose up from everywhere, in front of her and behind her.

A mysterious silvery light began to envelop the bottoms of her feet.

"Hey, Nikola?" Luke's navy hair fluttered in the wind as she turned to look at him.

"Yes?"

"Let's not die."

Death. Come to think of it, she didn't even know what would happen if she died in this game. Could she be fully removed from the game, or would they bring her back as her old, Unawakened self? Could she find her way to Consciousness again if they did?

The light spread to others' feet as well, shimmering and rising up to meet their torsos, and then shoulders.

"Your mother and my father are counting on us avoiding death." She made a shot in the dark, but the grim recognition in his face all but confirmed her guess.

Luke was having coppers, silvers and maybe even gold sent to his mother to help her with some kind of fatal illness, or some kind of debt; maybe even both.

"Yeah. So let's fucking avoid it."

"You said this is the World of Wills, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Then we will not die, and I believe it to be so."

1 second.

Nikola couldn't read Luke's expression as the glittering columns of light teleported them all away, including her.

0 seconds.