Around Daphne’s unmoving form, the remnants of the slime pooled itself together into a dozen smaller mobs, similar to the oozes they faced in the upper sewers. He didn’t have time to carry both Daphne and Claire out unscathed. But maybe he didn’t have to. After all, he had plenty of rocks.

Claire picked herself up, coughing up lungs filled with green slime that tasted oddly like lime jello. The slimes surrounded her without room for escape. Her sword was nowhere to be found. She must have dropped it, somewhere. Daphne’s unmoving form lay nearby just as surrounded, and even more vulnerable. A rock splashed into the slime closest to Claire, before it could slap her with its two tiny tentacle arms.

Edge hit the mobs closest to Daphne and Claire first, grabbing their aggro. He quickly turned tail in the opposite direction, aggroing any mob that came anywhere near his friends. He threw rocks! He didn’t stop. Until he had them all.

“I’m ready,” said Sakura. Her health bar was down into the red from the fall. Even one blow from a Slime would be enough to . . . She couldn’t think like that. Her [Firebomb] was ready, and Edge was already circling the slimes, gathering them into a deathtrap. She didn’t have Daphne’s buff to strengthen her spell. She hoped she alone would be enough.

“Fire!” ordered Edge. With a dozen mobs, there was no way he could kite them all into a group small enough for a single firebomb. Actually, there was one way. Sakura’s spell was already hurtling through the air when Edge turned back and sprinted toward the focal point. He dodged through the line of slimes he’d created, only to stand his ground in the epicenter. The slimes turned on him, immediately surrounding him, preventing his escape. Levia was hard. Being a hero was harder.

The detonation was as devastating as always, maybe more so. Sakura looked on helplessly at the destruction she’d wrought. Edge had sacrificed himself for them, not a single slime survived the blast. “The fool,” she quivered. Belladonna was beside her now, still holding on to her last weapon, the messy arrow.

“The hero,” Belladonna said, gravely.

“Why did you do it?” asked Edge. He was on his knees, holding Daphne in his arms. She’d saved him at the last possible moment, and they both narrowly escaped the explosion. But he had so many life points, and she so few. The [Firebomb] knocked her down to zero health.

“Kiten dash, O, P,” she gasped, reaching out and touching her hand against his cheek. “I win.” She closed her eyes. He kissed her then, as best he could. He’d never kissed a girl before, not really. Tears fell from his eyes, and for the first time in a long time, he let himself cry. He held her tightly, promising himself he’d never let her go. A glowing light surrounded Daphne’s body. Please don’t take her away. It was Daphne who’d saved him, who’d helped him change from . . . to what he was now. He didn’t want to die anymore, but he would have traded his life in a second for hers. He wasn’t even being a hero, he realized. He would have survived the blast, since the developers had just promised to keep him alive. Was Daphne made that same promise, did she have a contract too?

Claire stood behind them, scared that her spell was too late.

The light around Daphne’s form grew brighter, and her health climbed up slowly tick by tick, and then rapidly to thirty percent. Daphne slowly blinked open her eyes. “Did it go in? Did we stop it? Did we win?”

“What?”

“Our match, the gecko ball . . .” she explained, tiredly.

It did, though he was the only one to see it. That made it a tie game, or course. Not technically a win for Team Kiten. But he didn’t say any of that. No one needed to know. Edge kissed her again as thoroughly and as deeply as he felt. And it was much better when she kissed him back. When it was over, they stared into each other’s eyes. He really didn’t know what to say. But the words escaped his lips before he could stop himself.

“You taste like lime jello.”