Day 21 of the Game of 10,000 Thrones. After taking Jackal’s crowns, Team Firebrand was solidly in 2nd place in the standings, and Team FOXHOUND were still the runaway Ultimate Victors.

And soon, only one would remain. Yesterday, Team FOXHOUND had subjugated territories to surround the Team Firebrand main nation. I stood outside the front gate of the castle of one of the territories I controlled at its edge, before the turn’s start.

Hound was as good as his word—it wasn’t five minutes before I saw them speeding toward me. There was no parlay, no banter, from the moment we spotted each other—only ruthless efficiency as I cast both the Enhance buffs Edwin had given me after the 3rd Floor and engaged Agility injection. It must have made for an extremely odd sight, one me against nine super-powered child soldiers. In moments, it was clear that one of them was indeed a healer/supporter. I concentrated on taking her out first, subsumed though I was by a whirlwind of attacks and counterattacks.

I’m not sure how much time passed before I managed it, though I do know that I mixed in AOEs—Firestorms and Lesser Rains of Fire—to create opportunities and weaken the group as a whole.

I do know that when she went down, I laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said as they glared at me, lacing my speech with , “it’s just...this is so much easier than fighting those other four kids.”

The healer’s death combined with my taunt enraged them to the point their attacks became heedless of each other. From the start, the only thing they had going for them that actually threatened me was their teamwork, and I’d succeeded in my attempt to get them to throw it out the window. From that moment on, I might as well have been Neo fighting eight copies of Agent Smith. And as always, my various fireballs and other fire-related projectiles were utterly undodgeable, and did absolutely devastating damage. With my Imagination enhancement also active, I was tiring, but not as quickly as they were dying.

One of the kids seemed stronger than the others, I guessed this was the leader, Hound. As more of his comrades died around him, he got agitated enough to break his silence. “What ARE you?!”

Many of my Imagination experiments were actually training to avoid going totally into a battle-fugue in my Imagination induced “super mode,” but I definitely had no idea what to say to that. I just fought on.

The fight went long enough that I was tiring to the point where I didn’t want to risk the super-mode anymore. However, only three members of Team FOXHOUND were left, and they were on their last legs, even the leader.

And I knew my latest cooldown on Lesser Rain of Fire had just finished. I had enough in the tank for what I called Homing Rain of Fire, and with their reduced numbers, plenty of leeway to cast it.

All three of them fell at the same time. One by one, I collected Team FOXHOUND’s crowns.

Team Firebrand was now #1. But the trouble was only beginning. A screen appeared to me, that I recognized as the secret channel AzurePrincess used before. But this time, instead of text, I heard her voice.

“You did it. And the showrunners are not happy about it. They’re scrambling forces from Elysium to apprehend you. The good news is that apparently, they think you were inserted into the game by us and want to interrogate you, so they’re refusing to use the DNA cannons on the space station. We’ve also managed to sabotage the system that teleports between thrones, so they can’t just warp to you.

The bad news is that the ship we prepared to extract you is behind schedule, still en route. You’ll need to hold out for three hours. Don’t try to confront the Elysium forces. They have more than just soldiers at their disposal.”

“The teleporters are completely down?”

“Yes.”

“Got it.” I took off. When I made a certain course-correction, AzurePrincess spoke again.

“What are you doing? Holing up in a castle deep in your territory won’t help. The game has been called off. All the troops have been released from the game, and they couldn’t stand up to Elysium in any case.”

“Team FOXHOUND didn’t just want to kill me,” I explained while running full-tilt toward Betty’s castle at the epicenter of our nation, “they went after one of my teammates, and there’s reason to believe it’s because he was marked as a seditious individual.”

“Dammit, Lheticus! This wasn’t part of the deal!”

“How much harder will it be to get two people off this rock instead of one?” I meant it as a serious question. If it would complicate a teleport or something, I was prepared to back off.

There was silence for a while, then “On your head be it, then. Don’t make me regret this.”

My Tower menu currently had a screen that helpfully displayed a countdown of how much longer I had to survive. It displayed more than 160 minutes when I burst into Betty’s castle. “Lheticus, what the hell?!”

I gave her a look that instantly withered her. “Darril. We have to run. Now.”

“Lheticus, what’s going on?” said Caleb, as I bodily lifted Darril over my shoulder, “the game screen completely shut down. There was some kind of announcement saying the finals are canceled!”

I gave him a look. “Do you really think you want to know?”

From the way his eyes widened, I think he got the implications. “I’m sorry,” I said, “things just...got out of control.”

Then I took off. It helped that the Elysium was positioned northwest of Team Firebrand’s nation, so I’d actually put distance between it and me so far.

But it wasn’t just the Elysium forces after me now. The game’s Central Broadcasting space station had dispatched dropships after me. Still, for a very long time I was able to avoid any confrontation.

There was slightly less than 30 minutes to go, when the entire continent of Yzmar’s main surface that I was on was so saturated with Throskart troopers that I couldn’t avoid them anymore. With everything else I’d done, my stamina potion injector reserves were very low, but not quite gone.

I fought, and fought and fought and fought. Very quickly, I learned to stick to heavily forested areas as much as possible. That way, the enemy’s tanks mostly couldn’t do much. I still faced troopers on what reminded me of Endor speeders. They weren’t too hard to deal with, but they affected my target priority since their weapons were capable of immobilizing me. I could break out of it with Power of Imagination, but that taxed my already overdrawn stamina. My mana potion reserves were also almost gone.

Darril had long since fainted on my back, but he was still alive, and otherwise healthy. And the time limit was coming up. “Just a little longer, Lheticus,” said AzurePrincess, “you have to hold on!”

By the time the mission timer read 5 seconds, I was approaching double-digits of Stamina. “Spatial warp calculated and charged,” said her voice, “engaging now!”

I found myself on a platform that looked way too industrial to pass for a Star Trek teleport pad. I immediately collapsed. It was all I could do not to vomit. I looked up—

Into the face of a human. “Welcome to the resistance.”

“That...really...pushed...me...to the limit,” I gasped.

“Yeah. You were incredible. Incredibly brave and stupid, too, bringing all that dead weight.”

Slowly, I stood. “Sometimes, a guy needs to be a little brave and stupid. To affirm that he’s still...human.”

The brown-skinned human man laughed. “Well said! Sneaking this ship into Yzmar, the most heavily monitored rock in the Throskart Empire—except Throssia Prime itself of course—has gotta be pretty brave and stupid, too.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, eyes on the screen before me that said [Would you like to turn in your mission?] As I continued to speak, “could you give me a moment?” I thought, Yes.