Duerlin still sat motionless in his chair, his eyes were closed.

“What do we do about him?” Sarah put a hand on his shoulder. There was no reaction.

“Well, what are we going to do?” Jorn was focusing on something in the distance. “Do you want to see what the group event is? I bet it has something to do with the plants again.”

Sarah thought for a moment, she could do with some payback on that pesky flower. Maybe with a huge group they could actually cut it down. That Anunt, she had been able to devastate one of them.

Then said it would bring the swarm. Sarah hung her head slightly, it was kind of their fault it was coming. They had been forced to have Anunt save them.

“I think we should. If that plant monster is attacking in a swarm, it’s at least partially our fault. Plus, with my upgraded fire punch, I should be able to do a lot more damage to it.”

“Agreed. Let’s head to the gate and see if we can find the Captain to get us filled in.”

“Duerlin? What about you?” Sarah was trying to ask gently, but the swordsman just sat there unanswering.

Jorn pulled a pen and a scrap of paper from his side bag. He wrote a short message, slid the paper in front of Duerlin, then stood.

“He’ll be fine here, just give him a little more time to figure everything out. It can be a lot to sort through if the person he lost was close enough.”

“Even in a game? It’s not like their partner really died, just lost the chance to play now that their character has been killed off.”

Jorn just shook his head, then motioned for Sarah to follow him as he started walking to the front door. Sarah followed him out of the building, then across the open area in the middle of the business buildings back towards the main gate.

“What did you tell him?”

“That we would be at the gate, or out in the fields. To meet up with us if he wanted to join the party, or to stay safe if he wanted to go his own way.”

Sarah nodded, she agreed with that. He would be a good asset to their team, but they couldn’t force him to be a part of it. Sarah thought of her friend, and how he hadn’t wanted to play right away. The way you progressed in this game, it seemed like he was going to be a long way behind.

It couldn’t be helped at this point. She was locked into playing and wasn’t about to give up precious time to check on him. He hadn’t wanted her as more than a friend anyway, Sarah wished she could just forget about it and move on.

“Hey? Sarth? Yo!” Jorn was practically yelling at her before she realized that she was half a step from walking out of the gate. “This way space cadet.”

Sarah was about to shoot napalm at him just to see what it would do, but remembered how deadly it was supposed to be. And with only one life per player that would be a dick move. The guards at the post he stood in front of probably wouldn’t be too happy about it either.

Jorn took his ax out, the blade had a small area where a few ridges overlapped. Holding the ax near the blade in one hand, he brought a pitch black shard of glass to it. The ripples opened slightly, then accepted the glass, closing tightly around it. He strapped it back across his back, smiling merrily. The new upgrade must be really good.

Guards milled around the tower base, dozens more people stood around them. The shiny star on the shoulder of one guard marked him as the captain. Jorn introduced the two of them, and asked what the request was.

It was indeed about the swarming Mandragora plants. They had swallowed up everything from the base of the mountain, down to the road north of the Metora Ant hills. If they kept spreading, the road would be overtaken and the city would be cut off to the south. The Mandragora could even invade over the mountains, into the northern rivers, and cut the city off completely.

The guards were hiring adventures to help with a mass raid on the meadow. The general plan was to create a boundary down the road. Allowing for a more widespread fight, without having to lose the path back home.

It sounded like they wanted to send for the capital city’s army. To have them extend the safety net indefinitely. Sarah wondered just how long she would play before needing to rest, she didn’t even feel slightly exhausted at this point. The new generator had been humming warmly, making her feel more alert than ever.

“Well, this should be simple enough.” Sarah sounded confident.

“I dunno, I’ve been in and out of those fields a few times. It was never overtly hostile, but then you showed up and the whole city is suddenly marching to kill it.” Jorn shot her enthusiasm down.

“Gee, thanks. Like I didn’t already feel like an ass for missing the tutorial. Now I gotta live with knowing I set off the raid boss prematurely.”

“You’re welcome.”

By the time they set out, over fifty adventures marched in a column. Nearly all of the city guard would follow, making the total number closer to eighty fighters. One group of Dwarves were pushing along a large ballista. It had a mechanism that would fire large projectiles repeatedly.

“Let’s hang out by them, I have an idea.”

Sarah held her hand up and looked at it for a moment. They had about half of the column ahead of them, so they would be the second wave of fighters to hit the front. The heavily armored warriors went out front.

Jorn had pointed out a battle mage while they were leaving the city, fully decked out in shiny metal armor. The sleeves had been cut away, leaving the man’s arms free to cast deadly attacks. Jorn had mentioned how he had shadowed that man’s group for a raid to the Meteora Ant Fields, but when he saw how deadly the ants were Jorn had run back to town. Only that mage had returned out of the entire party Jorn had followed.

When they got to the edge of the meadow, that battle mage was standing solo against hundreds of whipping vines. Explosions of water forcing them back. Several other fighters had moved down the road, bringing parts of the swarm with them.

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“Loading! Clear a path!” One of the Dwarves shouted.

Loud clunking and rattling emanated from the ballista. A few knights cut aside to give a clear shooting range. Sarah watched as bolt after bolt was shot out into the field. The shots ripped through the vines and severed flower heads.

It could only shoot in a straight line however, so they had to fire up a bunch of rounds, and then re-position. Jorn nodded at Sarah, both of them stepping up to the ballista crew.

“Can I add a helping hand?” Jorn called out, he stomped hard down onto the ground.

The ballista rotated a few degrees. The path of destruction followed, as it continued to fire. The lead dwarf gave a thumbs up, and then shouted to the crew in a different language. They all hollered out a war cry, fists pumping in the air.

“Keep it up big fella, we be glad for yer help!”

Sarah was watching the shots as they left the ballista, less concerned with where they were landing and more so with timing it out so she could light them with napalm. In truth, she really really wanted to try it. Even just to see how much destruction it would cause when sent downfield on a giant bolt, she had to know.

Whoosh, went the first bolt. SarthDarah punched outward, her eyes tracking the projectile now coming free of the Dwarven machine. The intense burst of energy she felt rush down her arm made her feel alive. The heat and intensity of the punch she threw, culminating in the rush of combusting gel leaving her knuckles.

Her heart didn’t race, her vision didn’t blur, but when she remembered she needed to breathe, it was after the rushing line of napalm covered ballista bolts vanished into the wind as ash. The Dwarves all turned to stare at her, anger coming across the commanding Dwarf’s face.

“Sarth! Maybe aim that cannon towards the enemy.” Jorn called out, his face barely hiding the mirth dancing in his eyes.

“How about I aim it at you then?” SarthDarah grumbled.

“Tell the big’un to go stand out front if you’re gonna do that lassie.” Even through the anger, Sarah recognized his attempt at easing the situation.

“Or maybe you could shoot something a little more sturdy?” She never was good at backing down.

The Dwarf eyed her for a second, then whistled and waved his hand in a quick circle above his head. The rest of his crew snapped into action, lifting the huge cylinder up and out of the loading section of the ballista. With a grunt of effort, they shifted it to the side and set it up on end. It stood nearly twice as tall as the Dwarven men.

They all ran around to a cart that was being drawn up behind them, maneuvering curtains and side walls out of their way. When they had nearly dismantled the entire cart, a cylinder that looked nearly identical to the one they had taken out of the ballista was sitting on wheels. It took only a minute or two, but Sarah had watched back and forth between the Dwarves and the battle front.

The huge caster magic battle had driven the first wave deep into the field and towards the south. The second wave that they had been a part of, had already pushed into the fields towards the mountains. A third wave, that had included the ballista crew’s wagon, was just now starting to group up around them. Most were long range casters, support units, healers, or groups that were under powered but still wanted in on the fighting.

“Lass! I think we be ready for ye!”

SarthDarah stood just to the side of the giant ballista, Jorn was out front with his ax. As he swung and sliced neat lines through vines, he also pounded the ground every so often to turn the ballista from side to side.

Sarah was watching the shots, timing the bolts, ready to match the trajectories. Just before the dwarf leader could ask, she started punching. The flames left her hands, settling onto the bolts in midair.

The sudden blazing effect caused the plants to scream. The noise was terrifying, it sounded like rats in a blender on loudspeakers. Sarah didn’t stop punching though, she had to keep the rhythm.

The flaming bolts were having a clearing effect. Smoldering vines tried to escape into the air, but before they could reach the artillery squad, knights and warriors cut them down. This was going surprisingly well, the plants couldn’t break through their front lines. The farther down the road, the more dead vines littered the meadow. Sarah was getting exhausted though, keeping up the constant barrage was getting difficult.

“Take a break lassie! Boys! Switch ammo can!” The lead dwarf shouted. They stopped firing, a hiss of smoke rolled off the guide rail. Two Dwarves unhooked the large container that dropped in bolts. A third had carted over another. Jorn was standing near the front of the ballista, ax in hand. Sarah was ready to sit down, the exhaustion coming up in a huge wave. They had only been at it for a couple minutes. She had fought earlier, in deadlier conditions, and been just fine. What was wrong now?

“Ye power consumption is greater than ye’r generation, isn’t it?” The dwarf asked, he was holding out a vile of blue liquid. “Drink this. After what you just showed me, I’m impressed. Ye kept up, and matched my machine, shot fer shot. This has a power boost effect.”

Sarah took the vial, it was about six inches long, and as round as her thumb. The light blue reminded her of the clear water at the beach resort. A note appeared next to it,

Artificial energy collector; boosts the vessel's ability to generate power for a short time. Dependent on current generation and consumption levels.

“I can’t, this looks expensive.” Sarah protested lightly. She did want it, but it would be rude to just take it without hesitating, regardless of the offer.

“Please, lass, I insist. Besides, I ain’t gotta worry bout power generating. That was extra loot that I just didna wanna to sell. It can be put to good use with you. I wasn’t sure if the regular bolts would have any effect on the plants, but with your fire, it helped a lot.” The dwarf clapped his hands and turned always. “So we’ll need ya to do that again, drink up!”

Sarah looked over at Jorn, her weary body ached, the ax wielder was going to town on a bunch of vines. Two knights flanked either side of him. She watched as rock spikes came out of the ground in front of the three men, impaling the bunch of vines descending in attack. The spikes rose in a wave away from them.

The screams of the plants rose again, the battlefield hadn’t been quiet, but this noise was unsettling. Three yellow flower heads rose up, skewered on rock. Jorn slammed his ax into the ground, and all of the spikes exploded outward. The shrapnel and plant matter shooting in every direction.

“Duck!” Several voices yelled in unison.

Jorn had erected a small barrier around the knights and himself. It wasn’t large enough to cover the whole ballista though. Sarah reacted by swallowing the potion whole, and launching herself straight up into the air for a massive counter attack.

She hadn’t known she had the skill, but the attack seemed right. With a sudden boost in power, she screamed as she thrust out both fists and released air energy towards the incoming projectiles. A sonic boom echoed outward, the rock shrapnel redirected away from them with it. With a quick follow up, Sarah breathed in and pulled back to send out another punch.

She exhaled softly then punched out several times, gel substance exploded outward, staying mostly in the center of the blast. Napalm, fired without combustion, scattered into the air as it was forced outward.

As it landed in the vicinity of the three yellow flower heads, SarthDarah unleashed a pure ball of fire at them. It hurtled through the air, gaining momentum and size as it flew. Igniting the napalm coated flowers and incinerating them in mere seconds. The sonic boom echoed a second time just as the flames burst up into the air.

Quiet followed the loud boom, several eyes turned to look at her. Sarah felt her eyes twitch, it felt like she was sweating into them. The burn was real, or it felt real. This whole full immersion was getting intense, she could feel her energy coming back again, as the potion worked. The emotional toll it was taking, to keep draining herself like that, Sarah shook her head, she couldn’t keep doing that.

Cheers and hollers for everyone to rush forward broke into her thoughts. Still slightly dazed, Sarah looked around again. Everyone behind her was now rushing forward. They all smiled at her and some even patted her back as they passed. Sarah looked back to Jorn, he was leaning on the rock shield he had made. The two knights had collapsed beside him. He gave a thumbs up though, Sarah smiled.

Maybe, maybe she could do it. She was SarthDarah after all, and she was starting to think she wasn’t so far behind.