“What are we doing, guys? We can’t help her,” Elixir said with a heavy groan.

A hot puff of air blew between my tusks. “We can try! I know not what power fantasy has plagued your mind but we can still help her.”

“How!?” he exclaimed. “Her parents are either across the planet or dead.”

“Shut it, Alex!” Don shouted, pushing him further away from the little girl and I.

I stayed with the child while her sobs soaked through the collar of her shirt. I offered the sleeve of my own and she wiped her face on it. I’ll clean that later, I thought. The child’s tears eventually drained, she grew exhausted.

“You’ll be okay,” I said, eyeing Don’s and Elix’s heated argument down the cobbled streets.

“My name is Karn. What’s yours?” I asked.

“It’s H-Harper,” she said, sniveling.

“That’s a very pretty name, Harper. We’re going to find your parents, okay? But first you have to do something for me. You see the colorful looking bars in the top left of your vision?”

Harper hurriedly spun to the left, looking high into the sky.

“No, not like that,” I said with a grin. “Just keep facing me, okay? And then focus on the top-left of your vision.”

She stared at my face with a squinted and furrowed brow. Her eyes strained. Her face turned red. Harper gave up and became distracted by the strangers walking past until a gleeful smile emerged on the border of her tiny tusks. “I see the bars!” she shouted.

“That’s good! What color are they?”

“Red! Green! And blue!”

I sighed with great relief. I was worried for a second you didn’t have a [System].

“Now, this is the hard part.” Yeah… hard to explain. “But imagine you have the ability to see how healthy you are, all of your friends, everything you have in your pockets, and a map of the area you’re standing in.”

“Okay!” she said.

“Eh?” Just like that? “Do you see anything?”

“Yeah! A blue box that says ‘overvyou.’ The colored bars are there too!”

“Now go focus on the [Party Members] menu and let me know if there’s any names you recognize in there.”

With a scrunched nose followed by shimmering eyes, she joyously smiled and pointed to her menus. I had no idea what she was pointing to exactly, but I assumed it was a name she knew.

“That’s my mommy!” she exclaimed.

“Does it say where she’s at? Or if she’s on the [Map]?” I prayed to Earthly deities that she had met her mother beforehand and became separated, but based on the confused look on the little girl's face and her trying her best to speak the word ‘unknown,’ I knew the task was more challenging than I had hoped.

Don came over to my aid, seeing that I had not moved an inch closer to deliver Harper to her parents. “What’s the status?” he asked.

“Fucked,” I muttered. “Elix is right. Her mom could be on the other side of the world.”

“Well, we found you, didn’t we? Give it time and she’ll come for her,” Don said.

“But what do we do with her now?” I asked.

“Find a school or an orphanage,” Elixir suggested behind us with crossed arms. “We can’t stay with her, she’ll bleed our silver waiting in Hubloc.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Better do so now before the sun goes down,” I sighed.

Pushing through crowded streets and the aroma of food carts, we scoured the city for an orphanage, boarding house, or teacher willing to take the child. None had accepted Harper due to limited space, pay, or a time limit on when we’d take her back. The small half-orc held onto my finger while she swayed her basket to-and-fro.

The three of us decided to go to the inn I previously stayed at to have somewhere safe to rest. While on the cobbled streets, the little girl let out a worrisome cry. She stared into nothing yet her lips quivered. Her eyes grew puffy and tears began to stream.

I managed to understand her worry between the sniveling cries. For she had seen a red [System] message. Her mom had disappeared from her [Party Members] list.

“What!? She’s gone!?” Don said.

Elixir rolled his eyes and sighed off into the distance.

“Wait! She could be sent to the Arena!” I said.

“Exactly…” Elix sighed.

“There’s a chance, birdbrain. Let’s go.”

* * *

Our life. Our home. Our death. Basking in the dawn’s glory, the colosseum stretched beyond the horizon and to the heavens. Great shadows flooded the lands of the east. All sorts of residents of Carrion and Earth entered and exited. Some bellowed for bets while others cried for their silver back. A multitude of entrances opened before us with leaderboards and schedules of duels ready to commence.

An electric-blue sign, similar to our [System] menus, presented itself at the edge of the openings, mindlessly scrolling without an operator. The four of us frantically went up to the board, searching for the child’s mother in a sea of names.

“That’s her! Opal!” Harper exclaimed, pressing her pudgy finger onto the screen. Her feet excitedly kicked into my chest as we searched for when her mom was queued to fight.

“Four fighters ahead of her. Let’s hope she doesn’t teleport back to wherever she was before,” I said.

“And if she survives,” Elix muttered under his breath.

I took Harper off my shoulders and bided my time with the board. Multiple fights were ongoing in different chambers of the Arena: Scalar versus Wyner, Minnow versus Piker, Ryder versus Sumrall, Birk versus Vicky, Opal versus Adam. All hybrids who were forced to fight another for a shot at redemption and revival. While scrolling and prodding through the menus, I noticed that I could see the results of matches that have previously happened. Immediately, I started typing to see the fates of Taro and the rest of my fallen party members. However, before I could type a second letter into the search bar, a man appeared beside me.

Gruffy in the face and stocky in the build, the half-dwarf gave a sly smile. “You know someone in there?” he asked.

“Something like that,” I said, stepping toward Don and Elix.

Off to the side, I could see the dwarf and two other hybrids—a groggy-looking orc and a smarmy-eyed elf. They peered at the board, heedlessly scrolling through the names before looking back at us. Mismatched armor stained with the brown residue of dried blood paired with the chipped weapons at their sides.

My gaze fixated on the dwarf as his own fixated on Harper. She hid behind our legs, solemnly staring toward the stones beneath.

“That your little girl?” he asked.

“No,” Elixir said sternly, “We’re looking for her parents.”

“Oh, pity. Poor thing,” the dwarf said. “I hope you can find them. It’s hard in this world… especially with the lack of technology.”

“And police!” the hybrid elf smirked.

The dwarf took a stout step forward. “Say, we’ve helped people with this same predicament before. Lost lovers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters.” He made sure to make eye-contact with Harper with the last word. He made my skin crawl and my hairs stand tall. I had enough.

I took my own step forward. “We’ll be okay,” I said with an unwavering gaze.

The dwarf backed away with a shrug and curled lips. “If you insist. But if you’re in this business, you should have someone teach it to you proper. People are paying a mighty fine for missing relatives.”

“A pretty girl like that would fetch a mound of silver!” the elf said.

“Aye, but I’m not too sure about them being able to help her. They don’t look very strong. You, orc, don’t even have a weapon at your side! What will you do when bandits or kidnappers attack you in the dark? My friends and I will make sure she’s returned to her mommy and daddy.”

I wanted to sock them then and there but it would’ve been foolish to ready a strike from such a distance. So I took another step closer. Don joined beside me while Elix stayed behind with Harper. Even after begging to leave the child, he knew this would end badly if she was in the hands of the dwarf and his crew.

“We said we’re alright!” Don shouted, gripping the pommel of his sword.

The dwarf didn’t take a step back, instead giving another crooked smile. The orc behind him sighed while the elf looked almost giddy with excitement.

“Okay, so you plead. But can a pouch of silver convince you?” He untied the pouch from his belt, flashing the shining innards of a drawn-string burlap sack. Don’s grip tightened. Elix’s hands glowed a dim orange hue. My fist clenched. The rough dwarf’s smile fell under his charcoal beard. He took a handful of pieces, and the next thing I knew, the dusk’s light had shimmered through the air and into our eyes. Harper’s screams sounded in our ears as I saw the faint image of her being pulled away.