There was no time to rest on our laurels. We were in a bad spot. Even as our people rejoiced in the victory we had won over Waters' crew, I knew we had no time to waste getting back on offense.

"I need a triage," I said to Arjun. “No way our enemies were sitting on the sidelines while we dealt with Waters. I need to know who’s close to taking down their bosses ASAP.”

Arjun looked tired. “I — I’ll get right on that.” He stumbled off to the rear of the headquarters building and sat down at his accustomed spot. His table usually sported some knicknacks. Now they were scattered around the room. Arjun looked around, stood up, and started slowly fetching his things and restoring them to their places.

Juana pulled me away. "It may take a few hours for Arjun to be up to the task," she warned me. “Kirin warned me, he doesn’t do well with disruptions and that was one hell of a disruption.”

My stomach tied itself in knots. "How bad was it?" I asked.

"Not that bad." She wouldn't meet my eyes.

I ground my teeth. Waters and his cronies were going to suffer.

"I mean, they couldn't risk killing us," Juana clarified. "He really only hurt your grandfather, but he made sure the rest of us saw it. It was mostly psychological. He has a way of getting under your skin.”

I was torn between a need to try to comfort her and the need to get out there and do what should be done.

Allison and Kirin joined us. The two women both looked tired, but not as pale as Juana. "You need to get that bastard," Kirin said without preamble. "Allison and I are working on triage right now. We'll get Arjun on it as soon as possible, but here's your list of top targets."

I ran down the list. Proxima had three teams who were only two bosses away from finishing their encounters. ConSweGo had four teams. Two different unallied teams were within three bosses of finishing an instance, with dozens more on their heels. We were in trouble. "How complete a picture is this?"

"We could be missing one or two. We’re running cross-checks," Kirin said.

"Let me know which of these you want boss strategies for," Allison said.

I had another quick flash of suspicion. Allison had joined us shortly before everything went south. She had showed up at Mama Grace's restaurant to volunteer her services, saying she'd been a lotus eater.

"Who's your contract with?" I asked her.

"What?" She seemed surprised.

"Your contract. Who's it with?"

"A company called Quantum Vendetta. Why?"

"Just trying to make sure all of our people are safe from Alabaster Sky's machinations. Any idea who Quantum Vendetta is associated with?"

"No. They are a Phase One-only outfit. They sent me a lot of threatening notes when I disappeared into the lotus eater level, but they haven't really contacted me since I came out. I did get word that they were trying to sell my contract as a bad debt, but that didn't go anywhere. I think the systems shut down all the contract trading."

That matched with what I knew about how the smaller companies were working. "All right, thanks," I said, before asking Ames to look into Allison and anyone else who had joined us lately. I wasn't convinced that Waters had a mole, but I didn't want to risk being surprised.

I gathered my action squad. The Mongeese had been up as long as I had, but they were game for this. I sent Team Ragtag to get a few hours of shut-eye and then handed out emergency stimulants that I'd picked up on the hub.

"These will give us about eight hours each, and then we collapse," I warned the team. "We've got to get out there and start making some headway."

"How can I help?" Frank asked, shouldering through the crowd that had formed outside of our headquarters. There were a lot of us, more than I could recognize.

"Here's our target list," I said, sending him a copy. "We'll have more later, but these are the priorities. We've got to get in there and spike whatever their current attempt is. I don't care what it costs or how many, we have got to buy ourselves some time. If we can get each of them to wipe on their current boss, that'll buy us 24 hours before they're allowed to attempt it again."

"Got it," Frank said.

I assigned him two of the attempts. "I'm pretty sure these both have connecting tunnels from the Kobold King's domain. Gather up every warm body you can find, shove them in there with weapons. We'll blow them off the attempt with sheer numbers.”

It was a strategy I had been saving for an emergency. I was pretty sure once we'd used it, the Galactics would find a counter. But right now, if I could buy 24 hours for my team to come up with a better strategy, I would.

"Sage, Mongeese, Grandpa, I want us to hit these three." I highlighted them in an order, to be altered if we found one of the teams wasn’t where we thought.

Grandpa looked over the list. "What's your thinking here, boy?"

"The top two are Proxima teams. I want to send them a message that we're not backing down any time soon. As for the third,” I tapped the list, “According to the research Arjun did back before everything went to pieces, this group here, Lasthome Domination Attends, has hired some of our old friends, the Firebrand Orcs. Mak'gar's crew. Not his brother the War Chief, he's busy doing politics stuff. Mak'gar's people are a potent force, and I respect them. I don't want to assign them to any other crew." I had another plan, too, but that was for later.

“Sounds good,” Grandpa said.

“Frank?”

"Organizing my team now," he said. "Give me a third target to try to hit if we have time."

I shot him the rest of the list. "That's in order of priority."

"And we don't care how many deaths we have?" Frank asked.

"Nope."

"Great. We'll work through that list until we've run out of attempts or they get smart. You go handle your crew."

He turned away, and I led my team down into the bowels of the tunnels, happy to finally be back on offense and spared from the big decisions.

I inquired from Captain Kobold about the progress of each of the three attacking teams. "The Great Ice Palace shook under the assault of the evil outsiders," Captain Kobold related. “But the forces of winter have pushed them back. They are still trying to cross the third northern barrier."

I cross-referenced that with what I knew and translated it. One of the two Proxima teams was still stuck clearing trash and dealing with corridor traps in the Evil Santa-themed instance. According to what I had last seen, they still had to take on Rudolph and the other eight reindeer before they could challenge Santa himself. It sounded like we had some time.

"How about the home of the Golden Dragon?" I asked.

"He waits in his lair. The enemies are pressing in hard. They are at the threshold to his mate's chamber."

"Right, we've got our target," I told the team. "That's the second Proxima group. According to the last information we had from Arjun, which is a good 24 hours out of date at this point, they are running a 25-man squad. Five healers, five support, the rest a mixture of ranged and melee with two frontline miners."

"That's a lot of support," Jones noted. "Any idea what kind of tricks they have up their sleeves?"

I shook my head. "No, we did some early harasses on their base, but we haven't gone head-to-head opposed on them yet."

"Right, we'll keep our eyes peeled," Jones said.

"As usual, call out the healers and support, focus them down first, try to keep the frontliners tied up with crowd control spells," I said. 25 was a few too many for our current composition, so I shot a quick message to Juana asking for reinforcements.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I don't have that list at my beck and call. You should talk to Allison.

I didn't know how to say that I didn't trust Allison. So I said thanks, and then instead called up Frank.

You got a minute?

Organizing the lemming rush here. What can I do you for?

I snorted, enjoying that imagery.

I need 15 combat-capable miners who can take directions. Anyone with crowd control is a plus.

I'll get them sent over to you. What's your assembly chamber?

The treasury off of the Kobold King's throne room, there's a tunnel up to the Lost Guardians of the West instance.

Haven't run that one, he said. All right, sending them over.

A couple of minutes later, we got our new miners. I organized them into three squads, taking one under my wing and assigning the others to Tall Smith and Grandpa.

"Everyone understand the objective?" I asked as I checked in with Captain Kobold.

I got nods all around as I checked the situation. The Proxima team had just entered the bower of the Harmonious Phoenix, mate to the Golden Dragon of the West. According to Captain Kobold, they were setting up an attack on the Phoenix.

"Last time they brought fire," he cackled. "They did not know that fire only makes the Phoenix stronger. That was glorious. She crushed their bones beneath her beak. This time I fear they are smarter."

"Let's get in there," I told my team.

I had Jones Camouflage Team Mongoose, myself, and Sage. We snuck up the steps to the trap door leading into the boss chamber. Grandpa rode herd on our wave of volunteers. We'd need them, but not just yet.

I eased back the trap door, looking for our enemies. The room was an enormous circular marble bowl with tall fluted pillars lining the edge, holding on a golden roof that arced high overhead. In the center of the roof was a round opening, letting in starlight. Directly beneath the skylight was a huge golden nest at least twenty feet across and more than waist high on me. Atop the nest sat a beautiful bird, something like a heron, but with a neck more like a swan's. Its plumage was red and purple, and its eyes emerald. It darted its head here and there, clearly disturbed by something. I couldn't make out the enemy just yet.

"Anyone have camo detection?" I asked.

"Checking it out," whispered Black. "Yeah, they've got some sort of screen. Looks like two of their support have a device that's keeping them all hidden. It's emitting a circular field around the nest, about ten feet out. They're arraying themselves around the room."

"Jones, drone."

"Got it, boss," Jones said. He deployed his drone, carefully extending the camouflage to cover it. It raised into the air twenty feet, and we got a good look.

Proxima's team was a mixed group. Space elves, a couple of orcs, and a lot of fox-like animalkin. They were spread out around the circle in very precise lines. No one more than, closer than five feet to anyone else.

"Can we get a listing of what this boss does?" I asked quickly.

Sage chirped up. "She shoots fire breath, and if she takes too much damage, she reverts to an egg and sets fire to her nest. If the egg isn't killed fast enough, hatches from it, launches to the ceiling, and shoots a rain of fiery golden quills down all around. According to my eye spy, she's killed 157 different miners who've attempted to take her out. She's one badass ladybird," Sage said admiringly.

I could see the Proxima team was still getting into position. We had a minute or two. I intended to use them properly.

"What are those other devices they've brought?" Smith asked. "There, there and there."

The other support miners on their team all had tall blue cylinders with small hoses attached. They looked a little bit like fire extinguishers. Maybe that's what they were.

I pointed them out to Sage. "Can you get an Eye-Spy?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, they're blocked for some reason."

"Well, we have to guess that they're a way to counter the Phoenix's fire," I thought for a minute. "The plan stays the same. We focus down the support people first. All right. Get ready.”

The Mongeese got into position. Still behind the camouflage, they threw down their machine gun nest. It had a 270-degree field of fire, which would let us command a hefty fraction of the room, but not enough.

"All right, go," I said. We dropped the camouflage.

I heard our recruits rushing up the steps after me, Grandpa chiding them, "Keep focused. Find your targets."

As I leapt forward, my Fastest Gun in the West took me through our camo, through their airfield, right up into the face of their biggest bruiser, an orc carrying a spear and a shield both. I guessed he was one of their tanks with various crowd control abilities.

I shouted and fired my Trick Shot right around his shield, hitting him with an itching bullet that exploded on contact and spread concentrated poison ivy oil all over his face and neck. With luck, it would drip down inside his shiny jumpsuit and be unbearably painful.

The orc snarled at me and stabbed. That was all right. My job was to help distract the tanks while everyone else targeted the squishy back line.

Sage had lassoed the other tank. "Can't Tame him. Switching targets," she shouted.

I was building up a database, or rather feeding the information back to Juana and Arjun of every set of abilities and combinations we came across. So far it seems like only the [Warriors] who specialized, thanks to their class evolution to [Battlemaster], in being the focus of attention had abilities to let them resist mind control. The healers — pretty much all [Priests] or a couple related class evolutions — never did, and neither did most of the ranged folk.

Most of the tanks had a very similar set of abilities. A crowd control move, a move to attract the attention and hold it from a single boss, resistance to mind control, and damage reduction. It made them hard to take down, but not much of a threat once you learned the loadout.

The Mongeese opened fire. "Shielders down," Mongoose Brown called. “We can see everything now."

Behind me, the phoenix squawked melodiously.

"Uh-oh, she's engaged," Sage said. "And she's [Rabid].”

“Shit! Our information didn’t say that!” As members of Team Tunnel Rat, we were supposed to be on the same side as bosses. We had learned there was one unpleasant exception. Some bosses were Rabid. That meant they would attack anyone and anything that wasn't them.

"According to my notes, she wasn't," Sage said.

That was a problem I'd solve later. Had we been given bad information, or had Proxima's team somehow set a trap for us?

"Get 'em down," I shouted, even as the first death notification for a member of our team popped up in my vision. It was one of our new recruits. We'd taken down three of Proxima's, though.

There was a door on the far side of the room where the enemy had come in, and it was standing open. That was annoying. It meant that their respawns would be able to get back here, unless we killed enough of the raid for it to count as a wipe, in which case the boss would despawn for twenty-four hours.

"Be prepared for backup," I shouted. "If you die, get back in the fight fast. Where's Darell?" That was the man who had died just now.

"He's on his way back," Grandpa filled in.

"Well, get the lead out of your pants," I told my team. "If you do die, get back in here fast."

I was dodging pokes from the orc's spear almost lazily as we went. I'd had plenty of experience with orc fighting techniques by now. I liked them, and from what I'd seen, when they were actually one-on-one in a duel, they were pretty good. But get them into a defined role, and they tended to follow the same pattern over and over again.

Numbers flashed up. More and more of the Proxima team were falling to the machine gun. Now they were sliding out of the arc of fire. I shifted and let Grandpa shadow step in behind the orc I'd been playing with. Since I had already wounded him, Grandpa couldn't use Counting Coup. Instead, he overpowered a scalp by activating one of his recent ability upgrades called Hit and Run Tactics. This let him deliver triple damage after a shadow step in, and then gave him the ability to shadow step away, not directly behind another miner. It had an annoyingly long five-minute cooldown, but now it was devastatingly effective. He cut deep into the orc's remaining [250/312] hit points. Now the orc had 87 hit points remaining.

I fired another Trick Shot using a knockback round this time, took off another 10 points of health, and sent the orc stumbling back against the wall.

“Duck!” Sage shouted, and I threw myself to the side as a gout of fire blazed past where I had been.

The phoenix was reared up on her nest, her wings back, her swan-like neck coiled like a snake to strike. She unleashed another gout of flame right into the middle of a knot of fighters, two orcs and three of my recruits. It incinerated them where they stood. I swear I could smell burning flesh.

"How are we doing?" I asked. I'd lost sight of the overall fight.

"We're holding our own," Grandpa said, which was not encouraging. I had hoped we'd be doing better than that.

"Wait, what's he doing? Stop him!" Smith shouted.

I turned to see a space elf raising one of the blue canisters. He aimed the nozzle toward the boss and fired, just as she opened her mouth to unleash a gout of flame. Icy blue mist flew from the nozzle and extinguished the flame in midair. The gout of ice crystals traveled back until they reached the bird's wide-open mouth. The bird let out a strangled squawk as her entire head was covered in a thick layer of ice.

I checked her status. Her health was still at [320/500], but she was showing a frozen debuff. The time ticked down. [58 seconds, unable to move or attack].

Now the enemy swarmed in around her, hacking and slashing. I chased them down and fired shot after shot, but they ignored me as more reinforcements poured in.

"They're cheating!" Sage shouted. "These weren't all here before!"

"If it's not against the rules, they can do it. No use crying about it. Can we get some AOE damage here?" I asked urgently. "They're all clumped up."

Since the Mongoose's machine gun nest was forcing the Proxima team to attack from a narrow corridor, they were badly clumped up.

With the phoenix out of commission, though, it was hard to do enough damage to them. They were taking her health down hard. I watched as her health plunged down. 315, 307, 295, 290.

Then, Sage dropped her Mucking Out the Stalls debuff under the enemy. One of our new folk hit it with a flame grenade

Sage's goo caught fire. It went up like napalm, igniting the orcs inside it and spreading to the boss. Her health kept ticking down. The fire wasn't good for her, but her frozen debuff started speeding up. Now instead of 45 seconds left, there were 30. Now 15.

The boss shook herself, ice crystals flying free. She raised up off the nest, but she was down to 82 hit points.

“Target the boss!” I shouted. Since she was [Rabid], we could damage her ourselves. “Focus damage on her. Let's kick her over into the next phase."

My team responded. We hosed down the boss. She screamed, diving for her nest. A moment later, she lay still, but from beneath her lustrous plumage was a beautiful golden egg.

It was also horribly fragile, with 180 hit points.

"Protect the egg!" I shouted.

One of our new guys stepped up to the plate.

“I’ve got you!" he said, as he cast a preservation bubble over the whole nest. "It'll last for a minute and a half," he said proudly.

"Any idea how long the bird needs?" I asked.

"No, but let's make it redundant,” Grandpa said. "Misfits attack!"