As soon as Sage's team moved into action, a pop-up appeared: [Dam Breach: Structural failure in 27 minutes 17 Seconds.] Time for me to go; I needed to find Shad Williams before the timer ran out.

I raced along the edge of the cliff, the dam looming huge in my vision. As I reached the near end of the dam, I had 22 minutes left. My legs ached. It was so good to have legs that hurt when I ran—legs that would move, kick, and run. No matter how much bullshit all this was, it was worth it.

There were a pair of figures standing in the middle of the dam, dumping rocks out of wooden wheelbarrows. A squad of NPCs armed with old-fashioned long guns and swords stood behind them.

It was very considerate of the enemy to have placed themselves at the edge of a 200-foot drop. I might not have any weapons, but I had skills and a willingness to break the rules.

I used double-jump to soar right over the heads of the astonished men. One of them had to be Williams. He was wearing a black cowboy hat and a long coat. It seemed like he would be sweltering in this heat. I had half expected him to start shooting as soon as I showed up, and I had no idea what was holding him back. I needed to get rid of the bad guys and talk to him.

I landed just on the other side of the prisoners, between them and the NPCs. I started counting. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. The NPCs were starting toward me as Williams and the man with him shouted. "Stay where you are," I yelled to Williams and the man with him. "I've got this."

I pulled a bomb from my inventory—something that Sage’s grandpa had given me. When I told her my plan, he rolled her eyes. “Great. I really needed another Shad in my life.”

Now I pulled it out and armed it as the six NPCs lowered their weapons on me. I activated double-jump again and leapt right past them. They turned. That was good.

The NPCs started toward me. I kept counting. Eight. Nine. Ten. I raced forward to meet them. Two of them shot. One bullet struck me in the shoulder, but it wasn't enough to kill me.

I needed to get this exactly right. Eleven. Twelve. Close enough. I set the bomb off. The explosion knocked me back in a fury of pain and noise. The NPCs were knocked from the dam over the edge, plummeting 200 feet. I was knocked back toward the lake. I had half a second to go. "Oh shit, it didn't kill me."

And then the next damage tick did.

I respawned where I had first landed, about three feet from the gaping Williams and his comrade.

"I am so bloody glad that worked," I said aloud as my 13-Second Rule finished.

Williams' mouth was open as he stared at me. "Right. Who the hell are you and how did you just do that?"

I held out a hand. "Colin Trevelyan. You recruited me, sir."

He took my hand and shook it, then pushed his hat back from his face. Even with his mouth closed, he still looked a little like a poleaxed ox. "Huh. Well, congratulations on being here. That little trick?”

“It's a 13-second rewind upon death," I said.

"I'm glad it worked. A bunch of our abilities are being locked out."

A crater stood in the top of the dam where I had set off the bomb. Water was flowing into it. I checked my timer. It had advanced to 12 minutes.

"Oh shit," I said. "I made things worse. We've got 12 minutes before the dam collapses. We've got to get to the other side."

"12 minutes?" Williams started to jog the wrong way, the other man following him. The other guy was an American officer wearing Major's insignia. His name tag read "Armstrong."

"Oh, we need to go the other way," I said. "To Coyote, to—"

"I know, I know. They've got my gear," Williams said, pointing at a hut just on the other side of the dam. More NPCs were coming out, four of them assembling and lowering their polearms at us. "What kind of other offensive abilities do you have?"

"None at all," I said.

"What kind of stupid class did you pick?"

"I'll give you the details later. I thought you had offensive abilities."

"They took our guns," Williams said, grinding his teeth.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I opened my inventory and pulled out some of the spare weapons that Sage and her grandpa had loaded me with, handing them to Williams and Armstrong. Williams checked his load. “That’s better!”

Springing ahead, he gave a whoop, and all of a sudden, all four of the NPCs turned to face him, even as Armstrong and I opened fire. Williams shot one right through the eye hole.

“That’s for making me swing a damn pick!” he yelled.

I aimed and fired, trying to keep the barrel of my gun pointing at the bad guys and not Williams. My aim was terrible. Armstrong was shooting next to me and didn't seem to be much better. "You're not a warrior class, kid," he said. "I can't buff you."

"Sorry about that," I said as my British instincts kicked in, forcing me to apologize for something that really wasn't my fault.

"It's fine. I've tossed everything I can on Williams there."

Armstrong lowered his gun, keeping it pointed at the ground as we watched Williams blasting his way through the other NPCs. As their bodies hit the ground, Williams disappeared into the hut, emerging a moment later as he wrapped a Wild West-style gun belt around his hips.

"Got my inventory access back," he said happily. "I think the fragment was just being an asshole. Let's go."

We had nine minutes left. We raced across the dam. We set off for the mesa at a quick jog. Williams and Armstrong kept glancing around, clearly expecting a follow-up attack as we raced along the edge of the cliff, along the edge of the lake.

“Nice to see you here. You got into action faster than I expected. How’d that work?”

“I won the tournament," I said. “Actually, five of us got through, but your grandpa pulled some strings to get me on an early transport out to Ganymede so I could get my legs back and because he'd heard you disappeared. There's some wonky stuff happening with this fragment. It's seizing control of a bunch of levels."

Williams nodded. "I was afraid of that. When it started changing the rules on us, I thought it was possible that this fragment was getting more ornery."

Did he really talk like he'd come out of a western? Was that on purpose, or was it just how he really talked? I couldn't believe I'd come a quarter of a billion miles to play Cowboys and Indians. This was supposed to be the great hero of the reality engine exploit? I was starting to share Sage's slightly exasperated impression of her brother.

"That was a good trick you used there," Williams said. "Can I see your class details?"

I shared with him and Armstrong both.

"Huh," Williams said as he kept up an easy jog. I hadn't mastered the art of studying system notifications and also watching where I was going, but I suppose he did have three years of experience on me. "This is an interesting build for someone I hoped would be a combat asset."

That got my back up. "And I will be," I snapped. "I know exactly what you want me for, and I'm here for that role. Not all of us have to be cowboys shooting off our six guns."

"Easy now," Armstrong said. "Williams, you've just spent the last four days convincing me that your unorthodox people with their unorthodox approaches are exactly what are needed to handle the new situations that humanity finds itself in. I'm sure you did not mean to imply that Trevelyan's choices here make him somehow less able than, say, a junior rodeo princess?"

"She's a barrel racer now," Williams grumbled. "And I can't believe you've got my little sister's profile accessible to you."

"I watched a couple of documentaries on the exploit while I was preparing to come up here," Armstrong said. "Your sister kind of left an impression."

"Yeah, she does that," Shad said, lifting his hat to scratch his scalp. "I'm not looking forward to a couple of years from now when she's a knockout and I'm supposed to be pulling the disapproving older brother routine. It's a lot harder when the no-account boyfriends won't stay dead after you shoot 'em."

I gave Armstrong a "Is he for real?" sort of glance. Armstrong raised his eyebrows as if to say, "Just go with it." I had a feeling Williams was under a lot of stress here, and the slightly inane chatter was his way of dealing with it.

"We still need two totems," Williams said. "I assume you've figured out what's going on here?”

“I read the note you left in the town. I've got Raven’s feather, and Sage is going after the last totem. She'll get it to us."

"Sage?" Williams stopped dead. His face was a combination of excited and angry as he looked at me. "Sage is here? You brought my sister?"

I held up a hand. "Hang on. I didn't bring her. The fragment kidnapped her and some other kids from her school. They're going after the prisoners trapped in the mine. I assume that's the rest of your team."

"My assumption as well," Armstrong said. "We should join them."

I shook my head. "This dam's going to explode and flood the mine before we could even get down there. It'll be almost impossible to cross the river after that happens. We've got to head for Coyote's Mesa. Sage will get us the last totem. You've got to trust her," I told Williams.

“How’s she getting here?” he demanded.

I showed him my half of the teleport beacon. “She’ll use this.”

“Right.” Williams holstered his weapon. “I’m going through.”

“What?”

“How long on the timer?”

I checked. “Like 4 minutes. You won’t have time to do anything.” It hit me then. Sage didn’t have the timer; she didn’t know we’d had our time cut in half. “Oh fuck! You’re right, you’d better go after her.”

“It’ll take a minute or two for the water to reach the mine. Just keep heading for the mesa. I’ll find Sage.” Williams reached out a hand and touched the beacon. He vanished.

Major Armstrong frowned down at me disapprovingly. “I’m going to have to have a word with Twofeather about discipline in his outfit,” he grumbled.

"No time, keep moving," I said. We set off toward the mountains, me watching the timer count down. 3 minutes. 2. 1.

There was an enormous roar like thunder that went on too long. We turned.

The dam, over a mile behind us by now, had just given way. A cloud of dust rose from the neck of the valley where it had stood. The lake to our side began to draw away as the water rushed out to take advantage of the breach in the dam. The sound went on and on and on.

I hoped Sage had gotten to the chief. I had the beacon in my hand now, ready for her to step through it, but there was no sign of her. A bad feeling started in the pit of my stomach. “Come on,” I said, more to myself than the Major. “We can’t do any good standing here. Let’s keep moving.”