“Come to me, Viy!” Wik shouted. “I know you want it too!”

Viy yelled in reply.

The two spears twirled and spun in dizzyingly fast arcs and sweeps, meeting each other in the middle of the corridor.

The cannibals behind Wik muttered and pointed, bows half drawn, weapons out in restless hands. Behind Viy, Nar couldn’t get through either.

The two weapons whistled in a deadly display, and to simply jump into the middle of it was to ask to be sliced and stabbed to death.

“Nar, get out of here!” Viy shouted. “This is my problem!”

Wik chuckled, spinning his weapon from hand to hand, meeting all of Viy’s attacks with ease.

“Yeah, Nar! This is our problem! Don’t you know better than to butt in between a couple?”

“Shut up!” Viy shouted.

“Oh, don’t be embarrassed, Viy! This is our fate! This is what we are meant for!”

A cannibal lunged forward, snarling at Viy. Wik flowed around Viy’s spear and blocked him. He flicked his wrist and the guy went tumbling back into the crowd.

“Woah there, new guy! That’s my Viy you’re trying to hurt, and only I get to do that!”

He grinned at Viy, who was already attacking him again.

He dodged and stepped between her thrusts and slashes, and he attacked just enough to keep Viy on her back foot, neither able to move forward or back.

“Viy! We need to fight together!” Nar shouted. “He’s too high level!”

“Yes, I am!” Wik said. “I didn’t lie about my level. I’m proud of it! Do you know how hard I had to work, to go from eating the scraps, to getting my hands on the good stuff? On fresh kill?”

He twirled the spear and stepped forward with a burst of speed Viy didn’t expect. The spearhead cut at her shoulder and Viy screamed and stumbled backwards.

Nar didn’t wait for an invitation and dashed in.

Suddenly, he was in the middle of a storm of spears. His [Instinct] screamed from all directions. He moved and twisted, just barely managing to catch the spear before it ended him.

Hands grabbed onto him and he slashed backwards in fright.

Wik had guided him into the cannibals!

“The new guys are always so restless. Why don’t you play with them for a bit?” he asked Nar. “I need to knock some sense into my beautiful Viy!”

“I’m not yours!” she grunted, holding on to her bleeding shoulder.

Nar grit his teeth in frustration, he had no way back now! He was stuck between this wall of teeth and nails and bone daggers, and the two spear fighters going at it behind him. And there was no telling if Wik would try and stab him from behind.

A hand reached for his neck, and though he stepped back, he couldn’t get fully away without stepping into the middle of the two raging spears.

He cried out in pain as the nails dug into his neck, scoring lines of red, angry fire. Nar lashed at the hand’s owner, and the Nexus disappeared under a fine mist of many dark colors.

However, the wall of madness and hunger was endless. For each one he cut, two more competed to take the fallen cannibal’s place.

Rel had told them there were thousands and thousands of cannibals in the area. He couldn’t fight them all. They had to leave. But there was no way of doing that with Wik there. Even if Viy had not run out to meet him, the higher leveled spearman would have still caught up with them.

No, from the moment Wik had given chase, their fight was inevitable.

“Come on, Viy. I taught you this stuff! What do you think is gonna happen, uh? Why not just stay? With me?” Wik said, his tone pleading.

“You’re insane! I want to get out!” Viy replied.

“Get out for what? How do you know it's better up there? How do you even know there is an up there? There could be nothing! Just like there was no magic!”

This guy’s completely lost it! Nar thought, balancing the space he had between the cannibals and the spear fight.

“I told you everything!” Viy shouted. “I trusted you and I told you!”

“You heard that, Nar? She told me everything! Not Gad, not Kur, not Cen. Not any of you!”

Nar glimpsed at Viy, stunned. “You did what?”

He had known that there was something that wasn’t quite alright with Viy. He had suspected that she carried a secret, just like he did. Only that hers was possibly worse. Darker. More painful, given how she had shut down.

He hadn’t pressed. He didn’t’ want to make the damage worse. And Gad, Cen and Kur had seemed like the right people to handle it.

But to think she hadn’t told them, and had instead chosen to confide in Wik?

It was gut wrenching.

“No! It's not like that! Nar, please!” she pleaded.

The distraction cost him. A cannibal latched onto his arm and bit down on his left shoulder.

“Nar!” Viy cried.

Nar pummeled the sword’s hilt onto the side of the cannibal’s face. Once, twice. The cannibal let go, and stunned, he stumbled back. Nar flipped his grip again, and drew a wide arc around him, cutting and slicing through flesh and bone.

“Nar, please! Go back!” Viy begged him.

“I’m not going anywhere!” Nar shouted, gasping for air. “I saved you before, remember? And I'll do it again! Crystal! I never even got a thanks for the first time!”

Wik howled in laughter. “Damn, Viy, that’s not nice. Wait, do you have the hots for my Viy too?”

“Shut up!” Viy shouted, her voice trembling. “It’s not like that, Nar! I just wanted to die! That’s why I took the Climb! I don’t deserve to be saved! I just want it to end! Please, just go back!”

Nar felt the rise of a sudden warning behind him. Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the barest of changes in the color of the light. It was getting less purple, turning brighter, and lighter, as color was devoured.

“You are being saved, and I’m the one doing the saving!” Nar shouted. “This is my choice!”

He had meant the words as a bid to buy time, but as he spoke them, he realized how heavy the truth in them was.

Ah… I’ve changed.

Or had he? Perhaps he was just finally being honest to his own feelings about the party.

“Oh, Nar! You don’t know. You don’t even know what I did!” Viy shouted.

The purple receded further.

“I don’t need to know!” Nar said. “It doesn’t matter!”

“Man, just shut up,” Wik said. “Why are you trying to hog all of her attention?”

“No, Wik! You shut up!” Viy snarled at him. “This is why I told you, even though I couldn’t tell them. I couldn’t stand to see how they would look at me if they knew. But I needed to tell someone. I couldn’t keep it in anymore. I was starting to go crazy. And you? You just happened to be there. Someone whose opinion didn’t matter!”

The corridor shone a bright gray now. Even the cannibals had noticed the change, and they backed away from Nar, covering their eyes from the brilliant light that radiated from behind him.

“That’s just hurtful Viy,” Wik said, in a flat tone. “I guess we’re not fated after all.”

“No!” Nar shouted.

He spun around, pulling on every point of [Speed], [Agility] and [Reflex] that he had, to intercept the blow that was aimed at Viy’s exposed left side.

The light blinded him.

His [Instinct] roared at him and he bent low, letting the [Aura Projectile] shot past his head.

The explosion was unlike any so far.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The force of it picked him off his feet and carried him forward. For a moment, all was silent, and the world was all a brightness behind his eyelids.

Then, he met the hard floor and all the air was kicked out from him. He rolled twice before he came to a stop.

Ringing deafened him, and the corridor seemed dark now. Much darker than before, actually. The explosion must have destroyed some of the purple fires.

That’s better, Nar thought, through the daze. He was starting to hate the color purple.

“Are you guys, okay?” Rel asked, from what felt like very far away.

Her voice prompted him to fight the pain, and push his body to stand. It creaked and protested, and fought against him. It revolted against the continued abuse it had been forced to endure over the course of the last day.

Enough! It shouted. Enough. I can’t take it anymore!

But Nar clenched his jaw and swallowed the half gasp, half sob that wanted to escape his lips.

Not yet… Not. Yet! Damn it! I’m not meat! I’m not their plaything! Come on, Nar! Come on!

He pushed himself up, using the sword to stand.

“Rel!” Wik shouted.

The spearman was already up, but Rel was keeping him busy with her arrows. He snarled and dodged around them with preciseness, but was unable to move forward.

How is he still moving like that? Nar asked himself. Just how much of a difference was there, between his level 16, and Wik’s level 27? Even after chasing them all this way, fighting Viy, and being blasted by Cen’s [Aura], he still looked perfectly fine! Just what kind of attributes was he packing?

“Get back here, Nar!” Cen shouted.

Nar, panting, looked at the battle that raged around him.

Viy was collapsed next to Wik. Fortunately, the spearman was too busy evading Rel’s arrows to do anything to her.

Behind him, next to Rel, Cen was charging another [Aura Projectile], ready to fire upon the cannibals that would soon walk past the corpses of their brethren, to rush the party from behind again.

Past them, the whole of the party was entangled with the stronger cannibals under the command of the party leader with the massive sword.

Nar winced as watched the altei and Gad fighting.

Every hit bent Gad backwards. Though the tank was holding on for now, she wouldn’t last, and she hadn’t Viy’s reach to cover her side like usual. Even though Mul and Jul were doing the best they could, other cannibals were managing to get hits around their party leader, and Gad found herself beset from multiple sides.

Why’s Tuk not helping?

He saw immediately why. Tuk was hiding behind Kur’s buckler, and arrows kept bouncing off it, dead on. Nar followed their trajectory to a cannibal, an alfin, with a bow aimed at the two of them. He took the arrows from another cannibal's arms, who carried a bundle of them, more arrows than Nar had ever seen in his Climb, and he notched them calmly, with practiced efficiency. His face was blank, devoid of any emotion or clear intention. He simply notched, and let loose, arrow after arrow, preventing Tuk from doing anything.

Another party leader! Nar realized. He had to be!

Behind him, the cannibals howled as they closed in on them again. Cen’s staff burned even brighter, ready to unleash devastation once more. But it wouldn’t be enough.

Rel couldn’t keep up that pace forever, and once she faltered, Wik would be on them in the blink of an eye. Nar had no doubt he would go for Cen first.

No. He had to stop him.

But at the same time, the party needed Tuk in that fight.

Without Nar there to stop those arrows, Tuk couldn’t throw his rings out and Gad would eventually be overwhelmed.

At the same time, they needed Cen to keep their backs clear so they could focus on Wik.

And without Rel, Nar knew he couldn’t fight Wik just by himself. The deranged Climber was too strong. Too high level.

But neither Jul nor Mul could pull back from the front now. It would be the end of Gad and all of them with her.

They all needed each other in different positions, but the pressure of the cannibals, squeezing them from both sides, was not allowing them.

What do we do? He asked himself, paralyzed with indecision.

“Nar, get back!” Rel shouted.

Get back.

I can still move…

Nar looked about himself again, and everything seemed to go slower.

His senses stretched out to the max, covering the entire battle, and his heart pounded against his temples. It felt like his head was about to burst in a great shower of red and bone.

The damage from Wik’s earlier blow had not fully healed yet. And the long sleepless night weighed on him, together with the raw emotion of the events of the last day.

The sounds. The sights. All of the pain and the suffering and the horror, were too much.

The fear of what would happen to him, in that cage, had nearly shattered him.

Leaving all those Climbers behind, knowing what was being done to them, had nearly broken him.

And now, here he was, asking even more of his brain.

Only I can move… he thought, as everything grew into excruciating, slow detail around him.

He had no time to try and reach for his [Aura] again. He had shunned it for months. It wouldn’t come so easy to him, now. He would have to work for it. Later, after they survived this.

No, there was only one thing he could do. One thing that only he could do.

“Rel!” he shouted. “Remember what I can do!”

“What?”

“Cen, tell her!” Nar shouted.

“Uh?” the caster asked, just as confused.

Nar didn’t say anything else. He dashed towards Wik.

An arrow flew high above him, hitting the ceiling.

“Are you crazy! I almost hit you!” Rel shouted.

Nar ignored her. He only had eyes for Wik now.

The spearman bared his teeth at him. “Oh, it's your turn now, is it? Think you’ve got what it takes?”

Wik closed the space between them in two quick steps, the spear aimed straight at Nar’s chest.

Nar pulled up his sword to his chest, turning sideways.

The impact was jarring, and the spear tip cut a shallow line across his chest.

Wik looked at him wide eyed.

You’ve never seen me fight, Nar thought. Not for real. And this time, Cen’s still safe!

Nar triggered his [Quickening] and jumped at Wik, throwing all of his anger and despair at the spearman. He channeled all the rage and helplessness he felt, for all the Climbers he had left behind in that base. And for those trapped in all of the countless bases. An untold number of Climbers, just trying to earn their forgiveness and reach a better life in the O-Nex.

A life of light. Of color. Of choice, and freedom.

And yet, their Climb would end in untold pain and suffering. Underserved pain and suffering! Unfair. Unjust! Another wrong in the Nexus. Just like him. Just like the Unclean.

He hadn’t used any skills on the bridge. He hadn’t used any skills on his desperate run to get Jul back to the party safely. And he hadn’t used any skills when the betrayal had revealed itself.

At some point, he had gotten into a rationing mind set. Not of food, but of his stamina. It was his lifeline after all. If he ran out during a fight, like Viy had, it meant almost certain death.

But here, they were all almost certain to die.

HP and stamina didn’t matter anymore.

HP would not protect him if Wik speared him through the chest.

HP wouldn’t last more than three seconds if that mob of frenzied cannibals got their hands on him.

They had moments left. Moments before Wik recovered from his surprise. Moments before Gad was overwhelmed.

There was no point in conserving stamina now.

He let loose.

He pressed the small advantage he had and drove Wik backwards. Back towards Viy, who lay, passed out, defenseless before the surging horde of cannibals that would soon be upon her.

“Damn, Nar!” Wik shouted, sweating and struggling to recover his footing before Nar’s all out desperation. “I knew you were good, but not this good!”

However, Wik had the attributes, and the experience fighting Climbers.

It was Nar’s turn to be surprised when Wik feinted with his spear, and kicked him in the gut.

Nar gasped and stumbled back.

“When you managed to get back to the party, carrying Jul on your back? Man, I respect that. You know what? I think the boss would too!”

“Shut up, Wik!” Rel shouted.

“Why? Scared I’ll change his mind?” Wik asked her. “Scared that your precious chance will slip through your fingers again? Scared that that thing will finally drive you crazy?”

Cen chose that moment to shoot her charged [Aura Projectile]. Wik sidestepped it without issue, but Cen hadn’t been aiming at him.

Nar covered his eyes as the explosion of light engulfed the cannibals.

It was weaker, so as to not harm any of them, but it served to buy them more time. Time they were still running out of. They couldn’t stay in that corridor forever. Soon, more and stronger enemies would show up, and then, it would be all over.

And Nar didn’t want to go back to that cage. He would rather die.

“I saw what you did to Tas, by the way” Wik said, unbothered by the [Aura] explosion.

“That was an accident!” Rel shouted.

“Accident? Fucking precise accident, wasn’t it? That arrow went straight through his throat!”

“I didn’t mean it!” Rel said. She notched another arrow and shot him.

“Yeah, right!” Wik said, avoiding it with ease. “You just didn’t need him anymore. You have these guys now, right?”

Wik swung the spear down at Nar, and Nar barely dodged it.

The swing turned into an ascending slash, and Nar was pulled back into the fight.

“Not that I blame you. After what he did to us? I’ve been waiting to kill him ever since that day! But the boss always stopped me. The boss always preferred him over me! Just because he’s a party leader. A party leader you killed! Oh, Rel! He’s going to bring you back to his tent, Rel! You know what’s coming!”

He spoke like a madman, his spit flying from his lips. His eyes glowed purple in the dim light corridor, a haunting visage that chased and harassed Nar, not giving him space or a chance to breathe.

But his insanity might just be their only chance.

“Rel! Cen! Remember!” he shouted again.

He threw himself at Wik. It was now or never.

“I’m going to watch it, Rel! I’m sure this time he won’t just make you watch! He’s going to put his hands on you! Maybe he’s even going to throw you to his party leaders and watch them tear you apart!”

His spear was a blur of displaced air and gleaming sharpness. It came at Nar so fast it was licking his blood with every attack now.

“Maybe I’ll have a go at you too! You look like shit now, but if I cover your face, maybe it won’t be so bad!”

Wik laughed.

“What are you going to do, Rel? Shoot me? You’ll hit this guy in the back! Or do you think it's not too late to swap sides again?”

This is it!

“Do it, Rel! Do it! Maybe the boss will let you live after all!”

Nar felt it when Rel shot him.

His [Instinct] was clearer than ever.

She had aimed right at the spot between his shoulder blades.

Nar however, was already mid-step.

The arrow thudded into Wik’s shoulder, and he stepped back.

“What the…”

Nar wasn’t done. This was it. This was the moment.

He pushed with his back leg, throwing all his [Strength] into pushing his sword all the way into Wik’s chest.

But Wik was still a level 27, fighting an injured level 16, and an archer that had only shot him once.

Even with the arrow in his right shoulder, he still managed to pull up the spear, getting ready to slam it into Nar’s exposed side.

Something tickled him, at the edge of his [Hearing].

The moment stretched. Again.

Nar watched the spear come, knowing that he couldn’t do anything to stop it. And so, he didn’t.

He grunted as the spear smashed into him. Even with an arrow through his shoulder and out of balance, the blow almost made Nar pass out. But he held on. He held onto the spear. He held on with everything he had.

Nar smiled at him.

“What the fuck?” Wik muttered, confused, trying to pull his spear free.

But Nar held tight, and hooked his arm around Wik. With surprise at his side, Nar pushed him to the side of the corridor. Towards Viy’s fallen, unmoving figure.

Too late, Wik realized his mistake in ignoring her.

Before he could do anything, Viy moved in a blur. Nar angled Wik just enough that her spear went through the side of his stomach, and out the other side, spraying blood and guts out of him.

Wik let go of the spear and stumbled back. He crashed against the wall, and tried to keep the contents of his stomach from spilling out.

“You’ll never hurt anyone ever again!” Viy whispered, her voice so low from the pain, that only Nar heard. Just like mere moments ago, when she had whispered to him. To tell him that she was still in the fight. That she knew what he could do. That she knew he could hear her.

And by the Crystal, or whatever, it had worked. Wik was finished.

As the cannibals advanced once more, Nar bent down to lift Viy onto his arms.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You always have to save me.”

“You saved me there,” Nar said. “We’re even!”

She scoffed, weakly. “I wish… Nar, you should leave me. I can’t move.”

“Hey! Stop that!”

They both turned and saw that the cannibals were laughing and jostling Wik, trying to make a grab at his spilling entrails.

The spearman tried to shoo them off with a weak arm, but one of the cannibals grabbed and bit into it.

“Stop! I’m one of you! What are you…”

They went for his throat, and Nar turned them around. The spearman deserved it, but he didn’t want to see his end.