FEBRUARY 21st, 2022

My eyes opened slowly. It felt like a single moment passed since I fell. I was in the infirmary. I was still in the game, but alive. I closed my eyes and all I could see was the last thing I saw before I blacked out. Eldon shattering into nothingness and Athena’s face—the terror she felt at the whole situation. There were so many questions—where did Eldon receive that crystal? Was it a bonus he got from beta, or did he receive them for picking up the job as a boss? I slid out of the bed.

There was a knock on the door and instantly I was on edge—I didn’t know where I was much less anybody who would walk in on me while I was supposedly out cold. My shoulders relaxed when I saw Klein materialize next to the door. I relaxed and sat back down on the bed.

“Good to see you’re up and moving—I got a notification in my party menu that you had woken up—don’t think I’m stalking you or anything.”

I waved my hand at him, brushing the subject off. “What happened?”

Klein walked and grabbed a chair, pulled it over, and sat down. “You passed out. Through the whole fight you looked queasy—so I guess I’m not really surprised. Athena bailed. I could tell that whole mess was devastating for her. I don’t blame her for needing time to herself. On the bright side, we did get this,” he reached out to his menu and swiped through quickly to bring out the gem that had hung around Eldon’s neck. “It was the only thing that remained of him when he...you know.” His gaze dropped.

I nodded.

“Do you know anything about it?”

“I’ve seen one of them before, yeah, but never up close. They’re called Keystones. This one’s dubbed the Heart of Ares. They’re supposed to unlock a great treasure higher up if the eight of them are collected.”

“And they’re held by bosses?”

“I don’t know about all of them. I’d say that’s a safe assumption, though.”

“What happened to the other players, the ones who were going to go onto the second floor?” I asked, turning my head.

“I saw a few of them on my way to the armory, y’know,” I said, “Now that I think about it, so many people would have died if Eldon led all those people to the second floor.”

“I’m sure with all those people he would have gotten taken down eventually,” Klein said, “...but you’re right that he would have taken so many people by surprise...it isn’t possible to think of how many would have died to that momentary loss of composure.”

The both of us were silent until Klein looked over to me. “Well, that didn’t happen so we can shove the idea of it aside. I’m thinking of heading to the second floor. Are you feeling okay enough to tag along?” I thought about it for a second. I didn’t know if I could just shove Eldon’s scream aside, but I realized that that was what Athena was probably doing this very moment—shoving it all aside to move farther—faster—stronger. I refused to believe anything else. If she was moving forward then I had to. I had to do whatever I could to move us all forward so we could get out of here. I’m already at a disadvantage by not playing the beta. I have to do everything in my power to make up for my losses. I looked to him and nodded firm. “I’m ready.”

We left the inn. The exterior loaded up before my eyes—we were standing out on the balcony on the second story of the inn. It was bright and sunny outside—meaning a few hours must have passed from when I passed out. I looked out and saw the armory was just a few buildings down by the inn. It was so close so I could definitely believe Klein did a little woman-hunting during his supposedly long trip to talk with Gregor.

“We’re actually going to stop by the armory real quick,” Klein said. “’m going to let Beth and Gregor hold onto this keystone for now.”

“Huh, why?” I asked.

He walked out in front of me and started down the steps, “Plenty of people saw Athena give it to me before she left. These things are rare, and I don’t want us to cause any issues if someone gets any wise ideas about them.”

We walked and made our way inside the armory. It built itself around me like it had the first time. Gregor was tinkering with something in the corner of the room and he didn’t seem to notice us right away. I started to feel queasy, but tried to suppress it. I need to start feeling better if we’re going to make any progress. “I’ll be outside, I might be a second and I just need some air,” I said and returned back to the steps outside the armory.

I anchored my left arm on one of the railings outside, cringing as I moved it. Now that we were up and moving it was still a little sore—it could remember the feeling of Eldon’s sword piercing through it completely. I really was lucky to make it through that fight alive.. I was in over my head and couldn’t risk to make those kinds of mistakes again. I needed to be more careful or else I’d end up like all the rest of those people who have died already.

Or those I killed. I flashed back to the entrance dungeon. I think of those lives I helped end. Those were real people that had families, pets, friends—people and more that would notice their death. Would dread their death. Might even do worse things because of their death. I slammed my hand to my face to keep the tears in. Stop. You didn’t know. You thought it was just a game. Just stop it. But I knew those were just excuses. What I thought didn’t matter. People are dead, and people are going to keep dying. I rested my head on my arm and took a deep breath in. I felt a familiar presence and went with my gut reaction. “How long have you been looking at me?”

“That’s a loaded question. A better one would be how long did you know?”

I didn’t look up, I recognized the voice immediately. “Only just now. I’m not on my best game, lately.”

“You took the words out of my mouth.”

“Something like that,” I said.

“Listen,” she started. “I understand that it’s probably not the wisest decision, but I need to be alone for a bit. I have a lot I need to unpack and I could be the cause of a mistake if I’m bogged down.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “We could use every person we can get.”

She gripped her fists tight, “I’m sure you’ll find more than enough help. I can’t...” she turned on her heels. “I’m glad you’re okay. You passed out back at the fight...and I think for the slightest of seconds I knew why.” She looked back to me for a second and then shook her head. “Ignore me. Stay alive and beat this game for us, okay?” She turned and continued away from me. I watched her leave and returned to my spot by the stairs.

“Okay, the crystal is safe,” Klein behind me said. He looked down at me, “Hey, you feeling okay?”

I was looking out where Athena had been. A part of me wanted to follow her, but that was creepy, right? She was pretty, and she was hurting, obviously there’s way more to a person than those two things...I had to stop thinking of her like a trophy or a broken thing. I refused to follow her for those reasons. So that means I have to put her out of my mind. She’ll sort herself out and I have to sort this out. I had to try.

“What do you say we go for a change in scenery?” I asked.

“What?” Klein asked.

“We’re heading for the second floor, of course. It should be a cakewalk without the boss there, am I right? Just strolling on through with only the local mobs to deal with,” he said.

“We just need to find out how to get to the next floor.” I said.

Klein smiled, “Oh, it’s not like I didn’t know how to get to the second floor, that’s not why I recommended we go to the park, I thought we could use some manpower with the other players. If we had Eldon on our side we were guaranteed an easy floor, to change floors we need to find a large pedestal. It’s sort of like this stone that is embedded into the ground, and all we have to do is use an item called a Teleport Crystal to warp to the next floor,” he said.

“Where would this pedestal be, then?”

“Back in beta it was past Glory Park, so we just have to take a walk down there.”

I nodded and we took off toward Glory Park. I saw the pedestal in the distance. It was small and gray with various markings tattooed across the surface.

“So, this pedestal will bring us to the second floor?” I asked, tapping the pedestal with my foot.

“Yeah. We use an item called a teleport stone to warp to the next floor. Since we’re in a party we only need one crystal for the teleport,” He explained. “Gregor was kind enough to sell me one so we’ll be more than fine.” He stepped onto the pedestal and the teleport crystal appeared in his hand. We were enveloped by light and my vision was filled with all different shapes and colors. Greens and yellows filled the world around me and they meld to form a lush jungle. Trees sprouted up all around us. The deep blues spilled into the sky, but the sun was absent. We were right in what seems to be the heart of the jungle. Even Klein looked to be amazed.

“What’s up? You’ve been here, right?” I ask.

He shook his head, “No, this was different…the second floor was a desert temple the last time I was here,” he said.

“Well, this shouldn’t be too hard. We just need to find the exit. It’s like you said, a cakewalk,” I said.

“Yeah, I know I said that, but that was when I had an idea of what the floor was going to bring us. Something about it doesn’t sit right with me,” he said. “Don’t let your guard down.”

I nodded. A blood chilling scream jerked us to full attention. “What was that?” I asked.

“I dunno, let's find out.” Klein said.

We narrowly dashed through the wall of trees as they swiftly popped into view. If we weren’t in such a rush I’d stop to gaze at the scenery just a bit more. We broke the final lining and stopped as we entered a clearing—the whole world opened up.

Dead center of the clearing was the source of the scream. A kid with scraggy blond hair who couldn’t be more than ten was encircled by a pack of mutant wolves. Each of them had fleshy arms that protruded from their backs all reaching for the kid.

One of the wolves from the back pounced and latched onto the kid’s leg, eliciting another loud scream. That was a sign enough for me—I ripped Elcor from its sheath and looked over to Klein. He caught my gaze and held it, nodding once. He was about to charge, but then I held my arm out and he stopped, looking at me confused.

“Let me try something. Move after me—you’ll know the signal.”

“Are you sure?” Klein asked.

“No time, just wait.” I said, and then held my hand up to my chest. Following the logic of the sword skill this should activate my gear’s skill. My hands vanish in front of my face and look back up and kick off the ground toward the kid. I’ve got thirty seconds. I have to make them count...I should have just enough time to—

I vaulted over one of the wolves and roll onto the ground in-between them and the boy. A quick glance and they haven’t noticed me. Perfect. I dashed over to the wolf—the alpha of the pack—and thrust my sword in a downward arc at its neck. It yelped and shattered to pieces—startling the other wolves around. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Klein hurtling toward the group. Two of the wolves readied themselves to charge at their prey while the rest diverted to Klein. The kid screamed and I spun behind him and cut one of the wolves off with an uppercut. The second tackled him to the ground and stood over him—drooling while the arm on its back flailed wildly.

My shroud’s effect wore off and the wolf looked up to me with hatred in its eyes. Of course, I was interrupting its kill. The child looked up at me and slowed his crying. “It’s okay, I’m going to keep you safe.” I smiled at him. The wolf jumped and I held my sword up in defense and slammed it against the wolf’s head.

Elcor charged and I transferred the energy to my other hand and the second blade formed. I thrust it through the wolf’s chest. It didn’t shatter right away, there was intense focus in its eyes as the arm on its back wrapped around and grabbed Elcor’s blade hard—tossing it to the side. As soon as it left my grip the blade of light vanished from my hand.

The wolf fell to the ground—the wound from the blade open and spilling onto the ground below. It dug into the dirt and dashed to me. I reacted as fast as I could, bracing my stance and I grabbed hold of the arm with both of my hands—my insides shuddered as I felt how squishy it was. It bit me once in the leg, but I used my position to swing over onto its back—I clasped my arms around and dug both of my hands into the wound. The wolf let out a cry as I dug deeper. C’mon...you must be close to—

The wolf shattered completely and I fell to the ground with a thud. I blinked and saw the kid standing in front of me, he offered a hand to help me up.

“uh...thanks...” I said, taking it, but using my own weight to stand up. I’m pretty sure I’d take you down too.

“I thought I was a goner,” the kid said.

“I’m not going to let that happen,” I said. “What are you doing out here?”

“I...” he said, “My dad put me here...” he started to get choked up again. “Have you seen my dad?”

Klein patted my back and gave me a jolt. I looked to him and saw the other wolves had been taken care of. Of course, that armor of his must have been hard for the wolves to make any sort of dent in.

“What kind of parent ditches their kid here?” I asked, looking up to Klein.

“Kid’s a stray? Geez…that...sucks...” Klein chose his words carefully.

“I just want my dad!” He bawled out.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” I said, kneeling down and placing a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not going to be alone, okay? You’re going to have us as bodyguards.” I looked up to Klein, “Right?”

“Yeah...” Klein crossed his arms. “Can’t very well just leave a kid here by himself.”

“Bodyguards…?” The kid asked and wiped his face.

“Yeah. We’ll try to find your dad and bring you back to him, and until then we’ll make sure you don’t get hurt anymore.” I said.

“Here, take this,” Klein offered up a potion to the kid. “I see the bite on your leg—it must hurt. This will make that feel better. And it doesn’t taste like crap like normal medicine.”

“Klein!” I called.

“What? Don’t tell me you’re going to scold me for saying crap? What are you, ten?”

The kid took a swig of the potion and downed it in one big gulp. “Yeah, what are you, ten?” He coughed once and patted his chest. “My name’s Sam...who are you?”

Clever kid to redirect his sass. “I’m Dex, and this here’s Klein. We’re trying to make it out of this game”

His eyes opened wide, “Yeah! I couldn’t get out of here! My dad said that it was impossible.”

“Well, it isn’t,” Klein started. “It’s just...not available right now. We’re trying to fix that. We’re going to make our way to the top and beat this game.”

Sam nodded, “That sounds good...I want to beat this game too! I want to come with you.”

“Well then it looks like we’re in agreement, but you need to stay safe, okay? Listen to us and don’t do anything dangerous,” Klein said.

“We’ll handle the monsters,” I added. “Speaking of...” I stood back up and walked to the side and grabbed Elcor—sliding it back into its sheath.

Sam walked up to me and offered up his hand, “Does this...mean you’re my friend?”

“Sure little buddy. Friend.” I shook.

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

“Dex...I think we might need to do some protecting earlier than we thought,” Klein said, standing tall and gripping his sword tight.

“What do you mean? More wolves?” I asked, looking back, but then I saw it. A figure looming in the underbrush. Human-like. I didn’t know how long it had been there, but it began to move — slowly at first, with a sort of grace. I stood tall and gripped Elcor’s hilt. Sam hid behind my leg, gripping the legs of my pants hard. The figure emerged into the light, and my suspicions of it being human was correct. It was a woman—probably in her mid-twenties. Her crimson hair was tied behind her. She wore black armor with a red trim and a spiked whip coiled around her shoulder.

“Oh there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere you, darling,” she said, her voice was smooth but strong. She slowly walked over, every step perfectly calculated, Sam cowered behind me further. “Hand over the kid and you can scamper along and pretend we never met. That sounds fair, does it not?” She cocked her head.

“And who are you?” I asked.

“Me? Oh, I’m the boy’s caretaker, don’t you know? I’ve been simply so distraught with worry, but now that I’ve found you darling I don’t have to worry anymore.”

“Do you know this woman, Sam?” My eyes shifted down towards him.

“Of course he does, and all of this extra stress you’ve been putting on the boy is certainly getting to be too much, so now I’ll take him and you can move. along.”

“You…you’re an admin of the Python Guild, are you not?” Klein asks.

“What?” The woman asked, turning toward him with a newfound confusion.

“How do you know that, Klein?” I ask.

“I may have…uh, spoken to her before,” he responded, his voice cracking.

A realization crossed the woman’s eyes, her mouth hung open slightly and then returned,“You’re the creep who kept asking for my number! I knew you were familiar from somewhere, damn.” She spit out. “And to think this was going to end easily. Well, that stinks for you, now doesn’t it?”

“What makes you think you can take us? It’s two on one.”

“Do you really believe I’d be searching for the boy by myself? You’re more foolish than I thought.” As she said it twenty other players emerged from the trees wearing variations of the robes I’d seen on the players in the castle dungeon.

“I bet you’re really regretting talking back now!” One of them called.

“I want the small one,” another laughed.

“Well then if you’re both ready to die I guess I can fit you into our busy schedule,” Rose said. “Unless you want to hand the boy over? Last chance?”

I gripped the hilt of my sword and that was answer enough for her. “Okay then, your choice. Men, focus on the knight with me. We’ll get the runt after.” They continued toward us, making the circle they’ve trapped us in smaller and smaller.

Rose licked her lips and cracked out her whip—the tendrils smacked the grass and left scorch marks at her feet.

They charged us all at once. One of the assassins made it to me first—he cut into my side with his knife and I felt it and grazed my teeth. As fast as I could I went dark thanks to my shroud. I swung Elcor up and caught the assassin off guard, sending him off his feet with a new cut on his chest.

“Why don’t you come here and let me carve a smile on that face, pretty boy? Show yourself!” He growled. He and a healer behind him were looking around, she begins healing his wounds. “Where the FUCK are you?!” He yelled.

I twisted my blade and sent his knife flying in the air. I charged him and sent his body falling over on top of his healer. I kept Sam behind me as I scoped our situation. Klein had eight people surrounding him on all sides, including Rose with her thorned whip. I leaped back with Sam’s arm gripped tight and just barely missed being charred alive by mere inches. They’re going for range now, huh? It just looks like I’ll have to adapt. I turned and charged up my sword sending an arc out like an arrow of light that nailed the mage that had been aiming for us. He fell onto his back. I had to act quickly as the assassin was back in my face with his knife gripped tight. I brought my sword down and held it against his blade which was nearing my throat.

“Just...get...off,” I said, and kicked once at his legs. It caught right at his knee and he bent over in pain. I held my sword above my head and was about to bring it down, but instantly I thought back to the others I had killed and in an instant my resolve washed away like sand in the ocean. No. Not again. This time there would be no excuse. You know that you’re killing people.

I sheath my sword and bent down, “Climb on!” and turned toward Sam. He did, and I we started to run. Klein was still balancing all of the others—there were three less than there were the last time I looked. He...he had killed them. He killed them. That simple fact existed and it kept echoing through my mind.

“Where are we going?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know...we’re not strong enough to—” my leg is grabbed and dragged to the ground, hard. Sam being on my back squeezed the air out of my system. There was a tingling sensation around my ankle. I looked back to see Rose had me pinned with her whip. The tendrils on the end of the whip dug into my skin.

“You’re not going anywhere, dear.”

I scrambled for my feet to try to free myself, but the pain paralyzed me—it was now like fiery claws digging into my leg. Rose made a sound that dragged my attention away from my leg—it was of pain. She was on the ground before I realized what had happened. Standing on the edge of the clearing with a bow and arrow aimed right at Rose was a young woman who bore the resemblance to Artemis, goddess of the hunt herself. White hair that ran neck-length and brown eyes that pierced the distance between the two of them.

Rose looked up at her assailant and a viscous look crossed her face. “You bitch...”

With unwavering speed the woman nocked an arrow and sighted Rose down, letting the arrow fly. It passed over me and I could only watch as it sank into Rose’s side.

“You don’t look Python, can you fight?” She was at my side in seconds, I jumped to see her next to me. “Can you fight?”

“Uh—yeah. Yeah. Who are you?”

She let loose another arrow into a mage who was preparing a spell and caught them between the eyes. “Luna.” She turned and raised her bow skyward, firing three arrows that refilled between her fingers as soon as the previous let loose. She dodged a rogue knife thrown her way and sank another arrow into the thrower’s leg. “Never mind, I have this situation handled,” she said, looking back to me, her final shot was made without even looking.

The three shots she fired up came back down as Rose was making her way to her feet. Two of them stuck in her legs and stuck into the ground—pinning her down. The third waited until she reached down with her right hand to pull one of them out. It stuck right through the back of her hand into the ground. Her screams echoed throughout the forest.

Klein kicked back one of the mages that had been assaulting him and slashed Mitsurugi out across the stomach of another rogue headed his way. A second mage on Klein was readying up his attack and I found my in.

I got to my feet and helped Sam to his. “Stay next to me, got it?” He nodded, and then I charged up my sword—sending two bursts of light to the mages attacking Klein. It distracted them enough that he could down a potion and get the upper hand on one of them. Luna dashed with a speed faster than he could keep up with—she shot two arrows out to stun the fleeing python member and all that remained was Rose who was still in agony on the ground.

“They’re...” I said, my hand started to tremble.

“Thanks for the assist,” Klein said, nodding to Luna.

She regarded him with a smile. “That was quite the hairy situation you boys were mixed up in. You’re lucky I came in to save the day.”

“Save the day? We had that totally handled,” Klein argued.

I shook my head, “We didn’t...”

“Honest and cute,” Luna said and then immediately turned to Rose. “Now it is mighty fine time that I finally caught up with you.”

“You conniving bitch...” was all Rose could mutter out. She was too weak to pull the arrows out of her body.

“Do...you two know each other?”

“We used to be partners in the Pythons. I left when the game turned out to be real shit, so she put out a hit on my entire group. Couldn’t take the fight to us herself so she had thugs from her clan do it. I was the only one who made it out of the ambush, and so then on I made it my goal to get her to pay her dues.” She looked to me. “I’m sure you have your own reasons for fighting—so in that sense for this fight we had a common interest.

“...Don’t kill her,” I found myself saying.

Luna looked back to me, confused, but not unsatisfied. “Mercy against the most ruthless of Python’s elite?”

“Yes...” I found my resolve returning to my body. “Too many people have died in this game. I can’t even begin to process the lives we just took in that fight because every single one of those people is just as important as the last—they aren’t mobs of faceless enemies.”

“If we don’t put an end to her here she’ll only go on to hurt more people down the road.”

“I know that’s the first answer, but I don’t believe it’s the right answer—not if we can avoid it. I don’t know how to prevent her from doing more damage, but the solution has to exist. There has to be a way to stop the needless killing.”

Luna grinned and her eyes glowed with the same passion as when she was in combat. “Now see, that’s exactly why I left the Pythons. They were all about the offensive since the beta, but ever since the real consequences of death were revealed they only seemed to double down on their stance.

“You were a beta tester?” I asked, and then looked to Klein.

“I’ve never met her,” he shrugged.

“I caught it on the tail end. I didn’t get to play much—so it’s not that hard to believe. I...” she then seemed to only notice Sam. “A boy this young...” she pinched at the bridge of her nose. “Ah geez. What kind of nightmare is this turning into…?”

“My name’s Sam,” he said. “I’m looking for my dad, but she came and tried to kidnap me.” He pointed to Rose.

“And that’s where we came in,” I said. “My username’s Dex, and this is Klein.” I motioned to him. motioning to Klein and then me.

“I see...well, I hope it’s not too forward of me, but I would like to ask if I can accompany you boys for the foreseeable future. We both seem to be lacking sufficient numbers, share similar morals, and,” she turned to Rose, “have a common enemy.”

“Really? You’d want to join us?” I asked.

“Oh she’d turn tail just like she did with us,” Rose spat.

“Oh piss off,” Luna turned to her and sneered. “It’s called having a backbone.” She turned to me, “I, uh, would like to join up with you, yes. If you wouldn’t mind,” she clasped her hands together.

I looked at her, and then to Klein, who nodded his head. “Y-Yeah. Sure, we’d love to have you.”

“Great.” She nodded and opened her menu to send the invite.

“Now that you’re all buddy-buddy can we not forget that I’m still here?” Rose said.

“We didn’t forget,” Klein said. “Just don’t know what to do with you quite yet.”

A cataclysmic roar belted out from far away. It was so loud it shook the very ground beneath us. I instantly looked at Rose. “What?” She looked back at me. “How could I have done that? I’m a little indisposed at the moment if you remember.” She said and then continued to blow a stray hair out of her face.

“You two scope it out,” Klein said. “I’ll keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t try anything funny.”

“What about me?” Sam asked.

“You can stay here,” Klein said. “If it’s something bad we don’t want you in harm’s way.”

“Sounds good to me,” Luna said. “You…?”

I nodded and looked at her warmly.

“Stay safe,” Klein offered.

“Break a leg. Maybe an arm too. Oooh! Maybe even your spines!” Rose added with a forced smile.

“I’ve got her, dude. You both go on,” Klein said.

I looked at him and nodded. We started off toward the sound. The world shook again under the roar. Trees toppled in the distance. We both saw it and kept pace. We kept running and leaping over fallen trees. That was when we saw it—a terrible creature—but that was the thing. It didn’t really look like just one creature; it had looked like a bunch of them mashed together. It was much larger than the wolves Klein and I had seen, much larger—it was the size of a building. It looked to have the body of a lion, but on the back of its head where a mane would be was a second head—one of a goat fused together with the lion’s. Instead of a bushy tail at the rear of the creature instead a thick, scaly snake took its place. It stood at its full height and let loose a terrifying scream to the heavens above.

“What the hell is that thing?!” I yelled, ducking behind a tree.

Luna was as wide eyed as I was, “The enemy window said it is a boss, it’s name is The Ultimate Chimera. Wait...what’s that around its neck?”

“It’s neck?” I asked. I hadn’t thought to look at the neck since I was so preoccupied with the outlandishness of the rest of it. I saw a small orange crystal hanging from the beast’s neck like a pendant. the shape easily came to mind. “It has another Keystone!”

“Keystone?”

“They’re treasures held by bosses that are supposed to unlock...something if they’re gathered together.”

“Well, looks like if we want it we’ll have to take this thing down.” She looked to me, “I...I think it sees us,” she pointed.

It rared down on its gangling body.

“Augh damn it,” I said, swinging out Elcor, “Are you ready?”

She prepped her bow and as soon as the beast pounced we dashed out of the way. It closed the distance between us in mere seconds.

“I’ll cover the front and you take the rear!” I called out to her.

“How gentlemanly of you to save me the rear.”

She fired three shots at the head of the snake to get its attention. I was standing near its front paws and I could see the snake from behind turn straight to Luna when it felt her shots. It looked like it was ready for its next meal. I didn’t even want to know if they went so far as to program where its meals go.

Luna deftly dodged the snake’s biting and gnawing. She took her bow in two hands and pulled it apart to reveal twin knives. She sank one into the side just under it’s left eye and ripped downward. I caught a glimpse of its crimson fangs that looked like they could have punctured a school bus.

Maybe if I could get on top I could get better control of the situation. Control was what would keep me alive. I ran at the beast—who for a second looked confused on why its prey was offering itself so easily. I jumped and jumped, stabbing Elcor into the beasts’ leg, hanging on with my other arm. I heard a roar of pain from all three heads, but I kept going. I felt like I was climbing a mountain of fur, using Elcor as my stability on my way up. The goat head had enough of me stabbing its side. It started shrieking out a sound that makes me feel dizzy, but I hung on.

I could see from the side that Luna was keeping up with the snake head, getting in a few cuts here and there on the scaly exterior. The goat head closed its mouth and puffed up its cheeks, it spewed out a nasty green bile. It landed just past me on the ground on the nearby trees. The ground began smoking and some of the trees began rotting away.

“You okay up there?” Luna called.

The beast spun on itself. The snake was tired of being irritated and not getting to eat its fill, so it gave the task of the girl to the lion. My body swung alongside as it turned. I yelled as my hands threatened to let go. It took everything to hold onto my grip. The goat head spewed another dose of acid. I ducked close to the beast’s fur as it hit the side of the lion’s face as it turned around. The creature screamed a hoarse coughing sound, causing the others to scream as well. I’ve lost most of my hearing, I couldn’t keep up with the intensity of their screeching, it was all just ringing now. I could see half of the lion’s face had melted off, showing a skeletal interior. It almost looked like that Batman villain.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Luna had chased the snake and stabbed both of her knives into its right eye the midst of its screams. She removed them and stabbed at its other eye, blinding it fully. “I have the snake covered. Do you think you can take care of the projectiles? I can’t predict those if I’m focusing over here.”

“Sure thing.”

“Thanks,” and she grinned and backed up to dodge the snake’s whirling head.

I refocused and kept climbing up the side of the chimera. The second half of the climb wasn’t as unstable as the first, but it isn’t a picnic at the top either. I’m almost face to face with the goat head. It shrieked once more and now that I was this close it pierced into my very being.

The goat’s head began puffing up its cheeks once more and an idea formed in my head. I waved my arms around, taunting the goat head to fire. It opened its mouth and the green acid flew at me. I roll out of the way, causing the acid to land on the Chimera’s back. The acid had already ripped through the fur and flesh of the beast, part of its spine was visible and the flesh seems to be breaking around where the acid had made contact.

Before I could do any more damage I saw the snake tail rising towards me. There was hesitation in its movement as both of its eyes had been gouged out. Luna was grabbing tight to the top of the snake’s head. She thrusted one of her daggers into its skull and gave me an idea. I ran to where the acid burnt the beast’s flesh and dug Elcor inside and ripped it back as I cut open an even larger wound. I ran toward the beast’s rear end and it had been too much—the beast fell to the ground and vaporized. We both fell and landed hard—Luna harder than me. The keystone clinked to the ground as a remnant of the battle.

My breath was short. I looked over to Luna, who had done the same back to me. “Well, that wasn’t too bad,” she said. “I guess you did okay.”

I smiled small and let out a hearty laugh. “I can take okay.”

“Well, that’s a shame, because I was selling you short. Great idea to make its own acid work against it.”

“Yeah, idea.” I said. “The totally on-purpose plan that I enacted after sizing our mighty foe up and totally didn’t accidentally use to our advantage.”

She bumped against my shoulder playfully, “Okay, fine. I take back my praise.” She looked over toward the keystone and picked it up, gazing at it in the light. “So this is what you were talking about?”

I nodded, “Yeah. Fortunately that means we just took down the boss of the floor.”

“Hm,” she started, rubbing her temples. “I never heard of these things in beta, but I guess that really can’t be helped. It’s the Heart of Artemis, it said.”

“Artemis, huh? Another Greek god.”

“Goddess” she corrected. “And another? I assume they’re all named after gods and goddesses?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “The boss on the first floor...he carried the Heart of Ares.”

“Hm, it seems this here gives a buff to archers and a poison immunity for your party.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense with it being Artemis and all.”

“Mind if I wear it?”

I shook my head. “No, go ahead. I don’t have a bow or anything like that anyway.

“Thanks,” she grinned. “I was totally going to fight you for it if you said you did anyway,” she grinned and winked.

“Well, miss Artemis,” I bowed, “...might we perhaps take our spoils back to Klein and Sam?”

She nodded and reconnected her daggers back into the bow—the weapon I now saw as Failnot. We stepped through the forest back to where we battled the Pythons. It was easy to tell when we were nearing as the trees nearby were still marked by the scorch-marks from Rose’s whip. They had been fading since our battle, but it was still clear enough to be seen.

The only thing was that nobody was there to greet us on our victory. Klein, Sam, and Rose were nowhere to be found.