“Kurtis,” Matt said quietly through gritted teeth. “Where has the door gone?”

No answer.

The shadows stretched, long fingers of darkness, strangling the stalactites with their caress.

Then, a low voice grumbled, “Have you come for dinner? I am hungry.”

What the fuck? Matt thought and tightened his grip on his sword.

Val muttered, “It’s not dinner time yet.”

The darkness languidly uncoiled—octopus arms—sliding down to the platform below. Then a Level 9 figure jumped up, planting both feet in its middle. The shadows radiated behind him and the red name ‘Big Dog’ floated above black spikes of hair.

The man looked sturdy in a jumpsuit that matched Matt’s gloves. A mess of gold chains clinked as he leaned forward, peering down on them. He showed off a row of sharp black teeth and, above that hungry grin, a single giant eye dominated the upper half of his face. It flicked from Matt to Val, to Fallyn, to Kurtis.

Matt’s heads-up display flashed on.

The enemy snarled and gestured forward with both hands. Then the shadow rushed to Matt and his group. Matt cast Rapid Regeneration in the millisecond before it hit.

Darkness ripped through him and swallowed the blue light. He was nothing and nowhere. He was pain. He floated in darkness, a thousand tiny needles piercing his skin. Matt clutched his sword and gritted his teeth. Then the shadow sped back to its master.

“Well?” Big Dogg demanded in a rocks-grating tone. He licked his lips and smiled.

Matt renewed Rapid Regeneration and his health slowly ticked up, ‘76%’… ‘77%’…

Fallyn fired an Arcane Bolt as Matt ran to the platform. The shadow reached out and grabbed the light, swirling around the ogre protectively. It barely damaged him 1%. The enemy’s grin deepened.

The others fired bolts and arrows to limited effect as Matt searched for a way up to the enemy. Halfway around the right side of the platform, Big Dogg shot a hand in his direction. It extended into a dark shadow spear, which slid cleanly into Matt’s chest.

He gasped, ice cold, stumbling back to a stalagmite. Black ooze bubbled from the wound that stole another quarter of his health. Breathing ragged, he stumbled as the wound knit.

A steep incline rose at the back of the platform. To Matt’s right, the water flowed, dropping off steeply into nothing. Matt pushed up the ramp and tried not to look down. He Blood Slashed the ogre with his sword. The shadow pounced on the glowing afterimage, devouring it.

He Blood Slashed again and then a faint “Grr-ruff” sounded from behind him. Two Pomeranians—black eyes and sinewy spikes—ran at the others at full speed.

“Look out!” Matt yelled.

And then the ogre sent his shadow in advance of the dogs. It tore through them and they screamed.

Matt attacked again, hitting hard. Big Dogg’s health shot down a full 5%. The enemy glared and took off his necklaces. He swung them like a flail. The bulk of gold clinked and flung Matt from the platform, knocking him back several feet.

“Agh,” Matt groaned, landing on his tailbone.

He scrunched his face as he willed his body to rise and move to the group. He Blood Slashed two Pomeranians.

Then Kurtis yelled, “We’re good!”

Matt ran back to the platform, scampering up the ramp. As soon as he got to the top, two more Pomeranians spawned. He hesitated.

“Stay there!” Val yelled as the dogs shot toward her.

Matt attacked the ogre. Big Dogg speared him again. He staggered back and his stomach lurched to his throat, as he wobbled near the edge. To more hell-dogs ran towards the others. Then Matt’s health bar shrunk by more than 20%.

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Fuck. He stared at his interface.

Shadows whirled around Big Dogg, a flurry of knives that raked across Matt’s middle. He stumbled back down the ramp.

The fish. It had taken Matt’s mind a moment to process. Had it been an hour already?

The shadows launched out to his group.

Matt steeled himself and Blood Slashed the ogre. Another hard hit.

“Hit him now!” Matt yelled. “Ignore the dogs. Right now! Ogre! Now!”

Arcane Bolts blazed and arrows flew. Matt joined in with his Blood Slash. Without the shadow there to dampen them, they all hit with full force. They pelted the ogre. His health dropped to 30%.

Two more Pomeranians ran to the group. Matt debated jumping down to help.

“Now!” Fallyn called, seeing the shadow before Matt did.

Matt swung his greatsword and his stamina flashed. He was out. He swung and swung, and yelled. “Ahhhhh!”

The shadow cut through Matt—that gust of dark needles. His vision turned red. Then the ogre slumped to the platform.

Matt fell into a crouch, trying not to hurl. Darkness pooled around the body in front of him. The two Pomeranians still attacking the others froze. Then they toppled to the ground, shadows slipping from them, spikes retreating.

Motes of darkness coalesced along the ceiling and walls, slinking through the crevices of the cavern. They dripped down stalactites and flowed along the floor, joining the growing pool of darkness on the platform.

Matt scrambled back as it touched his clothes. Then, the whole thing sucked into the ogre. A moment passed, more silent than silence. Then the darkness exploded out and was gone.

“Back here,” Matt directed his group to the ramp. Then he bent down to see what he got.

‘Shadow Blades (Level 9)’ popped up in the black loot window. The words were in purple.

Holy crap.

Matt opened his inventory, shaking partially from excitement, partially from his wounds. He’d never seen something with purple text before. He scrolled to the item. It was a pair of Level 9 matched swords. They granted +100 critical power, +1400 weapon power, and allowed use of an attack called ‘Shadow Flurry’ once every two minutes.

Matt couldn’t wait for Level 9. He glanced at his XP bar. He was about 20% into Level 6. Please tell me the mushrooms award a lot of XP. Matt took a deep breath.

The mushrooms! He had almost forgotten that they were at the back of the cave. Panic and pain were powerful distractors.

Matt strode down the ramp and to the back of the cavern. Fallyn was already there, starting to harvest the fungi. The large mushrooms did look fancy. They grew in soft shelves and glowed pale blue. Val reached for a mushroom beside Matt and smiled.

He was bursting with energy. They won! They beat Big Dogg and found the mushrooms. He got purple Level 9 swords.

We’re going to make it! Matt thought. We can do this! He couldn’t help but grin. He reached for a mushroom and the satisfying quest confirmation floated up and away. We can do this!

Val and Fallyn started making small talk, and Matt realized Kurtis wasn’t with them. He turned to scan the cavern and found the cat-man lingering on the platform.

“Kurtis?” Matt yelled. “You okay?”

“Anakin!” Kurtis yelled back, fist in the air. “I have the high ground!”

Matt laughed and shook both fists dramatically. “You underestimate my power!”

“Okay, I’m done,” Kurtis said, then let loose his own grin and jogged down the ramp to join them.

Lost in thought—around mushroom number seventeen—Matt jumped in surprise when a small voice accused, “Hey! What d’you think you’re doing?”

Matt turned three-sixty, not sure where it came from. The voice was nowhere and everywhere all at once. He looked around, and then down, to see two Pomeranians staring up at him.

“Yeah, you,” the voice came again. “You!”

They had no spikes and normal eyes. The two dogs panted, staring up at Matt.

Kurtis’ tail puffed up and he took three slow steps to the side.

“Down here,” a different small voice cried.

What the fuck?

One of the dogs barked and it turned into a sneeze.

“Well?” the first voice asked. “Those are our mushrooms.”

“Um,” said Matt quietly. “Can anyone else hear these things?”

“Of course,” said Val. “They want to be friends.” Then she hinged, hands on thighs, and said in a baby-talk voice, “Aren’t you the cutest!”

“This one likes us,” the dog said. “You will answer our question. Mushrooms.”

“Uh…” Matt began, still processing the idea of the fluffballs’ telepathic speech.

“We were sent to gather them by Murl,” Fallyn explained.

“Murl!” the dog cheered.

“Murl!” cheered the other, although Matt couldn’t tell which voice came from which.

“We like Murl,” the first voice confirmed. “You like Murl? Murl like you?”

“Yes,” Fallyn responded. “We like Murl and Murl likes us. May we bring him some of your mushrooms?”

“Maybe,” came the answer.

The animals continued to stand there, panting. The one that had sneezed earlier, sneezed again.

“Maybe,” the second voice echoed. “Maybe, if you take me to Murl.”

“No way,” Kurtis gasped.

“It’s just a dog…” Matt said.

“Not just dog!” a fluffy Pomeranian protested, letting out a small growl.

“No, you’re not,” Val cooed, kneeling and stroking both of their backs.

“And this one must do that,” the voice demanded. “More that.”

“More that!” the second voice echoed.

“Take me to Murl and more that,” the dog repeated in full.

“Fine,” Matt said. “Deal. Val, pet the dogs. We’ll bring you mushrooms.”

The two Pomeranians wagged their tails as Val petted them, one hand on each.

Kurtis huffed with steely eyes.

Val looked up at him and flashed a big smile. “Who’s the goodest boy…”