‘ANNOUNCEMENT. 20 days remaining until the Megabowl. Travelers must be Level 17-20 to enter. Winning party will be admitted to The Continuance. Prosperity and profits for all.’ The yellow text scrolled.

“We know,” Matt grumbled, tipping his head to the sky. It was clear, pale blue and stretched on forever like the tan-colored sand at his feet.

“Hee?” said Wiggles. The beaver carried a metal bar with yellow and red wires dangling out one end, a casualty of the robots they’d been fighting for the past week.

“20 days! 20 days!” chanted Val. She punched low and shuffled her feet, a mini pink Beyonce.

Kurtis huffed.

“What?” Val said. “We’ve got this.”

Fallyn gave her a quiet smile.

They were 19% from Level 14. They were making good time. Jim and Lauren had given them a run-down of the area before parting ways. It turned out that, when Matt’s group had arrived, they were handing in Gretta’s final quests. Matt was convinced the information saved them at least half a day.

The puzzle solve was major. They could have wasted hours stepping on those plates. Instead, they walked up and performed the sequence—one and done. Apparently, it zapped you if you got it wrong. Matt was glad he couldn’t confirm.

The other time-saving tip was to stun the robots when they started to glow red. Matt had sure gotten a lot of use out of Conk over the last few days. He’d made the mistake of Conking nonstop on the first robot; they’d almost died. Sure, he could use the skill repeatedly—using up his stamina—but once it stunned the enemy it wouldn’t do so again for 30 seconds. He’d seen that happen before but had brushed it off as ‘because it’s a boss’ or ‘because I did it wrong’ or ‘because FRC is a bunch of assholes.’

Slowly but surely, Matt felt like he was getting the hang of things. Between taunting, Conk, and his new Shield Slam skill, it was like learning to fight all over again. He’d figured out that if he slammed with the pointed bottom end it would do more damage, but he was still trying to get the angle right. Most of the time it felt awkward as hell. He was working on it.

The Chatbot, the other day, had given him some new commands to configure the left arc of his heads-up display. It was helping a bit. It could only show three things—a mirror of the Health, Stamina, and Mana lines on the right—so he’d been experimenting. He currently had it showing the durations of Rapid Regeneration and Basic Taunt, as well as the cooldown for Bulwark.

He’d tried to put the wait-time for Conk’s stun on it, but it wouldn’t work. Kurtis guessed it was probably because it wasn’t a true cooldown. He’d experimented with putting potion cooldowns on it for a while—he’d gotten a few as loot marked ‘Requires Alchemy’ after the tower—but he had so few that he rarely used them. It felt like a waste of the spot. He would’ve put Shadow Flurry on it, but that required both swords to activate. That was the one downside of the shield, but Matt was committed to the tank thing—and he needed the practice.

He thought it was going well. Kurtis had only had to remind him to turn around the enemy once today. And he’d worked out a rule of thumb where he’d taunt if there were three or more robots since taunting reduced his damage by half. He was getting the hang of things.

The others had some new skills too. Val now had Poison Arrow and Close-range Shot. She said they felt and pulsed differently, but there was usually too much going on in a fight for Matt to tell the difference.

Kurtis had a new heal that wasn’t as powerful but increased everyone’s health a little over 30 seconds provided they stayed in a certain radius. Matt could swear the air felt different when it was active; sometimes his skin would prickle, but not always. Kurtis just shrugged when he’d asked about it.

When they hit Level 13 in the desert, Fallyn had spent her Skill Point on Shock, which did a tiny bit of damage and interrupted an enemy. It was nice to have another option against the robots, but it added the chaos of coordination. Between that and her Blink skill, she was all over the place in multiple senses.

“You seem deep in thought,” Fallyn said.

Matt trudged across the sand beside her. “I guess.”

“Thinking about what we’ll find?”

“Just thinking. Nothing important.”

They had been hiking across the dunes all morning, heading for some ‘Great Pyramid.’ Gretta’s final quest had been to seek it out. It was also where they expected to find the second orb. Matt wondered if it was where Jim and Lauren had gone.

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“I heard Ancient Egyptians liked cats,” said Val. “Like the Sphynx and stuff. I hope there are kitty cats.”

Kurtis glared.

“Nice cute ones,” she added pointedly.

“We-wu,” said Wiggles.

“Don’t worry, I’m not looking for a replacement,” Val told the beaver.

“Wu.”

“I think I see it,” Fallyn said, eventually, shading her eyes.

Matt wasn’t sure. Something glinted across the sands, but it could be anything. He checked his map. The blue marker was straight ahead so it was possible, but distance was weird in the desert. They kept walking. A few minutes later, the blip seemed to change color: blue, green, red. Then Matt crested a dune and could no longer see it. He’d heard of desert mirages; maybe this was one.

Half an hour further, the wind had picked up and there was no mistaking it: a pyramid rose from the sands decked in Christmas lights. The strings flashed on and off, alternating colors, like that one house competing with all its neighbors. Sand blew across the scene adding a tan haze.

“Well, we got Thanksgiving at Murl’s house,” Matt said. “Sort of.”

“So, why not Christmas too?” Fallyn said.

Matt shrugged.

Val, for once, was quiet. She watched the lights with a delighted smile while Wiggles tried to cling to her legs.

As they got closer, Matt could make out a small hut in front of the pyramid. The thatched roof made it look like it belonged on a beach. The pyramid dwarfed it, looming tall behind, and, aside from the two structures, the area was empty. The wind was warm and the sand prickled.

The hut was manned by a man wearing a white t-shirt, which pictured cat riding a dinosaur with laser beam eyes. He welcomed them with a loud “Dudes!” and handed them each a coconut with a little blue straw.

The XP for Gretta’s quest triggered. Matt ignored it, studying his drink, then was surprised by the tingle in his core. He hadn’t even sipped from the straw. But then he recognized the feeling. The entire group was glowing.

“Excellent,” the man said, bobbing his head reminiscent of the dumb pigeon. The name, ‘Invoice,’ floated in white letters above him.

Matt quickly dumped his 5 Stat Points into Stamina. Unfortunately, Level 14 didn’t come with a Skill Point.

“So, what do we do with the coconut?” Val sniffed it and held it high. “It looks like a drink—”

“Dude, it is like a drink.” More of the bobbing.

“My head’s not going to explode if I drink it?” Matt asked.

“That would be totally bogus dude. It’s like a buff drink. For the great rock.” He swept both arms up and back towards the pyramid.

“Uh huh,” Fallyn said slowly and narrowed her eyes.

A slurping sound came from Matt’s left—from Val. He turned towards her just in time to see the coconut poof into a brown and blue cloud of dust.

“Head’s fine.” Val shrugged.

“Excellent,” Invoice intoned. “Do I have a quest for you. The great rock yonder,” he swept both arms back again, “has been taken over by a robot dude. I got a very bad feeling about him. What do you think, my dudes? Can you defeat the most heinous robot?”

“Hee?”

“Even you, little dude!” Invoice pointed to the beaver with both hands.

“Eee!”

“We have to go in there regardless,” Fallyn said.

“We’ll do it.” Kurtis shrugged.

Matt nodded and slurped his coconut. As it disintegrated white text floated away: ‘+100 Primary Stats for 2h. Only effective within Great Pyramid.’

“Party on, dudes.” Invoice nodded and swept his arms toward the pyramid. The sand gusted as if on command.

Matt led his group, behind the hut, to the dark rectangle of an opening in the base of the pyramid. The biting sand darkened the air, showing off the lights. They blinked on and off—red, blue, green. There was no light coming from the passage. It led into the dark unknown. Matt was eager to get out of the wind.

Fallyn stepped in first, a glow starting to build in her staff. The passage looked to go forward maybe ten feet and then slope up. Matt followed, readying his sword and black shield.

As soon as he stepped from sand to stone, Matt was blasted by a rush of cold air. He instinctively lifted the shield and then patted his ballcap. Another step forward and the air was still. He squinted, more and more of the passage illuminating as Fallyn walked. Val hurried past him and so did Wiggles. He glanced back. Kurtis was still outside.

“Come on, man,” Matt encouraged. “See, it’s okay.”

Kurtis stared at the entrance, holding his tail in one hand.

“I need you,” Matt said. “Who’s going to yell at me to turn the robots around?”

Kurtis continued staring.

“Or heal me when I do something really dumb?”

No answer.

Matt transferred his sword to his left hand, awkwardly gripping both weapons in one fist. Then he extended his hand to his friend. “Together?”

Kurtis eyed the limb.

“You really going to leave me hanging?”

Kurtis sighed and took Matt’s hand.

They passed through the gust of air and, soon, they were headed up, feet tapping against the stone blocks of the floor. The low ceiling seemed to press down upon them. Matt wondered how anyone did this without Fallyn’s light. She had waited for him and Kurtis, and now they were all moving ahead.

A few minutes later, the passage ended abruptly in a square chamber with a ceiling that felt too low. Matt glanced over at Kurtis. It was more space than then before, but if Matt noticed the confinement… He worried about his friend. The cat-man’s ears were flattened like the ceiling close above; he held his tail in his hand. Fallyn stood in the center of the room, illuminating it with her staff, hair streaming back on a phantom wind.

“Now what?” Val asked. They were all thinking it. Wiggles held her sleeve.

Matt hoped they didn’t have to go back. He mentally retraced their steps. He couldn’t remember any side passages that they’d missed. It was just a straight stone hall.

Was I distracted at any point? he thought. I had to have missed something.

A dull click sounded, and then a series of lower-pitched clacks. Then it was quiet again.

“Wu.” Wiggles scrabbled at Val’s sleeve with both hands.

With a grating sound and a cloud of dust, the ceiling dropped an inch.