Matt crashed through the bush, shield-first, raising his sword arm for a Blood Slash. The gankers were fast. Red eyes blurred left, purple winked out. The branches pushed against Matt’s shield and scratched his arms.

Where are they? His heartbeat thundered in his throat. Matt fought to untangle himself. He tried to cut his way out.

A cloud of shadow billowed between the tree trunks in front of him. Matt went cold even as the fiery rage burned within. He knew those shadows, remembered the hell Dirk would raise when he burst from the dark. If the ganker had his powers plus at least a few levels, Matt was screwed. He yanked on the shield and tried to back out.

Then a figure stepped from the blackness. “Need some help with that?” Sharkie crooned.

Matt’s arms fell limp. Holy shit on a hotdog.

“Well?” She put her hands on her hips.

Matt exhaled sharply, then nodded, searching her face. Those eyes.

“Told ya we’d meet up soon,” Manuele called from the left. “It hasn’t been that long.”

Stilling enough to think, Matt pulled his shield to his inventory and then fell forward. “It’s really good to see you guys,” he said, crawling to his feet.

Then Manuele picked him up in a bear hug.

The others filed around to the back of the bush, sporting smiles that matched Matt’s own. Matt watched as Manuele hugged them all and Sharkie stood off to the side. He couldn’t stop staring at those eyes. He had so many questions. They were alive.

“Where’s Anika?” Manuele asked, separating from Fallyn.

She shook her head and his hands slowly dropped from her arms. His face fell. Matt’s fell along with it.

They made their way to the tent with a promise to explain inside. Val introduced Wiggles and gave a quick rundown of their specializations on the way, but they all knew it was biding time.

Sharkie responded with a quick, “Rogue. Berserker,” and offered nothing about their eyes.

Staring up at the twinkle lights and taking in the softness of the flannel, Matt psyched himself up to explain. Val was demonstrating how she had taught Wiggles thumbs up, except he hadn’t gotten the thumb part yet, and Matt could feel the tension building. It was time. He balled his fists and took a deep breath. If he just kept looking at the ceiling he could—

“She got deleted,” Fallyn said, ripping off the Bandaid.

Matt sat up.

Tears dripped from Manuele’s eyes; they had been waiting there since he’d asked the question. “No,” he whispered.

“It happened just after you left,” she said. “You saw the announcement about inactive accounts?”

“That makes no sense.” Manuele shook his head and smacked his arms down on the mattress.

“I’m sorry.”

“But she wasn’t inactive. That’s what it said, right, ‘inactive’?” Manuele ran his hands through his hair. “And you’re here.” His blood-red eyes pierced through Fallyn’s.

She didn’t look away. “We had all just turned in a quest. She hadn’t yet. It leveled us up.” Her throat bobbed. “I’m so sorry.”

Manuele wiped his eyes.

Matt caught Sharkie giving him a sad smile.

“Thank you for telling me,” Manuele whispered.

Matt laid back and watched the lights in silence. He focused on his breathing.

“So, um,” Kurtis said, after a few minutes, “not to be insensitive, but should we maybe catch each other up? Exchange information?” He scratched under his colander hat.

“Yeah, we should.” Sharkie sat with her legs crossed and looked like she might start to cry herself, but her voice was pure determination. “We found the edge of the map and the Megacastle. And we can’t die but it’s super shitty.”

“We noticed,” Matt said.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Sharkie proceeded to recount their journey since they’d departed at Level 2. She told them about a farm and the Hollywood sign, a mountain meadow and an invisible wall, and all the days they’d spent with Fisherman Thomas. She said their eyes were from the green mist and Matt filed her in on what they knew. They were lucky to have survived. The whole conversation felt surreal. Matt still couldn’t believe they were in front of him.

“And then there was this tree dude by a replica of The Leaning Tower of Pisa,” Sharkie said.

“We know him!” Val exclaimed and launched into her own story about the Tower. She pulled a mana potion from her inventory at the end. “Started getting these after that.”

“Huh. Never seen ‘em.” Sharkie held out her hand.

Val passed it to her.

“Says I can’t use it.” Sharkie shrugged.

Matt let out a hiss when Sharkie described the dragons a minute later: dinosaurs with tiny bat wings carrying weapons of their own. She said the massive beasts were patrolling the path to the Megacastle, and were at least Level 18 from their triple question marks.

Sharkie glossed over figuring out that estimate from some robots at the desert’s edge, plus some higher-level people she’d met on her class quest who saw them too. She’d been glossing over a lot. Matt had so many questions.

“See what I’m getting at?” Sharkie said, raising both eyebrows.

“Yeah,” Matt grumbled. “We’re going to have to fight our way to the contest, not just in it.”

“Well not my whole point, but yeah.”

It was Matt’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “What then?”

“If that’s just what’s guarding the place, what freaky shit do you think is inside?”

Matt ran a hand along the side of his head where his ballcap held back his hair.

“So level requirement or not,” Fallyn weighed in, “we need to get every level we can.”

“What level are you guys?” Matt realized he hadn’t asked. They hadn’t merged their parties yet, so he couldn’t see.

“Fourteen,” Manuele said. It was the first thing he’d said in a while.

Matt grimaced for a moment, before schooling his expression.

“That’s actually impressive if you weren’t questing the whole time,” Kurtis said.

Then Sharkie explained about ‘First to Discover’ XP.

“There’s still time.” Matt tried to sound encouraging, but Val was much better than him at that. He sighed, not sure he even convinced himself.

Sharkie returned to the topic of the Megacastle, suggesting she show them where it is on the map. Of course, she couldn’t show them exactly, so it took a few minutes of awkward directions—especially since they didn’t have the same areas revealed. “You have that rock that looks kinda like someone’s ass squatting down? Beside the two pointy bits?”

“I think so?” Kurtis said.

“Oooh! I think I see it! Whose cute butt is that?” Val grinned. “Matt’s? Can’t be Kurtis’ ‘cause there’s no tail.”

Matt rolled his eyes. If he was understanding correctly, the walkway started northeast of their current location and then snaked deep into the mountains.

“I’m guessing half a day from here to the dragons?” Fallyn said.

“Little less, but yeah.” Sharkie nodded.

“And this is the closest tent?”

Sharkie nodded again.

“We’re on a quest to go back to Murl’s,” Matt said, “this castle to the north of Septimus.”

“Northwest,” Fallyn corrected.

“Fair.” Matt shrugged. “It’s a few days hike. And then we’ll have to come all the way back.” His accountant-brain was mulling over the math. “If we say two days both ways, and we have to be here the night before…”

“Six days,” Fallyn said softly. “Six days left after the four for travel. It took us eight to finish the last level.”

Shit, Matt thought.

But it was Sharkie who swore out loud. “Fuck, it’s taking that long next level?” She flopped down to a horizontal position, elbows out and hands behind her head. “I thought we had time.”

“Could get some good quests,” Val said. “My bar barely moves from kills now, but quests…” She tossed up the tabby pillow, then caught it.

Sharkie sighed, nodding.

“We didn’t even find Maria,” Manuele grumbled, “and now this? It’s my fault. I’m sorry, Ash.”

“We might actually be able to help you with that,” Matt said.

Manuele scrambled closer to Matt and stared down at him with those bright red eyes. Matt inched back. “Those don’t shoot laser beams do they?”

Manuele sat back and frowned.

“Uh, I think, we think,” Matt started. “You guys agree right?”

Fallyn nodded and Val and Wiggles gave one and a half thumbs up.

Matt swallowed. “We saw her at the abbey.”

Manuele narrowed his eyes and then motioned for more.

“It’s kind of north of the tower. We had to do a bunch of quests to get in.”

Manuele moved his hand in an impatient roll. “We had a turn-in outside.”

“Well, inside, she was grouped with some people I used to know. And Cathleen, you met her?”

He nodded slowly and his red stare hardened.

“Uh, short, olive skin, dark hair?”

“Why isn’t she with you?!”

Matt’s eyes widened. Manuele’s turned deadly.

“I called out to her,” Fallyn said. “I think she knew what I meant. But she walked away.”

“Their group’s a bunch of gankers,” Kurtis said.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Manuele defended. “Maria would never do that. My Maria is sweet and kind. It must have been someone else.”

“Perhaps,” Fallyn said, “but the way she stopped when I asked about you…”

“No,” Manuele insisted.

“So…” Val began, very obviously changing the subject. “The rest of the abbey was pretty cool. Kurtis got his hat and can heal us now, and we got a ton of quests. Lots of gankers there though. That part sucked. More than just that group. So, what kinds of cool things can you do now?”

The muscles in Manuele’s jaw tightened.

“I think we’ll have to go outside for that light show,” Sharkie said.

Kurtis’ ears perked up along with his eyebrows.

“I have this thing called Dragon Breath.” She shrugged. “I’ll show you tomorrow. My guess is sleep will hit any minute now, and I don’t want to chance it outside.” She nuzzled back into a fuzzy blue pillow, then added, “You guys know about that, right?”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “Unfortunately.”

“Right?” she affirmed. “This whole place is a bitch. I say we form one party so we can meet up more easily. Manuele and I can travel back with you part-way. We’ll stop off at that farm we found a while back. Should have some quests for us now. We can do those while—”

Blackness. For a moment Matt swam in the dark—in the void without feeling or sound. Then his eyelids fluttered and a slit of white tore into the nothing. Morning sunshine alighted on his lashes; Matt squinted against the glow.