[Event complete: Dueling Duos. Experience gained. Please wait for the other duels to be completed.]

After a few seconds of wallowing in the pain and feeling sorry for himself, Mason groaned to a sit and checked his wounds. Not only were they closing, with a confused squint Mason saw the wounds were growing some kind of...giant scabs?

He touched them and startled when he found skin so hard it might have been bone. Was this something to do with his 'transformation' power? Duality of Strength? What the hell exactly did they do? And were they ever going to go away?

He was feeling much better already, and whatever exactly his new powers did, his physical regeneration was getting incredible. It made him realize that he might have to change his thinking—that short, brutal fights were not really to his advantage. As long as he could take his time and heal, it seemed almost impossible to lose.

But he rarely had the luxury of time. He looked to see if he could find the others in their own duels, and certainly hoped they were easier. Everything around him was kind of blurry and unreal, like he was in some temporary, otherworldly version of it. But even so he found Phuong and Alex battling what looked like a giant goblin.

Apparently the duels weren't even the same, which he hoped meant the others had it easier due to level or something. He couldn't see very clearly, but it looked like Phuong had cut the big goblin about a hundred times already, and was practically fighting in a red pool of the thing's blood. That was probably a good sign.

Eventually he found Mai and Seamus. The fire mage was basically surrounded in flames, launching all kinds of projectiles without very much concern at targets Mason couldn't quite make out. Mai seemed alright as well, holding her ground against a hooded goblin much like Mason's, swinging her glowing pan like a club.

"I think they're alright," he muttered to Streak, and probably himself. Then in only a few seconds the big goblin dropped, and Phuong and Alex sat down in obvious exhaustion. "One more," Mason said, squinting and trying to make out exactly what Seamus was shooting at...

Then Mai dropped her pan. The hooded figure stepped out from behind her with a hand covered in red, and Mason saw Seamus's mouth open and scream.

[Dueling Duo's event completed. Congratulations on your ongoing survival.]

The 'ghostly' players returned to the cavern floor as if nothing had happened. Including a prone and bloody Mai.

"Alex!" Mason shouted as he ran to the small woman's side. "What happened?" he said to Seamus, who was still staring from nearby, making no move to check her.

"I was...I mean she...I couldn’t hit it…the thing was so fast..."

Alex dropped to Mai's side and turned her over, and the second Mason saw her face he knew she was dead.

Her pretty brown eyes stared up at the ceiling, a peaceful expression on her face. The Belarussian touched her chest and his eyes pulsed with light, then he looked at Mason and shook his head.

"God damnit." Mason clenched his teeth and leaned against a pillar. He wanted to yell at Seamus about the teams, but he was just as to blame, and what the hell good did it do anyone. He walked to the Irishman's side and put a hand on his shoulder. "There was nothing else you could have done. Now let's finish this."

The caster blinked away the last remnants of his fire magic, then his face twisted with anger before it cleared.

"This fecking place. This whole fecking thing," he said, regaining himself as he met Mason's eyes. "We can't even take her out, can we? This fecking tree has to be her tomb."

He walked off into the cavern without waiting for an answer, and Mason let him go.

He was probably right. They couldn't take her out, couldn't bury her. What happened to a corpse in a dungeon he had no idea.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

With a terrible thought, he realized it was likely the same thing that happened to everyone the system deemed 'too old to play'. He fought a shiver, and with Phuong and Alex beside him, followed Seamus towards the apparatus.

* * *

The platforms up were as chaotic and unreliable as they looked. Ropes and ladders dangled over everything, as the workers clearly didn't bother using the lifts except to take down carts full of crystals.

The players climbed and occasionally lifted their way up, tossing the occasional arrow-struck corpse out of their way. Mason decided he'd have to leave a growling Streak at the bottom.

"I'll come back for you once we know where we're going," he promised. "I can probably get you up with these lifts..."

But the wolf kept whining and growling and eventually Mason took out his damn rope and tied a harness around the animal's torso, then to himself.

"You can't be serious," Seamus stared as he worked. "There's no way...I mean, he's huge, mate. You can't possibly."

Mason didn't bother answering, checking his work than using the lifts until he couldn't. Finally he started to climb, lifting Streak off the metal platform as he pulled them both up the poles and beams.

He heard Seamus whistle from below. "Jesus Mary and Joseph, man. That's unbelievable."

He supposed it sort of was. Honestly it wasn't even that heavy anymore, and he wondered just how bloody strong this system was going to let people get.

At some point you'd have to think physics was going to interfere. Bone density. Tensile strength. Something. But then he was living in a world with fantasy creatures and magic spells, so he supposed physics wasn't really a problem for old roboGod.

"Christ, we're getting pretty high, and there's not much light. How did you even see this one to shoot it?" Seamus said as they passed another dead goblin. Mason shrugged.

"I can see well enough."

He glanced at the apparatus structure and tried not to be worried the whole damn thing would collapse. But he supposed these creatures had been using it for quite some time, and the carts were surely heavier than a few men and a wolf on a rope.

"Where'd they all go?" Phuong whispered as they kept climbing. "I see no tunnels. No where to run except up."

As if summoned, the mystery was solved not long after. The huge cavern split horizontally with metallic corridors dug straight into the tree. Mason saw the openings and climbed up as quickly as safety allowed, intending to get Streak up before they found any trouble.

He was almost at the opening of the wide corridor when several goblin heads poked over the drop wearing goggles. Their clawed hands held...some kind of metallic devices that looked conspicuously like...

"Grenades!" he yelled to the others. "They've got some kind of bloody grenades!"

The goblins dropped them instantly after.

* * *

God damnit where is Blake when I need him!

Mason imagined how easy this might be as Telekinesis simply threw the explosives right back at their users.

Instead Mason leapt from his metal pole to another nearby, jerking as Streak's weight shifted and swung. Somehow he had to get his bow off his damn shoulder and shoot while also holding himself up, and keep Streak from falling to his death...

Explosions rocked the cavern.

Someone yelled "jump!" from below, and Mason just hoped they could somehow manage to save themselves. He was damn near useless until he could get his feet on solid ground, or get to the tunnel.

The goblins were shrieking and arguing above, yelling at their assistants something about needing more bombs.

Great, just fucking great.

"Alex?" Mason shouted. "How are your shields doing with the bombs?"

"OK," shouted their support class, which with his wry humor and deadpan might have meant anything.

"I'd fry them but I can't bloody see them!" Seamus shouted, apparently fiddling with a platform rather than try and climb up himself. At least no one had yet been exploded.

Mason stopped thinking and made for the tunnel. He went hand over hand with brute strength at full speed, closing the gap just as another round of goblin heads and hands poked over the chasm.

"Shiiiit..."

One of the bombs bounced off Mason's face, and fell.

It hurt, no question, but it didn't explode. He shared a brief look with an equally alarmed goblin engineer, than powered his way up and threw himself onto the metal floor of the tunnel.

There was nothing to hold, and with Streak's weight dragging him back he pulled and slapped at the slippery floor in vain trying to get himself up.

The goblins were getting more bombs, and finally Mason just pushed himself straight up at the edge, got a foot up, then pushed straight up until he could touch the roof. Using the top and bottom he stabilized and walked forward, pulling the rope and praying it didn't snap before he got Streak to the edge.

The goblins threw their bombs, and there wasn’t a damn thing Mason could do about it. He closed his eyes and prayed Apex Predator saved him.

The world filled with fire and explosions. Mason's body jerked but he could still feel the metal roof and floor, and didn't stop moving forward dragging Streak. When the smoke cleared and Mason could vaguely hear again, he saw the goblin engineers fleeing for their lives down the tunnel.

Mason found a couple pieces of shrapnel stuck in his clothes and body, but at this point that was practically a love tap. He wasn't entirely sure how he'd been so lucky, but turned to get Streak up so he could chase the little bastards.

Alex was half up into the tunnel, sweating and puffing as he held himself up and grinned.

"You see? Shield works not bad. Maybe we call you bomb bait."

Mason let out a long, tension filled breath.