Chapter 128: Trackers

“Don’t even think about it,” Kalana warned—and it was obvious she meant it, too. She spoke with a sharp tone: one that strongly implied her words were not a mere suggestion. Even still, Jimmy was tempted to ignore them. After all, he was nineteen years old—an adult—and Kalana was only like, what, seventeen or so? She couldn’t just order him around like that. Yet, that was exactly what she did. “Jimmy, get back in here.”

Like an insect drawn to light, Jimmy stared hungrily at the archway labeled F49->F50 that greeted his eyes as he opened the exit door to Angelica’s, peeked his head outside, and then looked off down the hall and to his left. “I’ll only be an hour,” he promised. “Just let me get another hour or two in, and then I’ll—whoah!”

It wasn’t until he’d nearly fallen over that Jimmy realized Kalana had reached out, grabbed his upper elbow, and yanked him back inside Angelica’s and away from the exit door. Then she moved in front of him, made a swinging motion with her arm, and slammed it shut—only to immediately reopen it the exact moment it was closed; now, she shoved him outside once more so that, while still in the exact same dungeon, Jimmy found himself all the way back down on F17 instead of F49 where he’d been. It must have been the floor her and Zach’s current exit was set to. And now, having walked—or rather, been pushed—through it, Jimmy’s exit would be set to it, too.

“Kalana, what the hell?” he snapped. “That was so uncalled for.”

“Nah-uh! You were gonna go do more dungeon things, weren’t you?”

“I was only looking,” he replied innocently as she shut the door behind herself once Zach and Tena came through. Then she put her hands on her hips, and her posture stiffened.

“Yeah right! You were gonna try to solo the F50 boss even though we all agreed you’d come back to Elendroth with me and Zach.” Rather than reply, Jimmy chose to stay silent since he wasn’t good at bullshitting and Kalana was right: that was exactly what he’d been planning on doing. Hoping for some kind of support, he looked over to Zach; in response, the black-robed, hooded kid gave him an empathetic shrug that, while definitely well-meaning, came across as something much darker and unintentionally sinister due to the face-concealing, eye-glowing effect of his cloak.

“For what it’s worth,” he said, “I kind of wanted to see if you could really do it. I mean, I definitely don’t think I could take it solo. I was hoping to see how you’d actually kill it all by yourself.”

Kalana frowned at him. “Don’t enable him, Zach. You heard Zephyr! Jimmy’s gonna die if he doesn’t take a break.” To Jimmy, she said, “You can’t just spend eighteen hours a day in a dungeon for two whole weeks and be okay. It’s only a matter of time before you make a serious mistake—just like Zephyr said. When’s the last time you’ve been outside and got some fresh air? When’s the last time you’ve even seen the sun?”

“You mean like that sun?” Jimmy asked, pointing to a window on the other side of the hallway, which revealed an endless, blue, and cloud-covered sky illuminated by a bright yellow ball that never seemed to rise or set. He suspected this gas giant was tidally locked into position with the star in its system, which meant one side of the planet would experience permanent day whereas the other side would be forever shrouded in complete, total darkness.

“Nope. I mean a real sun. Like the one on Galterra. Or anywhere that’s not a dungeon.”

Jimmy snickered. “So that sun doesn’t count as real?”

“That’s right,” Kalana said, nodding and tapping her foot down in perfect timing with her words. “Seriously, how long has it been since you’ve been outside, Jimmy?”

Once again, Jimmy chose to remain silent. But this time, Tena went and outed him. “Truthfully, Kalana? I don’t think Jimmy’s been anywhere besides the dungeons or Angelica’s since the moment he entered his first dungeon portal.” Jimmy glared at her for exposing him, and she pouted in response to the look he sent her way. “What?” she asked, nearly flinching along with her words. “I’m just telling the truth. I’ve never seen you anywhere else.”

“Really, Tena? What about that time on Earth?”

“Oh. Oh yeah. Well, I guess that technically counts as you going outside for a few hours.”

“Barely,” Zach said. “But either way, if you’re going to spend every hour in the dungeons, at least pick a better one. This one’s so boring. Everything looks the same from floor to floor.”

“True,” Jimmy said, “it does. But that’s what makes it so great for leveling.”

Although he’d spent most of his time in Tower of Eternity, Jimmy had learned from casual conversation in Angelica’s that different dungeons could provide radically different experiences. Some dungeons got weird in ways that had to be seen to be understood, whereas other dungeons were chaotic and warped people all over the galaxy to different planets. Then there were some that were consistent for an unpredictable number of floors before unexpectedly switching things up. Naturally, there were even dungeons that did all of these things, like Yorna, as well as others that he either did not know of or had names he could not recall.

But there was another type of dungeon, too, and Jimmy was thankful for it. Because amid what many claimed were countless wild, unpredictable dungeons, there also existed places like Tower of Eternity: stable, unchanging, straightforward, and run-of-the-mill. These dungeons were linear in progression from start to finish, self-contained to one particular structure or place, and provided little in the way of surprises outside of boss fights. It had been exactly what Jimmy needed to blast forward in the levels.

So far, from F1 all the way to F49—the farthest Jimmy had gotten—every floor had contained anywhere between three-to-eight slightly narrowed hallways with a variable number of mobs to kill. Most floors had at least one or two dead-ends, a few had none, and a couple of times there had been three or more. But even if he picked the wrong direction and hit a dead-end, all that typically meant was fighting a few extra mobs, earning more xp, and if luck was on his side, maybe some additional loot, too.

Visually, there was little difference between the floors. Each had several windows at the top of their brick walls, which offered a look out at the empty, blue, and cloudy atmosphere and served as the sole but sufficient source of lighting, giving the entire dungeon a slight blue glow. Overall, Tower of Eternity was best characterized as dim but not outright dark, and Jimmy had not had any issues taking in his surroundings—not that there was actually anything other than the mobs worth seeing here in the first place. In fact, save for a few abstract, irregularly placed paintings and the occasional dusty, wooden bench, there was nothing else here in the way of furniture or décor.

Really, the only thing that actually changed as he’d climbed higher and higher had been the types—and levels—of the mobs he fought. But besides that? It’d basically been the same thing over and over again, which meant making his way across the bland, gray-marble flooring from hall to hall until getting to the next set of stairs—rinse and repeat. The only exception to this was every tenth floor, which consisted of a large, open, and square-shaped room where the ground was covered in ankle-high sand and a boss guarded the stairwell to the next floor up.

Given all this, Jimmy did not disagree with Zach’s take on things. It really was lacking in excitement when viewed from that perspective. But at least it was consistent and reliable. And while Jimmy had only gotten to the forty-ninth floor, he was reasonably certain that the pattern and consistency would hold all the way to the 100th based on little things he’d picked up here or there from other adventurers whenever they’d speak about TOE.

None of them realize how great this place actually is, he thought.

As the four of them began ambling their way down a quiet, mob-free hallway that led away from Angelica's, their feet clicked against the paved flooring, which caused the sound of their footsteps to give off a dull echo. Abruptly, Zach paused, causing the rest of them to stop behind him. Something appeared to be bothering him. Turning his head to Jimmy, he asked, “Do you really believe you can kill the boss of F50 solo?”

“Uh, well…I think so. I mean, I wouldn’t know for sure until I pulled it, but I’d be able to find out pretty quickly: fast enough so I could still run away if it was too much for me to handle.”

“Okay, come on,” he said with a disbelieving shake of his head. “Are you bullshitting me?”

Due to Zach’s cloak, the menace Jimmy saw in his glowing eyes and shadowy face was at total odds with the playful tone in which he’d asked the question. It was a hell of a visual effect and made everything he said or did seem highly intimidating. Jimmy was actually starting to find it easier to have a conversation with Zach by deliberately not looking at him whenever he spoke; it gave Jimmy a truer impression of the kid’s intent.

“I’m not lying to you, man.” Jimmy pointed to himself. “I’m a beast when it comes to this stuff.”

“Yeah, but you’re saying you can solo a fiftieth-floor boss? Come on…”

“Like I said: I think I could do it, but I’m not gonna say it’s a hundred percent. Maybe ninety.”

“Sheesh,” Zach said. “Your stats must be super high.” With that, he continued onwards, and Jimmy, Kalana, and Tena resumed their slow, relaxed, and casual walk down the dungeon hallway alongside him towards wherever it was the kid was taking them.

Only ten steps later, however, and they all paused yet again. But this time it was because Jimmy halted mid-step as he felt compelled to explain himself. “My stats aren’t all that high I don’t think. Like, I guess they’re all right for my role and for my level. But Tena says that, with equipment included, the stats most relevant to the roles you wanna play should be twice your level at the absolute, bare minimum and probably a lot higher if you actually wanna be useful.”

Jimmy could see Zach studying the staff he carried on his back. “So I’m guessing for you it’s intelligence?”

Jimmy nodded. “Yeah. And my intelligence is pretty high and all, but it’s not like insanely high. It’s decent for a hybrid support healer. Here, I’ll just show you. Party up.”

Name

Jimmy Green

Level

45

Armor Bonus

20

Strength

18

Dexterity

60

Constitution

23

Intelligence

113

Speed

40

Luck

16

“Yeah, that seems okay,” Zach agreed. Then he made a dark chuckle. “It’s way better than what my stats were until I got a huge level up fighting Ziragoth’s adds the day before the raid. But yeah, those stats aren’t too bad. But I don’t know how you’re soloing bosses with that. You must have some crazy abilities.”

“It’s the way they work together,” Jimmy explained. “Basically, there’s almost nothing I can’t solo as long as four basic conditions are met. If all four are in place, I can beat anything solo no matter what it is. But if even one of the four things is missing, I run away if it’s too dangerous.”

Clearly having become intrigued, Zach inched a bit closer to Jimmy and asked, “What are the four conditions? Now you kind of have to tell us. You can’t just mention that much and stop.”

“I wanna know too,” Kalana said.

Tena merely smiled. She already knew, as Jimmy had told her a few days ago. He saw no reason not to tell these two as well. And to be honest? He liked to talk shit and brag. It was one of his biggest flaws—and he was definitely aware of it. Even still, he couldn’t help but feel a bit energetic as Kalana and Zach stared at him as if eager to hear what he had to say.

“You really wanna know?”

“Yes, Gods damn it!” Zach shouted, sounding a touch annoyed. “Just tell us!” Kalana twisted her lips at him, and a second after, he lowered his voice and added, “Please.”

Jimmy grinned. “Okay, then. So, it’s like this.” He inhaled, and for a moment, he held the breath. Then, as he released it, he held up his index finger. “Condition one,” he began. “The mob or boss needs to be susceptible to my slows.” He lifted his middle finger so that it joined his pointer. “Two,” he continued, “it’s gotta also be susceptible to my poisons.” Next, he gestured at Zach and Kalana with three raised fingers. “Three,” he said, “there needs to be enough room for me to move around in.” Finally, he added a fourth finger so that all but his thumb were now raised. “And lastly, it can’t use magic or ranged attacks that are longer range than what I can cast or enough to get within distance of hitting me.”

Zach and Kalana both said nothing for a moment, and both turned their heads to look at the other. Jimmy could tell that they were running his words over in their minds as if trying to visualize what he’d told them. “So umm, you can kill anything like that?” Kalana asked.

He nodded. “Yup. As long as those four things are true, I can solo it. So basically, I slow it so it can’t get to me, poison it so it starts taking damage over time, and then kite it around the space as long as there’s enough room for me to move around in.”

“Wait, time out,” Zach said, his voice filling with surprise. “You’re telling me you use nothing but poisons?”

“Mostly, yeah.”

“Okay, but…but for you to take down a boss like that by yourself, that would take you like…”

“Hours,” Jimmy said, finishing the thought for him and then adding in a self-deprecating laugh. “Actually, it took me a little more than ten hours to solo the boss on F40, which I think is a fifty-person raid. But it’s just a big knight with a sword and a shield. Probably would’a killed me in one shot if it hit me, but thanks to my slows, it couldn’t ever get to me. But hey, this is the best part: even though it might seem like that’s a lot of time to spend on just one mob, you gotta realize that, for just that ten hours’ worth of time and effort, I got an entire raid’s worth of loot and gold all for myself that I didn’t even have to roll for.”

Jimmy wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or a trick of the lighting, but for just a second, he thought the shadowy effect faded away from Zach’s face, and he thought he saw the kid’s eyes bulging wide with greed and envy.

“You got to keep all that loot for yourself?” he asked, his words now higher in pitch as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How much was there?”

“A lot.”

Zach made something that sounded like a cross between a choke and a grunt. “Okay, you need to show me your methods in person.”

“Uh, sure. No problem.”

“Really?” Zach asked, his giddy voice in such dire contrast with his cloaked, hooded form.

Jimmy nodded at him. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if you can also do something similar on your own, but I don’t mind showing you.”

Zach flicked his head towards Kalana. “Maybe we should turn around and go back up to F50 after all.”

She did not appear to find his suggestion amusing, and the look on her face made that much clear, which was probably why Zach let the idea drop only a moment after raising it. Then, speaking to Jimmy, he said, “I can’t believe you really fought a boss for ten hours straight.”

“It’s intense,” he replied, “but I can handle it as long as I pace myself. In fact, as long as I keep my cool, I know I’ll come out on top every single time.”

From the way he did another double take, Jimmy could tell Zach was surprised, impressed, and probably wanting to figure out a way of soloing dungeon bosses on his own as well. “I just can’t believe that you figured out how to do all that,” he said. “So your method…it’s really as simple as it sounds?”

“Yep.”

Zach sighed, and then a dubious look crossed his features. “Not calling you a liar, but some of this still doesn’t make any sense, though.”

Jimmy tried not to take the skepticism personally. “Like what?”

“Well, you’re saying your method is to slow it down, poison it, and then run around the room for like ten hours if that’s how long it takes—right?”

“That’s right.”

“Okay, cool…but what about E-debt? What about crowd control eventually not working anymore? Shouldn’t your slows lose effectiveness after you’ve used them a few times? And how are you even landing them on the bosses in the first place? They’d be reduced or resisted altogether, no? And how’re you not passing out?”

Zach raised a bunch of pretty good questions, and Jimmy did his best to answer most of them. “Okay, so, for the stamina stuff, I got that covered through an ability I’m not about to reveal just yet. I’ll probably tell you eventually, but I gotta keep at least some secrets, right? But for the other shit, it’s all possible because of my passive.”

“Your passive?”

“Yeah. It lets me use my slows on things that would normally resist them. Uh…I guess I can show you that too, whatever.”

As Jimmy called forward the ability he’d learned at level 15—the one that had enabled him to accomplish what it seemed like few—if any—other adventurers were capable of doing, he realized he was enjoying Kalana and Zach’s open-jawed reaction to it just a little bit too much. It actually made him feel guilty in a sense because, while yeah, there was nothing wrong with being a bit cocky, he knew he needed to take it all with a slice of humble pie or else he’d let it get to his head and turn him into a jerk that no one would be able to stand being around. Still, it was nice that they could see the value in his ability.

Passive Ability (LEGENDARY UNIQUE)

Scourge of Giants

Usage Cost:

None

Cooldown:

None

Range:

N/A

Description:

+50% debuff duration

+20% poison damage

Scourge of Giants grants the following three effects.

1:Whenever the user targets an enemy or a boss with crowd control, debuffs, or poisons from among the user’s available spells, abilities, item abilities, and equipment abilities, if the target is not immune, the user will bypass any increased resistances due to stat differences; this is only with regards to whether or not the ability will succeed in landing and not with regard to duration-impacted resistance or damage.

2:Non-sentient targets cannot reduce the durations of negative or stat-altering abilities and effects beyond 75% of their maximum duration.

3:Crowd control abilities other than stuns, fears, roots, charms, and mesmerizes are no longer subject to diminishing returns (this effect of Scourge of Giants applies only to inner abilities and does not apply to item or equipment abilities)

“Fucking amazing,” Zach said, whistling appreciatively as he read it over. “Well, I’m convinced now.” Jimmy watched him read it over a second time and then a third. “You really might be able to solo the boss on F50 after all. Okay, I stand corrected.”

“So, you believe me now.”

“Sure do,” he said with a nod. And with that, he turned around and again began strolling slowly down the hall towards wherever it was they were heading. “Gods, that’s a great passive,” he whispered. “I don’t have anything like that.”

“Really, really cool,” Kalana agreed, following after him. “You’re gonna end up being the most requested person for raids, I bet.”

Tena also seemed to appreciate it, though rather than vocalize it, she instead smiled at him and wrapped both of her arms around his upper bicep as they walked together, following behind Kalana and Zach. Placing his arm around her waist, he realized he was starting to really catch feelings, and in all likelihood, he was already too far down the rabbit hole to turn back. This was despite the fact that he barely knew anything about her—through no fault of her own, of course. No, that was on him.

Though Jimmy was still in some denial that this world was real, and though he was not one-hundred-percent convinced that this wasn’t all just some kind of elaborate simulation the government had cooked up, his views were shifting, and he was slowly starting to believe what he’d been told. And so now, upon this realization, he had no choice but to acknowledge that he hadn’t treated Tena as good as he should have or would have under “normal” circumstances.

Despite having essentially become her boyfriend in all but name, he had never inquired about her life, her past, her family, or even her hopes and dreams. He never once asked her about herself or her hobbies—things that he had willfully chosen not to talk about because he did not think her memories of this place or her life here could be real. But if she was real, and if this world was real, then that would have been pretty shit of him.

I’m gonna make it right, he thought. Mom raised me better than that.

At any rate, that was something to be done in private later on. For now, having demonstrably satisfied Zach and Kalana’s curiosity, the four of them resumed their slow trek down the hallway in F17 of Tower of Eternity, and a period of silence once more came upon their little group, which meant that the only sound to be heard was, for the moment, the echoing tap of their feet against the paved marble flooring. As they continued onwards, they headed all the way through to the end of the hall, at which point the path split to the left and the right. Zach chose to go right, and as he did so, Tena immediately let go of Jimmy’s arm so that she could remove her staff. Jimmy did the same.

“This next hall’s got enemies in it,” he explained, readying his weapon. “They’re not too hard but they can swarm you.”

“We know,” Zach said, giving him a reassuring thumbs-up. He and Kalana did not draw their own weapons. “Don’t worry: we aren’t going to go anywhere near their aggro range.”

“We’re not?” Jimmy asked, becoming confused. He extended his arm as they walked, pointing his staff straight ahead of him to indicate a spot about three quarters down the fairly long hallway where a large grouping of bug-like creatures with incredibly sharp-looking pincers awaited them. “They’re literally right there, Zach. You can see them.”

“Just trust me,” he said. Then, at once, he stopped short, causing Jimmy, Tena, and Kalana to halt behind him. Now, Jimmy watched as Zach stood up straighter, turned his body to his left so that he faced the wall, and while staring at it, he began rubbing his chin. “I always forget. Is it nine or ten here, Kal?”

“Ten,” she answered somewhat angrily. Jimmy had no idea why; in fact, he had absolutely no idea what she was referring to or what Zach had even asked her about. Yet, for whatever reason, it seemed to have disturbed her greatly. “Don’t even joke around about that, baby.”

“I’m not joking.”

She glared at him. “If you’re being serious, then umm, you’re never allowed to come here alone.”

He laughed. “Okay, fine, I’m just kidding.”

“Now I dunno for sure!”

“Kal, I was kidding, I swear. I’m not braindead.”

What are they even arguing about?

She eyed him with skepticism plain on her face. “You’re a jerk sometimes.”

“It was a bad joke. I’m sorry if I upset you.”

She stared daggers at him for a few moments before eventually her eyes softened. “Okay, fine,” she said with a sigh. Then, at a lower volume, she whispered, “I just love you so much, and you joking about forgetting something so important makes me scared.”

He eyed her apologetically for a moment, and the look he gave her seemed sincere, at least so far as Jimmy could tell. Then, with a level of seriousness that actually seemed a bit off-putting, he observed as Zach extended his index finger upwards and pointed it at the window near the top of the brick wall; in a very careful, slow, and deliberate manner, he began walking sideways while counting aloud. “One,” he said at the first window. “Two,” he called out at the very next window to come after it.

They’re counting windows?

Given the simplicity involved in counting to ten—something most people learn before they turn ten—Jimmy was both fascinated and alarmed at just how cautiously Zach was counting off the windows as he continued to step side-to-side. Kalana was doing it too, and both were acting like the mere act of counting was more complex or difficult than it actually was. With the level of concentration expected of a university student during finals week, the two of them methodically and meticulously counted one window after the next. It was beyond strange. And not only didn’t Jimmy understand why they were doing it in the first place, but he was bemused at how they did so in a way that was so steady and careful it bordered on surgical.

“Seven,” both Kalana and Zach counted aloud. “Eight. Nine. Ten.” They paused in front of the tenth window from the start of the hall, and then, in a way that came across as nervous, they faced one another and exchanged a very serious look that made Jimmy feel a pinch of nerves in his own belly. “There’s no chance we somehow fucked that up, right, Kal?” he asked her.

Kalana gave a firm shake of her head. “Nah-uh. Let’s not end up getting paranoid and counting to ten over and over like we did last week. That’s the tenth window. We know how to count!” The two nodded at one another. But then, a few seconds later, Kalana stirred nervously. “But…maybe we should count it again just to make sure.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Nah, we got it. We’re not morons.”

Jimmy raised his fist to his mouth and coughed into it, drawing their attention. “You guys mind telling me and Tena what’s…what this is?”

“Yeah. It’s our way out.”

“Huh?”

Rather than reply, Zach bent his knees and leapt upwards nearly ten feet into the air, landing cleanly down an instant later on top of the window’s ledge. Then Jimmy flinched at the sound of a loud crack: it was a sound that registered to his ears as the distinct, unmistakable noise associated with broken glass. But why? Confused, startled, and hoping his eyes were lying to him, he watched on in disbelief as Zach, for a reason he could not possibly understand, launched his fist forward and slammed it right through the window, shattering it in its entirety.

Immediately, a shrieking, howling storm drowned out all other sound as what felt like a veritable hurricane blasted into the dungeon, blanketing all of them with what was thankfully—and shockingly—breathable oxygen. It was also freezing cold, too. Jimmy immediately began shivering. The hallway plummeted from room temperature to something well below zero in a matter of seconds, and he had to wrap his arms around himself just to prevent his robes from flying off.

“Wh-wh-what the h-h-h-hell are you doing, m-man?” he shouted, folding his arms and shivering. Had Zach lost his damn mind? Why was he standing so close to the window? What if he fell out? Goddamn, it was so cold! The temperature in the hall had now become so frigid that, had Jimmy still been an ordinary guy from New York, he was positive this level of chill would be fatal and he would be entering into a state of hypothermic shock.

“It’s c-c-cold, I know,” Zach said, his own teeth chattering and his equipment flapping around him. His hood came undone, casting away the menacing shadow over his face and eerily glowing eyes. “So let’s be quick, okay? Follow me.”

“Follow you?” both he and Tena shouted out.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. Hurry!”

“Zach,” Jimmy called out, “where exactly are you asking us to—”

Without bothering to even let him finish forming his question, Zach took one big step forward—and then walked out into the air itself, falling immediately out of sight and vanishing from view. Jimmy was so shocked that he actually squawked. Zachys Calador just…he just walked out of a window and fell into a gas giant! The very idea of it evoked a sense of horror so great it was immeasurable.

Kalana, having to yell to be heard over the absurdly powerful gusts of vicious, freezing air, said, “It’s a secret passage! Trust us! We would never hurt you!”

Stunned, he watched as she too bent her knees then launched herself forward and upwards, clearing the window and disappearing outside of it a moment later. “Are they crazy?” he shouted at Tena. “They just jumped into a…Tena, no! Not you too. Stop. I said stop!” He pointed at her. “Girl, you better get your ass back inside this—wait!”

Jimmy watched helplessly as Tena went after the two of them, jumping up and out of the window. Now, all alone, he remained where he was, shivering, confused, and wondering what in God’s name these maniacs were thinking. His rational brain fought a battle against itself, holding an internal debate over what was possible and whether or not the girl he was into was currently falling to her death through a gas giant or was somehow, inexplicably, traveling through a secret passage.

Falling through a gas giant has to be one of the scariest deaths for people like us who won’t die instantly due to the pressure, he thought, becoming queasy. But they wouldn’t have jumped if they weren’t sure they’d be okay. Right?

Jimmy took a deep breath, which was hard to do given how badly he was now shivering. “Aww, hell. I’m really doing this? Am I seriously about to…?”

Shaking his head at the absurdity of it all, Jimmy decided the worst thing that could happen to him would be a prolonged period of extreme terror and pain followed soon after by the discovery of whether or not this really was a simulation. And the best case? Well, that remained to be seen. In either event, he’d find out momentarily, wouldn’t he?

This is nuts. What am I doing?

Muttering a swear word so awful his momma would have whooped his ass if she heard him say it aloud, he bent his knees, shoved aside his restraint, and then hopped straight up into the air. Even with most of his points into intelligence, he still had way more than enough strength and speed to clear a ten-foot jump. He could probably jump higher than fifty if he really tried. Getting out was the easy part, though. It was what would happen afterwards that he was worried about.

Filled with uncertainty, he flung himself up and out of the window, and then, the moment he cleared it and realized he was now outside of the dungeon, Jimmy was gripped by a fear so terrible he could not even bring himself to scream as gravity pulled him down—and fast. Like a rock, he began dropping down through a blue, cloudy sky that had no bottom, providing him with an instant sense of regret. As he picked up speed, he hollered loudly, cursing himself for actually being stupid enough to go through with this. How the fuck did he actually let the two of them talk him into jumping into the atmosphere of a gas giant? What was he thinking? Oh, shit, this was terrifying! What had he done?

He picked up more and more speed. He sank through one cloud, then two, and then he tore through a third as gravity pulled him deeper and deeper. Yet no matter how fast he fell, there was nothing below him but more sky: more emptiness. He was so scared he couldn’t even feel the cold, which had numbed parts of his skin. With each passing moment, his brain was screaming at him that, right now, in this moment, he was literally falling through a gas giant: an actual gas giant. If he had been an ordinary person, he would have been dead instantly within a second of jumping. And as things were, he could feel the pressure beginning to squeeze his body. It was even starting to become painful too as he continued to plummet deeper and deeper. His ears popped, his heart thudded in his chest, and the wind beat against him with such intensity it soon became impossible to breathe.

Then the sights below him began to change, and as they did, it only intensified his sense of terror. The atmosphere began to darken, and what looked like the single-worst electrical storm he’d ever seen was rapidly approaching. This was the end, surely. And it was real. This was real! He was really doing this. He wasn’t going to wake up in a Matrix-like pod. He was going to die for real. This was something actually happening in the real world, wasn’t it? The thought caused him to explode with fear.

But then, there was another change: one that was even more significant. Out of nowhere, something peculiar happened as Jimmy continued to plummet. Just as he was about to fall into the beginning of this gigantic, planet-spanning lighting storm, Jimmy was instead blanketed by an intense white light so bright that it completely blinded him to everything that was around him. Everything faded. He couldn’t even see his own hands in front of his face. There was nothing but light. Yet it lasted for only a fraction of a second. Almost as soon as it had appeared, the light retreated, and what replaced it was a total darkness black enough to rival the brightness of the light. And it was upon this darkness that Jimmy felt the sensation of something solid bumping into his feet—or maybe the other way around.

“Guh!” he cried out as he slammed down onto something hard enough to bring him into a crouch.

Submerged in darkness, he became so confused that he was momentarily paralyzed. But this paralysis vanished as he felt someone or something grab hold of him. He yelped, backing away. “Jimmy, it’s okay,” a voice—Tena’s voice—said to him. “We’re fine.”

His mouth opened, his eyes struggled to adjust to this darker environment, and slowly, he realized it was not quite as dark as he thought. Breathing heavily, he panted for a few moments as things came back into focus, and now he realized he could just begin to make out the faces of Tena, Kalana, and a chuckling Zach, who received a slap on his shoulder from Kalana.

“Stop being mean. You were screaming so loud your first time, too.”

“It’s true,” Zach said, still laughing. “I thought we were done for.”

Swallowing nervously, Jimmy asked, “Am I really okay?”

“You are,” Kalana said gently.

He exhaled, then placed his hand on his chest. His heart was still drumming away furiously. “Never doing that shit again. Never.” He looked at Zach. “Where exactly are we, anyway?”

Zach pointed over his shoulder. “We’re in a secret passage. As far as I know, they’re all like this: meaning dark tunnels that connect dungeons to the outside world. We think—we meaning me and Kal—that these tunnels exist, like, between different points in spacetime, connecting long distances together in a way that our minds conceive as seamless tunnels but are actually 4th dimensional constructs beyond our comprehension.”

“Wow. Did you come up with this theory?” Jimmy asked, his body still shaking from both shock and what was probably the release of endorphins.

“Yeah,” Zach said.

Kalana again slapped him on the shoulder. “Stop taking credit for what Alex taught you, Zach. You dork.”

“You never let me have any fun.”

Giving Tena a brief hug, Jimmy calmed himself down, rotated his shoulder muscles, and then nodded. “I’m good,” he said.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m good, Zach,” he confirmed. “Lead the way.”

And so, he did. Jimmy, walking side by side with Tena, followed behind Zach and Kalana as they made their way through this very dark tunnel that they claimed was a bridge through space or something. At this point, he’d believe anything. That was why he wasn’t surprised when the two of them simply walked right through a wall as though it did not exist at all. After what he’d just been through, it failed to elicit even so much as a raised eyebrow from Jimmy. He simply willed himself to disregard its existence, and while holding hands with Tena, the two of them walked right through it as well, neither of them hesitating.

A moment later, they emerged in a much brighter location that looked a bit like a school library. There were rows upon rows of bookshelves that stored any number of books, most of which were made of paper and many that seemed incredibly old. The place was empty except for an elderly man sitting in the middle of a circularly shaped receptions desk.

The man, who looked like he was at least ninety years old, was reading a thick tome and had been in the middle of turning the page when the four of them entered wherever this was. Upon noticing them enter, he paused, lifted his head, and glanced at them disinterestedly for less than a half a second, and then he once again turned his attention to his book.

“Have fun today, Zach and Kalana?” he asked with a lazy drawl as Zach led the three of them through this strange library. The man, who was wearing a red suit with a matching tie and a thick pair of reading glasses, did not lift his head to glance at them a single additional time as they walked right by him.

“You could say that,” Zach replied. And that was the extent of their interaction.

Who is that guy?

Pushing open a set of wooden double doors, Zach led them through the large library room into another library “room” that was about fifteen times larger and looked like it’d been made of gold. His mouth dropping open, Jimmy drank in the sights of it all. There were grand staircases all around, and the place was four stories tall. There were more books here than he’d ever seen, and unlike in the previous room—which he now realized was not available to the general public—this place was crowded. Jimmy spotted everyone from scholars to children doing research. Many of the books were holographic in nature, though a great many were also paper.

“What is this place?” Jimmy asked, amazed. There were people both above and below him. Each level ran around the outer perimeter of the library, and a safety railing along the edges prevented people from falling off.

“One of the grand libraries,” Tena answered. “Every city in the entire world has one.”

“No shit…” Jimmy swallowed. “Wait, what city are we in?”

This time, it was Zach who answered. “Shores of Wrath,” he said.

“Ah, right. Of course. Shores of Wrath.”

The name, of course, meant absolutely nothing to Jimmy. Literally nothing at all. Not a thing. Zach might as well have said they were in “Zappity Zoopityville” for all the difference it would have made. As far as Galterran geography was concerned, Jimmy’s knowledge was limited to a few regions in North Bastia and that was about it. He still had a lot to learn about this planet. To be fair, he did spend a few minutes a day studying and researching at Angelica’s, but for the most part, he just wanted to grind xp and farm loot.

Maybe I should be coming here to study, he thought jokingly, marveling at the magnitude of this place.

Finally beginning to calm himself from the earlier excitement, he walked with the others down a large, wide, and golden-colored spiral staircase that ran from the third floor—where they’d found themselves—all the way down to the first. Jimmy almost bumped into several people on his way down, as he was stumbling about a bit clumsily, still trying to fully regain his footing from that fall through the gas giant.

Despite being a library, it was kind of noisy in this place. Everywhere he looked, Jimmy could see grown men and women wearing aristocratic-looking garments engaged in debates with one another. It was as though they’d shown up here specifically with the intention of arguing.

“No, you’re absolutely wrong about this,” one such man said to his peer, the two seated across from one another at a table in a café area off to Jimmy’s left. Each sipped coffee out of a plastic cup and had a pile of books occupying most of the free space on the table with just a small area in the middle providing them room to set down their beverages.

“How so?”

“The Guild of Gentlemen did in fact have justification to launch based strictly on classical notions of self-defense as laid out in article 4.2 of the…”

As Zach began walking a bit more quickly, Jimmy had to increase his own pace to keep up, and thus the men went out of earshot before he could fully understand what they were arguing about, though he doubted it would have made sense to him anyway. Together with Zach, Kalana, and Tena, they moved their way as a group over to one of six entryways into this tremendous library.

Zach, grabbing the handles of one of the doors, pulled it open and then stepped outside. Jimmy followed—and immediately, he was hit by a disgustingly, atrociously hot blast of heat that felt every bit as hot as the gas giant had felt cold. Only, he knew that couldn’t be the case, or all the level-1 people around here would be dead. Even still, it sure felt that way.

“Damn,” he moaned, raising his forearm to shield his eyes from the sheer intensity of the fierce sun. It was still very early in the day, likely a bit past noon, and it was already unbearable. “I need to get back to the dungeons,” he muttered. “I can’t take this heat, guys.”

Zach gave him a friendly slap on the shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”

“First time in the sun in a bit, huh?” Kalana asked him.

“Yeah, kinda.”

Tena chuckled. “Don’t be upset, Jimmy. We’re in Shores of Wrath. It’s one of my favorite cities! You can buy anything here.”

“It’s true,” Kalana agreed. Her voice became cheerful. “We should do a little shopping, you guys—you know, since we’re already here anyway.” Zach groaned as though he found the idea torturous, but ultimately, he said nothing in reply, which was probably for the best.

Curious to get a better look around him, Jimmy attempted to lower his arm—only to raise it right back up to his face. “I can’t even see it yet.”

Pausing for a moment with Zach outside of the grand library’s entrance, it took Jimmy almost half a minute for his eyes to adjust to the bright sunshine, and when they did, he found himself agreeing right away with Kalana and Tena. This was indeed an interesting sight, this “Shores of Wrath.”

It was a bright, hot, but flavorful city. Rather than any tall buildings or skyscrapers, there were colorful structures all around for miles with interesting designs that seemed to favor domes, arches, and spires. Many buildings had artwork around them consisting of layered textures that took the form of various geometric shapes and patterns. Far into the distance, Jimmy could see that, wherever this was, the terrain south of the city was likely desert in nature, and it gave everything in general a sand-swept appearance, though with a bit of shine mixed in as well.

Most notably, Jimmy could not help but find his attention drawn to the huge number of street merchants selling every conceivable matter of food or trinket from where they sat or stood under tent-like stores, many with very colorful welcome mats out front. Some streets were lined back-to-back with various merchants. There were markets absolutely everywhere, broken apart by stunning, blue-and-gold water fountains, some having their own surrounding decorations in the form of bronze animal statues or human-like figures carved out of stone. There were also no cars—or DEHVs—or whatever here. There were horse-drawn wagons, wheeled carts, and other far less sophisticated means of travel. There were even a fair number of people riding on camels. All of this added to the overall wonderous aesthetic, and Jimmy’s first impression of this place was very positive.

Ahead of him, Jimmy saw an entire street of vendors selling fancy carpets and other types of cloth, many of which were draped over a clothesline that drew the eye and put them on display. The level of buzz and activity was something he found heartening, and he smiled as he saw Kalana take Tena’s hand so that the two of them could run off and browse a nearby shop where a sweating man in loose-fitting attire immediately began trying to sell them his garments.

“That one’s so pretty,” he heard Kalana say. “You would look amazing in it, Tena.”

“Yes, she would,” the merchant agreed. “And I have a great price for that. I give you the best deal I’ve ever given, yes? Only twenty gold.”

Taking a seat with Zach on a bench in a park area where children were playing on swings, Jimmy was glad to finally be able to rest his feet for a moment. Though he was baking under the sun, he found it all a bit more tolerable due to this colorful, lively city.

“Summer here is hot as hell, man,” he said, missing his room in Angelica’s. Waving his palm, he attempted to fan his face, though it likely only made him feel even hotter.

Zach gave him an amused look. “Believe it or not, it’s actually like this all year long. We’re in South Bastia right now.”

“I’m guessing that’s the one below North Bastia?” The two shared a laugh. Then Jimmy said, “Well, summer or not, I can’t take this much heat.”

Zach nodded. “It’s definitely way too hot, but don’t worry. We’ll probably spend the day in the pool.”

“Are you sure?” Jimmy asked him.

“About…the pool?”

Lowering his voice despite Kalana and Tena being well out of earshot, Jimmy decided to bring up a conversation from earlier. “So, about that plan we had. You know…to raid Yorna’s tonight?”

Zach sighed then gave him an apologetic look. “Can’t do it.”

Jimmy frowned. “Why not? I thought you were totally up for it.”

“Oh, I am. And if it was up to me, we’d be there right now. But uh, Kalana is going to freak out if we even suggest going to Yorna tonight. Especially since we’ve all been invited to join Zephyr on his raid there next week. Kal’s going to insist we wait.”

“She doesn’t think we can do it ourselves?” Jimmy asked.

Zach twisted his lips and said nothing for a few seconds. Then he looked at Jimmy. “You know, I don’t even think it’s just that. It’s probably part of it, but I think she just really likes social activities.” He looked into the distance across from them, where Kalana and Tena were excitedly browsing different outfits. “She never used to be like that, too,” he continued. “Before she started leveling up, she was shy and only talked to me. Now she loves being around people and seeing the world. I think it was something always in her that uh, you know, she was trying to keep from getting out.”

“So why can’t we just do both?”

Zach shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess if you really want then we can try our luck, but you’re only going to end up getting chewed out by Tena. We’ll both be in trouble.”

Jimmy paused a moment before replying, and when he did, he spoke even more quietly despite how unnecessary it was. “What if…we sneak out?”

“First thing I thought of,” Zach said. “Trust me, they’ll know.” He spoke in a way that made it sound as if he had no doubt whatsoever. “Believe me, Jimmy: I’d be the first person to suggest that if I thought we could get away with it. But somehow, I just know the girls will find out, and then Kalana will be mad at me for days. We’ll get caught.”

“Yeah, probably.” Now, Jimmy also sighed. He began to sweat, too, and the front of his fancy boss-drop robes became damp. “It’s just all so weird,” he said quietly.

Zach turned to look at him. “Hm? What is?”

Jimmy extended his arms. “This,” he said. “Being here. This being real. It’s just…it just still doesn’t feel that way, I guess.”

“This doesn’t?” Zach asked, sounding perplexed. “But the dungeons do?”

“I know that sounds backwards as shit, but it’s because the dungeons are so different from what I consider normal I lose my sense of reality in them. But this…this is just normal, everyday living. It’s not even that different from home. That’s what makes it hard to believe it’s real. It’s what’s making it start to really sink in that this isn’t just some mission in a videogame. Like, take that woman over there buying that flower hat.” He pointed. “She’s an actual person who was really born and is really living her life. The fact she lives in a world with dragons and magic doesn’t even matter to her. She probably doesn’t even think about it. All she’s thinking about right now is buying that hat. That’s what’s got me all tripped up.”

“You probably have to give it time before it starts to feel normal,” Zach said, speaking a bit more softly. “And…you should probably talk to Jascaila later. I’m not going to, like, force you to do that or whatever, but she’s a great therapist, and she’s been really helping me out a ton. I thought it was lame as fuck at first, but it’s working for me.”

“Maybe I will,” he said, and though he spoke the words in a way that was non-committal, the idea actually grew on Jimmy rather fast. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

He knew he couldn’t specify much more than that. One of the “rules” they’d all made very clear to him before leaving Angelica’s was that he was, under no circumstance, to mention the names “Adamus” or “Eilea” until they were back in that room tomorrow, but it was “Eilea” in particular they didn’t want him talking about. Aside from that, the one and only piece of information they’d given him was that the room could not be spied on or something, and it was only safe to talk about her in there. Thus, despite how many burning questions he had, Jimmy knew it would have to wait.

For the next fifteen minutes, Jimmy made idle conversation with Zach, the two of them engaging in some light banter and even some good-natured trash talking until the girls finally came back holding shopping bags and ice cream cones. Thankfully, they’d even bought some for Zach and Jimmy. Getting off the bench, Jimmy looked around. Not far from them was a publicly accessible table in a separate, adjacent park, where each table thankfully resided under shade. Together, the four of them picked a square-shaped one that had a nice large and green umbrella, and then upon sitting down, they ate.

Having reached the point where he’d begun sweating profusely, the cold treat was refreshing, and Jimmy was grateful for it. “Thank God you guys got ice cream here,” he said. “I guess I could’ve ended up somewhere much worse.”

Zach nodded as if in agreement. “I’m still surprised you guys had so much of the stuff that we do. I didn’t think people would’ve had things like phones all the way back in the 2000s.”

Jimmy released a brief chuckle. “I’m actually surprised ya’ll don’t have more. The fuck were you all doing for the last five-thousand years? I mean, don’t get me wrong—the DEHVs are cool and all—but like, where are all the robots and giant mechs?”

“Mechs?” Tena asked.

“Yeah, you don’t know what those are?”

“Nope,” Kalana said.

Jimmy, becoming enthusiastic, explained to them the concept of the mech: a giant robot with massive guns that could stomp around the battlefield and flatten trees under its metallic feet. Zach seemed to find the idea awesome, but Kalana and Tena were put off by it.

“You guys had those?” Zach asked.

Jimmy shook his head. “Nah, it was just part of fiction. Like leveling up and experience points and all that. That’s why I was hoping, you know…since all that other stuff became real, maybe they made Mechs real, too. Actually, that reminds me. Something about all this doesn’t make sense.” Jimmy met Kalana’s eyes. “How’s it possible that you exist?”

“Me?” Kalana asked, tilting her head somewhat and pointing to herself.

“Yeah.”

“Umm, I don’t even understand the question.”

“You’re an Elf, right?” Jimmy asked her.

“Duh!”

“Well, that’s my point.”

“What is?”

“You’re an Elf. How do you even, like, exist? Elves ain’t real.”

Kalana’s expression darkened, and Jimmy realized he might’ve been incredibly insensitive just now without even meaning to do so. “Of course we are,” Kalana said. “We predate humans. Elves were the first race created in Elvadin.”

“But…that’s impossible,” Jimmy said.

“How so?” she asked, sounding defensive.

Jimmy wasn’t sure if he should continue this conversation, but Kalana was now giving him a demanding look. Wetting his lips, he said, “It’s just that all the ‘races’ on Galterra, meaning like the Dwarves and Elves and whatnot—those were all part of the games and fantasy stories I was telling you guys about.”

Kalana’s reaction to his words was not the one he expected. A look of a relief crossed her features, and she nodded and smiled. “See?” she asked excitedly. “That proves that we predate you. You heard all the stories about us. It was obviously based on the real thing.”

“Then how come nobody has ever seen an Elf before—in my time, I mean?”

Zach spoke before she could reply. “I was never sure the Elves were real either, and I was living across from one for three years. Just like you guys on Earth, we also heard of them mostly in legends and stuff. It sounds like the same thing must’ve happened in your time. They were probably driven underground or something.”

“Mhm,” Kalana said. "See?"

Jimmy thought to challenge their points, but he stopped when he got the sense that this was a topic that, even if he was right—and let’s face it, he definitely was—it would probably be so devastating to Kalana that it wouldn’t even be worth making her realize it. And so, rather than absolutely crush her faith and sense of identity, he decided not to give voice to what he’d been about to say next. Because his best guess? Like, if he had to put money on it? He’d go with Kalana, the Elves, and all these fantasy races being, like, genetically modified humans or something. It was the only thing made sense. It was what anyone would think, no? Like, they obviously didn’t just go out and find an Elf planet, or a Dwarf planet, or whatever else that just “coincidentally” happened to mimic popular culture.

Strangely, the more Jimmy thought on it, the more he found himself realizing it didn’t matter. If Angelica was right, and this really was the world, and the Earth he knew was long gone—and had been for thousands of years—then what did it even mean to be real anymore? Because in that case, all this was real. Kalana was as real as real got. He could see her. She was sitting right across from him: the spitting image of an Elvish girl. No one could look at her and say she didn’t exist. Did it really matter why she existed?

No, he realized.

If he was going to be forced to live in this world, he might as well accept it for what it was. This was his reality now. And here, what was “fictional” was not leveling or experience points. No, in this world, the fake world was the one in which everyone had no levels and people would line up around a block at 3AM to buy a new iPhone that was only two-percent better than the one that came out a year earlier.

“This is real,” he whispered to himself, reinforcing his new reality.

Tena placed her hand over his. “It is,” she said.

Jimmy met her eyes as he was reminded of the way he’d treated her. “I hope we can talk later, Tena.”

“About?” she asked, becoming nervous.

“Nothing bad,” he said quickly, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. “It’s actually about how I’ve been treating you lately.”

“What do you mean?”

Jimmy felt genuine shame, and it became a struggle for him not to avert his gaze. “I didn’t believe any of this was real,” he said. “That was why I…even feeling about you the way I do, I never showed interest in you or your life. I like you so much, but I know nothing about you. But you know everything about me, and you show so much interest in who I am, but I never did that for you.”

“That’s okay,” she whispered in reply. She squeezed his hand. “I knew you were struggling with a lot of things. That’s why I never…I never brought it up. But I am real, Jimmy. And I…I do care about you so much. And I hope you feel the same about me.”

“I do,” he said immediately.

Jimmy hadn’t been certain what her reaction to all this would be, and so bringing this up made him nervous. Especially since he was doing it in front of Zach and Kalana, which made it a little embarrassing. But it was also funny in a way, because he could clearly see how hard Kalana was trying to pretend she wasn’t eavesdropping even as she was grinning ear to ear and leaning in closer as if to hear their conversation better.

Zach, on the other hand, was gazing listlessly off into the distance and genuinely looked like he didn’t care. Right now, the kid was sitting back in his chair with his left foot up and on top of the table—despite Kalana continuously badgering him about how it was rude—and he looked like he could fall asleep at any moment. In fact, he even did start to doze off. His head lowered, his breathing slowed, and he yawned. But then, for no conceivable reason whatsoever, for a purpose Jimmy could not understand, he changed in an instant. And it happened the moment after a toy of some kind—one that looked like some kind of Frisbee—landed on their table.

Zach, who seemed poised to drift off into an even deeper sleep, awoke with a start. His eyes popped open widely, and a look of extreme alarm entered into his face. Then he moved so fast and so suddenly that it caused Jimmy to flinch. He bolted up out of his chair, and he did so with enough force to send it blasting behind him at a speed dangerous enough that it could have killed someone if it had crashed into them. Instead, it ended up smashing into—and knocking over—the booth of a temporarily vacant clothing merchant, whose owner was likely off getting lunch; this caused his merchandise to spill out onto the street.

At the exact same time, something very similar happened to Kalana. She went from grinning as she pretended not to eavesdrop into a state where her eyes abruptly narrowed, her pupils widened, and she peeled back her lips as though to snarl. She too burst out of her seat, only in her case, she did so with a bit more grace that saw it barely budge from where it’d been while she’d sat in it.

“Zach!”

“I know!”

Confused, Jimmy glanced back and forth between the two of them as time seemed to temporarily stand still. He didn’t understand what was going on—especially as they turned their heads towards one another, exchanged a knowing look that only they seemed to understand, and then mutually set their sights on him and Tena.

Jimmy opened his mouth to speak, but he never had the chance to form any words. Rushing straight into him, Zach bulldozed him—along with the entire table—and an intense, agonizing pain flared up in Jimmy’s chest and midsection as he was flung dozens of feet away and with enough force that he was sent rolling along the ground.

“What the fuck?” he shouted as he found himself on the other end of the park right as the table crashed back down onto the concrete ground of the nice little dining area. Tena, too, had been hurtled away, and she moaned in obvious pain from where Kalana struck her. “Why would you do that to her?” he shouted at Kalana, more upset about Tena’s treatment than his own. “What’s wrong with you two? Why would you—”

Rather than finish his thought, he jumped on top of Tena and sheltered her as an explosion lit up the center of the park's dining area. There was a boom so loud it caused his eardrums to ring, yet even still, he could audibly make out the unmistakable sounds of children crying and adults screaming. Horrified, Jimmy saw that half the tables in the park had been caught up in the blast, and they were now overturned and destroyed. Smoke, he saw, was now rising into the air.

He was so confused. What was happening? Why was shit exploding? Incredibly, no one seemed to be hurt. Through the smoke, Jimmy saw that Kalana was now rushing over with two children, one held in each arm, and Zach was carrying an elderly woman to safety. Safety from what, though? What just happened?

“We’re under attack!” Zach shouted as he set the woman down and then drew his blade. His head darted around as though searching for their assailant or whatever had caused the explosion. “I don’t know who they are, but I think it’s me they’re trying to kill.”

“No, it’s me they want!” Kalana yelled at him. “It must be. Whoever’s attacking us is probably trying to get at my mother through me. That’s why they—”

Once again, both Zach and Kalana snapped their heads in Jimmy’s direction, and then things happened so fast he could barely perceive them. All at once, Zach’s body began to take on a dull glow, and smoke began rising from his hands and feet. Then he sort of just “vanished.” There was no other way to explain it but that. He was there, and then he wasn’t. Only, he reappeared a moment later off to Jimmy’s right side. Jimmy, who at this point was still hovering over Tena and trying to protect her from a threat he did not understand and could not even see, saw her eyes go wide with fear as she looked up at something. “B-behind you, Jimmy!” she cried.

Then there was a loud clang that sounded like steel on steel, and from a number of shadows that popped into existence on the concrete, he realized there was a shower of sparks above his head. Getting off Tena and spinning around onto his butt, he glanced up and saw Zach's arms extended, locking blades with a man covered from head to toe in a brown robe, his face completely concealed behind a thin, expressionless mask. A long, curved, and wide sword was now bearing down on top of the one wielded by Zach, and for some reason, it seemed like it’d been aimed at him.

“It’s Jimmy!” Zach shouted. “Kal, this dude is trying to kill him!”

“Who is?” Jimmy asked, stunned. “What did I even—”

A boom ten times louder than the one from the earlier explosion caused his words to end in a startled cry—one that seemed to have no effect on Zach, Kalana, or the brown-draped figure who was locking blades with him. The noise was ear-piercing, and it reminded Jimmy of a sonic boom of the sort a plane might make when breaking the sound barrier, only it was closer and more intense. It seemed to come right on the heels of Zach seemingly teleporting himself over here. Now, however, there came yet another sound, this one far more muted. It was a clack of sorts. Looking down, Jimmy saw that there was another Frisbee-like toy. It was a shining red disc that was spinning like a CD rom on the ground, remaining stationary even as it continued to spin faster and faster and begin to flash.

And then three things happened in the exact same moment. Zach vanished for the second time, a blue orb popped into existence around his and Tena’s body, and finally, there was a brighter, more alarming flash. Before Jimmy could understand what was taking place, he suddenly found himself somewhere else: specifically, by Zach’s side and faced in the complete opposite direction. He was also back on his feet, too, and Tena was there with him. Now, he realized he was staring at the aftermath of yet another explosion, which was followed by another large plume of smoke rising into the air.

At this point, however, the citizens nearby had all gotten up and ran away for their lives, and thankfully the entire park was now vacant aside from the four of them and the brown-robed man. And someone else, too. Someone Jimmy had not noticed until just now. And he noticed them only because he saw Zach angrily glance upwards at the roof of a two-story home, on top of which crouched another robed man wielding a bizarre type of weapon that was shaped like a large pancake attached to a handle with a trigger.

“There’s two of them, Kal,” Zach said. “I’ll take the sword guy. You get the sniper.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

“You guys,” Zach said, looking at Jimmy and Tena. “Run! They’re after you, Jimmy.”

“But why?”

“Fuck if I know,” Zach growled. “But now I’m pissed!”

“Zach, your anger!”

“Fuck my anger!”

He blasted forward, and the brown-robed figure dashed ahead as if to meet him. Their two swords clashed somewhere in the middle of the park, and Jimmy was treated to a series of sights that made him regret every word of the shit he’d talked about the kid in Angelica's. The moment the two met, Zach leapt first onto an already overturned table, then sprang off it and hopped into the air a second time. With a speed that actually made his body blur, he spun several times front and back midair before slamming his sword down on top of the robed figure, who raised his own to block. Their two blades met, and though he did not seem to sustain any damage, the masked figure was blasted several feet backwards, his feet actually ripping up the very concrete below him as he slid backwards, leaving behind dual streaks in the ground.

The robed figure retaliated, pressing forward and making a blazingly fast slice across with his sword, which Zach ducked beneath while spinning around and kicking out with his leg. The robed figure jumped up, avoiding the sweep attempt. Then Zach rolled backwards, stood up, and launched himself forward again. Now, within the span of just two seconds, Zach both attacked and guarded about ten separate times in what was a frenzied, furious exchange of strikes.

Cling, cling, cling, cling, CLANG. Cling, cling, cling cling CLANG.

A near constant shower of sparks danced from the blades of Zach and the man who’d attacked him. At the same time, another boom came from somewhere off in the distance, and now Kalana was running along rooftops, chasing after the second robed man, who was perpetually launching disc-shaped explosives at her as he led her around. One blast after the next, various homes became damaged, trailing smoke despite lacking any fire.

As all this chaos took place around him, the thought that popped into Jimmy's head was not one of survival or even one that attempted to contemplate the nature of what was actually taking place here and why; no, it was something far less complex and far more instinctual.

Watching Zach dash forward again, raise his sword high, and meet an unnamed, unknown assailant head-on for what could very possibly be a fight to death, the only thing that went through Jimmy’s thoughts in this moment was how much he absolutely, truly, and sincerely hated PVP.

Grabbing Tena’s hand, he yanked her in his direction, and the two of them scrambled away from another shining red disc that was spinning and flashing on the ground in front of them. Somehow, the second figure had found the time to fire it even as Kalana ran after him.

This was not turning out to be a great day.