:10/01/2251:

1:00 PM

The bugles were sounding and the ambient lights were flashing a bright shade of red in warning, but I hadn't needed that to tell me that the raid was pushing its way into sector B of Undercity. The light-siders had been coming more and more frequently this last month, and the steady sound of steel boots against the stone ground had been all the warning that we would have needed.

"Get the boys together and get into the cellar!" I cried at Tom, the little pickpocket I had met on my first day of work. He paused only for a moment as his little finger darted out to accept my quest from his interface, before nodding solemnly and darting off. I too worked quickly, bringing up my interface. I double checked my stream settings to be sure I was posting on a five-hour delay. It wasn't an ideal situation as a streamer, and it had hurt my numbers, but after getting hounded through the streets on the night of the first raid into our city, it was a trade off I had been forced to accept.

Delayed stream feeds, it turned out, were fairly common among our own PK focused brotherhood, and Olga herself had shown me how to set it up after that first night of terrors. I hadn't been great about watching the chat when I was live streaming, I'd be the first to admit, and overall I hadn't personally noticed that much of a decline in the quality of my feeds. So, all in all, it was pretty clearly worth it in order to give myself that much of a head start over the hunters from above.

A few of the local bruisers and PCs formed a line at the entrance to this side of the city, standing shoulder to shoulder across the stone archway carved out of the caverns themselves. The soldiers stood three rows deep and I stood just behind them. I weaved from Lifegiver's Aura into Predator's Aura, dancing swiftly in the shadows of the stanch defenders. I could almost hear a beat as my feet found their steps, as the fluid rhythms of the Lifegiver fell into the brutal stomps of Predator, and I felt the waves of life and bloodlust swell within my heart and echo across every soldier within the raidus. 

"Thirty Approaching wearing Anthera's Colors, with an average Gearscore of 412. Elves and Humans, in standard Trinity formation. Average Gearscore of defendors is 112 in Phalanx Formation. You should really increase our Intelligence, Magpie, so I can give you more detailed information," came a voice in my head. It was my voice, my augmented voice, and while it sounded clear as a bell to my ears, I knew for a fact that it had been audible only to me. The first time I had heard it I had checked the records of my stream, over and over, attempting to prove that it had been real. The second, I had checked and rechecked my interface for insanity debuffs. Never the less, the voice had come more and more frequently over the last few months, always in the high, almost sarcastic notes of my own words. 

There were upsides, though. I found that the voice, Other Me, I'd taken to calling it was able to communicate with others if it chose to, and likewise the crew had similar abilities by which to talk to me. It also didn't hurt that Other Me appeared to have access to all of the AI Assist functions, and was far more liberal at using them than Matti had ever been. 

Glancing back and forth, knowing just how insane I sounded talking to myself, I whispered, "You don't have to tell me how fucked I am, other me. I've got a pretty good handle on it."

We were cut off before I could wait for a response, blades of blinding light cut into our ranks as the wave of Tanks crashed into the defenders. I immediately switched steps, flowing immediately into the waves of Lifegiver even as I blinked the blinding debuffs away. Our ranks held for five seconds, ten, as the smiting hammers and burning fireballs cut into our front line. But we soon buckled.

Even as the front row went down and the second stepped forward, I felt the bolt crash into my shoulder:

30 Damage received from Sniper's Arrow

HP: 10/40

Concentration Check: Failed

1/2 HP removed in a single blow!

CON:  Saving against shock

Success!

 I rolled around the corner, using the stone wall as cover as I resumed my Lifegiver's dance. I watched as my HP replenished and the burning pain subsided over the course of several seconds, though the concentration penalty from the pain reduced the effectiveness of the dance until I was healed. From the side, I could cover maybe half of the soldiers here. It would help, but once the far side buckled all the buffs in the world wouldn't be able to stop the inevitable slaughter of our people.

As the second rank fell I blinked back tears, focusing on executing each step perfectly through the despair of listening to lives snuffed out. Any error or misstep could cancel the Aura, I knew, and even if it wasn't fully canceled the effectiveness could be drastically reduced if I fell even a hair off beat. It wasn't the PCs I cried for, as each of them would just respawn and charge blindly back into the fight, assuming it was still undecided when their timers expired, it was the NPCs that got me. Each of them, standing there bravely against impossible odds, would be reassigned if they fell, assigned randomly across the corners of this world with the memories of everything that happened here permanently locked within the game. Their AI cores wouldn't die, not really, but it wouldn't be much different than if they had and I would never see them again.

I watched, helplessly, as the last rank started to fall. Alton, who had been the first local to buy one of my oranges; Madoi, who I had seen sneaking bread to the kids when no one was looking; Bergand, who liked to bully the villagers, but who spent his weekends at the outskirts feeding corn to wild chipmunks. 

But I didn't have time to mourn them, not then. Instead, I shifted and flew, flapping wildly as the disorientation set in. The world spun as my eyes morphed to the sides, vision expanding into a 360 view but losing any sense of depth, as my world shrunk around me and my mind grasped wildly at the lack of fingers, the stubby legs of the new form. 

The first time I had shifted after that strange new ability was activated, Psyche, I had marveled at the feeling. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more, to actually feel my arms shift into wings, the air billowing under them as I flapped myself into the sky. And it had continued to be wonderous right up until I had spun heels over break right into the walls of the cavern. Still, even with months of practice, I was nowhere near as proficient as I had been sitting safely behind my interface, and in moments like this, where every second counted, I cursed the change. 

Still, it was enough, and I flapped across the stale, underground currents over the tops of the buildings, to my own humble abode. 

Slipping quickly through the doorway, I knew that even a locked portal wouldn't hold them back for long. So I hurried, darting over the rolled sleeping bags and stashed blankets that had come to cover my rocky floor. I shoved the rickety bookshelf over the door to my cellar, the one I had unlocked after a pathetically successful day week two of working the Fruit Stand, careful to cover the edges completely before I slipped myself into the confines of the wardrobe at the back of the room. 

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I drew my rapier before closing and locking the door behind me, closing my eyes and focusing on calming my ragged breathing. The world around me was silent, too silent, as if too aware of the inevitable wave of destruction and death even now headed our way.  I strained to hear the smallest sound, heart beating loudly in my ears as I held my body ready and breathed.

As such, I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard Blinky's voice shouting in my ears, "Magpie, where the hell are you? They've gotten to the main gate this time and we're falling fast. It would be really nice if our fucking healer hadn't chosen now to go AWOL."

Afraid to open my mouth, to so much as whisper back, even still I heard my own voice answering him, Other Me answering him, "They've taken Sector B again, the very last of our guard have fallen. I'm sorry, but I have to prioritize the orphans right now - you know what PCs like to do to our NPCs. I... I can't let that happen. I'm sorry." The voice was so unlike Matti's, filled with emotion where she had always acted calm and slightly annoyed. But what was most disconcerting was that the emotion was my emotion. And I felt like if I had been responding personally my voice would probably have said the exact same thing and broken in the exact same places.

A long sigh answered my words, as Blinky obviously was taking a long breath before responding. "...fine. I can see your point. But if this gate falls it's over, you understand? We're done. We can't come help you this time, Maggie, you're on your own."

My own, resigned voice answered him. Sounding loudly in my head and making me squirm as I instinctively tightened my mouth to hush the sound of my own booming words, "No worries, Blink. I've got this. I won't let them have the kids. Good luck out there."

His words echoed back, but I had already stop listening. Because under the deep voice's well-wishing response, I could already hear the sound of steel boots in the lobby. Deep, male laughter echoed loudly through the corridor, and it set every hair on my neck on end. I could sense the violence in it, the hate, even as it got louder, the booted feet bring death ever so much closer.

"Hey, I think this is some kind of residential block!" A voice came, even as the wood of my door echoed loudly under the pressure of a body ramming into the ramshackle wood. "Looks like we are about to get some easy rep with the Elf Queen."

The door gave way, and I could hear the sounds of two booted feet crossing the entryway of my apartment. This had become my refuge, these last few weeks. And I had even started sleeping here, in-game, in the pile of bodies that covered my floor every night. There was something about the kids here, their strange mixture of innocence and bitterness, that echoed in my heart. And since I had invited them into my home to shelter from the dangers of the night, I started to feel more at home here than even in my Axis Room. Especially since the changes there...

But in an instant, that sense of family, of safety, died in my heart. Listening to the sound of the men searching the blankets for the smallest hidden copper, and chopping up my ragged furniture in search of hidden treasure, I knew that I would never again be able to walk into this little room without thinking of these two invadors. Without feeling them in here with me.

 A sword plunged through the middle of the Wardrobe's doors. If I had been bigger, if I hadn't been hugging the wooden corner, I would have been impaled right there before they had even known I was there. I readied myself as I saw the blade of the sword working against the latch, prying open the lock that kept me hidden in the row of battered clothing. 

After a few seconds, the man appeared to give up, blade withdrawing while the latch stood firmly in place. I hesitantly started to take a breath, but before my lungs had filled half way a sudden, deafening bang echoed through the cubby. Steel glowing white ripped its way through the cheap wood of the door, missing me by scant inches as the holy smite rendered the door to ash at my feet. It was so sudden and violent that I hesitated, just a fraction of a second, as his eyes met mine through where solid wood had stood before me but moments before.

His eyes grew just as wide as mine, for a second, before a thin smile started playing across his lips. Understanding that he had me trapped, where seconds before I had been perfectly hidden. I saw his eyes take in my raggedy clothes, my unarmored, spindly body, and I saw the wicked thoughts dance in those eyes, clear as day from the scant inches between his eyes and mine. But what he failed to see, what he didn't expect, was the lightning quick thrust as my rapier danced through the thin chain seems between breastplate and greaves. And as I angled my thrust up into his chest cavity, so easy with him standing there so tall, I relished watching the wicked thoughts die as his life drained away to the savage twists of my blade. 

The daily training routine had been worth every silver I had spent, but I knew that, even so, I would stand zero chance against a fully armored knight at range. So, as I leaped out of the shadowy confines of the wardrobe, I triggered my trump card. The rapier ghosted from my fingers even as I leaped, feeling and relishing in the pain as my jaw extended, bones tearing against the muscles of my face, the skin of my hands as some parts grew slightly faster than others. As I came down upon the second Man, I felt the pinprick of his sword digging into my chest.

5 Damage received from Longsword (21 Absorbed)

HP: 35/40

I ignored the pain even as the claws of my hands tore off the helmet of the Paladin before me, leaving a bloody furrow of claws across his neck, his ear, even as his helmet flew off and away. I smelled his fear, a rich aroma of adrenaline in the iron tang of newly drawn blood, so strong it was if I had tasted it with my nose, my throat, my stomach. And even as the Dire Wulfin Jaw sprang closed, as my werewolfen mouth dug deeply into his face, I sensed him reaching desperately for the dagger at his belt.

Too late, I tasted not just his blood, but the filling density of marrow and the bitter tang of his brain. With a single bite, I critted deeply into his mortal skull, and I quickly swallowed his face even as my claws dug desperately at the steel of his armor. 

Too late, I heard the echo of more steel boots against the flagstone of the lobby. Discarding the corpse, with the breastplate half detached, I let the remnants of my meal spill out across the floor and ran.

Barreling past the guards even now closing in on the sounds of battle, I rushed into them with my heavy, hunched shoulders even as I darted out the doorway. Neither were quick enough to raise their swords, to catch me as I hurled, bodily into them and rolled away. Instead, they turned as one in pursuit, recovering their balance and giving chase as I slipped out into the dark caverns of the city.

I led them away, careful never to get too far ahead, nor to fall far enough behind that they would be in danger of catching me, I led them through the now-familiar alleys and byways of the city, ever further away. And it wasn't until I finally found myself walled into the very edges of the sector that I finally jumped up into the air, taking wing scant feet away from their darting swords and fetid breathing. 

I called desperately for my Crew, Other Me called desperately, the all too human sound of my voice contrasting so heavily with the flutter of my wings in the air. But there was no response. Minutes passed and passed again as I failed to hear the sound of a familiar voice answer me. Blinky, Steve, Gray, every attempt was met with stony, deathly silence and, knowing that the worst had finally come, I winged away silently into the labyrinth and away from the city. 

But even as I flew the true devastation could not be ignored. I passed row after row of marching soldiers, darting around the occasional bolts hurled my way from an all too perceptive sniper. The tide seemed endless, white livery on steel frames of soldier after warrior after mage, each rushing in turn for their share of the spoils even as the city did fall. 

Up until that time I had been nursing the faint hope of regrouping, finding my Crew at the respawn and marching back into the city to meet the waves of invading armies. But the longer I flew with no end in sight, the further my heart fell. And the more I understood that, whatever I chose to do from that point forward, I would never again be coming back to this city. Not until the walls had crumbled and my friends and trainers had been crushed underfoot. 

So it was that I winged swiftly down a route I had never taken before, floating across the stale air into the deeper chambers of the Underlands. Where I knew the raging armies of light would never dare to follow.