Neb hacked down on Zerfen and the maniton raised a blade-arm to defend against the sawfish weapon. Neb’s sword bit into the quasi-organic maniton blade but did not cut through, and then Zerfen almost dragged the sword from Neb’s hands with a powerful jerk of his body. At the same time he swung out with two other swords, a crossing shape that would neatly decapitate Neb.

But he had to abandon the attack before he could complete the motion because in that instant, they both realized that Zerfen had only partially deflected the artifact round. It had missed his chest but Zerfen’s blade had only deflected it into the upper of his two right arms. The portal snapped open just as it had with Buzz, and Zerfen was dragged towards it with incredible force as Buzz had been. But again the creature reacted with super-human speed and composure, and stabbed all four of his swords into the ground, his vast strength fighting against the portal force.

Neb grabbed three chains off the ground and heaved Meathead to his feet, fear giving him strength. Anna supported Meathead on the other side. There were only two minutes and fifty-eight seconds left on the Game clock. Neb threw a chain over each of them.

‘Run,’ Neb gasped. ‘Run. We have to, somehow. RUN, DAMMIT!’ But they couldn’t. They were all badly injured, bloody and bruised. Meathead had been fatally injured. They could barely stagger. They had no orbs left. Neb didn’t even want to look at their remaining hitpoints. They focused on just taking step after step towards the gate across the blackened field. The ultramorph screamed and fought its chains and spewed fire and rage. There were no other players to be seen. Everyone else was either dead or already through.

Ninety seconds remained. They were still terribly far away.

‘Leave me,’ Meathead gasped through his pain. ‘Leave me and run. Do it! LEAVE ME NOW YOU FUCKING BITCHES!’

‘Shut the fuck up, Meathead,’ Neb gasped, through gritted teeth. All he was watching was the gate, fixating on it, as if by staring he could bring it closer.

He risked a glance behind him, and groaned. Zerfen was in the process of cutting his own arm off to escape the inexorable pull of the artifact round towards the portal. He was screaming in pain as he did it and blood was spurting redly.

‘Fuck,’ Neb said. ‘We need to move.’ He felt blood hot on his stomach from a wound he didn’t remember getting. Just need to take step after step, he told himself. Don’t look at the clock. Don’t look at the clock.

He looked at the clock. Fifty-eight seconds.

‘Come on,’ he grunted. ‘We need to fucking move.’

They took small steps forward. Steadily, but far too slowly. Meathead was barely conscious.

Neb glanced behind again and the maniton was racing after them. He had healed himself, but he was moving awkwardly from the missing limb. He was screaming something at them. The words were not clear, but the hate was unmistakable.

Neb looked forward to the gate again. It was still far, far away. They were closing on it very slowly.

‘YOU FUCKING HUMAN SCUM!’ Neb could hear now from behind them. ‘I only wish I had the time to kill you as you deserve, to hear your screams and your cries as I --’

But the rest of it was lost in a roar of flame from the ultramorph that scorched the broken ground just to their right and made them stumble. They did not stop but just pushed forward. But it was not enough. Zerfen was on top of them. They had to turn to face him.

Thirty seconds remained.

‘Now you die,’ Zerfen screamed, and he spread two arms wide and swiped the blades across the three humans, an eviscerating blow.

But it never landed. There was a blur of motion as Mallory came from nowhere and slammed into Zerfen, knocking him sideways. The creature screamed in rage. Mallory maintained his momentum and crashed into the humans, dragging them to the ground.

‘Asshole,’ Meathead murmured, his eyes closed.

‘FIRE IN THE HOLE!’ Mallory yelled, and there was a boom and the blast of a shockwave running over the humans. Zerfen howled.

‘Come on!’ Mallory yelled, back on his feet. ‘Neb, Anna -- you need to walk yourselves, I’ve got Meathead.’ As he spoke he ran forward and rolled, coming up with Meathead on his shoulders. ‘MOVE MOVE MOVE!’ he roared.

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Twenty seconds remained.

The world seemed to go quiet, as if to magnify their ragged breathing. The gate edged closer. Mallory shouted words of encouragement that seemed to Neb to come from far away. Neb didn’t look back to see what had happened to Zerfen. He wanted to help Anna, but he was barely upright himself. She staggered onward in front of him, her face drawn with pain. Neb’s stomach was bleeding badly. Without healing he had not long left, he knew. Stupid fucking 20HP. Meathead too was close to the end. The gate was huge ahead of them. To their right was the ultramorph’s building-sized hoof. They were under the hanging arc of the chain that bound the creature, but it was as if they were invisible. The ultramorph ignored them. The fucking library, Neb thought. Things could have been so different if they had just gone there first.

The gate was only twenty meters away. Directly under its arch was a line drawn in white on the ground. On their side of the line the ground was black and burned, and on the other side it faded away into nothingness.

An audible Game clock countdown started, a loud voice booming out into the world.

‘TEN…’ it said. ‘NINE…’

They were so close. They could make it. They were going to make it. Just another few steps… A few more…

Then he heard a sound behind them, and he looked back to see that Zerfen was upon them.

Half the creature’s lower body was missing from Mallory’s explosion but he stil had three functional arms and two legs left. His face was twisted into an expression that had nothing recognisably intelligent or sentient in it. Only death and hate.

Fuck, Neb thought distantly. We were so close.

‘SEVEN… SIX…’

Neb stopped. He was at the back, as usual, the others a little ahead of him. They were focused on the prize that was only a few steps away, fighting the last of the inner battle, Anna limping on by herself holding her side, Mallory struggling with the heavy load of Meathead on his shoulders. They didn’t see that Neb had stopped.

‘FIVE…’

Fuck. Neb turned his back to the gate, and faced Zerfen. The maniton was charging, his three sword-arms raised, death and rage in his eyes.

Neb took the goose cannon from his inventory. It felt heavy and solid in his hands. It only had one round, but one was all he needed.

‘FOUR…’

He glanced back to his friends, just a step or two from the white line. Almost there.

‘THREE…’

He watched Anna for his last moment. Beauty and darkness. Captivating. Way too much for him to handle, though.

‘TWO…’

Zerfen was swiping out with his cutting blades and screaming horribly. Anna was across the white line, and Mallory was just a step away.

Neb lifted the goose cannon and shot Zerfen point blank in the face.

His last thought was: Meathead was not kidding about how loud this thing is. The explosion was huge, designed to take out an area target. Zerfen was flung backwards, silhouetted in a ball of flame. Neb was flung the other way, his skin and hair and eyes burning. But it would only be for a moment, he knew.

‘ONE…’ he heard faintly, but it was distant. He was going from the world.

Somehow Zerfen was still not dead. He was coming again, pulling himself towards Neb even through the flames, down to two arms and one leg.

‘Fuck you,’ Neb murmured. The world was dark. He was already mostly beyond it.

But then strong hands were grabbing him. They jerked him backwards powerfully, intensely painfully. He was heaved through the air, and as he flew he felt a whisper, something impossibly, dangerously close to him.

‘ZERO.’

He landed painfully and groaned. He managed to open one eye. He was lying on hard ground and his boots were just a few centimeters from a translucent surface that was blocking the gate. He could vaguely see Zerfen slamming and raging against the other side of it, beating his blades off the barrier, but there was no sound. Then the field snapped to an impermeable solid gray.

‘The Circle One gate is now closed,’ a calm voice announced. ‘Congratulations to all who made it through.’

Neb understood vaguely that they were now indoors, but he had not the strength left to look around.

‘As a token of our respect,’ the announcing voice said, ‘please accept this restoration of your health.’

At what felt like the last possible moment Neb’s body was returned to strength. Wounds closed and bones repaired and burned skin was repaired. It was like the feeling of a shower after a very long, very filthy day, multiplied by about a thousand. He coughed, life flowing back into him. He saw now he was lying in a tangle of limbs with Meathead, Mallory, and Anna. The entire pile glowed blue as they all got healed. Meathead still held his stomach even after the glow had dissipated, as if he didn’t quite dare to believe he had survived.

Neb looked around and saw that they were in a bar. The ceiling was very high. On one wall was the now-closed gate of Circle One. Another wall was taken up by the bar itself, where bartenders from various civs waited politely. There were small groups of players scattered about. Some creatures were alone, the only survivors from their teams. There were a lot of empty places and tables. He saw several sawfish staring at the humans with open hate from across the bar. Several of the goblin creatures of varying colors sat at one large table. Their faces too were contorted. But no-one approached.

Anna was the first to pull herself together enough to stand up.

‘Gentlemen,’ she said, looking around the bar. ‘I think it’s about time we got completely fucked up.’ She didn’t wait for an answer, but strode across the room.

Meathead, Mallory and Neb looked at each other, then jumped to their feet and scrambled after her.