I wake up alone. It's faintly disappointing. I know realistically Erin would need to go back to the real world to do real-world things, but her presence was a comfort.

"Ready to face a real challenge?" Erin messaged me. "I'm on my way in." Her timing was impeccable.

After we meet up, Erin tells me briefly about what we would be doing today. "It's time for the open dungeon - we're leveled enough for it now." My heart rate spikes at that. She had already told me about this, and it means players. It also means more mutations, if we were successful. Possibly loot too, considering Erin's harpoon gun.

As they swam toward the dungeon, Erin spoke, "I think our best bet is to be sneaky if we can. Wait till a group has engaged some monsters and then ambush them. The dungeon is a PVP area too, so we might be able to profit from that. Of course, it means the players will be watching for others, too."

I grimace, "And of course, anyone in the area is going to get the quest to hunt me down, so we don't exactly have the element of surprise. What happens if they ignore the dungeon mobs and come after me?"

"Hmmm," Erin said. "That's a good point. We might be able to use that, too. I don't have the quest on me, so I can scout ahead, and you can lure them out. Not as good as ambushing them with mobs in tow, but maybe the best we can get - unless the population is low today."

I feel some of the fear rising in me. "Is this really the best way to level? I can't help but feel like we're going to be swarmed by players."

Erin nodded, "The manhunter talent makes it worth it. You'll have to run up against players sooner or later - at least this way it can be on our terms." She sighed, "Plus... to be honest, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to help you. It would be trivial for them to catch me at this point." She brightened slightly, "but, I talked to an old friend, and he says if we can get you out of here, he can keep you alive and free."

A small seed of hope blossoms in my chest. Life outside the game? It almost sounded like a dream. Even if I was just a brain in a jar, I could check the internet, watch tv, and not worry about being killed all the time.

"All right, let's murder some people and take their stuff," I say, determination firming.

"Great! We're here." Here ends up being a twisted underwater steampunk facility of some sort. Large rents on the outside show it lacked the structural integrity it may have once had.

"All right, time to scout," Erin said and whips away. She seemed faster than she had been before- was that just from leveling? She was going to be an underwater bullet soon enough.

In no time at all she enters one of the rents in the structure. At that point, I belatedly remember to ping out with sonar. It covers a large sphere around me, and I instantly know the inside of the structure. It is dense, all sharp turning corridors and tiny rooms. It's also packed full of signals. I feel the spines on the back of my neck rise. Either it's full of players, or the NPCs looked exactly like players - only the slumping posture and lack of movement gives them away. Apparently, this is a zombie facility.

I ping again, monitoring Erin's progress. I also move up to the rent, so I can ambush anything she brought back out. It doesn't take long. As soon as she burst out of the opening I'm there, wrist spikes extended. Two shambling shapes run right into me at seemingly their top speed, impaling themselves. I get a good look at the waterlogged corpse inside the diving suit. Its mouth hung slightly askew, and its cloudy eyes suddenly locked onto him. Both of us start to thrash around, and I kick powerfully to get free.

A bolt hammers into the glass of its flooded helmet, and its head snaps back. I use my sonic weapon power on my arm blade and sliced cleanly through the second one's head. We look through the bodies, but find nothing of note, just broken down diving suits.

"Were you singing just now?" I ask.

A purple blush creeps up her neck - quite pretty I admit to myself.

"It's uh, how I aggro them," she says. "My singing snares and damages surrounding targets."

"That's pretty... metal actually," I respond.

"I can't carry a tune in a bucket in the real world," she says. "But here, I can just do this:" and she sings out a perfect scale. A transparent bubble extends around us after the third note.

"That rocks," I say.

I send out another ping. It's getting easier to spot the zombies. And I notice there were fewer of them than there had been last time. The absence is marked by some fast-moving signals.

"I think we've got players in there. Left turn at the corridor you just cleared, and we follow it through some twists and turns. We've got zombies in the way though."

We clear our way through, Erin carefully pulling small groups with her siren song. Apparently, the damage from earworm doesn't trigger the mobs to alert nearby foes to their location, as only the ones with the debuff would come. We make short work of encounters that would have swarmed us, steadily chopping and spearing our way through.

"It's a good thing these things don't hunt by sound," I observe.

"I think it's for the sake of the players - this place is so dense you could aggro the whole place if you tripped." She raps a knuckle against the bulkhead and it clangs loudly.

"What was that?" a staticy radio voice says nearby. "And who was that singing just now?" It looks like the players were on them.

I pinged out - sure enough, there were five shapes nearby. "Five," I whisper. "Can we take them?"

"Better back off and let them engage something else first, we attack in the chaos."

Unfortunately, it looks like we misjudged the timing, as the party rounds the bend immediately.

"Shit!" I say as a lightning-infused spear lances past my shoulder from behind. It strikes one of their party, a man wearing what looks like a leather trenchcoat over a leather diving suit. He's strapped with a number of mechanical apparatus, grabbing arms, drills, etc. All the arms spasm wildly from the electricity. The bulky figure in front surges forward, and I see he's got a greatsword with propellers on it, driving his charge.

The greatsword swings in a vicious arc, trailing bubbles from its propellers. I dodge to the side, but not without one of my lateral fins taking a hit that shears halfway through it. I dart in, thinking to get inside his guard from the missed swing, but the propellers kick in reverse, and he's got the blade chambered in a blink. I unleash a War Cry right in his face, and he staggers back. I enable my sonic weapons and take a swing at his arm, hoping to disable that killer weapon. With the sound of a jackhammer, my arm blade runs into his metal gauntlet instead, glancing off harmlessly. I can hear Erin singing and the hiss of more spears zipping past us.

I close my hands around the greatsword. I don't even know if I can damage this guy with my arm blades- all his vitals are covered in metal. A gorget even prevents me from unsealing his suit the way I did that other tank I fought. He seems to be reviving from the War Cry, as his grip on the weapon is still strong. By chance, I pull on the trigger of the weapon, and the propellers engage in reverse, the sword cracking into the man's helmet. That rocks him back a bit, and his grip loosens. I slap him in the midsection with my tail and tear the weapon free.

The trigger is shaped like a bicycle handbrake, grip to go forward, push to go in reverse. It feels lighter than it looks, and it cleaves through the water swiftly. I immediately engage the trigger and swing at the tank. I've done a fair amount of sword combat before, and the overhand blow cracks down and to the left, sparking in a pauldron. I reverse the swing into a smooth undercut from the same side, and this time the blade bites deep into his side. Blood begins to fill the water.

"First aid!" he calls out over broadcast. I see what looks like an underwater medic approach, white leather with a red cross emblazoned on the center of their suit and a med kit in hand. They're slowed by Erin's Siren's Call though, but getting close. I'm not sure how healing works in this game, but I have a feeling it'll turn the tide against me.

I slap the tank with my tail again, aiming for his wounded side. He flinches back, and I turn my slap into a lunge past him. I hold the greatsword vertically and engage the propellers while swimming for the medic. The propellers help speed me along, and I whip the weapon in a devastating arc as I reach my destination. My momentum propels both of us to the floor, the sword between us. I engage the propellers and grind him against the floor as I draw the blade down in a vicious draw cut.

Action Log: You have slain DukesUP. You gain 6,000 experience points.

You have taken 15 damage from Galrilla!

That was when the spear hit, a bolt of pain in my side. I look up to see the shooter, a black leather-studded woman with a clear diving helmet. She's loading another spear. She's also close enough. I raise my left wrist, keeping my right on the greatsword. My wrist blade flies true, spearing the woman's center of mass. I give it a jerk to catch her off balance, then retract it, drawing the two of us closer together. She drops her speargun and pulls out a knife, cutting the tendon. It breaks with a taught twang, but it's done its work in getting her into range.

She comes at me with a snarl, but I have the range on her and the speed. My greatsword rotates in the windshield wiper fashion of a krumphau, taking her hands off at the wrists while disjointing her strike. I slam the blade home into her body.

Action Log: You have slain Galrilla. You gain 6000 experience points

You have reached level 10!

You have 1 undistributed talent point

I'm not sure if this greatsword is that strong, or if they've all been damaged a lot by Erin's song. Seems like they were softened up at least. That's when strong arms grab around my neck. Oh right, the tank. He's really strong, and he's got me in a bad position, strangling me from behind. Instinctively I drop the greatsword to put both arms on his. Then I realize I don't breathe with my lungs anymore, and I'm not suffocating. War Cry is up again, so I blast it out, spinning around his slackened arms to face him. I release my wrist blade and stab it into his side that I had injured already. I wiggle it around in there, pointing it up at his heart, and fire. A sickening noise comes through the water, and blood blooms from the wound.

Action Log: You have slain EldrinRocks. You gain 6,500 experience points

I see in my action log two other player deaths that I was given an assist for - Mechanomander and DarlinFalls. Their bodies are pincushioned with spears.

"Wow, I didn't think we'd survive that," I say. "I guess we're pretty badass."