A high-pitched screech from the other side of the room caused Guin to jump. The zombie’s attention was drawn to the sound. Breaking out of her dazed state, he saw Ibraxis down on all fours, his mouth hung open, a volatile hissing sound coming from deep within his chest. A firm tug on Guin’s arm caused her to look back at where Tea was trying to pull her to her feet.

Using him as a crutch, she struggled up while trying to keep a firm grip on her spear. The zombie noticed her movement and went to attack her again, but she managed to slash at its legs in a way that caused it to lose its balance.

“Let’s go!” Tea urged, pulling her toward the door. The zombie moved to pursue, but Ibraxis charged between them, screeching another challenge. They screamed back at him—a ghastly, grating sound that made Guin want to cover her ears.

Guin tried to pull herself together enough so that she could fight again, but the large white garule snapped, “Run!” and swiped at the creature with his clawed forepaw.

Biting her lip, a sense of helplessness washed over her. Looking over at Ath as she pulled Zen up and Tea staring at her with worried, pleading eyes, she knew what the right choice was.

It just wasn’t the one she wanted.

“Guin?” Tea said, his brown eyes wide.

“We need to go,” Guin started in a low voice, then turned to Ath and Zen. “We need to go now! Get him up!”

Ath pushed Zen up and said, “Dude, I can’t carry you; you need to get up.”

Relying on the wall to walk, Zen coughed, “I hate this game...”

“Fall behind, and I’m leaving you there.”

“I hate you too.”

Ath slapped his back and readied her bow as she ran into the hall with him following her close behind.

Ibraxis jumped back like a cat, his back arching as his tail whipped. “Go!” he shouted again, snapping and hissing to take the agro from all three. Without warning, he pounced toward them, then took off opposite to where Guin and the rest were focusing on the retreat.

Guin growled to herself as she watched him disappear into the shadows, followed by all three zombies. It had probably been the best tactical decision for the survival of their group; Ibraxis was the highest level and best-equipped character among them, so far as she could tell—but she still didn’t like it. She wanted to do something. She wanted to help. She wanted not to be a simple bystander.

“Guin? You okay?” Tea went, tugging on her arm again.

“I’ll be fine,” Guin reassured him. “Go help Zen and Ath.”

While he didn’t look excited about the prospect, he nodded and ran off on all fours.

Guin gave Tea a couple of minutes head start, then pulled up a video chat window with Ibraxis.

“What!” he shouted with a disgruntled look on his face that she could barely make out. The vague walls of the halls zooming by in the background. She could hear the zombies behind him growling and screeching loudly.

“Everyone is out of the room,” she told him. “Are you okay?”

He gave her a funny look. “Other than the fact that I did not realize that you cared so much,” he growled. “Do you think I look okay?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She snorted at him. “I guess a better question is, how the hell are you getting out of this?”

“Basic plan is: Do not stop running,” he told her. “I am going to pull back soon. You guys should be far enough away now for them to rubberband. I do not see you moving. Go.”

“Hey,” she went as he glared at her again. “Watch for respawns. Don’t die.”

His glare intensified as he said, “Bye,” and signed off.

She pulled up her map. Walking down the hallway, she called up her chat window again to touch base with Ath. The blonde ranger cursed when she heard Ibraxis’s plan and shut down the window without answering. Guin sighed. Though she didn’t appreciate the woman’s attitude, it was far more satisfying to know that while it may not have been possible for her to help fight, the least she could do was make sure everything was in order.

Fox forming, she started down the hall, forcing her little fox legs into a sprint. Staying behind as she had, she had quite a bit of ground to make up for—and she knew that the mice and skeletons would start respawning at any moment.

The mice had started to respawn, but having recovered from the dizziness the zombies had caused, she dealt with them as quickly and efficiently as she could and avoided the skeletons by simply outmaneuvering them in her small form. She enjoyed the flexibility running solo afforded her as she pushed through

Click. Click. Click. Guin’s ears twitched at the odd new sound. She paused and sniffed the air. Moisture. Stale air. Wet fur. Click, click, clack. Gur. Gur. Kuchuk. Sounds came over the din; sounds of gnawing. Sounds of breaking. And then, silence.

Narrowing her eyes to the darkness, she saw four sets of eyes glimmer in flickering light. Four large rats were hunched over, greedily gnawing on a corpse.

Her heart leaped to her throat, seeing the body and remembering the zombies from earlier, but she relaxed when she saw its state. There was no life in the thing. She could tell from the gear that the thing was no monster. For better or worse, it was a dead player character.

The rats watched her wearily, seemingly unsure of what to make of her in her fox form. They were each about her size, several times bigger than the mice she had been fighting until then, and she assumed them to be several times stronger as well. The player character they had taken to gnawing on appeared to have died by stabbing—a long, rusty blade stuck out of his chest that was very much a kin to the blades that the skeleton warriors used—which meant that these rats had, at worse, only aggravated an already existing problem.

But could she take them solo?

Is there harm in trying at this point? She wondered. You’ve already pulled their agro... The lips of the rats raised, making chattering sounds through exposed teeth.

She had dealt with the mice purely in her fox form; they were easy to crush with her jaw strength. These ones, however, were quite large. They reminded her of a creature she had fought in the tutorial—the Moarbits. The Moarbits were some kind of carnivorous rabbit that nearly tore her face off the first time she had experienced combat in TheirWorld, and she wouldn’t have been shocked if these things were much on the same level.

But if that’s the case... If that were the case, these things would be easy enough for her to handle.

Choosing her first target to the right of the body, Guin wiggled her little fox butt in the air. Breaking out into a run, the rats reacted by running toward her. Instead of aiming for the rat itself, however, she jumped up and launched herself from the wall, landing atop the creature from an odd angle, catching it off guard. It let out a shriek as her teeth bit into its thick fur. The other rats quickly went to the injured rat’s side, trying to bite at her paws, but she pranced away.

Their defense is quite a bit higher than the mice, she noted, spitting wiry, oily fur out of her mouth. The teeth of her fox form wouldn’t be quite enough to break the skin. Her dagger should have had no issue, however. Grinning to herself, Guin ran at the wall again, human forming just as her feet touched the wall so she could leap off of it to get behind the rats again, using [Backstab] with her dagger.

The rat she hit cried out and hissed loudly as blood began to spill from the wound.

Her plan was going just as she expected.

What she did not expect, however, was a certain pleasant, tingling sensation that caused a shiver of anticipation to run down her spine. Casting [Spirit Shield], she crouched, her dagger in hand, she looked at the rats.

“Well?” she purred in a low voice and a tone that shocked even herself. “Aren’t you coming?”