Everyone stood motionless for a moment as they took in the fact that the entire situation had just changed.

I looked over my friends, relieved at seeing them again and thankful that none of them appeared to have been seriously injured during our separation. Now, this was a little closer to the encounter I’d expected once we ran into the rogue players again. Of course, I would have hoped to have had the complete element of surprise and a more advantageous position, but we were finally all in one place.

“I knew you’d make it back to us, Maggie,” Maya said as she flashed me a broad grin.

“Ace,” Olivia exclaimed with tears of relief. “You’re alive…”

“Time for reunion and explanations later,” I warned the others.

Raze stood in front of us, wrapped in ghostly chains with Maya’s spear sticking out of his stomach. He howled in rage and the chains suddenly broke and faded away. Maya leapt back, tearing the spear out of the berserker’s stomach as she did so.

“DIE,” Raze exclaimed, swinging his axe at Maya, who was already out of his reach.

In that instant, the rest of Raze’s companions decided to get in on the action. Mad Mike used his scepter to fire a massive ball of fire at Maya, but Turtle jumped between them and used his shield to block the attack. Bursts of flame splashed around the shield, but the bulwark used an ability to make himself tough enough to withstand it.

Godiva launched her own attack, though the target wasn’t immediately obvious. The shaper held out her hands, then the ground beneath Maya suddenly softened. Maya sank into the ground as though it was quicksand, only sinking as far as her knees before the ground hardened again and locked her in place.

“You aren’t going anywhere,” Godiva announced in a smug tone.

“We’ll see,” Maya responded with a smirk of her own.

Suddenly, darkness swirled around Maya before the stalker abruptly vanished. An instant later, there was another swirl of darkness about fifteen feet away, and Maya reappeared there.

“Looks like someone learned a new trick,” Maya added.

“You’ve got your second ability,” Ace blurted out in realization. “Congrats.”

I chuckled at the annoyed look on Godiva’s face, though I imagined her frustration would have been far worse if Maya had suddenly appeared right beside her instead. That would have been the best case scenario, at least for our side, so I was a little disappointed that it didn’t happen.

Some stalkers had the ability to teleport short distances, and this was obviously the ability that Maya had unlocked. I felt a stirring of envy since that was one of the abilities that had always made me want to be a stalker myself. Surprise attacks. Escapes. Instant repositioning in the immediate area. The tactical options were enormous.

“I don’t have a lot of control over where I end up quite yet,” Maya commented, “but it’s still useful.”

With those words, Maya charged at Godiva, who threw up a wall of stone between the two of them. Maya leapt over the wall, only to get blasted by a bolt of green energy from Mike’s scepter. He’d switched scepters and was using a different one from before, one that sent Maya flying backwards.

My attention was on Raze, who seemed to be ignoring the bloody wound in his stomach. He snarled in rage, raised his axe, then charged straight at me…until he slammed face first into a force wall that Oliva had thrown up. The transparent wall shattered under the impact and vanished, but it had done the job of stopping Raze.

I threw up my hand and fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ right at Raze, taking advantage of his momentary pause. He let out a loud grunt but didn’t scream in pain or drop to the ground. Instead, he shook it off, only becoming even angrier, if that was possible.

Four horned rabbits and Sir Fluff all swarmed around Raze at the same time, taking advantage of his momentary distraction to deal as much damage as they could before he recovered. Sir Fluff even leapt up and tried to drive his rapier into Raze’s neck, only to get backhanded. The anthropomorphic rabbit went flying, vanishing as he did so.

Godiva turned her attention to Bunny, but before the new stone hands could grab the summoner, Olivia jumped in, firing an arcane blast at the shaper. Godiva dove to the ground to avoid being hit, then raised a stone wall in front of her as protection.

I circled around, trying to get Raze from behind before he turned his full attention on me again. However, before I could reach him, the ground suddenly shook in a powerful shockwave, knocking me off my feet. At first, I thought that I’d been caught in one of Olivia’s attacks, but this had been the ground, not through the air like her ability.

“Jace,” I hissed, remembering the ability that I’d seen Jace use before.

A quick look revealed that Jace was coming towards me, moving a lot slower than she should because of her injury. She looked nearly as pissed as Raze but nowhere near as dangerous.

“I’ve got her,” Ace offered as he started moving towards Jace, armed with only my dagger. “I owe her for that beating…”

I was worried for Ace and questioned the wisdom of his decision. Jace was a melee fighter with abilities and stats to match, while Ace most certainly wasn’t. She had that massive maul, which had longer reach and a lot more impact than my dagger. Jace had the advantage in every aspect of that fight, even if she was injured.

I quickly scanned the battlefield, taking in every detail that I could. Raze was about to turn his focus back on me, and then I’d be too busy to worry about anything else.

Olivia was keeping Godiva pinned down, staying far enough back that she was out of the shaper’s range. All Godiva could do in response was to bunker down behind her stone wall.

Bunny was crouched down behind the corner of a building, scepter in one hand and her small axe in the other. So far, she was able to direct her rabbits without anyone else paying attention to her. If one of our enemies did notice her, she was prepared to deal with them.

Mad Mike was standing back, shooting at Olivia with his scepter. He’d changed scepters again and was using one that fired thin beams of blue light. Turtle was staying close to Olivia so that he could protect her from the artificer’s attacks.

Maya had slipped into a shadow beside a building so that she was now hard to see. At the moment, she seemed to be sneaking around and moving towards Godiva.

The only who wasn’t actively involved in all the fighting was Wolf, who stood back with a struggling look on his face, as though he couldn’t decide what he should do…or which side to take. I’d rather see that than having him attack us.

Everywhere around me, I saw chaos, with no organization or direction. I hadn’t had a chance to coordinate and plan with my team, and was just lucky that they were here at all. However, I knew we could do better.

“Maya,” I called out. “Get the sniper. Turtle. Help Ace.”

Maya reacted immediately, though Turtle hesitated a couple seconds. He looked at Olivia, clearly not wanting to leave her unprotected, then he looked at Ace, who was awkwardly trying to stay out of Jace’s reach. A moment later, he ran towards Jace.

Mike took advantage of Olivia being open to fire another blast at her, though she responded with a force wall. That wouldn’t last too long, but it should cover her until Maya did her job.

Just then, Raze leapt at me. I’d been expecting this so dodged to the side and swung my hammer, slamming him into the side as he struck the spot where I’d been a moment earlier. He snapped around, swinging his axe at me, but I was already scrambling back and out of reach.

“I’m gonna kill you again,” Raze snarled, practically foaming at the mouth. “This time, I’m gonna make it a whole lot messier…”

“You’re welcome to try,” I responded.

Raze raised his axe and glared at me, ready for another attack. But before he could move, the spectral crow dove down and into his face. The berserker leapt back in surprise and tried swatting the bird, but his hand and axe both went through it as though it wasn’t there.

I felt a certain amusement from my link with the crow, not from the crow itself but from the spectral I’d made the deal with. It seemed that the primal was enjoying all the excitement, which was probably quite a change from the boredom of hanging around that graveyard.

Maya chose that moment to act, leaping out of the shadows and rushing straight at Mike with her spear at the ready. The artificer immediately reacted by raising his hand and shouting, “SHATTER!”

There was a brief moment where Mike stared at her with a look of triumph and anticipation, though it quickly passed. His eyes shot wide as the spear didn’t shatter, then he cried out as Maya drove the spear right into his shoulder.

“My spear isn’t an artifact,” Maya told the artificer in a smug tone. “It was made outside the Labyrinth, the old-fashioned way. Machine manufacturing.”

Mike screamed and cursed as he staggered back, pulling himself off the spear that Maya still clutched. His scepter was now on the ground by his feet, and though he tried grabbing one of his other scepters, he couldn’t react faster than Maya. She leapt at him, aiming at his chest, though he turned just in time to get the spear through his upper arm instead.

“I’M GONNA KILL YOU,” Jace yelled at the same time.

Turtle stood in front of Jace while Ace had moved to her other side. Jace swung her hammer at Turtle, who merely knocked it aside with his shield and then slashed out with his sword, catching her in the arm in nearly the same place where Mike had just been injured.

While Jace was focused on Turtle, Ace lunged forward and slashed at her with my dagger, creating a small gash into her side. He hit her and then backed up, getting out of easy reach. It was almost amusing to see the artificer fighting more like a stalker. Now, if he only had the stats and abilities to back that up.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the ground shifting, right as a giant stone hand began to rise behind me. I jumped to the side to avoid being grabbed, then looked at the source and gaped. Godiva had extended her wall so that it was now an actual wall, letting her move along the battlefield while still taking cover against Olivia.

A moment later, a group of newly summoned rabbits swarmed over the shaper. She let out a loud squeal of surprise as Sir Flop lunged at her with his rapier while the smaller rabbits tried impaling her legs with their little horns. She turned and ran, leaving the cover of her wall in her desperation to get away from the little furry threats.

Raze let out a howl of rage as his eye began to literally glow red. The red glow quickly spread over his entire body, though it was concentrated over his axe. He swung the axe at the spectral crow that was still lunging at his face, distracting him more than anything. This time, when his axe passed through the bird, it vanished.

I scowled in annoyance at losing the crow, at least for the moment. I’d be able to summon it again, but not for another day.

The berserker rushed at me again, though this time I didn’t bother trying for a sweep. The timing would be far too tight to risk that, so I activated my ‘Invocation of the Wisp’ instead. But right as I was about to activate the ability, I suddenly had an idea, one that my instincts insisted would work.

“I’m gonna tear you in half,” Raze threatened as his axe came towards me.

But before his attack could land, my ability activated and three illusionary copies of me all appeared and ran off at the same time, each going in a different direction. His axe passed through one of the illusions without any effect.

I felt a surge of triumphant excitement as I realized what this meant. I’d finally figured out how my ‘Absorb’ ability worked, or at least, what I could do with all that primal energy that I absorbed. I could pump that energy into my other abilities to briefly make them a lot stronger.

Jace abruptly leapt the illusion that was closest to her, trying to smash it with her massive hammer. She seemed to momentarily forget about her own opponents, leaving herself open for Turtle to hit her in the side with his sword.

I only noticed this in passing as I was already in motion, taking advantage of this momentary distraction. Before Raze could recover, I was on him, slamming my hammer into his knee. There was a satisfying ‘crunch’ on impact, one which would take away a lot of his speed advantage.

“Gotcha,” I snarled as I snapped my hammer back, this time catching him in the ribs with the curved beak. The spike went deeply into Raze’s side.

Raze howled in rage and pain. He let out a loud cough and blood splattered out from between his lips, proving just how serious that wound was. Then he took another step towards me, only to stagger and drop to one knee, the other one no longer able to support him.

“THEY’VE GOT US BEAT,” Mike shouted.

In spite of Mike’s injuries and the fact that he was still facing Maya, he was able to pull something out of his pouch. It was a round metal sphere, about the size of a tennis ball, and he threw it into the middle of the battlefield like some kind of grenade. As soon as it hit, there was an explosion of bright light, followed by a glowing green cloud that began to rapidly spread out form the impact spot.

“Grab Raze, you useless idiot,” Mike shouted at Wolf, who’d done nothing but watch during the entire fight.

“SHIT,” Ace shouted as the green cloud hit him. “THIS STUFF BURNS…” He ran out of the cloud as fast as he could, as did Turtle who’d been similarly caught.

I looked around and saw the rogue players were all running for the stairway heading up to the shallower area of the Labyrinth. Wolf was with them, carrying Raze, who was slung over his shoulder. As they ran up the stairs as quickly as they could, Godiva paused to gesture to the ground. A thick wall of stone formed at the bottom of the stairs, blocking us from being able to follow right away.

“We beat them,” Turtle exclaimed in amazement. “We actually beat them…”

“They’re getting away,” Maya pointed out, glaring at the thick stone wall that blocked the stairs.

“We’ll just follow them again,” Bunny added as she came over, grinning triumphantly as she did so.

I shook my head. “It won’t be that easy. I don’t have that magic shard anymore…” I gestured towards the stairway and added, “As soon as I found Raze, it flew off and vanished.”

“Shit,” Ace grumbled.

Maya muttered a few profanities under her breath, half of them in Spanish. Then she said, “Then we still have to find them.”

“I’m not as worried about that as much as I was,” Turtle said. “We beat them once, so we can beat them again.”

“That fight was a lot easier than I expected,” Olivia admitted.

“Yeah,” I agreed, having noticed that myself. “At least compared to our last fight.” I shook my head at that. “It looks like we caught up to them.”

“Then they got away again,” Ace reminded us. “At least I got away from them.”

I nodded. “What I meant, was that we were fighting monsters nearly every step of the way.”

“You can say that again,” Bunny said with a shake of her head.

A faint chuckle escaped my lips. “Well, while we were fighting…” I paused to look at my friends. “You remember what happens when you take someone on a dungeon run to turn them into a player?” My eyes settled on Maya. “They have to actively contribute if they want any of the dungeon’s power…”

“Of course,” Maya replied with a questioning look, though it quickly turned into one of understanding.

“From what I’ve seen,” I said as I continued the explanation, “Raze was the one killing most of the monsters they ran into, while the rest of them were just along for the ride. Raze was practically hogging the entire experience, so while we grew stronger…most of them stagnated.”

“Good for us,” Ace said, giving me a smirk. “But you still beat Raze.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I caught him by surprise, but I won’t count on that happening again.”

“We will catch up to them again,” Maya promised, pointing to the ground. “They left a trail of blood for us to follow.”

“Good,” Olivia said. “And now that this has been settled…” She looked at me, then stared at Ace. “I thought you were dead…” Tears started to flow down her cheeks, ones that seemed to be tears of relief.

“I nearly was,” the artificer admitted. “If Maggie hadn’t found me…”

Olivia suddenly threw her arms around Ace, then began to kiss him, much to his surprise. However, he didn’t protest in the least as he began to kiss her back.

At the same time, Maya put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Maggie…” She looked a bit awkward as she added, “I was worried about you too, but I knew you’d make it.”

“I’m glad that one of us was confident about that,” I responded with a self-conscious chuckle. “I was a bit worried about that myself.”

Before I could say anything more, Maya grabbed me in a hug and pressed her lips against mine, almost exactly like what Olivia had done to Jace. And like the artificer, I was also caught by surprise, though that didn’t stop me from kissing right back.

Once Maya pulled back, she awkwardly said, “We should probably talk about this…when we’re done with the mission.”

It was with a bit of reluctance that I agreed. “When we’re done with the mission.” But in spite of those words, all I could think about was the feeling of her body pressing up against mine and the taste of her lips.