Interlude:

Wolf held back a growl as he stepped away from the stairs and into the new level of the Labyrinth. This was a shallower level, so in theory, it should have been a little less dangerous than the previous one. Of course, sometimes the real dangers weren’t the Labyrinth, but the other players in it. Players, like the one slung over his shoulder.

The invoker took a moment to look around at his new surroundings, seeing that he seemed to be in the mountains with an open sky above. There were stone ridges and steep cliffs in the distance, and the not so distance. About thirty feet away, there was a steep drop off with a river raging down below.

“Quick,” Mad Mike told Godiva. “Plug the stairs…”

Godiva immediately did as Mike ordered, holding out her hands and shaping the nearby stone so that it rose up and then completely blocked off the stairway that they’d just come from like a giant plug. The Labyrinth would clear that out before too long, but for now, that would keep anyone from following them.

Wolf set Raze onto the ground, being less gentle than he could have been. In fact, it took everything he had to simply keep from throwing the berserker off the cliff and being done with him for good.

He silently cursed himself and his cowardice for refusing to take a side during that last fight. That was the fight that mattered, the one that really counted, and hadn’t committed to either side. Instead, he stood there like some kind of idiot and just watched.

Raze was a bastard who needed to be stopped, and that had been the perfect opportunity to do so. He could have joined in and brought the berserker down for good, but he hadn’t. He could have refused to carry Raze to safety, but he hadn’t.

“What the hell was I thinking?” Wolf muttered to himself.

The truth was, Wolf was no longer sure of what he’d been thinking. He’d always prided himself on being loyal to his crew, and whether he liked it or not, and regardless of how he’d joined them, this was his current crew. The idea of outright betraying them just didn’t sit right with him.

“Maybe I’m just too much like a real wolf,” he mused. “Too willing to follow the alpha.”

Then Wolf was shaken from his thoughts by Mike, who was grumbling. “I had to use my only acid grenade to escape.”

“You can always find a new one,” Godiva snapped at him. “I can’t believe they beat us…especially after how we dealt with them the first time.”

“We should have killed them when we had the chance,” Jace agreed with a grimace of pain.

Mike snorted as he pulled something out of his pack. It was a stone figurine of some sort that he was placing on the ground.

“I have no idea how to find that place,” Mike explained. “I’d need the Guide to lead me to where the grenades come from.”

Wolf merely grunted at that as he looked over at the others. He was the only one who hadn’t been injured during that fight, a fact that he was both relieved of and felt guilty for. Even Godiva was wounded, having been torn up a bit by those horned rabbits.

The thought of being injured by rabbits nearly made Wolf chuckle, though he carefully kept his expression fixed. He was already on thin ice with the group, and his refusal to help in the fighting would surely be held against him. It was a good thing that they actually needed him.

“I almost made a deal with a rabbit spirit once,” Wolf mused aloud. “The thing got spooked and ran off before we could finalize the deal.”

Jace sat down, wincing as she did so. She was bleeding from multiple deep wounds, though she didn’t bother trying to patch herself up just yet. Instead, she reached into a pouch and pulled out the bronze cube that the Guide had led her to.

“I can’t believe those losers actually kicked our asses,” Jace spat out bitterly.

Her bloody hands felt up the bronze box, almost as though she was drawing comfort for having it. Wolf had seen her doing the same thing on several other occasions, playing around with the strange artifact and trying to figure out how to use it.

A few feet away, Raze coughed, spitting up blood. He sat up, though he clearly didn’t have energy for much else. That hit to his side was deep and nasty, the kind of injury that would probably be fatal for any normal person. But for a player… Well, for a player it might just be a temporary inconvenience.

Suddenly, Jace exclaimed, “Holy shit… Something is happening.”

Wolf stared at her, or at least, at the box in her hand. It was glowing along all the edges, which was something he hadn’t seen it do before.

“Might be your blood,” Mike offered, though he was still focused on the figurine. “Some artifacts need a sacrifice to work, even if its just a symbolic one.”

“You could have told me that sooner,” Jace snapped.

Mike just shrugged. “This thing is finally starting to work.”

The figurine began to glow with a warm golden color that quickly spread out, covering all of them. Wolf felt a pleasant sensation spread out over his body, one that was caused by primal magic. He straightened up, feeling better. Every ache in his body was fading away.

“Oh, that feels good,” Godiva exclaimed.

She stared down at her leg where a deep gash, caused by a rabbit horn, was closing up. In seconds, the wound was closed entirely, and a short time later, it looked as though she’d never been injured at all.

Wolf looked around at the others, seeing that they were all responding the same way. There were sighs of relief and even a couple moans of pleasure. Every injury he could see was healing up right before his eyes.

“That thing is amazing,” Godiva said, gesturing to the figurine. The glow was fading away, leaving figurine to look like little more than a decoration. “I feel MUCH better.”

“Yeah,” Mike agreed with a grunt as he carefully packed the figurine away. “But it takes way too long to activate in an emergency and recharging it is a huge pain in the ass.”

“You need a primal to charge it,” Wolf said. “A divine one.”

“Yeah,” Mike agreed. “Someone found it in a temple for a goddess of respite and healing. I’ll have to take it back to the same temple to recharge it before I can use it again.”

Jace nodded emphatically, though her eyes remained locked on the bronze box. “Do that. That was awesome.”

Suddenly, the box broke apart, separating at the seams and then falling away, leaving a glowing golden ball that had been contained inside. Jace gaped in surprise, right before the glowing sphere sank into her hand and vanished.

“Oh shit,” Jace gasped. “That feels weird…”

Just then, Jace’s body began to shift and change. She let out a loud gasp and grabbed at her chest as it began to deflate and flatten. Her auburn hair pulled in, becoming shorter and darker until it was a dark brown that was nearly black.

“I’m…changing,” Jace exclaimed in excitement. “Its working…”

Jace jumped up in excitement while staring down at her transforming body. Her muscle tone faded away while her skin tone lightened. Her features, which hadn’t been especially feminine, became more masculine.

The transformation only took a minute, and when it was done, the Jace that Wolf had known was gone. In her place was slender young man, wearing clothes that clearly didn’t fit him or suit his new body in style.

“I’m me again,” Jace announced with a cocky grin. “The old me.”

“What a waste,” Raze said as he stood back up. He ran a hand over his side where he’d previously been wounded, then spat a glob of blood out onto the ground. “Going back to who I used to be is the worst fate I can possibly imagine.”

“I’m not interested in going back either,” Godiva commented with a shrug. “But to each their own.”

Raze scowled, then spat out, “That invoker bitch…”

“She fucked you up good,” Jace said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

The berserker snarled, a flash of red glow appearing in his remaining eye. He lifted the axe that he’d somehow kept a grip on during their escape and took a swing through the air.

“I’m gonna kill that bitch,” Raze exclaimed. “He reached up and touched his eye patch, looking even more furious. “I’m going to break every bone in her body. I’m going to tear her to fucking pieces…”

Raze turned towards the stairs and stared at the stone plug that blocked it. Then he looked to Godiva. “Remove it.”

“No,” Mike quickly interjected. “Not yet…”

“What?” Raze demanded, glaring at Mike with a deathly threat clear in his eye.

Mike quickly explained, “We’re close to that power you’ve been looking for. Why don’t we get that, then use those other players to test it out?”

Raze paused for a moment to consider that before laughing. “Yes… I like the way you think.” An evil look passed over his face. “I like that idea a lot.”

“I can’t think of better test subjects,” Godiva said approvingly.

A moment later, Raze turned and settled his eye on Wolf, making Wolf want to step back. He refrained from doing so since it never paid to show weakness to a predator. That was always a mistake.

“You,” Raze said, his voice dripping with menace. “You just stood there…”

“I thought you had it all under control,” Wolf responded, keeping his voice calm and even. “It didn’t look like you needed my help until the end.”

“You are always telling us to stand back,” Jace offered in Wolf’s defense. “Even if he was a total chicken back there…”

“Fucking useless,” Raze spat out. “Damn useless invoker.”

“We still need him,” Mike quickly reminded the berserker. “We haven’t found your prize yet.”

Wolf scowled, a growl starting to rise in the back of his throat in spite of himself. He was sick and tired of being treated as prey by this lunatic. Now, he regretted hauling that bastard up those stairs and saving his life. He regretted the opportunity that he’d thrown away down there.

“Do you really think you’re going to do anything?” Raze challenged, smirking as he did so. “You’re a damn fake… A sheep in wolf’s clothing.”

Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe he still had a chance. With that, Wolf drew his sword. An instant later, there was a surge of pain through his shoulder.

“Holy shit,” Jace blurted out.

Wolf stared at his arm, or where his arm should have been. Instead, there was a stump that was spurting blood. A quick glance at the ground revealed where his arm had gone.

A deep grown emerged as Wolf immediately activated all of his abilities. His eyes went to Mike’s belt, which had several scepters hanging from it, some of them pretty destructive. That was his chance, a weapon and a shield.

The invoker leapt at Mike and grabbed at him with his remaining arm. However, a sharp pain tore through his side and he stumbled back, seeing a new gush of blood spraying out, along with what appeared to be bits of his entrails.

“Fuck,” Wolf snarled as realization dawned. He’d lost.

Raze laughed and raised his bloody axe, about ready to finish the job. Wolf spat at the larger man and staggered back, only to a flash of motion before the berserker’s boot hit him in the stomach.

Wolf flew backwards and over the edge of the cliff. As he fell, e hthought that he shouldn’t have threatened Raze like that. No, he should have seized the the opportunity to finish Raze when he’d actually had a chance. That was his last thought before everything went dark.

Back above, Raze stood there with his mirror ball in hand, feeling the gentle tug which told him that it was still working.

“I guess we didn’t need him after all,” Raze said with a grin. “I should have done that sooner.”

“Then let’s get going,” Jace announced as he reached for his hammer. “The sooner we find your new power, the sooner we can finish those losers.” Then as he tried to lift his hammer, he was surprised to discover that he could barely even move it. “Oh shit…”