“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,” Turtle recited as we marched through the forest, just as we’d been doing since leaving the peaceful clearing.

“How far have we come since getting that mission?” Ace asked with an impatient sigh.

Bunny casually answered, “About three kilometers.”

Ace chuckled. “And how far is that in miles?”

“How would I know?” Bunny responded with mock innocence. “We don’t use those barbarian imperial measurements in Canada.”

“You’re Canadian?” Ramirez asked Bunny.

“I was,” Bunny answered with a shrug. “I died in Toronto and woke up in the Labyrinth, at the North Dakota entrance. I haven’t really tried going back since.”

“That’s the way it works,” I mused. “Players always respawn at one of the nearest entrances to where they died, borders be damned.”

“Unless they respawn too far in and nobody ever finds the bodies,” Ace pointed out.

“Unless that,” I agreed, remembering my own respawn and how long I’d been lost in the Labyrinth by myself.

I looked around at my surroundings as we continued to walk. The faerie hadn’t given me any directions for how to find the enemies that he wanted me to kill, but he was still leading me there nonetheless. Every once in awhile, I’d see him in the distance, a glowing ball of light that would appear just long enough for us to see it, then it would vanish among the trees again.

“There he is again,” Turtle announced, pointing up ahead where the glowing ball of light was once again showing us the way. “I think we’re getting close.”

“And I think you’re right,” Bunny agreed.

I nodded at that, agreeing as well. The forest had begun changing around us, and not in a good way. Some of the trees looked black and twisted, almost as though they’d been both charred and bent into unnatural angles. And up ahead, I saw even more trees like that.

“This must be the corruption he was referring to,” I thought aloud.

“I hear something,” Bunny abruptly warned, her expression going grim. She tilted her head to listen more closely. “Yeah… There’s something up ahead… Lots of somethings.”

Once we moved a little further, I heard it too. There was movement up ahead, the sounds of leaves rustling and branches breaking. But even more than that, I heard faint growls and hisses.

“Yeah, there is definitely something here,” Ramirez muttered as she readied her spear and shield. “I don’t have any enhanced senses, and I can hear that.”

In spite of all the noise, it took another minute before we actually saw the source. The branch of one of the blacked trees shook. There were no longer any leaves on it, so I could see the cause of the shaking immediately. There was a creature crouched down on the branch, watching us. It was small, about two feet tall, and it resembled a bald monkey with bright red skin. Its eyes glowed red and it snarled, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.

“Ugly little bastard,” Ace commented.

“Look at that tail…and the little horns on its head,” Olivia pointed out. She held out her hand and began preparing her ability. “I think it’s some kind of imp.”

Laugher rang out from around us, high pitched and malicious sounding. Then more of these little imps began to appear, coming out from where they’d been hiding behind trees. There were more than a dozen of them, each ranging between two and three feet tall, but otherwise being identical to the first.

One of the little devils was brave enough to suddenly run towards us, which signaled all the rest of them to do the same. In an instant, we were under attack by the whole group.

Olivia fired one of her arcane blasts, hitting two of the imps and severely injuring them, though they weren’t down completely. The rest of us quickly took our usual positions and braced for the violence.

The devils were small but fast, each a whirling dervish of claws and fangs that threatened to tear us apart of we allowed them to get close. And even worse, they revealed that they could breathe fire.

One of the imps stopped in front of me and let out a large belch, along with a ball of fire that went straight at me. I dove to the side to avoid being hit while the little bastard giggled manically. It didn’t wait for me to get ready though because it leapt right for my face, only to get punctured by Ramirez’ spear.

“TO ME,” Turtle shouted.

Turtle held up his shield, which began to glow as he activated one of his abilities. A moment later, most of the imps turned their attention to him. Suddenly, the rest of us were being left alone while Turtle was being dogpiled.

“Perfect,” Olivia said with a look of grim satisfaction. “Gather in one spot for me…”

Olivia used her shockwave ability and suddenly hit most of the devils in one attack. This didn’t do enough damage to kill any of the imps, but they all flew back and were now completely off balance and confused. The rest of us took immediate advantage of that.

Bunny’s rabbits, including Sir Fluff, lead the charge right into the mass of devils, each killing one of our opponents in the first second. Ace fired two blasts from his scepters, killing one of the imps while missing entirely with the other. I added my own ‘Invocation of Spite’ to the chaos as well. The fight didn’t last long after this, and a few minutes later, the last of the imps was killed.

I stood by the bodies, feeling the faint tickling along my skin. It was weak enough that I hadn’t noticed it until then, but there was no mistaking what it was. Primal magic. It was a different flavor than the other types I’ve already encountered, but considering the little devils, I had a pretty good idea of just what kind of primals we were dealing with. Infernals.

“I might need to increase my perception,” I mused, thinking about how I hadn’t even sensed these things until it was already too late. It might be a good idea to follow Bunny’s example so that I could get a bit more warning about this kind of situation in the future.

“That was easy,” Ace announced. “We got them all.”

“I doubt that,” Turtle said. He looked further into the woods, where all the trees were black and twisted.

“He’s right,” I added, nodding to Turtle. “I don’t think that faerie would have bothered with the mission if this was all there was.”

“These ones were…a little easier than I would have expected,” Ramirez said, indicating the dead imps. “These were a bit more like those rats than the other things we’ve been facing in this area.”

“It might be another case of quantity over quality,” I told her. “Who knows how many of these things there are down here.”

Ramirez nodded at that, then chuckled. “You know, my Abuelita is convinced that the Labyrinth is really Hell, so if she saw these…” She shook her head and chuckled again. “I’d better not tell her what I’ve seen down here, or I’ll never hear the end of the I told you so’s.”

“That might be for the best,” Bunny said.

“Or it could be hilarious,” Ace added with a smirk.

After taking a few more minutes to rest, we continued pushing on into the twisted forest. It didn’t take long before those black trees were all that surrounded us, with no healthy trees remaining. All the other plants were dead and gone, leaving what looked like the wreckage of a forest fire. More of those imps began to appear, scattered about, though they were starting to notice us as well.

“We need to lure them in,” I said as I looked for possible cover. “If Turtle can gather these ones together like the last time…”

“Then I can hit them with another shockwave,” Olivia said with a thoughtful nod. “A good way to keep them off balance.”

Once we were all in position, I told Ace, “Get their attention.”

Ace nodded and fired a single blast from a scepter. He missed the imp that he’d been aiming at, but still managed to get its attention. Moments later, that imp charged at us along with all of its friends. Dozens of them began to come, more than I’d counted on.

“Crap,” I grumbled.

The little devils began appearing from all around us, not just from the direction that Ace had blasted in. Some of them began scrambling up the ruined trees and then leaping at us from above. Turtle and Ramirez both raised their shields to avoid having imps drop right onto their heads, but that left them open to lower attacks.

“DO YOUR THING,” Bunny yelled at Turtle.

“Got it,” Turtle responded with a grimace. His shield began glowing and most of the devils began looking at him. “That’s it… Come to papa…”

“Yeah, papa,” Ace said with a smirk. “Spank their naughty little asses.”

More than a dozen imps hit Turtle at once, biting, scratching, and even spitting balls of fire at him. He’d already activated his other ability, the one that made him a lot tougher, but even that wouldn’t be enough to protect him for long.

Olivia held out her hand and unleashed a shockwave, this time hitting Turtle along with the imps. Turtle was knocked off his feet, though that was nothing compared to the imps which went flying away. Some of those imps smacked right into other devils who hadn’t been caught in Olivia’s attack, knocking them out as well.

“GO!” I shouted, taking advantage of the chaos to open fire with an ‘Invocation of Spite’. The others followed my lead and began attacking as well.

Unfortunately, this fight wasn’t as easy as the last one. This time, there were a lot more imps and Olivia had only been able to hit a third of them with her shockwave. The rest just freaked out and came at us even more frantically.

I smashed one devil with my mace, kicked another in the face, then scrambled back to give Sir Fluff enough space to move past. One of the horned rabbits went down and then a second. Finally, the third horned rabbit was tornn apart as well, leaving Bunny with only Sir Fluff.

“We’ve got more of them coming,” I warned the others, seeing another dozen imps joining the fight.

“I can’t do another shockwave yet,” Olivia announced, right before firing an arcane blast.

I moved closer to Bunny and smacked one of the devils that was trying to sneak up on her from behind. The damn thing let out a shrill scream, reminding me of a toddler who was throwing a tantrum. I smashed my mace into his head, just to silence the thing faster.

“Well,” I weakly joked. “I never was any good with kids.”

It took awhile, but we finally finished off all of those imps and no more seemed to be coming. None of us thought that this was over yet, not this time. We’d just gotten rid of the local batch, and there was no telling how many more were out there.

After this, we took a break and patched up our wounds, which mostly consisted of a few bites and scratches, though Ace had gotten a burn on his arm. His sports jersey had been completely torn to shreds, which didn’t seem to bother him too much. That was the third jersey I’d seen him lose since I’d met him.

“How many more do you think there are?” Ramirez asked.

The Warden looked exhausted, even more than the rest of us, but she made no complaints. Instead, she leaned up against one of the trees and looked around the side, trying to spot more of the little monsters.

“No idea,” I answered with a sigh. “But the faerie said that these things were just the spawn of its real enemy, and I think I can feel it that way.” I pointed in the direction that we’d been heading. “Primal magic feels a bit stronger that way.”

“We can’t keep going like that,” Bunny said. “Not with so many at once.”

“Yeah,” Turtle said, looking to Ramirez. “We’re only getting more tired with each fight.”

I nodded at that. “You’re right, Bunny. We can’t keep dealing with a shit ton of them every time.” Then I leaned back against a tree and pulled out my canteen for a drink. “We rest up, then move ahead a bit more carefully. We need to try spotting them before they see us, so we can lure in a couple at a time instead of the whole damn army.”

“That sounds like a better idea,” Olivia said. Then she plopped onto the ground and let out a long sigh. “I need more vitality.”

“Me too,” Bunny agreed while Ace and Ramirez both nodded agreement.

“I just hope I get the option for it soon,” Ramirez admitted.

We waited and rested while taking turns keeping watch. None of us wanted to get ambushed by more of those guys when we weren’t ready. Bunny took the role of being on watch especially seriously, even adding another point to her perception to make sure that she didn’t miss anything.

When we were ready to continue, we went a little slower. Bunny sent out one of her horned rabbits, letting it lead the way until it encountered one of the imps, then she had it turn around and run back to us. Imps would chase the little creature right into our awaiting ambush. And since there was no obvious attack until then, we didn’t get the attention of nearly so many enemies at once. This was slow, but it worked.

Over the next few hours, we moved through the forest, sending out Bunny’s summoned monsters and luring in more and more devils. Slowly, their number started to dwindle, forcing us to move in closer to the source to find more.

I could still feel the source of the primal power, the infernal that was at the center of this. Each of the devils contained a tiny spark of this infernal’s magic, making me think that it might be creating them the same way that Bunny created her rabbits. At least, I hoped that was the case, because if we were actually hunting down this infernal’s children… Well, I tried not to think about that possibility.

As we moved closer, we also began to see larger imps, ones that stood over four feet tall. They looked much like their smaller brothers, just bigger, nastier, and with longer horns. We also discovered that the larger imps were about three times as powerful as the smaller ones.

“KILL IT,” Ace shouted as the large devil tore his claws right through Sir Fluff, then turned and spat out a ball of fire straight at Olivia.

“I’m trying,” Turtle responded, swinging his sword at the devil, who leapt out of the way. “Stay still, damn it…”

The giant imp leapt at Ramirez, who threw up her shield in time to block the attack, but not the tail that snapped around and hit her in the side. She let out a loud yelp and staggered back but didn’t go down. Instead, she slammed her spear down into the devil’s shoulder.

I took a deep breath, then fired an ‘Invocation of Spite’ into the devil’s back, being careful not to hit Ramirez. It let out a horrific shriek, one which I was afraid might draw other demons to us. As soon as it snapped around to attack me, Ramirez drove her spear into its back.

“That ability you have,” Ramirez growled, still not taking her eye off the devil, even as she rushed forward and slammed her shield into it in order to knock it off balance. “That ability is nasty.”

“You have no idea,” I told her, shuddering at the thought of the pain I had to suffer every single time I used that ability.

I rushed forward and swung my mace, hitting the devil in the arm since it tried to block my attack. There was a crunching sound as the arm broke, though that didn’t stop it from lashing out at me with the other arm. I shifted to the side and then kicked its knee, causing another crunching sound.

“Now,” Ramirez snarled as she drove her spear into the devil’s neck as hard as she could. “DIE!”

The giant imp dropped to its knees and snarled, flames spurting from its mouth but not enough to do any damage. It looked like it was trying to get back to its feet, but I wasn’t about to give it the chance. Instead, I swung my mace and connected with the side of its head. There was yet another crunch before the thing collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.

“Well,” Bunny said, shaking a little. “That one was a bit rough.”

“And ugly,” Olivia commented as she poked the body with her staff.

“No argument there,” Ace said. “And for the good news…”

Ace paused at that and grinned before pointing off to the side. We all turned to look, and there it was, sitting at the base of a twisted black tree. A treasure box.

Turtle was closest to the box, so he was the first one to reach it and open the lid. Inside, there was a bronze scepter with a green stone in the head that could have been an emerald.

“You’re the only one here who uses scepters,” Turtle said as he handed the scepter to Ace.

Ace stared at the scepter for several seconds with a serious expression, before he shook his head. “No. Bunny should take this one.”

“Me?” Bunny asked in surprise. She gave him a suspicious look. “After you keep joking about my accuracy?”

“You can fix your accuracy with some points into dexterity,” Ace responded dismissively. “Besides, I have a good feeling about this scepter. I think it might be just what you need.”

Bunny accepted the weapon a bit hesitantly, still looking suspicious. “I know some artifacts are a pain to recharge.”

“Some,” Ace agreed cheerfully. “Most artifacts recharge on their own just by being in the Labyrinth. Sure, you have some that use more specific energy…like artifacts that are tied to primals and the like, and those can be kind of a pain, but I don’t think this is one of those.” Then he grinned and repeated, “I have a good feeling about this one.”

“Okay,” Bunny responded, still not looking quite sure.

I looked around, only to notice that while the rest of us had been caught up in the treasure box, Ramirez had dropped to the ground. She was sitting there with a glazed expression on her face, as though she might be in shock.

“Ramirez?” I asked, moving to her side and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

While I asked this, I looked her over, trying to see if she had been injured. Her armor looked pretty scratched up and even had a few gouges and burnt patches, but I didn’t see any signs of bleeding. It seemed that her armor was intact and had done its job.

“Maya?” I asked, using her first name when she didn’t respond.

Ramirez finally blinked, coming out of whatever fugue state she’d been in. She blinked several more times, shook her head, and then gasped, “I… I have a status screen.” Then she looked at me and added, “I’m a player now.”