Interlude:
Raze howled a battle cry as he swung his axe, cleaving through two monsters at the same time. Gore flew in every direction, and he let out a loud roar of maniacal laugher.
These monsters were weak and easy to kill, and Raze knew that he wouldn’t have any real challenges until they went deeper into the Labyrinth. Still, he enjoyed demonstrating his power, even against such puny opponents.
Once Raze was finished with the monsters, he looked back at his companions who’d mostly been standing back while he did the work. In this situation he didn’t mind that. He didn’t need their help.
Mike was looking at the amulet, using it to chart their course back to the temple. They had only just come from that direction, but the Labyrinth had shifted around and changed since then. There were new paths and tunnels, ones that hadn’t been there just one day earlier, while walls existed where there hadn’t been any before. Without that amulet to guide them, he doubted that they’d be able to find their way back.
Then Raze looked at the other people in his current group, ones who he didn’t know nearly as well as Mike. In fact, he barely knew one of them while the other two were complete strangers. He’d have to watch his back with all three and made a mental note to remind each of them of their place in this group.
The first of the newcomers was Godiva, the woman they’re recruited after Zeke’s death. Godiva was a tall, svelt black woman, with what was probably the darkest skin that he’d ever seen on a human. Her silvery-white hair was pulled back into a long intricate braid that hung down all the way to her calves. How she avoided tripping over her own braid, Raze had no idea.
Godiva was a strange woman, one who liked to slot most of her points into presence, instead of sharing them with the other stats that supported her class. That made her impossible to ignore when she wanted attention, especially when she went about nude, as she usually did when outside the Labyrinth. However, Raze couldn’t deny that she was useful, especially when it came to recruiting other people.
While Godiva had been in Gideon Heights, waiting to meet up with Raze and Mike, she’d done a little recruiting. She’d made friends with a local woman, one who seemed motivated to join their cause. That meant they had one more player to help them fight their way through the Labyrinth.
Jace was the stocky, auburn-haired woman who Godiva had befriended. She had a bad attitude and didn’t seem very bright, neither of which was a problem for Raze, as long as she followed his orders and did her job. If nothing else, she’d make good cannon fodder.
And then there was the last member of their little group, the one who had been least willing to join. This was the invoker they needed, a man named Wolf. From what Godiva had told him, Wolf was the only successful invoker in town. At first, Wolf hadn’t wanted to join them, but after some presence-enhanced convincing from Godiva and a little demonstration with Raze’s axe, he’d changed his mind.
Wolf stood back, scowling deeply, though he quickly schooled his expression to appear unconcerned. Raze chuckled at that. He didn’t care about the fact that Wolf didn’t like him or the situation, as long as he did his job.
“Soon,” Raze announced, grinning hungrily. “Soon, I’ll have everything I always wanted.”
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Eileen Davis leaned back in the chair behind her desk, taking a long drink of bourbon. She was drinking from the bottle, not even bothering with a glass. Then she set the bottle aside, ignoring the temptation for another drink. What she wanted was enough to dull the pain a bit but not so much that she’d get drunk. After all, she still had work to do.
The Warden looked down at herself, scowling as she did so. Her currently useless arm was in a sling while her shoulder was heavily bandaged. She had several more bandages on her body, ones over much smaller wounds which had been mostly caused by shrapnel. The only truly serious injury was the one on her shoulder, where she’d been grazed by an oversized axe.
“Damn useless healer,” Davis grumbled, knowing that he’d saved her life and even her arm, but he hadn’t been powerful enough to heal her all the way. It would take time and several more sessions with his power before she was at full strength again, IF she ever would be. She had taken quite the injury, perhaps too much of one to ever heal completely. “Him and his bare bones work…”
Davis chuckled a little at her joke. Most respawned players chose new names to go with their new bodies and new lives, and that healer wasn’t any different. He’d chosen the name of Bones.
“Damn Bones,” Davis said, closing her eyes and thinking about what had just happened. “Damn rogues.”
She couldn’t help but thinking about all the damage to the town…to HER town. She thought about the innocent people who’d died, and mostly, she thought of Owen Nash.
“Poor kid,” Davis whispered, her voice choking.
Owen had been a good Warden, and he’d had a bright future ahead of him. All of that had been brutally ended by a psychopathic monster, a monster that she couldn’t end. The frustration burned in her guts, the knowledge that she’d been damn near powerless against that player.
“If I wasn’t too old, I’d make a dungeon run myself,” Davis muttered.
Just then, there was a knock on the door, a quick rap that was clearly intended to announce the knocker’s presence. Davis looked up to the open doorway and saw Simon Harris stepping into her office with Lewis McNichols following right behind.
“I received your message,” Simon announced with a grim expression. “The courier you sent filled us in on what happened.”
Davis nodded at that, then straightened up in her chair. She cleared her throat and shifted into professional mode as she made a quick report.
“Two players came out of the Labyrinth,” Davis explained, keeping her voice steady and even. “They were the two players you were looking for, Raze and Mad Mike.”
“Those two,” McNichols muttered angrily.
Davis ignored the young Warden and continued. “I’ve been told that they had a friend waiting here in town for them. They reconnected, then began asking around about an invoker. Specifically, they were looking for the strongest invoker in town. It was around this time that someone set Raze off, and he decided to live up to his name.”
“Your message said that they escaped back into the Labyrinth,” Simon said, his own expression carefully controlled though Davis could see the anger burning in his eyes.
“They left behind six bodies,” Davis practically spat out. “Including Owen. I was damn near number seven.”
“Nash was a good man,” Simon said with a deep scowl.
McNichols shook his head, showing a bit more of the anger he felt than his mentor did. “I can’t believe he’s gone…”
Davis nodded at that. “Well, I do have some good news, at least.”
Simon seemed a little skeptical at that. “Let’s hear it.”
“Your partner, Ramirez,” Davis told him. “Shortly after this happened, she came out of the Labyrinth. She’s a player now. A stalker.”
Simon let out a sigh of relief. “That…is good news.”
“A stalker,” McNichols mused. “I can see it.”
“Where is she?” Simon asked, glancing around the office as though he half-expected to see Ramirez there.
“She went right back into the Labyrinth to chase after those bastards,” Davis said, her expression serious.
“WHAT?” Simon demanded, suddenly looking worried. “Alone?”
“No,” Davis answered with a faint smirk. “She took her escort team with her…and another Warden.”
Simon paused at that and calmed his expression. “I didn’t think there were any more Wardens in the area.”
Davis learned back in her chair, looking smug though still pained. “There weren’t. I should have said, a FORMER Warden. And she was right under our damn noses.”
“What are you talking about?” Simon asked, giving Davis an annoyed look.
Davis leaned forward, her smirk even more obvious. “Do you remember that player I recommended as a potential candidate for recruitment?”
“Maggie,” Simon responded slowly. “She’s hard to forget.”
“I’ve had my suspicions about her,” Davis explained, her expression turning serious again. “I thought that she might have been a Warden…and it turns out that I was right. Maggie is the first Warden I know of to be respawned.”
“Are you sure?” Simon asked in surprise.
Davis shook her head. “You know that we can’t be absolutely certain without a lot of questions and answers, but she claims to be, and I’m pretty confident that she’s telling the truth.”
Simon considered that for a moment before nodding. He trusted Davis’ judgement. “Has she said who she was?” Only a couple Wardens died recently enough to be a recent respawn.
Davis hesitated a moment before answering, “Carl Upton.”
That name caused Simon to freeze in place with his breath caught in his throat. A couple seconds later, he took a deep breath and muttered, “The timing is right… And that WOULD explain a few things.”
“Wait,” McNichol’s said, his eyes going wide. “If Carl Upton is back as a player…then he…she just went into the Labyrinth after the same players who killed him.”
Simon reached over for Davis’ bottle of bourbon, then poured himself a good finger. He downed it in one gulp.
“If,” Simon finally said. “If Carl really is back…then I almost feel sorry for those bastards.” A cruel smile formed at the edges of his lips. “Almost.”
“I never met Upton before,” Davis admitted. “I’ve heard the name, but I didn’t know the man.”
“Carl was a good man,” Simon answered carefully. “And a damn good Warden. However, he could be a bit…vindictive.”
“How vindictive?” Davis asked.
Simon let out a short laugh. “Carl once turned down a big promotion so that he could stick around long enough to get payback on someone who’d screwed him over.” Then he shook his head and added, “He’s vindictive enough to come back from the dead, just to go after the bastards who murdered him.”
“Damn,” McNichols said.
“Carl was damn good at taking down rogue players,” Simon continued, looking lost in thought. “In fact, he developed many of our early techniques for stopping them.”
“I wish I could have met him,” McNichols said awkwardly. “I mean, other than the way I did…”
Simon nodded at that. “As a crippled old man, Carl killed one player and took the eye of another. Just imagine what he could do with a healthy young body and player abilities.”
“And THIS is the person we have hunting those rogues?” Davis asked with an almost predatory grin.
“May Heaven have mercy on those rogues,” Simon agreed with a look of dark satisfaction, “because I can guarantee that Carl won’t.”