Thunder rolled while lightning crashed overhead. The dark storm clouds were thick and heavy, with an eerie purple glow from within. But in spite of how impressive the sky looked, my attention was focused firmly on the ground in front of me.
More than a dozen monsters were rushing straight at me. These ones looked like a cross between monkeys and salamanders, with slimy pink skin and wide mouths that were full of sharp teeth. Each one stood about four feet tall.
“I don’t think so,” I said as I dropped a ‘Cursed Ground’ right in front of me, catching all of the monsters in this particular group.
Since all those monsters were now slowed to a virtual crawl, I took advantage of the opportunity to dish out more damage. I stood back, adjusted my grip on my staff, then fired a ‘Hex’ at one of the monsters. Then, I grinned.
“Now for the fun part,” I said.
I held my staff in one hand, but I had a leather whip in my other hand. I snapped the whip, cracking it in the air experimentally. I still wasn’t very good with this thing yet, but I was definitely getting better.
A moment later, I snapped the whip again, this time at the monster with my ‘Hex’ on it. The whip didn’t do much damage, but the ‘Cursed Object’ that I’d placed on it did a lot. A random bane appeared on the monster as well as a copy of the ‘Hex’. I snapped at the monster again and another random debuff appeared, though another copy of ‘Hex’ appeared on the monster beside it instead.
More monsters were rushing towards me, ones that weren’t caught inside of my ‘Cursed Ground’, so I turned my attention to those ones. I hit one of those with a ‘Hex’ and then snapped at it with my whip. Another random bane formed while another copy of ‘Hex’ formed on the monster beside it. I grinned and kept lashing at monsters with my whip, hitting them with doses of ‘Cursed Object’ that added to the stack of banes and spread them to nearby enemies.
It didn’t take long before I used up the last charge of ‘Cursed Object’ on my whip. When that happened, I backed up and took a moment to look around the battlefield.
Grayson rushed in and used his shield to slam one monster that was trying to sneak up on me, knocking it back and then finishing it off with his sword. Then he snapped around and gave the same attention to another monster that had tried to sneak up on him.
“Watch your back,” Grayson warned me.
Suddenly, an arrow shot through the head of yet another monster that had been trying to sneak up on Grayson.
“I can say the same thing to you,” Lenore called out.
Lenore stood back in her full armor, with her conjured bow in hand. She paused just long enough to conjure a massive shield that was too heavy for her to handle well with her current strength. However, instead of carrying that shield around, she dropped it to the ground and used it as a short wall to provide cover while she continued shooting at monsters.
Giles stood behind Lenore, watching her back side and using his halberd to keep the monsters away. Then, he held out a hand and fired a ball of silver energy which shot out and knocked several of the monsters back.
“You doing okay, Red?” Lenore called out.
“Doing just fine,” I called back.
Just then, there was a loud roar as a new monster appeared, a much larger and nastier version of the ones we’d been fighting. If the others looked like monkey salamanders, this one was like a silverback gorilla salamander.
“Another boss just showed up,” Grayson commented.
“I’ve got it,” another voice exclaimed.
Stine suddenly rushed forward, jumping over fifty feet and landing right beside the boss monster. He punched the monster as he landed, sending it flying back with a sickening crunch. The boss monster hit the ground and tumbled several times before coming to a stop.
“Show off,” I exclaimed.
“All for you,” Stine responded as he flashed me a grin.
I took a moment to appreciate his muscular body and the graceful way he moved, then turned my attention back to the monsters. There were a lot of them, but they were relatively weak. That wasn’t surprising since we were just barely inside the Labyrinth, almost right next to the exit that led to Brazil.
It had been nearly a month since the Wardens had flown our group down to Brazil, to help defend the Labyrinth zone down there. To my pleasant surprise, Stine had offered to come with, and he’d been part of our team since.
We spent weeks in the Labyrinth zone itself, killing off every monster that infested the place. From the sheer number of them, we assumed that the Labyrinth had been very close to claiming the zone for itself. Unfortunately, just killing the monsters wasn’t enough. New ones kept pouring of the Labyrinth in ridiculous numbers, until we decided to go inside and start culling here as well.
“It’s just disappointing that the Labyrinth is throwing a temper tantrum like this,” Grayson commented. “Just because we killed all its monsters out there and kept it from claiming the zone.”
“One last push,” Giles said. “I believe we’re nearly done.”
“About fucking time,” Lenore agreed as she fired another group of arrows at the monsters. “Brazil is nice, but I really want to get back to my own bed.”
I chuckled at that, knowing exactly what she meant. Since the Labyrinth zone was remote, it didn’t have a lot of luxury amenities. The local players and their equivalent to the Wardens, had provided some nice tents, but it wasn’t the same as having nice beds, air conditioning, and cold beer.
There were advantages to being here, to fighting monsters for several weeks straight. We’d all gained a few more levels and some of our group had even gained new abilities, though I wasn’t one of those. At least not directly. However, the abilities that I did have had become a bit more powerful.
Once of the things I’d discovered was that by increasing my focus, I also increase my control over which of the existing banes my ‘Cursed Object’ would copy. I usually preferred to copy ‘Hex’ when possible, just for the increased damage, but it was great having options. And to make this even more useful, I could also make the new copies appear on nearby monsters instead of just on the one that had been directly dosed with my ‘Cursed Object’.
And of course, when I’d reached level fifteen, I’d also unlocked the third ability of my ‘Armor of the Enchantress’, which gave me another powerful tool. This one simply allowed my armor to store one of my enchantments for later.
With that, I flipped the mental switch to activate the enchantment that was currently stored in my armor and transferred it to my whip. ‘Cursed Object’ settled into the weapon as though I had only just cast it, even though I’d saved it a couple hours ago.
I cracked the whip and hit another nearby monster, spreading even more banes. The monkey salamander abruptly attacked the monster beside it, even as I hit a third one with a ‘Hex’.
My banes spread over the monsters, fucking them up in one way or another, ensuring that they were less of a threat and much easier to deal with. This was my role. This was how I helped my team. It was something that I’d come to take great pride in.
Before long, the rest of the monsters dwindled away to nothing. We were surrounded by piles of dead monsters, many of them already starting to melt away. No new ones seemed to be coming, which I took to be a good sign.
“I think this may be it,” Giles said a bit hopefully. “I think we beat back the Labyrinth enough to keep the zone.”
“For now,” Grayson pointed out.
“We should be fine,” Lenore added. “As long as no one ignores this fucking zone again.”
“Player presence and regular culling should take care of that, Miss Lenore,” Giles told her with a tired smile. “But it looks like we’ve finished doing our part.”
In spite of the fact that Giles had already proclaimed victory, we continued walking around that area of the Labyrinth, the area near the exit. There were a couple more monsters remaining, but no large groups. It appeared that the current issue really had been resolved.
“You looked pretty good out there,” Stine said as he put an arm over my shoulders. “And you really look like you’re getting the hang of that whip.”
“Thanks,” I told him with a smile. “And thanks for suggesting I use one. It gives me almost twice the reach of my staff.”
Once we were done, we left the Labyrinth and returned to Earth, to the zone in Brazil. There, we met up with the other player team that we’d been working with, the one from the local area.
“Mister Silva,” Giles greeted the head of the other team.
Silva was the leader of the local team, a lean and muscular player with dark skin. He was a member of the local equivalent of the Wardens, a group that had asked for extra manpower to help out when they realized that they’d need to cull their remote zone. Since they also had another Labyrinth zone near a more populated area, they didn’t think that they had enough players to take care of both zones on their own.
“Mister Giles,” Silva responded with a smile. “It seems that we have successfully ended the invasion.”
“Indeed, it does,” Giles responded with a smile. “Your people should be able to keep the new monsters under control without any problems.”
Silva nodded at that and grinned even wider. “I am certain we can. Teams of players will take turns patrolling the area and killing all the monsters. But that is an issue for tomorrow. For now, we celebrate.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said.
The Brazilian player said something to one of his teammates, and they had a quick conversation. However, they talked in Portuguese, so I couldn’t understand a word of it.
“Pereira has offered to cook some picanha,” Silva announced, gesturing to the teammate he’d just been speaking to. “Now, we have a feast to prepare.”
“Now that sounds pretty damn tasty,” Stine said with a grin.
Stine and I shared a kiss, then I leaned on my staff and silently watched everyone else. My teammates. My friends. I smiled as I considered where I was and the people I now had by my side, and just how different it was from where I used to be.
Then, I remembered a quote from a book that I’d recently read, one that I’d bought to read on the flight down to Brazil. It was a quote that stuck with me.
‘Happiness is like one of those palaces on an enchanted island, its gates guarded by dragons. One must fight to gain it.’
Then I chuckled at the words of Edmond Dantes and mused, “So, it’s a good thing that I have a lot of practice fighting monsters. After the Labyrinth, a little dragon should be nothing.”