Kojo’s attack hit the monster a second before my fireball made contact. The bolt struck the creature in the upper right shoulder, hitting it so hard it stumbled back a step. Then my fireball exploded against its chest.

  Wasting no time, I aimed my staff to the group on the left and fired again. The shot was a little hasty and I missed the center of the formation. Still, it was enough to slow them down. I prepared another fireball, doing my best to pump mana through my body slowly despite the situation.

  Kojo drew Riu’s fire sword and activated the enchantment. I could barely see it out of the corner of my eye, but the length of steel ignited along the edges, the metal turning bright red. Unlike Michael, Kojo seemed to have never used a sword before. He swung it in savage, wide arcs, using the thing more like a baseball bat than a blade.

  I was able to shoot one more fireball before the infected drew too close. But even if I hadn’t scored any direct hits, all of them were burning. Two died as they attempted to shuffle forward, the XP gains much higher than anything up to this point.

  The air around the center of the clearing shifted, and a massive shape came sprinting at me, its entire body wreathed in flame.

  “Shit,” I spun, heels digging into the sand. It was already too close for a fireball, so I poured a steady stream of mana into my staff, the air sparking with electricity.

  It shot forward so fast I almost didn’t have to shoot. But when it was about ten feet from me, I grabbed my staff with both hands and pointed.

  Blinding energy surged from my staff, the entire clearing flashing white. I slid back, air whipping around me. The spell struck the monster in the chest and tore a hole straight through it.

  But it didn’t stop coming.

  It slammed into me and I flew away, feet leaving the ground. My back hit a wall, all the air leaving me. By the time my knees met the sand below, a tentacle was whipping at my head.

  Bubble threw the attack wide and I shot the creature in the face with zap, finally killing it.

  Notice: You have gained a level!

  Notice: Bubble has gained a level!

  My vision blurred as I fell forward, the sand warm against my face. It felt like all my bones had been shattered. Kojo was still fighting, I could hear the sound of flesh tearing. I just had to hope that was him killing them and not the other way around.

  “Arthur!” Riu’s voice. Why did he sound so far away?

  Everything began to fade, the world narrowing until there was nothing but darkness. And as I lay there, I heard voices. They sounded annoyed.

  Another failure, one said, voice stilted and robotic. We must try again.

  We cannot, another said, this one female. This was our last chance. There will be no second tries. We are finished.

  My head swirled, the voices seeming to come from somewhere deep within me.

  No. He is not dying here. This voice sounded old, ancient even. But human. It also sounded familiar, but my brain was too foggy to remember where I’d heard it before. He has to find his sister. There was a long pause, then warmth spread through my body. Isn’t that right, Arthur?

  When I opened my eyes, I almost wanted to scream.

  It was like somebody had a hold of my bones and was snapping them back together one by one. Then I focused, saw Riu standing there with an empty health potion in his hands.

  “That was very close,” Kojo said. He had a large gash across his leather vest and cut along his bald scalp. His face was covered in blood.

  I sat up with a cough, then Riu handed me my staff. My entire body felt oddly numb as I pulled myself up.

  “Are there more of them?” I asked, chest tight from pumping mana too quickly.

  “Not here, but there will be many more in the forest.” He looked down at the massive corpse.

  It had eaten a crossbow bolt, fireball, and then a charged zap without going down. The creature was worth a lot of XP and I could see why. But if there were two of them at the same time, I wasn’t sure if we could handle it.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Rubbing the stiffness from my neck, I turned to Riu. “Did you find anything on the bodies back there?”

  He opened his inventory and pulled out a health potion. “They had two,” he explained. Then he stood there with it, looking between me and Kojo.

  “Give to him,” I said, gesturing at Kojo. “He’s the only frontline we have, so he’s most likely to get hurt.”

  And there was one of our biggest problems. We were two ranged fighters and a rogue. Without a proper tank or warrior, we just had to make sure we killed enemies before they reached us.

  “Riu, I know you may not want to, but we’ll need you to help us from here on out,” I said, each of us knowing it was true.

  “Okay.” Riu handed Kojo the potion. “I will.”

  We walked into the clearing after that. Riu checked the corpses while Kojo and I stood guard. I did my best to keep paying attention to my surroundings, but those voices, had they even been real? Or maybe I’d just imagined them?

  Something I’ll just have to sit with for now. Kojo found his lost bolts and Riu quickly returned. Most of the dead didn’t have anything on them, but a few had a handful of coins. We pocketed them, then stood at the entrance to the forest.

  It looked like a jungle someone had infected with an STD. There were rotting patches on all the trees, the ground covered in dying plant refuse. The only thing that looked remotely unaffected was the bright moss and some of the mushrooms.

  “You guys drank water from in there?” I asked. No fucking wonder you caught something.

  Kojo frowned. “When you are desperate, you will drink whatever you can find. But also,” He stepped into the rotting forest. “It is much cleaner deeper inside.”

  Not the first time I’ve heard that. I followed him in, Riu right behind me. Then we pressed on, the forest quickly closing in around us.

  Our map might have called this place “The Mushroom Forest” but it should have been called “Sweaty shithole.” I felt like an idiot for ever complaining about how dry the Red Hills were. This place was damp, smelly, and diseased. Just breathing the air made me feel sick. And I was starting to sweat straight through my robe. Kojo was wearing a leather vest and some pants, so he was fine, but poor Riu was going through it too. His leather armor covered most of his body and the kid looked like he’d just taken a bath.

  It was also more jungle than forest. I’d taken a trip to Brazil once and this reminded me of our brief exposure to the Amazon. Everything felt sticky and too close, like the plants were trying to smother you.

  But I guess here, that could be true.

  We walked on a thin path that snaked through the foliage. Kojo was in front with Riu taking up the rear. Both of them had their ranged weapons out, but I didn’t doubt they could draw their blades quickly.

  Visibility was extremely poor, but according to Kojo, we would reach an open area soon.

  “The creek we drank from is a few hours north,” he whispered. “We will likely run across the infected soon.”

  “North? How do you know which way is north?”

  “My Pathfinding skill increased from walking a certain number of kilometers. My map now has a compass.”

  Well, that’s convenient. I wondered how many other classes came with nice utility skills. We’d been in some variation of forest since the start, but I bet there were all kinds of strange zones out there. I just hoped wherever Avery landed, it was better than this place.

  Kojo had been correct and soon our path opened to an area where the plants were less tightly packed. One of those big grey stones was ahead, but this one looked like it’d been there a long time. It was overgrown, that ugly moss eating up most of its surface.

  I spotted something shuffling through the grass in the distance. It was hunched and hard to see, but it was moving slow, probably one of the infected. I tapped Kojo on the shoulder and pointed it out. He and Riu aimed while I inched closer.

  Last time I shot a fireball inside a forest, the thing had caught on fire. This place was so wet I wasn’t sure I needed to worry about that. But there was also this strange mucus like substance all over the place. For all I knew, that shit would explode if I hit it with a fireball. So to be safe, I decided on using Zap so long as there was only one or two enemies to contend with.

  When I finally got a good look at the creature, I was a little surprised.

  It was a walking mushroom. No tentacles or growths, literally just a red capped mushroom with two legs and a set of stubby arms. It also had these massive, black eyes and a tiny line for a mouth. Almost looked kind of cute, like a plushie you’d find at convention.

  Then it saw me, opened its mouth, and shot a ball of acid at my face.

  I activated bubble as I reflexively stepped back. A small portion of the acid phased though the edge of my defense spell, the splash just barely missing my boots. It sizzled against the ground, melting everything away.

  Since bubble didn’t stop it, that meant it was either registered as a tier C attack, or it was magical. When the mushroom dude opened his mouth again, I saw something gleaming in the darkness beyond. Looked like a wand.

  I blasted the monster with an uncharged zap right before Kojo nailed it with a bolt. His crossbow seemed to do more damage. The attack tore half the monster’s head off and it nearly fell to the ground.

  Riu shot it in the side with an arrow, then drew his daggers and rushed forward. By the time it turned to face him, I’d charged a zap. Before it could melt Riu, it ate lightning to the side of the head.

  A dagger sliced across its eyes, another stabbing it in the gut. It fell on its back, Kojo closing in with a flaming sword.

  Its flesh was soft, chunks of it falling away with each strike. After a few more hits, an XP notification appeared. We all took a breath after that.

  “See one of these before?” I asked, walking up to the corpse.

  Kojo shook his head.

  I was about to commend Riu on finally using his dagger when the monster’s mouth fell open and I saw green light pulsing inside.

  Without really thinking about it, I shoved Riu out of the way.

  Acid flew from the creature’s mouth, the edge catching one of my sleeves. I fell to one knee, thrown off balance after pushing Riu.

  There was something inside the mushroom man’s mouth.

  I reached inside and grabbed whatever it was. It was extremely soft and fleshy, and it beat uselessly against my fingers. Then it bit me and I squeezed.

  It squished inside my hand like a tomato.

  “Disgusting,” I said, pulling my hand free.

  “Is that…a dress?” Kojo asked.

  I looked down.

  “Well fuck.”

  I’d just smooshed Tinker Bell.