Nash, now shirtless for some reason, fought against Henry, matching the other man's blade with nothing more than his fists and arms. He looked away for a brief second to shout at Luke. "Something is wrong with Tom. Can you heal it, Luke?"

  That moment of splitting his focus awarded Nash a deep cut along his side, but Luke watched as the area turned the same dull gray color as his arms, which seemed to help against the injury.

  Luke approached Tom, more than a little worried the hammer would find a new focus. Judging by the fear in the Warrior's eyes, someone was messing with his mind. Lloyd was the likeliest culprit. Not just because Luke had sensed him near this spot before Nash and Tom rushed in, but because he still sensed the other party's leader in a spot right outside Tom's reach. Having hunted Relian, who possessed Ray's stealth-focused body, and aided by Weaver's Perception, Luke knew that spot of nothing next to a torn-down wall was anything but empty.

  Still approaching with caution, he waved to Tom. "Tom! It's me! Luke! What's wrong?"

  Several places in Tom's brain were lighting up like Christmas trees, bursting with activity to a far greater extent than what you'd see in a normal person. The occipital lobe for visual processing, the temporal lobe for sound, and the prefrontal cortex, which, simplified, tells you what is real and not. Illusions, Luke decided, and quite visceral ones, too.

  "Go away, devil!" Tom shouted, waving his hammer in Luke's direction before aiming a full-on swing.

  "It's me! Don't you recognize me? What's wrong?" Luke said, raising his voice in the hope that it would translate to him sounding panicked.

  "Keep it together, Luke!" Nash shouted without looking away from his fight with Henry. A fight that wasn't going all that great either. Henry's health kept rising back up, while Nash's didn't. Another self-healer? No, Luke didn't think so. Judging by Darius still sitting at 34%, the same as when Luke walked past a moment earlier, despite Sam's continuous draining.

  Another step forward put Luke right outside of Tom's range, and the Warrior let out a high-pitched cry, swinging his hammer in a wide and powerful arc from right to left. Seizing the moment, Luke reached out with a thread of mana, not to stop the blow, but to put his party member off balance, since that would...

  The hammer, now pushed out of its intended arc, swiped through the air and crunched into the spot where Lloyd stood hidden in plain sight through either some sort of stealth or mental manipulation. Luke guessed the latter. That one blow threw Lloyd to the side, unconscious from the strike to his side and back.

  "Lloyd!" Henry shouted.

  "Shit!" Luke shouted, running past the now calm and blinking Tom, who rubbed at the back of his head, turning as if trying to figure out what'd just happened.

  Lloyd was almost dead. The red light on his bracelet told everyone he was out of the game, but if Luke didn't do something, he'd soon be out of his life as well. Rushing after, Luke reached in with Threads of Mana and set to keeping his heart going while he pulled ribs back in place, healing them.

  Healing mana sparked inside Lloyd's meta-heart, and while he worked, Luke sensed how it pumped out through the main mana channel and splintered out into the complex network of smaller channels that followed most of the arteries and veins in an Integrated person's body. The healing mana went everywhere rather than just to the injured area. Where it found nothing to heal, it dissipated and turned into health points, which, in turn, dropped while Lloyd's body attempted to heal itself.

  The process was interesting, to say the least, but it raised a singular question in Luke's mind. How the hell was their healer doing that? So far, only Lifeweavers had healed injuries not sustained in dungeons. Now there was someone else? He wanted to talk with whoever it was, Greta, he guessed, but this was not the time.

  Luke stood, Lloyd now healed, and waved to Henry. "He'll be fine!"

  "Thank God!" Henry shouted as he slithered past his opponent's guard, slammed his shield into Nash's face, then stepped past and ran forward. "Now, you'll pay for that!"

  Grinning, Luke summoned the Tempered Staff from his inventory and readied himself. He needn't have bothered, because Tom was quicker. Now that he was back to his senses, the long hammer he wielded struck with confidence and perhaps more than a little embarrassed rage. All Henry could do was raise his shield, since he hadn't seen the blow coming. Attempting to block a full-strength blow from Tom was a bad idea, it turned out, as Henry was thrown straight into the stone wall of a building with enough force to crack it.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Even with that, Henry remained standing, having only lost about half of his HP, though he coughed up quite a bit of blood. A real tank, that one. Henry took a trembling step forward, glanced down at his shield, now dented to the point of uselessness, and threw it aside as he advanced on Tom and Luke, showing quite a bit of courage.

  Nash wasn't down for the count, though, and he intercepted Henry, resuming their fight.

  "Can't... Hold..."

  Priyah let out a cry, and Luke turned to see Darius free of her shackles. Showing no hesitation whatsoever, he buried a knife right into her belly. Rather than scream, Priyah fell silent, her face lost all color, and her health dropped to 20% in an instant.

  Using Weavestep several times in quick succession brought Luke right to them, and he pushed with threads of mana, shifting Darius out of the way. The knife he was still holding slid out. Dark blood followed. A lot of it.

  Darius closed in again before anyone had a chance to stop him.

  The Healer's Moment put a stop to him, and Luke reached in with Needle of Life. Darius would need healing too after, but this way, he wouldn't get in the way of Luke making sure Priyah would survive. Her cut was deep and wide, and perforated her stomach, but that wasn't all. The damned dagger was poisoned. Even with that, the injury didn't take much time to heal. A few stitches to mend her stomach, once he destroyed the poison, and another couple to stop the bleeding and close the entrance wound. After that, he made sure she wouldn't be in much pain afterward.

  Time resumed, and Darius fell into a heap on the ground, paralyzed from the neck down.

  "Poison?" Luke asked, getting down on his heels next to Darius. "How about you spend some time as a paraplegic to think about your choices leading up to this moment?"

  Priyah groaned. Luke stood and turned. "You okay, Priyah?"

  "I'm fine, I think," she said. "What happened?"

  "That one stabbed you," Mas said, pointing.

  Darius's bracelet blinked red. Three down, three to go. That was the moment the sky turned red.

  "T-that can't be good," Priyah said, checking the cut hole in her blouse. The surrounding fabric was stained red with blood, but she found no injury.

  "No," Luke agreed. Dots of a brighter yellow appeared up there. Hundreds of them. "That's probably worse."

  "Dammit!" Nash shouted as Henry scored a blow on him that put his health below 30%.

  In the same moment, Tom's hammer crushed Henry's sword arm, taking him out of the game as well. Downing a health potion, Henry jogged over, glancing up at the sky. "What happened to Darius?"

  "You have your people using poison?" Luke asked, rather than answer the question.

  Henry gave Darius a dark look and shook his head. "I don't." He got down next to Darius. "I thought we were past that, Big-D. Now I'll have to report you to our lieutenant. You know what that means?"

  Darius's eyes widened, but he didn't reply.

  Nash walked up to them, gesturing for Mas to stand up. "Those yellow dots are getting bigger, aren't they?"

  "Heh, yeah. It'll be a big show. It's better outside, but this won't be too pretty either," Henry said, shaking his head. "Goddammit, Michelle." He turned and shouted. "Greta! Come out! It's over!"

  "Over?" Luke asked.

  "Some of my people," he glared down at Darius, then up at the sky, "are a little overeager and don't listen well to instruction. When that up there comes down, I'm going to be in so much shit for it. Not her, you hear? Me?"

  Greta walked up through the space between two buildings. Her mana was low enough that her head must be killing her, and she swayed a little.

  "There you are, Greta," Henry said. "How're you doing?"

  "Fine," Greta said, eyeing the members of The Band.

  Henry followed her gaze and then shrugged. "We forfeit."

  With that, Greta's armband turned blinked red.

  "We still could've won," Greta said, nodding at the sky.

  "Maybe," Henry agreed. "But it's more important that we don't build on this shitshow with someone dying. That said, we still have a minute. Can you heal Darius?"

  "His health is full," she said, shrugging. "That's all I can do."

  "There are no mana channels going to his neck," Luke said.

  "That's a permanent thing?" Henry asked, his eyes going dark.

  Luke shook his head. "Not if I heal him."

  That made Henry relax. "Tom, big guy, would you mind going over there to fetch Perienka? I would hate for her to get incinerated."

  "Um, sure." Tom disappeared between the buildings, and Nash followed after Sam used some of her stored health, transferring it to him. It was a poor substitute for real healing, but it would do in a pinch.

  "Really thought Perienka would be able to overwhelm you," Henry said, eyeing Luke. "Guess you're hardy for a healer."

  "Maybe," Luke said, turning his attention to Greta. "You're able to heal injuries outside of dungeons."

  She shook her head.

  "I saw you do it."

  "Only here."

  "What do you mean?" he asked.

  "They've done something to The Gauntlet to make it work like a dungeon, sort of."

  Luke raised an eyebrow. "Say what now?"

  "Try inspecting me."

  Greta. Cantomancer. Level 14.

  "Huh, it works."

  "Told you."

  "How the hell did the guild manage that?" Luke asked. "And are there monsters?"

  "Their knowledge is only dwarfed by their resources," Henry said, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder. "No monsters yet." Then his eyes widened. "Oh shit, here it comes! Tom! Nash! Hurry!"

  The spots of orange and yellow near the ceiling had grown even larger, and now a sound reached down from above. It was like a raging storm, except with this one, it wouldn't be water raining down on their heads.

  "Fire!" Henry yelled. "Greta! Now!"