Kim flew backwards, all the air smushed out of her lungs. She then bounced along the floor, sliding like a bag of flour.

  The purple creature crashed after her. Two eye stalks were still bruised and closed, and this must have affected the monster's balance because she careened off the wall, roared and launched herself at Kim. Kim lifted her left arm as the thing with the enormous fists descended like a purple, bulbous meteor.

  At the last moment she saw a blur, and an eagle-headed staff smashed that final eye stalk. The j?rk let out a noxious squeak of pain and tumbled past Kim and into the wall.

  Damon stood in front of her with his hand held out. She took the hand, and he pulled and grunted a bit, but got her up onto her feet.

  The j?rk was blindly banging into walls on the opposite side of the room, roaring as she did so. Feathers flew from her back. Thankfully, the eye stalks remained closed.

  "Don't make a noise," Damon whispered as he carefully plucked his staff from the floor. Kim nodded.

  Since she had no neck, the monster rotated her body, her massive purple pancake ears listening for them. Both Kim and Damon did their best impressions of statues. Maybe the j?rk would leave the room and they could block the hole with Fiora's body and pieces of the table.

  The j?rk took a deep, deep sniff.Bits of floating dust and smoke from the torches were sucked into the massive nostrils. The monster smiled. It was a hideous smile that displayed several sharp, rotted teeth.

  "Oh no," Kim whispered. "It smells us."

  The beast charged in their direction, coming at them blindly, angrily, mouth hinged open, and arms wide so she would have a better chance of hugging them to death. "Bumph, Bumph Bum!"

  At the last moment, Kim shoved Damon, and he fell one way, she fell the other, and the purple monster slammed into the wall with enough force to make the whole room shake. Kim rose to her feet, happy to see Damon do the same. The purple people crusher turned towards them woozily, took a step and another step. The torch and its holder had been impaled in the creature's head.

  "It's another Ace of Spades hit," Damon said. "It's like rolling a 20."

  Kim ignored his confusing statement. The j?rk was clearly still alive. Would anything kill this thing? She was expecting another round of ducking, bobbing, and wheezing. But the j?rk was moving her lips in an odd regurgitating manner, and, suddenly, something launched out of the creature's mouth.

  It was the thing's lunch: a collection of black bile, bones and pieces of plate mail. This was followed by a clunk and clank and a smack noise when something even larger came out of the mouth hole. She really hoped it wasn't Shayne's dead body.

  Vomiting done, the j?rk fell over and lay still.

  "Did the monster throw up?" Kim asked. "Tell me it didn't throw up."

  "It threw up," Damon said.

  "Is it dead?" The j?rk's eyes were still closed and her chest wasn't going up and down. Kim poked the monster with her sword, ready to leap back. No response.

  "Yes," Damon said, looking slightly above the j?rk's head. "The numbers have gone out. It's dead." He leaned on his staff. "My Metal Health is down to a 1. I don't feel so good. Also, Shayne's numbers are gone. He's gone."

  She looked at the creature's stomach. It was no longer protruding. And Shayne wasn't in the mess on the floor.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Was… was he digested?" she asked.

  "I don't know," Damon said.

  Should she offer a prayer? Kim wondered. He had seemed like a nice guy in the few minutes she'd known him. So she said, "He was a nice guy."

  "Yes, yes, he was," Damon replied. "I wonder what happened to his—"

  Before he could finish, a bright golden musical note rose from the monster's chest, followed by another. One was a half note, with a stem. The other was a full note. And they were both ringing together, making a two-note chord. A two-note chord is a dyad, Kim heard her piano teacher's voice whisper from long ago and a world away. Kim recognized one note as A and the other as C. Both were glowing bright as stars. Then, in the blink of an eye, the whole note flew into her chest. The half note sped to Damon and disappeared into his chest.

  For Kim, it was like eating a handful of Hershey's Kisses all at once if they also contained caffeine and steroids. Muscles rippled and grew slightly on her arms and legs. Even her lungs stretched and became larger, like she might belt out a Broadway tune. And oddly, her hair grew longer and thicker. When she looked down at her arm, she was certain there was more definition to her muscles.

  Damon stood straighter and held his fingers out to examine them. Sparks briefly leapt between his fingertips, then vanished. His short hair had grown at least an inch, making it look a little messy.

  A third note popped out of the j?rk and vanished into the ceiling.

  "What just happened?" she said.

  Damon stopped staring at his fingers. "Those notes were like… like manna or something." He glanced above his head. "Metal Mana, in fact. I feel stronger, smarter, and maybe even cooler. My health went back up to 4. That's a three-point jump—I was healed by the note. And you…" He looked above her head. "Your health number got even higher."

  "My health number?" she asked.

  "Yes, those numbers I'm seeing aren't my imagination. There's a green one floating above your head. It was a 12. It went down to 9 when the j?rk hit you, but now it's at 16. You were healed, too. And the writing also says you're a warrior." He squinted. "A Warrior Diva."

  She looked up but couldn't see numbers floating above her. "Warrior Diva?"

  "Yes, and there are subcategories. You're now a Second Class Warrior, which is called an Ironheart. And under Diva you were a Hummer, but now you're a Growler."

  "You aren't just making this all up?" she asked.

  "Killing the j?rk released those glowing notes that gave us Metal Manna that strengthened us." He spoke faster. "Look, I'm not crazy. I'm just spouting things as they occur to me. Really, I am!" He glanced above his head. "My level didn't go up. I'm still a First Class Mage Spellweaver and a Shredder Fumblefingers. I know what a mage is, but what's a shredder? And why Fumblefingers?"

  "You're hallucinating," Kim said.

  "Maybe." He put a hand to his head. "I was hit pretty hard." He looked up again. "The numbers and categories aren't going away. But I see it bothers you, so I won't mention it again."

  "No," she said. "I shouldn't dismiss something just because I can't see it. And these numbers might be important. So why can you see these things and I can't?"

  "I've done a lot of gaming," he said.

  "Oh, you're one of those guys," she said. "Rolling dice, shouting out numbers and reliving events that didn't happen."

  "Gaming is more than that!" he raised his voice slightly. "It helps the imagination, for one thing. And it's a great social event. We eat pizza together. On top of that, you're propagating a stereotype. And… wait, did someone hurt you?"

  "Hurt me?" she asked.

  "Yeah, did you date a dungeon master or something?"

  "What?" Kim said. "No! Never. I have a life. Well, there was The Ex-Boyfriend Who Was A Professional Gamer who got me to play Settlers of Catistan."

  "Settlers of Catan," Damon corrected. "Or just Catan now."

  "Yes, that was it. I won't get into the colonial aspect of the game or his tantrum when I won. His type just…" She drew in a breath."I apologize. I'm being judgmental."

  "Well, I accept your apology on behalf of we many teeming millions," he said. He gave her a small, one-dimpled smile.

  "Do you think all the gaming you've done has given your brain a special ability?"

  He shrugged. "I don't know the rules of this world any more than you. But that's the most logical reason to me." He glanced down at the j?rk. "I do wonder where Shayne went. Maybe he spawned back at home."

  "There's no way for us to know."

  "We will if we find pieces of him." He eyed the vomit on the ground and then tiptoed closer to examine the regurgitant. "No human pieces. But there is this half-digested turkey." He bent a little closer. "Wait, it's a trunk."

  "A trunk?" Kim took a step nearer the vomit. The smell was not pleasant. The torchlight revealed a small, slime-covered wooden trunk. Like something fished out of the bottom of an algae-infested aquarium.

  "Yes," Fiora spoke, her voice ragged enough that it sounded like she was agreeing from beyond the grave. She had sat up and was blinking in a reptilian manner. "That is a trunk." She pushed her jaw to one side, and it made an audible crack. "Blayre often hides the treasure in the stomachs of his monsters. Just the thought of us digging through the slime gives him the giggles. Which of you is brave enough to open it?"