I watched as the players struck and retreated, a frantic, desperate dance against the superior monster. The beast could not seem to pick a target, its movements clumsy with rage. Their attacks were leaving nothing but shallow, useless scratches that bled for a second before sealing over with an unnatural speed. At this rate, we will be out of gas long before it is.

  An idea, insane and suicidal, sparked in my mind. What if I could get on top of it?

  My hands, slick with sweat and green gore, felt clumsy. I stored my sword in my inventory and wiped them on my pants, the rough fabric a poor substitute for a towel. This is a terrible idea. A terrible, idiotic, suicidal idea. But it was the only idea I had. I had to try.

  I launched through the air, the superhuman power launching me above the colossal beast.

  My boots hit the slick, heaving back of the monstrosity, my landing clumsy after using a wrecked cruiser as a springboard. Its head whipped wildly, a frantic, disoriented motion that threatened to send me flying. I was glad I ditched the sword, the thought of needing both hands a cold, pragmatic reality as I dug my fingers into the gaps between its obsidian like scales. The creature’s attention snapped back to the warriors on the ground, and I began to climb.

  This was no simple ascent. It was a desperate scramble up a moving mountain of muscle. I could feel the deep, resonant vibrations through my fingertips as the beast’s jaws snapped at the players below. I clung to the base of its skull, timing its movements, feeling the brutal rhythm of its attacks. It lunged for Logan, a final, furious snap. That was the pause I needed.

  Hauling myself up, I planted my feet. My Jian materialized in my hand, the familiar weight a grim comfort. I flipped the blade point down. The reptile’s glowing yellow eye, a hateful, unblinking orb, swiveled towards me. I lifted the Jian high and slammed it downward with every ounce of my strength.

  A scalding geyser of green blood erupted, blinding me in a torrent of visceral heat. The thick ooze coated me, the stench of ozone and rot so thick I couldn’t breathe. I shoved the blade deeper, feeling it grind against the bone of its socket. The beast’s head shook with a violence that defied physics. My gore slicked hands lost their purchase on the hilt.

  One moment I was an executioner, the next I was weightless. Shit. Shit. Shit.

  The ground rushed up to meet me. I twisted, trying to take the impact with my legs. My feet hit the torn up turf with a wet, percussive pop that shot up my spine. The momentum sent me tumbling end over end, a chaotic blur of pain and disorientation. I came to a stop in a heap of mud and grass. White hot signals of agony flared from my ankle. I risked a glance. My leg was bent at an angle that was fundamentally wrong, the bone a sharp, grotesque tent pole against the fabric of my pants. It was shattered.

  Black spots danced in my vision as the pain threatened to pull me under. Then, a warmth flooded me, an alien coolness that muted the screaming torment in my leg. I watched, detached, as my leg began to shift. The muscles and tendons writhed under my skin, and with a bone shuddering crunch, my ankle popped back into place. I wiggled my toes. They worked.

  I looked up. Kira stood twenty feet away, her staff pointed in my direction, her face a mask of furious concentration under the eerie blue glow of the gate. The emerald light from her staff faded. I mouthed a silent 'thanks.' The glare she returned was a clear, silent promise of a reckoning to come.

  Okay. No longer crippled, but now I am unarmed. My Jian glistened, a green monument to my own stupidity, still protruding from the giant lizard’s eye socket.

  The Elite looked exhausted, but the Players looked worse. We were all running on fumes. Then Gideon miscalculated. He zigged when he should have zagged. A sweeping claw caught him in the shoulder, sending him spiraling into the dirt. He lay still. Another one. Another receipt for the pile.

  Before the thought could even finish, my body was moving. The reptile locked onto Gideon’s unmoving form, its jaws opening for the kill. Kira’s staff was already glowing, her face pinched with the strain of another major heal. A glint of discarded metal caught my eye in the grass. As I sprinted past, my hand shot down, my fingers wrapping around the hilt of a fallen warrior’s gladius.

  I did not break stride. I brought the unfamiliar blade up just as the lizard’s jaws descended. I braced my arm across the steel, meeting the crushing force head on. The impact drove me back, my boots carving furrows in the soft earth as I slammed into Gideon’s prone body. The muscles in my arms screamed, my joints threatening to buckle. It’s not going to stop.

  My feet slid, the creature’s immense weight a relentless, living avalanche. Its teeth smashed together just inches from my face. Just as my arms were about to give, the pressure on my left lessened. Logan was there, bracing his Axe against the beast's maw, his own muscles bulging, veins standing out on his neck like thick cords. Together, we brought its forward momentum to a halt.

  Great. What now?

  A massive claw swiped from the side. Charlie appeared, his shield intercepting the blow with a deafening, teeth vibrating CRACK. Another sound, deeper and sharper, tore through the air. A concussive blast that felt like a punch to the chest. The giant reptile recoiled, a new hole blown through its remaining good eye. Shanira. Thank god for Shanira.

  The beast reared up, its roar of agony shaking the wrecked vehicles around us. This was it.

  “Throw me,” I shouted at Logan without thinking.

  He did not question it. We ran in parallel toward the monster. He dipped his Axe low, the flat of the blade a steel platform. I leaped, planting my feet on the weapon’s surface. The world became a blur of upward momentum. Logan’s strength was terrifying. As he reached the peak of his swing, I sprang.

  Sailing through the air like a loosed arrow. The world a mix of dark blues and green.

  I slammed into the creature's throat, the impact driving the air from my lungs. I clung to the blade, which was now buried to the hilt in the soft flesh beneath its jaw. The reptile tried to roar, but the sound came out as a wet, choked gurgle. It began to thrash, shaking its head as it stumbled back to all four limbs. The violent movements made me lose my footing, leaving me hanging from the sword hilt. I pulled downwards as gravity helped draw the blade towards the ground. With a final heave, my feet hit the ground.

  It wasn’t over.

  I dug my heels into the turf, planting myself. My arms screamed, but my grip held. End it. Just. End. It.

  With a primal roar that tore from my own throat, I began to push. It was no longer a cut. It was a grim, desperate act of butchery. I leaned into it with every ounce of my augmented strength, my body a lever against the mountain of dying flesh. The blade ground against bone and tore through sinew. I ignored the torrent of hot, green gore that poured over me, blinding me, choking me. My vision was a green tinted haze, the world narrowed to the sound of rending tissue and my own ragged breathing.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The resistance finally gave way and I felt the ground tremble as the beast’s legs buckled. I couldn't stop as I stumbled forward, collapsing, panting into the dirt and blood. I lay still for a moment as my chest heaved, dirt mixing with the copper taste in my mouth. It was gross enough for me to finally gain enough energy to roll over. The world spun as I stared up at the smoky, starless night sky, bisected by the impossible blue wound of the gate.

  A screen flickered to life, an impossibly clean rectangle of light in a world of filth and death.

  Congratulations on killing an invading elite monster. EXP 175. You have earned the title “First Elite Killer” in your area. All stats increased by 10, and a reward box will be placed in your inventory.

  The high-voltage jolt that came with the level up scoured the exhaustion from my very bones as I mentally clicked yes. The leaden weight in my limbs evaporated, replaced by a clean, humming energy that felt dangerously good. I remained on the ground for a moment, letting the power settle, a foreign current in my own veins.

  Menu.

  The screen changed, displaying the cold, hard math of my survival.

  Name: Elias Stormson

  Level: 5

  Available Stats: 20

  Twenty points. A surge of disbelief, sent a surge of adrenaline down my spine. Excitement causing my heart to pound in my chest as my eyes darted from the screen to the shimmering blue wound of the gate. Five new shadows were already coalescing within its depths. There was no time.

  “For fucks sake, it never ends” the words echoing the mental exhaustion that was already weighing heavy with the screams of the dead.

  I forced myself to refocus, the mental calculation was instantaneous, a desperate battlefield triage. Speed is life. Endurance is survival. Strength is the only thing that ends the fight. I dumped ten points into Agility, five into Strength, and the final five into Stamina. A deeper, more profound thrum of power settled into my muscles. My uniform, already strained, felt a size too small and the seams ripped and I felt a cold air along my arms.

  Whatever, it’s the least of my worries.

  I stood, retrieving my sword from the eye of the elite before coiling my muscles and springing off the ground, back to the gate. Back to the fight. The world dissolved into a gray-green blur. This new speed was a wild, untamed thing but I was ready for it this time, digging my heels into the turf and skidding to a halt before the gate in a vortex of dirt and dead leaves. The five shadows were still just that, shadows. I had outrun their emergence.

  Across the field, the other Players were just starting to jog in my direction. On the embankment above, the small cluster of gunners were gathering once more preparing to re-engage. Two more shadows joined the five. Seven. There is always more.

  The first reptile began to materialize, its form shimmering into reality like a heat haze.

  “Save them for the gunners if you can!” I roared, but my voice was swallowed by the deafening CRACK of the .50 cal. The sound wave hit me like a physical blow. The newly-formed lizard’s head simply ceased to exist, replaced by a fine mist of green gore.

  Well, that’s one down. I glanced toward the sniper’s nest. I hope you’re looking at your own blue screen up there, kid. A new thought, cold and tactical, surfaced. They need to understand the new rules. I pointed to my own eyes, then tapped my chest, then pointed back at the next lizard taking shape. Center mass. Last hit. Lets make some more players. I hope they understand.

  I rushed the next one. To my overclocked senses, the creature was moving through molasses. I summoned the Jian, its familiar weight a cold comfort in my hand. The blade was a whisper, gliding through the tendons of both left legs in a single, fluid arc. I let my momentum carry me through the turn, driving the sword’s tip up through the base of its tail, hobbling it completely. Another .50 cal shot tore through the air, and the creature’s right legs vanished. It collapsed, thrashing and helpless.

  I moved to its head, tapping the space between its eyes with my blade as its jaws snapped uselessly. A silent invitation. Come on, sniper. Take the shot.

  Another lizard lunged for me. I sidestepped, the air displaced by its charge rustling my clothes. As it passed, my blade lashed out, severing the muscles in its legs. It went down, another crippled beast struggling in the dirt. A different rifle cracked from the embankment, not the heavy boom of the .50 cal. Dirt erupted a foot from my boot. I whipped my head toward the gunners and glared into the darkness. Right. Not everyone’s a natural.

  I backed away, giving them a clear field of fire. Another shot, and a bloody hole opened in one of the downed lizard’s flanks. It wasn’t a kill shot. The thing continued to thrash. I saw the other Players, now closer, disabling the remaining reptiles with a brutal efficiency born of terror and newfound power. Finally, the heavy crack of the big rifle echoed again, silencing one of the wounded creatures.

  The immediate threat was gone. The gunners, were running down the hill to finish off the crippled lizards. I checked the gate. No new shadows. For now. I stored my sword and scanned the survivors.

  Kira stood off to the side, staring at a point in the air only she could see. Her staff was gone. As I watched, the bone-deep weariness seemed to lift from her shoulders. The tension in her posture eased, replaced by a fresh wave of vitality. She leveled up. The thought brought a surge of relief so sharp it almost buckled my knees.

  I walked over to her just as the gunners reached the squirming lizards. A ragged volley of gunfire erupted, a messy, final execution.

  “I come in peace,” I shouted over the noise, holding my hands up in mock surrender. “You’re not going to hit me again, are you?”

  She turned, and the punch she threw was fast. This time, a sharp, stinging pain radiated from my stomach. It was quickly followed by a raw, involuntary laugh. “Did you put points into Strength just to hit me?”

  “You deserve it,” she snapped, but the fire in her glare was faltering, replaced by the shimmer of unshed tears. The tremble in her lower lip betrayed the terror she’d been holding back. “Why do you insist on putting yourself in danger?”

  My own amusement vanished. “It’s been an intense day,” I said, my voice softer. “The world changed this morning, Kira. If we don’t act, who will? We took an oath to protect people. Right now, this is the only way I know how.” I looked down at my own hands, at the alien power that hummed just beneath the skin.

  The reality of the last twenty four hours threatened to consume me. I tried to wall the tide of emotion off but it was already cracking.

  Kira let out a long, shuddering sigh and rubbed her eyes fiercely with her sleeve. When she looked at me again, a fragile smile had replaced the tears. “Well, if you insist on getting yourself killed, then you better have a capable healer at your side.”

  I felt that smile repair some of the cracks. I had to keep moving forward.

  “Good thing I know the best,” I winked with a confidence I didn’t fully feel.

  A genuine laugh escaped her, bright and clear in the grim air. “Don’t piss me off then. I might just let you bleed out next time.”

  “Noted.” It felt good to laugh. For a half-second, the darkness of the day receded.

  Then, a blue screen appeared for both of us.

  Congratulations!

  Next dungeon break in: 01:00:00

  Dungeon Stabilization in: 157:46:11

  The gunfire had stopped. Ryker was walking toward us, a familiar petite woman with dark hair at his side. She was carrying the .50 cal as if it weighed nothing.

  “Stormson,” Ryker called, his eyes doing a quick, professional assessment of my state. “Any injuries?”

  “Just covered in this green shit.” I gestured to the gore matting my uniform. “How about you and the gunners?”

  “We lost a few. Some ran.” His face was a grim mask. “But the ones that stayed are Players now. Including me.” He gave a short, humorless laugh. “Sorry about that shot earlier. It’s been a while since I’ve tried to shoot that far.” He gestured to the woman beside him. “This is Shanira, by the way. She’s our team's best sniper.”

  Shanira glanced up from her own blue screen and gave a small wave. “Hi.”

  “We already met, glad the weapon is treating you well! You have incredible aim,” I said, meaning it. “Those first shots were unbelievable.”

  “Thanks,” she said, her brow furrowed in frustration. “But I can’t get the dang rifle into my inventory. Go in, you stupid thing.”

  A small, purple box suddenly materialized in her outstretched hand. “Ooh, a box.” She set the rifle down and lifted the lid. A soft light spilled out. A moment later, she pulled out a longbow crafted from a dark, polished wood, with intricate golden patterns swirling like wings at its ends.

  “Cool,” Kira, Ryker, and I said in unison.

  “Did it come with arrows?” I asked.

  “No… no quiver either. Kinda useless.” She pulled back the string to test the strength. The bow bent, and an arrow of pure, white light shimmered into existence, its nock resting against the string.

  “Whoa, aim that somewhere else,” I said, taking an involuntary step back.

  She relaxed the string, and the arrow vanished. “Well, that was cool.”

  “Shoot it,” I said, pointing to the carcass of the Elite. “At that.”

  She stepped forward, drew the luminous arrow back, and released. It didn't fly, it simply crossed the distance, a silent streak of light that was there one moment and gone the next. It punched through the creature’s underside and exploded out of its back in a shower of scales and gore.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  “That was weird. I suddenly feel so tired,” Shanira said, a new sheen of sweat on her forehead. “Like I just did a small workout.”

  “That’s Mana,” Kira said, her voice filled with dawning realization. “It’s like energy. You need to invest points into it.”

  Shanira stared at her screen, and a moment later, the weariness washed from her face. “There. Two-thirds into Mana, the rest in Strength.”

  “Strength?” I asked.

  “For the draw,” she stated, all professional confidence. “More tension, more force.”

  A new wave of respect for these operators washed over me. They were adapting, learning, turning this nightmare into a science.

  “Come on,” Kira said to Shanira. “Let’s talk about what this Mana feels like.” She started to lead her away, then called back to me. “Come find me when you’re done. And for god’s sake, take a shower first. You stink.” She waved a hand in front of her nose and was gone.

  She was right. The acidic, coppery stench was a physical weight, a constant reminder of the day’s butchery.

  Ryker and a beaming Logan joined me. “That was a bit intense,” Logan roared, slapping Ryker so hard on the back he stumbled.

  “All in on Strength again?” I grinned.

  “Always” The giant grinned wildly.

  “I am soon going to be calling you the Hulk” Logan began to laugh and I couldn’t help but join him.

  It took a few moments for the laughter to die, but when it did Logan’s expression turned serious. “So, what now?”

  Ryker’s gaze drifted to the gate, a looming shadow that pulsed with malevolent blue light. “We get ready for the next one.”