I blinked. “Walking in on what?”

  She pursed her lips glancing at me, then at Mall, then at our hands, which were tightly intertwined.

  “My bad, guys,” she chuckled.

  “What do you think you’re doing?!” Mall hissed, pulling a bow from her inventory.

  The air shimmered, and the woman was inches from my face, grinning wider. “You must think you’re pretty hot stuff, don’tcha? That’s what, a thousand health and damage? I’m shaking, really.”

  A shiver ran down my spine.

  Weren’t I suppressing my stats? She shouldn’t be able to see anything, unless she was from an area where that was normal?

  How badly were we outclassed?

  The woman paused for a moment, glancing toward Mall. “Hey, you’re almost the same! Must’ve been quite the Core to get so many thousands in the tutorial area.”

  “You know of others?” I asked.

  “Sure do. Met this real nice gentleman. Talked smooth, probably a little bit insane. Good shot with a bow, I’ll give him that.”

  Mall’s grip tightened. “What did you do?”

  “Oh I killed him,” the woman stated. “Really a shame.”

  Mall grabbed at her throat, breathing harder. She gritted her teeth. “Liar.”

  “Mmm…no, no no I don’t think so,” the woman stated, leaning on the handle from her scythe. “It was a little something—”

  There was a flash of metal, and the black scythe froze in the air, perfectly still, wrestling against Mall’s throat.

  “---like that,” she finished. “Kinda hard to beat something that can teleport, right?”

  “Y-you-m-monster,” Mall growled, grabbing the handle of the scythe.

  “Monster—” the woman blinked, before smacking herself on the head, grin splitting even wider. “What an idiot you two must think I am! Meeting such a fine couple without giving my name first. Now I already know yours—Grind, Mall—lovely names, by the way—so it's just all too impolite not to offer my own, isn’t it?”

  “Dena,” I whispered.

  “Yeah!” Dena laughed. “I’m sorry, have we met before?”

  “Several times. The name was an educated guess,” I said.

  Asiel had mentioned Dena was on a quest, and there weren’t many people that could fit into Asiel’s party, and be on a quest, in the first area.

  That also meant we were fighting a lunatic from Asiel’s party.

  “And I didn’t kill you?” Dena asked in disbelief, shaking her head. “Well, either I’m sloppy—doubtful—or you're rather something special.”

  Crapshovler shot into my hand, deflecting a sudden blur of metal with a sharp ringing that hover in the air for several moments.

  Dena whistled. “Real deal alright. Never seen a rookie with a legendary weapon. Correction, never seen anybody with anything legendary in the first area, except for cheaters—I don’t like cheaters—and I don’t imagine you’ve seen a lot of those weapons around here yourself.”

  “What are you going to do?” Mall hissed.

  Dena bit her lip. “You know? I don’t actually know. Tell you a secret, I’m just making it all up as I go along. It’s much more fun that way, I’ll have you know.” She held out her scythe, and it started revolving in her hand, flashing different colors. “You’ll never guess how I got so stronger, but it was actually pretty straightforward.”

  “It’s a quest,” I stated. “Killing people.”

  “And we have a winner!” Dena shouted, leveling the end against my forehead. “Wow. How could I possibly forget about you?”

  The smile dropped into a frown. “You’re dangerous.” her face flashed back into a grin, and she whipped a massive hourglass from her inventory. “How about this? I’ll give you a minute head start, and then you run, and then I kill you? Yes? Yes? Are we good with that?”

  Mall snorted. “I’m not scared of you.”

  “You ought to be,” Dena chuckled. “How strong do you think I am?”

  “You’re limited by the area,” Mall stated. “You can’t have more than a thousand in any stat.”

  “Correct!” Dena shouted, aiming her scythe at a building, then swung.

  The top half sheared clean from the bottom, toppiling off onto the ground. The building behind it had been severed, as with the one behind it, and the other behind that, and on and on houses toppled over another as the gouge widened, swallowing entire floors.

  With one swipe, she’d cleaved through half of the city.

  Dena brushed sweat off her brow. “Woo! See what I mean?” She winked at me. “Hey, tootsie, word of advice but your timer starts now.”

  I grabbed Mall and started sprinting, with Dena cackling behind us. Dena cackled behind us, her aura extending down the street, leaching the color from the stone and willing plant life to black and brown clumps.

  “You’ve met her before?” Mall hissed.

  “Killed me twice.”

  “Well I really hope you’ve got some sort of wild, irresponsible plan set out for a situation like this, or we’re both going to die!” She shouted, grabbing onto my shoulder.

  I thought for a moment.

  “Sorry, I’ve got nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  I sighed. “If I’m being honest, I mostly forgot about her and her little quest. It didn’t feel relevant.”

  Mall huffed, picking up the pace until she was leading me forward. “Well, then I suggest you think of something!”

  Dena’s voice carried over the street, impossibly piercing through the sounds of wreckage and destruction.

  “Forty-five seconds!”

  We reached the edge of town, slamming face first into a magical barrier.

  “This is bad,” I hissed.

  Of course she could put up magical barriers.

  Why not?

  “New plan,” I said, running back through the city, shattering the ground underneath our feet as we shot past Dena, crash-landing into the town square.

  Mall staggered, covering her mouth with both of her hands.

  The square was covered in piles of bodies, laid haphazardly over one another. Massive black chains rose up from the square, anchoring into the magical field.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  To break the field, we’d probably have to break the chains.

  I handed the still-sleeping Sern to Mall and struck the chains several times with Crapshoveler, each blow at a thousand strength.

  ~Legendary~

  {Metaphorical Fish in a Metaphorical Barrel}

  "This is a {Reaper}-type trap spell"

  [(-1000) 1000 Str]

  “Well?” Mall called.

  “Nothing,” I sighed, giving a couple more blows with the same results. “These have a stupid amount of health in reserve. If Dena is a member of Asiel’s team then her power’s got to be in the low trillions.”

  “Trillions?”

  “Probably a lot more,” I sighed, remembering Brom’s level. How high was that again? “Definitely a lot more.”

  Mall shuddered. “I need a moment.”

  I took Sern back from her, focusing to keep my breaths even, and level.

  Thanks to the way areas worked, even with rare, epic, and likely legendary stats, and even with abilities on a city-size scale, there was a fundamental limit to just how strong she could be. Using a legendary item with auto-reflexes and a thousand strength, I could block her attacks, for instance. That had to be worth something.

  Dena’s voice carried over.

  “Thirteen seconds!”

  We still had time? The dust moved slowly as it fell, but my thoughts, movements, and actions were accelerating in pace.

  Mall screamed, dropping by one of the bodies from the pile.

  It was Dexten, head lolled to the side and black veins covering his entire body. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t breathing. There was only a single scratch by the base of his neck, from which all the black veins connected.

  I wanted to close my eyes, but I forced them open, soon spotting Irion, Bruce, Leo, Harva, Eere and Throttle all in a pile.

  Quin lay next to them, reaching for Ardenidi.

  Broken weapons littered the ground, covered in soot and blood.

  Nobody was still alive.

  “Ten seconds,” Dena said, with a giggle. “Now nine!”

  Mall broke all control over her stats, strength, health, and dexterity rocketing up against the regional limit as she lost control over herself, sobbing and sobbing with Dexten’s head in her lap.

  She grabbed his hair, and started combing through the strands with her fingers, fixing his hairstyle. Her grip tightened, and she screamed louder.

  It was happening again.

  Mall gritted her teeth, wrapping her arms around Dexten’s greasy head. “What was wrong with him? Never washing his hair. Stupid boy.” she began to shake and snotty tears covered her face.

  Then a blade pierced through her ribs clean through along her spine and out her back, all without a drop of blood.

  Mall spat on the ground, curling up around Dexten, and the two died together.

  “Zero,” Dena whispered, slipping the blade out from her stomach. “You’re next.”

  My hands shook, and Crapshoveler tumbled out of my hand. I could only wrap my arms around Sern praying she wouldn’t wake up.

  Dena noticed, eyes widening in surprise. “What. Is that?” She laughed like a jackal, rubbing her eyes with one arm. “I’m so sorry! Monsters are harder to see than players. Is that your daughter?” her eyes went wide. “You’re that guy! You’re the guy! I’ll have you know, Grind, that you’re little kid has been the talk of the whole town. Everybody’s shocked she hasn’t eaten you yet!”

  I was still alive. Her guard was down. I couldn’t save everyone, but I could save one person.

  Crapshoveler was only an inch away, but I struggled to wrap my cold fingers around the handle. My hands weren’t working. My whole body wasn’t working.

  I covered Sern with Crapshoveler, tightening my grip until my knuckles went white.

  “You intend to fight me?” Dena asked. She twirled the scythe in her hand, with a sigh. “Well, guess I can’t blame you. But that cute little slash I did before? That wasn’t a real attack. This is a real attack.”

  There was a single clean cut across my wrist, and I staggered, dropping Crapshoveler on the ground. Despite the speed the attack came with, it neither dealt damage nor applied any sort of affliction.

  “First I’d like to meet this little angel of yours,” Dena whispered, plucking Sern from my thousand-power hold without issue. She turned her over, chuckling to herself. “She doesn’t even look like much of a monster, does she? That’s just elves for you.”

  “Why?” I hissed. “What is wrong with you?”

  Dena sighed. “I’ll admit it, I’m not getting strong by killing you guys. I already completed that quest, and now it wants me to move on to stronger enemies. Stuff like fourth and fifth area players, you know?”

  “Like Asiel?”

  Dena burst out into laughter. “I knew it! She told you a little about me, right? I’m not actually part of her team, really. I’m just a supplier. But she is really quite something special, you know that? I’ve never actually seen her try at anything. She does it all with a flick of her hand.”

  “You’re a monster,” I whispered.

  “Sure am,” Dena said, with a chuckle. “I don’t even feel human emotions anymore. Isn’t that crazy? But even I know that sometimes a battle just isn’t fair, right? Right? And you’ve got such a powerful little weapon of yours, I think I’ll even the stakes. What do you say?”

  She held out a hand, creating a plume of red energy. The energy turned liquid, then solid, to a crystal ball. Then she dropped it onto my head, where it splintered apart, running down my hair.

  [STRENGTH UP! (+1000) 1000 Str]

  “There, don’t you feel so much better?” Dena asked. “Courtesy of the lady over there,” she said, poking a finger at Mall. “Nice girl. Great wife material. Really, I must say, you have excellent taste.”

  Power exploded through my veins, crackling with energy as my strength was forced out of my control, tearing gouges in the gravel road.

  //2132 Str//

  “Whoa!” Dena said, with a whistle. “That should not be possible, right? Don’t you know there’s a regional limit.”

  Sern suddenly woke up, bursting into a fit, screaming and clawing at Dena’s arms.

  “Relax,” Dena said, rolling her eyes. “I just wanted a look at you.” she dropped Sern and shoved her toward me. “I don’t kill kids.”

  Sern reached for me.

  Black blood ran slick down her back, staining her shiny new dress.

  “NO!” I screamed, lunging forward.

  As the toxins spread, Sern began to shudder. She held tight to me, but her hands grew cold, and her grip slackened.

  I gritted my teeth, and whispered.

  “Go to sleep, Sern.”

  Her eyes briefly flickered white, then her body turned black, and she rotted away into a puff of smoke and ash.

  Something, somewhere, started breaking.

  Dena clapped her hands. “Yes! Fabulous fabulous fabulous!”

  I waited until she had dissolved into dust, leaving nothing but the silver dress behind her, soaked black, until even the stains of her blood faded away and the dress was good as new. There was no sign Sern had ever existed.

  Only then did I start crying, and only very briefly.

  Everyone dies. Some more than others.

  I picked myself off the ground.

  “Don’t you feel the rage?” Dena hissed, readying herself. “Don’t you feel boiling anger searing within your chest?”

  I did not assume a battle position.

  “Aren’t you angry?” Dena asked, dropping her tone in boredom. “Even a little? Please?”

  I made no expression.

  I just looked at her.

  Perhaps it was something in my eyes.

  Dena shivered in delight. “Perfect. Fight me.”

  I reached up, grabbing my head.

  “Allow me to save you the trouble.”

  There was a hot pop and a snap of bone as I shattered my own spine, and the world gave way to a cool rush of wind.

  {Grind}

  [You have been decapitated]

  [You have died]

  Dena started laughing, dropping to her knees as I fell face first onto the ground, but that laughter gave way to a silent unease, then to fear, and then to a pure terror that washed over her face.

  I opened my eyes.