I was dead. Or at least, I was going to be in just a couple seconds.

I screamed as I fell, plummeting towards the waiting ground below. My life flashed before my eyes in an instant, though one small part jumped out at me for attention. An instant later, I knew what to do.

“Please work,” I cried out, activating ‘Maelyne’s shield’.

A familiar shield formed around me, though instead of being a dome the way I’d always seen it on the ground, it was a bubble, which completely surrounded me. I came to an abrupt stop, hitting the bottom of the bubble with a painful thud that would probably leave bruises. However, I was no longer falling. In fact, I was how hovering in the air, being held there by a bubble…the same way Maelyne had been held above that crater.

MAELYNE’S SHIELD HAS INCREASED TO RANK 4

“It worked,” I gasped, letting out a sigh of relief. Then I chuckled weakly at the rank up.

Now, I was about five stories above the ground, suspended in the air by a force field bubble. This was a hell of a lot better than falling all the way, but it did leave the question of how I was going to get back up to where the fight was going on.

When Maelyne had been in a similar situation, she’d actually moved the bubble with herself in it, so I tried to do the same. I tried willing the bubble to go back up, or even just over to one of the windows so I could climb back into the building. However, the bubble didn’t move at all.

“Crap,” I muttered in frustration. It seemed that I might be able to make a bubble like Maelyne had, but I didn’t have the ability to move it. Maybe I needed to get rank that shield up a bit higher. “Now, how do I get back up there?”

In this situation, it seemed that the best way to go up was to first go down. I released my shield and dropped, then quickly formed it again to stop myself. After this, I repeated the process again and soon found myself back on the ground.

“That took a lot of mana,” I said in annoyance, though fortunately, I now had enough mana to handle that kind of thing.

After taking a deep breath to steady myself, I looked around. I was on the ground just outside the building I’d climbed up through. And unfortunately, none of us had thought to clear the zombies outside the building.

Several zombies were already coming towards me. I clutched my spear and spat out, “This is freaking ridiculous…”

For a couple seconds, I considered summoning my companions to me. Not only would they help me deal with these zombies, but I’d also keep them away from Kr’aethar and Arakthiel. Without my being there to protect them, they were in a lot more danger. However, the reason I didn’t summon them back to my side, was because Lauren was now the only healer up there, and could make the difference between someone living or dying.

“It looks like I’m on my own down here,” I muttered. “Crap.”

More zombies had noticed my arrival and began coming at me as well. They weren’t moving especially fast, but it wouldn’t tale long for them to overwhelm me.

“Well, I’m not about to just give up like some little bitch,” I called out to the zombies. “That’s not my thing.”

When the first zombie reached me, I lunged forward with my spear, stabbing him right through the eye. He collapsed to the ground, no longer moving. I repeated this with the next zombie.

As more came near me, I created a shield wall on each side, forcing them to come straight at me through a narrow opening. I was channeling the zombies through a bottleneck where I could deal with them one at a time.

When my shield walls faded, I created another one and pushed it away from me as hard as I could, knocking back the zombies and giving me a chance to breath. I used this opportunity to create two more shield walls and repeated the process.

After taking down a couple more zombies, a popup appeared.

SPEAR FIGHTING HAS INCREASED TO RANK 4.

“Nice,” I said, not taking my eyes off my enemies.

It only took me a minute to finish off the remaining zombies, and I let out a sigh or relief when I did. Then I looked back up towards the top of the building and scowled, worried about how the fight was going.

“How do I get back up there?” I asked aloud, though the obvious answer was that I’d have to run up the stairs again. Of course, that just left the question of how I was going to get back into the building, at least until I saw a door.

I ran to the door, only to find it was locked. I grimaced in annoyance, then chuckled when I remembered my lockpicking skill. I’d finally get a chance to actually use it, so it was a good thing that I’d brought a lock pick set, just in case I ever got captured again.

Half a minute later, I was through the door and running across the building, and then up the stairs. While doing this, I made a mental note to get more stamina if I ever got the chance. At that moment, more stamina would have been great.

While I ran up the stairs, I kept a close watch on my status screen, or at least, on my companion’s statuses. They were all still alive, much to my relief, but I was worried, especially when Teri’s health bar suddenly dropped by half. A few seconds later, her health went up again, and I let out a sigh of relief since Lauren had obviously healed her. As soon as I was in range again, I put shields on all three of them.

When I reached the top floor, I found that the fighting was now occurring there instead of on the roof. In fact, there was a massive hole in the ceiling, where everyone must have come down from. After seeing what Kr’aethar had done on the roof, I wasn’t too surprised.

I paused for a moment, just long enough to take in all the details and determine what was going on. The fight was now going on inside, but everyone was still using the same hit and run tactics, keeping our enemies from being able to focus on them. That seemed to be working, because as far as I could tell, we hadn’t taken any losses.

Kr’aethar’s massive metal form stomped through the large office space, smashing the walls, furniture, and anything in his way. He swung his fist at Marissa, only to have Alejandra leap at him from behind and hit him on the back of his head with her hammer. An instant later, several arrows struck his armored hide, though they did little but annoy him.

My eyes went up to the hole in the ceiling, and I could see Cassandra standing on the roof. She saw me, gave a smile and wave, then fired several shots at Arakthiel, who jumped to the side and avoided them.

“Good job keeping everyone alive,” I told Lauren, throwing up another shield wall.

Lauren had been crouched down behind a support column, but came rushing over to join me. She fired a force blast at Arakthiel, catching him from behind and knocking him off balance. Cassandra took advantage of this opportunity to send several arrows through him.

“Gotcha,” I exclaimed, throwing my spear at the god. Unfortunately, Arakthiel slipped to the side and avoided my attack.

“This one has become…annoying,” Arakthiel stated, staring straight at me. He raised his scythe and was about to attack me until Axe Guy charged him from the side and forced him to dodge.

“Glad to see you’re still alive,” Marissa called out to me. “I thought you were done for…”

“Takes more than that to kill me,” I responded, ignoring the fact that I’d already been killed twice.

“Can you do anything about Randal?” Becky asked.

I followed her gaze to Randal, who was standing back with a bone shield held up for protection. He wasn’t attacking, and it took me a moment to realize why. One of his arms was missing, severed just above the elbow. From the grimace of pain and determination, it looked like he was running on pure stubbornness and willpower.

“I tried healing him,” Lauren said with a worried look. “But I couldn’t do much…”

“Lesser healing,” I said, using my ability on Randal, though I didn’t expect to do a whole lot more than Lauren had. “I don’t think it’s powerful enough to grow new limbs…” From what I could see of Randal, I might have eased the pain and helped the stump to heal up a bit, but his arm hadn’t suddenly grown back.

Matt came forward and opened fire, shooting Kr’aethar in the chest with the glowing ammo that Maelyne had given him. Each hit exploded, creating softball sized craters in the god’s armor. I felt a surge of excitement since Matt was breaking through and was about to crack the armor above the area where Kr’aethar was already injured.

“Focus on his chest again,” I called out, throwing more shields out on my companions, then creating a shield wall to the side, between me and Arakthiel. “If we can crack him open again, we can finish the job…”

I didn’t have enough damage buff saved up to do a whole lot, but since Kr’aethar had already been seriously injured, I suspected that it wouldn’t take much. I just had to get past this extra armor.

Several arrows struck Kr’aethar’s chest, and when he went to block it, Alejandra took advantage of the opportunity to swing at his head again. Arakthiel tried rushing to Kr’aethar’s side, only to have Axe Guy, Becky, and Teri going after him with a series of attacks that forced him on the defense.

“I’m out,” Matt announced, quickly backing out of the way so that others had a clear shot.

My eyes were locked on Kr’aethar and the new opening that had been created in his armor. There it was…my opportunity. I hadn’t been able to take him down the first time, but this time was going to be different. This time, he wasn’t going to get back up.

I pulled my bulldozer trick and charged at Kr’aethar again, counting on Alejandra to and Marissa to keep him distracted. But just as I got within reach, he snapped around and punched at me. His fist crackled with red energy and smashed right through my shield wall.

“DAMN,” I exclaimed, desperately trying to drive my spear through the opening in his armor.

Kr’aethar reacted faster than I’d expected and grabbed hold of my spear, tearing it right out of my hands. A moment late, he drove my spear right into my own shoulder, doing so with enough force that he threw it at the same time. I screamed in pain even as I was thrown across the room where the spear sank into the wall, pinning me in place.

“JERI!” Cassandra screamed in horror before opening fire with a steady stream of arrows aimed right at Kr’aethar’s face.

I continued screaming in agony, though the truth was, I’d felt much worse pain. This hurt like hell, but was nothing compared to being burned alive. So after a few seconds, I clenched my teeth to keep from screaming and sent my spear back to storage, removing it from my shoulder in the process.

Lauren rushed to my side, hitting me with a heal. It felt good, but wasn’t nearly enough to repair all the damage. She didn’t have enough mana left to do much more.

“Hurts,” I gasped, trying to get back up but I only collapsed to my knees.

Kr’aethar slowly moved towards me, his fists both crackling with red sparks. His damaged armor melted and reformed as I watched, repairing the hole so that it looked completely undamaged. All that work for nothing.

“YOU AREN’T GOING TO TOUCH HER!” Teri yelled, stepping between me and Kr’aethar. She held out her shield and her club, facing down a god to protect me.

“Ditto,” Matt said as he stood beside Teri, his paintball gun in one hand and his black dagger in the other.

I gasped in pain and fear. I couldn’t get back to my feet at that moment, and I couldn’t even see clearly. Everything was just a little blurry.

Suddenly, I could see strange glowing threads connecting me to Matt, Teri and Lauren. I could see something…some energy…flowing to me from these threads. Loyalty. I was seeing their loyalty. And as soon as I realized that, I also realized that I could see the same kind of energy flowing from me into them. It was flowing both ways, making a loop.

“Loyalty flows both ways,” I whispered, remembering what Maelyne had told me.

With that, I noticed more threads…ones connecting me to the other champions like Marissa and Becky. These threads were much finer and not nearly as powerful as the ones I had with my companions, but they were there. And then I saw the one connecting me to Cassandra. It definitely wasn’t the same as the ones to my companions, but it was still clear and bright.

My vision blurred further and I could make out even more threads, ones that weren’t connected to me at all. There were bright threads between Matt and Teri, between Lauren and Cassandra, between Marissa and Axe Guy, and strangely enough, even some faint ones between Kr’aethar and Arakthiel.

“Loyalty,” I repeated, growing more confident in what I was seeing, and becoming sure that it wasn’t just some hallucination. I was somehow seeing a web of loyalty, of how we connected to each other. I took a deep breath and felt the energy flowing into me, filling me with greater strength and power.

When I blinked, it was all gone. I could no longer see all the glowing threads, but I knew that they were still there. With a grimace of effort, I got back to my feet, healing myself several times in a row as I did so. I still hurt like hell, but it was much more manageable now.

Kr’aethar continued forward. I threw shields on my companions. Matt opened fire with his paintball gun, though he was out of the glowing ammo and had been forced to use the steal balls instead. They bounced off the god’s armor without even leaving any dents. And when Kr’aethar got close enough, Matt was forced to dive to the side.

Teri was more stubborn than Matt and not nearly as fast. Kr’aethar back-handed her with his massive fist, and she merely raised her shield and tried to block it. The hit knocked her back and caused her club to go flying. Her health went down a little, but between her shield and armor, not to mention the shield I’d put on her, she’d been protected from most of the impact.

“Gotta do better than that, jerk-face,” Teri exclaimed.

Kr’aethar took another swing at Teri, who merely grabbed his arm and pulled down, causing the massive god to roll over her body and slam into the ground. It was an impressive move, but Kr’aethar was far too strong for her to pin, even if she did have better leverage at the moment.

I threw another shield on Teri and prepared to summon her to my side. Then I had an idea.

“Come on,” I muttered, making my storage chest appear in front of me.

Before the fight, I’d thrown a few things inside of it that I thought might be useful. Unfortunately, a rocket launcher hadn’t been one of them. As useful as that might have been, I had no idea where to get that kind of thing. What I pulled out a moment later was a container full of paintballs, which I tossed to Matt.

“What am I supposed to do with these?” Matt asked, surprised since those were ordinary paintballs. Then his eyes widened as he realized what I intended. “Got it…”

Marissa, Axe Guy, and Becky were still keeping Arakthiel occupied while Randal tried helping as much as he could in his injured state. Once I made sure Arakthiel wasn’t coming at me, I looked back at Kr’aethar. Teri had him on the ground for the moment, while Alejandra was taking advantage of the opportunity to pound on him with her hammer, creating some nice dents in his armor. However, there was a flash of red light from the downed god. I immediately pulled Teri back, and just in time. Alejandra screamed and was flung back while her hammer exploded into shrapnel.

Matt opened fire on Kr’aethar, shooting him in the face with one paintball after another until his entire face was covered with neon orange paint. These couldn’t hurt the god, but they could make it very difficult for him to see.

“These mortals are annoying,” Kr’aethar announced in Oraevian as he tried wiping the paint from his face. However, all he did was smear it around since his massive metal hands weren’t good for something like this. “They are like insects that keep stinging…”

“Then we should finish this quickly,” Arakthiel responded in the same language. “Beginning with Maelyne’s pawn… She is the only one with a sting that can harm us…”

I couldn’t see Kr’aethar’s face beneath his armor, but I imagined that he was giving an evil grin. “Then we crush her between us…”

I gulped at that, suddenly more than a little worried. My defenses might be strong, but I couldn’t hold off both of them at once. Hell, I could barely hold off one of them when they were actually focused on me. Fortunately, I understood what they were saying, which meant that they’d inadvertently warned me of their plans.

Arakthiel swung his scythe around himself, releasing a wave of purple energy that forced all the champions away. This gave him the opening he needed to break free from the steady attacks and to launch himself straight at me. At the same time, Kr’aethar charged at me from the other side, even though he was still half-blind. Like they said, they were going to crush me between them.

I threw up ‘Maelyne’s shield’ and pushed as much mana into it as I could, trying to give it enough strength to hold. “MATT,” I called out. “Remember the Carver’s Park match a couple months ago, and that plan you came up with…?”

Matt’s eyes widened as I reminded him of a paintball match that had resulted in a rather painful defeat. “My plan didn’t work…”

“Not that time, but it might now,” I called back.

Matt nodded, looking around with a desperate expression as he did so. His eyes settled on Becky and he grinned as he ran over to her side.

I turned my full attention back to the gods who were attacking me. Arakthiel’s scythe was glowing purple and raised for a strike. What worried me even more was the fact that purple smoke was now writhing around the scythe. It looked like the same thing he’d used to kill Maelyne, only a much weaker version. I had no doubt that it would be more than enough to kill me.

Kr’aethar came at me from the other side with both of his hands crackling with red electricity. He didn’t scare me nearly as much as Arakthiel did, but I had no doubt that he was quite capable of killing me as well, and that he fully intended to do just that.

They reached my shield at the same time and struck as hard as they could, obviously intending to shatter my shield and kill me with a single blow. If I channeled all my divine power into my shield, it might even be strong enough to survive the attack. However, right before their attacks could hit, I dove to the side, dropping my shield in the process so I could get out of the way.

“NOW!” Matt yelled

At that instant, Becky blasted Arakthiel with her levitation attack. But instead of floating up into the air, he was suddenly pulled straight at Kr’aethar, who couldn’t see well enough to dodge in time. Their attacks struck each other instead of my shield like they’d intended. There was an explosion of light as red electricity and purple smoke collided, and when it cleared, two bodies were sprawled out on the ground.

“Holy shit,” Marissa exclaimed.

“Are they dead?” Teri asked nervously.

“Kr’aethar is missing half his body,” Alejandra pointed out.

I stared at Kr’aethar, feeling both triumphant and sick to my stomach at the same time. Half of his armor, the outer layer that he’d created from his throne, was missing, as was a great deal of his body beneath. This time, nearly his entire torso was gone, and I could see the floor right through his chest. Even his neck was mostly gone, leaving his head almost entirely severed.

“Nearly Headless Nick,” Matt joked weakly.

“But you didn’t touch them,” Teri said, looking more than a little nervous. “If you didn’t use your divine power stuff, they’re only going to get back up.”

“Teri isn’t the only one with divine power,” Lauren pointed out with a sick look on her face. “I bet both of them have it too…”

“They probably have more of it,” Matt agreed. “A LOT more.”

I let out a long sigh of relief, thankful that my plan had worked. A few months ago, Matt and I had played a paintball game at Carver’s Park, where his gun had broken in the middle of a match, so he couldn’t shoot back. He’d come up with the idea of tricking a couple of our opponents into shooting each other, though it hadn’t actually worked out like he’d planned. This time it had worked perfectly.

Since Kr’aethar and Arakthiel had taken each other out, there were no popups or rewards, much to my disappointment. However, considering the circumstances, I could happily live with that disappointment.

“So, it’s over?” Becky asked.

“Not yet,” Cassandra said as she dropped down from the hole in the ceiling. “I can still feel that fucker’s power…”

Now that Cassandra mentioned it, I realized that I could still feel the cold and hungry power of Arakthiel. Arakthiel twitched and began sitting up, revealing that while he’d been badly injured by Kr’aethar’s attack, it hadn’t been enough to finish him off.

“You will all face oblivion,” Arakthiel announced in English while a purple energy began to swirl around him.

Suddenly, an arrow appeared in his throat, then Cassandra fired two more. The arrows crumbled and vanished while the god started getting back to his feet. A second later, there was the sound of a gunshot and Arakthiel was thrown sideways with a hole in his head. Two more gunshots quickly followed, hitting him in the throat and shoulder.

“We can’t let this bastard get back on his feet,” Lauren exclaimed before firing several more shots into the god. She continued doing this until her clip was empty.

Lauren was right and everyone knew it. Arakthiel was too dangerous for us to just stand back and let him recover. Once he got moving again, his reflexes would make it far too difficult to hit him, and we’d be right back where we started. Well, almost back where we started. Kr’aethar was down for good.

Marissa, Axe Guy, and Cassandra all attacked Arakthiel at once, hitting him with enough damage that it would at least slow him down. Matt was standing beside me with both his paintball gun and dragger drawn, keeping back and out of the way, but ready to jump in and do any damage he could.

I just stood back and scowled, silently cursing the fact that I didn’t have enough damage buff built up to do anything. At least not from my shields. With that thought, I reached over and snatched the dagger from Matt’s hands, willed divine power into the blade, and then threw it at Arakthiel as hard as I could. I might not have built up much damage buff from my shields, but I had taken some nasty damage to my body, and Maelyne’s Blessing meant that I could add twenty percent of that to my next attack.

“GOTCHA!” I exclaimed as the dragger hit Arakthiel in the stomach.

There was a flash of light at impact as the all that damage I’d added in my attack had been released. In addition, the dagger itself had the ability to deal three times the damage when it was thrown, so it had just tripled everything I’d put into it. Arakthiel collapsed back to the ground with a gaping hole through his body.

YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATED AN OPPOSING GOD HOST.

REWARD: +1 ATTRIBUTE POINT. +300 RESOURCE ATTRIBUTE POINTS. YOUR COMPANIONS GAIN +200 RESOURCE ATTRIBUTE POINTS.

“It’s done,” I said, letting out a long sigh of relief.

“It’s really over?” Teri asked, giving Arakthiel’s body a wary look.

“Our part is,” I told her with a faint smile. “The rest is up to the gods.”