“An assassin from Hispania cowering in the corner. See thine entrails decorate my clubs.” Ridley shouted as she feinted with a bat and punched her juggernaut glove forward into Brians stomach. The air leapt from his lungs as he toppled backwards end over end. As he rolled he triggered a stealth ability, turning into a multi-colored cloud that blended in with the background from the perspective of his target. When he came to a stop he rolled sideways behind a giant airplane tire.

  What is a Hispania? He thought dizzily, trying to ignore the pain in his ribs as he caught his breath.

  He peeked out slowly to see Ridley looking at shadows for him. She seemed to grasp some of his powers despite never actually seeing them. Taking the opportunity to get his bearings, he saw Darin slowly retreating, shouting that he was running low on ‘elite darts’. Brian assumed it was some type of ammunition. Marsha was holding on ok, but was starting to get surrounded as the orcs managed to tear through part of the webs. Linda looked to be hiding behind Louis, who in turn was hiding behind a metal pole by the hanger. Brian knew they would bolt at any sign of team weakness.

  He wasn’t sure what failing this quest would mean, but he had had time enough to consider what an invasion that claimed ‘territory’ could possibly be. Maybe it would stabilize this portal so an entire city’s worth of orcs could invade. Maybe everyone in the area would become slaves. Maybe nothing like that. He felt that it was worth fighting the orcs. Fighting this Ridley girl however, he wasn’t sure he was up for that. He conjured up his only half-decent idea.

  His next move he decided might as well be a stupid one, as sanity wasn’t the theme of the day. Jumping out of hiding he threw a dagger at Ridley’s feet, catching her attention. She turned and bolted after him with tremendous speed. He poured on every ounce of agility he could muster and weaved in between the Orcs breaking free from the web pile. He assumed Ridley was cracking skulls to get them out of the way, as he heard a constant stream of pain-filled grunts on his six. He moved up the line towards any Orc heading for Marsha, hoping to cut off the flanking group. He made the mistake of turning behind him to see Ridley crash a bat into an orc's spine, plant a foot on his shoulder and catapult into the air. Brian came to a stop, slipping on the wet asphalt to fall on his ass. The redhead landed in front of him and turned.

  “Hispania did have promise, until it rolled on it's back for their Roman masters to pet their underbelly.”

  “I’m going to assume that’s racist, if you don’t mind.”

  “Andrasta! Boudā!” Ridley cried with her red eyes flaring. The bats slammed down to collide with Brians head, but they passed straight through, cracking the asphalt open instead.

  Brians form parted into smoke, trailing into the air before evaporating.

  “Cowardly shade dweller! Your mother did cover your face with shame upon thy birth!” She cried with rage. Brian could hear her voice giving out from how loud she was screaming. The sounds of battle resumed as he peered around Louis’s Saxophone to check on the situation. Ridley looked for the closest orc and pummeled it to the ground. She was taking much of the attention off of Marsha now, who seemed to be recovering from her close call.

  Brian crashed to the ground behind Linda and Louis with a groan a few moments later. They jumped in surprise at the sudden appearance of Brian, who started lifting his shirt to see a massive red and purple bruise over his lower ribs. He didn't have anything he could do to recover and was convinced he was out of the fight.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Oh, my. This is all just a bit much.” Linda said, nervously fidgeting with her necklace.

  Louis looked around, unsure of what he could do. The orcs were beginning to form up and looked capable of easily overrunning their makeshift resistance. Darin started to retreat as he shot his last rounds. It seemed that the tide had turned against them.

  “Well, I have this digize for stomach aches.” Linda said taking out a small bag with assorted bottles.

  She lifted the bottom of Brian’s shirt while unstoppering the bottle. The pain was so great he was certain he had several broken ribs. Linda let three drops fall and told Brian to rub it in, that it would usually take thirty minutes to see results according to her booklet.

  As Brian rubbed his belly gingerly he felt absolutely foolish, until he started glowing with a pure white light. They watched as the purple and red discoloration faded to a mild pink.

  Linda looked between Louis and Brian and said, “Well everyone’s microbiome is different, so it works faster for some people.”

  A yell from the orcs drew their attention as they saw Marsha leap into the air twenty feet before crashing down between four orcs. She made a wide sweep with her broom and knocked them all to the ground. She used the opportunity to retreat back to the group.

  Darin had also caught up to the group and was panting for breath. Darin's mother rushed over with a wet towel and a bag of Nerf bullets. She proceeded to pat his face with the towel and tell him how proud of him she was.

  Darin waved his mother away and told her to stop embarrassing him before asking the group, “Any ideas before we make a run for it?”

  They were all silent before Marsha looked at the Orcs, “It’s Armageddon, so I suggest you lovely heathens pray with me.”

  - Harvey the Game Master -

  Harvey awoke to a pounding headache. The plethora of flashing notifications in his face didn’t help. A sliver of memory from a nightmare he had was slowly coming back to him. Shock hit him as he looked about his apartment for his assailant.

  Someone stabbed my neck right?

  He reached back, touching his neck and felt recessed skin but looked at his fingers and didn’t find any blood. Looking at his fingers he felt deja vu. He felt like his fingers weren’t his before.

  Finally he looked up at his screens to see a catastrophe in progress. Goblins rushed into London square burning everything they could, a wave of trolls ran through Moscow, Beijing had Wyverns flying through the city. The event in the city of Akihabara in Tokyo seemed to be wrapping up already with minimal casualties. It seemed everyone in that city instinctively knew what to do when a giant monster came through a portal.

  His screens flickered with additional preset notifications he had programed in previously; a large number of players injured beyond 75%, property damage hitting millions, and fourty-nine dead so far. Citizens had died in the thousands. As he dug deeper he saw safety settings of all sorts switched off. Checking regionally he saw many of his programmed encounters with difficulties ramped up to max. Finally he saw the worst notification, one he couldn’t fully comprehend, but knew it was bad news.

  ^

  Dimensional Integration Safety Period:

  Terminated Early

  -Access to resource management granted

  -Universal system controlled invasions activated

  -Alien denizens trespass protection deactivated

  Aspect Resources Available: 237,432,272 units

  “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!” He chanted as he started freaking out.

  “I need to… help!”

  He pulled up his quest screen and made a new world quest. As he changed metrics making it as easy and rewarding as possible he approved it.

  ^

  Cost for Quest

  Approved up to 6,211,323 units depending on quest completion percentage

  “YES!” He shouted in desperate impatience, not caring about the new feature. “Go! Help them!”