Alex reached over and picked up his staff where he had dropped it. He wasn’t religious, but thought that now might just be a good time to try a prayer.

  It couldn’t hurt…so he prayed. It wasn’t a plea to a god though—more like a blunt mental statement to the universe:

  Don’t let this be where we die.

  Alex took a deep breath and stared down the path at the remaining ops team member that he could see. The guy wasn’t moving and his leg was bent horribly wrong. Alex had no idea if the man was even still alive. He wished that their HUDs would automatically share the health bars of everyone around them.

  Dead or not though, they were out of this fight. He wasn’t sure what they were going to do now. Could they fight the bear on their own? These ops teams were supposed to be their failsafes. Top mercenary crews that could keep the rest of them safe when things went sideways—and things had definitely gone sideways.

  And it had worked…until it didn’t.

  Now Hiro was the only upper year adventurer still in fighting shape while the entire ops team was out and possibly dead.

  Dead.

  Alex had never seen a dead body before. Not like this. Prepped and posed in a casket once or twice. But never lying broken on the ground in a pool of blood. He had never spent much time even thinking about his own mortality before this.

  Alex noticed Jay hesitate beside him and wondered if he was having similar thoughts. Or maybe he was just pausing before running towards a giant alien bear for a second time. They were both reasonable responses.

  The bear was walking stiffly up the path towards them though so any choices were quickly being taken away from them. Alex tried to shake himself off mentally. He had to do something. He wouldn’t let any more people get hurt if he could help it.

  “Everybody—weapons out. It’s our turn,” he repeated, louder this time, pitching his voice to cut through everyone’s evident shock. “Mel, play. Everyone else that can fight: spread out. Don’t stack up! The bear has a huge reach.”

  People moved into action all at once, shifting where they needed to go.

  Mel’s hands were shaking so hard Alex wasn’t sure she was even going to be able to play. He smiled at her, trying to be reassuring. She smiled back, took a deep breath and lifted her lute. Her jaw was clenched like she was trying not to throw up, but she started to play.

  The first notes came out thin and she hit a couple of wrong notes before finding her rhythm. By the time she struck her first chord though, she was back in form.

  Her Harmonic Resonance wasn’t something you could hear exactly. It was a wavelength inserted into the music. But even if you couldn’t hear it, you could feel it. For the humans, it just made the skin prickle slightly, but for the bear?

  It slowed down and tilted its head sideways but kept walking towards them breathing heavily, almost in a pant. It didn’t seem to be affected as strongly as the boars were.

  The remnants of Alex’s nanite illusion still clung around its face in wisps, the boar-shape mostly shredded now, reforming and breaking as the bear limped forward. He thought it looked ridiculous, but then the bear stepped over the ops team member’s body like he was just a fallen log in his way and that shattered any type of humour Alex saw in the situation.

  Sarah stepped up on Alex’s other side. “What’s the plan here?”

  Alex let out a long breath before answering, “Beat it? One hit at a time?” Sarah just snorted in response.

  He looked around and saw Brandon and Ethan step off the path on either side. Ethan leaned behind a tree, bracing his crossbow. Brandon’s jaw worked, eyes wide, but his hands were steady as he stood, eyes locked on the approaching bear.

  Hiro, Danny and Emily stepped up behind their front line as Rae disappeared into the brush behind Ethan.

  Connor was there too, but at the back, behind Emily. Alex ignored him and looked back towards the bear which was still about 40 metres away but picking up speed.

  Jay took a few steps forward and Sarah joined him.

  “Leave me a lane down the centre,” Alex said and they moved to the sides of the path, stopping a metre ahead of Alex as Emily and Hiro stepped up to take their places beside him.

  Jay stretched his neck to the side, releasing a loud crack and settled into a comfortable position, axe held low, shoulders rolled forward. Sarah stood more rigidly, sideways to the bear, sword held at the ready, gripped tightly in both hands.

  “A pulse is coming again,” Hiro said quietly.

  Alex nodded. He could feel it too. The bear had been pulling mana for the last dozen steps.

  “I don’t think it’s going invisible…I think it’s blinking, or teleporting forward in a straight line.”

  Hiro looked over at him. “Are you sure?”

  “Pretty sure, yeah.” And he was. When the bear disappeared last time, all traces of its internal mana disappeared too. If it had gone invisible, he was pretty sure he would have still been able to track it in the mana field.

  Louder he called out to the extended team. “Everyone who’s got some distance abilities, light it up as soon as it starts running. Danny—move into the brush, you don’t need to be close. Mel, you too. When it disappears, scatter to the edges of the path. Then, when it appears again, hit it hard. Fall back when you need to and rush it from the back and sides. That’s the plan”

  Ahead the bear took another step and tugged at the mana around it with more force. Alex took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. The bear wasn’t just huge and terrifying—it was built for this world in a way they weren’t.

  “Mel,” Alex called, without taking his eyes off the animal. “Keep that going. Don’t stop.”

  Mel’s fingers flew, knuckles white. The music was thick in the air. She sang along with the lute, but not in any real words, just harmonizing with the chords she strummed. In the Silver Gate she would be getting applause for this performance Alex thought.

  The bear’s ears flattened and its head dipped a little. It shook its muzzle, clearly being affected by the music. It either had more willpower, or more natural defenses than the boars had though. It sped up but not quite charging yet.

  “Wait…” Alex watched the mana field. It came sluggishly. He was tired and rattled. But the overlay of energy slid into place like a second world printed over the first. Or maybe he was just thinking in terms of his HUD now. The Mana layer wasn’t an overlay, it was part of the world in a way that his minimap never would be.

  Mana floated through the forest on slow currents. The bear was a knot in the middle of it, a dense engine of muscle wrapped in an aura that pulsed outward in waves even as it drew in more and more mana. Alex saw the moment the bear had filled up what it needed.

  “Now!” he yelled as the bear broke out into a full run. He shot a magic missile down the path, lighting up the space between Jay and Sarah. He heard the thrum of Danny's bow and the sharp snap of a crossbow just as a burning hot bar of white light erupted from something on Emily’s wrist and hissed through the air beside him. It raced down the path in the wake of Alex’s own missiles.

  From the side of the path Brandon shot a succession of purple and black projectiles. Alex realized he had no idea what either of their powers were and was going to have to spend some time looking into everyone else's abilities. Back home, as a viewer of the Dungeon Inc. show, he would have known everyone's stats and abilities. Now he seemed to be too busy all the time.

  One after another the various payloads hit the bear alongside the arrows and crossbow bolts. The bear growled deeply but didn’t slow. Whatever it was building inside with all that mana was powering it forward. It just lowered its head to the onslaught and ran through it all.

  Then its aura pulsed.

  Alex felt it before he saw it—his skin prickled, then his HUD spasmed into existence again for a fraction of a second—static, error glyphs, a minimap that looked like it had been put through a blender. Alex slammed it shut again just as the bear lunged and disappeared from the path.

  “MOVE!” Jay bellowed, even before Alex could react.

  Everyone jumped for the underbrush at the edge of the path, spinning back with weapons raised. Mel started playing again after a brief pause, recovering quickly, but with a pale face.

  Alex had moved towards Sarah and Brandon on the left side of the now empty path.

  Waiting for a bear to materialize from thin air seemed to take a long time, but Alex raised his staff and pointed it, and his free bracer at the path.

  “Careful where you are aiming!” someone yelled.

  Then the bear was back. It appeared in the air in front of them all, roaring and tearing through the empty space with its huge claws. Less than two seconds had passed since it disappeared, yet it cleared nearly thirty metres.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Alex started pulling in mana even as he fired another round of missiles and sprayed his dragon's breath attack across the bear's flank, aiming at the oozing wound Jay had carved into its shoulder. The explosions from his magic missiles were tight and controlled—white flashes, blue tracers and the thumps of impact. But that was only the start.

  The bear was being battered with everything they had and Alex could see that it was finally starting to react to what they were throwing at it. The bear flinched hard. Grunting and snorting, it shook its head, smoldering fur releasing wisps of smoke. It looked confused that its prey had vanished and with a roar, pushed out another pulse of mana.

  Alex pushed the glitching HUD back as soon as it popped up, ready for it this time. Then he smiled. He immediately felt the mana he was holding going slippery after whatever it was the bear had done again, but he had already drawn in everything he needed and holding it was easier than grabbing it in the first place.

  The melee fighters had stepped in now. Sarah swung her sword down on a paw with a two-handed strike while Jay swung his axe back and forth like a pendulum on the far side of the animal.

  It reared back a pace, front paws leaving the ground and head snapping up as Brandon hit it with more blasts from whatever spell he was using. It made that high, pained sound again—half roar, half frustrated mewling.

  Alex carefully shaped his collected mana into something sharp. A spike that took form over his shoulder. It was a struggle. He was tired and whatever the bear was doing was making it really hard to hold onto the mana at all, let alone shape it, but he refused to give up. When he was finally ready he pushed his rough creation with all the magical force he could muster.

  The bear shook its head violently and bellowed into the canopy above as the spike drove deep into its side, sliding between ribs. Blood splurted out every time the animal moved..

  Then the bear spun. Wild in its pain, flailing its arms at nothing and everything. It came back down to the path landing heavily and lunged towards the source of the immediate pain, one massive paw swinging ahead of itself.

  “DOWN!” Hiro snapped.

  Alex tried to react but the bear was terrifyingly fast and he had barely started to move when the paw hit him.

  Not claws—just the flat, brutal force of a limb the size of a truck hood.

  His world went sideways and blurry. Pain exploded across his ribs and shoulder. He hit the ground hard, sliding through dirt and leaves until a root caught him in the back. It would have knocked the wind out of him if there had been any left, but he already couldn’t breathe from the initial strike. His body convulsed as he tried to force air back into his lungs.

  He saw the sky through branches. A smear of gray-blue above him. The sky was dull and moving past him. Leaving, one cloud at a time.

  Then Sarah was there, grabbing his belt strap and yanking him sideways just as the bear’s next paw strike slammed down, right where his head and shoulders had been. The ground pelted them with dirt.

  Sarah was desperately trying to drag him backwards, away from the bear, but Alex was too heavy and she was slipping in the loose leaf litter. All Alex could do was watch and try to breathe.

  The bear took one determined step towards them and then Jay stepped between them. He had circled around to give them time to recover. He screamed and swung his axe around him like a giant, biting deterrent.

  Sarah changed tactics and hauled Alex up to his feet. Or most of the way there.

  Alex bent over, hands on knees and gasped as he finally recovered his breath. His head spun, his ribs screamed at him and all he could taste was blood.

  The bear advanced, ignoring the explosives that continued to rain down on it, and the dozen arrows and bolts peppering its back. It took a swipe at Jay, which he dodged by retreating off the path. They were running out of clear space to maneuver.

  And then Connor was there too. He stepped in from the side and thrust his shield into the paw the bear had been rising for another strike as he lunged inside the arm and stabbed his sword up and into the bear's thick neck.

  Jay swung his axe in a brutal arc at the bear, the axe head blurring at the last second as the IMP kicked in—mass and speed surging together.

  The blade bit deep into the bear’s wounded side again, about a foot below his last gash. It tore through fur and flesh with a wet sound and sprayed blood across the trail.

  The bear bellowed and staggered sideways, weight shifting off the wounded limb. Connor danced away as the other front leg came down and swung his sword back around, biting deep.

  Arrows and crossbow bolts thumped across the bear's chest and sides in regular bursts. Connor swung at a paw that was now flailing in front of them and then Hiro was there too, purple glow flaring around his hand as he struck the bear’s jaw, then the side of its neck, then at one of the joints of a foreleg. Fast, surgical hits meant to disrupt the bear more than do any permanent damage.

  The bear snapped at him with its dagger long teeth but Hiro spun away, hair whipping, breath controlled.

  The bear was clearly hurt now. Its attack had been stalled. It was still swinging at them, but it had stopped advancing and was now clearly looking around itself for an escape, not a victim. It started to back up slowly but Jay and Connor and Sarah didn’t give it any space. They followed it step for step, harrying it back down the path; Jay biting into its flanks with his axe while Connor slashed and stabbed at the animal's face alongside Sarah.

  Alex reached for some more mana. It was getting more difficult to hold, not because of the bear anymore, but because he was exhausted and sore. He fought for what he had needed, for every scrap of energy he could draw and hold onto. He didn’t have the energy to shape even the simplest construct, so he knew he was going to have to keep this one simple.

  “Down in front!” Alex yelled. Then, as the others shifted to the side, he threw all of the mana he had managed to draw in, straight at the bear’s head.

  It was a blunt shove. But a hard one and the bear’s head snapped back like it had been hit by a giant, invisible bat. It rocked back onto its haunches, front paws lifting instinctively.

  Jay didn’t waste the opening.

  He stepped in and hacked again—a shorter swing this time, controlled—cutting into one of the front legs as Connor and Sarah both thrust towards the bear’s chest and fell back again.

  The bear roared and stumbled back a step. Then another.

  The new hits weren’t the deepest, but the effect was cumulative and the bear had had enough. It roared, as loud as it had been since catching up to them. Spittle flew from the animal's mouth and Alex saw Connor lift his shield to block the worst of it. It reared up. Both front paws lifted. Sarah braced herself but it wasn’t necessary.

  The bear spun on its haunches and slammed back to the ground facing away from them. Then, with a surprising burst of speed that almost ended in disaster as its front leg wobbled under its own weight, it crashed into the underbrush, breaking branches and ferns as it withdrew into the forest.

  The sound of it faded in heavy, angry bursts until it was gone.

  Silence hit almost as hard as anything that had come before.

  Alex stood in the trail and tried to make his hands stop shaking as he struggled to get breath past his aching ribs. He started to try and process everything that had happened over the past five minutes, then pushed it away and decided he probably shouldn’t. Yet.

  He forced himself to turn around and look at everyone in turn. They all just stood there watching him, or the broken hole in the underbrush where the bear had retreated. He didn’t know what to say. Good job? Great work guys?

  He sighed and turned back to the trail, moving towards the ops guy lying still in the middle of the path. Alex squatted and checked for a pulse. It was faint, but still there. He released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

  “Okay,” Alex said, voice rough. He cleared his throat. Then again, “Okay.”

  Sarah came up to help him, but there wasn’t much they could do here. He waved her towards where the two ops guys were first thrown into the forest. “Let’s check everyone.” Sarah just nodded and stepped into the thick underbrush. Jay went with her.

  Emily walked past with Connor and they left the path on the opposite side to look for the last ops guy.

  Brandon stepped up with Mel, who was squatting by the man's broken leg. She had one of the healing injectors that looked like some fantasy canister. She gently straightened the leg and used the injector a little above the break. Alex looked at her but she only shrugged in return. None of them were doctors.

  Alex stood up and looked around at everyone again. They looked as tired as he felt. They also looked haunted. He took a deep breath and forced a shallow smile.

  “This is a tale that will earn you free beer in the Silver Gate for years to come,” he said, pulling out his DM voice. There was no laughter, but he got smiles and a chuckle out of Ethan. “A and B Class. We’re all standing. Together we defeated the Scourge of Westwood.” Now everyone was smiling. Hiro caught his eye and gave him a nod. Alex nodded back.

  Before long they had the remaining ops team members laid out on the path. Apparently they were all still alive, although if a couple of them didn’t get medical treatment soon, it would be a close thing.

  Hiro stepped up beside him and said, “I sent a message to Reach. They’re sending UTVs.”

  Alex looked at him confused.

  “Utility vehicles. They have trailers.”

  “What? I didn’t think there was any tech like that allowed here?”

  Hiro waved a hand over the men lying on the ground. Laina had been laid down beside them. Marcus and Kieran sat close by, near the edge of the path.

  “They have a few for emergencies. I think they have an exit outside the palisade wall, at the bottom of the hill near the river. It’s not that they aren’t allowed ‘period’, it’s just that they want to keep it off camera and hidden from any of the locals that come into town.”

  “Huh. I had no idea, but it makes sense I guess.” Alex didn’t actually care. UTVs sounded pretty good right now. He really wasn’t sure he would be able to walk all the way back to the village.

  He went over and sat down by Marcus and then immediately lay back, staring up at the dots of sky above, watching the distant clouds scud by.

  Lying down made it much easier to breathe.

  ***

  I grew up in a big city where life kind of sucks if you don’t have a lot of money.

  You learn early on how to live small—how to ignore people sleeping in doorways, how to measure your worth in credits earned, and how to treat danger as something abstract that might occasionally happen to someone else. But, once you got past all that, life was also pretty easy.

  People still die on Earth obviously, sometimes badly. But it’s a distant, foreign concept most of the time. It happens in hospitals, on screens, behind procedures and to old people. If you aren’t sick, and you aren’t old, there’s just no reason to even think about it.

  Earth3 doesn’t work like that.

  Out there, beyond the village walls, death is not a concept. It’s a stalker that hides around every corner and in the depths of every shadow.

  I kept thinking about Socrates. He said death was either a dreamless sleep or a doorway—either nothing at all, or the beginning of some other, wonderful thing. Either way, he argued that it wasn’t worth fearing.

  When we learned that in philosophy class, we were sitting in a nice clean classroom. We were safe. There was no fear of starvation, or disease. No warring cultures. No pestilence.

  It is so easy for us to forget, or to put it another way, so difficult for us to truly understand that Socrates lived in a world that looked death in the face every single day. Starvation, sickness, war—none of it was hypothetical. People buried children. They watched neighbors die. They stood close enough to that finality to have a very practical view on their own end.

  Hell, Socrates himself died just because of his beliefs.

  We don’t live in that world and cannot possibly understand it anymore.

  When I learned the truth about Earth3, and the things we were going to be doing here, I thought that level of hardness could be learned. That courage was just another skill you trained under pressure. And fear of death was a thing that you could just hang up at the end of the day with your sword.

  I was wrong.

  I suppose some people can learn to be hard. But you really have to want it. And eventually I just realized that I liked my soft life back on Earth.

  Excerpt from: Voluntary Withdrawal Exit Interview

  John Stiles, ex-fighter

  Please consider checking out this story from a friend of mine:

  (???)つ━━???: *?

  ? My 100th Life Will Be My Last ?

  by Asher Teivel

  Clara Crowsong has already lived and died ninety-nine times. This life is her last.

  My 100th Life Will Be My Last is a slow-burn progression fantasy featuring regression, necromancy, dungeon-diving, Divine Aspects, and the mystery behind Clara’s curse.