Elijah came too, still strapped to the platform. He’d passed out from the pain at some point, though his mind was hazy as to when. The bitter taste of a healing potion was still on his tongue. Tom must have force-fed him one to keep him from dying of blood loss. It hadn’t repaired the damage done to his body, merely healed over the wounds. He’d need proper healing magic—or a respawn—to recover fully. That was the downside to potions, and why Sasha’s place on their team was so important.

  A soft sob from across the room caught his attention. He looked up and saw the young woman; thankfully, she was still unharmed. Elijah was almost shocked that Tom had left her alone after he’d passed out.

  ”It’s okay,” he groaned, trying to reassure the woman. “I’m not going to let him hurt you. You’re going to be fine.”

  Even through the pain he was feeling, he was steadfast in his resolution. This woman—real or not—didn’t deserve to be here. Her passing resemblance to Sasha was her only ‘crime’, and Elijah would not let her suffer for it.

  Elijah let his eyelids close as he pulled open his menu. The screen showing his nutrient tanks was still open, still showing the same thing, but he tried not to let it phase him. He tabbed over to the group chat. His friends had been coordinating the search for him there.

  Elijah > I’m awake again. The dungeon has to be somewhere near where Tom has been operating. There’s an NPC here; he said he remembered her.

  Bo > The Celestials are helping us, Elijah. All six of them, even Daven. Arturus said that Tom’s gone rogue from the Reapers. The Celestials seem to believe him.

  Elijah > I think so too. Tom’s got some bone to pick with Arturus. I don’t think he has anything to do with Tom’s actions this time.

  Sasha > They searched all the dungeons we know about around Raystown and Eastgate. Is there anything else you can see? Some clue?

  There was nothing he could see. Tom had stripped this room of anything that Elijah could see, and he’d been unconscious when he’d been brought here.

  But the woman hadn’t been.

  “Miss, I have some friends looking for me, but the search area is too large. I have a way to contact them, but I need help figuring out where we are.” He had to be vague; if he used words like ‘party chat’ the perception filter likely wouldn’t let her understand a word he said.

  She looked at him with wide eyes, but nodded her head. This would be so much easier if she weren’t gagged, but Elijah could make do.

  “Can you tell me where you are from? Nod your head if I get it right. Raystown or Eastgate?”

  She shook her head, so he tried again. “Klade or Glasswind?”

  Again she shook her head. “Mara’s Bastion?” Elijah was hopeful; those were the only cities that he knew of, being that they were the only ones he’d ever seen on a map.

  Still, she shook her head. “So you’re from outside the area?” He was feeling downtrodden, sure that narrowed things down somewhat, but the world was massive and if he couldn’t—

  She was shaking her head again. Perhaps he’d been too literal in his question? “Are you from a major settlement?” He figured there was always the possibility she was from a small town that didn’t show up on the maps.

  Frustration boiled over when she began shaking her head again. If she wasn’t from outside the area, wasn’t from one of the major cities he’d named, and not from a small town, where could she be from?

  “I’m so stupid,” he whispered, realizing he had been too literal, but not in the way he thought. “You’re from Nethy, aren’t you?”

  She nodded her head vigorously, sounds of excitement working their way through her gag. He couldn’t fault her for taking his question literally; he wasn’t sure how much processing power the game delegated to the NPCs, and maybe in this case less was better. If she wasn’t fully self-aware, then maybe she wouldn’t be traumatized by what had happened. And if she was, then that was all the more reason to get her out as soon as he could.

  “When you fled the city’s destruction, which general direction did you go? East?”

  A shake of her head, but now they were making progress. He worked it out with her; he’d abducted her from Mara’s Bastion. Why or how Tom was operating within Mara’s home city, the city she’d built from the ground up, was concerning to Elijah. But at the moment that was beside the point.

  Elijah > The NPC who Tom kidnapped, I think he kidnapped her from Mara’s Bastion. She was a refugee from Nethy.

  Nicholas > That’s not good, the Bastion is one of the most densely crowded areas for dungeons in the area. We’ll tell Mara and the others, but try to find anything else out.

  Elijah went to work; he felt like he was playing some twisted form of twenty questions with her. Asking her what she’d seen, heard, or smelled when Tom brought her here.

  He tried various enemy types he’d seen before. Animals, undead, goblins, robots, but nothing seemed to register with her. He was losing hope that he could rely on any more information from her.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He stopped, racking his brain to think of another enemy type that might inhabit this dungeon. Maybe it would be good enough to just tell his friends the ones he had ruled out, but he worried that doing so would make them overlook a vital clue to his location.

  His eyes fixed on her again; she didn’t look downtrodden, or helpless, or upset. Instead, she was repeatedly trying to catch his eye with her own, then looking up at the mana crystal in the ceiling.

  “Something to do with the crystal? It reminds you of the enemies.”

  Yes, she shook her head.

  “Are the enemies some type of crystal or gemstones?”

  No, not that.

  “Mana, then? Some kind of casters?”

  She nodded once, then shook her head. He was close.

  “Summons, or magical constructs?”

  He had it. She was nodding her head furiously. He quickly opened his chat and relayed the information. Several seconds passed before he got a reply.

  Nicholas > We’ve got it. The Artificer’s Garden. Stay strong, Elijah; help is on the way.

  He almost wanted to shout for joy; this entire ordeal was almost over. Soon he’d be back with his friends, and he would rescue the young woman across from him. He was about to tell her they’d be okay when he heard a door open. The now all too familiar stench of dead flesh filled the room as Tom came into view. He had to hope that the woman would stay calm.

  “I’m bored with our little game, Elijah.” Tom snarled, pulling out his sickle and running the flat against her face. “So you get an option: do I kill her fast or slowly? It’s your choice, but either way you are at fault for her death.”

  He turned and grinned at Elijah, “And the glorious thing is that she’s an NPC, so she won’t respawn.”

  The woman screamed and tried to fight, but Elijah froze. He’d come so close to rescuing them both, but in a moment Tom was going to ruin all of that.

  Elijah struggled against his bonds. He knew it was useless, but he had to delay Tom. Had to give his friends enough time to rescue them both. His magic went nuts; he activated all of his spells in quick succession, burning through his mana reserves at a frightening pace and causing the crystal in the ceiling to glow brightly. This was what Tom really wanted; Elijah had to believe that. He didn’t care about the woman; he wanted to see Elijah suffer.

  The smile on Tom’s face proved that as he watched Elijah fight against his bindings.

  “You can’t do this, Tom. This isn’t right. Let her go!” he screamed. He felt the conviction in his heart, but it was less that he hoped Tom would see reason and more that he hoped Tom would delay.

  Tom smiled like a kid in a candy shop as he put the scythe to the woman’s neck.

  Elijah thought it was all over. His friends were too late.

  Then the door opened. His friends?

  The smell of putrid flesh was stronger now; something was very wrong. Even worse, Elijah thought he’d been completely wrong about rescue when two shambling corpses moved into vision. Was this some new, terrifying aspect of Tom’s class?

  The voice behind Elijah made his blood run cold.

  “Quite the mess you’ve made here, Tom. Quite the mess.” The Reaper leader stepped into Elijah’s peripheral vision as he craned his head to see who had come in. This wasn’t rescue; this was a complete failure on top of the failure of having allowed himself to be captured by Tom. Out of the frying pan and into Arturus’ fire.

  “What are you doing here, Arturus? I thought you said you were backing off of the Warper?” Tom’s eyes darted between the walking corpses and the crystal in the ceiling, as if checking to see if the mana drain effect was going to activate.

  Arturus snorted. “I had wanted to, but then I got a desperate plea from my peers to help track you down.” He turned his head to look at Elijah. “Seems you took something that wasn’t yours to take.”

  “The crystal, it absorbs—“ Elijah tried to warn Arturus, but the man put up a hand to cut him off. To be honest, he wasn’t sure why he was warning the man. Arturus and Tom wanted the same thing. To see Elijah suffer. This wasn’t salvation, just delay.

  “I’m well aware of what that crystal does, Elijah.” The man had an almost amused expression on his face. “But you aren’t the only one who can imbue summons with spells.”

  The corpses turned their chests towards the crystal, filling the room with the sound of cracking bones. Their chests split open and revealed dual glowing orbs. The orbs dimmed as the crystal absorbed their mana. The crystal grew brighter and brighter, and the taste of ozone filled the air. A high-pitched whine filled the room, and the crystal cracked, exploding into a shower of blue sparks before the room fell into pitch-black darkness. The only light in the room was the glow from Arturus and Tom’s equipment.

  Elijah had nearly burned through his mana reserves while trying to stall Tom. He didn’t have enough for a teleport, but he wasn’t willing to leave the NPC woman behind anyway. Instead, he channeled the last dregs of his mana into summoning Bitter Root. The room lit for a moment as the mana coalesced into the form of his goblin familiar. Tom saw it and moved to stop him, but Arturus intercepted him with a punch to the gut.

  Bitter Root formed and took a quick look around, baring his teeth as he noticed the two men fighting in the middle of the room. “Not them, Root! Get me untied,” he commanded the familiar.

  Tom was screaming now, yet Elijah remained uncertain whether his screams were aimed at him or Arturus. He was too focused on his familiar, urging the goblin to finish quickly.

  “The knife, Bitter Root,” he hissed, gesturing to the weapon still stuck into the palm of his hand. He wasn’t looking forward to the pain that would come from it being torn free, but it would have to happen sometime, and it would aid the goblin in freeing Elijah.

  The serrations tore through his healed flesh; the potion Tom had fed him had healed his hand around the blade. He held his tongue as the goblin ripped it free, then slashed into Elijah’s wrist as he worked to free him.

  The Mana Drain left him feeling sick and depleted, yet he had to get the woman to safety. He activated ‘Reality Warp’ on Bitter Root and copied himself. He didn’t know if Bitter Root would be able to teleport very far from Elijah, but he had to try. “Teleport the woman out of here.” He commanded as he took the knife from his doppelg?nger’s hand. Bitter Root understood exactly and turned to race over to the woman still tied to the opposite platform.

  Elijah looked up as Tom roared in anger. The man didn’t see Elijah tied to the platform, but he saw a version of him rushing to aid the woman. He held his arms out to the side.

  “No! Stop!” Elijah screamed, but it was too late. Tom entered his ‘Dervish’ form in the enclosed space. It all happened so fast. He saw the woman engulfed in the cyclone of razors, his connection to Bitter Root snapped, and then his world went black.

  [DEATH]

  You have died!

  Time to respawn: 120 seconds.

  “Well,” Elijah whispered to himself in the depths of the respawn void. “At least Sasha won’t see how broken I was.” He continued to ache for the NPC woman who had gotten tangled up in all of this.

  He hadn’t even learned her name.

  ? Consumer of the Fourth Anchor ?

  by Miko Melina

  A little monster with a big heart and an even bigger appetite.