Some unknowable time later, the darkness shifted into shades of gray, one Pantone swatch at a time. Sound returned like a bubble rising through deep water. Where there had been nothing, there was now something…a scrape here, a word there, a shuffle elsewhere.

  That meant there was an elsewhere, something beyond the dark. Something inside told me to follow it.

  A sound repeated, a rhythm I should know. The gray pulsed in time with it, lighter with each beat. The sound became a name. My name.

  “…ill…ill…Will.”

  I realized it was calling for me. “Will.”

  Thinking was like trying to swim through molasses, but I clung to the word. My name. The gray turned lighter, thinning into smoke instead of stone.

  There was a face in front of mine. I blinked twice with seconds between them, and the face was still there. A woman’s face. A face highlighted and framed with dark red hair. I knew that face.

  “Will. Will. Wake up. Wake up, Will,” the voice repeated, like an old vinyl record skipping back to the same track.

  I blinked, once, then again. The face stayed.

  “Come on, Will. You can do it! Come back to us…come back to me.”

  A flame flickered in her hand. My eyes tracked it as she moved it side to side. The fire cut the grayness like a blade. Fire. Flame. Blaze.

  “Blaze. Wha…what happened?”

  “Hit him with it again,” she ordered, her voice sharper now.

  I recognized the voice. That was Blaze. The real Blaze.

  A fullness surged through me, replacing the emptiness I hadn’t even realized was still there. My MANA wasn’t gone anymore. Not full…but not nothing either.

  It was far from full.

  “Blaze…” My voice sounded strange through the mask strapped to my face. “Wha…what…what happened?”

  I realized I wasn’t on cold tile anymore. Something softer supported me. A gurney, probably. Blaze leaned in, hugging me tight. Tears streaked her cheeks.

  “We almost lost you. Oh, Will! Hang in there. Stay awake. Stay with us. We’ll get you through this.”

  Another hand pressed against my shoulder, and a fresh rush of MANA jolted into me. Smaller hand. A woman’s hand. A different woman. I knew her too…her name eluded me, but I knew her.

  Still darkness clinging to me…but I’m stronger than it.

  I turned my head slightly. Figures crowded around. Soldiers in fatigues, academics in rumpled clothes, medics with gloves and computer pads.

  “MANA TRANSFER. Thank you. SandB? That you?” I asked.

  The woman smiled faintly. “You’re welcome. Stay with us, Will. I’ll keep it coming.” Then her hand lifted away.

  “No…no.” My whisper rasped under the mask. “Detect…DETECT MANA. Cast on table. On me.”

  A pause, then SandB’s sharp intake of breath. “Oh no! What are those things?”

  “What’s what?” Blaze demanded.

  “Those black lines. They’re running from him…to the table. To the bagged specimens.”

  “He said something about the table,” Ingrid added. “Which ones?”

  “I’ll have to get closer. I can’t tell from here.” SandB’s footsteps padded away.

  Blaze bent over me, her hand warm on my cheek. “Will, listen to me. We need you, and you need MANA. You said something about area effect. We’ve got people here who volunteered their MANA if you can take it. Open your eyes. Look. See them?”

  I forced my eyes open. A cluster of soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in front of me, faces pale but determined. A few of the university people stood with them. Mimicking their position.

  “You sure ’bout that?” I croaked.

  “Yes,” Blaze insisted. “SandB’s been taking them one at a time. Take as many as you can. Hurry, Will. We need you awake.”

  One of the soldiers in the front line nodded hard, bracing himself.

  I cast TRANSFER MANA, expanding it over the group. A pale blue glow shimmered around them. Their MANA surged into me through glowing tubes of MANA blue.

  It hurt and healed at the same time. A couple soldiers crumpled to their knees, others wavered, fighting to stay upright. My chest loosened as strength poured in. My Character Screen showed me more than half full…but it still leaked away, draining for no reason.

  Turning toward the rows of tables, I rasped out, “Don’t touch them! Separate the samples! Move them far from me…and from each other…until the link breaks!”

  Three people in gloves rushed forward, sliding plastic baggies into trays and carting them away.

  I slumped back. Blaze’s face swam in my vision. “Thank you. Thank all of you. I’m casting a Ward…to cut off MANA…and magic.”

  My throat burned, voice cracking, but the spell still formed.

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  A MANA BLUE circle flared into being around me, three meters across. From inside, it looked like a cylinder capped by a dome. The black tendrils connecting me to the table shivered…and snapped.

  The pull vanished. My screen showed a quarter MANA left. The drain stopped. No recovery, but no bleed either.

  Laying back on the gurney, I exhaled in relief. Ingrid and another EMT hovered close, checking vitals, adjusting the mask.

  “Will…what was that?” Blaze asked softly.

  “I think it was our World Boss,” I said. My voice sounded too old for me. “I think it was trying to turn me…like it did Hitchcock. Iago. Everett.”

  “What about PokerRun? Why did he revert and the others didn’t?”

  “Maybe because it went through Iago. When he died, the link broke.”

  “That’s what we thought before,” Blaze murmured. “Sounds right. Now what? You can’t keep fighting it like this.”

  “We wait. See if the attraction’s broken. If moving the samples far enough ends it. My DETECT MANA must’ve triggered the link.”

  I wanted to tell her how heavy my bones felt, how close the dark still lurked…but all I managed was to stay still, breathing through the mask.

  “Drink,” a man’s voice said. A light blue nitrile-gloved hand pressed a water bottle to my lips.

  “Don’t talk. Sip.”

  Cool water ran across my tongue, down my dry throat. I nodded faintly.

  “You can rest,” Ingrid said gently. “But we need that gurney. Ambulance runs won’t stop for us.”

  “If we have to, we’ll raid our camp cots at home,” Ingrid promised. “Give me twenty, thirty minutes.”

  I shifted, breath rasping in my chest. “Who’s in charge of the satellite feeds?”

  My voice didn’t crack this time.

  A soldier at the front of the computer rows raised her hand. “I am, sir. What do you need?”

  “How well can your satellites see the quarry at night?”

  “Depends on conditions. We’ve got infrared, visual enhancement, plus drones. At least one drone has both cameras.”

  “Good. Print me a schedule…last pass before dark, first after dawn. If the Game runs on local time, we’ll need that window.”

  “Yes, sir. We already have three days prepped. We’ve been keeping track of the times when we’ve got eyes on this county area since we arrived. Standard procedure, sir.” She added.

  “Thank you. I don’t know how much the Game runs things on local time, but it follows our clocks so it probably does.”

  A voice piped up from the WARD’s edge. SandB. “Excuse me. I found three connections. They’ve been moved out of the room. One baggie with something green…two slides.”

  Looking towards the voice, I saw SandB standing just outside the WARD. She was almost smiling, but her rubbing hands betrayed her nerves.

  “Thank you,” I told her, forcing a smile. “You saved my life. Maybe everyone’s.”

  Bailey, her wife, hovered at her side, hand on her shoulder.

  “We’ll wait,” I added. “See if it reaches out again. If it does, I’ll drop another MAGIC WARD and block it. If it seeks you, get inside with me.”

  “Do you think it will?” SandB’s voice trembled.

  “I think it wants MANA. As much as it can get. Especially Mana Mages. We’re the best counter to it.” I told her.

  “What is it? What is doing this? The Boss thing you talked about.”

  “I think so,” I said. “It’s at the quarry. A World Boss. We’ll need guilds, the military…everyone.”

  “You mean you have a plan,” Bailey teased, squeezing her wife’s shoulder. “You’ve always got a plan. It’s a good thing most of them work.”

  Bailey’s grin faded. “Can you beat it?”

  “We hope so. Our guilds take front lines. One target, unless it has more MINIONs.”

  “What about the military?”

  “They’re watching. Drones, satellites, scouts. But they won’t let me near it. Which means, Sara…you’ll stand for me with the MANA SHIELDS.”

  Her eyes widened, hands wringing. “I can’t. I’m not you.”

  “Yes, you can. You’ll level if we win. Maybe twice. I saw what you did with the werewolf. You didn’t stop. You kept pushing.”

  I coughed, chest aching. “SandB. BandS. Bailey and Sara. You’ll do this together.”

  The two women leaned close, whispering. Most in the room turned away, giving them space.

  “They won’t let me near that place. I wouldn’t let me do it if I wasn’t me. I think I’m here until we,” I paused. “Until you beat the World Boss.”

  Bailey was gripping her hand and smiling. I remained quiet. This was their time, not mine.

  They took until after Bhaarrt helped move me off the gurney into a chair. Then the EMTs wheeled it out.

  It took them a few more minutes of holding and whispering to each other before Bailey helped Sara lift her face. Sara wiped her face and eyes.

  I heard a soft voice saying, “Will?” from them. I turned in my chair and looked at Sarah. She was wringing her hands again. Her worried look back on her face.

  “Yes?”

  “You really think I can take your place tonight?”

  “My place protecting people, yes. You’re not me. But if you buff every scrap of gear you can, your shields will hold. Put your shield front and back. Sandwich the line. You’ll be their first, last, and best line of defense.”

  I had to pause a moment. I wanted that to sink in.

  “When your front one drops, theirs should hold until your spell resets. Enough shields, and the wall stands. If there are any other Mana Mages, their shields go in the middle with the rest of the shields.”

  I dug into my pouch, then pressed a key into her palm. “Spare house key. Use my place as a base. Recharge batteries, tap the Ley Line. Get your guild ready.”

  “You can have my rechargeable batteries to charge up and be ready. Find the Ley Line and keep tapping it to do this. Use the one at my house if you want. It runs through the garage.”

  “You trust me to do all that?”

  “No.” I said. She startled in surprise. “We all trust you to do it. The people of Eddington do, and you’re one of us. They stepped up when we had to. You will too. You’ll take my place in the line. I think you can lead a fight against the local spawns by now. You know what to do and what other player types can do.”

  “None of us know how to beat this Boss. It’s all new to us. Almost everything I’ve done so far has been guessing and making it up as I go. I’m sure Bailey will be right next to you all the way. You’ll do this to protect her. Then everyone else. You’re that kind of woman.” I looked her in the eyes as I finished.

  She just stared at me. I didn't think she believed anything I was saying. Finally, she nodded yes. “I led one spawn fight. Megan convinced me I could do it and she wouldn’t do it.”

  “Did you win?” I asked.

  For the first time, she smiled. “Yeah. I did what the other leaders did, and it worked. It was easier than I thought. Megan kept the Tank up. I shielded and damaged the Goblins we fought.”

  “How did it feel? How did you feel afterwards?”

  “It felt good. We won, and no one got hurt. Megan kept everyone healed.”

  “I’m sure she did. Think of this as just a bigger spawn fight that takes more people. Everything else is the same. You did it. You’ve been doing it. You can do it again. You know you can.” I finished with a wheeze.

  Resting for a moment or three, I continued.

  “You’ll do what I do, keep the shields up and everyone protected. I don’t think there’s anyone here who would hesitate to stand behind your shields.” We both could see people giving her thumbs up and nodding yes. They understood. Especially the soldiers.

  “Now get going. You’ve got a lot to prepare. You have your gear and Bailey’s to work on. She protects you, then the rest of your guild. Buff anyone who can get to you before this happens.”

  They both thanked me and hurried out. Sara led, and Baily was smiling.

  Sargent Jans looked at me and grinned. “I heard about the artillery. You know if it works your people won’t have to fight.”

  “I know. But we don’t want the people of Eddington depending on me forever. They need to stand on their own.”

  He clapped my shoulder. “You’d make a good officer. Shame you’d never pass the physical.”

  We laughed over that and I sat and waited, listening to the people around me doing their jobs. It made me feel like we had a chance.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COhMUiFlOFA

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