“You’re stuck in here with me,” I said, dragging the second door guard’s unconscious body into the safe spot nearby.

  I didn’t like playing this role. It didn’t feel natural, and I shivered, but I didn’t have a choice. At least my friends couldn’t hear me, though, and one against four, I’d needed every trick in the book.

  Eddie’s ‘charge forward and push through’ strategy had given me the edge I needed. He’d charged straight into the maze, just like I had. But he’d kept pushing and fighting, even though the gauntlet had two easy pass strategies I’d seen.

  First, as I’d noticed with the Jupiter orb, the planets only seemed to attack their lines of sight. If I could keep moving, they’d lose ‘interest’ and return to the skies. By moving fast enough, a team or person could get to the far side. It’d be risky, though; if things went wrong, I’d be trapped.

  Second—and much more interesting—was the darkness of the void.

  It was almost completely clear of planets, and there were ways through without fighting too many enemies as the black path wove back and forth across the lit main route. The Voltsmith’s Charge put out just enough orange light that I could find my way through. It was slow, but not any slower than fighting all the planets. And it was low-risk—especially since I could cross behind Eddie and Tommy before the planets they’d just killed respawned.

  As Eddie and Tommy pushed into the maze, I waited until they’d gotten far enough ahead, then ambushed Tommy with the Trip-Hammer. He was alive but hurting; I’d bound his hands with wire and left him in a dead-end somewhere in the Void.

  I’d used my new Creation on the two men guarding the exit.

  I’d gotten the idea from the Cloud Sentinel’s death, and it worked perfectly. Three balls bounced across the floor, rolling to a stop near their feet. Then they detonated. Instead of nails and bolts, Foam spewed everywhere. The two men screamed until their voices cut off. I waited until the chemical reaction finished, then quickly cut them away from the towering spires of hardening foam.

  That left Eddie himself.

  I flexed the Voltsmith’s Grasp.

  Voltsmith’s Grasp (1 Charge) - 1/3 Taser Launchers Loaded

  It turned out that the melee taser was much more powerful than the launched ones, and even with the launching mechanism, it only cost four Charge. I wouldn’t get another shot for a while, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Eddie couldn’t clear this place on his own, and I could. He couldn’t leave, either, so I didn’t have to block his escape.

  I had all the time in the world. Now I just had to decide what to do with it.

  Eddie hadn’t seen or heard from the Voltsmith in almost thirty minutes, but the man’s words kept bouncing around in his head. “You’re stuck in here with me.”

  He hadn’t even bothered checking the door. The dungeon was a Sealed Environment. There were only three ways he was getting out of here: he could kill the boss, wait for the Voltsmith to do it, or wait until The Captain’s other teams cleared their dungeons and came here. Most of those wouldn’t work for him.

  The only way forward was through. He had to kill the boss.

  Then he could kill the Voltsmith, his bum friend, and the girl.

  It sucked about Tommy, but even though the other man had been a solid second in a fight, he didn’t matter. Only one thing mattered: getting through this.

  He cast his deflection spell for the dozenth time and charged another planet. This time, right below the blazing sun overhead, it hardly helped. The laser lashed out, bouncing and ricocheting into the darkness along the room’s outer wall. In the flash of red light, Eddie thought he saw a face. He looked closer, but it was gone. The planet popped into the air, spinning and swirling. He gritted his teeth. He was seeing things, and it had cost him a kill.

  If these damn things dropped experience, he’d be Level Fifty by now.

  He walked on. The deflection spell was getting harder to cast, taking more effort to maintain—especially near the stars. He was getting tired. A pinkish planet that looked nothing like what he remembered from middle school descended from the sky, and the maze shifted in front of him as the galaxy overhead spun and twisted.

  “Fuck.” Eddie adjusted, groaning as he went down the newly illuminated pathway.

  “Yeah, agreed.” The Voltsmith’s voice was right next to Eddie, and he jumped, spinning and slashing with the sharp shield. It cut the air. A black hallway loomed next to him; his attacker was hiding and waiting.

  Eddie stopped. He peered into the Void. Awareness had been Barrett’s thing, not his, but it looked like more than a place to catch a breather. He took a deep breath, feeling blood trickle down his side. The only way forward was through.

  He stepped into the void.

  I didn’t want to kill Eddie.

  He was doing a good job of that on his own by trying to bull through the maze’s direct path and fighting every enemy in the whole gauntlet.

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  More importantly, I wasn’t a killer. There had to be another way to solve this problem. I’d already discarded working with him to kill the dungeon’s boss. He was too likely to turn on me, and too stubborn to agree to it in the first place. Even though Tori and Calvin both knew where I was, they couldn’t come help. Calvin was twenty levels below the monsters, and Jessica would never forgive me if Tori got herself hurt helping me. Besides, I couldn’t talk to them even if I needed their help.

  He’d killed Brian, though.

  “Fuck you,” Eddie growled. He stalked into the Void, and I hurried down one of the side tunnels. I’d been following him, waiting for the dungeon to take its toll on him so I could take him down. I didn’t know what I’d do with him—or with the other three—but taking them off the battlefield was the first step in clearing this dungeon.

  He was too close. I broke into a run, hurtling through the dark. The Voltsmith’s Grasp wasn’t equipped; I needed to stay invisible, and the orange glow of Charge would just give me away.

  “Fuck you, man, you know that?” Eddie repeated. He stopped following me. “When I get out of here, I’m ending you like I should have.”

  “You don’t get it, Eddie. You’re not in control here,” I hissed into the Void.

  “I’ve never been in control, but I’ve always survived. I’ll survive this, too, and then I’m coming for your people. You’re last, though. I’ll kill the hobo first, then the girl.”

  My blood ran cold.

  An image of Beth popped into my head. The last time I’d seen her—the Christmas before she graduated.

  We were around the tree—Mom, Dad, Beth, Grandpa, and me. Grandpa’s Holiday music record was running through its eighth playthrough, and I’d just opened a gift from her to me. It was a bowl; she’d started taking pottery classes, and it was a wheel-thrown, Terra-cotta bowl, about the right size for cereal or canned soup. She’d decorated the outside in knife-pressed triangles and a glaze over the top half so white it was almost blinding.

  I couldn’t bring it home, though. There wasn’t space. It stayed in Cozad.

  Beth was out there somewhere, and I knew that if this guy had threatened her, I’d do whatever it took to make sure he couldn’t ever again. Right now, he wasn’t threatening her, but he’d promised to kill Calvin and Tori.

  And he’d killed Brian. We’d saved him. And I’d…I’d let Eddie go. That was my mistake. I’d killed Brian—sort of. This was my problem to fix.

  Every problem had a solution, though.

  Eddie took a ragged breath and looked over his shoulder.

  Something had changed. The Voltsmith had gone quiet. But Eddie had been hunted before. He’d run from the cops, taken his bike down alleys and across foot-bridges to shake the pigs. The feeling on the back of his neck right now was the same feeling as then.

  He was being hunted. Like an animal. And he couldn’t avoid it.

  Eddie sucked in another breath. His chest bled from a dozen wounds now. The last group of planets had been rough. And the last time he’d seen the Voltsmith, he seemed pretty much unhurt.

  The only way out was through. Eddie braced himself. He cast his deflection spell on his shield, held it in front of him, and turned around, doubling back toward the Voltsmith.

  Eddie lunged out of the darkness on the lit path’s far side. I’d been expecting it for a while, and I was ready. The shortened Trip-Hammer smashed down, bouncing off to the right. He hadn’t changed since our last fight.

  “Die!” he screamed.

  I rolled with his charge, ducking the shield swing and letting him crash into my shoulder. I spun off to the side and landed in the shadows. Eddie roared, and I readied the Trip-Hammer in my free hand. Then I flexed my hand under the Voltsmith’s Grasp and pointed my middle finger at Eddie.

  Stored Charge: 1/15

  0/3 Taser Launchers Loaded

  The taser sprung from its tube with a puff of Charge, already crackling and sparking. Eddie whirled, and my shot ricocheted off his shield. It hit the ground, sparking. I tried to disengage the line, but Eddie was already running toward me, casting a spell near the starlight’s edge.

  I triggered the Trip-Hammer. It whined and screamed. Then it slammed into his shield. The metal-on-metal crash echoed through the room. He shoved, and I stepped back. Then I stepped back again as Eddie lashed out with his shield. I was a beat too slow; he opened a cut across my arm, then a second on my shin. I gritted my teeth and swung the Trip-Hammer again. Again, a beat too slow. This time, I got out of the way before he could return the hit.

  I didn’t have the speed. I hadn’t put on any Body since our last fight. But I did have a surprise for Eddie. I shifted my last foam grenade into my hand and got ready.

  The taser sparked and hissed as I retreated toward the nearest star. The cable was behind Eddie, but the whole thing was still plugged into my gauntlet. I saw the whole thing happening before I’d even activated the grenade.

  I turned, took one step to my left, and backed up again.

  Eddie pressed the attack. He rushed toward me.

  I narrowed my eyes. My wrist flicked back, and the taser popped up like a lasso at a rodeo. It caught him in the side, and Eddie collapsed, screaming.

  The tension melted off my shoulders. I held the grenade, but didn’t throw it. Eddie was down. I could finish this right now. I needed to finish this right now.

  But I waited.

  Eddie was still dangerous. He still had his shield, and I saw him tense as the power ran out and the taser stopped. I lifted the Trip-Hammer and got ready to take a swing.

  The hammer went down toward Eddie’s head.

  His shield rocketed up.

  They met with a ring, and Eddie powered himself up to his feet. He threw the shield forward, hooked it under the Trip-Hammer’s twin spikes, and pulled before I could react. The broken pipe handle jerked from my hand, and Eddie roared toward me. “Time to die, asshole!”

  He’d turned my trick from last fight back on me. I backpedaled, then threw myself into the darkness again as Eddie rushed me. He scored a cut on my forehead, and I squeezed down on the grenade in my hand.

  Stored Charge 0/15

  Bomb: Active

  Timer: Five Seconds

  Five seconds. That was too long; if I dropped the grenade now, he’d push me back before it went off. I held onto it instead. He kept coming; the shield rocketed toward my face. “Use a spell, do something! Make a fight out of this!” he screamed in my face.

  “You got it.”

  I dropped the grenade and threw myself toward my Trip-Hammer as the hall behind me erupted in sticky foam. It started hardening the second it hit the air, and Eddie roared and strained. The shield lashed out at me, but I was already out of its reach. I grabbed the Trip-Hammer and turned around.

  Eddie was completely trapped. His arm was free, and so was his head; he was hacking away at the foam, and a pile of white junk had already started to form. I stepped closer, and he stopped. “You’re a bastard, Hal, and if I don’t kill you and that bitch, The Captain will.”

  I wasn’t a killer. I’d hurt people before—I’d hurt Eddie before. But up until that moment, I’d been ready to offer him a chance to survive if he’d given up. But Beth popped into my head again, and Brian and before I could stop myself, the Trip-Hammer was revving up as I swung it. I squeezed my eyes shut.

  It crashed down with a wet squishing sound and a terrible metal-on-metal screech. I didn’t see what it did, but I felt the gore splash across my face. And as Eddie’s body hit the ground, a handful of magic items and a single, blood-red experience orb popped out next to him. I couldn’t help but think a single thought.

  Problem solved.

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