“The Rogue class prefers to kill unseen. Players who choose this class receive extra bonuses when using bows and small blades from stealth. When properly specced, Rogues have some of the highest single-target DPS of any class of comparable level.”— Annwyn Online Players’ Guide.

  Beyond the Village of Firestone, the territories of Rielle. Day 01.

  Nix hit the ground hard. Since his health bar still showed full, Saiph didn’t give his friend much more than that passing glance.

  The barrier spell Saiph had cast between himself and this new nightstalker was beginning to crumble. The Gates of Eskandar were a good defense, but unlike his stronger defensive spells, it had a finite pool of health and the nightstalker was quickly making it shrink.

  Saiph let the barrier fall and immediately drove his sword up at the nightstalker’s head. The sword met flesh, piercing through its lower jaw and into its mouth.

  One of the monster's spear-like limbs pierced the chainmail in the space between the armor plating near Saiph’s side and skin and intestines tore inside. The sudden blast of pain very nearly sent Saiph to the ground as the nightstalker pulled away.

  Nearly two thousand hit points disappeared and the instantaneous healing was a welcome relief. Saiph still spared a second to glance down where he had taken the hit. Even his armor healed itself, losing a bit of durability in return.

  The two continued trading blows in a drawing out battle of attrition, each one slowly chipping away at the other’s health bar. It was a battle Saiph knew he couldn’t keep up for long. The original nightstalker was being held off by another of Nix’s summons, but neither of them could help the other deliver a killing blow.

  He was about to tell the guards grab his unconscious friend and make a run for it, to leave him to die if it came to it. He didn't know if either of them would respawn, but he knew he couldn’t let any more guards pay for his bumbling error.

  Two bright streaks of orange slammed into the nightstalker Saiph was holding back and exploded against its body. Saiph recoiled as the shockwaves knocked the monster to the ground, a full tenth of its health pool evaporating from those two devastating strikes.

  He looked around for who had done such an attack. It couldn’t have been Nix, he was still on the ground. Certainly none of the guards were anywhere near a high enough level to cast anything remotely close to spells that strong.

  “You gonna keep standing there? Or are you gonna help the swordie with the other night spawn?”

  Perched on a branch on the tree behind Saiph was the woman in the red cloak Saiph had seen earlier at the tavern.

  She pulled another arrow from her quiver and shouted, “Go help your friend! I can’t get a shot off without hitting her and my stun shot’s buying you time!”

  Not needing to be told twice, Saiph turned to see Raine still holding off her nightstalker. She was forced to spend her efforts parrying the spider’s frantic attacks as it drove her back towards Nix.

  Saiph checked the cool down on his Dragon Charge. The spell was available. He charged towards Raine and her enemy and stopped the spell short. He grabbed the two rear-most legs and heaved with all his might.

  The nightstalker tumbled forward, catching itself on its front dagger legs. Raine immediately seized the opportunity by pulling back and driving the blade of her sword into one of the nightstalker’s larger two eyes. Green blood splattered her face and armor as she pierced the monster’s brain with a critical hit.

  She followed up the blow by activating some enchantment on her sword. Fire burst from the nightstalker’s unpierced eyes. It fell to the ground with a loud thud, dead before it even knew what had hit it.

  Not taking the time to celebrate the kill, Saiph and Raine turned their attention to the other nightstalker. It was clawing up the tree the archer was standing on.

  Deciding her perch was no longer safe, the woman leapt into the air before disappearing in a flurry of movement too fast for Saiph’s eyes to follow.

  He cast Sentinel’s Taunt on the nightstalker and it turned its fury back on him. He blocked the incoming blows with his shield while Raine and the archer took turns landing retaliatory strikes of their own.

  As the second nightstalker died, Saiph looked up at the woman who had helped them.

  “Who do we owe the thanks for helping us?”

  The woman jumped down from the tree and vanished seconds before touching the ground. Saiph jumped as she tapped him on the shoulder from behind while laughing.

  “‘Saving you’, you mean? If you look right here…” She pointed above her head. “You should be able to see my name. I can see yours, Saiph. You can call me Rose for short.”

  Saiph cleared his throat in frustration. “I can’t see anything above your head, Rose.”

  The smarmy look on her face disappeared, replaced with one of genuine embarrassment. “Oh! I didn’t realize one of my skills was still active. You should be able to see it now.”

  Name: Lueur Rose

  Race: Human, Female

  Class: Rogue, level 92

  Subclass: Assassin, level 10

  Profession: Enchanter, level 100

  Health Points: 12,132/12,132

  Mana Points: 7,210/10,580

  Stamina Points: 16,328/26,454

  As he’d suspected, she was another player. And a fellow high level one at that. Saiph was beyond relieved to know that he and Nix weren’t alone. But that begged an even bigger question: just how many players were here?

  “Thanks for helping us. I thought I saw you back at the tavern, but you’d disappeared before I could find you.”

  “Yeah, I had to take care of something. When I got back, people were talking about a monster attack and two high level adventurers going to deal with it. I had to come see for myself. Who takes on a pair of night spawns without a healer?”

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  “There was only one when we got here. We would have been fine if the other hadn’t snuck up on us.”

  Rose snorted. “Whatever you have to tell yourself. I call dibs on the loot from the one I helped kill. You three can fight over the other.”

  It took Saiph a moment to understand what she meant, then he remembered Nix’s summoned Sword Princess. Raine was kneeling down beside Nix holding a blue bottle for him while he drank from the one in his hands.

  “Raine’s not a player. She’s one of Nix’s summons. And you can have them both. I don’t need the loot and I’m pretty sure Nix doesn’t either.”

  Rose gave Raine another take and nodded to herself. “Oh, she is! It’s so hard to tell now. And are you sure you don’t want the loot? They’re night spawns.”

  “My gear is best in class and I don’t care about crafting. Seriously, you saved our skin back there. The way I see it, it’s the least we can do.”

  Rose nodded and claimed the purple orbs of light beside the two nightstalker corpses. Their bodies faded to dust as the orbs manifested into their loot. Saiph didn’t see what she had gotten, as Mikel had taken his attention.

  “We should be going now. I’d rather not run into anything else out here and I want to see our fallen properly buried.”

  Saiph nodded. “I agree, let me just check on Nix and we can be on our way. Rose can scout ahead of us and I’ll be our rear guard.”

  Mikel gave a nod and walked to ready his guards. Saiph walked over to Nix.

  “You good? You took one hell of a face plant.” Saiph offered a hand and pulled his friend to his feet.

  “Yeah, bit of advice: Don’t bottom out your mana pool. These headaches are no fucking joke. It feels like someone opened my skull and ran my brain through a blender.” He gave a forced laugh at his joke and flashed Saiph a thumbs up, but Saiph saw more that Nix wasn’t saying.

  His friend had a haunted look in his eyes. It was the same look Saiph had seen in the mirror in the weeks and months following the car accident and Riley’s death. The thought of Riley made Saiph reach for his necklace and he silently cursed at the realization that it wasn’t around his neck.

  Saiph clapped his friend on the back, but didn't press the subject. If Nix wanted to talk about it, he would when he was ready.

  A man signaled they were ready to move out and Saiph took his position as the rear guard. Rose disappeared within the trees, scouting ahead of them, and Nix and Raine walked near the front.

  Saiph glanced at the two fallen guards. Though their bodies were covered with canvas stripped from the wagon, the image of their deaths returned to his memory. He had nearly frozen up the same way Nix had, but had very quickly stuffed any reaction to the gruesome scene into a box inside his mind, locked it, and pushed it deep into a corner until it could be dealt with later.

  And in the slow walk back to Firestone, “later” had finally come in the form of guilt. Saiph kept working the fight over in his mind trying to figure out what he could have done differently to keep those two guards alive. If he hadn't just dove in, he might have remembered night spawns were likely to still be a thing in this world. Or if he had used some different spell rotation. Or…

  Mikel tapped Saiph on the arm. “Everything alright? You’ve slowed your pace.”

  The rain was coming down much harder now. Nearly everyone had makeshift cover over themselves and the rain pelted off Saiph’s helmet. He retracted his visor with a mental command.

  He didn’t know how to phrase his thoughts and so decided on the most direct way. “I can’t shake my responsibility for the deaths of your two guards. If I had positioned myself better or fought differently, they might still be alive.”

  “The decision to have them move near the water to spread out was my call. Alaine and Sett’s deaths are my burden to bear, not yours. It was your quick acting that made the difference between more of my men dying and not. You and the other two guardians are heroes.”

  “Yes, but I—”

  “But nothing!” Mikel stopped.

  The rest of the party stopped at hearing Mikel’s outburst, giving the two men curious glances.

  Mikel waved them onward and he and Saiph followed at a slower pace. “Had you not been here, we would have had to contend with two night spawns an entire rank above our strongest man. And that does not include the spread already present among our numbers. It would have made for a much harder battle, even with the full force of the city guard, which we would not have been able to spare. Which means we might not have saved Thomas. And if we had, we would have lost a lot more men.

  “But fortune favored us this evening. We had not one, but three high level Guardians visiting our village when the attack occurred. Because of that, more of my men get to walk home to their families. When dealing with night spawns, that is a miracle among miracles.”

  Mikel continued in a somewhat wistful tone as he added, “Nearly every guard dreams to one day fight alongside a Guardian. Sett and Alaine fought bravely this night. You granted them their wish.”

  Mikel’s perspective was one Saiph hadn’t considered. In a world with monsters as ferocious as nightstalkers, they would have had to accept the harsh reality that death could come swiftly to any of them at any time.

  Saiph gave Mikel a nod and the two picked up their pace to catch up with the main group. Deciding they likely faced a huntsman's nest seeing as there were two of them, they would come back the next day to deal with any eggs the pair might have left behind.

  ***

  Sylas' tavern was empty except for Maerie and Sylas sitting at one of the tables. The older man had a weary expression and he was saying something in a soft voice to Maerie. He looked up when he saw Saiph and his party enter and beckoned them closer.

  “Thank you for helping save my son. I don’t have much to offer, but I had three rooms in the back cleared and prepared. They, as well as your meals, are free of charge.”

  “Will your son be alright?” Saiph asked.

  “Surgeon’s working on him right now. She says he’ll be fine. Mikel’s guards did a good job patching him up.” Sylas thanked them once more and with Maerie’s help, left food and drink on a table for them before retiring to bed.

  Rose picked up a glass with red liquid in it and sat down. “I don’t think I’m tired yet, you guys?”

  Saiph fixed a plate of something that wasn’t quite cornbread and beef drenched in gravy. “More hungry than tired. I had a big dinner before the fight, but I’m starving again.”

  “Oh yeah, I was really hungry when I woke up here. I hope this won’t be a normal thing.” Rose pulled out a deck of cards. She began shuffling them while Saiph and Nix ate.

  Nix had offered the food to Raine, but she begged off, saying she didn’t need to eat since her spell timer was almost up.

  Rose set the cards down and began sorting them. “I wish I had my phone. I feel like I need to do something to keep my hands busy. I hope the people in Araedi figure out a way to get us home.”

  “We could play a card game.” Saiph had only been half listening to Rose, his mind working through the fight and how he might have still changed the outcome, when his brain replayed her last words. “Wait, what are you talking about? What people in Araedi?”

  “The big meeting with all the guild leaders and anyone else who wants to show up in two weeks. How’d you not hear about it? News is spreading fast.”

  “You’re the first player either of us has met since coming here. Honestly I wasn’t even sure Nix and I weren’t alone until I saw you.”

  “I didn’t realize you guys didn’t have any other friends. I’m sorry, I—”

  “I have friends!” That sounded more defensive than Saiph had intended. “I mean, our friend lists don’t work. Everyone shows as offline.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, Saiph realized he and Nix were both idiots.

  Saiph turned to Nix. “Did you ever set your status back to online before entering the game?”

  Nix had a distant look, but it went away as he answered, “No, I always hide my online status. I don’t like getting bothered by…” Nix trailed off, let out a groan of frustration and rubbed his temples in realization.

  Saiph brought up his menus and went to the setting page. Sure enough, his status still showed him as offline. He tapped the button, cycling it to online.

  Before he had a chance to open his friend list, a ringing sound played in Saiph’s head and a notification appeared in front of his vision.

  You have been invited to a private call by Will-I-Am.

  No sooner had Saiph answered the call, he could hear Will frantically stammering inside his own head.

  “I thought… You weren’t answering my earlier calls, I thought you were on… Is it really you, Isaac?”

  “Yes, Will, it’s me. What calls? I didn't get any calls from you. You sound like you've seen a ghost, what's up?”

  “It's Riley’s account, Aria Aurora. Isaac, she’s online right now!”