Chapter 221: A Brush With the Uncanny

  Getting up the steps that led to the tower’s second floor was much more of a pain in the ass than Zach had expected it to be, and his best guess was that it was due to their unusual shape, as they weren’t “stairs” in the traditional sense; rather, they were small, flattish platforms of stone, and they weren’t actually connected to one another, which required someone to take a tiny little “hop” upwards when moving from one to the next. Initially, Zach didn’t think this would pose any kind of problem, so he’d thoughtlessly darted from one to the next, circling the tower twice before entering the second floor.

  Then he looked behind him.

  His saber-toothed cat was there, just as he’d expected, but he could see right away that his level-85 war-mount was all alone. The three cards he’d just captured? Yeah, they were nowhere to be seen. Confused, Zach spun back around and hopped down a few platforms, and it was here that he took in a baffling sight that made him wish he had Jimmy with him to explain this.

  “What in the fucking hell?” he blurted out in a mix of both amazement and confusion.

  Across the tower, on the complete opposite side of Zach and about halfway down, one of his cards was standing perfectly still while marching in place as though the Orcish elite was trying to walk but without actually moving forward. And then, all the way down, right near where the elite mob spawned, his other two cards were walking headfirst into a wall but not getting anywhere. Each of the cards was moving, but in a weird way that saw them sliding sideways along the wall despite their bodies pointing forward. They ended up shuffling around and around the inner perimeter of the side of the partition where the elite spawned, all while their bodies perpetually faced the wall.

  Then things got even weirder.

  His third card, the one that had at least made it halfway up, eventually started moving forward, but it soon fell through the gap between platforms, and Zach watched as it landed upright on both feet; the moment of impact, it began walking straight forward into a wall until the wall brought it to a stop, and then, like the other two cards, it began side-shuffling around and around, joining the other two cards.

  Confused, Zach tried to make sense of what he was seeing. It was almost like they were trying to come up here to him but didn’t know how to or what path they were supposed to take. He’d never experienced anything like this before.

  What in the name of the Gods is that all about? he wondered, utterly perplexed. Why are they doing that? Why can’t they just climb up the steps?

  Zach had no idea. None. Not even the slightest clue. He couldn’t begin to understand why his war-mount was able to easily follow behind him but not these three cards. This was the kind of thing Jimmy would just sort of “know” automatically, but since Jimmy wasn’t here, Zach wasn’t going to get any answers. So rather than waste valuable time trying to figure out what went wrong, he simply dismissed all three cards, caught each one, and made his way back up the few steps that led to the second floor; once there, he re-summoned them with Card Summon, and now, all three dual-wielding Orcish elites were back together with him, appearing in a line side by side ahead of where Zach was facing.

  “Okay, there we go,” Zach said with a self-satisfied nod.

  Across from him, in this open, but not terribly large area, were the three mobs that Zach had taken note of the last time he’d come here. Two were the exact same mob as the one downstairs: the Legion Portal Guardian. Although Zach could only see their level and not their names or HP, they were perfectly identical to his cards, and likewise, they were level 60. The beautiful woman with the rapier, however, was level 65, and Zach thought it a safe bet to assume that she, too, was an elite.

  And what she was wearing…Gods, there really was no other way to describe it other than “boob armor.”

  The mob, which had long, rich, and crimson-colored hair, wore an impractical-looking piece of armor that left her belly, shoulders, and neck fully exposed but wrapped perfectly around the two large mounds on her chest. As a male, Zach literally could not help but wonder whether or not the sheer size of those bronze “cups” justified what was underneath them.

  I only want to know for battle and tactical reasons, he thought. It’s important in…in deciding how I’m going to deploy her as a card for the purposes of combat.

  Inching his way farther into the room, he noted that the two Orcish elites were positioned in front of the woman and spread out to the left and right side respectively, whereas the red-haired, big-chested mob remained front and center before a flat, vertical slab of stone that covered and sealed off what Zach took to be the path to the third floor.

  It probably opens up when these three are dealt with, he thought. Just like how the steps that lead up here only appear when the elite Orc on the first floor is defeated.

  Folding his arms across his chest, Zach mentally ordered his cards to attack. He sent one card to each mob, but for the time being, he ordered his Kralzek’s Beast to hang back. And now, a mere moment after giving the order, four synchronized shouts of “Krest zencht harganar!” rang out as his two allied Orcish elites lunged at the two hostile ones, and the two hostile ones dashed forward to meet them.

  A third cry of “Krest zencht harganar!” joined the first four as his other Orcish elite launched itself towards the crimson-haired, rapier-wielding woman, who reacted by stepping forward, lifting her weapon above her head, and calling out something Zach could actually understand.

  “Intruders!” she bellowed. “Orcs! Protect the tower!”

  With that, she swung her rapier twice in the air, whipping it from left to right. Zach couldn’t help but notice that her weapon left behind a misty, icy trail wherever the rapier was waved, but he quickly diverted his attention away from it as he spotted something far more significant: the fact that the stone flooring was beginning to rip and tear beneath the mob’s feet.

  At once, a cascading wave of ice traveled from where she stood all the way to Zach’s charging card, ripping up chunks of stone and kicking up dust as it moved like an animal burrowed into the ground; upon collision, his card came to a complete, total halt. Zach then watched as the ice popped up out of the ground in the form of one giant stalactite, which remained in existence for less than a tenth of a second before exploding and turning into a misty vapor that wrapped itself completely around the Orc's body, freezing it and turning it blue, paralyzing it in the process.

  It was like some kind of combination between a root and a stun.

  Following this, the female mob continued to wave around her rapier, and now, multiple, spike-shaped columns of ice began popping into existence in the air above, to the side, and beneath the stunned, rooted card, and then they flew through the air at it from various angles, detonating upon impact and causing frozen pieces of the Orcish mob’s skin and body to break off while doing huge damage with each collision.

  622,411

  309,222

  500,951

  Half of its jaw crumbled following one of the impacts, and then its entire frozen right arm shattered into little pieces after another, the axe it had been wielding flying somewhere out of sight—the appendage was simply blasted off the Orc’s body. Then a third spike-shaped icicle came in, and this one exploded the Orc’s right leg, causing the elite, card-captured mob to fall down onto its side and drop its axe.

  Not good.

  Zach, frowning, ordered his Kralzek’s Beast to charge the rapier-wielding, red-haired spellcaster, whose attention and aggro were currently fully set upon his ice-encased card. Luckily, after his saber-toothed war-mount released a loud roar and flung itself at the crimson-haired woman, it seemed to pull her aggro away from the downed Orc, which had likely lost more than three-quarters of its HP—or at least Zach guessed around that much. Honestly, it was impossible to tell for sure without being in Unleashed Phase, as without any other form of Helm Sight, Zach had no way of knowing. As for his other two cards, they were unsurprisingly evenly matched against their identical counterparts.

  Two of them clashed to Zach’s immediate left, and the other two were trading blows to his right, but much more towards the opposite wall across from him, each engaging in their own separate one-versus-one battle, and each battle looked like it had a long way to go, and so there was no urgency for Zach to intervene. Things up ahead, however, formed an entirely different story.

  “Intruders, begone from this place!” the level-65, red-haired, rapier-wielding mob bellowed.

  Despite her attacks being magical thus far, she proved herself to be more than just a spellcaster. Upon taking a single lunging step back and away from the Kralzek’s Beast, the mob then immediately sprang forward and started whipping around her rapier, dealing a steady, high-damaging flurry of attacks that saw the saber-toothed cat getting chopped into pieces before Zach’s very eyes. Each time she swung her sword, it left behind more of that faint, chilly-looking mist in the air, one that the saber-toothed cat’s blood then disrupted as it splattered off its face and body.

  Zach had no idea how much HP his war-mount had left, but it clearly wasn’t all that much, and likewise, it clearly wasn’t going to last that much longer under this unanswered assault from the provocative-looking, presumably elite mob that was attacking it.

  Thus, Zach now had a very important decision to make: should he attack the Orcish elites so that they would die more quickly and free up his cards to join the fight against the human female? Or, on the other hand, should he try to save his badly damaged card by joining his almost-dead war-mount in its attack against her?

  Neither, he realized. Those aren’t my only two choices.

  At the moment, Zach’s hand was reaching behind his back, clutching the hilt of his sword. He was about to draw it, too: only a moment from doing so. But he stopped as it occurred to him that there was indeed a third, better option: he could cut his losses, avoid this dangerous, uncertain fight, and simply return with more firepower.

  My goal is to draw my sword as little as possible, he recalled, having decided to completely shift his methods of doing things. If I charge into battle, I’ll just get caught in a long, tiring battle of attrition.

  Zach released his grip on his sword and left it in the scabbard on his back. Instead, he began to move away towards the entrance to the second floor. Quickly glancing behind him, he realized that the steps had already de-spawned, and the only thing that awaited him was a drop straight down from the second floor to the first.

  Guess I’m cutting my losses.

  Zach activated Card Dismiss, targeting his two mostly healthy Orcish elites. Despite barely having sustained any damage, Zach nevertheless began to breathe slightly heavier as he was forced to “pay” the “debt” of their missing HP. Just shy of panting, he observed as the two Orcs collapsed into dual white orbs, each of which flew across the room and into his waiting hand, turning back into cards the moment he caught them. At the same time, his Kralzek’s Beast took a slash from the rapier across its stomach and died, having lost its last bit of HP.

  Now all three hostile, aggroed mobs—the two Orcish elites and the red-haired female—converged upon his last remaining, still-frozen-solid card, which probably had only the tiniest amount of HP left before it perished.

  Zach mulled things over for a brief couple of seconds. Should he call it back to him? He was tempted to do so, but the exertion cost of using Card Dismiss on a card so close to death was likely not going to be worth the exhaustion and the very real risk that he could collapse here and be killed while unconscious. Thus, he made a sad wave at his frozen, rooted card, bidding it a farewell as it was hacked into pieces by multiple axes while simultaneously being riddled with magical icicle attacks, dying within seconds; this now left Zach as the only possible target for his three aggroed foes, all of which began turning their bodies in his direction.

  Spinning around, Zach leapt off the ledge that, until just a few seconds ago, had contained a flat, slab-like “step” made of pure stone that joined others in leading downstairs. But now, there was nothing but open air as he began descending straight down to the first floor. A few seconds later, he landed in a crouch with both cards still in his right hand.

  He also landed right where the first-floor elite happened to spawn. Mere inches from it, in fact.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” the recently respawned Orcish elite barked at him, lunging towards his position.

  Zach leaned backwards while kicking out with his foot, catching the mob in its chest mid-strike and dealing 3,211 damage while also striking with enough force to blast it in the opposite direction, where it took an additional 1,112 damage from crashing into and shattering a portion of the back wall. As the elite Orc picked itself up and prepared to lunge at Zach a second time, Zach noticed two shadows growing in size right near him. He looked up—and felt a jolt of alarm in his chest.

  The two Legion Portal Guardians from above had both jumped off the ledge leading to the second floor, and both were about to land right on top of him; this, as the rapier-wielding red-haired woman shouted out another warning to leave and fired off more icicles while standing at the second-floor ledge that served as the floor’s entrance.

  If not for Zach’s incredible, previous level-up dramatically increasing all of his stats, he for sure would have died. Instead, he reacted quickly and in a way that reminded him of his former self from eight months ago.

  First, he threw himself away and onto his back, then continued along with the motion so that he rolled backwards along the stone floor and out of the way of the two Orcish elites, who dropped like a bomb onto the stone floor and slammed their axes down into it where Zach had been standing.

  Then, drawing his sword into his left hand, he sliced four times in quick succession at four incoming icicles, causing each one to split apart in the middle and deflect harmlessly away from him.

  Following this, he quickly re-sheathed his sword in the scabbard on his back, turned around, and hurriedly squeezed through the partition into the other side of the central atrium, where he promptly dashed his way through the tower, out of the rectangular entrance, and into the early-afternoon air, causing everything to de-aggro him once he was outside and back in the light. Interestingly, as he reached the twenty steps that led up to the tower’s entrance, he turned around and saw yet another puzzling sight, his second of the day.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Of the three Legion Portal Guardians that had been chasing after him, the one in the middle—which he assumed to be the one that spawned on the first floor—came to a halt, turned around, and calmly began walking back to its spawn point. This was as Zach would have expected. But the other two did not. Instead, they turned transparent like a ghost and vanished. They simply…disappeared. And though he had no way of knowing this, Zach took a guess that they probably reappeared at or near their own spawn points.

  So that’s what happens if you de-aggro a mob and it has no way of walking back to its spawn.

  “Okay,” he said aloud, perking himself up. “That was just a minor setback.” He took a few calming breaths and refused to let his mood sour. “It’s no big deal. I just have to come back with an even stronger force.”

  In order to fully cool himself down and to ensure he did not make any rash, stupid decisions, Zach forced himself to take a twenty-minute break for water and a snack. He didn’t even want to do it, but he knew better than to rush right in there with a feeling of anxiousness. After all, he’d lost one of his three cards, and it left him feeling annoyed and impatient. But he reminded himself that he could easily get it back and would get it back.

  And so, after his self-mandated twenty-minute break, he resummoned his Kralzek’s Beast, as the ability was now off cooldown, and he also brought out his two remaining cards. Before heading off, however, he glanced at the grass on the ground where he kept his luggage and his other belongings, and he eyed his remaining stones: four red, one yellow, and two purple. He wondered if he should go back to what he’d been doing before and bring one of each inside with him in case of emergency.

  After his massive level-up, he’d actually decided to start leaving them behind, as he had nowhere to put them, and calling on Bank and Storage in an emergency where he was bleeding out or whatever was impractical.

  I might as well take them.

  Leaving behind three red and one purple, he took his last yellow as well as one of each other color and proceeded to make his way back inside the tower, his two elite Orcs and his mount following behind.

  But now, this led to an entirely new problem, one he hadn’t seen coming.

  Having summoned his mount before slipping through the partition, he quickly realized that neither his mount nor his two cards were capable of “slipping through” in the way he did. And it wasn’t that they couldn’t “physically” fit through, either, but it was more that they didn’t seem to know “how” to angle their bodies to get through the wall. Zach’s two Orcs and his saber-toothed cat instead decided to keep walking into the stone while sliding back and forth along the partition wall.

  I really wish Jimmy were here to explain this shit to me, he thought to himself. How can their legs be making forward-walking motions while their bodies are sliding left and right like they’re on some kind of automated airport walkway?

  Although Zach could easily dismiss and call his cards at will, he knew that if he dismissed his Kralzek’s Beast, he’d be forced to wait yet another twenty minutes for it to respawn, and he wasn’t willing to do that. So instead, he took about fifteen steps back, then immediately rushed forward, sticking out his left shoulder as he did so. A moment later, he rammed into the partition wall, blasting a piece of it apart with a loud crunch and forming his cards and his mount a new, wide pathway through.

  A few seconds later, a secondary, even louder sound emanated from somewhere behind Zach, and it sounded like something heavy smashing into stone. Looking over his shoulder, Zach realized that, for the second time, he’d inadvertently caused the large clock to come crashing all the way down, smashing apart and spilling gears, nuts, bolts, and other gizmos all over the central atrium.

  It’ll fix itself in a week, he thought with a shrug.

  Pausing in place, he ordered his two cards and his war-mount to go on ahead, and he watched as they were now able to casually stroll their way into the other side of the partition through the uneven, jagged “hole” he’d smashed through the stone. But as they moved, one of his Orcs obliviously kicked the scythe that Zach had looted and had totally forgotten he’d left lying around on the floor. Its foot swinging into it, the Orc kicked the scythe, which then flew through the air and actually struck the Orcish Elite waiting for them, dealing 722 as it mostly grazed the mob but nevertheless pulled aggro.

  Zach chuckled. He wasn’t worried. He was about to order his cards to attack it anyhow.

  With that, he sent his two Orcs and his Kralzek’s Beast into combat, and together, all three began butchering the first-floor Orcish elite; once again, Zach found himself mentally spamming Card Capture over and over until he finally succeeded in acquiring it, replacing the one he’d just lost.

  But he needed more. That much was clear now.

  So, he did it again. Patiently, he sat down and waited the fifteen minutes it took for the mob to respawn, and when it did, he ordered everything he had to attack, which in this case, meant three cards and a saber-toothed cat.

  This proved to be too much. The Legion Portal Guardian ended up dying before Zach could capture it, which meant that it had gone from 6% or higher HP to 0% without stopping between 1 and 5, which was the range at which he could capture it.

  +11,900xp

  Zach used Card Dismiss, picking one of his Orcs at random. His hand already extended, he caught the card on its trip back to him, then he set it down onto his lap and waited yet another fifteen minutes for another spawn, and this time, he didn’t even bother to get up. He remained seated and lazily nodded his head at the mob once it’d respawned while mentally giving the order to attack.

  This time, he succeeded in his capture, bringing his total up to four. But still, he was not satisfied. So he waited another fifteen minutes and captured another one—and then another one after that. Now, a little more than an hour after starting, he’d accumulated an additional four cards, which meant he had six Legion Portal Guardians in total, plus his Kralzek’s Beast. And with that, he dismissed the two he’d been keeping out so that all six were in card form in his right hand.

  “Okay, let’s try going upstairs again.”

  Mounting his saber-toothed cat, he rode the beast up and around the stone platforms, which wrapped around the tower twice before letting Zach out on the second floor. Once there, he slid off the side of his war-mount, and now, one by one, he activated Card Summon, sending out one Orc after the next.

  By the time he was done, there was now a whole line of them standing in front of him and taking up considerable space. All six lacked any name or indication that they were elite: just the Level 60 above their heads. His mount, too, said only Level 85 above its head. Until he found a new helm or used Unleashed Phase, that was the only information he’d be able to see.

  Entering further into the room, he spotted the three hostile mobs right where they were before. He decided to split up his forces in a nearly even way, sending two Legion Portal Guardians to the hostile Legion Portal Guardian to the left, two more to the one on the right, and two straight ahead towards the red-haired vixen mob. For good measure, he also sent his Kralzek’s Beast at her too, since she clearly required the most effort. Zach himself decided to hang back and watch the battle progress. And as he did so, there was a brief, almost comical spike in the level of overall noise in the tower.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” an Orc shouted at another Orc.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” another Orc shouted.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” shouted back an enemy Orc.

  “Krest zencht harganar!” shouted back another enemy Orc.

  “Intruders!” shouted the female mob in the highly impractical boob armor. “Orcs! Protect the tower!”

  “Krest zencht harganar!”

  “Krest zencht harganar!”

  “Krest zencht harganar!”

  “Krest zencht harganar!”

  Zach, quickly becoming bored and unable to resist himself, cleared his throat. “Krest Zen…whatever the fuck!” he called, drawing his sword and charging into the rumble.

  Yeah, yeah, that wasn’t part of his newly minted “plan,” but he had plenty of energy, and it looked too fun to sit out. Also, he wanted to minimize the damage at least one of his cards was going to take, as the female mob seemed capable of getting in a good few shots even as she became surrounded.

  Like before, she waved around her rapier, and also like before, the sword, which actually looked like it was made of ice, left behind a misty trail in its wake as she broke apart more of the stone floor and incapacitated one of Zach’s Orcish elites right off the bat and managed to bang it up pretty badly—but not so badly that Zach wouldn’t feel comfortable dismissing and thereby healing it later. Still, that card was definitely taken right out of the fight. But it honestly didn’t matter, because this time around, there was a second one rushing towards her in addition to his war-mount. And Zach himself was coming in hot as well.

  Rushing into battle with his sword drawn, the previously quiet ambience of the tower erupted with sound as Zach, his mount, and his six cards—well, five active cards plus one frozen—took on the three elite mobs in a totally lopsided, unfair battle that Zach was sure Jimmy would have approved of if he had been around to see it.

  Actually, he’d probably still find something to nitpick about my strategy, Zach thought with a smirk. Probably a bunch of things.

  Finding a nice little spot to occupy in between his Kralzek’s Beast and his dual-wielding Orc, he watched as the red-haired woman released a shriek of pain as she was sliced viciously across the face, losing part of her eye and her forehead before having her shoulder scratched. In response, she released two cries of anguish that were “fake” in the sense that they were not a response to real, genuine pain. Yet they sounded convincing enough to give Zach pause.

  Gods, why do they make mobs like this? he wondered.

  Finding an opportunity to strike and pile on even more damage, he raised his blade high, he found his mark, he shifted his stance, and with that, he slammed his arms down and—

  “WHERE IS VIM ALAZAR BEING HELD?” a voice shouted from somewhere in the room. A voice that sounded a lot like his own.

  Zach halted a moment before his attack and jumped back, gaining some distance from the mob. Then he darted his head around. “Who said that?” he shouted, looking around nervously. Someone had just yelled at him. Someone who sounded just like him.

  “Th-th-th-three m-m-m-miles w-w-w-west, Sir Ca-Calador. In th-the d-dungeon. P-please. I don’t wanna die. Please. I’m so sc-scared. Please!”

  Zach raised his sword, confused, alarmed, and having no idea what in the fuck was going on. Where was that voice coming from? He could hear it as keenly as any other sound. He darted his head around some more, looking every which way, trying to ascertain the origin of the two speakers.

  “Say one word into that Comm, and you’re next,” said the voice that sounded just like his own.

  Panicked and alarmed, Zach spun his body around and around, searching for whoever or whatever was speaking. It sounded exactly like him. Exactly.

  But it’s not, he thought. I’m really hearing something. I’m not crazy!

  Ignoring the fighting going on all around, Zach ran to the opposite side of the second floor near the entrance. The stone steps were still active. He walked out onto one and looked down at the first floor. There was nothing there. So he turned back around, becoming even more confused.

  And then terrified.

  The walls were bleeding. All of them. The stone walls were bleeding all over and from everywhere. Gushing blood, in fact. It was pouring out of the stone and pooling onto the floor, sliding its way closer and closer to where Zach was standing.

  Am I losing my mind?

  Zach trembled as more and more blood oozed from the walls. Then the Orcs that were fighting one another turned their heads his way, even as they continued to trade blows, only now, they were smiling at him with sick, distorted, and twisted faces that looked as though they’d become rotten and decomposed. One Orc had maggots crawling out of his eyes, and Zach could actually smell them now, the stench of death and decay. He coughed as it overpowered his senses.

  “Zach, Zach, Zaaaaaach,” one of the Orcs said to him. “Killer. Murderer.”

  Zach froze, caught in an all-encompassing state of disbelief and fear. Was he losing his mind? Was he experiencing some kind of profound mental health trauma unlike any that had come before it? He didn’t know. He just didn’t know.

  He blinked.

  And everything was back to normal.

  The two enemy Orcs died, netting him an extremely reduced +9000xp, and then shortly after, the red-haired, level-65 woman with the rapier dropped to her own demise, offering a bit more.

  +13500xp

  Zach had been way too distracted to even try capturing any of them. He noticed, however, that a glowing purple light was coming from where the human female mob was vanishing.

  An Epic Rare.

  Rattled, unnerved, and very upset, Zach didn’t particularly feel all that much joy at seeing he’d gotten himself a drop, nor did he feel much disappointment at failing to capture any of the three as cards, as such things were, for the moment, on his mind's backburner. Right now, he was just so unsettled and confused that he wasn’t sure what to do, so he mindlessly walked over to the shining light, then crouched down to pick it up.

  As he reached for the item, something reached for him as well.

  A decomposing hand emerged from the light, one made of bony fingers with maggots and worms crawling all over the back of the hand. It grabbed hold of his wrist, tightly enough to hurt, and as hard as Zach pulled back, he couldn't yank his arm free. At the same time, the now quiet tower erupted in what sounded like a thousand—no, a million—laughing cackles from so many different voices.

  “Hahahahaha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahaahah!”

  The purple light turned a darker and darker shade of purple until it became darker than black itself. And the daylight filtering in from the tower’s glass dome above also darkened, causing a sudden, rapid night to chase out the day.

  “Hahahahaha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahaahah!”

  The tower began to shake.

  “Hahahahaha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahaahah!”

  Zach screamed. Then he screamed louder and louder as the tower became darker until it was pitch black, all while the voices cackled at volumes far greater than the screams coming out of his mouth. The tower shook as though caught in an earthquake.

  “Hahahahaha. Hahahahaha. Hahahahaahah! Killer. Murderer. Killer. Murderer. Killer. Murderer. You're going to hell, Zachy-boy. You're going to hell forever and ever! You're going to burn, Zach. With me!”

  “Stop!” Zach screamed at it, whatever it was.

  “Killer. Murderer. Killer. Murderer. Killer. Murderer.”

  “Stop!” he screamed again.

  “KILLER. MURDERER. KILLER. MURDERER. KILLER. MURDERER.”

  Zach felt his eyes dampen. For all his strength and all his courage and all that he’d been through—he did not know how to handle this. He did not understand what was happening to him or why. He did not know if he was crazy. He did not understand how any of this could be real.

  He closed his eyes tightly, gritted his teeth, and began rocking back and forth as the tower continued to shake and the voices ramped up in both volume and shrillness. Then…it all just stopped. And Zach opened his eyes to see that everything had yet again returned to normal, and in his hand was an Epic-Rarity rapier that looked exactly like the one wielded by the woman.

  Badly shaken to the point he was trembling, Zach called upon Bank and Storage and stowed away the weapon as well as his stones. He decided he’d investigate its capabilities later. Right now, he wasn’t…he couldn’t. He’d just stash it for now. He needed to…he wasn’t sure what he needed. He dismissed his six cards all at once, not realizing the mistake of doing so, as none were completely uninjured, and one in particular had taken quite a few hits.

  Yet even as sweat began to glide down his face, neck, and back, and even as his breathing turned to panting while he paid off their HP debt, he was barely even aware of it. He leapt down from the second floor rather than walk down the platforms, and upon touching down, he rushed back to his makeshift camp with tears in his eyes and terror in his heart.

  What just happened? What’s wrong with me? That was really…that was really bad. Something is broken. Something is definitely not right in my—

  Zach inhaled sharply. He stood up so fast he nearly tripped over his bedroll. Whirling around, he drew his sword and bent his knees, raising it defensively. He began to sweat even more.

  For a second there…it felt like someone or something was watching him.

  I’m going crazy.

  He didn't want to believe what he'd just seen. His mind struggled to rationalize what his eyes had briefly spotted: a naked woman with a bloated body floating in the pond where he bathed every morning. For just a moment, he'd seen her. She'd been floating on her back, her body so decomposed that her skin was as black as coal. But her jaw had been twitching as though laughing. And she had placed her finger to her lips as if to "shh" him. But by the time his eyes focused in on her, she was gone.

  Something really wasn't right. He badly needed Jascaila. Or someone. Anyone. Anyone who could explain what was wrong with him or why he was seeing these things.

  Also, why was half his luggage missing? Zach only realized right now that he'd returned to discover one of his two bags was nowhere to be seen. He spun around and looked everywhere around him, but it just plain wasn't there. And now he could no longer be sure he'd even come here with two bags, as he seemed to recall only having one. Zach rubbed his face, his jaw, and his eyes. He was cracking up, wasn't he?

  No, I came here with two bags. I jumped out of the plane with two!

  Something really, really strange had just hit him. And he was so confused and so afraid. This was uncharted territory. And what made it all so strange was that the typical patterns that accompanied his "jitters" in the past were not present this time around. There had been no emotional turmoil. This felt nothing like his "moments" in the past where it'd all become too much. No, this felt external. It didn't feel like it was coming from within.

  Gods, what was wrong with him? Why now? What the fuck was happening? Maybe he just needed to rest. Yeah. He needed to sleep. A little sleep was what he needed. He could resume tomorrow. He was making great progress. Right now, he needed to bring himself under control. So that was what he did.

  But all that night, he heard footsteps crunching the grass.

  And every now and then, something laughed.