They had their crest, the powerful crystal of elemental energy that was their reason for coming to this place. But now they had to escape.

  “Any more information from your magic book?” Yuri leaned on Dee’s shoulder and peered into his bag. He felt her soft breath down his neck. It made him shiver with pleasure. His knees felt weak. If they weren’t perched on a rock sticking out of dissolving mist it would be quite romantic.

  He pulled his book out, but there was no new information. “I don’t really know how it gets more info.”

  “I can see another exit over this way. Keep up.” Arjelica leaped away towards the far side. She was confident and in charge, still leading the way.

  Dee hesitantly stepped over to a nearby stone.

  “Go, go faster.” Yuri said. She jumped onto his stone and scooted him along with her staff.

  “Don’t do that!” he wailed. He leapt awkwardly onto another stone. “Why the rush?”

  “What happens when you take the hair out of the plug-hole, to use your delightful metaphor?” Emizra said.

  “The water all rushes out.”

  “Or the potentia all rushes in. We need to get out of here,” Yuri said.

  The mist thickened beneath him. A sound pressed against his ears. He felt like he was standing beneath a waterfall, with the roar of it pushing down all around him. With no elemental seal blocking it, potentia was bursting into the cave, creating a fizz of water mana.

  Soft pulses of mist began to emanate from where the crest had floated. Dee avoided looking back and just focused on following Arjelica. He didn’t want to think about being engulfed in potentia. He didn’t want to think about it. But still, he did think about it.

  Arjelica reached the far wall, which was honeycombed with more passageways. She leapt up into one without hesitation. Her head popped out of the opening.

  “Up here, I smell fresh air.”

  “You are such a wonderful tracker!” Yuri cried. She made it to the hole, and leapt gracefully into the air. She plunged into the opening like an artistic diver. Tianna was quick after her. Arjelica had to lean down to pull Tianna up, and the minnikin disappeared into the hole.

  Dee scrabbled over the pillars of rock until he was by the wall. The room was breathing, like a giant that had been asleep but was now waking. He tried to ignore it. He pulled his dressing gown tight. The sound around him grew louder. He bent his legs to jump. I’m not going to make that. Thick rivulets of water slid down the wall before him.

  “It’s alive. The dungeon is alive.” Dee felt like the dungeon had noticed them suddenly. Apart from the inhabitants chasing them, now the whole structure was awake and grumpy.

  “Everything is alive,” Emizra said. “Everything is a dream waiting for its moment.”

  “This isn’t the time for poetry. Up!” Arjelica called out.

  Her hand came down again, and Dee grabbed it. Her grip was iron strong, and she pulled him up like an empty sack of potatoes. He couldn’t believe that she was so strong.

  Maybe all elves are super strong in this world. Yuri isn’t really that weak, either.

  “Are you done staring?” Arjelica said. He realised he was looking at her tanned and muscled arms. His face flushed red with embarrassment.

  Emizra vaulted up into the hole, pushing herself against him. He was caught between an angry elf and an over-friendly, whatever Emizra was.

  “Are you an elf, Emizra?”

  “No, I’m an oni.” Her warm body and breasts pushed against his back. She snaked her arms around him and squeezed. “And you are in my way.” She pushed him playfully and he almost tripped over.

  “Stop teasing him,” Arjelica said. She tutted and backed up so they could follow her. “He’s not a toy.”

  Dee felt a burst of gratitude that Arjelica was standing up for him.

  “You said he was useless,” Emizra countered.

  “He was. He is.” She stared at Dee. Her green eyes were sharp and bright. “I don’t know what class you are or what’s wrong with you, but you aided me in my quest, and for that I am grateful.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “You’re welcome,” Dee said.

  “I like the mystery. I will always explore a good mystery.” Emizra pushed her mouth up to his ear, and whispered in a deep, sexy voice, “I think you would enjoy me exploring you.”

  His heart rate exploded and he felt faint. Tears clouded his eyes. Without knowing it, those were words he had longed to hear. He had never dared hope anyone would find him interesting, let alone mysterious.

  “You made him cry, Emi.”

  He wiped the tears from his eyes. “It’s the water mana, I think.”

  They moved forward, away from the sound of the elemental node waking.

  More tunnels. Dee loved doodling complicated mazes with hidden rooms of treasure and clever links between dungeon floors. But now, traipsing through tunnel after tunnel, he kind of hated them. He just wanted to see sunlight, and smell fresh air, and never see a frogite again. He was sick of tunnels. I will never draw a maze of tunnels in an adventure again. I promise. He was lagging behind the others a little. The first hit of adrenaline had worn off, and now he was crashing. I just want to curl up in bed.

  Arjelica seemed to know the way though. Every now and then she stopped, and felt the air of the tunnel. She could sense fresh air, and it did feel like they were making their way to the surface.

  The tunnels changed suddenly. They stepped into an abandoned mine. Wooden struts held up a tunnel with rough walls that can been dug from the hard stone.

  “This must have way to the surface,” Yuri said.

  Dee rushed a little to catch up with them. He hadn’t walked this far for ages, and he was out of breath.

  “I don’t like this,” Tianna said. “I sense danger.”

  The wall warped and flowed open, the old frogite PC came into sight. He had opened a tunnel through the stone, right between Dee and the girls. A small squad of warriors came out of the tunnel behind him.

  He croaked and shouted at the PCs. Emizra croaked something back in their language and the old frog was stunned into silence for a second.

  “We all need to get away from the node,” Arjelica muttered. Her hands were ready to grab her axes, and she was crouched tense against the wall.

  The passage rumbled a little and the sound of rushing water echoed from the node chamber. Potentia burst into their tunnel, a thick mist that started turning the stone walls into liquid. Raw energy was disintegrating and remaking the world around them.

  This is a no-win battle. This was the kind of battle Dee had setup before, impossible to win. Sometimes players figured out a clever way to escape, but other times it was just a TPK. Total Party Kill. There was no time to think about complicated plans. If they fought, both groups would get caught by the potentia. If the heroes just ran for it, then one of them would likely get struck down from behind.

  Well if one of us has to go.

  He took his game bag off, and threw it to Yuri. The frogites watched it fly over their heads, crouching in fear.

  “Run!” he shouted. He ran straight towards the frogites, his dressing gown flapping wildly. Surprised by his unarmed attack, they were even more surprised as he flung himself awkwardly into the old guy. They fell, getting entangled in dressing gown. He felt a sharp pain in his side, the awful feeling of a stone spear piercing his side.

  Then the potentia reached them. He heard the frogites howl in terror, and Arjelica scream. Then he knew what it was to be pricked by a thousand needles of agony. There was nothing left of him.

  Nothing. He felt something he had genuinely never felt before. Nothing. And in that nothing, peace. He was floating in nothingness, and even the realisation that he had never before felt peace didn’t upset him. He observed it, and it passed by, and he was still at peace.

  I guess this is death then? Does it last forever?

  He didn’t need to know the answer, it was just another information point in the vast eternity of serenity. He floated there for some time in soothing oblivion.

  But there was something there, an itch that intruded into his perfect serenity. As soon as he tried to ignore it, it became ten times louder.

  Go away! I’m at peace right now! I finally found peace.

  Thoughts and feelings started to come back. Anxiety vibrated in his stomach, and he felt his jaw tense. He could feel all the uncomfortable parts of his body again. He twisted like an uncomfortable speaker.

  A white spot of light appeared in the distance, growing larger. It grew and more colours grew inside it. Eventually it filled his vision, and the colours and angles of it made a picture.

  It was his room. His real room, the one he had gone to sleep in. Unmade bed, computer desk covered in empty cans. Gaming table cluttered with half-painted miniatures and notebooks. And piles and piles of books and manga.

  I would rather stay here than wake up. Shit, that’s bleak. Maybe I just don’t like tidying up. That’s a good reason to stay floating in a void of nothingness.

  He felt his body now, it was all coming back to him. He was waking from a deep sleep and if he shook his head, it would wake him up, bring him back into the real world. He felt the heaviness of his body. If he disturbed this state, he would fall into the real world again. He held his breath. I did my heroic sacrifice! I’m happy here in nothingness, really.

  Something behind him pushed, like it was trying to get him to go back into his bedroom.

  No. He resisted.

  He floated even closer to his room. A thin membrane pushed against his face, like the skin on milk when it gets heated. One push and he could be back there, in his room. No danger, no adventure. He could slink back into his bed, forget about all the things he was supposed to be doing and not doing.

  No. I made my choice. I was being brave, not cowardly. I didn’t think I would ever come back to reality.

  The membrane strained. Then slowly he started to float away from the image of his room. Slow then picking up speed, it receded. Only to be replaced by a different scene.

  He was looking down from a distance. He saw a forest from above, treetops like broccoli. And there in the forest was a clearing, a deep quarry of stone. He came closer and saw several figures. Dark robes, green and gold, and the colourful shard of a feather stood out to him as his view shifted closer. The four adventurers were there, on the surface.

  It’s them! They made it to the surface. That’s great.

  Then everything went black, and he saw nothing.