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The Beta-Testers Chapter 4: A Team Quest By Draconicon

Hank groaned as he felt the latest cock slip free of his ass, not quite sure if it was another player or one of the many NPCs that had come through the brothel during the last...well, he wasn't sure how long it was. A day? Two? Whatever it was, the skunk had a much better idea of how much business the brothel did. A lot.

He rolled over, laying on his side as he didn't dare lay on his back. His ass felt like it had been fucked a good twenty times in the last twenty four hours, and it stung a bit to sit on. More than a bit. Why did he keep understating things?

Ugh...And that's...what...forty gold? At most?

The skunk shook his head. That was up to the game, and he probably could figure it out if he looked in his menu, but he didn't have the energy. Who knew when the next client would be coming in, needing service? He needed to be at the top of his game, or he'd lose out on some tips. And not the fleshy kinds.

A rather loud thump from outside the room caught his attention, and he lifted his head, blinking.

"Hello?"

There was no answer from the door. Not a customer, then. Probably a scuffle down in the bar part of the brothel, he guessed. That had happened often enough over the last few hours. People got drunk even in these games, he supposed. He laid down again, closing his eyes. Might as well get a short -

WHAM!

That thump nearly knocked him right out of his bed, and he sat up without even thinking about it. He yelped, getting to his feet with a shake of his head.

"Not...doing that again..."

Even with the pain in his ass, though, he walked towards the door. For a moment, he considered getting dressed, but he was pretty sure that he wasn't going anywhere. Besides, it wasn't like anyone would be coming in here to see him without paying first. Nobody else had been as stupid as he'd been.

Hank pulled at the door, opening just a crack -

"Get out of my way!"

Another thump, and this time he saw the source of it. Unconscious bodies were being flung this way and that, and the latest one slammed right into his door, knocking it - and him - backwards with the weight of a fat boar. The skunk went sliding back on his ass, grunting and whimpering again at the pain from his hole, and came to a stop when he finally hit the bed again. Rubbing his head, he reached out to pull himself up, but rather than the bed, found himself grabbing someone's hand.

"Heh, so this is where you snuck off to. I knew you'd be getting some; didn't think you'd be getting paid for it."

"Wha..."

He looked up, and immediately his cheeks burned in humiliation. Sarah; it would be the lioness come here, to see him now. Hank crossed his legs, trying to hide himself, but she was having none of it. She yanked him to his feet in short order, and he yelped as it felt like his dick was getting ripped right out of his crotch, trapped between his legs as it was.

"Whoops. Sorry about that."

"It's...okay..."

He wheezed a bit, fighting that shaky feeling that always came from a hit down there. The skunk leaned against the bed, huffing a bit as he cursed the failed fortitude roll in the back of his head. What a time to look like a wimp, in front of an armored lioness...

"Hey, when did you get a tattoo?"

"What are you...talking about?"

"Right there."

She tapped him on the ass, and he blinked. He had a tattoo back there? Hank turned, working to look over his shoulder, and blinked a couple of times more as he finally found a position to look down properly.

Oh, you've got to be kidding me...

Right on the outside curve of his ass was a dick. Not even a subtle one, but a big, fat cock that was pointed right towards his ass. Hank blushed worse than ever, his cheeks burning as he tried and failed to cover the massive phallic picture, shaking his head a few times.

"I didn't get that. I don't know where it came from."

"Heh...maybe you're getting a buff from it. +10 to streetwalking."

"Yeah, right."

"Hey, it's a game, isn't it? Why don't you check?"

Against his better judgment, he brought up his character menu. He flicked his eyes back and forth over it until he found the stat menu, and started scrolling through it. It didn't take long to find out that she was right, though not quite in the way she probably expected. His cheeks burned brighter, anyway, and she smirked as he brought the menu down.

"Oh, now I gotta hear this. What is it?"

"It's nothing."

"No. No, it's something. Come on, let me hear it."

"...+10 to diplomacy, when naked."

"..."

"Don't. Don't you -"

It was no use. The lioness lost it, leaning against the wall and laughing her head off. She squeezed herself around the middle as she kept giggling, sliding down the wall all the while.

Desperate for some cover, Hank pulled the blanket off of the bed and wrapped it around his waist. It wasn't much, but at least his ass and his cock weren't hanging out for everyone to see.

"What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were going out to the arena or something."

"Heh...heh..."

"And why are you in such a good mood?"

"Gimme...gimme a second..."

She kept giggling for another minute before wiping her eyes and getting back to her feet. By then, his embarrassment had faded substantially, and he was starting to think of everything that would probably be blamed on him. After all, she'd knocked down his door, she'd come in and interrupted customers he might have had; if the game worked like a business, he'd probably need to make even more money to get out of the brothel, now. He sighed, shaking his head.

"What, do you always act this way when someone comes to rescue you?"

"...Beg pardon?"

"I said, I'm here to rescue you. How hard is that to understand?"

"..."

"Apparently you got more than your dick sucked dry. Hello, anyone in there? I'm here to get you out of here and back to the game. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"

"Yeah, yeah, I do. You don't have to shout."

He rubbed at his ears, shaking his head.

"But...why? I thought you were busy. I thought everyone was busy..."

"Yeah, busy getting the money to get you out of here. Teryx told me all about you getting stuck here, and he said that the Pride was raising money to get you paid off."

They...actually knew? And they... He shook his head. Wow...

"Yeah, well, I thought I'd just get you out of here. And considering how easy it was, I'm surprised nobody else thought of doing that first."

"You mean -"

"Yeah, you're free. You can owe me the prize from the next quest."

"Did anyone actually say that I could go, though?"

"What, you want to stick around here sucking dick and getting fucked for the rest of the beta period?"

"Well, no...but I don't want to break the rules, either."

"Well, what do you want? I just busted you out. You coming, or not?"

"...Maybe I should ask an admin, first."

"You have any idea how?"

"Oh, yeah."

Hank smiled.

"It's a little spell. Called the 'Contact Admin' button."

It took a little more work than just hitting a button, admittedly, but he wasn't all that surprised there. After all, the game only seemed to have two admins in the world, so they were probably busy as all hell. That said, he was still surprised that the snow leopard showed up after only a few minutes. Still on the floating throne, the feline looked down at the pair of them and shook his head.

"Somehow, I'm not entirely surprised."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean, spotty?"

"My name is Mr. Lee, Sarah. I will thank you to remember it."

"You want to come down here and say that?"

Hank winced, particularly as the snow leopard tapped a button on his chair. The admins always had weird powers in online games, and he had a feeling that -

"FUCK! What the hell?"

He didn't want to look, but his curiosity convinced him to. Hank looked over at his guild-mate, and this time, it was his turn to laugh.

The lioness had gotten her equipment shifted out, the fiery armor she'd been wearing replaced with a dancer's skirt and a gossamer top, looking like a ballet dancer that had gotten switched out with a harem girl. She even had the ballet shoes to go with it.

He sputtered, shoving his fist in his mouth to try and stop it with moderate success. The lioness growled, hefting her mace before pointing it up at the snow leopard.

"You just wait until this game is over..."

"I still doubt there will be problems. Now, is there a game issue?"

"Not as far as I know...Hank's just being a pain."

And with that, the snow leopard was looking at him, and all need to laugh disappeared. There was something about being under the dark stare of the feline admin that made it very, very hard to be mirthful. Hank pulled himself back up, cleared his throat, and asked.

"I...well, Sarah here said that she freed me from the brothel, and I, um, just wanted to make sure that she was right. You know. So I don't break any rules."

"I see."

"So...am I free?"

"Let me take a look."

Mr. Lee turned his attention to a screen summoned from his floating chair, and tapped his finger along the glowing square a few times. He was reading something, probably the game code, at a fast rate. As he did, Hank turned back to Sarah, and let out a small sigh of relief to see that she'd re-equipped her armor. No more risk of laughing, no more risk of getting his head bashed in for giggling at her misfortune.

Besides...armor works better than a dress for her.

"Ah, here it is."

They looked back up at the admin.

"Yes, you are free. She fulfilled an unnoted quest that allows a guild member or friended player to rescue you from a situation. Unfortunately, it's unmarked, so most wouldn't have known about it...I'll mark that down for the coding people to fix, later. Is there anything else?"

"Uh, no, no, I think that covers it, Mr. Lee."

"Good. It seems that your equipment disappeared due to a small bug. I'll retrieve that for you."

Hank 'heard' a few little dings in his head, and felt the different pieces of clothing and weapons that he'd owned before his 'imprisonment' shift back into his inventory. The skunk happily flicked them on, feeling the comforting weight of his own robes back over his shoulders. He even felt the little buff from the tattoo disappear, though he knew it was still there.

I really hope I never have to use that thing...

As the admin disappeared, Sarah shook her head.

"One of these days, I'm gonna get him."

"Well, you did insult him."

"He started it."

"Yeah..."

But you didn't finish it, that's for sure.

He pulled out his staff from his inventory, tapping it on the floor a few times and settling back into his class. He was a sorcerer, after all, not a...prostitute.

Following behind the lion as they left the brothel, he noticed a couple of names in the crowd of people looking for other whores. One of them, in particular, he remembered from when he'd arrived. Stephen looked like he hadn't gotten caught in the same trap as the skunk had, and even seemed to have built up enough money to have fun in the common room. Hank blushed as he watched the otter getting his feet licked, and quickly turned his head away in hopes of being unnoticed.

As soon as they were outside, he cleared his throat.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. You, um...you didn't have to come help me, but...thanks. I needed it."

"Yeah, well...you looked like you didn't really know how to handle yourself, and I was in a good mood."

"Yeah...I made a mistake."

"Don't make anymore, huh? I don't want to spend my whole time here breaking you out of brothels. If you wanna get fucked, just find a player to do it."

He didn't mean it that way, but he didn't want to argue. Instead, he fell in step with her as she started walking, following her through the city streets. Dalia seemed rather quiet, as cities went; then again, he hadn't had the bad luck to start any random events that some of the players talked about when he had been walking around last time.

Sarah didn't talk to him as they moved on, and so he was free to appreciate the way the city looked as they wandered around. The cobblestone streets weren't the most comfortable for bare feet, but it was better than nothing, and it was surprisingly clean. The gaps between the stones probably made it easy for the city to wash it down, he thought, until he remembered that it was a game and it probably cleaned itself automatically every few minutes.

The buildings around them quickly changed from the rather shambly buildings of the red-light district to the nicer buildings of the central part of the city. Multi-story guild houses loomed over them, with different pennants and banners hanging from the railings and sticking out from the tops of the structures. Two headed dragons, howling wolves, and many other different symbols adorned them. It seemed like at least half of them were symbols that players had come up with, rather than one to represent the guild as a whole.

Hank shook his head, clearing his throat once more.

"So, uh...are you gonna grab some missions at the guildhouse?"

"Yeah, probably. I need to keep leveling up if I'm going to get anywhere. Specially with that blue dragon..."

"Huh?"

"Arena thing. You wouldn't understand."

"Ooookay."

He shook his head.

"So, do you need any help?"

"Maybe. If Teryx is around, I'll probably see if he's got some free time. If he's not -"

"If he's not, could I come?"

She almost stumbled over her own feet at his question, having to steady herself on one of the nearby buildings. The lioness turned, shaking her head at him.

"Noooo way. I do not need to be escorting another player."

"Hey, that's not fair. You can't be that much higher than me."

"You wanna bet?"

"Come on, I've only been gone a day."

"Day and a half. And I've leveled seven times, since."

"Seven -"

He shook his head. That...that was a problem. Admittedly, he'd gone up a level in the brothel, but he wasn't entirely sure that it was a level in 'sorcerer.' He'd felt some skills come up that he hadn't even realized that he'd had, and he didn't want to bring it up in case he'd really gotten a second class.

"Well, that's all the more reason for me to come along, then. You can help me get some more experience than I could get on my own."

"Hank, seriously? I need that like I need an anchor on my legs. It's not helping me."

"But...."

"Look...I'll think about it, okay? But only if you stop asking me."

"Shutting up."

She nodded, and they kept walking.

It was a pretty short trip to the guildhouse. The roaring lion head above the door was as good a welcome home as he could hope for, though Sarah somewhat ruined it as she slammed a hand on the door as she stepped through.

"Hey, everyone, you can stop raising money now. I got the big tease back from the brothel."

"Hey, that wasn't...did you have to shout it? I mean..."

"Sarah!"

The loud roar from the other side of the room shut down all the laughter in the room in short order, and even the lioness looked slightly cowed at the roar from the head of their little guild. Ronald walked across the room, shaking his head a few times. He came to a stop in front of the both of them, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Do I need to have a word with you?"

"About what?"

"We're all a guild here. That means that we stick together. Teasing's fine, but let's not heap the humiliation on him, huh?"

"It was just a -"

The lion snarled, but rather than backing down, Sarah did the same. The two felines glared at each other, completely ignoring Hank as he took a step back. There was no way that he was going to get stuck between two lions fighting.

Thankfully, the staredown only lasted a couple of seconds, with Sarah looking down and away. Ronald nodded before raising his voice.

"And that goes for the rest of you, too! We're a fucking pride. Let's act like it instead of making it difficult, huh?"

"It...it's fine, really. I know it was a joke..."

"So do I. But there's a time and place for it, and just when you get back isn't the time."

The bigger lion shook his head.

"But at any rate...good to have you back, Hank. Take care of yourself, and let's not let this happen again, huh?"

"It won't. I promise."

"Good."

As the lion walked off, Hank blushed a bit. It was...rather nice, he supposed, to have a group leader that actually wanted to keep order rather than just letting everyone run wild. Who knew? Maybe it'd be a better guild for it.

That said...

"So, uh...I owe you big for helping me, Sarah...if you really want me to leave you alone -"

"Shut up, Hank."

He did, though not because she sounded angry. Distracted, if anything. She shook her head a few times before patting his arm.

"Let's go check out the quest board. Maybe there'll be something you can handle, and will still be worth it to me."

The quest board was easy enough to find. It was the biggest single piece of furniture in the entire guildhall, standing against the wall and reaching all the way from floor to ceiling. It was littered with different pieces of parchment detailing all sorts of quests and rewards, and it was constantly shifting as people took one, then another, and others came in.

For his part, Hank couldn't help but feel a little bit embarrassed. After all, half of the quests on the board, if not more, were completely out of his reach. If he tried to grab them, his hand went right through them due to his low level. Several times, he saw Sarah reach for one, then pull her hand back as she realized that it was too high level for him to come along with.

Well, this isn't helping...

He was about to suggest that he leave when someone else in armor came up behind them. He turned, only to be completely ignored as the rain dragon reached out and patted Sarah on the shoulder.

"Hey, you need a hand with some quests?"

"Hmm? Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

"Hey. Hey, Sarah, you want to -"

"Talk with Hank here, thinking about something."

"Um...okay."

The dragon turned to him, covered in a gleaming set of plate armor. Hank forced a small smile and offered his hand.

"I'm guessing you're Teryx?"

"Heh, good guess. And I'm betting you're Hank, our no-longer-missing sorcerer?"

"Better guess. Are you a paladin?"

"Right in one. Paladin of the water goddess. And...Sorcerer, if I remember your entrance?"

"Oh gods, you were around for that?"

"Heh, yeah, but at least you made an entrance. Most of us just stumbled in. So, what do you think of the game so far?"

Hank lost himself in conversation pretty quickly at that point, unable to help himself. There just was something rather nice about Teryx, the way that the paladin opened up so quickly and offered his help. Much better than the paladins that always acted as if they had a stick up their butts when they were going out and about.

They were just getting to the point of comparing mechanics when Sarah shouted.

"GOT YA!"

Almost leaping out of his skin at her shout, Hank turned to see her holding a piece of parchment that hadn't even fully solidified yet. He shook his head.

"What are you doing, quest sniping?"

"Something like that. It's a brand new one. Something about portals outside the city. Buuuuut we need a five man team for it."

"Well, we got three here. Cleric, paladin, sorcerer..."

Teryx nodded.

"Looks like we'll need a rogue, at least. Maybe two."

"Well, I know something LIKE a rogue...he's a spellsword, and he's, um, down in the brothel at the moment..."

The other two turned to stare, and Hank held up his hands.

"Hey, it wasn't like he was a client. I met him before I got stuck there."

"...Is he any good?"

He nodded at Sarah's question. After a second, she nodded back.

"Alright, then that makes five. I'd feel better about a real rogue, though. Spellswords aren't bad, but they're not as sneaky as I'd like."

"Someone say sneaky?"

This time, all three of them looked around. Hank blinked, swearing that he'd heard the voice behind him, but there was no one there.

"No, no, over here."

This time...above him? He looked up, as did the lioness and rain dragon, but there was no one there, either.

Hank shook his head, even as the two warrior classes started to grumble to themselves. He opened his spell menu, and quickly wiggled his hand, a small sparkle of magic sliding down his fingers before dissipating. He looked around again, and this time, he saw a little shimmer of light crouching behind the paladin. Smiling, he brought his staff around and poked the lumpy shape.

"Heh, I knew that magic was good for something."

"Oh, come on, did you have to spoil it?"

"You proved you're sneaky. How about you stand up and let the others see you?"

"Fiiiiiiine."

The little bundle of light stood up, and suddenly an otter was standing where nothing had been before. Both Teryx and Sarah took a step back, and the otter chuckled.

"You know, I was thinking that stealth skill was going to suck, but it really works. Finally, a game that actually lets you crouch and disappear like you do in all those console games."

Hank chuckled.

"I've always wondered how they'd work it out here. Looks like they figured it out. I'm Hank, by the way."

"David."

The familiar flicker of names went on above their heads, but he didn't pay that much attention to it.

"So, you're a rogue?"

"Yeah. More of a stabby-stabby one, to be honest. All the bow work gets on my nerves, and I can't really get as much damage in as quickly."

Hank looked at the other two. Though a ranged rogue might be better, mechanically, for what they had in mind, he was pretty sure that he could cover their ranged needs while David covered the sneaking ones. Particularly if Stephen was able to kick in a few spells as well.

"Well, he snuck up on you two. I'd say that's pretty good."

"I've got no complaints. What about you, Sarah?"

"He's pretty good...and he's right here. Let's go get Stephen, and test this out."

It took a little more work than that to drag the other otter out of the brothel, but when he heard about the quest, he was quick enough to join in. Just in time, too; the piece of parchment only lasted for a little while between claiming and registering participating members before renewing, and they'd pushed their luck pretty far.

They followed one of the eastern roads out of the city, finding a side gate out to the rolling plains outside the walls. As soon as they left the cobblestone streets, Hank felt a serious feeling of relief roll over him. It was like...like a sense of freedom, like adventure.

Or, maybe, just the lack of pain after walking on cobblestones for hours.

He didn't have long to enjoy that relief, though. The skunk quickly found out how out-leveled he was compared to the rest of the party in the first random encounter, getting his health dropped down to a tenth of his maximum in one hit, and barely contributing to party damage with his spells. Even after leveling up, he felt utterly humiliated as Sarah patched him up, and walked in total silence as they headed further into the plains.

It didn't get better from there. Hank relegated himself to casting buffs, and buffs only, as they fought through the different monsters that were thrown at them. Centaurs, goblins, orcs; everything that could be drawn from fantasy was thrown at them at some point or another, giving them little in the way of breathing room.

By the time they crested the final hill before their destination, he was exhausted. Hank slumped down, sitting down with his legs crossed as the rest of the group just took a moment to stretch.

Sarah wasn't kidding...I'm not nearly ready for this...

He shook his head, forcing himself to just relax and rest for as long as the party would let him. There was some good news, after all. He'd leveled twice in the encounters from the city gate to here, and that gave him a few new spells. He could throw lightning, now, and had a few other skills. More health, too.

Yeah, and the rest of the group has more than twice my levels, and can do even more.

It was hard not to feel depressed when he was that far behind the rest of them. Despite that, he tried to keep a positive outlook. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his head and looked down the hill.

The portal they were supposed to investigate was right there, just out of sight from the city walls, and crackling with energy. Red lightning ran between four large stone prongs, like spell energy being discharged from something out of sight. There was probably something in the middle of the four stone pieces that was creating it, and he guessed that was probably what they'd need to take out. Basic fantasy, really; destroy the generator part of a spell, and the spell stopped working.

Of course, that'd be easier without the...creatures...that were between them and the structure.

"Ever seen anything like that?"

Hank shook his head at David's question, as did everyone else. If they weren't so humanoid, he would have called them slime creatures, but they had too definite a shape for that. Not to mention that he'd never seen slimes that looked so...dark. Usually, they were bright and reflective, something that would draw attention, even look cute. These...

These had some color in their depths, but it was like a rainbow seen through an oil slick. He couldn't shake the feeling of danger and wrongness he got just looking at them, like he could fall through infinity if he stared at them for too long.

He shook his head, catching himself as he realized he was staring. Even if he was completely wrong, it left him feeling almost sick to keep doing that.

"So...what's the plan?"

"I've got an idea."

They all turned to Sarah, who hefted her mace. She snapped her fingers, making it burst with flame.

"Me and Teryx run down the middle, catch their attention. Stephen and Hank, you blast the ones that don't come running at us right away. David, you sneak in, and see what you can find out about the portal."

"Uh, but..."

"Yes, Hank?"

"Shouldn't the sorcerer - you know, the one that knows magic - be the one to look at the portal?"

"Can you get to it without getting seen? Or cut through enough people to get there if you are?"

"...No."

"Then David does it."

"But -"

"Any other questions?"

"Nope."

"Sounds good to me."

"They'll never see me coming."

Annnnd I'm back in the back, Hank thought as he took a spot next to Stephen. The otter smiled at him, offering one of his various wands, but he turned down the weapon. He had enough spells to make it work, and it would be better if the otter kept some of his class spells for later, just in case things went wrong.

With Sarah and Teryx already running down the hill to engage the enemy, Hank lifted his hands and started calling on what spells he had. Lightning bolts danced between his fingers before he threw his hands forward, unleashing the jagged energy on his enemies. It danced over the heads of the warriors, hitting the cluster of enemies running at them. Not enough to drop them on his own, but enough to make it -

Teryx screamed as he stabbed his blade into one of the creatures, but...but something was wrong. Hank could tell even from a distance that the creature suffered no damage, and instead it...it was pulling itself up along the dragon's sword.

Even as the paladin swung his blade free and stepped back, the creatures were swarming. They pushed in closer and tighter to the lioness and dragon, not retreating at all as they were battered and stabbed by mace and sword. Hank looked up slightly, trying to see if there was a bug, but no. The health bars of the creatures weren't going down at all. In fact, they were barely damaged from his attack, which should have halved their health at least.

"Something's wrong."

"No kidding. We have to get down there."

"What?! No, no, that's -"

"I'm not letting the group go down, Hank! I'm coming!"

The otter slipped out of his grip, running down the hill with a sword in one hand and a wand in the other. Hank looked around desperately, but either David had run off, or the otter was outside of the range of his life-detection spell.

He turned back, and saw Teryx go down. The paladin was pinned beneath the silhouettes, who seemed to be taking on the same gold and blue color of his armor and scales. The dragon's name winked out. Hank knew that he'd be back at the guild house, but that wasn't the big problem, now.

Sarah was fighting alone, and though she'd thrown up a wall of fire between her and the creatures, it was serving as a makeshift barrier at best. Her mace was shoving the creatures around, which was better than the sword that just slipped through them, but it wasn't enough. She needed more help.

This is a really, really bad idea for a sorcerer...but I'm the only one with magic and a blunt weapon left.

Throwing a grease spell on the grass, he ran forward just enough to get some momentum going before hitting the spell. He let himself fall, riding on his ass down the hill with his staff held firmly against his chest, the length spread out to the side. He shot right past Stephen - already engaged with one of the other creatures - and hit the group around Sarah.

Just as he'd hoped, the staff was solid enough to catch the legs of the creatures rather than just pass through. They fell over behind him as he went sliding by, giving Sarah an opening to leap through. The lioness took it, landing on the other side of her flames and falling back a few paces to regroup.

For him, though...

Hank grunted as he hit one of the four stone pillars, the air knocked out of his lungs. He shook his head, trying to catch his breath.

"That...that really hurt."

"I bet. Are you okay?"

He looked up, seeing the shimmer of David's stealthed form. The otter helped him up as Hank nodded.

"I'll be fine. Let's get this figured out."

It was different, he had to give it that. Rather than the typical portal that was powered by a rock in the middle of the opening or built into the sides, it seemed to be a deep hole. The edges seemed almost...attached to the four stone pillars, like the rock had pushed through something and then ripped it open, leaving this hole in the air behind.

Worse, though, he could see more and more of the silhouettes inside of it, crawling around as if searching for the opening.

"Okay, well, that's not good..."

"We're really underleveled for this, aren't we?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'd say so."

He heard a little 'blip', and he realized that Stephen must have been taken out. Not daring to look around, Hank looked for something, anything that might have been a power source. When nothing offered itself, he looked for something that looked more structurally damaged, something he could break to shut this thing.

The fact that this was a game was almost forgotten. The creatures, and how easily they had taken two of his teammates, terrified him. It wasn't a matter of not losing. It was a matter of not dying, to him.

One of the four pillars looked weaker towards the top than the others. With the way the hole stretched around it, maybe, just maybe...

"Here goes nothing. Brace yourself, David...David?"

He turned, only to see the otter grappling silently with one of the silhouettes.

How...he was stealthed! How did it find him?

No time to wonder. He had to break it down, and break it down now. He turned around, raising his hands as the cooldown for his lightning spell finished. He cast it again, feeling the energy running down his arms before surging through his fingers. It shot through the air, hit the stone pillar -

Bwoooooooooooom!

The entire world shook with the impact. The grass around them went fuzzy, and the stone seemed to turn soft. The sky went black, then red, then blue, then green, before settling on blue again. His own fur seemed to go photo-negative for a moment...

And then the explosion came.

The portal didn't even blow. Instead, it just...released the energy of an explosion. It covered him, shattering him, reducing his health to nothing in less than a second...

He woke up in the guildhouse, laying in a bed. In a line beside him, Sarah, Teryx, David, and Stephen all did the same. He groaned, rubbing his head a few times.

"What...What happened?"

"We died."

He rolled his eyes at Stephen's short, to the point answer.

"I know that, but...wait..."

Something was wrong. His stats felt...off. It was like being off-balance, except mentally rather than just physically. He brought up his character menu, seeing everyone else doing the same thing out of the corner of his eye. He quickly scanned it. Some games had death penalties, giving you a disadvantage for a while, but he didn't remember -

"What...The...Fuck...Happened?"

Sarah spoke for all of them, he imagined. She certainly spoke for him. After all, he was supposed to be a sorcerer, not a sexomancer. Whatever that was.

The End