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So here is the second chapter of 'Worlds Grave' I think I'll try to aim for a chapter a month with this, I am terrible with submission timetables but I think a month is enough time for me to get a chapter done. I regret that not much happens in this chapter it's more of setting up some of the main characters. Anyway I hope you enjoy it, please leave a comment and a vote.

****

The first thing Ian was aware of was the world spinning around him; it was dark, but he could still feel everything shifting unsteadily, as if at some impossible angle that kept changing, his head pounding as he blinked and tried to comprehend it. Focusing on the confusion just made it worse, though, and even as he dropped to his knees to try and work out where the ground was, he gagged a couple of times before vomiting, wincing as the acidic taste burned up his throat and forced its way out onto the cold dirt between his claws.

Claws.

"Oh, fuck, that's not right," Ian said in shock, staggering back up to his feet as he looked down at his body. The spinning had stopped long enough for him to take in the rags, the crimson scales, and he could feel the tail flicking about behind him. There was no 'dream' aspect to it; being sick didn't hurt like that, didn't leave him shaking in dreams. He couldn't tense exact muscles and feel his draconic alter-ego. Had he put the ARC back on? That wasn't possible...he'd turned it off in the other room and gone to bed, and he had no history of sleepwalking.

Whatever had happened, Ian was gripped with the feeling that something was very, very wrong, a feeling only compounded when an undead hand burst out from the ground underneath and literally grabbed his ankle, squeezing hard enough for him to feel the bone in his leg ache as he let out a yelp and instinctively stamped down on it with his free foot. The eventual release left him gasping in pain, staggering back to inspect the damage, and completely unprepared for the skeleton to burst free from the ground in a shower of dirt, temporarily blinding him. By the time Ian's vision had cleared, he only got a glimpse of the undead creature before it barrelled into him, knocking him to the ground. Ian's instincts kicked in, reaching down for his weapon, when his eyes happened to catch on the dagger embedded in his chest.

"Shit," he said weakly, suddenly feeling the strength go out of his arms as an eery cold settled across his body, faintly aware of the draconic blood pooling around his chest. The wound was throbbing, but the pain became less and less noticeable each time, black spots dancing around the edge of his vision. At least until the skeleton reached down and twisted the blade one last time; Ian jerked up from the sudden pain, one hand clawing fruitlessly at the air, before a final, rattling breath left his mouth and he fell still.

****

From the dragon's perspective, there was only a few seconds between that terrifying moment of utter helplessness and the sensation of being spawned again, though this time was far less disorientating.

Still, the dragon immediately placed a hand on his chest, searching for the now absent stab wound as he stared up at what looked like the ceiling of some grand, albeit dilapidated, cathedral. Glancing down, he could tell he was laying on what looked like some kind altar, back down against the cold stone. "What the hell...?" he muttered, sitting up to have a better look around.

"I take it you never died in the trial run?" Orsino asked; the large jet black wolf did his best to look sympathetic as he offered Ian a paw off of the altar. "You must be Astrai, I saw you and your friend during the trial, can't say how he's going to react to seeing you here. My name is Orsino, I'm trying to meet and greet all the new arrivals."

"The new arrivals?" Ian asked, frowning, even as he took the paw. "Look, buddy, I don't know who you are in real life, but I didn't put my ARC back on. I woke up and got stabbed in the chest by a skeleton, then I'm here. Those machines are fucked, man, this isn't right."

"I was shot in the head with an arrow, your friend had his head nearly cut off and about a thousand others all died in similar horrific fashions," Orsino said, with a calm that was unfortunately well practiced. "And not one of them put their ARC net gear on before going to bed, yet some have been stuck here, unable to log out for two days now."

"How does..." Ian shook his head, glancing around the cathedral as he tried to understand what the wolf was telling him. "That's not possible. I mean, if people are stuck in their homes like that, they'd have died, or at least be on death's door. I can't be stuck in a virtual reality simulation if I didn't even knowingly enter it."

"I wish I had answers for you, I only know what's happened here since this began. There has been no announcement, no messages, the menus still work but everything that was system based, the settings, log out, preferences, it's all gone."

"We saw you yesterday," Ian said, eyes narrowing as he honed in the wolf. "You didn't think to mention this then? That I might get stuck in a fucking simulation?!" He gave Orsino a push, far too upset at this point to think much about it. "I have a life outside of this, I can't...I can't be trapped in here. This isn't happening." He backed away from the wolf, facing the altar again as he looked around desperately. "It's only a game. It's just...a bug, or something, there'll be a way out. They can't just leave people like this."

"I'm trapped just like you kid, I didn't know this was going to happen. Also, what's yesterday to you, was three days ago to me," Osino said, the calm never leaving his voice as he explained. "We're hoping that it's just a bug as well, there are more than a few children trapped here with us as well. Before you panic though, maybe you should go talk to your friend, he's been here a while already."

"How could it have been three days ago..." Ian murmured, shaking his head, even as he started putting little bits and pieces together. The dragon eventually gave a sigh, looking up at Orsino. "I'm sorry for pushing you. It's just...a lot to take in at once. Especially if I'm stuck here with a bunch of Mountain Dew swigging thirteen year olds." He gave a small chuckle, smiling at Orsino. "I guess we'd better make the most of it until there's a fix. That's all we can do."

"You're taking this quite well," Orsino commented, quirking an eye ridge at the dragon, the wolf even had a small smile on his muzzle. "Most are usually screaming and shouting."

"Trust me, the thought of doing it lingering, but it's not going to get us anywhere. Jak and I were joking about playing the game non-stop, this just isn't what I had in mind," Ian laughed. He was still feeling scared, and confused, but the humour helped deflect it somewhat. And panicking was about the worst possible thing in this situation. "What did you say was disabled? Log out and the video settings? We've just got inventory, essential sort of stuff rather than anything technical?"

"Character info, inventory, in game chat, party, guild, skill tree, the game works, even the clock and calendar, but everything else." The wolf shrugged helplessly, there was no point skirting the issue, the dragon seemed old enough to take the reality of the situation. "Through those doors, you'll find the others." Orsino pointed to the small pair of double doors that were the only entrance or exit to the altar room.

"I just need to know one more thing," Ian said quickly. "There's not been any announcements from staff, right?"

"Not one, and no apparent way to receive one. There's been nothing but silence."

Ian stored that away, nodding to himself. A theory was forming, but he sure as hell didn't want to drop it on Orsino. "No-one's tried progressing out of here? There's got to be a whole world waiting above ground."

"No one has been able to reach it, it's a six mile journey to the stairs that lead out of this place. I think I can see what you're thinking Astrai, but I wouldn't drop that bombshell just yet. Most of the people out there are scared and are holding out hope that this will blow over soon."

"What do you think about it, then?"

"I think that this is... for lack of a better word, real." The wolf turned to look at Astrai fully, his eyes glazing with confidence. "I have been here for three days, I have died twice now, once when I entered and was ambushed, and once seven hours ago when my character died from thirst."

Ian nodded slowly. "I'm thinking this is real too. We've got to break through to the surface. We can't just all get locked in a cycle of starving and dying from thirst."

"I'm glad to see you have the same level of will as your friend does, he agrees with that thought." Orsino sighed heavily, looking towards the altar with no small amount of sorrow. "He also agreed with me, however. He wanted to take everyone and head for the stairs a while ago, but more new characters were still showing up. He agreed with me that we couldn't just leave them here alone if more spawned, especially some of the younger ones, but on the other hand the longer we wait, the more detrimental it is on the people already here."

"We can clear a path," Ian suggested. "Jak and I can strike out for the surface. If there's a civilisation above, they can't ignore what's happening down here. Chances are they'll have no idea we're all down here. If we get them to clear a route to the surface, we can have a supply route and safe passage set up."

"You won't be able to clear a route, the monsters down here spawn too rapidly, also larger numbers of players attract larger numbers of monsters. A group of thirty tried to reach the stairs a day ago and were swarmed by a hundred zombies. I understand what you're trying to say but we have no idea what is on the surface, or if you will even be able to return once you reach it. Most games won't allow you to return to starting areas, though that may not be the case this time, we just don't know." Orsino opened his muzzle to carry on but was distracted when a bright light started to form above the altar. "Another person is respawning, we can discuss this later with your friend if you wish."

"I'm not going to sit around and watch people lose their minds dying over and over in here," Ian muttered, looking up at Orsino. "Come and find us to talk about it. It's a risk, but it's better than this. It has to be."

"I agree, speak with your friend." With that the wolf turned back to the altar.

Taking his cue to leave, Ian...no, he shook his head as he mulled his name over. People in this world would know him as Astrai; from now, he needed to embrace the character. The players stuck didn't need a twenty-something university graduate, they needed a draconic hero. Not that he was even sure how much of a hero he could be, given what had happened to all the other parties, but he needed to at least try. The fact Jak felt the same; hell, the fact Jak was here in the first place, was a huge reassurance. The dragon pushed open the double doors to the main cathedral, expecting to see Jak standing around, but his jaw dropped as he took in the scene before him.

The cathedral was crammed full. Wherever there was space, there were one or two bodies; the new arrivals looking healthy, crammed in with plenty of players who seemed to be almost dead, sleeping, or unconscious. Wherever Astrai looked, he saw a hopeless expression, someone crying, trying to help someone who could barely stand. It was utterly desperate; the various races, all clad in rags, weapons and other gear long since forgotten about. "We've got to do something," Ian muttered to himself, opening up the menu and connecting with Jak's wolf character in the party chat. Trying to find him otherwise would be a nightmare.

Kelrith jerked when his menu sounded an alert and felt his heart almost stop when he saw Ian's character name pop up asking him to chat. The wolf hoped that there was a mistake and got up from his seat on one side of a pillar and moved so he could see the altar doors. He knew that he was hoping for nothing, there was no way anyone but Ian would be messaging him.

"No," Kelrith whispered, there he was, the bright red dragon, looking around, probably for him. Kelrith was happy beyond measure to have a good friend with him now, but this was the one situation where he would rather despair alone than with a friend. "Damnit."

Astrai's keen eyes immediately picked up on the sudden movement of the wolf across the room, recognising it as Kelrith as he gave a small smile. If he was going to go out and get himself killed over and over to try and reach the surface, at least he'd be able to do it with a friend. The dragon began weaving and stepping over players, who seemed to barely register him as he finally reached Kelrith, immediately spreading his arms and wrapping the wolf in a hug. "Orsino said you'd be here," he muttered, giving a choked laugh. "This is a pretty fucked up situation, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Kelrith sighed, pulling the dragon so he was closer to him, the warmth was comforting letting him know that he was alive. "And now I know it's not a glitch. How long has it been since you logged out?"

"A few hours. You've been here a while longer, I take it?"

'Fifty two hours, twenty seven minutes, not that I'm counting."

"Fuck. We're going to have to get moving, or you're going to starve. Or die of thirst," Ian muttered, pulling away slightly to give Kelrith a look over. "I'll have to go and get Orsino if he doesn't come find us."

"Hold your horses, there's stuff he hasn't told you yet. Come on, we can talk better outside, nothing spawns in the cathedral courtyard and monsters don't come in." Kelrith whispered, dragging Astrai through the crowd of depressed players and out of the front doors of the massive building. The wolf gave a titanic sigh in the fresher air. "This is a fucked up situation bro, oh and don't lament on the 'me starving', been there done that, you're healthy again when you respawn."

"Perfect timing, then," Astrai muttered dryly, looking out and up to the gloomy ceiling of the catacombs. "We get to make a run while we're both fit and healthy."

"You know you're not the only one talking about making a break for the surface, there aren't many after that mess someone pulled the other day, but there's enough," Kelrith took a seat on one of the cathedral steps and looked out over the graveyard. "The max you can have in a party is six, you also get exp boosts when you have more party members, you'll make the sixth man for a party I was building, but you're still level seven."

"What level are you?"

"Fourteen," Kelrith grinned, winking at his friend. "I've had a few days to train, oh speaking of which. You need to apply your skill points, we never had a chance before we got logged out. Make sure to put some in stamina, it's going to be a six mile fight to the stairs, not to mention whatever may be at the top."

"Only you would be lording about a level advantage in this situation," Astrai sighed, flicking his wrist to open up his skill menu. "Want to talk me through this?"

"Sure."

World's Grave had a pretty basic skill system for player convenience. There were the basic strength, speed, endurance, stamina, and intellect. Strength amplified the player's physical prowess while also increasing their physical damage resistance. Speed increased the players base speed as well as allowing them to react faster, something that was critical for battling higher level monsters. Endurance gave bonuses to health gained per level, as well as increasing a player's resistance to all types of damage. Stamina, while not a unique stat for an MMORPG, had the unique feature of determining how long a player could fight, run or use skills at any particular level. Generally the higher the player's stamina, the longer and harder they could fight. Intellect gave bonuses to a player's base mana, their mana recharge rate in and out of battle and also increased their magic resistance. The last stat that a player could invest in was their senses attribute, this attribute increased the player's senses, their sight, hearing, smell, even their taste. The attribute was more expensive than the others though, and not critical to game play.

Alongside the attribute system, the players could spend skill points on passive character perks, many were related to specific kinds of damage, such as magic, or they could be used to enhance certain attacks, like a mages basic magic attack, 'magic ball'. A player in World's Grave didn't upgrade their attacks like in many MMORPGs, once they bought their attack the only way to increase its base damage was to invest in the attribute tree or spend skill points on passive perks that increased the damage of the attack, or the duration of the ability.

All players received three skill points on every level up, a skill point could be spent on an attribute for the cost of one skill point, passive perks cost five skill points per level and the senses attribute cost four skill points to increase its level. A player also received five free skill points upon making their character at level one.

"So you have twenty three skill points to spend," Kelrith muttered, looking over Ian's skill tree. "Right, well, I would put ten in stamina, I know it's a lot but it will bring you up the level of the group, I would buy the battle health regeneration perk, there's no other way to regain health at the moment down here, so that leaves us with eight points to go with. Are you going to stick with the bow?"

"I was hoping for a pair of daggers or something," Astrai admitted.

"Well you won't get them down here, either they forgot to implement the loot system or they never intended for anyone to get any down here, no one has got anything from the monsters down here." Kelrith growled, but pointed back to the skill page. "I'd put the three in endurance and the rest in strength. It'll make you unbalanced but we can fix that on the way there, you'll level up a couple times for sure, we all will."

"I guess I'll dump into speed after that, makes sense for an assassin," Astrai nodded, finishing with his skill assignments before closing the menu. "There. Sorted."

"Good, that done. Next then," Kelrith said, grabbing Astrai's shoulders to face him towards the wolf. "Look at me, really focus on me, if you do it right my name, level, status and class should all pop up to the right hand side of me."

Astrai had to shift his eyes into focus in a weird way, but soon enough he saw the text popping up next to his friend, giving another nod. "Yep, I see it. Looking nice and high level."

"Thank you," Kelrith gave a playful bow, the wolf then pointed to the gate of the courtyard. "Now do it for that skeleton wandering around out there."

It didn't take Ian long to focus in on it, watching the text show up. "Looks manageable."

"Good, it's not hard once you get down to it," Kelrith whipped up his menu and quickly sent Astrai a party invite. "So... I'm not sure about this but I think you should go out there and fight some monsters."

Astrai sighed as he joined the party. "Only until we start sorting out the expedition again. I really don't feel like starving to death."

"You'll die of thirst first, also check out the party," Kelrith grinned hovering his paw about where he thought Astrai's health bar should be. Instead of there just being his and Kelrith's, there were four other health and mana bars as well. "My 'expedition' has been ready to go for a while, been thinking of a speech to give the hopeless dolts inside for about a day."

"Don't call them dolts," Astrai muttered. "They're like that for good reasons."

"I know, but it helps if I can separate myself from them, I've watched them all just... stop," Kelrith whispered, shaking his muzzle as he thought about it. He couldn't imagine sitting down and doing nothing as the world went by him, going through a cycle of birth and death over and over again. It terrified him to his core and he refused to let that happen. "Anyway, go fight, the others are all either training, dead, or in the hall."

"Guess I can get some melee practice in." The dragon drew his starting blade, glancing over his shoulder at Kelrith. "I'll see you inside. Hopefully I can meet the others too."

"I'll wait here, the others will know what a sixth member means and meet me here," Kelrith nodded, grinning down at Astrai a little. "Be safe my young padawan."

Astrai just rolled his eyes, before heading off to deal with the skeleton they'd seen earlier, rather wanting to get his revenge on the undead now that he wasn't entirely disoriented.

Kelrith called out before he could get out of the gates however, the wolf walked up to him with a smile. "There was one more thing I forgot to mention, and I'm sorry in advance about this."

"What's that?"

"Well, pain," Kelrith didn't give any warning as he savagely kicked Astrai in the stomach and sent the dragon hurtling into a wall of the courtyard. The wolf quickly jogged over and smiled sheepishly. "First off PvP is a thing. Second, that probably hurts like hell but your health isn't down by much. Third, pain really is in your mind here, you can block it out way easier than in real life. Fourth, something like that would have probably broken your ribs in the real world, here the higher your stats the tougher you are. Oh and fifth, that was revenge for that one time back at Uni, I really wanted to beat the crap out of you for that stunt."

Astrai groaned, not even wanting to look at Kelrith as he curled up into a ball, his back and ribs aching from the impact. He knew they weren't broken, but they were bruised as hell, little jolts of pain rushing through him every time he moved. "You're a...fucking psycho...sometimes."

"Love you too," Kelrith chuckled, giving the dragon a light kiss on the end of his muzzle before jogging back to the doors of the cathedral, he really didn't want to get stabbed, that shit hurt. "Oh, the battle regen will clear the bruises up in a few minutes, so lizard up!"

"I'm not joking, you're an asshole," the dragon hissed, clutching at his chest even as he felt the pain gradually ebbing away. "Are the other team members just listening in?"

"Yes, I'm an asshat bro, always have been, always will be, and I can get away with being a sadistic prick here," Kelrith grinned, before shaking his muzzle. "We aren't in a party chat so they can only hear if they're nearby and I don't think the are. Sorry about that though, it's not something you can get through your head unless you're actually... well wounded."

"Whatever you say," Astrai muttered, reaching up to his menu and flicking the private chat closed, not really wanting to talk to the wolf after that. Instead, he switched over to the party, hoping that the others wouldn't be on par with Kelrith. "Hello?"

"So who's the newbie?"

"Hello."

"Hey."

"Sup."

"Guys, the newbie is Astrai, he's a dragon that's a friend of mine in RL. Astrai, going from who spoke first, you've got Yosen, Tydore, Tulvir and Rylarth. Hyena, shark, rhino and gryphon respectively and levels fourteen, thirteen and twelve."

"Anyone nearby?" Astrai asked hopefully. "Wouldn't mind meeting people in person, so to speak."

"Training," Yosen replied, the others could hear the hyena breathing heavily over the chat.

"I'm nearby," Tulvir said. "I could be at you in a few minutes."

Smiling at the prospect of getting to meet a rhino, and feeling sufficiently recovered to stand, Astrai nodded to himself. "Great, I'll stick around here for you."

"You know you could have asked me!" Kelrith shouted, waving over from the steps. "I'm not that much of an asshat."

Ignoring the wolf, Astrai glanced back at the menu. "Tydore? Rylarth? You guys both busy?"

"I'm training till I die, I'm at my limit hunger wise," Rylarth explained. "Sorry, but I'll have to meet you after I respawn."

"No problem, looking forward to it."

"I'm seeing how close I can get to the steps for boss." Tydore chuckled when Kelrith growled through the chat. "Hey, you're the boss, I'm calling you it."

"Boss, that's cute, I'll keep it in mind," the dragon chuckled sarcastically. "Good luck with the journey."

"Well I've made it within three miles, I think I can get another two done before my stamina hits the floor."

"That's good. Means we'll probably be able to make it," Astrai smiled, feeling somewhat more confident at that news.

It didn't take long for Tulvir to reach the courtyard; the rhino was definitely impressive, being almost two meters in height with clear and easy to see muscles he was a walking font of strength. It was what was on display below the belt that caught Astrai's attention though, unfortunately the ragged loincloth that they all spawn with did not fully hide the hanging pride between the rhino's legs. The tip of his dangling length was quite visible as he moved over towards Astrai.

"Hey, so you're Kelrith's friend, nice to meet you." The rhino held out a massive paw, easily towering over the much smaller dragon.

It took Astrai a couple of seconds to register what had been said, his attention too distracted before he wrenched his eyes up and took the hand he was offered, trying not to blush. "Pleasure's all mine. I'll just switch to private chat so we don't bother the others."

"You mean before the others find out you were staring at my dick?" Tulvir sighed, ignoring the laughs from the others over the chat.

"Yes! It wasn't just me!" Tydore shouted.

"I just...I mean, it was right there..." Astrai stammered, looking up Tulvir nervously. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, there's not much I can do to hide it so I'll just take it as a compliment." The rhino gave Astrai a good look over before nodding to himself. "So what are we doing here Kelrith, train till drop or light?"

"Tydore, realistically how long till you're brought down?" the wolf asked over the chat, it took the shark a moment to answer and some of his cheerfulness was suppressed.

"Not long, I'm running low on health and I keep getting nicked by arrows. Ten minutes, maybe."

"Alright, Tulvir, keep it light, we'll head out once everyone's back." The rhino nodded and led the way out of the courtyard. He muted himself from the party chat but kept half an ear out to any chat going between them, just in case something happened.

"So..." the rhino looked down at the dragon and wondered what to talk about as they headed out. "You're friends with Kelrith?"

"Oh yeah. We've known each other for years now," Astrai smiled politely, making sure to keep his eyes up on Tulvir's face. "He's the one who helped me get the ARC system in the first place."

"That right?" Tulvir said, the rhino turned towards a small group of zombies before looking back down at Astrai. "I won one from a magazine subscription, most were freebies given out I think."

"Yeah, the damn things were so expensive. Got ours since Kelrith worked with a doctor who consulted on it," Astrai nodded. "You have a job before this?"

"Construction," the rhino chuckled flexing his massive arm muscles. "These are a little bigger than mine were but I was close. Same for down below."

Astrai couldn't help himself at the mention, stealing another glance down and giving a firm blush as he looked back to the rhino and his huge arms. "That's impressive. Your rhino certainly isn't hard to look at."

"How hard is it to say hard?" Tulvir laughed, pointing to the group of zombies. "Can you talk and fight?"

"Against zombies? Yeah, no problem," Astrai smiled, liking how casual the rhino was being. "And saying hard is fine, it's keeping a straight face which is the difficult part."

"Well, just focus on the zombies and not my cock and we'll be fine." With that said the rhino dashed forwards, showing off some impressive speed despite his size. In the background they could hear Kelrith remind Astrai that he would get bonus exp for being part of a large party but both ignored him. "Let's see who can kill more shall we?"

Grinning to himself, Astrai moved in swiftly behind Tulvir, using his smaller frame and athletic body to deftly cut at a zombie's head, compared to the pounding blows that the rhino was giving out. "A competition? Sure. What's the prize?"

"You wish," Tulvir laughed, cutting a zombie clean in half with his strength. The rhino didn't say anything else as they cleared up the small group without too much effort. With his stats improved Astrai now had no difficulty taking on the small time enemies. "Tydore pulled the same trick with me, he just wanted to hold my dick. Little shit."

"Can you really blame him?" Astrai asked coyly, looking up at Tulvir with a wide grin.

The rhino looked down at himself and grinned a little when he scratched his balls, clearly showing off most of his shaft in the process. "I guess when you're this much of a man it's hard to not be in awe."

Astrai just drank in the image that Tulvir was showing him, the earlier stresses of the day temporarily forgotten as he gave another firm blush. "Exactly. I sure as hell am," the dragon admitted absent-mindedly.

"Yep, well, you're about to be shot," the rhino pointed up and behind Astrai where a skeleton archer was aiming at the dragon. "Why don't you see if those wings work?"

Smiling, Astrai flexed them experimentally before throwing them wide and pushing down with them, lifting himself up and off the ground with the sheer power as the arrow dropped underneath him. With another uneasy flap, he moved forwards, enough to drop down sword first on the skeleton's head and finish him off. "Not bad, huh?" he asked, glancing back over his shoulder at Tulvir.

"Not bad at all, and I see that you're really female," the rhino chuckled, pointing up at Astrai's genital slit with a shit eating grin. "No wonder you're staring at mine."

Astrai gave a little smirk in return, heading back over and not really bothering to hide it again with the rags as he looked the rhino over once more. "You like a bit of dragon anatomy, then?"

"Not really, it's just your loincloth blew off when you flapped your wings," Tulvir said and the rhino pointed to where the dragon's loincloth had landed. "Hard not to notice when there's nothing in the way."

"Ah, yeah, good point," the dragon laughed, turning around to go and grab his loincloth again. "Doesn't seem like you're in quite the awe I am with your manliness, anyway."

"Well since you really do look like a girl down there... No I'm not." Tulvir grinned at the dragon before looking out over the various crypt rooftops and the archers dotted around on top of them. "Why don't you practice with your wings for a bit, get a better feel for them?"

"May as well just let you hold onto this until I'm done, then," Astrai shrugged, tossing the loincloth over to the rhino as he looked over and identified his targets. "Still no prize if I get them all?"

"Nope," Tulvir said, shaking his head as he took the loincloth. "Now get going, Tydore won't last forever and we'll be leaving soon."

"Here I was hoping we'd have some time spare," Astrai grinned, before spreading his wings and taking off again, darting between the targets until he was confident enough to start swooping down and attacking in one motion, knocking the skeletons off their rooftops so they could shatter below.

Tydore fell inside of ten minutes, the shark's cry of pain as he was cut down was clearly heard by the rest of the party but it only served to strengthen their resolve to make it out of the prison that they had found themselves in. If they stayed here all that awaited them was misery, pain and death.

"Alright, Tydore shouldn't take long to respawn, everyone make your way back here." Kelrith sighed, he had been hoping that the shark would actually make it to the steps but it didn't seem like it was going to be that easy. "I hope the guardian isn't too much of an obstacle."

"Sorry boss," Kelrith turned round and smiled at the, for the moment, cowed shark. Tydore looked almost nothing like a traditional shark, in fact it it weren't for the fact that his species name came up as shark when Kelrith inspected him then he wouldn't believe it. He definitely had shark like features, of course; the rather pointed muzzle, the dark, leathery skin, but from a distance he could've been a slim reptile instead. The thick covering of black hair did much to help with that, as did the long tail, though the fin like tail was a dead giveaway.

"Don't worry about it, it's why we're doing this as a team," Kelrith smiled, punching the shark playfully, he hated seeing the energetic kid get down. Before either of them could say any more though Yosen calmly walked back into the courtyard.

Now in contrast to Tydore, who looked anything like a typical shark, Yosen looked almost like an exact copy of what you would expect a hyena to look like. The only difference was that Yosen didn't look like he was going to be giggling any time soon, the hyena was stone cold serious in everything that he did.

The hyena gave them both a quiet nod before taking a seat on the bottom of the cathedral stairs, he didn't look too worse for wear but his health was down to almost half. His battle health regeneration perk was quickly taking care of that problem however.

"Looks like a pretty strong team, too," Astrai commented, examining the various levels of his new teammates. "It'll probably be tough, but I think we can manage."

"Oh he's cute as well," Tydore laughed, showing off as he jumped over to Astrai and Tulvir when they walked back into the courtyard. He spent a few seconds circling around Astrai before running his webbed fingers over the drake's wings. "You know you're kinda short for a drake."

Astrai gave a little quiver at the sensation on his wings, not realising they were quite so sensitive as he gave the shark a shy smile, attention now firmly focused on his new party member. "I figured I'd model him after myself. You're quite sprightly on land for an aquatic animal." Astrai subtly pressed himself back against Tydore's hands as he talked, not minding the attention.

"Well the tail doesn't help as much as you might think, it kinda drags you down," Tydore admitted, wrapping his arms around Astrai's neck. He not so subtly pressed his muzzle against the dragon's neck too. "Hey boss I like this guy, can I keep him?"

"Stop calling me boss," Kelrith growled, flicking a pebble at the shark in response. "Where is Rylarth?"

"Haven't heard from him," Astrai shrugged, before glancing back over his shoulder at Tydore with a little smile. "You don't need his permission to do that, anyway," he added quietly, for the shark's benefit.

"Oh dear god I...Astrai come on, don't flirt with everyone," Kelrith growled, half in exasperation and half at his slip up. The wolf glared over at his friend before shrugging to himself, who was he kidding? Astrai was probably going to sleep with most of them at some point anyway. "Rylarth? Response!"

"I'm making the most of the situation, mate, don't criticise," Astrai retorted, before turning his attention back to the shark again. "Besides, you were pretty forward about this."

"Well there are now two of them," Tulvir sighed, the rhino just shook his head at the pair, they were definitely going to get along with each other. "Your friend knows how to use his wings now."

"Oh, I forgot he even had them," Kelrith admitted, glancing at Astrai's wings for a moment. Rylarth had wings as well but having two flying players in the party would be a good advantage to have. If they could make sure that the roofs were clear then they could take this trip in a few steps and take breathers on top of the various crypts. "Hey Astrai!"

"Goddammit...I'm trying to talk with Tydore, what is it?"

"Calm down you can screw each other later. How hard was it using your wings? Think you could fly all the way to the stairs and back?"

"It wasn't too tough. I could probably manage, I suppose," Astrai shrugged.

'Good to know," Kelrith looked around again and was about to growl when a gryphon slammed into the ground a few feet away from him. "Well it's about time."

"Hehe sorry but I was rushing to get back in time," the gryphon panted, again he seemed fairly standard for a gryphon. He had the upper body of an eagle and the lower half of a lion, but his feathers were all a dark crimson not unlike Kelrith's own fur. Rylarth also had bright blue eyes that seemed to bore straight into you, the wolf swore there was something he was missing about them but the gryphon refused to say what his species perk was, not that it really mattered anyway. His looks aside, though, Rylarth looked like he was about to drop dead on the spot. "And I never actually died yet so."

"Ah, well that's awkward."

"Yeah so get it over with." Kelrith took one glance over to Astrai, this was certainly going to get a negative reaction but it was either this or send the gryphon out to die on his own, neither were exactly pleasant options but... "Come on. I haven't got all day."

"Sorry," in one smooth movement Kelrith drew his blade and brought the edge down towards the avian, cutting clean through his exposed neck. Rylarth's character shimmered for a moment as his health dropped to zero before chattering into data particles. "That always leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

"You're the best one to do it, at least," Astrai commented dryly, with the shark still essentially hanging onto his neck.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You've got a mean streak. I'm still not over being kicked into a fucking wall."

"You kicked him into a wall?" Yosen asked; Kelrith did a double take from the look he was getting from the hyena.

"Don't look at me like that," the wolf growled, before glaring over at the dragon of the group. "There's a difference between that and... You know what fuck it, I don't care. When Rylarth's back we head for the stairway."

"Works for me," the dragon nodded, before glancing back to Tydore again.

"Ha, boss kicked you into a wall, what you do to piss him off?" the shark grinned, a fearsome sight given his multitude of sharp teeth.

"I didn't do anything. It was a lesson about feeling pain in this world, apparently," Astrai muttered, shaking his head.

"Hmm, dick move boss!" Tydore just grinned when he got the finger.

"Glad you agree," Astrai replied, though he did give a little chuckle at the way the wolf just nonchalantly flicked Tydore off. "Nice to see someone sympathetic on the team."

"Sympathy is a weakness." Everyone stopped to blink at the hyena on the team for a moment, his voice the picture of seriousness.

....

Astrai eventually blinked a couple of times, the announcement managing to distract him from even Tydore as he looked up at the hyena. "I take it you're not making this journey to help the people in the cathedral, then?"

"You misunderstand."

"Enlighten me?"

"You can be compassionate without being sympathetic, sympathy is a weakness."

"I still don't exactly see why. Empathy and sympathy kind of go hand in hand."

"Not necessarily," Kelrith said drawing attention back to him. "You could say that empathy lets you decide right from wrong but sympathy would prevent you from carrying it out. Like there's a hostage situation, the right thing to do is free the hostage but fear for the hostage's life could stop you from trying to free the hostage. Right Yosen?"

"No." Kelrith sputtered at the level answer before blinking when the hyena stood back up. "We are wasting time."

"Ry's not back yet though." Tydore whined but stopped when said gryphon walked out of the cathedral. "Oh never mind."

"Do we have any particular strategy I should know about?" Astrai asked.

"We're making a rush for the staircase, Tulvir is going to be at the front, me and Yosen on either side of him with the rest at our back. The basic strategy is push forwards as hard and fast as we can until we reach our stamina limit. Then we'll take cover on top of one of the crypt roofs and use bows for a while until we all feel ready to move forwards again." Kelrith said, laying the basic plan of attack out. "Tydore almost managed to make it in one go so stamina wise I think one or two stops will be enough unless we get bogged down. Understand?"

"Got it. Let's get this out the way," Astrai nodded firmly, cracking his draconic knuckles.

"Well you're eager all of a sudden," the wolf chuckled. "Got somewhere to be?"

"I don't fancy dying of starvation, and the sooner we do this, the sooner we can help the people in the cathedral. Of course I'm eager."

"Well it's good to know your bleeding heart is still intact," Kelrith grinned, before motioning for the group to get underway. "So I was thinking of building a bar when we get out of here, but I can't think of a name."

"We can talk about it on the way," Astrai muttered, rolling his eyes. "Maybe you'll get some inspiration."

"Lighten up Az," Tydore laughed before rushing an undead that was heading for them, at their levels the horde of undead were mere annoyances rather than actual enemies now.

"Once we're out of here, maybe I'll have a reason to!" the dragon called back, moving to pick off any stragglers.

"So much for our formation," Yosen sighed, shaking his head as he rushed into the fray with the rest of the team.

****

It only took the group a single rest stop to reach the staircase, though it still took them almost six hours to carefully make their way there. There were all drained, not just physically, mentally it was almost as bad as being completely physically exhausted. They had to spend six hours constantly on the look out, no time to relax their guard, enemies around every corner, every mistake earned them a cut, bludgeon or stab. Even though all their wounds healed fully in a matter of minutes they still felt the pain of dozens of kinks and stabs. For people who had no actual combat experience it was draining. Still, they made it, and now Kelrith was scowling at the mob of zombies that was being drawn to them for some reason.

"Just can't catch a break can we?" he asked rhetorically before pointing up the stairs, they were a truly impressive flight of stairs but they could easily get to the top before the undead stumbled their way to them. "Up the stairs guys, move it!"

"Can we just..." Tydore tried to get the rest out but bent over trying to get some air back into his lungs. Tulvir took one look at the exhausted shark and wasted no time throwing him over his shoulder and took off after the group.

"We all good?" Kelrith called out taking a look around the group as they ran, Yosen just nodded focused on his goal. Rylarth gave a shaky thumbs up and Tulvir grunted an affirmative. "Az?"

"I'm fine, don't worry!" the dragon panted, nodding his head. "Keep going!"

The wolf looked at his friend a second longer before turning back to the top of the stairs, they were so close that Kelrith actually felt like barking, something he refused to do however, when he hit the doors.

"Well first ones to the door, looks like we can-hey, what's wrong?" Kelrith almost panicked when he saw the rest of his team stood just shy of the door, Yosen was pounding the air like there was a barrier there while Rylarth was exchanging increasingly worried looked between Tulvir and the undead horde approaching them. "Shit, it's one at a time!"

"Just go, we can handle them!" Astrai called back, snarling as he drew his sword again and looked at the horde. "Do whatever you need to do fast so we can follow you!"

"Switch to your bows, save as much stamina as you can before they get right on top of you," Kelrith called out turning sharply and double timing it up the next flight of stairs. "And try to make the ones in front fall down, stall the ones in the back!"

"We know, get out of here! Go!" Astrai yelled, drawing his bow, already firing at the horde.

"This is going to get bad fast," Rylarth muttered, looking down at the horde. "But yeah, exp farm right?"

"That's one way to look at it," Astrai muttered. "As soon as the barrier does down, people without wings can move first. We can fly to avoid them and go last."

"Good idea, but for now let's whittle down the horde," Yosen said, expertly firing an arrow at a zombie's knee and making over a dozen undead trip and fall over his prone body.

****

"Come on, how far do these stairs go?" Kelrith half growled half panted, he had been running up this infernal staircase for what felt like hours, he knew that it had only been a few minutes but he was well aware of the fact that the rest of his team were still fighting off zombies and undead, he was still getting the exp from the kills. Which was all good and fine, but if they could only do this one at a time then someone was going to have to go last, and whoever got that lovely position would have been fighting nonstop up until that point. At least Astrai had leveled up a couple of times already; the fight to the stairs had been intense if nothing else.

Just when the wolf was starting to think that he would need to stop for a quick breather, the end of the staircase came into sight. Kelrith would have jumped for joy if he wasn't in such a hurry. As it was, though, the wolf just pushed himself harder and crashed through the ornate pair of double doors barring his way.

There were a few things that he was expecting to see when he reached the top of the stairs; sunlight, more monsters and maybe some answers. What he wasn't expecting was to find a room that looked to be make entirely out of a brilliant sky blue crystal, or to find what could only be described as an angel stood in the center of the room.

The room, if it could even be called that, it looked more like a perfectly circular platform surrounded or more likely held in place by the crystal surrounding it on all sides. There was no ceiling, but Kelrith couldn't keep his gaze on the endless abyss that seemed to be lingering above the platform; he wasn't sure where he was but he knew that he and the others weren't simply buried. They were some place far, far worse than underground.

It was the angel that dominated Kelrith's attention though, the figure was humanoid, with a huge set of pure white wings spread out on either side of him, or at least Kelrith assumed it was a he. He had golden heavy armor plates covering his arms, shoulders and chest, the design was both effectively simple while appearing ornate and dazzling. He wore a white/gold robe that covered his lower half but Kelrith would have bet his sword that he was just as heavily armored on his legs as well.

The angel's posture was relaxed, even as he stood to attention in the centre of the platform, both hands resting gently on the handle of a gleaming longsword. That was probably the most unnerving thing about the angel; he seemed to be giving off light even though the room was perfectly well lit, like the light around him was pure enough.

Kelrith swallowed nervously and made his way further into the room, he wasn't too surprised when he heard the doors he had just bashed through begin to close, but he couldn't help but flinch when they slammed shut. He would admit that he was scared at the moment.

"Tell me," Kelrith blinked when the angel spoke; his voice was soft, gentle even, but somehow carried enough force to make the wolf freeze in place. How the hell was this angel unnerving him so much? "What is your name?"

"My name?"

"Yes immortal, your name."

"...K-Kelrith," he wanted to say Jak, he wanted to be able to log out and go get royally drunk but he couldn't because whether he liked it or not, whether everyone liked it or not they were stuck here. He had over two days to look this place up and down and there was nothing, nothing, indicating that they were in a virtual word. They felt pain, they bled, they got hungry and thirsty and they died, even if this was some twisted sick joke the feelings were real. Pain was pain, hunger was hunger and fear was fear, real or virtual they didn't have the luxury of treating this like a game. "My name is Kelrith."

"Are you sure, immortal?"

"My name is KELRITH!" It might have been a little dramatic, but it seemed to get his point across as the angel nodded. Kelrith actually thought for a moment that the angel was going to let him pass or something of that kind, but had those hopes dashed when the angelic warrior bull rushed him. The wolf barely had time to raise his sword to stop from being stuck like a pig.

"Now die once again, immortal."