Sally looked down the length of her crossbow with one eye closed. Through the small slit in the stonework, she could see the shaking door down at the bottom of the corridor. Even though the Omen was there, and she couldn’t really die… she still felt apprehensive about leaving this world so soon. With a much bigger force coming to Sanctuary in the near future, she wanted a bit more concrete confidence in her ability to combat the roaches en masse.

  She sighed and turned her gaze to the demon beside her.

  Edward was sitting, leaning back against the wall. Jacket discarded and sleeves of his shirt rolled up, but not currently engaged in anything productive. He grinned at her. “What’s the matter? Pining for your husband to come save us again?”

  “Not as much as you are.” Sally returned to aiming ahead. “Drop the act for a minute, Ed. People won’t hear. What’s your take on our predicament?”

  The grin left the demon’s face, and he glanced around the busy fortress chamber before sliding a bit closer to the zombie. “Typical Outsider tomfoolery upon landing aside, we have been caught flat-footed by the number and strength of our opponents. Plus, I believe you are holding back.”

  “Holding back?” she murmured.

  “I was led to believe your Aspect powers were more than just first-aid and a few extra walking dead.”

  Sally chewed on her reply for a moment. “The Omen acts as a power relay to Sanctuary, so we are able to use our normal Classes and Skills rather than starting from scratch. My Aspect is both… universal, and difficult to translate from System to System.”

  He slunk back into his resting position. “Joy, so we are waiting until you learn your capacity here, or we acquire a power-source to fuel you.”

  “Or we could just die.” She grinned.

  Chuck had said they were lucky enough to even be able to go to new worlds with the power taken from Thrimble. Sanctuary had almost rejected them, and it was only the invisible lines through the Sea connecting them to their home world that made it possible. Normally, most Systems would reject something of their design. An Aspect was an Administrator level entity, slightly below an Architect in terms of ability to manipulate a System world.

  Thanks to the Omen, they could sneak in with their Player identification, while still retaining a varying slice of their Aspect powers.

  She watched as the door shook again, some of the metal screaming as it bent inward.

  Time to break some eggs, and see how tasty an omelet she could make.

  Theo licked the blood from his lips. Delightful.

  The rest of the crimson soaked through his shredded suit, sticking his outfit to his skin, would have to go to waste. Not that there was any shortage of blood-bags waiting to be popped.

  He stepped into the next room of the Dungeon, warhammer resting across his shoulder.

  Perhaps being covered in gore wasn’t the best first impression when meeting the prospective Players he was meant to woo, but… they could wait until tomorrow. He was having too much fun grinding, and if he spent all night repeating this mining Dungeon…

  Oh, he really didn’t know. Grinding was just fun.

  Theo flicked a metal cube out toward the group of dark dwarves charging toward him. Once the object passed them, it burst out into the full size of his metal coffin. It knocked his opponents around, and that was enough of a distraction.

  Pink light flared behind his weapon as he swung it down into the skull of the first dwarf. He flickered around, his feet barely disturbing the sandy ground as he struck a second and then a third opponent with the hammer. He swept up on the fourth from behind, and buried his fangs into their neck as he lifted them up.

  As the last of the group ran to find reinforcements, the vampire held out a bloody finger.

  A hand of swirling black and red burst from the pillar the escaping dwarf had just passed, grabbing and bringing them up off the ground. Flickers of dark energy turned the System-created into shredded chunks of meat and decaying bones. As the hand faded away, only a skull and splatter of blood remained of the vampire’s victim.

  Chuck had warned him about going too over the top with his Aspect skills. Drawing too deep from the well could alert the System that something was up. If it saw him as a threat or a bug, there was no telling how it would react to his presence. Plus, he didn’t have the benefit of the Omen being nearby.

  Stolen story; please report.

  His Crimson Grasp was usually building-sized. Aura of Death wasn’t working, despite his best attempts. Anything more eclectic was totally off the table. Still, any world that he couldn’t conquer with just Novice Strike and a little insanity was surely not worth the effort.

  Not that he was here to conquer, he reminded himself.

  All he had to do was convince two very powerful Players to sign over their recently saved world to Sanctuary, and join their defensive roster against a galactic alien threat.

  Or grind out the Dungeon for a little longer. There was no rush. It wasn’t like he could hop in and help Sally once he had finished his mission here. The Architect promised to find a way, but without a substantial leap in ‘bandwidth’ it wasn’t likely. Not that he thought the zombie needed a hand, but it was fun to spend time together. Especially when violence was involved.

  He shook the brain matter from the end of his weapon. Well, good things come to those who wait.

  Edward drummed his fingers on his leg. “They are taking longer than expected.”

  “Something something dwarven engineering,” Sally murmured in response. “We should be thankful it bought us time to prepare. This is quite a nice setup, for a tomb.”

  As the metal door down the corridor continued to groan and squeal under the pressure of the enemy assault, the pair glanced back at the sound of clinking glass bottles.

  Bully staggered into the room with an armful of flasks. “Sorry I’m late,” he said.

  “Not at all.” Sally grinned. “You can go back to crafting after dropping your potions off, actually.”

  “Really?” He glanced around the room as if to say he didn’t want to be the only one not pulling his weight.

  “The Outsiders are traditionally brawlers,” she said with a nod. “But I’d be a terrible leader if I didn’t play you all to your strengths. So go cook us up some broken flasks, Bully. Ed, you’ve got a special mission once we’re out of this hole.”

  “Joy.” The demon rolled his eyes.

  Humphrey was already in discussion with three dwarves about how he could tie one of their stout cannons to his arm. There were about a dozen dwarves with crossbows on platforms against the wall. Four near chutes high up where gas grenades or long-fuse explosives could be dropped. Two near the door beside the funnels for running liquids down the corridor.

  Further back, there were another dozen small skeletal figures ready for ammunition transport, and relaying items back and forth to the wall. Several small cannons had been dragged into position behind the door in case the bugs made it through.

  Sally thought this was a decent fortress defense. She’d certainly not come up against something so tough to crack in her time as a Player. It would be a challenge for her to break through, even with her pick of Outsiders to do the job. She watched Bully trade his potions away before he left, and she turned back to rest her grip on her crossbow.

  Through the gaps in the buckling door, she could see the writhing masses of browns as the Radochs tried to push their way through. “I think it’s time, Eddy.”

  The demon rolled his eyes and leaned over. With a brief gesture, purple energy slithered from his fingers and wrapped around the bolt in Sally’s weapon like a snake. “Aim for something big,” he said.

  “Might accidentally catch on my ego.” She grinned and closed one eye to aim.

  There was a brief silence, as if the roaches had changed their minds. Then, the doors finally gave in to the persistent assault. With a terrible scream and crash, the thick metal doors fell to the ground, revealing the horde waiting outside.

  Sally had fired already, even before the quicker bugs had a chance to clamber inside. The bolt infused with Edward’s skill struck the large beast that had been knocking the door in. Too far away for the System to tell her what it was, but from what she could tell, it was like a giant crab with battering ram hands instead of claws.

  Her shot buried into the soft part of its flesh, and a sheen of purple energy ran over the monster.

  The smaller roaches poured into the tunnel under the hail of crossbow fire from the dwarves. Even as several died, more clambered over their falling corpses. The first to touch the floor of the corridor slipped and struggled to gain speed over the greased surface. In the background, the giant enemy crab slammed its mace-like fists into its allies.

  “Nothing like a good bit of betrayal,” the demon sighed.

  “Are any of those potions good for something?” Sally asked him as she loaded another bolt. Although the Omen let the Outsiders use most of their normal abilities, it was still very limiting on Inventory carry-over.

  If she had the full depth of her cluttered storage on this world, there would be at least two dozen magic scrolls she could pull out right now - assuming she could find them. One of the Player punishments on Sanctuary was to have a reduced Inventory size, and Chuck often joked that was only so that he could assign that removed portion to her limit instead.

  At least, it was probably a joke.

  “Flask of Acid, although I wouldn’t drink that one - as much as it pains me to warn you.” Edward held a second glass bottle up. “Ah, this one imbues physical attacks with electricity for two minutes, creating Conductivity stacks, which-”

  “A yes was good enough.” She flexed her open hand, eyes still on the enemies, until he handed it to her.

  Sally grinned to herself as she watched a round bomb bounce down from one of the dwarves above. The fuse hissed and sputtered as it rocketed down to the clamoring group of Radochs. After slamming into the writhing mass of bodies, there was a brief moment of silence before a small blast painted the entrance of the corridor in bug internals.

  “About two seconds less fuse,” the skeleton above told another.

  Sally fired another bolt. Things were looking good.

  Up in the Omen, Jackie rubbed at her eyes. Things were looking complicated.

  While the bug threat around her pals had reduced and wasn’t drawing in more groups from the surrounding area, there was still a small army trying to assault the fortress. Even if they got through that mess, the rest of the world was fast becoming entirely infested with the roaches and their ilk.

  It frustrated her to be stuck up here unable to help. Their ship wasn’t even in physical orbit in a normal sense, so she couldn’t open the window and fire down from the heavens. They’d warned her against doing that twice, so it must be important.

  As she took the tasteless and terribly chewed pen from her mouth, she paused.

  The Omen shook briefly, as if it were experiencing turbulence.

  Jackie turned in her chair, eyes narrowed at the shadowy figure now standing on the ship. “Who the fuck are you, pal?”

  Within the misty form, a wide grin formed beneath two circular white eyes.