BandWars

by FindOutBehindYou

The story of a school gone to war in a strange virtual reality video game.

2. THE STORY

Part One: Band Wars
Chapter One: The Beginning of the Game

One day Mr. Wright, the balding band director of Ringgold Middle, announced a strange announcement. The band and the people deemed as preps, jocks, and bullies were going to a very advanced virtual reality game. The top of the line, so realistic that all who went into the virtual world said that it was realistic as real life.

When you went into it, and your body was unconscious and your consciousness went into the game, where you made all of your decisions and controlled your virtual actions. It would be a fantasy type world that had towns and stores and all kinds of things in the game.

A war would be started between the two groups, and the game would last until all members of one side were defeated. The game, Mr. Wright said, could take up to twenty years in game time, but it would only be a couple days in real life time. They also had a device that wrote a book based on what happened in the game.

Seth Wooten, a tall boy with dark brown hair that covered his eyes, and a tuba player of no small repute, asked, "So we will be given equipment and weapons and stuff?" Mr. Wright, their esteemed band director, said, "The designers will explain about the in game questions when we get there." Madison Brooks, the seventh chair French horn, a tall blond headed male whose hair was just a little shorter than Seth's and whose low position was more due to laziness than ability, added, "I wonder how long it took the jocks to understand this?" Everyone had a great laugh at that.

Mr. Wright, after he was done laughing, said, "We'll find out, we're leaving when the other group is finished." And indeed, Madison's, and Seth's, who had been thinking the same thing, assumptions turned out to be correct. They thought almost exactly alike, and it was a great way for them to get the attention they so loved. It was about half an hour before the enemy group was ready.

While the waited a number of questions were asked. The most important question was; did their parents know? Yes they did, and they had all agreed to let them go into the game. Later, Seth and Madison both wondered about the other group's parents, but they never found out.

After the enemy (It was Madison who first referred to them this way) group was ready, they all got on busses. After an hour of driving, they came to a small, nondescript building. They all unloaded, and went into the building, and went down several flights of stairs, then came to the most high tech room they had ever seen. Any one of them could and would spend a day here if able, and Seth and Madison could spend several months.

They didn't have time to look, and were ushered into an auditorium. The screen lit up and showed a beautiful female face. It started talking. "Welcome to the Virtual Reality Kingdom Center. I am here to tell you about the game, then answer any questions you might have. You will be placed on two different continents, where you will spend a game year adventuring, gathering magic items, and honing your skills. After this, the two continents will be placed together, and the war will begin. The game will end after every person on one side is killed. Any questions?"
Quite a few were asked, mostly be the non-band people, but a few were asked from band, and they were the best. After the questions were done with, the students were led into a gigantic room full of chairs with a metal cover that could fit down over it. These were the links to the game. They were sat down in the chairs, and were told there would be a short wait, then they would be put into the game.

Seth and Madison were put into chairs next to each other. After an assistant moved to help them all and get proper tubes and needles into the right place. It took a while, considering that these bodies wouldn't be able to move for several days. Madison and Seth had started attaching some of the wires when their attendants came. Seth and Madison had promise as revolutionary technological geniuses.

After everything was in place, a countdown until launch of game was to be launched. At the same time, Seth and Madison looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes. A message seemed to flow between the two, telling the other two things. See you in the game, and that the other sensed that something was wrong. They had no time to do anything as their consciousnesses flew out of their world and into another.

Chapter Two: Entering

Seth and Madison woke up next to each other. They were dressed in the basest of medieval period clothes, but at their belts jingled a pouch of money. Madison and Seth both decided not to speak of what was wrong, as neither was in any position to change anything. There was nothing that they could do about it, really, thought Seth.

They were in a forest, and couldn't see any people other than themselves. Seth said, "I think I there is a town to my right," as they were facing each other. "Let's go then." Said Madison. As they walked, Seth said, "This should be fun." Madison responded by saying, "You bet your biscuits." Then, as an afterthought, said, "If you have any." Seth stopped and said, "I do." Madison kept on walking. "Well good." They both chuckled, and Seth caught up to Madison.

They liked having conversations that only they understood. Why? Nobody but them could say. Most said that they were crazy, but Seth and Madison disagreed. They hoped that they weren't, and most took this as a sign that they were.
"I feel hungry," Said Seth. Madison replied, "We'll probably have to eat in the game." Soon enough, they were in town. It was a bustling one, with the average wood building being three stories tall, but both could spot one that was at least ten, and both hoped to see a fellow band member in town. They both stopped and counted the amount of coins in their pouches. Each had five platinum, thirty gold shillings, and twenty-five silver pieces.

They walked into the town, which a hanging wooden sign proclaimed as Ambur, and explored until they found a weapons dealer. Madison bought a scimitar and four daggers, which cost him the platinum pieces. Seth bought a dagger and a longsword, which cost him three platinum, two gold, and three silver. As they headed to find a clothing and armor store, they ran across several fellow band members, dressed fabulously in stylish medieval clothing.

There was Addie Johnson, dressed in a robe of almost all colors. She was tall and overweight, but not overly so. She had light red hair that she kept very short. There was Beth Hunt in her sleek, dark outfit. She was short and slim, with dark red hair that came down to her chin. And there was Donald Johnson, who they all conveniently referred to as Bubba. Bubba was a short and a bit overweight, with dark blond hair. He was dressed more reasonably, and Madison and Seth could both see the studded leather armor under his clothes. Addie was dragging around a mace, Beth had two slender scimitars attached to her belt, and Bubba had a broadsword strapped across his back.

Madison and Seth were waved over. Addie looked drunk, as usual. Madison asked, "Seen anyone else?" Bubba nodded, while Addie said, "Yeah." Beth, the most reasonable of the three, said, "We've all decided to stay at the Emerald Axe. It's an Inn Tavern." Seth said, "Well how about that." Madison said, "That's what I was for thinking."

The group of three stared at Seth and Madison here. They had always been regarded as the strangest in their school, yet almost no one could seem to get over that fact. Madison had thought often thought that if everyone stopped regarding them as a

Madison then asked, "Where is it?" Bubba said, "It's the biggest building in town. Save some money to stay there." They nodded and Seth asked, "Where did you get those clothes?"
An hour later, Seth and Madison had armor and extravagant clothes. Madison had a vest of leather armor, along with forearm and shin guards, and nice leather boots. He had a shirt under the vest. The visible sleeves of the shirt were purple with a few orange slashes. His pants went down and left an inch or two of ankle exposed, and had a green pants pattern on the front, and the outside inch on both sides was the same as his sleeves. The back looked the same as the front. Madison had a cape-like accessory that hung over his right arm and went down to his shin. A foot of it hung down from over his left shoulder, and the back went down and came to a point at the back of his knee. To go with it all was a wide brimmed hat plumed with a gigantic purple feather.

Seth hid a vest of leather under a completely black outfit. It hung loosely off his body, and they both thought it looked neat. After this they headed to the Emerald Axe.

They found it without trouble, and many of the band members were already there. It, like all the other buildings in the town, was made of wood. It was nine stories high, and had room for every band member. The common area of the Inn was very large, and it seemed that no one other than the band was staying there. Madison went past all the tables to the innkeeper, who was delighted to have so many paying customers.

Madison tipped his hat. "Good day," He said. The innkeeper smiled. "You wouldn't happen to be leader of this group, would you?" Madison chuckled. "No. How much is it to stay the night?" The innkeeper said, "Three gold." As Madison got the money out, he said, "As you can tell, we are new to these lands. What is the increment between the gold, silver, and platinum?" The innkeeper smiled. "Five copper is a silver, five silver is a gold, and five gold is a platinum."

Madison tipped his hat again. "Does the fee include food?" The innkeeper nodded. "Yes." Madison asked, "Which room is mine?" The innkeeper responded, "Any empty one." Madison once again tipped his hat as he turned to go join the rest of the band.

The inn was a cozy one. It didn't look like it from the outside, being so big, but it was. Instead of having one big common room like most inns had, the Emerald Axe had several. Each had a few tables and a roaring fireplace.

The Band talked quite a bit about what to do. They ate, then, eventually, they went to bed. They stayed again the next day, and the next, and explored the town. A decision was then made to pool all their money together and buy tools, and a large amount of food, and go build a base.

They managed this in two uneventful months, and had a base the size of three band rooms. It was furnished with chairs and tables, and ten beds for their elected commanders. The rest of them slept in tents outside. They made a makeshift vault and stored the rest of their money in it, of which there was little. They made this base about a mile from town, in a clearing that was surrounded by trees. The band bought several bows for people to hunt with, and there were many fruit trees around the area.

After all this was done, the ten elected officers held a meeting, then told the rest of the band their decision. They would be allowed to adventure and find stuff for eight months, then start back. Then they would all trade and barter their magical treasures for what they wanted, then start learning how to fight as a group.

After this was said, a role call for all those wanting to adventure was called. Many did, and about half wanted to stay. Each one was given a tent, and enough food to last a while. The next day, everyone went off.

Chapter Three: The Fantasy

"Well Madison, do you think we should adventure together?" Asked Seth. Madison walked on in a few moments of silence before answering. He said, "I don't know if we should." Seth considered this. "Yeah, we'd have to share treasure." Madison nodded.

"And we wouldn't get as much experience together." Seth nodded, and looked around. The landscape was unlike anything he had ever seen. The hills seemed to flow together, and clumps of trees were scattered every so often. "But there's a downside," Madison added, drawing Seth out of his consideration of the landscape.

"What's that?" Seth asked. Before Madison could answer Seth said, "Never mind, I got it." The downside was that they could be killed easier alone. Madison shrugged. "I'm for going alone." Seth nodded slowly. "I'll see you later," He said. Seth turned and went off in another direction.

Madison went on until he found a town. This one was called Talinost. It was much smaller than Ambur, and was more forlorn. The town's buildings were dry and dusty, and there seemed to be a never-ending wind.

He went into the local pub and asked around to see if anything needed doing. "Yes," A villager, named Kono, said, "There are some wizards just outside of town. They're always brewing up something strange. And just this morning, I smelled the foulest stench. Up to no good, I reckon." Madison asked, "Where is this place?" Kono answered without hesitation. "Just outside of the town bordering the forest."

After a minute of jogging, Madison came to the cottage just outside of the town near the forest. Madison would have described it as a small house, not a cottage.

He walked up and knocked on the door. No one answered. He silently opened the door and crept into the room. There was a small table with an open book on it, and two archways opened up into other rooms, one a hallway, the other a dining area.

Madison went down the musty hall into a bedroom. A large bed dominated the room, and the room had several drawers. A bloodstained man lay on the bed, and a strange creature was on the bed idly tearing books to pieces. It was maybe three feet high, had black, leathery skin, bat wings, and a long barbed tail. Madison was reminded of a creature called an imp. When Madison entered the room, it turned to him and flew at him faster than Madison would ever have suspected from the plump creature.

Madison waited until the last moment, when the imp was a mere foot away. Madison drew a dagger from his left arm sheath in an upward motion that cut the imp. It was hit, and flew backwards a bit. Madison put the dagger in his right hand and put his hand back for a throw. The imp skittered sideways just as Madison let the dagger go, and the dagger missed.

Madison didn't know whether or not imps were smart or not, but this one seemed not to be. Thinking Madison weaponless, the small creature charged with its claws bared. Madison crouched down were his shoulder was facing the imp, and did the same thing as earlier, except with his scimitar that he had sheathed to his back. It impaled the imp, and Madison quickly brought back his scimitar. The imp moved no more.

Madison moved over and examined the man. He was alive, but couldn't move. Remembering that this was a wizard's house, he looked through the drawers until he found a cache of potions. He took one labeled Healing, and went over to the man. He slowly poured it down the man's throat. After a minute, the man sat up. The man was still looking bad, but was a lot better.

"Thank you," He said. Madison tipped his hat. "I'm Madison Brooks." The man smiled. "Gendrew," was his introduction. Madison tipped his hat once again. "I had heard that there was some kind of disturbance here." Gendrew nodded. "My wife is a wizard, I am a cook. We experimented with magical food, and made a golem out of food." Madison suppressed a chuckle. Gendrew continued, "It broke free of our control. I don't know where it is now." Madison nodded. "I'll fight it for you." The man lay laid back down. "The golem is extremely strong." Madison nodded. "I'll be careful."

He turned part of the way out of the room, then turned back around. "I noticed some other potions. Is it ok for me to take one to help me fight the golem?" Gendrew smiled, "Sure. I don't know what any of them do." Madison headed back to where he had found the potions. "I think I'll be able to tell." He looked through the remaining five.

As he rummaged through them, Gendrew said, "We designed it to do heat damage to attackers. Be careful of that." Madison asked, "I've picked one, but there is another one that would help with what you said. It would protect me from fire." Gendrew said, "Get that one too. I don't think my wife would mind." Madison had picked one labeled Cat's Grace, and now picked up a Fire Protection. As Madison left the room, he said, "I'll be back when I'm done."

Madison went through the rest of the house until he found where the golem was located. Something had trapped it in an underground pantry. A chair was propped up against the door leading to it. Madison moved the chair and drank the two potions. He couldn't tell anything had happened when he drank the Fire Protection, but could immediately tell when he drank the Cat's Grace. He was faster, and could move his weapons as if the were made of plastic.

He smiled and went into the pantry. It was a mess. Food ingredients were everywhere, and a human shaped mass of dough was in the room. It was the golem. Madison drew two separate daggers and threw them, both hitting, in the time it would have normally taken to throw one with a fifty-fifty chance of hitting.

Madison was really impressed with the potion. This wizard wife of Gendrew's must be a powerful spellcaster.

The golem spun around and charged at Madison. He was just able to get out of the way; he wouldn't have been as lucky without the potion. Madison drew his scimitar and slashed at the golem's back. A small gout of flame shot out and hit Madison, but he didn't feel any of it, nor did his clothes burn due to the Flame Protection.

The golem whirled around and tried to hit Madison with its doughy fist. By then, Madison had backed up and had dropped his scimitar. As the golem charged, he drew and threw a dagger, which hit. He was getting a little discouraged. Even though he hadn't been hit yet, and had hit the golem multiple times, one couldn't tell. The golem had three daggers embedded in it, and a slash across its back, but it was moving and fighting as fast as it was when they had started.

Madison jumped to the side, but wasn't fast enough this time to stay out of the way. The golem ploughed right into him, knocking him up against the wall. Flames licked up around them, but Madison didn't feel them. Madison's vision started getting cloudy from the pain as the golem backed up for another charge, but Madison shook it off and was able to get to the side and the golem slammed into the wall.

Madison rushed up and stabbed his remaining dagger into the golem, and rushed to get his scimitar. Once he got it he looked around for the golem. It was gone. In its place was a mess of dough, and four daggers. Madison scooped up his daggers and scimitar and went and wiped them on a cloth. He headed towards the stairs, when a female wizard walked into the room, followed by Gendrew.

Madison bowed low, taking his hat off his head. He put it back on and looked at the lady. She was tall, and beautiful. Her hair was blond, and she wore it long. She wore shimmering robes and a wooden staff. She looked around the room. "What a mess!" She said. Then she looked at Madison. "Thank you very much for helping us and rescuing my husband. Is there anything we could do?" Madison shook his head.

"No thank you, my lady." She said, "No, I insist. Please tell me." Madison thought for a moment, then asked, "Can you enchant things?" The lady nodded. "Yes." Madison smiled at her. "If it's ok, could you enchant my hat?" She chuckled a bit. "Yes I can. What would you like me to enchant it with?" Madison responded, "A protection spell." The lady nodded. "I can do that. It will take about a week. Do you have a place to stay?" Madison shook his head. Gendrew said, "Stay here with us." Madison bowed again. "Thank you. I will stay until my hat is done, then I must get back on the road. My lady?" He asked, "What is your name?" She looked a little embarrassed that she had forgotten to say. "Andolyn."

Madison stayed with them for the week, and was taught by Andolyn several things about magic. How to detect it, and a little about how to tell what it did. Madison didn't really like magic. He preferred the ring of steel to the chanting of spellcasting.

When his hat was done, he couldn't tell any change, but trusted Andolyn. He wished he could stay longer, but knew he had to go. He left and went to find another adventure.

Madison went back to the town and again asked if anything needed killing. Nothing did. He would have bought supplies then, but Gendrew and Andolyn had his pack almost bursting with food, so he went on.

After two days of travel, he came across a town called Marikest. He asked around for something to do, and luckily enough he found something. A formerly abandoned castle about a days march was inhabited by a group of orcs. They wanted Madison to clear them out. Madison agreed when they said that he could keep the castle as a reward for killing the orcs. It would be good to have in the upcoming war against the jocks.

Madison started on his trip to the castle. He noticed that the altitude was slowly getting higher, and that the trees were slowly turning into evergreens. He liked this world better than Earth, and was sad that he would eventually have to leave.

After a day's worth of travel he stopped to sleep. After eating a short meal he climbed a tree, draped his cape over his body, and went to sleep.

The next day he got to the castle. It was surrounded on three sides by mountains that Madison couldn't possibly climb, so he walked as stealthily as he could up to the castle. The stone castle was arranged where it could only be approached from one side. An open gateway was the only way into the castle. Madison counted nine orcs on each of the two towers touching the mountain, totaling eighteen.

Madison decided to wait until nightfall to go in.

When that time came Madison could only see seven orcs, three in each tower and one patrolling the walls. He was glad that there were many torches surrounding the castle. It would have been very difficult to kill the orcs with no light, he thought sarcastically.

Madison snuck in the castle, very quietly, and found a small place near the stairs that led to the wall. He waited until the patrolling orc was closer to the west tower, then went up the stairs to the east tower.

Inside the tower was a spiral staircase that led to the top. Madison drew two daggers and quietly crept up to the top. The top of the tower was the size of a small room, smaller than Madison would have preferred for a fight. The orcs hadn't heard him creep up into their tower, so Madison took his time lining up his shots.

His first dagger hit one in the neck. In the time that Madison took to throw the second, the other two orcs had turned around. The second caught the other dagger in the shoulder.

Madison drew his scimitar as the unwounded guard charged him with a spear. The orc wasn't trained very well, and it was easy for Madison to push the spear to the side then whirl around and take the orc's head off. The remaining orc had lifted up a battleaxe. It swung at Madison's head. Madison ducked and jabbed the scimitar into the orc's stomach. He quickly ran and picked up his daggers, wiped the blood off onto the orcs' fur, then went back into the stairs of the tower.

He kept the daggers out as the moving orc neared, but, amazingly, it hadn't noticed anything. Madison waited until it was facing the other way, then went down the stairs. He repeated the same process he had used on the first tower on the second. While he was on the ground, he saw a large white wolf asleep in the middle of the courtyard.

He went down the stairs of the tower onto the wall and charged at the back of the patrolling orc. It turned around as Madison was roughly fifteen feet away, and drew a two-handed sword. Madison's scimitar skidded off of the orc's bulky chainmail, and he had to quickly back off as the orc swung. Madison stabbed in again, and scored a hit. The orc swiped at Madison with the greatsword, and Madison ducked under the blow and stabbed the orc with his scimitar again.

Madison backed out of range once more as the orc swung, but before he could move back forward to attack, the orc raised its sword and stabbed at Madison. Madison tried to block the blow, but was unable to move the strong orc's sword. As the sword neared his stomach, it was shoved to the side and nicked Madison instead of impaling him due to the magic in his hat. Madison smiled and slipped inside of the orc's defenses and lopped its head off.

Madison looked at the bottle on the orc's belt. It was the same as the healing potion he had used on Gendrew. He took it and attached it to his belt.

He went down the stairs and snuck up to the wolf. He was glad that it was asleep; he would have hated to face it awake. He chopped its head off, then looked around. There were three buildings, two of which seemed to go into the mountain. The other was off to the side of the courtyard. Madison went to the two that were in the mountain, and entered the unlocked door.

The room, which was about thirty feet by twenty feet rectangle, had sparse furniture. There was a bed, a table, a chair, and on the table were several bottles of beer. Drinking one of them was a troll. It was at least ten feet tall. It carried a club, and had a suit of studded leather. Its skin was slimy looking and green. When it saw Madison enter it charged him. Madison threw a dagger in it then ran to the side.
The troll changed direction and charged, but Madison once again threw a dagger and went to the side. He repeated this two more times, then drew his scimitar. The troll charged up to him and smashed down with its club. Madison half dodged to the side, trusting his hat, and slashed at the troll's head. His cut took an eye, and the troll cried out in rage as it tried to sweep Madison away with its club, but Madison had fallen to the ground, leaving the troll off balance. Madison slashed at its leg, and that, combined with the troll's poor balance at the time, caused it to fall.

Madison sprung to his feet and slashed a few small cuts into the troll before it stood up. Then another troll who had obviously heard the fight came into the room. The wounded troll let down its guard for a mere second, and Madison cut its throat open.

The newest troll charged Madison. He had it defeated in about the same amount of time it had taken him to kill the other. Once it was dead, Madison looked over the trolls' equipment. There was a ring that Madison could tell dealt with fire, and the other troll's chainmail was magical. Madison took the ring and left the chainmail. He would get it later when he took it to the band base.

He left that room and went to the next. Here was where the sleeping orcs were. Madison had no trouble dispatching them in their sleep. Two of them had healing potions. At the back of the chamber was a bone door that led to another room. Madison tried to open the door, but it was locked. He kicked the door, and the bones shattered, but alerted the room's denizen to his presence.
Several skeletons moved towards him. Madison knocked one's head off with his sword hilt, then whirled around and did the same thing to another. The last one came at him with a sword. Madison pushed the blow away and kicked out at the skeleton's legs. It fell and Madison smashed its skull to pieces with his scimitar hilt. He quickly sheathed his scimitar and put the dagger in his throwing hand as he rounded the corner.

An orc spellcaster adorned in all sorts of bones stood with zombies standing next to him. The orc chanted a few words and a small ball of light zoomed out of a wand at Madison. He started to move out of the way, and his hat helped a bit, but the ball of light slammed into his shoulder. The orc started chanting and the zombies started moving towards Madison. Madison threw the dagger at the orc. It hit, and disrupted the spell the orc was about to cast.

Madison drew his scimitar and started fighting the four zombies, which were wielding clubs clumsily. Madison came in and slashed at one twice before it struck at him with the club. Its bad aim, along with the protective magic from Madison's hat, prevented the blow from connecting.

Madison fell to the ground then, which made the remaining blows miss. He stabbed once more at the wounded zombie, and it fell. Suddenly, a long gash appeared on Madison's leg, courtesy of the orc shaman.

Madison tripped a zombie and started slashing at the standing two with a growl of pain. As he had finished one and was working on another, another ball of light hit him in the back, worse than the first. Madison finished the third zombie and dodged a blow from the remaining one, who had just stood up. Right when it fell another gash appeared on Madison, this time across his shoulder.

Madison dropped his scimitar and threw a dagger that interrupted the next spell of the orc shaman. Realizing that he wasn't going to get another spell off, the shaman quickly unstrapped a marvelous two-handed axe and charged at Madison. Madison threw another dagger that skipped off the orc's armor, then scooped up his scimitar.

He barely dodged an axe chop to the head, and wouldn't have been able to if he hadn't of had his enchanted hat. He stabbed at the orc's stomach, but the orc somehow got the axe down to block the blow. The orc attempted a sideways chop at Madison's head that Madison dodged.

Madison whirled around, his scimitar in line for the orc's neck. The orc was barely able to scoop the blade away. Madison whirled back around and cut a deep gash into the orc's neck. As it started to die, it chanted a spell, one that was interrupted by another blow to its neck.

Madison drank one of the healing potions, then went to sleep. In the morning, he started to work. He dragged the bodies of all the dead to the center of the courtyard. He took all the money, of which there was fifty-five gold and one hundred and sixty five silver.

Madison also took all of the weapons and armor and put them in one of the troll's buildings. He burned the bodies, and spent the next two days outside of the castle away from the stench. He made a wooden ladder that could be used to climb back into the castle, and a sturdy wooden door. After the bodies were gone, Madison went back in to gather all the gold.

While he was exploring the shaman's room, he found a hidden door that led to the tunnel. The tunnel led outside to the bottom of the mountains. While exploring the tunnels, Madison found a cart of uncut gemstones. He was able to pack them all into his bag, leaving most of his food in the castle.

He left the castle and locked the door. He hid the ladder, then went to town. He was there in two days. He sold the gems for one thousand gold. He bought a horse for forty gold, and enough supplies to last a while, then rode of to Andolyn and Gendrew's house.

They welcomed him in, and he paid Andolyn the magical wand the orc shaman had and three hundred gold to enchant his cape with the same properties as his hat. Madison left, saying that he would come back for it later. That day marked the first month of eight before he had to go back to the band base.

Madison went back to Marikest and bought enough supplies for him to stay in the Castle Contraire, what he had named it, for several years. He hired a cart driver to help him take the food to the castle. Madison hired a carpenter to build a proper door for his castle, and then to build proper furnishings. By now, he had spent almost all of his money.

Two weeks after he had dropped by Andolyn's house he came back by to get his cape. He visited for a while and told them of what he had been doing. He stood up, ready to leave, "Wait," Said Gendrew. Andolyn said, "We're planning to move to a bigger house. It has been infested with hobgoblins. We'd like you to take care of them for us." Madison smiled. He had been hoping for something like this.

"Sure." He told them. Andolyn smiled, "I'll enchant something of yours when you're done." Madison nodded. "I have a castle three days north of here. After I'm done, I'll pay you to help secure it." Andolyn nodded. "I'd be happy to."
Gendrew told Madison the location of the house. It was two days to the northeast, one with a horse, which left it two days from Castle Contraire, one with a horse. Madison wondered if he would see anyone from the band. He thought for a moment. Seth was a possibility, as was Charles and Nico. Seth was the most probable.

Madison rode towards the house, and when he was halfway there, he saw a black clad figure walking in the opposite direction as he. Madison recognized the figure from far off, and smiled. Madison took the feather from his hat and stuck it in his belt. He took his cape off and put it on the horse behind him. He tipped his hat where the fast approaching figure couldn't see his face.

The person was Seth. Madison and Seth both came to a stop facing each other. Madison wasn't going to move. When Seth moved to get by the side, Madison, who's horse was expertly trained, nudged his horse to the side. Seth tried to get by three more times, then sighed.

He said, "I don't want to fight you." Madison said in a menacing voice, "I wouldn't want to fight me either." Seth looked a bit confused. He had heard this voice before, but he didn't know where. "Who are you?" He asked. Madison responded, "You know me." Seth looked a bit surprised at this admission. "I do?" Madison responded, his façade away, "You bet your biscuits." Seth let out a great laugh, as did Madison.

Madison put his hat back to a normal position, and put his cape back on. "So how've you been doing?" Asked Madison. Seth responded by unsheathing his longsword from his back. It practically gleamed with magic. "Pretty good," He said. "You?" Madison slid from his horse.

He moved to stand in front of Seth. "Hit me." Madison said. "What?" Asked Seth. "Hit my head." Said Madison. Seth grinned, wondering what would happen. He halfheartedly swung his gleaming longsword at Madison's head. Madison just stood there. Seth watched in amazement as his sword was diverted upward until it was pointing at the sky. He pulled it back and put it in its sheath.

A gleam was in Madison's eye. "I'd bet my hat that I have something that you don't." Seth shook his head. "I'd bet that too, if I had a hat. What is it?" Madison grinned. "A castle. You're going to have to come visit me." Seth chuckled. "I'd bet. Where is it?" Madison shrugged. "I'll show you later." Madison got back on his horse.

"Where you headed?" Seth looked down the road. "I heard that there was a manor that was recently infested with hobgoblins, and that a wizard and a cook were planning to move into it. I'm going to find them and see if they need me to do it." Madison smiled. "I'm doing it for them. They're good friends of mine." Madison continued. "You can come with me. They're only rewarding me, but you can have half of the treasure we find." Seth grinned. "Ok. Now let me get on the horse with you."

Madison diverted the conversation by pointing into the sky at a cloud of smoke. "What do you think that is?" He asked. Seth glanced at the column, then looked back at Madison. "I don't know. Don't try to avoid my demands, and let me get onto the horse."
A day and a half later, they were at the manor, and Seth had walked the whole way. Good exercise, Madison had said. During the walk, Madison had asked Seth if he had been to the band base. Seth said he had, and that it was now two stories tall and had beds enough for a quarter of the band. By the start of the war, they would have three stories, enough beds for the entire band, and be heavily enchanted.
"Well poo," Said Madison, "my castle can't hold that many."

They approached the two-story manor, and warily entered the first room. It was empty. There were three ways to leave the room, and they decided to go right. This room was a chapel, but had nothing of interest in it. There were three exits from this room. One led to the outside, one went to the room they had just been in. The other was to a room they hadn't been in.

They went in there. In it was a female dressed in armor, with a greatsword sheathed across her back. She asked, "Who's there?" Upon seeing Seth and Madison, she asked, "Did you come here for the hobgoblins? Sorry to disappoint you, I've killed them already." Madison and Seth glanced at each other. Madison put his hand on two daggers. The girl said, "Here, I'll show you the bodies." They followed her to a porch that was about fifteen feet off the ground.

She strode up to the edge and pointed down. Madison and Seth walked up to the edge and looked down. Sure enough, seven hobgoblin bodies laid on the ground. Taking the males by surprise, the girl grabbed Madison and tossed him over the rail. Madison spun and grabbed on to the rail. As he pulled himself up, Seth engaged the girl and an ogre that had just arrived in combat. He was losing and Madison needed to get up there.

Madison finally made it and drew a dagger. He tossed it at the girl. It stuck in her arm and stopped a blow that surely would have felled Seth. The girl changed form, into a seven-foot tall female with claws, long white hair, and green skin. The greatsword abandoned, she charged Madison, slashing with her claws.

Madison was able to keep up with the attacks, ducking one, then pushing a swipe away with his scimitar, then backing out of range. The blows were coming in so fast. One got in and made a small cut on Madison's cheek. It was a good thing Madison had his enchanted protections. The main reason he was able to keep up with the attacks was because he only had to dodge the attacks halfway; the protective magic of his hat and cape did the rest.

Madison saw an opening. Both the female's claws were to his right. He stabbed in, and she swung both claws and pushed the scimitar off course. Madison suddenly kicked out, and his foot connected with the female's wounded arm with a loud crack. Now Madison only had to contend with one arm, and had the fight finished in no time. When he was done he saw Seth counting the money of the ogre.

Madison couldn't blame him; he himself would have done the same thing. They looked through the hag's possessions, (They decided that's what it was) and the division of treasure went as follows; Seth got a heavy, solid gold bracelet that the hag had been wearing, and Madison got a healing potion and four hundred and fifty gold.

Seth had been adventuring for as long as Madison had, but didn't have as many magical possessions as Madison did. Seth had traded a ring of silence, a wand of invisibility, and a magical suit of chainmail, almost an exact replica of the one Madison had at Castle Contraire, for his longsword. Its magic caused flames to spring up from any wounds inflicted, almost doubling the damage it dealt.

Suddenly, they heard a loud THUMP, then a scuffle from the floor below them. Seth and Madison raced to the two unexplored rooms, where they found some stairs leading down. They went down and saw a reptilian humanoid lying face down on the ground. Seth and Madison looked at each other.

They figured that he wasn't good, so they made sure he was dead, which he wasn't. Madison fixed that with the hilt of a dagger. They looted the body. There was a scroll, and a headband. Both, Madison could tell, had magic around them. Madison picked up they headband and put it around the top part of his hat. He could instantly tell what the scroll was for.

He said, "That scroll can negate magic." Seth nodded. "Good," he said. "This will sell for a lot among our mages." Madison looked at him. "Mages?" he asked. Seth nodded. "I forgot to tell you, he explained. "Several of the band members have started being able to use magic." They moved to explore the rest of the downstairs.

A door at the far end of the basement led to an underwater cave. After looking at this for a while, they went back inside and went in two small bedrooms. Then, as they started to go upstairs, they noticed a portion of the stone was slightly ajar.

They opened the stone door and peered inside. There were three reptilian bodies, obviously dead, on the ground. The only other thing in the room was a large black box. Madison could tell with his new headband that opening the box would summon a powerful creature, but that was the only way to get inside without a key, which they didn't have.

Seth opened the box and stepped back as mist swirled out. "Get ready for a fight!" Madison said. Seth drew his longsword and Madison had out two daggers, one ready to throw, the other in his left hand.

The mist solidified into a large human shaped construct made of white shining stuff. Madison threw his daggers, both hit, but the second just caused a small dent and bounced off. Seth charged, his longsword above his head, at the construct. Right before Seth started his swing, the construct jump forward and pummeled him with one fist. The blow sent Seth flying into a wall.
The construct then charged Madison, who threw another dagger before jumping to the side. The construct still clipped him, and the blow sent him spinning. Madison drew his scimitar and was staying just out of range of the construct; one blow from the powerful thing could kill him.
Seth stood up and crept up on the construct, which was busy trying to hit the elusive Madison. Seth jammed his sword through the construct's midsection, and the sword's magic went to work, searing a large hole in the construct and stealing quite a bit of the magical life force that kept it moving. Now it moved a great deal slower and they didn't have much trouble beating it.

Seth was fine, had just gotten the breath knocked out of him. They went over to the foot square box, which Madison could now see was enchanted with a spell that let it hold a lot more stuff than it should have. Inside it was one thousand gold, which Madison claimed, a large ruby worth about the same amount, which Seth got, along with a scroll with multiple magical properties. Madison couldn't tell what they did. He claimed two clasping bracelets that protected the wearer from mind effecting magic.

Madison claimed the bracelets, which he promptly put around his ankles, then picked up the box with all the gold in it. They searched the rest of the house, and found nothing. They said goodbye, and went in opposite directions.

Madison arrived at Andolyn's house to find it empty. He found an envelope with a ring and a note inside it. The note said that they had business elsewhere, and would be back in about a week. It also said that the ring was one with the same qualities as his hat and cape. Madison smiled and put it on.

He rode back to his castle, and saw two people walking around near the front wall. He knew these two. Charles McCullough and Nico Garza. Charles was dressed in a forest green colored outfit, with a flowing cape of the same color. Nico was dressed just like this, only in dark purple. Nico had a diamond tip rapier and a buckler, which was a small shield that was strapped to the forearm. Charles wielded two magical longswords, neither of which was nearly as powerful as Seth's.

One, he had named it Fender, would automatically moved to parry, while Breaker, his other sword, could destroy enchantments. His hands went to these as Madison stepped out of the woods, taking no care to be quiet. They went away as Charles saw who it was. Nico said, "Hey! Madison! Do you know whose castle this is?" Madison nodded. "It's mine."

"Wow." Said Nico. Charles asked, "Are we going in?" Madison nodded and went and found his ladder. He climbed it, then went down the stairs and unlocked the door. "Welcome to Castle Contraire!"
They stayed in Castle Contraire for two days, and during this time told Madison of a quest they had been given. A powerful cleric had given the quest to them. She had said that she sensed something evil afoot in a city called Uthport. She wanted them to be there within eight days to defeat any evil they came across.

That left them with two days to get to Uthport. It was a day's march west from Castle Contraire. They invited Madison to go with them. He agreed, and left his horse with plenty of food in Castle Contraire, and they set off.

They were in Uthport in a fine inn that night, and woke up to an unpleasant surprise. There was a black rain going on. It prevented any divine magic from working while it fell. It looked like oil falling from the sky. And the main temple in the town was under attack.

The three went to the temple, and Madison was pleasantly surprised to find that, while the collective magic of his cape, hat, and ring didn't protect him from normal rain, it kept him dry from the black rain. Most of the town, it seemed, was crowded around the temple. A large force field of magic surrounded the temple, preventing anyone from entering. Charles used a ring he had obtained called a Ring of Shadow Step to try and teleport inside the force field. He disappeared briefly then reappeared slamming into the wall.

A woman came up to them. She had the gait of a warrior, and the three instantly went on their guard. She asked, "Can you get inside?" Nico shrugged. "I think so." Charles asked, "What happened?"

It was her turn to shrug. "There's been this black rain, then a man named Terrid Fomgarten was seen walking into the temple carrying two rods. Then this force field popped up. Let me know if you find anything." They nodded. Madison said to the other two, "Let's ask people about this Terrid. Come back here in five minutes."

When they got back, they told each other what they had learned. They had learned that he had been in prison a while back, and where he lived. They also learned that he had been promising revenge against the temple for a long time. They then decided to go to the man's house.

They had no trouble finding their way to his house, nor convincing the landlord to let them in. "Terrid's room had recently caught to flame, though," Said the landlord. They shrugged the information away.

In the room was a bed, a desk, a chair, and a drawer, all of which had been burned beyond use. On the desk was an unburned piece of paper. While Madison and Nico searched the rest of the room, Charles read the unfinished letter, addressed to a person named Yallathancia. In it, Terrid talked about his gratitude for helping him explore 'the ruins' and find 'the rods'. It also mentions keeping 'the blood trolls' in line and future plans to destroy 'the gateway' in a fire.

As Madison unrolled a carpet he had found under the bed, Charles told the other two about the letter. "The gateway must mean this carpet. With my headband of magic detection, I can tell that this is a teleportation device." Charles nodded. Nico added, "I don't know about the rest of it." Charles put the letter back on the desk and went over to watch Madison with the carpet.

Madison pressed a section of the carpet with his hand and all of the intricate designs on the carpet lit up with blue light. He explained, "Step on the carpet and you'll be teleported somewhere. I don't know for sure, but I'd bet your biscuits it leads to the temple." Madison stood up and drew two daggers. Following his lead, they drew their weapons and followed him into the temple.

They were teleported to the courtyard of the castle. It would have been beautiful if not for the rain. A large, multi headed blue-scaled hydra stomped around the southern part of the courtyard. Bloodstains on the ground marked what had been recent meals for the hydra. At looks from each other, they charged it.
It had twelve heads and all of them looked at the oncoming three as they charged. As they neared the creature, it let loose twelve blasts of frost breath. Madison went to the left, and Charles, along with Nico went right. They had mastered a style of fighting where they worked as a team, and could anticipate each other's movements almost perfectly. Madison was more used to working alone, and his fighting style required a lot of movement space.

As Charles and Nico went in on the right, Madison stayed back. Charles and Nico engaged the heads. They had a hard time of fighting, what with dodging twelve heads all coming at them. Madison lined up his two dagger throws to hit the hydra in the base of one of its necks. He hit with both throws, and that left the head useless. Several of the hydra's heads turned and fired off their frost breath at Madison. All of the blasts missed due to Madison's protective enchantments. While they did this, Charles lopped off a head, but received a vicious bite on his side. Madison drew his scimitar and charged.

He was able to cut off a head because, amazingly, none of the remaining ten had seen him, which was a testament to the fighting skills of Charles and Nico. Now it was three heads for each. Madison dodged a bite at his head, then ducked another and sliced the head off that had bit at his head. Madison jumped backwards, dodging the bite of the third head, then stabbed his scimitar through the head.

He brought the scimitar back and whirled around, causing the remaining head to move back to avoid the blow. Madison stopped his turn as his blade was facing the neck of the creature and stabbed through it. He quickly brought his scimitar out, and in two swift cuts had its neck off.

He looked over and saw Charles helping Nico with two remaining heads. They had them off before Madison could move to help. The only reason Nico had only killed one head was because he was wielding a rapier. Madison would have hated to have to fight a hydra with a weapon like that.

There were four doors leading to other rooms, and a larger one leading inside. They each went into one. Madison found what seemed to be a barracks. There were several dead bodies, of clerics, but Madison saw no harm in taking the two healing potions he found if it would help save the temple.

After Charles had drunken one of his healing potions, he and Nico had gone into a room together. It was more barracks, but a door was open to where they could see a lone paladin about their age fighting against three trolls that had blood red skin. He was losing, and wounded. Charles and Nico rushed to help him. They soon found that these were no ordinary trolls. They fought with abandon, and took an uncountable number of hits before they finally fell. One of them was about a foot taller than the rest, and took the longest to kill. When they were done, both of them were wounded.

While they were engaged in combat, Madison, who knew they were fighting, went off to another room. Several dead clerics lay strewn about the room, and Madison was disappointed to learn that all of their valuables had been taken. There was a hallway with a door at the end of it and three doors on the side. When Madison got to the last room, he found a female cleric his age huddling in a corner. She loosely held a mace, and was slightly wounded.

Madison said, "Look at me." The girl did, and she had a scared expression on her face. She had also been crying. Madison smiled at her. "I'm here to help. Me and two others are here to save the temple." The girl stood up and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm Nester. I think I can help you." Madison nodded. "Come, my friends might need my help." They raced to watch Nico jab his rapier through the heart of the last blood troll.

"Just in time to help." Charles said. Madison tipped his hat. "I know. I'm always on time," He added to Nester. The paladin, whose name they soon learned was Reginard, rushed up to Nester and buried her in a hug. "I'd thought you'd been killed," He said with a sniffle. Nester started crying.

Charles said, "Sorry to break things up, but…" Nico continued for Charles, "Your temple is under attack…" Madison finished, "And we need to save it." The two looked at them and nodded. Before they left the room, Nico, and Charles drank a healing potion each, leaving them without any more, and Nester gave one to Reginard, who had already used up his supply. Madison was glad that he had five, and also that they were hidden so that no one would assume he had any and ask for one.

They followed Nester and Reginard into a large room that had many dead bodies strewn out on the ground. The two residents of the temple held back their tears and helped search the bodies for potions. Four were found, and all of the males were given one. Nester didn't need one because she wasn't going to be doing any of the fighting.

Nester said, "In this room is where the leader of the attack is. Be careful." Reginard walked up to the door and made to kick it down, but his foot connected with a wall of force and he was thrown backwards.

Nester led them to a secret door in the courtyard that the leader of the enemies probably didn't know about to block off. They went through a ways of the hall until they came to a where Nester said leaded to the blocked off area. They all went into the room with weapons out.

In here was a kneeling cleric, the leader of the temple, in front of a warrior, who seemed to be raving on and on about the injustices of the temple. The kneeling cleric was heavily wounded, and looked as if he could pass out from his wounds any second. The warrior hadn't seemed to have noticed them, so Madison got his attention by throwing two knives at him. The first bounced of the heavily enchanted armor, but the second found it's way through a chink in the armor.

The man whirled around and raised a staff in each hand. Out of one shot a burst of electricity that was headed straight for Nester. Reginard jumped in the way, and knocked Nester over as he flew to hit the wall. The warrior gripped the staffs like clubs and charged. Both were made of black metal. The one that had fired the electricity had a hook on the end, while the other had two.

Madison drew his scimitar and joined the three-man charge as they met the man in the center of the room. It was four blades to two, but Terrid moved the staffs with incredible speed. Charles and Nico came from the left. All three blows, one at the neck, a stab to the chest, and a slash to the side, were deflected with two swift movements of the staff. Madison had worse luck; his slash was blocked, then down came the staff, seeming to ignore the protective magic Madison had, and rammed down into Madison's right shoulder, knocking him to the ground.

Terrid dismissed Madison from his mind as he continued the fight with Nico and Charles. Here their teamwork really shone. Not a blow got near; they knew when to make the right attacks and blocks that made Terrid attack or block in places that made his standing worse. But he was moving the staffs so fast that, while Charles and Nico could keep up with them, they couldn't find any ground to take the offensive. And so it went, back and forth.

Madison came up to his knees. He quickly drank the unveiled healing potion, which made his shoulder better, then threw the bottle at Terrid's head, hard. It shattered and left a nasty bit of cuts on the back of his head. Terrid glanced at Madison, and was slightly taken aback at how angry he looked. This pause lost him the offensive momentarily, and perhaps was saved by the fact that two of his blood trolls stopped Madison before he got to Terrid.

Terrid laughed, than practically yelled, "Do you think you can possibly beat me?" He and Charles and Nico kept the repetitive combat going.

Madison ducked a blow from the first troll's club, then stepped back and let his protective magic do its work, saving him from a blow. He had drawn a dagger and was fighting with two weapons now. He whirled in and blood flew from a series of many small (To the trolls) cuts. They responded by trying to smash Madison with their clubs, but due to his brilliant dodging and protective magic, none of their attacks could hit.

Madison jumped out of range and glanced over at the other fight, then at Reginard. Charles and Nico were doing fine, except that Nico's left arm hung uselessly at his side with a large chunk of it missing. Reginard seemed to be trying to stand, but fell. Madison was drawn back into his fight and his nostrils flared in anger at the blow he had received from Terrid. He lost himself in his rage then.

Most would argue that anger would make a person lose control. It was not so with Madison here. He dodged the two blows, then went up and slashed a series of deep gashes through the blood troll's neck. As it fell away and Madison began on the second, another troll came through a door.

Charles' two swords moved brilliantly. In and out, to the side, then a cross over his head. He and Nico fought better than they ever had. But it was not enough. Terrid was moving faster, and was completely on the offensive now. Then Charles and Nico weren't fast enough. A great sweeping blow threw Charles across half of the room to slam against the wall, unconscious. Nico stepped back as Terrid raised the two staffs over his head and prepared to finish Nico off.

A sword appeared protruding from Terrid's stomach. Terrid looked down in shock, then turned his head to see Reginard standing behind him. It wasn't so much that Terrid was hurt as much as surprised. Terrid pointed the staff with one hook at Reginard, and a great blast of electricity sent him skidding into the wall, his head connecting with a loud crack. Reginard hadn't been able to let go of the sword and had pulled it free of Terrid when he was hit. This left nothing between Terrid and Nico.

Nico had swallowed a healing potion while Terrid had been occupied, and now brandished his rapier, a pathetic weapon indeed considering the two that Terrid carried. As Terrid was about to attack Nico, Terrid was hit full force by the fury that was Madison.

Nico had to back away; he could barely see the arms of the two combatants anymore. He went to Charles to try and revive him.

Madison and Terrid circled each other, their weapons a blur to everyone else' they were able to keep track of all four weapons at once. Madison scimitar jabbed at Terrid's stomach. The blow was swept off to the side by one staff, the other going forward to knock Madison's head back. Madison dagger pushed that blow to the side. They both kick at each other at the same time, their feet connecting at the same level. The weapons disengaged and forced the tow combatants back, and there was a brief pause before they moved forward to fight more.

Madison could tell that he was out-leagued by his opponent. When he used the magic of his headband, the whole man was practically a person of magic. His armor had enchantments at least equaling the enchantments on Madison, that one of those staffs was worth two of Seth's longswords, and that he himself didn't have any magical weapons. He just didn't care.

On and on the fighting went, and each combatant had several minor wounds. Then Terrid found an opening to use the lightning blast from his one hooked staff. He was able to get the other staff behind Madison, and there was a loud crunch as Madison's back connected. Nico thought it was all over then, and so did Terrid. But then something no one, not Terrid, not Nico, nor the priest, who had managed to stay conscious, nor Nester, who had found Reginard to be dead, and had been watching Madison's fight, tears streaming down her face, expected. Madison had expected it the least.

He jumped forward and slashed a long line across Terrid's face. The fight resumed, and Madison had the upper hand, scoring many minor hits. But then he slowed, and Terrid slammed him to the wall. Madison felt none of it. He was still conscious, but felt nothing. He wanted to just close his eyes and embrace the blissful light that he had been so near not so long ago.
But he didn't. He watched as Terrid used his lighting on Nico, then as he grabbed Nester and threw her across the room to land on Charles' prone body. Terrid walked up to the head priest and laughed.

Then a darkness lifted from the temple. Madison could tell that the rain had ended, and along with it came a reviving magic that started raising the priests of the temple. Only the priest of the temple, for Reginard was left out. Terrid staggered back as the good aligned magic swept through the temple. The head priest stood up, tall and terrible. He chanted the words of a quick spell and then Terrid was gone.

For Madison, everything went into darkness.

He woke two days later in a temple bed. Charles and Nico were nowhere to be seen, but Nester sat next to the bed. She smiled when he woke. "I was getting worried." Madison smiled. "Don't worry about me." He tried to get out of the bed but decided it was a bad idea when the pains from his back made his vision go blurry.

Nester chuckled. "The priests will be able to fix that when I go get them in a few minutes. They wanted you to be awake before the completely healed you." Her smile faded as she remembered the fight. "Priest Jeard, the head priest, said that your back was broken, with several fractures in your spine. How you managed to live through it, I don't know. Neither does anyone else." She paused. "You should have died when your back broke. But you didn't, and you were saved because of Jeard. Any other priest wouldn't have been able to do it."

She paused again and the smile came back to her face. "So now you are the hero of the temple. You will be given a set of four enchanted daggers, and the Scorpions Tail." At Madison's confused look, Nester explained. "Long ago a hero appeared that acted like you. He died saving the temple from evil, and he wielded the Scorpions Tail, a magnificent emerald scimitar. Before he died he said to give it to one who came that acted like him. So now we will." Nester stood up. "I'll go get the priest."

The next day a ceremony was held honoring the three unexpected saviors of the temple. Each was granted a gift, but Madison was given two. His gift was the set of enchanted daggers. Then they gave him the Scorpions Tail.

Madison, Charles, and Nico left then. Madison stopped at Castle Contraire, where Gendrew and Andolyn were already working, while Charles and Nico went to report their success to the cleric who gave them the quest.

For a month Madison worked with Andolyn on strengthening his castle. They transferred the construct summoning mechanism on his box of holding to the castle door, and made a magical force field that would prevent anyone from using a ladder to get over the wall. When someone entered against Madison's will the construct would come. Over the next month, Madison had carpenters build another building in the area. He then bought two ballista and ammunition for the two, then went to Andolyn with a proposition.

He told her that he had seen a dragon flying around near Castle Contraire, a white one, and asked Andolyn if she would help him get rid of it. He said that he would let Andolyn have all of the magic books and papers, but he got to keep the magic items. Andolyn agreed. Before they left, Andolyn got out a ring she said was for cold resistance.

When they got to Castle Contraire, Madison pointed to a spot on the side of the mountain, and Andolyn chanted a spell that teleported them to the cave of the white dragon Krikk.

In real life, Madison had read that white dragons were not very smart. He planned to use that. Before they walked into the cave, Madison turned to Andolyn. "Turn me invisible. Once the fighting starts fight the dragon for as long as you can. I'll throw a dagger when you use an offensive spell. It should make the dragon think there is only one of us." Andolyn nodded and cast the spell of invisibility on Madison. "When you attack the dragon up close the spell will wear off." Madison nodded, though Andolyn couldn't see him.

Madison snuck off into the cave, followed by his wizard friend. Madison found a small alcove where he could throw his daggers. Without any delay, Krikk, who was maybe ten feet from head to tail, turned her head and breathed a cone of frost at Andolyn. It completely engulfed her and she disappeared from Madison's view for several seconds. When the frost dissipated, Andolyn was standing there like nothing had happened.

She made the complex gestures of a powerful spell, and a rainbow of colors shot out at the white dragon. Its voice resonated in a language unknown to the two companions and a wall of magical force sprang up between it and the oncoming beams of light. Two of the four beams got to through the wall to the dragon, a red and a brown. The red fizzled out when it touched the white dragon, but the brown slammed into the dragon, knocking out a good-sized hole. At the same time, a dagger slammed in to the base of the dragon's neck to the hilt.

Krikk jumped forwards at Andolyn, trying to bite her. Andolyn chanted a quick cant and was teleported to the other side of the room. Madison quickly moved to a better throwing location. Krikk's voice resonated, and Andolyn chanted. From Krikk came a pitch-black globe, from Andolyn a blast of lightning. The lightning slammed into Krikk as the globe slammed into Andolyn.

Krikk was pushed back slightly, but Andolyn was blasted to the ground. A second dagger protruded from the base of Krikk's neck. Madison saw the need for intervention as Krikk moved to pounce on Andolyn. He lined up the Scorpion's Tail for a blow on the dragon's neck. Where Madison's old scimitar would have slipped on scales, the Scorpion's Tail bit in a few inches. There was a flash of green light and when Madison backed up, now visible, he saw that the wound was now green and oozing blood.

Krikk used her claw to knock the daggers from her body, then charged at Madison, completely ignoring Andolyn. It swiped at Madison's head with a claw and bit at his stomach. Madison ducked the claw and jabbed the Scorpion's Tail at Krikk's head. Krikk turned her head to the side, taking only a small cut, at which there was a flash of green light. Madison couldn't look at the wound this time; he was busy fighting.

Krikk went with her momentum and swung her body around to hit Madison. He backed out of the way, but not far enough. The last two feet of Krikk's tail caught Madison and sent him spinning with gash marks from the sharp spines on the dragon's tail. Krikk sent a blast of cold breath at Madison as he turned around, but with the displacement magic of his clothing and the ring of frost resistance protected him.

Madison jumped forward and stabbed at Krikk's head with his scimitar. He had to pull the blow up short as he backed out of range from a claw swipe, then brought the Scorpion's Tail around and cut a deep gash into Krikk's leg. A flash of green light accompanied the blow. Krikk growled and started forward, but staggered as she was hit from behind with a blast of powerful magical force.

All ideas of defending her lair gone, Krikk spread her wings and began to fly away. Madison threw a dagger into one of Krikk's wings, but she kept on flying. Andolyn moved to stand beside Madison and began a spell. When she was done five colored balls flew out from her hand. Andolyn had told him about this spell. Each of the five balls represented a damage type. There was fire and cold, sound, poison, and void.

The red and blue balls winked out before they hit the dragon, but the other three had visible effects. When the sound orb hit Krikk started jerking uncontrollably. The green poison orb caused Krikk's skin to gain a green tinge. The black void ball crashed into the dragon and disintegrated a large portion of the dragon. The dragon started falling, disintegrating as it went. It was gone before it hit the ground.

Madison gave a healing potion to Andolyn, then went to look at the treasure horde. Surprisingly, there was no gold, but instead a load of papers Andolyn said were instructions for making golems. Underneath all the papers was a ring of regeneration, a ring that could summon a shooting star, a scroll that could summon a powerful animal, a gem that allowed the bearer to see the invisible, boots that let Madison jump farther and faster, and an amulet of speech. This item would allow a living thing to speak, no matter what it was.

Madison put the ring of regeneration on, and tried the ring of shooting stars, but it wouldn't go on. Andolyn saw this and told him, "A person can only wear three magic rings." Madison nodded and put the ring in a pocket.

The scroll was a divine one, and he put it in his pocket as well, along with the gem, which was useless to him with his headband that could detect the magic of invisibility. Well, not completely useless. With his headband, he could see the magic on a person who was invisible. The only thing he couldn't tell was who the person was.

Later that day, Andolyn said goodbye and teleported away to her house. Madison stayed in Castle Contraire for a few days, then decided to leave. It was time to get on his horse and head for a visit to the band headquarters.

Joseph smiled as he read over this. It was good, and he enjoyed it greatly. But it didn't have much of a story to it. He shrugged and decided that this was the story he would use.

I need a break from this one, he thought. Back to the water-flowing metaphor, if too much was taken out at one time there wouldn't be enough for later. So instead of going back to this one, he decided to write a shorter one and put the stopper back in the previous one, but just for a little while.

Chapter Four: Return

Madison had another month before he had to go to the band headquarters, but was tired of being alone, and wanted to check out the band building. There was also, Madison guessed, going to be some sparring, which Madison loved, and magic item trading.

In his time in the game, he had had a fascination with magical equipment. He wanted the best, and the exotic. With his unneeded magic items, his vast money stores, and the money he would make after selling all of his armory, the one he had obtained from the orcs, he would have quite a bit of money to buy things with.

He was also interested in magic users. Seth had told him that there were several magic users, but that had been a few months ago. By now, there were bound to be quite a few. Madison was a great reader of fantasy, and knew a lot about what to expect from magic. He hoped the band base would be interesting.

When he was about a mile away, he came to learn that he would not be disappointed. He came across a hut with a campfire a little ways from the door, and got down from his horse. To Madison's wonderment, a cactus that was, to Madison with his headband, shrouded in magic, was planted not that far from the fire. As Madison was wondering about this he heard a noise in the woods behind him.

He turned about to see a giant bear, at least eight feet high, wearing a pendant, a copy of the one Madison had in his pocket. Madison's horse ran and hid behind the cactus. The bear opened its mouth and Madison prepared for it to lunged by drawing the Scorpion's Tail. It didn't though. The bear had opened its mouth to speak. "Who are you, intruder, to trespass on the lands of my master?" Madison answered, "Madison Brooks, Lord of Castle Contraire."

The bear growled. "Anyone other than band members are not allowed in my master's forest." Another voice, this one deeper and creaky, sounded. "I think we should let him speak to the master, Sumax." It seemed to come from the tree with the amulet.

"I am in the band." Madison said. "There, you see, he is in the band." Added the tree. "Stay out of this, Hidewood. I don't trust him." Sumax said. Madison slowly drew his scimitar, it making a loud unsheathing noise. "Show me to your master, or we'll fight." The bear growled and started forward, but both him and Madison were grabbed by roots that had suddenly popped out of the ground.

Madison's boots let him jump away and not be trapped, but Sumax was not so lucky. The vines crawled over him and pulled him to the ground, rendering incapable of doing anything. Madison looked over at the cactus. It was gone, in its place, a band member named Rachel Christian.

She was dressed in brown robes, over which she wore a cape that seemed to be made out of cactus. She had many magic items, and Madison couldn't tell the particular items apart, but the cape allowed her to change into the cactus, and he at least knew that she had a summoning item of some sort, and as least one other shapeshifting item. Madison could tell from her attire, her magic, and the spell she had used on Sumax that she was a druid.

Rachel Christian spoke to the bear. "Don't be so mean." She released the vines and Sumax ran off into the forest. Madison asked, "Where is the band base from here?" Rachel Christian. She pointed in a direction and said, "I could tree-teleport you there, if you wanted." Madison nodded, then cast a doubting glance over his horse.

Rachel saw it and said, "Your horse too." Madison nodded again. He asked, "Do you have any magic stuff that you don't want?" She nodded and led him into the cabin, where she showed him a number of magic items. Madison didn't particularly want any of them, so he said, "I'll wait for the market."
Rachel led him then into a tree, and he came out in view of the band base. His horse came out right after him.

He was amazed at how well the band base was doing. It was a three-story structure, and it glowed faintly with protective magic. Madison had to adjust his headband so that his vision wasn't so clouded by the glowing aura of magic.

Madison walked around and greeted several people. He walked in the main building and found the elected King, McKeever, and registered that he was back to stay. He then dropped his unimportant possessions off on his bed.

Madison spent the rest of the day walking around. He found Melissa, who was compiling a book of different magical things, and helped her with it for a while. He rested then.

The next day was the day when everyone was supposed to get back. Madison had fun riding around the base on his horse and observing people. Madison was particularly excited when he saw Ashley Rand arrive.

She was dressed in shimmering robes that marked her as a wizard. She carried a staff that had a large yellow gem embedded in the top. It glowed with lighting magic. But what excited Madison was the creature floating next to her.

It was an orb, in the center of which was a large eyeball. It had four eyestalks, one going up, one going down, and one going to each side. These eyes glowed with different kinds of magic. The one nearest the ground was telekinesis. The one on the top was could cover an area with an anti-magic field. The ones on the side were fire and cold.

Madison greeted her, then rode of to find Melissa. He couldn't find her, but he did find her book. He read through it, then went to eat.
The next day they were all called to a meeting. In it they found out that about a score of people had died. A few people cried, but stopped when they remembered that it was only a game. They were told that the next day would be the market day.

Madison had fun looking through all of the magic items. He only bought a pair of gloves that let him block offensive magic. He sold his other magical possessions.

The next day they started combat training. Madison breezed through all of it. Then they got to the duels. They had an area designated for the fights, and they would go on for a week. It would be in double elimination format, and no magic would be in use. Ashley's beholderkin took care of that.

The first interesting match was between Seth and Nico. Seth started with a series of quick swipes. Nico dodged these, then launched a sinister poke at Seth's stomach. Seth couldn't go back due to his recent attack, so he slashed at the rapier with his longsword. With a subtle manipulation Nico sent his rapier flying over Seth's sword.

With nothing left to do, Seth fell into a roll. The rapier missed, and Nico backpedaled furiously. It wasn't enough, though. Seth came out of his roll with a kick at Nico's shin. It connected and sent Nico falling backwards. Seth stood and charged at Nico.

At the last moment Nico rolled to the side and stood up, jabbing at Seth's back as he did. The point came just an inch short of impaling Seth. Seth whirled around with a cut at Nico's neck. Nico ducked and jabbed at Seth again. Seth stepped to the side and forward.

Nico recognized what had just happened. There was nothing between Seth's sword and him. He yelled, "I yield!" Seth backed away.

Madison's first fight was with a lesser-known band member who he dispatched in a quick combination of moves. His next fight was more interesting. It was with Charles McCullough. Madison decided to use a dagger along with his scimitar.

He started the fight with an overhead swipe. Charles blocked that with a sword and stabbed inwards. Madison pushed that to the side and moved in until he was back to back with Charles. He moved his head forward so that he could slam it into Charles', but Charles knew this.

Charles fell to the ground and hooked his feet around Madison's side. He flung Madison to the ground about fifteen feet away. Madison caught himself with his hands and did a quick roll to come up on his feet.

The two were amazing the rest of the band. They were most likely the two best swordsmen in their half of the world.

Charles charged and slashed at each side with a sword. Madison scooped them both up and launched a kick between the three blades at Charles' face. Charles flipped back faster than Madison could follow, and caught Madison's foot with his. He once again flipped Madison head over heels to the ground. This time, though, Madison landed on his feet.

Madison could tell one thing from the fight so far. Charles was a much better gymnast than him, but Madison was a better swordsman. He had to use that to his advantage.

He charged Charles, who was regaining his balance, and launched a series of attacks not meant to win the fight. All Madison was trying to do was find an opening. He found one.

Charles stabbed in with both his swords. Madison pushed one away with his dagger and the other with his arm on the flat of the blade. He stabbed in at Charles' stomach, and Charles could do nothing but back away. Madison moved with him and slammed his dagger into the side of Charles' head. Charles was revived a few minutes later.

The next interesting match was between Seth and Charles. Seth, having the longer range, started with a slash at Charles' shoulder. Charles blocked this and started in to stab Seth, but had to stop his attack short when Seth whirled around with his sword.

Seth then came closer and started a series of powerful attacks. Charles had to jump over a stroke at his midsection, then back out of range of overhead chop, then saw an opening. Seth stabbed inwards. Charles jumped around the blow and landed a foot away from Seth. He moved to punch Seth with the hilt of his weapon, but was knocked unconscious from Seth's punch.

The final battle was between Seth and Madison. It was over in a matter of moments. A common misconception is that a person can be rated in combat by who they can beat and who they can't. This isn't true; the fighter's combat style makes a big difference in a fight. This was exemplified here.

Chapter Five: The First Battle

The next day around lunchtime a voice boomed out, "The war has begun. I know it's a bit off schedule, but I don't care." This caused a good bit of confusion. After a few minutes of the confusion a meeting was called.

In it was decided the course of action. They would go to where the ocean was. It was agreed upon that was where they would most likely find an invading army. And so it was. Everyone packed, and packed stuff on packhorses. Madison was quickly finished packing, and enjoyed watching people get ready to go to war.

There were all sorts of things to look at. Rachel Christian was riding Sumax around, and there were all sorts of mounts being ridden. Madison felt his horse was a bit inadequate, but reconsidered that. He was planning to dismount before he got anywhere near to combat. And besides, he didn't need a mount that could fight for him.

Among the different mounts were: several pegasus and unicorns, two rocs, a giant wolf, and a small copper dragon. Madison also spent a lot of time watching the engineers of the band load up various parts of siege engines. They hadn't developed cannons, but had catapults.

Close to the time when the band was ready to march a large form thundered out of the forest. It was a tree, and after a while Madison recognized it as Hidewood. Madison smiled, but frowned when he considered the enemy army.

Though most were not near the intelligence of the band members, they did outnumber the band about ten-to-one. What kind of creatures would they have aligned themselves with? Madison had noticed that only good-aligned creatures were among the band. Did that mean that the jocks would have evil creatures? From Madison's experience, the evil creatures were more powerful than the good.

He shook his head. He was jumping to conclusions.

Then the signal for the band to ride came. For a while Madison was entranced by the flying pegasus. Then he went off and scouted out the area. They were going south, a direction Madison had not yet gone.

After around six hours of travel they were called to a halt in a clearing. The area where the band base was heavily forested. Madison and several others liked it that way. As they traveled south the woods dispersed.

After two more days of travel they came to a valley. It was announced that this was where the ocean had been. The battle commanders started giving orders for the people to get set up. A group of archers were placed on a ridge, along with the pegasus riders. They were going to fly over the battlefield, launching arrows.

Madison took a perch on a solitary tree early on to let him watch the band army assemble. He watched Rachel Christian use magic to grow up a bunch of trees off to the side of the valley. He watched in amazement as she disappeared into the group of six trees like there was a whole forest.

He also watched as the engineers set up the siege engines on the ridge, then as they tested them out. Their aim was pretty good. Madison watched as many of the band members sparred to get ready for the large amount of fight they would do.

The wizards had set up a large tent and were discussing magical tactics. Every so often one would come out and cast a spell on a boulder. To Madison's amazement one of them duplicated the five elemental balls spell that Andolyn had used on Krikk.

After a while the sun had fallen and the area was lit up with campfires. Madison got down from his tree to get food, then returned. He had been followed though. By Seth.

Seth said, "What do you think about fighting together?" Madison considered this for a moment. He shook his head and said down to Seth, "No, I think our skills will be needed in different parts of the battle." Seth sighed and nodded.

The next day the band woke to see the jock army marching down the mountainside at them. There were about a thousand of them, five times more people than the band had. Madison's fears were realized when he looked out at all of the magical beasts with the jocks.

Their commanders were riding different beasts. Their leader was riding a large black dragon. One commander was riding a strange beast Melissa's book had listed as a displacer beast. It resembled a black panther except for the two long tentacles coming out of its back. Two other commanders were riding giant spiders. Another commander was riding a manticore.

There were two main sections of the army: the foot soldiers and the cavalry. The cavalry were riding giant serpents. There weren't that many of them, maybe twenty, but it looked like more. Among the foot soldiers were several people in black armor with scythes, followed closely by black and yellow robed knights with strange yellow swords.

Off to the side of the main infantry force was a small group of unarmored fighters each holding two swords. Madison decided that he would go after these people first. He went to Rachel Christian. He asked, "Could you place some trees for me?" She nodded. "Where do you want them?" Madison pointed out an area; one that the dual sword wielding fighters were on course to pass right next to. She chanted a few words and ten trees popped up in that area. He nodded his thanks and went to find Charles and Nico.

He found them and asked, "Where are you going first?" Nico answered, "We're going to get the dragon." Madison nodded. "You?" Asked Charles. "I'm going after the group of swordsmen to the side." Charles nodded. "We're planning to go after them when we get done with the dragon." Madison shook his head. "You need to go to the cavalry when you get finished." Charles shrugged. "Okay."

As Madison walked off, Nico said, "We're outnumbered, Madison." Madison turned to look at Nico. He was smirking. He nodded, and as he did so he said, "I know." Madison turned to go away. "That doesn't mean we'll lose, though." Madison heard Charles snicker from behind him as he walked away.

Likely Charles thought they were all going to die. Madison wasn't about to let that happen. They needed a good retreat plan. Madison hoped they did. He wasn't about to organize one. Not enough time. He was going to find Jessica Sterling, a pegasus rider.

He went up to the ridge. "Jessica," He called, "Come here." She complied, trotting over to Madison. "Yes?" She asked. Madison turned and pointed at the swordsmen he was going to go after. "I'm going to ambush them from those trees. It would be great if you could go with me and shoot your bow at them."

Madison looked at Jessica. It looked as if she was going to go with him. He thought for a moment and said something he thought would get her to go. "It would be a great comfort to know that I had an escape route." Jessica nodded. Madison knew that she had a soft heart, and would go if she knew she might save someone's life.

She asked, "Do you want to fly down there?" Madison considered this a moment, then shook his head. "They would see us, and I wouldn't be able to ambush them. But we do need to get going." She nodded and followed Madison to the trees. When they were there Madison said, "Don't shoot until I charge." She nodded.

Madison looked out over the field of battle. It had gone completely silent, and the jocks were on level ground with the band. No one moved. Then someone on the band side yelled for the catapults to launch. At that moment the jocks charged. Out of the four giant rocks that smashed down only one hit anything. One was way off, and two missed, but caused a good deal of the infantry to stop charging. The one that hit plowed through several of the cavalry.

Madison was glad that the band had decided to wait for the jocks to get to them. He watched as the remaining enemy serpent riders get inside of the range of the archers. The arrows rained down, but only killed a few. The serpents were left unscathed, and the now rider-less serpents continued with the charge. Madison saw Seth, Nico, Charles, and a group of several powerful warriors rush at the serpent riders.

From his viewpoint Madison couldn't see much of the ensuing fight. He saw the two groups meet, and it seemed like the serpent riders had hit a wall. A few moments later all of the serpents and riders were dead, and several of the band were too. Madison was glad to see Seth, Nico, and Charles walk away safe, though Nico limped slightly.

Madison turned to see the swordsman unit he was ambushing. They were close to his position. He thought of what he would do. He needed to rush out, kill a few, then escape. Madison realized that he could easily be killed, but wasn't about to let that stop him. He was able to wait a little while longer when the enemy army stopped.

The next four catapult stones shot out. Someone from the enemy army used a spell that sent a line of brown magic to the stones. They watched as, in midair, the stones turned around and started flying towards the band. A spellcaster from the band cast the five-elemental balls spell and destroyed the flying boulders. Then a magical duel between the armies broke out.

While the band had better casters, the jocks had more. Blasts of flame flew across the battlefield, only to be doused by summoned water. A gigantic blast of lightning flew at the jocks only to be stopped by dozens of smaller ones. There were a few casualties, but most were from the jock's side. Madison took careful notice that the yellow knights were able to cast small amounts of magic.

After a while the blasts of magic subsided. Madison knew that spellcasters had limited reserves of magic, and were about to reach them. Strangely enough, both sides ran out at the same time. The march of the jocks continued.

Madison held his breath as the first of the swordsmen passed him. He hoped none would notice him. After a few seconds he looked at Jessica and nodded. She notched an arrow to her bow. Madison stepped out from behind his tree and charged.

He threw two daggers, then drew Scorpion's Tail. As he did this two other swordsmen dropped with arrows in them. Madison was able to kill one before the rest turned to combat him.

Madison fought defensively moving backwards. He knew that more and more would be killed by Jessica if he could just stall. That didn't mean that he wouldn't take an opening if he saw one. It was just that these guys were good.

If the rest of the jock army saw the fighting it didn't show. They kept on marching. The catapults let fly once more, and two boulders landed in the infantry. Then the band started to charge.

The yellow knights had moved to the front of the jock ranks. When the armies met they created quite a bit of fighting.

Seth engaged one. He stabbed in hard. The blow was easily pushed to the side. The knight took a stab of his own. Seth backed out of range, then came back in with an overhead chop. The knight solidly parried the blow, then kicked out. Seth whirled to the side of the blow and slashed at the knight's side. That blow was blocked too. Seth moved his sword back just a bit and stabbed forwards. The knight pushed this blow over their heads. As the knight moved his sword for an overhead chop, Seth, with a slight manipulation of his sword's arc, cut into the knight's head. If his sword was a normal one the wound would not have been so bad. However, the wound burst into flame. Even as the knight died, he was able to cut into Seth's shoulder.

Over near the center of the battlefield Charles and Nico were fighting the general of the army on her black dragon. Though they could tell that they were fighting a female they didn't know who it was.

Charles jumped in reach of the dragon and ducked under its claw swipe. He left it with a scratch on its leg. He used his ring of shadow step to teleport under the dragon, and stabbed his sword upwards. Though it went in to the hilt, it was a minor wound to the huge dragon. The female rode fully fifteen feet above the ground.

The dragon dropped, trying to crush Charles. He was able to use his ring at the last moment to teleport out of range. He watched Nico jump up on top of the dragon and stab his rapier through the female. She just punched Nico in the gut and sent him flying off the dragon. She dismounted to finish him off, drawing her two-handed sword.

After she was off her dragon moved to fight Charles. Charles had only one use of his ring left for the day. He thought it was as good a time as any to use it. He teleported onto its back and stabbed both swords into the black dragon's back. It roared and swiped at him with its tail. He backed up until he was standing on its neck. The dragon roared and slung its neck from side to side, almost throwing Charles off. He was able to hold on, and upon regaining his balance he slashed a deep cut into the dragon's neck. It roared and fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, the female general and Nico fought. Nico was constantly backing out of range, not able to parry the powerful blows. He also couldn't risk going forwards to attack. The female's blows were too quick. She pulled her helmet off of her head. She was very beautiful, with shoulder length brown hair. Nico found he couldn't move, could only stare at the girl's face.

She stepped closer. She raised her sword, but Nico didn't care. He couldn't, in the thrall of her magic. Nico realized this, but it was too late. The girl brought he sword down in an arc. Nico raised his rapier up to block, but the girl's sword sheared right through.

Charles couldn't do anything when he fell. The dragon slashed at him while he was in the air, sending him flying into the fighting troops. He emerged a few moments later quite a bit bloodied up, but still able to fight. The dragon was dead, but its master wasn't. The female strode towards him, trying to use on him the same spell she had used on Nico.

It didn't work. Charles was filled with battle lust. He was also intensely angered. He had seen Nico's body, and had concluded that it was this person who had done it. He raised his two swords and charged.

The girl raised her sword and parried the two blows. She kicked out, expecting to knock Charles of his feet. She didn't know that Charles was the best acrobat on the field. He jumped up and caught her leg between his feet and flung her over his head, himself dropping to the ground. It was hard work, the female being encased in armor, but he was able to do it.

He spun around and charged at the girl's prone form. She was still, and Charles thought she was unconscious. He put the tip of his sword above her chest and raised it. Just then he felt a sharp pain explode from the back of his head, and fell over the girl. She pushed him away and stood. She looked to her lieutenant. "Keep him as a prisoner."

Madison was glad when he saw the last of the swordsmen fall. He was wounded in several places, and was ready for the band to start the retreat. As he turned to signal for Jessica to come out he saw another of the swordsmen. His name was Alex Lockwood. He moved closer to Madison, wanting to prove himself the better swordsman.

Madison glanced around before fighting Alex. The enemy infantry was almost to his position. He glanced at Alex. He seemed to be unharmed, which would give him a big advantage over Madison. Madison wiped a bit of blood from his mouth and started towards Alex.

He stabbed forwards. Alex blocked the blow and stabbed in with his other sword. Madison intercepted that blow and jumped back to dodge the attack Alex had used with his other sword. Madison drew a dagger.

He let Alex make the first move. Alex stabbed in with a sword and slashed at Madison's head with the other. Madison scooped the stab up and used Alex's sword to block his other blow. Madison stabbed in between the two weapons with his scimitar. Alex brought his two swords down to cut at Madison's wrist. Madison brought his blow up short and reversed it, sending it slashing in at Alex's head. Alex blocked this blow solidly and stabbed in with his other sword. Madison pushed this blow off to the side with his dagger.

A group of enemy infantry had encircled the fighting pair. Madison had to be quick about what he was going to do. He let out a shrill whistle and was glad when he saw Jessica and her pegasus take off from the brush.

Madison suddenly launched his dagger at Alex's head. Alex was able to brush it out of the air but wasn't prepared for Madison's follow-through. Madison stabbed in with his scimitar. Alex was able to block the blow, but wasn't able to dodge Madison's kick. He doubled over and Madison jumped on his back. He used Alex as a springboard so he could jump up to Jessica.

He almost didn't make it, but was able to grab hold of Jessica's leg. She leaned sharply to the side to compensate for the extra weight. Madison quickly climbed up to sit on the pegasus just behind Jessica. He pointed out the ridge where the archers were. Jessica started steering that way.

As they flew Madison yelled out, "Retreat, Retreat!" Most of the band started to, and the ones who didn't quickly realized that they should. Several groups of stupid jocks followed the command, which let the band escape easily.

"Jacy," Called Alex. "What are you going to do with the warrior?" He said, nodding towards Charles' body. "We'll keep him as a prisoner." Answered Jacy.

He had caused her a good bit of trouble. The main bit of that being her dragon. It would be difficult to find another. He had also bruised her a good bit when he flung her with his feet. Though her healing spells had taken care of most of her wounds, they still hurt. Alex asked, "The band is retreating." Jacy nodded. "Let them," She said.

Alex turned to leave. Jacy asked him, "Who was that warrior you fought?" Alex looked a bit embarrassed. Until today he had never lost a fight. It was galling to be beaten by a wounded person who had killed the rest of his squad. "Madison." He answered.

Jacy thought for a moment. "You may go now," She told Alex. She watched him leave then walked over to Jacqueline Sloan and Kaitlin Tinker. The two were garbed in black assassin-garb, and carried bloodied broadswords.

"How would you like an interesting job?" She asked. Their probing eyes looked her over. It was a bit creepy. Both of them had been good-natured before the game, but because of something they were now evil. They nodded. Jacqueline asked, "What is it?"

Jacy said, "I want you to kill Madison." Both of their mouths curled into grins. "We'll do it."

Chapter Six: Assassins

Madison and Seth sat away from everyone else, discussing what to do. Madison asked, "Do you think they'll pursue us?" Seth shrugged and said, "I doubt it. If they do they'll have a load of trouble. Only our best are left." It had been estimated that only a third of the band was alive.

"Our best and our archers." Madison replied. Seth's head turned to look at Madison with an exasperated look on his face. "That's not the point," He told Madison. Madison nodded. "I know."

There was silence for a little while, then Madison asked, "Did you know that neither Nico or Charles has been seen?" Seth nodded. "I hadn't heard, but I hadn't seen them either." Seth drew his longsword and looked at it. Madison got off of his stump and lay on the ground, staring up into the night sky.

"I wouldn't say they're dead until I see their bodies." Seth told Madison. Madison didn't need that much information to tell if they were dead.

Madison was getting a little bit depressed from their loss. How could they win against such overwhelming odds? Did the people back in the real world expect them to stand a chance? Madison shook his head.

Maybe not, but he would fight as hard as he could. He looked over at Seth, who was still staring at his blade. He asked, "Have you seen Rachel Christian?" Seth shook his head and said, "Ashley Rand told me that Rachel had to retreat into the Plane of Nature to get away from out enemy."

Madison sat up. He would love to travel the planes. "Did Ashley say when she thought Rachel would be coming back?" Seth nodded. "Sometime this night." Madison laid back down, thinking about what the band needed to do.

Should they go back to the Band Headquarters? Madison thought that it would be a very good idea to start with. They should make a stand there, then retreat back even further. To castle Contraire. "We need to go back to the H.Q." Madison said. Seth nodded. "I think that's what Kylia has decided to do."

Kylia was the only remaining elected officer left. Everyone considered her a good leader, and would do what she told them. Well, Seth thought, not necessarily everyone. There was him and Madison.

Breaking both out of their thoughts, a throwing star was diverted off of Madison's magical field and clanged off Seth's sword. The two were standing with their weapons drawn in seconds. Madison threw a dagger off into the woods where the star had come from. There was silence for the moment, then the dagger came flying back. Madison caught it.

"Who's there?" Seth called. The voice that answered came from their right. Seth whirled to face it, while Madison stayed facing where the star had come from. "We have Charles McCullough prisoner. We will give you two days to raise two hundred thousand gold and present it for his release. If you do not, we will kill him." Madison and Seth were both surprised to find that the voice was feminine.

Madison whispered to Seth, "Go get help." Seth nodded, seeing the glint in Madison's eye. Madison meant to go after their assailants. Seth, not bothering to sheath his longsword, ran off towards the main camp.

Madison kept up the conversation. "Where do you want the money delivered?" The voice replied, "Our camp. It's above where we came from." This time the voice was to Madison's left. As the voice finished Madison sprang, drawing Scorpion's Tail as he did.

His first blow was met with a parry, and Madison heard the two assassins spring into motion. Madison heard one behind him and fell to the ground. That assassin hurtled over him, and the other chopped down with her sword. Madison rolled to the side, causing the blow to miss.

All of this was being done on instinct. There was not enough light to fight by from the campfires. This gave the two assassin females an edge. They had trained themselves to be able to fight in the dark. Madison hadn't.

Madison stood and slashed at where he thought the assassin was. He missed and received a shallow blow to his shoulder, and one to his back from the other assassin, who had circled back around.

Madison whirled around, his scimitar going for both assassins in the same motion. They jumped back, dodging the blows, and came back in, their swords set to impale Madison. He stepped to the side, and that, combined with the defensive magic on his clothing, caused the two assassins to miss.

Then all three started to hear signs of help coming for Madison. The two assassins started running, and Madison was hard pressed to keep up. After a short distance, a blue portal shot up in front of the assassins. Madison skidded to a stop in front of it, debating on whether or not to follow.

As the portal started to grow smaller, he shrugged. Why not? Madison jumped into the portal.

Seth arrived just in time to see the portal wink out of existence. He shook his head and sighed. Madison was likely off getting himself killed. He walked back to Kylia. And told her what had happened.

"What should we do?" She asked. Seth replied without hesitation. "We should go back to the H.Q." Kylia nodded, then looked confused. "What about Charles?" Seth shrugged. "They won't gain anything from killing him now. They might not even have him. He'll live if he isn't dead already."

Seth looked over his shoulder, as if expecting Madison to pop out of a bush. "I'd say that the portal Madison went in to leads to somewhere near the camp. If he doesn't get himself killed, he'll rescue Charles."
Kylia nodded, glad that Seth could think everything through for her. She was having a hard time being responsible of all of the Band forces. She was more than happy to rely on advisors like Seth to tell her what to do.

"When are we going to start heading back?" Asked Seth. Kylia looked around the camp. Most of them had had healing magic applied, but some, like Bubba, had been injured past immediate help. Only a few were awake. Most were so tired from the fight that they had fallen asleep immediately after lying down.

"Tomorrow morning. If the wizards had enough magic left we could go tonight, but they used most of it up in the battle." Kylia said.

Seth didn't like this, but he nodded anyway. He couldn't know whether or not they would be ambushed during the middle of the night and all be slaughtered. Seth stood up and moved to leave. "Set up a good guard system." He told his leader.

"It is already done," A feminine voice told them. Rachel Christian walked out of a tree and gestured up to the tree line. Glowing green owls were perched on the branches. Seth chuckled. It was amazing what Rachel could do.

She wouldn't easily stand up to a wizard, as she had no offensive or defensive magics to employ against them. Seth would rather have her on his side than any wizard. Her spells were so versatile and diverse, plus she never seemed to run out of the magical energies she needed to cast her spells.

Seth couldn't have been more wrong when he said that the portal led to somewhere near the Jock camp. Madison jumped out of the portal into an extra-dimensional pocket. He didn't know that, though.

He thought that he came out of the portal into a large, round, gray, featureless room. The two assassins were on opposite sides of him. The room was lit, though there was no source of the light.

With this light Madison could see the faces of the two assassins. His eyes flashed with recognition as he gazed upon the faces. He was immensely surprised to learn the identity of his assailants. They had always been so harmless before the game.

Each had numerous weapons, though they both had their swords out. Green poison dripped from their blades, and Madison assumed they had applied it after he had received his wounds. This thought made him look down at his shoulder.

The wound was gone. The he remembered his Ring of Regeneration.

Both of the assassins charged at him at the same time. As Madison stepped back Kaitlin and Jacqueline changed course. He parried their blows and kept backing up until his back was pressed up against a wall.

As his weapons clashed against the two assassins his foot explored the wall. It was tilted slightly outwards. Madison blocked the two newest blows, then, magically aided by his boots, ran backwards up the wall about ten feet, then pushed off. The two female assassins turned with him as he landed, and attacked again.

Madison jumped to the side, dodging Jacqueline's blow and blocking Kaitlin's. He kicked out at Kaitlin, making her jump back to avoid the blow. He came at Jacqueline with a series of quick stabs and finally got inside the assassin's defenses. All he was able to do was a shallow stab into her belly, but the enchantment on Scorpion's Tail caused the wound to go green.

Madison didn't watch as Jacqueline fell to the ground in agony, but whirled around to face Kaitlin. He whirled around just in time to receive a throwing star in his stomach. He didn't have time to pull it out. Kaitlin charged at him, swinging a spiked chain over her head.

Madison stood still until the chain nearly connected with the side of his head, ducking and charging forward with his knees bent. Kaitlin backed up and brought the chain down hard on the ground forcing Madison to jump to the side.

Madison heard a small whoosh of air as a throwing star was pushed off of the magical force field his enchanted clothing made, and ran to the side. Both assassins chased him as he ran.

He stopped suddenly and whirled around. This surprised both assassins enough for Madison to get a hit in on each. He noticed that Jacqueline's wound was gone, leaving a hole in her clothing where it had been. He also noted that Kaitlin had dropped her chain and was now using her sword.

The two assassins pushed past the pain and came at Madison with a series of quick stabs and feints. They were so fast and many that one got past Madison's defenses and his magical shield to go all the way through his stomach.

He gasped in pain and flung himself back and off the blade. He felt the regenerating magic of his ring go to work as he blocked the new assault of blows.

Madison soon regained the offensive and went to work driving the two assassins back. After a few moments of this he backed up quickly, sheathing his sword and drawing two daggers.

The two assassins started running after him as he threw his daggers. He concentrated on Kaitlin. She was able to dodge and catch the first two, but not the third and forth. The first one buried itself in her shoulder. The fourth went into her neck.

Jacqueline took one look at her fallen comrade, then activated a portal with a magical item hidden in her clothing. It was fifteen feet in the air, but using a small rod Jacqueline was able to fling her self up into the portal. Madison was under the portal in seconds, and threw his last dagger up into it before it winked out of existence.

Madison searched Kaitlin's dead body. He picked up his thrown daggers, and took the two healing potions the assassin had. After he was done he laid out the magical items to see which one could get him out of the demiplane he was in.

There was an amulet, a ring, a short rod, and an orb. The amulet's enchantment was similar to Madison's clothing. The ring made its wearer faster. With the press of a button the rod would become immovable, even in midair. This was how Jacqueline had jumped up fifteen feet. The orb had to be it, Madison thought. His headband showed him that the orb could be used to create a portal.

Madison couldn't figure out how to activate the item, though. After several minutes of thinking, all he could come up with to do was to smash the orb. He laid it on the ground and drew his scimitar and brought it down on the orb.

Then the whole plane erupted in an explosion of green and purple energy.

Jacqueline stormed up to the entrance of Jacy's extra dimensional mansion. Jacy had an item similar to Jacqueline's, only that Jacy's created a customized mansion instead of a featureless dome. Jacy let all of her lieutenants and attendants sleep in the mansion, while everyone else had to sleep in tents.

A guard stepped into her way. "Jacy ordered that no one go in." Jacqueline rolled her eyes and stabbed the guard with a sleep-poisoned dart. She would have liked to kill the impudent guard, but Jacy would punish her for the inexcusable loss of life.

There were several people in the Jock army that Jacqueline didn't like, and only because they were more powerful than her. Only two fighters, Zach Williams and Alex Lockwood, were better than her. Several wizards were, such as Hannah Brock the Summoner. And there was Jacy Tinker.

She was a dark paladin of sorts, and commanded a magic like no one else could. She could tame beasts and charm humans. She could blast things away with her magic and bring someone back from the brink of death.

Jacqueline liked being in control. Around these people she couldn't be. She didn't know what they would do, and there was nothing she could do to change what they wanted.

Jacqueline stormed through the extra dimensional mansion until she came to the entrance of Jacy's private quarters. She was annoyed to see that Alex was sitting beside the door. She ignored him and strode up to the door anyway.

Alex sprung up and was in front of Jacqueline in a second. "She's bathing," He told her. Jacqueline was so annoyed that she didn't think, just tried to scratch Alex with the poisoned dart.

Alex caught her arm and twisted it to the side. He kicked her back and drew his two swords. Jacqueline quickly recovered from the kick and drew her sword. She didn't care if she killed the Weapon's Master or not.

Alex knew better than to kill Jacqueline. Jacy would kill him slowly and use a spell to bring him back to life. Alex had seen it done before. Instead he would just subdue her, an easy goal for the Weapon's Master. He charged and his first two blows were blocked by the enraged assassin.

His third sliced a small gash into Jacqueline's shoulder. Her blows now came quicker at Alex, powered by anger. Alex had no trouble blocking the, especially with his bracers of quickness he was wearing. After blocking a few of the blows his foot shot out and connected with Jacqueline's chain.

Her head lolled back as she fell to the ground. Alex went over to her to make sure that she wasn't dead. He may have made a mistake. Jacqueline's pulse was gone.

Then her body flashed with white magic and her pulse was back. Alex looked over his shoulder to see Jacy. She was wearing an almost translucent gown and was carrying her customary staff.

Jacy wasn't an imposing figure. She was of average height, and was not well muscled. She was, however, extremely alluring. Alex kept his eyes locked with hers to avoid punishment. Jacy was quick to punish for even the slightest mistake. She usually didn't do the punishing, though. She gave those she wanted to be punished over to Lauren Tidwell. Lauren was likely torturing Charles with her magic now.

Jacy dismissed Alex with a wave of her hand and mentally commanded Jacqueline to stand. She did so. They walked into Jacy's quarters together before talking.

The room was filled with all sorts of luxuries that Jacqueline hadn't had in real life. A four-poster bed filled a corner of the room and exotic perfumes sweetened up the air. Jacy flung herself on her bed and gestured for Jacqueline to sit down. She didn't, though, and stood tapping her foot impatiently.

Jacy looked upon the dirty assassin with disdain. Jacy preferred to keep herself and all the things around her as clean as she could. She asked blandly, "How did it go?" Jacqueline's stare bored into Jacy, but she took no notice.

"Kaitlin is dead." Jacqueline told her ruler. Jacy took the news stoically. She hadn't really expected them to come back. "Did you kill him?" She asked. Jacqueline shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I'd bet we did. I'd say he's still trapped in that demiplane."

There were a few moments of silence then Jacqueline asked, "Could you heal me completely?" Jacqueline had been really annoyed when Madison's thrown dagger had come through the portal and buried itself in her thigh.

Jacqueline hadn't expected Madison to be someone of that much skill. She was really embarrassed that he beat her and Kaitlin. The only thing that comforted her in the whole situation was that Madison was dead.

Jacy shook her head. "I'm too tired," was her excuse. "Go find someone else." Jacqueline let out a roar of frustration and stormed from the room. Jacy really hoped Alex would stay out of the way. She really was too tired to attempt any high-powered magic. However, she could have easily healed Jacqueline. She just didn't want to.

Chapter Seven: Regrouping

"Kylia, Kylia!" Jessica yelled as she ran through the band camp. Though it was early in the morning most everyone was awake and preparing to leave. Seth was still a-snoring. He had always been a heavy sleeper, and all of the fighting had made him even more tired. The main reason no one had awakened Seth was because of the rebuttal they would get.

"What is it?" Kylia yelled back, stumbling from her tent. Kylia was short with pretty blond hair that came down past her chin. She had her armor half on as she stumbled out of the tent, and was hastily fastening the rest on. Even though she hoped that they would be able to get back to the band base without any fighting she wasn't stupid enough to assume that there wouldn't be.

"The Jock army is retreating!" Jessica yelled. Most of the band cheered, though several started murmuring about how it was probably just a feint, and how that they would be attacked when they least expected it. Beth Hunt decided to be nice and let Seth hear some of the conversation. She threw a rock that roughly hit Seth on the top of the head.

Kylia fastened another strap on her armor and looked around at everyone, considering what to say to her soldiers. She felt strange thinking of them that way, but thought it best to if she was going to be a good leader.

From behind her tent came Matthew Thompson in his flowing starry robes. He was the most powerful wizard the band had. Matthew was very, very intelligent, and able to memorize the complex gestures and chants that one had to say to make spells work. He said, "Either way it matters not. We are still going back to the Headquarters."

Kylia looked over at Matthew with a thankful expression on her face. She was glad to be able to fall back on Matthew when she needed to, but recognized that she couldn't do this too much if she wanted to keep control of the Band.

If the control of the band were attributed to the amount of power one had Matthew would be in control. Magic was a much more powerful art than melee combat, and Matthew could easily (Some thought) dispatch Madison. Others believed that if Madison or Seth was quick enough they could kill Matthew before he could use a spell. All three were glad that this didn't have to be tested.

Kylia herself was less than all three, and others besides. She was a fighter, and had been taught a few spells that she could use quickly in battle.

"Kylia, I need to talk to you alone," Matthew said it so that no one else could hear. Kylia asked, "Is it important?" Matthew nodded and his right hand made a quick few gestures. A portal opened, to where Kylia couldn't tell. Matthew gestured for Kylia to go in first, and she did.

They were in a lavish extra dimensional room. The one main difference from this one and Jacy's was that this one could be summoned without a magical item.

"I'll get right down to business. I've found the location of Madison." Kylia sat straight up in the comfy couch she had sat in. "Can we get him back? Is he okay?"

Matthew sunk down into his own chair as he carefully considered his answer. "He's not okay, though if we're lucky we could get him back." Kylia's eyes narrowed. "The Jocks don't have him captured do they?" Matthew quickly shook his head.

"I'm not sure if you've read Melissa's compilation," Matthew began. Kylia shook her head. She had never liked reading, but had seriously considered reading Melissa's book. It was very important to know things like that. Matthew continued, "There are several planes of existence, all different. Madison is stuck on one."

"How'd he get there?" Kylia asked. Matthew shrugged. "There's so many different ways I can't be sure." Kylia asked another question. "How are we going to get him back?"

Matthew sighed. "The only way would be to send someone to the Astral Plane, someone highly skilled." He wore a slightly guilty look on his face. "If you don't mind me saying, we can't really spare me, Seth, or Rachel." "Who will we send, then?" Asked Kylia.

Matthew shrugged. "I guess we'll have to ask for volunteers. I'm sure someone will." Kylia nodded and stood up, starting to head to the portal. "Oh, Kylia?" Kylia turned back to Matthew. "Yes?" She asked. "Don't say anything to Seth. He's likely to sneak into the Astral Plane and rescue Madison anyway."

This brought a chuckle to Kylia's lips, but she nodded. She stepped out of the portal and looked around.

Most everyone left was highly skilled and would have been able to rescue Madison, Kylia thought. She had trouble picking the one to ask first. Eventually she went up to Jessica Sterling and explained to her the situation.

"I don't know," Jessica said, surprising Kylia. "It sounds really dangerous." Kylia was surprised because she had thought that Jessica, with her caring heart, would have agreed to go straightaway. "Well think of it like this," Kylia told her.

"Madison is floating in the astral plane, all alone and helpless, and he needs to be rescued. There's a good chance that we could be attacked before to long. We need him back." As she said the words Kylia knew they didn't make much sense, but Jessica nodded.

"When will I go?" She asked. Matthew stepped out of nowhere and asked, "Are you ready?" Jessica nodded. She had on her chainmail, her quiver of arrows, and her magical bow. She especially loved the bow. When the arrows hit someone they burst into flame. Jessica nodded.

Matthew reached inside his robes and pulled out a magical orb. He held it out for Kylia to take. "It will allow you to come back to here." Jessica took it and nodded.

Matthew started chanting and his hands went through the arcane gestures required to cast his spell. Suddenly something barreled into Matthew and flew off quickly. It wasn't very big, but it was very strong.

Matthew was, of course, not wounded. His magical robes, amulets, and a ring protected him better than a suit of full plate mail.

Kylia stooped down and help Matthew to stand while Jessica notched an arrow. "What was that?" She asked. Matthew shook his head as he stood. "I couldn't see enough of it. Get ready to fight it."

Kylia nodded. She had been planning just that. She straightened up and drew her magical longsword. It caused the air around it to shimmer with its magic. Kylia breathed off a quick magical cant and felt her limbs grow slightly with the strengthening magic. This reassured her a bit.

Kylia heard a shriek from the other side of the camp. She turned that way and called out, "What happened?" When nobody answered her, and the screaming kept coming, Kylia started running that way.

She soon came to the person, who had stopped screaming. The girl was dead. Kylia had to turn away at the gruesome sight.

The girl was torn up in several places. An intestine was hanging out of her stomach, and you could see her skull through the flesh on her head.

Back at his tent, Matthew was casting an intricate spell. It would compel the creature to come to him. Matthew wasn't in the least bit worried that he couldn't kill the monster, whatever it was. He had once fought a demon lord and survived.

After the spell was done, Matthew didn't have to wait long for the creature to arrive. It was a young dragon, but a kind unlike anything Matthew had ever heard of.

It was yellow in color, but had bronze tinting on its scales. What amazed Matthew was how fast it flew.

The dragon swooped in and landed maybe twenty yards from Matthew. The rest of the camp backed away. Nobody wanted to be near the display of powerful magic that was to come. No one wanted to get eaten, either.

Before the dragon could get to him Matthew cast a fireball, flinging it at the dragon. The dragon hopped out of the main path of the ball, but Matthew was able to make it explode and wash over the creature.

When the fire dissipated the creature was still there, and was unharmed. So quickly that no one could do anything the creature jumped at Matthew… And fell right through him. Matthew appeared right where the creature had jumped from, and was holding a wand.

He muttered the trigger word for the artifact and a bolt of lighting shot out to strike the creature. The lighting blasted the creature into a tree.

The dragon stood up and leveled its face at Matthew. His eyes narrowed. He knew what was happening. The dragon was about to use its fire breath. Matthew had the appropriate fire-shielding spell ready, but if he used it to soon the dragon would be able to pull off its breath and jump at him. If he used it too late it wouldn't work.

The dragon took a deep breath in. Matthew began his spell, trying to make it as subtle as he could. He hurried it up as soon as he saw that the dragon would go through with its attack.

What Matthew hadn't thought of was that the dragon could move as it fired the breath. So while Matthew was protected from the flames, he wouldn't be from the dragon's impeding jump.

He would have been finished there if not for the intervention of Seth.

Without regard for his own safety Seth plunged into the flames and swiped at the dragon. Though the flame burst enchantment on the blade harmed the dragon none, the blade clove the creature in two.

Matthew was a bit stunned, but recovered quickly. He went down to Seth, who was terribly burned. Matthew cursed his magic. While he could summon blasts of fire, and destroy things with a word, he couldn't heal. Lucky for Seth there were some in the camp who could.

Melissa Moore came rushing out of the camp, her holy symbol in hand. Without asking any questions she swooped down on Seth and started her healing.

Matthew stood, leaving Melissa to her work. He thought for a moment, then walked over to where Jessica had been watching the battle, bow in hand. "I should teleport you before Seth wakes up."

Jessica nodded. "I'm ready," She told Matthew. He nodded, and went into a series of spellcasting gestures. After a while, all Jessica could see was herself and Matthew, and Matthew started fading away. And then she was in the astral plane.

Matthew, a bit exhausted from his spell, walked over to Kylia, who was watching Melissa heal Seth. She was making good progress; half of the burns were gone.

"We need to leave soon," Matthew said. Kylia looked at him quizzically. "Why?" She asked.

Matthew looked around the camp, as if looking for another monster to come and attack him. "That monster was sent by Jacy," He explained, "And the next one she sends could be much bigger."
Kylia nodded, digesting the information. "I'll tell everyone to start packing."

Chapter Eight: The Astral Plane

Jessica looked around. The astral plane was a strange place, she thought. She tried to turn her head to look around, but her head wouldn't move. She panicked, and tried to move something. Anything.

It didn't work.

What happened? She asked herself. Did Matthew do something wrong, or am I caught be some kind of spell? Then she calmed down. Panicking would get her nowhere.

She spent some time thinking. How do you move on the astral plane? She asked herself. Apparently you don't need muscles, she thought.

After a while it came to her that maybe she should just thin about moving, really hard, and it would happen. She concentrated real hard on taking a step forward, just willed it, and it happened.

She got real excited, and wanted to jump for joy. Except that she couldn't, she reminded herself. Jessica concentrated real hard on turning her head. Suddenly, it happened. She was getting somewhere.

After a while Jessica was able to move as well as she could on the material plane. It still felt strange, and her reaction time was a whole lot slower than normal. I'll just have to get used to it, she thought.

Now that she could move, Jessica took a moment to observe the Astral Plane. It was a very strange place. In all directions it was black, but there were little specks of gray in the distance all around.

Her heart was filled with dismay. How was she going to search the entire plane, looking for one person? What kind of chance did she have of finding Madison? She wondered. She shook her head and looked down to the globe at her belt. At least she could go back if she got into trouble.

"Don't worry," A voice in her head told her, "I'll help you find him." Jessica looked around in alarm, and nocked her bow in case she would need to fire.

"I'm not going to hurt you," The voice told her. Considering the voice, Jessica believed it. The voice was soft and bubbly, an a bit excited. "Show yourself," Jessica commanded.

The voice giggled. "Sure," It said. It popped into visibility right in front of her, scaring her so much that her muscles worked involuntarily to make her jump backwards.

The creature appeared harmless. It looked like it was made of water, and Jessica wouldn't have been able to see it except for the bubbles floating around in the creature's body. "What are you?" Jessica asked.

"A water spirit." The creature replied. "My name's Avalee." Jessica smiled. "Well, Avalee, did you see Madison?"

The creature nodded, though Jessica just saw it's head jiggle. "He was floating up that way." The creature told her. Jessica was a bit upset. How in the world was she going to go upwards? She wondered.

"How do I move upwards?" She asked Avalee. The water spirit just giggled. "Like this," She said, and shot upwards. "Come back!" Jessica yelled.

Avalee did so. "You'll have to wait a little while, I haven't quite gotten this moving stuff," Jessica told the creature. Avalee said, "Sure," And started to zoom around while waiting for Jessica to figure out how to move up.

Jessica jumped. She moved up, but came back down to where she was to begin with. Then she came up with an idea. Maybe if she just stopped trying to move in midair she would stop, and therefore be ahead of where she started.

She tried this, but wasn't able to stop at all. Instead, she started falling down, and had no way to stop. Jessica closed her eyes, hoping there wasn't a bottom to the plane, and concentrated on stopping. Within a few seconds she did so.

Jessica tried jumping again, and this time she was able to stop at the highpoint of her jump. Excited, she did this several more times and got back to the level she started at. Going slower this time, she took a step, and stopped moving at the highest point of her step. Then she moved the other foot, and then again, and before she knew it she was walking up like there were stairs.

"Yay!" Jessica exclaimed. Avalee zoomed up to her. "Are we ready to go?" The water spirit asked. "Yes, we are." "Good!" Exclaimed Avalee. "Follow me."

Jessica followed Avalee up, but was at a disadvantage, as Avalee could move straight up, and Jessica had to go like she was on a spiral staircase. Eventually they got up near to one of the gray things, which was actually a gray portal, and it reminded Jessica somewhat of a galaxy.

Jessica started feeling stronger and healthier the longer she stayed near the portal. "Where does this go?" She asked Avalee. "To Elysium, a plane of good." Jessica asked, "Is this where Madison went."

Avalee shook her head. "Then where did he go, and why are we being pulled backwards?" For the first time, the water spirit's voice was solemn. "Look behind you." Jessica did, fearing what she would see, and rightfully so.

A large red portal, ten times as big as the one to Elysium, was looming behind them. "That's where Madison went." Jessica gulped. "Well, I have to go, are you coming." Avalee disappeared.

Jessica shrugged, and resisted not as the portal pulled her in. She betrayed none of her inner fear as she went into it and was transported to the Abyss.

She looked around. Besides the island of rock she was on, everything was lava. The island she was on was a volcano, and was constantly shooting out large gouts of lava. It was extremely hot, and she was already sweating. She'd have to be extremely careful.

Jessica heard something over the roar of the volcano. Where was it? She wondered. She glanced around, and found that the sound seemed to be coming from below her. Jessica wandered around the volcano until she came to an opening underground.

She went down it carefully, at least glad that she didn't have to worry about lava falling on her head. As she went down into the bowels of the volcano, the other sound grew louder. When she reached a level sections in the caverns she could tell that the commotion was coming from a fight.

Jessica let her ears guide her towards the scene of the fight, wary of lava shooting up from fissures, and made sure not to get too close to the rivers of lava.

She rounded the bend and found Madison. He wasn't alone. Madison was fighting several demons. Jessica brought her bow up for a shot, but wondered at how wise that would be.

Madison was surrounded by several of the evil things, and they were to close for Jessica to be sure that she would hit one of them and not Madison.

The demons were vaguely humanoid, but hunched over like apes. They had axes in their hands, tusks in their mouths, and tails dripping with powerful venom. Jessica wondered how Madison could be holding up against the things.

In all actuality, Madison would be dead if it weren't for his protective clothing and his ring of regeneration. He fought and killed around twenty of the demons, and some others besides, and had suffered wounds from almost every fight, but his regeneration ring constantly healed his wounds.

When Madison saw Jessica he quickly killed one of the demons and utilized his magical boots to jump and grab on to an overhang. Jessica saw her opportunity and fired several shots into the demons.

When the demons turned to charge at Jessica, Madison dropped back down and finished them each with a single blow.

He smiled at Jessica, and started running towards her. And a good thing he did, for another group of demons came up from a tunnel leading deeper into the volcano. Jessica reached down and pulled out the orb that would take them back to the material plane.

Just as Madison was about to reach Jessica a giant tentacle reared up from the river of lava and swatted him aside, back towards the demons. Jessica fired off several shots into the tentacle, causing it to retreat back into the lava, then turned to the group of demons with Madison in their midst.

As she couldn't see Madison, she thought it safe to fire off three shots. After she did so she still couldn't see Madison, and got worried. She fired more shots until she could see Madison.

Jessica's fire slackened in surprise when she saw Madison. His stomach was ripped open, various wounds pockmarked his body, and his left arm had been completely cut off. Even so, his ring was at work, healing up his stomach. But it couldn't bring back limbs.

Madison ran at Jessica as fast as he could, and sheathed his scimitar. He took her hand and motioned for her to break the orb. She did so, and a cloud of fog emitted from it, quickly engulfing the two.

After a while the clouds started dissipating, and revealed a scene the both of them were familiar with. They were at the campsite, except it was devoid of tents.

A lone figure was still there. It was Matthew. "Good job," He told Jessica. Then he rushed over to Madison. "You seem to be ok."

"Except for my arm." Madison added dryly. Matthew chuckled. Madison would be the only one to take the loss of a limb like that.

"You ready to go back home?" Matthew asked. Madison nodded, and Jessica said, "Yeah!"

"Before we go," Madison said, "How long were we gone?" Matthew thought for a moment. "A week." Jessica looked a bit confused. "It didn't seem that long." Madison shook his head. "No, it didn't."

"Time passes differently on different planes," Matthew told them. He cast a spell, and they were back at the Band Headquarters.

Chapter Nine: Retreat to Castle Contraire

Everyone was overjoyed at Madison and Jessica's return, but couldn't celebrate, as Matthew's scrying had told them that the jock army was marching on them now, and would be at the Band Headquarters in four days.

Fortification of the headquarters began then. The mages cast protective spells and made magical traps. The others constructed ballista and mundane traps, and built a wood and stone wall around the fort.

Madison, with only one arm, couldn't help. Instead he spent most of this time reading Melissa's book, and also reading one of Matthew's book of spells.

He was looking for one in particular, a spell that would render magic ineffective on him. After a while he found it, and set to mastering it. It was particularly difficult, and he came to several points where he thought he would have to give up, but eventually he had learned it.

After this he went around and watched as the Band prepared for their second battle. No one thought badly of him because he wasn't helping. They felt sorry for him. He smirked. Let them, he thought.

On the second day he went to Matthew, who was supervising the construction of the magical traps. "Hey Matthew," He called. Matthew looked slightly annoyed as he walked over to Madison.

He's really gotten into the part of the cranky old mage, Madison thought.

"Matthew, I think we need a way out of here if things go ill." Matthew nodded. "I had been thinking about something like that," He replied, "But I don't know where we would go to."

Madison said, "Castle Contraire." Matthew looked a bit confused, but hid it well. Madison explained, "It's my castle," And then proceeded to tell Matthew the location of it.
Matthew nodded. "I'll construct a portal there." Madison asked, "Will you be able to close it once we all get to the Castle?" Matthew nodded. "I'll have to stay behind and close it myself, and then I'll teleport over there." Madison smiled. "Good," He said.

Matthew went off to go and start working on the portal.

The next day, right after breakfast, Madison went to Seth and asked, "You want to spar? I need to get used to my only arm." Seth nodded, and smiled. Maybe he would be able to beat Madison now.

They went outside the H.Q. and drew their weapons. Seth started, with an overhead swipe that he knew Madison wouldn't be able to parry with only one arm. Madison didn't, and moved to the left, keeping his scimitar between him and Seth's sword.

He moved forward, his scimitar held all the way out to slash at Seth's neck. Seth ducked and sent his sword out to cut at Madison's ankles. Madison jumped over the blow, and turned around as Seth stood up. They smiled at each other before the fight resumed.

Seth stabbed in at Madison's stomach, and Madison scooped the blow to the side. Madison stabbed at Seth's head. Seth stepped backwards, putting his face just out of range for Madison's stab.

Seth's sword came up and pushed the scimitar to the side and rushed forwards. Madison jumped to the side and whirled around, his scimitar out. Seth ducked under the blow, and it almost sliced a layer of skin off of his back.

He turned to face Madison and stabbed in. Madison turned to the side, bringing his stomach just to the side of the blade. His scimitar pushed the blade away, and as he did this his right foot went out and curled around Seth's leg. He gave it a fierce tug and Seth tumbled down.

His scimitar flashed down at Seth's neck, but he rolled to the side.

Then a voice called out, "Everyone gather in the meeting room."

Madison sheathed his scimitar as Seth stood up. They hurried to the meeting room, the second largest room in the H.Q.

All of the eighty-odd Band Members easily fit into the room. Matthew was standing on the podium, and Kylia was seated by his side. Matthew began the talking first.

"The Jock's will be here tonight." At this most of the Band began murmuring. Matthew continued, and the murmuring stopped. "When I call a retreat, everyone go to the basement, and into the portal."

Kylia stood up. "We think that the Jocks will offer some kind of bargain for Charles. We will most likely not accept it, so just follow our lead." Matthew clapped his hands, summoning up a floating map in midair. To add a bit of levity, there was a large red arrow saying 'You are here' on it.

A large black dot was moving towards where the arrow pointed. "The black dot is the Jock army." Matthew explained. "Get to your stations." Kylia told them. Everyone did so.

When night fell, Matthew's voice boomed out again, saying, "The Jock's will be here within the hour." After the voice went out, lights appeared in the trees, faintly lighting up the area.

All of the most respected Band Members gathered at the top of the building. There was Madison, Matthew, Kylia, Rachel, and Seth. They stared out into the trees, wondering when the first Jocks would step out of the woods.

They needn't of worried. They heard their enemy long before they got there. Madison and Seth, who could have moved through the brush with no sound, laughed at how careless their enemy was being.

Several arrows shot out from the Band Headquarters into the woods, and cries of pain shot up. This just helped the archer's aim. After a while, though, the majority of the Jock army had come into sight, and Kylia ordered the archers to stop.

Jacy stood at the front of the army, holding a chain, on which was attached Charles McCullough. Madison drew a dagger and got in a throwing position, just in case. Nobody noticed this; they were all closely watching Jacy.

She took a few looks around, then said, "Surrender this location to us, and we'll give you Charles."

Madison was only half listening to Jacy. He was also observing the enemy army, and Charles. He was glad to see that the cavalry was gone. Madison noticed that there was a large group of zombies standing off to one side, and that Jacy had no large mount.

Charles, Madison knew, was dead. His blank look and pallid skin would have alerted a careful observer, plus Madison had his headband. Charles' body was cloaked with necromantic magic.

On instinct, he threw his dagger, which went up to its hilt in Charles' head. The other people on the roof looked incredulously at Madison, but he gestured for them to look at Charles. At first they didn't understand what he was thinking, but then they saw what he wanted them to.

Though Charles had received a dagger in the head, he hadn't moved, his expression hadn't changed. He just stood there, a blank expression on his face. Kylia smiled, glad that Madison had revealed the trick so quickly.

Arrows shot out of the H.Q. straight at Jacy. They hit a magical shield and fell to the ground. Jacy barely noticed as she stormed off into the woods.

Then the Band spellcasters started flinging magic. The Jocks' offensive magic was limited, while they mostly concentrated on stopping the Bands' offensive spells. They did this because they knew the H.Q. would have powerful defensive magic placed on it.

Madison heard chanting and looked over to see Matthew start casting his first spell. After a few moments of spellcasting, Madison assumed the spell would be very powerful, and looked forwards to seeing it go off. And then it did.

A massive bolt of lighting went up into the sky, which was immediately covered by clouds. After a few more moments lighting bolts flew down from the clouds to pound into the Jock's ranks.

This spell, as powerful as it was, got passed the Jock's limited magical shields, and took out a good number of them with great booming explosions. After a moment of this, the Jock spellcasters were able to dispel it, and then the magical duel between the armies ended, but not before Matthew cast one more spell.

A fireball came from his hand and flew into the middle of the zombies. It exploded, bringing the number of zombies down to thirty.

After this last spell, the Jocks started their march. Arrows flew and embedded themselves in those unfortunate to be in the front. Then the majority of the Jocks were protected by the wall the Band had made. They immediately began pounding at the wall, trying to get in.

This pounding stopped as loud metallic clanking sounds came from the woods. Four of the things stepped out. These were steel golems, Madison remembered. They looked like statues of armor-clad men. Fifteen-foot tall men.

A few arrows shot out of the H.Q., but they just hit the metallic bodies and fell to the ground. Madison shook his head. This was going to be difficult.

From Matthew's outstretched hands shot two bolts of lighting. They both went into the same golem, blasting it into a large oak. The oak fell over, but the golem seemed to be fine. Matthew shot a fireball into the tree, and it and the golem went up into flames that completely obscured everyone's vision of the area.

Matthew's hands went down. This was using up too much of his magic. He was extremely glad when he saw the animated tree, Hidewood, crashed out of the forest.

Hidewood, who towered over the golems by a good ten feet, was easily able to smash a golem into bits with one crushing blow of a limb. Now there were two golems, and these two quickly lumbered within the reach of the tree and started pounding on it.

As soon as Hidewood could, another golem flew off into the woods, smashing into several trees. This left only one. Before either of the two constructs could do anything, a green dragon reared up over them from the woods and spat a gob of acid at them.

Hidewood was immediately killed, and fell on the golem. Everyone looked at the dragon in amazement.

Madison was in particular amazed. This was the third dragon he had seen. Krikk had been the smallest; the dragon Jacy had been riding at the first battle between the two armies. This one was twice the size of the black one Jacy had been riding during the two armies first battle. On the dragon's back Madison could see Jacy.

Where does she get them? He wondered. He shrugged as he jumped over the edge of the H.Q. and landed softly on the ground, closely followed by Seth.

The dragon spat another gob of acid, this time at the wall. It had soon dissolved, and Jock troops started crossing over where is had once been. The arrow fire went up again, and quickly drove the chargers back. The jocks were content to stay back, especially when they saw to of the golems lumbering towards the fortress.

One of them was severely melted, but still moving, and the other was torn up and limping. This one held its arm with its other, meaning to use it as a weapon. How much punishment can these things take? Seth wondered.

Madison was more watching the dragon, which was spitting more gobs of acid at the H.Q. These gobs didn't get past Matthew's protective enchantments, but Madison, and the dragon, knew that the enchantments were limited, and would be down soon.

Matthew wasn't going to stand by and watch as that happened. Bolt after bolt of lighting rammed into the dragon's side. The dragon seemed only minorly annoyed by this, and kept spitting.

Madison realized that Jacy could keep on healing the dragon, and that Matthew's spells were being wasted. He called up, "Matthew, stop attacking the dragon!" Madison wasn't sure that Matthew heard, but the lighting blasts stopped. Then the golems got to them.

Seth faced off against the partly melted one. He would have to be careful, as a misplaced stroke could send molten metal flying into his face.

Seth kept as far away as he could from the golem, only going within range of the golem's arms when he knew he would be able to get a strike in. The fire magic of his sword further melted the golem, and he soon had it down. He looked over at Madison.

Madison was faring much worse. He had been knocked to the ground, and the golem was trying to stomp on him. Madison was able to roll to the side of the feet every time, but his look would soon run out.

Seth charged at the creature, but was hit and flew to land on the ground several yards away. He took a look around as he stood up, and noticed the Jocks were charging in full, and the first of them would reach him in a few moments.

He ran towards Madison and the golem, glad as he saw a group of ten Band members come out of the building, including the sorcerer Ashley Rand.

A bolt of lighting flew from her hand and pounded into the golem, putting it off-balance. A second bolt sent it teetering to the ground. Madison stood up, and turned to face the oncoming charge. The numbers were just too many.

"Retreat!" Matthew's voice boomed out. Madison and Seth turned to the door, where Addie, Bubba, and Beth were standing. Bubba had an arrow in his thigh, and the three of them looked as if they had no intention of moving.

Seth immediately got what they were going to try and do. He patted Bubba on the back as he passed, saying, "See you on the other side," Madison would have patted Bubba, but his lack of an empty hand prevented this. He did say, "Good luck."

Madison and Seth raced down into the basement of the headquarters, where people were racing into the portal. They were some of the last there. Matthew was standing beside the portal, and gestured for them to go in.

Seth went in, but Madison stayed back. "That's everyone who's coming." Matthew shook his head. "I'm going to wait until the last moment. Then I will destroy this place and everything in it before I teleport away."
Madison looked around. The building was shaking, and Madison could smell the acid burning away at the building. "It's going to fall down anyway." Matthew nodded. "I'm going to take a few of them with the H.Q."

Madison smiled and went into the portal.

Matthew heard the dying noises of Bubba, Beth, and Addie, and began his last spell at the Band H.Q. It was a massive portal to the abyss, and allowed as many demons to come out as the demons wanted. He placed it right under the fortress.

So he really wasn't teleporting out of the Band H.Q., he was teleporting out of the abyss. This didn't matter, and he arrived at Castle Contraire just fine.

Jacy looked down from her green dragon flying in the air and saw the portal. She was extremely annoyed. They had only killed at most five band members, while they had lost around fifty.

And now there was this huge gaping portal. And they didn't know where the band had gone. This night couldn't have been more of a disaster, Jacy though to herself. She had thought too soon.

A massive claw came out of the portal, causing Jacy's army to run away. The second claw came out. It was about ten feet long. Jacy and her dragon were too stunned to do anything as the entire creature came out of the portal. It was just a bit bigger than Jacy's dragon, Skalinost.

Skalinost spat a glob of acid at the demon. The glob hit the thing full in the chest, and smoke rose from the wound. The demon looked up at Skalinost and shot a beam of fire at the dragon.

Skalinost dodged around it and flew down towards the creature. The dragon prepared to rake the demon with its claws, but wasn't able to as the demon swiped at it, sending Skalinost and Jacy to the ground.

Jacy jumped off and started running away from the two giant creatures. She wanted to be nowhere near when they started fighting. Then she headed back to where her army was, and instructed the spellcasters to work on dispelling the portal.

Then she led the charge at the demons that were coming out of the portal. These were much smaller than the one who had come out first, the biggest being around ten feet tall.

In a short while the portal was dispelled, but not before the Jocks had lost a good number of soldiers.

Jacy looked over at Skalinost. Or, more accurately, Skalinost's corpse. It was buried under the giant demon's corpse.

She swung her mace at a soldier in frustration. The soldier, strangely, ducked under the blow. There were very few who could do that, and only one she knew that was male.

This person was too skinny to be Alex, and was not carrying two swords. Instead, he had in his hands two daggers, which were raised protectively. He had on chainmail, and across his back were a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

She sighed. Jacy had hoped that this one died off on some adventure. She, apparently, was wrong. It was Jessie Butler. And then the implications of him being around hit her hard. That would mean Sam Todd was around.

And sure enough, Sam came walking out of a group of soldiers. He was dressed in brown robes, and had all sorts of trinkets adorning him. He was the only other person in the Jock army who could use the same kind of magic as Jacy. He was the only person, she imagined, who could use it better than she.

Sam was holding in his hand a short staff that ended with a spear-point, and had all sorts of trinkets on it, just like its wielder. Jacy knew that this particular item was extremely powerful, and contained potent magic within it, enough to level a city, if the wielder knew how to use it. Sam knew of this power, but was still trying to access it.

Jacy considered the pair. Sam was the powerhouse with his magic and all, but the pair had won a good deal of fights because their opponents had underestimated Jessie. He was a good fighter, though not nearly as good as Alex. The real danger was if he got behind you.

"What just happened here?" Sam asked. Jacy was so annoyed that she considered striking Sam with her mace, and would have had Sam been a lesser soldier.

"You would know if you had been here to help," She responded tersely. Sam shrugged and gave his annoying chuckle. "Well, we decided it was too dangerous." Jacy snorted. The pair had probably been out carousing with some of the girls from the army. She would have to keep a close eye on the two.

"Go help heal our warriors," She ordered him. Sam nodded and went off, though Jacy was never sure if he actually followed her order. Jessie stuck his tongue out at Jacy before running away.

Jacy sighed. It had been a bad night.

Chapter Ten: Siege at Madison's Castle

Most of the days at Castle Contraire were spent relaying supplies between the castle and Marikest, and fortifying the area.

This would be more of a siege than the H.Q. battle, they knew, and were basing what they did off of this. They built a pond into the ground in the middle of the courtyard, incase the Jocks used fire.

Matthew went improving the magical fortifications, and enchanted the two Ballista's arrows with thunder magic, which was fast becoming his favorite element. Rachel was often seen out among the trees, though no one knew what she was doing.

Madison spent most of this time exploring, mostly in the tunnels. One day, he came to a strange area.

Into the stone at his feet was carved a strange thing. It was circular, and only roughly hewn, but one could immediately tell it was not a random rock formation. Madison jumped on to it, and it started to move.

He jumped off, and a good thing he did so. The round piece of stone tumbled down and quickly hit something. Then it started to slide down what Madison could see were stairs. After a while it the sliding noise abruptly stopped.

Madison drew his scimitar and headed down the stairs. As he progressed down the torchlight from the areas above faded out and were replaced by the glow from luminescent crystal that were on the sides of the wall.

When Madison got to the bottom of stairs he looked around in amazement. The whole place was made with the crystals, all of which gave off a glow, all purple hued. This was so amazing, Madison thought to himself.

He looked around. Tunnels branched off everywhere, and he knew he wouldn't be able to travel them all before the Jocks got to his castle. Not letting this daunt him, he set off down one.

After a while, he came to a large cavern. A series of crystal walkways hung over a lake of acid. Madison was tentative of setting foot on the walkways, not knowing if they would hold his weight.

After a few moments of debating on whether or not this was a good idea, Madison stepped foot onto the walkways. He was glad to discover that they would easily hold his weight.

Madison went out to the center of the cavern and looked around. The walkways went all the way down to the acid lake, and all the way up to the ceiling. He saw an opening in the ceiling, and went up to it.

He stepped foot into the next chamber, and immediately wish he hadn't. Madison had stepped into the center of a large goblin camp. Madison estimated that there were easily several hundred goblins.

Though Madison feared not one goblin, or ten, or even twenty if he could fight them one at a time, he knew that if he stayed and fight he would most likely be defeated. He turned around and ran back down the crystal walkways.

Madison was careless here, and was not able to stop himself as he fell over the edge of the walkway he was on. He was grateful when he was able to catch onto the edge of another section of the walkway.

He was not so grateful when Scorpion's Tail fell in the process, and when he realized he had only one arm to pull himself up with. Madison glanced down, and saw that Scorpion's Tail was not in the acid, then glanced up. The goblins were coming quick.

He pulled himself up carefully, and it took him a lot longer than it would have had he the full use of his limbs. After Madison stood he debated for a second whether to run or to get his scimitar.

Madison rushed down the walkways, and finally got to Scorpion's Tail. He scooped it up and turned to see how close his goblin pursuers were. They had gotten past where Madison had to go to get out. Madison would have to fight.

He waited where he was for a little while. It amused him how often the goblins pushed their kin off into the acid, and at how reckless these goblins were. Over thirty of them had already fallen into the lake, and when Madison charged even more would fall.

Madison waited until the goblins were only several yards away, then charged, letting out a roar. He wouldn't normally give a battle cry, but he knew it would be a good idea, as goblins scared real easily.

His tactic worked, sending goblins scrambling back and more fell into the acid. The smell was beginning to get horrible. Madison's scimitar flashed, cutting goblins left and right.

He wasn't focusing much on killing the goblins as he was pushing them back. All he needed to do was get to the exit, and then he would run and get some Band members to help.

After a few moments of fighting Madison was able to escape, and many of the goblins were in full-flight. He chuckled, then turned around and ran back towards the stairs. It wasn't hard for him to remember where they were, and once he got to the top he turned around and looked at his pursuers.

He couldn't see them, as he could run much faster than the short-legged creatures, but he could hear them coming. Madison turned and ran back to the inside of castle Contraire.

"There's a tribe of goblins from the mountains coming up this way!" He yelled, then turned around and went back to fight the goblins some more. Madison went back to the stairs to wait for the goblins. They were almost there.

Seth was the first Band member to get there, and Madison decided to make a bet. "Hey Seth, here's to a hundred gold saying that I can kill more goblins than you." Seth smirked. "You're on!" He charged, with Madison right beside him.

Before too long, they had the goblins all the way back to their cavern, and were standing at the entrance, debating on whether or not to go in. Suddenly, Matthew appeared and cast a gigantic fireball into the goblin's home, then teleported away. Madison and Seth looked at each other and shrugged.

"How many did you get?" Madison asked. "Forty nine." Madison smiled. "A hundred and twenty three." Seth narrowed his eyes. "After we made the bet." Madison chuckled. "Forty nine." They both laughed for a good while, then decided that the stench of the goblin's burnt flesh was too great, and left.

A week after this incident Matthew informed them all that the Jock army had found out their location, and that they would be there in a week.

Madison was glad. It had grown boring around Castle Contraire. The only thing fun had been when he and Seth had stumbled into a cave full of trolls. Now, he thought, we might actually get to the end of this game.

He didn't want the game to end, and liked it much more than real life, but he knew it would end.

Then, a week later, the Jock army came. It was massive, as always, but this time was accompanied by multiple siege engines. The Jock army set up out of range of bowshot, and started assembling everything. During this time magic was exchanged.

Madison enjoyed watching Matthew single-handedly defeat multiple Jock spellcasters, but was sure to cast his spell on himself before he came anywhere near Matthew during one of his magical duels.

The siege weapons started flying at nightfall. Madison went up to one of the ballistae and started aiming it at a trebuchet. Said trebuchet let off a shot.

A massive boulder, maybe seven feet in diameter, flew at the castle, and Madison was a bit scared when he could see that it was coming towards his tower. He was particularly glad, then, when Matthew destroyed the rock with a single bolt of lightning.

Madison let the ballista bolt fly, and saw the one in the other tower do the same. While his missed by the trebuchet by a couple yards, still killing a few, the other bolt crashed right in to a catapult, and blew up.

After a few more exchanges like this, the tower opposite Madison was rendered useless, but all of the enemy siege engines were gone. Madison surrendered the ballista to Seth, who wanted a turn, and went out among the archers, helping Kylia give them instructions on where to aim.

And just in time, it seemed, for the first group of enemy arrows went up. They were flaming, and easy to see. Madison stayed where he was, knowing that Matthew's magical shield would block the arrows. It did, and then Madison took cover close to the wall. Matthew would have to lower the shield for their archers to fire.

Fire they did, but not with fire arrows. They wanted the arrows to be hard to see, and therefore hard to block with a shield.

Multiple cries of pain went up at the arrows hit the enemy's ranks. Madison knew that some of them had been deflected by Jock magical shields.

The archers ran to the wall to take cover as they readied their next shots. The Jock's had no way of knowing this, and fired at where they thought the Band archers would be. Not a single Band Member was killed in that volley.

Then the Band archers went back out to the center of the courtyard, and let their arrows fly. After the shots were made, around ten of the archers dropped down, clutching arrows. Madison shook his head. They had been outsmarted.

Kylia yelled out, "Get up to the wall!" The fifteen or so archers left did so, as did Madison. The march of the Jocks had begun.

The archers on both sides kept up a steady stream of arrows back and forth. The Band archers were focusing on the enemy archers instead of the soldiers who were coming towards the wall. This was because said soldiers were carrying something that seemed like a string of shields.

Soon the Jock archers had stopped firing, scared that doing so would give away their positions to the Band Archers, who had far better aim. The Band archers had no idea where to fire. As it was very dark, the only targets they had were the heavily armed ones stomping up to the walls.

Then something caught everyone's attention. A mage, or so it seemed, on the Jock side was casting a ritual spell. The area around him was lit up by his magic, and no one was standing within the light.

The archers shot at him, but stopped after the first shot. Their shot's had hit, but every time they did so the arrows were absorbed into the caster's body and made him a bit bigger. In total, the arrows had caused the mage to grow about a foot.

All eyes were on the caster, except for Seth and Madison's, who were also looking around at other people in the army. This might just be a diversion.

Madison's headband told him that the spell this caster was going to cast was going to be really powerful, and he was tempted to tell Matthew. He didn't because he figured Matthew was already aware of this, and was preparing a defensive spell to counter.

When the advancing troops were around twenty feet away from the wall Sam let off his spell. From the rod came an immense flame that formed itself into the likeness of a dragon.

This drew all eyes, including Madison and Seth's. Madison tensed up, preparing to spring away, while Seth drew his sword and held it in a defensive position. Lighting fast the blast came, but Madison was able jump off of the wall before it hit.

It hit the gatehouse, right under where Matthew was standing, and blew up. The gatehouse was totally annihilated, as were the walls nearby. Several Band Members were blasted into the air, and after the flames left there was no sign of Matthew.

Madison, even though he had already jumped, was hit by the fire. Seth was hit on the side of the head by a chunk of rock, and fell off the wall to the ground.

Jacy viewed the battle from her position on her newest mount. This time it was only a horse, but inside it was held dark magic. She smiled when she saw the blast from Sam's staff destroy the gatehouse, and was even more pleased when the powerful mage Matthew did not reappear.

Her advancing troops let out a yell, and dropped the shields, running at full speed towards Castle Contraire. She smiled. Maybe it would end tonight.

She looked down to where Sam was limping away from the site of his spell. Jacy had ordered Jacqueline to kill him while he was weak, and therefore was not surprised when Sam fell down dead. Jacy chuckled. Jessie was probably far away after seeing that. He could have easily been next.

A yell went up from the front line of her troops. A magical barrier prevented them from moving any farther. Jacy's eyes widened. This could only mean one thing…

Matthew appeared hovering over the troops. Lighting shot down from the clouds and gathered around him, causing the area to light up. Matthew was in a horrible state; his skin was completely black from burns and his magical robes were burnt halfway off. He had one last spell to cast.

Jacy shrieked for her archers to shoot their arrows at the mage. They did so, and the arrows embedded themselves in Matthew's side. This didn't seem to faze him at all. The crackling of the magic went on, and Matthew started to glow with the power inside him.

Jacy shook her head. There was nothing she could do. She recognized what Matthew was about to do, and could do the same thing herself. That was how she knew that there was nothing she could do to counter it.

Suddenly, all the sound in the area was cut off. Jacy couldn't hear a thing, not even her own heartbeat. Then Matthew exploded, and the blast killed all of the advancing troops.

Jacy's second in command looked at her in amazement, silently asking what had happened. Jacy was staring at the ground, shaking her head. Maybe killing Sam hadn't been a good idea. He, at least, could have been able to contain the blast a bit.

She signaled for all positions to fall back. They would press the attack in the morning.

Jacy considered the force she had left. Only a few spellcasters were left, and none of them were much good. She had Alex, and around two hundred other warriors. She estimated that the band had about thirty-five. They were pretty evenly matched.

"Well, that was very strange," Kylia said. The Band had retreated down to the caverns after Madison and Seth had recommended the place as a place to stay until another more suitable one could be found.

Most everyone in the band was nursing a wound. There were only two people who could heal left, and they had both run out of magic a long time ago. They estimated it to be night, but none of them could be sure, them being underground and all.

Seth, holding the side of his head from where the rock struck him, went over to sit by Madison. "Yes, it was," He agreed. "We lost Matthew." Everyone hung their head. None of them thought they would outlive Matthew.

Kylia turned to limp down to her pallet. "Get some rest," She told them.

Seth turned to Madison. "Can I borrow your ring?" He asked. Seth had been reminded of the ring when he saw that Madison was devoid of wounds, though he certainly acted like he was hurting. The ring did nothing about pain, and Madison had jumped off a fifteen-foot high gatehouse and landed on his arm. He was sure to be hurting.

Madison shook his head wearily. "It only works if you have it on when you get the wound." He told him. Madison looked around, then reached an arm into a cape pocket. "Don't tell anybody," He said as he produced the healing potion, "I don't want everyone asking for them."

"You don't have enough for everyone, do you?" Seth asked. Madison shook his head and chuckled. Seth popped off the cork and quickly guzzled the potion down. He felt his wounds immediately start healing.

Madison glanced around again, as if wary of being overheard. "You know what," He said, "I think we should go ambush the Jocks in the middle of the night." Seth asked, "You mean the whole band?" Madison shook his head. "No, just me and you." Seth looked over the Band, and his eyes locked on one person.

"What about Doug?" He asked. Madison looked at the sleeping samurai. "Sure," He said, "Doug can come." Seth smiled. "I'll go get him." Madison said, "Meet me at the gatehouse." Seth nodded.

A minute or so later the three met at the destroyed gatehouse. They had been right about it being night, but they could see just fine.

Not only because of the fires that still burned in the brush and the tree. Madison could make his way around the area just fine using his headband to look at the residual magic that coated almost everything in the area. Doug had been gifted permanent night vision by Matthew after saving the mage's life one time. Seth got the ability from a magical pendant.

"So what is the plan?" Doug asked. There was a moment of silence. Madison had just planned to go and kill as many as he could before discovered, then run away before he was killed. He told this to his two friends.

"Sounds good," Seth said. They started walking towards the Jock camp, which was lit up by massive bonfires. They tried to stay behind trees to stay out of the vision of any guards, and they seemed to do a good job, as they weren't caught.

"Wait," Seth hissed. Both Doug and Madison's hands went to their weapons, but this wasn't what Seth meant. "I have an idea," He told them. "Let's hear it," Madison said. "Yeah!" Doug added. Seth looked down at the short samurai. "That was unnecessary. Anyway, here is my idea. Two of us need to cause commotion, and the third needs to go inside Jacy's big mansion and kill her."
"Now we just have to decide who does what," Doug said. There were a few moments of silence. They each knew that both the others wanted the task. Eventually Madison and Seth looked at each other, then down at Doug. "You can do it." They told him. "Yay," Doug said dryly.

They snuck up to the camp, and were glad to find that there weren't many guards, and that those who were there weren't very attentive. They drew their weapons as silently as they could, then nodded.

Seth led the charge, and clove the closest guard in two. Madison was next, darting off to the side to get another guard. Doug headed straight for the entrance of the extra dimensional mansion.

Before too long the Jocks were all awake, though most of them didn't put up too much resistance when Madison or Seth stormed into their tent and killed them.

When a group of around ten archers set up in an area and started scanning it for signs of Seth and Madison, Seth dropped back behind a tree. He looked at the entrance to the mansion. Doug had been in there a long time.

From the moment Doug had entered the mansion he had come across trouble. Two well-trained guards had been standing right beside the door, and though he caught them by surprise, they were able to give him a few minor wounds before they died. And now he was fighting this guy. Doug thought the guy's name was Alex.

And it was indeed Alex who he was fighting. Alex was fighting without any armor on, indeed, he didn't even have a shirt, but he was winning. Alex's too swords were just too fast for Doug.

They had fought for a good while now, and Doug was constantly losing ground, and blood as well.

Then Seth arrived. Alex was startled for a moment, then kicked Doug in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards. Seth and Alex started fighting, at a much faster rate than Doug and Alex had been. Then it dawned on him. Alex had just been toying with him.

Doug stood, watching the fight. Seth was a bit outmatched. Doug thought about interfering, but he wasn't so sure he should. He might accidentally hit Seth. The decision was made easy when Jacqueline, jumped in the room.

Doug charged at Jacqueline, and she responded like all assassins should. She jumped over him and kicked the back of his head, sending him to the floor again. He shook his head in anger and turned around to face the assassin. He put his sword in position to stab, and charged.

His stab was deflected easily, and he was dealt a blow to his shoulder. She backed up, smiling menacingly, waving her dagger in the air for Doug to see. His hopes for winning the battle were washed away. The dagger was poisoned.

Doug let out a roar of rage and charged the assassin. His overhead blow was barely deflected, and took a good bit of skin off of Jacqueline's left arm. She snarled and jumped to the side, throwing one of her daggers as she did so. This did it for Doug. Having all that poison in him, combined with the dagger and the wounds he had gotten from Alex, did it.

Madison saw Seth run into the mansion. He had decided to follow soon, but was going to take out those archers first.

He yelled at them, drawing their attention, and charged. They all shot at him, but most of the shots were deflected by his magically protective clothing, and the ones that weren't he picked off with his scimitar. Except for one, and that one went straight through his shoulder. He grunted in pain, and kept charging.

Some of the archers kept their bows out, and they died first. The others had drawn swords. Madison was able to dispatch them, but not before suffering a few wounds. He was really glad he had his ring of regeneration.

Then he set off for the door.

Though neither of the two combatants was wounded yet, they both knew Alex was the better fighter. Seth parried an overhead blow and immediately had to bring his sword down to block the blow coming from Alex's other sword. Then he had to bring it up to block the next.

This was why Alex was winning. While Seth was having no trouble blocking the blows, he wouldn't be able to attack without being struck. And then it came to him. Maybe the only way he could win was if he let Alex hit him. He was pretty sure he could do more damage in one stroke than Alex could.

Seth raised his longsword over his head and prepared to bring it down. Alex struck him twice. The slash bounced off of Seth's leather armor, but the stab went straight through his stomach.

Seth grunted, closed his eyes, and brought his longsword down. Alex had jumped back, but not far enough. Seth's blow got him in the chest, cutting through several ribs and organs. Alex hadn't reckoned, though, on the fire magic in Seth's weapon. The explosion slammed him against a wall.

Seth had seen Doug's battle out of the corner of his eye, and was ready to avenge whoever had killed the samurai. Or so he thought. Seth stumbled with the pain walking caused him.

Jacqueline lined up a throw. She smirked. This had been a productive evening. Two of the best Band warriors dead in one night. She looked over at Alex. And a competitor, she thought to herself. If only Madison was here to kill.

At that moment, Madison came rushing through the door, and stabbed his scimitar through Jacqueline's neck. He smiled, and turned to Seth. He tossed him a healing potion, which Seth barely caught. As Seth drank it, Madison started chopping up Jacqueline's body.

Seth stood, still holding his stomach. "Why are you doing that?" He asked, viewing the scene with disgust. "So that Jacy can't bring her back." Seth's eyes widened. "Do you think she has that kind of power?" He asked. Madison shrugged. "She could."

He finished and wiped the blood off of his scimitar. Madison took a glance at Seth's wound, then fished out another healing potion. He handed it to Seth, saying jokingly that it was the last one Seth would get this trip.

Then they heard the stomping of armored feet coming towards the door that they assumed leaded to Jacy's private quarters. The pair looked at each other, then ran out the portal.

The Jock camp was in an uproar. Almost everyone was away looking for them, which only aided their escape, as no one was around to see them blend into the darkness and run back to Castle Contraire.

It seemed they had been missed. The remaining Band Members were searching the caverns and around the castle for them. They went to Kylia and told their story. She smiled.

"They're probably real scared." Madison and Seth chuckled. "That's what we're hoping," Madison said. "We took out a good number of them, including Alex." Seth looked at Madison shrewdly. "Unless, of course, Jacy uses her magic to resurrect him." Madison shrugged. "I'm just guessing here, but she might have that kind of power."

Rachel Christian entered the room then, and said, "The Jocks march."

Madison and Seth looked at each other. "What do you say to one last battle?" Madison asked. Seth smirked. "I'm looking forwards to it."

Joseph smiled. He was almost to the end of the story. Hr sighed. Before he went on he decided to read the beginning of a story he had written several months before…

Chapter Eleven: The Final March of the Jocks

Rachel looked around at all of her friends. She sighed. "See you on the other side," She whispered, then turned and left the cavern.

The druid didn't go the normal way, but rather glided through the stone. It still felt weird, but she did it so that she wouldn't draw attention to herself. They might try and stop her if they knew what she was going to do. Particularly because of the fact that she would die in the process.

Rachel felt that this was best. Besides the fact that her sacrifice would make it easier for the band to win, she wanted to die out among her element. The trees. And in a dark recess of her mind she felt she had to live up to the Archmage Matthew Thompson.

Eventually she came out into the open air. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. This very well could be the last deep breath that she could enjoy in this world. Her eyes snapped open. Now she had a job to do.

The druid stepped into a tree, and came out another several yards away. She did this until she came to the tallest tree in the area. She stepped into it and was transported to the highest branch that would hold her.

Rachel looked around. The Jock army was fast closing, but was still a good ways from Castle Contraire. Rachel's tree was directly in between the two. She began her spell, one of the most powerful she knew.

She suddenly felt in tune with every tree in the area. She could sense everything that was happening around the tree, and could tell the trees to move. Rachel waited until the army was all the way within range of the spell, then let the trees loose.

Pandemonium broke out, and Rachel knew she had killed many already. Then she felt a sharp pain, where in her body she could not tell. It was as if a small knife had been driven into her flesh. Then it happened again. Someone, it seemed, was fighting back. Then it felt as if her leg was on fire.

The druid opened her eyes and looked down. The trees were fighting, but now the Jock army was fighting back. Alex was out among the whirling limbs, cutting them to pieces with his super-sharp longswords. A few archers had lit flaming arrows, and were shooting them in the trees, causing them to go up in smoke.

And Jacy, that accursed general, Rachel saw, was preparing to use one of her most powerful destructive spells on Rachel's forest. The druid would have to do something about that.

Before she did, she looked down at her body. The knife wounds she imagined were there, and her leg was on fire. She could barely feel it anymore. All she felt was the need to protect her forest.

At the same moment she was ready to destroy Jacy, Jacy's eyes found hers. They stared at each other for a moment, then Rachel acted. She used every ounce of willpower in her reserve to make the tree she was in uproot itself, and fall on the evil general. At this moment, Jacy also unleashed her spell, and Rachel's body disintegrated as it fell.

Jacy, though her mind screamed at her muscles to move, could not move. She wanted to, of course, but something in Rachel's spell made her stay in place. Jacy didn't even move as the tree crashed into her and pushed her a good bit underground.

The lieutenant, a person whose name eluded the newly resurrected Alex, turned to him. With Jacy dead, the lieutenant was technically the general of the Jock armies, but she knew Alex wanted the position, and she wasn't about to challenge him for it. "Should we try and rescue her?"

Alex shook his head. "Naw, nobody could have survived that," He told her. Actually, thought Alex, there was a pretty good chance Jacy had survived the original fall, but he didn't want her as the general of his army. There would be no harm done in letting her stay there.

'Except to her,' a voice said, one of a mage who had been intruding on Alex's thoughts. He drew his weapons, wary of an attack on his position. "Relax,' the voice told him. 'I don't want to be general.' Alex mad a show of putting his weapons down, but kept them where he could quickly bring them back up.

"Show yourself!" Alex ordered. A chuckling came out of the woods behind him. Alex whirled towards the noise. 'Alright,' the voice said. "Well, I'm here." The voice came from behind Alex. He hated wizard's trickery.

It was Alex Farrell, though most just referred to him as Farrell. "What do you want?" Alex asked warily. Before letting Farrell respond, he said, "Keep your hands where I can see them." He didn't want the mage casting a spell at him.

"Sheath your weapons," Farrell countered. Alex sighed as he did so. The mage was smart. Then again, he could read Alex's mind.

Alex looked to make sure the mage had complied with his request. He had done so.

"What do you want?" Alex asked. Farrell chuckled. "You're being a bit impolite," Alex narrowed his eyes. "Why shouldn't I be?" Farrell chuckled again. "You haven't gotten over that one event." Alex rolled his eyes, and remembered the event like it was yesterday.

Alex and Farrell, along with several of the Jock warriors, had been hired to clear a cave of an evil monster. Jacy had been busy at the time, or she would have come and tamed it to fight for their cause.

The group had put up a good fight against the fiendwurm, a gigantic scaled worm, but they were losing. Eventually Alex and Farrell were the only two left. Alex was wounded, as was the fiendwurm, but Farrell was untouched. His only problem was that he was running out of magical energy.

Alex dodged to the side of the fiendwurm's lunge and dealt it a deep blow. The wurm had many of these, but it kept on fighting. Alex called up to Farrell. "Are you sure you can't throw another spell?" He panted between every breath.

"In fact," The mage answered, "I'll throw two." The first of these spells teleported Farrell outside of the fiendwurm's cavern, and the second sealed the entrance with a wall of ice.
"Damn him," Alex cursed as he dodged the next lunge of the wurm.

Alex had survived that battle, no thanks to Farrell. He would have killed the mage were it not for Jacy's direct order not to.

Alex looked over at the tree Jacy was buried under. Now that she was gone, he need follow her orders no longer.

"I know what you're thinking," Farrell told him, startling him out of his reverie. Alex cursed. He had forgotten that when he had remembered his battle. Alex's hand went to his swords, and Farrell's went down to his robes.

"I don't want to fight you," Farrell told him, his tone submissive. Alex drew his longswords anyway. "If I were a mage like you," Alex said, his tone derisive, "I wouldn't want to fight me either." With this he sprung at the mage.

His first two blows bounced off of magical shields, and the next two went through the space where the mage had been. Alex felt a sudden flare of heat behind him. He instinctively fell to the ground and the fireball flew over him.

Alex stood, sheathing his longswords, and drew his daggers. If Farrell wanted a fight Alex would give him one.

The words of a spell came drifting to Alex from his right side, so he turned and expertly threw his daggers at the source of the sound. A cry went up from that place, and Alex smiled.

Then a skeletal hand came up from the ground, and Alex paled. He had forgotten that Farrell was a necromancer, one of the most feared types of mage. A necromancer was a wizard whose preferred sphere of spells was death.

There were many spheres of magic, and most mages were generalists and could use magic from all spheres. Those who specialized in one sphere were called certain things. As said above, a necromancer was one who specialized in the death sphere. Another example would be a chronomancer, who used time magic.

Alex drew his twin longswords and looked around. There was no sign of the mage. Then an evil chanting started up. It was all around him, so he couldn't turn to the source. More hands started to claw their way loose of the ground. By now the first skeleton had come completely out of the ground.

Alex charged at it, expertly stepping his way around the hands. His swords whirled in a circuit and smashed into the skeleton. The blow broke off an arm, but nothing else. Alex backed up as the skeleton swiped at him, and went into the arms of another skeleton.

He kept his cool and flipped, bringing the skeleton along with his feet. He launched the skeleton at the first, and stood. Alex looked around at all of the skeletons. There were around fifteen of them, but at least they had stopped coming out of the ground.

Alex knew that these were no normal skeletons. Against fifteen normal skeletons he would have no problems. These were different, harder and stronger. He still felt he could beat them, though. He had survived against worse.

Of course, he had lost against less. Seth had beaten him because of a stupid mistake of Alex's. He felt sure that the next time he came across Seth he could kill him. He had vowed earlier that he would. Alex felt anger boiling in his chest. He wouldn't be able to kill Seth if he couldn't beat this second-class mage.

Alex let out a roar of rage and charged at the ring of skeletons. They started moving then as well. His swords flashed and hit against the skeletons, and his feet kicked out. A few minutes later all the skeletons were destroyed, and Alex was just a little worse for the wear.

He looked around. The chanting was gone, and there was no sign of Farrell. Then there was.

Farrell walked out from behind a tree, his hands behind his head. Alex almost jumped at him, but waited to hear what the necromancer had to say.

"I could call back Jacy's ghost to kill you," Farrell said, "But I don't. I just want you not to kill me." Alex shrugged. That was good enough for him. Farrell disappeared into the night.

Alex was a bit confused. Why had the mage confronted him in the first place? He wondered. Mages were strange people, and Farrell was stranger than most.

The lieutenant came back and asked, "Are we ready to begin the march?" A deep voice suddenly boomed out from the woods, saying, "Not until I get there."

Alex nearly dropped his weapons. It was Zach Williams, a Jock Alex had thought dead. Zach had been a favorite of Jacy's, until Zach had died. Alex had no idea how the brute had survived being swallowed by a red dragon.

And Zach was indeed a brute. He wasn't very smart, but really strong. Zach towered over Alex by a head and shoulders, and Alex could see Zach's muscles bulging out of his tunic. Zach carried a massive axe that had runes inscribed all over it. Here was the only person Alex knew he couldn't beat in a fight.

"Are we about to go?" Zach asked. "Yeah," Alex responded. "Hey, how did you get out of that dragon?" Zach ran a finger across the sharp edge of his axe, drawing a bead of blood. "I cut myself out." Alex shuddered. That must have been messy.

As the Band waited for the jock army to get there, Seth remembered all the fun he had had in the virtual world.

His first adventure had been the one he remembered most clearly.

After parting with Madison he had traveled several days before coming across a town. The town was a small one, called Dosodowns.

Seth walked to the inn, looking around as he went. He loved this new world he was in. Drawing his cape around him to hide his weapons, he entered the inn and set himself down at a table near the corner.

Before too long a serving maid came to him. "Would you like anything?" She asked. Seth nodded. "What do you have?" The maid smiled. "I think you'll like our tea." Seth nodded. "I'll have that, then."

As the maid was getting Seth some tea, Seth listened around for a quest to take, and was so immersed in the conversation he was listening in to that he didn't notice when the maid brought his tea.

"Last night me and my family were sittin out on the porch, and this dog came a-runnin out of the field and charged our porch. I didn't have me pitchfork, or I would have kilt the thing. It was a dog made out of bone, I tell ye, and it got me wife, then ran off, and I haven't seen it since."
"Oh Bob," One of them said, "That's a snake's tale." This caused Seth to chuckle. Though he hadn't heard the phrase before, it made perfect sense. Snakes were thought to be liars, and any tale they told, Seth supposed, would be fake. He'd have to remember that one.

"It is not," The stubborn Bob persisted. Another one piped up, "We haven't had a monster in town since Kaldinosty came through." "Yeah, the first one agreed, that dragon was a nasty one."

Seth wasn't listening anymore. He had already decided to go and kill the skeletal dog, if it was indeed there. He drank the rest of his tea, just to be polite, then left to find a place to stay until dark.

Once it was he made a torch out of some sticks and bundled grass, then went to Bob's field. It was easy to find, it being one of the only two farms in the area, and also because of the sign that read: Well Come to Bob's Farmm. Seth chuckled at how bad a speller Bob was.

Seth walked around the farm, looking for the hole the dog had come from. He assumed from Bob's statement that the dog had come from the ground that it would have some sort of den or something.

He was saved the trouble of finding the den when he heard the thing running from the house. It wasn't really running, more scrambling. Seth saw why when it came closer. It was carrying something. He dropped the torch and drew his dagger. As the dog began to slow down, he threw it.

The creature yelped, which was something Seth was not expecting. Bob had said the dog was undead, and Seth knew that the undead were immune to pain. The creature let go of whatever it was carrying and went underground, into its den.

Seth moved to see what the thing the animal had been carrying, making sure his back was facing away from it. He didn't want to be ambushed by and undead dog.

Seth sighed as he saw what it was. It was a human female, and the dagger Seth had thrown was in her throat. It had been her who yelped, not the creature. Seth was about to head into the undead creature's den when something caught his eye.

It was a necklace. It didn't look very pretty, or very expensive. What caught Seth's eye was the glowing yellow gem at the end of the chain. He looked around to make sure that no one was coming. When he saw that no one was he said to himself, "It won't hurt," and took the necklace off the girl and put it on.

He was glad he did. As soon as the chain had gone around his neck the need for a torch disappeared. He could now see as well in the darkness as he could at day. Seth smiled. It was his first magical item.

He pulled the dagger from the poor girl's neck and wiped the blood on her dress. He felt fine about having killed her, feeling that he had saved her from a far worse fate of being eaten. That was, of course, if he could kill the creature. If he couldn't it would probably eat them both.

Seth drew his longsword and went down into the dank tunnel. The walls were made of stone roughly pressed into the dirt walls. This must be man-made, he thought. He continued down the dark passage until he came to a large den area.

There were several skeletons here, but one drew Seth's attention for a moment. It looked to be an old skeleton, and was rotting in several places. It had armor on, that was rotting to. In its hand was a longsword, one that faintly glowed with magical energy. Then Seth's attention went to the creature.

Bob was right in saying that it was skeletal; Seth could see the creature's bones in several places, but a good portion of flesh was left. The animal was about the size of a wolf, with razor sharp teeth and claws. Kind of like my sister, Seth thought jokingly.

Seth brought his longsword up over his shoulder, preparing for a swipe if the creature came near. It sprung, and Seth brought the sword down late. The creature bit down on Seth's sword arm, causing him to drop the weapon. He drew his dagger and plunged it into the creature's side, causing to let go of his arm.

Seth hurriedly backed up. The creature stood right over his sword, and he couldn't possibly beat it with his dagger. Well, he could, but it would be hard. Seth thought it would be easier with the dead guy's sword, but couldn't see out of the back of his head, and didn't want to turn his back on the beast.

He decided that he would rather turn his back on it than fight it with only a dagger. Seth whirled around and went for the sword. He heard the creature jump, and whirled back around, the sword set to slice the creature in two.

The blow didn't do that, the bones seemed to be as hard as steel, but did break a few of the bones. Then the weapon's enchantment went on. From the contact point a burst of fire came up, and this sent the creature flying to hit the opposite wall. At this it burst into pieces.

Seth sighed with the recollection, and unsheathed his sword. He looked at it, and the faint red aura it gave off. This was why he remembered his first quest so well. Seth looked at Madison, who was trying to find a boulder to place in front of the entrance to their cavern.

He never got to find out what Madison's first adventure was like. Seth guessed he would have to ask him about this when they got back to the real world.

Seth again looked down to his longsword. Of all his possessions, he would like to keep it more than anything else. He didn't know why, and others wouldn't fell the way he did were they in his position, but he just liked his sword.

He wondered what item Madison would pick. Probably something stupid like his hat, Seth thought. Then again, the magical hat might not be a bad idea as compared to his sword. At least Madison could wear his hat in public. Then Seth remembered Madison's ring of regeneration. It would be either the hat or the ring.

Then Seth spotted a little snag in his thinking. He had decided to ask Madison about his adventures when they got back to the real world. Seth remembered back to the bad feeling he and Madison had when they were about to enter this world.

He paled as he finally figured out what that meant. They would never get to go back to their world again. Seth considered this for a while, then smiled. If they were never going back, there wasn't much he could do about it.

Seth didn't really miss anyone from the real world. And now was not a time to miss them, either. Soon the jocks would be here, and Seth wanted to be at his best. He thought they had a chance.

"It's like needing a knife and having a thousand spoons!" A flustered Madison yelled. I guess his search for a boulder isn't going to well, Seth thought. He chuckled. Where did Madison come up with that one? He wondered.

Then he decided to remember the last quest he had had before the war had started.

Seth's base of operations became the town of Dosodowns, despite his accidental killing of Bob's daughter. After his side quest with Madison, he headed back to the town.

As he drew closer he noticed that something wasn't right. The temperature had gone down in the area, something Seth had never noticed happening before. The trees' leaves seemed to be graying, which was something Seth had never seen, in this world or the old one.

Every animal he saw on his way looked malnourished and feral. To his amusement, he was attacked by flying squirrels. He, of course, was easily able to fend them off. He would have to remember that and tell Madison. Madison would be thrilled, and a bit upset that he hadn't been there to see it.

Seth's mouth dropped when he came to the town. All the buildings had been burnt to the ground, and there wasn't a person in sight. He heard some haunting music coming from the direction of Bob's farm, and decided to go that way.

Then he remembered something from a few days back, when he had first met up with Madison. Madison had pointed out a column of smoke to him… Seth concentrated, and remembered the direction the smoke had been coming from. It had been here.

Seth was pretty much glad he hadn't been in town when it had been destroyed. While he might have been able to save it, he might not have, and would have died. He shrugged, and continued on towards Bob's farm.

At that moment Seth was shaken out of his recollections by Madison. "They're about here," Madison told him. Seth nodded and stood. He looked around the Band. They were all ready for the last battle in this world.

"Are you ready?" Zach asked Alex. They were standing at the beginning of the stairway down to where they knew the band would be. Zach and Alex were to lead the charge, followed closely by their best warriors. Then the archers would come, then followed by the rest of the troops.

In all, there were seventy-four Jocks against thirty-five Band members. Alex was pretty sure they would be able to do it. He nodded in response to Zach's question. "Then what are you waiting for?" Zach asked, and charged down the stair.

Alex sighed, and charged as well, drawing his two longswords as he did so. The rest of the Jocks did as well.

Zach and Alex were met with arrows, but neither of them was harmed. Alex was able to bat most of them aside, and Zach's armor, along with his giant axe he held in front of him, prevented him from being hit. The rest of the Jocks filed along after their two greatest warriors.

Alex spotted the band member who was giving out orders. It was a female, and he sighed as he started his charge towards her. Would they never learn? He asked himself. Both armies had been under the rule of females, and this was where it got them.

Alex was stopped several times by single bodyguards of the Band ruler, but none of them gave him much of a challenge. When he got up to the female, her sword and armor were glowing, whereas they weren't before. Maybe she was a mage like Jacy, Alex thought.

He wasn't scared though. Alex didn't think anyone could be as powerful as Jacy.

He stabbed in at Kylia's stomach with one sword, and the other sword was sent at her head. She solidly blocked the one to her head, but had no time to get to the one heading for her belly. She didn't need to. The sword had barely hit the armor when it was sent flying off. Alex was barely able to keep his grip on it.

He smiled. This girl wasn't much of a fighter, and Alex had met this kind of enchantment before. It would only last for a certain number of hits, then would be gone.

Madison had stayed near the entrance to their cavern when the Jocks had first come in. When the archers had arrived he had gone straight after them, and now they were all gone.

He took a moment to survey the battlefield. The Band was doing fairly well. At least, they had lost about the same number in proportion to the Jocks. Then he saw the massive brute, Zach, charging at him.

Madison waited until the last moment, then jumped to the side and slashed at Zach as he did so. Somehow the brute was able to reverse the momentum of his gigantic axe and slam the side of it into Madison, sending him to the ground.

Madison rolled to the side as Zach slammed his axe down, trying to crush the smaller fighter. Madison sprung to his feet, and started running, hoping that ach would follow. He was glad when Zach did. "Fight like a man!" Zach yelled at him, trying to taunt him to stay.

Madison didn't take the bait, and kept on running. He did reply, however, saying: "How does a man fight?" Zach kept on chasing him.

Alex was about to finish the girl when an arrow hit him in the thigh. He jumped away from the girl, who was on the ground, and threw his dagger into the archer's neck. It wasn't hard to pick her out; most of the people were dead.

The archer clutched her throat and fell down dead.

Alex turned back to the leader of the jocks, and was displeased to find out that she had cast a new protective enchantment over herself. Still, it didn't take him long to kill the impudent leader of the Band.

Once he was done he looked around the cavern. Nobody but him was left standing. He moved to go watch the final battle between Zach and Madison, when he realized he hadn't killed Seth like he had sworn to do. He scanned all of the bodies in the room, and Seth wasn't one of them.

"Looking for me?" Seth asked. Alex whirled around to fight his last battle.

Seth charged, bracing his sword to stab Alex. Alex knew he wouldn't be able to push the sword away, so he dodged to the side and sent two blows at Seth's head. Seth was able to bring his sword up to block.

He then sent a slash at Alex's head. Alex ducked under the blow and slashed at Seth's legs. Seth jumped over the two swords. While he was in the air and unable to dodged away Alex stabbed in with both of his longswords. Somehow Seth was able to twist until his side was facing Alex, and the swords both went harmlessly to the side.

Seth switched his longsword over to his left hand and slashed down at Alex. Alex was forced to back up to avoid the blow. Seth turned to face his opponent.

"Stay still, damn you!" Zach roared. He was extremely angry at Madison's fighting style. He kept zooming in and zooming out, never letting Zach get a clean blow in. And while Zach had supernatural strength, there was only so long he could go swing his giant axe around, and both fighters knew it.

They were fighting on the crystal walkways above the pit of steaming yellow acid. Zach was swinging his axe around like a madman, and Madison was having a lot of trouble getting close enough to attack Zach.

He darted forward, then fell back. Zach had already taken the bait, and there wasn't much even he could do to halt the swinging of an axe as big as his. Madison darted in again, but this time went through with it and ran past Zach, scoring a blow on the brute's neck as he did so. The wound was not fatal, and didn't go deep past the tough muscle, but the enchantment of Scorpion's Tail did its usual work.

Zach roared and swung his axe in a complete circle. It slammed into Madison and launched him across the cavern. The actual blow didn't really harm him, but he was flying towards a sharp edge of one of the crystal walkways, and there wasn't much he could do to stop it.

Madison was going to try though.

Seth raised his sword over his head, like he had in their first battle, and waited for Alex to strike. Alex did so, but darted to the side where Seth couldn't possibly hit him before striking. He hadn't reckoned that Seth would use magic.

Seth's longsword came down over three feet away from Alex, but still hit the jock warrior. Somehow, Alex thought, he beat me.

The sword went deep into Alex's chest, then exploded with the flame, sending Alex flying to crash into the wall. "Good riddance," Seth said mockingly, before running off to help Madison if he needed it.

Madison brought his scimitar to bear and slashed at the walkway. This pretty much stopped his momentum, with the magic of his scimitar and all, and put a crack in the walkway. But this didn't prevent him from falling in the acid.

Zach let out a booming laugh as Madison fell into the lava. He had turned out to be the better warrior, as he knew he would. His laughter spluttered out as he felt a burning pain in his stomach. He looked down to see the blade of a marvelous longsword protruding from his midsection. He turned his head to see the one holding the sword. It was Seth.

"Goodbye," Seth said mockingly. Zach briefly wondered what he was talking about. This single sword wound wasn't enough to beat him. Then the fire enchantment of the sword went one, and Zach knew no more.

Seth stared down at the acid around where Madison had fell. It was moving, and this could mean only one thing…

Madison stepped out of the acid onto the crystal walkway, yelling with the pain. Seth smiled and shook his head. Once again, Madison would live. And indeed, the magic of Madison's ring was already at work. To help it Madison quickly gulped down two healing potions. I wonder how many of those he has? Seth thought.

In a few moments, Madison was fine and sitting on the edge of the crystal walkway beside Seth. "Who did we not get?" Madison asked him. Seth shrugged.

"You didn't get me, you fools!" A booming voice called out. Though it resonated with strength they both could tell that it was female. They stood to find Jacy standing on the crystal walkway along with them. How she had snuck up on them they did not know.

This Jacy was different, though. She was taller, and older. Her armor, it seemed, had grown along with her. What was left of it, anyway. She had nothing covering her upper chest, and most of her legs could be seen. She was unharmed, though.

She was holding a mace, and she threw it the moment the two both stood up. It crashed into Seth with a sickening crack, and both fell off the walkway.

Madison yelled and charged at the last member of the Jock army left. Jacy just smirked, and waited for her mace to come back. It did, and on its way back it slammed into Madison's shoulder, knocking him to the ground.

Jacy caught the mace and went over to Madison and tried to slam the mace down on his head. Madison was barely able to move, but once again the magic of his hat protected him. As Jacy was lifting the mace he stood, and sprung at Jacy barehanded.

She was taken a bit off guard, expecting him to at least draw a weapon first. Then his goal was clear to her as his arms wrapped around her body. She paled, realizing that he might actually win.

Madison expected to easily be able to push Jacy off, but he had expected wrong. She was much stronger than him, and with her armor and new size, was much heavier. For a moment he thought he would be able to do it, but then, with one final push, they both went over the edge and fell into the acid, too far away for Madison to get out.

Epilogue

Mr. Wright, the band director at Ringgold Middle, looked over all the empty chairs at the virtual reality game institute, and sighed. He would miss his band.

He looked down at the stack of papers he was holding, and sighed again. This was the accounting of all that had happened during the Band Wars. His Band had done wondrous things that he had never thought they would be able to do.

Mr. Wright was still a bit confused at where his Band was now and how they had gotten there. The directors of the institute had told him that his Band member's bodies were destroyed, but that their minds would be born back into an actual fantasy world in another dimension. They had also told him that schools across the world were doing the same thing.

He went into the meeting room, and handed the stack of papers to the director of the whole thing. During that time, the director read the whole thing. Mr. Wright was patient, though, and spent most of the time thinking.

The director cleared his throat, bringing Mr. Wright's eyes to him. "This story, while good, isn't structured very well." Mr. Wright waited a while before responding. "Well, that's how it happened."