A/N: The Nightmare Queen was quite a boss fight, wasn't it? How many boss fights do you know where it's own special attacks would be happening in your very own nightmares. Scary huh? Just be glad it's all a game...oh who am I kidding? It's not just a game anymore! It's a Death Game!


DECEMBER 3RD, 2022. FLOOR 6, TAVERN AERIE.

How long were we asleep on that fight against the Nightmare Queen? Before me and Rokel entered the dungeon, it was morning, but when we beat the boss, it's midnight. This is very surprising.

It was really late when we arrived in town, so we had to turn into an inn. The Lunar Twilight still owes me that drink for helping them out back there. So we all agreed to do it tomorrow. I just lay on my bed in an inn. The Inn is a small place so I end up sharing with that Aerith Cleric. The young girl is already fast asleep, which is strange since she and the rest of the guild have been asleep for who-knows-how-long?

I on the other hand can't sleep I've got a lot on my mind. How's Serah doing in the real world? Is she really that upset I entered this death game? What's really on my mind is Rokel. That poor little kid being bullied his whole life. I can't even get my mind off of seeing his own parents being shoot like that. Was all of that real or just something he feared happening?

I know I'm not going to get much sleep, so I get out of bed. I'm only in my undergarments. I don't get how I'm wearing them since they're not part of the equipment. I'm guessing it's modesty's sake for gaming purposes.

I put 'Pink robe' in my equipment, wrapping it around my body, then I head out.

The sixth floor is a bit of a hill zone, not as much and snowy as the fourth floor. Tavern Aerie is a bit of a small town, not as small as the Sentinel Camp on the third floor. At least it has an Inn. I do a little walking around town in the nighttime. As I'm walking, I noticed someone sitting alone on the bench under a tree. At first, I thought it was Hope, but then I noticed that guild mark on the side of his health bar. Purple background with a silver moon with a star on the bottom tip. The mark of the Lunar Twilight.

It's Rokel.

What is he doing up at this hour? He's just sitting there hands holding on his lap looking down. He seems a bit upset.

"Rokel?" Rokel flinches, looking up at me surprised. I guess I must have startled him.

"O-Oh. Lightning? W-what are you doing here?" Rokel asks.

"I was just walking." I walk towards the bench, sitting down right next to Rokel. The boy looks nervous, I'm guessing he's not close sitting next to girls or something like that. "Couldn't sleep?"

Rokel shook his head. "No. I'm still a little shaken up from the Nightmare Queen."

"I see." I face forward, just spacing my mind out a little. "You know...I remembered something when I was trapped in that nightmare. I saw some vision about you...having some problems with some person...who's always pushing you around." I turn my face looking at Rokel. He seems horrified like he's watching a scary movie. "Was that real?"

Rokel just slides away from me a little. "I-I..."

"I know we just met and all, but do you want to talk about it?" I ask. Rokel slides further away, slowly shaking his head. I can understand he would, given how I treated him yesterday. "Talking might make you feel better."

Rokel is unsure if he does want to talk. I wait patiently for him to make his decision. Finally, he slides a little close to me and speaks.

"What I said before...about having this bully back in the real world." Rokel looks up at me. I give him a slight nod, a way of telling him to keep going. "I once stand up against him, and all that's done was put me in the hospital. It didn't really break me down, but what he did next...in my own house...is what changed everything."

I know what this Tyler person did. killed Rokel's...I mean Eugene's parents. I can't really say it out loud, figuring it might upset him even more like he's reliving it. He probably already did when he was in the pod of nightmares.

"You mean...when he..." I gesture my hand into the model of a gun, thumb and index finger out, barely aiming at Rokel. Rokel nods and I put my hand down. "It must have been horrible for you to go through that."

"It was, and it still is. Tyler now threatens me with that very gun." Rokel says. "I'm just glad he's nowhere in here in Warlords Wrath Online. Then again, there are thousands of players in here and I haven't really seen every single one of them." That's true, odds are against him for encountering his bully in here.

"Well, I'm sorry about what you're going through. I know how it feels." I say.

"You...you were bullied too?" Rokel asks.

I shook my head. "Not that. I was about your age, and my parents died. Me and Serah were on our own."

"Oh...I'm sorry about that." Rokel says.

"It's fine...Are you living on your own?" I ask.

"I'm not actually living. I just live in the streets. I don't really have any other relatives and no one would take me in." Rokel says.

"Then how are you able to play this game?" I ask.

Rokel looks nervous like he's about to be in trouble. "I uh...used one of the computers at school. Only I wasn't expecting to be trapped in here."

"So you broke into the school and used the computers to play an online game?" I ask.

"I didn't break into the school, I stayed hidden in one of the lockers until dark," Rokel says. That just sounds creepy to me. I'm guessing Rokel must have read my mind. "Pretend I never said that."

"Agreed," I say.

"I don't know what it is I have done to deserve this torture." Rokel puts his feet up in front of him, wrapping his arms around his legs. "My family were taken. I have no friends, can't even get a girlfriend. The Lunar Twilight is all I have close to me."

That has to be rough for Rokel. "Well, I honestly don't know what to say, but I do know that you don't deserve this. Nobody does...Well, maybe that idiot Tyler least he won't bother you in here."

"Unless he's doing things to my real body," Rokel says.

"I wouldn't worry about that, I mean this game has been out for about a month, and you're still in this game, alive and well," I say.

Rokel looks up at me, uncertain. After a moment he answers. "Yeah. I guess you're right."


Rokel and I return to the Inn for some sleep. I'm guessing what I said must have helped him since he was able to get a good night's sleep. He's really starting to remind me of Hope. I wonder how he's doing with the NORA guild.

It's now 7 AM in the morning. I'm at the dining table of the Inn, having a drink with the Lunar Twilights. I did get to know the guild well. Hakomo the Crusader. Aerith the Cleric. Raphael the Assassin. Spellbreaker the Wizard. Elementalist the Avatar. I thought Elementalist was a bit silly for an Avatar name since they are spellcasters of fire, wind, earth, and water.

"Here's to the Lunar Twilight! Cheers!" Hakomo says.

Everyone raises their glasses and they click. "Cheers!" They all say.

I just sit in place watching them, I didn't even cheer with them. The Lunar Twilight now looks at me. "And here's to Lightning, the Swordsman who saved us from the Nightmare Queen."

Everyone raises their glasses. "Cheers!"

I raise my glass. "Ch-cheers."

The other members take turns saying thanks to me. Rokel was the last one to thank, his was a little long for he was thanking me for helping him save his guild. After the thanking was done, we all drink our beverages. Hakomo leans close to me, whispering.

"Hey, Lightning. I know it's really rude to ask, but what level are you?" Hakomo asks.

Rude? How is that rude really? I'm guessing levels are meant to be a secret, cause I never really see another player's level unless I'm partied with them in a group.

"Level 25...or so," I answered.

"Oh, I see. You're not that high, we're usually around level 30. Rokel is pretty much the weakest member." Hakomo says. I wonder why he is. Maybe cause he doesn't spend much time in the Assault Team with his guild. "Say, Lightning. I'm wondering. How come you're playing solo?"

"I uh..." I set my cup down on the table. "I tried finding a guild, but all the other guilds I've joined are filled with morons. The worst guild was the Fuuinkazan."

"Oh? What did they do?" Spellbreaker asks.

"I don't want to talk about it," I say, trying to hide my irritation. Not from Spellbreaker but from the boys in that guild.

"Oh, I see. Well, how about joining ours?" I look at Hakomo surprised to hear that. "We are an eco-friendly guild. And if you have any problems or issues, we can work things out. Plus we can use a Swordsman fighting in the front lines. Things are getting pretty dull with Raphael here."

Raphael looks offended. "Hey!"

Hakomo laughs. "I'm just joking..." Hakomo wraps an arm around Raphael's neck, pulling him close and giving him a noogie. "You knucklehead! We never get tired of yea!"

The rest of the Lunar Twilight members are laughing at this joyful moment. Hakomo and Raphael disband. "Well, anyways. You'll fit right in well with the guild. What do you say?"

All of the other members are looking at me. I look down as I think carefully. The Lunar Twilight seems very different from the other guilds. None of the boys in here are crushing on me or playing some stupid charm. Well, Rokel did but he's trying hard to fight the urge. They are friendly. If anything, they're a less stupid version of the NORA gang. Still, I'm uncertain. But maybe I guess I'll give them a chance.

"Then...I just I'll join you guys after all." I look at them with a smile. "Nice to work with you all."

The Lunar Twilight members smile, gasping in excitement. Next thing I know they're huddling around me, welcoming me to the guild. Maybe this was a mistake...


DECEMBER 7TH, 2022. FLOOR 6, CAVERN DUNGEON.

The Lunar Twilight has been a good guild since I joined. Right now, Hakomo, Raphael, Aerith, Spellbreaker, and I are in the field dungeon on the sixth floor. Elementalist and Rokel couldn't make it today to the dungeon.

We are just facing the final boss in this dungeon, Shako the Bloodthrasher. Some human-scale creature. I can't tell if it's a fish or some lizard. Either way, it's ugly. The boss is down to its last health bar. Hakomo blocks all of its attacks while me and Raphael are attacking the creature. Spellbreaker is standing back casting his dark and fire magic while Aerith is healing us.

Shako the Bloodthrasher is quite the fighter. There's no hesitation in its attacks and it's doing like 2 to 3 swings every second. If I were tanking this creature, even with that heavy shield, I would be dead in no time. Well, they don't call it a Bloodthrasher for nothing.

I throw a few slashes on Shako, the monster roars in agony. "Finish it, Raphael!" I shout.

Raphael spins his daggers as he rushes towards the monster. "Right!" Raphael leaps towards Shako. Shako targets him and snarls, drawing its clawback. Raphael draws his daggers back, they charge. Shako makes the first strike, but Hakomo blocks the attacks, then quickly dodges out of the way when Raphael makes his three-combo strikes.

Shako the Bloodthrasher is defeated. We all earned our results, Aerith made level 32. She was really happy, the other three members were beside her cheering on. I just stand back, smiling as I watch their enjoyment.

We now hang out on a cliff having our lunch. It's just me and Hakomo while the others are sitting a level above us. Hakomo is looking at something that looks like a newspaper. I'm guessing it's the post about what's going on in this dark world.

"Hey, listen here. The Assault Team is planning to clear the next floor boss later today." Hakomo says.

"Sounds like we're going to need to ready ourselves for battle," I say.

Hakomo lays back on the thin short grass, sighing. "People are really eager to escape this death game, aren't they?"

I'm a little surprised to hear that. "You don't want to escape?"

"Of course I do. But we can't just rush into battle." Hakomo says.

"Yeah. That's true. It did happen back on the second floor. Hundreds of players died cause of it." I say.

"Sometimes, I wonder if people have forgotten what it means to be a guild," Hakomo says.

"And what's that?" I ask.

Hakomo sits back up. "Well, in most MMO games, there are many meanings of what it takes to be a guild. In my opinion, the meaning of a guild is to enjoy time with your friends and to protect them...no, to protect others."

I never really thought about that. I guess it's just like what I do in the Guardian Corps. "Wow...that's deep."

"Yeah. Now at days, all people care about are becoming strong or risking their own lives to clear this death game. What surprises me the most is there's a guild that seeks to kill players." Hakomo says.

I raise my eyebrows hearing that. I'm familiar with a murder guild. They use to recruit me before I ran into Rokel. I wasn't very pleased to be with them.

"Is it really a bad thing?" I ask, pretending to not know about murder guilds.

"Well, not exactly," Hakomo says. "In any OMM game, it's possible to be a player-killing guild, a PVP guild for a short. But Warlords Wrath is different. If anything, I'd say PVP should be illegal here."

"It probably is given the fact when we attack a player, we turn orange and are forbidden to enter safe zones," I say.

Hakomo looks surprised to see that. "How did you...you weren't a murder were you?"

"In a way. All I did we strike at this really annoying player." I say.

"How could you!" Hakomo says.

"Relax, Hakomo. He's still alive." I say. "You know that Fuuinkazan guild I mentioned?" Hakomo nods. I look down with my arms crossed. "All the members expect the leader was hitting on me. Trying to pour on the charm, like a bunch of dogs. One of them went too far and I've had it, so I hurt him and left the guild."

"But murder players aren't allowed in safe zones aren't they?" Hakomo says.

"Nope." I look at Hakomo. "I had to spend the night on the field with the guild," Hakomo speaks but I interrupt before he even starts. "Don't. Ask. Anyways, if anything I'm with you on these murder guilds. I think it's stupid they believe they can still kill other players in this death game."

"Yeah, I expect to hear that from a Guardian Corps." I look at Hakomo hearing that, how the hell did he know about me being in the Guardian Corps? "Rokel told us."

Rokel...of course. Now he's really starting to remind me of Hope. That boy always talked about me back in school, his teachers were surprised to meet me for guardian-teacher conversance, and now in this death game when he was grouped with Leafa.

Hakomo stands back. "Well, we should head back, prepare ourselves for the boss fight."

I stand up as well. "Good idea."


FLOOR 6, ROAD OF HILLS.

We walk in the path heading towards the Tavern Aerie. I'm way behind, keeping my distance. My guild isn't being concerned about my distance. I'm not really far, just about 25 yards apart from the furthest member.

We return to the Tavern Aerie, where we regroup with Elementalist. "Hey, guys." Elementalist says.

"Elementalist." Everyone says.

Aerith looks around like something's missing...or someone. "Where's Rokel?"

Elementalist looks confused and surprised. "I thought he was with you guys."

Everyone starts to worry. Aerith is hoping he isn't hurt. Raphael thought he's dead, but he can't be since he's still on our friends' list. Hakomo decided we should split up to search for him. Aerith however stays with Elementalist since she's a kid and a Cleric. She'll have little chance of surviving.

We all depart ways. I use the map to track Rokel. One good thing about being in a guild is that I can track my members' locations. I go downhill, nearly heading towards the entrance to the fifth-floor elite dungeon.

I'm getting close to Rokel's location, that's when I hear a cry for help. It sounds like a little boy, roughly like Rokel. That's when I spring into action.

As I rush, I can hear some conversation going on. I hide behind a boulder, listening.

"Please! Just leave me alone!" Rokel says.

"Can it! Squirt!" Says a familiar voice.

My eyes shot wide open. I know that voice. I heard in Rokel's Nightmares. It's that bully jerk, Tyler. I peek my head out of the boulder, getting a few. Rokel is on the ground with a Paralyzed status. A muscular eighteen-year-old with buzzcut black hair and an anchor with a skull on the top tattoo on his right arm.

By the looks of his gear and weaponry, he's a Shadow Sniper.

Tyler has his sword impaled through Rokel's stomach. Rokel's HP is in a yellow zone but it's slowly draining. Tyler's cursor is also orange. He's a murderer for attacking Rokel.

"Do you honestly believe you can run away from me in this game?" Tyler asks. "I couldn't get to your body in the hospital, so I rip off the Nervegear from my older brother while he was still alive and joined right in!"

My heart stopped hearing that. He murdered his own family just to pick on Rokel? This guy is psycho. "Y-you killed your own brother? How could you?"

"Shut up!" Tyler pulls his sword back and impales it back into Rokel, causing the boy to scream in pain.

I've had enough of this. I come out of hiding marching towards the scene. I grab Tyler by the shoulders and instantly smash him against a wall of a cliff. He got hurt then a purple window appears on the wall that says 'Immortal Object' Tyler says unintelligible stuff, tries to speak but always ends up with his face against the wall. After five smashes, I turn him around so he's facing me and I lift him off of feet.

"How does it feel, Tyler? Scared? Helpless maybe!?" I growl at him.

Tyler shakes his head, not to say no but to get the dizziness out of his mind. "What the...what the hell are you?"

"That's none of your concern!" I say like a snake spitting venom. "All you need to know is that if we were in the real world, I would lock you up behind bars until that jail rots, then I'll put you in another prison until that one rots, and then I'll throw you into another one until you rot in it! You got that?"

Tyler just rolls his eyes and makes a disgusted noise. Oh, how he sickens me. I release him from my grab, causing him to fall on the ground. I take out my sword and point it at him. "Leave Rokel alone! You've got the count of three to get lost!"

Tyler stands up. "What?"

I start counting. "One!"

"Listen here, sore eye! You can't tell me what to do!" Tyler shouts at me.

Sore eye? That just deepens my rage. "Two!"

"You get lost so I can torture this squirt!" Tyler says.

"THREE!" I make a charged strike. My strength must be superior to him cause in just one strike, he went from full health to 35% and it knocks him back and he falls to the ground.

I'm guessing he must be a low level.

I walk up to Tyler. He's laying on his back, looking up at me. I draw my sword back. "One! Two! ..."

"Okay! Okay!" Tyler gets on his feet. "You win!" Tyler looks over my shoulder. "This ain't over, dork! Your girlfriend here can't protect you forever!"

'Girlfriend!' I shout in my mind as Tyler turns and leaves. Even when he's gone, I'm still raging. But I take a deep breath to calm down. I turn approaching Rokel, kneeling beside him.

"You okay?" I ask.

Rokel looks at me weakly, he can barely move due to the paralysis. "In pain. I can barely move."

I don't have anything that can fix him up, and leaving him here while waiting for Aerith would be a bad idea. I open my menu to send a message to Hakomo and the others, telling them I found Rokel and he needs medical aid. After sending the message, I carry the boy.

"Come on, let's get you back to town."

As I walk towards town, I notice Rokel blushing and stuttering, I'm guessing this is a new level of him being close to a girl. Now I know Tyler is here, and he's clearly gonna risk anything just to torment the poor boy.

I'm gonna have to protect him.