Uloveme stopped to take a breath. The fatigue feature of the game had taken a toll on her character in the last ten minutes. She was sure the almost invisible health bar in the corner of her screen didn't help much.

2%. She thought, as she stared at it. The corners of her vision had reddened and she had found it difficult to stand, much less navigate the forest in the night. I have get back and warn the others. I have to find Kungen. Uloveme gathered her composure and forced her legs to move forward again. Behind her the jagged spires of Hero loomed high as silhouettes in front of the star light.

It had all happened so quickly, she recalled. She had been out looking for lost players when she had heard screaming in the forest. She had assumed it was the work of Hobbes, but what she had found was worse than she could have ever imagined. I could have saved him, if only I was a little earlier. The image of the fallen player vanishing never left her eyes. I could have saved him…

Uloveme had thrown a force push immediately when she had seen the Knight. It had stopped Defil3d momentarily, long enough for her to get the others to go. Though he had been quick to rise again. She had thrown other blasts at him after that, but with his full attention on her she couldn't get another blo0w in. Calling it a battle was wrong, Uloveme knew. It was a slaughter. He's probably even on Kungens level…

Uloveme stopped again. Not out of fatigue, but in thought.

Is Defil3d a developer too?

"It's this way, keep going!"

Uloveme tensed. She readied a force blast in the back of her right hand. When she saw the shadow of the person walk around through the brush she tensed and prepared throw the attack.

"I heard you I'm-" The girl paused, his her eyes widened.

Uloveme fully extended her arm with the attack riding on the tip of finger. Shit. Uloveme recognized the face from before, course correcting her arm at the last moment to direct the Force Blast towards the bark of a nearby tree. The forest floor shook from the impact. The girl remained frozen in place.

"What the hell?" The player, M4ia said as she fumbled to grab her sword and shield. In the shadow of the trees behind her Uloveme could see the darkened forms of a few other players do the same. She put her hands up.

"Wait, wait, relax… It was a mistake!" Uloveme let the magic fade from her hand, she took a step forward. "I'm sorry about that but there are more important things going onI don't know who you guys are but you need to get out of here now, it's not safe."

M4ia kept her blade on the ready. Behind her three other players emerged. One of which carried a rifle upon his back, Uloveme recognized his name as Quillian. He cleared his throat and addressed her calmly.

"If you're thinking of telling us to go back and wait with the others you'll get the same answer that the short fellow at the docks got."

"Short fellow?" Who? Uloveme shook her head. "Wait, no, that's right. You all shouldn't even be out here, you're supposed to wait for Kungen to show."

"And miss a world first boss kill? I don't think I could live with that." Uloveme directed her attention to the final two players. Both dark skinned, one a child, Herman, and the other a large man with a thick ball of an afro, FistOmen.

"No you don't understand, it's not the Hobbes you should be worried about. There's another player in the woods, a very powerful one. He's…." Uloveme searched for the words. It was at that moment that she saw the expression change on Maia and Quillians face.

"Killing people?" Quill finished for her.

FistOmen looked at Quill, his eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

"And his names Defil3d?" Maia added on. Uloveme stared at both of the players in disbelief.

"H-how do you know?"

Quills face darkened, he began to walk past Uloveme. Maia placed a hand on her shoulder before she could turn around.

"We've run into him before." She said, glancing over at Quill. The man was already under the canopy of the trees behind the four, walking steadily.

"I see…." Uloveme said, looking back at Maia. "Well he's in all likely hood heading for Hero Hill. If you can get there before he does than you can warn the rest of the players. Don't try to fight him on your own though. It'll be bad."

"We know." Maia said, letting her grip loosen and walking ahead to join Quill.

"We'll stay." FistOmen called, looking at Maia and then at Uloveme.

Maia tilted her head. "What about that World First Boss Kill you wanted?"

Herman looked at Fist as well. "Yeah what're you talking about?"

He shrugged. "This one looks a bit hurt, and we've already run into more than a few Hobbes on the way in."

Maia smiled. "Fine, but you know where to find us." She then ran to join Quill ahead.

Fist nodded. "Always." He looked down at Herman. "Alright man, let's keep her guarded all right?"

"Definitely." He said, both players taking a formation at Ulovemes side. The woman looked at both of them and then back at her own heath bar. She laughed.

"This is nice of you guys but lets just hurry and get back to camp. We need to warn everyone else."

"Follow us." Fist said as he lead the way into the forest, Herman quick behind. Uloveme glanced back towards Hero Hill and sighed. I hope they didn't start the boss timer yet.

She followed after Fist and Herman.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Ryuu opened his eyes.

His breathing was heavy while his heart felt ripe to burst from his chest. Ryuu sat up and looked around, having to wipe his eyes to regain focus. Where am I? There was still grass underneath his body, he felt. He was laying in the middle of a clearing, with several dozen trees all around him. Overhead the moon glared back at him like the morning sun after a night out drinking. What…

Images flashed back into Ryuus head. The Hobbes, the forest, Michael, them searching, the fight. Defil3d! Ryuu rolled to his feet and wobbled, trying to look around. He fell back down to one knee. With his hands shaking he armed with one of his pistols. What happened? Where is he? Where's Ellie?

And then he remembered,

I died.

Ryuu ran his hands along his body and face, his long black hair falling over his eyes. I died, I disappeared. My health hit the bottom. I shouldn't be here. He took another look around.

What's going on?

"Ryuu!"

Ryuu turned his head just in time to see his cousin finish her dash towards him embrace him in a hug, nearly knocking him back to the grass.

"Ellie? What's going on? What just happened?"

Ellie pulled back, the bottoms of her eyes starting to glisten in tears. "You disappeared. I'd thought, we'd all thought that you'd died." She wiped her eyes. "Until I realized you didn't shatter."

Ryuu removed himself from the embrace. "Then what happened? I don't understand. And Defil3d, why did he attack us? What happened to him?"

Ellie let her head fall down. "I..I don't know. It all happened so fast. We we're fighting, and then you got hit, hard. Defil3d was going to go in for the final blow but then he was….thrown back."

"Thrown back?"

Ellie nodded.

"Uloveme. The hooded woman we ran into back on the mainland. She came in at the last moment and saved us."

Images flashed into Ryuus head of the green eyed woman in red, of their last meeting on the hill overlooking Docktown. "That woman. Where'd she go, what happened to her?"

"She told us to run. I don't know I was still freaking out, Shade and the others had to practically drag me back."

Ryuu thought of the three players. "Wait, what happened to them? Where'd they go?"

Ellie paused for a moment. Ryuu wasn't sure what kind of expression she was trying to make. But before his cousin from speak they heard footsteps coming in from the woods. Ryuus heart skipped a beat. He fumbled for his pistol.

"Stay back!" He shouted, redrawing his pistol and brushing his finger up against the trigger. Twenty feet ahead a much larger gun aimed back at him.

"Put it down mate, we're just passing through." The man said. He had a large rifle tucked into his shoulder with the full point of it aimed directly at Ryuu. A blonde woman came from behind him with her hands up.

"Jeez, this literally just happened to us a few minutes back."" She put her hand on the mans gun and lowered it forcefully, turning her attention back towards Ryuu and Ellie. "We're just trying to go to Hero Hill, like he said, just passing through."

Ryuu looked at the two players closely, his finger ready on the trigger. He felt a hand on his shoulder. Ellie gave him a nod and Ryuu lowered his weapon slowly. He looked back at the two players.

The players M4ia and Quillian both stood side by side, their forms loosely lit by the moonlit backdrop. Ryuu eyed the two as both slowly began to walk towards him and Ellie.

"Sorry about that. But we're a bit on edge right now." Maia said as she strode towards them with her blonde her dancing behind her back. Quill slowly followed.

"Same." Ellie responded, wiping her eyes from before.

"We just had a bit of an….incident." Ryuu added.

Quill raised a brow. Maia scratched the back of her head. "Uh…same too."

There was a silence between the four. For a moment all Ryuu could hear was the slight sound of the wind brushing up against the trees in the night. He never knew that an awkward situation could appear at such a time.

"So…are you guys going to Hero Hill?"

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Apollo was enveloped in a pulse of blue light. Forcing him to cover his eyes as his feet navigated his new surroundings. A few seconds later he felt a soft breeze hit his face, and the light dimmed. He took in a deep breath and re-opened his eyes.

"Ah…finally on the outside."

Apollo tilted his head. What.

Lined up all around him was what looked to be several different players standing in many different poses. Their bodies looked to be still and only the pull of their wind on their clothes seemed to be causing any movement.

"Um….hello?" He asked, scratching the back of his head. He looked up at the three massive spires jutting up to the sky above. Ah yeah that was where it transported the player in Fable II. Apollo brought his eyes back down. Hero Hill huh? He started to walk around.

"So what're you guys all doing here…?" They were players, Apollo was sure of. The text above the nametags was glowing the bright green of any other player he had met in the world. Ahead he saw short, stalky player standing almost a head below the rest

"TankGod?" He asked, seeing the player he had known well up until a few days ago. Apollo stood directly in front of Tanks face.

TankGod stared back at Apollo blankly.

"You there man?" He waved his hands in front of his face, but there was no response. Is this part of that quest from the girl? No she said it was finished. Is this some sort of follow up then? Apollo looked around at the other players, the names of which he recognized among many. TJ Luther and his groups here too. Apollo looked back at TankGod.

Tanks eyes were blinking, rapidly.

Apollo tilted his head. "Are you...trying to tell me something?"

Tank kept blinking.

"You're gonna have to be a little bit more specific than that."

If it weren't for the sound of a swoop that cut through the air, the blade would have directly connected with the top of Apollos head. The player had just barely managed to roll out of the way in time, landing on the rocky ground in front of him in a tumble. He turned around.

Defil3d rested the weight of his blade on his shoulder. "A shame. I was going to make it quick this time."

"Ah….shit…"

Defil3d lunged forward with his blade arced back. Apollo kicked his feet against the rock and shot himself into the air with a spark. He flipped over the full height of Defil3d before landing behind him. Apollo spun around and hit the Knight with a fresh bolt of lightning.

"Okay, what the hell is this? What did you do to them?"

Defil3d turned around just in time to catch the strike with his blade, dissipating it into the air around the knight. Of course. Just when Apollo thought he was going to pause the knight to respond lunged forward again, but with even greater speed. His blade was too high for Apollo to jump so the player was forced to duck under the weight of the swing. Apollo raised an electric coated fist and plunged it into Defil3ds side.

Clank! Apollos fist bounced off the armor, the punch causing Defil3ds body to shuffle slightly. Apollo took the chance and rolled backward before the next strike came down.

"Seriously? You're not even going to give me some sort of evil speech or something?" Apollo readied his legs for another dodge. "Not even after what happened the first time we met"

Defil3d looked at the player for a second. He then dropped his blade to the ground, dragging it along the rock while he walked towards Apollo.

"I don't think you need much explanation." The black blade began to glow a deep red. "Considering you'll be dead in a second anyways, I'd advise you to create your own theory."

Apollo took a step forward, and another. The bottom of his feet began to glow before emitting several different sparks. He felt the blood rush to his head as images from their last encounter popped in his head. He narrowed his eyes.

Defil3d flinched

"You really know how to piss someone off, don't you?"

Apollo leapt forward with a trail of light shooting out of the back of his feet. Acting quickly, he shot ahead with both of his legs stretched forward. Defil3d reacted just in time for his blade to collide with both of Apollos feet. Bolded words flashed in front of Apollos screen.

Electric Pulse.

The resulting explosion vaulted Apollo back several yards, causing him to land in a rough tumble near the entrance of the hill. When he looked up he saw that Defil3d too was thrown back over the field of players, only feet from the edge of the mountain. Apollo brought himself to one knee.

On the corner of his screen he could see his health bar falling down past the 90% mark. He brushed the hair out of his forehead and stood back up to his full height. Probably shouldn't have made that statement there. He thought, as he watched the Knight rise as well, his health looking almost completely full. Apollo turned back around to the staircase behind him. I could leave now, but what about all of the players here. I don't think he'll do anything good for them.

Defil3d started walking, Apollo tensed.

I can't beat him either, he barely even took any damage from my main attack there. Think damn it. There has to be some other way out of all this. Defil3d neared closer, Apollo gritted his teeth and begin taking more steps forward. Ah shit what I am doing, what the hell am I doing. This isn't going to end well.

Defil3d rolled his neck, making several loud cracks as he walked.

Apollo took a deep breath. Shit, shit, shit.

As Apollo readied himself for the oncoming clash, a loud, piercing sound echoed across the hill. Its source was from directly behind Apollo. Both he and Defil3d stopped in place. With one eye trained on the Knight ahead of him, Apollo allowed himself to glance behind his back.

They stared back at him.