Harper leapt over the swinging axe, kicking out as she did. Her foot connected with the Nidan’s head, early afternoon sunlight reflecting off the icy body, knocking it back a couple steps but feeling like she’d just kicked stone. A chill spread up her leg as she landed, rolling forward and avoiding another swing. Harper smiled as she heard the crack of a Nidan’s icy body being struck.

  Coming out of her roll, she turned around seeing Davis’ energy spear being pulled out of the Nidan’s body. The dwarf-like creature fell apart. Chunks falling to the ground. Harper smiled at him. He missed it as he spun around, spear blocking the swing of a hammer. Harper entered the Shadow Realm, Shadowskipping behind the Nidan. She popped out of the Shadow Realm, blades of her tonfas leading. They burst through the body, the creature looking down in surprise. She pulled them out, letting the body drop, looking around the clearing as the multi-colored sparks started dancing in the air.

  Used to the spectacle, Harper ignored them as they entered her body. She knew she was close to her next Level. A couple more fights and she’d get there. Looking at the entrance to the Dungeon, it called to her. Entering that, it wouldn’t take long before she’d get the Level.

  And it wasn’t a Challenge Dungeon. They could enter and leave.

  “Nope,” Davis said, chuckling.

  She turned to look at him, smiling.

  “What?”

  “I know what you were thinking. We’re not entering the Dungeon, not the two of us.”

  “But only a couple fights,” she said, walking over and standing in front of him, reaching up, arm circling behind his neck. He started to lean down. “It’d be quick.”

  “And your dad would kill me,” Davis said, giving her a quick kiss.

  Harper pouted.

  “Nope,” he said, backing away. “Don’t dare pull out the pout face.”

  She kept the pout, advancing on him.

  “Come on, just two fights…”

  She stopped, pout leaving, being replaced by a look of confusion. Davis was looking past her, past the Dungeon. She turned, hearing the same thing he was. Multiple feet hitting the snow, breaking through the crust, branches breaking, the growls of monsters.

  “What the…,” Davis started as a couple raptors ran around the hill containing the Dungeon.

  The dual braced themselves, weapons out, as the four raptors charged at them. Harper leapt over the first, stabbing down with a tonfa, piercing the skull of the dinosaur. She landed to the side of the second, stabbing out and slicing through the monster’s chest. It turned to lash at her with its claws, jaws snapping, only to get her tonfa stabbing up through its neck and into its brain. The two bodies fell to the snow, one right after the other. She started to turn to see if Davis had his under control when more came around the hill.

  Cursing, Harper darted at the one in the lead, ducking under the snapping jaws, slicing across its chest as she stabbed at a second, dancing to the side to attack the third. More kept coming. She darted between them, dancing around the attacks, tonfas stabbing out.

  “Harper!,” Davis called out.

  She glanced at him, seeing a crowd of raptors around him. Activating Shadowskip, she entered the Shadow Realm, running toward Davis. Jumping out, she stood with her back to him, helping fight back the raptors swarming around them. She stabbed out, no finesse or dancing. Tonfas dealing death and wounds. More raptors appeared.

  “Where are they coming from?” she yelled out.

  “No clue, just keep killing,” Davis answered.

  She did. Raptor after raptor. All she could see were raptors, piling up around her, the live ones clawing and snapping at her.

  “Harper!,” a voice yelled out, followed by the screech of raptors beyond the circle around her.

  “Mike?” she called out, recognizing the voice.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’m here, by the hill,” he yelled.

  A more defensible position. She and Davis were in the middle, surrounded on all sides. Against the hill, the three could easily defend themselves. The raptors were low enough Leveled that each wasn’t a challenge or threat, but it was the numbers. They could only hold off so many, allowing the others to get free hits. Both Harper and Davis were already picking up wounds.

  “You lead,” Davis yelled out.

  They shifted so Harper was facing the hill, swinging her tonfas to clear a path. Davis pushed up against her, staying close as she made her way toward the hill. She could see the flash of Mike’s blade as he sparingly used his Abilities. She kicked and stabbed, forcing the raptors away, seeing Mike working to clear a path for them.

  It opened up, the last raptor between them falling from a frontal assault from Harper, Mike’s sword stabbing into its back. He grabbed it, throwing it at another one.

  “We’re here,” Harper told Davis, getting a grunt in reply.

  Mike stepped away from the hill, letting Harper pass behind him, stepping back when she was on his left flank, letting Davis take the right flank. Together the three kept fighting the raptors. Harper could start to see an end. Where had all of them come from? There were more than she normally saw in a pack.

  “We got this,” she called out.

  Another raptor fell, replaced by another, but she could see the clearing and the trees beyond. There were no more left. They were on the last of the giant pack.

  She heard a grunt of pain, turning to see Davis sliding down the hill, holding onto his side. Mike was backing up, his sword sliding free of Davis’ body.

  “Davis!,” Harper yelled, pushing Mike to the side.

  He fell to the ground, a raptor charging at him. Mike barely turned, getting his sword up as the raptor leapt on him. Harper didn’t see what happened, rushing past Davis and stabbing the last raptor that was charging at him. She speared it through the chest, second tonfa stabbing through the creature's eye. With a cry of rage, she kicked the dying monster to the side.

  “I’m fine,” Davis said, sitting on the ground, face wracked in pain. “I heard his attack, managing to twist out of the way. Barely penetrated.”

  He said each word through the obvious pain, blood leaking out around his hand clutching at the wound. Harper whirled, leaping at Mike. He pushed the dead raptor off himself, pulling his sword out of the body. Harper kicked his hand, making him drop the blade. He cried out in pain, bones breaking, as she picked up his own blade. Shifting it in her grip, she pointed the tip at Mike, holding it an inch away from his face.

  “What did you do?” she growled out.

  “It was an accident,” he shouted out, holding a hand in front of him toward Harper. She batted it away with the sword, drawing a thin line of blood. Mike clutched it to his chest. “I thought a raptor had gotten by and I reacted. I didn’t mean to…”

  Harper started to lower the sword. It was Mike. He wouldn’t have intentionally tried to harm Davis. It had to be an accident. The fighting had been chaotic.

  But then why was Mike even out there? Davis and Harper had set out alone, not telling anyone where they had been going. They hadn’t even known. Just a date in the woods, fighting some random monsters. They’d taken a meandering path, no set goal. Anyone coming out to follow them wouldn’t have been able to. Their tracks had mingled, passed and matched up with tracks from the hunters and many others. The only way to be there at the exact moment they needed was if he had been following them.

  She looked down at the ground, not sure what to believe, but caught a small and cruel smile crossing Mike’s face. The sword tip lifted up, moving closer to Mike’s throat.

  “I don’t believe you,” she said, hearing Davis standing up.

  He walked over next to her, spear tip leveled at Mike.

  “Tell me the truth,” she ordered.

  Mike looked up at her, eyes pleading.

  “Harper..,” he said.

  “The truth, Mike.”

  He reached up, rubbing at his temples, before his pleading expression turned to a sneer directed at Davis. His face twisted again, looking like he was in pain. Mike bent down, clutching at his head.

  “Mike?” Harper asked, glancing at Davis.

  He looked as confused as she was, hand still clutching at his side. Harper could see that it was healing already, the blood on his hand and clothes drying.

  “I’m sorry,” Mike said, rocking back and forth, still clutching at his head.

  “What do we do?” Davis asked.

  Harper shook her head, she had no idea.