Panic gripped him as Pete pushed himself into a run. He immediately triggered his Berserker stance, aiming to slow down time to give himself a chance to reach the ferret before it was too late.

  

  >> Pauper's Ward Cooldown: 3 seconds

  Three seconds. It would have to be enough. In real time, those three seconds would take too long, but with his Blood Overdraft ability engaged, he'd have fifteen seconds to spend; more than enough for his cooldown to complete and, with luck, for Pete to reach Coop before the missiles hit.

  Pete wasn't altogether sure how he knew. Perhaps it was because Coop was technically his soulbound companion? Perhaps the days they'd spent fighting and running alongside one another had created enough of an unspoken bond between them that he could sense it? Either way, he knew with certainty that she was out of shields.

  He remembered her using her Financial Retribution shield earlier, and that had a thirty-second cooldown, and the guard explosion had used up her Midas Exchange ability. Pete knew that Coop had other ways to mitigate damage in addition to the bonuses to health regeneration and the like, which the group all enjoyed, but it wouldn't be enough to deal with the three rockets currently whizzing toward her with lethal precision.

  Time seemed to slow even more than his Berserker stance dictated as Pete tried to close the distance between the elevator and the crater Coop was standing in. Not only did Pete need to solve the problem of reaching her before the missiles, he also needed to find a way to deal with the damage when they hit; otherwise, they'd both be dead.

  

  >> Pauper's Ward Cooldown: 1 second

  His Pauper's Ward would deal with the initial explosion, of course, but the three rockets were heading in a line toward Coop, and they wouldn't all hit at once. Pete could confidently deflect damage from the first missile, but he had no way of mitigating damage from the second or third, other than his Evasion and Luck attributes; but they weren't likely to do much against such direct explosive power.

  His Blood Overdraft ability was primarily an attack stance, designed to increase his capacity to deal damage and scale the more injuries he took. His Coin Toss ability wouldn't do much, and the missiles were too close to shoot out of the sky, even if he could manage it. They were already within ten feet of Coop and moving so fast that the resulting explosion if Pete shot one of them with an arrow would likely kill the ferret.

  This was his Kobayashi Maru moment. This was a scenario he couldn't win, but it was also a moment he was already fully committed to. Whichever way he looked at it, they were both going to die.

  Pete triggered his Pauper's Ward ability as he drew closer to Coop. She was looking at him now, eyes wide, mouth open.

  [Coop] N...O...!

  The word came to him slowly, one letter at a time, clearly slowed by Pete's Berzerker stance. Something shifted in the air around Coop as blue light swirled just above her body.

  Pete watched the strange swirling light as it stretched out, reaching like a hand from where it was tethered above Coop's head. The blue, luminescent limb stretched slowly toward Pete, matching the rockets in speed as they closed in on the ferret's location.

  Confused, and still five feet from Coop, Pete watched as the blue light stretching from above the ferret's head pressed into his chest, filling his body with instant warmth as a connection was made between the two of them. Pete felt his body freeze in place, pinned in midair by whatever this strange ability was. He felt a rush of confusing memories fill his mind. Images flashed through his head, scenes of his various interactions with Mrs. Cooper as she had been before the Dominion Ultrimax Contest.

  She was always sitting in the chair in her front yard, drink in hand, cigarette in the other, with the ferret contentedly sitting on her lap. Pete remembered his first meeting with the old woman when he moved into his apartment. He recalled a dozen times greeting her as he walked to his car, making small talk, dreading a day of office work ahead, smiling disingenuously as she asked him some question or other.

  Pete stood frozen in place, his arms and feet in an action pose as the memories shifted in his mind, going back to moments long before he'd met Elena Cooper. She was still in the same house, but inside baking and squawking at a middle-aged man wearing a tan-colored flat cap. Another scene showed the same man younger and with less girth around his waist, wearing a different colored flat cap and sitting in a small boat, rowing while Elena lay back and luxuriated, a large yellow hat shading her much younger face.

  Elena was dancing with another young woman, both in their early twenties. Her eyes were fixed on a dapper young man standing with his back against the wall, flat cap in hand, a smirk across his handsome face. Then she was crouching low, one leg extended, surrounded by other tweens in a ballet class, following instructions given by a middle-aged woman with vibrant red hair.

  It was as though he was seeing her life piece by piece, backwards.

  "Coop, what is this? What's going on?"

  He realized only after he had spoken the words just how stupid it was to try to communicate with her given the time difference between them. There was no time for her to reply. The rockets were now only a few feet away, and Pete knew he couldn't reach her. His Pauper's Ward was still in place, but she was out in the open, unshielded except for the strange blue light that connected them both and which was still sending a baffling array of visual memories into his mind.

  Pete watched in slow motion as the first of the missiles struck Coop, her ferret eyes still fixed on him. The world erupted in light and heat. Pete's vision was cut off, impossibly bright light rendering him effectively blind. His body was numb, warm, and wrong.

  In that moment, and in the three moments that followed, he felt himself torn apart, ripped to shreds by the trio of missile explosions. He felt the sensation of his eyes dripping and the resulting liquid vaporizing, of his skin being torn free, bursting into flames as it was ripped from his body. Muscles devoured by flame, joints ripped apart, bones cracked and bursting apart under the sudden percussive forces of the explosions.

  Yet, at the same time, Pete felt himself standing in position, shielded by a strange blue light that radiated the life and memory of Elena Cooper. Memories of her life ran through his mind like a flurry of photographic images. All that she had been was wrapped around Pete's body, cocooning him in strands of her existence and keeping him safe from the devouring force of the missiles.

  

  >> PARTY MEMBER DEATH: Coop, Elena Cooper.

  >> SOULBOUND COMPANION DEATH: Coop, Elena Cooper.

  All funds and relevant inventory items have been transferred to you.

  The blue light faded, and Pete came back to himself, standing on scorched rock just a few feet from the smoking impact point of both the initial guard explosion and the three additional missiles. He blinked, confused for a moment as his brain slowly came to understand what had just happened.

  His Berserker ability had ended, or rather, he'd stopped it. Smoke filled the lobby, along with the continuing sound of battle coming from the other side of the security desk where former Overseer Greedwell continued to fight against Pete's crew.

  [Sam] What just happened? Pete?! Where is Coop?!

  He couldn't bring himself to reply. She was dead. There was nothing left of the ferret, no sign that she had ever existed other than the various inventory items and cash that had been transferred to Pete, along with the lingering memories he had witnessed before the explosions.

  [Sam] PETE?!

  [Pete] She's...dead. Gone.

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 1 MIN 10 SEC

  [Sam] Damn it! Jesus! We need your help, Pete. I know this is terrible, but we can't put Greedwell down, and we're running out of time.

  Pete stood staring at the smoldering crater, shaking his head and trying to work through what had just happened. She was dead. Not in trouble or badly wounded. Dead.

  The finality of that fact struck him like a nail through the chest. From the very first moment since the contest started, he and Coop had been running together from one disaster to another, saving each other's necks again and again.

  And now, she was dead.

  [Sam] PETE! PLEASE, WE NEED YOU!

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Sam's voice jolted him out of his contemplation. He blinked, looking over at where Ollie and the others were struggling to put down the former Overseer. He sent all the money he'd gotten from Coop to Sam, triggering Insolvency once more, and set off, rubble crunching beneath his shoes as he climbed up the edge of the crater.

  Both arms and one leg of Greedwell's armor had been torn free and discarded, and Wolfy and Ollie were trying to rip the rest of the cracked armor from the Overseer's body as Pete started moving. The former Overseer's helmet was cracked and dented, showing the goblin's grimacing face within.

  Ollie slammed the blunt end of his maul against the bottom edge of the helmet and sent it flying into the air with a satisfying crack. A moment later, the remaining pieces of white armor burst outward, flung off the Overseer as he floated up into the air, his body surrounded by a glimmering green shield that hugged his body.

  One of the armor pieces hit Ollie in the chest, knocking him backward and taking a gouge out of his right arm, and blood poured from the wound, and golden light flared around his body. Wolfy was knocked clear as well. The hellhound blinked out of existence, appearing once more next to Sam, who was still standing further along with Craig and Torgo, with Grizzle hunching down and holding her shield out protectively in front of her.

  "Show yourself, Vault Breaker!" the disgraced Overseer shouted, his voice having returned to its high-pitched, natural self. "Stop cowering in the shadows and show yourself."

  Pete ran, pulling the bow and arrow from his inventory and feeling shock turn to blind rage as, once more, he triggered his Blood Overdraft ability. Instead of a standard arrow, he drew one of the few remaining Coin Biter Drill Shaft arrows from his inventory and notched the shaft as he slowed to a steady walk and aimed at the Overseer.

  Torgo threw a fire orb at Greedwell, but the flaming projectile failed to penetrate the green shield surrounding the disgraced Overseer. Bullets from Craig's rifle pinged off the protective ward as Greedwell circled around, scanning the scarred floor of the lobby as he searched for Pete.

  "Show yourself, you pathetic hooman!"

  Pete ignored the Overseer's words, infusing his charged shot with all the anger and frustration he felt at that moment. He stopped walking and fired the arrow. A shard of light shot from his bow and struck Greedwell in the chest, prompting emerald light to flare as the arrow burrowed through the powerful shield and bit into the goblin's flesh.

  Greedwell shrieked, falling to the ground but landing on his feet, one hand clutching the wound in his chest.

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 49 SEC

  Pete bent down to the floor and scooped up a single Belch Buck as he walked toward the Overseer. His Insolvency status was removed as he notched another arrow and aimed at Greedwell.

  "There you are!" the former Overseer spat. "Finally come to face me, have you?"

  Despite the bright green blood pouring from the wound in his chest, the goblin stood. Bullets from Craig's rifle continued to bounce off the shielding, as did repeated blasts from Torgo's fire staff. Thick ethereal chains continued to tighten as Sam sent Wolfy once more to attack.

  Pete saw none of it. His eyes were locked on Greedwell's, fixed on the ugly, wealth-obsessed creature who had very nearly killed his mother and had just slaughtered Coop. Pete held his charged shot, ignoring the goblin as Greedwell pulled a metallic pistol from his jacket and took aim.

  "Time is ticking, you pathetic worm. You will fail here just as your kind have—"

  Pete fired, channeling every ounce of hate and anger into the shot. Once more, a shard of impossibly white light shot like lightning from the bow and struck Greedwell in exactly the same spot Pete had hit before. The goblin stumbled backward, an expression of confusion on his face as he fired the gun in his hand. The shot went wide, zipping past Pete's head as he continued walking toward the Overseer.

  Blood poured from the wound in Greedwell's chest, gushing out of the front and back of his body as the green shield that had protected him moments earlier flickered and failed. He fell to his knees, coughing bright green blood and still wearing a perplexed expression.

  "I don't...understand," Greedwell managed, blood bubbling in the corners of his mouth and pumping out of the hole in his chest.

  "You're dead," Pete said flatly, drawing another arrow as he walked to within a few feet of the Overseer.

  

  >> ARCHERY PROFICIENCY +1

  >> CRITICAL STRIKE DAMAGE PROFICIENCY +1

  "No. NO!" Greedwell pleaded. "No, it cannot be."

  Pete held the bow up, aiming between the goblin's eyes. In that moment, now that it was almost done, he felt not hate or rage, but only sorrow and loss. Coop was gone. This monster had killed her, but it wasn't Greedwell that had ended her. It was the contest, the game, the greed that pervaded the Dominion, spread by Tongsly Belch and his profit-hungry goons and by the countless Dominion citizens all scrambling to climb their way out of a hole, hoping to gain enough money to live free of oppression.

  The System, Belch, the Dominion—all of it needed to fall, and Pete decided at that moment that he was the one to make that happen, starting with the baffled, green-skinned vulture kneeling in front of him.

  "I am a cousin to the High Baron himself!" Greedwell insisted.

  "No," Pete said, his voice barely above a whisper. "You're nothing."

  He fired, sending the arrow through the goblin's left eye and into his brain, ending Augustus Greedwell's life in a moment. The goblin fell to the floor, dead.

  

  >> ACHIEVEMENT: Overseer Obliteration!

  Congratulations! You just killed a Dominion Ultrimax Overseer. While this isn't the first time in Dominion history that such a thing has occurred, it is the first time a novice player has managed the feat! By slaughtering Former Overseer Augustus Greedwell, you have rid the Dominion Ultrimax Contest of a thief who intended to manipulate game mechanics and knowingly rig a portion of the contest for his own gain.

  >> ACHIEVEMENT REWARD: 1 x Soulbound Weapon Augment Gem.

  Sam and the others ran over, with Ollie rushing to the body and searching through Greedwell's pockets. Pete stood blankly as Sam came over and gently squeezed his arm. She didn't speak.

  "She sacrificed herself for me," Pete said.

  Sam nodded.

  "I didn't ask her to," Pete went on. "I was trying to save her, but...it all happened too fast."

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 30 SEC

  "We need to move," Sam said. "We all need to be in that elevator before the timer is done."

  Pete stared down at the dead body of the goblin Overseer. It seemed like such a pathetic thing, a tangle of clothes and lifeless flesh.

  "Got it!" Ollie said, holding up a golden key the size and shape of a credit card.

  The tall man stood, grabbing Pete by the arm and pulling him along as they all ran toward the elevator. Pete was vaguely aware of being half-pushed as they skirted around the edge of the craters and ran along cracked stone past the ruined reception desk, the security scanner, and on to the back wall.

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 20 SEC

  Ollie swiped the elevator card on the sensor, and the elevator doors opened with a resounding ping. The doors opened painfully slowly, with Craig and the other goblins slipping into the elevator one by one as soon as it had opened wide enough for them to get through.

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 15 SEC

  Pete felt Ollie shove him into the elevator, followed by Sam and the rangy Australian a moment later. There was only one button on the elevator operating panel. It was a gold, round button that looked a lot like a Belch Buch, but with the number one written on it.

  Ollie jabbed the button over and over as the challenge counter continued to run down. The elevator responded slowly, its doors shuddering before beginning to close.

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 5 SEC

  “Come on, you slow bastard!” Ollie growled.

  The others all stared at the elevator doors, knowing that their lives were now being wagered on a race between how quickly those doors would close and how fast the challenge counter would run down.

  

  >> TIME REMAINING: 2 SEC

  “If I die in this elevator, I swear I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt these fuckers!” Ollie declared.

  “You and me both,” Sam agreed.

  Pete stood numbly, staring off into the ruined remains of the lobby as the doors finally closed. The rage had subsided within him for the moment, replaced by a deep sense of loss and hopelessness. He hadn’t even known Mrs. Cooper that well. They’d shared a few passing words every other day, and that was the sum of their relationship. But losing Coop represented much more than simply losing an old lady he barely knew.

  Her death represented the loss of so much more. How many people had already died at the hands of the Dominion? How many more would die in the coming days?

  Right at that moment, Pete knew that there were likely dozens of other players dying at the hands of explosive traps, or hobgoblin blades, or one of a thousand other perils that lay higher up in the tower. Perhaps there were hundreds of players all dying at that precise moment.

  But aside from the old lady and the larger threat to humanity, Coop had become something else during their short time together. Pete wasn’t sure whether there was some strange shift that took place when you were placed into an animal body, like a pet ferret, for example, or if it was the changes that the game had wrought within Coop that made her so different.

  Either way, that little ferret had become more than the old woman who had lived in the house opposite Pete’s apartment. She had been Pete’s soulbound companion, a friend and invaluable ally in their combined fight for survival.

  Somewhere along the line, Pete assumed that they’d make it through the contest together, all of them, and if they fell, it would be together. That was an illogical assumption, he realized now. It was much more likely that they’d get picked off in ones and twos, taken out by overpowering enemies or the capricious whims of the System.

  The elevator moved, and Pete felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Sam standing next to him, a look of concern and sorrow on her face.

  "I'm sorry, Pete," she said.

  He nodded, not wanting to risk answering for fear that his voice would croak.

  [Nero-Private-Pete] You have experienced a profoundly emotional event, Pete. When a soulbound companion gives their life to save their master, the resulting debt can linger. You have been shown a window into her life, been welcomed into all that Coop was and all that she could have been. That experience will linger with you.

  [Pete-Private-Nero] Is that why I feel like this? I mean, I liked Coop well enough, but this feels like my own mother has died.

  [Nero-Private-Pete] You may not have realized it, Pete, but from the very first moment you entered the contest, and Coop was chosen as your companion, the two of you have shared a powerful bond. That bond has grown with each passing hour and every fight you have endured together. To have that connection suddenly severed will cause some anguish. Because of the nature of Coop's final sacrifice, however, the debt you will feel will be far greater still.

  The elevator stopped moving, and its doors slid open with an accompanying ding. Pete and the others stared out onto a dark expanse filled with flickering fluorescent lights that illuminated plain concrete pillars and rows of empty parking spaces that stretched off into the distance.

  A holographic sign appeared just ahead of them. It showed the same Tongsly Belch logo as the sign behind the reception desk in the lobby but with the words CAR PARK written in block letters.

  Pete stepped onto the floor, and the others followed. Behind them, the elevator doors closed, and an odd sound of stone scraping against stone came from beside the elevator door. As Pete turned around, he saw the elevator doors being swallowed by the concrete on either side of the walls. The group stood watching as the concrete slowly covered the elevator entrance.