Several things happened in quick succession.

  One: I gave a shout as the gargoyle dislodged like a log tipping over. I’d given all my might to the push, but it was more than enough. The gargoyle flung out, and I tumbled forward, my Strength stat working far better than it ever would in real life.

  Two: a spear sheared through the space I’d just been.

  Three: I managed to grab the statue back slightly to keep it from overshooting the target. It began to fall.

  And four: the gargoyle changed.

  This was the strangest part of the whole event, and one that seemed to last several teetering seconds. One moment, the gargoyle was made of stone, gray and cracked, shaped like a winged demon. It was meant to look like a Scael, one of the three main races of the game, crouching and standing guard.

  The next moment, the statue was a large, amorphous, yellow-and-black blob that smelled of rotting sweetness.

  Then it was a gargoyle again.

  The change was so brief that I couldn’t grasp what I’d seen—only that I knew I had seen it. But by that point, the gargoyle was out of sight, dropping on the unsuspecting Hunter below.

  Only I didn’t hear a cry or scream. I must have missed. Oh well, that would have been a death out of a cartoon anyway.

  Better to handle this in person.

  I shot to my feet, equipped my gun, and jumped off the roof before the other Hunter could throw a new weapon at me. The air sluiced past as I dropped, making my lapels ripple, and I realized too late that I hadn’t upgraded my Constitution stat. This jump might not hurt in the game, but in real life, I could break my legs jumping off a two-story building.

  Yet I landed easily, as if I’d hopped down the last four steps of a stairwell. A little impact to my knees, but that was it.

  I didn’t waste the good luck by questioning it. Instead I spun, my laser gun out and ready. It was out of ammo, but the aliens didn’t know that.

  The first alien was on me almost the same moment I saw it. Its skin was slick, glistening with a slight green hue in the soft moonlight, and it had two mantis-like arms but only sludge for its lower body.

  Despite how slow it looked, the thing was quick. The muscle underneath that glistening skin bunched up, and the creature sprang at me.

  “You!” it hissed.

  I dodged.

  I should have drawn the katana. I had hoped the gun would ward off attacks, but no dice. The creature was already pivoting back to me, much more dextrous than it looked.

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  Worse, the other creature was there in my peripherals, scraping up against the shadows, its shape spiky and unsettling. I couldn't tell if it was wielding a trident or if it just had horns, or both. It was likely waiting for the right time to capitalize on my distraction.

  I had to keep moving.

  So I ran.

  I wasn't afraid—I just needed time to put my gun back into my inventory and draw a new weapon. I was still working through the gestures; I remembered them from Seven Keys, but I hadn't ever used them under this kind of stress before. I'd fought in real life, but in real life, you took a knife off your hip, not out of your invisible backpack grid.

  I was just reaching for my katana on the inventory screen when I felt something impact my shoulder. Ihad reached the far corner of the bank, so I rounded it and reached back over my shoulder to see what the object was. It felt like it was still there.

  My hand closed on something sharp. I frowned and tugged on it, pulling it out before me.

  It was a transparent knife.

  I became aware of a hiss behind me, just as the knife disintegrated to glass dust in my hand.

  "Heh. Some knife. Couldn't even last one hit," Dave's voice said, although I couldn't see where he even was.

  "It was Glass grade," I told him as I poked my head around the corner, the katana in my hand again. "The worst grade in the game. One hit, and it breaks. You find—I bet you find it in the starting area."

  Right. Gotta keep playing Remnant.

  I smiled. At least this part could be fun.

  "Hey! Sewer sludge! I'm right here!" I said, waving at the creature, which was inexplicably gripping its own shoulder and flinching. I looked for a spear, and then for the shadow alien, but it was gone. That wasn't good.

  Good ol' Slimey looked up at me with beady yellow eyes that didn't seem to be floating at the same height or position on either side of its head.

  "How...? What cheating is this?" it spat.

  It wasn't coming toward me, so it wasn't falling for the hidden-weapon-around-the-corner trick that usually caught a surprising number of people for me. I shrugged to myself and lunged back toward the creature, arcing my arm back to swing the jangling katana with all the strength I could muster.

  It slimed out of the way, half its body going amorphous to bend around my swing, but I had planned for that possibility. I let the momentum of my swing carry my into a side-roll, and when I came up again, I was facing the creature.

  It hadn't wasted time. It had drawn its own gun, a huge fat slug of a weapon. I ran at the creature as it moved its arm and aimed it—away from me?

  It seemed to be aiming for the base of the water tower across the way. Oh, hells no.

  I reacted, throwing the katana, and I was delighted to see the thing cleave across Ol' Slimey's arm by what had to be sheer luck, because I'd never handled nor thrown any sword before today.

  The strike cleaved the thing's arm from its body, and both the arm and gun dropped to the ground while the katana gave a helpless flip and a cheerful jingle, landing on the ground beyond the creature.

  A health bar suddenly materialized above its head, showing around 80% health. By that point, I'd reached it, and I was now about to resort to the weapon I knew best: my own fists.

  I swung at the alien's gut.

  Its top half had been much more ambulatory than the bottom, which had appeared to be more muscular as it moved. My fist connected with hard flesh, but I got a satisfactory wheeze out of the alien, surprising it enough to pummel it again.

  "You... dare..." it grunted between hits, and unfortunately, the hits weren't doing much to it. Barely a blip of damage with each punch, and that was with my extra Strength stat. Had it doubled up on its Constitution stat, or was this just a benefit of its body type?

  I stepped back, tensing to dive past the alien and get a hold of the katana again.

  Then I felt a new impact at my lower back—and my stomach.

  I looked down, blinking, only to find a spear protruding from my gut. Blood spewed from the wound, and my health bar began flashing, notifying me that I had a Bleed effect. I was losing HP.

  Well, that isn’t good.