I jumped without a second thought. Flame seared the air to my left as I flung myself across the fifteen-foot gap, aiming for the dragon’s head and missing by a fair margin.

  I fell at least five feet before I collided with the dragon’s neck, somehow managing to get a grip on one of its spines. I hooked another leg between two spines, trying to fix myself in place.

  The dragon bucked as it noticed me. Sparks burned my skin as the creature abruptly cut off its flame.

  I closed my eyes, focusing all of my effort on my arms and legs, on keeping myself tight against the dense, pulsating muscle underneath me until there was the briefest of lulls. It came in the form of a minuscule pause as the beast went from twisting one way, to twisting another, all in an effort to get at me.

  That’s when I drew the laser pistol from my chest pocket, placed it against the dragon’s neck, and fired.

  The dragon screeched like ripping metal, jerking as the beam bored into its thick flesh. The green scales melted to slag around the barrel of the laser, and then the glow stopped.

  I fired again. The dragon thrashed. A wing slapped against me.

  I pulled the trigger a third time. The roar turned to a keen.

  The dragon was slowing, staggering, slipping to one side. Gravity was pulling on us both, making the world teeter around me.

  I fired my second-to-last charge into him.

  The dragon collapsed, and I thought about stopping. I ought to save my last charge. But the beam still hadn’t come out the other side of the dragon’s neck, and just then, I caught movement down the road.

  Another Hunter, running toward us, its own weapon raised.

  I closed my eyes, and I spent my last shot.

  This time, the beam made it out the other side of the poor beast, the gun’s violet light spitting melted green scale against the ground. The dragon gave a pathetic murmur, then breathed out in a rattle.

  The loot icon appeared as it died.

  Before I could even let go of the dragon’s neck, a gigantic spear materialized in front of me, half-buried in the dragon’s neck.

  I jerked away, then cursed. That Hunter just tried to steal my kill!

  Either that, or he’d been aiming for me, and he was a really bad shot.

  I finally let go of the spines, my muscles trembling from adrenaline. I yanked out the spear and slid down the dragon’s neck, hiding away on the town-side of the beast, where the other Hunter couldn’t see me.

  The AI immediately started listing off achievements.

  Achievement! You Weren’t Even Supposed to Kill That!

  My, oh, my, you sexy barbarian, you… going off and killing both a mother and child, as your first official act in the kingdom of Ostium! That was an entire family line, too—the last of the forest dragons! What a brute!

  Reward: You receive a Yellow Brutal Drop!

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  Bonus: For being the first Hunter to kill a full-size dragon, you receive a Green Smite Drop!

  As the Host spoke, I activated the Loot effect on the dragon, taking everything it had, which was nine things. I hoped they were worth all those charges.

  I felt warm and tingly, like I was about to get sunburn. All said and done, that went pretty well.

  I considered trying to fight off the Hunter, but the dragon’s corpse was already fading away. Without it, I lost my cover.

  The Hunter was much closer now, of the six-armed variety, and I was pretty sure it was a male. The fading dragon left me exposed to the gun in one of his hands.

  The crack of a bullet came next.

  The bullet struck me in the shoulder, but it was more impact than pain. The shot whipped me around, dropping me to the torn ground. Since when did these guys have human guns?

  It was a stupid thought to have while I was grounded from a bullet wound, but it came anyway. How the hells could I defend against this kind of free-for-all? Seven Keys was a fantasy game, not a shooter. There was very little armor here that would protect against bullets.

  Don’t let your mind wander. Act before the pain hits.

  I struggled to raise my arm to fire my pistol, but my arm wasn’t working. The whole thing shook, and my laser was out of charges anyway.

  So this is how it ends, I thought, looking back to face the Hunter. He had stopped to sight down the small barrel of the gun at me, just to make sure he didn’t miss.

  “Lore,” I heard myself say—

  Then the Hunter sprouted arrows.

  They snapped into him like pins, fwoop fwoop fwoop. My eyes widened as the Hunter dropped the gun. Three arrows, then four, then five appeared, sticking out of his head, his neck, his hip. He dropped to his knees, and fell face-first right in front of me.

  He died, and I looted everything.

  Achievement! Non-Punchable Character!

  You have gained Respect status with an NPC. There’s now at least one person in this world that likes you! (And still one non-person who wants in your pants, but that’s besides the point.)

  Reward: You receive a Red Good Guy Drop!

  Bonus: For being the first Hunter to befriend an NPC, you receive a unique title: COMES BEARING GIFTS.

  This was then followed by two very similar Achievements, which I got for gaining both “Friendship” and “Adoration” status with an NPC. I’d never even gotten to Adoration status before.

  It didn’t stop there, either:

  Achievement! NPC Whisperer.

  An NPC helped you kill something! What did you promise him? A good hard dicking? Because I would totally poke things full of holes for that, just like I’d totally let you poke things into my holes.

  Reward: You receive an Orange Henchman Drop!

  Achievement! Can I Get an Assist?

  An NPC helped you kill an enemy Hunter! They’re normally way too cowardly to help or too inept to be of use. Seems you’ve found the one NPC in this whole Level that can aim. It’s all thanks to those good hard dickings.

  Reward: You receive a Yellow Henchman Drop!

  I barely registered any of this, except for the moment I heard the word title. They were giving me a title for something? Titles existed in the Seven Keys game, but they were basically just cosmetic, so I wasn’t sure what the point was.

  Anyway, the pain was starting to hit.

  I rose on wobbly legs and turned toward the Radix wall. The guardsmen along the top had more than doubled in number. All of them were still Graylings, presenting as humans but with various shades of gray replacing real-life skin tones. Seven of them now clustered around the hole I’d made in the gate. Six of these—the regular guards, dressed the same, with the words Level 5 above all their heads—leveled their shabby-looking bows at me.

  But the seventh guy watched me from the center of them all, his bow hanging at his side, its arrows spent. He wore armor, too, but less of it, and it covered lush red clothing. I recognized that sharp tunic, the tailored cut of his pants. This was the general of all the forces in this region of the game, and the name above his head said as much:

  Hergvor the Implacable

  Riftguard General

  Level 20

  NPC

  In this guy’s case, “The Implacable” was a title. Any title I earned would appear similarly above my own head, if I equipped it.

  “Now that was a fight, eh, son?” the general said, stepping closer. He held out a hand to me. “I ought to thank you. That dragon’s been plaguing us for some time now.”

  I didn’t take his hand. I stared into his eyes, which glowed a fierce red. I didn’t recognize him from the game.

  But I did recognize him.

  “Moran?” I said.