"So, you're the brat, yes? I've heard a lot about you."

  Nathan suppressed the eyeroll. At this point, petty taunts really didn't effect him in the slightest.

  "Fenrir, right? I, uh, haven't heard much about you, actually."

  It was then that Nathan realized that he'd said something incredibly rude, what on earth was he doing…?

  Fenrir snorted. "Cheeky, aren't you?"

  Nathan sighed in relief, it looked like the guy didn't take offense.

  Behind Nathan, he could hear Bjorn talking with Mara and Chad. The chalk circles seemed to poke out in Nathan's vision, a constant reminder of what had to be done.

  "You see it too, yes? I'm sure you've heard the rumors as well." Fenrir smirked and adjusted his wolfskin cloak. "An impossible challenge. But that's only the case for the losers of our little contest."

  "I'm hoping that I'm wrong, honestly."

  Fenrir scoffed. "The sentimental type. I wouldn't expect that from the number one."

  "What can I say? I surprise even myself, sometimes." Nathan's eyes darted back toward his friends, then back to Fenrir. "Look, if you just brought me over here to shoot the breeze—"

  "Oh, relax. Is it so wrong to want to have a decent conversation? We might not get an opportunity like this in the future. Might as well take advantage of it."

  Fenrir clapped. An orc ran from the side and set up a seat pulled from her inventory and put it on the ground behind Fenrir. Another one ran to Nathan's side and did the exact same thing.

  Fenrir fell backward into his seat with a groan. He stretched out his arms. "Been standing up for what feels like days. Glad to finally rest my legs for a second." He raised an eyebrow at Nathan. "I hope you don't plan to just stand there all day."

  Nathan's lips pursed before he finally sat down.

  "Good, glad to see that you aren't a total barbarian."

  Fenrir held out his hand and pulled a goblet off a platter held by another orc. He took a sip from it, then brought it away from his lips and looked at Nathan.

  "From what I understand, you rescued two of my men. Not only that, but Bjorn. That's pretty impressive. More than I would've expected from a stranger, much less a stranger from another species.

  Nathan shrugged. "It worked out to my benefit, it's not as selfless as it might look from the outside."

  "Still, you have my respect. Besidees that, I owe you some kind of camraderie, yes? After all, you're technically one of us, given that whole 'blood-brother' stunt."

  "Is it against your laws or something?"

  "No, not at all. Bjorn was well within his right to do what he did. It's just… very surprising. In the end, it doesn't really matter, I suppose."

  Nathan furrowed his eyebrows. "You're different than I was expecting."

  "What were you expecting?" Fenrir's voice rumbled. "A hulking brute? A barbarian king?"

  "Honestly, yeah."

  "Then you wouldn't be the first." Fenrir took another sip of his drink, the purple liquid sloshing in his cup. "That's what most expect from us orcs. We're animals to those damn elves."

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  His voice had hardened on his final word, a distinct edge that hadn't been there before coloring his tone. Nathan took note of it—so the hatred was personal, eh?

  "What do you think of Emi?"

  "She did well to survive, I meant what I said earlier. Nothing like her father." He glanced at Nathan, a wry expression on his face. "He was a coward, did you know that? Hid behind a small army, depriving his citizens of the only hope of their salvation. The mother, on the other hand? Now that was a woman. A warrior, through and through. A shame she was on the other side. I would've had her for a general, otherwise."

  Nathan found the casualness a tad disconcerting. Though ultimately it shouldn't have surprised him. He'd always known that the orcs had something of and alien morality after his conversations with Bjorn. That was just how they were.

  That didn't mean he had to like it.

  "I can tell by that expression on your face that you disapprove."

  Nathan paused. How best to deliver his point without offending the man?

  "A long time ago, back on my home planet, I'd been watching this video essay about a video game," Nathan said. "It was about a famous war back home. It'd randomly caught my interest, but honestly I'd gotten kind of bored about half way through."

  "Video essay?"

  "Oh, the translation magic doesn't have an equivalent?" Nathan shook his head. "Whatever. The point is that there was a quote right before I exited that kind of stuck with me. And it's funny, I'd never thought to apply it to the whole orc and elf thing until I met you and got a measure of what kind of person you are, and then the whole thing just kind of clicked together in my mind."

  There was a faint look of curiosity on Fenrir's face. He leaned forward casually in his chair.

  "Oh? Explain."

  "No matter how justified, no matter how necessary, never say that war isn't a crime."

  Fenrir's expression, faintly curious, turned into a neutral, blank visage.

  "I see." He set his goblet back on the platter. "You know a lot about war, despite having been lucky enough to avoid it."

  "From my perspective, you're the person who instingated a conflict that resulted in my friend losing her parents, sorry if I'm a little more pissy than normal."

  "So boring. Here I was, thinking that you'd be more interesting, and instead I'm met with another idealist."

  Nathan was about to shoot another barbed sentence before he stopped himself.

  "This was a mistake."

  "On the contrary, I think it was enlightening, for the both of us."

  He stood up from his chair. An orc ran behind him and stuffed the chair back into her inventory. Picking up on the cue, Nathan did the same thing.

  "I would say that we should do this again some time, but I think we both know that the next quest will make that goal pretty difficult."

  He was awful confident, wasn't he? Still, Nathan held out hope.

  "Let's find out," Nathan said.

  He looked back over toward his group. "Emi! We're done here! Step onto one of the chalk circles!"

  Bjorn glanced over at him and frowned. Chad stopped talking and looked anxiously at the circles.

  Emi looked over at him with a tight, controlled expression. She nodded, then walked over to the nearest one. Nathan walked over to the second one. Fenrir strode over to the third.

  All three cirlces glowed with a green light. The pillar at the center of the room flashed and then three blue windows flickered to life.

  [MANDATORY QUEST]

  What? A mandatory quest—?

  [MANDATORY QUEST ACCEPTED]

  [Loading…]

  [Loading…]

  This had never happened before. Nathan felt a trickle of sweat roll down the back of his neck.

  [Main Quest: The Funnel]

  Here it is. The biggest challenge of your entire journey so far!

  Now, hear me out. Remember that team-based competition—wait, no, that's a different multiverse. Okay, so imagine you went through a team-based competition on one of the earlier ones. Like, a full on game show. Family Feud?

  If B32 had presumably prewritten these, that meant he'd watched Family Feud, which Nathan didn't know how to feel about.

  Now imagine that, but for three different species!

  Nathan felt his heart sink.

  Across this underground system of caves are three more quest hubs. These quest hubs each have a quest associated with them (obviously). One completed quest is worth one point. There are three quest hubs, therefore there are three possible points. Don't tiebreak, please, that will make things much more painful.

  Now you might be wondering—where are the quest hubs? Good question. And this is the first test of your abilities: can you beat the other species to the quest hub, and thus gain an early lead in completing the quest? Better start hunting! Only one gets to the next circle, after all.

  What happens to the species who lose?

  Who knows?

  P.S. The quest hubs are all linked together, as such you can teleport from one to the other. Be grateful.

  Nathan shut his eyes.

  This was what he was worried about.

  The thing that made the Sixth Circle "impossible" wasn't the quest themselves.

  No, it was the fact that even if they won… they'd be dooming thousands, if not millions, to death.

  Nathan swiped away the window.

  "Well, shit."