I stared at the ceiling, contemplating my life choices. The cold floor felt nice on my exposed skin. Around me, my friends paused as well. The gravity of the situation set in. Cracks and craters ran the length of the floor. Scorch marks turned once grey tile to an ashy black. Some of the sconces littered the floor, along with chunks of wall and rock.

As I watched my health bar regenerate, I sat back up. Nearby, FeelinLucky kicked the dead body of the head cultist. Instead of disappearing like the other enemies, he lay on the ground in a black, blue, and red crumpled mess. . Blood spilled out of the gash Kit-Kat left, dying the floor a deep crimson.

Kit-Kat dropped her sword and fell to her knees, “Did…did we just kill somebody that wasn’t part of the game?”

I averted my gaze, “I don’t know.”

Lucky opened his grimoire and black magic circles conjured beneath the dead human. Wisps of magic encircled the body, caressing the entire form before slithering through his open lips. The human’s eyes opened, but a blue glow replaced the entire eyeball.

“Arise,” commanded Lucky.

The new zombie arose.

“Are you from outside the game?”

The zombie shook his head no.

“Is there any treasure here?”

The zombie shambled towards the back wall. Near it was a small alcove. Reaching inside, Lucky’s thrall pulled forth a simple wooden chest.

“You are dismissed.”

The eerie blue glow wafted out of the undead like steam, granting death once more to the corpse, which crumbled to dust in the wind. The entire time, FeelinLucky appeared to be in a trance, which he only now snapped out of.

“What was that?” I asked. “I’ve never seen you use that spell.”

Lucky blinked a few times and shook his head, “Because that wasn’t. I don’t know where that spell came from.”

That was odd. Necromancers can summon zombies and other undead, but they are summoned with a sigil. I have never seen one use an already dead body. I’m putting a pin in that for later. For now, I wanted to see what was in the treasure chest.

There was no lock on the chest, making it a simple wrist flick to open. Inside was a massive set of Asian-style light swordsman attire and a no-frills Katana. I gathered the pieces and brought them over to Rocky.

“Hey, are these yours?”

Rocky sat up straight and took the brown clothes and weapon from me, “Yes, these are mine. Apparently, that cultist figured I wasn’t as much of a threat as Kit-Kat and let me keep my armor and weapons until he brought me in here.”

Suzuha strummed a few notes, healing herself for a minuscule amount, “Did they say why?”

Rocky shook her head, “Just that I was some sacrifice for a ritual. If my soul wasn’t enough, then Kit-Kat was next.”

“Can we go now?” Candy asked with hands on her hips. “The way out should be cleared. Lucky and I killed pretty much everything that came after us.”
Rocky, by this point, had re-equipped his gear. It was nothing special, simply being the first set of max-level gear. I had to admit, it was mildly comedic seeing the large Stoneborn dressed in relatively light armor and wielding a thin blade. Most people who pick that race also tend to play the more heavily armored classes.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help. I’m a Spellblade so I’m useless without my weapon.”

Suzuha tapped Rocky on his chest, “I would have died if you didn’t land on me. I’d say you’re pretty helpful.”

Lucky walked towards the door and looked down the hallway, “This has been a nice reunion, but we should probably get out of here. I don’t know if Candy and I killed everything and I’d hate to be stuck in here when another horde of demons decides to greet us.”

“I agree,” I said as I joined Lucky. “We barely won that fight. I don’t want to risk anything else.”
Rocky and the girls followed us through the underground cages and out onto the prison courtyard. The air was still and silent as we carefully ran towards the entrance. Suzuha ran backward, keeping an eye on our rear. Now that everything was first person instead of third, it was a lot harder to keep an eye on our surroundings.

Lucky for us, the entrance was open and the guards were nowhere to be seen. Once outside, those of us with flying mounts summoned them and took off. Kit-Kat also had her griffon mount that Rocky was able to fly on. It seemed that despite having her gear stolen, her normal inventory was untouched. We flew through the night, happy to be out of that hellish prison.