-Mike-

Mike stepped through the fog, finding himself on the first floor of Tartarus. However, there was something that was clearly off about the place. It still looked like a frozen castle with its chandeliers, red carpet, and fancy furniture; yet all of these things were in different places than they were during their last visit.

Is it just me or…

Mike nodded before Michael could even finish that thought. “Tartarus has changed.”

So much for revenge, huh? You’ll have to take all of that anger out on some other poor guy.

“It’s all the same to me.” Mike grunted, spinning his flail as he walked through the icy halls of Tartarus. Upon turning the first corner, Mike found himself face to face with three skeletons, each one equipped with different weapons.

Shit! Three versus one!

“I’ve seen worse!” Mike stepped forward, his fangs hanging from his closed mouth smile and his yellow eyes gleamed, scanning each enemy one by one.

One archer.

Two swordsmen with shields.

“Heh. Watch and learn, kid. Remember our rule. If we switch bodies, draw blood and we’ll switch right back!”

Alright! I’ll- I’ll be your extra set of eyes!

“No need!” Mike was already running head-first toward the skeletons, dodging past arrows with ease! “I won’t let simple skeletons stop me!”

Mike’s veins bulged as he gripped his weapon tightly; the weapon was so flimsy, that the wooden handle started to crack under his strength! With a singular, wide swing, Mike knocked one swordsman into the other and as if they were two towers of blocks, their bones collapsed onto the ground!

“I see! Blunt weapons are the way to go for these fuckers!” Mike directed his attention back toward the archer who was five or six steps away. Swiftly, like a boxer, Mike weaved to his right, barely avoiding an arrow that only took a few strands of hair with it.

Without missing a beat, Mike grabbed a shield from the ground and sprinted toward the archer, still spinning that flail in his right hand. The archer only had time for one more arrow, firing it at Mike who was charging at it like a raging bull!

Mike blocked the arrow with his shield, “This is for last time!” he proclaimed before knocking the skeleton’s head clean off with a single strike! He wasn’t sure if this archer was the same one as before, but it didn’t matter to him. For the first time in years, Mike was able to fight freely, reminding him of his days in the military. His heart was racing and his body was trembling not from fear, but from a mixture of excitement and adrenaline coursing through his body.

“Who’s next!” Mike scanned the hallway he found himself in, spotting no other victims to his disappointment.

You probably got EXP for that. Check the watch.

Mike folded his arm and looked at the screen of the smartwatch. His Health and Mana were still full, but his EXP had grown. “Sixty out of one hundred EXP… What’s that mean?” Mike asked the gamer in his brain.

It means those guys we just killed-

“I just killed.” Mike corrected him.

Michael sighed from the inside of their collective brain.

It means those guys YOU killed are worth twenty EXP each. All we need to do is kill two more dudes, which will net us forty more EXP, and then we level up.

“So what happens when I…” Mike made sure to put emphasis on the ‘I’. “...Level up.”

Usually, you get stronger or gain new abilities. I’m not sure how it applies down here though. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. It looks like we got some money for that too.

Mike took a closer look at their watch, seeing a peculiar-looking symbol right beside their EXP. It was similar to an American dollar sign, however, it looked more like an ‘H’ than an ‘S’. They’d earned fifteen of these Hell Bucks though it was impossible to tell how much that was really worth.

“Oh yeah… Fifteen Hell Bucks. Well, maybe we’ll run into that creepy little fucker in here and be able to see how much this is worth… Or we can just take what we want from his bag.”

We’re not robbing Harut.

Mike rolled his eyes, lowered his shoulders, and scoffed. “Fine. Let’s keep moving.” Mike stepped forward, jogging through the halls with his shield and flail in hand. It wasn’t long before he came across an intersection that broke off into four branching paths, including the path he’d just come from.

This architecture is strange…

“You’re right. A real castle wouldn’t be built like this. These hallways all look endless. It's more like a maze than a castle."

Look over there!

Mike stared blankly in front of him, lowering his shoulders once more. “Am I supposed to know where you’re looking?”

West, dumbass! There’s a chest, but it’s being guarded by an enemy.

Mike shifted his eyes to his left, and sure enough, he could see this so-called treasure chest being defended by another skeleton. However, this skeleton looked tougher than the rest. Anatomically, it shared many similarities to a human skeleton, but its height and mass were beyond that of any mere man.

Mike’s lips slowly curled into a devious, toothy grin. “Let’s get him!” Before he could take off toward his prey, Michael’s voice halted him.

Hold on! If this is anything like an RPG, this guy is gonna be tougher than the others. There’s no telling what he’d do to us and we still only have standard gear. I mean, look at the guy! He is ten times our size!

“So what? There’s loot behind him! Besides, won’t I get more EXP stuff if he’s harder to kill!?”

Well— Usually, but–

“That’s all you had to say! Let’s get him!” Mike took off, heading down the western hallway with his flail trailing behind him. It didn’t take much for the giant skeleton to take notice of the crazy demon running toward it, holding its shield in a ready position as it rested its greatsword on its shoulder.

Once Mike was close enough, the giant slammed its weapon downward, though Mike was quick to sidestep and avoid it! “Big and slow! See! I told you this guy would be-” Before that sentence could finish, Mike’s face was met by a shield the size of his body, sending him flying backward into the icy wall behind him. He hit his head so hard on the wall, that not only did they lose ten Health Points, but Michael took control of the body accidentally.

-Michael-

“AH!” Michael yelped as the giant skeleton’s greatsword nearly sliced his head off had he not ducked under it.

GIVE ME THE BODY!

“Hold on! I- I got this!” Michael uttered, feeling ninety-nine percent horrified and one percent courageous, although that’s being generous.

Michael rose to his feet, and despite feeling as if he were going to piss himself within the next five seconds, he stiffened his body and stood tall. Though Mike could not see the resolve written all over their shared body’s face, he could feel Michael’s determination as if it were his own.

Alright, kid. There's your chance to redeem yourself. Watch out for the shield attack.

Michael said nothing before dashing toward the giant skeleton. Just as Mike predicted, the monster went for yet another shield bash attack, but Michael was ready!

With an opening and his weapon ready, Michael lifted the flail high in the air while letting out a war cry!

...then the flail came back and slapped him in the forehead, knocking him on his ass and drawing blood.

-Mike-

“Are you actually an idiot!?” Mike yelled as he took control of their body.

Mike looked down at his watch, seeing that this one mistake cost them half of their health pool. They only had forty Health Points remaining.

The Skeleton repositioned itself, turning back around to face Mike. Once more, it attacked Mike with its sword before readying itself for a shield bash. Mike, of course, recognized this pattern and stepped to the side, avoiding that attack which left the skeleton wide open for an attack. Unlike his bodymate, Mike was able to destroy the bony beast in one hit, its bones collapsing on the ground into a small pile beside his feet. Mike let out a sigh of relief before immediately verbally attacking his partner.

"You will NEVER control the body again." Mike yelled, sounding more like a disappointed father than a partner.

I'm sorry.

For once, Michael truly felt ashamed for disappointing Mike, especially since his tone sounded almost exactly like Michael's father when he scolded him. When he took over the body during that fight, he felt as if that was his moment; that was his chance to prove to Mike, and most importantly himself, that he could fight too. However, it looked like he was wrong.

Mike sighed, he could feel himself starting to feel sorry for Michael and he hated it. Regardless, he mustered some words. Whether or not they were words of encouragement is up for the reader's interpretation.

"Listen, kid. Not everyone is meant to be a fighter. Trust me, I've seen my fair share of bushy-tailed, wide-eyed kids like you join the military with dreams of being on the front lines. You wanna know where most of those kids ended up? Communications, the guys on the computers who give the guys on the front lines valuable information among other things. You might not wanna hear it, but you fulfill that role and there's nothing wrong with that. Those guys in communications are as important as those guys on the front lines. You said the way the tower works is like a videogame, right? I don't know shit about games but you do. Just sit back, be the guy behind the screen, and do YOUR job. I'll do mine. Got it?"

Michael was silent. Ironically, the silence Mike requested throughout their partnership was finally given to him when he wanted Michael to speak. "Got it!?" he repeated.

Yeah. Understood.

Michael was officially down in the dumps. 'I guess he's right.' he thought to himself. 'Just stick to what you're good at, idiot.'

“Alright. Now, let’s see what's inside.” Mike opened the chest, finding a weapon that was a little more instinctive to use. “A war hammer, that's more my style." Mike gave his new weapon a few practice swings, finding it far more intuitive in comparison to the flail. Perhaps Michael would've managed better with a weapon as simple as this, but Mike wouldn't take any chances.

Hey... how much EXP did you get for that? Check the watch.

Michael's voice was still full of defeat as he spoke from within the main body's brain. Mike almost preferred the witty, smart-ass version of Michael in comparison to the sad and mopey one. Nevertheless, Mike checked his watch, and sure enough, the display had changed.

"It says I leveled up." Mike said before tapping the screen with his pointer finger. A menu opened up, showing him a stats sheet of sorts. "Strength. Agility. Vitality. Intellect. Luck." Mike read off all five of the stats on his screen. "Skill points..." Mike pitched his head curiously. None of this was making any sense to him. "What's all this mean, kid?"

Well, it looks like you got three skill points. This means you can put those points into one of those five categories and it'll make that attribute better. For example, if you level up strength, you'll become physically stronger. The other-

"Let me stop you right there, kid. In a fight, strength is all that matters. I'm going all in on strength!" Mike put all three of those skill points he'd just earned into the strength category. While all his other attributes were level ten, his strength was level thirteen. He swung his hammer around a few times, already feeling a difference. "Yup. Feels a bit lighter."

You should've done Vitality. It would've increased our Health Points. Or Agility to increase our movement speed.

"Who needs Health Points or speed when you can just do more damage?" Mike continued swinging away at his hammer before resting it over his shoulder. "Let's keep going."

Mike and Michael continued through the first floor of Tartarus, taking out a few skeletons throughout their journey, putting them just shy of leveling up once more. Eventually, they found themselves at the bottom of a staircase, and at the top of it, there was a wall of fog similar to the one at the entrance of Tartarus.

"On to floor two, I guess." Mike climbed the stairs and stepped through the fog; once he passed through the other side, he found himself enveloped in complete darkness. “Uh… Where did the lights go?”

Maybe the smartwatch has a flashlight setting?

Sure enough, it did. Mike pressed the touch screen and a small light emitted from the device. “And… let there be light. Say, you're pretty good at this communications thing.”

M- Mike… Michael's voice was shuddering, though Mike assumed it was just Michael being the scaredy cat he'd already proven himself to be. He figured it beat him being gloomy, but being a chickenhearted bitch wasn't much better.

Mike was still fiddling with his watch as Michael spoke. “M- Mike” He mocked his bodymate. “What? Afraid of the dark?”

Look. In. FRONT OF YOU!

Slowly, MIke’s eyes lifted from his watch, following the beam of light that lit his path.

“Holy shit.” Mike uttered upon seeing what it was that was waiting for him down the hallway.