“I’m taking the first wave,” Jes announces, stepping on Baco as a step and crouching through the doorway.

  Baco is not happy with her choice.

  “Incoming,” Jes announces. “Back in, I’ll hold the doorway as my fall back position. If I drop all the way in, slip in my space. Sadie’s right. I count three so far.”

  “You sure you’re good?” She’s standing in the doorway. Besides the whole ‘what if they throw fire in’ aspect, it’s tactically limiting. I trust her plan, but I feel a bit locked out of the action.

  Jes draws her expanding bow. “No time like the present.”

  While my spear seems to transform through magic of some kind, the bow appears to be some mechanical trickery. I don’t think the physics of it would work in California, but it’s a neat trick.

  She jumps into the hallway, drops to one knee and takes aim. She’s holding the bow horizontally. I have no idea why. I’m also not sure how she knows how far she can shoot, it might be some sort of instinct like the way I know the reach of my spear. The satyrs break into a charge. She licks her lips and lets an arrow fly and I step into the doorway, guarded and ready. The first arrow lands in the chunky furred part of the front satyr’s thigh, making him throw his head back and yowl. She nocks another arrow and fires with incredible speed, as if she’s practiced for years. I don’t know if it’s luck, a skill level, or previous experience, but the second shot pierces a satyr’s throat and protrudes out the back of his neck. He falls sideways, dropping what might be a net.

  “Nice shot,” I say.

  “Levelled me up,” she nods.

  Baco, apparently quite upset that Jes is having all the fun, storms into the hall past me, skidding as he turns to face the satyrs. His feet blur and he’s off. A moment later, the third satyr’s short sword is glancing off his armor and Baco is ramming his tusks into the satyr’s gut.

  A new arrow appears in the ribcage of the satyr with the wounded leg and he flops to the ground.

  “Can you control your bondlings?” Jes says, standing and slipping the collapsing bow back over her shoulder. They were charging straight for us, perfect line of sight with no cover, excellent to gain some levels of skill, and he goes off.”

  “Hog wild,” I say.

  She rolls her eyes and starts stomping up the hall to retrieve her arrows.

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  “Wasn’t much of a war party,” I mutter.

  Jes puts her foot on the face of the satyr she one-shotted and tugs the arrow out. It looks like it was dipped in gooey mozzarella cheese, and she wipes the gore off on the target’s toga. She’s about to say something, and points at me with the arrow.

  I hear the song before she tells me. I spin. For a moment, the world freezes so I can count three sirens. I charge.

  “Baco, Sadie,” I call, sprinting. “Upsilon!” I lance the spear tip clean through the wing of the nearest, and tug straight down. It’s a satisfying tear and that siren’s part of the choir becomes a warbling scream for help.

  “Stay there,” Sadie shouts. A pair of fireballs whip by so close to my head that I feel the heat.

  Baco’s charging at the third. It zips up to the ceiling, far from porcine tusks, losing the haunting melody. The one Sadie hit is burning. I throw the spear. As it’s over my shoulder, it doubles in length to javelin form. It catches the burning siren in what I guess you would call a shoulder, where the wing connects to the body, and it drops.

  Sadie is running to help Baco, who is very ineffectively grunting and snorting at a siren on the ceiling. It’s hissing and spitting back, which is better than singing. I follow and pass the burning siren, reaching out without slowing to recover my javelin. Sadie hurls a fireball at the ceiling siren, but misses. Blobs of fire ricochet down, making Baco back away.

  “Running an Iota,” I say, rushing directly under it and hoisting my spear through its neck. I feel the spear tip hit the corridor ceiling, triggering a notification.

  I look to see where Jes is. She’s up the hall where her targets were, hands over her ears. She must have had a terrible experience with their songs.

  “You’re safe,” I call. “All clear.”

  We wait, each checking the approaches to our position. Once our breathing returns to normal, we head to regroup outside the supply room.

  “Not a scratch,” I say. “These guys used to be tough.”

  “They’re not the ones who changed, Dom,” Sadie says.

  She’s right. I check my notification.

  You’ve gained the Impale (Emerging, Level 4) skill.

  “Nice shooting,” I say to Jes.

  She nods and indicates Sadie and Baco. “Your team played well. Thanks for taking them out. Once they start singing I have problems. I usually sneak up on them and get them before the song starts.”

  “How have you beaten them alone?”

  She purses her lips. “When one of those things bites you on the neck, the pain is so sharp, it breaks the spell for long enough to behead one. Once they start going down, they panic.”

  “Wait,” I say, “You let one bite you to regain your senses? How many times has this happened?”

  “Only twice. But it heals pretty fast. I don’t know if you realized, but you don’t get scars here. That’s why I learned to sneak up on them and take them out before the music starts playing.”

  “Wait,” I say again. “You hear music? Like video game combat music?”

  “I think she means the singing, Dom,” Sadie says.

  That makes more sense. I thought maybe there was an options menu Sadie forgot to tell me about.

  “That was it?” I ask. “This is what the system geared us up for?”

  “Maybe it’s a reward for everything we’ve done up to this point,” Jes suggests. “Easy fight after the supply room?”

  That’s not impossible. But just like life in the regular world, there’s no user’s manual here. I wish we understood more of what was going on. If our reward is getting swarmed, what would happen if we weren’t doing well?