Jack strode across the uneven ground to one of the rock walls that hemmed them in. There, he reached up, got a handhold and began to haul himself upward. Despite the weight of his armor, he had no trouble scaling the wall as if he were an experienced rock climber.

Once he reached the top, he pulled out a coil of rope from his Inventory. One end he tied around himself, and the other he dropped over the edge.

A DPS stepped up and grabbed the rope without comment, as if she'd done this a hundred times before. While Jack Coyote braced himself to support her weight, she quickly climbed up, propelling herself with whatever footholds she could find.

Severance watched the process somewhat dubiously. He'd never climbed anything in his life. Yet both Jack and the other player had made it look easy enough.

When she was at the top, Severance stepped up and grabbed the rope with both hands. He was painfully aware of all the eyes upon him. It brought back the old familiar anxiety—what if he fell? What if he couldn't climb?— but he shoved it back down.

If they could do it, so could he.

He needn't have worried. His high Agility made it feel like the easiest task in the world. It was a surreal feeling. Before he knew it, a gloved hand was before his face.

He reached out, grateful for the assistance. The hand closed around his and Jack Coyote hauled him up onto the rock without a single hint of difficulty.

"Thanks," Severance said, though he expected and got no reply. He moved out of the way as the rest of the players came up. Some took advantage of Jack's assistance, while others found their own way up.

While waiting, Severance scanned the area. They stood on a plateau that extended for almost as far as the eye could see. In a few areas, the rock broke away into narrow canyons, which held more winding trails.

He lifted an arm to shade his eyes. The sun felt a hundred degrees hotter up here. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

Chatter came from Awesome Dude's team, though they had the presence of mind to keep it down to low whispers. Jack Coyote shot them a sharp look and they shut up.

"Tch," a DPS near Severance spat on the ground. "Who made him boss?"

"Shut up," another DPS hissed. Though Severance didn't miss how she gave the back of Jack's head a dark look.

He frowned, not really understanding their problem. Sure, the tank was kind of bossy, but he wasn't cruel or condescending about it. He was here to do a job, and that was that. Severance couldn't find fault with that.

Once everyone was on the plateau, Jack Coyote rolled up the rope and stowed it in his Inventory. He gave them a once over, disapproval flashing in his eyes.

"Stay with your teams," he growled. "Form up! Team 1 with me. Team 2, then the dungeon teams, with team 3 at the rear. All of you, keep it down, or they'll hear us coming. Now move out!"

Without waiting to see if his orders were being followed, he turned sharply on a heel and led the way. His posture was rigid, military-like, yet he didn't so much march as he did prowl, with the blue silk-like material swaying about his calves.

Disgruntled mutters came from behind him, but Jack didn't seem to care. It was like water rolling off a duck's back. Severance was a little envious. If only he could be as impervious.

He settled in behind Jack Coyote's shoulder, earning a wordless glance from the tank. Severance didn't say anything and neither did Jack. The rest of their team followed several paces back, as if they didn't want to get too close.

Jack led them towards the far edge of the plateau. Everyone kept silent, with only the sounds of their footsteps to accompany them. As they drew closer to the edge, the distant sound of voices and laughter began to reach them.

They were close.

"Are you a Moon scribe or a Battle Dancer?" Jack suddenly asked, voice low. He kept his attention focused straight ahead.

It took Severance a moment to realize that Jack was addressing him. "Battle Dancer."

"All right. Then you'll have Suppress. When I give the signal, use it. Then get behind me. Got it?"

The brusque deliverance made it seem like Jack was rebuking him for something he'd done wrong. Severance knew that wasn't the case because he'd done absolutely nothing so far, but it still generated a flash of discontent.

He was starting to understand why the other healers had been so quick to find the other tanks.

"Got it."

Jack didn't respond. Instead, he immediately broke into a jog. Like a wave rippling out behind him, everyone also picked up the pace. He reached the edge and leapt, his sword and shield appearing in his hands.

Startled shouts rose instantly from below. Then Severance was also at the edge, and the scene below unfolded before him: a frightening number of players swarmed like bees in a hive, while the dungeon gate loomed beyond them, a smoky purple light stretched between two pillars of rock.

This is insane, he thought, but someone bumped into him and over the edge he went. It was shallow enough that he skidded most of the way down. His allies descended around him like an avalanche. He was forced to hurry after Jack because if he stayed where he was, he would have been crushed.

Jack beat his sword against his shield, a loud clang ringing through the area. He shouted, a roaring bellow that rose above all other sounds and demanded that every eye looked at him. Then he rushed forward, straight into the crowd of Chosen and Traders.

Chaos ensued. It was difficult to tell who was who, with names blurring together as people flung themselves at each other. Voices cried out, mingling into a wordless roar. Weapons clashed and skills fired off like fireworks. The earth shuddered and icy wind howled across the canyon, stirring up great clouds of dust and snowflakes.

It became hard to see anything, and Severance found himself blindly following the back of the tank before him. If he didn't keep close, he would have been swept away by the mayhem.

Jack didn't seem affected by any of it. He held his shield close to his body and used it as a battering ram. Quick slashes with his sword created even more space around him. He pressed onward without slowing down, and Severance and the others followed in his wake.

The ground shook beneath their feet, cracks splintering across its surface. Severance and the others barely avoided falling into a sudden crevasse. An icy whirl of snow descended amongst them and he could feel the kiss of frost across the back of his head. Then they were past it and out of range.

Jack abruptly swung out his arm, his long sword cutting an arrow out of the air. It was barely two feet away from Severance's head. But that was just the first, because dozens of arrows darkened the skies above them.

Jack sped up, lunging forward while raising his shield up. He glanced back, but Severance didn't need to be told what to do. He placed himself in the small pocket of safety that the tank provided. The edge of the arrow storm caught them, but the majority struck harmlessly against Jack's shield. A few whistled past them to thud into the ground. One scored a faint line as it skimmed off of one of Jack's pauldrons.

"Keep moving!" Jack bellowed.

A Chosen knightglaive and rainblade burst out of the swirling dust, intending to stop them in their tracks. But two of the players on Severance's team were tempests, and one of them snapped the bladed tip of his chain out at the approaching enemies. His chain cracked the air like a whip in rapid flickers of movement, each snap producing a powerful shockwave that slammed into the knightglaive and rainblade. It shoved them back, keeping them at bay.

The Wanderer on their team also helped. She produced a constant hail of arrows, and while it didn't keep any of the enemy players from coming at them, it at least slowed them down.

Severance's eyes flicked back and forth over the battlefield, trying to keep track of everything that was going on. So much was happening very quickly. He subtly shifted into Sky Dance, but otherwise didn't join the fight. His skills required him to be either in melee range or standing still, and Jack wasn't allowing either of those things to happen.

Like Jack, the other tanks were shielding the others. They spread themselves out, putting themselves front and center. The Chosen and Trader players seemed to understand that if they wanted to break through and slaughter the invading players, they'd have to cut down the tanks first. Their attacks were uncoordinated, but fierce, and the tanks behind Jack took a lot of damage in a matter of seconds.

Severance couldn't quite see the extent of it, but he could hear Morning Glory's bells ringing as she cast shields over those in her care. Swirls of green writhed throughout the players of the last group, courtesy of Serenade Tasha, the other battle dancer.

He looked over his shoulder more than once, feeling the urge to help, but he couldn't catch more than a glimpse of the other tanks thanks to the condensed pack of players. Without a direct line of sight, he couldn't focus on them.

As for his own team, there was nothing he needed to do. Unbelievably, Jack hadn't even taken a single solid hit yet and neither had his teammates. The two tempests were able to repel the oncoming attacks so far. Jack had chosen his vanguard team well.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't last.

"There!" Shouts rose from the enemy players, an eager chorus of hunters spotting their prey. "Get him!"

Next thing Severance knew, a literal tiger bounded towards him with murder in its eyes. The tiger leapt, claws extended.

His eyes widened. "Pivot Cut!"

A split second before it hit, he spun out of the way. It pounced on nothing but air and snarled. Severance ended up by its tail, his fans biting into its rump with a burst of blue sparks.

Jack immediately noticed something was wrong. He pivoted and smashed the tiger's head with his shield, stunning it. His sword flashed down in a single, powerful stroke. The tiger's head fell away from its body.

More arrows plummeted out of the sky, and just beneath their deadly shadow, a knightglaive in golden armor lunged at Severance.

The heck they coming at me for?!

"Flutterstep!" Severance flung himself towards Jack, hoping the guy was be able shield him. The hail of arrows narrowly missed him as he darted through the shower of violet light left behind by the tiger. He felt the earth shake beneath him and leapt.

A crevasse cracked open beneath him. He landed and rolled beneath Jack's outstretched sword arm. The tank immediately moved to cover him, his shield catching multiple shards of ice.

At the same time, he caught the knightglaive's spear with the flat of his sword. Jack shoved the weapon aside and kicked the knightglaive in the stomach. The player flew back in a tumble of armored limbs.

"Stay behind me," Jack snarled, and he continued to advance, sword first. He kept his shield angled sideways, covering both himself and Severance. The assault increased, and Severance had to evade a freaking boulder that dropped out of the sky. He didn't even know there was such a skill.

Their team started taking damage, but since Jack wasn't stopping, all Severance could do was throw out a Ward on the DPS with the most health loss.

Jack plunged into the enemy players. He didn't care if it was ice, arrows, chains, or claws, he bulldozed his way onwards like a freight train. Severance and the rest were swept up in his wake.

Then all too soon, Jack abruptly stopped and stepped aside, leaving Severance open to the horde of enemy players.

"Now," Jack commanded, and moved even further away.

Severance found himself standing alone in a small bubble of cleared space. Gray light swirled just ahead of him, and he'd realized that Jack had plowed across the entire mass of players and brought them almost right to the dungeon entrance.

And just before him, between him and the dungeon, were the strongest defenders amongst the enemy players. There was no more than a handful, but the high quality of their gear and their confident, battle-ready stance told of their strength.

The breath caught in his throat as he recognized this. He was wide open. So were they. And that, he realized, was the point.

He lifted his fans, which crackled with blue electrical energy, his lips parting to speak. And then he faltered, because amongst the defenders was a woman. She was tall and lithe and clad in green armor that matched her viridian eyes.

She noticed him about the same time as he did her. Recognition dawned in those eyes. Her crimson lips slowly spread into a cruel smile.

He felt the entire world ground to halt around him.

"You," he whispered.

It was the player who killed Rasin.