"Don't panic!" Saku orders, but her strong voice is lost in the din of clattering bones.

The first line hits us like a tidal wave. The elf takes refuge behind me and starts tapping her staff as if she doesn't know how to use it. Not very reassuring.

Aaron hefts his club, ready to smash some skulls. Akemi lifts her blade in front of her like a samurai, her eyes glinting in a way that I'm surprised the Skeleton Warriors don't back off, squealing "We're sorry, we won't do it again". The healer begins to chant quietly.

As for me, I release my staff blade and try not to cower in abject terror.

The first skeleton hones in on me. My weapon has a low defense level and it isn't made to take on powerful enemies. My only chance is to strike before the skeleton does. I thrust it forward right as it comes within range, sensing my feet in the correct position, the game takes control of my body and I feel myself lunging forward, staff raised in a forward strike. My blade sinks deep into its skull right through the helmet. The thing screeches and disappears with the familiar buzz.

What I had just used was the typically used staff fighting style in MIdgard called Primal Thrust.

Arranging yourself in the right stance or with the right motion causes the system to recognize your move and take over to make you perform a perfect and much more powerful attack. Otherwise, those with zero fighting experience would just be swinging feebly. Of course the power of your attack is determined by your level and strength stat.

Another three skeletons charge me at once, blades glinting and a sinister light glowing in the depths of their hollow skulls. I have the time to think "why me? There are some perfectly tasty other people around here!" When behind me, I hear a strange, slurred exclamation. Sort of like the battle cry of a toddler.

A whip of light lashes out from behind my shoulder, slicing one of them in two. I take advantage of their moment of distraction, slicing outwards in a wide arc and taking one out. The others back smartly out of range but get cut down by the whip again.

I turn and see the other elf wielding the glowing weapon. It waves around her like a ribbon in the wind, slicing close enough to skim her bangs. She doesn't even blink, with a deadly calm that scares the socks off of me.

"Thanks! That's some wicked moves!" The words just roll off my tongue naturally. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

She squints, then smiles lightly, the deathly calm disappearing from her eyes. Suddenly, she jumps and lashes out again. I turn in time to see a shrieking apparition disappear.

"Hide!" Someone calls. I turn and see Akemi gesturing to her feet.

I spin back to the elf. "Can you cast a speed and strength spell?" I ask. She nods firmly.

I point to our companions, she nods again.

I raise my staff and pronounce the usual chants. "Divus celeritas, robus Aaron, Akemi, Hide..." I stop. The elf next to me spells out he, si, ro then, points to the healer.

I have no idea how she knows, and I want to help her too, but I can't ask her her name without breaking the chant.

"... Hesiro!" I finish. The healer looks back at the sound of their name. They're wearing a hood and a wide cloak so I can't tell the gender.

Light blossoms from my staff and I feel a rush of stamina and adrenaline overcome me. Next to me, the other elf is tapping her whip handle, the runes glow and it begins to divide down the middle. The rope splits and falls into five separate pieces.

Someone bumps into my back. It's Akemi who, apparently, was pushed back by an enemy monster. I instinctively flinch away. She stumbles and falls on her butt.

The skeleton warrior takes advantage of this by bringing down his sword towards her.

Cursing my foolishness, I leap in front of her and raise my staff above my head, catching the sword on the edge. It pushes me down, how can something with no muscles be so strong?

Right as the blade is about to push my staff against my skull, something darts past my cheek and buries itself right below the enemies eyehole. It's Akemi's dagger. The warrior had hurled her only dagger at my opponent to save me. The monster shrieks and stumbles back, it takes almost but a light tap from my staff to end it.

I turn to thank her, but freeze when I see the expression on her face. She's red on the cheeks, her eyebrows furrowed, her mouth fashioned in an angry curve.

"Uh, what did I do this time?" I ask.

"You're supposed to catch people when they fall on you!" She exclaims, beyond exasperated. "Especially when it's a girl!"

I stare at her in surprise. "I didn't know you were that delicate."

She glares at me. "It's no that! Do you seriously not get it?!"

"No! Define it!"I shoot back. The look she gives me would curdle a good bowl of chowder.

"Need some help over here lovers!" Aaron calls over his shoulder before Akemi can bite my head off.

"This is no time for a couple to be bickering!" Hesiro the healer calls over their shoulder. "If you wanna do it, do it after the battle!"

We look at both of them, suck in a deep breath, then yell together. "We're not a couple you idiots!"

Then we charge in to help Aaron who is battling two warriors simultaneously. Weakest class, my ass.

I lose track of time, the monsters come at me in waves, I cannot say how many skulls I carved, bones I snapped, blades I dodged. The number of skeletons diminish slowly, the clattering of bones become less and less pronounced, but I know the worst is yet to come. The boss is supposed to react only when he has under a dozen minions with him.

A screech slams, and I mean, slams into our ears, bouncing off the walls and ceiling of the chamber. The six remaining skeleton warriors group up around The Grim Reaper, as if for a group huddle to discuss a strategy, and begin to change. Their armor melts off their bones, landing in puddles around them, then creep back up their legs, taking new forms. Melding, twisting, elongating. Soon, they are each wearing high level armor, crusader armor, and wielding jagged scimitars, the flames glint off them in a kill-you-so-hard way.

From the depths of its flowing cloak, the Grim Reaper brings forth a scythe. Not the type of scythe farmers use to slice wheat. This one is rusted and pitch black, seeming to emit a dark cloud of smoke. Spikes line the back of the blade in rows, like the back of a dragon. I can feel the deathly cold metal splitting my skin and meeting flesh. I could feel it striking my heart.

The monsters charge in unison, The Grim Reaper gliding behind them like a cloud in the wind. Death itself flowing through the air to claim its victim.

People once again begin to panic, fleeing at the sight of this overpowering mass of monsters. 

One player is too slow: the monsters grab and pin him down. He screams for help, and in his eyes, I see a reflection, but not of me. A young girl, perhaps about 6 years old? She has the same faded red hair as him.. The skeleton brings down its blade, and the reflection is shattered. He disappears bringing the image that would haunt me forever with him.

Our army is now in utter panic, running blindly around the chamber, breaking formation.

It's hopeless. More and more players fall as the skeletons pick us off like rats. One of our own is dead. Dead for good, and we're next. There's no winning the fight. We're all going to die.

A bang like a gunshot echoes through the chamber. Even the monsters halt in surprise.

"Five squads, take on the last skeletons! My guild will handle The Grim Reaper!" Saku says, her eyes sharp under her flat bangs. Her mouth curled in a snarl that reminds me of a tiger. Scary indeed. I'm willing to bet she's single. I'd put my money on it. "I told you, if one of us falls, do not falter! Is this all you spineless cowards have?! Show me some grit!"

Saku roars and the monsters retake the charge. We all follow right behind the Crucifix Staff, howling our own battle cries, rebuilding ranks, transforming our scattered charge into a powerful wave of destruction.

I clash with a zombie. It's strength takes me by surprise and I falter. The two of us trade blows furiously, dodging, weaving, striking, deflecting, until I receive a sharp strike to my shoulder.

The force of the blade sends me sprawling on my back, a dizziness and nausea effect spreads through my head. I try to rise, but suddenly, a thought comes to me: Why keep fighting? Who are you? Why do you need to fight for people, people who don't even think you're anybody, because you aren't. If you were dying alone in the streets, these people wouldn't give you a second glance. Just give up..it's not worth it..

I drop my head, and close my eyes. This is for the best.

Someone grabs me and lifts me up. Strong hands gripping my shirt and  I expect to taste the bite of a blade, but nothing comes. I suddenly feel a sharp weight fall onto my stomach and I'm dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

I hear shrieking, clanging, screaming, roaring, explosions and other battle sounds resonate around me. All of it is blurred, as if from far away.

With a huge effort, forcing through the dizziness effect that makes it feel like I'm forcing my way through a pool of honey, I reach into my pocket and fumble around, my fingers numb. I finally manage to pull out and uncork a bottle of healing potion, the only one I brought along, stupidly.

I swallow down the whole thing and my blurry vision sharpens just in time to see a skeleton get slashed up by a glowing whip and an axe. I look down to my stomach and see Akemi, unconscious, and with a deep cut all the way down her back. A crimson liquid trails out, her breathing is sharp and shallow. A groan escapes her lips.

I whip my head around and see our healer, on his back, groaning and with a giant gash down their back. The wound is deep an it's taking all they have just to keep alive.

I grip Akemi by the shoulders, the frailness of her body makes me want to tear up.

"Hang in there Akemi! Don't you die!" I grit my teeth as the battle rages around us. It's all in another world. I am not letting her die. Not her. Never her. I wouldn't forgive myself.

Shoving these useless thoughts into the back of my mind, I lift her into a sitting position. "I'm going to bring you back to the real world!" I say over the roar of battle. "You hear me?! There is no way I'm going to let you die! I promise on my life! You still need to teach me stuff! Don't you dare die before that!"

Her lips seem to move slightly, but I can't tell what she said. The corner of her mouth twitches.

Don't know if that's good or bad.

I lay her down and lift my staff over her. "Protego ea ex noceo. Reiectio clipeus!"

A dome of light envelops her and I stand. The fight isn't over, and I need to stay until it is.

The grim reaper is swinging and spinning his scythe at absurd speed, so fast it should be impossible for such a large creature, but Saku and her guildmates nimbly leap aside and avoid each strike. It's an extremely impressive sight, ruined only by a guildmate that seems to have taken a blow. He lies with his face pressed to the ground and his eyes squeezed tight, sweat streaming down his face.

They each send streaming to the boss their own magic, which looks powerful even if they only glance off the scythe that it raises to defend itself. The fight is at a rickety standstill. I watch as Saku narrowly ducks under a swipe from it's scythe, which clips off the end of her staff so cleanly it's a moment before it falls off.

I'm not feeling quite so confident anymore.

Oh, well. It's do or die, now. I think as I out my staff. Without letting doubt have the chance to get in the way, I charge The Grim Reaper.

Aaron calls my name in shock. I hear Saku shout a warning. None of it matters right now.

As I run, I spot a player being struck down by a warrior, his essence shattering. Another one is bifurcated, beheaded, stabbed: A scene right out of Hades.

Focus.

I shuffle my feet in a position two shoulder width apart, staff in both hands held diagonally above my head. I try to imagine my eyes blazing like a beast out of hell, but they just don't do that.

My body begins to strike the monster with thrusts and slashes from all sides that I could never dream of doing in real life. I slip under its robe and stab it someplace that would've made a nun turn away, saying 'good heavens' and mean it. It shrieks and falls to one knee.

There's a shocked silence in which everyone gapes at me. Where did that come from? Saku takes advantage of The Grim Reaper's injury. "Pulsare! Pugnus de in terra daemon!"

The earth trembles and fragments of the earth rocket upwards, slamming into one another like some invisible force is pulling them, finally creating a great stone fist. hovering before her staff. It zooms towards her target and slams into it full force. The behemoth stumbles and roars in rage, but everyone seems to take solace in the loss of its lives. I keep attacking, carving and destroying. Chipping away at its life. Akemi, who seems to have been healed enough to fight, slashes at its ankles, her face scrunched up in pain. Aaron's huge bludgeon whooshes through the air, slamming into its kneecaps. Saku's staff sends spells streaming into the monster, she's smiling a smile that would send the biggest lion scampering up a tree like a kitten. The elf's whip snaps around the monsters defenses, it's unable to block.

Attacks blast him from all sides, he roars, but it's no longer a threatening roar. It's the roar of a cornered, desperate animal.

I'm not sure when it happened, but the final strike is performed by the elf, who lashes out one more time. The lord of the scythe dissolves with a mundane finality. An icon pops up above her signaling that she got the final strike bonus. Everyone stares at her, and she turns, smiling uncertainly, as if expecting everyone to suddenly attack her.

Everyone is silent for a minute. Then, someone says "Yay, we won."

One person chuckles, then another, soon, everyone is doubled over from laughter, and those laughters become cheers of victory, but as the group of survivors carry the unconscious elf (she'd fainted when they'd closed in on her) out of the chamber on their shoulders, there is one truth that weighs heavily on everyone's shoulders, heavier than the girl they carry. The first step towards our freedom demanded countless sacrifices, and more are yet to come.