I ran hard for Bristleback’s mountain. With Switchblade, I could have made the trip in an hour. Loaning it to Jane might have saved her life, but had it sealed my fate?

  At minimum, it added one more element of danger to my one crazy chance at surviving that was already razor thin. I was confident I’d reach the mountain, but time would be tight.

  No, I pushed my worries aside. I could do this. I had a tier-1 body with higher stats than anyone else, and it was time to push those stats to the limits.

  So I downed a Road Runner potion and ran. It doubled my speed for 30 seconds, and I pushed that potion for everything it was worth. Grasses blurred beneath my feet and wind ripped tears from my eyes as I shot for the mountains. I quickly accelerated to over 100 miles per hour, but incredibly, I still felt like I had more to give.

  I wasn’t sure how my stats translated to speed, but Agility and Endurance had to play big parts. With Endurance at 28 and Agility at 38, my body could move in ways no Earth human could imagine. So I drew deeper, then deeper still, and kept accelerating.

  I had never pushed the limits like this and for a moment I forgot about my worries, my stress, and the deadly battle I was racing toward and let myself run. My limbs blurred as I continued to speed up until even my enhanced body ached with the strain.

  If only I had a speedometer, but I had to be pushing over 200 miles per hour! I could have kept pace with Formula-1 race cars! Ha!

  “Just like Dash in the Incredibles,” I laughed.

  Enough people had traveled back to the eastern mountains from Stepstone that several good trails had been trampled through the grass. I tore down one of them, with the wind of my passing ripping grasses up by the roots and leaving a cloud of dirt and debris in my wake. I laughed again, focused on the distant mountains as I reveled in pure speed.

  Finally I couldn’t go any faster. My entire body was tuned to running, and I made a point to not look down at my legs. The sight of that blur would make me stumble. My muscles strained from the exertion and wind resistance became an issue. So I held my speed there, on the ultimate razor’s edge of control, and loved every second of it.

  By the time the potion wore off, I’d crossed miles of grasses and reached the first foothills. I took a second potion, but received an unexpected message.

  “Road Runner potions are limited to a maximum of 2 uses in a single 24 hour period.”

  “When did that become a thing?” I complained as I accelerated again.

  “Why bore you with extra details all the time when it’s so much more fun to explain them to you when they become relevant?” Cyrus asked.

  “Because it’s mean to drop news like that on people at the last minute.”

  “You have so much to learn about how to orchestrate great entertainment, Lucas. You’ll have to work on that on higher stages.”

  Again with that. I didn’t have time for another conversation where he dropped vague hints he would then refuse to explain. So I swallowed my frustration and focused on squeezing every last bit of use out of my last speed-up potion.

  I knew what I had to do, and I would get it done. Then Cyrus would have to give me that final level. Hopefully.

  I pounded up the familiar canyons and slopes, dodging trees by pure instinct and running right up along the stone cliffs in places to avoid having to slow as I wound northeast deeper into the mountains.

  Even though I’d cleared those canyons before, I found a lot more monsters than I expected. They seemed more aggressive than usual, every single one charging as soon as they sensed me.

  Could they feel the end coming? Were they trying to escape the stage somehow too, or just focused on stopping us humans from making it out?

  It didn’t matter. On Switchblade, I could have outmaneuvered more of them, but I didn’t dare try on foot. Running face-first into a giant spiny hedgehog doing 100 would be a stupid way to die.

  So I slowed, even though every second seemed to boom in the back of my mind like drums of doom. Still, I couldn’t waste precious time battling lower-leveled monsters that wouldn’t give me the experience I needed.

  Maintaining a run, I tried not to slow or deviate my course as I tore through every monster that tried to block my path. I’d spent most of my temporary spells, so got creative with my other gear. I activated a scroll of Earth Armor to boost my defenses and unleashed volleys from laser rifles, then stun guns before wading in with Soulrend and Fang.

  The two blades worked in devastating tandem, Soulrend slicing apart monster spirits while Fang blocked slashing claws or sliced through flesh, leaving festering, poisoned wounds behind.

  My Tesla Coil bracelet drank in energy in a constant stream as I rolled from one fight to the next, and I triggered Soul Feed after every kill. I diverted the majority of the stolen life force to fuel Energy Ward without having to use one of my two remaining castings, replenishing it over and over.

  For one fight, I switched to the red glowing spear I’d picked up. Turned out to be an uncommon hot-hand fire spear, and it worked great to take out a pair of fiery bats that reminded me of fire keese from the Zelda Breath of the Wild game. Once I tried one of my serrated blade whips I’d just gotten from the Maze Fiend.

  That proved a terrible idea. I had no experience with whips and nearly caught my own face with the serrated edge on my first strike. If I had any skill with it at all, it would have ripped apart the monster, some kind of gelatinous bouncing centipede thing. As it was, I did manage one halfway decent strike, which delivered the whip’s imbued temporary paralysis, allowing me to dispatch the monster with my blades.

  I had to take a stamina potion to keep pushing so hard, but ran on, barely slowing enough to loot the monsters and Harvest what spells I could.

  That was a much better idea. I was hoping for another game changer. Teleport or invisibility would be ideal, or a powerful offensive spell. Unfortunately, the monsters were weak. I did harvest several mid-tiered spells, but none were good enough to help against Bristleback, so I used them on the next monsters and tried again.

  The loot was mostly lame, although I got more mana crystals than usual and a few decent potions and scrolls. When I finally reached the steep cliff leading up to Bristleback’s domain, the sun was hanging perilously low over the mountains. I only had minutes left to get up there and defeat the boss.

  As I approached the stone wall that marked the boundary of the hog-taur’s lair, I felt the change in the air this time. I hadn’t realized what I was feeling last time, but a subtle aura clung to the area, a hint of warning that I was entering the domain of a dangerous creature.

  Every instinct screamed for me to break into another sprint, but rushing in exhausted would just get me killed faster. So I forced myself to pause and take my first voluntary rest. I leaned my elbows on my knees, panting, my lungs and legs burning. My entire body trembled with fatigue. My stamina had bottomed out, my health at about 65%.

  The last monster had delayed me more than most. It had been some kind of vampiric thing that looked just like an Earth koala, but Eva only described it as, “Drop Bear, level 35. Yes, they’re real!”

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  Of course it was real, but that felt like an inside joke I didn’t get. The adorable little monster had jumped around like a ninja on speed, and despite my best efforts, had bitten me several times. Thankfully my new ring of poison immunity worked on its vampiric poison too.

  I got a message that its bite had a 30% chance of turning a victim into a were-koala. If transformation failed, it would drain 50% of the victim’s health in 1 second, with a 5% drain per second thereafter.

  A surge of intense desire had surprised me. Something deep inside my heart whispered that I should remove my ring and let the annoying monster bite me again. A were-koala might not be equal to a werewolf, but I’d felt the power of a changed body. Might that give me the edge I needed?

  I actually laughed at the image of me as a snarling little koala trying to duke it out with the massive Bristleback. In that moment of distraction, the koala vampire had jumped in and tried to bite me in the groin.

  Filthy little monster. I’d seized it by the throat, and once I got my hands on it, killing it proved easy. Then I harvested the spell Death Bite from it, which would have been exciting to try out in other circumstances. I doubted Bristleback would let me get close enough to bite him. The monster had been more annoying than tough, so Soul Feed hadn’t gotten much energy from it.

  As I rested there at the base of the stone wall, I took another stamina potion and a minor healing potion to help boost my already-fast recovery rate. I didn’t want to spend any of the stored energy in my bracelet. I was going to need every scrap of that when I faced Bristleback.

  To help my health point recovery, I withdrew one of Paul’s donuts. The chocolate-coated piece of heaven was still soft and slightly warm. I munched it with my eyes closed and took a deep breath, focusing my mind and preparing for the upcoming fight. I had to either defeat Bristleback or die trying.

  “Here we go,” I breathed as I forced down my fear. It was go time.

  I adjusted my hotlist for the upcoming death battle, then triggered a scroll of Ground Walker. Even knowing I was rushing toward the one monster that had wrecked me with terrifying ease, I couldn’t help grinning as I easily ran up the nearly vertical slope of massive stone blocks.

  The contest world might be insane and I might be facing death every second, but it also had some incredible benefits I wanted to enjoy as much as I could. That rush of exhilaration to feel magic working in me and through me helped counter some of the horrible things I’d seen and done in recent days and staved off my encroaching panic a little longer.

  At the top of the slope, I rushed up the final hill to Bristleback’s hidden valley, again ignoring the switchback trail. Near the top, I slowed and crept up for a peek over the last row of boulders, next to a rough statue of a bear trying to claw its way free of the stone.

  Before risking a look, I triggered Mirror cloak. As the world turned monochrome from light bending around me, I slowly rose to study the meadow. The idyllic spot looked unchanged, the low, waving grasses filling the space, ringed by rough stone hills and more statues. To the north, the weird Q’Bert stepped peak rose in stone tiers several thousand feet, with that shrine still perched up at the top. To the west, the panoramic vista over the central valley still took my breath away.

  If I focused on the distant slope up to the second stage, I bet I’d see scores of people scrambling up the last yards to reach safety. I turned away scanning for Bristleback.

  There! He was alone since I’d killed his entire herd. I’d expected him to be holed up in his cave at the far edge overlooking the valley. Instead, he was trotting across the meadow, magical compound bow in hand, near the stepped peak on the north side.

  He seemed to be looking for something. I was just glad he was not closer, looking for me. The sight of his enormous, van-sized boar body and over-swollen humanoid torso sent shivers of cold fear trickling through me.

  This was stupid. As soon as he spotted me, he’d unleash that homing missile lightning arrow and lock me in place until he could finish me off.

  No. I pushed aside the fear. I’d considered dozens of ideas for fighting Bristleback during my long run. Unfortunately, the only thing I knew for sure was that I couldn’t just charge him. As soon as I broke into the open, the fight would turn to his favor.

  I’d considered trying to snipe him with a laser rifle, but discarded the idea. I could hit him for sure, but I doubted one blast would do enough damage. Even if I got in several before he returned fire, I couldn’t be sure I could disable him enough before he brought to bear overwhelming force.

  So that meant a more devious approach. First I used a Laundry Day potion. The wonderful sensation of the magical cleansing felt like a waste when I was about to begin a new battle. I was grimy and dirty and covered in monster blood and gore, but more importantly, I stank like human and death.

  I didn’t know how sensitive Bristleback’s sense of smell might be, but I couldn’t risk drawing his attention when the Laundry Day potion included a scent-suppressing effect. I hadn’t thought much about it before, but now it might offer a vital extra advantage that could mean the difference between life and death.

  Then I slowly stepped around the statue still mostly concealing me and moved into the open. My heart pounded so hard, it was a wonder he couldn’t hear me from 100 yards away.

  I paused, fists clenched against the overwhelming urge to flee back behind cover. I needed to know if he could see through my cloak’s shielding. Forcing my breathing to remain slow and steady, I stood still, watching my enemy as slow, precious seconds ticked by.

  When he turned, his gaze swept over me and I tensed, ready to dive for cover. His head kept turning and he swiveled away, trotting west.

  I nearly sighed, but couldn’t risk even that much sound. Again, I had no idea how sensitive his hearing might be. I’d defeated his sight and smell, but would still die if he heard me.

  Fighting the urge to rush, I strode with careful intent along the southern edge of the meadow. Bristleback trotted back and forth a couple of times. He was definitely on high alert. Had he spotted me approaching from up here, or was he just stirred up like the other monsters?

  I kept up a steady walk, and when he was turned away from me and more than 100 yards distant, I risked breaking into a jog. My cloak’s last upgrade improved its ability to keep concealing me even when moving faster, but every time I sped up I feared I would give myself away.

  I had to try, though. Time was running out way too fast. Walking west, I had a perfect vantage to watch the sun’s inexorable descent toward the first of the western peaks. It was too close. I’d never finish this fight before the end.

  I slowed to a stop and risked a whisper as Bristleback ducked into his cave across the meadow. “Cyrus, what exactly is going to happen when the time limit runs out?”

  “All kinds of amazing changes!” Cyrus answered with even more bubbling enthusiasm than usual. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep this conversation between the two of us. I don’t want to ruin the moment you’re setting up here.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it. A final desperate attempt to fight a foe that has already proved it’s way too tough for you is a perfect way to end the first stage. And what an ending! You’re going to love it. Actually, you probably won’t enjoy it nearly as much as everyone who will be watching from up on the second stage.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “I know, but I figured you would like the encouragement.”

  “So back to my question. If I’m still down here when the time runs out, will I die instantly, or will I have a chance?”

  Cyrus laughed. “That wouldn’t be any fun at all! No, I’m not allowed to simply kill contestants, even though sometimes they might wish I did. This would count as one of those times. Dramatic changes will be triggered all across the stage and chances of escaping once they begin are very low.”

  “But there’s a chance.”

  “There’s that indomitable spirit! Well, best get to it, Lucas. You’ve run the time down to the final moments. Time to impress me again.” His voice turned more somber than usual. “I enjoy our chats, Lucas, and I have plans for you. Do not disappoint me.”

  “You need to work on your motivational speeches,” I mumbled as I suppressed a shiver.

  For the first time I considered what punishment Cyrus might choose to inflict on me if I failed. Even if Bristleback hit me with a killing blow, I did not doubt Cyrus had the power to whisk me away to some concealed torture chamber.

  Definitely not the time to dwell on that.

  Suddenly the sound of deep drums thrummed around me in a very recognizable pattern. I nearly jumped out of my skin and barely suppressed a little girl shriek that would have definitely given me away. I caught myself, every muscle tense, my heart seriously contemplating going into coronary arrest. I glanced up in the sky in disgust.

  “Really? The Jumanji theme drums? Now?”

  “Just a little extra motivation. I thought it appropriate.”

  He actually had a point. I was about to march into a death battle. And of course, now I had the sound stuck in my head. With phantom drums beating in my mind, I resumed my steady march.

  I’d crossed two-thirds of the meadow, heading for the solitary cave on the western edge. Bristleback emerged and trotted into the meadow again.

  I froze, every muscle tense, ready to draw my weapons if he sensed me. He trotted past, barely 20 yards to the north, every powerful footfall shaking the ground.

  Bristleback towered over me, more than twice my height and many times heavier. His thick, musky scent reached me and his loud, huffing breaths seemed to shake the air.

  He didn’t stop, though. If he’d come closer, I might have dared attacking in surprise, but he was still too far.

  As soon as he passed more than 50 yards east of me, his attention focused on the far side of the meadow, I broke into a run.

  In seconds, I neared the cave. Its welcome darkness beckoned me on and I wanted nothing more than to slip inside and hide for a second. I didn’t have that much time.

  So I stopped about 30 feet short, the perfect spot to lay my trap.