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  The wolf's jaws snapped right in front of his face, his claws ripping through Attila's clothes. Clutching the animal's throat, Attila kneed him in the ribs, trying to force him off. The wolf struggled free and sank his teeth into Attila's arm. Once again Attila tried to kick him, then managed to force the animal off himself, pinning the wolf down. The animal yelped but didn't release him. Once again Attila tried to struggle free, losing his balance — then the world flickered around him as the two rolled down the slope.

  His head hit a rock. Everything went dark. The wolf was as strong as ever, but for some reason, Attila had stopped feeling him. He could see him all right, but the beast seemed to have dematerialized. He was still pinning Attila down but his body began to glow, surrounded by a shimmering aura. The wolf's head extended, his teeth sinking into Attila's body right through his clothes. Like a giant worm, the beast began immersing itself into Attila's body, entering it. What kind of sick magic was this? Did the wolf have any extra functions? Or was it some kind of bug?

  A powerful surge of air pushed him. Without noticing it, the two had rolled close to the Catapult, entering its trigger zone. The still-unabsorbed part of the wolf was thrown into the air, ripping it out of its victim's body. Attila watched as a round shimmering entry point in his body gradually closed, changing its color back to normal.

  Attila too had been grazed by the Catapult but it was nothing compared to the wolf who was now lying on top of the hill twitching and wheezing. Scrambling to all fours, Attila stumbled away. The hut was within reach now, a thousand feet at the most.

  He gulped down another elixir. He now felt strong enough to climb back to his feet and walk faster. This had been his last vial. If only he had a couple more! He still had a handful of pills but they mainly worked against poisoning and magic damage and did little to restore one's strength.

  He hobbled on, dragging his feet. The bulrushes rustled treacherously. Colored circles flashed before his eyes. He felt sick.

  It wasn't right. He shouldn't feel so bad. Could it be the wolf's attack affecting him? Attila knew too little about this damned full immersion mode. He wondered if the wolf had tried to paralyze him to make sure an immobilized Attila couldn't quit the game. It was a good job he hadn't broken his goggles... actually, he couldn't, could he? Hadn't he seen them marked as indestructible the first time he'd used them?

  The Eye diligently hovered overhead, indifferent to its owner's woes. He could see human figures approaching the hill from the opposite direction. There was no way he could make it to the hut now. He didn't have time.

  A new idea struck him. Attila pulled the Book out and began turning the crystal knobs. The Eye dove down toward him.

  He should have done it earlier! He could have used it to fly over the stream. And now he had only this last chance to escape the legionnaires.

  Attila pulled the star's telescopic arms out, expanding them. This stretched the spherical shape of the Eye, turning it into a flattened disk. The lens image suffered but at the moment, the artifact's load-carrying capacity was all that mattered.

  The star began to heat up. Clenching it with his right hand, Attila shoved the Book down his pocket, then felt for the crystal knobs. Controlling it this way wasn't easy.

  The nearby bulrushes rustled. "Help me, buddy!" a voice pleaded.

  Attila ignored it. His feet got off the ground. Once he rose a few feet into the air, he could see a fellow Pioneer writhing in the bulrushes, trapped by the Rot. His lower body had already dissolved; he was struggling weakly, the black beret on his head shaking.

  The beret was how Attila recognized him. Well, well, well. This was Lone Survivor, or Die-Hard as players had nicknamed him. The local legend, he was the game designers' practical joke: a Pioneer who constantly ended up trapped by monsters or caught by aberrations, every time dying a gruesome and unconventional death only to respawn somewhere else. He wasn't a real player, of course, but an NPC. Serves him right.

  Over on the hill, he could hear shouting, the stomping of feet and the rustling of bulrushes. The Eye was now flying over the marshes. Attila's grip on the star's arm weakened; his hand kept slipping off the smooth metal. He could drop to his death at any moment.

  He glanced down and grasped at the star for dear life. Right below him, a Crusher opened his greedy magic jaws.

  With aberrations lying before him and the legionnaires closing in behind, Attila made a perfect target. He remembered seeing two archers among his pursuers. It was a good job they hadn't used their bows yet.

  Just as he thought that, a chunk of fire the size of a football whizzed past him, singeing his cheek, then exploding in mid-air. Attila shut his eyes from the light. Who was shooting fireballs at him? Did that mean that besides animal controllers, their group also had a combat wizard?

  The earth below glistened with pools of water which were now studded with trees like some sort of forest quagmire. Green and yellow algae gleamed amid mounds of black earth growing out of the leaden water. These visuals pleased the eye but not the heart.

  Further ahead, a small hut appeared amid the trees. The moss covering its walls made it resemble a huge overgrown boulder. Its simple lean-to roof sported a chimney topped with a blue diamond-shaped icon with a spiral and an arrow pointing skyward.

  The ghoul was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Gamekeeper. Having said that, he could have barricaded himself in his hut.

  Obeying Attila's hand on the knob, the Eye rotated slowly, turning Attila so that he now faced the hill. His elevated position offered an excellent view of the hastening legionnaires and the desperate Die-Hard screaming for help, his splayed hand reaching out of the low shrubbery. Beast at the head of the procession disregarded him completely, ignoring this Dead Canyon's living (or rather, continuously dying) legend as he stared open-mouthed at Attila soaring over the lake.

  The Eye creaked, vibrating and dropping magic runes from its arms. The built-in levitation spell couldn't keep Attila's weight airborne for very long.

  A legionnaire fired an arrow at him. Then another. Both missed. Beast made a complex gesture with his hands, raising them in front of him. The air glowed crimson. Aha. So we were the group's wizard, were we? Attila had thought him to be a heavy warrior, a born tank, but Beast seemed to know how to use his magic.

  The fireball hummed, heading for its target. Attila spun the knob. With a jolt, the Eye built up speed, rocking in the air. Attila's hand kept sliding off it. Those below in the marsh yelled, celebrating. The first archer loosed off another arrow.

  The fireball missed him by a mere couple of feet. It would have hit him for sure had he not sped up. But it created a perfect distraction for his pursuers... who were immediately punished for their disrespect of the Dead Canyon.

  A legionnaire ran in front of Beast and screamed, stepping into a Witch Fire. It flared out torch-like, then bellowed smoke, reducing to ashes together with the hapless player. Another pursuer recoiled and stepped off the track, falling waist-deep into the quagmire. Beast swung round, momentarily forgetting Attila. The remaining legionnaire used his sword to cut a young tree and reached out, offering its trunk to the sinking comrade. The latter grabbed at it and began pulling himself out.

  By then, Attila had been flying over a large expanse of water, a lake almost. The Eye shuddered, forcing his fingers off the slippery metal.

  Attila dropped face down into some sickly reeds that lined the water by the shore. He tried to scramble to his feet but sank knee-deep in the silt. Accompanied by its greedy slurping, he waded toward the dry land.

  The thick bulrushes next to him swayed, disturbed by something in their midst. He heard the same slurping sound. It stopped, then resumed — this time from behind his back. Attila looked around but saw and heard no one apart from the legionnaires on the far shore busy helping each other out of the quagmire to Beast's indignant bellowing.

  So! Could it be the invisible ghoul rounding on him? If it was, then this was the end of him. The ghoul was quick. Or co
uld it be his imagination playing up? That would be too good. He really needed to get out of this slosh and get busy restoring his health.

  Casting suspicious glances at the quivering bulrushes, Attila downed the remaining pills.

  Soon the ground became firmer. Attila quickened his pace, fiddling with the Book's knobs on the go. He could already make out Gamekeeper's hut amid the trees ahead.

  Finally the Eye descended and began snapping its arms close. Once the device was the size of a dinner plate, Attila opened his bag, letting it in, then buckled the bag close.

  Should he keep the Titan's Fork ready? Pointless. The artifact hadn't had enough time to recharge after his wolf encounter.

  As he pondered over it, he saw a man appear from behind the trees. Attila stopped dead in his tracks. Had his pursuers outrun him after all? Or was it another one of their agents like that kilted guy? What a shame. He'd so very nearly made it.

  The man raised his bow, small and elegant, and took aim. Not a man, Attila realized. A girl. A pointy-eared Elfa. Okay, her ears weren't that pointy after all. Just a little, maybe, but overall, they were pretty — sexy even.

  She was wearing the Forest's Secret camo suit and that was something you couldn't buy: you could only earn it by collecting a certain number of so-called Forest Seals. And those were very tricky to come by. Her light rawhide breastplate had two artifacts installed, the Shield and the Enhancer: the former to protect, the latter to amplify its properties. While the Shield offered little protection from aberrations, it was perfect against all sorts of stabbing and slashing weapons. Attila couldn't recognize the bow but judging by the way it looked, it was no cheap junk, either.

  The young blonde Elfa actually looked quite cool in her awesome gear. Cool but slightly unnatural as if she'd only put on this stuff for show.

  "There, you," Attila said. "Cool it, will ya?"

  He just hoped she wouldn't shoot. Even though he didn't know the bow's properties, at this distance one arrow was enough to finish him off, considering his feeble stats. Just think that the hut was within reach, right behind her back!

  Several throwing knives and a dagger dangled off the girl's belt. Judging by them, she was a Forest Ranger. They specialized in long-distance combat, focusing on Accuracy, Agility, Speed and possibly also Stealth although about this one he wasn't so sure.

  Apart from that, the Elfa was also in possession of a weapon of mass destruction targeting the male population: a gorgeous head of golden hair, a super cute face, legs that seemed to go on forever, a wasp's waist and a truly divine pair of breasts. Either the girl had spent hours in the character generator, pouring all her available money into its paid options... or this was how she actually looked in real life. Virtual capsules copied the player's appearance by default, allowing him or her to further enhance it by using the visualization menu.

  "Who the hell are you?" she asked without lowering her bow.

  "I need to get to the portal. Please let me through," he showed her his empty hands, happy that he'd already packed both the Eye and the Book away. "I need to log out ASAP."

  Squinting, she looked him over. "Log out, yeah?" she lowered her bow. "Well, you can try."

  She stepped out of his way. Attila walked past her. This had to be a catch, he just knew it. Was she going to shoot him in the back? Then again, she'd had plenty of time to do so. He could sense her curious gaze on his back. What was there to stare at?

  He laid his hand on the door handle and turned round. "Have you smoked the ghoul? Have you saved Gamekeeper? I thought I noticed someone lurking around me in the bulrushes."

  She chuckled softly, then nodded. "That was me." Her expression was impossible to divine. All right, so she had Stealth too, then. Amazing how he'd managed to discern all her major properties just by looking at her. His experience was nothing to sniff at.

  Oh, well. Still feeling strangely insecure, he swung the door open and stepped inside.

  The hut's furniture consisted of a crudely made table, a stool and a bare plank bed by the wall. A large Russian oven towered in the corner complete with a cast-iron lid leaning against it. In the center of the hut's only room, the blue circle of the portal emitted a vertical shaft of light. A pool of blood glistened by the door. Had she managed to shoot the ghoul right there in the hut? How strange that his body had already disappeared but not the blood.

  Right, Beast, see you some other time! Attila squeezed his eyes shut as he stepped into the sparkling beam of blue light. Closing his eyes was purely psychological. He just couldn't help it.

  With a smile Attila opened his eyes. Nothing had changed. He was still standing in Gamekeeper's hut. WTF? Was it a glitch? It had never happened before!

  He stepped out of the circle of light, waited a couple of seconds and stepped back in. This time he kept his eyes open. The sparks glistened; the light grew brighter, then faded again.

  He was still in Gamekeeper's hut.

  What the hell was going on? So much for his escape! Had the Admins disabled this station? But that was against Terms and Conditions! Attila had read them and he knew that the game owners had no legal right to obstruct a player's logging in or out in specially designated places. And this was much more serious than his attempt to sell some dodgy software. In theory, he could now sue RussoVirt for millions.

  He heard a short tense chuckle behind his back. He turned his head.

  The Elfa entered the hut. "Keep on trying. It might just work."

  Ignoring the sarcasm in her voice, he walked out of the circle of light and entered it again. Bummer. The portal wasn't working even though this was impossible because... because it was impossible! No one had ever heard of logout options being disabled before. This just couldn't happen!

  What now? Should he try to outrun his pursuers again and hurry toward the Fortress station in the hope that the legionnaires had already left it? Or should he try to get to the next nearest station? Shame he didn't remember exactly where it was so he'd have to consult the map.

  Angry and annoyed, Attila barged out of the hut. The Elfa shrank back, giving way. He reached for the Book in his pocket when an arrow whizzed past his ear and thudded into the wall behind him.

  The hut didn't have windows. In the absence of the portal it was a dead end. Attila ducked behind the corner. The Elfa followed suit. The bulrushes on the shore were moving like crazy, disturbed by the approaching legionnaires. Long time no see.

  The Elfa raised her bow and, ducking behind the side wall, loosed off three arrows at an incredible speed. At least one of them must have found its victim: they heard a scream followed by cussing.

  Now their pursuers lay low, their advance betrayed only by an occasional rustle. Judging by the bulrushes' movement, they'd decided to split.

  Snap! An arrow very nearly grazed the Elfa's cheek. Her long ear twitched as she recoiled, joining Attila behind the hut.

  "What's going on?" he demanded. "Why isn't the portal working?"

  "I thought you could tell me that."

  They peeked around the corner. Elfa wrinkled her pure brow, as if considering which of the two opposing sides she should join.

  "Did you try to log out too?" Attila asked while studying the area behind the hut. Not a single tree in sight anymore, just an expanse of marshes with an occasional sparse growth of reeds. Heading there meant exposing oneself to enemy arrows and fireballs.

  "No, I'm just hanging out here," the girl snapped. She seemed to have come to a decision as she raised her bow and leaned out, loosing off an arrow at the bulrushes. They echoed with generous cussing.

  The girl shrank back, bumping into Attila. "Oh!" she shouldered him aside. Attila heard the crackling of another fireball as it hit the wall. "Who's that idiot shooting fire?"

  "It's a half-orc."

  "Great. He very nearly burned me to death."

  The girl pursed her lips and reached into her pretty beaded quiver, pulling out three arrows. Loading them all onto her bow, she pulled the string back and
jumped from behind the corner, dropping to one knee and turning the bow horizontally. With a loud snap, the arrows fanned out, triggering another bout of cussing and groaning in the bulrushes.

  The girl ducked back behind the safety of the wall. "There. That'll make them lie low for a while. Who the hell are you? Are they legionnaires? Why are they after you?"

  "They want me alive," Attila said. "Can you help me?"

  She shook her head. "I've already been seen firing at them. I don't need any more hassle. It's your problem, after all."

  "I don't have any weapons on me. I'll pay you if you help me. A hundred gold."

  Interest glistened in her slanted eyes. "You don't look as if you have the money."

  "I had to leave my weapons at the Unicorn. You know the tavern, don't you? They ambushed me there, that's why I couldn't collect my weapons. But I can transfer the money to your account."

  She studied him, her gaze frisking his body, searching his pockets. "Okay. Three hundred."

  That pointy-eared bitch! "Aren't you being a bit greedy?"

  The girl didn't take offense. She smirked, as if he'd just complimented her. "So is it a yes? Otherwise I'm off."

  "They'll shoot you on sight, don't you understand?"

  "So what? I have nothing of value on me."

  "Not even your suit and your bow? Okay, okay. It's a deal."

  She nodded, then quickly jumped from behind the corner and rattled off three more arrows in rapid succession, as if using a sewing machine. This was definitely some special Elven skill.

  When she ducked back in, Attila peeked out. A human outline stole from the lake to a nearby tree. They'd been trying to surround them but this girl had prevented their progress.

  Beast had slung his mace over his back and was now crawling toward them, keeping his head low and ducking behind grassy tussocks. Then he looked up, peering at something. Immediately he sprang back to his feet and bolted back toward the bulrushes. The girl leaned out and took aim.

  Attila cheered. That was it. That was the end of his enemy. The hunter had been turned into quarry!