There were just about one hundred combatants inside my mist-filled dome with me. Three-quarters of them wanted me dead, and the other quarter wanted us all dead. Almost half of the entire party were either assassin clowns, dead, or both. It didn't matter. There was only going to be one survivor in this frozen cell.

I was determined to be that survivor.

I attacked as soon as I escaped my personal barricade. I timed my escape between a blast of fire and a heavy hammer attack from a grounder.

The grounder was exceptionally bothersome. While I was minding my own business, holed up in my ice barricade, he was trying to swallow me in a hole. It took a good amount of ice and water to keep me out of a grave. There was only one grounder I was comfortable with burying me.

Even that trust was eroding.

Holes, the grounder obsessed with burying me—not Tom—was my first victim. His friends might be able to track me in the mist. He couldn't. I cut through Holes with two strikes of Light's Edge. For poetic justice, I kicked his fallen body into one of the holes he was working on.

Graves. Damn us all. I should've named him Graves. What a missed moment.

I pulled hard on my exterior shell to escape dozens of attacks. Another pull positioned me to kill one of the downed sleepers.

Bones and ice spears launched at my left. I interrupted my strike on the sleeper, summoning a barricade of ice to protect my side. The cover provided me with an opportunity to go on a brief spree of slaughter. Ten more bodies.

Corpsy, the sage obsessed with the dead, happened to cross paths with me as I slid to my new position. We exchanged swords, each of us attacking with several strikes in less than a second. His form was sharp and deadly. His calm breathing sounded like whispered curses. He lunged. I dodged. Twice. He shook his head, knowing I was out of his sword range. Corpsy almost looked disappointed.

Before we could conclude our duel, I pulled myself further away, dodging another incoming surge of attacks.

Sixteen seconds.

This was nothing like my hell-in-a-cell fight with the wolfbears.

I killed another dozen corpses and monsters. I was a river of death, flowing effortlessly through the fight. I bent around tougher opponents and swept up the weak. My momentum was unyielding, and my sword ripped through bodies.

While the death count inside my dome accumulated, the growing number of dead outside grew.

Ten seconds.

We were down to fifty survivors in my cell. Three sages were left: the bloomer, the paler, and the sleeping sleeper.

As hard as I tried to kill the sleeper while he slept, the split bloomer wouldn't allow it. Between her two bodies and Corpsy, they had enough skill to keep me away from the north end of the dome. However, their attention focused on the sleeper left the other combatants at my mercy.

The biggest threat I faced, other than the sages, was the berserked creeper. The light templar had been buffed by a life spear, and ever since, she had been a giant monster on my tail. She chased me through all my skirmishes, forcing me to keep moving. As annoying as the persistent company was, I used her bulk to help me navigate my sphere.

For the next couple of seconds, I slid and pulled myself around my dome, quickly killing fodder. Corpsy would recruit more corpses, only for them to get cut down quickly. The fight became rhythmic and simple. Avoid the strong. Kill the weak. Bully the giant.

Within only a few breaths, another dozen combatants had been eliminated.

Six seconds.

I had just killed the last of the weak. The giant and I were on the opposite side of the dome from the sages. My attacks were so fast that they dared not leave the sleeper unprotected. As the giant charged, I blasted her with ice and water, tearing into her invisible frame.

Undeterred by my attacks, she swung her claymore in a decapitating motion.

I ducked just enough to feel her blade rush past my hair. Then, in somewhat suspended motion, I touched her blade and added stacks of ice. My action was so quick that it wasn't noticed.

I jumped back, escaping the giant's huge range and pelted her with more water and ice.

The giant attacked again.

Calm step back. Quick touch of the blade. Thin layer of ice added. Prepare for the next attack.

This dance lasted for an entire second. At the end, the giant's blade was covered in so much ice that she was barely able to move it. With her limited motion, I burst past her guard and cut her in two.

Five seconds.

All that remained in my dome were Sleepy, Corpsy, Splits, Venomless, and me.

I threw everything I had at the sages—flooding them with water, cutting at them with razors, firing arrows, striking with my sword. I tried to push and pull them away from the Sleepy. The three stood close, denying my attempts to separate them.

"Your skill is impressive," Corpsy said, his breath still hissing curses like it was a passive skill. "It is a shame we underestimated you. Now you have killed so many of our brothers and sisters. I will take pleasure in taking your corpse for myself."

"Gross." I stared down the Jesters. My breathing was a bit labored, and my channels burned from overuse. "You really should keep what you do with your dead to yourself… even then, you might want to seek help. It's just not right."

Corpsy chanted something unintelligible. Probably some necrophillic joke... or curse. It could go either way with this clown.

It was a curse in the form of a spell.

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I turned my head just in time to avoid a volley of bone spears. Then I cut away at the ground to escape the hands of death reaching for me. A pulse of fear nearly knocked me off my feet.

Corpsy smiled as if he were only toying with me.

I smiled back.

"This spell of yours is almost at its end," Venomless said. "Will you be strong enough to take on the four of us without your army of minions?"

"No." I ran a hand through my hair. "But that means all of you have to survive the next three seconds."

Venomless spit. Splits attacked. Corpsy cursed.

I used all of the skill and technique I could muster to overpower my enemies. Mistwraith. Ice razors. Perfect cut. My attacks were rapid and furious. And all of it was directed at Sleepy. Fighting the three sages would be much harder when he woke up.

The bloomer and paler were well accustomed to my attacks. As before, they dealt with them easily, only pushing them back on their heels once or twice.

At the end of the three seconds, I was tired and breathing heavily.

A whisper curled at the edge of my mind: Just let go. Rest.

I shook my head. There was no rest for the dead. Not with Corpsy around.

Venomless laughed. "Looks like we all survived." It was a wet laughter, uncomfortably wet.

"Now it is our turn," Splits said.

"Your body is mine—"

Corpsy dropped to the ground before he finished his sentence. His mind was in a blank state from a full-blast mental attack from Cal.

The flayen had just recovered enough energy from his last strike to attack again. Before the sages even knew what happened, the falcon flew away from danger.

"Clever, but there are still three of us and only one of you," Splits said. "And now you have no power."

Sleepy pushed out his domain, sending out his silencing power.

My tired and sore channels closed off once more. So I hid in the mist.

Monsters of darkness were summoned. They tore into my dome and hunted for me. "Where will you hide when you no longer have the mist to protect you?" The voice sounded like dreamspeak. Soft. Smooth. Easy to sleep to.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll think of something." I knew I needed to keep my mouth shut. It was just hard not to engage with the Jesters. Perhaps it was a skill issue or something else.

I was forced into a new position. There were at least two dozen monsters of darkness in the dome. Without my ability to reinforce my dome, the darklings tore it apart. As much as I wanted the fight to be over before the dome was brought down, it wasn't a realistic goal.

Mist and fog dissipated, revealing my hidden form. I must've looked like a sad sight, hunkered low to the ground, trying to stay hidden. It didn't help that the Jesters were laughing at me. I laughed a little bit as well. Not just because of my foolishness.

No longer covered by mist, the Bastard Rat King and his army of undead emerged at the Jesters' flank. And now that my dome was destroyed, they could enter the fight. Nearly a hundred dead soldiers charged. They hungered for life and energy. Or rather, they desired to obey their master's will.

A new fight unfolded. The sages defended their position against the dead, who were seeking an easy meal. I slew a handful of the undead army, but mostly kept my presence small and out of the fight. My new window wouldn't last long.

Arrow drawn and held at the ready, I narrowed my focus on my priority target. My mind, energy, and will were in perfect alignment. All of my desire was invested in the shot. In my mind's eye, I could see it piercing through the Jester's defenses and ripping them apart. I breathed out slowly and released the bowstring.

The snap of my string sounded like a whip. My arrow disappeared from the speed of its flight. A hum followed it close behind on its tail. The world seemed to freeze. I held still, watching the arrow rip into Venomless' chest and explode in a surge of freezing cold energy.

The bloomer looked shocked as she stared at the arrow in her chest. She spat out blood and smiled with stained teeth. Her laugh was one part maniacal and one part denial. Splits looked unconcerned as she defended Corpsy from the wave of dead. Venomless' hand glowed gold. Life energy pooled around her hand, which she directed at her chest. She pulled at the arrow, fully expecting it to come free and to heal. To her shock, the arrow didn't budge.

I fired another shot. And another.

Venomless panicked as she now had three arrows piercing her body. All of her energy was used to keep herself alive, yet it was not enough to heal. Her eyes widened as the chilling energy pumped into her veins and channels. Frost crystallized across her body, slowing her movement and breathing.

Splits picked up on the danger to her other half and quickly abandoned all her attempts to keep Corpsy alive. She ran to her clone's side and applied all the healing power she could. Life fought water.

Now fighting alone, Sleepy repositioned his nightmares to fight alongside him. His command of darkness was absolute, allowing him to endure the rat assault. His mastery over dark summons proved to be a bane to my arrows. I had yet to land a hit on him. The closest I had gotten barely nicked his armor. Some fights just had to be fought up close and personal.

I hit Venomless with two more arrows before moving. With the help of her split, the bloomer was breaking free from the hands of death. Unfortunate but not unforeseen.

I charged at Sleepy's left side with Light's Edge in hand. I slew monsters and sliced through black energy. The closer I got to the sage, the more aware I became of my tired state. My eyes were heavy, my breathing was lethargic, and my thoughts were filled with a sense of peace.

Sleep.

Be at peace.

Close your eyes.

You deserve rest.

I nearly fell victim to the calm enticing of the sleeper's domain. Thankfully, my sword was still active, and I slew all the foes that got in my path.

I finally made it to Sleepy. The sage morphed into a nightmare monster. Long, razor-sharp claws on each hand. A body of blackness and shadow, as if it were just a dark cloak. His face was an indescribable terror—hard to look at and impossible to avoid. The terror floated in the air, then spun with his claws stretched out.

His attack was fast, and I had to jump back to avoid getting hit.

Sleepy kept spinning, his strikes increasing in range and speed. It even looked like he had more claws with each spin. All the while, he taunted me with dreamspeak.

Just a few feet away from the spinning nightmare, Splits was pushing life mana into Venomless. I could sense that there was still plenty of ice in the bloomer's veins.

Corpsy was near the feet of Sleepy.

I timed the rotation of Sleepy's claws. Waited for the right moment, then sliced down with a perfect cut and followed up with a spinning slash, and then two cross cuts.

The black blur of motion stumbled as it spun off balance, and his momentum forced him a few steps back. I stayed close and launched a dozen more attacks against the sage. At the end of my quick combo, the terrifying rag of blackness fell to the ground. It lingered in its tattered state before shifting back into Sleepy's elf form.

The sleeper was dead-dead.

A quick attack ended the life of Corpsy. All that was left now was the Rat King, his remaining army, and the bloomer.

Not able to save Venomless from the water freezing in her channels, Splits was forced to merge back into one body with Venomless. The sage looked absolutely tickled. Like the incarnation of Sogg's swollen sows. Wild. Furious. Full of spite…

Spite, formerly known as Splits, looked at me, her eyes full of hatred. The bloomer had one intention. Murder. She drew two short swords and attacked.

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