Adrien raised his rifle, eyes locked on the monstrosity below. He smoothly chambered a .30-06 round, the sharp metallic click swallowed by the howling wind.
"Hey," he whispered, keeping his scope trained on the beast, "Is that blue mist pouring out of it?"
Vera narrowed her eyes, straining to see through the gloom, "Looks like it. Do you think that's what triggers the hallucinations?"
"Maybe, but I'm not willing to find out." Adrien quickly put on his helmet, sealing out the air before shouldering his rifle again. "Where the hell are the other players, anyway? I thought they'd have jumped it by now."
Right on cue, a player burst out from a nearby empty house, screaming at the top of his lungs. He swung a massive war axe overhead. "I've got you, you bastard!"
The roaring charge instantly blew any chance of a sneak attack, and the creature, alerted, twitched away. The heavy axe blade missed its skull entirely, instead tearing a shallow gash across its skinless chest.
Before the warrior could recover his balance, the beast retaliated. Its elongated, clawed arm whipped through the air like a scythe. A second player dove into the fray just in time, raising a heavy iron shield to deflect the lethal claws. The impact rang out like a thunderclap, sending a shower of sparks into the dark.
"What the hell are you doing, you idiot?" the shield-bearer bellowed, his boots skidding through the bloody snow. "Do you want to get killed and wait out a respawn timer?"
"Sorry, man, and tha—"
The axe wielder froze, the colour drained from his face, his eyes glazing over with sudden, irrational terror. A second later, that fear twisted into blind, psychotic fury, as he glared directly at his saviour.
"How dare you kill my friend!" he screamed, and with a feral roar, the warrior swung his war axe directly at the shield-bearer. Shocked and paralysed, the defender, due to his own teammate going berserk, hacking at him instead of the monster looming right behind them.
They weren't the only ones losing their minds. Nearby, an archer began screaming at the empty air, pulling back his bowstring and wildly firing arrows into the dark forest canopy, fighting enemies only he could see.
Up in the safety of their tree stand, Adrien and Vera watched the bloody chaos unfold.
"The mist is a hallucinogenic," Vera muttered, hurriedly securing her helmet to seal out the glowing spores drifting toward them.
"Should we help them?" Vera asked, her hand tightening around the grip of her shotgun. "If we don't, that thing is going to butcher them all, but at this distance, my buckshot won't do a damn thing."
Adrien caught her arm, gently pulling her back into the shadows of the branches. He adjusted his stance, leaning over his bolt-action rifle and peering through his offset scope. The heavy .30-06 round was already chambered, ready to deliver lethal precision from afar.
"Don't bother," Adrien muttered, keeping his crosshairs trained on the creature's skull. "The rest of the players will be acting soon. From up here, I've got the angle if things go completely sideways, but for now, we sit tight and watch."
True to Adrien's words, more and more players poured from the confines of the empty houses. Leading the charge was a player named FireStarter, his hands gripping a spear. They had clearly learned from the first group's fatal mistake; every single newcomer had a thick cloth wrapped tightly over their mouth and nose to block out the spores.
Against the combined onslaught of seventeen players raining down arrows and melee strikes, the creature didn't stand a chance.FireStarter drove his spear straight up through the beast's unhinged lower jaw, pinning its skull in place. Two other players slammed into its sides, pinning its grotesquely elongated arms to the frozen dirt. Capitalising on the opening, a fourth player vaulted off a snowbank, swinging her greatsword in a brutal arc that cleanly decapitated the monster.
"Damn it, Brother FireStarter!" a girl with twin tails complained, violently stomping her boot into the snow. "I didn't even get to hit it once!"
FireStarter let out a breathless chuckle, flicking black ichor from his spear. "Sorry about that, MeiMei."
"MeiMei, look out!"
The desperate scream shattered the brief victory, as a second skinless monstrosity lunged from the shadows directly behind MeiMei, its five-inch claws poised to skewer her through the chest.
Time seemed to freeze as the surrounding players watched in helpless horror, completely out of position to save her.
Then, a deafening roar erupted from the tree stand. Adrien's heavy .30-06 round ripped through the air and slammed directly into the side of the monster's stag skull. The devastating impact blew a massive chunk of bone and rotting flesh apart, sending the beast crashing hard into the dirt. It writhed violently, horribly mutilated but still trying to crawl.
Adrenaline snapping her back to reality, MeiMei lunged forward, driving her rapier straight through the jagged hole left by Adrien's bullet, piercing the creature's brain cavity to finish it off.FireStarter immediately whipped his head toward the distant tree stand where the gunshot had echoed. But before he could shout a thank you, Adrien's voice boomed across the clearing, "Focus! More of those things are climbing out of the well!"
FireStarter spun around, his stomach dropping. A nightmare array of identical skeletal shapes was scrambling up from the dark depths of the ancient stone well. The air instantly filled with a chorus of overlapping, agonising screams, dozens of hollow chests perfectly mimicking the voice of little Misa, begging for help.
"PAPA! MAMA!! SAVE ME!!"
"Everyone, defensive walls now! Focus on the enemy!" FireStarter roared over the terrifying cacophony.
Though they belonged to completely different factions, the sudden horde forced them into a desperate, united front. They formed a tight perimeter, leaving only the two hallucinating players behind to fight their imaginary demons.
The clearing erupted into a brutal war of attrition, and while they had previously managed to overwhelm two of the creatures through sheer numbers, the horde quickly split them apart. Suddenly, the players were forced into desperate, single-handed duels. For the archers in the backline, the close-quarters ambush was a complete nightmare, forcing them to fire point-blank into snapping jaws.
Adrien knew the frontline would collapse without intervention. Snapping two five-round stripper clips onto his rifle one after another, he shoved the heavy cartridges into the internal magazine with a sharp, metallic slam. He leaned into his offset scope, took a breath, and began raining down fire support with surgical, unprecedented accuracy.
Every thunderous crack of his .30-06 shattered a stag skull or severed a limb, turning the tide for the overwhelmed players below.
"Damn it, I want to fight so bad!" Vera complained, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her weapon in frustration.
"Well, you're in luck," Adrien muttered, never breaking his rhythm as he fired, bolted, and fired again. "I've attracted a little too much attention, and we've got four of them coming our way. Time to shine, Vera."
True to his word, four skinless monstrosities broke away from the main melee. They dropped onto all fours, tearing across the snow at terrifying, predatory speeds straight toward their tree stand.
A normal beast could never scale the massive trunk, but these creatures were nightmares. Their five-inch claws dug into the bark like iron spikes, pulling themselves upward with sickening agility, but Vera was already waiting.
She shoved the barrel of her shotgun directly through a gap in the wooden floorboards, aiming straight down. The lead monster lunged upward, its unhinged jaw gaping open.
BOOM!
At point-blank range, the devastating blast of buckshot tore the creature's head into a red mist. It plummeted to the earth, crushing the monster climbing right behind it. Vera didn't hesitate. She pumped the slide, chambered a fresh shell, and fired again and again, raining lead and fire down the trunk. The close-range devastation was absolute; within seconds, the climbing lane was cleared by a shower of shredded flesh and black ichor.
Down in the main clearing, the slaughter finally groaned to a halt. Between the players' desperate defence and Adrien's relentless sniper fire, the last of the horde collapsed into the bloody snow.
As the fighting subsided, the blue mist dissipated. The two hallucinating players finally snapped out of their psychotic stupor, blinking in confusion at the carnage around them.
The shield-bearer stepped forward, his armour sporting wear and tear as he glared at them, chest heaving.
"Are you two done with your goddamn buffoonery?" he roared, his voice cracking with rage.
The war axe wielder lowered his head in burning shame, unable to meet his teammate's eyes.
A moment later, the crunch of snow broke the heavy silence. Adrien and Vera climbed down from their tree stand and walked into the clearing, joining the exhausted circle of survivors.
"Hey, everyone," Adrien called out, his voice warm as he walked into the centre of the camp. "We meet again. Though I definitely hoped it would be under better circumstances."
FireStarter offered a tired but genuine smile. "Thank you for the save, man. Honestly, I'm still a little shocked by your accuracy. Most players are completely avoiding firearms right now because of the terrible spread and unreliable handling. You absolutely dominated out there."
Adrien gave a casual shrug. "Well, you can compensate for bad accuracy if you have the right skills. As for the reliability? Let's just say the RNG gods were smiling on me today." He turned his gaze toward the centre of the clearing. "But what's the play now? The horde is down, but we still need to check that well."
"I'll do it," the war axe wielder spoke up. He stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the dirt. "I caused enough problems for everyone today. I should be the one to go first."
While the men debated their next move, Vera walked over to one of the skinless corpses rotting in the snow. As she knelt beside the twisted stag skull, a holographic system UI flashed into existence before her eyes.
She leaned closer, her eyes widening slightly as the system provided her with basic information.
'Interesting...' she thought. 'A Level 9 Undead variant, named Strigoi.'