The thing in the doorway lunged, and Evan went left.
Claws scraped stone where his head had been. He slipped behind it and drove his sword between its shoulders. It collapsed, and the things it carried fell to the floor.
He reached down and picked up a sword and a few copper coins.
Easy.
Beep.
Beep beep beep.
Evan took one hand off the keyboard and slapped around beside his monitor until he found the alarm. On the third try, the noise stopped.
7:10.
Light seeped around the edges of the curtain. For the first time, his eyes pretended they desperately needed sleep.
"Oh, come on."
He planned to go to sleep right after the dungeon.
Six dungeons ago.
He'd found a better sword, which obviously needed testing, and a locked door, which obviously needed opening. Now there were only two more creatures and the boss.
Evan put his hand back on the mouse.
By the time the boss fell and he reached the save point, the alarm clock read 7:24.
"No time like the present."
Evan stood, stretched his stiff legs, and looked down at the dent in his chair. Clearly more use than his bed.
He saved the game and shut it down before it could offer him something else shiny. He'd been awake when his alarm went off and still managed to fall nearly fifteen minutes behind.
Getting ready became a series of jobs he attempted in the wrong order. Shirt on. Shirt off, because deodorant. Teeth brushed while hunting for socks. Hair flattened with water, then left to make its own decisions.
He grabbed his backpack and a piece of toast and made it out the front door with both shoes on. A respectable recovery.
Halfway down the street, he could hear the flap.
His backpack was open.
He stopped, checked his books, and zipped it shut. Then he hitched a single strap higher on his shoulder and hurried toward the gap beside the fence.
The wooded shortcut would save him a few minutes. Usually he and Noah walked it together, talking about games or arguing over something neither knew enough about. Noah would already be well ahead. Evan had missed the part of the morning where walking could be a social activity.
The trees closed over the path. Out on the street, the sunlight had hurt his eyes; in here, he had to watch where he put his feet. Damp leaves hid the roots. A low branch reached across the trail at exactly the right height to hit him in the face.
He ducked under it.
Something crashed through the brush behind him.
Evan caught a blur at the edge of his vision and started to turn.
It slammed into his backpack.
The impact threw him off the path. He hit the ground shoulder first and skidded into the weeds with something snarling on his back.
He couldn't get a breath.
Couldn't get up.
His backpack jerked hard enough to toss him backward. The single strap slipped off his shoulder, leaving him clear of the thing that didn't like his backpack.
For a moment he could only lay, trying to breathe. His shoulder throbbed. There was dirt in his mouth. Whatever had hit him was still tearing into his backpack.
Evan looked at it.
Looked again.
No.
It looked like a black bat, except it was the size of a greyhound and moving over his bag on its elbows. Its arms were impossibly long. Each ended in a hand with one huge hooked claw and two smaller claws spread to either side. It drove a hook through the canvas and pulled, bracing with the other arm.
Long ears stood above a wrinkled face. Yellow teeth closed around the torn pocket.
He knew that face.
He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand.
Still there.
It wasn't any animal he'd seen in real life. Not at a zoo, not in a video, not in one of those pictures of deep-sea things that really ought to stay in the deep sea.
He'd seen it in his game.
On his computer, where it belonged.
What the heck?
The creature shook the bag. A corner of his math book showed through the rip. Its hook caught the exposed pages and tore a chunk loose.
He remembered that movement. Hook, bite, pull. On the screen, he just stepped out of range and waited for it to finish.
Up close, he could see its skin stretch over the joints. Hear its teeth scrape the zipper. Smell something sour that had never come out of his speakers.
He slowly stood, ready to run.
Something tightened around his left pinky.
He glanced down. A thin silver ring.
Where had that come from?
With it came a strange certainty it was something he could open. Something inside it. He didn't know how he knew, but the creature was lifting its head, and he grabbed at the thought.
Open.
The ripping sound dragged into a low rasp. A sheet of pale light spread across his vision.
Evan jerked his head sideways, trying to see around it.
The light followed.
"Move!"
He could still see the creature through it. Faintly, behind the glowing lines. He leaned, peering through a clear patch.
The thing had stopped pulling.
Its mouth was open. One claw hovered above his bag.
Evan waited for it to turn toward him.
It didn't.
A broken twig hung beside its arm, several inches above the ground.
He stared at the twig. Looked for whatever it was caught on.
Nothing.
He shifted his head. There was empty air above it, below it, all around it.
Even the strip of canvas between the creature's teeth and his bag had stopped swinging.
Then the silence hit him.
Was everything… paused?
His eyes finally focused on the light in front of him.
Six squares. Four empty. An old brown book in one, a sword in another. The same borders, the same little marks in the corners—
His inventory.
The game's inventory was floating in front of his face.
He looked through it again.
The claw hadn't moved.
Neither had the twig.
He looked back at the sword. Plain blade, dark grip, little notch in the pommel. The ugly starter sword that made you want an upgrade before you'd even hit anything with it.
It looked fantastic.
He poked it with his right hand.
His finger passed through the picture.
Evan pulled back. There had been something there, a strange cool feeling along his skin. He checked the creature, then raised his hand again, more carefully this time.
His fingertips went into the square. Then his knuckles.
There was space inside it.
The sword's handle seemed to lean toward his palm as he reached farther. He could see around it now. It wasn't a flat picture at all.
He closed his fingers.
Leather.
Evan pulled, and the grip came out with his hand. Then the guard, then a length of steel that kept coming until he had to bend his elbow back.
The point cleared the opening.
"Whoa—"
The weight tipped his wrist. He caught it before the blade hit his knee.
A sword. He was holding an actual sword.
For half a second, despite everything, he wanted to look at it properly.
Then his eyes found the teeth behind the panel.
He straightened against the tree, keeping his feet close. His shoulder complained. The sword wobbled when he lifted it.
His character made this look so easy. Arm out, blade steady. Evan's wrist wondered how long it would have to do this.
He looked through the panel at the creature. Still bent over his bag. Still not looking at him.
He could walk right up to it.
One good hit while it couldn't move, and this would be over.
Evan raised the sword and stepped toward it.
Something gave around him.
The panel vanished. Canvas ripped, leaves rustled, and the creature's head snapped toward him.
Wait—
It was moving.
He wasn't even close enough to hit it yet.
His neat little plan disappeared. He was still just human, holding a sword he barely knew how to lift, and now the thing was looking straight at him.
One ear twitched.
Then again.
He knew that.
Move left.
His thumb twitched against the sword grip, looking for a key that wasn't there.
The creature sprang.
Evan lurched sideways and swung far too hard. The blade skimmed over its back. Claws caught his sleeve and raked his right forearm as it hit him, and he stumbled into the tree.
Pain flashed down his arm.
He yelled and hauled the sword back across himself.
The edge connected.
A hard jolt went through his wrist. The creature tumbled into the leaves, rolled, and came scrambling toward his legs on its elbows.
Evan chopped down with everything he had left.
The blade struck it and dug into the dirt beneath it.
He tried to pull it free.
For one horrible instant, he was sure the thing was going to climb up the blade and bite him.
Then its body crumbled.
Dark dust rushed between the grass stems. Tiny lights lifted from it, and three coins hit the ground with solid little thuds.
Evan wrenched the sword loose.
A panel flashed in front of him.
Enemy defeated.
Level 1 reached.
Skill point gained: 1.
He held the sword out and waited.
The dust stopped moving.
Nothing else jumped.
Above the panel, a bird hung in the air with its wings spread. A whole bird, stopped halfway between one branch and another.
It had happened again.
He looked down at himself. Three scratches crossed his forearm, with blood running toward his wrist. He pressed his shirt against them and hissed through his teeth.
Still hurt.
He hadn't woken up. Hadn't blinked and found himself drooling on the keyboard.
The sword dragged at his hand. The bird stayed in the air.
"Okay," he whispered.
He had absolutely no idea what was okay.
But the thing was gone, and he was still here.
Eventually, that was enough to let him lower the sword.
Three tabs waited below the reward: Inventory. Skills. Store.
His eyes moved to the coins shining in the grass.
He recognized that faint glow, too.
Loot.
He leaned down, reaching with his left hand. The strange pressure gathered before he could reach the nearest coin.
Evan hesitated, then stepped forward.
The bird shot into the next tree.
He flinched and almost dropped the sword.
"Just a bird."
He gave it a second look to be sure.
Then he crouched and gathered the coins. Three thick copper pieces, cool and heavy in his left palm. The dust moving to the side.
Open.
The dust slowed and stopped. The inventory returned. A little copper-coin symbol sat in its upper corner, with a zero beside it.
Evan brought his hand toward the symbol. Like the sword's slot, there was an opening behind the image. He tipped the coins into it.
They dropped out of sight. The zero changed.
Copper: 3.
Evan looked from it to his empty hand.
He had actually picked up loot.
There ought to be someone here to see this. Noah would lose his mind.
He selected Store. A small pack with a bandage pictured beside it cost five copper. He checked the next few things. More expensive. Back to the pack.
Apparently being attacked by a monster didn't qualify him for a discount.
A leaf blew across his shoe.
Evan froze.
He hadn't moved.
The panel faded. A twig dropped onto his shoulder, and he ducked so hard his neck hurt.
Nothing there. Just a twig.
Open.
It rolled off his sleeve while he formed the thought. Dropped past his elbow, slowed, and stopped beside his knee.
This time he noticed a pale bar along the bottom of the menu. Full again, but already shrinking.
"Oh."
He watched a little more of it disappear.
So standing still wasn't going to keep everything stopped forever.
He closed the menu. The twig hit the ground.
Beyond it, the lights from the creature were drifting toward a mossy rock. They went against the breeze, slipping through the grass in a thin stream.
Evan followed them with his eyes.
A white crack ran across the rock and continued upward, past its edge.
Into the air.
He shifted sideways. The crack stayed in front of the trees. Through it he could see darkness, deeper than the shadows under the branches.
His fingers tightened around the sword.
Please don't let anything else come out.
The little lights settled along the crack. Its edges drew together from the bottom upward, until the last bright speck blinked out.
Ordinary rock. Ordinary air.
Another panel appeared, and the leaves stopped moving.
Rift sealed.
Level gained: 1
Skill point gained: 1
Available skill points: 2
He breathed out slowly.
Below the message, a separate countdown had appeared beside System availability remaining. His eyes passed over it on their way to Skills.
Two points. He could do something with two points.
He opened the tab and found a name he knew.
Double Jump — 2 points.
A second push in the air. He'd used it to reach ledges, clear gaps, get above things trying to eat him.
He glanced at the torn backpack.
That last part had become a lot more interesting.
He selected it.
Learn Double Jump?
Yes.
The two became a zero.
Evan waited for something to happen to his legs.
They continued being legs.
He dismissed the menu, bent his knees, and jumped.
Then landed.
For a moment he stood there, holding a sword, considering the possibility that he'd just spent his entire reward on regular jumping.
There was a step to it. He remembered his character switching legs in the air.
He tried again, lifting one knee as he rose.
Something met the sole of his shoe.
He pushed too late. It was gone almost immediately, but he lurched upward and landed hard on one foot.
Evan staggered, keeping the blade away from himself.
He looked up at a thick branch extending from the tree beside him. He'd climbed onto it before, dragging himself over the bark on his stomach.
It wasn't that high, just too high to jump - usually.
His bag lay underneath it.
He crouched, picked it up by the remaining strap with his left hand, and opened the inventory. The sound slowed to a stop around him.
He lifted the bag toward an empty slot and pushed. Canvas brushed the edges. He turned it a little, and the last corner slipped inside.
Evan let go. The bag stayed there.
He reached in and pulled it back out. Same weight. Same torn pocket. He checked inside: his books were still there, although the math book was going to need some explaining.
He put the bag back into the slot and released the strap.
There it sat, in a space that looked far too small from out here.
He grinned. He'd spent years carrying that thing around, and now it could do the carrying for him.
He closed the menu and faced the branch.
One proper try.
Sword held out to his right. Knees bent. Jump.
As his rise slowed, he lifted his left foot and pushed.
The invisible step met him.
This time he was ready.
His thigh strained. He rose another short, impossible distance, caught the branch with his left hand, and planted a shoe near the trunk. He pulled himself up, got his other foot onto the thick part, and slowly stood, his left hand braced against the tree.
Both feet were on the branch.
He'd made it.
It was only a little over a meter off the ground, but he'd gotten there by stepping on air. He looked down between his shoes, grinning, and took a moment to steady himself.
From here he could see the whole patch of ground where the fight had happened. The flattened weeds where he'd fallen. A strip of fabric ripped from his backpack. Near it, what looked like the corners of thirty or forty pages lay in a ragged clump, their loose edges fluttering gently on the grass.
Closer to the trunk was a triangular gouge where the point of his sword had struck the dirt.
His grin faded a little. He looked at his arm. Blood had dried below the scratches, and his torn sleeve stuck to one of them when he moved.
He'd been so busy trying to jump again that he'd almost forgotten how he'd gotten those.
He should probably have the school nurse look at his arm. It didn't seem too bad, but there was dirt in the scratches, and wiping them with his shirt hadn't helped much.
He lowered himself from the branch, keeping the sword clear, and landed on the path. He wanted to try again. Get the timing right. Maybe with a running start he could—
A bell rang, echoing through the trees.
Evan's head snapped to face it.
School.
He had to go. Now.