Brett sprinted away from the tangle of reaching vines.

  The rest of the group stood on the grassy slope near the pumpkin patch, ready to help if things went wrong.

  “So when do we step in?” Laura asked, watching Brett retreat back onto the grass. He had managed to take out the several smaller mobs, but was struggling to take care of the Level 4 and 5 mobs that were still alive and kicking.

  “Give him some time,” Graham said. “He’s got to do this himself.”

  “That’s the parent in you talking, isn’t it?”

  Graham had a wry look on his face. “You don’t have multiple children make it to adulthood without some bumps and bruises.” He squinted as Brett made a lateral move without getting any closer to the remaining pumpkin mobs. “And it’s not as if he’s even letting anything get close enough to be in danger anyway.”

  Brett had continued to dig his heels in that he didn’t have a problem. Then when it was clear that wasn’t working he had switched tactics. “So what? We’ve still made it this far.”

  “Barely,” Caroline had said. “And not all of us,” she’d added after an awkward pause. “I mean, you fought those creepy ghost kids in the forest,” Caroline continued. “So clearly you can. You made it to Level 6.”

  “Yeah, because I had to. Oliver made it pretty clear that if you stopped carrying your weight you were out. And then in the woods it wasn’t like you guys were going to save me.” Brett nudged at a picture book that was on display until it toppled over. “Look, it’s not that deep. I don’t have any weird psychological hang ups, I’m just scared. Like, isn’t that a normal reaction? Am I crazy here?”

  No, not at all, Laura had thought. Maybe Brett was the most normal out of all of them. That didn’t make him helpful.

  After some discussion Graham had been the one to suggest clearing out one of the other clusters of mobs to leave a few for Brett to take on by himself. They found they never came back in quite the same volume as the initial encounter, so it wouldn’t be too difficult with a coordinated effort. “Consider it a way of getting over the yips, so to speak,” Graham had said.

  No one wanted to go into the pumpkin house again, so that left the candy making mobs, or the pumpkin patch. Graham had strongly suggested the pumpkin patch. “It shouldn’t take much then to push you up to the next level,” he’d said.

  Graham, Caroline, and Nate had cleared out most of the higher level pumpkin mobs beforehand, but had left just enough to be a challenge.

  Brett continued to waffle about when to dive in and take a shot.

  “I think you might be right,” Laura said, watching Brett’s progress (or lack of it).

  Graham hummed a noncommittal questioning sound. Brett started taking the long way around like he was planning to sneak up behind the pumpkin mobs.

  “About staying in separate groups,” she said.

  Caroline stood far enough away to be out of earshot. She had backed off to let the two of them talk, maybe realizing that she wasn’t in the best headspace for more tactical planning.

  “Maybe a middle ground,” Laura continued. “We stay in our own parties for now, but try to all get through the maze together. Then we can talk about dividing up the bosses once we get a sense of what we’re up against next.”

  “You have a shotgun,” Graham yelled at Brett through cupped hands. “Use it!” Graham turned her attention back to Laura. “And why would you say to not merge parties?”

  “Less flexibility,” she said. “If we dilute down how much XP we can get from killing a boss we risk not being able to advance quickly enough to keep up.”

  “Which means someone is going to get left behind regardless,” Graham finished connecting the dots.

  “Yes,” she said finally. “But we can try to have some control over how that happens.”

  “Did you talk to Oliver?”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Brett took aim with the shotgun and went wide, severing multiple vines but failing to hit the Level 4 pumpkin he had been aiming at.

  “Yes.” Laura had gone to talk to Oliver alone to propose the idea that he give them an extra 48 hours to get themselves in order so they could all go through the maze together. She said that they didn’t have to join parties, that way he could get the advantage of some extra numbers without putting himself at any disadvantage. Then they could assess what to do depending on what was waiting at the other end of the maze. (Assuming they made it through.)

  “And what did he say?”

  “He admitted his doubles game has never been very good.”

  Graham snorted.

  “But he said he’d wait for us.”

  “Very magnanimous,” Graham said dryly. “What else did he say?”

  “That I’m a similar problem as Brett.”

  “Hmm.” Graham didn’t sound surprised. “There’s a fairly easy fix for that though. Essentially you need to commit to one tack or another. I left a few mobs over by the storage shed for you.”

  It was easier said than done. It was irritating that she had this extra facet to think of that the others didn’t, and it left her semi-paralyzed, always wondering which was the safer option. What if she made the wrong choice? What if she went too far down a path to be able to go back?

  Will this be the thing that keeps her from being injured or causes it?

  “Brace the shotgun against your shoulder,”

  Laura shouted at Brett. “Take out the biggest vines, then aim for the body! Don’t bother about the smaller ones.

  “You have good instincts,” Graham continued. “You should trust them. That’s why I’d like to keep you around. That move of knocking on the radiator with the spiders was a good one. We need more like that.”

  Brett hit two of the largest vines in quick succession, then darted forward to take his next two shots, which shattered the Level 4 pumpkin. He ran back onto the grass, pumping one of his fists in the air. “One more to go!” He yelled, to a smattering of sarcastic applause from Caroline.

  “You’re right about us all needing to move on, I think,” Graham then said to her. “With all the bosses in this area already taken care of, there’s only so many opportunities to level up.”

  “We can also pool our weapons,” Laura said. “I’m sure we have some things in our inventory at this point that we can pass along to Russell and the others.

  “Woo! Hell, yeah!” Brett had peppered the last mob with multiple shots, a slightly messy hit, but it had done its job. Brett was now a Level 7.

  Graham turned to Laura. “Now it’s your turn. Oh, and try not to get in your head too much. You seem like the kind of person who does that.”

  She had dispatched one of the Level 5 mobs that had been partially hidden behind the shed when things went wrong. It had taken longer to kill off than it should have, and her energy was already starting to flag. There was one more Level 5 mob and several more Level 3s.

  She tried shooting the remaining Level 5 pumpkin with her shotgun, but to get close enough to do any real damage meant she had to get within range of the vines, which meant pulling out her sickle. She’d tried shooting the larger vines but even that didn’t work for her on the largest mobs. And now her sickle had gotten stuck in one of the vines, which was now whipping around and too difficult to catch.

  Laura retreated to the shed.

  It had been relatively picked over, but she ran her hands over the shelves again anyway, hoping something had been left behind or maybe that it had been restocked the same way the mobs seemed to regenerate. Her hands came up empty and covered in dust and dirt. In one corner was a locker with a rusted and dented door. She went to yank it open but it barely budged. They must not have opened this one. She put her whole body weight into it and fell onto her butt when the hinges finally gave up and the door shrieked open. Inside was a chainsaw.

  “Please, please,” Laura said as she grabbed for the chainsaw.

  Item: Chainsaw

  Type: Level 4 Weapon - Short range

  Requires a minimum of 4 Dexterity and 4 Strength.

  Dammit. She didn’t have enough strength to use it.

  The pregnancy tracker also decided to take that moment to add its own little message, like a neat little bow.

  Fun Fact! Did you know the chainsaw was originally invented to assist with childbirth? It was used to cut through the pubic joint during a difficult birth in a procedure known as a symphysiotomy.

  She waved the message away. Then she stashed the chainsaw in her inventory, knowing either she or someone else eventually would want it.

  There was one more canister of gasoline, so she grabbed it, hoping she could at least burn some of the remaining vines and take care of the last Level 5 mob. After that the 3s would be easy.

  At the back of her mind sat the heavy fact that even if she eked out a win, it shouldn’t be this hard.

  She sprinted out of the shed, which was her next mistake. The grass at the edge of the patch was slipperier than she expected and the vines were waiting right at the edge of it hoping to catch her in any mistake. She went down and the canister of gasoline was knocked out of her hands and went skittering away across the grass.

  She landed hard on her back, just within arm’s reach of the shed. One of the vines had wrapped around her ankle.

  Haven’t I been here before? She thought miserably.

  The vine tightened. She knew she wasn’t in any real danger. Not at this moment, anyway. Not assuming they could get to her in time. (And the vines were a relatively slow threat all things considered.)

  Maybe she could wait for them to drag her closer and then take her shot?

  But why would they do that when they could just constrict their hold from a distance. The vines started wrapping tightly up her ankle. Her foot started to tingle with pins and needles.

  It reminded her of a picture she’d taken of a raccoon that had chewed off its own foot to get out of a trap. It had died anyway.

  Something about that pissed her off. She grabbed onto the shed and pulled back hard, trying to yank her foot free of the vines. Her foot slipped the slightest bit free. Then the plank she was holding onto shattered, a large solid piece coming away in her hands, nails and all.

  All the energy she’d put into pulling herself free now worked against her as she slid several feet back into the vines.

  In pure annoyance she lifted up the piece of siding in her hand and brought it down hard, aiming the nails to hit the vines and not her leg.

  Several things happened at once.

  The system glitched. Then it spit out a description:

  Item: Shed

  Type: Weapon - Short range

  That was it.

  Her Mother of Invention skill activated along with another Congratulations notice, and the vine that had been holding onto her ankle snapped.

  Laura jumped to her feet, making sure not to put too much weight on her right one until the full feeling came back. Then she started swinging.

  Update 1/24: Today’s chapter will be postponed until next week.

  For anyone else expecting a lot of winter weather today and tomorrow, hope you all stay warm and safe.

  And as always, thanks for reading!