Sahara folded her arms and pouted a little. "I told you, I’m a 48-year-old woman from Kentucky."
"I thought it was Ohio," Van said.
"Oh… right. Ohio. Yes, I'm from Ohio and I'm an adult," Sahara said. "So you better show your elders some respect."
"Right," Van said, shaking his head. "Now we just need to find Kylian."
"I think I saw him lying on the ground like a mile ago," Fredlin said. "I thought he was dead, though. Too busy bleeding out to check."
"He was hit by a poisoned arrow," Van said. "It paralyzes and then knocks you unconscious. He might still be alive."
Fredlin shrugged at that. "It's a bit of a war zone back there, but we should at least check on him. Just be ready for a real fight."
"I found a halberd while scavenging," Sahara said as she held up her weapon. "I tried looking for Van, but ended up really lost. But hey, with this weapon and my armor, I'm honestly one of the strongest players in this area right now."
Van nodded. "Good, so between the four of us, we should be able to get to Kylian without a problem."
"Theoretically, anyway," Fredlin said.
After a few minutes of preparation and trading weapons so that everyone was at maximum efficiency, the team followed after Fredlin's directions. Van knew that he had to be prepared for the death of his friend, even so. The thoughts were heavy and, as they walked, Van could see that the rest of the team was also all thinking about Kylian.
No one looked happy or excited. There was a sorrow in the air, and even Sahara, the most chipper of the group, had lowered her head. They trudged on through the woods until they reached the area where Fredlin had first seen Kylian.
Resting against a tree stump was their friend. He appeared to be alive, though, and was slowly moving his right hand.
"Kylian!" Van exclaimed as he rushed up to the man.
"Van?" Kylian said. "I coulda sworn you were a goner! I tried to come back for you but they poisoned me with something nasty."
"Yeah, I was pulled to safety," Van said. "How are you still alive?"
"I had a few people walk past me, and one person even looted my gear, but he didn't notice that I was still alive," Kylian said. "He was too busy looking around for danger. He ran up, grabbed my stuff, and bolted. Didn't even bother to check my pulse."
"I'm glad you're okay," Van said as he patted his friend on the shoulder. "We were all really worried you were dead."
"Eh," Kylian said. "I'm fine. I'm glad everyone else is alive, too. That ambush was crazy."
"Right?" Sahara answered. "But we're good now. We've got the entire team back together and, pretty soon, we'll be out of this place for good!"
"Not too many left to fight," Fredlin said. "I'm reading that there are eight people left in the game."
"Seven!" Sang said.
"Haha!" Fredlin said, clapping his hands together. "Am I right in reading this? Did it just drop down to six?"
"Indeed, it did," Kylian said. "There's only one person left for us to kill."
"Wow, did we really pull this off?" Sahara asked.
Van wanted to smile, but he couldn't. While it was fortunate that there was only one person left outside of their own group, it still meant that they had to kill one more person. Hopefully, this guy would be deranged and violent.
"So how do we find him?" Sang asked. "If this guy is smart, he'll hide and pick us off one by one."
"I don't know," Van said. "Fredlin, you don't have any spells that could locate this guy, do you?"
"No," Fredlin said. "If I did, I wouldn't have been searching desperately for you guys."
"Well, we don't have all week to wait," Van said as he eyed his hunger meter – which was steadily decreasing. "If our characters starve to death, we'll die for real. And I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any food anywhere."
"That's not a problem," Fredlin said. "We'll just eat the dead."
"Whoa, that is messed up!" Sang said. "We're not eating the dead."
"I thought you were the more utilitarian of us," Fredlin said. But before everyone could get into a long, drawn out argument about virtual cannibalism, there was a rustling in the bushes.
Everyone drew their weapons and turned to face the bush. Peterson emerged, bloody and carrying an axe in his left hand. His right eye was severely bruised, and Van felt his heart sink upon realizing that this was the final player.
"Looks like you guys missed the big fight," Peterson wheezed. "We all just kind of went nuts on each other. Was quite the free-for-all." He dropped his axe onto the ground and took a knee for a minute.
"You fought well," Sang said as she drew out her dagger. "But you knew the risk coming in here."
"Come on!" Van said, turning to face Sang. "This guy could have killed me, but he didn't. There's got to be some other way!"
"Like what?" Sang snapped at him. "We have no other way. Van, I'm sorry that this guy has to die, I really am, but we don't have the luxury of saving everyone."
"She's right," Peterson wheezed. "Let's face it. I could come at you guys and fight. Maybe if I'm lucky I can get a wound in on you, but there's no winning this for me. There's no second place here, and I put it all on the line. I rolled the dice and lost. But at least I get to die an honorable man."
Van sighed. This was beyond unfair. He felt nothing but a primal rage directed at Draco for what they had done and what they were doing. They would pay for what they were inflicting on the human race, and they would pay dearly.
Van slowly opened his mouth to tell Sang to go ahead and kill the man in front of them, but he was interrupted by a sudden sharp pain in his side.
"Die!" Kylian yelled as he jabbed Van in the side of his back with a dagger.
"The hell?" Sang shouted. She was on Kylian like a blur, thrusting her sword deep into his stomach.
"Urgghh," Kylian wheezed as he fell onto his back, clutching the wound. The words Critical injury 75 damage hovered above his head.
Van grunted, but saw that the damage to his own back had been minimal. He had taken a measly 5 points of damage, but still, why had Kylian tried to stab him?
"He's bleeding out," Fredlin announced without ceremony as he pointed to Kylian's rapidly decreasing health bar. "No water to save him."
Van walked over to Kylian and looked down at the dying man. Kylian had a smile on his face, strangely enough. He chuckled a little and waved Van close to him. Van checked to make sure that Kylian didn't have a weapon, but then knelt down once he found that the dagger had slid away from him.
"Hehehehe," Kylian chuckled. "Those bastards didn't have a chance."
"What are you talking about? Why'd you try to kill me?" Van asked. The man's face was rather gleeful.
"Right before I jumped into this tube, they sent me a message," Kylian said. "They said they'd kill my nephew if I didn't serve them. Gave his real name, physical location, even sent me a photo of him."
"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Van asked.
"No time," Kylian said as he began to cough a little. "There was no time. That kid means everything to me. I'm not gonna let some game company kill him. I was desperate to figure some way out of this mess, but this… this is perfect."
"No it's not!" Van hissed. "You're dying!"
"Yeah, and for what? For that guy over there. The same guy who dragged you to safety, and walked right past me, kicked me in the side, and said 'oh you're alive.' A deal's a deal, though.'"
Van paused at that. "You're giving your life for this guy?"
"I'm killing two birds with one stone," Kylian replied. "I'm keeping Capello safe and I’m paying a guy back for keeping you alive. Van, I'm an old man. I'd rather go out this way than die of a heart attack."
Van sighed deeply. "There's got to be some other way, man. Please."
"Oh yeah, for sure," Kylian replied. "We'll just have a fairy tale ending where everyone lives and is happy. We beat the bad guys and there's no blood spilt on our own side. It doesn't work like that, Van. You're a sharp guy and a hell of a leader, but you're too naive. That Sang girl's got it figured out way more than you."