Nothing stirred in the hotel’s front lobby, and aside from a few pieces of abandoned luggage and a child’s doll laying on the floor, there was no sign of the guests. Warren stopped and knelt to pick up the doll. He held the toy for a minute before carefully placing it on a nearby table. Hopefully, whoever it belonged to would return to retrieve it someday.

  The alternative was too terrible to contemplate. While the Daskians had shown mercy to the residents of Sayers Mills, he wasn’t sure if the other races shared their benevolence. For all he knew, there was a floating eyeball like Boone had described devouring humans right now.

  He glanced over at Kassandra, who was inspecting the front desk. She picked up a purse and glanced inside before placing it down again.

  When she caught him looking, she gave him a lop-sided smile. “I was hoping there might be a gun inside, but no such luck.”

  At the mention of guns, he wondered if the hotel had a security office. He’d very much like to find a weapon—or at least some ammunition for the ones back at his dad’s old place. He didn’t like being unarmed outside of his combat deck being active.

  I wonder if there are artifact weapons?

  He resolved to choose the artifact reward the next time he defeated a challenge. As his thoughts turned to the many creatures and monsters he’d seen wandering around his map, he hoped the other alien squires couldn’t defeat them for rewards. Otherwise, it meant his enemies were growing more dangerous by the day.

  No matter what, once he found the medicine for Valentina, he needed to focus on leveling up. He had a long way to go before he could match the Daskian squire’s level. And he didn’t have an army with beam weapons at his back.

  Warren decided the first thing he’d do was head back to the dungeon. At the very least, he wanted to defeat the next boss in the tunnels. After that, he would switch to farming challenges out in the open world.

  He turned to Kassandra. “Where’s the doctor’s office?”

  She pointed across the richly appointed lobby toward a corridor leading deeper into the complex. “It’s down there,” she said before pursing her lips. “I mean, it was, but they did some renos last year.”

  “It’s a good spot to start looking, at least.” With one last look around the lobby, he pulled out the flashlight he’d brought before heading deeper into the hotel. While he didn’t expect to encounter any aliens—he doubted they could coexist with the orcs—he’d keep a keen eye out for any sign of danger.

  They arrived at the doctor’s office without encountering anything hostile. Most of the doors in the hallway gaped open, showing rooms in disarray beyond. It looked like whoever had been here during the invasion had left in a hurry. Hopefully, most of them had found somewhere safe to hunker down.

  Warren moved toward the door, but Kassandra stepped in front of him. He opened his mouth to object, but then decided against it. While he hated the idea of sending her into danger, she was his bodyguard. Sometimes, he’d have to let her lead the way. He stood to the side as she drew her dagger.

  She cracked the door open and silently slipped inside. A minute later, she returned and sheathed her weapon in one smooth motion. “It’s safe.”

  Stepping forward, he clutched his side as pain lanced through his back. He really hoped something wasn’t broken. It would be a long hike back to the workshop if it was. “Keep an eye out in the hallway,” he said, wincing. “I shouldn’t be long.”

  “Are you alright?” she asked, holding onto his arm. “Were you injured in the fight?”

  “One of the orcs got me,” he said, forcing a smile. “I think I’ve got some bruised ribs. But I’ll be fine.”

  Warren waited until she released his arm before continuing through the doorway. Once inside, he felt an immediate sense of déjà vu. The doctor’s office looked just like the one he’d worked in back home. He guessed no matter where you were, all offices looked the same.

  Moving over to a cabinet, he swung it open. Inside was an assortment of medical supplies, but nothing he could use. When he opened the second cupboard, he hit the jackpot. He found an assortment of medication samples, including boxes and boxes of antibiotics.

  Grabbing his backpack, he unzipped the top and dumped all the medicine inside. It might be a long time until he had access to stuff like this again. He needed to take everything he could carry.

  The rest of the cupboards yielded some IV equipment, bandages, and rolls of gauze. He also found a few scalpels that he pocketed. Compared to the beam weapons and orcish clubs, scalpels weren’t exactly a threatening weapon. But if you knew where to cut, even a small blade could be deadly.

  At the back of the office was a sturdy steel safe. He half-heartedly tried hitting a few of the buttons, but he knew he would never guess the combo. Most likely, opioids were stored inside. In a town like Sayers Mills, you had to lock them up, otherwise you were likely to get robbed every few days.

  Since he couldn’t access any of the stronger painkillers, he reached down and rummaged inside of his bag until he found some aspirin. He grabbed a handful of the pills and tossed them into his mouth. Washing them down with some bottled water, he prayed they would kick in soon.

  There was nothing else he needed in the doctor’s office, so he walked outside as he zipped up his bag. The antibiotics should be more than enough to treat Valentina. And if her condition had deteriorated, he had everything he needed to set up an IV line.

  He glanced down the corridor, feeling unsettled by the empty hotel. What did they call places like this on the internet? After a second, he remembered they were referred to as liminal spaces. For some reason, they gave people a vague sense of unease.

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  And he was feeling it right now.

  A faint tickle at the back of his mind told him to get out of here immediately. He didn’t know if the feeling came from liminal spaces or something else, but he wanted to move fast. “Where’s the kitchen?”

  Kassandra pushed a lock of dark hair back over her ear. “I think it’s on the far side of the hotel. There weren’t any guest rooms in that wing, so I never went there. Don’t ask me exactly where it is.”

  “I guess we’ll just have to explore a bit.” Even as he said the words, his instincts told him it was a bad idea. But he’d never been the superstitious type. And he wasn’t about to abandon critical supplies just because an empty hotel was creeping him out.

  Kassandra took a second to orientate herself and then led the way down the abandoned corridors. Their footsteps sounded unnaturally loud in the empty hallway.

  In fact, everything was way too quiet. The darkness and stillness pressed in on him like an oppressive cloak. As they moved deeper into the hotel, he was starting to suspect something else was going on.

  But nothing came of his worries, and after two wrong turns, they finally found the entrance to the kitchen. Walking inside, he was immediately struck by how massive the food preparation area was. Then again, he reminded himself, the hotel had fed hundreds of people every night.

  As he swung the flashlight around, the stainless-steel counters shone in the light, and the beam illuminated rows after rows of shelves holding canned food. Unlike the other areas of the hotel, which showed signs of a hurried evacuation, this room had been left immaculate.

  “Grab as many non-perishables as you can carry.” He walked over to one of the pantries and scanned the rows of cans, hoping to find some meat. But all he found was canned vegetables and soup. He guessed a high-end resort wouldn’t have much demand for Spam.

  Warren stuffed the soup into his bag along with some of the canned fruit. He glanced over to see Kassandra entering a walk-in freezer. Maybe she would find some smoked meat inside that hadn’t spoiled after the power went off.

  On the lower shelf, he found a bag of rice and some potatoes. He wished he could take everything back, but he had limited space in his backpack. And he didn’t feel like humping a few hundred pounds back to his dad’s old place with his injuries.

  Next time, I need to make sure my minions leave a creature alive so I can heal myself.

  He was also starting to plot out other strategies for his next encounter. It might make sense to start off with Boone, who could lay down a suppressive fire while his energy recharged. Then he could summon Kassandra and his sword.

  Maybe he could even give her the Blade of Deimos. A melee minion who could heal herself would be incredibly durable. He’d have to experiment next time to see if it would work. Though he didn’t like the idea of leaving himself unarmed.

  More than anything, he needed additional cards. Hopefully, he could find a tank-like minion, who could keep the creatures at bay as he cast. He wondered how many cards the other squires possessed. If they had dozens of minions, they could just send wave after wave at him. The thought was worrying and only hardened his resolve to level up as fast as humanly possible.

  Warren placed one final can of peaches in his backpack and then tried to zip it closed. It took a bit of jiggling, but he finally managed to get it shut. As he did, Kassandra emerged from the walk-in freezer, holding bacon and what looked like salami. “Now if we can find some eggs,” she said, “we’ll have a real breakfast tomorrow.”

  His smile at her find transformed into a frown as he realized her backpack had disappeared. It seemed like when she ran out of health, she lost everything she was carrying. He’d had to remember that for the future.

  Scanning the room, he spotted a pile of bags under one of the counters and hurried over to grab one. He then helped her place the meat inside. When they were both loaded down like pack mules, they retraced their steps through the hotel.

  As he entered the lobby, his sense of unease flared up again until it felt like an immense weight of dread was pressing down on him. He knew this wasn’t a panic attack, but something felt very wrong.

  What was going on?

  Kassandra seemed to pick up on his discomfort and switched the bags she was holding to her left hand. With her other hand, she reached down and slowly drew her dagger. “What do you see?” she whispered, her voice carrying into the empty room. “Are there more orcs?”

  Warren shook his head. “We defeated the orcs,” he replied in a hushed tone. “I received a notification for it. This is… something else.”

  As he stood there, he glanced down at the floor. Underneath his feet was a dark stain. He pointed the flashlight down and realized he was standing in a dried puddle of blood.

  Something bad had happened here. He’d assumed the ransacked rooms and discarded items had been signs of a hurried evacuation. But what if they were signs of something else? What if all the people here had been snatched by something?

  He kicked himself for not seeing it earlier. What woman would leave their purse behind in an emergency? And what parent would abandon their child’s favorite doll? No, these people had been taken by something.

  “We’re not alone,” he whispered. With each passing second, an aura was bearing down on him, crushing him under its oppressive weight. Nothing he’d faced had felt like this before. Whatever was coming was in a completely different league from the aliens he’d already fought.

  Movement at the far end of the corridor made him lift his flashlight. His beam illuminated a sphere hovering slightly above the carpet. At first, his brain couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. It looked like a floating eyeball, but everything looked off.

  The creature was vaguely oblong, with veins throbbing underneath its skin. Dozens of what looked like translucent, blood-filled tentacles dragged behind it as it floated forward, its single cats-eye iris fixated on him. But it was the writing above the monster that turned the blood in his veins to ice. It read Kadoriker, Squire of the Vudha Overmind, Level 25.

  Warren knew he stood absolutely no chance against something so far above him. He might as well be a fly picking a fist fight against an elephant. The only outcome would be him being squashed into bloody paste.

  “Run!” he shouted, spinning around.

  Bolting toward the door, he narrowly evaded a red beam that slashed across the room. Strangely, it didn’t damage the walls where it struck. But he suspected it would be deadly if it hit him.

  Somehow, Kassandra managed to keep up with him in her high heels, and she reached the exit a second before him. She kicked it open—the force of her strike tearing the door off its hinges—and sent it flying outward in an explosion of glass and metal.

  They burst out of the hotel and sprinted across the lawn. Another beam lashed out, carving a furrow in front of them. Where it touched, the grass disintegrated into a puff of white smoke, leaving only dirt in its wake.

  However, the creature didn’t seem to be aiming for them. If anything, its attacks were being used to herd them. Every time they tried to head away from the hotel, a beam lashed out, forcing them to change direction.

  Warren attempted to lengthen his strides, but each breath sent pain lancing down his side. He pushed down the pain in his mind as he ran onward. All they had to do was make it to the tree line, and they were safe.

  Another blood red beam slashed across the night sky above his head and into the forest. The mighty tree trunks splintered before crashing down, blocking his path. He searched for a way around, but the alien squire would be on top of him long before he could circle around.

  They were trapped.