Fortunato was hugging a tree, gasping. To Alex he wheezed, "Acacia says... Thieves don't fight well. Better hang back."

Eames had joined Mary-em, and the Nibek drew up short, hiss­ing. Its scaly head weaved slowly to and fro; and one eye was missing, shot away. Panthesilea and Oliver joined them, blades out and ready. Behind them, Gwen knelt in prayer, casting a spar­kling white aura around them.

Gina and Bowan the Black slipped to the right, flanking the thing. Chester went left.

It attacked. On its first pass Mary-em stabbed at its remaining eye, diving out of the way so that its answering snap only grazed her. She had missed. Eames slashed at it, and the Nibek swung its head around too swiftly for the Warrior to escape. He stumbled back as his aura flashed red. The monster's mouth began to ex­pand, and only Oliver's blow to its legs turned it back around. Oliver backed up until he was against a tree, and the Nibek's mouth smiled as it came in for the kill. The white protective field around Oliver glowed more intensely, and the thing gave its war­bling cry of frustration when it couldn't get through.

It turned its attention to Gwen, who still knelt in prayer. She kept her eyes closed until it was almost upon her, then turned her palms outward, and the full power of her inner strength blasted into its face. It reared back, blinded.

From his side angle, the Lore Master unleashed a bolt of such intensity that the night became red-tinted day for an instant. Dreager tried to bat the Nibek with a large branch, and as the monster recoiled from Chester's blow, it smashed into the Engi­neer. Dreager's aura went bright red, fading to black.

But now the Garners were better organized. The Nibek bit at Gwen while Bowan seared it with flame. Tony had reloaded and was firing into the beast. The brush itself crackled and smoked, but the Nibek's hide only crinkled under the assault. Griffin hurled his captured spear, and it went through the creature's head com­pletely. Though greenish blood pulsed from the wound, it lived

on.

"Its brain must be in the body! Magic Users! Closer in now!"

Gina stood almost in the midst of the smoking brush and hurled her power into the creature's side. It struck a tree in its agony, and a mass of flaming branches fell, striking Gina squarely. She yelled her rage as her aura went red and then drained to flickering black. Chester saw it, and his face went sick. "Bowan! This is no good!

This thing is too strong, it's killing us! I'm going to try for a split attack!"

Bowan set his balance and redoubled his efforts, a fountain of flame pouring from his fingertips.

Chester threw his arms wide and intoned:

"Hear me now, oh Lords of Light!

Knowing that I fight your fight.

I care not what the spell may cost,

Let your servant pour forth-frostl"

From the tips of Chester's fingers gushed a stream of white par­ticles that struck the Nibek opposite the side bathed in fire. The thing's mouth quoited out and it screamed as its skin split down the spine, exposing bone and red meat.

Now the Nibek was in real agony. Bowan changed his attack and sent his fire arcing over directly into the wound. It crawled in diminishing circles like a half-crushed beetle. Now the warriors moved in, slashing and stabbing. It was eyeless and nearly legless, and still trying to run, when the Garners hacked it apart.

The survivors leaned on each other or against trees, panting, looking around them.

"Auras!" Chester yelled, and they flashed on. There were six red-tinged glows, and three black. Two black auras were solid; Gina's still flickered.

Chester sounded exhausted. "Gwen. See what you can do for Gina. We've lost the others." The Cleric nodded, touching Dreager sadly on the shoulder as she trudged past him to Gina's side.

Dreager was incensed. "Just what do you mean, ‘lost the others'? Aren't you even going to try?"

Chester extended his hand in sympathy, and the angry Engineer knocked it aside. The Lore Master said, "Listen, Dreager. Gwen's only got so much power, and she's already used up a lot of it pro­tecting Eames and Oliver. If she tried to help all three of you, she'd run out of juice. She couldn't help anyone then."

Dreager snorted, his reddish complexion growing ruddier. "Well, then only one of us can be saved, right?"

"One," Chester said quietly.

Dreager walked up close enough to rub belt buckles, and stuck his nose almost into Henderson's mouth. "So how is it that she

gets to live? What's the matter? You don't play fair to anyone who isn't laying you?"

Chester's voice wasn't loud, but everyone heard him. "Dreager, you are dead. All the way dead. Didn't you feel the jolt? Your tindalo is standing right behind you, see?" The stout Engineer turned and looked, and shuddered as he saw his misty-white trans­lucent twin crook a spectral finger at him. "If you were as much a Gamer as the other man the Nibek killed, who had the class to quietly bow out, we might have been saved this. Since you ask, though, I give Gina consideration because she is a competent Magic User, while you are a second-rate Engineer without enough sense to leave the fighting to the fighters." Dreager sputtered, try-. ing to get out a reply, but Chester cut him short. "And, Dreager, in answer to your implied question: I suspect that if I had spent last night with you instead of Gina, I'd be even happier to get your dead ass out of this Game."

Dreager looked about him at a ring of unsympathetic faces. He spit into the dirt. His ghost was moving away, and he followed a few steps, then stopped, his fists clenched. "You'll be sorry for that, Henderson. I swear to God you'll be." Then he ran into the darkness.

Chapter Sixteen

REST BREAK

Gina sat on her bedroll with her knees drawn up to her chest. The campfire popped. Ham and beans simmered next to the flames; the smell was delightful, compulsive.

"We had a couple of serious accidents and three fatalities today," Chester said. "We'll need a replacement Engineer, and we need another Cleric to take up the slack f or poor Gwen. I know where we can get both of those in one package, so we're set there. I'm worried about our points, but the Nibek was no pansy mon­ster, and the I.F.G.S. has to give me credit for that, so it should balance out." Gina nodded. She seemed half asleep, but Chester didn't notice. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. "I think we're running a little to the good right now, and in a Game like this, that's the best we can hope for." Gina rested her head against his knee. "I'll bet we see Dreager again, though. As a zombie. Even so, how much damage can he-"

Griffin watched and listened, unobtrusively, leaning against a tree trunk with his arms folded. Strangely, he was tired. Real f a­tigue, as if he had spent the day fighting real monsters instead of holograms.

Like the others, he had stripped off his backpack and collapsed to the ground, whooping with delight. And why not? It was all good fun.

He shook his head. Business. Stick to business. He looked around at the fifteen people in the camp. Twelve were Gamers; the others were the Rescued Maiden and the actors who played Maibang and Kagoiano. Unobserved, he faded back into the trees until the campfire was barely visible.

The transceiver in his wallet hummed as he punched it on.

"Griffin here. Marty? You there?"

"Right on it, Chief. We've already interviewed the three Garners who got killed out. We've even voice-stressed the first one