The Harbinger’s attack on Pete came out of nowhere. Even Levi seemed caught off guard.

  Levi looked down at the kid and Joe saw something new in Levi's face—anger. Without a word, Levi spun his revolver’s chamber, then charged forward, sprinting toward the Harbinger.

  With every step, he fired, bullets slicing through the air. Joe watched each shot arc high, glowing red, before plunging like a comet to strike the Harbinger dead-on.

  So that’s what he meant by special abilities, Joe thought.

  But the bullets barely fazed the creature. They hit, sure, but with nowhere near the impact Joe expected. Instead, they seemed to enrage the monster, who now turned its focus to Levi, lobbing something at him.

  Joe couldn’t quite make it out—whatever the Harbinger threw splattered against the cave walls as Levi dodged. For a big man, Levi moved fast, weaving around the attacks with surprising agility. Joe stayed put, not wanting to end up in the crossfire.

  Joe gently rested Pete’s head on the cave floor. Pete’s eyes twitched under closed lids like he was trapped in some frantic dream.

  Joe knew he had to act—but how? The scythe he carried was only good at close range, and the thought of tapping into his Infernal Resonance again made his stomach turn. Risking madness or worse in a dark cave didn’t exactly fill him with confidence.

  He scrambled through his inventory. Stick? Useless. Trident? Definitely not—not after that whack-ass throw he did earlier. His eyes landed on the crossbow, but he dismissed it just as quickly. If Levi’s bullets—magical or not—barely left a scratch, a standard crossbow bolt wouldn’t make a dent.

  He hovered over the Gold Eater Armour. Could he put that on? It would possibly protect him from whatever the Harbringer was throwing at them but surely something that was Level 25 with unknown abilities wouldn’t work on him? He had to try something. He looked over to Levi, who had circled all around the Harbringer, still firing off bullets, he hoped he had enough bullets in that gun.

  Screw it. He blinked on the armour, feeling a surge of anticipation at the prospect of wearing some cool armour, which quickly vanished the second the weight hit him.

  He plummeted to the ground, landing face-first, his head bouncing off the stone floor. The armour swallowed him head to toe, each piece like a personal anchor. His neck strained, but he couldn’t lift his head; his arms wouldn’t budge, and his legs might as well have been chained to the floor.

  It felt as though he’d been welded to the ground.

  Yep, this was officially the worst-case scenario: trapped, immobile, stuck to the goddamn floor. A few feet away, Pete—still unconscious, eyes shut—rose slowly to his feet and, zombie-like, began walking straight toward the water.

  “Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Joe hissed, trying to shift even an inch. No dice. He strained to turn his head just enough to glance down at his pocket, desperate for any way to access his inventory. There had to be a way.

  “Pete!” he called, voice muffled by the helmet. But Pete kept moving, unhearing or unheeding. “Pete, stop!” Joe’s shouted. He had to get out of this armour, fast. His mind raced, frantically imagining the inventory screen, willing it into existence. He focused harder, picturing the familiar feel of it, mentally clicking on the empty slot.

  Come on, come on…

  A faint light sparked in his mind, the inventory screen flickering. With a last push of focus, he accessed it and blinked the armour back into an empty slot. He felt the weight evaporate instantly, leaving him sprawled free on the ground.

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  Joe scrambled to his feet just in time. Pete was inches from the water when Joe lunged, grabbing him by the shoulder and yanking him back. Pete stumbled, falling half on top of Joe, then rolling off to the side.

  “Jesus Christ!” Joe gasped, now covered in sweat. Pete sat up, blinking and rubbing his eyes, his expression dazed.

  “What… what just happened?” Pete asked, voice groggy.

  Joe took a beat. “You almost walked into that god damn water!”

  Pete’s looked around, finally taking in the chaos around them. Levi was still darting between rocks, staying out of the Harbinger’s reach. He wasn’t firing anymore, just watching the creature, planning something.

  “I saw my parents,” Pete said, turning back to Joe, eyes distant as if he was reliving it again. “We were at the dinner table. I didn’t want to eat my peas, but my dad promised to take me to the store afterwards if I did. I was… younger. It felt… warm.”

  Joe frowned, quickly opening his menu, accessing it with a thought now, and skimming over his quest log.

  Defeat the Harbinger. Don’t get seduced.

  “Damn,” Joe said. Whatever the Harbinger had done, it had messed with Pete’s mind, luring him in with visions.

  “Pete,” he said firmly, gripping his friend’s shoulder, “that was just the Harbinger playing with you. None of it was real, alright? You’re safe now.”

  The irony of that statement didn’t escape him; with the Harbinger looming nearby, “safe” was a stretch. But it was the best reassurance he could offer.

  Pete nodded, though his eyes still held a glassy, far-off look. The Harbinger’s influence seemed to linger.

  Joe turned his attention back to Levi, who had circled all the way around and returned to them. The Harbinger had stopped lobbing its strange projectiles, seeming to study them now, considering its next move. They couldn’t let this thing do to anyone else what it had done to Pete.

  “Good to see you back on your feet, kid,” Levi said to Pete, panting slightly. “You had us worried there.”

  Pete looked up at Levi, still a bit dazed, but managed a small smile.

  Levi shifted his gaze to Joe. “My bullets aren’t doing jack. I circled and looked for any kind of weak spot—nothing. It looks like it’s got something wrapped up behind it, I couldn’t get a good look. And you know what it’s throwing at me?” He shook his head. “Goddamn hearts.”

  Joe blinked. “Hearts? Like… human hearts?”

  “Yep. Exploding human hearts. They’re splattering against the walls,” Levi said.

  Joe glanced back at the Harbinger. What the hell was this thing?

  Levi pointed to an overhanging ledge above the creature. “There’s that ledge up there. We might be able to get to it and try attacking from above.”

  Joe scanned the uneven ground leading up toward the ledge. They could probably climb up, but would it even help? If Levi’s bullets couldn’t break through, what would attacking from above do? And Joe didn’t exactly relish the idea of jumping down with just his scythe and hacking away. Was he seriously considering that? Then a wild idea hit Joe.

  "Could we try to drop that ledge on it?" he asked, eyeing the overhanging rock and its thickness.

  Levi raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly do you suggest we do that?"

  Joe thought for a moment, then remembered one of his scrolls—the one that supposedly set him on fire. Did it create an explosion, too? He hadn’t tested it yet. Although, if his recent armour experiment was any indication, this could be a spectacularly bad idea. But it might be their only shot.

  “I’ve got bombs,” Pete said suddenly.

  Both Joe and Levi looked down at him, surprised.

  “Bombs?” they both said in unison.

  Pete nodded. “Yeah, they’ve been sitting in my inventory. Thought they might come in handy… eventually.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you mention this earlier, kid?” Levi demanded, glaring at Pete.

  Pete shrugged. “Didn’t think they were cool enough. You guys have magic guns and tridents. Mine are called Paper Bombs—probably from my paper route or something.”

  Joe and Levi exchanged an exasperated look. Typical. But that got Joe thinking. Each of them had brought something unique into the Inferno. Levi had his gun. Pete had his green satchel full of newspapers (and his electric scooter, which had died almost instantly). But what had Joe brought?

  He looked back to Betty. Of course. It was Betty. Everything they’d carried into the Inferno had transformed, had turned into weapons of some kind. And for him, it was her—Betty.

  A gurgled laugh echoed through the cave. The Harbinger’s voice slithered over them like oil.

  “You’ll join us soon enough,” it sneered. “We welcome you. You know you want to.”

  Its fat crooked finger pointed at them, and the black water at its feet started to bubble. Without warning, three bodies launched from the water ahead, flopping onto the ground like beached eels. They had no arms, and a gaping hole stretched through their chests.

  Jesus Christ.

  The creatures lay still for a split second, then sprang to life, writhing forward with a grotesque snap of heads and feet. They flailed toward the group, using their mouths to drag themselves across the ground, jaws snapping open as if ready to bite.

  Joe jumped left. Levi rolled right. Pete tumbled back doing a backwards rolly polly, a hand reached for Betty.

  “What on earth!” Joe shouted.

  Levi didn’t seem to want to waste words. He fired quickly from his revolver, and this time, his bullets did the job. One of the creature’s heads exploded in a wet, messy spray, showering blood and brains across the cave floor.

  Joe finally felt the surge of purpose he’d been waiting for. He whipped out his scythe and slashed at one of the eel-like creatures, scoring a line across its back. It kept writhing along the ground, unfazed.

  Frustrated, he aimed a swipe at its face, slicing across one of its eyes. It screeched—but that wasn’t enough for Joe. He lifted his shoe and stomped down on its head with all his might, feeling the skull crush beneath him, moulding itself grotesquely around his foot.

  Achievement Unlocked: Free the seduced. 500XP gained.

  The last creature slithered toward Pete, who scrambled back, frantically climbing onto Betty’s hood. He rolled across her top, sliding down the trunk and pressing himself against the cave wall. Just then, Betty’s headlights flared to life.

  She jolted forward, her wheels turning slightly toward Joe as she bore down on the eel, running it over with a grinding crunch. Her front tyre settled over the creature’s head, and she pressed down hard, flooring both the gas and brakes.

  Pete, who still had his back against the cave wall, watched in horror as Betty’s tyres ground the creature into a bloody pulp, spraying chunks of flesh, hair and muscle right at him. Betty didn’t stop immediately—she kept at it as if she wanted to make absolutely sure nothing remained of the thing. Finally, when the cave fell silent, she swivelled her headlights back toward Pete, as if she’d just noticed him standing there.

  “Whoops.”