A few Kivhs later, the inevitable happened. Lazarus had prepared himself mentally for it but when the pain hit, he still collapsed groaning in agony. Blood trickled from his nose and ears as he hugged the cold icy marble. Clutching his pounding head, he curled helplessly into a foetal position. The only thing he felt was the suffocating constricting of his chest and the sharp piercing pain jabbing into his brain, nothing else mattered. It was worse than he remembered. The sudden onslaught had made him log out the last time. This time ... he was determined to endure it; he couldn't let the others down.

When the pain lessened, the Assassin opened his silver eyes. His vision was blurry and clouded with red. Red? He blinked and wiped his eyes. The back of his hand came away wet and stained with blood. Crap, he had to get moving before he became useless. What seemed like forever was actually only a few moments. Thankfully, no one had noticed. Everyone was too busy with their own tasks. Painfully, he heaved himself up and pulled-up the quest status.

LifeStone Group Quest Phase Three : Floating Path

11/30 Complete.

They needed another nineteen. A quick check on his friends confirmed the orcs' position. They were making steady progress with Constantine. Valentine too was further up. He should catch up before he lost sight of them. Drinking a bottle of potion to boost himself, he made his way to the others.

The raw marble bobbed and lurched, floating away in the opposite direction when stepped on or kicked by the humans who used it to launched themselves to the next rock. The Witch followed behind, lightly stepping onto the path. When a rock was too far, she simply waited until one came near enough. She was not in a hurry and the path was firm for her once her foot touched it.

The Witch had marvelled at the simple yet effective plan. With the Spell caster helping the grey ones, they would no doubt all make it across. It was a good way to conserve lives and prevent pointless falling off.

That left the two humans to complete the challenge. It would be tougher on them but ensured a higher success rate. The nimble Thief was going about the job efficiently. He worked faster and faster as he got the hang of the challenge. She watched him with narrowed eyes, he really should be careful ... it was almost time for the challenge to become more difficult. The group had reached the middle mark where they couldn't turn back and where the challenge would become harder.

Just then, the dark one let out a harsh cry and fell to his knees clutching his head. Blood trickled from his orifices. She watched as he lay flat on the rock he was on and curled up. The pain must be terrible indeed. His blue black miasma enveloped him like a thick blanket. Red streaks flashed amongst the darker tendrils signalling the beginning of the madness to come. Then it would be the end.

Her eyebrows lifted in amazement when he pushed himself up to drink again. Ahhh, he was not giving up? The human was a tenacious one. The brew he kept consuming must be powerful indeed to be able to keep him going. Without it, she was certain the dark one would have succumbed to his fate long before this. She observed him glancing around to get his bearings before moving forward.

Suddenly the Assassin jerked his face to the Thief's direction. Valentine was busy wrestling with a Kivh to notice the faint strange sounds coming from below him. Lazarus stared at the empty space below Valentine with an uneasy feeling. His Perception was warning him of something ... something was down there ... and moving up fast.

There! Movement! Danger!!

Without another thought, Lazarus leapt agilely nearer the Thief drawing his silver bow out. In one fluid motion he had nocked and let loose an arrow. It flew straight and true hitting the speck that was aiming for Valentine. The thing shrieked, the growing dark spot fell, diminishing in size again until it was gone.

LifeStone Group Quest Phase Three : Floating Path

13/30 Complete.

Valentine jerked up. "What was that?" He blanched when he saw Lazarus aiming his loaded bow in his direction. "Umm, Laz?"

"Get down!! They are under you!" Lazarus yelled as he let fly. The Assassin's hands blurred as he shot arrow after arrow. High pitched shrieks and screams rose around Valentine as he dove for cover. There was nothing he could see, the space around him was clear but the horrible noise would not stop. Laz was killing something, something ... under him? The Thief's eyes widened in conclusion as he notice his friend aiming low, right below him. Valentine crept to the edge to sneak a peek and gasped in shock. A whole flock of dark specks were trying to attack him ... and Laz was holding them off. They were too far away for a good look.

The Assassin was killing off the specks at a phenomenal rate but they just kept coming. One became two then three clusters of tiny particles bent on surging upwards. The advancing specks become tiny dots and finally formed into vicious looking bat-like creatures.

With his hands now free after keeping the Kivh away, Valentine retrieved his crossbow, hopped onto another floating piece for a better angle at the creatures and started shooting. The two gatekeepers fired without stopping. Neither wasted any arrows. Soon the screams faded and the last creature spiralled out of control exploding on the way down.

"What the hell was that?" the Thief shouted, his heart still pounding wildly. "Witch?" he asked the Guide who had approached silently.

She shrugged and answered. "The Kivh-huntersss. They hunt and eat Kivhsss in flocksss ... and attack anyone sstealing their food ssource."

"Stealing?! It's the quest!" Valentine exclaimed. "You could have told us."

"You did not ask, Ghoosst Lord."

"How the hell would we know to ask that?" Valentine grumbled in exasperation.

"By the way ..." the Witch continued amiably, "they can also ssensse the Kivhsss in your posssesssion, sso I ssuggesst you be careful."

"Huh? You mean they can smell the flowers in our Inventory?"

"Yesss. Merely crosssing the floating path and ssimply collecting the Kivhsss can be eassily achieved by anyone. Ssurely, you didn't think thisss challenge would be that eassy did you? The more Kivhsss you have, the more ..."

Lazarus' frantic shout cut the Witch off. "Incoming! Val look out!"

"Auto reload!" Lazarus cried as he started shooting again, this time aiming high above Valentine's left shoulder. Larger flocks were coming in fast.

Valentine whipped around for a quick look but turned back quickly to raise his weapon aiming at Lazarus. "Behind you too!!" The blond gatekeeper cracked his neck loosening muscles, narrowed his blue eyes and started shooting, the Witch completely forgotten.

The creatures spread out, making the Heroes take more time aiming at targets further apart. They changed tactics, circling the two humans, flying high then low.

Shrieks and screeches filled the air as they started dive-bombing the Kivh thieves. The Kivhs were theirs and theirs alone! No one could take them!

"Aarrghh!!" Valentine grabbed a flapping leathery body and pulled it off his shoulder. There was a wet ripping sound as the bat-like creature was torn away, strips of raw flesh hanging from its mouthful of sharp teeth. The Thief flung the Kivh-hunter away in disgust. "Ughhh!" The floating rock he was on wobbled dangerously.

"Val!! You o'kay?"

Valentine answered by gritting his teeth in pain and aiming at Lazarus. The Assassin took the hint and immediately whirled around dropping onto one knee. High pitch wails from open mouths full of tiny razor teeth rose around him. The whole flock dive bombed him, pushing him flat onto his back. All he could do was cover his head with his arms.

"Ughhh! Arrgghhhh! Aaahhhhh!"

Lazarus felt hard bodies hitting him like punches. Only darkness surrounded him as the mass of Kivh-hunters blocked out any light. Leathery wings swished cold air around him and beat at his face as they pummelled him all over. At least they were not biting ... he yelled in pain as he felt sharp teeth clamp into his leg. Gah! Why did he have to think that? Excruciating pain washed over him as he heard a sickening ripping sound. He gulped, he had seen Val's wound and it was not pretty. After that, he had no time to speculate anything as he endured bite after bite.

Val's valiant efforts were not making any difference. There were too many of them.

Lazarus, Health 13 per cent ... and falling

This was ridiculous. The NPCs were bullying him! He clenched his teeth and pulled out a potion. He needed a health boost before his health bar zerorised.

"Nooo!!" Lazarus cried in frustration as a creature snatched it out of his hands and bore off with it. "Damn it!"

Lazarus, Health 9 per cent.

Painfully he turned over exposing his back to the attacking Kivh-hunters. He retrieved another precious bottle, hunching over to protect it but the vicious creatures would not stop attacking him.

Desperately he reached into his arsenal for a melee weapon and threw it blindly behind him. Reflexively, several creatures fought over the prize. The weapon exploded releasing a greenish toxic gas. Furious screeches filled the air as the colony of bats realised the thief had not thrown their Kivhs at them. If the human had given back all the Kivhs he had stolen back to them, they would have killed him off mercifully instead of toying with him. Before they could renew their attack, their lungs started burning. Several bats managed to squawk in terror before exploding. Terrified creatures flapped in panic around him before dying, air from their wings spread the green gas causing more of the colony to die. The bats scattered to regroup some way off leaving those unfortunate enough to touch the gas to their deaths.

Lazarus scrambled for his potion, taking the few moments the Kivhs-hunters left him alone to empty the vial. He heaved a sigh of relief when the pain subsided and his wounds started closing.

Lazarus, Health 17 per cent.

The Assassin eyed the regrouping hunters warily and held up another melee weapon warningly. These would work better than aiming for individual targets. There were too many now.

"Aarrrghhhh!!"

"Val!" Lazarus jerked around at his friend's shout. Valentine was in trouble. Lazarus couldn't even see Valentine in the black cloud of bats attacking him.

"Val, hang on! I'm coming!"

"Hurry, they are pushing me off!"

The bats were pushing Val off? That was new. If the creatures were smart enough to work together bombarding Val with their bodies ... what would they do next? Lazarus sprang into action making his way towards Val's voice before his own recovering group of attackers decided what to do. When he was near enough, the Assassin threw the melee weapon high. It would not do to finish off the Thief together with the bats.

The toxic gas spread killing the creatures above. A gap materialised showing the badly injured Thief at the edge of his floating piece of marble. Valentine was bleeding profusely from several nasty looking wounds. He was on one knee and was blindly brandishing his sword around him. It didn't matter where he slashed, his sword managed to slice multiple flapping bodies. They were that thick around him. The temporary reprieve was enough time for Valentine to gulp a bottle of potion and raise his sword again.

"Melee weapon Val! Use melee weapons!" That was all Lazarus had enough time for before he was busy lobbing melee bombs into any forming clouds of Kivh-hunters.

Valentine did not have to be told twice. He saw the awesome damage Laz's melee weapons were inflicting onto the little monsters. Grinning, he followed suit. Now this was more like it.

The two Gate Keepers went to work. All types of melee weapons were thrown and detonated in the air. Clouds of multi-coloured toxic vapours and showers of acidic liquids exploded. The creatures choked, vaporised, melted and were poisoned to death. The Kivh-hunters died hissing and shrieking angrily at them with what Val was certain were curses.

The thick black clouds soon cleared.

"I think they are gone," panted Valentine. He waited but saw no more. "I don't see any more above or below you."

"Yeah, you too, nothing behind you either." Lazarus surveyed the area. "Let's complete this quest before more come."

"O'kay but let's stick together. I have a feeling it's not over yet."

Lazarus nodded and started moving. Constantine and the orcs had almost reached the other end. They had kept moving whilst Lazarus and Valentine had been battling the Kivh-hunters.

The two leapt from rock to rock, working as fast as they could. They had to catch up with the rest. No more talking, just glancing around from time to time to check each other's position. Silence ruled as the two focused on the job. Valentine Speeded up, expertly scooping each Kivh and depositing it into his Inventory. Lazarus too had gotten into a rhythm. Spot a Kivh, plot the route, Speed to it, dig and stash.

LifeStone Group Quest Phase Three : Floating Path

16/30 Complete.

17/30 Complete.

19/30 Complete.

Valentine grinned boyishly. No problem. Things were going well and they were nearer Constantine. He could see the other side now. A few more meters and all the orcs will be across safe and sound. The Thief turned back to his task but stopped when he heard his friend coughing violently.

"Laz?"

The Assassin was bent over, his back towards Valentine. His shoulders were shuddering uncontrollably. The rock Lazarus was on wobbling dangerously as he coughed, heaved and coughed some more.

"Hey ... Laz?"

Finally the Assassin stopped long enough to raise a weak hand. He waved signalling that Valentine should continue. There was no time to waste.

"Right." Lazarus would drink a potion and recover. Nothing to worry about.

LifeStone Group Quest Phase Three : Floating Path

22/30 Complete.

"Huh?" Valentine turned to find Constantine waving at him. He had gotten another one. The orcs were safe and he was joining in on harvesting the Kivhs. Valentine heaved a sigh of relief. The Challenge would be completed faster with Constantine's help. The Red Warlock could float!

Lazarus' deteriorating condition bothered him. He glanced around again and was shocked to see the Assassin had sunk down to his hands and knees.

"Laz?"

"Hurry! Complete the Challenge!" croaked Lazarus. He was clutching his chest and his face was a mask of pain.

"But ..."

Lazarus cut him off impatiently with a wave of his hand and brought out a potion.

"Hmm, o'kay then ..." Valentine trailed off. He should trust Laz. He had promised not to give up and if he did, Jace would be a dead man when he logged out.

LifeStone Group Quest Phase Three : Floating Path

23/30 Complete.

Another seven Kivhs and he would go help Laz, even if the stubborn idiot didn't want it. Resolutely, Valentine scanned the area for another glowing flower.

A few more blooms and he was suddenly bowled over by dive-bombing Kivh-hunters. Damn it, they were back.

"Ughhh!" Valentine huffed as the wind was knocked out of him. Quickly he retrieved a melee weapon from his Inventory but the hunters had learnt their lesson. One larger bat swooped down snatching the little ball out of his hand. It flew away and released it some distance away so that it detonated harmlessly in the chasm. Swiftly, he took out some more but each was grabbed from him by ready bats before he could take action. All were borne away. The Kivh-hunters shrieked victoriously as they flapped about him. Their plan had worked.

"Oh-uh ..." He was in trouble. The bats surrounded him blocking his view from the others. Suddenly, they attacked, hurtling towards him at high speed. Aiming for the weaponless human, the bats divided into two groups. One to attack and bite the thief wherever they could only to fly off and the other group to hit and bombard him off balance. If they could not have the Kivh, neither could he.

"Ughh! Owww! Damn it!" Valentine ducked and covered his head with his arms. He was bleeding again. His arms and legs were hurting. Those bats attacked relentlessly with their teeth and claws.

He was being pummelled by little hard bodies. Slowly but surely, he backed up to the edge. One final hit and he went over the edge.

"Aaaaahhhhh!!"

Valentine's cry of panic was cut off by someone grabbing his out stretched arm. He opened his eyes not believing his luck. The first thing he saw was Lazarus' pale serious face and extended hand hanging onto him. Thank the Gods! The second thing was multiple explosions above his friend and the smaller detonations of dying Kivh-hunters. Yesss!! Laz must have seen him in trouble and thrown the melee weapons before jumping over to save him.

His eyes widened in horror when Laz winced in pain. His grip onto his arm tightened in response. Wasn't his spasms over? He could still feel the tremors running from his friend's body to his. A closer look revealed smeared blood on Laz's face.

"Grab my hand," Lazarus panted. "I can't hold on much longer ... I'm losing control again ..."

"What?"

"Pull yourself up, I can't ..." Lazarus grimaced in pain as the hunters came swooping back. One pounced onto the immobile Assassin and bit savagely into his thigh. It flew off with a mouthful of flesh. That opened the floodgates for attack. The human was helpless. He had not retaliated but stayed motionless hanging onto the other helpless human.

Triumphant shrieks and calls echoed throughout the chasm as the Kivh-hunters gathered for an all-out assault. The Kivh thieves would die for their crimes.

They attacked both humans, biting chunks off them. Some bit clamping down hard onto soft flesh with their mouthful of sharp teeth, refusing to let go. They flapped about trying to pull the thieves apart but the humans stuck together stubbornly. If they did not want to let go, they would have to die together. All Lazarus and Valentine could do was to hang on and endure.

Both Heroes were in excruciating pain and bleeding profusely. The numerous wounds on both bodies bled freely. Lazarus' blood pooled around his body, marking the marble he was laying on a bright red. The blood from his head and shoulder trickled down his arm onto Valentine, mixing with the Thief's blood and finally dripping off him to fall drop by drop into the abyss.

Drip, drip, drip.

"Witch!! Help us," cried Valentine. "Laz won't make it if you don't!"

The Witch watched from another rock and shook her head slightly. "I am ssorry human, I cannot."

"Please!!"

She sighed with pity. There was nothing she could do. She could not act outside her programmed parameters even if she wanted to. Despite the recent changes to her algorithm, she was still unable to use her powers to help the Ghost Lords directly. It would violate her role as Guide ... for now. It would be a different matter should they be at the Bello's lake. Helplessly, she turned her back deliberately to the gatekeeper and made her way across the chasm.

Valentine gritted his teeth in frustration. What in the world possessed him to make him think that she would actually help them? He blew out a breath through his mouth; he could feel his Health draining with every drip. It was going to be tough but he had to survive.

Lazarus had dug in with his heels but he couldn't feel his arms anymore. In fact, he was losing control of his whole body. Mentally, he prepared himself. He could feel the continued tightening in his chest and build-up in his head. He had better warn Val ... he would be useless soon and poor Val would have to save himself.

"Val! Hang on, I can't feel anything!" Lazarus gasped desperately through the red haze of his vision. His eyes must be bleeding again. "I'm losing control again!" He hoped Val heard him. His head was starting to hurt badly once more, his brain felt like it was being stabbed repeatedly by long giant steel needles. He was having trouble breathing and those things were still eating him alive. All he wanted to do was log off or kill himself virtually to end the torture.

Just in time, Valentine's grip on Lazarus' arm tightened even more as he felt Laz's grasp slackened. The Thief groaned in pain and dangled helplessly hanging on for dear life. He held on with one hand and swiped at any hunters which dared come within range with the other. The few he missed took a bite out of him. If he got out of this alive he was going to blast every one of those bats he vowed.

However, hope drained from him when he heard Lazarus let out a blood curling wail. Valentine shivered involuntarily at the despairing sound. The Assassin's body above him started to spasm and jerked uncontrollably. The lifeless hand he was hanging onto tried to pull back but could not due to his dead weight. All the while, Laz was screaming and yelling incoherently.

"Laz! Laz! Oh my God, Laz!"

It must be the madness setting in. Constantine said it was bad; the animals in Sharak's work room, those in the last stages of the poison were bat-shit crazy! Hahaha Valentine half laughed and half cried at the inappropriate phrasing that came to mind. It was so not funny! But he still laughed hysterically anyway. The emotional toll was making him insane in this impossible situation.

"I'm going to kill all of you!" Valentine yelled not knowing if he was referring to the relentless Kivh-hunters or the Simtrixx creative team. "I am going to kill every last one of you!!"

The wretched mad laughter mixed with incoherent screams of agony vibrated off the rough marble walls of the chasm.

The Kivh-hunters paused for a moment at the horrible noise but soon continued their attack. The Kivh thieves had to be dispatched.