Nyx, Assassin Level 57 had just met her idol, the elusive gatekeeper Lord Lazarus, Assassin Level 76, face to face but her meeting with him did not go as planned. She had not even told him half the things she wanted to tell him.

Her first impression of him was that he was a warm charismatic person with a charming personality. The playful sexy Lazarus who had spoken to her at the Assassin's Path was so different from the person who had just turned his back on her to walk coldly away.

Why was her heart pounding so painfully? He was not known to be so cold and abrupt. He had acted weird and out of character. Did she feel hurt by his brusque manner? She sighed. She had made a mistake. Of course he would not like being followed, he probably thought she was some crazy psychopath stalker.

A thought popped into her head.

Oh! Her eyes widened in realization, maybe he thought she was stalking him to kill him. She was an assassin after all but he had let her go when he had recognised her. He had recognised her! He knew who she was or he would not have made the reference to his Orb Trial. She blushed.

No, that's not it, he was not afraid of her. He had turned his back on her and had casually walked away . No one should turn their back away from a killer, especially one who was level 57, unless ... unless ... she felt anger rising, unless he did not deem her a threat. Now, she felt a bit pissed.

Her thoughts and feelings were a mess. She was happy, excited and awed yet mad at him at the same time. She wrestled with her mixed feelings of embarrassment, frustration and confusion at being caught stalking by her idol. She groaned covering her flushed face.

Finally, her excitement of actually meeting Lazarus up close was too much. Oh my God, he was absolutely gorgeous and so fast too! His reputation was absolutely justified in her eyes. At her level, and being a skilled assassin, she could detect most players when they were moving about. But Lazarus had been so fast and quiet that she had not even heard him when he was but a few steps away. She had only realised he was there when she felt his sword at her exposed throat. She shuddered, remembering the feel of the cold sharp blade at her throat.

She really must Research her Speed and Stealth, she mused. She wondered what his Research levels were. Wow, even a brief encounter with the famed assassin had taught her a lesson. Nyx laughed, how to become a better assassin? Simple. Just stalk Lazarus!

Her thoughts wandered, jumping from her close encounter with death to the gorgeous Assassin. Nyx sighed dreamily. She was sure she had seen some black flecks in his sexy silver eyes or was she mistaken? Haha she laughed, another excuse to pull out his profile picture and the numerous stills of him for a close inspection. She had to share the exciting experience of meeting the mysterious Legend online and tell everyone that Lord Lazarus had levelled up again.

"Not a word of this to anyone or you will regret it." Lazarus's stern warning resounded in her head.

Okay, so maybe she will leave that part about his sword falling. She paused, but why did he let go of his sword? Was he hurt? He was injured fighting in the dungeon, did he not heal fully? Maybe that's why he was so short-tempered with her. What about Lord Valentine? Was the handsome Thief okay? The Spider's dungeon must have been as bad as everyone said. Then she smiled, but they had both made it out alive. Why was she so worried? They were both awesome.

She shook her head at herself, she shouldn't be so worried. It was just a game wasn't it? Lazarus could just take some health potions and recover completely. He was Lazarus!

Happy at having convinced herself that her idol was alright, Nyx logged out of Orc Wars and into the special blog dedicated by fanatical fans of the Orc Wars Gatekeepers.

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Lazarus sat on a rock some distance away. The numbness had receded. He was looking curiously at his right hand, holding it up to his face, turning it palm up then down. He scrutinised his very normal looking hand. The uncontrollable trembling had stopped and feeling had returned to his arm. He could use and control his arm again. He picked up his sword and swished it experimentally a few times, striking at the empty air.

He took a deep breath. No need to panic. The numbness had been only temporary, but during those few scary minutes, he had lost complete control of his hand. He had switched the sword from his left hand to his right several times, but the weapon had just slipped from his nerveless fingers to fall onto the ground repeatedly. Then he had tried holding a light throwing dagger, but it too fell. He could not hold or feel anything with his right hand.

Luckily, everything was fine now. There were no witnesses other than that girl, Nyx.

The orc poison was getting worse, it had advanced to a new stage it seems, and was beginning to affect him in new ways. Time was growing short. He had to get the antidote soon or it would be too embarrassing to even log into Orc Wars.

Confident that he had recovered, he ported to the next dungeon. He would get as many experience points as possible before attempting Kirana's trial. If he died completing her trial, he would ensure that he had enough points not to lose a level.

He needed to complete all the Trials, collect the five Orbs and get the damn cure. The recent scare had underlined the urgency of his situation.

Plan C, abandon Lazarus and quit Orc Wars, he thought bleakly.

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"Very nice!" Zen couldn't keep it in. He rushed to report to Nadine. The two Gatekeepers had completed the Lever 45 Spider's dungeon. Even the level 50 and 55 dungeons were not as difficult as the special Spider's dungeon. It had been developed in a spur of the moment by their dungeon design team based on one of their staff's nightmare.

A basic idea was used and expanded. The others on the team had then added to it. The number of overwhelming minions in the Boss's cave was the main factor why so many players had failed in that dungeon. In the end, players had tended to skip that dungeon despite the number of rare precious items the Boss was rumoured to drop upon her demise.

Lazarus had burned them up, simply killing hordes of spiders with fire, Zen thought in glee. And Valentine, that Thief had managed to hold off the remaining little devils, what swordsmanship! What skill! What a team! Those two should team up more often. Nadine was going to love this!

Valentine was becoming more active in the game now because of Lazarus. The Gatekeepers had grown bored at the game after the excitement of Season One's competition. Nothing compared to the thrill of real time competition. After that experience, normal gameplay seemed aimless.

Now, Lazarus had a personal agenda. An urgent mission that no one seem to know anything about. They only knew that he was hell-bent on crossing the portal and entering the orc realm, and Valentine was determined to help him. What Lazarus wanted from there was anyone's guess. Funny, but it didn't seem to be the Life Stone. If it was, he would have started the Trials a long time ago.

Awesome. That would fuel other players to do the same. The five Gatekeepers were legends in the game. Simtrixx was ecstatic at the assassin's sudden activity. New exciting footage was coming in and edited for release.

Nadine planned to use these to promote mini competitions within Orc Wars. Rewards in gold, special items and other freebies were being discussed. She would maintain interest in Orc Wars until Season Two started in a few months' time.

Nadine never felt so alive at her mundane job. MMORPG games were only so much quests, dungeons, visual effects, designs and player interaction. The thing that made it exciting were the Players themselves, how they played, how they reacted, how they solved the quests thrown at them. That Lazarus was pushing her to new heights, providing challenges in her mundane job.

He was on his own quest! One not designed by her team. Inconceivably, his quest to find the cure to his poison had caused her team to reshuffle their priorities.

He had single-handedly forced the design team to speed up their timeline in the orc realm. Their original timeline for the completion of the orc realm was months away, possible a year but his dramatic and aggressive move in completing one, then two orb trials in a row had them in a frenzy. What if a player entered the portal only to find a partially developed orc world. It would be a total disaster and embarrassment to Simtrixx, whose name had skyrocket as the leading games company in the industry after the successful reality show.

The relaxed pace after Season One was being replaced by an urgency to develop and complete the orc world. There were so many details to attend to. The graphics of an alien world, the NPCs, quests and the mechanics were still being developed for the orc world.

Nadine had come to a conclusion. She needed to slow the assassin down.

The Director smiled as Zen, the Games Master reported to her. She had researched Lazarus when he begun making his move. She had reviewed all the official and unofficial footages. She knew what he was after, how desperate he would become when the poison in his body got worse. It affected his gameplay.

In fact, she had spoken privately to the special effects director about it. He was to plan the step by step effects of the poison personally and report to her. She would make the necessary changes, she needed for him to last long enough to face new challenges in orc territory and promote the place so that others would be encouraged to cross over. The problem was to ensure Lazarus did not get there too fast.

She assumed he was dungeoning to gain experience points to level up to the required minimum level 80. If he did not, he would not be able to enter the Portal even if he had all five Portal Orbs.

Nadine felt conflicted. She was in a tantalizing quandary. She had to slow him down yet she could not wait for him to go over. He would show the gaming world how fantastic Orc Wars was, how exciting completing the trials were and the fantastic orc realm Simtrixx had prepared for the Players ...

And then ...

... Lazarus would find out that there was no known cure for the deadly nauk-dzi vras.

Nadine, Director of the Virtual Reality Division smiled in anticipation. She wondered how her favourite assassin would get out of that predicament. He always seemed to have something up his sleeves. She loved how he always managed to surprise her.

"Let's see what you're made of, Lazarus," she thought. "Amaze me."