The elf king jumped into this cavity, and then the guards shoved me towards it. I resisted.

I changed my shape, taking the form of a Skhite. This surprised them. I kicked Zan in the knee and the other guard in the stomach. Bono and Bui were up on their feet and they waded towards the river bank. I dashed for them.

Something coiled around my legs, tying them together. I looked down. It was the thick tail of a serpent!

Zan had transmogrified his arms into serpent tails, and it was with these that he had got me. He pulled, and I was tripped face first onto the ground. He dragged me towards himself. I tried to break free from the grip of his snake-like arms, but to no avail.

Just then the head of the elf king protruded from the hole.

“I asked to bring him quick!” he said sternly.

Zan pulled harder so that I reached him in seconds. The other guard booted me on my face, breaking my nose. However the two stone giants had reached the river bank. They sprang for us. Zan dumped me into the hole.

I hit the bottom of the shaft. If my angle had been even a little altered, I would have easily snapped my neck and lost my first life. My shoulder blades however hurt fiercely, confirming a fracture.

The elf king loomed beside me. The hole curved into a horizontal tunnel that I presumed led in the direction of the town of the players. The tunnel was illuminated by walls of sparkling jewels of myriad colours.

As I writhed in pain, the elf king grabbed my clothes and raised me to my feet.

“We are going to find out everything about you,” he hissed, even as he tied my wrists with a magically glowing rope.

“I just wanted peace,” I muttered to the elf king.

I heard noises coming from the mouth of the hole. Bono and Bui must be fighting Zan and the other guard. The elf king made a swift gesture with his hand such that the hole sealed instantly.

“Well, I was willing to give that to you, wasn’t I?” the elf king reasoned. “To be honest I am willing to give that to you even now, but you must sign the document.”

“Why are you so insistent that I should sign it?” I asked through gritted teeth as explosions of pain from my shoulder continued to rock the rest of my body. My health was at thirty percent and declining steadily. “I know you are not telling me something.”

The elf king scanned my face and made a small smile.

“You definitely have some intelligence in you,” he said. “If you sign the document I will know the exact problem with you. Eviluns are not ‘designed’ to come seeking peace. Your behavior is contradictory to the core nature of an evilun.”

“Are you going to force me to sign then?” I asked.

“Unfortunately I can’t force you because of the magical powers associated with the document,” the elf king replied. “So I will opt for the longer process. I will keep you in my castle and after a while I will know everything about you. Perhaps I will turn you into a Smartian. Yes, that will be perfect. You will be chopped up and crudely rejoined to serve me for the rest of eternity.”

The elf king dragged me along the tunnel. There was little I could do to resist. The pain clouded my mind, and I couldn’t think of any plan to escape. I was countless feet below the ground and there was nothing I could do.

We moved along the tunnel in this manner for some minutes. The elf king halted when great sounds reached our ears from above.

“What is happening?” the elf king said in confusion.

“How can I know?” I said, irritated at my shoulder pain.

“Shut up,” the elf king said. He looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel, puzzlement etched on his lady-like features.

The sounds got louder and louder. They climaxed in a great explosion and the ceiling crumbled in a shower of rock, soil and jewels. A massive stone arm penetrated the tunnel from outside. I realized it could only be Bono or Bui. Great chunks of soil were removed. Bono peered into the tunnel. The perplexed elf king did not move.

“There you are!” Bono yipped. He swiftly proceeded to grab me with his massive fingers, squeezing my injury and sending spasms of pain through my body. He took me out of the tunnel to open air.

I heard the elf king snarl furiously. Bono’s immediate bellow deafened me. His fingers let go and I fell on the river bank.

Zan and the second guard were lying dead not far away. Their corpses were mutilated and beaten to pulp. It was a gory, revolting sight that momentarily confiscated my breath and I had to look away before my hemophobia escalated.

The stone giants too had paid the price. Bui’s arm lay shattered to pieces on the river bank. The players must have used some powerful spell on her. A slash stretched across her face, oozing blood. She was holding her stump, and was in much agony. But I was thankful that at the very least she was alive.

Bui limped to me. She picked me up.

“Are you all right?” she asked with the tenderness of a mother, her voice a whimper.

“Yes,” I said, “but you look far from alright.”

“Well, can’t help it right now,” she said stoically.

Meanwhile the players from the crowd were descending down towards us. The flow of the river had brought us some distance from the bridge, which was good, or else we would already have been ripped apart by spells of players.

“Fast Bono!” Bui shouted to her partner.

But Bono did not reply. He remained slumped and motionless, the upper half of his body buried in the hole he had created to rescue me.

“He has stopped moving,” I said to Bui and couldn’t help the shiver in my tone.

Bui hobbled to him.

“Bono, get moving!” she shouted, to no response from him. Bui grabbed his leg and pulled him, hauling him out of the ground.

He didn’t have a head.

Bui recoiled, letting out a shriek. Witnessing Bono’s fate made me feel weak in the chest. With some effort I stopped myself from passing out.

A voice yelled from under the ground.

“You wait right there!”

It was the elf king.

Bui’s eyes were pouring tears and hate. But she overpowered her emotions with the resolution of someone who intended to grow the hatred into something horrifying. She scooped me up, as the elf king was crawling out of the hole. Bui dived into the river. High frequency sounds near my ears, followed by splashes in the water, notified that players were shooting spells at us.