Chapter 3 — Level Competition

One of the freaky mini-skeletons swung its sword at Alyssa, the super smart girl who always sat at the front of class. She wore silver armor and kicked it with a metal boot.

The creature dissolved into black smoke, leaving her foot extended in midair.

She had a wristband similar to mine, and the words “LEVEL UP!” flashed on its holo-projection.

A skeleton’s blade struck Arthur, the class valedictorian. The red HP bar on his wristband flashed, and a moment later, he was back in his old school clothes. The word “DISQUALIFIED - 1043 REMAINING” appeared on his watch before it’s screen flickered and it clattered to the ground.

Another little skeleton rushed Arthur, but it’s swing went through him as if he wasn’t there. Now that nothing could touch him, Arthur sighed, waded through the creatures to get his books, and left, mumbling about how this better not effect his grades.

One of the skeletons grabbed my ankle and pulled my foot out from beneath me. I guess I was still part of the system, since I felt its icy bones on my skin moments before I stumbled backward. My back slammed into the ground, and my wrist controller flashed red “Fall Damage — Health: 70%.”

The skeleton jumped on my stomach and raised its sword. I shouted and punched it as hard as I could on its skull. It flashed red and vanished into black smoke. The words “LEVEL UP!” flashed on my wrist, and a glass bottle filled with a neon blue liquid floated where the creature had just been.

I stood up, looking around to see if anyone else had noticed the freaky floating bottle, but either no one saw, or everyone was too focused on keeping Dr. Byrd’s skeletons back.

I backed away from the potion, but a moment later it zipped toward me, slammed into my wristband, and vanished.

The words “Inventory Added: Minor Strength Potion - Level 3 - Expires in 20 minutes. Use or store?” flashed across my wristband.

I stared at the words for a moment, totally confused, “Use what—”

The moment the word “use” left my mouth, the bottle appeared inches from my face and literally poured the blue liquid down my throat.

“Ah pfffff.” I spluttered but couldn’t help but drink. My muscles pushed my leather armor outward, and I literally had biceps now. Real, muscly biceps!

Miss Libby’s grabbed my shoulder and pulled me into the hallway. Dr. Byrd kept laughing and gave us a wave with his bony hand.

In the hall, all the lockers were gone. Dusty suits of armor and weapon racks lined the corridor, and strange lights glowed from the classrooms. Miss Libby shouted, “Fire zones. Outside and across Westmoor Boulevard. Move now, please!”

She marched behind our class. With all the armor everyone was wearing now, it sounded like someone was trying to play drums on hundreds of trash cans. A few older kids in the fourth grade class down the hall rushed the opposite way toward their fire zone, and all of them wore leather and woodsman green. It was like a pack of Robin Hoods, and one of them even wore a feathered cap.

Had Dr. Byrd’s machine done all of this? A stream of light from outside caught my eye. It flowed through a narrow slot in the walls like what ancient archers used, but I couldn’t see anything. What if the whole city had changed? Would mom and dad be okay? What if mom turned into an elf or something? I’d be in so much trouble!

Thankfully when Miss Libby led us outside, the ranch-style houses across the road all looked the same. Each touted a different shade of beige and all the lawns were flat and flawless.

Our armor rattled as we hurried toward the street, but once our feet reached the pavement, our wristbands disappeared, our clothes shifted back to normal, and even Dylan’s hyena Gnoll head returned to his human hyena-looking head.

We lined up in our fire zone across the street and looked back at the school.

A huge stone wall hid the main structure. Gargoyles loomed along the top edge and rusted portcullises opened into the hallways we’d just escaped from. Pointed gothic towers and strange rooftops peeked out from above the walls, and a rumbling beneath our feet told me that Dr. Byrd’s device was changing something in the ground far below.

Over the gate a sign formed out of the same pale light that had changed all our clothes. “The Dungeon Royale.”

Below it, another sign read, “Current champion: The Techno Lich.”

Woah, did that mean Dr. Byrd? This day couldn’t get any weirder.

Back in her normal clothes and with no war-paint on her cheeks, Miss Libby paced in front of our fire zone talking hurriedly into her cell phone. “Yes. Early pickup for all the students.”

Well, that was cool. I didn’t mind having an afternoon off from school. I craned my neck to see if Luke and Maria were out of class too. Their group sat a few fire zones over, but Luke and Maria were talking to each other and they didn’t notice me waving.

I quietly walked toward them. I had to talk about what just happened. I’d been in the class that had caused this crazy transformation. They hadn’t seen Dr. Byrd’s experiment go wrong. What had it been like for them, looking up from their history books to find they were wearing armor straight out of the Roman Empire?

Miss Libby’s hand caught my shoulder. How had she noticed me?

She gently turned me back toward our class’s fire zone and whispered. “Your mom’s almost here.”

I let out a loud sigh just as I saw mom’s gray minivan come around the corner.