text: "Aggro it!" Dhane yelled to Devron and ran to the side.
  
  Devron, much to his credit, didn't sprint away, screaming profanities, and instead pulled a sphere of magic from his invisible bag, then launched it at the now six-foot-tall rabbit.
  
  The blast definitely caught the rabbit's attention, dealing 12 damage and draining its health to 112/134.
  
  It kicked the ground and launched itself forward, pummeling into Devron, knocking him to his back.
  
  Dhane circled, Cobalin sword in hand, he triggered Venom Bite and rammed the sharp steel into the rabbit's back. He managed to attack it two more times—little red numbers of 16, 18, and 17, from backstab damage, floated skyward—before the rabbit spun, slamming its furry head into his chest, and sending him rolling out of the glade, across dirt and rocks.
  
  Before he could push himself to his feet, a terrible weight landed on his legs. An odd sensation drained from him, and he knew his armor had taken the brunt of the attack for 28 damage.
  
  The rabbit wasn't done with him and tore claws across his back. Again, it was an odd sensation. He could feel the attack, though it didn't hurt. Of course, once his armor's health was depleted, it wouldn't be sunshine and rainbows anymore.
  
  A blast of white slammed into the rabbit, adding to that of the venom counter damage, ticking away 3 health every three seconds. None of this seemed to distract the rabbit from its mission of revenge.
  
  Maybe in the future, he shouldn't unleash all of his damage in a single burst. Then again, maybe in the future, he'd have party members who didn't abandon him.
  
  This singular thought seemed to summon Aaliyah back. She slammed her spear into the rabbit's side, then tore it down the length of it. This solved the problem of Dhane becoming rabbit food, and he finally was free to roll over, only to now be faced with the rabbit's fluffy rear end.
  
  It wasn't a proud moment, but he triggered Venom Bite all the same and thrust upward. This had the collective effect of rending the last few hit points from the rabbit that led to its collapse on top of him.
  
  Dhane exhaled, unable to draw breath. The only thought that kept him going was, Damn, we're going to get a lot of rabbit meat! Though then the rabbit shrunk back to its tiny, cute size—a fluff ball on his chest—turned white, and burst apart.
  
  ─ 1x Scrap Leather
  
  Dhane laid there for a moment as the 1x Scrap Leather floated over him, waiting to be seized from the air. Apparently, there wasn't enough of the tiny rabbit to go around.
  
  Devron held out a hand and pulled Dhane to his feet, then gave Aaliyah the stink eye.
  
  "Don't you give me that," she said. "It was beyond my skill level! We discussed this. You said we'd retreat if we came across something above our skill level, right?"
  
  Dhane sighed and accepted his scrap leather. "First," he said, "as acting party leader, I'm the one who makes that call, Aaliyah. Second, you can't say killing tiny rabbits is the extent of your skill level! I've seen you. You're a badass."
  
  "But . . . didn't you see its freaky eye? That thing looked at me," she said and shivered. "Big rabbit, that's fine, whatevs, right? Though a big freaky eye on a tiny ass rabbit? Ewww! Let's just never fight one of those again, okay?"
  
  As if summoned by her words alone, three more tiny rabbits hopped into the glade, followed by one twice their size: Raging Mama Rabbit, Lvl. 8, 318hp.
  
  Dhane took a slow step back.
  
  Aaliyah jumped, eyes wide, flicking her attention between Dhane and the cute and deadly family of rabbits, projecting a perfectly clear psychic question of Goddammit, we're out of here, right?
  
  The rabbits all had different shapes of black skulls on their otherwise white fur, but were still in their tiny form, unprovoked by the three adventurers.
  
  They're not aggressive. . . . In most games, and especially around the lower leveled areas, there were mobs that wouldn't attack unless provoked. These rabbits, despite their name, seemed to be like that.
  
  Of course, provoked could mean any matter of things, especially in this world. Dhane motioned for the others to back away, then gave in to the delightful curiosity of an explorer with questions.
  
  He stepped forward, ignoring Aaliyah's urgent whisperings of What the hell are you doing? Devron looked ready to throw a magic missile, and Dhane shook his head, signaling him to stop.
  
  What was one magic missile against hundreds of health? If these rabbits were to transform, fighting would definitely not be an option. And, as luck would have it, a twitchy mage just might set off a series of unfortunate events.
  
  This was why he preferred to explore alone. But alone he was not, and curiosity demanded its due payment.
  
  Dhane knelt next to the rabbits and held out a hand. Since this didn't seem to trigger any rage-inducing Hulkifications, he did the next best thing and gently drew his fingers along the back of a rabbit.
  
  The rabbit turned, twitching its nose, grass ends sticking out of its mouth. It was a curious, soulless thing. Did it feel or think, or was it an automated memory of something once living?
  
  Soulless entities didn't have a divinity, so what brought them back to life? Or were they merely recreated by this heaven to provide the game pieces for players?
  
  It didn't act like an animal. Didn't run away or . . . really, it didn't seem to react at all to his presence. He poked it. Nothing. He picked it up. Nothing. It was a shell of a thing, waiting to be damaged, waiting to unleash its inner monster.
  
  And that's when he had a rather terrible idea. . ..
  
  If you gave Aaliyah a knife, she'd brighten like a plump kid given a dozen tubs of chocolate chip ice cream with a side order of chicken nuggets. Give her a fluffy, cute rabbit, and it was like you dropped a grenade into her hand, one with the pin already pulled.
  
  Her reaction was immediate.
  
  For a fleeting moment, she held the white fur-ball—who was completely undisturbed by being tossed between people, chewing away at grass as if it could do nothing else—the next moment, it was a blur.
  
  "What the hell!" Aaliyah yelled and Dhane held up a finger to silence her. He listened to the forest and its many twinkling, musical chimes. Then, somewhere in the distance, where the rabbit had no doubt landed, a deep roar sounded.
  
  Perfect. Of course, now they should get a move on, lest the outraged rabbit decided to retrace its flight path.
  
  Dhane quickly scooped up the mama rabbit, handed it to Devron who jumbled it like a new father, trying to figure out how to hold his baby.
  
  "Don't throw it," Dhane said, then grabbed the two remaining, smaller rabbits. He jogged up the path, leaving behind the glade that held such fond memories of nearly being eaten.
  
  At the waypoint stone, he turned to his confused and curious party members and shared the details of what could only be the workings of an evil mastermind. But this was a contest, full of uncertain rules.
  
  The more he shared, the wider their smiles grew.
  
  All trolls were aware of two things: first, they were without question, dicks; second, return pranks were fair play. If you couldn't handle a prank or being the butt of someone's joke, you most certainly shouldn't be a troll.
  
  Dhane quite enjoyed this golden rule, for all video games had their fair share of trolls, and when he wasn't deep in unexplored territory, he loved helping aggrieved players get their fair bit of justice.
  
  Aaliyah had no trouble finding Kevin's party, which wasn't too far from the party of three amazon warriors. Apparently, they operated off the idea of safety in numbers.
  
  Dhane watched from the bushes as Kevin, with a long sword, dove forward and cut a gash of silvery-white through a harry monster: Nuloce Scavenger, Lvl. 2, 23/44hp.
  
  There were three of the monsters, standing upright on two legs, about four feet tall, brandishing sharpened sticks at the adventurers. They had black faces with glowing blue eyes and orange, scraggly fur that covered most of their bodies.
  
  One charged Bexley and stabbed her leg. A white -4 lifted into the air, signaling damage done to her armor.
  
  She screamed, and the red-headed guy, wielding a large battle hammer, turned and slammed his chunk of metal down from overhead. He missed completely, but cracked the stone where the monster had been standing.
  
  They were all perfectly distracted, engaged in their own fight. Dhane pressed the Send button on his phone to party chat, and three seconds later, the first steps of his plan started to come together.
  
  A cute, fluffy mama rabbit fell from the sky and landed—hard—no more than three feet away from Kevin. The party leader didn't even see it. He triggered something and his sword illuminated with waves of golden smoke. In one quick attack, the Nuloce Scavenger fell, glowed, and burst apart.
  
  Kevin laughed, then parried an attack from another Nuloce. It was at this time that the mama rabbit screeched its creepy-ass sound, and drew everyone's attention to it.
  
  Devron climbed into Dhane's nook, laughing and eager to watch the chaos. Dhane seized the moment and tossed two more rabbits, aimed at points of retreat.
  
  Kevin caught the movement and glared at him. He yelled something to his party and Bexley turned, her murderous brown eyes seemed to spark with light.
  
  A bolt of energy exploded out from her arm, spiraling in the air.
  
  Oh, shit brownies! Dhane jumped to the side, pulling Devron with him, and much like that morning, completely underestimated his new and upgraded body as an arachnomancer assassin.
  
  They shot to the side and rolled a dozen feet, likely taking more damage than just getting zapped. Or . . . maybe not. The bush they had hidden behind wasn't much of a bush anymore.
  
  And now to the surprise of everyone, the mama rabbit grew twelve feet tall and roared a sound that reverberated deep within Dhane's chest. She lifted up on her hind legs, then stomped with enough force to shake the ground.
  
  "Hells, man, that's a big mama. . . ." Devron said.
  
  What Dhane hadn't expected was the effect the sound of a mama rabbit would have on the surrounding area. A horde of little fluff balls came storming in from all sides.
  
  Somewhere out there, Aaliyah shrieked, likely hightailing it back to the waypoint stone. There was a good chance she'd be emphatically against Dhane being the party leader tomorrow. . ..
  
  The three amazon warriors sprinted over, spears in hand, ready to help against whatever was happening, but then abruptly stopped. Out of nowhere, a tiny fluff ball of a rabbit slammed into the party leader's chest. She caught it, then as it started to transform, screamed and quickly handed it off to the next girl, who repeated the process.
  
  Kevin was all grins, running around enraged rabbits and throwing tiny ones. He chucked one so hard, like a football, it hit Devron in the chest and knocked him to the ground.
  
  The forest was an ensemble of dying screams, mostly from rabbits finding their inner rage. Little balls of white were thrown like in a snowball fight, if only those snowballs also grew twenty times their size and then tried to eat you.
  
  Challenger Terry appeared in a rush. He dismounted and cleaved an enraged rabbit in half before two others clobbered the man from behind. He lost his balance and disappeared beneath a small army of white fur.
  
  And now the amazon warriors were chucking rabbits. The leader managed to peg Kevin in the face and was laughing so hard, she didn't notice the approach of mama rabbit from behind. She was smashed into the ground, and two attacks later became a burst of white light.
  
  Dhane picked up two more rabbits and chucked them at Mr. Macho, who was already fighting against the swarm of beasts and losing. The tiny fluff balls bounced off his side and immediately started screaming bloody murder, distracting him.
  
  The guy turned in surprise, then his freckled face seemed to lose all shades of color. He pointed at Dhane and yelled something that was lost to all the screeching cries, then a rabbit knocked the red-head to the ground, and he was gone.
  
  Yup, he's going to be pissed. That thought zinged through Dhane with a little happy bounce. Trolls getting trolled. A little piece of justice to even the playing field.
  
  Of course, everyone seemed to have gotten roped into the little game, even . . . Challenger Terry. . . . That might bite Dhane in the ass. But could he be blamed? He didn't outright attack anyone, right? Just unleashed a herd of angry, giant rabbits on them. Yeah . . . perfectly innocent.
  
  There was something there about Mr. Macho's last moments of life, something odd that scratched at the back of Dhane's brain. He didn't seem to be screaming insults. In fact, it almost—not entirely, though almost—looked like he was trying to warn Dhane.
  
  The guy was literally surrounded by enraged rabbits and wanted to warn him? Ha! Whatever. Dhane turned to Devron, but he was gone. He must have had the same idea as Aaliyah and ran for the waypoint stone. Good for him.
  
  But at that revelation, Dhane noticed something rather strange: None of the rabbits were approaching him. That, and something was prying into his affinity from afar.
  
  That first rabbit they had fought sure didn't have a problem with trying to kill him, so why the hell were these rabbits acting strange? Did they just not see him? He hadn't moved for a few minutes, maybe a passive bonus in the assassin class allowed him to evade notice.
  
  With how everything exploded way out of control, he sort of just accepted the fact he'd die here. There was always a price to pay when seeking lady justice. But . . . if he could get away. . ..
  
  He took a slow step back, to not dispel whatever effect was helping him, and bumped up against something furry. Oh, shit brownies. There went the idea of escaping.
  
  He turned, drawing his Cobalin sword, for why not go out with a fight? Maybe he could kill one of these rabbits by himself and cash in on some sweet experience.
  
  Instead of a white, fluffy, and very upset rabbit, there was a leg—a furry black and orange leg. And above? A gigantic spider, nearly a dozen feet tall.
  
  He screamed a sound that was lost to all the other screams, mentally sending it away as he ran in the opposite direction, which just so happened to be swarmed with raging rabbits.