Barely an hour had passed since Barrett "Bear" Sterling had discovered his game menu and sent out his first wave of orders. The roaring chaos of Austin hadn’t subsided, it had just changed tone; the wail of sirens was now overlaid by the rattle of scattered helicopters and the distant bangs that sounded like gunfire. Barrett sat in his leather chair, oversized smartphone in hand, and followed the first reports of "strange creatures" in other metropolitan areas. He had the menu of his "scholar" employee, Miss Albright, projected onto his screens, and with a grin he followed the rapidly increasing "Coins" figures generated by his instruction to "secure resources".

Then it hit him. Not the portal itself, which manifested itself with a sickening smacking sound over the highway intersection on the outskirts of the city, but the desperate radio call from one of his security teams. "Mr. Sterling! Damn... critters! They come from... from the air! And our weapons... they don’t work!" Barrett’s smug grin froze. "What the hell?!" he yelled into the microphone as his gaze fell out the window. A glistening crack pulsed above the highway that snaked through his lands. And out of it they crawled. Brown, slippery, insectoid, the size of a sheepdog. The same kind of creatures he’d seen in the reports.

He saw a SWAT team securing the intersection open fire. MP bursts tore the air, but the bullets slipped through the creatures and missed. Panic gripped the emergency services. The monsters pounced on the unprotected civilians who were still trapped in their stuck cars. "Belinda! Miss Albright!" yelled Barrett, his eyes fixed with a mixture of rage and sheer fear, which he immediately tried to suppress. "Where are the damn fighters! The warriors I commanded?! Send them forward! Now!"

Belinda, who was in the corner of the office trying to get the satellite phone working, winced. Miss Albright, who was still poring over data, looked up, startled. "Mr. Sterling, the first squads are on their way to the secured warehouses..." stammered Miss Albright. "Not to the warehouses! Over here!" thundered Barrett. He snatched an oversized golf trophy from his desk. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this junk! I need weapons that work!"

Three of the insectoid beasts, attracted by the chaos, crashed through the large panoramic windows of the penthouse office. Glass shattered, the smell of dust and rotting flesh filled the room. Barrett’s face turned ashen. That was too close. Much too close. "Fight! Fight for me!" he roared, panic crawling up his throat. Two of his security guards, beefy men he had instructed to choose warriors, stood hesitantly, their Level 1 armor still alien on their bodies. They hesitated. "Move!" barked Barrett, and then, with an involuntary, ugly impulse, he shoved Miss Albright and Belinda, who were frightened behind him, forward. "Protection! Protect me! I am the leader! I’m the one organizing all this!"

Belinda cried out as she stumbled. Miss Albright barely caught herself, her gaze on Barrett an expression of horror, disgust and a terrible realization. The two warriors now rushed forward, driven by the sight of their panicked boss and the direct threat. Their improvised swords, materialized with a pale glow, struck the insectoid creatures. A yelp. A crack. The monsters staggered, disintegrated into smoke. Barrett stood there trembling, his tall figure now strangely small. He was panting, wiping the sweat from his brow. "You see! Efficiency! That’s how you do it!" he gasped, the golf trophy still firmly in his hand. The world was now a battlefield. And as long as others fought for him, he would be the one to reap the rewards.

Next Chapter: The Beasts’ Chessboard