by Dante Steel
"Yeah."
Another woman scowled. Her skin was blacker than black, which Gary found beautiful. There was something about this game that was making him appreciate women more and more.
The woman continued, "He killed my brother yesterday. Level one hundred and fifty-three! Unprovoked, mind you. And he didn't just kill my brother once. No. He killed him again and again, seeking him out wherever he was. It was as if he knew where my brother was and when. He killed my brother so many times that he's now level fifty and refusing to play at all."
"That's insane," Gary said.
"I heard that he killed one woman so many times that she has to start a new character," the guy in the red cape said. "She kept losing levels to the point that she went all the way down to zero."
Gary grimaced and gnashed his teeth.
"He has to be stopped," the first woman said. She banged a fist into her other palm, and the distinct sound of metal on metal sounded, albeit muffled slightly by her gloves. "People like him ruin games for the real players. He has to be taught a lesson."
"Haven't others gone up against him and failed?" Gary asked.
"You're a pansy? Figures." The metal woman drew back as if gearing up to punch him.
"Metala, stop it," the guy said.
She lowered her fist. "I told you he was a waste of time," she complained. "His stats look decent, but he's not a high enough level. He's not even a megahero yet."
"There are so few telekinesis players," the man said. "One would be handy in a fight."
"I understand that," Gary said, glowering right back at the woman. "But I don't want to fight another gamer unless I have to."
"He's going to ruin this game for everyone including you," Metallica warned. "You're going to regret this."
"I sure hope you don't," Gary said softly.
The woman's sneer would curdle milk, but Gary held his ground. The caped man nodded to him, and the group marched away. A superhero team. Gary was all the more determined to reach that rank, knowing he was behind the times. Those players must've started the game immediately and trained hard from the get-go. Gary had floundered at first and for a long while after. He had found his groove, though, and he wasn't about to slow down, especially not for a suicide run and definitely not without his own team.
"I wish you the best," Gary called.
The one woman gave him the finger. Not one of the group of five turned around to acknowledge him.
Not a megahero yet, huh? That seemed like a good enough plan to Gary. He had to complete more and more quests to gain that status.
At least the quests were becoming more engaging. Gary did a complicated one that involved finding legendary armor from a sarcophagus. When he located it, the mummy came to life. At first, he thought he had to kill the mummy, but then the mummy instructed him how to find the helm. A knight's skull was trapped in the helm in another location, and that knight's ghost appeared to tell him where the lance could be found.
The lance crumbled to dust in Gary's hand, which went along with the whole using fewer weapons and more reliance of powers. Wait. He could've used his power to wield the weapon. Damn it. As much as Gary was using his ability, he still didn't think to use it right off the bat. He had become conditioned to use his fists and weapons and shields from training so long with them. If he had been like all of the other gamers and had to use both as he leveled up, maybe he wouldn't be so prone to using his hands versus his mental powers.
His telekinesis grew with every time he used the power. He could now lift and fling boulders. He could also make himself fly. If he were to square off against Smaug, would he be blown back by his wind power? Or would his own power be enough to keep him in the air? Most likely the former, but Gary was going to train and do his best to ensure that the latter would be the case.
The next quest Gary embarked on was just as involved. A dragon had been stealing virgins from a town for centuries. Yes, a different town. Gary was doing his best to spread out and learn the layout of the entire world within the game, but he had to be cautious too because he could not run the risk of locating Smaug's lair. He avoided mountains because Smaug wouldn't be far from his dragon, and Gary figured a dragon of that size would need a massive cave to live in.
Anyhow, the town leader, a stout man with one arm and a burnt right side of his face, had begged and pleaded with Gary to save their ladies.
Gary smiled and cracked a joke. "Line up the virgins. I'll fix your problem in a few days."
Needless to say, the town leader wasn't impressed, and the number of rupas he offered was cut in half. Gary apologized, but the man still did not raise the price. Gary winced, not because of the less money but because that kind of comment had been something he would have disparaged before he had played the game. He was getting sucked into a world where there were little morals. Maybe it was only because the first town he had stayed in was mostly for beginners, but at some of the other places he had visited recently, he had witnessed gamers fucking wenches right there in the tavern for everyone to see. Elena had been with him the one time, and he had taken her by the elbow and turned right around.
"I thought we were going to have an ale," she had protested.
"Not tonight. I mean, you can have all the ale you want in the comfort of your home."
"I never drink alone," she protested.
"I'm with you," he had promised.
If she understood his deeper meaning, she did not comment on it and instead said, "Do you have something to drink at your place?"
He had hesitated. If he came back, where would he live? Would he be homeless? No. Jorge might be pissed Gary hadn't confided in him and told him the truth immediately, but Jorge would give him a place to live even if he would try and fail to give him the silent treatment. Or maybe Nicoletta would let him stay with her. Did she live at home still? Gary wasn't sure on that count. Damn it. He still had so much more to learn about them, yet the nuggets in their life surrounding the real world only highlighted the differences between them and their lives, and a few nights, Gary had drunk himself into a stupor from depression.
Regardless, if he lived with Jorge or Nicoletta, he figured there would be alcohol on hand, so he had answered, "Yep."
"Okay then." Elena's smile had been so brilliant despite the surrounding darkness of the growing night that Gary had dropped a kiss on her forehead. He wasn't at all surprised that he had another sex dream featuring her as the star that night.
But Elena wouldn't be smiling if she had overheard his comment even though it had been meant as a joke. Even more than that, he regretted the comment just because he knew that some things weren't meant to be joked about. The game was changing him, yes, but Gary didn't want to become someone he hated. He wouldn't do anything in the game that he wouldn't do in real life. Considering he wouldn't have to worry about killing dragons in real life, he figured he was safe doing that. After all, attacking anything that was trying to kill him was self-defense.
The town leader pointed out where the dragon always flew off, toward a vast plateau about a day's walk away. Gary gathered his supplies and, wearing the legendary chest plate and helm with its silver inlaid with gold design, set off.
When he reached the plateau, Gary realized why the dragon was stealing virgins. The dragon was a mother dragon, and she was using the virgins as a food source for her dragons that were anything but babies. Five nearly fully grown dragons plus the mama dragon.
Gary wasn't about to back away from a fight like this. He wasn't a newbie gamer anymore. Gary was powerful whether he used a sword, axe, or lance, although he never had perfected using a bow and arrow. He hadn't needed to because now, he could fight from afar with his telekinesis.
By spending some of his nights reading about the histories of towns and anything else he could get a hand on in the taverns and the one library he had discovered during his adventures, Gary had learned about herbs and their properties. One herb could be used to create a bomb essentially. The only issue wa
s that fire had to be added to the herb mixture, and then the bomb immediately went boom! There was no way to throw it. There just wasn't time.
But the dragons might handle that for him.
Gary made a habit of keeping some of that herb on him at all times. Gaseous explodierius. The black leaves with three dark green spots only grew in a swamp to the southwest. A lot of bog monsters lived there, but most were not amphibious and needed to breathe air, so all Gary had to do was to use his mind to keep them under the swamp water long enough for them to drown, and he could pluck as many leaves from the herb as he wanted.
The leaves alone weren't enough for the bomb. Gary had to add some potions he bought from an NPC wizard. It still irked him that there were mages and wizards in a game featuring superheroes, but nothing had been done on that point so far, and clearly, that wouldn't change. There was no point in crying over spilled magic.
Gary carefully coated each leaf in the potion. The more drink used, the stronger the explosion would be, but this particular potion—annhiliarius—was not cheap at all. Still, six dragons meant that Gary needed huge explosions. In fact, he used up almost all of his leaves and every drop of his potion supply.
Now, he tucked three leaves into a ball, almost knitting them together. His fingers tingled with heat from the potion, a residual glowing green on his fingertips.
All of this, Gary did at the base of the plateau, in its shadow so the dragons wouldn't see him. Tapping into his power, no longer needing to use anything other than his mind without the aid of emotion, Gary lifted the first bomb and sent it into the air. With his eyes closed, he could almost see the grass at the top of the plateau, the bones and discarded clothes from the virgins, and the five dragons lying in sleep.
Using more of his power, he whipped the bomb ball at the nearest dragon, hitting the beast square in the nose and allowing the ball to fall to the ground. The dragon peeked open its eyes, shifted its head, and went back to sleep.
Already, Gary was sending up more bombs, and he used them to smack the same dragon in the head before bouncing off and hitting the others. He didn't want to risk having one bomb go off too close to the others and risk having some of the dragons unaffected by the blasts.
The smallest dragon woke first and yawned. Gary could feel sweat pouring down his face. Being able to see like this from afar was a part of his power that he was only just tapping into, and it required a lot of willpower. He had started to dump a ton of his points into it as soon as he gained his superpower, but Gary still felt like he was behind the eight ball there, too.
When nothing happened, no explosions, Gary climbed the side of the plateau and just peeked his head over the rise. The dragon was nudging the ball as if it was nothing more than a toy.
Gary flicked his finger, and the ball snapped against the dragon's snout as hard as Gary could muster.
The dragon roared loud enough to wake his siblings and mother and belched fire at the ball, which Gary had nudged close enough to another dragon. A brilliant array of blue and purple flames burst out of the bomb, and that dragon's wings caught on fire.
Gary had to do his best to keep the dragon's wings pinned to his body so he couldn't flap them to blow out the flames. Another dragon took to the sky to blow out the fire, but the wings were too damaged by that point.
The dragon with the burned wings was furious and let out more fire. Gary whipped a bomb into the trajectory, and the explosion was widespread enough to encompass the dragon in the air. That dragon tried to pump his wings, but Gary forced him to plummet to the ground. The ground quaked, and the balls flew into the air. Gary couldn't see through the cloud of dust and dirt flying everywhere. He coughed. His lungs were burning from the smoke, and his eyes were watering. He could hardly see with either his actual eyes or his mind’s eye. This was taking a lot out of him.
Another bomb went off, but Gary couldn't see the outcome of it because one of the dragons was taking flight right near him. The gust of wind generated from the beast's wings was enough to knock Gary down from his hold on the side of the plateau. He fell flat on his back and immediately rolled to lessen the force of impact. Groaning, he reached out with his mind and soared another bomb at the dragon. He didn't think he would be able to cause it to move fast enough to explode, but then a blast of fire singed the air straight for the ball.
Nicoletta was standing beside him, her face grim. She nodded to him and climbed up the plateau side. Gary rushed beside her.
"There are three more bombs," he said.
"Line them up into position, and I'll let it rip," she said.
Once before, they had tag teamed to use these bombs against a Cerberus-type boss.
Gary's strength was fading fast, but he moved the first bomb to be directly between two of the dragons. She lit it up, and the two dragons went down.
So far, two dead, one injured, and the one flying Gary wasn't certain.
The one dragon wholly and completely healed ate one of the last two bombs. Gary smirked. This dragon wasn't that smart and promptly exploded. Guts and entrails exploded everywhere, and Gary ducked down in time for a chunk of intestines to fly above his head.
The injured dragon laid down his head as if to submit or give up, but Nicoletta climbed the rest of the way onto the plateau and blasted the dragon with enough heat that he turned into one dragon-sized ball of fire. He took a step, another, and collapsed, dead or near enough to death. Yes, dead. The experience points from the joint killed registered.
"Come on. We have to kill the last one." Gary mentally grabbed the last bomb.
The dragon was slowly flying away, the flight somewhat lopsided. The mama dragon. She blew out fire blast after fire blast, torching the fields. Her grief had to be immense. That was if a dragon monster in a game could feel grief. Gary wasn't confident anymore what exactly was real and what wasn't.
Nicoletta wasn't even breathing hard. "Go ahead and send it up. I have just enough fire to light it."
Gary nodded, but he was so gassed that he couldn't run anymore. He tried to send the bomb ball straight toward the dragon, but it began to unravel.
"Damn it," he swore, trying to reforge it. He was too exhausted to use his power.
"Don't worry," Nicoletta said. She held out her hands, and a burst of fire went straight for the lowest leaf, to the next highest, and the third, mini bombs exploding and lending strength to her blast that caught the mama dragon's tail. She wailed and roared, her body twitching as she fell to the ground.
A host of other gamers rushed over to fight the dragon and still away some of their experience points, but Gary didn't care. Nicoletta had curled into a ball, clutching her hands to her chest.
"What's wrong?" he asked her, worried.
She stared up at him. Tears streamed down her face, and his heart ached.
"Tell me what to do," he said, feeling helpless. He had never seen Nicoletta so vulnerable before, and it scared him.
Nicoletta slowly brought her arms down from her chest and held out her hands, palms up. He saw nothing wrong with them. The scar she had in real life wasn't on her palm, not in the game.
"They burn," she whispered. "The fire, it never hurt before, but it burns so much. I-I can't."
He knew she was going to log off, and he gripped her, holding her close.
"You are one of the strongest and bravest women I know," he told her. "The pain, it isn't real. It's fake. It's in your mind."
She shook her head and tried to push him away with the back of her hands. "No. I feel it. It's there!"
"You only think you feel it," he said gently. "Trust me. I'm here. I'm real. Look at me. Don't think about the fire. Not unless you think about the fire we create."
Nicoletta rolled her eyes and tried to pull free again, but he wouldn't release his hold on her. "Not now," she snapped.
"I just meant our connection. Not sexual. We're friends, aren't we? Maybe more than that too. I've been scared to talk—that's not what you need right now. Damn it, Nicoletta,
let me help you."
"You can't." She sniffed. "I feel it," she whispered. "Through the game, through my gloves. My hands in real life. I took off the gloves, and I swear, my scar, my burn, it's bigger."
"I can't see that. I wish I could trace your burn, to kiss the skin."
"What? Why?" She jerked back, startled, and because it wasn't out of fear, he allowed her to move away. "That skin is damaged. It's ruined."
"It's imperfect, yes, but it's a part of you," he said simply.
Tenderly, slowly, his gaze on her, he lifted her right hand and kissed her palm and then did the same to her left hand. Then, he rifled through his bag. Although he had a potion that would help salve a burn, he instead opted for some other herbs that he laid on her palms and used to bandage them.
"That should help to take the sting away," he said, hoping that would be the case. It would work with a real burn, but hers… Actually, who was he to say that she hadn't been burned? She had said her fire was nearly out. Maybe all superheroes had their limits. Maybe they couldn't have unlimited power.
Or maybe superheroes didn't have limits, and they did because they were merely heroes.
Tears once more trickled down her face. She gently wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thank you," she murmured.
"Anything for you. Come on. There's a town nearby."
"The one that asked for us to kill the dragons?"
"You betcha."
"Still playing the game, huh?" she asked, rolling her eyes.
"We can get food or drink. We can ignore the quest and come back to the town leader when you're up to it."
"I-I'll be okay," she said.
They headed back toward the town, walking around the still-burning dragon carcass. After a moment, Gary had to speak up. He couldn't handle the depressing silence, not that his question was going to lighten the mood any.
"Has this happened before?"
She nodded. "Not all the time. And there's no rhyme or reason to it. It just causes… I don't know, maybe a panic attack? I can't stop thinking about when I was burned, and…" Nicoletta shrugged, staring off at a distance.