Immersion World

by Max Jager

  Sarah shot him a glare. "You're no better than Kaden."

  Mendelen shook his head. "You're seeing the absolute worst side of me, and you have only seen the best side of Kaden. I'm making the difficult decisions to save lives, he is not even trying to save anyone. Plus, I can admit when I'm wrong." He stated. "What I am doing right here, taking this city from the dragon, is wrong. It is morally reprehensible, I'm not going to sugar coat it or pretend I'm being the hero, I'm not. I am an honorable enough person to admit that this is wrong. That is why we need you, you can save this dragon's life. I don't want to do this, but I have to. Like I said, we can't afford to build a second city and the first isn't big enough for everyone. We won't survive without this city, and all those people are counting on me to keep them safe. I can't just leave the city to the dragon. So please, get out there and save this dragon's life, convince it to move to the new home we made for it. We are counting on you."

  Sarah looked down and thought about it for a moment. She was silent, and could hear the dragon roaring out in pain in the background as it fought with the soldiers. "I really don't like this." She finally spoke before Charley took flight and they flew after the dragon.

  "Neither do I." Mendelen answered, although she couldn't hear him. He turned and began walking towards the battlefield with the dragon, his specially chosen soldiers were doing well in this fight. Suddenly, Mendelen heard someone cough beside him. He spun around to face the source of the sound and caught a brief glimpse of a very tiny portal hovering in the air between where he and Sarah had been talking. The portal disappeared immediately after he saw it.

  Mendelen looked around the area and eventually spotted Kaden standing on a distant rooftop, with his ear pressed up against a bigger portal. He sighed, wondering how much of the conversation Kaden had been eavesdropping on. After a moment, Kaden noticed he was being watched and waved at Mendelen, before stepping through his portal and disappearing.

  The dragon reared up again and spewed a blast of flames at the four soldiers facing it. However before the flames got near any of them Em focused and created a see-through wall between the soldiers and the fire. The flames struck her barrier and dispersed, allowing the soldiers to move in.

  Amanda, Maya, and Drake were closing in with superhuman speeds, while Em trailed behind. Amanda's heavy armor didn't seem to affect her speed, but Em's was slowing her down. Amanda was the first person to reach the dragon. As she moved in she spewed out a blast of her own flames back at the beast.

  The dragon stepped back to get out of the flames and whipped its tail around at Amanda, striking the small woman in the chest and slamming her into the wall of a nearby home hard enough to crack the wall. But Amanda got back up, mostly unscratched, her heavy armor protected her skin and her bones were nearly as strong as steel. But, where she excelled in defense and speed, she lacked in the firepower needed to damage the beast. Her flames barely harmed the dragon.

  Seeing the others moving in the dragon immediately took flight, but as it lifted off the ground the space around it darkened and the dragon was yanked back down to the ground. Amanda had used her Aether: Kinetic magic to inverse the direction of the dragon's momentum. She couldn't hold it down however, that one spell took a lot out of her.

  Drake saw his opportunity and moved in. He focused and thick sheets of ice quickly began spreading over the dragon, pinning the creature to the ground. He moved in, alongside Maya. Drake reached the dragon first and stabbed his giant great sword into it's stomach. The scales absorbed most of the blow, but the sword left a shallow stab wound and caused the dragon to let out a ground shaking roar.

  The dragon retaliated by bursting into flames. The ice started to melt and the burst of flames burnt both Drake and Maya badly. Drake quickly backed off, but Maya moved in in spite of her burns. Maya's short sword began to glow and the more she ran the brighter the glow got, until she slashed it across the dragon's stomach. Her attack not only struck the beast with incredible speed, moving so fast it was difficult to see it, but it also struck with incredible force. That wasn't all, the blood that spilled from the wound was absorbed by her sword, and her burns almost instantly healed. She immediately backed away from the dragon, just in time to avoid another burst of flames.

  Em stopped beside Drake and her hand emitted a green glow. She placed her hand on Drake's shoulder and quickly began healing his burns.

  The dragon's third burst of flames freed it from the ice and it immediately took flight. As it flew past it spat a fireball down at Maya and Drake, forcing them both to dive out of the way. The fireball hit the ground and exploded, slightly burning them both just for being too close to it and leaving a small crater in the pavement where it hit. The dragon flew past them.

  In an instant Amanda focused and her signet ring flashed. Her body turned into a bright light, and then suddenly she grew and morphed into a massive red dragon, just a little smaller than the black dragon they were fighting. Amanda immediately took flight and rammed into the black dragon from behind before it looped around to strike at them again, grabbing onto it and slamming it into the ground. Amanda, in her dragon form, pinned the black dragon down two streets away from everyone else and began slashing her claws at its wings over and over again. Tearing the beast's wings apart.

  The dragon cried out in pain and headbutted Amanda, the horns on its head piercing through the scales on Amanda's head and severely damaging her skull. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" the dragon cried out.

  While Amanda was disorientated by the headbut the dragon threw her off itself, slamming her into a nearby building. As soon as Amanda was thrown off the dragon rolled onto its feet and pounced on Amanda, intent on both clawing her sides, and crushing her smaller dragon form under its own body weight. Its claws tore through her sides, and Amanda roared out in pain. Her injuries were bad enough to cancel her signet skill, she returned to her human form and fell to the ground. Unconscious.

  Drake, Maya, and Em were quickly catching up to the battlefield, but none of them could reach the beast. Drake immediately made ice chains spring out of the ground to grab onto the dragon's damaged wings, trying to pin it down again.

  "GO AWAY! YOU WON'T TAKE MY HOME FROM ME!" The dragon roared back, but only Sarah could understand it. The dragon opened its mouth and like a flamethrower it unleashed a stream of flames at Amanda, intent on finishing her off.

  Em was quick to act, her own signet flashed as a special barrier appeared around Amanda. This barrier did not break when it was struck, it held firm against the flames and protected Amanda from harm. However, Em herself shouted out in pain, the special barrier didn't block the flames like a regular barrier, it made them strike Em instead. however, almost immediately after she received the burns, they started slowly healing.

  "Alydrath!" Sarah and Charley landed near the big dragon. "Please, take our offer. We can stop this fighting, we can heal your wounds and just move you to a new home. We don't need to fight, they will kill you. Please, just give it up."

  "NO! THIS IS MY HOME! I CAN'T GIVE IT UP! YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS FROM ME!" The dragon roared back. It was struggling to break free of the ice chains, but with another burst of flames the chains weakened, allowing the dragon to jump backwards and snap itself free. It could tell its attacks were not working on Amanda, not with that strange barrier, so it changed targets. It began spitting fireball after fireball at Drake and Maya, forcing them to keep dodging and preventing them from moving closer. Each fireball exploded on impact, and each was coming closer and closer to striking one of them.

  Until suddenly one of Mendelen's clones appeared between his soldiers and the dragon. The clone was one of his unarmed ones with the undershield attached to it. All the fireballs the dragon tried to spit at them were sucked into the clone's undershield where they vanished.

  Mendelen walked onto the battlefield and looked around. "You're doing well guys. Let's get Amanda to a safer location, and finish this thing off."

  "Sarah is still trying to talk it down. Is she
still on our side?" Em spoke up.

  Mendelen nodded "I know, I told her to keep trying. It's in everyone's best interest to end this without killing the dragon." He explained. He focused and suddenly two clones of himself that were heavily armored, carrying spears and massive tower shields, appeared beside Amanda. Then a third unarmed clone with his undershield spell appeared and picked Amanda up. The three of them quickly started to retreat, carrying Amanda away from the dragon.

  "It's easier to just kill it." Em countered. She watched as the dragon reared up and spat a fireball at Amanda and the escaping clones, but the two armored clones blocked the fireball with their massive shields.

  "Of course," Mendelen answered "but that's not the morally right thing to do. At this rate we'll have to kill it though. Doesn't seem like it is going to give in."

  While the dragon was distracted Mendelen moved in. He grabbed his chain hook and threw it at the dragon, hooking it onto the softer skin of what remained of the dragon's wing. As soon as the hook touched the dragon Mendelen's signet lit up. He began rapidly draining the dragon's stamina.

  The dragon growled and pulled its wing upwards, yanking Mendelen off the ground. As Mendelen was thrown through the air the dragon lunged at him, trying to swallow him. But at almost the last moment the chain suddenly shortened and pulled Mendelen out of the way. The dragon didn't see where Mendelen went, but it knew it missed. It quickly looked around and spotted Drake and Maya moving in again.

  The dragon spun around whipping its tail at the two of them, while also yanking the chain Mendelen was holding onto again to keep him off the ground.

  Maya's sword suddenly began to emit a dark, blood red glow. As the tail came towards them she stood her ground and slashed her sword at the tail. The sword swung with so much force that it sliced clean through, severing the tail in one quick and effortless blow. However, this wasn't an ordinary spell. This time, a deep slash suddenly appeared across her back. Maya shouted in pain and dropped to one knee, but quickly got back up.

  The dragon screeched out in pain and stumbled a few feet back, bumping into one of the houses and knocking down the wall.

  "Maya! Watch it with the blood magic, you're going to kill yourself!" Drake called out.

  "I only used one blood magic spell, the rest of my attacks are all normal magic. I'm fine." Maya called back. She glanced back to see that Amanda had been carried over to Em, and Em was now healing her. She wished blood magic wounds could be healed, it would make things so much easier if she could just stab something and let her signet heal the wound. But blood magic wounds were special, nothing could heal them, she'd be stuck with that wound for at least a week.

  The dragon was struggling to stand. Due to Mendelen's signet sapping it's stamina, exhaustion was setting in fast, and blood loss was becoming a problem. It felt Mendelen standing on its back now, and the direct contact was draining its energy even faster. It had to find some way to break away from the man before it became too exhausted to keep fighting.

  Mendelen had drained so much energy from the dragon, he focused and summoned an armored clone beside him on the dragon's back. Then another, and another. Their armor was very heavy and Mendelen was summoning so many of them on the dragon's back that it was quickly becoming overwhelmed. The beast was struggling to stand, and the extreme exhaustion was not helping.

  The dragon focused and was about to burst into flames again to burn them all away, but in an instant Mendelen activated his dark undershield. The black circle appeared under his feet, on the dragon's back, and because the dragon was in contact with the circle it could no longer use any of its magic. Including all of it's fire attacks.

  "Leave me alone!" The dragon whimpered as it weakly tried to shake them off.

  "Alydrath! Just give up, stop fighting!" Sarah called out. "We can heal you and bring you to the new home! Just stop fighting, please!"

  "This is MY HOME! You can't take my home from me!" The dragon rolled over and slammed its back into the wall of another nearby house, crushing most of the clones. The wounded clones all disappeared, and the rest fell off the dragon. But Mendelen managed to stay on top of it.

  Mendelen used the last of the energy he stole from the dragon to summon another massive wave of his armored clones. Thirty more of them appeared on top of the dragon and this time they all stabbed their spears down into the dragon as soon as they appeared. Most of them took several tries to break through the scales and stab into the dragon, but they struck the scales as many times as they needed for them to pierce the beast.

  Each spear caused the dragon to whimper in pain, it was too exhausted and weighed down to get back up. The dragon was stuck lying on its side. "Get off me! Leave me alone!" the dragon weakly roared out as it began trying to bite any of the clones close enough to its head to reach.

  In addition to the clones, Drake made ice chains reach up from the ground to start binding the dragon. Ensuring that it wouldn't be able to get back up.

  Mendelen sighed when he noticed that it was still trying to fight. He walked across the dragon's body towards the head.

  "Give me time to negotiate with her!" Sarah called out.

  "Negotiation is over, it clearly won't listen to reason." Mendelen answered. He walked across the dragon, stumbling a few times as it struggled under his feet, desperately trying to shake him off but not having the strength left to do it. As he reached the dragon's head he broke one of the scales off, then stabbed his sword through the back of its head. The dragon struggled for a moment longer, before going limp.

  Mendelen made his clones jump off the dragon, then his clones all began marching down the street to start clearing the goblins and spiders from the city. Mendelen himself jumped off the dragon. "I'm sorry Sarah, we tried."

  "Estellese would have tried harder." Sarah scolded.

  "I disagree, we tried pretty hard. Amanda almost died. That didn't need to happen, we could have ended this much sooner." Mendelen pointed out.

  Sarah said nothing. She knew he didn't know what the dragon was saying, she knew he didn't have to listen to the pain in her voice, and she knew he'd never understand what he did. Charley knew what to do, he flew away with Sarah on his back. She no longer wanted to be here.

  Mendelen sighed and shook his head, then turned back to his soldiers. "You guys earned a break. I will signal for the rest of the soldiers to do their part now. So either rest here or head back to the village. Maya are you alright? I saw a blood magic spell go off."

  "I'm fine, thanks." Maya replied. "Not used to fighting with a team, saw the tail incoming and acted off instinct to protect myself."

  "That's fine, as long as you're alright." Mendelen replied. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a black figure on a distant rooftop. He looked over to see that it was Kaden, again, watching them. He sighed and shook his head, muttering under his breath. "Of course he just watches and doesn't help."

  Mendelen gave the signal to the large group of soldiers that were surrounding the battlefield. As soon as they saw him they split up into groups of six and began marching through the abandoned city. Their goal was to drive the goblins, giant spiders, and whatever other monsters were residing here out of the city, and to kill the ones who would not leave.

  "Hey, Mendelen." Drake asked as he walked up beside the man. "I know you have a reason for it, but I'm curious. You can summon clones of yourself right? Why not use those to scout ahead of the soldiers. I saw you send a large group of them out once the dragon was taken down. Why not just clear the city with the clones?"

  "Those clones take an excessive amount of energy to summon. I was only able to summon that many because of the energy I stole from the dragon." Mendelen answered. "Under normal circumstances, I'd only be able to get five or six by myself. If I went for more I'd end up exhausting myself too much to fight."

  "Ah, I see. So where did you learn that spell anyways? It's pretty unique, I haven't seen spells like that before." Drake curiously asked.

  "After learning
that my signet let me steal my opponent's energy through physical contact, I went out seeking spells that required massive amounts of energy to upkeep. Spells that would be too costly on energy for any normal person to use. Initially I was looking for some big, explosive spell to quickly tear down an enemy." Mendelen explained as he held out his hand, and suddenly a very tiny bomb appeared in his hand. He then threw it at a nearby house, the explosion it made was just as tiny as the bomb. It let out a pop and a flash of light, slightly burning part of the wall around where it struck. "However, when I spoke to the fairies about it that was pretty much all I got. The bomb was meant to be a group spell, one person summons it, everyone pours their energy into it to make it bigger and stronger, than the summoner sets it off. I can do all that by myself by stealing energy from others."

  Drake nodded and waited for Mendelen to continue.

  "Since the fairies didn't have any high energy spells like I was looking for, they helped me to create my own spells. It was costly of course, but in the end I got a small arsenal of summon spells. Which I actually ended up liking more than my original idea of getting one powerful spell that would just blast my opponent to oblivion. I can use these much more strategically." Mendelen answered.