by Raelyn Drake
A deep rumbling caused the pebbles on the bridge to dance.
They all looked with horror to the end of the bridge where they had started. Piece after piece collapsed into the chasm below. The air giant had weakened the bridge and the explosion had finished it off. Now the whole structure was collapsing.
“Run!” E1_Kapitan shouted as another piece of bridge crumbled and fell.
They all turned and ran as fast as they could for the other end of the bridge.
E1_Kapitan reached the snowy ledge on the far side, then D4rkHunter. Em3ra1d was close behind them. She had never been so thankful to be back on solid ground.
“Guys!” A panicked shout came from behind them.
Em3ra1d turned to see Rox_Ur_Sox still running for the end of the bridge. Weighed down by her heavy armor and weapon, she was barely keeping ahead of the collapsing bridge. The rock was crumbling away beneath her feet.
She’s not going to make it. Em3ra1d tried to think of a spell to save her, but she was too low on Power after using Fireball. The bridge collapsed beneath Rox_Ur_Sox and she was falling. E1_Kapitan lunged for the edge of the chasm, sticking his staff out to extend his reach. Rox_Ur_Sox’s fingers missed it by inches, and she fell into the chasm, her scream echoing.
ROX_UR_SOX: DEATH 2 OF 3
Unable to do anything else, the rest of the party flopped down on the snowy ground to rest, still breathing heavily. They waited for Rox_Ur_Sox to respawn and for their Health and Power crystals to recharge.
“Tell me something, Em,” D4rkHunter said as Rox_Ur_Sox materialized again. “How have you made it this far in life without gaming?”
“Were video games banned in your home?” E1_Kapitan suggested. “I know my abuela and I had a hard time convincing my mom that video games wouldn’t melt my brain.”
“How about you, Roxy?” D4rkHunter asked Rox_Ur_Sox.
“Pfft!” she exclaimed. “The only thing keeping me from gaming twenty-four seven is arguing with my sister over whose turn it is.” She shrugged. “Aside from, y’know, real-world stuff like school and sleeping.”
D4rkHunter looked back at Em3ra1d expectantly.
“I guess I don’t know why,” Em3ra1d said. “None of my friends play video games, and I’m always super busy with swim practice or homework.”
D4rkHunter grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “But you love gaming now, right?”
Em3ra1d rolled her eyes. “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” she laughed. “For now, let’s just focus on important things like defeating the dragon.”
“Agreed,” said E1_Kapitan. “Okay guys, this is the Boss Battle. We’ve totally got this. Just remember to be careful, though. We’ve all had two deaths, and the third one is permanent. Nobody needs to be a hero; don’t do anything stupid or impulsive. We can just hang back and chip away at the dragon. Between the four of us, we should be able to do a lot of damage. And then we’ll rescue the princess!”
Rox_Ur_Sox nodded and stood up. “Guess we should head for that cave, then.”
“First, I need to use this,” said Em3ra1d, holding up her key. They found her chest buried in the snow that drifted on the mountain ledge and unlocked it with her key. The key vanished with a gust of wind that blew flurries of snow around them.
But there wasn’t a new spell book inside. Just a scroll.
A single word appeared above the chest:
WISH
Em3ra1d eagerly unrolled the scroll to learn more about the spell.
The paper was completely blank.
Chapter 13
They crept cautiously into the cave, weapons at the ready in case the dragon was lying in wait for them. It was bitterly cold, and their breath hung in the air in puffs of frost. Every surface in the cave glittered. Pillars of ice supported an arched ceiling.
“It looks more like a medieval throne room than a cave,” Em3ra1d remarked, keeping her voice low.
“Does anyone see the princess?” Rox_Ur_Sox whispered.
“Look!” D4rkHunter said.
Instead of a throne, a tall block of ice dominated the center of the room. As they got closer, Em3ra1d_with_3nvy gasped. Through the ice, she could see the princess’s shiny hair framing her face in perfect ringlets. She was frozen inside the block.
“How do we get her out of there?” asked Em3ra1d.
“Don’t even think about using your Fireball spell!” Rox_Ur_Sox smirked. “We’re supposed to rescue the princess, not barbecue her.”
“Oh, shut up,” Em3ra1d said, grimacing at her. “What’s your plan then?”
In answer, Rox_Ur_Sox took her Volcanic War Hammer and touched it gently to the top of the ice block. The hammer glowed red and the ice began to melt from the top of the block down. It kept melting, even when Rox_Ur_Sox removed her war hammer.
Within moments, the ice had melted enough to uncover the princess’s face.
Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing dark, sparkling eyes. “Oh, thank goodness you’ve come!” she said in a breathy, high-pitched voice.
“Yeah, we’re pretty thankful we made it this far too.” D4rkHunter wasn’t looking at the princess but instead kept scanning the cave uneasily for the dragon.
The ice had melted to the princess’s waist now. She was wearing a flowing white dress covered in ruffles and shimmery gauze.
“Not many people make it this far,” the princess cooed. “You must indeed be brave and noble adventurers!”
The princess seemed unconcerned about the dragon, but Em3ra1d’s skin prickled with goose bumps from more than just the cold. Am I missing something? She looked from the mouth of the cave back to the princess. The ice was pooling around the princess’s ankles now. The princess smiled sweetly, her eyes light and twinkling. Didn’t her eyes used to be darker?
“Mmm,” the princess sighed, stretching and shaking the last bits of ice off her dress. “That’s better.”
Nothing happened. There was no sign of a dragon, but the game didn’t seem to be over.
“Is that it?” Rox_Ur_Sox asked the princess. “Did the game glitch? I thought we were supposed to rescue you from a dragon.”
The princess giggled with a sound of tinkling icicles. “No, silly, the quest was to release the princess and defeat the dragon. I never said I was the one who needed rescuing.”
There was something wrong with the princess’s eyes. They continued to grow paler and paler. White spread across her eyes and pupils like frost covering a windowpane, until her eyes had lost all their color.
“Oh no,” Rox_Ur_Sox groaned, backing away. “This can’t be good.”
They all ran back to the entrance of the ice cave, but bars of ice blocked the way. Rox_Ur_Sox hit them with her Volcanic War Hammer, but even though it had melted the block of ice moments before, it didn’t seem to have any effect on the bars. E1_Kapitan tried and failed to pull the bars apart with vines from his staff.
“Going so soon?” the princess growled.
They turned just in time to see the princess grow and morph into a giant ice dragon.
“The princess is the dragon?!” E1_Kapitan’s eyes widened. “Not cool, man! Not cool.” He used his Shadow Staff to turn invisible.
“Thank you for releasing me,” the dragon hissed.
“Don’t mention it!” D4rkHunter snapped and shot an arrow at the dragon’s chest. The electric arrow left a small scorch mark, but the dragon hardly seemed to notice.
Em3ra1d didn’t waste any time. “Fireball!”
A ball of green flame flared from her hand and shot toward the dragon. The dragon made a sound somewhere between a roar and a scream, staggering backward as the green flames scorched it and scarred its smooth hide with red burns and gray ash.
But the dragon was still standing.
“It’s the Boss Battle,” D4rkHunter shouted. “It’s not going to be as easy to defeat as the other creatures.”
“Those guys were easy?” Em3ra1d said with a nervous laugh.
D4rkHunter dashed forward, anothe
r arrow ready to fire from his Spark Bow. Rox_Ur_Sox slammed her Volcanic War Hammer down onto the dragon’s tail. E1_Kapitan was still invisible, but thorny vines appeared and began to wrap around the dragon’s legs.
Em3ra1d kept her distance. She could cast her spells from anywhere, and she didn’t have armor to protect her. She was of more use to the other players back here.
She waited for her blue Power crystal to recharge enough to use Fireball again. She tapped the blue Power crystal impatiently with her finger, as though that would somehow get it to recharge faster.
The dragon wasn’t defeated yet, but it was looking rough from all of their combined attacks. If she could just hit it with Fireball again, she felt confident that would finish it off.
Then the dragon roared with a sound like an avalanche. It opened its mouth wide, and a blast of ice and hail came rushing out. The icy breath spread out it in a cloud, enveloping Rox_Ur_Sox and D4rkHunter. It even covered E1_Kapitan and turned him visible again. The icy breath stopped just short of Em3ra1d.
The other players weren’t moving. Em3ra1d’s stomach lurched as she realized the dragon’s breath had frozen them into statues of glittering ice.
With a swish of its tail, the dragon knocked the three ice statues over. They fell to the ground and broke into jagged chunks of ice before disappearing into pixels. Em3ra1d bit back a scream.
ROX_UR_SOX: DEATH 3 OF 3 GAME OVER
D4RKHUNTER: DEATH 3 OF 3 GAME OVER
EL_KAPITAN: DEATH 3 OF 3 GAME OVER
Chapter 14
Everyone else was gone, and they wouldn’t be respawning this time. Em3ra1d was all alone in the game.
She ducked behind an ice pillar, heart pounding, hoping the dragon hadn’t seen her. She just needed to hide from the dragon until she could think of a plan.
The dragon laughed. “I know there’s one of you left. Now . . . which pillar are you hiding behind?”
Em3ra1d paged through her spell book, her fingers numb and clumsy with cold. She probably only had one chance to finish off the dragon before it got her.
“I’ll find you,” the dragon said. It sounded bored, as if the battle was already over. “There’s no point in hiding from me.”
She could hear the dragon’s tail swishing over the ice as it stalked its prey. Its steps sounded slow and deliberate. Her stomach sloshed with fear.
Panicked thoughts raced through her mind. What if she used Fireball again and it wasn’t enough to kill the dragon? She wouldn’t have a chance for her blue Power crystal to recharge before the dragon got her with its ice breath. Game over.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” the dragon hummed, a sound like the slushy patter of sleet against a window.
She felt the blank spell scroll in her pocket. The message had said “wish.” But what does that mean? How am I supposed to use it? She could hear the dragon getting closer.
The dragon’s head appeared around the pillar, one large glittering white eye staring at her. “Found you,” the dragon said with a low cackle.
“Wish!” screamed Em3ra1d, desperate to at least try something. “I wish my friends were back in the game!”
D4rkHunter, Rox_Ur_Sox, and E1_Kapitan respawned immediately in various places around the cave.
Instead of draining Em3ra1d’s Power, casting Wish had recharged her Power crystal. It was now glowing bright blue.
“Fireball!” she yelled as loud as she could before the dragon had time to react.
The ball of green flame whooshed into the dragon’s face. The dragon reared back on its hind legs, and three of D4rkHunter’s arrows lodged in its belly, sparking with purple lightning. Rox_Ur_Sox swung her war hammer at the dragon’s tree-trunk-sized hind legs. The war hammer glowed bright red and made a sizzling sound as it made contact with the ice dragon’s scales. E1_Kapitan shot thorn darts from his staff. The darts hit the dragon’s wings, shredding them into ribbons.
With a loud cracking sound like cold glass breaking in hot water, the dragon disappeared in a shower of snowflake-shaped pixels.
VICTORY
Rox_Ur_Sox whooped with joy and hugged Em3ra1d tight. “Good work, n00b!” she said, smiling broadly. “How did we come back? I thought it was three strikes, you’re out.”
“The scroll I got for defeating the Air Level was a spell called Wish. So I wished you all back in the game.”
“For real?” E1_Kapitan punched Em3ra1d gently in the arm. “Let me get this straight, you had the ability to wish for anything, and you didn’t just wish for the dragon to be defeated?”
Em3ra1d laughed, embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that. “Uh, yeah, I thought of that—obviously—but I didn’t want you guys to be trapped in the game forever. And besides, where’s the reward in just wishing for victory?”
They walked to the back of the cave to try to find the exit. Rox_Ur_Sox leaned in close to Em3ra1d and whispered, “You totally just panicked and wished for the first thing that came into your head, didn’t you?”
“Totally,” Em3ra1d admitted.
“That’s my n00b,” Rox_Ur_Sox said, smiling.
“Actually,” Em3ra1d said, raising the volume of her voice so the guys could hear her too, “my real name is—”
“No!” the other three shouted at once.
“No real names in the game,” E1_Kapitan explained.
D4rkHunter nodded. “Yeah, you can tell us later, in the real world.”
“Oh. Okay.” Em3ra1d chewed the side of her lip to hide the smile growing. Guess this means we’re staying in touch after the game ends.
At the back of the cave, they found the Game Runner, still wearing his white suit and sunglasses.
“Good work!” he said as they approached. “You beat the game! I have to say, the programmers are pretty proud of the twist ending where the princess is the dragon. Be honest: did you see it coming? I’m surprised you noticed the change in her eyes—”
“Can we go now?” D4rkHunter interrupted. “We beat the game.”
The Game Runner gestured to the back of the cave with his hand, and a door that hadn’t been there a moment ago swung open. “Just exit the game through there when you’re ready. Unfortunately, the L33T C0RP gift shop isn’t open in beta, but there will be an exciting survey to fill out about your experience, so let us know how we’re doing!”
The players were all heading for the door, when something in the snow caught Em3ra1d’s eye. She bent down to pick it up. A crystal key gleamed in her hand. Em3ra1d looked at the Game Runner. He didn’t say anything, but the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile.
“Guys, wait!” Em3ra1d called after her friends. “Look what I found!”
They gathered around her.
“It’s a fifth key,” Rox_Ur_Sox gasped.
“What do you think it unlocks?” asked D4rkHunter.
A message popped into the air:
DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE? YES/NO
“We could keep playing?” E1_Kapitan asked, raising his eyebrows.
The Game Runner nodded. “You’ve fulfilled your original contract by winning the game. From here on out, you’re welcome to keep playing as volunteer beta testers. Of course you’ll need to sign a waiver—”
D4rkHunter turned to the Game Runner. “But we could still leave whenever we want, right?”
“Certainly. Even if you lose a game, you can now exit at any time.”
“Well, how about it, Em?” Rox_Ur_Sox asked. “Are you sick of us yet?”
“You guys would want me to keep playing?” Em3ra1d asked.
“Of course,” D4rkHunter said.
“We’d be screwed without a good Mage,” Rox_Ur_Sox added with a smirk.
“But don’t feel like we’re pressuring you,” E1_Kapitan told her. “I know you said gaming wasn’t really your scene.”
Em3ra1d looked at the crystal key in her hand, and then her friends.
A smile slowly spread across her face.
About the Author
Raelyn Dra
ke lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband (who also games) and rescue corgi mix, Sheriff (who can’t figure out how to use the controller). Realm of Mystics is her debut novel.