Dream Storm Online

by Jareth Stark

  Sitting on the small leather sofa with Lily reminded Henry of when they first met. He had been more innocent then and hadn’t fully understood the game or what he’d got himself involved in. But it would all be over soon. He had to remind himself of that.

  Lily had been quite clingy with Henry, ever since he and Nellie had come to her rescue. It would be over for her soon too, if everything went as planned.

  “Lily…”

  “Uh-uh?”

  “Tell me a bit about yourself in the outside world. If this ends as we hope it will, will we see each other again?”

  “There’s not much to say…”

  “Where are you from? What do you do for a living out there? I want to know everything about you Lily. I want to be able to find you when we leave”.

  Lily climbed onto Henry’s lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “What if it doesn’t…”

  “It will Lily, I promise you. We will escape!”

  “I live in London. Kensington to be exact, with my parents,” she replied. “They’re rich, and were away on a cruise when I got sucked into the game. I don’t know how much time has passed out there, or whether they’ve returned and found my body. I…”

  Henry kissed her, slowly, deeply. “If you are alive in here Lily, I have to believe you are alive out there too”.

  “And you?” she asked.

  “I’m from Nottingham, and have a really rubbish job in the city,” he laughed. “But, there are two trains an hour to London…”. Lily looked at him with a semblance of hope. “The second we get home, I’m going to come and find you”.

  Lily kissed Henry again, more hungrily this time. He felt his cock twitch in his pants and ran his hands through her long hair. “Fuck Lily, I want you,” he told her.

  Lily quickly checked the door to the bedroom to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbed. The silence told her all she needed to know. “I want you too,” she whispered into his ear, her breath bringing out goosebumps on his flesh.

  Henry quickly removed Lily’s clothes, stopping to admire her gorgeous breasts, and then quickly shrugged out of his own. “Sit on me,” he told her. “Sit on me and fuck me like I’m the last man on earth”.

  Lily bit her lip seductively, and slowly eased herself down onto Henry’s large cock. She lifted her arms up above her head, encouraging her breasts to perk up, and slowly began to gyrate up and down on Henry’s hard member, feeling him fill her with every downward movement. “Like that baby?” she asked him, almost teasing him. “Is that how you like it?”

  Henry growled in response. “Mmmm fuck yeah, just like that baby”.

  As Lily continued to move her body up and down, Henry took Lily’s breasts in his hands and played with them gently. Her nipples were as hard as pebbles and he loved seeing her body illustrate just how much he turned her on. The way her breasts moved as she fucked him, the way her thighs clutched the side of his chest, the way her body spasmed when she was close to an orgasm, fuck she turned him on too. His heart pulsed achingly as they fucked, and Henry knew again, in that moment, that he would do anything for the beautiful elf in front of him. Anything at all.

  “Oh fuck,” Henry whispered, his gravelly voice filling the space between them. He desperately wanted to moan loudly, but he didn’t want Nellie to hear him from the other room. In an attempt to silence himself, he took Lily’s breasts into his mouth and began to suck them, teasingly tweaking her nipples with his tongue.

  In response, Lily quickened her pace, ran her fingers over Henry’s head and kissed his neck hard. She locked eyes with his, watching him struggle with his pleasure, trying to keep it under control.

  “I’m almost there Henry,” she told him.

  “Uh uh,” Henry responded, his breath wild with pleasure. He could hardly speak, the sensation so great, his need so close.

  “I’m gonna… I’m gonna…”

  “Come!” Henry screamed, as he found his release alongside Lily. His voice was loud but he couldn’t help it. His beautiful elf had ridden him to orgasm. He’d watched her beautiful body bounce up and down on him, felt his cock against the tight walls of her pussy, and experienced her body shake and contract as she came. If he did end up dying in the fight against the developers, at least not all of his time in the game had been bad. The sex he’d had with Lily was by far the best he’d had in his life.

  As Lily clambered off Henry, he felt the warmth of his seed run out of her, and cover him. “Sorry,” she giggled. “Here”.

  Henry used the towel Lily passed him to wipe himself up, and then took her back into his arms. “St Pancras,” he reminded her. “I’ll be there”.

  27

  Henry wasn’t sure how long they’d slept, but when he awoke on the sofa, Lily on top of him, he could see daylight streaming in through the small cracks in the trap door above. “Fuck!” he exclaimed, sitting up quickly and waking Lily in the process.

  “What is it? What time is it?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s daytime. We need to get back”.

  Henry rubbed his eyes and sat up properly. Just as he was about to move, he was startled by the ‘Level 21 achieved’ text floating in front of his face.

  “Maybe there’s a delay in the game?” suggested Lily. “Isn’t levelling up usually instant?”

  “Yeah, I’ll worry about it later” Henry replied. “I haven’t chosen my skill points from Level 20 yet either - I’ve not had chance to think straight the last couple of days”.

  Henry quickly pulled on his clothes, and passed Lily’s to her. Looking somewhat decent now that he was dressed, he peered into the room where Nellie and Sara were and was surprised to see Sara awake and talking.

  “Oh, hi Henry,” said Sara, blushing.

  “Hey you. How are you feeling?”

  “Really good actually. I don’t know what happened, but I haven’t had a good night’s sleep like that in forever”.

  “Sara was just telling me what happened,” said Nellie. “With Rizon I mean”.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “I don’t remember much,” Sara replied. “I was in my room, waiting for you to come and he showed up. I thought he was on our side you know, so I invited him in. He said he’d brought some potions with him that would help in the end battle, and that he wanted me to try one. I was hesitant, but why wouldn’t I trust him? I’ve worked with him for ages and I know he likes to try making his own potions… he was in the Magicians Alliance as an adventurer. He said he wanted to see Lily as well - said she’d created some stuff and he thought he could help her. Next thing I know, I woke up here, I didn’t realise…”

  “It’s okay Sara, it’s not your fault,” Nellie said, holding her tight.

  Henry looked over to Lily and beckoned her to join them. “Did Rizon already have Sara when he came for you?” Henry asked.

  “Yes. He said if I didn’t go with them, he’d kill Sara. I tried to stall him, hoping you’d come back and know what to do, but he knew what I was doing. I had no choice but to go with him Henry”.

  Henry held her close. “I know Lily, none of this is your fault”.

  ∆∆∆

  The sun beat down hard on the adventurers as they climbed out of the trap door, and made their way back to the resistance. It was a glorious day, and Henry couldn’t help feeling satisfied with how things had planned out. They had killed Rizon, Arabella’s right hand man, and they only had her left to face now… unless there were other developers with characters in the game that he didn’t know about. But really, how much tougher than a traditional boss could she be? There was no way she would win against the amount of people Nellie had brought together ready to fight.

  “Have you levelled up yet Henry?” Nellie asked as they walked through the marketplace.

  Henry blushed, his face giving him away.

  “I thought so. What did you put your skill points into?”

  “I’ve not chosen them yet,” he replied.

  “If I was you, I’d focus on your health
and armour. I’m going to ask Jackal if he has anything suitable for your build too before the fight”.

  “About that…”

  “Let’s not discuss it here, Henry. Soon, I’ll tell you everything”.

  Henry stopped in the marketplace to buy some chocolate and some coffee, hoping some caffeine would help him remain awake and focused while the plan was explained to him. It was Friday, the day of Flinn’s visit, and he knew what that meant. At some point today Arabella would be free to leave Eelry…

  28

  “Okay, okay everyone gather round”.

  Nellie stood at the front of the large hall in the resistance building alongside Jackal. This was the moment Henry had been waiting for. He clenched hold of Lily’s hands and looked at her with a mixture of both fear and excitement. She squeezed his hand back in return.

  “As you all know, the time is now here. Our undercover intelligence operation in Eelry tells us that Arabella plans to leave for Thornforest as soon as the great magician’s visit is over. We are expecting that to be at some point this evening”.

  Nellie remained quiet while listening to the gasp from the room. Some people began to mutter to each other, clearly afraid of what the evening would hold.

  “We are fully prepared,” Nellie interrupted, “for her to arrive. If you haven’t already, make sure to pick up some armour from either myself or Jackal, and sharpen your blades. New melee weapons can be picked up from Randle for those who need them. If anyone hasn’t had a proper night’s rest, Henry has just bought a good supply of coffee that I’m sure he won’t mind sharing…”

  Henry looked embarrassed as everyone turned to look at him.

  “…We can do this! Don’t forget that. Everything has been planned. You are all good adventurers and you do not deserve to remain trapped in this game. The storm is coming, and it will be here tonight. Be prepared to leave here at any time”.

  Chatter erupted among the room when Nellie finished speaking, and Henry found himself inundated with requests for coffee. Gee, thanks Nellie, he said out loud on more than one occasion. By the time he finally spoke to her and Sara again, he’d been introduced personally to almost everyone in the room. Most of them had families on the outside. Some had partners and children, others were studying at university, Sam was disabled and in two minds about whether he wanted to lose the use of his legs again - Henry had encouraged him to leave -, and others were just normal people who had been getting on with their daily lives and playing Dream Storm Online to relax after a long day at work. The more he heard about everyone’s lives, the angrier and angrier he became about what had happened to them.

  “Henry! Jackal’s got some armour for you. Here, try this on”.

  Henry did as commanded and was impressed by the result. The metal suit Jackal gave him was heavy and cumbersome, but nothing his character build couldn’t handle. It protected him a lot more than the few rags and oddments he’d been wearing before as well.

  “Nice!” Lily told him when he turned round. “You look like a real warrior now!”

  “Yeah, hopefully one that won’t get so easily hurt,” Henry replied, grimacing at how easy it had been for Rizon to stab him the night before.

  “Have you got everything you need?” Nellie asked. “We still have a lot of potions here if you need any”.

  “Sure! I’ll take whatever you think I’ll need”.

  “Lily, are you going to join us in the fight?”

  Lily looked at Henry and wasn’t sure how to respond. He hoped she wouldn’t agree. The last thing he wanted was for her to end up in more danger. If death in the game actually meant death on the outside now, that would be the end for her. Please don’t say yes, he urged her.

  “I was thinking that I could help with the supplies,” Lily said to Nellie. “I brought a lot of potions with me over from Eelry. Maybe I could stand with the healers, and pass them out as and when they’re required”.

  Phew, thought Henry. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than her thinking she’s some kind of ninja!

  “Great idea. You do that. I’ll ask Sara to help you out,” Nellie replied.

  Henry spent most of the afternoon sitting at a table in the hall with Lily. He didn’t speak much, his stomach constantly somersaulting as he thought over the events that were to come time and time again. Why would Arabella attack so many people at once? Why wouldn’t she just let them leave? Was the game really that important to her? Were people’s lives really worth that little?

  “It’s going to be okay,” Lily reassured him.

  “I know,” he replied. He tried to give her a smile but had to stop when he felt bile rising in his throat. Something was wrong. She wouldn’t just attack. Not without a large army. He really hoped Nellie knew what she was doing.

  ∆∆∆

  The clock in the hall turned to 11 o’clock, and then midnight, and then 1am. People had begun to fall asleep, and Henry, still dressed in his heavy armour wasn’t far off either. He’d run out of coffee hours before after being forced to share it, and he desperately wanted to take his armour off, climb into his nice warm bed, and get some sleep.

  “Any news?” he asked Nellie.

  “Not yet,” she replied. “Maybe I should tell everyone to get some rest. What do you think?”

  Henry wasn’t sure, but he wouldn’t say no if that was what she recommended.

  Seconds later he heard the trap door slam shut. The noise startled him, and some of the others around him stirred, the noise waking them from their slumber.

  “Nellie! She’s here! She’s waiting in the marketplace in the centre of town. She seems to be alone, but I don’t know for sure”.

  Henry looked up at the small child like creature who was speaking and recognised him as the spy from outside Rizon’s window. “What the…” he started to say, but there was no time. The kid recognised him too and blushed before running back from whence he came.

  “Everyone, wake up!” Nellie urged. “It’s time. Remember our plan. Melee fighters first, followed by the magicians, and then the healers at the back. Everyone stay safe, and if your health is dipping, don’t be afraid to move backwards. We have to cover each other”.

  Nellie hadn’t told the others about the certain risk of life so as not to panic them, but Henry was fully aware of how desperate the situation was. “Remember to shout out if you need healing!” he reminded everyone within earshot.

  Slowly, one-by-one, everyone that was gathered in the resistance bunker began to make their way outside. Henry gave Lily one final kiss, drank a combined health, stamina, and magic potion that Lily had concocted, and took his place alongside the magicians. Rain was pouring down when he reached the trap door, and lightning streaked the sky.

  “The storm is here Henry,” Nellie whispered. “I hope you’re ready for it”.

  “Let’s take this bitch down!”

  29

  “Glad to see you made it Nellie,” Arabella shrieked. Despite the noise of the rain and the claps of thunder that threatened to attack the town, Arabella’s voice was loud; everyone could hear her every word. She’d also conjured some pretty convincing magic to make her float slightly above the ground, ensuring everyone’s gaze was upon her.

  “I’ll give you one chance to end this. End this now!” Nellie replied. Henry was impressed by the confidence she portrayed. His insides felt like they would betray him at any moment, but Nellie was strong, powerful, confident. He would have been scared of her if they weren’t on the same side.

  “It’s too late for that. I told you you’d break the game if you carried on, and you’ve had plenty of chances to leave. Now you will be responsible for the deaths of everyone standing before me! This game will not be ruined by you!”

  A gasp rose up from the army as dozens of worried faces turned to look at Nellie.

  “We won’t be forced to remain here!” she shouted. Cheers resounded from many. They knew it was time.

  “We’ll see about that. Ready… Aim… Fire!�
��

  Seconds later, arrows flew through the air, landing on Nellie’s army and taking people out instantly. Henry turned quickly, trying to work out where they were coming from. A stray arrow missed his eye by mere centimetres and he pulled his helmet fully closed.

  “They’re behind us!” he shouted, shocked.

  “Did you really think I’d come here alone?” Arabella cackled as another fork of lightning hit the town.

  “FIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!” Nellie screamed.

  Despite their carefully designed plan, nothing seemed to go as expected. The melee fighters who were closest to Arabella tried to attack her at first, but they soon realised, they needed to get to Arabella’s archers if anyone was to survive the arrows that were raining down. Henry did what he could to attack Arabella, but soon realised he couldn’t take her down on his own. Rather than keep wasting time and energy trying, he retreated and began to use his staff on the melee fighters, restoring their health as best he could.

  Nellie disappeared completely from his view, though the flashes of light he saw in the distance, along with the sounds of human screams were most likely her doing… or so he assumed. Sara and Lily were also out of Henry’s eyeshot, but he hoped to god they were okay.

  “Healer, healer, I need a healer,” someone screamed. Henry used the staff Nana Lurgi had given to him to shoot rays of health at the wounded soldier, and watched as he returned to the fight, hacking the arm off of one of the archers. “That’s one way to do it!” Henry laughed over the sound of the archer’s screams.

  “Medic!” another elf screamed, before falling to the wet and sodden ground. From a distance, Henry thought it looked like Steph, but the blood on her face made it hard to see her features. He ran as fast as he could and sent more healing spells her way, relieved when she stood up and continued hacking away at the foes in front of her.