The Iron Dragons: A Fantasy LitRPG (Dragon Kings of the New World Book 3)

by Dante Doom

  The man moved in a circle slowly, but didn't move. Sang realized that she had stopped breathing. In any moment, he could strike and, if she delayed by just a second, he'd wallop her good, probably hard enough to knock her down or kill her outright. She didn't move from her stance, but instead chose to stay perfectly still, following him only with her head.

  The man swallowed hard and took a single step forward, but didn't raise the club. Sang tensed the muscles in her leg. Should she strike now? He was hesitating because he was afraid. They made eye contact and Sang could see how dilated his eyes were from the adrenaline. She wondered if her pupils were just as wide as his. An idea flashed to her mind then and she abruptly darted her eyes to the right, as if she'd seen something. She quickly returned eye contact to him in the next moment, but slowly glanced over one more time.

  The man's grip tightened around the club and he took a step back to check behind him. As he stepped back, Sang leapt off the stump and rushed toward an oak tree that had a natural foothold.

  "Damn it!" the man shouted as Sang deftly leapt into the tree and scrambled to safety.

  "You get to live another day if you just go away," Sang said. "But you gotta put that club down to get up here!" She tried to activate her stealth skill, but the words Opponent's spotting is too high floated above her. She walked along the limb of the tree and stared directly at him.

  "You think you can just kill one of my friends and get away with it?"

  "Oh no," Sang replied, "I think I can kill one of your friends and kill you shortly thereafter." She wasn't going to risk leaping on him, as he was at full health and was a much bigger guy than the woman had been. Still, he seemed to be backing away from the tree. It was clear that she was too much of a threat to him, and he was starting to balk a little.

  "Don't think I'm going to just let you off the hook!" he shouted as he took a few more steps back. There was some shouting coming from the direction where his ally had been. He growled at Sang and turned to run back to his friends.

  "Whew," Sang gasped as she sank down to sit on the branch and catch her breath. Her heart was pounding so hard that she wondered if her character was able to die from stress. There was a brief flash of light in her UI and the words 18 players left in the game appeared in front of her. It looked as if the numbers were dropping steadily. How many more people would she have to kill? Did it matter?

  Chapter Ten

  Van glanced at the body of the woman. She was dead, alright. Her body was lying on the ground in a heap, blood running from the back of her neck. There was no sign of Fredlin or Sang anywhere.

  "Judging from the looks of it," Kylian said as he bent down to examine the wound on the woman's neck, "someone dropped from the trees and stabbed her. My guess would be that it was Sang."

  "Footprints are over here!" Sahara said. "Two sets, running that way!" She pointed toward a thickly wooded area.

  "Well, this isn't good," Van said as he bent over to drink some water out of the babbling brook. His health bar immediately began to glow as the liquid slowly restored him back to full health. "I really didn't want us to be separated like this."

  "Well, tough," Kylian replied. "It looks like we are." He shifted around, examining the woman's corpse some more. "Nothing useful on her; just a dagger."

  "Grab it anyway," Van ordered. "Let's follow after the footprints and hope that we can find them."

  The team departed from the river and began to move deeper into the forest. There was a nervousness in the air, and Van could feel his stomach tying itself in a knot. What was waiting for them in these woods? Sang could handle herself, so he wasn't too worried, but Fredlin? He would be in serious trouble if someone found him alone.

  The branches snapped underneath Sahara's feet as she stomped through the wilderness.

  "Can you please try to avoid those things?" Van asked as he pointed to her feet. "You're making a racket with each step."

  Sahara shook her head. "No way – we've got a bow, a sword, and a Warhammer; as far as I'm concerned, our opponents should fear us. If we make noise, it'll draw them to us and we can take them out."

  "That's a terrible idea," Kylian said. "There is never a reason to give up the element of surprise in a fight."

  "I agree," Sahara said, "but the fact that our enemies think they have the drop on us when we are actually suspecting them? That's a big surprise for them!"

  "I get the logic," Van said, "but I'm not a fan of that idea at all. Walk lightly, Sahara."

  She growled a little and crossed her arms. "Whatever – I was just trying to help."

  "Well, maybe you can help by not getting us killed in an ambush because of your stomping around," Kylian replied.

  Sahara shot a nasty glance over at Kylian, but he ignored her and continued walking. Van glanced at Sahara and shrugged. While he didn't care for Kylian's tone, the ex-detective was right. Still, there was definitely something wrong with the man lately. It seemed that, with each passing trial, he was growing more grumpy and agitated with the party. Was he just tired? Van wanted to ask about it, but there were more important things to worry about than an old man's mood.

  "There!" Sahara hissed. "Two men!"

  Van rushed behind a tree and peeked around to see that there were indeed two men. One was armed with a club and had a big, toothy grin on his face, and the other was wearing plate mail armor and carrying a mace. That armor looked extremely useful, too. Van glanced at Kylian, who nodded at him. Kylian equipped his bow and nocked an arrow, ready for the fight.

  "Sahara, charge after I go in," Van instructed. "Wait until they're both focused on me, and then take out the guy with the club."

  Sahara nodded at him and readied her own sword, taking a deep breath. Van could see the lines of worry on her face, but also knew there was a fierce determination in her to accompany it. He felt a twinge of guilt again with the knowledge, feeling terrible for the fact that this kid was wrapped up in all of this.

  Van took a deep breath and turned his attention to the two men who were busy talking. He leaned in to listen to what they were saying.

  "So she climbs up in this tree and is begging for me to not kill her!" the man with the club laughed.

  "I doubt that," the other one said. "She jumped from that tree and killed Simi like it was nothing. She was probably trying to lure you into some kind of a trap."

  "What do you know, Goron?" the club man said with a scowl on his face. "You weren't there and I was! I would know what happened."

  "So did you kill her?" Goron asked.

  "No. She was too far up, and I didn't want to risk it. Did you find that other guy in the tree?"

  Goron shook his head. "He was a wizard; he cast some kind of a spell and vanished. Probably for the better, because he didn't have a chance against the likes of me."

  "I don't like the fact that we're down three people now," the club wielder said. "I don't like it at all."

  "Relax, Burt," Goron said. "We'll just wait by the water and kill anyone who stops to drink from it. They won't have a chance. We've got good weapons, and this armor of mine will come in really handy. There's no reason to worry."

  "I don't know," Burt said. "I think we should keep scavenging and looking for gear. A club, a mace, and plate mail ain't gonna help against a magical weapon."

  Van shifted a little. They were exposed and vulnerable, he knew. One of them had also tried to kill Sang. If they had caught Fredlin, they would have murdered him effortlessly. So that meant it was okay to attack them, right? But even though he felt justified, Van could feel a sickening feeling creeping up on him. Was it okay to just attack two people, unprovoked? Before he could answer the question for himself, Sahara rushed out onto the battlefield, sword held high in the air.

  "Wait!" Van hissed – but he was too late. The two men had turned their backs, and Sahara, ever impatient, had taken the opportunity to strike and charged right at them. She thrust her sword hard into the back of Burt. The words Critical Strike Piercing Blow 150
damage floated above him. Burt gasped and fell to the ground.

  "Crap!" Goron yelled as his companion shrieked from the pain. He spun around and swung his mace at Sahara, but she dodged out of the way of the blow.

  "Arrows are gonna bounce right off of that," Kylian said, pointing to the man's armor. "And I don't have enough practice to aim this for the head."

  Van rushed out with his warhammer and charged toward his foe, swinging it wildly in the hopes of distracting Goron from Sahara.

  "Two of you?" Goron shouted as he leapt back, narrowly avoiding Van's swing. "Come on – you think you can take me on?" he roared as he swung his mace hard at Van. Van raised his warhammer's haft up high, blocking the blow. Weapon damaged floated above Van's hammer and he could see that there were some cracks on the warhammer's haft now. That wasn't good.

  Sahara swung her sword, but it bounced off of the man's plate mail armor. The words Insufficient Pierce rating floated above her.

  "Crap, I can't seem to break his armor!" Sahara said as she took a thump to the face from Goron's mace. The words 25 damage floated above her head as she staggered back. "Ahhh, that really hurts!"

  Van swung his warhammer down hard against the man's collarbone. The weight of the hammer crashed down with a furious might and he saw the words 50 damage float up above Goron's head.

  "Urgh," Goron grunted as he took a step back and swung his mace towards Van's head. Van ducked, allowing the blow to fly past him. He didn't have enough room to swing his hammer again from this position, so he chose to just lunge forward and throw all of his weight into tackling his foe.

  Van crashed into Goron and they both clattered to the floor. Goron tried to wrestle with Van, but was at a disadvantage since his armor restricted his arms' ability to move quickly. Sahara was over them both within a second and she thrust the sword down hard, stabbing Goron right in the neck. The words Lethal Blow floated above Goron and he gasped for a moment, then died.

  "Whew, that was close," Van said as he stood to his feet. He looked at the damage on his warhammer and shook his head. One more hard block like that and the hammer would probably break in half. He glanced over at Sahara, who was wiping the blood from her mouth. He wanted to scold her for attacking without being ordered to do so, and to yell at her for her actions, but he didn't have the heart. It had been a risky play, but by taking Goron's buddy out first, she'd made fighting against an armored foe way easier.

  "Where the hell is Kylian?" Van asked as he turned around, only to see that Kylian was nowhere to be found. Van would have appreciated the back-up during a fight, but much to his chagrin, Kylian hadn't jumped in.

  "Maybe he's looking for Sang?" Sahara suggested as she unclasped the dead man's armor. "I cannot believe the damage rating on this thing! I'm taking it!"

  "Yeah," Van muttered. "You'd probably be better off wearing it." With her having some kind of damage reduction, he would feel a lot better about her running into battle.

  "Over here!" called the voice of Kylian from a distance. "Guys, over here!"

  Van followed the direction of the voice and soon came across a group of dead bodies. He could count nearly five people on the ground.

  "Holy crap," Van said. "Did you do that?"

  "Yeah, my bow is really good at this kind of thing," Kylian replied curtly. "No, I heard some kind of commotion behind us and thought you guys had the big guy handled, so I went to check it out. Look at all of these people!"

  "They've been looted, too," Van commented as he examined the corpses. There were two women and three men. There were dozens of stab wounds in their bodies, and one man's head had been smashed in entirely.

  "We need to be careful," Kylian said. "They could still be around."

  "You didn't see anyone?" Van asked. "No one at all?"

  "Negative, sir," Kylian replied. He turned around to look at Sahara then, who was busy inspecting more footprints on the ground. "How many do you count?"

  "Hard to tell… I think they were walking in single file lines," Sahara replied. "That's going to hide their numbers."

  "Great, so they're tactically minded, too," Van said. A bright number flashed across his screen, the words 15 players remaining appearing on his UI. Assuming that his team was all still alive, that meant they'd have to fight against 10 more people to win this thing.

  "Heads up!" Kylian shouted as he pointed up at one of the trees. There was a woman's face sticking out of the woods. She aimed her bow at them.

  "Don't move!" the woman shouted. "Don't move or I'll shoot and I won't miss!"

  "Screw you!" Sahara shouted as she darted off into the woods. Kylian ran, as well; they went in opposite directions of each other, and the woman snapped off an arrow, hitting neither of them.

  Before Van could react, he felt a sharp stab in the back of his leg. The words Injury! You are immobile appeared in front of him as he fell to the ground, clutching his leg. An arrow was sticking out of the thick of his thigh and he felt blood pouring from his wound.

  He wheezed and grabbed his warhammer, but no one was around. He felt a strange sensation begin to pulse through his leg then – it was a coldness he wasn't familiar with. The coldness began to creep up through the rest of his body and his UI began to flash, informing him that he was extremely poisoned.

  "Oh… great," Van wheezed as the poison caused him to fall unconscious.

  Sang continued leaping from tree to tree, being extremely careful to keep as quiet as she could. She had heard some voices up ahead, but had no idea who they belonged to. It definitely wasn't Van or the rest of the team, meaning that if they spotted her, they'd try to kill her. The voices were hushed, though, and she didn't have the listening skill to pick up on what they were talking about at this distance. All she knew was that there were at least three of them.

  As she moved from tree to tree, she paused to catch her bearings. It had been unfortunate, but she had gotten lost on her way back to the water. Running from the man with the club had gotten her turned around, and she hadn't been able to find her own footprints to lead her back. Her class feature allowed her to walk without a trace, which was useful for avoiding being followed, but that was a double-edged sword in this kind of a situation. Now, she was just wandering around, looking for her friends and hoping to avoid anyone dangerous.

  She reached a branch that curved upwards and was rather long – long enough for her to get a better view of the surroundings. So Sang scurried across the branch and climbed up to the better vantage point. She could see that there were three people standing around another player. The player was on the ground, wounded and gasping for air. Sang could see that this man was one of the people who had been in Peterson's group. The other three, two men and a woman, were unrecognizable, but they were all carrying leather armor and had swords hanging from their belts.

  They appeared to be interrogating the injured player. She wondered if she should step in and help, but remembered that there would only be five winners in this game. Even if she did help this guy out, he'd just be fighting against her later. She leaned her head in as far as she could to listen to what they were saying, but was still unable to hear them.

  Sang glanced at the dagger resting on her belt. She could follow these guys and get the drop on them at some point, but it would be a risky strategy. Would it be better to just keep looking for Van and the others? She wasn't sure. As she watched the four people interact, one of them – the woman – suddenly leaned up and pointed north. The others all nodded and rushed off, leaving the injured player to his lonesomeness. Before Sang could determine what to do, however, the injured player slumped over and the words Succumbed to Injuries floated above his head.

  Sang dropped down from the tree and crept over to investigate the dead man. He wasn't wearing anything of value, and he had no weapons on him. As she looked for anything that could help her, she realized that he had something in between his palms. She moved his hand over to find a small ring.

  As Sang held the golden ring up to the ligh
t, she brought up its stats on the UI.

  Ring of Speed: When activated, grants a player a 50% boost to their speed.

  That would come in extremely handy. She glanced at the poor dead guy in front of her. How ironic was it that the very item he'd been hiding could have saved him, had he used it. She shrugged and slipped the ring onto her own finger, feeling the burst of magical energy surge through her body. Activating it was easy, and it appeared to be usable three times per day.

  As she examined the surrounding area, she heard a shout in the distance, opposite of where the other players had run off to. It had been a female's shout, and it had sounded an awful lot like Sahara. Sang gritted her teeth and began to move toward the source of the sound, holding the small dagger tightly. The ring of speed would help her dart into her foes and stab them, and then retreat, making for the perfect hit and run weapon.

  As Sang made her way forward, she saw Sahara running right toward her.

  "Ambush!" Sahara shouted as she ran up to Sang. "We walked right into an ambush! Some lady tried shooting at us from the trees and Kylian and I dodged but Van got hit! We wanted to run to get him, but more arrows were coming for us. I counted at least three people in the trees – we gotta regroup and get back in there!"

  "Where's Kylian?" Sang asked.

  Sahara shrugged. "He ran off opposite of me. I don't know if they hit him or not, but I'm worried about Van!"

  Sang growled and shook her head. "We can't just run back in there without thinking straight. You said they were in the trees?"

  "Yeah, archers," Sahara said.

  "Then we're going to need to get the drop on them," Sang said. She pointed at Sahara's sword. "Give that here."

  Sahara complied and handed the weapon to Sang. Sang swung it around. Her character wasn't the most proficient with a longsword, but she had enough points in it to be able to use it to fight against her foes well enough.

  "Great," Sang said as she began to climb up the nearest tree. "Here's the plan… you've got that armor, meaning that you're gonna be way harder to damage. So go back to where you were and distract the archers. I'll kill them."