by Lucas Flint
All Bait and I could do was stare at the massive black flame as it shot through the air toward us, both of us knowing that our time had come to an end.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Master Bolt!” Okac cried suddenly. “Okac will save you and shield friend!”
Okac suddenly rushed out of nowhere and slammed into Bait and me hard enough to send us flying. My HP dropped a few points when we hit the ground, but I didn’t have time to look at it closely before Bait and I hit the ground and rolled a few times until we came to a stop flat on our backs.
Gasping for breath, I shook my head and sat up. I looked toward Okac, desperately trying to find him, and I did:
He was lying flat on his belly right in the spot where Bait and I had been standing just moments before. And Reginald’s black flames were still coming straight toward him.
Okac managed to give me one last, toothy, lizard smile before the black flames washed over him like a wave. He didn’t even scream as the fire covered his whole body and the area several feet around him. I couldn’t even see his form in the black flames, which covered his body like a storm cloud.
The flames seemed to last an eternity before Reginald cut off his attack and flew back up into the sky, but I didn’t look at the Dark Dragon. My eyes were locked on the blackened, smoking husk of Okac’s body. His armor was blackened and charred, while his skin had been burned away completely, revealing his unmoving skeleton, though even the bones of his skeleton had been blackened from the fire’s sheer heat.
A notification popped up in the corner of my vision just then:
Party member Okac the Lizard Warrior has died! Respawn time: N/A. NPCs do not respawn.
I read that last sentence again. NPCs do not respawn … that meant Okac was gone forever. Despite being a piece of data, he had just given his own life to save mine and Bait’s. He didn’t need to do that, but he did it anyway. And with a smile on his face, too.
“Bolt!” said Switch suddenly, her voice loud. “What are you two doing? That stupid dragon is going to be back any second now!”
Shaking my head, I looked up to see Switch, Mecha Knight, and Olga running toward us. All three of them looked unharmed, though they also wore extremely worried looks on their faces as if concerned about our health.
“Are you two okay?” said Mecha Knight as the three of them stopped before us. “Did Reginald’s flames harm either of you?”
I shook my head. “No, we’re fine. But Okac—”
“We saw the notification,” said Switch, glancing over her shoulder at Okac’s burned corpse. “That was rather unexpected, but useful because if he hadn’t done that, Reginald’s attack probably would have killed both of you.”
“It is interesting,” said Mecha Knight. “I did not know an NPC could sacrifice themselves for a player like that. I suppose I’m still learning new things about this game all the time.”
I nodded and looked at Olga. I half-expected to see a guilty expression on her face, but she looked just as confused as everyone else. Was that a sign that she hadn’t manipulated Okac into giving up his own life? If so, then that meant he did it entirely of his free will … well, whatever free will a computer program had, anyway.
“Maybe that’s a hidden game mechanic or something,” said Bait. “Makes sense. If an NPC joins your party, maybe it’s programmed to give up its life if a player character is about to die.”
“Who cares?” said Switch. She pointed at the Tower. “Reginald is still here and he’s about to come back for more.”
Snapping out of my thoughts, I looked back at the Tower. Reginald was flying around the top of the Tower, roaring and shooting flame from its mouth in triumph. It occurred to me that Reginald was celebrating the fact that it had killed Okac. I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t going in for the kill, given how defenseless we were, but maybe Reginald was programmed to celebrate killing enemy characters or maybe it was just so arrogant that it thought it had all the time in the world to kill us.
Either way, I knew we didn’t have much time to figure out a plan. It was hard to think, though, because anger rose in me as I glared up at Reginald, anger at how it had killed Okac and at the knowledge that I was too weak to stop it.
But I couldn’t dwell on my anger forever. I needed to find a way to kill Reginald, not just to avenge Okac, but also so we could get access to Holly. So long as Reginald was still here, we could never enter the Tower itself.
As long as Reginald was still here … suddenly, an idea clicked in my head. It was wild, crazy, and would probably get me killed, but it was also the only plan we had.
I looked at Mecha Knight and Switch. “Mecha Knight, Switch, I need you two to distract Reginald. Hit him with your toughest spells and try to get him onto the ground.”
“Why?” said Switch, glancing up at the Dark Dragon in fear. “So it can eat us more easily?”
“You’ll see why soon enough,” I said. “Once he gets close enough, I need you two to start shooting at him with everything you got. Okay?”
“Certainly,” said Mecha Knight without even a hint of worry. “Come on, Switch. We need to get ourselves in position.”
Mecha Knight ran toward the gates, with Switch following closely behind, muttering under her breath all the while about how this was suicidal. I stopped paying attention to her, however, and turned to look at Bait.
“Bait, how is your Stamina?” I said. “Has it recovered yet?”
“It’s half-full now,” said Bait. He looked less tired and was standing on his own now, though I noticed he still leaned on his shield for support. “Why?”
“Because I’m going to need your help to pull this off,” I said. “But if you aren’t in any condition to help—”
“Don’t worry,” said Bait. He hefted his Feather Shield before him and smiled. “I can tell you’ve got a plan. Don’t know what it is, but I’m game for whatever you’ve come up with.”
I nodded. “Good. Just be ready to use your Shield, because I think we’re going to need to use it.” I glanced at Olga. “As for you, I need you to stick by me, because if this plan works, I’m going to need your help.”
Olga opened her mouth to respond, but then a loud roar pierced the air and the three of us looked up to see Reginald soaring down toward us. Only it wasn’t actually flying toward us, but rather Mecha Knight and Switch, who were rushing toward the gates. It opened its mouth to unleash a fiery stream of destruction, but Mecha Knight shot a ball of light into its open mouth, which did quite a bit of damage, knocking down the dragon’s Health by about a quarter.
But the attack didn’t even slow Reginald down. The Dark Dragon crashed into the ground, narrowly missing Mecha Knight and Switch. It swiped a claw at the two, but Mecha Knight teleported the two of them just outside of its reach and then they separated, peppering Reginald with spells from both sides. Reginald looked this way and that, trying to decide who to go after first.
“It’s go-time,” I said. “Come on!”
Bait, Olga, and I rushed toward Reginald as fast as we could. Reginald still didn’t notice us, which was good, because as long as it didn’t notice—
Suddenly, Reginald whirled around to face us. Its eyes narrowed and a deep growl emitted from its throat like it knew it had been tricked. It opened its mouth, likely to unleash another blast of fire at us, so I shouted, “Bait, separate and use Call of War!”
Bait didn’t even hesitate. He rushed off to the side, while at the same time letting loose the loudest and craziest war cry I had ever heard in my life. Luckily for us, it worked, causing Reginald to rotate his head toward Bait, completely ignoring Olga and I as we ran toward it.
With a yell, I activated the Feather Sword’s special Ability, Float, and leaped into the air toward Reginald. Float allowed me to fly, but only for five seconds, so I had to make this count.
And luckily, I did, flying over Reginald’s head and landing on its scaly back. Unfortunately, my landing wasn’t exactly smooth and I nearly fell of
f, but I managed to grab onto a protruding scale just in the nick of time and pull myself back onto its back.
Panting and sweating, I nonetheless felt grateful my plan had worked so far.
“Wow, Bolt,” said Olga, who had made the jump with me. She was looking around at Reginald’s large back with a mixture of alarm and curiosity. “I didn’t think you would make the jump. What’s the plan now?”
“Look for a weak point to exploit,” I replied. “At least, that’s what I’m going to look for. If I can find a weak point, I might be able to kill this thing in one hit.”
I activated Scan and began looking all over Reginald’s back for a weak point I could exploit. It took me a while, but eventually, I spotted a loose scale not too far from where I lay. As soon as I did, a notification popped up in the corner of my vision:
Ability Level Up! Scan is now Level 3. Now you can see previously hidden weak points on enemy characters.
I dismissed that notification and pointed at the loose scale. “There’s a weak point under that scale. Can you remove it?”
Olga flew over to the loose scale and waved her wand at it. With a snap, the scale broke off and went flying off in a random direction, revealing an exposed bit of soft flesh that I could easily stab with the Feather Sword.
“Good job, Olga,” I said, giving her the thumbs up. “Now, I just need to—”
I was interrupted by the sound of wings flapping and realized at the last second that Reginald was preparing to take off.
Before I could do anything, Reginald shot into the air like a bullet. I held on fiercely to my scale, the wind rushing through my hair and drying out my eyes as I clung for dear life onto Reginald’s back. As for Olga, she went flying off from the sudden takeoff, screaming loudly. I reached out to grab her, but she flew by my hand too fast and soon she was gone, disappearing somewhere into the air behind me as Reginald flew higher and higher into the air.
Looking over my shoulder, I wish I hadn’t, because now I could see the ground below us, which looked smaller and smaller the higher up we flew. The ground was still constantly glitching, too, which allowed me to see it change from ice to water to mud and back again at random. I also caught a glimpse of my party staring up at Reginald in shock, at least until Reginald made a sharp turn to the right, nearly throwing me off, though thankfully my grip was strong enough to keep me from going anywhere.
But I knew it was only a matter of time before Reginald threw me off his back. This might have been a video game, but I knew that if I fell from this height, I would probably instantly die upon hitting the ground. Therefore, I needed to kill Reginald as fast as I could, and the only way to do that was to stab his weak point.
Bracing myself, I crawled across Reginald’s back slowly but surely, until I finally reached the exposed bit of flesh that was his weak point. I had to get up on my knees to be able to stab it, but once I was in place, I gripped the Feather Blade with both hands, raised it above my head, and stabbed it directly into Reginald’s weak point.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Feather Blade plunged deeply into Reginald’s weak point. Then Reginald himself roared in pain, and out of the corner of my eye, Scan showed me that I had managed a Critical Hit, which, combined with my Strength and the Strength bonuses from the Feather Blade itself, was enough to tear through the rest of Reginald’s Health, dropping it to exactly zero in an instant.
That should have filled me with joy, but instead, terror filled me when Reginald fell like a rock toward the ground below. The sudden drop caused me to go flying up off of Reginald’s back, barely able to control myself as Reginald’s corpse plunged to the earth below.
There was no way I would survive this fall, even if I used Reginald’s corpse for a cushion. And, though I was proud of killing him, my real target was Holly, so I needed to survive long enough to kill her.
With a grunt, I activated Float again, this time aiming for the roof of the Tower of the Cursed, which was surprisingly close by. I soared through the air on nothing but my boots, trying to generate enough momentum to reach the Tower’s flat roof.
Despite the momentum I had gotten from the fall, however, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Desperate, I reached out with a hand just as I ran out of Mana. I immediately plunged, only for my outstretched hand to grab the edge of the roof of the Tower, making me come to an abrupt halt. Gasping for breath and sweating all over, I pulled myself up and over the edge, until I found myself sitting on the roof itself.
Wiping the sweat off my brow, I peered over the edge of the roof. Reginald’s corpse had crashed into one of the Tower’s outer walls, smashing through it outright and leaving a hole big enough for an army to march through. Its corpse lay on the ground, limbs twisted and wings broken, weird green blood leaking out of its weak point.
That was when I noticed a notification had appeared in my vision:
A boss monster (Reginald the Dark Dragon) has been defeated! 5,000 EXP goes to the slayer of the boss!
Followed by another notification just for me:
Level up +8! You are now Level 30!
+24 Stat Points!
My jaw dropped when I saw how fast I had leveled up and how many Stat Points I’d gotten. I knew Reginald was an absurdly powerful boss, but I didn’t think I would get that many levels. Not that I was complaining, mind you, but it was still surprising to see it happen so fast.
“Whoa,” I said, sitting back away from the edge. “This was—”
I suddenly heard a small ping in my ears. It took me a moment to realize that the ping meant I had gotten a message in my inbox. It was a message sent from Mecha Knight through the team chat and it read:
Mecha Knight: Bolt, are you okay? Everyone saw you fall onto the roof of the Tower when Reginald fell. Can you still walk?
I quickly typed out a message:
Me: Yeah, I’m fine. More than fine, actually, because I got all of that experience for killing Reginald and leveled up quite a bit. What about you guys?
Mecha Knight: Everyone is safe down here. With Reginald out of the way, it seems like we can enter the Tower unless Holly happens to have another trick up her sleeve.
Me: No, I don’t think so. Reginald was probably her weapon of last resort. At least, I can’t see her having another ungodly powerful dragon lying around, anyway.
Mecha Knight: Even so, it never hurts to be careful when dealing with Holly. We are planning to enter the Tower. Do you want to wait for us or do you want to head into the Tower and meet us somewhere in the middle?
I paused before I answered. If I was on the roof of the Tower, then that meant I was likely close to Holly’s personal chambers. I didn’t know where Holly was, exactly, but if she was like any other video game boss I knew, she had probably set up her base in the highest room of the Tower. That meant that if I went down now, I would have to face Holly alone.
That thought filled me with dread because I remembered all too well what happened the last time I fought Holly. It had been a complete and utter curb stomp on her part. I’d gotten a lot stronger since then, but I still wasn’t sure I would be able to beat Holly by myself, especially if she decided to exploit the game’s glitches to give herself an unfair advantage, which was almost assured by this point.
On one hand, we had no idea how close Holly was to escaping onto the Internet. If I waited for Mecha Knight and the others to show up, that might give Holly enough time to reach the Internet. Plus, my friends would probably run into a lot of obstacles on their way up here. Holly might not have had another Dark Dragon on hand, but she surely had packed the rest of the floors on the Tower with minions, powerful minions that my friends would take a while to defeat. On the other hand, if I went down now, it was possible I could hold her off until the others arrived to provide backup, potentially even taking Holly by surprise or at least forcing her to fight on two fronts, which might be difficult even for her to handle.
So I typed this message to Mecha Knight:
Me: You gu
ys go ahead. I’m going to find a way into the Tower and try to take on Holly. At least, I’ll spy on her and see how she’s treating Valerie if nothing else.
Mecha Knight: Very well. We will try to get up to the top floor of the Tower as quickly as possible. I would have teleported us up there to join you, but my Teleportation spell doesn’t go that high up.
Me: No problem. See you soon.
I closed the group chat and stood up. I could immediately head into the Tower, but I decided to distribute my newly-attained Stat Points first. It wouldn’t take me long to do and I would be better prepared to take on Holly.
Pulling up my character sheet, I glanced at my current stats:
Name: Kevin Jason, AKA Bolt
Level: 30
Class: Swordsman
Affinity: Good
Strength: 30
Defense: 20
Speed: 29
Dexterity: 7
Health: 40
Evasion: 20
Mana: 10
Stamina: 20
I had 24 Stat Points to distribute. I thought about my last fight with Holly and realized that the main reason I died was because of a lack of Evasion. My Evasion was pretty high already, but I wanted to make it higher so I could avoid her tendrils if she tried to kill me that way again. It would probably make sense to add some to Health, Defense, and Strength as well because all those stats would be useful for dealing with her.
So I dumped 10 Points into Evasion, 5 into Strength and Defense equally, 5 into Health, and the remaining 4 into Speed. Now my spread looked like this:
Name: Kevin Jason, AKA Bolt
Level: 30
Class: Swordsman
Affinity: Good
Strength: 35
Defense: 25
Speed: 33
Dexterity: 7
Health: 45
Evasion: 30
Mana: 10
Stamina: 20
There. That looked pretty good. My Mana and Dexterity weren’t high, but I figured that wouldn’t matter.