“That’s a dragon?” Lilli sputtered, staring at the creature.
Yano rolled his eyes. “Of course! Dragons come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t be all judgy.”
The worm dragon licked its mouth with a thick black tongue, and a splotch of goo splashed onto the ground. I watched in horror as the drool hissed and smoked, burning a hole into the stone.
“So it spits acid, too,” I noted. “Awesome.”
“How else is it supposed to burrow through solid rock?” Yano asked. “Let’s be practical here.”
I bit my lip, trying to figure out what to do. There was no way we could sneak around this thing. It was too big, too thick, its doughy flesh filling up almost the entire tunnel. But what else could we do? We’d come too far to turn back now, and the tunnel exit was so close.
And yet so far…
I turned to my sister. “We have no choice. We have to fight it.”
Lilli nodded grimly. “Maybe I could start with a spell?” she suggested. “It’s an earth dragon, so maybe something water related?”
“Sounds good,” I said. As every gamer knew, if a creature possessed the powers from one element, they were bound to be weak when faced with the opposite element. So you’d fight fire with ice. Earth with water. Hopefully it still worked like that here.
I reached for my sword and shield, trying to gear myself up to dive into the fray if the dragon tried to charge my sister after she performed her cast. I was determined, this time, to do better than I had with the rat dragon in the basement. After all, I was a gamer, I reminded myself. And while this was a little different, at the end of the day it was still a game. And the only way to get out of this mess was to find a way to win.
Which left no room for wimping out.
Lilli closed her eyes, muttering some magic words under her breath. As I watched, breathless, a blast of water shot out from her staff—hitting the worm dragon square in the face. Yes! Direct hit!
“Sweet!” I cried. “Get it, Lills!”
The worm dragon roared with fury, shaking its head back and forth, causing more baby worms to rain down on top of us. I ducked and covered my head, feeling their slimy little bodies writhe across my skin. But when I looked again, the dragon was still standing there, as if the water blast had done no damage at all.
“Argh,” Lilli groaned. “It must be immune to magic or something.”
Before I could reply, the dragon lurched forward, hissing and gnashing its teeth. I leapt in front of my sister, raising my shield moments before the creature spewed a hot load of acid straight in our direction. My shield, thankfully, took most of the blast, but a few drops splashed onto my breastplate, sizzling and burrowing into the steel.
I screamed, dropped my burning shield, and fumbled with the straps of my armor. I barely managed to get it off my body before the acid burned all the way through to the other side. Quickly, I threw it across the tunnel like a hot potato.
Lilli ran over to me. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. But my shield and chest plate are toast.” I glanced over at the discarded armor, which was still blistering as the acid gobbled up the metal. My stomach twisted as I imagined what it would have felt like on my skin.
“What are we going to do?” Lilli asked, looking panicked. “My spells don’t work. And you can’t fight without armor.”
We turned to the worm, who had gone back into self-defense mode, opening and closing its mouth like a monstrous baby bird while mini worms danced on its tongue. What kind of sick programmer designed such a disgusting thing?
Suddenly, a thought struck me. I turned to find Yano, who had clearly been busy treating himself to an all-you-can-eat worm buffet while we’d been fighting for our lives. He looked up, a little guiltily, half a worm still wriggling from the side of his mouth.
“Yes?” he asked.
I sighed. “Um, could we trouble our guide for a little guidance here?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” Yano slurped the rest of the worm into his mouth, then spit it out, making a face. “Ugh. Stay away from the green ones. They taste like old farts.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I said, shuddering. “Now how do we defeat this guy?”
Yano flew over to us, landing on my shoulder. “Right,” he said, shaking out his body, as if ready to get down to business. “Let me start with a quick scan. This way I can try to match it with the creatures in my database. See if it has any weaknesses.”
The draconite closed his eyes, mumbling something under his breath. Something that, oddly, sounded a lot less like a spell of scanning and a lot more like the lyrics to a Taylor Swift song.
I shot my sister a look. She shrugged, still keeping a wary eye on the earth dragon, who didn’t seem all that interested in initiating a second attack. Which was kind of weird, actually. Most creatures—at least in regular games—would keep attacking until they or the other players were dead. But I wasn’t about to complain.
Yano switched to a Beyoncé song.
“Anything?” I asked.
“Oh. Yes. Sorry.” He opened his eyes. “I found a weak spot. But… I’m not sure you’re going to like it.” He chuckled.
“What is it?” I asked. “Its eyes? Its mouth? One particular baby worm?” None of these things sounded good. But at least it would be a start. As it was, we were fighting blind.
Yano shook his head, now giggling madly. “Nope. But you’re getting warmer.…”
I ran a hand through my hair, trying to think. Then, a horrifying thought struck me. “Oh man. Please don’t say its butt.”
“Well, I won’t say it, but…” Yano slapped his side with his wing. “Oops!” He cackled again. “Anyway, yes. You must slice off its tail. It’s the only way.”
My gaze turned to the worm, dismay rising in my stomach. “Seriously?” I cried.
“I’m an AI, mate. We don’t joke around. Well, at least about serious stuff. I do know some great jokes.” He cleared his throat. “Like, why did the teddy bear say no to dessert?”
“Because it was already stuffed,” my sister shot back. “I mean, really. We learned that one in kindergarten.”
“Um, no offense, but can we put comedy hour on hold and get back to the whole dragon-tail thing?” I interjected. “How am I even going to get back there? There’s, like, zero room between it and the tunnel’s wall. And if I even try to squeeze by, it’s going to blast me with more acid. And without my armor—”
“Wow, you really are a glass-half-empty kind of lad, aren’t you?” Yano tsked. “If you would let me finish…”
“Well, then finish already!”
Yano rose from my shoulder and flew over to the worm dragon. Before we could make a move to stop him, he got right up in the creature’s face and waved his paws madly in front of each of its ten eyes. Instinctively, I put my hands over my face, bracing for another acid spew.
But the earth dragon did nothing. In fact, it didn’t react at all—as if it didn’t even realize Yano was there. I lowered my hands.
“Wait,” I said. “Is it—”
“Blind?” Lilli finished for me. “Oh my gosh, it can’t see us!” She let out a small cheer. The dragon snapped its head in her direction, snorting angrily.
“But it can hear you!” Yano added, flying back to us. “Which means you need to be really, really quiet if you want to sneak past it and reach its tail.”
“Ooh! Another sneak quest. Ian’s favorite,” Lilli remarked teasingly.
“Hey! I’m more than happy to let you do the honors.”
“That’s very gallant of you, Ian.” Yano snorted. “But I’m afraid that’s not going to work. You need something sharp if you’re going to slice off its tail. And, as a mage, Lilli isn’t allowed to use a sword.”
“How convenient,” I grumbled.
Sucking in a breath, I crouched low and inched closer to the big bad as quietly as I could, this time paying special attention to my noise meters. Thank goodness I had pu
t that point in sneaking—it was definitely making things easier now. In fact, it wasn’t long before I found myself within punching distance of the creature’s giant maw, which, let’s just say, looked even more terrifying close up. And it had looked pretty darn terrifying from a distance!
But I forced my fear down and kept moving, reminding myself once again that this was only a game. That this creature was nothing more than a bloated bunch of pixels, mashed together by some bored programmer dude chowing down on Cheetos in his cubicle back at the base.
Unfortunately, this knowledge didn’t make me feel much better. After all, the dragon looked real. It sounded real. And, thanks to Atreus’s tweaks to our SensSuits, I knew its teeth would feel real chomping down on my flesh.
Come on, Ian! Less thinking, more moving.
Finally, I reached the side of the tunnel. Pressing my back against the wall, I began to inch along the stone, careful not to come in contact with the dragon. It was a tight squeeze; there couldn’t be more than a foot of space between the dragon and the rock. Plus the creature kept squirming from side to side, making that space ebb and flow. I was forced to inch forward, then stop, wait for it to move, then take another step. Sweat dripped down my forehead as my pulse pounded in my ears. But I pressed on, and soon I was three-quarters of the way to my destination.
“Piece of cake,” I whispered to myself, low enough for the dragon not to hear. Maybe I wasn’t as bad at this game as I thought! Maybe I’d get to the other side, raise my sword, cut off its tail and—boom! Lord Wildhammer, hero of the realm.
Suddenly a voice wormed through my head.
Piece of cake, huh? Atreus purred. Then perhaps we should take things up a notch…
Wait, what?
Um, that’s really not necessary! I tried to silently send back, hoping the video-game dragon could hear my thoughts as I could hear his. I was kidding about the cake. The cake was a lie!
Suddenly the tunnel started to shake hard, as if caught in an earthquake. Dirt rained down from above, a big chunk landing in my eye before I could blink. I doubled over as the sharp grit stung my eye, and I tried to keep the other eye open so I could see what was happening. Huge rocks broke free of the walls, smashing down onto the stone floor in front of me, behind me—everywhere. I put my hands over my head to try to shield myself, but it was no use.
“Please, Atreus!” I begged. “Stop!”
But the tunnel continued to shake as if it was about to collapse. The dragon worm bellowed in rage, as it was also getting smacked by falling rocks, and its body jerked, pinning me against the wall and knocking the air from my lungs. I gasped as I struggled to free myself, but it was no use. I was trapped between the dragon and the wall. And still quite a few feet from its tail. What was I going to do? A stray rock slammed down on my head, almost knocking me out. I screamed in pain.
“Hey, ugly! Over here!”
I lifted my head, vaguely recognizing my sister’s voice. It sounded muffled and far away. But the earth dragon shifted in the direction of the sound, thankfully releasing me from my prison. I collapsed in a heap, my whole body feeling bruised and broken.
“Your mum is a sandworm!” I heard Yano pick up the cry. “And your dad is—”
I didn’t wait to hear the rest. I picked myself up and ran—full Leeroy Jenkins–style now—to the dragon’s tail. When I reached it, I didn’t pause. I raised my sword and slammed it down, slicing through thick, wormy flesh.
The dragon screeched in agony as its tail detached from its body. Blood fountained from the gaping wound with so much force it knocked me backward. I grunted as the severed tail landed on top of me and I fought to knock it away.
“Ew! Ew! Gross!”
Then, suddenly, I heard it. Triumphant music blasting in my ears. A moment later, writing scrolled across my field of vision.
50,000 experience points.
Level up!
“Whoa!” I cried, scrambling to my feet and looking around. Thankfully the tunnel was no longer shaking. “Did we do it? Did we slay the dragon?”
Sure enough, the earth dragon was now nothing more than a lifeless, bloated corpse on the ground. A surge of excitement shot through me and I jumped up and down with joy.
“We did it! We totally did it!” I cried as Lilli and Yano made their way around the dead dragon and over to me. I ran to my sister, throwing my arms around her in a huge hug. “Can you believe it?”
Lilli laughed. “That was all you, dude. I only distracted it for a second. You got the job done.” She smiled at me. “Maybe you’re not as bad as you think you are, dragon slayer.”
My cheeks burned. Dragon slayer. I was a dragon slayer!
“Well,” I stammered. “Maybe I’m not so bad.…”
“You were quite epic, in fact,” Yano agreed. “Especially under the circumstances. I didn’t want to alarm you while you were fighting for your life, but that dragon? That was Wyrm, one of the four main boss dragons in the game.”
I stared at our guide. “He was a boss? And we killed him? How is that even possible at our level?”
“Oh, it isn’t,” Yano replied smugly. “But lucky for you, you have an epic guide. I actually activated a special power-up I’d saved from the last group I worked with to cast on you so you’d have a fighting chance. For one glorious minute you were both level eighty.”
Suddenly all the glory and honor I’d felt for defeating the guy deflated. “Why would you do that?”
“Um, so you wouldn’t end up a bloody puddle on the floor?” Yano said. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“I know, but that’s cheating!”
“Atreus is cheating. I was just helping out my group. Remember, we don’t know what happens when you die in the game. Would you have preferred to find out by getting eaten alive by a nasty worm creature?”
“Thank you,” my sister interjected. “We appreciate it.” She gave me a stern look. I sighed. I knew she was right. But still! I really thought it’d been me.…
“Whatever,” I said. “Just… let us try first next time, okay? Before you rush in to save the day?”
“No problem. As I said, that was my last extra power-up. You are now officially at the mercy of your own incompetence for the remainder of the game.”
“Great. I think.…”
Yano looked up at the ceiling. “I still don’t understand that whole cave-in thing, though. Definitely wasn’t in the fight description I read. Maybe they added it recently. They’re always changing things here. Hard to keep updated.”
I frowned. In the glory of victory I’d almost forgotten about that part. The way Atreus had whispered in my ear before starting a cave-in. A shiver tripped down my back, and I wondered if I should mention it to my sister. The dragon was definitely not planning to make this easy on us. And next time we might not be so lucky.
“This thing is so freaking gross,” Lilli remarked, kicking the tail with her foot to knock it away. It rolled over, uncovering something odd shaped lying on the ground. “Wait, what’s that?” she asked.
“Um, no idea.”
I watched as my sister dropped to her knees, scooping the object up into her palm. “I think the dragon dropped it. Maybe some kind of treasure?” She rose to her feet, holding it out for me to see.
I raised an eyebrow. “It looks like a turd.”
“No it doesn’t,” she protested, clearly offended. “It looks like an egg.”
I wrinkled my nose. The object in her hand was vaguely egg-shaped. But it was also brown. A very specific shade of brown. “I’m still going with dragon turd.”
“Whatever.” She waved me off. “I’m going to keep it, just in case. Who knows, maybe I can sell it or something.”
“Who’s going to want to buy a turd?”
“What if it’s a magical turd…?” She grinned wickedly.
I shook my head. “Worm dragons and magical turds. What’s next?” I asked as we walked toward the cave exit, ready to step out into the suns
hine.
But as we did, Atreus’s voice slithered in my ear again.
Oh, tiny human. Just you wait and see.…
“Ah, yes. The Soundless Bog. So lovely this time of year.”
Lilli and I joined Yano at the mouth of the tunnel, surveying the new land we’d entered. While the starting zone had been a peaceful medieval forest—very pretty and picturesque—this place was a hot, swampy mess, with sunken riverbanks and sludgy, algae-infested water. The kind of water you’d expect an alligator to slither through. Or worse…
Crisscrossing the swamp was a maze of wooden walkways, branching out in all directions without any kind of safety railings. At the far end, I could just make out a small village.
“Is that Ghost Hollow?” I asked, a thread of hoping rising in my chest. “Are we really here?”
“That is Ghost Hollow,” Yano confirmed. “But you’re not there yet. You still have to cross the Soundless Bog.”
I looked out over the murky water. At least it was no longer nighttime. We must have been in that tunnel for a while—at least in game time. Now, the twin suns shone brightly above, as if it were midday. Did that mean an entire day had passed in the game? And if so, how much time did that equal in real life? I was so confused by the time thing it hurt my head to think about it. I knew at some point we needed to eat and sleep—but what if this whole adventure had only been an hour or something in real-life time?
My sister stepped up to the closest walkway. As she tested it with her foot, it creaked under her weight. “You think this is safe?” she asked doubtfully.
“Safe?” Yano let out a barking laugh. “Are you kidding? This is Dragon Ops! Nowhere is safe! Well, except perhaps the Peaks of D’ou. If you’re friends with Lord D’ou, that is. Otherwise you’re basically asking to become a human Popsicle.”
“Who’s Lord D’ou?” I asked. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard Yano mention his name. “I don’t remember him from the regular game.”
“You wouldn’t,” Yano replied. “He’s new to the franchise. But he’s brilliant. And I’m not just saying that because my programmer created him and programmed me to like him.” He scrunched up his face. “Though… maybe I am, now that I think about it. Ugh. Nice work on the free will thing, Phyllis!” he shouted into the void. Then he turned back to us. “Sorry. In any case, just like Wyrm, Lord D’ou is one of the four king dragons of the game. He rules the kingdom of ice.”
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