by Dante Steel
“How are you holding up?” he asked Olivia.
She stared at him, but it seemed more like she was seeing through him.
“I’m up,” Olivia said, but it almost sounded like a question.
Gary tried to feel for where exactly Smaug was beneath the mass of metal, but all he could sense was the metal and the frozen lava. Deeper, down below, was more of the hot lava, beneath the frozen, and that lava was churning, roiling, bubbling fighting against the ice. Pressure was building. Immense pressure.
“It’s gonna blow,” Gary realized. “Damn volcano.”
“Where’s Smaug?” Olivia asked, sounding more alert now.
“I don’t know. I thought you would have kept a better eye on him.”
“There’s kind of a chunk of metal blocking my view,” Olivia snapped.
“Don’t fight,” Nicoletta said.
“I can’t see through shit!” Olivia said. “Can’t you?”
“Somewhat. He’s gone. I…”
Was he in that hot lava? Was he the reason why the volcano was gonna blow?
“We have to figure out a way to stop the volcano from erupting,” Gary said.
“Because that’s gonna be easy,” Olivia muttered.
“Wait, what?” Elena cried. “If this place is gonna blow, I need to get the hell out of here!”
“Get her out of here,” Gary told Olivia. He grabbed onto Nicoletta to keep her flying with him.
Swiftly, Olivia seized Elena and flew them away from the volcano, hopefully far away.
Gary swallowed hard. “This isn’t going to be easy,” he said.
“You have a plan?” Nicoletta asked.
“The pressure of the ice against the lava is too much. It’s gonna explode.”
“Maybe if I melt the ice…”
“It might help, or it might make the volcano erupt that much faster. I don’t know. I’m not a volcano expert.”
“I know some about the weather but not volcanoes. I… I don’t know. The volcano exploding would be terrible.”
“Unless Smaug is somewhere in the lava.”
“You think he is?”
“I don’t see how he could survive being in it though.” Gary grimaced. “He has to be somewhere else. He can’t breathe lava. He’s a supervillain, and we’re in a game, but he’s not a lava monster. He needs air.”
“You worry about finding him,” Nicoletta said. “Drop me on the crest of the volcano. I’ll melt the ice as slowly as I can. Maybe that will help to cool things down. If it looks like it’s gonna blow, I’ll log off so I won’t die, okay?”
“You pull out the second it turns sour.”
Her face paled beneath her normal tone. “You think it will turn sour.”
“Knowing our luck? We can almost count on it.”
She nodded. “All right. Let’s do this.”
Gary brought her over to the side of the volcano. She peeked over the rim and gave him a thumbs up.
She was ready to do her part, and Gary had to do his. Smaug had to be found and the sooner the better. This had to end now. They might not get a second chance.
Chapter Twenty
The cool fog rolling from the volcano blanketed the place and made Gary’s eyes water. He blinked as he landed and glanced around, trying to get his bearings. Where were Olivia and Elena? He couldn’t see them, so hopefully, they were far enough away to be safe. Not that he figured they would stay away for long. Neither would abandon the fight to Gary and Nicoletta. They all were superheroes, regardless of what the game ranked them as. They were all fighters, and they wouldn’t turn their back on a battle.
Gary closed his eyes and focused on the volcano, on the part deeper beneath the surface. The earth was shifting, grinding together, allow more of the lava to creep upward from within the soil.
And there, a small patch of space where lava wasn’t. A cave of some kind. An underground tunnel system.
Smaug must have disappeared into one of them, but there were hundreds, maybe even thousands. Who knew where they all led. Who knew if they extended the entire length of the land mass. Maybe some would even bring him back to some of the underground towns.
Gary gritted his teeth. This was like finding a needle in a haystack, only this needle was deadly, poisonous, and ready to kill and kill again.
The fog grew thicker, and Gary’s lungs became tight. It was getting harder to breathe, but it seemed that the cooling of the ice might be enough to temper down the volcano. Maybe that was wistful thinking, but it might be going all right. That at least.
If we can stave off the volcano from erupting and get away with our lives intact, I guess we can call that a victory.
But that wasn’t what Gary wanted. He had to find Smaug. This madness had to end.
Leaving Nicoletta to handle the volcano, hopefully, Gary picked some of the tunnels and followed along them, trying to determine any sign of Smaug. It wasn’t any easier to telekinetically search them than it would’ve been to do so physically. He felt the war of the heat and the cold, and his body didn’t seem to know if he should be sweating or shivering. Actually, he was doing both.
Everywhere he looked, he saw no signs of the supervillain. The volcano was back to rumbling again, or was it just the ground itself and the source wasn’t the volcano after all? Gary couldn’t be sure. Nothing was making sense.
He was so confused that he opened his eyes to see Elena and Olivia rushing over toward him.
“What did we miss?” Olivia asked, the faster of the two.
The ground rumbled and split open. Sand spewed everywhere, some lava too, and on top of the molten liquid geyser was none other than Smaug. Correction, Smaug and Elena as the precise location where he had torn the sand apart was where she had been standing.
Gary knew that wasn’t a coincidence.
“Put her down!” Gary shouted as he flew into the air, making a beeline for them.
Smaug burst out laughing and tossed down something glittering, something too small to be Elena.
Her arm. One of her arms.
Gary’s heart felt as if it had been ripped out of his chest. He gave a wild yell and plowed straight into Smaug. Elena went flying, but Gary was too busy punching and kicking and biting Smaug to care.
The supervillain was blocking every blow, and Gary’s teeth hardly penetrated. Abruptly, Smaug altered from defense to offense, and most of his attacks did land, but Gary didn’t care. He was going to make Smaug pay. He tried to use his powers to hold Smaug still even as they soared through the air, fighting parallel to the ground, but he couldn’t concentrate. Gary’s blind anger and need for revenge were preventing him from using his powers. Or maybe he was too spent to do more than fly. He couldn’t be sure.
Smaug captured a punch from Gary in his hand and twisted the wrist painfully. Gary let out a bellow. He jerked free, did a flip, and kicked Smaug underneath the chin. The supervillain turned to the side so the blow was only glancing, and Gary gritted his teeth. He wiped the side of his mouth. Blood. He was bleeding. He was spent. He couldn’t handle much more.
“You will die,” Smaug said. “I promise you that.”
“Not today,” Gary said.
“Fleeing like a coward. I don’t tend to allow people to do that to me…. Twice,” Smaug said.
“That’s not how I remember it,” Gary spat out. Blood and saliva flew out of his mouth.
“I suppose you wouldn’t. The mind can play tricks on one.”
Gary didn’t want to waste energy on words. He attacked the supervillain, pouring everything into each punch and kick, but each one had less and less power behind it. He was fading fast.
Smaug, though, seemed to have more than enough energy. In fact, his body was growing hot. The heat radiating from his body was making it impossible for Gary to fight him. Each punch made his fist feel like it was on fire.
If Gary didn’t do something soon, he was going to be the one to die. He hardly had any energy at this point, and unlike Nicoletta
or Olivia, he couldn’t just cheat and quick log off the game.
Smaug didn’t know that though. If Gary could make it seem like he was giving up and logging off…
“Mommy’s calling, Gary said. “Dinner time. Gotta go.”
“Is she really calling you?” Smaug asked with a smirk. “Calling you from Heaven?”
Gary froze. What the fuck? How in the hell did Smaug know that? It was possible he was bluffing, just guessing, but Gary’s response alone had to be proof that what he had said was accurate.
Without a word, Gary dove back down toward the sand. Just before he collapsed against the gritty surface, he pulled up, and he rushed forward. His body just wanted him to fall down, to curl up, to sleep, to not move for a week, but he pushed forward. He had a goal in mind, a place where he might feel refreshed.
But it was a place he didn’t want Smaug to know about. He was going to have to elude the supervillain before he reached it.
Gary swiveled this way and that, zigzagging. Smaug bore down on him, and sudden heat rained down on Gary. The fucker was throwing fireballs at him. Gary managed to avoid all of them, and he watched as the fireballs smacked against the sandy surface below.
How could this prick have such boundless energy? Would he never tire out?
Gary wasn’t about to find out. He needed to ditch the fucker and split ways.
Maybe… a swarm of vampires. Yes. It would give Smaug the chance to level up entirely too much, but at this point, Gary just had to survive.
Lifting his elevation, Gary tried to find a horde, but none were in sight. All he could see was that tall, creepy castle. Dark mountains rose in the distance behind it, and Gary altered course to head there now.
Smaug followed close behind, and Gary interwove between the mountains and valleys, coming close to the castle. A heavy, oppressive aura of evil, almost a presence, weighed Gary down to the point that he could hardly fly. The main big bad of Vampire War must be contained within the castle.
Not caring about Smaug anymore, Gary struggled to fly away. He could hardly see where he was going at this point. He was so out of it, so ready to just stop, stop playing, stop breathing, stop living, but he managed. Somehow, someway, he managed. He reached the lost ocean and sank into the waters.
The mermaid lifted Gary to the surface before he could drown, but he felt only a little rejuvenated. His body had been pushed beyond the limit for too long.
Just then, a loud explosion rang out. The volcano?
Gary took to the air once more. The mermaid had been talking to him, but he hadn’t said a word to her then, and he didn’t now. He zoomed toward the smoking volcano. It hadn’t erupted, but three more pressure points from underground caves filled with lava had popped, just like the one Smaug had created.
With hardly a graceful landing, Gary touched his feet to the sand and began to run. Sand kicked up everywhere as he glanced all around. Elena. How could he have gotten so caught up in fighting Smaug that he had left her? Tears streamed down his face as he found her arm from where it had flown.
“Elena!” he shrieked. His voice hardly sounded like his. “Elena!”
He couldn’t find her. The lava sparks, the fog, the darkness, the shadows, he couldn’t see much of anything.
“Nicoletta! Olivia! Anyone, please!”
He sank to his knees, crying, trying to figure out how everything had gone so epically wrong.
No. He had to find her. Crying would solve nothing.
Gary stumbled to his feet and tripped over a rock.
Not a rock. Metal.
Not just metal. Elena.
She was lying there, on the sand, not moving. Breathing? He couldn’t tell.
Gary placed her arm where it should attach to her body and gave her a potion to drink. She coughed, her body shuddering, and she opened her eyes, sitting up.
But her arm wasn’t attached.
“Gary,” she whispered. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” he told her as soothingly as he could. “Lie back down.”
“I… Something’s not right,” she murmured, her head turning from side to side.
“Don’t worry,” he said almost angrily. “Everything is just right. It’s perfect.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, maybe drifting off to sleep.
Gary lifted her arm and placed it against her shoulder joint. It took everything in him to try to use his powers to connect her arm to her body. Once that was done, he forced her to sit up and rotated her arm. It seemed to be in working order, but he would have to wait until she was awake to know for sure.
He laid her back down as tenderly as he could, but she stirred and opened her eyes.
“Gary?” she whispered.
“Yes, Elena?”
“I had a terrible dream that my arm came off.”
He stood and held out her hand toward the arm he had just reattached. Wordlessly, she used that arm to grab his hand and stand.
“How are your arms?” he asked.
She rotated them and did a few arms moves and stretches. “They’re fine,” she said. “But it seemed so real.”
The ground rumbled, and he snatched her hand again. “We should get out of here before another lava geyser bursts.”
She nodded, and they raced away, just before a geyser ripped open right where they had been. Without speaking, they rushed back to the underground tavern where they had been living. Elena hesitated in the tavern, but Gary shook his head. Drinking would not be smart. Not now. Then again, he sorely could do for a drink or five.
Back in their room, Gary motioned for her to strip, and he carefully inspected every inch of her for injuries. There was nothing sexual about this, and although she was dented and bruised and cut and bloodied in spaces, he was confident she would survive this.
“You never should’ve come back,” he muttered as she dressed.
“Like there was any doubt,” she said with a snort.
Now, it was her turn to examine him. He already knew his injuries, and he was breathing tenderly. He suspected his lungs had some smoke in them, but hopefully, the waters had cleared that out enough for him to not be adversely affected by it. The last thing he needed to was to die from smoke inhalation, so to be safe, he took a potion. Then, he handed Elena another one that she didn’t bother to take.
“It wasn’t a dream, was it?” she asked. “Smaug ripped off my arm.”
“He ripped it off?” Gary gasped. “I thought the force of the geyser might’ve been enough.”
“No. He pulled me to him as soon as the sand gave way to the lava beneath me. It all happened too fast. I couldn’t even punch him or anything. He held me like this.” She demonstrated by having a solid grip around his waist. “With his other hand, he just ripped off my arm like I was a toy. Like I was plastic. I don’t know how he could have that much power to do that. How can he be this powerful? What happened with the volcano? With the others?”
“I don’t know. I think they logged off. I hope they did. I lost Smaug. I drew him away. I… I’m sorry, Elena. Forgive me. I didn’t mean to leave you behind. I just… I was so furious that he ripped off your arm, and I… I had to draw him away. I had to try to kill him. He needs to die. He must die!”
“Shh,” she said, cupping his face. “We survived. As far as we know, the other girls survived too. We hadn’t intended to face him, and, yes, our plan failed, but again, no one died, and no one lost any levels.”
“As far as we know,” he repeated darkly.
“It could have been worse.” She smiled wanly. “We still have each other.”
“We do.”
Elena pulled down on his neck and kissed him. As always, her passion and zeal were there, and she swayed closer, grinding against him. He allowed her to kiss him, for them to make out, but when she tried to pull him toward the bed, he pulled back.
It wasn’t fair to the others. It wasn’t fair to her. He had to stop playing them. Gary needed to be honest with them all.
; Right now, though, he could hardly stand. He sure as hell couldn’t get into a long and in-depth, serious talk about how he loved them all.
Instead, he collapsed onto the bed, not for sex but to sleep, and he was out in seconds.
Chapter Twenty-One
When Gary woke the next morning, the bed was empty. Elena wasn’t there. He quickly dressed. Before going to bed, he hadn’t bothered to put his superhero attire back on after Elena had him strip so she could check his injuries.
As he donned his cloak, he considered that he really needed to speak to the girls, and the sooner the better. He vowed to himself that he would talk to them all about his feelings. He loved them all, and he truly didn’t want to have to choose. He knew Elena was the most uncomfortable about that, and if she never could reconcile with that, he couldn’t push her. They would have to figure something else out. The key was to be open and honest. Together, they could determine what their romantic future would hold.
Still not feeling one hundred percent yet, Gary stumbled into the tavern. Elena wasn’t there. Hardly any gamers were. He ate a quick bite and then noticed a gamer Nicoletta had flirted with a few times.
Gary made his way over. “Have you seen Nicoletta this morning?” he asked.
The gamer looked up at him and nodded. “She and your two other lady friends went out about ten minutes or so before you came in here.”
Gary muttered a curse. “Thanks,” he said.
He rushed out of there to the surface. Why hadn’t they waited for him? At least the gamer had said all three of them were here. Nicoletta and Olivia had come back. He couldn’t deny that he had been just as worried about them as he had been Elena. Not that he could blame them for just cutting and running, but not knowing where they were hadn’t been easy on him, despite how quickly he had fallen asleep.
Swiftly, Gary made it up to the surface. He had slept for so long that it was night here on the land. Now that he knew how to distinguish night from day while underground, he had realized that every time he had fought the vampires had been during the nighttime. Granted, the day here lasted only a few hours, so most of the time was at night. Vampires moved freely then but only in certain patches in the world. That was a godsend because otherwise, it would have made the issue impossibly difficult.
