by Dante Steel
Fuck, he was so hard that he couldn’t help himself. Keeping his eyes closed, he stroked himself hard and fast. When he was just about to come, he opened his eyes and gasped.
Damn it all, Yuna was watching, but Gary ignored her and came a few seconds later. He stood, didn’t acknowledge her and left to clean up. When he returned, the room was empty. He left the building and had to leave the town before he could hear the girls talking nearby.
Gary joined them in the rolling field. Nicoletta was trying to breathe fire out of her mouth at Yuna.
“Uh, they aren’t legit fighting, are they?” he asked Elena.
“Just training. Don’t worry.” Elena smiled.
"Just making sure." After a moment, he asked, "We sure this is a good idea?"
“Would you rather us find those werewolves and train against them in a life or death situation?”
“Good point,” he muttered. “I’m glad her fire is back.”
“She is, too. Her having water really freaked her out.”
“Seriously? But fire scared her. Still does to some extent.”
“Yes, but she can’t deny that she’s connected to it. She said it had been stronger than ever before right before Smaug messed with our abilities. She felt lost without it.”
“I’m sure.” Gary winced. He hadn’t cared to not have telekinesis for that short amount of time.
“It’s going to be so different,” Elena murmured. “When we return home and don’t have powers anymore.”
“You’ll still be a superhero in my book,” Gary assured her. “Hey, Nicoletta! I thought you were going to try something new!”
Nicoletta shut her trap and shot him a glower. “I never did master using fire from my mouth.”
“You are full of hot air,” Elena joked.
“I was full of something else last night.” Nicoletta eyed Elena, and her gaze dropped to Elena’s fingers.
Gary gasped, and his cock hardened in an instant. “Did you two…”
“No.” Elena flushed. “We talked about fooling around, but we were too tired.”
“You could’ve woken me,” he said.
“You looked like you were enjoying yourself,” she said.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, saying all of our names.”
“I did?” he asked, surprised. “I didn’t know I talked in my sleep.”
Fuck. I hope I didn’t say Yuna’s name.
To change the subject, he called, “Yuna, do more than just fly!”
The next blast that Nicoletta sent out, Yuna didn’t spin out of the way. Instead, Yuna held out her hands and met the fire with fire. After the initial collision, Yuna’s fire transformed into water and extinguished Nicoletta’s fiery breath.
“There we go!” Elena cheered.
Nicoletta crossed her arms. “Harrumph.”
“Have you tried yet?” Gary asked Elena.
She shook her head. “I don’t see the point. My arms and legs are wholly metal now.”
“You should be even stronger now.”
“Yep.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what else I’ll be able to do. I still can’t wear anything metal. No jewelry or anything.”
“When did you try to wear jewelry?” he asked.
“I’m not with you twenty-four seven, am I?” She grinned and then frowned. “If my torso and chest and head won’t become metal too, what else can I do? Is this my max?”
“Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe you’ll be able to turn completely metal before the end.”
“No. I understand what Nicoletta means about connecting more with her fire. I could feel the metal underneath my upper thighs. It was waiting to come out. There’s no more metal.”
“I’m sure there’s something else you can do, something else Nicoletta can, and something else for Olivia, too. She can do more than just fly and fly others.”
“She can levitate others objects,” Elena pointed out.
“More than that,” Gary said stubbornly.
“What about you, Mr. Telekinesis?” Nicoletta asked, walking over. “What else can you—”
Without warning, she sent out two fiery blasts that nearly singed Gary. He was about to ask, “What the hell?” when he heard the low growls.
The werewolves had found them.
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Within seconds, the werewolves descended on Gary and the girls. He flung the beasts high into the air, and as they came howling down, Nicoletta or Yuna blasted them with fire. After they both attacked the same one, Nicoletta snapped, “Why don’t you use earth or water or something else?”
“You want me to rain on your parade?” Yuna asked.
“Basically,” Nicoletta muttered.
He glanced over, wishing to see Nicoletta crack a smile at Yuna’s joke, but Nicoletta was scowling. Worse, a werewolf was sneaking up behind her.
Fury seared through Gary, and he lashed out at the werewolf. Instead of using his telekinesis to fling the werewolf back or to create a forcefield to protect her, Gary used that anger. He channeled it and controlled the air around the werewolf’s throat. He constricted it tightly, forcing the air against the werewolf until the werewolf was forced onto its hind legs. Still, Gary channeled more of his anger, and a snap echoed loudly despite the howls all around him. Shocked, Gary pulled back and even retreated a step. He had choked the werewolf so badly that he had broken its neck.
Immediately, Gary tried to replicate that. It wasn’t an easy feat, so he moved onto something simpler. Instead of levitating the werewolves, he merely bound them to one spot, not allowing them to move. This made them perfect targets for any of the girls and also required less of his energy.
But more and more werewolves rushed toward them. No matter how many they killed, two or three times that would appear. Gary took flight long enough to see how many werewolves there were. The circle around them was so huge that the werewolves seemed to be a solid mass of fur and fury. He couldn’t begin to guess their number.
Gary continued to hold in place as many werewolves as he could. As soon as one went down, he found another to pin. Although he knew this kept them safe, he wanted to do more, and he grabbed Yuna’s dagger. Swiftly, he raced forward and buried the dagger deep into a werewolf’s ear.
“We cannot hold them back forever,” Yuna said.
“We aren’t looking to hold them back,” Elena said, eager and determined. “We need to kill them all.”
“Can’t you just do that earth thing and crack open the ground and drop them again?” Nicoletta asked.
“I can try,” Yuna said.
Why did she sound so doubtful? Gary didn’t like her tone at all.
He glanced her way and had to duck to avoid blood spatter from a werewolf Elena’s fist had devastated. “You can do it,” he encouraged Yuna.
The Japanese woman hovered in the air and held out her hands. A faint brown glow appeared, and the earth began to crack around them in a slowly forming, jagged circle. The hole wasn’t deep or wide enough.
“Too weak?” Nicoletta mocked.
Gary bristled. “Now isn’t the time,” he said.
“You’re right,” Nicoletta agreed. “It’s not time for her to fuck this up. You have earth, right? So use it!”
Yuna’s face turned red. From embarrassment? Shame? Effort? The werewolves were able to jump over the crack, and it wasn’t spacious enough for them to fall into.
“We can’t just rely on her,” Gary said. “We have to keep fighting.”
“Step back,” Nicoletta commanded.
The moment Gary and Elena complied, Nicoletta opened her mouth and expelled a tremendous amount of fire. Inside the perimeter of Yuna’s earth circle, a fire wall went up that stood just taller than Gary. Nicoletta turned and turned and turned to create her own circle.
She dropped to one knee, panting, her forehead covered in sweat. “There,” she said grimly. “That should help to keep them back. Yuna! Once your crevice is finished, wide and deep, let
me know. I’ll call back the fire, and they’ll rush forward right into it.”
A trap. Perfect. Gary grinned at her.
“Gary, catch her!” Elena shouted.
Yuna was plummeting, drifting along and heading toward the firewall.
In an instant, Gary dashed over to her, running and then flying. His arms wrapped around her waist. She was so tiny, so pure and innocent in some ways. They were corrupting her. All of this fighting, all of their jokes and innuendos. He couldn’t blame her for flirting.
“She’s unconscious,” he said.
“Why?” Elena asked. She furrowed her brows in confusion. “She’s always had the highest number of powers. She wasn’t training that hard or long with Nicoletta. There’s no reason for her to be out of commission.”
“There’s no reason for her to be here if she can’t help fight.” Nicoletta stood and cracked her knuckles. “We have to end this. We have to kill all of the werewolves. Elena’s right. If we have to worry about protecting her, we won’t be able to focus. We’ll be torn.”
Gary’s blood ran cold. “What are you saying?”
“You need to fly here somewhere that she’ll be safe,” Elena said. “We’ll hold down the fort until you get back.”
“I wish we had a real fort,” Gary grumbled. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you two here. Can’t I just put a forcefield around her? I can even levitate her and—”
“You want her to get struck by lightning if Smaug shows up?” Nicoletta asked angrily. “Just hurry back.”
Gary nodded. Already the werewolves were trying to jump through the flames. They weren’t afraid of the fire. It would be better to stop arguing and listen.
He rushed away to the inn and paid the innkeeper. Normally, that would heal the character, but Yuna wasn’t a gamer. She was human. So far, the werewolves had been avoiding the town, sticking entirely within the field. Yuna should be safe here. He placed her on a bed and then covered her entire body with a forcefield. To test its strength, he tried to stab her leg with her dagger. The blade vibrated on contact with the forcefield and glanced off several inches above her person. Excellent. Even if the werewolves did head this way, Yuna should be safe.
As he zoomed back to the fight, Gary realized a part of him remained with Yuna. He only had to focus on her, and he could tell she was safe. Good. If anything happened, he would be able to know to fly her the hell out of there.
About twenty werewolves had made their way through the firewall even though it still burned. Gary landed on top of one of them and sank the dagger into another’s neck. It jolted but didn’t die and turned its head to snap at him. While it was distracted, Elena rushed over, grabbed its head, and twisted. Without even a howl, the werewolf slumped in her hands. Gary yanked back the dagger and shoved it into the ear of the one he was riding.
Half of the werewolves were on fire, but they were unfazed. Damn it. Why wouldn’t they burn?
The moon rose high above them, full and powerful, yet the night was illuminated more from Nicoletta’s flames. She was more keeping the werewolves at bay from attacking her rather than killing them.
“Use your weapons,” Gary said, rushing over to help her.
“I don’t want to let them get that close,” she snapped. She brushed her hair back, and he saw she was bleeding from huge gashes on her arms and neck.
“Damn,” he said. “Let me heal you.”
“I don’t need—duck!”
He listened, and a fireball blasted the werewolf behind him. “Nice.”
“My fire isn’t powerful enough,” she said, sounding peeved.
“It’s not you. For whatever reason, werewolves don’t seem to mind the fire, but they won’t get past this.” His blue circles appeared, and he created a dome that encased them both.
A werewolf rushed them and glanced off the forcefield. Another one, running faster than the first, collided with it and bounced back into the fire.
Nicoletta smiled wanly. “Heal me fast.”
“I have to make sure you don’t get infected,” he said.
“I was ready to just burn it,” she said. “It happened right after you left.”
He spied how blood-soaked the ground was beneath their feet.
“You would have burned yourself?” he asked, appalled.
“To continue to fight? To try to end this madness? If I had to, I would’ve. I—” She swayed, and he caught her. “Dizzy,” she mumbled.
Gary didn’t say another word, not even to comfort her. He wasn’t comfortable yet with the healing, and more time passed than he would have liked, but he was able to reach into her body and locate the torn muscles and skin fibers. Everything had been severed so severely that it was easy to tug the pieces back together and telekinetically reseal the veins and muscles and tissue.
By the time he was done, Nicoletta was already pushing him away. The next blast of fire she sent out had a blue tinge to it. That werewolf shrieked and tried to roll, but this particular fire did burn him. Whether or not it would have killed him, Gary wasn’t sure because Elena raced over and pointed her short sword at it.
"Take that, wolf bait!" Elena shouted as a beam shot out from the tip of the weapon. The werewolf twitched and fell down, still smoldering but dead.
“What was that?” Nicoletta asked.
Elena grinned. “I don’t know, but I can somehow cause a beam to emit from the tip of the short sword.”
“Give your sword to Gary. Gary, give her your dagger.” Nicoletta handed Elena her daggers. “Twin weapons the same size would be better, right?”
Elena clashed the blades together, and a spark flew. “Hell yeah!”
Gary accepted the short sword and dismantled the forcefield around himself and Elena. After checking and seeing that Yuna was all right, Gary nodded to the girls and jumped back into the fray.
It had been so easy to send the saber-like teeth from one foe to the other that Gary opted to try that with the short sword. The hilt of the blade proved a problem. The crossbar was far too wide for the puncture wound the blade created. The gliding through one foe to another hadn't been so simple and easy with the fang because of its sleek, dual-sided sharp edges. Unfortunately, Gary didn't have anymore.
“Elena, do you have any more fangs?” he asked.
Unfortunately, Elena was too busy to pay him any attention. The emission beams from her daggers were impressive to see, and she was an amazing fighter, so long as nothing happened to her hands. He would never forgive himself if, when they returned home, she couldn’t decorate at her bakery.
Not that it was easy to see her as a baker and businesswoman. Then again, all he wanted to do was see her open her shop.
For that to happen, they had to survive this onslaught of werewolves. Clearly, this was more than just the shifters from the cursed village.
Gary used his power to stab the werewolves. They were fierce, powerful foes, and he had to attack them over and over again before they would fall down. There had to be a faster way to do it.
He did his best to stab and choke different werewolves at the same time, but that proved overly tiring. The last thing Gary could do was expend all of his energy too early.
Desperately, Gary tried to think of something else he could do that would help him, help them. Bending spoons. That wouldn't help. Nothing would other than just continuing to kill.
Gary stabbed a werewolf in the eye and then sliced off another’s tongue. He choked the life from a third and then shoved shut the mouth of a fourth that had been about to latch its fangs into Elena’s arms.
“Nicoletta!” Elena shrieked.
Gary couldn’t see the Hispanic. Too many wolves were surrounding the spot Elena was staring at. Before Gary could fling the werewolves away, a blast of fire spread out from the center. The werewolves were forced back, straight into Elena’s metal beam emissions, her kicks, Gary’s chokes, and his short sword.
Somehow, Nicoletta had surrounded herself in flames, both hovering slightly
above her person and on the ground all around her.
“Whoa. That’s like a fire aura!” Elena exclaimed.
Nicoletta slowly walked toward them, forcing the werewolves back. The fringes of the fire turned blue.
“Gary, get Elena in the air now!” Nicoletta shouted.
Gary complied, and the flames wholly turned blue. With a wild shriek, Nicoletta threw out her arms. The fire surrounding her flew out in a fiery ring, torching everything in its path. The rest of the werewolves, roughly fifty more, all burned to death so terribly and completely that their bodies had been reduced to ashes by the time Gary and Elena touched down.
“You did it,” a quiet voice said from above.
Gary smiled, thrilled to see Yuna. She landed beside them and hugged them all. The hug between Nicoletta and herself lasted half a second if that, but then another voice rang out.
“You killed my shifters. Now, I will kill you.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gary gritted his teeth. “Smaug.”
The fucker smiled evilly as only despicable villains could. “Yes. Did you honestly think I would have my pets find you and not use that knowledge?”
Gary bit his tongue. Smaug hovered in the air on the back of the same werewolf as before, the leader of the cursed shifters. He must have run back to Smaug with his tail between his legs when the other werewolves had been attacking Gary and his friends.
“It’s amazing,” Smaug said. “How incredibly arrogant and foolish you are. I can do anything I wish. This world is mine to control.”
“It is not yours. It’s not anyone’s. It’s a game!” Gary shouted.
“Is that all it is? No, I think not. Not for me and not for you. You are all in the game. None of you are avatars.” Smaug made a point of glancing around. “I noticed that your one friend who is merely a gamer is not here. Did I kill her a few times? About forty or so times. One more time. If I had killed her one more time, she would have been done.”
Gary swallowed hard. He hadn’t realized just how close Olivia had come to being done. Why hadn’t she said anything?
In a way, she had. By leaving the game, Olivia had ensured they wouldn’t worry about keeping her safe. They would focus on surviving and nothing else.
