by Dante Steel
But Gary still worried about her.
“You’re nothing but a bastard,” Nicoletta said.
“Oh, yes, the firebird whose wings have been clipped. You did not like having water, now, did you?”
Nicoletta’s face burned red. She clenched her fists but said nothing.
“And you.” Smaug turned to Elena. “You think you are so powerful. You stand up for yourself and others even back in the real world, didn’t you? But without your metal here, you’re nothing.”
“A superhero is more than her or his powers,” Elena said coolly.
“I’m sure Gary disagrees with you there.” Smaug winked at Gary. “A pity that you got to the Runed Ruby before I did. I would have enjoyed telekinesis far more than you ever will.”
“I disagree with you,” Gary countered.
“Oh, but there is so much more you could do with it! You don’t deserve that power.” Smaug narrowed his eyes.
“So why don’t you give it to yourself, then?” Gary challenged.
Me and my big mouth.
Smaug merely laughed. “A wizard is better, don’t you think? Just ask your newest friend here.”
Gary slowly glanced at Yuna. She lifted her chin defiantly.
“If you mean to compare you and me,” Yuna said, “don’t bother. We are nothing alike.”
“Ah, so you say, but… You know it to be true.”
“You aren’t her father,” Elena said.
Smaug laughed. “Star Wars. How quaint. You do realize there is more to life than movies?”
“You should talk,” Gary snapped. “You willingly entered a game. Why?”
“Why shouldn’t I?” Smaug asked. “I can do as I wish here.”
“Including killing people,” Elena said bitterly. “You are nothing but a—”
“—an innocent bystander. You all tried to kill me, or did you forget? You thought I was dead. You were wrong, thankfully, but you attempted to murder me.”
“Murder? Ha!” Nicoletta rolled her eyes. Flames burned her hands at her side. “You were trying to kill us!”
“If I fought back it was only for the sake of self-defense.”
“And the dragons?” Gary asked. “The vampires? All of the creatures you sicced on us? That was just preemptive?”
“Precisely.” Smaug smiled.
He wasn’t fighting them. Was he legit waiting for them to strike him first so he could claim self-defense? But that shouldn’t matter. They weren’t leaving the game anytime soon.
Gary winced. When had he come to accept that?
“You want us dead,” Elena said. “Admit it.”
“Certainly. You are my enemies. We are in a game. You kill enemies in games.” Smaug smiled again.
“You’re insane,” Nicoletta shouted.
“Perhaps.” Smaug eyed them all and focused on Gary. “I must commend you, Gary. You were inspired when you tried to seduce Loki and distract him so you could kill him. Well done. You do enjoy seducing anyone and everyone.”
Gary flared his nostrils. “That’s not true.”
“That would never have happened in the real world, now, would it? You having so many women fawning over you? Your little harem. I’m sorry for breaking it up, but there’s a new girl here for you, so you can still have three at once after all.”
Incensed, Gary took a step forward.
Elena gripped his shoulder and shook her head. “He’s baiting you like you did Loki.”
Gary knew she spoke the truth, but he almost didn’t care. Here was Smaug. They could kill him. They were all at their strongest.
But they were missing Olivia.
That didn’t matter. Kill Smaug, and then Yuna could focus on getting them out without any distractions. They would be able to go home, potentially soon. Then he could be reunited with Olivia and see her in person. It would be wonderful.
So long as he could keep his temper under control.
“Would you rather I spare the girls?” Smaug asked in a mocking tone. “I could. I’ll just kill you and take your harem for myself.”
“Go fuck a tree,” Nicoletta snapped.
“Go fuck yourself,” Elena retorted.
“You might have to remove a rib or two and suck yourself because that’s all you’re gonna get,” Gary said.
Smaug smirked. “Oh, I don’t think so. I can be rather persuasive. I’m a real charmer once you get to know me.”
“You’re as charming as an eel,” Nicoletta said.
Their nemesis ignored her. “Gary, how many times have you masturbated—”
“We don’t need to talk about that,” Gary protested.
“Or fucked—”
“I don’t fuck,” Gary said.
“Excuse me. Make love. There, is that corrected?” Smaug laughed. “You don’t love any of those girls. Not one of them.”
“You don’t know me,” Gary said. “You don’t know love. Not my fault your mother didn’t love you, or that you didn’t love her.”
That was it. Smaug couldn’t hold back any longer. The ground beneath Gary’s feet rumbled, and he shot into the air. The ground rose up and smacked into his legs.
Although that smarted, Gary zoomed straight toward Smaug. Down below, Elena was trying to get under the fucker. At least she had a way to fight long distance now.
Nicoletta’s face was pale. When the last werewolf had died, she had allowed her fires to fade away. Now, she brought back her fire aura, and just in time too because Smaug released his werewolf. The creature fell to the ground and immediately chased down Nicoletta.
As for Yuna, she raced Gary toward Smaug. The blasts from Elena’s daggers struck Smaug first, but Smaug merely laughed as if tickled. He sent an icy blast toward Gary, who dodged it and tried to telekinetically choke Smaug. Somehow, though, the air around Smaug seemed impervious to Gary’s control. He couldn’t choke Smaug.
Gary sped ahead of Yuna and tackled Smaug. The foe seemed like a metal wall though, and they hardly moved backward at all.
“You are such a pathetic waste,” Smaug said in a mocking tone. “A trash collector. Worthless. Orphan. You aren’t meant to have anything at all. Your life is futile.”
“My life? No. My future is bright,” Gary said. “I’m not here because I—”
“You aren’t here because you’re a genius. Your being here is nothing more than a mistake.”
“Takes one to know one,” Gary muttered.
“So mature.” Smaug placed a hand on Gary’s chest. Yellow sparks appeared, and Gary had no choice but to drop down several feet to avoid being blasted with lightning.
By avoiding the strike, the bolt headed straight for Yuna. She held out her hand, and the lightning stopped in its tracks. Her sleek, black hair rose all around her from the electricity, and then the charge disappeared, and the lightning faded away.
“Ah, a worthy foe at least.” Smaug sent out icicles, fiery blasts, and gusts of wind. Yuna avoided, reflected, or countered each one. The two were evenly matched.
Gary risked a glance at the other girls. Elena had no choice but to help Nicoletta against the last werewolf. It fought as if possessed, and Gary could hardly bear to watch. The claws and fangs were bright and shining silver, flashing all over the place. The girls were going to get hurt.
“Go and help them,” Yuna said grimly.
After hesitating only a moment and observing Yuna ward off another lightning bolt, Gary zoomed down to the ground. He landed on his feet, his cloak fluttering behind him. His hand outstretched, Gary reached for the air around the wolf’s throat with his power.
Without warning, the werewolf whirled around and just missed chomping Gary’s fingers.
Gary lifted the foe until the beast was level with their heads. Elena blasted it with her dagger beams, and Nicoletta singed its nose and fur. Once the beams and the fire killed the werewolf, Gary flew the beast as a fiery bomb toward Smaug. Yuna was holding her own, but Smaug did not seem fazed at all by her attacks. The Japanese wo
man, on the other hand, seemed to be tiring again. Whatever issues she had was affecting her still.
Yuna reached down, and a huge clump of earth rose up. Smaug shifted back just enough to avoid being hit, but Gary grinned. She hadn’t intended to hit him. It was merely a diversion.
Gary had the still-burning werewolf continue to rise, hiding it behind that tower of soil. Yuna jerked to the side, and Gary whipped the werewolf around and slammed it directly into Smaug.
Immediately, from deep within himself, Gary tapped into the dead werewolf and tore it to shreds, causing its bones to become projectiles that devastated Smaug to the point that the fucker lowered himself to the ground.
Grinning, Gary raced to rejoin the fight. This would be it. He knew it. Once and for all, they would kill Smaug.
But Gary was wrong, and Gary wasn’t racing fast enough, and Gary wasn’t strong enough, either.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Before Smaug could attack, Gary quickly encased all four of them in forcefields. Elena was blasting Smaug, but that remained ineffective as the fucker stalked toward Nicoletta.
Gary threw his short sword and used his telekinesis to have it pick up speed. Smaug must’ve realized because he sent up a wall of earth behind him. Gary tried to have the blade go around it, but the angle was wrong, and the weapon fell to the ground with a clatter.
He darted forward. Nicoletta and Smaug were engaged in a fiery battle, twin blasts fighting for supremacy. Hers was bluish, but his had a strange purple tint to it.
Gary planted his feet and reinforced the forcefield around Nicoletta, but it wasn’t enough. Gary was too weak.
Without warning, Smaug’s fire turned to water, dousing Nicoletta’s flames and then solidifying into a long icicle spear that landed around Nicoletta. The ice expanded to form a dome around her, trapping her.
“Yuna, save her!” Gary shouted. Through the purplish ice, he could already see that Nicoletta was shivering. She appeared to be trying to conjure her fire, but he saw no sparks.
Yuna raced over. Smaug flicked his fingers, and Yuna cartwheeled and slammed into the ground, not moving. What the hell? Had Smaug used the wind to mow her down?
Elena nodded to Gary and jerked her head toward Yuna. Gritting his teeth, Gary complied. Yuna was already coming back around to consciousness, and he helped her over to the ice dome.
“Save her,” Gary repeated, and he started to turn back to Elena and Smaug.
"Stay here," Yuna said. "I can't heal. You have to if she's too far gone."
“Don’t say that!” Gary snapped.
Yuna placed her hands on the ice, and smoke wafted. Water gushed from the melting ice, and Gary turned his attention back to the fight.
Elena ducked beneath a fiery blast and then jumped to the side to avoid a lightning strike. With her being metal, being hit by a bolt would be fatal.
“Almost there,” Yuna muttered. “Here, Gary, pull her out. Hurry!”
Nicoletta’s body seemed frozen. He jerked back, shocked by her coldness. She felt like death.
Gary reached inside of her. Her heart was beating. She was breathing. All in all, she appeared fine.
And that was when he reached her hands. Her fingers were frostbitten to the point of being ready to fall off.
Worst of all, he had no fucking idea how to heal that.
“Stay here,” he told Nicoletta.
Without waiting to ensure she complied, he rushed over to Smaug and Elena in time to watch Smaug accept a slash to his arm. To counter, Smaug used a wind blast to knock her off her feet and then stomped on her leg. A loud snap rang out followed by a shriek.
He had just broken Elena’s leg.
Fuck. They had already been short Olivia. Now, Nicoletta was out of commission, and Elena was hurt, too.
Yuna once more dueled Smaug, the two trading fiery blasts, wind bombs, watery spirals, and more. Gary would have loved to join in, but he dashed over to Elena.
“Don’t worry,” he told her. “I’ll help you.”
Elena gritted her teeth and nodded, exhaling through her nose.
Gary placed his hands on either side of the break. He could bring the two halves together, but nothing he was doing could get them to fuse together. There were no veins, no muscles, no skin here. It was pure metal. How she could walk, he didn’t know.
“Heat,” he muttered. “You need heat to have your leg reattached. Stay here.”
Gary stood and then telekinetically flew Nicoletta over.
“If you can, apply just enough heat to fuse her leg back together,” Gary said.
“I’ll try,” Nicoletta said, but her fire sputtered, hardly powerful at all. Maybe that was a blessing. Too high heat might cause the metal to warp.
Leaving the two wounded girls, Gary dashed over to where Smaug and Yuna were still fighting. It almost felt strange to run on his legs instead of flying, but his heart was pounding, his adrenaline high, and he was driven by anger and hatred. Smaug must pay for all the chaos and devastation and evil he had bestowed upon the world, both in real life and in the game.
Just then, Gary felt the air around him breeze by. He glanced over to see Olivia there. No. That couldn't be. He blinked a few times and looked again. Sure enough, Olivia flew beside him.
“Did you miss me?”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“That’s a fine how do you do,” she said. “Unreal. Going after that rat bastard without me.”
“But you, you’re…”
“We’re in this together.”
“But you’re too low of a level.”
Olivia just flew ahead of him.
And then disappeared.
What the fuck? Was he seeing things, after all? Hallucinating? Could Smaug get into his head?
“You should be happy,” Smaug was saying to Yuna as Gary finally neared within hearing range. The two had been fighting so fiercely that they had driven themselves a fair distance away from the others, a blessing.
“Happy?”
“That I haven’t stripped you all of your powers.”
“I would like to see you try that again,” Yuna snapped.
Gary blinked. He hadn’t heard Yuna so angry before, and he had to admit that he enjoyed hearing it geared toward Smaug.
Smaug’s clothes were torn and dirty, covered in the entrails of the werewolf Gary had exploded. Gary tried to do the same thing with Smaug, but he couldn’t even get inside of him. It was as if Smaug was nothing more than an empty shell.
Again, Gary tried to choke him, but that failed too.
“Pathetic,” Smaug said.
Gary grew furious. He slammed down a forcefield on Smaug, trying to bind him and prevent him from moving or talking or even breathing.
But Smaug merely laughed.
All of the earth Smaug and Yuna had used gave Gary ample material to work with. He flung rocks at Smaug, the short sword, everything and anything. Smaug evaded most as he continued to meet Yuna’s onslaught, her fire with his water, her water with his air, her air with his earth, and so on.
Just then, a sleek, large bird slammed into the back of Smaug’s head. A diamond-shaped tail wrapped around his neck. The stench of fresh blood filled the air.
Smaug brought up his hands, glowing, ready to burn the bird, but Yuna doused his fire before it could even appear. Suddenly, another stench seared Gary’s noise, that of dung. The bird had shit right on Smaug’s face.
Wild with rage, Smaug threw the bird. Gary burst out laughing as the bird flew away.
“You will die for this,” Smaug said.
“Yeah, dying would be nice. Anything to get away from that smell.” Yuna waved her hand in front of her nose.
Smaug held his hands before him and formed an orb of lightning, fire, and ice. Gary’s forcefield was enough to send it back toward Smaug, but the fucker pushed it back toward Gary. No, not Gary. Toward Nicoletta, Elena, and Olivia.
Fuck.
Gary had to use every bit of his
telekinetic power to move the orb. He sent it high into orbit, and it exploded above them like fireworks.
Already, Smaug was sending more out, one after the other. Yuna and Gary did their best to try to shove them back toward Smaug, but one got past Gary and exploded just behind him. His forcefield took the brunt of the blast, but he was hurting, badly. One hit Yuna but thankfully didn’t explode. Several hit the ground, causing the earth to quake.
Then, Smaug changed things up and blasted them with a wind so fiercely that both Yuna and Gary were forced to the ground.
“We’re going to die,” Yuna shouted.
“No. You’re going to unleash the virus,” Gary said.
“But—”
“Go. I’ll do my best to keep him occupied.”
“But—”
“If you die, we all die,” he said firmly.
Yuna nodded and flew off.
“Ah, is the new girl nothing but a coward?” Smaug called.
“She’s not the new girl,” Gary said firmly, flying back up toward him.
“Oh, yeah? Is she the latest addition to your harem?” Smaug mocked.
“She’s my friend,” Gary said.
“Some friend runs off to save her hide when you’re getting your ass handed to you.” Smaug tsked with his tongue.
“Yeah, well, at least I don’t smell like ass.”
In response, Smaug slammed wind straight into Gary’s face. He took the blow, cartwheeling through the air. As he spun, he saw a flash of silver down below.
The werewolves. Their fangs. While not as long as the sabre-toothed tigers’ fangs, werewolves’ fangs would still make a decent weapon.
Gary telekinetically yanked out two fangs and sent them spiraling toward Smaug’s back. Immediately, he yanked out more and more. The first two connected with Smaug’s ass cheeks, and Gary sank toward the ground, moving closer toward the girls. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold Smaug back, especially as the next two pierced right next to the first.
Smaug let out a fierce yell. He held out his hands and…
…nothing. Smaug stopped moving outside of him breathing and his tongue wagging.
