by David Petrie
"It just said that there was a one-time event here. An evil race of creatures had trapped two dragons, and we had to set them free to restore balance or something like that. It said there were rewards."
"How'd you get here?" Max growled as he fired blindly at three players behind him, hitting them all with the sheer quantity of bullets that poured from his gun.
"It came with a teleport crystal," the kid responded, trying to get his footing as Max held him down.
He pulled the player away from the now broken fruit stand and threw him to the ground. "You idiots!" He leaned over him. "If those dragons get free, this world will end, and my friend will die!"
The kid's eyes widened, clearly unsure if he had fallen into something real or if Max was just good at role-playing. "What can I do?" He shoved himself up from the stone, changing sides.
Max leaned in close and breathed his words at the boy, his low tone still even more frightening than his yelling, "You pick up your sword and protect this city."
At a loss, the kid said nothing back. Without another word, Max disappeared into the fray, leaving the boy alone to choose a side.
Suddenly, an explosion detonated at the far end of the field, taking out one of the shrines. The chain of lanterns that surrounded the center went dark. There was no stopping Carver’s quest now.
Max scrambled back to his partner, her helpless body still clutching her chest in pain as she gasped for air. He commanded the others to form a wall around her. They obeyed without question. There was no way in hell he was going to let the army of fools that charged toward them lay a finger on his friend.
To his surprise, the remaining deru guards abandoned their pointless defense of the other three shrines and fell back toward him, forming a second defensive wall around the party. No, not around the party. Around Kira. It was as if they recognized she was important.
Hundreds of players surrounded them at once after they finished with the remaining crystals, and with time still remaining on his limitless ammunition, Max fought alongside the deru forces. Farn and Kegan followed while Ginger fell back to Corvin as a last line of defense.
A broken shard of crystal, snapped from the head of one of the city's guards, clattered to the ground near at Max's feet as he and his team fought with everything they had. In the end, hits were taken, and ground was lost. Without a healer, it was only a matter of time. Then things got worse.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Kira's heart raced faster than ever before, her fingertips feeling like ice against her skin. No matter how heavy she breathed, she couldn't get enough air. Her lungs ached, and her throat burned as the voices of Farn and Max reached her weakly through the sounds of battle that surrounded her.
She felt Max slap her. His hand was wet against her cheek. She realized she was crying. It made her want to shrink into nothing as tears pooled around her face. Despite that, she also wanted desperately to see him. She just couldn't open her eyes. In fact, she couldn't move at all. It was like she had lost all control of her body. She needed to respond. To say something. To do anything. But she couldn't. She just laid there, frozen in place, gasping for air as war raged around her.
Something warm and soft fell across her body as she heard Corvin's voice telling her everything would be okay. His words wavered in the middle, and he let out a choking sound as if he was in pain.
Farn yelled in the distance, sounding angrier than Kira had thought possible since the Shield had always been so kind to her. Then the sound of endless gunfire drowned out everything else.
Her friends were all fighting. No, not just that, they were fighting for her, and she could do nothing to help. She was like a lead weight tied around their necks as they sank together. The very idea that Carver thought she could do anything was absurd. She couldn't believe how wrong he was.
The ground rumbled as the sound of gunfire faded, only to be replaced by the roars of centuries-old rage. Sounds reverberated through the ground to her shaking body, and heat blasted her skin. The fire was then snuffed out by a freezing cold that chilled her to the core. Hundreds of screams filled her ears; many cut off midway, silenced in an instant. Then the world faded, towers falling somewhere far away.
She curled into a fetal position as her mind ran wild, still lost in pain and darkness. This is it, she thought as despair set in. The fabric of her dress coiled around her legs as she curled tighter. She was disappearing. Half of her just wanted to let go, while the other half screamed at her not to. She searched herself for something. Something to grab onto. Something to bring her back. A thought, a sound, a memory. Anything.
It was okay, none of it was real anyway. Or was it? She needed to go back to the fight, but she felt like, maybe, she was free, like she might wake up in her body back in her rig. A body that was strong and real. That was what she wanted, wasn't it? It would be so easy.
She wasn't sure which body she wore. Maybe both. She couldn't tell. They both felt the same anyway.
Then, through it all, she felt something. Her hands pressed against her chest, one overlapping the other. On her finger sat something cold. Something she couldn't let go of. It bound her to her friends, to the world, to everything. She couldn't leave. Not yet. She focused on the thought, on the others fighting to save her, and on herself at their center.
With all of her will, she pulled away from the peace of the dark toward the fire, ice, and violence. She inhaled, the pain in her chest fading as hot air filled her lungs. She opened her eyes and felt the system's resistance fall away from her mind. Something flooded around her, waves caressing everything that she was, accepting her will as a part of something larger. Her mind flowed into it.
Chapter Fifty-Three
The fighting slowed to a stop as the contract timer on Max's sleeve reached zero, the slides of his pistols locking back empty. A deep rumble drifted across the battlefield, followed by the sharp crack of fracturing stone. The shell of rock that encased the two dragon kings crumbled, falling in large shards as the two Nightmares, each a horseman of war, began to move.
Players fled in all directions to escape the debris that flaked off the beasts as they took in their first breaths. The ones that didn't make it were simply crushed. Max watched as confusion settled on the faces all around him. Some of them looked stunned, clearly not understanding what they had done. Others, the slower minds in the mix, actually cheered when they saw that their mission to free the dragons had been successful. They stood in awe as the two enormous beasts shook off their bodies.
The towering kings of ice and fire looked to each other as if unsure how to start after waiting for so long. It didn't take them long to figure it out. The sound of their roars shook the ground they stood on as if the entire city was quaking in fear. The players stepped back at a loss of what it meant. Then it was clear.
Fire engulfed entire towers as one of the dragons attacked, its jaws snapping at the other with the built-up frustration of their long but fictional slumber. With one stumble of its leg, dozens of players were crushed. A second later, a hundred more were killed as a tail whipped across half the city's center. Players ran for their lives as their mistake became clear, only to find that there were no exits. Max noticed a few mages attempt to teleport, looks of frustration and fear on each of their faces, finding their spells blocked. There was no escape.
The towers above burned and fell, crashing into the ones below in a cacophony of destruction and death. Screams from the players blended with the deru's as the city was ripped apart at the seams.
The fighting stopped completely as players scattered, the flood of panicked adventurers making it difficult for Max to move in the chaos as the dragons leveled half of the city in under a minute. He struggled to find the others, his sense of direction getting thrown off as he struggled to find a safe path through. Then, just when he thought he caught a glimpse of Farn and the others, the sound of steel buckling met his ears. He turned, the shadow of a tower consuming his surroundings. It fell in what seemed li
ke slow motion, hitting another on its way down. The only thing he could do was run. He didn't look back as debris flew over his head like a wave in the ocean.
Blasts of ice and fire erupted all around him as he lost sight of the others. He checked his stat-sleeve. They were alive, barely. It was only a matter of time before the War Dragons fight reached them. They couldn't win. His thoughts fell back to Kira. He had to get her out of there.
He frantically shoved people out of the way as the last of the deru guards came into view. He was almost there. Then one of the warring kings crashed into the ground behind him. He turned just in time to see its massive head slam against the cobblestones a dozen feet away, smashing them to rubble. The other dragon's jaws clamped down on its throat as it screamed out in pain. The force of its breath blew him off his feet, throwing him to the ground like he was no more than an ant. No, worse, he was nothing. All the bullets in the world wouldn't be enough to stop them. He closed his eyes, expecting the worst.
Then a sound rang out, crisp and clear, like a string from Kira's harp, somehow still audible over the din of the chaos. It hung in the air as if singing a single note of a song. Along with it, a wave of invisible energy swept past him like nothing that Max had felt before. It was clean and soothing. He opened his eyes to see the dumbfounded faces of the players surrounding him. Even stranger, they had stopped running. The War Dragons would be on him in seconds, but they weren't. In fact, they seemed to hang there, frozen in time. The air grew still, almost silent.
He wasn't going to question it. He ignored everything and scampered back to his feet, sprinting to Kira's side. The deru parted to let him through. He stopped short as soon as he met her violet eyes.
She looked calm, her face tranquil as a nonexistent breeze ruffled the semi-sheer fabric of her dress around her. Corvin sat on the ground supporting himself with his hands, looking up at her as if stunned. She glanced down at him, making contact with his left eye. It had no effect. An electric quality filled the air, growing stronger as Max approached. She looked normal with no in-game animation or sound to accompany her other than the fading chime, but it was clear to him that she’d stopped the dragons. Hell, even the flames that burned around her had paused mid-flicker as if locked away in time.
Her eyes returned to him, and in them, he saw power. She didn't speak, which would have worried him, but something inside him told him it was okay. Instead, she gave him a knowing smile. Then she shut her eyes tight, her nose scrunched up adorably.
A seconded note sounded along with another pulse of strange energy. Then everything just felt right.
Max couldn't believe his eyes. The fire and ice were nowhere to be seen. He glanced back at the dragons. They were gone too - as were the hundreds of players that had surrounded him a second before. It was as if they'd never been there to begin with. He blinked twice taking in the scene.
The towers were all back where they belonged, the deru continuing with their day safe and sound. The destruction of the battle was just a memory.
Max turned back to Kira. He tried to speak, but the words got lodged in his throat.
She smiled back at him again as if she already knew what he wanted to say. Then she collapsed.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Wyatt pushed himself up from his rig, struggling to balance himself as he shoved through the fog that hung over his waking mind. His eyes burned, and his mouth tasted foul. Beside him, a wall of nurses blocked his best friend from view. He tried to stand but almost fell, still out of it from his time as Max back in Noctem. Across the aisle, he saw Marisa pushing her Somno unit off her head as well.
The others remained motionless, having stayed inside with Kira in case she woke up there.
He got to his feet with a few frantic motions and tried to push his way into the group beside him. He demanded to know what was going on and caught a glimpse of Seth laying as still as death. His heart froze. Then he saw the readout on the screen next to him, the one that showed Seth's vitals. He didn't know what he was looking at, but he knew that the squiggly line meant that he was at least alive.
Doctor Narang caught his eyes, but instead of giving him answers, he yelled to one of the nurses to get him out of there.
Marisa got to his side as a man in scrubs apologized and explained that they needed room to work.
At first, Wyatt resisted being escorted out, but he gave in when he realized that he wasn't helping. A few seconds later, he was out in the hall, being told that they would be allowed back in when the doctor knew more about what was happening. The doors closed, too thick to hear anything more from inside.
For a while, Wyatt couldn't bring himself to move. Instead, he just stood there taking short breaths, unable to form a coherent thought.
Marisa threw her arms around him, hugging him until he calmed down.
It was awkward, being held, especially considering that they were both in their real bodies. As Ginger, she was always teasing him, but now, it was different. There was compassion in the act. It helped him relax, and he breathed a heavy sigh.
"Thanks for coming with me." He cringed as his voice came out with a croak.
She let go, looking into his eyes for an instant before glancing away. "I saw the screens." She leaned against the wall beside him. "He's alive, and his vitals looked normal."
Wyatt raised his head. "You sure?"
She nodded. "His heart rate was a little fast but not overly so, and his blood pressure was fine. I'm no doctor, but I know that much."
Wyatt fell back against the wall, releasing a slow breath. "Thank god. I don't know what I'd do if …" He didn't finish the thought.
"Do you think we should tell them to pull the plug when they come out to get us?" she asked. Then she waved her hands, crossing them in front of her face. "I mean pull the plug on her rig, umm, not Kira." She shook her head. "I mean Seth. Whatever his name is."
Wyatt would have laughed at her flustered stumbling, but he couldn't with his friend laying in the other room. Instead, he gave her a weak smile to let her know he understood what she meant. He didn't answer her question, though. "Sometimes I call him by the wrong name, too."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he always responds by accident," Wyatt added.
"That's kinda funny. Like when people say ’you too’ when a waiter says ‘enjoy your meal.’"
He smiled, remembering something. "Seth does that all the time at the movies when the guy scans his ticket. I always make fun of him for it."
She looked at him sideways. "You two go on a lot of movie dates?"
"Yeah, I like dumb action stuff, and he'll watch pretty much anything if he can make a joke about it. He's easy going like that, always happy to go with the flow as long as he gets to have fun. It's probably why we do everything together. He encourages me to do things, and I drag him along for the ride."
Marisa smiled. "You do complement each other, in a weird codependent sort of way."
Wyatt grimaced. "It sounds bad if you say it like that."
She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Meh, there's nothing wrong with it. You just fill in each other’s weaknesses. Honestly, I'm a little envious. Most married couples can't figure that out."
Wyatt scoffed. "Well, I guess we have been friends since we were kids. It's not surprising that we rely on each other." He paused before continuing, "I think that's what makes this so hard. He's always been there for me, even when things got hard. But now that we're in the middle of something that actually matters, I feel like I don't have what it takes to get him through it. I'm afraid I'm going to fail him."
Marisa fell silent for before speaking, "You're an idiot." She threw Wyatt off guard, resembling her online persona.
"What, why?" he asked, confused.
She rolled her eyes. "So Carver threw a wrench into your little bromance. You two will be fine. But maybe tonight isn't about saving her, I mean him or whatever." She chewed her upper lip. "Sorry, but that is really hard to get straight. Anyway, mayb
e tonight, you just have to be there for your friend."
Wyatt let himself rest against the wall, not quite sure what to say to that. Then he sighed. Could it really be that simple? Am I really that dumb?
Marisa grinned like the Coin she was. "I'll take your silence to mean that I'm right." She sounded satisfied as she reached into the pocket of her pajamas and pulled out her phone. She sent a quick text before adding, "Sorry, I figured I should tell my kids I'm out. They must be awake by now."
"Oh, no problem," Wyatt said, grateful for the change in subject. "I'm sure they're worried about you."
She shrugged. "Yeah."
"They seem like good kids," he added.
Marisa folded her arms and leaned her head back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling. "Wren can be a smart-ass sometimes, and Toby could really try harder in school, but there are moments when they make me proud to have spawned them. And they appreciate what I do for them. So that's nice."
"They know what you do for a living then?" Wyatt asked, only half paying attention, still worried about Seth. He wouldn't have asked it otherwise.
She raised an eyebrow at the question. "They do."
"How does that go over?"
Marisa shrugged. "I don't tell them much about my nights, and they obviously don't want to know the details. Although I had ‘the talk’ with them a few years back, so they know what happens when two consenting adults get together. Plus, they’re at that age when supervision becomes less about keeping them from using the scissors, if you know what I mean."
"Is that why you didn't let them stay home alone during all of this?"
"Pretty much. Wren is still a little awkward with guys, but Toby has a girlfriend. I had to turn the hose on them a week ago." Wyatt managed a weak chuckle at her wording as she continued, "And I don't mean that as an expression either. They were making out on the front porch. I guess because I was in the house, they seemed to think that I wouldn't notice if they didn't come inside.” She let out an indignant snort. “Seriously, like I was never a teenager. Anyway, I went to the backyard and hooked up the garden hose to the faucet on the back of the house. Then I dragged it through the kitchen and living room to the front door where I opened it and let them have it."
