by Dante Steel
He ignored her. “I think we work well as a team—”
Nicoletta snorted.
“We do!” he protested.
“Yes,” Olivia said. “We do. We’re the only group to go up against him and survive without anyone being stripped of levels or dying. But as you said, the stakes are higher. I don’t want anything to happen. This isn’t just a game for you or Elena. It’s not for Smaug either. If we make a play against him, if we’re powerful enough now, do you realize what he’ll do? He’ll be desperate to kill us all, and there’s a good chance he’ll succeed.”
Everyone fell silent at that. It was such a sobering thought that Gary didn’t want to consider it. He just wanted to go about his business. Not that he had a business.
“Do you think it matters that we aren’t superheroes in this issue?” he asked suddenly.
“I doubt it,” Elena said. “We need to lure a trap.”
“A trap is a good idea,” Nicoletta agreed. “Gary, you know the lay of the land more than anyone.”
“I do, but I honestly think we might want to become superheroes. Take the time and—”
“Give Smaug time to find us and then we won’t have a trap or a plan and be killed,” Elena said.
“Or we can go the quests and still have a backup trap and plan in place,” Gary argued. “It’s the best of both worlds. It’s possible that we’ll have even more power once we become superheroes in this world. That could be the difference between life or death for you and me.”
“That’s a good point,” Olivia said.
“Of course you would agree with him,” Elena snapped.
“Actually, it is a good point,” Nicoletta said.
Elena grimaced. “Fine. We’ll do the damn quests, but we still need that backup trap and plan. Two plans. One in case we’re found away from the trap.”
“Second plan—race over to where the trap is so Smaug will follow.” Olivia beamed.
“Maybe we should figure out the trap first,” Nicoletta suggested.
“Yes.” Elena shook her head.
Olivia turned to Gary. “Well? The lay of the land?”
“It’s mostly a barren wasteland. I did see a dark castle. Now that I think about it, the castle makes me think of Dracula.”
“Maybe we are in Transylvania,” Elena said.
“Is that in Europe?” Nicoletta asked. “Or based on it?”
“I vant to suck your blood!” Olivia said her a rather dramatic vampiric voice.
Elena shrugged. “Not bad I guess if you want to act like a seventies porno vampire.”
“I never watched one. So glad I can bring back memories for you.” Olivia winked.
“I also saw the lost ocean,” Gary said to halt them before it could turn into a real fight instead of jabs, “but that’s not an ocean anymore. Barely even a river.”
“Anything else?” Olivia asked.
“There’s the fire god’s volcano.” Gary nodded slowly. “That could work. Smaug might want to blow it up, but maybe we could have it blow up in his face!”
“He’s fire, like me,” Nicoletta said. “He might be able to control it depending on how powerful he is.”
“So we don’t have him or us cause it to erupt. Instead, maybe we could trap him in it.”
“How?” Elena asked.
“Think about it. If this is supposed to be Europe far in the future after a nuclear war ruined the landscape, there should be buried bits of old equipment. Metal. If we have enough piled on top of him—”
“He’ll just use his wind to knock it away,” Elena said.
Nicoletta shook her head. “No. The heat from the volcano will cause the metal to all congeal. It’ll be one massive mass of metal on top of him. Even if he’s powerful, he might not be able to blast through. Maybe if he’s in the fire of the volcano long enough, he might actually die.”
“Die die?” Olivia asked with a frown.
“Yes, that’s the whole point,” Elena said.
“I don’t know. It’s one thing if it’s creatures of bats or vampires. That’s part of the game, but to knowingly go up against a human for the sheer point of killing him… That just seems like murder,” Olivia said.
“It’s not,” Nicoletta said. “He will be trying to kill us. He already has on more than one occasion. That’s called self-defense. We’re allowed to do this by law even outside of the game. It’s not murder.”
“See? Lawyer,” Gary said, and Nicoletta reached over and swatted him.
Elena leaned close. “Olivia, we have to. He’s ruining people’s lives.”
“So he’s upsetting a bunch of gamers.” She shrugged. “That’s not a criminal offense.”
“He killed his mom, remember?” Gary asked. “And he did harass a bunch of women.”
“So you’ve been told by that programmer guy.”
“Developer,” Gary corrected, although he wasn’t sure if there was much of a difference between the two terms.
“What if he’s lying? What if he’s covering something up?” Olivia asked.
“I guess that’s possible, but you can’t deny that he’s dangerous,” Elena argued.
“Dangerous? Yes. Should he be stopped? Yes. Killed? That’s where I’m not so sure.”
“He might not die,” Nicoletta offered. “I think the trap is a good idea.”
“First, we need to locate metal hidden in the sand,” Elena said, rubbing her metal hands together. She hardly wore her gloves now unless she was out there fighting. “Gary, do you think you can find them?”
“I can try to use my telekinesis, sure.”
“I don’t know, guys,” Olivia said. “This feels wrong. Something isn’t right.”
“Olivia,” Gary started.
But Elena cut in. “I understand. We aren’t going to go after him today. I promise. We have a lot to plan yet and set up, and we need to become superheroes. We agreed to that. We have time for you to do some detective work on the internet.”
Gary nodded. “You’re right. We don’t need to take Haru Sato’s word for it. Look up Samuel August. He was supposed to have killed his mom when he was fifteen. He’s thirty now.”
“While you’re at it,” Elena added, “look up Haru Sato too.”
Olivia nodded. “I will. What happens if I don’t find anything about the mom?”
“Then, either there’s a conspiracy theory, and Samuel August is being swept under the rug because the gaming company is trying to hide him from existence,” Elena started.
“Or else Haru Sato is lying,” Gary said. “Either way, if that’s the case, we’ll reconsider our options.”
“It’s also possible that Smaug isn’t this Samuel August guy either,” Nicoletta said. “We’re only going off of what Haru Sato has been telling us, but you’re right. He could be lying.”
“I almost want to go and check now,” Olivia said.
“Go ahead. We’ll only be looking for metal today. We won’t start a quest until you’re back,” Gary promised.
Olivia nodded and blinked out.
“That’s still creepy to see,” Gary muttered. Shrugging, he finally dug into his breakfast.
Once outside, the sky seemed maybe a little more gray than black, or maybe that was only wistful thinking. Either way, Gary went about, reaching with his mind, trying to find any kind of construction equipment or old buildings, anything metal.
Nothing. He felt nothing.
He widened his search, walking away from the underground town entrance, but still, he found nothing. A few bones here and there, but that was it. Nothing else.
“How can that be?” Elena asked angrily. “These developers are really dropping the ball. If this landscape is supposed to have been Europe at one time, there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be buried metal all over the place.”
“Don’t worry,” Gary said. “I’m not going to give up.”
Elena just gave him a look, and he hated it. She already had. That was plain to see, and it killed hi
m.
Chapter Eighteen
For hours and hours, day after day, Gary walked all over the place, trying to find metal that they could use for their plan. In the end, he located five screws, two nuts, and one tiny piece of metal that had been so warped he had no idea what it might’ve been once upon a time.
“This isn’t enough,” Elena said.
Nicoletta glowered at them. “Guys, we’re so stupid,” she said.
“Huh?” Gary wanted to ask for details.
Already, the Hispanic was marching away, her dark hair bouncing with every step. Damn, did she have a fine ass, and it swayed just right, too. All natural. None of that exaggerated step to make it sway. He sighed, missing her, wishing she was here with him.
No. No, he definitely didn’t want that. First off, Jorge would kill them both and secondly, he wanted Nicoletta safe. That meant not in the game. Playing it was bad enough.
Olivia hadn’t returned yet in all of that time, and when she finally bounded over to them, she was pursing her lips.
“Well?” Elena asked eagerly.
“I couldn’t find much on Haru Sato. He has no criminal record—”
“You checked his criminal record?” Nicoletta asked, looking impressed.
“Yes, of course. He has had a few speeding tickets, but that’s it. He’s mostly up and up or so it seems. He’s married, doesn’t have any kids, an only child. He got good grades in school and—”
“Less about Haru and more about Samuel August,” Elena said.
Olivia nodded. “The story checks out. Samuel August did kill his mother fifteen years ago when he was fifteen. He is currently at large, his whereabouts unknown. The police are desperate to find him because of the murder charges, and a ton of women have come forward after the police came out with their report to announce that he had attacked them sexually, verbally, physically. He is a seriously bad dude.”
“Are we sure that Samuel August is that tech genius that Haru claimed him to be?” Gary asked.
Olivia nodded again. “The police didn’t realize he killed his mom for years, so he went off to school, went to college, racked up a couple of degrees in no time. Yes, everything Haru Sato has said about him checks out.”
“So he is the guy,” Elena said.
“Seems like it,” Gary said. He couldn’t help feeling a little stupid for not trusting Haru. Yes, the developer wasn’t having an easy time getting them out, but his growing irritability could be explained by Gary dragging him into the game all of the time for questions that Gary didn’t absolutely need to have answered.
“Well, Olivia? Are you on board with our plan?” Nicoletta asked eagerly.
“Not that we have enough metal for it,” Elena grumbled.
“Oh, but we do!” Nicoletta said cheerfully.
All of them had a small pouch that grew to hold a limited amount of stuff, no more than one hundred potions of any kind, back up clothing, armor, weapons, shields, gold, and more. She dug out armor piece after armor piece, shin guards, helms, weapons too, all of it metal.
Gary whistled. “We really are stupid.”
Nicoletta buffed her nails on her superhero attire. “I know. I’m the smartest of the group. Go on. Say it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Elena grumbled. “Not enough. Come on, everyone, pony up.”
They bought as much metal as they could carry, and they rushed over to the volcano. They were in the process of digging a hole near the base to hide the metal in for when they planned on attacking Smaug when the air around them grew entirely far too warm and far too breezy.
Which could only mean one thing.
Smaug.
The supervillain stood before them on the sand. Gary half expected to see him on the back of a sand-rhino or some other creature, considering the man had favored his dragon pet so much. But no, it was Smaug and only him waiting to greet them.
He was dressed solely in white, a dark blue cloak draped over his shoulders. He didn’t wear a mask at all. Despite the sand, his superhero spandex suit was completely spotless, as white as can be. It almost gave off a radiance, a glow, but a dark one, almost like a dark halo. Which was apt when you considered that the guy was a terrible being and more like a demon than an angel. Just the sight of the guy made Gary’s skin crawl.
Gary stiffened, but he didn’t need to say anything. Already, Elena was strolling up to Smaug. Which wasn’t exactly the plan, but if she were to toss the metal pieces into the volcano now, it would be too soon. They needed Smaug to be down the volcano first for the trap to work.
“Hi,” Elena said. “How are you? Have you seen any of the vampires? We’ve been trying to hunt some down, but we haven’t had much luck.”
Olivia winced. Her part of the plan was to help Gary float up the metal pieces and bring them down, but first, one or both would have to force Smaug down the volcano and keep him there in place. If that happened, then Elena would have to fling the metal supplies inside for them.
“I should be the one to flirt with him,” she grumbled under her breath.
“The point isn’t to flirt with him but to distract him,” Gary reminded her.
“There’s a difference?” Olivia asked innocently.
He chuckled. “Not with you there isn’t.”
“Shut up, you two,” Nicoletta snapped. “They’re coming.”
“You, you, you, and you,” Smaug said. “You all seem so very familiar to me.”
Gary flinched. It might’ve been a smart idea for them to change up their superhero attire so he might not recognize them. Worst of all, they hadn’t been able to do one single quest. They still weren’t even heroes here. Damn it! If only Nicoletta had her genius idea about the metal immediately. They could’ve had two days to complete quests. Then again, they might have faced Smaug two days ago instead.
“I think if you’ve seen one superhero in a tight spandex outfit and mask, you’ve seen them all,” Olivia said, rubbing her hands over herself.
Smaug eyed her but not with much interest. “You can fly.”
It wasn’t a question.
“You have paltry fire,” he said to Nicoletta.
“You have a problem with arrogance, and it’s not paltry,” Nicoletta countered.
Gary glowered at her, and she shrugged.
“You—” Smaug started, turning toward Elena.
Gary stepped forward. “Why are you here? There aren’t any enemies here, as you can see. I already killed the fire god.”
Smaug smirked. “There is no fire god beside me.” He shifted his gaze back to Nicoletta. “Do you dare to disagree?”
“I dare to do a lot of things,” she said heatedly.
“To be sure.”
Olivia eyed Smaug. “Wanna race, Fire God?” she asked, lifting easily off the sand.
His gaze flickered behind her to the pile of armor and weapons. He rolled his eyes. “I do not race.”
“Of course not. You’re afraid to lose.” Without waiting, Olivia flew around and around the volcano base, spiraling upward. Gary was impressed. He had never seen her zoom around that swiftly before.
The wind increased to the point that a spear almost started to fly away. Gary used his telekinesis to keep the spear in place.
Smaug lifted into the air. His cloak wrapped tightly around him, to reduce air resistance Gary guessed. The back of the cloak had a design on it that when brought together, formed the image of a vicious bat.
Gary swallowed hard. If Smaug was able to get the vampires onto his side like he had the dragons back in the first issue, Smaug would be impossible to beat.
No. No, he shouldn’t worry, shouldn’t freak out. They had a good plan, a solid plan. It would work.
It had to.
Smaug seemed to lazily fly after Olivia, yet he reached her in no time at all. Olivia grabbed his cloak and tried to force him into the volcano.
Gary seized the supervillain with his mind and lent his force to Olivia’s. Together, they brought Smaug closer and closer to the
volcano’s opening.
Even though he remained as the base of the volcano, Gary could feel its intense heat. He wanted to wipe sweat from his brow, but he didn’t bother. He had to concentrate, had to get Smaug deeper inside, closer to the lava.
The lava that had been cooling underneath the thick layer of sand he had dumped into it. Fuck.
He didn’t need to worry. Olivia was already working on using her flying ability that extended to other objects to remove the sand. That was both good and bad considering that meant Gary had to hold Smaug in place by himself. The supervillain hadn’t struggled against their combined might, but he fought and fought hard against Gary’s hold, and he was nearly breaking free.
“Hurry,” Gary muttered. “I can’t hold him for long.”
“I can heat up the metal as it’s coming inside the volcano to help speed up the process,” Nicoletta offered, her hands already turned red-hot with flames flickering from her fingers.
Gary nodded. It was do or die time.
Chapter Nineteen
Every part of Gary fought to hold Smaug down, and suddenly, that was made much easier. Olivia was flying high above the volcano, but she must’ve cleared the sand away because now she was using her ability to make other items fly in reverse to help pin Smaug in place. The supervillain had gotten nearly back up to the entrance of the volcano, but now, they pushed him back, closer and closer toward the lava.
Smaug laughed. “Do you really think fire will kill me?”
“He’s not scared,” Elena muttered as she flung metal piece of armor and weapons after metal shard. “Why isn’t he at least a little freaked out? He’s human!”
“It’s called bravado,” Gary said.
“You sure?”
“Yep. To him, it’s a pissing contest.”
“He recognized us,” Nicoletta said.
Gary watched as each metal chunk, burning from her flames, entered the volcano. Via his powers, he could see each fragment as it fell into the growing mass of metal that was quickly congealing into a metal arch above Smaug, just as they had hoped. Everything was going according to plan.
They could honestly do this. Maybe he and Elena could go home today. With how screwy time could be in the game versus the real world, Gary wasn’t sure if there was a chance for her to make the funeral or not. He didn’t want to ask and risk hurting Elena all over again if the funeral had already been held.
