Hero

by Paul Bellow

  “We don’t have time to go all the way back,” I said. “Let’s keep him tied up and with us for the time being. Maybe he’ll come in handy.”

  “He’d make good cannon-fodder,” Josh said then laughed.

  “I can help you guys,” Sylvar said. “Let me have my weapon. It’s not safe down here anymore. You need my help.”

  “What do you know about all the monsters infesting the mines?” Axelrod asked.

  “Nothing,” Sylvar said then added, “Not much, anyway.”

  Axelrod grabbed his arm.

  “Speak up,” the dwarf said.

  “All I know is that Magi Inyontoo is helping to get rid of all the dwarves,” he said. “That’s only one of his crazy plans to get back to level one-nine. He’s running tests here on his undead creations.”

  “Tests?” I asked.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Sarah said.

  “Yeah,” Sylvar said. “He’s into necromancy lately. If you ask me, they were right to block him on level one-four.”

  “What else can you tell us?” I asked.

  “Not much,” Sylvar said. “I fell out of favor when I couldn’t kill you guys. Magi Inyontoo cursed me to keep coming back as the same character.”

  “Tie him up,” Axelrod said.

  Josh pulled a rope out of his sack then stepped toward Sylvar.

  “Take it easy,” the ranger yelled. “This isn’t lawful.”

  “Who said we were lawful?” Axelrod asked.

  “You better be if you’re planning on finding the black dragon,” Sylvar said. “I’ve heard he won’t even show himself unless he finds worthy opponents.”

  “He’s talking nonsense,” Ryu said. “I say we kill him and be done with it.”

  “No,” Sarah said. “We’re not like that.”

  “You killed the rest of my party,” Sylvar said.

  Josh continued tying the elf’s hands behind his back.

  “In self-defense,” I said. “You’re lucky we don’t kill you, too.”

  “Please don’t,” he begged. “I’m obeying your every command.”

  “That should hold ‘em,” Josh said, tugging on the ropes.

  “Great,” I said. “We need to get this floating platform to travel down the Pit of Doom.”

  “We’re almost to the Diamond Sector,” Axelrod said. “That’s where it’ll be at if there’s any of them left.”

  “Any left?” Sarah asked.

  “There used to be more,” Axelrod said. “But most of them were destroyed. I know of the only one hidden and saved. They take a lot of resources to build.”

  “Let’s get going,” Ryu said. “More monsters might be afoot.”

  “Keep an eye on the ranger,” Axelrod said then marched forward.

  Josh pushed Sylvar on the back, almost causing him to fall.

  “I’m going,” the ranger said.

  After retrieving my short sword, I jogged to catch up with the others. We continued through the dwarven halls of stone. The only sound was our feet on the floor.

  The tunnel narrowed to only allow a single-file line. Axelrod led us into what he called the Diamond Sector. I had no idea what to expect when we arrived.

  I hoped we didn’t run into any other monsters. The moment the wish ran through my mind, Axelrod yelled out, “Mini Pulgasari!”

  What the heck is that? I wondered as I waited for the others to make their way further down the tunnel.

  He better bust through, so we can fight more than one at a time.

  “Untie me,” Sylvar said. “I can help.”

  I pushed him ahead, noticing the cramped hall leading into an industrial mining area long abandoned. Axelrod and Josh battled what looked like a smaller, knock-off Godzilla.

  “Doesn’t look too tough,” I said.

  As the cavern lit up, I whipped around in time to see the creature shoot a long stream of fire. The flames kept burning wherever they touched, including Josh and Axelrod.

  The dwarf and barbarian both screamed. Axelrod dropped to the ground and rolled, but Josh took off running in a random direction, fanning the flames.

  That idiot’s going to get killed again.

  “Watch Sylvar,” I shouted then ran to extinguish Josh.

  “The Mini Pulgasari is my named enemy,” Axelrod said.

  I did a double-take before reaching Josh and pushing him to the ground. The tall half-orc fell to the ground, still burning. Almost all his clothes had burned away.

  “Roll over,” I shouted.

  He got the idea and doused the flames by rolling over a few times. I turned to see Axelrod and Bernard battling the mini-kaiju.

  “Ryu! Healing!” I shouted.

  Hoping he heard me and came to help Josh, I ran to assist the others. Smoke streamed out of the creature’s mouth, filling the air with a strong smell.

  The Mini Pulgasari threw back its head and yelled a deep, primal scream that stopped me in my tracks.

  Did I fail a morale save or something? My knees trembled.

  Come on. This will get us killed.

  Despite my attempts to move closer to the creature, I couldn’t move.

  The one time a bard would come in handy, I thought as I watched.

  Axelrod and Bernard worked well together as a team, hitting the tall creature repeatedly. Nothing seemed to do any lasting damage as it lashed out with its massive claws.

  “Get over here and help!” Axelrod yelled over his shoulder.

  I’m trying, I thought, still struggling to move.

  After closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I calmed down. I ran forward, both swords drawn and ready.

  Why isn’t Sarah helping with lightning or anything else? Had she been frozen by fear too? I put her out of my mind as I slashed at the creature with both weapons.

  Your slash MISSES the Mini Pulgasari.

  Your slash GRAZES the Mini Pulgasari for 4 damage.

  My first blade clanged then bounced off the tough hide of the creature. Bernard struck after me, his mace also harmlessly bouncing off.

  “We need magic!” Axelrod yelled. “Barbarian rage, too…”

  He mumbled something else as he swung at the Mini Pulgasari twice.

  The creature opened its mouth to spew fire again. I dodged around it, the blast barely missing me.

  Axelrod wasn’t so lucky. Both his beard and mohawk caught fire.

  He dropped his battle-ax and patted the fires out as the creature followed up with two hands full of claws. They ripped through Bernard’s armor as if it were made from aluminum foil.

  I heard his screams as I pounced forward, hoping for a back stab. The Mini Pulgasari didn’t notice me as I rushed up and aimed the tips of both swords at its thick, scaled neck.

  Your back stab attempt fails.

  Your slash GRAZES the Mini Pulgasari.for 4 damage.

  Your pierce SCRATCHES the Mini Pulgasari for 2 damage.

  I braced myself as the Mini Pulgasari twisted around, bulbous eyes full of fake rage.

  Axelrod and Bernard attacked again, distracting the creature long enough for me to back away. I peered around and saw Ryu whispering into Sarah’s ear as she stood motionless.

  What’s he doing to her?

  A clawed hand ripping over my chest brought me back into the moment.

  The Mini Pulgasari’s claw INJURES you for 11 damage.

  You have [93/104] health remaining.

  As I weighed my options, three lightning bolts slammed into the godzilla-clone. It shrieked, obviously not immune to electricity. Did she have enough mana to hit it again?

  Not waiting around to find out, I launched another set of coordinated attacks.

  Your slash HITS the Mini Pulgasari for 8 damage.

  Your pierce SCRATCHES the Mini Pulgasari for 1 damage.

  Stupid beast!

  Before anyone could land another blow, the Mini Pulgasari dashed toward the far end of the humungous natural cavern we found ourselves in.

  “Don
’t let it get away!” Axelrod shouted as he chased after it.

  Smoke rose into the air from his charred mohawk and beard.

  I glanced over at Sarah, and when I saw she was okay, I bolted after the dwarf.

  Ryu had healed Josh, and he was running toward the Mini Pulgasari, too.

  The beast turned and shot another long stream of flames our way. It missed everyone as we all kept running toward it.

  Josh reached it first, bringing the Sword of Sands down on top of the creature’s head. It blinked twice, tilted its head, then breathed fire.

  The half-orc yelled as flames engulfed him a second time. He dropped to the ground, thankfully, and rolled to put the fire out.

  Axelrod and I reached the Mini Pulgasari at the same time.

  “Time to feel my wrath!” the dwarf yelled as he pulled out a smaller hatchet with a glowing steel head. “Feed, Pulgasari-Killer. Feed!”

  As the hatchet buried itself in the chest of the beast, an even more putrid smell erupted. I fell over at the stench, unable to catch my breath. Axelrod battled on, hitting two more times.

  The Mini Pulgasari fell to the ground, whimpering while Axelrod continued to pummel it with his hatchet.

  Was it blessed against Mini Pulgasaris? I wondered. How strange.

  Combat is Over!

  You get 8,000 xp divided by six party members You get 1,333 xp You have 75,891 xp Level up!

  Welcome to Level 9 Rogue --> Bounty Hunter +24 Health You have [93/128 health] remaining.

  I pushed my questions and elation at leveling aside as I crawled away, still struggling to catch my breath. As I got closer to Sarah and Ryu, I realized Sylvar was missing.

  “Where’s the ranger?” I gasped as I got to my feet near them.

  Ryu glanced around then looked at me and shrugged.

  “Couldn’t tell you,” he said.

  “You have one job,” I said. “And you couldn’t keep track of him.”

  “He was helping me,” Sarah said. “That thing petrified me with fear.”

  “You got a spell off once.” I walked over and put my hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”

  “I could use some clothes if anyone cares,” Josh said.

  Everyone turned to see the nearly-naked half-orc.

  “We need to get this floating disc and get back to the Pit of Doom before anything else comes at us,” Axelrod said. “That dragon isn’t going to kill itself.”

  Bernard raised his hand and asked, “Can you answer a question?”

  “What?” Axelrod said.

  “Can you tell us why the Mini Pulgasari is your ‘named enemy’?” he asked.

  I turned to the dwarf, eager to hear his answer myself.

  “The dwarven homeland on level one-eight,” Axelrod said. “The kaiju roam free around the mountains. Sometimes they get inside and cause havoc.”

  Kaiju? I wondered if the game blended genres, but I didn’t have time to think about how that made me feel.

  “Follow-up question,” Bernard said. “This was the mini-version?”

  “How big do they get?” Sarah asked.

  “I need healing,” Josh said. “And some clothes.”

  Ryu stepped toward him. As he laid his hands on him to heal, I looked around the cavern.

  “Why do they call this the Diamond Sector?” I asked.

  “Because we mined diamonds here,” Axelrod answered. “We had a good thing going here until Magi Inyontoo and that blasted black dragon screwed everything up.”

  “Not all dragons are bad,” Ryu said.

  We all turned to look at him.

  “This black one is terrible,” Axelrod said. “We’ll take him out. Everyone else okay? The floating disc is right over here.”

  He stepped toward a nearby wall.

  “We should get the eyes of the Mini Pulgasari,” Ryu said.

  “Are they magical?” Sarah asked.

  “No,” he said. “But they’d be cool to have, wouldn’t they?”

  “All the Pulgasari must die,” Axelrod said in a serious tone.

  “We should find Sylvar before he causes trouble,” I said.

  “No time.” Axelrod stopped. “Come and help me with this disc.”

  “How big is it?” Bernard asked.

  I followed them both, curious about the same and more. Axelrod examined the rough-hewn stone of the wall as we stopped around him.

  “The opening should be…” Something clicked, and the wall opened. “…there.”

  The dwarf turned and smiled, looking insane with no hair, charred skin, and a goofy grin.

  “Is it in there?” I asked.

  With our luck, we’d have another side quest to finish the side quest of the main quest.

  “Yeah, it’s here,” he said then ventured inside.

  Josh bent over then walked through the opening. I followed them into a rectangular room. A wooden disc roughly ten feet across floated several feet off the floor.

  “That’s cool,” I said. “How much weight can it hold?”

  “More than enough,” Axelrod said.

  “It’s too big to fit through the door,” I said. “How do we get it out?”

  Axelrod grinned then said, “Watch this. Gnomes got nothing on dwarven ingenuity with engineering and magic.”

  He pressed the palm of his hand on the rim of the floating disc. It shrunk to a hundredth of its original size, small enough he could hold it in a single hand.

  “Nifty, huh?”

  His smile widened.

  “Yeah,” I said, impressed.

  “Time to slay a dragon and free the dwarves,” he said.

  I turned and walked out of the chamber. Axelrod and Josh followed.

  Still weary from the most recent battle, we journeyed back to the Pit of Doom.

  22

  Wight Mage, Glitches

  Eric

  We camped on the ledge of the Pit of Doom to rest up. As the others talked, I grabbed some sleep. When I woke a few hours later, I immediately sensed something wrong.

  Sarah and Ryu were gone. Axelrod, Josh, and Bernard, however, slept blissfully unaware.

  I sat up and glanced around our makeshift camp. She and Ryu were both gone. Did they run off together? I still wasn’t sure how Sarah had managed to wander off on her own earlier.

  “Wake up,” I said then clapped my hand together.

  All three stirred. Josh groaned. Bernard sat up.

  “What’s up?” he asked. “Sarah never woke me for my guard shift.”

  “She’s gone,” I said. “We need to find her.”

  “Did she wander away again?” Axelrod asked as he stood.

  “Ryu’s missing too,” I said. “Something isn’t right.”

  “We need breakfast before we go down the pit,” Axelrod said.

  “No,” I said. “We need to find her.”

  “I agree,” Bernard added then leaned over and opened his backpack.

  He pulled out a granola bar in his left hand.

  “Is that the last one?” Josh asked.

  “You ate yours too quick,” Bernard said.

  “We need to find Sarah,” I insisted. “Now.”

  Axelrod put his hands on his hips.

  “Everyone shut up,” he said. “We’ve got an important mission ahead of us, and we do need our two remaining spellcasters. As much as I hate to admit it, they’ve both been helpful during battles.”

  “I wish the brownies were here to track them,” Bernard said.

  “Grab your weapons and come with me,” Axelrod said.

  “We’re leaving everything here?” Josh asked.

  “Yes.” Axelrod picked up his ax leaning against the stone wall. “There’s supplies we can raid a few hours walk from here. We’ll go get that then look around for the other two. If we don’t see them by that time, we’ve got to assume the worse. They’re either dead or they ran away.”

  “Sarah wouldn’t run,” I said then grabbed my two swords.

  “Are you sure
everything will be safe here?” Josh asked.

  “It’s not like we have a lot of valuables with us,” Bernard said.

  “What about the floating disc?” I asked.

  Axelrod’s eyes widened. He checked his pockets, coming up empty-handed.

  “Those scoundrels,” he said. “I bet they went down without us.”

  “Why would they do that?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Josh added. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “We need to find another way to get down the pit,” I said.

  “Can’t we get another one of those things?” Josh asked.

  “No,” Axelrod said. “Like I told you, that was the last one.”

  “No need to get snippy,” Josh said. “I’ve been burned, almost killed, and drawn through the ringer on this little adventure of yours, and you don’t see me getting upset.”

  “We need to find another way down and find those two,” I said.

  “Sylvar is still running loose, too,” Bernard reminded us, finishing the last of the granola bar.

  “Let’s go,” Axelrod said. “I might have another way to get down the pit, but it’s not going to be easy. Some might even say it’s not possible at all.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Forget I said anything,” Axelrod said then walked toward the door.

  “Come on,” I said, walking after him. “Don’t leave us hanging.”

  “Yeah, I want to know, too,” Josh said.

  Axelrod stopped, turned then sighed.

  “Look,” he said. “It’s next to impossible for a group our size and our level. Just forget I mentioned it, okay?”

  “We need to get down the Pit of Doom,” I said. “What’s this other way?”

  “Fine,” Axelrod said. “It’s this mage boss on level one-two. Some say it’s a glitch in the game, but I think it’s all part of the programming. The wight mage runs off a different AI from most NPCs and mobs in the game.”

  “What does him being white have to do with it?” Josh asked.

  “Not that kind of white,” Axelrod said then spelled it out.

  Josh furrowed his brow, still not understanding.