by Dante Steel
Not that that mattered. The woolly mammoth was dead.
Chapter Fourteen
Gary stood. Blood rushed through him. His first step had him collapsing to the ground. He had lost his balance, and his head didn’t feel right. His stomach was nauseous.
“Are you all right?” Olivia asked, hovering above him.
“Need…”
“If you say mouth-to-mouth, I will slap you with my wings,” she growled.
Gary opened his mouth, but no words came out. All he wanted to do was sleep. Preferably without this headache.
Dimly, he could hear Elena talk, but he couldn’t make out the words. Something sickeningly sweet crossed his lips, and he forced himself to drink even though his eyes were closed. After a few moments, he felt much better.
“What happened?” he asked.
“The woolly mammoth is dead.” Elena gestured to the still-burning carcass behind them. “Hey, Olivia, can you please generate enough wind to stop the spread of the fire? You’ll have to be careful to not fan the flames.”
“Put it out? Why?”
“Because I asked nicely.” Elena beamed.
“It’s not like you can take a selfie with it,” Olivia said.
“I know, but…” Elena walked back over and tentatively touched one of its tusks, the only part of its body not up in flames. She quickly moved away from the dead beast. It was probably too hot to stand there for long.
Nicoletta came over and helped Gary to his feet. “That looked like you took some serious lumps.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I do think I had a concussion, but my symptoms are already gone.”
“Good.”
He grinned. “Now that this distraction is over…” He glanced back toward the tavern.
But Olivia was flying high, trying to generate enough wind power to blow out the flames.
Not only that, but Elena seemed so keen on the dead shifter.
As for Nicoletta, she had turned back toward the tree Elena had almost destroyed and was clearly trying to use that heavy blast again.
He stood and ran a hand through his hair. “You haven’t been able to yet, huh.”
“No. Maybe I need more adrenaline flowing.”
"Possibly, but weren't you afraid of that thing?"
“Nah, I was attacking it from afar. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
“You are indeed.”
She rolled her eyes, but her smile was all he cared about.
“Hey, do you think you could draw the fire away?” he asked.
“Want me to speed things up, huh?” She laughed. “So impatient.”
“Can you blame me? Come on. I’m a guy.”
“Oh, I know you are.”
He grinned. “You do know better than most.”
“Sleeping with you once does not make you or me an expert on each other’s bodies.”
“Hey, now. We’ve made love a lot more than just once.”
"I see you don't deny the expert part."
“I do agree with Olivia on practice to some extent. It does make perfect, right?” he murmured.
“I don’t think it’s possible to be perfect when it comes to lovemaking.”
“I will prove you wrong.”
“Oh, yeah?” Nicoletta laughed and brushed her hair back. “You really do have an ego the size of Texas.”
“You know me. So egotistical.”
She just smirked.
“Ah…” He tried to recall his original point and ignore his erection. “Do you think you can draw the fire back to wherever it was before you made it?”
“I don’t know. I think I make the fire from nothing.” She bit her bottom lip. Damn, that was sexy.
“Can you make it nothing again?” he asked.
“You really don’t have—Yeah, no patience.” She laughed, eyeing his hard-on.
“You know, if you aren’t careful, you’ll give a guy a complex.”
“Oh, come on now. You know I’m teasing.”
“I know how wet I make you.”
Her face was turning red. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do. You know exactly what I’m talking about. I bet you’re wet for me right now.”
“Do you want to check?” she asked.
“I do.” He reached out.
She spun away and held out her hands. Her brows furrowed in concentration.
The woolly mammoth remained on fire despite Olivia’s efforts, and Nicoletta’s didn’t seem to be doing much better.
Gary crossed over to Elena. “Why do we need to have this thing stop burning?”
“Not because I’m insane,” she said, glancing upward. “That smoke is going to be seen for miles and miles.”
“Other shifters will see. They might come, depending on how intelligent the AI is in the game,” Elena said.
“Given how smart this one was and how it knew how to downplay our abilities, they’re damn intelligent,” he said. “Worse, someone else might see.”
“Smaug,” he and Elena said simultaneously.
He might not have had time to practice with the plates, and this might not work, but Gary tried to rip the fire apart. Maybe if the flames were smaller, Olivia's wind generated by her flight would be enough to extinguish them.
And that was what happened. It was slow going at first since the flames liked to weave and dance, but he managed to harness some. Then, he had to try and pry pieces off. The more he practiced, the fast he could smolder off more flames.
Suddenly, Olivia paused mid-flight.
"We're almost done," he said. "Just the hindquarters."
“Your favorite part,” Nicoletta joked.
“Not on this ugly ass thing.”
“Guys, now’s not the time to joke around,” Olivia said. It wasn’t often that she sounded nervous or unnerved, but she did now.
“What is it?” Nicoletta asked.
“Is it him?” Elena demanded.
“No, but this might be worse.” Olivia landed beside Gary. “We might want to run.”
“What is it?” Elena asked.
“Sabre-toothed tigers.”
“How many?” Nicoletta asked. “I bet we can handle them. Did you see how much experience we gained from the woolly mammoth?”
“There’s at least a dozen of them,” Olivia said.
“Let’s head back to the tavern,” Gary said.
“You seriously want to run?” Elena pouted, clearly disappointed.
“It took us forever to get down the woolly mammoth. Trust me. The enemies in this issue are no joke. With three of us… We need to be careful and stay alive. We don’t need to worry about wiping the face off the game map of every shifter.”
“Maybe we should,” Nicoletta countered. “Then Smaug won’t be able to use them against us. Plus, he won’t be able to level up any, either.”
“Unless the shifters repopulate,” Elena pointed out.
"So we get Yuna to change the game, so that doesn't happen," Nicoletta said.
“If we don’t leave now, they’re gonna be here,” Olivia warned.
“Let’s go.” Gary reached for Nicoletta’s hand.
She hesitated only a second before grabbing hold. Olivia hooked arms with Elena, and the four of them began to fly away.
Just in time. The pack of vicious, foaming sabre-toothed tigers was nearly on them. With foot-long fangs, sleek and powerfully built bodies, and huge paws with long claws ready for slicing, the shifters were the most terrifying tigers Gary had ever seen. Hell, he was more worried about them than he had been the woolly mammoth. Each of their massive teeth looked just like curved sabers. Maybe one could be used as a weapon… not that he wanted to get up close with one and try to take it.
To Gary’s horror, they climbed onto the woolly mammoth. Were they going to eat it?
But no. They were using the creature to add height to their jumps, and, fuck, could they jump far.
“Are they part bird?” Gary grumbled.
It wasn’t long until they flew over the line of the town. They should be safe, and the four of them landed.
Only it wasn’t safe. The sabre-toothed tigers burst through the town and began to attack. They went after both Gary and his girls and the NPCs.
“Looks like we have a fight on our hands, after all,” Nicoletta said grimly.
“Girl, do you always get your way?” Olivia asked.
“This was one time I wouldn’t have minded being wrong!”
Gary stood his ground. With this many foes, he figured his best option was defense, not offense, and he encased each of the girls with forcefields. When a sabretooth nearly bit his arm, Gary brought up another one for himself.
With Olivia lifting some of the tigers to impale them on the woolly mammoth’s tusks, Nicoletta creating lines of fire to hold them at bay, and Elena entangling them head on, it wasn’t easy for Gary to keep track of the girls or the tigers.
Olivia muttered a curse. One of the sabre-toothed tigers was somehow resisting her pull. Damn it. Gary could help her, but several of the shifters were backing away from the fire but different from before. Sure enough, they raced forward and leaped over the flames, nearly landing on top of a scrambling Nicoletta. As for Elena, he could hardly see her beneath a pile of five.
Shit. Only Olivia had been able to kill any as far as he saw, and her kill count was only two.
Releasing his hold on his forcefield so he could empower his shields for Elena and Nicoletta, Gary rushed forward. Olivia was out of the line of danger, so he headed to the closest one in turmoil—Nicoletta.
“Time to rain fire,” he said, ready to take flight with her.
“We can’t,” she cried.
“Why not?”
“Because of the buildings.”
“It’s just…” He glanced around and spied the body of a young NPC boy. Although not the same one from the cursed town, the sight of him reminded Gary of the other boy. He hung his head. “What should we do?”
“Just put me on the roof of the tavern,” she suggested. “I’ll have better control of my fireballs from there versus you flying me about.”
“All right, but don’t try to use that hellfire blast.”
“Hellfire blast. I like it.”
He dropped her off and rushed toward the pile of sabre-toothed tigers trying to devour Elena. With every passing second, he could feel them trying to erode the forcefield. If they harmed her… If anything happened…
Gary landed beside the masses and yanked on the fur of one. Using both his arms and his telekinesis, he threw the sabretooth all the way outside of the town. Maybe Olivia would be able to force that one to fly and then fall to its death.
Again, and again, he worked his way through the pile. Finally, he could see Elena. She was struggling to get away from the last eight sabre-toothed tigers.
Who were bleeding from their mouths. She had yanked off a few of their super-long fangs and killed them with the weapons.
“Nicely done,” he said to her.
“We haven’t finished this yet,” she said as she tossed him a massive fang.
Back to back, they faced off against several of the other tigers. Nicoletta’s fireballs rained down with chilling accuracy, and he managed to stab a fiery sabre-toothed tiger right in the eye before it could chomp down on another NPC.
“Get in a house and get everyone to stay inside,” he said to her.
The woman just continued to scream and run around with her arms waving above her head. Damn. She was asking to be killed… if NPCs could be killed.
The pile of dead bodies was adding up, and Gary realized he hadn't seen Olivia zipping through the air for a bit. When another minute passed without any signs of her, he asked Elena, "You got this?"
“I do. Going to check on Olivia?”
“Yes.”
Taking to the air himself, Gary rushed away from the town. There was the woolly mammoth. Both of its tusks had impaled three sabre-toothed tigers. There wasn't space for any more to be skewered, so where was Olivia?
There. Behind a rock, he could just spy the top of her curly-haired head.
He zoomed over and realized that she was toying with the sabre-toothed tiger, trying to land on its back and ride it. “This isn’t the time for games,” he muttered.
Everything changed in an instant. Suddenly, it wasn’t a sabre-toothed tiger beneath Olivia. The tiger’s form shifted, almost shedding like a second skin, and in its place was a man wearing dark pants and a tan shirt. The asshole immediately grabbed Olivia, yanked her to the ground, and pinned her in place. Although with human hands now, he sliced through her leotard with one sweep of his nails, and he reached for his pants.
The fucker wanted to rape her. Olivia was trying to fly away, but the man leaned heavily against her chest.
A blind fury seared through Gary. Without consciously thinking about it, he slammed his shoulder into the asshole and grabbed him by the neck as he flew them over to the nearest tree. That poor tree couldn't take the assault after being attacked already by Elena's backside when the woolly mammoth had shoved her aside, and it cracked with a groan. Gary didn't care. He pinned the asshole to what part of the tree remained and stabbed him over and over and over again, yanking the saber-like tooth out so fast that blood flew everywhere, spraying them both on the backswing and forward again. It wasn't until Gary noticed the man was long since dead that he realized he had been alternating between stabbing the man in the crotch and in the face.
Shocked and appalled by what he had done, by how savagely he had killed, Gary landed and retreated a few steps. His hand trembled so much that he dropped the sabre-tooth.
Just then, howls cried out all around them, in the near distance and farther away. A sole sabretooth rushed out of the town and headed straight for Gary.
Fuck. He didn’t want to have to kill again. He just wanted this to be over. Maybe the girls had the right idea after all, to lay low and let Yuna do her thing so they could return home.
“If you want to log off,” he started to tell Olivia.
“I’m fine,” she said. While he had killed her would-be rapist, she had changed into new attire.
What the fuck kind of game was this that one of the enemies would try to rape a player? That was so fucked up.
But maybe it hadn’t been designed that way. He supposed it was possible that Smaug could’ve done that, but if that was the case, then he knew they were here with him.
Fuck. That. Prick.
Gary retrieved the saber-like tooth and waited for the sole shifter to come toward him. Nicoletta and Elena weren't far behind, chasing it, but it was Gary's.
Using his telekinesis, Gary pinned the sabre-toothed tiger on its back against the ground. It kicked and squirmed but couldn't break free. Gary straddled him and pressed the tip of the fang against his neck.
Just then more howls sounded. Gary glanced up to see hundreds more sabre-toothed tigers heading their way.
“What the fuck is going on?” Gary muttered. He pressed the tooth just enough to cause blood. “Well?”
The sabre-toothed tiger shifted back to a man and laughed. “Go ahead. Kill me. You’ll only enrage them more.”
“What did I do?” Gary asked. “What will call them off?”
The man laughed even more, the sound chaotic and maniacal. “Nothing will but your death, and you deserve it for killing our leader.”
Gary glanced at the ruined body of the man who had dared to touch Olivia.
“Yes, our leader. He—”
Gary sliced his throat. “We’ve got a problem,” he announced. “You sure you don’t want to log off?”
“If they aren’t going to stop because you killed that fucker, then you aren’t fighting unless I’m beside you.”
“We’re here, too,” Nicoletta said.
“I’m sorry they’re here. It’s on me,” Elena said.
“I’m the one who killed their leader,” Gary said.
“Bec
ause I was trying a different way to kill him since I ran out of room on the tiger kababs.” Olivia sounded pissed.
“Let’s not worry about blame,” Nicoletta said.
“Let’s worry about hunting shifters,” Gary said.
And the first of the sabre-toothed tigers arrived in a clash of teeth, fangs, and killer eagerness to tear them to shreds.
Chapter Fifteen
Gary had killed so many sabre-toothed tigers by now that he had lost count. The girls were still counting though.
“Twenty-six,” Elena said as she bashed her fist straight through one’s eye.
“Twenty-seven!” Nicoletta said triumphantly as she singed another one.
“He’s not dead yet,” Olivia complained.
The sabre-toothed tiger collapsed.
“He’s dead,” Nicoletta said.
“How many, Olivia?” Elena asked.
Olivia muttered something.
"Didn't catch that," Nicoletta said.
“Five,” Olivia said. “It’s harder for me. I need something—”
“Here.” Gary shoved a saber-like tooth into her hand. It was slick with blood. He was covered in blood. He felt numb to death.
He felt numb to life.
How long had they been fighting? He didn't know. It was only because of his forcefield that he was holding back the horde, so they weren't overrun and trampled to death. The sheer number of sabre-toothed tigers trying to kill them was staggering. It appeared as if Gary and his team weren't making any progress at all.
Another one fell down at Gary’s feet courtesy of Nicoletta. Telekinetically, he yanked loose the two massive fangs and sliced and carved through about ten more of the beasts in a matter of moments.
“Do you think I could do that, too?” Olivia asked breathlessly.
“You won’t know unless you try,” he said.
“But you have to use so much force to get it to pierce them, let alone go in one side and out the other.”
“I don’t care for that defeatist attitude,” he said.
