by Dante Steel
“Olivia, distract it,” he shouted, grateful to see Elena had armed herself with another branch and was moving to stand before Yuna like a human shield.
The flier looped and zoomed near the shaman-bear, careful to keep out of reach. When the shaman-bear’s back was to Gary, he telekinetically slammed the tree branch through the bear’s back and all the way down to the ground, impaling it, pinning it in place.
The shaman-bear struggled to move. It wasn’t dead just yet, so Elena stepped forward and shoved her new wooden spear through his mouth.
The shaman-bear immediately stopped struggling.
Congratulations! You are now heroes!
Chapter Twenty-One
While the girls congratulated themselves on a job well done, Gary stepped around the dead bodies and spied the meat the berserkers had been cooking. The fight had caused the makeshift rotisserie to topple over onto its side, and the animal carcasses were cooked and ready to be eaten.
“Let’s enjoy the fruit of our labors,” he said.
They dug into the meat. Yuna even found some wicked strong ale that the berserkers had been drinking. They did not drink too much, wishing to not be drunk for the next part of their master plan.
“Besides, we can drink it after Smaug is dead,” Olivia said.
"We're going to carry around these?" Elena held up the animal hide waterskin.
"You betcha," Olivia said eagerly. "They've been orphaned, the poor ales. We have to adopt them and give them a new home." She patted her flat stomach.
They all burst out laughing, and Gary was beginning to feel better.
Once they ate their fill and allocated their new experiences and skill points, Yuna led the way by air, this time heading slightly southeast. Again, they bypassed the village and hovered above a vineyard.
“Giles Garnier killed his first victim in a vineyard,” Olivia said.
“You know too much about this serial killer,” Gary said.
“Kinda disturbing,” Nicoletta teased.
“The human mind is fascinating,” Olivia said defensively.
“Will it be easier to track him by flying around or by hunting him on the ground?” Elena asked.
"On the ground, I do believe," Yuna said, "but only after we’ve seen some evidence that he’s been nearby. Until then, I suggest we fly around some."
So they did, and they soon spotted small bodies with legs ripped off, bellies cut, flesh removed from arms and thighs. The sight disgusted Gary, and Nicoletta, on his right side, muttered that she felt sick to her stomach. He didn’t blame her.
“Do you need to touch down?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Nicoletta said, but beneath her tanned skin tone, she looked a little green.
As it turned out, Yuna landed a few moments later. “We need to be careful,” she said. “Giles Garnier is going to be harder to kill than the berserkers.”
The strange silence all around them infuriated Gary. It was enough to make him go mad. Why hadn’t they included more small animals that weren’t shifters? More insects to make their music? His heart was thudding too loudly for him to be able to concentrate.
Just then, Olivia let out a blood-curdling scream. Gary whirled around to see a man with long, straggly hair and dirty clothes biting and ripping off the flesh of Olivia’s arm.
Gary went to use his power to slam the bastard back, but the bastard was already rushing and hiding within the vineyard, running away on all fours even though still in his human form.
“Be careful,” Yuna warned as she dashed over to Olivia’s side to aid her.
Gary hated to leave Olivia while she was injured, but they had to kill this bastard so they could kill that damned trickster so they might have a chance of killing that fucker. His to-kill list was too long yet for his liking, but that was going to change any minute now.
With Nicoletta and Elena on his heels, Gary tore after Giles Garnier. Row after row, Gary tried to find the bastard, and eventually, he gave up and took to the sky, just high enough to see the entire vineyard.
Claws connected with his foot, piercing through his boot toward his heel, and Gary was dragged to the ground, his back slamming against a rock. His back spasmed, and he couldn’t move.
Giles Garnier was no longer human, but he wasn’t a werewolf the same as the other werewolves they had faced. Those had been massive wolves many times a normal one. Giles Garnier was more of a hybrid between a man and a wolf, more a wolfman than anything else.
The bastard yanked his claw free and pounced on Gary before he could react. Foam trickled down the corners of his mouth. He was salivating at the chance to eat Gary.
“Sick bastard,” Gary said. He tried to lift a hand so he could use his powers, but Giles Garnier placed his wolfman hands on Gary’s shoulder to pin him in place, his arm locked and unable to move.
“Nah, you don’t want to eat him,” Elena called. “Try some of this.” She held out her arm.
The wolfman didn’t even glance over at her. A huge fireball went his way, but the wolfman merely huffed and puffed it out because of course he would.
Saliva dropped onto Gary, and the wolfman opened his mouth. A flash of silver was all Gary could see, and then the wolfman was yanked off of Gary by his mouth.
Damn was Elena strong.
The two were locked together, the wolfman close to the ground, Elena squatting and grunting, using all of her might. The wolfman growled and tried to bite her, but Elena’s brute strength enabled her to keep the jaws apart. Gary had a feeling that if Giles was allowed to bite, he would break anything placed between his jaws.
“Now, Nicoletta!” Elena shouted.
The Hispanic sent wave after wave of fire at the wolfman, but although they made contact with his fur, the fire immediately went out.
“What the hell?” Nicoletta muttered as she tried again. “Gary, check and see if he has some kind of forcefield.”
Gary obliged, but there was nothing there for him to detect. The moment he tried to keep the wolfman’s mouth open so Elena could shift her focus elsewhere, the strangest sensation washed over Gary. His mouth filled with blood, and he could taste raw meat. Flesh. A vision came of biting into the child they had seen, and Gary severed the telekinetic connection. What the fuck was that? Wasn’t that telepathic? Gary sure as fuck wasn’t Olivia. He did not want to understand a serial killer or get into one’s mind.
Elena’s knees were buckling from the strain of squatting. Why wasn’t she standing? Ah, because then the wolfman would be free to swipe at her with his claws. The wolfman must have realized this because it jerked back slightly and began to stand on its hind legs. As it went to slip Elena, Gary tried to create a forcefield around her, but it didn’t quite go as planned. Instead, he sent out a blast of his own, not of fire, of course, but telekinetic energy. The blue, wisp-like beam flew out, and the telekinetic bomb exploded between the two, and they went flying apart.
Elena hurled backward and slammed into Nicoletta. The two went down hard. As for the wolfman, he slid backward, but he dug his claws into the ground, which slowed his movement. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth. Gary hoped like hell that the wolfman had bitten his tongue.
The wolfman stalked toward Gary. The ground trembled with every step it took. In the previous issues, their enemies all had fake eyes. There was no intelligence there. The NPCs had the same eyes. The avatars, on the other hand, had intelligent eyes.
This wolfman had those same eyes, and with a sense of guilt, Gary realized those cursed shifters somehow had real eyes, too.
What the hell was Smaug doing to the game?
Where the hell was Yuna? Was Olivia that badly hurt?
The wolfman was only a few feet away now. Gary tried to throw out another telekinetic blast, but he wasn't sure how he had done it in the first place. He could, however, use the nearby vines to wrap around the wolfman's legs and arms. The wolfman howled and struggled against the plants, but Gary reinforced the vines with his power, so ess
entially, the wolfman and Gary were engaged in a dangerous game of tug of war.
A wave of fatigue washed over Gary. He was exhausted. How long had he been fighting? Ever since he had entered this damn game. Damn Jorge for getting it for him. Damn Yuna for not finding them an easier way to become megaheroes. Damn Haru for not getting them out of here already. Damn Smaug for making Shifter War necessary in the first place.
“Damn you,” Gary muttered to the wolfman.
His grip on the vines was weakening. The wolfman would be free any second. Gary should fly away. No, find the girls and fly away. They could wait a day or two before becoming megaheroes. Maybe. If they could find a spot where they could rest and heal and recover more fully.
Instead of flying, he seized the last saber-like tooth he had. Gary waited for the wolfman to lunge. He brought up one hand to telekinetically keep the wolfman’s mouth shut while he stabbed the bastard in the chest.
The tip of the saber-like tooth connected with a rib and bounced off.
The tip of the wolfman’s fangs sank into Gary’s hand.
Despite the pain he was in, Gary brought up his other hand and stabbed the wolfman in the neck, except the fang wouldn’t puncture its skin.
Just then, Elena rushed over and yanked on the wolfman’s arm so viciously that the wolfman had no choice but to let Gary go. The movement was so powerful that a few of the teeth remained embedded into Gary’s arm.
In a flash of silver, Elena furiously punched and kicked the wolfman. Although she was landing her blows and avoiding or blocking his, her assault did not seem to frustrate or harm the bastard.
Nicoletta came over and tried her fire once more. Nothing worked. The fire continued to die the moment it connected with him.
It was almost as if magic was protecting him.
Magic.
Smaug.
Fuck.
“Somehow, I don’t think that extra credit of burning him at the stake is going to happen,” Nicoletta yelled.
“Stop your whining,” Olivia said as she flew over. She held her injured arm close to her body, and she effortlessly caused the wolfman to fly. “Gary, if you’ll be so kind as to torture him…”
Gary’s mind was beginning to fog. His wound was bleeding, his entire side felt sticky, and it was so very dark. He could hardly see.
“Torture?”
“Rip out his claws, his teeth,” Olivia said. “Anything that makes him dangerous.”
“Right,” Gary said, and he proceeded to pry one of the embedded teeth from his arm.
“From his person. Wolf. Whatever.”
Nodding, Gary lifted his good arm, but he couldn’t do anything more than fall to the ground.
“He’s losing too much blood,” someone said.
“Don’t worry about me,” he tried to say, but all he heard was a groan.
As he almost faded to unconsciousness, an idea came to him.
“Nic…”
“I’m here.” She touched his hand.
All he did was think of his plan. He tried to push that thought from his mind through his fingers to hers and her mind.
Then, he knew no more.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When Gary awoke, he realized two things. One, he had gained two more levels so now he was level five-hundred and ninety-nine. And two, he still felt like death. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t see.
But he could listen, and the girls weren't exactly quiet.
“How can we help him?” Elena asked.
“Without knowing his blood type, I don’t know if setting up a blood transfusion is the best of ideas,” Yuna said.
“Are the cons that serious?” Olivia asked. “Just do it!”
“It’s not as if I have needles and supplies for this,” Yuna protested.
“You should’ve been more prepared,” Elena snapped. “You waltzed in here with all kinds of powers, but you can’t help to heal someone?”
“At least we killed that terrible wolfman,” Nicoletta said softly.
“At what cost?” Elena asked. “He deformed my arm, and I don’t know if this limp will ever go away. I can’t kick with my left leg. All of us got bit. How were you able to help Olivia but not Gary?”
“Olivia is an avatar,” Yuna said in her calm voice.
Gary just wanted to sleep. Only the fear that he wouldn’t wake up again prevented him from giving in. From giving up.
“Damn, he’s bleeding again.”
“All right. Nicoletta, you need to burn the end of this fang,” Elena said.
“Why?”
“To kill off any germs. Then we’ll need some kind of hollow tube to get my blood into Gary.”
The girls began to talk and argue about health and safety and all of that. Honestly, Gary didn’t care about that. They said he was bleeding again. The bleeding had to be stopped.
Maybe he could do it.
Gary retreated from his mind and focused on his body. He wasn’t sure if he even could do that, but gradually, he did not hear the girls anymore. All he heard were his thoughts, worries, and his heartbeat.
As he focused on his heart, a strange swooshing sound filled his ears. Blood rushing through his veins. He followed along the different veins and gradually found his wound. It was a huge knot, a cluster of ripped muscle, torn skin, blood everywhere inside and outside.
He set about trying to smooth out the veins, to unravel the knots, to rebind the veins, muscles, and skin. Maybe he was doing it. Maybe he was hallucinating.
Maybe it was time for sleep.
When Gary woke, he opened his eyes. That was a good sign. He inhaled deeply. His lungs were fine. His body didn’t feel as if he was in pain. In fact, other than feeling tired, he seemed all right.
He glanced to the left. Elena sat on a chair beside his bed. She had fallen asleep. Yuna wasn’t in the room. Neither was Olivia. On his right was Nicoletta.
“You’re awake,” she said. “How do you feel?”
“Hungry. Thirsty. Tired. Confused. What happened?”
Nicoletta rushed to help him sit up and then sat beside him on the bed, facing him. “You aren’t bleeding anymore.”
“I’m fine.”
“How?”
“I think I healed myself. What happened?” he repeated.
Her eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t question him. “You… We touched hands. You gave me an idea how to kill Giles Garnier. That was your idea, wasn’t it?”
Gary nodded. “So Olivia pinned him in place against the vines? She was able to?”
“Yes. He wasn’t able to move at all! Elena ripped out his teeth and all of his claws. The screams…” She shuddered.
“Loud and terrible?”
“Yes, and… at first, he sounded like a young girl then a young boy and then a different girl… Olivia thought maybe his victims…”
“Because that’s not fucked up,” Gary muttered.
“Right?” Nicoletta wiped a tear away, and he realized she was favoring her palms.
“Did you get burned again?” he asked. He captured her hand and rubbed it through her glove.
“My regular fire wasn’t enough. I had to have it burn hotter than ever before.”
He stared at her, and she nodded at his unspoken question. Gently, he removed her glove and cursed himself for gasping out loud. Not only was her palm burned, but the scorched marks went up toward her elbow.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “I’m sorry. You said you were thirsty, hungry. Let me get you something—”
“No,” he said firmly. “Let me concentrate.”
Gary closed his eyes. When he had been able to cause things to explode in the past, he had reached inside, to the particles, and ripped it apart. Now, he reached inside, just the same, found the burns, and did his best to separate it away from her skin. Once he finished the one side, he worked on her other arm. By the time he was done, he realized he had an audience, the other girls had all arrived, plus a tray of food and water was waiting f
or him.
Nicoletta filled the others in as he ate. Elena stirred, and she described how they had killed the wolfman.
“And the fire was turning blue, Gary. The hottest flames there can be! Yuna came, and that was it. Her added fire was enough, and the wolfman finally burned. It wasn’t at a stake, not really, but he burned to death.”
Gary shook his head. “You sound so satisfied about that.”
“I am.”
“Gary, how did you heal yourself?” Yuna asked.
“I think through my power,” he said. He motioned Olivia over. “Are you all better?”
She nodded. “Potions don’t work on me, but Yuna tapped into the game to at least change that much.”
“Tap into the game? How? When?”
“The last time I spoke with Haru,” Yuna said, “I told him to install more of those secret bases. I knew we would be facing off against the berserkers, Giles Garnier, and Loki, so I specifically asked for them to be near those locations. I can help Olivia more than I can help us, unfortunately.”
“Understandable.”
“But if you can heal us…” Yuna appraised him and smiled. “You claim I am powerful, Gary, but you are the most powerful of us all.”
He shrugged. "I think I just need a little more rest. Then, we can head out and tackle Loki." Gary hesitated and glanced around. The room was small with white painted walls, no windows, a bed, and a few chairs. "Where are we?"
“In another town. We’re trying to lay low. Two nights ago, we heard werewolves howling nearby.”
He gaped at Olivia. “Two nights ago?”
“Yes, you’ve been out that long. The bleeding had stopped for a bit, so we thought you were doing better, but then it started again.” She shrugged.
“And those werewolves are still hunting us,” he growled.
“Yes, but flying everywhere gives them no trail to track.” Yuna smiled. “You need to sleep. We all do. Once we’re ready, we’ll track down the trickster god.”
“And then, we’ll go after Smaug. If this isn’t for the final time, I quit,” Gary said.
