The Star Dragon: A Fantasy LitRPG (Dragon Kings of the New World Book 1)

by Dante Doom

  “Anyone who doesn’t like Draco sounds like a good guy to me,” Van said. “We gotta log out, get the CIA, and tell them everything... and then I’m out!”

  Sang shook her head. “We’ve got a problem here.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Trefor… hmmm,” Sang muttered as she seemed to review a display that Van couldn’t see. “Well, this isn’t good. There’s some kind of override code on here. You’re locked in until Trefor gives you the okay to leave.”

  “What?” Van gasped. “That’s impossible!”

  “Unfortunately, it seems it isn’t. We couldn’t unhook you manually without killing you, either. They talked about letting your pod run out of electricity, but even then… it could potentially kill you. I can get out, but you? You’re stuck here,” Sang replied.

  “Oh crap! Crap! I just want out! How do I get out of here?”

  “Only one way,” Sang said as she grabbed her bow and knocked a flaming arrow onto it. “We’re going to have to find a way to convince Trefor to let you out.”

  “By attacking him? That’s stupid, Sang.”

  “Not him; the Dragon first. I can hear it coming from here. My Listen skill’s pretty high. We gotta take it out and then maybe we can convince Trefor to not throw his life away. You know where he lives, right?”

  “His address?” Van asked. “No.”

  “Any personal details? Real name? Facebook account?” Sang asked.

  Van shrugged. “Yeah, we’re buddies on Facebook.”

  “That’s all we need. I’ll send a message to O’Hara and they’ll raid his house, pull him out of the pod. When he’s disconnected, we should be able to get out of here. So we just need to stall.”

  “Sang, there’s one more thing,” Van said nervously. “Trefor said that they could kill me in here if they wanted to. For real.”

  Sang sighed. “Well, I hate to make a tough day way worse, but, uh, this whole thing started a while back when a few people were killed during Sleep Time. They were found in their pods, dead. Their vitals and everything were fine until, one moment… they were gone”

  “So it’s true,” Van whispered hoarsely.

  “I’m afraid so. Look, we’ll just kill this Dragon really quick and then we can hide. Once the CIA kicks down Trefor’s door in real life, we’ll be safe,” Sang said. Her head darted up suddenly. “It’s here. Crap, let’s go!”

  “We can’t kill that thing!” Van said as he chased after his companion. “It’s a high-level Dragon!”

  “Well, what do you want us to do, then? Get cooked by it?” Sang demanded. She pointed to the surrounding trees, many of which were on fire—the implication was clear enough. The burning smell of smoke made Van gag as he tried to ignore the stinging in his eyes.

  “We gotta run, or at least find something that can kill that thing,” Van replied. “We’re too low-level to just kill it. We need a weapon or some kind of item.”

  “Like what?” Sang asked.

  Van wracked his brains. He knew that there were ways to kill higher-level players and creatures. It wasn’t easy, but there were methods. “Wait! I’ve got it!” he shouted triumphantly. “The Guardians of Graver Point! It’s not too far from here—it’s an old temple that has a couple of quests, but the Guardians themselves are these high-level statues that go Aggro on anyone who gets close. They’re programmed to be completely hostile, and the best part is, with the right kind of magic item, you can actually control them.”

  “Who needs magic when you can cheat?” Sang replied as she threw her bow onto her back. “Sounds good, so let’s go! If we’re quick, we can get out of here without it noticing us.”

  “They can probably track us,” Van replied. “Trefor seemed to have eyes everywhere.”

  “Use your Potion of Invisibility,” Sang said, “I’ll use my Stealth!”

  Van nodded as he popped the cork and drank his last remaining potion. If the Dragon followed the game rules, he would be able to lose it, at least for a little while.

  And with that, the two ran as fast as they could to escape the burning forest. Van felt his heart rate increasing quite a bit; he wasn’t a warrior in real life. Never before had he been locked in a life or death struggle.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sang huffed and wheezed a little as they made their way up the steps of the massive temple. The temple itself had been built into the side of the mountain and the steps themselves were carved out of the very mountain. She was feeling a little jittery with all of the exertion, and felt nearly woozy. Her heartbeat had been almost audible at several points during the adventure, and now she was starting to recognize the fact that she could very well be killed while inside of these pods. It wasn’t a good thing to worry about, however, because Van was still in serious trouble. She couldn’t let him die out here, and if she hadn’t plugged back in, Trefor would most likely have killed Van already for refusing to join Draco.

  The whole thing was crazy—and while she would have loved to disbelieve the whole “Draco is actually an alien organization” thing, the reality was that she didn’t particularly have a choice of whether or not to believe it at this point. Something had happened when she’d connected to the Others, and while she didn’t know what it all meant, she knew deep down that Draco was very bad news. So, simply, she now had a new job—to get Van out alive. Herself? While she wouldn’t mind surviving, she’d already made the choice when she’d climbed into her pod. She probably wouldn’t make it out alive unless there was some kind of a miracle, but there was no point in worrying about it. For once in her whole adult life, she actually felt herself caring about someone else, and it felt incredible. She would fight for Van and help him, even if it killed her.

  “There!” Van said excitedly as he pointed at a massive golden statue. The statue had a large blade for its right arm and a fist on its left. The statue looked kind of like a human, but with the head of a fox. “They don’t move at all, but the moment you get too close, they’re going to go berserk.”

  Sang saw the words Guardian of Graver Point Level 90 hanging over its head. She quickly pulled up the stats.

  HP: 5,000

  Strength: 155

  Weapon: Blade Arm, 300 damage + poison

  Weapon Fist: 350 damage

  She grinned when she saw those numbers. It was going to be far stronger than even Trefor. All she needed to do was hack into it and take control, and they’d be good to fight. She brought up the console menu and accessed the menu.

  She fiddled with the tables and managed to get it to change.

  The statue immediately came to life and began to walk straight towards Sang. She grinned widely when she realized that it wasn’t going to attack either of them.

  “Nice work!” Van cried out as he pointed to the other three statues. “Activate those ones, too! We’ll have ourselves a whole army to fight against them!”

  Sang nodded and did the same for the other three statues, causing them all to activate and march up to Sang. They wouldn’t follow just any orders, but they would follow her around until there was something to attack. And it was only a matter of time before Trefor found them. Sang had done a little bit of work to try and conceal their tracks, but she didn’t have enough time to figure out a work-around. The more she had learned about the game system, though, the easier it was to manipulate things... and yet, for right now, there was little she could do in the way of hiding for the long term. If she could have hidden their position permanently, she’d just have suggested that they duck out until O’Hara and Neil found Trefor in meat space. If they could find him, that was. Sang didn’t want to give Van a false sense of hope, but the chances of them finding Trefor this quickly were pretty low, unless the man lived locally. Her actual plan was to try and convince Trefor to give up. These statues would help motivate him immensely. If she could get Trefor to surrender and come into CIA custody, they’d have a lot more information on Draco. It would be ten times better than anything Van could explain to them
.

  “I see him!” Van said, pointing up to the clouds. The yellow Dragon swooped down at full speed, an armor-clad paladin riding atop its back. Sang grabbed her bow and started firing arrows. The words DODGE DODGE DODGE appeared over the Dragon as the arrows whistled past it. The Dragon then did a strafing run, flying by and unleashing a blast of flames. Sang and Van ducked behind the statues as the fire barely missed them both. Sang could feel the heat of the flames, though, and it felt a little bit more real than it had before.

  The statues were quick to move toward the Dragon to attack, but in a split second they all fell apart, leaving Van and Sang without cover.

  “Nice try!” Trefor called from atop the Dragon. “I must say I can respect the effort! But tricks like that aren’t going to work here! You might be able to mess around on our servers, but my people are focusing on counter-hacking techniques at this moment. You won’t be able to do anything here.”

  “Crap!” Sang said as she tried to shoot a few more arrows at Trefor, but the words DODGE greeted her once again. She gritted her teeth and couldn’t believe what she was dealing with here. It seemed so arbitrary that her arrows were missing even though she was positive that her aim was on point, but when he was at such a high level, it seemed that it didn’t particularly matter. He was going to kill them with ease.

  “Van! Get into the temple! Run!” Sang cried out as she dashed sideways to narrowly avoid the flames from the Dragon.

  “Oh, come on!” Trefor taunted. “Don’t run! I’m your friend!

  Sang ignored him and continued moving up the stairs and into the stone temple. The temple’s inside was a large square room with steps leading up to an altar of some kind. There were no other places to go. Sang glanced around, desperate to find some kind of hidden door or secret room, but there was none.

  “This temple isn’t really designed for anything other than flavor and a quest where you have to deliver something to the altar,” Van noted as he glanced nervously at the doorway. It wasn’t big enough for the Dragon to fit through, but Trefor was strong enough to kill the both of them for sure.

  Sang climbed up the steps and took cover behind the altar, aiming her bow toward the entrance. Van hid next to her. There was silence for a few minutes, followed by the echoing sound of heavy footsteps walking towards them.

  Trefor emerged from the entryway, wielding a towering shield and a flaming sword. Sang snapped off a few shots, but the arrows bounced off of his armor and shield harmlessly.

  “Alright, you two, that’s enough. You’ve had your fun here, but it’s time to go. Ranger! What’s your name?”

  “Sang!” she shouted back, trying to shoot some more arrows. The words 0 damage kept greeting her each time she fired off a shot.

  “Well, Miss Sang, my name is Trefor. I’m sure your friend has told you all about what we’re doing. But I’m certainly curious about something here, Miss Sang. I’m curious as to what you have been doing poking around. Are you some kind of corporate spy? Hoping to exploit our servers with a glitch? Or maybe you’re with the government, investigating some shadier things you think we’ve been up to.”

  “I’m nothing more than a gaming enthusiast who loves Easter eggs,” Sang called back. This at least elicited a chuckle from Trefor.

  “Sure, you are. Here’s the deal, Sang. If you’re willing to come with me and meet some of my friends at Draco, we’ll go ahead and let Van log out. I’m sure you’re well aware that this gentleman is going to die at any moment. We have the power to kill him. Come with me and we’ll leave him here. When we meet my employers, you have my word that he will be set free. Don’t, and… well, he dies.”

  Sang glanced at Van. “I don’t like that idea,” she whispered to him.

  “Neither do I,” he said, “but what kind of plan are we working on? I can’t log out, and if I get killed in this game, I’m willing to bet I’m going to die for real. I have no clue how we can get out of this thing.”

  Sang sighed heavily. “Well, how do I know that you’re going to keep your word?” Sang called out to Trefor.

  “You honestly don’t,” Trefor replied. “But what other choice do you have? I mean, neither of you have a chance to defeat me in combat. My Dragon’s outside waiting to cook anyone who leaves without my permission. You’re in a corner here, and there’s honestly no way out for you. So, you have a choice. You can take a risk and come back with me, or you can watch your good buddy die. I know you can log out at any moment, so it’s not really you who’s in trouble here. It’s him.”

  Sang gritted her teeth and glanced at Van, who was shaking his head no. “Look, maybe we can figure out some kind of a plan,” she whispered, “but for right now, I’ve got to focus on getting you out of here alive.”

  “They’re gonna do something terrible to you!” Van hissed. “Don’t go with him!”

  “We’ve got no other choice! I’m not trying to valiantly sacrifice myself for you, Van. You need to figure out some kind of strategy to get me out of there. I know that when I go with him they’ll probably counter my ability to log out. But I’ll buy us time, at least. I’ll go with him and you... you’ve gotta figure something out.”

  “Like what?” Van whispered. “I can’t do a damned thing with this character!”

  “Well, I’m sorry, but we have no other choice. Either we both get our asses kicked right now, or we comply until we can turn the tables on him. Don’t forget, the CIA’s poking around out in meat space, trying to find the guy for real. If they find him, they’ll drag him out, solving both of our problems immediately.”

  “I’m getting impatient!” Trefor shouted.

  “I’m thinking about it!” Sang said. “Don’t make me log out!”

  “Oh, I know you’re not going to log out, or else you would have a long time ago.”

  “Alright, here’s the deal,” she shouted from behind the altar. “You leave this place—get on your Dragon. I’ll follow you out and climb on the Dragon with you. I’m not leaving until I’m certain that Van will be save.”

  “You have two minutes before I come in and kill you both!” Trefor said as he walked out of the room.

  “Whew, nice!” Van said once they were alone.

  “Alright, I’m going to go with him,” Sang said. Her heart was pounding and she was feeling nervous, but she figured that half of the sensations were probably just the prolonged effects of being in the pod. She was feeling woozier and more ill by the minute. All she had to do was make sure that Van was safe, though, and then everything would be worth it. She wasn’t particularly worried about dying, because she had made peace with that decision when she’d climbed into the pod. What she was most worried about was Van getting hurt.

  “Alright. Once I’m clear to log out, I’m gonna jump out and get on a regular console and log back in as Sivlander,” Van replied. “He’s got everything necessary to rescue you, and when I’m just using a regular computer, I won’t have to worry about getting killed.”

  “That’s good thinking, Van,” Sang said weakly as she stood up and looked at him. He looked back at her, and she felt real heaviness in her heart. This might very well be the last time she’d see him, but she couldn’t let him know that.

  “Thanks for coming back for me,” Van whispered as he hugged her. “We’re both gonna get out of this. We survived that stupid jungle, our poor decisions, and our arguments, so we’re going to survive this.”

  “Of course,” she whispered as she turned from him. “They’ll jam my communications, too, I’m sure. Stay in touch with the team and make sure they stay updated.”

  “You got it!” Van said as Sang walked down the steps, her heart sinking with each step she took. She emerged from the cave to see that Trefor was indeed sitting atop his Dragon.

  “Well, I am a little surprised. I was expecting some kind of nonsense from you both!” Trefor said as she walked toward the Dragon. Her pace was a little slow, partly because she was delaying and partly because she didn’t have the stren
gth to keep going forward.

  “You’re looking a little pale,” Trefor said as he dismounted from the Dragon and took her hand, helping her get onto the back of the creature. It hissed and roared for a moment as she climbed atop it.

  “Calm down, she won’t stab you again,” Trefor replied as he climbed up on the Dragon, as well, straddling its body in front of her. “Because if she tries anything, her good pal isn’t going to make it out of this game alive.”

  “When we cross that barrier, you’ll deactivate the controls on him, right? Let him go?” Sang asked.

  “Of course. Believe it or not, I do have some loyalty. It might not help him in the long run, but the fact is that Van was one of my best friends in this game. I’m not above killing in order to serve the mission, but as long as you behave, he’s going to be safe. We are far more civil than you think.”

  “Right, civil,” Sang wheezed as she slumped against Trefor’s back. She wasn’t sure what the plan was, but her body was beginning to feel like it was growing more and more sickly by the minute. Was she going to die like this? Trapped in some kind of a video game, flying on the back of some fake Dragon in a fake world? What a strange way to go, she mused as she closed her eyes. She had never slept in the game before... after all, when a character went to sleep, their player just log out... but for a few minutes, she drifted off into the unconscious world.

  Her dreams were strange and vivid. She could feel some kind of presence talking to her, warning her, but she didn’t understand the language very well. She struggled through each moment, desperately trying to sift through the alien words. They made no sense to her, still. There was one word, however, that did seem to break through their language barrier. It was the word “Dragon” and it came to her over and over again. “Dragon, Dragon, Dragon,” the language repeated. The words were accompanied by a swarm of thousands of other strange words, but she knew they were talking about Dragons. She wasn’t sure what it all meant, however.