Dragon Kings of the New World

by Dante Doom

  "It worked! Charge!" Van yelled as he rushed at the dragon, his warhammer high in the air. The dragon, surprised at the fact that his shout hadn't worked, clambered forward to meet Van. Van swung his hammer hard and cracked the beast against its head as it snapped at him. The words 225 damage hovered above the dragon. The sharp teeth of the beast sank into Van's armor at the exact same time. The words 0 Defense due to Fierce Rage, automatic hit! 500 damage hovered above him. That dropped him down to 1,300, hit points, and that wasn't good at all.

  Sahara came running up right next to Van as quickly as she could, thrusting her trident right into the nostrils of the blue dragon. 100 damage hovered above its head. It hissed and shrieked as the trident lodged itself into the nose of the creature, and then it reared back. As it bucked backwards, its body came up off the ground and, for a split second, the dragon's underbelly was exposed.

  "Haha!" Sang shouted as she let loose a torrent of arrows. The arrows made a thwip twhip sound as they sank into the soft, weak area of the blue dragon. The words Weak Spot 1,600 damage floated above the dragon.

  The blue dragon shrieked in agony as its health dropped down to 2,075 points. That was plenty of damage to dish out in a short amount of time. Its confidence dropped and it began to snap and hiss some more. It was backing up with each step, however. In the most literal sense, the creature was backing itself into a corner. It had crawled back to where the band had been playing and there was nowhere left for it to go.

  Van sharply glanced behind him to see that the rest of the Iron Dragons were engaged in a furious battle. Jet, Bidane, and Fredlin were all locked into combat with two of the yellow dragons, and he could see dozens of soldiers hanging from the backs of both enemy dragons, using their hook systems to stay on. The green dragon was on the ground, dead, but there were a great many of Van's teammates who'd also been killed in the effort. Fortunately, Draco hadn't activated the reality zone system yet, so he knew these players would just respawn somewhere else.

  "Should we leave it?" Sang asked as the dragon let out another cautionary shriek. "I'm willing to bet it'll be eight times more fierce since we have it cornered."

  "If we leave it alive, it'll keep trying to kill us," Van said as he turned to face the monster. "We can't afford losing more people. Those yellow twins are being held back now, and the Emperor is still unreachable without Jet's help. Let's finish it off."

  "Now we're talking!" Sahara said as she raised her trident high. "Let's show these lizard bastards that we mean business!"

  "Damn straight!" Van said as he grabbed Sahara's trident. "But I’m taking this."

  "Awww, why?" Sahara asked as she released it.

  "Because my Fierce Rage will let me bypass its damage reduction," Van said as he eyed the clock. The Rage was down to only 8 minutes of runtime now. The moment that rage ended, he would be useless for the rest of this fight unless Bidane could cast her Holy Restoration spell on him.

  "Go for it!" Sahara cheered as Van looked at the two and nodded. He locked eyes with the monster and saw that it was prepared to fight to the bitter end.

  He narrowed his eyes and whispered, "This one's for Kylian." With that, Van rushed at full speed towards the dragon, activating his Berserk Charge ability. This would double any charge damage and, with the trident's spearing bonus, he would be doing triple damage. He was moving fast, too, but the dragon decided to change its tactics. It began to float in the air, its stubby wings beating rapidly.

  Van kept on running, and just waited for the right moment. As the dragon took off to fly away from him, he leapt up with all of his might, allowing the Fierce Rage strength bonus to increase his leaping distance. As he lunged upwards, he extended his spear as far as it was going to go. The trident's prongs crashed into the soft underbelly of the blue dragon. The words Critical Hit! Lethal Blow hovered above Van's head as he heard the creature let out another shriek. This time the shriek was one of pure agony, and they both came crashing to the ground. Van landed with ease, but was unable to roll out of the way as the body of the short, square dragon landed atop him.

  "Van!" Sang shouted. "Are you alive?"

  Van felt the pressure of the creature on him, but his increased strength made it relatively easy for him to throw the beast off to the side. He stood triumphantly as dragon blood poured down his face like sweat. He placed his fingers on his hands and smeared the blood across his entire face. Then he turned to look at the Emperor, who was watching him with extreme curiosity.

  "I'm coming for you next!" Van shouted as he triumphantly held up his trident. "You think I'm scared of you? You think you're going to win this one? Think again!"

  "What are you waiting for?" the Emperor bellowed back. Van thought he could hear a quiver in the voice of the beast, but he was unsure. "I’m up here. Come and show me what you're made of."

  "Sang, I need to get up there, and quickly!" Van said as he pointed to the Emperor. He was hovering well above 100 feet, making it impossible to reach him without flight.

  "We searched hard, but we could only get one Potion of Flight," Sang said. "It was made by a very low-level wizard, though."

  "Does that matter?" Van asked as he held out his blood-drenched hand for the potion.

  "It lasts 30 seconds," Sang replied as she took out a glowing purple bottle.

  "That's enough for me to reach him," Van said. "And that's all I need."

  "Well, good luck then," Sang said as she tossed the bottle to Van. He nodded at her and took a deep breath, then uncorked the bottle and swigged the potion.

  Flight Enabled said the UI system as it informed him that he had a flight speed rating of 10 and a flight duration of exactly 30 seconds. There was no time for him to shout out any orders; instead, Van flew upwards as fast as he could. Fortunately, the potion's flight speed was high enough for him to be able to reach the draconic Emperor.

  "You really think that you can kill me, don't you?" the Emperor boomed as it unleashed another torrent of flames towards Van. Thanks to his flight speed, however, he was able to dodge out of the way. He darted toward the beast's back, his right hand grabbing another hook from his belt.

  "I don't think I can kill you," Van said. "I know I can!"

  "This is why I like you humans!" the Emperor replied as it slashed its claws at Van, turning to prevent him from reaching its back. "Even in spite of your lack of power, you remain cocky and crazy." The dragon's claws raked hard against Van's flesh.

  "Argh!" Van gasped as the words 250 damage hovered above his head. But while that had been a solid hit, Van knew that the Emperor was still holding back. This whole thing was nothing more than a game to him. Perhaps the Emperor was still counting on Van joining him.

  Despite the blow, Van managed to throw his hook through one of the small holes in the dragon's wings. These holes were on just about every dragon's wings, and were probably designed to help the wings be more aerodynamic. He had played a dragon hunting campaign back when he'd been Sivlander, though, and knew the ins and outs of killing a dragon. The only problem was that he had never killed a dragon as big and as strong as the Emperor.

  Right as the hook snagged the wing, the words Spell Effect: Flight has expired hovered in front of him. He grabbed the rope and swung down as gravity began to work on him again, dragging him down. The speed of the fall gave him enough momentum to swing around the red dragon and land atop its back, though. And with his warhammer at the ready, he gave a tremendous heave and swung it hard against the right wing of the Emperor. Joint Strike 500 damage hovered above the dragon.

  "So, you know where to hit a dragon, do you?" the Emperor shouted as he thrashed around. Despite his intimidating size, he couldn't maneuver his arms behind his back on account of the fact that he was a dragon and didn't have such flexibility.

  "Well, I've killed plenty of your kind before!" Van shouted back as he wound up his hammer for another swing. The timer on his Fierce Rage was dropping down now, and once it reached zero, Van knew he would be out of the fight f
or a few minutes. Would he be able to kill the Emperor before that happened?

  "Hahaha, do your worst!" the Emperor called out. The dragon next shouted out in an ancient tongue that caused his skin to rapidly turn into stone. Van swung his hammer again, smashing against the stony coating that had wrapped around the wings. Despite being made of skin, the dragon continued to fly.

  Critical Damage prevented by spell 100 damage reported the UI. Crap. Even with Van's Fierce Rage, an extra buff spell would prevent him from doing special damage to weak spots.

  "Fredlin!" Van shouted at the top of his lungs. "I need a dispel, now!"

  The chaos on the ground had grown worse since Van had last checked on everyone. A few more dragons had arrived – three brown ones and a large purple one with long black horns curling out of the side of its head. Van's army was busy roping and fighting against them, but it was absolute chaos. Fredlin was nowhere in sight.

  "Hahahaha," the Emperor laughed, shaking with each chuckle. "You really don't get it? There are hundreds of us in the royal court; you think that they won't defend me?"

  "I don't have to kill all of them!" Van shouted. "I just have to kill you!"

  "How, Van? How do you proport to kill me?" the Emperor replied as he began to fly backwards towards the wall. Van gripped the ropes and pressed his legs against the dragon's back, bracing for impact. The emperor crashed backwards into the wall, smashing Van's body in the process. The wall cracked and cratered as the dragon repeated this maneuver multiple times. Each time Van was hit, he took 100 points of damage. He continued to hold on, though, gritting his teeth as he watched his hit points trickle down to 1,500. This was not what he wanted to see at all.

  "Had enough yet?" the Emperor shouted with a chuckle.

  Van let go of the rope and kicked his legs off the dragon, swinging himself around to the side, where he would be safe from the slamming. As he swung, he brought his warhammer down against the ribcage of the dragon, but his weapon bounced off due to the stone spell. Even with his amped up powers from the rage, Van just didn't have a chance of killing the dragon while the stone spell was still activated. He kept thwacking his hammer away at the dragon, though, over and over again, and sent a desperate message to Sang for help. Maybe she could find the wizard.

  Sang slid underneath the dragon, firing arrows upwards as it stomped over her. The arrows sank into the brown beast's soft underbelly and she could see the beautiful words of Critical Strike Lethal Blow hover above her head. The dragon roared in agony and she barely managed to roll out from underneath of it before it collapsed. The loud crash of the beast sent shockwaves through the ground. As she scrambled up to help the rest of her team, a message rushed to her.

  "We've got to change tactics here. The Emperor is staggering his forces to exhaust our team. No one else really matters – he's the main guy in charge. Figure out some way to get people attacking him. And tell Fredlin I need him counter-spelling the Emperor's magic. He's not responding to any of my messages."

  Sang glanced at the chaos surrounding her. The dragons were still pouring in, regardless of how many the Iron Dragons were able to kill. Things were rapidly falling apart. Still, if the Emperor was really the only target that mattered, she'd have to figure out some way to rally the crew without getting them killed.

  "Sahara!" Sang shouted as she reached into her quiver for some more arrows.

  "Yes, ma'am?" Sahara responded in between hacking away at the scales of another brown dragon that was only a few feet away from Sang.

  "I need you to run a message to the rest of the team," Sang said. "We're changing up tactics. Stop killing the smaller dragons and focus only on the big red one. Tell them to drink their potions of piercing and start attacking him."

  "Why don't you just send a mass message?" Sahara asked.

  "I'm delegating that to you, so do it however you want, but just make sure people start moving toward the Emperor," Sang said. "I'm gonna go find Fredlin."

  Two torrents of flames from two different directions came crashing down upon Sang then, but her Potion of Fire Immunity merely caused the flames to do 1 damage total to her. She chuckled as she rushed off into the fray, in the hopes of finding Fredlin. Where was he?

  14

  Fredlin surveyed the warzone that had been a dining area just a few short minutes before. The Iron Dragons were triumphantly fighting against the dragons, Van was busy trying to handle the Emperor, and just about everyone was focused on figuring out some way to bring the entire game down for good. The fate of the world didn't much matter to him, though – not that he didn't care about others, but when his dear friend had died, he'd lost all capacity to feel anything but anger and a desire for revenge.

  And he was close. All of these dragons were supposedly members of Draco, the organization that had killed the only woman he had ever loved. The worst part, Fredlin thought as his hands tightened around his staff, was the fact that he'd never been given the chance to tell her how he felt. Words unsaid were perhaps worse than any insult or unkindness that could be said. Anger welled up in his stomach once again as he watched the battle continue endlessly. He heard muffled shouts for his help in the background, but what did it matter? Until the code was activated, no one was in real danger. No one would die. These wretched Draco wouldn't die.

  Fredlin swallowed a little as he looked at the item in his inventory. It was a small, round orb that had the name of ERROR_NOT_FOUND. This was the key to punishing Draco once and for all. Every major member of the Iron Dragons held such a device in their inventory. Sang had created them with the help of Jet. The plan was extremely strict, though: no one was to activate this device until the Emperor was close to dying. But things had changed so rapidly. The dragons were continuing to pour in and the Iron Dragons would never be free to fight against the Emperor alone. He knew that Van was trying to kill the creature, but he would have little luck one his own.

  The orb glistened in Fredlin's hand as he stared at the chrome ball. Everyone had an extra as a back-up, but it was Van who was supposed to give the order to activate the device. But things were changing, weren't they? He could hear the bellowing laughter of the Draco fighters in the background, even as a few of them died; after all, there were no consequences for death right now. This whole event was nothing more than an amusing diversion to these jerks.

  Fredlin growled a little as he watched a bright yellow dragon slink down to the ground, wounded from several thousand blows. The beast was roaring defiantly and mocking the Iron Dragons for their decision to fight against him. He wouldn't suffer, and he wouldn't be in agony; instead, he would just reappear somewhere else. The yellow monster would probably be laughing to himself the whole way back to the battlefield.

  "No…" Fredlin whispered as he wrapped his fingers around the ball. All he needed to do was squeeze the item hard, and it would unleash the code that would turn the entire area lethal. Then that dragon would know true terror, for there would be no coming back.

  "There you are!" said a familiar voice behind Fredlin. He froze and slowly turned around to see Sang standing with her hands on her hips. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Van needs you counter-spelling that freaking Emperor ASAP."

  "Right, uh, right," Fredlin said. He had dropped his right hand to his side, trying to conceal the sphere from Sang's vision.

  "What are you up to?" Sang asked as she glared at him a little. Fredlin didn't particularly mind Sang, but she was a sharp woman. If she was asking him this question, it was because she had already figured it out.

  "You know what I'm doing," Fredlin replied as he held his hand up, revealing the orb. "I’m gonna turn this thing on."

  "You can't do that!" Sang said, shaking her head furiously. "If you activate it now, it'll freak out the Emperor and he'll bail."

  "If I don't, these dragons will overrun us. I doubt they'll be so willing to fight when they know they could die."

  "You don't understand," Sang replied, "the Draco are a collective. They don't have
a problem dying for the good of the many. Your activation would do nothing but mess it all up."

  "Collective? What the hell are you talking about?" Fredlin asked. "These are just a bunch of freaking neckbeards sitting at home and acting like they have real power. Well, I'll show these nerds what's what."

  Sang frowned. "Fredlin, I don't have time to explain all of this to you, but you've got to know that your plan won't work. The clock is ticking right now, and we're rerouting our forces to attack the Emperor. You're the highest level wizard we've got, so please – use a few spells to stop the Emperor's protection power and we can win this."

  "I don't think you get it, Sang," Fredlin replied as he wrapped his hand around the orb. "I've already made up my mind. We're killing some members of Draco today!"

  "Don't!" Sang shouted, lurching toward him, but she was too late. Fredlin crushed the sequence activator. A bright flash lit up the entire area for a split second and the words Lethal Feedback has been authorized in this area appeared high in the air in bright red letters.

  All of the fighting ceased for a brief moment as everyone, the dragons included, looked at the letters. They stared upward in silence until there was a loud shout from a player that was followed by the very realistic sounds of a dragon screaming as it died. Chaos broke out again.

  "See? No one's running!" Sang shouted. "I should kill you for this!"

  "For what? Having the guts to actually end this?" Fredlin replied as he shook his head. "Come on – let's get to Jet. It's time to win this damn thing."

  "You're going to regret this," Sang said as she shook her head. "I guarantee it."

  "What's one more regret to add to the list?"

  Van was hanging on the side of the dragon's leg, refusing to let go. The Emperor was roaring and bellowing as it tried unsuccessfully to shake him off. The fight was getting exhausting for everyone, and the clock on Van's Fierce Rage timer had expired. Now he was exhausted, fatigued and immobile for 5 minutes. Fortunately, he had managed to grab onto an area of the dragon where it couldn't reach him and he was holding on for dear life. The Fierce Rage power would reset soon, he knew, and he would be able to fight freely once again at that point.