A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (21 page)

He brings it up with his fingers straightened
and slams it directly through the creature's chest. The monster
looks down at Harry's hand in shock and then backs away from him.
The dust starts to burn away as the creature steps back looking at
Harry in fear.

Slipping out of the creature's grasp, he comes
down and up, slamming his fist upwards in a hard flaming uppercut
into the creature’s jaw. His fingers slammed straight through its
skull and come out the top.

With a mad scream the creature’s head flies
off and he yanks it off to throw to the floor, where it slams into
the ground.

The dust cloud reappears, but he takes his
incredibly hot and painful hand and swipes it directly through the
dust. A massive cloud of burning hot fragments flare up in one
gigantic whoosh of flame and the creature disappears completely. He
falls to the stone floor and lies there in agony only a few
centimeters from his sword. He reaches out with his flaming hand
and grips the weapon. His hand and the weapon melt together and he
cries out as it attaches itself to his skin.

The others appear around him in a flash of
silver light and quickly fall to their knees. They hoist him up and
he can see in each of their eyes both concern and disgust. He is
most likely a complete mess and feels it too.

Erica quickly gets to work healing Harry's
body and soon he is able to stand up. She downs a few potions to
keep her magical strength up and Axel grabs Harry by the shoulders
to look firmly into his eyes.

"You are quite something, Harry O'Neil. I
never would have thought that the stupid naked man I met at the
farm would turn out to be as tough as you are. You just beat a boss
all by yourself! You are one tough customer."

Josh pats Harry on the shoulder and reaches
into his inventory to pull out an item bag. He opens it up and
finds a small crown sitting inside. It is an
ultra rare item
and Harry’s mind tells him that it will enhance whoever uses its
chosen stats by an increase of twenty percent.

“
To the victor the spoils,” Josh
says, handing Harry the item.

He looks to his party members, but not a
single one of them complains about the unorthodox loot decision.
They all show their support in their smiles and their urging of him
to use it. He puts the crown on his head and there is a flash of
golden light. His Cap of Speed molds with the new item and wraps
around the side of his jaw, while turning to golden coated steel
that has a red gem in the center of it.

He checks his stats selection and quickly
clicks on the three that he needs most. Defense, dexterity, and
strength all obtain a significant upgrade.

Harry does a few quick test slashes with his
sword and finds the new increase in speed and power to be just what
he needs.

"Shall we continue?" Josh asks.

They form up and continue their march. This is
the first of probably many fights to come and the first item they
have received in this battle of wills against the
computer-generated enemy.

They are soon assaulted by another group of
creatures. This time it is a group of flying snakes, which zip past
them at incredible speed. Harry can barely follow their movement
and only Axel has the levels of accuracy, speed, and perception to
hit the creatures without getting quite lucky.

She takes down snake after snake.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no lack of enemy attackers as they
slip out of the cracks in the walls and surge towards the
group.

Harry finds himself with several of the
creatures attached to his body and the others are suffering just as
badly. The snakes don't do a lot of damage, yet the poison that
they infect everyone with is more than enough to strain Erica's
abilities. In no time, she is on her knees and breathing hard as
she tries to maintain consciousness. The poison doesn't sap health
– it saps wakefulness – and, in only minutes, Axel is the only one
left standing. She fires shot after shot as Harry’s eyes slowly
close. It’s the last sight that he views in the game before he
blacks out.

*****

Something wet and liquid passes down Harry's
throat. He awakens from his sleep to find Axel holding a potion to
his lips. There are hundreds of dead snakes littering the area
around them and her skin is a pale white. She is close enough to
death to be already dead and she has used the last of her strength
to keep them in the game. It's a heroic effort and not one that is
lost on Harry.

He gets up and finds two more potions sitting
next to him. Axel falls to the stone floor of the corridor and
fades away as he goes over to Erica to quickly bring her back to
wakefulness. They soon give Josh the other potion and Erica manages
to cast a rather complicated spell on Shady that brings him back to
the world of the wakeful.

They stumble forward and continue. Every
single fight takes a little bit from them. Their bodies and their
gold are being slowly exhausted by this grinding stone of a
dungeon. They are fighting with everything they have and it's
taking its toll.

Harry looks up and brings his clock down into
the center of his vision. He has approximately 2 hours left in the
dungeon before it times out. If he can't get to the final boss and
defeat it by then he is going to die in real life when he can't pay
the gambling collectors the money he owes.

They struggle onward and meet more of the
snakes. This time Harry is ready and uses his fire bending
technique to carve a whirlpool of flame out in front of him. Josh
uses his sonic boom technique to send the creatures back and Shady
disappears from sight to occasionally appear when he needs to slash
snakes off the fighters’ bodies. It works well and, although it
exhausts them, they suffer minimal poisoning, which in the end is
the real power of these creatures.

They walk into a large room and find something
big moving about. A large snakelike creature with several heads is
floating in the middle of the room.

As soon as it sees them, it cries out and the
same reddish glow appears over the doorways as before.

Harry cuts out with his flame, but the monster
cries out and pushes it back at him with its voice alone. They all
suffer a considerable loss of health after the burning attack
washes over them and Harry realizes that he can’t use most of the
techniques that he has developed to handle situations like
this.

The creature surges past them and in one gulp
takes Shady from them. He doesn't disappear from the game and
doesn't come back to life. It appears that with these bosses if you
die, you die for good, until everyone loses or the boss is
defeated.

"Draw it away from us, Harry,” Josh yells.
“It's too fast. We need to split up!"

Harry speeds rushes to the other side of the
room and the snake turns to follow him. It surges across the
distance between them and he prepares himself to strike.

Taking a single deep breath, he puts his sword
up over his head and waits. Ever since that first day of fighting
with the spiders, he has been practicing his cuts and this is the
perfect opportunity to see how far he has come.

The creature burns into him with its mouth
open wide. Harry brings the sword down in one beautiful strike that
slices straight through the creature’s lower jaw. Pixilated blood
flows over him and the creature zooms past to slam into the wall.
Harry dives aside as Axel sends twenty-four arrows in four bursts
into the creature’s back. The arrows bury themselves in deeply and
glow with a golden light. A second later, they explode in a great
wall of light that burns upwards to the roof in a great pillar and
the creature disappears in a hail of blue. Axel's bow glows bright
red and she slips to the floor to lay still.

Harry rushes over and notes that her health is
near zero. Erica casts a few spells on her to bring her health back
up, but it takes time.

“
I’m alive…” a voice says in
shock.

Shady reappears beside them, breathing
hard.

"Thank you for saving me. I couldn't breathe
in there."

Axel gives him the thumbs up and tries to
stand. Her body seems too weak and she stumbles as she gets
up.

"Are you okay?" Harry asks.

"That was my ultimate attack," she says,
sounding sleepy. "I can usually only use that once without falling
into a deep sleep for exactly twenty-four hours. I guess you are
lucky that it didn't take everything out of me."

Harry grips her shoulder and looks into her
eyes. She looks up at him.

"I know,” she says. “It's okay. I'll be
fine."

They stay like that for a little longer before
the reddish light that holds them in disappears. They quickly share
out the loot.

This time Axel gets a green crown, which has
the same effect as the gold one with a slightly lower level of
potency. Shady gets an enchanted dagger with the ability to cause a
bleeding effect. He looks at it happily and spins it in his main
hand a few times with incredible skill.

They walk through the door and the atmosphere
changes. It’s smokier in here than the other rooms and Josh's
spells that enhance the light don't seem to work as
well.

They walk down the corridor and encounter no
enemies. It's not long before they come to a large pair of steel
doors with dragons engraved in them.

"This is it," Josh says.

Shady comes forward and inspects the lock.
This is the reason why they need a thief and it's going to test
every little bit of his skill to get this thing open as, if he
can’t do it in one go, the dungeon is over.

Bending down to one knee, he begins his work.
The others stand around tensely watching him juggle the tumblers
inside of the lock with two small tools. Five minutes becomes ten
and ten becomes twenty. Shady is sweating and everybody standing
around him has an intense feeling of fear displayed on their faces
that is mixed in with a little hope.

The door finally clicks and everybody roars in
excitement. Harry even goes so far as to give Shady a big bear hug
as everybody claps him on the back and he, for his part, cries out
in joy at his accomplishment. It was not an easy lock to pick and
the result of failure would not have been pleasant.

They come together and share out their potions
and other enhancements. They are at their max levels in all areas
of stats within a short period of time and it doesn't take them
long for them to stare hungrily at the doors in anticipation of
what is to come.

"Are we ready?" Josh asks.

They stand for a moment and then each and
every one of them steps forward with a look of determination on
their face to put their hands to the screens that appear in front
of them, showing their acceptance and desire to move
forward.

Everyone knows that this is a low-level
dungeon, but it has been a mighty challenge so far for each and
every one of them and one that has truly pushed them to their
limits. This is the moment where, if they pull this off, they will
walk away wealthier and more geared up than ever before. They will
have a chance at the sort of loot that other players will be deeply
envious of. Only a handful have stood at these doors and few have
entered. They will gain honor and respect from many of the players
outside if they can beat this dungeon and it will bring them into
high standing in the testing community. This is what rides on this
fight. Everything: life, death, reputation and more.

Josh pushes the doors open and they find a
dark cave on the other side. There is no sign of any creatures or
the boss as they slip in to find the room completely
empty.

"You have come!" a huge voice booms from the
room.

Bug Detected.

They all pause and Erica starts to shake at
the two words that can mean death to those who test
games.

"This is not good!" Shady yells, running for
the door.

He collides with a black liquid mass and falls
back screaming as acid burns his skin. Erica immediately heals him
and he falls to the ground quivering in fear.

"Is he alright?" Josh asks, noting something
is wrong with the thief’s skin.

Shady drags himself up and everyone gets their
first good look at him. There are burn marks on his skin that are
perfect in their realism. He hasn't been completely healed by
Erica's spells and it is clear that the bug is creating something
in the game that makes the injuries last much longer. That could
also mean death might last an eternity. This match could be more
than just the end of the game; it could be their deaths.

The Dragon appears in front of them in a hail
of lightning.

"It's time to die, player! I have come for the
sword and your life!"

The dragon disappears and Erica’s life ends.
Harry spins in shock to see her stuck between death and life as her
avatar flickers and she is trapped in the agonizing electrical pain
that is death.

It will be for eternity,
the dragon
whispers to him, seemingly reading his thoughts.

Harry spins and the dragon appears above them.
It roars to the heavens and a burst of electricity fries the entire
group.