A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (11 page)

"Take this map and find your
reward."

It drops a map to the ground next to Harry's
head and Axel picks it up.

"Great, another marathon. That's all I need,"
she says, slumping down next to Harry as a new timer starts ticking
away.

They are a sorry sight to see. Two players
covered in mud and with their armor almost burnt away. Their
weapons are nearly completely broken and their faces show a
desperate torment at the horrifying quest they have found
themselves on.

"Did you get anything from the boss kill?"
Axel mumbles as she falls down beside Harry.

He looks up to his inventory and notes that it
is flashing. The window opens and he sees a half dozen
bags.

"A few bags: Probably trash."

Axel nods and raises one hand to sort through
the loot she has gained. Time is ticking away, yet these two
warriors, these two fighters, need their rest.

Harry opens his bags and finds nothing but
animal parts and a few teeth. There is nothing worthwhile and
certainly nothing of value among them.

He sighs, but then notes a small flashing icon
at the top of his inventory. He glances at it and his special item
inventory opens up.

'You have received a special
item'
flashes in his view.

He opens the bag and finds a helmet made of
leather and wolf skin sitting in the bag. He pulls it out of the
air and puts it on his head.

"How do I look?" he asks, striking a
pose.

Axel begins to laugh and point at him. He
takes off the hat and passes it to her. She puts it on and pulls a
funny face and Harry starts to laugh. The thing has cat’s ears and
looks absolutely ridiculous.

She hands it back to him and he glances at the
name of the item.

"Cap of speed?" He says. "Sounds
promising."

He stumbles to his feet and Axel sits up. He
takes three steps and to his surprise they are incredibly
fast.

Axel claps at him and then a big smile slowly
comes across her face.

"Have you ever carried a lady?"

Harry looks at her strangely and doesn't
answer. It's sort of sad, but the answer is clearly
no
.

Axel stands up and jumps into his arms. She is
taller than him so it looks a little silly, but Harry sees her idea
immediately.

Starting to jog, he heads back towards the
woods where the original quest started. His speed is three times
that of what it was before and he increases his pace to the point
where he is breathing hard, yet moving very fast indeed.

"Slow down a bit," Axel says, looking
perplexed at the space above his head. "Something is wrong with
your health gauge."

He slows to a stop and checks his health. Just
running at top speed has torn it down to half way. As soon as he
stops moving, it starts to slowly go back up again.

"I guess there's a limit to the item." Axel
says. "The enchantment must exchange health for speed. You'll need
to take it slow for a bit. You can't afford to die right
now."

Harry slows his pace and jogs on at a
reasonable rate, which is still three times faster than normal.
They run past the abandon farm and into the woods. Harry rushes
down the path and in no time at all they reached the same field
filled with blobs where all of this started.

"What do we do now?" Harry asks.

Axel pulls out her quest book and starts to
read.

"All we need to do is wait for the final boss
to appear, I think. We have until the time runs out to
recover."

He looks at his timer and notes that there is
still two hours remaining. He sits down and pulls out some
food.

"You sleep for the first 45 minutes, while I
eat, and we'll swap places after."

Axel nods and sinks down to the ground without
any need for further urging. She falls asleep as she pulls a
blanket over her body.

Harry sits watching the blobs in the distance.
They don't seem too keen to attack them after the massacre last
time.

He looks down at Axel snoozing quietly with
her red hair covering her face. It's been a hard battle, but he's
learnt a lot and gained a lot from it. Sure, he's lost a fair bit
of gold, but things could be much worse really.

He munches on his food.
It's nice to have a
friend in this game,
he thinks before settling in to
wait.

*****

Harry awakens slowly as a loud crashing sound
tears him from dreams of being beaten by gangsters. Axel looks up
and puts her food away. She pulls her bow from her inventory,
checking her arrows to ensure that they have respawned.

A beast the likes of which neither of them has
ever seen in their lives is circling above them. It has two great
wings that span a good twenty meters and sharp fangs that are
connected to a very serpentine mouth. This creature is a dragon
(something not so rare in these sorts of game worlds) and it is a
big one.

Harry springs to his feet and prepares
himself. The beast is slowly circling down to the battleground that
the blobs, slimes, and tentacles have shown the good sense to
leave.

"How are we supposed to beat something that
big?"

Axel shrugs.

"Do the best we can. That's all we
have."

The beast roars and sinks down to the ground
in front of them. It has four legs, two of which it stands up on as
it roars in anger at them.

One Chance Fight
, blinks on
a small message board in their views.

"We have one shot and that's it?"

Axel nods silently and steadies herself for
the assault that is about to begin.

Harry pulls out his sling and arms a stone to
the little bag in the middle of the rubbery strap. His body is
filled with fear and there's a sense of nervousness to the scene.
The beast is ready for them to begin and it won't be long before
Harry faces off with what could well be the greatest fight of his
life in this game.

They stride forward, side by side, as the
tension grows. The in-game music, which has been near silent until
now, begins to play an eerie tune as they come within range. It
sets the atmosphere for an incredible battle that will no doubt be
as intense as it is deadly.

Harry is the first to take a shot at the
beast. His stone hits the creature in the eye and it blinks once as
it moves back. Axel, seeing her opportunity, shoots an arrow into
the big creature’s neck, but it pings off the side of its scales to
land sticking up in the ground in front of the dragon. They are
soon firing non-stop as the creature backs off slightly, showing
little of the ferocity one might expect of its kind.

Special limit reached,
blinks in their visions.

“
That can’t be good,” Harry yells,
preparing to defend against the worst the dragon can throw at
them.

With a mighty roar, the dragon cries to the
heavens. It then takes a deep breath that nearly sucks the two
players forward and opens its jaws wide to let forth a mighty blast
of flame.

The fire burns both of them and their health
quickly sinks down to less than fifty percent.

Harry rolls out of the burst of fire and fires
another stone. It hits the creature just under the eye and the
beast blinks again.

Axel sees his strategy and joins him in the
attack. The beast’s eyes are big enough to make for decent targets
and they focus on them, trying to stop the creature from using its
fire attack again, knowing
what it can’t see it can’t
sizzle
.

The creature brings its head back again for
another attack and Harry charges forward after Axel as she sprints
ahead of him. He uses his Cap of Speed as he grabs her arm and
tears past the beast with her in tow. They come around back and to
their surprise find a black robed figure, who is more than a little
bit familiar sitting on the back of the great dragon.

"It's the mage from before," Harry says as he
comes to a halt.

Axel aims an arrow at the man's back and lets
it fly. It sinks into the enemy's shoulder and the man roars in
pain and, strangely, the dragon howls with him.

"If we attack the rider then the dragon must
lose health," Axel surmises. "You keep the beast busy and I’ll keep
attacking the man."

Harry claps her on the shoulder.

"Alright. Watch out for this thing’s fire. I’m
pretty sure it’s got more than a few tricks up its
sleeve."

As if to prove the truth of Harry’s words, a
large timer appears above the creature’s head.

Rage Mode
Entered
flashes in front of their eyes.

The dragon spins with incredible speed and
slashes out at Harry with its tail. He is knocked aside and only
saved by a burst of speed that allows him to get his footing for a
moment, so he can leap over the second attack from the tail that
follows very shortly afterward.

Axel, however, isn't as lucky as the creature
swipes out at her with its claws. One of her legs is severed and
she falls to the ground holding the pixilated stump.

“
NO!”
Harry cries, as he
tries to run to her.

He nearly reaches her, but the dragon steps in
his way. Harry pulls forth a stone and throws it directly into the
creature’s face. It hits it in the eye and the beast howls in rage
spitting fire up into the air.

Seconds later, the timer ticks down to zero
and the dragon falls to its belly in exhaustion.

Axel drags her bow up as her health nears its
limit and fires off another shot at the man on the creature’s back
but misses. Harry comes forward with his staff and whacks the
monster around the snout several times, but it has no
effect.

The beast slowly gets to its feet and, with a
burst of wind from its wings that throws the two of them backwards,
putting Axel out of the fight.

Harry cries out in shock as he slowly drags
himself up and looks back to the dragon, which is shaking its head
and preparing to continue.

He is now alone with the dragon and there is
no one left to help him or tell him what to do to defeat
it.

Looking to his health, he notes that he has a
quarter left. He is going to have to go all out if he wants to
survive this.

Focusing his mind on the task at hand, he
considers his options as the devil of a monster in front of him
regains its self-control. He can’t fight the monster head-on
anymore. Without Axel to divert some of the damage, he will die
almost immediately.

I need to focus on the rider,
he
realizes. There is no other way to take the beast down that doesn’t
involve becoming a human kebab.

“
Luck don’t fail me now,” he
mutters as he activates his Cap of Speed and his health slowly
slips downwards.

Harry runs forward at full pace. He slips
behind the creature and grabs hold of its tail, yanking himself up
like a monkey climbing a tree. Three fast strides and he is on the
creature’s back as the monster tries to turn and burn him with its
fire. Harry swings his Pig Sticker 2000 out at the last moment as
he comes up on the rider and jams it straight down towards the back
of the neck of the man sitting on top of the huge beast.

The black figure spins and stands up on the
back of the creature to block Harry’s attack with a gleaming long
sword - slightly off balance at the same time. As soon as he does,
the dragon stops moving and seems to be caught in some form of
paralysis.

The mage strikes out at Harry with his weapon.
It’s not exactly an expert move, but it’s better than Harry by a
long shot. Harry forces his Pig Sticker 2000 in the way, but the
chipped and broken wood finally gives way to the severe damage that
it has taken and splits in half.

Harry throws the bigger end to the ground and
stabs out with the sharpened stake that remains.

Managing to clip his attacker’s sword hand in
a stab that has ended the lives of hundreds of pigs, he kicks the
weapon out of the man’s hand.

The mage desperately tries to bring his hands
up to let forth a burst of flame, but Harry is wise to his ways and
activates his cap just in time.

He slips around the man’s arms, which are now
moving in slow motion, and comes around with the makeshift stake to
slam it into the side of the man's head from the left.

There's a nasty squelching sound and a clap of
thunder. The wizard disappears and the dragon shakes its head with
a shocked look in its eyes and then slaps its wings against its
back, throwing Harry off.

It turns slowly and looks at him evenly. The
words,
I'll be waiting
flash in small white text across
Harry's view before the dragon beats its wings and disappears up
into the sky. It's gone from view in moments and Harry falls to the
dirt to lie there staring up.

Axel sprints across the field to him from the
woods and kneels down beside him.