A New World (Gamer, Book 1) (22 page)

“
Damn it!” Shady is thrown back
into the acid wall and disappears in it. His flickering skeleton
with his face intact enough to see his pain appears on the
floor.

Harry activates his Cap of Speed and runs at
the dragon. It beats its wings and he is thrown back into Axel, who
falls back into the acid.

Her life slips down lower and her arm comes
out mangled. She cries out once and grits her teeth through the
pain.

Do you feel it, player? The moment
of your death is here.

The dragon races towards them. Harry brings up
his weapon and prepares for the end.

“
Ka-mi-ha…”

A golden burning light burns from Josh’s
hands. He has used a portal to get behind the dragon and the beam
he fires hits it straight in the back.

“
Stupid human.”

The dragon turns and swallows the remainder of
the beam. It glows bright yellow and turns to Harry.

“
Die.”

It bites down and Harry jumps aside. The
dragon severs one of Axel’s legs and Harry vomits on the floor on
seeing his friend mutilated for real.

Josh screams in anguish from behind and rips
open the front of his armor. Inside is a small red button and he
hammers his fist into it.

1000 x Final Blast
Activated.

The dragon spins, perhaps sensing the danger,
and charges him.

Josh puts his hands together and begins to
cast. This time the flame in his hand is so bright that the dragon
screams in rage and Harry has to cover his eyes with his hands. The
fire takes the creature in the side and a gigantic hole
appears.

The dragon roars in agony and Josh explodes.
His avatar returns to flicker and the dragon desperately spins on
Harry.

Time Steal Activated.

The clock in Harry’s vision ticks down to 2
minutes so quickly that what has happened doesn’t register until
the dragon’s side begins to reform.

“
You…”

Harry. Help me.

Harry turns and sees Axel holding up her
bow.

Just one more time.

He stares at her, unmoving.

You’ll die. I might not
win.

I believe in you. Now
help!

Harry rushes over and pulls an arrow from her
quiver. He sets it to the string and yanks it back for
her.

The dragon roars in challenge and bears its
wings.

Release.

He let’s go and Axel fires her arrow straight
at the beast. The arrow takes it straight in the chest and glows a
bright gold.

Axel wilts to nothing as a huge explosion
overtakes the room. Harry watches as the dragon gives a shocked cry
on seeing its insides exposed and burns the room with electrical
energy.

Sword, if you can hear me, I need
you. Please don’t let my friends die like this.

The sword glows a magnificent silver and the
words that Harry has hoped for appear in his vision.

Last Dance Activated.

Harry grips his sword and pulls it back around
behind him.

You killed my friends and stole my time.
Now I’m going to finish you off,
he whispers to the
beast.

The dragon roars in its insane agony and comes
down low to breathe its hot, nasty breath on him.

Harry summons up every bit of will in him and
calls forth the flames he knows so well. A massive inferno appears
behind him, leading down the edge of his blade and he yanks his
sword around once.

“
Die.”

The dragon’s eyes go wide as the entire cave
is devastated. It dies and so does Harry in an inferno that
destroys the small mountain that the dungeon is located
under.

1 second. It’s all I have
left…

The game is over. It’s time for the
finale.

*****

Harry wakes up and drags himself out of the
Sleep Tech unit. There is a small box on the table that wasn’t
there before and someone is knocking at the door.

He walks to the door and pulls it open. Gray
and his goons are waiting outside and push in. They don’t take
their time in forcing him up against the wall and beginning their
collection.

“
Give it to me,” the skinny man
says.

Harry taps his knuckle against the wall and a
display shows his bank account and the sum in it.

“
Are you kidding me? There’s
nothing there.”

Harry looks to his side and groans. He
realizes that, even though he ran out of game time, the real world
hasn’t caught up.

“
A few hours. Please, just give me
that time.”

The collector shakes his head and throws Harry
to the floor.

“
Not going to happen. We go to all
the work to come early and you can’t pay up? I don’t care about the
rules on this one. You have crossed the line, loser.”

He reaches into his pocket and grabs out his
laser baton. It extends in a hazy line of red and he advances on
Harry.

Jumping to his feet, he backs up against the
table. His hand touches the box and he looks down on it. Someone
has printed
‘no class’
on the top.

Axel?

He grabs the box and throws the lid at an
advancing goon. Inside are two things. A digital email and a sword
hilt. It’s an exact replica of his sword in game.

He grabs it out and the collector stops
moving. He watches as a line of red forms into the shape of a very
familiar blade.

“
Interesting. It’s not often we
have one that will try to fight,” he says. “Boys, will you join
me?”

The other two goons pull forth laser batons
and flank their boss.

No class. You learn it all by
yourself!

Harry brings the blade out in front of him and
smiles. It’s exactly the same as his in-game weapon.

“
Die, loser.”

The collectors surge forward. Harry brings his
sword down and smashes a big collector in the knee cap. The man
stumbles and cries out in agony as the knee snaps.

Harry parries the other two’s strikes with
ease and lays two hard strikes on the man with the broken knee. One
breaks his left shoulder and the other his right.

He spins in a circle and skips under a baton
with incredible grace and near in human speed. His body seems so
light and perfect and he realizes that he has achieved perfect
control that is multiplied ten times over by the lack of weight
without his level restrictions.

He smashes the second big man in the side,
chops up into his groin and hammers him in the temples.

The man hits the floor and starts bleeding a
nice size puddle there.

“
You are never going to get away
with this,” the skinny man says.

Harry laughs.

“
Don’t worry. I’ll call the medics
and get you patched up,” he says. “I’m sure they will understand
that you are to blame when they see the apartment
footage.”

The man growls realizing his loss and performs
a complicated swipe that is nothing to one that has face monsters
of incredible power and ability.

Harry knocks it aside and cuts down into the
man’s head. His skull caves in and his eyes roll up. Harry can see
the machines inside the man desperately working to fix the damage.
He will survive, but he won’t be meddling with the house’s footage
before the medics get here. Harry has won.

He kicks the man in the side and waves his
hand in front of him to access his email. The letter that Harry has
wanted to open since he saw it in the box opens up in front of his
eyes and he cries out in joy.

Josh, Axel, Erica and Shady are standing on
top of a mountain wearing some very nice gear. Axel is holding out
a pair of jeweled gauntlets that Harry doesn’t recognize and being
out of the game doesn’t instantly know. However, they look cool and
they are glowing a nice silver color. It’s the same color his sword
glowed when he attacked the dragon.

3 more months?
Axel’s voice says in the
room.
They are offering double completion bonuses for rejoining
because the testers found so many bugs this time. Only 30,000 dead.
It’s a huge opportunity.

Harry smiles to himself and taps in his
reply,

Meet me in Cat Town at Josh’s. It’s
time for a party!

And so the game continues…

This has been the first book in the
Gamer Series. You can find the next book, Dragon Land Expansion,
and further books at an e-store near you.

Thanks for reading!

You can find more of Kenneth Guthrie’s work
at:

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/kennethguthrie2

Cover Image Credit: Algol at
Fotolia.com