“Wow, that was easy,” Kylian said. “He died faster than I thought he would.”
“Too fast,” Van said, shaking his head. He glanced at the creature’s wounds and noticed that they were rapidly sealing themselves back up. “Don’t celebrate yet!”
Lemuel began to twitch and, in an instant, he was standing on his feet, his claws sinking into Kylian’s shoulders.
“Arrrg!” Kylian screamed out in pain as he struggled to stay on his feet. Lemuel was hanging on his back and his claws continued to dig deeper and deeper into his skin. Blood poured out the sides of his body.
“Die!” Van shouted as he shoved the tip of his spear into Lemuel’s back. The words Damage Resistance floated above Lemuel. It was as if the monster’s body had adapted to the attack. “Bidane, another spell, quick!” he ordered.
“Can’t do the fire one—I’ll cook Kylian!” Bidane said.
“What about…” Van tried to think of the solution as he swung his axe into the monster, but the blow merely bounced off. Kylian was punching Lemuel, but it appeared as if the lizard’s skin had somehow thickened to ignore all physical damage. “Can you enchant my weapon?”
“Sure, but it’ll take a minute,” Bidane said. Van threw his polearm to here. “Enchant it, quick!”
“A little help, guys!” Kylian screamed. Van rushed up to Lemuel and wrapped his arms around the monster, trying to pry it off of Kylian. Between the two of them, they were able to turn the tables on Lemuel, and they fell into a grapple.
“Hahahah, keep trying,” Lemuel taunted. “Do you not realize that you are fighting one of the most powerful beings in this world? You two are nothing to me.”
Van desperately tried to get the creature into a chokehold, but its limbs were too strong. He felt a few cuts from the razor-sharp claws digging into his stomach. The words 10 damage hovered above him. He watched his health bar quickly drop down. In the reality zone, his health was nowhere near as high as it was in the regular game. The pain was intense.
“What is your problem?” Kylian said as he shoved one of his daggers into Lemuel’s eye. The lizard hissed and screamed, leaping backwards from them. It pulled the dagger out and threw it on the ground.
“Not bad,” it said with a chuckle. The damaged red eye began to heal immediately, regaining its piercing yellow color. “But it’s going to take more than that to stop me.”
Van and Kylian stood up quickly and prepared for Lemuel to attack, but all the beast did was chuckle at them.
“Do you see how hopeless it is to try and fight me?” Lemuel asked. “Van, I implore you, make the smarter decision here. Your friend will die soon and you can do nothing to save her. I can smell her life dripping away, second after second. She has maybe ten, fifteen minutes left at best. Can you kill me in such a time? Can you even kill me at all?”
“Why toy with me?” Van shouted. “Why not just finish me off?”
“I have no reason to! You have won the battle, my friend. You managed to outwit us and steal our data. Such an action is something to respect. I am punishing those who failed. And your desire to return to save an ally is admirable, albeit foolhardy. She will not survive. You were strong enough to press on, but she was weak. She was weak because she could not command your loyalty enough to keep you by her side.”
The words stung Van—he felt himself wincing at the accusation.
“It’s not weakness… I mean, if anyone was weak, it was me,” Van said. “I never should have abandoned her.”
“To sacrifice a pawn so that you can advance your goal isn’t weak,” Lemuel replied. Van could see that all of the creature’s wounds were sealed up now. “Rather, it is the ultimate strength. You have won our little conflict, and of that I am pleased. But if you seek to rescue Sang, I will slaughter you all. We do not believe in mercy, Van. I am allowing you to leave because I have no impetus nor need to slay you. I would much rather see you continue down your path. Think about it. Your people need you, don’t they? What’s the value of one life against that of millions?”
“Those aren’t the choices we get to make,” Van replied. “No matter what. We don’t get to choose who lives and who dies based on some sick sense of morality.”
“That is such an individualist mindset,” Lemuel said. “It sickens me. Go ahead, strike at me again. Grab your newly enchanted weapon and hope against hope that it can kill me. Or you can walk away, knowing that you have won this engagement.”
“I say we rip the little bastard in half,” Bidane said. Van turned to look at her as she threw his halberd to him. He caught it and spun it around. It felt lighter and more agile. Perhaps the enchantment she’d offered would be enough for him to kill Lemuel.
“Not much of a choice,” Kylian said. “We’re in, if you’re in.”
Van took a deep breath. He couldn’t let Sang die. No matter what, he wouldn’t let his momentary lapse in judgement have such dire consequences. “You can go to hell, Lemuel,” he said as he raised his halberd high.
“And we’ll send you there!” Bidane said as she threw a vial of green liquid at the lizard man. This caught Lemuel by surprise and he wasn’t able to dodge in time, as the vial smashed against his skin. The words Acid Damage 5 points hovered about Lemuel’s head as his skin began to burn.
“Ahh, hahaha,” it laughed as it hunched down and extended its claws. “So, you choose to die, fair enough. I will grant you your wish.”
With that, the lizardman lunged forward at Van, hissing loudly. Van thrust his halberd forward, letting the pike of the weapon spear directly into the creature’s chest. The pike made a horrible squelching noise and the words Armor Pierce 10 damage hovered above Lemuel’s head.
“Errgh,” Lemuel grunted, his charge completely halted. The creature reached down and grabbed a hold of the haft of the halberd. “Not… bad… but not good enough.” It tightened its grip hard enough to break the halberd in half.
Kylian swung his sword, but Lemuel pulled the halberd head out of his skin and blocked the blade with the axe portion of the weapon. The block was fierce enough to throw Kylian off-balance, giving Lemuel a chance to kick him in the back, knocking him to the ground. Van, armed with only a metal rod now, swung it at the monster’s head, but was quickly blocked and knocked to the ground.
“Ah crap, screw this,” Bidane said as she ran off into the woods. Van wanted to be angry with her, but she had probably used all of the spells that she could. It was better that she would survive.
“Such loyalty, you command,” Lemuel said as he planted a taloned foot on Van’s chest. Van tried to get up, but the foot was too strong. “And I’m not being sarcastic. To see you lead two followers to willingly come into a house of death to aid you is quite impressive.”
“Two followers?” Van whispered. “I could have sworn we had three... Now, Sahara!”
Lemuel immediately spun around to see what was behind him, giving Van enough time to pull his dagger free and stab it directly into the calf of the lizard creature’s leg.
“Gaaah! Did… did you really trick me?” Lemuel demanded as he fell to the ground, giving Van enough time to stand up. Kylian was lying on the ground unconscious. His chest was rising and falling, however, so that was a good sign.
“Haha, I cannot believe you fell for that,” Van chuckled as he bent down to grab Kylian’s great sword. It was heavy, and he had no experience using such a weapon in this realm, but it would do the job.
“I must say,” Lemuel said. “That was perhaps one of the most clever tricks I have seen you do. Truly, you are an enigma, Van. You refuse to back down, even in the face of the most dire circumstances. I am continually impressed with you.”
Van noticed that blood was continuing to trickle out of Lemuel’s leg, despite the fact that the dagger had fallen out of the wound. This wound didn’t look like it was regenerating. Van glanced at the glinting silver dagger. Silver! Of course—silver weapons counteracted regeneration. Still, despite this exciting tidbit of information, it wouldn’t do much good when the dagger was sitting right next to Lemuel.