Sang glanced at her UI, but it read You have no messages. All she needed was a single message from Van. The message didn't even have to say anything; it just had to arrive in her Inbox.. Then she'd activate the ring and teleport the entire team to fight in a massive battle against Draco. The fighting itself would be safe enough until she activated the failsafe system.
Standing by her side was Jet. He was perched on the wall and was watching the rest of the team prepare for battle.
"Are you ready for this?" Sang asked.
"My race does not die in battle," Jet said. "We are peaceful beings. I have never once faced the prospect of dying in a war, nor because of violence. I fear that perhaps I am unable to do this."
"Well, think about it like this," Sang replied, "you're the first of your race to learn what bravery is."
"And being brave will remove this fear?" Jet asked as he turned his head to look directly at her. Despite how large the dragon was, she could see that he was indeed afraid.
"Bravery doesn't remove the fear, my friend; bravery is what lets us act in spite of it," Sang said.
"I suppose so," Jet replied.
"So what's the plan?" Bidane asked as she walked up to Sang. "I managed to trick Capello into logging out, by the way."
"Good," Sang said. Of all the things to deal with, she didn't want to have to worry about Kylian's sacrifice being in vain. " We've got 14 minutes until we're past the signal time. We're just gonna blink in and go to town on the first Draco we see."
"That's the big strategy?" Bidane asked.
"We have the element of surprise," Sang said. "And it's going to be a huge surprise when our army arrives in the middle of a banquet – especially when we have a dragon with us."
"Yeah, I’m excited to let this guy loose," Bidane said. "He's gonna shred them."
"Please do not talk about me as if I were some base animal," Jet replied. "I am a living and intelligent being just like you."
"Sorry," Bidane said. "But that doesn't take away how cool it's gonna be a to ride a dragon into battle."
Sang glanced at her timekeeper. 14 minutes until the strike. When would Van message her?
Van scanned the crowd, desperate to see where his team was located. He couldn't see Fredlin or Sahara anywhere. The Dragon Emperor to his right had stopped talking to him a few minutes ago, but refused to let Van walk away. The dragon was rather fond of Van, it seemed. He doubted there was any way he could convince the creature to stop what it was doing, though. The dragon was far too entrenched in his thinking to change his mind now.
As Van looked out at the crowd, there was a loud shout from one of the players. He stood up from his seating and gasped, clutching his stomach. Van noticed the words Lethal Poisoning appearing over his head even as the character collapsed to the ground.
"Whoops," the Emperor said as he craned his neck forward. "What an odd thing to happen. Are you responsible for this?"
As if responding to the question, dozens of players began to fall over, gasping and holding their stomachs before dying from the poison. A few players drew their weapons and began to attack the remaining survivors, shouting things about saving earth.
"Interesting," the Emperor said. "Very interesting."
As Van watched the carnage begin to unfold, he noticed that Sahara was waving at him from a distance. She held up a small vial of purplish liquid. He realized that she must have poisoned some of the stronger players.
The tone of the room changed from joviality and mirth to that of an all-out brawl in a matter of seconds. The depressed players who Van had noticed earlier were flipping tables and smashing their foes with their weapons. The other players, confused and startled, responded to the fighting in turn. More were dropping from the poison, though, and to top it all off, a gigantic black cloud had formed high above them all. Flames were beginning to rain down from the cloud and burn the traitors to humanity. Van noticed that Fredlin was standing in the center of the melee, his hands raised high as he commanded this incredible fire spell. Now this was a good team.
"I sincerely hope that this was not your only strategy," the dragon said. "Turning the weaker of my recruits against each other and poisoning them? It's not a bad play, but I was expecting something more grand. Yet, I have yet to hear of your army breaching our outer walls. Perhaps they are invisible?"
Van smiled as he sent a message to Sang that said "Go." He chuckled a little and cracked his knuckles. "You want to know what my strategy was?" he asked.
"Indeed, I do," the Emperor replied.
The wall holding the red door exploded, causing thousands of red shards to fly everywhere. The rocks crashed to the ground and Jet emerged, his wings spread wide and his roar triumphant. Hundreds of the Iron Dragons came pouring out of the hole, armed to the teeth and ready for battle.
"My strategy was to cheat," Van said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"Is that the Xevov?" the Emperor asked, his voice conveying a tone of true surprise. "Engaging in battle?"
Van drew his warhammer from his side and took a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah, it is!" And with that, he swung his hammer as hard as he could, smashing it into the side of the Emperor's leg. The words Insufficient Damage Rating hovered above the dragon, and Van could hear the beast laugh.
"Really, Van? You believe that you can damage me? Like I wouldn't have given myself the most powerful protection spells and abilities in the game? Do you take me for a fool?" the Emperor asked. "But if you insist on attacking me, then I suppose it would be fair to insist on attacking you!" He took a deep breath and began to spew flames at Van.
Van rushed out of the way of the fire, narrowly avoiding the stream of heat that would surely have vaporized him on contact. He heard the dragon behind him laughing heartily.
"I suppose that if you can even get one point of damage on me, it will be the most I will have ever suffered!" the dragon taunted him.
Van ran into the melee, where hundreds of his own soldiers were battling against the remaining players. As he ran, he noticed Sang in the middle of the fray, shooting arrow after arrow at her enemies.
"Sang!" Van yelled as he ran up to her. Before he could reach her, however, a large player wielding a spiked chain leapt in front of him.
"You think you can ruin a good thing?" the man said, his name showing up as Bruno as he spun his chain around. "Think again!" He whipped the chain at Van, but Van was able to raise his warhammer to block it. The chain wrapped around his weapon and the words Grapple: Successful floated in front of him. He saw a grapple meter hovering above him, but before he could pull back, his weapon was yanked out of his hand and thrown to the ground.
"You're really gonna sell out mankind?" Van asked as he leapt to the side, avoiding the chain as it came flying at his head.
"What's mankind ever done for me?" Bruno replied as he began to reel his chain back in. Before Van could attack the man, Jet leaned down and swallowed the thug whole.
"Oh man!" Van shouted as he patted Jet on the snout. "That was cool!"
"Van!" Sang called out as she rushed up to him and unloosed a swarm of arrows upon a few players who were rushing toward her. "What's up?"
"The Emperor is running the whole show!" Van said. "Everything is more or less done by his direction. He's the planner, the strategist, and the leader. If we kill him, it's all over for everyone. Draco won't be able to keep doing all of this to the other worlds."