"What? What did you find?" the Emperor asked. Despite his fierce demeanor, Van could hear the fear in the monster's voice. It would make sense that this guy would be a tremendous coward, after all, he had been so content to manipulate everyone from behind the scenes… when would he ever have been at risk?
"I found there's some kind of exploitation you've been using to overpower yourself, but since there's not a security team working to keep your code safe… I can turn it off now."
The Emperor lunged at Sang, forgetting about Van. Sang leapt out of the way and dodged his attacks with grace and ease.
"It's too late!" Sang said as the word Dodge repeatedly appeared over her head. Each slash of the Emperor's claws met with nothing but empty air. "I disabled your godlike powers, haha!"
Van was on his feet and was charging with his brand new warhammer. During the surprise attack on Sang, he had hastily summoned one of the better weapons in the game – a hammer known as Dreadbreaker – though it had a terrible price for wielding it. Any player who wielded Dreadbreaker would go back to level 1 for 3 weeks once combat ended… but since the world around him was falling to pieces, Van figured he wouldn't have to worry about the consequences.
"What should I have expected?" the Emperor asked as his tail flicked towards Van, catching him completely off guard. The force from the tail knocked Van onto his back and the words Injury Sustained Cracked Ribs Regen Disabled appeared above him.
Sang fired a few more arrows at the red dragon, but despite her forceful attack, the arrows just bounced off of the Emperor's skin. And because she was unable to dodge at the same time that she attacked, the Emperor took the opportunity to seize hold of her.
"Ahhh!" Sang shouted as Van watched her health begin to go down rapidly.
"You are a fool, do you know that? To condemn yourself to die when you have already won?" the Emperor taunted her as it turned to face Van. Smoke was pouring from the dragon's nostrils and Van readied himself for the flames that were sure to come toward him. Fortunately, the Dreadbreaker offered a high level of elemental resistance, which would be useful since there was no dodging the flames – given that Van was charging straight at the dragon.
"That's the difference between you and me!" Van yelled as he ignored the torrent of flames washing over him. The burning sensation was intense, but the warhammer in his hands was glowing bright orange and it seemed to be soaking up the majority of the fire. The words 5 damage appeared over Van. A paltry sum, indeed. "You seem to think that the rest of the universe was made to serve you, and I'm just trying to help everyone out as best I can!"
"You will die for nothing!" the Emperor roared as it continued to squeeze away at Sang. The ranger had little chance of breaking free from the monster's grip, and her health was almost down to half at this point.
"I will die for the good of all races!" Van shouted as he leapt up and swung his warhammer hard at the dragon's jaw. The blow connected to its face and the words Dreadbreaker has been awoken appeared over Van's weapon. The hammer ignited with purple fire and Van watched the dragon Emperor's health bar appear as he took some damage. The bar had been at 6,000 points, but Dreadbreaker had dropped him down to 5,200.
The force of the blow had been enough to knock the Emperor back, and Sang was swift enough to take advantage of the distraction and break free of the grasp. She fell to the ground and began firing arrows at the monster quickly. Arrow after arrow flew into the Emperor's belly, but only one sank into his stomach. 100 damage floated above the dragon's head.
"Yes!" Sang shouted. "His damage reduction is wearing off!"
Van landed on the ground and rushed forward, feeling the mystic surge of power from the weapon in his hand. The Emperor flapped his massive wings and lifted off, narrowly avoiding another leaping blow from Van.
"Come back here, you coward!" Van shouted as another torrent of flames washed over him. The fire was completely ineffective, though, and Van felt like a total badass as he stood defiantly in its midst.
"You do not understand!" the Emperor replied as he began to fly high in the air, preparing himself for a divebombing attack. "You will not escape this place without me! Even if you were able to kill me, I would just respawn miles away from you! You, on the other hand, will not respawn."
"Oh, we got something for that!" Van shouted as he held up the sphere in his hand. He crushed the sphere then, causing a bright flash of light to be emitted across the entire zone. The familiar words Lethal Feedback has been authorized in this area floated above them all. Maybe this would scare the Emperor off, giving them more time to prepare for another fight, he hoped. The results would be permanent until the programmers changed the code, and since there were no programmers left, this meant the Emperor would be too afraid to come after them.
"Does it never end?" the Emperor screamed, ceasing from his attempts to charge at them. "I have created a world for you to enjoy, I have been the sole source of your happiness for most of your life, Van, and this is how you repay me? I gave you a chance to stand alongside me in my conquests, to have whatever you desired, and you refused! I even chose to spare your planet to earn your respect, and yet you refuse! What is so wrong with you that you would bite the hand that feeds you so brutally, refusing to let go no matter the danger?"
"I'll tell you!" Van shouted back, raising his weapon defiantly. The Dreadbreaker's magical energy was surging through the weapon now, and he pulled up the list of abilities that he could activate at any moment.
Invulnerability
Flight
Invisibility
Health Drain
He selected Flight and glanced at Sang. "Shoot at him from the ground and don't let him get the drop on you!"
Sang nodded and began to fire arrows, easily hitting him since she had the Sniper skill, which allowed her to shoot arrows at any target that she could see, regardless of the range.
Van felt the surge of Flight carry him upwards as he flew to meet the monster in the air. "Good always triumphs over evil! You might think our morality is primitive or meaningless, but to me, it means something!" Van shouted as he readied his hammer for another swing. The Emperor was flying downwards sharply, his claws ready to rent Van to pieces.
They flew at one another at a blinding speed. Arrows were sailing past Van and were expertly striking the Emperor's body in different weak spots, dropping his health steadily with each passing second. Van watched the claws of his foe carefully, waiting for the right moment to strike. He jerked to the left hard and swung upwards, crashing his hammer into the head of the dragon. The claws still raked across his chest and he watched his health drop down drastically. 1,000 damage hovered above Van's head.
Fortunately, Van's punishing blow connected with the Emperor, as well, and Van could see that he had dealt nearly 2,000 points to the dragon. The Emperor's health was now at 3,900 – a far cry from where it had been earlier.
"You know why I loved this game so much? I love this game because I always got to play the good guy!" Van shouted. "No matter who I was raiding, or who I would be fighting, I wanted to fight the bad guys. I loved this game because I got to save the world!"
"But now your world is crumbling!" the Emperor gasped as it spun around in mid-air and let loose another torrent of flames. The fire washed against Van's body but did little damage to him. "You say you wanted to save the world and be the hero, but now because of you, everything that you have ever loved is dying! It doesn't have to be this way! You can still stop all of this!"
"You know what?" Van asked as he spun around to face the dragon. The warhammer was still burning with a rage and Van hadn't even activated his strongest power yet. It was his all or nothing attack and would only work once. "This game taught me how to play the hero, but the real world taught me how to actually be one. I'm done pretending to save the world. Now I'm going to actually save it by killing you once and for all!"