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BOOK 2: Save Point 42

SAVE POINT 41

Rosabella

There was nothing I hated more than waiting. Goran used to preach how impatient I was whenever I'd start tapping my foot in line as we'd stand ready to check out at the grocery store or behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant. But waiting in a life-or-death situation was ten times worse than waiting for a hamburger to cook. At least, then, I could smell it—hear it, sizzling. Know it was coming.

Now—right now? I had no proof that Dormouse wasn't dead or captured. There was no indication that he'd made any headway in the direction of our escape, not even any noise from town. It was unnerving.

I stared out at the tumultuous, navy waves lashing against this shoreline like they hated it as much as I did. The boats and docks of the Dragons Sea Town port bobbed crazily in the swirling water. There was crashing movement in my head and in the waves I watched, but none in the air. It hung, stagnant and heavy…like the squeezing on my lungs.

Not the darkness again. I tried to swallow a cough—tried to steady my head. I'd need every ounce of strength I had for what was coming next.

Goosebumps crawled up my arms because...it was all silent—all still.

Except...

I crouched low, my heartbeat slamming in my ears as I strained towards the bush behind me. I knew what I’d heard. There was something coming through the bushes behind me, cracking the branches there—something big. My hand reached for the dagger that was no longer on my belt; they'd taken all our weapons when they'd first knocked us out on this island. My eyes scanned the sand beneath my boots. A big branch, long and strong like a staff, lay only a few feet away. I bit my lip, leaning towards it—

A low growl froze me, and I barely got time to react as black fur rushed towards my face—

[System Reward: Congratulations, You Have Been Awarded A New Skill By FIASCO, JAGWINDOW, BEAST 3 +5 XP, 1201/1300

BIG CAT LANGUAGE: Allows A Gamer To Understand And Talk To Cat-Like Beasts.]

What? Big Cat…

But the world froze as green, plus marks rained down on me. A Level Up?

[System Alert: ***Congratulations, You’ve Advanced To Level 13!***]

NAME

ROSABELLA

CLASS & LEVEL

GAME MAKER 13

XP

1201/1300

MRP

4570/6209

HP

60/116

Baddie Points

150

Armor Class

15/20

ABILITIES /20

Strength

+1

12

Agility

+0

11

Endurance

+1

12

Intelligence

+1

13

Awareness

+1

12

Presence

+3

16

CM

4

[+9 HP & HP Extended By 9, 60/116. You’ve Been Awarded +2 Ability Points. Please Select Which Ability You’d Like to Increase.]

I stared at the wall of numbers and text, in awe of it for a minute. It’d been a while since I last progressed up a level. My ability stats were actually getting pretty decent.

“One point to Agility and one to Endurance,” I told the system. It beeped.

[System Alert: +1 Agility, 12/20]

[System Alert: +1 Endurance, 13/20]

The world came back to life. That was when I remembered I’d been awarded some type of big cat telepathy…

This is my stick. I found it first. I get dibs. This is how it works.

"Ahhh!" I screamed, scurrying backwards, into the brush, kicking my feet out in front of me as my only weapon, as something black and huge leapt out of the brush. But it turned out I didn't need one because the beast was locked onto the stick. The creature was some sort of black leopard with enormous wings. Its huge paws pounced on the staff. It wrapped its mouth around the wood, snarling like it was killing something, chewing over and over, slobbering. It kind of reminded me of my neighbor’s kitten when it went after some string.

Was the thing...harmless? I squinted at the beast, freezing in my knocked-over position and letting my hands lay still in the dirt and rocks.

"What the hell is that?" Joy spun, her pink hair flying behind her and her boots incredibly noisy as she stomped through the brush towards me, a rock hefted warily over her head as she judged whether or not she should bring it down on the huge cat's pointed ears—

"Wait!" I called, stopping her by raising a hand, "I—I think it's friendly."

As if to further my point, the creature squatted on its glistening haunches, extending its neck to sniff inquisitively at my foot. Its slitted nostrils constricted and expanded as huge, yellow eyes studied my face. The animal cocked its head to the side as though to understand me. Cautiously, it started licking the sole of my boot. I saw the same big cat telepathy gift alert flash into Joy’s vision.

I am friendly.

It told me, speaking again in my head.

I like friends. I have one friend now. Do you want to be my friend too? Then, I'd have two..or, maybe three!

The thought seemed to excite it.

"I've never seen this kid of beast in The Game," Joy observed, narrowing her eyes and taking a step forward as she lowered her rock, "It talks like a dragon—"

"Speaking of dragons..." Dormouse stumbled through the brush, surrounded by running, grubby-looking prisoners and five—oh my God—five enormous dragons rearing their heads out of the foliage: all different colors with scales flashing in the sun.

Hello, Rosabella the Second.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Aria called warmly, her massive, yellow head snaking out of the greenery.

[Draconic Telepathy Used… +1 XP, 1202/1300]

I turned to look at the breathless, spindly Coder in the flowing, green robe—Dormouse. The kid’s arms were full of weapons, clutched to his chest—Joys’ and mine. Nice.

"How did you—" I started, the words dribbling off my tongue, but the kid's eyes were preoccupied and dark.

"Thank me later, we have to get going," Dormouse quibbled, ducking his head, "Dragons, keep your heads low till we load up."

He was already helping people scramble up onto the beasts' backs, but,I turned back. My eyes raked the island shoreline and the peaks of the huts crowding the opposite skyline. As horrid as this place had been to me, it was hard to leave; everything in me wanted to pause for a second—to take just a second to contemplate what had happened, what was happening. I was finally getting out of here. We’d done it. This place that'd ensnared me for so long—that had me worrying literally for my own death as well as Joy's—we were leaving it behind. Finally. It'd all be in the past—a fading memory as we left its shores in the distance. For real. This was real. I’d done it. I saved the prisoners and dragons just like I'd told them. So, what was stopping me now? What was clogging me up? Why was I not running towards the dragons—already on the back of one?

I didn't think it'd sunk in yet. I didn't think freedom had fully sunk in...because I wasn’t sure I believed it. As much as I hated it, there was part of me that still doubted—

'Stop the doubting. Get on the damn dragon', I told myself. 'You're alive. You're getting out of here. This is real', I told myself.

....So, why was this so much harder than I’d thought?

I stumbled towards Aria. My feet felt more than heavy while my head spun light. My eyes locked on the little, dark-haired girl being hoisted onto the yellow dragon's back by her mother; I remembered her name was Sheela. I smiled a little at that.

You kept your promise.

Aria boomed in my head—but, more, in my heart. Warmth flooded there, filling me up.

I did. I’d done this.

"One foot near her elbow," instructed an old man prisoner, reaching a bony arm down for me to clasp, "Use it to step up."

I did. I hoisted myself up onto Aria's wing—her scales cutting through the fabric of my body armor in places, but I didn't care. I slid down her muscular shoulder, hooking my feet on either side of her neck like I remembered Sparo had taught me.

Someone's ridden a dragon before.

The beast noted fondly.

I nodded, but, for whatever reason, I didn't want to speak. I just wanted to savor this moment—this moment right before freedom. ...Like a goodbye I wasn’t sure I was ready to make even though I should be.

"Everyone ready?" Dormouse cried from the back of the winged, black leopard.

Affirmative shouts came from one dragon over where a few prisoners straddled the maroon dragon.

I nodded.

And Joy let out a war cry as her turquoise dragon reared into the sky. Enormous wings flapped like the swirl of wind turbines launching. And Aria shoved into the Heavens with a bone-jolting heave.

Then, we were airborne.

Weightless.

Hovering.

As the boats disappeared under us and the expansive blue swept out like a carpet below.

I clutched at the yellow dragon's scales so fiercely that it hurt as wind whipped past my face. I looked over to see air yanking Dormouse's hair back from his scalp as the kid smiled into it but—

But the smile faltered. His face fell and formed again—rigid—as he pointed a taut hand into the clouds.

"Ahead!" he screamed.

I could barely hear his cry because of the altitude, but I squinted to where he was pointing.

And realized the horizon was painted black.

Bodies.

Black fur.

Spanning wings.

Creatures just like Dormouse was riding except—

Hundreds of them. Rushing right for us.

And, at their head, a mammoth, bronze dragon with a solitary rider—a green-haired girl with pigtails. My stomach summersaulted. My body heaved; I thought I was going to retch.

Because I knew that dragon—I recognized it. It was the beast who’d carried Goran. And the blackness in the sky? I recognized it too. It looked exactly like the manifestation of every single thing that'd ever been trying to stop my freedom—all coming at my face at once.

Game Maker, your orders?

Aria's usually light voice sounded anything but—tense and pitching.

I tried to catch my breath—

"We go through," Joy demanded, pulling up beside us and screaming just to be heard as her pink hair streamed behind her like a battle flag, "They're flying too low. If we go below, we'll hit the tops of mountains and wound the dragons once we hit land. If we go above, we'll lose each other in the fog and clouds—"

"What about going around?" I tried, but the hope was as desperate as my weak voice sounded.

"Do you see an end to them?" Joy countered.

And she had a point. To my left or right there didn't seem to be an end in sight.

"Stay away from the girl in front; she's psycho," Dormouse warned, yelling into the wind on my other side, "I have an idea. Everyone stay safe till I can get it rigged up."

Go through them, stay away from the giant dragon and crazy girl. Stay alive. Check. Every inch of my body was suddenly encased in anxious, fearful tingling.

"You got it?" I asked Aria beneath me.

And I felt the beast purr in agreement, nodding her spiked head.

"Hang on everyone," I warned Sheela, her mother and the old man prisoner behind me. We wrapped arms around each other to increase our hold.

Two hands.

Aria warned, her voice vibrating in our temples.

And her wings flapped, and we raced.

Straight into the cloud of black.

We hit it full speed.

Feathers.

Wings.

Strong, animal smell.

Shouts. Bronze scales?

Enormous jaws snapped past my face.

A scream. A little girl's scream?

Hands slipped off my back. Wings beat near my face.

My blood ran cold, and I grasped behind me for Sheela as the wind rushed past—

But only found the old man there.

"She took them," he muttered in my ear, his jowls wavering as Aria wobbled and dove.

"Who?" I screamed.

"The dragon took the girl and her mother," he repeated raspily in my ear.

And I squinted into the mayhem and saw them—Sheela and her mother—dangling from the claws of the bronze beast who was now hurling for the other end of the shoreline.

"Aria, down! Follow them!" I bellowed. I felt the beast twitch with shared irritation under me.

Gladly. Let's teach these bullies a lesson.

And we plummeted downwards.

Sickening speed.

Rushing wind.

I was going to hurl—I was going to be sick right here—

The world swam before me, but my eyes locked on the little girl's face as we zoomed towards them. The child sobed, huge tears streamed down her face as the green-haired girl held her captive by the arm. The bronze dragon secured her mother in its huge talons, a few feet away.

That abominable beast!

Without my command, Aria dove. She crashed into the bronze dragon, her enormous jaws plunging into the creature's neck. The bronze dragon screamed, rearing against us. The woman in her grasp shrieked too. I screamed as I was thrown from Aria's back—tumbling with the old man prisoner as we were hurled to the ground.

[-11 HP, 49/116]

Dirt rushed to meet my face. Rocks scraped at my skin. Every muscle hurt—

"Uh, hello!"—a demanding, female voice yelled.

I pushed my body upward, lifting my heavy, exhausted head in the direction of the voice. It was the girl. It was the green-haired girl who, now, held a knife to the sobbing child's throat. The blade glinted in the sunlight, making my breath catch. The villain looked directly at me.

"Do I have your attention? Mic on? Cool," she smiled.

Smiled. What kind of sick psycho smiled when threatening a child?!

My eyes wove upward, trying to find Dormouse or Joy in the humming rush of wings overhead, but it was impossible. Except, suddenly...

There were orbs of light—hundreds of them, bobbing. Darting. Glowing luminescent blue and zooming to the east. The horde of winged leopards in the sky bottomed out into a disarray, swerving after the lights. Chasing them like cats chasing a laser? The sky cleared as the beasts disappeared, tripping and scurrying over each other in their haste. And Dormouse swooped down on his own beast, the biggest grin on his face. He'd said he had an idea... That’d been his idea—distract and redirect the beasts with lights? Wow...I had to try trusting the kid more often.

But his face tightened when he saw the situation. We might have gotten rid of the army, but this imbecile of a green-haired girl still had a knife to the throat of a very innocent child.

"Looks like your army didn't last long, whoever you are," Joy smirked, sliding off her dragon and landing easily on both feet with a thud as she addressed the green-haired girl.

But the twit looked barely phased at all by the pink-haired girl's comment. She just raised her eyebrows and pressed the blade further, drawing a rivulet of blood.

"Hey—hey!" I barked, "Sheela, don't move. Everything's going to be okay." I told her, but I could see the kid was on the verge of meltdown. Her lower lip trembled, threatening to boil over. I raised both my hands to show the green-pigtailed girl I was unarmed as I took a hesitant, crunching step forward on the sandy shore. "Listen, just let her go. She's a child."

I watched my words flash across her dark pupils. She pursed her thin lips, deciding. Her arm around the child loosened with a snap as she shoved her forward, "You're right, even in a made-up game, that's pretty sick."

I let out a breath only to suck one in again as the girl looped nimbly around to grab the prisoner woman behind her, "Great idea, I'll kill her mother instead." She held the point of the blade to the child's mother's neck now.

"Mommy, no!" Sheela lunged for her, but I grabbed her tiny limbs just in time.

"My baby!" the woman sobbed, tears tracing down her face and into the front of her dirty rags, "My baby spoke! Mommy loves you, dear. Mommy loves you so much—"

"Your baby," the green-haired girl smirked, readjusting the knife closer to the woman's throat which choked off her words, "is going to watch you die unless these people hand over their dragons."

What do they want with us?

Aria asked in all our minds.

"Wrong answer," the green-haired girl pouted, apparently misreading the silence.

Slice.

Blood gushed over the knife blade, seeping into the woman's shirt. As she gurgled—choked on her own blood. Her eyes glossed over as she clutched at her throat and fell to her knees—

Dead.

I gaped at the green-haired girl, trying to restrain the kicking and screaming little girl in my grasp. "What did you just do?!" I shrieked.

The girl calmly cleaned the blade of the knife with the hem of her shirt, carefully wiping red off it. "It's what you just did, actually," she amended cheerfully, swiping a strand of green-hair out of her face.

"Listen, twit," Joy growled, charging towards her.

But the green-haired girl—who was significantly shorter than the other girl—wagged a finger at her, clicking her tongue. "I don't think so. I get my dragons, or I cause more mayhem—"

"I'd like to see you try," Joy snarled, wrenching the other girl into a rear naked choke.

But the green-haired girl was laughing—grinning—even in the hold.

And I saw too late the tiny head of a Laxtail Chira poking out of her fisted palm. Black magic swirled behind her—huge pillars of it, climbing into the sky. And figures shaped out of the black smoke—enormous hounds with jagged noses, teeth and bony figures. Long and lanky...with red eyes. The things leapt towards us, streaming around us and lengthening into black smoke as they circled. Holy fuck…

Joy dropped the green-haired girl, opting for a stick and slashing at the magic and the hounds, but the black smoke dissipated around the wood without damage.

"How can we fight something we can't physically hit?" the pink-haired girl wondered.

And desperation clawed at every inch of me. I tried to summon my Creator Magic, but the block from the island prison must have still been on me. Or else I couldn't focus! Couldn't think! What was wrong with me? Was I too weak? ...Too shocked? The Sea Town dragons in my peripheral vision were also struggling against their magic—snapping their jaws with little results. Maybe they were blocked too?

The smoke hound creatures laughed and howled, corralling Dormouse, Joy, Sheela and I closer till we were back to back.

Our dragons and Dormouse's leopard tried to fight them off, but their teeth only met with air, and they cowered back from the weaving blackness like it'd burned them.

"Meet my Black Orymouss. I just named them, and they answer only to me. Stop trying to fight things you have no hope of winning against," the green-haired girl tittered, "You can't win against me. I'll take your dragons now, thank you very much. Guess this one is a bonus." She kicked at Dormouse's pet which whimpered. Dormouse swore. And the green-haired girl snapped her fingers, locking the dragons from the Dragon's Sea Town in iron chains.

I tried to move forward, against the swirling darkness encaging us—

I tried to find my magic but—

But something was revolting, already, inside me. Bucking like it was trying to escape from under my skin—

"What do we do, Rosabella?!" Dormouse looked at me, his eyes frenzied with panic.

But I didn't know.

I really didn't know.

Pain stabbed at my lungs. I coughed violently, pitching forward and spilling black blood on my boots. But I had no root powder here. I swiped at my lips—swiped my lowering HP out of my view:

[-7 HP, 42/116]

But the numbers came back as they continues downward. The blood in my arms pulsed pulsed—

[-7 HP, 35/116]

How long did I have left? Minutes? Seconds? Till my final Game Over? This was how I died? Surrounded by smoke hounds? Bested by a pathetic excuse for a green-haired woman?

Maybe it was a good thing that I'd be out of my misery. Death certainly couldn't be worse than life...could it?

I clutched at my heart.

Joy leaned into my face, "Rosabella?"

But I could barely see her outline anymore.

My vision beat red.

[-7 HP, 28/116]

My HP inched dangerously low:

[-7 HP, 21/116]

[-7 HP, 14/116]

Was this what Callen felt like? ...Rainer?

Life draining—fuzzy.

[-7 HP, 7/116]

World spinning.

[-7 HP, 0/116]

And, then, there was black. Pitch black.

Beep.