Mel and Tim headed up the most northern path to the top lane, as they walked Mel tried to give him as much information about the game as she could.
“Ok, I know you have less game knowledge than the others so that’s why I want you to stay close to me for now.” she said.
“Makes sense. Thanks.” Tim said begrudgingly.
“Tim, listen up. You essentially have two quests right now. First you need to hit level 6 and second you need to head on a gradual path south to both help the team and end up in a pit in the river in between the middle lane and the bottom lane…” she said, pausing.
“What’s in the pit?” Tim asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Before I answer, just remember that it’s important to break problems down when they seem really big.” Mel said.
“What’s in the pit Mel?” he asked again.
“A dragon.” she answered.
“What? How the hell am I going to kill a dragon with a rifle!” he yelled.
Mel flinched back and raised a hand.
“Whoa, don’t yell at me Tim. I’m trying to help.” She said sternly.
Tim took a deep breath and closed his eyes before meeting Mels.
“I’m sorry Mel. I just can’t accept that I’m some sort of video game reality right now. It’s too weird for me.” he said.
She reached out a hand and put it on his shoulder.
“All we have is each other. I’ve got your back. Go kill some monsters, once you get to level 6 you should unlock your ultimate ability. If you still feel like you can’t beat the dragon alone after that then we’ll take it on as a team later.” she said.
He nodded then split off into the jungle, heading south.
Mel took a moment to gather herself then jogged the rest of the way to lane, seeing her opponent pushed into her tower which only had a third of its health left. Her enemy top laner was also a woman, dark skinned and sporting a large sword. She was wearing full plate armor and had no shield or helm, her dark hair flowing in the wind as she lifted the sword with both hands.
Mel realized that the lady was running at her and bringing that raised sword down in a wicked and lethal arc. She snapped into action and blocked the sword with her bracer, the woman spun and dropped slashing at Mel’s legs.
Mel tried to jump out of the way but the sword cut into her left calf, causing her to cry out in pain. She heard a whirring sound and looked up to see the crystal embedded in her tower glowing. The enemy looked up and tried to wrench her sword from Mel’s leg but Mel grabbed the blade with her bare left hand, immediately cutting it but forcing the blade to stay in place.
The woman went to drop the blade and run but Mel lunged out and crash tackled her to the ground. The woman quickly overpowered her and jumped to her feet - just as the tower sent out a huge blast of energy that tore a hole through the woman's chest. She sighed with one last breath and then faded away.
The sword disappeared from Mel's side and after ten minutes of lying in misery wondering what she should do she noticed that her leg had healed slightly, enough for her to stand up. She hobbled into the lane and started punching her frustrations out on the enemy minions, who cried out in fear with high pitched little voices as she smashed them to pieces.
***
Craig and Mitch stared down their opponents from the safety of the tower. The woman with the book that had ended them so casually was the support, and stood to the side of the minion wave, leaning on her book and staring at the two boys eerily.
Her ADC was a small boy with a slingshot, firing marbles at their minions. The marbles had varied colors and they seemed to have a different effect when shot. Red marbles set the target on fire, blue ones froze them. Black marbles exploded, but due to the black shockwave that spread out from the detonation the boys assumed that it was magical in nature.
“Are we really going to farm under tower?” Mitch whined.
Craig ignored him and focused on killing the minions with his spear. If he dealt the last amount of damage causing its death he earned gold on top of experience for the kill. He was remiss about being stuck with Mitch.
Craig ticked over to level 5 and relief flooded through him as he realized how close he was to learning his ultimate ability. So far his abilities were basically non-existent, whilst Mitch had his healing spell and now a weak shield that granted movement speed Craig just had a spear. It was effective, sure but he wanted an actual ability. Something to cast.
The man in speedo’s entered their lane and Mitch and Craig snapped to attention.
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“Are they going to try and dive us?” Craig wondered out loud.
“It looks like it.” Mitch answered meekly.
He then took a few steps back behind the tower readying his spells to use on Craig.
“You’ve gotta clear the wave fast!” Mitch yelled as the three enemies approached.
“It’d clear faster if you could help me.” Craig said.
“I’m a healer, how am I supposed to help?” Mitch replied.
“Punch something!” Craig said back as he charged at the approaching minions, exposing himself to the enemies.
Mitch ignored Craig’s request and instead used his shield and movement speed spell allowing Craig to start killing the minions a second earlier. It wasn’t enough however as the woman with the book quickly sprinted up to Craig, raised her book then waited - not attacking as Craig continued to clear the minions.
Her comrades got closer to Craig and the shield faded, the book swinging down the moment it was gone.
“Move!” Mitch screamed.
Craig fell backwards, the book missing his head by inches. He scrambled backwards as a blue marble missed his crotch, striking the ground in between his legs. He turned onto his stomach and tried to run but the book hurtled into his back knocking him to the ground.
What happened next was so fast Mitch only put together what happened hours after, when he shared his recollection with Craig. The boy had fired a black marble at Craig’s head killing him instantly upon detonation. Simultaneously the tower’s crystal glowed and shot a burst of blue energy at the enemy support who used a spell to instantly hold the book in her hands again and block the tower shot with it. She then ran out of range of the towers next shot.
The oiled up wrestler then got his hands on Mitch and literally threw him up into the air a few meters only to be struck by a red marble instantly setting him on fire. Despite knowing he would respawn, Mitch found it quite distressing and painful to spontaneously combust.
When he struck the ground he felt a stomp on his head and the world went dark - a moment later everything came back into view and he saw his tower shoot the wrestler, killing him as the young boy made his way out of tower range. Two for one, Mitch realized as the support joined the ADC in destroying the last bit of health on their tower.
***
A series of notifications popped up on Tim’s screen as he carefully stalked his way through the jungle.
An ally has been slain.
Then a moment later.
An ally has been slain.
An enemy has been slain.
Enemy double kill!
Your turret has been destroyed.
He sighed as he wondered what had gone wrong and resolved to run straight down to the bottom lane to investigate. That was the only place that two members of the team had gone.
On a positive note he had received a lot of experience for killing monsters in the jungle alone and he had figured out a lot of his champions abilities.
He seemed to have a passive ability that made his gun shoot higher caliber bullets with each level he grew. He’d just ticked over to level 6 and it felt like he was shooting a .50 caliber bullet. It was doing a lot of damage to the monsters also. He also had discovered he could strike the ground with the butt of his rifle, sending out a golden shockwave that revealed nearby enemies, extremely useful for finding the monsters in the jungle.
Upon leveling he’d felt something on his belt and reached down to find a sidearm, a pistol with a large tube like barrel. He didn’t want to waste it if this was his ultimate but he had to find out what it did, so when he ran into another Brambleback on the way to the bottom lane, rather than stopping he’d jogged up and shot it with the pistol. A net shot out from the device and tangled itself on the monster, constricting it and magically binding the net to the ground - pinning the creature.
He had paused, taken out his rifle and finished it off with three shots to the sphere. The net was useful, but not exactly ‘ultimate’ the way his team mates had said it should be.
He was correct in thinking it was Craig and Mitch who had messed up but the situation was now affecting the whole team because he found their opponents with the enemy jungler, fighting the dragon.
He was glad he hadn’t tried to face it alone, the drake was bright red and was slashing wildly at the enemies, flame bursting from its mouth intermittently. It was frenzied in its attacks, like a rabid dog and was chasing the enemies around the pit as they ran for their lives, occasionally getting in a punch or a marble. By Craig’s limited assessment he thought they were struggling.
He looked down at his net gun to see a timer pop up in his vision that stated it still had a five minute cool down. He considered his options, this looked like a time sensitive fight and right as he had thought that the enemies might actually die to the dragon the girl with the book had opened it for the first time, releasing a sonic screech that sent out a shockwave knocking the dragon into the sidewall of the pit momentarily stunning it. Marbles smashed it in the head repeatedly and Tim came to the realization that if he didn’t act now, the drake would be theirs.
He slammed the ground with his rifle, checking that there weren’t any other enemies nearby. He seemed to be clear. He aimed down the iron sight and lined up the little boy. He would be shooting him in the back of the head. Tim only hesitated a moment, remembering how he had been killed last time. He shot a .50 caliber bullet at the child and the result was more realistic than he had expected. It wasn’t a beheading but there was no head left to speak of.
An enemy has been slain.
The enemies, momentarily distracted, turned away from the dragon and it took advantage of the reprieve, seizing the enemy jungler - an oily wrestler - in its jaws and chomping down, killing him instantly.
An enemy has been slain.
Tim shot at the woman with the book but she swatted away the bullet like it was a ball. Caught between the dragon and a gun she turned and ran out of the pit, running north and away from the fight.
The battered dragon turned on Tim, who was now close enough to see that its health bar was in the red and he shot it to death in moments. His rifle turned out to be an effective weapon, the .50 caliber rounds tearing fist sized holes into the giant winged lizard. Upon killing it he hit level 7 and a team wide notification popped up.
Your team has slain the infernal drake.
Tim proudly set off to base to spend his gold, he was sitting on 1068 gold and felt that he shouldn’t stay out any longer. It would be good to see the team after his small victory.
He wondered what he would be able to buy.