Lance hasn't spoken since we left the drawbridge cavern behind. We are at the exit of the cave, looking at the dragon, and somehow, we are all waiting for him to say something, to act as a leader. But he remains silent. I decide to be the one to break the silence.

“Well, here we are,” I say. “Marcel, I suppose the time has come to test the efficacy of your Infernal Apocalypse scroll.”

Marcel looks dubiously at the dragon.

“What if the spell fails?” she says.

“If it fails,” Idrial says in a serious voice, “we'll have to attack with everything we've got.”

Lance is crestfallen, his back leaning against the cavern wall.

“Let's get things straight,” Idrial says. “The objective is not for us to succeed in the mission. The goal is for the dragon to be dead, and for Isaac to be alive so he's no longer an NPC. The rest is secondary. We will fight to the end.”

Antaeus and Marcel nod. I can't help but get emotional when I hear the silver-haired human talking about fighting to save me, altruistically, with nothing to gain. I think of all the efforts they've made to get here: Marcel spending his father's money to buy scrolls; Lance and the siblings buying the healing potions, and everyone taking turns trying to keep Hara and I from disappearing with the update. I feel very fortunate to have their help.

“Before we start fighting, I want to thank you all,” I say. “It has been a pleasure to have shared this time with you. Marcel, Idrial, Antaeus, thank you for your help.”

“Lance. The only to blame for all that Hara suffered is Gabriel.” Lance looks at me and nods.

There is nothing left to say. We slowly exit the cave and hide behind some rocks. The dragon sleeps a little over fifty meters from us.

Marcel pulls out the Infernal Apocalypse scroll and begins to prepare the spell. A slowly increasing orange bar appears above her head. She holds the scroll in one hand, while muttering the magic words. The other hand is raised, palm up. A ball of red light appears in it and begins to increase in size.

By the time the bar reaches halfway up, the sphere is almost a meter in diameter, and pulsates with an electric buzz. I pull out the slingshots and prepare an incendiary stone in each. Lance draws his greatsword and Idrial her warhammer. Antaeus adjusts his breastplate with the boar emblem and wields his two axes. They prepare to charge the dragon.

The decisive moment arrives. The orange bar above Marcel's head is completed. She winks at me and shouts, hurling the ball of fire and electricity at the dragon. The beast looks up at the sound of Marcel's voice as the sphere explodes against its side. The explosion launches me several meters into the air. I fall and roll in the snow. When I get up, I see a large cloud of smoke and water vapor where the dragon was resting. The surrounding snow has melted instantly, exposing the stone floor of the mountaintop.

I watch with bated breath as the cloud clears and the shape of the winged beast begins to show. A roar confirms it: the dragon is still alive. It rises on its four legs. It spreads its wings, but the explosion has damaged the membranes, so it cannot take flight. It's something.

It's our time to attack.

Lance charges with his greatsword, followed by Idrial with her warhammer and Antaeus with his two axes. Lance's blond hair and Idrial's silver wave in the wind. Marcel pulls out a fireball scroll, and I throw two incendiary stones with the slingshots, which hit the beast's head. The small detonations seem like sparks compared to the scale of the dragon. Its life bar is around forty percent, which means that the Infernal Apocalypse spell has taken more than half of its life, as well as preventing it from flying.

The dragon roars. It spins at breakneck speed and sweeps the ground with its tail. Lance and Idrial jump and dodge it, but Antaeus is not fast enough. The impact sends him flying. He falls and rolls across the stone floor, uncovered by the melting snow. He has lost three quarters of his life bar. Lance and Idrial reach the dragon and strike the beast's claws with their weapons. Each blow takes some life from it, but the bar drops slowly. I throw two more incendiary stones that hit the dragon's forehead.

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Antaeus gets up and runs to his companions, while taking a few potions to regain his lost life. Each one he takes raises his bar a quarter instantly. When he arrives, he has regained almost all the life he had lost. The dragon tries to attack the players with its claws, but they have no trouble dodging them. Two more incendiary stones detonate in its head, while Marcel finishes her fireball spell and casts it. After exploding in the beast's chest, it has thirty percent life left.

Lance and the two siblings continue to attack and dodge the dragon's claws. I keep throwing incendiary stones, and Marcel pulls out another fireball scroll. The fight continues at a good pace. After a few minutes it seems that the situation is quite under control. The dragon's health bar is already at ten percent, when I see it get up and jump a few meters backwards, propelling itself with its four limbs. It stretches its neck and opens the mouth. A breath of ice falls on the three warriors. I watch as the players' bars go down at high speed. Idrial tries to mitigate the effects by taking healing potions, but she is not fast enough. In a few tenths of a second the life bars of Antaeus and Idrial empty and their lifeless bodies collapse on the rock. At the end of the attack Lance has a little less than a quarter of life left. He had time to protect himself with his shield spell, and he survived partly because of that, and partly because the dragon had to divide his ice breath attack among the three players.

I feel a moment of sorrow at the loss of the two siblings. Not for them, who will simply reappear as new in Citadel in a few minutes, but because I see how the update bar has appeared over my head, and I have the feeling that I won't see them again.

“Come on, we've got it!” Lance doesn't stop. He takes several potions that restore the lost life and goes back on the attack.

Marcel grunts and runs toward the dragon, her coat flapping in the wind.

“But where are you going!” I shout at her.

“I'm too far away!” she says. “From here the fireballs have less effect.” She runs and stands under the dragon's belly, where she begins to cast the spell.

Lance strikes and one of the dragon's claws gives way. The beast barely has five percent of life left, but I see the muscles in its neck tense, preparing to launch another breath attack. Lance keeps striking it, he's in front of the beast's mouth, with no place to hide. He raises his fist and readies himself with the shield spell. He turns and looks at me. I can see the realization in his eyes: he knows he's over.

The ice falls on him reducing his life. The bar decreases rapidly. I see him take a healing potion to recover, then another, but his life bar drops too fast. In five tenths of a second the bar reaches zero and Lance collapses.

We've come so close.

The dragon only has five percent energy left. I watch as he cranes his neck looking for Marcel, who is below it. The dwarf's orange spell bar is halfway up.

“Hey! Fat lizard!” I shout running towards the dragon, trying to get its attention. I throw two incendiary stones with my slingshots and aim for the eyes. They hit and the dragon roars. It turns to me, and tries to reach me with a claw, but I dodge it with no trouble. It opens its mouth to strike me down with its breath of ice and I throw two more stones into its gaping jaws. They detonate with no further effect.

It was my last hope.

I see the ice begin to form in the back of its throat. I calculate that in a tenth of a second my life bar will begin to drop rapidly, and in another tenth I will be dead.

A tenth of a second is a long time when your brain is not based on nerve cells, but on transistors that switch billions of times per second. That's the advantage of not being a human. I spend the first tenth of a second opening my holo-bracelet's inventory and seeing that I have sixteen healing potions left.

The dragon start exhaling its breath of ice and I feel the pain throughout my body, like a mountain of cold that pushes me to the ground. I struggle to stand. After half a tenth of a second my health bar is halfway down.

I disconnect from the physical sensations and concentrate on the holo-bracelet. I select a potion from inventory and use it. Life rises, compensating for the attack. I drink ten potions at superhuman speed, one every half a tenth of a second. The life bar keeps dropping, but every potion I drink restores it again. Half a second has passed, and I reckon there is another half second left of the dragon's attack.

I have six potions left, so I have to recalculate the time between drinks. I risk a little more and drink the next one three-quarters of a tenth of a second later, when the life bar is at twenty-five percent. I consume the remaining potions, covering another half second of attack. When I use the last one, I see that the life drops for half a tenth of a second and then the attack stops, leaving me with the bar in the middle, and the beard frozen.

I look up from the holo-bracelet. The dragon looks at me but decides to ignore me. It turns its neck under its body and sees Marcel, below it, with the spell bar almost full. The beast roars and tries to bite Marcel, mouth agape.

“No!” I scream. The fireball comes out of the dwarf's hands just as the jaws are upon her. The jaws snap shut and there is an explosion.