“I don’t get it!” Saffie complained. “It said it was weak to fire!”

They had wasted too much time.

Though the growlem’s movements were slow, it had managed to raise its giant fist high above its head, poised to strike. With a heave, it began swinging its arm downwards in a hammer-like fashion. Saffie and Nate dived in opposite directions as the fist smashed into the spot where they’d been standing.

Saffie shook herself and got up, and Acorn, who was by her side, readied himself for action.

“Are you okay?” she called to Nate.

“Perfect,” he said, getting to his feet.

Saffie noticed that Talia was hovering close to the growlem’s chest, squawking and flapping about something.

“Talia, what is it?” Nate shouted, and the bird swooped closer to the beast, right in front of the green gemstone embedded into its chest.

“Scan!” said Nate.

“What are you doing?” Saffie yelled. “I already scanned it!”

“You scanned the growlem,” Nate explained. “I think that gemstone on its chest is its own separate entity! Haha! Gotcha!”

“What?!” Saffie cried.

“I was right! It’s an accessory that’s nullifying all elemental attacks against the growlem!”

“Okay, so how do we stop it?”

“We need to disable it somehow. How did you perform that fire magic?”

“I just pointed and said ‘fireball!’”

Nate pointed at the gemstone and said “Disable!”

“Did it work?” Saffie asked.

“Don’t think so!”

As Nate tried a few other words like ‘Deactivate!’ ‘De-power!’ and ‘Destroy!’ Saffie guessed that there had to be some way of bringing up a list of basic spells.

“Show spells!” she said.

Nothing.

“Spell list!” she tried.

Still nothing.

“Open spellbook?” she offered, and this time an ancient looking tome materialised a few inches in front of her chest, floating in the air. With a creak, its hardback cover opened, and the pages fanned to somewhere in the middle.

“I got it!” Saffie shouted.

She flipped through the pages, trying to make sense of the contents.

“Oh boy, it looks angry,” said Nate.

“Its face is made of stone,” said Saffie. “I think that’s just its face.”

“Nope, it definitely doesn’t want you going through that spellbook.”

Saffie was too preoccupied with what was on the pages in front of her to listen properly. The spellbook was organised into sections of different kinds of magic: Revelation, Practical, Protection, Illusion, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Time, Mind, and Elimination.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

What they needed had to come under Elimination.

“What are our options?” Nate asked.

Saffie flipped to the correct section and ran her finger down the page, reading the names of the spells out loud.

“Erase and Wipe. I’m gonna try Wipe.”

“No, go for Erase!” Nate urged.

“Erase? Why?”

“Wipe sounds like it’s designed to wipe away hoards of small enemies. Erase is bound to erase the status effect that gemstone is having on the growlem.”

Saffie didn’t have time to argue. Underneath the spell were instructions on how to perform it correctly.

“Erase!” she commanded, criss-crossing her arms, then fanning them out in a swooping fashion as the instructions described.

A white semi-circle of light projected from her, slicing through the growlem, but sizzled and crackled as it attempted to cut through the gemstone’s enchantment. It had done nothing.

“Okay, maybe I was wrong,” Nate admitted.

The growlem clenched, retracted its right fist and propelled it towards Saffie. Saffie saw it coming but by that point it was too late to react.

It can’t hurt me. It’s just a game. It can’t hurt me.

The rock fist pummelled into her chest and she flew back, rolling across the grass and clutching her stomach. She gulped for air, completely winded and disorientated.

She felt Acorn pry open her left eyelid.

“H-how?” she choked. She couldn’t comprehend how an augmented reality enemy could have knocked her back in real life, or how Acorn had managed to open her eyelid for that matter, but she didn’t have time to try to wrap her head around the technology. Her health bar had dropped below 50 percent and had changed from a healthy green to a worrying burnt umber.

Nate ran to her and grabbed her.

“Saffie!” he said desperately. “Are you okay?”

The growlem was advancing on them, leaning down, ready to crush them both.

“Behind you!” Saffie warned.

As the growlem cast an increasingly large shadow over them both, Nate roared with anger, twisted his torso, and threw his dagger with all his strength from the back of his hand.

The blade spun through the air and pierced the gemstone, and the growlem staggered back as green liquid smoke burst out of it.

“Ha! I did it!” Nate cried with disbelief. “Saffie, I broke the gemstone! It’s vulnerable!”

In a rage of revenge, the growlem swung its fist into Nate from the left, flinging him across the grass and clearing its way for another clean shot on Saffie. It would be a blow that would surely do the same, if not more, damage than the previous one, sending Saffie out of the game on day one. She couldn’t let that happen.

Saffie scrambled to her feet and opened her spellbook again, this time flipping to the Fire Magic section. There were just two spells listed. The first was the one she had cast earlier:

Fireball

A small and quick firing fire projectile.

And the second was:

Scorch

A large, swirling flurry of fire.

The Scorch was just what she needed. Unlike the simple Fireball, and similar to the Erase spell, there were specific instructions underneath on how to perform it correctly. She read them out loud:

“Extend your right arm towards the sky and your left arm towards the ground, then rotate slowly like the hands of a clock until you feel the fire catch. When you do, say ‘Scorch’ and thrust your arms at your target.”

Saffie slammed the book shut, which vanished upon closing, and she readied her arms. With fury, she began rotating them just like the instructions had said.

After a couple of rotations, Saffie could feel tiny sparks in the tips of her fingers, but they were being extinguished by her movement.

The flames weren’t catching.

Please, she willed.

The growlem locked its eyes on her, frowning menacingly. Within moments it would strike again and it would all be over.

Nate suddenly called from the other side of the clearing.

“You’re going too fast!” he shouted. “It said rotate slowly! Slow down your rotations!”

The growlem roared and raised both of its giant fists, ready to pummel Saffie into oblivion, and Saffie felt Acorn cling to her ankle, shaking with fear. Saffie’s mind was racing, wondering if she’d somehow be flattened in real life, but she forced the fear out of her mind and made herself breathe slower, in turn relaxing the motion of her arms.

With a whoosh, she felt the digital flames catch.

‘Scorch!” she commanded, and thrust her arms out in front of her, the base of her palms pressed together and her fingertips splayed.

Saffie felt a surge of energy burst from her palms as several clusters of fire shot towards the growlem, intertwining like a spinning yin-yang before exploding into its chest and engulfing it in flames.

It let out a huge roar as its mossy back turned to blackened stone, its hollow eyes lit up with bright orange, and its connective vines shrivelled to nothing. With a final groan, the growlem burst into hundreds of segments, showering the entire clearing with earth and rocks.