The Wyrm’s indicator turned bright red and the words YOU HAVE CHALLENGED THE GREAT WYRM TO A FIGHT floated above the whole party. Sivlander grinned and uncorked the potion, taking a great swig of it. A powerful rage poured through him and he felt his mind grow intensely violent.

“Grahhhhh!” Sivlander shouted as he charged at the hulking dragon. The grey-scaled monster laughed as it unleashed a torrent of flames at Sivlander, but thanks to all of the potions and spells that Sivlander had active, the damage was minimal at best. The words 6 damage hovered above his head. He leapt up in the air and swung his sword as hard as he could at the monster’s head but the dragon merely batted him away.

“Woah!” Sivlander shouted as he landed a few inches away from the lava. That would have really sucked if he had landed in it. Damage reductions or no, the game was designed to punish players who thought they could walk across a serious environmental hazard.

“Woah, this bastard is waaaaay tougher than I thought!” Trefor yelled. Sivlander leapt up to see that the dragon had both Trefor and Germane pinned to the ground with its large claws and it was chuckling loudly.

“You best work harder than that, boys!” the dragon roared.

Sivlander paused for a second. “That AI is insanely responsive,” he muttered as he watched the dragon try to bite at Trefor’s armored head. The armor was keeping his ally alive, but unless Sivlander acted now, his team would be toast.

“Samir, use a spell to distract the dragon!” Sivlander yelled as he ran to the far left of the dragon. If he could sneak up on the creature, he’d be able to get on its back. The Wyrm was long, but its wings weren’t very large. It didn’t appear as if the dragon would be able to fly at all, as thick iron bands were around the beast. That was probably what was keeping the dragon from escaping the realm.

“Roger that!” Samir said as he rushed into action. He extended his fingers and shouted “Behold my true power!” A flash of light emanated from his hands and a massive shimmering red dragon appeared. The dragon roared and made some swiping motions at the Wyrm. It was nothing more than an illusion but Sivlander hoped that the advanced AI of the monster could still be fooled.

“You summon another dragon to defeat me?” the Wyrm shouted as it rushed at the illusory red beast. “You insult me with your weakness!”

“Nice!” Sivlander said as he continued running behind the monster. The Wyrm let loose a torrent of flames on the red dragon but lost all interest the moment the flames went through the illusion.

“Bah! A clever ruse but it will not save you,” the Wyrm replied as it whipped its tail to slash Sivlander across the cheek. The sharp tail flicked hard against him and he gasped as the words Glancing Blow 10 damage floated above him. The pain was intense and he found himself actually touching his face in real life for a moment.

“Come on, team. Get into the fighting spirit!” Trefor said as he managed to pry free of the Wyrm’s grasp. With his flaming sword in hand, he rushed underneath the stomach of the distracted dragon and thrust his sword into its belly. 100 damage floated above the dragon, finally causing its health bar to appear. 900 HP hovered above the creature’s head.

“Ah crap. That is a lot of damage to soak up,” Sivlander said as he slashed at the tail that seemed to have a mind of its own. It was whipping and snapping at him. He was able to fend it off for a few seconds but it was so flexible that it was able to snag his sword and wrap itself around his hand. He wrestled with it for a few moments, the words Grappled hovering each time he tried to pull back.

Germane was still in the grips of the monster but that didn’t stop him from assaulting the Wyrm. Holding on tight with his warhammer, he began to bring blow after savage blow against the creature’s hands but the words Damage Resistance continued to hover above the monster’s head.

“This is getting ridiculous. Why am I always the one being grabbed?” Germane shouted as he struggled to break free of the dragon’s grip. There were a lot of things going on at once and the great Wyrm was too busy trying to focus on Trefor, Sivlander, the wizard, and Germane at the same time. If Sivlander didn’t know any better, he would have believed that the dragon was overwhelmed with the situation. This AI was pretty impressive. He hadn’t seen anything like it before.

“I grow weary of these games!” the Wyrm shouted as it let out a torrent of flames, barely missing Trefor as the paladin rolled out of the way. He constricted his hands around Germane a bit more, causing more points of damage to rapidly float above Germane’s head.

“Okay, this is really starting to hurt!” Germane shouted as the dragon lifted him into the air. “Not again, not again!” he whined as the dragon stuffed Germane into his mouth and turned his attention to Trefor. The words Germane is being devoured hovered above the dragon. The mere fact that this was happening again was kind of hysterical and the rest of the party all tried their best not to snicker. It was a little over the top; the fact that out of the four players who the dragon could eat, Germane ended up as the snack once again. This was too funny and Sivlander let himself let out a chuckle before he took a deep breath and tried to focus on the task at hand.

“Samir, get Germane out of there!” Sivlander yelled. He wished that Samir was more of a proactive player in this fight, but he knew why the wizard was keeping his distance. A caster within the range of an angry dragon usually resulted in a dead caster in a matter of minutes.

“Uh, roger that, captain,” Samir said as he pulled out his bag and began to riffle through it. He produced a large scroll and unfurled it, reading it loudly and waving his right hand.

Scrolls were powerful types of magic items that could only be used once. They contained a lot of magic, and when read, they would unleash ancient magical energies that would create some kind of special effect. Most wizards relied on them since scrolls didn’t require any magical energy to use but they did need to be translated first. Some wizard players who liked to roleplay would insist on reading the ancient language out loud, but it mostly sounded like babbling. There was even a small group of people in the game who believed the scroll language was actually a real language and had put together a coalition of code crackers to figure out if the language really was saying something. At the end of the investigation, they indeed discovered that the scrolls contained words, and the words were actually a type of programming language. A few enterprising players had learned how to translate this language onto paper and create even more scrolls. This was the first time a player had ever been able to craft a scroll, and thankfully, Samir was one of those players. He was pretty handy when he wasn’t whining about losing all of his precious spells and items in a terrible cacophony of death and terror.

As Samir cast his spell, Sivlander continued to wrestle with the surprisingly strong tail. It had lifted him up in the air a few times and it was starting to gain momentum each time it swung to the left. The dragon was going to try to throw him into the lava.

“Trefor, need some help with the tail!” Sivlander shouted.

Trefor quickly came to Sivlander’s aid, running beneath the gigantic dragon, dodging the many claws that were swiping at him. The dragon turned to get to Trefor, but the paladin’s specialization in agility made it so that he was able to reach Sivlander first.

“Gotcha!” Trefor shouted as he leapt up and slashed the tail, cutting it in half.

Tail disabled floated above the dragon’s head as Sivlander landed on the ground, finally free from the long, grey appendage.

“Incoming!” Sivlander shouted as he leapt in front of Trefor to block the large claw that was swiping at his ally. The blade wasn’t able to sufficiently block the blow and the red words 200 damage greeted Sivlander. Thanks to his Potion of Rage and other buffs, his health was currently sitting at 500 points but that was still a rough attack to endure. Two more of those and he’d be dead.

“And thus I say, Bolt of Lightning!” Samir shouted, finishing his ancient incantation. A large streak of electricity cracked forth from his fingers, smashing into the side of the Wyrm’s head, causing him to reel back. The words 100 damage and dazed floated above the dragon and Germane was able to slip out from between the creature’s jaws, landing on the ground.

“Alright, I’ve had enough of being eaten!” Germane shouted as he swung his warhammer with all of his might at the right leg of the dragon. The words 50 damage hovered above the monster. “Damn it!” Germane shouted.

The damage was enough to cause the Wyrm to recover from its dazed state. “That was quite the spell,” the dragon said as it turned its attention to Samir, who had backed away a good few hundred feet from the dragon. “You simply must cast it again for me.”

And with that, the Wyrm leapt over all three of the warriors and landed right in front of Samir.

“Oh God, this is how it ends!” Samir screamed as the dragon lunged at him with its jaws.

“Come on, let’s go save the wizard before he gets eaten!” Trefor and Sivlander shouted at the same time as they rushed to his aid.

Samir scrambled underneath the Wyrm’s body, trying to avoid the jaws and claws that were seeking to savage him. Fortunately a thin shield of energy appeared any time a claw connected to his body, soaking up the damage, but the shield wouldn’t last very long.

“We’ve got you, pal!” Sivlander yelled as he grabbed the chain hanging from his belt. It was time for the rodeo. He spun the chain rapidly as he reached the side of the beast. With a deft throw, the chain was in the air, sailing towards the dragon’s wings. Dragons usually had tiny little holes in the sides of their wings, designed to allow for air to help generate more lift. These holes were the perfect target for a Giant-Slaying hook.

The hook and chain connected to the side of the dragon’s wing and as the beast turned to the left to bite at the screaming wizard, Sivlander held on tightly, allowing the chain to throw him in a circular manner around the creature. He held on, knowing that the chain would recoil. Indeed, the chain jerked back, allowing for Sivlander to land on the monster’s back. Without a moment to lose, Sivlander plunged the knife deep into the back of the creature. The words 100 damage floated above the Wyrm’s head.

“Arrgh, you insolent pests! I’ve killed many of you humans but never so few in number!” the Wyrm shouted as it tried to reach behind its back to grab at Sivlander. Due to the way the dragon’s arm was designed, however, it was unable to reach where Sivlander was, leaving him with another free moment to stab at the creature, dealing even more damage.

The dragon hissed and leapt over the rest of the party who had tried to stab and cut at him, leaving them to hit nothing but thin air. The Wyrm was agile enough to scamper toward the other end of the island, escaping the rest of the team.

“Why don’t you and I go for a swim?” the dragon said as he rushed up to the lava.

Sivlander went to leap off of the dragon’s back, but realized that his chain was attached to his belt. “Crap!” he shouted as he went to unhook his belt. The construction of his armor was designed to keep the belt firmly in place, as there were latches necessary to be undone in order to get the belt off.

As the dragon took two steps into the lava, there was a loud crrrrrcak sound off in the distance. Both Sivlander and the dragon looked up to see that in one of the lavafalls was a strange set of numerical values. They were rapidly-blinking 0’s and 1’s. It looked like it was some kind of glitch. The shrieking noise continued as the numbers faded and the lavafall began to contort and twist, making the shape of a face. Two eyes and a nose emerged from the face; it looked almost like a dragon of sorts.

“Well you don’t see that every day,” the Wyrm said as it looked at the wall in curiosity.

Realizing it must have been an illusion to distract the Wyrm, Sivlander took advantage and quickly worked to unhinge the belt and slip it off, allowing him the chance to get off of the dragon.

As Sivlander leapt off the dragon and back onto the island, the rest of the team reached him.

“Why is it standing there like that?” Trefor asked as he pointed to the beast.

“Samir’s illusion spell must have confused the crap out of its programming,” Sivlander replied.

“What illusion spell?” Samir asked. “I was too busy running from a horrible monster to cast anything.”

Sivlander pointed at the large face that was emerging out of the side of the lavafall. More numbers and symbols were appearing around the head.

“I think that’s some kind of glitch,” Trefor said. “Looks like it’s messing up the enemy recognition of the Wyrm.”

“Well a cheap victory is still technically a victory,” Sivlander said. “Drink up your healing potions, reset your buffs, and let’s get round 2 in. We’ve got 15 minutes left.”

“Really? It felt like much longer,” Germane said.

“Fighting always seems longer than it is,” Trefor replied.

Sivlander drank the remainder of his health potions and readied to attack. Samir pulled out another scroll and began to read from it. “This spell is the big one; I’ve been saving it for last,” Samir said right before he began to speak the incantation. “It’s gonna make you all crazy strong but it only lasts for a minute. Get ready.”

“Wait until it’s within reach!” Sivlander ordered. This elicited a chuckle and a grin from Samir.

“Oh it’ll be within reach,” Samir said as he began to cast the spell.

The Wyrm continued to stare at the glitch. A few moments passed and the glitch began to warp and contort, returning back to a regular, faceless lavafall. They would definitely have to report this glitch later.

“Grow, my minions, grow!” Samir cackled as he raised his hands, causing the three warriors to begin to increase in size.

Sivlander grew to almost 12-feet in height and his sword was long enough to easily reach the dragon without touch the lava. As he grew larger, he felt a surge of mystical power pump through his veins. This was an amazing scroll and probably cost at least ten thousand gold pieces. That kind of price would hopefully be justified by the treasure found in the Wyrm’s horde.

“Right, back to this,” the Wyrm growled. Sivlander could hear some impatience in its voice as it looked back at them. There was an expression of derision upon his face. “Oh now you’re bigger? Isn’t that adorable.”

Sivlander was pretty impressed with the AI of this dragon. It was so advanced that he wondered if there was a Draco Pro tasked with controlling the creature. If that was the case, then it wouldn’t always use the most optimal strategy, as a thinking being was far easier to confuse than something than ran off of pure coding instinct.

“Guys, new plan,” Sivlander said, deciding to test his theory. He sent a private message to Trefor. Yell AFK and stand perfectly still; trust me!

“Sorry, dudes. I gotta go afk for a second!” Trefor shouted, stiffening out his body and freezing entirely.

“The hell!” Samir shouted, playing perfectly into Sivlander’s ruse. “You freaking went AFK in a FREAKING FIGHT TO THE DEATH!”

The Wyrm bought the lie completely and with a heavy sigh, it pounced at the gigantic Trefor. Much to its surprise, however, Trefor swung his sword hard at the creature, stabbing it right in the gut as it landed atop him. Weak Spot 300 damage hovered above the dragon as they both fell to the ground.

“Arrgh, trickery!” the Wyrm screamed as it began to tear into Trefor’s armor with his claws. The razor-sharp talons were shredding into the man’s steel armor and Trefor’s health began to drop rapidly.

Germane and Sivlander rushed together, Germane keeping his shield high to protect Sivlander as he made his charge. The piercing sword was long enough to where it would probably get a lancing bonus from a charge maneuver, and that would add even more damage to the attack.

Sivlander’s attack wasn’t fast enough, however, for the Wyrm quickly sensed that it was being rushed and it leapt off of Trefor, dodging to the left, just in time to avoid the longsword from thrusting into its side.

“Come on!” Sivlander shouted as he began to walk in a semi-circle, stalking his prey. The rage potion was still going strong; it lasted for a full hour and there was plenty of time left on that time. However, the only time that counted didn’t have nearly as much time as Sivlander wanted.

“What’s the matter? Afraid to charge me again?” the Wyrm taunted as it dropped its body low to the ground and flattened its wings against itself. Its entire body looked tensed up and ready to attack the moment anyone came within range.

“We gotta finish this up,” Trefor wheezed. He stood up but buckled a little. Blood was pouring down from the sides of his stomach and his health was down to 50. “I’m not an idiot; I put all of my important crap in a bank before this fight. I think it’s absurd that you guys keep all of your gear on you,” he said. “I’m gonna rush him. You better wheel around him and take him down. Time is running out.”