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“Dangerous beasts that drop even more loot,” Melissa says. “They’ll run through the gulch, then head into the mountains before heading to Ireforge. They’ll probably try to trade there, with the Lava People.”

She speaks with so much authority on the subject. I find it adorable and intriguing, the way she knows my world in a way I have never perceived it.

“We have to find them and stop them leveling,” she says. “They will be coming for you, Ornix.”

I laugh at the notion of humans coming for me.

“Stop laughing. I’ve been in dozens of raids in which you were defeated. You don’t know how dangerous people are when they’re focused and in groups.”

She scowls at me, quite genuinely annoyed, and again I find it very appealing.

“You’re not listening,” she repeats. “They will come here and they will kill you. That’s how the game ends. And you can’t leave now. The portals won’t open. Nox has managed to leave you trapped like a rat in a box while his strongest players move through this realm like a mercenary force, growing in power and gear by the hour.”

Melissa

I see the moment I went too far. I hear it. It’s the rat in a box part. He doesn’t like that. He doesn’t want to hear it. He can’t hear it. There’s no world in which Ornix can imagine himself being bested by humans.

“You are worrying too much. I am sending warriors to deal with the humans. They will be eradicated.”

“Right. You’ll send them to Ireforge. They’ll clash outside the city gates, and the humans will prevail. They’ll push into the city, find places to sell the materials and loot and gear they don’t need, and they’ll upgrade and enchant their weapons and armor.”

“You don’t know everything before it happens.”

“Except I do.”

Sometimes I wonder if a Y chromosome makes it impossible for a male to listen to a female. I’ve done all this dozens of times. I’ve run alts through Ireforge. I could probably go there myself and find the fucking tailor shop and…

I’m going to have to handle this myself. He’s not going to listen. He’s not going to be able to fight these people.

So it’s down to me.

PvP.

CHAPTER 19

Melissa

I’m running away again.

This time, I don’t steal a horse or fuck around wearing clothes that don’t fit or make sense. This time, I have the royal tailors create armor for me. It’s cloth, because I intend to run a magic/enchanted build. It will make me squishy to damage, but I don’t intend to be in melee range anyway.

“Ornix wanted this to be enchanted with mage armor?”

“Do you want me to get him and have him explain it to you himself?”

I am taking a gamble here, hoping that acting regal will make these people not ask questions.

I have everything ready in under a day. It’s hard to be this patient, because I know how fast you can level when there’s nothing else to do. Every hour I spend here is an hour they’re making their way up the gulch.

He’s slightly concerned, but Ornix still isn’t taking the threat seriously. He doesn’t understand how dangerous a group of humans with endless spare time and nothing to do but destroy things really are.

I can’t keep trying to tell him and having him not listen to me. He thinks it’s all over because Nox is stuck in the human world, but I don’t trust that either. I think this is all part of Nox’s plan. I think Ornix is being cornered and he doesn’t even know it. The keep he considers to be a bastion of safety will turn into a trap before he knows it.

I’ve got to save him. And I want to save the people, too. I don’t want to see any more death. Ever. I’ve seen more than enough to last a lifetime.

I choose to sneak out just before dawn, when they day is the coldest and the darkest. There’s not much happening in the keep around that time. Dragons are stimulated by light and do not like to be cold. So it is under dark that I take off from the highest point on the keep.

A moment after I have done this, I realize I might have made a mistake. Should have taken off from the ground, but I wanted the momentum, I wanted to sweep and soar and be far away in moments, not bumbling around near the ground for ages.