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“Is even one of them any shorter than six foot five?”

“Are they dragons?”

“Don’t do anything fucking stupid. If they are, we don’t have fireproof enchants yet. Play it cool.”

I turn around to see that a small contingent of men is walking across the sandy expanse toward us. I know instantly that they are dragons in their most human forms. The others don’t know that because they don’t know dragons can do that.

Oh, wait. Yes they do, because that’s how Ornix came to greet them in the first place. This is worrying. I have no idea if the crowd is going to attack or not, especially as the dragons have come looking geared as hell.

“We agreed no PvP,” Kornman says. “Let them say what they have to say. If they’re not dragons, we need to see if we can match their gear, because that shit is fire. Look at it, it’s got to be elite tier, and gemmed out to the hilt.”

I have to tell the dragons not to dress up the way they do. I know they’re wearing armor so there’s no chance of being murdered in a random incident, but this is really exciting the gamers.

“Melissa!”

Ornix snaps my name. “You’re supposed to be scouting, not fraternizing!”

“My boyfriend,” I explain, rolling my eyes.

“Your boyfriend? The one who…”

Shit. I realize that kind of outs Ornix as a dragon.

“So if we fuck dragons, we get wings?” Someone mutters that question rather loudly.

I notice a few of the women starting to flank around to the other dragons. They’re very interested in the prospect of being able to fly, apparently, and also probably the prospect of dragon dick.

Everyone’s been here for a couple of weeks now, I think, or some other length of time. Who knows. Anyway, what I’m thinking is people have started getting horny. Humans do that. Male and female.

“They are pretty,” one of the other gamers mutters.

“Come here. Now.” Ornix crooks a finger at me.

I hesitate to move, because I know I am in trouble now, and I very much don’t want to be. He won’t understand that I’m trying to save him. It will just be another incident of disobedience to him.

“Melissa. Now.” He snaps the words and I know if I don’t do as he says, there’s going to be hell to pay. Not quite portal to hell, but close.

I stay where I am.

“She doesn’t want to go with you, buddy, just because you’ve got Pantene hair, lustrous shine, and ceramide introjects, don’t mean every girl has to do as you say!”

One of the other guys chips in. This is starting to get rowdy. The gamers don’t really have a leader, and Ornix really just wants me away from him so he can kill them all, I bet, and I don’t want that to happen, because I saw a social media campaign a while back where Kornman raised funds for an operation for his baby, and that means this is someone’s daddy, and everyone here matters. And fuck… none of them can ever go back. I’m standing in the middle of a tragedy only I understand the full magnitude of.

“I can’t leave them,” I tell him. “I need to know they will be safe.”

“Nobody here has chosen safety. They have chosen glory and death.”

Ornix’s words make everyone cheer because nobody knows what the fuck they’re really cheering for.

“You can die in the simulation!” I shout suddenly. “Yeah, it feels real, because the tech allows real harm to come to us. Haven’t any of you been injured?”

“Well, yeah, the hunter got bit by his pet, and the wound got infected, but we found some blessed water, so it was all alright in the end.”

“If you can get an infection, you can be killed.”

“Yeah. I guess. We haven’t really been thinking about it too much. Actually a couple guys got gored yesterday. We hoped that someone would come and get them once we left the area.”

“Nobody’s coming. There are no areas. You’ve been slaughtering your way through a world that never saw you coming, and one that is going to fucking eradicate us all if we can’t stop killing.”