(II) Hearts of Light: Mythical Magical Online

Chapter 17: Ain't No Lizard Strong Enough

Chapter 17: Ain't No Lizard Strong Enough

"Okay," Max Jure inhaled deeply. He steadied his breath and smiled, "so, why am I here? Not with them?"

A loud beep filled the quiet room, causing Chris to turn around and type intensely something into the computer. He turned around and unplugged a large virtual reality helmet Max was not too fond of. He walked over to Max, still shirtless as he held it in front of him, "take it."

Max stared at it intently. Memories flashed through his mind, those horrible more than good. He shook as goosebumps swarmed his arms, his tiny little arm hairs on their tippy-toes. He stood up as reality flashed away, and looked down to see a sword in his gut. Blurry faces surrounded him as he stumbled around, falling to his side as the blurry faces rushed to his side. He heard screaming and laughing around him as his head began to spin.

"-up!" a more distinct voice shouted behind the screams and laughter. He squinted his eyes as he focused harder on the voice, "-up!... Hey!... Wake up!" He came back to life to see Porter shaking him as he lied on the floor. "Max! Wake up!" Porter shouted as he snapped his fingers while he shook him. Max looked around to see the unfinished glass of water he set next to his foot had toppled over. Lukas had been wiping it as Violet stared at him with scared eyes. Chris leaned over him, the Nerve Gear still in his hand. A worried expression set upon his face for the first time in a while. Porter snapped his fingers in front of his face, "hey! Buddy! You alright?"

"Y-yeah," Max rubbed his head, "I'm sorry... again."

Lukas looked back to him and smiled as he stood up with the wet paper towel in his hand, "don't sweat it. We're going to need you to put that on though."

Max's face scrunched up. He backed away and shook his head, "n-n-no..."

"Max, we need you to put this o-"

Max shouted at the top of his lungs, "I ain't putting on shit!" He stumbled backwards, falling onto his arse.

Violet rushed to his side and held her hand up to Lukas, "I got this." She kneeled down and whispered in his ear, "what if we told you, the Hearts were in trouble."

Max's eyes widened. He snapped his attention to Violet, then quickly to the Nerve Gear in Chris' hands, "how?"

Chris sighed, "look, we've already transferred all of your shit. Are you going to help them or not?"

Max stood up slowly. He inched himself closer to the machine that nearly brought him death, and placed his hand upon its smooth gray surface. He cringed as he read "NVG" and "NERVEGEAR" below it. The way his eyes squinted made it look as if he were about to cry again. He breathed in before looking up to Chris, "I will. Link Start!"

"Good luck!" Kat shouted as Lizardon diverted off towards the mountains.

Daggero called out to him as well, "best of luck, bro!"

Lizardon turned around and smiled as he ran, "you too, guys!" He looked around the barren wasteland as players scattered everywhere. He focused on the large elevated land structure in front of him and began to run faster. The moment he reached the bottom, a golden flame blew besides him. He jumped away to see a blue dragon roar as it blew more flames into the air. Psytrin? Nah. Big Lizard. Big, big. Big boy. The kid equipped a normal, silver sword and dug it into the beast's stomach. It roared in agony and spanned out its massive light-blue wings. Lizardon whipped out his large hammer and slammed it into the ground to enable low-gravity. As it tried to fly away, it floated in one spot, unable to move. He leaped into the air and flipped around before he tapped on the bottom of the axe to enable heavy gravity. The dragon sunk into the ground as the gravity around him increased, his large body eventually cracked the floor. It roared before spitting fire towards him, not getting far due to the gravity change. Lizardon screamed as he shot down from the air, holding his axe by his side. He swung it sideways as he hit the dragon with full force, spinning as he cut the beast open. Its health drained quickly, turning to dust as it despawned.