Chapter 14

The boss' door slowly opened when all three of us touch it. The room behind the door isn't what I expected it to be at all. Its pitch black and no noise is coming from it. Maybe someone got to the boss first. Impossible, we would've seen someone pass by while we were fighting.

"Hey, anybody home!?" The pink haired girl yells out to no one in particular. I don't even know what she's trying to accomplish by doing that. It's like she's begging for us to get ambushed.

The yelling does do something however. The room begins to tremble and shake. Torches upon torches that are lining the wall light up. This is something ripped straight out of a fantasy movie I swear. With this new light, we can get a clear look at the boss.

To say he's terrifying would be an understatement. It looks almost identical to the one that I defeated. Except this ones scales are more pointed out, it's one and a half times larger than that one, and its horns make it look like it has a crown atop its head.

Looking at its health bar closely, I see the enemy name written 'King Ancient Dragon." Damn this is going to be hard. If a regular one was that difficult I don't want to imagine the pain I'll endure from this battle.

The dragon gets up on two feet and stares at us with a look of malice. My twin companions are scared of this, can't say I blame them. But if we're going to have any chance of beating this bastard we've got to pull out all of the stops.

"*ROAR!*" Fire breath shoots from his mouth directly towards our avatars. The twins clearly too scared to put up a shield, it's up to me. From my inventory I select shield bullet. It's a special round that once fired will create an ethereal shield to negate the attack. Not only that, but it's reflected back at it, much like Vert's magical shield she used to defend me.

Getting into an offensive stance is put on hold momentarily. Turns out the more ancient the dragon, the more times it breaths at you. I don't have anymore shield bullets on me. In other words… we're doomed.

That's what I thought at least. The second wave of hell fire shot from its mouth towards us. Before it was able to reach us though, a barrier appeared. 'Ice' I thought. Looking over my shoulder, like last time they are in a stance with magic pouring from their staves. They saved me from damage, more importantly… death.

The dragon this time out of breaths prepares for the physical part of its combat. Readying my sword and revolver much like I did when I fought those skeletons, I prepare for the impending fight as well.

Both twins stand ready for defensive purposes. I believe neither of them is much of a combatant. This will not matter in the slightest, all I have to do is dodge its claw attacks and finish off its health. This shouldn't be hard, that reflected breath knocked his health down to half its amount.

The dragon and I stare at each other. Waiting for one to make a move on the other. Our eyes meet on this psychological battlefield that we won't break. The dragon is impatient however and decides to charge at us.

The only thing I can do right now is charge right back at it. His left claw comes down on me. If this hits it'll be fatal. I just need to go faster! Running as fast as it will let me, I manage to slide away from the claws impact. Sliding now between its legs, I point my revolver up and fire. 'BANG!"

"ROOOOOOOOAR!" I can tell that pissed him off. He charges at me again this time with only a quarter of health left. Hopefully I can pull of another slide and shoot his taint again.

The dragon has other plans for our battle though. Before I get the chance to really pick up speed, his right claw grabs me and lifts me up. Right now in the air, I believe I know what's coming next. There is no other fate than death right her.

The twins look in shock as I'm being crushed by the claw. My health bar is decreasing from the amount of force its applying to this grip. If it's one thing I get from this it's dragons are dicks.

"Ice Coffin!" The twins got over there fear, and are now trying to save me. The dragon looks at the star made of solid ice. It doesn't get too good of a look though, after a second or two the ice collided with its head. Its health went down to the lower red zone from this. In response, it throws me towards them and I land in between their avatars.

The feeling of virtual ground, I never want to let it go again. The dragon is still thrashing all over the place from its pain. I thought I would've died there for a second. Then two rays of hope appeared before me. "Thank you, I owe you one."

Both offer me a hand up, I take it and my avatar is back on his feet. Getting a grip on the ground, I ready myself for combat once more. There really isn't a need for more combat at this point. Whenever the dragon hits a wall out of pain, it damages itself more. It's not as cool saying 'the wall killed it' so might as well.

Once again the dragon looks my in the eyes with malice. Even on its death bed it's going to be like this? I'll kill it in the worst way possible if that's the case of things. Pointing my revolver at the now still dragon, I select the skills menu.

'Lightning Shot' is the skill I selected for the kill. The barrel extends another inch or two and the chamber spreads out widely. I can tell already that this is going to pack a mean punch.

The dragon still standing still doesn't give a damn that I'm about to end its pathetic existence.

"Vaya Con Dios you son of a bitch!" The lightning shot is released. At what appears to be mach three speed, it pierces its heart. As the last of the dragons health depletes from that one shot, its eyes go black, and it lay there dead.

"It's dead… I can't believe you beat it." The blue haired girl speaks to me. I can't take this as my victory. We are a temporary party after all.

"We beat it you mean. If it wasn't for that Ice coffin, I'd be dead." I'm not even kidding about that part.

"Yeah, we are pretty awesome. You don't have to praise us though." The pink haired girl seems rather cocky. Well… they are pretty awesome I won't deny that. "Anyway, let's add each other to our friends' lists. Perhaps we could quest again sometime."

"Sure! I'm Ram and this is my sister Rom." Holy shit, I've been playing with these two and I didn't notice it? It all makes sense now that I think about it more. I wonder if they knew it was me behind the avatar.

"Oh…hey it's me Jack."

"Ja…Jack?" Rom says.

"Sweeterific, you are awesome at this game." I'm try to be at least.

"Ok, so we've gotten that out of the way, let's turn in the quest." Both girls' avatars smile at mine then walk on my sides. To my left is Rom, to my right is Ram. Leaving the dungeon with a lot of loot in tow, I feel pretty good. Even with my crazy friends around, it's relaxing… sort of.

Upon exiting, we can now use a scroll to teleport back to the city of Lowee. Rom however knows the actual spell in this game to teleport a party. Not wanting to use a scroll or walk back, I take her offer.

The animation for this is all of us holding hands in a circle then being lifted up by a strange and mysterious light. When the light clears and the world returns to normal, we're outside of the Lowee guild.

Opening the door, the same woman was still sitting at the desk. When she saw us, she looked shot. I'll bet she didn't think we'd make it back alive. Boy did we prove her wrong on that one. "We're here to turn in our quest."

"I see, it says here you actually killed it. Color me impressed." She then hands us a 'shit load' of credits and a few more items such as a new weapon schematic for me. Rom and Ram get the ingredients reward for the quest.

Next time I'm in Lastation I'll get some weapon parts to build these machines. They could prove most useful in combat and non-combat alike. "Well girls, I've got to get off here. See you at school tomorrow."

"Bye!"

"Goodbye…"

Logging out after a hard as hell quest, I check the time. I started a little after eleven this morning and now it's four in the afternoon. Time sure flies when you're having fun. Guess the reason those years went by so slow was because I wasn't having any fun.

It wasn't all bad really. Sure it was a shock that I was partying with those two but I got over it. It's still early in the afternoon, I might take a nap here shortly. Naps are the greatest on days like this. The time is perfect as well, right now the sun is shing through my window all across my bed.

Then again, I can't take a nap right now. I won't be able to sleep tonight if I do. So I'm just going to see what Maurice is doing right now.

Walking out of my room I see Maurice sitting on the living room couch watching Law & Order SVU. Going up to the couch I take a seat one cushion away from him. Last time I got too close he almost choked me to death from "Playing around."

He doesn't pay much mind to my entrance. Instead he still watches the TV very intently. Good lord he has less of a life than I do. Sure it's a good show but not good enough to be this lost in it. The acting isn't that good anyways.

Before I can get too focused on my thoughts, my phone goes off in my pocket. Just when I thought things were finally getting normal around here. Looking at who it's from it's none other than my neighbor Neptune. "Hey! Whatcha doing?"

I'm not even shocked by this. The amount of chaos she's caused me is nothing compared to her insanity. "Couldn't you just come outside to talk?"

"Hmmmm, you raise a point peasant. Come with me to the splendid outdoors." I swear I'm ten seconds away from just throwing my phone. Can she be serious for ten seconds? I'm starting to wander how she even made it to high school. Logically speaking, she should still be in elementary school.

The outdoor sun hits me with much force. It takes a couple moments for my eyes to adjust to these new conditions. Once they do however, I'm met with an unusually close smiling face. "Ah!"

"Relax it's just little old me."

"You just gave me a shock is all." Picking myself off the ground I begin to walk a little. She quickly follows behind and is making all sorts of weird sounds. When I turn to face her she's normal, acting like a little angel.

"So why did you want to talk to me?"

"I am sooooo bored right now and you're the only one I could think of." I'm flattered that I'm her go to person to talk to. But could she possibly have another person to annoy at this time? Oh well, I'm spending four years of high school with her, might as well get used to it now.

"So what do you wish to talk about?"

"Well…" She's blushing, that's never a good thing in my case. Whenever someone blushes around me a weird moment always pops up. "After school on Tuesday… could you come to my room and…"

'Climb the stairs to adulthood?' Damn my impure mental process. Surely it's something reasonable or this is all just one elaborate joke. I'm the slightest bit curious as to what she wants me to do now.

"Help me with my homework!?" What? She built up that shy and innocent moment to ask if I'll help her with homework. It's official, she belongs in the asylum with the rest of the nut cases.

"I suppose, just no more acting like that ok?"

"This isn't an act…" Now she's looking at me with shy eyes. The blush on her cheeks must've been fake though, they're gone now. At least this one doesn't make me feel weird. That could be my insatiable desire to hit her over the head though.

"Fine, after school Tuesday I'll help you with your school work." This earns me a Neptune shriek of joy and a hug. From all the hugs I've received this week, hers doesn't feel so bad. As I said before, it could just be me wanting to hit her for being an idiot.

Pushing her off me I make her an offer she's sure not to refuse. "I'm the one cooking at my place tonight. You and Nepgear are both welcome to come if you'd like."

"You mean it? I'll go get Nep Jr. right away!" She runs to her apartment faster than I can say it's in an hour. Oh well, might as well go back and get dinner started. When I turn around to face my apartment, something jumps on my back and clamps to it.

Neptune had just run back and jumped on me. "Onward to a glorious feast hahaha."

She's heavier than she looks, my back is about to give out. Or that could just be me being weak. "Help! Help! Get her off of me!" Now I'm running and screaming like an idiot in front of my apartment.

From the back, Nepgear can be seen giggling at my struggle.

Both Nepgear and Neptune have been waiting in my living room watching shows with Maurice. This is the first time they've actually met him outside of his car on the way to and from school.

Neptune's not paying much mind to the program, probably not something she'd enjoy anyway. Nepgear being her sisters polar opposite is enjoying the show. She's even tried to guess you the culprit is before the end. By the time the episode is over, Nepgear and Maurice had made a game out of it.

Dinner's ready, wait there while I get it to you." The table we have only seats four people. So instead we're all eating in the living room and watching Family Feud. Tonight's dish is pork chops with broccoli and mashed potatoes. One of my favorites to cook as well as to eat.

Taking a few plates and filling them with the three items, I make sure Neptune's plate has a little more Broccoli than everyone else's. Being our guests, Neptune and Nepgear get the first plates along with a glass of lemonade.

Maurice and his girlfriend are the next to receive their food. Finally I set my plate last. In the living room, there's only one more comfortable seat, the middle cushion of the couch between Neptune and Nepgear.

Maurice and Maria take the love seat in the living room. Ten bucks says Maurice set it up this way. He's always trying to get me to start dating. I'm not in the mood for it yet, I've only met these girls five days ago.

Halfway through the episode of Family Feud, Neptune is finished with her meal. Except one of the foods served hasn't been touched. I'm not surprised really, I knew she'd do this. What a waste of perfectly good broccoli. Nepgear enjoyed all of her meal, not a single bite left on her plate.

There's something I enjoy about Nepgear more than her sister. Is it how she actually has manners? Neptune just went to the kitchen and helped herself. Nepgear on the other hand asked if she could have more. Naturally I said she could and I even went and got her seconds.

At the end of the episode, all of our plates are empty. Except Neptune's broccoli portion of the plate. I don't even care anymore. Both of them had an enjoyable meal and that's all that mattered. The time on the living room clock reads seven thirty.

"Goodness, sis we must get going."

"Ok I'm coming…" Neptune must be really exhausted from all that eating she did. The duo leave the apartment and here it is just the three main residents. Taking all of our plates and putting them in the sink, I decide I should catch some early sleep.

Plopping on my bed feels so amazing. All the tension from the day is draining away in a matter of moments. My eyelids get heavy, until they can no longer stay open. With that I drift of to sleep.