Burning

The house was burning. The air was now so hot even Berus had problems with it, and the flames ate the house faster than he would anticipate.

He was so glad that Phorok had decided to go to the house. At least now he was sure the two girls would make it out safely. So it was his job now to lure the dragon away. But to where? The forest was a bad idea. No place where the fire would spread even faster. No, it would be better to go towards the edge of the shard, even if it was directly on the other side of their current fighting place.

He also knew that he would have no fighting chance alone against the dragon. With Phorok at his side he would be able to land a few hits, maybe even get to one of the dragon’s weak points. But alone? No chance. He had to lead the dragon away and somehow survive in the process.

“Hey! Come and get me!”

He ran across the garden, and was once more glad that he couldn’t grow exhausted from normal means. But his mana was aching, and he knew he was slower than usual. But he had to keep that last lightning bolt as a reserve, a last choice to divert the dragons attention.

Thankfully, just screaming at the dragon worked. Now that he had the beast’s attention, his job changed to leading it away while surviving. And that was easier said than done. The dragon jumped into the air, its claws outstretched and ready to dig into his metal body. Berus ran, as far as he could.

The house was still burning. The flames licked high into the sky, and everything around the house was clouded in thick, dark smoke. He couldn’t see anything. How was Phorok doing? What about Mikkah? Iuria?

If he had time to panic, he would have. Their plan had been too reckless from the start - of course the dragon could breathe fire! Why didn’t they think of that? It had shattered the barrier, but at what cost?

He wanted to reverse it all. Quit the game, load the last save point, try again.

But this wasn’t a game. If he lay down in the grass, the dragon would kill him. It wouldn’t save his friends. It wouldn’t do anything. He had to move forward, and live with the consequences of his recklessness.

And that meant fighting the dragon. Or at least distracting it for long enough for Phorok to save the girls, and join him again.

Out of the corner of his vision, he could see how the house was slowly falling into itself. There was barely anything left of the roof, and even his sensors had problems to see through the thick smoke.

He had been distracted for just a moment, but that was enough for the dragon. It bit down on his leg, and threw him into the air. Most of his senses went blank, but the pain remained, once more a grim reminder that this was no full-dive VR game. The developers would never be so dumb or cruel to tolerate this amount of pain.

When his sight returned, he watched himself tumble down to the ground. Apparently, he didn’t taste good, as the dragon didn’t try to eat him once more. But as he flew towards the ground, he saw two small figures getting out of the burning house. He zoomed in. It was Phorok who carried Iuria, but there was no trace of Mikkah.

“Where is she?”

He looked around, and even as he landed into the ground, he immediately got up and crawled towards the house. His leg was useless.

For the moment, the dragon seemed satisfied. Maybe it was exhausted from all the rage it had gone through. Maybe it thought that it would be left alone now. Whatever the reason was, for the moment, it lay on the ground, watching the burning house with alert eyes.

Berus was happy about that. He grunted and groaned, but slowly made his way towards the flames. His leg was completely useless. But his mind was only on Mikkah. Where was she? She had to be safe, right? But there was an uneasy feeling growing inside of him.

Finally, he made his way over to Phorok and Iuria. They were just out of reach of the house, coughing still. Unlike him, they had inhaled the smoke, and he could see how much it impacted them. Iuria lay on the ground, with tears streaking her sooty face. Phorok sat beside her, but didn’t meet Berus’ eye.

“Mikkah… where is she?” he asked.

Suddenly, Phorok’s gaze hardened. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? She was in the house. She still has to be in there, then!”

“That is possible, yes.”

“Then why didn’t you save her? Why did you leave her in there?”

“My obligation is only on Iuria.” Phorok still refused to look at him.

“You know that’s bullshit. You could have saved her,” Berus hissed at him.

“But Iuria…”

“Forget it.”

As best as he could, he got up, even if it meant crawling on his knees. His body tried to make do with the little mana it still had, but the pain in his leg continued to throb. Slowly but surely he made his way to the house. He had to save her.

It was a dumb idea to enter the burning building, even with his metal body. He knew that even without his sensors going haywire. His soul felt trapped, and the primal instinct to run away was screaming at him.

But his body wasn’t human, unlike Mikkah’s. He was a machine. And as a machine, he should be able to tolerate the heat much better than any human could. Slowly, he crawled through the house. Once more he was thankful that he didn’t have to breathe, as the smoke was so thick even his sensors couldn’t parse it. He fought on, and walked in the direction of the closet. Around him the flames licked at him, and the heat grew so much it would be unbearable. He barely could make out the rooms he had spent so much time in. Even his metal glowed hot in the heat, and his inner cables groaned with the strain. He wanted to give up. But he couldn’t.

Mikkah had given him a second chance. And he wanted to pay her back for that.

“Mikkah!”

He called out for her, again and again as he crawled around.

“Berus?” Her words were quiet, but he immediately made them out.

She was alive. Relief flooded him, and with newfound strength he crawled in her direction.

The closet to the safe room still stood. But it was closed, and that was probably what kept her from going on. He managed to pry open the doors.

Inside of the little saferoom sat Mikkah, a strange device over her nose and mouth. She was barely able to keep her eyes open, and her whole body was drenched in sweat.

“Mikkah!”

But she didn’t react anymore. He had to hurry. Quickly, he went over to her, and picked her up together with her bag, careful not to touch her with his hot metal limbs. With the bag safely between him and her, he crawled on his good leg and with his other arm. His joints creaked with every movement, but for a moment, he could afford to simply ignore it all. His body was overburdened, strained, close to breaking. And yet he managed to fight his way back out. Through the flames, he protected her with his own body.

And together, they made it out. Mikkah was coughing and retching, but she was alive.

Berus fell down into the grass next to her.

Never before had the sky looked so beautiful.