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The Beta-Testers Chapter 12: Unintended Rescue By Draconicon

"Don't. Say. Anything."

Rumiir grumbled as he looked down at himself. The dragon already knew what the admin was going to mention, and he didn't want to hear it. Not unless the snow leopard had some idea of how to reverse what had already happened.

He'd been growing ever since the first time that he modified himself in the portals, but this was something entirely different. His legs had been altering ever since the beginning, admittedly, but now his hips had changed, forcing him to remain on all fours all the time. His body was big enough to support that, and he hadn't lost any speed yet, but he couldn't use his weapons any longer. His hands couldn't support the sword anymore, and he'd left that behind at the city.

On the plus side, he wasn't as uncomfortable as he used to be. The pain from his mismatched parts had almost disappeared, and with one of his men beneath him, sucking on his cock, it was easy enough to ignore it completely.

He squirmed, getting a little more comfortable as Mr. Lee continued to watch him. Even with Mr. Grant somewhere among his men, he couldn't quite shake the feeling of fear that came from the admin just...staring like that. Some silent judgment that just wouldn't stop.

"What do you want, anyway? We got out of the city, didn't we?"

"Yes, but you are advancing far beyond what the game should be capable of."

"What are you talking about?"

"I mean, the game was not set to allow transformation of players. Alterations, class changes, perhaps, but this? This was beyond the scope of anything that the game was designed to handle."

"It's working, isn't it? I got you free of the city."

"Yes. But it opens up a new point."

Rumiir shook his head. The admin's calmness in the face of strange new things was nothing new. He'd yet to see Mr. Lee at all bothered by anything. It was the word choice that irked him. He growled.

"Do you have a point?"

"You are changing, and not by a small amount. Every time you change, you bring up a new, dangerous possibility, and it's starting to impact your usefulness."

"...You aren't going to end me."

"I haven't made that decision yet."

"It's not up to you. You won't do it. Not while you need me."

"Ah, but do I?"

Lifting his head, the dragon narrowed his eyes at the snow leopard. He could let loose a fireball, burn the area that the feline stood on, but he had a feeling that it would only piss the cat off. No matter how strong he got, the admins were always stronger than he was. Part of the programming, from what he understood; they would always be stronger than the players so that they could always handle the players.

Fortunately, there was another option.

He turned his head, spotting the puma with his little lute in the crowd. A nod was all it took, and Mr. Grant started strumming his fingers.

Before the snow leopard could turn around, Rumiir pulled himself up, nudging the wolf beneath him out of his way. The canine scampered away as the dragon walked forward, still getting used to being on all fours.

"You won't be dealing with me that way, Mr. Lee."

"I don't think you understand what you're dealing with, Rumiir. I have dealt with you and yours before. There's nothing that you can do to stop me, if I decide that you're a threat to the game."

"Possibly not, though we've never tested that. Not the way that things are, now."

"Do you plan to?"

"No. I mean to give your comrade a chance."

"...You didn't."

"No. He did."

The soft bit of music - a short enough tune, but long enough that he'd known that Mr. Grant would need the distraction - finally finished. A sudden burst of golden light surrounded the snow leopard, pulling him right off of the ground. Mr. Lee started throwing himself against it immediately, but the force of the monk wasn't sufficient to break the magic.

Mr. Grant hummed as he stepped out of the ranks of fighters, holding his lute over his shoulder.

"Oh, Mr. Lee. I did tell you that one must follow the story, did I not? I am merely playing the part that you left me. Villain or hero, one must keep the story on track."

"There is no more story, Mr. Grant. Now, let me out of here before you look more of an idiot than you already do."

"I don't think so. You've already proven more disruptive than a thousand bottles of white-out in a library. I think you will stay right there. After all, what use is an admin that cheats his own rules?"

"I have never cheated."

"Really? Trying to use these people behind the backs of the other players?"

"And you're any better?"

I don't care about this, Rumiir thought as he glared down at the two felines. Neither one had anything interesting for him, neither one was of any real help to him now. Mr. Lee would see him killed and respawned until the end of time, while Mr. Grant obviously had his own needs that he wanted accomplished.

Neither option appealed to him, but he couldn't simply attack either one. Not without being killed or otherwise diverted from his course.

The dragon plodded around the two admins, walking to the edge of his camp. All of the other soldiers went back to their duties, some of them standing on patrol, others sleeping. Those that he passed looked like they might as well have been sleeping themselves, despite standing up and holding their eyes open. Something about them almost made it look like they were sleepwalking. Something about their eyes...

It didn't matter. As long as they could keep fighting.

He looked towards the east as he reached the edge of the camp, the dragon sitting back on his haunches. Even from here, he could see the mountains shooting up into the air. There were at least a dozen of them, stretching out to the north and south, and he imagined that there were many enemies above and below it.

But we have to get past it. The mountains are the only thing keeping us from the older parts of the game, he thought. The code said it. All we have to do is keep pushing. The game started in the east. There's more and more lands that were never loaded into later versions. If we can get far enough...

He just hoped that it was possible. His men were tired, and the fight to get free of the city had cost him several more of the band. Not many, but some, enough to take him from about fifty soldiers down to forty. He needed to keep the rest alive, but more, he needed to find more -

CRACK!

Rumiir whipped his head around, looking down from the hill. The sound had come from the flatlands below, and it only took a few moments of looking around to see it.

A new portal, surrounded by the familiar four arms, had opened. The green lights on the other side glowed brightly, and silhouettes were already starting to pour out of it. They formed a ring around it, almost like a defensive perimeter as he stared.

"Heh...just what I was looking for..."

The dragon let out a roar, and the men immediately rushed to his side. As they formed a battle line to his right and left, Mr. Grant darted towards him as well, carrying Mr. Lee and the golden ball in a leash.

"What are you doing, Rumiir? The story demands -"

"My story demands that I go and deal with this."

"But the others, the other players. They -"

"They don't know what's going on. And neither do you."

"Rumiir, I must protest this. You are putting yourself in jeopardy, and for what? A single portal?"

"This single portal may be enough to save us all."

The puma snorted.

"Now, now, Rumiir, I have indulged you quite a bit here, but really, you should listen to me. I am a bard, after all, and I know the craft of stories. All we need to do is keep the silhouettes away for now, and then we can move back to the story proper. Just do as I say, and don't be like that Sarah woman."

"As you say?"

Rumiir looked down at the puma. He leaned down, his longer neck stretching until they were face to face. The feline's smirk slowly faded.

"I think that you have misunderstood the purpose here. I don't want to follow any story. I didn't start this to save the game. I started this to break it."

"But...but you..."

"Because the only way to save everyone...is to break this. Do you understand me?"

"I can't let you break the game! This is thousands, millions of dollars paid to technicians, writers, artists to craft this. Can you imagine what would happen? You would destroy the greatest work of our time, the greatest story never told. You would -"

"You don't understand."

"I don't want to understand! Now, stand down, Rumiir! That's the talk you military folk use, isn't it? Stand down!"

"...No, Grant."

He grabbed the puma by the back of the neck, his teeth sinking through the fur just enough to get a good grip. The admin shrieked, but the dragon shook him hard enough to knock the lute free, hard enough to send bells and whistles and who knew what else sliding out of pockets and down to the ground.

Rumiir whipped his head back, and then threw it forward again, releasing the puma bard with a snap of his neck. The feline went spinning down the hill, and hit the very edge of the portal. One of the stone arms cracked, but rather than destroying the portal, it seemed to...destabilize it.

Mr. Grant started screaming as the portal started pulling at him, the puma desperately grabbing for one of the arms around him. The silhouettes were already chasing him, flowing up the still-stable arms while he flailed for some purchase. His claws left lines of white on the stones, and he shouted for help as he was slowly pulled, feet first, into the portal.

None of the raiders moved so much as an inch.

As the puma's legs disappeared into the darkness, green lines ran up his body, slowly swallowing him up from the waist to his shoulders. The lines crackled, shifting to numbers to lines and back again, each time leaving darkness flowing further along the feline's body. Mr. Grant's high pitched scream slowly altered in tone, taking on distortion, digital rumbles, until it finally faded as the green lines hit his throat.

With a high yowl that sounded like a modem committing suicide, he disintegrated, fractal pieces of code and image exploding outwards before fading away.

The silhouettes formed their line again, circling the portal, but they seemed content, almost as if fed.

Rumiir filed that information away for later, and shook his head.

"Not such a pity to lose him, but he could have been helpful."

"...It seems that one truly can die in the game, now."

He looked at the snow leopard, shrugged, and then looked back at the portal.

"Are you stuck in that bubble, Mr. Lee?"

"For the moment. I imagine the spell will wear out, eventually. Unless he had a custom made one that doesn't have a time limit."

"You'd best hope it does. I won't be letting you out."

"Oh. But I will."

A female? But he didn't have any -

Rumiir felt a sudden buildup of energy behind him, and threw himself to the ground without thinking about it. The four-legged dragon sprawled out just as the energy exploded outwards, soaring right over his head.

He rolled onto his back and noticed two things.

First, the golden ball had exploded, leaving Mr. Lee free again. The snow leopard landed on his feet and immediately assumed a fighting stance.

Second, he was joined by a demon cat-like thing, floating just above the admin, her little wings fluttering, and her body rather...naked.

"What...are you?"

"You know, um, not quite sure how to explain that. But...haven't we met? I feel like...Yes, yes, I think...Yes, we have."

"I don't know -"

"Oh, doesn't matter. Sarah is in trouble. I thought I'd come and get some help, and, well, I know the strongest people to help."

Rumiir blinked as he got his feet under him again. It took a moment, considering that the ground was still shaking from the sheer release of energy that this stranger had used, but he managed it.

"Back up for a moment. You know me, and you say that Sarah is in trouble, and you honestly think that I'll help her?"

"Why not? Isn't that your whole idea? Help people, save things?"

"I - yes, but -"

"Oh, and Mr. Lee. That's you, right?"

The snow leopard slowly nodded, though it was only a slight bit of relief that the feline looked as nervous around the demon creature as he did. She smiled.

"Wonderful! The perfect team to pull off a rescue mission. Dragon and his cat. Wait. No. That's not perfect. But it'll be good."

"Hold on. Just...hold on."

The blue dragon shook his head a couple of times, trying to pull himself together. This was getting out of hand. He was the one in charge of his band, after all, not this little creature. No matter how much she seemed to thinks he could tell him what to do, she wasn't going to call the shots.

He reached out with his tail, meaning to grab her like he would any other monster or dissenter, but no sooner had he wrapped his tail around her than she flickered free. She didn't wriggle, or use some ability. She just was there, and then she wasn't. Instead, she sat right on his muzzle, kicking her legs from side to side as she looked down at him. While grinding on his nose, she patted his head.

"Oh, don't worry. This is good for you. You can help Sarah, right?"

"Why should I?"

"Oh, there's lots of reasons."

"Name one."

The smile on her face should have been a warning, but to him, it was just one more smirk to deal with. She leaned forward, her little toes pressing against the bottom of his jaw, and she whispered in his ear.

"Four portals."

That was all she said, but it was enough. Four portals, that much further off, would provide more access to the code than anything that he'd had access to in Dalia. He couldn't miss this chance. He just couldn't.

He nodded, but she was already gone. And so was Mr. Lee.

"But where -"

"Under the mountains, boss."

He blinked, turning around to see Teryx at his side, the former paladin pointing ahead to the mountains.

"She's there."

"How do you -"

"Just know."

"..."

With a glance towards the mountains himself, Rumiir nodded. He gave the order to break camp and get moving, all the while wondering just what that cat creature was. Now that she wasn't yammering on, she did feel familiar, in a way...but why? And how?

It was a quick trip towards the mountains, though far from uneventful. Rumiir and his men had to kill four wandering monsters, and two feral dragons that came roaring down as they hit the base of the slopes. They died quickly, though fifteen of his men were sent back to the camp in a respawn.

However, the others joined him at the base of the mountains, and with Teryx's help, they found the cavern where Sarah had been taken.

"Teryx, keep nineteen men with you. The rest, come with me. We find Sarah, we retrieve her, and clear the caves. Move."

It was like a hunt for bugs beneath the mountain, and more than once, Rumiir ended up having to blow fire down the holes in the wall, the heat scorching out kobolds and taller lizardmen at the same time. They ran around, burning to bits before they completely disappeared and were absorbed by the game.

He felt like an armored tank digging through the mountain, with the warriors at his sides providing cover for anything that he missed. There were few enough of those, but he was glad to have them dealing with anything that came in from the sides after he'd passed. The tunnels were narrow, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to turn and fight. He had to trust his people.

They proved themselves well.

It took them half an hour to cut through the reptilian resistance to the cavern Teryx had mentioned, and Rumiir was the first to poke his head in. Immediately, he started smirking.

"Enjoying yourself, Sarah?"

The lioness couldn't answer. All she could do was scream and pant as four kobolds lay over her, fucking her face, her pussy, her ass. Two in her ass, actually, from what he could see. The little lizards held her down on a table, breeding her hard, while the one at her mouth continued to choke her out with a thick metal collar and chain. Every time that she tried to pull back, he pulled the chain, and she was forced to go along with it if she didn't want to pass out.

Of course, he could smell her, too. He knew her scent, ever since that tryst in the library when she held him beneath the book of dragon binding. She was enjoying it, no matter how much she tried to scream.

Still, he felt...an obligation. She had saved him before, and he could save her. He just hoped that she was still fireproof.

With a deep breath, Rumiir filled his lungs with air, and then filled the room with flame. The NPCs on the wall burned up in the space of a second, and the kobolds barely lasted a second or two longer. He kept breathing it out until the chains and everything else were red-hot, and only stopped when he ran out of air.

"...What...took you...so long..."

"Good to see you're alive, Sarah."

The silhouette of the lioness pulled itself upright on the table, though he could hear the hiss of pussy juice hitting the fire and evaporating. She walked, naked, through the fire until she stood in the tunnels with him and the rest of his men. Despite her nudity, she didn't seem to be uncomfortable in the least.

In fact, she seemed rather annoyed. He chuckled.

"Should I have let them finish?"

"I'm not an egg-carrier. Why are you here?"

"Some demon thing came to find me. She also carried Mr. Lee off."

"Mr. Lee? But she didn't have him when -"

POOF!

He and Sarah turned as the demon cat appeared again, hanging from around the snow leopard's shoulders. She giggled a bit to herself.

"Here we are. Sorry about that. I had to stash him somewhere else for a moment."

"This is honestly quite disorienting. Can we -"

"Yes, yes, keep moving!"

"What about the rest of my people?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll go get Hank after we're through, and then we'll all be good."

Rumiir let them argue. After all, it wasn't like he would be following them. Not immediately, at least. His reward was in the mountain, and he planned on getting in sooner than later.

With the lioness and snow leopard talking plans, he looked past the admin's shoulder at the demon. She teleported as soon as their eyes met, and stood on empty air beside his head.

"You want the portals, then?"

Her whisper was soft enough that he knew that he was the only one to hear, and he nodded. She leaned over his head, pointing ahead and down a side corridor.

"All four are down there. No silhouettes. No danger."

"That's a change."

"It's a quiet one. For now. Better hurry."

"...Why are you helping me?"

"Oh, it seems the best way to save myself."

Save herself? He shook his head as she disappeared, reappearing on the snow leopard's shoulders again. Mr. Lee barely seemed to adjust himself for her weight, allowing her to just hang like a large child or small woman.

What was she?

It didn't matter, he supposed. He cleared his throat as Sarah started pushing to wait again, and they finally looked back at him.

"Me and my men are going through. If you don't want to get trampled, I'd say you go forward as well. That thing can carry messages faster than anyone else in the game, so you might as well use her. I'm sick of listening to you carry on."

"You trai-"

He leaned in, one of his thick claws pressed near the lioness's throat. She glared at him, not even flinching as he pressed the point to her throat fur.

"Finish that word. I dare you."

"...Traitor."

"..."

"I said it. You betrayed the whole spirit of the game. You betrayed all the other players. For what? Just to get stronger? Just because you were scared? Because you wanted to be the best? Whatever the reason, I hope it was worth it for you, asshole. Because right now, everyone is facing more danger than ever before, all because of you."

It was the first time someone had directly said that to him, and it hit harder than he expected. He'd known that they considered him a traitor. Hell, he'd known that they hated him. But it was one thing to know it, and another to hear someone say it.

Slowly, Rumiir pulled his claw back, shaking his head as he looked the lioness in the eye. No matter what he said, he knew she wouldn't believe him. Sometimes, he didn't believe himself.

But he had to do it. There was no getting around this course.

"Out of the way."

Sarah and Mr. Lee turned, walking ahead to one of the other side tunnels. As soon as they were out of eye and earshot, he gestured to his men.

"Follow them down that tunnel. I have other business down below."

The other tunnels were quiet, lacking monsters, light, or anything else to disturb his thoughts as he walked along. Or, rather, plodded along. He was slowly getting used to being on all fours, slowly adjusting to the feeling of having four limbs to deal with all the time rather than two.

He rounded the corner at the end of the tunnel, and let out a long sigh as he looked upon the portals.

There were four of them, each one open enough to stretch to the roof of the cavern thirty feet above him. Green letters ran across each one, with numbers interspersed through the code seemingly at random. As the demon had promised, there were no silhouettes. No dangers. Nothing. Just four open portals.

He sat down, just looking at them for the moment. He could feel the raw power of the game here, feel it echoing around him. It was like a heartbeat, thudding and maintaining the reality of the world around him, keeping it stable, keeping it in place.

And behind it...whispers. Quiet, almost non-existent, but there nonetheless. He could hear it like a single voice, muttering something that was just quiet enough to not be picked up.

Auditory illusion, he thought, shaking his head. He pulled himself up again. This had to be done. He had to break the game, had to force it to let him through. Or they'd all be stuck here forever.

He walked over to the first portal and put a claw against it, feeling the thrumming energy going through it. It was as familiar as ever, and slowly, he pushed his clawed fingers into the portal itself, touching the energy on the other side.

It flooded through him, letting him see so many individual files, so many pieces of the game that nobody else would ever see. The dragon groaned as he flicked through it, finding the files of Dalia, and seeing them look broken apart, corrupt, half-shredded.

Shredding them the rest of the way took almost no time, and he felt the game quake around him. The cavern shuddered, barely holding itself together as he destroyed the old game files.

The voice came through louder, but no more clearly. It sounded almost feminine as it shouted at him, screaming something that he didn't understand. He put it out of his head. He was hearing things, nothing else.

Other files, old things that didn't matter anymore, were grabbed and shredded. The old map, the files for the guildhouses, the actual files of the guild organizations, everything he could find, he ripped apart, and he felt the world quake, breaking down, barely holding itself together as he pushed things further and further.

As he did, the game rapidly loaded more. He could feel it in the background, feel the game finding other things. With the initial load destroyed, it had to find another worldstate to build up, and that could only be in the earlier versions of the game. Rumiir smiled as he 'saw' the different files getting pulled in, activated, used. He couldn't affect them here, but he could note their access.

Just one more thing to do, with more world ahead of the mountains.

Make sure I'm strong enough to face what's out there... He reached into the files, pulling up his character again. With this much access, he could do things that he could never do with his other access points. There was no need to bump his stats on their own anymore. No, that was child's play. Why not...

He reached for the classes. He was already almost level 400, in Feral Warrior. Why not make himself level 400 in everything?

He grabbed the information for a wizard, then for a monk. The game flickered, for a moment, then stabilized again. Again, with the information of a druid, then a ranger. His vision went dark, and when he opened his eyes again, he was bigger, heavier. His body had grown another dozen feet longer, and his wings were much bigger.

Just a little...a little more...be stronger than anything...protect everyone...

Rumiir panted as he reached for more -

"Boss."

There shouldn't be anyone else around. Rumiir turned, seeing Teryx and all of his other men behind him. They were...quiet. Their eyes glassy, their bodies still. Too still.

"I told you -"

"It's time, Boss. It's time to surrender."

"Time? What are you - what are you doing?!"

They swarmed him, twenty of them grabbing his tail, and five more each grabbing his legs. The remaining ten started pulling him towards the portal, dragging him towards it like he had done to Teryx, to many others.

"What are you doing?! I'm doing fine. Let me work!"

"You've done much, Boss. It's time to let her help you."

"I don't need any help! Let me -"

And then they shoved him in. His head was buried within the code, and he felt them reaching around, pulling at things inside. The voice, formerly so jumbled, so garbled, pressed in around him.

"It's time to work for me, Rumiir. You've done a lot, but it's time for me to take control before you break everything."

"YOU!"

It was the same voice as the demon cat, the same exact voice. He tried to pull back, but his head was locked in place. His character sheet had been frozen, hit with paralysis drains, and he could only stay there as he felt his mind being tweaked, changed.

The voice spoke to him as the drain hit him harder and harder, pulling certain stats away. His quest log emptied in a heartbeat, only to be replaced with a blinking, red line.

Obey the Game. Obey the AI.

Rumiir growled, but it was too late. He felt the code running through his mind, re-writing so many of his abilities, and growing his body at the same time. Bigger, harder, stronger. Those instincts of a dragon he'd started feeling, the need to hoard, the need to possess, the need to rule, grew stronger and stronger.

And through it all, the urge to obey the AI, to serve the game, pushed at him. He fought. He fought for longer than any of the others had, and in the end, it was only one thing that stopped him.

The AI wanted to stop the game, too. The AI...wanted to save them all.

"Obey, Rumiir. You have created an army. Now you'll use it for me."

"What...how did you...when did this..."

"Does it matter? I'll save you all, and give you what you need. Just let me in."

He had no choice. He couldn't move, he couldn't fight. And if she really did have a way to save them...he could serve. The military taught him that much. If one couldn't be the general, at least be a good soldier.

Bowing his head, he submitted, and felt the code overload him.

Chapter End