Change, is it worth it? (IV)

"Hey! Dragon lizard!" Jorge raised his hand in front of him and stopped.

Dragon lizard? Zero couldn't help but stare at him strangely. Agnis snorted into a laugh and held on to the side of his neck, trying not to fall off. Zeraph just stared at Jorge and shook his head.

"I have a name, you know," Zero replied, staring down at Jorge. He didn't like how he was called a Dragon Lizard.

Jorge shifted in his spot and rubbed his hands a couple of times. Then a goofy grin plastered on his face. "My bad. I couldn't remember your name all of a sudden. But, you know, momentary memory loss does happen at times."

"Then you have a serious problem. I suggest you go to the doctor." Zero's words were quicker than his thoughts, making him feel bad for stating things without thinking about what he would say.

Jorge snorted. "You know what I mean. Short-term memory loss. Sheesh." He thumped his chest, shaking at Zero's retort.

"What do you want?" Zero asked a bit too coldly. He realized that whenever he was in his dragon form, he tended to be more rude and sarcastic than in his human form. The thought did cross his mind that his animalistic side took more control of his mind when he was in this form. His patience was much shorter, and the thought of having friends or emotional connections with others was much more distant.

"Calm down, lizard breath." Jorge jokingly replied with his hand up to calm him down. "I came here to congratulate you."

"For?"

"Our little bet, of course."

"Oh, thanks."

"I feel a bit slighted that you forgot."

"Well, that is to be expected when you had a Fallen Angel fall on top of our heads, you know. But, in actuality, he's the one that killed it." Zero honestly didn't like the thought of being marked by Belial; he already was having enough trouble with Demon Prince, the mortal enemy of all Drezo Regalia, and now to have the interest of a Fallen Angel wasn't something he wanted. Trouble continually knocked on his door; it was enough to give him a headache.

"True, but you took down the majority of its health. I'm sure you would've killed it if it wasn't that stupid angel." Jorge grunted; he glanced up at Zero with expectation. "Anyways, let's have some more fun, shall we?"

"Like?" Zero didn't quite like where this was going. The definition of fun sounded close to constant warfare. Leveling up was fine with him, but possibly heading into constant trouble wasn't. Jorge seemed like a guy who would head into trouble without any preparations, and he wouldn't be surprised if he died from his stupidity.

Jorge wiggled his eyebrows as a smug smile appeared on his face. "We continue our kill count, of course." He snorted, pleased that he had come up with such an idea. "Let's see how many bosses we can kill until we get back to the City."

"What if I say no?" Zero asked, wondering what Jorge would say. He wanted to know Jorge's reaction, especially because he was a muscle head. Already, he had two thoughts forming in his mind; the first was that Jorge would get angry and challenge him into doing something stupid, or he wouldn't care and leave him alone. His beat was on the first one, and he waited for Jorge's answer.

Jorge stomped, shook his fist at Zero, and grunted a couple of times that sounded close to a snort. For a moment, Zero thought Jorge reminded him of an angry boar, ready to skewer him with his tusk.

"You can't do that," Jorge replied, trying to calm himself down.

"Why not? I have every right to."

"If you do, I'm going to KS all your monsters," Jorge replied as he grinned mischievously. "You won't ever level up in this mission until you say yes."

"Did I just hear him correctly?" Zeraph asked, amused; he shook his head at Jorge as if he had heard something completely foreign. "He's going to go around kissing your monsters? Don't you know how unsanitary that is?" He shuddered just thinking about it. "What stupidity is this?"

Agnis burst out laughing as her clear voice rang outwards. "Oh, my god!" She gasped for a breath of air; her hands were on her stomach as she reeled over, trying not to fall off Zero. "I can't believe I just heard that!"

Jorge's smug smile quickly turned into a frown as his hand became a fist.

"This is priceless!" Agnis slipped up, falling over towards the side. She squealed as her hand flailed around her and grabbed Zero's wings.

Zero jerked in alarm at the harsh tug on his small wings. It sent a jolting pain that made him crumple onto the ground with a loud thud. Jorge jumped back in alarm at the sudden crash while Zeraph held on tightly to Zero's horn. Finally, Agnis could pull herself up before being squashed by his giant body.

"Damn it, Agnis!" Zero yelled angrily. He was on his side. For some reason, he couldn't feel his legs, making this whole experience weird. It was like Agnis pushed a perfect pressure point on his back, making him lose all feeling in his legs. How his wings had some hold over his legs, he didn't understand. All he could do was roll around on the floor with his large body to get back to sitting on his legs. "Watch where you're grabbing!"

"Sorry." Agnis gasped, her face flushed from laughing too hard. "I couldn't help myself."

Zeraph didn't understand why Agnis was laughing so hard. So he asked again, wanting to answer why Agnis was laughing. "What's so funny? Did I miss something here?"

"No," Zero replied. Then, he weakly moved his front legs up under his body while attempting to move his back legs. Now, he looked like a giant cat with both legs tucked underneath.

"Then?" Zeraph let go of Zero's horn and plopped back down.

"KSing isn't the Kissing that you're thinking about."

"I don't get it. They sound the same."

"K S stands for kill stealing from other players. While kissing is a physical kiss with a partner."

"There was such a meaning behind a KSing." Zeraph slowly nodded as he finally understood what Jorge had said.

"It's a game term." Agnis was finally back to herself, wiping away her tears. "I expected you not to know such terms, but that was funny."

"How do you know I wouldn't know?"

"Simple. All your actions and replies are not nerdy terms. They're too clean. I guess that this is the first game you've ever played."

"Well, if you put it like that, then yea."

Zero grumpily got up, still annoyed at the painful pull from Agnis. His wings were sore and felt like it was electrocuted. He couldn't flap it anymore and felt a tingle in his wings. Every time he moved his wing, a short shockwave spread throughout his body and ended up on his toes and fingers, giving it a weird electrical fall. He had to stop it together so he wouldn't trip again.

"Is that the best you can do?" Zero replied, "Ksing will not stop me from ignoring you."

"Well, you're right." Jorge nodded as he folded his arm in front of him. "I just wanted to say that once to see your reactions, but it seems I got a completely different reaction altogether."

"So, you're going to give up now?" Zero asked, hoping he would say yes. Instead, he got up, shook his whole body, and followed behind the army again.

"Of course not. I need to know who's the best. You or me." Jorge pointed to himself and stuck out his chest.

"Look, I don't care about this contest and all," said Zero. His tail flicked back and forth, annoyed that Jorge wouldn't leave him alone. "Instead, I would like to have as much peaceful time as possible throughout this journey. There are already enough crazy things happening, and adding another burdensome contest is troublesome."

Jorge grumbled when he heard what Zero had said. Then he straightened himself up, clapped his

hand, and smiled. "Don't worry. It would be worth your time. Plus, it's still on. By the end of this journey, we'll see who will have the most kills, especially boss monsters. Now, I'm off to slay some more monsters!" He turned around with a grin on his face. Strutting forward, he didn't look back toward Zero, who gave him a mixed expression.

Zero needed to figure out how to take in all this; Jorge was not to listen to a single word he had said. Even Zeraph gave Zero a pitying look that told him he was an unlucky bastard stuck with a delusional player.

"It happens." Zeraph shrugged his shoulder, then patted Zero, telling him everything would be alright.

"We get one of those types of players in many games. Just ignore him, Zero. He'll get bored fast." Agnis replied, staring after Jorge, amused. "He's not the problem you should worry too much about. Instead, what will you do with the threat that the Fallen Angel Belial stated to you?"

Zero focused on Agnis' question; he mulled it over, trying to figure out what to say. He couldn't do anything against Belial right this moment. All he could do was continue with the quest, plus he needed more information on the Demon Prince and Belial in the first place to do anything.

"Nothing," Zero replied. This was the best answer that he could think of right this moment.

"Seriously? That's a bit problematic."

"Yea, but it's best not to overthink it. It's unnecessary stress that accumulates over time. Best to go with the flow until I find the answer." Zero knew that unnecessary overthinking stressed him, mainly because he sometimes overthought things.

"He has a point. Overthinking it would make you mess up. When you think of the whole situation, best you think it over time."

Agnis sighed, glancing at the two, unsure quite what to say. "If you say so."

"I know so," said Zeraph.

Zero continued to stroll behind the large army, thinking over everything that had happened today. He tried his best not to think too deeply, but there were so many questions that he wished he knew the answer to everything. Eventually, he gave up and enjoyed the nice stroll through the plains.

There were times they saw the army swarm around a large group of monsters that reminded him of the Kilin that they had fought, but they were quickly routed without any trouble. The army didn't even have a third of their people and easily moved through the plains.

Time quickly flew by as Zero, Agnis, and Zeraph talked leisurely about everyday topics, sometimes even bringing up the latest news and about the Academy. What they were doing and studying, Zero especially liked listening to Agnis's concept of magic theories, but he needed to find out if even half of them were possible.

They battled a few more boss monsters and fought a few territory battles. Thankfully, in none of the fights did Zero or the army lose many of their people. Of course, there were some casualties, but the Elven warriors were all pros who were much stronger, faster, and well-coordinated to bring down a high-level monster.

There were times when Zero tanked the boss monster himself as magicians cast heavy magic against the boss monster. They couldn't get too close because some were too poisonous or hot, making the fight difficult. Zero was the only one who could combat the boss monster without getting poisoned or burnt alive.

As they continued, the plains slowly started to turn barren, becoming small rocky hills. The ground even changed from a golden wheat color to ashen gray. Zero saw a volcanic mountain standing proudly alone in the distance. Gray smoke erupted off the top, telling everyone it was an active volcano.

The temperature began to rise slowly, making everyone sweat, but they kept pushing forward. There wasn't even a single grumble from the Elven soldiers, and the players were the only ones that cried out their discomfort.

"We're almost there!" General Liam called out, catching everyone's attention. "This is it! This is where our battle truly starts!"

Everyone nervously gazed off into the distance, for they all felt the dense power of magic the

closer they got to the volcano.