Scott struggled to stand. His strength had largely fled from him earlier when he was struck by that wave of energy. Harry obliged him, a crude smirk on his lips.

“You’re one of them, huh?” asked Scott through clenched teeth. His regeneration factor was working, his strength continued to grow. Yet, it seemed to be sluggish. There was no helpful message to explain it, however.

“Hmm? One of who?” asked Harry. He cracked open another beer and started to drink.

“A dead man,” said Scott. With all the strength that he could muster, he rushed toward the man. Claws extended he intended to see just how immortal this object truly might prove to be.

Harry didn’t even bother to dodge or block. He merely snorted when Scott tore into him with his claws. A grating noise, like nails on a chalkboard, screeched through the air as the enraged dragon swung his claws with all the power he could produce.

The hateful divine drunkard laughed uproariously. “Feeling a little weak there, huh? Kitty can’t scratch that—” his hand suddenly lashed out. A hard slap to the face sent Scott flying to the side.

He spat several out his bloodied teeth out onto the ground, then glared at Harry. The anger grew. He began to lose himself in the moment. What else could he do? Every indication was that this hateful creature was a god, one with administrative privileges over his world. No matter what he did to him, he could not overcome that. Yet, Scott refused to accept that.

Scott shot forward again, was struck down, then rose and attacked again. Each time he was swatted down by Harry like he was an annoying fly. Yet, no matter how many times he spat out teeth or one of his bones was broken, Scott continued to rise and fight.

Harry casually slipped to the side when Scott came at him once more then punched him, almost gently, in the back. Scott suddenly lost all feeling below the neck and fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. That sensation of numbness began to slowly alleviate, but slow was the operative word. He could scarcely sense his extremities.

“Aw. Now that’s just too bad,” said Harry.

Harry casually strolled over to Scott then gripped him but the hair. He slowly dragged him up from the ground. “Feel familiar?”

“Doesn’t feel good. Does it?” asked Harry in a mocking tone. “That stupid red slut did this to me so many times. God damned griefer.”

Scott struggled to move any part of his body below the neck. His fingers twitched slightly but he could not be certain that was by his own volition or if it was an involuntary muscle spasm.

“So, what if my guild tried to kill her sister and boyfriend? PVP was allowed, and that shirt bird you’re your name started it!” snapped Harry. He shook Scott like he intended to mix a fruity iced drink for a moment then made him turn his head to look him in the eyes.

“We were on the way up! We were set to take over the entire region,” snarled Harry. “Hell, we even had plans to do a livestream event with Sana Jane! Sana fucking Jane!”

Scott admittedly had no idea who that was, but he did not ask. He began to sense his body a little more with each passing second. The more the asshole talked, the better his chances would be.

“You know how bad I wanted to be in the same room as that chick? She has tits for days!” Harry shook Scott once more. “Days!”

“I’ve been subscribed to her D-tube channel for decades! She even sent me a personal thank you note once. ME!” said Harry, his voice cracking slightly. He now sounded, for all the world, like a bratty teenage boy who had not gotten his way.

“There was a picture. Oh man. There was side boob, and it was all for me…” said harry, his eyes wide and his mouth hung open. His blackened teeth and gums granted him a strange juxtaposition of youthful wonder and crackhead tendencies.

“We were going to be on ARS Play with Sana Jane! You don’t even know who that fucking is, but I’d drink her damned bath water if I could!” shouted Harry. “We were going to be the hot new fucking guild! We were going straight to the top! Sana Jane might have even taken a selfie with me!”

The words spewing like vile bullshit from Harry’s mouth were at odds with his appearance, and Scott’s memories of the man. Worse, the more he heard the angrier he became. “Everything… Is what you said the reason why you did this to my family?”

“Your family?” asked Harry incredulously. “Who gives a fuck about any of that? Didn’t you hear me? That bitch of yours ruined my shot with Sana Jane!”

“Worse! That sister of hers refused to let us have the spot we earned on ARS Play! Just because that stupid slut was butt hurt about us trying to kill her avatar while we made her fiancé watch…” Harry shook his head as though he were bewildered by the entire thing. It was as though he could not fathom why anyone would hold a grudge over such a thing.

The fight slowly went out of him as Scott realized just what he was facing. Angry gods fucking his life over was one thing, but this was a level of pure stupidity that he could not even begun to process. He was in the hands of an overpowered fanboy who thought the best way to get back at the person who robbed him of his chance for a selfie was to brutally rape and murder the little sister of a guy that she liked.

It was all so stupid that it tore the fight out of him. He wanted to rage. He wanted to rend, to tear. Yet, when faced with cold hard reality all he could do was stare limply at the ground. His life. His sister’s life. Everyone on the planet who had suffered so cruelly at the hands of these degenerates. It was too much to bear. He had to do something, but he had no idea what he could even do about the situation.

Scott whispered softly. Desperately. “Please. There has to be something…”

Harry continued to rant and rave over his celebrity crush. Meanwhile, Scott continued to plead with himself. He needed to think of a way to do something about this. Anything about this.

“Please…” he whispered once more, his eyes searching for something that did not exist.

His body broken. His will in tatters. His blood slipped down from every orifice to plop uselessly upon the violated cemetery grass. In many ways, he was a child once more. No matter what he did to the bastard, Harry refused to die.

Scott’s eyes narrowed suddenly. The world seemed to slow as his breathing intensified. In his ears there was only the sound of his heart and the rhythm of his breathing. “There has to be something…”

Strange artifacts began to appear in the world. Glitches in the grass, in the air. Like an old school video game that had suddenly lost its mind, the world seemed to have little graphical issues that made no sense.

Softly, a resonant masculine voice that seemed quite familiar gently whispered inside his mind, “Remember…”

The world had nearly halted when a message window appeared nearby. Glitching heavily, it showed only one word and a number next to it. “Awakening… 97%.”