1 Pyro

The ground shook as the blast sent everyone flying.

The ice dragon is one of the strongest monsters of Eternia. The mighty monster roared furiously and flapped its winds — creating dust-storms.

I pushed my body as hard as possible — to get up and raise my sword. My teammates rushed back to formation. I knew they are all giving their very best. The battle is just getting started.

"Pyro listen carefully, Akiko and Muran will divert the dragon — you and I will flank it", said Vivia. Even with everyone's Level at 150, we still are no match for the monster.

I nodded in agreement and the team split into two. Akiko was the best knight on the team and she can take the attack of the dragon. But still, it seems that they are all rushing in to finish the battle.

Other than the four of us, we had some more mercenaries helping us. They acted as our diversion. As the dragon approached Akiko's gang, I and Vivio flanked it. Its tail was waving dangerously close to us. But we managed to approach near the dragon's body without it detecting us.

Vivio shouted, "Now or never." She used her Mithril Mace to attack the dragon. I joined in with my special technique 'Flaming Sword', hence my nickname Pyro.

The dragon roared in pain and we retreated immediately. Since the dragon is way more powerful, we needed to adopt a hit and run tactic. After a few rounds of fighting, grinding, and switching — our team finally defeated the Ice Dragon.

Almost everyone had reached the end of the line. I performed my usual victory dance. It was a set of embarrassing moves but it brought smiles to everyone who watched me. That was all I wanted anyway.

We collected the dragon remains and headed back to the city. The day was just brilliant — those who called themselves Skifers — surfed the clouds. It was just brilliant. Everyone on the team wanted to speak to me.

"Pyro will you never return after today?", asked Muran — the Elite archer.

"Sorry. I must apologize but I have a lot of catching up to do in the real world."

"It's not fair Pyro, you should not leave us like this. You brought us together and in the last 6 months, we went on so many adventures together", said Vivio with a tearful face.

'This is so much tougher than I thought.'

"At least tell us your real name Pyro1990. You owe us that", said Akiko.

"My name is Stuart Meyer", I said aloud.

The city was getting closer and it was time to log out. But Vivio forced everyone to meet for a party in an Inn closeby. Everyone bid farewell to me and drank sweet beer in my honor.

I walked out of the Inn and pulled up my console. LOGOUT. "You have successfully logged out of Eternia, Stuart Meyer" a message popped up in my interface.

"World of Eternia" is a Virtual MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) and that was something I loved so much.

"Stuart Meyer 20, cancer diagnosed patient lives 6 months in a Virtual Game World as his final wish…"

It was Vivio who found out about me via the Internet. And some of my team managed to come to visit my hospital room to say their final goodbye.

This is my end Or so I thought!

Once my life signs in the machines had stopped, I found myself logging back into the World of Eternia.