When Love Lasts: A Sapphic Short Story Collection

⚡️ The Lightning Mage: The Game, Part II

May 23, 2022

Word Count: 1,362

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"Why the fuck are you a rat?" I blurt.

The scrawny rat hops around in frustration on the ground in frustration. "I don't know! What the hell! I wanted to be Irene!"

"Maybe there were six of us but we only picked five characters," Kitty guesses.

"Oh, then it must be my fault that you are a rat then. Sorry, Seth." Lorraine says, but she does not sound apologetic at all.

"This is so unfair!" Seth's voice surprisingly does not change even though he is a rat. It is still as annoying as ever. "Why am I not a cool character? There isn't even a rat in the book!"

I scoop the little guy up into my palms and place him on my shoulders. "Now, now, you turned into a rat, I turned into a scrawny man, we all have bad days."

"Being a man is not as bad as being a rat!"

"I beg to differ."

"Dude, what the f—"

Seth's lament is cut short by a loud ring. A giant holographic sign, 'Quest Start!', appears in front of us before dissipating into thin air.

Quest start? What quest? We have a quest? And it's starting?

Three large ants burst out from the cave next to us. And by large, I mean large. Huge. Giant. Three times my size. My original body's size, not the size of this weak ass body I'm in right now.

Everyone screams in terror, but Seth, being right next to my ear, is yelling my head off.

"Oh my god, what is that?" Seth exclaims, his sharp nails digging into the shoulder strap of my backpack.

"Shut up, Seth!" I snap. Then, a memory floods into me. "Oh, this is the book's first quest. Giant ants! They're big but super easy to kill. We're supposed to kill them, go in, and then kill the queen ant or something."

"Uh, we kinda need to kill these ants now!" Lorraine says. "What are my abilities? What can I do?"

Before I can explain to Lorraine about Millie's abilities, one of the giant ants jumps toward 'Lyn', or Gabby. Gabby yells and lifts her hands to cover herself—only to let out a large flash of lightning from her hands. The ant disintegrates into dust, leaving only a trace of smoke behind.

There is a moment of silence before everyone whoops in delight.

"Yo Gabby, that was awesome!"

"Look at that! The Lightning Mage!"

"So dang cool!"

The celebration is cut short when the other two ants begin running toward us. Ayah jumps forward bravely and, with a punch, shoots out a large blaze of flame from her fist. Both ants are burnt to crisps. They actually smell really good, like the slightly burnt batter of fried chicken.

The girl is met with another round of cheers.

"Yo Ayah, look at you!"

"Burn! Chaos! Yay!"

"I wish I could burn people up too!"

Gabby and Ayah are grinning from ear to ear.

"I don't know how I did that," Gabby admits. "It was almost automatic."

"Same! Actually, I think we all have an automatic skill. It's listed on the skills page for me." Ayah swipes at the air as if reading and scrolling through something in front of her that we cannot see. "It's listed as 'Basic Fire Bolt' for me. And I see that I have a few other abilities that I have to unlock."