Dragon Helm

“Lo here be a young wandering soul in search of mystery and intrigue! Over yonder lies thy destined advent of the unknown, the dark and reserved as well as the beautiful, natural benevolence of the winding trails thou shalt stalk. Enter, brave soul, and behold, the wide open plane of Dragon Helm! Now with a new expansion, Dragon Helm: Fall of Empires! Order the Warrior Set Collector’s Edition today, and get a Dragon Helm replica for only 99.99 Bits!”

The commercial still rang in Diamond Sword’s head as he was trying to get use to the controls. In the vast world of the Dragon Helm Fantasy MMORPG, the white unicorn, who was a Royal Guard in real life, played a Knight of the Crown class. Just like in real life, he wore armor, and carried a very large sword. However, in the game, his sword was known as an Ogre Slayer. It was six feet tall and twelve inches wide.

Dragon Helm was set in the world of Starling, a large and treacherous realm made of pixels and high-end graphics by several different game developers. The game had already been out for two years, thus the first expansion was released, bringing about a whole new generation of crowds. Grem found it at the store, and decided maybe it was time she tried her hand at this end of the nerd community for a while. She brought home the game and showed it to Diamond Sword, and it didn’t take much convincing to get him to play. He loved fantasy novels, and while his gaming history was not extensive, he figured he would give it a try.

As soon as he hit the first character creation screen, he was put in the atmosphere of Ogres and Obelisks. The thoughts of his favorite fantasy writers, Red Quill, Embellish, and Lance Scroll started to flood back to him. Selecting his class was a long, and dreadfully hard process. The options of being an armored warrior or a wand-wielding castor was almost unfair, as he loved both.

In the end, the knight seemed like the best to start off with. Already, he was given a quick backstory that he didn’t pay attention to. He clicked through it and got to the starting point of the whole game. Since he was a knight, he started in a great kingdom called Alistair.

However, to his dismay, he started with a rusted short sword and leather armor. Evidently, the class started out closer to the lines of a squire. There were a few moments of learning how to use his abilities, his weapon, and how to set the controls the way he liked to use them. He killed wild boars for a peasants’ feast, he killed a giant bear that threatened the people, and he helped an old man by finding books from various libraries in the kingdom.

Before he knew it, hours had past by, and he was already up to level nine. That was when he decided to leave the kingdom, and start off on his journey to see more of what Starling had to offer. The outlying forest was known as Silverleaf Woods, and it did not take him long to find the local wildlife in the form of very sickly, plague-ridden vulpines.

Now clad in light chainmail armor, and wielding a shining, low-level Ogreslayer. Diamond Sword’s eyes widened as he caught sight of these foxes. They were orange furred, black pawed, and also stricken with some of the worst green wounds he had ever seen all over their bodies. He was in good health, and from what he could tell, they were not a serious threat to him. However, with very little in the ways of gaining health, he knew that he shouldn’t pick needless fights. Still, there were many of them spread throughout the forest around him, and he knew he had to make his way through to continue on his path.

As he looked at this scene, the white, armored unicorn couldn’t help but think of Red Quill’s new book, Plagueland. Even though he was a very recent author, Diamond loved his work. This dark, gray wood was a perfect setting that set off his fantasy fandom.

He stayed in his fantasy fandom for a little too long, though. From the side, he had a mutated fox charge in. His fangs snarled as his black, lifeless eyes gazed at his new prey. He bit onto the chains of Diamond’s armored sleeve. Without hesitation, the knighted unicorn swung straight down with his giant sword, slicing deep into the tainted vulpine. Before the beast could even come at him again, the knight stopped him in his tracks with yet another strike that thudded against his snout. With a very ineffective attack, the fox merely grazed Diamond’s knee. As he did, Diamond brought the huge blade down, stabbing into the fox with a killing blow. The fox disappeared, leaving only plagued fur, and a canine tooth. Diamond collected the items and put them in his pack. He had no idea why the shops in the cities bought these items, but he would make his fortune bit by bit.

Once again, however, there came another fox! Evidently, he was in a highly populated area for these canine creatures. He was struck once again! This time on the shoulder as the fox snapped his maw, inflicting damage on Diamond. There was yet another battle met in that forest. The sun was going down, giving an ominous feel to his area. While the damage from the first fox was nothing to write home about, taking on multiple enemies could always prove troublesome in his predicament. Fresh from his hometown, and in the lower levels without a healer only spelled trouble.

As he parried the stricken creature, he felt yet another pair of fangs clasp on his flank! There was a second! Three attackers in a row, and two at the same time. Now he was beginning to fear for his life. He struck the infected fox at his front, knowing if he could kill him first, he would have a chance to run.

With a fourth fatal blow onto the fox, he laid it down low for good. However, he could feel his life force getting dangerously low. He turned to where he could not see as many enemies and prepared to dash.

He was taken by surprise. This time the creature looked like a fox but was much larger. Its roar was deep, loud and fear-ridden in its wake. The green pestilence covered its body to the point that it was almost unrecognizable as a fox, and its face was twisted. Its left eye was a black void and its right claw was long and gnarled with black corruption.

At this moment, Diamond knew he was finished! That was until the demon infected dire fox cried out in enormous pain! From his underbelly came a slender straight blade that impaled him from the back. Diamond looked around the giant fox to see a black suited warrior. Upon the warrior's head was a plate helm that covered the whole head. The warrior carried two of the same black short swords. With two more strikes, the dire fox turned his attention to the black knight who attacked it.

This gave Diamond the chance to drink of his health potion, returning some of his vitality to him. Though he hoped to save his portion for later, as he only possessed one. He figured that now was a good a time as any to prevent death. It allowed him to spin around, both of his hands on his sword’s hand as he struck the fox behind him with a terrific blow. The fox bounced against the dirt, slain.

Diamond turned back toward the black armored fighter in their battle with the beast. They were evenly matched, though the beast was severely wounded by the initial blow. His attacks were sluggish as his gnarled claw lifted toward the black knight. It did not strike, however. Diamond struck the finishing blow at the fox’s back, his ogreslayer going straight through its back and causing it to burst into black smoke as it disappeared.

The battle was done, and the foxes were vanquished. The two armored ponies stood on the dark forest’s dirt ground as their field of victory. The two gazed toward one another, and Diamond smiled at the dark helmed warrior. It took him a moment to realize that there were two hulking breasts underneath the dark gray chainmail shirt. On the back of the mysterious knight, there were two gray batwings. Diamond chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Grem said as she removed her cylindrical helm with two oval eye holes in the front. It was a dark steel and looked a little over her level.

“Well, first of all, thanks for the save. I really thought I was done for.” He looked at the other foxes that skulked about in the brownish gray neck of the woods. “What is that stuff all over their bodies?”

“Ummmm, I think it’s some kind of a quest about tainted crevices in Starling. I honestly don’t remember where to get the quest from. Are you ready to head to Moldrig? You should be the right level.” Grem asked, starting to walk that way as he followed along.

“I’m the right level, but my items are subpar right his moment. I did the beginner’s armor quest but knights apparently don’t get very good stuff from it. I think we got a bum deal on it. Speaking of which, where did you get that platemail helmet?”

“There was a great cave between here and my starting location. Let's get you some gear before we head to Moldrig. That place is pretty rough if you don't have the stats.”

“This game is a little addicting isn't it? I feel like I've only been playing cor for an hour but it's been loser to three.” He said as they walked side by side. He took the time to admire the contrast between them.

“Yeah, if you're not careful with it, it can be pretty dangerous. Ponies have gone days without eating. Still, it's okay to indulge some in the beginning.” She put her hand on his abs to stop him then turned around toward him. Their lips met in a kiss as she smiled. “And I plan to indulge a bit.” Grem giggled and took his hand as they kept walking. They formed a party with just the two of them as they ventured through the forest.

They were met with different corrupted creatures. With the two fighting together, they were able to kill them with little trouble. It only took them a few minutes to reach the cave she spoke of. It was a large opening at the base of a canyon. The rocks became more and more common as they approached the distant mountains in the east. At the opening, they saw a very large ursa standing on his front and back paws.

“Bears?” Diamond asked as they stood in the distance. Grem hummed confirmation as she donned her plate helm over her head. “You said you could fight them alone, right?”

“Yes, but I had to be careful. They have a tendency to gang up on you, and even two of them can present a problem.” Grem unsheathed both of her swords. “You ready?”

Putting his hand over his shoulder to his back, he unsheathed his gigantic sword from its sheath, pulling it out with ease. “Yup.”

“Alright, wait here. I’ll be right back.” Grem said as he turned toward the bear. It was a good thirty yards from them. It could see them coming if they tried to charge it with a frontal assault.

“Did you need to use the bath--” He turned back to her to see that she was no longer there. He looked around for her and thought for a moment that perhaps she had been disconnected. “Grem?”

He finally spotted her, and she was crouching down and leaning forward. She tiptoed toward the bear, taking more of a long angle as she came in more from the bear’s starboard side. Her body looked rather translucent. If he hadn’t known she was near, he would never have found her. She was ever so silent and careful in her methods of stealth. He was about to say something, but as she came well within the normal attack range of the monstrous bear, he did not attack. He didn’t see her. Diamond blinked a few times as he witnessed this. It was especially puzzled as he saw both of her swords slicing into his back, drawing a roar from him and getting his attention.

The ursa swiped his claw at the bat pony knight, but she ran around him and began to hightail it over back toward Diamond’s position. She led the bear straight into him, and as she was clear, he struck! He landed a good blow onto the side of the bear’s shoulder. Diamond caught a bit of the bear’s snarling maw biting onto the side of his hip, but his armor took the brunt of the attack. The white unicorn twirl the enormous sword in his hand, holding it upside down as he jabbed it down into the bear’s back. The ursa hit the ground hard as he struck the killing blow, and disappeared from sight. The feeling of teaming up with Grem was quite invigorating. He certainly saw the draw to this sort of game. It gave him a sense of accomplishment as well as a break from the routines of everyday life. Yes, such a thing could be very dangerous if not handled well.

“How did you do that?” He asked as he gazed off into the deep mouth of the cave. The initial hallway looked rather empty, but it still did not feel welcoming. “The way you approached him looked strange. You seemed as if you achieved some sort of ghost form.”

“You’re not too far off. Black Knights are something of a hybrid between knights and rogues in this game. They are well off in both armor and damage. In fact there are talks of them being too overpowered. So I may be seeing a lot of changes to my stats as the game goes on. But I’m happy with them right now, so I’ll see how it goes. Come on.” Grem said as she took his arm in hers and the two of them walked into the cave’s opening.

“Looks like you made the right choice in class.” He said to her as they began to walk the long, dark tunnel. Before he could say anything, though, there came some light from Grem. She pulled a lantern out of her inventory and lit the way deeper into the crevice in the hill.

“Don’t sell yourself short, you have way more armor stats than I do. Not to mention there’s a lot of really good white knight quests in later levels.” She began to whisper.

“You seem to know a lot about this game.” He started to turn a skeptical eye toward her. “Seems like you may have wanted this game more than I did. I thought first person shooters were your thing.”

“Uh, no. My thing is your thing.” Grem said and started to giggle a little bit. Before he could question what she said, her hand went down to the crotch of his leather pants. “Before we get too much complicated armor.” She grinned and pulled the helmet from her head, dropping it onto the ground as she pushed him against the cave wall.

“Grem, this is a strange thing to do in--oohh…” His cock popped straight out of his pants as she pulled his pants down far enough. She took the middle ring in her hand and began to stroke him. She grinned as she gave his cock head one good lick.

“You were saying?” Grem said as she started licking the knight’s hardened penis with the flat of her tongue. Grem admitted on a regular basis that she was a little bit of a size queen. However, she struck gold when it came to Diamond Sword. Not only was he handsome, his fur white as milk, and his hair luscious and smooth, but his cock was porno-class in both length and thickness. She struggled to get midway with her mouth when he reached his full hardness.

Grem slobbered all over his shaft, her hand starting to seriously pump up and down it to keep him at full mass. She started licking the side of it, sucking along the edge, even going down to his balls and licking them individually. It didn’t take long for Diamond to get into it. His experience in sex was starting to reach the norm for his age. In fact, much to Grem’s delight, he was starting to take chances and surprise her in various different ways.

Such as now, as she popped his cock from her mouth, he grabbed her shoulders with both hands and pushed her onto her back. Her chainmail shirt gave a small slinking noise. She was about to say something, but as she opened her mouth, his cock went straight in. She made an “ulp” sound as his massive shlong pushed deep into her oral orifice. His knees pressed her shoulders down and his hands held onto the top of her head as his cock went to work and his hips pushed forward. Soon, his mid ring at the center of his shaft was in her mouth. The head of his dick was pressing down on her gullet.

She hummed in delight of him taking control of her. Grem’s hormones were going haywire as she tasted his precum on her tongue. After a long while of caressing his penis with her tongue, Diamond gave her a moment as he slid his cock out. She grinned up toward him as a tiny bit of cum dripped from the side of her maw.

“But good sir knight, we are of two different, warring factions. We should not indulge in such feelings for one another!” Grem said in her meek, maiden voice, despite being clad in armor. This brought a grin to his face. It didn’t take him long to get her on her hands and knees and remove her trousers to reveal a very pink pussy underneath her round butt cheeks.

Having a large cock was one thing, but Grem had to admit that the more experienced he became, the better he was at everything in the bedroom. He knew how fast to slide it into her to make it last while also giving her that wonderful recoil effect that made her blush with sudden pleasure. He was getting much better at pacing himself, knowing when to take her by surprise. One minute he would be sliding in and out of her at a leisurely pace, the next minute he would start pounding her cunny like a piston shaft.

He fucked her like she liked it and he had just the right size tool to do it. With every pump, she started to cringe with intense lust. His cock made long strokes in her sheath. He was merciless. The more she loved it, the harder he mashed his balls against her labia. Her voice echoed through the cave tunnel. He grunted as the tip of his cock prodded her cervix. However, he didn’t pay enough attention and didn’t notice the tension building inside of him.

He released inside of her. Gushes of sperm flooded her tunnel, causing her to break out in goosebumps. Little by little, his pumping slowed down to his original, leisurely pace. Grem gave a small giggle as she looked back at him. She reached back and gently gripped his balls as his seed dripped from her pussy lips.

“Ooohhh, Diamond, don’t ever pull it from me.” Grem moaned as he came to a stop. They stayed there on that dank cold stone ground for a moment, breathing. Against his will, he pulled his long dong out of her, making her give a slight pout. It was hard to describe what such a sensation felt like. Imagine being whole for a short period of time, then feeling a hollow void as the object of your completion is taken away. That hole in her felt abandoned, cold, yet completely satisfied.

“Well, of all the places in Starling we could have gotten down in, a cave was not the first idea that came to mind.” Diamond said as he used a cloth to clean his flesh sword.

“It was for me.” Grem gave a sinister chuckle as she flapped her wings a little bit and started to clean herself. They got dressed quickly, collecting up their weapons and putting them back into their holsters. When they were ready, they started to explore the cave.

The tunnel they travelled had three main outlets, two could be seen one after the other, while the third was the same path they walked. Diamond stood in front of the two openings that led down two extra paths. Grem held up her lantern and tilted her head a little bit.

“Do you remember which part of the cave you ventured into?” Diamond asked her and she kept gazing down both very dark tunnels, then looked down the third path.

“I honestly don’t remember these two paths.” She said as she scratched the back of her head and chuckled. Grem gave him an apologetic look as he eyed her, shaking his head. “Still, it shouldn’t matter too much, there isn’t much here except for ursas. If we keep double teaming them, we’ll find you some awesome armor that should be about your level. Let’s go this--”

She pointed down the right tunnel, but then the left tunnel lit up with a sickening green light that flashed like a strobe and a crash that sounded very similar to a nearby thunderstrike. Both of their eyes widened as they saw the light far down the larger tunnel. Neither of them hesitated to enter the tunnel and follow it as they heard yet another clattering explosion. Both of them winced at the sound and began to walk the tunnel, the clash of metal growing louder as they approached.

As they entered a widespread opening to a larger room in the cave, they saw an armored pegasus taking on a larger bear than the one they had encountered. He was clad in a dark steel chest plate. His sword was broad, but not especially long. The bear had been struck against the wall hard enough to leave a blood splatter against the stone. It was now recovering from that hit as the dark armored knight held up his sword once again. The two of them faced one another down in that dark cave. Both of them wounded and very fatigued from such a raging battle inside that dank cave.

The knight’s shoulders heaved up and down as he gazed at the beast, his breath going hard. The stallion grunted. The bear scratched his claws against the rock bottom, ready to charge at a moment’s notice. However, that was when the knight’s eyes began to glow a sickening green. He wielded his broadsword toward the huge bear, who began to charge the few feet toward the warrior.

Before the bear could take the last few steps in his charge, the knight unleashed a huge bolt of green energy from his hand. The Death Bolt struck the bear square in the chest. The life left the bear’s eyes as it fell and slid straight to the knight’s armored hooves.

The knight looked down upon the fallen beast and watched as it disappeared into the ground, leaving behind a platemail helmet and a bear fur pelt.

“Ummm, excuse me?” Grem said, drawing the mysterious knight’s attention. “We were actually looking for armor drops. How much did you want for the helmet?” She asked this and the knight kept staring at the two of them in the cave opening. At first, it looked like he may come after them. This was a PVP server and other players could attack at any moment. However, he looked from her, back to the helm, and then tossed it to her.

Grem caught the helm and her eyes went wide. No one in their right mind would just give away a piece of armor like this for free. At this level, such a piece of metal was worth quite a bit. At first, she was about to ask what the catch was of the whole thing, but that’s when the dark knight lifted his helmet off of his body.

The smiling red pegasus waved at the two of them, walking toward the cave opening.

“Hey Grem.” Fable said as he stepped to them. “I see you got in on the game pretty fast.”

“Fable!” Grem passed Diamond the helm and her armor clanked with him as she embraced him. They hugged for a moment and she turned to Diamond Sword. “Diamond! You remember Fable right?”

“Yeah, the ice cream clerk guy.” Diamond said and the two stallions shook hands. This made Fable laugh a little.

“Sure, if we need to wear labels. How are you liking Dragon Helm so far?” Fable asked as he pulled his water skin from his side and took a drink.

“It’s a lot of fun. It reminds me a lot of Red Quill’s book that came out recently. I’m a big fantasy reader and this MMO really brings that kind of world to life.”

“Oh yeah, Red Quill, I still haven’t read any of his stories yet, but yeah, I love fantasy novels. This game is pretty badass in those regards. So I guess you guys are doing the quest in this cave?”

“Uh, not really, we were just getting Diamond Sword some armor and weapons of his own level before we moved on.” Grem said as she watched Diamond equip his new helmet. It was stainless steel plate with a visor that only showed off the eyes and part of the upper muzzle. It went very well with the whole persona of the ideal knight. “So wait, Fable, are you seriously a Death Knight?”

“Uh, yeah? Why wouldn’t I be? I was never a huge fan of being a stealth class, though I do love the mechanics of the Black Knight. You know, if we had a paladin, we’d have a full set of the knight classes.” Fable took notice and then searched through his pack for the scrolls he could find. “Now, let me get you that quest here. I can share it with you and then you can help me finish it, if you feel so inclined.”

“Of course! What’s on the quest?” Grem said, and they all three started to walk through the large, wide space of the cave. It wasn’t until just then that she started to notice how quiet that place had been. The hollow echoes they made while they talked didn’t alert any of the ursas in the cave, and that seemed somewhat strange.

“Five ursas, two ursa beasts, one of which I just killed, and an ursa minor.” He grinned at the two of them and their eyes widened.

“Did you just say an ursa minor?” Diamond asked and the red pegasus with the black mane nodded with a sly grin.

“I did, indeed. Don’t worry about it, with the three of us grouping together, this will be a piece of cake!” Fable said and brought them to a wall on the far side of the cave. He put his hand on a bulb-shaped rock near the top of the wall and pulled it downward. It gave way a little bit and the wall in front of them began to slide to the side. It revealed a secret entrance where many ursas dwelled. They were both kinds, and some of them were too close together to solo fight. There was very little light, and the growling in the distance of the cave began to unnerve Grem and Diamond. Fable placed his helm back onto his head and slid his sword from its sheath.

“Define ‘piece of cake’, Fable. This seems like a bit much.” Grem said, even though she put her helmet on her head as well and pulled out both of her swords.

To be fair, Fable wasn’t wrong. The three of them attacked the bear cave head on. The closer they got to the other side of the passage’s far wall, the more they started to see the corruption they had seen earlier with the foxes. The bears they fought had been infected with the black mold growing over their bodies. The three of them sliced through bear after bear, driving them down! It wasn’t long before they started to clear the cave.

Over time, even Grem started to find really good armor that she didn’t have before. Before they knew it, all three of them were fully clad in platemail armor. They looked the part of knights, and all three of them couldn’t help but admire their new duds.

However, that’s when they noticed that they made it to the far wall of the cave. With all of the bears they chopped down, they forgot to keep track of their progress. From the looks of things, the corruption was far worse on this side of the cave. The black tendrils of decay ravaged the cave, giving evidence of a horrific hex upon the land itself.

“What happened to this place?” Grem asked as they entered the smaller passage. The tunnel was so cold, and the air was ever so unsettling. All of them looked down the tunnel. Grem went first and held forth the lantern. However, the dull glow of the light did not reach very far. She could see maybe an inch in front of her face. The light brought only darkness as they walked that gloomy path.

The clank of their new armor echoed through the hallway. Despite their best efforts, it was louder than they were comfortable with. Finally, they made it through, and came to a very large cave opening. The light from the outside showed very little. There must have been a few little peepholes in the outside stone, because they could see a little bit better now.

What they saw gave them all pause. While there was some light in the cave, it was extremely dim and that gave the beast in the middle of the room a deathly aura that none of them liked. The Ursa minor was as large as a house! It was only a few feet from the cave ceiling while it was on all fours. Its fur was glowing blue, but that was overtaken by the cracked skin with the black corruption showing through its flesh. Its eyes glowed, the one under corrupted flesh glowed red while the other was yellow. The side of its lip was missing with its teeth snarled into view.

It was massive, and all three warriors stood before it with their eyes wide open.

“Alright, Fable…” Grem said, drawing his attention as he turned his armored head toward her. “Now you have my attention.”