Or worse yet, if he truly did have everything under control.
***
After dinner, Jimmy and Alana wandered out into the cacti gardens to enjoy some time away from everyone else and stare up a the stars. Alana never warmed up to guys like this, but Jimmy was so different. She enjoyed their time together in and out of the game. He was different, a good different. Not afraid to be a little crazy at times, or goofy. He made her laugh and that was something she worried she’d forgotten how to do.
“You look quite pensive tonight,” Jimmy observed. “What are you thinking about?”
“Just wondering after this testing is over, what’ll we do?”
“I dunno. What did you have in mind?”
She leaned in his arm and grinned. “I think I want to find a way to be closer to you.”
He hugged her as they walked, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “Same. Though I’m warning you, out in the real world, I’m not much of anything.”
“You are to me.”
She wanted to say more, but a door opened at the other end of the gardens and they paused.
“Is that Dennis?” Jimmy whispered.
Alana nodded, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up despite the warmth of the night. She wished she could shift as she did in the game, but sadly this was the real world. “Where is he going? I’ve never been to that building.”
“No one told us what it is,” he replied.
Dennis walked quickly, his shoulders hunched and head down as if he didn’t want to be seen. He clearly didn’t notice Alana and Jimmy as he pulled out a card and pressed his palm to a reader, swiping the card at the same time. The door opened and bright lights filtered out before he rushed inside and the door shut behind him.
“Well, that was weird,” Jimmy pointed out.
“Little bit,” she agreed. “Just as weird as those marks on Harrison’s neck.”
“I’m worried about him. What’s going on in that game, for it to act like that towards him, you think he’s in trouble? Like real trouble?”
She shrugged. “We’ll keep an eye on him, just in case. I’d hate to lose one of my new friends.”
“Same.” He yawned widely and she laughed, poking him in the stomach.
“Bed time. My little healer needs his rest.”
“Nope, not going to be the healer much longer. I’m going to be a badass DPS dealer soon enough.”
“Either way, I’ll keep you safe.”
He kissed her on the lips and she smiled. “Ditto.”
They walked back inside together, but Alana’s mind wandered back to Dennis and his odd behavior, and those prints on Harrison’s skin. Something was going on with this game and she couldn’t shake the feeling that things were about to get very, very strange.
***
Bishop stood outside of Hillside as he called Willy to him and waited for the rest of his guild and the LongBeards. They picked up all the quests within Hillside and were making ready to head out into the surrounding farmlands and forests to collect wild boar meat, bear hides, and take down a few bands of ruffians terrorizing the countryside.
Willy ran out of a nearby field, carrying with him a freshly caught rabbit from the sight of it.
“Breakfast?” Bishop asked, laughing, as Willy dropped it at his feet.
Willy sat down and scratched his ear, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. Bishop’s mind wandered back to his son in real life and how much he would love to see Willy the wolf.
“Ready to go?” Jimmy asked, as he strolled up with Maverick and the rest of their guild in tow. “Trajan and the others are on their way. Gearing up with some new items.”
“Makes me think,” Bishop said, and he pulled up his bags. “I almost forgot.”
He located the Dagger and Bow he received yesterday from Tavin, and equipped them both. The Dagger slipped into the sheath at his waist, but it was the bow he couldn’t wait to check out. He held it in his hands and grinned at the smooth dark wood. Symbols were carved into it, runes for power and increased accuracy. They glowed briefly as he ran his fingers over them.
“Nice, bow,” Giles said. “How did you land that?”
“Didn’t you get one from the quest with Tavin?” Bishop asked.
“Nah, I landed the Dagger and a pretty bad ass trinket.”
Trajan and the others arrived a few minutes later, ready to head out. They combined into one major group again and moved east of Hillside. Willy ran around their group, catching rodents, and chasing out birds from the brush. The fields were lined with blackheart thorn and fairy blossom to collect. There was an abundant amount of cursed oak the farther along the road they went. A few hearty veins of copper and iron, as well as some silver, filled the rocks and cliffs they walked along. The morning was starting out well enough, and Bishop did his best to keep all negative thoughts to the back of his mind so as not to jinx them.
***
“Did I ever tell you how much I hate mines?” Jimmy whispered.
Bishop smacked him in the arm. “Are you trying to bring them to us? Just keep quiet.”
“We lost half the group in these damn tunnels.”
“We’ll find them, but we have to be alive to do that,” Bishop pointed out. His bow was hard to maneuver in the tight winding tunnels of this mine, so he gripped his dagger in his right hand and used a good old fashioned fist to go with it.
The quest had been to investigate the mines to the northeast of Hillside, mines that the locals claimed were cursed. The mine represented the main source of ore for the monastery and the weapon smiths there. They hadn’t been able to get their workers down there for some time.
Now, Bishop and the others knew why. The mines weren’t cursed; they were simply overrun by damn imps and gremlins.
“Aww man,” Jimmy moaned. “Those little bastards put holes in my robes!”
“Jimmy, if you draw them over here, you’re fighting them on your own,” Bishop warned.
High-pitched shrieks bounced off the tunnel, joined by the rushing steps of a group of gremlins. Bishop groaned and ducked down lower behind the stack of barrels, pulling Jimmy down with him. They remained perfectly still as the horde of furry little creatures ran right past them. Bishop was about to sigh in relief when someone screamed farther down the tunnel.
“Damn it! Let’s move!” he yelled, and he leapt out from behind the barrels.
“I hate mines!” Jimmy said again, and he took off with Bishop to go save whoever the gremlins just ran into.
There were too many of them to discern who they were attacking. Bishop gave a war cry as he charged into the little beasts, tackling them to the ground as they turned on him. The player they saved, Aiden—one of the healers from the LongBeards—cursed as she kicked a gremlin off her body and slammed her staff into the ground. A shock radiated out from it, stunning the gremlins. Jimmy and Bishop beat them back, killing them eventually, but taking several poison bites that stacked damage.
“Thanks,” Aiden said, bent over to catch her breath.
“Did you see any of the others?” Jimmy asked.
“Not for a while,” the elf told them. “I was with Sorgon, Orion, and Mack, then the gremlins poured out of this hole in the wall and I tried to keep up the healing. But more kept coming. Orion told me to book it, so I did, but they chased me down.”
More panicked yells echoed through the mine and Bishop tried to pinpoint them. A growl followed not too far behind and Jimmy bolted down the left hand tunnel, yelling for Maverick at the top of his lungs. For a quest that started out easy, it turned into a massive pain in the rear. Bishop’s gear was damaged and those poison bites took forever to get rid of. He wanted to find everyone and get the hell out of the mine before someone wound up dying.
When he rounded the corner with Aiden at his side, he skidded to a stop, throwing his arm out to stop the elf from going over the ledge. The path turned sharply to the right, leading down into a huge shaft.
“We m
ust be at the center of the mine,” Aiden said, pulling up the map.
“And I think we just found our main source of monsters.” He pointed down to where the rest of the two guilds managed to gather. A portal sat in the center of the floor. Imps and gremlins poured out of it in droves. “We have to shut down the portal.”
“I think they’ve been trying, look!”
Half of the party down in the pit was below half health. Shamus and one of the other players, Derrick, from the Longbeards were at the portal, but every time they tried to shut it off, more beasties spurted out instead of closing. If they didn’t get out of there soon, they were going to die. The healers below ran low on mana and the poison bites on Aiden made it impossible for her to get any heals off.
“There’s three hunters. We’ll just have to transport everyone out of here,” Bishop told her.
“But the quest? It doesn’t say we completed it!”
“I’m pretty sure this is a glitch. It has to be,” he muttered, watching as even more gremlins and imps ran out of the swirling green portal. He sprinted down the path, waving his hand over his head to get the attention of the others. “Trajan! We have to get out of here!”
“You think?” the dwarf fired back, as he swung his axe wide, taking out a line of gremlins. “We’ve been trying, but they keep dragging us back!”
“Giles, Zoe!” he called out to the other two hunters. “Transport! We have to get everyone out!”
Giles’ head appeared above a swath of imps. “What?”
“Transport! It’s a glitch! The portal won’t close,” he called back. “Zoe!”
“I heard you,” she growled, cursing as she spun around to try and get more gremlins off her back.
“Gather around the hunters!” Trajan ordered. “Do it, quick! More are coming out!”
He barely yelled it when the portal exploded and the room was filled with mobs, snarling and biting. The players’ health bars went down drastically and Bishop struggled to get his ability going from so many interruptions. He worried for a minute they wouldn’t be able to use it since they were still in combat, but thankfully Dennis had not designed it that way.
“Keep them off us! We can’t get the spell off!” Giles yelled.
The others formed protective circles around the three hunters, and Bishop whispered under his breath, watching the ability cast. “Come on, come on, come on, work damn it!”
The cast bar finally made it to completion, and the group was thrown out of the mines to land just outside Hillside in the midst of several other players. They lay there in the dirt for a full minute, staring at each other, then they burst out laughing. Those around them offered helping hands to drag them back to their feet, asking what they were up to.
“The mines,” Jimmy groaned. “Stay away from the damn mines.”
“But we have quests there,” an elf said, confused.
“It’s got a glitch,” Bishop explained. “If you go there, you won’t be able to get out too easily.” He brought up his gear and frowned. “Damn. Everything is damaged. Repairs everyone?”
Jimmy held up his robes littered with holes. “I hate gremlins.”
“Gremlins?” the same elf player asked.
“Yeah, lots and lots of gremlins.” Jimmy sulked as he moved towards the town entrance.
Bishop whistled for Willy. He had elected to leave the wolf outside the mines since his companion hadn’t seemed too keen on going in. Willy appeared, but he was definitely not happy. The second he bounded beside Bishop, he growled, his hackles raised as he turned his nose to the right side of the gate, following the wall around to the western edge of the town.
“Willy?”
“What’s up with him?” Trajan asked.
“I’m not sure, but I think I’m going to check it out,” Bishop replied, gripping his bow as his gut fluttered. “Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s any good.”
“Want me to grab the others?”
“Not yet,” he murmured, and he nodded for Willy to go on ahead.
The wolf put his nose to the ground and ran off around the outside wall. Bishop and Trajan stayed on his heels as he slunk in the tall grass. The road fell away behind them and shadows overtook their path as Willy picked up his pace. Bishop wondered if Willy wasn’t simply hunting some wild beast when he heard voices ahead of them. He crouched low and held up his hand as he and Trajan fell into a crouch. Willy hunkered down lower, too, but kept creeping forward. Bishop reached out to grab hold of his scruff. The wolf ignored him.
“Do we keep following?” Trajan whispered.
Bishop breathed out through his nose. He had no idea what they were walking into; still, Willy had yet to steer him straight into a dangerous situation he couldn’t get out of. “Might as well. What have we got to lose?”
Trajan nodded and gripped his axe tighter. He sidled ahead of Bishop, just in case, and Bishop crouch-walked towards the voices. They didn’t sound like NPCs, too mainstream to be programed language. Willy finally came to a stop ahead. Bishop and Trajan each slipped to a different side, peering through the foliage. The air felt electrified here and the hairs on Bishop’s arm stood on end. A loud crack hurt his ears and he winced, watching as a bright white light shot over the wall, rippling out of view.
“You’re doing it wrong,” one of the voices snapped. “Give it here.”
“Just get it right. We’re probably the last ones to finish up and, if we screw this attack up, I’m blaming you,” the second voice said. There was more rustling that followed his words and Willy growled, the rumbling low in his chest. “I think someone’s watching us.”
“What? Who?”
“Might be guards from the city. Stay here and keep working on it. We have to get the wards down so we can start the attack.”
Bishop scooted backwards, his fingers tugging at his bow string while Trajan hefted his axe over his right shoulder, making ready to swing. Willy snarled, his lips lifting to bare his teeth as the Demon player crept closer.
They were trying to break down the wards for an attack, but an attack from whom? One of the Demon Lords, or Valenastrious herself? Bishop remembered the assault on High Ridge. After their fight with the gremlins, none of them were in any condition for a fight like that again.
The Demon player was a few feet away. Bishop pulled back the string and struck with Stunning Blow. The other player’s blade fell from his hand and he sucked in a breath, unable to move. Trajan grabbed him around the legs and brought him down.
“Sorry, mate,” he muttered, then he powered up one of his attacks to smite the Demon player.
“Brutus? Hey, what did you find?” the other one called out. “Brutus? Shit, man, this isn’t funny!”
Bishop pulled back for Stunning Blow again, waiting until Trajan gave him the signal.
“Brutus? I don’t think I can make it work, so let’s go and get back with the others. Maybe they can do it for us!”
Bishop stood from the brush and fired. The arrow struck the Demon Hunter player. Thankfully, none of these adversaries had been a Demon Knight, or Bishop and Trajan would not have been able to attack them this easily and win. Trajan charged forward and tackled the player to the ground. He didn’t kill him, though. Not yet.
Willy and Bishop joined him, circling the player as his eyes widened and his lips quivered. Bishop walked to the part of the wall this player had stood at, running his hands over it, but felt nothing now.
“Bishop, the stun’s worn off,” Trajan called out.
He sat the player up and held him at axe pointed. “Alright, just don’t kill me. I’ve already died twice this week.”
“I’ll think about it,” Trajan said. “Now, what were you two up to back here?”
“Quest to carry out an attack on Hillside.”
“For who exactly?” Bishop asked.
The player chewed his lips until Trajan pressed his axe, charged with his attack, against his bare neck. “The Demon Lord Helenex. She said the heroes are gettin
g too close to her,” he spat out. “We’re breaking wards to make ready for the attack.”
“How many have you broken so far?” Trajan asked.
“I don’t know,” he said, but his eyes darted to the side as if checking the status on his quest. “A few, maybe more, maybe less.”
Trajan sighed and set the staff end of his axe down in the dirt. “Well? What do you think?”
Bishop’s fingers played with the string on his bow, thinking of their next move, when the player drew an item from his pocket and threw it at the wall. “No!” Bishop went after the item as Trajan finished off the player with a few quick blows. The small item, looking like a potion bottle, exploded on the ward. The blast threw Bishop backwards into the trees, and the rippling white light shot across the wall.
“Bishop!” Trajan yelled, rushing to his side as Willy licked his face.
His health took a hit and his gear was damaged even more than before. “Damn, we need to get inside, warn everyone.”
“How much time do you reckon we have?”
Thunder rumbled overhead as dark clouds circled over Hillside. Dark shapes appeared against the flashes of lightning, flying shapes that gave Bishop a bad feeling. “Not long,” he said.
Willy, Bishop, and Trajan raced back to the town gate. Townspeople gathered in the streets, pointing up at the sky as the thunder intensified and the lightning struck near the wall, hitting the ground. Screams rang out and Bishop yelled for everyone to get back inside. They were only NPCs, but the more they lost to an attack, the worse their stats wound up being. Trajan called for the LongBeards as Bishop did the same for his guild.
“What’s going on?” another player asked, rushing up to him.
“An attack, the Demon players. They’re attacking with Helenex,” he gasped out, coming to a sudden stop. “Do you have a guild?”
“Just a few of us,” the dwarf replied.
“Grab them and anyone else you can find. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“But they can’t attack the city, there’s wards in place,” he argued.
Bishop shook his head. “No, they just broke the wards. Hillside is about to be under siege. If you don’t want to be here when it happens, then I suggest you leave.”
Necromancers, Demons & Kings: A LitRPG Epic (World of Samar Book 2) Page 7
