“You hear that?” Maverick asked, stopping suddenly. Her hands tightened around her spear and she crouched low.
Willy whined at Bishop’s side, pawing at the ground. His hackles raised and his whine turned to a vicious growl. Footsteps crunching through the underbrush surrounded them.
“Did we walk into a camp or something?” Arthur asked, drawing his hammer from behind his back. Giles’ fingers went to the string on his bow, mirroring Bishop, while Shamus’ figure disappeared in shadow. “I didn’t see any monsters earlier.”
“Players,” Bishop whispered. “From Willy’s reaction I’d say demon.”
Maverick cursed behind him. “More than last time.”
“You’ve got that right, lovely,” a booming voice echoed around them. “I brought my friends with me this time.”
Bishop aimed his bow as the tree branches around them parted and their group was surrounded by six demon players. Three of them were the Dark Knight class Maverick told him about, and their levels were all eight. He shot a look to Maverick, wondering if they should try to make a run for it. Unfortunately, the rest of their guild was out there. If these demons were hunting for PVP points, the others would be sitting ducks.
Bishop lowered his bow and sent a brief message to the others, revealing their location and telling them to stay away at all cost.
“Ready to die, hero scum?” the Dark Knight growled, wielding a much bigger sword than he had at their last encounter.
“Didn’t your mommy teach you about not being such a sore loser, Pixie?” Bishop asked, purposely maiming the other player’s name. He snarled and took a half-step closer as Maverick and the others smirked. “You’re really going to take it that hard? I mean, to be fair, you nearly killed us.”
“You,” Maverick muttered under her breath. “He nearly killed you.”
“Right, no you’re right. You nearly killed me. And now you’re holding a grudge?”
Pixal, the demon player’s real name, swiped his sword through the air. “Enough. You’re all going to die and we’re going to loot your corpses dry. That’s what I know.”
“Is it so?” Bishop drew back slightly on his bow and, arching a brow, made eye contact with Willy. “You look hungry, boy. How about some demon meat?”
Willy snarled, flashing his teeth. The second Bishop yelled, Willy aimed straight for Pixal. Maverick let out a fierce scream that turned into a beastly roar as she shifted. She slammed her massive front paws into the ground which cracked and split beneath her weight, sending a shockwave through the ground that threw the demons off balance. She barreled through the demons and sent them flying before they could even find their feet again. Giles and Bishop fell back, taking cover where they could.
“Aim for the Demon Hunters first!” he yelled to Giles. If they could take those three first, maybe they would have a chance. It was far from being the best plan, since it had taken two of them, three counting Willy, to take down one earlier. And that was when his level was much lower. But then, that was the only plan that made sense.
Arthur and Maverick traded off agro with the Knights, both taking heavy damage. Shamus snuck around, swiping in with his assassin attacks before disappearing from sight again. Giles and Bishop remained unharmed as they and Shamus took out the three Hunters then turned their attention on the Knights.
Bishop’s fingers itched to use Assassin’s Tear, but it was too risky with his guild mates so close to the action. Plus, if it didn’t work the way he hoped, his mana would be nearly gone and he would have nothing left to fight with. The fight was not going well and Arthur yelled as he was thrown over their heads, back into the brush of the forest.
“Shit!” Shamus hollered, one of the Knights grabbing hold of him and running him through with his sword.
Not thinking, Bishop charged forward, Willy beside him. He assaulted the player with Instant Shot until he was forced away, but it was too late. Shamus’ life drained and he collapsed. A blue orb hovered over his body and Bishop’s anger grew when he heard the pained roar of Maverick behind him.
“Willy!” he yelled, sending his companion to Maverick’s aid. “Go!”
The wolf hesitated. But soon he howled and several more wolves appeared, assailing Pixal alongside Maverick. Even with so many adversaries, the Knight was able to charge up one of the attacks Maverick warned him about. He swung his sword wide, writhed in green flame, and all of them were thrown backwards.
“Coming for you, hunter!” the other Knight growled as he charged down Giles.
Bishop fired Stealth Shot followed quickly by Fiery Arrow into the one who stabbed Shamus, trying to hold him off. Arthur barreled back from the trees, half his health gone. He dove in front of Giles at the last second, taking the blow that would’ve easily finished off the squishy hunter. Arthur and Giles attacked, fighting to interrupt the Knight’s attacks, but they were losing ground quickly.
Pixal joined the other Knight, and they both stared down Bishop as Willy and Maverick struggled to find their feet. Maverick’s life was nearly gone and Willy whined as his life drained away too.
Bishop feigned to the right and unleashed on Pixal. First, Increased Swift Bow. Then, Stealth Shot. But a solid blow landed on his shoulder, damaging his gear, and his life dropped by a third. Sadly, Stealth Shot did not seem to hold as much sway over the Dark Knight class. This fight was over before it even began, and all his doubts at being able to lead a guild successfully shattered. They weren’t going to make it. Giles and Arthur were barely hanging on and he didn’t hear Maverick’s beast growling any more.
“Revenge is sweet,” Pixal grunted, hefting his sword high over his head.
“You’ll just have to wait a bit longer.”
Pixal whipped around as a fist landed hard in his face, followed by another and another.
“Bishop, move!” Sorgon yelled as he pummeled Pixal back into the trees.
Maverick roared from behind the other Knight and smashed him into the ground. Bishop’s body was enveloped in a bright green light and his health shot all the way back up as did Willy’s and the others. He didn’t have to turn around to know Jimmy and Benji were right behind. Shamus was resurrected and charging back into the fray.
“Interrupt!” Bishop yelled. “Giles! Hit them when they falter!”
They targeted one Knight at a time until he succumbed to the damage and collapsed. Pixal grappled with all the tanks at once while the healers and DPS beat back the other Knight. Pixal managed to land a solid hit against Bishop. Thankfully, Jimmy’s heal was right there to keep him standing. Maverick was taking heavy damage though, and the heals wouldn’t be enough to keep her alive for much longer. Working like a well-oiled machine, they focused every single attack on Pixal. The demon player was fading fast and he would soon bite the dust. His health had dropped to a fourth when he did something no one had anticipated. Instead of protecting himself and trying to find a way out, he suddenly bent down.
Bishop saw the special attack building over his name. Yet, Pixal didn’t attack those around him. He burst through them all and aimed straight for Bishop, digging his shoulder down and low. Bishop was thrown backwards, his bow snapping in his hands, and he gasped when his back slammed into a boulder, whacking his head hard.
His health clung on by a thread. He had to move out of the way. He had to move, and fast!
He tried to spring to the side, but Pixal had read his intentions. The villain stopped him dead in his tracks and drove his sword through him.
Bishop grabbed at his chest, the most excruciating burn irradiating from his open wound. Pixal twisted the blade and the pain increased tenfold as the rest of the players descended on Pixal to finish him off.
The others were on Pixal a second later, but it was too late for Bishop already. When Bishop’s body finally sank to the ground, it felt to him as if his soul had been ripped from his virtual body. His entire being screamed in agony as his eyes closed and he realized how bitter death tasted.
When he op
ened his eyes again, he stood in a blackened room with the images of the fight playing out on a sort of wall before him.
“Damn,” he grumbled, short of breath, striving to regain his composure and not let the intense pain drive him crazy. He didn’t remember reading about death hurting this bad, but now he had learned his lesson and he sure as hell didn’t want it happening to him ever again.
As the horrid sensation slowly subsided, he planted his hands on his hips and watched the others finish off Pixal. When the fight was finally over, Jimmy prepared a res and bent over Bishop’s body.
“Don’t worry, Bishop,” he said. “I got ya.”
Bishop’s gut twisted and he was drawn back into his body.
When his eyes opened, he stared up into the grinning face of Jimmy. “That sucked. That sucked real bad.”
“Why did he do that anyway?” Giles asked, slinging his bow over his body.
“Yeah, he could’ve used that to go after the healers, but he went for you,” Maverick added after she shifted back. “Guess he was really pissed about us kicking his ass last time.”
“And that means he’s just going to come after me again and with more players.”
Bishop glanced around at his guild. Their health bars were quickly going back up. He looked for Willy and found the wolf limping to his side. He quickly fed and mended his companion, scratching him behind the ears.
“Sorry about that, guys,” he muttered, not meeting their eyes. Deep inside, he was mad at himself for letting Pixal get the last laugh.
“For what? This is PVP, remember? They’re supposed to come after us.”
“Yeah, but still. We all need repairs now and Shamus was killed, too.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Jimmy said. “Don’t worry about it. Why don’t we all head back to Weston and check out the house? That’ll cheer you up.”
Bishop’s scowl slowly eased off. “You mean it’ll cheer you up. And I thought I told you three to stay away.”
“And if we had, more of you would’ve been dead,” Benji said. “Admit it, you need us healers.”
Maverick barked a laugh. “Sometimes. We need you sometimes.” She glanced back at Pixal’s body, then to Bishop. “You think he’s just going to keep coming after you?”
“Dunno. Maybe he got it out of his system, but we can’t worry about him.”
Bishop and the others looted the bodies of the dead players, walking away with a fair amount of coin. Once they returned to the city, Willy staying behind in the forest as before, they reached the crafting hall and set about making repairs to their gear.
Bishop was in need of a new bow, again, but decided to wait until after lunch to either make one or see what was on the Auction House. The guild was anxious to visit the new house as was he. So, following him up to level six, he walked them up the stone path to the front door.
“Ladies and Gents, may I present to you our new home.”
He stepped inside and the rest followed. They oohed and aahed at the living room with the hearth and a fire already burning in it. The room was spacious and led into a cooking area. A door led off this room to another with workbenches and three trunks for storage. The fourth was back in the main living area. Bishop grinned when Jimmy took off excitedly upstairs to look at the rest of the house.
“This place is huge!” he called back down. “And there’s a balcony! And a damn roof level!”
“Glad you all like it,” he said, and they nodded in agreement, already unloading their items in the trunks, organizing by materials and gear that other people in the guild might be able to use. “Guess we’ll have to start getting furnishings for it. Although,” he said and pulled out the orc head from his bags. “I have our very first piece of art.” He pulled up the menu for decorations. The head disappeared from his hand and reappeared over the mantel. “Perfect.”
Maverick rolled her eyes, but the others nodded in approval.
“Let us worry about the rest of the furniture,” Arthur told him. “You bought the house out of your own damn coin, man. The guild bank went up not down since I checked it last.”
Bishop shrugged. “I had the most money, made sense.”
Arthur grumbled something Bishop didn’t hear and wandered off to help the others set up the trunk space. Maverick stared out the front window and Bishop walked over to join her.
“You look horribly tense for someone who should be celebrating,” he said.
Her body stiffened even more as she gripped the windowsill. “Just wondering if that asshole is going to keep coming after you.’
“It’s PVP; they’re the demons and we’re the heroes. It’s how it works.”
“No, not like this. He’s targeted you twice now.”
“Not targeting when it’s part of the game,” Bishop said, hoping she would stop rubbing salt in the wound.
“I know I’ve played these games less than you have, but I know when someone’s purposely tracking down another player,” she argued in a whisper. “Pretty sure he would’ve camped your body if we hadn’t been there to finish him off and left so fast. And if they are coming after you, they might start targeting the guild.”
She was right. However, Bishop wasn’t about to reveal the men working for the loan shark he owed money to somehow got into this game and hunted him down to ruin his stats.
“We’ll keep an eye out for them, but I don’t want the others to think I’m walking around with a target on my back. Might throw us off our game and we have the dungeon coming up. That’s more important than anything else.”
“If you say so. I think you should report him.”
“If he comes after us again like that, I’ll consider it, but not until.”
A prompt appeared in front of his face and he heard Jimmy call out excitedly. “Lunch time! Good thing too, I’m starving.”
“You’re always hungry,” Maverick yelled back to him.
Bishop logged out with the rest of them, happy to get out of the game for a while. Pixal killing him shook him more than he let the others see. It was not just the pain he had experienced. It seemed as if a small part of him had died when his health bar had hit zero.
***
The remainder of Friday passed without any more run-ins with Pixal or any other demon players, and they ended the day on a high note. Nearly all of the guild members were level ten and they all picked their specs. Jimmy and Benji both chose the exorcist path and, after facing down the demon players for a second time, Bishop was glad they did. Their abilities were mostly geared towards destroying those of demon persuasion. Their powers fed off the demons, which was sweet but also dangerous. Just like half-breeds, those of the exorcist spec had a chance of turning to the demon side of the game. Not that he could see either healer going that direction. Bishop crafted a new bow for himself and one for Giles as soon as he dinged his level ten. Bishop went into the weekend knowing they would be ready for the dungeon.
Since the weekend was spent off the computers, he and his new guild spent as much time as they could outside in the sunshine, strategizing about what their plan would be the second they pushed through those doors.
“Speaking of those doors,” Jimmy said on Sunday afternoon, holding up a finger, “how do we get to the doors when they’re in the middle of a damn demon outpost?”
“Been wondering about that, too,” Alana admitted.
“Guess they just won’t be nice and let us waltz on in.”
Alana ruffled Jimmy’s hair at his suggestion. “Think not, pretty boy.”
Jimmy mouthed those same words to Harrison who smirked. Those two were definitely turning into a thing. Harrison only hoped if it ended badly they wouldn’t take it out on each other in the game. He stared around the grounds at the other players out enjoying the late afternoon sunshine, playing basketball or reading, and wondered if anyone else even knew where the first dungeon was located yet.
“Distraction maybe,” he suggested. “Have a few of our tanks draw their gaze while the r
est of us dart inside and then draw in the tanks.” He frowned at the shitty idea and then nearly smacked himself in the head. “Damn it!”
“What? What’s wrong?” Jimmy asked, glancing around wildly as if ready for an attack.
“The horn! I forgot I was given a horn by my main story quest giver, the person I have to rescue.”
Their frowns and confused looks told Harrison he was apparently the only one to receive such an item. “What does it do?” Maverick asked.
“Summons everyone to my side at the beginning of the dungeon.”
Alana smacked him upside the head this time. “Idiot. So only you have to get inside and then you can summon the rest of us there? Easy enough.”
“Oh yeah, sure, easy.” Harrison remembered how many demon NPCs wandered around that camp and hung his head. “That’s a lot to dodge to get to those doors.”
“You can make it. I have faith in you.”
The others raised their hands in salute and Harrison’s cheeks warmed. “Right, well, the real test will come once we’re through those doors. Is there anyone here that has never done a run like this before, ever?”
Two of their newer recruits raised their hands, a guy and a girl, along with Giles. “Sorry,” the hunter added. “This is my first time actually being in a guild, too.”
“No, it’s better that I know now so we can explain how this might run,” Harrison said.
“Might? What do you mean, might?”
Harrison grinned at the two newer recruits. “No one’s ever done a dungeon in this game. There could be multiple stages, we could walk straight into the boss room, not to mention the amount of trash we’ll have to clear and how hard it’s actually going to be to kill the boss. It’s not like you’re just running in and attacking.”
Giles hung his head as the others laughed lightly. “Great, we’re all going to die.”
“Nah, unless the healers mess up then, yeah, we’ll probably die,” Alana added with a pointed stare to Jimmy. He threw his arms up as everyone else laughed harder.
The Wraith of Valenastrious: A LitRPG Epic (World of Samar Book 1) Page 12