Bishop fought to regain focus when Winston charged past him and tackled the second demon—just as the monster was about to hit Bishop. It gave the hunter a chance for his vision to clear. Right away, he attacked, using Rain of Thorns to put bleeds on them both. He attacked with Fiery Arrow and Instant Shot, alternating until he was low on mana and finally attacked with his dagger to finish them off. When the demons hit the floor, his health was below half and Winston sank heavily to one knee.
“The King, where is he?” Bishop asked.
“Up… up the stairs. There is a room with an iron door and an escape route that will take him across the roof… to the southern wall.”
“And you think he can get out that way?” Bishop enquired, drinking a health potion and tossing a hunk of meat to Willy to heal his wounds.
Winston opened his mouth to reply, but the man never got a chance to speak as an explosion rocked the palace.
“That came from upstairs!” Bishop sprinted towards the stairs, dodging falling debris as he raced to find the King. Winston huffed and puffed behind him, his armor clanking as they climbed around fallen stones on the stairs and pushed timbers out of their way. “Godfrey!” Bishop yelled. “Can you hear me?”
“Help!” he shrieked. “Help me!”
“Damn it,” Bishop snapped, using his back to shove a large stone out of his way. It drained his health when it rolled over his foot and he grunted in annoyance. “I am not repeating this quest!”
But when he reached the top of the stairs, he froze, throwing out his arms to stop Willy and Winston from launching off the edge and into nothingness. The entire tower had been blown away. Valenastrious hung suspended in the air, her flames keeping her aloft. Godfrey was caught in the same spherical ball she once held Bishop in. His eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth gaped open on a silent scream as his body twitched.
“Bishop, I warned you and you disappoint me,” she purred in that horrible voice of silk.
“Let him go,” he commanded. “Now.”
“Why should I? Godfrey and I have important matters to discuss and I’m afraid you are not privy to that conversation.”
Winston held his sword over his head and yelled, ready to launch himself at the Demon Queen, but Bishop caught him and they both tumbled to the floor. “I have to aid him!”
“She will murder you, just wait!” he pleaded, not wanting to see Winston killed.
Winston growled and clenched his jaw.
Bishop stepped all the way out to the ledge, slinging his bow over his body so he didn’t drop it. “I will not let you curse him as you did his brother.”
“Oh my dear Bishop, that is why I find you so fascinating. Why on earth would I wish to curse him?” She grinned evilly and spun her hand around. Godfrey mirrored the movement and his body went rigid as if he was in severe agony. “I have much better plans for the false King.”
Bishop itched to do something. However, aside from firing arrows at her, which would be useless, all he could do was watch. His toes hung over the ledge and he stared down into the courtyard outside the palace. Dead bodies were strewn all over, soldiers and demon alike. More soldiers poured out of the barracks to the right of the courtyard, aiming the catapults towards the Demon Queen. They would do no good either.
Valenastrious whispered words he couldn’t hear. She was speaking to Godfrey, telling him something. What she was up to if not killing him, he hadn’t the slightest idea. Interrupting it, however, that sounded like a great plan. His eyes darted around what remained of the landing and the corridor, and he spotted a tapestry that had been hung up with a rope.
“Winston, I have a plan,” he whispered. “That rope, grab it.”
“What for?”
“You ever tried to catch a man out of the air before?” Bishop asked. He worried he was doing something too far out of the game’s capabilities. But when Winston rushed over to grab the rope and handed it to Bishop, a prompt appeared in front of his face.
To use the rope to save the King, distract the Demon Queen so the shield around him falls. Whip the rope out like a lash. Mistime the throw and Godfrey will fall.
“Right, easy enough,” he said. “We need to distract her.”
“How do you propose we do that?”
“Carefully and without falling over the ledge ourselves.” Bishop couldn’t hold the rope and his bow at the same time. “Winston, I need you to throw something at her, a stone, anything. Aim for her face if you can.”
“With pleasure,” Winston said with relish. He sheathed his sword and hefted the largest stone he could pick up into his arms.
Valen’s eyes were closed and her lips were moving with whatever she told the King. Bishop held the rope in his hands, running his fingers over it as he made ready to fish Godfrey out of the air. The shield needed to fall and, the second it did, he had to throw the rope. Damn was he glad he was a hunter with good aim.
“On my count,” he whispered to Winston. “Three, two, one… now!”
Winston grunted as he hurled the stone. Bishop was already swinging the rope around as another prompt appeared in the corner of his eye. With each swing, the meter rose and he realized when it was filled, that was when he would need to let go. The stone hit Valen, but she did not lower the shield.
“Throw another!”
The soldier nodded and hurried to find another rock. This one was smaller, and he yelled as he tossed it. The meter was nearly full when the stone slammed into Valen’s face. She fell backwards through the air with a furious snarl and the shield around Godfrey dissipated. He hung suspended in mid-air for a split second before he started to fall. Bishop released the rope and watched as it glowed bright white and lassoed around the King’s body. He pulled tight, cursing with the sudden weight nearly taking him over the ledge. He fell to his stomach, clinging to the rope with both hands as Winston fell beside him to grab hold of them both. Even Willy bit hard into Bishop’s jerkin and yanked hard, dragging him backwards.
Together, they hoisted Godfrey’s limp and unconscious body up to safety. Bishop rolled to his back, gasping for air, when Winston yelled in warning and a clawed hand closed around his throat. He tugged at the hand, but Valen’s grip only tightened more and she picked him up so that he dangled in her grip, hovering above the stone courtyard.
“You will not win this fight,” she swore, spitting from her rage. “I will tear you apart piece by piece. I will remove your spine and add it to my throne of others who sought to defeat me.”
Bishop’s vision filled with black spots and he kicked out, trying to break free.
“I am going to let you live today, but not without a parting gift. Something to remember me by.” She clawed through his jerkin and his shirt beneath until she found bare skin. He grimaced in pain as her claw dug into his flesh right over his heart, carving an emblem into his body. “A reminder that one day you will come to me and be mine.”
“Never,” he managed to rasp.
“I never said it had to be willingly.” She pressed her palm flat against the wound and the stench of burning skin hit his nose, making his gut roll. “Until we meet again, Bishop. Oh and tell your friend I said hello. Tell him, I miss him.”
“Friend?”
“Yes, Daemyn. It has been too long since he’s graced me with his presence.”
Bishop’s mind raced even as he struggled to remain conscious. Then, she chucked him back onto the ledge and snapped her fingers. A portal of flames appeared behind her and she stepped through it. A crack of lightning split the sky, deafening Bishop, and then she was gone.
“Bishop,” Winston asked worriedly as he helped him sit up, “Can you hear me? Bishop?”
“Yeah, I hear you,” he said through his coughing, holding his throat. “I really hate that demon.”
“You’re bleeding.”
Bishop frowned and glanced at his chest. The emblem was there, bright red and burning. “God, why is it always me?”
“Godfrey is safe because o
f your actions, but he will not awaken for some time,” Winston explained. “Return to the palace in the morning and you will have an audience with him.”
“Thank you, Winston,” he said, and he took the soldier’s hand.
You have completed the quest: Warn the King.
Coins clinked into his bag and his rep with Weston finally made a decent advancement up. Another prompt appeared.
Accepted quest: Humbling the King.
Accepted quest: Lachlan’s Lost Journal.
Bishop frowned at the second one, then remembered he still had the book in his bags since their conversation had been interrupted. He accepted both and let Winston pull him to his feet.
“Go, my friend, see to your wounds and know that I am forever in your debt.”
Bishop wondered how he was going to get out of here when a swirling portal opened a few feet away. “Ready to get out of here, boy?” he asked Willy. The wolf nudged his leg in reply and leapt through the portal first. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He stepped through and felt his body twist and turn before he landed back on the front steps of the palace.
“There you are,” Calista exclaimed. “We were worried you were stuck in a glitch.”
“Why, what’s wrong?” he asked, tugging his jerkin so no one would see the emblem carved into his skin.
“You were gone for way longer than any of us,” Jimmy informed him. “And you look like you’ve been through the wringer.”
“Thanks,” he muttered.
The courtyard was littered with soldiers and physicians tending to the wounded from the attack. The front doors of the palace were broken open, again, and the part of the palace destroyed in the attack was still missing, debris filling the courtyard and grounds.
“That was a fun one,” he said. “How did it go for you guys?”
“Oh you know, catching the King out of the air as a demon tried to rip his throat out, yeah, great fun,” Benji snapped. “I almost dropped the bastard.”
“Yeah it was crazy,” Bishop agreed. “What did the demon look like?”
Calista and Maverick eyed him suspiciously. It’d only been a couple of days, but he really had to stop leaving those two alone together. Not thinking, he lifted his hand to the wound on his chest and winced.
“What’s wrong?” Calista asked, starting at his hand.
Bishop dropped it immediately. “Nothing, I’m fine.”
“You’re a piss poor liar,” she said, and she tapped the side of her nose.
He frowned and his gaze darted around, trying to explain he didn’t want to say anything in front of anyone else. “So we’re all going to see the King in the morning, right? Should we just hang around in Weston the rest of today, relax? I’m not sure when the night will come through.”
“Sure, sounds like a plan. I have some work to do in the shop anyway. Care to join me?”
Bishop spoke quickly with everyone else before he left with Calista, Maverick still giving him the evil eye until they were out of sight. Calista didn’t speak a word until they were safely in her shop and she closed and locked the door so no customers would come in.
“Alright, spill,” she said, rounding on him. “What’s going on with you and this game?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about,” he said, turning away from her. A dagger thudded home in the wall right beside his face and he spun around, eyes wide. “Seriously?”
“You said you would tell me later. This is later, Bishop. Spill.”
“Fine, just don’t try and kill me,” he said. “What do you want to know?”
“How about you start at the beginning?” she suggested, hopping up to sit on the shop’s counter. “I might have only just met you, but something tells me you have quite the story to tell.
Bishop yanked the dagger from the wall and flipped it over in his hand, admiring the craftsmanship of her work. “That I do. I just hope it doesn’t make you run for the hills.”
Chapter 12
Calista tugged aside Bishop’s jerkin and stared at the emblem. “So you’re telling me that instead of facing down a demon like the rest of us, you went against Valenastrious?”
“Yes,” he answered.
“And this is not the first time she’s shown up where she’s not supposed to be to attack you?”
“Yes,” he said, shrugging, “but it’s more than that. She’s trying to get me to join her side. I thought it was part of the half-breed quest line since we can turn full demon, but Dennis said it wasn’t.”
She ran her fingers gently over the wound and then moved higher up to the handprint burned into his skin. “And this is real? This is what happened to you yesterday?”
Again he nodded. When she wanted to know everything, he let her know everything, starting with his first encounter with the Demon Queen, to the attack outside the second dungeon with Tavin and Valenastrious, to every moment since that character had popped up and stepped outside the bounds of what she was supposed to be able to do. He told her about the bruises on his neck that he and Dennis hoped to explain away by his mind getting too engrossed in the game, but the handprint had changed everything. As for this emblem? Bishop didn’t even have to guess if it would still be on his chest when he logged out today.
“But this doesn’t make sense,” she argued. “This is a game, a virtual reality game. You can’t be physically hurt here.”
“Tell that to my bruises and burns,” he grumbled. “We don’t know what’s going on.”
“Then why are you still playing? Bishop, if you can get hurt… can you die if she kills you? Like actually die?” she asked, worried.
“I try not to think about it. Besides, what’s happening with me and this game, it’s never happened before to anyone. It’s reacting specifically to me. Tavin acts out of character as does Bronson.” He paced around her shop, moving his hands with his words. “It’s like the game is trying to tell me something, but I don’t know what. And today… Valenastrious told me something else.”
Calista crossed her arms. “That you’re insane and need to stop playing this game?”
“No, no, she told me to say hello to Daemyn for her.”
“Wait,” Calista said, “isn’t that Dennis Crawford’s character?”
“Yes it is.”
She puffed out her cheeks with a breath and shook her head. “This is insane. I can’t believe it, I won’t. A game like this can’t have this much free power to do what it wants.”
He caught her hand and gave it a squeeze, but whether to comfort her or himself he wasn’t sure. “I thought so, too, but I’ve seen things that can’t be just brushed under the rug. The game is changing, evolving as I move through it.”
“What does your guild know about this?”
He cringed. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone what I just told you, but they do know Valenastrious has come to me a few times. She’s asked me on several occasions to kill them, in game, and join her. It’s not going to happen, but she tends to leave a lasting impression. Damn demon’s given me nightmares lately.”
He shuddered, remembering the last one and how terrible he had felt seeing them all dead at his hand. Running his fingers over his face, he winced as the new wound gave a twinge of pain.
“You have to tell them what’s going on,” she said. “In real life. Show them the proof.”
“And have them freak out more than I know they already do? No thanks, I’m good.”
“If you don’t, then I will,” she insisted. “This might be a game for the rest of us, but Bishop, this could start being about your life. Your real life.”
“And what if the game changes?” he shot back as his true fears came rushing to the forefront of his mind. “What if she goes after them next, or you and someone else winds up actually hurt? No, I don’t want to risk anyone else.”
“So you’ll just risk yourself instead? That’s selfish and you know it.”
He growled and backed away from her. She was right, they should k
now, but all he could see was them being hurt because of him. They were his family, all he had besides a son he would hopefully see sometime in the next few months.
“Is there anything else you haven’t told me?” Calista asked, resting her hand on his shoulder.
“Besides I keep getting quests I’m not supposed to have yet and knowing facts about characters we’re not supposed to know until level forty?” he replied, sarcastically. “Nope, nothing at all.”
She laughed with him. “Maybe you can share the quests and we can start helping you.”
“I actually tried that a while ago, but it won’t let me. Whatever this game is doing to me, it wants me to do it alone,” he said at a loss of what else he could say to convince her to keep this part of his secret.
But the hard look in her eyes informed him she wasn’t backing down. He sighed and hugged her.
“Alright, I’ll talk to everyone tonight, out of the game,” he said, giving in.
She stood on her toes and kissed him. “Thank you and you’ll see, it’ll all be for the best.”
He doubted it, but he wasn’t going to argue when she kissed him again. How this woman turned him inside out baffled him. He was sure they were pushing the boundaries of what they were supposed to do in game when a loud thud sounded on the door and Trajan’s belly laugh reached their ears.
“Oi, I see you two snogging in there! Get a room!”
“Go away!” Bishop yelled over his shoulder.
“I would, but I don’t think Calista would like me for it. I come bringing referrals, quite a few referrals!”
Bishop and Calista broke apart and she squealed with delight. “That’s ten people! Sorry Bishop, but duty calls. Ready to be my assistant?” She reached behind the counter for a leather apron and tossed it at him on her way to open the door.
“Sure, why not,” he mumbled, slipping it on. “At least, nothing can hurt me in here, right?”
***
Harrison waited until Jimmy was inside, the last one to join them, and closed the door to his room. “Thanks for coming to this guild meeting tonight,” he said.
Necromancers, Demons & Kings: A LitRPG Epic (World of Samar Book 2) Page 19