Avilien

Court Of Bones

Silver rays of light danced from one silver plaque to the next. Cast down from the full moon, they made each gravestone shimmer. A wide path cut through Islington's small cemetery from the gate all the way to the fancy mausoleum at the back, which was said to hold the Founding Father of Islington, Sir Lamont. Trees surrounded the outer reaches of the cemetery, attempting to hide the gothic metal bars that acted like tall walls, and to shroud the graveyard in unique mystery. Open all hours, though not being a place many hung out at night, there was one man who took that night to sit on an old tombstone outside the crumbling stone mausoleum.

Nate loved the silence of graveyards and the eerie feeling it gave people. He hid from the world behind his deep hood, running gloved fingers across a bleached-white skeletal cat similar to Nebs and Amilia. Void of all flesh, muscle, and anything that would make it move, the cat acted as if it did and gave a tiresome yawn as Nate patted its head.

"Is it time yet, Nate? I'm bored," said the skeletal cat, its voice dark and rough.

With the flick of his wrist, Nate unlocked his phone to check the time—the time being ten to seven.

"Guess so. The town will be quiet now and all shops closed. I'm happy that my last mission is in my hometown. I believe there are a few pests here that I can rid myself of and there is the slight possibility I can gain more rank." Nate raised his right hand and then stopped at the sound of snapped branches.

"Not very subtle, Brit. May as well come out. I know it's you—you've followed me for the past hundred miles." Nate peered into the darkness surrounding him towards where he heard the noise, across mounds of upturned earth and past dozens of gravestones.

The furthest reaches of the graveyard were dark enough to shroud a person...and that's what they did, as they'd concealed Brit—until she messed up.

"Four towns deleted so far. What are you after, Nate? Or do you even have an agenda?" A girlish voice brought the gloomy air around the cemetery to life as Brit stepped out from the darkness and onto the tarmac path, bathed in the warm light of a street lamp.

"Killing my boredom. Life should be entertaining and there is nothing more entertaining than raising an army of the damned to wipe out a town. Why not join my guild, Brit? A girl with your talents would be a great addition to us. Although I very much doubt they would allow you to join." Nate scoffed as he put away his phone.

Tenth in command in a guild known as the Court of Bones—inside the game Forest of Winter—Nate was not a person to be messed with. Since learning of his special abilities as a Necromancer and the fate of the world, he had been going from town to town, deleting the entire populace. Several towns now drained of life had left the police and the entire country in a panic. NowTube and other news broadcasting channels had been reporting the issue nonstop, trying to predict the next attack. Nate was clever though and never left a pattern. He attacked at random, or so Brit believed.

Gritting her teeth as a large fiery red sword with jagged teeth appeared in Brit's hand, she didn't dare make a reckless move against Nate. She had just had a confrontation with two other players prior to finding Nate, and her stamina bar hadn't recovered yet. Only sixteen years old, she had been chasing Nate across the country. Like him, and also like Luke, she was a beta class. She was a level-eight Berserker; two levels under Nate, who had managed to gain two levels from deleting the last town. Brit understood why Nate did it—player versus player yielded far greater XP in the real world. Players never show up as XP on the GTs, but it was there. The only way to find out if a person was worth XP was by deleting them, which erases them from the world.

"I'd never join any of you. You deleted my family!" Brit yelled. The streetlight made her ruby-red hair look as fiery as her sword.

Nate chuckled and two giant skeletal sabretooth tigers leaped off the roof of the mausoleum, where they must have been napping. Brit hadn't seen this ability before, but her pink GTs told her that they were level ten and had two thousand health each, even more than she had. Necromancers were typically weak and hid behind risen minions, but Nate was strong in close quarters, too.