The Armorer stared into Elijah’s eyes, and he expected to be cut down at any second.

  Instead, she bowed her head low to him and gave a click reminiscent of the bats. “We have decided to give you a chance. A chance to prove you are who you say you are and do not serve the Librarian.”

  There it was again. Once more she referenced the library. This was the third time that he’d heard a reference to it; the game obviously wanted him to note it. There was some grand overarching narrative here, one that he would absolutely love to sink his teeth into. Especially considering it came with its own quest chain with the ominous title of ‘The Library at the End’. If only Arturus weren’t threatening him. He just wanted to run cool questlines and explore dungeons with his friends. Instead, he was stuck trying to stop a megalomaniac from accessing a power that could destroy the game and prevent anyone from escaping.

  “Who is the Librarian, what happened here and to the previous King?” he asked, motioning with his hand for her to rise.

  “No, no. We must prepare. We do not have that information for the King. Only the Dragontooth Guardian knows, and he will not tell us.” The Armorer chittered as she rose to her full height, turning away from Elijah and stalking off deeper into the room. “Come, our King, we must make sure you are properly equipped.”

  She moved through the rows of weapon racks, her talons brushing each item and then chirping aggressively at the dust as the item disintegrated. Elijah felt a tug at his shirt and looked down to see Bitter Root glaring up at him.

  “Bird lady crazy. We need go. She make Boss crazy too,” he whispered to Elijah, but the Armorer proved that her large ears were more than just decorative. She turned in a flash and lunged at Bitter Root, stopping when her face was an inch from his, her teeth bared.

  “You dare touch our King, impudent morsel!” she screamed at the goblin, causing him to jump backwards in fright. Elijah reached out and put a hand in front of the Armorer’s face.

  “Enough. Bitter Root is my familiar. He may be impudent, but you are not to lay a finger on him,” he told her, half expecting her to try taking a bite out of his hand. Or the entire hand, as the case might be.

  The Armorer rose to her full height again, her eyes darting between the goblin and Elijah. After several tense moments, she seemed to settle down again. “The weapons of this room show their age. No mortal weapon survived the fall of the Fort. We shall need to go with the second plan. A king deserves a grander weapon than that goblin sticker.” Her eyes drifted down to his knife, a look of disgust twisting her features.

  “Follow.”

  She led Elijah and Bitter Root to a large chamber within the armory. On the floor were several overlapping circles with runes carved along their arcs. Upon closer inspection, Elijah could see that the runes were actually bats carved into various poses.

  It was becoming almost comical. With the bat power set, the batlike woman, the bat-shaped runes, it would not surprise him if the weapon given to him was also bat shaped.

  “Might as well just start calling myself Batman,” he muttered, catching his familiar’s eye.

  “What Boss?” The goblin was squinting his eyes at him, trying to make sense of what Elijah had said.

  “The one played by Heath Ledger, not the goofy version voiced by Mark Hamill.” Bitter Root furrowed his brow at Elijah. He had to remind himself Bitter Root was only a construct and would not understand who any of the real-life people he’d just mentioned were. He was about to explain himself when the goblin shook his head.

  “Bird lady make boss go wacky brain. Poor boss.”

  “She’s not a bird, she—” he cut himself off. There was no point in arguing with the little menace. It would just turn into something more than it really needed to be. And that was even assuming he could convince the familiar of his point. It didn’t matter, and he didn’t have time. They were to the spot the bat woman had been leading them to.

  The Armorer stood in the middle of these overlapping circles and ushered Elijah forward. As he stepped foot within the circles, the runes started to shift and move. They ‘flew’ across the ground at his feet.

  The Armorer glared past Elijah and chirped in annoyance. “All present must be within the central array before we may begin.”

  Elijah looked over his shoulder at Bitter Root, but the goblin was refusing to step foot past the line of the first circle. “Come on, Bitter Root. Get in the circle.”

  The goblin shook his head furiously. “No way, Boss. Crazy bird lady do crazy bird magic if me do. Me no want to be bird.”

  Elijah felt a headache coming on, but this time it wasn’t because of any backlash from his abilities. “Lot of help you are,” Elijah muttered, reaching out and severing the bond with the creature. He didn’t blame Bitter Root for fearing the bats; they’d already torn him apart once, but he didn’t have time right now to break that down.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Immediately after Bitter Root was un-summoned, the circles carved into the floor glowed.

  “You can feel them, can you not? Just as we feel them within you now,” the Armorer chirped. “Summon your bats; show them to me.”

  Elijah hesitated, unsure if she wanted the full swarm or only his scouts. He went with the safer of the two options, not feeling entirely comfortable with his swarm after his realization that they were constantly trying to claw their way into his mana pool.

  He settled on summoning his three scouts, forcing mana into the shadow beneath the sleeve of his shirt. The shadows wrapped his arm before coalescing into the familiar shape of three Dragontooth Bats. They chirped at him happily, bumping each other out of the way trying to get his attention. When the Armorer chirped at them, they startled and dug their talons into his sleeve. Tiny pinpricks of pain erupted all over his arm, but he tried to ignore it.

  The conversation, if it truly was a conversation, that followed completely eluded Elijah. The Armorer chirped and clicked at his scouts while they chirped right back at her. It was an entire back and forth, with his scouts waving their wings about wildly as if gesturing. The one on his left and the center one seemed to get into an argument and chirped at each other angrily before the Armorer sternly corrected them. Elijah didn’t understand the language, but the tone was unmistakable.

  Finally, once the bats had settled down, the Armorer lifted her gaze to meet Elijah’s eyes. “They speak highly of you, the one who would be king. It is no small feat to separate a few from the swarm, and an even greater feat to maintain that separation for the same three bats.”

  The bat in the middle chittered loudly at her, and she gave a grin. A terrifying sight considering the razor-sharp needles of her teeth contained just behind those lips. Elijah suppressed a shudder considering the danger if the game’s AI had chosen this creature to kiss him instead of the dryad.

  “They wish you would feed them more snacks though,” she said casually, like it was the most normal thing in the world to be conversing with bats. “Especially the one in the middle. He mentioned that one of your associates suggested snacks at one point, and you never followed through.”

  Elijah shook his head; they were indeed the same ones every time. He remembered he had planned on naming them at some point and set it in his mind to do so as soon as he wasn’t in the middle of something important. He caught her eye, and that was all that she needed to continue with whatever they were doing here.

  “Now that you have summoned your scouts, it is time to reform them into a weapon befitting our King.” Her voice was softer now, less manic and more reverent. “Focus on your shadow, feel the lives within it, wishing to be free.”

  He did as she instructed. His breathing slowed, and he closed his eyes as he reached out with his mind to touch against the shadows.

  “Focus your intent. Is that too much for us to ask of our king? That he knows that much? He would not want his sword coalescing from the shadow of his feet.”

  Elijah had to bite back an angry retort. She hadn’t told him to focus only on the shadow of his arm, so how was that his fault?

  He focused again, this time only on the shadows that his shirt cast on his arm. It took a moment, but the bats within his shadow seemed to sense what he was trying to do and guided his mind. He opened his eyes, and the shadows bubbled out from his sleeve. His scouts acted like a catalyst, the shadows forming around them before flattening down into a dull, black blade shape that slivered up his arm and into his hand. It was reminiscent of the one that had crumbled to dust beneath his fingers just minutes ago.

  And of course, it had taken the shape of a batwing. He gripped the hilt of the shadow weapon and sliced the blade through the air a few times, causing the bats resting on his arm to screech in annoyance. He’d been worried when the shadows had coalesced around them he’d lose these three as his scouts.

  “The King has done well. A fine blade for our lord.” The armorer spoke, though more to herself than to Elijah. It truly was a fine weapon.

  [Item]

  Batwing Blade

  Rank: Celestial

  Condition: 100/100

  Damage: 40-50

  Class Requirement: Dragontooth King

  Enchantments:

  debug{

  Ethereal[Apprentice,SOUL_LOCK_PLAYER]

  Necrotic_Effect[Apprentice,NECROTIC_DMG_EFFECT]

  }

  He could sense that this weapon would continue to level and get stronger with him each time he reformed it this way. It also had the ability to add the powerful necrosis debuff. If he could get access to the spell tags for other effects, he was certain he could switch it out as needed for flame or even lightning effects.

  He could sense the bats within the shadowy form of the blade. They begged for blood, tasting the air around the blade for the next victim.

  He cut off the flow of mana, letting the shadows flow back up his arm. At the same time, he ended the link to his scouts. He knew instinctively that he’d be able to pull the blame out at a moment’s notice now, even without his scouts acting as a catalyst.

  “Our king has done well, and now it is time for him to move on. More is to be discovered before he may retake the Blood Oath Throne,” the Armorer told him, stepping past him as the runes on the floor finally settled.

  “Wait,” he shouted, turning to follow her. He wanted to ask more about the Library, or the Blood Oath Throne. When he’d finished the Dragontooth King quest, it had mentioned that he’d made the first step towards cleansing it, but did not know what that meant.

  When he turned, the Armorer was gone, as if she’d never existed.

  The parasitic link to the bats in the shadow at his feet was back in the forefront of his mind. They wanted out again; he assumed to lead him to the next phase of this quest. He looked around the armory. There was nothing for him here now. The Batwing Blade was the real prize here; a Celestial weapon at his level was an insane item to get. Even though it was the second of its tier that his party had obtained—the first being Nicholas’ unique spear—it was still a major accomplishment.

  He opened the floodgates of his mana pool, letting the bats feast and appear in the world, forming another portal. He didn’t even check the debug info for this one. There wasn’t a point; time was of the essence, and if it were anything like the last portal, it would tell him nothing of note. He stepped through and felt the overwhelming pressure once again.