I watched her slay the goblins with a slicing backflip and was simply enthralled by her swordplay.
"Mike!! Behind you." I heard on my gaming earpiece.
I turned to see two orcs that were sneaking up on me.
Parrying an attack from one of them, I let out a fire spell to consume the other in flames.
"Duck!!!" I flew to the ground, looking up I saw the first orc with his sword raised above in attack, impaled in his head by two daggers.
"You hurt princess?" Rhea held her hand down to help me up.
'Princess', the vile nickname she came up with for me, a nickname I came to accept, even get fond of.
I took hold of her hand and allowed her to pull me up.
She dragged me up, and again I was amazed by her strength.
"Seems, we're close to the lair." She said, pulling out the dagger from the fallen orc's face.
"Blue blood, a prime orc." She squatted, looking at the genitals.
"A male too." She commented
"Must you be so raw?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable.
"What?" She asked smiling
"I don't feel comfortable with you holding a prime orc's bollocks."
"Well I didn't know I had to cross-check with you on whose bollocks I could hold."
The game master interrupted our argument.
"Time for a recharge. Log off."
Rhea hissed and logged off, simply fading off. I sighed and logged off too.
"She's so infuriating", I thought out loud as I unhooked and removed the VR headset.
I looked at the clock from my bed. It was 5:00 pm, I was late.
Looked at my phone, 7 missed calls and 17 messages.
"Shit." I exclaimed, running into the bathroom to get a quick shower.
After the shower, I wore my clothes and was about to leave my house.
I walked into the parlour to see Derek sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Going somewhere?"
He asks nonchalantly, spinning my keys on his finger.
"Hey Derek, what are you doing here?" I asked awkwardly.
"Well since someone decided to just bunk out on our double date arrangements, I had to apologize to the young ladies and come tell give that someone a piece of my mind."
"Uh-huh, want a stick?" I ask offering him my cigarette.
"Bribery won't get you out of this one." He says collecting the stick and my lighter.
"How did you get in anyway?" I ask, taking a puff and sitting down on the couch.
"Your house isn't that easy to break into, in fact I think you make it easier just for me."
I followed his eyesight and looked at the window, screwed open at the hinges.
"You broke in."
"Let myself in." He corrected
"By breaking the window." I countered
He just shrugged and let out some smoke.
"You were using the console again." He commented
"The same game, talking with Rhea."
I looked at him with my stink eye.
"I did take the liberty to look at the gameplay on the console screen." He said smiling.
"So.....?" I asked getting defensive
"You're addicted to that game, or at least addicted to her." He said smiling
"Addicted to who?" I ask rolling the blunt in my hand.
"To Rhea." He says with all seriousness.
"Please, I can't have feelings for a character in a game." I say laughing
"Yet you do." He says pointing the burning end of the blunt at me.
"Hey Derek..." I say looking at him and the halved cigarette between his fingers.
"You alright bro?" I ask him
"Cut it out dude." He says laughing.
"I'm still sane and you know I'm right, you're a great guy despite being single and lazy, you deserve a nice girl."
I smile at the compliment/jibe.
"Thanks bro, but there's an issue. She might not be a girl. It's a worldwide game, she might be a he, or just a random bot in the game or-"
"Love is just about faith," He says, cutting me off.
"You'll never know until you try though, just ask her how she feels, I can already see some kind of flirty romance in your conversation so go. Maybe the next bollocks she'll grab would be yours."
He laughs and the smoke chokes him which makes me laugh.
I got a notification that the console was recharged and me and Derek locked eyes.
"I'm gonna hit the road then."
"If she is a hot girl, ask if she has a cousin or a best friend would ya?" He says as he walks out.
I locked the door and rushed to the VR headset that shone green on its charging port.
I'll tell her once we've conquered the lair.
I put the headset on and logged back into the game.
As I materialized I ducked down to see a dagger fly past where my head was into the tree.
"You're late." I heard that particularly annoying voice I had grown to like.
"You threw a flaming dagger at my head?" I commented looking at it embedded into the tree.
"You materialized behind me, plus you dodged it didn't you?" She said going to pull it out.
I felt my Avatar's head, pulling out a few hair strands.
"Don't worry, you're as cute as ever, princess." She commented laughing as she pulled out the knives.
"Did you just call me cute?" I ask, smiling.
"Shut up dummy." She said bending down to feel the ground.
"They're coming."
"We're just a few meters from the lair. I say we will bring the fight to them."
"For the first time you're actually acting like a knight Princess." She agrees with me.
I check my potions, mana and pull out my sword. Taking the lead in the race to the mouth of the lair.
We reached there just as the first of the orcs were coming out, he being the first to taste my lightning barrage spell which later took out the 10 behind it.
Rhea jumped over my lightning, throwing 3 daggers straight into 3 individual orc's heads.
Finishing my spell I joined her in close combat with my sword, falling orcs after orcs.
We fought till late in the afternoon. Killing all the orcs till it remained one.
The Chief Orc, he stood with multiple injuries yet full of spirits.
I winced at the injury he gave me on my shoulder from his tusk.
The same tusk Rhea broke off and used to stab him in his leg on my behalf.
My mana was low so I didn't focus on healing.
Rhea was leaning on the wall of the lair, in far worse shape than me due to her inability to use magic and heal. The wounds on her back and shoulders looked especially drastic.
The orc came charging at us and I rushed using my sword to make a big swing in the air.
Intended to scare him out and hopefully injure him some more.
"Are you okay?" I asked Rhea but she was unresponsive.
The orc bellowed again, gathering momentum for his attack, I knew he won't be scared off by a sword swing on this one.
"End this Princess." Rhea says as she slumps on the floor.
The orc shouted and ran towards me. I waited till the last possible moment then did my biggest attack.
Enveloping my sword with mana, I dodged out of the way and sliced his body, enveloping him in flames.
He screamed and began rolling his body on the floor.
I ran towards, piercing his heart down with my sword, killing him.
I heard a cough, and ran back to Rhea.
"Rhea!!!" I screamed and she opened her eyes weakly.
"You did it princess", she said smiling.
"Yes I did". I looked at her injuries as they turned green, poison.
I didn't have enough mama to heal her.
Her eyes were closing again and her breath getting weaker.
"Rhea!!! Stay strong, stay awake. Rhea!!!"
I shouted but she didn't answer.
"You are cute when you cry James...." Then her breath stopped and she disappeared in my arms.
Just realized that I'm late for the deadline and I'm sorry 