by Seth Ring
“More than you, certainly.” Despite his disheveled appearance, Corvo was in a good mood. “The defenses are proving strong enough to stop the Orcs, which is a major plus. I thought we would have to start committing the native soldiers to the defensive line, but we’re able to hold on for now. Probably because they aren’t taking this seriously. How are you doing? Anything strange going on there?”
“It’s been really quiet, but we’ve got the target in sight. As soon as we lock down their exact position we’ll be ready to go.”
“Let me know, because we’re ready on this end.”
“Okay, I’ll…”
Just then, Thorn saw SubtleScythe peek out from behind the other forge and wave Thorn over. “Actually, it looks like we’re ready to go. Give us three minutes and then start.”
“Remember that you will only have about five minutes, four to be safe. I’ll go start the countdown.”
Nodding and closing the call, Thorn and Zandibear crept along the tents to where SubtleScythe crouched.
“We’ve got them marked. There are the three Cog Priests and seven Orc soldiers who are assisting them. Two of the Cog Priests look like they are basic level, but the oldest one seems pretty strong. The main priest is working on something at a table in the center of the open area. The other priests are casting parts in front of the forges. Each has three of the other Orcs helping and then there is one more who is running material from where the resources are stacked.”
“How strong is that head priest? Do you think GhillieGhillie and Gorlik could take him out?” Thorn asked, scanning the open area in front of the forge. From his spot he could see one of the Cog Priests using a long tool to heat something in the forge. Past him, standing at a table covered in scrolls, another priest in an ornate robe was calculating something on a giant abacus.
“If you jump in, yeah, for sure. Zandibear and I can lock down the other Orcs until you’ve taken care of the boss priest and then you can focus down the two other priests.”
“Sounds good.” Thorn breathed out and flexed his fingers, his sharp claws gleaming in the light of the forge.
“There is no chance that we’ll be able to remain quiet, but as long as we get it done quick, Corvo’s distraction should cover us, right?”
“Haha, yeah, I think it should.” Thorn grinned and equipped his helmet. “I’m pretty sure it’ll cover for everyone in the forest.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Corvo jogged through the streets of the harbor, his ragged looking feather coat rustling in the breeze. All around him the soldiers who had come with the Earl of Scorchfrost bustled about, getting ready in case the situation on the wall got worse. Glancing over his shoulder, Corvo could see the players of the Iron Wolf Army fighting against the Orcs who were attacking the harbor. Above and beyond the wall were five wooden towers, bright red lights shining down from them.
“Bring Evil Eyes will you. Hah, we’ll see who has the last laugh.” Corvo muttered under his breath, drawing strange looks from the soldiers around him.
Ignoring them he continued on his way, eventually arriving at the largest of the piers. The massive ship that had brought the army from Northern Angoril lay moored at the end of the pier, its impressive bulk reminding Corvo of a massive building. Nodding to the guards, Corvo jogged up the gang plank and surveyed the wide deck. All across it bundles of long thin sticks had been tied together and placed on flat stone platforms.
“Are you sure that this is going to work?” Earl Blaige wobbled over, his skeptical gaze resting on the bundles.
“Oh, it’ll work. One way or another.” Corvo said with a laugh. “As long as everything was done to my specifications we’ll be fine.”
“Wait, is it dangerous?” The Earl took a small step backward.
“Eh, I don’t know about dangerous. It will certainly be distracting. And more importantly, it’ll take down those stupid spy towers.”
“Those are Evil Eyes, right? We learned about them at the academy, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen one. So, explain how this works again?”
“Sure,” Corvo nodded and patted one of the bundles of sticks. “The Evil Eyes are a tool that tracks magical energy by collecting trace amounts of it from whatever they look at. That energy is then fed back into the staff to keep it operating. That makes hiding from them impossible since almost everything has energy of some sort. What we’re going to do is feed them a lot of magical energy all at once. Specifically, a type of fire elemental energy that also happens to be really volatile.”
“And the sticks?”
“Oh, that’s just kindling. But we also prepared a compound that will keep the fire burning. It’ll spike the concentration of fire elemental energy at the cost of burning the wood faster.”
“And this is going to overload the eyes and turn them off?”
“No idea.” Corvo shrugged. Seeing the strange look on Bothy’s face, Corvo laughed and patted the Earl on his soft shoulder. “Really, I have no idea. That isn’t how my abilities work. They just tell me the best way to achieve my objective. As for the mixture, that is a secret from the far, far south. What I do know is that it's going to be big, and it will work. But don’t worry, we’ll find out soon. We’re ready to go so I would recommend that you join me down on the dock.”
Together, Corvo and the Earl walked back down the gangway to the pier. Once they had gotten a good distance from the deck, Corvo gave a wave to the two mages who were standing nearby.
“Go ahead and light them up! Just remember not to look once they’re lit.”
Muttering an arcane syllable, one of the mages summoned a small fireball in her palm. Placing her other hand over top of the fireball with her fingers together, she spread them out, splitting the fireball into five flames, each dancing between one of her fingers. Next to her, her companion had waved a staff in a circle, summoning a small dancing flame with a pair of bat wings.
Together the two mages lifted their hands, sending their spells flying through the air toward the deck of the ship and the large bundles of sticks. As the flames touched down, the bundles lit up like a pile of dry leaves, instantly brightening the night. For a moment they simply burned, the flames sending shadows dancing across the town.
“Are they supposed…” Earl Blaige had barely begun to speak when he heard a strange sound and turned his head.
The bundles of sticks were burning in clear sight of the five Evil Eyes that had been scanning the harbor. As the bundles lit up, the Evil Eyes were instantly attracted, turning to fix themselves on the bright flames. Now, as the Earl watched the bundles began to let off a hiss, glowing brightly with a reddish light. Brighter and brighter they grew until the Earl could feel his eyes starting to water.
“Hey, hey, don’t look at that.” Corvo said with a frown, pulling on Bothy’s shoulder. “Just watch the Evil Eyes.”
Turning around, Earl Blaige rubbed his stinging eyes and blinked them rapidly, trying to get some moisture back into them. Above the harbor, the five red lights of the Evil Eye staffs were sucking in the energy from the burning sticks at a tremendous rate, causing the swirling fire elemental energy to draw faint red lines across the night sky. Looking up at the trails of energy, Corvo smiled slightly before turning his gaze to the towers that held the Evil Eye staffs.
More and more energy flowed toward the Evil Eyes, causing their pupils to grow redder and more concentrated. The swirling energy gathered together, spinning around and around until it resembled a glittering gem. As the lines of fire elemental energy traced their path across the harbor, they shed more light on the battlefield.
In the towers, the Shaman who were controlling the Evil Eye staffs were confused. The bright light that came to life on the ship was feeding their weapons with the highest grade fire elemental energy. After talking briefly, they just shrugged and allowed their weapons to continue sucking up the pure energy. After all, such pure fire elemental energy was hard to come by.
“And you’re sure this is go
ing to work? They aren’t just going to use all the energy we’re giving them to blast us into pieces.”
“No, no, it’ll work.” Corvo tried to sound positive, but his voice had a bit of a squeak to it. “Ahem. It’ll work. My ability said this will give the best result.”
As Corvo’s voice faded, a change took place in the sky. The thin spirals of fire elemental energy that had been streaming toward the Evil Eyes up in the towers suddenly thickened. The brightness of the bundles of wood grew in intensity, causing the entire night sky to grow light. Startled, Bothy started to turn around but Corvo quickly grabbed him to prevent him from going blind.
The Orc Shaman in the towers were not so lucky. As the whole horizon lit up they were momentarily blinded. Groping for the railings so they did not fall out of their towers, not one of the five Shaman realized what was happening with the Evil Eyes. The sudden surge of light painted red streaks across the sky as the bundles released their most powerful burst of fire elemental energy. Frantically sucking in the energy, the glittering gems in the center of the Evil Eyes spun faster and faster, growing more and more compressed.
*crick*
The sound of one of the gems cracking almost went unnoticed. Even the Shaman, who was standing next to it did not realize that anything had happened. It was only Corvo, whose eyes were darting between the towers, that realized what was going on.
“Iron Wolves, push forward! Archers, hit the towers, now!”
Yelling commands into the group channel, Corvo started running toward the wall where the Orcs and players had paused their fight to stare at the intensely glowing sky. Startled by Corvo’s abrupt action, Bothy followed behind him.
*crack*
This time, the Shaman heard the noise of his gem cracking. With a horrified look spreading across his face, the Orc Shaman let out a scream and jumped from his tower without pausing to consider the height. As he cleared the edge, the fire elemental energy that had been gathered and spun into a tightly concentrated gem erupted. Rather than exploding, the energy spread silently, flying out of the crack in the gem like a jet. Spinning around incredibly quickly, the gout of fire elemental energy made a complete rotation in less than a second, cutting the unfortunate Shaman in half.
Two halves of the Shaman tumbled down to the ground, but everyone’s attention was fixed on the flame that was spinning faster and faster. A terrifying thought occurred to all of the other Orc Shaman at the same exact time, but before they could react they discovered a wave of arrows and other attacks flying toward their towers.
A few of the remaining Shaman tried their best to prevent their Evil Eye staffs from being hit, while the last Shaman simply abandoned his tower, using a spell to flee as fast as he could. As the attacks bombarded the four towers, the Shaman protecting them were able to stop most of the attack, but the abrupt shockwave that emanated from the fourth tower turned their hopes to dust.
Without anyone to defend against the attacks, an arrow had stabbed directly into the center of the Evil Eye on the fourth tower, causing the tightly wound gem to explode into a cloud of fire elemental energy. Shaking the ground and both of the towers next to it, the explosion seemed to cause a chain reaction. One by one the other towers also exploded, silently sending waves of compressed fire elemental energy into the air. The intensity of the fire elemental energy caused the towers to burst into flame, once again lighting up the sky.
Watching the five towering flames, Corvo let out a low whistle. A sound behind him caused him to turn his head to where Bothy stood, rubbing his hands together.
“So, about this ability of yours?”
Still hiding in the Orc army’s camp, Thorn, GhillieGhillie, Gorlik, SubtleScythe, and Zandibear watched the sky lighten the first time. Collectively they gulped and looked at each other.
“Uh, is that the signal?”
“Well, it certainly is distracting.” Thorn shrugged. “And if it gets much lighter I’m not sure we’ll be able to hide anymore.”
“Then we should probably go.” Zandibear muttered.
Just when they were debating taking action, the first of the Evil Eyes exploded, sending a shockwave of hot energy across the forest. Shivering reflexively, SubtleScythe nearly stood up from where he was crouched as his eyes snapped to the horizon. A giant gout of flame could be seen over the trees. As the second one appeared, Thorn grinned.
“Yup, that’s it. Let's go.”
Tearing their eyes from the five pillars of flame on the horizon, the five players sprang into action. SubtleScythe activated his abilities, his writhing shadows locking down the seven Orc soldiers who were assisting the two Cog Priests. Next to him Zandibear lifted his flute to his lips, a hollow, eerie tune drifting from it to surround the two Cog Priests. The ethereal music seeped into their ears, causing their movements to slow as they fell into a trance.
Almost at the same exact moment GhillieGhillie and Gorlik burst into action. The Dark Archer released the arrow that had rested on her string, instantly reaching for the next one. With a single smooth motion she drew her bow and fired again, sending the second arrow slightly to the right of first one. Her target had just noticed that something was happening and looked up in confusion as the two arrows rocketed toward his chest.
Despite his confusion, the Cog Priest was not a pushover, and managed to activate his magic shield almost instantly, protecting him from the first arrow. The impact staggered him to the side, causing him to flinch as the second arrow arrived directly in front of his face.
*ding*
With an echoing ring the arrow bounced off of the magical shield, dimming it considerably. Gorlik’s twin daggers arrived almost at the same time, stabbing toward the Cog Priest’s back as the Shadow Assassin appeared from behind his target. Once again the magic shield held strong, sending the daggers skittering off of it. Despite the deflection, Gorlik did not allow his failure to deter him. Within two seconds he had stabbed the shield five different times, each one of his strikes shaving off some of the magical shield’s defenses. One last attack landed on the staggered Cog Priest, causing the magical shield to crack open.
Desperately trying to cast a spell, the Cog Priest was so confused when Gorlik’s triumphant smirk turned into a look of complete terror that he forgot to continue his chant. A moment later his question was answered when a crossbow bolt the size of an arm ripped through his back, ending his life instantly.
“Gah! Give a guy some warning next time!” Gorlik shrieked, scrambling up from the ground where he had thrown himself to get out of the way of the bolt.
“Sorry, sorry.” Thorn waved his hand sheepishly. Feeling a strange sense of Deja vu, he pulled out another bolt and reloaded his arbalest.
With the main Cog Priest cut down, Thorn turned his attention to the other two Cog Priests, only to find a strange silence hanging over the area. A bad feeling flooded through him as he rose from his position next to one of the furnaces. From where he stood he could see SubtleScythe and Zandibear. The two players were no longer locking down the Cog Priest and were instead standing back to back, their eyes darting around them, looking for some sort of threat.
The sound of footsteps broke the silence, bringing with it a sense of dread that beat a tattoo across Thorn’s heart. His senses began jumping like crazy as Orcs began to appear all around the forge. Seeing a fully armed Orc stepping out of a nearby tent, Thorn’s heart dropped. More and more Orcs filled in the area, blocking the path in every direction until the five players were completely surrounded.
Nervously shifting his grip on his daggers, Gorlik looked around, trying to guess his chances of getting out if he turned invisible. GhillieGhillie backed into the center of the open area, turning this way and that as she searched for an escape path.
“Steady.” Thorn’s deep voice brought a sense of calm to the group as the five players all gathered in front of the two forges.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the giant.”
A creaky voice sounded from across the open ar
ea in front of the forge. His hands folded behind him and his back bent, Arhtu the Cursed walked out from between some tents and looked up at Thorn, a faint smile on his face.
“You are not the one I expected to catch, but I must say I am quite pleased that you decided to accept my invitation. I’m quite curious how you survived the [Aeon Curse], you know? It has been, well, forever, since someone other than me survived its touch. I will quite enjoy taking you apart to find out how.”
Chapter Fifty-Seven
A deep sense of crisis filled Thorn as he heard Arhtu’s scratchy voice. There was something about the old Orc that set Thorn on edge. He did not know if it was the strangeness of the Orc himself, or if it was the weird sense of restraint that Arhtu’s tribe showed. There was something decidedly off about the whole tribe. Even now, the Orc soldiers simply stood silently around Thorn and his friends, their faces impassive. Thorn settled for a mixture of both.
“Ahem, yeah. Glad to be here. Nice camp you got.” Thorn looked around and coughed into his fist. “Really impressive, uh, forges.”
“You know, you travelers lack a certain sense of seriousness that marks the rest of this sad world. It is quite refreshing, I must admit.”
Continuing to walk forward, Arhtu’s cloudy eyes looked over the five players, pausing on Zandibear for a moment before his gaze drifted back to Thorn as he came to a stop in front of the Titan. Calming himself down, Thorn took a quick inventory of his strength. His body was still mostly exhausted, leaving him with only a fraction of his normal strength. Considering Arhtu had taken one of his full power strikes and shrugged it off like a scratch the last time they fought, Thorn did not like his chances.
Additionally, his [Spiritual Sense] could feel the dirty aura that surrounded Arhtu surging, as if it could not wait to pounce toward him. If he was at full strength, Thorn was confident that his [Spiritual Sense] would be able to help him overcome the [Aeon Curse], but there was no chance of that now. Cursing himself for insisting on joining this raid, Thorn took a deep breath and drew himself up to his full height.