Ash. The Legends of the Nameless World. Progression Gamelit Story

by Kirill Klevanski

  Helmer, though sitting cross-legged, gradually moved away from the Circle. He sat completely still, looking like a statue being floated away by some kind of magic.

  “Oh, right! I completely forgot!” he said, snapping his fingers. “I owe you a prediction. You might want to tell your friends how much you love them, because they’re all going to die tomorrow. Don’t even try stopping it, there’s no going against fate, lad. Also, you will very soon decide that taking the life of an innocent will be the best fate for her. That’s all. Have a lovely evening!”

  The demon disappeared, taking with him the hungry blackness and the devilish fairies. Ash dropped to the ground, arms outstretched in relief. Through the dense foliage, which loomed above him like another sky, the light of lonely stars, left alone by their queen, Myristal, occasionally broke through.

  There were probably a handful of mortals who got to see Helmer and tell the tale, and even fewer were those who had received a gift from him. If you believed the songs and legends, everything that the ancient demon predicted eventually came true. No matter what you did or how hard you tried, things would unravel exactly as he had told them. The funny thing was that, sometimes, it was the attempts to prevent an unfortunate outcome that made the predictions come true,

  Without hesitation, Ash crawled into the sleeping bag and covered himself, sinking deep into the wool and canvas. He desperately needed sleep.

  Little did he know that one of the Stumps was lying wide awake.

  Chapter 36

  T he next morning, the group got up as usual, but Lari had overslept a little. All in all, the morning went like any other, but Mary couldn’t get her eyes off Ash. It wasn’t that he had woken up looking more handsome or attractive, but there was something under his usual carefree and child-like smile. He was constantly twitching at every rustle and creak and trying to cover Alice, who perceived everything as a game.

  Mary had seen this type of behavior before.

  Inexperienced Ternites, going on their first adventure, often couldn’t stand the road life and returned home. They made good artisans, explorers, and merchants, but not travelers. Perhaps Ash was one of those who should sit behind high walls and not roam the expanses of this nameless world.

  “Are you alright? You look tense,” she asked, having caught up with him.

  Ash twitched but still smiled. Even his smile looked a little strained.

  “I’m fine, just tired. Do we still have a long way to go?”

  “We’re getting closer.”

  Mary had no doubt that Ash was close to breaking down and being afraid of even his own shadow. She patted him on the shoulder and stood at the left side of the cart.

  Ash stumbled in surprise and for a long time couldn’t understand what she had meant by this gesture. Maybe she was in touch with Helmer, too.

  Mary, on the other hand, was happy with the pace that the squad confidently kept. If Tul kept leading the Stumps past all obstacles and monsters, they might be able to reach the plain in two, maybe three days. There was a swamp close to Lurka, behind which lay a mountain chain called Rezaliks. From their snowy peaks, several volcanoes could be seen – the Fire Mountains. They should reach them in a month. It wasn’t the longest journey, but it was definitely one of the most dangerous ones. Rare were those who went there on their own and almost no one crossed the Rezaliks in the time of one campaign. Their journey might inspire ballads, bring them fame, and even more coin.

  While Mary counted the unearned gold, the party went about their business. Blackbeard and Tul stood guard over the wagon, turning their heads left and right with such speed that you could hear their necks cracking. Tul confidently followed the trail, not suspecting that all the creatures in the area had fled because they were deathly afraid of Ash. Only Alice, being a healer and all, hadn’t been given any tasks, having been told that she needed to preserve her energy. Every now and again she’d try to start a conversation with someone, but they’d just wave her off, telling her that they were busy. Even Lari said only a few words before returning to his watch duty. Bored, she tried to chat with Ash, but he, as if he wasn’t being himself, ignored her.

  “Fine, then!” She pouted and crossed her arms. “Be like that!”

  Looking down, she kicked a couple of pebbles and complained how disappointing it was that the Forest, so dreadful according to stories, turned out to be such a bore. If only she knew what kind of surprise the woods have been preparing for her, she would’ve shut her mouth and thanked the Heavens for the dullness that accompanied their travels so far.

  Marry suddenly raised her hand, causing them to halt. Sun had begun to shine through the leaves. It was midday.

  “Finally,” Blackbeard mumbled, plopping down on the grass. It was easy for everyone else to walk for hours on end, they didn’t have forty pounds of fine steel hanging from them. Nor were they lugging around a giant shield and an ax.

  “Lunch,” Tul reported, walking over to the sacks with food.

  Lari took his place. Any stop, no matter how short, was the most dangerous moment of adventure, according to experienced travelers that is.

  Ash deftly caught the bag thrown to him and nodded in gratitude. Inside it were several crackers and salted meat, an ideal meal for someone who usually ate whatever leftovers he could steal from other tables.

  As he bit into a piece of well-salted jerky, he looked around, Helmer’s words still buzzing in his mind. He had no doubt that he’d make it to the end. However, no one knew that he had embarked on this adventure not just because of the princess, but because of a personal matter. Question was, would this be his last journey?

  “Messenger!” Lari exclaimed happily.

  “You’ll read it later,” Mary said, tossing a coin into the chest cavity of the mechanical pigeon. “Let’s see now…” She flipped through pages with headlines concerning economy and politics, stopping at the news about scandals and fights. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed. No one dared put a bun in her mouth to shut her up. “The Mad Lions have laid siege to Ereweng Castle,” she read.

  Silence ensued. Wars between Guilds weren’t uncommon. Quite the contrary. After all, it was the fastest way to earn coin, fame, and respect.

  “First Esh, then Vane, and now Eric is stealing coin from people,” Blackbeard listed, counting on his fingers. “It seems to me that something ain’t right here.”

  “Don’t forget to add the princess’s illness to that,” Mary added thoughtfully. “And we’ve been warned about the storm… Do you really think that something’s coming?”

  “Perhaps.” Tul nodded, reflexively adjusting his belt.

  “Listen,” Mary whispered with a strange smile and twinkle in her eyes. “The witch queen, Rihannon, of the Nerst realm, has sent a dozen of her knights to aid a well-known band of bounty hunters. She seems eager to help the lovely band of misfits in their difficult task of catching Esh.”

  Ash shuddered and muttered something unintelligible. The Stumps, ignoring him, burst out laughing. Everyone knew the story in which the most wanted wizard managed to spend the night first with the queen’s daughter and then with the queen herself. For that, Rihannon wanted to impale Esh’s head on a stake, helping anyone who can prove that they’re after him.

  “Rumors lie,” Ash muttered under his breath, while the others were having fun, cracking vulgar but witty jokes. “I didn’t sleep with her daughter. Why, she’s as terrible as any other woman!”

  “And―”

  “Quiet!” Tul interrupted, looking irritated. Picking up his bow, he pulled the string until it creaked, placing an adamantium arrow on it. “Ready,” he whispered.

  Mary’s sword glowed red. Lari, holding his blade high, crouched slightly, eyes and ears following even the slightest rustling of the grass. Blackbeard stood in front, shield up and ax at the ready. Turquoise waves began to radiate from him, covering the entire squad. Alice and Ash stood behind them all.

  “Winged Death!”

  There was a sharp whi
stle of an arrow being shot. The Stumps followed it with their gazes as it disappeared in the depths of the woods. It flew through a tall oak tree that shot out of the ground, piercing seven other trees behind it. It stopped at the ninth, having sunk into its trunk up to its plumage.

  The shadow that they had seen between the trees was gone. Winged Death was one of the strongest skills in the arsenal of Ternite hunters. Coupled with a charmed arrow, there was no way that it could be dodged.

  An unpleasant, hoarse voice sounded through the crackling and the rustling of trees and grass. Before the group appeared a druid clad in a robe made of tree bark and rotten leaves. With his knotty fingers, he clutched a staff adorned with a fox’s skull. His wrinkled face, yellowed nails, and white hair that reached to his waist reeked of black magic. This thing might’ve once been a druid, but now it served this cursed forest, bearing the same mark of corruption and death on its soul as everything around it.

  “Get ready!”

  The druid stretched his green lips in a wide grin, revealing a row of sparse, rotten teeth. He then plunged his staff into the ground. Thick roots emerged from the soil and immediately rushed toward the Stumps. Lari darted forward, blades flashing turquoise.

  “Star of the Lagoon!” he shouted and then disappeared.

  A moment later, several blue lines appeared in the air, forming the shape of a star, each crossing one of the nearby roots. When Lari reappeared behind the druid, the wooden serpents fell to the ground with a thud.

  Turning around, he plunged his blades into the druid’s back. The latter turned into a pile of rotten leaves with a loud pop. Green lightning hit Lari in the chest, sending him back a couple of steps.

  “Alice!” Mary shouted.

  The young girl nodded and ran to Lari, who, thank the Gods, ended up landing behind Blackbeard. Crouching by him, she cast a spell and touched the wound with her wand. The burn disappeared in a flash of golden light. Lari leaped to his feet, ready for the next round, complaining how he’d have to repair his armor once this was all over.

  “I hate mages,” he mumbled and then smiled guiltily when he saw the frowns on Alice and Ash’s faces.

  “Pull yourself together,” Mary hissed. “Blackbeard, shield.”

  “Aye. Dragon’s Wing!”

  The turquoise light took the form of a dragon wing that covered the entire squad. Green lightning struck at it relentlessly, but Blackbeard held on, giving his companions a chance to come up with a strategy.

  “He’s… strong,” he muttered, swinging his ax.

  Mary was about to share her plan with the rest of the group when the druid jumped out of the ground in front of Blackbeard. The soil parted like the jaws of some animal and the damned thing flew out of it like a cork from a Champaign bottle. He swung his staff and hit the shield, turning the wing into mist.

  “Needle!” Mary shouted and flew forward with such speed that her sword almost bent from how strong the air resistance was. No one saw what happened next, they only heard a loud bang, followed by Mary crashing into a nearby tree. Her leg was bent at an unnatural angle. A trickle of black blood was running down the druid’s arm. Alice conjured a Golden Cocoon around Mary. She’d take about ten seconds to heal, during which the druid wouldn’t be able to touch her.

  Blackbeard shouted something and ran into the druid like a battering ram, shimmering shield ready to crush anything that stood in its path. Less than a heartbeat later, he was tangled in roots that suddenly grew from under his feet, and thrown to the ground. His nose and left arm were injured.

  Several lightning bolts crackled through the air but were all cut to pieces by Lari who kept flickering in and out of existence. His blades cut with incredible speed, slicing through enemy spells like scissors through parchment. Playing the role of a defender, he couldn’t find the time to properly attack despite the many holes he had spotted in the druid’s defense.

  “Esh!” Tul shouted, drawing the bowstring and firing Scatter Shot. The arrow split into seven, all aiming for the enemy’s head. The druid responded by hitting the ground with his staff, making it light up with orange flames. He then plunged it deep into the soil, causing a fiery shimmer to envelop him. The arrows simply bounced off the shield and fell to the ground, all but one disappearing in a shower of sparks. Tul drew a pistol from his belt and fired bullet after bullet. Not a single hit reached its goal.

  Lari was still fighting while Blackbeard was being treated by Alice. No one seemed to be able to so much as scratch the druid.

  Ash was about to cast a spell when their opponent doubled over in pain as a narrow blade pierced through his side. Mary had managed to heal while he wasn’t looking. Having assumed a rather peculiar stance, she held the sword parallel to the ground, pressing the handle to her shoulder. Dash after dash, she left small holes in the ground in the form of her feet. The druid didn’t dare lower his defenses. And even though he knew where and when her blows would land, he couldn’t keep up with her speed.

  Moving toward the forest, the druid was backed up against a tree.

  “Fury of the Forest!”

  His shout was followed by creaking. The roots of the tree behind him became legs, branches twisted into arms and hands, and the hollows in the trunks turned into mouths and eyes.

  “Ents,” Ash whispered, observing the wooden giants.

  “I got it!” Blackbeard shouted, jumping to his feet and nodding in thanks to Alice. He spun his ax, cutting into a line of five ents, each a dozen feet tall. Wood creaked as it gave way to the turquoise-engulfed steel. Every blow of the wooden arms rang out like a gong as it landed on the heavy shield.

  Blackbeard exchanged a glance with Tul. Both nodded. Lari shouted something. Mary, completing another series of rapid jumps, dodged to the side. Tul snatched an arrow from his quiver and aimed it at the druid who had begun to raise his staff. Judging by the amount of energy he had managed to summon into it, he was about to unleash something terrible.

  A blue mist enveloped Lari’s feet, sending him flying forward. However, he was a couple of feet short of reaching his target. Blades at the ready, he jumped at the flying arrow.

  “Bloody Dawn!”

  Steel flashed red. Lari, pushing off the arrow, cut through the wall of thorns, several ents, and the wooden shield, conjured up by the druid at the last moment. The blades slammed against the staff, but, as strong as the combo of their attacks was, it still wasn’t enough to defeat the druid.

  Ash hit the ground with his staff and Lari’s blades glowed white, slicing through the wood like a knife through butter. The druid didn’t even have the time to scream. His head fell to the ground, followed by his body, wetting the grass with black blood. Ents, devoid of their magical support, crumbled to dust. Blackbeard collapsed with a heavy sigh. His entire left arm was black and blue, and his face was covered in thin, bleeding cuts.

  “Good job, team,” Mary said as she sunk her sword into the druid’s chest. One could never be too sure with them.

  Alice came to Blackbeard to heal him, while Tul went to collect arrows that had fallen nearby. Going into the woods for the rest of them was too risky. Lari, eyes sparkling with greed, reached into the bag with the magic scrolls. Crouching by the corpse, he examined the druid’s robes, staff, and amulets.

  “What nonsense,” Ash muttered, poking the severed head with a stick.

  “Cool technique, isn’t it?” Tul smiled proudly, pulling the arrows out of the bushes. “Lari and I came up with it. He has a special enchantment on his boots and I trained super hard to make the arrows fly even faster. By the way, good job with that fire spell.”

  Tul kept blabbering about the special skills in their arsenal and how well Ash showed himself in his first serious battle, but the young mage was busy thinking about something completely different to pay attention to him.

  He still couldn’t get Helmer out of his head. Much was known about the demon, and there were certainly many stories and legends about him, but what was known for certain w
as that his predictions were never wrong. So how come they were still alive? Was this not the battle that was supposed to kill them?

  Chapter 37

  A lice was treating Blackbeard’s arm while he was actively chugging booze from his flask.

  “He was a tough one,” he mumbled, glancing at his arm. “Bah, if it weren’t for the roots, I would’ve―”

  “If it weren’t for the roots,” Mary interrupted, snatching the flask for him, “he would’ve stuck you on his staff like a shish kebab.” She took a long gulp from the flask and tossed it back to Blackbeard who just frowned in protest. Remembering the skull on the staff and the malicious glint in its hollow eyes, he turned pale and emptied the flask in one gulp.

  Lari, having removed the damaged breastplate and replaced it with a new one, was collecting the loot. He had unrolled the magic scrolls and was laying various items on them. The first thing he put there were boots, the most valuable thing according to him. For any traveler, good footwear was more valuable than a loving wife and a loyal friend. After all, without good shoes, even the smoothes and shortest road would feel like walking on glass.

  Having placed the boots on the circle drawn on one of the parchments, he waited. The runes glowed with a steady lilac light and soon began to form a text. Lari, scratching the top of his head, was sad to see that the shoes were ordinary, devoid of any enchantments or special materials.

  “Garbage,” he said, throwing the boots into the direction of the woods.

  Ash, almost letting out a tear, looked down and patted his worn-out sandals as if to tell them that he had no intention of cheating on them.

  “Oh, that’s interesting,” Lari mumbled to himself. “Hey, Mary, look at this.”

  Turning around, Mary walked over to him and crouched to look at the scrolls. Her eyes seemed to glimmer. The druid’s staff, even though it was split in half, wasn’t an ordinary one. With it, he had the power to control ravens. Not exactly a useful spell, but, according to the runes, a very ancient one, since the era before last. She had no doubt that she’d find some collectors in Mistrit.