I could feel someone dabbing my forehead for a brief moment, gently wiping the sweat off of my face. I had been wanting to do so for quite some time, but I felt so engaged with the Grid that I couldn’t quite move my own body. The dabbing was a kind distraction from the seemingly endless two minutes and I tried to mutter a word of thanks, unsure if my actual mouth had even opened.
Finally, the preparation timer ended and the indestructible metal shields retracted from the Siege Golems, allowing them all to rise at once. I activate the Gorn and ordered it to fire, while simultaneously dropping the Ichor on the first siege beasts. As the liquid stuck the two in place, the barrage came raining down, dealing immense damage to the pair. Their hit points dropped down to 30% instantly.
“So it can hit from that far of a range?” the Baron mused. “Win or lose, Richard, I would like to discuss purchasing that from you.”
“If I lost, you’d take it.”
“Nonsense, I wouldn’t dream of stealing such a specimen. I’m not a thief,” he said. “Just a man who is trying to rightfully reclaim his land.”
More explosions dropped, killing the first two and the pair behind. The other Siege Golems began to lumber forward, free now that the stuck pair had been reduced to rubble. But their pace was too slow and the maze was too long. Gorn annihilated every last one of them, putting an end to the battle.
The victory was only partial, however. Looking at the battlefield, I could see the wreckage of my previous barricades. The entire first section was done for, more or less. Without the enemy taking the long route, my boulders would be useless.
I hung my head low at that. How would I fend off 200 units with just the midsection? But before I could despair, something rather strange happened. As soon as the new timer appeared and the break began, all of my destroyed barricades popped up, at half health. They were completely restored! Well, not completely, but enough so to keep my strategy going.
“What?” I gasped. “They’re back? They haven’t done that before.” Had I unleashed some power within myself? Something connecting me to the Grid? The very thing my father apparently had?
“Why do you sound surprised? You picked Sentinel as your class, remember?” Joeth said. “They get barricades rebuilt every round.”
“Oh…right,” I murmured. There was so much happening at once that I had completely forgotten about such a boon. I guess there was no better serendipity than planning ahead!
Chapter 39
“This is the trouble with fighting an unknown enemy,” the Baron fumed. “You don’t know anything about them. I bet quite a bit that you had chosen the Businessman specialty.”
“Not an entirely unwarranted guess,” I said. “For our vineyards do make quite a bit of money.”
“I suppose this is the cost of running a Barony,” the man grunted. There was a grim determination in his voice, suggesting that maybe he had lost, but was determined to soldier on, for dignity’s sake. How a man could still have 200 units and consider the battle over was beyond me, but that seemed to be the situation at hand. Or maybe it wasn’t over in his mind, but he had sustained more casualties than he wanted. Either way, he was not happy.
During the break, I placed down a few Wrench Golems, as all ten had been killed earlier. It was a shame to have lost so many of them in the first place. But I was thankful that the barricades were back. With the help of the Wrench Golems, they’d be back to 100% health in no time. Once I had finished, I readied for the final wave to begin. Here it was, the end point. Everything had been leading up to this. Would the wall still be standing after this? I guess I was about to find out.
Final Wave!
Enemies Remaining: 200
Total Enemies: 0
As the horns blared, I bit the bottom of my lip and waited for the next swarm to emerge. But what came out was not a swarm, rather they were two rather tall golems, with long skinny legs that put them above the battlefield. Their legs were long and double-jointed, allowing them to take exceptionally long steps. I recognized these as Longlegs (yes, creative, I know), golems that were immune to the movement-affecting abilities and were able to traverse any area they pleased. They had a powerful stomp attack, but were unable to kill anything other than golems.
12 more Longlegs appeared and began to immediately climb over both the barricades and the Thorn Towers whipping at them. The Longlegs were taking damage, but they were slowly regenerating health over time. I knew their purpose. They were to skip over all the obstacles and go straight for the Gorn. The Baron might be too polite to capture it, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave it alive.
No other forces emerged, showing that the Baron was indeed scared of my artillery unit. Invaders were allotted up to a minute to send out new forces, so he was certainly going to be using the most of his free time by waiting until the Treasure Golem was dead or distracted.
Realizing his strategy, I ordered the Gorn to begin retreating from its position in the center of the map, moving back to the wall. It wouldn’t be within range to shell the enemy anymore, but that didn’t matter. I needed to draw the Longlegs close to my Karracks.
The tall golems picked up considerable speed, at least until they reached the midsection. Golems always took the shortest route to their target as possible and knowing this, I placed the Gorn at a spot where the Longlegs would be tempted to turn left instead of bypassing the barricades in front of them. That turn happened to put them right in front of the Karrack Towers.
21 beams came burning towards the 16 Longlegs, their damage output quickly overcoming the Longlegs’ ability to regenerate. One by one, they toppled like trees, falling over and vanishing into smoke as they were burned up. A single Longleg managed to slip past the group, however, and kicked violently at the Gorn, only to be annihilated as the cannon golem fired at point blank range. The damage was enough to damage itself down to 49% health.
“Damn it,” I hissed, glancing at the Enervation Wall behind it. The Gorn was now trapped here. It couldn’t possibly back up or else the Enervation Wall would sap it of its power. The Wrench Golems, which I had placed at the bottom, were too busy repairing all of the damaged barricades. This meant the Gorn was quite literally backed into a corner.
“Well, I suppose it’s time to say good game and let the chips fall where they may,” the Baron said, sighing deeply at the end of his sentence. As he spoke, the next swarm emerged. I quickly understood what he meant, for dozens upon dozens of golems came barreling out, ready to fight. The active combatant tracker quickly alerted me that there were 200 golems on the field.
To say that complete and utter chaos broke out would be an understatement. Boulder Golems charged forward, triggering boulder mechanisms while griffins took to the skies, only to be knocked about senselessly by the Repulsion Towers. Chase Golems came scampering out, trying their damndest to get to the Gorn, but the coverage the Karrack Towers provided was enough to fry each group instantly.
Explosions rocked the world below me as I watched, too mystified to take any actions. Indeed, there were so many enemies on the field that I couldn’t really react to what was happening. Any time I tried to activate an ability to turn the tide, a boulder, artillery blast or even chunks of debris from the Miniature Trebuchets (which really hadn’t done much damage up to this point) did the work for me.
All I could do was just wait for the chaos to die down a little. The good news was, it was clear I was winning. If the barricades had been destroyed for good, the story might have been different, but the Baron could not account for everything. One measly ability had slipped past him (and myself), changing the tide of the battle. Still, Jerem was determined to see this all the way to the end.
To the enemy’s credit, they were finally able to get to the middle section, their numbers allowing some of them to survive the boulder attacks. But my overstuffed trebuchet strategy, combined with a few tactical uses of Target Marker quickly shut them down. The battle was loud, glorious and messy
, but I’ll be damned, it was just about over.
“You want to call it?” I asked. “No reason to waste the rest of your forces.” That was being gracious for there were barely twenty left on the field.
There was silence for a time. “I had a force four times as big just a few days ago. Then they all pulled out, since I lost the claims for so much land,” the Baron mumbled. “Is this punishment for some sin in my life?”
It took every bit of restraint for me to not rub this victory in his face. He had taken a hard loss and right now he was vulnerable. Gloating might cause me an enemy for life. “Well played,” I said, trying to hold it all in. “Well played.”
Chapter 40
The days following the great invasion were a blur. The Baron, though clearly sore at such a devastating loss at the hands of an (extremely prepared) amateur, was a good sport about the whole affair and told me that I would not have to worry about him again. The matter was now resolved and it would be uncouth for him to try attacking me again. He did, however, make it quite clear that I was not welcome in his lands and that I had chosen a side.
“No ally of my Barony, be it gentry or Lord, shall befriend your House or your kin,” he had said. “Consider the east closed off until you’re ready to hand over Efera’s starmetal.” And with that, he had left, sullen and sulking the whole way home.
There was no huge victory feast, nor wild celebration for me, however. For upon finishing my colossal task, I found myself bedridden for nearly two weeks, lapsing in and out of consciousness. The official story was that the Baron had brought some filthy plague with him that caused me to become feverish, but the truth was whatever strange illness I suffered from had taken quite a toll on me. Spending so much time in the Grid recently had a tremendous cost.
Other than some stomach trouble and the need to sleep for long hours at a time though, the illness wasn’t so bad. I was able to rest, relax and enjoy some much needed alone time with my wife. Yoni had grown considerably warmer to me, even indulging in small talk on occasion, telling me about her day, something that had never happened before. Her health had greatly improved since she stopped taking those potions, though the mystery still remained.
Nigel had become obsessed with the origin of these strange potions, going so far as to take it upon himself to travel all the way to the forgotten elven isles, where the potions were shipped from. If I had been awake when he made this decision, I would have told him to wait, but according to Yoni “It seemed like words just didn’t work on the man.” Alchemists were an obsessive lot. Telling them no was tantamount to telling them to avoid explosions at all costs: they were going to do it anyway.
A thumping on my door brought me out of my half-dream state. Yoni was gone and a plate of half-finished food was beside my bed. It was morning, I think. At least, it had been morning when the food had been put down.
“Hope you’re decent,” grunted none other than Eustace Frankinson as he opened the door. Finally. I had sent for him weeks ago, with his new cousin-in-law as the messenger. Now that the Baron had been repelled, it was time to get to the bottom of whatever secret he was keeping from me. I just wished that I was in a better state, so I could shake him a bit for leading me on.
“Come in,” I said, sitting up. I glanced over at a cane that had been placed for me to use to get to the privy. It was close enough to where I could give the old man a thump if he tried to pretend like Efera was in on his plan to force me to press her claims. Hey, he might be old, but he really deserved it.
“Sorry it took so long; the Missus had a long protracted drama over her cousin returning. It was quite compelling. But mostly irritating.”
“Have they patched things up?”
“Indeed. I don’t know who was more sorry, to be honest,” Eustace said as he sat beside me, carefully taking the cane beside my bed and scooting it a few inches away, out of my reach. Had I been glancing at it? Or did he know exactly what was coming to him?
“But I suspect you didn’t summon me here to talk about Juliet’s feelings.”
“Indeed. It has come to my attention that Juliet doesn’t know that she has a valuable secret. So somehow, you must have figured something out. Something she couldn’t see. And you’ve been holding that over my head all this time. Demanding I do your dirty work in getting her land back. How would she feel about her new husband, should I bring that up to her?”
The old man flinched. I could see in that moment that he truly cared for the woman. Perhaps even as a partner. They really did get along together, as strange as it was to watch. “Come on, you don’t have to…”
“To what? Tell her that you’re a manipulative son of a bitch? I’ve known this for weeks now, Eustace. That you were holding something back from me. But I had a homeland to defend. A homeland I was defending on your wife’s behalf. So you can do the right thing and tell me what I need to know, or I can tell her the truth. And I know she wouldn’t be pleased with you. You know why? She offered to surrender on my behalf. To give up her claims.”
“I know, I know,” Eustace said, dropping his head low to the ground. “She’s become content with being out of the fire. Realized that maybe life is better when you’re not desperately trying to keep everything from falling apart. It was a foolish thing for me to do, but the woman was…hurting and I was actually trying to impress her. I promised her I’d get her land back. And she was so grateful to me.”
“So what, your marriage is romantic?” I asked with a chuckle.
“Not at the start, but she’s just as bitter and mean about things as I am. I find that refreshing. And she appreciates the fact that I’m opinionated and not particularly inclined to agree with her for the sake of peace. We fight a lot and it’s good fun.”
That sounded miserable to me. But then again, both of them were quite miserable already. “Well that promise is your problem, not mine,” I said. “Tell me now, and all is forgiven.”
Eustace sighed heavily. “Very well.” He glanced around to make sure we were alone and then lowered his voice greatly, whispering so softly I had to lean all the way in to hear. “When Juliet was struggling greatly to keep her gentry from falling apart, she was approached by a stranger in the middle of the night. A suit-wearing government goon, from what she explained. Dressed like the Queen’s Men but had no badge. He offered her a ‘solution’ to make the Baron problem go away. For good.”
“An assassin for hire?” I whispered.
“Not so loud,” the old man said, snapping at me with his fingers. “The man said he was from a special division from the Queen’s service and could make an accident happen. One that would be untraceable. Said he had hit six other Houses before, all without being caught or even seen.”
My heart skipped a beat. This was the man I was looking for.
“She refused, of course. But not before asking what he wanted in return, for surely a man doesn’t sneak into your window in the dead of night, wanting coin.”
“And what did he want?” I asked, tensing up, gripping the bed sheets beneath me tightly.
“Access to a vault she had, one she discovered deep inside a crystal mine,” Eustace replied. “Well, technically a vault she discovered. Her mining crew found it but could never open it up. For some reason, however, your assassin friend thinks she has a key or something. Don’t even know how he found out about it, for she kept the discovery a secret. She could never find anyone able to open it up and assumed that whatever was in there was sealed for a reason.”
“She told you all of this?”
“In the night of our wedding, rather than enjoy our nuptials, she mostly ranted and raved about how she showed mercy to the Baron. I asked some questions, just to be polite. She was rather drunk at the time and didn’t seem to remember mentioning it to me,” the old man said, leaning back in his seat. “And all the excitement of a new life and a fresh start seemed to distract her further.”
“So you put two and two together and figured out
this was my man,” I said. Why didn’t Juliet bring that up when I mentioned the murders in my family? Had she forgotten about that fateful night…or had she been forced to forget? If the man was one of the Queen’s Men, or perhaps a rogue entity, he could have dosed her with an amnesia potion. And the alcohol could have jostled her memories. Erasing memories through magic wasn’t an exact science yet (regardless of what the label claimed on the bottle.)
“Yes. I figured that getting the land back would give you access to the vault again. But…I shouldn’t have kept this information from you. I am sorry.”
“I ought to throw you from the roof,” I said, groaning and lying back in my bed as nausea swept over me. “Or order my servants to do so.”
“Then you wouldn’t get a chance to cash this in,” he said, tossing a paper onto my chest.
“What’s this?” I asked, leaning up to read the document. My eyes scanned the page. “In eyes of the Queen and the Stars, ordained…all rights and claims go to…the Blake Gentry? W-what is this?”
“Juliet’s giving up. She’s moving forward with her life with me and our incoming baby,” Eustace said. He scowled when I looked at him quizzically. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m as virile as an ox in its prime!”
“Uh-huh,” I said, deciding to move past the topic of oxen fertility. Instead, I looked at the papers. Lady Efera had officially transferred her claims to me. All of them. Though they were useless right now, in theory I could someday take back what was now rightfully my land…and all the crystal mines along with them.
Epilogue
“A letter for Lord Blake,” announced the pointy-eared woman, dressed in the finest of clothes.
“Lord’s a bit premature,” I said, accepting the letter from the messenger. Though with my recent foray into Rank 4, that title wasn’t as far off as it had once seemed.
The messenger said nothing; she merely moved to the side of my desk and stood at attention, waiting for me to open it. The letter smelled greatly like Esha’s perfume and even more so when I cut it open. As the scents assailed my nostrils, I unfolded the letter to see what kind of congratulations the Kinmother had written for me. My eyes opened quite wide, however, as I read the contents within.
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