The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  Stepping around the trap door, Nivirth nodded for me to give him a hand as we worked together to lift the bar blocking the gears and crank open the winch. The sound was horrendous in the enclosed stone room as the chain went taut, but within a minute we had the massive wooden trapdoor opened up. Instantly, the horrific stench of unwashed bodies and rotting flesh filled the hut. It reminded me of the stench inside BrokenFang Hold after we’d gotten the half-eaten corpses and rotting zombies cleaned out. Even from up here, the moaning of the dying could be clearly heard. Looking inside the hole, I could see there was a wide stone stairwell leading down into the darkness.

  “For darkness sake, why did they make it so large?” I asked in wonder as I took a moment to study the immense opening. Sadly to say, the stench wasn’t really a turn-off after being surrounded by zombies on a regular basis.

  “Ogres and trolls are quite large, milord,” Nivirth said nonplussed as he moved to a chest full of torches and selected one. Seeing him searching his bags for something to light it with, I called on my Fire magic to light the tip. Snorting at my casual use of power, he began handing out torches to the rest of us as I lit them with a thought. As I handed the first one to Fylreh, her lips screwed up in annoyance.

  “Why are you giving me a torch?” She asked pointedly.

  “Umm, I don’t know. Do you have Darkvision?” I asked, slightly put-off by the sudden attitude.

  “Of course centaurs have Darkvision,” she irritably snapped as I held back the sigh that instantly came to my lips. Turning to Helgath, I held the torch up questioningly.

  ‘My Orc blood gives me Darkvision,’ her words came to my mind like a caress as she took the torch with a smile. Turning back to Nivirth, I gave him a frown.

  “What’s up with the torches if we all have Darkvision?” I asked, slightly perturbed.

  “The Humans you wish to talk to do not have Darkvision,” he explained simply. It was a good point. It wasn’t going to help in persuading them to join my side if they couldn’t see who I was in the darkness. With a nod of thanks, I took the torch and tossed it to Fylreh who grudgingly accepted it. Grabbing a handful more, I nodded for the Scout Captain to lead the way as Neysa scurried down the steps ahead of us.

  I immediately wished for a simple light spell instead of this torch light as he led us down the dank, stone steps, since it kept my vision from shifting into Darkvision. The long shadows made it difficult to judge the width or depth of the stairs in the flickering light as I held out a hand to the moldy stone wall to steady myself. In most games, people usually scoff at the idea of a level 1 Light spell being useful. It was usually considered a worthless level one junk spell and an overused trope in Dungeons and Dragons games and many anime dungeon crawl series, but that was only because most games nowadays didn’t force you to have an actual light source when you were traveling through the dark. While I appreciated the dedication to realism, it was currently a pain in the ass.

  The stone steps went down a good fifty steps into the hill before leveling out into a long corridor with rusty, iron bars that made up the walls. There was a massive key ring with oversized iron key’s that, for some reason, immediately reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. You know, the one where the pirates have been locked away for all of their looting and pillaging. As the town burns down around them, they’re stuck in the dungeons trying to escape by lassoing a dog that’s somehow picked up the key ring to the cell’s door in its mouth.

  When I was a kid, I loved that cheesy ride. Not that it makes much sense to it being part of Disney who nowadays are so careful about offending anyone. You just know there’s some social justice warrior working on their staff that dreams of the day that they can tear all of that awful history down and hide it away. It’s the same with Fort Wilderness and the stories of Davy Crockett that glorifies the American frontier’s men and women, telling the story of their struggles to survive in the wilderness. Both the Disney rides and the mini-park make light of a very dark time in pre-American history and celebrate the accomplishments of our forefathers.

  Yeah, I know. My mind goes down the strangest paths at times like this, I thought with a shake of my head. Picking up the grimy key ring, I took the lead into the hallway as I held the torch over my head. Basically, the entire area on the other side of the bars was a massive dungeon instead of individual cells like you’d see in the movies. Behind the bars hollow, burnt faces of imprisoned soldiers stared up at me hatefully. Most were lying on the floor in the filth trying to conserve their waxing strength. From a quick skim of their Hit Point bars, I could see most of them were close to death. Still, as I made my way past the surviving troopers, many of them struggled to their feet at the sight of our odd group.

  You’d think by now that the stench of human shit, piss and blood wouldn’t bother me after being surrounded by rotting zombie all the time. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Each stench has its own distinctive set of odours that requires a certain amount of time to become adjusted to. For better or for worse, this was one I hadn’t learned to block out like I had that of the decomposing corpses that regularly followed me around. Yeah, no one ever talks about that wonderful part of being a necromancer, do they? As I came to a stop before the iron door, a woman’s angry exhausted voice growled at me warningly.

  “We won’t let you take any more of our comrades.” Spitting on my boots, her shadowy figure stood up straight with the other prisoners coming to stand beside her as she snarled. “You’ll have to kill us all first!”

  “Well, thank goodness for that,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear my words as I hit the line of shadowy figures standing before the door with Regeneration. I sent a quick message through local raid chat to gather up as much food and water as possible as the line of soldiers stumbled back in shock. Without concern, I began unlocking the door as I did another round of heals to the soldiers nearest to the bars. “I was afraid you’d all given up and were waiting to die.”

  “Who are you and what are you doing here?” the woman asked, suddenly unsure of herself. A quick Identify showed her information, Royal Army Team Leader Laurie Butcher, level 31 Defensive Warrior.

  “My name is Lord Ironwolf of the House of Kayden.” I said as I opened the door wide. Everyone shuffled back nervously as Neysa strolled into the room with Fylreh and Helgath at her back. As soon as I passed through the iron door, an information window popped open before my eyes.

  Warning: All in-game communication options are blocked in this location.

  Interesting, I thought, as I kneeled down next to the unmoving man on the floor and quickly checked his stats. Seeing that he only had a couple Hit Points left, I cast a Regeneration on him before moving to the next severely wounded soldier lying in the muck. “I’m here to rescue my friend whose people are currently under attack by allies of the Dread Pack guild. When we landed in the city of Darom with the rest of our troops, we ran into,” I paused waving my hand around at the soldiers, “this ugly mess going on.”

  “Many of my new vassals, such as Scout Captain Nivirth Dherler here are from the Royal Army,” I said nodding to the Dark Elf that held the torch up high enough for everyone to see his face, “and have family that needed to be rescued from these scumbags that have taken over your city.” There was a rustle amongst the Royal Army troopers in the dungeon as soon as they saw Nivirth’s face as the Dark Elf brought the torch to his face. “Unfortunately, even though we’ve taken out over five hundred of the newfar, we are still facing a force of almost four hundred and we can’t take these evil bastards down without help.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you cut them down, they just come back to life a few minutes later.” An angry guard snapped at me with dusty brown eyes full of despair. Another quick Identify gave me the man’s name, Darom Guardsman Justin Ridgely, level 28 swordsman-in-training.

  “While it’s true that they come back,” I said, standing up to address the Darom guard directly. “What’s not true is that it doe
sn’t matter.” I slowly spun around ticking off more heals as I looked into the amazed eyes of the troopers around me. “Every time you cut them down they lose a level. Trust me when I say this. There are few things that newfar hate more than losing a level.”

  There was a ruffle amongst the prisoners as they realized that I was a newfar too. An unspoken growl went through the survivors as they began to angrily push in around us, while an even uglier muttering of traitor could to be heard. I’d just reached the next bloody, burned body lying unmoving on the floor, when Laurie and a handful of Royal Army swordsmen stepped in front of me threateningly as they eyed Nivirth like a traitor.

  “The Dark Elf was part of Princess Reeva’s forces,” Laurie spat out angrily. “What was you and this traitor’s part in her disappearance?” Hearing that, Nivirth threw his head back and laughed.

  “I’m a traitor now?” Nivirth incredulously asked, wiping the tears from his eyes. Ignoring the self-righteous swordswoman, I began casting Resurrection as Helgath wrapped her fingers around my upper arm to offer me her Mana pool. All the while, her eyes intently watched the soldiers around us waiting for some idiot to try to knife me in the back.

  “Survive a disaster and you’re automatically considered a traitor,” I said with a wry laugh as my hands went through the complex gestures for the spell. “If I used that same logic, I would be wondering if everyone here was a bunch of traitors, since you survived the attack against the Dread Pack guild and Warden Rohan didn’t.”

  There was an angry muttering around us at my words as the prisoners began to press in from all sides. Before it could turn violent, the corpse of the swordsman I was kneeling next to suddenly came back to life as he drew in a ragged breath of air. Quickly, I hit him with a Regeneration, before standing back up to look at the suddenly silent and solemn faces around me. It was amazing how the use of a Resurrection spell instantly got these people’s attention, which only made me question the Priests of Light and the Nobles treatment of their own people. Raising my voice, I addressed the stunned crowd.

  “If you don’t like what I’m saying, then maybe you should check your attitude and actually listen to what really happened before judging us,” I angrily snapped into Team Leader Butcher’s stone-like face. It’s not that I didn’t understand where she was coming from or what they’d survived through, but somehow I needed these people on my side. The only way I could think of doing that successfully and quickly, was to force them to think.

  “I saved Princess Reeva Isolde and her surviving Royal Knights from the Sea Orcs, along with a number of Royal Army and Navy troopers.” I hollered out, addressing the crowd. “All of whom have sworn their allegiance to the House of Kayden and are all currently in the city battling with my people against the Dread Pack guild.” Immediately, the prisoners began muttering amongst themselves about what I was saying as I continued. “She was sold out to the Sea Orcs by her younger brother, Prince Lekroth Isolde.” Hearing the name of Prince Lekroth, the prisoners seemed to seethe.

  “Hold up, there’s more.” I shouted out, forcing the troopers to listen to my words. It felt like I was doing one of those late-night infomercials. As the noise level dropped, I quickly continued. “Currently the Dread Pack and their alliance of thugs have nearly taken down the entire Isolde Line, I doubt there are more than one or two defense towers left standing to block the northern invaders access to the realms of the south.” Dead silence followed that proclamation as I lowered my voice to a more normal level. “Their alliance is currently working with the Orcs to gain power over the Kingdom of Kader.”

  “That’s insanity!” one voice cried out.

  “Don’t they know not to trust an Orc!” another voice cried out.

  “They’ve doomed us all!” I heard from more than one throat.

  “Listen to me!” I shouted, drowning out the worried murmuring of the troopers. “I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know how many people I can bring to safety. For anyone who will swear an oath of fealty to me, I promise you this. I will bring you to my lands in the Kingdom of Larethien and give my solemn vow that once we’ve secure our own borders, I will return to free the Kingdom of Kader and push the northern tribes out.” That statement silenced everyone for a moment, before a new muttering began to be heard.

  “Why would I give fealty to a newfar?”

  “What makes you think you can do what King Isolde couldn’t? Before the naysayers could get going, I raised my voice and shouted.

  “The only decision that I ask that you make now is agreeing to fight under my banner to drive the Dread Pack players out of the city of Darom. Once that is done, you’re free to do what you wish.”

  “Follow a newfar, never!”

  “What makes you so special?”

  Again the crowd began to focus on the wrong thing. None of this was going as I planned and we were quickly running out of time, I mentally chastised myself for being such a sucky public speaker. I was feeling my temper starting to rise up inside of me when I heard Fylreh’s voice roar in outrage.

  “You’re a bunch of sniveling cowards!” At the look of disgust on her beautiful stern face, most of the prisoners found themselves unconsciously listening to what she had to say. “The enemy that has slaughtered your fellow soldiers and the people of this city are nearly defeated and all that you have to say is you won’t follow a newfar into battle?” Throwing her head back, she flicked her hair over her shoulder before glaring at the faces staring back at her in the torchlight in utter contempt.

  “Why do you think we came here to rescue you?” She asked, continuing a moment later without waiting for a response. “Obviously, it was because we were looking for real warriors and protectors to save the people of this city.” Shouldering her shield and sheathing her sword, she put her hands on her hips as she shouted. “We are here to give you the chance to slaughter your enemy and drive them out of Darom.”

  “There is no time for discussion. Your comrades fight and die against this determined foe even now as we speak. Without your help they will surely fail and this city will fall completely into the Dread Pack’s grasp. You don’t have to like this newfar lord. You only have to follow his orders for one battle to save your loved ones.” Taking a deep breath, she faced the swordswoman standing in front of me, somehow knowing that she was the key to these beaten troopers.

  “You might ask why should you follow him of all people?” I heard a slight catch in Fylreh’s throat, before her voice rose proudly. “That’s because he’s the only one who has successfully beaten these honorless scum in battle.” That statement caught their attention. “My liege lord is offering you a chance at vengeance and justice. What say you?”

  For a long moment, no one spoke as the prisoners looked at each other uncomfortably. Many of them were still terrified of the Dread Pack members and the defeat that they’d been handed. But, after watching so many of their numbers being slaughtered by those monsters, they’d had enough. They’d been willing to fight for the right to die in peace. Now, this demi-human was asking them to fight to save their city and those that they loved.

  “I will fight with him,” Justin Ridgely, the Darom city guardsmen, said stepping forward. I could see the fear in the young man’s burning eyes, but regardless he bravely raised his head.

  “So will I.” A guardswoman said limping forward as I hit her with a Regeneration.

  Slowly, Fylreh’s words were rewarded as more guardsmen and women stepped forward from out of the darkness. These men and women didn’t do this for me. Of that there was no doubt. They stepped forward because their friends and family were being ruthlessly slaughtered and abused by the Dread Pack.

  “On your way up, please set these in the corridor so that the others can easily find their way out. If there are any dead, please take them with you,” I said lighting a handful of extra torches and handing them over to Justin and the others. “I’ll do my best to resurrect them as time permits and besides, I’d rather not have to come down
here again. Otherwise, my people are waiting for you upstairs with food, water and weapons.” There was a noticeable shuffle at my words as more and more troopers stepped forward. I did my best to keep up with the healing as I drained my Mana to nearly zero.

  “Why didn’t you start off with the food and water part at the beginning of your spiel, milord?” The Scout Captain asked, as he leaned over to whisper in my ear. “That would’ve saved some time.” Ignoring the twinkle in Dark Elf‘s eyes, I shook my head and went back to casting Regenerations on the wounded men and women.

  It took nearly five minutes for the line of guards to shuffle by. In the interim, I did my best to heal as many as I could, nearly falling over into the unidentifiable muck that was ankle deep more than once as I worked. Once again, I was happy I was wearing Cuttle Leather Corpse-boots and that it was water proof, albeit that wouldn’t help the smell. No way was I going to go around Neristhana or any of the Trader Gnomelings smelling like this, otherwise I’d forever be called Lord Stinky.

  The echoing shuffle of booted feet filled the dungeon as I waited for everyone to leave. Towards the end, I sent Nivirth up to keep everything moving and organized. I nearly fell over as I hit the last guardsman in the line with a Regeneration. Thankfully Helgath and Fylreh were there to support me. Looking around at the couple hundred of Royal Army troopers that were left, I waved them towards the open cell door, when Laurie Butcher addressed me gruffly.

  “Why are you doing this?” Laurie demanded.

  “Doing what?” I asked, honestly confused.

  “Helping us … fighting the Dread Pack … raising the dead …” I could tell she wanted to say more, but instead, her voice petered away. Sighing deeply, I looked into her anger-filled eyes.

  “Quite frankly,” I said doing my best to ignore the mana exhaustion weighing down my limbs. “I don’t have time for this shit. I’ve got to get these soldiers as healed up and prepared the best I can, before we hit those assholes with everything we’ve got. Besides, nothing I say or do is going to change your mind about who you think I am. You want to know more about me, ask my companions or the members of the Royal Army that have joined my ranks. Well, ask them once we’re finished with this emergency.” I said flippantly, before turning around to shuffle out the door, when Laurie finally came to a decision.