Trojan: An Epic LitRPG Adventure (Afterlife Online Book 3)

by Domino Finn

  Hadrian finally grew weary of chasing my teammates around. He'd hurt them all, with nary a scratch to show for it. Catching me kneeling by my pet, he grinned with predatory hunger. I wasn't strong enough to carry Bandit away. The kraken spun and came for us. Hadrian knew I couldn't leave her.

  I climbed to my feet empty-handed. Faced down the charging behemoth. Adrenaline surged through my body, causing me to visibly shake. I leaned down and rested my palm on Bandit's head. On the dragonshard. The energy from my body seemed to feed the crystal.

  I don't know if it was willpower, a guardian angel, or pure, dumb luck, but a fourth option appeared in my legendary ability menu: Dragonrunner.

  With a flash of blue, Bandit shuddered. Bones popped and skin stretched unnaturally. Her fur didn't follow suit so it left her with thick leathery hide. Spiny nettles protruded from her shoulders and back. Eyes went yellow and already massive horns elongated. Large, membraned wings burst from her back and a spiked tail grew from her body. As the mountain bongo's jaw lengthened, she bared a string of razor-sharp teeth.

  The girl retained her chestnut-brown color, iconic cream body stripes, and V-shaped horns, but besides that, she was nothing like the old Bandit. My pet was now a hulking dragon twice the size of Nightwing.

  She opened her mouth and released a waking roar of thunder that shook Oldtown. Then she breathed in and spat a beam of light that blasted into the titan's body with pure elemental wrath.

  [Bandit] dealt 2800 damage to [Kraken] (1992/20,000)

  The point-blank discharge upheaved the massive behemoth. The kraken flailed and upended, throwing Hadrian and the shadowguard. Bandit's colossal paws pounded the dirt beside me. She pounced on the mass of tentacles and blubber like a dog finally catching a car and finding it unworthy. Claws raked deep as she shoveled teeth into the quivering body, dealing epic damage.

  Lash buffed us with a war cry. Dune nocked multiple arrows and fired. Izzy hooked icebergs around the beast so it couldn't wiggle away. I recovered my dragonspear between dueling angels and overloaded dash and deadshot for a savage blow.

  The notorious kraken never stood a chance.

  1500 Altered Beast

  [Kraken] is defeated

  4,200 XP awarded

  Brothers in Black Reputation -999 (MAXED)

  The dead titan collapsed under its own weight. Blue flames washed over Lash with muted sound effects, healing her broken body. The white knight finally matched my level. I wasn't surprised.

  What did take me off guard was a similar effect consuming Bandit's dragon form. Despite pets not having visible progression markers or consuming XP as far as I knew, Bandit had leveled up.

  Hadrian, on the other hand, tripped to the ground. A curved horn of bone the length of his arm bounced from his possession. The Squid's Tooth. The embattled Whisperer crawled on his elbows to recover it. The loose item vibrated in the dirt and spun, faster and faster, until it fractured and exploded, pieces ejecting into nothingness.

  Beside us, a rumble came from deep within the kraken's belly. Even the angels stopped to watch as the husk of the leviathan chunked into squishy pieces of blubber that bounced away. I picked a couple of them.

  Loot:

  10 silver bars

  Loot:

  [Atlantean Anchor]

  As we emptied the blubber chunks, they faded away. There was plenty to go around, including what we set aside for fallen faction mates. But loot distribution wasn't the biggest problem we had left to address.

  Izzy, Dune, and I converged on the spymaster as he regained his feet. Most of us were battle worn, but his monster was gone. He backed away, head swiveling from one angry threat to the next. The shadowguard snaked over his body and sneered.

  Hadrian the Whisperer turned and ran.

  Dune launched an arrow. Even in retreat, the shadow armor blocked the attack. My pursuit was stalled as an angel's ivory trident landed at my feet with a rumble. Vitus was thrown into Izzy and they both face planted to the ground.

  Seeing his opening, Hadrian attempted to slip by Lash as she searched for her lost helmet. A tactical error, since the level up had fully healed her arm. Her giant cleaver swept the Whisperer off his feet. If it hadn't been for his shadow armor, he'd be missing a leg.

  "You're weak," spat Lash, charging up her weapon.

  Hadrian scurried to his feet and bolted for the river. The white knight hefted the weapon overhead and spiked it down. The blade glanced off Hadrian's side. The force of the blow drove the cleaver downward and embedded it deep in the muddy bank.

  The shadowguard stretched as it attempted to cross the river. Instead of fully blinking out, it turned in confusion as the glowing sword pinned a piece of it to the ground. The shadow yelped and slowed its crossing.

  "No!" snapped Hadrian. "Get me all the way!"

  Longinus bowled by me as he rushed to pick up his trident. Bandit reared and readied for a fight. I tugged her neck to keep us clear until I could help Izzy up. As we shied away from the encroaching angel skirmish, Bandit grumbled a warning their way.

  "Leave them be, girl. They're more powerful than they look."

  She snorted, unimpressed.

  Longinus reached for his weapon. Vitus hooked the golden cane around his enemy's neck and stopped him short. Decimus swung in. Still hooked around Longinus, the cane parried one of Decimus' swords. The other blade of silver bit into the fallen angel's gut.

  Otho lunged to save his dark brother. The black scythe cracked against a silver sword. Vitus pulled away from Decimus and twisted his cane. Longinus brought his trident around, burying the tips into Vitus' chest. Enraged, Otho shot around and took Longinus' trapped head clean off.

  The resounding explosions of force buffeted and blinded us. When the light cleared, two more angels had been slain. Only Decimus and Otho were alive.

  To the dismay of the shadowguard, Hadrian forced his way across the Albula. Izzy summoned a wall of ice beside the cleaver. The magic tore the shadow back to us, now separated from its master. On the far side of the drained river, Hadrian sprinted away while Dune took potshots at him. The shadow demon, abandoned yet loyal, managed to stretch enough to knock the arrows down.

  Talon: Kyle, we need your gauntlet.

  From the roof of Dragonperch two hundred feet up, Kyle released the holy item. It bounced on the mud beside Lash, who was all too happy to equip it. Still helmetless, she tested the fingers of the fitted glove before showing her teeth and beating the shadow back to wherever it had come from.

  Instead of sticking around for the show, I willed the doors of Dragonperch open on a hunch. I hurried into the tower, keeping an eye on my notifications.

  Holy weakness!

  [Lash] dealt 88 damage to [Shadowguard]

  Holy weakness!

  [Lash] dealt 78 damage to [Shadowguard]

  [Shadowguard] is defeated

  563 XP awarded

  Loot:

  [Void Pearl]

  I opened the ground-floor armory and grabbed the dusty saddle. It didn't slot into my inventory so I lugged it outside by hand. When I applied the item to Bandit, it auto-equipped.

  Izzy: Kyle, fill this river back up before Hadrian gets away!

  The dragon saddle fit Bandit's beast form perfectly. I smiled like a kid as I pulled myself up and onto the worn leather seat.

  "Go get him, girl."

  Bandit zeroed in on Hadrian, now escaping into the busy neighborhood of Hillside. Her body snaked to her prey as my eye caught the standoff between the final two angels. Decimus was cut and bloodied. Red soaked his white garments. One-on-one against a hacked Fallen, I wasn't optimistic about his chances.

  Otho's head jerked aside, alarmed by some distant emergency. Instead of engaging Decimus, he pointed his scythe to the air and took off. The blindfolded angel immediately pursued.

  Decimus wasn't the last of the Golden Seven. Marius and Gaius had given Lucifer chase. He must've been in trouble if Otho was hurrying to his aid.

  Bandi
t loped toward the river and bounded high into the air. Powerful wings beat as we took flight. Internally, I struggled with everything that had happened and what needed to happen next.

  I couldn't accept the sacrifice.

  "Can you get him from here, girl?" I asked through the whipping wind.

  The dragon's body banked as she adjusted to the position of her target. The Whisperer hurried to lose himself within the populated neighborhood of Hillside. From this distance, he appeared more unremarkable than ever. Just another frightened man scrambling all too slowly for his life. Before he could make it to cover, Bandit stretched toothy jaws. A focused beam of light consumed Hadrian.

  I jerked the reins sharply away from the attack.

  "Whoa, there! We don't wanna kill him."

  Hadrian collapsed in a sputtering heap. He was still alive, but barely.

  Oldtown has been successfully defended!

  3 HQXP awarded

  As we veered away, my allies crossed the filled river on a makeshift bridge of ice. Izzy was the first ashore.

  Talon: Make sure to keep him breathing.

  Izzy: Aw, no fun. Can I at least stick mermaid claws under his fingernails?

  Yeesh, remind me never to piss off the frost mage. Hadrian lay on the ground, stunned. The combat log confirmed he wouldn't die yet. The warrior in me was disappointed, but things had gone according to plan. At least in part. With the Whisperer defeated and subdued, there was one last thing to take care of.

  Bandit cracked across the sky like lightning, hot on the heels of the angels.

  1510 Final Fight

  The angels were swift flyers but they remained low to the ground. Having made it north out of Oldtown, Stronghold's impressive buildings became obstacles they needed to slalom. I urged Bandit to gain altitude and give us a dragon's-eye view of the city.

  Unsurprisingly, Stronghold was sealed. Watchmen crowded the gates. Legionnaires lined the battlements and stood in formation outside the walls. I couldn't believe the army was actually on the offensive. Along the distant tree line, a reduced goblin horde beat war drums.

  In hindsight, I figured it all for a diversionary tactic, a way to occupy the city watch during our little tower defense. But part of me couldn't dismiss the siege that easily. If I were a betting man, I'd wager General Azzyrk was awaiting a signal from Hadrian to make a move. It was a signal that would never come.

  Although the west gate was the one closest to Oldtown, it was also the busiest point of defense in the city. Lucifer wouldn't be able to use it to escape. I flew past, eyeing the alleys between structures lining the Circus. A flash of white robes chasing black. I'd spotted Decimus and Otho.

  "The north river gate," I concluded. It was broken and no longer in need of defense. Bandit snorted through her mighty dragon snout and closed with the ground. She swooped along Stronghold's outer wall on a vector to beat the angels to the river.

  I leaned forward in the saddle, muscles taut. Lucifer had risked it all for this showdown. He hadn't just offered his support, he'd sacrificed Nightwing, the Fallen, the dragonshard. He'd even put his very existence on the table, a risk of deletion, living or dying by the draw of a single hand.

  It was a heck of a poker play. Hell, the recent months had been an intricate chess gambit, perfectly executed until the end. Except... were we at the endgame yet?

  As Bandit sailed toward the river, I frowned and scanned the well-guarded capitol buildings at the head of the Forum. Lucifer's request for the bit key had bothered me. What would a gold cartridge have to do with embedding the dragonstone on Bandit's forehead? Unless it was for something else.

  I pulled the reins. The mountain-bongo-turned-dragon diverted away from the wall and toward a new target: the Pantheon. It was a risk, a loss of valuable seconds, but it had to be done. As we dove low, rows and rows of centurions and legionnaires gazed upward. As promised, Saint Peter had wisely defended the Pantheon from intrusion. The city itself was safe, at the cost of inaction by the city watch. They were rightly daunted by dragon fear, but they knew my face well.

  Amid the distraction, a jumble of pixels glitched up the stone steps of the column-lined portico. The invisibility function was less effective than usual, as if Lucifer's hacked code had been compromised by the angels. The imperfect deception was more than adequate considering how many eyes were on me.

  As expected, none of the angel statues were fixed atop their Pantheon perches. Three of the columns lining the entrance walkway now lay toppled, the angels and their housings permanently destroyed.

  Marius and Gaius silently drifted a yard above the ground and entered after Lucifer, unmolested by the city watch. Bandit touched down between the army, large feet climbing the stairway but pausing at the summit. Her hulking mass couldn't squeeze between the portico columns and entrance.

  I begrudgingly dismounted. I felt downright invincible on her back, but it disconnected me from the action. I needed to get inside.

  "Don't stop the other angels from coming in," I told her, rubbing her chin. Stray hairs gave way to leathery hide but the motion, even if exaggerated in length, felt natural. The massive dragon purred and wiggled an ear.

  Having the reassuring trust of the stationed soldiers, I drew the dragonspear and sprinted inside. The inner portico was quiet. I hurried to the doorway and zoned into the rotunda.

  Lucifer fended a bronze spear off with his cracked staff. He blinked to the side as a hammer smashed the floor.

  "Stop this!" I yelled.

  Behind me, Otho entered and intercepted Gaius like a comet. The angel dropped his marble hammer as they slammed into the far wall. Lucifer parried another spear strike—impressive considering Decimus had always auto-hit me. Then again, while Lucifer wasn't the oldest player in Haven, he'd taken advantage of a trick, long ago moving his profile to the permanent servers. No one knew how many wipes he'd avoided; his hacked name tag forever obscured a level.

  The most powerful player in the afterlife was one thing, but it was only a matter of time before the reality of going one-on-one against an angel set in. Bronze spear clashed against witchwood over and over. The angel's weapon was faster. The spear tip gouged the devil's side as Decimus entered the rotunda.

  The strike was a costly one, but it gave Otho the opening he needed. He blasted off the wall and buried his scythe into Marius' back. The angel screamed and collapsed as white light overtook him. Outside, another pillar crumbled to the street.

  Decimus charged in and swung. Otho's scythe blocked the downward slash, but the dual-wielded upswing struck true. Decimus cleanly sliced off Otho's arm at the shoulder. The black scythe clattered to the tile. Otho bounced against the wall, black eyes blinking with cold calculus at his stump.

  Gaius broke away from the stone wall, rock crumbling from the impact crater. He recovered his hammer and stood over Otho. Decimus turned, blind gaze lasering on Lucifer, who stood at the Oculus typing away. Beside him, the gold cartridge rested in the terminal slot.

  "I hope you're right about the saints, Talon. They're our only chance."

  Decimus stepped onto the altar. "Lucifer, you are in violation of the terms of service. You will be expunged from Haven."

  The devil's finger loudly rapped the Enter key. Saint Peter stumbled into the room and flinched at the sudden transition. Decimus raised his sword in execution.

  "Stay your hand!" cried the community manager.

  Decimus didn't turn his head or break away. He simply froze in place, silver sword gleaming in the light of the Oculus.

  Saint Peter hastily took in his surroundings and determination overtook his features. He stomped to the Oculus and retrieved the bit key. The broad ray of light shining from above blinked and dimmed slightly. As he folded the gold cartridge into his robe, Peter studied Lucifer with a haggard gaze.

  "You hacked the game... to save the game."

  The devil nodded curtly.

  "We have Hadrian in custody," I added. "We fended off the assault on Oldtown, defeated
the kraken, and exposed the plot to usurp Haven."

  "And what good is exposure?" asked a cruel voice. Another cream-colored robe striped with maroon blinked into the sanctified room.

  "I don't know how he's doing it," said Lucifer. "A virus, I believe. I can't root it out of the system, but I was able to release its hold on you."

  Saint Loras glowered at the freed saint, the stalled angels, and the apparent victors. He was especially disgruntled to find me still breathing.

  "Exposure is everything," I replied. "The people have seen what you've done."

  "And so what? Stronghold fends off another assault for the time being, but Shorehome and Oakengard have already fallen. The core city stands alone and outnumbered. You're too late to save it."

  "If that's true, why bother showing your face? It's risky opening yourself up to the hub."

  Loras shrugged. "It is my mission. Decimus!" The false saint pointed to Lucifer. The angel took a breath of air and tensed his raised arm.

  "Halt!" commanded Peter.

  Decimus froze in place. Loras grumbled and raised curled fingers toward Peter. Lightning shot forth. The old man countered with lightning of his own.

  "You can't hurt me, Loras," said Peter coolly. Loras reddened and called off the attack. Peter dusted his robes and cleared his throat. "But your disdain is interesting. Who are you? I'm guessing you have a remote operator. You're not still Larry, are you?"

  "That fool?" he spat. "He almost junked the whole operation."

  "Whoever you are, it was a mistake coming here. As a remote, your control priority is subservient to mine." Saint Peter twisted his hands to access developer sub menus. "It's just a matter of isolating the control module and..." Saint Loras grinned. Peter jutted his lips out. "I don't understand."