Legacy of the Fallen

by Luke Chmilenko

  “Smile for the camera, Mozter,” I said to the dark elf, pausing for a heartbeat before I drove the point deep into his throat. “Everyone will be watching this.”

  Chapter 11

  The crowd cheered wildly as I pushed myself up off Mozter’s body and onto my feet, managing a single glance at the dark elf’s corpse before it dissipated into nothingness, to be replaced by a loot sack containing all of the man’s equipment.

  Serves him right, I thought to myself savagely as I flicked the blood off Razor, noticing four similar sacks marking the spots where the rest of Mozter’s party had died. Before I could take a single step forward, a flashing notice appeared in my vision, updating me on the duel’s outcome.

  You are victorious!

  You have gained 20 Glory Points!

  Ranked Duel Statistics:

  Current Title: Neophyte

  Regional Rank: Pending Weekly Update

  Global Rank: Pending Weekly Update

  Glory Points: 20

  Personal Rating: 1537

  Wins: 1

  Losses: 0

  I don’t have time to deal with this, I told myself mentally as I dismissed the notification from my vision and looked at the crowd, all of whom looked satisfied with the battle’s outcome. Maybe in a few weeks once everyone’s settled I can have a few fun duels. But first, I need to make sure that no one ever decides to pull something like this again.

  “Are you alright, Lyrian?” Theia asked softly, her voice barely carrying over the cry of the crowd as she crossed the Arena and came to a stop before me. Drawn by her voice, Freya and Amaranth moved away from their kills and stood beside the tall Arakssi. “You really took a solid hit from his spell.”

  “Spells, actually,” I whispered back to her, glancing between Amaranth and Freya to see if either had suffered any injuries during the fight. From what I could tell, both of them appeared to be uninjured, though Amaranth’s bloody maw and paws made it difficult for me to be completely sure in his case. “He has an ability that lets him chain cast the same spell three times at once.”

  “Damn,” Freya replied with a wince. “That’s probably what made him so cocky.”

  “Yeah,” I said in full agreement, mentally playing back the fight. I had been too focused on my own levels and gear when confronting Mozter and had forgotten just how new everything in Ascend Online was. Even with the game being out a month already, we had barely scratched the surface of what skills or abilities that were available to be discovered.

  Something that often led to the same kind of surprise that I had just experienced. One that could have cost me dearly if I hadn’t been able to negate Mozter’s spellcasting ability.

  “Anyway, we’re not done just yet,” I said while inclining my head towards the Town Hall. “Time to drive our point home and make sure that Mozter or anyone else doesn’t try something like this again.”

  “A moment,” Theia said as she muttered an incantation under her breath and reached out to touch my chest with a glowing hand, causing a healing wave of energy to shoot through my body and repair the damage that Mozter’s spell had wrought. “There, that’s better.”

  “Thanks, Theia.” I smiled at the older lizardwoman, instantly feeling better as the lingering pain faded away.

  “It is nothing,” she replied with a shrug. “Go sort out what you must with Mozter. I will run herd on the recruits until one of you return. I daresay many will follow you to see what sort of punishment you will deal out.”

  Leaving the Arena behind, the three of us easily passed through the crowd of watching Adventurers, all of them shuffling to open a path before us as we moved with purpose directly towards the Town Hall.

  “What are you going to do to him, Lyrian?” Freya asked, her tone clearly indicating who she meant.

  “Right now, I have half a mind to bury him neck deep in the ditch surrounding the village for a week,” I replied as several other ideas came to mind, none being any kinder. “Maybe with a bucket on his head to make life more difficult.”

  Amaranth’s mental voice said approvingly as his azure eyes flicked up to meet mine.

  “Maybe,” I replied to the cat with a thoughtful smile before looking to Freya. “Amaranth thinks we should include the entire party as well."

  “Now there’s an idea,” Freya snorted in amusement as we spotted Mozter and his party standing in front of the Town Hall, looking slightly dazed and confused as they all looked around, missing all of their weapons and armor. A short distance away from them stood a tall human Adventurer that I didn’t recognize, who was glaring angrily at the group, no doubt being the person that Mozter had killed a few minutes earlier.

  “Give us some space,” I told Amaranth and Freya, not slowing down as I approached the dark elf and his companions standing in front of the Town Hall entrance, making a beeline towards Mozter. Looking up, his eyes widened in surprise a moment before I planted a hand on his chest and shoved him backward, hard.

  “Huh, he—” Mozter yelped, staggering awkwardly away from me in an attempt to keep his balance, catching himself on the wall of the Town Hall as Freya and Amaranth rounded on the rest of his companions, giving the would-be duelist and me some semblance of privacy. “What the fuck, man? I con—”

  “Shut up, Mozter,” I spat at the dark elf as I grabbed his arm and brutally twisted it, spinning the man until I had him pinned against the wall face first. “Now that we have your bullshit challenge out of the way, we can move onto the fact that you killed one of my applicants in cold blood.”

  “What? You can’t do anything about that,” Mozter gasped in pain as he tried to pull himself out of my vicious grip, the loss of his gear further weakening his already less than impressive strength. “That was buried in the duel ter—”

  “No, Mozter, that was in your duel terms,” I told the dark elf, watching his face go pale as I spoke. “You thought you’d be able to avoid punishment for what you did, but I saw straight through you.”

  “No!” The one eye I could see went wide as he no doubt reviewed the terms of the duel. “That can’t be right! I wouldn’t have accepted it if—”

  “I hope you don’t have anywhere to be for the next week,” I said as I pulled Mozter free from the wall, grabbing hold of the back of his neck. “I think you need some time for some quiet reflection.”

  But no sooner did I turn around, did I feel a cold metal hand grab hold of my arm, Dyre’s steely voice filling the air as he suddenly appeared in the Town Hall’s doorway with Sierra a half-step behind him before I could pull Mozter away.

  “Lyrian, what is going on here?” the Justicar asked in a flat, no-nonsense tone. “Why are you assaulting this Adventurer?”

  “Let go of me, Dyre,” I told the Justicar, trying to pull my arm free, but finding it impossible to budge. “You missed your window to intervene.”

  “Guys, what happened?” Sierra asked, glancing between Amaranth’s bloody maw and the tip of Freya’s spear. “We heard a bunch of commotion and were on our way…”

  “This man killed one of our applicants a few minutes ago in a misguided attempt to get to challenge me to a duel,” I told Sierra, seeing her face shift into a hard expression. “I am going to make sure that he understands the consequences of his actions.”

  “You will do no such thing, Lyrian,” Dyre stated harshly, his steel-like grip tightening around my arm. “You no longer have the authority, or reason, to take the law into your own hands now that I am here.”

  “Yet I find myself forced to,” I said, staring at Dyre as I spoke, silently gritting my teeth as the pain from the Justicar’s hold on my arm began to build. For a moment, I considered to try and pull my arm free of the man’s grip, but was alarmed to see a tag appear in my vision, causing me to second guess my decision.

  [Joseph Dyre] – Justicar of Aldford – Level Unknown

&
nbsp; His level is masked, I realized, begrudgingly choosing to let go of Mozter as I regarded Dyre in a new light. I didn’t even know that the game hid levels from players.

  “I understand your anger,” Dyre stated in his typical expressionless voice as Mozter flinched away from me and moved to stand beside the Justicar. “But it is my duty to ensure that justice is served exactly as the Town Charter proscribes and in accordance with Mithus’s Will.”

  “Now, explain to me what happened,” the Justicar asked, his head shifting his faceless gaze between Mozter and me.

  “I wasn’t there for the whole thing,” I began, motioning to Freya who had circled around the Justicar with the Adventurer I had seen earlier.

  “As part of our recruitment process, we were conducting sparring matches to determine everyone’s skill level, specifically non-lethal matches,” Freya told the Justicar, not missing a beat as she nodded towards the blonde-haired Adventurer beside her. “On three separate occasions, Theia or I were forced to tell Mozter to restrain himself due to the wounds he was inflicting.”

  “As the matches progressed, he became more and more violent, and I decided to pair him against some of the better recruits, hoping that they would knock some sense into him,” Freya continued speaking, glancing over at the dark elf. “At least until he took a cheap shot after the match had been called.”

  “Not my fault they couldn’t keep up with me,” Mozter cut in somewhat petulantly, waving a hand at the Adventurer that he had killed. “In combat, you have to be ready for anyth— ah!”

  Mozter flinched as a gob of spit hit him directly in the eye, followed closely behind by the blonde-haired Adventurer’s fist as he stepped in front of Dyre, the unexpected blow completely knocking the dark elf off his feet.

  “Keep up with you?” The man shouted, struggling to pull himself forward as Freya belatedly reached to grab him from behind. “I fucking paid attention to the rules, you fucking—”

  “ENOUGH!” Dyre’s voice boomed as he recovered from the Adventurer’s unexpected attack, slashing a hand through the air that erupted with magic. Faster than the eye could follow, a golden chain wrapped itself around the man’s body, immediately stopping him in his tracks. “You will cease your violence, or by Mithus’s will, I will charge you with assault as well!”

  Dyre can use magic? I noted with surprise, seeing similar expressions written on everyone’s face.

  Struggling against the bonds, the man gave Dyre a dirty look, moments before it was replaced by a grim smile. “Very well, Justicar. While I appreciate the guild master standing up for me, I felt I needed to make my own point.”

  “Do not test me, Adventurer,” Dyre replied in clipped tones as an unseen mental action caused the golden chains binding the man to constrict painfully. “Mithus sees that you have been wronged, and for that reason alone he is willing to let your transgression slide, this once. Strike someone in anger before me again, however, and you will regret the consequences.

  “Understood?”

  “Ugh—” the Adventurer managed to gasp in pain. “Yes.”

  “Good.” Dyre grunted, the golden chains dissolving from around the Adventurer’s body. “Now—”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Mozter whined from his position on the ground as he clutched his eye. “He pops me one and gets nothing?”

  “Quiet!” Dyre snapped at Mozter. “Every word you have spoken thus far rings of falsehood to Mithus’s ear and your aura is tainted with Discord. I do not expect any ruling I make to be in your favor. Do yourself a favor and remain silent.”

  “Should have been prepared for anything, Mozter,” I told the dark elf as he slowly pushed himself up back onto his feet, momentarily revealing that the Adventurer’s single blow had broken his cheekbone and completely ruined his left eye. While it would regenerate in a few minutes, I couldn’t help but savor the man’s pain given how much aggravation he had caused me in the short while that I had known him.

  Mozter made a rude gesture in my direction, though I could see the worried look in his eyes as Dyre spoke again, this time to me directly.

  “How did you get involved in this, Lyrian?” Dyre asked. “I expected you to be with Stanton for a while yet.”

  “I was,” I told the Justicar with a nod. “However, the commotion from the Arena drew my attention, and after seeing someone resurrect by the Town Hall, I assumed the worse.”

  “I see,” Dyre replied. “And when you arrived at the scene?”

  “I was met by Theia and Freya, who had just begun to confront Mozter,” I continued, my eyes flicking over to the Adventurer as I spoke. “From there, Mozter openly admitted that he had killed…”

  “Alistair,” the man supplied helpfully.

  “That he had killed Alistair,” I repeated, nodding my thanks to the Adventurer that I had yet to formally meet. “In order to get my attention and challenge me to a ranked duel. Twisting the terms of the duel so that he would escape any punishment for his actions.”

  “Which you accepted?” the Justicar asked, a note of hesitation appearing in his voice for the first time.

  “Not before removing those terms,” I replied, keeping my attention focused on Dyre.

  “I see,” he replied thoughtfully looking over at Mozter. “Then I believe sentencing is in order.”

  “What?” Mozter barked incredulously as his one working eye darted towards his party, all of whom who remained silent. “I don’t even have a chance to defend myself?”

  “Every word you have spoken thus far has been filled with nothing but false pride and lies,” Dyre stated as he turned his faceless gaze over to Mozter. “Can you state in complete honesty that you were not the instigator of the events that just transpired?”

  “Uh…” Mozter looked at the Justicar with hesitation. “I didn’t—”

  “Enough,” Dyre spat, looking at Mozter with disappointment. “Mithus sees all, and through him, so do I. The lies you spin in your head will not work on me, for I have heard enough to pass Judgment.”

  My heart leaped as Dyre spoke the final word of his sentence, his voice taking on a deeper tone as he leveled his gaze on Mozter.

  “Mozter, for the crime of slaying an Adventurer in cold blood within Aldford,” Dyre stated. “I find you guilty.”

  “For the crime of instigating Discord within Aldford, I also find you guilty,” Dyre continued, watching Mozter intently, who flinched at the two guilty verdicts. “In accordance with the Town Charter and the laws laid down within it, I banish you from Aldford for a period no less than a year and a day.”

  “Furthermore,” the Justicar stated, keeping his faceless gaze on Mozter as he spoke. “Mithus has moved your Soulbinding from the town of Aldford back to your city of origin. Should you die again, you will find yourself far away from this town, lest you find another location to anchor your soul.”

  “What?” Mozter gasped, looking terrified. “You can do that? That’s not fair! There’s nowhere even close to here to bind my soul again!”

  “That is not my concern,” Dyre stated emotionlessly. “Perhaps it will serve as a valuable lesson to you for the future.”

  “Hang on,” I said, having watched the exchange between Dyre and Mozter quietly until now. “Banishment is a fine final punishment, but it’s not enough for what Mozter has done. We need to make it clear that Aldford won’t tolerate the shit that he just pulled.”

  “Oh, fuck you, Lyrian,” Mozter spat. “Haven’t you done enough already?!”

  “And what do you believe would make his punishment fair?” Dyre asked me, ignoring the dark elf’s reaction.

  “Imprisonment, at least for a week,” I stated without hesitation. “Then banishment.”

  Dyre stared at me for a moment, processing my statement before he shook his head. “That will not be possible. There are no clauses for imprisonment within Aldford’s Town Charter. Any punishment is limited to Fines, Death, Exile or Banishment.”

  “Are you serious?” Freya cut in,
asking the Justicar with a note of disbelief in her voice. “We can’t imprison anyone in Aldford at all?!”

  “The laws of this town were written with the frontier in mind,” Dyre stated, shifting his gaze to the blonde-haired woman. “It was not anticipated that resources would be spent building a prison, not when banishment to the wild almost guarantees death.”

  “Well, that’s a big gap that we’re going to have to fix.” I couldn’t believe what Dyre was telling me. “Just banishing Adventurers isn’t enough of a deterrent!”

  “The laws of Aldford is something that you will have to bring up with Aldwin. He is the only one with the legal right to adjust them or create new ones,” Dyre told me as he reached out to grab Mozter by the arm. “In the meantime, however, I will continue to enforce them as they have been laid down.”

  “Hey, wait!” Mozter yelped as Dyre practically yanked him off his feet. “Don’t I get an appeal either?”

  “You may appeal your sentence directly to Mithus after a term of six months of good behavior,” Dyre replied as he pulled Mozter away from us, taking a path directly towards the southern section of Aldford. “Should you have sincerely attempted to mend your ways, Mithus will commute your sentence at that time. However, should you be found wanting…Mithus may see fit to increase it instead. I suggest that you weigh your actions carefully before appealing to the God of Justice.”

  Moving to keep pace with Dyre, all of us, including Mozter’s party, followed the Justicar as he dragged the dark elf to the bridge that spanned the river and marked the edge of Aldford’s official boundary. True to Theia’s earlier words, I then realized just how many Adventurers had followed us from the Arena, or had been drawn by the commotion surrounding the Town Hall as nearly two dozen of them eagerly waited to witness the punishment of the would-be duelist.

  With little ceremony as we approached the bridge, Dyre shoved the dark elf forward, causing him to stumble across the rough stone, the rest of his party following wordlessly behind, joining in on their leader’s banishment with barely a word or hesitation.