“I’ve already ordered the Town Guard to assemble, and put on an alert on the Guild channel,” the Priest replied.
“Good,” he said. “I want to get everyone ready as soon as possible.”
“What are we going to face?”
“Thirty-one Eternals, levels thirteen to twenty, but they’ve got Leadership boosts, so the average strength is going to be over fifteenth level. They are all riding elite mounts, including a couple of big monsters. Half of them are magic-users of some type or another, the rest fighters, rogues, or hybrids, with a lot of multi-classing. Probably twenty or thirty pets as well, counting summons. They have another six Eternals, but they are not a threat. The Herders kept them as slaves.”
“We have hundreds of minions from the Stronghold.”
“Unfortunately, no. They raided a wizards’ society not too long ago, and picked up a lot of devices. One of them lets them nullify Settlement and Fortress magics. If they get within the valley’s borders, they’ll mess up every ongoing effect we’ve got. I could even lose control of the Stronghold and Town Cores.”
“Holy crap.”
“Yeah. It’s called the Rod of the Rulership. The wizard who warned me about it told me his council had been storing it in case they needed to overthrow a government or two. Looks like Kaiser was going to use it to take over Akila, but he chickened out when we averted the zombie apocalypse.”
“Zombie apocalypse?”
“Long story. It’s been a messy couple of days. Got killed, managed to level up to twenty-one anyway, and now we’ve got an invasion to handle.”
“What’s the plan, then?”
“I’m going to ambush them while you guys get ready. If everything goes well, you won’t have to do any fighting. If it doesn’t, I’ll buy you time to set up a secondary ambush.”
Olaf gave him a look. “You are going up against thirty Eternals by yourself.”
“Plus Blaze and Luna. And I’ve got a surprise for them.”
He told Olaf about the surprise while the two left the Prefect’s Keep and watched the guards and other volunteers assemble on the town’s courtyard. A small crowd had gathered around it, mostly friends and families of the soldiers and guards hastily donning their armor and joining the ranks. Many of the onlookers looked scared, something he hadn’t seen since the Revenant had invaded the valley, a good while ago. He hated seeing them afraid again. It was his job to make sure that sort of thing didn’t happen.
“I’ve heard of plans crazy enough to work. I don’t know if this is one of them,” Olaf said after Hawke explained. “And I don’t know if it will be enough to take out the Herders.”
“Well, I won’t be just watching and eating popcorn. Worst case, I will thin out their numbers. Hopefully enough for the second ambush to beat them without taking many losses.”
Hawke wanted to limit casualties on his side. One third of his guild weren’t Eternals, and the rest still had low Identities, thanks to the Necromancer. The Town Guards were even more vulnerable, being normal mortals for the most part. Even if his people won an all-out fight, the losses would be bad. He watched the troops forming up on the town square. Young, often little more than teenagers, the sons or daughters of farmers, crafters, or common laborers, enlisted for the meager pay, out of sheer boredom, or for the chance of becoming Adventurers. They would march out to defend their homes and families, and if they fell, there would be no respawning for them.
Hawke pictured the spells the Nerf Herders would rain over his people, the fireballs and lightning bolts that would hit a dozen troops for hundreds of points of damage on their targets. Instant death for his normal troops, most of whom had less than twenty Health and even with Leadership bonuses could not hope to take a hundred-point hit. The damage numbers the Arbiters’ interface displayed were crude approximations of the fragility of the human body, but they did the job of showing him how even victory would turn several of those people into unmoving, unfeeling chunks of meat. Defeat would decimate them or worse. Kaiser and his gang would consider them to be NPCs, subhuman. They could expect no mercy from them.
If there was a way to stop the guild war without risking his people, he had to try it.
Kinto Primes walked up to him. “All the troops are here, except for two patrols that won’t get back in time and the garrison at the Stronghold. We are ready, Lord Hawke.”
“Good.” Hawke explained the situation to the Hunter and summoned a map of the domain, angling the holographic construct so all the leaders could see it. “This is where I need you to go.”
“That narrow pass will favor us,” Kinto agreed, examining the spot Hawke had highlighted. “But they can push past us, with enough magic and good gear. If we place forces on each side, the enemy can concentrate on one and overwhelm it.”
“It’s the best spot that your troops can reach in time. The Guild will hold one side of the pass, the Watch the other. Make sure you have an escape route marked for both sides. No glorious last stands, do you hear? If they are too strong, retreat and regroup back at Orom.”
The Hunter shook his head with a grim expression. “Retreat is impossible, my lord. They have riding beasts that can chase us down with ease. If we break, they will slaughter us, or leave us behind and race to Orom, breaking the Domain with their device.”
Kinto was right. “You are in command, Watch Captain,” Hawke forced himself to say. “You will do as you see first. My apologies for giving you a stupid command.”
“It is said that when there is no way to flee, that is when warriors will fight hardest. I trust that after you are through with them, my boys – and girls – will handle what’s left.”
“If the first ambush fails, I’ll respawn in a few hours and rejoin as fast as you can,” Hawke added.
“Orom will not kneel to that petty tyrant.”
If things worked out the way he hoped, the Defenders and the town guard would do little more than march back and forth without seeing any fighting. Some of the Eternals might begrudge the XP they would be denied from an open-field battle, but it beat getting slaughtered. He’d make it up to them after the crisis was over.
“Very good. I’m off, then.”
“May fortune and the gods favor you,” Kinto said.
“And may the gods have mercy on the Nerf Herders,” Hawke said through clenched teeth. “Because I sure as hell won’t.”
Thirty-Seven
“That is my name, yes,” he told the ebullient Drakofox.
Blaze was literally jumping with joy, leaping all around him like an excited puppy, except this puppy was as long as a car. The white-furred beast stopped every few seconds to lick Hawke with his wet, raspy tongue, or to give him a playful nip that made him glad that he was wearing full plate armor.
“I’ve missed you too, fur-face,” he said when the giant kit settled down. He hugged his massive neck, feeling Blaze’s warm breath beating on his back like a forge’s bellows.
It still surprised Hawke how fond he’d grown of his adopted child. The imprinting worked both ways, forming an attachment that went beyond normal relationships. He knew in his heart that he could trust Blaze implicitly, and that he would kill or die for the Ethereal Drakofox. Which terrified him a little, since he was about to take him and his sister into battle.
Luna was only slightly less thrilled to see him. The fiery Drako-vixen was panting, and her breath wasn’t just hot, it could literally char-broil someone if she wasn’t careful. Blaze had become an Ethereal being who could unleash Mind energies; Luna had evolved into an embodiment of Elemental Fire. The two kits were barely a few weeks old but were among the most dangerous beings Hawke had encountered in the Common Realm. Luckily, they were on his side.
“They wanted to fly to Orom to meet you, but settled down when you told them you were coming here,” Gosto said. The Druid had somehow accumulated enough experience to hit seventeenth level, two ranks higher than when Hawke had last seen him.
&n
bsp; “Congratulations on your advancement on the Path,” Hawke told the Druid.
“And you as well. You have outgrown the Common Realm already!”
“Doesn’t feel like it. Things and people keep trying to kill me. They even succeed every once in a while.”
“Trouble seems to find you, true. Or is it the other way around?”
“Hard to tell. How did you earn your new levels? Anything I should know?”
Gosto shrugged. “A crisis averted, thank Cerunnos. As Blaze told you, a Terror Tree came to attack the Grove. My students and I destroyed it, with the help of Blaze and Luna.”
The Drakofoxes had joined the Grove Warden to keep an eye on any Eternals venturing into the Shadowy Foothills, as well as on the Wild Fae who dwelled there.
“Yeah. Blaze didn’t give me the details.”
“There isn’t much to tell. I stopped the monster from stealing power from the Node. That weakened it enough to destroy.”
As a Druid Warden, Gosto had a great deal of control over the Grove’s territory, and it extended to the Node planted there. His Node Mastery was the second highest in the Domain, and his Warden abilities allowed him to do things with it and the attached ley lines that Hawke couldn’t match. Hawke noticed that the ring of old-growth trees surrounding the Grove’s hill had grown noticeable in the few days since he’d last seen it. He wasn’t the only one who was moving on up in the Realms.
“I wish I could have been here to help,” he said.
“Not even the gods can be everywhere, Lord Hawke. You must trust those you have appointed to do the jobs you cannot,” Gosto said before grinning mischievously. “Besides, my sister will skin you alive if you neglect her for too long. We all know how much she loooves you.”
“Shut up, you,” Hawke said in the tone Tava normally used for her brother, and they both laughed.
“What will you have us do, my Lord?” Gosto asked after the brief moment of levity.
Hawke explained his plan in a few terse sentences while the Druid listened in silence.
“If you succeed, you will remove a blight upon the land and do us all a great service. But if you fail…”
“I’ll probably get killed. But your father, the guild and the town guard will be in a better position to deal with the invasion. I trust you will join their force.”
“Of course. We will make them wish they’d never set foot on the road to the valley. And you might be able to join us, after you Reincarnate.”
If he died, he wouldn’t return to life for hours. It probably would be too late to do anything but bury the dead, or lead the fight at Orom itself, which would be a defeat even if the Nerf Herders were wiped out. A lot of what he had built would be lost. Hawke was surprised how much he was bothered by the idea of seeing the work of hundreds of people destroyed. He couldn’t let that happen.
Setting the gloomy thoughts aside, he turned to Blaze. “I got you something.”
Hawke summoned an Enhanced Tamer’s Beast Saddle from his Inventory. Blaze sniffed it and gave him a foxy grin.
“You still gotta be a bit careful, or I may upchuck on the back of your head.”
“I have it here. Tava is heading back as fast as she can, so it might be a good idea to have it on you already.”
The magical harnesses worked as well as advertised, conforming themselves to the Drakofoxes’ shapes snugly but comfortably. The seats were a little closer to the neck than the improvised setups Orom’s crafters had come up with, and they included plenty of safety straps. Hawke felt confident that he wouldn’t get tossed even by a steep dive, although he might want to have a couple of airsick bags at hand, just in case.
He got on and strapped himself. Time to put it to the test.
* * *
The flight went well enough. Hawke practiced casting spells and a few other maneuvers, and felt confident on his ability to stay on the saddle in the heat of combat. And he didn’t throw up even when Blaze did a full turnover and Hawke found himself upside down, staring at the ground ‘above’ his head. So far, so good.
His good mood vanished when he spotted his destination: a barren plain nestled between a loose circle of hills that hid it from outsiders. Two ley lines crossed the area and connected near its center; they weren’t linked to the ley lines in his Domain, thankfully, because they were infected by the same Undeath curse afflicting the land. Nothing grew there, not since the corpses of thousands of Legionnaires were dropped into unhallowed, unmarked graves by their demonic killers. The spirits still bound to those bodies were filled with rage. If someone with enough power and malice awakened them, they would march out and kill all living things around them, triggering an Area Event. The killings wouldn’t give those soldiers peace, however. When the Event ended, those corpses would return to the valley, cursed to remain there.
Hawke was hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
As he landed outside the ring of hills, a notification appeared in front of him.
Warning! You are near a Level 12 Hazard Zone!
Thousands of cursed corpses and their tormented souls infest this patch of land. If any living being enters, some of them will rise up and seek your death.
An Undeath practitioner can trigger a Level 12 Event: RISE OF THE DEAD by spending 1,200 Mana.
Any other living being who enters will be attacked on sight. If enough mortals are killed on the Zone, their deaths will trigger the Event.
Current Death Count: 32/100
“It’s leveled up,” Hawke commented.
During his first trip to Akila, Greg the Necromancer had activated Rise of the Dead while Hawke and his friends were in its area of effect. It had only been a seventh-level Event back then, but it had nearly wiped out his group. And it had grown stronger somehow. As Hawke and his friends leveled up, so had the entire valley. Was it a natural progression, or was someone (or Someone, as in gods or Makers) raising the stakes to mess with him? Maybe it was a combination of both. In this case, it was a two-edged sword. If his plan worked, it would work even better than he’d hoped, but making it happen was going to be more difficult.
The easy move would be to spend the Mana and trigger the Event; the Herders would be in range, and getting hit by a horde of 12th level Undead over multiple phases, all while surrounded in a thick mist, would at the very least inflict some casualties and delay them. But the Event had a huge area of effect, one that would reach the borders of his Domain and also affect the forces Kinto was assembling. And the Woodlings he had made peace with would be attacked by the ravening horde. Hundreds of innocents would die. It wasn’t worth doing, even if the Event were guaranteed to destroy the Nerf Herders. Which, considering their levels and gear, was unlikely.
What he had in mind was riskier, but also the right thing.
“You two, stay here until I come back or I die. You know what to do if that happens.”
“If I succeed, you won’t have to.”
Blaze whimpered and snapped at the air.
Hawke concentrated and spent a few minutes preparing an expensive spell. When he was done, he answered the Drakofox.
“I still am Lord of the Dead. I’ll make them listen.”
When he had first gained that title, he hadn’t realized it gave him bonuses besides looking cool next to his name. That was because he didn’t unlock the prerequisites until later. Now, whenever it was active, he gained a +20% to any spells, tasks, or abilities related to controlling or resisting the control
of Undead. It was just the thing to wear when he strolled into a cursed mass grave.
Title Equipped: Lord of the Dead.
Number of Title Slots Remaining: 1/2
“Hey, I get two titles. Must get one slot every ten levels.”
Hawke ignored the scolding and checked his titles, discovering that helping Girl-Has No-Name break her oath to the Nerf Herders had actually paid off for him:
Liberator: When equipped, gain a +30% to any spells, abilities or tasks intended to resist or disrupt any forms of exerting control over others, magical and mundane.
“I am a Liberating Lord of the Dead,” he announced. “Just the kind of guy you call to turn a pack of monsters into allies.”
the sword replied.
With that, Hawke walked into the valley of unrestful dead.
Thirty-Eight
The moment Hawke crossed the boundary of the Hazard Zone, the temperature dropped a good twenty degrees. It felt like walking into a freezer. Or maybe a morgue. The effect wasn’t just physical: there was a fear-inducing aura permeating dead valley. It had no effect on Hawke, but he could feel its presence like hundreds of cold and clammy fingers touching his skin. Very unpleasant. Not the place to visit on a date, unless your date was hard-core into goth stuff.
You have entered a Hazard Zone: Unhallowed Legions Burial Ground (Level Twelve)
As skeletons began to claw their way out of the ground, Hawke cast the spell he had prepared beforehand:
Army of the Dead
Time to Cast: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 24 hours. Cost: 250 Mana. Duration: Two hours. Range: 2-mile radius. Effect: Any corpses in the area of effect that have not been given a proper funeral and buried in hallowed ground will rise, digging themselves out if necessary, and follow your mental commands. The risen dead will be Skeletons or Zombies, depending on the state of their corpses, and will have an equivalent level equal to two-thirds the caster’s level, rounded down.
Guilds at War: The LitRPG Saga Continues Page 27