Shattered Lands 2 The Fall Of Blackstone: A LitRPG Series

by Darren Pillsbury

She looked back at him in shock – and then gave him a wicked smile.

  41

  King Arnos

  The old king fretted on his throne, wringing his hands as he waited for news.

  There were only a few people left in the throne room. A handful of blue-caped guards, a number of ladies dressed in finery, and the most useless of the male courtiers.

  Suddenly there was a CRASH! as a guard tumbled down from the balcony and thudded dead onto the marble floor.

  A second later, a man in tattered robes and a wide-brimmed hat grabbed a hanging tapestry and slid down it thirty feet to the floor.

  The king stood up in a panic.

  The few guards that remained stepped in front of the throne and brandished their spears.

  The dark-clad man flung out his arms, and knife after knife whistled through the air.

  One by one, the guards collapsed to the floor, blades embedded in their eyes or throats.

  There was no one left to oppose the assassin.

  “Your Majesty!” the murderer called cheerily as he stalked across the throne room. “I don’t think you’ve had the pleasure of making my acquaintance.”

  He was thin and pale, with thread-like scars crisscrossing his face. His eyes were hidden in shadow beneath the brim of his hat.

  “I am Merridack, your most subterranean of subjects,” the man said with a mocking bow. “And you, unfortunately, are being deposed.”

  One courtier – the single man of valor still left amongst all the subjects in the throne room – drew a bodkin and stealthily advanced on the assassin.

  The dark-robed man threw a knife behind him without looking.

  The blade pierced the courtier right through the throat. He sank to his knees with a gurgle, then collapsed on the floor.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” the assassin said, shaking his head. “Do tell your rather useless hangers-on that there won’t be any more unnecessary displays of bravery. In fact – ”

  The assassin whirled around and yelled at the court, “GET OUT! ALL OF YOU – GET OUT NOW BEFORE I KILL YOU, TOO!”

  The frightened lords and ladies shrieked and stumbled their way out of the throne room.

  Merridack turned and smiled at the king. “Now that it’s just you and me and the corpses, perhaps we can come to an understanding.”

  The king collapsed onto his throne, his entire body shaking. “What do you want?”

  “What does anyone who kills a king want? The crown, of course. The throne.”

  “Then go ahead and do it, you wretched villain.”

  “‘Wretched villain’! I like the sound of that. Even royal insults are so… elevated.”

  “Aren’t you going to kill me?”

  “Oh no. Much as I’d like to, I’m saving you for someone else.” Merridack sighed. “I hate the bastard… but I do have to admit, he can make a plan come together.”

  42

  Eric

  It was an out-and-out slaughter.

  In the five minutes they had been outside the city gates, over a fourth of Blackstone’s army was destroyed. Whether cut down by arrows from their own archers, or beheaded by the swords of Hell’s Army, or stabbed in the back by fellow soldiers they had thought dead, or trampled by the colossal bulk of the gigantic insectoid demons, a fourth of the army was dead.

  Which just meant that the numbers of Eric’s army were growing as Cythera resurrected them.

  The mages all stood on the wall – at least, those who still had their heads intact. Eric hadn’t even had to use them yet, things were going so well just with the demons and Korvos’ men alone.

  Blowouts in sporting events were fun, but once you were so far ahead it didn’t even matter anymore, there wasn’t much excitement left.

  Actually, it was becoming sort of boring.

  And then something new happened.

  He saw them as he was staring out over the battlefield – a couple of birds soaring high in the azure sky.

  But as seconds passed, Eric realized that these were some massive birds.

  And then he realized they were not birds at all. Well, only halfway.

  Griffins. Had to be. The huge, muscled forearms gave it away.

  He could make out two riders on their backs, as well. He squinted –

  One was indigo-colored.

  Sunlight glinted off the other’s silver armor.

  “Son of a bitch,” Eric said, though with glee instead of displeasure.

  “What?” Cythera asked as she continued to resurrect dead soldiers.

  “There’s a couple of new players in the game. Or old players, you might say.”

  43

  Daniel

  The griffins sped through the air. In the distance, Daniel could see two armies – thousands and thousands of men – fighting in the clearing around the castle walls.

  There were also mountainous bug-like creatures crashing out of the forest and flattening everything in their path.

  “Holy crap,” Daniel muttered.

  The closer they got, the more apparent it was that one side – the side carrying banners and pennants of a black lion on crimson – was getting mowed down.

  Why don’t they retreat? he wondered, and then saw that the drawbridge was in the ‘up’ position.

  Either someone inside the castle had betrayed the army, or it was ‘come back victorious or don’t come back at all.’

  Up on the castle wall he could see hundreds of archers and guards, about a dozen people in bloodstained white robes, and two figures all in black.

  Eric had to be one of them.

  Now Daniel understood why the drawbridge was up.

  Daniel drew his griffin up short. It tread the air with its flapping wings a hundred feet above the treetops. Mira did the same with her griffin.

  Something was strange about the enemy soldiers, however. A few dozen of them had their helmets off, and the tops of their heads were all perfectly white and smooth, but black flames seemed to dance around the skin – if it was actually skin at all.

  “Are those skeletons?” he asked in astonishment.

  “They’re officially the foot soldiers of Hell,” Rebecca’s voice spoke in his ear, as clear as if she was sitting behind him in the saddle. “It seems your friend has made some interesting allies.”

  “Eric got an army from HELL?!” Mira yelled. “How’d he do that?!”

  “Probably the AI interceded.”

  “Can we kill them?” Daniel asked.

  “More or less, but there’s no reason to try. The Blackstone army is outnumbered and outmatched – there’s nothing you can do.”

  “Can’t YOU do something? Can’t you blow up the castle wall, or create some monsters to help the soldiers out?”

  “No. The parameters I’m able to affect don’t allow me to do either of those two things.”

  “You got us these griffins!”

  “I had to basically steal two existing ones that had already been trained, and they were hours away from where you were. There’s no similar creatures within a hundred-mile radius that could do any good.”

  “What CAN you do, then?!”

  “I can monitor all situations in the game – except where the AI has blocked me. So I can’t spy on your friend because the AI is preventing it. But because I can monitor the things happening to you and around you, I can give you advance warning of potential threats. I can alter aspects of the game that have only a rudimentary programmed consciousness, like the griffins – but I can’t create anything, I can’t destroy anything, and because the AI meddled with the code, I can’t interfere with an NPC’s thoughts or actions. In other words, I can’t make NPCs DO anything.”

  “What about the monsters in the moat? Can you make them attack Eric’s army?”

  “They’re aquatic,” Rebecca said witheringly. “They don’t exactly function well outside of the water.”

  “What about US?” Mira yelled. Daniel could barely hear her over the noise of the griffins’ wings. “Can’t
you make us Level 400 or give us mage powers or something?”

  “No. When we locked down the system to stop teleportation, the AI apparently anticipated that move, and it’s somehow locked down the system for making large alterations to the game. If you want to gain new skills, you have to do it by leveling up the old-fashioned way.”

  “So what can you do for us right now?”

  “For one, advise you to get out of there.”

  “No,” Daniel said, staring at the dark-clothed figures on top of the wall, “that’s not happening.”

  “There’s no way you can affect the outcome of this,” Rebecca said angrily.

  “We won’t know until we try, will we?” Daniel said.

  “Why would you even TRY? The odds are impossible!”

  “It’s a game, Dr. Wolff,” Daniel said. “Sometimes that’s the whole point.”

  “Your goal is to stop Eric, not help a bunch of NPCs last five more minutes against an overwhelming army.”

  “I know him way better than you do,” Daniel said. “If we mess with his plans, he’ll come after us.”

  “I still don’t – ”

  “Too bad,” he cut her off, and shouted over at Mira, “You up for this?”

  She nodded. Her bow was already in her hands.

  “Then let’s do it!” Daniel yelled, and sent his griffin into a dive.

  44

  Eric

  Eric watched the two griffins rocket down towards the battleground. They flew low over Korvos’ men, their talons raking at soldiers and knocking them off their horses.

  If the soldiers’ spears and swords inflicted any damage at all on the griffins, it wasn’t apparent from far away.

  “THE CREATOR IS NEAR,” a rumbling voice spoke off to his right.

  Eric jumped the slightest bit. He turned to see the Dark Figure, who had appeared magically at his side. Its eyeless, featureless head tracked the griffins’ movements, watching as they dive-bombed the field.

  “What – your creator?”

  “YES. SHE IS HELPING YOUR FRIENDS.”

  “They’re not my friends.”

  “THEY ARE A THREAT. THEY SHOULD BE DESTROYED.”

  “I want to see what they do first.”

  “THEY ARE IMPEDING OUR PLANS.”

  “They can’t win. We have overwhelming force on our side.”

  “PERHAPS, BUT THEY ARE INFLICTING DAMAGE.”

  “Not enough to matter.”

  “REGARDLESS, THEY SHOULD BE DESTROYED.”

  Eric sighed in irritation. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “DO NOT LET YOUR SENTIMENTALITY FOR YOUR FRIENDS STAY YOUR HAND FROM THAT WHICH MUST BE DONE.”

  Eric whirled on the Dark Figure.

  “Number one: I told you they’re not my friends. Not anymore. Number two – it’s a game. I don’t want to crush everything like that,” he said with a snap! of his fingers. “I want to savor it.”

  “TAKE CARE YOU DO NOT ‘SAVOR’ IT FOR SO LONG THAT VICTORY TURNS TO DEFEAT.”

  “Fine,” Eric sneered.

  He turned towards Cythera, who had been watching the entire exchange with frightened eyes.

  “Have the mages give our new arrivals something to think about. Not everything all at once, though – start off slow.” Eric grinned slowly as he looked back out at the creatures soaring over the battlefield. “I want to see what they’ve got before they die.”

  45

  Daniel

  Daniel’s griffin had just grabbed two armored soldiers, flown them high into the air, and then dropped them like bombs back into their army when Rebecca’s voice spoke in his ear.

  “Attack from the wall! WATCH OUT!”

  Daniel glanced over at the wall.

  A swirling vortex of bluish white was rushing at him like a horizontal waterfall.

  He thought, and his griffin complied: it swooped down fast and skimmed the battlefield.

  A continuous blast of ice shot past him like a moving column of frozen water. The air around him grew so cold that the surface of his armor frosted over.

  Once he was clear, Daniel sent his griffin soaring up far above the battlefield so he could safely look for Mira. She had evaded the blast as well, and had retreated far over the trees.

  There was an interesting side effect of the attack: the misfire encased dozens of enemy combatants, turning them to statues immobilized in a snowdrift of ice.

  “Watch out, they’re doing it again!” Rebecca yelled.

  Daniel looked back. This time it was fireballs roaring up at him from the wall.

  His griffin folded its wings and plummeted down.

  Fireballs passed within feet of them –

  And then one actually clipped his shoulder.

  His body jerked backwards. It was like he’d been pegged with a basketball as hard as someone could throw it.

  Daniel could feel the searing heat of the fire, could smell the griffin’s feathers as dozens of them scorched.

  Warning! Minor damage lessened by armor.

  -98% of physical attacks.

  -2 hit points. 103/105 hit points remaining.

  At the last instant the griffin unfolded its wings and pulled out of the dive.

  As the griffin cut across the battlefield, the fireballs followed – but when they missed, they punched flaming holes into one of the mountain-sized crustacean demons.

  There was an unearthly shriek that sounded like a gigantic cicada being tortured – and suddenly the plated behemoth burst into black smoke and disappeared.

  “Holy crap,” Daniel breathed, then shouted out, “Dr. Wolff!”

  “What?”

  “Tell Mira I have an idea!”

  46

  Eric

  Eric watched in shock and fury as one of his largest demons disappeared from the battlefield.

  “YOU SEE – ”

  “Not a word out of you!” Eric yelled as he pointed at the Dark One. Then he turned on Cythera. “You’re supposed to kill the ENEMY, not OUR guys!”

  “I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered, “but it’s hard to control them – it’s imprecise – ”

  “Fine, I’ll take care of them myself!” he yelled. “Heptus gorgulis, heptus gorgulis, heptus gorgulis, heptus gorgulis!”

  Black smoke erupted from his hands, and from the clouds flew four nightmares.

  47

  Daniel

  “Your friend just summoned something,” Rebecca warned.

  Daniel looked back. Four shapes sped through the air. They looked like massive black worms, fifteen feet long, with two sets of wings – two in the middle, and two smaller ones in the rear. Instead of heads, their bodies ended in a hinged, three-petalled structure of flesh and teeth.

  And they were fast.

  Two of them split off for him, and the other two headed for Mira.

  “Well, crap,” Daniel hissed.

  The things didn’t seem to be too much faster than the griffins, but if he turned tail and ran, they would just chase him away from the battle – and the battle was where he needed to be.

  So he headed straight for them instead.

  He was aiming for a head-on collision –

  But at the last second the griffin dove, and Daniel lifted his sword high.

  He felt the blade bite into something solid, then give way.

  He turned around to see one of the larger wings fluttering off through the air and the worm writhing as it fell towards earth.

  The problem was, the other worm had wheeled around and wasn’t far behind.

  Daniel had no idea how the griffin could do it, but he thought in his mind what he wanted: for the griffin to drop just slightly and basically stop midair.

  The griffin did it automatically. It angled down and at the same time rotated its wings so that they caught the air full-on instead of gliding on top of it.

  They didn’t come to a screeching halt, but the griffin definitely cut its speed by half.

  The eyeless worm zipped right overhea
d at full speed.

  Daniel jabbed upwards with his sword.

  The tip pierced the worm’s belly, and the momentum of the demon dragged it along, gutting it from stem to stern. It was like its body unzipped, and all its foul internal organs splattered out into the air.

  Seconds later it burst into smoke.

  Daniel looked down to see how Mira was faring, but needn’t have worried. One of the worms was already gone. As her griffin wheeled around, she turned in her saddle, aimed behind her, and fired three shots in rapid succession.

  The second worm burst into smoke.

  48

  Byrel

  Down on the ground, Blackstone’s forces had been nearly overwhelmed. Outnumbered, outflanked, and outsmarted, the nobleman had watched his soldiers succumb to despair as they were butchered by the score. Instead of fighting back, the men of Blackstone already felt defeated, and waited for death to come for them.

  Until the griffins showed up.

  Suddenly they had support from the air. The creatures harried Hell’s minions, dashing them from their rotting steeds and plowing through them like an oar through water.

  As they flew past, Byrel saw the riders: an indigo-skinned woman and a rider in silver armor.

  Cheers shot up from the Blackstone ranks.

  Then the attacks from the castle began. Ice, at first – but they missed their targets and instead immobilized dozens of the enemy. It was easy pickings as his men shoved their spears through visors and lopped off a dozen iron-clad skulls.

  Then came the fire, which the griffins dodged again – but the errant shots destroyed one of the massive insectoid monsters that had been flattening Byrel’s men.