Awaken Online (Book 3): Evolution

by Bagwell, Travis

  Jason just shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I think we should be ready for anything.”

  Frank gave a groan from near the railing, and Jason slapped him on the back. “Come on, man. Get your axes out and let’s get ready.” This earned him a glare, and he could have sworn he heard his friend utter a few words he wasn’t sure he should repeat – at least not in polite company.

  With a quick mental order, Jason commanded his undead to get on deck. His dark-robed minions soon appeared, taking up positions on each side of the boat. Elemental energy crackled along their hands as their dead eyes stared out over the water. The mood of the sailors shifted as they saw Jason’s group preparing for battle and observed the cannons being rolled into position. They looked tense, more than one hand resting on the hilt of a curved sword and a heavy silence hung over the ship as the crew kept a watchful eye on the mists.

  Soon the prow of the ship was slicing through the edge of the wall of mist, tendrils of vapor curling and coiling around the hull. The mist licked at the wooden planks like a living thing. It almost felt like it was tasting them, feeling out the outlines of the ship.

  Minutes ticked by as the ship sailed through the sludge, their vision almost entirely obscured by the dense moisture. Frank and Riley stood to either side of Jason. Frank had his axes out and held at the ready, and an arrow was nocked on Riley’s bow. Eliza stood a bit behind Jason, her wand in one hand and the other occasionally wiping at her glasses as she stared into the mist.

  After nearly thirty minutes, the crew began to relax. Nothing had magically appeared out of the fog, and the ship continued to cut a swift path through the water. Jason was beginning to wonder if he had overreacted to the mention of a “guardian” in his vision.

  Captain Razen approached Jason again. “It’s difficult to see through this mist,” he groused. “I put us on a path for the island before we entered, but if we get knocked around too much, we might easily get lost.” His eyes darted upward, the sky no longer visible through the dense mist. “We don’t even have the stars or sun to guide us,” he muttered.

  “Just keep us moving forward,” Jason replied calmly. “It will be fine.”

  The boat gave a sudden lurch to the side. Jason staggered, falling heavily against the banister, but catching himself before he tipped overboard. Meanwhile, Frank grabbed at Eliza, just barely managing to stop her from falling over the railing.

  “What the hell was that?” Captain Razen shouted, eyeing his men. They looked back at him blankly as they pulled themselves to their feet.

  A scream pierced the air, the sound quickly swallowed up by the fog. A sailor standing on deck abruptly disappeared, flying into the mist. The other men and women stared for a long moment at the spot he had once occupied before cries of warning went up around the ship.

  “We’re being attacked.”

  “There’s something in the mist!”

  “Can you see it?” Jason asked calmly, chill energy pumping through his veins.

  Riley glanced at him, her eyes an unholy obsidian with red vines spreading out from her irises. “I can see something…” she murmured, her higher-ranked Perception skill likely allowing her to pick out the creature in the mist.

  Then another sailor let out a horrific scream. Jason whirled, and his eyes widened in shock. A massive blue tentacle was wrapped around the screaming man, barbed suckers stabbing into his flesh. With a sudden jerk, the tendril clenched, and the screaming abruptly cut off as blood poured down the creature’s slick, sapphire skin.

  A wave of tentacles swept over the ship, clutching at the deck and any sailor too slow to dodge out of the way. The vessel gave a sharp shudder and the deck lurched and jumped as the crunch of wood filled the air. “Where is its body?” Jason demanded, glancing at Riley.

  “There,” Riley finally shouted, pointing to the side of the ship.

  Suddenly, an enormous shape materialized out of the fog. The creature was almost as tall as the ship’s mast, although the rest of its bulk might have been hidden beneath the water’s surface. Nearly a dozen glowing red eyes dotted the monster’s torso, shifting and swirling before focusing on the ship and its crew. The creature’s mouth opened grotesquely, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth. As Jason watched, the monster pulled a screaming sailor into its maw with one of its tentacles, and its teeth crunched down on the man’s flesh.

  Tentacle Horror – Level ???

  “It doesn’t have a level,” Jason murmured, a sense of dread settling in his stomach.

  This wasn’t a fight that they could win.

  A roar erupted from beside Jason, and Frank charged forward brandishing his axes. The muscles in his back and shoulders rippled and contorted as spindly growths sprang from his flesh, swiftly filling out into feathered wings. With a final leap, Frank sailed into the air, streaking toward the massive creature.

  Without warning, a tentacle lashed forward toward the barbarian. Frank pivoted slightly in the air to face the oncoming tentacle, his movements sluggish and unpracticed. He wasn’t able to react in time, and the blow knocked him off course. However, he just barely managed to swing his axes, scoring a glancing blow against the tentacle. Sickly black blood jetted from the wound and spilled onto the deck of the ship.

  Even as Frank tried to recover, Riley was moving. With a quick gesture, an unholy red symbol was painted on the creature’s skin in the shape of a rose. At the same time, tendrils of red mist erupted from the monster’s skin and streaked toward Riley, coating her skin in droplets of blood. She drew back on the string of her bow, and unholy energy collected along the tip of her arrow, crackling and churning with energy.

  Then she released.

  The bolt promptly slammed into one of the monster’s eyes, dark energy lashing at its skin. As the energy began to clear, Jason could see that the blow had done little but distract the monster – failing to pierce its thick skin. The creature’s malevolent red eyes still gazed steadily at the ship.

  How the hell are we going to kill it?

  Jason heard murmuring beside him and turned to find Eliza staring at the creature in shock, her lips moving quietly. She didn’t seem to be casting a spell. Jason could just barely make out the words “dark magic resistance” over the screams and sounds of battle.

  He grabbed the water mage’s shoulder. “What are you saying, Eliza?”

  She stared at Jason wide-eyed, stuttering slightly as she replied. “I-It’s weak to electricity. It has strong resistances to Dark, Water, and Fire mana.”

  “How do you know that?” Jason demanded.

  “I-Inspection,” she replied. “I have the Inspection skill.”

  Jason’s mind wheeled at this revelation. He hadn’t known there was a skill that let players identify a monster’s weaknesses. He would have to have a talk with Eliza later – assuming they survived this. For now, he needed to focus on the battle at hand. “Frank,” he shouted. The barbarian’s head swiveled where he hovered in the air nearby. “It’s weak to electricity. Use your gloves!”

  Before Frank could reply, another tentacle swept forward and crashed into the barbarian. The creature’s limb swiftly curled around his form, incapacitating him even as he strained against the muscular tentacles. However, with his arms trapped, there was little that the barbarian could do to break free.

  “Riley, heal Frank,” Jason shouted.

  He then turned his attention to the remaining cultist zombies still standing on the ship’s deck. Three had already perished under the creature’s attacks. He swiftly ordered them to channel air mana and soon crackling electricity wound around their hands. As one, they faced Frank and fired, bolts of lightning blasting forward and pushing back at the mist that swirled around the ship.

  The energy slammed into the tentacle holding Frank, electrifying both the creature and the barbarian at the same time. Frank let out a roar of pain and Jason watched anxiously as he saw his friend’s health dip – only to be replenished a moment later as Riley channeled her health towa
rd him in a river of blood-red energy.

  The creature echoed Frank’s roar of pain and released him, its tentacle singed and burning. Frank didn’t allow the creature to recover, his wings mending quickly under Riley’s care. He shot through the air toward the Tentacle Horror, rage in his eyes as he swung his axes over his head. Lightning coiled up the length of the metal, forking and lancing through the air erratically.

  With a final scream of anger, Frank crashed into the creature and his blades sliced into its skin. Black blood drenched his form as he continued to swing with wild abandon, striking the creature again and again and again as its piercing wails filled the air.

  “Try to keep him up!” Jason shouted at Riley, noticing her brow furrowed in concentration. He saw that her health was beginning to plummet even with her Health Drain. She could only keep this up for a few more seconds.

  “Eliza, do you have any healing potions?” he asked. She didn’t respond immediately. Trembling, her wide eyes focused on Frank as she watched the battle waging across the deck. He grabbed her shoulder, shaking her roughly. “Snap out of it! Can you heal Riley?”

  The mage glanced at him with a stunned expression and then nodded slightly. Eliza quickly hurried over to Riley, lurching to the side as the tentacles wrapped around the ship contracted. Wooden boards crumbled, and the shouts of the sailors filled the air. Eliza managed to make it to Riley, slipping a healing potion from her pack, un-stoppering it and holding it to Riley’s lips.

  Meanwhile, Jason’s cultists re-entered the fray, bombarding the monster with bolt after bolt of energy. The lightning crackled along the creature’s slick skin, causing its limbs to jerk sporadically. Jason ordered a few of the cultists to man the cannons, the posts having been abandoned by the sailors who dove below decks to avoid the tentacles.

  A thundering roar erupted along the starboard side of the ship as the cannons fired. The blasts struck the creature at point-blank range and flames crawled over its skin. Eliza had mentioned it was resistant to fire, but the creature’s screams of pain seemed to indicate that it was still doing some damage.

  The creature shuddered under the relentless wave of missiles and Frank’s furious strikes. Then it craned its body toward the sky and gave one final wail. The sound caused the air to vibrate violently and visible waves of energy emanated from its maw. The force of the scream sent Frank flying backward, his back slamming into the deck of the ship with a crunch of wood. Jason clutched at his ears in a vain attempt to drown out the noise even as a notification in his peripheral vision indicated that he had been stunned.

  The Tentacle Horror began to retreat, its tentacles sliding free from the deck and the ship listing hard to the side. Eliza stumbled and fell toward the railing, almost falling overboard. Riley leaped forward at the last moment and grabbed at the water mage’s tunic, physically dragging her back aboard the ship.

  And then there was silence.

  The seconds ticked by, but the creature didn’t resurface. Jason slowly pulled himself to his feet, eyeing the area around himself cautiously. Frank was lying on the ground, blood running from rips in his skin where the tentacle horror’s barbed suckers had latched onto him. Riley and Eliza were struggling to regain their feet – their expressions stunned and bewildered.

  The ship and its crew hadn’t fared much better. Nearly a dozen bodies littered the deck, their blood staining the old wooden planks. Jason suspected many more had been pulled overboard or into the creature’s gaping maw. The railing along the side of the ship had been destroyed in several places, and large holes had been carved into the deck. He could only imagine that the damage below decks was worse. They were likely taking on water.

  As Jason surveyed the damage, a single thought kept rebounding through his head. How are we going to make it to the island? Even if they did make it, how would they get back to Falcon’s Hook?

  Chapter 13 - Desperate

  Alexion stood in the catacombs below the Lady’s temple. The area was faintly lit by the torches lining the walls, the flickering light casting long shadows against the dusty brick floor. On Alexion’s order, the crypt below the temple had been excavated and expanded tremendously. Now dormitories and training rooms lay hidden underneath the cathedral – creating a new home for his would-be recruits. What little desiccated remains that had been left in the crypt were unceremoniously dumped outside the city. He had little use for the dead.

  A crowd of men and women wearing pristine white robes now knelt on the ground before Alexion. None of them bore the ivory wings of the nephilim. That was important. The winged creatures made fantastic soldiers and were too valuable to waste on this experiment.

  Caerus and Gracien stood quietly beside Alexion. The fire mage master shifted impatiently, flames curling around the head of his staff and reflecting his poor temper. His irritation secretly pleased Alexion, and he let the man stew for a moment longer before finally stepping forward to address the recruits that filled the room.

  “You all have been chosen,” his voice echoed through the gloomy crypt. “You have been hand selected by the Lady herself to be her first Confessors. You will be the first of an elite group, dedicated to spreading the Lady’s word and ferreting out the blasphemers and heretics that would seek to undermine and harm her righteous cause.”

  Alexion motioned to a woman in the front row, her eyes shining with a frantic religious fervor as she hung on Alexion’s words. “Rise my child.” The woman stepped forward until she stood directly in front of Alexion, bowing her head. “Tell me your sins. Confess and repent, and the Lady shall grant you her power.”

  The woman glanced nervously at the men and women who filled the room before her eyes finally rested on Alexion. “I-I broke into my neighbor’s house during the transformation of Grey Keep – I mean, the Crystal Reach,” she began quietly. “They had been killed in the fighting.” She hesitated, meeting Alexion’s gaze. “I took their possessions and sold them to the travelers.

  “Please forgive me,” she whispered.

  Alexion nodded, pleasantly surprised at the disciples that Caerus had chosen. They were a splendid mix of corruption and unblinking devotion to the Lady. “Your confession has been heard and witnessed by the Lady,” Alexion intoned. “You have been judged worthy of her blessing and a ready vessel for her power. Do not flinch or shy away as we make the Lady’s mark.”

  With a nod at Gracien, the pair approached the woman and stood on either side of her. Alexion gently pulled back on the hem of the woman’s robe, exposing the bare skin of her shoulders. Simultaneously, Alexion and Gracien each pulled a metal stylus from their packs. They began carving a system of intricate runes into the woman’s skin – each man’s stylus leaving a glowing line of orange and white as fresh droplets of blood trailed from the symbols. The woman drew in a sharp hissing breath as they etched the runes into her back, but she managed to stand still.

  As the two men completed the designs, the runes suddenly flared with power, and an explosion of energy filled the small room. The woman finally lost her resolve, screaming in pain as the energy coursed through her veins. Then she slumped to the floor unmoving. Alexion glanced anxiously at Gracien, wondering if they had somehow improperly drawn the runes. Yet the fire mage master seemed unperturbed, glancing with a bored expression at the woman’s prone form.

  A moment later, a faint moan escaped the woman’s lips. She struggled to regain her feet, wobbling unsteadily for a few seconds. Looking down at her hands uncertainly, flames blossomed along her fingers – requiring no gestures or incantations on her part. The flames ate away at her skin. The woman hissed in pain, and the flames abruptly extinguished. Yet only moments later, her flesh began to knit back together.

  Alexion heard a few audible gasps from the men and women waiting their turn to receive the blessing, and they shuffled slightly where they still knelt on the floor, their robes scraping against the stone tiles. He had to admit that the effects of the inscriptions were… interesting.

  “Welc
ome sister,” Alexion said, his voice echoing slightly through the underground chamber. “You have been bestowed with the Lady’s light, providing natural regeneration and healing. Yet you are a sword first and foremost – a living armament tasked with imposing the Lady’s will – and so you have been granted a fitting weapon. A flame of faith to smite the Lady’s enemies.”

  Alexion’s eyes turned back to his remaining followers, noticing the look of fervent devotion burning in their eyes. Leaning forward, they eagerly watched the flames that were once again dancing along the new Confessor’s fingers. The malignant whisper in the back of Alexion’s mind hummed in approval. They would be a fitting force for what he had planned next.

  ***

  Jason shook himself from his stupor. He couldn’t afford to stand around idle amid the aftermath of the Tentacle Horror’s attack. While Eliza and Riley had escaped the battle relatively unscathed, a glance at his party menu confirmed that Frank’s health was beginning to redline as he bled out on the ship’s deck. Acting quickly, Jason rushed forward, unstoppering one of the healing potions that Eliza had given him, and placing the bottle to his friend’s lips.

  A moment later, Frank’s face began to regain some of its color and he was able to push himself to a sitting position. “Thanks. That damn thing hit like a truck,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair and staring at the black muck that covered his fingers.

  “No kidding,” Riley interjected. “I was barely able to keep you up with my Health Transfer. We’re lucky we managed to scare it off.” Eliza gave a mute nod, still looking a little shell-shocked by the sudden battle.

  Their conversation was interrupted as Captain Razen marched across the deck toward them. “What in the name of the six gods was that thing?” the man shouted, several of the surviving sailors turning to watch the captain.

  “I believe that was the island’s guardian,” Jason replied calmly, giving Frank a hand up.