Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  Focusing on those before me, I timed a sweeping stroke of my blade in front of me a moment before impact, knocking a trio of weapons out of the way before smashing into the wall of bodies.

  And running straight over them.

  Speed and momentum carried me through the mass of now panicking thieves as I used my size and weight to bull my way through them, knocking several of them to the ground. I felt bones crunch under my boots as I ruthlessly stomped on the fallen bodies, swinging my sword in a deadly arc before me in a spray of blood and gore. Passing through the group of thieves like a deadly scythe, the four of us burst free from the other side at the same moment I heard a thundering crunch as the four combined Thieves Guilds trailing us crashed into the enemy.

  The battle for Eberia had begun.

  Intent on causing as much mayhem as possible, the four of us pressed into the mass of bodies that surged forward to meet us, vengeance burning in our hearts. With Sawyer guarding my flank, I swung my glass-steel blade in wide arcs through the air, using its long reach to carve us a pocket of safety amid the chaos of battle.

  Standing in a zone of relative safety between Sawyer and me, Molly worked her blade with blinding speed, alternating between aiding us with timely parries and striking out at any enemies that dared to enter range. Blood dripped from her heavy sabre as she screamed wordlessly into the cacophony of battle, her free hand spraying an arc of ink-colored magic towards the enemies pressing down on us.

  “Keep hitting them!” Sawyer shouted, his golden shield already covered in blood as he rushed forward to take advantage of the temporarily blinded thugs affected by Molly’s spell.

  Moving with blazing speed, Sawyer landed three vicious stabs into the chests of the afflicted cutthroats, which had them staggering backwards into the press of bodies, clutching their wounds as they fell to the ground.

  Not to be outdone, Quinn wielded his wand to deadly effect, sending a steady stream of bright red energy into the ranks of thieves ahead of us, their bodies packed far too tightly for all to avoid its burning wrath. Conjuring balls of fire with his free hand, the air echoed with the constant thunder of exploding magic as he ravaged the leading ranks of the defenders.

  With the opening assault spent, the battle then blurred into an orgy of bloodshed and death as the two forces began to relentlessly grind away at one another. Despite the haste that they were constructed with, the poorly crafted barricades were enough to prevent us from simply overwhelming The Damned, forcing us into narrow funnels where our numbers were less effective as they desperately fought to hold us at bay.

  Mages did their best to aim their spells at the barricades blocking our way, but with the thick press of bodies obscuring them and the inability to attack from higher ground, the mages were relegated to a secondary role. Yet this did not render them completely ineffective, as they lobbed their deadly spells in high arcs, causing them to sail into the air before crashing downwards, landing in the rear ranks of the defenders and wreaking havoc.

  Fighting through a chokepoint with Sawyer by my side, the two of us ground forward like two unrelenting juggernauts, working together in near perfect sync as we gradually forced a line of cutthroats to give way under our attacks. Blood seeped from ripped leather and scarred metal that was once unbroken armor, the two of us bearing countless wounds as the price of our progress. It was only because of the timely ministrations of Molly, who followed behind us, that we still stood, her magic sealing our wounds or providing a protective shell of magic when we were hard pressed.

  Slashing through an exposed guard, the tip of my blade caught my opponent just below the shoulder, its razor-sharp edge easily parting armor and flesh as it bit deep. Pulling my sword free, the arm fell to the ground still clutching its weapon as I quite literally disarmed the thief. Howling beyond pain, the man had enough time to glance down at his fallen arm before Sawyer’s blade found its way into his throat and ended his suffering for good.

  “Fuck!” Sawyer exclaimed in grim amusement as he seamlessly pulled his blade free and blocked a second cutthroat’s attack. “I need to get me a fancy knife like that!”

  “Well, it was pretty expensive,” I replied while swinging the weapon in a low sweep, catching the man attacking Sawyer in the leg and severing it in a similar fashion as the arm before it. “It cost me an arm and a leg!”

  “Oh God,” Sawyer groaned theatrically, delivering a killing thrust to the falling man’s chest, allowing us to push forward a few steps as others behind the two fallen cutthroats hesitated in moving forward to meet us. “Your battle puns need work!”

  “Look, they’re breaking!” Quinn called out as he took advantage of the momentary gap ahead of us and threw a fireball directly into a thief’s face from pointblank range, sending the man falling to the ground, screaming in pain.

  True to Quinn’s word, I looked up over the crowd of terrified thieves backing away from us and saw that the pulse of the battle had begun to shift. The relentless push that had characterized the first few minutes of the battle had been replaced by a growing sense of fear as the mounting losses that The Damned were suffering began to take its toll.

  Bellowing loudly, I spotted a massive half-giant standing head and shoulders above the crowd before us, shoving his way forward as he rallied the panicking cutthroats around him, going as far as to cut a retreating thief down with a single swing of his jagged axe in an attempt to restore order. Stunned by the brutal maneuver, the majority of the panicked thieves ground to a halt, the half-giant gesturing in our direction as he continued to shout. Staring at the man for a heartbeat, I saw a tag appear in the corner of my eye.

  [Guild Crusher] – The Damned – Level 13

  “Shit,” I cursed while taking the opportunity to catch my breath. “That didn’t last long.”

  “Looks like a tank,” Sawyer replied calmly as the line in front of us slowly regrouped, the armored half-giant taking the center position. “This guy is going to be a pain to wear down.”

  Catching sight of the massive half-giant, I silently echoed Sawyer’s sentiment, seeing the heavily armored thug for the first time as he stepped out of the crowd. Outfitted with a thick breastplate protecting his chest and chainmail running down both his arms and legs, the Crusher’s armor was an order of magnitude better than anything we had seen in the battle so far.

  But as if the armor weren’t enough, the half-giant had a jagged slab of metal strapped to his forearm that, judging from the countless scars upon it, served as a shield in addition to being a deadly weapon in its own right. Pointing a wicked-looking axe at the two of us, the half-giant screamed a wordless challenge as he beat his shield against his chest, before slamming it into the ground hard enough to smash the cobblestones underneath.

  “This is going to suck,” I grumbled as I watched the Crusher’s weapon intently, shifting my sword into a guard position. “You ready, Sawyer?”

  “Right behind you, man,” Sawyer agreed with a curt nod, his attention focused on the growing wall of thieves that began to rally behind the half-giant.

  “Wait!” Molly shouted while grabbing me by the shoulder. “Quinn, shield!”

  Before I could turn my head to glance towards her, several thunderous explosions rumbled through the air, causing us to stagger as a wave of force threatened to sweep us off our feet. Falling from the sky above, a ball of fire landed directly between us and The Damned’s reformed line of battle, exploding with burning heat.

  Rushing towards us with blinding speed, I had enough time to see a wall of fire fill my vision before instinct forced me to cover my face in an attempt to protect my eyes. Cowering from the blast, I braced myself for the inevitable searing pain to wash over my body, praying that there weren’t any other attacks following it.

  But it never came.

  “Shit, that was close!” Quinn gasped from just beside my ear.

  Looking up from behind my arm, I saw a gleaming distortion just inches away from my face as the last vestiges of fire swept
up and over the hastily cast Force Shield that Quinn had managed to place before us.

  “You’re a lifesaver, Quinn!” I praised the mage, seeing that he had thrust his hands between Sawyer and me before conjuring the shield. Looking through the mild distortion of the shield, I saw that the both the Crusher and the thieves standing before us hadn’t been lucky enough to have a mage to blunt the fireball’s rage.

  Nearly half a dozen thugs lay on the ground thrashing wildly in pain as they tried to slap out burning bits of armor, and in some cases, burning flesh. Kneeling on the ground, having taken cover behind his heavy shield, the Crusher appeared to be slightly stunned as he slowly staggered to his feet, looking somewhat singed.

  “Where the hell did that come from?!” Sawyer shouted as he started glancing around. “Was that us or them?!”

  “Them! From up high!” Molly exclaimed from behind me. “They had mages hidden away in the apartments above us!”

  Whipping my head upwards, I looked up in time to see another wave of fireballs fly from several shattered windows on the second and third stories of the building overlooking the battleground. The fireballs sailed through the air before venting their fury amid the crowd of tightly packed attackers.

  Presented with a target their spells could now reach directly, the surviving mages of the Thieves Guilds’ army retaliated within seconds, a torrent of spells rising up in response to The Damned’s mages’ surprise attack.

  Several figures caught standing in front of the windows vanished with pained screams under the onslaught of spells as they practically tore the face off of the building, sending burning debris and glass raining down on us below. Ice, fire, and lightning ravaged the side of the wooden structure as mages refused to let up and relentlessly poured magic into each and every window above us.

  “Retreat!” an unfamiliar voice boomed over the crash of battle in pain, clearly aided by magic. “Retreat!”

  Almost instantly, the momentum of the battle shifted from a slow and drawn-out grind to a full-on retreat as The Damned suddenly disengaged from the raging battle around us and turned to flee down the streets deeper into the Phineas Estate.

  “Retreat?” Sawyer questioned while looking around for the source of the voice. “They just rocked us with that attack and still have fortifications we haven’t even reached!”

  “Their morale is breaking!” Quinn stated from behind us as he dismissed his shield.

  “Not for all of them,” I replied, motioning towards the burnt Crusher, who looked livid at the early call for retreat, but nevertheless began to turn to follow the rest of his fleeing comrades. “Let’s—”

  Cutting me off, the voice boomed through the air once more, hissing a now familiar word of power that I had heard far too many times in the last day, the same word that both Edith and Dorian had shouted to trigger the possession spell built into the Hellborn Soul Shards.

  The echoing voice didn’t even have time to fade from the air before the Crusher unleashed a bloodcurdling scream as he fell to the ground. He desperately clawed at something under his armor, but refused to drop his jagged axe. Before any of us could react, the half-giant burst into a small pillar of flame as a gout of fire erupted from underneath his armor and consumed his body, forcing us to shield our eyes from the glare.

  “They’re panicking!” Quinn shouted, recovering the fastest from the scene unfolding before us. “They screwed up the timing for their next trap! They’re summoning the devils now!”

  “Damn it!” I cursed while gritting my teeth together as more screams began to echo across the battlefield. I had known going into the battle that there was a good chance that Dorian had managed fill at least some of the soul shards that he had crafted, but I’d been hopeful that we would only have to worry about a handful of devils as the attack unfolded.

  A quick glance around the battlefield told me I was wrong.

  Scattered among the crowd of fleeing thieves, I counted over three dozen similar bursts of fire as bound devils were released from their bone prisons and rapidly possessed their new bodies, violently remaking them in their own image. The smell of burning flesh and brimstone filled the air, layering itself over the acrid stench of spilled blood as the howling screams of pain belonging to their hosts died out with a sickening finality.

  With the last soul-wrenching wail fading from the air, the battlefield fell nearly silent, save for the distant rumble of the fleeing thieves as they desperately sought to put distance between themselves and the hell that they had purposefully unleashed. Recoiling from the flaming pyres, I saw the Thieves Guilds’ army pull back from the transforming devils, shocked by their sudden appearance deep within their ranks.

  “Lazarus.” I felt Sawyer’s elbow poke me roughly in my side, bringing me back into the present as I twisted my head towards him and saw his pale face staring straight ahead. “Look.”

  Following his gaze, I turned my head towards where I had seen the Crusher fall and felt my breath catch in my throat. Looking nothing like its original form, the heavily armored half-giant was now a grotesque mound of purple-colored flesh and blackened metal.

  Glancing around wildly with a single crimson eye, a low moan escaped from the devil’s tooth-filled maw as it lifted its now corpulent body off the ground, standing unsteadily on short, stubby legs. The once finely crafted armor that covered the half-giant was now rent apart and partially melted into the creature’s flesh from its blistering transformation, with thick rolls of fat spilling out amid the gaps of broken chainmail. Fused to each arm were the twisted remains of the Crusher’s jagged shield and axe, the metal having become one with the devil’s flesh.

  “I’ve had just about enough of this,” I replied, feeling a spark of anger kindle inside me as I looked at the devil, taking a deep breath as my thoughts began to rage.

  The last day had driven me past limits that I hadn’t known I had, while forcing me to make choices that I never would have believed that I was capable of making. This had gone beyond just being a game I was playing for entertainment.

  No, right now I was fighting to protect my home. A home that someone was doing their damned best to destroy.

  I bared my teeth as the sigil pulsed violently across my chest, the raging energy behind it begging to be released, to bring vengeance against those who dared to stand before me. It was all I could do it keep the searing rage at bay as I stared at the devil intently, causing a blinking tag to appear in my vision.

  [Hellborn Devourer] – Boss – Level 13

  I heard a growl escape my throat as the intensity of the sigil increased, my hands causing my sword to tremble as I struggled to hold the growing rage in check.

  The devil’s eye widened as it heard my subtle challenge, the blood-red orb shifting towards me with curiosity, its mouth opening slowly as a slender black tongue reached out to lick its lips. Thick black drool, oozed from its maw as the tongue then vanished back inside the creature’s mouth, the motion causing the slime to spill over its chin and land on its chest. The devil smacked its lips disgustingly as it sucked in a deep breath, a feral hunger crossing its twisted face, its eye narrowing at me.

  Replying in a growl that quickly grew into an earthshattering roar, it launched itself forward at us, its cry shattering the unearthly silence that had filled the air, all of the other devils responding in kind as the battle began anew.

  “Raaaaah!” A primal howl erupted from my throat as the raging energy behind the sigil threatened to overwhelm me, crimson streaks appearing in my vision as I barely kept the rage at bay. Unable to stay standing for any longer, I leaped forward to meet the obese devil’s charge, leaving a surprised Sawyer scrambling to follow me half a step behind.

  Feeling the ground shake underneath my feet as the Devourer lumbered forward with heavy steps, a freezing cold surged through my veins as I closed with the corpulent creature, my vision sharpening beyond anything that I had ever experienced before. The Devourer’s motion slowed as I thundered towards it, its massive
bulk jiggling with each step it took as it swiftly raised its jagged axe. Swinging it forward, the devil aimed the half-melted weapon directly at my head in an attempt to decapitate me with one massive blow. Shifting my sword to intercept the blow, I channeled all my might and momentum into my counterattack as the devil and I collided in a titanic display of strength, our weapons crashing together with a bone-shattering crunch.

  Even through the rage that consumed my body, I felt both of my arms go numb from the impact as the Devourer’s momentum stopped my assault cold, the creature’s flabby arm bending under the exchange. Sliding my blade downwards, I carved a furrow into the Devourer’s axe as I instinctively ducked under its follow-up attack, the jagged shield attached to its other arm passing straight through the spot where my head had just been in a savage hook.

  Rolling to the side as the numbness in my arms gave way to a distant pain, I forced myself to maintain a firm grip on my weapon while tumbling out of the creature’s reach, allowing Sawyer following behind me the opportunity to strike.

  Shit, it’s strong, I mentally winced as I forced myself back up to my feet, checking to make sure I hadn’t broken the bones in my forearms. It wasn’t often that I was physically out-muscled, and even rarer since I had awoken with the Sigil of Rage tattooed onto my chest, but the blow that I had just exchanged with the Devourer had been a close thing. Had I been even slightly weaker, my reckless attack would have backfired.

  With likely fatal consequences.

  Bounding up onto my feet on the Devourer’s side, I rose in time to see Sawyer land a vicious stab into the devil’s arm, the speedy warrior pulling his blood-covered blade free. The devil barked in pain as it swung its shield back towards Sawyer in an attempt to get it back into position before the warrior could attack again.