Corpse Run: A LitRPG Adventure (The Crucible Shard Book 3)

by Skyler Grant

  “Give him time, he’ll figure something out. The problem is the enemy knows that as well. They’ll be pushing their advantage,” Cobalt said.

  “And I’m not keen on trying to find him,” Riggs said. “We go soaring over his forces and like as nothe will think we came to attack him as well..”

  “Father has been searching for me,” Maria said. “Get me down and into his forces and they will be expecting me. I can find him and explain to him what is going on.”

  I nodded. “We’ll do that. Walt, Mela is a master crafter. Any chance of getting an automaton air force in a hurry?”

  Walt tilted his head to the side. “No. For something like this she’d need to work through me. She has the parts, but not the hands. Normally one generation of machines would build the next, but there is no starting generation. The whole process takes time to ramp up.”

  Labor was the weak spot. We could fix that.

  “Go with Maria,” I said. “Pass the instructions to the necromancer.”

  “You want to turn the zombie army into zombie machinists?” Ashley asked. “Will that work?”

  “She likes the plan,” Walt said.

  “What about us?” Ashley asked.

  I grimaced. They weren’t going to like this next bit, neither did I.

  “We’re going to get in close so I can go over and speak with them,” I said.

  There was a silence.

  “Idiot,” Maria said.

  “I have to try to put a stop to this,” I said. “What is happening to the east has to be our focus and it should be the Elves’ focus as well. We don’t need their forces destroyed, we need them on our side.”

  “They’ll kill you,” Ashley said.

  “We can go along,” Cobalt said.

  “You will not,” Maria said. I agreed. That wasn’t going to happen.

  “I can go,” Ashley said. “I still have the magic carpet in my inventory. I go in stealthy and if things go screwy, you’ll have backup and an exit plan.”

  I didn’t like the thought of putting her at risk, but that was smart thinking.

  “Do that. Lea, keep a scry portal on me. Hopefully they take me to their command airship. If things go south, blow it out of the sky,” I said.

  “Won’t be that easy, lad,” Riggs said with a scowl. “I know them Elven birds look like they should fall right out of the sky, but they’re sorcerously shielded and hardened.”

  “We could just use a wish,” Ashley said.

  I hadn’t thought of Gina since she’d moved the city, but of course Ashley still had the lamp.

  “Let’s call her up,” I said. I’d been assuming that everything in the newly formed desert of glass was ours to deal with. It was worth investigating if there was a simpler solution.

  Ashley withdrew the lamp and after a bit of rubbing Gina appeared in a puff of turquoise smoke. She was lounging in a chair.

  “You make interesting friends,” Cobalt said coldly, the distaste radiating off her.

  “Did you impregnate her as well?” Maria asked.

  Deep breath.

  “Not to my knowledge. Gina, thank you for getting everyone out safely. I heard they’re setting in nicely,” I said.

  “Being eaten one at a time by the very city they call home and cursing your name every moment,” Gina said with a brilliant smile. “I’m amazing.”

  “Could you maybe not delight in screwing me over?” I asked.

  “I may be a bitch, but I’m no liar,” Gina said. “But you didn’t call me here to flirt. Probably. What’s up?”

  “Crashed spaceship in the desert, the one that you couldn’t stop. Can you do anything about it?” I said.

  Gina’s smile faltered. “Oh I’m good, but they’ve got some tricks I haven’t seen before. The whole of reality around them is fixed in some way we Djinni haven’t seen before.”

  “It’s likely the same thing that kept my magic from working against them,” Walt said. “I think it relates to the warp drive. They pass through areas of unstable reality and to maintain integrity have enhancers to fix space in their vicinity.”

  “Seriously?” I said. “Technobabble works between worlds?”

  “Not as a constant. Some realities have a lot of rules they impose on anything entering. The Crucible Shard is more flexible than most,” Cobalt said.

  Right. Now she was giving me lectures on traveling between games. I really needed to figure out what was up with her. It wasn’t just the comments Lea had made in the past about her badassery that concerned me, but her attitude. I knew the people on that ship would be mass murdering, thieving, sociopaths. To them everyone and everything in this world was a game. Our little group was the same way. That was also how Cobalt lived her life, except she was better at it than any of us.

  “What about the unspeakable horrors?” I asked.

  “Oh, we have so much fun with them. If you want me to clear them out, I can scatter them around the world. Or maybe I could combine them into one mega-monster,” Gina said, leaning forward with a sparkle in her eyes.

  None of those sounded like particularly great ideas.

  “You should do that,” Walt said.

  The room turned to stare at him.

  “You know the firepower that ship packs. They have unity, organization, and a lot of tricks. Those horrors might slow them down right now, but that has limits.”

  “You think that by consolidating the threat we’ll make it more dangerous,” I said.

  “It’s a pretty common theme. The technologically superior foe struggling against the massive ancient evil,” Walt said.

  It was. I looked to Gina, who was grinning madly.

  “What sort of twist would you add for something like that?” I asked.

  “Honey. You’re asking me to create a big, bad sower of death of destruction. I don’t have to put in a twist for something like that.”

  “What about the Elves?” Ashley asked.

  Gina grimaced. “I don’t do genocides. You want me to wipe out the ones nearby I can do that. I don’t recommend it. You hear of any great warlords who used Djinni to fight all their battles?”

  “No,” I said, as she seemed to be expecting an answer.

  “That is because they die from the wishes turning on them before they ever get that far. Keep to your flailing anti-hero vibe and fight your own wars.”

  I wasn’t flailing. I wasn’t an anti-hero.

  “I wish all the unspeakable horrors would combine into a new form standing a better chance against the crashed spaceship,” I said. That part at least seemed a good idea, in that really bad idea sort of way.

  “On it,” Gina said, and vanished in a turquoise poof.

  “Deals with Djinni never end well,” Cobalt said.

  “Idiot,” Maria said, and mother and daughter shared a look of understanding.

  “We’ve got a plan. Get to it,” I said.

  The meeting broke up. Why was trying to do the right thing so much harder than doing the wrong thing?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Several hours later we were approached by a small balloon. Communicating intent with the Elves had been easier than I expected, but Lea’s abilities at bridging distances proved to have some use. Working out terms was another matter altogether—they didn’t trust us in the slightest.

  Eventually it was agreed I could go alone and they would escort me to their Commander. The elves were lean and stately, their expressions inscrutable.

  Normally my charm does a pretty good job at getting people to open up, but here I seemed to be firing conversational blanks. I got the impression that it was not just me. These were a cold and formal people.

  My two companions in the smaller craft skillfully guided us through the sky as we neared the Elven forces.

  Their airships were far different than the Vainglory. These were Zeppelins, massive balloons with the ships carried beneath them. Everything was ornately patterned wood, natural bends and curves that showed no seams, making
it look as if the ships had been grown.

  There was a flicker of white and blue as we approached the largest ship, a magical ward identifying us and lowering the defenses as we got near.

  I hoped Ashley was with us. The unfortunate thing about a companion in stealth is not knowing if they’re there or not. If things are going according to plan you feel totally alone.

  We drifted towards the ship and with a tremor of magical force docked. A woman with hair in ornate braids that must have taken hours dipped her head. “Welcome, Majesty. I’m Ambassador Lewai and I’ll be speaking to you instead of Commander Wiola.”

  “You seem chattier than the soldiers.”

  “I have the position I do because of my ability to speak to all sorts of people,” Lewai said, and while perfectly polite her voice still managed to convey hints of disapproval. It was an impressive performance.

  Lewai led the way deeper onto the ship and several soldiers stepped into place behind us. A beautiful craft, this was also clearly a ship of war, powerful bolt throwers at regular intervals upon the deck.

  We made our way to an elegant meeting room with large windows showing the sky outside.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t ask to take my sword,” I said.

  “Would you have given it up, if we had?” Lewai said, shrugging.”Draw it and you die. That should serve as discouraging enough.”

  It did make a strong case.

  “Something to drink?” Lewai asked, indicating a sideboard. “You’ll find Elven wine exquisite in comparison to the brews of your land.”

  “Why am I meeting with you instead of your Commander?” I asked. Bluntness seemed called for.

  “Because the situation is an unusual one and there is protocol. The Commander is currently leading his force in war against yours,” Lewai said, pouring two glasses of wine and setting one before me as she settled down with the other. “Forces not directly under your command. I am able to speak on behalf of both my people and this force.”

  She must be this fleet’s equivalent of Elsora, the diplomat behind things. That was good, exactly who I’d have tried to speak with had I known she existed. Yet somehow, while I found Elsora comforting, this woman already grated on me.

  I took a sip of the wine. It really was exquisite. Damn it.

  “I wish a cessation of hostilities between us,” I said.

  Lewai took a tiny sip from her glass. “Then surrender. We hold no hatred of your lands or your people. Remove yourself from power and allow us to save them.”

  “They don’t need saving.”

  Lewai arched an elegant brow. “You know that to be a lie even as you speak it. Did they choose to have their lives plunged into eternal darkness? Did they choose to suffer for the wars you have started? Have you left the world better than you found it?”

  That was the question. I asked it of myself so often, it was no surprise that they would ask it as well. This wasn’t the place to be consumed with doubts or guilt though. I’d gain nothing by being weak before these people. I’d only prove them right.

  “Before I arrived Galea was a nation with a cursed castle dominated by brigands and opportunists, because all order has fallen? Of course they are better off,” I said, leaning forward. “I’m a force of order, while to the east things fall into chaos.”

  Lewai again arched that brow. She’d obviously practiced that gesture far too much. “We do have seers and you cannot distance yourself from those events. We know who you are, and we know what you’ve done. You will not be allowed to continue.”

  “Do you think you have the strength to deal with such foes, if you first struggle with me? I promise you, you won’t.”

  “Elves. There is no reasoning with them,” Yvera said in my head.

  “You might have said something before I came all the way over to their fleet.”

  “I was hoping we’d get the chance to burn a lot of them alive.”

  I really needed to get a new Goddess.

  “I heard that.”

  “Good.”

  Lewai shook her head. “Do you think us fools? You wage a war of expansion to the west, while sparking chaos in the east to fend off the advances of the Dark Court. The army you are mustering can have but one purpose. Us.”

  My enemies thought me too clever by half. Normally I’d think that a good thing.

  Before I could form any sort of reply Ashley came out of stealth behind Lewai, one hand grabbing at her chin and jerking it back as the other dragged a dagger across her throat. An alarming amount of blood squirted from the wound, splattering across me and the table as life quickly faded from the panicked eyes of the elf.

  “Yes!” Yvera cried out in my head.

  “What the hell!” I screamed at Ashley.

  “Behind you,” Ashley said, as she slipped free a hand-crossbow.

  I drew Intemperance as I stood from the table and spun it backwards to plunge it through the chest of one of the soldiers charging me. He twitched as the flames charred his innards and I spun him to use as a shield against the remaining soldier.

  The body took a swipe from the soldier’s sword even as Ashley brushed past me to drive her daggers into his eyes.

  I pulled Intemperance free. The great thing about a flaming sword was you never needed to wipe it free of blood.

  “I’m repeating the damned question,” I said.

  “You two were being boring,” Ashley said, as she knelt to search the bodies. “I figured action was going to break out eventually. Why wait.”

  I never should have agreed to her coming along. Ashley wasn’t right in the head ever since her torture session. Diplomacy hadn’t seemed to have been going anywhere, but now we’d kind of slit diplomacy’s throat and dumped the body.

  “This isn’t okay. Damn it. Lea, I hope you’re watching. Violence is a go, get the message to the others.”

  Ashley finished with the guards and searched Lewai. The gear must have been good. Ashley stripped them all bare.

  “I’ve got the carpet on me,” Ashley said. “We’ll get off this ship and you can go all whiny bitch on me.”

  I didn’t want things to go down like this, but now that they had, I had an obligation to see they went our way.

  “Not yet. We kill the commander and then we go.”

  Ashley grinned. “More killing. And I bet their leader has great gear.”

  “Wish I knew how to find him.”

  “Let me. You go lumbering around out there we won’t get more than ten feet before we’re swarmed by guards,” Ashley said. “I can find him. Clear a path.”

  “There are guards outside that door. We’re lucky they didn’t hear the killing earlier. You go opening up that door and we’ll have a fight anyways,” I said.

  Ashley shrugged and went over to the windows, drawing her daggers. A few well-placed cuts and she forced one open. The magic carpet came out and then, just like that, she was gone. It was one way to make an exit.

  Great. Just me passing the time with three naked elf corpses.

  I grabbed the carafe of wine and took a seat back at the table, taking a swig.

  “Bet you didn’t see this coming,” I said to the corpse of the ambassador. It really was great wine.

  A long while passed. I couldn’t see signs of it through the window, but we must have engaged in battle. Elsewhere in the halls I could hear the sounds of shouting and the ship would occasionally shake as if something had made impact.

  After a time came a quick knocking upon the door and it cracked open to reveal the head of a young woman. A serving girl of some sort. “Ambassador. I wished to check that you are well.” The girl got a look at the bodies and screamed. “He has killed the Ambassador and her guards and defiled their corpses!”

  I hadn’t defiled anyone and I’d only murdered one of them. This was going to do wonders for my reputation.

  Bless Water

  I channeled Yvera’s blessing into the wine. When the door burst open seconds later and soldiers surged throug
h, I threw it towards them.

  Smite

  I hit the wine with the smite spell just as it was about to impact with the lead soldier. It exploded into a fireball blasting the soldiers back into the hall.

  The window wasn’t an option, I didn’t have a magic carpet on me. That meant going through the door.

  I charged through and stabbed at the still-burning soldiers. They were in no shape to defend themselves.

  The servant girl was reaching the end of the hall, still screaming at the top of her lungs. I readied a smite and then with a deep breath released it uncast.

  She might die if this ship went down, but I wasn’t going to burn her alive. Besides, she was useful. All of that screaming would attract attention to her. I went the opposite direction.

  The halls of the ship were surprisingly empty. The crew must have been at their action stations.

  If I didn’t have Ashley to extract me, my best hope was going to be the way I got aboard. I retraced my steps and soon emerged back on deck. The air around the vessel was pulsing a deep blue. Through the magical energy I could see the Vainglory. Crews worked the bolt throwers on deck. The Vainglory wasn’t getting through the airship’s shields—and the far more nimble ship was avoiding the bolt throwers. It looked like a standoff.

  So far, I hadn’t been noticed. I scanned those on deck.

  Elvish Bowman

  Level 15: Type: Elf HP: 150/150

  Bowmen are the backbone of the Elvish army. Capable of numerous trick shots they are not only solid damage dealers, but also have great crowd control abilities.

  Elvish Cleric

  Level 20: Type: Elf HP: 170/170

  Elvish Clerics are not just capable of healing magic but also have considerable gifts at dealing divine damage.

  Elvish Shieldmage

  Level 25: Type: Elf HP: 200/200

  Shieldmages are masters of protective magic. Not only are they capable of shielding themselves, with the ability to become nearly invulnerable in combat they can shield others to a lesser degree.