The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  "Are you sure you can handle it, twenty-leveller?" a thoughtful voice of the Advisor came from the amulet.

  "We'll have to find out, won't we? It's not like we have any choice. Half the mana is already gone — another five minutes and the Phoenix fighters will depart for the Grey Lands. I can't tell what will happen with the Heralds and Advisors, but I doubt it'll be very pleasant."

  Attention all players taking part in the battle near Beatwick! Shaman Mahan, level 21 free citizen will be in charge of the evacuation. He has been granted all the necessary authority. His word is the word of the Emperor. Duration of his appointment: 2 hours.

  "Stacey, fight your way to the left," I continues to scream into the amulet. "Heralds, I need a communication line with the Azure Dragons clan raid leader."

  "What?" a muffled tense voice of a player, probably one of the clan leaders, sounded in my amulet.

  "This is Mahan. Are you the one in the red hat?"

  "Yes! What did you want?"

  "I'm inviting you into the group. You read the announcement, right? If yes, then it should be crystal clear. Stacey, fight towards them and join up — you'll figure out the tactics yourself, you're a pro at this."

  "Sir, yes, sir!" even through the noise of the battle, I could hear the cheer in the girl's voice. Yes, this is what having proper raid experience means! For her everything going on right now is just a game, and I'm the only one that had started to confuse it with reality. Suddenly I felt the vibration of Plinto's amulet.

  "So you've come to your senses, then? I'm sending you an invite."

  "Mahan, this is Evolett. The Legion is ready to join you. You can send the invite to me. What do we do?"

  "Great! I see you've taken one heck of battering! Phoenix and Azure Dragons — fight your way to the Legion. They'll be getting mushed any time now," I suddenly had a bout of the damned premonition. "Stacey — bubble on Hellfire! Now! The second tank — pull those mobs! The rest — support the second tank!"

  I didn't know what it was that the Kartoss warriors came up with, but Hellfire started to get landed with hits of five hundred thousand damage. Yes, he was quite thick-skinned himself, with almost a million Hit Points after all the buffs and elixirs, but he simply wouldn't have survived damage like that. The bubble, which Stacey threw on him without any questions, protects the target from all types of damage for ten seconds. It was for this ability that paladins were a must-have feature of any raid: when the 'big boom' time arrives, a pally would pull you out.

  With the aid of Heralds I was able to join up with three more clan raid groups. In total, including my original five members, I was now looking at a sea of about two hundred frames. They constantly jumped up and down, numbers indicating damage or healing lighting up next to them every second — it was enough to do your head in.

  "To all raid leaders!" I shouted through the Heralds. "The detail of raid management is in your hands. I'm in charge of the general strategy. Now we all gather into one group and together make our way towards the stockade. Stacey, take out a foray to pick me up. I'm on the hill. Attack!"

  "Why the heck must we go for the stockade? We should head to the forest!" I couldn't make out who did the asking. What with the dissenting voices in the ranks? Such insolence must be stamped out at the root. I get the rare opportunity to order people around, best players of the Empire, no less, and now someone was shoving sticks in my wheels.

  "We need to make it to the village before it's taken by the Kartoss forces. The gates will hold out another five minutes at the most. We gather the surviving villagers and teleport out of here. Now!"

  I wouldn't say they went supersonic, but the players did begin to run around. After we united into a group of a couple of hundred fighters and I had the ability to see the frames of each, if was considerably easier to repel Kartoss attacks.

  "Beth, open the passage," I continued shout orders left and right. "Stacey, take your lot and move it to the gate. It will break any time now and this horde will flood in. Stop them at the entrance. It's a narrow space, so you won't have to fight them more than two or three at a time. Beth, where's the passage?"

  Some messages constantly flashed before my eyes, that I received this and that, but I simply had no time to read them. The only thing I noticed was that I reached level 35 in the last five minutes.

  "Mahan, we're in position. The gate is about to come down, you were right," reported Anastaria when half of the players were already inside the village.

  "Evolett — you take the street on the right. Go through all the houses, shout that you've come from the Emperor and gather together all the NPCs from them.

  "Partaros," I shouted to the leader of some other clan, without even knowing where he was from. There was no time to look it up, "you take the left street. Same stuff. Beth, where are you going? Undigit, take her and go straight ahead. We gather on the central square! The Advisor and Heralds — you need to hurry to the palace. The Emperor has been or is about to be attacked. We'll manage here without you. Here, take a portal scroll — I don't know where it leads, other than out of this area." I took out the scroll, which I had got from the captured goblin and activated it.

  "If you are right, Mahan, the Empire will be in your debt," said one of the Advisors, after which the entire Malabar elite left Beatwick.

  "A portal, time to split!" Plinto's shout came from nearby. That's the last thing I need!

  "EVERYONE STOP!" I never thought myself capable of raising my voice quite like that. Plinto and a band of ten players simply froze, agape. "EVERYONE, DEFEND!"

  You have used a raid-leader ability 'Thundering Shout'. Energy of all the raid members has been increased by 20 and all the main stats by +20%. Duration: 5 minutes

  Waving away another message informing me that my Charisma had once again grown by 1, I looked at the potential deserters.

  "Plinto, damn your ass! Are you a player or a pushover? If you're player, what the hell are you doing? Had enough of the game, have you? Want to get kicked out of Barliona altogether? Back in the line and hold the passage! If Kartoss gets through, gnaw it with your teeth if you have to, but hold them off!"

  "The left street has been cleaned up!"

  "The right one's done!"

  "Mahan," Clouter ran into me. I will probably never call him Avtondil now, "Tiny Tim attacked me! He suddenly became huge, black and scary, tore through the netting and jumped on me. He was going to tear me to shreds! But another Tiny Tim appeared from your present, a see-through one! Just imagine, two Tiny Tims are fighting in our yard right now: one evil and black and the other good and see-through. What happened to my dog?"

  "Let's go dear, don't distract him. It's hard enough for him as it is,," Beth dragged the excited lad away from me and I looked at Undigit, the leader of the Azure Dragons."

  "How many normal ones?"

  "A hundred and thirty five. It's time to bail out. Phoenix is holding the gates, but look at the walls — half of their durability's gone. Soon they'll go down and we'll me mowed under."

  "I agree. "Attention everyone! It's time to get out of here! Undigit, take our team and get ready to receive the NPCs. The rest will follow. Stacey, how are you holding up?"

  "Not that great! The tanks are still standing, but we're running out of mana. Mahan, I agree with Undigit — it's time to bail. I'm not prepared to lose experience over this, it's bad enough running around with your debuff on me."

  "Roger that! As soon as half of them go through the portal, run towards us. Throw freezing spells and traps — anything to slow them down. Time's a ticking!"

  Azure Dragons went through the portal, followed by the rescued residents of Beatwick. Only Beth with her family remained.

  "Do you need a special invitation?"

  "We can't go back. If we leave Krong, we will be immediately killed on the orders of the Emperor," Beth heaved a deep sigh. "The children will go through, but we'll stay behind. Perhaps we'll be able to slow them down..."

  "Why is everythin
g so damn hard with you guys? Here, take this," I handed the Emperor's ring to the priestess. "Get out of here — quick! Plinto, grab her and jump in the portal!"

  "How did you..."

  "Now! Quit it with the drama. Just go! Stacey, that's it, pack up and run to us."

  "Coming. Hel, drive!"

  A couple of flashes came from the direction of the gates, which was probably Stacey using something to blind the mobs and Phoenix players immediately appeared from around the corner.

  "Ten seconds and they'll follow up," shouted Stacey as she ran.

  "Evolett, get ready to jump into the portal as soon as Phoenix goes through," I issued the last command to the defenders of the passage and jumped in the portal. That's it, I've had my fill of fighting.

  "I was the last," shouted Hellfire as he jumped out of the portal, "you can shut it down!"

  I deactivated the portal and slumped to the ground, exhausted and just now looked at the map to see where we ended up. We landed in the lands surrounding the Kartoss castle! Just my luck! We were just ten kilometers from Beatwick!

  "What's with the castle? Did you destroy it completely?" The thought about the Transformers was really bothering me. If they were activated, the Heralds wouldn't have been able to open a portal and all of this would have been for nothing.

  "There's not a stone left standing from the castle," assured me Evolett. "We destroyed everything."

  "What the heck is that?" came a muffled shout of some player.

  A tornado was heading towards us from the direction of Beatwick. Two enormous figures could be seen at its centre: The Advisor and the Master, neither of which had yet gained an upper hand in their duel. I was about to respond when another message appeared in front of me:

  Citizens of Malabar! Lament!

  The Emperor is dead!

  The reputation with the Emperor is changed to the reputation with the Emperor's Steward.

  Everyone froze. What did 'the Emperor is dead' mean? How was this possible? A minute had gone by when a new message appeared:

  Citizens of Kartoss! Lament!

  The Dark Lord is dead!

  The reputation with the Dark Lord is changed to the reputation with the Dark Lord 's Steward.

  And now I had completely failed to understand anything. I got it as far as our Emperor was concerned, since the aim of the plot was to kill him, but the Dark Lord?

  The tornado made up of the Advisor and the Master fell apart and both Vagrens, who had for some reason become three meters tall, froze about three hundred meters away from us, looking at each other.

  "Mahan, don't even try to pretend you don't know what's going on," Anastaria came up to me and the entire crowd of players stared at me expectantly. "I would never believe it!"

  "A little conflict had taken place here, my pretty," a pleased and powerful voice spoke in my stead. I've heard it somewhere before... That's it! That was...

  "Let me introduce myself," a man appeared next to me, wearing a formal dress of a courtier, "I'm Geranika. I've come here for this sentient," he pointed towards me. "And to make sure no-one gets in the way, I'll tidy up a little around here."

  He waved his hand and all the players and NPCs standing nearby were landed with the "Petrification" debuff for fifteen minutes.

  "Now we can have a chat," the dark Shaman walked around me and tutted. "When we spoke last, you were just level twenty one. But now I can see that you've grown somewhat. To gain forty six levels in two weeks is a very impressive result."

  What? What forty six levels? With all the surrounding mess I completely forgot to keep an eye on my character's status. I opened my properties and was struck dumb. Holy cow!

  You could say that for me that fight went well!

  "My plan is flawless. There is now no Emperor or Lord or Masters or Advisors on our continent. Even all the Heralds and Magisters have perished. Although I did have to kill the Dark Lord myself — it was just as well that his personal guard had their hands full with the Emperor at the time. Now I am the only power that remains! Everyone will fall at my feet! I offer you to join me. You are still weak and inexperienced, but I'll teach you everything I know. Make your choice, Shaman!"

  Look out!" You have been offered to go over to the side of Shaman Geranika as the disciple of the Emperor. Description: having set himself against both Empires, Geranika destroyed the Emperor and the Dark Lord, having created an Empire of his own. The capital of the third Empire is on the edge of the Free Lands and is now marked on your maps.

  Do you agree to join the new empire?

  To the player located in a prisoner capsule! In connection with the launching of the continent-wide scenario, the term of compulsory settlement has been removed by court decision No.45-RS344328. Now you are a provisionally free player. Remaining limitations: presence of pain, the 30% tax, prohibition on attacking other players first. Have a pleasant game!

  "I am waiting, Mahan. Do not test my patience! You will have everything that you could possibly wish for," Geranika hurried me.

  To become an Emperor's apprentice? What a brilliant idea! To soar to such heights in a flash, it's just hard to imagine... And how long would be the fall from these great heights when Malabar raiders will come to Geranika to avenge the Emperor? Although, why worry? I'm a player and they can't really do anything to me. But then what amazing gaming abilities would open up with this offer! I almost pressed the button 'Accept', but then I remembered Kornik's words: "when the time comes to choose, make the choice with your heart and not your head." Could my green teacher have known what would happen?

  "Mahan!"

  I ignored Geranika's shout and listened to myself. Do I really need what's being offered by this NPC? Yes, I do. Do I want to follow him? E-eh... no, I don't and I can't explain it. My entire being screamed that this bastard should be made to feel bad. And then stomp on him some more. And then jump up and down on his remains, just to be sure.

  "I refuse," I decided to put my feeling into words.

  "Is this your choice?!" Geranika was enraged. "You decided to oppose me? You decided that you'll have enough strength to fight me, the one who destroyed both Emperors? The one who will be the only Sovereign in Barliona?! Then take what you deserve!"

  Lightning bolts started to flash out of the dark Shaman's hands, but they were stopped by a dome that formed around me. What, another helper had joined the show?

  "STOP, YOU FOOL!" a thundering voice nearly threw me to the ground.

  "Dragons," hissed Geranika. "That's the last thing I need!"

  I glanced at Anastaria, who was lying next to me and looking up with huge shocked eyes. I looked up and saw Reniox, hovering above our raid.

  "Hello, Renox. What are you doing in the middle of this mess?"

  "We could not calmly watch what this madman was doing! Dragons had to intervene in the events of this world!"

  "You know, Mahan, we'll meet again!" Geranika spat out angrily, "and our next meeting will be very unpleasant for you." With these words Geranika disappeared.

  "Renox, it's good to see you. Can you remove 'Petrification' from everyone present?"

  "I greet you, my son. Wait a little, first I would like to speak to the new Emperor and the new Dark Lord!

  "With who?" Whom was this reptile speaking about?

  "Naahti, Regul," ignoring my question rumbled the Dragon. "Come here!

  Both Vagrens, not daring to refuse, came up to the Dragon. Renox came down to the ground and stared intently into the eyes of each, as if reading their thoughts.

  "Behold the result of your enmity! The Emperor and the Dark Lord are dead and you are behaving yourselves like two wolf cubs fighting over a bone! Come to your senses! Regul! Now and henceforth I dub you the Nameless Dark Lord of Kartoss. Gather the remainder of your army and rebuild the palace destroyed by Geranika. Naahti! Now and henceforth I dub you the Emperor of Malabar. Gather the remainder of your army and rebuild the palace destroyed by Geranika. I grant you the power of the Emperor and the Da
rk Lord, may you be worthy of this burden! Rule wisely and honourably, like your predecessors. I'm done here!"

  "The Great Dragon is mistaken..." started Regul, the only remaining Advisor and now the Lord of Kartoss.

  "SILENCE!" roared Renox. "I know who you were! And who you will become!"

  "I bow before the wisdom of the Great One," bowed the Emperor, the former Master of Kartoss.

  Citizens of Malabar! Rejoice! The Emperor is alive!

  The reputation with the Steward of the Emperor is changed to the reputation with the Emperor.

  Citizens of Kartoss! Rejoice! The Dark Lord is alive!

  The reputation with the Steward of the Dark Lord is changed to the reputation with the Dark Lord

  "Mahan, I can see that a quiet life is not for you. At our last meeting you managed to surprise me, but now I am simply shocked. You are a worthy Dragon! Unfortunately, my presence here has disturbed the balance, so in the next hundred years Dragons cannot appear in Barliona. Try not to destroy the world," with these words Renox soared up and disappeared, returning to his world. The two Vagrens, having risen to level 500, first looked at each other and then at me.

  "Mahan," began the new Emperor. "I thank you for everything you've done."

  Your reputation with the Emperor of Malabar has increased by 4000 points. You are 5700 points away from the status of Esteem.

  "I agree," added the new Dark Lord. "You also have my thanks."