Bonus: You avoided Captain Cynthia’s ire.
XP: 2955/3500
The new quest objectives appeared in his mind’s eye.
Quest
Objective: Escort Valeria to the capital to meet the Imperator. Make sure she warns our esteemed ruler of the threat of this void and ensure she offers her services for use by the Imperium.
Objective two: Find a way to kill Valeria or Lillus if either of them try to deviate from the above objectives. It is imperative you carry out the above orders.
Rewards: 1000xp. Once you are gone, you will never be asked to pick the dirt out from under Captain Cynthia’s toenails again. You get to journey with two beautiful women and an equally beautiful succubus. With such company, you will be the envy of lesser men. You go boy! A Tier-2 magical item of your choosing. 5 gold. Reputation with the Sinjharian Imperium +500. Reputation with the Imperial Army +500. Reputation with the Republic of Dern (in case you even care, which of course being a loyal Imperial citizen, you don’t) -55, 394.
Warning: Refusal to accept this quest will make Captain Cynthia, Lillus, Valeria and Yana angry at you. Remember, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Accept, and avoid their wrath.
With warnings as dire as that, what choice did he have? He accepted the quest.
As he had nothing left to say to the captain, Ajax stood to attention and saluted. Cynthia watched him a moment, then saluted him back. She lowered her arm and lingered for a moment, like she meant to say something to him, but then her face hardened and she spun around and left without another word.
Turning back to the other three, Ajax found them all watching him. “Why me?”
CHAPTER 10
GRIM DEPARTURE
The next day, as Ajax and the two mages arrived at the northern gate of York and prepared to leave, he still hadn’t received a clear answer as to why he had to be the one to escort Valeria to the Imperator. But Captain Cynthia had agreed to the plan, so now he had to follow his orders and do his duty.
Cynthia stopped them as they were about to leave. “Good luck,” she said.
Munching on a juicy apple, Lillus waved goodbye. Yana only glared at the captain.
Now clean and dressed in a thick brown woolen cloak, Valeria stared up into the wooded foothills from which Ajax and the other Sinjharians had planned their assault on the town three days earlier.
Cynthia motioned Ajax aside, and he followed her out of earshot of the others. Lillus watched them closely. No doubt later she would try to insist he tell her what the captain had said to him. Cynthia took a deep breath, her eyes scanning the conscripts keeping watch on the wall.
Ajax waited patiently for her to speak. Finally, she did. “When you get to the Dragon Keep and deliver the Spirit healer to the Imperator, I want you...” She turned to him, her eyes rimmed red, as if she were holding back tears. “I want you to find a captain named Shawn. Tell him I sent you, and that... tell him I am sorry, and that I beg him to find it within himself to forgive me.” The words clearly came with great difficulty for her. “And please tell him that even though I will lose all my memories of him upon my death, I hope we will meet again in my next life.”
Quest
Objective: Pass on Captain Cynthia’s personal message to Captain Shawn.
Rewards: 450xp. You get to feel like you did something good.
Warning: It is unknown how Shawn will react to this news. Expect anything from a knife in the guts to a bouquet of flowers. Or perhaps both, depending on his temperament.
Ajax lowered his face, moved by the grief in the captain’s voice, and accepted the quest without reservations. He had disliked Cynthia since they had met, and had seen her as nothing more than a nuisance that had to be tolerated if his dreams of joining the army were to come to pass. But now he knew there had been great suffering behind her anger, bullying and harsh discipline. Soon her suffering will end, once the town falls and she dies with the rest.
War. War never changes.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, he said, “I will tell the Imperator about what you have done here, and that you defended this town until your last breath.” She would be dead by the time he got to the capital, as would every Sinjharian within the town.
Cynthia sniffed, and stared at him.
“And I will tell our leader about all the others here—the players and NPCs, all low level, but willing to stand and fight in the face of great adversity, in the name of the Imperium.” He lifted his armored hand and made a fist, carried away with the power of his words. “She will know of all your sacrifices, and that your defense of York cost the enemy dearly.”
Considering how quickly Cynthia had repaired the northern gate, overseen the reconstruction of the siege engines and the reinforcement of the walls, he had no doubt it would cost the Dernese a good number of lives to retake the town—probably far more lives than it was worth. And if they only put it under siege and didn’t assault the walls, there would be enough supplies in town for Cynthia to hold out for several months, provided she expelled the civilian NPC population.
Personal Quest
Objective: Tell Imperator Ithilda of Cynthia’s and the rest of the Sinjharians’ sacrifice at York and about its inevitable fall.
Rewards: 250xp.
Warning: The Imperator cavorts with dragons. Try not to look like a tasty snack when you stand before her.
To his surprise, Cynthia covered her mouth and giggled. “What?” he asked, lowering his hand and feeling suddenly embarrassed.
“The look of you, just now. You reminded me of some of our greatest generals when they give their impassioned speeches before battle.” She clasped his shoulder. “You have great things ahead of you, I think. Now go. The Dernese are close, and may already have sent scouts out to encircle the town and occupy the mountain passes to prevent our retreat.”
Ajax saluted her, said goodbye and led Lillus, Yana and Valeria out the gate.
THEY WERE WELL INTO the foothills before Lillus came to walk beside Ajax, Yana as ever hovering at her side. “So, what did our dear captain want?”
Ajax bit his lip, and at first refused to answer. Then he realized he was stuck with Lillus, at least for the foreseeable future, and unlike her, he hated keeping secrets. “She wants me to pass on a message to someone. Nothing important. Just personal stuff.”
Horns blared from behind them. They stopped and turned back toward York, but couldn’t see it through the trees. Finding a group of boulders to stand on, they climbed on top of them and stared down into the valley.
Units of cavalry raced around the eastern and western flanks of the town, far enough from the walls to be out of bowshot. A vast army of soldiers and wagons were gathering to the south of the town. Ajax put a hand over his mouth. There were far more Dernese than Cynthia’s scouts had reported. Maybe they’d only seen the vanguard.
It had to be half the Dernese army down below. Twenty thousand soldiers at least, and more moving up behind them.
Huge banners rose up from among their ranks, and even from the distance of a good mile, Ajax could see the open shark’s maw emblazoned on them.
The symbol of the capitalistic Republic of Dern. A land of money lenders, merchants and unscrupulous thieves.
York would not hold out long against numbers like this. Ajax would be amazed if half the Sinjharian conscripts didn’t try to flee the town during the night and attempt to make it into the hills.
“That army is led by Supreme General Calrisis,” Valeria said.
Ajax had heard of him. Calrisis was the second-most-powerful military commander in the Republic. A man known for his prowess on the battlefield, and for inspiring his soldiers to feats of bravery. In other words, a royal pain in the backside of the Imperium and a man the Imperator would love to see dead. Ajax glanced at Valeria. “How do you know he’s down there?”
Valeria stared at the massing soldiers. “No one else would be given command of such a huge force.” Her voice became almost too low to hear.
“I fear what this could mean.”
A thunderous roar drew Ajax’s attention back to the enemy army. His heart skipped a beat. Striding out of the woods on the south side of the town came four giant trolls, with archer platforms on their backs and huge wooden clubs in their hands. Behind the trolls came hundreds of small, green figures marching in ragged lines. Goblins.
The Imperium had dragons, the terror of the skies—few in number, but fierce and deadly. The Republic had twenty-foot high trolls and teeming hordes of vile goblins to bolster their ranks.
Valeria turned away, as if seeing the army pained her. Perhaps it did. She had once belonged to the Republic and might have old friends down there.
“That sure is a big mass of idiots,” Lillus said. “Glad I’m not down there.”
“Me too, mistress.” Yana stretched her wings. “I can smell the awful stench of unwashed male bodies and troll hide from all the way up here.” She sniffed, grinning at Ajax. “Or maybe it’s just you. Did you forget to take a bath again?”
“I thought you liked his sweaty, manly stench,” Lillus chuckled. “I know I do.”
“We should get a move on,” Ajax said, seeing some of the cavalry heading along the edge of the trees at the bottom of the hill. I don’t have time for Lillus’s games.
As they climbed down the rock and headed quickly into the trees, the echo of thousands of swords clanging against metal shields swept around them. No doubt, the Dernese were trying to intimidate the Sinjharian defenders with the sheer weight of their numbers.
Die bravely, Captain Cynthia. I will pass on your message, and Shawn will forgive you. I’m sure of it.
CHAPTER 11
GOBLINS!
They had gone about two miles deeper into the hills, avoiding the narrow roads they had taken on the march to York, when they fell upon more than a dozen Dernese goblins hiding among some bushes. The green-skinned, waist-high humanoids seemed just as surprised as Ajax and his three companions.
Lillus was the first to react, and cast her Infernal Fire Bolts at the nearest enemy. Ajax drew his sword and charged, smashing one in the face with his shield and slicing open the throat of another. Blood sprayed across the ground, and the gargled scream of the dying goblin pierced the air.
Inflicted 45 damage.
Enemy 1 knocked unconscious
Enemy 2 instakilled
+20xp
+45xp
He had taken another enemy down before the goblins managed to put up any defense.
+45xp
One almost impaled Ajax with its spear and another fired a rock from its sling, hitting him in the helmet.
-18hp
-9hp
Ajax snatched the spear out of the hands of the goblin warrior. It screamed a curse in its vile, guttural language. His sword ended its life a moment later with two quick slashes, gaining extra damage from his weapon’s bonus modifier.
Critical hit
Inflicted 35 damage (30 +5 from slashing attack)
Inflicted 27 damage (22 +5 from slashing attack)
Enemy killed
+45xp
The sling shooter would have to wait, as another two goblins came at Ajax. Yana took down one with her whip and ensnared another charging at Lillus. The last came at Ajax, spear lowered, mouth open, eyes wide with terror, looking like the mere battlefield rabble its kind were known for. Ajax knocked the spear aside with his shield and kicked the goblin between the legs, sending it face-first to the ground, then crushed its skull under his boot with a wet crunch.
Instakill
+45xp
Then searing pain shot through his back, and his vision dimmed.
Critical Hit -68hp (Ferocious Charge)
He had been almost impaled on a spear wielded by a higher-level goblin. Spinning around, Ajax saw a larger green-skinned enemy before him. One of their chiefs. Smarter, stronger and better trained than their lower-level thralls. The chief roared, splattering Ajax with purple saliva. “Die, Imperial scum.”
It thrust its spear right at his guts, and Ajax only just managed to take the blow on his shield. He took a quick swipe at the goblin, but it knocked the weapon aside with its armored arm and kicked him in the shin.
-14hp
A warm glow suddenly flooded through Ajax, and he was back at full health.
+109hp (Greater Heal)
He had forgotten about Valeria. She could heal almost any damage these pesky goblins inflicted. Their attacks might leave scars, and wounds that would need a doctor to treat, but short term, nothing could stop Ajax and his companions with such a high-level healer watching over them.
Feeling emboldened, Ajax held his shield before him and sped toward the chief. It tried to leap out of the way, but ended up taking the full brunt of the charge and flew backward to the ground.
Inflicted 25 damage
It had barely recovered when Ajax tried to skewer it to the ground with his sword. It rolled to the side, Ajax’s blade missing it by less than an inch. He took a second swipe, but again it rolled out of the way. Lillus had set fire to another goblin and it ran around screaming until it tripped over the chief. Ajax took advantage of the momentary pause in the chief’s ability to move to plunge his sword down into its guts. The goblin chief wailed, its clawed hands clasping the sword blade, trying to pull it free.
One part of Ajax enjoyed hearing it voice its agony, but the other part, the better part, felt sick, so he ripped the weapon free and quickly put the chief out of its suffering.
Enemy killed.
+100xp
He hated inflicting pain on others, even vile things like goblins, but sometimes it was necessary. If he had to kill, he would do it out of duty. One should never take pleasure from the act of killing another. The goblins were NPCs, but they still felt pain, kinship and fear like human players. But unlike players, when they died they were gone forever, their code deleted from the digital tapestry of Visaria.
The remaining two goblins tried to flee when they saw their leader had fallen, but Lillus ended the life of one while Yana’s whip took the other around the neck. The winged succubus yanked hard on the weapon, snapping the goblin’s neck with a loud crack.
All the enemies were dead. The battle was over.
Lillus rubbed her hands together. “I hope they’re happy. They made me deplete my mana, and I really don’t want to have to pull out a pot to restore it.” She kicked the corpse of a smoldering enemy. “No way am I going to melt my marshmallows over this lot.” She gave Ajax a wicked grin. “Even I have standards when it comes to the fine art of cooking sweets with the corpses of my enemies.”
“Should we search them, mistress?” Yana asked.
“Don’t bother. At best, they’d have a few silver, but most likely all you will find is those dried rat fetishes they like to carry around.”
“Hey, look.” Ajax pointed at some wooden crates half hidden under the snow-covered forest floor. He went over and pried one open with his sword. The others came to join him. Inside was a whole pile of fur cloaks. “What is this?” He checked their item stats and found nothing magical about them.
Lillus sifted through them. “There are dozens in here.” She broke open another box. “More here too.”
“Could the goblins have looted it from a trade caravan or something?” Ajax glanced at Valeria, but the Spirit Mage only stared into the distance.
“I doubt it.” Lillus closed the box. “There are no signs the goblins had made camp here, so they must have been passing through. I also think these boxes have been here for some time. Perhaps months.”
“Maybe the goblins found the boxes here, and were in the process of unearthing them when we ran into them.”
Lillus pursed her lips. “Maybe.”
“We should go,” Valeria said, standing beside the body-strewn ground like an angel of death. She pulled her black hood over her head, hiding her face in shadow.
Wiping his sword clean on the uniform of one of the dead goblins, Ajax said a qui
ck prayer to the One God, thanking him for victory this day. Then he sheathed his sword, and led the way deeper into the hills.
CHAPTER 12
THE WET DREAM
Ajax pressed his fingers against the frosted glass. He could see nothing beyond it.
Where was he? He remembered falling asleep, then this. He glanced around. It appeared as if he had woken inside something—
His guts clenched. Ajax felt different... weak. Real.
Then he knew where he was. The stasis chamber, back in the real world. There were no stats, no inventories, no quest notifications.
How? What is happening?
Air from a mouthpiece connected to a rubber tube filled his lungs. It tasted stale, and filtered. He remembered now. Minutes before he had jacked into the Advanced Hyper Neural Net Array with thousands of other survivors, they had immersed themselves in water-filled stasis chambers. After, the water had filled with chemicals designed to put them to sleep and keep them alive indefinitely. Then their minds drifted through the barriers between the real world and the digital, and they entered Visaria Online. Moments after they were uploaded, their physical bodies would be frozen, locked in stasis. There they would wait to be awakened again, when the sun shone once more, and the darkness the machines had brought down on the world had given way to the dawning of a new day.
But what am I doing here? Is the exile over? Why am I not frozen?
Ajax lay back, letting the warm liquid soothe his muscles. It felt so odd feeling his limbs again. Perhaps it felt like a paraplegic having not felt their legs for many years, suddenly getting feeling back.
A dark shape moved beyond the glass. Ajax held his breath and watched it approach. Could it be another survivor come to let him out of the stasis chamber?
As the figure came into view, he saw it was a young woman dressed in a black cloak. Lillus?
Ajax pressed his face against the glass. The figure walked past him. “Lillus.” He tried to speak, but all he got was a face full of bubbles. I’m underwater, fool.
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