Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  “Hm, let’s see,” I mused as I stepped closer to the table and looked over the battle plan, piecing together what Cassius and the other “night shift” adventurers would be doing.

  After all, just because the sun went down for the day didn’t mean that the war was put on hold until morning.

  “Given our success today, we are proposing an aggressive strategy for our evening and nighttime efforts,” Veronia informed me as I read over the map. “Morale amongst the enemy ranks will be low after today’s defeat, and tempers are likely to be high as a result. We believe that a committed effort showing our strength against what will likely be a vengeful nighttime force will continue to build upon that.”

  “And hopefully hurting their resolve to continue the war,” I added with a nod, having become acquainted with the theory of warfare over the last week, thanks largely in part to a pair of books that I had practically inhaled during my offline hours. “Though…if I’m reading this map right, you want to send out our night groups with the intention to start pushing towards Shadow’s Fall.”

  “We do,” Cassius affirmed, meeting my stare without blinking as I glanced upwards. “I know how this looks, considering how badly I of all people want to reclaim the place, but if we’re looking to push the Dread Crew off the plains, it’s no secret that we’re going to have to hit it sooner or later…and raze it to the ground if we can’t recapture it. We can’t afford to let them keep that bind point.”

  Knowing how much saying those last words must have pained Cassius, I simply nodded in response before looking back towards the plans for a second time. The entire war between us and Carver had effectively been kicked off with the destruction of Shadow’s Fall, or at least what we had presumed was its destruction. In the week since, we’d managed only once to get a scout close enough to the ruined settlement to report that the Dread Crew had stopped just shy of completely destroying it. Since then they’d worked hard in rebuilding and fortifying the captured settlement, clearly intending to make us fight for it if we wanted to recapture it.

  Which would go a long way towards buying us breathing room and letting us control the plains, I thought as I considered the battle plan with a critical eye, unable to see any faults in the logic. Especially if we can take away their bind point and force them to respawn farther away…wherever their other camps and bases are.

  “What do you think about this, Fredric?” I asked, looking over towards the bann, who had yet to comment.

  “It is a highly aggressive strategy,” he stated, his gaze dropping down towards the map while his hand motioned at a series of smaller camps and sentries that the Dread Crew had set up. “But I believe that it is the correct course given our better than expected success today. As cold as it may be to say, given my comparative…mortality, I see little consequence even if our efforts tonight fail and our nighttime forces are rebuffed. All they will see is us continuing to press them while they are already back on their heels.”

  “The perks of being an adventurer,” Cassius said with a shrug. “Live. Fight. Die. Then do it all again and again.”

  “Pretty much,” I agreed with a morbid nod, completely sharing in Cassius’s sentiment.

  In this last week alone, I’d been killed three times in the various battles and skirmishes on the plains, finding myself respawning back in Aldford with a long walk ahead of me.

  “Well, in that case,” I said after a few seconds thought, “I don’t see any reason why we can’t go forward with this plan for the night. Even if things go a bit sideways and you only hit half of these camps, it’ll seriously blind the Dread Crew to our movements come tomorrow morning. Then that’ll give us the momentum to hit the rest and really put them back on their heels.”

  “Great!” Cassius exclaimed in a happy voice. “While I don’t think that the Dread Crew will let us take any more prisoners, I’m hoping that we can at least destroy some of their camps and supplies. The less that they have to work with, the better.”

  “Here’s to hoping,” I agreed, offering the man a nod. “If we can force them to spend more time worrying about crafting new gear or finding enough food to keep everyone fed, then there’s no doubt in my mind that things will start to snowball for us.”

  “Definitely,” Cassius agreed before inclining his head to the door. “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’m going to get going. The sooner I can get everyone moving, the sooner we can put this plan in motion.”

  “Sounds good to me, and good luck tonight,” I said, similar sentiments coming from both Aldwin and Veronia, the pair already having worked out any concerns they may have had with Cassius’s plan long before I arrived.

  Stepping out of the room with a wave, it didn’t take long for the man to remove himself, his excited footsteps echoing out from the hallway.

  “He is certainly eager to live up to your success today, Lyrian,” Aldwin commented, breaking the momentary silence that had fallen after Cassius’s departure. “It was all Veronia and I could do to sway him into a more…restrained course of action tonight.”

  “As much as one can call this restrained,” Veronia stated. “Did you know that his original proposal was a nighttime raid against Shadow’s Fall itself? Sheer lunacy, even for an adventurer.”

  “He wants his home back,” I said with a sigh, completely unsurprised by everything that Veronia and Aldwin had said. Since the war had begun, Cassius—and his guild by extension—had been among the most driven to fight it, which was saying something, considering all the reasons those of us in Aldford had to hate the man.

  Ambushing us at the tower, having Ignis infiltrate our ranks and betray us in the Twilight Grove, along with summoning the shoggoth to rupture the ley line and destroy Aldford, I recited mentally, unable to keep myself from shaking my head at everything that had happened over the course of the last month. It seemed that we’d barely had a chance to catch our breaths before some new crisis or event reared its head and forced us to deal with it.

  Then, of course, the war started, and any hope of a break went straight out of the window.

  “Perhaps,” Aldwin admitted. “But, despite saying so, I do not believe that he has truly come to terms with the fact that you will likely have to destroy what’s left of his settlement in order to deny it to Carver. You may meet considerable resistance if—when—that time comes.”

  “But we can’t afford to alienate him and his guild in the process,” I finished, the thoughts having already crossed my mind as well. “I don’t know what I can do to make him realize that, but I’ll try and keep a closer eye on him tomorrow. Depending on how the Dread Crew react overnight, there’s a good chance we could possibly be raiding Shadow’s Fall by tomorrow evening. It all depends if they try to meet us on the plains again, or if they decide that they don’t want to risk another engagement so soon at all. They could easily pull back and force us to extend ourselves for a siege.”

  “We shall have to see,” Aldwin replied with a nod before changing the subject. “Now, tell us about the battle today. How did everything fare?”

  “Fairly well, but we had a few surprises today that might have caused things to go differently if we hadn’t been lucky,” I reported, going on to give Veronia and Aldwin the highlights of the day and how an unexpectedly strong flanking force had almost derailed our surprise attack.

  “Hm, the reinforced flanks show that they are certainly learning and improving on their tactics,” Veronia mused after I’d finished speaking. “Was there any sighting of Carver during the battle today? Or was there someone else in command?”

  “No, not today,” I replied. “And no one else reported seeing him either. In fact, now that I think about it, the one familiar face that I recognized on the field today was Ignis, but that was long after the battle was over.”

  “Then that marks at least three days since we’ve last seen him,” Aldwin observed thoughtfully, running his hand through his beard as he spoke. “What is he doing that would distract him from this conflict?
One would think that it is a priority for him, yet he is nowhere to be seen. Not even commanding from the rear.”

  “Any guess is as good as the next one,” I said, having given the matter plenty of thought over the last few days. “But so far we haven’t seen any sign of him or any of his other followers trying to do something creative, like cross the forest and raid Aldford from the east. Between the scouts we have based out of the Irovian tower and all of the creatures deeper inside the forest, we’ve seen no signs of anyone trying to blaze a path through it.”

  “I suppose so,” Aldwin admitted.

  “There is the chance that he continues to court the orcs,” Veronia offered, her face narrowing in disgust. “Despite what Cassius says, they cannot be discounted entirely. Especially not after you’ve drawn blood with their tribe.”

  “Yeah…” I agreed with a sigh, recalling that Amaranth, Sierra, and Constantine had all managed to kill a pair of Orcs in the ambushing force that had attacked us at the Irovian Tower before they themselves were overwhelmed. “I wish we were able to get a closer eye on what’s happening to the north behind the Dread Crew’s lines or even farther in the forest instead. We know that they have a base somewhere in there too.”

  “Likely,” Aldwin agreed before going on to raise his shoulders in a tired shrug. “Regardless, perhaps today’s efforts will be successful in bringing Carver’s attention back to our conflict here and possibly afford us the opportunity to capture him and render his followers leaderless.”

  “That would be ideal,” I agreed wistfully, despite having a feeling that Carver would never let himself be taken alive after he learned what happened to his followers today. “But if he doesn’t want to pay attention to the war he’s started and let us take Shadow’s Fall back, I’m not going to complain.”

  “True enough,” the bann acknowledged with a grunt. “I am reminded of the phrase an old commander was once fond of: ‘Never interfere with an enemy who is making a mistake’.”

  “Definitely not,” I agreed, despite having my own reservations on whether or not Carver was making a mistake at all.

  Between the forces scattered between the Hartwyld and the plains, the Dread Crew had completely managed to prevent us from exploring farther northward, which given the presence of the orcs we’d seen, was concerning. Not only were we blind to what was happening there, but we also simply had no way of finding out what their motivations were for attacking us, having been locked into the endless stalemate until today. Hopefully, with a chance to finally push the Dread Crew back, we’d get a better understanding of why exactly they’d decided to wage war on us.

  And more importantly, how we could try and stop them.

  “Anyway, moving past all of that, how was the day here?” I went on to ask, deciding that it was best to shift the subject as I was starting to get eager to wrap things up and find my way back to reality. “I saw that another section of the palisade was finished today when we got back.”

  “Busy as usual,” Aldwin replied, his face showing what had no doubt been an exhausting day on his end of things. “Léandre asked for my assistance in supervising some of the work crews today, and I, unfortunately, didn’t think twice before I agreed.”

  “He had you moving all the heavy things, didn’t he?” I asked, feeling a smile creep across my face at the news.

  “Massive granite slabs that he quarried just outside of the town,” Aldwin explained with a haunted expression. “Apparently, he needs them to shore up a section of the foundation for the palisade…or at least that is what I thought I heard while I and half a dozen others were attempting to move a piece. Admittedly, my attention was largely focused on not crushing my feet.”

  “Of course,” I replied with a chuckle, at first wishing I’d been around to see the bann moving the stone, then abruptly changing my mind when I realized that Léandre would likely have conscripted me to help as well.

  “What about you, Veronia?” I asked, looking over towards the woman with a raised eyebrow. “Did you get roped into this too?”

  “No, thankfully not,” she replied, a brief smile flashing across her face as she glanced over at Aldwin, then back towards me. “Though I can’t say that my efforts today were any easier. I’ve been attempting to train some of the adventurers and villagers within the town on small unit tactics and maneuvers. Suffice to say that it’s a challenging experience thus far.”

  “I can imagine,” I said, knowing full well where Veronia was coming from. Since the war had started, I’d tried my hand at training a handful of groups in Virtus in how to fight more effectively together. Unfortunately, that process had involved more breaking of bad habits that the adventurers had picked up, rather than teaching something useful. Though, with that being said, I wondered how much of Veronia’s demeanor was also affecting her success. Her personality had warmed somewhat since the events within the Twilight Grove, especially to me and Aldwin, but as a whole, she was still fairly cold and standoffish to others.

  “Regardless, there have been some encouraging signs of progress that make it a worthy endeavor to continue with,” Veronia said. “We shall see if it bears fruit in the end.”

  “I’m sure it will,” I said confidently, managing to get the words out just as a yawn crept up on me. “Ugh, well, I think that’s my body’s way of telling me that I need to wind down for the night. Is there anything else that we need to catch up on? If not, I think I’m going to turn in early.”

  “No, no, I think that’s everything, Lyrian,” Aldwin replied, flashing me an understanding smile. “After a busy day like today, I doubt that I am far behind you.”

  “I don’t believe that there is anything else either,” Veronia stated. “All that is left to do is wait until morning and see how Cassius and the others fare overnight.”

  “Great,” I said, my eyes flashing between the pair. “Then I’m off to find something soft to fall down onto for a while.”

  “Good night, Lyrian, and be sure to get what rest you need,” Aldwin said as I gave the pair a farewell wave and turned to walk towards the door. “Something tells me that we will find few opportunities for it in the days to come.”

  Chapter 4

  Monday, April 8th, 2047 – 5:36 a.m.

  Aldford – The Foundry

  Good morning! Welcome back to Ascend Online!

  The greeting notification was the first thing I saw as I logged back in the following morning, the swirling array of colors that was the login process slowly resolving itself until it finally faded away into the familiar layout that was the foundry. As my vision cleared and my senses restored themselves, I felt a wave of intense heat wash over me, followed by a rapid influx of memories that told me that I’d logged back into my avatar mid-smelt.

  Whoa, more like mid-pour! My eyes opened in surprise as the final dregs of the disorienting login process faded away from me, and I realized that I was right in the middle of emptying out a large crucible of molten iron into an ingot mold. Reacting quickly, I tightened my grip on the heavy tool before I could drop it and focused on getting all of the liquid metal into the mold.

  “Phew!” I let out a breath of relief several seconds later as I finished my pour and set the crucible back down. “I guess there’s a first time for everything; I’ve never actually logged in mid-craft before.”

  Taking the time to regroup after my more-exciting-than-anticipated entrance into the game world, I gave myself a few minutes to calm down and scanned my newly added memories for anything that I’d missed.

  Looks like it was a calm night here in-game, I said mentally a few seconds later, a large block of my new memories completely blank from when my avatar was also asleep, followed by nearly an hour of smelting ingots before I had so suddenly interrupted myself. No complaints about that from me.

  Last night back in reality had been a relatively quiet affair, with me and our core group enjoying the evening off, celebrating the day’s success by consuming a truly incredible amount of junk food. I’d ev
en managed to find Lazarus and his group before logging off and extended an invite for all of them to join us via video chat, with both Sawyer and Ransom agreeing. Unfortunately, in Lazarus’s case, I’d managed to catch his avatar, the man having already logged off for the night. I’d sent him a text message once I was back in reality as well but to no avail.

  Making a mental note to talk to the man if I had the chance today, I turned my attention towards the smelting efforts that my avatar had been engaged in seconds earlier, picking up right where I had left off. As always, there was an endless list of work to be done around Aldford—the majority of which had been shifted in priority thanks to the war we’d found ourselves in. Now, above everything else, the palisade surrounding the town was our most important project, with everyone who had a moment to spare assisting in its construction, be it through labor or crafting.

  Unfortunately, with the war taking up so much of my time, I hadn’t been able to contribute as much as I’d wanted to the construction efforts. So, in hopes of remedying that, I’d decided to wake up a little earlier today and smelt as much iron as I could to help Léandre and Jenkins out, hopefully lightening their load in the process. Falling back into an easy rhythm, I filled the crucible with another pile of iron ore from a nearby crate and inserted it back into the smelter. Well experienced with how long it would take the metal to melt, I let my mind drift, using the opportunity to skim over my character sheet and refamiliarize myself with it, taking note of my small skill advancement overnight.

  Lyrian Rastler – Level 23 Spellsword

  Human Male (Eberian)

  Statistics:

  HP: 1548/1548

  Stamina: 1395/1395

  Mana: 1693/1693

  Experience to Next Level: 35240/54500

  Renown: 7110

  Attributes:

  Strength: 78 (103)

  Agility: 68 (95)

  Constitution: 81 (85)

  Intelligence: 99 (103)

  Willpower: 28 (31)