Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  Managing to disengage from combat without anything else hitting me, I paused for a second to shake my head and clear it, my vision rapidly settling. As I did, I found myself staring forward at an image of both Carver and his familiar fighting with Freya and Amaranth, the two having moved to block the pair from attacking me. Blinking once, I saw that in the short time that I had lost, Carver had somehow managed to gain a vicious stab wound in his shoulder, a slow trickle of blood oozing outward from it to cover his chest.

  “Seriously, why are you doing this, Carver?” I asked as I forced my way back into the battle and fell in beside my friends, the three of us combining our attacks to press the pair, the dervish we had been fighting now nowhere to be seen. “I don’t know how you managed to get all of these orcs here, or what story you might have sold them to get them to attack us, but you have to know that this isn’t going to end well for you all. It’s only a matter of time before word of this battle gets out to the public, and I doubt that you have enough orcs with you to stand up to all the adventurers in Eberia.”

  “And what makes you think that these are all the orcs I have with me?” Carver replied, a sneer appearing across his face as he stabbed his spear towards me, looking to buy himself some space to defend against Freya. “I’m afraid that you don’t get what’s happening here, Lyrian. This isn’t just a little dust-up between our two sides. Not anymore. What you’re seeing here are the beginnings of round two.”

  “Round two?” Freya asked. “Round two of what exactly?”

  “What else?” Carver replied in a smug tone as he and Valefor lunged once more towards us. “The war.”

  “The war?” I repeated, feeling my eyes widen as I danced out of the way of the crimson spirit wolf and deflected the tip of Carver’s spear away from me, responding with my own attack that the man easily caught on his armor. “You can’t be serious! The war was over before we even started playing!”

  “Look around you, Lyrian,” the man replied as he shoved me and took a large step backward, using the brief break in our fighting to indicate the battle around us. “Does it look like it’s really over? It just took a break for a time for a few…changes to be made. This time we won’t have your Nafarr interfering with us anymore.”

  “My Nafarr?” I asked with surprise as I bounced back on my heels from the man’s blow, watching the man warily as he spoke. “What are you talking about? What the hell do they have to do with any of this?”

  “Everything,” he answered in a vicious tone before going on to bark a guttural word of power followed by a sharp gesture with his spear, the quick spell causing a thick black cloud to suddenly spring into existence directly on top of me.

  Shit, what the hell did he just do? I thought with a mental panic as the growing miasma clouded my vision and forced me to shove Carver’s cryptic statement to the side in favor of the moment. In an instant, both the battle and my nearby companions became impossible to see as the dark smoke continued to thicken. As it did, I felt a surge of nausea shoot through me, causing my hunger to roil followed by a string of alerts flashing through my vision.

  You have been afflicted by Carver’s [Corrupting Cloud]!

  You suffer 41 corruption damage from [Corrupting Cloud]!

  Your Corruption Counter has increased to 1%!

  Your [Hunger] devours [Corruption], restoring 50 points of mana!

  Oh, damn it! He can cast spells with the corruption? I hissed mentally as I read my combat log, activating True Sight the second that I realized the nature of the man’s spell, my feet already moving of their own accord as I tried to get out of its effects as fast as possible. Or at least, that’s what I tried to do as I rushed towards a pocket of safety that I saw near Freya, only to see her flinch and rush away from me, her voice calling out a second later.

  “Lyr! Stop moving!” she shouted in a loud voice. “You’re spreading the corruption with you everywhere you go!”

  “I’m wha—oh, shit. Sorry!” I called back to the woman, it taking me a second to process exactly what she’d said. Once I did, however, I made sure to do exactly that and ground to a halt, belatedly realizing that Carver hadn’t dropped the spell where I’d been standing but had instead pinned it directly to me.

  Probably to keep me from blink stepping out of it, I thought as I tried to get my bearings, having lost sight of Carver after I’d moved. But, then he doesn’t know I can see through it and Blink step anyway…though the cloud makes things a little tricky. Hmm, fortunately, I happen to have other options to fall back on instead.

  Summoning a wave of magic, I began to cast a spell that I’d yet to try out in battle since learning it, weaving a shell of pure mana around my body. Taking a second to form, I felt the nauseating sensation throughout my body abruptly fade as my Arcane Shield came into existence, giving me a respite from its effects and a chance to preserve what hit points I had left.

  Ah, crap, and just in time, too, I thought as I saw a section of the nearby orcs outside the cloud suddenly ripple, the movement signaling the impending approach of something exceptionally large. Fearing the worse, I had just enough time to reach into my rapidly dwindling mana reserves and activate Alacrity before a singed and battered corrupted guardian burst free of the crowd and entered the haze at a run. Leading with its massive tree trunk-sized arm held high above it, the creature fixated on me as it adjusted its charge through the corruption, the massive club already beginning its downward arc in anticipation of the blow to come.

  Reacting as fast as my flatfooted body would let me, I made the most of my hasted state, a desperate plan assembling itself in my mind as I summoned yet another wave of magic from within, reaching for every last mote of mana I had. Channeling the spell quickly, I barely managed to finish casting Arcane Chains before the construct reached me, the azure-colored links of magic appearing just in time to wrap themselves around one of its legs. Pulling itself taut, the magic was far from enough to halt the massive guardian’s momentum in the short space separating us, but it was just enough to send it stumbling off stride.

  Which fortunately for me was all I needed.

  Throwing myself to the side as the spell finished, I was able to sidestep its attempt to pulp me, the construct’s attack hitting the ground where I’d just been standing with enough force to send dirt spraying through the air. But despite my narrow slip of its main attack, I still wasn’t out of the woods yet, my attention sliding towards its second arm, its clawed hand stretching out at me. Gritting my teeth as I fell into the next stage of my desperate plan, I recovered from my dodge as quickly as I could manage while raising Splinter upwards into what I would normally consider as an ill-conceived hard parry. Slamming into me with the full force of its momentum behind it, I felt the muscles and bones in my arm scream as I connected with the guardian’s claw, its heavy attack shoving my weapon back. In any other circumstance, I would have never considered to ever enter into such a one-sided physical exchange with such a strong opponent, knowing full well that my talents edged more towards speed rather than strength. But given the circumstances and where I found myself in the battle at the moment, I knew I had to do something drastic before I found myself overwhelmed.

  Okay, now this next part is probably going to hurt, I mentally whispered to myself, the fleeting thought passing through my hunger-filled mind as I saw the guardian’s claw slide up Splinter’s edge and deflect up as I pushed against it with all my strength, changing its trajectory ever so slightly. Instead of now impacting directly square in my chest, the claw was now knocked off course, continuing its arc over my sword arm entirely and carving a line across my neck and shoulder.

  Or at least it would have, had my Arcane Shield not been in the way.

  Sparking as it made contact, the claw’s razor-sharp tips came to within an inch of my skin encountering the barrier, running along it harmlessly before being deflected a second time, the shield pushing it completely out of my way. Feeling nothing from the impact, I let out a mental sigh of relief a
s I darted into the construct’s now-exposed guard, the only sign of the attack ever having landed belonging to the steady string of notifications flashing by in the corner of my vision.

  Your [Arcane Shield] absorbs 41 corruption damage from Carver’s [Corrupting Cloud]! (377 Shield Points Remaining).

  Your [Arcane Shield] absorbs 227 slashing damage from a [Corrupted Guardian]’s attack! (150 Shield Points Remaining).

  Blocking out the still-ticking alerts as I closed the final distance separating me and the guardian, I instead focused my efforts on bringing Splinter to bear, forcing my still-stinging arm to thrust out with the sword. Guiding it with a single glance at the construct’s body, I had just enough time to aim the tip towards its chest, battle damage having revealed the cocoon beneath its muddy surface. Stretching my arm out as the distance between us shrank to a close, I was able to see Splinter’s point find a groove in the twisted roots and begin to sink in.

  Then next thing I knew we slammed into one another with enough force that I was thrown off my feet, the impact causing Alacrity to abruptly end and cause the world to return to its normal speed. Feeling the air rush out of me as the collision shattered what little remained of my shield, I felt the world around me spin wildly before turning completely dark as I landed heavily on my stomach. But no sooner did I finish moving did a heavy weight crash down on top of me, smothering my entire body and forcing it hard into the dirt.

  Stunned from the twin collisions, it took a handful of seconds before my brain started to work again, my first instinct being to take in a deep breath to recover the wind that had been knocked out of me. Yet as I tried to suck in a lungful of much-needed air, I found myself instead breathing a mouthful of mud, its rancid, oily taste hitting me a second later. Immediately choking at both the vile and suffocating sensation, I reflexively began to thrash and push at the weight above me, feeling it squish and give away in response to my efforts.

  “Ugh,” I grunted as I spat out what mud I could and brought a hand towards my face to scrape off the rest that caked my eyes and face. As I did, I felt the familiar effects of the corruption slowly return throughout my body, accompanied by my hunger reacting to its presence and beginning to devour it.

  At least I won’t run short of mana while I’m stuck in this cloud, the idle thought passed through my still-scrambled brain as I forced myself to turn over on my side, seeing my nearly empty mana bar begin to gradually fill itself. Of course, that was followed by my health doing the same, except in the opposite direction as the Corrupting Cloud steadily took its toll, my Arcane Shield no longer intact to protect me from it. It was then, as I saw my health, that the last few seconds finally caught up with me and my mind finally cleared, reminding me of my collision with the guardian. Shit! Did I manage to kill it?

  Moving with sudden panic, I forced myself to blink what mud remained in my eyes away and scanned my surroundings, finding myself half covered in an oozing mound of mud that was slowly spreading outwards and sinking into the ground. Amid the rapidly thinning mud was the familiar shape of a rootlike cocoon lying on its side, Splinter’s hilt visibly protruding from it.

  Phew, I did, I thought as I saw both the blade and the river of red-black blood oozing outward from where it had pierced the cocoon, the construct having helped impale itself on the weapon when we’d collided. Let’s hope I don’t have to try and do that again anytime soon.

  Gagging with revulsion, I didn’t linger to savor my narrow victory and began about the process of freeing myself from the remains of the now-dead corrupted guardian, my feet slipping and sliding across the mud. Standing, I retrieved Splinter from its place in the cocoon, trying not to think of the helpless victim trapped within as I pulled it out. Once I was armed again, I cast a look towards the battle outside the dark haze surrounding me, using the temporary break in the fighting to reach into my pocket and pull free a much-needed healing potion. Downing its contents in a single motion, I followed it up with a mana potion, the little that I’d been able to drain from the creature before its death not enough to recoup what I had spent to take it down. Breathing a sigh of relief as my injuries and hunger lessened, I suffered one last course of Carver’s Corrupting Cloud eating away at me before it mercifully began to dissipate, having finally run its course. Tensing myself as the clouds began to part, I readied myself as I saw heads snap in my direction as I reappeared, belonging to orc and Dread Crew alike.

  “Well, well, look at that, you’re still standing!” Carver’s voice suddenly called out from amid the crowd to my right, prompting me to spin and glance around in an attempt to find him. “You certainly never fail to impress, Lyrian! But you really should just save yourself the energy and give up while you still can.”

  “That’s funny,” I replied as I pinpointed his voice and turned to face it. “I was about to say the same—”

  Finding him roughly mid-speech, it took a second for my eyes to make sense of what I saw when I finally spotted the man, my words suddenly coming to a halt. Fighting back a wave of surprise, I saw Carver striding forward across the battlefield towards me at the head of what looked like an army of living shadows behind him. It was after a second of staring at all of them, that I realized they were all corrupted spirits, not too dissimilar from the others that we’d faced earlier in the battle. Yet where those spirits mirrored the shape of animals and other more familiar creatures of the land, these spirits behind Carver were anything but, their tattered, shadowlike forms varying in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

  Some of them stood nearly six feet tall, their bodies whipcord thin with a quartet of long, slender arms clawing at the air as they moved, while others barely reached half that, no two of them appearing identical to one another. In fact, the only commonality that I could see among these new entities were the vaguely bestial features that they all bore in the form of gnashing wolf-like maws, razor-sharp claws, and a set of barbed horns that crowned each of their heads. Yet for all of the differences that I saw in the spirits, there was only a single tag that appeared in my vision, a dozen lines flowing out from it to point at all of the advancing creatures.

  [Corrupted Shade] – Level 23

  “What’s wrong, Lyrian?” Carver called out in a taunting voice as he continued to advance towards me. “Cat got your tongue? Or do you finally realize what you’re up against now?”

  Continuing to stare numbly at the man and his army of corrupted shades, I was saved from needing to reply with an answer by Freya’s voice ringing out, followed by several people rushing up to fall in beside me.

  “Everyone form up on me!” she shouted as she appeared at my side, Amaranth, Helix, and a handful of other Aldford adventurers falling into place on either of us a second later. “They’re making a push across the whole line! We need to hold them back or we’ll get overrun!”

  Lowering the pitch of her voice after she finished speaking, she continued in a softer tone directed towards me specifically. “Are you doing alright, Lyr? We lost you for a while there.”

  “I’m okay, just what the hell happened?” I replied in an equally soft voice, her presence having pulled my attention away from Carver and his shades, allowing me a chance to better scan the battlefield and see just how much it had shifted during my temporary distraction.

  And not for the better.

  In the dozen some odd seconds that had passed since I’d lost track of the greater battle around me, the orcs had managed to press their advance across the entirety of our defensive line, largely in thanks to the very spirits that I saw walking by Carver’s side. Numbering in the dozens from what I could see in a single glance, their arrival had set our defense back on its heels, forcing it to give ground lest they be completely overwhelmed.

  “I don’t know,” Freya stated in a breathless voice as she readied her spear before her. “Those things just…appeared all across our lines and started to force us back. Same as the other spirits did. They weren’t there one second, then they were there and attacking the next. Dra
ce and a bunch of the others went down before we could even react.”

  “Shit,” I replied, my mind rapidly trying to make sense of what was happening. Clearly, we’d seriously underestimated the orcs, thinking that the constructs were the only trick that they had in store for us. If we managed to survive the battle, and still be in good shape to continue to stand up to them afterward, we’d have to change our entire line of thinking afterward.

  Assuming we even make it that far, I thought, the time for introspection coming to an end as Carver and his corrupted shades finally broke into a charge, rapidly crossing the distance separating us.

  Moving as a singular entity, the corrupted shadows momentarily outpaced Carver in their charge, the man vanishing from sight behind their ranks. Readying ourselves, we all had just enough time to take a single breath and tighten our grips on our weapons before they were on top of us. Slamming into us with an avalanche of shadowy teeth and claws, it only took a second for the world to shrink, the tidal wave of living shadow blocking out everything else around us.

  Staggering under the initial assault, our ragged line did all it could to stand up to the shades’ assault, the alien creatures lashing out us at us with an unbridled ferocity that forced us back. Everywhere I looked I was forced to deal with a set of slashing claws or biting teeth, their corrupting touch leaving a sickening sensation coursing through my body with every blow I was too slow or too distracted to avoid. But thanks to my hunger, the corruption that the attacking shades attempted to infect me with, and what I absorbed through my mana draining, only served to empower me, allowing me to return the favor in the form of searing Flamebursts that singed the wall of creatures before me.