Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  Mithaniel: We’re in. All of us.

  If anyone had seen me in the seconds that followed the message, I was sure they would have assumed me to have been possessed, or if not, completely frightened by the sudden dance of excitement that I launched into.

  “Phew!” I exclaimed, feeling all of the pent-up anticipation vanish as pure relief poured through every inch of my body. But as I finished my dance, I saw that there was another longer message already waiting for me, which I promptly read and replied to.

  Mithaniel: All of us meaning the Legion guild too. I spoke with, Jay, or rather Janus, just a few minutes ago, and he wanted me to pass along the news on his behalf since he’s pretty tied up right now. I’m not sure how in the loop you might be about current events here, but the shit just hit the fan, and I don’t think we’re the only guilds pulling out.

  Lyrian: That’s great that you’re both on board! We’re definitely looking forward to having you all here with us. But I haven’t heard about anything recently going on, at least not past what I mentioned yesterday. What’s happening?

  Mithaniel: Big picture-wise? We don’t have a clue. But the local word is that there’s been a huge shakeup in Coldscar with tons of people fighting—to the point where we can see smoke coming from it. Plus, and I have no idea if it’s related, but two of the biggest player alliances here picked today to finally throw down.

  I mentally cursed as I read the latest message, my mind going to Lazarus and the others. There hadn’t been any update from the group since the man’s message a few days earlier, and I couldn’t help but assume that they were right in the middle of whatever was happening. Quickly drafting a separate private message, I tried reaching out to Lazarus for an in-game update, only to immediately receive a notice that it had gone into a queue and that the game would notify the recipient at a later time. Frowning at the notification, I made a mental note to follow up offline with the trio, almost certain now that they were wrapped up in the middle of something. Once I was done, I turned my attention back towards my message chain with Mithaniel, resuming our conversation.

  Lyrian: Damn, that’s not good at all, and I’d put money on it that it probably is related one way or another at least. I just tried messaging my team in Coldscar and got a note that it was dropped into the message queue. Did Janus end up getting caught up in all of this?

  Mithaniel: Not by the main conflict in Coldscar, but he’s in a shitty spot regardless. Last that I heard from him is that he’s uprooted his entire guild and was pushing his way towards us as fast as possible. If things go well, I expect he’ll be able to make it to us in about four to six hours. If there aren’t any more complications once they arrive, then we’re out of here. Our goal is to get as far as we possibly can away from this place tonight before we get sucked into this mess.

  Lyrian: That definitely sounds like a good idea, and hopefully you’ll be able to. Assuming everything goes right, how soon do you think you’ll be able to make it to Aldford afterward? I can warn them that you’re on the way and have a relief party meet you along the way to guide you.

  Mithaniel: We won’t turn any helping hands down, but as for a timeline, that depends. With how things are right now, if we leave on a direct path to Aldford, people are likely going to follow us, if only to be safe in numbers. We could try to lose some of them by trekking towards the fens for a day or two before turning west, but that’s going to add to the delay and might not even help.

  Lyrian: Don’t worry about faking people out, just get yourselves here as fast as you can. If things have finally gone to hell in your area, they were bound to come out this way anyway. Besides, I don’t mean to pile on the pressure, but I have a feeling we’re going to need your help here sooner rather than later. Things are starting to come to a head here.

  Mithaniel: Are they? Damn. Okay, we’ll do our best to move as fast as possible, which with luck would put us in Aldford roughly somewhere between late Monday or sometime Tuesday—assuming there aren’t any issues. What’s the situation like there?

  Pausing at the man’s question, I took the time to collect my thoughts before replying, going on to fill him in on everything that had happened to us yesterday and our plans going forward. From there, we then hashed out a handful of other logistical details, trading whatever bits of information we thought was relevant to one another’s efforts. Ideally, if everything went perfectly with Mithaniel and the others’ progress, they would be here in time to re-enforce us before the orcs attacked in force again. Though in terms of planning, we both knew that there would be inevitable delays or surprises that would come up, especially if they were leaving a warzone. To be safe, we erred on the side of caution for their journey, making sure that whatever route they took would be one that would preserve the entirety of their guilds. The last thing that any of us wanted would be for them to end up split, with half of their numbers being sent back to Eberia for a respawn.

  Eventually, our conversation came to an end with both of us promising to check in daily and wishing one another luck on our two respective tasks. Once that was done, I cleared the chat from my vision and allowed myself one final moment of rest as I leaned even heavier on the post behind me, my thoughts already racing through my mind.

  Help is on the way, I said silently as I stared out blankly ahead. Now we just need to find a way to survive long enough until it gets here.

  Chapter 29

  Friday, April 19th, 2047 – 10:00 a.m.

  CTI Player Housing Complex

  “Good morning, Marcus!” Sonia’s voice greeted me the second after her smiling face appeared on the screen in front of me. “I’m sorry I’m so late to call, I was completely wiped and slept longer than I thought I would.”

  “Oh, geez, don’t worry about that!” I replied, matching her smile with one of my own. “You and all of the others have been going non-stop since you left the base! You deserve a break!”

  “That we have,” the woman stated with a sigh, a faint glimpse of tiredness flashing through her eyes before vanishing as quickly as it appeared. “This rest day couldn’t have come at a better time. I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure that I slept more today than I have in the last week before it. I’m not sure if I had another day left in me.”

  “Yikes,” I replied, my eyes growing wider at the statement. “I knew things were intense when you were holding the orcs back, but I didn’t realize that it was that bad.”

  “Perks of being in command,” Sonia answered with a shrug. “Too much to do, and too much to think about when you happen to not be doing.”

  “Ah, yeah. I know that feeling, all right,” I said sympathetically, my anxious and overactive brain having kept me awake its fair share of times. “But like you said, at least we have today to relax, right?”

  “Definitely,” she replied, her smile growing even wider. “Plus, it feels like ages since we’ve been able just to sit and chat with only us around. I’ve been looking forward to today since you mentioned it.”

  “Ditto,” I agreed wholeheartedly, silently appreciating my friends for having been able to help organize this “date day” between Sonia and me.

  With how busy the month of April had turned out to be so far, we’d almost constantly been missing one another by inches, our various responsibilities constantly taking us in opposite directions. So, when the time came to plan how we were going to stagger our rest cycles so we didn’t all end up offline at the same time, I’d asked the others if Sonia and I would be able to have ours off together. Thankfully, they had all agreed and helped make it work for us, which I greatly appreciated since I had a feeling that this coming break today would be the last one we got for the next while to come.

  And I wanted to make the most of it.

  “So,” I said as I came back into the moment. “How about we catch one another up a bit to start? I’ve only heard the broad strokes about how it was holding the orcs back and what you’ve been up to the last couple days. Plus, I like to think I’ve had
a couple interesting things crop up on my end too.”

  “You mean more than the bombshell you dropped about what’s happening in Coldscar and our two new guilds rushing to save our butts?” Sonia replied with a raised eyebrow as a coffee mug came into view, the woman pausing to take a sip. “What exactly have you been up to while I’ve been busy saving the day?”

  “Oh, you know, stuff,” I said, keeping my face completely deadpan for as long as I could before breaking into a grin. “How about we get you to start first? Then we can circle back to my…developments.”

  “You have ‘developments’ as in more than one and you want me to start first?” Sonia queried in a suspicious tone, her eyes narrowing over her coffee. “You, sir, are a tease.”

  “Yes, I am,” I replied with a chuckle and nothing else, prompting the woman to snort.

  “Gosh, you’re lucky you’re cute,” she said with a mock sigh as she set down her mug in front of her just barely out of sight of the camera. “Fine, I’ll start first with my tale of awe-inspiring heroism against an impossible horde of orcs. “

  The woman paused to clear her throat before continuing in a grand tone, “So, there I was, a lance of pure molten fire in my hands, standing on top of a mountain of bodies as a million, no wait, two million orcs came rushing towards me across the plains…”

  “Now who’s being a tease?” I asked, Sonia’s theatrical description earning a genuine laugh out of me.

  “Not so good when it’s on the other foot, is it now?” she replied with a smirk but continued talking before I could reply. “But in actuality though, the battles during our attempts to delay went pretty well as a whole. Don’t get me wrong though, they definitely weren’t easy, but the difference in equipment and skill depending on the orc tribe we were fighting was huge. Some were practically pushovers, while others were tough and vicious to fight, especially when the Dread Crew joined them.”

  Sonia paused as a thought visibly struck her, causing her to immediately shift topics.

  “Oh, right! I was actually going to bring this up earlier, but I forgot. Have you been counting all of the Dread Crew that we’ve seen so far over the last few days?”

  “Counting them?” I asked, caught a little off guard by the question. “Uh, not offhand. Why? Is something going on?”

  “I’m not sure actually, it’s just a hunch I’ve been working through after seeing the battle summary the other day,” Sonia said. “There doesn’t seem to be enough Dread Crew around to account for them all, and I say that counting those that we killed in the battle the other day. If I had to guess…I’d say they’re missing at least twenty to thirty of them, over and above those that we’ve seen still hanging out with the orcs, that is.”

  “Huh,” I grunted as I leaned back in my seat, considering Sonia’s words. Despite our best efforts, and even asking Phillion and the other prisoners outright before they’d all taken Dyre’s offer for a new start, we had little idea of just how many adventurers Carver had at his beck and call. Our best guesses ranged from somewhere in the hundred to hundred and thirty mark—minus, of course, those that we’d taken. “Maybe they’re deeper in with the main orc force? They might not have drawn patrol duty or whatever they use to organize themselves on their end.”

  “Could be,” she agreed. “Or maybe they’ve shifted into support roles or have even gone and deserted. I mean, we haven’t seen Mozter and his group in ages, right? I’m sure they’ve had their own attrition. But if that isn’t the case, I can’t help but shake the thought that they’re up to something, maybe trying to flank us from the forest or are trying to lull us into a false sense of security.”

  “Shit, that last one sends a chill down my back to think of,” I stated, the possibility of a forest ambush having been an ever-present source of anxiety for all of us. “But we still have eyes on all parts of the forest leading to Aldford, there’s no way they’d be able to sneak that many people by our scouts without us catching at least a whiff of something going on.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought too, and I might just be overreacting and jumping at ghosts,” Sonia replied with a shrug, “but it’s been something eating at me the last few days.”

  “I can understand that,” I said, reaching up to scratch my cheek as I thought about what we could do to mitigate the situation. Unfortunately, nothing that we weren’t already doing came to mind. “I hope this is just being paranoid and there’s nothing to worry about. Given what we learned from the prisoners that we took about how Carver treats his people, I’d lean to the cause being attrition and people deciding that they’ve had enough.”

  “Me too,” Sonia agreed. “And if that hasn’t been the case, I’m sure it’ll be soon enough. There are only a couple more days until the first group who took Dyre’s offer get released from whatever prison they ended up in. I’m sure they’ll be sending private messages to their friends still in the Dread Crew the first opportunity they have, if they haven’t already done so back here in reality.”

  “Damn, has it already been that long?” I asked, not having realized how fast time had flown. “I’d completely forgotten about that.”

  “It’s been a busy month,” she said, her eyes dropping downwards at all the memories that stretched between then and now before perking back up. “Anyway, that’s really the gist of what I have here on my end to share. Now, how about some news on those ‘developments’ that you mentioned earlier? Or are you going to keep me in suspense?”

  “While that is very tempting,” I replied, drawing out the word as I spoke, “I’m not that cruel.”

  “That remains to be seen,” Sonia said suspiciously, her coffee mug making another appearance on the screen as she took a sip and gave me an expecting look. “Now, spill.”

  “Haha, all right, all right,” I said with a chuckle. “Well, to start with maybe the most interesting thing, Donovan, Stanton, and Heron have managed to make some progress in actually figuring out what the corruption is. It turns out it’s partially divine in nature. Divine magic, that is.”

  “It is?” Sonia replied in a curious tone, clearly not having expected for me to start with that topic. “So then what, all of these orcs are channeling some sort of…corruption god or something?”

  “Well, that unfortunately, I don’t know, but apparently, they were able to figure out that the corruption works as a sort of…self-replicating living curse,” I said, trying to paraphrase everything that the trio had told me late yesterday after Amaranth and I had returned from hunting orcs. “Which is their theory why I can break it apart the moment it afflicts me and devour the magic powering it and also why it spreads so easily via corrupted creatures and spirits.”

  “Hm, well, I guess that’s a good start and more than we knew before,” Sonia replied. “Do they have any ideas of how to cure or remove it now that they know it’s a curse? Because despite the orcs sitting pretty and digging in, we’re still getting attacked by those spirits while out on patrol. I think by the time I logged off last night, I was sitting at about twenty percent on my corruption counter, which is closer than I’d like to be to the second stage of affliction.”

  “Not yet, unfortunately,” I answered, having posed the mages the exact same question. “Right now our next steps are to bring Sheila and other clerics into the research, then see if they can’t make a breakthrough.”

  “I see,” Sonia replied, her voice sounding slightly disappointed before changing back towards the positive as she continued to speak. “Well, I suppose it’s a small step in the right direction at any rate, and it would be unrealistic to expect a solution after just a couple days.”

  “I’m sure they’ll figure something out,” I said confidently. “Heron won’t let us down.”

  “I’m sure he won’t!” Sonia affirmed, her expression perking up at my words. “We’ll just need to make sure and give him the time he needs to figure things out from our end of things.”

  “Definitely,” I echoed before pressing onwards to my next
bit of news. “Anyway, past that bit with the corruption, my next juicy tidbit is that I finally managed to get an update from Gavin and the others.”

  “You did?” the woman responded eagerly, her excitement mirroring mine earlier this morning when I’d first seen that there was an update waiting for us in the shared chat we’d set up. “What’s going on?”

  “What isn’t?” I asked, already shaking my head as I spoke. “The summary I got makes me appreciate the simplicity of what we have to deal with here. Orcs bad. Us good. It’s all nice and straightforward. Back in Coldscar and Eberia though, it’s a damn mess.”

  “Shit, that sounds ominous,” she whispered. “What the hell happened?”

  “Politics,” I said, taking care to pronounce the word as if it were a curse before going on to give Sonia the same highlights that I’d gotten. “Apparently, after his assassination attempt, Gavin and the others have been helping the marshal ‘clean house’, so to speak, and trying to figure out who was behind it. Unfortunately, while they were doing that, the noble houses got wind of the assassination attempt and then promptly panicked, accusing the other noble houses of being behind it.”

  “I’m sure that went over well,” Sonia muttered, already shaking her head as I spoke.

  “It went over perfectly,” I said with a snort. “In the form of a vicious riot and several burning buildings, which then, in turn, prompted a bunch of the local adventurer guilds to get involved when their stuff got torched.”

  “Oh, shit,” the woman commented, her eyes growing wide at that statement. “Are the houses even intact now?”

  “They are, but it was a close thing,” I answered, having had the same reaction when I’d heard that part of Gavin’s update. “Apparently, things were defused before anything serious could happen. But the interesting fallout of all of that was the information that came up afterward. Apparently, each of the houses involved was attempting, or had successfully managed, to bribe key officers in the Eberian military. And all for the same reason too. They all wanted protection.”