Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  Watching it silently, Sonia and I didn’t say anything as the rest of the feed played, both of us losing ourselves in our thoughts. Eventually, it came to an end, leaving us both breathing a sigh of relief as a pair of familiar hosts came on, sans the fake armor that they’d been wearing the last episode I’d watched.

  “Welcome back, viewers!” one of the pair announced in an excited tone. “That was another exciting episode straight from the Lower Aurelia region, courtesy of the amazing Virtus guild! For those joining us now, my name is Kenneth Spank N’Tank, and on my right here this is my partner, Vincent the Faceroller. Tonight, we’re bringing you the latest and greatest feeds that we’ve managed to find straight from Ascend Online, and dang if they aren’t especially hot tonight. In fact, you could call them downright ‘hellish’, right, Vince?”

  “That’s right, Ken,” the other man chimed seamlessly. “For those of you in the audience that haven’t made peace with your maker, I suggest you do it now because our next segment is taking us straight to hell itself! Ken and I have just managed to get our hands on a brand-new feed that ‘still’ smells of fire and brimstone!”

  “But that’s not all is it, Vince?” Ken asked, stepping to the side to glance at his partner. “There’s a little something special with this next episode, isn’t there? Maybe in the form of a familiar friend of Virtus’s we might have seen before?”

  “It sure sounds like it, doesn’t it, Ken?” Vince replied, and he reached up to scratch his head in a mocking form of confusion. “But that’s going to be up for our viewers to decide if it really is who we think it is. At least for this next episode. The episode after it, though…I don’t think we have any doubt at all who’s in it.”

  “We sure don’t, Vince!” Ken exclaimed as a glorious fanfare sounded out, followed by a yellow and red graphic labeled “Triple Header!” that flashed across the screen. “That’s right viewers! We’re dropping a triple header of feeds for you tonight, each of them from the Lower Aurelia region! In the last few weeks, this place has become one of the biggest hotspots in all of Ascend Online, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s still just warming up.”

  “Don’t you know it, Ken!” his partner replied as the camera began to pan outwards away from two announcers. “But that’s all the time we have for building suspense, I think it’s time that we sent our viewers back to Eberia where one ‘hell’ of a show is waiting for them! We’ll be waiting here once you all get back!”

  “Shit, what do you think they’re talking about?” I asked, suddenly nervous as the show faded away and began transitioning into Gavin’s feed. “We don’t have anything of ours scheduled tonight.”

  “I have no idea,” Sonia answered, her face sharing a similar expression as mine as we looked at one another silently for a moment. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think they were referring to Carver or someone else from the Dread Crew.”

  “Damn, if it is, then they picked one hell of a time to start posting their feeds,” I replied, my mind already racing as I considered that possibility. Until now we hadn’t been able to find any publicly posted feeds from anyone in the Dread Crew, even with the entirety of our production team helping us search. “Do you think it could be from the prisoners that took our offer and left? Or even Phillion? Maybe one of them changed their minds and are looking to burn Carver on their way out?”

  “I don’t know,” Sonia said, shaking her head. “It could be anything or anyone, really. I think…I think we’re just going to have to wait and see. Then we can see if we need to do any damage control afterward…”

  With that new thought dominating our minds, we then watched Gavin’s feed play itself out on our respective screens. Gazing blankly at the scenes flashing before me, I couldn’t help but feel vaguely cheated for the night, having been looking forward to simply relaxing as we kicked off what was likely to be a hornet’s nest in Eberia. But instead, now I found myself already thinking of various contingencies depending on what we saw next. Glancing over occasionally to the screen that held Sonia’s face, I noticed that her mental state wasn’t much different than mine, with us both already on high alert.

  Eventually, Gavin’s feed came to an end, its final scenes delivering the exact impact that we’d been looking for in exposing the current state of Eberia and the mysterious figure’s involvement in the unrest that had gripped it. Fading away, the show transitioned back towards the two familiar announcers, their byplay between one another completely washing over me this time as they primed their audience for the final feed of the night.

  “…and I hope you enjoy this final treat from our show as we wind down for the night!” Ken announced as both he and his partner gave the camera a farewell wave which was slowing zooming away from them. “And remember, as we said before, there was no audio included with this feed, but I don’t think any of you will need that to figure out what’s going on! Also, if any of you from Virtus happen to be watching our show tonight, good luck, because it looks like you’re going to need it!”

  “Oh,” I whispered, my eyes going wide at the mention of our guild’s name. Glancing at Sonia, I saw a similar surprised expression on her face, the time for further comment vanishing as the two announcers faded away from sight, prompting my eyes to shift back towards the feed.

  Fading back in a second afterward, the feed began from a first-person perspective, dirt-covered stone taking up the entirety of the scene as we strode forward at a leisurely pace. Panning upwards, our vision then shifted to reveal that we were walking amid the remains of some sort of ruin, age and weather having visibly taken its toll on the ancient stone. Continuing to move forward, our vision shifted to the right, revealing that we weren’t alone, with two large and heavily armored orcs walking beside us along with a thin, serpentine-looking arakissi woman.

  “Oh, shit!” Sonia hissed as soon as the group appeared on the screen. “Is this feed from Carver?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied, the thought having crossed my mind in the same instant. “I can’t quite—oh.”

  Turning as we spoke, the perspective on the feed changed again as it turned to the left this time, revealing the aforementioned man that we were just talking about. Scowling with an angry expression, we could see that Carver’s mouth was moving, whatever words he might have had, being left a mystery, thanks to the feed’s lack of audio. Whatever it was, however, it didn’t seem to be directed at us, Carver then went on to finish his speech with something harsh, prompting a figure to his left to abruptly turn and run away. It was hard to tell exactly who it had been, but there was little doubt that it was a Dread Crew adventurer.

  Continuing to walk, our gaze shifted forward again just in time for us to see the ruins that had surrounded us give way, revealing a sprawling cityscape around us. Immediately, we were surrounded by dozens upon dozens of both orcs and other arakissi, all of them walking through a wide-open square. Eyes scanning between all of them on the screen, I instantly saw that the majority of them were clearly dressed for war, armed and armored to the teeth. But a good portion of them also weren’t, simply walking from one place to the next, or carrying various goods or supplies to wherever they needed to be. Yet for as many of the orcs and lizardfolk as there were in the scene before us, it was all the others that soon caught the entirety of our attention, and not because they very clearly outnumbered the former.

  But because of the thick iron manacles and collars that they all wore.

  Appearing exhausted, malnourished, and dirty, was a large and varied array of what was unquestionably slaves. Ranging from nearly every race that I could think of, I saw dozens of humans, elves, dwarves, and even arakissi, intermixed with a handful of other species throughout the square. Some visibly carried tools in their hands as they were led through the area in chains, a group of brutal looking slavemasters flanking them as they walked, while teams of other slaves struggled to pull large wagons, heavily packed with crates.

  Shocked by the sight, I felt my blood freeze as I
took it in, not having expected to see anything of this magnitude in the feed. Yet despite my surprise, Carver and his entourage didn’t appear even fazed by the sheer quantity of slaves or the activity before them, the group proceeding straight through it without slowing their pace. Cutting through the very heart of the square, we were forced to wordlessly follow their progress as they advanced through what was unquestionably an orc city, built amid the bones of a massive ruin.

  A massive Irovian ruin, I thought, recognizing the architecture as they moved, which I noted was vaguely similar to the fallen tower in the forest. But where that ruin had been truly ravaged by time and destruction, the one in the feed was notably in better health with the few buildings that I came into view appearing whole and still intact. Is this the orc city that the woman told us about? Khudazal?

  Picking up our pace, we began to move faster through the city, the constant presence of orcs, arakissi, and slaves remaining consistent throughout our progress. In fact, the more we moved, the denser their numbers rose, along with the presence of the fully outfitted orc and lizardfolk warriors, all of which were moving in the same direction as us. Eventually, after a few minutes of walking through the city, a large stone gateway came into view, its mouth opened wide to the forest beyond. Angling our approach towards it, we passed under the ancient entryway, cracked and tired stone briefly surrounding us. Then as quickly as we’d entered it, we exited, finding ourselves outside of the city proper and heading deeper into the forest.

  Walking for a time, the feed suddenly skipped ahead in a somewhat jarring fashion, the verdant forest instantly vanishing in favor of a large clearing. Devoid of any trees or foliage, the clearing was obviously a place of some importance thanks to the presence of what looked like several stone altars spread around its edges, each of them bearing strange runes and symbols that glowed with an emerald light. Flanking each of the six altars were a pair of waiting figures, one orc, the other arakissi, the familiar stains of corruption evident across their exposed skin and scales.

  “Oh, what the hell is that thing?” Sonia suddenly whispered as our perspective continued to move deeper into the clearing, breaking the near-absolute silence that had filled both of our rooms since Carver had appeared. “Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is and that they aren’t going to do what I think they’re going to do.”

  Taking in the scene as it unfolded, I found myself unable to say anything to answer Sonia’s words as I saw the first slave being shoved onto one of the altars, followed by the robed figures drawing long, wicked-looking knives from within their clothes. From there, the perspective panned towards a massive saurian skull that had been placed in the center of the clearing, an intricate skeleton of woven wicker wood stretching out easily four dozen, if not more, feet behind it. Staring in disbelief at the sight, I felt my heart skip a beat as a telltale bloom of emerald magic suddenly filled the air, followed a moment later by the dark tendrils that were the corruption we’d seen the orcs wield.

  It’s a ritual, I said to myself as I continued to watch, feeling my hands begin to tremble the second that I saw the dirt beneath the crudely crafted creature begin to rise and mix with the magic, transforming itself into a familiar grey-black mud. And they’re using it to make another construct…an absolutely huge construct.

  One that they’re going to use to attack us with.

  Chapter 31

  Saturday, April 20th, 2047 – 1:55 a.m.

  Valor’s Point

  “He did what?!” Theia demanded, an incredulous look written across her face as she stared back at Freya and me, her eyes dancing between us as if she couldn’t believe what we’d just said. “Why would Carver do that? That makes no sense!”

  “I know it doesn’t,” I replied with a nod, seeing similar expressions on the assembled group’s face as they stared back at us, the news having burned away whatever tiredness that they might have still had. “But he wasn’t the one who did it. The perspective of the feed was from one of his followers.”

  “Damn! Are you serious? He got backstabbed, then?” Constantine exclaimed, exhaling sharply as he gripped his head with both of his hands, pausing for a few seconds to look at the tent’s ceiling above us before turning his attention back towards us. “What’s the social media reaction to it all?”

  “Have you seen a wildfire?” Freya queried in response while making an exploding motion with her hands. “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It had both our feed and Lazarus’s feed to build off and hit a huge audience.”

  “Which if it wasn’t done by design was damn lucky timing,” I added. “Regardless of which it was, though, the world now knows that there’s a huge orc—and apparently arakissi—city out here in the Hartwyld and that they’re both working together as they get ready for war. That’s even without adding in Lazarus’s feed, which hit just as hard as well.”

  “No shit,” Cassius said with a snort. “We already knew about Carver and the orcs. But to hear that they have arakissi allied with them too…that’s a kick in the pants.”

  Everyone echoed out with a chorus of assent at that statement, their voices filling the command tent that we’d all rushed to gather in after Freya and I had been able to round everyone up. Having dived back into the game as soon as our rest cycle had finished, we’d moved as fast as possible to spread the word of the feed we’d just watched. Unfortunately, given the original plans that our day had followed for our avatars, neither of us had been at Valor’s Point, the two of us split between separate groups which had camped in the wild after busily hunting orcs for the entire day. It was an inconvenient delay that fortunately was somewhat mitigated, if at least in my case, by the fact that I’d hit level twenty-six while I was offline, the busy day having been enough to push me over the hump. After taking the time to regroup after our unexpected arrival and subsequent return to base, it was another two hours after that before we were able to get back and gather those available for our meeting—which only turned out to be a portion of our core group, both Drace and Sierra having taken their own groups of Virtus out into the wild to harass and keep an eye on the roving orc scouts.

  So instead, we made do with the best we had on hand, rudely waking up those that remained of the group as well as pulling in Cassius and his two lieutenants, Berwyn and Kilgore, telling them all about the feed we’d seen with Carver.

  “I’m sure we can all throw together half a dozen guesses around as to why one of Carver’s people might have decided to drop this bombshell,” Freya stated as she continued onwards with the meeting once everyone had quieted down. “But regardless of what the reason is, it seems that we might have found ourselves an ally that wants to help us, or failing that, someone who isn’t entirely an enemy in the Dread Crew.”

  “And with about the best timing we could hope for too,” I added. “Today was the first day the feed was available to post, which means whoever posted it didn’t wait at all before doing so. And also, if you backtrack the dates…that means the events in the feed were taken on the ninth. Exactly two days after the Dread Crew razed and abandoned Shadow’s Fall.”

  “So then maybe we have someone who decided to nope straight out as soon as they realized just how far in bed Carver is in with the orcs and these lizards,” Constantine suggested in a thoughtful tone. “If so, we’re damned lucky they got cold feet, else we would have been blindsided by both the alliance and this…thing they’re building.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” I agreed. “While we already suspected it, this is the best evidence that we have that there’s dissent somewhere on Carver’s side, even if we can’t exactly pinpoint the full details. It’s possible we might be able to take advantage of the situation somehow in the future, especially once we see how this feed causes the Dread Crew to react.”

  “Um, while I don’t disagree with you there, Lyr,” Halcyon interjected in a sleepy tone, the mage yet to fully wake up, “but, uh, what future? This construct that they’re making, they started building it ten
days ago, right? That’s a really long time. It could very well show up on our doorstep today, and besides knowing that it exists, we don’t know anything else about it. It could easily outclass anything we can throw against it.”

  “It could,” I stated, Freya and I having come to the same conclusion. “And the only positive notes that we can answer that question with is that from the feed it looks like actually crafting this construct is a slow process and carries a high investment on the orcs’ part—inasmuch as killing dozens of slaves could be called such. Then on top of that, they’ll need to actually commit to sending it our way, which will take time for it to physically get here and start the clock on its lifespan. If it’s anything like the other constructs we’ve faced, it’ll only last as long as the people fueling it do, and that goes down drastically the more it moves and fights.”

  “And so they won’t want to let it go to waste if they don’t absolutely need it,” the mage replied, his head bobbing up and down in understanding. “Okay. I can buy that part then, but where does that leave us as a whole? Right now we’re keeping the orcs penned in, but we’re pressed hard on the defensive. If they decide to push us hard and eat the losses, they could probably push us off Valor’s Point in a day or two. Don’t get me wrong, it’d cost them half their army at least, likely more, but I have little doubt they could do it.”

  “It leaves us between a rock and a hard place,” Freya said in a grave tone, offering Halcyon a curt nod at his assessment. “We can clearly see there’s a game being played here on the Dread Crew side, maybe on more than one level if the goal of this feed is to fake us out somehow. Because remember, for whatever reason, there was no audio included in the feed and we don’t know why. Maybe this whole thing is a power struggle within Carver’s inner circle and they’re trying to change things from within, but also still keep some things a secret from the public. Or there is someone actually trying to help us, and the audio was stripped to keep their identity safe. In either case, this makes the situation just a little bit more unpredictable, since we simply have no idea what might be happening on their end.”