Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  The majority of those within the camp were non-combatants, simple workers, tradespeople, and other support type roles that kept the city of Khudazal functioning and not the hardened warriors we were used to facing.

  That revelation quickly changed our outlook for our potential assault on the slave camp going forward. No longer did we assume that we would be facing a whole legion of potentially armed and armored orcs at parity to our level, but rather an eclectic mix of mismatched enemies with a good portion of them far weaker than us. After all, any orc that was stationed inside the place would be expecting to deal with poorly armed slaves and not a group of attacking adventurers.

  Feeling a renewed sense of confidence at that discovery, we adjusted our plan to account for the level discrepancy, the once sixty to eighty orcs that we estimated the camp held was no longer an insurmountable obstacle—or at least not the same one that it had been earlier in the day, especially given the other thing that we noticed the longer that the day drew on.

  The orcs were overconfident to the point of laziness.

  With only a few vigilant sentries proving to be the exception, it seemed that most of the orcs in camp were paying nothing more than a token tithe to their surroundings and the slaves in their charge. By the time that night fell, there were only a handful of sentries posted near the camp’s entrance with a trio of irregular patrols walking its perimeter, the orcs assigned to doing so almost seeming sullen and annoyed to be assigned the task. But if that itself wasn’t enough to showcase the lack of discipline from within the camp, the massive party that the orcs seemed to be intent on throwing themselves certainly did.

  Starting shortly after night fell, a slow thundering series of drums began to echo out through the forest, gradually growing in intensity as time passed until it assumed a steady if unending rhythm. Joining the drums shortly after were the signs of several fires throughout both the camp and the distant city itself, the nearby wispy smoke eventually carrying the smell of cooking meat to Amaranth’s, and by extension, my own nose. Given the recent departure of the orc reinforcements, the best explanation we could come up with for the event was that it was some sort of orcish celebration involving their impending conquest, but that, at its best, was a wild guess. Regardless of the reason, however, it served as one final advantage to help us make our move against the camp.

  Amaranth’s mental whisper filtered into my mind, causing my eyes to focus through the foliage we were hiding in and onto the camp’s ramparts ahead.

  I exclaimed with relief, the waiting having worked steadily to fray my already twisted nerves even further. The moment of truth was finally at hand—the instant where we’d finally see if our attempt to infiltrate the slave camp would pay off.

  Or if we’d be spotted immediately and subsequently alert the entire camp to our presence.

  I sent to Amaranth, readying a spell in the back of my mind and holding it in place as the long-awaited-for patrol finally appeared.

  Walking with scowls fixed on their faces, a pair of orcs then sauntered into view, their attention focused exclusively on one another as they walked, the incessant sound of the drums masking their conversation. Then as suddenly as they had appeared, they were past us, not even having bothered to spare a glance out from the camp’s ramparts towards where we were hidden.

  Something that my nerves couldn’t help but be thankful for.

  I shouted mentally to Amaranth as the patrol vanished from sight, and I forced myself up from my hiding spot, revealing myself for anyone who happened to be looking in my direction to see. Knowing that we were now committed, I didn’t waste another thought before launching myself into a forward sprint, my attention now fixated on the two rows of sharpened stakes that lined the entirety of the camp.

  Designed to funnel attackers towards easier avenues of attacks, the stakes would have been a formidable defense should we have tried to openly assault the camp, forcing us to attack it head-on through its entrance. But to the magic that Amaranth and I had, the barriers barely even caused us to break our stride. Channeling my stored spell as we ran, I cast Jump on myself, feeling Amaranth do the same, the spells allowing us to vault over the barrier effortlessly as if it weren’t even there.

  Only to nearly fall straight into a third nearly hidden row of stakes a few feet behind the first two, no doubt emplaced to counter the exact tactic we’d just employed.

  I warned Amaranth while desperately thrusting my feet towards the ground partway through my leap, hoping to give myself an added boost to clear the unexpected obstacle. Grunting as I pushed off, I lunged over the spikes practically headfirst before landing in a somersault on the far side. Canceling out my momentum with my roll, I forced myself to my knees as I came to a stop, my eyes scanning for any sign that I’d been seen.

  And promptly spotting a shirtless orc staring back at me completely wide-eyed, having just come around a row of tents deeper into the camp.

  “Oh, fuck—” I managed to gasp as I saw the hints of alarm beginning to show on the orc’s face before everything dissolved into a spray of colors as I instinctively triggered Blink Strike.

  Reappearing practically on top of the orc, I barely had enough time to catch a whiff of a strong alcoholic stench on his breath before I buried Splinter’s tip in his throat, having drawn it faster than I’d ever believed was possible. Planting my shoulder directly into the orc’s chest, I shoved him as hard as I could while twisting my blade, feeling it grate across bone before slicing through his neck entirely. Caught by surprise, both by my unexpected appearance and subsequent attack, the drunk orc never even had a chance, falling to the ground in heap, where two quick thrusts, one through the heart and another through the eye made sure that he would stay forever.

  Shit, that was close! I exclaimed, the sudden wave of panic that I’d felt at my discovery warring with the sense of relief that I’d just barely managed to avoid disaster.

  Amaranth commented through our link, causing me to look behind me and see the armored cat stalking forward, his body held low to the ground as he moved.

  I said to my familiar as I glanced around urgently, looking to see where my desperate Blink Strike had taken me and if there were any other orcs nearby.

  Coming up empty on the orc front, I found myself just past of the perimeter of the camp and on the edge of where a series of tents began, which I noted were all thankfully facing away from me. Scattered carelessly around me were several crates of various sizes, along with a few large piles of wood, some of them piled haphazardly into what looked to be a partially dug trench. Staring at the trench with confusion for a second, I tried to figure out what exactly someone had attempted to do before the realization clicked in my mind.

  They were building a second line of defense here but then suddenly just stopped, I noted, seeing a handful of discarded tools lying on the ground, seemingly having been dropped and forgotten. Maybe this wasn’t supposed to be a slave camp at first? I can’t imagine they would have wanted to set this place up in a way where the slaves would be able to take control of it and then be able to hold it against the orcs.

  But before I could get any further into my analysis, I was pulled out of my thoughts by the arrival of Constantine and Kilgore, their eyes going wide at the sight of the dead orc by Amaranth and me. Not wanting to risk speaking and attracting attention despite the drums, I saw Constantine simply mouth a curse word in my direction while indicating the body, to which I simply shrugged in response. Rolling his eyes at the both of us, Kilgore promptly snapped his fingers to get our attention, then pointed at the dead orc and a nearby crate in sequence before ending by tapping his wrist quickly.

  Hide the body in the crate. Fast, I translated mentally, motioning for Constantine to help me with the task, the two of us grabbing the dead orc by the arms and feet, then unceremoniously stuffing him into the wooden box, hiding him from view.
If everything went well over the next few minutes, the orcs would know full well that we were here, but until then, it paid to be careful.

  Amaranth called out to me with a warning croak just as Kilgore replaced the lid on top of the crate, causing all three of us to dive for cover amid the mess that the orcs had left behind. Freezing in place, we waited for what felt like ages until I heard Amaranth’s second croak signal an all-clear.

  Springing up from there, we then organized ourselves, silently exchanging prearranged signals with one another before ending with a final wave, Kilgore and Constantine moving off to the southern end of the camp while Amaranth and I moved to the north. This was the part of the plan that we hadn’t been able to predict with any degree of certainty, and one that left far too much up to chance than I would normally have liked. Last we knew, Garr and the other gronn had been taken to a prison somewhere in the eastern half of the slave camp, but we hadn’t been able to find out specifically where that prison was in relation to everything else, leaving us searching half-blind.

  So, in order to combat that uncertainty, we’d decided that our best option was to have the six of us pair off inside the camp. The idea being that three groups would be able to search more of the camp faster than a single larger one would otherwise be able to, with the added goal of possibly finding Senzin as a bonus. To that end, Constantine and Kilgore had opted to join me on the eastern end to search for them, while Cassius and Berwyn did the same except from the west. With some luck, we would be able to find at least one of them before the slaves kicked off the riot we’d planned, giving us a chance to escape in the chaos.

  Which unless I’m mistaken, should be due to start any time now, I thought as I mentally checked the time and saw that we were entering the window that we’d given the slaves to start their escape attempt. And that means we need to get moving.

  I told Amaranth as my thoughts came to an end, and I shifted to risk a quick glance down the row of nearby tents finding it thankfully clear.

  Amaranth complained as we moved, first forward a row, then across the path I’d indicated.

  I said to the cat as I led us directly between two rows of tents, each of them facing the opposite direction with barely a foot of clearance separating them.

  Amaranth commented with a mental sigh as we cut between the row of tents and gradually made our way deeper into the slave camp, finding it even more disorganized and chaotic in person than we did from afar.

  Probably to make it more confusing for the slaves in case they tried to escape, I noted at one point as Amaranth and I zigzagged our way deeper into the camp, the straight rows and pathways that we’d seen earlier, having been replaced by disorganized clusters of stuff—which, in itself, ranged from tents and crates to partially built huts with scraps of wood and leather just left lying in a pile. In one case, we even came across an exceptionally large slave wagon that had just been left blocking a previously cleared laneway with a pair of drunk orcs sleeping under it. Or if not that, then because the orcs are damned lazy and just didn’t care what they were doing here.

  Yet despite all of my annoyance at the disorganized camp, I had to acknowledge just how much the mess was helping us remain unseen. Had the place been even remotely organized, our task would have been insanely more difficult than it already was as Amaranth and I continued to push both inwards and north through the camp, searching for any sign of the prison we’d been told about. As we did, we noticed that the orcs had effectively segregated the place into two separate sections, one for themselves, and the other for the slaves. The orc section, at least from what I could tell while we were cutting through it, was shaped like a large ring that surrounded a central area where the slaves were kept, effectively penning them in where they could be better contained.

  Dividing the two areas, was another ring of wooden spikes facing inward to the camp’s heart with a deep, night soil filled trench dug out in front of it. Should the slaves at any point have wanted to break out from their prison, they would have been forced to wade through the foul-smelling excrement before even reaching the second barrier and attempting to climb through it. From what I could see as Amaranth and I scanned over the inner ring, access to the place was controlled through a single entrance on the northern side of the ring. The design meant that anyone leaving the slave ring would have to travel through most of the orc-controlled section of the camp before reaching the only exit the place had.

  The orcs are clearly practiced at doing this, I thought darkly, a surge of emotion causing me to turn away from the inner slave ring and force myself to keep moving before I became too distracted, continuing to push northward. So far all that Amaranth and I had seen in the camp were a handful of low to mid-level orcs, the majority of them signaling various levels of inebriation and making them easy to avoid. As we moved, I eventually spotted the beginnings of a wooden building that stood taller than the various tents and hovels we’d seen so far, marking it as a point of interest worth checking out. Taking a few minutes to navigate a route closer towards it, Amaranth and I made liberal use of Blink Step to avoid the few orcs we found in our way, the spell allowing us to move from hiding spot to hiding spot unseen. Eventually, we reached the building that I’d spotted which sat in an open square separate from the nearby tents. As it came into view so did a group of six orcs standing in a cluster a few yards away from it, all of them cheering loudly while another two viciously beat on one another with bare fists.

  Some party that they’re having, I thought dryly as Amaranth and I briefly watched the violent exchange between the two combatants from behind a trio of stacked crates, both of their faces completely covered in blood with neither of them willing to back down. But as interesting as the impromptu brawl was, I found my attention drawn to the large rectangular building that had originally attracted my attention. It was easily bigger than anything else that we’d seen in the camp so far, and I noticed that it was completely segregated from any other adjacent buildings.

  I mentally whispered to Amaranth as I inspected the building ahead of us, estimating it as being roughly twenty-five feet long by twenty feet wide and made completely out of wood, save for a large cut of leather that hung blocking the entrance.

  Amaranth commented, turning as he peered around our cover.

  I replied, keeping my attention on the building as I spoke.

  Amaranth started to reply, only to cut himself short as the leather that served as the building’s door suddenly parted, revealing a familiar face that I hadn’t seen in weeks.

  I exclaimed excitedly as I saw the Dread Crew adventurer partially turn in the doorway before shouting something back into the building. Then without even waiting for a reply, he continued walking, slapping away the leather hanging in the doorway with enough force that it flailed through the air before catching itself on something sharp and hanging askew.

  Amaranth agreed as we watched the man storm off at
a brisk pace, not even sparing a glance in the direction of the brawling orcs, let alone towards where we were hiding before vanishing from sight.

  I said to the cat as I tried to peer into the partially open doorway that led into the building ahead, but I wasn’t able to make out anything substantial from our current angle. Staring at it for a few seconds anxiously, I realized that we weren’t about to find any answers standing here and turned to look down at Amaranth.

  my familiar replied in an amused tone, glancing up at me with bright azure eyes.

  I said, offering Amaranth a smile at his eagerness before returning my attention back upwards.

  Roughly twenty-five feet of open ground separated the distance between our hiding spot and the building’s entrance, with no better angle of approach available to us. From what I could see, any attempt that we made in stepping out from behind our cover and approaching the building would expose us to the nearby brawling orcs, which I was all but certain would have issues with our appearance.

  Fortunately for us, however, Amaranth and I were well-practiced by now in jumping around using Blink Step.

  I found myself asking Amaranth as I pulled Splinter free of its sheath, readying the spell in a corner of my mind.

  the cat affirmed without hesitation, his body coiling itself in preparation for action.

  I exclaimed as I shifted ever so slightly away from the crates that we were hiding behind to give me a clear line of sight to the building’s doorway straight ahead.

  Then without another thought, I triggered Blink Step and watched the world dissolve into a spray of colors.

  Chapter 43

  An instant later, everything snapped back into focus, except now Amaranth and I found ourselves standing just inside of the building’s entrance, the incessant drumming that had been echoing through the air now mercifully muted. Blinking rapidly to adjust my eyes to the sudden change in lighting, I scanned my surroundings, finding myself crouching directly in front of a large wooden cage that filled the entire center of the room. Eyes widening at the sight, it only took me another heartbeat to recognize that the massive cell was far from empty with several large fur-covered shapes visible within.