Arcane Kingdom Online: The Fallen City (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 3)

by Jakob Tanner

  The engine of the supply vessel roared and headed through the sky towards Land’s Shield. We needed to delay the current Arethkarian interception until Serena and the supplies were back at HQ, nice and safe. That meant a fight. Not one we hoped to win, merely one we wanted to prolong.

  “Reef the sails,” I yelled to the ship’s hired NPC crew. The group of men and women rolled up the sails of the ship, decreasing our natural wind speed but increasing our maneuverability.

  One crew woman ran up to me from across the deck. “Captain—there’s an incoming holo-transmission from the enemy ship. Do you want to take it?”

  If it meant talking with Arethkarian slave masters, not really, but communication even with enemies was better than barreling straight into a shoot-out.

  “I’ll take it in the captain’s quarters,” I said. “Shade, Kari—look after the crew, make sure the preparations for battle are in place.”

  I strode across the deck, sky sailors running around me as they tied up the sails and prepared the turrets at the side of the ship. The helmsman shook his head as I approached the entrance to the captain’s quarters.

  “We need to retreat this instant,” he said.

  “I agree. Let’s wait ten more minutes.”

  The helmsman went red in the face. I continued towards my office.

  The captain’s quarters of the Horizon’s Dream was the most ornate and beautiful room on the ship. Two walls divided by clear glass windows, angled upward to meet the bottom of the quarter deck. One wall was taken up by a giant painted map of Illyria, showcasing the five major continents of the world and the treacherous cloud oceans between them. Beneath it was a chest, full of wine bottles I’d been meaning to move to the crew’s living quarters. On the other side was a wall with an orange manalit sconce, a green banner featuring the Laergardian heraldry, and a bed resting below. I had yet to sleep in here as none of our mission’s had been overnight affairs.

  Bringing the room together was a large wooden desk standing on top a vibrant red Persian carpet, which to be fair, wasn’t an actual Persian carpet but one imported from the continent of Solmini, but the design was quite similar.

  A soft hum came from a crystal candelabra on the desk. It was a holo-transmission device. I pressed it and a translucent screen appeared in front of me, followed by a moving image of a bald man with a black goatee and faded gray eyes, staring outward in a serious manner. Weird orange veins crawled up from the side of his neck. They were inhuman but I didn’t know what it was and the screen cut the rest of the man’s body from me.

  “Please confirm you are the captain of the Laergardian frigate, Horizon’s Dream, floating in the eastern quadrant of Argon’s Rage.”

  Ugh. Arethkarian generals were known for speaking in this manner. Bureaucratic and robotic. They liked to place a veneer of order over everything they took part in, including blowing an enemy ship out of the sky.

  “This is the captain. Who the hell are you?”

  “I am Sir Oren Kaige, commander of the Arethkarian fleet, tasked with conquering Land’s Shield and the wider Laergardian continent.”

  “Cool beans,” I said. “What do you want?”

  “You’ve recently boarded a supply vessel belonging to our fleet. If you do not return it to our possession, we’ll be forced to blow both you and it out of the sky.”

  “Really? You’ll be forced to? Forced in the same way you’ve enslaved The Chosen?”

  The general winced at me, disgusted by my gall.

  “Let’s be real here,” I continued. “You’ve found a lone Laergardian ship—you’d blow us up regardless of whether we’d stolen your vessel or not.”

  The general’s eyes locked onto mine. “Spin words about me however you wish, but nothing will stop me from doing what’s necessary to protect my family and fellow Arethkarians from the tyranny of The Chosen. Prepare to be boarded.”

  The holo-transmission shut off and a massive tremor shook the ship, rattling the wine bottles in the crate. Yells and screams came from above.

  I opened the door to the above deck. Echoes of lasers and cannonballs cut through the wind. I hurried up the steps. Beams of light rushed overtop the surface of the deck, barely missing us. Our mustachioed helmsman spun the wheel and cranked the engine, dodging two more cannonballs flying straight for our hull.

  A large echo came from the dreadnought as three new cannon blasts came hurling towards us. This attack was different somehow. The cannon balls burned shadowy black smoke, leaving tendrils of dark magic as they rocketed in the direction of our ship.

  The helmsman turned the ship and moved downward in the sky. The cannons chased after us like homing missiles. The fiery projectiles came closer and closer. I shut my eyes and braced for impact.

  The incoming cannon blasts burst into a cloud of dark smoke. The wisps of shadow took on the contours of a monster. Red eyes glowed through the dark mass. A shining blue necklace stuck out between the head and the rest of the body. Shadow Wraiths, I thought, except they were something else. The shadows quickly took a more humanoid shape, forming arms and legs. The wisps of ethereal smoke hardened and turned into a chitinous outer layer: morphing the shadow wraiths into malnourished devils. Their teeth were sharp vampiric razor blades. Their fingers were spiked claws. They back flipped through the air and dug their nails into the wood of the main mast. They spun around the pole and rapidly crawled down, screeching as they came towards us.

  Shadow Crawler

  Level 13

  HP: 460

  MP: 14

  A wave of lasers rushed across our deck, slicing through the sails. Another set of blasts knocked into the wood of our hull. Shit. This was not going well.

  “Everyone stay at your stations,” I yelled. “Those on turrets—shoot defensively, negate as much incoming fire as you can.” I turned to the helmsman. “Keep us moving. We need to dodge as many attacks they send us as possible.”

  I ran to the center of the deck, next to Shade and Kari. “Time to take these guys out.”

  The shadow crawlers descended towards us, swinging from the masts. I flicked my fingers and conjured a ball of flame in my palms. I arched back my arm like a baseball pitcher, cranking it further and further back. With all my strength I shot the flame ball towards the demonic shadow. The molten orb flew through the air. The shadow crawler exploded in a cloud of smoke; my flaming projectile smashed into the airship instead. The shadow crawler exploded back into existence right in front of my face. My eyes bulged with shock. The creature took the opportunity to dig its clawed hands into my stomach, taking out a third of my HP with the surprise attack. My whole body went cold. Blood leaked out my stomach. White noise echoed through my ears. I lost balance and tumbled backwards.

  Shade kicked the crawler in the gut and then fired off a pistol round at it. The creature stumbled across the deck. The thief let off another round, but the creature regained its footing and dodged the attack.

  “Hope this helps, Clay,” yelled Kari, lifting her small staff in the air. Silver light emerged atop her head. Next a golden glow surrounded my entire body. First my open stomach sealed itself up, then the scars and wounds faded away. My HP shot back up to full.

  Healers—even if you never wanted to play one, you loved anyone who did.

  “These crawlers are too fast,” I said. “We need to slow them down, but I can’t hit them.”

  I flicked my hands open and let a burst of lightning shoot across the deck into Shade’s feet, granting him shocking speed. I quickly threw the spell out to Kari and then myself.

  “Try this Clay,” said Kari, shooting out another beam of warm light towards me. My body relaxed and my senses heightened. I followed the shadow crawlers’ movements now with sharper perception. A message ran across my HUD.

  Keen Sight (Buff): 15% better accuracy and perceptiveness. Hope this is what helps you survive, nerd (Duration: 2 minutes)

  A crackling whip of lightning shot out from my palm, slithering across the deck lik
e a snake. It slammed into one of the shadow crawlers, wrapping its thorny electric vines all around the creature until it was paralyzed with lightning cage. I wanted to ensure the creature stayed slow so I ran up to him and, with both my arms stretched out, launched ice wave, freezing his already paralyzed body.

  Shade came in from behind, leaping through the air with both his daggers drawn. They slammed into the back of the shadow crawler, chipping through the hardened skin and into its smoky flesh. The thief wasted no time, following his backstab instantaneously with another move. Twirling blades. He spun around with his two daggers and then jumped in the air doing an uppercut slash. The chipped bits of demonic skin flew across the deck.

  I threw fireballs in for support while Kari did the same, using one of her few offensive spells: holy stone. A burst of magical white rock smashed into the shadow crawler.

  The creature’s HP fell to 5%. The hardened layer of skin crumbled and fell onto the deck of the ship into a pile of ash. The creature returned to a cloud of smoke with glowing red eyes. The necklace glimmered. The demonic cloud of smoke shot forth across the deck and through the clouds, flinging back towards the enemy dreadnought.

  Only two more to go.

  The ship trembled and swerved, half the crew fell over. Barrels rolled across the deck. A large cracking sound echoed from below. The hull was hit. Lasers shot across the sky.

  “We can’t sustain any more damage,” yelled the helmsman.

  The two remaining shadow crawlers were causing havoc across the ship. They ripped sails and attacked the crew. The acrobatic demons flashed in and out, barely staying in one place for long. There was no rhyme or reason to their movements. It was sheer chaos.

  “Shade,” I yelled. “Follow my lead.”

  We ran across the deck towards one of the shadow crawlers. It puffed into smoke. I turned around. Oh no.

  Across the deck, the crawlers double-teamed Kari. They dug their pincer claws into her little fox body. One going through her stomach, the other digging into her back. Her whole body froze, her face pale with shock.

  I flicked the fingers of both my hands, letting balls of molten flame form in my palms. I was a dual-wielding fire machine and these shadow crawlers were my targets. I whipped my fireballs at them. The crawlers exploded into black puffs of smoke, leaving Kari to take the impact of my fireblast.

  Shade slid across the deck, scooping Kari up right as my flame balls descended the area.

  “You’re supposed to protect the healer, not kill her,” said Shade. “Forget being first mate, make me bloody captain of this enterprise.”

  With less than 30% HP, Kari lifted up her weakened arms and cured her body back into the green.

  “Stick to the plan guys,” I said. “How many more hits can you manage Kari?”

  “A few more but not many,” she said. “I can keep healing myself but then what about you guys?”

  “Don’t worry about us,” I said. “Buff me again with keen sight and I will be able to stop these things.”

  A shrill shriek echoed across the sky. The shadow crawler was falling from the top sail, unleashing a leap attack.

  Crap.

  I clenched my fists and triggered my stone skin spell. The earth spell would cover me in a layer of hardened stone, diminishing the amount of damage I took. The shadow crawler fell towards me. A cannonball rushed through the air, slamming right into the creature’s stomach, barreling the creature out into the sky and beyond.

  One more remained.

  Kari rebuffed me with keen sight and I tracked the final shadow crawler, running across the deck. I threw out my arms and let lightning burst from my palms towards the creature. The purple electricity wrapped itself around the monster, paralyzing it. I rushed forward and unleashed ice wave next. The debuffs stacked below its health bar. Shade came from behind, pummeling his daggers into its back, chipping away at its health and hardened layer of skin. Kari sent bright white rocks of holy magic flying across the deck, smashing into the paralyzed creature.

  Right as the creature hit 5% HP, I dove towards it, gripping onto the metal necklace, the source of its power. I pulled at it with all my strength. It barely budged.

  “Why won’t you come off?”

  The human player beneath the shadow crawler flickered into view. It was a woman. She was pale, bald, and bone skinny. She had a birthmark to the left of her nose.

  “It won’t come off…” she cried. “Please kill me… Don’t make me go back…”

  I shook my head. Tears formed in my eyes.

  “No,” I said. “I refuse. I won’t. Just hang on. We’ll figure out a way to get you here. Please—keep hanging on.”

  The necklace burned my fingers. My HP rapidly depleted. I let go in defeat and the shadowy tendrils covered the player’s body, morphing her back into the shadow crawler. The creature flung off the deck and back into the clouds, soaring towards the main Arethkarian vessel.

  A message came into my HUD. I crouched to my knees as a wave of mana bullet flew past.

  Personal Message: Safe and Sound

  Clay! I’m closing in on Land’s Shield. You’re free to get out of there. I’ve also received a message from the king. He wants to have a meeting with us immediately.

  Serena

  I turned to the helmsman. “I got the okay from Serena. Turn around and let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “We got one problem,” yelled the sky pilot, gripping tightly onto the ship’s steering wheel. “While dodging all the attacks, we circled the dreadnought, so now it stands between us and Land’s Shield.”

  “Can we go around it?”

  “Not without taking a ton of hits,” said the grumpy pilot. He looked at the smoke billowing out from the hull. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the ship’s kind of on its last legs.”

  “Why don’t we fly underneath it?”

  “You mean fly directly at it?” balked the sky pilot.

  “Yeah, but below it.”

  “If we survive,” said the pilot. “Please formally accept my resignation.”

  “Let’s talk about this later,” I said. “For now, let’s get outta here.”

  The pilot waddled over to the mana engine and turned the usage up to max. The ship thrummed and vibrated with energy, shooting us forward. The NPC navigator gripped the wheel and angled us in the direction of the massive dreadnought. We zoomed right towards a new wave of laser blasts.

  “Dive!”

  We angled deep into the sky, falling beneath the dreadnought’s shadow.

  I materialized my spyglass. I squinted and analyzed the ship from its metal plating to its porthole windows, desperately seeking an insight into the shadow wraith technology. Where did they fly back to when they retreated? The ship’s balcony came into view. The bald headed commander—Sir Oren Kaige—looked down towards us. Orange veins throbbed across his neck and continued towards his shoulder and arm. I gagged. Where there should have been a human wrist and hand was a hardened pale green pincer.

  My stomach lurched. No way. I didn’t believe it. In my first hours of entering this VR world, I had fought a corrupted rat creature with unreadable stats, constructed from random bones and inverted flesh. An amalgam of different monster parts all rolled into one. A bit too similar to the enemy general above us.

  This was bad.

  It wasn’t just the king who now desperately needed a meeting.

  Arethkar was manipulating the power of the corrupted fragments.

  Our enemies had gained control of the game’s glitches.

  3

  We stepped into the king’s throne room, our armor and clothing torn and ragged. The chamber was a long hallway with high ceilings, lined with green Laergardian banners hanging from stone pillars, beneath sconces glowing a faint purple mana glow. Large glass windows laid on either side of the room. Between their mullions, Land’s Shield was in its late morning throng: chimneys oozing smoke, air trams rushing from one district to the next, builders hammering a
gainst the scaffolding of old buildings being repaired and new ones being constructed. The metropolis never slowed down, even as war haunted its fringes.

  At the end of the hall, above a stone podium rested the golden throne. From the very back, the king was nothing but a speck. King Fergus sat with a gloomy posture: his shoulders slouching, his nose and mouth resting in his clutched hands. He was thinking, pondering over all the details of his city, country, and the enemies who wanted to destroy it. A lot rested on his shoulders. More responsibility than any one person should have, let alone a fourteen year old.

  Behind him stood two knights in the throes of a bitter argument. They were the king’s right hand advisors. One knight—Sir Archades—never took off his golden armor and his wolf-like helmet in the company of others. No one knew what his face looked like; how heavily scarred and monstrous it was, fighting wars on the behalf of Laergardian kings. The other knight—Sir Edward—had long brown hair and one faded scar running across his left eye. The two were calculating, powerful warriors and struggled to comprehend the king’s faith and trust in both me and my party.

  “They’re a band of trouble makers,” said Sir Archades. “Scoundrels who utilize dark forbidden magic. It’s a disgrace to let them fly around with the king’s banners on their ship. For this next quest, we must consider Sir Gerald and his sky knights. They’re the right people for the job.”

  “Sir Gerald?” Silver balked.

  Nice. Silver was coming to our defense.

  “I mean, I agree with you about Clay and his party. They’re not worth our time in this discussion, but Sir Gerald is an old fogey now. We must rely on a younger more proven crew.”

  Never mind.

  “Please keep it down,” said Fergus as we approached. “This is no way to welcome our guests.”

  The two knights straightened their posture and fell silent behind the king.