Travail Online: Transcend: LitRPG Series (Book 3)

by Brian Simons

  More striking than the décor were the hundred or so elves now evident crowding the glade’s open center. All wore gray cloaks with the same insignia stitched across the front: an eye shaped like a simple leaf coming to a single point. It was the most Enforcers Coral had ever seen in one place. Their hoods were up, but Sybil’s song had deactivated their invisibility.

  As these elves held them down, they had no choice but to watch what unfolded next. The four shadowy forms the queen had summoned forward were dwarves, controlled by arackid puppet masters in a sickening amalgam of spider legs and tortured bodies. None of them looked like Farah, but it was impossible to know how far the ruined souls had gone in altering their hosts’ appearance. One of those possessed dwarves pushed a normal dwarf forward, his arms tied behind his back.

  The queen lifted a brown dagger. Whether it was brown with rust or old blood, Coral couldn’t tell. Sivona placed her fingers on the top of the dwarf’s head. With her dagger in hand, she sliced into the man’s skin and tore a gash around his head before snapping off the top of his skull. She reached inside and removed his brain. She tossed his lifeless body in front of the Aracqueen so the giant spider could sink her fangs into his abdomen and gorge herself on his blood.

  “Who needs wargs when I have all these dwarves at my disposal?” Sivona asked. She sank her teeth into the dwarf’s brain and chewed slowly.

  “Why do zombies always have to eat brains?” Daniel asked, turning his head to the side.

  Sybil’s face turned red as she screamed words no one could hear through her Silence debuff.

  As if intuiting her meaning, Sal yelled, “It’s okay, Farah, we’ll get you out of there!”

  Coral wondered how. Elf Enforcers outnumbered them fifteen to one. If she had let Varta bring her army here, maybe the ogres could have found a way in to help them.

  Unless… there was a way out. Coral pulled up her communications window and started a new PM.

  To [Angle_of_Death]: Hi Ernest Angle_of_Death, I need a favor. Varta wanted a shot at the elves, and I seem to have a few extra. If she has the army mobilized, I think it’s time to cash in on that quest of yours. Blow your whistle! Fast.

  She held her breath and waited. The queen continued to feast on dwarf brain while Coral’s friends struggled in vain to free themselves. The elves stayed put. Maybe Ernest couldn’t complete the quest unless non-ogres were currently in the Ogrelands. Or maybe the quest had simply expired.

  “Bring the captives to me,” Sivona said. “It’s time for a taste test. Minotaur brain should be a delicacy. You can dispose of the goblin though, we’re above that now.”

  Elves started to drag them toward the Queen, but one lifted a sword near Blat.

  “No!” Coral yelled.

  “Stop!” came a voice from behind Coral. Sivona stood and held up a hand, causing every elf to cease their actions, including the one poised to kill Blat.

  “He’s here,” Sivona said, her voice carrying over the sound of rustling leaves and stomping feet. “Our special guest.”

  One man in a long robe pushed through the trees, followed by a legion of lavender-skinned elves.

  “Queen Sivona!” he yelled. “It is I, Sage Tawn, here to ensure your death! The drow will reclaim the forest and free it from your wicked rule!”

  “Oh, Tawn,” she said. “You’ve had all this time to prepare a speech, but then you always were lousy with words. Is that why you rely so heavily on your little wands? To avoid butchering the incantations yourself? Or is it just because you prefer not to do your own work?”

  He seemed taken aback. He glanced at Daniel and Onik, then at Sybil and the rest. “Queen Sivona,” Tawn said. “Kill these intruders and let us war for control of the forest.”

  “Tawn,” Sivona said, “did you think I wouldn’t know it was you that did this to me? That wretched vial of bottled death you fed me released the sweet soul that inhabited this body. That Sivona rests eternal. This Sivona became a blank slate, a puppet for your egotism. You made me abuse an entire race, call for wars where there had been peace, and why? So that you could return a hero and slay the monster you had created.”

  The army of drow behind Tawn started to grumble and murmur. Tawn was losing control of them. They had bought into the idea that Tawn would lead them to reclaim the forest. Now they realized he was the one that had them expelled in the first place.

  “All those years killing on your behalf made me stronger, smarter. I continued to gain in level and attribute — something that would have been impossible without the synapstick you added. But you needed me to be sharp, didn’t you? You needed me to be convincing. As I escaped the threshold of your power, I even convinced you, didn’t I? You thought you could march into the forest, still in control of me.

  “I was born into the body of a queen, with every opportunity the world had to offer, but you ruined it. You ruined me. In those years I studied you. I learned your brand of cruelty, absorbed your endless ambition. I have nothing left to learn from you except the sound your soul makes as it leaves your body.”

  Sivona sat back on her throne. She turned toward the Aracqueen. “As promised, meat much finer than goblin, more tender even than dwarf. Behold, all the drow you can eat.” At those words, the drow army charged forward, while the elf army met them in the middle of the clearing.

  Arackids dropped down from every tree and stood along the outskirts of the glade. They chittered excitedly, watching elves and dark elves clash and bloodied bodies drop in a veritable buffet of spider food. A few intrepid arackids ventured forward into the complicated fray.

  In the pandemonium, Coral took the Enforcers off guard. She broke away from one and elbowed him in the stomach. “Blat, now!” she yelled, reaching around to grab another elf by the ponytail and pull him to the ground.

  Blat Headbutted and broke the hold the elves had on him. Daniel and the others had also broken free, each fending off multiple elves while the drow hacked and slashed at oversized spiders.

  Coral took two steps back and prepared a Hot Shot, sinking a burning arrow through an elf’s cloak and into his arm.

  >> Elf Enforcer takes 106 Damage.

  She only knocked off a sliver of his HP. Unlike the elves Quinnick had led against them in the past, these elves were strong. She was starting to wish the Tactician were there now to help them figure out how to win this war.

  She took another step back as she nocked her next arrow, hating the distance it added between her and her friends, but trying to keep a wide enough berth that the elves couldn’t strike. She aimed for the nearest elf and hit him in the shoulder.

  >> Elf Enforcer takes 115 Damage.

  Across the battlefield, cloaked elves were locked in battle with her friends. Sybil was mouthing words with no volume, and Daniel swung his sword with stiff, awkward movements. Whatever the blight was doing to his body, it was accelerating. With each swing Sal took, he looked like he might topple over. Only Onik seemed well-matched for the elves. He had a pattern down of dodging their blows, rolling his dice, and jabbing with his dagger.

  Tawn stood at the glade’s entry, framed by the trees that formed its perimeter. He aimed a wand at Sivona, firing a beam of green magic at her. She held out a palm, creating a white shield of glowing energy that blocked the beam from reaching her body. She didn’t even bother to stand from her throne.

  Tawn’s drow army shed blood all across the battlefield. Many dodged past the elf Enforcers to meet Sivona’s rearguard head on. Meanwhile it looked like every golden-skinned elf not preparing to block a drow attacker was rushing toward Tawn. Elves outnumbered the drow by a wide margin though, thanks to the once-hidden complement of elves Sybil had unveiled.

  This battle would drag on for a long time, and Sivona would sit on her throne all the while, draining life from Ze and getting stronger by the moment.

  Coral shot another arrow, but her target deflected it with his sword.

  >> You missed!

  She readied an arrow and t
ook two more steps back when she slammed into one of the decorative columns inside the glade, disrupting her aim and sending an arrow in a high arc toward the middle of the glade. Her lost momentum gave the elves the upper hand. They grabbed her arms and pinned her to the heavy wooden column.

  Sal was on the ground now all the way across the glade, with two elves on top of him. The word Fumble appeared above Onik as his blade fell from his hand during an attack. Sybil and Daniel were holding their own, but the battle had pushed them further away. Only Blat stood by Coral’s side. He pummeled an Enforcer in the kneecap to little effect, squeaking and squealing with each punch.

  “Kill her and let’s move on already,” one elf said. The other pulled back his sword and stabbed it straight through Coral’s stomach.

  “What the?” the attacker asked. His sword thrust into the wooden column and stuck there, passing directly through Coral’s body without injury.

  “Shiftwalking,” Coral said. She raised a fist and swung toward the elf’s face, but her arm arced through empty space and she tumbled forward. The Enforcer had vanished in a flick of light. They all did, across the entire battlefield, in one brilliant exodus. Suddenly the ratio of elves to drow was roughly even.

  >> New PM!

  From [Angle_of_Death]: Aw, you called me by my real name! The ogres are all decked out in battle gear. It’s almost strange to see so many of them not half-naked. Anyway, I did it. That whistle triggered whatever order Sivona had given for angry-looking elves to show up and rain hell on the Ogrelands. They seemed surprised to find the ogres ready for war, though. I hope this works out.

  Me too, Coral thought. Varta’s army was ready for elves, she just hoped it was ready for that many elves.

  She ran toward the middle of the battlefield with Blat to get closer to her friends. It looked like Daniel had cast some of his General buffs, but she was too far away to benefit from them. Bodies of elves and drow littered the ground, some of them fading into oblivion.

  As Coral got further into the fight, she noticed her movement getting jerky. Arms and legs seemed to jump from one position to the next. “There are too many players!” she yelled. “What are they all doing here?”

  “Imagine,” Daniel said, pausing as an elven sword dragged down his arm, tearing his cloak but seeming not to do much damage against his hardened skin. “Imagine how many of them have race-based quests to assist their leaders. Some of them will be rewarded just for joining the fight. Others are after larger prizes. Tawn offered dark lotuses to the drow that killed Sivona. I wonder what Sivona offered to the elf that kills Tawn.”

  “No one’s getting any rewards if this lag keeps up,” Coral said. “There are more players than NPCs, but the NPCs are way stronger. I wish we could reward the players to get them to go away.”

  “We can’t give them loot, but if they joined us we could all get a War Cry buff.” Daniel kicked an elf in the stomach, then spun with his sword outstretched. He may not be able to aim at a particular target through this lag, but whatever got in his way would take a hit. A few seconds later an arackid showed up with a gash in its forehead and blood oozing down its face. It slumped to the ground and began to fade away.

  “So many lowbie players,” Coral said. “They’re all dying out there, and for what? The shred of a possibility they’ll get gold from this fight? It’s a pipe dream.” She pulled back an arrow and aimed at a spider that was there a second ago, but which suddenly appeared ten feet away. Her arrow stuck in the grass.

  >> You missed!

  “I can’t fight like this,” she said. “This lag is ruining my aim.” She cupped her hands around her mouth while Daniel held arackids at bay. “Attention everyone! We need to team up if we’re going to survive!” No one seemed to hear her.

  She turned back toward Daniel. “Cover me.”

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Up. I need a platform.” Coral ran to the base of the nearest wooden column. An arackid sat atop it, or at least it looked that way. With the lag, she couldn’t trust her sight. She drew a hook shot arrow from her quiver and hoped the mob stayed still long enough. She looped the end of the fishing line around her wrist and shot the arrow deep into the arackid’s side. Then she yanked, and the spider fell from the column and landed on its back.

  Eight russet brown legs twitched in the air as the monster tried to right itself. Coral fired a Hot Shot into its center before it could get up. It collapsed on the spot, filling the air with the smell of burning spider hair.

  >> Arackid dies. You receive 215 XP.

  >> Congratulations! You have improved your Ranged combat ability to 13. Total Dexterity bonuses: +26% at close range, +18% at medium range, +13% at long range.

  “Blat, I need a boost. Can you do that?” The goblin nodded eagerly. Coral held onto the column in front of her and stepped one foot into Blat’s cupped hands. She lifted her other leg while Blat hoisted her over his head. In the corner of Coral’s eye she saw Headbutt and then she flew upward as Blat’s cranium collided with the soles of her boots.

  She grabbed the column’s top and pulled herself up. She still saw no sign of Farah, which troubled her. If Sivona had a taste for dwarf, she might easily select Farah as her next meal, especially if Farah found a way to give the queen a hard time. What Coral could see from her new vantage point was hundreds of drow and elf players losing battles to NPCs. Player elves added buffs to NPC elves who struck down player drow with ease. She couldn’t believe players were spending their MP to make their same-race NPCs stronger. They were only helping Travail kill off other players.

  Those players died with cries of pain that Coral knew all too well, having been stabbed and bitten and killed in the game herself before. She thought of everything they’d lose on death, all of the hours they put into gathering whatever resources they could just to scrounge for another meal. Domin did this. He created a game with unfair mechanics and then sucked the money out of it, leaving people to struggle more now than they ever had before. It wasn’t right. He shouldn’t get to run away from this. And yet, he put Coral in charge of finding a bright spot in this dark tableau so he could save face with his corporate overlords.

  It made her blood boil.

  She watched a smattering of larger, female spiders pick through the crowd, sinking their bloody fangs into fighters from behind while the rest of their species lingered at the edge of the forest. She wondered when they would deem it safe enough to charge into the glade and feast on the dead and injured.

  Sivona sat on her throne, stroking her pet Aracqueen with one hand and defending Tawn’s constant attack with the other, while dwarves stood frozen under spider puppeteers. Sivona seemed to bristle as she watched the combat, a small smile curling up one side of her rotten face.

  The elf queen’s bone armor had a small gap below her clavicle. It was hard to make out the details, but it looked like a small face etched into Sivona’s skin. As Coral stared, she saw that face move, saw something like an arm press under the surface of Sivona’s chest.

  That must be where she was keeping Ze. The leshies said she had Ze in a cage. They didn’t say it was a rib cage. If they were going to stop Sivona from squeezing the life out of Ze, they had to pull her from Sivona’s breast, and fast.

  First thing’s first. “Attention!” she yelled. Her voice barely carried over the sound of the battle. “Everyone!”

  She had a few people’s attention. It was someplace to start. “The server can’t keep up. No one can win this fight alone. We need each other. It’s a battle between bad guys. Whichever side wins, we all lose. Join us and together we can defeat Sivona and Tawn!”

  “Every man for himself!” someone yelled. “I’m not sharing loot with you!”

  “There is no loot anymore,” Coral yelled. “How many of you stormed Havenstock castle only to find locked doors and armed guards? The game is dying. You want a protest? Make this your protest. Don’t let Travail grind you into dust, strike back! Attack Travail!”
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br />   The players nearby seemed to be listening. One yelled out, “Then what? How does this change anything?”

  No, Hector, Coral thought. The deal’s not off. It’s just different now. “Because I’ve met with the CEO, and after this battle I’ll have enough video footage to force him to change. But we have to fight together. We have to show that we won’t play by Travail’s rules. Plus, if you join up with Daniel here, you’ll get a pretty sweet buff. He’s a General. Join the resistance, and spread the word.”

  There was no way to candy-coat the footage now. Not with players dying left and right, and with Farah, somewhere, enduring the torment of Travail being Travail. Coral had to hope that the worst of her worst video footage would appeal to something inside of Domin. Players would get angry if she failed to force any changes, but she had a lot more on the line than her popularity. She couldn’t afford to fail, for her parents’ sake.

  No one shouted back to say, “We’re with you Coral!” or “Kill all the NPCs!” She stood on that column and stared out at the crowd. Here and there, a blue chevron appeared over players’ heads. One player leaned toward another and cupped a hand around her ear to pass on some kind of message. Then a drow player buffed an elf player, and an elf player slashed at an elf NPC. It was working.

  Suddenly her feet were wrapped in webbing and she hung upside down from a web line stretched across two columns. Two spiders worked furiously overhead to wrap her up.