by Jakob Tanner
I rubbed my eyes. Crap. This wasn’t good.
“But listen to this,” said Raylene. “I’ve been looking over the control center prompts. There’s a few special upgrades which can help us.”
Raylene informed me of what she knew. We began to form a battle plan. Once our strategy was formed, I turned to the rest of the party.
“I don’t know what to say, guys,” I said. I let my arms fall at my side. “This is our last shot. There’s nowhere to teleport if we lose this battle. Everything we’ve worked for—” A picture of Will formed in my head. “Everything we’ve sacrificed—it all comes down to this. Are you with me?”
Serena lifted up her sword far above her head. “You know it.”
Jackson pounded his fists together. “I wouldn’t miss this battle for anything.”
Kari cheered, “Someone’s going to have to heal you guys!”
“Mate, we’ve been to the bottom world and back, fought massive sky squid, won tournaments in the desert—what’s a bunch of genetically altered super powered soldiers, oh man, I hope things work out.”
Everyone turned to Shade with disappointed faces.
“I mean I’m sure it will. I’m throwing in all my recent class skill points into luck to give us better odds.”
“You were gonna do that anyway,” said Jackson.
The cat-man shrugged. “I got your back Clay, don’t worry. Let’s go mess these guys up. Let’s go!”
Someone coughed to the side. It was Raylene. “Ahem, I realize I’m not part of the main crew, but you really didn’t think you were going to be all heroic without me and my Desert Faction.” Raylene cocked her rifle and winked at me. “Let’s do this, hotshot.”
We all headed for the door of the control center and out into the wintry night. We moved in determined silence towards the gate. Our last stand was now.
39
I crouched behind the eastern wall of Iron Citadel. I clung to the shadows in stealth mode. My knees dug into the snowy ground, soaking my pants. The rest of the party was behind me.
The rattling of the portcullis being raised echoed across the cold winter night.
The ragtag mix of ex-Arethkarian soldiers, newly freed Chosen, Solimini mercenaries and Raylene’s Desert Faction marched out through the gate. They poured out forming a long line across the mountain plane.
The Arethkarian troops stepped out of the shadows across the field of snow. Bright fiery torches lit them up. Their faces hid behind the metal magitech armor seared into their veins. Were they even people anymore? It didn’t look like they would ever be able to remove the armor, from which their eyes glowed out in red beams of anger now. They didn’t go home to their families. They were soldiers 24/7. Steampunk orcs. They only existed to fight and destroy.
Raylene rode out of the gate on her massive summoned turtle. The soldiers made room for her. She raised her rifle above them and shouted, “Charge!”
The troops ran across the snowy field and within seconds the blanket of white snow was covered in red. Rifles fired, magical imbued arrows flew across the air, impaling the soldiers necks and eyes. Brawlers ripped used arrows from bodies and stabbed them into incoming enemies with their fists. A swordsmen decapitated an incoming thief, only for the thief to be raised back to life, head-reattached to neck within seconds. Carnage. Just like the battle of Crystal Port. Hopefully the similarities ended there. We needed to win this.
With the battle underway, I turned back to my party members and nodded. Time to move out. Stage two of the plan began now. We hurried across the snow, running through the trees, making wide berth around the battlefield.
Groans and cries and whimpers echoed across the night alongside the swoosh of spells, the echoes of gunshots, and the sharp clangs of metal cracking through flesh and bone.
We stopped running. Each of us hid behind a tree. I moved out from behind and entered hunter’s stance. My body cloaked into the darkness of the night. I took my arrow and dipped it in poison. I nocked it in my bow and imbued it with my mana. I pulled back the string and winced my eyes, taking a sniper’s aim at General Syrus’s head. My hands shook. One shot and the battle would come to a swift end.
The general held his scythe in one hand and paced from behind the battle, dictating orders to messengers and the like. He wouldn’t deign get his hands dirty until it was absolutely necessary.
Well, I’d save him the trouble then. I released the arrow. It shot through dead of night like a whisper in the darkness. It headed straight for Syrus’ head. I grinned, waiting expectantly for his head to explode with blood and poison to ripple through his veins.
But nothing happened.
A shadowy oversized fist right near Syrus, caught the arrow in midair, snapping the wood in half.
Appearing all around Syrus was a quartet of people. The Shadow Hunters we’d fought on the Dead Plains.
Oh, boy.
The whole gang was there: Big Fists, Big Feet, the Twins, and Sharp Limbs.
I grinned. I already knew their weakness.
I spammed status cure and then shot out air blast through the forest at the incoming shadow hunters. They’d be nothing without the power of their shadow magic. Before my blast hit them, a gust of air came my way. A mage stood behind them, manipulating the air.
“Your tricks won’t work this time,” laughed the mage.
Crap.
“We have to take out the mage before we can defeat these guys,” I shouted.
“Well, I can think of one way to hold them off,” shouted Serena in reply. She emerged from her hiding spot and ran across the snow to meet the shadow hunters head on. “Protect Thy Allies,” she screamed, as her aggro-enticing blast rippled across the snow.
The shadow hunters charged her. She spun on her foot and let blade tornado rip.
I stretched out my arm and cast flame wall in front of her. Her sword took on a flaming hue and sliced into the powerful shadow hunters coming at her.
Kari threw out protect spells and heals onto her.
Jackson ran straight into the battle to take heat off Serena. Blue spirit dragons formed around his fist as he jumped into the battle with a massive punch to the Aeri shadow hunter’s jaw.
General Syrus was behind the battle line and he jumped in the air and flew further away to a different part of the fight, far away from us. The plan to have a short and quick skirmish was over. This was going to be bloody and drawn out.
A message popped up in my HUD.
Raylene: We need help on the front.
I wrote her back straightaway, while staying focused on the fight happening right in front of me.
Clay: Unleash the reinforcements!
Raylene: Aye, aye, captain hotshot!
A howl echoed across the mountain. A blue swirl emerged out of the Iron Citadel. It was a regiment of ancient Rorn spirit warriors! The spirits leapt into battle, swiping their ghostly war hammers and battle axes into the Arethkarian soldiers. The ghosts we’d fought when conquering Iron Citadel were actually a positive feature once you controlled the place. The ghosts were an optional defense upgrade. They were coming in handy now.
“Clay!” shouted Serena, reminding me of the much closer battle happening in front of me.
I electric blinked right behind the battle line Jackson and Serena had formed. I stretched out both my arms. The ground at the feet of the shadow hunters crackled. I threw out a fireball to heat up the crumbling ground to add another debuff to the AoE attack. The ball of flame was put out by a gust of air. The mage behind the shadow hunters smirked, but the grin was short-lived. His face went pale. His body crumpled to the ground. Shade stood behind him with his two ninja kunai drenched in blood.
“Back stab!”
Shade hurried back towards us. “Clay! Unleash the debuffs!”
I spammed status cure until I was surrounded by debuff curing crystals. I then summoned as much wind power as possible and let air blast shoot across the battlefield, sending the status cures onto the shadow
hunters.
Their shadowy forms flickered away and their normal bodies emerged beneath the shadows.
“Remove their slave bracers,” I said. “Then they’ll be permanently debuffed.”
“Why won’t you just fuck off,” shouted the shadow hunter leader.
“Look,” I said, speaking calmly, to hold back the anger. “I’ll give you one last chance. Join us. Use your natural power to help fight Arethkar with us. Free the fellow players who’ve been enslaved. Don’t you care about all those people?”
The shadow hunters all shook their heads. “How many times do we have to say no?” spat the leaders.
My shoulders dropped. “Fine,” I said, feeling the anger bubble up and consume me. “I don’t give a shit about you then.”
I triggered berserk mode.
I’d finish them myself.
40
My mind was separate from my body. My body raced across the snow. My hands bulging, my finger nails growing until they were like the claws of a bear. I tore off the slave necklace on one of the shadow hunters, crushing it in my grip and then tossing it aside. The shadow hunter lifted its arms to block my wild swings. I jumped at him and took a bite into his flesh. My teeth were larger, stronger, more powerful. My molars grounded through their flesh. I spat blood out and turned on another shadow hunter.
I felt the eyes of Serena and the rest of the party watch on in horror. Let them. There was no convincing the shadow hunters of their wrong deeds. They’d straight up told me. Multiple times. I wasn’t going to change the world with my deeds alone. Some people were evil and you didn’t kill them due to rage, but you killed them to stop them from wreaking havoc on the weak; even if it damaged your own idealism. I was fine sacrificing such ideals if it meant protecting those I loved. Will’s pragmatism was finally rubbing off on me.
Time sped up. All the shadow hunters laid at my feet.
I charged into the battle, running my clawed hands through the warzone, leaving a corpse-filled path of destruction. I didn’t have full control. I was operating on feral mode’s anger, its sense of destruction. I did feel like I was carving a path through the enemy ranks though. I was searching for something. Then I saw it: General Syrus.
He grinned maliciously at me and charged me with his scythe. “I knew you Chosen were nothing but filthy animals and you prove my point. I’ll cut you down now, you disgusting vermin low-life.”
I lifted my arm. What was I doing? I didn’t have control over my hands. My other hand pressed down on the Prophetic Seal.
Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.
This was the one thing I feared about feral mode.
My arm blasted out a black beam of magic right into General Syrus’ stomach. He fell into the snow. His demon wing gone from his back. He squirmed below.
Okay feral mode was smarter than I expected. It knew to take out his corrupted fragment abilities.
I ran up to the fallen general.
I heard people shouting my name from behind me.
I held my arm and pressed down on the black mark. I was initiating a new spell. Run://delete_file.
No.
The black beam burst into General Syrus and the warrior was no more. Only an imprint in the snow was left of him and then a gust of wind blew by and destroyed that too.
I ran back towards the battle. I attacked soldiers. Bullets and swords wounded me.
I didn’t have the defenses for this. Unless feral mode had amped my toughness. I think it did a bit. Or Kari was running behind me, healing me.
I don’t know. I was on a path of destruction. Running my clawed hands through enemy soldiers.
I didn’t care anymore. I let the anger envelop me. I wanted to destroy these Arethkarian soldiers. They killed my brother and done so much wrong. I’d let my anger for it all consume me. It was easy.
Everything swirled around me. Blood, snow, wind.
People were shouting my name even louder now.
“Clay!”
“Clay!”
“Clay!”
Then I heard nothing and everything went black.
41
I woke up to white curtains. I was in bed. On the other side of the room was a crackling fireplace. I lifted myself up and pulled back the blinds. Below me was the mountain valley surrounding Iron Citadel. There was a whole group of mages scouring the land, reviving fallen soldiers. So we won then. I smiled.
The door creaked open, followed by a small gasp. “Oh, you’re awake?”
It was Serena.
“How long have I been out?” I said.
“The evening and most of this morning,” she said. “We were all worried about you. That feral mode is something else, huh?”
I scratched the back of my head. I didn’t know what to say.
I cleared my throat. “What happened with Crystal Port?”
“Gone,” said Serena, shaking her head. “We lost Zeratha’s Isle too. That’s a whole lot of extra crystallized mana going Arethkar’s way. Not that they need any more.”
I clenched my fists. So Konrad had taken Zeratha’s Isle too. Add it to the list of everything else he’s done. Anger seethed through my body. My stomach panged. My arms ached. I thirsted for revenge. For justice.
Serena tilted her head and opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She was frozen.
Another voice came from behind me.
“I sense a great anger bubbling within you.”
The ghost-girl Betina, the guardian of dreams, was floating behind me.
I didn’t reply. The rage burning inside me didn’t have a name, it didn’t wish to be articulated into words.
“Your desire to stop Konrad has grown,” she said. “You don’t just want to stop him. You want to kill him. You want him to suffer.”
I nodded.
“Good,” she said.
I tilted my head, confused. “You want me to kill him?”
“Oh yes,” she said. “I don’t want you to merely stop him. I never did. I want him to suffer as I have suffered.”
I’d never heard her speak this way. “Why do you hate him so much? You said you were going to reveal everything to me.”
“Don’t you know?” she grinned, manically. “Konrad Takeshimi turned me into what I am today. He is my father – and together, Clay, we’re going to finish him.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN A.K.O. 6!
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Author’s Note
Thank you for reading my book from start to finish! I hope you enjoyed Clay’s further adventures in book 5 of Arcane Kingdom Online. If you did, please consider leaving a review. As an indie author, reviews go a long way to achieving success, so please leave one if you can!
Thanks again for reading and see you soon!
-Jakob Tanner
www.jakobtanner.com
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