by Jason Cheek
As I came to a stop on the crypts steps, I was happy to see my friends and vassals had arrived in force. The once empty graveyard was now filled with the bodies of the living and the undead. The thousand Kayden Troopers and their zombie pets that I’d brought with me from Darom had completely subdued the Council of Light’s Forces. The three hundred Combat Priests and maybe twenty Battle Priests were uncomfortably kneeling on the ground in front of the crypt, glaring at me hatefully. Their ripped, white-leather robes were covered in mud and blood from where the undead had overpowered them and forced them to the ground.
Not that it had been much of a battle with over six to one odds. I was still taking in the entire scene, when my eyes caught sight of a wide-eyed Randel. He’d brought about a hundred of his people along with him. They were all clustered to one side looking somewhat bewildered at my people’s efficiency. Randel was the ex-guard Sub Leader that we’d met in the Smoking Red Dragon. Catching sight of my friends, I saw Fylreh was there with Thomas, AJ, Krystal, Jill, and the rest of the Devil Dogs. The concern for me was clear on the filly’s face as she stood guard over the captured councilors with her scimitars held at the ready. I’d just started heading over to join them, when an enraged, high-pitched roar caught my attention.
“Call her a Halfling one more time! I double-dare you!” Hefe raged, as he jumped up and down while shaking his tiny fist in High Councilor Luzanus’ face. “I swear you’ll be sucking these balls from the back your head!” He excitedly shouted, while grabbing at his crotch in an overt, perverted display that left his meaning clear to everyone watching.
I heard more than one belly chuckle and gasp of shock from behind as everyone followed me over to the center of the commotion. A quick glance at the faces’ of the three councilors that had joined me was enough to let me know that I had to treat this situation carefully or I might lose my allies. Catching Thomas’ eye, I silently cocked my head towards the priests with me as I came to a stop behind the angry Gnome. Catching the High Councilor’s eye, I put a calming hand on Hefe’s shoulder.
“Fancy meeting you out here, Loose-Anus.” I called out nonchalantly. “Looks like you’re making new friends as usual.”
“Dude, this fucktard called my Pookey Bear a Halfling!” Hefe huffed angrily, crossing his arms over his chest.
Hefe didn’t see it, but every Devil Dog around us either covered their mouths to choke back a laugh or turned away with tears in their eyes as I did my best not to laugh. Hell, even AJ had to clench his jaw shut. While it was funny on one level, on the other it was the sign of an ugliness that ran to the bone. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. This was a delicate situation. We’d just caught the Council of Light doing some messed up shenanigans.
The threat of killing us and leaving us to be spawned camped until we logged out by our enemies was some serious ass shit. I’d normally just take the asshole’s life, do my best to make sure he couldn’t be resurrected, and be done with it. But, from the apprehensive looks on the faces’ of my new allies, I could tell making him pay for his crimes the way he deserved wasn’t going to be part of the equation. Before I could even deal with that, I had to satisfy Hefe’s honor first.
“Well, Hefe.” I said studying the old man’s bloody face. “It looks like you’ve already explained the man’s failings. How about we have him offer a sincere apology to Lady Bonnie Smash and we call the issue closed?”
“Is that good with you Pookey Bear?” Hefe asked his girlfriend as she blushed slightly at being the center of attention.
“Sure, if he means it from the bottom of his heart then everything is forgiven, Shnukums.” Bonnie Smash said as she came over to kneel down next to her man and give him a hug.
Looking at Luzanus’ face, I could tell he was going to say something ignorant as I circled around him to help him to his feet. As my hand closed around his scrawny neck, I hauled him to his feet while growling into his ear. “By the Dark, I swear that if you fuck this up, I WILL let Hefe skull-fuck you to death! On that, I give you my word!”
The cruel sneer on the old man’s face disappeared as he realized I was serious as a heart attack. I don’t know what Hefe had done to the cruel man before I showed up, but terror in his eyes was answer enough. Standing up straight, High Councilor Luzanus meticulously brushed off his dirty robes. Not that it helped the robes much, but I think that was his way of getting into the right frame of mind. Planting a wide smile on his lips, he did a formal bow asking Lady Bonnie Smash to accept his most humble apologies.
Bonnie Smash accepted the apology with a regal nod as Hefe proudly puffed out his chest. It should have been comical, but in that moment, it looked appropriate. A gentleman protecting the honor of his elegant lady. It didn’t matter that they were both dressed like barbarians and she had delicate fangs peaking over her upper lips, or that the rude cad making the apology had been beaten into submission. If anything, it made the win that much sweeter. Giving them both my thanks, I excused us both, before taking a fistful of Luzanus’ robe and hauling him after me towards his cronies.
Coming to a stop before the four captured councilors that were still on their knees, I nodded for the councilors that had helped us to come over and join us in this last part of the fun. There was more than one nervous face looking back at me as they came to a stop beside me. As Reverent Priest Walt cleared his voice to speak, I held up a hand to stop him.
“Normally, this would be one of those times I would simply end an enemy’s life.” I said in no uncertain terms with a level tone. “I deliver an important message, my bloodline is openly ridiculed, and then the person I’m trying to help tries to murder me and my friends horribly.”
“I never tried to murder-“ Luzanus began to say as I cut him off with a roar.
“Shut your mouth!” A pin drop could have been heard as I paused to gather my thoughts. “So, if killing this corrupt, murderous bastard will affect my relationship with the Kingdom of Kader’s branch of the Priests of Light. Then, I have an alternative that I would be willing to accept.”
“High Councilor Luzanus, you and the rest of your greedy cabal of cocksuckers will have your rank removed. None of you will be allowed to carry the rank of officer, councilor, or anything other than that of an acolyte for the rest of your lives.” I said, as my hard eyes swept over the group on their knees before me. My eyes turned towards the three councilors that had tried to help me. “I hope the Council of Light will honor this judgment and that you will continue to call the House of Kayden an ally.”
“At the same time, the Council of Light has grown rich off of the donations of the poor and the rich alike.” I held my hands up to stop the three councilors’ angry words as they tried to speak all at once, while I hurriedly continued. “Now, I am not accusing the council of improper behavior, but, in the Kingdom of Kader’s time of need, I expect everyone to work together. Only in this way will we survive the coming storm.”
“This we can do,” Councilor Walt assured, after quickly conferring with Councilors Silvarn and Fulrin. “We are in full agreement that we must all work together if we are to have any hope in not being annihilated. Besides, removing these five from the Council of Light will do much to remove the corruption that has been taking root inside our ranks.”
“What can we do to help?” Councilor Silvarn asked, somewhat mollified.
“The remaining members of the Council of Light will make the evacuation of Telrain a priority. You will move your base of operations to the fortress of Palnisdale along with all that remains of the Royal Forces and family.” I paused to look each of them in the eyes. “Without your total support, the fortress in Palnisdale will never hold out against the forces aligned against them. If the fortress falls, the kingdoms of Thayjar, Ocilimma, Cadarea, and Sayr will be devastated.”
“If this is truly the invasion you think it is, there is no way we’ll be able to hold out without help from the other kingdoms.” Councilor Fulrin said, his forehead wrinkled in thought.
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��The Chaos Storm alliance has gutted the Royal Forces in Telrain.” Councilor Walt growled, the frustration audible in his voice. “If we’d known the true depths of their plans, we would have stepped in to stop this sooner.” I nodded in agreement. It was doubtful that anyone understood the full extent of my ex’s betrayal to these people.
“How successful have you been in resurrecting the forces that fell victim to the Chaos Storm purge?” Councilor Silvarn asked, with the spark of a plan in her eyes.
“My friend has probably saved a thousand or more troopers by now, but there are thousands more that need to be saved, if Palnisdale is to have any hope of holding out until a relief force can be sent by the other races.” I answered, hoping that she had something up her sleeves that could turn the tide of disaster that was headed our way.
“The Councilors of Light have access to higher resurrect spells.” Councilor Silvarn said, as she looked down at her kneeling colleagues. “Working together, we could possibly save thousands more if we had their help.” As we all looked towards the Councilors that had betrayed us, the blonde woman in their group sneered at us.
“What reason would any of us have to help you?” she taunted derisively. “You’re taking everything from us! I’d rather watch you die, half-breed, than lift a finger to help any of you!”
My Identify triggered with a thought as the middle-aged woman spat on the ground before me. Her information showed as Gee Achronis, level 50, Radiant Mage. What a hateful bitch, I silently thought. With a name like Gee, I wondered if there was any family relation to High Councilor Ger Luzanus or not? She sure had the same rotten attitude. I was just musing over what to do to get them to help, when she kept up her scathing attack.
“I will offer this to you, half-breed,” Councilor Achronis said, as her voice took on an ugly tone. “If you let us go. I promise to consider your plea if you beg from your knees.”
There was something in her words and tone that made something inside of me snap. Especially, after I saw the triumphant looks on her compatriots faces. I guess they thought that since we needed them for their abilities, they could continue to be the honorless scumbags they’d always been and get away with it. A cold rage filled my chest as my head cocked to the side.
Whatever look that came into my eyes made the blood drain from the cruel woman’s face as I drew the Vampiric Bastard Sword of Slaughter from the sheath on my back. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as I swung the bastard sword up over my head. Even though I knew that taking her head would cause us no end of trouble with the remaining members of the Council of Light, in that second I didn’t care. These people were going to learn how to be decent human beings or I’d slaughter them all.
Before I could bring the blade down to finish the strike, Councilor Achronis’ face changed to a look of absolute horror as she suddenly pitched forward on her hands. I stood frozen unable to swing as her body started to convulse. A moment later, a bloodcurdling scream ripped from her lips as her back arched while all the muscles in her body turned ridged as if she’d stuck her finger in an electric socket. Responding to the Counselor’s scream my body, on instinct, leapt back and away from her, narrowly avoiding her next spasm. Her shriek cut off a second later as black goo sprayed from her lips like projectile vomit.
Councilor Achronis moaned in agony as every pore on her body began expelling the same viscous, black liquid. Whatever was happening to her was inflicting slow damage as her hit points began to drop. Her cold blue eyes bulged out in horror as the black goo oozed out of her tear ducts to run down her cheeks in rivulets. That was all the pause she had before her body convulsed as black goo sprayed from her lips again. From the expression on her face, she was in extreme pain.
I stepped back in disgust as the horrific stench became overwhelming. That’s when it hit me as to what was happening. Lowering my arms, I let the point of the bastard sword drop to the ground as I looked around for the culprit. I saw Helgath’s hands’ glowing behind me a second later as she continued concentrating on forming her magic. Using my own Water Shamanism ability, I saw what she was doing inside Councilor Achronis’ body.
It was basically a slight alteration of her Cleansing spell that she’d come up with earlier. Only, instead of focusing the spell on expelling poison or Meer-Lizard eggs, she’d directed the spell to target the natural toxins in the body. The removal method hadn’t changed as the victim’s body removed the toxins in the same way they’d entered her system. The agony came from the speed at which the councilor’s body was expelling the toxins. I was truly speechless at the ingenuity of the spell, I thought to myself, as the awful stench carried to the watching crowd. I overheard Kenzie whisper uncomfortably to Thomas, “Remind me to never piss off Helgath again.”
In a conciliatory gesture, the rest of the councilors hurriedly offered to help the slaughtered troopers anyway they could as Councilor Achronis finally collapsed into the puddle of black goo, which had been formed from her body. Honestly, the whole process was extremely disturbing to watch. Like a train wreck that you couldn’t look away from.
Helgath had only stopped the cast when the councilor’s body had expelled all of the toxins she had in her. From our mental connection, I could tell that my little Half-Orc soulmate was extremely proud of herself. She’d come up with a way to stop me from creating a larger problem with the Council of Light, while, at the same time, completely dominating the enemies that had threatened our lives. While I couldn’t have been more proud of her on one level, I had to admit that Kenzie had the right of it. She was one scary ass young lady.
Whatever bravado Councilor Achronis had was over as her misery-laden eyes looked up at me in utter defeat. I honestly felt somewhat sorry for the nasty bitch. At least, until I remembered that she was going to murder us and have our enemies spawn camp us until we logged out. So, fuck her. The beheading would have been a merciful blessing in comparison to what she’d just been put through. Hanging her head, Gee Achronis was led away with the rest of the ex-councilors by Councilors Walt and Fulrin in the direction of the western wall, while Councilor Silvarn headed back to the Council of Light’s fortress to carry out my plans and get everyone moving.
My people had reported that they’d not run across any enemy patrols on their way over. It truly seemed like my ex had pulled her people back in case I went for the Princess. Maybe she thought I would try to surprise her with my force of troopers like I’d done to the Dread Pack. It would have been a great plan, if she’d hidden her forces to catch us by surprise. Unfortunately for her, I was well aware of the number of people she had at her disposal and I wasn’t about to walk into that trap. At least, not until I was ready to spring it.
With that being the case, it was time for us to get to work. I had Assault Leader Dell divide up our people along with the surviving troopers that ex-Guard Sub-Leader Tericius had managed to round up. Between them and the newly resurrected survivors, we had more than enough people to have a good chance at evacuating the city within the required time limit. Lastly, I asked Dell to have our people keep an eye out for hooded robes. I needed everyone to collect as many as they could for the next part of the plan.
Some troopers were breaking into the armories that had been set aside for a major invasion. Their job was to pass out armor and weapons to our people, using the grounds of the Priests of Light’s fortress as a staging area. The rest would go door-to-door throughout the city for the evacuation. Councilor Silvarn would be splitting up her priests to assist with this. Combat Priests and Light Mages would travel with the troopers that were running the evacuation in case they ran across any members of Chaos Storm or their allies. The remaining priests of light would head to the corpse pit to assist with resurrecting and healing as many survivors as possible.
With that completed, the rest of us headed back towards the Smoking Red Dragon to call it a night with our zombie pets in tow. It was nearly two in the morning when we walked through the iron-bound door. The rotting corpses we setup to gu
ard outside the pub, since my in real-life friends didn’t want their stench or decaying faces inside while they ate and drank. Not that any of us blamed them for that. Still, it was kind of funny. After being surrounded by shambling corpses for two weeks straight, none of us batted an eye at the disgusting undead that followed us around.
Krystal and Jill announced they were ready to drink after all of their hard work. Phoenix instantly joined them with Kenzie and the Devil Dogs. I shook my head, doubting that the red-headed firecracker would have any luck picking up my friends, but I gave her an “A” for effort. It was funny to watch them do the whole pick-up dance. It became fairly obvious that Phoenix was a man in a woman’s body. Instead of pissing anyone off or Phoenix being ridiculed, the conversation turned to making fun of me when I was playing my female characters. I tried to say I wasn’t in the middle of that conversation and to leave my past out of their discussion, but within minutes everyone had gotten on the bandwagon as Krystal and Jill told their own versions of my online adventures.
The place was nearly empty, except for the bartender and wait staff, so we had no problem pulling a group of tables together near the firepit. As soon as we got our pints, the conversation changed again as everyone got to talking about the stealth recon mission we’d run earlier and what we’d seen. Ulia and Keela talked excitedly with Sarka, while Unalia and Yun were deep in conversation with Tinyr. Fylreh talked about the work she did with Jill to help Krystal in her efforts to raise the dead. Krishna and Lyeneru, the Moon-elves, had helped as much as they could with heals and moving corpses around. From everyone’s stories, it had truly been a group effort. In-between resurrecting and healing, they made sure the zombies were properly digging under the wall. Supposedly, they’d made a broad passage that was almost as wide as one of the main gates.
