The group pushed on. Hawke detected two more similar traps, and the wizard and the witch dealt with them the same way, but at the end of it, Jake looked worried. Hawke figured they had exhausted their reserves. He was impressed that, between the two of them, they had been able to use almost a hundred thousand Mana. Their normal pools were back up to full, thanks to several Major Mana Potions, but now they would only have them to rely on. Not a good thing when fighting an enemy with a Mana Node at their disposal and some ability that let them use it to its full potential.
There was no choice but to press on. There were a few more regular traps along the way, but Hawke handled them easily enough. He’d been expecting the enemy to make their stand at the end of the tunnel, where the invaders would be unable to employ their numbers effectively, but nobody was waiting for them there. In fact, the city appeared to be as deserted as when Hawke had first seen it.
“They want us to let ourselves in. You never do what the enemy wants you to, unless there is no alternative,” Jake said. “But there isn’t.”
The small force formed up in a semicircle around the tunnel’s entrance, the wizard contacted Legate Neron to figure out their next move, using a Leadership ability that worked much like the telepathic link between Hawke and Saturnyx. The other two formations were almost through, but were fighting to overcome the wards that had kept the Trogg city hidden and also interfered with any intrusive magic. The Earth practitioners were being forced to spend enormous amounts of Mana to tunnel through the last fifty feet of stone separating them from their objective. They were probably going to arrive without extra reserves, just like Jake and Heketa.
“I should scout ahead and see what they’ve prepared for us,” Hawke said.
“Risky, but you’re probably the best man for the job.”
The Legate agreed. “We will be breaching the cave walls in five minutes. Keep us apprised of what you find.”
Hawke turned off most of his defenses and went into stealth mode once more. He didn’t like using the same tactic twice on an enemy who was aware of it, but he couldn’t think of another way to figure out what the unholy alliance of Chaos and Undeath had prepared for the Imperial forces. Last time, the Trogg leader had detected his presence when he used an active spell, so he planned to only use the good old Mark One Eyeball (with Advanced Mana Sight) as his sensor system. After giving Tava a quick hug and a kiss and ordering Digger to follow her instructions, he headed out in full Ninja mode.
The bizarre city with its swirling buildings loomed ahead. Everything looked the same to the naked eye, but Hawke noticed that the madness-inducing atmosphere was gone. He wanted to take it as a good sign, but knew better than that. If the power needed to keep the crazy ambiance wasn’t there anymore, it meant it was being used for something even worse. He could see major concentrations of power only in the center of the city where the plaza was, and in one of the taller towers near it.
There weren’t any patrols and the bat riders weren’t anywhere to be seen, either, or at least he didn’t spot any as he moved toward the spiral. He could hear chanting still coming from there. When he reached it, he saw only Troggs. It looked as if all the Risen that the Revenant had created were gone. Gone off to the sewers to stop the expedition, where they’d been destroyed. There were a few hundred Troggs left, still split between singers and dancers. He couldn’t get close enough to see if the Revenant and the Arch-Priestess were at the bottom. The glow of magical energies was visible, however, so the ritual was still going on. And the good news was that there weren’t enough Undead left to stop the attacking force.
The good news made no sense, though. Why send two-thirds or more of your troops to fight in the sewers instead of defending the city? Something was off.
This is Legate Neron, a voice in his head broke in. We have broken into the cave. What do you see?
Hawke described the forces arrayed around the plaza and the lack of any defenses beyond it.
I think I should take a closer look at the buildings, he added. There seems to be another magical ritual going on in one of them.
Do as you think fit, but we will start moving forward to link up our forces, Neron replied. We are deploying several battlefield spells, so you will need to leave the area in no more than five minutes.
Hawke had seen anti-Undead tactical spells in action during the last fight in the sewers. He figured that battlefield spells were even more deadly.
Gotcha, Hawke told the sword as he approached the building. One quick peek and I’m gone. Don’t want to be anywhere near ground zero.
No sooner had he said those words than a surge of power burst out of the tower he’d planned to examine. And everything went to hell.
A City Core has been activated!
The City of Nur-Gamash has been reborn!
The City of Akila’s Core has been neutralized and will be destroyed in 4 hours and twenty-six minutes.
All Wards and Enchantments from the City of Akila have been neutralized and will be permanently deactivated in 4 hours and twenty-six minutes.
You have lost your Deputy Status Bonuses.
Hawke barely had time to read the urgent notifications flashing in front of his face when a massive spell went off; he felt the multi-thousand Mana wave like a sudden rise in pressure, followed by a spike of pain through his head. The spell’s energy lingered like afterimages following a bright flash, and Hawke was able to see its pattern. He couldn’t identify the spell but saw that it was related to Raise Dead or the more powerful Army of the Dead. A supercharged variation, that was, one with much more range and more powerful effects. The spell’s ‘documentation’ showed him what it was doing, and in his mind’s eye he saw thousands upon thousands of dead Troggs inside all the buildings in the undercity, where they had been mummified and left to wait for millennia. The spell reached them and they began to move. The swirling towers weren’t homes; they were mausoleums, filled with ready-to-use zombies, just add Mana.
This wasn’t the cataclysm the Imperial force had been sent to interrupt. The living had not been killed and turned. This was a cheaper, faster spell that the enemy had probably planned to use shortly before the main ritual was complete. When they had been discovered, they had activated it early. Just in time to catch the force sent to stop the ritual.
Hundreds, thousands, of newly-born Undead emerged from the buildings. Troggs clad in black burial shrouds, their bodies treated with chemicals and dehydrated like so many pieces of jerky.
Reanimated Trogg (Undead)
Level 12 (17) Elite Minion
Health 1,700 Mana 1,700 Endurance n/a
All the Undead had gotten a bump in level, however. The Trogg City Core had activated some effect similar to Call of Arms or Deputization, boosting the bad guys even as Hawke and his allies lost their city bennies. For what it was worth, Hawke’s Leadership bonuses would still help the members of his party, and Legate Neron’s applied to the entire army, so they weren’t totally helpless, just hopelessly outnumbered. And groups of Trogg sorcerers, shamans and priests were mixed in among the thousands of warriors. Hawke barely had time to climb up one of the buildings before he could be trampled by the host of monsters filling the streets.
An Event announcement appeared in front of Hawke, and that was when he learned just how big a mess he’d gotten himself into.
The Herders Punk Out
AN AREA EVENT HAS BEGUN!
THE FALL OF AKILA (LEVEL 20 EVENT)
For untold millennia, the Troglodyte city of Nur-Gamash hid deep beneath Akila, its dead denizens waiting for the day of their return. That day has come.
The City Core of Akila has been supplanted by the older and mightier Core of Nur-Gamash. As a result, none of Akila’s mystical defenses are in effect. Akila’s City Core will be destroyed in 4 hou
rs and twenty-five minutes. Without the wards against Undead, the Revenant who awakened the Troggs has been able to raise thousands of corpses from burial grounds and catacombs in and around the city. The dead walk the streets of Akila, hungry for the flesh of the living.
If you survive this ordeal, you will be rewarded. If you help defend Akila and prevent its Core’s destruction, your rewards will be commensurate with your deeds. This event has only one Phase. At the end of four hours and twenty-five minutes, either the City Core will be restored and the dead laid to rest, or Nur-Gamash will cement its claim over the city above and all the living within its borders will have to flee or be enslaved or slain.
Event Rewards:
For surviving until the end of the Event: 150 Experience per level and 2 gold per level of the participant.
Additional prizes will be awarded based on your contribution to the defense of the city.
Kaiser Wrecker dismissed the notification. He’d been expecting something major, but this was beyond his wildest dreams – or nightmares. As he had told Hawke, he didn’t like surprises, and the Whisperer’s hints hadn’t prepared him for this. It took everything he had not to lose his temper. He couldn’t afford to.
“What do we do?” Aristobulus asked.
Kaiser ignored the question, turning to Spectre and asking one of his own. “Is everyone in?”
“Everybody except the team you sent to the sewers.”
“Forget about them,” Kaiser said. “They are gone.”
According to their status icons, all but two of the Herders he’d sacrificed to the Whisperer were dead. The other two probably wished they were. Kaiser figured they were being slowly consumed by the necromancers who had unleased the Event, or saved for something worse. They deserved nothing less, but reducing his fighting force by one sixth had been a steep sacrifice. He expected the Whisperer would reward him properly for it.
“As to what we do,” he went on. “The answer is simple. Nothing. We stay inside the compound. Our Undead wards do not depend on the city, so we are as safe as any place in Akila, except maybe the damn Temple District.”
Over the past couple of months, the compound had improved its defenses, replacing the simple palisade with a decent fortified wall. The compound could hold up against anything smaller than an army, and he had it on good authority that the Undead would leave it alone. He couldn’t share that last tidbit with the Herders, of course.
“And if the zombie swarm comes our way?”
“We’ll deploy our riflemen on the walls and have everyone on a war footing. Nobody gets in or out of the compound. That includes the living as well as the Undead. If anybody tries to force their way in, we shoot or blast them. No exceptions.”
“Some of the men have friends and sweethearts in the city,” K-Bar said.
“No exceptions. They’ll have to find new whores.”
K-Bar scowled at that but said nothing.
“If the Event is resolved and Akila survives,” Kaiser went on, “we’ll explore our options. The city will likely be in shambles even in victory, favoring a swift seizure of power. Otherwise, we’ll continue with the original plan.”
“You know, if we helped save the city, our position would improve tremendously,” Spectre mused. “We could use the Rod of Rulership to take down the Trogg City Core. Getting to it won’t be easy, but we have the most magical firepower in the city outside the Legion’s detachment. The rewards in XP and loot from the system alone would be enormous. And as the winners of the Event, our Guild would gain a massive Reputation bonus. Everyone would know who saved Akila. We’d be untouchable, no matter what the Council or the priesthoods say.”
Kaiser shook his head. “Normally, I would agree. However, the risk exceeds the rewards. For one, we do not know where the Trogg city is, and even if we did, we’d have to fight our way through a throng of Undead to get there.”
“We are a bit weak on anti-Undead magic, granted,” Spectre said, tempted enough by the promise of a big payoff to argue with the boss. “But we’ve got the skills and gear. We could do this.”
“No,” Kaiser concluded, and this time his tone made it clear that the discussion was over. “It’s not worth it. Just by surviving, we’ll get some decent rewards. We stay put, hold what we’ve got, and prepare for the worst.”
From the way Spectre started to sweat, the spymaster had just realized how far he’d gone. “You got it, boss.”
“But if the Akila City Core is destroyed, this whole place will belong to the Troggs!” Aristobulus whined. “We’ll have to abandon the area, assuming we can fight our way out of a zombie apocalypse.”
“If that happens, we’ll be ready. I want everyone who’s not on guard duty to pack all essentials and any personal property you can fit in your Bonded Vaults, and get ready to skedaddle. We have enough containers of holding to load up all our crafting components, weapons, and plenty of food. And everyone that matters has an elite mount.”
“Roger that,” K-Bar said. “Too bad about the fortifications and the other facilities. That took a lot of work and Guild levels to set up.”
“The Enchanting Circle, the forge, the workshops,” Aristobulus lamented. “Those cannot be packed away. Our crafters will have nowhere to work.”
“The crafters don’t have mounts,” Naruto said with a sneer. “They wouldn’t be able to keep up with us, so losing the Factory doesn’t matter.” He turned to Kaiser. “Do we just leave them here? Or…” he ran a finger over his throat.
“We’ll leave them,” Kaiser said. “If they survive, we can come get them later.”
From the looks several guild officers gave him, they’d been expecting a massacre of everyone they had to leave behind, like he was some sort of Jim Jones-style cult leader. His people didn’t hold him in very high regard. Well, he’d always been fond of the phrase ‘let them hate, as long as they fear.’ Not even K-Bar was crazy enough to challenge him, even without the oaths making that sort of rebellion impossible.
Granted, he would gladly sacrifice all those lazy bastards to the Whisperer, but he couldn’t do that. Even the weak guild contract kept him from outright murdering members. Only those who had failed or betrayed the Nerf Herders could be killed out of hand. Kaiser decided to take a few noncombatants along; there was enough room in their mounts to have a few passengers. The entire gun design team would come along, of course, and maybe Rowena; she was getting a bit worn out, but she was a good source of entertainment, and he had the feeling he would be needing an outlet for his anger in the days to come. The rest of the worker bees would have to look after themselves.
“Everything we lose here can be rebuilt,” Kaiser continued calmly. “We accomplished a lot these past six months, when we were little more than a pack of ragged refugees from the swamps. Next time, nothing will stop us.”
Behind his impassive expression, he was seething with rage, and not about the damned workshops or crafters. All the work to lay down the groundwork to take over the city – and eventually, the Empire – would be lost if Akila fell. The waste in gold, resources and time was bad enough, but being denied what he wanted was worse. He had laid a claim to the city, and the Whisperer and her allies had ruined everything. Any gratitude he might have felt toward the dark entity inside his head would have vanished without a trace, but the truth was that he’d never felt grateful in his life. If anybody did anything for him, it was because they wanted something in return, and that certainly included the god or spirit that thought Kaiser could be kept under control. No, the Whisperer would have to go. Unfortunately, he still needed her.
“Where would we go?” Spectre asked. “If we have to leave, I mean.”
“We’ll head southwest,” Kaiser said. “Little burgh by the name of Orom. There’s lots of gold and precious metals in the area, and if Aristobulus’ research is correct, there is a massive Labyrinth nearby, as big as the Malleus Mallum, if not bigger.”
“Sounds okay, I guess,” Spectre said.
“
Better than okay. If Akila goes to hell, that area is perfectly set to become the new center of gravity for the region. And it’s also where Hawke and his guild set up shop. We’ll just take over his operation, recruit or dispose of any Eternals he left in charge, and we’ll be all set.”
The chief of intelligence frowned. “What about Hawke? We’ve lost track of him since we pulled out the sniper teams.”
“Hawke? I expect he’ll be in the middle of this mess, trying to beat the Event. He’s a wannabe hero, after all. If we decided to move, we’ll have a good head start on him. By the time he makes it back to Orom, we’ll already own it.”
“That would be great,” Naruto said. “We’ll be waiting for him.”
A couple of guild officers nodded, although a few others looked worried about going another round with Hawke. Kaiser noted who was being a chickenshit about it; he would remember them.
“Any other questions?”
Everyone looked down and said nothing.
“Good. I’ll be in my chamber. Don’t disturb me unless it’s an emergency.”
The top Herders’ faces soured up a little. They knew what that meant; the screams occasionally became too loud to ignore. Kaiser had a lot of anger to work out. Rowena had survived the last time he’d needed to blow off steam. He didn’t think she’d be that lucky this time. No matter. She still had two or three extra lives. And if she came out short, well, she could be replaced.
Inside his head, the Whisperer purred like a cat about to play with a crippled mouse.
Guilds at War: The LitRPG Saga Continues Page 24
