"What do you mean, you cannot?!" Soma whirled on him.
"I am a man of faith, my Lord," he replied nervously. "The dragon is a sacred creature, and this man is a holy man. My men were there when he perished and then returned to life. Vash Dorha has blessed him-"
"I don't give a shit what this barbaric scum has blessed or not!" Soma shouted, gesturing wildly toward me and Vash. "Arrest him! I command it!"
"My Lord, forgive me. I cannot buck the will of the Nine." Ur Ferenz shook his head. "The evidence of Count Dragozin's mantle lies before us. I do not fear the Volod, but I fear the Black God's wrath."
“Oh? So you’re a blasphemer, now?” Soma forgot me for a moment, taking a menacing step toward his retainer. “Worshipping the Black God while you attend services to righteous Khors?”
“That was Andrik’s concept of the church, not Ignas’.” I scoffed. “Okay, if it’s not the law here already, then consider this my first official act of Voivoding: Anyone in Myszno can worship whatever god they damn well please, or not worship any god if that’s their preference.
There was a murmur of assent among the ranks.
"Istvan!" Soma pointed at me. "You're standing by, listening to this blasphemous outlander scum lay claim to Egbolt? To your liege lord's rightful lands?"
Istvan sucked a tooth, then shook his head. "Lord Bolza’s line and House were wiped out. This man has redeemed himself and his druzhina by deed. That is an act that is important to both the Tuun and the Yanik. He honors Lord Bolza’s memory.”
Soma's entire face trembled with anger as he looked around and found nothing but judging stares. He sneered, then hawked in his throat and spat at my feet. "Fine. Then I invoke the Code of Honor and demand satisfaction."
"You want to duel me?" I couldn't stop the manic grin that spread over my face. "Okay. Sure. Challenger gets to pick the field and the weapon, right?"
"The field," Soma replied stiffly. “You pick the weapon."
"Then I pick no weapons," I said. "No armor, no weapons, no magic. Plain ol’ fisticuffs."
Soma sized me up for a minute. I was over a foot shorter and about a hundred pounds lighter than he was. "Done. What are your terms?"
"Fight to whoever loses consciousness first." I replied. "No magic or tech."
He sniffed. "A barbarian even in this. The honorable weapon is the sword or pistol."
"Yeah, but jamming your fist up someone's nose is more satisfying." I bared my teeth at him. “Be grateful I didn’t pick spears.”
"As you say." Soma shucked his spellglove off and threw it back at Ur Ferenz, who winced as he juggled it like a hot potato. I unequipped my armor and gear down to my boots, pants and undershirt. Soma took his shirt off. Because of course he did.
My HUD chimed, and time seemed to slow slightly as a prompt appeared:
[Based on your profile and combat experience, we have detected that you prefer to Realistic Combat vs Augmented Combat when Dueling opponents. Is that correct?]
“Yes.” I thought back, hopping from Karalti’s back to the ground. The soldiers stayed in formation, but the officers formed a loose arena around us as Soma put his fists up and began to circle.
[Realistic Combat mode ignores HP and Level in favor of vital points when Dueling NPCs. Combat is resolved by martial skill application instead of a combat minigame. If you wish to change your preferences at any time, query ‘Change Single Combat Settings.]
"You will regret this." Soma had the muscle bulk of a blacksmith or a wrestler: thick through the upper body, with a bit of fluff around the middle. “I learned to fight at the Royal College in Taltos, where I was trained by the grand master, Lonzo Karpoff!”
I shrugged. Mouthing off was about as pointless as ripping your shirt off before a fight. Instead, I stayed loose and balanced, tracking him as he circled and reading his body.
“You’re small, Tuun! Too small to fight the likes of me!” He had his arms up like a classical wrestler, fingers loose.
Soma pushed in. As he came forward, I put my guard up and lashed out with a quick, fast jab, enough to piss him off and get him to open up. He came in swinging. I bounced to the right and slammed my left fist into his face, then followed up from the right. My knuckles connected with a dull meaty crack, just hard enough to lure him in.
“HRRRAGH! I’ll crush you!” Soma charged straight forward, trying to overwhelm me with his size - and ran his face right into the blade of my foot as I pulled a vertical side-kick up underneath his jaw. The huge man’s head snapped back and he crashed to the dirt like a sack of hammers, blood pouring from his mouth.
“Huh.” I cocked my foot, then swung my leg back down and stood. “Maybe if you hadn’t been flapping your tongue, you wouldn’t have bitten it.”
“Well, that was a damn good ass-fuckin’ time!” Vash nodded, arms crossed. “Ten out of ten, a standing splits and a concussion. I like it.”
"Yup. I was Sam Dan Taekwondo school champion of 2055." My HUD assistant had been right - that was realistic combat.
Vash laughed. “You should have become a Baru! Why are you a Lancer, dog?”
“Probably some kind of compensation thing.” I shook my hands out and paced around the ring, coming to a stop in front of Istvan. "Alright, Arshak. What do you want to do?"
Istvan crossed his arm over his chest and bowed from the neck. "I am at the service of your House, Lord Dragozin."
[You have unlocked a new Hero: Ur Istvan Arshak (Rank A+ Duelist/Cavalry Marshal - Myszno Defense Force)]
I clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm glad. You're a great officer, and I'm sure you're an even better Castellan."
"So I am no longer Sheriff of Slutlava?" he asked hopefully.
"No. I'm assigning that position to Ur Ferenz as of today." I turned to face the knight, who was helping his shirtless, half-conscious lord to his feet. He tensed, a grimace freezing on his face. "Ur Ferenz, your first order is to take Soma to the brig and let him cool his heels for a couple of days. Make sure he's got decent food and drink. No blueprints, no work at all. Anything he's doing can be transferred to Viktor and Rin."
"...Yes, Your Grace." The knight sounded and looked squirrely, but he threw Soma's arm around his shoulders and wrapped the other around his waist.
As he staggered off, a horrifying wailing sound blew to us from the north: a sound like a million ambulances screaming all at once. Everyone turned as the yowl intensified, mixed with the sound of horns. Karalti reared her head and flared her crests in alarm.
"Well, fuck me dead and back to life again." Vash crossed his arms, watching in the direction as the as yet unseen source of the noise.
“WhoTheWhatTheHowTheWhyTheFUCK is THAT?!” I clamped my hands over my ears.
The siren wails built into a terrifying chorus as sixty Meewfolk dinosaur riders charged through the northern gatehouse Some were in armor and chain - others were nude except for jewelry, their fur shaved into stripes to reveal the tattoos on their skin. They screeched and howled and whirled their swords over their heads as they thundered in, riding their hookwings with the acrobatic expertise of jockeys: some sitting, some standing on their saddles. Their beasts were a leaner, lighter breed than the destrier hookwings that carried knights in armor. At the front and center of the horde was Suri on Cutthroat. She rode beside a strapping, white-furred Meewfolk warrior with a lot of metal in his face and chipped ears. She gave us a thumbs up and turned her mount, cantering toward us.
Istvan laughed with delight, raising his voice to be heard over the cacophony. "That, my friend, is the Orphans’ Company!"
Book 3: The Battle for Myszno
Chapter 40
After mopping the floor with Soma and meeting and greeting what felt like thirty million people, I was done interacting with other human beings for the day. I needed to get a handle on the Mass Combat System, pick my bonus ability, and work out what the fuck I was going to do now that I was the commander of an entire fucking garrison.
Karalti took me to a shelte
red grotto beside a steaming crater lake. She went to wallow in the boiling hot center of the mineral spring while I lounged in the warm shallows. First up was the Mark of Matir ability. As always, I had two options. As usual, it was difficult to choose.
Stigmata (Life)
Boost speed and reflexes by 25% for 5 minutes; all Dark-element attacks restore HP (5% of total inflicted damage) for 30 seconds.
Mortal Grudge (Entropy)
Deal five powerful non-elemental magic attacks to one enemy (35 x half your Will score), and inflict the Death Sentence status on yourself (countdown 60: seconds). Speed increased by 25%, Adrenaline Point regen increased by 2.5x for 60 seconds.
“Death Sentence?” Frowning, I queried the wiki.
Death Sentence (Status)
This status places a counter on the target character, and when the counter reaches zero, the affected target dies. The counter drops by 1 per second. This status only applies in combat; the only way to be rid of a Death Sentence is to either die and revive, or end combat by defeating your opponent/s. Targets who are immune to instant death are immune to this status. This attack does not drain Adrenaline Points or Stamina, but can only be used once per week.
Well, okay then. It was like the Final Fantasy status, Doom. I closed the window and lay back in the water to think. Certain healing or certain death? Hmm. Tough choice.
I re-read them, and my brain snagged on the ‘non-elemental magical attack’ aspect of Mortal Grudge. All magic in Archemi was elemental – except for Aether, the primal magical element. For an elemental specialist like me, a non-elemental attack could be decisive – especially in PvP. My enemies would go in prepared for Dark attacks. My Will stat was currently sitting on 60, so… what did that work out to be? 1050 non-elemental magical damage, per attack, and five attacks. If I landed them all, that was 5250 damage – which was very nice indeed for an ability that didn’t drain Adrenaline or Stamina.
I had a think about Stigmata, too. While HP loss was always something I had to contend with, potion ingredients for healing potions were common and cheap – especially here, with the Endlar right on the doorstep. My most powerful attack, Master of Blades thru Rain of Glass – MoB-RoG for short – was based on my attack stats and currently did 2417 for the first hits on one enemy, then 1167 on five others. That was quite a nice chunk of damage to rain down on people, and with Stigmata active, would heal 412 points of HP. Two Concentrated Green Moss Tinctures healed 500. But if I chained Jump, MoB-RoG and Grudge…
“Let’s see, Jump, then Master o’Blades and Rain of Glass plus Grudge is… Jesus Christ.” I recalculated just to be sure. Wow, okay. Yes, that combo really would do a maximum of 11,534 damage to one target, with four normal Rain of Glass strikes to surrounding enemies. If the primary target was a Dark-resistant enemy, like the Broodmother or the Warsinger, it would only take half the MoB-RoG damage, but that was still a ‘mere’ 9752 points. Conversely, if the target was weak to Darkness, they’d take double or even triple. With the enhanced AP regen, I’d be able to hit my most powerful attack chains twice… and if I couldn’t kill someone inside of a minute with five-figure damage, I needed to hand in my gamer card.
“Okay, Matir, I get it. With great risk comes great ass-kicking.” I selected Mortal Grudge. The Mark of Matir flared with a cool sensation beneath the hot water, then settled back down. I’d have to be careful with this move, but if used strategically… yeah, it was possible to make good use of it.
Next on the menu was the Mass Combat screen. I mentally swiped across and was pleased to find the three pages – Army, Heroes and Logistics - were no longer greyed out. Still – it was intimidating. I’d logged thousands of hours into my beloved antique Pokémon collection, but most of my actual strategic experience was from my IRL grunt days. All my fighting had been done in jungles, which emphasized small-group tactics and leadership, counter-insurgency hijinks, and enduring the hare-brained schemes that issued from the bowels of the Pentagon.
It’s just a game, man. It even has types and IVs and shit. I fired up the Logistics menu to assess what units we could produce at the Prezyemi Line. The short answer was ‘not many’. The Line had facilities to train the basic melee and ranged infantry units – Swordsmen, Pikemen, Riflemen, Gunners and Archers – and that was about it. We could also produce Light Cavalry, but to grow beyond our current unit capacity, we needed a third [Hookwing Stable]. The crafting sector was falling behind on arming our existing force with good quality weapons. We had people who could repair airships, but they couldn’t build them. That, more than anything else, was a strike against us. The Demon’s lack of airpower was the key weakness of his undead army. A hundred thousand zombies, ghouls, wights and whatever else he cared to drag up out of the dirt were rendered completely ineffective by some well-placed, old-fashioned bombs.
All the Defense units best suited for fighting the Demon’s army were either inaccessible or too expensive to recruit and produce. The Orphans had swelled our ranks to 16,000-ish troops, but we needed more production nodes, Ravensblood Dragoons, Ravensblood Mages, and Battle Brothers of Khors.
Increasingly apprehensive, I flipped over to the Heroes menu. This was looking better, because there were lots of available heroes and a few left to identify and recruit. We’d have to do that via sidequests. Sidequests we didn’t have time for.
Interestingly, I was now listed as the ‘General’, while Suri was listed with the other NPCs as a ‘Champion (Recruited)’, but Rin wasn’t.
Count Hector Dragozin, the Black Hand of Matir and Karalti, the Black Opal Queen
Armed with the Spear of Nine Spheres, the impressive profile of dragon and rider inspires man and beast alike and strikes the fear of the Dark God into the hearts of their enemies.
Suri Ba’hadir, the Red Lioness
A powerful melee warrior, Suri’s presence on the battlefield grants allies Damage Reduction, increases the damage dealt by charges, and grants buffs against Fear and Disease.
Soma was also listed as a Champion, and his status was ‘unrecruited’. My Renown with him was something like -700, so I doubted he was going to be a part of the team any time soon. Istvan and Vash were both in the next tier down, the Heroes tier:
Istvan Arshak
Well-loved and respected by his troops, the former Castellan of Egbolt Castle is a versatile light cavalry specialist. His presence on the battlefield increases the army’s overall speed, vigor, defense and attack. Especially suited to one-on-one combat against other heroes, Istvan can train Hookwing Pistoleers at twice the normal speed of a normal cavalry sergeant.
Vash Dorha
A Baru in service to Matir, Vash Dorha is a powerful close-combat fighter who is in his element among the common militia. He gives all surrounding Infantry stamina buffs, healing buffs, substantial buffs against Fear, Terror and Corruption to melee and ranged Infantry. He can also train Baru units, who provide healing and deal magical Dark-elemental melee strikes against incorporeal and magically shielded foes.
Count Lorenzo Soma (Unrecruited)
Like many craftmasters, Lord Soma has a strong personality and can be somewhat… temperamental. Despite this and his lack of military prowess, Lord Soma is an artificing prodigy who specializes in the field of airship repair and design. When stationed at any manufacturing node, he decreases Artifact repair time by 50%. If stationed in a Mana Mine, he increases Mana extraction yield by 15%. If stationed at an airship production facility, he doubles the speed of airship assembly.
There were other heroes listed: Lazar the Healer, Lord Zediwitz, Zlaslo, Admiral Ghelan, Taethawn the Bleak - the Meewfolk commander of the Orphans - and Viktor, the Master Artificer of House Soma's weaponeers. Each one had special abilities and buffs they conveyed to troops. My problem was that three of the best heroes – Istvan, Taethawn and Zediwitz – were cavalry-focused, while the militia units only had Vash and the Mages had no one. There was a mage hero listed – Szonja the Living Flame – but she was listed as ‘uncontacted’ and w
as based in Litvy.
“Hmm. Hang on a second.” Curious, I pushed the Mass Combat window to one side and called up a second Map window to look and see if I could analyze Litvy. When I zoomed in on the marker, I got a pop-up:
[Information unavailable: you must send Reconnaissance units to assess this city.]
Ugh. Reasonable, but aggravating. I cycled back to the Army menu to see what I had to work with – starting with the overview.
Army Information
Available Legion: The Myszno Defense Force
For centuries, the proud citizens of Vlachia have prospered through steely determination and a thriving, forward-thinking focus on education and technology. The Vlachian Army has a large and diverse roster of available units, with almost every type of unit represented. Rifle-equipped infantry and Hookwing pistoleers are the foundation of their military, backed up by a diverse roster of Elite Units and some of the most advanced airships and artillery in the world. The large unit roster allows commanders to build flexible yet specialized armies suited to different strategies and campaigns.
Vlachian Royal 4th Fleet, 2nd Company - 2185
Myszno Defense Force – 9378
The Orphans Company – 5030
Total Units: 16,593
United Myszno Defense Force Unit Roster:
Airships
Hussar-class Destroyer (3): A heavy battleship and troop carrier with artillery and magical armament. Capacity 700.
Bathory-class Skirmisher (9): Light, fast, frigate-type airships used to support and protect Hussar-class ships with artillery. Capacity 200.
Lóvas-class Cargo Hauler (20): Essential troop and cargo transport ships, lightly armored and built for distance rather than speed.
Kingdom Come Page 40
