Awaken Online: Catharsis

by Travis Bagwell

  The damage was fantastic. Soldiers were impaled on spiked bone shields; others were sent flying from the force of the collision. The momentum of the charge caused the bone swords to strike with deadly force. The men that didn’t die from the initial blows were thrown backward violently, their bodies striking the wooden wall with a sickening crunch.

  Jason watched, mesmerized, as a Death Knight gored a soldier with its horns and then severed another soldier’s arm with its sword. Their bone tails whipped through the air, striking helmets and exposed limbs with loud, splintering cracks. His Death Knights were truly awesome to behold.

  As the soldiers panicked and screamed in pain, an evil grin was painted on Jason’s face. Blood soon drenched his Death Knights as they continued their rampage. They had accomplished Jason's primary goal. The Death Knights had successfully cleaved a hole in the enemy defensive line.

  Perfect.

  Jason ordered the guards out from behind the Death Knights. They slid through the opening in the formation created by their skeletal brothers and started scaling the bulwark. Soon they were sitting inside the walls among the casters. Evil grins appeared on the faces of each zombie as they raced toward the trembling mages. As the first two soldiers reached the caster group, Jason completed the arcane words and gestures of a Corpse Explosion.

  The first few mages were blown apart by the resulting blast, throwing up a cloud of blood and viscera. Dark energy and shrapnel flew through the air. Casters were struck by the aftershocks of the spells, their screams filling the air as their flesh melted and the shrapnel pierced their bodies. The remaining soldiers followed closely behind the explosion and wreaked havoc amongst the remaining disoriented mages.

  Jason turned his attention back to the Death Knights and saw that they were being swarmed by the NPCs and players outside the wall. In spite of how fearsome they were, they were attacking a force that was more than twice their size. Jason quickly cast Curse of Weakness as fast as he could on the remaining soldiers. Several of his Death Knights crumbled, and the health of many more was beginning to red-line. Yet the battle was swaying in Jason's favor.

  As the soldiers finished off the last of the mages, the glimmer of the protective shield faded. Jason acted immediately when he saw the shield fade, telepathically ordering his fire mage into action. Fireballs rushed through the air and struck the exposed trebuchets. Soon the siege engines were turned into roaring pillars of flame. In the glow of the growing flames, the blood-soaked and blackened Death Knights stood over the bodies of the fallen soldiers, roaring their triumph into the night.

  Jason eyed the dead soldiers and mages that littered the ground. Maybe he could win this after all.

  Yet in that brief moment of victory, Jason heard a roar from the eastern tree line. Glancing up quickly, he saw players and NPCs rushing from the trees, flanking his remaining Death Knights and zombies. His minions’ health was low, and the charge alone would take out many of them.

  Jason's eyes widened in alarm.

  That tricky asshole! He ambushed me!

  Jason growled softly and chugged another mana potion. He was running out. He began summoning another zombie and then hesitated. Doubt swept over his mind and carried with it a hint of despair. What could he do? Had he been outplayed?

  He watched as the front line of the enemy force struck his already weakened Death Knights, as the skeletons tried to turn to meet their new foe. Bolts of ice, fire, and light raced through the air toward his minions. Almost in slow motion, Jason witnessed bones begin to crumble and rotten flesh torn open. Before his eyes, his lieutenant zombie was decapitated with a single swing.

  Was this it? Would he lose all of his creations?

  Anger welled inside Jason, cold and explosive. It seemed to rise from his core and bands of dark energy wove around his body in erratic spasms. They were destroying the minions he had spent days and weeks building. His army! His vision blurred for a moment, and then his hands were forming gestures that he already knew by heart.

  The world around him slowed and took on an otherworldly cast. He could see a sword about to strike one of the Death Knights. A fireball hung in mid-air as it was about to ignite one of his zombies. They dared to destroy his minions! Something buried deep inside Jason snapped, and he lost control.

  He would make them pay!

  He could see ALL of the bones around him. The graveyard glowed a fluorescent blue. His gaze turned to the area around the trebuchets. He could see the bones inside the dead NPCs and players. Then he saw his Death Knights. They glowed a blinding blue. If they were already lost, then he could use them to get his revenge.

  In his desperation he pulled.

  His Death Knights were simultaneously torn apart at the seams. A shower of thousands of bones filled the air. The bodies of his remaining zombies and the enemy soldiers that lay on the field were ripped apart in an explosion of blood as bones burst from their bodies. The cascading showers of red seemed to hang in the air under the effect of the time compression, as the cloud of bones raced towards Jason at a frightening speed.

  It wasn't enough. He needed more.

  He looked down at the graveyard and he pulled again.

  The ground erupted in a shower of dirt and debris, as the bones forced their way out of the earth. Soon a swirling vortex of bones surrounded Jason as he stood on the tomb. The cloud was so dense that it blocked out the sight of the field.

  He began to build.

  His hands darted over the editor with an almost unnatural speed as tendrils of dark mana lanced around him, lashing angrily at the air. He would create something that would destroy the force that had dared to threaten his city.

  How dare they destroy my creations!

  This new skeleton was fueled by the bones of more than a thousand corpses and the cold rage that flowed through Jason’s veins. His fingers sped across the control interface.

  Faster. I must go faster.

  And then... he was finished.

  He slammed his fist down on the button accepting the final form of his new creation. The world resolved back into motion. His mind ached and groaned under the strain. The coldness that flowed through his veins throbbed and pulsed. Undulating waves of dark energy cascaded from him.

  NPC soldiers stumbled in mid-swing as their blows connected with air. Bolts of energy whizzed past the graveyard, striking trees and earth across the field. The players and NPCs in the ambushing force stood for a moment in confused silence.

  A blood curdling roar resounded across the battlefield. It wasn’t human and it carried a ravenous, desperate hunger.

  The eyes of the NPCs and players turned to the source of the sound.

  A hulking demon made of bone stood before them. The twin black holes that were its eyes surveyed the players and NPCs who stood before it as a wicked grin contorted the bones of its face. It flexed its new body in a crescendo of cracks and snaps as it examined its new form.

  The demon stood nearly fifteen feet tall. Its head was two feet across, with spiraling horns of bone jutting from its forehead. Its body and limbs were composed of intricate, interweaving layers of bone that were three feet thick. A long, sinuous tail flowed from its back, terminating in a wicked, bladed spike three feet long. Enormous bone spikes protruded from its shoulder blades like ivory wings.

  In its hands, the demon held a twelve-foot-tall scythe that it twirled with casual, deadly ease. Its soulless eyes turned to the group that had ambushed Jason's minions. These were the enemies that had destroyed its brothers. It could feel its creator's singular desire. The demon roared with bestial fury at the group of NPCs and soldiers.

  Jason had spent every point of mana he had left on this creation. His head throbbed painfully, and his body trembled. Unable to stand, he dropped to his knees on the roof of the tomb, hands clutching his head.

  He looked up and his obsidian eyes met the demon's. “Kill them. Kill them all,” he croaked.

  The demon turned back to the players and NPCs, its soulless ey
es surveying the enemies that stood before it. It launched forward at a terrifying speed, leaning into the charge as its bone tail whipped through the air behind it. Where its feet landed, large indentations were left in the ground. It roared again and swung its scythe back as it charged toward the enemy players.

  The front line of players and NPCs wavered at the demon's charge. Then they broke. They couldn't maintain their composure in the face of the bone demon that rushed at them and many turned to run.

  It was already too late.

  The scythe struck in a powerful arcing blow that carried the full momentum of the demon's charge. The air rippled as the blade sliced through the air. Several soldiers and players were immediately ripped in half by the strike. A torrential shower of blood rained on the remaining NPCs and players as they tried frantically to back away from the demon. Many soldiers lay on the ground, staring at the gruesome spectacle in front of them. Screams filled the night air as the demon’s madly smiling face gazed upon the future corpses before it.

  The demon showed absolutely no mercy or restraint, attacking with wild abandon. It lifted an NPC with its free hand and threw his screaming body across the field. Jason watched as it tore another player's head from its shoulders with its bleached teeth. It stomped on the wounded and swung its scythe in a whirlwind of death.

  The undead on the walls watched in awe as the bone demon rampaged among the enemy force in the distance. This was the true power of the dark. A roar erupted from the undead, filled with hoarse bloodlust. The invaders would die for attacking their city!

  As Jason’s mind and body began to settle, he noticed that the battle between the demon and the ambushing force was not completely one-sided. While intimidating, the demon wasn't invincible and some of the soldiers and mages had managed to land solid blows against its bleached bones. Jason watched nervously as his creature's health fell. Yet the victory still went to Jason.

  Soon the demon stood amidst the bodies of the dead, next to the burning trebuchets. The flames illuminated its demonic form. Its body was painted red with the blood of the fallen while its face was twisted in a grotesque grin. It slowly turned its head and looked at the army attacking the walls of the city. There were more enemies weren't there?

  Jason shook himself and jumped off the crypt he was standing on. He needed to move quickly. In his rage, he at least had the foresight not to destroy his thieves or his mages. However, he no longer had any soldiers or guards.

  He scaled the wall to the graveyard and then gulped his last mana potion before summoning a new group of guards. He had them pick up the equipment of their fallen comrades. This would be a new group of kamikazes.

  His bone demon and hastily summoned guards turned toward the army attacking the walls of the Twilight Throne.

  “I won't let them take the city,” Jason declared quietly amidst the screams of battle.

  Chapter 30 - Cathartic

  Riley stood near the back of Alexion's army, watching the chaos swirl around her.

  Screams and the ringing of metal filled the air as the army rushed the walls with ladders and siege engines. She could see dark bolts of energy rain down on Alexion's troops, some ravaging flesh and others bouncing harmlessly off of the magic barriers covering the siege weapons. Insidious curses struck players and NPCs, spreading corruption throughout their bodies.

  The army retaliated with fireballs that exploded on the ramparts in technicolor displays that ignited the undead that were defending the city. A hail of arrows continuously streaked towards the defenders on the wall, striking decayed flesh. Every so often, an undead defender would fall from the wall, its rotten body landing amid the soldiers and players.

  Riley stood motionless in a sea of movement and noise as she watched the gruesome spectacle unfold before her. She was unsure of what to do or how to act. She was reluctant to pull free her bow and help Alexion, but she also knew that she couldn't just turn on Alexion and his army. They would kill her.

  So she did nothing. As always.

  Alexion stood near the front of the army, his body and eyes aglow with holy energy. Coiling golden bands of light wound their way across his body, his shining steel armor reflecting the glow. Every so often, Alexion released a radiant explosion that illuminated the field. He stretched his arm toward the defenders on the wall, and a beam of light streaked from his hand. Where the ray struck, undead shriveled and fell from the wall. He looked like a noble hero out of some movie, leading the charge against a city of evil.

  Anger seethed in Riley’s veins as she watched Alexion. He was no hero. He fought this war under the thin guise of “defeating evil” simply to increase his own power within the game. She also knew that below the mask of a man lay a broken, sadistic creature.

  Her awareness of Alexion's weakness only served to further emphasize her own. How could she have succumbed to someone like that? The answer stared her in the face. She had no one to blame but herself.

  She had let Alex force her to participate in this charade as his girlfriend. She had let him assault Jason and get him expelled. She had let him force her into playing this game and participating in this meaningless war. Her anger twisted and churned in her stomach like a living thing.

  Suddenly, an ear shattering roar filled the night air and Riley turned.

  Her eyes widened as she witnessed the gigantic demon of bone that stood behind Alexion's army. It towered over the men before it and its bone tail lashed the air. Its body contorted and cracked as it stretched its new limbs experimentally. In its hands, the demon held a titanic scythe that emitted a malevolent hum as the demon twirled it through the air.

  “Did Jason summon this?” she murmured, her voice lost in the deafening sounds of the battle that raged around her.

  She watched in stunned silence as the demon charged toward a group of NPCs and soldiers who were running in the direction of the burning trebuchets. She should be petrified with fear as she watched the scythe descend on Alexion's troops, but she was mesmerized by the sight.

  The bone demon rampaged through the group of soldiers in a frenzy. She could hear the screams of the dying even from this distance. The demon's scythe severed limbs with casual ease and fresh blood painted its bleached, white body a mottled red. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the bone demon grab a player with his free hand and crush the screaming man's head.

  Then the demon stood alone among a pile of corpses. The burning light of the trebuchets illuminated its fearsome figure, casting long shadows behind the creature. The demon raised its head to the night and released another bloodcurdling roar. This roar was filled with a desperate hunger.

  As she watched the demon, Riley could feel something snap inside of her.

  “This is real power,” she murmured. “The power to stand before someone stronger than yourself; to relentlessly pursue a goal by any means necessary.”

  “Jason wouldn't stand here and let Alexion force him to bow before him. He isn't!”

  She hesitated, and then her hands clenched into fists. “I want that power.”

  “I want to be strong enough to stand against Alex and to fix what I've done. I want to be strong enough that no one can do what Alex has done to me ever again.”

  Her mind was overcome with emotion as all of the anger, shame, and guilt welled up inside of her. She turned her head to the sky and released all of those emotions into a single cry that rang across the chaos of the battle that swirled around her.

  “I won't take it anymore!”

  As she screamed these words, the molten anger inside her turned frigid and seemed to curl and coil its way up her spine. A tantalizing icy chill settled behind her eyes, and an eerie calm overcame her. Her rage was still there, but bottled and controlled. It offered her a clarity of thought she had never felt before.

  Unknown to Riley, dark energy coiled and swam over her skin like dark tattoos. Her eyes radiated a dark, unholy power as she gazed at the bone demon.

  “My time as his slave is over,” she wh
ispered.

  For a brief moment, she thought she heard the chuckle of an old man.

  * * *

  Jason's surveyed Alexion's army.

  He was standing at the western tree line in Sneak, surrounded by his thieves and mages. The NPCs and players were already committed to the siege and hadn't tried to move back to the help the force at the trebuchets. Jason's bone demon stood by the flaming siege engines, as newly summoned zombies hastily strapped scrap armor and weapons to themselves and each other.

  Jason could feel the seconds tick by as the army assaulted the Twilight Throne. The siege towers had almost moved into position and would soon be unloading troops upon the walls. Soldiers carrying ladders made it to the wall, while others were already beginning the fateful climb. At the same time, the battering ram had moved into position at the gate. Jason assumed that there were still nearly eight hundred soldiers attacking the swiftly shrinking number of defenders on the wall.

  Shit. I better move fast.

  His gaze moved back to his bone demon. It was currently surrounded by eight kamikazes. The demon was at roughly half health, and Jason doubted it would survive another direct charge. He would need to distract the soldiers and players in the main army or the demon would be overwhelmed.

  As Jason watched the skeletal horror tower over the kamikazes, he had a moment of inspiration. A familiar cruel grin curled his lips as he planned what he was about to do.

  He gave the order to his bone demon. An equally wicked smile contorted the monstrosity's face, causing a crescendo of cracking bones. It seemed to approve of Jason’s plan. The bone demon began a slow jog toward the army with the kamikazes keeping pace beside it.

  As the demon neared the soldiers, it reached down with its free hand and grabbed a kamikaze. It then hurled the zombie forward into the mass of enemy troops. As soon as the zombie left his hand, the demon grabbed the next in line. After a few moments, many bloated zombies were hurtling through the air toward the enemy forces. The demon had thrown the zombies in a rough fan towards the rear line of the army.