Steel Wolves of Craedia (Realm of Arkon, Book 3)

by Akella,G.

  "Is that all?" Max gave her an intent look.

  "Not quite," the young woman winked at him. "Roman knew how absurd and blasphemous this would sound to a normal person, so he had her write down several more things."

  "Well? Quit stalling, would you?" Max frowned.

  "Fine, fine. Listen." Calling the crowd to attention, she raised her right hand. "I quote. 'I'm doing great. Just got level one forty nine. Raised my reputation with dark elves to respected. Also started a quest chain that will lead me above. So, expect me in three-four months with souvenirs.'"

  A silence ensued, unbroken save for the light crackling of the bonfire and the hissing of meat roasting over the flames.

  "God damn..." Bonbon was the first to speak. "One hundred forty nine!"

  "Alyona," Max peered into the young woman's eyes. "Did Roman say anything else?"

  "Well, yes," the priestess grounded her eyes sheepishly.

  "And?" the warrior raised his brow at her.

  "He said that we shouldn't go anywhere, but wait for him in Ellorian," she said with a sigh. "And he repeated this particular phrase three times. Finally, he said that we'll all decide our next step after he finds us."

  "There it is!" Max chuckled. "Except not only did we leave the capital, we've managed to get ourselves into a hot mess along the way."

  "I'm not fifteen years old anymore, Max. Don't forget that," the girl said curtly. "I'm old enough to decide for myself what I'm going to do. So let's drop the matter. Besides, we're safe now, and we can't get back to the capital even if we wanted to."

  "Yeah, yeah," the warrior nodded agreeably, still chuckling. "Like I don't know who I'm dealing with here. I won't mention it again," he waved his hand and turned away from her.

  "Come on, Max," Alyona's tone carried apologetic notes. "I'm not alone here, am I? It'll all work out... I really believe it!"

  "Let's put it behind us and focus on the shrine. We'll figure out what to do afterwards."

  "See, this is why I love you," she pecked him on the cheek. "You're a real sweetheart. What's happening with that barbecue, Bonbon?" Alyona changed the topic at once. "I'm about to start munching on tree bark from sheer hunger."

  "Leave tree bark for bunny wabbits!" he shot back at her. "And don't disturb a pitmaster at work!"

  "Listen, Alyona... Are you sure you got all that right?" Donut asked the girl. "Your brother only started the game one day before the patch, didn't he?"

  "Well, yeah..."

  "Getting level one forty nine in only a few months is unheard of!" the rogue shook his head. "The current record is level one hundred in one month and twenty one days, set by a kid from Korea who was essentially power-leveled by his whole clan around the clock right from character creation."

  "Do you think I'm lying?" the young woman frowned.

  "It's not that!" the assassin dismissed the notion with a wave. "You mentioned that your brother worked for the corporation behind the game, right?"

  "And?"

  "Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't? Ask him about it next time you communicate through your aunt. In light of what's been happening to us, I really wouldn't mind some means of accelerating our leveling..."

  "Get your plates ready!" the bald man clapped his hands, calling everyone's attention. "Why isn't the bread already cut and served? I'm looking at you, Masyanya!"

  The conversation died down for some time, with only the crackling of the bonfire and the sounds of the forest awakening disturbing the silence.

  "Donut, you're the most experienced player between all of us here," having finished her meal first, Masyanya put her bowl back into inventory and gave the rogue an intent look. "Tell me this," catching the latter's attention, the girl continued, "Alyona and I have leveled our cooking skill to almost sixty, whereas a certain bald-headed individual is barely past twenty. So why is it that when we cook barbecue, it doesn't come out near as tasty as his?"

  "It's simple," wiping his hands on his sleeves, the assassin produced a flask of water and handed it to the huntress. "He was a good cook in real life. Let's say, equivalent to one to two hundred cooking skill in the game. And real-world skills don't simply disappear for your avatar. Provided you have the ingredients, you can cook any dish you knew how to cook in real life, and the taste will come out fairly similar. The same goes for any other skill subject to the local laws of physics."

  "So, if the person was a good boxer or weapons expert in his past life, those will become advantages in the game?"

  "Max..." the assassin sighed. "Your strength is close to two hundred now, right? With your equipment?"

  "One ninety."

  "So you can lift and carry close to eight hundred pounds. And twenty levels from now not even an Olympic champion from the real world will be a match for you. You would simply kill him with a single punch. As for weapons expertise, I'm guessing that you've read a bunch of stupid books about folks who ended up in a game and, having been specialists in real life, began pwning everyone left and right. Sorry to burst your bubble, but all that is horseshit. Back in the Middle Ages warriors would pick up a sword very early in life, since their survival depended directly on their skill with a weapon. They had no television, no careers, no luxuries of the modern life. The point is, even the most pathetic swordsman from that time would wipe the floor with any modern weapons expert. Want proof? I've got a one-hander on me. Let's give it to Luffy and see how good he is at swinging it..."

  "No need, you've convinced me," Max raised his hands in surrender. Then, looking around his sated companions, he continued. "Let's take an hour to rest and head back out. It is imperative we make it to our destination by midday." With that, he glanced at Alyona, who was saying something emphatically to Helliona, and braced himself mentally for the uneasy conversation he would need to have with her brother after his return from Demon Grounds.

  Chapter 2

  "A pleasant site, this is," sighed Rexar, who had been leading the way, when the group finally made it to their destination.

  "Did you think we were headed to a resort?" Donut passed the still ranger and surveyed their surroundings carefully, shielding his eyes from the sun.

  Kirana's shrine stood at the edge of the forest, on the bank of a small lake whose water was black as viscid tar. The lake's shores were sparsely populated by pines. Hanging over the water's surface, the trees looked so sickly that the faintest gust of wind seemed capable of toppling them. Some had already fallen into the lake, their crowns and bare branches sticking out of the water like fossils. A brown-green moss covered the shores and the ground underfoot as far as they could see. Where one would typically see sedge or reeds growing along the shorelines, they saw a mishmash of filthy weeds. The shrine itself was formed by the interweaving of withered trees running along its perimeter, trunks and boughs glimmering darkly from the fire that must have ravaged the place. Further evidence lay in the burnt frames of various wooden structures visible behind the shrine.

  "If we do find a pool, I won't be going for a swim," Bonbon sat casually on a fallen trunk near the path. Taking out a rolled cigarette and a tinderbox, he lit up and took a deep drag. "Looks like things got sticky here," he said, pointing at the bones littering the ground.

  "The temple probably had guards," Max observed. "Well, no use sitting on our thumbs—let's check this place out. Everybody stick together. No one goes inside just yet."

  As the elves approached the structure, the full picture of the destruction was gradually revealed to them. It appeared that the attackers had attempted to raze the shrine to the ground, but hadn't quite managed it. Perhaps the trees had high fire and magic resistance, or the disavowed had simply lost patience. At any rate, the other structures—and Max counted at least ten—had been burned to a crisp.

  "Are we looting the corpses?" Luffy paused near one of the skeletons lying on the ground, giving the commander a questioning look.

  "No, we're just going to leave them here," Max snorted. "Of course we're looting th
em. But make it quick—we still need to see what's inside."

  "That might be a problem," Helliona shook her head. "There must be at least a hundred of them." Walking over to a skeleton, its gray robe rotting, she leaned over and put her hand on the dead mob. "Not bad! Almost twenty copper and a piece of linen cloth."

  "I got the same," Luffy echoed. "A pity none of us have picked up tailoring."

  "No big loss. We'll sell it all once we get to a city," Masyanya sniffed. "Coin is always useful."

  Letting the others take care of the looting, Max proceeded to round the shrine carefully, halting near the remains of a small enclosure. The trees behind it were totally scorched, their shapes resembling twisted human figures roughly ten feet tall.

  "Lycarnae..." a voice at his back startled him.

  "Keep sneaking up on me like that, and I'll be stuttering soon," he snapped at the assassin.

  "Just keeping you on your toes, boss," the rogue grinned, slipping through a gap in the fence and into the improvised garden. "Whoa! One of them is still alive."

  "Come again?"

  "These are elven war trees. I've heard about them, but have never actually seen them until now," the assassin muttered in awe, rounding one of the trunks jutting out of the ground. "They grow like regular trees at first, but at some point they acquire the ability to move, just like guardian trees. If these had been fully mature, I doubt the attackers would have been able to take them down with magic from behind the fence."

  By then Max had also noticed the yellow-colored health bar above the surviving tree—lost in thought, it had escaped his attention initially. The tree was level 57, and had less than two percent life left.

  "Why didn't it heal over time? Shouldn't it have passive regeneration?"

  "Don't you see the debuff?" the assassin pointed at a dark dot over the health bar. "It's probably using all its energy just to stay live."

  "You mean it's been suffering here for centuries?" Max mumbled in shock. "We wouldn't be able to heal it either with this debuff... Maybe watering it would help? Or digging around it?"

  "Naw," Donut shook his head. "It won't help. I've read up on this stuff. But there is one thing we can try. Stand here, I'll be right back."

  "What do we do with the defenders' bodies?" Rexar asked in the raid channel. "There are eight of them."

  "Bury the defenders," said Max. "We've come here to restore their goddess' shrine, after all. Giving them a proper burial seems like the right thing to do. As for the disavowed, burn their remains."

  "But we can loot the defenders first, right?" Ellanca asked.

  "If their weapons or armor can be of use to us, I don't think the goddess will mind."

  "We won't be burning anyone," Donut emerged from behind the shrine, dragging one of the skeletons in rusted iron chainmail behind him.

  "What are you up to?" Max gave him a quizzical look.

  "You'll see." Donut released his grip on the skeleton as they neared the lycarn, letting the bones fall with a rattle at the base of the trunk.

  For a while, nothing happened. Then the tree shuddered, twisting, and covered the disavowed's corpse with its naked branches the way a mother hen might shield its chicks from danger. Barely a minute went by before nothing at all remained of what had just been an armored skeleton. The lycarn snapped straight, its HP bar several percent higher than before.

  "It devours metal too..." the assassin exhaled in awe, then looked at Max, who was just as stunned. "I heard that lycarnae deal physical and Nature damage, and can feed on their enemies' corpses to regenerate their own strength, but I didn't expect this... Praise Hart this thing is neutral to us."

  "The other advantage being less hassle for us with the bodies," Max noted philosophically. "We'll need to cleanse the territory anyway—I suspect it'll take us more than a day to restore the shrine."

  "Max, we've got one and a half gold and two uncommon pieces to grow into," Masyanya reported, walking up to them. She had assumed the role of quartermaster and treasurer some time ago. "Anything of interest here?"

  For the next hour the entire raid would drag dead skeletons scattered in the area over to the lycarn, then watch as the tree devoured them, gradually restoring its health bar and forming a thick coat of dark-green needles.

  "Ay!" Masyanya recoiled from the tree when the trunk's upper section suddenly assumed the shape of a human face. Its two large round eyes blinked open. "I had a hard enough time sleeping in Talyan with these things," she muttered. "And here we are growing our own."

  In the meantime, the lower section of the lycarn's trunk split, and the fully healed tree now resembled a ten-foot-tall spiked orangutan rearing on hind legs. With a great crashing sound, the tree broke free of the ground. The dark icon of the debuff disappeared, and the HP bar turned from neutral yellow to friendly green. The tree looked around the astounded elves with unblinking eyes; then, with a heavy step, it moved toward its closest fallen comrade.

  "Well, Dr. Frankenstein," Helliona gave Max a sly wink. "We've got reinforcements. Tank material, you think?"

  "Somehow I doubt it will tank for us," said Max, watching the tree as it went. "I do wonder what it's programmed to do, however..."

  The tree, in the meantime, had made it to one of its brothers that had perished in the flames. Reaching out with its boughs, operating them like massive paws, it drew and pressed the deceased to its trunk. With a crash, the dead tree burst and crumbled in a cloud of dust, while the lycarn's level jumped from fifty seven to fifty eight.

  "No fair! Why can't I do that?" Luffy exclaimed in indignation.

  "You want to do that with those trees?" Ellanca drew away from him, wide-eyed, a teasing smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "You're just full of surprises!"

  "Oh, come on!" the mage turned sharply toward her. "That's not what I meant and you know it..." But his words were drowned out by roaring laughter.

  "Are we going inside the shrine or what?" Alyona asked Max. "It's midday already, and we're nowhere near done!"

  "Let's wait and see what it'll do next," the warrior gestured at the tree that was gradually growing in levels. "You don't often get to see stuff like this. And oh," he turned to the rest, "let's gather all the dead skeletons here for the tree feast on."

  The lycarn, in the meantime, had finished making the rounds of its fallen brothers, and was now a healthy level eighty four. Casting another glance at the elves with its unblinking lime-green eyes, it turned and started toward the entrance to the ruined shine, limbs screeching as it went.

  "Hey, where are you going?" Luffy yelled, then turned to his companions.

  "Prayer time, maybe?" Bonbon guessed. "Let's go and see?"

  Before anybody could answer him, there came a bone-chilling roar. At that very moment, a gray beast the size of a bull emerged from the darkness of the shrine's entrance. Without missing a beat, the monster charged the lycarn, knocking it to the ground, sunk its fangs into the tree and started dragging it on the ground. The treant's HP bar dropped by a quarter.

  "Bonehound!" Donut screamed, the first to recover. "Heals on the lycarn! Everybody else, focus fire on the boss! Try to break its joints or we're all finished!"

  The sight of the level 190 monster and its near 120,000 hit points had plunged Max into a stunned stupor, which, thankfully, did not last long. The next moment, the warrior Charged the beast's side and drove his two-hander into one of the joints on its right hind leg. The blade smashed into the gray bone, knocking two hundred health off the hound. Luffy's fireball crashed into the boss, leaving a dark stain on the bones and dissipating helplessly into the dark-green moss.

  Having gotten back on its feet, the warrior tree managed to clench the beast's throat with one paw, leaving the other to deal heavy blows upon the massive triangular skull, its eye-sockets oozing a sorcerous glow. It was hardly making a difference, however, as the boss kept eviscerating the lycarn's trunk with its giant fangs, sending chippings and slivers flying every which way.

 
"We can't heal him fast enough!" Alyona's panicked scream sounded in the raid channel. "And besides, our mana isn't infinite!"

  "Maybe we should bolt? I'm barely making a dent with my nukes!" Luffy yelled, loosing another fireball at the monster.

  "It won't work!" the assassin hissed between heavy breaths. Radiating a greenish smoke, his daggers moved like lightning, slicing and dicing at the same exact spot Bonbon and Max were focusing on. "This is a hound!"

  Suddenly the ground around the boss began to darken, as a black blob covered the moss and proceeded to gradually spread.

  "Bitch! Aura of Death! All melee, get away from the boss!" Donut bellowed with despair, leaping away from the monster, its health bar still nearly full. "I don't think we're going to make it!"

  The lycarn, in the meantime, had been brought down to less than fifteen percent life. Its movements had slowed, and it was no longer attacking. Crossing its paws in front of itself and sprouting a coat of six-inch thorns, the treant had shifted to blind defense.

  Mad felt a wave of apathy wash over him... What the hell?! The thought flashed through his mind. I've led these people to certain death—we never stood a chance against this bastard! Two emotions began to crystallize inside him: trepidation for the people who had entrusted their lives to him, and hatred for this monstrosity that was so easily dispatching with their unexpected ally. What happened next, Max himself couldn't entirely comprehend. Before the incredulous eyes of his companions, the warrior tossed aside his two-handed sword, whipped out the fragment of the Inexorable, radiating an emerald glow, and brought it down mightily on the monster's hind leg with a bestial roar. There was a sickening crunch as the bonehound's paw was severed from its leg, and the boss at once lost roughly ten percent of its HP. With a ferocious growl the monster tried to turn toward its offender, but then the lycarn threw itself forward and snatched the boss' neck in a death grip, giving the warrior the precious moments he needed.