Awaken Online (Book 3): Evolution

by Bagwell, Travis

  Then two more zombies swarmed one of the snakes, biting and clawing at the creature as fleshy red wounds were carved into its skin. The snake writhed and hissed, its fangs clamping down on one zombie and venom pumping into its body. Yet the poison had little effect on the undead creature, and it promptly raked its claws across the serpent’s eyes.

  A moment later, the massive snake fell limp, and Jason’s hands were already moving as he cast Custom Skeleton. The world began to slow around him, the battle coming to an almost complete standstill. He could see lizardmen sprinting ever-so-slowly from the tunnel toward Jason’s thin line of defenders near the entrance to the courtyard.

  He didn’t have any time to waste.

  Moving quickly, Jason raised the snake his minions had just slain. Its massive skeletal body drifted toward him under the effects of his spell. He positioned the creature’s corpse outside the temple’s walls and broke apart his remaining lizardmen minions one by one. Their bones blasted through their already decaying flesh in a shower of gore. He repurposed their bones to strengthen and enhance the snake, lengthening its body, adding bone plating to protect it, and attaching bone spikes to its tail.

  The remainder of the bones he used to form a living wall at the front of the courtyard. The ivory material soon formed a ten-foot wall of bone, strong support beams embedding themselves in the ground on Jason’s side of the wall. He also attached three-foot long ivory spikes to the other side of the structure, so that they faced the onrushing horde of lizardmen. Jason then used the very last of his corpses to replenish his three Bone Shields.

  His fist slammed down on the control panel and the time compression effects of the spell faded.

  An enormous skeletal serpent now rested beside him. Moving quickly, it curled around Jason, blocking several wooden missiles that whistled over the new bone wall. The spears crashed against the bone plating that riddled its body, crumpling ineffectively and falling to the ground. Yet the barrier was already shuddering under the blows of the lizardmen on the other side, cracks forming along the support beams.

  Jason didn’t stop to watch the wall fail. He leaped up onto the serpent, settling into the makeshift saddle he had crafted along its back. Even as he scaled the skeletal creature, the first of the lizardmen broke through the wall. The serpent lashed out immediately with its tail, a massive bone spike embedding itself in the lizardman’s neck and then sending him hurtling back into his brethren who were beginning to pour through the breach.

  “Go,” Jason ordered the snake. They needed to make it to the beach before the Marietta pushed off. Unlike Frank, Jason definitely couldn’t fly.

  His new mount obeyed his command, slithering quickly down the roadway to the sound of crunching bone. Behind Jason, he could hear the roar of the lizardmen as they broke through his bone wall completely and the pounding of their feet along the crumbling stone roadway leading to the beach. Yet his new mount was much faster, and he swiftly pulled away from the horde.

  A few minutes later, Jason arrived at the beach. Lizardmen corpses littered the sand, their blood staining the beach a brilliant crimson and arrows embedded in their throats and eyes – evidence of Riley’s work. Jason raised the creatures as he passed, sending half sprinting toward the ship that loomed in the distance and the other half to guard the road. He doubted the lizardmen had given up in their chase.

  Within a few moments, Jason had made it to the ship. His sailors had boarded the Marietta and his new lizardmen zombies were pushing at the hull of the vessel, trying to get the ship back into open water. Riley stood on the prow, her bow leveled at the forest. Arrow after arrow sailed over Jason’s head. It seemed that the lizardmen had indeed followed him, and a swarm of the creatures was pouring onto the beach.

  Jason jumped from his new mount, his boots landing heavily in the sand. He then sprinted up the gangplank and ordered his serpent to reinforce his minions on the beach.

  “Push harder!” Jason shouted at the undead shoving against the hull of the ship.

  The corrupted muscles of his lizardmen bulged and heaved. He could feel the ship shudder beneath him. Meanwhile, his zombie sailors scurried about the deck, hoisting the sail and preparing the ship to take off from the island. A moment later, the Marietta gave a final lurch and broke free of the sandy embankment, drifting out into open water.

  Riley kept firing, assisting Jason’s skeletal serpent on the beach. The creature thrashed and writhed among the legion of reptiles, slamming a lizardman into the sand with crushing force before impaling another with its tail. Still, the lizardmen were winning. Their crude weapons and claws were finding purchase on the skeleton’s armored plates, the bones beginning to crack and crumble beneath their blows.

  With a final roar, Jason’s serpent died, tumbling to the ground with a thunderous crash. The lizardmen turned to look at the ship, but it was too late. The Marritta had already drifted a few dozen yards from the beach, and the ephemeral, ghostly sails had caught the wind, pushing them forward at a steady clip. The horde stood on the beach, roaring their fury as they watched the ship sail away.

  A moment later, a crash sounded from the deck, and Jason whirled. He found Frank lying on the wooden planks, blood trickling from wounds all over his body. One of his wings was broken, and he groaned in pain, his health redlining. Eliza immediately moved to assist him.

  At least he’s still alive, Jason thought, sending a silent prayer of thanks to the Dark One.

  “You definitely owe me,” Frank grumbled in a weak voice as he saw Jason watching him.

  “Well, you can add it to the growing list,” he replied, chuckling softly.

  “Jason, look,” Riley said, catching his attention. She stood along the side of the ship, staring at the island as it slowly grew smaller behind them.

  Jason followed her gaze to the serpentine spire jutting from the center of the island. The ball of mana forming in the snake’s mouth had grown immensely until it was visible even at this distance. As Jason looked on, the azure energy suddenly condensed, and a beam of light raced toward the sky. The clouds hovering over the island began to spiral around the column of energy, thickening and growing in a whirling vortex.

  The waves around the island grew markedly in size, pushing the lizardmen back from the shorelines. Even at this distance, Jason could see fractures begin to split the sandy beach. It looked like the entire island would soon be destroyed.

  Devastation wracked the island, and the dark clouds continued to swirl and spread as Jason watched. Then a notification suddenly crashed down in front of him.

  Universal System Notice

  Members of Original Sin have desecrated a temple belonging to the water god. In their hubris, they stole an artifact of great power, resulting in the impending destruction of Anguine Isle and displacing an entire species of lizardmen. The reptilian hordes will now have to venture forth to find a new homeland, and the city of Falcon’s Hook is at risk for an invasion.

  Estimated time to arrival, 71 Hours: 59 Minutes: 23 Seconds.

  Prepare yourselves travelers! The horde is coming!

  “Oh shit,” Jason said, staring at the prompt. He glanced at his teammates, noticing their surprised expressions as they stared at the air in front of them.

  Riley turned and met Jason’s gaze, her eyes filled with concern. “I think we just started a war,” she said. “What are we going to do?”

  Jason could feel a hollow weight settle in his stomach and he groaned. He didn’t have an answer to that question. His eyes drifted back to Anguine Isle in the distance, the spear of light still piercing the clouds. This wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot.

  Chapter 30 - Apprehensive

  Robert was sitting on the dais in the control room when the screen floating above the room suddenly flickered to life. A red warning flashed across the display, casting the room in an eerie crimson light. “System warning: world event triggered! Countdown: 71 Hours: 32 Minutes: 43 Seconds,” was displayed across the monitor, the message loop
ing continuously and the timer slowly counting down.

  The technicians had stopped their work to stare at the screen, the lab suddenly quiet. “Get me the details on that system warning,” Robert ordered, his voice booming through the control room. The staff began frantically tapping at their consoles, a roar of noise cascading through the room as they struggled to figure out what was going on in-game.

  “And someone get that damn warning off the screen,” Robert shouted over the din.

  Claire chose that moment to enter the lab, the elevator doors sliding closed behind her with a faint hiss of hydraulics. “What’s going on?” she asked, her brow furrowed in confusion as she approached Robert.

  “It’s what it looks like. Someone triggered a world event somehow,” Robert muttered distractedly, his hands dancing quickly across his keyboard.

  “Did we have an event planned?” Claire asked in a puzzled voice.

  Robert spared a glance at her. “Not exactly. I expect this is Alfred’s doing.”

  “Sir, it looks like the event is localized to an island off the coast of Falcon’s Hook,” one of the techs shouted, interrupting their conversation. “I’m pushing the information to your terminal.”

  “Good,” Robert replied. “Whoever gets me eyes on this event first gets a raise!” The techs glanced up at him in surprise for a moment, and then dozens of heads turned back to their terminals, each technician trying to get to the video feed first.

  Claire hovered over Robert’s shoulder and forced herself not to reprimand him. Pitting employees against one another certainly didn’t help with morale. However, she hesitated as data began scrolling across his terminal screen and her mouth parted in surprise as she read through the strings of information.

  “Of course, Jason would start this thing!” she said.

  “Who exactly were you expecting?” Robert asked with a chuckle. “But look at this regional player data. Most of the players in that area of the game world are racing to get to Falcon’s Hook.”

  Robert rubbed at his chin, his eyes clouded in thought. “This is going to be interesting. If Original Sin is in Falcon’s Hook and a world event just triggered, this is going to be a clusterfu-”

  “Language, Robert,” Claire snapped.

  This earned her a lopsided grin from the engineer. “My word choice aside, things are about to get messy. Really messy.”

  “Sir,” one of the technician reported, standing from behind her terminal. “I found some video data from one of the NPCs on Anguine Isle. That seems to be the epicenter of the world event.” A groan resounded around the Control Room, and a few of the other technicians were already glaring at the woman.

  “Well, then push it to the main screen!” Robert replied, rolling his eyes.

  The tech nodded quickly, and, a moment later, the massive screen floating above the lab rippled before resolving into the image of a jungle. The camera bobbed and weaved as the creature raced down a ruined grass-lined roadway. The tag in the bottom right corner of the screen indicated that they were watching the feed for NPC Local Tag #45896A.

  “Installing video feeds on the NPCs was a good idea,” Robert said to himself as he watched the screen. His voice echoed through the nearly silent room. All activity had stopped as the rest of the staff stared at the video feed.

  The NPC moved rapidly down the road, other bulky lizardmen running beside him. The creature’s breath came in heavy, ragged gasps, punctuated with the heavy sound of its footfalls. The ground shook violently as the NPC ran, and fractures appeared in the roadway, rocks and debris tumbling into the chasms. As the lizardman rounded a bend in the road, an audible gasp echoed through the control room.

  “Oh my god,” Claire murmured.

  Even Robert was in shock, his mouth hanging open as he witnessed what was waiting on the glimmering white sands. “Get… get the producer of Vermillion Live on the phone,” Robert ordered the technicians. “Also, you all might want to call your families and tell them you’re going to be late tonight.”

  An excited grin was already creeping across Robert’s face as he watched the scene unfolding on the beach. “I expect it’s going to be a long day.”

  ***

  The group stood on the deck of the Marietta. The island had long ago disappeared from view, and they had managed to navigate the mists with little difficulty. Now they were only a couple of hours outside of Falcon’s Hook. Despite the harsh rays of sunlight beating down around the ship, the deck was still cast in an almost palpable gloom, the unnatural darkness slowing the decay of Jason’s minions.

  The wind whipped at Jason’s cloak, causing it to billow and flap behind him. A strong wind had been at their backs since they left the island, and they were making remarkable time. Jason suspected that some other magical force might be at play.

  “So, that was an interesting way to vacate my island,” the Hippie announced, abruptly appearing on deck next to Jason and his group with Fluffy and Felix in tow. “I particularly enjoyed the light show. Fluffy and Felix even made some popcorn!”

  As the group turned to stare incredulously at the irritating water god, he glanced at them with a worried expression. “What? What’s wrong?” he asked. “Do I have something on my face?” He rubbed his face and neck before glancing at his hands.

  “What the hell was that? Are you crazy?” Eliza shouted at the god. The petite water mage stalked toward the Hippie, stabbing a finger in his face to punctuate her questions.

  “Hmm, that’s an interesting question,” he replied, rubbing his chin. “I suppose it’s a matter of contrast or perspective, isn’t it? Crazy relative to whom or to what? Compared to Fluffy, I think I’m actually rather levelheaded. Of the two of us, he has always been the dreamer.” Fluffy glanced at the god in what could only be described as exasperation while Felix just shook his skeletal head sadly from his perch atop the sheep.

  “Enough of your word games,” Eliza said bluntly, refusing to be distracted. “What happened back on that island? What was that light? And what the hell does this orb do?” she asked, pulling the glowing blue sphere from her back and thrusting it in the Hippie’s face.

  Jason, Frank, and Riley watched the scene quietly, Eliza practically fuming as she stared down the god. Jason was a bit surprised at her outraged stream of questions since the water mage was normally so reserved. He supposed that everyone had their breaking point. Getting chased by a horde of angry lizardmen while the island tore itself apart may have finally caused Eliza’s patience to snap. This was a conversation that she needed to have on her own.

  The Hippie’s expression suddenly sobered, and he met Eliza’s gaze evenly. “That orb is one of the original six relics – each bound to an affinity. It also happens to be what was helping power my temple. That Keeper rigged the water mana well to expel its mana if the sphere was removed. I suppose you would consider this a last resort if he failed to protect the temple.”

  “He rigged the temple to self-destruct?” Frank murmured quietly.

  The Hippie glanced at the burly barbarian. “That is correct. If he and his son failed to keep out the humans, this was their back up plan. Better that no one recover the relics than for them to fall into human hands – or at least that was their thought on the matter.”

  “So that ray of light was what?” Eliza demanded. “The self-destruct button triggering?”

  “That was the well expelling the remainder of its power. I admit that the beam of light is misleading. The majority of the mana was expelled downward. The tidal forces below the island will eventually rip it apart,” the Hippie said calmly. “Anguine Isle was created along a volcanic fault line, making the base of the island rather… thin,” he explained, squeezing his fingers together. “You wouldn’t believe what it took for me to convince that crotchety fire lady to help me build it!”

  Eliza just stared at him blankly, her anger fading slightly. “You mean that we just destroyed that entire island?”

  The Hippie nodded. “It will likely take a
few hours or days, but yes. Don’t forget that you also displaced an entire race of lizardmen, which I’m a bit upset about, by the way. I spent years slowly mutating that species from the indigenous lizards on the island.”

  “You created the lizardmen?” Jason asked.

  “I believe I just said that,” the Hippie replied, scratching his head in thought before continuing, “or I implied it at the very least.”

  Despite his monologue, the god didn’t seem particularly upset at this revelation. Personally, Jason would have been livid if he had spent decades creating a race of creatures only to have a few travelers destroy them in a matter of days. Yet the god just seemed to blithely accept it as fact and move on. Something felt off here. If the god wasn’t upset, that implied that he had intended this result, didn’t it?

  “You knew that removing that sphere would trigger the self-destruct,” Jason said quietly, several heads turning to look at him. “You also had plenty of opportunities to explain that removing the sphere would destroy the temple. But you didn’t. You planned for this outcome, didn’t you?”

  The Hippie looked at Jason for a long moment – a single eyebrow raised skeptically. Then a broad smile drifted across his face. “You give me too much credit! That seems like a plan with many layers and requiring quite a bit of forethought – decades in fact! Have I ever struck you as the strategic type?” Jason just stared at the god, unconvinced by his explanation.

  “No, you strike me as an imbecile,” Frank muttered. “You could have warned us, and we could have just left the sphere there. Falcon’s Hook is going to be a smoking crater by the time the lizardmen are done with it.”