Awaken Online: Dominion

by Travis Bagwell

  Jason performed a quick inspection.

  Stranger – Level??

  Health – Unknown

  Mana – Unknown

  Equipment – None Visible

  Resistances – Unknown

  Weakness – Unknown

  The only thing that the prompt confirmed was that he wasn’t looking at a player. Players usually had a small notation in the system UI or a guild tag. Well, that, and he couldn’t identify any weapons on the man’s person – or his two friends either. Both pieces of information were disconcerting. It was rare for an NPC to challenge Jason since they didn’t respawn when they died. And to challenge him without any obvious weapons…

  I don’t have a good feeling about this.

  “Are you Jason, Regent of the Twilight Throne?” the man asked calmly. His voice was raspy but still echoed through the roadway with surprising strength.

  “I am,” Jason replied with a curt nod. “And who am I addressing?” He glanced at the market out of the corner of his eye and noted the growing crowd. Watching Jason slay would-be assassins had become something of a spectator sport in the Twilight Throne.

  “My name is Thorn, and I am the leader of the Order,” the man replied calmly. “Your reputation precedes you, Jason. Your enemies speak freely of your ruthless efficiency. Yet the man I see before me appears much more reasonable than I was led to believe.” He spared a glance at the market behind him with his lone eye, although Jason noted that he didn’t fully turn his back on them. “The fact that you had the wisdom to speak before immediately attempting to strike me down is proof of that.”

  Jason’s thoughts were spinning. What was the Order? And this man had immediately called out the reason for Jason’s hesitation. He clearly wasn’t stupid. He mentally scratched “suicidal” off his list of theories – which did nothing to alleviate his concerns. “I’ve found that rumors can be misleading. You seem to know a great deal about me, but I have never heard of your Order. What do you want with the Twilight Throne?”

  Thorn tilted his head slightly, keeping his single eye on Jason. “My hope is that it is not too late for me to show you the error of your ways. The Order is dedicated to the destruction of the so-called ‘gods’ that have latched onto this world like parasites, including the one you deign to serve. However, it’s not too late. You have not yet collected the shards or formed the gate. If you step away from his influence and abdicate your position as his avatar, we will leave. Immediately. If not…”

  A frown creased Jason’s forehead, although he knew his expression wasn’t visible beneath the hood of his cloak. They knew about the Old Man? Could this group be affiliated with the humans who had attacked the previous Keeper in his visions? But that had been nearly a century ago. He also hadn’t missed the mention of a gate. The mysteries kept multiplying. Still, the threat behind the man’s words was clear, they were standing in the center of Jason’s city, and there were witnesses. He wouldn’t be cowed by a random stranger.

  “I’m afraid I cannot do that,” Jason replied evenly, his hand gripping his staff. Frank looked at him askance, ready to draw his weapons. “While you may have some quarrel with these gods, they have helped the people of this city – the Kin. Our enemies already circle, and I cannot throw away that support.”

  Thorn sighed and looked down at the ground for a moment. “I was afraid you would say that; the ‘chosen’ always do. The gods’ gifts always seem so appealing at first.” He looked back up at Jason, and something in his expression had changed. A burning determination lit his lone eye. “Then we will do what we have always done; what the Order was created to do. We will purge this sickness at its core.”

  With no other warning, the three men’s cloaks whipped through the air – swiftly shed as they darted toward Jason’s group. It became immediately apparent that their entire bodies were covered in the strange bandages, nearly every inch of skin concealed by the fabric. What was even more impressive was their speed. The men were practically a blur of motion, but Jason didn’t detect any obvious sign of magic. He could only assume that these were their natural abilities at play. If so, they would give Jerry a run for his money.

  Frantically backpedaling, Jason ordered his Death Knights to slow them down. The skeleton warriors lumbered forward, creating a solid wall of bone in front of Jason as they clumsily swung at the nimble men – their weapons striking only air as the Order agents avoided their blows easily. Jason began casting Curse of Weakness and tendrils of darkness soon wound around his fingers. He needed to do something to slow the enemy down.

  Even as he cast his spell, the Order agents pressed their attack. One sidestepped a blow from a Death Knight as another used the opening to step forward – unwrapping the bandages on his hand as he did so. What happened next nearly caused Jason to miscast the curse. The man’s bare palm landed against the Death Knight’s chest, and the skeleton promptly crumpled as the dark energy holding its limbs together was sucked into the enemy’s hand. Within only a few seconds, a pile of lifeless bones clattered to the ground.

  “Holy shit,” Frank muttered from beside Jason – who could only mentally echo his friend’s surprise as arcane words continued to spill from his lips. Frank’s legs had already transformed to take on their inverted, wolf-like appearance and he brandished his dual axes, one in each hand. The barbarian had smartly let the Death Knights take the brunt of the enemy’s initial assault until they identified their abilities. Frank also acted as a rear guard in case one of the Order agents slipped through the defensive line.

  Jason finished his curse as another two Death Knights collapsed. Dark needles of energy lanced through the air toward each of the three nimble men. At the last second, two of the agents dodged ever-so-slightly, the malignant missiles whistling past and burying themselves in the dirt of the roadway. Thorn’s approach was more direct. He simply raised a hand, snatching the needle from the air with pinched fingers, spinning, and hurling it back toward Jason.

  Frank immediately intercepted the lance of dark energy, swatting it aside with the blade of his axe. Jason’s curse had barely slowed down the Order agents as they continued to demolish the Death Knights.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Frank spat as he watched the strangely-clothed men. He turned and looked at Jason, his question obvious in his expression.

  “Go,” Jason ordered. He didn’t see any other choice. It wasn’t like they could hold back against this enemy. His minions hadn’t even wounded them, and, at this rate, they would soon be fighting them three on two – with Jason not able to much offer much help in melee.

  Even as that macabre thought occurred to him, he quickly cannibalized some of the loose bones on the ground – courtesy of his former Death Knights – forming three circular Bone Shields that began to orbit him slowly. Then he started casting Curse of Weakness again. Perhaps he could at least distract the Order agents during Frank’s assault.

  The barbarian wasted no time. He launched himself forward at a reckless speed, the bones in his mutated knees popping at the effort and cracks radiating out from the ground from the force of his charge. He raised his axes, lightning crackling up the length of the blades as he prepared to strike. As he closed on Thorn, he swung his weapons and roared in rage.

  The strange man immediately dropped to his knees, barely avoiding a strike from one of Jason’s Death Knights and coming up inside the undead creature’s guard. He then kicked out at the bone shield, using the skeleton’s own bulwark to block Frank’s attack. The ivory substance exploded in a shower of bone as Frank struck with his axes. The dust briefly obscured his vision.

  The barbarian, anticipating a counter attack, lunged violently to the side, causing him to slam into a support beam for a nearby building. The wooden pillar cracked in half and the balcony above him began to collapse. Frank swiftly sliced at the debris as it fell, the wooden slivers leaving scratches along his arms and torso but his quick reflexes allowing him to avoid most of the damage.

  Despite
the clumsy dodge and recovery, Jason could see that the move had saved Frank from Thorn’s palm strike. The man’s hand was positioned where Frank had been standing only a moment before – level with his friend’s throat. The remains of Jason’s Death Knight rested at his feet and the last traces of the skeleton’s dark energy leaked into his free hand. Jason couldn’t understand how Thorn had even managed to see Frank among the cloud of debris, much less target his strike. As the dust began to clear, Jason realized that the Order leader had his lone eye closed.

  Was he attacking based on memory? Hearing? Jason’s thoughts spun, and a cold sense of dread began to settle in his stomach – the sensation most definitely not caused by his mana. How the hell are we supposed to fight someone like this?

  Thorn’s eye opened, and Frank re-engaged, swinging his axes wildly to put pressure on the Order agent, even as his two teammates made short work of the remainder of Jason’s minions. Thorn didn’t seem perturbed by Frank’s onslaught, dodging each blow with calm precision. Jason’s curse completed a second time, and he willed the missiles toward Thorn. The older man promptly bent into a backflip and kicked at the hilt of Frank’s axe, even as he dodged the other blade by mere inches. Frank’s first weapon came up and inadvertently smacked away the incoming missiles.

  Frank was stunned by the sudden backflip and was caught off balance by the kick. Thorn immediately capitalized on his advantage. In a blur of movement, he struck his palm against Frank’s chest. Jason expected a simple blow that would blast Frank backward or leave him stunned. But what leapt from Thorn’s hand was a maelstrom of dark energy. Tentacles of dark mana clawed their way out of his open palm and wrapped around Frank’s torso, entrapping his arms, and causing his skin to boil away at an alarming rate. Frank’s choked cries of pain filled the air as he tried to squirm out of the trap.

  However, the barbarian’s efforts were futile. Only seconds later, his axes clattered to the ground, and his icon grayed out in the group menu. Jason could only imagine how much damage that blow must have done to have killed his friend in a single strike.

  The three Order agents turned to Jason – who now stood alone and undefended – surrounded by only the swiftly cooling corpse of his friend and the remains of his summoned creatures. He could feel the growing sense of despair in his stomach thrash and writhe, struggling to catch his attention. If not for the dark mana flooding his veins, he knew he would have sunk to his knees in defeat. He didn’t stand a chance against these men.

  How did they beat us so easily? he wondered, watching their lithe movements.

  Thorn gestured at his two agents, and they gathered their cloaks. He then approached Jason and bowed slightly. “It would not be honorable to fight you three on one, despite the fearsome reputation of the Keepers.” He raised his eyes to meet Jason’s. “But I have looked forward to pitting myself against one of your kind for some time.”

  Before Jason could respond, Thorn dashed forward in a lightning-fast attack. Even anticipating the sudden lunge and with his novice Dodge skill enhancing his reaction time slightly, Jason was barely able to leap forward into a roll as the man’s fist exploded against one of his bone shields. He was just too damned fast.

  He came out of the roll and scrambled to his feet, raising his staff in front of him. Jason knew the gesture was futile. He hadn’t even begun to train with the weapon – not that his small amount of experience with his daggers would have helped him against this opponent. He had barely managed to fend off the Keeper’s son. He’d only succeeded because he was fighting a mindless automaton and Eliza had set a trap for him.

  “Why don’t you fight back?” Thorn asked, his brow creased in a frown. “Are you afraid to hurt me?” He barked out a harsh laugh. “Or perhaps you are worried about your precious city? Trust me; there will not be much left by the time we’re done. You need not worry about collateral damage.”

  With that, Thorn launched forward again. However, this time Jason was ready for him. Or as ready as he could be. He barely completed casting Custom Skeleton before Thorn’s palm struck. Even with time compression afforded by the spell, he could see the man’s hand was still moving steadily toward his face – with Jason effectively locked in place by the constraints of the spell. He doubted Alfred would let him use the ability in combat a second time. He had been lucky with the former Keeper’s son.

  He needed to move quickly.

  Jason gathered the remaining bones on the ground and formed a cage around Thorn, moving as fast as he could. He knew the trap wouldn’t hold the man for long, but it didn’t need to. Jason had noticed a zombie corpse among the debris from the collapsed balcony – perhaps the remains of an unfortunate bystander. Thorn had been right; there had already been some collateral damage from their encounter. But at least Jason could use it to his advantage.

  Jason abruptly completed his spell and time lurched forward once more. He sent a quick mental command, and his hands immediately began moving through the gestures of another spell, Jason forcing himself to concentrate despite the pain that wracked his head – a side effect of Custom Skeleton’s enhanced time compression. Thorn’s palm slammed against the interior of the bone cage, and the man let out a grunt of surprise. Jason could see he was already beginning to break through the barrier – using the same strange ability to drain the dark mana that Jason had used to bind the wall together.

  As Thorn finished and the ivory material collapsed to the ground, he turned to face Jason who knelt only a few feet away. The rugged man hesitated as he noticed the manic grin painted on his face. “Too late,” Jason whispered. Then his hastily summoned minion carrying the corpse collided with Thorn from behind and Jason completed his Corpse Explosion.

  A maelstrom of dark energy rocked the street, obsidian tentacles lashing at the side of the building and leaving furrows in the ancient wood. Where Thorn had stood, a dark miasma of energy had formed in the air – a black hole that seemed to suck in the matter around it. Jason had been well within the blast area only a moment before, but he had hastily cast Dark Incarnation right after his Corpse Explosion. The world seemed to shimmer and ripple as his incorporeal, cloud-like body shifted away from the explosion – immune to the dark energy.

  The spell soon ended, and his body regained its familiar, weighty mass. Jason turned to survey the destruction and stopped in shock. The massive explosion of dark energy was shrinking steadily. Within seconds, Thorn stood once again in the center of the road. His cloth wraps were now singed, and a thin line of blood dotted his cheek, but he was otherwise unharmed – the last remnants of dark mana from the spell leaking into his palm.

  With a scowl, Thorn raced forward, grabbing Jason’s collar with one hand and placing his free palm against his chest. Jason expected anger or rage in the man’s eye as he met his gaze. Instead, he found only frustration.

  “What is this?” Thorn said, his voice colored by confusion. “Tricks? The Keepers of old were legendary warriors. When they stepped onto the battlefield, armies trembled. But you are just a pale imitation; a babe who does not yet understand his powers. This was… disappointing.” The older man shook his head, appearing genuinely upset that Jason hadn’t been able to put up a real fight.

  “This will not serve our purposes at all,” Thorn growled. “You were to be an example, sending a message to the other would-be avatars among your kind. Yet perhaps you are simply too young…”

  Uncertainty clouded the man’s face as Jason struggled to breathe, Thorn’s grip cutting off his supply of air. Then the one-eyed man refocused his attention on Jason. “Perhaps a compromise is in order. We will give you a month to prepare. And then, we will burn this city to the ground.

  “Use your time wisely.”

  Then, with a final sigh, Thorn ended the battle. His palm slammed into Jason’s chest and excruciating pain suddenly wracked his body. Jason could hear screams that he vaguely recognized as his own. He slumped to the ground – his black lifeblood leaking onto the ground. His last sight was of the fac
es of his Kin in the market, watching as their leader and his left hand were killed before their eyes.

  They hadn’t even managed to slay a single opponent.

  System Message

  You have died.

  Thanks for playing Awaken Online!

  Chapter 4 - Weak

  The ephemeral blue snowflakes of the game’s deathscape drifted down around Jason as he watched himself and Frank square off against the Order agents once again. He had already watched the replay three times now, and he was intimately familiar with the outcome.

  It hadn’t taken him long to come to an obvious realization. The battle had been decided before it had even started. The difference in power between Jason and Frank and the three members of the Order was dramatic. They seemed to be utilizing some sort of anti-magic ability that effectively neutralized Jason’s role in the fight. No matter how many times he had watched the battle, he couldn’t figure out how they were draining his dark magic – or if their ability was even limited to dark mana. He also had no idea how Thorn had cast the magical attack against Frank.

  The only common element he noticed was that the Order agents had to be touching the mana or the summoned creature in order to drain it. He had tried to move closer and inspect their hands, hoping for some clue. However, each time he got close, the game world blurred out and become fuzzy. Jason’s guess was that he hadn’t managed to get a clean look at their hands during the battle so the game was refusing to divulge that information. Even Thorn’s palm at the end hadn’t come completely into view. Jason couldn’t help but wonder if the one-eyed man had anticipated that, although that seemed incredible – even given his other abilities.