Awaken Online: Dominion

by Travis Bagwell

  For true darkness has descended upon the Twilight Throne!

  Chapter 56 - Overwhelming

  “Archers fire!” Jason shouted, his voice carrying along the ramparts.

  The Kin shook off their surprise, nocking arrows to their strings and releasing as rapidly as they could. Meanwhile, the dark mages stationed along the wall joined the fray and needles of malignant energy streamed through the air. The collection of missiles – both mundane and magical – struck the front line of ghouls in unison, slowing their movements and piercing through their ivory limbs. As the initial wave of ghouls slowed under the barrage, the creatures behind them crashed through the front line. They stomped over the fallen and snapped limbs in their frenzy.

  Riley moved closer to Jason and spared a quick gesture at the nearby contingent of Kin. They tightened their protective circle around Jason, creating a veritable wall between him and the outside world. Thorn might try to assassinate him amid the chaos, and, right now, Jason was sitting at his Control Limit, his health pool diminished by the cost of sustaining his minions.

  Jason glanced at the interior courtyard behind the gate, sending a mental command to the handful of minions stationed below. Within seconds, giant ivory catapults were wheeled into position. Jason had taken some time to improve on the original design he had developed in the dungeon north of Peccavi. These skeletal siege engines no longer needed a crew of minions to carry them. Instead, they now rolled along on makeshift ivory wheels. This had substantially reduced the Control Limit requirements of the siege engines.

  The nearby Kin hauled the corpse of a dead minotaur onto the bucket of one of the catapults – its hulking form laying limply on the surface and its congealed blood staining the bone a dark maroon. Jason had been hoping to use his limited supply of corpses sparingly. His Corpse Explosion couldn’t be used on his skeletal creations, and so his ammunition was limited. Unless, of course, he wanted to start launching his own soldiers – a line he wasn’t willing to cross. As he observed the onrushing horde of undead, he started to wonder if he might be forced to second guess that decision. They were well past the time for caution or moral indecision.

  This was about survival now.

  Within moments, the first minotaur corpse was sent sailing through the air, its body tumbling end over end. It was soon followed by its brothers. Jason’s hands were already twining through a complicated series of gestures – tendrils of dark mana winding around his fingers as arcane words spilled from his lips. The projectiles struck the enemy line just as Jason finished casting his spell. Shadows of energy raced from his position, stretching across the battlefield until they reached the bodies of the minotaurs.

  Explosions rocked the front line of undead, dark energy spewing forth in a nova of destruction. The blasts ripped apart the ghouls by the dozens, their limbs splintering and fragmenting. As Jason looked on with horrified fascination, he realized that the explosions also served a secondary purpose. The ghouls were drawn to the concentration of dark energy and the blasts served as decoys – causing the creatures to momentarily halt their headlong charge to tear hungrily on the wisps of dark mana that lingered in the air.

  Even as dark missiles pelted the undead and explosions rocked their ranks, the attacks did little to blunt the wave of creatures. Despite killing them by the scores, there was a seemingly endless number of gnashing ivory maws and flailing limbs left to take their place.

  Faster than he would have liked, the first ranks of undead made it to the city’s walls. The forerunners smashed against the stone blocks, and their bones were ground to a fine white powder as the momentum of their fellows crushed them against the rock. Jason didn’t know what he was expecting to happen next – perhaps for the undead to pile on top of each other and claw their way over their fallen brethren to scale the wall.

  What he wasn’t expecting were for the hulking creatures to stab their clawed hands into the stone surface, slamming their limbs into the wall with surprising strength and finding a foothold in the crumbling mortar between the blocks of stone. They began scaling the surface of the wall at an alarming speed, their ivory limbs cracking and stretching as they clamored up the wall.

  Cries went up along the ramparts, and Jason’s melee troops moved forward, armed with long spears – courtesy of Eliza’s last-minute purchases on the player auction house. The undead archers withdrew, dropping from the rampart and assembling back into formation in the courtyard. Their missiles soon whistled overtop the heads of the defenders on the wall. The sound was only broken by the occasional explosion in the field outside the city as the catapults continued to launch their deadly payloads.

  Meanwhile, the melee troops on the wall stabbed forward frantically, their spear tips slicing into the ghouls that were attempting to scale the wall. Now that their enemy had drawn closer, Jason could make them out more clearly – watching the battle even as he continuously cast his Corpse Explosion. The ghouls almost resembled his Death Knights in size and strength. But where his creations used conventional weapons and were armed with spiked shields, the feral undead struck and tore at their enemies with clawed hands. They seemed to forgo any sense of defense or self-preservation, focused solely on their hunger.

  As Jason looked on, one of the ghouls grabbed a Kin’s spear, ripping the man from his position on the wall and sending him tumbling into the wave of bone that crashed against the base of the fortification. The soldier wasn’t simply slain – his body was ripped apart like it had passed through a wood chipper. His blood sprayed into the air in a fine mist that stained the feral undead a dark crimson. Others soon followed him, their screams echoing along the wall before being abruptly cutoff.

  “We’re getting overwhelmed!” Riley shouted over the din of the battle. She had slung her bow back over her shoulder, squeezing in with the other defenders near Jason as they tried to maintain a protective bubble around him.

  Jason knew she was right. The ghouls were relentless, and he could only watch as more and more of their soldiers were ripped from the wall. He needed to replace their numbers and reinforce his troops, but he was still at his Control Limit. They were likely almost out of minotaur corpses to use as ammunition. He needed to act quickly.

  Shit, he thought. He would have to use one of his backup plans. He had hoped to be able to delay this for longer, but there was no help for it.

  With a thought, Jason summoned the remainder of his minions.

  “Dark One, please let this work,” Jason murmured to himself.

  * * *

  The control room at Cerillion Entertainment was a flurry of activity, as technicians tapped away at their consoles and shouted at each other from across the room. A massive display hovered in the air, the screen split into multiple panels – each showing a different perspective on the epic battle being waged at the southern wall of the Twilight Throne. However, they all told a similar story. The native undead surged forward in a mass of ivory bone and unrelenting hunger as the defenders on the wall struggled to hold off the horde.

  In the midst of this chaos, Robert sat calmly on the dais in the center of the room, his feet propped up on a desk and a bowl of popcorn resting in his lap. His eyes were fixed on the screen, munching away as he surveyed the destruction onscreen.

  “Are you going to help?” Claire snapped at him from nearby, swiping at her display as she side-eyed Robert in irritation. Instead of replying, he just shoved another handful of popcorn into his mouth – earning him a frustrated sigh from Claire.

  The screens hovering in front of her flashed as data flowed in from their streaming network, showing the recent online activity for Vermillion Live. The universal system message had caused a massive influx of viewers as the players went online in droves to view the encounter. There were very few active players in the Twilight Throne and their channel was essentially the only way to witness the event. As a result, their site was already getting millions of hits. This was accompanied by increasingly frantic messages from their media director �
� the contents ranging from pleading promises to open threats.

  “We need to get this footage over to Vermillion Live,” Claire continued, shifting her attention back to Robert. With a flick of her wrist, she brought up the comments and chat logs affiliated with their streaming channel. The list was updating so quickly that it was almost impossible to follow the conversation. “People are getting a little… desperate.”

  Robert gave her a dismissive shrug, his gaze never wavering from the screens. “A few minutes won’t change anything. Besides, in your rush to toe the corporate line, you’re missing the more interesting question.”

  “Which is?” Claire retorted, raising an eyebrow.

  “Why now?” Robert murmured. “Why is this event happening now of all times? This wasn’t scheduled and you know as well as I do that only one person – or incredibly sophisticated AI – could be behind this.”

  Claire glanced up at the screens, her brow furrowed in thought. She had to admit that it did seem strange. They were expecting the regulatory committee to make a decision at any time now and Jason’s testimony had been played and replayed on news channels almost continuously for the last couple of days – with warring camps forming around both the boy and his parents. Jason was already the focus of intense public scrutiny. Drawing more attention to him didn’t seem like it would help.

  Even as she thought about Jason, the boy’s dark silhouette came into one of the frames and Robert enlarged the image so that it filled the screen. The Regent of the Twilight Throne was surrounded by his Kin, their black helmets covering their faces as they encircled him. Riley stood to his side, her bow glowing with an ominous crimson light. As she fired continuously into the horde, each of her missiles detonated violently. Despite their efforts, they were slowly being overwhelmed, the ivory wave of undead crashing against the wall with terrifying force.

  Claire opened her mouth to address Robert but suddenly stopped as she saw Jason shout something at Riley. Claire couldn’t quite catch what he was saying since the sound was swallowed up by the swell of noise that filled the area. Before she could order a technician to clean up the audio, Robert had already swiveled around, and a few stray pieces of popcorn fell from his lap and bounced off the floor. A moment later, he had filtered the background noise, allowing Claire to hear what was happening onscreen. A hushed silence had descended over the room as the technicians forgot what they were doing – all eyes now riveted on the screen.

  “…get everyone down,” Jason shouted to Riley, gesturing at the nearby Kin. The archer’s eyes widened in surprise, confusion flitting across her face.

  Not wasting any time, Jason turned his attention back to the city behind him and Claire’s thoughts swam in confusion. What was he doing?

  A swarm of pale specks suddenly lifted into the air, rising from the rooftops of the buildings along the interior side of the wall. Among the cloud, Claire could make out faint flashes of orange and red. It almost looked like Jason had summoned a cloud of evil, ivory fireflies. Under Robert’s deft hands, the camera centered on one of the creatures and a low murmur drifted through the control room.

  They looked like winged spiders, their torsos glowing with an eerie orange light that Claire couldn’t explain. They beat their wings in a flurry of movement so quick that it caused their limbs to blur like a hummingbird. What was even more impressive was the size of the swarm. There had to be at least a hundred of the bug-like skeletons.

  “Now what are you little beauties?” Robert murmured, a curious look on his face.

  They didn’t need to wait long to find out.

  The swarm raced forward past the lip of the wall, before turning to face the fortification. A few of the Kin noticed the strange flying creatures, raising their heads to the sky. The Drones spread into a thin line, hovering in the air and waiting patiently. Jason’s attention was trained on their flickering white forms as he stood unmoving on the wall.

  Riley followed his gaze, and her eyes widened in alarm. She shouted a warning, her voice carrying across the wall. “Drone strike incoming. Get down!” The Kin scrambled to pull away from the edge of the wall without being slain by the feral creatures that were still scaling the stone surface. Most of the soldiers managed to evade the ghouls, but more than one of the undead lost their life in the process.

  Then Jason waved a hand, and the Drones struck.

  They sped forward toward the base of the wall with terrifying speed. Several of the tiny creatures latched onto the ghouls, grabbing at them with their spindly, white legs. They slammed their torsos down onto their targets – their hole-riddled torsos crumbling. Others used a more direct approach, simply barreling into the ghouls and smashing themselves apart. As the creatures broke apart, explosions of flame ignited in a cascade of energy so powerful that the force actually shook the entire barricade – causing the camera to list and sway.

  It was like someone had dropped napalm all along the fortification. The ivory bones of the feral undead were ripped apart and charred under the intense blast of heat, and the defenders were forced even further back from the wall, as a line of flames rocketed up into the air. The blasts threw any of the ghouls still clinging to the walls back to the ground below where they smashed into their fellows, creating a massive heap of bones and flailing limbs at the base of the fortification.

  “Holy shit,” Robert said, his voice echoing across the suddenly still room. A delighted smile lit his face, his bowl of popcorn now resting forgotten on the nearby desk.

  As the debris began to clear, the group in the control room could see Jason standing atop the wall, a massive mound of bone now resting below him. The charred remains of the undead were still burning, and tendrils of smoke drifted around him as he surveyed the destruction he had caused. What was most disconcerting was the calm ease with which Jason gazed down at the burning bones – as though this was simply another normal exchange. The screen froze on that image as Robert tapped furiously at his terminal.

  “Okay, I think I get it now,” Robert said, an excited smile still painted on his face.

  “Get what?” Claire asked in confusion.

  “Why Alfred concocted this event.” Robert waved at the display over his shoulder. “That guy right there. He’s the person that everyone else is striving to beat – the pinnacle of power inside AO.”

  He turned his head slightly, meeting Claire’s eyes briefly even as his hands continue to dance across his keyboard. “I thought for a moment that maybe Alfred was trying to rebrand Jason or paint him as some sort of innocent victim. That’s not it at all! Instead, he’s embracing what Jason is. He’s unbalanced as hell. He’s a player that constantly takes this world’s rules and twists them to his advantage. He’s merciless and relentless. In short, he’s the gods damned villain of this game – the end boss.”

  “I don’t get it,” Claire said, confused. “How does that help?”

  Robert’s grin widened, and he tapped at his terminal, sending the footage on to Vermillion Live. Then he gestured at Claire’s display where their streaming channel’s traffic was being displayed. Within only seconds, the numbers jumped dramatically, their viewership increasing at an incredible rate, and they only continued to climb higher as the players circulated the video and it was picked up by other channels.

  “Because, everyone that watches this clip is going to be thinking one thing,” Robert murmured, swiveling to stare at the frozen image of Jason that loomed above the control room.

  “That could be me.”

  * * *

  Jason looked on in shock, his surprise causing him to momentarily freeze in place as he surveyed the destruction caused by his enhanced Drones. Smoking ivory bone now littered the ground below the wall, buying the defenders a momentary reprieve. The soldiers nearby looked on with stunned expressions, their pale eyes wide. Even Riley seemed taken aback and she stood with her mouth open.

  After finding the Order agents, Jason had replaced the detection crystals inside the tiny creatures with the m
ore common fire crystals that Cecil had managed to recover from the ruined crafting school, effectively turning each diminutive Drone into a flying bomb. The payoff had been worth it; more than a hundred ghouls had been incinerated in the blast and many more were now injured.

  However, even this victory was short-lived.

  As Jason shifted his attention to the base of the wall, he realized he had just created a new problem. Hundreds more undead were waiting to scale the surface of the wall, and between the blasts and the ghouls slain by his troops, the bodies were starting to pile up, creating a heaping mound of ivory bone fragments at the base of the wall that was beginning to act like a ramp. It would only be a matter of time until the feral undead were simply sprinting up this makeshift ramp and the defenders were pushed back from the fortification.

  Jason’s mind raced. He needed some time to think.

  “I’m casting my summoning spell,” Jason yelled at Riley, earning him a nod in response. He would be weakened after the spell ended and Riley and his troops might need to be able to carry him to safety.

  His hands wound through the gestures of the spell, and guttural words streamed from Jason’s lips even as the world began to slow to a crawl around him. He could see black projectiles slowly drifting through the air above him as explosions of dark mana erupted among the ranks of the ghouls, the malignant energy expanding at a snail’s pace. At the base of the wall, the native undead were already beginning to recover from Jason’s Drone strike, struggling back to their feet despite their missing limbs and the fractures that riddled their bodies.

  Jason pulled up his system UI, confirming that he had freed up almost 100 units toward his Control Limit. The field below him glowed an almost blinding blue, identifying the materials available for summoning new skeletal minions. The obvious choice was to repurpose the bones in the makeshift ramp that was being formed along the base of the wall – which would help slow its formation. Yet as Jason examined those materials more closely, he realized that the growing ramp was composed primarily of bone fragments, the pieces too small to be easily repurposed.