“It doesn’t matter,” Alexion said finally, his eyes refocusing on Frank and an evil smile curling his lips. “Tell me, Frank, where is the gate piece?”
Frank just spat on the ground, blood mixing with his spittle. “Fuck you,” he grunted. He had no idea where the gate piece was, but, even if he did, he wouldn’t tell Alexion.
A brief expression of rage flitted across Alexion’s face before settling back into his neutral mask. “Fine. I will find out on my own. Goodbye, Frank.”
As he finished speaking, Alexion lowered his sword, the muscles in his arms knotting as he prepared to lunge. A heavy weight settled in Frank’s stomach as he saw the blade plunging toward his throat, the weapon drifting forward as though in slow motion. Yet he refused to look away or show any weakness. He was resigned to his fate. The only blessing was that he had likely inflicted enough casualties to force Alexion to call off his raid. A bloody smile curled Frank’s lips. At least, in that regard, he had scored a small victory.
Just before the blow landed, the ground suddenly lurched to the side, throwing Alexion off balance and causing his strike to go wide. The blade raked across Frank’s shoulder in a searing hot line, shaving off even more of Frank’s waning health.
The cause of the tremor soon became apparent. The ground in front of Kelton was trembling violently, large cracks forming in its surface and forcing Alexion and his group to back away quickly – abandoning Frank to his fate. Frank knelt in the dirt and his own blood, watching as the rents in the earth spewed a fountain of dark energy. The mana rocketed into the sky and immediately consumed the globes of artificial light that hovered overhead. The energy cascaded across the sky before raining back down in threads of darkness.
Enormous ivory bones soon followed, splitting through the ground and showering dust and debris into the air. Frank sat frozen in shock as he watched the material erupt from the ground. He soon realized that the bones were connected, forming a massive skeletal hand with its palm raised to the sky. Only seconds later, the hand came to a stop directly in front of Frank – faint aftershocks still causing the ground to tremble.
As the debris began to clear, Frank could make out something resting on the palm. It was a jagged fragment the size of a small car. The surface seemed to glow despite the lack of light, giving off an unnatural sheen. The interior of the object was comprised of jagged, harsh edges, while the outside was curved in a smooth arc as though it might have once been part of a single circular structure. It was clear that this was a small part of a larger whole. A fragment.
A gate piece.
Chapter 58 - Fortified
By the time that Jason and Riley made it back to the market, Jason’s head had stopped pounding, and his vision no longer swam. He had quickly shrugged off the help of the nearby soldiers, sprinting along with Riley and the Kin as their feet pounded the cobblestones. The frustrated roars of the feral undead echoed through the city behind them. Eliza’s traps had worked wonders, buying them several precious minutes to regroup. The icy spears continued to erupt along the roadway with a flash of sapphire light, as the hulking feral skeletons tore into their surface with their claws.
Jason and Riley didn’t have time to talk, their breath coming in ragged gasps as they rushed forward. They shared a worried glance as they saw the universal system notice regarding the gate piece. Jason could only assume that Vera had finished the quest he had given Frank while his friend was busy dealing with Alexion. Questions bounced through his head. They had secured a gate piece, but what did it look like? Or, perhaps more importantly, where the hell was it? As usual, the prompt had been short on details.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have the time or resources to deal with that problem right now – a point that was made abundantly clear as they heard the crash of ice striking the roadway behind them. The ghouls had taken down another barrier.
As the market came into view, Jason observed the fortifications that had been built into the roadway. Towering pillars of wood had been embedded into the cobblestones, spanning nearly twenty feet into the air. No gate or other entryway riddled the surface of the makeshift wall. These barricades weren’t meant for convenience so much as necessity. Instead, the Kin on the ramparts dropped ropes to allow the fleeing soldiers to shuffle up the wall.
His troops split to make room as Jason and Riley approached, allowing them to pass and shimmy up the ropes. As he crested the wall and stood on the rampart on the other side, Jason finally had a chance to survey the market proper. It had been several hours since he had seen the construction – having delegated this task to Cecil. The small engineer had immediately conscripted the hulking minotaur zombies to build makeshift walls in each of the three main roads leading into the market. Behind these walls were hastily constructed ramparts – allowing the defenders to pace the wall and keep their eyes trained to the south as they watched for the ghouls.
In the interior of the market, the stalls were now gone. The wood had been repurposed to add to the temporary barricades. The courtyard was filled with undead soldiers. Archers assumed their formations in the center of the market and their melee troops created a semi-circular line in front of them facing the barricades.
On the far end of the market, near the entrance to the keep, was a mound of ivory bone – all that remained of the materials that Frank had salvaged from the Wraithling nest. Jason had used a surprising number of materials to create his new and improved Drones and the updated catapults. This was all he had left to work with, short of slaying more of the feral skeletons that threatened the city.
Jason’s thoughts were interrupted as Jerry abruptly appeared beside him, with Grunt’s hulking form looming in the background. “Fashionably late as always,” the innkeeper remarked with a waggle of his eyebrows. “To be expected from our favorite evil overlord!”
Riley rolled her eyes. “Jason decided to deviate from the plan at the last moment. He almost got us killed.”
“And took out more of the ghouls in the process,” Jason retorted, grinning at their teasing. It helped to ease some of the tension that hung over his shoulders like a palpable weight. He turned his attention back to Jerry, inspecting him carefully. “How are you doing?” he asked. “Are you up for this?”
Jerry inspected himself, running his hands across his body. “All my pieces seem to be working – minus one, of course. But I won’t elaborate since we have a lady present,” he added in a conspiratorial whisper. This earned him a snort from Riley and Jason could have sworn he saw Grunt roll his eyes, but he could have imagined it.
“Anyway, you have one more meager thief to add to your ranks!” He relaxed his posture and leaned close to Jason with a grin, sparing a meaningful glance at Grunt who hovered nearby. “You should be more worried about Grunt. He’s always been the jealous type, and I think he’s reluctant to let these ghouls get a piece of yours truly.”
Jason shook his head. “I’ll be sure to let him know he needs to contain his feelings,” he responded dryly.
“I hate to break up this reunion, but there is a horde of feral undead barreling toward this position, and we only have a few minutes,” Riley reminded them. “We need to get ready.”
“The troops are already stationed along each barricade, and the remainder of troops have assumed formations in the interior courtyard,” Jerry reported. “And, as you can see, we also brought some party favors,” he added, waving at the pile of bone at the back of the courtyard. “Limit one per person, of course.”
Jason spared a glance at Riley, an unspoken message passing between them. Nodding in unison, they both dropped from the wall, landing with a soft thump on the cobblestone courtyard and leaving Jerry to mutter to himself as he followed them.
“Thank you, Jerry!” the innkeeper muttered to himself. “We really appreciate you coming back from the brink of death to help set up these lovely defenses. What would we ever do without you? Our lives would truly be joyless and devoid of meaning.”
Jason and Riley ignored hi
s teasing as they made their way to the ivory pile near the back of the courtyard, the Kin parting before them like the waves of a dark sea. Despite Jerry’s light tone, Jason couldn’t ignore the fear that lingered in his soldiers’ eyes. This had been their fallback position, and the dark keep looming over the market housed their families and loved ones. If they lost here, it was only a matter of time before the undead breached the keep’s fortifications and then there wouldn’t be anyone – or anything – left to stop their advance.
And that was still ignoring Thorn, who had yet to make his appearance.
“What are you thinking?” Riley asked quietly, trying to keep her voice from reaching to the nearby soldiers as they passed.
He knew that she was asking whether he had a plan for what was coming. He could still visualize the nearly endless wave of feral undead that had bashed themselves against the stone walls of the Twilight Throne. Those skeletal monsters would soon be crashing against their makeshift wooden barricades – which were dramatically less sturdy.
“I’m thinking our chances are terrible,” Jason murmured. Riley bit at her lip, worry clouding her eyes. However, she held her tongue. She had witnessed the battle at the southern gate just the same as he had.
As they reached the pile of bones, Jason turned to look back over the courtyard. The feral undead would be coming from the south, and the barricade they had crossed to enter the market would likely be hit the hardest. The eastern and western roads had been fortified as well and would probably be attacked as the feral undead spread out across the southern line of buildings that ringed the market. There was only so much space available on the southern exposure; it was just a matter of time before the undead searched for other ways to enter the market.
Jason glanced at the buildings lining the courtyard. The structures might hold for a while, but they couldn’t be certain whether the undead would breach their walls or just scale the buildings, allowing them to avoid the barricades that lined the streets. The memory of the way the feral skeletons had used their claws to climb the stone wall ringing the city was still fresh in Jason’s mind. That likely explained why Jerry had stationed several divisions in the interior of the courtyard instead of placing all their troops at the makeshift barricades. They were there to pick off the stragglers that found another way inside.
Jason eyed the small pile of bones beside him skeptically. He could build a dozen or so Death Knights with his remaining resources, but he wasn’t certain there was room in the tight courtyard for more troops. Besides, even if the ghouls came in over the tops of the buildings and some slipped through their defenses, they either had enough troops to handle them – or they didn’t. A dozen or so Death Knights wouldn’t change that. Which meant Jason was probably better off using his remaining resources to bolster his own strength.
It was about time. He was ready to put his newfound combat skills to use.
Eliza and Cecil chose that moment to make their appearance, jogging up to the group and looking a little flustered. “The last of the troops have made it back to the market. We’re ready, or at least as ready as we will ever be,” Cecil grunted.
“We’ve set more traps on each road leading into the market,” Eliza chimed in. “At Jerry’s instruction, I focused on the southern road.”
“Great,” Jason murmured, still distracted as he considered what he was going to build. He forced himself to focus on Eliza and Cecil. “I think you two will be most useful along the southern wall, since that’s where we’ll be hit the hardest. Eliza can provide healing and buffs with her mist, and she can retreat further into the courtyard as we pull back the wounded. If there’s no one to heal, summon new traps to try to disrupt the enemy’s line. This isn’t about killing the undead; it’s about surviving for as long as we can,” Jason said. He could practically hear Rex’s voice as he spoke these final words. It seemed he was going to be putting his lessons in the first challenge to work sooner than he had realized.
His gaze shifted to Cecil. “Keep a group of the minotaurs with you and try to reinforce and patch the barricades as best you can.” This earned him a skeptical look from the engineer, but he gave a curt nod of acknowledgment.
Jason realized that this plan would likely just push more of the feral undead to the other roads or overtop the buildings ringing the market – but they had no other choice. Their forces stationed in the interior courtyard would just need to stay alert.
“The three of you can stick with me,” he continued, turning his attention back to Riley, Grunt, and Jerry. “We’ll be stationed in the center of the courtyard. That should let us take out any ghouls that make it into the market, and we’ll be in a good position to reinforce one of the barricades if they falter or fall.
“Any questions?” he asked, meeting each person’s gaze, and receiving only curt nods in return. As his eyes swept over the group, Jason did a double take. Every member of the Shadow Council in the city was present, absent one person. “Wait. Where’s Morgan?”
The group looked around in confusion, realizing that the dark mage was nowhere to be seen. “I think I last heard that she was marshaling the mages at her school and evacuating the last of the students,” Eliza offered timidly.
Jason grimaced. Of all times for the dark mage to buck his orders, she had to choose this moment? What could she possibly be doing that was more important? He made a mental note to have a frank discussion with Morgan about her priorities once this was over – assuming they survived, of course.
An enraged roar went up from the south, sending a shiver down Jason’s spine. The sound had grown much closer. They didn’t have time to dwell on the dark mage’s absence or to waste talking. He needed to act quickly. Without warning, his hands launched through the gestures of his Custom Skeleton. The world soon began to slow to a crawl around him, his teammates standing like frozen statues nearby.
He turned to face the meager pile of bones. He had to make a decision. Did he create a few more minions or try something different?
A glance at the control panel hovering before him revealed a design he had been tinkering with on and off over the last few weeks, the translucent blue forms of over a dozen minions rotating slowly in the air. He had come up with an idea after unlocking the new ability for his staff – which allowed him to sacrifice summoned creatures to empower his Soul Slash. He had also been thinking a lot lately about the time he and his team had confronted Flowerface in the dungeon north of Peccavi, where he had repurposed the Hydra bones into a suit of armor. The suit had been rigid and unwieldy, but effective.
His Bone Armor only covered some parts of his body – the plating leaving his joints, large portions of his limbs, and his face unprotected. On top of that, while his melee abilities had certainly improved, he knew he would never be a true match for Thorn in a one-on-one fight. At least, not without a little cheating. His new design was meant to compensate for some of those weaknesses.
On the other hand, these new minions were completely untested. He wasn’t sure how well they would function in practice, and mid-fight was the wrong time to find out that his designs didn’t work. His gaze shifted to the south, where he saw another flash of blue, the light flaring in slow motion under the time compression of his spell. The horde was coming, and he was under no illusions about their chances of surviving this. Maybe it was time to roll the dice one more time.
Resolving himself, Jason launched into motion, the pile of bones erupting in a shower of ivory as he mentally directed each piece into place.
I hope this works.
Only moments later, his palm slapped down on the button on the control panel and the world jerked back into motion. Excess bones rained against the cobblestones all around Jason, revealing the set of new minions that crouched in front of him. They didn’t look like much. At first glance, they almost appeared to be a variant of his new Drones, but their bodies were oddly shaped and non-uniform. They were also missing their wings and skittered along the ground on thin, skeletal legs.
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br /> “What are those things?” Riley asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. The other members of the Shadow Council were similarly puzzled.
“I think it might be easier to show you,” Jason replied, cradling his head in a vain attempt to ward off the pounding headache brought on by the spell.
He issued a single mental command, and the misshapen minions immediately scuttled toward him, crawling up his legs and torso with their gangly limbs. Two of the creatures swiftly encircled each of his legs, and their skeletal bodies interlocked with the existing bone plates on his thighs and shins. Four more crawled up his torso, fastening together to form a bone cuirass that accentuated and reinforced his regular Bone Armor, covering every unprotected inch of his chest. More of the creatures locked themselves into place along his biceps and forearms, spikes of bone appearing along his elbows and tendrils of ivory running across the tops of his hands.
Then came the final piece. Jason bent over and picked up the single creature which had remained sitting on the ground. Its legs splayed open, as though waiting for him. He slowly lifted the skeleton to his face, feeling its spindly limbs lock around the back of his head as the market was briefly obscured from view. As the creature shifted into position and his vision returned, he looked back at his teammates, noting their shocked expressions.
From the outside, it looked like he was covered from head-to-toe in thick plates of bone, the new creatures interlocking with his regular Bone Armor to create something like ivory plate mail. His feet crunched against the ground with each step, and the plates grinded together slightly as he tested his range of motion. Atop his head rested a skull-faced helm, ivory spikes framing his natural horns and his eyes melting away into soulless black pits. As a finishing touch, he summoned his bone shields using his remaining materials, and the three circular discs soon orbited him slowly as he held his staff in hand.
Awaken Online: Dominion Page 61
