Liar King (Tower of Babel Book 2)

by Adam Elliott

  A heartbeat passed, then the sound of an explosion rocked the city of Islo. Another heartbeat and a second equally powerful detonation shook the already profoundly damaged exterior of the Dizzy Sheep, the rainbow on the floor of the inn vanishing as what remained of the windowsill crashed into the empty street outside.

  The signal was hard to miss, but even still, Cayden lingered longer than he should have. By the time she'd been told, Sarah didn't have much say in stopping the plan, but she did have just enough to guilt him into being the one stationed at the Dizzy Sheep. What was the Game of Thrones quote? He who passes the sentence should swing the sword?

  He who burns the city should set the fire.

  “Natha Ierith.” Cayden invoked, a wave of flame erupting from his hand to engulf the nearby staircase. The runic spell was large on area yet low on damage, but it didn't matter, no, it was actually better. Too strong of a fire much burn itself out before it really got going, and for this to work, it needed to go everywhere.

  He cast the spell six more times, depleting the majority of his MP as he made his way to the door. By the time he exited, the inn was fully ablaze, as were buildings on either side of it, and part of the broad street that had been piled with anything and everything flammable they could find.

  Why did he always end up burning things to the ground to solve his problems?

  Cayden continued to discharge waves of magical fire as he began a lazy jog along his slated route. He knew his fellow players, twenty in all, would be doing the same. Bit by bit, they were putting nearly every inch of the now abandoned city to the torch, save for a few narrow corridors that would, or at least should, allow them to reach the Royal Quarter before the conflagration grew entirely out of their control.

  The Wardens would not be so lucky. Barricades that had appeared useless when the Elan soldiers had retreated to the Royal Quarter would prove remarkably effective once doused with alchemist's fire. Not that they were needed after those two explosions. No, the barricades existed only to sew confusion for the enemy commander, to make him waste time and movement trying to find an escape route rather than throwing himself against the Royal Quarter's now weakened defenses.

  There was no escape. If Silver had given the go-ahead, that meant the enemy had stopped marching troops into the city. As much as half the Warden forces, along with their commander, should be trapped in the furnace they were creating. Trapped because Shifty and Bammer had just collapsed both of the remaining gates into a pile of impassible rubble. Trapped because if they tried to use any of the other exits, they would find them bound and reinforced by Roberta's creation magic.

  His jog turned into a run as he ignited the last building on his list, the street behind him awash in flame, while the ones ahead of him were already beginning to be scorched by that same cruel mistress.

  The paths they had laid out in advance to avoid getting caught in their own trap were serpentine, most large enough for one or two people abreast, so as to preclude the possibility that any substantial Warden formation could take advantage of them. Cayden's, for example, took him through two tight alleyways and through three half-collapsed houses, before at last depositing him at the southernmost edge of the Royal Quarter.

  From there it was down a trip into the cringe-worthy sewers. Asch's investigations had indeed found an unsecured link between the city and the Royal Quarter, one that would have proven exceedingly dangerous if the Wardens had ever been given enough time to locate it. As it was, the entrance provided a stealthy, if somewhat distasteful, method of entering and exiting their secured position.

  “How are we doing?” Cayden asked as Michael grasped his forearm and helped him over the last lip of the sewer exit.

  “So far so good. You're the third one back.” Michael replied. “One of the toy soldie-” A sharp glance from the nearby Dinah cut the derogatory nickname short. “One of Asch's men ran into a patrol, but he managed to lose them on his B-route. Everyone should be back within a few minutes.”

  “And the army?”

  "Holding," Asch replied, looking up to the battlements overhead. "For now. Most of the rest are through the portal already, but it is going to be tight. We probably should have put a few dozen more on the battlements."

  Cayden shook his head. “Every man we put up there is a man we're going to lose.” He said, his heart stinging at the fact that he had to say it at all. To get the most out of their one trap, they had to allow the Wardens one more turn to move troops into the city, but that came at a cost. Someone had to guard the Royal Quarter, and the hundred and fifty men they'd left behind to do it were not going to be able to escape with the rest of them.

  Fighting to win was even harder than he'd expected it to be.

  “Everything set up and ready to torch here?” He asked, turning his attention away from the uncomfortable knot in his stomach.

  Michael grinned wickedly. “Ready to blow. The Ducal Palace turned out to have an alchemy lab.”

  “I'm sure the Duke will be happy we're putting it to good use.”

  "I'm sure the Duke would have us all hanged if he could get away with it," Dinah said with something just barely approaching humor in her tone. "He was... uncooperative when we finally removed him from the Palace."

  “That will be a fun conversation. I'm sure he'll be reasonable ab-”

  Before he could continue, a voice cut in over his audio feed. “Are you guys seeing this?”

  “Yeah, but who the hell is that?”

  “I don't know, but she's tearing through them like tissue paper.”

  "Guys, cut the crosstalk." Silver barked. "Someone with eyes, give us a feed."

  “I've got it.” Came an unknown voice, followed by another video call notification.

  The video feed was not great, both in the sub-par device recording and streaming it, as well as the nauseating head bobbing as the source, struggled to get into a position with a clear shot. Twice the feed hung and skipped rapidly to catch up before at last, it stabilized into something resembling a sensible image.

  A blue-haired young woman tearing her way through Warden soldiers with her bare hands.

  ***

  "Command: Call Sarah!" Cayden shouted in a mixture of panic and fury. When the device replied with an angry buzz, it took every ounce of his self-control not to scream at the top of his lungs. "Oh for f- Command: Call Desdaemona."

  This time he was rewarded with a soft chime, followed by a quiet jingle as the software embedded in his AR display paired off against his mirror to make the call. A few seconds later, another chime, a moment of dead air, then the sound of ragged breath. “A little busy right now Cayden!”

  “I can see that. What the hell do you think you're doing.”

  “Putting an end to this.” She replied, punctuating her word with a martial kiai as her right leg swept through the midsection of a Warden soldier, bisecting the stone soldier just above the waist.

  “Sarah, there are thousands of Warden soldiers out there. Even if you make it-”

  “Busy now. Talk later.”

  Before Cayden could say another word, a pair of soft chimes signaled her decision to end the call.

  “Goddamn it!” Cayden swore. “Silver, maybe she'll listen to you.”

  “I'll try.” Came the voice from his headset.

  “What is she trying to do?” Michael asked incredulously, having missed Sarah's side of the conversation as he watched the video of the charming waitress brutally tearing through Warden troops with seemingly no regard to their attacks.

  “I have a pretty good idea.” Cayden frowned, manipulating a few options on his display before speaking again. “Bammer, do you still have eyes on that officer.”

  “Neg. He shouldn't be hard to find though. He was heading straight down the Royal Road in your direction.”

  Cayden threw up his hands. “Stupid.”

  “What?” Michael asked, still not getting it.

  “She's making a run for the enemy officer.”


  "Isn't that good?" Michael asked, gesturing to the feed on his display. "She's tearing through them like they aren't even there."

  "Officer is a level 35 boss. She is level 40. Even if she does take him down, she isn't getting out of there alive." He pounded a fist into his hand and called out into the open air once again. "Silver, please tell me-"

  "She blocked calls after the first ring. Probably too much of a distraction." Silver said apologetically. "I can try and divert some of the-"

  "No," Cayden replied flatly. "Get everyone back here and through that portal."

  Dinah's eyes lit up in surprise, alongside with the first real, genuine smile he'd ever seen on her face. “I'll go with you.”

  “Are you sure?”

  "Wait, what do you mean go-" Michael asked, his eyes flickering back and forth between the two. "Oh, you have got to be kidding. You just said it is suicide for her and now you're going out there?!"

  "Safety in numbers," Cayden replied as he turned and began to walk in the direction of the nearest of the two gates.

  “And you're going along with this madness?” Michael asked, fresh anger in his tone as he turned his attention to Asch.

  "Heroism is often mistaken for madness." The older woman said with a chuckle, extending her arm and manipulating virtual space until an enormous two-headed great-ax materialized into her grip. "This is honestly one of the better ideas the boy has ever had."

  "We'll get her and ditch in the sewers," Cayden explained as he reached the gate and the sally port door to the embedded in the wall to the side of it. Some fifty soldiers manned the defense, ready to abandon it the moment they received the all clear to run for the nearby portal, but as of yet the door, reinforced by Roberta's magic, was holding.

  “And if we get a good shot at the officer?”

  "He is twice our level, what exactly do you plan to do to him?" Cayden scowled. "If it looks like Sarah can take him down, great, then cover her. Hopefully, we'll get to her before she gets to him."

  Nearby, Michael sighed in frustration. “You know you two are nuts, right?”

  "I know you weren't holding your sword a minute ago," Cayden observed.

  "I hate you so much right now." Michael spat. "Let's get this over with."

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The outer door of the sally port swung open to silence. It was one of the other things that made the Wardens such uncomfortable foes. A goblin or a Beastman might shout obscenities or war cries in their language. A powerful monster might roar or give some other indication of its displeasure. A Warden soldier did none of that. They simply re-oriented, fixed their weapons and went on the attack with an almost terminator-esque verve to kill their new target.

  Fortunately, as far as the siege of Islo was concerned, if anyone was Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was Dinah.

  The foot-wide blade of her ax swept through the bodies of three Warden soldiers, as she emerged into view, killing two and gravely wounding the third as the weight of the weapon sent the injured soldier flying, in an impressive display that would have given pause to any living opponent. The attack had its flaws, but the comparatively tremendous wind-down time after her use of the cleave skill was no weakness at all when she had Cayden and Michael to back her up.

  They came out the door behind her at a dead run, swords lashing out at the nearest Warden forces to take advantage of what little element of surprise remained. Behind them a few Warden soldiers swarmed the sally port, their attempt stifled as the Elan soldiers inside slammed and barred the door behind the players a moment before Dinah 'rewarded' their tactic with two overwhelming swings of her ax.

  Warden soldiers were everywhere around them, their shadowed forms illuminated only by the roaring hellscape that lay just across the river. There were more than expected, but it shouldn't be a problem. Already he could see formation after formation pulling back from the wall, retreating down this street or that one as their commander ordered them towards perspective escape routes that would ultimately prove fruitless. What units weren't retreating were attacking, their focus on the battlements or the gates, trying to break the Royal Quarter's defenses in hopes of finding shelter from the roaring conflagration outside.

  If these units had been organized against them, their little trio wouldn't stand a chance, but there was no order to this. Their only threat was the knee-jerk offense of individual nearby Wardens. That they could deal with.

  "To the North bridge!" Cayden ordered. The Wardens were particularly thick there, but trying to swim or use the South bridge would take too long. Sarah was fast and driven. If they wanted to catch up to her, the only hope they had was to follow her wake for lack of a better term. After all, if the enemy were chasing her, then they wouldn't be impeding them.

  Together, the three of them began cutting their way through the Warden troops with a steady rotation of skill usage. Dinah's would use her area of effect attacks, killing or injuring a cluster of enemy troops, then Cayden and Michael would rush in, snagging the enemy aggro and putting down the wounded Warden troopers before any nearby healers could clear away some of the damage.

  It was slow going at first, leapfrogging from one group of enemies to the next, but the longer they fought, the easier it became. Apart from a few archers taking pot shots, the Warden troops were not smart enough to vary their tactics or to adapt on the fly to the player's strategy. And like anything else, the more they did it, the better they got at it. By the time they'd reached the bridge, nearly three dozen Warden soldiers lay in pieces in their wake.

  "I'm going ahead," Cayden shouted to his companions, bracing his legs beneath himself as he shouted. "Personal Skill Use: Leap Attack!"

  The jump carried him from the bank of the river a few feet from the bridge to the middle of it, his sword quite literally disarming one of the Warden troops on the newly constructed earthen bridge as he landed. Two more struggled to bring their long weapons to bear in the packed crowd, but they were unable to get them in line with Cayden's body before he intoned two words of runic power "Jegara Karatha!"

  A wave of magical force pulsed from two of Cayden's upraised fingers, followed by an immense explosion that cracked the earth beneath his feet, but thankfully did not shatter it. The Wardens nearest him, on the other hand, had no such luck, their bodies detonating into little more than gravel as they were blown away from him.

  Those a little further away were knocked off their feet, the majority blown clear off the side of the bridge and into the water below. The water wouldn't hurt them, he knew, it might even save them from the fire, but it got them out of the way, which was all he could have asked for.

  "You are going to need to explain that later," Dinah shouted as she ran past him, her ax whirling once over her head before collapsing down onto the torso of a Warden soldier struggling to recover from the blast.

  Cayden laughed. He'd always been garbage at keeping secrets for long.

  Past the bridge, the density of the Warden soldiers began to thin dramatically, which in turn allowed Cayden and his companions to pick up the pace to a full run. Here or there a Warden soldier would issue forth from a building, or a nearby formation, but in ones and twos, the typical Warden soldier was no threat at all to any of them.

  Skill Level Up: Sprint

  Type: Passive

  Skill Level: Novice Level 9

  Effect: Improved running speed by 13%.

  Cost: 9.2 TP per Second + Penalty for Armor weight.

  The notification at the edge of Cayden's hub drew another laugh. His skills had the worst, or maybe the best possible timing when it came to level ups.

  "I don't suppose either of you can jump?" Cayden asked after nearly two minutes of running. Ahead of them, one of their barricades accented his query, a ten-foot-tall mound of burning refuse that would have been impossible for a normal human to safely circumvent.

  The question earned nothing more than dirty looks from his compatriots. A man in the heaviest armor a player could buy, and a woman with an
ax bigger than he was. It kinda was a dumb question.

  “I think there is a path around if we-”

  “No need.” Dinah interrupted with a smirk. “Just keep out of the way. Skill Use: Earthsplitter.”

  Asch skidded to a stop just before that boundless inferno, her right leg bracing beneath her as she brought the head of her ax behind her body. Its edge glowed with a violet light as its owner drew a deep breath, readied herself, and attacked.

  The light of her weapon cut an arc through the air that it was almost hard to look at, the sudden impact of the blade reverberating through Cayden's very bones like a nearby artillery strike. Its effect was an order of magnitude more than he'd expected, the edge of the ax a mere foreword to the shockwave that quelled fires and sent material flying in every direction.

  In the aftermath of the strike, a third of the barricade was just gone. A neat hole cut clear through the center of the enormous pile with only a deep gouge in the cobblestone and a slightly smaller crater around it to mark it as an attack.

  "Remind me not to piss you off," Michael said, his wide-eyed expression belying the casual way he joked about what he'd just seen.

  "Never a good idea to tick off a Brutalist," Cayden said, his eyes on Dinah. "That is your class, isn't it."

  Dinah gave him a sidelong look as they filtered through the now open gap and began to sprint once more. “What gave it away?”

  It was a rhetorical question, Cayden knew. Only one class in all of Babel had attacks of that magnitude.

  The Brutalist class was a case study in extremes. They used the largest two-handed weapons they could find to inflict the maximum amount of possible damage with each and every hit, with almost nothing devoted to speed or endurance, and only a token to defense. High-level Brutalist techniques, like the one she had just demonstrated, could routinely drain a third or more of their user's TP in a single strike while generating positively absurd amounts of threat as a result. Coupled with the ponderous nature of their attacks, most Brutalist fights were short and, well, brutal. One way or the other.