Hope Engine

by Andrew Lynch

  He brought one giant, open palm down on the drum as hard as he could. Then another. And another. Six in total. Finally, he pulled the horn from his back, pressed it to his lizard lips, and blew a long, low note.

  Silence reigned over the battlefield. Had it worked? We’d only know if it worked if something went wrong. Silence was right. I looked to Ixly and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged.

  There was no movement. The Eastern Shadow didn’t suddenly take to the field in retaliation. Did they know?

  More silence. It had been a few minutes now. It must have worked. I didn’t want to say it out loud and jinx it.

  I thought back to my first confrontation with Ixly. When I’d told him of Horace’s devious contracting skills. All the Geeko ran around, easy to spot and every colour of the rainbow. They were small and fast, but they were obvious. Except for that one time. That Geeko had been black as night and holding a knife to my throat without me even realising it. We’d given the assassin Geeko time to position themselves. Time to hold their knives to the artillery crew’s throats. And now, there was no artillery fire.

  Ixly grunted to get my attention. One of his honour guard was holding his weapon up. A message. A runner was sent, and a flash had been seen from the council mages. Ixly, myself, and Horace all made our way to the Eastern wall. Ixly knew the code, and after a few beats to let them know he was in position, a blade flashed between the floorboards of the lumber mill.

  “Enemy moved.”

  I grabbed the nearest rope, went down the wall at a dangerous speed, and sprinted to my Altar. Skidding to a halt, my vision shot up into Overseer mode.

  The only block of enemies that we could see, using the extra vision given to us by the hidden mage council, had moved.

  Painstakingly slowly, I selected all my my mage troops one by one, and set a delayed order. Then I did the same for Muadshai’s hunters. I left Overseer mode, and motioned for Horace and Ixly to meet me above the gate.

  On my way past the hunter, I shouted, ‘Ready?’

  He leaned heavily on his sandworm and took a swig from his gourd. ‘Always!’

  At the top of the wall, I peered across no man’s land, past the road that had brought me my troops, and to the rocks beyond. That was where Koif and his honour guard had set up. Overseer mode gives a more traditional real time strategy experience, and its fog of war is an amalgamation of different unit’s views. The fog began exactly one tree beyond the tree line. However, on the ground, realistically I could see several trees deep, so it would be possible for me to see The Eastern Shadow in first person mode, but not in Overseer mode. Likewise, in first person mode, I couldn’t see the enemy block that the mage council could see, but in Overseer mode I could, because I was granted their vision. I needed both views to truly understand the battlefield.

  Looking at the rocks beyond the road, I could now confirm it. Koif wasn’t there.

  I gave Muadshai the signal to make his move. He jumped on his sandworm and moved his hunters out as the gate guard parted for them. Once the last one was out, and they had all started their sprint to where I’d set their waypoints, I turned to see Ixly and Horace reaching me just in time.

  ‘There!’ Horace shouted.

  Sure enough, one of The Eastern Shadow blocks was marching forward through the trees, their light shield still protecting them. Making them bold.

  ‘Do it!’ I said.

  Ixly unslung his horn and gave three short, sharp bursts.

  Light grew from all around, as every mage began casting their artillery spells and channeling them together, so they had the range and power to reach the treeline. The glows should have been every hue under the sun, with silvery arcane, blue water, red and yellow fire, white air, brown earth – but they were all the same colour. A deep, near-black purple.

  All my time and energy spent imbuing minor shadowgems had worked. They were all using my dark magic. The only counter to light magic. The minor shadowgems wouldn’t work on other players. But I had an army of NPCs.

  The first volley of darkness was hurled into the air from a group of elves along the southern wall. They had channeled their mana into a series of magical arrow volleys. Perfect to pepper infantry, but I wasn’t sure how useful it would be through the forest. Three volleys disappeared into the fog of war.

  The next release was the same as the giant boulders of light that The Eastern Shadow had been hurling at us, only it was dark. It arched through the sky and crashed down in the forest. Again, we couldn’t actually tell if we were hitting anything, but that didn’t matter right now. This was the distraction.

  Two blocks of enemy units had emerged now. One from the North, and one directly ahead of the gate to the West. I had a sudden pang of anxiety for Muadshai. I’d sent his hunters out there on their own. He had trusted me to order them. This man, who had been a drunken wreck since I’d met him, because he’d lost his “bonded” minion. Now, I was risking every single one of them. If my plan worked, then they’d be in grave danger and I was using them as bait. If my plan didn’t work, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

  ‘Get the artillery on the enemy we can see!’ I shouted at Horace, who was standing right next to me.

  ‘Not to worry, master. It will be done.’ He was calm. How the hell was he calm?!

  A group of dwarves all dressed in red robes, threw runic stones between themselves on the northern wall, and they were the next to release their artillery spell. Pyromaniac dwarves. The flames growing between them were now purple, and the stones in their hands were growing, with black splotches beginning to jump between the dwarves, independent of the runestones. Finally, the ritual stopped, and they all lined up along the wall, and threw their blackened stones. The magic carried them far further than any normal throw. The Eastern Shadow units didn’t pay any attention, knowing that their light shield would protect them until they were ready to unleash death among my hunter scouts.

  The runic stones began their downward arch toward the enemy, every single one of the five stones on target. The moment of truth! I’d taken on board what my advisors had told me, but until now, The Eastern Shadow was undefeated. Every mage in my army was now running with dark magic, except the council mages still hiding in the lumber mill – annoyingly, my most powerful casters. Logically, this had to work. Right?

  The first runestone passed through the light shield and hit the centre of the enemy formation. It exploded in a shower of liquid purple flames. Enemy troops fell, and those that didn’t die in the initial explosion ran as their clothes caught dark-fire. These rune stones hadn’t just been explosive, they’d been filled with magical napalm. Enemies scattered from the epicentre, but the flames followed them.

  Then four more napalm rune stones crashed into the enemy. It was horrific. They had been so sure that they were invincible. They were tightly packed, prepared for melee engagements, not magical bombardment. The light shield flickered and dispersed. It was carnage. To say the block of troops retreated wouldn’t make sense. They died. Those that tried to help their fallen friends only joined them in face melting napalm death. Those that ran, were pinned in by the subsequent rune stones. A two hundred strong block eradicated because their defences failed.

  The dwarves on the wall jumped and whooped and hollered, ecstatic in their power and mayhem. The rest of the North wall joined them, once again seeing that there was a chance. That the enemy wasn’t invincible as they’d learned to fear.

  The block advancing on the gate saw this, but continued their advance, light shield up. My artillery on this side was less complete in its devastation. A group of earthen mages cracked the ground around the advancing enemy and shot purpled spikes from the crevices. It turned the enemy into an unorganised mess, but it only ended a few dozen lives. The melee units picked up a panicked pace towards the gate.

  I heard the guard below me shouting “Brace! Brace!” as the charge was about to hit. The light shield dropped, and my ranged units opened fire on the incoming units. The enemy mages had sw
apped from defence to offence. Shit. I hadn’t set up any of my own mages to protect the gate guard! There hadn’t been any point before as the light magic wouldn’t destroy any magical barrier.

  Two balls of light hurtled at the gate. The first was off target, hitting the wall, showering the guard with rocky debris. The second was a direct hit, and I heard cries of pain, and saw bodies fly in every direction.

  Ixly let out a roar and worked his drum in a frenzied rhythm, bonuses appearing on all the friendly nameplates around me.

  Then the melee charge hit.

  Chapter 45: Breach

  I saw the shadowless, unorganised rabble stream in beneath me. I threw down my AOE spells into the crowd. Of course, my Shadow Clone had been on this entire time, and Gurim peeled himself off of my left leg, ready to fight now that the enemy was so close.

  I ran for the nearest wall rope and slid down, Horace right behind me. Ixly, despite his impressive physical prowess, was more useful providing his AOE buff, so stayed on the wall.

  On the ground, I could see how dire the situation was. The dedicated artillery crews had been taken out by the assassination Geekos, but every block of troops still had their mages to keep the light shield up. Dropping the light shield had allowed them to open artillery fire at almost point-blank range into my gate guard. The first hit had widened the gate, although everything was now covered in rubble which I could see was causing a debuff for anyone crossing through it. But the second hit had taken out the first two lines and scattered everyone else. There were more of my men on the floor than fighting the enemy.

  I grabbed the closest sergeant by the back of his neck and pointed to the collapsed side of the gate. ‘You and your men, with me!’

  A trickle of shadowless enemies were using the broken wall to flank the defenders that had managed to regroup. I could put a stop to that and plug the hole. If they were stupid enough to run through the debuffing area, then I could be too!

  With a group of ten men, plus Horace and my trusty Gurim, I charged into the breach. The debuff hit me as I began stumbling on the mountain of rubble. It was giving me -4 to Agility, and for some very odd reason, -1 to Charisma. That was fine for me, as I mainly cared about Mind for fighting, but it was going to hurt Horace’s effectiveness. And, looking back at the men following me, them too, as I’d had the misfortune of randomly selecting a group of blade dancers – fighting with Agility as their primary stat, and Strength as a distant second.

  I picked out a dusty grey figure, clambering and sliding around in front of me, and began casting a Soulburn.

  I thought back to my last encounter. I’d only just managed to take out an old, decrepit goblin, and a wolf would have killed me if it hadn’t been for a high level player helping me out. They’d resisted practically everything I’d thrown at them. I’d only killed that light parasite by kiting it in a giant circle, and even then, it had caused me to get ejected from the game as the N-plague hit me. Wait, had that been its fault? How hadn’t I pieced that together before?

  I blinked, and I was in a white room. I felt a hand holding my chin. ‘Wake up.’

  No, I’d been fine. I got out before the N-plague took hold.

  My Soulburn cast, and the enemy in front of me shuddered in darkness and fell.

  “190” pinged off its nameplate.

  Well, shit. I’d levelled up. That wasn’t even a crit! Time to unleash the pain.

  The next enemy in line went down just as easily to another Soulburn. The bladedancers rushed past me, emboldened by seeing me cut the enemy down. No, really, they had a buff “General’s Courage”, +2 to everything!

  Horace stayed by my side, wickedly sharp blade covered in dripping ooze at the ready.

  I pushed forward, and crested the pile of rubble, allowing me to see what we were facing. To my right, the gate guard were holding their own, the bladedancers cutting any flankers down like grass to a lawnmower. Ahead, The Eastern Shadow pushed forward, continuing to pile in, but that was all they had in this block. All their melee were engaged now – which stopped the magical artillery, their biggest threat. The ranged and casters were walking forward, knowing that their specialities were done, and the best they could do now would be a lucky shank.

  Three shadowless troops, seeing that the main route was bogged down, made their way up the rubble. I let out a few lengths of chain and swirled my arm around my head. I needed to try out this damned skeleton jailer’s chain.

  My first swipe missed as they were all out of range. Difficult to judge on the first swing. I let the momentum of the chain spin me round, planting my feet when I was facing toward the trio again. The first one lost half his face as the end of chain ripped it clean off. The second in line took the chain to the side of the neck, causing it to wrap around, strangling him and popping his head like a blister. The third lunged at me, and… directly onto Horace’s dagger. Eye first.

  Horace pushed him down to the ground, ripped his knife out of one eye socket, and then sunk it into the fresh one. ‘For Akuma Severo!’

  I pulled Horace up to his feet. ‘Horace… that was disgusting. And in my name? So awesome! Thanks.’

  ‘For the master.’

  ‘Fuck yeah. For the fucking master. For me. Let’s go!’

  I cast Malign Influence at the bottom of the rubble and began throwing Soulburns into the enemy crowd. I kept an eye on my mana level. Anyone that came close took a dagger to the eye, or failing that, a Dark Lance Gurim through the chest.

  I hadn’t realised it, but as the battle continued, I was making my way down the pile of rubble. It was like some bloodthirsty part of me realised my power and was pushing me forward. And I liked it! I’d spent the last few months not knowing what I was doing, or where I was going, or anything. But this? This was simple. I knew exactly what to do. It was easy!

  A ranged unit saw me descending from on high and took a pot shot. Much to my dismay, it was a direct hit! Luckily, my Shadow Clone was up, and I simply blinked, appearing in a deeper shadow closer to the wall. I picked him out of the crowd and decimated him with a critical Soulburn hit. “306”. I must have triggered some sort of overkill mechanic, because he literally exploded. He got covered in darkness, clutched his heart, crystallised, and then exploded, spreading Soulburn’s DOT effect to anyone the shards hit.

  ‘Horace. Overkill is a thing?’

  ‘It is, master.’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me? This makes things much easier!’

  He laughed. Well, he laughed the only way a cultist can, so it was evil and more a cackle. The really worrying part was that I joined in.

  ‘This is what I signed up for!’ I shouted to no one in particular as I scored another critical, but this time against a mage. ‘I ooze power from every pore! I never want to leave!’

  ‘The dark lords provide, master!’

  We cackled again, and I wasn’t even sure why.

  I reached the bottom of the rubble, my spells still devastating the enemy ranks. I noticed the rear ranks of the enemy turning. Next thing I knew, a member of the gate guard was by my side. I turned to see that we’d broken them. We’d repelled the attack.

  With my chained fist lifted in the air, I screamed, ‘Run them down!’

  The wardancers, with their lithe, balletic movements, were the first to blur past me in pursuit. I broke into a sprint, caught up in an emotion I’d never felt before. A pure bloodlust. They had attacked my village. My people. My friends. How dare they!

  ‘Severo!’

  I was done being fucked with. I was the master now, and I was going to show them just what that meant!

  ‘Severo!’

  I’d levelled up, and I was going to make sure Koif knew who he was screwing with. I wasn’t some tutorial level noob. I was his worst nightmare.

  ‘Severo! Wake up!’

  I stopped sprinting. Someone was calling me. I didn’t see anyone in the crowd… up on the wall. Ixly was waving his arms and shouting my name.

  Shit, he was right
. The entire gate guard was rushing past me just to kill a few stragglers. Either we’d be surrounded, or we’d be letting the enemy inside the walls.

  ‘Everyone hold!’ I shouted. It wasn’t instant like it would be if I were in Overseer mode, but it rippled out from me as neighbours held those further away back.

  ‘Back to your positions! Prepare for the next wave!’

  I couldn’t see the next wave coming, but Koif must be planning some sort of retribution for the killing of his artillery.

  I rushed ahead of the gate guard to get back inside before they closed up ranks. Not that they wouldn’t let me through then, just that it would take much longer.

  Ixly met me as I walked back inside the walls.

  ‘I don’t know what came over me, sorry. Berserker mode?’

  He waved it away. ‘Combat affects us all differently. That was a close one.’

  ‘Was it? We didn’t lose too many, did we?’

  He made a non-committal noise. ‘Enough that I wouldn’t want to do it again.’

  ‘I’d rather not lose anyone, obviously, but my men held the enemy to account. They’ll think twice before trying another frontal assault. It worked perfectly. Our surprise of breaking through their light shields created a disordered charge. Textbook, Ixly!’

  He was keeping himself much more composed than I was. ‘Indeed. We’re lucky one of their artillery shots missed. Also, we won’t be able to rebuild that part of the wall.’

  ‘It’s fine. Just put any troops that are Strength based there, and the debuff won’t bother them.’

  I heard a squeaking, clicking sound in the distance, rapidly closing on us. We both turned to see the pointy hatted, arcane Geeko running as fast as it could and pointing behind it.

  ‘What’s he saying?’

  Ixly whispered, ‘No, those are legitimately just clicks and squeaks, I don’t know.’ He shouted so the Geeko could hear. ‘Slow down. Catch your breath. What’s wrong?’