Hope Engine

by Andrew Lynch

  200 men on my side. 50 on the walls, 50 being held back as they were mine and Ixly’s minions.

  1 me, standing on the front line, shoulder to shoulder with some of the bravest troops I had ever seen. Or dumbest. I was surrounded by a unit of tall, slim, nearly naked men. Between 10 of them, they had 5 shields, 2 spears, and 3 axes. Their shields were slabs of aquatic stone that looked like I’d take damage by merely running my hand over it. The rock itself was a coarse sandpaper, and it was covered in spiked animals. They were using a fucking coral reef. Eyes Above… Plugging the other half of the breach were 2 troops. The insect alien race. They were writhing around each other, their chitinous plates locking and unlocking in a complicated dance of shifting defence. At first I didn’t really see the point, surely they could hunker down and sit still if they just wanted to create a shield wall. Then I saw between the movements, beneath their armoured shells, and into the black squishyness beneath. Barbed blades hid in every crack of their insectoid armour, ready to lash out when someone was foolish enough to enter their range.

  10 seconds until the enemy hit.

  One of the reef lords blew a conch twice, and the shielded men twirled their rocks and slammed them into the ground on their sides. They now came up to just above waist height, and I realised that they hadn’t been peculiar tower shields. They were designed to be used this way. On their side, they became a weapon of their own, as what was now the tops of them were covered in hard shells and deep crevices, from which lashing spikes and infectious tentacles protruded.

  I laid down my AOE spells in front of my units. I saw others do the same, a multitude of different spells, colours, runes, and things flowing into, out of, and around the ground. I knew that mine was Malign Influence which lowered Luck and Mind, but there was no way for me to know what the others did – perhaps more debuffs, or perhaps direct damage.

  As the first wave of enemy arrived, I steeled myself, sending Gurim into my skeleton chain for added dark damage. 10 metres away, the first enemy stepped into the circle of AOE goodness we’d laid out for him. He froze, instantly covered in ice. The next did the same, and the third. I saw the icy blue spell on the ground disappear, it’s charges spent. The next 5 unlucky enemies reached the middle of the circle and exploded. There wasn’t an explosion, they exploded and sent flaming gorey debris back into their own lines. Even over the screams of 1,000 enraged enemies, I could hear the maniacal cackle of a dwarf from the back of my own lines. The next enemy, even seeing his fellows’ fates, continued on. Not that he had a choice, of course, as the press of numbers had no way of stopping at this point. But this enemy, the last to trigger one of these preset traps, roared in pain as his bones contracted and his skin sprouted fur and he became… a cute bunny. The boot of the next enemy came down hard and smeared him across the hard, dead ground.

  The fighting began in earnest.

  As the first real wave of enemies stepped into the AOE puddle, numbers began slowly ticking from all of their nameplates. All we had to do was lock the enemy in combat, and we would have them. But of course, I knew that this breach would be overwhelmed before that could happen. Luckily, that wasn’t what I was holding out for. I was waiting for Koif.

  The ground rocked as the first enemies pushed back the reef shields and slammed into the whirling chitin. Aquatic parasites attacked all those foolish to get close enough, while the hatchets and spears of the other reef lords began their work – and work they did! Their shields held strong, creating a barrier that required the enemy to jump over, but the shields were living terrors. The ones with weapons were only in place for any enemies that got too zealous and tried to hurdle the shields while the parasites were too busy dissolving the first attackers.

  Now, the insect aliens were another matter entirely. I had expected their chitin to act as a barrier, but their talons were too swift to allow any enemy to close the distance. It was a phenomenal sight to see the two act as one, scything bones flicking out and killing with the ease of a strimmer cutting grass.

  Part of me questioned if there was even a point in being there, but I knew that this wouldn’t last. Their numbers would win out eventually. I raised my arms and aimed. Not at the enemy, because I couldn’t miss, but I made sure that I didn’t hit the reef lords in front of me.

  I fired my first Soulburn of the defence. It pierced through one enemy’s abdomen, stopping him in his tracks, then through a second before finally being stopped and casting its shadowy death on the third target.

  It had never done that before.

  I fired another to see if the penetration had been a fluke, but no, I felled three enemies again. Had I levelled up? Oh, yes, actually. I was level 12 now – how did I keep missing that? But I hadn’t changed my spells. I hadn’t gained any new ranks. I didn’t have time to dwell! I had a defence to hold.

  Missiles began to fly overhead. Most were far too high as The Eastern Shadow forces didn’t want to risk hitting their own, but some ricocheted off the walls. They mostly fell down, robbed of all momentum, but from the shouts behind me, some had to be hitting their marks.

  My army had no uniformity. At all. The individual squads of 5 to 20 followed rules, but outside of the squad level, everyone was different. Units from all around the world, as far as I knew, and they were just as diverse as you’d expect. Some were battle hardened, some were green. Some stood up tall and proud, others slouched and barely paid attention to orders. The enemy had the same vibe going on visually. Pockets of races that they had conquered as the army crossed the land. Yet, there was no individuality. They all acted the same. None slouched or fidgeted. And in this charge, they all ran headlong into danger. As well they should, of course. Any commander would require that of their troops. But they were all blank. The insult I had delivered earlier alongside my goblins had only reached a single person. Koif. It was clear that no one else cared. Or if they did, they couldn’t show it.

  When one of them leaped over the coral shields, he should have been enraged. Or scared. Or excited. He was nothing. And as my Soulburn ripped through his chest, making him ragdoll to the ground, he became nothing. But perhaps he had been nothing since he was converted.

  Slowly but surely, the coral shields became clogged with dead bodies as the parasites within couldn’t dissolve, devour, or decimate the bodies fast enough. The reef lords with spears and hatchets worked in a frenzy. I’d hesitate to call what they did efficient, as their swings were wild and loose and angry, but they clearly knew what they were doing. The 5 shield bearers, huddled behind their makeshift coral reef, tried to shift any bodies they could, but it was too much. They’d be overrun soon. The whirling chitinous mass to my right was still going strong as the piling bodies only aided them.

  I had to do something. Clear the path and provide some respite. But my only AOE spell wasn’t direct damage, and I didn't have anything else.

  I felt a tug on my arm. Gurim, gently wriggling against me, trying to get away. Oh, of course. I kept thinking of myself, of warlocks, as casters. But I had more than just my spells. I dropped a few loops of my jailor’s chain. Gurim mixed with the rusted steel, giving it a dark, shimmering look.

  For the first time, I checked the stats on the weapon.

  Jailor’s Chain.

  Melee: speed – user. Damage – user Strength +10

  Range 1: speed – user -1. Damage – user Strength x2 + Agility.

  Range 2: speed – user -2. Damage – user Strength x3 + Agility.

  Range 3: speed – user -3. Damage – user Strength x3 + Agility x2.

  I did some quick mental maths. I hadn’t put any points into Strength or Agility, so they were still both sitting at 10. I’d be doing less damage than my spells, but with an AOE range of 3 metres in this target dense funnel, I’d be getting some work done.

  A clump of sandpaper-rough stone flew past my head, chipped off one of the coral shields, and it brought me out of my inventory’s interface. I let the chain out until I would be doing the 3 metre range attack
, which made it a two handed weapon. I began spinning the manacle around, preparing to do something that, from all possible views, didn’t really make much sense. Ixly would have been better suited, with his extreme bulk. In fact one of the insectoids currently whirling around next to me seemed far better suited than me for this job.

  I got the attention of one of the reef lords without a weapon and shouted a command. He gave a nod and readied the man next to him in preparation for what seemed to be something they did on a regular basis. Apparently, launching your allies into the middle of the enemy horde, is a regular reef lord tactic.

  I braced myself into a sprinter’s running stance. Waited for another corpse to sprawl over the top of the reef. And ran.

  My first 3 steps were getting up to speed. The next was a leap up onto the reef of bodies. And the final was a jump into the air. I felt the reef lords push me up, launching me far further than I had intended to go.

  I went over the heads of the first three rows of incoming attackers, kicked the fourth in line in the face, and crashed bodily into the fifth.

  The creature I’d landed on had managed to stay on its feet only because of the tight press of other shadeless beings around it. I tried to push it away from me, but it had small barbs all over its skin. Brilliant. I’d fucking velcro’d myself to the enemy.

  Gripping the manacle in my right hand, I used it as a knuckle duster and started hitting the enemy in the face. The blows weren’t getting it away from me, but at least the attack was stopping it from hurting me. Every hit made a small number ping off its nameplate, and a debuff appeared called “dazed”. It appeared I had, rather unfairly, grappled this poor guy into a stun lock. While I felt this wasn’t great sportsmanship, I wasn’t going to give up my advantage, so I continued turning his face into paste.

  Shouts went up around me as the enemy realised I was in their midst. No one had anything shorter than a sword, so any attacks would require them to back up, which was perfect, because I needed them far enough away to start doing my discus thrower impression.

  The one I’d landed on had gone limp, and when I checked his nameplate I realised he was dead. Still stuck to me, but dead. An enemy to my left tried to engage with his fists and took a swing at my midsection, hoping to topple me over. I braced myself but knew there wasn’t much I could do this close. I heard a loud crack and he lost a chunk of health. I peered down my robe and realised what had happened. Never punch metal armour.

  As that one staggered back in pain, I saw one behind him turn to face me. He was far enough away that he could get a good swing at me. I threw the manacle at his face and scored a hit, knocking him over. I got yanked from behind as a new enemy must have dropped his weapons to deal with me in the confined space. His arm slipped round my throat and began squeezing. My Life began ticking away and I realised the downside of my Shadow Clone defence spell. It required a certain amount of damage dealt, or a certain level of impact to trigger. Someone could choke me out right here on the battlefield.

  The one I’d dealt a manacle to the face had recovered and now had me as a stationary target. I had a sudden worry that, perhaps, jumping into the middle of the enemy forces with no plan, or suitable weapon, hadn’t been a great idea.

  Not being able to breathe was an issue. A pretty big fucking hinderance, I’d say. But it didn’t stop me from casting. I raised my hands, the dark and cold power forming in my left as the soldier raised his sword – jumping to my right as he screamed a cry of war – shot through his chest as he brought the sword down. The two people behind him dropped to the floor at the same time.

  Now to the problem at hand. Breathing. I swung wildly with the jailor’s manacle back in the brass knuckles role and managed to miss whoever had me in a choke hold, slapping them with my forearm more than anything else. They grunted but also gripped tighter. I swung again, and they retaliated by crushing my throat just a little bit more. My vision started to darken. Oh shit.

  I needed help. I’d fucked up so damn bad. Think!

  I started seeing sparks running around everywhere as blood stopped reaching my brain. With what limited neck movement I had, I managed to glance up. Some of my men were on the wall, The jump down would, at the very least, break their legs. But maybe there was a marksman up there. I tried to shout out and get their attention, but only a high pitched, strangled sound came out. And someone took the opportunity to hit me in the side of the head, hastening my descent into blackness.

  Think! Thinking was getting hard. The reef lords? They’d launched me five lines deep, they couldn’t even see me in this press anymore. The swirly alien insects? They were big enough to see me, but I didn’t know what they were doing, how their vision worked, or what their swirling blade dance locked them into.

  My knees buckled, and I slumped in the enemies grip. My lungs felt like they were on fire to the point that I didn’t even care about how much my neck hurt. Why did I keep getting strangled in this game? It sucked!

  How did I get out of the last one?

  Gurim!

  Last time, he’d been roaming free and had already been told to attack. This time I’d bound him to my weapon. When I’d tried to hit Mr. Strangler with my manacle, I’d been going for a direct hit, but I hadn’t been in the best space of mind for subtle things like “accuracy”. This time, Gurim could do the work.

  This was it. My last attempt before I passed out, got killed, and respawned days later after Thanis had fallen to The Eastern Shadow. I raised my arm as far above my head as I could manage, then tried to get it as far behind me as I could.

  I needed to tell Gurim to use his Dark Lance ability. To skewer the guy right through his head. Sever the spinal column. Make him so holey he’d be considered a martyr… Gurim wasn’t doing anything. Right, I had to command him. With my voice…

  No! I had done it with my thoughts before. I was almost done, but I could think one last thought.

  Gurim. Dark Lance the enemy that has me in a choke hold.

  I’m not going to say that it was actually worse, but the feeling of air rushing back into my lungs was a very close second on the pain scale to being choked to death. I fell to the ground, with my attacker landing on top of me. Which, actually, was just fine, because I needed a moment of respite.

  Being choked almost to death really takes it out of you. I mean… jeez. You know?

  With my Life mostly returned after having it choked out of me by suffocation, I pushed the dead enemy off me, thanked him for hiding me from the rest of the enemy, and scrambled to my feet. Again, the press of people served to protect me from any instant steel rebukes. I had to grab one enemy by the armour just to get up. The press seemed even tighter than last time, in fact. I was now face to face with one of the enemy, but I wasted no time. A Soulburn through his gut made him and the two behind him keel over. I Soulburned to my left, and then again to my right. Eyes, at this rate, I didn’t need any AOE! But I checked my mana and realised that I couldn’t keep spamming Soulburns for long.

  I shoved one enemy that was looking a bit too much like he was going to react by giving me a good stabbing, and I was ready to start my ill advised plan of swinging a chain around.

  I let out the manacles to their one meter length and swung the chain around me with my arm over my head. I hit one guy in the shoulder, and a guy behind me lost his helmet.

  I let it out further to the two metre range and started getting more hits. Each rotation was taking noticeably longer, but I was definitely hitting harder, and more importantly, I was hitting more of the enemy. I was beyond striking range from any of their swords, so anyone that wanted to try and stop my attack would have to accept a hit. I counted four hits on my first swing, and then none on the second. The Jailor’s Manacles may not have had an actual knockback rule, but self preservation was a pretty good knockback against any sane enemy.

  I let the chain feed out to the full three metres, and now the pain had officially been brought. I stopped counting after the first dozen hits. I was sp
inning as I swung now, my arm not being able to take the momentum on its own. I couldn’t stop to see how much damage I was doing, but I didn’t see a reason to stop any time soon. Worst case, the enemy was ignoring me and running round the sides – which still meant I was stemming the tide. Best case, I had already taken down a swathe of The Eastern Shadow forces, and that was why I was getting fewer hits.

  I took slow and incredibly unbalanced steps in the direction I thought the enemy were. As I moved, I started getting more hits, and took that as a good sign. More and more enemies fell, and, luckily for me, the crowd was too dense to bring any weapons to bear on me that could get past my attacking defence.

  I couldn’t see anything during my spin, but my vision slowly faded into a blazing, painful white. Was this a magical attack? I saw white tiles and a man standing over me. A little girl joined him in looking down at me. She poked my face.

  ‘Severo! I said stop! You’re too far out!’

  My vision snapped back to Tulgatha as Ixly’s shouted words broke through the spinning, oxygen deprived haze I was in. I planted my feet down, and slowly allowed the chain to bring itself to a halt.

  Once my body had stopped spinning, my mind continued, and I stumbled, almost falling several times. Whatever I had just done, I would hardly call it “controlled”.

  ‘Run!’ Ixly roared.

  I dropped to one knee as the dizziness finally won. Using my hand on the ground to steady me, I finally managed to check my surroundings.

  The breach had been cleared. Except I was nowhere near it. I’d spun my way twenty ranks deep into the enemy army. Being someone that lived their life in a pod, and chose a class traditionally known for liking dark places, I had never considered myself claustrophobic. I was now reconsidering that notion. I had spun my way into being surrounded by enemy spears. The way behind me was littered with bodies, and it was a clear path from me to the breach. I could see the reef shields had been cleared.