Sovereign Rising (The Gods' Game, Volume III): A LitRPG novel

by Rohan M Vider

  “Mirien—” he began, then stopped.

  She took the decision out of his hands. Someone had to save the youth, and it could only be her.

  “Gaesin,” she called, “I’m going to release the rope, make sure you have a firm grip. You are going to have to manage the climb down on your own.”

  She didn’t wait for Gaesin’s response. Dropping the cable, she drew her blades and turned to meet the incoming ogres.

  ✽✽✽

  “What is that damn elf doing?” growled Adra, terrified for Gaesin as Mirien released the rope and disappeared from view.

  “She is buying Gaesin time,” whispered Kyran, swallowing painfully at the risk Mirien was taking. On her own, without support, against forty ogres, she would not last long no matter how fast she was. And her own reserves of energy must have been running low as well.

  He measured the escarpment again, wishing there was some way he could get to the top, but the cliff’s heights were out of the range of his teleport spell, and travel would take too long. Besides, what could he do? He was out of essence and low on psi. He glanced at Gaesin. And our only other caster is stuck on the damn rock wall.

  Come on, Kyran, think. He couldn’t let Mirien die up there, not without doing his utmost to help her survive. She has only once chance, he realised. With a heavy heart, he turned to Aiken.

  The jade bear was the only one that could reach the top. Even then, Aiken might arrive too late to save the whiesper. Kyran didn’t want to ask his companion to do this, but knew that he had to.

  Before he could voice his request, Aiken huffed his understanding and stone dived into the cliff. “Thank you, brother,” Kyran said softly through their mind link. He turned Adra. “Adra, do you think your ensnaring arrows can hit the ogres from down here?”

  Adra wrenched her gaze from the disappearing bear to stare at him grimly. “They will,” she vowed, hurrying away from the escarpment’s base to get a better angle from which to fire upon its heights.

  There was only one thing Kyran himself could do to help Mirien. Cupping his hands, he shouted, “Mirien, draw them to the cliff’s edge if you can!” Hoping she heard him, he sprinted to Adra’s side and began casting.

  ✽✽✽

  She didn’t have to hold the ogres long.

  A minute or two at the most, Mirien told herself. She had cast her protective air magic spells: blur, air armour, haste, and mirrored selves. Her psi pool was nearly depleted. What little psi she had left, she would have to reserve for shadow step.

  Assuming, of course, she lived long enough for that.

  Two minutes, she repeated to herself, then I can flee. But she knew that was an impossible task. The ogres were mere seconds away now, the ground trembling in time with their steps.

  She tightened her grip on her blades and waited. Why are you even doing this, Mirien? Why not just let the half-elf die? It is the Brotherhood’s way. The mission, her mind tried to convince her, was more important than any one person. The mission came before all else. And saving the half-elf was not her mission.

  Recruiting Kyran to the Brotherhood was. If Deegan were here, he would hiss furiously at her for what she was doing. Foolish girl, he would scream, leave the boy. He means nothing. Trembling at the effort, Mirien fought her instinctive response to obey. She couldn’t do it. Gaesin might be unimportant to her mission, but he was not unimportant.

  Despite her intentions, she had let herself grow attached. Somewhere in the course of the last few days, as she had done her best to get Gaesin to betray his confidences, she had grown to like the cheerful and guileless youth. She could not sacrifice him. Not to save herself. Not for the Brotherhood. And not even for her duty to her people. I’m sorry, master, she whispered. I’ve turned out a poor pupil, after all.

  Then there was no more time to think as forty-two ogres crashed into her.

  ✽✽✽

  In the moments before closing with Mirien, the marching ogres changed formation and spread out in two disciplined lines. At their centre, Mirien made out Gnarok’s grinning face. The ogre chieftain seemed certain he was going to get his revenge.

  Forty ogres were far too many for a lone fighter to hold at bay, and in the opening exchange of the skirmish, four of Mirien’s five mirrored selves perished. To save herself—she would do Gaesin no good if she perished in the first few seconds—she was forced to shadow step beyond the ogres’ right flank.

  But though she left the climbing cable unprotected, none of the ogres moved towards it. Gnarok’s shouted orders made certain of that. “Don’t let her escape! I will see to it that whoever claims her hide earns Xetil’s favour!” he boomed gleefully, delighted to have her in his grasp.

  But the ogres’ numbers and their leader’s eagerness to get to her, worked to Mirien’s advantage. Instead of pivoting around to converge on her lone form as one uniformed force, the warband’s ordered ranks broke apart as individual ogres scrambled to be the first to reach her.

  Needing to keep Gnarok’s attention on her and not the helpless Gaesin, Mirien didn’t attempt to slip away again. Instead she weaved adroitly through the ogres, their sudden disorganisation leaving her plenty of space to thread through the three-metre-tall lumbering behemoths.

  Protected by a hardened wall of air amour and blurring into the surroundings, Mirien ducked with the supernatural speed of haste around the ogre’s hammers.

  She made no attempt to parry their blows, trusting to her speed and dexterity to dodge. Nor did she attempt to strike out at the ogres, keeping her blades to herself except when an opportunity presented itself to blind or cripple.

  But it couldn’t last. The light of fury faded from Gnarok’s eyes. Seeing the chieftain’s narrowed eyes as he stared at her, Mirien knew he was going to change tactics.

  “Stop, you fools!” he roared. The ogres stuttered to a halt and swung towards their chieftain.

  In the silence that followed, the fragment of a bellowed shout reached her ears. “…to the cliff’s edge…”

  Was that Kyran? She thought it was. How long had he been hollering? Did he want her to draw the ogres to the escarpment’s edge? Why? Doesn’t matter, Mirien. Just do it.

  Seeing a path between the ogres’ legs, she rolled through before any of the ogres could stop her and backstepped her way to the edge. Even though it gave her less room to manoeuvre, she trusted Kyran had good reason for wanting her there.

  “Form ranks, ogres! Surround her! And close the gaps, you idiots!” Gnarok’s commands restored a semblance of order to the warband, and instead of rushing to her as they had previously, the behemoths closed with slow and deliberate purpose.

  A flight of arrows arced over Mirien and into the warband. She risked a glance backwards. It was Adra, firing into the massed ogres. As the arrows fell to the earth, they transformed into gyrating cords that wrapped around the ogres’ limbs.

  But most failed to hold the behemoths, the cords snapping with ease as the powerful warriors strained against them.

  I hope that is not all Kyran has up his sleeve, she thought. Because if it was, he had just killed her.

  Before her doubt could fester or the ogres could close much further, she felt the air around her ripple with searching tendrils of psi. Ah, much better, she thought as Kyran’s confusion spell washed over the surrounding ogres.

  The warband’s approach faltered. Some of the warriors’ eyes glazed over, while others struck at their companions. And yet others slumped or fell over. With sudden hope, she saw that fully half of the warband had succumbed to Kyran’s spell. Not Gnarok, though.

  The warband’s leader, realising what had befallen his troops, ignored the reaching hands of charmed ogres and charged straight towards her, his face reddening with rage.

  She rolled left, out of the enraged ogre’s way. Disappointingly, Gnarok halted his charge in time not to fall over the precipice. Pivoting around, far faster than Mirien expected, he struck out at her halfway through her tumble.

  The blo
w never landed.

  Before he could complete the blow, he staggered backwards, clutching his head in agony. He had been hit by a mind shock, Mirien realised. Bless you, Kyran. She rolled out of her dive and backpedalled away from Gnarok.

  Grown wary, Gnarok crouched down low and circled away from the edge so he was out of the line of sight of the party down below. “Ogres, get her!” he snarled to his unafflicted troops.

  As one, the unimpaired ogres converged on her. Sudden dread coiled in Mirien. She had nowhere left to retreat, and this time, the ogres advanced in in good order. There would be no slipping through. Time to shadow step away? she wondered.

  Gnarok sneered at her. “You won’t—”

  Aiken stone dived out of the cliff right before Gnarok’s feet. Before the stunned ogre could react, the jade bear’s jaws clamped down on his bare leg.

  A shimmering haze of green spread out from the bite and solidified, fully encasing the chieftain in a prison of jade. The shocked warband turned horrified stares upon the bear. Aiken roared triumphantly and gathered himself to charge their ranks.

  Mirien took the opportunity of the ogres’ distraction to glance down the escarpment. Gaesin was almost at the cliff’s base. Hope surged in her. Her task was done, and it was time to go.

  Mirien whipped around towards Aiken. “No, Aiken! Time to go!” He stuttered to a halt and shook his head in complaint. But he did as she bade and stone dived into the ground before the ogres—still mesmerised by their crystallised leader—could react.

  A second later, Mirien followed, shadow stepping away.

  ✽✽✽

  Battle Log (Ogre warband at top of the escarpment)

  The party has left the battle.

  Combat results

  Creatures bonded: 0.

  Hostiles killed: 0 of 42 ogre mountain guerrillas.

  Levels gained

  None.

  Items acquired

  None.

  Chapter 16

  16 Octu 2603 AB

  Kyran sighed in relief when he saw Mirien shadow step away. Aiken, he could sense from their bond, was also safe and diving back through the cliff back towards them. And Gaesin had nearly reached the bottom.

  They had survived. All of them.

  The churning in his gut subsided, and he turned to face the whiesper who had appeared next to him. “Good job, Mirien. Thank you for what you did. I won’t soon forget it.”

  “No problem, Kyran. All in a day’s work,” replied the whiesper, but her weary smile belied her words.

  He nodded in return. Though whatever Mirien said, what she had done was no small thing, and he would remember. “Alright, let’s get moving,” he said, turning to greet Gaesin, who had just touched down. He didn’t know where they would go yet, only that they couldn’t stay here.

  “Kyran! The rope!” called Adra from where she kept watch on the cliff heights.

  Kyran’s head whipped upwards. The ogres were reeling in the climbing cable. “No…” he whispered, shoulders sagging and steps faltering.

  “Kyran,” said Mirien, a stricken look on her face, “I’m sorry. I forgot about the rope.”

  He straightened his shoulders and attempted a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it, Mirien. I doubt you could have done anything to save the rope. What matters is that we are all safe. We will figure out how to make do without it.”

  Gaesin ran up to the pair. Relief suffusing his face, he exclaimed, “Thank you, Mirien! I thought…”

  “No thanks necessary,” Mirien said, patting the youth absently, her expression still desolate. A moment later, her gaze cleared and she focused fully on Gaesin. “It’s what companions do for each other, right?”

  The youth bobbed his head. Adra walked up from behind, and after running her eyes over Gaesin to make sure he was alright, she turned to Mirien and inclined her head gravely. “Thank you, Mirien.”

  Mirien returned her nod with a solemn one of her own.

  “What now?” Adra asked, looking to Kyran.

  Kyran glowered at the ogres on the cliff’s heights. They had finished pulling in the rope, but were making no attempt to use it. He doubted that they could anyway. As strong as the climbing cable was, he thought, the ogres were too heavy for the rope to bear.

  But just in case, they needed to get far away from here. He looked left and right along the escarpment. Gnarok’s band had approached from the west. Which meant that somewhere in that direction was a trail leading up the escarpment.

  Yet in the party’s current state, they could not afford to run into the ogres again. Not until they had rested. And there were other ogres stalking them to the south and west—at least three separate hunting parties.

  “We head east,” he said finally as Aiken arrived in a shower of stone. He called the worgs to heel. “Our first priority is to find somewhere to hole up and rest. After that, we can decide our next move.”

  ✽✽✽

  The party retreated southward from the escarpment until they were out of the sight of Gnarok’s warband on the cliff’s height. Only then did Kyran turn the party eastwards.

  He did not want to risk camping near the escarpment in case Gnarok’s warband somehow made their way down again.

  It took Mirien and Adra almost an hour to find a suitably defensible location for their camp. Kyran couldn’t blame them. They were all beyond weary and far from their sharpest. The spot chosen by the two women was a cave that at some point in the past had been the lair of a predator.

  The den was littered with broken bones and scraps of fur, and its walls were scratched with claw marks. Looking at how high the marks reached, Kyran shuddered.

  Whatever had lived here had been large. Much larger than Aiken or even his dame, the matriarch. But the creature was long gone, and the cave was dry and clean.

  “Perfect,” said Kyran, surveying the lair while the rest of the party flopped wearily down. “Cold rations, then sleep for you all of you. I will take first watch, Adra—”

  “No, Kyran,” interrupted Gaesin. “Let me take first watch. I managed to grab some rest earlier on Aiken’s back, so I can manage a little longer. And if the ogres attack, we need you well rested.”

  Seeing Kyran’s hesitation, Mirien added, “He is right, you know.”

  Kyran nodded reluctantly. “Thanks, Gaesin. I’ll position the worgs outside and see if we can use them to warn us of approaching danger. That should make your job easier.”

  He had been too tired during their flight to the escarpment to experiment with his bond to the creatures. He had some vague notion of using the worgs as a defensive screen around the party, but was not certain yet if the creatures were intelligent enough to accept more than simple commands of ‘attack’ and ‘follow.’

  Now was the best time to find out. He reached into the mindscape and tried to communicate his requirements through the psi bond linking the minds of the three worgs to him.

  Choosing three points, equidistant apart and at least a hundred metres away from their cave, he projected into each of the beast’s minds the image of a worg keeping watch. At his sendings, the three creatures sat up and cocked their heads to the side. But they made no move to comply with his orders.

  Kyran ground his teeth in frustration. It didn’t seem like the beasts understood his needs. Was he doing something wrong? Or were such commands beyond them. Whatever the case, he was too tired to experiment further. He opened his mouth to explain his failure to the rest of the party when Aiken entered the mindscape.

  The great bear reached into the worgs’ minds across his bond with Kyran and sent the three a flurry of images. Aiken’s sending was somehow both more precise and complex than Kyran’s own, managing to explain the party’s needs in more exacting details than Kyran’s own crude communication.

  The three worgs wagged their tails and bobbed their heads in the great bear’s direction before padding out of the cave to their allocated positions. His mouth gaping foolishly, Kyran could only stare at Ai
ken in amazement for a long moment. “Well, that decides it,” he eventually murmured, “we’ll leave all further beast commands to you.”

  Through the bond, he felt the bear’s smug satisfaction at his accomplishment. Heaving a contented sigh, the bear closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep. Kyran smiled in bemusement; Aiken still had the capacity to surprise him.

  “Well, Aiken has seen to the worgs,” he said to the rest of the party. “The beasts are on guard duty, but we should still maintain a watch of our own.”

  The other three nodded and fell to their rations with ravenous hunger. Once he was done with his meal, Kyran turned to Gaesin. “I have a request.”

  Gaesin looked at him questioningly.

  Kyran hesitated. “You have enough ability points to learn an apprentice-ranked spell, right?” At Gaesin’s nod he continued, “Will you learn the magic shield spell? I think it’s time we passed on the Lesh’s bracelet of magical shield to the only other melee fighter in the party besides Aiken,” he said, nodding in Mirien’s direction.

  “Of course, Kyran. You’re right. It will serve the party much better if Mirien has it.” The half-elf removed the bracelet and handed it to the whiesper. Mirien took the item tentatively from Gaesin and raised an eyebrow at Kyran.

  “The bracelet is infused with the spell design of magic shield. It will give you an added layer of protection,” he explained.

  Mirien bowed gravely to Kyran and Gaesin. “Thank you, Kyran. This is an invaluable gift.”

  “It’s nothing more than you have earned through your efforts on the party’s behalf,” he replied. “Now, you and Adra should go rest. I have to see to my levelling first.”

  Adra nodded. “You’ve attained your class?”

  Kyran smiled. “Yes, last night, but we were interrupted before I could finish.”

  In the act of getting up, Mirien paused. “You have chosen a class?” she asked, looking surprised. “What did you decide upon?” she asked.

  Kyran hesitated, then reminded himself Mirien had proven herself. “A jade wild druid,” he replied.