Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  I sent back to the cat while glancing down at my feet towards the forest floor, seeing nothing but fallen leaves and debris from the trees above.

  Amaranth replied, the scent of decay flaring through our link as the cat took in a deep breath once more.

  I said thoughtfully, trying to block out the newest wave of the smell flowing through the shared link while I considered the cat’s words.

  Amaranth went on to query a second later, jumping to the most obvious conclusion.

  I answered, the same thought having crossed my mind as well, which, in turn, made me realize that it was time to bring the others into the conversation, prompting me to let out a low whistle to signal for them to stop.

  Amaranth said, despite his mental voice carrying a tone of doubt in it, the two of us moving with a renewed urgency to catch up to the scouts ahead of us.

  “What’s up, Lyr?” Cerril was the first to ask in a near-silent voice once we’d all caught up to one another, practically pressing our heads together so our conversation wouldn’t carry any farther than it had to. “Did you find something?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied while motioning over towards my familiar and giving them a quick run-down on what we’d discovered. “We’re not sure what it is, but Amaranth can’t place it.”

  “Hrm,” Cerril grunted thoughtfully after I finished speaking, the scout pausing to breathe in deeply as he tested the air. “I think I might smell…something on the wind now that you mention it, but it’s really faint, and I can’t quite make out what exactly it is. You’re sure it was coming from the south?”

  “As best as we could tell,” I replied, glancing down towards Amaranth, who promptly gave an affirmative chuff at the question. “Though with how dense this forest is, it’s impossible to know for sure. We only catch the rare whiff of whatever it is occasionally.”

  “Well, that’s not much to go on but more than we’ve seen…or rather smelled so far,” Huxley said, glancing over at Cerril, who nodded in response. “And we’re due to hit that valley soon anyway, so we’re not going out of our way if we try to figure out where it’s coming from. Worst case scenario, we just lose a bit of time.”

  “I think we have a big difference of what ‘worst case’ might be here,” Lazarus said in a dry tone as he shook his head. “In my books, the worst case is that we trip over something big and nasty and all get eaten before help can arrive.”

  “I was thinking roughly the same thing,” I replied with a chuckle, our brief meeting coming to an end as we resumed moving, this time with the cat in the lead.

  my familiar said to me as I followed him with an ætherscope in hand, his nose once again twitching as he prowled ahead of us.

  Traveling once more, this time on a southeastern track, the five of us blazed a new path through the creatures within the forest, our pace slowing as we were forced to contend with their higher levels. Pressing through them steadily, the forest floor beneath us began to gradually slope downwards as it began its descent into the valley we’d been steadily working towards. Yet as we did so, we all noticed the strange scent of decay in the air continue to grow, becoming more and more potent until even the others could smell it. Stopping once to renew our buffs and to inform the others of our concerns regarding the decay hanging in the air, the next hour passed uneventfully with no signs of anything unusual catching our attention.

  At least not until a hazy azure spot suddenly appeared in my vision ahead of me.

  “Hold up,” I whispered in an urgent tone, everyone instantly stopping the second that they heard my voice. “I see magic ahead.”

  “Shit, do we need to move?” Lazarus asked, his head turning to look at me as I crept forward past him and the other scouts.

  “No, I think we’re okay right now,” I replied, holding onto my ætherscope tightly as I inspected the source, seeing it was fixed in place. “Whatever it is, it’s not moving, but I can’t make out any more than that from here. I need to get closer.”

  Signaling for them to follow, the five of us crept forward in the direction of the magic that I’d spotted, our eyes and ears straining to take in everything of the surrounding forest with renewed caution. As we moved, I saw the faint spot that had originally caught my attention grow gradually brighter and easier to see. Where it first appeared as a barely noticeable glow of azure in the distance, it slowly resolved itself into an indistinct bloblike shape, taking on a white-blue tint the more the distance between us shrank.

  “This thing looks strange,” I whispered back to the party in the loudest voice that I dared, my gaze never moving from the formless aura of magic that continued to grow ahead of me. “It looks like it’s just a…cloud of magic or something. I can’t even begin to guess at what it is.”

  “Do you think it’s related to the smell we’re following, or even the Dread Crew camp?” Huxley stated in a hushed voice from behind me. “The stench is getting stronger, and this is roughly where I’d expect to find the place.”

  “It might very well be,” I replied as I signaled for the group to slow down to a crawl as the trees around us began to grow less dense, causing the forest to open up ahead of us. “In either case, we’re about to find out. Move slowly and don’t go past me. We’re not that far away from whatever it is now.”

  Leading the group forward with all the caution that I could muster, I slowly moved in the direction of the magic ahead, noting that with every step I took both it and the stench of decay continued to intensify. But as we pressed onwards and the trees began to clear, we found our attention drawn away from the mystery that lay ahead and onto our more immediate surroundings.

  “W-what the hell happened here?” I whispered back to the group as I came to a complete stop, my eyes darting everywhere as they tried to make sense of the destruction that we’d stumbled onto.

  Canted in all directions, the shapes of dozens of broken and damaged trees filled the area ahead as far as I could see. Everywhere I looked, I could see branches and trunks cracked and splintered as if a team of wrecking balls had attempted to clear out a patch of forest, sending debris everywhere. But as if the scene of shattered trees wasn’t enough to take in on its own, it was the remains of what had clearly been the Dread Crew camp that called out for our attention.

  Smashed and destroyed in a similar fashion as the forest around it, my eyes first landed on the remains of the sharpened wooden stakes that had marked the camp’s border, the once defensive fixtures now fit for little more than kindling. Glancing beyond them as I continued my inspection of the place, I was able to make out the vague shapes of what I assumed had once been a row of lean-tos, a fallen tree having flattened them completely.

  “I-I have no idea,” Cerril replied as we all continued to stare out at the scene we’d stumbled on to, caught off guard by both the camp’s sudden appearance and savage destruction it displayed.

  “It looks like something attacked the place,” Huxley offered, speaking in a slow and methodical tone as a fresh wave of pungent rot assaulted our senses, its source coming directly from the camp ahead. “Either that or they had a really fun time destroying the place.”

  “You could say that again,” Lazarus whispered, his eyes searching everywhere for threats as he spoke. “But in either ca
se, what the hell could shatter trees like that?”

  “Nothing that’s good for us I imagine,” I replied softly, taking in a shallow breath through my mouth as I shifted my attention back towards the magic that had guided us here. In the short distance forward that we’d traveled, the aura had managed to not only resolve itself even further but had since split into three vaguely mound-like shapes clustered close together somewhere deeper into the camp.

  Not sure what to make of the developments, be it regarding the magical signatures and scent that we’d followed or the camp’s destruction, I briefly debated halting our progress and regrouping with the raid before continuing any farther. At first glance, it seemed that one of the rare boss creatures that I’d been concerned about encountering in the Hartwyld had befallen the Dread Crew’s base long before our arrival, effectively destroying it for us and chasing the adventurers away. Yet as I considered the group’s abandonment of Shadow’s Fall and Carver’s devious nature, I found myself hesitant to take the place’s appearance at face value, knowing that there could still be a trap waiting for us somewhere ahead.

  “Let’s keep going,” I said to the group in a hushed voice as I made my decision to press deeper into the camp. “We need to see if we can find out what did this, if only so the raid doesn’t walk into a trap or an angry critter looking to do to us what it did to the camp.”

  Saying nothing, everyone in the group simply nodded at my words, and in short order afterward, we were all moving again and soon found ourselves entering the remains of the Dread Crew’s camp. Stalking forward with the utmost care, the next few minutes passed by slowly as we picked our way through the debris, spotting even more signs of destruction.

  Amaranth said to me as we moved, his words echoing the distant sounds that flowed across our shared link signaling the raid’s proximity.

  I replied to the cat as I guided the group around a tangled nest of trees that blocked the way towards what had once been the camp’s inner heart.

  As we rounded the trees, I was able to finally see the source of the azure auras in my vision, my eyes landing on three large mounds of what appeared to be black and grey mud. A near overwhelming wave of decay and rot emanated outward from each of them, leaving us with no doubt that they were the source of the smell that we’d followed. Holding my breath as best as I could, I glanced between the trio as I took in the scene, seeing that one of the decaying mud piles was sitting directly in the remains of what once had been a roughly constructed log hut. The others were farther into the clearing, one of them partially obscured in what looked like a large pile of leaves around it, with the second being roughly two dozen feet adjacent to it.

  Staring at the scene warily as I finished rounding the broken trees, I scanned over each of the mounds, trying to figure out why they would register as magical in the first place. Unfortunately, however, there was nothing obvious that I could see from a distance, save for the fact that whatever the mud was, it was actively generating its own magic and not channeling it from somewhere else. After watching it for a few seconds in hopes that I would discover something else, I found myself dismissing True Sight and attempting a more mundane inspection of the mounds—an approach which proved itself just as fruitless. Aside from random forest debris, there was nothing of interest in any of the decaying mud piles or a clue to what their purpose was.

  Assuming that they have one in the first place and that these mounds of mud are in fact mud at all and not something a bit more…vile, I thought as the anticipation of discovering the source of the stench and magic started to wane, leaving me feeling slightly lost at what to do next. But before I could even consider any next steps, I heard a faint grunt of surprise echo out from beside me, prompting me to glance over towards Cerril and see that he was staring intently at something.

  “What is it?” I asked in a hushed tone, deciding to risk a whisper. “Did you see something?”

  “I don’t know,” the elf replied, shaking his head quickly. “I could have sworn I saw something move, but there’s nothing—wait, there!”

  The elf finished speaking by raising his hand and pointing in the direction of the mud pile by the destroyed hut.

  “Look at that one and tell me that there isn’t a skull sticking out of it now.”

  All of us turned to follow Cerril’s outstretched finger, our gazes landing on a particularly large mound of mud just in front of the collapsed structure, which indeed did happen to have a large elk skull protruding from it, and it was staring right back at us.

  “Uh,” Lazarus whispered hesitantly. “Was that there a second ago?”

  “I don’t think so…” I replied, feeling a chill rush down my spine as I glanced around the suddenly-too-dark-and-quiet forest. “Hang on, let me take a closer look.”

  Staring ahead at the skull, I reactivated True Sight, instantly seeing the shadows around me vanish as my vision took on a faint azure hue.

  They bloomed a second later with a bright crimson magical signature in the exact same spot that I’d last seen the skull.

  “Whoa!” I exclaimed, flinching at the unexpected sight. “There’s something different about the—”

  But before I could finish speaking, a pained scream cut through the air and interrupted me, while at the same time, the eyes of the elk skull in front of us flared with dark, nearly pitch-black energy. Immediately afterward, the mound that the skull was sitting on began to undulate wildly, changing shape as it began to collect itself, rapidly growing taller as it assumed a vaguely humanoid shape.

  “Oh, shit! Back up!” I shouted to the group, everyone’s feet already moving as the need for stealth suddenly became moot.

  However, before we could put any distance between us and camp, two other dark auras suddenly sprang into existence in my vision. One of these belonging to a dripping wet alligator skull that was rising from the mound of mud surrounded by the leaves, which evidently had been concealing a pool of water. The other emanated from a vicious-looking bear skull at the farthest end of the clearing, the mud rising to give it shape. As if on cue, the two new skulls then began to rise, another set of tortured voices join the first, plunging the forest into an endless cacophony of screaming.

  “I guess we know now what happened to the camp!” Lazarus shouted as we rapidly backpedaled away from the scene, all of us stumbling over the debris underfoot.

  “No shit!” Huxley exclaimed. “What the hell are these things?! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

  “Fuck if I have a clue!” I replied, deactivating True Sight as one of the beings took a lumbering step towards us, its body having since finished forming, allowing me a chance to quickly appraise it. “But we’re sure as hell about to find out!”

  Standing at a little over nine feet tall, the creature was a wild amalgamation of black-grey mud intermixed with leaves, branches, and larger scraps of forest debris comprising its grossly misshapen body. Where its left arm appeared to be sleek and thin, bearing what looked to be a set of razor-sharp claws, its right was built thick and powerfully, all the better to support the large clublike fist that was set on the end of it. Then finally, resting high on top of the creature’s shoulders was the elk skull that we’d seen earlier, its eyes blazing with pure darkness as it advanced towards us, the small tag that I’d been waiting for finally appearing in my vision.

  [Corrupted Guardian] – Boss – Level 25

  And then, with a sudden burst of blinding speed, it lunged towards us.

  Chapter 15

  “Move!” I shouted needlessly as all five of us reflexively scrambled to get out of the charging elk guardian’s path, everyone already in motion before the words even left my mouth. Dodging to the left as fast as my legs could take me, I found myself half a step ahead of Amaranth and Huxley, the pair having chosen to follow me in their attempt to find safety,
with Lazarus and Cerril escaping in the opposite direction.

  Where the hell did these things come from? The desperate thought flew through my mind as I twisted to avoid the slow-moving wrecking ball that was the guardian’s right arm, the blow just barely sailing past us and promptly reducing a medium-sized tree a few yards behind from where we were standing into a spray of splinters.

  “Damn!” Huxley exclaimed as the broken tree then began to fall, making it only a few feet before getting caught in the branches above and coming to a stop. “Definitely don’t get hit by that!”

  “No kidding!” I exclaimed, managing to draw Splinter as I continued my retreat away from the elk skull guardian, its wailing screams not having let up for a second since the battle had begun.

  Amaranth’s voice rang through my mind as we continued to dance away from the creature which had chosen to fixate on the three us, a sweeping claw slicing through the spot that we’d just been standing in.

  “Shit! We have more incoming!” I called out, turning my head to see two rapidly approaching shapes out of the corner of my eye. One was rushing straight towards us, with the second running at a wider angle, its attention mercifully focused on Lazarus and Cerril instead of us.

  Not that surviving two boss-ranked creatures two levels higher than us is going to be easy, I thought desperately, feeling the world begin to slow as I triggered Alacrity, a surge of magic slowly rising up from inside me and across the link I shared with Amaranth.

  “Huxley, get clear!” I shouted to the scout, hoping to buy the man a few seconds to put some distance between himself and the coming melee.

  I barely had a chance to finish my sentence before Amaranth and I were forced to dodge a descending fist as the second mud creature charged into range, the shrouded bear skull that I’d seen earlier sitting atop its shoulders. Feeling the ground shake as the limb slammed into the ground beside me, I forced myself forward, darting past a follow-up swipe from its claw-tipped arm. Slashing as I moved, I felt Splinter carve a shallow line across the attacking forearm, the mud that it was made of parting like water under the blade’s edge. Surprised at the lack of resistance from the attack, I at first thought I had missed entirely before the guardian suddenly recoiled away from me in pain, its screaming voice warbling as it pulled its wounded limb back closer to its body.