THE ASCENDANCY - The Final Days of the Den - Day 6

  The entire den had snapped into action as the kobolds and the rest of our group prepared for the fight. "I think they've brought some kind of siege weapons right to the boundary line. I don't know how yet. It has to be some kind of construct. But when the projectiles hit, they're exploding on impact. The wall sections that are built have taken a couple of hits and seem to be holding, but a lot of the things are flying over the wall and hitting the ground around the rock formation."

  "ARi, are we safe down here?"

  "We're safe down here for the moment, but eventually we could be in real trouble," she said.

  "Okay, nobody go outside yet. If they've zeroed in on the rock formation, or they know where the entrance is, they could be trying to get us to come running out. ARi, I want you to cut us an escape passage at the end of the corridor where our rooms are. Go out as far as you can before cutting out. Do it in a direction that's away from where the projectiles are coming from."

  I raised my hand toward the center of the den, brought up my architect menu as quickly as I could, and summoned two more of the kobold rogues, this time at level 2. I knelt down in front of Sawyer.

  "When she's done carving that tunnel, I want you to take these rogues and find the creatures that are attacking us, do you understand? Don't worry about trying to take down those machines. Look for the creatures like the ones that attacked the girls."

  The little kobold ran over to the new rogues and started chirping at them a million miles an hour before they followed him into the barracks.

  "Red, you're going to take your two squads and go with Tim. Do whatever he asks you." Red tapped his chest, and the six kobolds, shields and all, sat at the entrance of the hallway waiting for Tim's orders.

  "Gavin, what about you? Why do they have to follow me? You're not going?" Tim asked.

  "I'm sorry, guys. I'm not going to be able to go this time," I said. "ARi, I want you to get all of your armor on and go into my quarters. You're going to take control of Bishop and keep him here inside the den."

  ARi's eyes grew huge in understanding as she realized what was happening. "You think they're trying to take me out?"

  "I do. I think the constructs are a distraction to try and flush us out. And it's a good one, because we can't ignore it."

  I looked at the others. "I need you guys to understand that there could be a real threat right now and that this room, is not safe. You need to take the cohorts and go take out those constructs."

  It only took a couple of seconds for Tanya to realize what I was inferring, and her face went pale.

  "Well, Gavin," she said through her teeth, "Maybe we should all stay down here."

  "In a normal situation, I would say that's a good idea, Tanya. But we can't. I need you to take out the constructs."

  I leaned down and whispered instructions to Jack, and he tapped his chest and ran back into the barracks.

  "I need you guys to do as I ask, because this next part is not going to be something that anybody likes.." I raised my hand again to the center of the room, and, using my skill Territory-Anchor, I formed a Control-Node right in the middle of the den. The obsidian-looking spire grew up from the center of the room, forming a large pillar that almost reached the top of the dome ceiling.

  Casting the ability instantly dropped my stamina to zero and dipped into my health. I collapsed onto the floor. I could taste the iron of blood in my mouth. I heard ARi scream and the others gasp before my vision went black as I fell unconscious.

  When I opened my eyes again, I was in the corner of my own quarters on the floor, being propped up and held by ARi. I could hear her crying. "Gavin Daniels, you idiot!"

  "I'm sorry, ARi. It had to be done."

  "Where are we?"

  "Thanks to your brilliant plan, we are huddled in the corner of your quarters in the dark. I tried to fill the entire corridor with solid stone, but I wasn't able to get more than a foot thick from the door before that thing decloaked in the den.

  "Did everybody make it outside?"

  "Yes. And I have no idea what's happening because they're already outside the boundary."

  "Gavin, why did you send everybody out if you knew that thing was in here?"

  Looking back up at her, I smiled. "I didn't send all of them out. Where's Bishop?"

  "Bishop's standing in front of where the entrance to the hallway was. Gavin, that Reaper is level 10. How the hell did he get so high?"

  "I don't know, but he doesn't even seem to be giving Bishop any notice. It's like he might as well not even be there. And it's not letting you phase anything near him?"

  "No, I keep getting warning windows telling me that I can't execute that action with a hostile this close."

  "What's the Reaper doing right now?"

  "He keeps circling that Control-Node. I think he's trying to figure out how to take it down."

  "I'm sorry, ARi. I know it was a long shot, but I threw the Control-Node down because I thought it might mess up whatever they were trying to do. And it looks like I was right, otherwise he'd be trying to get into this room right now instead of taking out that node."

  "All right, do you have control of Bishop right now?"

  "I do," ARi said.

  "Are you going to be able to fight that thing with Bishop, more effectively than Bishop can fight himself?"

  "That's how it was before he leveled up, Gavin, but honestly, I think he might be better off without me pulling the strings."

  THE ASCENDANCY - The Boundary

  The kobolds huddled behind their shields, crouched in the forest, as another wave of spikes slammed across their line. Two more kobolds fell in the barrage, leaving two dead and one critically wounded. The last three kobolds slowly backpedaled, trying to protect the wounded as they made their way back into the shelter of the trees.

  Three massive, siege-like constructs continued hurling projectiles toward the keep, while two smaller constructs that moved on four awkwardly articulating legs spun up some kind of mechanical bolt launcher that tracked targets while firing rapid-fire barrages of kinetic bolts. The shields did little to stop the impactors from ripping through the little kobolds.

  One of the machines pressed forward on the shield wall and the device began to wind up to launch another salvo when two shining darts ripped through the construct, shredding it where it stood before it collapsed in on itself.

  "Tanya!" Yumi screamed.

  "I'm on it," Tanya replied as she moved toward the wounded kobold.

  Another of the war machines moved around the larger siege weapon, taking aim at the girls as four stone fingers ripped from the ground around it and closed on the construct, smashing and crushing it down to the Earth.

  Tim jumped on the third, hammering his bronze blade into the head of the construct over and over before jumping off as Tanya slammed a necrotic bolt into its mass. The construct staggered but didn't fall. Unable to see, it sprayed rapid-fire darts randomly in desperation.

  Right as the weapon began to spool up again, Yumi summoned her shield drones. Instead of shielding her team, who were now spread out around the fight, she had them form a tight shell around the outside of the construct. The shield didn't last long, but it jammed the device long enough for it to smash itself to pieces.

  Tim ran up, tackling the machine to the ground. The remaining kobolds circled the device, impaling it with their spears until it stopped moving.

  The massive siege engine launched another projectile, arcing high into the air.

  "Kyle!" Tim yelled.

  "I got it!" Kyle shouted.

  As the ground behind the massive siege engine folded up like the cover of a book and slammed back on itself, it crushed the siege engine.

  "Is everybody okay?" Tanya yelled as she hovered her hand over the chest of a little kobold.

  "I'm good," Tim said.

  "Me too," Kyle replied.

  "Those sons of bitches killed two of our kobolds. And there's still two of the big ones left," Yumi said as she recalled her drones.

  "Where the hell are the rogues?" Tim asked.

  THE ASCENDANCY - The Den

  Shit. I flinched. I could feel ARi jump before she held me tighter.

  "Gavin, what's wrong?"

  I looked up in shock, "We lost two of our kobolds."

  "ARi, tell Bishop to kill that thing!"

  "I don't know if he can, Gavin."

  "I know. Even if he can't, we need to create a distraction."

  Signaling Bishop, the familiar didn't hesitate. He stood up on two legs as his upper arms formed into pointed spears and the fin blades lashed out across the others. He charged the Reaper, grabbing onto the creature's back, wrapping his tail and body around the monster and lashing out with blades and spear tips.

  The Reaper managed to get a hold of Bishop, ripping him off its body and throwing him violently across the room. Bishop got right back onto his feet and jumped back into the fight. This time he was able to knock the Reaper down and focused his attention on its face.

  The Reaper got back to its feet, pulled Bishop off, grabbed the familiar by his tail and head, and slowly pulled until he ripped the familiar in half and tossed him to the floor.

  I felt ARi flinch as Bishop went offline.

  The Reaper moved to the stone-filled entrance and began pounding and chipping away at the rock. Two kobold rogues decloaked to each side of the entrance, climbed up onto the Reaper's back, and began plunging their poisoned knives into gaps in its armor. The Reaper roared in anguish, turned its back to the wall, and threw itself backward, killing one of the rogues outright while the other clung on, thrusting his little blade in and out as many times as he could.

  Sawyer and Jack decloaked from the center of the den, rushing the Reaper. Jack pulled out his khopesh and began slashing his bronze blade into the back of the Reaper's leg. Sawyer climbed up the front of the Reaper, pulling both of his daggers from their sheaths and plunging them into the Reaper's face over and over until the Reaper stopped trying to grab the rogue from its back and instead tried to block the onslaught, covering its face with its arms and hands.

  The Reaper began to choke as Sawyer reached up and grabbed the wounded rogue from the monster's shoulder. With Jack's help, they dragged the wounded rogue away from the flailing death throes as the Reaper fell to the ground, gagging and reaching toward the little rogues.

  With one last gurgling roar, the Nox Reaper was dead.

  I felt the tension in her body ease. "What is it, ARi?" We both stood up and she looked up at me before waving her hand and throwing up a system window.

  [SYSTEM WINDOW] COMBAT REPORT

  Outcome: Victory -- 1 hostile Nox Reaper eliminated.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Kobold-Rogue Sawyer, Level 4, killed Level 10 Nox Reaper using Poisoned-Daggers. Assisted by Bishop, Jack, and two additional Kobold-Rogues.

  Nox Reaper, Level 10, killed Kobold-Rogue, Level 2, by blunt-force trauma.

  "Yes!" I screamed as I hugged ARi, picking her up off the ground, spinning her in the room, and kissing her.

  "ARi, are you able to use your phase abilities again?"

  "Yeah, Gav, it looks like I can."

  "Good. Absorb Bishop, and if we have the materials I want you to go ahead and repair him again. Can you also clear the hall so I can get out and help the kobolds? One of them is wounded according to my interface."

  "Okay, it's done, Gavin. Come on, let's go," ARi said. She reached down and grabbed my hand as we ran back into the den.

  I raced over to the kobolds and knelt next to my little wounded rogue. I tore off the bottom of my shirt and wrapped it tightly around his wound.

  "The gash is deep, and he's lost a lot of blood. I hope he'll be okay."

  ARi, who stood over the level 10 Reaper's corpse, stared at it for a moment before she began kicking the shit out of it, cursing and swearing. I raced over to her and held her. She tried to fight out of my arms, eventually turning, putting her face into my chest, and crying.

  "It's all right. You're okay. We're okay," I said, holding her there.

  "I don't want you to look, ARi, but can you absorb the corpse?"

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the thing disappear from the floor.

  "It's okay. It's gone. You're okay."

  She pushed away and smacked my chest hard. "Gavin, why did you send the others away? Why did you have to do it like this?"

  "ARi, I did it this way because there was no way to know how many of them were actually in the den with us. They could have hidden in here until we went back to sleep or tried to cut us down while we tried to run when the ceiling finally started crashing down. I wanted to trick them into thinking that we were completely alone so they would act. I had the kobolds take the remaining orbs and hide themselves, waiting until they saw an opportunity to attack."

  "How was throwing up that Control-Node and passing out part of your plan, Gavin?" she snapped, hitting me again.

  "Yeah. I thought I was going to be weak for a little bit, but I didn't think I was going to pass out. I was worried about the mechanics, you said yourself they're vague, and I didn't want some kind of construct or some unseen mechanic coming into play. I'm sorry, ARi. I didn't mean to scare you, but I'm glad I did it because that thing was seriously pissed when I dropped that node in the den. As powerful as that thing was, I don't understand why it didn't try to destroy the node."

  ARi let out an exasperated sigh and sat down onto the bench, quietly staring at the floor for a moment before looking back up. "Because when you put that node down you put it in an unwinnable situation, at least as far as node mechanics go. He couldn't get to us because I was able to seal off the hall, and it couldn't destroy the node because it has to be captured. You and I were too close. To capture a Control-Node there can't be any hostiles near the node.

  "Gav, I know what his plan was because I was able to loot the damn thing when I absorbed it. He had the parts for some kind of bomb on him. Looks like we're not the only ones with inventory abilities. Lucky for us the system sees devices like this as a construct. When you put that Control-Node down, he wasn't able to use it."

  "Wait, ARi, you said hostiles can't use constructs inside your influence. And why couldn't you detect them?"

  ARi's face went pale. "Gavin, because I misunderstood the rules. The other teams can't use constructs against us inside the influence of a Control-Node. This means your plan actually saved my life. That also means those siege constructs were attacking outside my influence because they wanted to draw you all out. The bomb would have killed me and they wouldn't even have needed to fight the rest of you." We could have lost everything!

  She paused, her expression darkening. "But there's something else. When I absorbed that Reaper's corpse, I got access to some of his equipment information. The Nox have a racial ability that works with those cloaking orbs. It's not simple camouflage, Gavin. When a Nox uses one of those orbs, they can move while cloaked. And worse, it completely blocks detection. That's why I couldn't sense him, why we never got system announcements about them. The system is treating them like they don't exist while they're using those things."

  "Wait, so all this time, they could have been walking right past us?"

  "Not just walking past us, Gav. They could have been standing right next to us and we'd never know. It's not only invisibility, it's complete system suppression."

  "I messed up on this one. They could have marched constructs right in here and attacked us directly if you hadn't forced that assassin to reveal himself."

  "Well, now we know, ARi. Why don't we write this one off as both of us kind of messing up a little bit, okay?"

  "I hope the others are okay."

  THE ASCENDANCY - The Boundary

  Tim ran behind Yumi and put his hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "Yumi, do you see that last siege engine?"

  "Yeah, you mean the one surrounded by those creepy ass spiders?"

  "That's the one. I want you to wait until you see it load up another one of those explosive balls, and I want you to hit the damn ball with a soul-dart before it fires!"

  "I think I can do that."

  Tim slashed another spider right out of the air as it flew towards Yumi’s face. "I'll pull the last of our kobolds back and try to keep these other bastards off you."

  Tim whistled to the shield bearers; they stepped back and tried to protect Yumi as best they could as another volley of kinetic darts slammed across the top of their shields.

  "Yumi, now!" Tim screamed.

  Yumi stood up and launched her last dart at the siege machine, and a second later the explosion knocked everybody onto their asses, destroying the last wave of spider constructs with it.

  Using the last of his reserves, Kyle pulled a stone spike out of the ground, impaling the remaining siege machine, raising it up into the air before pulling the spike back to the ground and smashing it to pieces.

  The last four legged monstrosity took aim at the group while they were off balance. Tim recovered quickly, and as the launcher started to spool up, he charged the machine, slamming his shoulder into the side of it, forcing the volley into the woods. Raising his curved khopesh blade, he activated one of his abilities, which made the damaged and dull bronze blade glow as he plunged it into the side of the construct. The plasma that covered his sword melted through the construct like butter. The machine thrashed on the ground until Tanya stepped up and smashed her foot down onto its head.

  And it was over.

  Tanya raced over to the kobolds again to heal the wounded, but they had lost one more, leaving Red and two others still alive.

  "Tanya, see to the wounded. The rest of you, spread out. Loot everything. Anything that you can pull into your inventory. And get your asses back over the boundary."

  Minutes later they crossed back into Earth territory, and ARi's projection appeared in front of them.

  "Tanya, you have to come quick, or we're gonna lose another one."

  They all started running toward the den.

  "ARi, is it clear? Are there any more of them in the territory?"

  "Not that I can see, Tim," she said. "But to be clear, I didn't see the dead assassin prick who came in here to kill me either."

  Out of breath, Tanya pleaded, "Is Gavin okay? Are you okay? Is anyone else hurt?"

  "I'll give you the details when you guys get inside, but we lost Bishop again. We have one severely wounded kobold, and Jack and Sawyer are both hurt."

  ARi's projection faded as the door swung open and they ran into the den, all out of breath. They found Gavin sitting with his back against the hearth, holding a little kobold in front of him, trying to keep pressure on a wound and covered in blood. Sawyer and Jack were kneeling next to Gavin with the wounded kobold and looked at Tanya with big, pleading eyes.

  "Tanya, please help him. I've tried my best to keep him from losing any more blood, but I feel like he's slipping away."

  Tanya never stopped moving. She slid onto her knees next to Gavin and the little kobold. "Gavin, keep your hand on the wound. I'm going to try and heal him right through it."

  She placed her hand on top of mine, and I could feel the tingling as our hands began to glow together, and so did the kobold's chest. The little rogue gasped, inhaled, and exhaled as blood gurgled from the side of his mouth. I could feel his little body tense and writhe in pain.

  "Hold him still, Gavin!"

  Sawyer and Jack reached over and helped hold their wounded comrade down until the glow slowly faded and the little kobold was breathing easy.

  "Is he going to be okay?"

  "Yeah, Gav, I think we got here in time."

  Before anyone could say another word, Jack and Sawyer both tackled Tanya in a huge hug.

  "It's okay, guys," she said, hugging them back. "It's okay. We're okay. And your new friend's okay, too."

  It became apparent that not everybody was okay. We had lost four from our group.

  "Gavin, what the hell happened?"

  ARi looked down and saw that I was still out of breath and in shock. "The Reapers got an assassin in here. That's what happened. Tim, it was a suicide bomber. When Gavin rushed you all out of here and threw up that Control-Node, it kept the son-of-a-bitch from being able to set it off. After you guys helped me drag Gavin into his quarters, I started sealing the hall with stone behind you. I had only gotten it about a foot thick before it wouldn't allow me to use the phase tech anymore. We lost Bishop in the fight after, and the rogues stabbed the prick with poison daggers until he died. The only thing I don't understand is we only had three of those cloaking orbs, and there were four rogues."

  I took a breath, finally gathering myself together. "ARi, I took a chance and told two of the rogues to hold the orb at the same time. They only had to do it long enough for the Reaper to not see them in the den. The impressive thing is that they can't stay cloaked when they're moving, which means they set up that ambush by sticking to the shadows. That’s why we needed Bishop to attack."

  "What happened to you guys?" ARi asked.

  "The siege machines weren't alone, but there weren't any other Reapers. It was all constructs, three different variations," Yumi said, still shaking. "One was a scary-ass spider that's going to give me nightmares tonight. The siege machines themselves were some weird form of ballista. They were launching stone orbs that looked like they were on fire. And there was another that had some kind of automatic bolt launcher. They were kinetic, and they fired like a damned machine gun! They would track and lock onto a target and two heavy wheels would start spinning at a high speed and they would start lobbing projectiles."

  "I've seen machines like that before, but I never thought they could be used for anything like that," Kyle said, prying his armor off. "Gavin, they were like those baseball launchers you see in batting cages. It was a pretty effective design, but it had limitations. Did you guys noticed: once it started spinning those things up right before it fired, it couldn't move around anymore. That's an inertia thing. Nonetheless, Gav, that's what got the kobolds. The ones we weren't able to save anyway. I'm afraid their shields were no match for the kinetic force those things were putting out."

  "What does the damage look like outside?" I asked.

  ARi slowly shook her head. "The entire outside, all the way around the rock formation, looks like the surface of the moon right now. Some of the craters are probably fifteen feet deep. Honestly, the only reason they probably weren't able to get down deep enough was the rock formation itself. It took quite a few direct hits, but the stone seemed to hold up pretty well. But they destroyed Rufus, and we lost Leroy and Jenkins too."

  "Are we sure we got all of the Reapers in here?" Yumi asked

  "Yeah, I'm sure," ARi said. "Before we came out here, I tested the entire den by removing all the air and replacing it instantly. I did it fast enough that there was barely a breeze. But the fact that I was able to use the phase ability across the entire space without any interruptions tells me we're clear. If there had been a cloaked Reaper, it would have blocked the ability in that area. I don't think it was in here for long anyway. As soon as he was within fifty feet of me, I wasn't able to use my abilities anymore. That means there's potentially three Reapers left, Two actual reapers and their AI. I don't think they're going to risk another attack here, but we should repair everything and fortify this place."

  "Okay, new rule," Kyle interjected. "So anytime we have those doors open and we think there's a possibility that something could have snuck in, we do ARi's test, until we find a better way of defeating the cloaking tech."

  "The scariest thing," I said, "is that apparently when the Nox use those cloaking orbs, they can move while cloaked. Which means that while we were laughing and messing around and not paying attention, that thing literally slipped in. And he was a big son-of-a-bitch too."

  ARi stopped, coming to a quick realization, before looking back at Tim. "Tim, how many constructs did you say there were?"

  "There were three large siege engines, almost the size of Rufus. There ended up being five of the horse-size constructs on four legs that had the launchers, and probably more than twenty of the spiders."

  I looked back at ARi. "That assassin was level 10. They could have way more control points than we do. If that's the case, and those constructs were still fighting after we killed the assassin, and that means either the AI itself is controlling the constructs, or another Reaper. Either way doesn't matter. That means they can field a lot more numbers than us, even with only two of them left."

  "Okay then. Let's get everybody cleaned up and start putting everything away. I apologize for the massive pillar in the middle of the den now, but I'm afraid that's going to have to stay. As soon as everything is secure and we get everything locked down, I want to talk about what we need to do to go get the bodies of our fallen. I don't want to leave them out there."

  I felt a tug on my leg and looked down, startled to see Sawyer, Jack, and the other rogue beside me. "You guys are getting good at being stealthy," I said.

  They stared at me with sad eyes and pointed toward the door. Red walked up, put his hand on Sawyer's shoulder, and took his helmet and brightly colored armor off. He tugged at Sawyer's cloak and chirped at ARi.

  "ARi, will you make one of these cloaks for Red, they want to retrieve the kobolds that fell."

  ARi produced another black cloak, folded neatly at Red's feet, and two woven stretchers. I knelt in front of the kobolds. "You guys, bring them back, okay? We'll put them somewhere peaceful for now, only until we can lay them to rest."

  The kobolds tapped their chests with their fists, grabbed the stretchers, and quietly slipped out the door. The weight of the moment hit us all like a brick. Tim sat on the bench near the hearth, and I saw a tear roll down his cheek.

  "Gavin, I know they accepted the risk when they volunteered to come here. I know that, and not because the stupid window, said it, I know because of who they are. I didn't get to know two of the kobolds that fell, but I knew the other.. He was my friend. He didn't have a name.. But, I will miss him…"

  Tim looked at everyone. "We brought them here. We gave them clothes and armor. We gave them weapons and sent them out to risk their lives, but we didn’t give them names. I don't ever want to think of them as cannon fodder, and when one of them falls, I want to remember the names of my friends. If I fall, If I die here I know you guys would remember me, and I–"

  Tim stopped unable to finish his thought, got up and quickly went to his room and closed the door.

  There wasn't a dry face in the entire den.

  Tanya took a deep breath. "When the rogues come back, I'm naming the one that almost died Hugo. He was lucky for all the wrong reasons but I'm glad I was able to save him"

  Yumi, still with tears falling freely, walked over to the two shield bearers and knelt in front of them. "I christen you Desmond, and I christen you Charlie," she said, pulling both of the little kobolds into a surprise hug that startled them for a moment before they hugged her back.

  A small chirp came from the barracks entrance. We all turned to see Lilly cautiously emerge, looking around the den with wide eyes before she spotted Yumi and ran over, climbing up onto her shoulder and nuzzling against her neck.

  "Hey, baby girl," Yumi said softly, reaching up to stroke Lilly's head. "You were so brave hiding in there during all that noise. It's okay now."

  Lilly chirped again, softer this time, and Yumi held her close.

  Tanya looked at ARi. "There's only one problem with your naming scheme," she said in a soft, sad voice.

  "What's that, Tanya?" ARi replied.

  "There aren't enough characters in that show to cover the number of cohorts we'll lose before this is over."

  Kyle broke the somber moment. "ARi, the next thing we need to research is hooch, because I need a drink."

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