Hack, Slash & Burn 2: A LitRPG Fantasy, page 2
Peter sat up, still rubbing his eyes, though he didn’t look tired. One benefit of being Touched was that you needed barely half as much sleep as before. “How are we going to do this? We cannot simply walk into Dranador, especially not in our Touched armour.”
Calder had already thought of that. They needed disguises. Ones that wouldn’t have them noticed. Ones that wouldn’t have them questioned. He tapped his pouch of holding. “I had Kohl mend your old Imperial armour. I’ll be wearing your old sergeant’s armour myself.” He looked down at his sword and sighed. “We’ll have to wear the falchions, too.”
“You want us to walk into the largest and most defended city in our world wearing level 0 armour and wielding level 0 weapons?”
Calder clapped Peter on the shoulder. “Yes. Exactly.”
Peter removed Calder’s hand from his shoulder and stood. “I still don’t know how I feel about all of this. Becoming emperor…” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s a lot to ask of someone.”
Calder narrowed his eyes. “This has been your fate since you were born, Peter. Sometimes we choose our path, and sometimes it is chosen for us.” He looked down at himself. “I certainly didn’t expect to be where I am, not after what happened in the war.” He flexed his formerly injured leg. “We do what we must. The strong have a duty to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
Peter shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, yes. Fine.” He opened his eyes and sighed. “You weren’t planning for us to… to do it today, were you?”
Calder shook his head. “No. Today is a about reconnaissance.” He looked into the man’s eyes. It wasn’t as though Calder wasn’t sympathetic to Peter. Not only did he intend for Peter to become the Emperor of Talna, to make that happen… they had to assassinate his father first.
That is a lot to ask of someone. Calder took Peter’s Imperial armour and his old falchion out of his pouch of holding and handed it to the man. “Put these on and meet me downstairs.”
Peter took the armour and the sword with a nod.
When they were both geared up, they headed out of the town.
Technically, Calder didn’t need to create a portal to travel to a different world. When he had been turned into an Avatar of Light, accidentally choosing the boon of Temporal Control, he had been granted a spell called World Step that allowed him to teleport to other worlds. However, though he hadn’t tested the spell, he knew that it worked as Dream Step, the localised version, did—it wouldn’t allow him to take someone else with him.
Calder wondered if that would change in the future. Both spells were incredibly useful—he doubted he would have been able to defeat the Orc Destroyer without Dream Step—but he imagined they would become even more useful if he could teleport someone with him.
He would be able to get someone out of danger almost instantaneously.
Calder rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. Well, his falchion. He frowned down at the inferior, single-bladed weapon. It had served him well when he had first become Touched, but he had grown far too strong for it. He longed to have the Sage Sword on his sword belt instead, but a sword like that would stick out far too much.
Peter looked a little uncomfortable beside him. The man kept adjusting his armour, as though it no longer fit him. Calder couldn’t blame the man. His most recent armour fit him more comfortably than anything he had ever worn in his life.
This… was quite a step down.
The Ranger narrowed his eyes at the sun, which was only now rising above the horizon. “It’s a shame we won’t be training with the others today.”
Internally, Calder agreed. He would much rather be training. Though he had practised his Dream Step and Portal ability since the Battle of Berring, he hadn’t gotten a chance to use them in more than a sparring match after facing the Orc Destroyer.
It wasn’t just an Orc Destroyer, Calder thought. It was an Avatar of Darkness. Just as I am an Avatar of Light. He had tried not to think about what he had become. About the pact he had made. Other than the boost to his attribute points, and the new spells he had gained, he didn’t really understand what being “one of the Worthy” meant.
He had tried contacting whatever being he had made the pact with, but he hadn’t gotten any response.
He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed.
“We’ll get plenty of training soon enough.” Calder stopped. They were far enough away from the town to create a portal now. He took a Portal Stone from out of his pouch of holding and imbued it with mana. As he held the stone in his hands, he thought about where he wished to appear—in the quarry in the Dark World, near where the Nexus they had taken was.
He tossed the Portal Stone to the ground.
A Dark Portal sprang into existence before them, pulling at the light around it. Calder drew the flimsy sword from his belt and activated Tough Skin. He doubted any of the Darktouched that might be on the other side would be strong enough to hurt him, but a little preparation never hurt.
Peter shrugged his bow off his shoulder and pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back. He would have to put both of those into his pouch of holding before they opened the next portal—a portal that would take them directly to the Talna Empire.
It seemed like a circuitous route, creating a portal to a different world, only to head straight back to this one. But as portals could only go to other worlds, it would be the fastest way they could get there.
Peter nocked an arrow, then nodded to Calder.
Calder, being a Warrior—more specifically a Spellsword with Berserker as his main class specification—was far better suited to taking any enemy aggression and tanking should they encounter enemies on the other side.
Stepping through the portal, a thrill ran through Calder at the prospect of facing more Darktouched. Maybe we can linger in the Dark World for a little while. We don’t have to head to Dranador right away, do we? He shrugged that thought away—he shouldn’t deviate from his mission.
Even if it would be more enjoyable, considering how long he had been out of the fight.
The instant he emerged on the other side of the portal, his Proximity Scanner dinged at him countless times. He sent a mental command to silence the dings and glanced around, falling into a fighting stance, but none of the enemies were close enough for him to see.
Peter stepped through a second later, turning just as alert as Calder.
Satisfied none of the enemies were an imminent threat, Calder activated the screen on his Proximity Scanner and looked at the mini-map.
A sea of red was amassing in the quarry. Every one of those blinking lights was a Darktouched. An orc. A Dark Wolf. Or any manner of beast he had yet to encounter. The amassed army was nowhere near as large as the army they had just faced, as Calder was able to see the end of it on the mini-map, but it stretched for at least half a mile, the blinking red dots so close together that he wasn’t able to count them.
“That’s… hundreds of Darktouched.” Peter raised his head, looking through a valley in the quarry, toward where they were. “What do you think they’re doing?”
Calder glanced over at the valley, then looked at the scanner again, noticing where the red dots were flowing toward. They were… blinking out of existence. Then he remembered. “They’re heading into the mine. It blocks the Proximity Scanner’s capabilities.”
Peter frowned, a look of confliction on his face. He still had an arrow nocked in his bow. “Should we… investigate?”
Calder looked from the scanner, to the valley, then back at the portal. This is where the other squads would no doubt be coming to train soon. What if they accidentally opened a portal right in front of this small army? “We could go back, warn them.” Calder laid a hand on his pouch of holding, itching to take out his Sage Sword and test its edge in battle. His gaze settled upon the valley between the two rock walls.
Peter raised his chin. “That’s not what you want to do though.” The side of his mouth twitched, hinting a mischievous grin.
Calder remembered the strength of the orcs in this area.
They would be too low-level to give them much trouble. Even the Protector of the Dark Nexus, which had been far stronger than the other Darktouched in the quarry, had only been level 35.
The orc had felt plenty strong when Calder had faced it, but that had been 25 levels ago.
“Perhaps you’re right. Maybe we should investigate.” Calder grinned. He undid the flap on his pouch of holding, depositing his flimsy falchion in exchange for his level 50 Sage Sword and Sage Shield.
He gripped the Sage Sword’s hilt and admired the blade. It had runes intricately worked into the metal. Though he didn’t understand what they meant, they had a certain beauty to them.
The sword’s weight was perfect. It was far heavier than any normal human would be able to wield, and Calder wasn’t entirely sure how it had been crafted to be so heavy. He knew even less about Touched blacksmithing than he did about non-Touched blacksmithing.
Holding the weapon felt… right.
He didn’t bother changing his armour. That would take too long.
Calder walked toward the valley. “Let’s go.”
Peter smiled, following on his heels.
Calder wasn’t sure if the man was as eager to get back into the fight as he was, or if he was simply trying to delay their mission a little longer. As he headed through the narrow pass, now close enough to hear the roaring of the orcs, he realised where they were going.
He should have figured it out sooner.
“They’re heading toward the Nexus in the tomb. The one we claimed for the Light.”
Peter inclined his head. He didn’t look surprised. “They’re trying to take it back, which means they’ll be facing… well, you.”
When a Nexus was taken by either the Light or the Dark, a Protector was created—a clone of the champion who had defeated the previous Protector. Though he supposed that must work differently when a Nexus was neutral, like the ones in his world of Halanor would be. They wouldn’t have a Protector at all.
Calder gritted his teeth. Suddenly, this fight was more personal, though he felt no small amount of pride that they had to muster a force of hundreds of orcs to try and take “him” down.
“The Protector of the Light Nexus will have grown in strength as I have, but it won’t have any health, adrenaline or mana potions.”
“Or a Cleric.” Peter gave Calder a sideways glance. “Are you sure we shouldn’t go back? At least get the rest of the party?”
“It might be too late by then. We don’t want them reclaiming the Nexus. But… perhaps we should put on our new armour.”
The Ranger offered no protest, and the two turned from each other before rounding the corner, quickly switching out of their Imperial armour and into their updated armour.
Calder examined his Sage Full Plate armour. It was a perfect fit. The armour gleamed like silver in the light of the Dark World’s twin suns. How could I have thought of going into such a fight without this? As he waited for Peter to finish changing, he gave himself a moment to step back and examine the situation.
Hundreds of orcs were amassing to reclaim the Nexus he was a Protector of. He didn’t know how long they had been at this, but as he saw on the mini-map, dozens were disappearing into the cave.
In the week they had spent upgrading everyone’s armour and shoring up the fortifications of the town, he had been more concerned with his plans for his own world, worried about what other armies might be amassing, ready to lay siege on other capitals—or might have already amassed. His mind hadn’t been on training, or this Dark World where they had claimed a single Nexus for the Light.
But he was an Avatar of Light now, and though he still wasn’t sure what exactly that meant, he did know it was important. He did know that it put a responsibility on him. He already knew he wanted to push back the darkness, to banish it from his world and others.
He remembered something Graham had said, before he had been banished—or… destroyed—by the Avatar of Darkness.
Maybe you can do something I, or my people, haven’t managed to do since this all began. Since I invented the Weapon Stones, and made humans into Touched. Maybe you can finally push back the Darkness, and cleanse it from the universe.
He still had much to achieve in his own world before he could set his sights upon cleansing others of the Dark, but he didn’t wish to give any ground they had already managed to take.
Calder took a moment to look at his stats and spells.
Calder – Avatar of Light
Level 50
Classification: Spellsword/Berserker
Attributes
Strength: 94+5 = 99
Agility: 117+10 = 127
Magic: 70
Stamina: 93+35 = 128
Perception: 50
You have 0 attribute points to apply.
Spells
Illumination: Active; Constant Mana Drain = Low
Fireball: Active; Instant Mana Drain = Medium
Freeze: Active; Constant Mana Drain = Medium
Lightning Bolt: Active; Instant Mana Drain = Medium
Heal Other: Active; Constant Mana Drain = High
Tough Skin: Passive; Initial Adrenaline Drain = Medium
Strong Stance: Passive; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Charge: Passive; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Medium
Berserk: Passive; Instant Adrenaline Drain = High
Power Strike: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Power Throw: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Shield Bash: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Crippling Strike: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Eviscerate: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Bleeding Strike: Active; Instant Adrenaline Drain = Low
Dream Step: Active; Instant Mana Drain = High
Portal: Active; Instant Mana Drain = High
World Step: Active; Instant Mana Drain = High
He smiled, seeing how much stronger he had become. It was his Agility attribute that he was most proud of. Getting it to such a high number had been what had helped him push back the army during the Battle of Berring. He was also glad to see his Stamina so high, which had only gotten there because of the new armour and shield that he had acquired.
His spells, too, were something to be proud of. Berserk was far more useful than he could have ever imagined, and was the whole reason he wasn’t as worried as he perhaps should be when glancing down at his Proximity Scanner and seeing so many enemies.
Though he had barely trained with his new Temporal spells in combat, he was eager to get some use out of them.
Peter finished changing his armour, his bow back in hand.
Calder nodded in the direction they were heading. “Quiet now. We want to see their levels before engaging.”
Peter nocked an arrow and nodded back, taking a position behind Calder.
The Ranger had developed a high level of stealth since becoming Touched, but Calder was still just as soft on his feet. The two of them rushed forward, their boots silent on the hardpacked quarry floor. Calder ducked his head out. The space ahead was rather open. He could make out the small, ramshackle buildings of the village outside of the mine.
The orcs were coming from the other side of it. A mass of large, dark shapes. Too many to count. They had grey, rock-hard skin and each had sharp tusks jutting from either side of their jaws. Their roars were loud and screeching, and they were working up a frenzy in their march toward the mine.
Calder grinned. Though he hadn’t even scanned one yet, he knew they would be able to handle this. He focused on one of the orcs.
Orc Swordmage
Level 25
Classification: Spellsword
Attributes
Strength: 38
Agility: 32
Magic: 5
Stamina: 30
Perception: 25
Level 25. That should be easy enough. Some of the orcs behind that one looked a bit taller—for an Orc, taller tended to mean higher level—but none of them were twenty-feet tall, like the Orc Dominators, and none were beyond that, like the Orc Destroyer.
None that he could see, anyway.
Orc Swordmage. Spellsword. Calder frowned. The orc had a secondary class. He had seen orcs with secondary classes, of course. All the Orc Dominators were Spellswords, and the Protector of the Dark Nexus had been a Paladin, but he still found it interesting that the orcs did not gain their secondary class at the same time as humans did.
Calder had been a Spellsword since level 15, but it seemed as though level 25 was when orcs gained their secondary class—and he knew it wasn’t the same for all Darktouched. Even the highest level of Dark Wolf they had faced had an “undefined” classification.
He grinned at the Orc Swordmage’s Magic attribute.
It was only at 5.
The orcs, like Calder and the other human Touched, seemed to start with a total of 10 attribute points at level 1, then gained 5 at each new level. But they didn’t gain boosts when getting their classes.
The fact that the orc’s Magic attribute was only at 5 made Calder wonder if they got to choose their own allocation. Perhaps their attributes were allocated automatically, and their Magic stat didn’t grow until they had a use for it.
He shook his head, taking a step back with Peter so they wouldn’t be spotted. Now wasn’t the time to be analysing how orc stats worked…
“They don’t seem very high level,” Peter said. “But there are quite a lot of them. What’s the plan?”
Calder contemplated that for a moment. It shouldn’t be too hard for him to gain a Killstreak once he was up close and had gone Berserk. They didn’t have a Cleric on hand, but each Killstreak he gained would heal his health and adrenaline by 50%.
If it ever got lower than that, he could Dream Step to a safe distance until his health regenerated naturally. Considering his high Stamina stat, that shouldn’t take a great deal of time.
It was Peter he was more worried about. If the Ranger got overrun…
Calder examined the man’s stats:
Peter
