Awaken Online: Armageddon, page 62
“Except you’re forgetting the part where they started this whole mess—”
“That was technically someone else,” Bard interjected.
“And they kidnapped us,” Eliza added with a glare.
Bard cocked his head. “Okay, technically true.”
Jason let out a sigh. “We don’t even know if there will be anything worth looting. And Finn’s point stands. We have more important things to worry about right now.” He hesitated, grimacing. “Besides, we may need the help.”
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I—” Alexion began.
“We can always make that happen,” Queen quipped, fragments of ice appearing in the air as the temperature around them began to drop.
“Enough.” Dom didn’t shout. He didn’t need to. As soon as he spoke, Queen’s mana disappeared in a flash. “We need to finish this now.”
“So, we’re going to be betraying that other lady, I guess?” Blaze asked.
“What other lady?” Finn asked.
Dom rubbed at his temple with one hand. “Okay, first, we completed the contract with our former client—”
“Technically,” Bard added.
The guild leader shook his head. “Technically or not, we don’t owe her shit.” Dom turned his attention back to Finn. “As for her identity, I’m sure you’re familiar with her. We were hired by Gloria Bastion.”
“Gloria?” Alexion echoed in surprise, looking to Jason. He just nodded. He’d been surprised himself. Although, he supposed it made a certain sort of sense. If she couldn’t stop AO from outside the game, then why not from the inside? And there were certainly plenty of other zealots willing to join her cause.
“Is that how you got your intel on us?” Finn demanded, recovering from his surprise quickly.
“It is,” Dom answered.
Finn and Jason shared a look. The next question was obvious. How the hell had Gloria gotten all that information? And they both had a suspicion. Someone had planted a virus when Finn infiltrated Cerillion Entertainment. It could have been Gloria. Although, that still felt… odd. Jason had never gotten the sense that Gloria was particularly tech savvy. She could have gotten someone to help her – but, even then, did she really have access to someone talented enough to preemptively access Cerillion’s network? That seemed unlikely.
The more probable answer was that someone on the inside had helped her.
The question then was, who? Probably not George. Maybe Claire? Or even Robert?
Jason’s brow furrowed. Or there was one other possibility…
He shook his head. Regardless, that was a problem for later. Right now, they had a few other issues that needed to be addressed. And Jason didn’t exactly trust
For now, they needed to focus on saving the world.
“Do you know what Gloria is looking for?” Jason asked, looking back to Dom.
“Not really,” he replied. “She was being discreet but seemed sure something important was buried in that location.” Dom glanced at Tombs. “Which we confirmed firsthand.”
“You saw it yourself?” Finn asked.
Tombs grimaced. “Yeah, I guess. There’s some sort of structure buried beneath the location where you all confronted us. I didn’t exactly spend a lot of time looking around. Kind of dusty and dark, you know.”
“Our guess is that there’s something stored down there,” Smokes offered, taking a long drag on his cigarette as he lounged on a pillow of smoke.
“How much progress have they made?” Eliza asked. Her real point was clear. How much time exactly did they have to stand around here talking?
“A lot?” Bard offered, lazily waving at the air as he reviewed his screens. “Gloria might not look like a gamer, but she took to this world like a fish to water. Her guild is— Oh shit,” he suddenly muttered, his hand freezing in the air.
“What is it now?” Alexion snapped.
“Uh, so someone figured out where the excavation is located,” Bard muttered.
“And how the hell did they manage that?” Pewpew asked, teleporting behind him in a flash of lightning. Bard tried to pivot his screens away in time, but the girl was too fast.
“You stupid asshole,” she hissed, glaring at Bard.
“Hey, don’t be mean. This is my side hustle!” Bard shot back.
Pewpew let out a sigh as she turned back to the others. “He accidentally gave away our location. Some sort of blog post trying to sell more of his damn moisturizer. He took a picture in front of the excavation site and a portion of his in-game map was visible.”
“Well, maybe no one has seen it…” Tombs began gingerly, trailing off as he watched Pewpew and Bard’s reactions. “Or not?”
“Six million views,” Pewpew muttered. “How did you even…”
“More importantly, it sounds like we’re going to have some company when we return,” Blaze commented, fire coiling down her arms. “Good. I needed to burn off some steam.”
“Assuming we aren’t walking into a fight,” Alexion grumbled.
“It’ll be fine,” Dom answered. “The goblins are still there.”
The rest of his guildmates just looked at him skeptically.
“Uh, those green morons were supposed to be for show,” Pewpew offered skeptically. “Are you sure they can handle a real combat situation? They’re more likely to off themselves than the enemy.”
Meanwhile, Jason’s attention had shifted to the tower nearby. On the upper levels, he could see a faint glimmer of mana. The mana generator must still be stored up there – the one that
Or maybe they couldn’t…
“What are you thinking?” Eliza asked cautiously, noticing the expression on his face.
Jason cocked his head. “Just whether it’s possible to move one of those generators.”
A sudden quiet met his words, and Jason looked back to the others to see them all staring at him like he’d gone mad. And maybe he had. The idea of trying to trap not just an army of goblins but also a legion of travelers inside a respawn field with a five-minute timer was crazy by itself. But then to tack on the possibility of mutators…
“This is going to be amazing. I already have ideas for how to handle the broadcast,” Bard began, only for ice to slide across his mouth, as well as his hands and ankles, binding him in place.
“Sorry, I just couldn’t take it anymore,” Queen offered with a shrug.
“This is insane,” Tombs muttered. “Are we really going to do this?”
“It’s not a terrible idea,” Dom murmured, rubbing at his chin as he eyed the tower.
“Can we even transport something that large?” Blaze asked.
Finn coughed into his hand. “Possibly. I had been experimenting with the gate piece before you stole it.” He looked to Dom. “I’m assuming you left gate fragments near the excavation site so your group could return.” The guild leader nodded.
“And how many of those gate fragments did you bring with you?” Finn asked.
Dom motioned to Blaze, and she nodded. Then, all at once, fire sprang up around her, blazing with incredible force as she stepped inside the ruined arena once more. Where her feet touched the sand, it began to melt down, forming a ruddy magma trail behind her. Once Blaze was in the center of the arena, her fires flared even more powerfully as she gave it every ounce of mana she had. Her hair ignited, and her skin began to flay from her body. Yet Blaze just kept going. The sand around her began to melt at a crazy rate, forming a lake of magma that eventually consumed her, Blaze’s body sliding into that molten mixture without a single scream or cry of pain.
And as the lake of glass began to cool, the group could see a dark object buried beneath the surface – only a faint silhouette. Dom motioned at Queen, and she helped the cooling process along. Frost formed across the arena, and the glass began to harden swiftly, massive cracks forming across its surface. Once it had fully solidified, Dom stepped forward.
He soon stood in the center, pulled back his arm, and punched downward.
The glass exploded. Fragments spewed into the air in a deluge of jagged shards that cut at Dom’s suit as they rained back down around him. Yet he didn’t flinch under the barrage, the fragments barely nicking his skin and only leaving thin trails of blood that healed quickly. Moments later, Dom was standing inside a massive crater, and a gate piece stood beside him.
He looked back at the others who watched in shock, that mask smiling all the while.
“What?” Dom demanded. “This seemed like a safe place to store it.”
Jason just shook his head. These people…
Chapter 58 - Horde
“Looks like your team switched sides,” the Dark One intoned.
All eyes were on the Gambler, his expression brooding as he surveyed the screens along the wall of the viewing room, and his fingers curled tightly around his glass.
“Wait… uh, what does that mean for the bet?” the Hippie asked, sitting upright abruptly, and sending a shower of crumbs raining down on Oscar… who promptly slammed down his tiny broom and stalked off into a corner of the room.
“That we won,” the Lady sneered as she rose and paced to the table where their chips were stacked neatly, giving off a soft, colorful glow. “How does it feel, brother? To lose. Badly. Does that make you feel ‘happy’?”
Just as the Lady’s hands reached for those chips, a yellow barrier suddenly sprung into existence, crackling with lightning. The goddess withdrew her fingers with a hiss of pain, turning to glare at the Gambler.
He just clucked his tongue slowly. “Not so fast, dear sister. Our bet had nothing to do with the outcome of that gauntlet in the Mile-High Club. It was over whether your team would succeed in stopping the world.”
“Against your team,” the Lady spat, her hand healing with a flash of light and her eyes blazing as she stalked toward the Gambler. “And now you don’t have one.”
A small smile finally pulled at the Gambler’s lips, and he took another sip. “Ahh, about that… I didn’t specify exactly who was included on my team, did I?”
“What?” the Lady demanded, coming up short.
The Seer’s eyes flared with power, and she shook her head slowly. “He’s right. He was vague – intentionally, I now suspect. He expected more chaos… This must be why I had difficulty anticipating the future.”
“You slimy mother—”
“Tsk, tsk, careful now,” the Gambler admonished the Lady. “We share the same divine lineage after all, and there are still prying eyes watching,” he added, waving at the dark creatures lounging about the room.
“How can you possibly hope to win now?” the Dark One asked as the Lady withdrew reluctantly. The Hippie just let out a loud yawn before lying back against Fluffy.
The Gambler shrugged, ice clinking in his glass and his expression sobering as he watched the screens. Despite his cavalier attitude, more than a century of toil and hardship was at stake. He’d endured much to get this far – gambled away everything. But he wasn’t going to give his siblings the satisfaction of watching him squirm.
“What can I say?” the Gambler murmured finally. “I’ve always been one to play the long odds.”
***
The group reappeared outside the excavation site in a flash of multi-colored energy, rifts ripping open the air with a crackle of mana. Jason’s cape swept out around him, obscuring his altered body within its protective shadow to avoid alarming the goblins. Not that this was entirely necessary. Night had reached this part of the game world, and the darkness loomed around Jason. He peered into those shadows with his Night Vision, automatically sweeping the area in search of enemies.
His caution proved to be unnecessary. No foes awaited them – not yet, anyway.
“What the hell is going on here?” Alexion muttered.
Jason turned to follow the other avatars’ gaze.
When they’d been kidnapped, there’d been a goblin army arrayed before the towering walls of the excavation site, the group bristling with guns, knives, and axes and haphazardly built siege vehicles. However, what semblance of order they might have had was long gone. Massive fire pits now dotted the area, all manner of native creatures roasting on huge spits – the wood “repurposed” from some of their vehicles.
The rest of the siege engines had been smashed open like giant wooden pinatas, kegs spilling out of their ruined hulls and tumbling across the ground to form massive mounds around each vehicle. A ruddy amber substance was leaking from a nearby pile, and even with the muted smell in-game, Jason would recognize that sticky, sweet smell anywhere.
Beer. So very, very much beer.
A roar pulled their attention. A crowd had formed in the middle of the firepits, the goblins raising excited voices into the night sky. Jason shot Dom a questioning look as he appeared in another multi-colored rift – more rips opening around them as the rest of
Dom just shrugged. “No idea,” he answered Jason’s unspoken question.
Jason strode forward, the other avatars in tow. The crowd of goblins along the fringe of the horde parted before them as they caught sight of Dom and his guildmates – their good humor fading and the greenskins murmuring to each other about the boss coming back.
“Chugz, chugz, chugz!” a huge goblin shouted, the crowd around him picking up his chant.
The object of his attention soon came into focus.
Frank stood there, a keg gripped in each oversized hand – the limbs transformed into massive bear paws and his claws puncturing the wood. He was happily following the crowd’s instruction, downing the contents of one keg in a single go before switching to the other, tossing the empty barrel into the air where the goblins promptly blew it apart in a hail of gunfire, a shower of wooden shrapnel, and another rousing cheer.
Over their heads, a massive screen still floated in the sky, the image frozen on Bard’s smiling mask, a familiar bottle held in his hand. So, it appeared that even the goblins had been watching the show back at the club. Judging from how quickly their discipline had deteriorated, Jason was guessing that screen might have been meant as a distraction.
“Woo!” Frank shouted as he finished, shaking his head and droplets of beer spraying off him. “How did I do?”
“Still didn’t beatz Demon Doggy,” Truggle replied, gesturing to Frank’s side where Silver stood, her body transformed into a silver-laced wolf, her fur matted with beer and a pile of kegs resting beside her – a pile that was larger than Frank’s own.
Silver delicately licked a paw, her eyes taunting Frank.
“Damn it,” the shifter growled. “Again?!”
“What’s going on here?” Jason asked, his voice suddenly penetrating the crowd.
“I would like to know that as well,” Dom added, crossing his arms.
A hushed silence fell over the goblins as they all turned, a comical expression painted across their faces as they stared at the group. Frank had to blink three or four times before the light seemed to click on behind his eyes – recognition finally reflected there.
“What? Jason?!” he asked.
As soon as he spoke Jason’s name, a blur of motion ripped through the crowd. Jason tensed, his bony arms shifting, and the fragments of his staff pulling out of his forearms as he prepared to cast Soul Blade… only to freeze as he recognized that blur.
As Riley barreled into him at full force, Jason realized how thankful he was for his reinforced limbs. Even so, the force of that blow sent him stumbling backward a pace before he steadied himself.
“You’re okay!” Riley announced, grinning from ear to ear. “We weren’t sure after that finale and then the way the camera cut off abruptly. But I knew you were up to something,” she added. She did a double take as she pulled back his cowl, Jason far too slow to stop her.
“Oh my,” she muttered, her fingers tracing the hard surface of his face. “So that surgery really did happen, huh? You did all this to yourself?” Her eyes dropped to his body, tracing his torso, arms, and legs, dark mana pulsing around the ivory bone.
He grasped her hand gently, pulling it away and letting his cloak settle back into place. Better not to scare the goblins with his new appearance.
“It wasn’t as bad as it looked,” Jason offered.
Riley grimaced, pulling herself free. “Well, it looks pretty bad.”
He caught her meaning. That look was clear and the consequences damning – a side effect he hadn’t considered at the time. There likely wouldn’t be any more “training breaks” below the dark keep. Not that Jason blamed her. He’d probably recoil at the prospect of kissing a skeleton.
“I might have a solution for that,” Jason offered. “Something that will simulate skin. But we have a few other problems at the moment.”
“We’ll see,” Riley replied with a frown – not yet convinced.
Jason was rescued as plants bloomed all around the group. Brian slid up out of the ground, wrapping Eliza in delicate vines that lifted her into the air. Flowers blossomed along the vegetation, and Brian’s sapphire eyes glowed happily as he wrapped her in his embrace. It seemed he was also relieved that she had made it back unharmed.
“It’s good to see you too, Brian,” Eliza murmured, a rare smile on her lips.
Riley hesitated as she saw the rest of
“Asks the woman that was just partying with those green idiots?” Blaze retorted.
“I mean, it’s easy to get caught up in their bullshit,” Pewpew offered, snatching a mug from a nearby goblin who was still staring at the avatars in shock before taking a swig. Dom promptly took the mug from her, shaking his head.
