Court of Thorns: A LitRPG Story Read online

  Saturnyx said, using Hawke’s senses to analyze the devastation below.

  Blaze commented.

  “Pretty much. I still don’t get what the Court of Thorn’s deal is. They started out using Undeath. Why switch to Chaos?”

 

  “Hey, that term is offensive to southpaws,” Hawke said.

 
  “They sound like a nice bunch of guys. And I just declared war on them on behalf of my Guild and Domain.”

 

  “Well, yeah. I guess I’ve been fighting them since I woke up on top of a pile of corpses, all thanks to them. They had Necromancer Greg abduct all those Eternals and use their life force to make Undead-Fae hybrids. Bastards.”

  Blaze said.

  “You’re a bloodthirsty son of a gun. Proud of ya, kid.”

  Blaze was deadly serious.

  The Drakofox was only half fox spirit, but that still made him closer to a pure Fae than Hawke, whose Half-Elven genetics made him a quarter Sidhe at best, although that quarter had grown stronger after his transformation at a Lair. The big furry kid had instincts that Hawke couldn’t match. If his adopted son thought that the Fomorians were nasty, he would add them to the ‘kill on sight’ list.

  Blaze called out. Hawke set aside his worries. Time to concentrate on the here and now.

  The fields and farmhouses had been replaced by a forest as they headed for the central plateau, not quite as thick or massive as the one covering the Shadowy Foothills, but nothing to sneeze at, either. Overgrown ruins rose high above the tree canopy: three towers, one crumbled to half the size of the others but still a good sixty, seventy feet tall. Legend had it that the castle had been built to contain a portal that continually spewed out monsters, but it had been abandoned for centuries. It was too dangerous to keep it inhabited.

  The M&M was a level 10 to 20 Labyrinth. The upper levels, which included the grounds around the surface entrance, were filled with level ten to twelve creatures, traps, and other challenges, although level bosses could be a couple of levels higher than that. The challenges became progressively harder the deeper you went into the Labyrinth, which had three main ‘wings’ that in turn comprised eight to ten ‘floors.’ At the bottom lay the Deepest Pits, where only well-geared high level parties could venture with a chance to survive. Teams made it to the Deepest Pits once in a while – the Herders had performed that feat a handful of times – but nobody in living memory had explored the entire Labyrinth. Nobody had defeated the Labyrinth Master, either. And nobody could live near the entrance unless they didn’t mind getting attacked by monsters all day, every day.

  Instead, a legionnaire’s fort had been built a mile away from the Labyrinth’s borders, watching the road that led there. That was where you went to pay the city’s fee for permission to enter the M&M. A hefty fee of a hundred silver denars per party member. That didn’t sound like much for someone like Hawke, who had collected a large fortune along the way, but for a run-of-the-mill Adventurer it was a steep price for a chance to level up and earn some loot. It was theoretically possible to skip the fee if you went around and climbed the sheer walls that surrounded the Labyrinth on three sides, but there were plenty of monsters who delighted in picking off anyone who tried to get there that way.

  The fort was still there, thanks to its magical defenses, but the monsters hadn’t left it alone, either. There were scorch marks on its stone walls and one of its towers had collapsed. The red-and-gold flag of Akila still flew over its battlements, however, and Hawke saw soldiers manning their positions and watching the distant flying figures warily. His inhuman perception wasn’t as good as Blaze’s but he could make out details even from hundreds of feet up in the air. He saw three military sorcerers rushing out of one of the buildings; they would begin casting spells if Hawke and Tava showed any signs of hostility. The garrison was taking no chances.

  “All right, we’ll let them know we’re the good guys. Slowly and carefully.”

  * * *

  The rest of the party had been traveling by foot; they arrived at the fort a couple of hours later.

  “… and Legate Captain Domos has set up quarters for us tonight,” Hawke finished telling the group. “We’ll enter the Labyrinth in the morning. For now, we’ll set up a watch rotation; at least three of us will be on the fortress walls at any time through the night. From what the captain told me, the monsters seem to leave the Labyrinth after sundown.”

  The local commander had been almost pathetically grateful about Hawke’s arrival. The Legion forces had beaten off three attacks, but had suffered almost thirty percent casualties. They weren’t going to hold out much longer. Reinforcements were on the way, but half of the Legion was scattered all around the plateau, hunting smaller but still deadlier creatures. The situation wasn’t quite hopeless, but it was getting there.

  “Let me know which watches you prefer,” he went on.

  “Everybody takes a watch?” Aristobulus asked, sounding surprised. “In the Herders, leaders sleep and second-rankers stand watch.”

  “Bad for discipline,” K-Bar said. “I tried to talk to Kaiser about that, but…”

  “But he was an asshole,” Hawke finished for him. “And that’s why your old guild was garbage and ended up with all the other garbage. Everyone contributes here.”

  And I’m putting at least one of ‘my’ people with you ex-Herders on every watch.

  Going into danger with a crew he didn’t fully trust was a terrible idea. The paroled prisoners were bound by their oaths to Akila, but that only meant they couldn’t betray the party directly. There were plenty of ways they could let everyone down, starting with not giving the team a hundred percent. Maybe he should have insisted on only taking his guild into the Labyrinth, but most Defenders were too low-level for even the regular Labyrinth, let alone the tainted version. And Prefect Decimes had made it clear that if Hawke couldn’t use the Nerf Herder prisoners then they would be put to death. Maybe some or even all of them deserved it, but Hawke preferred to give them a chance.

  He just hoped that his friends wouldn’t have to pay the price for his decision.

  Thirteen

  “I do not object, although it seems a bit rushed, darling,” Tava said. She, Hawke and their pets and adopted Drakofoxes where gathered at a clearing, a short distance away from the fort. The sun was setting and most everyone was behind its walls.

  “I was thinking of saving the two Evolve Monster slots I had left until I found a new critter to tame,” Hawke explained. “But I think we’re going to need every advantage we can get. I don’t know if the Herders can’t pull their weight.”

  Blaze noted.

  “True, but they are grinders. They like to hit the same area over and over again, figure out the best way to win, and keep doing it until they level up too much to gain any XP from it. They had to go into the Labyrinth, but they did the minimum work possible.”

  “Not all of them.”

  “Most of the ones we’ve got are grinders. The guys who loved to take risks ended up perma-dead. Or were hardcore Kaiser followers that earned themselves the death penalty.”


  Saturnyx said.

  “Exactly. The Labyrinth isn’t going to follow the normal rules. Until they catch up with that, we’re going to have to protect them from their bad habits. We could use all the help we can get.”

  Tava smiled and petted Rabbit behind one of his ears. “I am convinced. And curious to see what sort of transformation you will bestow on my darling bear, whom I love almost as much as you.”

  Rabbit (Dire Bear)

  Level 23 Beast

  Health 1,380 Mana 230 Endurance 1,150

  Rabbit made a humming noise that sounded suspiciously like a cat’s purr and leaned against Tava, giving Hawke a friendly but slightly challenging look. The dire beast liked and respected Hawke, but there was no doubt as to where his true loyalties lay.

  The important thing is to never let him sleep on the bed with us, Hawke thought as he approached the big furball and evolved it.

  He stepped back from the Dire Bear as the great beast began to shimmer and change. A dome of pure darkness obscured Rabbit’s form for several seconds, long enough for Tava to give Hawke a worried glance. Finally, the darkness dissipated and Rabbit gave out a tentative growl. His brown pelt was gone, replaced with jet-black fur so dark that it seemed to drink the light around it. He had shrunk slightly, although he was still the size of a grizzly on steroids. About nine hundred pounds as opposed to the half a ton-plus displacement he’d been at. His claws had a metallic sheen to them and his eyes were solid yellow orbs.

  Rabbit (Umbral Bear)

  Level 23 (Currently 20) Elite Demi-Elemental Beast

  Health 2,400 Mana 1,000 Endurance 2,000

  “Rabbit?”

  The bear ambled over to her and gave her a friendly nuzzle. His personality hadn’t changed, even if his abilities had.

  Hawke used Analyze Monster on the evolved ursine and discovered that Umbral Bears were imbued with Elemental Darkness. They were highly resistant to physical and Elemental attacks, far more than the old Rabbit had been. Rabbit’s claws now inflicted additional Darkness damage and injected an Elemental poison that did damage over time. He could also meld with shadows, becoming invisible in darkened areas, and had gained a few spell-like abilities like Shadow Step and Shroud of Darkness. Dire beasts were smarter than normal animals, but Rabbit’s new Intelligence stat had risen to near-human levels.

  “He spoke to me,” Tava said in an awed tone. “We are mind-linked!”

  “What did he say?”

  She grinned. “His first words were ‘I’m hungry, mom.’”

  Blaze snorted.

  The white-furred Drakofox and the Umbral Bear butted heads and play-wrestled while Hawke fished a few cured hams from his inventory and handed them over. Hawke and Tava watched their fur babies affectionately for minute before he turned his attention to Digger, who was neither furry nor any sort of baby. Unlike Rabbit, Hawke’s pet was about as affectionate as a hermit crab. Like a crab, he had massive pincers; unlike a crab, he also sported a scorpion stinger, four tentacles around his head that could grab or act as bludgeoning whips, and eight little legs, sort of a cross between a lobster and a scorpion, with some squid thrown in. Digger was about five feet tall and twelve feet long from pincer tip to stinger tail. Highly resistant to physical damage thanks to its Elemental shell, he was a deadly opponent. Hawke wanted to make him even more dangerous.

  Digger (Young Tarakken)

  Level 24 (Currently 20) Earth/Life Demi-Elemental

  Health 1,000 Mana 200 Endurance 1,000

  Evolving the pesky monster didn’t generate any big surprises. Digger became larger and more menacing, acquiring centuries’ worth of growth and power in a manner of seconds. A fully-adult Tarakken rose up and looked down at Hawke; the critter’s head was now nine feet above him; the Tarakken was now bigger than an elephant. Only magic and its elemental nature kept the multi-ton pseudo-crustacean from collapsing under its own weight; Digger’s exoskeleton and limbs were stronger than steel. His tentacles could now hit targets forty feet away. Hawke grimaced at the memory of a similar monster obliterating several unfortunate Arachnoids with each swing of those grabbers.

  Digger (Greater Tarakken)

  Level 24 (Currently 20) Elite Earth and Life Demi-Elemental

  Health 4,000 Mana 1,000 Endurance 1600

  Good thing I’ve got that shrinking ability, Hawke thought, looking at the massive creature.

  All Adventurers with summoning or taming powers had the ability to reduce the size of their pets by as much as seventy-five percent. The ability cost a hefty amount of Mana (in Hawke’s and Tava’s case, a full ten percent of their Mana pool, which would not be regained until they removed the effect) and the critter would lose up to half of its Health and damage capability. The price was worth it, however. Cities and dungeons had plenty of narrow spaces that wouldn’t accommodate a full-sized Rabbit, let alone the Greater Tarakken that Hawke had just created.

  The change over the Tarakken went beyond the physical. The beady little lobster eyes of the monster regarded Hawke coldly. He felt a psychic struggle the far more powerful creature tested the limits of the taming power restraining it. After a worrying few moments, the tension relaxed and Digger settled down on the ground, head lowered. He was back in the fold. Not exactly a lovable pet, but he didn’t want a buddy; he wanted a killing machine. And he’d sure gotten one.

  Hawke let out a breath. You never knew when trying to gain more power could come back and bite you in the ass. This bet had worked, but he worried that the next one wouldn’t.

  Interlude: Fae Diplomacy

  “You will remain veiled and only act on my orders. Is that understood?”

  Desmond nodded. Leara and Panadel were being deadly serious for a change. Whatever this meeting entailed was a matter of life and death. Failure on his part would result in his summary termination.

  The investigation into the Court of Thorns had not gone well. The informant they had gone off to meet, a High Elf enchanter, had been dead when they got there, killed by the same assassins who had ambushed them later that night. The ensuing week had been spent in seclusion in a guest house inside the Rainbow District, the Fae enclave in Crystal City. Desmond had stayed in his room and practiced his new level twenty-four abilities while his bosses did whatever they did. Until this meeting.

  Being inside the Rainbow District was like living in a permanent fever dream, or maybe a constant acid trip. The Fae quarter filled a shallow valley surrounded on two sides by Lavender Hills, where Crystal City’s wealthy and powerful lived, and by the Iron Fortress on another. The latter was a massive twenty-story castle surrounded by metal walls thicker than bank vaults. The Rainbow District’s location was no accident; it was sandwiched between the city’s garrison, always ready and willing to come in and lay waste to the embassy, and the well-protected homes of the rich, who often went down to mingle with the Fae, seduced by the lure of forbidden pleasures.

  From the outside, the valley was about a mile long and half again as wide. From the inside, it was much larger, with undefined borders that always shifted around. Neither space nor time worked normally there; when he was with Leara, Desmond found that the walk from their home to the Chancery of Mithril took only a couple of minutes, but when he went off on his own, he couldn’t get there in less than half an hour even if running at full speed. The normal dimensions were warped there, possibly because the enclave was infused with Glamour. Nothing in the city within a city was truly real. Non-Fae who spent too much time there often went insane. Luckily for Desmond, he’d been riding the crazy train for quite some time. The Rainbow District merely annoyed him.

  The Chancery of Mithril was more intimidating. The huge building was built of Primal Marble and Thrice-Forged Mithril, enchanted construction mat
erials that allowed the coliseum-like building to rise up five hundred feet into the air. Near the top were the embassies of the Seelie, Unseelie, Gray and Wild Courts, four factions of Faerie whose jockeying for power could overthrow kingdoms and grind empires into dust. At least, that was what Leara said. Politics bored Desmond, which was a problem because everything about the Fae involved politics. His inability to follow the intricacies of Sidhe society had earned him many punishment sessions, but despite his best efforts, he still screwed up. That was why he’d been ordered to be neither seen nor heard for this meeting.

  They weren’t headed towards the upper reaches of the Chancery, however. Their meeting was on the ground floor, near the Golden Hall, where there was an eternal party featuring assorted Fae creatures and guests from all known species. Music from a dozen different cultures tried to drown out each other, resulting in a discordant mess that hurt your ears and mind. None of the melodies were the creation of the Fae musicians. Desmond had discovered that the Fae – at least the pure-blooded ones – had zero creativity of their own. Everything they did or produced, from their art and weapons to their intricate Glamours, were copied from others. He wasn’t sure what that meant but knew that most Fae hated other species for having what they lacked: imagination. Maybe souls. Desmond didn’t know and didn’t care. He hated the Fae right the hell back.

  The three of them stood for a few moments near one of the intricate pillars holding up the fifty-foot ceiling that loomed over the Golden Hall. The pillars were made of perfectly straight living tree trunks, complete with sprouting leaves but no tree branches for the first twenty feet of their length. The Fae loved to refashion plants and animals to suit their needs. An animated painting overhead depicted a battle between the Sidhe and fire giants from one of the Elemental Realms. Those weren’t cartoons, either. The figures tearing each other apart were completely realistic, like a movie projection of the brutal event. Definitely not PG-rated, either.