The rest of day seemed to rush by as people hurried out to drop of boxes of food upstairs as others came to start preparing and reanimating the usable bodies to add to the army. Oda was forced to do some quick explaining as to why there were bodies at all, but since they were carrying a number of useful pieces of equipment and nothing was lost, Mary let them off on a warning. As other people started coming in, bringing in the bodies that had been left in camp, the piles of equipment began stacking up. When players died they didn’t drop everything they had; only a few random items they were carrying. But with over two hundred kills on players that went out of their way to hunt down rare and unusual equipment, it quickly added up.

Having been involved in the actual battle, Jicker was able to get to pick a few pieces first. Most of it wasn’t suitable or useful to him, either being too high a level for him to be able to use, or be completely opposed to what he needed. For instance he found a suit of plate mail that would more than double his health, but trying to wear it not only let him almost unable to move, but made him clank around like a pile of tin cans.

In the end he limited himself to just a few items, things that he could use at his current level that would still be a large improvement. His first choice was to replace the old sabre he’d made, picking up a new blade.

Long Serrated Scalpel

Item type: Weapon

Grade: Rare

Restriction: Level 20 Minimum

10-42 damage

This long handled blade comes to sharp point and backed with a serrated bone saw. When used for critical strikes the damage is increased by 50%. When used for surgery, chances of success are increased by 25%.

It was much lighter and sleeker than his previous weapon, which was promptly thrown into a trash can, and also had the benefit of not smelling like a waste pit. His second choice was a new acquisition rather than a replacement. It was a cloak that he hadn’t noticed when it had first been thrown on to the growing pile of gear. He only spotted it at all after tripping on it after going to examine something else.

Chameleons Cloak

Item type: Cloak

Grade: Rare

Restriction: Level 23 Minimum

When left in the same place for 10 seconds, this leather cloak will begin to take on the colouration of its surroundings, allowing the wearer to hide more easily.

The cloak would be all but useless for someone more mobile like Oda, but for him and strategies of hiding and waiting, it was perfect. The final item he bothered to grab was a new set of boots that had fallen off someone his size.

Grey Soles

Item type: Boots

Grade: Common

These shoes are both comfortable and durable, with the added benefit of reducing the noise of the wearer’s footsteps.

Most of the equipment he picked up was taken from assassins and cutthroats rather than crafters, but considering the source that wasn’t really surprising. People investigating unexplored tombs and dungeons might bring along a blacksmith to keep things running, but they would't bring along carpenters or alchemists. The rest of the equipment was sorted and stored in the guilds strongroom, though a few pieces vanished as people came to investigate the pile.

Having no other plans for the day, Jicker just wandered the guild hall for a while; occasionally check up on the wolves on the surface. The guild had dropped of several sides of beef, as well as a few water troughs. While the animals kept back from the people as they’d brought the items up, they’d fallen on them ravenously once they had gotten clear. The few healers the guild could spare carefully walked amongst them doing what they could, the wolves flinching away, but staying still long enough for the people to do their job. The result was that while they still looked weak and malnourished, they no longer looked like they were going to collapse at any moment. Once they had all managed to get to get their feet and they’d picked the meat clean of every edible scrap, they headed into the trees, leaving the dead where they lay in the cave.

Now that the wolves had left and the node had been properly sealed, Jicker went back in to the hall to find that everyone had gathered together in front of a stage. Before long Mary walked out and addressed them.

“Members of the Rising Moon!” She called out in a clear voice. “For almost a year now we have been preparing for this moment, dedicating ourselves to our common goal. We have sacrificed our time, our wealth and our status to get here. For too long we have been judged and oppressed for our choices and actions, only because they didn’t align with the opinions of others. We have been declared evil and outcasts, monsters and troublemakers for things often beyond our control.

I will not say we are perfect, and I certainly won’t say we are a force of good. But we should have the same rights as others, and be innocent until proven guilty, rather than be run out of town because of rumours. Because of this we found each other and began our search for a home, a place we could walk freely and call our own. But no city would take us in; no kingdom would grant us the right to build our own. So with little choice, as is our path it seems, we began our work to take the last option available to us.

Tomorrow we will march out, not hiding in the shadows but with our heads held high. We will no longer lie or hide our magic, but wield them proudly as we fight for what will be ours. Our forces are ready, our numbers are great and our purpose is clear. So rest now, recover your energy and prepare yourselves. For tomorrow, we begin our attack on Ardenvale.”

As Mary finished her speech and went to leave the stage, a thunderous applause broke out, people cheering and stomping their feet. Any thoughts of remaining hidden were forgotten as the stress of the past months was released.

“Before you start to party too hard this evening,” she said, speaking up again. “Remember that the hardest part is still to come. So if you want to drink and celebrate, make sure you’re fit and healthy by tomorrow, or you’ll answer to me.”

Taking her advice, several players decided to log out and catch a few hours of sleep, Jicker included.

~~~~~~

Removing the headset and going to the kitchen, Matt searched through the fridge for something to eat. Settling on a chicken sandwich and half a stick of garlic bread that he found wedged in the back of the freezer. Waiting for his meal to heat up he went and set an alarm for a few hours from now, not wanting to show up to the battle late.

Checking in on the news, he was amused to see that there were several reports of cities in Genesis making evacuation plans in case they were attacked by something like the earthwyrm. Apparently a few people had decided it was some kind of nuclear grade summoning spell that had been discovered, and considering how effective it had been, it wasn’t a terrible theory Wondering absently whether they should prepare to leave Ardenvale in case, he finished his meal and went to bed.

~~~~~~

Dropping back into the game, Jicker found himself alone in the hall, having overslept by half an hour. Hurrying to the main chamber, he saw someone and followed them up to the surface no one caring about keeping the guild hidden anymore. But as he left through the exit that had been opened and stepped into the sun, Jicker stopped in amazement at what he saw.

The average necromancer that he’d seen while playing had managed to maintain a handful of zombies, occasionally raising some more in a pinch. Any more than that and they struggled to keep them rotting away, and attempts to strengthen them enough to last without constant maintenance were generally shutdown by the church or like minded players. But the guild had enough time and secrecy to put in the work, and Gabe had let them store bodies by the score to be worked on. The result wasn’t a large shambling horde like he’d been expecting, a mob of loosely controlled bodies. Instead they stood in disciplined squads, carefully arranged and organised legions. Each had been outfitted with leather and was armed with both a long spear and shield. Attached to each squadron was a large skeletal champion, standing at ten feet tall and covered head to toe in black steel, a massive greatsword strapped to their backs.

Scattered amongst the forces were the guild members themselves, dressed and readied for battle. Any exuberance they’d had the night before had been stripped away, everyone aware that it all came down to this moment. In the distance he could see people fleeing towards the city, unsure of what was going on but knowing that being in front of an undead army wasn’t a good choice.

After an hour of standing in the sun, the zombies began to slam their spears into the ground in unison, creating a thunderous rhythm. After a few minutes of this a group of people were dispatched from the city to see what was happening. Rather than risk getting too close to a hostile force, they paused a few hundred feet from the front lines and used magic to amplify their voice.

“To the armed forces within Ardenvale’s territory! I am sergeant Gamber of the Ardenvale guard! You are violating the law by intentionally bringing undead creatures within three miles of the city! Surrender the bodies for destruction and disperse! Do you understand?”

People within the guilds ranks began to chuckle, which quickly spread and turned to outright laughing. While the majority of the forces stood shaking with laughter amongst the dead, and the people from the city continued to make demands, Gabe advanced.

Jicker wasn’t sure how he’d found the time for it, but he’d had armour made for Princess, making the rugged creature into a true warhorse. Silvery chains hung from the various plates of brightly polished steel adorning the mount, and a shining white blade had been attached to her horn. But the feature that caught the attention of the entire field was the horse shoes that Jicker assumed Gabe had made himself. Made of some bluish substance, trails of frost spread from them both up the animal’s legs and below, forming small platforms of ice below each hoof. The result was a temporary trail left through the air as Gabe rode her into the air above the battle field, leaving her standing proudly on what had been empty air. As Princess reared up, Gabe addressed the detachment from the city, amplifying his own voice to be heard by everyone behind its walls.

“When we planned this, we tried to account for every possibility, a reaction for every action. So congratulations! At no point did we ever think that the cities response would be to tell us to just go away. But the problem here I think, is communication. We’re not here to visit, and we’re certainly not going to hand over all of our hard work. Instead, we are going to take your city. We are going to march on it, open its gates and break down its walls. We will fight, kill and raise anyone who attempts to fight us, be they soldier or citizen, or just passing through. For the next hour people we are allowing people to leave, abandoning anything and everything remaining inside after they leave, however any attack against us will end this period immediately. Anyone left after then is considered either a trespasser in our city, or loyal to our reign. So tell us, sergeant Gamber, do you understand?”

For a moment there was silence from both sides as they waited for the sergeant’s response, everyone on edge to see how things would play out. Apparently his mind was made up, as he wordlessly turned and ran back towards the city, the rest of those he’d brought with him following closely behind. Gabe turned Princess around and addressed the guild.

“Okay, not the start we expected, but things are back on track. You all know your assignments, and those that weren’t given one know the drill. This isn’t going to be over quickly, so we need to minimise our losses once the fight starts and hold the line. Play it safe and keep together, being a hero might get you points but it will also get you dead. Right then, take your divisions and begin to circle the city, and wait for orders before... hold on a moment.”

Not everyone in the city was willing to wait an hour to fight it seems, as several people from atop its defences had been gathering energy for a spell. Once the soldiers from the city had gotten clear, they unleashed it, a massive ball of red broiling flame arced lazily upwards from where they stood, aiming towards the centre of the army. Despite the oncoming threat, not a single guild member moved except for Gabe, who he trotted Princess forwards to place himself directly in the path of the oncoming attack.

As it fell towards them, the normally childish mage’s face turned serious as he dropped the reins, blue mist gathering around his hands. Collecting the forming frost into a ball he compressed and focused it until he held a basketball sized sphere of ice so blue that it almost looked black. Raising his hands he shot it forwards into the flame where it was swallowed whole, having no visible effect.

But a few seconds later the flame exploded, ripped apart by whatever magic he had cast, letting it safely disperse overhead and leave nothing but a faint cloud of snow that began to drift downwards.

Ding!

Quest: The siege of Ardenvale

The guild of the Rising Moon had declared war on the city Ardenvale. This quest will remain active until either the guild is defeated or the city is taken.

Rewards: Player rewards will be based on their contributions to the winning side.

Dismissing the message looking around, Jicker saw the rest of the guild doing the same, and expression of excitement on their faces.

“Well,” Gabe called from his position above the guild. “It looks like our fight is now official and that the city doesn’t feel like running. So boys and girls, let’s get to work!”

A cheer broke out amongst the army and the advance began, the undead legions beginning to slowly march towards the city. In the distance they could see the gates of the city swing closed and hundreds of figures beginning to climb the walls.

The fight had begun.

~~~~~~

“Where’s my mirror, I need to check my hair.”

“It’s fine, now get ready, we’re live in twenty.”

The reporter smoothed out her dress and looked behind her to the battle that raged in the background. While large scale battles weren’t exactly rare, ones that went on for more than a few hours were, especially this close to civilisation. So the news network had sent her out to get live coverage for them to stream to the public. It was somewhat risky, if one side of the fight thought she was an enemy, but usually people ignored the media in these situations.

“3...2...and go.” Her cameraman said.

“Good afternoon, this is Mindy Lawless, reporting for channel eighty three, your first source on Genesis news. At around three o’clock pacific standard time today, the guild known as the Rising Moon launched an unprovoked attack on the city of Ardenvale. Since then, the fight has escalated over the past three hours into a full blown war. Hundreds of players that had been in the city at the time of the siege have taken up arms and joined in the city’s defence. Against them is an attacking force of zombies, skeletons and a number of other undead. When the fight began it has changed into an official quest, but with the nearest town several days away, it is unlikely that any reinforcements will reach the city in time to help defend it. Stay tuned as we watch both sides unleash their greatest spells and mightiest warriors against each other in what will be the first attempt to overthrow a city since the upheaval. Now we’re going to see if we can move closer to the action and... Dave, get a look at that thing over there. What is that?”

~~~~~~

Penumbra looked out towards battle from his place in the trees. Part of him knew that his new body could hide almost anywhere, but keeping to the trees was an instinct he couldn’t shake. Huffing, he lay down as he listened to the calls of his pack that surrounded the area, keeping an ear out for anything that needed his attention. He didn’t really understand why the-angry-one’s pack was fighting against this one, but that didn’t really matter. Her pack had brought food and other things to his, so it felt...right, to do the same.

He whined, the strange thoughts making him uncomfortable. Ever since the-one-who-wasn’t-pack had changed him, his mind had been so much more than it had been. Before his life had been simple, nothing more than hunt, eat, mate and protect. But now he thought about the future, knew that there was a future. It wasn’t all bad, he was much bigger and stronger than before, his pack had grown and absorbed others, and their territory had grown massively. But then he thought about things other than his own pack, like when they’d saved the-one-who-was-hard-to-smell, he wondered why he did it. When he asked others in his pack, they didn’t understand, and seemed...slow, compared to him. They didn’t seem to have these thoughts about things beyond food and the pack, thinking only about right now.

He turned towards the strange thing moving amongst the moving dead, confused by what he saw. It felt strange to him, and the things around it looked like they felt the same. It looked like they wanted it to be there, but he couldn’t understand why they would want something like that nearby.

He whined again before his ears perked up, hearing a call from the other side of the stone thing they fought for. Slipping through the shadows to other side, Penumbra revelled in the feeling, loving being able to sneak up his prey without being seen. When he appeared, the one who called showed him the tracks; a dozen of the ones from the stone thing had run away, making him happy.

His life had become complicated, but the hunt was simple.

~~~~~~

The battle had ebbed since it had first begun as things reached a sort of stalemate for the time being. Initially it seemed as though the guild would overrun the city with ease, the first groups of adventurers that had left the city to fight them being buried in undead soldiers in moments. Apparently they weren’t prepared for properly reinforced undead, and had expected them to break apart with the slightest touch. But since then they’d stopped sending out groups and stayed behind the walls, launching spells and firing arrows down into the waiting masses. The dead, while an imposing force, weren’t well equipped to fight at range, and their scrabbling at the gates had so far proved ineffective. While the mages and other adventures of the Rising Moon were firing back, the siege had turned quiet, with both sides taking the time to reload and plan their next moves.

But that time was about to come to an end, Jicker saw, as he spotted the guilds prize being moved forwards. He wasn’t sure where they’d gotten the body, or how they’d raised it, but it certainly stood out. A tortoise like creature of enormous size, it towered above the army it walked through, seeming more like a mobile building than an undead creature. Its leathery skin had been reinforced with iron plates and spikes, bolted directly into the flesh and bone of the beast, runes carved along its sides. Its head slowly swung side to side, its jaws and empty eye sockets leaking a dark mist that pooled around it. The centre of its shell had been cut away hollowed out, and sitting in the centre and bound with chains of bone was the node, casting its sickly light over the battlefield around it.

“Let’s see how they handle this.” Mary said fiercely as she watched the monsters progress.

Not being equipped for siege warfare, Jicker had wander the rear line of the field for a time, helping to patch up the wounded, and had ended up at the command tent. Sitting on the field a good half a mile from the walls, it was the only structure the guild had bothered putting up. Inside the guild heads peered over maps of the city and surrounding area, making notes and sending runners out to relay orders to the NPCs of the guild. With the node finally taking the field, the commanders had left the tent and were watching to see the defenders reaction. At least, most of them were.

“It really does look like a cupcake now. Don’t act like you don’t see it,” Gabe said as he pointed towards the cloud. “It widens out, it’s rounded on the top, and it’s got a big candle of stone sticking out the top now. With the node glowing on top it even looks lit!”

“Thanks for that Gabe,” Mary sighed as she turned to her brother. “We’ve been planning an attack all this time, we’ve finally launched the assault, and now all I can see is that our final objective looks like a goddamn muffin.”

“...I said cupcake.” He said, looking abashed.

“Just...go and blast some people would you?”

As Gabe remounted and took to the air again, the rest of the people turned back to the node as its carrier moved slowly towards the city. There was a commotion from the defenders as they spotted the oncoming beast and began to prepare countermeasures. Naturally suited to dealing with the undead, white magic had quickly become the highest priority in the city once they’d seen the nature of the invading force. Clerics, priest and all manner of holy classes had taken to the walls, raining down beams of light against the dead below. But as the carrier trudged forwards, the defence held their attacks and began pooling their energy, unleashing a massive torrent of bright energy towards the tortoise.

As the flow of magic passed over the dead on its way to it target, the ones in its path, began to shrivel and break, unable to withstand such a large amount of force that ran against their very existence. But as it came within a hundred yards of the beast itself, the energy began to buckle and dissipate, branching and splintering as it came up against opposition from the node. By the time the blast reach the tortoise, the attack was only a tenth of its initial size, and while it still struck with enough force to flatten the units around it, the tortoise itself was able to shrug off the attack.

The heads cheered as the attack failed, their biggest gamble paying off. Mary gave a signal to the others to get ready for something.

“Arcus, prepare to return fire,” she said with an evil look on her face. Matching her expression, the necromancer closed his eyes and threw his hands forward.

The tortoise, stopping in its tracks, raised its head upwards, facing towards the sky. Trails of light began to pour from the node and flow into the creature’s mouth, collecting into an oily mass. Biting down suddenly, the flow cut off as it turned its face back towards the city and released the power it had collected.

Where the city’s attack had been a wide rush of white magic, this was a single ray of black light, an instant where it seemed the universe had split. Where it struck the wall there wasn’t an explosion or a shockwave, no crumbling or even sound. Instead the point of impact flashed outward for a moment, creating a perfect sphere of darkness a few dozen yards across. When the dark faded a second later, the wall it stuck was gone, with not even rubble remaining. The entire sphere had been wiped clean of all material, the edges that had touched it gaining a polished look as it had been cut away so cleanly.

“Beautiful work. When can we fire again?” Mary asked while the rest of the field became quiet as they reeled at the display of power.

“Um,” Arcus began, shaking his head as he regained focus. “It needs at least an hour before we can fire again, any more it will start to tear it apart and risk misfiring.”

“Well we can’t have that. Have some people set up some defences around it while it recovers. Now let’s make use of our new door before they try and seal it up. Oda stop standing behind me and get to work.”

“How’d you know I was there?” the assassin asked as he became visible, sounding surprised.

“Because whenever you have the chance to sneak around and annoy people, you take it. I want you to get inside and start working on getting the gates open. Until we can secure a way in and out of the city that isn’t going to be sealed off magically we can’t risk sending too many inside. What do you think you need to get the job done?”

Oda thought about it for a few moments. “Give me half a dozen of the champions, and a bag of the explosives we brought. Also, make a push to draw their fire until I get inside.”

“They’re yours. Grab what you need and I'm bringing the skeletons to meet you nearby. We’ll go when you’re in position.”

“I’m also taking Jicker.”

“Wait, what?” Jicker exclaimed in surprise.

Mary raised an eyebrow at his reaction. “He’s been helpful, true, but why?”

“He’s the only other person we have with the enigma skill, so I won’t need to change my strategy if I bring him along, and having someone to watch my back will make this easier. He’s also got a few things in his bag I can make use of.”

“Fine, take him in. But is that the real reason?”

“Well, he’s also small enough that I can carry him if need be, and light enough that I can probably throw him over the wall for emergency communication.”

“Now that makes more sense. In that case get moving, we’re already getting reports of people trying to put up blockades over the breach.”

Before Jicker could even say anything about not wanting to go inside, Oda slung a bag over his shoulder and hoisted him under his other arm and began to sprint towards the walls.