“That place looks like a shit hole.” One said.

“Because it is.” I replied. We were approaching Goratat after ten days out on the ocean. Hanark had quickly gotten the crew in line. With the city in sight it was a clear mess. Most of the buildings were haphazardly cobbled together. Like someone picked up a real town and dropped it here without putting it back together. I saw a house tilted sideways leaning up against another house.

The docks were one of the only areas that wasn’t chaos. Surrounded by a ten foot high wall. Warehouses, barracks, and enough mercenaries to make an army camped out. The traders made insane docking rates to land and pick up slaves. The mercenaries kept the area in order and the barbarians respected the divide for the most part.

It also helped that there were rotting corpses stacked all along the walls. There was also a barrel of pickled balls right near the front gate. Any misbehavior and you got cut. That deterred the majority of troublemakers.

“Alright, this ship is going to be our base. Hanark assemble the men.” He started shouting and sailors began assembling. “Alright, anyone want to leave this crew and take their chances in the city?” I asked. They all looked at each other. Finally one man stepped forward and then three others joined him. That left five men counting Hanark.

“Anyone having a problem obeying Hanark?” Another man stepped forward. The individual who had been lashed a while back. I took out my sword and everyone looked nervous. “You five are now slaves. One the slave collars.” One came up and began snapping heavy metal collars around their necks.

One of the men made to protest but Two just swung his war hammer and his head went flying from his shoulders. The body just stood there as blood shot up out of the corpses neck and then it collapsed. “No arguing. Now you are going to be sold for money. If you cause trouble I will kill you. Hanark you and the men may leave the ship. There are two rules.”

“First rule, you come back before night fall. I don’t care for excuses. The second rule is that you don’t run your mouths. You don’t talk about me or this ship. If anyone asks, say the voyage was long and you will be looking at slaves after you have relaxed for a couple days. Questions?” There were none. I then pulled out a money pouch and gave it to Hanark.

“That has a hundred and sixty bronze and three silvers. Spend it how you want, just keep your head about you.”

“Thanks my Lord.”

“Now then, Three is going to be remaining on the ship as will I. Our appearances will draw attention. Hanark you handle the docking fees. They shouldn’t be more than two gold. If they try and charge more, offer up to ten silvers on top, but no more. Here.” I tossed him another money pouch.

We came into the port and docked at an open berth. I remained in the hold with Three. The great thing about being in a place like this, they didn’t care as long as you could pay. Hanark came down after a bit. “All paid, two gold and seven silver for a ten day berth.”

“Good, I am going to rest for a bit in the main cabin.” Two returned that afternoon with word that thin high quality fabric was insanely expensive. A single seven foot by fifty foot piece would easily cost a gold piece. We needed around thirty two of these rolls of fabric. At most there were six rolls in various warehouses.

I sighed at the report Two gave me that evening. “Everything is leather or hides around here. Those won’t work for a balloon.”

“What about wool or cotton?” I asked.

“Nope, nothing. I also checked to see if there were monsters we could use, but nothing.”

“What about ordering some cloth?” I asked.

“Months and hundreds of gold.”

“What about ship canvas. They have to have loads of it.”

“I didn’t think of that.” Two said and I let out a relieved sigh. The following morning he reported back that yes there was enough canvas but it was heavy cloth made from cotton. Apparently there was a lot of cotton in the surrounding area and the kids would often collect it for extra money while they traveled. Since they wore hides and leather the cotton went to the merchants who used it to make sails, since those were in high demand.

It was a simple matter to buy all the cloth. I had the sailors get to work on building a basket. I told them it was just a large crate. The sale of our slaves paid for all of this thankfully. In five days we had our basket and balloon. We also managed to load up on water, dried and salted meat, bows and arrows, and lighter clothing for the desert. Unfortunately I was suck indoors to avoid drawing attention.

“So we leave tomorrow morning.” Tor said. We were in the galley and she had just come from a round with Hanark and the other sailors.

“Yes, tonight we attack. One managed to gather quite a bit of info of what is stored in which warehouse. Since we can’t take a lot we want quality over quantity.” Hanark stumbled in with a please grin on his face.

“Hanark go wait for me in the main cabin.” He nodded and walked out.

“What about them?” One asked.

“The ship has been sold along with all the sailors. We are taking Hanark with us.” I said. Everyone just stared at me. “That book is going to be trapped. He is going to be the one to run in first.” At that everyone smiled.

“So, Two get the slave collars on all the sailors. Tor should have knocked them out, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Your guy should be here soon.” Two nodded and left.

“One, begin filling up the balloon after the slaves are taken. Three feel free to go crazy tonight. I honestly want to hear in the forums how many people died in Goratat.” Three gave me a feral grin.

“Tor, me and you are going to raid the warehouse that is holding a number of slaves. We will set them free. Then in the confusion we are going to go rob as many merchants as we can.” The slaves were soon carted off and we got to work slipping off the boat onto the dock and going into this walled off section of the city.

It was nice to get out of the boat and we made our way to one of the largest slave pens. At least fifty people were in a large outdoor pit ready to go to market the next day. There were six guards around the pit with torches lit up next to the edge. The pit had wood walls and crushed stone at the bottom. We waited in the shadows of a nearby building until one of the guards went to take a piss.

I followed him and while he was reliving himself I stabbed him in the back of the head. He died instantly. I propped him up on the wall and waited. Finally another guard came over to see what had happened and I killed him as well as he bent over his dead comrade.

I raced out from where I had ambushed the guards towards the others. Tor managed to get one in the neck and I stabbed one through the heart before the other two realized. I moved in on the other two guards who began to shout. “Attack, attack at the slave-AHHH!” I cut off his hand. He waved his bloody stump in horror while he ran around screaming louder than before.

I threw a knife at the guard who was force to block. That was all the opportunity I needed to get past his defense and slash him across his face. The tip of the blade struck an eyeball and it burst, fluids ran down his cheek. He screamed and clutched his face and then toppled into the salve pit. I picked up my throwing knife and wiped off my sword. Next I lifted of the nearby ladder and dragged it over the side and pushed it into the pit.

Slaves began to emerge. “Take their weapons, there are two dead over there. Good luck!” I got a couple thankyous as the slaves continued to climb out but was already off with Tor. We hid in the shadows using conceal presence as thirty mercenaries rushed past to the slave pits. Once they were past we got to work setting a fire to the warehouse. Tor had purchased oil and filled up a number of canteens. Emptying one, we put a striker to the oil and the building caught fire. Despite having a stone base, the support beams were all wood along with the upper walls and the roof.

We continued to race on through the night as the shouting continued. “Do you think they will attack?” Tor asked.

“Probably.” I had put word out that there would be an event in Goratat in the near future once we had arrived. Just hours ago I had put up a notice that tonight when there was a fire, players would have a chance to loot the warehouses. I heard fighting in a different direction than we had come from. “Looks like it has started, come on.”

We hurried through the night as the entire area descended into chaos. We saw a number of people rush by but for the most part were ignored since it was dark and the chaos that had been unleashed was distracting. “Hey! Your Rain of-“ I stabbed the person who had stopped to speak in the gut. With a flick of my hand my sword cut across his belly. His entrails poured out onto the ground. “Whhhhhhhy!” He screamed at me as he collapsed to his knees. His hands grasped uselessly at his wound.

I then kicked him in the face to shut him up. “Only thing I hate worse than worms are fans.” Tor let out a snort and we continued onwards. We reached a large three story stone building. This was the place where gems were stored for trade. Tor shot an arrow into one guard up on the roof and he went over with a cry and then a splat.

I raced in and slashed a guard across his shoulder as he was spinning around from staring at his splattered companion. As he staggered I kicked out with my tri-pronged foot. The spike on the bottom extended slightly and pierced through his leather jerkin before he want tumbling back. I threw a knife and it struck a guard who was rushing towards me in the shoulder.

“Fear aura, ten minutes.” The remaining guards broke and ran. The door was solidly built into the stone wall. I really wished for my flame blade right about now. I kicked at the door but it barely budged. The only windows were on the third floor. I head movement inside. “If you don’t open this door we will burn the building down and kill everyone inside.” I shouted.

The door opened and there was a merchant who looked incredibly rumpled and eight guards behind him. “Kill them!” He shouted. The guards threw down their weapons and I went inside.

“You can take your weapons and go. Pass it on that Kenji Shadowen is here.” Some picked up their swords others chose just to run. I grabbed the merchant as he tried to slip by. “Now, take us to the jewels.”

“I can’t, that is my entire savings.”

“Do you like your hands? Because the way you are acting tells me that you don’t really appreciate them.” I held up my sword to one of his arms.

“Follow me.” He burst into sobs but I let him lead the way. Climbed up the stairs to the third floor. He unlocked a room and inside were a number of small labeled boxes.

“Put everything into this bag, we are watching.” I pushed him into the room with my sword and watch him get to work. After two minutes he handed my satchel back to me. “Any traps or poisons?” I asked. “I don’t want to have to find you again.”

“Nothing.” He wailed. It was annoying. I pushed the tip of my sword against his chest and pushed slightly. He retreated into the wall. “No, what are you doing, AHHHHH!” He screamed as I slowly pushed the blade into him. Every time he tried to move the blade did more damage. I then pulled out a dagger and moved it towards his face. He brought up his arms to block me.

I stepped on his foot with my tri-prong foot and pierced him. With the distraction I pushed the tip of the dagger into one of his eyes. He turned his head, so instead of the center I hit the side near the nose. I dragged the dagger to the side and watched the eye burst as fluids and blood poured down his face. I pulled myself back and cleaned off my weapons as he lay there in a sobbing heap.

“Come on Tor, let’s go.” We left the building to pandemonium. Fires raged throughout the city, even outside the merchant district. I saw a couple of barbarians fighting the merchant’s guard. I saw players looting and killing each other to take the loot. I even saw one rich merchant wife being dragged into a house by three brutish looking men.

Tor and I stayed to the sides and kept moving. I had my sword in my hand while Tor kept her bow nocked. The satchel of jewels was strapped across my back. We reached the docks and saw two ships burning and the rest putting out to sea. One of the few remaining ones was ours. I never did get the name of it. I saw a group of players hiding behind some barrels as One shot an arrows at them. I could see Two working with Nus’ Awakening to fill up the balloon with hot air.

“-rush him.” One of the players said as I approached.

“You first then, he is a good shot and that guy behind him doesn’t look like a push over.” I stabbed one of the men in the back of the head with a throwing knife and drove my sword through the ass hole of another. He went down screaming and that was when Tor took one out with an arrow. They all scattered running away while they left their companion on the ground screaming. I finished him off with a stab to the throat.

“Good your back, we need to go.” One said.

“What about Three?” I asked.

“No sign.”

“The balloon?”

“Taking time, but it is all loaded up.”

“Alright, keep watch with Tor. I am going to talk with Two.” I walked over to the man as he kept the flame sword held up to the opening of the balloon. We had rigged the basket so that it had a frame that connected to the balloon opening and about a foot up. The balloon looked like it was a quarter full of air.

“The sword doesn’t give off smoke, just heat, so this is taking a while.” Two said.

“Anything we can do to speed this up?” I asked.

“Not really, just have to keep going.” I nodded and returned to Tor and One.

“There is a large group of people moving through the city, see down at the other end of the docks.” I looked and saw a large mob. “We need to go, now.” Tor said. The flame blade would draw people’s attention and there were a lot.

“One get us free of the dock. Tor help push us away.” We grabbed up polls as One cut the ropes. We pushed away from the dock as the mob arrived. A few tried to leap the gap but slammed into the side of the ship. They began to get planks and bring them over.

Tor began shooting them as they tried to lay them across. Two planks dropped into the water along with fresh corpses. A third plank was successful and people began to charge across. I pushed the plank off to the side and everyone went into the water along with the plank. “Fear aura, two minutes.” With that the mob moved on. Some people remained staring at the boat or just wandering around.

It became a matter of waiting and pushing us away from the docks with polls if we drifted too close. Dawn was slowly approaching and the balloon was almost fully inflated. Three finally showed up. He jumped into the water and we tossed a rope to him to haul him up into the boat.

“Have fun?” I asked him. I was distracted by the heart squirting out small spurts of water.

“Loads, there was this one woman who I shoved the heart up into. It was weird how the flesh seemed to come together. I had to cut out her tongue to stop her screaming.”

“We can hear about the rest in a bit. Get dried off. We are leaving soon.” I said. The balloon lifted off the deck for a second and then settled back down.

“Finally!” Two exclaimed.

“Everyone load up. Someone drag up Hanark.” One went off below decks. I looked over at the city and saw a growing number of people looking at the balloon now that it was day time. While the balloon was at the rear of the ship and the sails hung loosely in front of it, there were still risks. “We might get company. Tor shoot anyone with a bow that comes near, ignore everyone else.” One dragged up a bound and gagged Hanark and tossed him into the basket. “One help Tor keep an eye out for archers.”

Three came back up to the deck with dry clothes and hopped into the balloon. “Got the water barrel?” I asked Two.

“Everything is all loaded.” Two replied. I looked back at the city, there were people massing nearby. We had to hurry, but also wait until the last second so we had enough lift.

“Kenji, people approaching. A good number.” I went over to the side of the ship and confirmed Tor’s observation. Thirty people were heading towards our ship. I counted twelve with bows and at least two mages.

“Three burn the dock!” I shouted. The barrel of oil we left behind erupted into flames as the group passed by. A number of them ran off screaming as their flesh melted. Honestly, didn’t anyone know stop, drop, and roll? The rest scattered and tried to put out their flaming comrades.

“Two how much longer?” I asked.

“At least twenty minutes, more is better.”

“What if Three boosts the flame?” I asked.

“A good chance the whole thing would go up.” Two was standing on a barrel with the sword raised up inside the balloon to get the maximum effect. We waited and watched as the dock burned away and collapsed into the water. Some players started shooting arrows, but they only struck the front of the ship. While Tor kept an eye on them I checked the seaward side.

A vessel three times the size of our sloop was moving towards us. Lots of burly looking men, I counted at least fifty. “Time to go! Everyone in.” We all clambered into the basket. “On three, swing to cut. One, two, three!” We all swung our blades and cut the anchoring ropes at the same time.

The balloon rose up into the air. I held my breath to see which way we would drift. We started to be pulled out towards the sea and the approaching ship. I saw that a number of the men were racing up their rigging. “Tor and One get shooting. Three boost the power to the flame sword, just be careful. If we go up we all die.”

“Got it, no sweat.” Three began chanting. The balloon shot up faster and we began to curve to the north around the city. Arrows thankfully fell short as our course shifted. “We are set Three, good job. One take over for Two.” One got up on the barrel and continued fueling our hot air. We stared at the city below taking in the devastation.

“Thanks, that was tiring holding the blade up.”

“You did great.” I replied to Two. I saw people running around below us. A number of them pointed up and stopped to stare. I noticed one man get stabbed in the side while he was distracted. There was a bunch of people on a roof top enjoying their prisoners. Outside the merchant district it was even worse. Fires had rampaged through the ramshackle buildings. Even all the way up here the smell of charred corpses reached us.

“Pretty.” Three said.

“That is a lot of carnage.” Tor said.

“Indeed, so we need to go south east.” I said.

“How are we going to do that without a compass?” One asked. There was a long moment of silence at that. We all stared at each other not knowing what to say.

“A giant tower in the desert is sure to stick out, we just coast across and keep our eyes open. If we miss it then we just coast back across again.” Tor let loose a huge sigh as I explained the new plan.

“So we do this in shifts. Three you meditate along with Tor. One and Two, us three will take shifts powering the balloon and keeping watch. We need to get to the right current to carry us that way.” I gestured to the right of the rising sun.

“We so need to get an airship.” One muttered.

“I am still looking for an evil bard.” I said. “We need a theme song.”

“A theme song? Why the hell do we need a theme song?” Tor replied.

“Simple, we have a name so we need to have a song. I got some of the lyrics worked out, listen,

We are the Anti-Heroes on a journey of FEAR

We travel the land while drinking some beer

Our enemies panic when they see our faces

We don’t discriminate between any of the races

“Isn’t there only one-“ I smacked Three to shut him up.

“Don’t interrupt, anyways I am a human demon bug mix now, respect my people!”

“We are your-“ I smacked him again and continued singing.

We kill and we maim our way across the land

We travel the frozen wastes to the desert sand

Our courage is great and our belief is strong

That we will kill people with this awful song

I grinned at the end. “That was not half bad. Are you going to be our evil bard?” Tor asked.

“Nah, but I am putting that as an intro for my next video. Got some virtual singers to record it.”

“All we need now is a name for this balloon.” Two said.

“The Buxom Wench!” One shouted form his perch.

“Hell’s Descent.” Three said.

“New Dawn.” Tor suggested.

“Highwind.” Two said.

I needed to make a decision on which name to choose that would impact things to come. A wrong choice here would be disastrous.

***

GODHAXLOL: BLIMPY!

Ramponator: That actually sums it up. I can’t believe he built a hot air balloon

UltimataSecret: That is how to travel with style

PowerOfFaith: So he is going into the desert, he is so dead

Worm: We are hungry

Envy: At least they are big worms, not the kind that wriggle inside of you

PowerOfFaith: I am going to have nightmares

RoidBeast1: What is in the desert besides insane nomads and terrible monsters?

6996: Something amazing if Rain is heading that way

Ramponator: Why can’t I be with Rain of Blood getting all the good loot

***

“A balloon, how interesting.” Anova said as he watched the video Rain had put up. “An airship would be far superior.” He sipped some fruity virtual wine.

***

“How the hell did he manage a balloon?” Albus said.

“No idea, but he did it just the same.” One of his generals responded.

“Double our work on the airship.”

“But sir, we need to let our enchanters recharge.”

“Then go find some more. Air power will be what dominates this land. How are the other weapons progressing and the training?”

“Well enough, we should be ready by next month.”

“Excellent, we cannot falter, for it is us who hold back the darkness.”

***

“My lady there is a report on Kenji.”

“What now?” Lady Breckley asked as she sliced a piece of roasted fish.

“He has made a flying device in Goratat and is sailing across the continent through the air.” There was a pause as Lady Breckely stopped with the piece of meat hovering just outside her mouth. She closed it and set the food back down.

“Will he return?” She said far too calmly, a clear over exaggeration of the nervousness she felt about the person who had killed her parents.

“We don’t know. I am going to conduct drills to target aerial objects and consult with the priests.”

“Keep me informed Sir Willos and good job.” She looked down at her dinner and found she had lost her appetite.

***

A creature stirred in the bowels of a mountain. Its thousands of legs clicked as it shifted positions in the winding tunnels. Its master was moving everything into position.

***

Author’s Notes: People! There are only 3 days left in the pledge drive. Without your support we will not be able to bring you this quality programming. Next comes the tower dungeon, which will be a long arc, probably the next 3-6 chapters minimum, maybe 10, depends on how well they manage. Feel free to expand the song with more verses or put up an audio file.