The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 27: The Grey Horde

Near the entrances to Kruxol, players were assembling in formation, guided by high-ranking members of the top Guilds. Mages were lined up behind a wall of strong warriors, and Assassins were sent out to the outskirts of the town to warn of the enemy's approach. Archers were told not to attack, and instead to act as runners and pick up the draugr's weapons if they fell during the clash. Warriors with swordfighting skills were placed front and centre, told to block attacks and use their skills to disarm the opponent. Cael felt that this was too orderly for an anarchic fight inside Kruxol, where the draugr horde would be surging through the streets and attacking from various directions. Nonetheless, it was noticeably more organised than the initial resistance. Cael estimated that, since players had by now got a better hang of defeating the draugr, this organised resistance had a decent chance of limiting the inroads of the draugr horde. The horde was very strong by this point, however, and would probably push back the defending force and cause some severe injury.

Near the front of the assembled formation, Cael saw that a batch of three [Cursed Draugr Sword] from barrows was being distributed among high-Agility players. Since draugr were guarding their barrows now, this was probably difficult to acquire. The idea was probably that these high-Agility melee attackers could use these swords to quickly kill some of the advancing draugr after the Mages had reduced their HP to 1%. Cael figured that this might be a useful way to eliminate some draugr earlier, but among the horde it would be difficult for these players to target specifuc draugr. The combination of Mages, swordfighters and the occasional Assassin would be effective at disarming the draugr, and archers could help to recover dropped weapons, but due to the power of the draugr now it would be difficult to pull this off quickly enough not to get pushed back.

Cael found that several other players were not joining this resistance, and instead trying to hide in corners of the town. Cael had tried to check for hiding places in the broken, jutting-out walls of the ruined buildings that were now scattered across Kruxol due to the town's downgrade in status, but he had no luck. If he couldn't find a hiding place, then he would use Crucis' Agility to try and access somewhere that would be difficult for the draugr to reach, like a verandah or atop a statue. However, he did see one possible wall that could be entered. It was located right where the first fighting would occur, and most people trying to hide were staying well clear of this area.

The assembled formation was crowding in front of a large open gate across the streets of Kruxol, with the plan being to slam it shut and delay the draugr if the players were pushed back. It was quite rickety and barely used, but these iron gates could still delay the intruders for a few minutes and give time to regroup. These gates were attached to small stone columns, with levers that could be used to close the gates. There were small fountains near each stone column, but at present the levers were blocking the way into the wall and did not let players teleport into it. Cael decided that, if he turned the lever and closed the gate, it would get the lever out of his way and he could enter the stone column for safety. Hence, he loitered around the area, mostly standing in a small, curving alleyway to the right of the gates, out of sight of the assembled players. There was a small audience gathering nearby who were too low-level or unwilling to fight, so Cael wasn't afraid that he would be noticed.

He saw that an Assassin was also loitering near the gates, and seemed to be inspecting the levers. Cael guessed that this player had a similar plan, and pointed his hand to indicate that this player should go to the stone column on the left, and he would enter the one on the right. However, he was surprised and somewhat beleagured when the Assassin instead gestured to someone else out of sight to take the left gate's lever, and pointed past the assembled players to show Cael that the draugr were approaching. It would not be long before the fighting broke out. Cael noticed that the Assassin was of the [Hashin] Guild, and subtly raised an eyebrow. However, as the loud hissing of the horde crept nearer, he walked up near the stone column and was joined by the Assassin, who raised his palm to tell Cael to wait.

Soon, the sound of clashing weapons and loud rallying cries rang out as the fighting begun, and Cael watched as the horde surged into the mass of players. A few [Draugr Mage] stayed slightly distant, and used their skills to attack the sheltered Mage players, with some particularly strengthened [Draugr Mage] attacks even killing the players in a few strikes. The audience of players gave out a loud groan of surprise at seeing these early deaths, but the rest of the formation was holding up well.

At the Assassin's signal, Cael pulled the lever until half of the gate slammed shut, and quickly stepped towards the fountain until he was teleported into the wall. The Assassin used [Agile Step] to leap in, a short distance away from Cael, and then knelt down towards the lever. The left side of the gate had also been shut, and Cael saw three Assassins entering the stone column on that side.

There was a loud noise as the lever broke, and the Assassin smiled on seeing that Cael was surprised. "The wages of griefing is knowledge," said the Assassin, as he stood back up.

He continued, "Honestly, that was similar to how you got in the wall. An Assassin at this level has the ability to occasionally move instantaneously while holding objects, it's called the class' [Tradeskill Perk]. You should have the Mage equivalent, it unlocks at level 40. Because of the bug, the lever can appear as if it was in two different positions at once, so just like you teleporting into a wall using water, I can teleport the lever further than it should go using the Assassin perk. If a lever is pushed too far, the game has it break as a failsafe to prevent cheating. Very clever."

Cael chucked lightly, then said, "That is clever. I hadn't noticed the perk, actually, I only levelled to 40 recently due to the draugr."

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The Assassin raised his eyebrows, as if impressed, and said, "Good going reaching 46, then. Quite some draugr farming, you'd be a good soldier in a zombie apocalypse."

"Not at all. I just harvest EXP, I don't try to help save the people in town!" said Cael with mock guilt. The Assassin laughed.

"I'm known as ImpalerVladislav, by the way. And you are?"

"You're Hashin, if I tell you then will you guys stalk me down whenever I exit the town?" asked Cael facetiously.

"Yes. Come on, it won't be that bad. We just hunt people for their own entertainment, you know?" replied Vladislav in kind.

"What kind of entertainment?"

"Well, some people like playing the underdog, you know? It makes them feel like they're morally in the right. It's difficult for a politician to be a saint, since they have to take tough decisions and navigate a corrupt system, but it's much easier for a martyr."

Cael laughed, "Anyway, I'm Cael. So how come you aren't with your Guildmates out East and West, killing the people fleeing Kruxol?"

"We have some business involving Kruxol Arena. Also, we heard that a few people thought we were near Kruxol, so we decided not to disappoint them. I mean, it was worth it, we killed some of them. And now these guys are getting trapped like sardines."

So this must have been one of the Hashin who had killed the corpses Cael saw as he entered Kruxol. ImpalerVladislav was a level 51 Assassin, and seemed to have learnt quite a lot from adventuring alongside the Hashin. Breaking the lever had thwarted the two or three players who had desperately tried to use the lever to open the gates again.

Cael saw where Vladislav was indicating, and noticed that the lines of warriors confronting the draugr were falling back around the Mages, and a combination of Mages, archers and Assassins was standing with their back to the closed gates.

"I think this is, or was, their plan," said Cael, "They obviously weren't going to stand their ground forever, so they decided to backtrack in an organised way with the warriors forming a ring around the Mages to prevent draugr from getting in."

"Yes, perhaps. But a bit awkward since the gate is closed now. Their Mages wouldn't have much luck opening it, plus the draugr would overrun the warriors if they tried."

"Exactly."

"By the way, I saw some players kill the draugr with their own weapons, not the draugr's. You are a draugr hunter, you should know: is that possible?"

"Draugr keep swords on their barrows, or burial mounds. These swords can kill them. This group only had three or four of these swords, and they're one-use. So that's not likely to recur."

After a few draugr fell early to the [Cursed Draugr Sword], causing the horde to hesitate, the draugr had regained their confidence and were now pouring forwards in rows. Cael quickly scanned the hordes to pick out the strongest draugr. He saw with some consternation that an archer named [Nemuieh] was about to snatch the fallen sword of one of the powerful draugr which Crucis had created. If the archer took the sword, that draugr would probably be killed. Frustrated, Cael fired off a [Mana Strike] at the sword using his powerful new staff, sending the sword flying across the ground until it was hidden somewhere in the vast draugr horde. Cael smiled slightly - though weaponless, this draugr would now be virtually invulnerable, since no player could access its weapon without running into the masses of draugr and dying first.

"They can't kill that draugr now?" came Vladislav's voice.

"No," replied Cael.

"Good move."

Cael was pleased by the compliment, and resolved to go one step further. Seeking out powerful draugr who were locked in fierce combat along the front lines, he used [Mana Strike] to shove their weapons away towards the back of the draugr horde. This might make them slightly weaker, but also impossible to beat.

ImpalerVladislav saw this, and considered whether his men could join in. He made a signal to one of the Hashin on the left of the gates, and soon Cael saw what looked like a set of draugr weapons being thrown hard across the ground towards the draugr. Cael guessed that they weren't real draugr weapons.

"The [Spy] Assassin can spoof weapon types, pass off one kind of weapon as another one," explained Vladislav, "We have a bunch of practice swords that we stole from a group that was practicing for Kruxol Arena, and we used them to practice crafting more powerful weapons by adding perks and remoulding them slightly. They're still counted by the game as like a generic weapon, so can be transformed to look like draugr weapons. This means that the draugr will pick them up, but they can't be used to kill draugr."

"I see."

"We saw that you were disarming the draugr to keep them protected, but if they had weapons as well they would be even stronger. So we gave them these weapons, that can't be used to kill them. The draugr who already have weapons won't pick these up."

Cael was still slightly aggrieved that the Hashin had killed him earlier, but still found their creativity right now impressive. He had been slightly regretful that he was leaving the strong draugr without their weapons, although they had still managed to fight by throttling and striking enemies en masse. Now that these strong draugr had weapons, however, they quickly made mincemeat of the players trapped by the gates. The Mage back line was almost suffocated as the warriors were pressed rigbt into them, and the draugr were soon reaching out to grab Mages by the head and drag them into the fray.

Soon, suffocating cries filled the air as the once-organised army was reduced to a mob of bloodied corpses, with some blood dripping from the gates after the suffocating Mages were trampled and shoved against it by their own warriors trying to retreat from draugr attacks.