Clans War Read online

  “The more time I spend with you two, the more I realize how little I know about Barliona,” I couldn’t help but crack a sad smile. “What’s an obelisk anyway?”

  “It has a different names: The clan symbol, a mobile respawn point, a binding point. Synonyms aside, it’s a big old ten-meter-tall statue that’s really heavy and incredibly cumbersome when it comes to transporting it. You get it once your clan reaches Level 25. An obelisk can’t be moved through a portal. It’s a really fragile thing that is entirely immune to magic. The cost of an obelisk varies from between 30 and 40 million gold and a clan can only have one at a time. If they really do decide to bring one over here, I’ll be at a loss. What for after all? Would they really do this to get to the Tomb?”

  “Not only the Tomb, although it served as the trigger for the activation,” Ehkiller sighed sadly. “While you two were resting, the enemy was leveling up. The departments of the Corporation responsible for developing the other two continents didn’t have any new Empire launches or treacherous employees, nor did they have to create a new enemy like Geranika. As a result they spent their time making their age-old dream a reality — the conquest of Barliona’s oceans. In a word, Mahan’s already managed to visit one of these locations when he was hunting the Squidolphin — the Oceanic Abyss. At the moment the ocean is turning into an enormous game location with all its monsters, dungeons, islands, scenarios and events. The Corporation decided that it’d be dumb to forego such an excellent game space. Why do you think the pirates have shown up in our continent? We haven’t been able to find a quest for them in five years, and suddenly you and Mahan became captains. They’re the defenders of our continent against an invasion. I looked it up. Currently, forty-two players followed in your footsteps and that’s just the beginning. It’s not only the battle for the Tomb that lies before us, but dominance over the seas. If the borders between the continents are erased, the high-level players of the other locations will wipe us from the face of Barliona.”

  “The sea,” Anastaria said quietly. “They’ll bring the obelisks over the sea, erect a beachhead on our continent and then head for the Tomb. But how can they be certain that the Tomb will remain uncompleted?”

  A silence ensued and I realized with surprise that both Anastaria and Ehkiller were waiting for an answer from me.

  “No need to look at me like that!” I objected. “I never sold anyone anything and…Oh, blast it all to hell!” I exclaimed when I recalled the updated quest list. Stacey’s eyes instantly narrowed in suspicion, so I had to explain my reaction: “The highest-level player is currently at Level 433, correct?”

  Having received the nod of confirmation, I went on:

  “My quest for the tomb was updated. From now on the level of the Tomb Dungeon is equal to the highest-level player on the continent. If you’re right and the Celestial Empire installs its obelisk on Kalragon, then the Tomb’s level will shoot through the roof.”

  “In that case the final boss of the Tomb will be Level 483,” Stacey muttered at a loss, realizing the significance of what I was saying. “We won’t have anyone who could beat it. We’ll need to stop the transport ships. An obelisk can only be renewed once a month. If we destroy the ship, we’ll get a chance to complete the Tomb first.”

  “We have to do it,” Ehkiller smiled bitterly again. “But how are we going to do it? Where are we going to intercept them? Where will they try to land? What kind of fleet do we need to destroy a single ship? And is it just a single ship? The Celestial Empire is the only one that consists of a player union. The other continents might send us several clans with their own obelisks. How are we going to intercept them all? How are we going to monitor their landing sites? I don’t have answers to these questions. Don’t forget that the sea is a new frontier for us, while for the other continents it represents a familiar and almost native location.”

  “We’ll need a fleet,” Anastaria began to generate ideas. “The north is well-defended, since the players up there are seafarers. The south is covered by the pirates, assuming we can come to an agreement with them. Daniel and I have the quest. All that’s left is the west and the east.”

  “Geranika’s out west with his shades and shadows. We can’t do much there. The invaders will skirt around closed locations like Skyfoal, since the Corporation won’t allow them to enter that territory. In a word, the north is inconvenient — our continent is located in a way that only make it vulnerable from the south or the east. Stacey, we need the fleet of the north. We need to meet their captains and arrange a defense of our coast. Start thinking about what we can offer to get them to fight under our flag.”

  “In the best case scenario, no battle will be necessary,” I spoke up. “If we destroy the transport with the obelisk then the rest of the enemy fleet will be harmless for a month. Let them cruise around all they like…”

  “The transport will be sailing in the center of an entire armada. No one’s going to let us get close to it just like that. We could of course sneak up to it under water, but there aren’t any submarines in Barliona. Or rather, there aren’t any anymore, since I was forced to order Stacey to destroy your Squidolphin.”

  “So that was your idea?” I echoed surprised. “Why?”

  “Because upgrading a ship takes time that you didn’t have,” Ehkiller explained. “If you hadn’t opened the Tomb, Donotpunnik would’ve been forced to ‘close’ you. So I made the call and ordered Stacey to destroy your Squidolphin. It’s true that it would come in handy right now, but at the time it was the right move. It’s too late to cry over spilled milk — the Squidolphin won’t be coming back.”

  “Well…” I began, considering the politically vital decision of whether I should mention my Giant Squidolphin Embryo or not…On the one hand, Phoenix and I were on the same side now. On the other, my memory of Ehkiller’s words and deeds was still fresh in my mind.

  “Dan?” Stacey started forward and stared at me with curiosity. “Don’t tell me that you have another Minor Squidolphin.”

  “Unfortunately not,” I shook my head and looked earnestly at the girl, who immediately became crestfallen. She leaned back in her chair in deep thought about how we would have to proceed and therefore paid no attention as I produced my mailbox, found the letter I needed, produced its attachment and placed it on the table that was so enormous that even the Emperor could have used it. Phoenix really does seem to get by just fine. “I don’t have a Minor Squidolphin, but I do have the embryo of a giant one…”

  Anastaria’s bombastic laughter filled the main hall of the Phoenix castle.

  “Was that the surprise you promised me?” Stacey asked after she’d caught her breath. “The one you told me about before opening the Tomb?”

  “Basically…yeah.”

  “Dan, you’re so wonderful…” Anastaria went on happily — and yet even a bystander who didn’t know her would’ve caught the note of something unspoken in her voice. What’s there to say about a person who knew how to read her mind?

  “There’s some ‘but’ here, isn’t there?”

  “Assuming that the leveling up of a Squidolphin is analogous to that of, say, a griffin,” Ehkiller explained, “we’ll only be able to use her in combat operations no sooner than in a half year — and that’s with our most intense grinding regimen. Remember your old ship. At its first level, she was sunk in mere seconds. In order for this embryo to have a chance against the invading armada, we’ll have to level her up to between Level 10 and 12. That would take half a year.”

  “In that case I’m not sure why you just said you were sorry for destroying the minor Squidolphin.”

  “If she had remained alive, by this time, you could’ve leveled her up to at most Level 6. And in that case we could’ve used her as a diversion. We could do the same thing now, but the result will be the same and the Squidolphin will be destroyed. And as you know, ships don’t respawn in Barliona. So let’s get back to our initial plan — we need the fleet of the north. Stacey, I want you to
work on this problem. I’ll go speak with the pirates and ask…”

  “You said that magic doesn’t work on the obelisk,” I interrupted Ehkiller unceremoniously. “What about simple physics? If a high-level player makes it onto the transport, how long will it take him to destroy the obelisk?”

  “About three minutes,” Stacey replied, trying not to look at her father, who had fallen silent and fixed me with his stare. Someone clearly didn’t like it when I opened my mouth.

  “In that case, there’s the option of using the griffins…”

  “The airborne approach, my young friend,” said Ehkiller, not passing up a chance to interrupt me in turn, “is impossible for several reasons. The enemy will field veteran players and it would be daft to think that the armada won’t have flight jammers deployed around its perimeter. So basically imagine an enormous fleet of ships surrounded by a no fly zone…Tell us again how you were planning on flying into it?”

  “Dad!”

  “Hang on, Stacey,” I said. For the first time in many months of my acquaintance with Ehkiller, he appeared before me as the ruthless head of a leading clan, instead of a kind and generous father figure — and this caught my attention. His look, his tone, the scorn on his face — I couldn’t say exactly what annoyed me, but I wanted to argue and prove my point, even if it was obviously a losing one. After all, this was my opinion and I needed to defend it. It was like something had bit me — the idea of flying over the sea was dumb? Okay, I’ll approach the issue from another angle:

  “I can fly in no fly zones while in my Dragon form. I can carry two people. I could take a dps, say, and a tank. I’d be the healer. I think the tank and I could give the dps three minutes to destroy the obelisk.”

  “I see. Daniel,” Ehkiller, switched to a semi-formal tone, “try and fly up to the ceiling.”

  “Dad!” Anastaria objected again, yet Ehkiller was unshakable.

  “Hold on, Stacey. Come on, Mahan! Turn into a Dragon and touch the ceiling. If you do it, I’ll hand you the crown of the castle owner right here and now! And I mean right this instant, I swear on the Emperor!”

  A bright, white cloud momentarily enveloped Ehkiller, confirming his words, so I had nothing left to do but change into my Dragon Form and fly up. Or rather, I mean try and fly up, since nothing came of it.

  “Did they ban flying inside buildings or something?” I inquired, returning to my human form.

  “Let’s just say that if a certain someone had bothered to read the patch notes, he would see that flying for all creatures, even those that can fly without special means, has been blocked where flying’s already blocked for the others. Thus, this certain someone will no longer be able to fly over cities or castles or whatever else. And, again, he is welcome to read all of this in the update notes.”

  “The flight jammers should only work around the outer perimeter,” I just about dropped my hands from the demonstrative destruction that Ehkiller had visited on my side of the argument, but at the last moment a mischievous thought popped into my mind. “There has to be a flying area inside the armada. These are players we’re talking about here!”

  “Agreed, they wouldn’t prohibit flying between the ships,” Stacey came to my aid. “The players would be outraged. A hole in the center should remain open, but how would it help us? The radius of the outer ring will be several hundred meters. You won’t be able to build the inertia to glide that distance. Don’t forget that, inside the no fly zone, the system actively decelerates you and tries to make you plummet as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter what speed you come flying in at, you won’t have much of a chance.”

  “On the one hand you’re right,” I continued to develop my thought, having encountered support, as odd as it was. “I won’t have enough velocity or altitude to cover the prohibited area. So I will need your help. Don’t you have a fast ship, Stacey?”

  “It’s not that fast,” Anastaria narrowed her eyes, unsure of what I was getting at. I love that look of hers — when she knows that she doesn’t understand something and it drives her insane. “If we really need it, we could get it from the pirates. But what for?”

  “Since the airborne option doesn’t, erm, fly, I had another idea — we’ll take a fast ship. Just one. We put a catapult on it. Just one again. We sail up to the enemy armada, using maybe like some kind of stealth or something, but maybe without it too. We get as close as we can, but in some way that keeps us relatively safe. Then we load the catapult with the tank, the dps, and me…Should I go on, or will your imaginations fill in the rest?”

  “Hmm,” Ehkiller replied, cocking his head pensively and finally ceasing to drill me with his gaze.

  “You’re a real wonder, you know? I owe you dinner tonight and then some!” Anastaria’s joyous thought popped into my head, as the girl before me reclined with a look as satisfied as that of a cat that had eaten its fill of cream.

  “Tamerlane the Wondrous will be our tank. No one will manage as well as he,” Ehkiller said after a short pause, more for his benefit than for ours. “As for the dps, that’ll be have to be Plinto…or…Well I don’t see any other option really. Plinto’s the only one who could pull it off in the timeframe we need. It’s decided then!” Ehkiller shook his head, making some decision and almost instantly reverted back to the kind generous uncle. Like at the snap of his fingers — snap and you’re looking at an entirely different person. I wouldn’t want to find myself on Ehkiller’s bad side.

  “Tomorrow I’ll receive information about our enemies’ movements and figure out the course they’ll set on their journey. Stacey, you owe us a ship. Mahan, you need to make several test flights. You’ll have to train turning into your Dragon Form in midflight as well as catching the other players in midair. Get this part down pat. What else? I think that’s about it. Let’s get to work then!”

  “I still have a question that I haven’t gotten an answer to.” Even though Ehkiller and Stacey had already jumped up from their seats, wishing to get to work on the plan we’d just concocted, I remained sitting. “Why couldn’t we complete the Dungeon during the next two weeks? No one will be bothering us right now, and the Dungeon level is still manageable for Plinto. Surely we can handle this in two weeks. It’ll be a cinch!”

  “The Ergreis,” Anastaria answered simply. “That’s the entire problem.”

  “I don’t understand,” I shook my head. “What does a crystal from a different world have to do with it?”

  “That’s the point — that until I figure out precisely this question, it’s a really bad idea to set foot into the Tomb. Can you imagine what’ll happen if that crystal has similar effects to the Tears of Harrashess? After all, no one knows what kind of scenario has been attached to that crystal and why any time anyone mentions it, they also mention the other world? I’d really rather not risk it. So the first thing we need is information and we need time to find it. And it’s time we don’t have if we start trying to complete the Tomb right this instant.”

  “If our plan with the catapult fails,” I began — it seemed that today was my day because the ideas were just pouring out of me like from a horn of plenty — “the players from the other continents won’t wait another month to buy a new obelisk. Why? It’ll be faster for them to just conquer some nearby castle. Something tells me we need to prepare the Emperor and the Dark Lord against this idea.”

  “Let’s assume that we’ll get an audience,” Ehkiller sat back down in his chair, though he remained in his avuncular form. “It doesn’t seem to me that the Emperor will be happy to hear that we wish to keep him from selling someone a castle. We won’t be able to keep other players from spending money on our continent.”

  “Why not? Of course we can.” The next idea came tumbling out of my ‘horn of plenty.’ “Everything depends on how we frame the problem when we pitch it to him. Any way you spin it, the inter-clan competitions will get underway soon. If I remember correctly, in two or three months. Doesn’t matter. If we really wish to protect ours
elves from our enemies acquiring castles, we’ll need to arrange a tournament of the clans of Kalragon. We need to assemble a team of the highest-level players. Why is Phoenix always participating in the competition anyway? What we need is some kind of dream team with representatives of all the clans. And when we organize and hold a tournament like that, neither the Emperor nor the Dark Lord will have any reason to deny our minor request — that is, not to sell castles to anyone for several months. After all, we would have united. We would be one whole. Doesn’t the Corporation love single wholes? We’ll give them just that, merely requesting a small favor in exchange — the chance to complete the Tomb. If we don’t achieve anything in three months, then we’ll have to give up on the Tomb — it’ll be too much for us.”

  “A tournament…” Ehkiller muttered. “We need to hold a tournament…”

  “And make sure that Kartoss and Shadow participate as well,” I nodded in agreement.

  “What do we need Shadow there for?”

  “For ornamental purposes as well as for the unity of the entire continent. They’ll be responsible for providing us with monsters to kill. Or at least that’s one option.”

  “Shadran!” Ehkiller said quietly and a phantom materialized several steps away from me. The majordomo of Phoenix’s main castle was a phantom orc. “I need a cost analysis for holding a tournament which would be attended by three emperors. Draw up a tournament ladder that resembles last year’s continental competitions. Limit the number of entrants to ten million.”

  “Shall I factor in the costs of building the venues?” the phantom inquired immediately. Unlike my Viltrius, this majordomo performed his orders professionally and without any unnecessary handwringing. Perhaps I should tweak my goblin’s settings a bit? Although, I kind of like him the way he is. “The location of the tournament will play an important role. If you plan on inviting all three emperors, we’ll need a castle in the Free Lands. It’s simply not possible to use a location in one of the empires.”