Chapter 63. Attack

Not waiting for his new crew to follow, Abe shot down from the ship, hooking onto the ship and trees below with his tendrils as he swung himself down.

Moments later, ropes were lowered, and ghouls and skeletons began their descent, but there would be quite some distance behind him by the time he reached the camp.

Five towers about four stories tall dotted a clearing in the trees at the center of the shardworld. Atop them were ballistas, and when the banshees had made a close swoop, they had forced them to retreat as the powerful bolts flew through the air. 

Luckily, there were no other defenses of note. Walls were often used for fortresses, but in poor Vale outskirts like this, the main priority was stopping enemies before they touched down.

Giant bolts shot out, blasting holes along the ship's walls as it closed in on the defender's camp. But Abe had commanded that they held fire. His preference was to take the towers undamaged. If they were planning on sticking around here for a while, having defenses in place would come in handy.

Flinging himself through the forest in seconds, Abe flew toward the first of the towers. As he landed, several abominations manning the ballista turned to face him. Tendrils shot out, digging into their stitched flesh and injecting mushroom poison, and Abe swirled into two others, cutting them apart with deadly precision. Within seconds, a combination of cut-up corpses and withering bodies foaming from mushroom poison littered the ground.

The moment he had landed, the signal was sent to the banshees. They used the commotion Abe caused to make their approach, avoiding most return fire. Flying in came the elite raiders. They carefully placed fiery blasts, cutting into abominations manning the other four towers. The banshees landed atop the towers once they had shot down enough to hinder their ability to use the ballistas, shooting down any stragglers as they took control of them.

With the air defenses compromised, the ship flew toward the encampment. 

The ghouls and skeletons were now reaching the camp’s outskirts, charging through the forest and engaging lookouts as they entered the fray.

“Not bad,” Abe grunted as he turned to the tower’s spiral stairs and descended.

On his way, Abe found a half dozen abominations, but they weren’t a match for him. The grunts of this force were an entire stage beneath him and not particularly strong at that.

Canons and banshees shot down from above, filling the sky over the camp. The battle had started barely minutes ago, and chaos had already broken out. If there had been a disciplined strategy for defending this shardworld, it would have collapsed before it could properly form.

The zombies were the last force to attack. As weak as they were, there wasn’t much point in wasting them against the enemy lines. Instead, they came in after the quicker-moving ghouls and banshee, finishing off wounded enemies that had been left behind.

As the battle roared on, Abe spotted a cave sunken into the side of a hill at the far end of the camp. A few dozen surviving abominations fled toward it, shooting with crossbows and primitive rifles as they covered their retreat.

Swinging across the battlefield, Abe went into pursuit, charging the fleeing enemies.

As he got closer, he saw timber palisades built into the cave’s mouth. 

A tendril unclipped his holster, and Abe pulled his pistol out and aimed. Firing as he ran, Abe burst holes through several abominations and cut down others as he caught up to the tiny force. 

He spotted more figures guarding the cave in the distance. But they were of no concern. The party he had caught up to in the open was too far to reach the cave, and he went about cutting them down. 

Glancing back over his shoulder, Abe confirmed that the camp was falling to his companions, with only a few defender holdouts completely surrounded. And he was certain they could handle themselves with whatever remnants remained.

Hooking onto the cave walls, Abe flung himself toward it. 

Only a half dozen abominations guarded the cave walls, and Abe cut through them within a minute.

Kicking down a wooden door, Abe sniffed the air. Something foul festered below. It seemed to hide its energy signal, but as Abe took a step closer and concentrated on the bloody path leading to the hill, he spotted it.

“Powerful,” he muttered beneath his breath.

It had been a while since he had found a good meal that he would grow stronger from consuming, and the pleasant surprise twisted his lips into a grin. But even though its minions had been pretty quick, Abe sensed something disturbing about this creature, and caution was advised.

It wasn't just a single creature either. Abe spotted others. Hundreds of weak energy signals beneath the surface. It was almost enough to hold his step.

“King of dumb ideas, huh,” Abe muttered to himself. He wasn’t in the practice of waiting around for others and didn’t particularly want to start now. Besides, his stubborn attitude to fighting had worked out so far. When the odds were stacked against him, he had a habit of ending up on top, and it had spurred a string of arrogance within him.

The rocky cavern delved into the shardworld. Stairs had been building into some sections of the cavern, but it was, for the most part, that the cavern was left in its natural state. Save the stains of blood and remnant organs and limbs scattered across the ground.

Soon, he descended into a room lined by barred rooms. 

“Prison cells?” he mouthed, glancing into the cells.

All were empty of captives, but blood-stained bedrolls and bits of gore remained in many. 

This place isn’t creepy at all… is it?

From the ceilings hung cages filled with corpses and skeletons in the next room, and a lattice metal floor covered a bed of spikes several meters below.

He continued through the large room and into a corridor that continued for fifty-odd meters and came out into another small guard room. Inside, a solitary figure held his back to Abe and sat at a desk before huge iron doors.

At least they’re alive, or rather undead.

As Abe stepped into the room, the figure groaned and rose from its chair—a stitched face turned to Abe—a combination of men, women, and some orc-looking creature.

“What are thee doing in the Gurgel’s pit,” the creature snarled. “A pittance must be paid for such disturbance. A limb will do,” the creature continued, extending a dirty, blood-stained hand.

“Gurgle? Who the hell is Gurgle?”

“Who the hell is Gurgle?” The creature’s expression soured as if sucking something unpleasant. “He’s the Father. The Stitcher. The putter back togetherer. The big foul fuck that keeps this place together. The one those stinking freshies come from all over to see. The reason we got ducats to spare. Now, who the hell are thee?”

“Abe.”

“Abe–” the creature’s breath caught as Abe’s tendril pierced its neck and flooded it with spore poison. 

“You heard me,” Abe said as he flung the abomination away. “Now, get a look at this Gurgle guy.”

Using his tendrils, Abe pushed the heavy iron doors open with a metallic screech.

A colosseum-like room greeted him. Along its three-story walls, bodies hung—which Abe realized were alive as the moaning cadavers painfully shifted on meat hooks.

Hundreds of abominations across the three floors of seating cheered and jeered wildly as Abe curiously entered the colosseum with a bent brow.

Across from him, another set of heavy iron doors groaned open.

Lurching out from the darkness came a disfigured shape. Eight pointed, spider-like legs carried out a bulbous, veiny body. Patches of matted hair dotted its boiled-ridden body, and from its neck spurted two beaked bird heads the size of pickup trucks.

The giant abomination roared, filling the entire colosseum with a mist of saliva, and stepped forward.

“So, you’re Gurlge?”

“So, you’re lunch?” the abomination sarcastically chuckled back.

“Alright then. Come and get it, wise guy,” Abe cracked his neck and swirled his sword around.

The crowd went ballistic, pressing against the rails as they wailed enthusiastically.

“Now that’s a first!” Shouted a man over a loudspeaker. “It has been too long since we’ve had a willing contestant and the crowd is loving it. Eat it up while you can, people,” he hollard into the mic.

What the heck are these things doing at the center of this shardworld?  

Abe turned, looking up into the seating above. 

A tomato slammed into the ground at his feet, followed by a cabbage.

“A bit cliche,” he grunted and stepped further into the arena. At least he couldn’t read any powerful energy signals amongst the crowd. And while Gurgle was undoubtedly powerful, he felt he stood a decent chance.