Eden's Gate: The Scourge: A LitRPG Adventure Read online

  Eden’s Gate

  Book 7: The Scourge

  Edward Brody

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Author’s Notes

  Copyright © 2021 by Edward Brody

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Introduction

  The Scourge have launched an attack, and the Freelands are overrun with Ergoth’s army of orcs and goblins. Travel is no longer safe, trade is at a standstill, and Edgewood Village is in ruins.

  With the guild in desperate need of gold, Gunnar treks through the battle zone to complete an unresolved quest and is faced with a moral dilemma unlike anything he’s ever experienced in Eden’s Gate.

  His choices lead him to join forces with some unlikely companions and sends him straight into the heart of the Wastelands.

  Orcs would never allow humans to enter the Wastelands freely, so how exactly will he get inside, and what secrets are lurking deep below the Wastelands’ surface?

  In an unforgiving land filled with bloodthirsty beasts and monsters, Gunnar will be left questioning, Who is the real monster, and who’s the worst monster of them all?

  “We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.”

  ― George Orwell, 1984

  Chapter One

  2/13/0001

  We rushed through the trees of Edgewood as quickly as we could, heading for our village. Those of us on mounts didn’t wait for anyone on foot to catch up.

  “There’s more over there!” Ozzy yelled, sitting atop Rarri, Jeremy’s mount. He pulled himself up athletically, balanced himself with his knees and arms, and finally leapt to the ground without waiting for the Great Beast to stop.

  Ozzy landed imperfectly but rolled and quickly rose to his feet. He let out an Intimidating Shout into the forest in front of him.

  Ten skinny goblins, who were scurrying through the trees with thin leather loincloths and clubs in their hands, converged and started running for him with fervor in their eyes. It was the third group of goblins that we had encountered since entering the forest—a troublesome sign to see that many enemies already so close to our homes.

  I twirled my staff above my head and pointed the end at one of the goblins to let off an on-cast Energy Strike, turned, and released a Fireblast from my hand towards another. All my friends nearby jumped off their mounts and started attacking the enemies on foot.

  Thankfully, the invading goblins weren’t high in level, and in less than a minute or so, all the ugly, leathery-skinned creatures were dispatched.

  You have gained 1300 XP!

  “Hurry!” I yelled, urging Sora ahead before my teammates had time to re-mount. Our village was undefended, and with all the goblins we had fought thus far, it was possible that the Scourge had already made it inside.

  As we continued deeper into the forest, we encountered several more goblins and a single stray, low-level orc. Thankfully, each of them only required one or two spells—at worst three or four and a few physical attacks from my guild mates—to dispatch.

  I urged Sora over a cluster of thick bushes as we approached our village, and we hurried forward to the clearing in front of the guild houses.

  There were three dead goblins on the ground; as anticipated, the Scourge had already arrived.

  Trynzen was near our guild shop, ducking and dodging an abnormally large goblin wielding a battleaxe, and Aaron was mostly hiding behind him, gripping a long, straight spear with both hands.

  He was shirtless, Aaron was, but he had a closed metal helmet covering his head and a pair of brown cloth pants. He stepped back and forth, lunging his spear at the out-of-range goblin fruitlessly. It appeared he was more concerned with keeping himself from getting harmed than doing any major damage.

  “Aaron!” I yelled out as I jumped off Sora.

  Aaron turned his attention to me. “Gunnar! Dude, help us the fuck owwww—!” He was cut off as a normal-sized goblin seemed to appear out of nowhere, slamming a tiny dagger into the back of his leg.

  As I ran towards the fighting, I shot a Fireblast at the scoundrel, causing it to scream and tumble to its side on impact.

  An arrow glided through the air and slammed into the shoulder of the larger goblin that Trynzen was still fighting—with an accuracy and power that suggested it originated from Jax. When the goblin reeled from the blow, Trynzen swiped his razor claw across its chest, causing several deep, bloody lacerations. Aaron hopped forward and weakly poked his spear into the goblin’s hip.

  As the goblin stumbled from the flurry of attacks, Trynzen jumped on top of it, knocking it to the ground. When he was fully over the goblin, he repeatedly rammed his razor claw into the goblin’s chest and neck, savagely slinging flesh and blood in all directions.

  I winced a little at the sight. For someone who was generally non-violent, it was quite frightening what he could do when he really wanted to kill.

  You have gained 500 XP!

  “Holy shit!” Aaron cursed as he half-limped, half-ran towards me, pulling the metal helmet up from over his head. He glanced back to the wound he had just received on his calf but didn’t seem overly concerned about it. “What the hell’s going on?! These fuckers came out of nowhere! I’d be dead if it weren’t for Tryn!” His face suddenly shifted, and his mouth went wide as if he had a sudden realization. “Did your little quest to save elf hottie have something to do with this? You triggered something, didn’t you?”

  “Triggered something?” I creased my brow. “This has nothing to do with me, and as far as I know, nothing to do with the elves either. I told you before that there was something going on at the border to the Wastelands.”

  “Yeah, but didn’t you say that Highcastle was holding the Scourge back?”

  I nodded slightly. “Yeah, and apparently they failed.”

  “Well, shit…” Aaron muttered as he took a step back and clenched tightly onto his
spear. He briefly looked aside as if lost in thought but jerked when he caught something out of the corner of his eye. His eyebrows shot up as he swung his attention back towards me. “Behind you!”

  I whipped my head around, and three goblins broke into the clearing, all running towards me with small hatchets raised above their heads.

  Even before I could react, tiny shards of energy fell from the sky, causing the goblins to pause midway through their run and flinch in pain each time the magic struck. An arrow flew into the temple of one, knocking it aside, then a bolt of energy slammed into the leg of another, dropping it to the ground. A dagger zoomed by and struck into the core of the last.

  The goblin with the dagger in its chest flopped to the ground and groaned, but before it could die peacefully, Jeremy rushed up to it and kicked it on the side of its head. He grabbed the dagger protruding from the creature, yanked it out, and slammed it down into its chest two more times.

  I turned anxiously at the sound of more footsteps but was relieved to see that it was just the other members of Unity ambling slowly into our village—everyone looking tired and confused.

  “More?” Aaron questioned as he scanned our surroundings. “Are there others heading this way?”

  Jax, who was sitting atop Fenris with Rina, sighed and began to dismount. “There’s no telling. The Scourge breed like ants. There could be hundreds more where that came from.”

  Jeremy lifted his dagger from the goblin he’d just killed, stood up straight, and began wiping the blood off his blade onto the leather of his gloves. “My throwing skills are getting pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.”

  “Over there!” Rina yelled, dismounting behind Jax.

  A stray orc with a shortsword in its hand was creeping low near our clearing but seemed wise enough not to attack our group alone. In fact, it seemed it was trying to sneak away as quietly as possible.

  Jeremy pulled back his arm and let his dagger fly. The weapon spun through the air and nearly hit the orc, but ultimately missed and skipped into a patch of thick weeds nearby. “Damnit! Still not good enough!” he yelled as he wasted no time running towards both his weapon and the orc.

  Sung was right behind him with his own dagger in his hand.

  The orc hastened its creep into a run, and Jax nocked an arrow before letting it fly at the orc. When it struck the creature’s back, the orc stumbled a bit and fell to one knee before groaning something unintelligible in a deep, guttural tone.

  Sung advanced on the orc and dodged a few of its sloppy attempts at striking him from a kneeling position. He kept a manageable distance from the attacks, but when he saw an opening, jumped onto the brute and pushed it on to its back to finish it off.

  Even with its injury, the weakened orc was stronger than Sung. With its free hand, the orc captured Sung’s wrist and rolled over and on top of him, ignoring the arrow protruding behind him. It elbowed Sung in the face, dazing him, but as it raised its sword up to deliver another attack, Jeremy closed in behind it and performed a Backstab.

  The orc arched its back, looked to the sky, and roared in pain.

  Not wasting any opportunity, Sung sat up from his pinned position and slashed his dagger across the orc’s throat. Blood spewed from the orc’s neck like a broken water fountain and drenched Sung’s body, turning his skin and clothes a dark red color. The orc’s body trembled weakly as it fell sideways and to the forest floor.

  Sung sputtered, spat, and rattled his head, trying to get the blood off of his lips.

  “Good job,” I muttered.

  “There could be more,” Keysia warned as she appeared behind me.

  I turned to her, and I could see the entourage of our dark elf guards—who had helped in Adeelee’s rescue mission—catching up on foot and entering the clearing behind her.

  “Shal!” I yelled when I saw our head guard.

  Shal quickly ran ahead of the other dark elves and gave a slight nod of acknowledgement when he was in range.

  “Get everyone in defensive positions immediately,” I said. “Attack any orcs, goblins, or whatever other Scourge you see on sight. Now, more than ever, we need to be on alert.”

  “Affirmative” Shal said with a nod and started walking back towards our other guards to issue orders.

  I took a deep, calming breath to try to relieve some tension and began assessing our situation. We had just left a taxing encounter with the Sparrows, and a few people had been downed and possibly injured during the battle. Due to the sudden Scourge attack, I had yet to do any sort of wellness checks or head counts. We needed all hands on deck, but I also needed to make sure I wasn’t pushing anyone too hard.

  “Shal!” I yelled again.

  Shal stopped and turned to me. “Yes, Gunnar?”

  “Thank you for everything and give thanks to all the other elves for their help. Make sure everyone is okay, and let Rina know if anyone needs healing. If any of your men needs a break, that’s fine, but give me a general update later, so I can keep track of how well-defended we are.”

  “They’re your men, not mine,” Shal said with a smile. “And thank you for your selflessness. It is an honor to serve a hum...” He paused momentarily and gave a slight bow of his head. “…to serve someone who treats us with compassion and respect.” Without waiting for a reply, he grinned one last time and turned to jog back to the other guards.

  “This is a mess,” Gerard said as he stepped in front of the other gathering guild members and glanced to one of the dead goblins on the ground. “We need to restore order around here or we’re going to lose gold. We can’t have fighting right in front of our shop.”

  “I think gold is the least of our worries at the moment,” I said.

  “Well, we should clear the bodies away at least,” Gerard urged. “No one will feel safe with dead goblins on our doorstep.”

  “Do you hear that?” Keysia asked, turning her head and looking around as if she couldn’t place the sound.

  Everyone stopped and listened closely. There were leaves crackling, then several wood-snapping noises, though it was hard to tell from which direction.

  “Get down!” Jax yelled loudly.

  A hail of arrows flew through the trees, and half of them were smoldering with fire at the tips.

  I kneeled low in a near-prone position, and everyone behind me started scrambling to dodge the projectiles. Several of the arrows hit our buildings while others landed on the ground.

  The sound of our guards pulling and releasing their bowstrings could be heard as a group of goblins came rushing forward with their weapons drawn. Arrows started flying in both directions.

  “For Ergoth!” I heard a beady, crackling goblin voice shout out from our flank. I turned to see numerous others rushing from the opposite direction.

  “For Ergoth!” another goblin answered from the other side.

  Our few casters started flinging magic at the invaders, and I saw Ozzy running towards the closest group of Scourge, his hammer raised above his head.

  I swallowed hard and squeezed the rigid wood of my staff. “Everyone, defend! Defend Edgewood!” I yelled as I darted toward the side of my house, using one of its outer walls to prevent me from being surrounded.

  I looked towards a goblin closing in on my right, another goblin coming for my left, and could see a light source in the distance—torches quickly approaching from right outside our village—orcs, I presumed.

  I wasn’t sure exactly what had triggered the sudden Scourge attack or what they wanted from us. The only thing I knew for certain was that chaos had made its way to Edgewood, and we needed to fight to protect our homes and our lives.

  Everything we had worked so hard to build thus far was at stake.

  Chapter Two

  2/16/0001

  Whoosh.

  I ducked the oversized goblin’s massive battle axe. As I began to rise for a counter, it swung its axe again.

  Whoosh.

  I both leaned and ducked once more as I felt the he
avy steel of the axe’s blade graze against the tips of my hair, nearly spilling my brains instead.

  The goblin unexpectedly lurched forward and lost its footing as a stream of water magic from Gerard thrust into its back and forced it to the mud-covered ground.

  I slammed my staff hard against the side of the downed goblin’s head. As it juddered and groaned from the attack, I reached my hand out and finished it off with a Fireblast to its ugly, leathery face. It trembled and weakly reached for its sizzling lips before quickly going limp.

  You have gained 2300 XP!

  I looked up from the fallen, burnt creature and took in my surroundings. Bodies of goblins lay all around, and arrows were strewn across the ground. A good part of the soil had turned into slippery, soft mud from blood and water, and other parts of the ground were still smoking from magic and fire-tipped arrows.

  All of our village’s buildings had been damaged or destroyed. Our guild shop, which we had desperately protected, was still standing with light superficial damage, but both Aaron’s and my house had holes in the roofs and walls. The foundation and a single slab of stone of our castle-in-progress was still standing, covered in soot, but the rest of our structures had been burned to charcoal and ash.