Misinformation, saboteurs, deceivers, illusionists, Psychomancers, shapeshifters, even expendable clones. You will run into these on the field. Your enemies will use these tactics, these means against you, to confuse you, to feed you false intelligence, and guide you down the path to destruction, destruction engineered by lies and misunderstanding.

I have seen powerful armies collapse in on themselves, shattered by a well-crafted lie. I have seen formations turn on each other as paranoia and suspicion become too much to bear. I have seen good men, good women, good bots march to their doom because their investigators failed them, because their commanders weren't clever enough, weren't perceptive enough to notice the cage of falsehood being constructed around them.

Seek the truth, always seek the truth, for what you don't know is fatal. What you don't know will kill you. What you don't know will be used against you, and when the enemy is at your gate, when they are battering down your doors and slitting your throats while you still lie in bed, "I don't know" is not a good enough apology for the Pathbearer beside you.

You must know, you must, for if you allow ignorance to prevail, then you cede your life to your enemy, and they have every intention of killing you.

-Professor Hernando Utez, INTEL-101, Phoenix Academy

150 (I)

Provoke [I]

Shiv and the others ended up killing forty-three orcs after the Amnesiac. The bulk of grayskin deaths happened at Shiv's brutal hands. Most of them perished while trying to hurt Adam in some fashion or another. True to Shiv's words, they were drawn to him like ravenous wolves to a bleeding foal.

They struck at Adam using a variety of measures. Some took quick shots from range, while others tried to poison him. A few planted bombs—that Adam spotted almost immediately. Several pianos of various compositions fell randomly out of the sky, but Shiv swatted them aside. The closest Adam came to dying was when one orc Chronomancer tried his luck. Shiv halted the javelin he threw at the last second, and then relocated it down the orc's throat.

Things got quiet for a while after that.

A few orcs tried to target Uva, and apparently also Valor and Can Hu as well, but those attempts went as poorly as the others. Between Adam's ever-watchful gaze, Shiv's willingness to perform acts of ultraviolence, Uva's surveillance, Valor's experience and attentiveness, and several surveillance drones deployed by Can Hu, the group looked out for themselves and each other. This was further aided by certain orcs betraying their fellows, reminding Shiv once again that they were highly individualistic monsters.

Ultimately, the attempted assassinations were just something that needed to be dealt with. There was no avoiding them. In fact, with Shiv and his companions performing so well, more orcs would be tempted to take a swing to see if they could succeed where their kindred had failed.

In the meantime, however, the army parked right outside the Tutorial Gateway treated everything as perfectly normal. Orc Psychomancers arrived, trying to offer their service. Mortar came seeking Shiv, showing him a series of maps drawn of Lost Angeles, maps that improved on the information gleaned by Adam during his and Shiv's scouting run a few days ago. Orcs with the Path of the Shadow were already slipping into the ruined megacity.

They infiltrated Necrotech observation posts and were working their way through the periphery. However, reports indicated that Vicar Sullain was concentrating his forces around the Abyss, gathering them near Blackedge. Mortar suspected that the Necrotechs were massing for a concentrated push, but something about their movements left him uncertain.

Stealth-focused orcs also reported something else that was strange. The Retribution Crusade's frequency of attack had dropped substantially. They still launched artillery and spells at Blackedge, but it was mostly just to strain the defenders and to see if the wards were still working. Roland, meanwhile, continued showering the world with his endless reign of arrows. Even so, the orcs noted it was thinning. The Town Lord was either finally growing weary or conserving his own strength to face the coming assault.

"How long do you think it will take for Sullain to make his move?" Adam asked Mortar as they discussed battle strategies aboard Courtney. The heavyset orc clad in automaton parts rubbed at his mechanical lower jaw.

"Hard to say exactly. There's been a lot of Necrotechs scurrying about. Their death-wearing rats are digging tunnels all around the city. And there's a lot of movement in the Abyss. They could probably make a real mess of things right now if they just throw themselves at Blackedge. But the strange thing is, I haven't seen anything of Sullain. Neither has any other orc, for that matter. The Vicar is just missing. Has been missing for a good while, it seems. We managed to take some Deathstalkers alive, and they said that Sullain has been missing since a few nights ago, when the big bomb went off. He left to work on a 'new weapon', and his last orders were to keep Blackedge pressured and the Town Lord exhausted."

"New weapon," Adam echoed. He looked at Shiv, and the Deathless felt his stomach turn into a lead balloon.

"This is a good sign," Valor said, though he sounded like he was trying to keep everyone optimistic. "It will take time for him to discover what the Vitae can do. Sullain is a consummate scholar, and as such, he will not use a tool without fully understanding it, unless he is absolutely desperate."

"The fact that he knows or suspects how to make it into a weapon means we need to accelerate," Adam replied.

"Indeed," Valor said. "More than accelerate, you should seize the initiative. He does not expect to be attacked right now. He does not know of the orcs, or at least not of the whole orc army, waiting nearby. I suspect that the Necrotechs will not do anything major until Sullain returns. He is conserving his forces until he can bend Shiv's Vitae to achieve his desired end, or mount a combined push to finish things, if his new weapon cannot. But we will not give them that time. He will reveal himself if his forces are on the verge of being overrun."

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"Perhaps now would be a good time to see if we can make contact with Blackedge as well," Uva suggested.

Adam stared down at the map Mortar had made. He narrowed his eyes at the many figurines representing Necrotech strongholds. His gaze swept across the tunnels forged by Sullain's forces as well. The parts the orcs mapped out portrayed the underside of the megacity to be almost akin to a termite's nest. Tunnels connected to the chasm were still being constructed, and so more Necrotechs could appear anywhere in the city, meaning the battle lines weren't going to be on the ground level, but subterranean.

"Mortar," Shiv asked, "how good are your Geomancers?"

"Our Geomancers?" Mortar chuckled. "Impressive, I would say, but far fewer than what Sullain possesses. I'd bet on one of our best against any of theirs if it was a head-on fight. But when it comes to construction, creating, building, expanding? No, I don't believe we can do what you want us to do. We can't collapse all the tunnels easily. It will not be a worthwhile effort, either."

"Why?" Adam asked. "It could choke the pathways into the city."

"Because it will take substantially fewer Geomancers on their part to hold us at bay, and in the meantime, they can let their Adepts continue expanding their tunnels. We have numbers, they have numbers, but they are already established. We will likely take immense casualties trying to push on them this way, and we will also betray our presence. And that's the worst of it. We give up all our surprise if we start fighting over the underground with these death-rats." Mortar considered for a moment, his jaw moving. "It does sound like fun. I'm not against following through anyway if you're determined to make this as bloody as possible. But it's not exactly practical."

Adam's eyes turned away from the tunnels and fell upon Blackedge. "What about the sky, then?" Adam asked.

"The direct airspace above Blackedge is contested. Your father's arrows are something the Vicar's forces do everything they can to avoid. Even so, certain dimensional ships will still drop wings of dragons to bombard the town. And outside of a twenty-kilometer radius, everything is utterly controlled by the Necrotechs." Then, Mortar smiled. "However, his control isn't what I'd call ironclad."

The orc made a fist. "He's mainly relying on dimensional ships. That tells me his aerial units are lacking. He's created a sort of teleportation network, allowing them to dump forces from one area to another. They're also supplementing their Riders with lesser dimensional escorts."

"So, do you think we can take the sky from them?" Adam asked.

Mortar threw his head back and chuckled jovially. "I think we can take the sky from them. And the ground. But the underground… I suspect that's where the fight will be. And the Vicar's existence will make the rest dubious as well. Legends turn tides, Gate Lord, and there's none on our side. Sullain himself will cost a good chunk of our combined Masters and Heroes to bring down. The gulf between Legend and Hero is wider than that between Master and Initiate."

"But Legends can still be killed," Shiv said. He gave Valor a look thereafter. "Or at least broken."

"Killed is more common," Valor responded.

"Alright then." Adam licked his lips. "I think we have an angle. We focus on taking the sky away from Sullain first. And through that, we establish an opening to Blackedge. I will try to make contact as soon as possible. That will allow me to better assess the situation of the town, see what they need in terms of resources and support."

Shiv noted a predatory gleam in Mortar's gaze. He leaned closer to Adam and projected a telepathic thought. "Yeah, I don't know if we want any of the orcs getting into Blackedge."

"I don't much want it either," Adam said, his stare never leaving Mortar's face. "But I don't think we have much of a choice. Can you behave yourself, Mortar?"

"C—can I behave myself?" Mortar replied, stuttering with mock indignation, and placing a palm on his chest. "When have I ever misbehaved? Have I given you any reason to doubt me?"

"I think you're patient, Mortar," Shiv said, "and that scares me."

"I scare you?" Mortar's mouth widened into a fanged smile as he placed another large hand on his chest. "I'm flattered."

"Don't be," Shiv replied. "Mortar, I know what's coming. Okay, well, maybe I don't know exactly what's coming, but you're going to do something messed up. You're going to try to hurt us in some way down the line. You're patient; that just means your itch is building up more and more. So I got a bit of advice for you. Scratch it using the Necrotechs, and keep being patient when it comes to me. You don't want to end up like Band or the Amnesiac."

"No," Mortar said quite calmly. "No, I do not. And more importantly, I'm not interested in dying at your hands. I just want to be favored." The large orc's expression turned vicious. "Because I got a nemesis of my own to kill."

***

Shiv met up with several other orcs after that, going over a few other issues pertaining to how many forces wished to go to the surface, and how many wished to depart through the Abyss gateway. Thus far, the separation was more of a 70-30%. Most of the orcs came to face a Legend: to potentially bring down Vicar Sullain. More than that, they wanted to be fighting beside the Insul when the time came, to have a chance at tasting the System's favor, and potentially inheriting it for themselves.

The orcs that wished to go after the Bloodspawn were personally interested in the destruction of the First Blood. Some of the orcs simply liked hurting vampires, describing them as resilient prey who could be used to scratch the itch over and over. Others, like Helix, were offended by the vampires' existence for one reason or another. A lot of that went back to decadence. Orcs despised vampires for fleeing from strife, for turning away from a fight. It was as if cowardice and a refusal to struggle were the closest things the orcs had to societal pet peeves.

With that stated, the orcs began to mass themselves, preparing to depart. Shiv noted that the orcs had also built some kind of mechanical contraption in the trench line. It seemed to be a series of modular platforms that fit on a rail, platforms that the orcs could race across, allowing them to get from one place to another quickly. It was mainly meant for the orc Initiates, as those at Adept-Tier or above could move relatively fast on their own. This was just a feat of engineering convenience to make sure even the weakest orcs would be ready for bloodshed in an instant.

And soon, they would get to enjoy as much bloodshed as they wanted.

Adam briefly departed to rush the construction of dimensional pathways within each of the gateway checkpoints. This would allow the orcs to pass through one of the two gateways at will without ever slipping into Gate Piety proper.

Finally, Shiv met BBQ and ended up beating the orc to death in a fit of frustration when he saw the filth caking the orc's spatula. A spatula the orc intended to use as a cooking utensil for the cooking challenge. The fact that a mess of questionably sourced elf meat buns lay upon a massive skillet didn't help things, either. Connected to each of the meat buns were umbilical cords and a letter for Shiv.

"I'm still alive, and you'll be seeing me around <3"

Shiv crumpled the note as he splattered the nightmarish meat prepared for him. "Male Pregnancy. When I find you, I'm going to starve the living shit out of you. I'm going to make you a godsdamned vegetarian orc for all this."

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