Ascension

by J R Davis

  On the other side of the battlefield, Okane and Charon met the elf archer and mage, each firing their own bolts towards the two as they advanced. Thinking quickly, Charon took the front with shield raised to intercept the incoming attacks. Okane following swiftly behind the blazing eyed skeleton. Just as they were mere feet away from the two, the elven mage summoned a 6-foot wall of ice to separate the colliding adventurers. With split-second thinking, Charon and Okane made the same internal decision: move forward. Their bodies each picking up speed as if to the ram the wall. It was then, mere inches away from it that Okane summoned his cart. He then grabbed it by the handles and executed Cart Destruction, breaking through the wall and sending ice shards flying at the two elves. In that same stride, it was Charon who had decided, rather than stop or go around the wall, he would go over it. Instantly unequipping his kite shield, Charon used his spear as a pole-vault to jump over the wall.

  While the battle raged on, the far side of the field was beginning to show signs of movement. Unbeknownst to Ignis and his gang, the goblins would not simply let their survival be left in the hands of adventurers. A goblin wearing a chiefs Crow headpiece was the first to speak up.

  “We must help them. Goblins not weak helpless people. We stand and fight with humans. Ready your weapons!” The Goblin Chieftain bellowed as he smacked his staff into the palm of his hands emphasizing his point. “We show them not to mess with Black Crow Clan!”

  The small group of goblins measured to only nine strong. Their group first made their way slowly through the brush, keeping low to the ground to avoid being spotted. The Goblin Chief watched as the battle unfolded, signaling for the group to press on whenever it seemed safe. They needed their weapons to be able to stand a chance. The group had seen first hand how well unarmed goblins measured up to armed adventurers. So for this fight, they needed shields, bows, and arrows to win the day. They needed an armed organized fighting force.

  As the goblins made their way closer to the armory hut, the clan took note of the progress on the battlefield. The dark hooded one, although putting up a good fight, was at a disadvantage against the silver-haired fiend. The two thieves exchanging and dodging blows while the bear and large orc were evenly matched. It did, however, seem like the undead and the axe wielder were taking care of the two elves.

  “Good, this means we take back weapons without notice,” the chief thought to himself. Once they were outside of the armory hut, the chief ordered the goblins to enter slowly, one by one. Once all the goblins had been armed, the chief took immediate charge in setting up a battle formation.

  “Give me four shields with spear or sword and the rest who are good with bow be ready,” he ordered in a hushed tone. The surrounding goblins nodded and took their customary battle positions and they slowly made their way towards the silver-mans back. They were very careful to use the brushes tall grass to conceal most of their bodies. The goblins were very used to hunting via ambush. They made their way closer and closer until they were only a dozen feet or so from the silver-haired demon.

  “We wait for moment to strike,” the chief ordered. So the goblins did just that, they watched as Ignis made his way towards Robin. The battle between the two had long since shown who had the upper hand and Ignis’s dark god had given him a clear advantage. Robin had but a handful of hp left and Ignis preparing to add a fresh coat of blood to his mace.

  “Did you really think you had a chance?” Ignis asked as his eyes gave off a crazed look. He was but a few feet away from me at the point. I had my staff at the ready, but was not in the best of shape. That tended to happen when your clothing was seared and your left arm was tenderized.

  “What exactly was all that red-eyed bullshit you pulled Ignis?” I asked pointedly. Things were going well for a while. I had delivered many a Dark Orb and rooted him, even maintaining my ideal spacing. Then, when it had seemed as if I had this in the bag, Ignis’s eyes turned red and became what I could only understand as invulnerable for that period. After such, it didn’t take him long to hand my ass to me.

  “I would be glad to tell you,” Ignis said with a sneer. “Consider it a parting gift before I send you for a respawn. You see, me being Zenrirs cleric doesn’t come without its perks. I was gifted an ability for my faith, Oversoul. Once every so often, Zenrir can take a small bit of himself and place that in me. Now it ain’t exactly a pleasant sensation for me, but it essentially gives all my stats a nice little boost and lets me shrug off crowd control a bit faster. Call it a trump card if you will.”

  It was at this point in Ignis’s speech that I had noticed a shifting in the grass behind him. Something was slowly moving towards him, a great many somethings from the way it was looking. A few moments later that I notice small patches of green skin from the grass, looks like the goblins hadn’t taken off after all. The calvary was here, now all I had to do was present them an opportunity. “You know Ignis…” I started to say, taking the time to relish each word. “The problem with spouting all this clear villain dialogue is, it makes it that much more hilarious when something goes wrong and your ass gets handed to you.”

  After a split-seconds look of bewilderment, Ignis burst into laughter and said, “Have you looked around at all? Your entire party is all tied up. I am gonna take sweet pleasure in finishing you off and after I’m gonna make my way over there to knock out the rest of your crew. After all, that's done, we gonna burn this place to the ground.”

  “Well that is very unfortunate,” I said. “Because I happen to know a few people who might have an issue with that.” For the briefest of moments, an expression of confusion was displayed on Ignis’s face before I reached out and activated Grasping Hands. Several skeletal hands bursting from the soil and locking him to the ground. As if on signal, the goblins then launched their ambush on the unsuspecting marauder.

  Ignis could only let out a startled cry before the goblin spearmen were upon him. They pushed him back with their spears as the archers readied themselves to shoot at the prone target. Ignis attempting to claw himself away from the battle, only to be locked into place by my skill. Large clumps of torn grass and dirt pressing tightly in his palms.

  “What the hell is this?!” he cried as the goblins surrounded him.

  “Your funeral, of course.” I replied with a shit-eating grin. “Thanks for that lovely monologue, gave these guys just enough time to sneak up real close!”

  I took the momentary reprieve from battle to get back to my feet. Ignis was now clearly under wraps. Just as Ignis appeared to be on his last legs, the goblins stopped and moved apart to make way for their chief.

  He bends down on one knee getting eye to eye with the adventurer and says “You attack you pay… .tell that to your god.” As he jabbed Ignis in the chest with his finger.

  “Like hell, I’ll be paying anything to you little shits, your just mobs” he spat. The chief paused for a moment as if to consider Ignis’s words. Then he placed his hands on each side of Ignis’s face. The dark cleric started to yell and attempted to struggle as a green light seemed to go from Ignis and into the chief. For a long moment, it continued until Ignis’s struggling and thrashing gradually gave way to stillness as he died. My goblin given quest then chiming its completion and automatically giving me the experience and gold reward, not too shabby. It was then that the chief stood up and looked directly at me. Without saying a word he walked over.

  I was not entirely sure what he was going to do, but given how things had just gone, I wasn’t too worried. The chief got to about a foot away and then put his hands up onto my shoulders. Instantly I felt this warmth spread from my shoulder to the rest of my body. My arm stopped bleeding and with each passing second, I felt better and better. My health pool refilling right back up to the top. It was then that I checked my battle log. Chief Ro of the Black Crow Goblin Clan has used healing touch on you for 150 health.

  I took a moment to look at the chief, who now had a smile on his face.

  “He hurt all of us, so I to
ok his pain and used to heal you,” he said matter of factly. “Now tide of battle is changed, we must put out fires in village before can do more. You go help your tribe, even the odds” Chief Ro added with a wave of his hand.

  “Oh, I’ll do more than that,” I said while reaching my hand out towards Ignis’s body. I activated the Raise Undead skill. Once more a portal opened from his body and a skeletal figure with a club emerged. A system message in the corner of my vision giving me information on this new minion and telling me that both my Raise Undead and my Dark Orb spells had ranked up from earlier.

  Skeleton summoned

  Hp 50

  Attack 15-22

  Def 0

  Summon time left: 1 hour

  So what I was understanding is, I could summon multiple skeletons, but only one could be a companion. The others having significantly reduced stats and a time duration imposed on them. Well, while I had this little fellow, I was more than prepared for this fight. I thanked the chief for his help; the goblins then dismissing themselves to stabilize the village. I then put my attention where it belonged, turning this fight around.

  The skeleton stood ready, arms casually at its sides and awaited my orders. “ Go aid Ogma” I ordered and the skeleton lingered but a moment before taking off at a hard sprint. It took my minion little time before it met with its chosen target too. Gnarl was far to busy dealing with Ogma’s fury to even notice the skeleton rushing up from behind. The skeletal minion not wasting its momentum either. Using it to deal with a powerful clubbed blow to the back of Gnarl’s head. Gnarl took the hit, letting out a startled yelp and rolling to the ground clutching his head.

  “You and your goddamn skeletons, you son of a bitch!” Ogma yelled in the chat with clear amusement in his tone. He wasted no time raising both of his large claws and slammed them down upon the stunned orc. It was at this point that the tides of battle changed in our favor, for now, it was only Morrigan who stood evenly matched with her opponent.

  Now it was my turn to get back into the fray. Okane and Charon were holding their own, Ogma and my minion had Gnarl under control too. Now it was my turn to help Morrigan and get a little payback on the thief who almost backstabbed me. I made my way towards the battling thieves, they seeming equally matched in skill. Making sure to keep myself at the enemies back, I made my way into range. Morrigan’s eyes met mine as I got close, but offered no forewarning to the clueless thief. It was then that I channeled and released a Dark Orb on the thief's back, the damage causing him to flinch and providing a clear opening for Morrigan.

  “Hahaaaa poetic justice!!” I cried as Morrigan used the opening to plant one dagger in his collar, and the other in his stomach. Our mutual foe exhaling but a single word before collapsing to the ground dead, “bullshit”.

  “You know I had him right?” Morrigan asked with an incredulous look.

  “Well, about that, I simply could not pass up the opportunity to get back at the guy for almost killing me earlier” I replied with a shrug.

  “Fair” Morrigan responded and stood up straight. “Well, I guess we better check on the others.” There was, however, little checking to be done. Charon and Okane had dealt with the elves, Ogma and my minion had beaten Gnarl into retreating into the forest, and the goblins and I had taken Ignis down a peg. The lot of us merged together from across the battlefield and made out way towards the salvaging goblins. Hopeful that together, we could all repair their homes and put this big mess behind us.

  Chapter Five

  Of Goblins and Goblets

  By the time some of the more important repairs were done it was already nightfall. The goblins and our group had worked tirelessly to make sure things were at least stable. The various skeletons I was able to summon had helped immensely. That, and it was doing great in ranking up my Raise Undead skill. Essentially the more it ranked up, the more kinds of undead I could summon.

  As we all sat down around the large fire the tribe had set, we learned a good deal about the goblins and their culture. Apparently, the goblin race in this game is discriminated against and as such are often hunted or banned from trading. This, along with other factors essentially forced them into being thieves and raiding to survive. The goblins had been such good hosts as well, our quest rewards were rich in experience that got me well into lvl 3 and unlocking some new skill options. The most interesting if which being Arcane Shift. That skill would, within a certain range limit, allow me to instantly swap places with a minion of my choice. The best part being, I was not the only one who had leveled up in the conflict either. Ogma got a new bird form as a large brown hawk, Morrigan had unlocked her Shadow Step skill, and Okane had unlocked botany, which I had no idea how that would work.

  The goblins had also gifted me the Mantle Of The Crow, which boosted my casting speed by 10% and added a buff to stealth when worn at night or in shadows. It had long black feathers trailing from to tip of the hood that trailed down to my ankles. I was very happy with that reward too, for both the stat boost and the style points the mantle afforded. A guy's got to look good kicking ass, am I right? Now I just needed to work on getting Charon some decent armor.

  My thoughts were interrupted by Ogma clearing his throat to get our attention. “I am glad that we all were able to repair a good portion of the damage to your village, but we have another issue. When I had fought Gnarl, as he was being pushed back, he had said he would be back with his entire guild.”

  “What you think we need to do, bear man?” Chief Ro asked, taking notice in the potential threat.

  “We need to get a defensive wall around the village for one. Still, I don’t think that will be enough to handle an entire guild,” Ogma stated matter of factly. “We should at least expect a good 15-20 bodies to be thrown at this and the 5 of us won’t be enough to handle that.”

  “We also don’t know when they will be coming,” Okane interjected. “ I think we will need to find out. That and maybe join a guild to fight a guild. It would fix the manpower issue and I have an idea where to start there,” he added with a nod.

  "I not know your plan, humans, but I trust” the chief stated. “ We build wall of spikes and dig trench in area”. The chief then stood up and walked over to me. He then reached into a pouch on his waist and pulled out a single blue glass bead. “ Take this, we talk long distance, anything happens, we call” he stated and handed me the bead. That moment, I also got a notification for another quest,

  Save The Goblin Village: Part 2. An imminent threat still looms close with the promise of a returning force.

  Find out when the village is to be attacked 0/1,

  Protect the goblin village 0/1, help the goblin village find a safe place to live 0/1.

  Reward 1200 experience, 600 Gold

  Well, there it was, we had our quest and Okane had a plan for the execute. Now, we just had to get the ball rolling.

  “Well, we should probably get moving then, right?” I asked both parties.

  “No, too dangerous in dark, you stay here for the night.” the chief stated firmly. “Many dangers lurk in brush, sharp teeth and tearing claws.” With that discussion ended, the chief motioned to another goblin, who then took us to a medium-sized tent with furs on the ground inside.

  “You stay here tonight,” the goblin said while gesturing to the furs. “In morning, more safe, can leave then.” I can’t believe I forgot about the dangers at night. The gate guards had warned me about it. Still, better to have someone remind me than being eaten by mobs. Speaking of night-time, how much time exactly had passed since I logged in? I had started the game in the late evening, it's felt like I've been in here for ages. I glanced in the upper right corner of my vision for the clocks. In-game time was about 7:36 pm, but in the real world, barely a few hours had passed. At this rate, I could likely stay in the game for many days at a time and that was just when I was going to sleep. I had read that time passed differently here, I just was not expecting to this degree. Still, not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. />
  With that, we all settled down for the night. Ogma having unlocked his new form, took a bit of time switching between bird and bear form outside. When Okane asked how exactly it worked, Ogma just responded with “Its ancient Celtic magic, I ain’t gotta explain shit,” and then promptly cawed at him. The following morning, we all got our things together, said our goodbyes to the chief, and took off. The trek back into town did take a bit longer than expected but it was mostly because we were avoiding combat. Okane had a plan to get some more muscle for the fight later and that lead needed following.

  “There is a guild called the Knights Of The Wolf’s Blood, the majority of them have been here since the beta and they are pretty legit if not for their asshole of a leader,” Okane said as he led us through town. “The only real issue for us is there is a test to get in, usually in the form of a tournament overseen and entered by the officers of the guild. Essentially, we will be against members and recruits, but if we do decently we are in and can likely count on them for information and aid”. Okane’s explanation abruptly stopped when we found ourselves in front of a large building with a wooden sign reading “The Red Cap Inn”.