by Ivan Kal
“We are crafting as many arrows as we can, as many as we have the arrowheads for—the smith is working constantly on them. But we only have ten bows in the entire town and only five people know how to use them.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll teach a few others how to use them. They won’t need to do much other than point and shoot. And the pits?”
“We have the people working on them. If we have to work through the night to get them done, we will,” Madock said firmly.
Morgan was impressed with the man, and already had loose plans for him if they survived the attack. He then turned to look at Ves. “Can you go and find Vall for me?”
“Of course, Morgan,” Ves said and walked out of the hall.
Madock and Morgan looked over the map, with Morgan making suggestions of where they wanted to focus their defending efforts. A few minutes later, Vall and Ves walked in.
“So, what do you think?” Morgan asked.
Vall shook his head. “The wall is solid, but the guard has only twenty members…too few to man all of it efficiently. We did get about thirty more volunteers, but I don’t know if that will be enough.”
Madock grimaced. “It has always been this way. Most of us are not ascended because we don’t want to take those kinds of risks. People who would be suitable for the guard usually try to become ascendant. Those that succeed leave through the pass to join a Guild, and those who don’t… Well…”
Morgan nodded in understanding. “I was still hoping for more volunteers, especially since their lives depend on it.”
“These are good people. They are just not brave,” Madock said.
“They can still contribute. I don’t know how smart the goblins are and how their attack is going to play out, but it is best to be prepared for every situation. I need you to assign water teams in case the goblins try to set the town on fire. You have what, three wells?”
“Four, and yes, I’ll speak with the Mayor and we will speak with the people.”
“Good.” Morgan looked at the map again. “I have a few more ideas about what we can do.” Morgan started explaining his thoughts, and they brainstormed for a while longer.
In the near afternoon, Morgan was sitting in an open area, multitasking. He watched the few people of the new militia as they fired their bows as he enchanted the arrows in front of him. With his level increases he could make much more powerful arrows, but he wasn’t doing that. Instead, he was going for a larger quantity of weaker ones. He was focusing on Binding Arrows, as his Exploding Arrow ability, while strong, could only be used by himself. The charged arrow would explode on impact or several seconds after it was charged; it wasn’t an enchantment.
It struck him a little while ago, that everyone around him was obeying his orders. It was a strange feeling. Morgan wasn’t used to that—not in real life, anyway. He had always been the one who planned and devised strategies for his guild back on Earth, but that had been in a video game, where his face had been hidden behind a screen. Here, now, it was him that they listened to, and Morgan knew that he wasn’t the most inspiring of people. He knew that a lot of that was because he was ascended, but even his new friends followed his lead. They had let him become the Guild Master with little arguing, and the three of them had seen the real Morgan.
He wasn’t really sure how that made him feel. He had spent a relatively short time on this world, yet with each passing moment he could feel that this was where he had always belonged. The life he’d had on Earth growing dimmer by the moment. He liked being an ascended; he liked fighting monsters, he liked his new friends—even Vall—and he liked being in charge.
Sure, he doubted that he would ever be the perfect example of a leader, not with the way his brain liked to go in random directions, but he was thoroughly enjoying his second chance at life regardless.
As he finished another arrow and put it into a basket to his left, Vall walked over with Lucius. Morgan raised an eyebrow. He knew that the Roman was fast, but they hadn’t been expecting him until nightfall.
“What news?” Morgan asked.
“It is as we feared. It is a large army, about six hundred strong. Led by ten chieftains and five shamans,” Lucius reported.
“How close are they?”
“Closer than we hoped—about half a day’s walk. On the far bank of the Hishu River, across the bridge.”
Morgan grimaced. “Do they plan on attacking tonight?”
“I don’t think so. They were setting up camp when I started back. I think they will rest tonight and then strike at dawn.”
Morgan nodded, and then an idea started creeping into his head. He looked at Lucius and narrowed his eyes. “How tired are you?”
“I’m not, really. I increased my Constitution over the threshold, so I can run for days. Why?”
Morgan grinned wickedly. “I think that we can push the scales a bit more in our favor.” He stood up and turned to look at Vall. “You and Ves keep training the guard, and work on the things I asked for.”
“And what are you going to be doing?” Vall asked.
“Lucius and I will go visit our goblin friends.” Morgan clapped Vall on the shoulder. “I have some gifts for them.”
The two of them set a brisk pace, which was somewhere around intense jogging. Morgan knew that Lucius could go faster, but Morgan had only 15 constitution, and his stamina wasn’t on the same level. Still, he was fast enough.
They reached the goblin camp just after nightfall. The camp itself was maybe two dozen tents, and a lot of campfires. It was across the river, with torches illuminating most of it, so he could see shapes moving around. He used his Inspect skill on those closest to them. Most of the goblins were of the warrior and scout variety, ranging from level 3 to level 5. He did notice a few larger goblin shapes moving about between the campfires. That would be the chieftains. Tough bastards, Morgan thought, but he knew that they were now a higher level than the chieftains. Still, he used Inspect on him.
The noise that left Morgan’s throat alerted Lucius, who leaned in. “What is it?” he whispered.
“That chieftain is level 10. That’s almost as high as the manticore!” Morgan whispered back. He wasn’t much worried about his Guild, but the non-ascended, that was a large gap in power for them.
Lucius grimaced but nodded. “Monsters are like ascended, they can get stronger. They were bound to have a few stronger goblins in their ranks.”
Morgan still remembered the fight with that first chieftain. He hadn’t really had the skill to see its level then, but it had been strong. But looking back now, he couldn’t really tell how strong it was. Sure, they had a tough time fighting it, but they had weakened it first, and they’d had the advantage of numbers. And with how much exp it gave them, it might had been close to this level.
Morgan cursed silently for not having enough time to prepare. He knew that poison worked on the goblins. If he just had enough time… But no, they didn’t have enough, and they were here on a mission.
“Those tents over there, those are where their chieftains and shamans are sleeping, right?” Morgan asked.
Lucius nodded in the dark, which Morgan could barely see. “Yes.”
Morgan’s plan had been to try and take care of their leadership, but they wouldn’t be able to sneak through all that. He might be able to shoot from here and hit a tent, but he didn’t know how much damage it would do. He decided to try something else.
“We need to get close to that bridge,” Morgan said, pointing.
Lucius nodded—Morgan had explained his plan to him already. They moved slowly and silently down the small incline, noticing two goblins standing guard across the bridge. Morgan turned to Lucius.
“I’ll take the one on the right, you take the one on the left,” he whispered.
Lucius unsheathed his blades and moved away, getting in position. Morgan nocked an arrow and then glanced at Lucius, who nodded. Morgan let the arrow fly and Lucius swung one of his blades. The arrow took one goblin in the hea
d, and Lucius’s air blade cut off the head of the other. The goblins dropped and they waited to see if anyone had noticed. When no one came to investigate, they moved closer and dragged the bodies to the edge of the bridge and throwing them into the river.
They reached the bridge and Morgan motioned to Lucius to get down closer to the riverbank, and beneath the bridge.
“Keep guard, and warn me if someone comes along.” Lucius nodded and then disappeared somewhere in the dark.
Morgan looked at the bridge stretching before him. The river wasn’t all that deep—maybe five paces, if what Madock said was true—but it was fast moving. The bridge itself was wooden, about ten paces across, wide enough for two cars to pass through side by side.
Morgan reached out with his hands and put them on the wood above him. Slowly, he started manipulating his alignment, forcing the wood to decay. It was a painstakingly slow process, as he didn’t want to collapse the bridge, but only weaken it enough so that it would collapse under weight. He had looked over the maps of the area carefully, and he knew that there were two more bridges nearby. He didn’t have the time nor the energy to do the same with the other ones, so he needed to make sure that this one shot cost the goblins. They would cross over on the other bridges, but here they would lose troops, and hopefully get delayed. And any goblin drowned here is one less to fight later.
Morgan could feel the sweat coming down his face as he concentrated on making the wood just rotted enough so that it wouldn’t crack right away. With some luck, they might even get a few of their chieftains or shamans.
Finally, he finished, and pulled his hands back. He looked up, turning his Nature Sight on. He could see the decay taking over the wood, but his power was in there keeping it from taking over quickly. He blinked his eyes and shut the sight off.
Slowly he climbed up and Lucius was suddenly there next to him.
“Did you do it?”
“Yeah,” Morgan said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Lucius nodded and they started their way back to the town.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Morgan woke up just before dawn, and started getting ready for a long day. Ves woke with him, and they walked down to the common room of the inn where they were given rooms. Vall and Lucius were already up and sitting at the table talking softly. Morgan and Ves joined them, and the innkeeper brought them breakfast.
About halfway through their meal, both Lucius and Morgan jolted slightly. Morgan took a look at the symbol flashing in the corner of his eye and grinned. He opened it up and a screen appeared in front of him.
EXP GAINED!
18x Goblin Scouts killed (drowning) = 18 exp
27x Goblin Warriors killed (drowning) = 135 exp
3x Goblin Chieftains killed (drowning) = 30 exp
G.F. bonus—successful trap = 100 exp
Morgan Newton LVL 11 — EXP 2933/3000
Hah! In your face, stinking goblinses! Morgan cheered in his mind. He blinked and dismissed the screens.
“You got experience for that?” Morgan asked.
Lucius nodded, smiling. “Yes, it seems that my involvement was enough.”
“Great! I’m even close to leveling up,” Morgan said, and then put his hand up in the air, looking at Lucius. “Up top.”
The Roman looked at Morgan with amusement and then put his hand up awkwardly. Morgan grinned and gave him a high five.
“What are you two grinning about?” Ves asked, looking at them.
“We just killed a bunch of goblinses,” Morgan explained. “We even got some of their chieftains!”
Vall put his head in his palms. “I can’t believe that that worked.”
“Of course it did, I’m awesome.” Morgan beamed at Vall. “Stupid ass Gollum wannabees.”
“Great Lord, you are going to be insufferable now, aren’t you?” Vall asked.
“What? Moi?” Morgan asked in mock shock.
Vall murmured something that sounded very much like “crazy chosen.”
Then Morgan frowned. “Wait, you guys are still in the group with us, why didn’t you get any experience?”
“We weren’t close enough, nor were we involved in their deaths, the Guiding Force watches over all, and it decides who gets how much and when.”
“Huh,” Morgan said shaking his head. He hadn’t realized that. “We should hurry up, there is much to do,” With his plan working perfectly, the goblin army would be slowed down a bit, but not by much. Lucius’s opinion was that they could expect them sometime in the afternoon.
They spent the day making sure that everything was ready.
And then the goblins arrived.
It was early afternoon when they got there, and even from so far away Morgan could see that they were pissed. The goblins filled into the clearing and stopped, letting out screams and screeching sounds as they waved their primitive weapons around. The seven remaining goblin chieftains and the five shamans walked up to stand in front of them and looked at the town.
Then they turned to their army and started speaking in their guttural voices. Their army screamed back at them, and then the chieftains pointed their weapons at Terbon, and the goblins charged.
Morgan was taken aback for a moment by their stupidity. He saw no siege equipment and the wall was taller than they could climb—but then he noticed primitive ladders being carried behind some of their ranks.
“Steady,” Morgan said to the people standing next to him, the twenty archers. He had trained them as much as he could, but they were all visibly shaken and afraid. As the goblins got closer, Morgan took aim with his bow and charged an explosive arrow.
“Nock!” he ordered.
The archers took aim, which amounted to just pointing their bows in the general direction of the approaching horde.
“Loose!” They all released their arrows—some hitting, others missing, but none even slowed the goblins down. Morgan’s arrow found its mark, a goblin that was in front of a group that was carrying a ladder. The arrow exploded, throwing the goblins behind him back and showering the others with blood and gore.
Then the first line of goblins reached the traps. They stepped over the hidden pits and fell in, impaling themselves on spikes. Some goblins managed to stop in time, to prevent themselves from falling in, but then the goblins behind them ran into them, pushing them forward anyway.
“Fire at will!” Morgan yelled out. There was no point in firing volleys; there were too many of them. Each archer started firing as quickly as they could at the goblins, but Morgan still fired three arrows for every one that they did. He was using the regular arrows that they had made, and every now and then Morgan would fire of an explosive arrow or use Rain of Arrows, showering the rushing goblins with smaller energy arrows, although not that often—he was conserving his strength. He targeted the goblins carrying ladders, but each time he killed one, another would take its place. Ves was standing next to him, her job being to protect the archers, but she also had a bucket of water near her and she would pull it up on her shield and then fire icicles down on the goblins.
Then the goblins reached the wall. The ones in front, without ladders, started throwing themselves at the palisade, their claws biting into the wood as they started to climb. Well, fuck me! What kind of a god-not-god creates fucking goblins that can climb walls?
“Lucius!” Morgan yelled out, and the Roman leaned over the wall, sending a blade of air along its length, cutting the goblins down. Madock and his guard were leaning over the walls with long spears—more like sharpened poles—and stabbing at the goblins below. It was one of the things that he’d had them make. The goblins started throwing spears at them, but they didn’t have all that good aim.
Then the ladder bearers reached the wall. They raised the ladders up and leaned them on the palisade. Six ladders hit on the wall and Vall stepped in with some of the militia. They were carrying pitchforks, woodcutting axes, long sharpened sticks—anything that they could find to arm them.
But Mor
gan knew that it wasn’t going to be enough. The first goblin peeked over the wall and Vall took its head off before sending a wave of fire down the ladder. At the other ladders the volunteers worked in the teams of four, stabbing at the goblins that were trying to climb up. Lucius was moving from group to group, helping where he could. One of the militia missed with his pitchfork and the goblin grabbed the handle, pulling the man over the wall and throwing him down to the horde of goblins, who then ripped him apart.
Morgan aimed sideways and put an arrow through the goblin, but on another ladder a goblin had managed to climb up. Before Lucius got there to cut it down it had killed two men. Vall released a battle cry, which stunned many of the goblins close to him, and the militia cut them down. Then, with the help of two pronged staffs, they pushed off two ladders back.
Then Morgan saw three larger goblins running over the field at them. The three goblin chieftains pushed the other goblins out of their way as they ran at the wall. One of them had a large bone-tipped spear, which he threw and struck one of the archers in the chest, sending him flying off the wall. Morgan reached to the arrows in front of him and pulled out an Arrow of Decay, firing it at the chieftain.
The goblin saw the arrow coming but couldn’t evade entirely. It hit him in the arm, but Morgan already had the next one flying, this time hitting his upper thigh. The next arrow he fired was an exploding one—he didn’t even notice that he had grabbed another Arrow of Decay instead of a regular one, but he charged it regardless and it flew straight at the chieftain. As soon as it connected it exploded, but instead of the usual explosion of a greenish nature element, the explosion was black. The black aura affected at least ten goblins next to the chieftain, and almost as soon as it dissipated the goblins started coughing and falling down. Those further away stood back up, but they were stumbling forward. The chieftain fell down to one knee, its skin turning a sickly color. Morgan put an arrow right through its head.