Beyond All Expectations (Emerilia Book 8)

by Michael Chatfield

“I wish that we had more Mana wells to properly solve the power issues here,” Malsour said.

  “I know what you mean but we’ve only got a limited amount and we’re already eating into our reserves. I’ve only got a limited number of factories and I need to personally sit down and work on each of them to make sure that they work. I’ll try to step more of them up later.”

  “You’ve done a lot. These Mana wells and soul gem constructs are a great help. We’ll just have to keep juicing them up with soul gems to grow the soul gem construct, then we can get the Mana well to charge up the soul gem.” Malsour clapped Dave on the shoulder.

  Dave nodded but it was clear that he wished he could do more.

  Malsour turned to Steve. “You done with that well yet?”

  “Just inputting the different things,” Steve said.

  Now that they had made the defenses for the castle that they had personally built, they had more templates with which to work with. Steve was just in the process of compiling them together.

  “Done.” Steve moved to the center of the castle, directly underneath the tower, and put the Mana well and soul gem construct down.

  The soul gem rapidly grew outward. The Mana well rose to chest height as it glowed fiercely. The runes across its surface glowed with power as the soul gem grew out from its stand at a rapid rate, covering the stones under a layer of soul gem.

  An automated repair bot and cart started to place soul gems into nooks around the Mana well, visibly increasing the rate at which the soul gem construct spread out across the room.

  “Remember those settings—we’ll probably have to do the same with the next one,” Dave said.

  Party Zero moved to the ono again, stepping through the side opposite to where people were flooding out of Terra and into the eastern castle.

  Deia led them to another teleport pad, where a line of soldiers moved through the teleport pad and into the northern castle.

  The soldiers parted, allowing Party Zero to go ahead of them.

  Once again they entered the teleport pad and exited the pre-placed ono.

  They moved to the center of the tower, Dave and Malsour swarmed by engineers and mages as they listened to the issues that the two listed off. An automated cart and repair bot was already waiting with charged soul gems.

  Steve uploaded the same template from the last castle into the soul gem construct/Mana well. The castle and its walls were identical to the eastern castle’s.

  Steve once again placed the Mana well and soul gem construct as the automated cart and repair bot went to work, stuffing the charging ports in the soul gem construct with powered soul gems.

  They did the same with the western and southern castles.

  They got two more of the secondary castles before they ran out of Mana well and soul gem constructs.

  Instead, they had to just use the soul gem constructs. With the second line of castles, they ordered more of the forests to be cut back so that they could see threats not only from the mountain but the Ashal wilderness.

  Once they had finished with all of the secondary castles, Dave, Malsour, and Steve retreated to Pandora’s box.

  The Mana wells, soul gem constructs, and rechargeable soul gems had proved their worth. The problem was that they needed more of them. The three of them went to work on putting more factories for all of these different items online.

  ***

  Not everything was as peaceful as the improving of the newly emerged castles.

  Deia watched the feed from Goblin Mountain and the different Aleph scouts dotted around it.

  The goblins quickly escaped the mud pit as the event group at the castle they had built to the southeast made it possible for them to climb out of the mud pit trap. The goblins didn’t seem to notice in their rage as they charged toward their homes. They didn’t even notice how few traps they ran into or how the dwarven artillery was suspiciously silent.

  The Nalheim’s forces were growing by the second. As it became clear that the goblins within their mountain city weren’t able to put up much of a fight, the dismounted Nalheim and those riding atop their war lizards broke into groups of six and started to rampage through the mountain city. Although the dismounted were systematic in their methods and killings, the war lizards were brutal and ferocious.

  They would use their tusks, teeth, and claws to kill anything that wasn’t Nalheim. They would crash through buildings, their shield-like faces easily taking the impact. Spears and arrows simply bounced off their armored heads. Their hides were exceptionally tough, even when a goblin was lucky enough to hit them from the side.

  The Nalheim riding them could guide them with just squawks from their beaks and squeezing their legs. They were master riders: they could stand upright, their shield slamming away incoming arrows and spears while their own spear darted forward to unleash a ripple of yellow-green energy that cut through the goblins’ soft skin.

  There were thousands of the war lizard riders and even more of the dismounted. They were quickly destroying those who stood in their path while more continued to flow out of the portal in never ending waves.

  Although the goblin army had not been able to get to the castle outside of the mountain in seven hours, now that their path was unobstructed, they were racing back in record speed.

  Although the castle was within what they considered their borders, the city was their home. If someone attacked their home instead of just being in their territory, they’d fight those attacking their seat of power.

  They made it back to their city within twenty minutes after the horns went off.

  They charged into their mountain, rushing to meet the Nalheim.

  The Nalheim didn’t show any sense of being shocked; instead, they looked excited as more goblins and their slave trolls appeared. With the rush of incoming reinforcements, a good number of the unprepared Nalheim were simply overwhelmed with numbers and cut down.

  The goblins surged around the groups of Nalheim. The goblins paid a heavy price to take out a single Nalheim but they were able to cut them down.

  The Nalheim were limited in the number that could leave the portal at one time, while the goblins had already organized themselves and were ready for battle.

  The war lizards and their masters killed hundreds of goblins and their trolls but they, too, were suppressed. Without the spells from their spears, the riders had to resort to using their shields and spears. Their ability with the dual weapons was amazing; a clear line separated their ability from the ability of the dismounted.

  The arrival of the goblins forced the Nalheim to pull back and into a defensive grouping. Their losses were considerable as they had to try to separate themselves from the fighting and into the formation.

  The goblins didn’t slow down or give them room to breathe as their stronger hobgoblins and trolls were devoted to the task of fighting the Nalheim.

  Green goblin blood and orange Nalheim blood covered the ground. Corpses were scattered around, some disintegrating, leaving just behind the tombstones of the dead creatures’ loot.

  The war lizard-mounted Nalheim rushed out of the formation, leaving bloody carnage in their wake. Some were pulled to the ground to their deaths and not even the war lizards could stand up to all of the hits from the goblin army.

  They returned to the formation after their charge, missing some of their people and a few war lizards, covered in wounds as well as their and their enemies’ blood.

  Deia shivered as she saw the excitement and warbling cries of the Nalheim. They seemed excited by the fighting.

  There was a break in the lines of war lizards and dismounted Nalheim from the portal.

  A massive bird shot through the portal; it let out a scream that paralyzed the weaker members of the goblin army. This was a Nalheim-mounted sky scream. A dozen more followed, with dismounted and war lizards coming through after them.

  The sky screams looked like a tie-dye shirt made from purple, pink, and white. They had massive wings made of skin; wh
ere the wings bent back, there were sharpened talons. Their heads were shaped into a point and looked to be hardened like the war lizards’. Large sharpened claws tipped their two feet; they looked as sharp as a saber and were nearly thirty centimeters long.

  They were large enough to hold a Nalheim comfortably in a riding harness. These Nalheim looked down on the battle with mild interest, like savage predators looking at an easy meal. They jabbed their spears forward, their spells falling apart under the shamans’ magical suppression ability.

  The sky screams lived up to their names as they turned and dove in the large cavern, picking up speed as the goblin army in their path tried to recover from the stunning effect of their scream.

  The sky scream’s head was like a spearhead. They used their faces to plow through the army, their claws low and spread out to catch as many people as possible with their blades.

  Others pecked their heads as they flew past the goblin army, piercing armor and bodies with ease.

  However strong and powerful these sky screams were, it wasn’t all in their favor. Here and there, a goblin in the path of the scream attack recovered and was able to stab the sky scream. Goblin archers unleashed their arrows, holing the sky screams’ skin wings and making them screech in pain.

  Two of the sky screams fell, depositing their riders into the middle of the army. Ten of them flapped their wings to gain altitude and did their best to avoid getting hit with arrows.

  The two mounted Nalheim who had landed within the goblin army were making a mound of dead around them. They were bleeding in various places but still they continued to fight, their spears lashing out to take a life as their shield defended. Their heads were pointed in opposite directions, allowing them to fight in three hundred and sixty degrees.

  The Nalheim were trained in fighting with their spears and shields, but the goblins pushed in so close that the Nalheim weren’t able to use the length of their spears to full effect. And there were too many goblins for the Nalheim to deal with. They took down nearly forty members of the goblin army before they succumbed to their wounds and the goblin army poured in on them.

  The sky screams were pushed back into the skies and needed to fly constantly lest the shamans fire Mana bolts at them, or they get caught by spears and arrows.

  The dismounted Nalheim were holding, but their losses were still being recovered and they were still losing more even as reinforcements came in.

  The war lizards cut down tens of goblins with every charge, but lost a handful of their own every time.

  Sky screams unleashed their attacks as they passed. Although the Nalheim were unaffected, the goblin army was left in a state of paralyzed pain for a few seconds.

  The dismounted Nalheim and war lizards used this to kill hundreds of the goblin army in a short time period. Wherever the sky screams left stunned groups of the goblin army, the Nalheim on the ground quickly advanced, killing the paralyzed members of the goblin army.

  As time went on, Nalheim continued to die, but at a much slower rate while they were cutting swathes through the goblin army.

  The goblin city was burning in the destruction. The shamans guided the fires at the Nalheim. They attacked with their spears and their distorting magical attacks actually weakened the fires.

  The shamans pooled the fires together; they compressed and condensed into snakes of fire before they charged forward.

  They were harder to defeat and opened up the Nalheim formation. The Nalheim were slow at moving on their own feet but not with their weapons. As they tried to replace the losses, some of the goblin army made it inside, turning these contested areas into chaos.

  They fought a pitched battle. The war lizards and sky screams stunned the goblin army that had made it through enough so that the dismounted and lizards could push back and the dismounted could once again form their fighting walls.

  Smoke filled the cavern, as did the sounds of battle.

  The city was filled with vicious fighting, the Nalheim holding their ground as they were reinforced. When they deemed they had enough people, they started to move forward. The new reinforcements moved forward with them and filled in any gaps that they had in their lines. Their advance was slow as their numbers built up around the portal.

  Nalheim wouldn’t switch out with one another; they would fight to the bitter end. Only when one died would another take their place.

  “It is not going to be a good time fighting these guys,” Anna said.

  “The Nalheim religion says that to die in battle is the best way to die. They also believe that the more creatures that they destroy and kill, the more honors they will bring to themselves and their people. Once they are engaged in a fight, they will fight to the bitter end, never healing themselves unless the battle has ended. It’s why the dismounted Nalheim will fight until they die, not even thinking of seeking out the aide of a healer. They don’t even have healers as their natural regenerative abilities are enough once they are out of battle,” Induca said.

  Deia looked at the wounds on a Nalheim. It was a deep cut that had opened up their forearm. The Nalheim never paused and instead kept going through the pain. In front of her eyes, the wound stopped bleeding and started to seal back together, a layer of fresh green scales on its arm.

  Deia shook her head and let out a sigh.

  The goblin army was killing off a great number of the Nalheim, but they were trading at a rate of ten goblins to one Nalheim at least.

  The Nalheim were advancing but still there wasn’t that many of them that one could fight at one time. The sky scream riders fell down occasionally from ranged attacks and the lizard riders and dismounted also fell under the ranged attacks but in close, it became much harder to kill them.

  It had been a few hours since the Nalheim had entered Goblin Mountain. There were now sixty or so thousand of them and their numbers were growing. Half of their forces were dismounted; a third rode lizards and the remainder were on sky screams.

  The goblin army had called on more forces from all of the interconnected cities and tunnels. There were nearly four hundred thousand goblins at their disposal; however, they were getting ground down by the Nalheim’s attacks.

  Deia closed her interface and looked out from the castle that the event group had created. It had earned the name citadel due to its massive size compared to the other castles and the fact that it was the headquarters to all of the other castles.

  The others were labeled North, East, South and West. The inner ones had an added one so the north inner castle was North One, while the outer was North Two.

  Nighttime was coming. The castles glowed from the soul gem constructs covering the castles from the floors to the walls. Strips of soul gem ran from the main soul gem construct and to the walls, where they ran along the exterior walls covering them in defensive runes before moving to the five towers that connected the different walls. In these towers, Mana barrier anchor points were created. Others were made over the inner circular building and around the tower.

  With all of these working together, the castles could create powerful barriers that would cover the entire castle from incoming attacks.

  If the Nalheim continued to push more of their forces through the portal, then they could take Goblin Mountain and subdue the goblin army. If they didn’t, then the goblin army would be severely wounded and weakened but they would kill off the Nalheim that had exited the portal.

  ***

  “Lo’kal, why did you call this meeting?” One of the Jukal advisers to the emperor looked to Bob in his gnome form pacing up and down a room as he appeared.

  Bob didn’t know how long he had been waiting for, but he knew it had been a few hours. All of the advisers and people who thought that they were important loved to make him wait.

  He had been a man of position and power, though with time his power had diminished and his clan had stopped caring about their family member who was practically imprisoned on a planet of his own making, looking after his own creations.
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br />   The adviser’s bored and morose tone made it clear that he thought of this meeting with Bob as nothing more than a chore that he would much rather be finished with.

  “Why was I not informed that in the event, that portals would be used in order to access other planets for creatures for the Emerilians and players to fight?” Bob demanded.

  “The plan was put into place by you; we just added a few things to it. The planet that the Nalheim race live on has gained the attention of the Freaou race. They’ve paid their dues and taxes—proven their loyalty—and so it was deemed that they would be allowed another planet. Nalheim is the planet that they were approved for. With this event, the Nalheim will either be wiped out or have such low numbers that our own Jukal fleet won’t have to deal with many and we can save on sending out more ships to the planet,” the adviser said, as if he were explaining it to a child he knew wouldn’t understand it.

  “I’m the one who made the event but I wasn’t told about this!” Bob yelled.

  The Jukal looked to him with a bored expression. “I have made a note of your frustration. Is there anything else?” The adviser let out a tired breath and rolled its eyes at Bob, still in his gnome body.

  Bob let out a hot breath through his nostrils. “No.” With a wave of his hand, he left the Mirror of Communication conference room and returned to his ship, the Datskun.

  Within the conference room, the Jukal adviser frowned. He had never had anyone be so rude to him or leave before him. He was one of the most powerful people in the Jukal Empire; everyone had shown their subservience to him, day in and day out. He waved his hand, happy to be done with Bob.

  Bob tapped his fingers on the command chair of the Datskun. He felt the new power that thrummed through her. He’d built and installed all of her old fusion reactors. He hooked them up to factories, using the excess power to build different parts to either bring the Datskun fully online, or for the various secret installations across Emerilia and the moon.

  He looked to the second moon, where three ships were coming in from out of system. Every three months, like clockwork, the Jukal sent three ships to replace the three that floated around the second moon.